With Ta-01:
"They went this way! they MUST have!" Ta-01 said frantically, having fallen slightly behind on the rough terrain as the other Abyssals moved ahead. Ironically, Ru-08 was actually faster than the Fast Battleship on land, long strides allowing her to pass by the struggling Queens Elizabeth.
"I don't see anything on the next ridge, unless they can fucking fly they must have gone that way!" She gestured towards a small beaten path that wound its way out of the natural bowl they'd descended into. Ta-01 nodded in agreement, and the small fleet hurried down the rest of the slope, coming onto the small, overgrown trail.
"They are definitely going this way! Look at the tracks!" The Ne said, pointing at a spot on the path. The ground was upturned, rocks turned aside and new growth stamped down by the passage of people more concerned with speed than stealth.
"Oh, I love it when they run! Heehee!" The Re said, starting to gallop forward on her two hoof-like feet, "Come on slowpokes!"
Ta-01 looked askance at Ru-08, who returned the put-upon look, before she merely shrugged, before breaking into a run herself, widening the trail by a good five feet with her Rigging, the rest of the ships quickly following after.
With C-4 Fairies:
Lisa rubbed her gloved knuckles absently, checking over the detonators as Olivia rubbed at her reddening cheek.
Olivia withdrew her hand from her face, looking at it for blood, when she saw there was none, she turned to Lisa, "You hit me!" she said accusingly.
"Yeah, yeah I did! And you friggen deserved it!"
"Whyyyyyy~!?"
Lisa looked at her, deadpan, "'Fairy certain?' That is the worst pun I have ever heard in my life."
"You've only been alive like, not even a month!"
"And in that time that's the worst I've ever heard-!"
The bickering Fairies were interrupted as in the distance shouting could be heard, followed by crashing as something came down the trail.
Something Big.
"That must be the enemy fleet! Go Go!" Lisa brought up the other three elements of her platoon, "I'm sure you all hear that! Get your charges ready and meet at the fallback point! We have extraction waiting!"
The extraction point, a bush a dozen meters away from the bridge itself, took the Seal team a few minutes to reach, in which time the Abyssal ships had shown up. They didn't, however, seem to be in a rush to cross, and so Lisa and her partner waited outside their vehicle, what Georgia had dubbed 'Wondertwin #1'. It was laid out in the tall grass out of sight, ready to embark the remaining Fairy's and scoot away as fast as it was able once the charges were blown.
"What the hell are they doing?" Olivia whispered, as they stood in the grass, watching through their binoculars.
"They must be having the same problems GFV Hakone did when she was crossing over." Lisa replied, "Never would have thought the enemy fleet was full of chickenshi- 'click' Damn!"
The Re-class had bounded across, whooping all the way as the other ships looked at her, wide-eyed. "Damn it! Set off the friggen detonator already!"
"I did!" Lisa said, pulling the trigger on the remote again and again frantically. 'click'' click'' click' Useless clicking answered her.
The other Abyssals, perhaps galvanized by the Aviation Battleships mad sprint, started across as well, one at a time. "Useless goddamn thing!" Lisa said, pulling the trigger again, this time using both of her hands, 'clickclickclick' still nothing.
The Ri made it across next, followed by one of the Tsu's.
"Oh my friggen god, give me that!" Olivia snatched the detonator from Lisa, 'click''click' "Stoopid technology!"
Another one of the Tsu's started across-
'clickclickclickclickclickClick' "DAMN THING!" Olivia threw the detonator onto the ground, it bounced once, before-
'clickChik'
'BOOM!'
The charges set by the fairies, 20 pounds of C-4 at each connecting cable for a total of 80 pounds, went off, causing the entire structure's moorings to simply disintegrate. The Light Cruiser, in the process of crossing the bridge, plummeted with a short-lived scream, falling seventy feet down to the waters below. There was a tremendous crash as several thousand tonnes of metal smashed into the brook at terminal velocity.
The other ships were not left unscathed, the Ne, having been next to the explosives, lost a small amount of armor plating on her port side, and the others were sent ass-over-teakettle when the ground below their keels simply ceased. Likely causing no end of chaos within their hulls.
As for the two fairies, they were bowled over by the thunderous explosion, the force of it throwing their tiny bodies backward to pancake against the Rigging's hull for a moment, before they flopped bonelessly to the ground. They laid there for a moment, before Olivia ground out, "Got it!" past all the dirt she was now eating.
Lisa groaned, before starting to pick herself up, "OK, maybe we shouldn't have used QUITE so much C-4..."
With Georgia:
I stopped for a moment as I heard the explosion off in the distance. I grinned as I turned to Chitose and Lao with an 'I told ya so!' expression "See? See!? I am a genius!" I raised my arms in a double fist pump.
Chitose shook her head, "That's, debatable, but still, good job Georgia," she patted me on the head, "What did your trap get?"
I asked myself that very question, and myself answered promptly through the low-frequency radio. "Got one of them! A Light Cruiser from the description! Also messed up the others, my girls are coming back now!"
"Cruise missiles, plastic explosives, teeth," Lao shuddered, "You just keep getting more and more terrifying, don't you?"
"Yup!" I answered, starting down the trail again, "Now let's get moving while the enemy's stalled eh?"
With Ta-01
...
'groan'
"I-Is everyone functional?!" Ta-01 sat up, the ringing in her ears blocking out any reply, she repeated the question over her radio, and this time she managed to get a response:
"C&$%SUCKINGPEICEOFS^%$MOTHERF&*$%ERS-" She tuned to a different channel, cutting off Ru-08's tirade as she looked around.
The Abyssal ships lay in a crator, the rock and dirt forming the lip of the ravine having been blown out from under them. Ru-08 was trying (Unsuccessfully) to get back on her feet, struggling like a turtle turned on to its back, her giant Rigging, once tipped over, proving itself a major hindrance to the Battleship.
The Ne next to her was nursing her side, she'd been near the center of the blast, and had cracks in her armor, in several small places it was gone entirely, showing the bare hull beneath.
"Are you alright?" Ta-01 asked, the Heavy Cruiser looked over.
"Yeah, it just tore some of my armor off! Still stings like nothing else though!"
01 almost said that the ship didn't have to shout, before realizing her hearing was probably even more messed up than hers right now. She merely nodded, before rocking upright, beating some of the dirt off her cape as she approached the Ru.
"You know, you can just take your arms out of your Rigging first, right?" The Standard froze, before a look of contrition came over her face, she took her arms out of her massive gun-slabs. Now easily able to stand up, she did so, then turned to reattach her Rigging.
"I knew that."
01 just shook her head, before turning to look at where the bridge had been.
"Hey! Still alive and kicking over there!?" That was the Re, waving wildly from the opposite end of the ravine, "If you aren't, don't bother answering!" Two of the Cruisers were with her, the Ri and one of the Tsu's, which left...
Ta-01 walked unsteadily forward, bracing herself against her fear of heights, she leaned over and looked down.
The bottom of the ravine was an absolute charnel pit. Pieces of broken machinery lay scattered in every direction, at the center of which lay what was left of the other Tsu. Her hull had collapsed and buckled in on itself, bursting like an overripe fruit biffed at a wall, the stream downriver was starting to turn black from the oil and coolant leaking from her burst pipes.
Ta-01 put a hand up to her mouth in horror, as Ru-08 came up behind her, "What the hell are you lookin' a- JESUS!" She'd looked down as well. There was a pause as the Battleships processed the carnage, before Ru-08 turned to the Fast Battleship beside her, "So...Now what? That bridge was the only way across, probably for miles, unless you wanna climb?"
"We'll have to go around, Re!" The short Battleship looked over, from where she was skipping rocks down into the ravine, "Take those two and keep tracking the enemy! We'll meet up with you once we make it to the other side, keep in radio contact!"
The Re saluted, grinning widely, "Caaaaaan DO!" She turned to the two Cruisers, who were still staring down into the ravine in shock, "Come on snac- I mean, ablative arm- I MEAN colleagues! Yeah, that's a word! Onwards! To glory!" She bounded off into the bushes, tail wagging behind her.
The two Cruisers were, somewhat understandably, less than enthused as they followed.