"Come on, just grab onto-"

"Off-balance. Combat Suit will fall," Gypsy's voice cut in immediately.

Kellin sighed and rubbed at his face, reaching his wits end. Before him stood the figure of a seven foot tall, five hundred pound, self-powered and self-manned creation of the Empire's best engineers, frozen in place by the only thing on this planet that could truly hold it at bay.

"Gypsy, it's a log. A log. How many have you seen me jump over?"

"That is irrelevant. Captain Finnel's movement is different," she replied.

He rolled his eyes for the fifth time in just a few minutes.

"As I said, you're going about it wrong. You can't just keep the idea of always being perfectly upright, Gyps. Bipedal movement, efficiently done, needs you to be constantly in a state of falling forward," he explained, again.

It had been almost two hours, and the sun was going down again. They'd found an area to regenerate some of her [Energy] closer to the river again and had been trying to get her to try out running, but she had vehemently denied the need to practice how to run when she could barely walk right. After he witnessed the suit fall over when trying to navigate over a few rocks, he began to pay more attention to the way she was doing things and noticed a major flaw in her attempted movement.

The AI was entirely upright, leaned neither back nor forward, almost all weight rested exactly downward at all points in time. Which was fine, if you were standing perfectly still or moving very slowly across flat surfaces. But for their purposes?

Once he pointed it out and tried to correct her, the fighting began. The AI constantly complained about how illogical it was to intentionally be off-balance and that she could figure out a way not to need to be. This led to a back and forth, de-railing them from their original objective of scouting and leading to Kellin challenging her to walk over a simple, small, downed log. Which she accepted.

Which brought him back to where he was now, staring at his Combat Suit with one foot resting on that same log, frozen in place for the last ten minutes.

"There's literally nothing you can do right now except put yourself off-balance to correct the situation!" he explained loudly. "I'm not even entirely sure how you got like this without technically being unbalanced."

"Lifting the leg of the suit onto log was simple," she shot back. "AI did not calculate for log shifting. Leg is stuck. Require assistance."

Kellin shook his head.

"Not unless you let me help my way."

Another few seconds passed in silence, Kellin amazed and impressed at the stubbornness all women he'd ever met somehow managed to be outfitted with. Even ones he had a hand in creating, apparently.

Ironic that he had just been chastising himself for not taking her opinions with enough consideration, and yet again here he was, deciding things for her. But... here and now, he really didn't understand what else he was supposed to do. He'd been walking for the better part of... oh, thirty years. His experience should have been enough to sway the logical beings opinion.

"Unecessary."

He sighed.

"Gyps, you're being stubborn. Look what I can do," he said, walking up to the log and learning forward exaggeratedly, hopping up on top of it.

He then hopped down the other side of it, and repeated the maneuver back to her side. Leaning forward and backward, he alternated tapping his toes on the log, mimicking her position a few times... everything he could do while catching himself from falling over with way more movement than was required.

"Just learn the way I know how to do it correctly and-"

"Unnecessary. Assist in removing log. AI will continue practice-"

"Alright," Kellin said, fed up, extending his right leg.

Ten minutes of this had him frayed.

"Wait, sto-" was all Gypsy got out before the suit toppled forward onto its front, the log rolling in the same direction until it contacted a tree.

Kellin looked at the log he'd just rolled away before glancing down at Gypsy with a smile.

"You told me to assist in removing it," he reasoned.

"Cannot react fast enough to-"

"But you literally have the capability to speed up your movements. You should have been totally fine," he pointed out.

"Applying movement would have unbalanced suit. Intended on slow removal of log," Gypsy's voice replied, a bit muffled as the suit was laying face down and causing Kellin to chuckle. "Redacted must enjoy showers with low temperatures," came a few more words from muffled voice, shutting him up as he scowled.

Slowly, he watched the suit lift itself upward onto its knees and hands. It stayed motionless for a few seconds before Kellin was then met by the terrifying sight of it moving on all fours to its left, then its right, forward, and back, at an unusually high speed for a massive hunk of metal. She had moved so quickly toward him that he'd even jumped backward, completely caught off guard and worried she'd smash into him.

"What the hell," he muttered.

"Four-legged movement preferable. Stable," came a self-satisfied voice.

"How are you going to use a weapon?" he asked, pointing at the sword on her back which then prompted the AI to shift weight onto three limbs before a fourth hand reached up to grab the long sword.

He shook his head as her hand lowered back to the ground, weapon in hand, hilt resting in the dirt.

"Gyps, get up please."

"Four-legged movement known to be quicker than bi-pedal," she replied haughtily.

He... nodded. It was true, but this...

Looking back down, it just... hurt to see his Combat Suit on the ground. She lifted it up off its knees and was now on the toes of the boots and the two gauntlets. He felt a bit like crying.

"Indeed. This is correct," she stated, moving around more.

Kellin opened his mouth to beg again before stopping himself and reconsidering, turning around. It hurt to see, but if she was happier like this, should he support her endeavors or... he knew she'd listen to him if he seriously ordered her to get up, but was that taking it too far?

Suddenly, a crashing sound echoed out behind him, causing him to look over. The suit was upside down again, the right shoulder covered in a bit of dirt and pine needles, like she'd toppled forward.

It gave him an idea.

"To be effective, four-legged movement also uses moments of being off-balance to utilize. The fastest mammals rarely ever touch the ground," he pointed out. "Learning how to manage with just two legs initially would help you towards four."

Silence reigned as Gypsy flipped over and regained her four-pronged stance. The whirring and grinding of the gears and mechanical systems in place to achieve what he was witnessing continued to grind down his willpower.

"Agreed. Perhaps... it is necessary," she eventually said.

Kellin fist-pumped mentally and moved forward to help her up when he heard movement behind them. Quickly, and with a lot more purpose than before, he sped toward the suit to [Equip] it while glancing over his shoulder.

Two Swarmlings were charging at them through the brush, both about mid-sized with the same red coloration. Both began to screech the moment they saw him start to run, giving chase rather than stalking up like they had been before, the silence of their movements making it so their approach was nearly unnoticed until they were practically twenty feet away.

Just as the suit finished closing around him and their [Cloak] began to activate, the first one was already leaping through the air and upon them. Kellin's left arm ached in protest as the suit jerked it upward, sinking their gauntlet into the creature's large mouth as its jaws clamped down. Shortly after, a massive blade tore out the back of its neck, the creature screaming in protest as he brought the suit up to its knees.

[Swarmling Health: 23/55

Minor stun]

The creature thrashed around on their left arm as Kellin leaned his head around it, making a finger-gun at his comrade and pulling the trigger of the rapidly formed [Pistol] once it was ready.

The hammer fell and a massive boom sounded out right as the left arm of the suit jerked from the first Swarmling, causing the bullet to hit the other creature in its shoulder right as it readied to pounce. He'd been aiming for between its eyes, but the impact was effective enough as its jump was interrupted, the weight it had been planning to put on its limb no longer supported and causing it to crash into the ground a few feet in front of them instead. Just about at the same time it had gotten hit by the bullet, he felt his left arm once again get yanked in another direction as the first Swarmling was ejected from their blade, launched a good ten feet away with a discharge of [Energy] enhancing the throw.

[Marine Condition:

Integrity: 87/100

Energy: 52/110]

[Swarmling Health(1): 13/55

Bleeding]

[Swarmling Health(2): 36/45

Maimed]

Gypsy's use of the weapons [Skill] prompted him to try the gun's as he fed mana into the colorful pistol, aiming it at the second Swarmling. It didn't give him long to charge it though, barely getting a second of mana pooling in before the small monster was up and leaping through the air for the suit and forcing him to unleash the blast a bit prematurely.

The recoil was surprisingly heavy but manageable as a cone of blue ripples expanded outward from the barrel, catching everything in a two-foot radius in what looked like a massive, conical, ten-foot-long wave of water. The Swarmling was mid-air when it got caught in the disturbance, shot across the forest backward and into a tree nearly fifteen feet away from where it had been just moments prior. The ability surprised Kellin with the excessive damage done as his vision of the beast began to obscure, a vortex of rushing air causing debris from the ground and trees to shake loose and slowly fill the entire area with swirling dust and pine needles. Still, he managed to follow the [Wave] shot up with one last bullet and stood their kneeling suit up finally, just in time for their left arm to sweep downward as the first beast slammed into them again from the side.

[Swarmling Health(2): 18/45

Stunned, Bleeding, Confused]

[Swarmling Health(1): 12/55

Bleeding]

Kellin didn't let the suit buckle, able to get into a balanced stance in time as Gypsy threw the first creature off their shoulder again, a quick slice from the blade tearing off one of its front paws. He followed that up with a shot from his Pistol, bringing him down to 3 rounds remaining and one dead enemy.

[Credits earned for the defeat of Juvenile Swarmling Class Individual: 2, p*]

-How can they see us,- Gypsy questioned, Kellin hearing the second Swarmling sprinting at them again and being reminded that they were supposed to be [Cloaked].

"Not sure," he replied, shooting off a final round into the skull of the remaining beast, finishing it off as his ears picked up the sound of bushes being crashed through and screeching in the distance.

[Credits earned for the defeat of Infantile Swarmling Class Individual below your Threat Level: .5, p*]

Taking no time to dwaddle, Kellin began moving backward at the cost of as much [Stamina] as he could endure. There were at least ten more on the way, by the sound of it.

-It's the blood,- Gypsy stated, causing him to glance down at their suit briefly and stop the [Energy] draw from [Cloak].

Immediately, he'd noticed splotches of blood all over their supposedly invisible exterior, making him want to call foul at the universe. When fighting things that were already in the vicinity and knew you were there, it seemed [Cloak], for all it hid, would be a bit useless to hide them if they were a moving pane of glass with blood smeared all over it.

Kellin glanced at their [Condition] briefly while running and nodded to himself, glancing over his shoulder as he changed their course to dash up the hillside left, rather than continue back toward the Hutch.

[Marine Condition:

Integrity: 87/100

Energy: 47/110

Mana: 36/56

Stamina: 108/110]

-Captain Finnel?- Gypsy asked, confused, Kellin feeling the suit slightly reluctant to listen to his wishes.

"We can't drag them back to the Hutch," he said, "and they'll be able to follow us by scent, likely. We have to lose them or fight."

-A third tier [Cloak] would allow escape,- she replied, Kellin feeling their [Cloak] turn itself on and back off. -Second-tier as well. Blood integrated into field upon re-activation.-

Kellin nodded but kept pace going uphill.

"I think we can handle this too, actually," he added, increasing their pace and making a line for the rock outcropping. "It'd be an easy way to pick up some [Credits]."

Keeping the speed he was moving at, they'd arrive in a few minutes. The distance would give them a nice time gap since the Swarmlings were starting to fall behind, giving them the option of just flat out running if needed too.

-Unnecessary to fight,- she replied.

"But worth it. Can you [Create] some more bullets?" he asked.

-Which resource?-

"Go with [Stamina]," he replied, jumping over a log and landing in a slide on the other side of it to go under some low-hanging branches, continuing their mad sprint once past. "I might need [Health] soon."

-Why?- came the anxious reply.

"I have a good plan, don't worry."

-...A plan that includes losing [Health] is not-

"Might lose [Health]. It'll work out," he interrupted as he began to explain, finding the game trail he'd followed the past few times through this area.

He thought it would work out, at least.