Those unlucky bastards were probably doomed, Count Black Moon remarked in a world-weary tone. These knights were so disappointing! They were nowhere near as good as the ones who'd fought their way off the battlefield half a century ago. At the very least, their predecessors would never have judged an unfamiliar enemy after just one or two exchanges.
Those androids had probably been weakened once, but they were still stronger than these young knights in their heraldic armor.
The facts proved Count Black Moon right: no ordinary tactics could overcome such a disparity in strength.
One of the androids simply strode forward through the dense barrage of blaster fire, held out an arm, and met the knight's light lance with its bare hand. The red annihilation blade, powerful enough to breach fortress armor, sank straight into the android's palm. Its heat cooled on contact, as if the hand were a portal leading directly to another dimension.
The knight's face was hidden by the heraldic armor, but his sudden, rigid stillness showed how deeply he'd been shaken. At a moment like this, though, even half a second of distraction was fatal.
The android had already fused its other hand into a razor-sharp steel spike. It darted forward like a snake striking, driving the spike through the flexible armor at the gap in the knight's neck. That flexible armor was made of an alchemical substance, a fusion of elastic composites and null elements. It was extremely supple and quite durable; in a sense, it could even withstand several direct hits from a light lance. But now it was torn through with ease.
The body beneath the armor slumped to the ground and lay motionless. Wrapped inside the mech, the knight couldn't even be seen twitching.
At the same moment, the roaring drill-tipped