Bubblegum Hime
Chapter Seventeen
Saeko Kuga had seen footage of the Hime armor in action, of course. After battle combat reviews of Orphan test models of course included how the Hime were able to stop and destroy them. So academically she knew what they were capable of.
But seeing them in person was a entirely different thing.
As Alyssa, Miyu and her were hustling Rena out of the building Tomoe's Otome Solutions mercenaries were already on the move, meaning they had to duck for cover. Thankfully only a few minutes later the Hime arrived in force, and a full scale battle broke out. The armored warriors began to destroy the hellicopters the Otome arrived in, then started capturing groups of agents.
"I think I underestimated them," Saeko had to admit as the firebird Hime nearly blistered their skin just flying overhead. They were rounding up the normal mercenaries with ease, while the special weapon Otome were barely holding their own.
"Well, it looks like you're safe," Alyssa actually sounded a bit disappointed they weren't going to have to continue with the rescue of Rena and Saeko.
"Maybe," Rena said, frowning slightly.
"What?" Saeko looked at her lover curiously.
"You're supposed to be dead, remember?" Rena said wryly to her lover, "If Natsuki sees you on campus... we're gonna have some explaining to do."
Miyu calmly noted, "Ooops."
Alyssa gave the android a scolding look, wondering where her occassional bursts of humor came from. "Worry about that once the mercenaries are down," she noted as they watched the Hime tussle with the young women.
As Saeko watched the battle she silently fretted about what Rena had said. She had good reasons for faking her death, but now she realized her daughter might not agree. Worse, what if her daughter took her father's side? It was certainly possible.
The battle seemed to pause as Tomoe put down her rifle, removed her weapon belt and stepped out from cover, even as her surviving team members pulled back. Raising her hands to show she was unarmed she stepped forward, and the leader of the Hime went to meet her.
Saeko watched in awe as the woman in the silvery armor descended, actually walking down the survelance drones she had deployed. The flight capability alone was stunning, but the combat abilities of the drones were remarkable. If this really was built by Kazahana like Nagi suspected, she clearly was a genius.
"Miyu, tell me what they're saying," Alyssa ordered. The android nodded, then began to repeat everything for the group.
"Can I hope you'll be surrendering?" the Hime leader asked, her armor's faceplate hiding her features.
"I was wondering if you'd accept a deal?" Tomoe replied.
The armored woman answered, "Depends on the deal."
Tomoe then 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 in armor answered.
"Huh," Rena grunted from where they were hiding nearby. "Isn't it against the mercenary code to rat out your boss?"
Alyssa shrugged slightly. "Can you blame her? Knowing Nagi he didn't tell them what they were going up against," she said.
"Aren't you worried?" Saeko asked, looking at the blond young woman in annoyance. "You're in this as deep as Nagi."
"Oh, I think we can handle this," Alyssa waved that off. She looked over at Miyu, "Can we tap into the Hime communications?"
"It's encrypted very well," Miyu said as the android looked thoughtful, "I do not believe I can at this time."
Rena looked curious, "How about campus security? Is their system accessible?"
"It is," Miyu noted as she seemed to go distant, sorting data.
Saeko was once again impressed by the SEARRS android. At times the scientist really wished that SEARRS and Nagi had actually cooperated. The things she could have achieved by studying that technology and integrating it with her designs...
"Alert," Miyu declared, "unknown forces are on the move through the city, on a straight line for the academy. They have reached, no, crashed through the academy gates. Their course will that them here in less than ten seconds."
Right on cue two battered transport trucks pulled up, the backs flopped down and several figures emerged. Saeko's mouth went dry as she recognized them, the tall and heavily muscled figures, covered with a insect like armor. Their 'faces' were intentionally left blank other than fanged mouths lined with sharp teeth.
"Those are the new Orphan prototypes, aren't they?" Rena asked grimly and Saeko just nodded.
"What the hell is that?" The girl in the wolf armor yelped, sounding just a bit alarmed.
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.
"Back!" Saeko grabbed at Rena and got her away from the side of the building they were hiding beside as it was sprayed with bullets. Miyu got Alyssa clear too, even as they saw the Orphan's advancing on both the Hime and Otome forces.
Alyssa took stock of the situation almost instantly. "I think Nagi has decided to cut his losses," she said grimly as the armored women spread out to engage the Orphans, "he's going to kill both teams and any witnesses."
Saeko looked at her, appalled. "He can't..." she started.
Alyssa snorted softly. "He has nothing to lose at this point. He's thrown the dice, if the Orphans work he's golden. And if it fails he's doomed anyway, SEARRS, the police and others will take him apart."
Rena was watching the Orphans. Only one seemed to have fully operating weapons, but the others were all superhumanly strong, durable and seemed resistant to anything conventional weapons could do. The Hime were having more success, but the armor on the Orphans was incredibly tough.
"Then we'd better help," Saeko said grimly, "because if Nagi wins we have to die too."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The battlefield dissolved into chaos as Shizuru attacked with a spray of her armor's acxid. Annoyingly the Orphan's skin just beaded it off, but it did damage the ground beneath it. Taking a moment of inspiration she empied her armor's supply of acid at the ground at the faceless creature's feet and watched it sink into the melted, churned up earth. The thing didn't seem to understand it's situation and kept trying to plod forward, mixing the dirt and fluid and making it sink all the more.
Natsuki fired another shot at a Orphan, scowling as the shot barely staggered it. "Load Silver Cartridge," she ordered her suit, then blasted it again with a freezing shot. That at least slowed it down a bit, but it was still coming despite being half encased in ice.
Yukino swirled her drones around, deflecting fire from the one armed Orphan. The others didn't appear to have built in weaponry, but her sensors indicated they were freakishly strong. If they got a grip on someone, they wouldn't need weapons.
Suprisingly Tomoe and her team of Otome deployed in support, using ranged fire to try to slow or damage the Orphans. Didn't do much damage, but they were slowing the things down. "Rosalie," Tomoe yelled, "try your whip! But if it grabs it, get clear!"
"I'm not a amature, boss," Rosalie sniffed. She advanced carefully then struck with the whip, unleashing a explosive charge of energy. It worked, sort of, knocking one Orphan down, but moving like a shot another grabbed the whip.
"No!" Mimi yelped as they saw the Orphan yanking Rosalie towards it.
The figure was a blue blur as it raced by Yukino, her suit sensors screaming a alarm. The woman slashed her hand down, severing the whip then bodilly picking Rosalie up. "Excuse me," she politely told the Orphan and fled.
"Wha wha wha," Rosalie gibbered as she was carried swiftly back to the others.
Tomoe blinked as she recognized the young woman. "Miyu Gleer?" she blinked as the android dropped Rosalie at their feet.
"Yes," Miyu agreed. She calmly continued, "It would be appreciated if you would lend arms to my comrades, for their own defense."
"You didn't have to drop me!" Rosalie complained even as Alyssa, Rena and Saeko advanced from where they had been hiding.
"You have got to be kidding me," Tomoe complained as she looked the three women over. "You've been here all along?"
"You nearly got us," Alyssa offered, smiling wryly.
The wolf armored woman looked them over, then jerked to a stop. "Oh," she studied the three women, seemingly stunned.
"Later!" the serpent armored woman told the wolf, and the other figure visibly shook herself.
Rena Sayers wondered if that was one of her students under the armor, then shook herself. There would be time for that later. The Orphans were fighting the Hime, and the armored women were barely holfing their own. The black armored girl with the sword was slapping the Orphans backward, but seemed unable to cut them. The golden armored madwoman with the mace was having similar problems. The woman in the firebird armor was blasting away to little effect, and the woman with the drones was just deflecting fire. So far the only real success had been the snake woman tangling one in a pit and the wolf girl freezing another.
"We need a strategy," Miyu calmly noted as bullets whizzed by. She looked at Saeko, "The armor on the Orphans is remarkable. Does it have any weaknesses?"
Saeko frowned, thinking about the tests they'd finished as the Otome laid down covering fire. They could slow the Orphans advance via dispersed fire, especially since some of the search teams had rejoined them. It wasn't stopping them, but it did buy the women some time.
"The armor is a improved version given to previous models," Saeko mused as they fell back from the copters. The Orphans were slow but steady, moving forward no matter what they did. "It deflects low caliber rounds, and disperses impacts from heavier weapons," she said.
"I noticed," Mimi growled, firing a shotgun and barely staggering a attacker.
"But there has to be a limit to how much damage they can absorb," Tomoe noted, blasting the same Orphan with her rifle's exploding shells.
"Concentrate fire and destroy them one at a time?" Alyssa offered as she fired a borrowed sub-machine gun. "Sounds like a plan!"
To be continued...