Half a dozen white light-armored-mecha-suit-wearing assailants stood alongside the corner of a long, dark corridor. Their long P-15 sub-sonic pulsers were at the ready in a low stance.

One enforcer, with their helmet colored dark green, slowly peaked over the corner, only able to gaze into the smoky abyss that lingered in a thick cloud. They then leaned back, looking back at the rest of their team while placing a hand on their neck comms device.

“Tren-col sent out an alert that a threat made contact with the left-wing armory patrol unit a few mekts ago. Even though the carrier’s defense systems are offline, our ARV picked up at least five moving bodies past this point, along with two different types of discharged weaponry. Our main prerogative is maintaining distance, secure the left armory’s package, and deal with any threats that attempt to pass. Gro’gega maass’.”

(Translation, Yubasian: “No fear, attack as one.”)

“… Volterra!” The rest of the enlists yell back.

(Translation, Yubasian: “Understood!”)

A small humanoid figure appeared in the smoke. One enforcer ran from the corner and bent down on one knee, flicking up their pulser’s sight and resting it on their shoulder with a squint. With a single click, their pulser fired a piercing red laser that parted the smoke as if not wanting to get hit itself.

The laser then revealed Miya with her head tilted to the side, her glistening black armor enveloping half her face. She held up her hand, contacting the crimson beam, making it part in multiple directions that cut into the walls and floor, leaving a black crease.

She arched her hand, making the laser swerve, and cut its shooter in half with a brisk slice into the ceiling. The enforcer gasped as his holo-mask cracked through the middle before sliding down. Their long-black eyes, small muzzle, and two pincers on its face slid to the ground in half as well, revealing their burnt skull and smoldering brains that splattered onto the floor like jelly.

The entire fleet of enforcers widened their eyes, appalled, as five more rushed from their ranks and dropped on one knee, taking the same stance as their fallen comrade. They released a set of neon-blue lasers from their pulsers, burning bright and soaring with intent like shooting stars in the night sky.

They made impact with Miya’s armor, which flexed upward into small spikes that deflected the lasers into separate directions. Two of the enforcers flicked a small switch on the sides of their weapons, making their pulsers shoot a broader beam that lit the entire hall with a vibrant blue gleam.

As soon as the broader beam came a few inches in front of Miya, she skipped to the side and jumped forward, covering the distance between her and the enforcers in seconds. Mid-leap, she grabbed one enforcer and slammed them into the wall, her entire hand gouging through their stomach.

Before his constituents could react, Miya threw a quick gut punch and two follow-up chest jabs to the armored guard nearest to her, creating a large dent into their mecha-breastplate as they gasped with green fluids escaping their lips. She then slammed her palm into their head. Their entire head jolted back with a snap as they fell limp to the ground.

With a quick pivot, the next nearest enforcer jumped back and swung their tail, which Miya avoided with a backward-leaning duck. Her new foe’s mecha-suit glowed red as their hands became bulkier, creating several crimson electromagnetic lines that fizzed across his three-fingered knuckles. Mid-swing, he followed up with an uppercut from his now energized fists, crackling as he nearly grazed Miya’s face.

Punch after punch, he attempted to land a blow, to which Miya simply maneuvered out of the way a few seconds before. A hexagonal metal plate whizzed past Miya’s face and dug into the wall behind her; It then shot a small purple orb that pierced into her back. The magnetic device then pulled her backward, with another enforcer running forward, pulling a long-pink revolver with swirling blades from his hip.

Miya grabbed the next punch from her electrolyzed-fisted adversary and spun him behind her. She then leaped from the ground, allowing the magnetic pull to drag her back. She slammed into the wall but allowed the enforcer to take the damage.

The next enforcer’s pink-bladed revolver spun its utensils at an imperceptible speed before shooting a broad rose-pink rail that zipped back and forth.

Miya grabbed hold of her hostage enforcer’s arm from the back, snapping it out of place and holding it in front of her. The rail beam struck the broken appendage in two, making the enforcer groan and yelp. Miya’s armor rippled before shooting the marble from her back and allowing her to drop to the floor.

The rail-pistol-wielding enforcer shot several more rose-colored beams, six hot-pink straight particles indecisively shot in a wavering spiral. Another enforcer grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back, slamming on a door panel on the wall, and threw a gray grenade that churned like a Rubik’s cube past the closing hatch.

Miya whipped her pistol from her thigh, shot the wailing enforcer at her backside, then threw the gun forward, past the two sprinting enforcers trying to reach the now half-closed gate. Her Xacto flattened down and elongated itself, then transformed into its blade form while cutting into one of the digitigrade feet of one of the fleeing enforcers, causing him to fall over.

Her blade then dug itself into the door at an angle, causing it to remain open a few inches off the floor. The last running enforcer sprawled onto the ground and crawled through the small enclosure. He looked back with widened eyes as Miya broke into a sprint, grabbed the torn-legged enforcer by the head, and slid across the ground. While sliding, she grabbed her blade and released the armored assailant, resulting in the gate slamming down and crushing the head and torso of the two remaining enforcers with an ear-splitting crunch.

A group of twelve enforcers started running towards the next gate. One turned to look at Miya, winding back, then pitching a gray metal ball from her hand.

“Bruuat… Bruuuat!” The enforcer wailed as the grenade flew past their eyes.

The detonation of the grenade echoed through the hall, unleashing a thunderous blast that reverberated with searing heat, shaking the entire space. Rectangular metal shrapnel dug into all the enforcers; Broken blue horns, whitetails, and black-long limbs exploded with a vibrant array of blue, red, and green blood. The collision of metal, bloody meat, and entrails came back together within the magnetized grenade, then scattered across the room, coating it in a collective black ooze.

The black helm encapsulating Miya’s head slid down like molten metal, stopping at her lower face and revealing her glowing red pupils. A few drops of molten armor dripped off her hair as well, now coated a shiny black.

「Safe… I feel… Safe…」

Miya groaned and scratched at her head. “Stop talking…. whoever you are.”

She then walked past the puddles of inky swell, leaving footprints past the collateral of scattered corpses.