Yay, battle scenes. Hopefully I can get to a good stopping point...
~ This ~ Yuuno thought, slipping aside a thrust of a Divider blade. ~ is going fairly badly. ~ His retaliatory palm thrust was backed by a dense 4 stack Multiple Defenser, which blew the Eclipse infected Nazi almost instantaneously into his own 3 meter deep hole as if he’d been shot out of a cannon. It wasn’t the first time this had happened to one of them, so Yuuno knew he had about 30 seconds before the Driver’s regeneration got him moving again.
He’d barely got the first line of a sealing aria done before he’d had to dodge an AMF boosted plasma bolt and abort the spell. Frustratingly, this also wasn’t the first time that had happened.
Nanoha, when she wasn’t actively engaged, was noting how aware the hostiles were of each other and their enemies. She’d vaguely recognised some buddy system thing that fighter jets did but flight mages normally didn’t have to do.
Her Strike Cannon stutter-cracked as it fired a three round burst at the Divider she was engaging. He dodged right into her Mid-shield Plasma Cannon’s line of fire, and the body fell smoking from the air. Whatever that flight suit was made of was clearly more than fire proof. Why no barrier jackets?
She had to abort the Beam Cannon’s firing sequence due to the Mobius Lieutenant’s sword clash moving through her line of fire. The Lieutenant’s wings beat strongly against her opponent’s flight spell, and at this angle Nanoha could see again how her armour had manipulated itself to allow the blonde to GROW her wings out. The white clad mage wondered where Mobius had found an actual metamorph?
Eve was far too focused on the enemy in front of her. While she had come to love her adoptive family, it was her adoptive mother that had most helped her come to terms with being a living weapon.
Which was why when she grabbed her pistol with her hair, she made sure it was only in concussion mode. The Unclean thing ate at her skin, trying to infect her, consume her, and she would not allow it! It would be PURGED!
The pistol’s barrel was jabbed hard into the gut of the infected Nazi, and the mass effect bloom of the concussion mode caused an unnatural bulge in the Nazi’s back before he was thrown away like a crash test dummy in a head-on smash.
The blonde activated her omni-blade, and scraped it down her arm-blade as she threw herself forward with a massive beat of her wings.
The Driver got his Divider up to block the omni-blade, letting the superhot carbide blade carve deeply into it. Eve focused her surprising strength to use the weapons lock to get the blade out of position for her arm-blade to carve through his arm above the elbow like paper. She continued the spin her swing had started, morphing her hair into a comically large mallet and smashing it into the side of the Nazi’s head.
As the now disarmed Nazi tumbled like a ragdoll into the forest below, she flicked the wrecked Divider and attached arm off her omni-blade then used it to sterilise her arm-blade again before dismissing them both.
As her adoptive mother had taught her, there are times where not being nice works best. Now, she had a Captain to track down.
***
After Avenir had blindsided the plasma-fixated freak and his subordinate had stretched her wings (so to speak), he figured he’d find a secure position after picking up the mess.
But no. Mr. Overcompensation kept dragging the trainee back to around his position. Colin couldn’t help the kid much, too much of a risk of hitting him instead of the Nazi. The veteran Scout worked out why the Nazi had wanted to stay close to him when the motion sensors spotted four more bodies heading his way through the ground clutter.
While he still wasn’t comfortable with his shiny new D38, he had to admit the Toybox gun freak had done a good job rebalancing it for him in the hour or so they had and upgrading the smartgun to his spec while he was out; he just wished he’d had enough time to do the final tweaks before they’d shipped out.
The three round burst took the greyish skinned, fatigue-clad and misshapen human form high in the chest with enough force to knock him off his feet and scattered the rest of his pack.
“Had to be a fucking Beastmaster too.” He grumbled, picking another target and dropping it before letting the frame take the strain of an 80 kph dash to better cover. “Hoping the last two are pack mules.”
The tac-net signalled an alert as his two dropped targets started moving again.
“Oh, give me a fucking break.”
He led the wolf pack on a merry chase, angling his course towards the insertion point. Nazi’s usually had grenades at their fall back points. Colin liked grenades, you could use them for so many things. Stupid regs not letting him take any to a meet-n-greet. Stupid Lieutenant’s not listening to their more experienced scouts. Not even one in the barrel of the D38’s integrated grenade launcher (she’d checked). At least he’d brought some toys.
~ Only one heat source? ~ He noted as his sensors came in range, then his eyes widened and he leapt upwards with all the power his hardsuit could spare.
The tree to the front right exploded, splinters and nails filling the air. If he’d been right by it the kick would have hurt and debris would have blinded him for a few seconds. Letting the gecko grips in his boots grab the nearest tree for a moment before kicking off again, a chilling realisation came over him.
He was being hunted like an animal.
The hyperspectral camera in his smartgun caught a faint silhouette and he got off a snap shot in that direction before the electro-gravitics kicked in to soak the impact of his landing.
“Could use some backup about now Leftenant.” He called over the comms. All he got was a message ACK in his HUD. “Figures.”
There was a bright pink flash overhead and he winced at the telluric feedback. The HUD bleeped a warning as the wolf pack got close.
Time to move. But first he popped a ping-pong sized ball out of his backpack and dropped it between the roots of the nearest tree.
***
Nanoha narrowed her eyes and flipped her Strike Cannon to closed mode. It wasn’t helping that way.
Flier Fin wings appeared on her back.
“Flash Impact.” Raising Heart announced as she blurred into movement.
The Driver tried to block, but the explosion of power on the clashing of blades snapped all the bones in that arm.
“Smasher!” Nanoha cried, swinging the Plasma Unit round and firing on impact.
A temporary pink sun appeared over the battlefield.
~ Status? ~ She called telepathically to base, watching the charred mess of a body fall to the ground. Regeneration and AMF meant you had to hit harder, but the target could survive it better.
~ Echoes clearing. ~ Alto replied. ~ Backup ETA 2 minutes. ~
~ Roger. Yuuno? ~
***
~ Give me a minute. ~ He grunted telepathically, yanking on the garrotte he’d used the spider’s web of Alchemic Chain to wrap around his combatant’s neck. The hand the Driver had managed to get to it made things much harder.
Still, it’d distracted the Eclipse infected Nazi enough.
“Sealing Bind!” The blond mage invoked, causing the chains to glow.
The Driver tried to yell as the combination of sealing spell and Struggle Bind collapsed his defences enough for the physical chain to bite deep. It was all downhill from there.
~ Target contained. ~
***
Thoma wished he was doing as well. His opponent had far more combat training and experience, but was not used to the abilities of an Eclipse Driver. He on the other hand had been bashed around by Nanoha Takamachi for a few months now, but was expending a lot of effort to not let the Eclipse virus get the best of him without Lily to contain things. So it all ended up even.
At least he didn’t have to worry about getting infected again. Oh. Not a good idea, but what was with Eclipse?
Thoma darted in, smashing the Divider away with his own and punching the guy in the face with the other hand. Given the blades on his fingers and bracer, this hurt the guy a lot. Kicking him between the legs even more. Kaiser thank Doctor Shamal that he knew regeneration covered that as well. Still, he didn’t waste his opening and stabbed the Driver in the heart.
Then he concentrated and focused the Zero Effect into the body. Away from the regeneration effect.
The Divider shattered, and the wing like mark of an Eclipse infectee peeled itself off the body like dried flakes blowing off in the breeze.
Thoma pulled his Divider out of the man’s heart with barely a mark left on him, and grabbed his unconscious body by the wrecked shirt to keep him from falling.
~ Target silenced. Medical containment necessary. ~ He broadcast.
~ Understood. ~ The corporal on Wolfram replied.
~ Also, Captain Green had ground forces in pursuit. He’ll need backup. ~
***
The wolf pack slowed as its tracker sniffed the air for traces of their prey.
With a crunch, Eve dropped on the rear-guard like an anvil and swept across the others with her D38 in full auto. The levels of regeneration showed by their airborne compatriots had loosened Eve’s typical restraint, and her hatred for the Unclean reduced it even more.
But she would not kill.
That left plenty of options though.
A plasma blast smashed into her, the deflectors doing their job of protecting her. Instinct had her fire back as she moved to cover. The Captain was in stealth mode, burst comms minimising signal intercept. That was fairly annoying, given she was supposed to be his partner for this, but understandable as a data burst was decoded and the tac-net updated.
A Nazi with therm-optic stealth on par with theirs, needing hyperspectral vision to clear it? The guys in armour-dev would hate her if she got this info back to them. Dad and Mother were supposed to be going on vacation next month as well.
Eve ramped up the suit sensors and reviewed the tac-net map. With the unconscious ground team, the Bureau should be arriving in force soon. That meant either a retreat or an ambush. More likely the former, but in the latter case…
***
Her overcoat wrapping around her, Cinque looked over the scene as Yuuno’s captive was secured by the Raptors with a scowl.
~ We’re going to need to default to Alpha-Two from now on. ~ She advised through the telepathic link to base.
~ That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? ~ The voice of Hayate Yagami came down from Wolfram.
~ These were soldiers with Eclipse enhancement. Their ROE would not be as restrictive as ours. I just hope too many Bureau members don’t have to die to prove me right. ~
~ I agree Mistress. ~ The blue and white sent from where he was scenting the ground. ~ The Bureau, for all its power, is more a police force than a military. It is now facing the fact of other nations like Belka had to. Things will get…messy. ~ The wolf stopped. ~ I have the scent of the invaders. ~ He sent sharply.
Yuuno stopped writing his report at the tone, Cinque narrowed her eye, and Hayate felt goose bumps forming.
~ What? ~ She asked.
~ Beyond the Eclipse scent, there is something…wrong. ~
And he took off into the forest at a lope.
***
~ The problem with invisible Nazi hide and seek ~ Colin thought morosely, ~ is that Nazi’s tend to cheat. ~ But that was OK, so did he.
The tac-net updated with a data burst from Eve. Seems like she’d finally got the point of secure data comms. Still, she had been a bit busy. Colin read the message, watched his sensors, and carefully swept his smartgun camera around. He had positioned himself with a reasonable view of the arrival area, a more lightly forested part of the valley. If he had the time he’d upload his custom smartgun software, but he usually had to tweak it anyway.
His motion sensors pinged the arrival of the wolf pack in the area, followed by a new ground contact. Dammit, didn’t any Beebee have some sense?
***
For all their enhanced senses, the Nazi Eclipse wolf pack barely had time to react as the wolf-like Guardian Beast sprang from the underbrush, transforming as he went, to smash into the lead element with a growl more suited for his animal form.
This distracted the rest from the more obvious sounds of a running body just enough for Cinque to launch a spread of Stingers. Most of them hit, but only in non-vital locations. Then she was close enough to start slicing.
Zafira viciously pounded his enemy, trying not to draw blood unnecessarily, hoping to cause a knockout. That hadn’t stopped him using a maiming attack on the Driver’s sword arm, shattering the bones as well as dislocating it. He backed the grey-skinned infected up towards a tree before he unleashed a powerful kick to knock it into the plant. The Wolkenritter’s experience meant he had chosen this particular tree as one of Cinque’s missed knives was available to allow him the opportunity to nail the Driver to it. Thus restrained, he drove his gauntleted fist into the Nazi’s face. Then he went to assist Cinque.
The child-like Combat Cyborg was glad of the help, as although she’d divested one of their weapon after slicing his wrist the others didn’t seem to really care for their colleagues. Zafira’s intervention took one blade away, and the distraction let her dodge enough for the remaining blade wielder to stab the other. Cinque jammed a Stinger blade into the assemblage and jumped away, triggering Rumble Detonator.
Only the instinctive use of her Shell Coat to protect from fragments kept her from being seriously injured by the unexpected plasma bolt to her blind side.
There was a sharp crack as something passed by her, followed by a crunch. Then a mottled green and brown turning to black form appeared from the other side and wrapped an arm around her to leap away from further plasma bolts.
“You OK?” The female voice asked, Cinque barely remembering that this was one of the Mobius team.
“Yes.”
The figure’s helmet nodded and turned to where the weapon fire came from.
“That’s the Captain warned.” The Lieutenant said. “He’s heading for the insertion point to intercept.”
~ Backup to distortion point! ~
***
The sound of underbrush and grass being crunched filled the air, a brief flicker of form accompanying it.
There was a crack, and with an effect like white snow on a mistuned analogue TV, a grey and black armoured form staggered forward. It had two craters in its armour plating, one left torso and the other in the middle of its back still sparking.
The figure didn’t stop moving, it just started weaving between trees.
When the figure entered the clearing it sped up, making for the strapped down and gagged misshapen figure on the six-wheeled buggy. It was less than a metre away when a pink bolt of energy appeared in its way, turned sharply, and punched it off its feet backwards.
Sprawled on its back, the figure had a good view as the white clad woman floated down towards her pointing the long-barrelled weapon on her left arm at it.
“You are under arrest.” Nanoha said. “Further resistance will result in additional and more serious charges. Any statements made will be taken as evidence.”
~ I have the final targets in custody. Medical assistance needed for number 10. ~
~ We’re still missing one! ~ Came the call as the final Driver shot from the forest, still missing most of an arm but not his Divider. Nanoha got her Mid-shield into place to take the strike, but the figure on the ground made a move for the transport.
A black armoured figure appeared from behind the buggy and pointed its rifle directly at the other figures head.
“Zu diesem Bereich kann ich nicht verpassen.” He said in flatly accented German. “So ergeben. Es ist besser für uns alle.”
With a roar, the Driver disengaged and came at him.
Colin pulled the trigger.
While it didn’t technically have concussion mode, the D38’s integrated underbarrel grenade launcher could be made to have something of the same effect, if on a wider area and much shorter range.
Bodychecked by the expanding mass effect field, the Nazi sniper was again lifted from their feet and thrown back.
Colin let the recoil do the same, falling backwards while coincidently finishing clearing the firing line his tac-net had pointed out.
The Eclipse Driver found himself smashed face first into the ground a few metres away with a heavy plasma blast.
“We done now?” Colin asked, getting up. “Cause I gotta say, you people party hard.”
So, on to the next bit...
If anyone wants me to explain bits about the Mobius team's gear, I can do that.
~ This ~ Yuuno thought, slipping aside a thrust of a Divider blade. ~ is going fairly badly. ~ His retaliatory palm thrust was backed by a dense 4 stack Multiple Defenser, which blew the Eclipse infected Nazi almost instantaneously into his own 3 meter deep hole as if he’d been shot out of a cannon. It wasn’t the first time this had happened to one of them, so Yuuno knew he had about 30 seconds before the Driver’s regeneration got him moving again.
He’d barely got the first line of a sealing aria done before he’d had to dodge an AMF boosted plasma bolt and abort the spell. Frustratingly, this also wasn’t the first time that had happened.
Nanoha, when she wasn’t actively engaged, was noting how aware the hostiles were of each other and their enemies. She’d vaguely recognised some buddy system thing that fighter jets did but flight mages normally didn’t have to do.
Her Strike Cannon stutter-cracked as it fired a three round burst at the Divider she was engaging. He dodged right into her Mid-shield Plasma Cannon’s line of fire, and the body fell smoking from the air. Whatever that flight suit was made of was clearly more than fire proof. Why no barrier jackets?
She had to abort the Beam Cannon’s firing sequence due to the Mobius Lieutenant’s sword clash moving through her line of fire. The Lieutenant’s wings beat strongly against her opponent’s flight spell, and at this angle Nanoha could see again how her armour had manipulated itself to allow the blonde to GROW her wings out. The white clad mage wondered where Mobius had found an actual metamorph?
Eve was far too focused on the enemy in front of her. While she had come to love her adoptive family, it was her adoptive mother that had most helped her come to terms with being a living weapon.
Which was why when she grabbed her pistol with her hair, she made sure it was only in concussion mode. The Unclean thing ate at her skin, trying to infect her, consume her, and she would not allow it! It would be PURGED!
The pistol’s barrel was jabbed hard into the gut of the infected Nazi, and the mass effect bloom of the concussion mode caused an unnatural bulge in the Nazi’s back before he was thrown away like a crash test dummy in a head-on smash.
The blonde activated her omni-blade, and scraped it down her arm-blade as she threw herself forward with a massive beat of her wings.
The Driver got his Divider up to block the omni-blade, letting the superhot carbide blade carve deeply into it. Eve focused her surprising strength to use the weapons lock to get the blade out of position for her arm-blade to carve through his arm above the elbow like paper. She continued the spin her swing had started, morphing her hair into a comically large mallet and smashing it into the side of the Nazi’s head.
As the now disarmed Nazi tumbled like a ragdoll into the forest below, she flicked the wrecked Divider and attached arm off her omni-blade then used it to sterilise her arm-blade again before dismissing them both.
As her adoptive mother had taught her, there are times where not being nice works best. Now, she had a Captain to track down.
***
After Avenir had blindsided the plasma-fixated freak and his subordinate had stretched her wings (so to speak), he figured he’d find a secure position after picking up the mess.
But no. Mr. Overcompensation kept dragging the trainee back to around his position. Colin couldn’t help the kid much, too much of a risk of hitting him instead of the Nazi. The veteran Scout worked out why the Nazi had wanted to stay close to him when the motion sensors spotted four more bodies heading his way through the ground clutter.
While he still wasn’t comfortable with his shiny new D38, he had to admit the Toybox gun freak had done a good job rebalancing it for him in the hour or so they had and upgrading the smartgun to his spec while he was out; he just wished he’d had enough time to do the final tweaks before they’d shipped out.
The three round burst took the greyish skinned, fatigue-clad and misshapen human form high in the chest with enough force to knock him off his feet and scattered the rest of his pack.
“Had to be a fucking Beastmaster too.” He grumbled, picking another target and dropping it before letting the frame take the strain of an 80 kph dash to better cover. “Hoping the last two are pack mules.”
The tac-net signalled an alert as his two dropped targets started moving again.
“Oh, give me a fucking break.”
He led the wolf pack on a merry chase, angling his course towards the insertion point. Nazi’s usually had grenades at their fall back points. Colin liked grenades, you could use them for so many things. Stupid regs not letting him take any to a meet-n-greet. Stupid Lieutenant’s not listening to their more experienced scouts. Not even one in the barrel of the D38’s integrated grenade launcher (she’d checked). At least he’d brought some toys.
~ Only one heat source? ~ He noted as his sensors came in range, then his eyes widened and he leapt upwards with all the power his hardsuit could spare.
The tree to the front right exploded, splinters and nails filling the air. If he’d been right by it the kick would have hurt and debris would have blinded him for a few seconds. Letting the gecko grips in his boots grab the nearest tree for a moment before kicking off again, a chilling realisation came over him.
He was being hunted like an animal.
The hyperspectral camera in his smartgun caught a faint silhouette and he got off a snap shot in that direction before the electro-gravitics kicked in to soak the impact of his landing.
“Could use some backup about now Leftenant.” He called over the comms. All he got was a message ACK in his HUD. “Figures.”
There was a bright pink flash overhead and he winced at the telluric feedback. The HUD bleeped a warning as the wolf pack got close.
Time to move. But first he popped a ping-pong sized ball out of his backpack and dropped it between the roots of the nearest tree.
***
Nanoha narrowed her eyes and flipped her Strike Cannon to closed mode. It wasn’t helping that way.
Flier Fin wings appeared on her back.
“Flash Impact.” Raising Heart announced as she blurred into movement.
The Driver tried to block, but the explosion of power on the clashing of blades snapped all the bones in that arm.
“Smasher!” Nanoha cried, swinging the Plasma Unit round and firing on impact.
A temporary pink sun appeared over the battlefield.
~ Status? ~ She called telepathically to base, watching the charred mess of a body fall to the ground. Regeneration and AMF meant you had to hit harder, but the target could survive it better.
~ Echoes clearing. ~ Alto replied. ~ Backup ETA 2 minutes. ~
~ Roger. Yuuno? ~
***
~ Give me a minute. ~ He grunted telepathically, yanking on the garrotte he’d used the spider’s web of Alchemic Chain to wrap around his combatant’s neck. The hand the Driver had managed to get to it made things much harder.
Still, it’d distracted the Eclipse infected Nazi enough.
“Sealing Bind!” The blond mage invoked, causing the chains to glow.
The Driver tried to yell as the combination of sealing spell and Struggle Bind collapsed his defences enough for the physical chain to bite deep. It was all downhill from there.
~ Target contained. ~
***
Thoma wished he was doing as well. His opponent had far more combat training and experience, but was not used to the abilities of an Eclipse Driver. He on the other hand had been bashed around by Nanoha Takamachi for a few months now, but was expending a lot of effort to not let the Eclipse virus get the best of him without Lily to contain things. So it all ended up even.
At least he didn’t have to worry about getting infected again. Oh. Not a good idea, but what was with Eclipse?
Thoma darted in, smashing the Divider away with his own and punching the guy in the face with the other hand. Given the blades on his fingers and bracer, this hurt the guy a lot. Kicking him between the legs even more. Kaiser thank Doctor Shamal that he knew regeneration covered that as well. Still, he didn’t waste his opening and stabbed the Driver in the heart.
Then he concentrated and focused the Zero Effect into the body. Away from the regeneration effect.
The Divider shattered, and the wing like mark of an Eclipse infectee peeled itself off the body like dried flakes blowing off in the breeze.
Thoma pulled his Divider out of the man’s heart with barely a mark left on him, and grabbed his unconscious body by the wrecked shirt to keep him from falling.
~ Target silenced. Medical containment necessary. ~ He broadcast.
~ Understood. ~ The corporal on Wolfram replied.
~ Also, Captain Green had ground forces in pursuit. He’ll need backup. ~
***
The wolf pack slowed as its tracker sniffed the air for traces of their prey.
With a crunch, Eve dropped on the rear-guard like an anvil and swept across the others with her D38 in full auto. The levels of regeneration showed by their airborne compatriots had loosened Eve’s typical restraint, and her hatred for the Unclean reduced it even more.
But she would not kill.
That left plenty of options though.
A plasma blast smashed into her, the deflectors doing their job of protecting her. Instinct had her fire back as she moved to cover. The Captain was in stealth mode, burst comms minimising signal intercept. That was fairly annoying, given she was supposed to be his partner for this, but understandable as a data burst was decoded and the tac-net updated.
A Nazi with therm-optic stealth on par with theirs, needing hyperspectral vision to clear it? The guys in armour-dev would hate her if she got this info back to them. Dad and Mother were supposed to be going on vacation next month as well.
Eve ramped up the suit sensors and reviewed the tac-net map. With the unconscious ground team, the Bureau should be arriving in force soon. That meant either a retreat or an ambush. More likely the former, but in the latter case…
***
Her overcoat wrapping around her, Cinque looked over the scene as Yuuno’s captive was secured by the Raptors with a scowl.
~ We’re going to need to default to Alpha-Two from now on. ~ She advised through the telepathic link to base.
~ That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? ~ The voice of Hayate Yagami came down from Wolfram.
~ These were soldiers with Eclipse enhancement. Their ROE would not be as restrictive as ours. I just hope too many Bureau members don’t have to die to prove me right. ~
~ I agree Mistress. ~ The blue and white sent from where he was scenting the ground. ~ The Bureau, for all its power, is more a police force than a military. It is now facing the fact of other nations like Belka had to. Things will get…messy. ~ The wolf stopped. ~ I have the scent of the invaders. ~ He sent sharply.
Yuuno stopped writing his report at the tone, Cinque narrowed her eye, and Hayate felt goose bumps forming.
~ What? ~ She asked.
~ Beyond the Eclipse scent, there is something…wrong. ~
And he took off into the forest at a lope.
***
~ The problem with invisible Nazi hide and seek ~ Colin thought morosely, ~ is that Nazi’s tend to cheat. ~ But that was OK, so did he.
The tac-net updated with a data burst from Eve. Seems like she’d finally got the point of secure data comms. Still, she had been a bit busy. Colin read the message, watched his sensors, and carefully swept his smartgun camera around. He had positioned himself with a reasonable view of the arrival area, a more lightly forested part of the valley. If he had the time he’d upload his custom smartgun software, but he usually had to tweak it anyway.
His motion sensors pinged the arrival of the wolf pack in the area, followed by a new ground contact. Dammit, didn’t any Beebee have some sense?
***
For all their enhanced senses, the Nazi Eclipse wolf pack barely had time to react as the wolf-like Guardian Beast sprang from the underbrush, transforming as he went, to smash into the lead element with a growl more suited for his animal form.
This distracted the rest from the more obvious sounds of a running body just enough for Cinque to launch a spread of Stingers. Most of them hit, but only in non-vital locations. Then she was close enough to start slicing.
Zafira viciously pounded his enemy, trying not to draw blood unnecessarily, hoping to cause a knockout. That hadn’t stopped him using a maiming attack on the Driver’s sword arm, shattering the bones as well as dislocating it. He backed the grey-skinned infected up towards a tree before he unleashed a powerful kick to knock it into the plant. The Wolkenritter’s experience meant he had chosen this particular tree as one of Cinque’s missed knives was available to allow him the opportunity to nail the Driver to it. Thus restrained, he drove his gauntleted fist into the Nazi’s face. Then he went to assist Cinque.
The child-like Combat Cyborg was glad of the help, as although she’d divested one of their weapon after slicing his wrist the others didn’t seem to really care for their colleagues. Zafira’s intervention took one blade away, and the distraction let her dodge enough for the remaining blade wielder to stab the other. Cinque jammed a Stinger blade into the assemblage and jumped away, triggering Rumble Detonator.
Only the instinctive use of her Shell Coat to protect from fragments kept her from being seriously injured by the unexpected plasma bolt to her blind side.
There was a sharp crack as something passed by her, followed by a crunch. Then a mottled green and brown turning to black form appeared from the other side and wrapped an arm around her to leap away from further plasma bolts.
“You OK?” The female voice asked, Cinque barely remembering that this was one of the Mobius team.
“Yes.”
The figure’s helmet nodded and turned to where the weapon fire came from.
“That’s the Captain warned.” The Lieutenant said. “He’s heading for the insertion point to intercept.”
~ Backup to distortion point! ~
***
The sound of underbrush and grass being crunched filled the air, a brief flicker of form accompanying it.
There was a crack, and with an effect like white snow on a mistuned analogue TV, a grey and black armoured form staggered forward. It had two craters in its armour plating, one left torso and the other in the middle of its back still sparking.
The figure didn’t stop moving, it just started weaving between trees.
When the figure entered the clearing it sped up, making for the strapped down and gagged misshapen figure on the six-wheeled buggy. It was less than a metre away when a pink bolt of energy appeared in its way, turned sharply, and punched it off its feet backwards.
Sprawled on its back, the figure had a good view as the white clad woman floated down towards her pointing the long-barrelled weapon on her left arm at it.
“You are under arrest.” Nanoha said. “Further resistance will result in additional and more serious charges. Any statements made will be taken as evidence.”
~ I have the final targets in custody. Medical assistance needed for number 10. ~
~ We’re still missing one! ~ Came the call as the final Driver shot from the forest, still missing most of an arm but not his Divider. Nanoha got her Mid-shield into place to take the strike, but the figure on the ground made a move for the transport.
A black armoured figure appeared from behind the buggy and pointed its rifle directly at the other figures head.
“Zu diesem Bereich kann ich nicht verpassen.” He said in flatly accented German. “So ergeben. Es ist besser für uns alle.”
With a roar, the Driver disengaged and came at him.
Colin pulled the trigger.
While it didn’t technically have concussion mode, the D38’s integrated underbarrel grenade launcher could be made to have something of the same effect, if on a wider area and much shorter range.
Bodychecked by the expanding mass effect field, the Nazi sniper was again lifted from their feet and thrown back.
Colin let the recoil do the same, falling backwards while coincidently finishing clearing the firing line his tac-net had pointed out.
The Eclipse Driver found himself smashed face first into the ground a few metres away with a heavy plasma blast.
“We done now?” Colin asked, getting up. “Cause I gotta say, you people party hard.”
So, on to the next bit...
If anyone wants me to explain bits about the Mobius team's gear, I can do that.