A Fateful Day (private)

@Brank
Thump thump thump….. Thump thump thump….. Thump thump thump….. High Admiral Atra Stevnic tapped her fingers rhythmically along the arm of her chair. She was equal parts bored, apprehensive, tired, but most of all irritated. That’s all this was, an irritation. She wasn’t foolish or dismissive enough to call it a distraction, else she would have sent one of her subordinates to toil away here. No, she knew better than most the threat these “Seekers” posed if left to their devices, especially after their deployment of imitation Qunits to the MISE Schism. So when reports came in of sightings of the Seeker’s main fleet, it took mere days for her to mobilise her own fleet and get en route.

Despite initial momentum, now that they were here it had become somewhat of a wild goose chase. Her fleet was stretched thin, small battlegroups searching all nearby star clusters. Any glimpses they caught of their targets were fleeting at best, not lasting more than a few days before the trail went cold, and never more than a handful of ships. With each passing day their chances of catching these pests grew thinner and thinner still.

And then, a stroke of luck.
“VSA Fated Vanguard is reporting contact! Hostile capital-scale vessel and escorts, believed to be resupplying in the local asteroid belt.”
She couldn’t have asked for a better situation, the ship was practically served on a silver platter. As if to compound the matter, the VSA Undying Star was just one system away, a Vaifay-Class Supercarrier.
“Contact Captain Faysui, vector his battlegroup to intercept. We are NOT losing this opportunity!”

Lieutenant Commander Wiira was relaxing in his squadron’s lounge, listening to an old favourite tune of his. It was a quiet day, no drills, no inspections; may as well take the opportunity to kick back, maybe catch up on lost shuteye… It was then, of course, that the deployment alarm began ringing out. Training kicked in, and before he knew it he was pulling up the straps of his pilot suit and marching to the hangar bay.

His ocular implants briefed him on the deployment on the way there, and he grinned to himself; it had been a while since he’d gotten into a proper dogfight. The end of the briefing gave him pause though, as Qunit deployment had been authorised. As her caretaker, normally he would’ve notified her immediately, but knowing Fleya she was already headed for the launch catapult. He gulped at the thought of what they might be facing if Qunit deployment was approved.

Nevertheless, he briskly boarded his own custom Taroka unit. Officially, this machine no longer existed, as what good was a Qunit grade Taroka when its pilot had a newer machine? Unofficially, all it had taken was a few good nights out with the hangar deck crew to convince them to retool it for regular pilot use.

He booted the systems as the cockpit hatch sealed behind him. Once the panoramic displays came to life, he saw Fleya was indeed already making her way to the catapult, and for a moment he felt a sense of foreboding. He shook his head and finished setup procedures, moving his own Taroka to the catapult.

Switches were flicked and brevities were exchanged, and soon he felt the familiar jerk of being thrown forward at several kilometers per second. A minute later his squadron was forming up, and they streaked out in front of the rest of the strike assets. They were the space superiority squadron, and the best the Pact had to offer at that, Qunit or not.

Brank
For a few tense minutes, both compliments streaked towards each other in silence. The void of space rushed by with little to show for it beyond changing numbers on displays. Occasionally, the spinal pulse lasers of Maidar-class Battlecruisers ripped through the space between and towards the Dominion carrier group, one wing of unlucky fighter craft getting caught in the crossfire and subsequently vaporised.

Wiira's squadron, Hajiik, was the first to make contact, all 16 Taroka spreading out circularly around the battlespace. The VSA's advanced and pervasive datalink systems began working overtime as highly accurate sensor pictures of all Dominion strike craft in range were drawn up. Weaponry pods mounted to the Tarokas' forearms unfolded to launch a storm of medium range interception missiles, each co-ordinating with every other in flight to ensure even if one missile missed a target, it would ensure another could hit.

At this point in the battle, nothing special about Malsit was apparent, just another inbound target to launch a few missiles at. Fleya, better known as F13Y4, sat back and observed for now; floating "above" (relative to the solar plane) the battlespace, and shielding herself from sensor sweeps with a technique gained from her sister. There was no need for her to engage yet, the Lieutenant could handle a peer-peer engagement, charging in would just make her a target.

Brank
The Taroka was caught almost entirely off guard, barely able to turn around before its arm was crushed against the torso. The payloads of the missiles still stored on the forearm detonated as they were crushed, the explosion forcing the two craft away from each other and crippling the Taroka's reactor. Railgun shots quickly tore apart the space around Malsit, in a vain attempt to disable Exie before more damage could be dealt.

Fleya immediately took notice of Malsit at the very first turn he made. Perhaps it was a sensor fluke; rare but not impossible. The second turn put any doubts to rest. Whatever this thing was it was far beyond the Lieutenant's pay grade...but fit squarely into hers. She gently positioned her Taroka atop a nearby drifting asteroid, crouching down on it, before leaping off with thrusters at full burn, the several thousand tonne rock shattering from the sheer force of the jump.

Malsit caught sight of a thruster trail off in the distance that was matching his maneuvering turn for turn. A brief flash of light and a gigantic blade ripped through the void towards him. Of course it was easily dodged, but the blade seemed to start turning back around of its own accord. He only just turned around in time to see a Taroka aiming a kick squarely for Exie's head. After the kick missed it quickly pulled back before he could retaliate, gripping the handle of another giant blade and spinning it towards him. In fact, a whole swarm of the blades followed in the wake of the machine, flying around evasively.

This relentless assault continued until Malsit had been driven a good distance away from the rest of the battle. Only then did Fleya allow herself to exhale. The blades fell back into formation and docked into the clamps on the Taroka's wings, giving off the impression of feathers, and only now did Malsit get a good look at the machine. It was marginally similar to the ones he had been facing, perhaps sharing an inner frame, but with a far thinner and streamlined look, an extended back segment, a pair of katanas attached to the hips, and of course the selection of flying blades now attached onto the wings.

Fleya: "Your opponent... shall be me."

Brank
Fleya was caught off guard by the use of a Qswitch. It was known that the Seekers had access to Qswitch technology, but to mount it to a domestically developed mecha already was another matter. She only just managed to dodge out of the swing, sending out several of the blades to strike back, only for them to be deflected by the shield.

F: "Already predicting my moves... Update threat report; category orange."

The missiles weren't even worth their own cost as a distraction, Fleya easily taking the swarm out with only a single burst from her shoulder CIWS, not one shot missed. As Malsit charged through the ensuing smoke cloud, he found his hammer swinging through clean empty space. He only just realised in time what was happening, barely managing to block the heavy handed katana swing from behind with the pole arm of his hammer. Instead of breaking off, Fleya instead brought the other blade crashing down onto the pole arm, putting the full thrust of her Taroka into the vicious charge. With Malsit trapped in the engagement, again several blades detached from the Taroka's wings, curving around to strike at Exie from behind...

Brank
Fleya was still testing the waters of just how Malsit would react. Committing to a full force attack so early left her open in the event her opponent did in fact have a plan, so for now she simply harassed him, ready to jump away at the slightest hint of serious retaliation. When it became apparent that the knockoff Taroka was in fact just reacting to her onslaught, she reached for her mecha's hips, unsheathing her colossal katanas once again.

Just as she was about to cleave Exie in half from behind, a trio of shadows distracting from the front, her target Switched right above her and flew off at breakneck speed. Irritating... The shadows dissipated as drew power from the Qswitch back to her engines, the wave function collapsing. Trying to switch into his escape path would prove too risky as it risked unplanned collision at these speeds. Instead she remained hot on his tail, blasting off the occasional railgun shot or missile volley. The gap slowly widened between them, Fleya marginally impressed at Exie's apparent superior acceleration.

Once Malsit was finally done docking with the weapons pack, he had all of 2 seconds before Fleya closed the gap, the 7m long katanas coming crashing down onto Exie as the esoteric flying blades detached again from her wings, circling the pair like sharks in the water.

Meanwhile, Wiira launched another barrage at the Seeker fighter he was engaged with. They dodged the dumbfire rounds of course, but in doing so left themselves wide open for his sudden charge forward, his Qunit grade Taroka's claws tearing the fragile craft in two. He let up on the acceleration as the explosion rippled behind him, collapsing down into his haptics and panting while his body recovered from the G's.

W: "Right... that makes 7. Tien'raach Wing, the path is clear, move up and hit those bastards hard!"

He made sure the anti-ship squadron made it safely past the furball, taking the moment to assess the battlespace. The battle was progressing slightly in their favour, the element of surprise serving them well but the Seekers reacting professionally. Two high velocity contact caught his attention, Fleya and that strange human Taroka thing. Seemed like she had it on the run now, but it was outsprinting her. A quick pathfinder estimation said he was in a good position to intercept it before it made it back to the Seekers' defensive lines... Fuck it, his machine could take it!

Object-0's eyes flashed as its engines went to full burn, the acceleration slamming Wiira hard as his haptics worked overtime to prevent him becoming a bloody stain on the back of his cockpit. He didn't care, this was the sort of shit he lived for! Right as the two godlike beings resumed their clash, Wiira came within effective range, his weapons saturating the battle with railgun fire. Completely ineffective against either party of course, and likely just an irritation for Malsit...

Brank
The sum total reaction from Fleya was a mild furrowing of her brow. She was just disappointed really, the famous “Hands of God” apparently resort to ad hominem as a combat tactic, no discipline to be found... She decided to humour this little attempt at intimidation, keeping the commline open long enough to calmly state:

F: “By all means, kill yourself.”

Her thought out and well formulated response said, she took her next move. The immensely powerful thrusters lining her Taroka’s legs lit up, delivering a powerful knee to Exie’s torso for the sake of breaking her grip on the katana. Instead of using the opening to take a slash with the now freed blade as one might expect, the handle neatly slid out of her hand. This gave said hand just enough time to curl into a fist, all thrusters firing to deliver the mother of all sucker punches to Exie’s head, the impact all but severing the extremity from its housing.

As Malsit’s mech tumbled back through the void, Fleya calmly reached up to snatch the drifting katana. She levelled the finely-crafted, truck-sized weapon squarely at Exie’s cockpit, before charging. The plasma lined blade cut neatly through Exie’s plating, and the left side of Malsit’s cockpit burst open in a shower of sparks and broken glass as the blow narrowly missed where he was sitting.

Wiira very quickly broke off his attack run, blasting away CIWS and micro missiles at the swarm following after him. The acceleration required to keep him out ahead of the missiles compacted him into his seat, and he struggled to maintain a grip on the controls. In a stroke of either genius or an actual stroke, he pushed his machine as far as it would go, managing to put some distance between himself and the missiles. He watched the G counter steadily tick up, warnings and alarms blazing in his ears; 9G… 11G… 14G… 15G... The moment he was far enough for the triangulation of a networked swarm to be ineffective, he ejected all the spent casings from his coilguns, then flicked on every stealth system he hand and janked to the side. He coughed up blood as the acceleration suddenly shifted vector, but that didn’t stop him letting loose a hail of CIWS fire on the missiles now briefly chasing a swarm of debris, managing to set off a chain reaction as the missiles’ own evasion inadvertently drove them just close enough to each other.

As he recovered from his own hubris, he swung the main sensor of his Taroka back to the unfolding battle between gods of the battlefield.

Brank
Fleya clutched at her head as the magnetic field triggered. All of her implants were ferro neutral, so she wasn't immediately torn to shreds by her own skeleton being ripped free, but her mind was still subject to induction. Even as her thoughts were scrambled, she found the strength to slam the throttle forward, her reduced mental state confused and enraged when her Taroka remained largely still.

The machine struggled valiantly against its magnetic binds, arms slowly reaching forward as though to try choke Exie, but it was far too little and far too slow. The very same field that trapped the Taroka in place slammed Exie's blade through it, piercing the cockpit and cruising right on through the mech's back. Fleya clenched her teeth and groaned in agony as her vision was overtaken with multiple warnings.

Unlike Fleya's own attack, Malsit's hadn't missed the mark; Fleya's body was bisected cleanly in two across her abdomen. Even this wouldn't normally be fatal for a Qunit, were it not for the fact the core of her cold fusion reactor had been breached, nuclear reagents flowing out and mixing in with her flowing blood. She began to hyperventilate as her body instinctually tried to generate enough bioelectricity to make up for the lost generator. Her eyes glazed over as her ocular implants shut down alongside the others, all power desperately trying to keep the brain alive.

Wiira turned his attention back to the battle just in time to see Fleya's Taroka get impaled. His eyes went wide and he kicked his own machine back up to maximum power, completely disregarding his own safety while calling out for her over the comms.

W: "Fleya! Hadalen damn it Fleya respond, that's an order!"
He turned his attention to the crippled Exie.
W: "You cheap fucking knock off! WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

As Malsit revelled in his kill, Alerts began to blare as that second Qunit-grade Taroka returned and resumed its engagement. The fire from its coilguns was far more accurate this time around, several hits glancing Exie's armour before he could respond. As the distance rapidly closed, CIWS fire belted away at Exie's sealed missile pods, as if daring them to launch and feel the wrath of their own warheads.

This should have been an easy victory. Malsit should have killed Wiira with little more than an afterthought and a bolt of particle fire. Instead, his own injuries, the combat stims wearing off, and Exie's damaged state left them nearly as sluggish as their opponent.

The experimental claws adorning the Taroka unfolded as the displacement between them ticked down to zero, the plasma lined blades shearing off one of Exie's legs below the knee. A powerful kick sent the Hand of God flying off course, but by the time Malsit had eyes on his opponent once again, Wiira was gone, charging at full burn back to Fleya's Taroka.