With Ta-01

The missiles had been sudden, only the brief sound of multiple launches, barely heard over their own fire, had heralded their arrival. They had sped narrowly past the fleet, grey streaks that quickly replaced the dense forest behind them into fire and wooden shrapnel. Ta-01 herself swayed forwards, riding out the shockwave as she stumbled forward a step. There was a brief, shocked moment of silence, before a secondary explosion was heard as well.

Ru-08 picked up firing again, shifting her aim towards where the launched missiles had come from, 16" turrets firing again and again as part of the ridge evaporated under her high-explosive shells.

The Re was working her jaw, pinkies jammed into and jostling her ears as she blinked rapidly from where she'd been close to one of the explosions, "Ahhh! Eardrums popped a bit! I hate that feeling!"

"34's down!" One of the Ri said, swiping a hand through her hair to get the embedded wooden splinters out. Ta-01 turned to look where the Heavy Cruiser had indicated.

Apparently the secondary explosion had been a magazine detonation. The other Ri, having fallen behind the rest of the group, had been within the blast radius of the quartet of missiles.

She was now burning scraps that lay scattered over the blast zone.

"There's nothing we can do for her! Advance! We need to close the distance!" Ta-01 said frantically, beginning to run again as her secondaries lit up the treeline, the British Mk XXIII 6" guns letting loose a veritable storm of S.A.P shells.

The Ne behind her raised her voice, "Advance?! After that?! Are you completely bonkers?!"

Ru-08, still firing her main battery, (and starting to dig a trench in the soft ground from the recoil) barked at the Cruiser "Fucking DO IT! They won't shoot if they are within their own blast radius! Now move your keel or I'll kick it up into your goddamn bridge!"

This was not an idle threat, and the Cruisers knew it, they advanced.

"Bad day! Bad day! Bad day! Bad-day!" I yelled, clenching the rim of my Rigging's cockpit with a white (it's always damned white I'm an Abyssal!) knuckled grip as the terrain behind me came up with a sudden case of exploded.

I crested the ridge right behind Diane as I was showered in splinters and dirt, some of them became embedded in my coating of anechoic tiles, I plucked a particularly large one out of the rubber as I looked around frantically for the others, I spotted them quickly, weaving their way down the hill at a breakneck pace towards what looked like an overgrown hiking trail.

"Come on Diane! we have to catch up with the rest!" I yelled, grabbing her by the hand as I zipped past her, guiding her towards the others.

By the time we'd caught up the small fleet had reached the path, and were using the relatively stable terrain to pick up speed.

I let go of Diane, scooting up to a huffing Lao, "Any idea how to lose em?! There's only a ridge between us and them, and if I spotted you from the ridgeline they will too once they get there!"

The Frigate spared me a quick glance, her shorter legs pumping just to keep ahead of the other ship's longer strides, "This is an old hiking trail for tourists! Fairly certain on the map there's..." She paused, gulping in air, "an old bridge not far away, going over a small canyon, we'll run across and blow it!"

"H-Heights?" Chitose said, having far less trouble maintaining her pace, though she seemed to be having trouble keeping certainparts of her stable, arms across her chest as she jogged.

...

We made it to the next bend in the trail before the Abyssals made the ridgeline, we could hear them as they charged down the slope, there's no way they could have missed where our group had gone, there was only one easy exit to the bowl-shaped dip we'd plunged into, and we were currently going out of it.

The bridge was a sturdy, if neglected, metal construction, two pairs of steel cables going across the rocky ravine, holding up a thin metal grate, chainlink fencing connecting the handrails to the floor. I looked down and could see a small bubbling stream at the bottom.

It was at least a seventy-foot drop.

"My advice?! Don't even think about it, treat it like normal ground, and don't. Look. Down." Lao said, before she sprinted across, her gaze locked straight-forward.

Anne and Diane chased after her, Anne didn't seem to have any trouble, loping after the Frigate as quickly as she could, though her cane briefly got stuck, Diane had to move carefully, going one I-bean at a time, so that her pointed legs wouldn't sink into the spaces between the slatted grate.

Hakone's legs quivered a little as she did the very thing Lao had warned about, glancing downward before backing up a little. The rock under her left foot cracked as she slightly lost control of her displacement.

Chitose didn't look particularly pleased either, but simply took a shuddering breath, closed her eyes, and opened them with a determined look, "Hakone!" the named Cruiser looked over, Chitose held out her hand, "keep your eyes on me!"

Hakone took the Seaplane Tenders hand, and together, they crossed, Chitose walking backward, eyes locked on Hakone's as they shuffled across. Lao was waiting on the other side as I scooted across, having had to wait behind Hakone and Chitose, "Alright! let's blow this damn thing!" she pointed her 5" gun at the bridge-

I held a hand over it, pushing it down a little, "Hold up!" Lao startled a little, looking over at me, "I think I got an idea!" I said, one of the wonder twins drifting closer, "What if we bring it down while they try to cross?"

Lao shook her head, "Won't work, they'll see us from their side and blow our heads off!"

A few of my fairies, wearing grey/black uniforms with a woodland camo pattern, appeared from... somewhere, on twin 1, "Will they see a fairy?"

With the C-4 Fairies (planetside 2 flashbacks intensify):

I molded the clay-like plastic explosive in my stubby hands, rolling it gradually into a long 'snake' as my partner did the same. The three other demo teams, making up most of 1st platoon, were similarly occupied, The ships, including Georgia, had hared-off already, leaving the 16-girl group of Navy Seals to rig the bridge for demolition.

"Don't you think this is a bit much?" My partner, Olivia, said, "Its only a steel cable, we don't need a whole demolition charge assembly for it!"

I looked over, squinting "Do you know how often we get to blow stuff up? Almost never! This is like, the first time Georgia's ever used us for something! I'm milking this for everything I can!"

Olivia paused, raising a stubby arm to argue, before shrugging, "Fair enough, just don't come crying to me if you need to get resummoned because you set off twenty-pounds of C-4 too close!"

"Oh, just shut up and roll your damn explosives!" I said, wrapping the snake halfway across the steel cable, "connect your snake to mine so they're touching tips!"

Olivia did as she was told, wrapping her snake around the other side of the cable, and I quickly started patting them together to form an unbroken ring, "That sounds so wrong." Olivia said.

I took a moment to get it, which was a little embarrassing, "ha-ha" I said, deadpan, "penis joke, how original." I stuck the detonator into the clay as Olivia wiped off her gloved hands on her camo-skirt.

"I know right? I'm a bonafide comedian, man, I dunno why the only uniform-bottoms aside from the wetsuits are skirts, why is that? It's a good thing a thorn is almost as big as my shin, or my legs would be scratched to hell!"

"Dunno, don't care, don't think it's just us though, those Japanese fly-girls we partied with had the same deal, so at least someone shares the burden."

"Speaking of that, remember when they had to sneak one of them out of Georgia the morning after? Woke up in the same bunk as Bell!"

I giggled, "Yeah! I heard they were found wearing pieces of each other's uniforms and everything! Man was I hungover, we all were, fairly certain, even the Captains!"

Olivia waggled her brows, leaning in "don't you mean, 'fairy' certain?"

I hit her.