This was what sparked the whole Descendent starship thing after I finished most of the first story.
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Melee escalation to beems-hybrid combat.
It was dark; he had been here for days. In a way it was relaxing, free from the shackles of civility, urbanity…
A barely audible chirp tinged his mental awareness as his target moved, triangulating.
He wished it hadn’t been a full moon, the glow illuminating him slightly; he altered the reflectivity of his suit to compensate.
His target was now in sight, by a river, oblivious. There were the smells of a once-burnt fire. Cottage windows glinted off in the distance.
He raised his rifle, the sights determining distance based on target size alone, avoiding any lazing that may give him away. He bore his sights on the target.
Another glint from the cottage window. A bright flash assaulted his periphery. The window shattered. His heightened awareness kicked in as a round deflected off his electrostatic shield, almost in slow motion.
Almost subconsciously, he triggered a fire sequence. Another series of bright flashes, this time from orbit. The cottage went up in smoke as his fire sequence command was executed, his ship nothing more than a star in the horizon, shining ever redder from the exertion of a danger-close barrage.
His target was gone; there was no body, no hint of her presence. He had lost his chance.
Footsteps behind him; he veered around. His rifle transformed to deflect the incoming slash. He stumbled to regain his footing, barely able to see his attacker as his neural link took over, amplifying him.
He could see that she was determined to finish him this time, most likely tired of his constant pursuit. They circled each other just out of striking distance, feinting, looking for weakness.
He didn’t have much time, this would get messy, her ship was undoubtedly on its way here. He clocked its distance through the markings on her body, admiring the design. In another universe he could have imagined a life together.
Through his ship’s eyes, he could see his target’s vessel jump into orbit, a comet-tail trail of koveran particles dissipating into the upper atmosphere, illuminating their arena.
A deafening roar as the target’s ship opened fire on his, a deafening crack as the electrostatic shield absorbed the impact, knocking both ships apart, stunning both captains.
His target regained her footing first and struck, his rifle-transformed-sword barely averting the stab, deflecting it low. She pulled back before he could counter effectively, left them circling again.
The two ships were now at each other’s throats, pulling each other into their artificial gravity fields, tearing at each other’s hull, cannons firing madly at one another. A strong wind seemed to form in response.
Severe damage on her ship’s port skid, the phantom pain traveled through the neural interface and hit her arm. She was struck then, the sword jabbing towards her lower abdomen. An emergency electrostatic field activated, knocking both fighters back but eliminating all her reserve energy.
Her ship disengaged, the deafening roar of a sonic boom becoming apparent as it swooped over the fighters.
His ship followed, falling below her’s and shielding its captain from any aggravated barrages. It was pitch black now, the massive ships eclipsing the moon and their gravimetric drives drowning out the sounds of the forest.
The artificial gravity fields the ships were using to grapple were disrupting the arena, making it impossible to regain footing long enough for a strike. Both ships deployed atmospheric fighters now that they were planetside.
This had become a fight beyond the abilities of a raumenoid. Biomechanical technology was dominant here, fighters clashing like wasps as they stung rapidly with their barrages of koveran-laced rounds. Bursts of electronic warfare blinded both parties, bringing chaos, forcing the inexperienced atmospheric fighters to use their young computer cores for combat.
He blindly moved through the dust and sound, searching for blood, for any trace of her.
She was gone, the dust settled, only his fighters, his ship remained.
She was gone.