Decima had no reaction whatsoever to your act of heroic strength, did not flinch at all to the hand on her throat. Her reptillian eyes held a fatalistic fearlessness that was the exact opposite of your act of defiance. You know instinctively this goes all the way; if inevitable death came for her she would not die tired.

"None of that. Spend power budget on a neural uplink? No, it fires whenever I move the thing like this," she made a vague little wave with the gun. "There's a little metal maze that I shake the needle out of, it fires automatically when loaded. Might get the odd misfire but odds are nobody notices. Like I said, the gun is just a case, but it's a case that people project a lot of assumptions onto."

"Argeltia," said Decima, changing tack. "Never going to stop her. Point is to tilt her. She's used to everyone playing around her. Not used to pain, not used to being the target. I woouldn't be shooting her hands. I'd be shooting at her main body through the portals. If I land enough hits to lock her neck I think she'd panic and lose her cool. How do you plan to deal with her?"