"GEH." That sound, followed by swearing, is about the first initial reaction one gets from Isura.
About the only beneficial thing in her favor is that she's in the full power suit.
Of course, this is against mechs far larger than Quadraxus.
What she'd give for Quadraxus. Or Kraid. She'd settle for Kraid. He's big, lumbering, and fairly distracting.
But, alas, the fortunes of the stars do not smile on her and drop either one of those behemoths from the sky to distract the Hellions.
Instead, she activates a dormant system in her power suit and starts hauling ass away from the battlefield. Any scanners would indicate her energy levels rising, her speed going up higher than any human can normally go.
"Run, freebirth." They're laughing as they fire on her, not really bothering to pursue her at this point. They could - after all, they control this battlefield, not the Good Guys™ - but they really don't see any particular reason to.
Run? Oh, she can run. She just Really. Really, really hates to do this.
The energy levels that their scanners watch suddenly burst much higher. Isura is suddenly glowing with a lot of plasma energy, and to top it off?
She's going a lot faster than she was a second ago. To the point that she's practically leaving an image trail of the heated energy behind her.
Then she stops suddenly, into a crouch and still glowing. She turns around, morphs into a sphere that stands as high as an average man's waist--still glowing, to note!
The sphere suddenly raises up into the air, the plasma energy surrounding it as all the stored force of the Speed Booster is suddenly redirected.
Whatever Mech is closest has a very large sphere heading in a rough direction of its cockpit, venting superheated plasma through its shielding systems and not stopping even if its shot at.
She still hates Shinesparking. It hurts like a bitch. Even if she doesn't manage to penetrate the mech's hull, there's still the fact that she's coming at it with a lot of force.
Normally the Hellions, when not PINjammed, are pretty good about being able to dodge out of the way of shit rapidly heading towards them.
This is a bit faster than they're used to. The sphere smashes into the cockpit brilliantly, resulting in one downed mech out of... well, plenty. Unfortunately, the rest are going to start to open up on her the moment she comes out the other end.
... and at other civvies, too. People on the ground can't be trusted, and this unit has already had its nerves shot to hell.
It won't be immediate, even though he's been keeping a close eye. Miles has to handle his medical treatments first.
But at some point the Barrayaran tank is there, getting between the fire and nearby civilians who are quickly told to get-into-the-damn-AVF-you-idiots.
Plasma cannons against 'mere' Elementals, some upgraded laser cannons against the Mechs. The tank will target the latter initially, but be happy to direct aim at the former if they come near it.
A text message: I see no reason why everyone cannot live with honor if this attempted conquest is simply halted.
Unfortunately for Miles and the Barrayarans, this fight is on the Hellions' terms. The last time, the shots were hitting home, connecting rapidly with the Elementals and 'Mechs.
This time, there is nothing to jam the PINpoint devices, and all Hellion forces have been extremely well trained in their use. Shots fly past as the Elementals and 'Mechs alike blink around, never moving in quite a straight line, but never just appearing right next to their target, either.
And rest assured that the Elementals are firing on that tank with missiles, and any 'mechs armed with solid weapons are doing the same.
The little admiral does his best to look for a pattern in their PINpoint dodging, paying attention to the cases where one or two manage to connect. Meanwhile, a large portion of the cannons are quickly redirected to shooting most -- though unfortunately not all, of the missles out of the sky. A few, however, remain to keep the mechs hopping under Miles's observation.
The physical shielding of the tank sees some damage. Thank goodness the Hellions won't in all likelihood be able to /tell/ if the mirror field busts, because it will do so with just a little more trouble.
There are patterns. There are complicated patterns that seem to have several variations, and they seem to switch between patterns, but there are definitely patterns. More analysis would be necessary to figure out exactly what it is, preferably at a time where they aren't trying to KILL things.
They are getting closer, and some of the Elementals are literally trying to hop onto the tank, clawing at it with vibration-based weapons.
Well, this is interesting. It's being opened up on with a few autocannon shells and lasers, because really, at least mecha are things that the Hellions know how to deal with initially.
And they do not like the fact that this thing's shots actually seem to be hurting. The hell does that thing pa--
WHAT THE FUCK THE AUTOCANNON SHOTS ARE COMING BACK. They have noticed this, and they are bouncing around via PIN, avoiding them. Because, well, fuck that. They will continue to open up with pulse lasers, though.
Oh shi - lasers! Its one weakness! How did you know?!
It's been dodging them fairly effectively, but one nicks it a bit. Shit. That was the "armor" hit. One more hit and...
Okay, time to try another tact.
[ARMING: GRAVITY ATTACK]
This opens up vulnerability to bullets, but hopefully it can throw them off with its next move. See, the M-308 Storm Gunner has one little gimmick your fancy Ice Hellion mechs don't have.
It can reverse gravity. At will.
It jumps up, and activates the gravity reversal (a+up arrow, donchya know), and once they've fallen upwards significantly, it reverses. As it shoots back down to proper gravity, its body is an unstoppable bullet. It aims at one of the Ice Hellion mechs.
"You sons of bitches," Caleb hisses across the comm. He's already been alerted that there are Hellions in the vicinity, and his 'Mech's been recently repaired and in rather good shape. "You are no longer honorable. You are just as dezgra as what you claim us to be."
The Blood Asp opens up with an autocannon and a barrage of lasers, hoping that he can at least drop something before he needs to retreat. He knows that this is an area that has PINs available, so at least he should be able to hit and run.
Oh, hello there. "The betrayer," one of the Hellions hisses, and until the other, heavier guns show up, all guns are momentarily trained on Caleb.
A volley of lasers, of gauss slugs, of missiles, of everything they can fire at him, just to get one good shot at him. The others may be dezgra freebirths, but he is a trueborn who has sided with the Nexus, and that, to them, is even more inexcusable.
"You sons of bitches," Caleb hisses, even as he moves to start getting out of the way. That's a huge volley that his mech can't entirely take without sustaining damage, and he can feel armor scraping off the front of the Asp, internals being exposed
( ... )
There are times when people must stand up. Even the drunkards. And so Jane's standing and screaming.
Except, y'know. This is Crow Jane. When we say we scream, we mean all of the skin on her face pulls back a little, her feet spread out, and the noise that comes out of her mouth resembles a squealing elephant caught in a jet engine. This is a woman who shreds steel like the layers of an onion when she raises her voice.
This is someone who stood up to the Authority and won.
A few giant robots aren't gonna really make her think twice about this, especially not with a pint of liquid courage in her.
A good three or four mechs start to activate their PIN mechanisms, trying to get away, but there's no chance - PINs buried in the machine's legs and arms are already getting torn away, making it impossible. The other units are scattering like leaves in the wind, PINing WELL away from her.
"Class A preternatural spotted. Fire from an extremely safe distance. Retreat may be necessary."
Once they retreat, the fight may last forever. Jane has ballistics trackers that allow her to predict oncoming firing routes, but her scream really isn't that much use from far away.
...And she's a little too drunk to just fly up there, even if it's faster than her running.
Once a distance is reached, she's gonna have to keep her own, just to be safe.
Comments 62
About the only beneficial thing in her favor is that she's in the full power suit.
Of course, this is against mechs far larger than Quadraxus.
What she'd give for Quadraxus. Or Kraid. She'd settle for Kraid. He's big, lumbering, and fairly distracting.
But, alas, the fortunes of the stars do not smile on her and drop either one of those behemoths from the sky to distract the Hellions.
Instead, she activates a dormant system in her power suit and starts hauling ass away from the battlefield. Any scanners would indicate her energy levels rising, her speed going up higher than any human can normally go.
She really, really hates doing this.
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Reply
The energy levels that their scanners watch suddenly burst much higher. Isura is suddenly glowing with a lot of plasma energy, and to top it off?
She's going a lot faster than she was a second ago. To the point that she's practically leaving an image trail of the heated energy behind her.
Then she stops suddenly, into a crouch and still glowing. She turns around, morphs into a sphere that stands as high as an average man's waist--still glowing, to note!
The sphere suddenly raises up into the air, the plasma energy surrounding it as all the stored force of the Speed Booster is suddenly redirected.
Whatever Mech is closest has a very large sphere heading in a rough direction of its cockpit, venting superheated plasma through its shielding systems and not stopping even if its shot at.
She still hates Shinesparking. It hurts like a bitch. Even if she doesn't manage to penetrate the mech's hull, there's still the fact that she's coming at it with a lot of force.
Reply
This is a bit faster than they're used to. The sphere smashes into the cockpit brilliantly, resulting in one downed mech out of... well, plenty. Unfortunately, the rest are going to start to open up on her the moment she comes out the other end.
... and at other civvies, too. People on the ground can't be trusted, and this unit has already had its nerves shot to hell.
Reply
But at some point the Barrayaran tank is there, getting between the fire and nearby civilians who are quickly told to get-into-the-damn-AVF-you-idiots.
Plasma cannons against 'mere' Elementals, some upgraded laser cannons against the Mechs. The tank will target the latter initially, but be happy to direct aim at the former if they come near it.
A text message: I see no reason why everyone cannot live with honor if this attempted conquest is simply halted.
Reply
This time, there is nothing to jam the PINpoint devices, and all Hellion forces have been extremely well trained in their use. Shots fly past as the Elementals and 'Mechs alike blink around, never moving in quite a straight line, but never just appearing right next to their target, either.
And rest assured that the Elementals are firing on that tank with missiles, and any 'mechs armed with solid weapons are doing the same.
Reply
The physical shielding of the tank sees some damage. Thank goodness the Hellions won't in all likelihood be able to /tell/ if the mirror field busts, because it will do so with just a little more trouble.
Reply
They are getting closer, and some of the Elementals are literally trying to hop onto the tank, clawing at it with vibration-based weapons.
Reply
Reply
And they do not like the fact that this thing's shots actually seem to be hurting. The hell does that thing pa--
WHAT THE FUCK THE AUTOCANNON SHOTS ARE COMING BACK. They have noticed this, and they are bouncing around via PIN, avoiding them. Because, well, fuck that. They will continue to open up with pulse lasers, though.
Reply
It's been dodging them fairly effectively, but one nicks it a bit. Shit. That was the "armor" hit. One more hit and...
Okay, time to try another tact.
[ARMING: GRAVITY ATTACK]
This opens up vulnerability to bullets, but hopefully it can throw them off with its next move. See, the M-308 Storm Gunner has one little gimmick your fancy Ice Hellion mechs don't have.
It can reverse gravity. At will.
It jumps up, and activates the gravity reversal (a+up arrow, donchya know), and once they've fallen upwards significantly, it reverses. As it shoots back down to proper gravity, its body is an unstoppable bullet. It aims at one of the Ice Hellion mechs.
Yeah. YEAH. How do you like them apples?!
Reply
The Blood Asp opens up with an autocannon and a barrage of lasers, hoping that he can at least drop something before he needs to retreat. He knows that this is an area that has PINs available, so at least he should be able to hit and run.
Reply
A volley of lasers, of gauss slugs, of missiles, of everything they can fire at him, just to get one good shot at him. The others may be dezgra freebirths, but he is a trueborn who has sided with the Nexus, and that, to them, is even more inexcusable.
Reply
Reply
Except, y'know. This is Crow Jane. When we say we scream, we mean all of the skin on her face pulls back a little, her feet spread out, and the noise that comes out of her mouth resembles a squealing elephant caught in a jet engine. This is a woman who shreds steel like the layers of an onion when she raises her voice.
This is someone who stood up to the Authority and won.
A few giant robots aren't gonna really make her think twice about this, especially not with a pint of liquid courage in her.
Reply
A good three or four mechs start to activate their PIN mechanisms, trying to get away, but there's no chance - PINs buried in the machine's legs and arms are already getting torn away, making it impossible. The other units are scattering like leaves in the wind, PINing WELL away from her.
"Class A preternatural spotted. Fire from an extremely safe distance. Retreat may be necessary."
Reply
...And she's a little too drunk to just fly up there, even if it's faster than her running.
Once a distance is reached, she's gonna have to keep her own, just to be safe.
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