15 Minutes earlier, outside the reactor room of the Elysion
Two men in green mechanic suits are pushing a large crate towards the door, which is guarded by two men in tactical armor. Both guards are armed with a modified Chaos assault rifle. One of the guards looks up at the sound of wheels rolling along the metal floor.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" The guard barks, alerting the other guard, who was spacing out.
"We're just delivering parts to the guys inside." One of the mechanics replies.
"We're on the schedule, if you want to check for yourselves." The other nonchalantly says.
The now awake guard looks over to his partner, who nods at him. He pulls out a data pad while the other keeps his firearm level with the two men delivering the crate.
"You guys are on the schedule." The guard confirms.
"See, I told you we were-"
"Except that Captain Ernest specifically stated that all legitimate deliveries should arrive at their intended locations 30 to 45 minutes before their scheduled delivery time. You're 45 minutes late." The guard narrows his eyes at the men and the container they were escorting.
"That, and there's no one inside the room behind us. The last of the techs left 15 minutes ago. You can't hold a position in this organization if you can't be remotely punctual." The other guard growls, cocking his rifle.
Before the guards can act, one of the men throws a cylindrical canister, which emits a blinding white flash. The guards stagger, and in that time, the two men pull out sidearms and shoot the two guards until the stop moving.
"Ray, you think they heard any of that?" One of the men says as he runs toward the door panel.
The man now identified as Ray swears. "I don't fucking care, the guard was right; we're off schedule. Get that door open, CJ. We need to move our asses, now."
CJ furiously types into the door panel for a few seconds before the door slides open. "Got it. Get the payload to the reactor, now."
"Which one is it?" Ray says as he enters the reactor room, which has six large cores in it.
"Does it matter?" CJ shoots back.
"Do you want to be responsible for fucking this up?"
"Look, we have a reactive warhead, and we're going to remote detonate it next to one of the reactor's cores. How the hell can we fuck this up?"
"Listen, if we do this flawlessly, we'll get a promotion, and we'll actually get paid more than scraps for once. We. Cannot. Fuck. This. Up."
"Alright, you know what? Let's just stick the bomb in the middle of all of them. That way, all of them will go critical, and at the very least, the ship will be crippled for years."
"Ok. Cycle the reactor; see if we can maximize the damage."
CJ goes over to a nearby console. After typing for a minute or so, he frowns. "We've got a problem. The lines to the center of the ship and forward are cut. Looks like the ship was already in pretty bad shape before we got here. That, or someone was expecting us. Most of the damage will be from here to the back. The best we can do is completely destroy the leg units and knock off a few turrets here and there. The bridge will definitely survive." CJ spits out in a flurry.
"Dammit. You're certain that this'll do enough damage?" Ray says.
"100%. Worst case scenario, for us, the engines will remain attached to the ship but will be out of commission."
"Alright," Ray grunts as he rolls the crate towards the space in between all six reactor cores, "let's just arm this thing and get out of here. We've been here too long as is."
He opens the lock on the side, opening the crate. Inside was a large warhead with a with a small screen on it. CJ walks over to him, handing him a slip of paper.
"Here's the code to arm the bomb. It'll give us fifteen minutes to get out. Walkure's out right now, so they won't get hit by the blast."
"Good, I'm arming it now. The moment that screen lights up, we get the hell out of here. Got it?" Ray orders.
"Got it. Do it."
The plan was to detonate an explosive within the reactor room of the Elysion to cripple or destroy the warship. That was all the two men were told. Everything else, i.e. the bomb being a reactive warhead and it having a timer, were assumed. The moment Ray activated the explosive, which was actually a high-powered, yet short ranged fusion bomb, said device went off, vaporizing the two men. The reactor cores were heavily shielded, naturally. However, the energy emitted by the fusion bomb melted through the shields within nanoseconds of detonation, causing the cores inside to go critical and send a destructive amount of energy through all of the available power lines running throughout the ship. Luckily for the Elysion and those operating inside of it, the lower half of the ship was almost completely empty, and the only sections of the ship that were densely inhabited were the 'shoulders' of the Elysion. Said sections of the ship were almost completely cut off from the reactor, as the right arm unit was destroyed, so power wasn't really necessary. As for the left arm unit, the only serious damage sustained was to the lighting system. The Aether and the Herrara were only partially connected to the Elysion, namely by cables and the Aether's arm unit mount, which wasn't drawing power from the the Elysion. The center of the ship wasn't so fortunate, as the majority of the power was cycling to locations within the 'torso' of the Elysion, namely the power distributors to the beam cannon turrets near the bridge, which overloaded and detonated. The bridge remained unharmed, as the P-Point barrier system for the bridge ran on its own reserve energy system, and the sudden influx of energy in close proximity to the bridge triggered the sensors, activating the shield seconds before the explosions damaged the bridge.
As this attack was being executed, four VF-22s slip past the detection sensors of the Elysion. Two chase after the two shuttles heading towards their respective drop points, while the other two split off and hover above the forest the two shuttles were heading.
Present time, in the space surrounding Ragna
A multitude of fold gates appears above Ragna. There are at least twenty fold gates. Half of them reveal Guantanamo class carriers, nine reveal stealth cruisers. The last fold gate opens to reveal a Macross-class warship, coated with a sleek navy-blue finish, identical in design to the Macross Elysion, but somewhat smaller. All the ships bore a large white NUNS insignia somewhere along the hulls, save for the Macross-class warship. The Macross-class warship had a triple star insignia that were arranged in a triangle formation, and had blue trails behind each of the stars. The insignia was emblazoned on the center of the hull, just below the head-bridge unit of the ship. The NUNS fleet jumped within sensor range of the Elysion, tripping all of the long range detection sensors. However, the Elysion was still in a state of utter chaos from the suicide attack on the ship's reactor core. With the fate of Walkure unknown to the leadership of the Elysion, and Delta Platoon missing in action, the best of Chaos' forces were out of commission. Nine of the NUNS carriers launch a squadron of VF-171 Nightmares, while another launches two shuttles. Unknown to the NUNS attacking fleet and Chaos, there was another party coming into play.
A considerable distance behind the NUNS fleet, five more fold gates open, revealing ships that are very different from the ones the just appeared. Three carrier-type ships exit their fold gates first. All three carrier-type ships are identical to each other, yet extremely different from standard carriers. The hull of the unknown carriers appear to be a four-way fusion of Uraga class carrier hulls, arranged in a diamond formation. There is what appears to be an energy cannon in the center of the ship, surrounded by the carrier hulls on each corner. The engines are arranged in a similar pattern as the carrier hulls, except that they jut out slightly further than the hull, and are rather large in comparison to the rest of the ship. Each engine has two turret mounts on it, one facing forward, the other facing backwards. The design is remarkably similar to the turrets of the Elysion, except smaller. Compared to the Aether and the Herrara, both of which are still sitting in the water, the new carrier is roughly three times larger in all dimensions.
The other two ships that appear are even larger than the carriers that preceded them. They resemble the design of the cannon units of larger Macross-class warships. The hull is long, with a bulge that begins at the middle of the ship and ends at the rear. There are two arrays of forward facing triple-mount beam cannon turrets, three each, in front of a diagonal structure that appears to be the bridge of the ship. They're arranged in a stair-like formation, the forward most two on the actual hull, the next above, and the last higher. There are similar turret arrangements surrounding the bridge. Six in front, four on each side, and six behind; and that didn't include the massive number of smaller turrets that littered the hull of the ship.
The massive warships stay within close proximity to the three carriers, the group floating just outside of the sensor range of the massive NUNS fleet. As the NUNS fleet began its descent into Ragna's atmosphere, the unknown fleet edged closer, staying just outside of the range of the Macross warship's sensors. Once the NUNS fleet was confirmed to be under the atmosphere, one of the unknown carriers launches a shuttle that doesn't resemble any other known shuttle chassis's. The shuttle's body is wedge-shaped, and unlike other shuttles, it is wider than it is tall; however, the shuttle was comparable to the VF-31, making it considerably larger than a standard shuttle. The shuttle's semi-hexagonal wings are positioned towards the top of the shuttle's fuselage. There is an engine on each wing, positioned close to the fuselage but still attached to the wing. There is a small turret under the nose of the shuttle, an identical one on the roof, towards the rear. The other two each launch a squadron of VF-30 Chronos'. Each Chronos is painted silver, with a red wing trim. None of them have any markings, save for the apparent leaders of the two squadrons. One of the Chronos's is marked with a pair of angel wings, with a gold sword in between; the other marked with a light pink flower surrounded by black thorns. A dark blue VF-31 Siegfried zooms past the squadron. The Siegfried bears a strangely familiar insignia: a white horned skull with blue wings. The unknown Siegfried blasts toward Ragna with incredible speed. The remaining fighters and shuttle form a diamond formation, with the shuttle in the middle. As they near Ragna, the shuttle emits a grey light, bathing the surrounding fighters. The air group suddenly disappears from sight, their silhouettes rendered invisible. They zoom towards Ragna's atmosphere, to a particular location on Ragna.
On the ground, 20 miles from the designated rendezvous point
Shuttle two barely managed to avoid crashing due to Hayate's and Shiro's actions. Hayate somehow knew how to depressurize the damaged fuel lines that the series of bullet impacts caused, while Shiro jumped on the pilot's controls after the pilot was knocked unconscious by the impact. The landing still left the shuttle completely out of commission, and both Arad and Mirage were knocked out as the shuttle made its descent. A few feet from the shuttle, Chuck and Hayate carry Arad and Mirage, respectively to a spot under dense foliage. They set down their unconscious superiors, Chuck tending to their wounds while Hayate runs back to the shuttle to see if any usable equipment survived. As it turned out, Shiro had prepared for a worst-case scenario, bringing his personal sidearms and a couple compact rifles with enough live ammo to last an extended engagement. In addition, he also brought his primary swords, stowing them in a side-mounted case in the shuttle's hull. However, the impact of the shuttle's rough landing warped the hull enough to partially cover the case his swords were resting in, much to his disdain. He frowned at his inability to retrieve his weapons as Hayate walks up to him.
"What's wrong, Shiro?"
"A number of things, primarily the fact that my swords are stuck in there, and I cannot determine the safety of Walkure in any way whatsoever." Shiro blankly replies as he stares at the warped hull of the shuttle.
"Well, at least you brought some guns and ammo. Now we're not totally screwed. In any case, why don't you just hit the shuttle's hull until it gives and you can grab your swords?"
"As much as I would like to, doing so might cause me unnecessary injury and it would make a considerable amount of noise, which might alert the ones who attacked us, assuming that they're hunting us."
"Shiro, it's now or never. If you don't grab them now, I doubt you'll be able to grab them for a while." Hayate warns the bodyguard.
Shiro sighs. "I suppose so." He stops for a moment. "What made you think that I could bend the hull with my fists?"
Hayate raises an eyebrow. "Shiro, come on. I'm not that clueless when it comes to things like this. If you can swing around heavy swords the way you do, why wouldn't you be able to bend back a shuttle's hull with your bare hands?"
Shiro gives Hayate a look that sends chills down the latter's spine. "I don't see how you came to such a conclusion, Hayate. Could it be that you know a bit more about me than you let on?"
Hayate gulps before giving his answer. "It's not like that, Shiro. For one thing, it was just something I assumed. Also, when I asked you earlier about hitting the shuttle, your answer kinda confirmed that you could do that." He frowns slightly. "In any case, how did you know to bring guns and live ammo to go with it? I didn't think anyone would see this coming, much less be able to prepare for it."
"I didn't prepare for this situation," Shiro states as he punches the hull of the shuttle, a dent larger than he expected forming. "I simply followed my instincts, which led me to prepare for a possible attack on our group."
Hayate, half gaping at the dent Shiro made, half gaping at the accuracy of Shiro's instinctual prediction, continues. "And your instincts didn't tell you that you should've prepared further?"
Shiro punches the hull in a different spot close to his sword case, the hull groaning audibly. "Like I said, it was simply me following my instincts; it's not as though I have the ability of future foresight, although such an ability would be very useful."
Hayate turns around and spots a first aid kit wedged between the floor and a seat on the shuttle. "Well, you seem to be very good at predicting danger, Shiro." He pries the kit free from the floor.
Shiro backs up to the other side of the shuttle and kicks the dented bulge of metal. The chunk of metal rips free off the hull, falling on the ground with a loud thunk. Chuck looks at Shiro through the hole in the hull with a somewhat surprised expression. Shiro turns to the now exposed sword case and opens it. "Let's just say I've learned through do or die situations." He says as he straps on the metallic plate and attaches the pulsating blades on his back.
Hayate looks at the swords on his back. "That reminds me. You say that you dual-wield often, and you often bring two of everything to the fight, but you've only used one weapon in combat as far as the reports say."
"That is true, for the most part. The reason for that is I often fail to hold back when I dual wield. It is hard for me to restrain myself when I dual wield because there is a weapon in each of my hands."
Hayate looks at him. "Isn't that how dual-wielding works?"
Shiro sighs. "That's not what I mean. When I only have one weapon, my other hand is empty, which reminds me that I have a hand to protect people with, instead of taking lives with both." He walks out of the shuttle.
Hayate's eyes widen briefly as he follows. "That's why you've only used one weapon around Walkure."
"That is correct."
"But why don't you use both to protect? Why is it that you can only kill when you use two weapons? Someone as strong as yourself should be able to hold back even while using two weapons." He says, confusion evident in his tone.
"I have the most trouble restraining myself when I use my swords. Using guns gives me more control." Shiro's face falls slightly. "Whichever way you look at it, I'm really only strong enough to take the lives of others."
"But why would you even need to train yourself to be able to deflect bullets, or even train your reflexes to be on the level that they are?"
"That wasn't so much an ability I learned for others so much as for myself. Even when I try to defend others, I have to put myself in harm's way the same way they're in." Shiro walks over to a tree next to Chuck and the unconscious pilots.
"Your fighting style doesn't really match the style that a bodyguard would have, so I can see that." Hayate says as he hands Chuck the first aid kit.
"You're ridiculously powerful for a fighter assuming the position of a bodyguard, Shiro. You're a lot like Mikumo, in a way. Except you're probably not a weapon meant for mass destruction." Chuck adds as he bandages Mirage's head.
"Being that strong would be extremely useful in a lot of situations," Hayate muses, "I can't really think of anything wrong with being that powerful."
"Have you ever heard of the saying, 'Great power often comes at a great cost?' Nothing in this universe is without cost; my skills and abilities are no exception. What do you think had to be sacrificed to gain this power?" Shiro softly remarks as he cocks both of his sidearms.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Shiro," Chuck interjects, "but maybe it's best that you're the one to carry that burden. It seems as though you're the only one who's able to withstand that kind of burden. Maybe that's why you're as strong as you are."
Shiro holsters his sidearms. "Perhaps."
Hayate runs back to the shuttle. A few minutes later, he comes out with five wireless earpieces. "I found some earpieces, dunno if the they work or not."
"Can't hurt to try." Chuck says.
Shiro mentally created a list of things that could result from activating communication devices, but he kept these to himself as he picked one of them up.
Hayate pushes the button to activate the earpiece and puts it in his ear. "Elysion, this is Delta Four, do you copy? Elysion, this is Delta Four, do you copy?" After a minute or so, he looks at Shiro. "Put yours in and see if we can at least talk to each other."
Shiro puts his earpiece in. "Delta Four, this is Delta Five, do you read me?"
"Delta Five, this is Delta Four, I read you loud and clear."
"Delta Five, Delta Four, Delta Three is online and ready."
"Okay, so they work on our end," Hayate says as he closes the channel, "but something's happened to the Elysion, or everyone's asleep."
"It would appear so." Shiro stoically remarks.
A soft thud draws his attention. His head snaps toward the direction of the sound, where he spots a tuft of pink hair a moderate distance from the shuttle. He quickly walks over to the pink hair, finding Makina collapsed on the ground, somewhat conscious. Her clothes are torn and disheveled, a number of cuts and bruises littering her legs. There is a large blood stain on her right side. Her breathing is heavy but stable.
She turns her head to look at Shiro, a weak smile on her face. "Hey, Shiro. Fancy meeting you here."
Shiro, not wasting a second, scoops the mechanic into his arms, earning a soft groan and a light blush from her. "Do you know where the others are?"
She winces as he carries her back to the shuttle area. "I don't know where anyone is. I lost Rei-Rei and the others during the crash.
Hayate's eyes widen slightly and he gets up to run to Shiro.
"Don't." Shiro orders. "Watch my back."
Hayate quickly obeys, grabbing one of the rifles and a couple magazines. He moves toward Shiro, rifle raised and eyes narrowed. "Is she alone?"
"She's the only one I found." Shiro says as he gently lowers her to the ground next to the two pilots.
Arad stirs. "Ugh, what-" He looks around as Shiro gets back up. "What happened?"
Hayate runs back to the shuttle area. "Long story short, we and Walkure were attacked, we got caught with our pants down, we lost Walkure except for Makina, who we just found, and we can't contact the Elysion."
Arad rubs his head. "This feels a little too familiar for my liking."
Shiro bandages the major injuries on Makina's leg. The wound on her right side, while bandaged, was still bleeding. He gently sets her in a lying position and looks at her. "Sorry about your modesty, but I'm gonna have to remove part of your shirt."
She smiles weakly. "Fine, but I'll have to charge you if you get to see too much of me."
Shiro takes a pair of scissors from the first aid kit Hayate found and begins to cut and peel the bloodstained fabric from Makina's side. She tenses as she inhales sharply. Shiro wastes no time cleaning the blood off as best as he could. He places an alcohol pad on the wound, then places a thick wad of gauze over it. As he wraps the bandages around her side, Makina cries out in pain, desperately trying not to move as Shiro tends to her wounds.
"Ngh, how bad is it? I didn't really have time to check." She barely manages, her head covered in sweat.
"It's serious, but not life-threatening. We can't quite move you yet, we'll have to wait a while for the wound to clot up." He raises his head, scanning the area around them.
"Shiro, we can't move Mirage or Makina like this. We'd be easy prey for our attackers." Chuck tensely states.
"Captain, can you move?" Hayate asks, looking at the senior pilot.
"My head's still a bit dizzy, but give me a few minutes and I should be fine." Arad says, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head.
"Captain, what do you suggest we do next?" Shiro asks.
"Let me think. There's four of us who can move, and two we need to bring with us. If we move, we'll lose half of our combat capacity but we'll be less exposed. If we stay put, we'll have more manpower, but the enemy will most likely find us quickly."
"I have a suggestion, though I doubt you'll find it agreeable, Captain." Shiro calmly states.
"What is it?"
"I believe that I should go alone in a perimeter search of the area, eliminate any hostiles, rescue any members of Walkure that I find, and return; before we decide to move the entire group. We wouldn't run as high a risk of exposure if it's just me, and if I encounter any hostiles, they would most likely converge on my position rather than this one."
"Shiro, if this were any other situation, I'd deny you here and now, but given our circumstances, I can't entirely fault you for thinking this way. I hope this goes without saying, but you need to survive, Shiro. If you die or get captured saving Walkure, we're in an even deeper hole than we are now."
"Understood. I'll take an earpiece with me, since we have five of them. If anything worth mentioning happens, contact me, but otherwise keep the channel silent. We don't know if the enemy is able to receive our communications, so we'll have to assume so until it's proven otherwise."
"Got it." Hayate looks around before back at Shiro. "Shiro, I know your job is protecting Mikumo, but please, if you see Freyja, please help her." He grits his teeth. "I can't do anything right now, so I can only rely on you for this."
Shiro puts his hand on Hayate's shoulder. "I'll be blunt, Hayate: I cannot promise you anything. I don't know how or where I will find anyone of the girls still missing, and situation depending, I may not be able to rescue them. Understand that I want to find her as well, but we cannot risk the entire group for one person."
Hayate looks the bodyguard square in the eye, worry and pain evident in his gaze. "All I want you to promise is that no matter what, you'll do your best to help her and anyone else you come across."
Shiro turns around, pulling both of his swords off his back, testing them by slowly swinging them in wide arcs before sheathing them. He puts his earpiece in and pulls on a pair of grey gloves with small metallic plates on the palms. "I'm the last person you'll have to ask of that." He says before he dashes off into the woods.
After a few minutes of running, he stops and turns toward the sun set, sensing a presence hovering in the distance. He couldn't see what had tripped his senses, he only knew that something was out there, watching him. As he turns and runs off, the VF-31 hovering a considerable distance away slowly follows him with its cockpit. After a minute or so, it switches to fighter mode and starts flying toward a particular location in the forest where five Nightmares were converging.
A mile from the second half of Shuttle One's crash site.
Mikumo's eyes flutter open as she groans. She leans her head back and finds her head against a tree, which, she remembered, wasn't there before. She recalls the events of the past twenty minutes as she stares off into the sky when she quickly remembered something, or someone, for that matter.
"Are you okay, Mikumo-san?" Freyja's voice brings her back to reality.
Mikumo turns her head to see the orange-haired singer standing with a bag in her arms. She sets down the bag and pulls a first aid kit out of it; she checks Mikumo for any serious injuries on her limbs.
"I'm fine, Freyja. How are you doing? I thought you were badly hurt." Mikumo says, scanning the Windermerean's slender frame.
"I just banged my head during the crash, no big deal." Freyja chimes as she softly smiles at Mikumo. "You were more badly hurt than I was, and you still carried me pretty far. Your chest is really bruised, so I had to bandage it up."
Mikumo looks down for the first time since she'd woken up to find that she wasn't wearing a shirt, or her sports bra, for that matter. Her breasts were covered in bandages, which wrapped around her left shoulder. There was also a pair of bandages on her side and her right thigh. Her forearms also had bandages on them. She looks around to see that her garments are in a pile next to her.
"Are you sure it was okay to use this much on me?" Mikumo asks, half concerned about the sheer number of bandages on her body, half concerned about the injuries that lie beneath those bandages.
"We still have a lot, and I only used what I had to." Freyja softly replies as she pulls out a bottle of water from the bag. "Are you thirsty?"
"How much do we have?"
She opens the bag to reveal six moderately sized bottles, in addition to six silver-wrapped bars and the flare that Mikumo had in her kit. "It'll last if we use it right."
"Okay." She takes the bottle gingerly, slight pain twinging in her arm. She takes a small gulp before handing it back.
Freyja takes a few sips before closing the bottle and putting it back in the bag.
Mikumo tries to get up, but Freyja gently pushes her down. "Mikumo-san, please don't hurt yourself by moving around. You're not ready to move yet."
"We can't stay here, whoever attacked us is going to come looking for us, and we're close to the crash site." Mikumo protests.
She grabs her shirt and pulls it back on, ignoring the pain and pulling her hair through. Freyja pushes herself on top of Mikumo, this time with enough pressure to make the violet-haired singer flinch.
Freyja's expression is firm yet gentle. "I know, but we can't crawl our way out of here. If we hurt ourselves trying to escape, it's probably going to make it easier for them to capture us." Her rune's pink color changes to a light purple. "And I don't want either of us to be alone out here. I don't want to be alone out here."
Mikumo looks at her protege, the gravity of Freyja's words hitting her hard. She gently pulls Freyja into her arms, the Windermerean yelping softly. "I won't leave you, Freyja. That much, I can promise."
Freyja looks back at Mikumo, barely contained tears in her eyes. "I'm so worried. About everyone, about... Hayate." She wraps her arms around Mikumo's neck, softly sobbing.
"Shiro's with them, I know he'll be able to protect them. And, soon enough, he'll come for us." Mikumo gently caresses Freyja's head as a thought comes into her mind.
Shiro...I wonder how he is doing...Is he okay? Is he fighting right now? Is he searching for us? Does really he care about us? About me?
A blush hits her cheeks as her mind focuses on her last thought before she realizes that Freyja had stopped crying. She looks down to see that Freyja had cried herself to sleep in Mikumo's arms, her body cradled up to the senior singer's body.
"She's pretty light." Mikumo thinks to herself as she pulls the bag towards her. She spots an emergency blanket in the bag and unwraps it. She covers herself and Freyja with the blanket before drifting off to sleep again. A thought crosses her mind just before her consciousness slips.
I wonder how Shiro feels about me...
Meanwhile, about 5 miles from Shuttle Two's landing site
A shuttle slowly touches down in a clearing created by Nightmares knocking down the trees surrounding the shuttle. The rear door opens to reveal a platoon of men, all dressed in olive green combat armor. They're all armed with rifles, and as they file out, a man behind them with darker green armor barks at them.
"Hurry up! The unknowns are going to be here soon, we need to move it! Spread out and find the HVIs! You know who needs to be kept alive, so all you trigger-happy nuts need to cool it! Everyone else is expendable! Move out!"
Unbeknownst to them, a certain bodyguard of sorts was watching them from a tree, at level with one of the two Nightmares still standing at the clearing.
Fifteen soldiers total. They're all highly trained mercenaries, elite black ops soldiers, or idiots. There are at least 10 VF-171s, best assume that there are twice as many in the area. If the Nightmares moved-
The two Nightmares switch to Gerwalk mode and hover above the trees before going off in their separate directions. Three more Nightmares appear next to the pre-existing two. After a minute or so, all five Nightmares turn and head the same direction, leaving the soldiers on the ground without any air support.
Hmm, this is too convenient. I'll wait for an opening. Hopefully I can grab at least one of their comm units. It would make it easier to figure out what their next move is before they execute.
After five minutes, the soldiers on the ground form a semicircle around the rear door to the shuttle. Shiro silently jumps down from the tree, creeping closer to the group. He moves around the clearing until he is in front of the shuttle. After checking to see if there was a pilot in the shuttle's cockpit, which there wasn't, he jumps on top of the shuttle, being careful not to make any noise. He looks around to see what kind of equipment the soldiers are armed with.
Five of them are armed with Fragmentation grenades, another five with land mines, and the last four with machetes. The presumed leader has a larger caliber rifle than the others. Looks like a marksman rifle. I'll need to take the leader alive, if possible. He's not near any of the ones armed with explosives. Maybe I can take those out first.
As he decides his course of action, he notices that the men with mines are starting to plant them in a perimeter around the shuttle. Deciding not to wait, he lets one of the men in the center of the group plant his mine. As the soldier is doing so, Shiro pulls out one of his sidearms and shoots the mine, detonating it in the center of the group of soldiers. The men around the mine are riddled with shrapnel in a matter of seconds, their bodies sent flying in different directions. The mine's detonation causes the other mines to detonate, resulting a chain of explosions. At least five men are dead or wounded enough for them to be out of action. The remaining soldiers are in a frenzy, some shooting in different directions, others running for cover. Shiro jumps off the roof of the shuttle, swords drawn. He dashes toward a trio of men diving towards a felled tree. He cuts them in half before dashing towards another group of five men, all of whom are in a circle, trying to figure where their attackers were. One of the men sees Shiro right as he swings at him.
"Hos-" The man's speech was cut off as Shiro slice vertically, cutting the man clean in half.
The other men turn just as Shiro sprinted towards them. One of them aims his rifle at Shiro, only to have it and his arms sliced apart by Shiro. The bodyguard kicks the now armless man in front of the three remaining men, who freeze at the site of their dismembered comrade being sent towards them. They stare for a couple seconds. In that time, Shiro closed the distance between him and the remaining three men; as the men snap out of their trance, Shiro slices one across his upper body, splitting his arms and chest apart. One of the two men pulls out a handgun, while the second pulls out a knife. The man with a knife charges at Shiro, while the other jumps off to the side to get a better firing angle on Shiro. As the man with a knife stabs at Shiro, the one with a handgun fires three times at Shiro, not even considering the danger his comrade was in. Shiro switches the sword in his left into a reverse stance to deflect the bullets while slicing the man with a knife diagonally. Two of the three bullets reflect back to the man with the gun, hitting him in the shoulder and grazing his neck. As he flinches from the shots, Shiro appears in front of him, and before he can react, Shiro slices him in two before scanning for more hostiles and the leader. The latter sprays at him with his rifle as he backs up. As Shiro dashes toward him, he pulls out a gun from his side holster. Shiro's eyes widen briefly before he throws himself off to the side just as the buckshot grazes him. As he rolls to the side, the leader taunts him.
"Hoh, you're faster than I expected, kid. Shame you're not working for us, or you'd be getting a paycheck as big as mine."
Shiro narrows his eyes slightly. "I'm not very motivated by money."
The leader laughs as he reloads his sawn-off. "Well, then, how about information? I don't charge much."
"I think I'll just get it out of you when I dismember you." Shiro softly remarks as he sheathes one of his swords and replaces it with a sidearm.
"Cocky little shit, aren't you? Okay, if you can cut my arms off before I hit you, then I'll-"
He didn't get to finish as Shiro dashed toward him and shot the sawn-off out of his hands before slicing his rifle arm off and spin kicking him into the bay of the shuttle. He then shot the man's remaining shoulder, effectively cutting off both of the man's arms.
"This isn't negotiable. You WILL tell me everything you know, or I'll make it so that you'll beg me to let you die." Shiro's expression was stoic, but there was a slight hint of venom in his voice, sending an ethereal chill up the man's spine.
The man looked at him, a cocky smile still on his face, despite the fact he was trembling slightly. "How about I just wait until I bleed out? What're you gonna do then, kid?"
Shiro simply looked at his stub blankly before picking the man's rifle. He placed the barrel next to the stub before firing the rifle until its magazine emptied. He grabbed another magazine from the man's vest and repeated the cycle until the barrel was red hot. Shiro then jammed it into the man's stub, causing the man to scream in pain. Shiro held him down with his knee as the man writhed in pain. The smell of burnt flesh soon filled the shuttle. After a couple minutes, Shiro stepped off of the man and tossed his rifle out of the shuttle. The man looked down and saw his stub was burnt horribly, but was no longer bleeding. He then looked at Shiro in horror. Shiro simply looked at him blankly.
"I'll repeat this process as many times as it takes, but I'd rather not, for the sake of the person I'm here to protect. We can do this quickly, and I'll put you out of your misery, or we can draw it out, and paint the inside of this shuttle red. Your choice."
The man looked at him shakily, his confidence gone. "O-okay, I'll tell you what I know, just please, no more."
Shiro gazed at him, not a trace of emotion in his eyes. "Good. Begin."
About two miles from the first half of Shuttle One's crash site.
Kaname looks around before sitting on the ground, sighing with exhaustion. She checks the wound on her left shoulder, ensuring it hadn't bled through her bandages. After checking so, she takes a bottle of water out of her small bag, taking a swig before quickly putting it away. She looks around a second time, making sure there wasn't any sign of herself in the surrounding area and making sure there wasn't any sign of possible pursuers. She leans her head back against a tree, her eyes heavy. She begins to nod off when the sound of a Valkyrie draws her attention. She looks around, hoping it was a Chaos-aligned fighter, but she turns around and sees a Nightmare, painted in the standard teal-blue camo. It was hovering in Gerwalk mode, its cockpit facing the opposite direction of her. She gets up and grabs her bag, hoping to avoid its attention, but as she turns to move, the Nightmare turns in her direction. It aims its gunpod at her and activates the light mounted on the head.
"Hold it right there, Kaname Buccaneer." The voice is male, monotone.
"Crap." Kaname mutters under her breath as she begins to run away.
The Nightmare follows her, and as Kaname tries to lose her pursuer in the woods, she hears another Valkyrie on her left side. Turning her head briefly, she spots another Nightmare with the same color scheme approaching her. As she continues to run, someone tackles her from the front, sending her to the ground. She groans, looking at the person on top of her. Reina looks back at her, and they look at each other for a moment before the sound of two more Valkyries, most likely Nightmares, approach them. They get up and start to run, but a Nightmare lands right in front of the two, knocking down all the trees surrounding it with its arm. They jump back, but a second Nightmare lands directly behind them, clearing out the trees around it similarly to the first Nightmares. As if to dissuade them from attempting to resist capture further, the other two land on their left and right, clearing all of the trees around their landing area.
"We're boxed in." Kaname breathes as they Nightmares around them level their gunpods at them.
"I don't think I can go on further, Kaname." Reina softly groans.
Kaname looks at Reina and quickly finds that Reina's right calf and left thigh are bleeding. The bleeding itself wasn't serious, but it showed no signs of stopping; if they continued to run, Reina would definitely go into shock from blood loss, or worse yet, die.
They definitely won't wait for me to patch her up before they grab us...
"Kaname, leave me. You have to get out of here." Reina's voice cuts through her thoughts.
Kaname looks at her incredulously for a moment. "Reina, are you kidding me? I can't possibly escape all of them at once."
"At least one of them will stay to capture me, probably two." Reina softly argues, the Nightmares slowly inching closer to them.
"Reina. I. Am. Not. Leaving. You." Kaname firmly states, ignoring the Nightmares reaching for her. A fifth Nightmare approaches from above them.
"You don't know what they're going to do to us-" Reina starts, but doesn't get to finish.
At that moment, a burst of gunfire and a beam blasts pelted the four Nightmares surrounding them. Two of the Nightmares take a direct hit from a beam blast and explode. One of the Nightmares gets shredded by the hail of gunfire that hammers it, causing the Nightmare to collapse and explode. The fourth Nightmare manages to survive the burst of lethal fire, only to get tagged by at least five missiles, the Valkyrie becoming a pile of burnt metal in a matter of seconds. Another Nightmare appears and switches to Gerwalk mode, intending to surprise its attacker, but is cut in half by a beam blast, it collapsing into a massive fireball just a few meters from the two singers. Kaname turns her head towards the source of the tracers to see a VF-31 in Gerwalk mode landing close to her, the body angled downward just enough for her to see the modified Grim Reaper insignia on its back. Her eyes widen and she freezes, her gaze locked onto the emblem. She doesn't register the pilot of the Siegfried hopping out of the cockpit and walking towards her until the latter is less than two feet from her. She tries to move back, but looks down to see that Reina had lost consciousness. Her gaze fixes on the tall pilot, who is standing above her. The pilot was definitely male, as his body stature and obvious muscles made it clear. He knelt down in front of her, and Kaname noticed that he had a first aid kit in his arm. He gently takes Reina from Kaname, who doesn't even protest. As he wraps Reina's wounds in bandages, Kaname stared at the emblem on his shoulder. It was identical to the one on his Siegfried, so she could clearly see the details of it. It was identical to the old Grim Reaper of Delta Platoon, save for a few color changes. The pilot also had a tall stature, similar to a supposedly deceased pilot. She snaps to focus as the pilot finishes bandaging Reina's wounds. He sets Reina on the ground gently, and as he does so, Kaname focuses her gaze on the visor of the pilot's helmet, hoping to see through it. As if he's aware of her desire to know his identity, the pilot reaches for his helmet, and as he takes it off, Kaname's heart skips a beat and her blood runs cold.
"M-Messer-kun?"
Hey guys! These chapters are getting longer as the story progresses. I think you all are enjoying the story so far, as your reviews are positive, but if there's anything you'd like to know, or if you'd like to suggest something, leave a review! Also, if you have any questions, as long as it isn't spoiler related, I'll answer to the best of my ability. And yes, before anyone asks me, Messer is back. I'll let your imaginations run wild after that :D