“Kaoné!!”
Immediately
the Materiatechnic snagged Exdominor’s armor, completely immobilizing the
Drakkar. The rest of Hero Machina relaxed slightly, but instantly tensed up
again and backed into defensive stances when the faction leader began to
chuckle.
“I see
you indeed brought a trapper with you,” his head lowered, thin, beady
eyes glaring back at the Nimalians haughtily. “Your confidence is, perhaps, not
completely unfounded. But to not even be aware of your enemy’s equipment before
engaging them…” he suddenly jumped backwards out of his armor as it
disintegrated, holding its rough form only because of Kaoné’s continued
concentration, “…is the very oversight that will see you killed!”
“Everyone,
back off!!” Kevérin roared, immediately
jumping into the air enough to blast himself backwards with flames. Christeané
quickly whipped around and launched himself into Kaoné’s steel wall
hammer-first, blowing a hole through which Davídrius and Siyuakén vaulted
through as Rebehka slammed Exdominor with a horizontal column of ice in an
attempt to fend him off.
“So now you run!!” the Drakkar
replied gleefully as he smashed the ice column with his bare hands, “Only now
do you realize your errors. But you are too
slow!”
“Chaos Assist! Chaos Impact! Chaos Impact!!”
Kievkenalis exclaimed, but Exdominor simply crossed his arms in front of
himself and took the blows before sliding his foot behind him and launching
himself forward. Kaoné quickly snapped up the ground below him, knocking him
into the sky before Rebehka created a vast array of ice spikes around her and
then fired them at Exdominor. She was immediately forced to redirect her
attention as two Drakkars leaped over her and Kaoné before whipping around and
thrusting their palms forward; the Materiatechnic’s short height allowed her to
quickly duck under the incoming hand and rush away, but Rebehka was barely able
to move before one of the Drakkars slammed her chest with its fist, immediately
knocking out her shielding. She recoiled in shock, unable to block as the
Drakkar rushed in again for the Ciei theft – only to be blown away as Siyuakén
barreled into the scene, channeling enough electricity through the air to
immediately fry the Drakkar to a crisp.
“You
okay?!” the Electrotechnic shouted back as she fired one of her grappling hooks
at the second Drakkar and swung him around into another approaching Drakkar
squad.
“Y-yeah…
thanks a lot,” Rebehka scowled, “Damn it, they blew out my shield unit–!”
“Guys! Get back–!” Davídrius suddenly appeared
on the scene, breaking one of his blades against a Drakkar’s chest before using
its body to rebound backwards, kicking it with enough force to send it flying
back and into the approaching Exdominor. “He’s coming–!”
“I’ve
got it. I’ve got it!” Kaoné responded quickly, tearing out the ground
underneath the four of them and lifting it into the air before flying back and
away from Exdominor. However she was barely able to retreat ten meters before
being knocked off her platform by an unseen Drakkar, her shields failing as her
makeshift platforms fell to the ground, sending the three on-board Chaotics
tumbling as well. Davídrius quickly rolled to his feet before drawing another
blade and engaging three of the nearest Drakkars as Siyuakén took a deep breath
and proceeded to electrically overload all of the powered armor in the
vicinity, Drakkars and Hero Machina alike. Kaoné immediately used her ability
to repair the Nimalians’ armor as Christeané jumped next to her, slamming an
approaching Drakkar with such force that he simply obliterated its entire
torso. He then grabbed both his battlehammers, shouted “Duck!” and threw them to the left and right; their tether
connection to his armor caused them to swing around in a wide arc, flooring any
Drakkars within ten meters still standing after Siyuakén’s attack.
“We
need to keep moving!” Davídrius exclaimed, catching both hammers before they
could wrap around Christeané and letting them drop to the ground,
“Exdominor’s–!”
“Not
following us anymore,” Kievkenalis interrupted, “He stopped after Kaoné created
those platforms…”
“Hold
on…” Kevérin paused after blasting away the last few Drakkars still within the
area, “He’s not? Then what is he–?”
The
Pyrotechnic was interrupted as the secondary shield generator exploded
spectacularly, sending debris flying and emitting a sudden electromagnetic
pulse that knocked out Hero Machina’s armor again.
“…Fuck!”
Davídrius leaped back to his feet after Kaoné and Siyuakén quickly repaired the
armor, “What the fuck was that–?!”
“Command:
Contact Genesis!” Kevérin called,
opening a comm channel to the Earthian ship, “Beam us up, now!”
“Already
on it! Get ready!”
A
second passed and Hero Machina found themselves back on the bridge of the Genesis, Captain Krick leaning forward in
his chair expectantly.
“What
happened down there?” he questioned, “It hasn’t even been half an hour, and we
already lost the secondary shield generator?”
“Exdominor
showed up…” Kevérin scowled, “There was nothing we could do.”
“…It
would figure he’d show up,” Krick muttered, staring up through the bridge
window at the continuing engagement with the Drakkar ships as he rubbed his
chin in thought.
“At
least, this probably means that there really is an Ayas here?” Kaoné suggested.
“Which
is worse, because now he’s likely to find it,” Rebehka pointed out, “We didn’t
even get a chance to look for the
Ayas.”
“That
Siion that Exdominor attacked was about to tell us where it was,” Davídrius
commented, “Did Exdominor steal his Ciei or whatever? Would he know where it is
from that?”
“Ciei
doesn’t include memories,” Kevérin shook his head, “…but it does include
thought processes. If that Colonel knew how
the Siions picked the Ayas location, then Exdominor does now, too. All he has
to do is cause some significant change in the status quo and then look for how
the Siions react…”
“Is
that why he destroyed the generator?” Siyuakén suggested.
“Maybe,
but he could also have just destroyed it because he could…”
“That’s
certainly a consideration, but there is
a surprising amount of information you can learn about a shield array just from
destroying one of the generators,” Krick countered, “If you inspect how the
array adjusts itself to redistribute the load and cover the new hole, then you
can find things like where the primary arrays are, or where the primary power
source is. So, say, if the Siions had hooked the Ayas into Maasen’s shield
array…”
“Then
Exdominor could find where it is by destroying a generator!” Kevérin exclaimed.
“Exactly,”
Krick nodded, and then ordered, “Check the array scanner backlogs! Trace the
power flow. Is there any indication of an Ayas – higher than expected power
spikes, a primary shield generator with significantly more output, any part of
the array with higher load?”
“There
is, sir!” one of the bridge crew quickly replied, “All signs point to the
primary shield facility directly under us!”
“…We
should have expected as much,” Krick shook his head warily.
“But
wait… the Ayas scanner didn’t pinpoint the primary shield as a possible
location…” Kaoné frowned.
“That
doesn’t mean anything. There’s several factors that could have interfered with
the scanner results,” Kevérin pointed out, “A primary generator, though
predictable, makes a certain level of sense; I’m sure the Siions have it
heavily fortified…”
“But no
level of fortification can stop Exdominor,” Krick lamented.
“Not
quite true. Exdominor’s power is ranged Ciei theft; when it comes to breaking
through obstacles, he’s stronger than most, but not enough to break through military
fortification on his own,” Kievkenalis countered, “The generator is likely to
have CSA beam-scrambling tech, too, even if it only works half the time… the
point is, they might stand a chance against Exdominor. Surdeus, on the other hand…”
“Damn
it, don’t jinx us,” Davídrius scowled, “Do you want another faction leader to show up?”
“We
didn’t see any Sursum Drakkars groundside, so I think we’ll be fine,”
Christeané retorted.
“Can
the seven of you handle going back to look for the Ayas?” Krick questioned.
“…Yeah,
we should be fine,” Kevérin nodded, “Like you said, we haven’t even been in
combat for half an hour.”
“Good,”
Krick nodded back, “…now as you said, the Siions seem to be employing some
level of beam-scrambling tech around the primary generator facility, so I’ll
have to beam you down a kilometer out. Can you handle that?”
“As I
said: we’ll be fine.”
“Ha!
Well, if you say so. Prepare for beaming in three… two… one…!”
* * *
5 Minutes Later
“Alright,
just up this next ramp, the main entrance should be over… the… railing…”
“…Fuck,”
Christeané scowled as the two Earthian trucks screeched to a halt next to a
metal railing. Nearly ten meters down and twenty forward was the main entrance
to the primary shield facility – or rather, where it should have been. In its
place was a large hole, the metal all around the entryway torn and shredded to
bits. The only remaining signs of Siion fortification or resistance were
several scorch marks and craters scattered around the metal courtyard.
“The
Drakkars beat us here!” Kevérin exclaimed, leaping out of the truck and over
the railing to the ground below. “C’mon! We need to get to the Ayas before they
do!”
“Easier
said than done!” Davídrius shouted back as he landed with a roll next to the
Pyrotechnic, “How the fuck do you expect to find it? Just search every square
inch? Sure, this ain’t no Deathnought wreck, but still–!”
“I
think… I think I may be able to sense it,” Siyuakén commented, jumping down
from the ice platform Rebehka had created, “I have the same feeling here as I
did with the Deathnought wreck…”
“…Can
you sense anything?” Kevérin turned to Kievkenalis.
“Uh… Chaos Detect. …I can see some Drakkars
in the building, but I can’t sense the Ayas itself.”
“Then
for now, we’ll follow Siyuakén,” the Transfer Captain ordered, and then glanced
toward Siyuakén suspiciously. “But once we’re done here on Maasen, I want to
figure out what’s going on with you and sensing Ayas. That’s not exactly an
Electrotechnic skill.”
“Look,
I agree with you for once, but we’re also a little low on time here!” Davídrius
pointed out as he impatiently brandished two of his blades, “We need to get
going. Now!”
“Davídrius
is right,” Christeané nodded, grasping one of his battlehammers before twirling
it in preparation for battle, “Siyuakén, lead on!”
“Right!
Right. Um. This way,” the Electrotechnic stepped forward, quickly yet
cautiously entering the shield facility through the large hole. “…It’s in that
direction,” she pointed up and to the left, “I think… maybe a hundred or so
meters away?”
“So you
know where the Ayas is.”
“What–?”
Kevérin turned to face the new speaker, only to be surprised as upwards of ten
Drakkars suddenly surrounded Hero Machina. “Where’d they come from?!”
“I– I
don’t know!” Kievkenalis frowned, uneasily snapping his attention from Drakkar
to Drakkar, their faction identity obscured by their unusually heavy armor, “I
didn’t detect any Drakkars this close to the entrance… which could mean–!”
“That
your ignorance has caused your doom!” a Drakkar interrupted before the
entire group rushed Hero Machina. Davídrius immediately reacted by
roundhouse-kicking the first Drakkar who got too close, knocking it across the
room. He then dashed forward, attempting to find weak points in the Drakkars’
armor as Christeané simply began smashing through them, his fists and hammers
flying about him in a haphazard whirl of devastation.
Almost
immediately after the Introtechnics began fighting the rest of Hero Machina
engaged as well, with Kievkenalis calling out “Chaos
Assist!” before attempting to force the Drakkars away and into ranged
combat with several uses of Impact and Deflection. Kaoné also did her best to
keep the Drakkars away, seizing two or three at once by their armor and
thrusting them backwards, allowing Kevérin and Siyuakén to issue high-energy
blasts of flame and electricity at the helpless Drakkars. Rebehka quickly
worked to freeze the Drakkars’ weapons, forcing them into using melee tactics –
which then failed spectacularly as she froze the very floor beneath their feet.
“…And
that’s… that!” Christeané exclaimed some time later after obliterating the last
Drakkar underfoot with his battlehammers.
“I
thought Drakkars were supposed to be harder to deal with than this,” Davídrius
remarked.
“I
agree, this is really odd,” Kevérin nodded, “I mean, sure, infantry combat
isn’t exactly one of the Drakkars’ strengths, but still…”
“Well I’m not complaining,” Christeané stated,
“I mean, even if they’re easy to fight off, they’ve still delayed us. Siyuakén,
let’s get going!”
“You
don’t have to keep telling me!” the Electrotechnic retorted as she turned in
the direction she had initially pointed. “…How do we get there?”
“Forget
trying to save the base, we need to save time and plow right through it!”
Kevérin exclaimed, “Kaoné! Forge a tunnel-uwah?!”
The
Transfer Captain stumbled backwards in surprise as a massive electrical pulse
suddenly wiped out the shields of Hero Machina’s Chaos Armor. He blinked
confusedly and quickly attempted to regain his bearings – but not before a
Drakkar jumped down from above, immediately thrusting its palm forward,
smashing through his chestplate and then slamming his sternum. The
Pyrotechnic’s eyes instantly went wide in shock before he collapsed to the
ground, the Drakkar withdrawing its hand from his chest.
“Wait…
what–?!” Christeané spluttered, slowly realizing that the same fate had
befallen Siyuakén and Kievkenalis. “Shit, they–!”
In the
middle of his exclamation Davídrius burst forward, slamming his two blades into
one of the Drakkars with enough force to simultaneously shatter both blades and
overload the Drakkar’s shields. He then blocked the Drakkar’s incoming palms
with his own before grabbing the Drakkar’s head, forcing it down, and then
kneeing its face with enough force to completely implode its skull. He tossed
the corpse away and dashed over to the second Drakkar, flooring it with a
single kick as Rebehka mercilessly flash-froze the third Drakkar, instantly
killing it. She then froze the remaining Drakkar to the floor, immobilizing it
just in time for Davídrius to stomp it, demolishing its spine.
Kaoné
quickly repaired the armor of the attacked Nimalians as Christeané and
Davídrius warily kept an eye out for more Drakkars. A couple seconds passed
before any of the victims came to, with Kevérin moving first as he sat up
uneasily and held a hand to his head.
“Oh
god…” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut momentarily before glancing around
the room, “Shit… is that what it’s like to have Ciei stolen?...”
“Is
that what happened?” Kievkenalis frowned, quickly standing up, “All I… all I
saw was a Drakkar drop down in front of me, and then… what happened?”
“Some
Drakkars tried to steal your Ciei, it seems,” Rebehka answered as she helped
Siyuakén up, “They were surprisingly fast… if the ambush group had been that
quick, I don’t think we would have stood a chance…”
“Wait,
what?” Davídrius glanced at the three victims confusedly, “Wait, wasn’t your
Ciei stolen?”
“It
gets returned if you kill the Drakkar who stole it…” Kevérin muttered, “…but,
damn, that was a shock. I didn’t know it was so, uh… sudden.”
“Look,
this is interesting and all, but this is all just more delays,” Christeané responded impatiently, “The longer we
stand around, the more likely it is we’ll be attacked again! We need to find
the Ayas!”
“Give
me a direction, and I can get us there,” Kaoné glanced at Siyuakén.
“Uh,
right. That way.”
“Got
it!” the Materiatechnic exclaimed, turning in the direction Siyuakén had
pointed. Without any further ado she began manipulating the building’s walls,
folding the metal out to form a tunnel through the entire facility. She quickly
rushed forward, haphazardly creating the tunnel around her as the rest of Hero
Machina followed on her heels, all of them wary of further Drakkar attack.
Several
moments later the tunnel suddenly opened up to a large room. Hero Machina
jumped down to the floor below to take a moment and inspect their surroundings:
a large, roughly fifty by fifty meter room that was nearly half as tall and
mostly empty, save for a sizable cylindrical structure built into the back
wall.
“It’s
the primary maintenance unit,” Kevérin remarked after his glasses identified it
as such, “We must be in one of the maintenance rooms.”
“Does
it really need to be so big and empty?” Davídrius questioned incredulously.
“We can
question Siion design decisions later,” Christeané insisted, “We still need to
find the Ayas.”
“It’s
here, actually…” Siyuakén began approaching the back wall, “…I think it’s
hooked into the main generator from here.”
“She’s
right,” Kievkenalis affirmed, “I can sense the Ayas from here. Definitely the
Ayas.”
“…So we
got to it before the Drakkars?” Kaoné asked uneasily as the rest of Hero
Machina followed Siyuakén up to the back wall.
“Looks
that way…” Kevérin responded, stepping up beside Siyuakén to work with the
maintenance interface. “…Yeah, it’s definitely here. Right…” he entered a
couple commands and then pressed a final button before stepping back, pausing
for several moments before a wall panel opened up and a mechanical apparatus
extended outwards, revealing the light blue Ayas. “There.”
“It’s
the Ayas Arcán!” Kievkenalis exclaimed, “This is what we need to fix the
Prior!”
“Well,
great, let’s take it and get out of here,” Davídrius replied, “No need to stick
around any longer.”
“No,
it’s not that simple…” Kevérin frowned, “We can’t just take the Ayas.”
“What?” Davídrius turned to stare at the
Pyrotechnic skeptically, “Why the fuck not?”
“It’s
hooked into the planetary shield array, that’s why! If we just disengage it
with no warning then who knows what
could happen. I already took enough risks to expose the Ayas, just so we could
see which one it was.”
“And
indeed, I must thank you for your efforts!”
“What–?!”
all seven Chaotics immediately spun around. Davídrius drew his remaining sword
and had already leaped forward before realizing just who had spoken, at which
point he quickly backpedaled and grasped his blade defensively.
“Surdeus…!”
Kevérin hissed.
The
faction leader crossed his arms and heaved slightly, as if sighing – though
without a mouth to accompany the expression. “It truly is a shame that your
record and observation technology has advanced to the point of instantly
recognizing me… interactions with you Aldredanoids becomes so dull when introductions are no longer
necessary.”
“…What
do we do?” Kaoné whispered to Kevérin.
“At the
first opportunity, we run. Until then, play it cool… don’t try to excite him.”
“As if
you could be capable of such a feat! I would be surprised if the lot of you
could cause me to expend much more energy than I did trashing that regiment out
front.”
Kevérin
scowled. “You could hear that?”
Surdeus
chuckled slowly and purposefully. “You dare assume I could not?”
“There’s
gotta be something you can’t do,”
Davídrius snorted, “There’s no way you faction leaders can be as perfect as
everyone says. The rest of your forces were pieces of cake, how hard can you be
to deal with?”
The
Drakkar stared at Davídrius for a moment before holding a hand to his face as
he broke out into laughter. “AHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Comparing me to any of those grunts you encountered in the field. The very
thought makes me laugh!” He calmed down and extended an arm forward,
pointing directly at the Ayas. “I certainly appreciate your sense of humor, but I
would suggest you hand me the Ayas before I grow bored.”
“…We
can’t do that,” Kevérin responded firmly, signaling for Kievkenalis to grab the
Ayas. “If you want it, you’ll have to beat us. And to do that you’ll have to
catch us, first!”
“Hahaha…
catch you, you say? Beat you, you
say?” the faction leader chuckled softly, and then suddenly stretched
his arms out to the side, launching several Chaos Strikes – without calling
them – into the walls and collapsing all of the room’s entrances. “You dare taunt me? You, a group of mere,
pathetic little Aldredanoids think you could beat me?” He gestured to himself in the most grandiose of
fashions, “the commander of this entire invasion force? The leader of the Sursum
Drakkars? The galaxy’s sole Chaos Conduit?! You dare assume you know more about being a
Chaotic, more about Chaos Energy itself to beat not just any Chaostechnic but the eldest, most
powerful, most knowledgeable Chaos Conduit who ever lived?! You
know nothing! Just as you have no
grasp of the true power of the Ayas, so too do you have no grasp of the true
power that comes with being a Chaotic! You cannot possibly comprehend the full
power of Chaos Energy!
Your disgusting ignorance flies in the face of your words and demonstrates just
how unfit you are to hold any of the Ayas you so tightly cling to! You
Aldredanoids do not know how well you have had it until now… but now, now, I
will take back that which rightly belongs to the Drakkars – I will remove all those unworthy of the Ayas from the
face of the galaxy, even if it takes millennia to do so! Ahahaha… how ironic it
must be, for the Aldredas to once hold the same view. ‘The night is darkest
before the dawn’ indeed…” he grasped his cloak in hand, “and so,
now, everything… will fall to darkness!” He ripped his cloak off and
discarded it in one motion, revealing his armor-less body as he stood up
straight and clenched his fists tightly, “Everything… will
fall to CHAOS! OBLIVION!!”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 46 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: {null}
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