Chapter 359

359 Search & Rescue, Pt With the Imperial frigates and fighters completely occupied by other Republic forces, Freya and Lucifer were able to engage with the mecha on the ground.

They were stationed at the base of the cliff, near the center. There, they guarded a massive siege piston pointed at a large and incredibly thick armored bay door set into the cliff itself. The piston charged up with a long whine, and once it hit its peak let all its energy loose.

The heavy ball head on the piston itself shot forward and smashed into the bay door with a resounding VHONG. And further dented the door right in the middle.

Shockwaves of energy rippled across the ground as it struck, and caused loose dust and debris to jump up in the air. Even the cliffside itself was shaken deeply by the strike, and numerous rocks and stones tumbled down as they loosened.

The entire piston slid back down into its barrel with a deep hiss even as it began to gather up energies for yet another blow.

Encircling the siege piston on the ground were two dozen Imperial mecha, each of whom were heavily armed and armored. More than that, they were behind heavy chitinous reinforcements, which gave them ample amounts of frontal cover.

Drogar mecha were similar to human designs in that they were humanoid in shape and bipedal. Their legs were also digitigrade in nature, just like the Drogar themselves, only these toes terminated in scythe-like talons. They also had long forearms and were hunched over a great deal.

And lying down the length of their hunched backs were large energy cannons that fired powerful balls of dark orange antiparticle energy. Slung under each of their left forearms were spinning triple-barreled repeater guns that spat out nearly 100 rounds per second.

Attached to their right forearms were rocket launchers, and in their right hands were filament-edged straight knives.

.....

They all fired with all of their ranged weapons in every direction, at whatever Republic ship was closest to them. A few even fired their antiparticle cannons up into the destroyer above, but their guns were simply too small and ineffective against its armor.

The energy balls simply smashed against their armor and caused a few dents, but otherwise did nothing.

Each one also spat out bursts from their repeaters at any drones they could detect, though few of them actually hit the fast-moving machines. But they were nowhere near enough to do anything beyond superficial damage.

They also attempted to fire on the Oni cores as they approached, but found their speed and agility to be far beyond their ability to track and target. All they could do was waste their munitions as they filled the air with countless rounds.

Freya and Lucifer wove between their streams of repeater fire as they bore their weapons down on the mecha. Freya opened up first with a blast from her overcharged plasma lance. She scored numerous chitin reinforcements and mecha armor, and poured enough power to outright cut through various limbs and joints.

She cut right through the overlapping chitin armor, through the exoframe and mechanisms below. Some fell down after one of their legs were cut out from under them, while others stumbled to regain their balance after one of their heavy arms fell to the ground.

Lucifer came up right behind her and fired numerous mini missiles at every mecha that Freya had also struck. Dozens and dozens of them flew out of hir weapon, which carpeted everything along hir path with explosions and fire.

Numerous Imperial mecha were tossed in every direction as the ground under their feet were blasted apart. Those who were struck outright were violently thrown around, and their chitin cracked and broke into pieces on impact.

Both then swooped up and around as their attack runs concluded, though neither of them were satisfied by the damage reports on their screens. And even as they lined themselves up for another run, the massive siege piston slammed into the armored bay door yet again.

The force from the blow sent another shockwave through the air and the ground, which shook everyone deeply. Worse, it began to rip into the thick metal itself, and a small gash appeared right in the center.

“These Imps are all way too entrenched,” Freya groaned. “We’re gonna need to take ’em on directly if we’re gonna break ’em apart.”

“Hah,” Lucifer replied. “You’re just looking for an excuse to use CQB mode, aren’t cha?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t want to try it out in a real fight...”

“Hey, I wasn’t disagreeing with you. Lead the dance.”

Freya grinned as she flipped open a switch guard, then activated CQB Mode as she approached the Imperial mecha. Arcs of electricity crackled across the omnitronium plating as four of the rings spread outward parallel to each other.

They seemed to reach out and snap into place, as though they were forming themselves around invisible tracks. Each one was linked to the other through powerful electromagnetic connections, and directly controlled by focused antigrav fields.

They stretched out into circles that spun around the cores like a single massive wheel, all while their weapons hovered alongside.

The two ‘wheels’ bounced gracefully before they fully landed on the ground, then kept on going forward at full speed. And just like powerful monocycles, the two of them raced across the ground and wove their way towards the Drogar mecha.

Many of whom focused as much of their fire as they could on the two Oni cores as they advanced. The pilots were shocked at what they were seeing – they hadn’t fought anything at all like it. They hadn’t even experienced it in their simulations and training.

And so, panicked in response.

They fired every weapon they had at the two, though most completely missed their mark. Repeater rounds thudded into the ground and kicked up dirt as energy blasts from their antiparticle cannons dug into the soil. Rockets also streaked by and smashed into the ground with explosive force.

Some of their weapons hit, to no avail. The Oni cores’ omnitronium armor was able to shrug off the majority of damage that the Drogar could do. Repeater rounds left slight scratches, while the rockets only left blackened scorch marks.

Only the antiparticle blasts were able to warp the omnitronium plating. Even then, they hardly slowed the two.

Freya and Lucifer shot their sniper and corrosion cannons in response, and ripped into numerous mecha as they neared. Their slugs tore into their limbs or their reinforcements and either blew huge holes in them, or caused them to corrode to pieces from the inside.

And just as Freya was a dozen meters from the closest Imperial mecha, she leapt up into the sky. One of Freya’s spinning outer rings shot forward in a straight line towards her target. They slammed flat onto the thick chitin – one after another after another.

Each one struck with such force that the mecha was knocked backward bit by bit, more and more, even as massive cracks spread across the chitin’s surface.

Freya then gathered each of her outer plating and stacked them up in a thick hemisphere in front of her, then overcharged all her forward-facing drag vents. She pulled her core straight into the mecha below with incredible speed and slammed into it.

And as she did so, she drove the stack of omnitronium plates through the weakened chitin and into the mecha’s core. The plate column crushed the pilot inside in the blink of an eye, and also caused the entire mecha to be thrown backward.

Freya bounced off but stopped in midair just above the downed mecha, and pulled her omnitronium plating out of it. They ripped their way through the insides and kicked chitin fragments in the air as they escaped. She pulled all the rings close to her core, then slammed down on the mecha below her. Hard.

There was a heavy CRUNCH as she completely shattered the armor chitin and crushed the exoframe beneath.

Nearby, Lucifer whipped at another mecha with an extended ring of omnitronium plating. Ze flung them edge-first at the mecha, and tore at the chitin with their hardened edges.

Each one raked across the mecha’s armor, and like a saw ripped off large chunks and fragments of chitin.

Ze slashed at it with numerous rings as ze circled around. Hir whip-like blows were so vicious that the mecha was pushed around from the force. Its pilot scrambled to maintain its balance and footing, but Lucifer’s unrelenting assault proved too much to deal with.

Hir attack ended with a single burst of hir flak cannon into the mecha’s chest, at point blank range.

The superheated balls ripped into the shredded chitin, and threw shards and flakes and chunks of it off at a time. They tore into the soft exoframe and completely annihilated the pilot inside.

Lucifer whipped into the next closest Drogar mecha even as ze pushed aside the one ze just wrecked. But instead of tearing into its chitin, ze instead dug hir plates in. Then yanked hard.

The armor rings’ antigravity and electromagnetic forces were more than powerful enough to pull the mecha towards hir. At the same time, she overcharged hir forward drag vents and shot straight towards it.

Ze shot forward with incredible velocity, even as ze pulled the enemy mecha towards hir ferociously.

Like Freya, ze gathered hir armor plating in front of hir, but instead of a thick hemisphere, ze layered them into a jagged pyramid-like structure. The omnitronium edges of hir plating gleamed as they stacked up around each other.

Ze then collided with the mecha point-first, which completely shattered its chitin on impact. Massive cracks spread across its surface in the blink of an eye, then entire shards and sections blew apart. Chitin dust and fragments flew in every direction, even as Lucifer’s pyramid dug further into its exoframe.

The pilot inside was instantly crushed and torn apart as ze ripped through violently.

More than that, hir core had so much momentum that ze practically tore through the entire mecha itself. Its disparate pieces were thrown in every direction as ze ripped right through it.

Drogar pilots near the two of them were left in utter shock at what they were seeing. It wasn’t just that their technologically superior cores and unpredictable fighting styles jarred them – it was seeing just how much damage they were able to do in such a short amount of time.

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They had torn through their numbers without hardly suffering a scratch. It had gotten to the point where some of the pilots were frozen on the spot, unable to act.

All they could do was watch as their fellow pilots fought back with futility, and were annihilated as a result. Unreasonable fear spread through a handful, to the point where their will to fight completely drained away.

“These aren’t Hegemony pilots!” one of the Drogar pilots cried out. “They’re angels of death and destruction, raining vengeance on us! I surrender! All of us should surrender!”