On the Marmatur, — Nyton と Tom
The entrance before Tom looked benign — he detected no explosives, no tripwires, no computerized or other mechanical traps.
The door actually two doors that came together. They were made of Durandium, about 7 centimeters thick and with sturdy pressure seals all around the frame, making it a good makeshift airlock in case the large main cabin had to have its atmosphere jettisoned. The door itself was maybe 2.5 meters tall and perhaps that wide. Big enough for an old-school Mishhu to enter, but not big enough for an NMX.
There was a small hole off to the right of the door, maybe 5 centimeters in diameter and 15 centimeters deep. Tom's AIES examined it when he bent down and identified what looked like laser scanners inside. A tentacle reader, he thought.
There was no obvious way to activate it; a Neko had no way to even make it work, let alone a power armored Yamataian. Shooting it was an option, but what would that do besides lock up the door? He assumed their target was wise enough to make violence the wrong choice. Tom had no explosives on him anyway. His two weapons eventually could put peanut-sized holes through the door, but that would be slow going that would take more than just the two weapons he had.
An idea ticked in his head as he looked down at the Impalers — they were particle-beam weapons, meaning they carried charged gas inside them as well as energy.
Explosive gas and energy packs. And there were several more littering the deck from the soldiers he killed. It was a bit risky, but they certainly would blast a hell of a hole in the door.
* * *
Outside the Tiamat — Yuzuki-san と Rolf-san
Black.
Yuzuki was faced with it. Endless black, with more depth and less noise than any sleep. Her HUD's displays were what told her she wasn't dead, along with the various pains in her head and body. She was far from dead, which probably was the only thing that could have been more black than space.
Where she found herself now.
She flexed her gauntlet-covered fingers. A second had passed. Then another. Then more still. Many more seconds than should have passed.
She was supposed to be dead. The Render was supposed to have detonated in her hands, scorched her armor right off of her body, thrown her tumbling through the void while she lost consciousness from decompression. Or atomized her outright. Maybe send her into the planet's surface to be burned up like a meteorite? She flexed her fingers again.
No Render. No bomb. No death. No victory.
Just Rolf, clinging to her leg, a little stunned himself at what the "crazy gear-headed bitch" had done. Yuzuki could imagine the stream of expletives from his mouth. They weren't very kind.
Her armor gave her a view of the
Mokuren, which was about 20 kilometers away from the back of her head. It was within 7 kilometers of the
Tiamat as it bore down on Yamatai, a blushing blue-and-white jewel radiating against the background. Dozens of ships were hopelessly battering the dull grey dagger of the NMX command ship with every weapon they safely could deploy.
2:37, went the clock. 2:36. 2:35. 2:34.
It stopped.
Yuzuki might have miserably stared it down, but the numbers went green.
Her HUD told her why: the
Tiamat's CFS system was flickering, shorting, snapping in and out of existence. Yuzuki's internal clock told her the system finally collapsed at 2:21.
The clock disappeared and was replaced with Yukari's face.
"It is down," she said, face tight. "
Yuumis, switch to graviton beams.
Yuis, destroy its thrusters. Spare no munition! We must sufficiently slow its descent that it will not damage the planet."
The fleet responded. Battleships closed even tighter around the massive vessel that no longer was firing back. A small counter popped up on Yuzuki's and Rolf's HUDs, showing them the speed of the
Tiamat at about 8,600 meters per second. The speed started to tick downward as ships rushed around the vessel and blasted it with their tow beams, dragging it toward the reverse direction.
The speed it needed to reach was 100 m/s.
Separately, Yukari's face and voice appeared for Rolf and Yuzuki. She telepathically spoke to them through their AIES.
"Nimura-san is engaging a Ravager-class frame. Kurohoshi-Juni is en route to assist with a squad of LAMIA armors. Engage the enemy and save Nimura!"
