Chapter 4: The Girls of the Sky
The three girls sped through the teal colored sky, rapidly being stained orange by the setting sun. Fate and Mami were trying to digest the information Evangeline had just given them. "You really think we are all from separate, parallel universes? I know that the many-worlds theory is generally accepted, but no one has ever been able to break through the universe walls, even with the best Midchildan technology." Fate's tone was questioning, but not accusative. Mami had remained fairly quiet during the conversation.
"Oh its certainly possible. I was involved in some research on the subject a few decades past. There was a project to…well, that's not important right now. The upshot of it is that we managed to break through to other universes, we even contacted some mages on the other sides. That's how I know about Midchilda and your TSAB, one of the universes had Earth as a major TSAB administered world." Fate gave a startled expression at that. "I guess that's not your universe then, but probably one fairly close. As for you," Evangeline turned her head towards Mami, flying to her left and slightly behind, "if you are what I think you are, you need to be careful. Just fair advice. All is not what it seems in your world." Mami gulped at that, but didn't inquire further.
"Are we heading to that disturbance up ahead?" Fate asked, breaking the awkward silence. "We just barely survived that last battle, and that was a skirmish compared to what I'm starting to feel up ahead."
"Well, we won't get any answers just by running away, will we? And something tells me that we weren't brought here by accident, and we may not be the only ones brought here. After all, if that's a battle we're sensing, there must be two sides…"
Elise bit off a curse as she barely dodged a barrage of crimson energy beams. The worst part was that they weren't even aimed at her! The battle she'd found herself dropped into was between two groups of…things she'd never seen before. Some truly horrifying lizard monsters, and these black crystalline…ships? People? She had no idea. But only the lizards had actively attacked her thus far, while the crystals had avoided attacking her directly. And of course that didn't even get into just where this battle was. She'd been on a routine patrol for WORM activity, when her Sonic Diver had been engulfed in darkness, and emerged in the middle of the raging battle, in a teal sky, above an orange sea. An alarm jolted her back to awareness of her surroundings, and a quick laser blast took out a lizard that was charging towards her. "Thanks, Bach", she murmured, a window popped up in the corner of her HUD, showing three more of the creatures on her six. "Oh now that's just not good."
Looking around, she saw a huge black crystal creature, as big as an aircraft carrier, red beams blasting outwards all across its hull. "That could work, Bach, show me the beam emitters on the large one at three o'clock", a schematic of the creature/vessel, with a line of hexes glowing bright red appeared. Banking to port, she poured on the acceleration, weaving around the beams, and pulling in close to the hull, she skimmed over its surface, a quick glance in the rear camera showed the plan had worked, the monsters had either fled or been blown out of the sky. As she emerged from the shadow of the vessel, a new contact bloomed on her radar. Showing as an orange unknown, meaning it wasn't the crystals or the lizards. "Bach, mark the unknown contact, maybe we have someone here who can help. If nothing else, it can't be worse, right?"
As the contact came closer, Elise activated the telescopic camera, and was shocked at what she saw. It was a girl, about her age, maybe a bit older, flying in the sky. That wasn't too shocking, considering that she was doing that exact same thing, except the girl didn't have a Sonic Diver frame, she seemed to have…something attached to her legs, whatever they were, they seemed to be what was allowing her to fly. "How curious", she muttered under her breath. She also realized that the unknown girl was fighting in concert with one of the crystalline creatures, one that was shaped like a human. In fact, it seemed to have even replicated the devices on the other girl's legs. Still several kilometers away, Elise was helpless to stop what happened next, as a monster broke through the pair's defense, and the black crystal girl exploded, just like she'd seen happen to the larger crystal vessels. The other girl, whom she could now see had long blonde hair, and was wearing a blue uniform of some sort, went nuts, and pulled out a sword, "Bach, faster!" Elise yelled.
As Elise poured on every ounce of speed she could muster, a massive electrical blast washed over her, somehow emitted by the blonde girl. As the system disruption passed, Elise realized that almost all the creatures around the other girl had been destroyed, except for one. "Bach! A-Mode!" Elise's Sonic Diver transformed from its cruising mode into battle mode. "MV Lanze!" Elise grabbed the weapon as it shot from its holster, and let it fly with all the force she could muster. "Please make it!" the lance spun through the air, and reached the creature as it was a bare meter from the other girl. It struck right behind the neck, and sliced its head clean off. The lance began its return trip, but Elise had continued on a full speed, and grabbed it as it barely turned around. Turning to the girl, who was busy wiping black gore from her glasses, "are you all right?"
Perrine knew she was going to die. There was no way around it. She was out of ammo, and there was no way she could muster enough energy to stop that monster. It couldn't be more than 6 feet from her now. She could see right down its massive maw, a row of sharp teeth coming her way. Unable to look away, she had the faint impression of something spinning, and then blackness.
After a few moments, Perrine realized that the blackness was just that she couldn't see. Quickly wiping her glasses with her fingers, she saw a figure in front her her. At first she thought it was another witch, until she realized that they weren't wearing a Striker Unit. Instead, it was a girl, her age, maybe a bit younger, strapped into some sort of…armature. It reminded her of a Warlock, of all things. She realized the girl was saying something.
"Are you all right? Is everything ok?" The girl spoke with a distinct Karlsland accent, but she had no trouble understanding her.
"Oh, yes. Thank you, I thought I was a goner." Perrine examined the girl closer, she had long blonde hair, much like her own, and was wearing what looked like a white and green one-piece swimsuit. On her head was what looked at first like a set of familiar's ears, but on second look, were some sort of decoration. In fact, the girl didn't seem to be using magic at all. So how did that…whatever it was, work? Perrine realized she was staring, "once again, thank you. My name is Perrine H. Clostermann, Flying Officer in the Gallian Free Air Force, currently assigned to the 501st Joint Fighter Wing."
The girl's expression seemed somewhat confused, which is strange, what was so odd about what she'd said? But she composed herself quickly. "I'm just glad you're ok, Perrine. I'm Elise von Dietrich, assigned to the Anti-WORM Destroyer Koryuu, and this is my Sonic Diver, Bachstelze." The girl gestured with her arms, which caused the arms of her…Sonic Diver to also move.
Perrinne had the sinking feeling that things had just gotten even more complicated.