Nimura flew over to the first row of valve she would need to deal with on her side of the reservoir tanks and clenched both armored gauntlets around the circular rung of metal, waiting.
Steam was already jetting out of different segments of the surrounding tubing. Even if they started turning them 'before schedule', it was all too obvious that death was only four minutes away.
The sprite had 32 valves to turn on her side, while Tom would have 32 on his. Assuming that a valve could be turned in 3 seconds and a 2 second required to move to the next one, she estimated it would take 3 minutes to turn them all. Before with only a minute left, she had expected they would have a chance to slow down the process... but done this much ahead, they had a real chance of stopping it cold.
Contact with the rest of the team fizzled. The sprite tensed for a second, and then strained against the wheel that turned the valve. With three strong, quick turns it was open and she jumped to the next one.
* * *
Kai's SLAG grenade was enough to eliminate what little protection the Mishhumachina's barrier had restored to itself, leaving it without that protection for Nyton's attack.
Twice the bazooka belched flames - the first went a little offmark and slammed itself on the mishhumachina's right flank, blowing part of the ear-shaped sensor cluster off; not what he had aimed for, but not bad. The second shot struck on the weakened armor of the right tentacle cluster and blew it off in a fiery explosion.
The ruined chunk of metal fell to the metal flooring with a clamor, the tentacles that had stemmed from it growing limp and also falling to join it. That afforded Yoroko a small reprieve - she was still being attacked, but the frequency had lowered enough so that her recovering barrier managed to compensate slightly. Her torso armor status worsened to orange, though that was better than being having it torn open as the mishhumachina could probably have had.
Nyton made to fire his SLAG grenade afterwards, but their opponent anti-gravity unit allowed it to tip a bit to the side. No longer impaired by a curtain of tentacles, the undermaw swiveled toward the Nepleslia and a torrent of plasma gushed out.
The Nepleslian was stuck choosing at the last second between accuracy and life, and life he choose - his SLAG shot went askew when it made a desperate jump to the side. For two seconds plasma roared in like mythical dragonbreath only to suddenly stop... showing a heat-reddened depression in the floor that went as far as 30 centimeters deep. Blistering heat had filtered from the slit in Nyton's helmet, slightly singing the exposed part of his face.
His SLAG grenade unfortunately went Kai and Yoroko's way and detonated just as the Yamataian man was making ready to slice through the mishhumachina. The shockwave stalled Kai a moment, allowing the monstrous mechanical abobination time to counter with a volley of 10 mini-missiles on that side.
Fortunately, the homing system of those missiles were considerably impaired due to the interference, but four still managed to connect with Kai's torso. Without the benefit of his barrier shielding, the composite yamataium breastplate was shattered through - his armor diagram over the region showing red.
Even worse: Kai felt something pierce through his ribcage. He was flung back to land in a skidding crouch, almost immediately after he hunched forward by reflex and coughed blood inside his helmet. The image of Yoroko trashing against her weakened bonds to try and break free blurred in his sight, and with an awful clarity he understood that a sliver of armor had probably punched through one of his lungs. He could still fight, but if he wasn't treated soon, he'd probably end up drowning in his own blood.
AUTO-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED
GEOTHERMAL REACTOR OVERLOAD IN PROGRESS: 4 minutes 3 seconds remaining
(Alarm silenced, evacuation protocols disabled)
