Bubblegum Hime
Chapter Sixteen
Yukino Kikukawa had planned out various scenarios around attacks on the campus. Not because she was paranoid, but because the young woman wanted to be prepared for emergencies. However, most of those plans had been based on the Orphan attacks, not armored troops.
However, that didn't mean she couldn't improvise.
"Hit the helicopters first," Yukino ordered, her armor spinning off drones to deflect incoming fire as well as giving her data on the battlefield, "then engage the enemy at will!"
The helicopters were a commercial design, not military, which meant that Haruka was able to down one with a single blow. Sadly the troops weren't willing to let them do it twice, attacking with what resembled science fiction style weapons.
A capture net expanded and dropped over Mikoto, surprisingly holding the young woman, even with her strength enhancement. Worse it also tangled up her sword, making it difficult to cut herself free from the cables.
"That's one," the brown haired girl with the heavy gun smiled cheerfully.
"Mikoto, seal your armor," Mai ordered over their encrypted radio frequency. Soaring above in her firebird armor she pumped up the thermal projectors and fired a shot at Mikoto.
"Is she nuts?" the black haired girl with spiky hair yelped, "Get down, Arika!"
"Ooof!" Arika gasped as she was pushed away. "Thanks, Nina!"
The fireball hit Mikoto, slagging the bindings holding her even as it made her black armor glow fiercely. But the head exchange systems quickly dealt with the added temperature, converting some to stored power and rapidly venting the rest.
Meanwhile Haruka totaled another 'copter with her mace, even as a blond haired woman tried to engage her with a bullwhip. The metal whip generated some kind of explosive charge, rocking Haruka's heavier armor back, but it didn't seem to stop her much.
Rosalie scowled as her supposedly 'super effective' shock whip barely phased the woman. Clearly the boss had underestimated the power of these ';Hime' armor. In fact the whole operation was going to hell around them.
Then there was the blond maniac with the giant mace. What nutjob designed that Nina had no idea, but she was literally clubbing helicopters to death. Thank god Tomoe bailed out of the command helicopter before the woman crushed it flat.
Nina Wang energized the battle staff she had been given, the end shimmering. She couldn't even get near to the girl with the sparkles around her, the other flew, and one had that mace. That just left the sword chick and the wolf girl with the arm canon. Deciding she'd rather be shot than stabbed, Nina went for her.
Arika tried the net launcher again, only this time the girl with sparkles stopped it in midair somehow. Then she flipped it back so it fell over her! "Hey!" Arika yelped, struggling against the bonds even as Nina was being chased by the wolf armored girl.
Ann Li tried to determine what the hell they could do, even as the remaining teams were captured by a pink haired woman dressed as a maid, for god's sake! Admittedly she was toting a kind of energized scythe, but still...
Tomoe Marguerite bailed out of the command helicopter before the crazy woman could smash it, her pilot Mimi following her close. She hefted the modified rifle and took aim at the flying woman, lining her up and firing. The exploding shell blasted the air away from the flyer and snuffed the flame, though she recovered annoyingly fast.
"Sergei! Where are you?" Tomoe demanded, using the team radios.
"Pinned down," Sergei answered breathlessly, "whoever runs this academy is insane. The internal security forces have some kind of sub-machine gun variant."
"You have GOT to be kidding me," Tomoe cursed, checking on her other team leaders, finding they had either surrendered or were off-line.
Ann used her pistol to pepper the sword welding girl, trying to keep her off balance as she hurried to Tomoe's side. "Boss, I hope you have a back up extraction plan," she asked as their team was gradually corralled into one area.
Tomoe smiled grimly, using the explosive shells to drive the golden armored women with the mace back. "Get together, break away and steal a vehicle," she said briskly.
Ann grinned, "You just made that up, didn't you?"
"Whatever works," Tomoe said. "Nina, get Arika untangled! Rosalie, keep that sword using nut back! I'll buy you some time."
With that Tome put her gun down, then unclasped her gun belt and set them both at her feet. Raising her hands she advanced, taking on a 'take me to your leader' pose. 'Hopefully no one decides to try target practice,' she thought.
The woman in the silvery armor descended, actually walking down the drones she had deployed. The suit was clearly beyond anything Tomoe had ever seen pasted cutting edge to bleeding edge. It didn't match any of the data Nagi has sent her, which rather made her think she might have been played.
"Can I hope you'll be surrendering?" the young lady asked pleasantly, a glossy faceplate hiding most of her face.
"I was wondering if you'd accept a deal?" Tomoe countered politely.
The armored woman sounded amused as she asked, "Depends on the deal."
Something about the voice made her think this was a woman younger than her, but that didn't really matter. Taking a steadying breath she said, "I'll end the fight, extract my people and leave. You let me go, in return for who hired me and my mission."
"Give me a moment," the woman said, clearly connecting to whomever commanded them.
"You're giving up the employer?" Ann hissed in Tomoe ear as she backed up to where her team was warily facing off against the armored team.
"I'm pretty sure the little bastard gave us doctored intelligence," Tomoe answered softly, "probably because he knew there was no way I'd have taken this job otherwise."
"I don't like how that lady with the serpent design is looking at me," Nina noted nervously.
"Maybe she's friends with the wolf one you tried to shiv?" Arika suggested brightly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
As he watched the first copter explode Nagi Homura winced. He hadn't had much hope for Tomoe and her teams, honestly, but he never expected things to blow up this badly. He had honestly hoped Otome Solutions could snatch either the Sayers bitch, her assistant Miyu, Natsuki Kuga or hold Saeko, but they had failed on all four possibilities. Worse, the Japanese military establishment wanted to see his new combat drone in action, and they wanted it now.
There are moments of synthesis in one's life, where two problems meet head on and produce a solution. For the white haired man this was just such a moment, as he froze, eyes wide as a possible solution to all his problems dropped into his lap.
Grabbing at his phone he dialed up the research lab, waiting impatiently until it was picked up. "This is Hazuki, I just finished debugging the OS, so kindly stop bothering me!" the voice snapped.
Nagi blinked, then realized whoever this programmer was she had probably worked through the night. "This is Nagi, did you say the OS is ready, Miss Hazuki?" he asked.
Sounding slightly more timid now that she knew the boss was on the line Hazuki said, "I've finished the OS we were working on, and ran it through a first debugging. So far, it's fine."
"Good," Nagi said briskly as he felt his lips pulling back in a smile, "now, the main prototype is ready, yes? And what about backups?"
"The main prototype is armed and ready," Hazuki said cautiously, "and we have several more nearly ready to go. The weapons for the backups aren't available thought."
"Good enough," Nagi decided, already considering what to do. "Load the OS onto the prototype and back ups, we're doing a live fire exercise with them."
"Should I tie them into the main computer?" Hazuki asked, feeling too damn tired at that point to object.
"Do that," Nagi agreed even as he began to make arrangements to transport his new creations. "Smith!" he called, "How would you like to really impress our sponsors?"
"I would be... interested," Smith conceded, sounding rather wary. "What do you have in mind?"
"We're going to do a live test of the new units," Nagi sounded proud, "and I know just who to test them out on."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Mashiro Kazahana listened to Yukino's report, the purple haired young woman frowning slightly. After sending Fumi out with one of the prototype weapons and repairing Shizuru's suit, she had hurried here to the control room to monitor what was going on.
"I'd certainly like to know who sent them," Mashiro responded to Yukino's call, "but I don't want to just let them go."
"Do you want me to see if I can get anything else out of them?" Yukino suggested, smiling grimly in the image from her helmet camera.
"I...," Mashiro started before noticing something on one of the monitors.
A pair of battered old trucks barreled through the town of Fuka, ignoring street laws and nearly causing accidents several times. That was bad enough, but it appeared they were on a straight line for the Academy itself. The trucks rammed the gates at one end of the Academy and burst through, racing towards where the Hime and their enemies were.
"Yukino, get everyone on guard," Mashiro barked as the trucks ran across the campus, "we've got more intruders headed your way."
"Understood," Yukino nodded, swiftly ordering Mai into the air and the others to spread out, ready for battle.
Mashiro watched the trucks pull up, her hands tense on the controls as the slowed to a stop. The backs flopped down and figures emerged. Figures... but not human beings. They were tall and heavily muscled, covered with a insect like armor. Their 'faces' were blank other than fanged mouths lined with sharp teeth.
"What the hell is that?" Natsuki yelped, sounding just a bit alarmed.
She couldn't blame her, Mashiro was more than a bit shaken too. "I think they're the latest products from Nagi's labs," she said very flatly, "be careful."
The lead creature raised a arm, the odd gray flesh peeling back to reveal a mounted gun. Without a word it opened fire, spraying the open field with bullets and nearly hitting Tomoe as she rolled and ducked for cover.
"I think they're not here to rescue us," Tomoe growled, and Mashiro couldn't disagree.
To be continued...
Notes: Sorry for the multiple point of view shifts. I'm trying to cover a lot of characters, and there are more coming next chapter. Bare with me, I'm building towards something.