With Georgia:
The last rays of the sun shone overhead, casting the canopy above us in a golden-red glow. We were still on the beaten path, headed Northeast, much of it was overgrown, and we'd slowed down, if only so we didn't strain Lao's engines. The reduced pace also allowed us to start (gasp!) avoiding things, after I had a talk with the girls they started going around vegetation, rather than through it.
"I'm fairly certain they found us by the trail of destruction we're leaving behind." Were my exact words, if I recall.
Chitose picked her way around a particularly large bush of ferns, "Did your fairies mention what the makeup of the fleet chasing us was?" She asked. I looked over from where I was floating over a pothole like an absolute chad.
"Yeah, there were two Tsu's, one of which blew up, a Ri like Hakone, a Ta like Diane, a Ru, a Ne, and a something."
"A something?"
"Yeah, the fairies said it looked like someone smashed a buncha ships together." I shrugged, "they said it looked like some small chick with a mouthy tail. They are shadowing them now."
Chitose's expression only grew more puzzled, before the color drained from her face, "They have a Re-class."
"Yeah that's what I said, they have a Ri Heavy Crui-"
"Not a Ri! A Re! With an E!" Chitose said, looking more and more worried as she spoke, "That's one of the most powerful Abyssal hull-types there is!" She went back to being puzzled, "But... We haven't seen any aircraft, aside from cruiser-based spotting planes. Re-Class Battleships have more aircraft than a Wo-class Fleet Carrier! We should have been swarmed when we were still on the river!"
"Well, whatever she is, she's headed our way, her and a couple cruisers made it to the other side before the bridge blew, it split the enemy fleet clean in half, the other two Battleships are stuck taking the long way around with the Ne."
Lao cut in, "Well, it's better than all of them getting across, if I have to fight Battleships, I'd rather face one than three. We'll keep going, and get off the trail, but if they get too close to catching up we should probably go to ground after doubling back and let them pass by, maybe set up an ambush if we can funnel them into a chokepoint."
I cut in then, "I'll send out some drones so my Rigging can come back, if they stop moving I'll give 'em the good 'ol spicy Cruise Missile!"
"You'll probably have the best chance at night, if we can keep out of contact with them that long." Lao stepped into a rather deep puddle, stepping across like it was solid ground, "Unlike you, regular ships need to sleep occasionally, we might get lucky and be able to catch them with their skirts down."
I snorted, "I feel called out."
With the Re:
The trail hadn't gone cold, not quite, but the signs of the enemy fleet's passing had lessened, considerably. It was likely they had started being more careful with their surroundings once they had realized they were being followed.
This was just fine and dandy with Re, after all, the harder the struggle the sweeter the meat! Or something.
The Aviation Battleship didn't turn, though her tail's head looked over at the two huffing Cruisers behind her, "come on slowpokes! That Ta can't have gone far!"
"H-How can a ship so large... 'huff' go so fast!?" The Ri said, struggling to catch up. The Tsu merely grunted, unable to shrug as she pumped her absolutely massive arm Rigging.
The Re was suddenly there, causing the Ri to almost smash into her, "Did you just call me fat!?"
"N-No?" Was the Ri's slightly panicked response. The Re's scowling face turned back into its customary grin.
"Awwww! And here I was hoping you'd just given me an excuse~!" She turned, starting off again, "Oh well, maybe next time, nya?"
Silence greeted her as the two Cruisers wisely decided not to press their luck. The Re, despite her hostile response, slowed down for the other ships, letting them catch up to her, it was another few minutes of mindless running before they were stopped again by the Battleship, who had simply stopped, stock-still.
"What's the matt-" The Ri began.
The Re darted over, putting her hand over the slightly taller woman's mouth, "SHHshshshshshshh! Shoosh!"
The Ri made an inarticulate noise, before falling silent.
...
...
"Do you hear that?"
...The Ri shook her head slightly, still gagged. The Tsu also shook her helmeted head in a negative, straining to hear what had spooked the Battleship.
"Exactly. It's quiet, too quiet, no bugs, no birds, no nothin'. I smell fetid foolery afoot." She took a look around, letting go of the Ri, who let out a relieved sigh before joining the ship, examining their surroundings with more detail.
The Re suddenly took in a lung-full of air through her nose in a loud sniff, that she repeated twice before speaking, head slowly panning over the silent foliage as her tail coiled back, massive 16" turrets sweeping, "I know you're heeeeere tasties~! I can smell ya!"
With Georgia:
We'd gone into the deep woods again, the trees slowed us down considerably, now that we were trying to be stealthy. Anne was having a tough time of it, the poor girl having to check herself every time she was about to just smash through something.
"T̸h̸i̸s̴ ̶i̶s̴ ̷f̶r̸u̷s̷t̸r̸a̵t̷i̶n̶g̷!" She said, fighting to disentangle herself from a vine, meanwhile, Chitose came up behind her, helping lift the offending foliage off.
"Ah, don't worry Anne, I'm sure we won't have to deal with vegetation this thick for too long." She turned to Lao, "How much farther is this stretch?"
The Frigate checked her map, "Another fifty kilometers."
Chitose wilted, "Oh."
I floated over, my dragonfly-sized drones disappearing into the tree's behind us, "Alright, I finally got my drones ready and backtracking over our trail, they should-"
The not so distant boom of Artillery fire shut me up, and we all sprang away from each other, expecting an impact that never came, the first shot was followed by a second, and a third, before the forest was quiet again.
"...What the hell was that?" I questioned, cautiously leaning out from behind the tree I'd scooted behind, Anne, standing in the open next to me, shrugged.
"Georgia, what is the enemy fleet doing?" Lao asked, coming out of the bush she'd flung herself into.
I quickly checked in with my radio(wo)man to get an update from my seal team. Idly I rubbed my gut, I'd gotten a bit hungry all of a sudden.
I only got static.
With Fairies:
Lisa woke with a start.
She quickly patted herself down, but didn't feel anything other than the ache of breaking a fall with her massive pudgy face. She was laying on the outskirts of a (to her) massive crater, the burning wreckage of their ex-fil vehicle laying a few human feet from where she'd landed. She must have been thrown clear, yeah, she'd been looking out of its mouth when the enemy Battleship had somehow spotted them through the trees, she got to her nubby-knees, before standing up fully-
OH WOW, THERE'S THE PAIN. She doubled over, one hand going to the small of her back as she started limping over to the wreckage, she made it halfway before she found a member of her platoon, lying facedown in the dirt. She recognized her, due to the grey pigtails the rest of the squad teased her about relentlessly.
"Hey! Francine!" Lisa sped up her limp, reaching the prone fairy, "Get up! we gotta see if everyone else is okay!"
There was no response. Lisa bent down and started the arduous task of flipping the other fairy over.
"Aw come on, unconscious, really? Fine, I'll just have to drag your ass into the grass before the enemy, comes... to see... oh."
...
Lisa patted the fairy on her un-helmeted head, "I guess... I guess I'll see you back on the Georgia, then, huh?"
"Georgia, huh?"
Lisa's head whipped upwards, to meet the Re-class's smiling gaze.
"Ah,SHI-" A massive toothy maw engulfed the fairy as the Re's snake-like tail darted forward like a... well like a snake! Swallowing Lisa whole as she feebly held her arms up to protect herself.
"-IT!" for a second time, Lisa faceplanted, this time onto metal plating as she skidded to a halt. She swore before looking up.
'ChchclickCLICKchCHK! Chhche!'
Into a veritable wall of guns, held by hard-faced (somehow) fairies. They were in an aircraft hangar, or at least, the remains of one. the scrapped remains of planes were piled together off to one side, while engineers looked over at the commotion, from where they were busily repairing a massive hole in the roof.
Lisa slowly put her hands up, "p-parlay?"
"-UCK!" Olivia plowed into her back, sending both fairies sprawling.