RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

"Hai, Freeman-Juni." Rin could almost feel as if the bridge was haunted, that nagging feeling that the room had been a gruesome scene, barely even a few minutes before.

The sprite accessed a console, running diagnostics over the systems to see what needed fixing and what was still workable.

Hinoto spared a glance behind to Wazu and then opened an audio transmission to Tom. "Rook Leader, this is Queen. Two of the Bishops are isolated on level 4 with 9 hostiles closing in. Is there anything you can spare to alleviate the pressure on them?"

* * *

Sekkou started to display a stream of information that Rin could only make heads-or-tails of thanks to her intrinsic programming that gave her proficiency as a technician. Understanding it was nearly second nature to her, despite effectively reading walls of text in technical jargon.

The Yui 5-class scout destroyer had been rattled, but like Tom had said earlier, it was still in fairly good shape. There were a few network connection and power lines which had been compromised by its latest crash, but it was nothing that couldn't be bypassed or compensated for. Most of it could be done automatically as a temporary measure if she authorized the ship computer's to do so.

Perhaps more importantly, though, if Sekkou could be effectively crewed, its armament would probably be quite a boon to have around: the handful of AS-7 anti-matter torpedo aboard provided the same knockout punch Miharu's rollbar torpedo pod had. While in itself not as fearsome as Miharu, it was still a much better warship than Hoshi.

* * *

Nyton and the rest of the Bishop group were ready to spring their ambush. They could practically feel the enemy nekomachina cautiously inch forward and stop at the corner around which they settled in wait. Things were about as tense as they could get.

Then, Nimura's sensors went from passive to active mode with her stealth shedding off her Daisy power armor. The sprite, for whatever reason, clomped down on the floor, made a 180 degree spin and made sparks fly between her armored feet and the flooring, and then dashed through the corridor the opened Blast Shutter revealed.

"Nimura~!" Mara yelled out; the sandy-haired sprite sounding angry, exasperated and plaintive combined as she shed her own camouflage. Mara, probably not sharing Nimura's annoying lone wolf streak but too much the older sister to just leave things alone, stomped down in the corridor where Nimura had been before dashing off, raising her shield as she tried to make herself a more attractive bait than Nimura's back.

As if cattleprodded by Nimura's appearance, the 9 nekomachina started moving in, four popping out from the gravity-elevator-to-ceiling corner with aether saber rifles at the ready while five others swooped out, their aether weapons blazing. That allowed the rest of Nyton's group flanking attacks on them, though not before they attacked first.

One lance of light Mara sidestepped, two others crashed into her shield digging rather deep holes in it, and another struck through the Daisy's protective energy barrier to scorch the left thigh armor - that section now showing as orange on the damage diagrams with Mara's shield barrier depleted.

* * *

Sumaru was not surprised when the Nekomachina made it to the level where Takuma and he were huddled at. With admirable vigilance, considering the nekomachina weren't exactly sentient, the synthetics inched in, large shields held protectively in a fashion that prevented Sumaru from attacking them on any blind spot - the group of nine overall were doing a good job of covering each other's backs.

Sora's samurai noticed how they were carefully looking around, totally seeming to expect concealed opponents and hopefully not noticing any. He knew that if he attacked, odds of his weapons - even the wrist-swords - might not prove decisively lethal against the cover of those zesuaium shields. He knew that Takuma didn't really have a good shot with the bazooka either - if it wasn't for the nekomachina zesuaium shields providing for good cover, it was for the danger of the bazooka's explosion being close enough to harm them as well. About the same for grenades or missiles.

In essence, by gauging the situation, Sumaru got an inkling that it was a very unfavorable situation. If he fought - he and Takuma might defeat a few but those aether saber-rifles would in turn probably do short work of them with the little room to maneuver they had and Wish's forearm shields being low on power; they just wouldn't last the beating. If he teleported out - easily done - he left Takuma to fend on his own. He could also stay still and hope he was not spotted, but thermo-optic camouflage was not perfect; it was only a very fancy form of transparency. If the nekomachina looked hard enough, they would eventually find him.

Tom practically jumped for joy when the report came in. The amount of time saved at this critical juncture, when the news of Nyton's team being assaulted came in, was substantial. In the best scenario, it meant space support for the Miharu with a fully-staffed crew of happy, if injured, prisoners. In the worst case, it was a quick escape route on a ship in much better shape than the one they came in on.

"Ok," Tom said, his voice betraying his energy. "Initiating Megami procedures to repair setbacks."

He entered the commands. Engines slowly began to churn below them as the ship sprung to life.

Then Tom realized something rather surprising as he heard the voice of the Megami welcoming him.

Technically, he was the captain of this ship.

“You seem busy,” Wazu replied to Hinoto,

“A few off the shelf upgrades would let you run both your in person conversations and your remote conversations at the same time without having to shift your focus around like that. You probably have all the stuff required to do it, just a few lines of code and your productivity would noticeably increase.”

The medical bay was beginning to settle into a routine of sorts. Thanks to Sora and Sanjuro's efforts the patient's were being treated and on the quick jog to recovery. The more serious patients had been stabilized which was all they could do at this point. With all the lesser cases being treated by the nurses and two stationed by the two more serious ones to renew their bags of hemosynthetic fluids, Sanjuro could walk away and begin performing rounds. Each time he came up to one of the patients he would do a quick check to ensure they were progressing steadily and give a prognosis as to when they could get back on their feet. Ensuring that Shouko was on the way towards recovery he then walked over to Sora, noticing that she had been washing her hands for longer than usual. Taking off his helmet, he finally revealed his face to her, no longer dependant on the suit's sensors to assist with his patient analysis.

"Your highness, while good hygiene is imperative towards patient health, I do believe you are overdoing it." Sanjuro remarked quietly, trying to be respectful but at the same time noting her repetitive actions. "I have the situation under control here. If you wish to attend to other matters then by all means feel free to do so. Or you could assist me with the rounds for monitoring each patient's progress."

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The action was quick and intense and Nyton relished it. Even if Nimura did once again leap into action without orders it was as though she read some part of his mind. The Assault Team had been arrayed all around the corridor, but now they were only left with Nyton on the upper right corner nearest the ceiling, while Kai and Yoroko were on the direct left and right respectively. However only five were chasing after the bait, flying through the center of the corridor, while the four near the entrance were still providing them with cover from the ceiling. The trick was that while they now had advantage over the five chasers, the four vanguards could fire at them, retaining some advantage in this ambush. Clever bitches. Nyton thought before his orders rang out.

"Mizuno, Nakamura, open fire on the front group!" Nyton commanded, their AIES HUD highlighting the five chasers as their targets. The two's flanking crossfire aimed slightly up into the center should be able to eliminate the five whose shields faced forwards and not to the side. That left the four to Nyton. Hopefully they would react quick enough to that for his next move came right afterwards. Immediately following the command to fire Nyton crouched into a ball and rolled forward before dropping himself into a hover, removing his optical stealth and going fully active, behind the chasing group. Remaining tightly crouched and with his shield in front, he used AIES and his own internal targeting systems assistance to open fire with four missles, two from each leg, tracking each of the vanguard and set to explode when within radius, while firing two SLAG rounds at the corners of the entrance to try and envelop each of them. The distance from their placement near the door to the entrance of the elevator should be safe enough for the resultant explosions.

Not one to stay stationary, plus knowing that the nekomachina have little sense of self-preservation, he would drop down and begin to evade while pumping explosive rounds towards any enemy that survived his first onslaught. Even if the zesuasium shields absorbed the blasts, they evaded the attacks, and the missles were shot down, the distraction of self-defense should keep them busy enough to allow the whole team to rout the five and rally together on the remainder. Then they could hurry to assist the Sumaru and Takuma.

Without so much as a confirmation, Kai Nakamura began firing, First the LASR, then his shield rotated to give one of his forearm weapons a better aim, and both of those weapons added their fire to the Mistral. To compound his firing, Kai let of several SLAG rounds at the group and, If that was not enough, he finished off with a missile at each of the Nekomachina. Satisfied with his initial volley, the Daisy pilot began to move around, keeping his Thermoptic camouflage active, as it would continue to make him a difficult target, and keeping a pressing stream of fire from his LASR on his enemies.

Yoroko's heart sank when Nimura dropped her active camo and dashed toward the blast shutter. Nimura...what are you doing? Yoroko couldn't help but wonder before opening fire on the group of chasing nekomachina. Unlike Kai, Yoroko took timed and controlled shots, trying to hit more critical locations on the backs of the nekomachina. At the same time Yoroko's drones, which had returned to their hangar when the DAISY went into silent running mode, dropped out and surged toward Nimura running along the ceiling of the building to avoid any explosive fire.

Rin smiled and turned to Tom. "Captain," she bowed. It seemed rather funny and yet it was probably horribly inappropriate to be joking at the time. However, it didn't help alleviate still more of the stress.

"Etto, Freeman-Juni, what should we do? Afterall the ship can take care of those little things on its own... but of course you already knew that!"

"Ok," Tom said with a long breath. It seemed the rush had taken him aback. The glow of the bridge elicited memories of the past, how he had started as a Santo Hei buried in engines and oil. And now, 3 years later, to be commanding a ship, albeit briefly... "Woah."

He looked to Rin.

"You have an important assignment, Rin," he said. "I need you to report back to the Medical Officer and recruit the prisoners back to their ship, at least the ones that can function right now. I think the medical facilities on this ship would prove beneficial as well, so let her know that as well."

The ship slowly steered to face the hangar. A report from Hinoto had come in, sharing more grim news regarding the assault team.

"Damn it," he muttered and looked up to Ichigo. "Ichigo, I need you and the Chui on watch to provide back up to the assault team. I'm forwarding information to you both. Two of our men are pinned down. They need our help."

He sent the instructions to Aoiko and Ichigo and also send a brief text to Nyton:

"Rin, after you deliver your message to the Shoi, please take the Chui's former position at the elevator shaft and watch for hostiles approaching. It's up to you and me for now to keep the prisoners safe."

"Ah, hai Juni." Suddenly, Rin felt nervous again. She would have to protect the elevator shaft? So far, she hadn't exactly proven that she was exactly good at that. Still, she had a duty to serve and it was probably a good thing she wasn't paying attention and/or receiving information about what the assault team was going through, it would have only made her more nervous. The sprite bowed before leaving the Sekkou, quickly floating back out of the ship. As she left the bridge, she looked back to Tom. "...Be careful and stay well, Freeman-Juni."

Only a few moments passed as Rin hurried back, before she was back on the Hoshii. Another moment and she was into the med bay. "Ano..." she searched for the name, "Ketsurui-Shoi." The sprite bowed politely, though a bit hurriedly. "Freeman-Juni requests that crew members of the Sekkou, that are able to, return to their ship. Also, he would like me to note that the medical facilities aboard that ship are available and functioning as well. Etto... I think that was it...." Rin waited, just in case the Shoi had to ask about anything for clarification.

So this is how it will end? Takuma thought, tightening his grip on the rifle and waiting for an opening in the invulnerable line. I make an obvious mistake and screw the entire team over. Now for karma to make up for the failure, I'm trapped in a corner waiting for either death by the enemies or a verbal assault from the team leader after.

He was not sure whether he feared or was glad for help approaching, but death was permanent. Well, Takuma started to think, his mind drifting to a debate on if life really ended with the body, but quickly killed the thought. Now's not the time for hammering out specifics. As soon as what seemed like an opening appeared in the line, he slammed the trigger of his gun in short bursts from his cramped position.

"It takes more than just lines of code to improve people," Hinoto idly answered to Wazu as she watched Ichigo's Daisy join with Aioko's. The two readied their weapons, activated their stealth-camouflage and started inching down back into the gravity elevator. "Experience, namely. It's of as much use to us nekovalkyrja as any human. More, perhaps, seeing humans have so much of it once they grow to maturity," the silver-haired sprite finished.

* * *

Rather predictably, Takuma opening fire on the nekomachina seemed tantamount to a kid swatting a hornet's nest with a branch. Trouble, and a lot of it.

In the organized chaos that soon ensued, Takuma had the satisfaction of seeing the nekomachina head in the sights of his LASR get chewed off at the neck by his initial burstfire. The rest of his shots connected with shields rather than mechanical bodies as the eight remaining nekomachina flew about, some flying to land over the ceiling close, others crouching and bringing their saber-rifles to bear on him.

Aether managed to lance him before he ducked back behind the cover of the corner. The barrier had collapsed almost instantly, but luckily the places hit were the chest and the right shoulder - areas where the Daisy's composite armor was fairly thick. They showed as orange in his display, but at least they hadn't been breached.

The AIES of his Daisy sounded an alarm, and too late Takuma swinged around to see a nekomachina swing its aether saber-rifle. Instead of bothering with flying around, the fake-neko actually slashed with the weapon through the corner of the wall that had served for his cover, then had the projected energy blade continue towards him!

Before he knew it, his shield was already up and in the way to stall for time while he tried to gain distance... but even the zesuaium shield proved a poor deterrent for a direct hit from an aether saber. It swept past and while Takuma did earn himself more precious seconds of life, it was at the cost of losing half-a-shield and half-a-forearm on that arm. While the wound had been instantly cauterized, the flesh up to his elbow had been roasted crisp and the pain was... more excruciating than the black forearm and destroyed wrist cannon of his damage display could convey.

He was granted no reprieve from his opponents: the soulless combat androids regarded him with sinister red eyes, appearing intent on disarming him further.

* * *

The rest of the Bishop team three levels below fared relatively better than Takuma - their circumstances were just that much better.

The leading group of five nekomachina were wreathed in explosions as Kai unleashed missiles and then grenades. Three turned in time to intercept the missiles with their shields, but were still sent staggering by the SLAGs bursting about them; the two others were caught square and their mangled remains were violently tossed about.

The explosive amount of firepower earned Kai bits of shrapnel plunking hard against his Daisy's armor, spoiling his stealth, and he found himself facing three pair of red-eyed nekomachina that brought their aetheric weapons to bear upon him... only to be mowed down from behind by Yoroko's attacks, burstfires of near-surgical precision leaving gaping holes along their spines.

Nyton's own assault took the remaining four that had lingered back quickly on the defensive with the shields blocking the mini-missiles - but even such impact imparted considerable recoil, knocking the fake nekos back from their perch. The grenade explosions failed to damage them as much as the Taii had hoped because of the lack of proximity but it did considerably hinder thier attempts to regain their bearings with their anti-gravity and defend themselves.

That helped soften them up for his ensuing LASR attacks, one spray of HE rounds shredding one of his four targets at the hip and lower torso - it fell down to join the rest of the nekomachina scrap from the earlier battles in the vertical passageway. Nyton, on a roll, turned his attention to the next only to notice the second get mostly consumed by a plasma discharge, and the two others succumb to a duo of mini-missiles each - all courtesy of Mara.

Instead of exulting in her kills, Mara broke in a sprint, raced through the haze of rising smoke between Kai and Yoroko, to then launch herself up into the gravity elevator. "Hang on Takuma!"

* * *

The drones Yoroko had sent after Nimura had a hard time transmitting a clear picture to Yoroko. Wherever Nimura was running off to, the sensor and communication interference only seemed to get worst.

Yoroko spied a hazy picture of Nimura blowing through a reinforced door with a volley of plasma fire and mini-missile only to jump into a chamber where there was something vaguely cylindrical - the image was more fuzzy static than anything else by that point.

Nimura seemed to move about, doing 'something' and suddenly the static lessened considerably, showing the sprite's blue-grey armored Daisy crouched next to three large power cables, the three having been forcibly pulled out from some power outlets in the nearby wall. Those power cables had apparently run to a towering generator of some sort.

Then, it dawned on her: the sensor static was gone; the data feed to her drones was fully renewed, communications channels were clear...

Nimura had 'pulled the plug' on the Aether Canceller.

* * *

Three levels above, power washed across Sumaru's Mindy II power armor, bringing back Wish to its full power.

Back in the hangar, Hoshi's and Sekkou's aether generators regained full function as well. The volumetric windows hovering about Hinoto had the sensor display noticeably sharpen and clear up.

Wazu’s immediate thoughts went to what it would take to improve people aside from just code. ‘Compilers, an implementation process, brain mapping gear…’ He mentally listed before quickly realizing that was not what she was talking about. ‘Experience is just data, capable of being transmitted, patched, stored, and executed in the same manner as coding…’ he thought to himself, wondering where she drew the line of distinction between the two. Of course Hinoto was obviously busy, so Wazu had plenty of time to consider what to say next and the goal of such an action.

…

‘Why would anyone’ Wazu thought, quickly correcting himself, ‘anything want to forgo the gifts of the machine?’ Dogmatic thought was a possibility, after all she was a computer system and they would need some form of control system to keep her operating within specifications, but that kind of system was typically used for people not computers. To him, indoctrinating a machine in such a way just seemed, unclean.

“Is it because I am not from Kessaku Electronics?” Wazu asked, it was the most logical answer as she was not willing to let him move about the ship so she also was probably not willing to let him work on her mind. The mere implication should also provoke her into giving more of her own perspective on the topic and should that fail to get the response he was looking for, he figured he was not going anywhere anytime soon.

With the enemies dispatched Yoroko straightened up a little bit and reassigned her drones to guard Nimura as she came back. "That was intense." Yoroko muttered before realizing that Sumaru and Takuma were still being hammered. "Sir, should we move to assist?" Yoroko asked.

Kai reacted simply to the shrapnel pinging off of his armor and making scratches and dents all over him. None of it seemed to have penetrated, and so he deemed himself fine, despite the tiny color change to his armor's 'Health'. He did not stop to ask if he should assist, he simply knew he should, and voiced such with a quick "Moving to assist" shot over the comms. He used his thruster pack to shoot out and up the vertical hallway, following Mara on her way to assist. in the few precious seconds Kai had, he checked his weapons and began his AIES on preliminary calculations for shots, seeing as his sensors were suddenly more alive than they had been a moment ago.

From his many windows being monitored, Nyton knew the peril that Takuma was in. No sooner had Mara cleared the last three nekomachina then he shouted to Kai and Yoroko. "Move it out! Takuma and Hasegawa need help!" he ordered, motioning them to follow after Mara. He was already flying after Mara into the elevator shaft with his LASR pointed up.

With the interference by the Aether Canceller removed, Nyton only then identified the remaining nekomachina outside the Armory as a threat enroute to the fourth level. With their presence and weapons available, the last four nekomachina were a danger. Using AIES he alerted all team members to the precaution and highlighted the danger zone on the map. Along with that precaution, since Mara was already ahead of him, Nyton called out to her in warning. "Mara, look out!"

Unsure if Mara could avoid them in time Nyton reached out with two tendrils from his VAW to try and push her away from the middle of the elevator shaft where she was most visible from the hallway. The elevator shaft was larger than the entrance and had a little bit of edge which would provide a bit of cover. The fact that her barrier was still weakened from taking a shot earlier was of great concern to him.

Nyton also sent a quick text message to Tom.

Acknowledged. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Realizing they would be vulnerable should the enemy backtrack from the fourth floor and begin firing at them Nyton then sent them a quick note.

Give us some cover while we approach. Converge and become the second wave once we engage them.

Click to expand...

was sent to Aoiko and Ichigo.

The enemy nekomachina that were now on the fourth floor would probably already be alerted to the destruction of the other nine so Nyton got ready to dodge if they had to begin exchanging fire. Maybe they wouldn't be aware of the Support Team moving in to help and would be caught off guard if they poked their heads out.

Finally, with all the data input almost swirling but still under control, Nyton sent a message to Nimura.

Good job. However, the silent lone wolf act is wearing thin. Some forewarning would have been appreciated. Now regroup with us. Immediately.

Click to expand...

Nyton had a lot on his mind and post mission performance briefs was not something he had the time for. That thought got shoved way in the back of his memory files.

Nyton said:

"Your highness, while good hygiene is imperative towards patient health, I do believe you are overdoing it." Sanjuro remarked quietly, trying to be respectful but at the same time noting her repetitive actions. "I have the situation under control here. If you wish to attend to other matters then by all means feel free to do so. Or you could assist me with the rounds for monitoring each patient's progress."

Click to expand...

The young Ketsurui officer looked at her subordinate and co-worker with an almost startled expression on her face before she managed to recompose her thoughts again. She forced a smile and turned off the water before she dried her hands.

"I have no other matters to attend to besides our patients, Ashitaka-Nito Heisho," Sora replied in an almost defensive voice as she turned to face Sanjuro. "Regardless of location, we have to be ready for anything. The operation is still ongoing and we could be receiving more casualties any moment."

She took a couple of deep breaths before she added softly, "Yes, I'll be joining you on your rounds. Hopefully, we won't have to perform any emergency evacs today."

I shouldn't jinx us. I know that they'll come back. I have faith in them and their ability to handle themselves in the face of this. I just have to remember to keep my head in the game... although, that is much easier said than done.

This was not the first time Sumaru found himself outnumbered, actually he was an expert at facing up against the odds. Having survived countless battles and a war, he was more than prepared to rush into a seemingly helpless skirmish. But he was confident that if they attacked with precision and speed, they could overtake their opponents. It was that confidence that kept him standing. But a he felt it slip by half when his partner had ruined the element of surprise, the Samurai's eyes went wide again opening up to glance at Takuma just as his arm was removed viciously.

Sumaru didn't hesitate, his first move was simple. He blinked out and then teleported back in, his exit point was behind the one attacking Takuma, but centered in the middle of the group. In close quarters his pack was very deadly, the atmospheric displacement discharge being super heated by the process, plus the transpheric emissions caught up in the small tunnel were strong enough to do a considerable amount of damage. But his real goal with his first movement was to knock his enemies back and off center, anything else he deemed as a bonus.

But in the exit Sumaru wasn't exactly concentrating on the results. He simply continued his counter assault. With his vision linked to his Mindy, he could see everything at once. Working in unison with Wish, the two consciousnesses acted simultaneously through their connection. Sumaru allowed his AIES to aim and fire his Shoulder-Fired 50mm Gauss Cannon at one with the order to shoot for its exposed side with a three-round burst, the order a simple thought. Since Sumaru was in the middle, if they were covering each other’s backs so well, it meant that all around they were open to attack. He took advantage of this, with both forearm blades engaged he twisted in a dangerous dance of death and destruction, he spun with his arms slashing for each unit-- and stopping to concentrate on beheading and disarming the one in front of him, the one who attacked Takuma.

Then, waiting on their attacks-- Sumaru concentrated his thoughts on his vision and allowed his intensive training to guide him through the incoming strikes. This point too he allowed his AIES to gain a full lock with his Offensive Augmentation Pods, in preparation for his next move.

An inaudible scream surged up Takuma's throat, with the air suddenly gone from his lungs. His widened eyes shook as he glanced down at the charred remains of his arm. That didn't just happen... It did happen! Its just... just. Even his mind felt a loss for words. He knew something like this could happen, but did not think something like this would happen.

In his shaken up state, it felt nearly impossible for him to steady his aim. "AIES... shoot back if you can," he said raggedly, gasping for air. His only useful arm grasped the trigger of the gun with white-knuckles and attempted to raise it. The figure of Sumaru lunging at the foe in front of him gave him a little more hope in the situation, but also emphasized how little he could do.

"Sorry for being so useless," Takuma said to Sumaru while attempting to steady his breath. The initial shock gradually faded and his senses felt like they were slowly recovering. He pressed himself into the corner, trying to stay out of Sumaru's way and attempting not to get injured any worse. Maybe with the AIES's help he could shoot a little bit, but with only one useful hand success was unlikely.

Heart pounding in his ears, forks of pain registering into his brain bearing the complaints of nerve endings that weren't even attached to his body anymore, the sound of his harsh breathing competing with the rising hiss of his helmet's rebreather, his eyes trying to furiously blink away the stars than hung in his vision... it was a wonder that Takuma didn't just curl up in a ball and start whimpering.

Shock and fear. He was not a nekovalkyrja, born to fight. He had been a geshrin, then transfered into a yamataian body. He had decades of life to him - years worth of reasons he did not want to die here, now. A modicum of adrenaline, military training and simple manly 'grit-your-teeth-and-man-your-way-through', outrage at having lost something most often taken for granted but so much part of him... those were pretty much what gave him a semblance of functionality as a combatant.

Sumaru's Mindy II flashing amidst the nekomachina had been unexpected, but it seemed to have done wonders in distracting them from finishing off his own Daisy. They had stumbled away from the materializing Mindy as it released a shockwave that even Takuma mildly felt before Takuma saw the samurai attack.

There was a mystical quality to how Sumaru's movement appeared to show grace, economy of movement, along with lethality thanks to both forearm blades weaving about as if they had mind of their own. It was almost magical.

At first, three nekomachina had molten lines carved in their backs, spelling their destruction. To the side the gauss cannon fired, catching another nekomachina on the shoulder and ripping it off along with its shield along with further delaying its attack.

A flash, as Sumaru spun to block a nekomachina's aether sword with his forearm shield barrier. A second, and third flash - the nekomachina were recovering from their surprise.

Again, the gauss cannon mounted on Wish's shoulder fired as Sumaru ducked under an attack which would have taken his head had he done otherwise; the cannon took the shieldless nekomachina in the chest, ventilating it through with three holes. It fell.

The attacks came upon Sumaru in angry flurries of light, seeming more fierce by the moment despite the nekomachinas number having decreased by half since Sumaru had lept into the fray. Sumaru's attacks dwindled as priority came to his shields use. A flurry of mini-missiles burst from his power armor, but despite the explosions wreathing the place with fire, only the shields of their opponents and the ceiling seemed worse of the wear.

A stab of a nekomachina's saber-rifle took the shoulder-mounted gauss cannon - Sumaru not having been fast enough to duck, not having used his shielding to block. Seeing the remains of the weap0on clatter on the floor had the magic flatter for Takuma. Sumaru needed help. He needed less pressure on him.

Somehow, Takuma could shoot. The AIES, small parts of him if what the power armor had told him before this mission started, seemed able to follow intuitively his command as he galvanized himself to act. There was a minimum of shaking, the power armor's intact arm leveled up and it took an act of will for Takuma to squeeze the trigger, but the LASR answered, a rattling whine firing into the melee. Takuma had to be careful - he was firing in a melee so his shots couldn't be as decisive as he hoped.

But with the pressure Sumaru was under, anything would help. Takuma fired at the nekomachina at the fringe of the fight - the AIES, a small part of him according to what it had told him before this mission started, seemed able to follow intuitively his command as he galvanized himself to act. There was a minimum of shaking, the power armor's intact arm leveled up and it took an act of will for Takuma to squeeze the trigger, but the LASR answered. The machine twisted around with preternatural speed usually associated with the NH-28 NIWS and intercepted the attack with the shots rattling impotently against its damaged shield.

The distraction, though, allowed Sumaru to break the stalemate. He pounced forward and in a blue blur, the samurai's katana swung through it from crotch to shoulder. Sumaru's fifth kill fell in two halves. Immediately, though, he was forced to shield himself again with his dwindling shield reserves. The Samurai was forced to take a hit on the zesuaium shield he had on his forearm instead of the energy barrier, the shield getting sawed through similarily to how Takuma had been, though a snakeswift twist and Wish's zesuaium plating saved the samurai from losing an arm. Another strike, and half of Sumaru's LASR was cut off from its shouldermount.

...and suddenly, the battle came to a conclusion. Explosions of billowing plasma devoured two of the las nekomachina while Takuma himself fired on the last, his erratic shots sufficiently distracting the fake neko for Suamru to lop its legs off at the knees and then take its head once it was sprawled on the ground.

Behind Sumaru, two other Daisy power armors - Ichigo's and Aioko's - walked through the haze of smoke to examine the silver-gray corpses on the floor warily. The myth of the nekomachina being pushover cannon fodder had pretty much been dispelled.

* * *

Mara yelped as Nyton yanked her to the side and she lowered herself next to his Daisy, muttering a embarassed "Arigato," once she noticed the source of the Taii's caution. Luckily, none of them were in a line-of-sight from the defenders of the armory yet. Not so fortunately, the defenders also seemed perfectly willing to wait them out very patiently.

Above, they saw Ichigo and Aioko fly into the four level entry where Sumaru and Takuma were fighting. At the sight of that, Mara put a lid on her panicked concern for Takuma and turned to the three others, asking: "What do we do?"

Both Yoroko and Nyton meanwhile registered Nimura obeying Nyton's order to regroup, only to have two nekomachina attack her from around a corner outside the Aether Canceller device chamber. Nimura avoided the initial spray of aetheric flechettes with panther-like agility before returning fire.

Nimura said:

Engaging Hostiles.

Click to expand...

After sparing this much as a concession to Nyton's earlier demand, Nimura fearlessly went on the offensive.

With Yoroko's drones assisting, Nimura focused her attacks on disarming the two nekomachinas from their W2800 saber-rifles - they needed to extend them out beyond the protection of their shields after all. On one, she landed a direct hit. On the other, she actually struck the nekomachina on its upper arm, sending the weapon down to the floor.

The weaponless nekomachina flew at her with reckless speed, intending to hammer the sprite with its shield as an impromptu club, but Nimura took inspiration from the very same move, ducking besides her attacker before rewarding its brazen audacity with an uppercut equivalent of her own. The machine momentum and the Daisy's armor's prodigious strength combined were sufficient to shatter its neck, tearing it from the rest of the body in a jumble of flying bits of metal, structural joints and torn cable wiring.

The other nekomachina turned and fled, retreating further in the corridor and vanishing into an utility stairway before Nimura could shoot it. The sprite tucked her plasma rifle back on her vacant shoulder mount, stomped toward the retreating nekomachina's severed arm to take its aetheric saber-rifle as her own and then started running toward the stairs in pursuit of her remaining opponent.

* * *

Wazu's comment drew a chuckle from Hinoto. "Hardly. If you are looking for a sprite whom holds disdain for what is not tied to Ketsurui Zaibatsu, you have the wrong one."

The silvery-haired sprite then blinked incredulously at one of her sensor displays and opened a line to Nyton: "Bishop Leader, since when do nekomachina flee?"