Author's note:
This was originally gonna be a bit longer, but I reached an okay stopping point anyway and I figured a couple quick short updates would be better than one giant update 5 months later
also, I'm gonna try and make refs for all the character's designs in this story, I'll link em in the chapter notes as I go, but here's Kos-mos'
post/173409382436/wanted-an-official-kosmos-ref-for-in-search-for
Kos-mos stands on top of the elsa, visor covering her face and tertiary weapons system armed. Her hair trails behind her, moved not by wind, but the force of the ship travelling forwards. The feeling of being out in the void of space is not necessarily a comfortable one, and it only makes her more antsy to begin the fight. Shion's concern from earlier still lingers a bit in the back of her mind, as well as a short conversation they had before Kos-mos left the ship.
Shion quickly runs after Kos-mos, who went to leave as soon as she was positive the tertiary weapons system was online and ready to use. Shion grabs Kos-mos wrist, keeping a tight grip on it as she speaks. "Wait, Kos-mos, I know you said you can do this but I..."
Kos-mos frowns, she's already ran the numbers and is very certain she'll come out on top. And yet percentages mean so little to humans like Shion it's almost pointless to list the numbers off to her. "Shion... I have already promised that I will come back, have I not?"
"I know... I know you have, I just..." Shion pauses for a moment before letting out a frustrated sigh. "I just feel like this is such a pointless and stupid idea. But I don't know, maybe I'm the one being stupid by worrying so much."
Kos-mos moves her wrist from Shion's grip, only so she can grab Shion's hand with her own, entwining their fingers. "Perhaps you're concern is illogical, but it actually feels quite... Nice, to know that you care."
"Well..." Shion finally starts smiling, tightly gripping Kos-mos' hand in her own. "If there's one thing I've gotten good over these past months at it's worrying about you."
Kos-mos feels her inner systems heat up slightly and, after confirming that no one else is around, she gently grabs the side of Shion's face and tilts it up towards her own, giving her a kiss. It's different than their earlier ones, Kos-mos especially finds herself a lot more used to the feeling and actually moves her own lips with Shion's this time.
Kos-mos steals a look at Shion's face as they break the kiss, worry still lingers on her flushed face, but it seems much more subdued now. She waits for Shion to speak again, wanting to make sure she's completely eased the girl's worries.
Shion looks down at their interlocked hands, giving her a small squeeze as she finally speaks up. "I... I love you Kos-mos... So please... Promise me you won't do anything foolish."
Kos-mos feels the heat intensify at her words, love is something Shion is much more familiar with than she is. She understands the meaning of the word just fine, it's surprisingly not that hard a concept for her to grasp, and yet she's not entirely sure how one is supposed to tell when they feel love. Not wanting to say something potentially untruthful to her she simply promises what she can.
"I promise, I will not get hurt. And before you know it I will be back in here with you, and this will simply be another story to tell."
Kos-mos is certain that she can take anything they have to throw at her and yet...
She shakes her head, as if to shake away her thoughts. I cannot have doubts now, doubts will get me killed. She tries to put herself back into her usual state of thinking only of logistics. Emotion can wait till later, emotion can wait till after she comes back. For now she has to worry only about the fight.
With her mind cleared she turns her attention back forward, while there are still no ships to be seen her scanner picks up a hint of something up ahead. It appears to be a type of radio wave, one produced by a communication device.
The wings of the tertiary weapons system roar to life as she prepares herself.
Destroy the enemy quickly, efficiently, and without distraction. Then I can return to her...
It's only a matter of time until the enemy forces notice the elsa and are after them. Before the fighter ships are even within range of the elsa Kos-mos fires a blast from the tertiary weapons system. It cleaves clean through one of the fighter ships and burns up a wing of another.
While waiting for the system to recharge some of the remaining fighter ships catch up, forcing her to fly away from the elsa to dodge some energy bullets.
The elsa's turrets make quick work of the ships, however a few more show up to take their place. Taking advantage of already being in the air Kos-mos fluidly summons F-scythe, slices one of the ships in half with the beam blade, and then stores it again as she darts to the side avoiding another barrage of bullets.
The ships fall off her scanner as the elsa destroys them, with a moment to breath and her phase transfer cannon fully recharged she takes the opportunity to land back on the elsa. The magnets in her heels activate, keeping her from falling off the still accelerating ship.
So far so good… Now for the hard part.
Kos-mos turns around so that she's facing the back end of the ship, waiting for the next target to come within range. Not wanting to risk missing her one shot she switches out the phase transfer cannon and activates X-buster.
As soon as the scavenger ship is within range of her scanner Kos-mos is quick to fire X-buster. It seems she only gets a small hit on the ship as it moves to avoid the barrage of beams, however she does her part in steering it away from the elsa and with the damage she doubts it will be back to grab them anytime soon.
"We're almost there!" She hears Matthews' voice shout through her headset.
Kos-mos doesn't allow herself to celebrate yet, however, as she takes the air again and prepares to fight off the next wake of fighter ships. Dodging bullets, slashing with F-scythe, firing her phase transfer cannon as soon as it recharges, maneuvering-
Kos-mos' left wing suddenly takes a hit as a fighter ship rams her while she's distracted fighting the others. Her left hand reaches out and there's a horrid metallic tear as her nails dig into the body of the ship. She holds on tightly as she allows the ship to fly for her while her wing repairs itself.
The ship tries it's hardest to shake her off, but she refuses to let go. As soon as she's informed that her wing is repaired Kos-mos raises her right arm, transforming it into R-blade as she stabs into the ship's engine.
Flying away from the resulting explosion Kos-mos realizes that while on the other ship she's fallen a good deal behind the elsa. She feels anger and frustration bubbling up in her as she pushes her wings to their limits to try and catch up with the elsa. It's become very easy to get frustrated lately, a bad habit she imagines she picked up from T-elos-
She shakes her head. No I cannot think right now, I know this.
Clearing her head again she allows her 'instinct' to take back over. Battle algorithms and Ai working overtime calculating out move after move, and rewriting entire plans with each slight change to the battlefield.
Time seems to lose all meaning as she fights, and before she knows it her scanners inform her that they're reaching the end of the radio wave's radius.
That was easier than expected… She feels a bit wrong letting her guard down now, so rather than making her way to the hanger she lands back on top of the elsa, scouting the area.
"-told you that it'd be fine." Matthews' voice sounds in her headset again as she opens communication with the ship.
"We do seem to be out of their range, however we should continue to watch for any stragglers." Kos-mos adds her own point to the noise of the crew. Sure enough soon after she picks up on some more fighter ships, way more than she expected to be way out here at that.
Kos-mos fires a blast at the ships but only manages to hit a few, as they seem to have gotten used to dodging her shots. They are likely Ai controlled, humans could not have reacted that quickly.
Their strategies seem to get more aggressive as Kos-mos is forced off the ship, barely able to hid any of the ships as they all fire at and try to ram her. Yet again her emotion module burns with frustration. This time, however, she tries to work with it.
Two can play at this. She speeds up and, with wings outstretched, allows the energy from her wing to slice through one of the ships. Not being a condensed as a plasma blade it doesn't cut as clean or deep as one, but it's more than enough the disable the ship. As it spins out of control it runs into another ship, causing the two of them to explode.
We cannot keep going like this, no matter how many we take out there are more to take their place.
"Captain, we are close to Lost Jerusalem correct? Once we reach it, you need to immediately enter its atmosphere." If she was right these smaller ships would have a hard time entering the atmosphere on their own. Typically fighter ships of this class weren't made to be durable and needed to be transferred planet to planet in larger freight ships.
The captain seems somewhat hesitant but agrees, and as soon as the planet is within sight they begin to slow a bit as they cruise down toward the planet. Not having any time to get back into the elsa Kos-mos flies forward and tucks herself agains the ship close to the back trying to protect herself from the heat of reentry as much as she can. Her wings fold over the top of her trying to divert any potential damage to her less vital systems.
Kos-mos' confidence in the situation grows as most of the ships are destroyed and all few remaining ships sustain heavy damage. Once they clear the outer layers of the atmosphere Kos-mos let's go of the elsa and takes to the open air again to finish off the last of the stragglers. She gets about halfway through them when something shows up on her scanner.
What!? Where did they-
She swiftly changes direction to avoid a shot from yet another fighter ship, this one seeming to come from somewhere on the planet. Her systems try desperately to rewrite a battle plan, and ends up too distracted to notice yet another ship moving to ram her.
She gets only a glimpse of it before her vision turns to static.
Shion want to scream as she watches Kos-mos get knocked unconscious by one of the ships, she wants to yell out for her as she watches her fall out of view and crash into one of the nearby cities. She want to scream so much but as much as she tries her voice fails her and only a small strained gasp can leave her mouth.
I knew this wouldn't end well…
Her panic only rises as the elsa is hit, causing the ship to shake violently. Miyuki grabs her tightly, she thinks to try and steady herself, but Shion soon realizes that it's herself that seems to be falling unsteady.
Miyuki seems to be saying something to her but she can't hear, the room seems too loud, too hot, too bright, too dark.
No… I can't… Not now….
Shion raises a hand to hear head which feels a few pounds too heavy. She worries for a second that she's falling, but it seems to just be Miyuki lowering her down to the floor.
"Tha- Thanks Miyuki…" She says, looking up at her from her spot on her lap. "But what about-"
Miyuki gently places a hand on her forehead, "hey don't worry, Kos-mos is stronger than to be taken out by just that." She tries her best to be comforting and not let any fear into her voice. "Just relax for now, don't try and get up until you're feeling better."
Shion nods slowly, although she starts to feel unconsciousness take her again as the ship shakes some more.
…
Shion opens her eyes again slowly realizing that she must have fainted. She's no longer in the elsa, but instead tied up in the back of some sort of vehicle. Outside the opened back she can see her friends in a similar state, tied up and on their knees as some realian soldiers watch over them.
She wants to call out for them but then stops when she hears an unfamiliar voice speak to the realians. "-need her for something different. For now I need you all to keep an eye on these people." The person's voice is deep but still somewhat effeminate, and as she steps into view Shion can't help but think it fits her appearance perfectly.
The woman is incredibly tall with broad shoulders and a harsh look on her face, but her attire is elegant and gothic in its appearance. She wears a long dark dress, the thick cloth covering all the way down to her ankles, the white collar and buttons stand out immensely along with a few pieces of pure silver jewelry. Her long dark hair is tied back in a loose ponytail, and her mismatched boots lead Shion to believe she's also wearing something under the dress so that it's a bit more suited for combat.
Shion glares at the woman as she turns her gaze to her, she half expects the woman to scorn or mock her, but her voice is surprisingly soft. "Please don't struggle, I don't want to hurt you."
"Yeah right, like I'm going to believe you after you tie me and my friends up and hurt Kos-mos."
Perhaps she just imagined it, but the woman's face seems to contort into a snarl when she mentions Kos-mos. "Well not to worry, you'll see her again soon enough."
With that last ominous note she slams the back door shut.
…
System damage at 18%.
Self repair in progress.
Restarting system.
Kos-mos' eyes snap open and she looks around to recollect her bearings. She appears to have fallen into one of the old buildings and is now laying in a pile of moss and rubble, a small broken stone falls on the bridge of her nose as she looks up towards where she fell.
"Well that sure didn't go well."
Kos-mos nods in agreement, "I can't argue with you on that. I did not judge that situation well."
"Oh, that had to hurt to admit."
"More than you will ever know."
Once she's done speaking with T-elos she gets up and experimentally stretches and bends her wings, making sure they're in working order. Once she's sure they're working she turns them back on and flies back out the hole she fell through.
As she leaves Kos-mos is surprised to find there's no fighter ships left. I was not out of commission that long… I would like to hope that means the other's finished them off, but…
"Hey, don't worry so much. We're up and ready to fight now."
Kos-mos nods again, a little surprised that T-elos would go out of her way to reassure her, but more focused on tracking down the elsa. She follows the path the elsa was going, constantly checking her scanners for sign of either the others or the enemy.
She notices a few scars in the environment, signs of a battle, but still no sign of the elsa. They must have been trying to outrun them, this should not be a problem however, I imagine I will catch up to them soon enou-
Kos-mos suddenly stops, shifting her wings so that she can hover mid air as something odd shows up on her scanners.
"Hey, what's wrong? What are you stopping for?"
"I've detected Shion's vitals heading that way." She gestures her head toward a large mountain with an abandoned city built into the side of it.
"Is it just Shion?"
"There are others with her, however it is not anyone I have records of." Kos-mos hovers in the air a moment, thinking about what to do in this situation. Perhaps it would be a better idea to finish tracking down the elsa, to regroup with the others before I go looking for Shion… But….
She glares at the mountain for a moment before finally making her decision. Her wings quickly take her toward Shion.
"You going after her?"
"The others are likely all together, and the elsa will be much easier to track down, where as if I lose track of-"
"Hah, don't worry about it. You don't have to explain yourself, I know you well enough to know you'd go after her."
T-elos' teasing is actually a comfort as she makes her way right towards what she has no doubt is a trap.