AN: Excuses are for the weak, I am merely lazy. Also distracted by returning to college, but mostly the first part. This chapter has been sitting done on my gdocs for half a year at this point because I had this weird idea of doing multiple chapters at once like I did for the first few. Since that obviously didn't pan out as far as my motivation went, that was clearly a flawed plan. So instead I'll do the smarter thing and just post them as soon as they are done and proofed. Chapter six is currently in progress, no solid idea of when it is done. Anyway, let's get back into the swing of things, shall we? Music this time is pretty simple. First track is called Undertale Last Breath Remix (by Retrospecter) on youtube. You can tell when to play it when a certain wizard is making his grand entrance. The next track is for the main battle that's the centerpiece of the chapter, called Invincible Fleet from the Ace Combat 4 OST. I named the chapter after it, so you can tell it was on my mind pretty heavily for the duration. Since the battle is pretty long you might want to look for the extended version on youtube. Enjoy!

Humanity's Stand

Chapter 5

Vincible Fleet

Shatterdome was always busy. A simple statement, but one that belied just how much truth lay within it. The base, constructed during the recovery period after Final Wars, took cues from several Cold War era command and control bunkers in that it was built into the side of a mountain and fortified enough to withstand direct hits from nuclear blasts. Or a few minutes of a kaiju tearing at it. Whichever was more likely.

On top of the physical defenses were the many, many early warning systems and communications setups, ensuring that unless it was under direct attack the people inside the Shatterdome would be kept informed of events happening anywhere around the globe. Which was a large part of why Shatterdome was always busy. It had to stay on top of events happening anywhere at any time for any reason. Word that a new, unexpected offensive by the mutants was about to happen was certainly enough to make everything go into overdrive, resulting in the current wave of activity. Jaegers had been launching from the bays for the past hour, the ground crews working overtime to try and keep everything moving smoothly. Rumor was that it was much worse inside for the command crew. They were the ones who had to try and figure out where to send everyone after all.

High above the chaos was a smaller, more secluded landing pad, guarded directly by a pair of maser turrets sized for human, or alien, sized craft. The attendants here were awake but not quite as alert as their comrades below, as they were waiting to see which, if any, of the Council were going to make a sudden, unplanned trip overseas to manage the crisis. So far it looked like it was too early for any one location to be prioritized, and so they waited, pilots sitting next to their aircraft waiting to be called upon. But as the radar technician at the local command station started to see a radar contact heading straight for them sending Council member approval codes it occurred to them that there was one possibility they forgot about.

One of the missing members showing up out of the black sky on a blue dragoness.

"Ah shit, the Mage is back."

"Uh… why do I hear music?"

Coming in on a streak of blue light, the sound of wild music playing from the pulses of light. Screaming in at lightning speed, the dragoness almost scraped the floor from flying in so low. In a flash, the pilot, one Theodore Wylder, clad in a fur-trimmed blue peacoat, leapt from her back, lightning erupting from his hands and feet to slow his fall. The dragoness pulled up sharply, flying back to a proper landing zone, just in time for Theodore to plow into the doors and nearly tear them off of their hinges. If there was any doubt at how angry the paranormal specialist was, it was thoroughly gone.

"Think we're gonna need to vote in a new Council?"

"I ain't taking that bet."

Marching down the halls, his Eidolon manifested herself, shouting warnings to anyone getting in the way to get to safety, the professor was NOT in a friendly mood right now.

"C'mon, folks, where's your sense of self-preservation! Distance, people, distance!" The rodent-like humanoid shouted, zipping in to intercept people moving too slowly or inattentively for their own good. Many were shocked to see the ultra-fast blur of orange moving them to the side, but some paused as they recognized who she was and attempted to say hi to her originator. All such greetings fell to the wayside as they caught the expression on Theo's face, and everyone who saw him backed away.

"Theo? Theo, you're here already?"

The speakers over Theo's head crackled as he walked into the elevator, his eidolon zapping into place next to him then sending a shock into the control panel to activate it.

"Yes, I am Choi. I assume Stacker and the rest know?"

"Yeah, uh… they kinda figured you'd be showing up at some point. I've let them know you're on the way and to… brace."

"Bracing won't help much, I don't plan on getting physical. They might want ear plugs if they wanna avoid going deaf, though."

"Yeah… uh. Gordon will meet you at the Command level. Good uh… good chat?"

The radio flickered off with a zap from Theo, whose eyes hadn't moved since he'd entered the elevator. The remaining seconds passed in silence save for the pokemon-like entity's muted bouncing. Finally the doors opened, revealing the taller and wider form of Gordon on the other side, katana in hand but still in its sheath.

"Theo."

"Gordy," Theo replied, his cane conspicuously missing. Theodore, Gordon noticed, was hovering. Hovering Theo was bad, because it meant he wasn't keeping his abilities under control, which meant he was a radiation hazard on top of being royally, and rightfully, pissed.

"Bad day?"

Theo just stared at him. "You really want me to rant?"

"Might help you keep from giving everyone cancer." He nodded towards Theo's feet and how he was hovering several inches off of the ground. "And for the record, we didn't make the choice lightly, especially since you weren't there to block it."

"Doesn't change how much of a disaster this is, Gordon." Theodore let out a breath, reigning in his anger and slowly dropping to the ground. "Let's just, y'know, IGNORE the fact that four proven heroes are either vanished or flat-out DEAD from this, the public is going to figure out the DT's gun exists and what it was used for shockingly fast. The public is smarter than people tend to give them credit for. And all that before factoring in the aliens now know of it and will either try to destroy it or take it over, and our only 'crew' on board is an AI who's half-mad from loneliness because everyone keeps wanting to pretend that hell machine doesn't exist! Y'know what, no, we'll continue this when we've got everyone to be able to hear this. They need to know what kind of shitstorm this decision has kickstarted and that's before factoring in what'll happen now that neither Xenilla nor Destroyah are there to reign those psychotic freaks in! Yes, they're evil, but better a villain who'll reign in those murder beasts than letting then run rampant willy nilly!"

"It's already happening," Gordon told him grimly, Theo blanching at the news. "We've scrambled everything we've got, but…" Gordon's voice lowered, becoming a horse whisper. "There's going to be gaps. Places we won't get to in time. Evacuations are already being warned for likely targets."

"So yes, Theodore. It is just as bad as you thought." Theo turned to see Stacker stepping out of the elevator behind him. "And it's going to get worse."

"Pentecost..." Theodore glared, silently pointing to the council meeting chambers. "In. Now. We need to talk." He summoned Pepper once more, "Anyone who's part of the council not in these chambers right now, get them in here. If Miki's out managing Sumegi then get in contact and act as a stand-in for her."

"Will do, boss!" The lightning-elemental vanished in a flare of sparks as the council chambers opened.

"Cancel that order, Theo," Stacker said softly. "We can't afford to interrupt the others in their work right now. Gordon and I only walked away so we could get you up to speed. The moment we're done here we need to get back to work. And I suspect you'll have work of your own to do soon as well."

"You're damn right I will!" Theo nearly roared, slamming the door shut behind him. "Like I said with Gordon, let's just ignore the fact that four heroes - I don't care if they were monsters, Junior, Lea, Anguirus and Rodan were fucking heroes - are missing and most likely DEAD because of that damn weapon! The entire world saw that, one way or another! Leaks from the GDF are inevitable about shit like this and kaiju-watchers are constantly keeping watch not only on Solgell but Xen's ice-fortress as well! The entire world witnessed the battle of the century and saw it come to a crashing end when a dead fucking star was dropped in the middle of the fight! Everyone's gonna know, this is a shitstorm of many magnitudes but probably our two biggest are going to be the aliens now knowing we have such a weapon and the general public knowing we have that thing aimed at Terra! There's enough people out there that don't trust the GDF and we just ruined the trust the rest have in us with this! Without public support the financial web we rely on to keep our defenses up and running will crumble to dust! This may be a victory in the short-run but this decision could kill the GDF as a whole and possibly the world! Do you understand WHY!? Because the aliens saw the DT firing as well! The Xillians know we have a black hole gun! The DT is on par with Forbidden Magic, it is a no-miss insta-kill weapon with no way to defend against it, not even being immortal will stop it! And our most cursed ace in the hole has been witnessed not only by the Terran Public but by possibly the galaxy at large! Pile onto that that they just have to look down and notice that six of the kaiju they were probably most scared of are suddenly gone and they might decide to go for invasion attempt number two, which we are in no way ready for!"

"We know."

Theo looked at Gordon blankly for a second, then shook his head in disbelief. "You… you can't just say 'you know' to that and leave it there! These consequences are going to make everything more difficult for us in the future, maybe even make our jobs impossible!"

"We were going to lose if we didn't act," Stacker said. "Either in the long term as the defenders get overwhelmed by sheer numbers, or by Xenilla or Destroyah getting lucky and pinning down and killing one of the best fighters."

"The balance was always unstable at best," Gordon added, "Kept in place only by Xen's unwillingness to push and risk losing important pieces. If he'd done something like this directed at any city on the planet there's nothing we could have done to stop him. Even if he attacked here… or Pasadena."

Theo's eyes narrowed at Gordon and his hair flared with electrical power. "That's a low blow and you know it."

"And Xen would do it if he knew just what was hiding there," Gordon said flatly. "Fact of the matter is Xenilla and Destroyah were just that dangerous. They had to be dealt with, and this was the best moment we've ever gotten."

Theo sighed, holding his face in his hands, then looking up at the pair hopelessly. "But the cost…"

He looked at Stacker, taking in for the first time just how empty the man's eyes were.

"We all take risks in war, Theodore," Stacker said in a hollow voice. "Sometimes the risks turn against us. The dice don't fall in our favor. I took the risk. I'm the one who has to deal with the poor results."

"Yes, and when the dealmaker's deal falls through, it's their duty to manage the fallout… I'll help as best I can, I have resources and media outlets we can use...but you?" Theo sighed. "Tell as much as you can about what happened, why the decision was made, and what the public can expect regarding all of this. You don't have to spill top-secret info, not even about the DT's… 'quirks'. But do not lie. If you lie, and get caught, it's doomsday for us."

"I was never going to lie."

Theo was a man who had fought enemies most humans could never conceive of, or things they could and that terrified them to death. Yet looking at the expression of rage on Stacker's face in that moment Theo felt fear for the first time in quite a while.

"... One of these days you have to teach me how to do those death glares of yours." Theo said, lightening the mood a tiny bit. Gordon just rolled his eyes.

Stacker stepped back, schooling his face to contain the emotions within. "I made this decision knowing full well the consequences it would bring, including the fact that the DT would become public knowledge. I've had a briefing plan waiting for exactly the moment it was unveiled since we first launched the satellite years ago. Including the appropriate… apologies for a failed or harmful use. That said, I will not be revealing details of its operation, not while our global communications are still unsecured. Nor will I give the public false hope by suggesting the kaiju survived until we know where they went and how to get them back."

"Which will be Monarch's job, with Langoud's help," Gordon said.

Before Theo could react he froze, his senses picked up a presence outside the door, which then opened, causing all three to look up.

Oh shit, was their collective reaction as Azusa Gojo walked in the door, glaring at each of them with silent anger.

"For the record I didn't get to vote and I woulda said fuck no," Theo announced, almost immediately throwing his companions under the feet of the angry mother.

"I know you didn't, Theo," Gojo said in a soft voice as she shut the door behind her. "And I doubt Miki was present for the vote either or else it never would have even been suggested. Meaning that of the remainder there's only one person who could have broken that tie."

Stacker kept perfectly still as Azusa walked up to him, staring up into his eyes with her question so clear a telepath couldn't have conveyed it better. Yet all the same, she said it anyway.

"Why? Why did you make the choice?"

Pentecost closed his eyes and compressed, his body seeming to lose most of its hardness.

"Because I didn't think he'd make it. And I knew he would have killed him if he didn't." The world went silent, quiet enough one could hear a pen drop outside the door.

"When you lose faith in heroes… that's when heroes die," Theodore whispered, slowly shaking his head.

"And how many heroes have we lost anyway in this war already?" Gordon returned at the same volume.

"Too many," Stacker said. "And because of my choice… my weakness, we just lost four of our best."

The three looked to Azusa, seeing not the internationally known and respected woman of science, but a grieving mother who just learned why her son had died.

"He's not gone, Azusa," Stacker told her gently, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"He's not here though." Her voice was cracking, and she refused to look up at him. "And he might not ever come back."

"But he is out there, somewhere," Stacker told her. "And that means we can find him again."

It took many long seconds but eventually Azusa looked up at him, eyes shining with new tears. "How?"

"However we can. We've done the impossible before. We should be able to do it again."

"Oh, yeah, make some impossible promises, we all know it winds up being the guy who can spit lightning that has to find out how to do it!" Theo was already on a roll. "How? How do we find them? First thought, scrying, but if they're in the damn future then that's a no go, and if they're in the past how does that help us at all? What if they're in a whole other galaxy, do we try and call the universe for help and hope the Xillians don't hear us? And if they're in another universe, how then? Do we turn the DT into a gateway ala Stargate then? How? How will we find them? I'm all for making it happen but we need ideas, people!"

"Monarch has years of testing data to work with in determining the exact method through which the DT's wormhole properties operate," Stacker said. "We've never had reason to focus on it over simply ensuring the weapon side of the program worked, but that changes now. Between Monarch and Langoud's combined resources a solution should present itself."

Theo sighed but immediately started taking mental notes as he paced back and forth. "I'll get in touch with Mom and see if she can get rolling on scrying for Junior and the gang are somewhere in our universe. We'll start at home before considering… extra-universal probabilities." He shrugged, "No point in searching the infinite multiverse if they're at our back door."

"Azusa?"

The three turned to look at the good doctor, who had stepped away from them and was looking at her phone. Stacker didn't even need to see the screen to know what she was looking at.

"We'll get them back. I promise."

Azusa looked back at him, and Stacker was relieved to see the grief had disappeared for the moment. Replaced by the familiar determination those eyes usually carried. "Whatever it takes," she said. "But Stacker… when we get them back…"

"An apology…" Stacker sighed, looking up to the ceiling. "I'm not sure if one from me is worth offering."

"I know he'd forgive you."

Theo and Gordon watched as Pentecost all but shattered under the weight of the words worse than if she'd ever struck him, the man turning away from them and saying nothing, yet they all heard his message. He'd been there in Kyoto when Godzilla, the heir to the throne of destruction, had saved possibly every human life that existed or yet would on the dawn of the new millennium.

I don't know if I can forgive myself.

"Azusa." Theodore spoke up, finally, "If it means anything… I'd be just as angry, and just as determined to right what's wrong if it was my baby girl who got hit with that thing. From one kaiju parent to another, I will, gladly, do whatever I can to get Junior back. Tytanna idolizes him and she's right to do so."

"She's far from alone on that," Azusa said with a hint of sardonic tone. She glanced over at Gordon with a half-hearted smirk. "I hope you're ready for the outpouring of rage you're about to get."

Gordon shrugged, tapping his katana against his leg. "I'm used to playing the bad guy in public. If anyone asks, my vote was the breaker."

"You don't always have to play the bad guy," Theo countered. "Point remains, we're all in this mess together, whether by causing it, or by trying to fix it… usually both. I mean, after all, 'A true, true friend helps a friend in need!'"

He grinned, enjoying the near-instantaneous annoyance on their faces. The mad mage could barely open his mouth to continue before Gordon tackled him, clamping a hand over his mouth immediately.

"You know what happened the last time you started quoting that show," Gordon said with a hiss.

"But it's not MY fault that the molemen army attacked right then!"

"I don't care, I don't wanna risk it again!"

"If it weren't for the fact that she immediately reacts in a murderous rage I'd almost enjoy knowing that a children's TV show was Jane's weakness," Azusa muttered to herself.

"We examined the pros and cons and decided it wasn't worth the risk," Stacker said in an empty voice. "Especially after she threatened to burn down the showrunners' studio."

They shared a look before sighing together in unison.

"Fucking Tiptree."

They all commiserated together in their hatred of the infamous terrorist, which was interrupted as Stacker's and Gordon's phones both pinged. The moment they answered Choi's voice came on the line.

"Sirs, we've got word that one of our fleet convoys is under attack in the South China Sea! Megaguirus and the Gyaos hive are both attacking it!"

"... oh fuck."

**HS**

Admiral Marittima Guerra was having a particularly shitty day today. Out of a long and shitty week in a crappy month in a long, frustrating, and painful year of service. So par for the course really. She let out a pained sigh, pinching her nose as if hoping to either wake up from the ongoing nightmare or simply that the physical pain would draw out some of her mental anguish. Not that it had ever worked, but she could hope.

"Admiral, we've got the latest report in from the Shatterdome."

No more time for bellyaching, Marittima told herself. Time for war. "What's the word?"

She stood up from her chair at the edge of the war table, examining the projection being displayed as the communication officer took control of the hologram.

"Satellite imaging shows that the Megaguirus hive is 300 miles due south of our position, while the Gyaos horde is 270 miles away, bearing 160 true. Both are projected to arrive within less than fifteen minutes, roughly at the same time as each other."

Two hazy red clouds appeared on the map in the reported locations relative to the fleet, both slowly moving in their direction.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll be too busy attacking each other to bother us," someone suggested lightly, though the darkness in their eyes showed that they were not foolish enough to think it would happen.

"What support are we getting?" Guerra asked as she started calculating her options from her available resources.

The comms officer winced. "The only thing in range to help is Gotengo, which is redirecting from its original course towards Solgel. Best estimates they have put it arriving in our airspace within half an hour."

Marittima shook her head, easily doing the mental math. "Won't be fast enough. We'll have to win the fight on our own by driving them off." The Admiral double tapped the map where the fleet was, the projection 'zooming' in to focus on the ships of the fleet. Her escort ships were colored in dark purple, while the ships of the convoy itself were marked in green.

"We've got forty transports to look out for. Each one is carrying enough goods and supplies to fuel an entire city, so we can't afford to lose even one. Our enemy is aerial, meaning the best defense is to pull the ships in close so they can overlap their fields of fire. Send orders to have the transports close ranks, one klick distance."

Guerra watched one of her subordinates leave to relay the orders. She could only hope the civvies on the convoy crews had been practicing their fleet maneuvers like they were supposed to. She didn't have time to babysit them if they made errors.

"Move the destroyers and cruisers from the north side into flanking positions for the southern half. I want this arc," she drew a demi-circle around the south side of the fleet, "to be completely covered. We can't let the fliers have an easy way to get around our range." She pointed to the peak of the circle, then marked out two points slightly off center. "Our two battleships will sit here and here, each one aiming at one of the two kaiju. The more we can do to disrupt their flight path in the longer we'll have. We'll launch every air dominance craft we have from the carrier and use them to thin out and redirect the hives, drawing them into lanes of fire from the escorts."

"And the Dragoons, ma'am?"

Guerra looked up at the actual Captain of the carrier she was on, Captain Rodriguez.

"You think they're up to the challenge?" the Admiral asked. "Last I checked they're not rated to combat Category 4 kaiju directly for an extended period."

"They won't be engaging alone," Rodriguez retorted. "My wings have had several practice flights with them. They know how to work together."

Guerra glanced at the single transport painted in purple, sitting only one carrier's length from her own ship. The tactic was only just out of prototyping, that cargo ship being the first to be deployed in its new launch configuration. Its pilots were on their first deployment, fresh out of training. If there was one thing Guerra truly despised it was sending rookies into the heart of danger. But that was their job, the role they'd signed up for. And against a threat like this she couldn't afford to hold anything back.

"Send the order for them to prep for launch," Guerra announced. "Time for those Dragoons to earn their wings."

The Captain nodded then turned to leave the room, heading up to the bridge to command his ship. Guerra remained in the Combat Information Center, watching her subordinates send out her orders to the fleet, the ships starting to move out to their new defensive line. As they did, Guerra started calculating, trying to analyze just how much trouble they were in.

Her escort fleet consisted of less than thirty ships, the vast majority of that taken up by her twenty destroyers. Light, fast, relatively cheap to build, and loaded to the gills with anti-air weapons. Two turrets carrying twin 5 inch auto reloading artillery guns, two more turrets with medium grade masers, and four banks of rapid launch missiles rated for targeting aircraft. Perfect tools for ripping apart dozens of immature gyaos and meganulon, and at least a credible threat to the smaller Super gyaos amongst the flock, yet utterly helpless against the queens of the hives.

Amongst her capital grade ships the fleet only had five cruisers instead of the recommended eight, the result of production lines not being able to keep up with demand. As it was, two of the cruisers were pre-Final Wars designs and thus lacking in more modern equipment, though their powder assisted coil guns would still pack a serious punch. The newer cruisers were even more powerful, mixing more rail guns with heavy masers similar to what heavy maser tanks mounted, at the sacrifice of only one serious missile bank for air defense. If they could get a clean hit on the kaiju they might be able to make a dent, and the supers would need to watch out lest they be hit by something that could actually hurt them.

The real ace in the hole, though, was the battleships. Guerra couldn't help but grin a bit as she thought of the two titans of steel that formed the real core of her defensive fleet. The carrier she was on might be better for command, could launch upwards of a hundred aircraft to fill the sky with missiles and lasers certainly, but nothing it carried came close to the destructive power of the guns and masers on those two ships. Arizona was older, one of the few battleships to survive Final Wars due to being stuck in drydock for the conflict, with three turrets carrying twin 15 inch railguns with a kinetic hitting power in the kilotons of force. Kaiju may be tough, but surely they couldn't weather a hit from a gun of that kind of power..

But the main guns weren't the only thing her ships were carrying.. The supplementary weapons load was the equal to two and a half of the escorting destroyers, making Arizona just as potent for anti-air as it was for anti-kaiju work. Montana, by contrast, was only a year out of commission, and carrying much heavier weapons. The ship wielded two massive quad weapon turrets, the upper turret mounted with 16 inch gravity-assisted railguns, while the lower had super-heavy masers of the same grade used by Kiryu's 'breath' weapon.

The two ships were far and away the most potent weapons her fleet had on offer. If they were going to make it through this they needed to funnel the approaching kaiju into the battleships' gun sights, cutting off any surprise maneuvers to ensure the landing of the shots. As powerful as the battleship weapons were, they had a very slow rate of fire, so they would get at most two tries if the kaiju didn't waste time and headed straight in toward the fleet. They needed to make those shots count.

"Admiral, Dragoons are about to launch!"

Marittima looked up from her battle planning to one of the display screens mounted on the wall, showing a camera view from up on the carrier's deck pointed towards the converted transport. The transport's deck had been lifted up and split apart, allowing the launch mechanisms within to lift up into their vertical launch positions. Whoever was controlling the camera zoomed in slightly, showing off the three Dragoons about to launch.

The first one was purely a MARS design resembling a stocky metal dragon, a pair of massive engines affixed to each wing matched with long caliber cannons, no doubt showing that of the three, it was supposed to be the relative heavy hitter. The second Dragoon was what Guerra guessed to be Knightmare Industries' own in-house design, far more bipedal, but with some draconic features such as the wings and the scale pattern on the hull. Their final Dragoon looked like neither, a simple bipedal platform that had more in common with the drastically smaller ASP units than the Dragoons.

"Man, these things look nothing alike," a crewman commented as they looked at the feed. "How in the hell do they keep track of what parts go where? Do they even share parts?"

"Mixed squadron, meant for different roles," an officer said. "Not much point keeping three of the same unit when each one can fill different jobs."

"Well right now they have the same job," Guerra spoke up, shutting down the conversation. "Holding off those flying bitches and moving them where our battleships can take their shots."

They watched as the Dragoons each launched off in sequence, swiftly being joined by flights of escorting drones. The trio of flying mechs formed up on each other and flew off into the darkening sky, leaving the camera's view. Marittima turned back to the plot, watching as the last of her ships moved into position. They were as ready as they were going to be. Now came the wait.

"Comms, put me through to the fleet," she said as she took position at the head of the plot. She waited for the confirming nod before speaking. "Everyone, this is Admiral Guerra. We are about to engage in conflict with two of the most powerful flying kaiju the world is currently aware of, along with their flocks of following creatures. We are uniquely well suited to take on this threat, but I won't lie to you all and say we have it easy. Two hives at once along with their leading kaiju is more than we were ever expected to take on, but that's what we're faced with right now. And I know that every single sailor in this fleet is up to the task. Prepare yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. This is going to be one hell of a fight. And we are going to win it. Get to work." She signaled the comms officer to sign her out, then sighed.

Hope the price of victory won't be too high this time…

The last few minutes before contact passed in silence, the steady movement of the oncoming red clouds watched with growing anticipation from everyone in the room. At last they tripped the outer boundary and the fight began.

"Launch missiles," Guerra ordered, eyes glued to the plot as she saw trails start to leave her ships and travel out in the direction of the hives. They could have launched sooner, but 50 miles out ensured the missiles could be fired at full speed and still have the range to reach out to hit the hives. It took only a minute for the first missiles to reach the outer edges of the hive.

"Do we have any drones in range for visual?" she asked, being answered by one of the screens being replaced by a green-tinted view of the clouds, both water vapor and monster. The view was sufficiently zoomed out to show the whole of the gyaos horde, which was flying about in all directions as the explosions started to appear around the different clusters. For a good minute and a half the animals flew around aimlessly, trying to avoid the blasts, but then the camera's audio picked up a screech at the higher pitch range and the flock reorganized themselves, sheltering behind the supers while those larger kaiju fired their sonic beams towards the incoming missiles.

"Cease missile fire on the gyaos," Guerra said before shifting her focus to the combat plot. "Dragoons, draw the gyaos in, focus on taking out the supers if you can."

She watched as the trio of purple masses dived in towards the flock, turning her attention to the other group of incoming enemies. "Visual on the mega flock." The screen next to the first flicked into a similar view, this one from a different perspective. Here missiles were also exploding amongst the hive, but the camera showed that several of the missiles were falling out of the sky well short of their targets, their rockets still going but completely out of control.

"Damn that Megaguirus and her vibrations," Guerra said with a snarl. Nobody was quite sure how she achieved it but Megaguirus was able to control the speed and angle of her wings such that she could send sound waves in specific frequencies in any direction, precisely tuned to interfere with electronics and disable them. Attempts to mitigate the effect were ongoing but as far as the Admiral knew they weren't particularly successful as of yet. "Focus maser fire on the mega flock when they get into range."

Unable to do anything else about that group for the moment she looked back to the plot, ready to watch from an outside perspective as the Dragoons made their attack on the gyaos.

Please god let those new pilots be ready.

**HS**

In the course of her very short life as an AI Connor had known two things. One, the humans she lived and worked with were weird. Two, she loved being inside a Dragoon. Admittedly that last part was a relatively recent development, but considering her lifespan could be measured in months on the fingers of a single human hand that wasn't saying much. In that time though as much as she found humans completely baffling she did enjoy spending time with them, and thus was more than happy to accept her job as a protector for them by piloting the mech she was built for. Training had been fun, practice even more so, and her two partner pilots were good at their jobs, if still a bit unsure of how to act around her. She didn't mind, she had to adjust to working with them too. But now they weren't in training, this wasn't just for learning anymore. This was a real fight, and she needed to give it her all.

"Skyburner, Azure Wyvern, this is Aschendale," she said through her radio to her partners behind her. "I'm going for the small super near the front. Altitude 4000. Can you focus fire on the groups above and behind it to cover me?"

Her first response was from the MARS Dragoon, Azure, whose female pilot said, "Roger that, Connor. Lead the way. Any that come close to you will taste my artillery."

"Connor, this is Radar," Skyburner's pilot said. "While you do your dive I'm going to focus on throwing out flash bombs, stun the rest of the flock so they won't all come down on our heads right away. Watch out for sonic beams, over."

"No problem Alex!"

"We're in battle, Connor, use callsigns," Radar retorted sternly.

"Okies!"

Connor didn't know why humans were so insistent on names and procedures and stuff. She always knew who and what they were talking about, so why was it so important to come up with new names for the same thing? On reflex she dodged a sonic beam that was sent her way and just as quickly realized she was supposed to be fighting right now.

Oops.

She grabbed her spear head from her hip and attached it to a staff she grabbed from her back, all the while building up speed in an upwards climb. Once she had her spear in hand she twisted about and dived down, accelerating immediately into and through the sound barrier using the tip of her spear to break through the gathering air. As she dived she launched some of her few offensive missiles down ahead of her, the guided projectiles blowing away some of the smaller gyaos in her way, giving her clear access to the super. Taking care to get the angle just right she held the spear at the ready and slammed into the unsuspecting gyaos. As it turns out, having several hundred tons of metal robot smash into you with a spear aimed at your head is very lethal, at least for a gyaos of the same size. Connor took her time cutting her spear out of the instantly dead creature, using the spare moment to examine her partners and their progress above her.

Azure Wyvern was making good use of its heavy cannons to devastate clouds of mini-gyaos, then stunning any supers that turned her way with flash detonation rounds before moving to another sniping position. Skyburner, meanwhile, was unloading his autocannon into a super that had tried to swoop down on him from above, cutting its wings to ribbons before juking out of the way with a quick application of thrust. Their plan to get the gyaos' attention was well underway. Connor was about to fly up and join the other two when she saw a mass at the end of the flock on her radar suddenly blast forward.

"Hyper incoming! Evade, evade, evade!"

Azure immediately broke off from her attack, diving into the clouds for a bit of cover while deploying smoke in her wake to obscure her profile. Skyburner though was caught wrestling with a small pack of gyaos who had gotten in on his side. He wouldn't have time to escape on his own.

"Montana, this is Dragoon unit Connor. Requesting immediate railgun fire on the Hyper's position! Coordinates to follow!" She set off her engines at full blast, launching off the dead body of the super to catch her partner from below. In seconds she was there, grabbing his mech by the engines and jerking him away from where he was about to stab a super in the jaw with his armblade. "Radar, add to my thrust, hurry!"

Skyburner's pilot didn't need any further instruction, angling his mech to provide the best acceleration that combined with hers. The effort worked just in time, as a moment later the airspace they'd just been occupying was blasted by a sonic beam as wide across as her torso.

"Montana, fire now!"

"Railgun shots on the way!"

Connor adjusted her flight path slightly, trying to keep the Hyper following in their wake. Just a few secon-

Apropos of nothing the Hyper suddenly completely came to a halt in midair, just in time to evade two slugs of ferro-magnetic steel accelerated to nearly a dozen times the speed of sound. The mere passage of the rounds through the air buffeted the small mechs, Connor preemptively turning her audio receptors to zero to negate the incoming power of the sound booms in the shells' wakes.

"Negative contact, Montana. The Hyper dodged them!"

"Understood Aschendale," the voice of the Admiral said. "Pull back into the defensive fire envelope. We need to narrow the time of shot to the time of impact so she can't pull off a lucky dodge like that again."

Connor was about to say something but the comm disconnected before she could say it. She just sent the message in text anyway.

'Dodge was not luck. She saw the shots coming and evaded in less than 225 milliseconds.'

Connor didn't have time to send a more concrete message, as her priority now was to help Skyburner get out of range of the sonic blasts the gathering supers were sending their way. A trio of flash detonations behind her gave them the cover they needed, Azure forming up on her left side from out of a cloud.

"That damn albino," Utena cursed. "She's too fast to hit with anything that matters."

"We'll just have to stuff the barrel down its throat then," Radar said gruffly. "See how she dodges that."

Connor let her two human partners gripe, saving her concerns for herself as their flight retreated back towards the fleet. She was too busy running calculations based on the action she had just witnessed. And the numbers she was finding suggested that the range required to guarantee a hit on an aware and attentive Hyper Gyaos was… uncomfortably close. Which meant only one thing.

We'll need a distraction.

**HS**

The battle was going well, in that nothing disastrous had happened yet. The forward momentum of both hives had slowed to a crawl as one was engaged and distracted by the Dragoons at close range while the other was blasted with masers and missiles. But that didn't change the fact that the kaiju were getting closer, and nothing would keep them away from the fleet for longer than a few minutes. The destroyers furthest out from the fleet were almost out of missiles, forcing them to pull in closer to their fellows for cover once the targets got in close. And that range was almost here.

"Admiral, Gotengo says they're ten minutes out."

"Must have put on the speed then," she mused, adjusting some of her mental math. "Well they won't be able to turn the tide alone. We need to deal with at least one of those bitches before they get here. Montana, status on your reload?"

"Rounds are in the chamber, Admiral. Still need to finish the recharge though. If we drain power from the masers we can get it done faster."

"Negative. We'll need those things ready in case the supers get close to the escorts. Coordinate with the cruisers on your half of the arc, start picking targets for your secondaries. Maybe if we can cut down enough of their flocks they'll fuck off."

"Understood Admiral. Montana out."

The gyaos flock had the majority of her fastest units ready to act, as they needed to deal with the speed demon that was the Hyper, but that left the mega hive side weaker.

Time to fix that.

"Captain Rodreiguez, direct your fighters to focus on the mega hive. Have the drones get in close to draw in the meganulon, then launch everything you've got to clear them out. We'll blast the queen with our guns and masers to keep her from disabling the missiles."

"She'll be dangerously close to us when that happens, Guerra," the Captain warned.

"I'm aware, but we need to clear out those pests before they get too close and overwhelm our fire directors. It's hard to keep track of what's what now, that'll become impossible as they close range."

The Captain sighed over the mic. "Roger that. Hope you know what you're doing Admiral."

"I wouldn't be in command if I didn't," she retorted, though there was less truth to her words than she'd like. She distracted herself from those thoughts by focusing on the plot, seeing her plan put into motion. Four dozen fighters guiding a cloud of smaller drones into the heart of the hive, drawing the immature insects out and away from their guarding mother. Megaguirus seemed to catch on to the plot and was about to advance when the heavy guns of her cruisers let loose with a full barrage, forcing the queen to pay attention to defending herself. It was a short window, but it was enough.

"Full alpha strike, fire everything!"

Hundreds of missiles leapt from the carrier's fighters, coating the meganulon in explosions from all sides. Gun shells and masers kept the queen kaiju from interfering until the last of the barrage was over, showing that nearly half the flock was now gone.

"Not as many as I'd like, but I'll take it," Guerra said with a huff. "What's Megaguirus' status?"

It took longer than the Admiral liked to get an answer, as most of the drones providing a visual view of the sky in that area had been shot down or destroyed by the meganulon. Then the picture came on just in time to see Megaguirus rush past the camera so quickly the drone was thrown off course.

"She's heading straight for us!" someone shouted.

"Arizona, track and fire immediately!"

"Calculating, standby."

She quickly focused on the plot, showing Megaguirus picking up speed and zooming closer and closer to the destroyer picket line.

"NOW, ARIZONA!"

"Firing."

From this distance the boom of the guns was inaudible, but the plot created a track following the projectiles through space. It took two seconds for the shots to land from firing, but it felt like an eternity. There was a flash of light from the impact, a horrible screech the cameras picked up through struggling speakers, and then a colossal column of water erupting from the ocean surface as the kaiju fell into the waves. Everything went quiet for a moment as they all came to grips with what had just happened.

"Direct hit, one round hit her right in the head! No way she's surviving that!"

Guerra agreed but figured it was better to be safe than sorry. "Sonar, get me a plot of where she is!"

"Working on it, Admiral. There's some interference from the blast wave of the gunshot. Standby."

All eyes went to the sonar plot, showing that Megaguirus had hit the surface just a kilometer short of the nearest destroyer. The depth indicator showed she was a hundred meters down and falling slowly, and she felt some tension fall from her shoulders.

That was too damn close, she almost got the escort. Well, one down, one to g…

Her thoughts were interrupted as a shout came from the sonar operator.

"Sonar contact is going active again! She's heading to the surface!"

Guerra's eyes widened as she watched the sunken kaiju start moving back up, directly towards the unaware ship.

"Destroyer Haguro, Megaguirus is approaching you from underwater! Fire depth charges and retreat immediately!"

Even as she gave the order she knew it was a hopeless effort. Fast the destroyers may be, capable of more than forty knots at full tilt, there was no possible way it could escape the monster intent on its blood. The crew of that ship almost certainly knew it too, but they made their best effort regardless, heeling about to move away from the monster's heading while peppering the ocean behind them with mid-weight explosives. Those charges were more than enough to see off more normal sized ocean-going creatures, most of them small mutants or the like, but against a kaiju like Megaguirus they weren't even going to slow her down.

"On screen," she commanded, drawing several shocked looks before her order was followed. A camera view from the ship itself appeared on the center console, pointing to the ship's aft where a portion of the ocean was growing darker and darker even below the ship's wake. She didn't look away at Megaguirus burst from the ocean's depths to crawl atop the ship, didn't blink as she watched the creature sink its claws into the destroyer's superstructure, and made no sound at all as the ship began to dip below the waves as the full weight of the monster sat atop it.

The camera winked out a moment later, replaced instantly with one from a cruiser a few klicks away. The perspective zoomed in on the kaiju's face, showing its malicious grimace pointed right at the fleet. Over the left eye part of the chitinous armor had fractured and been stabbed open in a crevice several meters wide, purple blood leaking out and into the red glow of the beast's compound eyes. Damage had been done, but on this scale it could best be compared to jabbing a pocket knife into a bull's face as opposed to firing off a bullet point blank into their grill.

"That's… that's impossible! She took the round right to the face and it barely scratched her!"

"I thought those railguns were supposed to be able to kill kaiju! What the hell happened?"

"Clearly somebody got their math wrong," Guerra said with a dead even tone. She put her feelings of rage and helplessness to the side for now. There wasn't time to feel them. "Arizona, new orders. Once your reload is complete overcharge your next shots to the maximum possible. We can't afford to waste another chance."

"Understood. We'll blow out the barrels if we have to. Full charge in two minutes."

Guerra confirmed their time as she watched Megaguirus shake the water off her wings and fling them out to full extension. Time for a melee.

"All other ships, engage Megaguirus at will! Give her everything you've got!"

A fusillade of fire was unleashed onto the kaiju, most of the shells exploding harmlessly on its exoskeleton, but the kaiju clearly wasn't enjoying being hit by the sheer weight of explosives being sent its way. With a chittering screech it dived back into the water, the damaged destroyer bobbing about in the waves but managing to stay upright. Guerra prayed to whatever gods were listening that it stayed that way, that someone might still be alive aboard the ship. She turned to the sonar board, barking out, "Contact the submarines, tell them to take aim!"

When this battle had started the idea that the four submarines shadowing the fleet would become involved in any serious fashion hadn't even entered Guerra's mind. Submarines were used entirely to fend off underwater kaiju and were functionally useless for anything that didn't touch the ocean itself. Then again, Guerra also had thought her confidence in her battleships and their guns was well founded, so expectations were clearly out the window at this point.

She refocused on the sonar plot, seeing the projected location of Megaguirus in relation to the submarines. It would be just at the edge of their effective range, given they were closer to the transport fleet, but still…

"Message received from sub pack commander! 'Target engaged with masers at max range, apparent impact minimal'."

"To be expected," Guerra said, given how much weaker masers were underwater and with the distance involved. "Tell them to keep up the pressure. We can't do anything to her if she's hiding below the water."

"Admiral, comms request from the Dragoons, they've got an update."

It took her a moment to mentally switch gears and refresh herself on the other half of the battle. The Gyaos horde had been thoroughly distracted by the Dragoons flying in and amongst their number, helped in their effort by the remaining drones harassing the flock where they could. No more Supers had been lost though, as they had learned their lesson from the opening of the engagement and were being much more cautious. The same could be said for the Hyper, which had stuck to the back of the flock and was constantly varying her course and altitude, which showed it was at least wary of Montana's weaponry, though Guerra had her doubts now as to its usefulness.

"This is Guerra, report."

"Admiral, I have an idea of how to deal with Megaguirus."

Guerra lifted an eyebrow at the AI pilot's statement. "I'm listening."

"Based on previous recorded behavior of the Megaguirus it is likely to take being injured as a personal insult and thus will focus all her efforts on destroying the ship that hurt her. She will thus be too heavily distracted to do anything that doesn't directly engage her."

"Your point?" the Admiral asked as she watched Megaguirus trend back to the surface, apparently fed up of being maser blasted by things she couldn't see.

"Megaguirus will likely be sufficiently distracted as to not notice a significant threat appearing to its rear. Including another kaiju."

The room fell silent for a moment as they looked at each other in disbelief, while Guerra pinched her nose as she tried in vain to think of a different answer to her current problems. When none came to her she sighed, right in time for Megaguirus to breach the surface.

"If you think you can pull it off then go for it," she ordered. "If we can get those two to fight each other instead of us, that might just give us the time to get Gotengo on station."

"Understood. We'll give it our best! Out."

"Is it a good idea to lure the Hyper Gyaos closer to us like that?" one of her subordinates asked.

"She was going to move in on us anyway. At least like this there's a chance she'll be spending her time fighting something other than us." Guerra tapped her comms pad, saying, "Montana, switch off the Gyaos and aim in towards Megaguirus when she surfaces, masers only."

"Roger, shifting power channels."

"Arizona, reload status?"

"Barrels ready and maintaining charge. Reading heavy stress in the charging lines, we won't be able to hold an overcharge like this for long."

"Don't worry," Guerra said as she watched Megaguirus burst from the surface of the ocean on a camera view. "You'll have your shot soon. All ships, lock her down!"

It took Megaguirus a few seconds to get her wings out of the water so she could try to lift herself out of the water, giving the fleet enough time to adjust their aim. This time though Megaguirus knew what to expect, diving beneath the first wave of fire before bursting out into open air, beating her wings furiously to gain altitude. Once she was airborne she became nearly impossible to hit, juking back and forth with her buzzing wings. Some of the ships wised up and started firing into her likely paths, but even those shots only made glancing hits off Megaguirus' armor. And all the while the insect queen's eyes were fixed upon the battleship at the back of the pack.

"She's going to make a move any second," Marittima muttered to herself. "The forward momentum will make it harder for her to evade. So if we can predict which angle she'll move to…"

"Admiral, we're almost there! Approaching from south-southwest."

She looked at the radar plot, seeing the trio of purple dots being chased at full speed by the unmistakable profile of the Hyper. A quick estimate and some simple math gave her the answer.

"Arizona, aim half your shots right at Meg when she moves in, then shift your other rounds 15 degrees to the east of her current path. That's where she'll evade."

"Understood, calculating now."

The plan was set, and not a moment too soon as Megaguirus burst forward in a blast of air and sound, leaving the inaccurate fire of the escorts behind. Guerra bit her lip as she watched the plot like a hawk, hoping that her math skills didn't fail her and that the desperate plan worked out. It was all up to the Dragoons now.

**HS**

"WHY DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!"

"When we get back to the ship I'm kicking your ass Ranger!"

Connor tuned out her fellow pilots' fearful banter, focusing on projecting a flight path for them to follow which would hopefully keep the Hyper from catching them. The giant gyaos was both fast and agile but her size gave her an inertia that slowed her down just enough for their nimble Dragoons to get ahead of any moves she made, if only just barely.

She sensed a bite incoming and sent a signal for their flight to dive down, all of them ducking just below the snapping jaws and heading down to the cresting waves on the surface. Even as they leveled out, their jet wash parting the waters below them Connor was plotting out the next move. She didn't like the odds she was seeing. The Hyper was learning their tells, leading her attacks to become dangerously close.

"Follow closely, guys," she ordered as she fired up her jets to maneuver again. "Especially you Ranger."

"I didn't mean to hit her in the eye! She moved as I shot!"

Nobody responded to the claim as they all jetted upward to avoid the sonic beam fired at them from behind. Then a second beam followed them, clipping Radar's wing and nearly sending him spiraling.

"Shit, I'm hit! Portside wing, losing stability!"

"Can you keep flying?"

"I think so, at least long enough to pull away."

Connor's equations were getting worse by the second, and it was getting harder and harder to keep her composure. An idle part of her runtime wondered if this was what humans referred to as 'stress'.

Then the paradigm changed as Megaguirus leapt forward from her idle position and a new path became clear.

"Dragoons, follow me in! This is it!"

"Full throttle, Radar, let's go!"

The three Dragoons pushed their engines to the recline, breaking through the sound barrier in moments as they left the surprised Hyper behind. It took a moment for the kaiju to catch up to them, but Connor noticed in her rearward cameras that the gyaos's eyes were no longer on them.

"Target has taken the bait, pull out now!"

Aschendale and Azure Wyvern made their banking turn, but Skyburner lagged behind, smoke now trailing from his damaged wing.

"Damnit, controls are falling apart, can't hold her steady!"

Connor immediately made an about-face, cutting her thrust as she tried to shift her momentum in Skyburner's direction. She and Azure made it to his side in time to stop his Dragoon from hitting the waves, all of them breathing a sigh of relief. Then they heard the shout on the fleet comms.

"FIRE!"

**HS**

Megaguirus was beyond furious at how this ambush had proceeded, and that rage was almost literally blinding her as she raced forward towards the human vessels that had fired on her. She had battled human war machines before but always found them lacking, either too weak to hurt her or too slow to catch up. Even this latest blow hadn't been a serious injury, but the damage to her pride was far higher. Getting sucker punched in the face by that shot was an insult she could not ignore, and she was going to pay it back a thousand-fold on this puny human fleet. Tearing their steel coffins apart one by one so she could drain them of life and ener-

Wait, is that the gyaos?

Her left eye, covered as it was in her own blood, had failed to see the rapidly approaching kaiju coming from her left until she was only a mile off. Too short to think, too close to plan. Immediately Megaguirus veered to the side, enough to get out of the white flier's path.

Then pain, white-hot and piercing, struck her in the side and in the tail. For an instant her focus moved back to her original target, waves of displaced air still radiating out from the barrels pointed in her direction. Pure, visceral hate rose up inside her, a screech ready in her throat-

A sonic beam tore through her left wing, cleaving open the membrane like it was tissue paper. A follow up strike from the gyaos itself knocked her out of the air, crashing hard into the sea below as pain attacked her from both sides. Pride or no pride the choice was clear now. She had to leave, to get away from this accursed fleet and that damnable fellow flier. Ignoring the lances of plasmatic fire trying to burn at her exoskeleton she swam through the waves, willing her insectoid lungs to hold as she put as much distance as she could between her and the human ships.

Next time you will all suffer. This the Queen decrees!

**HS**

The whole of CIC let out a cheer as sonar confirmed that Megaguirus was leaving the combat zone, while Marittima let out a breath of relief knowing her prediction had been correct. "Alright people, focus up!" she declared, silencing the celebrations. "We've still got a kaiju in our airspace. Arizona, status report?"

It took several seconds for an answer to come through, during which time the fleet held their fire, since the Hyper Gyaos was seemingly chasing down the retreating Megaguirus.

"Not good, Admiral. Our gun battery charger is completely shot, will need a complete replacement at this point. Same for the barrels, they actually cracked apart under the force of those shots. We… have casualties as well. The gun crews refused to leave their stations. Wanted to make sure the fire was accurate. They were caught up in the back blast when the barrels broke."

Guerra bowed her head, both in respect for those crew's sacrifices and for being the one to put them in that situation. "They'll all be getting medals, Captain McKibben. I promise you that." She set that matter to the side for now, asking, "Fleet check, what's our status?"

The answer took several minutes to collect and was much as she expected. They were completely out of missiles and many of her ships were dangerously low on ready shells for their guns. The only ship that was still mostly fresh for the fight was Montana, so that was where she put her focus.

"Montana, prep your masers for if the gyaos come back. You'll be our only effective weapon against the Hyper if she returns."

Before the ship could give a confirmation her radar officer squawked in alarm, "Hyper Gyaos turning around! She's heading for the fleet again!"

Fight's not over. Marittima settled back in her chair, hoping they were ready for round two. "Alright, same plan as last time. All escorts are to focus your fire on holding back the flock while Montana takes on the Hyper."

"Admiral, that plan won't work!"

Guerra looked up at being contradicted, narrowing her eyes at the representation of the Dragoons, who were all huddled next to each other.

"Clarify yourself, Aschendale."

"I've calculated the Hyper's reaction time as being capable of dodging any long range shots fired at her. You'd have to draw her into suicide range to guarantee a hit."

"How close?" Guerra dared to ask.

"Within two miles, give or take a hundred feet."

Guerra blanched, her gaze turning to the plotting table as she took in just how close two miles could be. She could wipe out half the fleet and not be touched by the time Montana gets close enough.

"Any chance you could lure her close enough?"

"Negative. Forgive me for saying this, ma'am, but the Hyper isn't nearly as stupid as Megaguirus was."

Gloom fell across the room as the people around her realized what that meant. They were helpless.

"Where the hell is Gotengo when we need her!" someone shouted in clear panic. Before Guerra could reprimand them for losing their cool the radio chirped with a new voice.

"Fleet Zeta, this is Gotengo. Sorry for being late. Ready to provide assistance."

Marittima's heart leapt into her throat, her hope that her people would survive restored.

"Gotengo, this is Admiral Guerra. The Hyper Gyaos is bearing down on us and we're out of munitions to deal with her. Push her away from the fleet."

"Understood. We'll get it done."

Gotengo was added to the plot, her position showing her to the north of the cargo ships, but plenty close enough to fire with her hyper-maser. Meanwhile the Hyper was approaching from Megaguirus's original vector, moving in at extreme speed.

"Target locked, firing."

Everyone watched as the Hyper moved at the fleet, speeding along through the air unhindered by flock or foe. Then she moved, suddenly shifting up and to the right, then continuing on her previous course.

"Damnit, we missed! She's a slippery one."

It was then that Guerra realized. Gotengo's maser was more powerful than even Montana's, but there was no difference in speed between the two weapons. So if she could dodge one maser…

"Gotengo, she's too fast to hit solo! We have to coordinate our fire! Link up with Montana and synchronize your shots!"

Two confirmations reached her ears, but in the time it took for them to speak the Hyper had gotten above one of her destroyers. Alarms blared from the escort's comms, then suddenly cut off as a camera view showed the ship exploding from a sonic shot hitting its fuel tanks. Seconds later another shot hit a destroyer a klick away, its superstructure carved in half and the forward turrets coming apart in a ball of fire.

"Firing!"

Cameras showed a single massive beam of plasma crossing paths with four smaller beams, forcing the Hyper off her path with singed wingtips and tail. But she still kept coming.

Guerra watched on in horror as the white kaiju bore down upon her own ship, a specter of death laced in purple. She closed her eyes, ready to accept the end, even as she shed tears for her failure to save her fleet.

But then there was a cry of hope, a roar she had only heard before in recordings.

"It's Gamera! Gamera's here!"

Her eyes flew open just in time to see the turtle Guardian smashing the Hyper's face with his clawed fist, the creature crying in pain at the unseen attack. In moments the bat-like beast untangled herself from Gamera's grip, retreating at full speed as he flung balls of plasma after her, hovering in midair on his own trails of fire. A collective cheer went up around both the room and the fleet, the air filled with palpable relief that the battle was truly over. That their savior had come when all hope was lost.

Wonder if the Big Guy is willing to overlook a few converts now that he's gone, Marittima thought to herself as she wiped her eyes clean, a faint smile on her lips.

"Okay folks, party time is over," she declared. "We have rescue operations to do."

Everyone sobered up at that reminder, her officers scrambling to coordinate ships to head to where their lost sisters had gone down. Three escorts lost and a battleship crippled. There were worse results that could have happened, she supposed. Would have happened if Gamera hadn't arrived in time. Sparing a glance at a forgotten part of the plot she relaxed as she saw her Dragoons heading back to their ship, the intact two carrying their partner between them.

One thing was clear to her in that moment. This victory wasn't won by humans alone. It was a shared victory, between them and the kaiju they could call allies. And if Marittima had to guess that factor wasn't changing any time soon.