Snippet #2564165

Aigidios had his helmet on now, and he was standing at the opened side entrance to the transport vessel, gripping one of the handle attached to the ceiling to stop himself from falling out. In his other hand, he fidgeted with his large claymore sized sword, itching to cleave a pirate or several into two pieces. On his left arm, mounted to the forearm, was a belt-fed rifle. The belt traveled along the arm and up over the shoulder to the ammo pack; it was a piece of equipment that was given only to the heavy-infantry of the Knights, the ones who'd be in the thick of the fight swinging about large and powerful high-frequency blades.

He looked out along the side of the vessel to look out at the rapidly approaching city. Enemy fire was already coming there way, and he caught glimpses of tracers and missiles coming up into the air from the pirates. They were well entrenched and set, so the goal was to have his group draw the attention of most of the fire to allow the mechas to slip in and eliminate strong points. Once those were taken out, then the Knights would be able to truly press the attack.

He heard the pilot speak over the radio in his helmet, "Thirty seconds." Aigidios flexed his neck, readying himself as the vessel began its quick desent towards the ground. Several other vessels were beginning to land, and Aigidios also watched as several Sentinel jets flew by, launching their explosive payloads at pirate strongpoints.

"Sentinel Zero here, form up into cover and return fire on the pirate positions. Do not move forwards until Paladin has opened up a path for us." He didn't even wait for his vessel to touch the ground, as he hopped out of it as it hovered a few feet off the ground, letting his armor absorb the shock of his dismount. The display of his helmet was already lighting up with target markers and warnings to indicate just how many guns were pointed his way and were firing on him. Sand was kicked up around him as bullets struck nearby, and he felt the impact of a few bullets against the rigid plates of his power armor as he quickly moved into cover.

He knelt down behind a rock, watching as the rest of his knights quickly moved into their own cover and the transport vessel quickly began to fly off. Aigidios flinched slightly when he watched a missle strike the vessel before it could get off the ground. He grimaced, looking towards the smoking wreckage, though he was happy to see the pilots of it quickly scamper out of it, though one was unfortunate in that he lacked the same armor as the Sentinel-Major, so when the sights of the pirates trained on him he was torn down by the volley of bullets. The other pilot was quick to dive for cover, opting not to expose himself to the gunfire of the pirates.

"Paladin, get to work." Aigidios calmly commanded, standing up over the cover and pointing his left arm towards the pirate position, and by curling his fingers at the second knuckle he triggered the arm mounted weapon which fired off in a quick burst. Whether he hit or not didn't matter to him at the moment, he only sought to draw the fire of the majority of the pirates.

"Understood," Syrin's reply came over the communication and immediately after her mecha shot out into the city from where shed been on standby in the open desert, "Spread out. Go in pairs. Light it up," she ordered to her own group. Her cockpit was filled with the cocophany of voices responding to her in agreement. Outside, she watched as the large group of mechas or jets split up into pairs and took off into different sections of the city.

For herself, she dove down inbetween the buildings and anything that moved with a weapon aimed at either herself, one of her Paladins or the rest of the knights, was a target. Missiles unloaded from her mecha, exploding upon impact and leaving a trail of fire behind her as she streaked deeper into the city. All the while she kept an eye out for a certain pirate Captain that shed heard about. Grimfist was his name and she was well aware that taking out the leader of a group usually resulted in an easy defeat of the rest.

Though she wasnt going to all out hunt for the man, she did watch for him. After all, taking the opportunity given was something she would definitely do. In the meantime, Syrin concentrated mostly on destroying the opponents on the ground who were firing at her with guns, missile launchers and other deadly weapons. Her mecha twisted, barrel rolled and dove behind, through and over buildings as she rained hell from above down onto the pirates.

Coming out of a particularly precarious situation with a heat seeking missile following after her, she cut it rather close to the top of a building to lose the missile, resulting in an explosion of dust and rubble being thrown everywhere. She could hear the dents already being tapped out along the hull of her mecha as she shot over the top of the building. With a bit of a grimace she started her dive back down and immediately banked left with a surprised gasp of sorts.

She'd almost dropped down in between two mechas that were heading toward the front of the battle. At first glance they didnt seem all that harmful, however as she came around the building shed used as cover, she noted the irritating rail rifle attached to one and the other carring a rather large looking rifle also. It wasn't a rail rifle thankfully, but it looked to have quite the kick to it regardless.

Frowning, she pulled up to get up over the pair of mechas and decided that taking out the rail rifle was probably the better idea to start with. As she prepared to get into position, she opened her coms for the Major, "Major, two mechas are heading your way. The Paladins will deal with them as quickly a possible," she informed him right before she came skirting out from behind the building she'd used once again, and unloaded a volley of missiles upon the mecha.

Aigidios looked up and watched the mechas and jets go screaming over, bombarding the pirate positions. He did not wait for any conformation of their strike, drawing a smoke grenade from his waist, pulling the pin, and throwing it up and over the cover. He watched it sail through the air, a trail of smoke following it. Along the battle-line, he could see other smoke grenades going through the air, some flying far into the very limits of the city having been fired from launchers wielded by other Knights.

As the smoke quickly filled up the gap between the city and the Knight's position, Aigidios was already vaulting over his cover, alongside his retinue and began sprinting towards the city. Despite the volley from Paladin and the smoke cover, gunfire was still pelting the advancing forces. Eulina's voice sounded off over the coms, Aigidios just giving a curt, "Understood." in response as he moved forwards.

As he began moving through the smoke, his helmet immediately switched to a sonar style vision, rapidly releasing a ping of sound to give a rough image of the surrounding terrain. Thermal was useless in the smoke as it was designed to shield thermal signatures, and it didn't descriminate between who fired the smoke and who it was shot at. Still the sonar was an extremely useful tool, even if it wasn't the best. He easily jumped over a rock in his path as images of the city walls were coming into view. He could see the image of pirates who were falling back away from the smoke, clearly having no intention of meeting the Knights assault head on.

As he reached a two story building, Aigidios jumped towards the second floor. With the assistance of his armor, it allowed him to easily jump up high enough to grab hold of the ledge and haul himself up. He raised his rifle, squeezing off a few rounds at some retreating pirates and quickly dropping two of them in a burst, emerging from the smoke only a few moments later.

He immediately switched to his standard vision, his visor adjusting the polarization so as to eliminate any glare and to cut down on the brightness of the sun reflecting off of the sand. He stopped at a low wall, peeking over it to get a new idea of the current field of battle. He could see his Knights moving into cover and returning fire to the newly positioned pirate forces. The next objective was to secure the city-limits, so that reinforcements could land unharassed. He clicked on his coms again, "Paladin, do not extend to far forwards." he said before cutting the coms again, lifting his arm up to fire on the pirates not far ahead.

They needed to keep the momentum, or else they'd get bogged down in the pirate's home turf. They knew this city and its various twists and turns, so they could not give the pirates a chance to recover. After firing a few more rounds, Aigidios switched on his sword as he fully intended to get into the thick of things. Quickly vaulting off of the rooftop, he broke into a sprint towards the nearest pirate position. Given the fact they were now stuck in a city, the pirate were less than a block away. He felt bullets ping off his armor, but he paid them no heed as he quickly desended on a group of pirates.

He jumped over the small barricade they had made, which consisted of scrap metal and other junk they had salvaged and put into position. One pirate was knocked back as the Sentinel-Major slammed into him with his shoulder as he landed, Aigidios spinning around to slash the gun of one pirate that had turned to fire on him in half, following up the swing but stepping into the pirate and slashing across his torso. The heavy blade, backed by the servo powered swing of the Major, easily slashed clean through the whole body of the pirate, whose eyes widened as his torso slid free from his lower half and fell to the ground. Aigidios did not pause and moved forwards to engage the other pirates there, his own retinue quickly joining him in the attack.

"Understood, Major," Syrin answered yet again in the same manner she'd used earlier when he had ordered her and her group out onto the battle field.

Swinging around from her second volley against the rail rifle weilding mecha, she dropped another group of missiles on the bastard in the hopes of destroying it. From behind that mecha another of her Paladins joined the fight and also unleashed another round of bullets. Both mechas shot past one another, tilting so as not to collide as they went.

The mecha with the rail rifle was nothing but flame and smoke by the time they were finished, so Syrin banked and went after the second mecha that she had ignored to begin with. Swirling circles around the mecha with the rather large looking rifle, her and the other Paladin launched a volley nearly at the same time. As the smoke cleared from the explosions, Syrin's eyes grew wide as it seemed the barrel end of the rifle was level with her mecha.

Pulling up immediately, she shot straight up to miss the rifle's end and pulled back on the controls to flip upside down and start back toward the mecha on the ground. As she plummeted toward the fight down below, the rifle was aimed straight up at her. From the barrel, a bright blue light began to glow. Surprised once more, Syrin shot off another round of missiles, getting close to being empty on those. Pulling up, she attempted to get out of firing range of the beam weapon.

"Shit..." she cursed, "Take out that beam weapon!" she followed her cursing with an order to the Paladin who was fighting with her.

The sound of the weapon being fired cut through the sound of her engines. In the next second, a louder, slightly terrifying sound cut through the cockpit. Her mecha was thrown off course and sent spinning in an awkward barrel roll. Warning sounds and other blaring emergency lights flooded the pilots seat. Syrin let out a startled cry at first, but then ground her teeth as she struggled with the controls to get her mecha flying again.

When she couldn't get it to stop spinning, she did the next best thing. Slamming her hand upon the consol, the button she activated the mecha's ability to shift between the jet into that of the more humanoid form. The entire machine hummed loudly as the gears started pulling and contracting with one another. The mecha continued its spiral roll, but instead of the rapid flipping the jet had been sent into, the humanoid form simply slowed down considerably. It was an awkward tumble, but far better than flying apart upon impact.

Even so, as the machine slammed into a concrete building, Syrin was jolted around in the seat painfully. For a moment she simply rested in the cockpit, taking a deep breath as the warning signs still flashed at her along the screen. After a few minutes, she finally pulled the mecha up to its feet. As she rose up from where she'd crash landed, Syrin started a search in regards to where exactly shed been thrown.

Turning from one side to the other, she scanned the vicinity to get a better bearing and start heading back to the fight. Just as she was about to leave the area, something off to the right of her mecha caught her attention. Leaning forward in the seat, her eyes narrowed. Unable to make it out clearly, she put in a few commands and brought the image in closer.

"How in the hell..." Syrin's gaze widened as she eyed the Admiral and another attendant up on the top of a building. The woman was dressed in nothing but her undergarments and waving what looked like an eaten through blanket of sorts. Grinding her teeth in anger, she hailed the Major again, "Major! Admiral Xsan is here! She's in the middle of the fighting!"

She couldn't help the rather angry clip to her tone. After all that woman had to have been daft to even think of coming down to Ko'val with the planet being in the state that it was in. Starting forward, the mecha moved rather slowly as the damage to certain parts kept her from using all of its power. However, not but four steps forward and missiles were launched at her from down below. They would have proven to be no problem at all to her, except for the one that was rather well aimed.

The bottom left side of the hatch to the cockpit exploded inward, sending shrapnel all into the cockpit and breaking a handful of screens and controls. Syrin, having lifted her arms to shield her face, felt burning pain all through her arms and side that was facing the explosion. Gasping and giving slight groans of pain, she lowered her arms slowly, dizzied by the attack that had seemingly come from no where. With the mecha already damaged, getting out of the way was nearly impossible to begin with.

The hum of the engine that was usually steady sputtered as it tried to keep running. The mecha itself dropped, falling forward as the power that kept it upright shut down. Syrin managed to get the arms of her machine to halt a complete fall, but even then, the jarring stop had her gaze swirling with splotched color at the jolting pain. Son of a... Bitch... Damn it... she cursed as she gazed at the broken and fuzzy screen, the right side and some of the center still just clear enough to see out of. The computer displayed a list of damage, large sections of the machine blocked out in red meaning that it was either broken or nearly broken.

Whatever the case, she wasnt going anywhere without aid.

The Major ducked underneath a sword swing from a pirate before non-chalantly clotheslining him, knocking him to the ground before he stabbed the pirate through with his own sword. He scowled when he heard the word from Paladin, The Admiral was still alive down here? that he hadn't expected. Not given the conditions of the city. Sneering and tearing his sword free from the pirate, doing so in a manner that the sword cut a deep wound across the pirate to make sure he was dead, Aigidios raised the sword and rested it on his shoulder, using the handguard where the sword would not cut him.

Now he was trying to decide whether or not it was worth saving her at this moment, or to wait until they had secured more of the city. "Damned woman...I'll move to secure the Admiral. The rest of you continue on with your objective." He said, looking to the other Knights with him. All of them simply turned and ran off to continue the fight, Aigidios watching them go before opening up the com again, "Paladin, where is her location?" he asked as he began walking, trying to locate Paladin on his own using the HUD of his helmet.

The belts of her seat that kept her in place were becoming rather annoying not to mention that every breath increased the pulses of pain through her small frame. When the Major asked for the Admiral's position, she replied as best she could, including information of the bastard with the beam rifle. If he was heading that way it was important for him to be aware of such a danger.

"South... of the permeter... Approximately... six... seven hundred yards from me," she answered straining to keep the words in one smooth flow but failing horribly. Working on the only good computer, she attempted to set off her machines distress signal, at least then it could alert the Major to her exact location. It took her a few tries, but it finally went through and the red light in the cockpit started flashing.

"Major... Theres a mecha. It has a beam... rifle," she paused for a moment, getting her breath back slightly, "Took me out of the sky... Be careful," she added the last bit hoping that he would be able to get around that obstacle, unless her Paladins had finished it off already which she was rather hopeful for.

Aigidios' scowl grew as he listened to Eulina, he could tell jsut by the way she spoke that she was in bad shape. Especially at the mention of a mecha with a beam rifle. This just go interesting. A moment later, he saw a blip pop up on his HUD, a red arrow to indicate the location of the ditress signal, along with a distance marker. The small mini-map at the very bottom corner of his screen also marked the location.

"Understood, hang tight Paladin. I'm on my way." He then broke into a sprint, quickly covering the distance as he moved through the streets. He stuck close to buildings so as not to be too much of an open target as he ran. His helmet kept marking targets when they popped up to fire at him, but he ignored them for the most part save for the unlucky ones that happened to be in his way. One pirate lost just about all her teeth and her lower jaw when the Major delivered a solid punch to her face as he ran by her. He didn't bother to finish her off though, as he needed to get over to aid the Admiral and Eulina.

As the distance began to dwindle, a warning popped up in his helmet, indicating an energy signature to his left. turning his head, his eyes widened as he saw the mecha Eulina had mentioned and its rifle was charging up. It also happened to be aimed right in his direction. Aigidios quickly turned on his heel, darting into an alley a moment before the beam came blazing by him. More warnings went off in his suit to warn him of the massive energy spike, and he heard the sound of metal sizzling as the beam cut its way through anything in the way.

In the alley though, the Major quickly took advantage of his greater mobility to jump up to another rooftop, taking a moment to towards the mecha. It was scanning back and forth, searching for him and it'd only be a few seconds before it locked onto his position again. "Paladin, converge on that mecha and take it down." he ordered before he started running once more, jumping over the gaps between buildings with ease. Just as he figured, the mecha had targetted him and was following his movements. His HUD then signaled to him that a friendly mecha was moving in from nearby, and Aigidios could tell the pirate mecha had noticed as well as it turned its attention away from him and turned to engage the approaching member of Paladin.

It gave him the chance to move towards Cavalier Eulina's position now, the sound of missles exploding nearby being dampened by his helmets audio systems. As he ran along the rooftop, he then looked over to what his helmet labeled as an unknown individual. It zoomed the image, and there was the Admiral, waving a ratty old blanket as a flag. He culdn't see Alten sitting against the wall, as the building blocked the view of the attendant. Regardless, Aigidios was first concerned with grabbing his fellow Knight. He quickly jumped off the rooftop when Eulina's wrecked mecha came into view, landing in a roll and coming back up to his feet without a pause in his movements. He even switched off his sword and placed it on his back as he ran up to it and immediately began trying to pray open the cockpit to reach Eulina. "Paladin! You still alive in there?" this time his voie was projected through the speakers of his helmet, which amplified it to help him be heard over the din of the battle gonig on nearby.

Syrin wasn't sure what the time lapse was since she'd last called out to the Major, informing him of her position. She recalled taking stock of her injuries which were quite bad if she were to be honest. Blood was dripping down from where she was strapped to the chair and making small puddles down against the ruined controls. Her head swam as she opened her eyes blearily to the sound of the Major's voice yelling at her.

Metal creaked and she assumed he was trying to pry it open. Unless he had the powertools that were onboard the Gjallahorn then getting the hatch opened was going to be near impossible, even with power armor. Unless he wanted to try cutting it with his weapon, but she doubted he would even try with her still inside it. Groaning slightly, she reached over and fumbled with the controls that still worked. It took her a while, with having to do things the round about way, but she managed to open the coms system that would project her voice out to him through the mechas speakers.

"Still here... Major," she answered, "Retrieve the Admiral... The hatch is... Stuck, Major," Syrin paused again, her voice wavering as another bout of dizziness took her. Keeping her eyes open was becoming a chore, "The Paladins can... Retrive me... Take it back to base," leaning her head back a little, she rubbed at her temple with her good arm, "Arlan can open it then."

"It won't do any good if you are dead by the time you get back, Cavalier." he then looked around, looking in the direction of mecha battle going on nearby. He opened up his coms again, "Paladin, we need one of you to recover and move Cavalier Eulina out of here, ASAP. She requires medical attention, so make it quick." With that, he then looked back at the mecha. "Just hold on tight, Cavalier." With that he patted the hatch of the mecha before turning and running towards the building he'd spotted the Admiral atop of.

It was simple enough for him to quickly jump up once more and climb his way up onto the rooftop. As he climbed up, his sight was met with the half-naked Admiral Xsan, still holding the makeshift signal flag, and near her he could see the barely concious Surveyor Ashlet, whose hand was covered in a blood-soaked bandage. The man was slumpped against the wall, and the Major could see he too was close to bleeding out.

Aigidios didn't even bother to address the Admiral yet as he walked towards them, reaching to his belt to pull free a cartridge of the medical salve. It would do for now as he walked over to the semi-concious man, knealing down and quickly peeling back the bandage, which the Major noted was actually just a jacket wrapped tightly around the wound. As he removed the bandage, Alten moaned and mumbled something in cohearent, his world tinged with black as he tried to respond to the stimuli of the Major messing with his hand.

Alten was so out of it, he only twitched slightly when the salve was being applied to his chewed up hand, the Major working quickly to apply it as best he could. It would kill any infection, and hopefully the bleeding would stop in time to prevent the man from dying right here. Still, the Major could tell that the man was going to die soon if they didn't hurry. He opened up the coms, again reaching out to Paldin. "Paladin, I have two more for you to move out of here. They are flesh-and-bone so be careful doing so, one of them needs immediate medical attention as well." he said before finishing with Alten, carefully picking up the man and turning to head towards the edge of the rooftop. He also grabbed hold of the Admiral around her waist as he moved, and without stopping or waiting for her, he hoped down off the rooftop, landing in the sand. He was careful to make sure he did not jar either of them too much with the landing, and he let go of the Admiral as he walked towards Eulina's mecha once agian.

Syrin tried to rearrange herself in the pilot seat. The position was rathr awkward after all, as the Major conducted his orders. When he finished, the resounding pat of his hand against the hatch took her attention as she'd been slipping again. A bit of a small of smile graced her lips for a moment as she answered him in hardly a whisper, "Im not going anywhere... Major..." only to have darkness claim her consciousness soon after speaking the words.

Arina gasped loudly at the sight of a man in power armor vaulting over the side of the rooftop. Her fingers dropped the pole the moment he knelt down next to Alten and started undoing the bandage around the man's hand. The markings on the power armor finally alerted her to who it was and her heart was lodged in her throat.

"M-Major..." she whispered the word, but he didn't even address her, which spoke volumes in return. Dropping her gaze, she wrapped her arms around her chest and sat there as the Major worked on Alten's ruined hand. It was no wonder the Major didn't wish to speak to her, he was probably far to angry to even want to. Not to mention the Knights being in the middle of a battle that was surely going to cost more lives, including that of his own men.

Lost in her own thoughts, she gave a startled yelp as the Major's arm was suddenly around her waist and dragging her up against him. Wincing slightly at the feel of steel against her bruised side, she clamped her mouth shut though so as not to whimper or do anything really. The Major was already irritated, her weakness would probably only serve to make matters worse.

That was, until he decided to drop off the side of the two story building. With a startled cry of shock and fear, she turned into him and clutched the armor tightly, her fingernails scraping against the metal of his power armor and chipping more than a few. When they hit the ground, she gave a groan and immediately toppled into the sands as he released her.

She couldnt fight the tears then. Rather than tears of fear and shock, they were of shame that time. Getting back up as her knees had given way when he let her go, she stumbled after him, though kept some distance between the two of them. The sight of the mecha tore at her heart as she was sure whomever was inside was injured or stuck, or both. It was made even worse with the knowledge that she'd just endangered everyone. Even so, the silent treatment from the Major was far worse than hearing him yell at her in return.

Aigidios carefully set Alten down next to Eulina's mecha, Alten just falling over to the side, limp now. The Major quickly caught him and then laid him down alongside the mecha, scowling some at the sight of the man. He looked over to the sound of a large machine walking towards them, about to adress the mecha when his eyes widened at the sight of the pirate mecha aiming its beam rifle towards them.

"Admiral take cover!" Aigidios quickly yelled before he did the only thing he could think of. Grabbing the handle of his sword, he flipped the switch on in the same motion, then drew it from his back and threw it straight towards the charging beam of energy at the end of the barrel. The sword spun for a moment, giving a soft hum before it slammed right into the barrel. It sliced its way in for a few inches before its handguard got caught, again it not benefitting from the high-frequency cutting ability. It did however disrupt the beam's charging mechanism, and Aigidio quickly changed his plan and moved over to the Admiral, tackling her to the ground and shielding her when the mecha's weapon exploded, showering the area in sharpnel and a slight burst of energy.

More warnings went off in his helmet, as his armor was singed slightly from the blast. Alten was fortunate to have Eulina's mecha to shield him from the burst of shrapnel and energy. Aigidios quickly got up off the Admiral to see the condition of the enemy mecha, which to his fear it was still standing. It was badly damaged from the explosion, as both its arms had been annihilated and the front of it was badly damaged as well. The problem was, Aigidios did not have his sword anymore, which was the only thing he had that could really damage the mecha.

Standing between the mecha and the Admiral, Aigidios was trying to think of what to do as it began to stomp towards them. "You squirrely motherfuckers!" a voice shouted from the mecha. "Why the fuck won't any of you just d-" the voice was cut off as a massive sword slammed through the center, causing Aigidios to once again shield the Admiral before looking over to see the sight he wanted. One of the mechas from Paladin ripped its sword free of the pirate mecha and let it simply topple over.

"Apologies, Sentinel-Major." The cavalier within the mecha said. "That shit was a slippery little devil." the mecha then turned and walked over towards Eulina's downed mecha and began working to get ahold of just the esential cockpit that contained her. It didn't need the rest, just to make sure it could carry Eulina away. It also carefully picked up Alten's limp form. As it worked, Aigidios turned to look at the Admiral who he still had a hold of.

"That is your ride out of here. Get back, get dressed, and you best take this opportunity to sleep, because you and I are going to talk once I get back." He said before nodding his armored head towards the mecha. He then guided her there, keeping a light hold of her arm to help move her along.

At the sight of the mecha coming around the corner, Arina's heart froze in her chest and she couldn't move another inch. Even Major Aigidio's shout for her to take cover never reached her ears. She stood stock still at the sight of the mecha approaching them, the rifle it was holding begining to power up with a bright blue light at the back of the barrel.

Arina didn't even see Aigidios move and throw his sword at the thing, destroying the barrel. She trembled as the mecha's gun made an odd sound. In the next moment she felt sand against her back and a heavy body covering her and blocking out the sun. With her heart in her throat once more, she hardly even gave a gasp as Aigidios toppled her over and sheilded her.

The explosion jolted her body and she curled under him with a started cry. Metal went flying everywhere and if it hadn't been for Aigidios, she surely would have been torn apart. As he looked up to the mecha, she heard a voice shouting from the thing and she cringed. Unwillingly, Arina was once again crying as she lay on the ground. Following the voice that sounded utterly pissed off was the sound of metal tearing apart.

Once again, Aigidios sheilded her and she felt even more guilt pulling at her stomach as he did so. Why would he even do that? Surely it would have been easier to forget her after disobeying and putting everyone in such a horrid situation. Even worse was the mecha that was half toppled over and hadn't moved since it had crashed there, taking several direct hits from missiles launched somewhere from the city's buildings.

The mecha that saved them from the pirate addressed the Major directly and then proceeded to the downed mecha and pried free the cockpit, quite literally tearing it from the rest of the machine. Shuddering breathes filled her chest as Arina struggled to keep calm. However when Aigidios addressed her she couldn't help the tears that flowed again.

Nodding her head rapidly, she didn't even answer him as he told her to go to the mecha that would take her back to safety and then get taken back up to the Stellae Caelator. Up on her feet, Aigidios helped her along to the mecha that waited for her once it had gotten a hold of the cockpit and Alten.

Turning, she faced the Major and opened and closed her mouth several times while standing next to the Mecha. With guilt hammering at her chest and mind, she dropped her gaze, "T-thank you, Major... I..." she shook her head heavily, "I would have understood... If you hadn't come," she finished finally and turned to the mecha to allow it to take her back to safety.

"As I said, we will have this discussion once this battle is over. Now is not the time, as I need to get back out there." The Major said, watching Arina move towards the mecha. He then looked up at the mecha. "Get them back behind the line quickly. Eulina and Alten need immediate medical attention." He then backed away from the mecha as it carefully took hold of its charges.

"Understood, good luck out there, Major. I will return to the field once I drop them off." Aigidios nodded his head to the mecha, watching it turn and begin heading towards the rear of the Knights battle line. The Major watched it go, shaking his head as he turned to observe the pirates that were closing in on his position. He was surprised that the Admiral and her attendant had actually survived this long out here, though that did not mean he was not pissed with her. Shaking his head, he raised his arm up to fire back at the pirates; least here he could work out his frustrations in a manner he preferred.

Alten mumbled something as he barely managed to lift his head, looking around with a rather blank look. "Arina...." he managed to utter, his head falling against the hand of the mecha that was holding onto him and Arina. It had cupped its hand so as to carry the two, in its other hand it was carrying the cockpit of Syrin's mecha, and the pilot was being careful with both of them. Alten tried to lift his good hand, looking around again. His skin had lost much of its color, and he looked very out of it as he moved barely managed to move his arm and head.

"Here," Arina called, taking hold of the hand that he lifted up slightly. She curled both hands around his, her fingers tightly holding onto him. What had she been thinking? Right then it seemed that her original plan was nothing but a childs dream, an idiotic ideal that held no meaning at all. And she had thought she could never lose. Never.

Yet, there she was, stripped down nearly naked, Alten dying, a pilot dying, and who else knew was either dying or dead. Cursing herself, she tilted her head into Alten's good hand. Was she ever going to be able to perform like she once did? She didn't think she could ever set foot into a negotiation again, not with such a horrid failure beating at the back of her mind.

Arina stayed like that for the entire trip back to safety. All the while she tried to think of how she was going to face the Major. Would she have to face the Commodore as well? Probably. What was she going to say? Would she even have strength enough to say anything at all? Arina supposed it was just a matter of time and she would find out when it happened.