Episode 11: Counterattack

-Al Shahal Orbit-

"As expected, the Delta platoon are tough. Mere Var-infected pilots couldn't even put a scratch on their fighter's paint."

Gerald commented as he watch the feed showing the Delta platoon disabling machine after machine with little problem. They are definitely better than what was described by the data they have. Their commander made the right call to test the waters first. Their opponents are improving day by day with each battle they survived.

"All of them are aces. It should be expected though. They are Walkure's protectors. Chaos will spare nothing less than aces to protect one of their greatest asset, especially the Star Singer."

Lilium added, her screens also showing multiple images of the Delta platoon units carefully disabling the Var-infected units. Although there is one screen that shows one particular crimson unit not fighting a Var-infected. It is a unit they know by reputation and personal warning from both their commander and their squadmate. It belongs to an ace pilot who they heard had recently been assigned to be the Star Singer's bodyguard.

The Raven, Shinomiya Kazumi is currently staring at the barrel of one of their squadmate's gun. The ace pilot's crimson Messiah is currently floating in gerwalk mode at the gunpoint of a black Durandal, their squadron's signature mech. Wynn D Fanchon have found her target.

"It seems that Wynn have engaged the Raven."

Lilium said. Gerald also checked the data feed and saw a familiar unit facing the Raven's unit. It is the unit of their senior officer.

"So she did. Let's see how the Raven fares. I'm curious since the commander and Wynn always said that he is dangerous. Though I doubt he could be much of a problem while piloting a Messiah. The 25 is a great machine but it is no match for a 29, especially ours."

Gerald confidently said. Lilium did not immediately reply, simply staring at the screen with interest. Like Gerald said, even if the 25 is a great machine, it is no match for their specially tuned 29. Plus Wynn is also a top class ace pilot, like every one of them. Even if Shinomiya is also an ace pilot, he couldn't be better than them who are top aces equipped with implant. Even if he is, then the difference in their machine will be the deciding factor. Wynn can't lose. So how will the Raven handle this?

That is not their problem though because now they have another matter to take care of. Lilium noticed that they have lost around 60% of the fold speakers they smuggled and installed throughout the city. Since their commander doesn't have some kind of powerful Protoculture relic to enhance her voice, the power of her song will decrease with each speaker lost. On top of that, many of the Var-infected units have been disabled but the data they have gathered is not enough. That means they have to go in and test the Delta platoon by themselves.

"Gerald, the fold speakers and Var forces are being eliminated faster than we anticipated. We're switching to plan B."

"Heh, so we're going down there? Who should we take on then?"

Gerald asked. Lilium then have her partner's monitor zoom in on two particular fighters. The VF-31 J type and C type. Gerald grinned. The Jenius girl and Immellmann boy. The pair that have proven themselves to be a formidable force as a team during the war with Windermere. The Immellmann boy even managed to shot down the White Knight of Darwent during the first battle of Ragna. Granted, the boy failed to kill the White Knight then but it is still an impressive feat.

"Interesting. Then what are you waiting for, Lilium? Let's pay those kids a visit!"

Gerald shouted as he turn his unit from gerwalk mode to fighter and descent into the planet. Lilium simply rolled her eyes at her partner's lust for combat but follow him nonetheless. She envy Wynn sometimes. Her usual mission partner, Jack, is more obedient and not prone to being trigger happy. Well, at least she's not partnered with that smug bastard Thermidor. Berlioz must have the patience of a saint for being able to handle that guy as a partner.


A Durandal. Kazumi did not expect to see this particular model around this part of the galaxy. And from its pitch black color as well as lack of any marking makes it hard to determine what organization it is affiliated with, though hopefully it is not remnant of Harvamal. That is the only organization that colors all its unit black, or at least the only one he knew of. Though it would've been easier if it is a remnant of Harvamal. The other option means an unknown organization and an unknown organization is more dangerous than a known one.

The Durandal opened fire. Kazumi quickly dodge and fired back with his gunpod and cannons. The Durandal dodged and turn into fighter mode. The Durandal then fly upward without shooting back, but Kazumi knew that it is an invitation for a dogfight. He will gladly oblige. Pushing all his thrusters to the max, the Raven gave chase.

Unknown to Kazumi, Wynn who is piloting the Durandal smiled. She is glad that Kazumi accepted her invitation. This time she will see how much difference there is between them. His Messiah is starting to catch up. Good. She knew that despite being an older generation model, Kazumi's Messiah had been tuned to its absolute possible limit and littered with custom parts. Even if it won't fully cover the technological gap between their two units, it should be more or less a fair fight.

The Raven fired at Wynn with his gunpod and beam cannons. Wynn dodged his shots with some maneuvering, controlling her fighter's movement with absolute precision using her implants. She need to be careful when she maneuver and must take care to not make any careless movement when dodging. While his early shots have good accuracy, it is not the full extent of his skill. Kazumi is quite a sharpshooter and can be tricky to fight. His early fire serves to gauge and herd his opponent, especially when he is fighting an ace.

Thankfully, the extra mini thrusters she requested to be built into her unit helped her with doing highly precise maneuvers to evade his shots. It is difficult even for someone with implants like her but she managed. It is at times like these that she appreciated what she had learned from the man. She might hate him as a person, but she will appreciate his teachings from tactics to personal unit customization.

"You haven't changed, captain."

Wynn fired back at him with her own cannons. Kazumi used minimal movement to dodge, merely raising his right wing a little to let the shot pass by harmlessly. Her next few shots are also dodged in a similar way in quick succession. Not one of them even came close to hitting him and Wynn knew that. The black ops agent grinned. Kazumi had gotten better since Ouroboros. His movements have become sharper, more refined.

"Then how about this?!"

Wynn pulled her fighter up and adjust her thrusters so she would be blown backward by the wind and take his back. Just as she passed by the Raven's Messiah, she was surprised that the Messiah had just finished transforming from fighter to battroid mode and is now slashing at her with its knife. Wynn immediately reengaged her thrusters and transform to battroid, blocking the knife with her pin point barrier shield. He had anticipated her maneuver and moved fast.

"Tch, that monstrous responsiveness of both man and machine, that's the captain alright."

Of course it's never simple when it comes to fighting him. Even taking his back in a dogfight is difficult. Normal maneuvers won't work. She should've known. His unorthodox moves have always been his greatest asset. That coupled with his reaction time that could somehow match someone with extensive implant makes him a monster on the battlefield comparable to legends like Maximillian Jenius. Sometimes she even wonder if he has something like precognition. But that doesn't mean that he is undefeatable. Just a bit tricky. And fortunately, she knew some of his favorite tricks.

'Let's see. If his slash failed, his next move is usually…'

Anticipating his next move from her familiarity with him, Wynn quickly slash down with her rifle, utilizing the blade equip on its underside. The shield arm that was about to punch her Durandal was immediately maneuvered to block her rifle instead. Kazumi was surprised that the enemy pilot could anticipate his next move and counter properly. That surprise bought Wynn the split second she needed to kick Kazumi away.

'This pilot is tough.'

Kazumi thought. The Raven then quickly engage his thrusters as he switch from battroid to fighter just as Wynn switched her rifle to firing position and fired at him with the rifle in full auto mode. Kazumi's unit did not move fast enough to fully dodge her shots and part of his Tornado pack wings was shot. His eyes widened and he quickly eject his wings before they can explode. But he won't let his enemy get him so easily.

"Finally, we're getting somewhere. Let's continue, captain."

Wynn grinned madly when she saw that her shots had hit. Kazumi ejected his wings while making his escape. She won't let him ran so easily. Just as she gave chase though, suddenly, numerous micro missiles were shot out from the detached pieces of armors just in time before the Tornado pack wings exploded. They were fired just as she dodged the descarded armors midair.

"Shit!"

Wynn cursed. She shouldn't have let her guard down just because she managed to hit Kazumi. She should've known that he would somehow use his damaged Tornado pack for some kind of attack. In fact, she should've remembered this particular trick! He had used it in one mission where he discarded his Armored pack on purpose and use them to take down an enemy from behind when his opponent is focused on him!

Wynn quickly use her head mounted lasers and MDE cannons to intercept the missiles. But they're already too close for her to properly intercept so she focused most of her unit's energy on shielding while intercepting as many missiles as she could. She increased her thrust some more and rolled to shake off the missiles, or at least make the missiles collide with each other from following her. Her roll managed to make the missiles collide with each other but the resulting explosion did some damage to her craft as well as knock her around.

"Ugh, moderate damage to the wing engines and cannons, light damage to the leg engines. I can still fight but I can't push my unit too far. Tch, looks like I underestimated the captain. I should remember to never do that."

Shaking her head, she continued her pursuit of the VF-25S. Despite the damage done to her unit that dropped its performance, she is slowly catching up to her opponent without much problem. Much of Kazumi's maneuverability and speed came from the Tornado pack after all. When he lost his Tornado pack wings, he lost at least 35% of his speed and mobility. That is quite a lot for someone like him.

Locking on to the Messiah, Wynn fired several micro missiles. Kazumi use his MDE cannons, head mounted lasers, and released some chaff to destroy the missiles. His precise shooting managed to destroy enough missiles for him to dodge the rest when they got too close and then shoot them down. Just as he destroyed the missiles, he was forced to dodge a barrage of rifle shots from the Durandal. The enemy unit is getting closer. Wynn then fired another volley of missiles at Kazumi when she deemed that she's close enough.

"Ugh."

Kazumi groaned as several missiles exploded in close proximity to his unit when he tried to shoot them down. His computer inform him that his unit had suffered some light damage. It's getting hard to maneuver through some of his enemy's shots without his Tornado pack wings. The enemy's shots are very accurate and it took a lot of effort for him to dodge all of them before. It only gets harder now. Not only that, the enemy unit's performance seemed to be above an ordinary Durandal with its speed and flexibility. It is definitely a custom machine. That spells bad news to him.

But above all, the enemy pilot was able to anticipate his movements before and even counterattack. He or she can even keep up and push him to his limit. If the enemy pilot is just as skilled as he is, then the battle will be decided by the performance of their machine, and even if he loves his VF-25S, Kazumi knew that his unit wouldn't be able to keep up with the much more advanced machine, especially if it is customized.

Thankfully, for some reason, the enemy is not using the Fold Wave system despite having a singer on their side. But that doesn't change the fact that he's in for a difficult fight. He will need to take this up a notch.


"I'm almost done here. What about you, Mirage?"

Hayate asked his partner through the comm. They have managed to shoot down most of the var-infected enemies and now there's only a few of them left. Dealing with Var-infected enemies are not particularly hard, primarily because they have no tactics and only follow their destructive instinct. The most difficult part about fighting Var-infected is how to shoot them down without killing them.

"I'm almost done here too. Let's regroup and finish them."

Mirage replied. Hayate respond with an affirmative as he directed his unit to rendezvous with Mirage. Just as he made his turn though, his sensors and his own instinct warned him that something is coming. Following his instinct, he slightly jerked his control to the right, evading a beam shot coming from above. He looked up to see a pair of units he had never seen flying straight towards him.

"What the… what are these guys?!"

Hayate dodged a volley of bullets coming from the two unknowns. Their shots are rather precise so he's having a little trouble dodging. Thankfully, Mirage came just in time and fired at the two units to break them off. She then joined her partner as they both face the two unknown units. A quick scan and search revealed that they are facing the VF-29 series of Valkyrie, the Durandal.

"VF-29?! What are those units doing here?!"

Mirage exclaimed in surprise. To her knowledge, there are no VF-29 units active in the system. She brought up her sensors to scan the units for any Var signature. She did not detect any. They are real hostiles! If that is so, then that means they are the ones causing the var outbreak through the fold speakers!

"Hayate, we have hostiles attacking! They are real enemies!"

"Roger that. Let's show them what we can do, Mirage!"

The two of them got into formation, flying in a helix. Their opponents, Gerald and Lilium, followed them, getting into formation themselves. Both duos engaged each other in a dogfight. It's a chaotic shootout as the four units shoot at each other while watching their respective partner's back.

Despite their opposite personalities, Lilium and Gerald work well with each other. Gerald is the primary attacker, pushing the offense on their enemy. Lilium would then take the role of partner who look after his back, allowing him to fully focus on attacking. But should an enemy manage to take her back, Gerald would quickly abandon offense to protect Lilium and then they would shuffle.

Hayate and Mirage are currently experiencing the fight of their life. Whenever they shuffle, they will always find one of the duos to be their opponent. Trying to take Lilium from behind will only make Gerald disengage Hayate and move to protect Lilium while Lilium harass the opponent in front. All four fighters kept shuffling positions trying to take each other from behind.

"Ugh, they're good, what should we do, Mirage?!"

Hayate yelled as he dodged a beam shot from Gerald. The Durandal duo are skilled, as skilled as the Aerial Knights and showed very good teamwork. It took everything he has to not lag behind them.

"We need to break them up! We can't take them on if they work together!"

Mirage replied while firing some missiles at Lilium that the pilot easily dodged and shot down with her MDE cannon. Gerald suddenly shuffled with Lilium, taking Mirage by surprise, forcing her to pull up.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?! These guys are not pushovers! Besides, I don't think we can break them up easily!"

Hayate replied, chasing after Gerald with Lilium on his tail. Mirage circle around from her position in front of Gerald to try getting behind Lilium. Hayate is right. These two won't be easy to separate. They kept a close eye on not only their enemy but also each other. The best they can do right now is keep a stalemate.

"Whew, these guys are not bad. What do you think of them, Lilium?"

"They're skilled and their teamwork is solid. It's only because they're just starting to become a unit by themselves that they're not better compared to us who had fought with each other for years."

Gerald had to agree. Hayate and Mirage are good. They are a solid team. There's still room for improvement but considering that they have only fought beside each other for less than a year, they are impressive. But he is not ready to be outdone yet. The two duos continue their fierce engagement, neither of them wanting to lose to the other.

While the battle rages on, the Walkure are still back at the stage. The attack was surprising and itcaught them all off guard. They didn't expect someone to trigger a Var outbreak with such method. Using a singer alongside fold speakers spread throughout the city, it was very different from what Windermere did. But now that they knew what the enemy did, they can begin their counterattack.

As her friends prepare for their next song though, Mikumo look up to the sky. She doesn't see anything but she could feel the song that triggered the Var came from up there, and the feeling she got from the singer singing that song was interesting. After her awakeneing as the Star Singer, not only did her receptor value rose to a new level but she also became more sensitive to the songs she heard. It became easier for her to decipher the feelings a singer put into their song.

The song that she heard, it is… odd. There is anticipation and longing in the voice, something she didn't expect from a song used to trigger Var. While the speaker frequency has been tuned in order to trigger Var, her senses can hear the raw emotion behin the song. What does that mean, and most of all, who is these feelings aimed at?

She will think about that later. For now, it's time for counterattack.

"Mikumo, are you ready?!"

Kaname called out to her. Mikumo nodded and joined her friends. It's time to end this battle. Music began to blare throughout the city as their song was transmitted through the Delta's units.

'Walkure ga tomaranai (Fu Fu Fu)

walkure ga tomaranai(Fu Fu Fu)

walkure wa tomaranai(Fu Fu Fu)

ROCKIN' MY JET

COSMIC LOVETAKE OFF!'


I am really sorry that I couldn't finish this one faster. Anyway, Kazumi finally engaged Wynn in battle and Hayate/Mirage duo is now fighting the Gerald/Lilium duo. The battle will conclude in the next chapter with the counterattack.

xzorshio: Well I always like to use every material available to me.

Yoshiki-909: It's because it is such a good machine that I use it as Thanatos squadron's VF. I know how difficult it is to fight that unit having fought the Perceval during the assault on Harvamal's base in Macross 30.

TheEmeraldMage: It's not that bad. Mikumo is still a much superior singer if she went Star Singer mode.