As soon as Kolme had explained his idea - Scarlet's dual with the Casnel set off anew.
She cut the clasp holding her left-side rocket-launcher, let it slide down to the stub where her mech's hand had been, then resealed using the heat from her arc-staff. This done she could now use her left arm again, if only a little.
She coursed into the Casnel with every ounce of skill and experience she could muster, slash after slash, rockets in-between - Bursts from Hoki's sniper rifle and periodic hit & run attacks by Sabban - The three completely overwhelmed the Casnel, forcing it to relie more and more on its cuboid shield to stop their assault.
And she was doing it all without the enhancer drug - As her mech bounced in and out, dodging in all directions, using every trick in the book to evade and attack, a new type of high washed over Scarlet - One part adrenaline and part pride.
She could do this, no - She was doing it - She was fighting at her peak ability, dodging lethal energy blasts by a hairs-breath, making slashes so accurately the Casnel couldn't even attempt to block with anything other than its shield - All by herself, all with her own power, her own skill.
But the high could only carry her so far, as a couple minutes transitioned into a few, Hoki's sniper support began to lessen as her poor rifle was pushed past its limits - As for Sabban he had disappeared, Scarlet was confident he hadn't been hit, so his sudden absence was a mystery.
And no matter how hard she fought, her weapons had a limit, after one more slash was blocked by the enemies' stupid shield, her last arc staff shattered into a hundred tiny glittering pieces, "Tch!"
Her red mech reared back, firing off a rocket from both launchers, the Casnel once more raising its shield to easily block the projectiles - They were her last, she was out of ammo, out of weapons but one - The massive Calabar blade on her back - How long could she hold the Casnel off with just that?
Sabban was missing, Hoki for all she was one of the best marksmen Scarlet had ever met - Didn't have remotely enough skill to fight the Casnel in close quarters - It was now just Scarlet, one handed, one bladed - Her eye drifted to the glove box.
Finally it came - Her rockets disintegrated harmlessly against the Casnel's energy, not a single fragment of the explosives making it to its armour - The shield dropped - Kolme fired.
The Casnel's head literally turned to see the blast coming, Scarlet could imagine the pilot inside desperate to reignite the shield - Too late.
Just before the 8 thin rods, rods far too thin to hit with a rifle or sword, could retract - And just before the shield could reignite - The double-barrel energy blast of Kolme's custom cannon rocketed past the Casnel - Not just one but two of the rods were torn, scorched and blasted to pieces - A millisecond later the Casnel's shield ignited but this time only two faces, a square beneath it and one covering its left flank - Its core, its head, its whole right and centre sides were left entirely exposed - You didn't need to be a mathematician to know you can't make a cube with just 6 points.
"Hell Ya!!" Scarlet cheered with a fist pump - She reached her mech's right arm back, and in a single flush movement, the spent rocket launcher on her right shoulder disconnecting and floating out of the way, she drew down her signature broadsword.
****
Major Moncha felt the urge to apologise to the Neo-C before him, to Sabban Vint, for today would not be a fair fight - Like he'd done against the defence line, Moncha was ready to use any tactic no matter how underhanded, cruel or cowardly to beat the enemy before him - There wasn't time for chivalry or honour, not with Helty in danger.
But equally Moncha wasn't exactly in peak condition - Both the Special's arms were a single hit away from losing all functionality - He'd shaken the every bolt, screw and joint with the speeds he had been moving at - And of course his power supply had been drastically drained by crossing no man's land not once but twice.
Nonetheless, whether this was the fight either of them wanted or not didn't much matter, it was the fight before them.
To Moncha's surprise, the Neo left the shotgun drift free, the sleek weapon getting picked up by a magnetic clip on its kilt - With a newly freed up hand, it grabbed the Arc-Staff doubly, a moment later the staff turned a few shades deeper.
Sabban Vint had been practising alot since Station 9.3, certainly more than was healthy - But he was also an intelligent man who understood reality, he couldn't become a master swordsman in just a few weeks, long weeks or not - He couldn't beat Moncha in a prolonged sword-dual, not without years of training - But with both hands gripping an Arc-staff being pushed to its output limits, perhaps he could land one good hit, perhaps weeks of training would allow him to master just one single sword strike - That's what the brown Neo's amateurish, yet determined stance said to Moncha.
He smiled a little out of respect and moved the Vijaik speical into a much more refined stance of its own - Rapier held out at eye level, arc-staff dagger, held lower near the waist - 'A single attack, one blow - That's how this battle will end.'
The two mechs stared across at one another for a long moment - Then they burst forth - Both machine at almost the exact same second strove across the empty space.
Both enemies struck one another. The narrow Nemo head and the V-shaped Special's head passing by one another, until they had both past...
Both machines hung in the air, backs now to one another, floating in each other's starting positions.
A moment later, as though time itself had lagged behind the duel - Both arms of the Neo-C snapped off.
"It was a damn good effort kid, next time you'll have me for sure." Moncha spoke bitterly to himself, one of the Special's arms floating past his monitor screen - His Arc-staff snapped in half, his Calabar rapier shattered to pieces.
One handed & weapon-less, the Vijaik-Special left the Neo behind, to go save a Casnel.
****
Scarlet was a living lightning bolt soaring across the void of space, her broadsword the arrowhead - She was going for a run-up, for physical stopping force, for brute power - Moving at a G-force that would of knocked out a lesser pilot.
Her mech rocketed as a straight line, her sword held overhead - Around her Kolme and Hoki were guiding her in. Tossing cooldowns and caution to the wind, her wingwoman and her lover downright 'spammed' their weapons.
The Casnel dodged left then right to avoid sniper bolts - A third it couldn't dodge, it smashed into its torso - Any Vijaik would of been felled by this, but even without its shield the Casnel was still made of Goibniu, of a metal so powerful ancient cultures had simply called it 'Magite' out of reverence.
Still Hoki's attack had thrown the Casnel off balance and it was unable to dodge as one, than two blasts of Kolme's cannon also smashed into its torso - That would of been enough to atleast strip the paint off a lower class Casnel, but this was no knock off.
And yet, Scarlet grinned with glee to see a small, no tiny, crack form along the Casnel's chest, in the place where a human's heart would lie - A little splinter, a miniscule opening that Scarlet knew she was about to strike down.
"I've always liked this machine, I kinda felt a sense of comradery for it, like me and it were similar - Not meant for the battlefield, maybe never meant to be here."
Scarlet was streaking across the sky, on an unavoidable collision course with the Casnel, still itself flailing to get its balance back - She didn't even question the strange comment that came across the open radio line.
Her ever red-tinted, circular monitor was moving by at nauseating rate, the stars passing in the blink of an eye, the Casnel's white and silver form growing massive with each second.
"HRGHHHHHHHHH!!!" She roared, ready to end it once and for all
----
It is almost impossible to imagine the sound of two mechs colliding - There is of course no sound in a vacuum, but mechs are sealed and so, when one rams another, you hear it - A crunching, grinding, bloodcurdling scream that travels up your machine's limbs, into its bowels and all the way to you in the cockpit.
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That sound filled her ears now, but it was wrong.
"Wha--, what, no, what?!" Scarlet whispered haplessly.
She had missed, no that wasn't true - She had hit a mech, gone straight through its hearts - Her massive chainsaw blade had gouged all the way through and out the back of the mech - Of a one handed Vijaik-Special.
Another sound is created when two mechs touch, or even when two space suits touch - A contact link, you hear the other person - What Scarlet heard was a man's voice, coughing and hacking, spiting up copiously amounts of blood, that splattered gorily against the visor of a space suit helmet.
In between the coughs, the voice spoke; "Helty-- Take-- The-- Shot--"
Scarlet's eye rallied to the Casnel, only a few metres away - Its hand was trembling, its arm mounted cannon shaking - Mech hands didn't shake, even if the pilot's hand shook a little, the Ai would correct it - For the Casnel to be visibly trembling meant the pilot inside must be in downright hysterics.
Scarlet slapped herself, hard - She had to act now, this wasn't over - She grabbed the controls and shook her right hand, trying to dislodge the impaled enemy - It made a horrendous sound, her Calabar blade was still spinning at an ungodly RMP, with each movement, the sound of the massive chainsaw teeth rubbing against the internals of the Vijaik-Special threatened to deafen her as the hole in its chest grew ever larger.
But rather than fall away, the Vijaik speical did the unthinkable, its lone remaining arm reached forward - And grabbed Scarlet's wrist.
'Oh... Shit.' - She thought - It had been a mistake, she should of let go of the sword while she still had the chance, now she was stuck - She considered ejected but it was too late, she'd be caught up in the Casnel's blast.
She looked to it on her monitor, its shaky cannon had begun glowing that horrible pale green.
"I found it, I mean of course I did - People on the bridge knew it and there was a file, we just weren't looking in the right places - What a silly thing to fixate on - 'Cally Treith', I think it's a pretty name right?"
"Una stop right now!!"
"Una no!"
'Una? Una's back on the ship, safe and sound - Me and Kolme decided that, she's done her duty, she's fought hard enough, she doesn't have to pilot ever again - Why are they calling her name, it's me above to be disintegrated?' Scarlet thought to herself, confused at the sounds of her allies over the radio.
"Take- The- Shot- Please!!" interrupted the voice of the Vijaik-Special once more.
And indeed fire it did.
The massive blast of green energy coursed through the sky.
The massive blast of green energy - Passed her by - A metre or two away, close enough to melt whatever little paint reminded on Scarlet's mech, but that was all.
The impaled pilot's voice echoed one final time, "I'm so sorry everyone... Helt..."
The special's arm let go of her wrist, it jittered down the teeth of her blade violently and floated freely into space, pushed lightly in the Casnel's direction - The warrior was dead.
Scarlet looked up in disbelief, a new mech had appeared and quite literally tackled, borderline bear-hugged the Casnel, causing its blast to go astray.
Calling it a new mech felt wrong actually - It was a old machine by battlefield terms, much abused and covered in a random array of prototype equipment - A massive box on either side of its torso in particular, made it look almost like a giant 'plus' symbol.
A Vijaik MBT - A glorified forklift in its current state, had stopped the Casnel.
And rather than escape, the Casnel was still, its head pointed towards the corpse of the Vijaik-Special, as though the machine was frozen in mourning for a fallen comrade.
"The head fitter, he said there isn't a single person on the Fluchtig who wouldn't come to my aide, or something like that - I think that and this last week helped me realise something."
"Una?" Scarlet mouthed in disbelief.
" SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL ACTIVE, PLEASE EVACUTE NOW - 10 "
"I didn't think I belonging here, that I was just a burden to my gran-aunt, to you guys, to everyone."
" 9 "
"Una get out of there!" Hoki pleaded.
"Una eject now damn it!" Kolme swore.
"Una O' Conchabhair, fucking run!!" Sabban roared from afar.
" 8 "
"Sorry guys, this model's been messed with ya know?--"
" 7 "
"--It doesn't have any escape pod anymore."
"Una, Una no!" Scarlet said, tears on her cheeks, she unclipped her safety belts, physically crawling to her monitor pressing her hand over the shape of the MBT hugging the Casnel.
" 6 "
"You guys, gave me a home - Sorry it took so long to realise something so simple"
" 5 "
"I mean look at me, I'm hardly 'revenge for my family name' material, haha."
" 4 "
"I think all I was really looking for was you guys, so I'm actually kinda happy."
" 3 "
"Una please don't do this, please!!"
" 2 "
"Cause I got to have a home and this time I can be the one to protect it - Thank you, everyone."
" 1 "
"UNAAAAAAAA!!!!"
In Scarlet's life she had seen this sight dozens, no, hundreds of times - An orb of light that for a short time blocks out the entire endless expanse of the night's sky - A circle of white light in such stark contrast to the black of space - A light so bright it would no doubt blind you in its majesty, if viewed without the protection of a machine's lens - The explosion of an overdrive Hindenburg reactor, either through damage, or self destruction - The ultimate death of any mecha, a last light of a pilot's whole life.
She was thrown back into her chair, sprawled upside down - Hands and leg bashing off control levers and throbbing harshly under near instant bruising, but she hardly cared, scrambling back upright to stare blankly at the ever red-tinted monitor screen.
She had been right on the perimeter of the blast, the sheer force had her mech now spiralling backwards, but even as she got further and further away, her screen was still filled with purely that all consuming white-void.
The Casnel, the Special and the MBT at its centre - All caught up by that most terrifying of explosions.
It was over, they had won - The Casnel was at last defeated.
And somewhere out in the dark endless depths of space - At the epicentre of that brilliant, blinding light - Una O' Conchabhair, smiled forever more.
End of Arc 5.