Chapter 26: Front 15.5 – Casnel – Part 2/3

Hoki only allowed herself a brief moment of glee at finally hitting something before getting back to work. Her next few shots were predictably much easier. As had been explained to her at the various briefings aboard the Fluchtig, the priority was to open a large surface area of the submarine to the outside view.
 As she understood it, the Chameleon coating had three effects:

One to reflect light.
 Two, being heat resistance (which did help alleviate the slight feeling of disappointment that her shot hadn't pierced the newfound white wall of armour).
 Thirdly to mask the ship's heat signature.

If Hoki revealed enough of the vessel - That would allowing the Tristan flotilla's trio of ships a lock onto its heat signature, effectively rendering the submarine's invisibility irrelevant.
 This in mind she lined up the next two shots much quicker, pulling the trigger a fifth, then a sixth time.

The shots coursed through empty space before creating another duo of white circles formed in the air - Looking almost like three white moons (although one's covered in rivets and bolts) across a night's sky.
 The three revealed patches seeped into each other until the final effect was something akin to a lonely white triangle on the black canvas background. Of course that wasn't all, still in the corner of her main monitor Scarlet and the Casnel continued their duel. To Hoki's surprise as she refocused her attentions on this battle, she watched as Scarlet was actually pushed back - Her Arc-Staff being pushed free from her hand.

Pressing this new advantage the Casnel charged forward to strike at the now bladeless Scarlet, but as expected her willy tactics were still too quick.
 In a flash Scarlet had thrust out her bazooka while continuing to surge her machine backwards. The Casnel in effect sliced the poor weapon in two within a millisecond, charging straight through the cloud of smoke and flame that emitted from the newly destroyed weapon.
 This in turn seemed to be exactly as Scarlet had hoped - The Casnel came through the cloud of self-made debris only to be greeted by Scarlet's red mech, no longer running but instead with one of it's heavy-set Calibre blades drawn from its back.

The blade clattered into the enemy Arc-Staff with such an almighty force that the Arc-Staff shattered in half, the broud sword style of the Calibre blade making the Casnel's Staff look like paper.
 Despite this the Casnel managed to recover, raising its other hand to shoot its massive arm mounted cannon at nearly point-blank range.

Scarlet ever spritely thrust her whole machine to one side - But this time it wasn't nearly enough. The bulbous green energy blast blowing her right hand off whole-sale in a flash of sparks and light.
 For a few moments the two machines were now apart from one another. Scarlet with her Calibre blade in her left hand and a loose array of served wires & hydraulics to her right.

The Casnel with it's smoking barrel & unscratched surfaces, drawing its second Arc-Staff from its waist to replace the first which floated as a pile of splinters nearby.
 It struck Hoki that Scarlet losing her hand made for an apt symbol of the battle beginning to turn for both of them.
She herself was busy disconnecting the auxiliary power-banks her and Scarlet had been using over the last few days - Their power long since drained with Hoki's first six shots of the rifle.
 As the final battery dropped off - Leaving only her permanent backpack to the rear of her mech - The first return shot made itself known. That small revealed triangle of white in the sky, or more acutely the hidden warship behind it - Had begun to fire back at Hoki.

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Things began to move faster now with far less time for Hoki to take in exactly everything that occurred around her.

 The still mostly hidden submarine had begun a full blown barrage against her, Car-tyre seized beams of energy in pairs of 2s, 3s and 4s flew around her, Hoki barely dodging each colourful blast of light that passed around her.

 Of-course she had the advantage, a Vijaik is small and for all the power any of those many blasts might hold - It was little more than trying to shoot a fly on the wall with a machine-gun. Still, caution was preferable as she ducked & weaved between the onslaught.

All the while she prepared her rifle for its next mark. The lengthy scrap of metal her and Scarlet had made their home atop for the last half-week had been completely eviscerated by the enemy ship's cannon fire, leaving nothing in its wake but a fine spray of silvered particles.
 This in mind Hoki began swapping her weapon to its lower power setting. One of the many experimental features of the rifle and the one most likely to cause a full malfunction of the weapon.

She was also painfully aware - As the large hands of her Vijaik grappled with the levers and coils of the weapon (in-between dodging the enemy volleys) - That she had already fired 6 times.

 The number might seem innocuous to most but Hoki knew better, she had after all written the test flight reports herself:

'ACR-Mk5-High-Power-Rifle' testing conducted today has raised the coefficient rate by 10%, cooldown increased to just 70 seconds and chances of self-destruction upon continued firing reduced to just 17.3476 percentile after 6 shots.'

 Put lightly she most certainly hadn't been leaving a full 70 seconds between shots - Far from it. She had to stop her mind from calculating how much that in itself would of raised the chances of self-destruction....

Flash, Slash, Flash, Slash.

 It was only in-between colourful burst of fire from the enemy and making the delicate adjustments to her rifle - That Hoki could glance across to see Scarlet's progress.

 The woman now one handed was still giving the Casnel a hard-time (though it still seemed spotless of any actual damage). Rushing, ducking & diving while swinging her imposing Calibre blade around with increased vigour and something not far off reckless-abandon.

The Casnel seemed to of now realised Scarlet's close range fighting potential and was actively trying to keep its distance from her - However every-time she would manage to push forward closing the gap, before the Casnel in turn would simply fire its impressive canon - Forcing Scarlet once more to back off and the cycle to repeat.

Flash, Slash, Flash, Shoot, Duck, Flash, Slash, Shoot.

 It was a cycle that never seemed to end as Hoki continued to get brief glances of the battle while doing her best not to get hit herself.

 Finally her gun swapped to its low-power setting, further the barrage from the 'White Space Triangle' (As She'd loving named it internally) she had made her foe, seemed to of slowed somewhat.

Flash, Swing, Sh-Grab!

 This time the Casnel seemed to of finished with its game of lethal tag.

As Scarlet swung at it once again - It grabbed the seemingly flaming, chainsaw-like blade of the Calibre in the palm of its hand.

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 The blade lit up in a flame of a far deeper shade of red that almost seemed identical to Scarlet's namesake hair-colour. The Calibre Blade ground, chewed and grinded away at the Casnel's hold on it. Sparks flew as the small teeth of the blade desperately fought roughly against the Casnel's hand - Until finally it clenched its palm.

The Calibre blade shattered instantly into a million glittering shards...

The Casnel's clear technological advantage couldn't of been more clear in that moment. Before the dispersing shards even had time to clear, the Casnel was raising its cannon up to the rest of Scarlet's machine to finish the fight.
 Even the 'Scourge of TSU' - Thee Scarlet Scourge could move only so fast. No one could dodge at that range, not even her.

Boom, Flash.

 Hoki knew firing now would give her position away to the submarine - And she could smell the faint toast like smell of overheating circuit boards and power-cables as she fired for the seventh time - But she hardly cared.

 The shot of now more yellowed light, glided through the empty space right between Scarlet and the Casnel.

 The grey silhouette of the enemy mech jerked back, choosing not to fire just long enough for Scarlet to make a hasty retreat - While the Casnel glanced its angular head around searching for its unseen assailant.

'That's that then, plan completed to the letter. Submarine revealed and Casnel held off - Now just to retreat. Easier said than done....'

As if on queue to answer her own thoughts two separate events occurred. First was a renewed barrage of fire from the submarine which had now seemingly locked onto Hoki's position after her intervening in the Casnel and Scarlet's fight. The massive red, orange and blue lighting bolts shot across the sky in criss-cross patterns on their way toward Hoki.

Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash, Flash.

 Hoki swayed to and fro as her machine desperately tried to avoid the blasts. Among the myriad of warning signals telling her that the power reserve was rapidly failing and warning of attacks in all directions - One small inconsequential light seemed to flash more brightly than all the rest;

"--oki-Las--"

Flash, Flash, Crunch, Burn.

 She jolted forward in her chair this time as a blast ran straight through her Neo-Vijaik's left leg, severing the thing and causing her whole machine to be blown a strewn like an umbrella caught by a storm.

"Hoki, come in Hoki!"

"K-kolme?!" Hoki replied in disbelieve.

"Ha-ha that's our girl, still in one piece, well mostly anyway. We're right on ye're tail, can you patch us through to Scarlet and then start heading for the co'ordinates I'm sending ya? Those should keep you safe from friendly fire.
 Oh and nice work on the space-triangle-yoke!"- Came the welcome if static affected voice of Kolme Nilas.

Hoki wanted to cheer with joy - 'We've done it!'
 Instead she quickly flipped the appropriate switches on the comms board, before narrowly dodging another flurry of enemy fire.
 At first there was no response from Scarlet though it seemed clear Hoki had successfully connected to Scarlet's already open radio-line. After a few moments she began to hear a faint panting, worried Hoki called out to Scarlet more then once (While never breaking eye contact from her scanners as she watched out for more enemy flak aimed at herself).

'Don't they ever run out of ammo?! How big is this damn submarine?'

Finally a response came through, however where earlier Scarlet's voice had been calm and composed, reassuring even when Hoki had been most nervous - Now the older woman came through in fits of what seemed like cackling;
 "....Hoki...hoki.... Get to shooting that ship girl, time's a wasting" - A pause followed in which Scarlet seemed to be giggling to herself.

On Hoki's monitor things seemed to if anything of slowed down between Scarlet and the Casnel. The Casnel looked to be on-guard against Hoki trying to shot at it again - While Scarlet was simply drifting with nothing but the handle of her broken sword in hand.
 "Scarlet we already hit the ship, we've pulled the mission off, don't you see it, the big triangle to your nine o'clock? Kolme's just behind us, it's time to go - I'll cover you, like we planned remember?"
 Hoki said carefully, concern lacing her voice.

Another series of almost deranged cackling cut through the receiver and echoed around Hoki's cabin in terrifying fashion; "Ha-ha! It's him Hoki, one of the ones who was there. There on the 4th! Not that pilot but still, one who was there! It's destiny don'cha think, destiny. Ha!"

Hoki grasped to make a reply, panic now filling her as she tried to understand the bizarre crazed state that seemed to of come over Scarlet - She desperately sought the right words to calm the woman down, just like Scarlet had done for earlier. However before she could fully compose a reply she heard the faint pop of a plastic lid being pulled free of something like glass - Before the communication feed cut completely.

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