@Mara:
It seemed Mara was being shot at from everywhere. So many shots, shots that had overtaken her shield module once, seen it capacitor replenished, depleted her shield module a second time, to then empty her second leg-mounted capacitor.
Swords wove streamers of ardent light in the air as she hewed through overeager zombies and thralls whom rushed her heedless of their existence from the ground, while Mishhu raked her form with railgun fire from above as a prelude to a dive with nets of tentacles reaching out to seize her - tentacles she cut through before slashing and stabbing through the bodies of the Mishhu grunts they belonged to.
...and all along, Mara maneuvered steadily through the enemy numbers, covered by the fire of her drones, until she came close to the twisted girder supports Nao and Suzume had squeezed through to get to the aether generator.
She grit her teeth as a group of five Elites along with an Overseer came to the scene, bearing heavier weaponry. What they loosed first were rocket-propelled grenades that hammered around her, destroying slaves, zombies, thralls and her drones while depleting the last of her shielding.
Then they switched weapons and peppered her position with railgun fire, scooting back in a way that was half-crouched, half-snaking through the girders, Mara raised and activated one of her potent forearm barriers to protect herself from the worst of those attacks.
Almost. The Mishhuvurthyar would have difficulty passing through the tangle of heavy metal bars her slighter self had wormed through and would have to force their way in. If she could hold that position until
Hoshi had retrieved the Black Knights, she would be able to retreat deeper into the wingpod and activate the aether generator with minimal interference.
"I'm out of the way of
Hoshi's engines, Hinoto. You can go now," Mara announced, panting heavily.
@Hoshi:
With the hatch shut, calm reigned. Mara was gone, and probably would not come back.
Hinoto grit her teeth at Mara's words, and she accessed the auxiliary ship's navigation interface. She did not immediately release the docking clamps, activated the small ship's energized armor and instead activated the gravimetric drives to their minimal setting and slowly incremented their propulsive impulse up.
The gravimetric drives were still covered up by part of Miharu's hull that had survived the crash, but with the docking clamps still on and the engine pushing, something had to structurally give... and the cover were first, splitting and bending open with loud shrieks of metal until they were bare to the insides of the flagship and the enemy numbers massed beyond the rear hatch.
Feeling vindictive, knowing that no more defenders were in the way and that it was okay to leave now, Hinoto gave a stronger push with the gravimetric drives, sending a hard shove of gravity beyond the rear of the vessel to have the
Shlarvasseroth's defenders mashed into pulp up close, and bowled away head-over-heel (or the corresponding Mishhu equivalent) from the graviton impulse.
With the sublight engine already revved up to a higher impulse, Hinoto released the docking clamps and there was a hard jolt as the strain of the ship's engine was suddenly redistributed to the black clot-like material that had sealed the wound
Miharu had dealt the
Shlarvasseroth when she had rammed in.
The solidified slime could not bear up under the sudden force and it shattered under the force arrayed against it,
Hoshi suddenly shooting out from amongst the bladed quills of the monstrous SMX flagship.
@Black Knights:
The reconsolidated armor team swiftly made their way down the ramps, following the sloped down, making turn, following another slope down with only the corpses of previous kills along the way.
Those in the lead finally made it to the armored doorway Kyou and Asher had first blasted through. Beyond that turn was the large freight elevator and beyond, another armored doorway that lead to the shuttlebay Nyton had first entered the ship through nearly five years ago.
However, just as they rounded the corner, the elevator's shellclam hatch slid open. With thundering footsteps, a
Ripper emerged on armored hooves, its torso twisting to bring most of its weapons to bear.
There was a short exchange of fire were plasma rifles spat in defiance only to find their bolts stopped cold by the mecha's powerful barrier. The Mishhuvurthyar machine in turn lanced their position with aether from its forearm cannons with the 50mm shoulder gauss autocannon screaming as it stitched a deadly line of fire across the corridor.
The Daisies hurriedly retreated around the corner before being hit, though the damage left in the wake of their retreat was no small boast of the Ripper's deadliness.
In their condition, they would be hard pressed to face that opponent. The clock was ticking, and it was in the way.
