@Endgame:
The Black Knights sped after
Hoshi's beckoning rear hatch and were received inside by the ragtag band of defenders that were lead by Masako. Yukari and Yuzuki gave the shuttlebay
Hoshi's rear was ensconced in a last look and once it was evident they were the last ones in, darted inside.
The hatch slammed to a close and secured itself. Immediately after
Hoshi's twin sublight drives flared a bright teal as the auxiliary vessel grinded its way out of the shuttlebay.
Hoshi sprung free in space and skirted around the energy-limned claws of the
Shlarvasseroth before speeding off.
"Mara, I have them! We're out!" Hinoto warned her older sibling, before realizing what that report would entail. She gave another forlorn call after her sister.
"Mara!"
* * *
Hinoto called, and it was time for Mara to deliver. The blood-splattered mess of her face bared teeth as she charged toward the generator, and the Ghost Mishhuvurthyar intercepted her, filling into visibility to the side, twinning tentacles around to prevent her from striking at it with either blades or aether.
Letting out a cry that was beyond pain, beyond anger, Mara accepted the Ghost Mishhuvurthyar's embrace - went
into it to allow it to be tight - and then resorted to her armor's flight system and gravity manipulation to drag the Ghost Mishhuvurthyar along with her.
The tentacled beast instead found itself used as cushion as she tackled its very corporeal body into the jutting girders so strongly that it crackled its shell. Once, twice, and the Ghost Mishhu had enough - phasing out of Mara's grasp.
With an agonized moan Mara unsteadily made her way to the aether generator and jammed her zesuaium blades into the flooring to leave her hands free before she serviced it. She sent out a last
"I love you all!" message out - partly to for Hinoto's sake, partly to spur herself on and then made good time in plugging the generator in and starting it up (not a mean feat, considering the three-baby-mishhu-party going on inside her).
She had hoped the effect would be instantaneous, but it unfortunately seemed not to be when Mara continued being in pain. The generator was taking some time to warm up. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too much-
-tentacles whipped around her face. The Ghost Mishhu - hurt and bloodied - came back with a vengeance! It pulled her in. Swordless, Mara twisted and managed to cut some of the creature's tentacles off with a swipe of an aether blade, but the pain only served to anger and madden the beast further.
Other appendages twisted around her limbs to keep her immobile. Mara attempted the same trick as before, but this time the Mishhuvurthyar resisted due to it having anchored itself with its tentacles over the walls. The coils wrapped around her head tensed, and then strained sharply.
Mara mercifully went into shock shortly before the Ghost Mishhuvurthyar tore out her backbone - head, spinal cord, fountain of gore and all - out of her Mindy II's collar. The victor did not get to enjoy its success for very long: fingers of light escaped the seams and cracks of the generator before everything around became whitewashed in white.
* * *
Hoshi zoomed away, plunging out beyond the
Shlarvasseroth's protective time enveloped and into the anti-time zone beyond. The small vessel's batteries lasted it 15 seconds, 15 seconds Hinoto used to get themselves as far away as possible from the Mishhuvurthyar Flagship.
A leap of faith, but it was all they had left. Battery power ran out, and
Hoshi became as still as the rest of the Second Draconian Fleet.
A plume of white blossomed from the base of one of the claw-like array, withering at its base until it had eaten off all of it, sending the severed limb spinning away. The abrupt loss of one of the three had the energy arcs dancing across the two others snake out of control, lashing out half-hazardly. The reality-warping ribbons of power caressed even the larger vessel which had brought them into being.
The
Shlarvasseroth was left twisted under such, the black-spined behemoth so much flotsam against the forces brought to bear on it. Critical components failed in a massive chain reaction that resulted into multiple explosions erupting from its sides.
Hoshi's time resumed as the fold sphere failed and spewed its content back into realspace, with the
Shlarvasseroth behind dying. The double-clawed flagship's armored shell explosively rended itself apart, spewing out bladed quills... until its death throes came to a conclusion; the whole finally breaking apart in a momentous detonation, expanding ionized gas and spiraling mangled pieces of zesuaium.
Victorious,
Hoshi's engines came to a rest and she coasted amongst the few thousand surviving vessels that had survived Mefpralphra's purge, their blue-gray hull shining a warm yellow under the glow of the billowing plasma sphere left behind them.
End of Mission 5, Part 2. Continued in Mission 5, Aftermath.
