Ribasu fired an explosive shell that detonated between two Cruxi towers. They still stood after the blast, but were heavily damaged as their gatling plasmas flickered in their glow, sporadically rotating and moving to try and locate the target. Zim also attacked the turrets, drawing fire from one of them as he got in range. The turret rapidly unleashed a torrent of plasma, but thanks to Ribasu's disabling efforts, their tracking sensor malfunctioned, and Zim managed to twirl through the crossfire despite the damage to his Framewerk. The EMP shot landed on the G1 turret, and the pulse short-circuited the turret, causing it to shut down. The turrets on the other side were destroyed by Paladin's Pompey, blowing up in large explosions, like fireworks to herald the inevitable end to their mission.
There was heavy static coming from Elise's channel when Devors and Roger attempted to contact her, though the latter managed to hear her intense groans of pain as Yeager dashed in, followed shortly by Krista.
"L-Leave me...The mission...comes first..." They heard her force out with a barely comprehensible voice.
With help from Hou-Yi, The two halves of Prometheus were caught, and the two Framewerks carried the pieces quickly back to NOAH, placing the Framewerk's remains on the opened landing pad that soon closed. Once inside, a team of medics immediately jumped in the wreckage, and pulled Elise, bloody and with a massive hole in her helmet, out of it.
Captain Ritsu herself was present as one of the medics reported to her about her status; it was grim, and the stoic military officer had to avert her gaze when she saw what happened to her.
"She has incurred critical injuries, but there's a low chance she will survive." Ritsu nodded, and sent a message to squad Sigma. "Base speaking. Sargeant Steinhart has been recovered. Merge with the infiltration team and pull out, over."
She then lifted a hand to her earpiece as she heard Jake's request.
"Base here, acknowledged. Fire at will." She sighed as she looked through a window and saw the tiny lights in the distance expanding from the station. She had to trust that squad Sigma would succeed, even against an enemy more fearsome than ever before seen in this war.
Jake shot at the door with the last of his ammo, and brute forced his way through. What he saw inside...was worse than he could have imagined: a Cruxi-modified Logic Gate was slouched down against a wall at the far back, while Caretaker was pushing against Atty. Katya heard a loud clang and grinding of gears when she spoke to the Framewerk, followed by worrying sounds of electrical sparks: she could guess that the Framewerk somehow heard her, and was pushing itself to the limit, even as it's machinery inside was gradually breaking down from the attacks Atty made on it.
The Cruxi Elite craned its head when it heard Maria speak. In return, the alien made a clicking sound, resembling malicious laughter. But then, as it witnessed Neo Angel pull out his own sword, the clicking turned loud and grinding. It spoke in the nightmarish electronic voice:
"YoU...dEfy uS...yOu...diE!"
The two machines then engaged in a colossal bout, both moving at speeds comparable to trained humans of their size, lacking any of the clumsiness that a man-piloted vehicle had. The Cruxi Elite pulled off punches and kicks
that could even put Irina and her Sword of Terra to shame, and Maria held on by sheer willpower, her resolve keeping the barrier barely up against the onslaught. The Cruxi Elite unleashed it's palm-mounted plasma obliterators, knocking Neo Angel back against a wall as her barrier broke and causing most of the armor on the Frame's body to shatter, exposing circuitry and machinery like wounds and gashes on a gladiator. The Elite charged up his weapon, intending to finish the fight. But then, at the last moment, Caretaker shot at the Elite, and the shot hit the ceiling.
Maria jumped, and struck her sword at the Elite with all of her might, putting her T-system energy to it's max output. She succeeded to pierce it: unlike the regular models, the Elite's mech was lightly armored, and
the blade, made of Cruxi technology, penetrated it's advanced biometals in the torso. The strike caused a strange mixture of electronic scrambling and chitinous mandible abuse to pierce the open comms, until the once mighty foe was bested, and doubled over the sword and stopped moving. Maria's quest to avenge her mother...had been successful.
Caretaker, with the help of the remaining repair drones, forcibly opened up Logic Gate, like a morbid easter egg, and found Elora's unconscious body inside: she was in a strange, tube-shaped clear tank filled with orange liquid, hooked up to an organic rebreather as well as numerous tubes that were attached to her limbs. She was wearing a strange visor over her eyes. She was still wearing her plugsuit, but it was torn, and Katya saw the bruises and scars the pilot had on her body, received while she was a P.O.W. She ripped the glass tube away from the "cockpit", and after the drones opened the tube she was placed inside the extraction sphere, which froze her in stasis; Katya succeeded in rescuing her friend.
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