Milenya wasn't stupid. From the moment the rocket launcher got close enough, she'd been expecting him to fire.<br/><br/>As experienced as the slaver was, he couldn't help but shift his weight to brace himself just before he fired, and that was her cue to bring up the bubble.<br/><br/>The Mattock was a powerful rifle, with a hefty kick. Even with the power armor boost helping stabilize the weapon, firing it one-handed meant the burst of shots aimed at her missed her entirely, the expanding bubble helping deflect the inaccurately aimed grouping.<br/><br/>The bubble grew, expanded, catching the rocket in flight and bending its path. When it impacted the floor just inside her bubble, it detonated.<br/><br/>The initial pressure wave triggered emergency programming in her armor. Her suit went dead, dumping every bit of power left in the reserve into the barrier emitters. They flickered to life for a bare fraction of a second, which probably saved Milenya's life.<br/><br/>Briefly contained by the bubble, the force of the explosion caught Milenya in what felt like a hurricane of blows. Blunt, suffocating pressure shook her body, fragments of the warhead gouging deep scores in the rigid plates of her suit and cutting through the bodysuit. Her armor had never been meant to be military grade and in this instance, it showed. Fancy as it was, it had been built for entirely different conditions than combat. The bubble held long enough to keep the others from suffering serious harm, blunting the force of the explosion and keeping the fragmenting warhead contained, but Milenya suffered for it.<br/><br/>When the bubble collapsed, so did Milenya, bleeding from dozens of cuts as she lay there, sprawled unconscious on the floor in a very awkward position. Her armor was broken, scarred, helmet intact but it would no longer serve as a fully sealed environment suit.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>