The heavy pre-Fall assault rifle trembled against Nikki's shoulder.
Through the reinforced ballistic glass of the towering mech, the human pilot stared back at her. He was young, terrified, and completely paralyzed by the sheer, audacious madness of the small woman standing in the open.
"What are you waiting for?!" Chancellor Vance's voice shrieked over the summit hall's intercom, completely unhinged. "She's a biological traitor! Fire the cannon! Turn them both to ash!"
The pilot's finger twitched on the analog trigger. The massive dual-barreled rotary cannon aimed at Nikki's chest let out a high-pitched whine as the internal firing mechanism cycled up.
In that microsecond, time seemed to slow to an agonizing crawl.
