Gascogne's Tale: Chapter 3
Prologue: Gascogne's last stand, part 3
I am going to die in this battle, of that I am certain. Beaching my vessel was a last resort, and while it will allow me to fight longer, it also ensured that I have no means of escape. Whilst I can take comfort in the cubes of my fellow Kasen being safe, allowing them to one day fight again. However, when they one day walk with the ground beneath their feet, I will be six feet below them. I do not understand what it is I feel right now, but it is similar to what I felt as I told Joffre my concerns about my future. "Fear" is what she called it... That would mean I am afraid of dying. "Is this normal?" I thought to myself, "maybe I should just escape while I still can?" another rogue thought rattled in my mind. However that thought was quickly thrown away, if I did run away then the commandos may not escape with my friend's cubes. That was an unacceptable outcome.
A man's voice could be heard from the direction of the light house. Quickly moving, I looked down to him on the shore. He was an elderly man with white hair and barely able to open his eyes. I jumped from my vessel onto the shore bellow and approached him.
"Hello miss, I see you may have... uh... not seen the light house, heh, heh" he chuckled to himself.
"It was a tactical decision, I am a Kasen in combat with the Sirens." I informed the man.
"I already knew that, I was just messing with you miss... uh"
"Gasconge, this one is Gascogne."
"Well, miss Gascogne, may I offer you some wine and bread before you go back into battle?"
"Why are you offering Gascogne food and beverage?"
"Just trying to do my part, the Sirens aren't really my friends either after all"
I simply signed, "the offer is appreciated, but declined" I informed the man as I turned my back to him so I could return to my vessel.
Then I felt three blasts of Siren plasma fire, specifically from riggings, impact my back in quick succession. As I had not raised my personal shields beforehand, this was considerably more damaging than it otherwise would be. The first two shots landed on my upper back, scorched the area around my shoulder blades and burning large holes in the back of my dress. The third shot landed on my lower back, burning its way straight through me and coming out the other side. My black, Siren-like blood began to seep through the wound and stain my previously white dress.
My shield were now raised. I turned to face the old man who was now replaced by an Explorer class Siren. My Emotion Inhibition Module quickly kicked to life, and all I saw was a hostile target. The module then sealed my wound, preventing any further blood loss.
In an instant I turned to the Siren and threw staff at the Explorer as if it was a spear in a single fluid motion. Far too fast for the Explorer to react, hitting the Siren center mass. Her shield buckled a bright yellow before collapsing entirely, my staff doing exactly as it was designed to do. The impact and the shattering of her shield threw the Explorer a fair distance away. Tumbling through the air she was helpless as she crashed into the ground before coming to a halt. I immediately moved to retrieve my staff before making my way to the damaged Siren.
Looking upon the Siren she had been heavily damaged by my attack. She held her right arm which dangled limply from her shoulder which was bleeding black siren blood. Most of her rigging had been broken by her impact with the ground. She looked up to me, shaking slightly as she tried to stand up. She eventually succeeded, bringing what was left of her rigging to bear on me. I responded in kind, summoning my own rigging and aiming it squarely at her. I then opened fire with my rigging, killing her instantly. Her destroyed body leaking its black blood splattered over over the ground, and some of the "skin" had been blown off showing the metal skeleton below. Such a mechanical skeleton was one of many intentional, by my creators, physiological similarities between me and a Siren.
Where there was one Siren, there were bound to be more incoming. I quickly returned to my vessel, continuing to use its guns to fire upon the siren fleet from afar. When any further Sirens arrive on my vessel, they will no doubt be ordered to sabotage my vessel's guns. So I must stay on my bridge and watch for any infiltrators. Whilst it would increase my response time to watch on my deck, I am well aware of how dangerous it is to be on the deck of a battleship when its guns fire.
And so I will wait...
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...
I feel her feet land on the deck of my midship, then two more sets of feet, followed by a last set. I jumped out of my bridge and landed just aft of where the Explorers had boarded me. I immediately summoned my rigging and repositioned my feet into a fighting stance. My staff drawn as a spear I awaited the four Explorers to make the first move. After a few seconds the Explorers nodded at each other, the smallest of the Explorers summoned its rigging and charged directly at me. As she passed one of my 6-inch guns I fired it. Of course it didn't hit her, but the violent spray of gasses created from its firing savagely threw the small Explorer into the deck before me. I wasted no time in firing my rigging at it, visibly annihilating the Explorer's rigging, before I charged its comrades. I was confident that small Explorer didn't survive shot from my rigging, as what I had fired was more than overkill dispatching an Explorer.
The remaining Explorers joined together in firing their riggings at me. At such range it was a futile effort, as the first volley they fired at me was harmlessly stopped by my shield. I reached them before they could fire a second. Thrusting my staff at the closest Siren, its shield flashed brightly as my staff made contact with the Explorer. It was thrown back a bit before it stopped itself, still standing up. It turned its head to the other two Explorers and spoke, "I'll hold the demon off, just finish th-" I interrupted it by firing a few of the secondary batteries on my rigging at it. The other two destroyers quickly began to run towards one of the deck entrances.
I began to come up with a plan. If those two were inside of my vessel I would have a massive combat advantage against them. However, I would need to neutralize the Explorer who would try to delay me before I pursued the other two. But dispatching a single Explorer would be of no issue. Additionally my vessel's shield also applies to the interior of the ship, like most Kasen I know. So simply locking my bulkheads was enough to contain the Explorers that had entered my vessel. I would even be able to isolate the Explorers from each other, if I was smart about it. So I decided to unlock the door the two Explorers were heading towards, as to allow them inside.
Turning my attention back to the Explorer in front of me I saw it draw some kind of sword which the Siren then made glow a bright yellow. Using my precise vision I was able to tell the glowing was nothing more than some lights built into the weapon. However, the confidence that the Explorer demonstrated now seemed to portray that it believed its sword was an effective weapon. I knew otherwise, an Explorer simply lacked the strength to cause any significant damage to me with such a sword if I had my shields down, let alone have any effect against my shields. And whilst my shields were not designed to deal with traditional kinetic munitions, which would include a sword, I was certain it would not matter.
I quickly thrusted my staff at the Explorer's chest, which it managed to parry into hitting its shoulder. It then tried to move in closer, to which I responded with a quick upwards swing from the base of my staff into its chin, staggering the Siren ever so slightly. I pressed my advantage, using my staff as a halberd I swung down from its upper left to bottom right. Cleaving clean across its chest. The Siren's shield glowed brightly, barely holding onto life. I had left myself open to a counter strike, not like it would matter.
The Siren Destroyer shouted as she swung her sword at my exposed left side. It bounced harmlessly off my shield, knocking her slightly off balance. Giving me a perfect window of opportunity. I quickly slashed at it with my spear, finally shattering what little of the Siren's shield was left. The Siren then screamed before aiming all of its rigging at me and firing. A desperate yet useless attack. My shield was practically unharmed. I responded to the Explorer's desperate plea with a single piercing strike from the tip of my staff into the center of its chest. The Siren fell onto the ground, wounded, but not dead yet. It looked up to me before it tried to speak, "did we even stand a chanc-" I didn't let it finish before I thrust the tip of my staff through its neck and out the other side. The Explorer was killed instantly, some black glass-like shards being fired from the exit wound onto the deck of my vessel with some of its black blood. With the Explorer dead, I picked up its body and threw it off my vessel, onto the ground below.
During the fight I was feeling the Explorers move around inside my vessel, and eventually I was able to isolate them from each other in separate sections. Now making my way into my vessel, I went to the first section with an Explorer locked in it and went inside. The cannons on the Siren's rigging seemed to be partially melted, from what I can only assume to be continuous fire. It panicked upon seeing me, before it charged at me with only its fists drawn. I fired my rigging at it, ending its charge with the bright flash of its shield being shattered before it was thrown against my interior walls. I heard a loud snapping sound as it hit the wall. The Explorer then tried to crawl away, its back bleeding heavily from where it impacted the wall. I simply thrust my staff through the back of its neck, killing it instantly.
My vessel's shields then flickered as I felt be violently rocked as I felt what must've been an explosion from where I contained the other Siren. Quickly making my way to where the last destroyer was held, I opened the bulkhead to see what I would describe as a grizzly scene. The last Siren in my vessel must've had been carrying explosives meant to be used for sabotaging my magazines. As when I opened the bulk head the walls had been painted with its black blood. A few metal parts were scattered throughout the section. Its rigging being utterly crushed against by their impact with the interior walls after being launched by the explosion.
As there was nothing left to do, I simply left and picked up the intact corpse of the other Siren Destroyer and made my way back to the deck. I then dropped the Siren corpse I was carrying off of my vessel.
I then looked to where the Siren body that I had left on my deck would be. It had left, and I could feel something walking on my aft deck. I looked over at my aft deck and saw the Siren limping away near my aft 15-inch gun turret. I noticed that its shield was not functioning, so I fired my aft 15-inch guns. The exceptionally violent gasses created from the firing of my main guns erased the Siren from my vessel. In its place was nothing more than a black mist.
With no more Sirens left alive on my vessel I returned to my bridge in order to await the next attack.
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A message started to come over my radio: "Why hello there little Kasen, I see that you've dealt with my welcome party without issue."
I knew what this was, some of the more eccentric of the Siren Elites would contact Kasen over radio for the purposes of psychological warfare. This was a well recorded fact that I had studied along with many others about known Siren tactics and strategy. Responding to such radio messages would be a waste of effort, so I didn't.
"What, you too scared to respond~" The Siren Elite continued, "or maybe you are playing the strong silent type." It chuckled, "Whatever, I'll just have to hear your voice when I make you scream~"
The radio stopped playing. I needed to contact the base commander to inform them of the situation. "This is Gascogne to Base Commander Jaaques, come in, over"
"This is Base Commander reading you loud and clear, over"
"Siren Elite is inbound, over"
"How do you know this, over"
"It contacted me, over"
"...Understood, over and out"
I let out a sigh. I am unlikely to win a battle against a Siren Elite, and all I can do is wait for it to arrive as I continue to fire at the Siren fleet.
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I felt the heat before I saw the flash. A Siren blast broke the glass of my bridge, barely missing me. Impacting the interior of my bridge, it was easily dissipated by my shield. I looked outside, seeing the Siren Elite jump and land onto my deck. I jumped down to face it. "You actually decided to face me. I thought my presence would simply scare you to death~" it cackled to itself, "I bet you can't believe how unlucky you are to run into me, the one, the only Purifier"
I summoned my rigging as Purifier spoke and fired upon the Siren Elite with my rigging's main guns, creating a small cloud of smoke on the Siren. "How rude" Purifier began to speak, "but I like how you just get down to business" she finished as the smoke cleared. Her shields were barely damaged and her weapons charged up before she fired. Jumping to my side I began to dodge her rapid fire shots as I started to strafe around her. I fired the secondary batteries of my rigging at the Siren, having minimal impact on her shield.
I didn't realize it, but the Siren was using her smaller faster firing guns to guide me into the path of larger guns of its rigging. Firing its guns, the plasma of Purifier's rigging smashed into my shield, causing some damage to the shields and sending me flying off my deck and onto the ground below. Purifier chased after me, before she threw a powerful punch straight at me. I got up as quick as I could and used my staff to staff to parry her blow. In an instant she had followed up the punch with a second, slamming directly into my shield which buckled heavily as it flashed brightly. I was stunned for a brief second by the impact of the blow, to which Purifier took the time to gloat. "Looks like I was right about your shield, maybe you should give up now and let me kill you~"
I ignored her words and lunged out at her with the point of my staff. The Siren sidestepped my strike faster than I could see before she grabbed the staff and used to pull me even closer. "That's good, let me see your fea-" Purifier tried to taunt before I threw my metal skull into a violent headbutt against the Siren. Using the regained initiative I jumped back and fired the main guns of my rigging at Purifier.
How was she already in front of me. Our faces were mere inches from each other in less than a second after I jumped back.
And then my shield was broken as Purifier hurled a powerful punch at my abdomen. I panicked and blindly swung my staff at her. She easily grabbed it and threw it away from us before she kicked me back. I immediately rose to my feet to find a molten beam of plasma coming directly at me. I tried my best to dodge it, I really did. But it wasn't enough. I knew I had lost the fight before it even began, but at this point I...
Was it hope that had kept me going up until this point?
I sidestepped to the right, and the beam impacted my left shoulder, destroying it completely. I saw my left arm hit the ground as I myself fell to the ground. The Emotion Inhibition Module tried its best to repair me. But without raw materials the best it could do was stop the bleeding to keep me alive. I heard my rigging impact the ground as it was destroyed by the attack. "Normally I would just finish you off now, but Empress wants your cubes. So I have to put in more work to extract them from you."
I prepared for another attack and adopted a defensive stance. But Purifier was already on me. She punched a hole straight into my chest. If it wasn't for the Emotion Inhibitor Module that would've been enough to kill me outright. At least when my body did die, I would be stored on my wisdom cube. I felt Purifier's hand moving about in my chest before I felt her pulling something. First my vision left, then my hearing, and soon after that I felt a violent tearing in my chest, and then nothing.
I suppose this is my death...
And now I am scared...
I tried to scream, and suddenly I woke up in a bed. But how... Perhaps this is a dream. I was sitting up in my bed and... I could tell I didn't have the Emotion Inhibition Module. I was in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. Wait... I was breathing? Then that means I don't have any of the Siren enhancements. I took a look around the room I was in. It was was the same room as where I lived before I underwent the modifications.
My door violently swung open, "Gascogne are you alright!?" I smiled upon hearing that voice. It had been so long since I could last remember smiling. And now that I could again, of course she would would be the one to make me smile first.
"I am doing better now that your here sis," I began, "it was just a nightmare Clemenceau."