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RP: YSS Miharu Mission 3: The sound of machina

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By the time Takuma reached the medbay, he figured out how to cope with the pain, at least slightly. His thoughts wandered on all topics not related to limbs, but each flow of thought would betray him after a while. When his mind focused back on his arm, he winced, thinking about the lack of an arm, and tensed the muscles on his upper left arm, which didn't help in the least.

The nurse came up to him right when he caught his breath after one of those moments. After seeing armors, blood, and gunfire, the cute smile from the nurse caught him off guard, throwing his mind off his arm once again.

"Ah... I can get it..." Takuma stumbled. His already shattered-but-badly-glued-back-together pride wanted to redeem itself. He started to shift his arm to take off the metal armor, but a nauseous feeling overcame him when he did not feel the familiar weight of his arm move with him. His face contorted and his balance slipped, causing him to fall onto one knee while gripping his upper arm with his good hand. His shattered pride broke on the floor.

"Nevermind...Help would be appreciated," he said, trying to smile back.
 
Yoroko fell into formation as Nyton had ordered and once there began covering his flank as instructed. While she did so the Heisho couldn't help but wonder about Nimura's actions. In the simulator the sprite had been just as brash as she was here, and while there did seem to be a method to her madness Yoroko couldn't help but wonder if it was good. Nimura was one of the better armor pilots without a doubt, even if she was disobeying orders Yoroko wasn't sure it was best to put her off to the side. Then again if you can't rely on those under your command to obey orders then they could become more of a liability than a resource. Yoroko sighed at the situation as she scanned for enemy movement.
 
Kai nodded to the orders given to him, and flew back up to the hole in the railing, Mildly annoyed that his perfect shot was now just an okay shot. If Nyton was worried about a blast Radius, the Yamatain was sure it wasn't the bazooka's, and if it was from whatever that Aether signature was, they were toast anyways. In any case, Kai quickly set himself ready for as good a shot as he could get from this new vantage point, and awaited the orders to move into action.
 
Nyton quickly read over the message as fast as he could. He had already considered this even while Tom did have a point.

I'm responsible for everyone's lives here including hers. If she isn't going to give her life any value then I can't have her here. Either she will get herself killed or someone else will die trying to help her.
Nyton messaged back. It was a short answer, one that barely scratched the surface of what he meant. But it would have to do for now.
 
Nimura gave Nyton a eyeblink before simply answering: "Hai." No anger. No frustration. No disappointment. Nothing but a deadpan response.

As Sumaru was sweeping down the first of eight flights of stairs, Nimura bounded up in a jet-assisted leap back to the uppermost catwalk. That was about the point when all hell broke loose. The samurai's flightpath stopped cold as he was snagged into some sort of rubbery and very strong resistance he hadn't seen. It snagged at him, clutched at him and yanked him back down to the stairs, with arms and legs caught fast.

Above Tom, Kai and Aoiko ran into the same kind of trouble. Something like ribbons of invisible rope caught hold of their arms, legs and apparently coiled around them - holding them fast and forcing them down... even despite their power armors' considerable strength!

Nimura twisted around in light of what seemed to be new aggressors - but to her puzzlement didn't see any enemies. She had no time to get a better look: the larger ducts of the ventilation system besides the four on the uppermost catwalk erupted into multiple explosions!

The sprite was knocked back and it was only thanks to her nekovalkyrja agility that she managed to stumble back into a crouch with her shield up instead of being knocked back flat on her back. The others didn't lose much of their footing thanks to what held them fast, though they were showered with metal debris and then swallowed in a cloud of billowing smoke.

Then the smoke took a whitish tint as something flared brightly inside it. A nekomachina with body armor, zesuaium shield and lit Type 28 Aether Saber-Rifle pounced out from the ruptured vent and swung its weapon at Aoiko's Daisy, the projected blade stalling over the power armor's energy barrier briefly before cleaving through helmet and torso.

Aoiko instantly died, her demise quiet and shrouded by the smoke... though the AIES network transmission of her damage diagram being black on both head, chest and lower torso region plainly declared the Chui as KIA.

Tom and Kai registered the presence of two other similarly equipped nekomachina whom jumped out of the broken ducts to land next to them, their lit energy swords visible up-close in the smoky haze. Both moved to attack, likely intent on taking advantage of their restricted mobility to also finish them off the way their first companion had with Aoiko.

Nyton and Yoroko initially lacked targets when their companions were stuck fast, and the smoke up in the catwalk certainly hadn't helped firing on the newcomers... but something else quickly vied for their attention as the massive double-doors opened with an hydraulic hiss. Only one meter wide - just enough to let a nekovalkyrja walk through.

Petite, slight, dressed in a lavender sleeveless tunic with a frilled skirt; nothing seemed to indicate she was much of a threat to them save for the chain sickle she held (their AIES identified it as a Zesuaium Kusarigama).

Nyton started to feel like he had butterflies in his stomach at the first sight of her, though, with a cold chill running across his back. That blue jaw-length hair, those red eyes, that face! He was looking at Eve.

When he noticed that his Daisy's inbuilt psionic signal controller had started acting up, those butterflies felt like they had been issued power armor.
 
The only thing Kai could think of to do was turn on the heavy fusion thruster pack, hoping to boost out of the way of the attacking Nekomachina and get away from whatever was holding him down. Perhaps the exhaust would burn whatever it was, or the sudden burst of flame make it lose concentration long enough to get away. In an act of desperation, the Yamataian also opened up his forearm weapons and began firing wildly, making sure to move his gauss bazooka out of the way of the blasts, holding on in case he still needed it. "Not good, not good, not good" was all he could think, but he tried to calm himself so he could be ready for action if he escaped.
 
Wazu was content to watch the screens until the girl in the lavender sleeveless tunic showed up on the sensor images being relayed back to the Hoshi. Before Wazu had time to think about what he was doing, he was already standing up and moving towards Hinoto, placing one hand on the back of her chair and aiming the other at the image of Eve.

“I need to speak with her,” Wazu said, words leaving his mouth before mind could catch up with them. A combination of urgency and desperation in his voice. After all his entire point for being here was about to be gunned down by a group of power armors.

“Either put me through on their speaker system or give me a power armor to go down there with.”

It was only after that span of a few seconds that Wazu was really able to think about what was going on. He should have offered them something, technology, resources, whatever, he needed to get down there. Eve was also never one to perform a direct attack without some sort of get-away plan. A strong feeling that something was not quite right was creeping up on him.
 
Chaos was all around him. Aoiko was dead in a matter of moments, cleaved in two according to his AIES. Smoke billowed everywhere, enemies were descending upon him, and he could not move.

The crackling of the Aether saber rifle, wielded by a Nekomachina drone, was going to finish the job that had been started three years ago on this very planet.

Faced with such an outcome, and the expectation that came with his rank, he found all emotion bleeding out of him, his survival instincts making him soulless, calculating.

Options. He would wield his saber rifle, but his arms were restrained. Instead, his forearm blasters, able to pivot in place, began spraying at the approaching enemies.

He also needed to buy some time. Aether swords without armor-supplied power lasted a very short amount of time. His tactical drones would make the sacrifice as he sent both of them out to pepper the enemies with lasers.

Mobility. Taking Kai's cue, he tried to fire up his own thruster back to break the hold of the invisible tendrils. Maybe then he could move his arms...

Contingency. If need be, the engineer was ready to launch the contents of his countermeasure pods at the enemies. The explosive damage would probably hit him as well, but he trusted his Daisy to hold up better against friendly fire than a sword of pure destructive energy.

They had seen the end result of that already.
 
Sumaru flew his sweeps, just like he should. When something grabbed him, he was surprised-- more so then anything that he didn't see it coming. It sent a shiver through his body, chilling him frozen in a second because he thought he was past being caught by surprise, he thought he would see it through his skin vision. But he wasn't going down, not yet-- there was too much for him to do. So he struggled, violently moving his body in it's confinement and igniting his forearm blades to try and cut through whatever had him in it's clutches.

If this was useless, he already was starting his back up plan. He spun up his teleport pack, trying to zero in on what was attacking him so he could take care of it. His mind and AIES scanned rapidly, everything around him for the target. Then he let Wish lock in a safe teleport exit, and waited to see if his struggling would get him free-- or if he was going to have to blink out of this one.
 
Everything seemed to blur and slow down at the same time for Nyton. For what seemed like forever the figure in front of him was approaching but not making any progress. It was as though they were in some sort of distorted tunnel where time and reality no longer applied. At the same time Nyton's computer implants were working faster than his own natural brain could keep up which was creating this sense of otherworldly detachment.

It's Eve. She's HERE. We're not ready to face her. No no no she cannot be here we're just not READY! Nyton thought, the fear scratching at the edges, just nibbling away at his mind into tiny morsels. For the longest time he thought he had conquered fear but here it was, attaching itself to him the moment he saw their objective. For so long Nyton had studied Eve, analyzed her, engraved her actions into his thoughts so he could understand and attain some sort of edge on her. All in all though, she was a formidable opponent that he had hoped to be able to target when the situation favored them. We were supposed to face her when the time was RIGHT. This makes no sense! Why is she-?

That was when something in Nyton's mind began to force it's way through. Strangely enough, he thought he could hear his grandfather's voice talking to him. Was that what the voice of his computer sounded like? Regardless, hearing him made Nyton feel stable again. Why IS she here my boy? You're right it doesn't make sense. What if she has body doubles or clones? Remember she's tricky and a trap master to boot. Perhaps she made a youngling of herself. Ever think that might happen? Where are the rest of her lackeys? Besides, so what if that IS her? You can beat her, boy. You've learned all you can about her whereas she doesn't know a thing about you. You know your enemy and yourself now show this speed bump of existence what a thousand generations of warriors can do. It was then that all his data seemed to converge.

Nyton saw Eve's movements, was alerted to his suit's PSC device cranking up, the actions and plights of everyone else, the events and suddenly all fear was gone. Instead there was a grin and excitement. The butterflies and cold chill were replaced with adrenaline and excitement. This would be the fight of his life. Already the cybernetic side of his mind was fast at work and he was grateful again to the gods of cybermancy for everything he was about to do.

Messages and orders began to be sent, all at the same time for maximum effect. His own internal PSC began to charge up and add to the suit's in preparation for what he knew would be a powerful psionic attack. AIES meanwhile worked about showing the whole team their dynamics and how they needed to work together to beat this even while each individual received seperate orders.

ATTENTION EVERYONE: Activate your PSC devices, full power. We are engaging a powerful psionic entity!




Freeman, I'm having Nimura rescue you two. Once you are free, get out of there and stick to her and Nakamura. Work with Nimura to provide Nakamura cover so he can line up a shot with the bazooka. Everyone is key to survival now!


Hasegawa fall in on Mizuno and I. Coordinate with Mizuno and cover us while I handle Eve. Work together and help me keep Eve boxed in while keeping our backs clear of any unseen attackers. You need to multitask on this so fight hard!


With all those messages sent Nyton set AIES to encourage his chess pieces into position. They could still win, he BELIEVED they could. Whether this really was Eve or not, he was determined to be victorious. His part would be just as critical so he could not fail here.

Nyton began to aim his LASR at Eve and squared off with her while trying to remain out of the door's opening should anything else come through to assist her. With meticulous precision he planned dozens of moves based on what he knew and what he could only surmise. the kusarigami was designed to hamper an attacker by disabling the weapon with the chain part. A normal attacker would then use the sickle end while the chain tied up the opponent's weapon. Eve here had many options, not to mention her vast psionic arsenal. If she chose to use her kusarigami she could fling either the chain or the sickle. Normally one might guess she would throw the chain to grapple his LASR and render it unusable to aim. She might instead use her sickle though which would destroy his weapon. He would allow the LASR to be entangled thereby hoping she would assume he was more or less disarmed. If the sickle came then he would pretend to panic and use his VAW hand to catch it, pretending to let it go through the 'hand' it was currently projecting. The moment that entangling or hit occurred Nyton would send the VAW to travel onto the chain and envelop her hand. Once it was there it would then explode out into several tendrils to seize her limbs and neck. The moment they seized they then would initiate rotating chainsaw motion that would hopefully dig into her and create pain. The pain would then serve as distraction so that he could keep her in place and give Kai the opening he needed to hit her dead on with the bazooka round. If Nyton maintained his distance and brought up the shield his DAISY may be able to absorb most of the damage from the blast with minimal suit compromise. If multiple shots were necessary then he can retreat after the initial blast and add his own to it.

That is, if she used the weapon. It may be just for show after all to throw him off. If it were just decoration and she decided instead to attack with her psionic powers either by flinging things at him (AIES already making note of all available objects it could detect that might be use, be they fixed or strewn) he would open fire while avoiding the incoming projectiles. He let AIES gauge the distance and speed necessary to avoid all manner of objects large and small. AIES would coordinate with Yoroko and Sumaru to 'cage' her into a field of fire that would enable him to trap her until a hit could be made. The trap would need to cover every angle, not just the usual three dimensions. Nyton learned that back on the Meng Po. Once that hit was made the damage should keep her occupied long enough for him to snag her with his VAW and restrain her in the same manner as previously envisioned, again opening her up for Kai's bazooka.

But what if she tried to overwhelm his PSC with sheer psionic might to crush him? He would not have much time even with both PSC units working in tandem. In that case Nyton planned for a very fast attack which would force Eve to focus on his own projectiles and possibly less on him directly. Again this would make him use the box coordination approach.

Then there were wild cards like his idea that maybe she was a decoy Eve while the real Eve hid elsewhere, maybe behind the doors or stealthed in the room somewhere. He would have to flush her out somehow then. If he could track the psionic signature he would send his missles out towards it. Of course they would likely be caught by her powers but he would set them to detonate the instant they did so long as they were far enough away. That would then remove their danger while closing in on her location. At that point they would have to reconfigure themselves to focus on the real threat but that did leave the fake in front of them. He would have to eliminate her quickly which should be a lot easier if the fake did not have the same resilience of the real Eve. If there was no real Eve here then the fake here may be Amaya in her form. Surely the effect of Eve's arrival would be more effective than someone as unknown as her. If that was the case though then they would be in just as serious trouble since Amaya was a tremendously powerful psionic as well. He would have to resort to the same tactics just on the assumption that Amaya's body was not as resilient as Eve's. One other idea was she may be an illusion being generated psionically or mechanically. Perhaps they were even being attacked with psionic manipulation as he thought. In that case he could not depend on what he saw and sensed so much. He would need to depend on outside physics such as reflective surfaces to know the truth of his surroundings. There were just too many multiple crazy scenarios that he could only pick a few to highlight while the others remained in a sort of idea backburner in his mind.

Elsewhere in his mind there were already scenarios being registered in AIES for contingency purposes. If Nimura failed then Hasegawa was their next best shot at rescuing the two. If neither Tom nor Kai survived then Nimura must snatch the bazooka and make the shot herself. If he got picked off then Sumaru would have to take over and keep her pinned. If more enemies began to overwhelm Nyton's flanks then he would have to use himself to anchor Eve down and take the full brunt of the shot taking her down with him.

The thought of dying was present in Nyton's mind but it was inspiring, rather forcing him to face his mortality and work as hard as possible to extend it for survival's sake. At the same time though he again hoped that his brain unit could be salvaged so that his revival would possess all of these memories. He may not be himself anymore but whoever was ST'd in his place would at least know how his original met his end. Would he tell his parents he had died and been ST'd? Should he? More questions to be answered a different time and were shoved into another data pocket further away from the forefront. If his head unit couldn't be salvaged then perhaps AIES could at least download all of the data from his brain unit and save it aboard the Hoshi. That way a copy of it would still exist that his ST could upload later. A protocol was in place to do just that along with a farewell letter which could be read at a later time.

The smile on Nyton's face grew broader now. He was ready.

"Criminal Eve, by the authority of the Star Army I place you under arrest. Cease hostilities, call off your subordinates, and surrender now!" Nyton shouted over his loudspeaker to the figure, using the command merely to buy them some time to allow his pieces to move into place. He was ready to act or react however necessary. He would show no mercy. Regardless of what he was facing he would not stop until his enemy was dead.
 
Yoroko dropped back as ordered, keenly aware of Eve's presence. As she fell back one of her drones slid back behind her in order to keep her back clear while she moved into position to cover Nyton. As soon as she was in position Yoroko's second drone flew up above to provide an aerial view of the battle. "AIES, charge the PSC asap." Yoroko instructed her armor as she lowered her rifle. "Ready for your signal, sir." Yoroko responded, her finger twitched on her rifles trigger as she waited for the order to open up.
 
Nimura had her order. The sprite broke into a run.

The nekomachina that killed Aoiko met her charge with its blazing aetheric sword. The point came in, and the only way Nimura avoided being fatally skewered in the abdomen was to twist aside and ram her own shield in that of her opponent's, pushing the humanoid drone askew.

The energy projection swept by her abdomen's flank, scorching the paint. The near miss was enough though to make her energy barrier react to the weapon... and be depleted by the near contact. She made to take advantage of the opening in her opponent's guard with a sword thrust of her own; but that was when her legs got grappled.

With her sudden immobility, and her inability to close the distance to slash decisively, the nekomachina she faced made to finish her off like it had Aoiko... and behind it, explosions rocked the catwalk. Enough smoke had been pushed aside for her to see Kai straining against his bonds firing his weapons wildly with Tom beyond loosing the mini-missiles that wreathed their surrounding with explosions, their Daisy armors barrier fields protecting them from the blasts. The explosions seemed enough to deter the nekomachina after them, though both humanoid drones seemed in no hurry, content in fending off most attacks with their zesuaium shields for the time being.

In an instant of clarity just before her nekomachina opponent attacked her, Nimura's eyes focused on the bonds holding her crewmates. Those she saw on Kai weren't ropes, webs and such... but rather tough and rubbery tentacles. Tough and rubbery tentacles that had been hidden with thermo-optic skin camouflage... a concealment now spoiled by how they had been scorched by Kai's thruster pack and Tom's mini-missiles.

There were three Mishhuvurthyar under the catwalk, she realized. They had used skin-stealth to remain unnoticed and then had pinned them down so that the nekomachina ambushers would be able to easily defeat them.

Abruptly, Nimura gave into the downward pull of the tentacles coiled about her, falling hard on her Daisy's armored knees. This saved her from being decapitated by her android opponent. She capitalized on that by releasing both her drones to attack the nekomachina's flank and keep it at bay for a moment; using those few precious moments to strain against the grasp of the tentacles about her and raise her saber-rifle, angling its point downward.

She drove the weapon's energy blade down, plunging it past the gridding, into the exoskeleton shelled body on the Mishhuvurthyar below. A sharp and gruesome shriek sounded off as she speared through the main body of the creature near its toothy, lamprey-like mouth; the sound cut off sharply as her weapon flash-carbonized the tentacled monster.

The tentacles loosed as the dead creature fell from its grasp below the catwalk and Nimura was able to limber back to her feet, but Aoiko's killer was coming back at her. The semi-concealed Mishhuvurthyar clutching Kai and Tom mustered monstrous strength, forcibly dragging the Daisy armors back down despite their frenzied struggling. The two nearby nekomachina seemed to be waiting on the chance to make a clean swipe to kill them, and not hurt the Mishhuvurthyar in the process.

* * *

No amount of fancy twirling, slashing and anti-gravity manipulation seemed to shake off the hold of Sumaru's opponent. Once it was obvious that Wish was being physically overwhelmed, the samurai kicked in his power armor's teleporter.

With an audible 'FWHOOP', his Mindy II crackled and disappeared, leaving behind him a spherical space of missing matter. Sumaru reappeared with a shockwave in mid-air beyond the confined of the stairs and catwalks, partial pieces of durandium stairs toppling down to the floor with a clatter. Severed Mishhuvurthyar tentacles coiled about his limbs grew limp and soon followed suit.

A bloodied Mishhuvurthyar, a third of its tentacles missing, slid out from under the stairs and made an aerial charge toward Sumaru. The creature, bearing four large cannons especially made to be held and aimed by tentacles, attacked Sumaru with energy blasts he was forced to block with his forearm shields.

Three fierce hit struck his protection, the recoil alone forcing Wish back a couple of meters. The AIES instantly responded by unleashing its six nodal drones to in turn harass the Mishhu to give his organic alter-ego a chance to counter-attack.

* * *

"Um," Eve seemed to contemplate Nyton's offer a moment and gave an idle twirl of the chained sickle blade before simply answering: "No."

It was no surprise for Nyton to see Eve chuck the scythe blade at him. He deployed the serrated tentacles of the VAW as planned... and another wrench got tossed in the gearwork. The VAW spasmed half-deployed and its protrusions shook and tangled as if it was having a seizure.

His cybernetics helping him double-time a reaction, the Nepleslian quickly brought his shield to bear - zesuaium on zesuaium - but Eve defeated even that: her sickle unnaturally swerved from its momentum and flightpath, spiraling around his blocking arm before it cut horizontally through his helmet - slicing through as easily as a sword would through melon.

Eve yanked her weapon back and Nyton amazingly saw her do a disappointed "Tch," as she caught the sickle's handle back in hand. Most of his amazement came from having survived: he had reflectively flinched back just in time to have the sickle's tip make a grazing cut over the bridge of his nose and through his right eyebrow - miraculously only slicing through skin and not bone.

There was a slim horizontal cut across his visor. All his volumetric windows had gone out - he was running blind except for this very thin slit Eve had cut eye-level into two-third of his helmet's visor.

* * *

Instead of replying to Wazu's demand, or Nyton's query, Hinoto had simply been wide eyed at Aoiko's abruptly sudden death. Nyton's armor diagram display showing the helmet going red was like a lit match being dropped on a puddle of oil - Hinoto panicked. "Taii!"
 
Wazu moved his hand to Hinoto’s shoulder, “Get a grip,” He said firmly,

“The Taii can be brought back to life by your medics. I need you to either let me go down there or put me through on their speaker system. Please.” He was thinking should this fail that there were more extreme measures available. His eyes glanced down at Hinoto’s hips to check on the pistol she was carrying with her.

Ultimately he figured this was not the Eve he was looking for, cheap theatrics weren’t her thing, but she still might know something useful or even have a sufficient memory set from Eve to answer his questions.
 
Immediately, Rin took off toward the others. Her suit's power consumption increased once more as her shields were brought back up, the PSC ready, and she floated quickly to where she could remain hidden while being helpful. This meant, she stopped right by the doorway to the catwalk.

Then, the chaos of the situation hit her. So much had happened already, and she'd hardly been separated for any amount of time. Someone had already died! A panic attack followed. How was she supposed to do anything helpful? It would be insane to think a sprite like her could do something even remotely helpful to turn the tide of the battle. Then, Nyton's earlier order to her AIES kicked in again. It was much more forceful this time in trying to keep her calm. The panic transformed into a sheer adrenaline rush.

Dropping to a knee, Rin brought her LASR to bear. With the Daisy's strength to hold the weapon steady, and the AIES to hopefully get some good accuracy, the sprite fired toward the nearest Nekomachina (the one attacking Nimura). Meanwhile, Rin's drones deployed and split up. A single drone went to each of the other nearby nekomachina: one to Tom's, and one to Kai's. That would hopefully at least pester and distract them for a few moments more.
 
Tom wanted to roar in frustration, at the tentacles that threatened to drag him to his death, at Nyton who, in a matter of seconds, had his helmet reduced to critical condition. The 'powerful psionic entity' engaging Nyton was doing a brutal job.

If Nyton fell here, before any of his plans could bear fruit...

As his forearm cannons were spraying and his tactical drones firing at the nekomachina, he saw Nimura through the smoke, the flash of her barrier...

...the flash of her barrier...

His eyes widened in realization.

"AIES," he barked. "Activate my energy cloak! Concentrate the energy on my right arm, where the tentacle is grabbing me!"

At the same time, he tried to direct one of his drones to fire at the mishu. Rin's much-needed assistance offered the flexibility to move it, and the engineer made a mental note to thank the sprite should he get out of this alive. His PSC activated as well, as per Nyton's orders.
 
Kai's mind ran over Nyton's orders. He needed to get free, that was most important. Presently, the Yamataian did what he could; turned on the PSC, launched his countermeasures, and rotated the forearm weapons to shoot at the Nekomachina accosting him. He did something similar to Tom, except over his entire body, as he needed to get up and move around to fire the Gauss Bazooka. Hopefully he would be able to get the Mishhu off without completely overloading his shield, but Kai was already preparing himself to start taking hits without it.
 
Yoroko wasn't ready for Eve's advance, but when Nyton got hit it didn't matter anymore if she was ready or not. Yoroko's finger squeezed down on the trigger of her LASR. "Let's move!" Yoroko shouted to Sumaru, "We've got to cover Nyton-Taii." Yoroko ordered her aerial drone to move down and fire on Eve as well.
 
The stinging sensation on Nyton's forehead told him he was still alive despite the semi-darkness of his helmet. Shit, how much damage did that do? he thought, concerned that he was cut off from the rest of his team. As the blood poured down and seeped into his eye he ignored it. The eye felt no irritation due to it's cybernetic nature.

Then he heard the scream.

I can still communicate! Nyton thought quickly. Next thing he heard was the gunfire coming from Yoroko's LASR. Realizing that she was reacting to assist him he brought his own LASR up and began to fire. Limited by the lack of vision he was used his own cybernetic vision to accurately line up his fire.

With Yoroko on his right flank he strafed the areas open to where Eve might dodge to. He was also aware that she may be powerful enough to catch the projectiles and throw them back or just deflect them so he began to move and not remain a stationary target. Using his recorded memories he tried to gauge Eve's psionic abilities such as speed, reaction time, and strength. Along with that he tried to refine his PSC's field to see if it were possible to expand it further around him. Perhaps by using the suit and his own internal PSC he could generate enough power to negate Eve even at the source.

Nyton knew that Eve could attack in many different ways and he had to be ready for each one. He should have known she would redirect the trajectory of her weapon. There would be future opportunities to use if he could just time it right. He would need to get closer though while at the same time find a way to keep her busy. Maybe if he could grab her weapon while shooting at her that would keep her occupied enough to use his VAW to stealthily travel up the chain and to her hand. The blade may be made of zesuaium and sharp enough to cut through his Armor, but the rest of the weapon was not. With the chain being made of zesuaium he may be able to use that against her. Would her psionic power be enough to break zesuaium chains if wrapped around her? Perhaps he would soon find out. Then he hit on inspiration. If he could expand the field out so that when the weapon entered it her power would no longer be in control of the object. With only it's natural momentum carrying it he could then seize it and take control of it with his VAW. With the weapon in hand she would then likely begin using her psionics in other ways but if he could charge her with the field still pushed out while avoiding other projectiles he could get close enough to strike her unimpeded. All he needed to do was get her in range of his field, even just a little bit of her.

As he fired he then sent out some messages in the hopes that his ability to transmit still functioned.

Mizuno, direct your fire so that we can trap her! Watch out she may return our projectiles towards us. I'm going to try and close in on her. Don't count on Hasegawa just yet, he still seems occupied.


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Back in the medlab the nurses had finished removing Mara's Armor while administering some hemosynth to her. She lay on the bed with a sheet over her, the area where the legs should have been noticeably flat. The various patients were beginning to rouse from their states of injury. Some were feeling better, almost completely restored while others had woken up and begun to look around. There was a light sensation as the mood began to brighten up when these comrades who were helpless at each other's injuries began to see each other in health again. The nurse who was treating Takuma was helping him to remove the Armor when another nurse walked up with some pain killer. "Here here, this should help with the pain. Now don't be a crybaby, at least you still have some of your arm. That patient over there lost both legs so consider yourself lucky!" she chastised. "We'll have you hooked up with some hemosynth in a second."
 
Hinoto had stiffened at Wazu's touch, and blinked at Nyton speaking back to her. She swallowed hard and her fingers once again began flying across the command console, the silver-haired sprite brought out Nyton's medical data and the specifications for his cybernetic components.

"I'm working on it, try to be on the defensive for now!" Hinoto transmitted to Nyton before she gave Wazu a brief sideglance and added in a harried tone: "Taii, I have one of the prisoners we rescued - Heram Wazu - requesting that he be allowed to talk to Eve."

* * *

Yoroko was somewhat astounded to see how the hailstorm of shots she was sending Eve's way seemingly not hit her, instead swerving off to ricochet against the walls. The shots hadn't been deflected by some shield; it was like Eve was bending space, changing the physics around her to make sure Yoroko's ranged attack wouldn't hit her.

Nyton seemed to be experiencing similar trouble as he also counter-attacked, though his aim seemed pretty off from the get go. The amorphous gauntlet weapon he seemed to favor was also having a bad time with whatever Eve had done to it, twisting ineffectually like it was an old geezer having a heart attack.

Eve for her part didn't use her chain sickle to counter-attack, and instead shifted attention to the nearby Sumaru whom was busy fending off the not-so-amorous advances of his Mishhuvurthyar opponent. A moment, the samurai was getting poised to deliver a killing blow, the next his nodal drones unexpectedly arrowed into him, the six so fast they each created sonic booms before colliding hard into his flanks and back.

Wish tumbled to the ground, landing in an awkward crouch, with hemosynthetic fluids leaking and spraying around. The impacts had dislodged the zesuaium left shoulder armor (the power feed to the left forearm weapon and shield was compromised, giving Sumaru only the remaining capacitor power to operate them), plowed into the power armor's back ruining the double-charge teleporter and pinged off the helmet badly enough to disable the unit's long-range communication and active sensors, leaving it only with the basics.

The Mishhuvurthyar hovering near the Mindy II enjoyed the opening, striking at the samurai while he was dazed to the chest and the unprotected shoulder. Sumaru just managed to save himself from being dismembered thanks to the zesuaium shield intercepting one attack, though the second caught him in the chest, knocked him back on the ground and had him slide several meters back. Yellows and reds now colored his armor diagram over torso and left shoulder.

* * *

Rin's attack was sadly intercepted by her nekomachina target's shield, but it was all the distraction Nimura needed to prevail, making an almost disdainful backhand slash of her aether saber-rifle to chop through it.

Meanwhile, Tom and Kai struggled against their captor, with their shield units revved to an overburn setting in an attempt to shake off the tentacles grappling them. Both enjoyed a certain measure of success...

* * *

With Tom focusing his shield barrier around his right arm - the shield generator's location, he was able to churn up enough heat to badly char the tentacles holding the limb. His drone's beam weapon in turn cut through the weakened appendages with surgical precision finally freeing the limb.

Right in time: the nekomachina had chosen this moment to attack and Tom managed to swing his weapon around to parry the fake-neko's own. Aether saber-rifles - essentially controlled energy torches in sword mode - had no physical matter to parry against so both weapons cut through each other, causing each to explode.

The nekomachina was thrown back against the nearby ventilation duct. Tom was on the other hand forcibly torn off the grasp of his Mishhu captor to ram himself into the fence. Luckily, the worse of the damage seemed to have been taken up by his barrier, leaving him finally free to deal with his vulnerable nekomachina opponent and the Mishhuvurthyar below.

* * *

Kai did about the same as Tom, but instead of only focusing on a specific limb, he lit it up entirely. This caused a similar effect as Tom had managed; the whole lot of the Mishhuvurthyar tentacles charred up and were yanked away in shock.

The bad news was that this was far too much to take for his Daisy's shield generator. The unit overheated, turning itself to slag and similarly frying the upper arm, both the inner insert and Kai's muscles becoming useless in the process.

As the yamataian man staggered back to the ground, dazed by the surprising flash of pain, his nekomachina adversary meant to finish him off... but luckily a swarm of mini-missiles sped by him to smash into the synthetic construct, numerous enough to destroy it, though the nearby blasts knocked Kai down painfully on his right with the splash damage nibbling at his armor's protection with his barrier gone.

Nimura raced in to defend him, stabbing down through the floor at the retreating Mishhu and missing.
 
Tom quickly got his bearings and moved on the offensive.

His hands suddenly freed of his aether saber, Tom reached back and drew his LASR once more, pointed his pulse energy weapons to suit and sprayed his weapons viciously into the Mishu below, hopefully buying Nakamura the time he needed to recover. He had prioritized the Mishu as a far greater threat than the now weaponless Nekomachina against the far wall, although both of his drones now focused their efforts on it, darting around, firing, trying to find an opening.

Tom's AIES was reporting the condition of his allies. Something--the engineer didn't see--had broadsided the Samurai and left his armor in pretty bad shape... which forced the engineer to make a judgment call.

"Nimura," he blurted out, "Save Sumaru! Rin over here! Cover!"

Rin was the wildcard. She was flexible enough to fill in for any role while the much more combat-ready Nimura could do her job. He had absolute faith in her capabilities.

He had calculated outcomes... from where, he did not know.

Sumaru going down meant a lost Mindy. A lost Mindy led to a sharply decreased survival rate for Nyton and Yoroko. Nyton and Yoroko dying meant that the plan would fail instantly and whatever was down there would make quick work of the rest of them.
 
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