Chapter 5: Azure Tears

Elise had no idea what the "Free Gallian Air Force" or the "501st Joint Fighter Wing" was, but the girl in front of her was clearly French, but that didn't explain the strange devices on her legs, or what either of them was doing here. "Perrine, I can call you Perrine, right?", the girl nodded, having taken out a handkerchief and assiduously scrubbing the black gore off her glasses and face, "I really have no idea what is going on, but we seem to be in this together, so I think we should join up, and maybe try to find out if there is anyone else here. Maybe someone one of us knows also got brought over."

"I don't know if any of my comrades were brought over, but the Neuroi certainly were, and I don't know if that's good or bad." Perrine put her glasses back on and saw the confused expression on Elise's face.

"Whats a Neuroi?"

"How can you not know what a Neuroi is? They've been attacking us for years now! They conquered Europe, Karlsland is still occupied!" Perrine couldn't believe the girl could be so ignorant.

"What? That's impossible. The world was devastated by the WORMs of course, but I've never seen these Neuroi before. And whats Karlsland?" Elise was starting to realize that she and Perrine were talking past each other. "Whatever. That's not important. What we need to do is…" she was cut off by a figure descending next to them. It was another of the human shaped Neuroi. It was "looking" directly at Perrine and…though Elise may have imagined it, it seemed to give a slight nod. It then looked back and forth between Elise and Perrine, and raised an arm, pointing back towards the battle, which had largely moved away from their current position.

"You…you want us to go over there?" Perrine was a bit hesitant at first, but brought herself under control. The Neuroi looked at Perrine again, and then turned its head to face the same direction it was pointing. And with that, it flew off back to the main battle area. "Well, the Neuroi wants our help for some reason. The one that brought me here seemed to want my assistance as well. Do you think we should check it out?"

"Well, I unfortunately don't have any better ideas, except for just leaving. But somehow I think that that would be a bad decision." Elise looked straight into Perrine's eyes, and could tell she thought the same thing. "Besides, if those Neuroi really are your enemy, and they went out of their way to bring us here to help, those monsters must be bad news. We should try to find a way to stop them." Perrine nodded agreement at that. "Are you ok to go now?"

"I'm fine. I just needed a few minutes to rest." Perrine hefted her Bren from behind her back, and after checking the ammo, nodded to Elise. "Lets go." Taking off in the direction the Neuroi had indicated. Elise transformed Bachstelze into Glider mode and followed after her new friend.

"Incoming fire" Bardiche's dispassionate announcement startled the trio as they flew westward. "Origin bearing 13.23 degrees, elevation 45.90 degrees."

"Wide Area Protection!" the girls came to a halt in midair, Fate erecting a barrier right as the incoming beams arrived. The glowing blue bolts bounced harmlessly off the golden barrier. "There!" pointing upwards and off to the side, they see their assailant descending towards them, a glowing sword in hand.

"Fate, you come with me. Mami, stay back and provide covering fire." Evangeline called over her shoulder. Mami and Fate affirmed their understanding. "Ensis Exsequens!" a beam of pure light emerged from Evangeline's right hand, as she and Fate rushed up to meet the oncoming enemy, as Mami began firing her muskets from behind…

As Perrine and Elise skirted the edges of the battle, they realized that it was not going well for the Neuroi. There were far fewer of the black crystalline creatures, and just as many, if not more of the strange lizard-dragons. "I've never seen this many Neuroi in one place, and to see them being defeated so easily is terrifying", Perrine's voice was quiet, but Elise could hear her clearly. "I hope that whatever these creatures are, they stay in this place. Wherever we are."

Elise had to agree, even the worst of the battles against the WORMs paled before this conflict. They were still struggling against the WORMs, these monsters may be too much for the beleaguered forces of the world. "Perrine, look over where the battle is, deep inside. Do you see what looks like some sort of opening? Or rift? Maybe that's where those monsters are coming from."

Perrine peered in the direction Elise indicated, cursing to herself that she couldn't enhance her vision as much as others, "its hard for me to see, but I think you may be right, though I don't know what we could do about it. Wait a minute, I think I just saw a green flash. That wasn't a Neuroi beam, there may be someone else in there. We need to go help them out!" She looked over to Elise, flying next to her. She nodded in agreement. Together they banked towards the battle, wondering just what they would find.

The monsters were definitely winning the battle, there were very few Neuroi left, mostly just large ones, which were being swarmed in turn by creatures. Elise and Perrine had run into a large group that had just finished off a battleship sized Neuroi, and were currently trying to cut their way through them. "Elise, we need to do something to clear a path!" Perrine yelled out as a creature hit the shield she'd just erected, stopping it long enough for her to put a burst of fire through its head. She looked over to Elise, who blasted two of the creatures with Bach's arm mounted laser cannons.

"I agree, but what can we do? You can't use that area attack again yet can you?" Perrine grimaced and shook her head. "Then we'll just have to do it the hard way. They dodged and weaved, pressing ever forward, though it seemed that every creature shot down had two take its place. Suddenly, a shadow passed over the afternoon sun, and both girls looked upwards to see what the cause was. Perrine gasped

"It's a hive! What's a Neuroi hive doing here!" The shock in her voice was palpable. A massive discharge from the hive blasted hundreds, thousands of the creatures into oblivion, Perrine and Elise managed to avoid being hit through sheer luck. Many more Neuroi descended from the hive, along with three truly massive ones, the likes of which Perrine had never seen before. "My god. They're the size of islands! That's impossible! Nothing can be that big!" Elise was as awestruck as Perrine. Even the most massive WORMs she'd fought were nowhere near the size of those monstrosities. Their shock at the sight distracted them, and they almost didn't notice the half dozen creatures who came up behind them until Bach's proximity alarm sounded.

"Perrine, behind you!" Perrine spun around, rapier whistling from is sheathe, sparks flying as it intercepted the claw strike that was about to hit. Elise had similarly taken out her lance, and had already used it to take out another creature, but more were coming. Suddenly, four blasts of green energy erupted into their vision, each one striking a creature, destroying them. She saw that the beams had come from four blue objects, that were flying through the sky in a strange, stop and start motion. They pivoted and fired again, taking out the remaining creatures in the immediate area. They then flew upwards, towards a shape Perrine could see descending from in front of the sun.

The objects docked onto the wings of what was clearly a human shape, a blue machine of some sorts, about the size of Elise's Sonic Diver, but as different from Bachstelze as Bachstelze was from Perrine's Strikers. The unknown machine was being piloted by another girl, who's apparent height and obvious endowments marked her as older than either Perrine or Elise. Long blonde hair fell over her shoulders, with curls forming in towards the ends. She smiled, "hello, my name is Cecilia Alcott, representative candidate for the United Kingdom", the crisp British accent cut through the air, "you wouldn't happen to know what is going on, would you?"

Perrine and Elise looked at each other and sighed.