Kolme found himself knelt in the rather uncomfortable position of his mech's footwell. In front of him, beneath the main monitor, he had torn open the various access panels of the Neo-C and began tearing out wires, at his side a small collection of emergency tools – The cause for this vandalism was displayed on the monitor above his head:
Lt.Commander Emilia Von Sheen had indeed arrived just in time to save the Fluchtig from the three of Mleue ace pilots – However not all was going well.
IAFS's Casnels were no doubt impressive, the three of them had singlehandedly pushed back the 30 or so ships of the regrouped TSU-s fleet and dozens if not hundreds of Vijaiks, but even for Casnels and pilots of their calibre it had come at a cost.
Emilia's machine was covered in burns and scraps – Its only remaining weapon a single rifle - Having come straight to rescue the Fluchtig she had not had time to refuel and grab new weapons. In light of this the three Mleue were using the exact same tactics they had against Kolme – Circling endlessly around the navy blue and grey Casnel, periodically swopping in to try and run it through with their bayonets – For now Emilia was admirably dodged these attacks much better than Kolme had, but as things were it was a stalemate with no end in site.
“Come on Damn-it!” Kolme growled slamming his fist against the metal floor – In any other situation a team of high spec Vijaiks managing to take on a Casnel would of been a great, heroic success story – But this time it just so happened the Casnel was on their side for once.
He had hoped mechanical skills from what felt like a lifetime ago, might come back to him now, allow him to get the Neo-C moving again – Not in order to fight but as a distraction of sorts. As it was the Mleue had done quite the job against his poor Neo, its arms destroyed, its camera filled with fractures, the double barrel cannon and all other weapons executed – In fact so much of the customised parts of the Neo-C had been torn away that it felt as though Kolme were back to being a helpless Nemo pilot – Nemo Unit 3, the unit that had been retrofitted into the Neo-C, forced yet again to watch uselessly.
But no matter what he tried, his hackneyed attempts to get the Neo-C moving again kept failing.
He looked up to his monitors just in time to see the worse case scenario – With the same deft teamwork and discipline the Mleue had used to take out both Kolme and all the other Nemos that had made it this far – All three blue-birds of prey came at Emilia simultaneously – One she side-stepped, a second she forced away with a brilliant shot from her rifle – But the third landed the hit, its bayonets slicing through one of her mechs arm.
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“God Damn It!!” Kolme yelled to no one.
****
Nate Novel was standing out of his chair, staring in horror at the battle happening above his warship.
It had been a trepidatious ride getting as far as the Fluchtig had and when Kolme had left to buy them time it had seemed that ride had finally come to its end – That was until none-other than Nate's long time love interest, the woman he was still hoping to work up the courage to ask out, and of course the woman who was supposed to be in command of the Fluchtig's Vijaik team – Lt.Commander Emilia Sheen had arrived.
Like an angel of battle she had descended above the Fluchtig to protect them from certain doom – And yet it hadn't been enough; “Can't we do anything!?”
Nate voiced, tears stinging at his eyes, was this truly the end of them all?
“Sir--” It was Aurin, Nate's faithful acting second-in-command who broke the silence, “--There is no way we can out run them if the commander falls, so... So I think I speak for everyone when I say we should go help her!”
Nate stared at the man in disbelief; “You can't be saying?”
“Aurin 'tis right Cap'ain, better go in a blaze a' glory than a' whimper.”
Added the voice of the ship's coxswain, a man who had spoke barely half a dozen times in all the months Nate had known him.
“I agree Sir, we have to save our XO!”
Charlie of all people added.
“Y-You guys.” Nate said, his composure falling, 12 long hours of constant command collapsing as tears streamed down his cheeks.
All the bridge staff turned to him, with nods and smile, voicing their agreement;
“I'm sure everyone on this ship feels the same way Sir.” Aurin finished.
Nate steadied his emotions and nodded back, “Thank you, everyone – Alright then lets do this. Charlie send out a message on all channels, I don't care if it only reaches 2 feet, let anyone who hears it know to head for the Tradech--”
“Aye Sir!”
“--Coxswain, set a crash course, directly for the nearest enemy--”
“My Pleasure Sir!”
“--Aurin, find us a gun that still works, double time old friend--”
“Roger that Rear-Admiral!”
“--Alright then, IAFS Celtic Class Battleship, Am Fluchtig – This is my final order to you all, give them hell chaps!!”