Nala Prime and the Great Bug War-16

Yellow Prime breached the roof of the Hive from within, and was the first to climb out. Both of the Greens followed, and last was Blue 5. The four of them set beacons and dropped lines back inside so the others could easily home in on their position, and then they took up defensive positions- time to wait. The four of them split their attention within and without, keeping eyes on the skies and the Hive at all times, rotating positions periodically.

The Greens glanced at each other often, maintaining a private and silent dialog. Words were not needed between them, as each knew the other’s mind; they weren’t trusted any longer, believed by the others to be compromised emotionally and thus an operational hazard, so why should they stick around? Why not bug out? Why not take the earliest possible opportunity to get the hell out of there and head back to the Inner City- and then let the Masters know what went down? Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it? That’s what the Greens thought.

Of course, Nala Prime anticipated it. Of course, Blue 5 and Yellow Prime figured it out during their transit to their current position. The Greens, now caught up in a paranoia feedback loop, tried to out-think their erstwhile colleagues- and that sort of logical thought wasn’t their strength. The best the two Greens could do was to assume that Blue 5 had their number, and that he kept Yellow Prime in the loop, so if they just edged out and ran in different directions one of them would get away because they could outrun and out-maneuver both Yellow Prime and Blue 5 should they decide to pursue them.

Then they decided that pursuit could not be risked, assuming that their comrades would see a breakout attempt coming, so they decided to ambush Blue 5 and Yellow Prime and disable them such as to guarantee their escape. This too they considered deeply, until their uniformity of thought ceased as one Green favored flight while the other favored fight. Their glances turned to scowls, then to glares, as they increasingly focused on each other instead of on Blue 5 and Yellow Prime.

Without warning, one of the Greens attacked the other with a sword. The other blocked with a chakram and drew his sword. The two Greens, fighting with chakram and sword, soon forgot that Blue 5 and Yellow Prime ignored them both and slipped back down inside the Hive- just in case. As one would expect from two perfect copies fighting each other, they mirrored each other move for move as their clash left simple melee combat and turned to the tossing of their chakrams in vain attempts to trick one off his line and thus leave an opening for a chakram to strike home and end it in deresolving one Green so the other could flee.

Below, Yellow Prime and Blue 5 looked at each other in exasperated bemusement; at any other time, this would be hilarious to witness. Right now, it’s tragic and stupid; both hoped that one Green would get the other and get on with their scheme. After about 15 minutes, they decided to put an end to this farce: they shot both Greens, knocking each off balance and thus unable to block the other’s chakram. The shattered remnants of both Greens rained upon Blue 5 and Yellow Prime as they climbed.