RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Part 2: The Fight For The Lost

Kai nodded once again to the order he was given. No more casualties. he could feel his much weaker Yamataian OS slowly dulling the pain in his chest, bu he knew that was probably the best he'd get, and so he struggled to his feet, and walked over to Kyou. She was unconscious but alive, and so he looked to see if there was anything he could do about it. Slightly disoriented, Kai made sure to watch all directions, but he wasn't exactly sure which was which through the pain.

The Yamataian stood there, concentrating further- The Yamataian OS could not shut off senses as well as the Neko OS could, but he knew that he could probably bring it down to a manageable level with effort. He'd been hurt worse, after all, just not in such a tender spot.

When the pain started, it nearly blanked the sprite's mind, again - so severe was it, that it was impossible for at least a second and a half to form a conscious thought. At some level, however, something was still moving. It was the Anger.

The Anger was moving, taking control and filling in the gaps with a rage the burned white hot, searing through her assaulted brain like molten metal. The flow demanded satisfaction. Why couldn't she have just burned the demon's room when she'd had the opportunity? Destroyed everything that was precious to it? Why had they left the injured to their own devices?

And there it was, again; the body floating helplessly, blood everywhere, misting and congealing and...

Yuzuki dropped and strafed, the 50mm clutched tight against the pain in her mind.

...she was in the decon, crying and cold, and...


...the control station was bathed in red, the electronics smoldering and the sirens wailing, steam and hot plasma dust roaring into the space as Yuzuki stood and watched the final push, prepared to go down with the ship, her hands resting on controls that had already stopped responding. She was ready to hear the crunching of the prow, had even imagined...

Yuzuki shouldered the bazooka, painting her target, lining up her shot.

...the battered armor shot forward, Ichigo's corpse discarded, tore open by a hail of plasma, the vision of death...

Even though Yuzuki hardly felt the 'pat' through the armor, her thought pattern was momentarily derailed. Briefly she wondered how it was that Asher could tell what sort of an 'ass' she had, beneath several inches of armor plating, and an insert.

...as Nimura tossed blood...

The Anger pulled the trigger.

Burn!

@ vs. Mahou Shoujo Melisson:

Just shy of closing into Arethusa's phase control zone, Melisson gave herself a half-spin and tossed one of her whirlpool-like shields toward Tom - this time not underestimating the Raltean and his power to interfere. The deadly disc, an homing weapon in its own right, sliced the air where Tom had been as the Juni was forced to abandon supporting Nyton to make tumbling dodges. his drones attempted shots at the disc, but the thing seemed all but impervious to them.

Melisson pounced toward Nyton but the Taii got in the first attack, which struck her remaining shield and seemed instantly snuffed out, as if distorted and swallowed by it. As she landed in close, he lashed out with spearing nodal attacks that clanged ineffectually against the floating energy panes covering her, each shifting to flawlessly intercept the blows before her remaining shield extended out with two scythe blade-shaped extensions on each side, blades she used to spin about, cut through the mass of tentacles, and she might have hit Nyton as well had he not sucked in his belly in time.

With alarm, Nyton realized Melisson had not just cut off the nodal appendages: where her weapon had cleaved through, the nodal matter had simply ceased to exist with Arethusa consequently diminished.

"Ha ha ha!" Melisson chortled, though her jubilant laughter was drowned out by the explosions of the ordonnance Asher and Yuzuki delivered toward their targeted struts. Asher's shots withered and shattered his target. Yuzuki's single thermite round, though, fared poorly against its hardened metal target, the explosion scorching it, jostling the pod, and sending fiery death down some of the still living breeding units whom wailed in torment.

@Kai:

Kai's pain was suddenly drowned out as a powerful presence dipped its attention directly on him. The Yamataian man had only time for a startled gasp at the sudden piercing headache before the Infection Queen took his mind over. There was no fight, no chance of resistance, no underlying tug of war of wills clashing against one another. Kai's psyche was simply too small be be relevant in comparison to the minds belonging to the Mishhuvurthyar race's progenitor.

She willed him to use the best means at his disposal to kill Kyou.

Nearby, Nimura had recovered Nyton's discarded LASR for her own use. She could possibly be an impediment to the will of Kai's mistress.

@Asher:

For all his optimistic verve in resisting the headache, Asher fell prey to the Infection Queen just as easily as Kai had; becoming an eager, willing pawn who'se existence revolved around satisfying his mistress. Former friends, former foes, former desires all no longer mattered. Only her will did, and there was no struggling to be done: he was hers.

Asher would fight for her, doing his utmost best to destroy Nyton Claymere.

The world became fuzzy for a moment, the Westwood could feel something in his head. The ringing had returned, loud, painful and all-consuming. No matter what he thought, he couldn't dull this pain, nor could he try to stop it. In response, the man felt the urge to come down to his feet, planting himself firmly. His hands went up to his head, in some futile attempt to console the pain. He opened his mouth to speak, but felt no urge to say any words the moment he did. It was getting dark, very dark... Was he closing his eyes? No, his eyes were open, he could feel the conditioned air hanging against his irises. As it went on, he could no longer feel, no longer think, no longer understand.

Then... a burst. He could feel everything again, so suddenly... so real. The world had more color, more red, more gore and death than it did in the previous one. There was no confusion, no distraction, no pulling from his new mission. But wait... What was this new mission? What was this singular purpose of existence that could not help but consume his mind. He turned his head, and saw it. Saw her. Saw the only thing that mattered to him in existence.

Melisson.

Then, he also spotted the being that rotted his soul into a putrid essence of hate. This being, in all of his audacity, thought that he could kill Melisson? He thought that he could harm her? Where did he get the balls to fucking dare step up from his worm-infested shit hole he called a home and disgrace her presence like that? This filthy mortal didn't even deserve to live in the same universe as a god like Melisson much less defy her. He was stepping far beyond his station, and that was enough to hate him and every cell of his disgusting being.

It was enough to kill him. Him. Nyton Claymere.

Asher spun on axis and redirected himself towards the conflict between Melisson and Nyton, his gravimetric carrying him at cruising speed as he switched from his 50mm to his Flamethrower and loosed two sub-space detonating missiles. One flew for Tom, the disgusting maggot assisting the hated usurper. The other went for the filthy usurper, Nyton. Though, that wasn't the limit of his assault. Asher pressed, refusing to give Nyton any footing or room to breath or live. As he closed in on the man, Melisson's dress-bandana flowing behind him, he used his flamethrower to sweep up a gout of flames down on Nyton. If he got close enough, he'd toss aside his formerly beloved weapon and bring his plasma torch down on him.

Nyton Claymere would not get away from him.

Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

As he had thought, Melisson had a trick ready for him, but he wasn't ready to contend with a spinning disc of doom. That thing would saw right through him, and it foiled his plans to protect Nyton.

So he abandoned that strategy, choosing to devote all his energies to dodging.

Bursting into the air with as much power he could muster, he tried weaving between the struts supporting the Infection Queen. Maybe he could buy some distance, maybe he could have her accidentally hit one of the struts,

mayb-

Bwee! Bwee! Bwee!

A missile lock!? Asher!?

His AIES screamed at him, telling him to get out of the way. But he was already moving away from the disc... All he could do was throw his shield up in desperation and instinctively fire his own countermeasure missiles as he was weaving through the struts, praying that the missile would hit something else before it hit him.

It wasn't getting easier. Every time that Yuzuki rallied, she seemed to be less than successful; this time, it was the sight of her ineffectual weapon that caused her morale to lag. The Anger picked it back up, though. There had to be something else at her disposal.

The gauss cannon went away, again, in favor of her APR. Where fire failed, concentrated plasma might still succeed. She leveled the weapon, drew the sights, painted her target area, and...

...the Captain was standing, head-bowed, in the medical bay...

...Asher shot across her line of fire, causing her Anger to pulse, hesitating, the finger around the trigger just a hair's bredth from oblitherating his brain and part of his powered armor along with it. Probably the helmet part.

She took a second to observe what he was doing. In that moment, she revisited again at the last few seconds of combat, playing it back in her mind's eye.

...crouching, hands on his head, the man writhed...

...the missiles...

It took only a split second for her to calculate the trajectories; another split second saw two anti-missile missiles burst from their pods on her armor's calves, bound for intercept. She hoped they would prove quick enough, but seriously doubted it.


But it was already too late.

Afterwards, Yuzuki experianced a brief moment of indecisiveness. Did she abandon the assult on this iron-type pod thing, in favor of engaging Asher? The answer was no. Not only could she probably not manage it - though her earlier experiance with Nimura could hardly compare to what it would take to hold a Nepleslian down - she would be abandoning the assault on the strut.

But could she do anything to the strut, either?

This was too complicated for the headache that was working its way into the deepest folds of her brain to suffer. She had no idea what to do. But, there was one more person in the equation; the Shosa.

She'd just have to trust.

Reshouldering the APR and setting the accelerator to the maximum allowable output threshhold, Yuzuki picked out the point she thought must be most vulnerable on the strut, painted it, and began a sustained fire.

As Kai reached forward in order to grab the blade from Kyou's shoulder and see if he could do something to help her, his mind went blank. Suddenly, he felt as if he was watching some horrible movie through his own eyes, unable to control his body. Suggestions, thoughts, orders, they all came flowing in, creating something of a buffer between his conscious mind and its ability to react to anything.

An order. Kill Kyou. Kai didn't know why, but it suddenly seemed like a good idea. The pain was gone. Kyou was down anyway, why not destroy her? Kai's body looked through its inventory. Mini-missiles, mostly subspace-type. Forearm weapons. His rifle was gone, discarded during Yukari's 'Surgery'. He could fire the couple remaining offensive mini-missiles, but he was currently too close. And there was another threat- someone with a rifle. The form was so disfigured he didn't really identify it as Nimura.

Kai's forearm weapons popped up and began aiming at Kyou, while the mMini-missile pods opened up and fired several countermeasure missiles to ward off that disfigured creature in the background. Now there was only one more question. Where would be the best place to fire with the forearm weapons to kill this knocked out Power armor?

No time to give orders.

Asher's attack came so swiftly. He must have been dominated, Yukari thought. Tom was in no position to defend Nyton, the only weapon they had to beat Melisson. Yuzuki was finishing off the strut.

Yukari reacted.

As soon as Asher's armor locked onto Nyton and Tom with missiles, she moved. She moved faster than she thought she could move, than she likely ever had moved before. Asher was below her, and she had to move faster to get in front of him. But she had to protect Nyton, too, and she had to keep Tom's armor instinctively replying with his own missiles from wrecking her and Nyton.

She honed in so fast on the Taii. She had to protect him, them, everyone because she was Nekovalkyrja and because no one else could help. The fires were licking her armor when she, with open arms, reached Nyton's back.

She could not quite stop on a micron, but her SPINE put her in near perfect sync with her armor, and it stopped against Nyton's body with the force of a good shove. Her arms wrapped around him, putting her shield between them and Melisson.

Her barrier, she angled back full aft and prayed.

Round Two against Melisson had just begun and Nyton already found himself posed with an interesting challenge. The armor she wore was not only durable but reactive to attacks and the floating energy barriers she was using negated projectiles, consuming them into nothingness, while destroying Arethusa's regeneration as well. Tom meanwhile was being harassed by the other barrier Melisson wielded.

Despite this he had formulated a plan. Remaining defensive, he passed the plasma rifle to Arethusa's nodal growth, ordering her to stand down since it would do her no good to be whittled away by that barrier. He was about to reach down to draw both ASP from the holsters at his hips and relay to Tom his idea when he noted a missile lock followed by a massive attack signature.

Westwood!?

Before Nyton could do much else, AIES alerted him to countermeasures being fired by Yuzuki and Yukari rushing to push him out of the way from Asher's sudden assault. Before he could react he was already in Yukari's grip. However it would not take long before Asher regrouped so Nyton grabbed a hold of Yukari and added his own maneuvering, pulling Yukari along to avoid Asher's likely follow up and any further assault by Melisson and her barrier blades.

Masako was down to only her forearm cannons by the time she returned to the defensive line...only to be faced with its retreat. Using her inertial flight capability to be out of the way of the traffic coming at her, the Warrant Officer would notice Mara and Akiko working to carry an damaged Power Armor back towards the Medical Bay.

"All right, I want everyone to grab what they can to build barricades at the end of the corridor," the Warrant Officer ordered those retreating. "Anyone not carrying wounded should grab whatever is left from the Armories. We're pulling it all behind the fire line."

@Kai:

Kai loosed his mini-missiles toward Nimura and then started blasting away at Kyou - before he could select a weak point, he'd need her barrier down.

From the moment Kai initiated attack, Nimura twisted around and weathered the improvised attack from flare countermeasures, using her arm to protect her face from the blistering heat before she charged towards Kai.

Pulse cannons whipped up from the immobile target to the approaching one and Kai fired. Nimura was too hurt, too worn out and too wounded to manage the acrobatics needed to avoid the pulses, and the hits shattered through the Daisy's torso.

In a cloud of misting red, it felt like the struck power armor burst apart, with a shortlived bloody rain spraying the vicinity. But then Nimura's naked body screamed through the air as she dropkicked him, her bare feet slamming hard on his chestplate with all the greater mass her innate gravity manipulation could muster.

The hit put enough force on his wounds so that the pain defeated the psionically-brought veil of certainty. A loud crack also indicated Nimura had broken one of her feet.

The sprite didn't stop, recuperating from her drop by bracing herself to the floor with her good leg before making another spin for momentum to then elbow smash the side of Kai's helmet. Incredibly, the possessed power armored Heisho was sent reeling to the side. Nimura's elbow snapped.

Missing an arm above the elbow, the other arm broken at the elbow, her left heel shattered, her bare skin a ruin of welts, burns, bleeding cuts and punctures; Nimura shaked like a newborn colt standing on her single good leg, lips parted in a snarl while sobbing at the same time.

But he could still stand up and put an end to her resistance. All it would take would be an area burst shot of his forearm cannons.

"Kai, don't. Stop."

It was as if the presence of Kotori was right there, her back to his. A whisper, and Kai suddenly remembered who he really was. The headache-inducing pressure on his head vanished like dew under a dawning sun. The pain of his wounds seemed to flare up again as he took note of them once more.

@ vs. Mahou Shoujo Melisson:

Tom fled, weaving around the struts, with countermeasure mini-missiles in his wake distracting the subspace collapsing warhead away from him. The disc after him stalled short of being in proximity of the struts and then just winked out of existence.

The other mini-missile though came ahead of Asher and Yuzuki's other countermeasure missile, smacking into Arethusa's barrier and disabling it just short of Asher bearing in, loosing out a dragon's breath worth of flame, with the silhouette of Yukari's Daisy serving as a barrier, sparing Arethusa from being turned to calcinated slag.

Melisson pounced in to attack since Asher's flames were not intense enough to prevent her from closing in, but the slash that should've cut Nyton vertically open was intercepted high by a zesuaium shield.

A zesuaium shield whom could apparently survive contact with whatever reality-disruptive power lay behind Melisson's weapon.

Yukari's barrier would've died under the open onslaught from Asher's gouts of plasma, but when the protection failed her Daisy's AIES automatically shunted capacitor power back into it to restore it back to full. As if she was his dancing partner, Nyton deftly picked her out of the way when Asher chopped through where she had been with his plasma torch.

The disc that had pursued Tom was again back into Melisson's proximity and she threw it toward Nyton as tried to widen the distance but the almost dance-like whirl he and Yukari were in allowed the Shosa to have the thrown projectile bounce off her shield again, from which it zipped back to Melisson. Yukari even managed to unexpectedly catch the closing Asher with an armored foot to the helmet that sent him reeling away, seeing stars.

Yuzuki blasted at her chosen spot on her targeted strut. With the heatwave released by the initial thermite round, and the added heat impact from one plasma shot every second, she was making progress into deteriorating it - but the thing was tough like an industrial crane's wrecking ball arm! With her plasma rifle close to overheating, she needed someone else with plasma weaponry to join in and help her heat saturate the massive support beyond tolerance.

@Nyton:

The Infection Queen's sinister intellect fixated itself on Nyton once her grasp on Kai had slid away. Her thoughts assaulted him and before he could even recognize the psionic attack, she had repurposed him to serve her.

Yukari was in his arms, vulnerable. He was in a perfect position to destroy her, which he would do so with all the skill and ruthlessness he could muster.

@Asher:

The target of Asher's ire changed, shifting from Nyton to Yukari. Nyton was no longer his opponent, but an ally in Asher's new goal: killing Yukari. The shifts in perspective and allegiances did not have to make sense: Asher was given a purpose, and his need was to fulfill it unquestionably.

The foot colliding into Asher's helmet caused him to lose his sense for a moment. His vision was filled with bright dots and colors, which began to wipe away from his sight when he felt himself collide with the ground and then bounce. For some reason, he received the sensation of deja vu before landing down on all fours to stop his misdirected momentum. There was no time for that, though, he needed to kill the man that stood in the way of the Queen's purest goals!

I need to... Went his thoughts, before before having his mind forcefully altered and reprogrammed again. The Malifarian's head rolled on his shoulders, shaking viciously through the process. In a flash of sickening manipulation, all the crisp details in the room became splotchy oranges and greens, before warping back into the clear vision he had been granted before. Melisson had given him a new purpose, once again singular, direct, and beautiful.

When the thrall pushed himself back up after his altering episode, he saw a different battle. With his world focusing on the death of one person, it felt like a new fight was starting every time he was singled in on a target. When he saw her, he knew it, that target.

Suzuka Yukari was the filthy whore that suckled at the manipulative teats of the amber-eyed demon that had brain-washed them all. This insignificant bitch thought that she could please her master by killing his own? Arrogance. No one stood against Melisson, no one. Not even some over-grown, weaponized fuck-toy.

Further analysis showed there was someone holding the filthy usurper back. Was it an ally? A friend? A fellow murder of Kotori's favorite little thrall? No... It didn't matter who it was. The was because conserving the lives of his allies was not his directive. The only life that was worth conserving was Melisson's, his own not included. He would kill the usurper and the fool who was getting in the way, and present both of their skulls as an offering to his master.

The Malafarian switched his weapons again, drawing out the 50mm gauss bazooka, while letting another sub-space detonating missile fly from his missile pod. The loyal thrall shot upward and then blasted sideways, letting loose three 50mm Frangibles at Yukari, intent on tearing her armor to pieces.

The situation grew hotter as Nyton and Yukari barely managed to repel the attacks of both Melisson and Asher. Just as Nyton predicted the Malifarian was relentless in his attacks and Melisson would not hold back despite having sent her new servant in to attack. It was the discovery of Zesuaium's effects that almost made Nyton pause as he pulled Yukari out of harm's way. He almost cheered at the discovery and could not help but text out the fact.


They were still not out of danger yet. Nyton and Yukari found themselves locked in a familiar dance of death. It was just like before when they were on the bridge of Miharu working together to eliminate the flotilla of Sakura ships. It had been an incredible battle and he was thrilled at how well they flowed well like a honed weapon. Their ability to work together was possible, even in close combat! Once again Nyton was pleased to have such a fine comrade and was about to say so-

Kill her.

Yes, my mistress.

Nyton's bloodlust made his world glow red and the tender Yukari was in his grasp. He would savor the murder of this weak little pathetic fool when he was alerted to something.

Westwood!? How DARE you attempt to steal MY kill again!

Realizing that Asher was about to blast them both with his bazooka and missile Nyton did the only thing he could to preserve his prized kill. He clinged to Yukari protectively and quickly dashed out of the way to avoid the attack, working with her as she seemed to have the only means to defend against Melisson. At the same time they were dodging he ordered Arethusa to nodally draw both pistols from the holsters. One pistol would counter the missile locked in on them while the other would fire on Asher himself, aiming for his arms to throw off his aim.

First things FIRST, my mistress. The weakling still trusts me so by holding off this FOOL she will trust me more. Then I will slay her before the smile can fade from her face. Nyton thought with a vicious grin, preparing the nodal weaponry on his arm closest to Yukari's neck to lash out and shred the flesh.

Tom panted deeply as he was spared from the destructive power of both Asher's missile and Melisson's projectile. He assessed the situation quickly in the moment that he had.

Yuzuki was still blasting away at one of the support structures. She was almost there, but the glowing hot end of her plasma rifle indicated that the weapon was about to fail.

It was obvious Asher was being dominated, but Melisson's grip on them should have collapsed after Kotori's interference. Kotori wasn't dead... if she was, everyone would have been under Melisson's thrall once more. There had to be another factor...

The infection queen.

Pieces started to fall together as he whipped out his plasma rifle and took aim at the same point Yuzuki was shooting. Hot plasma sprayed from the edge of his gun, joining with Yuzuki's efforts to bring down the structure.

The psionic amplifiers... that's got to be it!


He hazarded a glance at Yukari as she was protecting Nyton from Asher's assault. His lover was holding her own under pressure... that snap kick to Asher's head was a thing of beauty... and Nyton was there to move her away and regroup at a distance.

Time was short, and he had to act quickly. Asher's destructive power could only be deterred for a short time.

Despite his best efforts to remain calm, he felt a tugging in his chest. He wanted to be there for Yukari, but had to trust Nyton as he had trusted Yuzuki before.

Come on, Nyton... buy me time.

A small victory made the chaotic battle swirling around her seem somehow easier to bear, and the pressure that still exerted itself – even now, she was staving it off with pure, unmitigated, directed rage – upon her psyche seemed somehow less pressing. But, there was a difficulty.

A third party observer, Yuzuki couldn’t help but watch the deadly dance of the Taii, the Shosa, the Demon, and Asher in her peripheral, and she was finding it gradually less and less desirable to hold to the orders that she had been given. The two of them were fighting toe-to-toe with the other two. That was an extremely uneven battle, given that Melisson was the opponent. It made her extremely uneasy to think of what would happen, should both of them fall.

Fuck this, whispered the Anger.

Yuzuki exhaled heavily, her breath misting the inside of the helmet, felt instead of seen; she was fully relying on her armor’s skin-vision, and had been for some time now. She was anxious, and standing idly by was killing her. If she had been given a heart, it would have been pounding in her ears; even the rush of her real blood was like a small turbid river, the canals of which she was now acutely aware of, and her whole body seemed to tremor with heightened awareness. Every inch of her was willing her to fight, to jump onto an enemy with a reckless abandon that even Yuzuki realized was amateurish. With extreme difficulty, she bit it down.

Just a little bit more. Yuzuki coaxed her rifle, which was already overheating.

Another breath misted the inside of her helmet.

Almost!

The kick had been inadvertent, and Yukari winced after realizing what she had done. Dominated or not, Asher did not deserve to be hit so hard. She did not put force into it beyond Nyton slinging her around. A lucky strike.

But she welcomed the brief reprieve. When she was back to her feet, she kept her shield up and took stock. Melisson in front of them, not far enough to avoid phasing but far enough to throw her discs again. Asher dazed, but not for long. Then he was no longer dazed; he headed up into the air as a subspace missile shot out from him.

There was no time to dodge, but Nyton did so anyway. They were twisting out of the way, moving together as one, with him pressing her against his shiny, sleek armored frame. The frangibles exploded just past them, fire and shrapnel pelting her barrier. When they arrived at the end of their dodge, she saw Nyton's ASPs out, ready to blast away at Asher while she was faced with Melisson again, with her own shield up.

She did not understand why she was not dizzy.

CIES certainly was not dizzy, and faced with its first clear picture of Melisson and her crystalline protective system, it began analyzing every bit of data it could find on the alien technology. That included data already gleaned from Amaya's Gate. The tachyon unit on her helmet aided the computer by suddenly coming to life, draining the forearm weapon on her shield arm to power itself as it blanketed the room with invisible particles. Yukari still gripped her revolver, but with Nyton ready to pelt Melisson with his ASPs, she withheld her fire.

What she did do, with whatever time she had left before Asher was ready to destroy them, was give herself some cover.

She finally appreciated all of her time in the pilot's seat, as well as communications officer, as she instantly connected to the systems interface of Asher's armor. Visualized as a switch panel in some part of her digital mind, Yukari flicked off Asher's ability to see his fellow armors with radar or other visuals. His assisted targeting suite also went lights out on his HUD.

Asher still could hear them, if he tried, but as far as his HUD showed, Melisson was facing off against empty space.

Again, Pain. But that voice. It wasn't a soft suggestion forcing its way between his mind and reality like before. It was a real voice, speaking directly to him, pulling him out of the strange stupor. It was Kotori.

Kai groaned and Grunted under the pain- his chest hurt even more, his head felt a little strange, and he was on the ground. hadn't he been standing? Kai looked up, and saw Nimura, standing there, Naked and broken, bleeding and battered, but still standing. He realized that he had been doing something wrong. Telepathically, he tried to speak to Nimura. "Thank you. I'm sorry, whatever happened." was all he could say, the veil that had been over him before obscuring memories from even just seconds ago.

For now, All that Kai had the strength to do was concentrate on his body's weak OS, trying to force it to dull the pain in his chest, so that he could stand again.

@ vs. Mahou Shoujo Melisson:

Nyton nailed the subspace collapser mini-missile Asher launched in mid-flight, but that didn't save them from the grenades. The second shot did hit the aloft Asher, but his shield module's protection was more than sufficient to render the attack derisive.

Their explosions of the three frangible rounds raked over Yukari's barrier, the Shosa extending it so to shield Nyton from the killing barrage. The first grenade seriously drained her shield, the second depleted it but capacitor power flushing through the barrier renewed it enough to soak up the damage. The third explosion ripped through, the fragments sanding off alloyed armor of Yukari's front. Small bits struck Arethusa, but the sparseness of the debris that got through Yukari using herself as a shield was nothing next to the M8's regenerative properties.

Yukari's armor was cracked in places, the hemosynthetic insert bleeding over the more tender, flexible portions which had been chewed at more insistently. She could have used her shield to mitigate a good deal of that, but she had it reserved against Melisson and that proved wise. During the brief moment when shockwaves of the explosions had stalled Nyton, Melisson had thrown her two projectiles at her.

Discs of annihilation shrieked through the air and she blocked one meant to slice vertically through her helmet, and barely managed to deflect another that was meant for her lower torso - that disc still managed to slice into her flank as it whizzed past her, right under her ribs, but thankfully the cut was only two-centimeters deep. Her Daisy momentarily was bleeding into the gap, sealing and initiating repairs on her wound.

Then Melisson's attention turned elsewhere. Tom and Yuzuki's combined firepower finally won over the strut they had been blasting at and the red-hot structure slagged under its own massive weight as the heat softened it, melted it. Connection cables distented, power feeds snapped and the structure broke in a shower of debris and goblets of molten metal.

With Nyton distant enough from her now, Melisson dashed off in pursuit of Yuzuki, her body a bleary image as she phased in and out madly at every step. The discs she had spent against Yukari altered the trajectory of their flight and homed in after the sprite Heisho.

In the meantime, Yukari's CIES was sharing notes with Hoshi's CIES, analyzing the Varin artifact Melisson was using both for offense and defense.

@Nyton:

Nyton malice against Yukari melted away as an ephemeral voice - one he knew well - broke into his consciousness.

"You engaged yourself to give me your all, Nyton. I ask for it now. Deny her."

His mind was his own again, thankfully stalling in its infancy any attacks he had meant to Yukari. That, however, did not disable the threat Asher still represented.

@Kai:

Nimura wordlessly just sank to her knees, tears streaming down her cheeks as her shoulders quaked with sobs (which in her condition had to hurt with all the fresh cuts, punctures, burns and abrasions her skin was covered with). Her remaining arm hanging limply like some broken wing, she hung her head and quietly kept crying.

So far, no Mishhu reinforcements had come to molest them.

The bitch still lived.

Still lived.

Ranged weapons were simply not enough to properly remove the enemies of his master. Yes, he had properly tore down her shields, scarred her armor, and surely her mind was cracking under the pressure of how her long journey was going to end in failure. There was no hope for this misguided enemy, not her, and not the others. All of them who would simply end up as future feasts of his master once they were taught retribution for their heinous acts. Kotori's plans would end, and so would she. Asher foresaw all of this, because he knew the one true fact of this war. It was a fact that he knew all along.

He was the ultimate weapon.

Yes. Him, above all else in the galaxy. Not Nekovalkyrjans, Him. Nekovalkyrjan's were not weapons, they were simply specialized hands with humanity programmed into their spines, just like his target. Mishhu were squishy beings that were unfit for true war. They only knew terror tactics, demoralization, and infection. Yamataian's like himself? Nepleslians? They did not even deserve mention. This was not a matter of the body. No.

No. No. No!

Melisson knew the truth! She knew it all along! Asher was the true weapon! His humanity was nothing! Everything was held back by morals, values, and tedious honor! But not Asher! Melisson knew him. Melisson understood him. She saw the beauty in his soul that no one else could! She erased those anchoring thoughts which held back his true potential, breaking their chains and setting the bloody monster within him free!

He was free. He didn't have to think about it, his mind knew it, accepted it, and loved it. This was his true destiny, and only his Master could've shown him this. Only her.

This is why he surged forth at his former commanders, after tearing off the helmet that restricted his ability to see. This was the reason his face was plastered with insanity, eyes sharp, locking on to his target. This is why he pulled forth his plasma thrower, circling at a distance to shower his enemy with flames. This was why he would discard his flamethrower at the soonest opportunity past his initial attack no matter if it hit or failed. This was why he would flash forth his plasma cutter, brandishing his shield up to close in on Yukari, and any of those foolish enough to oppose her and turn them into pieces.

This. This is why he would sacrifice himself to destroy the only people he held dear in this lonely universe.

Yukari held against Asher's first onslaught, but the damage readings afterward suggested she not try again — her armor was in the yellow, with a narrow band of red along the side of her belly. Her shield somehow was fine, but her capacitors were drained; they automatically ejected themselves from her lower legs. Her cracked armor was not shattered, at least, but she pictured herself look much worse for the wear.

More pressing was the cut to her side. The blood flowing into it helped, but the pain threatened to sear her senses. She closed her eyes just long enough to focus her mind.

Some Neko could shut off pain receptors as if they purely were mechanical sensors. Sometimes it resulted in the Neko's death because the wound was ignored too long, or simply was too grave. Yukari could not do that anyway, but she instructed her OS to manufacture more pain-numbing chemicals in order to blunt the sharp pain of the wound and the shiver-inducing tingles that came from an exterior blood source repairing the wound.

That was when she heard the clack from Asher's helmet hitting the ground. Her eyes opened. He started to move.

"Follow Melisson!" she telepathically ordered Nyton, not thinking before doing so. She raised her shield in front of her.

She saw Asher pull out his plasmathrower as he started to circle. Nyton would not make it if she did not act.

Yukari was not Kotori. She did not have the amazing, unfathomable power her commander had when it came to controlling things not in her hands. However, without Asher's helmet to help him control his armor, Yukari saw an opening behind the dominated soldier's blood-red gaze. One that did not make her fire a shot.

Before with Nimura, she only had disabled the power armor. Instincts and training pushed Yukari to try harder, eyes flashing bright green.

This time, her bluish form floating inside that same corner of her mind, fingers flew over the armor's virtual control panel as she attempted total control of Asher's armor, trying to freeze him in mid-flight and turn him to face the last strut of the Infection Queen's cocoon in order to wear it down.