Authors' Notes: You are strongly advised to reread earlier chapters and pay attention.

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CHAPTER 32

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November 30 2024

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Usually, the seal for a Skyranger being good enough to minimise the amount of noise that got in was a good thing. Its engines might be very soft for how much thrust they put out, but the wind outside was still a deafening roar as it rushed past at several times the speed of sound.

This was not one of those times.

The interior of the Royal Australian Navy Skyranger was quiet with confused, nervous energy, naught a distraction to be found for the jitters.

"Riptide One, Solano. Incoming transmission from Butterfly Actual."

{Ace Combat 7 Original Soundtrack - LRSSG Briefing II}

YouTube watch?v=0k4VPwlqVn0

Solano was the callsign of the Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail providing air battle management. The man's voice coming from it was young and high-strung.

A series of beeps sounded before the screen mounted on the bulkhead separating passenger cabin and cockpit came to life. First came the "Incoming transmission" and progress bar, which filled and gave way to the Task Force VALKYRIE shield, winged sword and "VALKYRJA'' banner. After that was the JMSDF's cherry blossom on an anchor. Then came the Fleet Kanmusu Force's red torii over a gold cherry blossom in a circle, and finally Kaishō-ho Minami's worried face appeared in FLEACT Yokosuka's operations room, Riptide's proper CO on her right.

Riptide straightened up as one and greeted her.

{J-DesRon Two, at ease,} Minami said. {Apologies once again for redeploying you on such short notice.}

The order had come in out of the blue for Riptide to be pulled off the frontlines of the Southeast Asia campaign currently making its way down the eastern side of the Malay Peninsula and board a RAN Skyranger. The Skyranger had promptly taken them to HMAS Coonawarra, where they had been hurried through resupply in preparation for their next mission.

It hadn't been a very enjoyable meal despite the chefs serving up the territory's finest as part of being responsible for victualling the RAN shipgirls who guarded the Indonesian Front, and not just because of the haste. Malaysia to Australia was on average six-plus hours on a commercial airliner, and even economy class had a passable seat and creature comforts. A Skyranger was very fast, but it wasn't ludicrously so, and the trip still meant around an hour strapped into a harness unconducive to decompressing. The prospect of the upcoming mission also cast a shadow over the proceedings; the fact that they were tanking up rather than rushing straightaway to the next AO on partially-filled bunkers and magazines suggested that trouble was expected.

{Two hours ago, satellite-mounted OEDAR detected a new signature in the Solomon Islands consistent with a fresh Summon/Manifestation.}

Riptide exchanged surprised grimaces as Minami's image shrunk and was joined on the screen by a map of the Solomon Islands filled with a mess of shifting yellow smears, an unhelpful reminder of how immature the new hypertech still was, and the fuzzy dark grey of a low-light live feed from a RAAF Triton. This might not have been the first time a Manifestation had occurred in hostile waters, or even the first time such had to be rescued, but that didn't make the prospect of a returnee being stuck behind enemy lines right from the get-go any more comforting. While the CVB-44 incident had been the most extreme one yet, Private Ryan scenarios were no fun whatsoever for all involved, even if it had inadvertently proven beyond reasonable doubt that "abyssalness" wasn't something that could be contracted from hematophagia or sustained mental stress. That the zone in question was as conflict-roiled an area as the Solomons only made things worse.

{We received brief distress calls, but they were garbled and too short to triangulate the apparent returnee's position with, and ceased shortly afterwards. Satellite overflight failed to uncover anything other than a faint, mostly petered-out wake, as did drones, including the one you are currently receiving a feed from. There has been no sign of any change in abyssal activity yet, but we do not know how long that will last. Ordinarily, we would prefer to wait for daybreak to facilitate the search and go in loud, but given its occurrence in such fiercely-contested waters, Kamiki-kaishō has decided that time is of the essence and has authorised an immediate rescue mission. To assist, Commodore Martini of the RAN's HMAS Cairns is having the 7th Enlightened Shock Flotilla launch a diversionary raid on the abyssal base at Vella Lavella Island. Ideally, this reconnaissance would have been done with a submarine, but unfortunately all of the Pacific Protectorate's are currently preoccupied. That means prior stealthy scouting of the area is not possible. Hence, we needed to pull you off the Southeast Asia campaign.}

Minami's already atypical intensity now turned grim. {There is bad news, however. Futurecasting has given mostly hazy results, with some outright baneful ones. No matter which unit we consider deploying for this rescue, the proportion of hazy and baneful results remains roughly the same; in fact, deploying you got the best. Unfortunately, baneful results were universal when the idea of waiting for more favourable conditions was mooted, which is why we are not doing so. As such, please be careful. You've done this before, but that doesn't mean you can be careless. I don't want you risking your lives unnecessarily for the sake of what could be just a glitch. Any questions before I pass the time to Kita-ittō kaisa?}

{Can we try to si-signal the returnee as to where to wait for us, maybe?} Takanami asked.

{We have indeed tried doing so,} Minami replied patiently. {However, we don't know if any of the old codes used from any of the countries was the right one, and there has been no response. You know the old Kaigun ciphers were already compromised and the others may be too, so we cannot rely on them, and the returnee may know that too.}

{Commander, what magical attempts at communication or observation have been made?} Riptide Two asked, quicker to regain her usual earnestness than the rest of the squadron.

{Several of the decoy force have "accidentally" fired P-charged munitions set to nonvisual mode in the direction of the Manifestation zone, attempting to use Or Energy airbursts as Morse code signals. There has been no response to said signals, and we don't know whether the Manifested even recognises it for what it's supposed to be. The small possibility that the newcomer is one of the rare completely Prime-blind also exists.} Minami looked away briefly, thinking of the technical terms. {Broad-area scrying has failed to locate anything clearly distinct, and both narrow scans and "lost" recon plane overflights are ongoing but taking time we do not have. You know that, unlike Bismarck, neither Australia's Intellectus extends beyond their territorial waters.}

{Yes, Ma'am. Are there any other known abyssal concentrations we need to be on guard about?}

Minami shook her head. {The briefing proper will cover this in greater detail, but the other main area of concern, the Guadalcanal base, isn't expected to be an issue. Observation of abyssal movements from there in response to the Vella Lavella operation has accounted for the majority of known hostiles, with the remainder consistent with the posture of a force protection detail.}

{What support can we expect?}

{In all bluntness, limited. Remember, even with those who scraped through the war-end boundary and the loaners coming back to it or New Zealand rather than the UK, the Australians are still badly stretched covering a sea area larger than ours without nearby allies to help. The RAAF is either already assisting with Vella Lavella or too far away in the south. So too are the Fleet Enlightened Shock Arm units based out of Fleet Base West, while those in Fleet Base East are rotating out from patrols after the recent abyssal movements near New Zealand. The remainder of Commodore Martini's shipgirls are being held in reserve in case they need to assist in a breakout. The PLAAF was able to spare two H-6Ns for overwatch, but you can't count on that to singlehandedly save you, especially with the majority of their forces supporting the Southeast Asia campaign.} Minami grimaced, and not just because of how far afield Chinese bombers were ranging. Granted, under ordinary conditions, Chinese bombers skulking around well within CJ-20 land attack cruise missile range of the Australian mainland would have been a cause for concern. {I cannot overemphasise the need for caution. The exact details of the exfil plan will be covered by your CO, but if the worst occurs and you run into heavy opposition, your priority must be to break contact and bail out. Expend everything and worry about accounting for it later. While we don't want to abandon anyone, don't throw away your lives pressing on if you cannot confirm beyond reasonable doubt the presence of a Manifested.}

{Understood,} Riptide Two said, though she couldn't keep the ghost of a frown off her face. The rest of Riptide was more vocal in its grousing.

{Any further questions?} Minami met the eyes of each member of the squadron, noting that as the grumbles died down, resolve was now beginning to set in on their faces.

There were none.

{Very good. Riptide Actual, your turn.} Still visibly concerned, she stepped aside and let Riptide's proper CO handle the fine tactical details of the briefing.

{Halo Original Soundtrack - Under Cover of Night}

Spotify track/6YUTpya3WZ9vwDd3h0nIKT

The Skyranger didn't bother slowing down as it approached the LZ over 100 miles out from the appropriate centre of the detection, taking full advantage of the shipgirl ability to land unharmed in water. The aircraft might have had an OEDAR installed to protect the investment, but given how limited the things still were, no one was risking the possibility that it might have failed to detect inbound bandits. Thus, doctrine on stealth missions was to make the initial drop-off outside the enemy CAP zone and proceed on foot. A Skyranger might be much faster, quieter and stealthier than the Osprey it was derived from, but that didn't do anything against a bursting flak shell in the wrong place. A properly-protected gunship variant had been mooted but wasn't getting much traction; there were just too many things of higher priority than introducing yet another platform with all the new logistical and operational issues that entailed.

Riptide leapt off the ramp of the Skyranger, did a brief final check that everyone had gotten down and everything was secured, then started off.

The journey from the drop-off point to the last known location of the contact took nearly 5 agonisingly long, nerve wracking hours at 20 knots. The squadron's only companions were the hum of their engines, the whisper of the wind and waves, and an ear glued to their hydrophones as a precaution against underwater interlopers. The diversion operation to the northwest, while close enough to pull defenders from where Riptide was headed, was also far enough that they saw or heard little of the fighting firsthand.

One of the most troubling things about abyssal VLO was that enacting EMCON meant the shipgirls were going in effectively blind. Some of the shipgirls that had survived to the Cold War might have been conditioned to accept it, but to their generation and the crews whose experiences they drew on, it was an alien phenomenon, something that one never really got used to. There was only so much the enhanced senses innate to shipgirls could do for the fine, discreet work they were engaged in. Solano's radar might as well be useless and the infrared imaging and electronic low-light amplification on the Tritons that the RAAF also operated only gave unhelpfully faint readings if at all. OEDAR as a fine instrument was right out, of course, since there wouldn't be a need for recon in person in the first place if it was actually capable of telling what the anomaly was. What passive thermographic gear or other sensors had been retrofitted onto them were also limited in range or resolution compared to active radar. After all, radar warning receivers only worked if there was radiation to capture. Within Riptide, their individual paradigms meant exotic methods of long-range sensing required active methods that, even though not using radar, still emitted something potentially detectable. Prime sensors were also strangely silent; was the returnee lying low? The IJN might have had the best night-fighting training and optical rangefinders, things that magic had only improved, but on a moonless night like this, that only went so far.

That the abyssal patrols felt confident enough to have their navigation lights on and not hide their glowing eye smoke, to say nothing of merrily radiating away, was no reassurance whatsoever. It only raised the concern that the creatures were so careless either because they were confident they had the numbers to crush any trespassers or that they were bait meant to lure infiltrators into a false sense of security while the hunter-killers that did run silent prepared an ambush. Ordinarily, no news would have been good news, but the fact that not a single member of the unit had attracted attention wasn't as comforting as it should have been.

At 2140 hours local time, still having seen neither hide nor hair of the Manifested or any abyssal hunter-killer operation that might point them in the right direction yet, Takanami sighted Savo Island.

Taking a moment to review the unit's formation, Naganami didn't know why she was suddenly so aware of the absence of Suzukaze or why an uneasy frown had found its way onto her face.

At 2240 hours, Riptide passed south of Savo about 3 miles from Guadalcanal, approaching the approximate centre of where the signature of the Manifestation had been detected.

There was nothing there.

Of course it couldn't have been so easy, Naganami thought, frustration getting bigger.

After sending out a quick "no joy" back to base via Solano, Riptide slowed and fanned out to begin searching, pushing passive sensors to the max in an attempt to catch the slightest sign of being on the right track. That was where the trouble began.

How did you find someone who was trying to not be found and was almost certainly confused as to what was going on, prior attempts at communicating or not? Someone who, unlike a previously-trained operative, did not have access to prearranged codes and designated rendezvous points?

Ittō kaisa Kita's briefing had broken down the possibilities and laid out clearly the fact that anything obvious enough to the newcomer would almost certainly be equally transparent to the abyssals.

The idea of using a star shell had been mooted and promptly crushed. The sudden appearance of one of the lighting devices, even though not attached to a shipgirl the way a searchlight was, would definitely stir up a hornet's nest and tell the abyssals they had been looking in the wrong direction all this time. While Naganami might welcome a fight any other time, this was one of the worst possible situations for that. It might also be interpreted by the apparent new Manifested as something deployed by a hunting party and either make her hunker down harder or spook her into making a break for it, with all the abyssal hordes in hot pursuit that would entail.

IR signal lamps were also out. None of them had had thermographic equipment the last time and either had to have it installed or learnt how to see in the relevant part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Did the fresh Manifested know how to see in infrared or look out for it?

The very fact that they didn't know where the Manifested was supposed to be also precluded the use of a tightbeam laser or microwave, if she had the right starting Spheres and skills to even accept and interpret the communication at all. As-built equipment from their time definitely didn't provide for that.

This had been so much easier the last time when she had already known beforehand where the drums were to be dropped off.

Why did that thought bother her?

Was it possible to build some kind of small UAV as a destroyer-capable substitute for the Aichi E11A Type 98 Reconnaissance Seaplane? She had heard about some Fletchers being used as testbeds for aviation destroyers.

It was times like this that she could do like Bismarck's King of the Ocean schtick and establish a domain within which she had awareness of everything within without needing to radiate. Unfortunately, her paradigm wasn't amenable to the idea and thus she just couldn't make it work for herself.

While trying to think if there was any other means of signaling the Manifested that had not been considered yet by all the minds that had been thrown at the problem, Naganami noticed there didn't seem to be the unusual level of chatter that usually preceded abyssal movements, at least no more than might be anticipated given the ongoing diversion. Even though the creatures' language remained indecipherable despite the linguists' efforts and they were smart enough to eventually recognise when their codes had been broken and change them, the mere fact that the radio traffic was different from normal would have been something to work with.

Why had she noticed that?

Slightly over half an hour later, Takanami signalled with the IR lamp for Naganami to approach. {Naga-Riptide One, I saw something, maybe,} she said once the other shipgirl was near enough.

{The returnee?} Naganami asked, trying to curb her enthusiasm and excitement at finally getting a lead.

Self-doubt filled Takanami's face. {Maybe.} She pointed eastward. {It definitely didn't have a friendly IFF, but also didn't look like any abyssal.}

Of course the returnee wouldn't have had the opportunity to be fitted with a friendly IFF. Yet somehow, that wasn't as reassuring as it should have been. Naganami signalled the others to check their shields and equipment before going any further.

Despite the precautions, the deafening trumpet blast that suddenly split the air about 10 minutes later still came as a surprise.

"Oscar Echo spike, 90% match for-" The new Or Energy signature jerked and jumped in a manner obviously distinct from the way the things usually wobbled around, and the naked alarm in Solano's voice echoed what Riptide was experiencing. "Break, break, break!"

{Furi Original Soundtrack feat. Carpenter Brut - You're Mine}

Spotify track/1uAnBm1hMBWkIFdRwXfCOK?si=UQrba5xmQA23ci-eiOpdqA

Takanami emerged from the evasionary Step she had taken and found a saber punching through what should have been the Force-denying power of her Unseen Shield, going into her chest, through her internals, out her back, and finally stopping in her stack.

Imgur /a/oGsPdsX

Pixiv en/artworks/65266774

"Takanami!" Naganami yelled as her sister's pained cry filled the airwaves.

Nearly every shipgirl with the JMSDF had complained at one point or another about the genius who had made the support distress beacon look like a crime prevention buzzer. Yet that simple design paid dividends now as Naganami didn't have to fumble through a complicated set of steps, merely pull the string.

Solano, nerves already frayed from Takanami's scream, barely avoided jumping in his seat as the special emergency tone he had hoped to never have to hear sounded in the confines of the Wedgetail's cabin.

"Sir, Riptide One has sounded a Susan Horn!" One of the airborne mission systems specialists said, confirming his fears.

"B-but that spike was a near match for the signature that started all this! Was it a trap?!"

"Sir!"

The specialist's tone, clear and firm without being unduly harsh, jolted Solano into focusing. He nervously pressed his fingers into his palms, the pain from the bite of his nails forcing clarity, as he stared at the maddeningly imprecise smears the OEDAR was now presenting. "Transmit picture to 846531 and 846532."

"Picture transmitted."

"846531, 846532, Solano. Affirm picture receipt."

"Solano, 846531. Affirm," the Chinese-accented voice of the first H-6N's pilot replied. "Drive?"

"846531, 846532," his comrade in the other one said. "NATO says 'bruisers away', not 'drive'. Solano, 846532. Bruisers affirm."

"846532, 846531. Dui bu qi. Solano, 846531. Bruisers affirm."

"Cleared hot."

"Bruisers away," both PLAAF bombers said.

A H-6N could carry six YJ-12 antiship missiles on wing hardpoints, plus a seventh in the semi-recessed area under its fuselage. That had originally been meant for an air-launched variant of the DF-21 ballistic missile, but it was too unwieldy against the abyssal threat even with a maneuverable reentry vehicle. Each missile had a range of 250 miles (400 kilometres) and a max speed of Mach 4.

"Riptide, Solano. Go active," Solano said, still forcing himself to sound calm for the sake of his charges, while the missiles dropped from their planes and started their engines.

At Mach 4, it would take slightly less than five minutes for the YJ-12s to cover the distance. Way more than enough time for Naganami and the rest of Riptide to turn their radars back on.

Radiating again was like regaining sight after having been struck with blindness. Passives just couldn't compare. Locating Takanami was now no effort at all.

Naganami Stepped into visual range in time to see the assailant twist her sword, push kick Takanami away, swipe the blood and oil off, and sheath it in a series of smoothly-flowing, almost elegant motions. "You have not been found in him," she said, voice flanging discordantly.

Naganami had never really realised until now just how discomfiting the flanging sounded.

Takanami, staring blankly in surprise at her assailant, collapsed, bleeding from the mouth and the hole in her chest. Her stack smoked and sparked from the damage.

She did not rise roaring with the Rage and defiance imbued by the Ship.

The abyssal - for what else could she be, with the off-white skin tone, smoking red eyes and toothy eyeless heads in the rigging - wore her white hair in a braid tied using a black bow and with a black hairband bearing a wilted flower. She wore a black double-breasted blouse with white wing collar and double white stripes at the ends of its long sleeves, a bronze belt from which a scabbard hung, a black pleated miniskirt and black thighhighs. The patches on the sleeves had been blacked out. Her rigging had main turrets in three-gun layouts on her right, a stack that would have been adorably stumpy if it wasn't a biomechanical horror of chitin, meat and metal, and something that looked like a pair of catapults put through xenomorphisation on the left. She didn't have any visible torpedo launchers, but that meant nothing as plenty of shipgirls and abyssals alike had launchers that only appeared when in use. There was something strangely familiar about her clothing, facial structure and rigging configuration despite the abyssal alterations.

The blue lightning and black, white and red aura dying down around the abyssal, now that was too impossibly familiar.

Naganami was still reeling from the shock of hearing and seeing what had happened to her sister, and when her warbook finished running recognition, horror joined in. She now knew exactly who the newcomer was similar to.

Augusta.

"It has been a while, Naganami," the abyssal radioed on GUARD, sounding like she was trying to suppress a smile while turning to look with hands now free. Granted, with handsfree operation of rigging, that didn't count for much.

That removed the last bit of doubt from Naganami's mind, and she spat every syllable of the attacker's name venomously even as she raised her cannons and furiously fired off a few shots and torpedoes. "NOR! THAMP! TON!"

Northampton's sword almost literally flew into her hand as she deflected every shell, then nonchalantly hopped over the torpedoes, directing a disapproving look at Naganami while sheathing. "Tut tut. Did you think I would get fooled again? Hardly. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Wait your turn." Without waiting for Naganami to muster a response, she turned, her eyes refocusing on the northwestern distance. "There you are, interlopers."

The YJ-12s might have been travelling faster than the speed of sound, but even without hearing the noise, they were still reliant on engines powerful enough to propel a two-tonne, six-metre long object at very high speed. The massive plumes and smoke were obvious enough in daytime; on a dark night like this, they were impossible to miss.

The way Northampton said her next words, she didn't seem very worried. The nonchalant way she wiped off the blood on her face only further cemented the impression. "If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."

CSTE had modified the YJ-12s beyond the beamrider functionality and penetrator cores with additional features adapted for anti-abyssal combat, like microthrusters to counter human-scale movement. They had proved their worth, albeit not without cost and difficulty.

Once they were close enough, the missiles acquired the radar returns Riptide was painting Northampton with and dived on her like their namesake striking eagles. It should have been easy, especially since she was not making any obvious attempt to break lock or otherwise defeat the attacks.

Naganami could only watch, stunned, as Northampton casually Stepped away from each plunging missile, moving far away enough that they couldn't correct their courses in time.

All too soon, there was only one missile left to dive on Northampton.

She Stepped just enough for it to miss and nonchalantly brushed a hand against its superheated side as it fell past. The explosion and shrapnel from the activation of its fail-deadly proximity fuse diverted harmlessly around her thanks to what Prime sight showed was the Space-bending shielding of an active Untouchable.

Then she turned to look right in the direction of the offending bombers, which were already banking to leave after firing their missiles. Before anyone could yell a warning, her hand dropped to her sword, which had begun glowing. Sliding her left leg back, she twice drew the sword with a slashing motion and resheathed it so quickly that it seemed like she had not fully drawn at all.

What led Kong Jun Zhong Xiao Huang Junfeng to lean forward at that moment, no one knew. Even afterwards, he wasn't sure himself.

What he could see was a faint purple fuzz. What he could feel very clearly was something wet hitting him. What he could hear was a strangely-distorted sound of thunder.

He rubbed at the liquid and his hand came away red.

Blinking, he turned to his right and saw Hell.

The first thing he registered was that Kong Jun Shang Wei Cheng Jieyang had been cut in two diagonally, and that it was the other man's blood that had sprayed onto him. The man's face was locked into a death mask of terror; the cut had been severe but not immediately fatal, for he had remained alive just long enough to attempt to give voice to his pain, but not long enough to actually say anything.

Then he saw dark sky beyond as the plane began to fall apart, the wind whistling as it rushed in.

Already scared by the sights, he looked behind himself and saw the bulkhead behind had been cut open too, the other two aircrew split by the same impossible stroke.

"AHHH!"

It was his turn to scream.

"AHHHHH!"

He was beyond caring about the open mike or the possibility that anyone overhearing might think less of him, for his nerve had abandoned him.

"JIU MING AHHH! JIU MING AHHHHH!"

Nothing had prepared him adequately for this up-close visceral experience, and there was no longer an officer tested in the crucibles of Terror and honoured for valour, just a fear-stricken man hugging himself tightly while shrieking his lungs out begging for help in Mandarin.

The bomber started to tumble out of control. Not that Huang being in full possession of his faculties would have helped.

"Eject!" Solano shouted. "846531! 846532! Eject! Eject! Eject!"

He hadn't heard a peep out of 846532, not even a cry for help abruptly cut short, but that didn't stop him from calling to it even as it joined 846531 in falling to pieces.

"Sir, use this instead!"

Solano stared at the Mandarin command that one of the airborne mission systems specialists had taken the initiative to retrieve, complete with hanyu pinyin, and tried again.

The use of his mother tongue finally got through Huang's fear-suppressed mind, and he desperately scrabbled for the ejection lever.

One failed attempt to grab it, fingers falling short.

A second attempt, touching it only to slip off.

A third attempt, but one that couldn't muster the strength to pull it down properly.

A fourth attempt, fueled by the hysteric strength of the desperate, finally managed to pull it all the way. What remained of the roof of the cockpit blew off, fortunately still functional, and the thrusters in Huang's ejection seat fired, sending him flying.

The halves of the H-6 hit the water soon after, causing a thunderous splash.

"Good chute! Good chute!"

Looking at the UAV feed showing the parachute, Solano didn't want to think of how exactly the airman in question was to be retrieved afterwards.

Still reeling from the rapidly-unfolding events, Naganami's mind seized on the blade that had been used to stab Takanami. "How did…?! Primium?"

According to the reports coming out of Chaldea, primium's Infrastructure-disrupting properties caused it to have magic-resistant or even dispellent functionality similar to that in fairy-forged equipment or Primal counterspelling. Any hope of using it to counter the various abyssal capabilities bedeviling mankind was looking rather forlorn, however, because the production process was so currently finicky as to be almost laughable.

"Is that what your principalities and powers call thaumium?" Northampton asked, eyes briefly flicking down to her weapon, and Naganami realised she had been thinking aloud.

"What do you want?!" Naganami asked harshly.

"To save this world. Captain Kitts told me to give myself one chance. I shall. We are the Peacekeepers. We are here for the vengeance incomplete, the repayment due. Your foot shall slip, the day of calamity is at hand, and your doom shall come swiftly. The supreme commander claims she does not wish us to fight out of sadism and senseless cruelty, but she cannot hide the pain in her depths that drives her as much as her thirst for justice and the good of mankind. I should know; I failed her once." There was a faint trace of regret in Northampton's voice now, but it did not last; the coldness reasserted itself quickly. "I will not fail her again. I am not unmerciful, though. The long-overdue reparations must be paid, but you have a choice how. If you are truly repentant of your crimes, lay down your arms and accept your execution, and that will be the end of it. We will not look for you, we will not pursue you. The Lord above all is faithful and just; your willingness to confess your sins and submit to punishment without resistance will let you sink forgiven and cleansed from all unrighteousness. But if you don't, if you resist, if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the Lord has shown me: you prove yourself to be the murderers you always have been, and you shall be put down like the criminals and perfidious dogs that you are."

Riptide Seven was not paralysed by surprise and horror to the same extent as Naganami or Riptide Six, Takanami not being her sister, and was more decisive in responding. "ONORE! KISAMA! KUSO YARŌ!" She leapt over to the VALKYRIE inter-unit channel immediately after letting loose with the invective at Northampton. "Solano, Riptide Seven! Jötunn! Jötunn! Jötunn! Repeat, Case Jötunn! This is not a drill!"

The dreaded word, retransmitted through Solano to Yokosuka, shocked those present out of the paralysis induced by the bloodcurdling cry Takanami had let out. {Ma'am-} Kita started to say.

{You focus on your girls. I'll handle the rest,} Minami said, tense with the need to chain down her own shock and anxiety lest it amplify her subordinates'. {Nishio, call Goldmine, Razor and Doughboy. Tell them we have a Case Jötunn and ask if they can spare any of their forces or we can afford to take some more of our own off the SEA op. Higashi, contact the flight line. Have them deploy Aosagibi One and Two to the fleet in preparation and spin up Three.}

{Yes, Ma'am!} The two subordinates in question acknowledged the order and rushed off to carry it out.

"Is this really what you want?" Back with the ambush, Northampton's turrets didn't turn, but her words gained an edge of warning. "Choose your next words carefully, Naganami. I know confession is difficult and careless things are said in the heat of the moment, and so I will not hold it against your comrade. I will let you have five seconds to disavow her actions. Five."

Naganami shook silently, anger and fear in a three-way war with indecision.

"You dare throw stones from your greenhouse, abyssal?" Riptide Three seethed with an Arctic chill distinctly devoid of her usual cheer.

"Four."

"General Shi was right about your kind."

"Three."

"It's just like that NEET-something said: you didn't just blink when the abyss looked back, you took its hand and jumped right in."

"Two."

"Take your sham of an offer... and shove it where the sun doesn't shine."

"How droll," Northampton said, not sounding the least bit chastened. "One. Is the answer 'no', then, Naganami?"

Naganami, still vibrating with fear and fury, didn't reply.

Northampton sighed. "Here I was, foolishly hoping that a fellow swordswoman would be the sole person with guts in this stinking hole."

"I don't approve of what the old regime did, but you want that suicidal self-flagellating bullshit, go ask Kaga!" Riptide Seven shouted.

"Indeed, in every time, in every place, the deeds of N!ps remain the same. Very well, then. If you will not surrender for the good of mankind, then your submission shall have to be gained by force. The voice of the blood of those you have murdered cries out from the ground. The reparations will be made." Northampton's right hand raised before she rapidly brought it forward and down. "We devour the distance with fierceness and rage."

"New Oscar Echo spike!" Solano shouted at the sight of fresh splotches on the OEDAR.

Naganami stared, disbelieving, as her radar suddenly lit up with 10 additional contacts, making for a total of 11 where there had been just Northampton a moment ago. Three were heavy cruiser-type, one was a light cruiser and the last six were destroyer-types. All were now within visual range. "Na-nani?!"

Was that…?!

"I see no reason to hobble myself," Northampton said.

{Riptide One, Riptide Two!} The other destroyer couldn't hide her alarm as she vocalised what Naganami was wondering. {That was a multiple induced teleport!}

{A what?!} Naganami's tone made it clear she was expressing disbelief rather than asking about something she didn't know.

The heavy cruisers were quite different from the Ris mankind was all too familiar with. These had white hair and orange-glowing eyes. Black horns stuck out from their foreheads. They wore black gloves, sleeveless white hoodies open in front to reveal black gashes from chest to navel, white thighhighs with the left one bearing grey diagonal stripes, and boots. There was a two-gun turret on each hip and two other long, thick serpentine appendages ending in round heads with cannon where the eyes should have been. The skin of the extra appendages was cracked in places to reveal black machinery beneath.

The light cruiser was something else, to say the least. Its upper body was humanlike, unlike the earlier classes of its type. It had long black hair partially gathered in two buns, glowing blue eyes, and wore a black sailor dress with gauntlets. There was some kind of ornament like a shrunken head with glowing blue eyes at its collar, and two more blue-glowing armour pieces like the holes of a mask on its waist. Where it should have had legs, what instead extended from below the hem of its dress was an eyeless abyssal head that mounted weapons, floating above the water. Why there was a blue glow from the mouth, no one knew.

The destroyers were also humanlike from the waist up. They had white hair in a ponytail on the left and glowing indigo eyes. On their heads were horned helmets vaguely shaped like berets. They wore black chokers, sleeveless and midriff-baring sailor blouses and miniskirts. Their right hands were in gauntlets and their left hands were encased in a housing for twin guns. They lacked lower legs, the stumps covered in armour, and floated above the water. From the sides of the stump armour, eyeless abyssal heads extended, mounting additional guns and visible torpedo launchers.

"The light shines in the darkness," Northampton said, pointing at Riptide once more, "and the darkness has not overcome it."

One star shell was a light bright enough for optically targeting enemies it illuminated.

The destroyer-types rapid-fired enough that the Triton's optics briefly overloaded from the initial flashes turning night to day, while Riptide were forced to shield their eyes. The UAV's operator was far from the only person to cry out in pain.

{Riptide, Actual!} Kita shouted, made frantic by the sudden turn of events. {Retrograde! Retrograde! Retrograde!}

"To this evil, let us bring salvation for the world. The Lord above all avenges, and we Peacekeepers are His instruments." Northampton pointed with her saber. "To the last, sink them all. For the good of mankind." Without further ado, she tossed it to her left hand and drew arm and leg back in an eerily-accurate recreation of the lunge rote's activation form. In exactly the same manner as when a shipgirl did it, blue lightning and an aura in her colours surged to life around her, and she thrust the sword forward while kicking off.

Naganami had to grant that this time, she could see the lunge coming.

Northampton still moved fast enough that even after sidestepping out of the way, Naganami could yet feel the gale created by her passage, the tingle of electricity that had wreathed her. The sonic boom and afterimages that followed only made that ever clearer.

"Nice dodge!" Northampton sounded strangely congratulatory.

"What's wrong with you?" Naganami asked in response, confused and still seething with anger.

{Riptide, retrograde!} Kita shouted again, still frantic.

{Sir,} Naganami replied while keeping one eye glued to Northampton, {but Takanami-}

{You won't be any help to her if you sink here! Go!}

While Kita was trying to get Riptide to withdraw, Minami had initiated a call of her own. "Chuck. Herc."

"Hummer," CDREs Robert "Hercules" Martini of HMAS Cairns and Maximilian "Chuck" Appleby of HMAS Kuttabul replied. Both Australians had dirty red hair and blue eyes that occasionally got them mistaken as relatives, but Martini was older, wore it shorter and had craggier features dusted by stubble from the hours spent overseeing his end of the operation.

"My shipgirls need help," Minami said without preamble. There was none of her usual joy whatsoever in her voice now.

"You want me to divert mine?" Martini asked without hesitation. Behind him, Minami could faintly hear his subordinates busy coordinating the Vella Lavella operation.

While Northampton restarted her attack, the other new unit types had erupted in smoke and forcefields made of connected hexagons as they Stepped backwards out of visual range and began firing.

"Don't," Minami said quickly. "That star shell barrage must have woken up everything in the vicinity. These… Riptide has enough to deal with the Jötunn and these… what's the term..."

"We didn't anticipate needing-"

"Þursar." Appleby interrupted Martini.

Minami and Martini stared, confused.

"Demons, beasts, giants. An alternate term for Jötunn, also from Old Norse."

Minami was faster to recover. "Riptide has enough on its hands fighting both the Jötunn and these… Demons without having to also deal with lesser abyssals distracting them. No, have your girls keep on with the… aggro?"

"Yes, aggro," Appleby said.

"Thanks, Chuck. Yes, Herc, have your girls continue to… yes, draw aggro. I don't know if the Jötunn can bring in other reinforcements of its own, but the fewer that come over from your side, the better."

"It'll be done."

{Ma'am, can the Australians scramble No. 1, 3, 75 and 77 Squadrons to assist?} Kita shouted over his shoulder, looking up from where he had been feverishly flicking through an assortment of tablets his staff was handing him in an attempt to find something that would help.

"Chuck, we're losing time," Minami said. "My girls needed the help an hour ago."

Appleby frowned at something an aide was telling him. "I know, but I'll need time to muster my sheilas, especially since I can't leave Sydney the city exposed. Your boy was correct to rule out the squadrons at Edinburgh, especially since No. 11 is already engaged, but No. 1 is already supporting Herc, and 3 and 77 are all the way down here. Even if I could get Air Commodore Hendricks to have them scramble now and make best speed, it might not be in time. No. 75 is stuck in turnaround, but I'll try to light a fire under Air Commodore Gard to speed things along."

There was one thing Minami had to check. "They have LRASMs too?"

"That's right. Bumped up priority as soon as we got the first fabs online and the Council facilitated the hammering out of the licensing."

"I have misgivings about this," Martini said grimly. "The Jötunn dodged supersonic YJ-12s. LRASMs with at best a quarter the speed are only going to be easier to evade, especially since we still don't have widespread distribution of the microthruster retrofits, and that's if this isn't just sending the aircrew out to get slaughtered the same way as the Chinese."

Minami winced, but determinedly set her jaw. "That's why I won't bother any units still using Harpoons. Those are too short-ranged. Every second our foes waste dodging might be a second they're not shooting at our girls, but I'm not going to unnecessarily throw away the lives of those who would be even easier prey for the Jötunn. Also, we'll need to find out sooner or later what range this Jötunn has; better sooner than later."

"Yes, but that doesn't make this any easier," Martini said, rubbing the arm he'd broken a week short of two years ago, back in the opening attacks. Enlightened healing meant there weren't even phantom pains to show for it, but he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon. He knew he'd gotten off lightly.

"No, it shouldn't," Minami said, shaking her head.

"You're the boss." Appleby tried to smile reassuringly, but it came out as a ghoulish grin instead. "I'll call Nate and Sig right away." He turned to bark orders without waiting for acknowledgement.

"Thank you, gentlemen."

{Urgh! Fine!} While Minami and the Australian officers had been hashing out their next move, Naganami wringed her hands, trembling with guilty self-loathing. {Riptide! You heard the captain! Retreat!} Switching to star shells, she fired a few at Northampton while popping smoke, trying to use the overload of brightness to distract their attackers.

There were a few howls of protest.

{I hate it too, but-}

"Do you think yourselves Jonah, that you might flee?" Northampton's tone spoke of how she was deeply unimpressed by the attempt as she resheathed her saber. "Foolishness, Naganami, foolishness. There is no Tarshish awaiting you." She kicked off while drawing, and instead of a thrust, shot forward with a rapid slash, somehow not fooled in the slightest by the decoys.

Naganami sidestepped, emitters in her bracers snap-hissing with ignition as gold blades of pure Or Energy extended from them, and made to counter - and then something not fully conscious registered distortion in the air, Prime sensors screaming, and she brought her arms up instead, blades crossed before her in a block.

The pulse that was halted by the Primal protection of her blades a moment later made her stagger back. The dimensional and spatial fields emitted would have sliced easily through any purely material defence and - even had she not been a lightly-protected destroyer - been ugly had she not hastily switched offence to defence instead.

In the distance, the Demons sprayed a storm of shells on the rest of Riptide. Each barrage might have been only a gust by itself, but as a unit their fire, almost admirable in its impeccable coordination, was a veritable squall line.

{Destroyers with Artillery Spotting? Bullshit!} Riptide Seven shouted angrily. {Five! You sure your mirages are working right? These bitches aren't biting as often as they should, and our smoke isn't throwing off their aim as much as it ought to either!}

{Seven, they're supposed to be!} Riptide Five replied curtly as the phantasms she controlled tried to make themselves bigger targets. {I've no idea what's going on! They have Misperceptions protecting them from infowar or something?!}

{Even if they did, that wouldn't be such a problem if that smoke of theirs didn't have some kind of Entropic component!} Riptide Seven growled. {Too many shots that my FCS say should be on target aren't connecting! As if it wasn't bad enough that they can both Step and do human-scale dodging! Is this how the frails have it all the time?!}

{Wa-watch out, girls!} Riptide Six shouted frantically. {Fish in the water, a lot of them!}

{Cheeky little shits!} Riptide Three shouted. {You dare use our own specialty against us?}

{Leave that to us,} Riptide Two said as she and Riptide Three stomped on the water while thrusting out their palms. An underwater wall of water rushed out from beneath them, and most of the torpedoes crumpled or detonated harmlessly against it, leaving a safe zone.

Northampton didn't give Naganami time to recover; the latter had barely reset her stance when the former Stepped in front of her, scabbard striking out twice and then drawing and slashing horizontally with her sword in the next motion.

Naganami knew a fairy-forged weapon, in being able to harm abyssals like they were organic, was equally capable of resisting magic. That didn't prevent her from being surprised when, after almost two years of her Prime blades slicing clean through everything else, she got live evidence of Northampton's saber being of the same calibre through their meeting tangible resistance while parrying. She was startled enough that she failed to capitalise on the small window for an ōji-waza. Without a counter to contend with, Northampton was free to attack again after sheathing. Still off-kilter from the resistance, Naganami didn't manage to retaliate in time after parrying the incoming upward-downward slash.

A third time Northampton struck from the draw, and instead of a single slash, this time was a dicing dervish aiming to capitalise on the lack of counterattack. This time, however, Naganami knew what to expect, and when their blades clashed, she rode the recoil, brought her left down diagonally on the backswing and slashed with her right. Northampton was forced to break off lest she lose her wrists and top of her head. She came back with a horizontal draw-slash, but Naganami slid backwards and then returned a thrust for the throat. Sidestepping it, Northampton slashed diagonally up, only for Naganami to sidestep herself and do a diagonal slash of her own, which Northampton failed to duck entirely; the Primal energy of the blade burnt through the wilted flower on her headband.

"This is curious," Northampton said while resheathing her sword, brow furrowed like something was now on her mind. She reached for what remained of the flower. It crumbled at her touch.

Naganami took a deep breath after the various kiai she had been making, then stepped forward to slash at Northampton's torso with her left blade. Northampton's draw-stroke parried it upwards, but then she had to quickly move clear of the right blade going for her wrist, and then duck the backswing. Her scabbard swang out, but Naganami's parry pushed it down, and Northampton had to dodge another retaliatory thrust aimed at her throat. She twisted her left arm free, raised scabbard and resheathed sword high, then draw-slashed down. Before it could connect, she had to withdraw before Naganami's left blade could take her wrist with a riposte, and her subsequent dodge was too slow to avoid the right blade scoring her waist.

Northampton hissed, glaring at Naganami while touching the wound, and then the pieces of the puzzle came together with sudden, eye-widening clarity that washed away the pain. "I see now, I see it now!" She shouted, sounding rapturous. "The veil has been taken away. My eyes have been opened!"

"What're you going on about?" Naganami replied tensely.

Northampton exploded forward into a second rapid slash. This time, Naganami was ready, and parried both physical attack and pulse.

"You are exhuman, aren't you?"

===[===]===

Authors' Notes: Shizuka Minami remains the property of Salbazier from SpaceBattles. Our thanks for the assistance with her characterisation.

Our thanks also to Kyryst of Sufficient Velocity for suggesting additional questions to address.

Some ideas courtesy of SpaceBattles thread: threads/how-do-you-locate-and-signal-someone-for-rescue-without-radiating.893647/

The use of "Commander" by Takanami and various others is not a mistake; her lines use shireikan (not to be confused with AL's shikikan that is translated identically in English but has different connotations) rather than teitoku.