At Alpha, glorious laughter escaped Freia's lips as she dodged Mark's graviton pulse. Grabbing onto the hulking armor for leverage and pulling, she nimbly leaped up as Sawyer's crippled leg was swiftly yanked out from under him by that invisible force, making the Aggressor fall forward and onto all fours. "This is just a delight!" the Sylph cried out, landing on the back of the man's neck. As Terrance marched forward, firing his personal sidearm, Freia simply loosened her grip and spun until she was upside down, blinding Sawyer's optics with nothing but the neathers of her suit. As the Sylph's legs closed in around his helmet like a vice, the palm of her free hand pointed straight at the young man, pulses of energy hammering Terrance as one of the drones continued to light him up.
While Mark and Ylfa were hunkered down behind Rachael's shields from the two cannon drones, his armor started to give off an orange glow as it was torn into and slagged by the assault. At the same time, Liam found himself facing down the two Daisies as they advanced, shields raised; they were eating away at his shields now, simply pouring on the lead as fast as they could. Ylfa glanced over her questioning marines and shrugged. "Next time, cannon drones first, then the big bitch herself," she pointed out. Tossing aside her machine pistol, she charged out of the shield bubble at a dead sprint at Freia.
"Here kitty, kitty!"
Off at Bravo, Max was getting ready to use the PPG, only to suddenly realize with horror that the Aggressor didn't come with it like the Hostile did. Improvising as fast as he could, the marine combined his attack with Richard's! The moment the Hostile's PPG fired, he let loose a storm of plasma bolts from both chainguns. Watching the Mindy, she swiftly pulled a side flip away from the invisible hammer, only to start getting tripped up by the rapid-fire rounds that followed up, shields rapidly dwindling as Richard's thrusters howled, the marine dashing forward in a blur. The double barreled weapon boomed, but as the brief disorientation wore off at landing, he realized a charcoal tree was shredded to bits - the timing was completely off.
Seeing a gap, the Mindy fought through the heated pulses her plates were taking; legs becoming a blur, she rapidly closed the remaining distance between herself and the damaged Aggressor, too close for the AOP!
At the same time, Kelly's thrusters lit off as she bull-rushed one of the two Daisies trying to gun down Leonel, the two colliding with a shower of sparks. Rounds continued to bite into his armor however; without help, she had him beat!
Meanwhile, Wulfe and Lisa squared off against the bloodied Mindy as she charged. Lisa's PPG pulse was dodged, as expected, but she didn't open up with her weapons right away. But Wulfe did. Firing everything, he let loose every single missile he had left and went full auto with the rifle in his hands. In the briefest of moments, he could see the Mindy's head tilt up in shock before she tried to dodge and shoot down the incoming swarm, but several rounds peppered her across the chest before they streaked in. Knowing they were going to hit no matter what, she recommitted and charged straight forward! Explosions tore apart her defensive field as heavy, penetrating rounds began to bore into armor.
It was all coming down to the last, final moments for everyone.
Richard turned to see armor boiling and bubbling as Aether quickly slashed across Max's chest, the Mindy landing behind the Aggressor with a dramatic flourish, only for the scarred armor to turn and bring its AOP down on the Mindy like a club, a scream of panic finally escaping her lips. Terrance toppled and fell under the assault, his arm flying off as the cannon-drone severed it with a purple-pink lance. Liam was fighting two to one and was losing, his shields down and armor being chipped away, fast. Rachael and Mark hunkered down, watching as all this unfolded, uncertain as to what to do. Kelly tumbled with her Daisy and tore the shield away with sheer brute strength, sparks flying as she smashing her fists into the other woman's helmet. Leonel, still fighting against the last Daisy, hammered away with his HPAR, but found it blocked by the metal shield she carried; his leg gave way, a stream of bullets to the knee cutting it out from under him. The Mindy that Lisa and Wulfe faced burst out of the smoke and fire, an arm shot clean off as she raised the blinding blade to finally swing. And Freia met Ylfa mid-sprint, the Zesuaium blade stabbing in between plates, up and into the blond woman's chest.
Just as armored hands wrapped around the Sylph's neck.
*****
They physically fought, punched, shot, died and went through all the motions. All as they woke up in a room, sitting in their simulator's chairs. And around them, alarms sounded across the Yamataian base they were invited into. Rising fast, Ylfa called out, loud and commanding, "What the hell's going on here?"
