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7.5 - Casnel Part 2

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Hoki fell back into her chair - 'Blocked? Blocked! For Sun's sake you can't just block something like that with a shield, it's impossible! What sort of defence value does that thing have, its stats must be unreal!!'

"Hoki, Hoki! Ensign Bachika, Princess! For crying out loud Hoki, they're calling your bluff. Line up the next shot!" Scarlet yelled across the still connected comm-link.

Hoki shot back up to the controls, cursing herself for panicking she began to reach around the cockpit. The enemy mech had began to move again and though it would take time to regroup its previous speed, it became clear it indented to continue towards the helpless Clover.

As the last of its previous line of green faded, a new one took its place as Hoki began the process of firing all over again.

The Casnel's Bluff [https://i.imgur.com/XV6euLH.jpg%5B]37.5

She clasped at the controls, her hands trying to work faster than before, her mind racing;

'What good is firing again if it can block you - Block you! What in Sun's name can block something like that!

Enough, that's enough, you're acting like a cadet, control your breathing woman.'

37

A faint orange flashing in the corner of her machine accompanied by a quiet whirring, alerted Hoki to her mech's need to ventilate the influx of energy. She reached hurriedly behind herself, spending a full couple of seconds trying to remember which of the heavy-set levers to pull in order to ventilate the right side parts of the machine.

36.25

As she finished pulling the lever she turned back to the keyboards and computation reams, the faint smell of greasy oil filling her nose as she tried to desperately bring her breathing back under control. It wasn't the same as panic exactly, she didn't feel scared per se - More like her mind had slowed to a crawl, like the numbers strewn in front of her began to swim - To form mocking faces - As though the logic she relied on was taunted her itself;

'Best shot you've ever taken right? You're meant to be a rationalist aren't you? So logical thing to do now is call it all off. Don't waste the power on a second shot. If you won't trust logic what else have you got left?' - The imaginary voice cooed.

35

"San, sanju, Nana-niju--"

Hoki stared in disbelief at the small speaker emitting the numbers in the voice of Scarlet.

 'Those are, they're from home. Why would Scarlet know those numbers?'

Though somewhat simplistic in nature, Scarlet continued to call out a series of numbers, co-ordinates, in Hoki's native language. Further to Hoki's surprize was her own hands, which she realised had subconsciously begun to key in the string of number into her machine.

33

The numbers seized swarming now and her mind began to calm back down. With Scarlet helping to make up the time she had lost, the duo quickly had the rifle adjustments finished, far faster then it had taken to prepare her first shot.

'I didn't know she even had spotter-training, I guess I'll have to ask about it when we get back... Ya, when we get back.'

30

BANG

Once again the brilliant beam of blue soared across the skyline on a direct intersection with the green line of the Casnel. This time Hoki knew it would see the shot coming and wondered whether it would use that strange translucent shield again.

To her initial surprize and then relief, the Casnel did not block this time. Instead it seemed to reverse all its thrusters, narrowly stopping just metres away from slamming into the energy attack.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Scarlet whooped across the radio exclaiming excitedly; "Ha-ha, told you it was just a bluff! Whatever that shield was he ain't willing to risk getting hit directly by you twice. As little as I want to admit it - I would do the same in his place, that's some of the best damn shootin' I've ever seen Hoki-girl!!"

 Scarlet exclaimed.

The Casnel didn't try to start towards the clover for a third time, instead it turned and after a short moment began to head towards Scarlet & Hoki's position at long last.

 "Well it's about time, I'm sending you the data on the submarine with its most likely positions - Good Luck!" Scarlet uttered before leaning forward to turn off the live feed.

Before she could Hoki interrupted her; "Wait, maybe I can get one more hit, I--"

"Oh heck no, the plan ensign remember? I get you the coordinates then intercept the Casnel while you reveal the enemy ship." Scarlet finished sternly.

Hoki reddened a bit at being the one to question the plan she had insisted on making, before replying back to Scarlet with a curt apology and 'good-luck' of her own. Scarlet seemed satisfied with this and as the camera cut for the last time, Hoki could of sworn she saw a glass & plastic looking cylinder float past one corner of the screen, but she payed it little heed, more focused on the wolfish, almost sinister grin that spread across Scarlet's face as the image cut.

And like that the comms cable snapped and Scarlet (careful as Hoki had asked, not to disturb their metal platform too much) was gone, making her way across the endless dark towards the nearing figure of the Casnel. For Hoki's part she quickly arranged Scarlet's figures on one of the TV sized monitors and started running calculations for the third time that day.

 Much like her unexpected use of a foreign language, Scarlet's maths were equally impressive with the row of co-ordinates being more professional than Hoki had seen from many other fellow marksmen in the past.

Before long she had her third shot lined up, however where before she'd had a target to aim at (however small) now she was faced with only blank space. Nonetheless she braced herself and took the shot, all the while faintly aware to the bottom right of her screen as two more weapons fired. These were indicative of the Casnel which fired a large arm mounted cannon - And Scarlet who carried with her and even bigger bazooka type weapon, that fired a massive shell of physical ammunition.

Hoki watched as her cyan-energy-shot, hit nothing - Coursing off into the deaths of space. Unperturbed she rapidly began lining up the fourth shot based on the second most likely place for the enemy-vessel to be hiding, according to Scarlet's carefully crafted numbers.

 As for the other two, Hoki half-watched from the corner of her eye as Scarlet easily cartwheeled and dodged out of the path of each shot the Casnel fired. The luminous green blasts of bloated energy from its imposing cannon, seemingly posing no threat against Scarlet's speed - Her large red and emerald mech dancing around the enemy.

 Similarly the Casnel easily avoided the shells from Scarlet's bazooka, simply striving from side to side with minimal movement.

Finally the duo of machines reached each other face to face, both with a glowing orange arc-staffs drawn. The speed at which they collided caused the two thin plasma weapons to flicker violently like candles in a breeze, and for their light telescopic frames to bend and buckle under the strain of one another - But neither machine gave any ground.

 Hoki was loath to say it, but if Scarlet could compliment her, then she too could compliment Scarlet;

 'Her control of the machine's movements is unreal!'

Even as the thought went through her mind she watched as Scarlet rose her bazooka in her off-hand while still locking blades with the Casnel. In sync with Hoki's fourth shot, Scarlet's shell flew free. The Casnel rather than trying to shield, instead boosted to one side before being knocked back by the force of the shell explosion.

 Had she not been busy with her own part of the plan Hoki might of considered the implications of this:

Did the Casnel have limited power? Could the shield not stop solid projectiles? Or most likely of all, if the green shimmering square of light was really made of pure energy - Then would activating with an arc-staff drawn risk cutting through the Casnel's own weapons? -- However Hoki was indeed busy, at long last a shot had hit home and the only thought she could spare for her allies small victory was of little substance;

 '15 loaf to Scarlet.'

Entire kilometres away, Hoki's endless line of cyan energy had stopped as if frozen in mid-air, the thin energy simply sizzling against nothing like a rain drop held in mid-air - Before suddenly pooling outwards in a rapid circle of lapping water - A stone thrown onto the surface of a murky lake as it were.

The Battle Begins! [https://i.imgur.com/dF8JHqZ.jpg]

When the beam itself at last faded, it left a pure white-metallic circle of about four metres in diameter - Simply floating in space - Like some bizarre 2D doorway among all the blackness of nothing - The battle was now about to begin in earnest.

'Invisible submarine no more!!'