“nothing can hurt me now.” (If you're still taking them.)
“No! Kid, wait!” Daichi’s shouted as he lunged to catch the back of the young woman’s belt as she stood up from cover. His fingers caught the edge of her belt, but she twisted away before he could get a good grasp and opened up with her ATT-4 on the advancing Vanduul. One went down under the withering laser fire and the rest were quick to duck behind cover.
Before Daichi could get his feet underneath him, Nozomu stepped past their barricade and slowly walked towards the concealed xenos. She’d been unusually distant after the news of the Vanduul’s attack on the Orion system, but he never would have believed she was suicidal. Not Nozomu... Not Crow team’s Kid. She was moody, sure, but there was always a joke or barb at the ready. This just couldn’t be happening.
“Fuck! Covering fire!” the male called and stood up fully to bring his P4 to bear. The larger weapon let out its signature bark as it spat energized particles down the hallway. Half a heartbeat passed before the rest of Crow team added their own hail of fire to the mix causing a few more xenos to hit the floor, but it wasn’t fast enough to prevent their return fire from raking over Nozomu’s armor. She made no noise as she dropped, just slumping to the floor.
Crow team moved up and drove the Vanduul back down the hall, but even before Daichi could get close enough for a bio readout, he knew the woman was gone; no shields or armor could protect someone from that much focused firepower. Tossing the heavy gun aside, he rolled Nozomu onto her back and had to keep his lips tight as he saw the burned and twisted remains of her chest plate. “Hey, Kid, what the fuck was that for? We had a plan, dammit all,” he said with the slightly annoyed cheer that all medics employed when facing mortal injuries.
“Nothing can hurt me now,” the woman calmly replied as she stared at the ceiling.
“That’s just the vitamin M, Kid,” Daichi replied as he cracked open a pack of biofoam. The applicator was pressed against the ruined armor’s front, hissing as it belched coagulant and medical nano machines onto the wounds. “Gave you the good stuff, yeah? You’ll be fine in a bit and then I’m going to kill you for this stupidity. Can’t kill the ‘duul if you’re in the medbay!”
With surprising strength, Nozomu grabbed Daichi’s collar and pulled him closer to her face. “Bury me,” she said as her eyes locked directly onto the man’s. “Home. Armitage. Take it back from them...” Before he could reply, the woman’s eyes lost focus and her grip on his armor loosened and fell loose.
Daichi reached down to take the reg-tags from her collar and slowly stood back up. Time enough for mourning later, he thought numbly as he stuffed the tags into a pouch and retrieved his weapon. First, the Vanduul need to pay. Pitchfork awaited.
