Bounty Hunter vs SpecOps Commander \\ Samus and Rtas

[half_jaw]

Who: Samus and Rtas
What: Samus barges in on Rtas and the Sangheili ain't too happy...
When: Tonight, sometime when Samus is not fighting the others lol
Where: In Rtas's room, and the hallway?
Rating: PG-13, bloody likely fighting

Comments

[1girl_vs_galaxy]

You'd think, after busting into multiple rooms, and finding herself on the tail-end of fights in the majority of them, Samus would have learned her lesson. Perhaps it had been paranoia that had driven her to open this one last door, the choking fear that the giant Ridley had risen again. Regardless, the bounty hunter found herself in another complication.

Crouched in the doorway, teeth gritted behind her visor, Samus prepared for the worst. But what met her eyes was not Ridley. It was not even Meta-Ridley, which came as a relief. What met her eyes was a creature reminiscent of Omega Metroids, though this one appeared to have cloven feet and odd mandibles. The reptilian-shaped face was similar, save for the mandibles. This one seemed to be missing the bottom two on the left side.

Samus could hear the odd, throaty warbling above the familliar 'bzzzzzt' noise of her gun, but could not make out the words. Her gun was trained on the creature's chest: she kept it fully charged, ready to unleash a devastation of energy. Steadying the cannon with her hand she crouched in readiness, but was given a moment to take in her opponent. Calculating its height, she guessed it was about eight feet when straightened, though it too had slightly crouched in readiness, hovering somewhere near Samus' 6"3. It was thicker than she, broader in the chest at least, and its legs were curved as most digitigrade creatures had. Its weapon was a sort of double-bladed device, held in a hand she briefly noted was human-like, with two of the digits appearing to be thumbs.

In effect, they both shared the same idea - that this was enemy territory, and uptmost caution and attention was required at all times.

If she could have heard its musings, that her suit had been created by humans, she undoubtedly would have been offended. Created by the Chozo, a birdlike alien race,it was far more resilient, far more advanced than anything humans could offer. Samus herself had been infused with Chozo blood, making her far more than just simply humanoid.

Samus was caught by surprise when the creature, apparently far more honourable than the Metroids she'd encountered (save one), saluted her, as she stood with her Charge Beam aimed directly at the approximation of its chest. The creature's weapon buzzed to life, and confirmed that it was no ordinary blade. Bringing a knife to a gun fight was a bad idea, but Samus had the sneaking suspicion that the sword had properties she ought to be wary about.

She nodded her head in recognition of the salute, still crouched in her normal firing stance. It felt unfair to simply blast him away, so she switched tactics - before her nod was fully finished, Samus Aran's gun discharged its energy with a shocking burst of bright light and deafening noise, screeching towards the creature at a speed even nonhumans had trouble dealing with, intending to strike his right shoulder and immobolize the sword arm. She was rolling defensively to one side before even confirming a hit, expecting immmediate retaliation, her Power Beam already recharging.

[half_jaw]

Rtas was more surprised at the fact that this human had an energy weapon (built right into the suit!) than by the inevitable attack. And even then because it was obviously not of Covenant design, but rather something he'd never seen before--something almost like a mix between a Covenant pistol and Forerunner Sentinel technology the way it fired a charged shot of unknown quality.

Rtas's automatic reflex, honed both by simple instinct and the same experience that forwarded him to the rank of Commander, was to roll out of the way. Naturally.

This he did, thankful the layout of his personal room was close to Covenant (and more specifically Sangheili) requirements of size and accommodations. He began to dodge left even before dropping down into a roll, however the blast was a bit larger than he expected and despite his quick reflexes a portion of the energy still managed to strike his shoulder. Coming out of the hasty roll the Sangheili got to his feet in one quick motion and barely took the time to glance at the sizzling, melting affect on his armor to assess the damage.

Unfortunately there was one thing that Rtas knew that Samus didn't: the Special Operations Commander was ambidextrous.

Though the damage was hardly noticeable at the moment Rtas 'Vadumee knew better than to take the chance. It could be just the rush of adrenaline that kept him from noticing something more hampering that at a most impromptu time a sudden move could spring pain into him and cause him to loose a few precious moments that could cost a battle. He'd seen it happen too many times to other warriors in the midst of war.

These thoughts only took a fraction of a second in real time and the Sangheili warrior made the switch from one hand to the other before he had even finished thinking everything through truth to tell. It was a quick flick-of-the-wrist motion that took the other fraction of the second before Rtas was ready for battle once again.

He didn't wait for the human demon to make another attack of its own. Dashing forward in a low stance the Sangheili gave a battle cry as he thrust out with the sword now in his left hand. The three foot long blade hissed with its own armor piercing energy as it reached out towards the human's armored upper torso.

[1girl_vs_galaxy]

Samus recovered from her defensive roll with a practised ease, sparing half a moment to judge her surroundings and position. She was surprised by his dexterity, particularly since Samus herself was heavily left handed when it came to melee fighting, and whose aim was hard to beat when she used her right hand, as she did with the cannon. But if one were to play a joke on her and somehow switch the arm her cannon was on, she would be hard pressed to function beyond basic levels.

Samus felt a quiet blossom of appreciation for the skill she was up against. But now was not the time for appreciation, or even most throught. Judging by the creature's speed, she would be given a god challenge. Determined, due to the logical conclusion that her gun had far more reach than his sword, she sought to keep a safe distance at all times between them. It gave a glance, surveying the damage she had dealt and confirming Samus Aran's assumption of high intelligence, then launched itself at her with a cry she knew was meant to intimidate enemies and inspire spirit in allies.

Waiting until the moment when she knew her aim would be true and her gun was at its peak charge, Samus fired another full-strength blast, this one aimed for the undamaged shoulder. She followed this with three quick-successioned short bursts, less powerful than her initial strikes but faster to discharge from the gun. The first two were meant to strike high up on his legs, and the third meant to hit and further damage the shoulder she managed to skim. The feeling of her shoulder being pushed back with each shot was comforting and familliar, but Samus had little time to enjoy it.

Her shots were meant, not to mortally wound, but to disable and keep him from reaching her, though his forward momentum meant that she had to get her ass out of there, regardless of whether or not her shots hit or even grazed. Instinctively, she shifted into her evasive morph ball form, her suit contracting into a spherical shape that was about two feet in diameter. Dimly, but distinctly, she heard the screech of metal as his energy blade made contact with the shoulder of her armour just before she fully shifted. Ignoring it for the moment, she shot forward in an attempt to roll between the creature's legs, maneuvering between them best she could. If she was lucky, she might even trip him up; psychologically with the unexpected shift in size and shape, or physically by upending its balance to compensate for the sudden change in its target's position. Being a creature that walked on its toes, changing direction that fast was physically slower, as there was less surface for him to use in correcting his direction. To further complicate matters, Samus planted a small bomb to the floor just as she switched to ball morph form. That would explode in a few moments, and if her timing was right, she could maneuver him just above it and possibly disable him entirely.

Though she was protected in a sense by the special energy field melded into the suit of the armor, the attack scored badly enough to give her a surprise - as she uncoiled into a crouching stance behind him and discharged two more quick shots meant to push him towards the bomb, she felt a draft sneak in, causeing gooseflesh to spread down her arms. Shit. Unlike most blades, his blade apparently cut through her energy shield and armor itself far easier than ones that weren't energy based. Remembering that, well, dur, her planted bomb was about to go off, Samus leapt backwards a few feet and went into a deep crouch as she landed, her gun already charging. The bomb itself wasn't devastating, but it would hopefully serve to disorient and confuse. It really only would be physically dangerous to the creature if he stepped directly on it or fell on it from the force of her last two energy bursts - Samus was already looking around the room just before the bomb went off, opening up new options for evasive action while still trying to keep an eye on the Sangheili.

[half_jaw]

((One month later... X3))

Rtas saw the shots well before he even needed to think of them as a threat. The larger one was oddly the easiest to dodge, if just for the fact that it was hard to miss visually. With his attention drawn to it, he almost missed the beat of the other three shots fired.

He quickly leapt to the side and dodged harmlessly away from the initial blast. He was vaguely aware of the heat from the attack, rather than the usual simple wind feeling of a normal human weapon. The other three shots were more hard pressed to dodge being in quick succession. The last one even found its mark on his injured shoulder. Rtas hissed out a curse in his native language, damning this place for somehow taking away his precious energy shield. It would have been very useful right about now.

All through this he kept up his rush attack, swiftly closing the space between the two warriors and preparing his blade for the strike to come once he was close enough.

Actually ungulates were quicker on their feet than those animals that walked like humans. The fact that they walked on the tips of their toes allowed them to run faster, and the Sangheili were a very agile race of creature. That combined with intensive training were all that saved Rtas from a seriously embarrassing blunder.

Still, the Sangheili warrior was quite surprised by the sudden shift in tactics, and the unexpected physical morph was more than enough to thoroughly confuse him for a second. The commander barely managed not to get tripped up in the metallic ball's passage between his legs, looking for all the universe like a youngling playing "hop-scotch" as he dodged nimbly one way and then the other in such an awkward movement. He ended crouched right where the human demon had once stood, barely registering that he had possibly nicked it just before it completed its odd morph as he glanced back over his shoulder, his injured shoulder objecting to even the slight weight he put on it as he balanced himself carefully with one hand. His hinged jaw gaped open somewhat awkwardly as he stared after the metallic ball.

It was the brief flashing light that caught his attention just moments before the detonation. The Sangheili's head snapped back and down with such force it looked as though he could have broke his neck with the movement. He hardly had time to register his own instinctual action even as he rolled out of harm's way. The blast heated his backside and he knew without looking that his armor had taken most of the attack. It was likely scorched, and no amount of polish would get it back to its normal sheen.

The energy shots were for naught. The Sangheili instinctively had rolled away from the demon's direction. He wondered what sort of grenade(?) that had been, and briefly wondered where he had stashed his own set of plasma grenades. Shaking the thoughts from his head, he knew he wouldn't have much time to think before his opponent attacked again. And the Sangheili commander was tired of reacting instead of acting.

Ignoring the flaming objection from his shoulder, he reached his right hand down to his side and grasped the plasma rifle there. Bringing it to bear he aimed carefully at the offensive arm of the demon and let out a three round burst of fire at the metal humanoid. Ducking back out of cover the commander rushed the demon again head on, but this time while his energy blade hissed menacingly in one hand, the plasma rifle zapped dreadfully in his other, firing near continuous shots aimed precisely for the gun arm of his enemy as he raced forward in a dizzying zig-zag motion designed especially for disorienting a return-firing opponent.