I really need to get a move on with writing. It's...sitting there in my head but...ARGH.
Anyway, next scene
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**30**
“OK.” A.C. looked around, keeping a mental eye on her twin fairy guardians as they scouted around. “Time to do this.”
“Do I have to?” Saber wouldn’t do anything as undignified as whining or pouting, so any evidence to the contrary was an illusion. Thus A.C. didn’t find the not pouting Saber adorably cute and want to cuddle the blonde to her chest. As such, she didn’t have to exercise her considerable skills as a mistress of her own desires to resist.
“Yes you do, unless you want to end up a bloody smear the way the power levels keep rising.” The cyberneticist had Laevatein release the hastily modified Sylia Type Three Hardsuit from its extra-dimensional pocket. “I COULD make it an order you know.” The Martian Senshi observed. “And I’ll be *creative* with my wording.”
Saber shuddered, her experience with the beautiful magically-enhanced combat cyborg showing just HOW creative said woman could be.
“…all right…” The blonde swordswoman acquiesced.
“Don’t worry.” A.C. smiled, pulling out the large therm-optic cloak she’d picked up earlier. “Nobody but me will see a thing.”
Saber tried not to think about the amused gleam in her Master’s eyes.
“Vivian, mode release please.”
Yes My Lord. The Device confirmed, dropping to her normal armour and collapsing back to card form, floating into Saber’s gauntleted hand.
“And the rest.” A.C. said, picking a thin fabric bundle from inside the open Hardsuit.
Saber frowned, dismissing her armour reluctantly to reveal a semi-smart blouse, sensible skirt, leggings and flats.
“Let’s go.” A.C. told her, striding up to the slim figured blonde and whipping the cloak over the two of them, activating it.
Just because the two were invisible, didn’t mean they were silent.
“H-hey! I can…” Saber’s embarrassed voice came out of nowhere.
“No fast enough Dear.” A.C.’s voice was sultry and amused.
“Eeeep!”
“You’re really a cutie, you know that?”
“P-please don’t-ahh!”
“Good, I got your sizes correct.”
“Do you HAVE to look at me like-HEY!”
“They’re safe. Now, step in here.”
Squeak.
“It’s tight…”
“Has to be Dear.” Squeak. “There, other foot.” Squeak. “And…” Squeak, squeak. “Now pull.”
“Urg.” Squeak. “Could you PLEASE-”
“Have to make sure it’s skin-tight. No wrinkles.” Squeak. “Now comes the tricky bit.”
“WHAT ARE YOU-EEEK!”
“Plumbing connections, don’tch know.”
Squeak. “G-g-gently…” Groan, squeak, squeak, groan. “AHHH!”
“There we go.” Slap.
“EEEEEK!”
“All done down here. Up we go.”
Growl.
“Sleeves now.”
Squeak, squeak. “Please stop TOUCHING me-AHH!”
“Almost there, now the neck.”
“If this wasn’t necessmumphble.” Pop-snap. “I hate you.”
Chuckle. “No you don’t.” Squeak, groan, squeak, squeak, groan, squeak, groan, pant, pant. “You’re so ADOREABLE with death-glare. The blush is really becoming.”
GROWL.
“Now for the ear stud.”
“…”
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“…”
“Awww, do you want a hug?”
“Mumph!”
“Ooo, feeling frisky? I suppose it’s fair. Mmmm, a swordswoman IS good with their hands I see. You have promise, but I suppose the fun has to stop.”
“Pah! WHY I NEVER-”
“Distracted you from the sensations?”
“…”
With a ‘whap’ of air, A.C. whipped off the camouflage cloak, revealing one terribly amused cyborg senshi and one small blonde in a skin-tight black-and-white body stocking glaring daggers at her companion.
“I REALLY hate you.” Saber growled.
“Kiss and make up?” The taller woman asked teasingly, emerald eyes twinkling in mirth.
“…You WOULD, wouldn’t you?”
“You’d enjoy it, I guarantee.”
Saber’s shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Fine, get me into this armour.”
“It’s fairly simple. Step in one leg at a time. It’ll be cold at first touch but will quickly warm up. Make sure the connectors match up.”
Repressing the sigh she felt, Saber stepped into the armour, flinching slightly but otherwise showing no reaction to the cold.
“Grab the hips and pull up, watching the connectors again.”
With a click, the bottom half of the Hardsuit sealed together.
“Right then.” A.C. came forward. “Vivian please.”
Saber reluctantly handed her Device over. A.C. carefully fiddled with the blue gem that made up its processing core. Withdrawing her hand showed two small fragments smaller than the nail of Saber’s little fingers. Saber snatched back her Device and examined it carefully, unconcerned with how protective she appeared.
I am fine My Lord. Vivian told her Master.
“You’ll see a portion of the padding popped inward over the area of your heart on the inside the chest piece.” A.C. said. Saber nodded. “Slide Vivian between the padding and armour, gem facing towards you, then push the padding flush with the rest.”
Giving A.C. a cautious glance, Saber did so. The padding portion clicked into place.
Stand By confirmed. Vivian said, relaxing Saber.
“Arms next.” The cyberneticist prompted. “Make sure they’re fully in.”
Doing so, Saber felt a brief touch of alarm as the gauntlets locked around her wrists.
“Now, pull the front up flush until it clicks, then push the chest piece together.”
The moment she did so, the Hardsuit whirred and tightened around her
“OK.” A.C. relaxed. “To speed things up I’ve adjusted the balance system to take account of the heels of the suit. Don’t worry if you seem to swish across the ground. Take a few steps.”
With the characteristic ‘boi-clip” of the shock absorbing system, Saber walked around the small area and felt horribly conspicuous.
“Everything seems good to go.” A.C. noted with pleasure.
“It wobbles.” Saber complained. “And it’s far too light.” She lifted her hands and scowled at the bulky manipulators.
“The lightness is slightly misleading. Even not fully activated the power-assist is working, and anyway the armour’s designed for manoeuvrability.”
The area rocked with an explosion.
“And the wobble is just you not being used to walking in high heels. And as we don’t have much time we’ll have to move on.” A.C. quickly moved over to the Hardsuited Servant and fiddled with the recently pierced ear. Saber felt the slightest shock as the GEM was fitted.
Ready. Vivian announced.
A.C. fussed with Saber’s hair for a moment, then grabbed the Hardsuit’s helmet from her tail ribbons.
“Now, wait until the armour is fully booted up before Materialising.” The Belkan Senshi kissed the GEM before fitting the helmet on Saber’s head.
The Servant had a few moments of complete darkness as the helmet sealed, then the HUD lit up and flowed with activity. Another few moments and the HUD flashed up ‘SYSTEM READY’ before stabilising.
“Ready.” Saber’s voice was automatically distorted to prevent voice print matching, not that it mattered in the simulation.
A.C. nodded. “Go.”
“Materialise!”
Set Up.
Out of sight inside the helmet the GEM displayed the following:
A.S.P
Connected
A.P
Then it cleared and showed:
ROBE: ROYAL BLUE
HOPE DIAMOND
MATERIALISE
Standing by
And ‘Standing by’ changed to START.
Flare compensation and her incredible reaction speed prevented A.C. being blinded by the transformation. Less than a second later it was over.
The Hardsuit was visually seamless and melded tightly like a second skin to Saber’s form; the only indications of seams were at the joints where they bulged under the Robe material. The wrist and ankle bands that were the signature of Otome didn’t exist, only the light bands inset into the armour at the appropriate places. The same was true of the belt, only Vivian’s core jewel sat in the position of the buckle with the inset light band. And detailed across her chest were the familiar designs of her normal armour.
The manipulators were now finely wrought Gauntlets, again covered in Robe material. At Saber’s hips sat a split skirt seemingly made of the armour plates that had covered Saber’s usual dress skirt, and trailed golden tassel-ribbons.
The armoured shoulder guards linked to the now green glowing wings of the flight pack A.C. had cobbled together from Landmate Damocles flight system blades and four salvaged Arc Reactors taken from downed Silver Sentinels, all traced by another light band which seemed flow through the neck guard to link with the helmet visor.
The helmet which now sported an enamelled coronet design.
The biggest change was the fact the Hardsuit had gone from a light grey to royal blue, the armour trimmed, embellished, and detailed in gold.
Finally Saber pushed up the visor of the armour (more like a morph really, the Robe material invisibly separating to allow the movement and reversing when it stopped) as the glow faded to reveal her confident and slightly smirking expression.
A.C. didn’t have the heart to tell her about the beautifully elegant makeup she was now wearing, or the fact the shape of the armour had given her a lithe but far more womanly figure than Saber was probably comfortable with.
“I think this will do.”
The Scarlet Angel matched her smirk.
“Care to try it out?”
Saber’s smirk turned into a predatory grin.
“Yes.” And the armoured Otome Servant dropped her visor.
***
Approaching the enemy, Saber felt uncomfortably comfortable in the powered armour suit her Master had fitted her in. She felt contradictorily naked and covered, her senses both muffled and incredibly sharp. Every move was pleasurably smooth, sure, and light even though she could feel the weight and resistance.
Of course, it was the differences between armour she knew and this one that were the things that unnerved her. The high heels were merely the greatest difference, but the blank visor that showed her the world with the same clarity (or better) as no helmet at all was the one that she couldn’t ignore. And it showed more, Vivian manipulating the HUD to provide lots of useful information.
A red arrow pointed to an upcoming side passage, moments before a group appeared from it. The warning had been enough for Saber to dodge the bullets of the Spartan, and close to sword range and sweep three of them to the side with the massive strength granted to her by her armour. The stroke cleaved through an Otome and most of the way through a Knight Saber before stopping. Her left hand came off her sword’s pommel and the blaster in her gauntlet’s palm barked, smashing into the Arc reactor of a Silver Sentinel.
Using her sword’s pommel as a balance point, Saber lifted herself up to kick the Spartan in the helmet. It wasn’t until just before impact that she saw the light band solidly glowing at her ankle, and watched as the helmet caved in as if a massive war hammer had crushed it.
Vivian brought up a map, a flashing blue dot at the centre with red dots shown to be down a tunnel around a blue dot.
The blades on her back glowed green as she took off at a run, cancelling most of her weight and letting her dash round the corner like a bee. And boy did this bee have a sting in its tail.
Even through the mystic sheath of wind hiding the blade, the surge of prana Saber unleashed left a glowing streak as she carved the group up.
The Servant muttered softly as Phobos hovered by her.
A.C.’s voice sounded in her ears, surprising her as she didn’t know she was transmitting,
Vivian reoriented the map to an isometric line view and plotted a course.
Saber nodded to Phobos and they both flew off.
Anyway, next scene
“…” – Normal Speech
- Radio communications
… […] - Foreign language [Translation]
… – Device Speech
~ … ~ - Thoughts
… – Spell casting
**30**
“OK.” A.C. looked around, keeping a mental eye on her twin fairy guardians as they scouted around. “Time to do this.”
“Do I have to?” Saber wouldn’t do anything as undignified as whining or pouting, so any evidence to the contrary was an illusion. Thus A.C. didn’t find the not pouting Saber adorably cute and want to cuddle the blonde to her chest. As such, she didn’t have to exercise her considerable skills as a mistress of her own desires to resist.
“Yes you do, unless you want to end up a bloody smear the way the power levels keep rising.” The cyberneticist had Laevatein release the hastily modified Sylia Type Three Hardsuit from its extra-dimensional pocket. “I COULD make it an order you know.” The Martian Senshi observed. “And I’ll be *creative* with my wording.”
Saber shuddered, her experience with the beautiful magically-enhanced combat cyborg showing just HOW creative said woman could be.
“…all right…” The blonde swordswoman acquiesced.
“Don’t worry.” A.C. smiled, pulling out the large therm-optic cloak she’d picked up earlier. “Nobody but me will see a thing.”
Saber tried not to think about the amused gleam in her Master’s eyes.
“Vivian, mode release please.”
Yes My Lord. The Device confirmed, dropping to her normal armour and collapsing back to card form, floating into Saber’s gauntleted hand.
“And the rest.” A.C. said, picking a thin fabric bundle from inside the open Hardsuit.
Saber frowned, dismissing her armour reluctantly to reveal a semi-smart blouse, sensible skirt, leggings and flats.
“Let’s go.” A.C. told her, striding up to the slim figured blonde and whipping the cloak over the two of them, activating it.
Just because the two were invisible, didn’t mean they were silent.
“H-hey! I can…” Saber’s embarrassed voice came out of nowhere.
“No fast enough Dear.” A.C.’s voice was sultry and amused.
“Eeeep!”
“You’re really a cutie, you know that?”
“P-please don’t-ahh!”
“Good, I got your sizes correct.”
“Do you HAVE to look at me like-HEY!”
“They’re safe. Now, step in here.”
Squeak.
“It’s tight…”
“Has to be Dear.” Squeak. “There, other foot.” Squeak. “And…” Squeak, squeak. “Now pull.”
“Urg.” Squeak. “Could you PLEASE-”
“Have to make sure it’s skin-tight. No wrinkles.” Squeak. “Now comes the tricky bit.”
“WHAT ARE YOU-EEEK!”
“Plumbing connections, don’tch know.”
Squeak. “G-g-gently…” Groan, squeak, squeak, groan. “AHHH!”
“There we go.” Slap.
“EEEEEK!”
“All done down here. Up we go.”
Growl.
“Sleeves now.”
Squeak, squeak. “Please stop TOUCHING me-AHH!”
“Almost there, now the neck.”
“If this wasn’t necessmumphble.” Pop-snap. “I hate you.”
Chuckle. “No you don’t.” Squeak, groan, squeak, squeak, groan, squeak, groan, pant, pant. “You’re so ADOREABLE with death-glare. The blush is really becoming.”
GROWL.
“Now for the ear stud.”
“…”
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“…”
“Awww, do you want a hug?”
“Mumph!”
“Ooo, feeling frisky? I suppose it’s fair. Mmmm, a swordswoman IS good with their hands I see. You have promise, but I suppose the fun has to stop.”
“Pah! WHY I NEVER-”
“Distracted you from the sensations?”
“…”
With a ‘whap’ of air, A.C. whipped off the camouflage cloak, revealing one terribly amused cyborg senshi and one small blonde in a skin-tight black-and-white body stocking glaring daggers at her companion.
“I REALLY hate you.” Saber growled.
“Kiss and make up?” The taller woman asked teasingly, emerald eyes twinkling in mirth.
“…You WOULD, wouldn’t you?”
“You’d enjoy it, I guarantee.”
Saber’s shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Fine, get me into this armour.”
“It’s fairly simple. Step in one leg at a time. It’ll be cold at first touch but will quickly warm up. Make sure the connectors match up.”
Repressing the sigh she felt, Saber stepped into the armour, flinching slightly but otherwise showing no reaction to the cold.
“Grab the hips and pull up, watching the connectors again.”
With a click, the bottom half of the Hardsuit sealed together.
“Right then.” A.C. came forward. “Vivian please.”
Saber reluctantly handed her Device over. A.C. carefully fiddled with the blue gem that made up its processing core. Withdrawing her hand showed two small fragments smaller than the nail of Saber’s little fingers. Saber snatched back her Device and examined it carefully, unconcerned with how protective she appeared.
I am fine My Lord. Vivian told her Master.
“You’ll see a portion of the padding popped inward over the area of your heart on the inside the chest piece.” A.C. said. Saber nodded. “Slide Vivian between the padding and armour, gem facing towards you, then push the padding flush with the rest.”
Giving A.C. a cautious glance, Saber did so. The padding portion clicked into place.
Stand By confirmed. Vivian said, relaxing Saber.
“Arms next.” The cyberneticist prompted. “Make sure they’re fully in.”
Doing so, Saber felt a brief touch of alarm as the gauntlets locked around her wrists.
“Now, pull the front up flush until it clicks, then push the chest piece together.”
The moment she did so, the Hardsuit whirred and tightened around her
“OK.” A.C. relaxed. “To speed things up I’ve adjusted the balance system to take account of the heels of the suit. Don’t worry if you seem to swish across the ground. Take a few steps.”
With the characteristic ‘boi-clip” of the shock absorbing system, Saber walked around the small area and felt horribly conspicuous.
“Everything seems good to go.” A.C. noted with pleasure.
“It wobbles.” Saber complained. “And it’s far too light.” She lifted her hands and scowled at the bulky manipulators.
“The lightness is slightly misleading. Even not fully activated the power-assist is working, and anyway the armour’s designed for manoeuvrability.”
The area rocked with an explosion.
“And the wobble is just you not being used to walking in high heels. And as we don’t have much time we’ll have to move on.” A.C. quickly moved over to the Hardsuited Servant and fiddled with the recently pierced ear. Saber felt the slightest shock as the GEM was fitted.
Ready. Vivian announced.
A.C. fussed with Saber’s hair for a moment, then grabbed the Hardsuit’s helmet from her tail ribbons.
“Now, wait until the armour is fully booted up before Materialising.” The Belkan Senshi kissed the GEM before fitting the helmet on Saber’s head.
The Servant had a few moments of complete darkness as the helmet sealed, then the HUD lit up and flowed with activity. Another few moments and the HUD flashed up ‘SYSTEM READY’ before stabilising.
“Ready.” Saber’s voice was automatically distorted to prevent voice print matching, not that it mattered in the simulation.
A.C. nodded. “Go.”
“Materialise!”
Set Up.
Out of sight inside the helmet the GEM displayed the following:
A.S.P
Connected
A.P
Then it cleared and showed:
ROBE: ROYAL BLUE
HOPE DIAMOND
MATERIALISE
Standing by
And ‘Standing by’ changed to START.
Flare compensation and her incredible reaction speed prevented A.C. being blinded by the transformation. Less than a second later it was over.
The Hardsuit was visually seamless and melded tightly like a second skin to Saber’s form; the only indications of seams were at the joints where they bulged under the Robe material. The wrist and ankle bands that were the signature of Otome didn’t exist, only the light bands inset into the armour at the appropriate places. The same was true of the belt, only Vivian’s core jewel sat in the position of the buckle with the inset light band. And detailed across her chest were the familiar designs of her normal armour.
The manipulators were now finely wrought Gauntlets, again covered in Robe material. At Saber’s hips sat a split skirt seemingly made of the armour plates that had covered Saber’s usual dress skirt, and trailed golden tassel-ribbons.
The armoured shoulder guards linked to the now green glowing wings of the flight pack A.C. had cobbled together from Landmate Damocles flight system blades and four salvaged Arc Reactors taken from downed Silver Sentinels, all traced by another light band which seemed flow through the neck guard to link with the helmet visor.
The helmet which now sported an enamelled coronet design.
The biggest change was the fact the Hardsuit had gone from a light grey to royal blue, the armour trimmed, embellished, and detailed in gold.
Finally Saber pushed up the visor of the armour (more like a morph really, the Robe material invisibly separating to allow the movement and reversing when it stopped) as the glow faded to reveal her confident and slightly smirking expression.
A.C. didn’t have the heart to tell her about the beautifully elegant makeup she was now wearing, or the fact the shape of the armour had given her a lithe but far more womanly figure than Saber was probably comfortable with.
“I think this will do.”
The Scarlet Angel matched her smirk.
“Care to try it out?”
Saber’s smirk turned into a predatory grin.
“Yes.” And the armoured Otome Servant dropped her visor.
***
Approaching the enemy, Saber felt uncomfortably comfortable in the powered armour suit her Master had fitted her in. She felt contradictorily naked and covered, her senses both muffled and incredibly sharp. Every move was pleasurably smooth, sure, and light even though she could feel the weight and resistance.
Of course, it was the differences between armour she knew and this one that were the things that unnerved her. The high heels were merely the greatest difference, but the blank visor that showed her the world with the same clarity (or better) as no helmet at all was the one that she couldn’t ignore. And it showed more, Vivian manipulating the HUD to provide lots of useful information.
A red arrow pointed to an upcoming side passage, moments before a group appeared from it. The warning had been enough for Saber to dodge the bullets of the Spartan, and close to sword range and sweep three of them to the side with the massive strength granted to her by her armour. The stroke cleaved through an Otome and most of the way through a Knight Saber before stopping. Her left hand came off her sword’s pommel and the blaster in her gauntlet’s palm barked, smashing into the Arc reactor of a Silver Sentinel.
Using her sword’s pommel as a balance point, Saber lifted herself up to kick the Spartan in the helmet. It wasn’t until just before impact that she saw the light band solidly glowing at her ankle, and watched as the helmet caved in as if a massive war hammer had crushed it.
Vivian brought up a map, a flashing blue dot at the centre with red dots shown to be down a tunnel around a blue dot.
The blades on her back glowed green as she took off at a run, cancelling most of her weight and letting her dash round the corner like a bee. And boy did this bee have a sting in its tail.
Even through the mystic sheath of wind hiding the blade, the surge of prana Saber unleashed left a glowing streak as she carved the group up.
The Servant muttered softly as Phobos hovered by her.
A.C.’s voice sounded in her ears, surprising her as she didn’t know she was transmitting,
Vivian reoriented the map to an isometric line view and plotted a course.
Saber nodded to Phobos and they both flew off.