Chapter 29: A Fight for Tomorrow Part 2
Alt's primary focus was directed to the enemy support carrier that held many mysteries from the way she would fight to the way she would utilize her mysterious rigging. She didn't leave anything to chance and swiftly readied herself to open fire on the support carrier. With widened eyes, she quickly evaded to her side when a blast of white light tore across the sky and nearly hit her.
With a highly agitated expression, she glanced to see the first carrier that had appeared since the start of the conflict.
"Lost sister, your fight is with me." Despite the bold choice of words, her tone was flat and monotone like the machine she was. Another blast of light unloaded from the first carrier's rigging and raced toward Alt.
"Dammit!" Her fighter planes released from their standby positions and took to the skies like a swarm. They flew high and around her while at the same time readying three arrows from her bow. Her gaze was pinpoint and focused. With a coordinated strike, her planes transformed into arrows in mid-air, and she aimed her bow. The arrows from her bow released, turning into six and canceling the beam of light similar to before. This time, however, the now turned arrows that once had been her planes flashed across the sky with deadly speed, and their sights were on the dark gray-haired first carrier named Launcher.
A coordinated double strike was the way to go against this Siren and in a vacuum, she would have had checkmate.
That is if it wasn't for the other variable that stood in her way. The dark gray-haired carrier expressed a challenging expression and she moved a hand to signal to her Siren comrade. "Loader, additional firepower."
The second carrier with the gravitational rigging around her replied. "Understood!" The one calling herself Loader fired up her rigging, causing Zuikaku to actively command her planes to be ready to guard her so-called partner. She could not have foreseen that Loader's target was her own ally.
Both Alt and Zuikaku, with all this happening in rapid succession, lay witness to the Siren shooting a red beam of light into her ally. The energy shot energized the aggressive carrier instead of damaging her, and the dark gray-haired Siren's railgun-like deck instantly charged up to unleash a wild stream of light. The sheer strength of it was like a laser or a sword made of pure light that reached toward the sky, decimating all of Alt's arrows with pinpoint accuracy with a massive swing across the sky.
With that same energy exploding into a ravenous beam, she brought it down with another swing but now downward against Alt.
Alt veered just in time, yet the waves drowned her in chaos.
Zuikaku had been forgotten, yet she used this moment to deploy a storm of payloads across the field of water, causing the enemy carriers to evade them swiftly without so much as an effort. The crane disliked their mocking display, yet her tactic was ultimately a distraction to sail next to a floating Alt and pick her up. "Hey, wake up!" She impulsively slapped her, not caring if somewhere in the world, Enterprise had felt that slap.
The nearly drowned carrier sprang back to life and hesitantly checked her surroundings after spitting out water from her mouth. She never expected the first image she would see would be the white-coat crane holding her close to her. "You... saved me?" She asked bewilderedly, part of her wet hair covering one of her eyes.
Zuikaku uncharacteristically showed a hesitant face before the firm gaze in her eyes returned. "Yeah, don't think too hard on that. I need you alive right now, especially with those two." Zuikaku glanced back, seeing the intensity of the other battles behind them taking place.
So far three of their mass-produced ships had been destroyed along with four of the mass-produced Siren ships on the enemy's side. For their allies, the fight had only just begun to heat up for them.
They were all fighting and giving it their all. As carriers, they needed to be their support, yet they would need to finish their own battle first before that could happen. For Zuikaku, to save her sister, to save her allies, she needed to get through these two Sirens first.
Alt pulled herself away from the crane, an unreadable face shown. "You might have a point," she said flatly.
"Huh? We're agreeing on something?" Cynically said Zuikaku while she mocked her with fake shivers.
Alt sighed and focused her energy on her enemies. "It's only obvious. They fight together like sisters, covering the other when needed, and keeping their enemy off their balance."
Zuikaku grew serious and floated next to her carrier partner. "I have never seen a sisterly Siren duo like this..."
"Me... neither."
"So, what's the plan? The sooner we get this done the sooner we can stop working together," stated the crane with a glare toward her enemies.
"I'll support; you attack. While I'm adaptable in close combat, I'm not nearly as confident close up as I am long range."
Zuikaku thought back to when they first met, and she had basically danced around her sword swings until she was knocked off her ship. "Pfft, you could have fooled me," she bitterly moaned under her breath.
Alt continued, not hearing that last comment. "The objective is the support carrier behind her. Once gone, the other is nothing but a gun without ammunition."
"Fine, just..." She struggled to force the next set of words. "... lend me your support... and keep that one off of me!" She pointed to the dark gray-haired Siren carrier that had unleashed the destructive energy beam.
Alt gave her a smug expression that caught the crane off guard. "You won't even know she's here," was all she said, causing the crane's heart to skip slightly. She always did love cool one-liners such as those, even if they came from someone she hated. Her face then began to turn red, absolutely hating the idea if the doppelganger ever found out that private thought of hers.
With no other words exchanged, the unlikely duo joined as one.
Over where the others were, the Sakura heavy cruiser sisters had just finished taking out two Siren ships each and double-teamed a lone ship as they both dragged their blades across its side in a swift propelling motion. The ship exploded and they halted at a clear area without any hostile enemies.
In her brief respite, Takao flexed her sword wrist and glanced in the direction of the carriers fighting. She had witnessed the massive destructive beam of light and could only reflect worried eyes on her friend and Zuikaku. "Alt… the both of you. Be careful with those two," she silently prayed before Atago joined up with her.
Right now, she needed to focus on her enemy before her. Both of the Sakura heavy cruisers could feel the malicious aura in the air that forced them back to back to cover their blind spots.
"Sister, it's Miss Happy Feet," seriously declared Atago.
Takao chuckled softly while maintaining the gravity of the situation. "Yes, she sure is an impulsive one." Afterimages and shockwaves in the air riddled the battlefield around them and now and then, they could see the Siren messing with them, pretending to strike just before fading into the air.
The Siren with lightning-fast speed circled them like a predator circling their prey and she finally grew ready to strike decisively.
Takao and her sister were still back-to-back, observing the sudden disturbances in the air and water with an intent focus in their eyes.
It was then that Takao's sharp eyes noticed a shift in the water that produced ripples. "Switch!" She yelled and the sisters rotated sharply at 180 degrees. Where Atago had been, her elder sister now stood, sword unsheathed and blocking the demented blade of her enemy that appeared before her. The Siren's sword struck down and the seawater green-haired Siren loomed over her.
A grunt, so close to human yet mechanical and lifeless as if merely reading it out on paper, came out of the Siren enemy. "This is illogical, why are you able to match this speed?" Brashly stated the Siren heavy cruiser, a flicker of life in her dead teal eyes showing.
Takao pushed her blade to her right, causing the seawater green-haired Siren to get thrown sideways.
Quick as ever, the Siren showed some fancy footwork and pivoted sharply to allow her to retreat a bit of distance away. She did this to assess the situation, which earned her a smile from the white ribbon heavy cruiser.
"You're fast, that's a given, but you waste it by trying to be a storm of destruction. All your movements have a tell. Why don't you slow down and make this interesting for both of us?"
The Siren narrowed her teal eyes and instantly vanished from sight.
Atago sighed. "Don't waste your breath. You can't teach a Siren new tricks," tiredly stated her sister.
Takao frowned, disagreeing with the statement from the very depths of her wisdom cube core. "Then watch me." Her focus shook when three ships had broken off from the main mass-produced ship battle and ram full speed toward them.
"Company behind us!" Yelled Atago.
"I'm aware!" Takao gritted her teeth and turned back to her current gaze, sensing that this was merely a distraction tactic from their main foe.
The Siren reappeared in front of Atago with a low crouch, her blade already moving across the air to the exposed legs of the self-proclaimed older sister.
Atago widened her eyes as she didn't expect the enemy to both be coming at them from the same side, and even Takao was speechless.
Takao rapidly signaled to her sister and they linked arms, causing Atago to be lifted and avoid the blade that missed Takao's feet as well.
"Ah, great assist, dear sister!" The sisterly heavy cruiser cutely winked at her sister and unlinked her arms to perform a backward somersault in midair. Her feet, much to the dislike of Takao, landed on her shoulders to launch herself past the Siren enemy toward the mass-produced ships. "You handle happy feet over there and I'll keep those three off you!" She joyously proclaimed along with flashes of cannon fire from her rigging.
Anger finally oozing out of the green-haired Siren, she pulled back slightly when Takao shifted her weight sharply, bringing her rigging to center stage and nearly hitting Chaser, the green-haired Siren, in the face. The heat of the close-quarters battle and swordplay had made the Siren forget one critical thing. They were ships at the end of the day, and Takao's right gun barrels fired directly at a surprised and up close Chaser.
Their fight grew from there, using a mixture of gunfire and steel. By one observing, it looked like training that was further reinforced by the critical comments from Takao that laid out all the wrongs Chaser was doing.
A ways away from them, Wales and Hipper were assault teaming the dark ocean blue-haired Siren named Breaker. Their ships had formed a defensive barricade around them to keep the enemy ships from interfering in their fight.
Both Wales and Hipper unleashed unrelenting firepower and pulverized the surrounding area around their enemy, ultimately hitting Breaker a series of over eighteen times.
An explosion of flames engulfed the Siren, allowing the Royal and Iron Blood a short respite.
"How do you like that?!" Arrogantly stated the Iron Blood. She immediately winced in pain, the scourge doing a number on her body once again.
The blonde came to her aid and held her. "Hipper..." She ignored her own pain and could finally understand how strong the heavy cruiser sister of her lover truly was. It took almost all her focus and strength to not double over and start howling in agony from the pain that felt like her nerves and veins were being stabbed with burning needles.
"Ghaa! It feels like my body is on fire... Eugen... please hold on, I need to... to..." She didn't want to imagine the hell her sister was going through right now. Did she even know that she was on this mission with the hopes of saving her? Had she even regained consciousness? She pulled herself out of her delusions and troubled thoughts.
They both took a step back, horror reflecting in their eyes when the flames parted and a figure emerged, unharmed and not even dirty. The enemy's head of dark blue hair lifted and her teal eyes powerfully pierced them with a haunting aura. For Hipper, it reminded her of when Alt had gazed at her with that yellow haunting look.
"Leave, it's our lost sister that we want. Two scourged pawns have no use other than to die." The golden dancing flames further accentuated her alien and menacing stoic expression that one could only imagine a boiling heat to be underneath it.
Wales pulled herself out of her fears and shot her with her defiant red gaze from her ruby-like eyes. "Pawns. Coming from you, that hardly means anything. You are after our flagship and that is enough for us to stay. But dismantling you... that will be for the woman I love," she stated proudly.
Breaker appeared unphased from the love declaration and raised her hands for combat, her rigging also mechanically adjusting for fire support.
Hipper forced herself away from Wales and gave the Siren a murderous look. "Save your breath, heartthrob. No use talking to a tin can that can't think for herself."
"Heartthrob?!" That had caused the blonde royal to stagger out of her serious mood because of the baffling nickname she had received.
Breaker aligned her twin barrels on each side of herself and unleashed flashes after flashes of firepower.
"Oh no you don't!" Hipper sidestepped and glided rapidly in front of a confused Wales. Two rotating projections of light materialized in front of the Iron Blood, absorbing all the abuse from the enemy. These projections were shields constructed by Hipper's rigging and succeeded in blocking the inferno shots from their enemy that grew chaotic and unruly.
Breaker's rigging began to wildly move and the spread of shots began to hit in all directions, hitting the ships that formed the barricade around them.
The battleship and heavy cruiser gasped and grunted from seeing their backup become scrap before their eyes and shockwaves of explosion filled their ears along with the smell of burning oil staining their throats.
The hail of firepower pushed against Hipper's defenses, yet the Iron Blood's defenses held, just like her sharp gaze at her enemy. "Wales! Advance with me! If we're going to do this, we're going to do this right!" The Iron Blood blonde waited. Waited for the right moment. It was granted when Breaker stopped firing, seemingly needing to reload. She charged with her red sharks eagerly on the counterattack. They unleashed a relentless volley of blasts that forced Breaker to cover herself from the hail of fire with her gauntlets.
Wales needed no game plan as the Iron Blood's literal straightforward plan was clear. "I won't disappoint you, big sis!"
"Dammit, stop calling me that! I'm trying to focus!"
The two ships and enemy Siren orbited around each other on the water, while Breaker was trying to reload and defend.
Breaker's teal eyes continued to analyze the defense of her enemy. "Reckless... but commendable," she said, finding respect in a straightforward show of brute force. Her rigging whirled softly, letting her know she was ready to strike back. She began her assault that immediately felt like a feeble attempt, quickly assessing that her attacks could not dent the shield of her enemy. It put her name to the test, and she glowed brightly with her barrels emanating a red glow to them. From the armament attachments in her legs, she unleashed torpedoes that sought the shipgirls in a head-on collision.
"Hipper, torpedoes underneath us!" Cried Wales.
"I don't need your commentary! Reserve Shield!" Her worn-out shield evaporated, replaced with the shield behind them." Pushing her rigging beyond the recommended performance output, she expanded the shield under the water, taking on the torpedoes head-on.
An explosion went off, causing the others—Takao and Atago, to gaze in stunned horror at what conclusive fate bestowed upon their allies.
Even Chaser and the remaining mass-produced ships on both sides paused for orders. Chaser held a steady gaze, enraptured by her companion's battle prowess and eager to see fallen shipgirls.
Breaker stood motionless, confident in their assured destruction and concluding that they were already sinking.
From the floating waves of fire brought upon the explosion, Hipper shot out, showing visible damage to her rigging and clothes, but still nowhere from being defeated.
Widened eyes expressed on Breaker and she reloaded her armaments quickly.
The two blondes continued their onward assault, and Wales pushed in front. "My turn." She raised her saber into the air and struck the reloading Siren in between her right gauntlet. The vibrations in her strike shattered the red spikes as if they were glass and an inhuman orange liquid began to pour out of that puncture wound.
Without pause, Wales angled her barrels and fired a point-blank hit.
Unfortunately, Breaker covered her face with her other gauntlet, minimizing any damage from this distance.
Breaker had not fully assessed the level of the wound she had sustained. The blade of her enemy had chipped yet lodged itself deep within the metal, effectively joining steel and metal as one.
Wales used this to pull her enemy aside, and the Siren's arm flung wildly with it. With the forceful motion, she detached her saber and brought it over her head, looming above a still staggering Siren.
Those gauntlets were impressive, yet like everything, they had a weak point. Discarding her pride and respect for her enemy, she brought her saber down like an executioner and sliced the forearm of her enemy, just where the gauntlets ended. Whatever unearthly Siren metal her forearm was composed of, it was nowhere as durable as the gauntlet itself.
Fluorescent unknown liquid poured out of the damaged Siren who only had a small open mouth expressed on her emotionally limited face.
The result of the saber strike forced all others to stop fighting once again, minus the carrier battle happening a bit further away. Through her rapid-fire speed, Chaser darted her eyes to her wounded Siren companion and bolted toward her.
Takao sensed the vacant force in the air and shouted at Wales.
In a blink of an eye, Chaser revealed herself between the blonde royal and the Siren heavy cruiser. With a rapid kick, Wales felt her wounded arm suddenly snap, and her body was thrown aside.
From behind Chaser, Breaker regained her footing and propelled herself toward a distracted Hipper. Energy swirled behind her like a whirlwind and at that moment, pure anger flashed across her eyes.
Hipper was still reeling from the sight of the royal blond being thrashed aside and she reacted too late after finally being aware of the incoming force of destruction. In her luckiest of moments in her life, a mass-produced ship sailed rapidly from the side and used its body to block the incoming propelling force. However, it wasn't enough.
Breaker's left arm gauntlet went through the metal like a hot knife through butter or for this situation, like a hot hammer smashing through butter.
Veins of fire spread throughout the sacrificed ship as an explosion released from its once held together body. From out of the chaos, Breaker moved without any indication that she had slowed down and delivered a sinister strike directly into Hipper's chest who had been petrified with fear at the display of raw power that shook her to her very wisdom cube core.
The Iron Blood shipgirl coughed blood and was sent flying further away from the direction of her royal companion.
A silence filled the air, and Breaker straightened her body when her strike concluded.
The green-haired rapid Siren moved to her side, showing a livelier expression than she had done before. "Sister... you're damaged."
Breaker's gaze returned to a more composed expression as if she never even changed it. Devoid of pain and devoid of emotion, she looked down to see her right arm completely severed. "Yes, an oversight on my end," she factually stated.
Both of their eyes continued to inspect the damage, like someone seeing a piece of technology unable to turn on. No emotion or sentimental attachment was expressed. That was until…
Chaser connected her fingers with the damaged parts of her blue-haired Siren sister, and a transference happened, causing a restoration of Breaker's wounded arm stump to form into a new arm.
The blue-haired Siren inspected her new arm with a steady glow in her teal eyes. "Why?" She asked In a toneless and dead manner to her companion.
The seawater green-haired Siren hesitated to speak, then she spoke in the same manner as her Siren sister. "Is it not logical? A reduction in speed on my end, but you as a unit are fully operational."
There was an uncomfortable pause between them as if Breaker was going a million miles to understand this compassion from her sister. Whether Chaser did it out of compassion remained in the air. "I see. I will dispose of them quickly with this arm you gave me."
Chaser nodded. "Yes, let us dispose of them."
Wales spat water from her mouth due to her tumbling a few times across the water from the power the Siren delivered toward her. Her hair and clothes were wet, she felt defenseless, exposed, and was having a hard time moving her arm.
"You two, your fight is with us!" Takao's challenging voice rang throughout the ocean as she rapidly traveled through the water with her sister in tow.
"It's that woman..." A sense of human dislike resonated from Chaser.
Breaker saw the dislike in her Siren sister and made it her mission to eliminate the new opponents approaching.
In a way, Wales should have counted herself lucky, as the two Sirens were now focused on the Sakura heavy cruisers, and there weren't any enemy ships around her as the last remaining enemy ships had either been dispatched by the Sakura sisters or they had regrouped to assault Alt and Zuikaku.
The royal battleship lifted herself weakly, the double teaming of her broken arm and the Siren scourge causing unrivaled agony. Despite the pain that could easily make her pass out, she held onto her consciousness and remained awake. She couldn't pass out now, not before she reached Hipper.
The Iron Blood girl was convulsing on top of her rigging where she had landed, and even her mechanical sharks uncontrollably twitched with her.
Unrivaled panic flashed across the royal's face. She couldn't say how fast she moved only that she was lifting Hipper already. "Hip...!"
The Iron Blood looked like a fish out of water, trying to gasp for air and unable to make a sound. There was blood on the corners of her mouth which traumatized Wales into a higher level of panic.
"Breathe... " She softly aided the heavy cruiser to focus on her voice and to breathe with her. After a few mind-numbing seconds went by, the Iron Blood began to steady herself and was finally able to draw rich air from the world.
She coughed and gasped, both in equal and wild amounts. "I thought... I told you to stop calling me... that." Her voice was shaken and weak. Blood had dried in the corners of her mouth which Wales responded by pulling out a wet handkerchief, but it was the thought that counted.
"You did..." said Wales with relief and joy, adoring to hear the harsh words from her lover's sister once again.
Hipper pushed the wet cloth from her mouth and steadily picked herself back up while holding her hand on her chest. Her green eyes then urgently went to the arm of the royal. "How bad is it…?"
Wales played it off with a smile. "I think she broke it."
Hipper held her balance while holding onto Wales's arm. She then drew her hand across the royal's arm and without pause, she pulled one of her gloved fingertips with her mouth.
Wales stood transfixed as the other blonde grabbed onto the glove that was in her mouth and present it to the royal. "Here bite on this," she thoughtlessly shoved it into the battleship's mouth and callously extended Wales's arm with both of her free hands, much to the great discomfort of the royal.
Various sounds were heard, and Wales opened her mouth in pain, the glove falling into the water.
"How do you feel?" She said, picking up her glove that now had a severe bite mark indent around the palm area.
The royal blonde that had felt nothing but pain, suddenly felt one of the two pains fade away. "I can move it again..."
Hipper laughed dryly. "Yeah, you royal bastards are pretty durable."
Wales smiled, knowing that was a complement masked in animosity.
Hipper could sense the smiling warmth from the blonde and tiredly blush with a mixture of a real cough. "Not durable than Iron Blood, so don't get all mighty about it. You also owe me a new glove." She placed a hand once again on her chest, feeling a sharp pain this time around.
"Hip... what's wrong?"
"Damn... I think she broke something... uhh... whatever. I don't have time for that." Her mechanical red sharks that were part of her rigging came back to life after overloading briefly when hit.
Wales could see how utterly drained the blonde looked on her face and what she desperately needed was a check-up and a soft bed to rest her body. If only they had that luxury at the moment.
Their next obvious course of action for the blonde royal was to help the heavy cruiser sisters of the Sakura Empire, but that was when she noticed figures from the corner of her eye and then a flash of light. "Hip, watch out!"
"What did I—gah!" She was pulled toward Wales, completely avoiding a flaming shell from a cannon barrel. "What the hell!?"
Wales grew ready for battle as a new wave of enemies stood in the distance. "Four Siren destroyers, sighted! They must have come from the fortress." The fortress. This whole time they had been fighting without reserve against these new Sirens and their entourage of mass-produced ships when the hard reality was that there were plenty more foes where this came from.
"Shit, we're outnumbered now," groaned the Iron Blood, who was not feeling at maximum due to her arm and chest pain.
Wales exhaled tensely and readied her rigging. She refused to retreat with her tail between her legs and to see Eugen once again without the means of curing her. Hipper emulated those same thoughts. Their only hope was for their carriers to conclude their fight and support them, unhindered by the carrier Sirens.
(Alt and Zuikaku)
Away from the side fighting, the main strike battle from the carriers was heating up. Fighter planes and dive bombers circled the black alien fighter planes of the enemy, trying to one them up. Their fight was like a tide, always ebbing and surging in tangent with the flow of battle.
Zuikaku quickly speeded away from a massive explosion from above when she launched a swarm of planes to disrupt the gathering enemy in that area and she managed to bombard a few produced ships along the way. With her path clear and nothing else on her mind, she refocused on her primary goal. The crane kicked up more water behind her and sailed full speed with nothing else on her mind but taking down the support carrier.
The Siren, Launcher, darted her eyes away from Alt's fighter planes that had her on the run after Alt had effortlessly taken out the reinforcement ships that had converged onto them. Analyzing a window of opportunity in her mad dash for safety, she angled her rail-like gun toward the unsuspecting crane. It hummed with energy, yet she couldn't fire when she felt the energy of another force coming at her.
From above, Alt moved through the sky on one of her dive bombers and she released a payload above Launcher.
As a counter-response, Loader fired a support beam toward her companion, charging her runway up.
Feeling the added surge of power, Launcher refocused her attack on Alt's incoming payload and the burst stream cut through the threat and sliced the wing of Alt's bomber.
Alt leaped from the spiraling plane onto another ally plane that synched with her and slowed down enough to catch her. She only needed a second to adjust her equilibrium when her bowstring was pulled back and a blinding arrow shot out.
This was a battle where none could give ground, and the dark gray Siren had no choice but to deal with Alt before assisting her companion.
Loader was weaker in combat prowess compared to Launcher. However, she had her own fighting methods when it came to dealing with one-on-one combatants. With a haunting glow to her rigging, she deployed countless seeker mines that morphed into flying ghastly robotic creatures.
Disgusted by the mechanical menaces to the point of revulsion, Zuikaku urgently sheathed her sword into her rigging, loading a molten plane from her runway and infusing it into her sharpened blade. It glowed fiery red once she drew and exposed it to the shining sun. "I won't let a Siren steal away what's precious to me!" With unwavering conviction, she slashed at the air, sending out an inferno wave of hellfire and decimating the robotic creatures.
Loader staggered and moved to look at her ally, expressing an urgency of fear that looked human.
Life had reached the eyes of Launcher, seeing the distress of her companion, and unable to reach out to help her as the doppelganger carrier rained down her own form of hellfire on her. It took all her strength to keep the berserker carrier at bay, and all she could do for her companion was nothing.
Loader opened her mouth in awe when the crane leaped above the tower of flames with her sword glowing red.
Terror from the white-haired support Siren changed to an ominous chuckle when her eyes glowed briefly brighter than they should have. Her gravitational rigging began to spin up around her and the air within her sphere of manipulated gravity altered and the odd fluctuations in light that passed through it suddenly revealed an unconscious silver-haired woman.
Zuikaku's world paused painfully as she took in every detail from the floating woman above the twisted Siren. Shock soon morphed into despair, and her hesitant warm yellow eyes pulled back her blade from the killing blow. Her whole body soon followed suit as she couldn't do what she had fueled herself to do. "Grr... Shoukaku!" She yelled in vain despair.
Her sister, who floated above the Siren, remained dormant and the support carrier unleashed a fleet of black alien fighter planes into the sky, laughing proudly at the vital chess piece she held above her.
Zuikaku had missed her chance, and all she could do was let loose her fleet against the approaching threat while she thought of something else. In a desperate plan that she only thought halfway through, she immediately ordered her planes to bombard the water near her to create water geysers to hide her movements.
The Siren tried to analyze where her enemy was, as the blasts started to get closer to her. From one of the blasts that shot an impressive amount of water in the air, Zuikaku leaped out with an outstretched hand from the torrent of water. Her half-planned tactic succeeded in ultimately bringing her closer to her target. Hope was renewed, and she planned to grab her sister and get as much distance as possible before assessing the threat once again.
Instead of Loader being caught off guard, she smiled sinisterly.
The crane then felt a wave of drowsiness invade her and her body grew heavy. "What the…?" With shaky eyes, she quickly deduced that the force field she invaded in her attempt to rescue her sister had some kind of sleeping status effect, explaining why her sister was fast asleep.
The Siren stretched her arms out evilly toward the younger crane. "If you wish to be reunited so much, then come dream the same dream."
Zuikaku used her remaining energy and pushed herself out of the gravitational pull since she was only at the edges of the field.
Enraged now and back to her peek senses, Zuikaku lifted a hand to command one of her planes for fire support, but the Siren orbited the unconscious crane in front of her to use like a cowardly shield, forcing the younger crane to retreat with shame in her eyes at how she almost blindly attacked her sister.
She was in a painfully woeful stalemate. No matter what she did, she couldn't strike unless she was willing to hit her older sister.
Loader unleashed more seeker mines in tangent with her planes, catching an internally conflicted Zuikaku further off guard.
While that had been happening, Alt had been moving around the surface of the water with her Siren carrier enemy as her dance partner. Explosions and water kicked up all around them and they continued to orbit each other, trying to find a weak point within their defenses. Their battle was a classic carrier-on-carrier fight with neither of them getting closer to the other.
Alt was winning, due to the lack of support that Launcher was getting and the fact that in terms of raw power, she had the Siren beat in that area. A shot went through the Siren's shoulder after one of Alt's planes managed to get low and lay waste some lead, causing Launcher to lower her runway from the injury. This granted the battle-worn woman the opening she desired, and she was going to make the most destructive use of it. She zeroed in on her enemy as her arrow was ready to fly, ready to grant the killing blow.
That was when the agonizing cries of her 'partner' made the doppelganger urgently move her head to see the other fight. "Are you kidding me?!" Even though rage consumed her, she blasted toward the crane, catching her in mid-air after the crane got blown away from more floating seeker mines.
Three of Alt's planes that had been launched prior to her grabbing the swordswoman, were ordered to engage the robotic seeker mines so that they could make their retreat.
Once they had received some considerable distance, Alt did not hold back her words with her partner. "What are you doing? I gave you the chance to take her out and you botched it?"
Still moving across the water due to Alt, Zuikaku forced the carrier to stop moving by pushing against her rigging propulsion with her own the opposite way.
"Hey, what are you doing? Stop acting childish," remarked the white-haired woman as she felt the crane push against her to the point that their foreheads could almost touch.
That was when the crane gave her a look filled with contempt and rage. "Shut it! I wasn't going to strike at the carrier if it meant my sister getting hurt too!"
Alt's eyes were stunned. "Your..." Feeling like the epitome of trash and villainy, Alt's eyes wavered when she saw the support Siren shield herself from the explosions of the fighter planes that had met their end via the seeker mines. It was then that she witnessed the floating body of the older crane sister suspended above the Siren like some sick aesthetical attachment.
Zuikaku reflexively shifted to the other side of Alt when she spotted Launcher firing her rail-like weapon at them. It happened so quickly, and her reaction was to stand and deflect the blast. Maybe it was her inept failure to not do anything against Loader while her sister was being used as a shield, or maybe it was to disprove Takao's words from earlier. Nevertheless, she pushed against the blast, feeling her arms and blade give under the pressure.
The memory of her failure to protect her sister while she was snatched by the sinister hands of the unknown Siren enemy fueled her seething frustrations. "I'm not weak!" Her blade deflected it fully, pushing the blast upward and causing her to lose her balance as she stumbled backward.
She then felt warm arms and if she closed her eyes, she could imagine the aura of Enterprise as the one holding her. It was only for a second until her mind fired up, and she pulled away from her ally Siren. They held a silence, as Zuikaku wanted to insult her yet found a lack of mental strength to argue with her. Strangely enough, she had always thought the woman's touch would have been ice cold.
Alt had an unreadable face with her permanent sharp glare never helping to convey what she was feeling. "It can't be helped anymore. I'll take on Loader myself."
"Say what?! Didn't you just hear what I said? She has my sister and you're the last person I would ask to fight a battle that needs the most delicate of care."
A crooked smile formed on her lips once she heard that. "Funny, I was thinking the same with you. However, we don't have the luxury to choose. Zuikaku..."
There it was again, the uncanny feeling when the woman would pronounce her name as if she was speaking another language. "Part of this mission is to rescue your sister, and I won't skirt around that. I have an idea, but I need you to trust me." Her provoking smile went away and she seriously gave the crane a genuine look of concern.
"Grrr... haven't I been doing that already? This is different, my sister is part of this battle." Her voice came out soft, weak, and frustrated.
Alt looked away, feeling the understanding emotion from the other carrier. "That's precisely the reason. Your emotions will only get in the way, and you need to be decisive, or else she will keep taunting you with your sister's unconscious body."
"Enough! Okay... just some forewarning, don't enter that field of hers. It's the reason why Shou is asleep. I just hope that bitch isn't messing with her dreams."
"Noted. Thanks for the heads up," she said calmly and with her fixed violet eyes on the Siren program. Her cold stare toward the Siren was cut off, feeling a hand on her shoulder that moved her back toward the swordswoman.
"You bring her back—you hear me?!" Zuikaku's face hid her wounded pride well, considering she had to depend on the woman she despised at this crucial moment. Agitation and defeat bled through her gaze, conveying all her hopes and wishes toward her partner carrier.
With only a nod, Alt detached herself from the other woman's touch. Her violet eyes gazed toward the crane, silently insinuating to keep the stronger carrier busy.
Zuikaku then nodded and angrily blasted toward Launcher to leave Alt alone with the other carrier.
The fifth carrier division member readied her sword. "You evil fiend, before you sink, I'll show you the hot red inferno you created when you took my sister from me!" Like shurikens, she tossed red mini planes toward the carrier with them growing.
Launcher released her fleet of black alien fighter planes as a counter and the two simultaneously dashed, trying to circle the other in a failed attempt. Her rail runway was charged, and she was about to fire when a lone fighter plane from Alt's fleet unexpectedly dropped a payload near the Siren's position, causing the dark gray-haired carrier to miss her aim and stagger.
This provided Zuikaku just enough time to close the distance with her glowing red blade. "Damn you, Alt! I didn't need your help!" She loudly cursed, all her frustrations being related or unrelated to Alt were funneled into her strike.
Launcher guarded it with the side of her rail gun, and visible cracks appeared. The burning heat of her enemy's blade began to melt the metal that had made contact with it.
Over where Alt was, as she charged at Loader, her frown melted into something else. "She said my name...? Does that mean she accepts me?" She deemed it a trivial matter and when she began her assault, her movements had a noticeable bounce to them.
The story is moving along but a bit slower than I had planned. These few weeks have been very busy and haven't had much time to write but hopefully, things start to slow down to get a few days to write down the ideas that I'm planning out. Thank you all for reading!