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Volana felt the impact of her strike even through the inertial gel that filled her cockpit, a sudden halt of momentum that threw her body to the side as the semisolid medium struggled to adjust in time to prevent it. Her head rung, palm burning from where the jolt had shot up from the controls in her grip, even through the glove. The Cytherean pilot had watched intently as her blade struck her intended target, a clean, nearly effortless strike that felt all to easy for the intimidating presence which the alien mechanoids displayed. That was, until the prismatic sword halted in it's travel into the gleaming metallic armor of the aggressor. The armor did not crack and fold like she expected it to, rather it divided almost like clay, simultaneously malleable and yet incredibly dense at the same time. The damage looked significant, though the small part of her mind that was able to think in the brief moment of calm that followed her getting tossed to the side desperately hoped that looks weren't deceiving in this case.

The moment didn't last.

A beat after the strike the alien entity had regained its footing, a massive clawed appendage enveloping the [i]Aurora[/i]'s shoulder moving faster than what such a large mechanoid should have been able to. Damage readouts flared before her augmented view from within the [i]Aurora[/i]'s cockpit, the rest of it completely filled by the green photoceptors that gazed with what could only be assumed to be malice into her. Almost immediately the alien's grip surpassed nominal operating pressures for her armor, which was no mean feat given that nominal was the overpressured surface of her home.

Volana could feel her hand shaking... though it might have been just the low reverberations that resonated through her body as soon as the mechanoid had made contact.

Fine, she wasn't moving.

The Cytherean pilot released Gram from the grasp of her entrapped limb as the alien's attention was momentarily drawn by the barrage of fire from Halim, the glimmering blade solidly stuck within the groove she had carved into the creature's flank. The same cold yellow glow Volana had seen before raced up its back, before lancing out towards what she could only assume was Halim's mech, just as she reached out with her other arm towards her blade's protruding hilt.

An arc of power shot from the [i]Aurora[/i] to the weapon as soon as it returned to her grip, and the sword flared to life with a flash of brilliant violet energy, fingers of electricity dancing across the surface of the mechanoid and her own mech that quickly snapped into focus along the blade as the color coalesced into a sharp blue. With a wrenching motion Volana made to drag the now powered blade out from the wound she had caused, being none too careful about its path of travel further along the alien mechanoid's form.

Through the constant hum that now filled her head a familiar voice came over the comm, one that she identified as belonging to the now slightly less frozen Artimie.

<<[color=7e5e7f]Aurora, I've got lock for a real big shock if you can break free. It's gonna be real close if you can't.[/color]>>

Given her current situation there wasn't much Volana could do to visually identify what she could only assume was an approaching [i]Starlight[/i], though the battlenet's combat map gave her a pretty clear view of a blip rocketing towards her position.

Breaking free is exactly what Volana wished she could do, but the steadily rising pressure warning coming from her mech's trapped shoulder wasn't looking promising in that regard.

Volana cursed, and then activated her own comm in reply.

<<[color=aquamarine]Going to have to be real close, not moving![/color]>> She hoped that her voice carried over the vibrations that filled her cockpit and rattled her skull.

Another surge of energy burst from the [i]Aurora[/i]'s Oberth reactor, routing outward and raising effective output to near maximum safe operational levels. Gram's energized edge dimmed slightly as power was redirected from the weapon in response to the command, and her visual interface shifted hues to indication the activation of the [i]Aurora[/i]'s defensive systems.

From within the grasp of the mechanoid the [i]Aurora[/i]'s sleek armored frame began to shimmer, the edges of the plates blurring as a thin film of air around them superheated. The shimmer turned into a glow that increased in brightness to form an irregular net of energy that wove its way outwards along the entire surface of her orbital, tightly hugging the sleek contours of it.

<<[color=aquamarine]Go for it, danger close![/color]>>