Scene #1641: Target: Mining Station

Owner	Pose
Zephyr Windstar	Alerts sound out as a Union Assault Shuttle drops out of Dimensional Space next to the hulking mass of the Mining Station. It shoots out the token defense emplacements and deploys its cargo of marines into the various docking ports. Accompanying them is a young teenager in brightly coloured armour. "Secure E-2, I'm gonna head up to the Command deck!" she barks, before kicking off the ground and flying down the hallway. She's leaving the Regulars to deal with the defenders, cuz alerts like this one, always bring Elites running, so she doesn't want her guys getting caught in the middle of an Elite-level brawl.
Bramble Patch	Normally the Mining Station was not the sort of place Bramble Patch would prefer to be. But she needed to get away from the, as she put it so crassly in song last night, WINTER'S BUCKED UP! season in Equestria. That and chewing up entire planets for mining usually dug up the botanical life as well, which was thrown out once seperated from the ores and minerals. So she was picking through some of the discard bins looking for biomass that maybe she could use when the alarms go off. Cue hoofslap to the face. Oh of course, the one time she's here, someone decides to attack the place. Well, villianous duty calls, so Bramble takes her spade out of the bin and gallops into the hallways to find the source of the alarms.
Zephyr Windstar	"Area Search, give me some eyes ahead Dee." she says to her Device. It spalls off a pair of purple wisp-like orbs which then dart forward, scanning down side passages with a visual spellmatrix. She watches the feeds on a pair of holoscreens. The left side one flashes red, as it spots a... Pony!? "Basic outline matches Equestrian Earth Pony... What's she doing up here?" she muses to herself, then crossreferences the database as she approaches. "Fed ID signature... Guess she's the Elite on duty. Lets do this Dee." she muses to herself. The crescent-shaped axe chimes, then announces in a clarion call. <MISTRAL SHOOTER!> a half-dozen or so spheres of purple magic coaleasing around the Mage, before she throws her right hand forward. "FIRE!" Each 'bullet' fires off with the sound of a gunshot, streaking in a partially guided arc towards the galloping mare.
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch bounds through an airlock and starts around a corner, only for her ears to perk up at the sound of an attack being called out. Except that's when she comes around the corner and right into the attack that's being called, the first couple of the 'shots' catching her dead on and knocking her tumbling backwards. But when she's rolled back onto her hooves she ducks as several more buzz past. Except for the last one in the barrage, as that's the one she stands up and with the shovel in her mouth swats back down the hallway it came from!
Zephyr Windstar	<BARRIER AEGIS!> chimes Divine Wind, deflecting the returned bullet into the side of the hallway, blasting some shrapnel that slashes across her face. "Gnnnh. Ouch." She lands afterwards, the purple barrier fading out. "I'd normally say 'give up and we can work this out', but I've got this sneaking suspicion you wouldn't take the offer." she calls, sweeping her axe in an overhead arc. <JETSTREAM IMPULSE> "I'm Zephyr Windstar, TSAB Private Third Class. Disarm all Devices and weapons and stand down. This is your only warning." a slight pause. "Gotta say it, for the record." she adds. The spell weaves into a multitude of light-motes above her head, which then streak out as elongated 'beams' creating a 'Macross Missile Massacre' effect down the hallway.
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch makes a face when Zephyr makes the demand to get up just because its the thing to do, but at least admits that it's unlikely to be listened to. Because both of those aspects are right. Heroes need to demand surrender even when they know otherwise, just like a villian won't give up just because. And at least she's not getting mocked for being a pony. So with a grunt she slings the shovel over her back to free her mouth. "Bramble Patch, Dark Gardener of Everfree Forest, and Nightmare Moon's BEST MINION thankyouverymuch." Gilda or Trixie aren't around so she can totally say that. Then she rears up on her back legs as she pulls a small pouch from her vest and tosses it on the ground in front of her, spilling out some seeds that quickly spawn up into a wall of vines in front of her. The attack slams into it, buffeting her with some of the energy wave but the blow is mostly tanked by the defensive measure. And then there is... ... Music? "o/~ Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep." Yep, that's the pony singing as the smoke clears from the blasted vines. "Dreaming about the bad girl I can be. But heros come and I get beaten hard. It's hard to find the win, when I'm seeing stars. Yeah, when I'm seeing stars. o/~" She's still standing on her back hooves as she makes a motion, and the remaining vines regrow rapidly from more magical infusing and lunge down the hallway like botanical whips. "o/~ I'll grab this life like a choking vine. 'Round my heart thorns entwine. In my face the flashing lights, seek me out and we shall fight! o/~"
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr blinks. "Well, good, I was looking for a challenge!" she replies, setting her stance as... "Music? Really?" Then there's thorny whipvines. <KITE SHIELD!> chimes her Device, erecting a hastily set spell seal in the path of that onrush. The vines slam into the shield, splintering it and cracking the weakened matrix. Zephyr herself skids back, kicking up sparks from her boots on the metal floor. "Gnnh, think fast Zeph, that shield won't hold for long... AHA!" <GEAR SECOND! MISTRAL STORM, EMPOWER MODE!> Three Bits spall off, and form up around the head of the axe as the blade shifts from 'melee mode' to 'Bombard mode' just rotating around the gemstone in a 180 degree motion. She points the axe like one might a wand, as magic gathers in the gem. "Ragios, Razgriz, Lethim. I call upon the great winds." she intones. <MAELSTROM BUSTER!> chimes Divine Wind, as a torrent of energy surges out from the gemstone, searing away the vines with raw magical power.
Bramble Patch	=The whirlwind of energy slices through the vine assault with ease, and does better at cutting past without losing most of its momentum to the obstruction. It leaves bits of twisted plant scattered about the deck as it throws Bramble Patch down the hallway and into the wall of the corner she had originally come around. The pony remains there a moment against the wall, but then her eyes flare open again. " o/~ Old, but I'm not that old. Young, but I'm much too bold. Leave the world dark cold, I'm just doing what I'm told. o/~" Nope, it didn't stop her musical sequence either, even as she drops back to the deck and starts charging towards Zephyr. "o/~ And I-i-i-i-i-i feel something so right, doing the wrong thing. And I-i-i-i-i-i-i feel so wrong, doing the right thing. I'm gonna try, gonna try, gonna try..." At what seems to be the last moment she jumps, twisting in a way a normal equine wouldn't be capable of to kick out her back hooves at her heroic opponent. "o/~ Everything thing that hurts me.. Makes me feel alive!"
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr pants a little from the outpouring of mana. "Did that do i-- Nnnope!" She shifts her stance, watching the approaching charge, but a piece of the shredded vines falls into her face, just as that leap slams hooves into her chest. The chestplate buckles under the strike, and Zephyr flies backwards down the hallway, skipping across the ground and into the outer bulkhead. "Ouch. Nice hit!" she calls, picking herself up with a grunt of effort. "Okay, here's an easy one!" the mage lifts off the ground, grips her axe with both hands, and sweeps it behind her. <STRIKER MODE!> announces the Device, as the three Bits attach to the counterweight side of the axeblade. They then begin to spin as purple mana flows along the blade itself. <MISTRAL CUTTER, TEMPEST SHIFT!> With a surge of speed, Zephyr bursts forwards, trailing purple streamers of excess mana. She then pirouettes around, bringing a horizontal slash right for the Pony!
Bramble Patch	You would think constantly commanding atacks like that would give them away, but that doesn't necessarily mean the opponent hearing them actually has the time to react when you come charging at them with a big sharp magic axe at the same time. Bramble Patch yelps as she's caught in the attack, followed by the loud THNK of the axeblade digging in. Fortunately not into her, but the blow threw her against the station hull and then the axe dug into it next to her, pinning the pony against the hard surface by the handle and Zephyr's grip. That did finally stop the single, if only because she's gasping for breath from the crushing blow to the torso getting trapped like that. She squirms around a bit, dislodging a lump of alien peat moss she'd found earlier in the bins, which flops to the floor. At which Bramble stops squirming and instead focuses, gemstone headband glowing brightly as she infuses the alien biomass with some of Everfree's magic. Which turns the lump into, for lack of a better description, a large 'blob' of putrid smelling plant rot and gasses, which leaps at Zephyr to try and latch onto her in all it's flithy, stinky horror. If the fumes aren't bad enough, the rotting mass is causing it to dribble corrosive ichor now, too.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr was aiming to hit the Pony with that axe. The energy was meant to blunt the blade instead of sharpen it, so missing like that caused a much larger dent than expected in the bulkhead. She's just as stuck as Bramble is, so when that Shambling Mold leaps at her, she can't evade. It latches on, and the acidic slime starts to eat away at her Barrier Jacket. Zephyr lets go of her device, stumbling back from the reeking stench and flailing at the beast. Gagging and coughing, Zephyr shifts a little focus inwards, pulling something dangerous out. Modifying her Field-type spell hastily and inelegantly, she pours mana into the matrix and casts. Instead of a defensive film over her body, she's suddenly sheathed in a repulsive, boiling mass of cutting winds that aim to slice the mold into nanoscopic pieces.
Bramble Patch	Once the girl isn't holding onto the axe-device Bramble Patch is able to push against it enough to unwedge herself and drop to the deck. She gets splattered by bits of acidic matter as the shambler is shredded by the field of lacerations, burning up bits of her vest. Fortunately her resistance to the hazardeous effects of plant-life renders it more of a burn that's going to hurt like hell in the morning. Pacing back several steps to put some distance between them the pony pulls out one of her hot peppers and bites the stem off in the same way someone would pull the pin out of a grenade. But instead of throwing it at Zephyr she throws it up overhead. The disturbingly explosive pepper blows a hole in one of the chutes that transport rocks and ore around the station, sending a small avalanche of rock and grit tumbling out of it towards the magical girl.
Zephyr Windstar	Zephyr's looking pretty beaten up now, her Barrier Jacket missing large sections where it's melted away. She looks up as that pepper blasts the ore chute open, and covers over her head with her arms. A transluscent barrier forms to block and deflect some of that rock, but her defenses are weak by comparison to some of her peers, and she's pelted by a few of the mid-size chunks as the chute finishes pouring out its gathered load. Zephyr drops to one knee, spits out a gob of blood-filled spit to one side, then lifts her eyes to the Pony. "You're really good... I think I'm startin' to enjoy this." THe mage then darts to her Device, yanking it out of the bulkhead and spinning on her opponent. Without any announcement, the flourish looses a spiralling 'blade' of concentrated wind-element magic.
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch lowers her head and narrows her eyes, snorting and scraping a hoof on the deck in that way horses do when they're aggrivated. Though the compliment does get a bit of a vile smile back to her features, she doesn't let it distract her from the fight. Zephyr yanks the Device from the wall and turns towards her, hooves beating against the metal floor as Bramble charges towards her. The axe swings! And whistles through the air as Bramble uses her equine jumping ability to leave over it! Then skids as she lands behind Zephyr to turn to face her. "I guess you're not so bad yourself. At least you're not -annoying-.. for a good guy." But she grins again as she discharges some of the magic stored in her gemstone, and then pulls the flower from behind her ear with a hoof and throws it towards the girl, the magic causing it to grow in size and turn the petals into rigid, sharpend edges.
Zephyr Windstar	<MASTER! EVADE!> chimes the Device. Zephyr's overstretched, and that spinning flower slices into her weakened Barrier Jacket. The metal explodes outwards in a shower of purple shrapnel, negating the rest of the blow, and sending the magical girl skidding along the ground again. "Gnn, haven't spent this much time on my back since basic..." she grouses, getting back up and setting her stance again. She quickly checks the hallway, good, none of her Regulars came to look for her yet, now she can cut loose. "Ragios Razgriz Lethim. I call upon the great winds!" This again? Magic gathers in the gemstone, as the Bits swarm around it, containing the growing power. <MAELSTROM BUSTER!> chimes the Device. This time, the surge of mana is /much/ bigger, guess she's putting more juice into it now.
Bramble Patch	Bramble Patch raises a brow as she starts charging up that attack again. "Okay, not annoying, but you're full of more hot air than a pegasus!" A certain rainbow maned one even, but she's not going to give that ego the satisfaction of mentioning it by name. Instead she rears up and throws her forelegs to the sides. The vines coiled around them whip off to the extend to the sides and grab onto some of the technological greeble of the walls. The blast of mana empowered wind doesn't blow her down the corridor thanks to the anchoring, but it still pummels her with the buffeting force, whipping about her tail and mane as she endures it. Once it stops Bramble pulls the vines free, only to snap them forward and wind them together. If it wasn't clear they were empowered by some sort of magic before it certainally is now as the conical shape formed starts spinning in defiance of normal plant biology, thorns giving the spiral a barbed edge as Bramble slings it down the corridor towards Zephyr. Though when you think about it, plants are good at digging through the ground, so why not shaping it into a drill?
Zephyr Windstar	Pant, pant. All this mana outlay is taking its toll, but Zephyr is a stubborn little mage. She watches the defiant Bramble whip those vines into a spinning drill, and grasps the haft of her axe in both hands. "Come on then! SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!" she roars defiantly, pouring mana into the Cross-range circuits, lighting that blade up once more. <MISTRAL CUTTER!> chimes the Device, as she steps forward to meet that drill, slamming her axe into the spinning tip and slicing down the length, cleaving it in two. If Bramble doesn't move, she might just get a face full of exploding wind-magic axe-head!
Bramble Patch	The attempt to screw (hahaha) up her opponent runs askew when the axe is used to intercept the botanical drill and tear it apart, then unleash the blast of explosive wind that shreds more bits of plants scattering across the corridor and slamming into the pony that manifested it. It's like as if to make up for last time she's thrown down the corridor twice as hard and slams into the side of a transport cart with enough force it leaves a dent in the side as she collapses to the ground in front of it. Good thing Equestrian ponies are a lot tougher than they look, or that might of broken her more than it did the cart, which actually falls apart from how hard it was crashed into. At first the mare coughs.. but then she starts to laugh. "Heh heh... ugh... hahahah..." As she gets up her face is shadowed by her bangs all dramatically. "Think you won now, do you?" But when she raises her head fully her eyes are glowing with the same sickly green and black miasma as the gem in her headband. "But you just scattered plant matter -- MY plant matter -- all around you. HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cue the rearing back and maniacal laughter. All she's missing is a crash of thunder! But all those little bits of plat stewn about from the attacks Zephyr has been chopping up start to twitch and take root, surging upward into dozens and dozens of twisted, gnarled vines, ends opening up in thorn-toothed flytrap-like maws dripping viscious digestive goo as the entire swarm of eneverated plant life lunges at the magical girl from multiple directs at once with overwhelming numbers.
Zephyr Windstar	There's a muffled scream as the Enervated plantlife overwhelms the mage. It looks like Bramble might have just won this one... except. <STRIKER SYSTEM OVERDRIVE. STANDBY!> comes the clarion call from within that morass. <STRIKER FLARE!> "I'LL BE DAMNED IF I'LL LET YOU WIN!" roars a defiant voice from within the pulsating mass. "SHIIPU, JINRAI!" <HURRICANE THUNDERCLAP! DRIVE!> "DRIVE!" The mass shifts, bulges and distends, a sick tearing sound growing in power, before a purple light within begins to shine brighter. With a final slick snap, the biting vines are rent asunder, and Zephyr comes careering out on a roaring maelstrom of purple mana, boiling wind-element and three 'jets' of raw, unfiltered power. It's the same basic principle as the last melee strike. Empower the blade, explode like a shaped charge on impact with a surface... only this is on a MUCH higher power scale.
Bramble Patch	Cue the smash cut to the outside of the Mining Station, where all anyone observing would see an entire portion of the platform light up from the tremendous release of magical explosion that follows. Generic soldiers on both sides that had been fighting stop and look up as reverbs ring through the entire station. When it's all said and done and the smoke clears... Bramble Patch is still on her hooves! Abiet rather on the toasty side. In a moment of realizing this she rears up, forehooves thrust up. "Hah! I still stand! Now just hold still so I can finish digging your grave..." She grabs her shovel, winds back with it.... And that's when the cracking and creaking sounds get louder from just beneath her. Bramble pauses in mid-swing to look down, then looks up with a look of complete apathy at what is about to happen. "Aw horseapples." And that's when the platform breaks apart, dumping the pony lost into the depths of the station below. It's a mining operation, who knows how many deep contrivingly placed open shafts there are underneath the decks. "Curse you poetic ironyyyyyyy..." is the last sound that comes echoing up from the hole, fading out with the distance afterwards.