Mikan blinked as Angra Mainyu rocketed away, leaving her alone. They were all so confident. Chajin and Yemoramato actually seemed eager. Mikan was so nervous she had thrown up while taking a quick bathroom break before running out to her mech. She could still taste it. It didn't help that she'd gotten her period just this morning. She was tired and in pain and she wasn't even in the fight yet. It had also discombobulated her mentally. She wasn't pregnant with Callum's child, which was a mixture of relief, disappointment and exasperation with herself at being disappointed.
Mikan slapped her cheeks, which was a little awkward in the liquid of the cockpit and tried to steel her will. She had to fight. Her friends were already fighting and her family was down on the Ragrun, unable to fight. It was up to her. She felt the power rising in her. Her current condition didn't seem to have any impact on it. She drew the sawsword off her back and fed power into it, sending the teeth buzzing. 'Come on, Mikan. Fight! Fight!' She squeezed down on the thruster controls and flew after her friends.
As she closed, the virtual readout started to show little blinking red lights for the enemy mechs. She only looked at it to determine where the others were in that roiling mass of red so that she could pick an empty zone. Then she stopped. It was too frightening to see all of that red. Besides, it wasn't like she needed to know where the enemy was. They were everywhere.
In a moment she was close enough to see them, gray mechs all the same make as her own. They weren't that close together, probably so that they didn't run into each other. That was good for her. They weren't firing missiles at her either, probably because they were surprised. Though Mikan remembered Chajin once saying that a lot of carcha warriors avoided using their missiles because a direct kill was a lot more glorious. Mikan thought that was pretty dumb. She still had eight missiles herself, which gave her two spreads. She was saving them for emergencies.
Mikan picked a gap between two carcha and burst toward it. The carcha both triggered the beam cannons slung under their wrists but Mikan had expected as much and dropped below them. She burst through the gap, clipping one of the enemy mechs with her sword. She didn't even have time to see what her attack had done because now that she was among them, the carcha were everywhere. Mikan spun and dodged, ether beams and sawswords everywhere. She used instinct as much as her eyes to make it free of the crowd and escape into a relatively empty patch of space.
Some jostling had told her that some of the attacks had hit her but Cosmos, who had been downloaded in all of their mechs to overwrite the carcha virtual intelligence, didn't bother her with any warnings so nothing major had happened. Mikan wanted to take a moment to catch her breath but the carcha weren't having that. They pursued her and Mikan had to run, juking around randomly to spoil the aim of their beams. Still no missiles, for which Mikan was incredibly grateful.
She lost all track of time. She was living moment to moment, running and trying to avoid being herded. It was like a never ending nightmare. She couldn't even think of making an attack. All of her energy was poured into simply surviving. Sometimes she caught a glimpse of the others, which always buoyed her spirits. Even though Yemoramato, Chajin and Nita were all using the same mech, she could tell who they were by the way they flew. Yemoramato was elegant and smooth, almost like a dancer. Nita was efficient and tight. Chajin was jagged, with random, unpredictable movements. She was also the only one still attacking.
There was a sixth mech, too, fighting alongside them, madly enough. Cosmos mentioned that an unknown mech exited the atmosphere of Ragrun some time after the five of them had started fighting. It started attacking the carcha mechs a few moments later. Whoever it was wouldn't answer the com and nobody really had time to talk to it anyway. The mystery mech folded into their strategy seamlessly, though. When Mikan finally caught a glimpse of the mech, it was the larger carcha selachii that had been stolen when Callum and Nita raided the storm prison. Mikan had heard the tale that a random human woman had taken it and disappeared. Why she showed up now and where she had been, Mikan couldn't even begin to guess.
Some interminable amount of time later, Mikan barely blasted out of a pack of carcha mechs and goosed her thrusters to the max in an effort to have a moment to breathe. As she flew, she caught a flash of red and turned to see the Angra Mainyu flying the other direction pursued by a pack of carcha. The pursuing carcha were firing their beam cannons in a tight spread to force Callum in a predictable direction. Mikan's heart froze as she saw two more selachii waiting for him a few seconds away. But Callum adroitly cut and shoulder checked one of them out of the way. The Angra Mainyu's heavy frame and Callum's skillful touch sent the carcha mech spinning with no noticeable damage to Angra Mainyu.
As Callum blasted out of sight, Mikan realized with a start that she had stopped cold in space. Cosmos was saying something that had just been background buzzing as Mikan focused on Callum. Now she listened. "Warning: missile impact imminent." Mikan's stomach dropped out of the back of her mech. Now they were using missiles? Now?! She spun her mech around, searching her instruments for the missiles. She managed to get around facing them and then shot backward. The anti-missile railgun system in her mech's head chittered as it spat out tiny slugs to detonate the missiles. It got three of them.
She twisted at the last second to avoid the fourth but its proximity sensor activated and it detonated. Mikan was thrown to the side and blinded. She tried to control her panic and get control of her mech. She hit something. Mikan tried to pull away, with spots of light still marring her vision. Something held her fast. Mikan struggled, panic animating her but both her arms were held. Her vision cleared a little more and she saw a carcha in front of her. It raised its sword slowly, clearly enjoying the moment. Mikan pulled the trigger on her missile launchers. Racks on either hip shot out and four missiles blasted into the carcha mech. It was too close for its railgun to take any of them out.
The missiles all exploded against the selachii, reducing it to scrap metal and flinging Mikan and the selachii holding her away. MIkan prudently closed her eyes before the explosion. She struggled to free herself of the selachii holding her but they hung on doggedly and when they stopped spinning, Mikan was still trapped. MIkan felt like she was suffocating. She had one more rack of missiles but they probably wouldn't let her get off another shot and even if she did, what would she do if she didn't get away from them the next time? "Help," she croaked. She hated having to ask. Nobody else had. 'Why am I so stupid?' "I need help," she repeated, louder, her voice on the edge of a sob.
"On it." The voice was Nita's. Relief flooded through Mikan. For all of Nita's talk, Mikan had known she wouldn't leave her to die. The relief fled almost instantly as a carcha loomed up in front of her. It wasn't playing any games this time and its sword flashed toward her.
Nita crashed into it at full speed. Mikan watched in horror as both mechs spun away, trailing bits of armor. Nita stayed locked with the enemy mech for a long moment and Mikan stopped breathing. She sucked in a ragged breath when Nita pushed away from the other mech, on the verge of tears. She didn't know what she would have done if Nita had gotten hurt saving her.
But something wasn't quite right. Nita was moving slowly. It almost seemed like she was confused. A carcha mech loomed up behind her and Nita didn't react. Mikan's blood turned to ice and her throat tried to close. But she managed to force out, "Nita, behind you!" The older woman seemed to understand, moving forward and up but she was slow. So slow. It was the easiest thing in the world for the carcha behind her to drive its sword through Nita's back, right through the cockpit.
Mikan heard a scream. Not over the coms. Nita's mech shut down instantly, making it impossible to actually hear anything from it. She heard the scream anyway. Nita's mech slumped forward, losing all power and the carcha mech flung her away like she was so much trash.
The emotions that surged up in Mikan were so overwhelming that she actually felt numb initially. She felt hot and cold at the same time and her brain was just white noise. But a moment later her emotions coalesced into just two, horror and rage. Mikan screamed. A throat-ripping, manic howl like she'd never screamed before. Power crashed through her, so hot it felt like it was scouring her bones. It was more power than she'd ever felt before. It seemed like the PFC liquid around her should be boiling.
Mikan ripped her sword arm free of the mech that was holding her. It was easy now, despite the fact that no struggling had moved it before. She pulled her arm forward and then elbowed the mech behind her so hard she crushed in the torso of the mech. It shut down as the pilot inside was either dead or incapacitated. Mikan fed power into her sawsword and whipped it around, driving it through the center of the other mech holding her. This carcha she knew was dead. Somehow she'd known exactly where to strike to slice him in half.
Free of the two mechs, Mikan surged forward. The rage and power seemed to be feeding on one another, growing stronger and stronger. It felt like they were eating her up but Mikan didn't care. Not if it meant she could kill. The mech that had killed Nita jetted back and then turned to run. Mikan was faster. Her sawsword was vibrating so fast it felt like it could slice through the universe itself. She caught the mech and drove her sword up through its back, skewering the carcha inside.
It wasn't enough. Not nearly enough to slake her need for vengeance. Mikan spun around taking in the carcha mechs that were everywhere around her. The power was pounding in her veins, begging to be used. She thrust out her left hand and activated the beam cannon slung under her wrist. It was the same thin beam as always but it was incredibly potent. She swept it in a wide circle and it sliced through every mech that it touched. Some exploded but most simply fell away in two pieces.
It still wasn't enough. Mikan wanted to kill every last one of them. A spasm of pain ran through her and her mech was suddenly losing power. She scrabbled at her barely understood power, keeping it flowing between her and the mech but it was all she could do to keep it online. Her muscles were twitching and seizing and black spots were dancing in front of her eyes. 'I've killed myself.' Mikan dropped her chin to her chest, on the verge of giving up. 'At least I took some of them out. I'm so sorry, Nita. I never should have called for help. I'm the least useful pilot here. Why did you sacrifice yourself for me?'
A carcha mech loomed before her. It was moving cautiously, as if it suspected that she was on the verge of shutting down but didn't want to take any chances. Mikan wanted to fight it. She didn't want the carcha to have the satisfaction of killing her. With a great effort, she lifted her sawsword and set the teeth vibrating. The enemy mech paused for a moment and then lifted its own sword. It knew. Mikan didn't have enough left to defend herself.
Another mech dove in, landing a kick right to the carchas mech's head. The enemy mech tumbled away. Mikan blinked through the black spots. It was the mystery woman in the command selachii. Her mech was scored and scorched from the fighting but seemed to be in decent enough shape. It hovered in front of her, arms crossed. That was the first time Mikan had seen a mech pose like that.
"Don't tell me you're giving up!" a voice demanded. It was a somewhat deep and husky voice but unmistakably female. "That was hell of a show. It would be a damn shame if you died now."
"I don't think I can stop it," Mikan said.
"Don't be melodramatic. Take a deep, slow breath and let the power run through you in a steady flow. You won't be doing anything like you just did anytime soon but you're tough enough to keep going."
Mikan did as she said, trying to steady herself and calm down. It seemed to work, stabilizing the power output into the mech. She still felt tired, though. So tired. "I think I am okay for now but I don't know how much longer I can last."
"You'll last as long as you need to last. I'll make sure of it."
"Thanks," Mikan said. "My name is Mikan, by the way."
"I'm not at liberty to divulge my name at this point. My codename is Century, though, agent of the King of Man!" 'What the hell is the King of Man?' Mikan was on the point of asking when Century cursed and said, "They carcha are trying to surround us. This way!" She blasted away. Mikan summoned energy she didn't know she had left and followed.