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Although Henry hadn't restricted Alexei's freedom to come and go, the Red Guardian spent most of his time on the eleventh floor, testing the Bear Mech that had been prepared for him and refining how it worked in conjunction with the rest of the team's equipment.
Especially after learning that their target this time—the Reapers—could infect others with their bite, Alexei became even more determined to maximize the mech's defensive capabilities.
After all, there was no research proving that the Super Soldier Serum made him immune to a modified vampire virus. The Red Guardian might be reckless, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he was invulnerable to every poison and disease.
He never managed to discover the true identities of the two "superhumans," but over the past few days, he'd gotten to know them fairly well.
With help from someone who had actually received formal training in modern warfare, the strengths of the Bullhead and Bonnie mechs became much more clearly defined. They were no longer simply piles of weapons and gadgets.
The slender Bonnie mech specialized in high mobility and long-range support. Its primary weapon was a large-caliber sniper rifle. Its pair of long rabbit ears weren't decorative—they functioned as both radar arrays and communication antennas, allowing the mech to operate as either a command node or a relay station.
However, the design was clearly intended for urban combat in relatively open environments. In cramped places like sewers, where engagements took place at close quarters, many of its advantages would be negated.
To compensate for that weakness, its secondary weapon was an assault rifle, allowing it to combine superior mobility with the mech's excellent defensive performance for close-range hit-and-run tactics.
The result was that, even in confined spaces, Bonnie could move like a figure skater—gliding through the battlefield like a ghost while firing from every conceivable angle.
Incidentally, Bonnie retained the appearance of a plush mascot.
Dressed in a black high-cut bunny suit beneath a tuxedo jacket, its sleek mechanical curves made it look surprisingly seductive.
If not for the numerous vectoring thrusters built into its legs, which made them considerably bulkier, it would have looked exactly like an alluring bunny girl...
...provided one didn't mind that its face was an actual rabbit.
---
The strength-oriented Bullhead mech, naturally, wasn't designed to charge into melee wielding an axe or war hammer.
Given the nature of their enemies, Henry judged that the greatest threat would be overwhelming numbers rather than extraordinarily powerful individual monsters.
Accordingly, Bullhead carried four rail rifles as its primary armament.
The rail rifles could be fired by hand or manipulated with mechanical arms. They could engage multiple targets in different directions simultaneously with precision fire, or concentrate their firepower into a dense barrage.
Combined with the mech's environmental sensors and automated targeting software, Bullhead was capable of delivering 360-degree omnidirectional fire without blind spots.
Its secondary weapon was a grenade launcher loaded with ultraviolet grenades for clearing large groups of enemies.
Its greatest burden, of course, was ammunition.
The mech carried external ammunition pods capable of holding tens of thousands of rounds.
Since railguns didn't require gunpowder or primers like conventional firearms, the ammunition itself was much smaller.
As a result, even though Bullhead carried an almost insane amount of ammunition, it still wasn't excessively bulky.
That said...
Its appearance was a far cry from the imposing image most people associated with the mythical Minotaur.
Its oversized, somewhat goofy-looking bull's head, paired with cylindrical limbs wrapped in plush fabric, made it resemble a cartoon mascot.
While it wasn't nearly as adorable as Green Arrow Duck, Bullhead's cartoonish style made it difficult to take seriously as a weapon of war.
---
Alexei officially named his Bear Mech Ursa Major, with the nickname Ursa.
Because of its portable wearable design, the mech's weapons couldn't be fully integrated into the frame and instead had to be externally mounted.
To better suit his preferred fighting style, Alexei didn't copy Bullhead's approach of mounting five or six mechanical arms to control six or seven different weapons like a walking porcupine capable of shooting in every direction.
His primary weapon was an assault rifle.
His secondary weapon was a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher.
Both used detachable magazines rather than belt-fed ammunition.
This gave the mech greater mobility and avoided the problem of an exposed ammunition belt being damaged and rendering the weapon useless.
Reconnaissance duties were handled jointly by Little Duck and three Sparrow drones.
Combined with Alexei's already exceptional combat instincts, even with only two firearms he could fight with the overwhelming presence of an army unto himself.
Besides his primary and secondary weapons, Ursa Major also concealed a backup firearm inside the thigh armor and close-combat blades within its forearms.
Naturally, ammunition capacity remained a top priority.
Like Bullhead, Ursa Major carried external ammunition boxes to sustain prolonged engagements against overwhelming numbers.
At Alexei's insistence, the mech's metallic exterior was given a much fiercer, more intimidating appearance.
The only slight drawback was that the extra ammunition box hanging from its waist made the metal bear look as though it were wearing a giant fanny pack.
---
The Duck-Leopard Armor retained Green Arrow Duck's plush mascot appearance.
Compared to the battle at Los Angeles's Eternal Night Temple, the only major change was that the heavy machine gun mounted on its back had been replaced with Henry's own compact rotary rail machine gun.
The flashy ammunition belt draped over its body was gone as well, replaced by an external ammunition box.
The duck's rear still housed the small multidirectional homing combat missiles—
The very weapon Alexei despised.
In his words:
"If one bullet can kill it, what's the point of wasting a missile?"
Thanks to that remark, Henry had redesigned all the combat missiles.
Instead of armor-piercing warheads, they now carried miniature ultraviolet grenade payloads.
Rather than penetrating the target's body before exploding, they detonated immediately upon contact, producing area-of-effect damage against Reapers and vampires.
Compared with ordinary grenades, however, the missiles carried smaller explosive charges and therefore had a smaller blast radius.
Their greatest advantage was that they were no longer restricted by the direction the mech was facing.
Combined with the mech's reconnaissance, target-locking, and automated attack systems, they could eliminate enemies even from behind the pilot.
---
All in all, for this operation, Henry wasn't suffering from a fear of insufficient firepower.
He was suffering from a fear of running out of ammunition.
The two Eternals, who had virtually no concept of modern firearms warfare, naturally had no objections to Henry's equipment arrangements.
As long as they could keep killing enemies, they were satisfied.
But after looking over the planned ammunition loadout for all four mechs, Alexei once again posed a soul-searching question.
"Are you planning for each mech to fight an entire division by itself?"
Henry replied, "You've seen the estimates from the Sparrow drones scouting New York's sewer system over the past few days. Do you really think this much ammunition is enough?"
"Those are just estimates," Alexei argued. "Besides, aren't we coordinating with the Continental? It's not like they're going to score zero kills."
Henry answered with complete seriousness.
"Well... when you live in a country where it takes an average of seventy thousand rounds to kill a single enemy, you can't expect every bullet to perform like a sniper round."
"Personally, I'd rather just use a nuclear bomb to blow a hole in the sewer system and let sunlight flood the place. That would solve everything once and for all."
Alexei had been about to mock him.
Instead, he suddenly changed his tone.
"I actually think that's a great idea. Want to take a trip to Eastern Europe with me? I might have connections who can get us a real nuclear warhead."
"..."
Henry immediately surrendered.
"Sorry. My mistake."
"Forget I ever said that."
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