[b]Mirror[/b]

Marcina’s combat style is often characterized as one with the minimum of wasted effort. A machine as massive as the Jormungar has a lot of momentum. If she tried to dive aside from every attack, she would find herself outpaced and outmatched. While novices might assume that a massive, heavy platform is simple to operate, it’s actually the opposite: in an era of high-speed mechas with deadly weaponry, piloting a heavy machine is an act of supreme skill.

The parry is a shift of one foot a few meters and an adjustment of the angle of her primary sword by approximately 13 degrees. She doesn’t so much stop your blade as she adjusts it, using the force of your momentum against you as though she were a matador at what you’ve seen in the holovids as a bullfight. 

But then, that’s not quite good enough, is it? Of course, she had already fired a visible autocannon at you as you charged, if nothing else to ensure that you maintained the shield and punish a feint. But once you got close and that option was no longer available, she understood as well as you did that your tails represented as much threat as the sword. She calculated immediately that she couldn’t leave them unaccounted for, couldn’t accept an unknown variable. 

The drones deploy immediately, accounting for the fact that your breakneck speed requires a response without hesitation. In Hybrasil, you would call these jackals, but they are not operating on the sort of jackal logic that produced Jade. Nor are they like the complex drones that Isabelle Lozano seems to enjoy for weaving illusions. Both of those coordinate as a group for a singular aim (typically simple, occasionally dazzlingly complex as in Isabelle’s case). These, rather, are each independent, directed by Marcina’s will. There are two on each side and they don’t stray far from the Jormungar. Two of them form an energy shield, pressing the energy blade of the tails off their trajectory. The other begin to rain fire on you from a slight vertical angle, allowing for the safety of the Jormungar itself even at close range. 

The autocannon fire is annoying, but it should be emphasized, not overly dangerous unless you just sit in it for a prolonged period. It’s most effective for throwing off your balance, rather than doing anything like serious damage to the Whip. But, they now place the onus on you to respond before she uses the opening for a much more powerful attack.

As you each draw a breath, she answers. “You ask for a name and a secret as though they were singular. Liar. If I have learned anything, it is that. What does it mean to be the One Day Defender? To be known among your people as Whispered Promise? A whispered promise can be both heard and unheard. A secret kept even from the girl it’s about, or a secret shared from the start. And then, there are times that a whisper is louder than a thousand shouts and just as well heard, are there not?”

***

[b]Isabel and Solarel[/b]

What you’re seeing isn’t entirely inexplicable. Ionized electrical energy is a hallmark of crystal fire-powered weaponry, and applied to a stormcloud that already had electrical charge, it wouldn’t even take a particularly large amount of electricity properly directed to create the effect that you’re seeing. 

That said, the fact that it has an explanation hardly makes it less impressive or creative. She’s channeling enough energy into that cloud that anything running in there is going to get massively electrocuted. Think constant lightning strikes, so if your machine or your nanobots aren’t built to handle constant lightning strikes don’t go in there. Energy shielding can certainly handle that, of course, that amount of energy is nothing compared to a hyperjump. But it’s committing you to a particular course of action and a particular distribution of energy usage if you go in there to get her. And that means she’ll know more about what you’re doing than you might like. 

Then again, perhaps a strategy that forces you to limit the strategies you choose is, in truth, a sign of respect?

It is Isabelle’s move as to how to respond to it.

***

[b]Dolly[/b]

“96, huh? Let’s see, that’s three steps since I last checked. Usually one number means they advanced something meaningful, but they were getting sloppy about it before I left. Back in the 70 series, if they went up a full number, it meant a comprehensive improvement in energy efficiency and processing capability together. Now…mmm, I’d guess with three that’s still true, but it might be more like one number used to be.”
Slate’s grinning while she thinks, her eyes never going off you, Dolly. She doesn’t see like Mirror, but she sees with her own eyes all the same. “She passed you that info, I take it. The way you spouted it off, cadence was all wrong. Knew I’d know that too, didn’t she?”

She blinks, once, twice. “Well, if the goddess wanted to talk to me directly, I’m sure she’s got plenty of ways to do it, so I’ll go through her priestess. Her dancing priestess.” She grins again, just a little bit feral behind it, showing you her teeth.

“More questions. Well, not about the specs unless there’s something specific the goddess wants me to know, in which case feel free to just cut in with that when she relays it. I think my questions are about the why. I’m an engineer, a very good engineer, I’ll have you know. I deliver on the technical goals that someone wants. With Mirror, that means a machine that wins her fights. But with you, with a goddess who teaches her priestess to pilot by dancing. Who, as you said, eschewed a more firepower heavy loadout because of goals unrelated to maximizing combat performance, I need something different. I need to know what you want to be able to accomplish, and how you want to accomplish it. Tell me what you want to actually be able to do.”

You might think she’d be frustrated over this ambiguity, but her tail lashes with excitement.