Re: Final Mission: Yuzuknockdown.Nimuraleftbehind
On the Tiamat, command superstructure main corridor — Yuzuki-san と Rolf-san
3:35 read the clock, as Rolf reached his target. He had wasted no time, only the Neko, cleanly drilling her and rushing back down through the lingering fire to the computer core, where he had said he would meet Yuzuki.
He nearly was wasted himself — a warning from his HUD gave him just enough pause to avoid being atomized by the
wall of weapons fire that came from the KAMI's room.
One big thought was produced from seeing all of the aether beams and fist-sized solid projectiles lay waste to the hall leading to the core.
Wh' th' fuck?
Rolf held his position against the wall, but he stuck out the edge of his armored foot to give him "skin" vision to see down the hall. There was acrid smoke, a couple little fires — produced by the heat of the aether — flickering on the floor, big tears and rends all over the fucking place. The hall went from polished Yamataian vessel architecture to a war zone in the span of a few seconds.
Movement, off to the left side, just visible in the hazy light coming from the KAMI's room. Two white beams lanced out of a shape against just to the left of the doorway up ahead.
Before Rolf had time to consider just what Yuzuki was doing, she was turning, moving, pressing
forward —
* * *
The
Render was surprised. Maybe Yuzuki was, too.
In one smooth motion, Yuzuki had
jammed herself into the room, blasted off all of her missiles and was following them up with another mad charge.
The Render was in too close quarters to respond with its own much-larger missiles to counter what the pesky Mindy armor had fired. Every narrow, blunt-headed projectile collided with its shields. The left-leg load was enough to wipe its shields out, stunning the brainslave computer responsible for managing the mecha's systems. The pilot, bathed in red light and strapped to her pilot's bench, barely had moved a centimeter when the other volley crashed into the mecha's squat torso.
The aetheric distortions created by the ARMA missiles blinded the brainslave's sensor-based vision of the area, robbing the pilot of any reading on where the Mindy was. She manually flicked her readings to the visual forward camera and saw only smoke from her own weapons. The brainslave's insanity level was spiking; she punched a button to cut it off but was too late. She screamed at it and it screamed back.
From the center of the smoke was a flash of eye-melting white. It filled her viewscreen then vanished.
" ... ?"
She brought her head down as she took in a lungful of the stale air inside the cockpit. A blade of the same white light had pierced the armor of her magnificent frame, cut through her spall-shield, and lanced itself into the right side of her chest, just beneath her breast. The wound was getting bigger as more and more of her body was being eliminated by the heat from the blade. She watched herself evaporating for another split second before she stopped seeing anything; her eyes had melted from their sockets.
Yuzuki kept the blade inside the cockpit another second more, then pushed away from the frame back toward the floor. A black-flared wound remained on the frame's belly; she could see it, the damage she had done.
That focus kept her from seeing the Render's claw rushing for her back. She saw it too late to do anything about it. The Render smacked her aside like vermin, and Rolf heard more than saw the dull
thud of Yuzuki colliding with the wall nearest him inside the KAMI room.
The Render's aether guns fired a blast at the inside of the room, but not where Yuzuki was. Rolf's armor told her she was dazed but not unconscious, and her AIES was trying to get her back in the fight, but that was a few seconds away. The Render stomped the floor, shaking the floor, and started to turn toward the KAMI's vault behind itself, another blast of aether scarring the ceiling.
It was going to destroy the KAMI.
Rolf's AIES highlighted a target for him — the location of the frame's brainslave computer, located just above the series of cameras on the frame's front, below some orange-colored armor. Destroying it would end the frame's rampage before it could destroy the KAMI.
3:25, went the clock.
* * *
The Tiamat's secret hangar — Nyton-san と Tom-san と Nimura-san
The plan was affirmed by Nimura and Tom.
Nimura pried open the door and the three armors slipped inside, stealthed. Nimura took up a position on the ceiling from which she could attack more vulnerable systems located near the frame's face. Nyton took the wall nearest the door, placing himself close to it without touching it, and hoisted his AP-loaded LASR into a firing position. The rounds likely would not penetrate the frame's armor, but vital systems and joints were highlighted by his AIES as potential targets he could attack.
Tom floated off the ground slowly, holding his Impalers close to his body as he came near the frame. It was an engineering marvel, in a way; instead of appearing flat and squat as a Ripper, or grotesque and deformed as a Mishhu, the Ravager was curved, sleek, with the shielded secondary arms balancing the oversized forearms and claws of the primary arms. Its legs had the necessary bulk to keep the frame's top proportional. The clawed feet looked deadly, but stable, functional.
In short, it did not look like a typical NMX design. It appeared ... Yamataian.
Radio signals pulsed from the Ravager. Each armor's AIES decrypted them as soon as they were broadcast — "Door guards, status."
Nyton considered having his AIES respond, but he knew that even if the signal was the same, the location would not be. Nimura stopped herself from replying.
A second passed. Tom was within a meter of its leg when it suddenly started moving. It deftly tromped forward and put its large hands on the back of the gunboat — and started to push.
Tom saw the door to the ship closing, as the ship's engines flared hard with yellow-orange exhaust. He flew forward, hard and fast, as he heard Nimura shout at Nyton to do the same, quickly before it was too late. As he crossed around one of the large engine orbs on the back, his AIES told him Nyton was following at the same clip. The target was an airlock on the starboard side of the vessel.
Tom swore when he saw it was closed, but as Nyton came around he fired at the door with his LASR, and Tom added to the volley with his Impalers. Nyton did most of the damage, and both armored men gave the door a damn hard shove when they met it.
The pockmarked door caved in, and both armors fell into the gunboat just as the engines roared to life, flooding the secret hangar with plasma exhaust. Nyton brought his head up from his collapsed position on top of the door. He looked out of the airlock portal long enough to see the smooth walls of the hangar give way to the black void of space, sprinkled with bursts of fire from dying starships.
The airlock door behind Tom and Nyton opened. A light infantry soldier armed with an Impaler stumbled back upon seeing him, raising her rifle.
* * *
Outside the Mokuren — Masako-san
Masako's LAMIA squadron curled away from their pursuit, rushing back toward the
Mokuren. Of everyone, Masako was best able to see the
Tiamat head for Yamatai, glittering bow missing pieces and scored with aetheric energy.
Another pair of battlepod bombers were incoming, the
Mokuren told her, streaming out from 20,000 kilometers off the starboard stern, coming in slow to deliver their torpedoes. Her LAMIAs would not rejoin her in time to engage them, and the
Mokuren's energies were focused on the graviton projectors.
She was the only one who could stop them. Her four weapons pods surrounded her, ready to follow.
