“…We’re gonna have to go through that.”
“What in the hell–?!” Shepherd fell back onto his bottom as the
creature roared again and rammed its head against the wall separating it from
the stasis pods. “Where did– how did–?!”
“There’s no time!” Siyuakén declared, jumping in front of Davídrius and
Shepherd, “I’ll distract it! Davídrius, you get the kids and the Captain out of
here!”
“Tch, of course I gotta do all the carryin’,” the
Introtechnic scowled as he crouched down in between two of the stasis pods and
scooped up the still unconscious children. He stood up and glanced over at the
other two pods, where Shepherd was picking up the last two children. “Not you!”
Davídrius barked, “You’re too slow. You’ll only get them and yourself killed!”
“And I’m supposed to just trust their lives to you?” Shepherd bristled
as the room suddenly shook violently from another impact, loosening several
rocks from the cave ceiling, “I’d think you’re even worse! Superspeed won’t
help at all if the acceleration kills them!”
“You clearly–“
“What are you still doing here? Get out there!” Davídrius ordered.
Siyuakén glared at him for a moment before whipping around and dashing out the
cave, immediately launching her grappling hooks at a far wall and yanking
herself out of range of the dragon creature. As soon as she left the
Introtechnic turned back to Shepherd. “Look, you clearly don’t understand how
Introtechnism works. Whatever I’m holding or touching can withstand the same
amount of acceleration that I can. How do you think I’ve still
got clothes, huh?!”
Shepherd glared back at the Introtechnic before glancing between the
children in his grasp. “…Agh. Fine!” he sighed irately, “Get going! But if
anyone dies, it’s your ass!”
“Don’t worry. I got this!” Davídrius exclaimed, spinning around on his
heel before crouching down… and then disappearing with a small boom. He crossed
the cavern and leaped up to the exit platform just as the dragon creature
smashed its tail into the ground just below the platform. The Introtechnic
ignored the close call and sped off through the caves as Siyuakén swept down
and launched both of her grappling hooks into the creature’s tail before
shoving a high current through them. It screeched in response before suddenly
hardening its tail and whipping it up through the air, dragging the
Electrotechnic with it. She quickly released the grappling hooks and struck
both of the dragon’s wings with lightning before firing one hook at a wall to
swing away from an incoming plume of fire breath. She then released the hook
and fired the other in the opposite direction just fast enough to yank herself
out of the creature’s path as it slammed itself into the wall at her former
location; as she swung around to face it again and got a good look at its body for
the first time, she paused momentarily in shock.
Down the creature’s back, spread across its wings, and covering a third
of its face were thick, rash-like streaks of silver metal.
“It’s infected–?!” Siyuakén gasped just as the dragon thrust itself at
her again, snagging her out of the air with its hands and snapping the
grappling line in the process. She quickly sapped as much electricity from the
creature’s hand as she could, forcing its muscles to go slack enough for her to
extract herself and leap away before the creature could attempt to grab her
with its other hand. As she fell through the air she twisted around to fire a
column of lightning at the dragon, stunning it long enough for her to launch
her remaining intact grappling hook into a far wall and swing away. Damn
rookie mistake, she mentally berated herself, now I’ve only got one
line left–!
Her thoughts were cut off as she released her grappling hook and
dropped to the ground just in time to evade another plume of fire. She
immediately responded with several lightning strikes but the dragon seemed to
simply shrug the attacks off, instead becoming even more agitated. With a
powerful flap of its wings it dived straight at Siyuakén, claws first, forcing
the Electrotechnic to dive out of the way as it slammed into the wall once
again. She quickly launched her grappling hook into the far wall to swing away
as the creature howled in painful anger and backed away from the wall before
turning to face Siyuakén again. The moment it did she shocked both of its eyes,
causing it to reel back in pain… only to suddenly split its forehead, open a
third eye, and come dashing after her again.
“What the fuck–!” she exclaimed, just before tucking into a roll as the
creature dashed overhead. She offered a somewhat meager electric shock at its
underside before scrambling away and firing her grappling hook again. “Good
thing it’s feral, or I’d be toast by now…” she muttered, and then glanced down
at the cavern entrance just as Davídrius leaped up to it with Shepherd riding
piggy-back. “I guess I’m done distracting it for now–?!”
Caught off-guard, Siyuakén was unable to properly respond as the
creature suddenly extended its tail to three times its length and smacked her
out of the air, snapping her second grappling line and sending her hurdling
toward the cave wall. Before she could even process the entire exchange
Davídrius had leaped up into the air and caught her before landing in a crouch
and launching himself back at the cavern entrance. The moment he was several
meters from the cavern he set the Electrotechnic down carefully.
“How’s that for worthless?” the Introtechnic smirked.
“…Ngh,” Siyuakén groaned in response, “…that thing… is infected.”
Davídrius frowned in confusion. “It what now?”
“It has the metallic infection,” she reiterated as she stood up slowly,
“…it’s big, powerful, infected, and feral. Our best bet is to just seal off the
cavern–“
“Pah, we should just defeat it now, while we have the chance.”
“Are you listening to what I’m saying?” Siyuakén responded angrily,
“Did you not just see it kick my ass? Fighting it isn’t worth
it!”
“Except that it’s a great way to get the Earthians in our debt,”
Davídrius responded smugly.
“Tch,” the Electrotechnic snorted, “if I couldn’t beat it, how do you plan
to?”
Davídrius smirked again. “Well, clearly, you’re still underestimating
me. For one,” he started as he produced two daggers from the inside of his
jacket, “I’ve got more pockets than you, and they’re deeper. Two, the ability
to run really fast has the side effect of giving you impressive leg strength.”
Siyuakén frowned. “And that means…?”
The Introtechnic grinned dangerously. “It means I can do this.”
He suddenly leaped up and forwards, clearing the entire cavern and
preparing to land on the dragon’s back. It turned toward him just in time to
react and slapped him aside with its wing, sending him flying into the floor.
Davídrius quickly caught himself and rolled to a stop before taking off again,
slicing at all four of the dragon’s Achilles tendons before it even realized he
hadn’t been crushed against the rocks. With an angry screech it quickly took
off into the air, leaving the Introtechnic behind on the ground – until he
crouched down and leaped again, easily clearing the creature and grabbing it by
its wing. He immediately jumped to the main body and used his daggers to latch
on, driving them into the creature’s skin in between all of the metallic
rashes. After pausing a moment to adjust to the dragon’s thrashing he moved to
his feet in a crouch and then spun around, slicing off both of the creature’s
wings before latching on again as it crashed to the ground. He didn’t even wait
for the dragon to finish roaring before he leaped off, dashing up and past the
neck as he sliced it before jumping back on top of its head and rapidly
stabbing it multiple times. The speed with which he stabbed created enough
force to drive the daggers through the metallic rashes and the creature’s
skull, but it also caused both blades to snap. But it was no issue; by the time
both daggers were useless the creature had keeled over, the occasional death
spasm being its only movements.
Siyuakén stared at the dragon carcass blankly as Davídrius flipped off
of it and then leaped back to the cavern entrance. He crossed his arms,
smirked, and chuckled triumphantly. “As I said… how’s that for useless?”
“That was… certainly impressive,” Siyuakén admitted, “Though you did
break your weapons again.”
“Tch. Well it’s not my fault I can’t afford
specialized Introtechnic weaponry.”
“Mm hmm,” the Electrotechnic smiled amusedly before glancing down the
cave opposite the cavern. “You got everyone out of here?”
“Yep. Shepherd should be making his way out of the caves right now.”
Davídrius paused for a moment and then frowned. “…I wonder what the Earthians
will do with those kids.”
“There’s not really much they can do,” Siyuakén
replied, “They didn’t look any older than two or three years old. I guess we
can hope that the Earthians are moral enough to not use them as child
soldiers…”
“I wonder. There has to be some reason those kids were
in the stasis pods, and the Earthians will definitely want to find out what it
is. You can bet your ass that, if this were a CSA colony, those kids wouldn’t
see the light of day. Even if it were a Nimalian colony they’d probably still
be put under military or government surveillance until they’re old enough to
draft.”
“That’s a very cynical world view.”
“It’s true and you know it,” Davídrius glanced over at Siyuakén, “…I
may be from Treséd, and I may be more ignorant than the rest of y’all, but I at
least know about the fucked up drafts and trades that you other nations partake
in.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?” Siyuakén responded slowly.
“…Nothing,” the Introtechnic turned back toward the cavern, “…Now’s our
chance to check out that computer, before the Earthians get their hands all
over it, and while they’d still be grateful we killed that monster thing.”
“Did you forget that we can’t read the interface?” Siyuakén deadpanned.
“…D’oh.”
“Besides, like I said earlier – this isn’t our place to explore. It’s
an Earthian colony, so we should leave everything we find to them.”
“Well what about that dragon thing? You said it was infected or some
shit, didn’t you? We could at least check it out.”
“…I guess there’s no harm in… wait…”
Siyuakén trailed off and then jogged back to the edge of the entrance
platform, with Davídrius instantly appearing beside her. He opened his mouth to
ask why she stopped, but then paused himself as he laid eyes on what she was
looking at:
The dragon carcass had split open, exposing a huge mass of metallic
bugs inside!
“What the– the fuck are those?!” Davídrius exclaimed.
“I… I don’t know,” Siyuakén muttered, slowly backing away from the
ledge. Suddenly, all of the bugs within the carcass spilled out and began rushing
toward the cavern entrance, and just as suddenly Siyuakén and Davídrius fled
back into the cave.
“Well this is fucked up!” the Introtechnic scowled, “What are those–?!”
“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this!” Siyuakén
responded, “…I’m sealing the cavern.”
“Tch, I won’t stop you,” Davídrius snorted as he stepped back. The
Electrotechnic stepped forward to the cave opening, charged her body with
electricity, and then issued a massive shock to the cave entrance – massive
enough to crack and dislodge the rocks, causing a cave-in. The cave filled with
dust and didn’t clear until Davídrius generated a breeze by rapidly spinning his
arms. The two Chaotics then looked over Siyuakén’s handiwork: the cave was now
blocked completely by fallen rock.
“…This is one fucked up planet,” the Introtechnic scowled, “the Master
Ayas appears, a phantom Battlecruiser appears, there’s a cavern full of gold
with four kids in stasis pods in the back, and then there’s this dragon
creature thing that exploded into a million bugs when we killed it!? What the
fuck!”
“Y…yeah…” Siyuakén muttered, still staring at the rocky wall. She then
shook her head and turned the other way. “We need to get back to the surface
and warn the Earthians–“
She was interrupted as a large metallic bug suddenly exploded from the
rock wall toward her, opening a gash across her left arm. She gasped in pain
and reflexively shocked the bug, overloading it and destroying it.
“What in the–!” Davídrius scowled, glancing over as Siyuakén roughly
cauterized her wound with an electric shock. He then jumped as the sound of
burrowing began to rumble through the cave walls. “…Fuck this place!” he
quickly scooped up Siyuakén in his arms and spun around on his heel before
dashing off, “Let’s get the fuck out of here!!”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 11 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: Chaotic Weaponry
For the most part, Chaotics have no need for weapons. Abilities that lie under the umbrellas of Materiatechnism (control of matter, i.e. Geotechnism or Cryotechnism) or Navitastechnism (control of energy, i.e. Pyrotechnism or Electrotechnism) are destructive enough on their own that the Chaotic does not need a weapon to translate devastating force. However, abilities that lie under the umbrellas of Introtechnism (internal/self-altering powers, i.e. Superspeed or Superstrength) or Extratechnism (external/environment-altering powers, i.e. Gravitechnism or Spacetechnism) are generally accompanied by some sort of weapon to help cause and/or spread destruction. These weapons are mostly melee in nature, with the Chaotic using their power to get close to their target and then augment their weapon to cause the actual damage. This is especially true with Introtechnics, who rely on their weapons to cause most of the damage instead of potentially injuring their bodies with direct force application.
Chaotics are capable of effectively using just about any melee weapon, but only weapons created with Chaotic use in mind are able to withstand being used for more than a couple battles – standard-construction melee weapons break very quickly under the high stress of Chaotic abilities. Thus most Chaotic weaponry is a high-tech combination of advanced metal alloys and Chaos Energy imbuement, both of which give the weapon enough durability to last several years – and even then they might break during intense battling. Breaking is mostly an issue for Superspeed and Superstrength Introtechnics however, as they rely on pure force to cause damage – most other Chaotics use their abilities in ways that do not cause their weapon quite as much stress.
The type of melee weapon used is variable. The weapon a Chaotic uses is based largely on their ability; for example, Spacetechnics simply use their ability to teleport around the battlefield, so they trend toward light, quick-kill weapons such as daggers. On the other hand, Superstrength Introtechnics trend toward heavy weapons such as hammers, axes, or maces, so as to cause the maximum amount of damage from their high-force swings. Superspeed Introtechnics trend toward bladed weapons such as swords or lances, using their high speeds to easily slice or pierce their target clean through and continue on their way.
Aside from melee weapons, many Chaotics – especially those in a military, and especially those in any vanguard forces – carry long-range sidearms; in other words, guns. Guns are rarely more powerful or useful than a Chaotic’s ability, and some Chaotics are capable of outright nullifying the advantages of such a weapon, but they come in handy when a Chaotic finds themselves trapped in a CENT field and unable to use their ability. However since the guns are never the primary weapon, they are usually merely a pistol or equivalent, meaning that a CENT field-trapped Chaotic is still somewhat limited in their offensive options.
It is worth noting that most Chaotic weaponry is designed for use against other Chaotics, not against structures or armored vehicles. Chaotics are mostly sent to dispatch infantry garrisons or capture a location, and are often able to destroy armored obstructions with their abilities anyways; if a Chaotic is sent specifically to take out an armored target, however, they will often use hammers known as “Armor’s Bane” since they are designed explicitly to apply as much force as possible to as little a space as possible and thus pierce the armor before cleaving out much of what’s underneath. These hammers are used most effectively by Superstrength Introtechnics; in fact, Superstrength Chaotics are one of the highest causes of destruction for mechs and tanks.
