Tag Team
a/n: Score at the start: Irina's team: 1, Nagi: 1, Case: 2. We just have 3 enemy skells left. Go Team!
Swears, poorly written fight scenes.
All the marvelously good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft. Case, Ro, Neesae, and the Dog Squad are mine. Also the prototype, although if you met the Rexoskell, you met its granddaddy.
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:inner:weight:complete:effect:0.87:appendge:unchanged:target:null:new:target:Y/n?
/Y/
The prototype slid easily into the next sequence. It spat out the obligatory report to its pilot. Not strictly necessary, but expected, and far easier than overriding protocols.
:overdrive:0.31:engaging:target:lifting:sun:
The skell curved its arms forward, and began a looping swirl of electricity, ready to push a ball of force at the target, another Ganglion skell. When the pilot had finally agreed to engagement, the prototype had noted the Ganglion origin of its enemies. Nothing in the protocols indicated that it should be targeting its own kind, but nothing was against it. Strictly speaking, none of the skells it had fought were its own kind anyway.
It was 0.0045 seconds away from completion of the energy packet when the skell next to the target slammed into the prototype with a physical attack that detached its right arm. The pilot reacted with full body vibrations, but no changed commands.
:potential:0.00:overdrive:interrupted:damage:shoulder:right:detached:engagement:physical:Y/n?
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Y/n?
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Y/n?
… /Y/ …
The skell was irked, and placed a request for future diagnostics. All trip long the pilot had responded reluctantly and very incoherently. The connection would need improving. It also noticed several mini-cycles within its own routines where the decision tree flickered, at first uncertain of the exact action of the enemy, and then selecting several sub-optimal but highly destructive sequences.
In short, for a moment, the skell had been unable to believe its eyes, and then had almost acted with pure rage.
All this went a ways towards proving that even a hesitant pilot was useful. The skell wasn't sure the pilot was 1.00 online, but in any case the delay had allowed a more efficient sequence to gain superiority.
The skell didn't need both arms to take care of its enemy. It stretched high, then leapt up, out of the reach of the new fighter, and flipped over the original target. Its left arm extended into an electric blade, curved almost 120 degrees at the tip. As it hurtled down onto the decking, the tip of the weapon pierced the back of the other skell's neck, and the force of the prototype's fall pushed the edge inward, then down the length of the back. The prototype landed into a crouch and spun, whipping the electric edge across the torso and out the right side of the twitching skell. No appendage breakage, disappointing. It let the force of its spin move it farther away from the second enemy. Wise, both for protection and to allow extra time to contact the sluggish pilot. Even with this evasive maneuver, the prototype felt a series of blasts from the opposing skell. It didn't even bother to paint the little crawling organic targets.
:appendage:damage:0.00:target:null:new:target:Y/n?
…
/Y/
...
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Irina was disappointed with the Dog Squad. Not exactly surprised, sure, but still disappointed. They were down to three enemy skells; it shouldn't be anything less than a cake walk to finish them off. They were fighting two to one, after all, without counting ground forces and the random element of Case's prototype. And yet. And yet! Those Harriers might be heavy hitters, but they remained deeply annoying.
Her team (minus that milksop Gwin) were starting a well-practiced sequence against the largest Ganglion skell standing, the one closest to the BLADE tower. She had gotten herself targeted, which allowed Rosalee enough time to place a good aura on everyone, and Neesae to get in position to bind the sucker. She even had enough time to punch it in the head a couple of times, using her flail. Tuned against mechanical foes too, she congratulated herself smugly. She noted that the last two Ganglion skells were now completely ignoring the BLADE fighters, in skells or otherwise. Focused on Case, she guessed. Whatever. Somebody would deal with them eventually.
She'd never expected a blow from behind. No enemy there. She could count to seven, and there was no enemy left to sneak behind her. It wasn't actually a blow so much as a shove, and she whipped her display to the side to see the off-putting view of the Dog Squad pushing its way into the fight area. One skell, probably that Murphy, had just shoved her to the side. All the firepower he was dumping on the enemy didn't change the fact that his other teammate had blocked Neesae, moving her too far back, so no binding was going to happen anytime soon. If they kept it up, none of Irina's team would get a good swing at this enemy and that would make Rosalee's aura wasted.
Yeah, she could say she was disappointed in the Dog Squad. But she'd be lying. Disappointment didn't even begin to cover it.
"Neesae, Rosalee. Hit the next one. Let the dogs get this bone." She let the other women's complaints flow by her, although she felt a moment's regret that she couldn't follow Rosalee's comments in Spanish. She trusted her team to be already moving to match her command. They'd target the nearest of the remaining two skells and then they'd flip the Dog Squad for the last one.
Except there was only one enemy skell left. Damn, but maybe Case had a reason to steal that skell.
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Gwin shook his head, trying to clear his vision. One of the area blasts had staggered him, and he was having trouble getting back up to speed. Lucky for Case, she didn't seem to need his help finding targets anymore. He revised his opinion. Maybe it wasn't so lucky. The enemy was focused on her in a way that indicated that if they had initially wanted to retrieve the skell, now they were determined to annihilate it. He cringed as he watched one of the silvery arms detach.
He flicked a glance towards Nagi. "Get in close," the other man shouted, already moving toward the closest enemy. Neither expected the leaping flip and shift Case did against her enemy. That skell, it moved like Milsaadi and hit with a sword of pure electricity. Gwin had to fall back or get flattened by severed bits of Ganglion skell.
As he stood, panting, almost at the edge of the promonitory's left side, he felt his admiration turn to concern. Case's skell might be awesome, but he knew she wasn't going to win this last battle. The other skell released a missle barrage that didn't seem to end, each one slamming into the prototype. She was being pushed even further than Gwin had been, to the very tip of the overlook.
"Sir, what can we do?"
"Keep firing. We do what we can and trust in our teams."
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:potential:null:sword:offline:resume:1.25:disengage:Y/n?
The prototype seethed. Protocols demanded it place that question. Loathsome. It was a stupid question anyway, because the readings were already coming in, and there was no way it could run at this point. But the protocols said that when damage reached this high, the pilot had the option to disengage, and if they couldn't escape, the next sequence would be to self-destruct.
/n. HEasdlfj2r7AD_BUTT3289jlaevml_IF_jaodsfkj2_NECEr898ydsjfa;qSSkjdoi*(&(F&d9jaoj98*(*ARY&f9ja/
:input:corrupt:repeat:disengage:Y/n?
/n/
A fine response, and clear. Problem was, the decision trees weren't coming up with anything useful, and the impacts were reducing what few options the skell still had. A few missiles remained. If it could target the neck, it had a chance, otherwise they couldn't do enough damage. But its ability to lock on to points had been damaged.
:left:back:missiles:charging:launch:0.43:
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"Neesae, can you bind that skell?"
"Which one?"
"The enemy!"
"I repeat, which one?"
"The big ugly tar colored one, you rock headed idiot…" screamed Irina.
"Oh. You mean, you want this one bound?" said Neesae, smugly, purple energy already in place. She had a weird sense of humor, sometimes. Irina cursed herself silently. She must be rattled if she hadn't realized Neesae was maneuvering closer all this time.
She and Rosalee started pounding at the skell, focusing on melee weapons. They'd used most of the heavier hitters already, and the fighting was too frantic to wait for a cool down. But this skell, its shields must have been something else, because nothing seemed to be scratching it. She wasn't missing, and she doubted Rosalee was either. "Just how much resist does this thing have?" she yelled.
"Not now, boss. Kinda busy," Neesae said, jerkily. Maintaining the energy to hold an enemy was always distracting, but it sounded like she was getting a little jostled too. Sometimes an enemy skell could fight it. Rarely, but sometimes. Lucky day, all round. God damn Case and her worms for brains.
The bubble popped, unexpected, and Neesae went flying back. Irina heard her yowling over the comm link and sensed that she wasn't coming back up real fast. One good slice, and Rosalee was down too. Irina braced herself as the skell's weapons swept towards her own Ares 90. Her ride was designed to make other skells cry, not to take damage. Looked like her whole team might need more insurance.
The cannons were so close to on-line. If she could hold out another half a second, she could give it something to remember. If. The integrity sensor was dropping faster than a baby skell into the Oblivia gap. Then her vision blacked out and the skell screamed as the metal twisted.
"Crapcrapcrap!" Some instinct kept her from hitting the release switch, though. The world was dark, but along the edges she still could see level readings flickered red and yellow. The ugly metallic sound was from the skell being scraped back along the deck, not from being ripped to pieces. A fraction of a second later, the light levels rebalanced in her eyes. She still could barely make out shapes, but what she could see was impressive. Case's skell was dumping a load of missles, each brighter than the next, all at their mutual enemy. Not hitting too well, though, all a touch too high to get much of the skell's body. But certainly distracting.
"Aghasura Cannon," said Irina, relishing the words as she watched the ether arc up and then slam into the back and center of the enemy skell.
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:appendage:damage:crest:destroyed:target:null:new:target:Y/n?
Aiming for the neck hadn't been effective, even with appendage damage, and that would have to go in the report. However, the target was still down, possibly from the attacks of the slim skell now facing it. The next target.
/n/
Again with the wrong input! This pilot! Maybe it wasn't the connection, maybe it was the pilot itself.
:new:target:Y/n?
/n/
The skell painted a very clear strike order on the other skell. The opponent's armor was weak, its weaponry was depleted, one limb appeared to be off-line permanently, and yet the pilot still was not agreeing. The prototype tried to make the attack plans utterly obvious. If it struck now, it wouldn't need more than a physical attack to kill this one.
:new:target:Y/n?
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a/n: Pretty soon, I get to put Nagi in casual clothes. Suggestions are still open.
This section took so long! Have I mentioned how much I hate writing fight scenes? [Yes. Yes, you have.] Salvation came when I tried the skell's pov, and an uncomfortable one it is too. I now have a backstory for the skell, btw. You know how Ganglion have been, er, harvesting humans/mims? Ever wonder what they did with all that material? They don't need robots, they've got Puge, thanks for asking. But enhanced skells, with senses and, er, thoughts? I am excited and horrified, and Alexa is just plain excited. If I get this into a future story, it will be even more of a horror show than this one.
Confession: I wrecked my first skell in under 5 minutes, driving straight into … guess.
Next up: I said I was done with fight scenes. I lied (again). Bonus: the return of Shovel Knight, and Blossom DAAAANCE.
