SENJO – FIRST SQUAD<br/><br/>The time for thinking was over. The time for doing was here. The moment the heavy large humanoid landed with a crunching dull sound in the jungle in the midst of our squad I was turning, turning and raising my rifle. The creature still wore some form of visual disruptive camouflage and the shimmer of its presence was all that could be seen as it first knocked Sergeant O'Shay down and then tumbled Lance Corporal Beneke forwards using the Marine's own overbalanced equipment to aid his fall.<br/><br/>My rifle was still turning and lifting and my mind told me that slicking the selector from auto to full would be the correct choice. My small motions seemed to take a long time in comparison to the swiftness of the unknown attacker but then my eyes registered an emotion – very rare for me, very rare indeed – as the visual camouflage was disabled and a creature I recognized was inside our squad's formation.<br/><br/>On the creature's shoulder some form of auto-targeting powered cannon swiveled around. I had wasted valuable moments by locking my gaze with the dark slanted eye holes in the helmet, wanting to discern a personality there and now time had run out. My view was filled with bright red light as a targeting laser was painted on my forehead and there was only one thing to do. Summoning all my energy and checking to the side for a landing place I jump-rolled to my right as quickly as I could, as that whine and clap of sound we had heard before filled the clearing. The second I landed and could orient myself I squeezed on the trigger and fired at the shoulder canon itself, trying to disable it, before shifting my aim to the left a few degrees to select the creature's neck and chest as a target. The appearance of the metallic helmet informed me it was advisable to aim elsewhere.<br/><br/>Beyond the humanoid life-form I sensed that not all our squad was out of action. There was movement there. Private DeSilva. She had a perfect shot at the back of the creature's head. If I could only keep rolling and shooting at the opponent long enough for her to react, to absorb it's attention, the loss of the squad's synthetic might not be without benefit.