The station’s defense was against something we thought was a super giant space turtle, that turned out to be an earth dragon. It’s something different that looks like a sea turtle.
It just looks like a big turtle, but it used a barrier to protect itself against torpedoes and missiles. But since it can’t block light, I managed to destroy its left eye with my big laser cannon. And because of it, its right eye is turned squarely at us.
It has its mouth open with a round light in front of it. It looks like a magic circle.
So it has its mouth open…
“Burn everything with the laser cannon in spread mode.”
We’re running around with Tortilla Double’s engines at full power, and firing the big laser cannon behind us at will.
“<Uoh! The missile hit! The barrier is gone!>”
“<Shoot it shoot it!!!>”
“<That ship is a retainer type, right? I remember it because of that weird concept.>”
“<It’s nice in a time like this…>”
“<You don’t need that to hunt small eels or turtles. It’s way overkill.>”
Shut up already! Fire the main cannon in spread mode… Yes, another direct hit on the head! It’s shaking its head while charging at us. I wanted to hit inside its mouth, but still!
“The outfield is feeling more at ease with the barrier gone, uh…”
“Even though the only one who is busy is Tortilla Double.”
“Hn? That round thing is still there!”
Something is coming out of the circle, towards us. I fire another shot in spread mode, but something big slips through and rams into the shield.”
“Was that a rock!? Is that what the earth breath is!? That was huge!”
“According to the radar, it was a five meter rock! Dodge better! The shield is down to sixty percent!”
“So is the spread cannon unable to destroy that? But we don’t have time to fire focused shots!”
“Darling~. The earth dragon is accelerating~!”
That thing’s not even flinching! We’re going at four hundred fifty meters per second and almost melting the plasma engine’s nozzle, but that thing’s speed… It’s coming at us faster than we can run!
It opens its big mouth… Is it going to bite us! Damn turtle!
“Dammit! Everyone hang on! I’m making a tight turn!”
It’s right on our tail, trying to bite our shield, but I keep bouncing its head away with focused shots.
I’m aiming for the eyes or mouth, but it always pulls back at the last second! Even though I shoot in a few seconds! I keep hitting its hard shell and bouncing it back as best as possible.
Those bites aren’t cute at all. Its mouth isn’t that big compared to the rest of its body, less than thirty meters. If it nibbles on the armor, it’s over!
I stop flying straight ahead, and force the subthrusters on before it comes to bite, to start flying in zigzag to avoid its bite.
“<Hey short and stout! I’m coming to help!>”
“<The station’s paying for the missiles, how generous!>”
“<I’m gonna blow it away!!>”
The open channel is getting heated, and I can see through the rear camera that other ships are starting to shoot guided missiles, which explode when they hit the earth dragon’s tail, legs, and shell, but don’t really scrape it. I’m pretty sure ships are loaded with missiles weighing hundreds of kilograms!
Still, they’re getting its attention somewhat, and it stops biting to look behind it. But when it looks back at us and I fire a focused shot, it hides its head immediately.
And how come it’s completely ignoring the plasma being ejected from the plasma engine!!?
“<Hey! Guided missiles aren’t doing a thing!>”
“<It has something like a structure preserving field! It’s like a magic energy coating on its surface that works like that!>”
“<Even though lasers worked!?>”
“<I think it switched from a magic barrier to physical strengthening magic!!>”
“<Hou, so is it coming after us after it gets that guy?>”
“<Of course! Shoot shoot shoot!>”
Lasers start to hit the earth dragon’s shell, but it all disappears into glitter. What with that thing!?
“Shield depleted! It won’t recover in time!”
“Uwah~~~! Do your best darling~~!!”
“Structure preserving field is at eighty percent!”
I don’t have the time to react anymore. I’m firing guided missiles to make it raise its jaw just before it bites us, and moving the nose and the subthrusters to evade. And I’m firing the main cannon while I’m at it, but I don’t see any damage!
It looks like annoying it with chaff flares to the face stops it from biting. Are we done? We could sic it on the friendly corvettes and run.
“<Tortilla Double! Can you fly straight ahead for ten seconds!? Stabilize its movement!>!
“N-no way~~! If we fly straight ahead it’ll bite our butt off for sure~~!!”
“Hey! Do you have an idea!?”
“<I do!>”
“Dammit! I’m sending you a bill for repairs! I’m flying straight ahead in thirty seconds!>”
“Understood. Send the bill to the alliance!>”
The generator and subthrusters are set at a hundred percent, and the shield generator will recover in twenty. Who was I talking to? A mid-sized combat ship? It sounds like they have an idea, so I have to bet on that.
▽▽▽
–Third person perspective from the pilot of a mid-sized mining ship–
“<That one’s motivated!>”
“<The three-timing guy is fired up!>”
“<Go go go!>”
“<He’s pretty good!!>”
“<Of course he is, if he’s using a finicky retainer type like that!>”
“<Twenty seconds remaining!>”
Six armors were attached to the armor hooks under the mid-sized mining ship. Normally they would attach themselves to asteroids to work.
“<Go!! We’re going at seven hundred meters per second, but the rest is the same as always!>”
““““““Bouah!!””””””
“<The same exact thing! Just mine like you always do!>”
““““““Bouah!!””””””
“<If you mess up you’re not eating! Simple!>”
““““““Bouah!!””””””
“<Put on a good show for that guy’s girls and win them over.>”
““““““Yee-haw!!!!!!””””””
The mid-sized mining ship increased its plasma engine output to seventy percent, and charged straight ahead to the black hole that was the game between Tortilla Double and the earth dragon.
It got above the decoy, Tortilla Double, which activated its deflector shield back and started flying straight ahead.
“Five seconds!”
The six power armors hung on in an unstable fashion to the bottom of the mid-sized mining ship, and descended on the earth dragon’s shell when they barely touched it.
The ship did its job, so it ascended, but it saw the two plasma engines on the left side of Tortilla Double being bitten off.
Flying straight ahead really was crazy. They proposed that knowing they would get bitten, but Tortilla Double was much more sturdy and agile than one would think.
The station estimated that the earth dragon could fly at a maximum of two thousand meters per second, based on others encountered in the past.
It would be nice if it shifted its attention to other ships, but it fixated on the one that took its eye. The fact that it kept flying at low speed and biting must have meant its intelligence was pretty low.
It would do tremendous damage if it sped up and rampaged while firing its breath. They would have to abandon the station and call for destroyers.
“Tch. No good? Do something, Mining Guild and Mercenary Guild…”
–Third person perspective from a mining power armor–
“<Activating orichalcum spike on its leg!!!! Yes! It’s stuck! Spread out like always!!>”
“<Uoh! It bit!>”
“<Work fast and carefully!>”
“<Distance of ten meters! Let’s go!>”
“<Hexagon done! Position done!>”
“<Oricalchum pile bunker standing by!>”
““““““Be safe! Bouah!!””””””
The right arms of the armors had a fifty centimeter in diameter blade that was like the tip of a hole punch specialized for drilling, made of orichalcum, a tough material with great magic energy conductivity.
It was a mining tool called pile bunker, and it served to drill holes through the explosive power of gunpowder.
The pile bunkers were all pressed against the shell of the earth dragon, and all six yelled loudly as they fired at the same time and dug through the hard shell.
The stakes plunged five meters deep were hollow, and by causing another explosion, the gouged out insides were expelled along with the shell. And the stakes were filled with blood.
The earth dragon shook its body at this unexpected pain, but the armors attached to the spikes did not budge.
The six armors grabbed the explosives with cables attached from their backs. The cables were attached to the armors, and would explode once magic energy was sent through the armor by brain waves. The explosions would be directional.
“<Inject magic powered explosive!>”
““““““<Magic powered explosive injected!>””””””
“<Stand by for blast!>”
““““““Be safe! Bouah!!””””””
There was a muffled sound from the spikes, and a ten meter piece of shell in the shape of a hexagon was violently pulled from the surface.
“<Is everyone hanging on!?>”
““““““Bouah!!””””””
“<Retrieve orichalcum spikes!!>”
““““““Bouah!!””””””
“<Detach!!!>”
““““““Bouah!!””””””
Once the leader of the armors confirmed that they were far enough away, he contacted a combat ship.
“<Tortilla Double.>
Tortilla Double quickly reacted to the transmission. After using the main engine and the external thrusters to move around frantically so as not to get bitten, it suddenly straightened itself, pointed the right engine down, and fired off the remaining plasma engines.
The ship that lost its left side drew a semicircle like it lost control, but that sudden change in direction put it above the earth dragon. The big laser cannon turret was pointed down and fired at the exposed flesh without the power armor pilots noticing.
The earth dragon bounced in space, and after flying so fast, it suddenly lost its acceleration and came to a stop.
With its death, all magic stopped.
The power armor pilots were ecstatic. Since they were controlled via brain waves, they pulled poses typical of their race to display their happiness. This caused pieces of the shell to escape their hands and drift away.
Communications in this space were nuts, and it was impossible to make out anything.
“<Haha! How’s that, Tortilla Double ladies! Fallen for us yet!?>”
“<Eh? Ah~. Sorry~. We’re all overcome with emotion and hugging darling~. Tortilla Double out~.”
“<Keh!>”
“<Damn you!>”
“These three-timing bastards!>”
“<We’re clearly better!>”
“<That guy’s taking all the glory!>”
“<I hope the repairs make you go bankrupt!>”
““““““That’s right that’s right!!””””””
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Thanks for the treat.
lol~