@black Knights:
The twin mini-missiles, once destroyed, made no explosion so much as an electronic fizzle; marking them as SDMs. Nimura's opening shot whizzed by Nyton, a near-miss that was head level. The beams from the drones were less easy to avoid as they raked over his position, but Arethusa's barrier held them off - in fact, the barrier nearly instantly recharged to full. In response, Nyton shot both drones down.
Nimura's own lateral movements made her a hard target for the Arethusa-wielded ASP and she was unscathed thus far. Stomping armored feet churned the pale curdled surface of the floor as she slowed down and...
KWOOSH KWOOSH! The RGL on the plasma rifle's under-carriage spat out two incendiary grenades that exploded in midair, tossing out roaring sheets of napalm over his vicinity. Some of the burning fluids hit Nyton's power armor only to be repelled by the M8's gravimetric barrier which was turned to full strength, the energy drain turning from mild to more severe.
Most KFY power armors were heat-resistant, but Arethusa didn't possess that trait in great abundance - direct attack from a flamethrower would find her as vulnerable as the NH-18s they had encountered before had been. Even worse, live ammunition was carried over the nodal power armor - if even one grenade or ammunition package cooked off while worn, the damage could prove disastrous.
Nimura, for her part, waded into the high-rising curtains of flames with impugnity. Instead of firing with her plasma rifle, she kept it at the ready and instead attacked around Nyton's position with her armor's forearm turrets in heavy area burst mode.
@Miyoko:
"Yes. Internal sensors show that the Taisa's body temperature presently averages at 343 Kelvins." Hoshi answered the science officer.
@Defense Line:
Mara absently nodded to Hinoto's warning and barked additional orders to those assembled to make ready. Preparations still did not prepare her for what came.
From each passage suddenly billowed swarms of the Type 1 Mishhuvurthyar, rushing en-masse so densely that their assembled number almost seemed like a living cloud of glittering green shades. It was as they closed in that each individual became more distinct in the horde, eyes flaring with anticipation, tentacles flailing behind them - each mishhu soldier being so close to others that the appendages occasionally slapped against a comrade - as their green shells propelled themselves at such speed as to have wind roar in the elongated backswept ears.
"Shields!" Mara ordered just a moment shy of the enemies in the lead loosed railgun fire. The forcefields held under the assault and shortly collapsed after the second weapon volley.
By then, the squirming horde was nearly upon them, slapping others away, darting and squeezing in in their haste to be amongst the first through the bottleneck that was the main hull's wreck.
"The traps! Trigger the traps!" Mara hollered and shortly afterwards, the Mishhuvurthyar were upon them.
The defenders only had the time to fire a united opening volley of railgun and plasma fire before the first enemy grunts slammed into their position... and it nearby ended that way, with their position swarmed over and the many mishhu piecing apart the numerically disadvantaged defenders.
Mara found herself rammed into by a mishhuvurthyar that had ridden out the plasma bolt she had fired in its ugly four-eyed front. She shrugged the ropy corpse away only to find two other Mishhu screeching overhead, their powerful rubbery tentacles coming down upon her. Slapped repeatedly, knocked off balance and barely able to remain standing, Miharu's avatar winced as her barrier died from one too many railgun needle. She cried out when a score of railgun hits traced over her armored chest and left shoulder. She yeowled when one blade-tipped tentacle managed a shallow stab through her abdomen.
Lips bared in a snarl she fought back, her forearm weapons blasting around in heavy area burst mode heedlessly of her surroundings - everything seemed saturated in the nightmarish tentacles monsters! - struggling and scrabbling for mobility through the slaps of the many tentacle coils...
Which was then that the front of the fortifications blossomed into powerful mushroom explosions from the explosives Takuma and other sprites had set. The explosions flash-roared the wave behind the one the defenders were struggling against, suddenly affording them some much valued breathing room - any opponent they defeated would not be immediately replaced.
One of the defenders - Tsuya? - next loosed a spray of widely spaced incendiary grenades that sent the mishhu in their immediate vicinity writhing in pain. With a yell, Mara managed to disengaged herself from suddenly loose coils and stuffed her rifle in a quivering round ventral maw before squeezing the trigger, splattering roasted mishhuvurthyar all around. A shieldslam smacked another in the front and had it veer off enough so that she could manage a plasma bolt that downed it; a fellow sprite ensuing attack ensured the beast was down for good.
Stomping back toward the edge of the makeshift cover that served as their fortification, Mara yelled as she fired one of her own grenades in the third incoming wave, the furnace-hot explosion blunting their charge. Others rallied and joined in, firing off more grenades and mini-missiles to crush those that came next before they could even have the chance to get good railgun shots in.
Mara spared a glance behind her, at the two artillery mount that supported modified weapon pods. Given enough time, both would be warmed up and sufficiently charged to bring in the kind of firepower that could smelt off a warship's durandium armor. They only had to hold long enough for them to charge, wait for the moment when their artillery beams would prove the most effective and let loose.
