Mari knew she was in trouble as the massive serpent machine circled Hakusan faster than she could move her weapons to aim. She still tried to hit them again once the weapon system had regained enough energy, but she missed, instead scoring a wide, glassy trench in the beach.
As it moved, the coils encircled Hakusan’s legs and tightened. In panic, Mari tried to maneuver out of the way, but it was already too late. The snakelike machine had wrapped up the legs, preventing them from budging. The more Mari struggled to get loose, the more entangled Hakusan became.
“Sir, the Level 1 enemy machine has disabled my movement,” she said, fiddling with the weapon controls.
“Can you escape?”
“No. Definitely no.”
“What can you do?”
“Stand here and hope I’m still covering our own machines so they
