Targets

a/n: An epic battle on the promontory in front of BLADE tower. News at 11.

Swears, so badly written fight sequences. If anyone can give me information on Milsaadi attack preferences (type, move names, etc.), please send it in, because that needs so much help.

All the good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft. Case, Rosalee, and Neesae are mine.


The smart thing would have been to land right outside the East Gate. The smart thing would have been to crash into that dirt path that led to Oblivia, near the temporary station, and let them protect her. They were Harriers, right? The smart thing would have been to fall like a stone after being shot directly, shut everything down, including herself if necessary, and see if she woke up the next morning.

Case was so far from doing the smart thing, she didn't even consider it. She wasn't sure she COULD land any earlier. She knew she couldn't shut the skell down. It wanted to get to NLA. She hoped that was because she wanted it so badly, but the way the systems were painting the tower, locking on to weaknesses she didn't recognize, she was deeply afraid that it had other desires.

Which left only one decision, the best of a dozen bad choices: where to land inside NLA. Not the residential area, no help there and too many civilians. The industrial area was too crowded, all shipping crates and random machinery, and any fight would get messy. She could easily get trapped there in the narrow back areas. Commerical Drive, that had space and a fair access to help, but it was still just too crowded with non-combatants, xenos included. Which left the Administrative District. She'd certainly get attention, and fast, all BLADEs on deck, and a decent number of weapons. She didn't like getting that close to BLADE tower, but nothing that big and obvious didn't also come with its share of defenses. The weapons systems agreed with her, and were seeking out weird options, power lines and key supporting structures. So she'd land there, and let BLADE do their best to stop her attackers while she tried to control this skell's desire for combat. If she could manage the lower level, even better.

She was lucky to get over the wall. Twin blasts, nicely balanced, darkened the displays in her mind. For an instant, she was trapped in a suffocating darkness, no sensation but the continued pain from the connections sliced deep into her flesh. By the time the skell had lit back up, she only had a moment to recognize the deck rushing straight at her. She'd done better than expected, really. The promontory in front of BLADE tower, nice. Then the prototype skell smashed into and through a helicopter (sorry, she owed the Prospectors big time, sorry), continuing in a skid before stopping 4 meters from the edge.

Case would have lain there, given a choice. But the skell had other ideas, and she needed to keep paying attention or she'd completely lose control. They rolled to their knees, then stood, jerkily, but straight. Her mind screen was flashing at various figures. Small ones, still distant but running forward. Oh no you don't, you leave them be, thought Case as she snapped target after target off the ground forces. The prototype hesitated fractionally, and began painting larger targets. Better, but Case still wouldn't agree. Sure, she knew the ground fighters must be allies, but through the twisted interface, she couldn't quite make out which skells were friendlies, and which ones were enemies. They all seemed to want her dead.

Another shuddering hit, and Case smiled through gritted teeth. Standing and taking it, that she could do. Finally, something she was qualified at.

xcxcxcxcswitchxcxcxcxc

Gwin leaned forward in the pilot seat. He knew, of course he knew, that this wouldn't make the skell go any faster. Ares models went plenty fast as it was, and they'd gained ever so slightly on the enemy group. But he couldn't help it, he really wanted to reach New Los Angeles before Case and her whole mess of crazy got there.

Not a chance. The enemy had several minutes lead on them, even with everyone at the Cauldros camp doing the required prep before slamming into skells. Minimal, fractional prep. He only hoped no one had left anything on the stove, because the camp would probably be burnt down before they got back. The ultimate insult, a smoldering tent surrounded by lava. He shook his head to erase the distraction.

"I'm reading heavy energy discharges, just next to Armory Alley," Neesae said in her precise voice.

"What the hell? Doesn't she know to keep out of the city?" Irina sounded absolutely disgusted. All during the flight to Primordia, she kept insisting that they'd find no problem whatsoever, that the enemy would have given up, that no prototype was worth this grief. At the same time, she and Rosalee had run about five different attack plans, all of them assuming a full complement of enemy and no assistance from Case, BLADE, or the Dog Squad tagging along behind. Favorite version, double team on neighboring targets. "You guys are gonna give me Gwin, aren't you?" Neesae had complained. "Love you too, Nees," Gwin had shot back.

Now it looked like the second conversation was the valid one. He saw the strange silver skell, almost on the edge of the overlook, moving too slowly to avoid all the attacks against it, and definitely putting up no fight whatsoever.

"You said there were five, Gwin!" shouted Rosalee.

"Four. I don't think one of the Milsaadi is getting out of that lava, ever."

"Whatever. Because I count seven." She was right, of course she was right.

"Who knew I was this popular?" sneered Irina. "Doesn't change a thing. We work our way down the line, from my left. Go."

The team followed her direction. Gwin and Neesae locked on to the second skell, aiming at the shoulder joints first. From the start, he knew was going to be a bad fight. The cooldown on his big hits was too long, and the regular attacks weren't working on opponents that moved this fast. It dodged Gwin's strikes more often than not. Then Gwin's luck failed him completely. Three blasts, hitting from three directions and almost simultaneously, and he barely had time to hit the emergency release before his ride was scrapped. Crap, that insurance was not cheap, he was screwed until next month's paycheck. He was on his feet and racing to the far side of the skells, to the very front of the outlook. Standard for his team: if you couldn't fight, you were a liability, so get out of the way. He noted that the three women had switched up, and were focusing together on a single target, making a little more headway, but still too slow.

There was a limit to where he could run, not that he would leave his team, ever. He was still drawing fire from the enemy, not directly, but because even Milsaadi, focused assassins that they are, can put out some area attacks. Not everything was hitting only the other skells. He hitched up his rifle and laid out something to slow the enemy.

A dumb idea, no question, because he was in no shape to counter the attention of even a single skell. He'd counted on the enemy staying focused on his team and on Case. Unfortunately, they must have figured out that Case wasn't retaliating, maybe couldn't even, and they were confident enough in their numbers to pay him some mind. Or maybe he had just pissed that one fighter off; he was known to have that effect on people. The attacks become direct, buckling the deck around him, and he'd had to dive, swerve, and roll with increasingly less success at avoiding them. Skell insurance and next month's paycheck dwindled in importance. And probability. He just might get wiped today.

Gwin felt a wave of heat as a thermal attack blew past him, rivaling Cauldros temperatures. A change from the previous physical and gravity attacks, and strangely missing him completely. As he tried to figure it out, he saw the skell that had been attacking him jerk suddenly, its shoulder twisting upwards but not as part of an attack strike. It jerked again, sideways, then three more times, before it curled up, almost in a fetal position, and went still. A human figure, katana in hand, was revealed.

"Wow, Mr. Secretary! That was totally …" Words failed Gwin. He didn't want to sound like a complete fanboy, but the only word coming to mind was "awesomesauce". He settled for the obvious. "Thank you, sir!"

"This has interrupted my coffee break. I'm expecting an explanation, Gwin." Nagi was already in overdrive and moving forward.

"Wait!" Gwin blocked him, a thing he never imagined doing. Nagi had been moving towards, and maybe against, Case. "The silver one, that's piloted by one of our people. We need to protect her."

Nagi only flicked a glance at the Interceptor before switching against a standard model enemy. He wasn't particularly upset by the day's events. Yes, his morning coffee had been disturbed, but on the plus side, he'd had to drop his mug, an extremely clumsy and lumpy object, not at all his taste, but unfortunately also a gift from the elderly and respected Nopon leader Nan. If he was lucky, it would be broken beyond repair. He made a note to make sure that was the case. "Target where I target," he ordered Gwin.

"Yes, sir, um, wait, I have an idea…" Gwin turned and raced towards the prototype skell. Not perhaps the safest place to stand, because Case was coming in for more than a fair share of blasts. He looked up at what he thought might be the pilot's carriage. "Case! Hey!" he shouted. "Look where we're hitting. See if you can target right there, okay?" He pointed to himself, to the motionless silver skell, and then to where Nagi was swinging away at a dark enemy skell. No response, although he had the strangest feeling that the prototype was staring at him. He shrugged and ran back to stand by the Secretary. Maybe he'd see his next paycheck after all.


a/n: BLOSSOM DAAAAAAAANCE! I still have the urge to press the A button in a rhythmic way. Someday, I will use the line "Born in a world of strife" in a XCX story, and you will know to send help. Gwin's response is pretty much my response to all Nagi-related gameplay. Squee.

Next up: More. Fight. Scenes. Which I hate writing. But Irina's voice, if only briefly, so that's a nice bonus.

Four weeks until Breath of the Wild
Which Monolith Soft worked on
I plan to lose my mind
(what little remains)
squee!