We trudged through the brush, Lao leading the way, we'd been trampling through the undergrowth for the past twenty minutes, though our pace had slowed once we were sure the spotter planes wouldn't be able to see us under the canopy. The ground was slowly growing steeper and steeper, we were getting close to a mountain, or at the very least a really big gosh-darned hill!

Lao nimbly ducked under a tree trunk, the tree having probably been blown over in some previous monsoon, the roots stuck out of the ground in a spiderwebbing pattern, clumps of dirt clinging between-

Anne walked through it, the tree I mean. Sparing it a mere one-eyed glance before bringing her forearm down on its trunk in a casual swing, the arm blew clean through the deadwood, sending splinters flying as Anne carried through, following the Frigate, who was now looking back with a slightly annoyed expression.

"You realize you can go around stuff, right?" The short girl asked rhetorically.

"W̵h̶y̷?̴ ̸T̸h̸r̷o̷u̸g̶h̶ ̸i̸s̴ ̷f̷a̵s̵t̷e̴r̵." The Light Battlecruiser replied.

Lao just shook her head in wonder, turning back to continue along the barely visible trail we were on. The jungle was silent for a moment, shocked into silence by Anne, before the bugs and the birds started to chirp again. I hovered over to Chitose as she tugged a bramble off her skirt.

"How long do you figure we'll be traipsing through the outback for?" I asked.

"You say that like you have to do any walking," Chitose said, getting the last bramble out, "Ah, but really, I'd say a few days. Once we get on more structured paths we'll have a much easier time-"'CRACK!' Chitose winced as another unfortunate tree made the mistake of existing in our general direction, the culprit Diane this time, who had a hand up to her mouth in surprise. She looked sheepishly back at us as we stared at her.

"I only attempted to brush it out of my way!" She defended.

"It's a full-grown tree, dear, you don't 'brush' it away," I said in a deadpan. I turned back to Chitose, "you were saying?"

Chitose blinked, "Ah, yes, as I was saying, we-

'Crack!'

"Goddammit!" Lao said, whipping around to look at us, hands on her hips, "Can we go ten feet without someone head-butting a freakin' tree?!"

I looked around for the culprit, only to see everyone else doing the same.

'Crunch!'

...

"That, wasn't any of us," Hakone said warily.

"T̸h̸e̵ ̵b̶i̵r̵d̸s̵ ̷s̸t̷o̸p̷p̶e̸d̸." Anne pointed out, and actually wow now that I thought about it yeah, it had gotten pretty quiet, hadn't it?

Almost... too quiet.

Lao's eyes had grown wide, scanning the path behind us, like a rabbit that had realized the beagle was getting close, "Run." she said simply.

Chitose cocked her head, confused, "What do you mean? Did you see...?"

"Run," Lao said, already sprinting away.

We hightailed it after her.

With Ta-01:

Ta-01 sighed in frustration as she wrenched her leg out of the ground again. She'd stepped on a spot where the soft topsoil was particularly loose, and even with her weight dialed back it had still driven her pointed keel a solid two feet into the rich black soil. "I hate land," she muttered bending down to brush the dirt off.

Ru-08 replied with a mere grunt of acknowledgment, herself having trouble with the thick undergrowth with her wide profile. Or rather, the undergrowth was having a problem with her.

"Crack!"

Once again, the standard had to force her way past trees too close together to get her Rigging through, and once again, the foliage proved that it was completely and utterly outmatched against the Battleship's raw strength.

The Re-class didn't have any trouble, of course, the little shit's humanoid form small enough to slip through the trees without trouble on her abnormally flat keel.

Said Aviation Battleship hopped over a stump, her Rigging moving sinuously in the air to keep from being dragged in the dirt behind her. "We've been passing splintered trees for the past twenty minutes!" She said, "we gotta be getting close by now, I swear I can almost smell them-"

'Crack!'

The Re froze still as a statue, stopping mid-motion. Only her eyes moving as they scanned the trees ahead of them.

Her tongue flitted out between her teeth, as if tasting the air.

The rest of the fleet behind her stopped as well, to see what she was doing. Ru 08, as well as one of the Ri's walking behind her, gradually stopped as well, looking back.

...

...

'Crack!' The Re's grin grew to monumental proportions, "fooooound youuuuuu~!" she sing-songed.

Ta-01's eyes widened, "That must be them!"

Ru-08 broke into a short jog, bulldozing a palm tree out of her way, sending splinters flying, "Come on chickenshits! We're almost on'em!"

The other ships broke out into a run.

Through their own racket, they could hear the enemy as well, crashing through the underbrush at what must have been the same pace as them. One of the Ri's tripped over her own feet, and fell slightly behind as the rest raced past her.

"HeeHehihi!" The Re giggled madly, as she slapped both palms on a fallen tree in her way, vaulting over the piece of wood before carrying on, her tail struggling not to flail helplessly behind the sprinting Battleship.

they came into a small clearing that looked up the mountainside, a trail of freshly turned rocks and soil leading up towards the ridgeline betraying their quarries path ahead. Ta-01 took a moment to gaze at the hill, and through the trees, she could see, just see a distant dot scurrying over the rocks.

She pointed at the briefly seen movement, "Contact!"

With Georgia:

"Contact!"

The distantly shouted words were almost immediately accompanied by the staggered report of Naval cannons, I almost thought to jump off of scooter to take cover behind a particularly large, moss-covered boulder, but then remembered that I was being shot at by shells technically larger than the boulder.

I leaned forwards, trying to get more speed out of my Rigging.

"We're sitting-ducks on this slope! We have to make it over the ridge or we'll be blasted to pieces!" Lao said frantically, side-stepping a boulder as an 8" shell landed nearby, turning a tree to splinters and sending a great spray of rocks and dirt in all directions.

"I shall provide suppressive fire! Please hurry!" Diane said, turning in-place as her 16" turrets swiveled to face the enemy. The report of her guns would have likely had a human bleeding at the ears had they been standing as close as we were, as it was, it was simply very, very loud.

Shouting could be heard downrange as the Abyssals realized that we were bothering to shoot back. The fire slackened for a brief moment, letting us scramble up farther before it was swiftly resumed.

Another shell landed close-by, this one a 16" shell. It landed close enough to spray all of us with dirt and wooden splinters. We made the ridgeline, popping over as Diane stopped firing to follow.

A shell took her in the middle of the back, pitching her forwards onto her face in the dirt.

"Diane!" I yelled, before turning to Chitose, "Keep going, I'll help her!"

The Japanese ship looked worried, as she rightly should seeing as we were getting shot at, but nodded quickly, running after the others.

I scooted downhill again, narrowly avoiding enemy fire. I'm fairly certain the enemy ships didn't have actual eyes on us in the thick vegetation, and were just blindly blasting the entire ridge to crap in an effort to pin us down.

Either that or they just had piss-poor aim, that was the only thing that explained how I hadn't had my head taken off yet.

I vaulted off of scooter, sending a cascade of pebbles flying as I skidded t a halt next to Diane, even as the woman was lifting herself off the ground again. I could see small cracks in the middle of her back, where her armor had taken the 8" shell like a champ.

Diane took my quickly offered hand, nearly pulling me into the dirt myself as she looked up with her mud-stained face.

"Thank you! But we have to move, quickly!"

"I'll give em something to think about! You get to running young lady!" I shouted over the fire, turning my back on the enemy.

"But Miss Georgia! You're a Submarine, as a Battleship I'm more suitable for-"

"GET GOD-DAMN MO̴͈̽̉VING OR I WILL FREAKIN'Ś̷͘P̶͔̄̃Ä̸̜̠NKYOUYOUNGLADY!" Diane took off running, though it was more of a stumbling-scramble as her pointed feet dug into the steep slope, forcing her to use her hands almost as much as her feet.

Meanwhile, four of my silo's had opened up in my back. Still watching Diane's retreat, I fired a four-missile salvo blind downrange into the trees where the cannon fire was coming from.

Though I was tempted to watch the explosions I didn't have the time for that, and without waiting to see if I'd hit anything, jumped on scooter again before tearing off, the wonder-twins trailing behind me as I struggled to catch up with everyone else.