We were finally back underway, Lao led our merry band of marauders through the trees, a small map in her hands that she would occasionally consult as we trailed behind her in a rough line. We still had a long way to go, but once we made it over the mountains and met up with Lao's friend, we'd hopefully be able to get transport down to Da-Nang quick enough to make up for it.
The dense undergrowth had slackened as we left the Mekong tributary, though the trees were growing taller than ever despite the change in elevation. More importantly, the lack of nearby bodies of water took with them the majority of the damn flies. Honestly, they couldn't even bite us, but the little buggers STILL seemed intent on buzzing into my eye and ears every chance they got.
Lao turned around, still walking backward as she spoke, "We should be getting close to one of the Trail's entry points soon, within the next day's travel at least if we keep up the pace."
"I'm surprised that Jersey even let you keep it in operation unimpeded," Chitose said as an aside, lending a hand to Diane as she struggled to climb over a rock, "She must have known where it is, she served here, back then, right?"
Lao shrugged, about to reply, but was cut off by Robin, who had overheard the Tender, "She knows about it, yes," the Tu-class Continued, "but as the route is so diffuse, over such a large area, she was of the mind that bombardments would be pointless undirected, and so aside from air patrols and a handful of pre-set killboxes, she largely leaves it alone."
Lao waggled her hand back and forth in an 'Eh' gesture, "She's mostly right, most of the people we've evacuated through the trail get through pretty easily, if they can avoid the spotter planes. If they do get seen, they usually have enough time to scatter away from any artillery." Lao turned back, checking the surroundings for some landmark or another, "She hasn't mentioned the air raids though. Sometimes a squadron or two of Hellcats make passes through the area, mulches anything on the high ground."
Robin nodded, adding to Lao's statement, "She ordered those groups to different targets recently, before Xuyen. Apparently, they were taking ground fire effective enough that she pulled the formations back, at least long enough to silence the area with artillery, I was not around long enough to see if the fire mission was successful."
Lao looked at the Battleship, surprised, "Where was this? I never got any news about any of that!" she turned to the rest of us, "We don't make a habit of drawing Abyssal artillery like that, we have AA guns on the trail at vital junctures, but most of the time they just sit there and act as watch posts for spotters."
Robin looked to me, and, when I nodded encouragingly, she spoke, "The area where she took the most losses was in and around the Dong Ap Bia mountains, West of Hue City," she squinted, "I think it was mentioned that SAM's were involved. I had to... remove someone from her office, shortly after, so I didn't catch the rest of it." She shrugged apologetically.
"Her office? You know, I never asked before, how do you know so much about her plans? Anyway?" I said, leaning against my cockpit in interest as I floated along.
Robin seemed to shrink in on herself slightly, "We-" she looked over at Diane before wincing, "that is to say, I, was commissioned to act as a personal guard for New Jersey herself, I spent most of my time in her office, when I was not running errands for her."
"A personal guard? See much combat? I can't imagine a Battleship-Hime like New Jersey needing all that much protection."
My question drew the gaze of Lao and Chitose, as the Battleship shuffled a little before answering.
"That would depend on your definition, would it not? Firing your guns at a grid coordinate beyond the horizon, without any return fire, is hardly deserving of the descriptor, in my opinion." Robin braced herself against the same rock Diane had struggled with, a look of concentration and mild confusion on her face as her new feet gave her the traction to climb over it, easily, "Hime-Jersey never used us for short-range engagements, always defaulting to her retinue of Ru-class. Truthfully, I think we were only commissioned due to our speed and relative... durability."
"Ah, Uhm, durability?" Chitose asked, letting Diane pass by with a small pat on the back.
"She used to have Cruisers working as her aids, but... well," the Tu-class winced, "they never lasted long," the Battleship gulped, seeming to look at nothing before shaking her head and continuing, "Jersey-Hime has... she... sometimes she talks to someone who we cannot see, and sometimes she talks to her Rigging, shouts at it, throws things."
"I talk to my Rigging too!" I said, leaning forward and rubbing Scooter's nose-thing again, "don't I? You widdle mummies girl!" '
*rub rub rub*
The whale/mollusk/whatthefuck just growled contentedly, like a dog getting its chin scratched, bobbing a little as it floated along.
Robin watched the byplay with a little bit of concern, which disappeared after a moment of nothing happening, "I... see," she wrung her hands a little, "but the strangest thing is that sometimes, i-it seems like it talks back," that got my attention, as the Battleship continued, "Jersey-Hime will break off in the middle of a sentence to answer something no one asked her, fly into a rage for little discernable reason..."
"So the Abyssal Princess waging a war of straight-up extermination is fucking nuts? Go figure." Lao said snidely, before seeming to realize something, looking at the Battleship's face, "Cruisers not durable enough, that dent in your cheek you talked about before..." Lao stopped, letting us catch up to her, finally, she looked at the Tu, biting her lip, "she... beat you?"
"I... that one was my fault, really," the Tu brushed a hand over said-dent in her cheek, so small I hadn't even really noticed it, thinking it just a holdover from the recent repairs, "I was standing too close to her during one of her episodes, I should have known better."
"...that's screwed up," I said, sharing a look with Chitose and getting a nod of agreement.
"I consider myself lucky. I've had to feed her Rigging the remains of more than one Construct who came upon Hime-Jersey in a bad mood. had we not the armor of a Battleship, I doubt any of us would have lasted as long in such close proximity to her, and then there were her Ru's to consider..."
Chitose, still looking deeply unsettled, made a guess as we started off again, "Class rivalries?"
The Battleship nodded, "you could say so, yes, New Jersey-Hime seemed to have a bond with them that she never had with us. When I was first Awakened, they had already been serving her for some time. Jersey-Hime had taken to leading them into the thick of fleet actions personally, their crass behavior only encouraged. They even speak like her, though I have seen them slip up once or twice; their original accents are... strange."
I waved away the confusion, "Probably Russian," I looked at the confused expressions and explained, "when I was welding on your new butt, my gals found a lot of parts stamped in backward letters, it's honestly a good thing some of my technicians know Russian enough to translate."
Chitose cocked her head, "You speak Russian?"
I shrugged, "No idea! some of my gals do, though, I guess it's cause I was a Cold War Sub, what good is intercepting transmissions if you can't understand it, right?"
Diane spoke up then, having drifted closer while Robin was talking, "Is Russian another fleet of humans? First there were the British, then the Japanese and American... "
"Also the Camoodians and Vietmese!" Hakone piped up from behind, "Them too!"
"Cambodians and Vietnamese, Hakone," Chitose said as an aside.
Diane nodded, putting a hand out onto a tree trunk as she ducked under a low hanging branch, "How many kinds of Human are there?"
I tried to think off the top of my head how many countries there were, and how to tell the difference between country and race to people that had their class-names literally stamped on their original blueprints, "Dunno, there's a lot, though. More than there are breeds of elf in a D&D setting!" I said, to the confusion of everyone this time.
"...Never mind," I shook my head, before looking back at the girls, honestly, the Tu-class's story stank of something uncomfortably familiar to domestic abuse, and that was Not. Cool. When I met this Jersey arsehole, I was going to have to teach her a proper lesson.
In the meantime, I think I could at least try and show us Hime weren't all pricks, I mean sure, I'd stuffed her barrels full of explosives...
...And killed her sisters, refloating one as a personal minion.
...And committed horrible involuntary surgery on her while she was unconscious.
...And maybe technically fed her her own legs to help repair her.
...
Am I the bad guy?
I violently shook the thoughts out of my head, a look of determination coming across my face. I'd just have to start acting nice! And I think I knew the perfect way to start! I still had quite a bit of reserves left, after all, enough for another round for everyone. Though eventually, I'd need to eat something to refill, a problem I don't think we'd have with all the fruit trees and wild animals running around out here.
"Alright! Hold on everyone!"
The fleet came to a halt, the ships looking at me as I hovered over to the captured Battleship.
Robin watched me a little warily, looking about ready to try and dodge something, having no-doubt seen my conflicted expression and coming to the wrong conclusion,
I looked into her (new) purple-glowing eyes, my face stony, "I have one question for you, Robin."
"Y-Yes, Hime-Georgia?" She stuttered.
I kept up my stern visage for a moment, before my face broke into a slight grin, "Have you ever had ice-cream before?"
The girls caught on quickly, and cheered as I broke out the soft-serve cones.