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

Asher's gauss bazooka savaged at the remaining strut; withering at it until it was frail and skeletal and then some. The sole support left - the cybernetic coccoon hanging down from its end like a flowerbud - groaned and shrieked as it was weakened so to be unable to bear the weight at its end and finally, it broke off.

With a thundering clamor, the receptacle the Infection Queen was in struck the floor, crushing and pulping the breeding units below it. with its shiny metal side streaked with red, the thing jostled until it was nearly still, and then violently, it explosively burst apart as a dark form forced her appendages outward from its confines.

Two dozen tentacles had reached out to sink their single-clawed ends into the crystaline-crusty floor for purchase, then straining to heave out of the debris of its former shell the main body.

That's when it became obvious that the Infection Queen was no Mishhuvurthyar.

It was like comparing a bee to an hornet. The main body was sleek, its shiny oil-black hide was smooth and dense like a shark's than a shelled exoskeleton except for lingering, more geometric scars that still told the story of her PNUgen-enforced incarceration. Four eyes - dark and their insides shining almost like lanterns from the way they gathered the light and kept it in their dark depts - were at the wedge-shaped front, smoothly integrated into the skin rather than set in pairs into eyesockets like the Mishhuvurthyar. Spined frills extended out of the upper back of the main body, more expansive than the elongated needlepoints of her mishhu offsprings. Her two-dozen tentacles, ridged and ribbed with red, smoothly flowed out of her lower behind rather than dangle down from a Mishhu's exoskeletal shell - each not a stub with a needlepoint retracted, but rather a bony claw the size of a katana.

She was awe-inspiring, emerging from the cybernetic coccoon's confines like some ancient leviathan. In an alien fashion, the same that inspired wonder when viewing transparent luminescent deep sea creatures or natural phenomenons such as powerful hurricanes, the expansive vistas offered from a view atop a mountain peak or shafts of sunlight streaming through cloud cover, she was unexpectedly beautiful.

...and then she roared, a primal bubbling screech that reverbated through them, causing them to flinch thier shoulders in reflex even within the protective confines of power armor. Her roar set off alarms in their brains, the more animal part of it that whispered 'she is a predator, and I am prey'.

Whip-like, two of her tentacles slapped next to Yukari - the latter dodging the massive appendages by reflex - and speared into Melisson's torso. In a geyser of blood, the two claw-tipped tentacles snapped back to the center with a crystal sphere veined with a cobalt-blue pulse of energy. Cobalt light flashed across the Infection Queen's body and the sphere had vanished, replaced a sheath of crystalline energy panes armoring her whole body. Three disc-shaped whirlpools in the fabric of reality manifested themselves and began orbiting her.

"WE ARE MEFPRALPHRA," They heard the creature express in their minds, as each of her tentacle-clawed tips - all two-dozens of them - became sheathed with their scythe-blades that Melisson had previously only wielded only as melee extensions of the discs. "OUR VAAKER TAKEUP REMAINS DOMINANT. IN VICTORY OR DEFEAT, OUR PURPOSE IS STILL SERVED. YOURS HAS YET TO DECIDE YOUR FATE, AND THAT OF THE LOST."

Despite the forceful extraction of the Varin artifact, Melisson still seemed to live. Her lack of vitals meant that head or chest wounds were irrelevant, after all, as long as there was still a sizeable portion of her unified 'colony' that survived.

Yukari, even after dodging the tentacles, stared.

The alien was not so alien, not to someone who had seen Mishhuvurthyar before. It was beautiful. Awe-inspiring, with its sleekness mixed with its sharpness. A work of art ...

That Yamatai had marred and ruined. Of course. The scars were not missed by Yukari's observational skills. She wondered, however, what self-injury had Mefpralphra done to itself? It was hard to ponder. Echoes of the screech throbbed in her mind. The other words felt different, though, not like a Mishhu. They were lasting; they continued to bounce inside of her, not so much clouding her thoughts as drowning them.

She squeezed the grip of her revolver in her hand, refocusing. What Yamatai did to Mefpralphra in the past did not excuse what things it did or justify why it did them. Mefpralphra, as Melisson, could have avoided choosing evil.

"Westwood, be ready with your remaining subspace missiles. Targeted use only. Everyone, use plasma weapons until her armor is down ... but allow her the first move."

Yukari got up from the crouch she rolled into to dodge the tentacles, but kept her shield in front of her, revolver at the ready.

Talking to the alien seemed dangerous. She resisted the urge to telepathically broadcast even an open message that everyone could hear. The alien already could have linked with them, but she was not about to put out bait for Mefpralphra to do so. She was not even sure the alien had ears.

"Man. All this Vaaka' Take Up shit iss' makin' me wish I wass' listenin' when Melisson wass' runnin her mouth." said Asher abruptly, stepping back from the massive behemoth. His eyes stayed locked on the huge hornet. Taking in it's huge form. Mainly, it was a concern of how in the world they were supposed to kill this. Would regular guns even work on this? And even if they had the guns, were they big enough to use them? Did it even matter? He had superiors to do this thinking for him. So, as he had done so many times today, he pulled his Flamethrower off the secondary rack and put the 50mm Gauss cannon in it's place. His reliable weapon stared up at the beast as it stared down at them.

"Westwood, be ready with your remaining subspace missiles. Targeted use only. Everyone, use plasma weapons until her armor is down ... but allow her the first move."

Click to expand...

With that, he put up three locks for the anomalous signatures around Mefpralphra. Sub-space detonations were all about breaking weird stuff, right? That seemed to be what Asher saw it for.

"Gotcha, Yuka-boss." replied the Malifarian, rising up off the ground and making some distance between himself and the beast. He kept his left leg slightly forward, aiming the missile pod on it toward the massive alien. Three counter-measure missiles left. He was out of offensive missiles. These would have to count.

He also made a note to jettison his missile pods once they were empty to lighten himself up a little bit.

Nyton found himself staring at the being that emerged from the cocoon. It was like nothing he had ever imagined. This was the progenitor of the Mishhuvurthyar. This THING! No it was not a thing and it was very much alive, intelligent, and malevolent. This was the source of Melisson. The Interpreter had been an expendable appendage, nothing more than a lizard tail. Somehow PNU-gen had captured this being and caused it to suffer. The men behind such a feat were impressive but without realizing it they unleashed so much horror upon all others.

So here they were, cleaning up the sins of the past against a being that was almost completely unknown. It was a vast mountain whose peak beckoned them to challenge it even while leering down with murderous intent. Looking at it Nyton did know if he could possibly scale this and yet he knew he must.

No, they must. It was they who had surpassed all the previous challenges and it was they who would overcome the next. The monster they faced could be beaten because Nyton knew one thing: if the fools of PNU-gen had proven anything it was that this monster could be subdued. If it can be hurt it can bleed. If it bleeds they can kill it!

Nyton watched as Mefpralphra speared Melisson and consumed the defense artifact. He hissed slightly as he saw the being now become armored in the same substance Melisson wore earlier. Another hurdle to climb. He wished they had killed Melisson because he still felt paranoid that the Interpreter would just regenerate and fight alongside the main body.

The force of Mefpralphra's declaration of dominance bore heavily on Nyton's mind. Despite the feeling of being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the multi-present being there was defiance in him.

"Westwood, be ready with your remaining subspace missiles. Targeted use only. Everyone, use plasma weapons until her armor is down ... but allow her the first move."

Click to expand...

Nyton raised his plasma rifle, the first show of his defiance towards the being. Despite incurring so much awe that was demanded from this being it was no god. Even though it entreated itself to a god's prerogative. Nyton was never particularly inclined towards religion. The man did at least possess awareness to what the actions of a merciful deity were and those of a devil. No matter how much reverence it wanted the only kind it could have was forced. Much like he had been forced to have.

The thought of this made Nyton mad but it was not the rage or wrath from all his previous battles and bloodshed. No, it was a different kind of anger. An anger spawned from finally standing before the true face of the being that had caused so much death and suffering. This being had slaughtered trillions and brought pain to trillions more. She had killed so many and thought not a whit to killing many more for her ends. Through it all there had not been an ounce of remorse to any of it. It was an injustice. It was a wrong. It was an abomination.

The pragmatic Nyton had avoided straying into this mind set of feeling anger at injustice because he had always needed to find some means of rationalizing his actions on the battlefield. This thing though, as incredible as it was, had reached beyond just the battlefield and into people's lives and souls. There was no equating the people he had killed in battle or even by accident without intent. All the while she continued to shift the blame for her actions onto the victims she preyed upon. The faces of previous victims all flashed before his mind's eye; Murasaki 1 and 2, Fujiko, Lori, Haley, the Lorath delegation, the crew of the Sekkou, Aoiko, Miharu herself, Ichigo, and the many sprites dying in their defense. They were barely even the tip of the iceberg! How many innocents had been enslaved? How many men, women and children had been swallowed by this black hole of death?

"Your Vaaker Takeup is as repulsive as your spawn and the resonance you have caused through them. You claim superiority and yet you cling to the very same bestial nature which you condemned within us. YOU chose to continue to perpetuate it and now your resonance has come into contact with ours. We are MIHARU! You are many with one Vaaker Takeup. We defy your Vaaker Takeup and all that it stands for. Our fate cannot be determined by a being with a Vaaker Takeup such as yours. We will determine our fates! Together! One Vaaker Takeup created from the Vaaker Takeup of many!" Nyton shouted in his declaration of righteous indignation. He had been ready to move throughout his entire speech and was emboldened to fight and win against this dark tempest.

There was a roar.

It terrified her.

And, with her rage spent, Yuzuki was bare before it. It ripped aside any mental defenses she might have conjured. It cut her to the quick in a way that simple psionics could never manage. It was genuine fear, spawned from somewhere basic. However superior the Nekovalkyrja might be, it said, this thing is beyond you. This thing will eat you alive and smile. Or at least manage some sort of dangerously toothy expression.

It would plague her nightmares for years to come.

Suddenly remembering her other APR, she drew it from its hardpoint and tossed the Juni’s own rifle back to him.

"Thank you, Juni."

The Taii was talking, but Yuzuki wasn’t listening to him; she was watching the thing, waiting for the strike that would surely come, like the Shosa had told her to. The very fact that the Taii could speak so boldly in the face of this thing impressed her, a little bit. She remembered how Ichigo had confided in her about the Taii. Cool blood, utterly dedicated; just like everybody else. And now she was elbow to elbow with him, the Shosa, the Juni - the people who, only a week ago, she would have given anything to be like.

With the very embodiment of what Yuzuki considered to be all that was evil and unfair in the world in front of her, the sprite couldn’t help but wonder why she had ever wished for their sort of knowledge and experience. In that moment she also came to a horrible realization.

Even if she survived this, things would never go back to the way they had been. There would be no more blissful quiet, punctuated by the warm purring of engines, and never again would she be able to hear the laughter of other sprites - of other people - without calling to mind the faces of the ones who lay discarded and dead. Even the Miharu was nothing but scrap metal, now; Yuzuki's home, and as consequence, her entire world was destroyed, gone like so much chaff in space.

What was in front of her now, only as far as her arms could reach, would have to serve. The fear welling up in the pit of her stomach, and the growing urge to survive against it, somehow.

That was a start.

After catching the rifle, Tom aimed and raised his shield.

He was afraid, simple as that. The thing that called itself Mefpralphra, the beast that announced its dominance with that shriek, it towered above him.

Doubt crept into his mind: how the hell were they going to beat this thing? Any one of those blades it wielded seemed more than enough to destroy a Daisy, and it had twenty four of them.

He had never seen anything like this before. There was no combat manual to go on, no tactical knowledge about this monster that he could bring up into his memory and take solace in.

But Yukari was here. And Nyton. And Asher. And Yuzuki.

A vision of ice and snow appeared in his head. Ralt.

Home.

The doubt in his heart faded. If he wanted to see his home again, he had to believe that there was a way to win.

The fear remained lodged in his gut, begging him to run. But Tom held firm.

A Home. A family. It is not much to ask for. If there is any justice in this universe, I will have earned these simple privileges.

Tom steeled himself.

"Your Vaaker Takeup is as repulsive as your spawn and the resonance you have caused through them. You claim superiority and yet you cling to the very same bestial nature which you condemned within us. YOU chose to continue to perpetuate it and now your resonance has come into contact with ours. We are MIHARU! You are many with one Vaaker Takeup. We defy your Vaaker Takeup and all that it stands for. Our fate cannot be determined by a being with a Vaaker Takeup such as yours. We will determine our fates! Together! One Vaaker Takeup created from the Vaaker Takeup of many!" Nyton shouted in his declaration of righteous indignation. He had been ready to move throughout his entire speech and was emboldened to fight and win against this dark tempest.

Click to expand...

Asher looked at Nyton, then to the beast in front of them, then back at Nyton.

"Naw, seriously, what tha' hell's a Vaaka' Take-up?" asked the man, still exchanging his glances back and forth.

@ vs. Mefpralphra, the Infection Queen:

Their enemy did not give Asher's companions the time to explain.

"THE CHAINS OF INFERIORITY ARE OF YOUR OWN MAKE, BORN OF YOUR HUBRIS AND OF THE NARROW PERSPECTIVES THAT BEGET INACCEPTANCE OF THAT WHICH DOES NOT CONFORM," her tentacled limbs coiled back more tightly. "POSTURE WITH EMPTY WORDS FUELED BY INSPIRATION BORN OF SELF-WROUGHT ILLUSIONS IF YOU MUST. I WILL JUDGE YOU-"

The tentacles thrust themselves forward, launching the scythe-like projections as if they had been a cloud of kunai throwing knives. "-BY TOOTH AND CLAW!"

The Umbral was a creature of flesh-and-blood; her prowess coming from skill through experience, honed motor-control, and prowess of tendon and sinew. The rain of attack, flung forth all at the same time, was not accurate but still potentially deadly.

The five desperately dodged. Yukari shield-blocked one and narrowly managed another. Tom ducked with shield at the ready only to be struck on his left shoulder. Nyton attempted to take the air and avoid most of them, but still found his lower body struck twice. Yuzuki evaded to the side, but her hand was nailed by one. Asher leaned forward and tried to charge through the onslaught only to find himself struck thrice.

Only to startlingly find out that every strike made the scythe-blades cease to exist instead of slicing effortlessly through them. Apparently, the varin artifact being spread into twenty four elements and then thrown lacked the potency to make the attacks 'unreal' enough to be damaging.

But then, it wasn't Mefpralphra's true attack.

The Dark Mishhuvurthyar, the Dark Ones, or the Umbral as Melisson had preferred naming her kind in the Trade Language: little known creatures, seldom ever glimpsed and rarely spoken of. When they were referred to, it was generally in the frame of horror stories which often seemed to lack any real substance.

Mefpralphra demonstrated why. The Umbral were terrible opponents that rarely ever left survivors in their wake.

Plasma attacks were intercepted by whirling discs that enlarged themselves to better catch the attacks and then engorged themselves with them; leaving the Infection Queen to surge forth toward them with all the girth and reckless speed of a charging train. Four of her tentacled limbs were discarded from her, left to splash, roil and bubble behind her before she rammed into Asher.

With a crash, her blunt nose connected with the Malifarian and the man was tossed away spreadeagled back with the breath explosively blasted out of his lungs. With considerable kinetic momentum, Shikamaru flew backwards, bounced off the crystal-crusty floor once before it knocked itself against the cybernetic-grafted walls and came to a dizzying stop. The three high-speed impacts had rewarded the Malifarian with aching bones and plenty of stars swimming in his eyesight.

That was only the beginning. Her collision against Asher was the prelude of her tentacles snapping wide away to the sides to corral the other four into an organic net. Forcing them back, she then attacked in earnest.

Nyton avoided two tentacle swings, easily ducking underneath them only to realize too late that the two attacks had been a faint meant to distract him from the true threat: tentacles seizing a shattered remnant of a strut to then swing it at him from above with impossible strength like a giant swinging a mere club. He only managed to partly dodge it, the broken structure still striking a glancing blow that broke his left knee.

Yukari had her shield still handy and deflected a mighty thrust from one of the body claws only to have too many of the coilly appendages surge up, simultaneously snapping at her shoulder and hip - a blow that unceremoniously knocked her into Yuzuki.

With otherworldly fury, the monster seemingly born from the depts of their darkest nightmares kept advancing. Tom, slinking to the side in an effort to flank her and better support his allies was not ignored and she also lashed out at him. The Raltean spiraled in clever acrobatics to keep himself safe from the flailing limbs only to be overwhelmed when one tentacle bruisingly crashed into his legs, sending him half-sprawling before more tentacles caught him around his head and rifle arm.

While Tom was being hefted into the air, she swept past the grounded Nyton, giving him an disdainful snap of a tentacle that caught him in his flank and tossed him halfway into Asher's direction, with the left side of his ribcage aching of cracked ribs. Melfpraphra bore on until she was nearly on top of the tangled Yukari and Yuzuki and began raining blows on them.

Akin to a rain of murderous spears, the claw-tipped tentacles came in and Yuzuki had recovered enough to grab the Shosa before she used her inertia to scramble away from the attacks. The claws struck and struck around them - each strike that punched through the crystal sounding like a breaking wineglass - showering them with clear liquid and glassy flakes before the Heisho and Shosa escaped the reach of the tentacly rampage.

With a shake of his head to clear away the stars, Asher came to in time to witness the Infection Queen better wrap her coils to trap Tom's arms against him torso before she used one of her claws to ram at the base of Tom's left shoulder, smashing it and twisting it as if it was a crowbar meant to peel off at Tom's armored shell. The pounding was not doing Freeman much good either, as she was nastily doing all of it right over where Eve had sliced him.

Asher came to a few conclusions:

• Being knocked back had not been fun, but had saved him from tentacle-hell.
• The thing was strong. Being knocked back had just bruised him, but Shikamaru's damage diagram was showing significant stress on the MCAS' support frame. A power armor was not capable of surviving too many of those bludgeoning hits - those were just as bad as being run into by a car.
• The Infection Queen was not outnumbered.
• Those three discs were making things very difficult - his team had all attacked her from the front and none of their attacks had gone through. As far as mobile cover went, this was pretty hardcore - it'd definitely take a team effort to outflank them and manage to strike directly at her.
• Moving could be a good idea, as the enemy had just chucked a big piece of metal - the one she had clubbed Nyton with - his way.

"Ask a question..." Asher grunted, pushing himself up, holding one of his sides, "Get bitch-smacked. Gunna' keep that one in mind." He looked up, reading most of the situation through his AIES. This foe was serious business, and serious business for today was already on all-time high. His body already hurt and they hadn't even gotten started fighting back yet. His head was spinning, and Shikamaru was giving him the Move, you asshole! treatment with all the beeping and warnings. It was thrilling rush. He didn't like being thrown around, but it was still a...

Rock. Thass a big rock. thought Asher as his gravimetric carried him into a strafing maneuver, side-stepping the rock, before getting back into the battle. Something had to be done about those discs to alleviate some of the stress on the team, so the Malifarian was going to do something about them. His locks on the signatures still remained, and as he glided over the floor, his remaining three sub-space missiles fired forth from his leg pod. Once they were away, the two missile pods were jettisoned off his legs, reducing his weight.

As those flew off, he set a course for Tom's direction still trying to keep a rapid movement as standing still proved too detrimental to one's health. His plasma torch burst to life and he brought down his cutting tool on tentacles holding the man. The Malifarian then shouldered his Plasmathrower, ready to sear whatever he lacerated back to the source.

Yukari groaned in her head. Her fear was that groaning through her mouth or nose would make her cough blood on her HUD, which would not help her.

The hit had hurt. Thick, dull pain held her body down and did not want to let it go, but she muscled through as her eyes came back to her target. The armor had braced her for the impact, as had the hemosynthetic insert, which she was sure accounted for the fact that her shoulder was not broken. Even now it was massaging her, despite its internal systems showing the frame would not withstand many of the murderous alien's blows.

She loosed her grip on her revolver just to be sure she still had it. That was when the tentacles caught her eye.

No! TOM!

She saw Mefpralphra pound away at her beloved's shoulder, the injured one, and she could feel his hurt, feel his suffering! NO!

Yukari had time; she was a Neko. Her CIES helped her as she pushed off from Yuzuki, taking to the air, but staying low. CIES determined the tentacles were protected some, but the undersides were not. That information was fed to everyone, but it was too late for Asher.

"SCATTER! Stay that way!" Asher was screaming in for a plasma torch attack that might free Tom, but not without help. Telepathy was the only way that was fast enough. "Yuzuki, distract the target with me! Aim for the tentacles Asher will not hit!"

Yukari slid about a dozen centimeters above the ground in a weaving line along the floor, but took careful aim all the same, gripping her revolver with both hands and snapped off a shot at the tentacle holding Tom's arms against his torso.

The sparring of words was over. Now the battle began and the being had shown just why it believed to possess the 'god's prerogative.' Nyton could barely remain cognizant after only being struck by the monster twice.

Gravimetric inertia tried to 'roll' with the last tentacle strike as best as it could to reduce impact damage but his chest ached with a lingering pain that screamed 'damage.' After finally coming to a halt Nyton grit his teeth and tried to determine the next move through a haze of pain. With no hemosynthetic suit insert to provide extra cushioning each strike was almost fully felt.

Tom was strung up and being torn apart. Asher was moving to rescue him while Yukari was firing to assist. Right now, given Nyton's injury, there was no standing up so he remained on the floor. With painful breath he floated himself up a few inches from the floor, much like Yukari. The shifting of his leg made him cry out while he tried to aim his plasma rifle. The nodal weaponry at least managed to keep his grip on the weapon secure.

Nyton flew along the floor in an erratic pattern with his leg screaming at him the whole time, firing his own rifle at the mass of tentacles to try and cover Yukari. His flight destination was towards a large chunk of support strut debris that could provide him with cover. The cover however was a ruse since it was already obvious that Mefpralphra could easily toss whatever object was not bolted down. Given the showing already it was likely that what was bolted down could be ripped apart as well. The cover was mainly to provide concealment so that Nyton could be out of sight long enough to activate Arethusa's stealth. With stealth activated he would then attempt to maneuver himself unseen to support with a flanking attack from behind the massive being.

"NNNGHHHHHH!"

With both his arms pinned, Tom was helpless as the Infection Queen had its way with him. He could hardly move; the vice-like grip of the two deadly tentacles were slowly crushing the life out of him.

Not that he noticed the pressure, as each smashing blow of his arm into his tender chest wound drew a cry of pain from the engineer. Blood flowed freely from it now, the fabric of his yellow uniform drenched in the red liquid.

"AGHH!"

Tom now knew of the malevolence of the Infection Queen. The way it would slowly extend his arm out as if to pull it off, only then to smash it back into his chest in order to entice another scream of pain out of him, it was the monster's way of making the Raltean suffer as much as possible.

For his part, Tom struggled as much as he could, kicking with his legs and spraying ineffectual shots out of his forearm blasters.

First Yuzuki was on her knee, then she was on her feet again. It was all happening very quickly, but it wasn't difficult to make sense of. She had pulled them away from the murderous beast, and now they were going right back into it again. Very simple. Crazy, possibly suicidal, but simple.

Of course, she had been sorely tried in the last ten seconds; clubbed by Yukari's careening armored body, shaken up by the suddenness of a massive monster bearing down on her, and then nearly impaled a dozen times over and to spare - the fact that she had managed to avoid the lot of them with the dazed Shosa in tow was nothing short of a miracle - so not everything was a good thing. Her entire body ached, in fact. But she was alive, and the Shosa was alive, and that was the point.

"Yuzuki, distract the target with me! Aim for the tentacles Asher will not hit!"

Re-engaging her inertial control, Yuzuki sped along after Yukari, eventually breaking off from her flight pattern in a 'V' to draw her targets. Then, she began to blast away in earnest.

It was not lost on Yuzuki that Yukari was only using a revolver; against her better judgement, even though she had split off a little to the Shosa's left, Yuzuki stayed close to the Shosa protectively. Yuzuki could afford to take a few hits, she wasn't too badly damaged. The Shosa's armor by contrast looked like somebody had taken a plasma burner to it and then beaten it with a crowbar.

Scattering was smart. Being so far away from the damaged Shosa, though, made Yuzuki nervous, and she couldn't help tensing herself, ready to barrel sideways to the Shosa's side if necessary.

@ vs. Mefpralphra, the "Infection Queen":

Asher's mini-missiles left serpentine trails before they made contact with the void-discs, each pair mutually annihilating themselves. Without the risk of running into a disc, Asher made an aerial zig-zag pattern that brought him into reach of the tentacles holding Tom and his plasma torch burned across the offending appendages.

The Infection Queen swiftly riposted, but his darting maneuvers made him a tough catch - the one hit she managed was just after he struck, a tentacle roughly slapping him on his left side.

Asher normally might have roughed through it, but he hadn't expected the sudden pain of his recently broken-and-hastily-mended left arm to break again. With a surprise cry, he lost his balance just enough for the blow to force him to the ground five meters away.

The blow he had delivered had only briefly removed the energy screen from over the tentacles, but fortunately Yukari, Nyton and Yuzuki were ready to take advantage of the opening. Plasma attack struck the exposed tentacles, searing where they hit, and the flexible limbs shrinked from the pain, losing their hold on Tom.

Their opponent, however, maintained her terrible presence over their battlefield. Energized crystal panes one again covered the burned tentacles and she launched herself in the direction of Nyton's chosen cover. The Taii hurriedly attempted to stealth away, but she struck before he could entirely elude her and-

-she missed. A feint: her target had been to have Nyton scramble back defensively while she wrapped her coils around the large piece of metal debris before she launched herself back toward Yukari, swinging her improvised weapon with earth-shattering strength.

There had been distance involved, but Yukari had been startled by how quickly the Elder Umbral had managed to cover it. The nekovalkyrja Shosa still managed a timely wide sidestep that had her clear of the attack as it clamored loudly not an armspan away.

That attack, though, had Yuzuki reflectively fly back toward Yukari, and that gave their opponent an opening she eagerly seized: she wrenched the debris our of the floor sideways, hurling it toward the sprite. One-and-a-half ton of scrap metal collided into Yuzuki's upper body, striking her down without even slowing down until it clattered hard against the far wall.

The impact had made Yuzuki's upper torso and neck flare with molten pain, her eyesight flaring tints of red before all colors were swallowed into darkness. After her head, neck and chest had taken so much of that blow, there was simply no way she could maintain consciousness.

The four slimy mounds Melpraphra's tentacles had turned into were roiling, changing. Two of them were dicing themselves up: each block gaining the definition and details of winged insect-like creatures. The two others kept growing vertically, nearly of humanoid-size now.

Yukari could only watch in horror as Yuzuki was belted out of the way by the large piece of debris while she went unscathed.

"Yuzuki!" she shouted, even as Tom fell. She knew he was safe, but the blow Yuzuki took was fierce. The Nekovalkyrja's status immediately came to Yukari's HUD: Unconscious, with some damage to her armor, but otherwise not permanently harmed. The Daisy did a good job at blunting, if not absorbing, impacts.

Yukari did not set foot on the ground, wanting to stay mobile. Tactical data flooded her mind, and CIES helped her put it together in a way that made sense. She popped out one of her incendiary grenades from her thigh compartment.

"Claymere, fire your plasma rifle at her right flank while the discs are down! Remain stealthed after firing, and circle her to stay out of her range! Westwood, Freeman, when her armor fails from Claymere's shot, hit her with all available firepower, but stay mobile! She could attack you!"

She thanked the blessing of instant telepathic communication, then pulled the pin on the grenade. She threw it at the changing blocks of Mefpralphra's mass, as identified by her AIES, before she rushed to Yuzuki, planning to pull her up into her arms and carry her, weapon and all, from harm.

Nyton took note of the speed which the being managed to travel. She was fast! Even with so much mass she managed to move much faster than he imagined. Even so the speed had been recorded by CIES to allow him a little better expectancy for maneuvering speed.

Despite not having a chance to fade out while unseen Nyton still went invisible. Whether or not he was actually out of sight he was uncertain and remained cautious. CIES alerted him to Yukari's grenade toss at the four masses that had begun to take shape and took precaution to remain out of the area of the blast. If the grenade did not work then he would need to be cautious of the four new monsters. Again it made him wonder if Melisson would regenerate and attack them. Another note was to be aware should Mefpralphra intercept the grenade and redirect it. Arethusa's barrier was regenerating but he would still be in bad shape should he get hit with the incendiary.

Hovering a little higher from of the floor now, Nyton flew in a wide erratic course off of Mefplralphra's right flank while firing his plasma rifle. He took advantage of his ability to shoot from afar while Mefpralphra would have to charge him to engage him. At least she was big too. The pain in his knee and side was making it hard for him to aim and if not for Arethusa's flight he would be crawling on the floor.

Ka-Clunk Clunk!

That was the sound Asher made when he was cast aside so brutally in the beast's forceful counterattack. Memories of the battle with Eve shot through his mind as the pain did, painting his vision so he could not see the floor rising to greet him. He was still for a moment, pinpricks of agony stabbing everywhere up his arm and around his back, before pushing himself up. His external speakers buzzed with an audible, pain-drunken moan before his daze wore off.

"Son of a FUCK! DICK! SHIT! c***!"

That was the sound Asher made when his mind fully processed all the pain.

"My fuckin' arm! You cock-sucking bitch! that's a fuckin' cheap shot! I'm gunna' rip y'alien tits off and shove'm up your alien ass s'far up in there, y'gunna be chokin' on'm! When tha' docta' takes a look at yo mouth, he's gunna' be all, 'Daym! I ain't seen nothin' shoved this far up no one's ass b'fore'. 'Cause that's how much I'm gunna' fuck you up--" blared Asher his anger broadcasting all over the room.

"Claymere, fire your plasma rifle at her right flank while the discs are down! Remain stealthed after firing, and circle her to stay out of her range! Westwood, Freeman, when her armor fails from Claymere's shot, hit her with all available firepower, but stay mobile! She could attack you!"

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"Hai! Yuka'boss!" growled Asher, the answer almost returning as an angry insult. He couldn't figure out why it hurt so much more than it did the first time it had broken, but he decided not to focus on that. The Malifarian switched to his 50mm Gauss weapon, and replaced the ammo container with a full one, getting back on the move. He shouldered the weapon tightly, readily aiming it at his designated target. Once that armor was down, he was going to unload every ounce of hell in that magazine.

Tom fell from the grip of the Infection Queen, and it was only his AIES automatically engaging his anti gravity that prevented him from slamming into the floor.

He was gasping in pain, and it hurt to move. His damn chest... he wanted to claw at the wound, tear his body apart in frustration. Every sign of his AIES indicated that it wasn't all that harmful, let alone fatal, but that didn't stop it from hurting constantly like a blasted bee sting lodged in his skin.

Everyone else was taking 'real' damage, though, and that angered Tom even more. Yuzuki was knocked out! Nyton had a shattered knee! Asher was working with a broken arm!

He grit is teeth. Like hell he'd be so soft in front of his friends.

A grunt escaped him as he took aim with his rifle and remained mobile, trying to present a difficult target to hit until the plan went into action.

@ vs. Mefpralphra, the "Infection Queen":

Asher's left arm was broken, but Shikamaru's wasn't, and that allowed the Malifarian to force himself through going the quick manipulation needed to bring his chosen weapon to bear on time - even though that sent his body shivering in pain.

He braced his weapon, took aim, drifted off to the side to compensate for the Infection Queen starting to turn around after Tom... and his wait was finally rewarded as Nyton's plasma shot struck against the target area. The energized floating crystal only vanished locally, rather than entirely on Melisson's smaller humanoid body, but it was large enough.

The Gauss Bazooka thundered, the recoil sending more flares of pain into the wounded arm Asher was forcing to help brace the weapon, and his frangible rounds exploded forth, their shrapnel gouging hundreds of bloody wounds in the Umbral Elder's side. Tom and his twin drones managed attacks into the opening in Mefpralphra's defenses, laser beams cutting across the hide while an accelerated plasma bolt splashed searing wounds over where Asher was also striking. Pushing the heat sinks of their rifles, Tom and Nyton each shoved an additional shot in.

Asher's fifth bazooka shot hammered ineffectually against the Varin artifact's protection as it renewed itself, but in that brief window of opportunity they'd savaged her rather badly. Strips of hide were hanging in shreds all over her right flank with the skin stretched taut between her body ear frills littered with holes, with her exposed body fat sizzling and bubbling from Tom and Nyton's ensuing plasma shots. Two tentacles had been torn off at the base and left to flop limply on the floor.

In the meantime, Yukari's incendiary grenade had gone off amongst the slimy masses left of the tentacles Mefpralphra had sacrificed. The two swarms of winged bugs, having just recently been spawned, were sent to a quick roasting death thanks to the attack. The humanoids, though, proved made of sterner stuff as they endured and shambled out of their burning surroundings.

Her eyeslits narrowed in pain, the Infection Queen seemed not to care for sticking around to counterattack after taking on that much damage. As Yukari was toiling to drag Yuzuki away, the large creature darted away in a swim-like arc which ended up having her pass over Yukari and bodily phase through the wall and out of sight.

In that brief instant where Mefpralphra passed overhead her, her body growing translucent, the Shosa picked up one critical detail: the Umbral Elder's undermaw - an almost lamprey-like circle of teeth supplemented by four wickedly-long jutting fangs - was clasped tight around the cobalt-colored orb she had ripped out of Melisson's body.

Then Mefpralphra was gone, and they had other problems.

The two humanoids that stepped out of grenade-born fire appeared to be kin to Melisson, but only after a fashion. Their were lankier, flesh over the longer limbs distended, soft skin replaced by tougher ridged chitin, flowing hair replaced by a long mane of spiky spines, fingers and toes tipped by hooked claws, and the lack of cheeks and jowls turned what had been a pretty mouth into a bared toothy maw.

This, perhaps, had been what Amaya had meant about Melisson's interpreter body having a 'combat mode' - dubbed by SAINT as the "monster-type". Earlier, Kotori's tampering and partial takeover had probably prevented her from assuming that shape while she squared off against Nyton.

These latter two had no such hindrance. Letting out horrible banshee screams they charged at the Black Knights with slavering jaws and eager claws, sprinting through the distance while blinking in and out of the real via phasing.

@Kai:

Kai said:

"H-Hey, Nimura. Why don't you take a break, then?" he sent to her, deciding it was time to just let his Gravimetric system move him upright instead of trying to do it manually.

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Nimura's shoulders sagged. Straining, she forced out of her mouth: "If I relax, I will pass out."

Her face becoming a mask of pain - apparently the neko OS could only handle so much hurt - Nimura used her single good leg to push off and stand again. She swayed, managed to recover with some use of her gravity manipulation, and straightened.

Her head turned to look at the corridor the five others had left through. Sounds of the battle they waged resounded through the halls.

@Defense Line:

Mara had helped deliver Shizuka to Ayumu, informing Ayumu that she needed to be treated for bloodloss and leaving back to 'the front' - though not without charging Akiko to help Miyoko defend the medlab.

By the time Mara came out, Masako had organized the last ragged defenders into defensive positions, spare crates and empty ammo containers set as makeshift barricade while around the corner of the entry passage spare weapons were left for easy rearming.

Then the hammering the horde beyond gave the forcefield proved too much, and it failed. As one, the dark tide swept in and unopposed crashed through the remains of the fortifications they had previously defended outside. The weapon-pods-turned-artillery-pieces were taken down and soon, their numbers choked the entryway.

The defenders began firing. One Mishhu grunt soldier charged through at them, only to crash midway - burned and calcinated from concentrated plasma, pulse cannon and drone fire. It no longer was an issue of missing targets in the body-choked passage so much as concentrating and coordinating their fire as even more opponents rushed in, forced themselves in with a fearless abandon that bordered the frightening.

"Everyone!" Hinoto's voice came up over their communication channels. "Just hang on a little longer! Our people have made it to Melisson. They are fighting her and they are winning!"

Yukari froze the image of the orb in her mind. CIES started to process it, but she focused on the battle at hand.

The phasing monsters ... so like Melisson. She assumed they could implant bugs inside of bodies, exactly as Kai suffered. Yukari rose higher from the ground and headed for a wall, trying to just get away from the one pursuing her and Yuzuki.

"Claymere, help Westwood and Freeman destroy the one nearest you! I will keep this one at bay!" Clutching Yuzuki's body behind her shield arm, she opened up with her forearm cannon, trying to at least keep it at a distance.