November 20th, 2264. 04:27 Pirate Base – Confederate Ship – Main Hangar
Lukas yelled as he led the charge. David was a step behind him but rolling out to his right side so he could shoot at his target. Lukas lifted his hefty arm and began firing his wrist-mounted Gatling gun. A hellacious amount of high explosive rounds rang out. David stepped to the side and began firing his assault rifle.
Paul, for his part, stayed in the corridor and shouted, “NO FALLBACK…”
That cry, which was heard but not heeded, was helpless to prevent what happened nearly instantaneously. A wave of small icicles and snow drifted toward the pair. The high-explosive ammunition froze or shattered safely far away from the intended target. The wave continued and washed over both of them.
Both Lukas and David hesitated for the briefest of moments. They looked down and saw that ice and snow were stuck to the exterior of their armor. Alarms began to sound due to the temperature being outside of the standard operating range. They had stopped attacking and were trying to troubleshoot the errors their suits were giving them. That was all Lisa needed to attack them.
Fortunately for them, John was already on the move and predicted what was happening. But this situation was exactly what he didn’t want. Fighting to capture Lisa and protect his Marines was a losing proposition. Lisa had given up the defense of her rear to attack the newcomers. Several ice spears formed and were flung at the targets but thankfully most were off-target when Lisa sent them at her victims.
The large bear of a hand of John’s grabbed her metallic hood and yanked it back and slammed Lisa to the ground. John raised his right arm and charged his weapon and pointed at his supposed backup. He screamed into the coms.
“RUN! NOW!” John shouted frantically while Lisa squirmed out of his grip.
The pair of marines stood there slack-jawed as Lisa laughed. She kicked his breastplate knocking John backward and then jumped to her feet. She spun herself around and landed a vicious roundhouse kick onto John’s right side. The kick only made things worse for John as he was sent flying across the room into some crates. The amount of force she was able to impart was not only shocking but scary. Fighting with kid gloves was going to get John killed.
Unfortunately for John, seeing as how he was trying to stand up in a mess of broken crates, he was helpless to affect Lisa’s next attack. She called upon the vast reserves of her powers and unleashed a torrent of cryokinetic energies at David and Lukas. Within a blink of an eye, they were both encased from head to toe in psychic ice. All atomic movement within the ice ceased in an instant. Both were dead long before the mind could process anything.
Paul was about to run forward in a rage-filled, yet impotent, charge at the purple power armor. But a cry came out from across the room. The rage was still there for Paul, but reason held the day. When he heard his commanding officer yell ‘RETREAT’ he quickly closed the door and ran back towards the safety of the remaining marines.
John stood up and growled, “Engage the blackout protocol. Remove all safety limiters and warnings. Max power to all relevant systems.”
Almost immediately the shadowy aura that was clinging to John expanded. It looked as if John was at the center of a black hole. His electromagnetic shielding was crackling with new energy. On his left arm one armor plate rose up and a wide, but short, barrel was exposed.
John aimed and fired a shot immediately. Lisa was however already on the move and dodged out of the way. She was however able to just briefly witness what effect the formless projectile had on the ice. The results made it clear that she must do her best to avoid being struck by it. The ice that made contact with the projectile was utterly annihilated, not unlike a matter-antimatter explosion but without the massive release of energy.
Lisa leaped forward and threw a massive haymaker at John. For all his enhanced abilities, he was incapable of dodging this attack. The massive power armor simply lacked the nimbleness and agility necessary to do so. It struck him near his shoulder, but the force behind it threw him off balance and caused him to stumble backward. But aside from a few scratches, there was no actual damage to his suit.
John was able to deflect her follow-up attack, which had much less force in it. That allowed him a counterattack. While he was no longer able to make his attacks stronger than they were through psychic means, the sheer mass of his suit enabled his hand-to-hand attacks to be much more ferocious than others.
But Lisa’s suit was so much more nimble and agile than his. His was like his personality, brutish. Her suit seemingly had none of the drawbacks he did. And she was taking full advantage of that. Punch after punch came flying his way.
John hated this feeling, she, not him, was the aggressor. He was reduced to being entirely reactive in this fight. But despite that Lisa wasn’t doing any damage to John. The bulk of his suit was able to absorb the attacks. A killing or stunning blow was just not coming. Conversely, his suit was absolutely capable of landing a killing blow but lacked the speed and dexterity necessary to do so.
For thirty long minutes, the fighting continued. For every ten good strikes John took, he was able to but a lone attack against his opponent. For as ferocious as the attacks came, they were coming in slower, and weaker, than before. That meant one of two things, one of which, the power reserves emptying rapidly, was also happening to his suit.
“Your cardio needs work,” John said mockingly.
“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Touché, though that applies to me doubly so,” John said as he grabbed her arm and quickly spun around and threw her across the room, “You’ve no idea what I’ve become.”
Lisa paused her attack and reached out with her mind. What she saw, or rather didn’t see, surprised her. No that wasn’t it, there was an instant feeling of revulsion at what she was sensing where John was standing. She knew immediately what that feeling was, but this was the first time coming across such a thing. Unlike the others that had the misfortune of feeling it, she instantly knew what it was.
“A nullification aura. I didn’t think that one so potent could be generated through non-natural means, much less amplified to the degree you have done,” Lisa snicked as she produced a solid ball of ice that she sent at John, “Color me an impressed asshole, you must be screaming in pain with that thing running.”
The ice ball vanished the moment it crossed the psychic event horizon emanating from John. Three more balls, each seemingly formed with a higher concentration of psychic energy, were thrown at him in quick succession. John began moving forward.
“Time to surrender, you aren’t going to be able to do anything to me.”
“Wrong,” Lisa hissed as she formed and threw another ball.
Unlike the others, this one wasn’t disintegrated. But it shattered harmlessly against his pauldron. Lisa had expected John to be phased in some way. His response was to run at her. His flight or fight action was simply wired differently than others.
John’s attack was simple and brutal. And yet it missed entirely. Lisa was able to duck out of way and attacked John with a cryo-kinetic attack. The attack was true and met its mark.
But while it did breach his aura once more it didn’t seem to do as much damage to him as she expected. She was beginning to feel mentally exhausted with as much effort as she had to put into these attacks to effectively do nothing. And that was in addition to the physical demands placed upon her.
John shrugged off the attacks and dashed forward. Outwardly he seemingly was ignoring the attacks. But Lisa was in a stance that was ready to counter his kick or punch, but what came next surprised her.
John just lowered a shoulder and slammed into her like a bulldozer. The initial impact briefly knocked the wind out of her lungs, but Lisa quickly recovered and rolled away from him at the last second before John crashed into and through some crates.
“Where are your mental attacks? Why are you resorting to fighting me through such banal methods?” Lisa spat out, “Why are you using that nullification field?”
John swatted off bits of broken crates and materials stored within, “Orders are orders.”
Lisa grinned, “No, that’s not it. Why? Wait, the nullification aura wouldn’t erase someone’s presence. Why am I sensing nothing from you.”
John turned his external coms off, “How long to recharge that weapon?”
Eve responded, “Five minutes, forty-two seconds at current rates. The amplifier can no longer draw from a seemingly endless well any longer.”
“Is there any way to speed that up?”
“Negative.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Lisa continued to speak, “What are you?”
“Your end,” John growled as he switched the external coms back on, “Know this, that illustrious father of yours is going to see me squash your head into gooey bits before I end his miserable existence.”
“Big words, but that suit of yours is a liability. You can’t keep up with me.”
“Yet, you seem to be incapable of doing any damage to this suit. One punch, grab, or kick is all I need to put you down,” John growled back.
The pair continued their cat-and-mouse fight. Lisa, just like John, was unable to land a knockout blow. For his part, John kept his emotions cool and collected. He was fighting to capture, not kill. His ultimate superiors were forcing him to fight in this way. Lisa wasn’t convinced that John was following orders, but something else bothered her throughout this fight. The lack of a psychic presence was weird, everyone had one. Why was this nullification aura that was reducing or outright annihilating psychic potential near him so potent?
05:12 Pirate Base – Top Deck Entry Point
The full platoon had worked their way back to the top deck’s initial breaching point. The room was the largest to defend. While it had more points of entry, the platoon as a whole had more than enough bodies to guard and kill anything stupid enough to bring a fight to the Marines. Erica and Darryl were talking with the technical crew that came on board.
“We need to get through to our people,” Erica said.
“CONTACT INBOUND!” Arianna shouted.
Derrick ran over, “Hold fire, we will only return fire if fired upon.”
A shadow could be seen running towards them. As it got closer the shadow took more form. Just as Paul rounded the corner the familiar sound of power was heard by Derrick.
“FRIENDLY! Hold fire, that’s friendly!” Derrick shouted.
Erica ran over to him and grabbed his gorget and pulled him down a bit, “WHY IN THE FUCK DID YOU LEAVE WITH THEM?”
“Ma’am, I was ordered to be the adult in the room. They ignored my orders.”
Erica let go of the gorget but pointed at his helmet, “Where are Tweedle-dee and Tweedledum?”
“Dead, ma’am. Cryokinetic attack of some sort. The Lieutenant is engaging her now, but it’s a pretty even fight,” Paul said somberly, “That suit is lightyears beyond anything we’ve ever made.”
“TECHS!” Erica shouted, “When is that thing going to be online?”
“Just got it!” one of the technical crewmembers shouted, “We’re online now.”
“Operation Starburst, this is CNS Fargo, how copy?” Erica heard over her coms.
“CNS Fargo, Sergeant Anderson here. We read you loud and clear.”
“Suggest immediate withdrawal. Friendly reinforcements are six hours away. Enemy pirates have assembled a small fleet and are two hours out. If the long-range scans in slip space are accurate, we will struggle with holding them off.”
“How much longer do we have?” Darryl asked.
“We’d prefer to push off within the hour.”
“That wasn’t the question, what’s the drop-dead time?” Erica asked.
“Two hours and ten minutes.”
“Get me Lieutenant Lief now!” Erica shouted.
One of the techs was at the device's terminal and began scanning the frequencies. They were able to locate John’s suit and amplify a signal to him.
“Lieutenant Lief, CNS Fargo reports hostile reinforcements. T-Minus sixty minutes until requested departure, max time one hundred twenty minutes,” Erica said.
John could be heard grunting and cursing through the scratchy coms, “Repeat time.”
“CNS Fargo wants to depart in sixty minutes. Max time is one twenty.”
More grunting and cursing could be heard along with a sickening metallic grinding sound, “Copy, will endeavor to speed things up…”
The coms then cut out.
“Ma’am, this is not pirate tech that’s cutting the coms out. Whatever is doing this is cutting edge. I’ve never seen this work,” one of the techs said, “It looks oddly foreign. Definitely not our tech.”
An engineering officer walked through the newly created docking portal, “We’re going to run a hardwired connection to that device from the ship. We can use that to maintain coms with the Fargo and give that portable device some more computing oomph necessary to cut through this bullshit.”
“Thank you, sir,” Erica turned and spoke up to the marines, “We are holding position here. No one breaks through. Stay frosty.”
The Marines did what any good soldier does. They compartmentalized the unnecessary thoughts and actions and only focused on their mission and what they were required to do. Questions could be asked later. But all were emboldened because of the loss of two friends. How they died mattered not for them, blood was shed that day and if anyone was fool enough to challenge them they’d crush their enemies.
05:27 Pirate Base – Confederate Ship – Main Hangar
The fight continued with no lack of intensity. Though Lisa was clearly slowing down. She knew that was terribly dangerous. While her suit was more powerful, it lacked the bunch to get through the armor of John’s suit. And John wasn’t lying, all it would take is one well-timed and placed attack and it’d be game over for her.
John was noticing his power reserves drop as well. He had never seen them fall to the levels they were at. Though in all fairness to the Broadswords, he had never run this number of modules at once. Much less disabling the safeties and maxing the output.
“I’ll give you credit, that suit is a bit terrifying. When I get home, you can bet I’ve got some ideas to make this suit better.”
John scoffed, “You’d be dead already if I had my way.”
“It didn’t help your compatriots,” Lisa said as she gracefully dodged an attack but her counterattacked didn’t seem to even register to John.
“They were told they couldn’t fight you and still did. I’ve got ideas to pull out for the next fight.”
Lisa leaped over John and was about to strike him, but she ducked under a swing fist and somersaulted backward, “Well, that brutish suit of yours fits your personality.”
“Why thank you,” John said sarcastically, “Suppose you’ve given up trying to convert me over to your asinine cause.”
Lisa’s composure was lost as she spat venom at John, “You killed my brother, I will never forgive you for that. No matter what father believes or commands.”
The lack of composure almost caused her dearly as John’s one-two combo was just avoided by the narrowest of margins. Lisa swore at herself for letting him goad her into losing focus. She calmed her mind once more and reached deep within to focus her power once more.
Lisa conjured a razor-sharp blade of ice and swung it at a john in the armor. Her aim didn’t account for John moving his arm in a defensive position and him taking a step back. The attack caused the ice blade to shatter leaving barely a scratch in his forearm plate.
“Try as you may, that’s not going to work,” John growled.
Lisa grinned, “Your right, I should do more.”
As she said that a weapon appeared from beneath her right forearm armor plate. Before she had a chance to fire John swung his left arm around and activated his inbuilt energy shield. John correctly surmised that the weapon on Lisa’s arm was a Mercantilist variation of a plasma blast gun.
Unlike his, her gun fired green plasma. It wasn’t as voluminous as a round from his gun but appeared to be significantly hotter. His shield survived but based on the energy readings it wasn’t something he wanted to absorb too many shots.
John wasted no time and sent a pair of plasma blasts toward her. Lisa hadn’t expected John to fire on her. Apparently maiming her was acceptable so long as she was still living. She swore at herself as she dodged out of the way and scurried behind the stacked crates.
The cat-and-mouse game continued as she darted to and fro. She was able to find the mark a couple of times, but the portable shield held out. The movement and positioning between the pair allowed more time for John’s suit to recharge and keep the energy shield from burning out. John’s return fire continued being close but ultimately missed and didn’t cause any damage at all.
The time kept ticking down. Five minutes here, five minutes there. John’s power reserves were also falling, with about twenty minutes left at current operating rates, but he’d need to be careful if this fight dragged on unnecessarily. However, that was exactly what was happening.
“Your stalling,” John shouted out.
“How perceptive,” replied Lisa.
“It won’t work you know, I will…”
Before John was able to finish Lisa jumped high in the air and spun around and fired from above him. John could neither block the shot nor maneuver out of the way. He swung his right hand out and balled it into a fist and spun around.
Just as Lisa landed his spinning fist slammed into her breastplate. The air was once more knocked out of her lungs as her muscles burned in pain. The attack was so violent she was sent flying across the hangar bay. She landed next to a dead pirate that was a victim of fratricide.
Lisa’s plasma blast struck the back side of John’s pauldron with some of the blast impacting the lower back plate. The pauldron was much worse for the wear, a large crater was present where the plasma ball struck.
Eve was not appreciative of that attack in the slightest, “The left pauldron is severely compromised. It will not stand up to another attack. Additional damage to your subsystems has been detected. Power output has been reduced by twelve-point two percent. Please note at the current rate the suite will…”
“Understood,” John growled as he turned to face the back of the hangar.
“Be depleted within seventeen minutes unless you change current module power demands.”
Just as John began moving towards the rear half of the hangar, he saw Lisa dash through a door and head into parts unknown in the pirate base. John began running as he cursed his slow reaction. As he did so he posed questions to his VI.
“Reduce output to standard operating levels,” John said calmly as he caught his breath before turning and jogging toward the rear hatch, “How long could a suit like that operate?”
“Several hours with known micro-fusion reactors the Mercantilist union produces. How much power their psychic devices draw is an unknown quantity. It would be a safe estimate to presume she is on the low end of her remaining power reserves.”
John nodded then opened up coms to his Marines, “Sergeant Anderson, do you copy?”
Erica answered immediately, “Your crackly but we have you.”
“Can you track where that other suit is? Also, send three squads to retrieve the deceased. Or ensure their suits are destroyed.”
“Understood. Sir, the Fargo wants to be underway in thirty.”
“You said the max…” John wasn’t able to finish his sentence.
“Pirate reinforcements are coming sooner than expected. And the friendly ones are slower because of unfavorable slip-tides. The Fargo says you have sixty minutes max to resolve this. The captain didn’t sound happy that we weren’t gone already.”
“Thirty minutes it is,” John said as he ran down the corridor, “Do we have sufficient scan resolution to track her?”
“Barely, sir. This is Specialist Jackson. She’s heading to a command-and-control room. I believe she was in that earlier if our scans were accurate.”
“Understood, share the most direct route.”
“Done and done.”
John ran his heavy suit down the corridors. There was no mistaking a tank was running around in the base. He ran past several pirates that had enough sense to give John a wide berth. They were likely confused about why Confederate soldiers were present on their base and seemingly didn’t give a damn what they were doing.
“Eve, make sure the thrusters are charged and working,” John commanded his VI.
“Confirmation of her location, sir. She’s heading back to the pirate C&C node. Hang a right at the end of the corridor. You’ll see the door straight away,” Vanessa said.
“Time to end this shitshow and get out of Dodge,” John said as he took the turn and barreled down the corridor.
Come hell or high water it was time to end the fight. He was contemplating saying ‘fuck-it’ to his orders. They were making the fight more difficult than it needed to be and it cost two people’s lives so far. Though the eggheads back at Central Command would say they exceeded expectations those lives were lost because John couldn’t execute the mission the way he wanted to.
John slowed as he got to the door. He shut the other thoughts out of his mind and focused only on the mission. He waved his hand over the control terminal, but nothing happened. He shook his head and fired the blast gun at the door.
“Knock knock, daddy’s home!”