Waterstrider

Basements, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fourthmonth, 1634 PTS

Ran’s whole body was slicked with sweat, and she knew the poison had started to set in. The sweat continued to build up under her mask, which she found to be extremely uncomfortable. She had been complaining about the matter all night, though not where the sect leader could hear her. It was best to keep one’s image intact in front of their employer. Poison was a coward’s weapon, a tool of the weak. Though she supposed that the enemies before her were all aliens, and therefore weaklings by default.

Through poison, the odds were evened, and it simply felt wrong to her. Ran had always been in awe of those with more martial might than her, instinctively flocking to their organizations in order to strengthen herself and her own authority. She supposed that was likely the reason. If her strength could be negated, did all her efforts to improve it have meaning?

Ran’s mind’s eye flashed back to the body of Yudan, slumped onto the ground before her. Unlike her, Yudan had known his limits, and used them to achieve the best life he could live within his means.

Returning to the present moment, Ran continued to sprint towards the line of white-clad Staiven guards. Kein, Cinto, and one of the former Captives had all reached the first of them, and had begun the slaughter. The captive had introduced himself to her just several minutes before, claiming his name to be Orion Dinyu. He had claimed he wished to kill as many of the Staiven here as possible before he left, a sentiment she agreed with wholeheartedly. She ran to catch up to the trio, but just as she passed over the threshold of the hatch, it slammed shut behind her, and she whirled in surprise. It had firmly set itself in place, and another tap on its surface was unable to cause any shift. They were locked in. For a moment she considered breaking down the door, but such a sturdy structure of Staiven make would obviously be far harder than both her sword and her bones. Unless she could find a better weapon, such a tactic was beyond her means.

She turned to inform the others, but quickly realized that they were busy dealing with the guards. Kein had already taken several more wounds, while Cinto and Orion had taken some of their own.

Ran’s experience in fighting had largely taken place within the bounds of Canvas Town, and she was unused to just how costly it was to fight with aliens. Unlike the sect leader, who had such a powerful formless movement technique, and the vice sect leader who could make herself intangible, most other martial artists could not avoid the threat caused by firearms.

There was a reason that, despite their weakness, the Staiven had little fear of their control over the station being overthrown.

At the other end of the hallway, Ran could see a machine being set up. She had no way of discerning its nature, but knew that it had to be dangerous if they were spending time to set it up after springing such an otherwise effective trap on the group.

She caught up to the battle, directing her miasma to reinforce her skin and muscles, growing them far beyond the power any other path’s practitioners could muster. The guard before her mustered off a shot before she could close the distance. The Staiven was clearly flustered by her swift approach, and the shot went wide. Ran smiled, bloodlust filling her body as she slashed down.

She was surprised when her weapon clanged against the guard’s armor, having expected to cleave the guard in twain. She cursed as the guard took the opportunity to fire again, getting a good shot off right through her torso. She desperately hoped it had not impacted anything particularly important. If it had missed her most vital organs, she would likely be able to hold out until she could reach a hospital.

She glanced to her side, watching Cinto breathe heavily after defeating her own opponent, and the manifest artist continuing to summon odd glowing strings from the air which rippled with heat around him. It was as if Orion was a dancer, slinging the strings of energy around while using structures of stone to deflect bullets slightly away from him. One of the shots had clearly impacted him, and his movements had slowed, but not ceased. The string flicked out, tearing through the armor of the guards as if it were composed of paper. Was it weak to heat? Just how could he do it while Ran herself could not?

She snarled, arcing her sword toward the Staiven’s neck with all her force, aiming in the gap between the helmet and the torso plating. This time it did the trick, and the figure’s head fell to the ground. Ran sighed, thankful for her success.

Her wounds burned, and Ran knew that she was reaching her breaking point. But she could not take a break now, not when the fight was not over and she was without a path of retreat. Unless something happened, she and the others would likely only be able to escape by advancing forwards.

At the end of the hall, she heard a loud click, and a whir that sounded an awful lot like the noises made by an aero’s engine before it lifted off of the skydock. She couldn’t help but look over to get a better view of the thing.

It was a machine of the same patchwork, unpleasant colors that were the hallmark of Staiven construction, but this one was covered with tubes and wires. A wide orifice opened from the machine’s side, pointed down towards where the battle was taking place in the hall. The hum continued to grow in intensity, and Ran noticed a steadily growing pressure in the air. Rather than a true pressurized atmosphere, this was more akin to the sense of pressure she could feel from a martial master’s killing intent. It was as if an ethereal force at the edge of perception was triggering some nervousness deep inside of her. She could not help but shift back into another martial stance, though she doubted this machine would be facing her in melee combat.

A light began to show deep inside of the orifice, filing out of various apertures deep within the machine to form a glowing sphere. The pressure grew in time with the sphere’s expansion, and Ran’s instincts told her to run, though she knew there was no such option.

As the pressure continued to grow, Ran could see streaks of light begin to splay out from the orifice like a hempen rope being untwined. The streaks arced towards them, spiraling around the center of the room in a beautiful lightshow. One of the streaks contacted Kein’s left arm and he shouted in agony, as if he had dipped the limb into the goals. After the light’s impact passed, she could see that the arm had been excised from his body, cleanly cut away like a branch from a tree. Ran winced at the injury, knowing that even though she was the sort to trade wounds, she might not survive if she was to be hit by the weapon.

The untwined streaks of light coiled around the room, and the martial artists were forced to dodge and weave to the best of their ability around the glowing lines. Cracks of gunfire resounded as the guards continued to aim their weapons at the group, and Ran hissed as a burning line tore through her left ear. She heard a deep ringing, all the sounds of the world vanishing. Luckily, Ran was used to injury, and the coursing flow of her miasma kept the pain in check.

Better to be hit by one of the fiery lumps of molten lead than by whatever the entwined lights were. Another of the streaks tore at Orion, and the man dove to the ground, nearly tripping over one of his own stone structures as he did so. The streak missed him by mere centimeters, and Ran noticed that his skin turned slightly purple in the areas that were closest to it.

Ran was fearful of the machine, but more than that, she was angry. Angry at the Staiven for being cowards who used machinery and poison rather than blades, and herself for being unable to deal with them as easily as she felt she should have been. She stretched her arm back, fueling her shoulder with as much power as she could condense into one movement and then shifted her weight, slinging the sword towards the machine at full force.

The sword spun in midair, the well-balanced blade able to sustain its momentum quite well. Point-first, it slammed into the shell of the machine to the surprised curses of its Staiven operators. The streaks of light flickered, losing coherence. For a moment Ran had a smug expression, but as the streaks of light lost their solidity, they expanded, taking up far more space. It was as if whatever exotic form of energy was contained within the white beams, it had been greatly condensed down to that size.

She dodged the expanding cloud of light. While its current state was likely less powerful than before, she could not dare to take it lightly. Her shoulder slammed into the hard metal floor, and she knew the force of the dive might have snapped her bones was her damage mitigation technique not active.

Ran could see the mouths of her companions moving, and Cinto glanced at her as she spoke, but her ears still rang from her injury, and she could not parse a single word of the dialogue. For a moment she wondered if she had gone deaf.

Kein charged past her, his bulky form like a warhorse breaking through a line of infantry, tearing right through the cloud as if he felt he could ignore it. She lost track of his location in the haze, her hesitation costing her the opportunity to follow.

She laid on the ground dumbly for a moment as she watched his charge, feeling a deep respect for his warrior’s spirit.

Suddenly, a pale hand appeared in her vision, and she grabbed it, finding herself pulled up. A sei man with short hair and soft features appeared before her, giving her a polite smile, before turning to sprint after Kein. Ran knew she had never seen him before, but deep inside, she felt he had to be the most powerful individual she had ever before met.

Manifest Energy Projection Devices: [A relatively recent Staiven innovation, these machines allow for manifest miasma to generate exotic energies inside the depths of a reactor, allowing for strings of these energies to be formed and directed within a limited area for certain periods of time. The technology is quite bulky and has a limited range, though its output is incredibly powerful, so it has seen some interest for military and security purposes, rather than the mining and scientific purposes for which it was originally developed. After all, it is capable of tearing through nearly anything in its path. However, it can not be scaled down or up, as the exact details of how to control the manifestation are not fully understood. As one might expect, this patent is owned by the church of Fulstovis. Currently, it has only been sold to the Pantheonic Government, though it is expected to make it to wider markets within the next decade.]