“Get rid of me? But I didn’t even do anything!”
“Then what’s that?” the Dra’kis pointed at the computer console just
behind Kevérin.
The Pyrotechnic looked backwards uneasily and then returned his
attention to the Black Suns squad. “Uh, I just found some data lying around on
a computer, you know?”
“And that’s data that we can’t let you keep.”
Kevérin glanced at the seven soldiers standing behind the Dra’kis,
their weapons unwavering. …Shit, they’re all wearing Chaos Armor… even
if they aren’t Chaotics, I’m not sure I can win against all eight.I guess all
that’s left is to stall… “Well, I mean, okay, sure. You don’t want me
to keep the data. That’s cool. Doesn’t mean you have to get rid of me, though.”
“No, but it’s certainly the easiest way to deal with you,” the Dra’kis
crossed her arms, “The Nimalians have nothing on the Black Suns. They can’t do
anything to us… but once they have access to the data from that console, they
can. We’re already feeling pressure from the Dra’kis and Citans – having the
Nimalian Territories on our backs would just be bothersome.”
“But… you’re a Dra’kis,” Kevérin frowned, “Why would–?”
“Don’t play dumb. You know that we Black Suns don’t sympathize with our
home races,” the Dra’kis snapped, “…ha, you’re just playing for time, aren’t
you?”
“…Well–“
The Dra’kis turned to four of the soldiers behind her. “Split up and
search the complex. There’s others with him – find them and bring them here.”
She watched as the four saluted and dashed off before turning back to the
Transfer Captain. “I’m surprised someone of your caliber was sent here. The
Nimalians are really skimping on their training, it would seem. There’s no way
Sike Regek or Icarisyth Anar would’ve let themselves get caught like this…
though I guess there’s a reason that they’re both Master Generals, huh–!?”
Kevérin interrupted her speech with a spontaneous blast of fire,
bathing the entire room in flame. He paused for a moment to see how the Black
Suns had fared against his attack; his flames were strong, but so was Chaos
Armor.
“Chaos Slam!”
The Pyrotechnic was suddenly impacted by a tremendous force, slamming
him into the wall behind him. Before he even had time to fall to the ground the
Dra’kis had grabbed him by the neck and slammed him back against the wall,
holding him there.
“Good try, but you can’t get rid of me that easily,” she smirked,
“I’d considered going easy on you, but that little trick made
me change… my… mind…” She paused for a moment before suddenly tossing Kevérin
aside and jumping backwards. Immediately after she was struck by a blast of
electricity, sending her stumbling to the side as Siyuakén and Rebehka dashed
into the room. Kevérin took advantage of the surprise to melt the guns in the
hands of the Black Suns soldiers before climbing back to his feet and stumbling
back in front of the computer console.
…The data transfer isn’t done yet… he frowned as he glanced at his glasses, just a little
longer…
“…Damn,” the Dra’kis scowled, glancing back at the soldiers who were
quickly drawing away from the newly-molten masses of metal in their hands. She
then turned back to face the three Nimalian Chaotics. “...I admit, you almost
had me, Cryotechnic. But your cooling was uneven – I could tell what was
happening before you caused any real damage.”
“How kind of you to point out my mistake,” Rebehka replied icily, “I’m
sure I won’t make it again.”
“Well of course you won’t – you won’t have a chance to. Chaos Teporté!”
“Where’d she go–?” Siyuakén exclaimed, quickly glancing about the room after
the Dra’kis disappeared into thin air.
“I don’t know… but watch out,” Kevérin warned, grimacing as most of his
body began to ache. “She’s… a Movement-Directed type Chaostechnic. She used
Slam on me just before you guys got here.”
“She knows Slam–?!” Rebehka moved to freeze the floor but was suddenly
bowled over as the Dra’kis spontaneously slammed into her with amazing force,
flinging her halfway across the room.
“Rebehka!” Siyuakén shouted after her, but quickly reverted her
attention to the Chaostechnic just in time to dive out of the way of a Chaos
Strike. She countered with a strike of lightning, but by then her target was
gone. Immediately the Electrotechnic swung around toward Rebehka and fired both
of her grappling hooks, creating a tether barrier between the rest of the room
and the Cryotechnic. Siyuakén then electrified the hooks, just in time for the
Dra’kis to come charging back into the room toward Rebehka and instead get
tripped up by the tethers. She went tumbling forwards and crashed into the wall
just beside the Cryotechnic.
Rebehka quickly tried to scramble away, but faltered as pain shot
through her chest. “Ah…!” she gasped, drawing the Dra’kis’ attention – just in
time for a hammer to come crashing into the Black Suns soldier’s face. The
Dra’kis was knocked across the room again as Christeané caught himself on the
floor and Davídrius slid to a stop just beside him.
“The
fuck’s goin’ on?” Davídrius demanded, the Hastryth chain weapon grasped in his
hands. He watched Siyuakén rush to Rebehka’s side before turning his attention
to the Dra’kis as she pulled herself to a standing position, seemingly unhurt.
“Who’re you?”
“…I guess you aren’t quite as bad as I thought… even
if all of your hits have been luck,” the Dra’kis smirked, “…alright, I’ll tell
you who I am. I’m Commander Tri’kar Reginko, Black Suns, Sector 2.”
“Commander?!” Kevérin exclaimed, “Isn’t that–?”
“Only four ranks below Master General, yes,” the Commander nodded,
“Surprise! You actually had one of our Spec-OPs squads sent after you!”
Christeané glanced at the three soldiers standing in the corner of the
room, and then at the melted metal at their feet. “Ha, some Spec-OPs squad,” he
snorted, “the only thing you’ve got on your side is Chaos Armor.”
“…Chaos what?” Davídrius questioned.
“It’s what allowed me to survive that hammer blow,” Reginko replied,
“And it’s why I’m still bothering to talk to you now. You can’t beat me without
your own sets of armor, you know. There’s no way to break through this
shielding on your own!”
“She’s right,” Kevérin glanced at the rest of the present Hero Machina,
“That armor can last for days, and almost nothing we can do can get through
it.”
“Even your Pyro- and Cryotechnics can’t do anything to me,” Reginko
smirked, “Neither of you are experienced enough to freeze or burn specific
areas of space, are you? Not quickly, at least – so all I need to do is stay
mobile. Oh, and guess what kind of Chaostechnic I am? Ha! Chaos
Teporté!”
“She disappeared?!” Davídrius exclaimed.
“As a Superspeed Introtechnic, you should really know
more about Chaostechnic abilities,” Kevérin frowned, “Teporté is a
teleportation move. The next thing she’ll probably do is–“
He was cut off as Davídrius dashed straight in front of him, bowling
over Reginko as she rocketed back into the room. She tumbled along the floor as
the Superspeed Introtechnic launched the blade end of Hastryth toward her, only
for it to rebound off of her armor’s shield. After a moment the Commander
caught herself against the wall and jumped back to her feet, just in time to
duck out of the way of Christeané’s hammer – and then quickly grasp the tether.
In response the Superstrength Introtechnic yanked back on the tether with such
force that Reginko was flung clear across the room, but as she flew through the
air she issued several Chaos Arrows, forcing the Introtechnics to dodge out of
the way instead of attempting to land any more hits. She then called out “Chaos Teporté” just before slamming into the wall,
disappearing into thin air once again.
Davídrius immediately began scanning the room’s two entrances as
Christeané turned to Kevérin and Rebehka. “What happened to you guys? Are you
alright?”
“Slam happened…” Kevérin groaned as he leaned back against the console,
“She caught me off guard… I didn’t know she was a Chaostechnic until she used
it.”
“And… she’s right, about us not being able to do anything…” Rebehka
added painfully.
“We’ve never been against powered armor before,” Siyuakén pointed out,
“I never realized how effective Chaos Shields could be.”
“That’s Chaos Energy
for you!”
“Whoa–!” Davídrius suddenly crossed his arms in front of him just in
time for Reginko to slam into him. The two tumbled to the ground again, but the
Commander recovered more quickly and grabbed Davídrius by the neck, whipping
him into the air and launching him across the room while simultaneously
shouting “Chaos Impact!” Before she could follow up Christeané
smashed his hammer down on her, knocking her to the ground. He began rapidly
twirling his hammer with just enough tether length out so that the hammer
slammed into the Chaostechnic every time it swung around, producing a loud
static sound with each impact against the armor’s shields. Reginko only
withstood a second or two of the barrage before disappearing again, only to
reappear directly over Davídrius and stomp on him with her powerful legs. The
Introtechnic knocked her foot away just as it almost pulverized his stomach; he
then rolled to the side and leaped back to his feet before dashing straight at
Reginko, blade first. But the blade simply rebounded off of her armor, causing
him to stumble and get knocked flat by another Chaos Impact. The Commander then
disappeared from the room once more just as Christeané’s hammer came screaming
through the air where she had just been standing.
“We can’t do anything to her…” Davídrius scowled, “…why are we still
here? We should be leaving!”
“Not yet!” Kevérin countered, “There’s data here that’ll be hard to get
anywhere else. He have to wait until I’ve downloaded it all!”
“In case you couldn’t tell, this is just a stalemate,” Christeané
frowned, “Unless Kaoné and Kevken show up, we can only hold out for so long.
And even then–!” He was interrupted as an invisible force threw him off his
feet. Davídrius immediately dashed forward, intercepting Reginko again as she
rushed back into the room – but just as she slammed into him she whipped her
leg around in a kick, turning her forward momentum into transversal and
knocking the Superspeed Introtechnic to the floor. As the two Introtechnics
were recovering, Reginko turned toward Siyuakén and smirked.
“Uh oh…” the Electrotechnic muttered after attacking the Commander with
a lightning strike, to no avail.
“One more elemental to disable,” Reginko commented smugly, “Chaos Slam!”
“Chaos Armor!”
Just before the Commander rammed into Siyuakén, Kievkenalis leaped in
her path, his body covered in transparent armor constructed of Chaos Energy. He
absorbed most of the force from Reginko’s attack and then tossed her aside
before calling out “Chaos Heal! Chaos Assist!”
“…Ah, thanks,” Rebehka nodded toward Kievkenalis as the pain in her
body disappeared. She and Kevérin quickly scrambled back to their feet, taking
positions across the room from Reginko with the rest of Hero Machina just as
Kaoné ran into the room herself.
“There’s… more of you,” the Commander frowned, “…damn it, what happened
to those fools I sent after you?”
“Sent after us? What?” Kaoné glanced around the room cluelessly,
“…What’s going on?”
“You’re here! Great!” Davídrius exclaimed, “Kick her ass for us!”
“Alright, I’ll admit I didn’t expect you to have a
Defensive-Support Chaostechnic,”
Reginko admitted, “But you’ll still too optimistic if you hope to beat
me. Chaos Massive Impact!”
Instantly, an invisible force bowled over the entirety of Hero Machina.
Reginko immediately leaped forwards and began doling out Chaos Strikes and
Arrows but Davídrius jumped back to his feet and managed to intercept all of
the projectiles with Hastryth. He then yanked Christeané and Kievkenalis back
to their feet; the two of them quickly set to attacking Reginko all-out while
Davídrius turned back to the rest of the group.
“I hate to say it, but the three of us can’t do much against a
Chaostechnic in Chaos Armor… not in this closed environment,” Kevérin stated,
referring to Rebehka, Siyuakén, and himself. “Kaoné, Davídrius, fight her off.
The data transfer should only take a few more minutes.”
“Wha, what? Fight her–?” Kaoné spluttered, “Wait, why? How–?”
“Oh, not this again,”
Davídrius scowled, “Even I wasn’t
here for when things broke out, but it’s still pretty damn clear: we were
attacked. So, we fight back.”
“You’ve had more experience with spatial manipulation than any of us,
as a Materiatechnic,” Rebehka pointed out, “You’re the only one who can
reliably score a hit behind the shields of her armor.”
“B-but… I don’t know if I can… what if I accidentally…?”
“What, kill her?” Davídrius snorted, pausing just long enough to
deflect a series of Chaos Arrows and then deflect Reginko as she slammed toward
him. Christeané quickly wrapped his hammer tether around the Chaostechnic,
yanking her back across the room and allowing Davídrius to turn back to Kaoné.
“Well, shit, we can’t have that, now
can we? I mean, it’s not like you’re a soldier or anything… oh, wait! You are!”
“I was conscripted!” Kaoné shot back, “I didn’t choose to–!”
“Bullshit!” Davídrius snapped, instantly causing Kaoné to shut up and
recoil. “Like hell you didn’t choose to be a soldier. You’re a goddamned Materiatechnic!
Literally the only thing stopping you from wiping the floor with anyone who
attacks you is you! You have the power to keep everyone off your back – you have the power to defy conscription
and live your own life, free of military conflict. But you don’t! You just went
with the flow – you became a soldier, because you didn’t want to resist. And
then you try to shirk away the very role of a soldier because ‘you didn’t
choose to be one’. Well, that’s a fuckin’ lie. That’s just what you tell
yourself to make you feel better about yourself. And it may have worked ‘til
now, but it’s high goddamn time you realized that you can’t save everyone!” He
turned around, his back to Kaoné as he brandished Hastryth. “You’ve got no
excuses, being a soldier who doesn’t fight, when it’s the very goddamn job of a
soldier to fight. Stop being a coward and come live in the
real world!” He then took off, joining the battle just in time to bowl over
Reginko as she attempted to teleport out of the room again.
“…I …I…” Kaoné simply stared after the Introtechnic, dumbfounded.
“…Ah, I guess that’s Davídrius for you?” Rebehka smiled awkwardly in an
attempt to console the Materiatechnic.
“He’s not entirely wrong…” Siyuakén muttered, just loudly enough for
Rebehka to hear. The Cryotechnic shot her an expression of mixed disapproval
and confusion, but the entire exchange was missed by Kaoné, who simply
continued to watch the battle in silence.
“Chaos Cannon!”
“Uagh–!” Christeané was thrown off balance as the Chaos Energy
projectile impacted his hammer mid-twirl, causing it to go flying off toward
the back wall. Reginko quickly spun around and fired another Chaos Cannon at
him, which Davídrius managed to deflect before Kievkenalis scored a hit on the
Commander with his own Chaos Cannon projectile. She simply shrugged the attack
off, however, and teleported out of the room, leaving the three Chaotics to
warily watch both room entrances again.
“Chaos Slam!”
Both Davídrius and Christeané were taken by complete surprise as
Reginko slammed into them from above, grasping both of them by their heads and
smashing them to the floor. Before Kievkenalis could call out any support
moves, the Commander had launched two Chaos Cannons his way, forcing him to
call out “Chaos
Deflection” to block them both.
Immediately after the deflection shield dissipated, however, Reginko muttered “Chaos Slam” again and rammed into her opponent
Chaostechnic, sending him flying into the back wall. Before she could give
chase, though, the ground around her suddenly rose up and bound her by her ankles
and wrists. She stared at the new bounds bemusedly before muttering “Chaos Teporté” and simply teleporting two meters to the
side. She then turned to face the rest of Hero Machina, her arms crossed.
“...Help,” Kaoné squeaked.
“So… you’re a Metallitechnic? Or a Geotechnic?” the Commander guessed,
“…either way, it’s still not enough to stop me. I don’t even know why you’re so
insistent on fighting me. Most people with half a brain and any of your
abilities would’ve run by now.”
“Chaos…!”
“Hmm–?” Reginko glanced back at Kievkenalis but was suddenly knocked
down to the ground by Christeané’s hammer. He then smashed his fist to the
ground, creating enough force to bounce Reginko back into the air before he
grabbed her in a nelson hold, bashing his head against hers each time she
attempted to call a Chaos attack.
“Why run when you can win?” Davídrius smirked, stepping back as
Christeané turned the commander toward Kievkenalis just in time for him to
finally initiate his attack.
“Impact!”
Nothing happened.
“…Chaos Impact?” Kievkenalis tried again, only for there to be no
result.
“…Ah, just the moment I was waiting for!” Reginko smirked as she
wrestled her way out of Christeané’s hold and tossed him away. She whistled
loudly, after which the four missing Black Suns soldiers rushed back into the
room, guns drawn on Christeané, Davídrius, and Kievkenalis as the three
soldiers already in the room revealed hidden arm cannons and trained their
weapons on the other half of Hero Machina.
“Wha… what?” Kevérin responded, startled. He then scowled as pain
returned to his body and he realized what had just occurred. “Damn, this is–!”
“The activation of this base’s final defense stage,” Reginko nodded
smugly, “The CENT fields!”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 24 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: Powered Armor
Powered armor is exactly what it sounds like – an advanced form of protection for infantry, powered by some kind of power source. Powered armor is common throughout the galaxy, though many variants are easily defeated by a variety of Chaotic abilities so the only galactic entities to put significant stock into powered armor are the Black Suns.
Despite the name, however, powered armor’s primary source of protection comes from energy shields, not physical armor. Creating a full-body armor suit that provides minimal movement restrictions and maximal protection is very difficult, so most powered armor sets consist of boots, greaves, a codpiece, a chest plate, full-forearm gauntlets, and a flexible, yet bullet-proof long-underwear-like body suit. Some armor variants also include knee guards, upper-arm plating, and helmets. However there is little that helmets offer that AR glasses don’t so many armor users prefer to go helmet-less as the helmet restricts viewing range while offering little in the way of reliable protection. Every piece of armor contains a small shield generator and respective power source, and the chest plate contains a small computer that coordinates each generator to create an energy shield around the entire body of the user. Each piece is connected via small wires in the body suit under layer, allowing them to communicate the state of their shield to each other.
By default, the armor’s shield closely follows the skin silhouette of the user. This is beneficial as simply creating an orb around the user would mean that the shield would absorb more attacks and thus use up more energy; by closely following the skin, the shield only expends energy blocking or absorbing attacks that the user would have otherwise been unable to evade. However, in the event that any of the individual shield units fail, the armor switches to simply creating an orb around the user, as an orb – while inefficient – is still better than leaving a body part completely unprotected.
Different variants of powered armor differ in what kind of power source they use, but there are ultimately two types: electric, and Chaos Energy. Both variants use energy batteries, and so can only be active for a certain amount of time before they must be recharged. Electric batteries only last an average of six hours, and provide shielding powerful enough to block bullets but not powerful enough to block most Chaotic attacks. Chaos Energy batteries (referred to as either Chaos batteries or CE batteries) can last up to two days and provide shielding powerful enough to shrug off most Chaotic attacks, but they are just as dependent on Chaos Energy as any other CE device and will fail in the presence of Dead Space or a CENT field. Additionally, while Chaos Shields are capable of blocking most Chaotic attacks, shields under sustained attack will fail far sooner than the average run time of two days. Many armors that run on CE batteries – commonly known as Chaos Armor – will have electric backups that can run for an hour or two, but after that, the shields fail and the armor simply becomes dead weight.
Since most powered armor is not actual full-body armor and has an exposed under layer, many variants have accompanying robes or clothing to cover the armor and give the impression that the user is more heavily armored or completely clothed than otherwise. Said clothing is usually race-dependent, and is often used to identify the race of an armor user more than the actual armor is.
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