4809 Wrath of a Mother
As Ketis prepared to launch a surprise raid onto the alien positions, she couldn't explain why she recalled one of her discussions with Director Astoria Kelric of the Arcadia Sanctum.
She held numerous deep and interesting discussions with the mecher over the years.
Though she was not a core figure within the Association due to lacking the ability to pilot or design a mech, she had served as a useful window into what the Mech Trade Association was like by virtue of being born within its ranks.
Swordmasters were killers. Trained killers. Proficient killers. Yet still killers.
Director Astoria said this as if there was anything bad about killing.
Soldiers were killers as well, but hardly anyone complained about them. The mech pilots and infantry soldiers who fought on behalf of a state most often killed lots of people in wars, but none of them received any admonishment for their actions.
As such, Ketis never thought that she and her fellow swordmasters were as dangerous as the MTA made them out to be. The possibility that they could degenerate into demons was nothing more than an excuse to suppress their kind so that mech pilots had no competition in becoming the ultimate warriors in the Age of Mechs.
Though it was plausible for swordmasters to lose their grip on reality and turn into unrelenting killing machines, that was unlikely to happen.
Exceptional warriors such as Ketis gained their strength by developing their willpower to the extreme. That made swordmasters a lot more principled and strong-willed than ordinary people.
It was absurd to think that someone like herself would lose herself in her own bloodlust!
"I am not a monster." She reminded herself as she lifted her borrowed sword in front of her face. "I am a slayer of monsters."
Losing control was antithetical to the Swordmaidens and to Ketis. She only killed in order to rid the cosmos of demons, not to become one herself.
Now that she was about to fight against a band of indigenous remnants, she harbored even less guilt for her upcoming actions.
"No one threatens my child and gets away with it." She sneered as her one-handed sword gained a sharp and threatening sheen.
Her expression softened just a second after she thought about Kirian.
While she had thankfully left her youngest daughter Mayra Larkinson behind at the Cat Nest due to her age, she regretted the decision to bring Kirian to the founding ceremony.
Now, her son became implicated in an improbable revenge or escape plot hatched by the former occupants of Davute.
If her husband Joshua was here, then he would probably harbor a lot of sympathy or guilt towards the pescan race.
These aliens had never done anything to deserve the mass extinction event that had befallen their race. They never harmed any humans in the past nor possessed any objectionable visual or behavioral traits that merited their destruction.
Their only 'sin' was living on the wrong planet at the wrong time. Humanity wanted to take over their home and did not take no for an answer.
Even if the pescans were more than justified in their attempt to hit back at the humans who occupied their planet, Ketis took a lot of issue with it because it not only affected her and her fellow Larkinsons, but also implicated her oldest child and son!
Little Kirian often fantasized about becoming a fearsome warrior and swordmaster like her mother one day, but he was just a cute and adorable child for the time being.
The pescans should have never dragged her son into this pocket space!
"This is the worst mistake they have ever made." Ketis' eyes burned with repressed fury. "The MTA might complain about killing too many humans, but I doubt they will have any issue about slaughtering aliens."
As the Swordmaiden mech designer thought about how much alien blood she could spill today, a mechanical cat floated in front of her and tried to act cute.
Ketis loosened up a bit and patted Lucky's body. "Thank you for backing me up in battle again. I don't know how well I am able to avoid alien attacks when there are so many opponents in the field. I will be counting on you to take care of the most dangerous enemies, alright?"
"Meow~"
Once the battle finally commenced, it immediately went off-script.
Ketis and the rest of her group hadn't even started to rush through a smaller and less important entrance before the main assault force had breached into the first floor controlled by the pescans!
It wasn't until the humans secured this floor and resumed their assault on the second floor that she could truly make a difference!
She had to wait a long time, though.
The pescans guarded the entrances fairly well. Each of them were guarded by a dozen or more soldiers. Many of them enjoyed defensive advantages such as walls and energy shields.
Ketis and Lucky just happened to set their sights onto one of the smaller entrances. The fixed defenses were much less present in this particular place.
The pescans had assigned more soldiers here to compensate, and more than a couple of them were armed with transphasic laser arm cannons.
As a mech designer, Ketis could intuitively judge that the penetration power of those integrated energy weapons could pose a real threat to the rather average second-class suit of combat armor that she also borrowed from a random soldier.
Normally, Ketis still thought she could chop apart all of the elite pescan soldiers, but the problem was that she would have to overcome the energy shield blocking the entrance first!
She needed help with breaking this energy shield. She also had to put quite a lot of effort in helping to take it down.
Doing so would make her vulnerable, though. This was why she had yet to make a move. Defense was never her strong suit and she needed to wait until an opportunity arose.
Just as she expected, the main assault force once again pulled through. The human troopers managed to break through the largest entrance and gain enough of a foothold on the next floor to attract a lot of alien attention!
The pescan commanders began to pull an increasing amount of idle soldiers away from other positions in order to put them where they were most needed.
The humans pouring out of the main entrance had to be contained and pushed back!
More alien bodies were required to do so as the pescans were still suffering a lot of losses from getting hit by the superior weapons employed by the humans.
One of the spy drones that Ketis connected to managed to capture the movements made during this time.
At first, only three or so pescans left this post.
Then, seven more pescans received urgent instructions to reinforce the battle at the main entrance.
After that, 14 more pescans had been drawn away from this site, leaving just 8 pescan soldiers to stand guard and ensure that no humans would ever be able to breach this entrance.
Ketis smelled weakness. She gripped her sword tighter even as it began to glow and shimmer with unusual energies.
"The time is now!"
A lot of events took place in quick succession.
First, Ketis had turned the corner and fully exposed themselves to the surprised pescan guards and struck her sword against the transphasic alien energy shield!
Although her initial strike did not deal that much damage to the integrity of the energy shield generator, it most definitely could not be ignored!
This was especially when the swing of the sword also released a strange starry energy wave that had a surprisingly destabilizing effect on the energy shield!
By this time, both sides started shooting at each other.
Special guards equipped with stealth suits momentarily dropped their active cloaking so that they could use their various weapons to break the energy shield in the fastest possible time.
This was such an important priority to them that they did not hesitate to reveal their existence before they could sabotage anything meaningful!
Fortunately, the pescan aliens who were doing their best to defend their positions became alarmed and tried to counterattack at the closest opponent, which happened to be Ketis!
"BREAK FOR ME!" Ketis roared as she tried her best to remain mobile and evade most of the incoming attacks.
Though she did not always succeed in preventing any attacks from landing on her combat armor, her defenses held for the time being.
The alien energy shield wasn't doing so good, though!
The repeated attacks along with the consistent weakening effect of Venerable Dise's Phase Cutter technique caused the alien defensive measure to lose shield integrity at a rapid rate!
Even though the nearby pescan soldiers urgently called for backup over their communication channels, the aliens already had their hands full trying to stop the much larger group of humans from winning the fight at the front!
Ketis grinned when she saw that no enemy reinforcements were forthcoming.
With her willpower pressing over the surrounding environment, the poor pescans assigned to guard this minor entrance weren't able to keep their aim straight anymore due to how much the human swordmaster oppressed them from a short distance!
"Your shield will fall to my sword! Nothing is impervious to my blade!"
When the weakened transphasic energy shield finally fell, Ketis immediately jumped forward and raised her blade towards the nearest pescan soldier!
"You're first!"
Despite the height difference, the pescan's head soared into the air as Ketis cleanly cut it off its neck!
"You are next!"
She hardly slowed down and quickly stabbed another pescan soldier!
The tip of her sword had been imbued by her sharpness and therefore easily managed to poke through the chest of the enemy soldier!
Though Ketis was not that well-versed in alien anatomy, her intuition told her that stabbing in this particular spot would definitely be fatal to her victim!
She retracted her blade. Covered with alien blood, its edge still remained as sharp and potent as ever under the blessing of Ketis' true resonance!
"More!"
Her armored figure zipped back and forth at speeds that made it difficult for the lumbering pescan soldiers to track.
By the time she stabbed through the chest of a fourth pescan despite all of the armor in the way, the aliens guarding this particular entrance had fallen!
"Meow!" Lucky arrogantly proclaimed his own wins as he had single-handedly killed four pescan soldiers while Ketis was busy.
"Good job, buddy, but this is but a drop in the bucket."
Even as Ketis reoriented herself in order to determine where she should go next, she could faintly feel the passing of numerous human individuals.
The stealth operatives working for the various kidnapped groups had activated their stealth systems again and quietly sneaked their way into the enemy camp.
The chaos of battle served as the best form of distraction for these smooth operators!
Ketis showed no regard towards them as she had her own duty to fulfill.
"What do you think looks more important, Lucky? Should we find a way to relieve the others by disabling that damaged tank, or should we reach that tower that looks like a command center?"
Lucky thought for a moment before pointing his paw at the tank with the powerful cannon. "Meow meow meow."
"I suppose you are right. Ves and the other attackers need our help!"
Ketis resolutely advanced towards the tank that was situated a fair distance away.
Throughout her journey, the swordmaster had to cut down dozens of pescans who were either in the way or could warn their superiors of her passing.
She needed to attract as little attention as possible in order to operate at her best!
Even though the pescans showed signs of adapting to this latest threat, Ketis had managed to reach her target in record time.
Once she came close enough, she did not stupidly attack the solid transphasic armor plating that had allowed the elite war machine to stay in the fight.
She instead began to thrust her blade into the exposed and vulnerable sections of the tank!
