Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate
The two-pronged zesuaium sword scythed through the air, whistling into empty air as Kotori's latest opponent yanked herself out of the way at the very last second before firing her NSP at the NH-23.
Both were torso hits. Not bad ones, considering the torso part of the uniform was moderately resistant to such attacks, but it made Kotori go "Tch!" as she recoiled - this was the third nekovalkyrja she faced that flung itself in the way to stall her from getting to the shuttlebay - Amaya's apparent destination.
Kotori's enemy, a NH-27, attempted to stay at range but she overtook it, giving another swipe of her sword that lopped the weapon's hand off. However, her foe showed stolid fortitude and even as she let out a screech of pain she dived into close quarters, making fancy inertialess acrobatics to attempt a grapple in Kotori's back; legs used to grapple her at the waist and the remaining hand snatching out a combat knife with the likely goal of stabbing it through the nape of the neck and into Kotori's brain.
They were too close for the saber-rifle to be of any use. Gritting her teeth, Kotori sent her opponent and herself careening in the air in a mad gyroscopic whirl, intentionally using the whipping of her long hair in the other's face as a diversion to hide her right leg folding up with her left hand snatching her own TA-14 diamond-edged knife. Thanks to the skin vision in her now more exposed neck she drove the knife over her shoulder, scoring a vicious hit in the meat of the other neko's remaining hand and stopping it cold mid-swing.
Their gyrating tumble ended abruptly when Kotori had them ram into the nearby bulkhead with her opponents serving as a cushion. Bones snapped, but even in her croak of pain her opponent didn't let up, battle tentacles ripping out from the sides of her garments, tipped with copper bladed points.
They never had the time to strike. With the impact on the wall having suddenly loosed the hold the NH-27 neko had on her Kotori tapped into her anti-gravity control to spin around and cleave through her opponent with her deadlier twin-pronged weapon. She as her shocked opponent was falling in two halves, Kotori's greater proficiency with Sora-Mai was again shown as she reversed the momentum of her swing and made a swift backhand which sheared through the NH-27's head.
A NH-27, even split in two, could survive. A NH-27 beheaded could survive. But a NH-27 with her head chopped through and the brain destroyed would not.
Almost there. She took off again and finally reached the decon compartment that lead into the shuttlebay. Cautiously floating amongst the lockers she noticed the hastily discarded remains of an AMES suit on the bench. A predatory smile formed on her face as she went further and then inched the tip of one hand through the changing room's exit to take a skinvision peek into the Dominion's cramped shuttlebay... and saw a lightly clothed Amaya removing the helmet from the single remaining armor in the 4 holding frames, a modified Kylie M3 power armor.
Kotori flung her weapon up to target Amaya. She had been using the aether saber-rifle as a two-handed sword so far because each weapon's fire control system was locked out to prevent any enemy from turning it against an ally, but she had just recently managed to disable that failsafe. Her finger squeezed the trigger on the weapon and the prongs crackled, releasing a stream of pulses towards their target.
Intense heat wafted from the weapon, instantly scalding Kotori's exposed skin. The NH-23 hissed in pain but her aim did not falter, with the intermittent beam of her weapon savaging through the open cavity of the Kylie power armor and into the backing of the insert - the power armor's dorsal section had no armor to speak off in the insides of it, so in nearly an eyeblink Kotori had destroyed it, ruining the armor.
But the attack's intended target, Amaya, had hurriedly thrown herself away - as if in the last split second Amaya had a premonition and acted on it, saving her life. It didn't save the Nepleslian woman to be singed by the assault and she turned toward Kotori, her teeth grit in a grimace of mixed fear and anger.
"Meni, Mani!" Amaya called, and two Black Mindy power armors ghosted into sight in front of the nepleslian woman, one armed with two saber-rifles and the other armed with a machinegun-style aether weapon. Kotori sucked in a sharp breath and dove for cover back inside the decon room as both armors opened fire.
* * *
"Red 1 and Red 2, taking off," Sanri announced, and as soon as the armored shutters had opened she pushed the Cougar out and made a smart spin toward the gate before putting the STL engines into overdrive, with Mara's Fox in her tail.
Strobes of dazzling light flashed into the cockpit of the shuttles as Miharu opened fire with its directed energy weapon arsenal - the hits it scored spreading over the disabled enemy formation. The hull of enemy ships crackled and blistered under the cobalt-colored bolts of lighting the the turreted particle cannons released, or rent more widely under the radiant onslaught of powerful aetheric pulses.
A dozen of globular white explosions then appeared in the midst of the enemy vessels, the lot of then turning them into dark silhouettes. Two of those silhouettes, that of the SMX gunship and the vampire patrol vessel, withered away into nothingness, while the Nozomi scouts somehow endured, if just barely thanks to their zesuaium armor.
* * *
The Urikos had swooped in, released their payload and then swiftly left the vicinity to escort the shuttles. Miyoko's sensors readings of the remaining targets became distorted, making it difficult to confirm anything but the Watcher and Phramplemulrp having been put out of their misery.
Kotori also did not wait. "Nyton, stop using the main gun," after five pulses she did not want to have it overheat even if energy for it was presently plentiful. "Small craft are clear - you have permission to use transphasic torpedoes."