Neither Dandelion nor Corbin were in sight or on her radar. Was the storm limiting her range? Were their mecha frozen? Would they be affected if the mecha were? The empty armor had an air pocket in it, that they only found out when they found a broken one. A few of the ASF cadets had survived their armor being frozen, likely because they weren't touching it and their plugsuits were sealed against electricity.
The roaring thunder increased. She turned her mech to the remains of the cryoeborsisk. All that was left of it were its heads and necks. Its horns were glowing brilliantly, almost too bright to look at and nitrogen gas was visibly pouring out of it, making a funnel that expanded into the air.
When she and Corbin had flown onto the plateau there were gaps between the strikes and now they were a cage that she wouldn’t be able to escape from until the storm broke. An ion blast seared a hole in the curtain, allowing a white mecha decorated with red moons to fly through. A black cannon was on the mecha’s right shoulder, a missile bank with capacity for twenty missiles was on its right. Gravity ventilation thrusters were on its arms, legs, chest and, presumably, back. The mech had thick armor on it, the forearms and lower legs were large enough to each hold more weapons. An energy blade hilt was attached to each of the mecha’s hips, and crowning the mech’s forehead was a crescent moon with the points aimed at the sky. Her targeting computer identified it as a Vulcan. They were heavy artillery capable of flight but that was only for movement; fighting while flying with a Vulcan was extremely difficult. Kiera assumed that, like the Avalanche, the Vulcan was heavily customized. The two energy swords and the ease that it flew through the air confirmed it.
<<”I killed that red-headed bitch that helped you steal my mecha,”>> the pilot snarled, venom and fury drenched his words. <<”But you…the speed and cause of your death will be directly proportional to the amount of damage you caused on my Avalanche.”>>
He was baiting her, trying to make her angry, <<“You attack us with a starship weapon killing my crew mates, knock off us a plateau and then send a goon to kill and rape the rest of us with a backup squad? Hypocrite much? And the ego! You don’t have to tell me you're overcompensating, the ostentatiousness speaks volumes. Also, just how much of a mouth breathing utter moron can you be? I’m not the one that’s damaging your precious stolen property. Any damage that it sustains will be directly your fault. Astria’s tail I’ve see kargs that show more intelligence than you have!>>
Taunting to make an enemy angry so they make a mistake was a common tactic. Trying to out taunt an irritated teenage girl was a feat that would give even a master wordsmith pause, even if she did recognize she needed some better material. Kiera didn’t respond well to threats, and now she didn’t need to hold her tongue. His Vulcan likely outmatched the Avalanche in every way, and no matter how high her scores were, he had more practical combat experience. Kiera was confident she could beat Snowden, but this man worried her. She would need every advantage she could create.
He didn’t respond to the quip; his attack told Kiera that her accusation and jab got under his skin. The missiles launched one after the other, each one screaming as it left the chamber. Kiera fired the micro missiles from her right leg in response, and raised her shield. His missiles were faster, but his aim wasn’t great. Only two of the missiles hit, but each one exploded and left deep scorch marks where they did. The Avalanche was solid, not being driven back by the missiles. Anti-missile rockets fired from a compartment built into the Vulcan’s shoulders, and he dodged the ones that weren’t destroyed with lazy movements. His gravity thrusters allowed him to move much faster than a mecha that size normally could.
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He fired off another missile barrage, arcing quickly in a half circle, trying to catch her unable to escape. The sonic cannons fired and the foot jets flared, shooting Kiera straight into the air, the first missile launched was still fast enough to hit her lower right leg, destabilizing her flight. Kiera fired off the left pauldron jet to compensate, keeping herself in the eye of the storm.
The missiles didn’t seem to have the effect the pilot wanted. His ion cannon began to charge, and he flew higher into the air. He angled the weapon to force Kiera to have to dodge left or right instead of simply cutting her engines. She stayed where she was, watching the ion cannon. A blue dot appeared in the center, which was what she was waiting for. She switched the direction on the sonic cannons and juked to the side, putting her out of the way. The Vulcan turned with her, the weapon didn’t fire a single blast, but a steady beam. He was faster than she was and swept it across her mecha scoring it, but the Avalanche didn’t falter, dampeners negating the secondary effect of the attack.
She didn’t see the beam strike the charged horns of the cryoebersisk. Kiera turned the sonic cannons and fired them, launching herself towards the Vulcan sword at the ready. He drew his swords, and energized them to take her strike. Rather than straight blades each one curved, similar to a crescent moon; scimitars. The shield vanished and Kiera fired the magnetic pulse cannon. It disrupted the field around his scimitars, destabilizing them and leaving him open. She swung, but he was no arrogant teen and juked away, the attack passing within inches of hitting him.
Reviewing her weaponry was the first thing Kiera did for a reason. The pilot either forgot her blade could extend, or counted on Kiera not knowing it could. She thrust forward and extended the blade, scoring a hit on his torso. His speed increased and he dashed backwards to avoid being skewered, arcing as he did to avoid the lighting from the horns, which was now starting to arc towards them and freezing everything it touched.
Another round of missiles streaked towards her, Kiera cut her engines landing on the plateau, gravity helping her escape and avoid most of the damage. The Vulcan flew the opposite arc to float in front of her, as if deciding his next attack. Kiera took advantage of his hesitation, launching a swarm of micro missiles from her toro, and then firing her sonic cannons. Once again he swerved lazily to the side to avoid the missiles. Unaffected by the wind or air resistance, her sonic attack struck the missiles, catching the Vulcan in the explosion.
He responded with the last of his missiles. Kiera fired her sonic cannons again, attempting to destroy them before they reached her. The first missile was struck, but she couldn’t rotate her cannons fast enough to strike the others, and their spread was far enough away that destroying one wouldn’t detonate the other. Two struck her causing warnings to flash on her HUD. Her armor was starting to fail. The Avalanche was a tough mecha, but she couldn’t match her enemies' experience or the power of his Vulcan.
The other two missiles streaked past her and exploded on the ground. A surge of lighting shot into the air. Spears of ice rained down over the plateau, the ridge and the hills below, driven into the earth with speeds that caused bursts of frozen earth to fly into the air. A ball of lightning burst out from the plateau, sending bolts over the region freezing whatever it touched and shattering the spears.
The Avalanche fell.