ExSol Ch. 03

A barrage of sequential plasma caster fire so dense it was almost like an iridescent whip of light streaking across the sky tore into the middle of their compound. The entire structure buckled and the top two floors collapsed in on itself with a hellish shriek of melting and breaking metal. Nina was so transfixed and horrified that she just stared at the machine and didn't notice Dawn tugging on her arm until the enby yanked so hard they made her stumble towards them.

"...dock. This one can lure..." Dawn was yelling at her but her ears were ringing and the roar of a detonating missile drowned out most of the words. She heard them say dock, though, and nodded, following them, running towards the rear of the camp where Dusk and Twinshya were waiting.

The dock was mostly intact, say for a bit of the roof that was collapsed in the corner. Ryan's body was there, under the rubble, lying very still under the only bit of the roof that had actually collapsed. Nina stared at him numbly before Dawn tugged on her arm again. "Please, Miss Sahara, this one needs you to release the docking clamps on Dusk."

Nina nodded and went over to where Dusk was thoroughly locked in place with three separate clamps restraining the Mech's legs, arms, and torso in a truly unnecessary act that Sam had insisted upon. Nina went over and punched in the administrative override code into the clamps that she'd secretly installed into almost everything around this camp. With a hiss and a clank, they released, and Dawn wasted no time in nimbly climbing up into the cockpit in spite of their partially-healed injuries.

Nina backed up slowly as Dusk rumbled to life even as a series of autocannon fire rattled through the building in a deadly cacophony that Nina wouldn't even have noticed if she'd been unlucky enough to catch one of the rounds. Dusk moved to one of the outer doors, moving with a nimbleness that made it look like a living thing and not a Mech. It paused there for a moment, and Dawn's voice projected outwards.

"Dawn apologizes for the subterfuge, Miss Sahara, but Dusk would stand little chance at stopping that foe." Their voice was almost the same tone that it always was, but Nina wondered if she detected a bit of sorrow in it, or maybe she was just having another panic attack.

"H-Hey! Can't... leave..." Nina took several steps after Dusk's retreating form, but before she could get close, Dusk vanished behind the shroud of its stealth field. Nina stumbled, falling onto her knees where Dusk had been, staring at her hands as they made imprints in the dirt.

"Miss Sahara," Dawn's voice came again, from further away but not so far that Nina couldn't have seen them if the stealth weren't active. "Dawn suggests that you pilot that other Mech. It will be destroyed if it remains sedentary, and your comrades are likely already deceased."

"But... It's 'rina's..."Nina looked up, wobbling onto her feet. Dawn didn't answer. Nina didn't know if they could even hear, if they hadn't already left. Nina stared at Twinshya's shadowed form in the corner, numb and dazed. She knew that she knew how to pilot the Mech, knew how to release the docking clamps and knew Carrina's access codes to power it up. It was there in her mind but right now she couldn't recall any of it. Couldn't even begin to fathom how she'd start the process.

Amidst the cacophonous roar of her home being torn apart, a high pitched squeak both cut through the noise and yet was distinctly out of place amidst such destruction. Nina looked down, towards the open doorway, and saw her little grey kitten Jeffie crouched low on the floor, looking up at her with his tail tucked beneath him. The sight of the terrified kitten jolted her into action, her eyes went wide and she ran towards him, scooping him up into her arms. He buried himself into her embrace, clinging tightly to her as she ran over and released the single docking clamp with her backdoor. She climbed into the cockpit that she knew so well but had never sat in. She grabbed the ventilator tube, and exhaled slowly to calm her nerves so that she didn't gag and puke all over her poor furry passenger. She fed the breathing tube down her trachea as quickly as she dared, eyes watering, gag reflex threatening to make her sick. She flicked the machine on, and was immediately 'rewarded' with the strange sensation of having a machine breathe for her. She strapped herself in, started Twinshya's boot sequence, and turned on her Pulse.

Her anxiety, numbness and terror melted away instantly, replaced with a sense of power, of preparedness, confidence, and nigh-maniacal euphoria. She would have cackled with glee if she didn't have a tube down her throat, and her fingers darted to the controls with a confidence that should come from piloting the glorious piece of technology that was Twinshya. The Mech that she should always have been the pilot of. The Mech responded to her whim and loped out of the same door that Dusk had vanished through.

Twinshya's gait was a bit uneven, pushing off with the back leg, landing on its front two. She burst out of the crumbling remnants of her home and her sensors lit up, analyzing the outline of the Colossus Tick, putting pins on its weapon systems and various other points of interest. Her fingers darted to the comm systems, and she typed out a message in a wide broadcast.

'Nina here ridin Twinshya. Whos alive? Ill come get ya.' She considered sending out an audio broadcast along with it, but speaking with a tube down her throat was a trick that she hadn't learned yet.

She cut a wide path out of the building, keeping away from the Colossus Tick. The massive robot made short work of their camp, finishing the job it started and reducing it to utter rubble. No answer came on the comm. Dead silence. Nina entered Counter-Pulse, Twinshya shifting out of offense mode and into defence mode. Along with it, her chest froze up and she ceased to be able to breathe under her own power. Her euphoria, too, faded, and Nina felt the crushing horror of what had just happened grip her once again.

Hands shaking, Nina piloted Twinshya away from the destruction of her home and colleagues without even thinking about what direction she was going in. An alert lit up her screen and she looked over at it numbly. The readout for her deflectors had registered a high-temperature aversion. She frowned at it for a second, feeling like she knew what that meant, but it wasn't quite coming to her. Two more aversions showed up, and then one more appeared and blared bright red with an alert. Chassis damage. Realization hit her and she cursed internally, swapping to her rear cameras to see five four-legged walker robots chasing her and firing plasma casters at her. Fleas, interception craft that would easily outpace Twinshya and attempt to detain her so that heavier pieces of machinery could be brought to bear.

Nina knew Twinshya better than Carrina did, she analyzed all of the combat data after the fact, and while she had never piloted it herself, she knew what to do. Twinshya pivoted, pushing off with its front legs and pivoting on its back as it twisted its torso to face the side-mounted autocannons towards her attackers. She concaved the torso ever so slightly to tilt the two outer autocannons inward slightly and fired all three. All three slugs converged upon the nearest attacker and struck simultaneously, tearing off two of legs and the mounting where the plasma caster was attached to the main body. Immediately afterwards she leapt forward to make herself a moving target, spinning the Mech around so that she could bring the cannons on the right side to bear while the left side ones reloaded and cooled down. The enemy robots split up and tried to encircle her but she twisted Twinshya into position and fired. Autocannon four cracked, slug slamming into the body of one of the robots and sending it staggering backwards but not quite disabling it. Autocannons five and six threw up errors. Six had jammed and misfired, five had suffered a short circuit. Nina growled in frustration and just leapt forward again, trying to get behind a nearby cluster of rocks.

Plasma casters scored the ground and rocks around her as the pursuing robots gave chase and tried to encircle her. She reoriented and fired cannons one through three at the first robot that jumped around the edge of the rocks after her. One of her slugs missed but the other two ripped into the torso of the machine and fried something vital enough to bring it down. Another came around the right side and she did the minor adjustment she needed to fire autocannon four at the robot on the other side. Again, the single slug wasn't quite enough to down her target but it did stop it from targeting her properly, its plasma caster went wide and burned a hole in the rock. A trickle of magma rolled down the side of the stone, cooling and solidifying before it could reach the ground.

Nina felt her Pulse shift and become active again with an unmistakable viscerality that was as jolting as if she'd just been sprayed with freezing water. She'd activated her Pulse many times before without the assistance of the ventilator but then always lost consciousness during the Counter-Pulse, so the sensation of transitioning from one to another in this way was new to her. She paused for a moment in shock, not registering that she still had enemies shooting at her. Three plasma projectiles came in fast and the now-weakened deflectors only managed to avert one of them, and Twinshya's diagnostics screeched and alerted her to the damage being done. Without even looking at the damage reports, Nina aimed and fired the railgun. There was a deafening supersonic boom as the heavy tungsten slug was nigh-instantly accelerated to several times the speed of sound. The slug hit and obliterated Nina's target like she'd just fired a pistol at an ant, continuing onward to send a forceful spray of dirt and soil into the air.

In spite of the circumstances, Nina couldn't help but find herself grinning around her breathing tube at the obscene act of overkill. Some part of her knew the euphoria was getting to her but she didn't dwell on that. Nina being in Pulse put Twinshya into offense mode and allowed her to bring not just the main cannon to bear but also the high-intensity laser mounted on its back. When the two damaged robots limped around the rocks after her, she was able to target lock them with the laser and burn holes in their flimsy frames. The stupid crummy laser overheated and shut down after only about six seconds of use but it was enough to melt through one robot's leg and finish shearing off the weapon mounting of the other. Her pursuit disabled, Nina wasted no time and didn't let herself relax. She set Twinshya into a quick run down the hill towards Abrandia before reinforcements came, Fleas were always used by the autonomous network to harass and slow targets so that other machines could catch up and finish quarry off. She pushed the Mech as hard as she could, glancing at damage reports and wincing at the work she knew she'd have to do to fix them, praying that none of the damage would cause her to break down before she could get to safety.

***

1-06:03 Butterfly: Miss Nina? Are you alright? What happened when you went to see Dawn?

1-08:22 Butterfly: Nina, I think the Militia just put out an alert and warrant for your arrest, are you alright?

1-08:45 Butterfly: They are definitely looking for you. If you get this message, don't come to Abrandia. I hope you're okay.

2-20:21 NinaS: Talon just flattened our camp

2-20:30 Butterfly: Huh???

2-20:31 NinaS: Talon sent a colo tick.

2-20:31 NinaS: Everybody is dead.

2-20:32 Butterfly: Nina that's not funny, I'm serious the militia is looking for you.

2-20:32 NinaS: Not jokin

2-20:33 NinaS: I took twinshya and barely got away

2-20:34 Butterfly: You're not kidding? Where are you?

2-20:34 NinaS: Sending coords

***

Miya drummed her nails on the ceramic mug of hot chocolate on the table in front of her as she cast glances about the room. SolSanna's was a nice enough little cafe that doubled as a community space. She'd been forced to go and pursue her backup cruising plan when she'd spotted the clinger from a few nights ago at her normal spot. SolSanna's wasn't quite as seedy as she'd thought it might be, which was both a blessing and a curse. There were less gross people here than some of her normal spots, but she also felt a little out of place just going up to some of the boys here and asking them to fuck her. There were a few cute looking guys, but both of them were at the same table, playing a roleplaying game with a small group of friends, talking softly and rolling dice. She didn't doubt for a second that she had the ability to convince one of them to have a go at her, but breaking apart that group seemed like a pitifully desperate move, even for her.

"Havin' a good day, ay?" an overly chatty waitress came up to Miya with a carafe of the hot chocolate she'd been sipping at and topped her off. It seemed odd to Miya that she'd have a whole batch of the stuff pre-prepared. She didn't care enough to ask, and when she gave the waitress a once-over, the quiet little femme-amorous aspect of her libido wasn't piqued.

She grunted softly, not bothering to engage with the woman even a little. She politely gave Miya her space, going off to tend to some other patrons.

"A lost venture, tonight?" Naz offered.

Miya didn't answer with words, she just buzzed with annoyance and then started to think through the list of boys that would take her call. A moment later, she pulled out their hand terminal and started to thumb through the list with an appropriate amount of hopelessness.

"Can't even fuck your girlfriend," Miya finally responded, giving up on the list and tucking the hand terminal away.

"Marielle's fornication, mine~" Naz replied with a mental laugh, even though she knew what Miya meant. Marielle was busy tonight, some horrifically boring sounding meeting with a bunch of her fellow tech designers.

"I think I just want to go back and masturbate," Miya grumbled, drinking half of her remaining hot chocolate in one go.

"Self-pleasure, self-love, admir—" Naz began the thought but Miya cut her off by rising up to her feet. She dropped a few coins on the table as a tip for the waitress, and left the little cafe behind. She took an immediate turn and left the plaza behind, heading down a footpath towards the city center. When she reached the first major branching path, she paused for a moment. Going straight would take her to a train station, taking the turn would lead her through a residential area and eventually home. Both would get her there eventually, but going by foot would take a bit longer.

They decided to walk. Naz wanted the exercise, and Miya wanted to avoid the crowds. Their thoughts eventually turned to the mission. Miya pulled out their hand terminal and started looking through the mission details as they walked through the quiet district, glancing up only to make sure she didn't walk into anybody. There was nothing much to see that she hadn't already seen and considered. Given that the plan was to intentionally fail the mission, planning was a bit easier than it might otherwise have been. On a random thought, Miya went and pulled up weather reports for the area. The refinery was pretty far up north, it would be cold, and Miya hated Titan's heater, it blew hot air right on her face. She made a note to herself to wear proper warm wea—

A hand grabbed her around the stomach, catching her wrist on the opposite side and wrenching her sideways. She opened her mouth to scream but a heavy cloth sack went overtop her head, muffling the noise. She immediately tried to kick at her assailants but someone caught the foot, and lifted it up off the ground, catching her other leg almost immediately afterwards. The people, it was at least two of them, moved with a terrifying efficiency, slinging her struggling and writhing body between the two of them and quickly carrying her off in another direction. She tried to kick, thrash, or claw the kidnappers but her efforts were useless, and in less than a minute, they lifted her up and into something and a heavy metal door closed behind her. A moment later, someone forced her wrists together and bound them. She tried to kick with all her strength, using the fact that she was now on some solid surface to gain some extra leverage. Blind as she was, all she did was kick some metallic wall and stub her toe. A moment later, they caught her legs, forced them together, and bound them just as they had her wrists. Defeated and disabled, Miya forced herself to calm down a little and not exhaust herself with useless fighting. She'd been trained for this, she needed to pick her moment carefully, not fight constantly and keep them on-guard.

The ground, or whatever it was, vibrated and someone rolled her over so that she was face-down, keeping a hand on her back to steady her. Miya started to count as the vehicle moved. She had an idea how to estimate how far away from the pick-up point they'd be, if they dumped her into some nondescript basement, she'd be able to guess where in the city she might be. By her estimate, they drove for about twenty minutes, which meant they had to still be inside the city. The hand on her back grabbed her under the armpits, and another pair of hands grabbed her feet, lifting her up and out. She squirmed and struggled a little bit, testing her captors just a little, but they held her tight. As she'd expected, they went down a flight of stairs into an air-conditioned interior space. She was positioned upright, standing precariously on bound legs. Her arms were raised, and she heard someone working. She tried moving her arms, but found that they'd been secured to something above her head. She tugged a little bit, but nothing moved in any serious way. She heard people moving around, but nobody touched or interacted with her for several minutes.

Finally, a hand appeared on her stomach, and Miya noticed the contrast. The people handling her had been rough, professional, dispassionate. The hand on her stomach was slow, deliberate, sexual. "Pretty little kit I've got here, hmm?" a robotic voice rasped in her ear.

"Heck you!!" Miya shrieked, twisting about and thrashing against her bonds. She furiously made an effort to headbutt her captor but didn't connect with anything.

The robotic voice giggled, a strange garbled noise as it passed through the voice modifier. "Sorry, Miya." That gave her pause. It called her Miya? Their legal name was Nazmiya, what enemy of Abrandia would know them as Miya, not Naz, and not Nazmiya?

The hood came off abruptly, and Miya blinked against the harsh glare of the indoor lights. Marielle was there, her biological arm still gently fondling their stomach while the heavy cloth bag was held in her robotic prosthetic hand. She was wearing a tight leather corset that perfectly pushed up but didn't conceal her breasts. Marielle tossed the bag onto the floor and reached over to a table covered in various instruments of sadism and selected a riding crop.

Miya's rage flared for a moment, this was one of Naz' stupid fetishes. The rage only lasted for the briefest of moments before Naz took over, her eyes going wide. Her Marielle had gone through all this for her! She was overjoyed.

"Miya will forgive," Naz giggled, wriggling against her bondage. Miya knew the truth of that statement, she couldn't stay mad at her alter-ego.

Marielle swung her riding crop, the tip whistling through the air and expertly slapping one of Naz' nipples. She squealed loudly, twisting and trying to get away in vain. Marielle tsked disapprovingly. "Speak when spoken to, prisoner," she asserted sternly, rubbing the rough tip of her crop against the sore nipple she'd just struck.