Not only the target of Sif and Molli's frustration, the Revenger armor was being sought by almost all of the Yamataians, save for the new Rikugun recruits. Even Charbon's ashy bobbed head was aimed towards the sky, then the cliffs, then the water as her hands stayed at her waist, cuffed. On a swivel, she seemed to be looking for it, too. For a moment, it seemed like Charbon would not reply to Sif's probing mental query until she looked to the nearest Mindy armor.
The cuffed Overseer didn't know if it was Sif inside or not, but spoke back over the mental link while looking to it. "No game, just plans. Nightmares you couldn't comprehend that I wish to avoid."
Sif scoffed as her spear once more returned to her, this time gripped by her tail. She faced Charbon and her squad of Nekos. "I'll ask just once, Overseer," she said with an uncharacteristic sharpness yet unknown to the rest of the ship's crew, "Tell your girls to halt their fire on the Yamatian crew."
"They won't," Charbon replied simply and with little eloquence. "Those not loyal to the machinations of war have already surrendered to you."
With a small pause and a click of her tongue likely loud enough to be heard by Molli being so close, Sif responded with a grim, "You should have stayed on the ship." Severing the connection, she released the payload she had prepared.
The Nekos that gathered around her, much like the soldiers in the underwater chambers, received a transmission of data on the same channel the NMX of the Caldera base used, as well as a general open transmission.The content was a pretty damning collection of Charbon's interaction with a certain grunt whose name was redacted. From Charbon wanting to speak to the grunt and an ID-SOL in abandoned tunnels to her revealing what the insurgents should look for concerning plans for Elysia, which ultimately lead to the failed invasion. And then her recent exploits, her declaration of surrender followed by the execution of three of her subordinates, by her own hand, who were held down, but otherwise struggling against Yamatian armor.
As Sif broadcast her exploits to her sisters, Charbon's Neko ears lowered and folds formed between her eyebrows like dog-eared pages of a book. Charbon was silent as her eyes slid towards the Mindy armor nearest her once more. Not knowing who it was, just that one of them had signed her permanent death warrant if she were to stay with the NMX, Charbon’s teeth flashed as her bottom lip dropped in a fearful grimace.
The swarm of NMX Neko regrouping in the orange fissures swarmed with some orders unheard by the Yamataian team. They formed a little semi circle on the ground and a larger cone of bodies in the air. Heralding the Revenger that phased into the center of their assembly, the congregation were both up in arms and re-arming themselves, preparing to fight—even if they were to fight Charbon who they openly jeered.
"I don't think I have to ask if this is true Sister Overseer Charbon, do I? Many of us are keenly aware of your sympathies for those that would destroy us." The woman in the Revenger spoke out of her face plate in an accented but robotic voice. Long gray tresses blew in the sea breeze like a flag in the wind from her head, though the faceplate of its helmet remained with its pockmarked forehead and glowing, red slitted eyes. The imagery Sif had broadcast had no doubt sparked her re-arrival on the battlefield.
"I sympathize only with the Mishhuvurthyar, that I promise," Charbon said in her raspy, flowing accent that shook with emotion. "Namely those that would have us grasp hold of and live in peace. Those that would have us live better lives than senseless killing."
Aiko watched as many of the NMX Neko soldiers on the beach scattered, their formation broken and fleeing toward cover in the bluffs nearby. She kept firing as their disorganized number scrambled for safe vantage. And when the shocking new Revenger pattern power armor came out from phase, appearing again to rally its shattered comrades, the princess' gaze — and weapons — turned up to address it.
"And yet you've been living a second life helping the daughter of our conqueror the face of our enemy’s war. Helped their senseless killing. Or are these lies created by her runts?” the woman in the armor asked, raising a hand to point towards the Yamataians.
Were she closer, Aiko would have leapt in to strike the expounding enemy before they could spout more of their nonsensical ideology. Neither an aether blade nor zesuaium fist was required to end the newcomer's tirade, however, so Aiko pointed her Kirie's shoulder mounted cannons up toward her target's floating form and snapped off a quick shot from both.
"Keep the enemy suppressed!" Aiko ordered, not only toward those in her squad yet to be engaged but for the YSS Kaiyō II itself. With the mighty gunship's point defense quad cannons on their side, the small Star Army team still possessed outsized firepower. "Do not meet their hesitation with our own."
The princess took to the air herself in a trajectory that would bring her to the enemy's new position, intending to continue fighting without regard for arguments that would be better stated outside of combat. If Aiko had anything to say now, her words would come alongside shots and blows that spoke more persuasively to the moment than monologues could.
Rifle trained at the Revenger, Sif shot a burst of three to get her attention, following Aiko's attack, knowing that if she kept her shields up, her bullets wouldn't be seen as much of an attack. Sif's broadcast had sown some grief between the enemy ranks, and shone some light on Charbon's character as seen by the NMX Nekos' own perception. This was something she could use to bend the battle to their favor. A divided house cannot stand, and so Sif decided to lean towards the flames she had started, looking to add kindling.
Speaking now through her armor's spearker, Sif addressed Charbon. "So you lied about surrendering, Overseer? Was the death of your soldiers by your own Impaler all for show?" Sif's voice carried a sorrow, as if she herself was hurt by Charbon's actions. With a mild burst of aether, she lifted off, hovering at the same level as the Revenger, presenting her shield towards them.
Unaware of just what exactly Sif had done, Molli welcomed the dismay and the disorganization that had swept across the enemy like a plague. She remained below as Sif flew off to face down with the Revenger, though she leveled her shotgun upward at it. Clearly, recoil wasn't a concern for her.
With Aiko’s order, the anti-mech cannons came online. Bursts of ochre sand shot into the air as rounds were fired into the NMX ranks. They flew in evasive formations while the Revenger and Charbon seemed protected by the swarm around them that Sif had pushed her shield through and Aiko had shot into. As the Kitsurugi princess charged the new NMX armor, a few Neko were pummeled into before the defensive shielding went up on the Revenger. Pentagons interconnected in bright shining orange lines that both shots and blows could not usurp.
Looking between the Revenger and Mindy within the metaphorical eye of the tornado, Charbon looked pulled in two different directions.
William flew parallel to Aiko's path, mirroring her trajectory. His sword gleamed as he held it at his side, readied to slash at the new armored opponent. As he flew he fired salvos from his chain guns at anyone who dared to shoot at him.
Miori biting her tongue at all of the nonsense being bandied about by these NMX lunatics followed William's lead, blasting off the beach and maxing out her speed capability in her DAISY. Miori with her blood boiling began using her shield and pistol in one hand to provide distracting fire while also drawing her katana. The aether crackling along its blade mirroring the fire of her rage.
"So you avoided detection well." The Revenger spoke over Charbon’s silence. “You called them into your office, Sister Charbon, but weren't there. Pulled our head armorer out and gave them free rein of our weaponry, but weren't there. In the old passageways with no NUCLEON video feed you instructed them, Charbon. So, again, you weren't there. And then to cover up all those memories- to cover up all that treason..." The NMX in the armor had gotten close to Charbon who was biting her bottom lip and sweating visibly. In a robotic voice, she stage whispered.
"To cover up all that treason you killed yourself. Memories wiped clean. So even now if we were to probe your mind, you would't know. Even now in front of me, you can't recall just how much of a traitor to your sisters you really are. But I know. I know I can trust these vile runts more than you!”
“I surrendered to you!” Charbon turned to Sif, finally responding to her. “But they took your captain and I know what they’ll do to her.”
Outwardly, Sif hadn't flinched, but her heart was beating fast. She hadn't noticed it at the time, but when she was reorienting herself with the battleground and noticed Charbon at the beach, Hoshi's signal wasn't detected in her scans. And now the Overseer claims to know where they took the captain.
But Sif masked herself with a calm veneer. Looking from Charbon to the Revenger, she said, "Sisters, we all know a traitor is worth more dead." Sif slowly pointed her gun towards Charbon before quickly snapping her gun towards the revenger and locked the trigger down as she committed what might be a huge mistake. As quickly as she could Sif flew towards Charbon to scoop her up with her sheild arm and fly her away.
"Well, isn't your story a roller coaster," Sif said. "Right now, you are plummetting all the way down. Your choice if we keep going down or we rise back up. Talk."
As Sif pulled her stunt and dove to grab Charbon, William crashed through the tornado of bodies, slashing at the ones that were unlucky enough to be in his way. Putting himself between Sif and the Revenger, he smirked underneath his helmet. "Now it's my turn!" He called flashing forward.
Miori, following up William's comet like attack, lashed out with her blade, dispatching the enemies wounded or dazed by the ID-SOL's assualt. While William held off the Revenger, Miori focused on the lesser threats that decided to make a move to Sif. Buying her as much time as she could.
Asuka did her best to help. At times it seemed her own rifle was paltry compared to her more skilled teammates, but everything helped to some extent or another. Her aim was still good, and while the enemy concentrated on the larger, faster threats, she did her best. A quick change of plans, moving back away from the dubious safety of the woods and breaking toward the others, taking short, measured shots at the NMX bodies attempting to protect their leader. Admirable loyalty, but she felt little sympathy for what such loyalty would buy them.
When Aiko's salvo and subsequent aether sword slash deflected off of the Revenger's powerful energy shell, she came back around twice more. Each time, the blade projected out from her Kirie's left forearm emitter clashed against the enemy's protective bubble with an orange flash that forced into full view the pentagonal lattice of its otherwise invisible aegis. The crowd of NMX Neko around them fared far worse, though, as Aiko managed to pick a few more of them off with each darting pass back to strike at the new enemy armor.
"What great dishonor it is to stand behind your shielding and speak on 'senseless killing' as these so-called sisters die at your behest," Aiko said to the Revenger and all of the NMX Neko still putting up a fight. She slowed her attacks for a few seconds to talk, but then tried to plunge her aether blade into the Revenger again. "I see not one of our warrior kin before me but a Mishhuvurthyar brain-slave within that armor, I am sure, in essence if not in form."
Aiko's teal sword was met with the same bright geometric barrier as her last several attempts, even as she commanded her Thought Armor forward and pressed against the enemy's energy shielding with all of its mechanical might.
William followed in closely behind the princess, the movements flowing like the two had been fighting together all their lives. In essence they had. "Queen's gambit," he told Aiko, a technique he had devised during their time in the Kuvevexian arena. William dropped and began loop around while Aiko distracted the target, giving the bigger man a chance to flank the opponent from a more favorable position while Aiko kept them occupied.
From the relative safety of the fringes, Asuka shot into the NMX fray and thinned them negligibly. Miori did so from directly in the midst of them, able to pinpoint which ones were about to swoop in to intrude on Sif’s intention to pull Charbon out of there.
The Revenger’s energy shield brightened when Sif had pointed her gun at her then mellowed when her true aim was clear. Charbon’s capture was watched by the many eyes on the forehead of the faceplate like a Advanced Mishhuvurthyar watching a Parasite-type squirm on the ground.
“I do not need a traitor, dead or alive.” The Revenger said. “I’ll keep your captain instead.” The Revenger looked up to see the Kirie mecha and Nepleslia Cyclops honing in on her. It seemed her long grey hair was bonetted as the helmet of her armor fully clasped around her head and locked in to her faceplate. Her leg hard points popped open, releasing a drove of NSB’s for William to deal with while the gattling guns on the spiked shoulders began to shoot out at her opponents. Aiko, though, got the attention of her aether saber that she fired into the princess' mech.
“You dare lecture me?!” The Revenger’s energy shield took Aiko’s blows as she hissed out the words. When she recognized Aiko’s attempts were only killing NMX in the Kitsurugi’s attempt to get at her, she took a hop back at every slash of the emitted blade from Aiko’s mech. Soon, they were out of the tornado of bodies protecting her.
"You may fight me, though, Ketsurui spawn!" The Revenger reached her torso and skimmed her blade out towards Aiko, strafing close to the princess' red and white mech before passing it by and dodging William's attack. "Though it may not be fair!" She cackled the words along with her trail of aether exhaust and was out over the water in a quick instant, surfing over the calmed waves that were trying to forget their memories of the earlier geysers. Now made choppy, the water churned under her with a froth.
Aiko, of course, gave chase to the taunting Revenger armor. Utterly uninterested in the enemy Neko's sneering cries, she followed low and fast over the whipping sea's surface. Her Kirie cut through the air and kicked up a misty path together with her foe's exhaust as they zipped above the water.
Keeping as close as she could, the princess fired automatic bursts from her remaining forearm weapon. She tracked the Revenger in the air as it dodged and weaved, tracing its fleeing route with aetheric machine gun pulses. Every so often, additional aether fire from one of her shoulder mounted cannons joined the fusillade in an attempt to introduce some randomness to her assault.
The tornado of Nekovalkyrja had begun shifting into a line to fire from the cover on the bluffs. Like earlier, it seemed they were regrouping. It meant that those engaging the NMX directly would have to decide if they wanted to follow the Revenger or stay on the cliffs for the guerilla fighting there.
To give the NMX an incentive to choose quickly, Molli unloaded on the crowd indiscriminately, without much care for whether she wounded, or whether she killed.
Given only a moment to decide which target should take priority, Asuka quickly decided to leave the Revenger to those better equipped--and, if she was honest with herself, those with a bit more speed. The NMX, at least, weren't going anywhere, and still needed to be subdued. She advanced slowly but surely, intent on not leaving Molli to fend for herself. "Coming to you," she reassured.
As Molli shot into them, those NMX Neko without cover spun wildly, clipped or fully hit by her shotgun as others dug into the cliffside cover with renewed zeal. Over the water, the Revenger pilot joyously spun through the air, her laughter clanging against the water like bells tolling. She dodged the forearm weaponry, making her flight take sweeping arcs to the left, then right. But the aetheric machine gun roused the energy field online. Small clusters of orange pentagons formed where the forearm weapons would have hit while larger swatches bloomed to cover the machine gun hits. Like some kind of patterned light show, the energy field lit up in its orange blossoms with little randomness.
Charbon told Sif, “Talk? Under duress like this? Well, you must understand I want to save your captain. There is an experimental form of nasty mind control meant for Nekos en masse. Capturing Yamataian Neko to test it has been a priority. But I do not expect you to understand.”
"Yes, under duress like this!" Sif snapped at Charbon as she rolled in the air for a quick 360-degree scan of the situation, looking out for who was giving chase, if any. "And I don't need to understand! Not right now. I need my captain back, and so do you! You coming back to the beach to surround yourself with your soldiers won't look good after her disappearance. So it'll be better for all of us involved if you told us where she was taken. And before we get shot out of the sky, if you please."
"Just torture me already," Charbon said vehemently. "They are halfway to the ship if not there already. You took too long waffling; your captain is gone. And what's more, they won't be trading me for her anytime soon. You've struck out, little one."
While Sif and Charbon were having this conversation, Miori laid into the nearby NMX forces. Her pistol blasting off shots as her blade cut into any that got too close. Though the pressure of the enemy was starting to wear her down. A blast lanced past her shield that she had moved to slowly and impacted her thigh, draining her Daisy's already depleting energy levels. She let out a low growl of pain and frustration at the hit. "Ignemar-Hei please hurry and get to cover with them. I don't know how long I can keep up this defense." She said with a bit of desparation leaking through her words.
"S-sorry! I'll drop Charbon off to the ship then regroup with you," Sif responded to Miori. She had been taken aback by Charbon's revelation, and there was still so much she wanted to know about this mind control business, but there was still an active battle going on. "Ignemar to Kaiyō II, I'm bringing Overseer Charbon back. She has intel on experimental Mishhu mind control and may know where they took the captain."
Miori gave a quick affirmation of Sif's plan before returning her focus to the fight at hand staying nearby to shield Sif during her retreat.
Heart beating faster by the minute, Sif veered towards the ship with the recaptured Overseer, eager to drop her off and rejoin the fight. But before she gets there to hand Charbon over to the ship crew, she had a few things to say to her first. "You're also striking out yourself, you know. We'd appreciate it if you tell us everything about this mind control business."
While Aiko kept the opponent distracted, the ID-SOL, William, had flown low behind her, building up speed as he flew over the waves.
Aiko's addition of a third, more random, weapon system provided the attrition that the Revenger's AIES faltered to keep abreast of. The shoulder mounted cannon connected, pushing the Revenger off of its path and into the water.
The moment of retribution was short, though, as the new NMX armor suddenly shot out of the water behind the Kirie. The Revenger hurdled forward and slashed into Aiko's right side with the aether beam saber, striking at a point with no safeguard in the Kirie mecha. It had been where Aiko had jettisoned her right arm on the beach earlier and a seething guttural war cry came from the NMX Neko within the Revenger as she slashed into the crimson armor.
William took that moment to make his move. "Push off now!" He sent to Aiko, as he began to climb.
The princess took the Revenger's hit, allowing the new-generation Mishhu armor bite into her Kirie's side. Her left gauntlet, still fully operable, activated its aether saber once again after the limb swung around and pointed at the Revenger's neck. Aiko refused to falter now, particularly with William alerting her to his surprise attack, and set her blade to trap the enemy into a cut if it made any evasive move whatsoever — barring, of course, slipping out of phase again.
As William rose, he diverted all power to the thrusters. His fist was aimed at the Revenger's midsection. At the moment his fist would make contact, he'd fire the pilebunker into the armor. He roared as the 8 foot, armor clad missile drove his fist upward.
The Revenger was crossed up in Aiko’s aether saber, held taut by the princess’ defensive strike even after the Revenger had cut into the mecha. Some of the bunching of eyes on the faceplate slid to look from Aiko’s Kirie to William hurtling towards her and activated shielding. Orange patterns bloomed in a half sphere in front of William’s point of impact.
The NSB’s she had deployed at William had been ignored and had taken potshots and damaged his Cyclops enough that the Revenger honed in on the places where damage had already been dealt with its gattling guns as it absorbed the pilebunker driven fist up into her.
“If you will bring another onto the field,” the Revenger spoke out. “Then so will I!”
"Damn you!" William growled as his armor took damage. His pile bunker and all his built up kinetic energy being spent on the shield. "Just shut up and die already!" He roared, blood dripping down his forehead from a gash he hadn't realized he'd sustained.
The plasma rifles on his back pivoted and began to fire at the NSB's shooting at him. At the same moment, William's sword flashed hacking away with reckless abandon at the shield. There wasn't any finesse in his movements, like Aiko's. Just pure brute strength as he hacked at the shield over and over again.
That the Revenger hadn't phased away upon spying William, apparently refusing to retreat out of their shared reality and into another physical realm despite the edge of an aether blade being held centimeters from its neck, indicated to Aiko that perhaps it could not. At least not in this moment.
And so the Yamataian princess made a rash decision, intending to take advantage of the lapse in her enemy's ability to disappear.
Hastily, Aiko mentally entered a teleport transit solution into her Thought Armor's CIES. Just her and this abominable Mishhuvurthyar machine; bringing her Nepleslian friend along would risk putting him inside the rock, too. She aimed their destination somewhere along the cove's bare cliff face beneath the second of those orbital artillery batteries she and William had destroyed earlier.
Then Aiko pushed off, thrusting away from the Revenger to put a breath's worth of distance between them before activating her Kirie's Heavy Lift Teleporter Unit.
If she had calculated correctly, the Revenger would rematerialize at least partially within the earth — and hopefully dead or crippled before its capacity to phase returned — with Aiko somewhere in the air closeby. She didn't think of a misfired failure. Something like ending up herself underground without another thought until being awoken from ST backup in the Kaiyō II's medbay, or worse: half-merged with the sandstone bluffs.
With little time or space to spare, Aiko's mech just barely cleared the sandstone bluff. She saw within the rocky outcropping were coral, seashells, and old parts of the sea that had stuck into the cliffs from long ago. But amongst the prehistorical maritime fauna were three anomalous red cones that raised up from the packed sand unnaturally. They were the shoulder spikes from the Revenger suit.
The combined gambit of the Yamataian princess and Nepleslian royalty's son had paid off. Whether the NMX Neko within was dead or alive in the cliffside, it was clear she was not phasing away to fight more on this day.
"Look there," Charbon said from within Sif's grasp. "And heed my earlier words."
Her finger had shakily raised to point to the center of the water where the water was less choppy, was their pink captain. She sat comforably as if on the ground and a weak, tight smile was spread on her lips. With her legs out in front of her and her hand on the scrambled eggs on the brim of her hat, she looked to her crewmen and tipped her fingers, holding up her hat in gratitude.
Their captain was instantly recognizable, even amidst the chaos of their skirmish, and Molli seized on the opportunity to shore up a task while the rest of the crew were occupied with some other aspect of the battle. The Nepleslian's armor skated across the water, the sea parting under the jettisoned force of her aether wings, before settling to a gentle hum as she floated down to meet Hoshi.
"Give ya a lift?" Molli asked, her visor briefly becoming transluscent through volumetrics so that Hoshi could see the look of concern on her face.
Looking back to where Charbon pointed to the water, Sif could see Hoshi by her light blue hair, as well as Molli rushing over to her side. How did Hoshi get there? As glad as she was to see her seemingly safe, it also didn't make much sense. Why kidnap and then return her without much of a fight? Couple that with Charbon's warning, a sense of dread fell over her.
Tuning her comms to address everyone in the team save for Hoshi, Sif attempted to caution them, Molli especially considering her close proximity. "Careful! Check for traps!" It was the most immediate way to have everyone on alert, a small buffer for what she was going to say next.
"Charbon revealed that the NMX is experimenting with mass mind control. Please be wary. I'm sorry to assume such a stance, but William, Aiko, you both know Hoshi the longest, can you assess her state of mind?" Sif was no expert in the field by any stretch of the imagination, but being an avid reader, she was exposed to the concept a number of times. It fed into the anxiety as the books and novels had used it in so many ways, it started to get her to question her own perception of the events. After all, who could say you needed to be captured to get brainwashed or mind controlled when a connection was just a thought away?
Peripherally aware of the main battle, Asuka kept half an eye on what went on in the sky even as she tended to more immediate matters on the beach. She wasn't completely comfortable entrusting the bulk of the work to people she'd not really known, at least not personally, for more than a couple of days, but they were all on the same team and that would have to be enough. Also, the Revenger being the biggest threat on the field suggested she at least keep some awareness of its location at all times.
Thus, in between taking and receiving fire from the NMX, her armor getting progressively more and more dinged, she took notice when the Revenger's location stopped moving at all. She dared to divert her attention a moment, looking over in Sif's direction. She did so at the same time the warning came, and she widened her perception, straining to see just what had gotten Sif's attention.
With the last apparent NMX leader now vanquished and their mob of enemy Nekovalkyrja in final disarray, Aiko could at last focus on matters beyond combat. She'd kept up with the radio chatter all along but used no cognitive space to comprehend it until now, and floated midair beside the cliff face for a second to process the situation.
"Aratani-shoi, secure Overseer Charbon and listen to what she has to say," Aiko said at first, then gliding down in her red Kirie to where Hoshi sat at the cove's center. "She surrendered to the Captain in the base below, where Hoshi-tasia iterated her trust in the woman."
Soon near Molli and Hoshi, Aiko's Kirie peered curiously at the captain — or simply the captain's image there — examining the oddly still vision of Hoshi without power armor that held its white Type 35 hat above its head. The princess said nothing just yet.
"On it, Ketsurui-chusa. We found the captain?" Aratani responded to Aiko in a tone both on edge and surprisingly chipper.
At that moment, those with eyes trained on the visage of Hoshi sitting atop the water like the new Rikugun addition Asuka and this mission's arbiter, Sif, would see a gnarly writhing mass jettison out from the captain. As if she were a delicate bush subsumed by invasive, thorny vines, Mishhuvurthyar tentacles jumped out from where the captain had been while the spiked grey mud of a Mishhuvurthyar carapace shimmered into existence in the space between her and Molli. The bulk of its body followed soon after the feelers.
Limbs grappled into Molli’s Mindy and it began to shove her into its center, snapping into her Mindy with its snapping internal beak. Molli’s armor hadn’t sustained much damage and it would take awhile for the creature to get through the sophisticated technology and zesuaium. But as Molli knew—it could.
The beast was an all too common sight to the team but distinctly larger than the average Advanced by at least threefold.
Hoshi (or whatever projection of her the team had seen) was gone and replaced by the hulking mass. The more corporeal form of Molli was also out of sight, neatly tucked deep where none could see her. Without hesitation, it followed the next line of interest and spewed towards Aiko with its tentacles extended towards the red mech's right, armless side.
Within the effluvial mass of the Advanced, primal fear seized its newest victim, who had once again been seized into the clutches of the enemy faster than she could comprehend her mistake. Pressure slammed into every inch of Molli from all directions, simultaneously threatening to crush and rip her apart from every limb, of which all four had been spread and constricted as to inhibit all possibility of resistance or escape. Darkness pervaded her vision, drowning her in its smothering oppression -- she was alone in the depths of a fleshy ocean, her panicked breaths and jackhammer he the only companions she had left.
That, and the razor sharp beak that kept slamming into her Mindy's breastplate, its attempt to find purchase and peel flesh from metal a certainty in the near future. Terror seized the soldier, swallowed her words, as she struggled in vain to squeeze the trigger on a shotgun she hadn't realized was already stolen from her hand. The beak slammed into Molli's chest again, punching the breath out of her lungs.
"Molli!" Aiko roared, activating her own CFS and backing away at relativistic speeds from the Enhanced Mishhuvurthyar's slithering tentacle charge. "Teleport away! Emergency transit!"
She transmitted a set of safe coordinates to the Nepleslian fighter while bringing her Kirie's own guns to bare and then began firing. Knowing what she knew about Enhanced Types, Aiko's shots wouldn't penetrate deep enough to harm her helpless friend in its clutches. Nor would they kill the thing. But with any luck, the princess' volley would buy Molli a few moments to avoid being eaten.
Coordinates flashed up across the Nepleslian's visor, a shining light of hope delivered by a familiar voice. Molli clasped hard on this lifeline back to the surface as her armor thrummed with energy from the building teleportation. A throaty screech steeped in furious anger rattled Molli's bones -- the Advanced couldn't accept that its prey was escaping, and the beak began slamming into Molli with the force of an industrial hydraulic press. Her armor struggled to retain its integrity, warnings blared in her visor, the end was coming.
"Boss, fire on this beast with your positron accelerators!" Aiko told the Kaiyō's MEGAMI avatar. In truth, she would have preferred a full aether shock spread to ensure the Enhanced Mishhu's demise. The Poku who owned Rabaal wouldn't appreciate such taint, though, so the warship's turrets would have to do the job.
William felt a cold chill run down his spine as he saw the tentacles shoot out from where Hoshi, or the illusion of Hoshi, had been just moments before. His armor had taken a beating during his and Aiko's fight with the Revenger. Taking stock, he found the pile bunker was wrecked and he had several breaches is his armor. But he couldn't stop now. That thing had pretended to be Hoshi. He couldn't be sure, but he had a hunch. And the thought of his hunch being correct made him sick to his stomach.
Jettisoning the pile bunker, he drew his sword in one hand, and extended the claws on his good forearm. With a mighty boom, he launched from the beach, a rooster tail of sand, then water following in his wake. His path led to Molli. If she didn't teleport out, he'd grab her and get her to safety. If she did, then he was going to carve that thing from head to toe, and make sure it suffered the entire time.
From its vantage, the Kaiyō gunship had been able to effectively witness the attack from both Revenger and then Enhanced Mishhuvurthyar. It could watch as the squid-like foe followed Aiko hunngrily until she started firing on it, at which point its charge became defensive, effectively pulling away from its target and minimizing its sillhouette. Doing so to theoretically minimize the potential for risk befalling it the Mishhuvurthyar had, in practice, sealed its fate.
Able to pull the diagnostics report from Molli's teleported out the millisecond it happened, the ship's MEGAMI's quantum femtomachine processed the data without delay. Both ventral positron cannons had locked on to the target the moment the Ketsurui's order came in and now that Molli was out, they both burst out single payloads of 2,000 kg compressed positrons into the Mishhuvurthyar. Meant to destroy small starships or bombardment, the Enhanced Mishhuvurthyar was blotted out from the battle field. Water surged, caving in so deep that it lapped out and bared the bottom of the cove where Hoshi, Asuka, and William had trudged along earlier in their expedition. It burst back up and a tidal wave rose up and splashed onto all beaches of the cove and off into the ocean.
Miori, who had been distracted with her defense of Sif, was made aware when her objective, the Kaiyō, changed heading to face where Miori's HUD battlefield map had shown Molli to be. Before Miori could process what was happening her visor went dark to shield her vision from the brilliant display of Aether lancing out. Fortunately, the combatants she had been holding off were similarly blinded by the sudden blast of a starship's main weapon in atmosphere.
Aboard the ship, Aratani called in to comms, "Releasing prisoner to sick bay personnel and taking over peeling Peaches out of her armor. Peio-heisho standing by!"
Miori's confusion was cleared by Aratani's call out mentioning 'Peaches' being safely aboard. Allowing her to recover faster than her surrounding foes. "I wish training had been more clear about how confusing the battlefield can be," she said to herself as she went about with her sword and pistol, taking advantage of the still shell shocked enemy. Then she felt it, the moment when the fight left her enemy and they began to surrender. Miori took a breath and sheathed her blade.
Speaking to Aiko, the MEGAMI said, "Threat eradicated down here, but a starship has left stealth and fled Rabaal orbit. Sensors Operator and I show no more NMX strongholds on the planet. There are some three hundred life signs at your location, Chusa."
"Message them another demand to surrender and indicate somewhere they should assemble for pickup," Aiko replied to Boss. "And send a message to Task Force 282. We cannot alone ferry so many prisoners off this world, but our SAINT contingent should be able to retreive and process them. Or otherwise take care of those who refuse to lay down their arms. Leave a sensor beacon to track these Nekovalkyrja until then."
The princess maintained her position as the great wave surged and passed over her, held stationary beneath the swell by her Thought Armor's propulsion stabilizers. All of the grime and blood accumulated over the course of their battle on the beach loosened and ran down the Kirie's plating in streaks as she flew higher upward toward the Kaiyō.
"Everyone return to the ship," Aiko said to the squad. She hovered beside the gunship and would wait there until all of the away team was back aboard. "Our mission here is accomplished. Now we must prepare to confront more urgent hazards."
Asuka gave Aiko a quick acknowledgement. She'd witnessed Hoshi, quite incongruously out in the open and more importantly, out of her battle armor, and had been cut off in asking just what was going on when the stuff of nightmares had appeared. Unluckily, or perhaps luckily, her armor had been too slow to close the distance, and so she managed to avoid a truly prodigious explosion which, under other circumstances, she might have appreciated more. Spray kissed her armor as she kept her rifle at the ready, just in case any other unpleasant surprises decided to appear.
"Uh, just what sort of more urgent do you mean?"
Now safely aboard the Kaiyō, Sif had handed Charbon over to the awaiting crewmen after escorting her deeper than previously into the ship, but her own stomach was chruning like a storm. The reports going to her mind pointed to Molli's safety from being vaporized by the ship's cannons, but she was left with a sinking feeling that left her speechless when she witnessed her dear friend get dragged under the water.
The order was already given to return to the ship, which made Sif's next choice of action easy to decide. As soon as she could discern where Molli was, she quickly rushed to her side to see if she could help Aratani with anything, but she couldn't speak herself as she held her breath looking for signs of life.
With the order to return to the ship, Miori quickly landed on the Kaiyō. Her exhaustion finally catching up to her. She wearily began to sort through the multitude of silenced alarms her suit had produced for her during the lengthy engagement on the planet as she strode to the maintenance area for the Daisy.
William hovered over the spot that the Advanced Mishu had once occupied for what felt like hours. However it had only been a minute or two. Finally snapped out of his contemplative state by the returning sensation of pain that revealed itself now that the adrenaline was gone.
He flew into the PA bay and unlocked his armor. Stepping out he took in the damage of his Cyclops. He had put his armor through quite a beating this go round. He wiped an arm across his forehead, which caused a new rivulet of blood to drip down his face.
"Ugh... seriously?" He asked, his head beginning to ache. William had to admit that he had also put his body through the ringer as well.
By the time Sif arrived at the sick bay, she'd see Molli stumbling out of her nearly ruined Mindy with the help of Peio. Though she was standing, and breathing, and seemingly uninjured, Molli's eyes were dim and vacant. She couldn't register Peio's questions, didn't budge at the physical examination, couldn't think to do anything but breathe and blink. It was only when she looked at Sif that Molli's metal eyes regained their glow, and reality set in -- she was safe, she was home.
The trauma of her ordeal, though fresh in Molli's mind, could at least be pushed deep down as another worry entered the Nepleslian's mind. With a hoarse voice, Molli voiced the source of her foolish decision just a few minutes ago, and the most pressing matter on the minds of every man and woman aboard the Kaiyō:
"Where's the captain, Sif?"
Hearing Molli's voice, Sif all but tossed her helmet off, choosing instead to tuck it under her arm. "Hoping Charbon knows... The Hoshi we saw in the water, that was just a projection." Slicking her hair back but stopping half way, Sif's eyes were scanning Molli's own, seeming looking for something. But she continued.
"I checked my logs. Hoshi's signal just disappeared in the middle of that fight. Charbon said the NMX took her. And that they have this mind control tech they're experimenting with." Worried this might get a rise out of the Nepleslian, Sif pre-emptively moved her hand from her head to Molli's shoulder.
"You should get some rest, I don't imagine an emergency teleport is going to feel all that good from underwater. And I imagine I'll have to sort out the details of what the Overseer shared and report to Aiko, don't I? Wish me luck?"
Sif was right to worry, but fortunately for her and unfortunately for Molli, the Nepleslian's exhaustion caught up to her as she was beginning to grow incensed, and she nearly fell into Sif in the process of trying to shake her hand off. Molli sighed, shrugged her shoulders, and nodded.
"...G'luck," Molli murmured.
Tired but in relative good health, the crew needed rest and relaxation after destroying the enemy bases on Rabaal and coming face to face with the newest advanced armor that the Mishhuvurthyar had to offer. Had the captain been aboard, she would have ordered the onsen filled with hemosynth for a restorative soak and bonding session amongst the crew.
But Taiyou Hoshi was not aboard the YSS Kaiyō II and, unbeknownst to her crew, would remain off of her ship for some long time to come.
((JP by: Ametheliana, Nameless, raz, Gles, Gunhand, Caelesetos, and aiotoseigi))
