RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 1: Amaya's Gate

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@YSS Miharu:

Under its own interdiction field, Miharu's speed of 2c was reduced to 0.5c. Still, they had since closed into weapon's range. Takumi was using her maneuvering thrusters to turn her own double-pronged prow in Miharu's direction.

Hinoto's fingers flew over her console and displays. She sent Miyoko structural data of the control tower atop Takumi's hull that housed its bridge; singled out each CFS nacelle as the vessel's superluminal propulsion and main source defensive shielding; and then pointed to the protruding lower deck fin where the additional fusion reactors were stored.

Miharu gave a sudden shudder. Hinoto quickly reported: "Takumi hasn't fired yet - though they are charging weapons. This was more like - yes - a tachyon burst that's disrupting our shields. I'm attempting to compen-"

Hinoto's sending was cut off by the telltale concussive crash of a teleporting power armor appearing on the bridge, the shock wave causing all three starship operators to be shaken up.

Fortunately, what appeared on the elevated portion of the bridge promptly feel to the floor: a steaming fused mix of scrambled durandium armor and hemosynthetic flesh, with bits of nekovalkyrja nauseatingly peeking through here and there. It was quite dead.

Unfortunately, there were two other more successful teleports done inside Miharu: one Mindy II right by the armored doors of the ship's MEGAMI and another right in central engineering, whose appearance knocked down several of the sprites there.

* * *

@Amaya's Gate:

Enduring excruciating pain in her midsection, Masako maneuvered around the Akuma as it spewed hellishly hot plasma flames about to counter Asher. The Malifarian deftly boosted to the left to avoid the roaring blast and sent a few mini-missiles to join those Kai had fired as well... but those exploded prematurely from reaching their target thanks to repeated and well-timed use of burst telekinesis on Amaya's part.

Still, the Akuma had stopped belching flames, which was Masako's opportunity to close in... but then Asher doused it again with plasma flames, ruining another opportunity for the nekovalkyrja Juni to dart in and make a melee attack. The application of heat seemed to be working, though: flushed coolant jetted out from the Akuma in geyser-like columns of steam, with armor plates over the forearms opening to allow radiator fins to slide out.

The Akuma swiftly pivoted to follow along with Asher, making a loud mechanical clamor as it attempted a swipe at the Malifarian that he handily leapt above with an audible chortle. Masako floated around to get just under one of the wings to get into the Akuma's blind spot and prepared to run her blade through the armpit vertically but... she never had the chance.

Meni, floating above, fired a spray of aetheric beams from her saber-rifle to destroy the SDM warheads Kyou send at the Black Mindy, but she had her eye on Masako and blasted her from behind with her left forearm mounted scalar cannon. The black-eyed nekovalkyrja's world flashed as she was electrocuted and she fell to the floor unconscious with her body going into shock - the scalar cannon had been set to kill and the Daisy's scalar protection had just barely saved her from instantly dying.

On the Mani front, thing fared slightly better. Mani weaved and dodged from side to side as Kai peppered her with rapid-fire plasma attacks courtesy of his two rifles; while she in turn had chewed through his barrier and eaten through most of his chestplate with the addition of four painful, burning aether stitches that had almost gone through the hemosynthetic insert over his right thigh.

Things looked like they were going downhill for him... until Kyou landed a lucky headshot out of the blue! A Black Mindy armor's zesuaium helmet could survive a direct hit like that, but it still proved costly as Kai took advantage of Mani reeling to land two solid torso hits.

Mani's counter-attack to that was ferocious, though. She discarded her weapon's depleted battery pack and teleported. The battery pack had not yet reached the ground before Mani reappeared right in front of Kyou and kneed through the Daisy's chestplate, driving the Black Mindy's zesuaium kneeblade into Kyou's left breast.

What Kai saw then was a little surreal considering the speed, swiftness and coordination it took. Mani had used her free hand to pop open the compartment atop her attacking leg to fish out a new energy pack for her aether submachinegun. When Mani pulled her kneeblade out, she spun around and used her folded weapon-bearing arm to drive a zesuaium elbowblade halfway through Kyou's shoulder, cutting through muscle - and perhaps more importantly Kyou's shield generator - as she slid the energy clip into the submachinegun.

Finally, Mani ended up behind the bloodied Kyou, submachinegun aimed into Kyou's back and about to fire point-blank.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Nyton followed the events of the battle like a frustrated spectator at a sports event whose team was not doing so well. It was all he could do to stay still so as to maintain the facade of being incapacitated. His sensors kept him abreast of the situation even while he was still face down on the floor and fortunately it seemed the enemy was too busy to check on him anyways. He monitored the status of the Akuma and noted that the flame thrower was being very successful in it's application so long as Asher could maintain it. Masako was now unconscious but before she had fallen she had made no effort to go for the LASR he had set down but attempted to swipe at the Akuma with the non-functioning aether beam saber. With Masako almost completely out of the battle he wondered if he could slave control of the Daisy like he had before at Bowhordia. He couldn't make her into an effective puppet fighter but if he flung her at the enemy at just the right moment it could disrupt an attack.

Is her communication system down or is she just flat out ignoring my orders? he wondered while watching the other members battle it out. Kyou and Kai had worked out wonderfully together to score a few hits although the exchange was not so good. The damage they had landed on Mani did not compare to the damage she had made to them. Meanwhile Freeman and Ichigo seemed incapable of pressing any sort of attack on Meni who continued to operate unopposed.

came Telemachus's message in an attempt to reassure it's pilot.

Nyton resolved himself to help out as best he could since he was being ignored as a spotter for the team to prevent them from being surprised as best as possible. Linking his sensors with the others he tried to provide external views to allow the others a better reaction time.

"Good job Westwood! Keep it up, stay agile while my system warns you of any surprise attacks. Nakamura rush in on Mani before she can finish Gunshin! Don't let up, you've almost got her! Freeman, Ichigo, I've got coordinates, try to lock in on Meni to keep her busy!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Alarms sounded off to alert the crew to intruders having teleported in. "Enemy Mindy units have teleported aboard. All hands take arms to repel invaders. Security to the MEGAMI room and Engineering!" was the report from Miharu. Like the white blood cells of a body the sprites were being summoned to defend their home.

Medical Lab

Ayumu was assisting Sanjuro prepare for surgery when the alarms were sounded. Azuki let out a terrified shriek at hearing the explosive force of teleportation nearby. Ayumu's dedication to her patients was an overriding priority this time and concealed her own terror by taking action. "Miharu please seal off the lab and activate security barriers at the entrance and by your IES! Azuki, stay with the other patient, weapon drawn! Protect her with your life!" she shouted.

With as calm and pleasant a face as she could manage the senior nurse let out a sigh and smiled at Sanjuro. "Very well doctor, if you are ready, shall we begin?" she said while donning her own sterilized gloves.

Kitchen

"Onee-chaaaaaan!!" cried Akiko to her older sister. It was all Shizuka could do to keep some of the other caretaker sprites from panicking. She was no leader, not even in a position of rank but after suffering on Bowhordia she had determined herself not to give up.

"Everyone calm down! We cannot let ourselves panic. Everyone that has a weapon come with me. The rest of try to find something and catch up. There are enemies in engineering and by the MEGAMI room. To all of you she is your mommy. We have to protect her at all costs!" Shizuka pleaded. Drawing out her NSP she then looked at her younger sister.

"Akiko-chan, you love our mommy right? Lets help our crew defend theirs. Please, I need my little shadow to watch my back okay?" the senior sister said.

The little brunette sniffled a bit more and pulled our her own pistol. "H-hai, o-onee-chan. I'll b-be, be brave."

"Just think of it as pre-stage jitters Akiko-chan. Show time!"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Tom recollected himself quickly and coordinated his efforts with Ichigo. He knew that he had to make his next move count because the entire team was taking heavy damage and they needed to prevent further losses.

Mani was distracted and engaged. Asher was doing a good job against the beast, but he was going to need help against it soon.

He and Ichigo had to make sure Meni wouldn't interfere with the team.

"Roger! Ichigo, coordinate your attacks with me! Try to nail her like we planned last time!"

Noting that Meni seemed preoccupied with murdering Masako, Tom tried to contain the floating foe with a few explosive SLAG grenades, aimed around her with the intention of buffeting her in a small area, or, at the very least, distracting her long enough for Ichigo to get a clean shot.

"NOW!"

Tom would then follow the attack with LASR fire.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Splitting his attention as best he could Nyton strained to push AIES to help Ichigo time her shots for the best strike possible. Along with this he tried to track for any sudden teleports or maneuvers Mani would engage to warn them against it.

Come on, hit the bitch!

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miyoko jolted at the pressure change from another power armor appearing on the bridge--the first one had been eventful enough that it was all she could do to not take off running the moment she realized what had happened. The concussion shaking up her already battered body, well, that didn't help. It drew a pained yelp from her before she whirled toward the source of the disturbance.

The sight of the thoroughly mangled neko made Miyoko blanch as she did her best to keep the contents of her stomach on the inside. Her eyes remained locked on the mess for a few moments, long enough for her to convince herself that it wasn't an immediate threat, until she managed to tear them away to turn back to her console, which just brought more bad news. "Two more teleports were detected inside the ship," she said hurriedly, glancing to Yukari as she did so. "Near the MEGAMI and in engineering."

Miyoko wanted to scream in frustration. For just a few minutes there, it had looked like they legitimately had a chance of winning, and now... she was no warrior, but she'd been in enough power armor fights to know the kind of havoc two of them could spread in a ship with most of its armor complement away. It included the very specific kind of havoc where she could find herself decapitated. And that wasn't even counting the still-active Takumi...

A little shakily, Miyoko asked, "Orders, Shosa?"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Ayumu's calm demeanor in the face of danger was, unfortunately, not mirrored by her superior. Sanjuro was able to stomach the alert and announcement, but as the message itself sunk in, Sanjuro's face began to drain of its color. "W... what? What does that mean?" The chief medical officer turned his head slowly to the nurse on the other end of the elevated table. "Who's on the Miharu? What's going to happen? What... what do I..."

Sanjuro seemed visibly shaken by this development, so much so that he apparently forgot himself and what he was doing. As he spoke, voice barely above a gasp, the doctor looked around nervously as if expecting the aforementioned foes were going to appear around the nearest corner and soundly end his life. It wasn't the same as Bowhordia; he had somehow overcame the dangerous position he had faced in the slave pens riding on the fact that there were trained soldiers there. Looking around now, there was no one... the nurses weren't as reliable in combat as Kurohoshi-Juni or Claymere-Taii, the patients were not in fighting condition, and Sanjuro had already accepted his uselessness in a real combat situation. The doctor grimaced harder and took a staggered step backwards away from the table, unable to focus on anything but his feeling of dread let alone Nao's seared body before him.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Rin paled at the announcement. They got on board. Stupid cheating teleporting Mindys! With little else to do at her CFS unit, and her sisters and home in danger, the sprite left her assigned station. After all, there wasn't any way she could add more coolant at this point since they were essentially out of spare coolant, and the CFS unit was already prepped for combat. Also, Yuzuki had a central control of it anyway.

She drew her NSP and set it to its heavy setting, as she entered central engineering. Trying to find what cover she could, she took aim and tried to shoot the Mindy to at least distract whomever was inside. After all, a grenade-like blast in your face is going to be irritating at the very least. Hopefully, Rin's AMES suit would provide some protection....

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari took a few seconds to visibly respond. At the sound of the burst she had tried to spin around and draw her revolver. Though successful, she was satisfied she did not have to use her weapon. She was frozen in the position with her gun out, cheeks red, visor gone, hardly breathing.

She used her thumb to lower the hammer on the revolver, holster it, then turned back to her console. It was time for some burst psionics of her own.

"Power armored personnel, targeting data has been fed to you. Split into teams. Eliminate the closest enemy. Watch for the nearest personnel; instruct them to assist you as required."

"All medical personnel — the weapons lockers are open at the Main Passageway on your level. Set the LASRs to the lowest speed setting and use single shots. Also utilize the SMGs. You must destroy the Mindy II. Do not approach by foot until you are ready to shoot; float toward it to avoid generating loud noises."

Though they were knocked down, Yukari could not wait. "Engineering personnel, set your NSPs to the highest setting and pin down the enemy armor in your midst. Armors will soon assist you. Watch the CFS units. I am raising force fields around the doorways to those units; they will flicker to let you pass if you must."

"Miharu, generate your force fields directly around the Mindy II armor attacking your MEGAMI door. Stop it from moving if you can. The moment the Mindy II is able to step inside your room, shut down and transfer all control to Hoshi. If the armor is about to be attacked, drop the fields and allow it to be assaulted."

"Hinoto, Miharu remembers that they have a Type 31 EWS. It was likely how they were scrambling our sensors before, and they will do it again. Defeat it." Yukari assumed it was Miharu; she was unable to think much.

"Heisho, the fusion reactors are likely the only target our cannon can reach. Once you have a chance, shoot them. For now, tighten the blast radius of an SD torpedo and fire it at Takumi the moment our 30 seconds are up."

Yukari kicked the speed up to 100 c and tried to FTL jump under Takumi, but stay 3 light seconds from it, so Miyoko would have a shot at the fusion reactors. She tried to put the ship's cannon on the pinpoint where Hinoto said the reactors would be, in case the Takumi tried to shift again or disappear.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Put on the skillet, slip on tha' lid, sung the Malifarian in his head as he burned his foe. It seemed, cooking the enemy in this way reminded him of cooking food.

Asher's legs bent as he recovered from the boosting jump he made to avoid the Akuma's swiping arms. Though, it didn't it stop his relentless bombardment of infernal plasma, he had kept his upper body fixed in a way that kept him locked on his target.

Mama's gon' make a lil' shortnin' bread.

So, with his recovery, he jumped and boosted into the air, becoming more agile to dodge easier, all the while pouring the flames on into the Akuma's open wounds.

That ain't all she's gon' do,

With Nyton providing any spotting details of whether or not Meni and Mani would make him a target, he become a little more focused on the Akuma than the battle entirely. Though, as he moved, he attempted to make as much distance as he could, to at least pull the Akuma a little further away from the main group, but not going out of the flamethrowers effective range.

Mama's gon' make a'lil' coffee, too.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Miharu:

Medical Laboratory

Ayumu walked over to Sanjuro and stood before him, her face still pleasant but eyes staring directly into his. "Doctor, forget about what is going on outside right now. I need you need to focus. She needs you to focus. So snap out of this." she said sternly while grasping each of his upper arms in her hands.

"Do you understand?!"

Azuki just stood there by the first patient, her hands trembling while holding onto her NSP. She had no idea how Ayumu was handling this but she was about ready to shoot blindly the moment anything stepped through the door. After Yukari made her announcement the neko started wish she could find that armory.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Shizuka listened to the announcement and motioned to the other caretakers who had followed them. "Weapons lockers girls. We need to get to them. Come on!" she said while leading them to the nearest locker on deck. Upon arriving at it they started to go through the weapons while Shizuka tried to remember what they had learned back in basic combat arms training. "Okay ah the Shosa said use LASRs at the lowest setting and SMGs. So I'll take a LASR, uhm, Chisako you take a LASR and Akiko and Miko will take SMGs."

Pondering over the ammunition magazines Shizuka picked up an Armor Piercing magazine. "Do you think this will be more effective against an Armor?" she asked. Everyone else shrugged unsure of what to use. Akiko and Miko looked at their SMGs and prepped them slowly as though they were completely foreign objects.

"Uh, okay so Akiko and Miko, you two cover Chisako and I while we shoot. I guess that should work." Shizuka said suddenly realizing that squadron tactics was not something she was familiar with. Now she became nervous. Taking a deep breath Shizuka closed her eyes and locked an AP magazine into place. Chisako followed suit and they all stepped out and began moving towards the MEGAMI IES room on their level.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kyou was shocked. She'd known they were up against opponents who totally outclassed them, but for her to not even have time to react left her speechless. Still, if she could stay out of the way for a little bit, she'd be fine, so... That still left a couple of options, none of which were very appealing. Not like I have much choice...

That decided, Kyou dropped on purpose, rolling as she did so to face back towards Mani. Figuring that they wouldn't do much more damage to her at this point, she let loose a volley of 5 more subspace missiles from point blank at Mani, followed by the most controlled burst she could manage with her arm in it's current condition.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

The jolt of the Mindy II appearing in central engineering nearly knocked Yuzuki off her feet. It was a miracle that her hands - the hands which, currently, were the only thing standing between the Miharu's CFS units and complete, wild destruction in the remote sense - did not falter, much. She righted herself, and glanced over her shoulder.

The other engineering personnel engaged directly, as best they could. It was NSP's against a Mindy. The armored sprites had went with Tom.

Irrationally, the conversation with the Chief Engineer cropped back up in her memory. This was one of those desperate, no-win situations they had spoken about less than a day ago. Digitally, she over-rode the body's impulse to panic, to draw weaponry, to do anything - her more rational brain took over, and kept the controls steady.


Then, Yuzuki tried to focus. Whatever was happening around her, the equipment came first. The equipment had to come first.

What was she going to have to sacrifice?

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Kai's first reaction was to fire off a few bursts from his plasma rifles at his opponent, but then ditched one of them, opting instead for the zesuaium shield, which he put in front of himself, before leaping in a thruster-assisted arc at Mani, changing directions at the last second to hopefully smash the black Mindy to the floor, his plasma rifle firing in the confined space between the shield and his opponent.

At this point Kai was willing to sacrifice the shield, arm, and rifle to take this one opponent down for good. He could get the arm grown back, and there was another rifle waiting on the floor for him. The thought of the spikes ran through the Yamataian's head, but he figured that at this speed Mani didn't quite have the time to properly aim them.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Doshii Jun said:

"Heisho, the fusion reactors are likely the only target our cannon can reach. Once you have a chance, shoot them. For now, tighten the blast radius of an SD torpedo and fire it at Takumi the moment our 30 seconds are up."

Yukari kicked the speed up to 100 c and tried to FTL jump under Takumi, but stay 3 light seconds from it, so Miyoko would have a shot at the fusion reactors. She tried to put the ship's cannon on the pinpoint where Hinoto said the reactors would be, in case the Takumi tried to shift again or disappear.

Click to expand...

The burst of instructions from Yukari was slightly reassuring to Miyoko, but there was still the fact that there were two armors on the ship to give her plenty to worry about. When the enemy was light years away, that was one thing, but when it was barely even a hundred meters away on the same deck, that was quite another...

She forced her mind back to the task at hand, readying and launching another subspace detonator torpedo, then switched to the main beam, just waiting for confirmation of a good shot before firing at the enemy's reactors.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Yukari put the ship in a lazy sublight-speed drift, using the CFS units for shielding instead of propulsion. The nose was in the best spot she could put it, and they were likely not to get another free attack.

"Heisho, fire!"

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

At Yukari's order, Miyoko fired the main cannon without hesitating. When speeds still expressed in terms of c were involved, organic reaction times were bad enough, let alone double-checking... and in this situation, she'd just have to trust Yukari's sense of timing.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

Ayumu would have to reach slightly higher than she was comfortable with to grasp the tall Yamataians' shoulders. At first Sanjuro wouldn't meet her gaze, struggling weakly in her grip as he continued his self-contained panic. "It's... not safe. There are... enemies..." the doctor replied, giving the nekovalkrja a pained glare as he looked down at her. He could see, however, that she was right; despite his momentary grip of fear, he did not forget about Nao. "Just... make the preparations. Remove the suit around the afflicted area," Sanjuro said in a shaken voice as he wrenched himself out of Ayumu's grasp of his shoulders. When he had himself a little personal space, the chief medical officer took a long, deep breath. "I need to... wash my hands."

It was an excuse, of course, and a bad one at that. Sanjuro didn't let Ayumu have the chance to keep him in protest, however, immediately moving over to the sink on one of the counters and placing his palms flat on both sides, head tilted back. The man continued to take deep breaths, dramatic attempts at calming his nerves that did nothing to help him.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

As Nao laid there, disappointed by Sanjuro's reply to her, she couldn't help but start to panic. Sedatives slowly streamed into her blood, but the noise, it wouldn't stop! Everything was starting to feel fuzzy and warm. It felt like hands were gently clapped over her ears. Nao couldn't stand it, and struggled to make sense of it all! Her ears twitched, strained. 'Boarders? On Miharu?' The sprite's mind slogged though the impending fog to find something, anything to do! She was being put out on the bed, there were only a few Technical Sentries that were actually in armor like Junko was. 'The Miharu might not stand...' Nao's mind started to come to a happy crawl, and in this state, she realized something.

"Faith in friends. Family."

Her whisper was barely audible as Nao slipped into sleep, a faint smile on her lips.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

"Very well doctor. I shall begin removal." Ayumu replied as she bowed slightly while Sanjuro turned to wash his hands. She picked up the scissors and began to carefully cut away at the melted sections of Nao's AMES suit. It was took some effort since even damaged it was still durable. Some of it had even fused with Nao's backside and would be a more painful procedure further in. She left that for Sanjuro to professionally deal with upon his return.

"Nao-chan, are you still eager to get back to work?" the nurse asked when she heard the barely audible whisper. Unsure of what was said Ayumu realized that Nao had fallen asleep. Life support was monitoring to ensure she did not slip away.

"Doctor, please do not keep your patient waiting much longer." Ayumu called out to Sanjuro.

Re: Mission 5: Amaya's Gate

@Amaya's Gate:

KWHOOSH KWHOOSH! Tom fired off a pair of SLAG grenades to detonate around Meni's position. Unfortunately, the black-armored enemy soldier was more than familiar with their concept of suppressive/distracting fire and darted behind the cover of the Akuma before they could reach her.

Ichigo impulsively tried to catch her anyways, but when she was about to fire she jerked a bit in reflex to not hit the Akuma (whom the Taisa wanted captured). "This is like trying to kill a fly with the proverbial cannonball!" Ichigo tossed the gauss bazooka aside in disgust and got her plasma rifle. "I'm out of ammo!"

Tom didn't have a clear shot on Meni, but his sensors gave him a good account of what she did next. Meni bent down to retrieve the weapon Masako stole from her and - noticing how Masako's belly wound was healing and that she might come back into the fight if left unattended... she landed a coup-de-grace, viciously slashing through Masako's helmet.

Meni was not as safe as she thought she was under the Akuma's shadow, though. Asher's plasma flames finally got the better of the larger mecha and with a groan from actuators that were locking up and hisses in protest from geysers of venting coolant, the Akuma crashed down to its knees and hunched down its head before the glow in its optics went out. Sensors showed its aether generator powered down.

That briefly exposed Meni, and Tom took up that opportunity with a vengeance. LASR rounds sparked up the Black Mindy in a trail from chestplate to right shoulder - where the spiked pauldron had been burnt off by NH-23 Kotori. Two red blossoms of blood spurted from the weakspot before Meni recoiled and broke line of sight with Tom by taking cover behind the Akuma's inert bulk.

Meanwhile, Kai pounced in on Mani and cut her off from attacking Kyou. His rifle belched plasma as he crashed into the Black Mindy and though he was not able to score a quick hit in her vitals, he did hit the submachinegun that she held close, destroying her weapon.

As Daisy and Black Mindy crashed into the floor Kai brutally slammed her in the middle with his zesuaium shield in order to keep her pinned as he braced the muzzle of his rifle against her neck to finish her off. Mani unfortunately beat him to the decisive blow: her left hand seized his armored collar and tugged him closer while her right 'weaponless' arm folded into a 'chicken wing' shape before sweeping around and above the cover of his shield.

With the swiftness of a striking snake, Mani killed Kai: her zesuaium elbow blade cut into his helmet eye-level, slicing through half of his head. With her zesuaium blades slick with yet another Black Knight's brain matter, she lost no time in shoving off Kai's armored corpse into Kyou's line-of-fire, intercepting the five SDM warheads with it as her cover before she cartwheeled over to snatch up Kai's discarded plasma rifle.

@YSS Miharu:

Shizuka and Chisato leading the way, the four caretakers closed in on the medical center and where the corridor split in two around it to then access the main computer room.

Brilliant white flashes came from both of the corridors as the hum-and-crackling-fizzles of aether blades clashing against forcefields could be heard. They hadn't even reached one of them when a swarm of six nodal drones whizzed their way.

These drones immediately opened up, filling the corridor with explosive energy blasts which were narrowly blocked by fields Miharu created to protect the caretakers.

Unfortunately, the fields were not proof against the fire from six drones blasting away like a NSP on heavy setting. They breached through and both leading nekovalkyrja - without the benefit of any cover - were struck and flung aside like rag dolls.

When they settled on the ground, Shizuka and Chisako looked like they had severe burns, smoke wafted up from thier bodies and they also seemed to be very inert.

The only thing that saved Akiko and Miko from sharing the same fate seconds later was the appearance of two of Daisy-armored sprites whom leapt into the fray with shields raised to take the blasts in their stead.

"Get them to the medlab, quickly!" Suzume yelled at them, then yelping as an attack struck her, her Daisy's barrier flickering blue as it recoiled slightly from that blast.

* * *

Down in the subdeck, the Mindy made quick work of the barriers Miharu summoned to corral her with her forearm aether swords before she leapt - going right over Yuzuki - to land above the rectangular machinery that was the fold drive.

Nodal Drones, whom had detached from their hip holster during the leap, turned around to bear down on the techs whom had flocked in to defend their ship and the only thing that initially saved them were barriers Miharu created to act as cover until each sprite could find something better to hide behind.

Seeing one of her techs being too slow to do so as she attempted to fire back at the drones saw the barrier shielding her compromised - the next shot found her and blasted her appart - Yuzuki leapt over one console to hide behind while she pondered what she could do.

She was close enough to witness the enemy Mindy light up her right forearm aether sword to then drive it right into the fold drive - Tom's fold drive! - and she then dragged the energy blade through it, totally destroying the ship's means to travel via hyperspace, to deploy interdiction fields or anti-FTL field countermeasures.

Daisy-armored Junko arrived to the scene through the main passageway with her assigned team-mate. Unfortunately, another crackling boom announced the arrival of another enemy Mindy II into the subdeck.

* * *

Another shockwave lashed out at the occupants of Miharu's bridge as another enemy armor attempted to teleport in - fortunately for them, that one also ended up as a mix of molten-slag and bubbling flesh.

Miharu reported another failed teleport close to the MEGAMI, and a successful one in the ship's engineering.

Miyoko's attack on Takumi had started off looking promising as a powerful aether beam began boring into the broad fin-like formation under Takumi's belly, but the new teleportation jostled her, accidentally having her alter the main gun's aim - instead of firing continuously at a single location to deeply penetrate, the beam was knocked off-course, instead slashing across the Takumi's armored hull up the fin and into the thicker ventral armor of its tapered main body. She had only scored surface damage on the outer layer of the enemy ship's hull armor.

"Ngh!" Teeth grit, Hinoto righted herself and yet another shockwave hit them, though this time it seemed to have pulsed out from Takumi. "They used their disabled shield system to instead emit a negatively-charged particle burst. Shield generators compromised! I'm switching to redundant alternates!"

The sprite went to do so, but her fingers froze over her console and she shook her head. "Shosa, please lower our shields and keep CFS maneuvering sublight only." The sprite's fingers became frantically started doing something else. "I think I can make an ant-trap."