Eight of the original twelve wing-framed fighters were still in formation and pursued the fleeing shuttle. This was exemplary, given the level of threat they faced. The leader of the breakout squad from the hidden bunker was a strong Cultivator, most likely more advanced than even Ishan. Alysa wasn't even sure of Ishan's level of Attunement... Other than being sure that he had been holding back on the Hegemon-4.
Furthermore, the senior chief had made it clear he ‘didn't want to talk about it.’ Alysa was okay with that. A spirit being like Ishan had his reasons, and she would respect them. But, in the interest of understanding the force she was fielding, if Alysa had to guess, she would say the Tiger Affin had two Attunements. The first, without question, was Earth like hers. In fact, she had seen Ishan use his Earthen Shield to fend off the lightning from the leader as well as projectile attacks from his light fighter as they chased it.
Ishan could also increase his speed and striking power beyond what was expected from Cultivators, even those with an Earth Attunement. At least much more than she could. She had seen this on their recent chase as well. After the ship’s projectile weapons had taken four of their squad down, the Tiger-Affin had personally destroyed the two flanking vessels with claws glowing a bright yellow. The ships had foolishly attempted to make a stand and bar the senior chief’s path to their leader. It hadn’t stopped him, not even a little.
There is no way Ishan is only singly Attuned.
After the ships had been disabled, Alysa called for the Brigantine to aid the four casualties and continued the pursuit. There was no reason to think their wounded wouldn't survive. Their squad was composed entirely of activated Cultivators. Eight from the Hegemon-4 regiments that had been awakened by Josh and four extremely capable Kaizuko elite brought to her squad by Mzamo. Right now, they were down three of hers and one of his.
Stop thinking like that. Alysa internally corrected. They are all mine. Even Josh had pointed that out on day one of his landing on the Brigantine. Josh was no experienced fighter, that was for sure, but he had a way of cutting through the void guano and seeing things for what they were. Alysa had to give him that, and she respected him for it. Furthermore, the Kaizuko elite had done nothing but prove themselves loyal.
Yes... all the fighters on the Brigantine are mine.
A smile touched her lips as she continued to lead their chase. Her future was no longer with the Hegemon-4. It was with Josh, Sen, Sophie, and all the soldiers and crew of the Brigantine.
Enough said, back to the chase. This bastard has attacked my fighters, and he’s going to pay for the harm he’s brought to mine.
Ishan moved in closer to the small gunship and upped the ante, letting loose his shoulder-mounted Gatlin. Apparently, the senior is also taking things personally as well.
Alysa signaled the rest of her squad to hold their fire as the fleeing ship's shields glowed angry red as Ishan's sunfire rounds ate through their charge. The small ship was built for speed and maneuverability with a minimum crew, not for the punishment the senior was dishing out. With a bright shuddering flash, the shields failed, and the Tiger Affin swooped in to disable the craft with swipes of his yellow flashing claws. An instant before he made contact, he was sent spinning away by an invisible force that lashed out at him. Ishan again propagated the luminescent earth shield in a tight oval.
Alysa couldn't tell if the shield got in place before Ishan had been struck or just after, but it didn't matter. In two micros, the Tiger had regained control and was cycling his gatling gun at the engines of the still-unshielded ship. Small gouts of ignited gas erupted from the through-and-through holes, and the light-blue ionization of the engines winked out. The vessel continued to coast on its own inertia, but the fight was over. With no propulsion, they could pick it to pieces from range. It was only a matter of time. Alysa gave the order for her squad to space out and track the ship in relative safety.
The leader of the mystery force from Noha-3 knew it as well. Alysa wasn't surprised a micro-gyra later when the craft’s external airlock opened, and two figures in wing-frames exited to face them.
The two spaced themselves apart and moved away from the ship. Obviously, they thought to give themselves room to move, but the truth was they lost the benefit of back-to-back fighting and the shelter of the ship's hull on one side. It was a strategic mistake, as outnumbered as they were. It was equally obvious that the two lacked adequate training in void combat. If they had been properly trained, they’d have been more wary of assault from all directions.
Naïve and vulnerable, they raised their weapons to Alysa's men, sending the universal signal of being ready to rumble. Per protocol, her team spread out in a ring approximately 1500 meters from the ship and awaited orders.
"Everyone hold!" Alysa validated her team’s choice. Her troops were eager for combat. Balance’s Abyss, so am I! But a little patience was going to pay off here.
Back on Noha-3, five individuals had overcome the encounter force she had detailed. The escaping group had made it to the three ships they had chased. Two of the five had been taken down in the single-man fighters Ishan had disabled. Two were already out and attempting to draw them in. That left one more still in the gunship. Unless Alysa missed her guess, it was the leader with the augmented Force Attunement to shoot lightning bolts. While fleeing, the same Cultivator had also demonstrated Translocation abilities. His next move would be to attack from ambush when they were in his range. He would wait until he could land point blank on them for maximum effect.
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This one’s not conservative by nature. Not at all. No, he was the type to launch unprovoked nuclear attacks because it suited his goals.
He would attack first and then decide what to do about the fallout. Unless Alysa missed her guess, he was a relatively new combat leader. These types of boldly acting men rarely went far in the command structure of organized military forces. Ultimately, they were too rash and hasty in their judgments for long and successful careers. Still, because of their general lack of predictability, they burned bright until they burned out. They were also very dangerous to confront when cornered.
So, we will wait...
And they all waited. Even the two combatants who had exited their ship grew twitchy with the mounting tension. But Alysa knew it wouldn’t take long to outwait such a scrapper. Three micro-gyra later, to her silent count, Alysa was rewarded by Ishan's keen eyesight. "Contact! One klick out from the fighter, at your twelve o'clock, ma'am!"
There he was, wing-frame blazing as he rushed directly at her!
Alysa gave orders as she activated a full-body earthen shield that covered her like a flexible second skin of orange light. "Fuzzy-Wuzzy with me! Eclipse, harassment tactics! We want them alive for questioning."
Harassment. The preferred space marine void combat strategy of dog pack attacks pitting teams of three on any single opponent. The space marines spread out to three equally distant mobile poles surrounding their target. In this configuration, there would always be one unseen wing-framed soldier to the target's back that would charge in to disarm and or incapacitate the target.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"Roger that, Ma'am!"
Ishan and Mzamo replied in sync.
From this point, things happened fast.
Ishan accelerated superiorly, and Alysa flew straight ahead at her charging target. This is going to hurt. It was the only workable plan she had been able to put together to capture a Cultivator as powerful as she suspected the leader was. At fifty meters, he opened up with the bolts of force-lightning. They cut jagged yellow-white lines as they struck and marched in waves as they started to eat away at her singly Attuned shield. Alysa cycled Essence through her Meridians like a hurricane, attempting to keep her earth barrier up to get close. At twenty meters from him, the shield had thinned enough that her skin was blackening. At ten meters, she bit through her own tongue from muscle spasms, but still managed to mouth through bloody lips, "My turn!"
Alysa threw the chlorine trifluoride incendiary gel grenades she was carrying at him. It hit the advanced Cultivator center body mass. Coating his chest, face, and groin and causing him to burst into towering red and yellow flames on contact.
Any space marine would tell you that combat in the void is a focused activity. Particularly hand-to-hand combat. Such activity requires extreme concentration and high-level hand-eye coordination in Zero-G. The same thing could be said about cycling Essence and propagating Cultivational skills. Alysa would be the first to admit that she could not be considered a master of Cultivation at this stage. Still, she felt comfortable believing that being instantly turned into a raging, five-meter-high bonfire would significantly curtail anyone's concentration. Be they an advanced Cultivator or not. Alysa wasn't wrong. As the fire engulfed him, the leader’s primal reactions to burning took over. He uselessly slapped at the inferno his head, chest, and groin had turned into. By the time she had streaked past, the last of his lightning blasts died out. His arms moving in nondirected vectors, futilely pounding the flames and accomplishing nothing but setting his hands and arms on fire as well.
The clor-tri-flor grenades were principally used to burn through hardened fortifications in airless space. But, based on the leader's reactions, Alysa was sure they were also effective at burning advanced Cultivators. Now alit, he would continue to be so for the next fifteen to twenty micro-gyra... if she left him alone. But the grenade's duration wasn't the issue. In truth, Alysa wasn't even trying to kill or even disable him with it. Alysa wasn't even sure if she could do either with conventional means... No. the clor-tri-flor grenade was just a distraction. As she regained motor control, Alysa continued her flight and banked 180 degrees in a tight right arc to see the actual attack rocketing straight down on the now adequately distracted Cultivator.
Swung with two glowing yellow paws, the ten-centimeter-wide end of Ishan's charged, heavy stun baton buried itself into the leader's flaming skull with a gruesome flaming splat that spread his blood out in a complete circle of spherical drops. The now flaccid and burning body launched away from the Tiger Affin with Ishan’s baton solidly entrenched in what had been his cranium. Alysa shot a tow cable grapple to loop around the end of the leader’s wing frame and quickly reeled his sagging body back, assisted with a skilled application of her retros.
Looking up, they both noted that the other two fighters had been subdued and restrained without any casualties.
Ishan pulled a small canister from a utility pouch and extinguished the flames on the leader but left the bat in place. He returned the canister and pulled out a flat disk the size of a quarter with green and purple lights blinking in a seemingly random pattern. When the leader had healed enough to push the baton out, Ishan would place and activate the Essence inhibitor—
A strong male voice spoke directly into their minds, as a fit middle-aged man appeared floating before them. He was wearing nothing more than a black crew jumper with a golden insignia of rank embroidered over his left breast. He wore his long black hair tied back into a ponytail. The crew jumper reminded Alysa of what Dezain had been wearing, only about five command grades higher based on the symbol’s size and detail.
Ishan instinctually roared and coiled for an attack. Then, considering everything, including the polite smile on the man's face, the senior chief must have decided that discretion was the better part of valor and elected to stand at the ready to Alysa's side.
Thank you for extinguishing him. It is never pleasant to watch your children being consumed by flames... He nodded in respect and continued. Would you and your battle commanders be willing to participate in a parley? I believe it is time we… had a chat.