Chapter 16; Simon's Choice
Bringing its javelin up, the Fairy blocked Ichika's attempt at taking its head off. Jumping back, it charged up one to fire while using the other to block the flurry of sword blows he was throwing at it. Charlotte, meanwhile, had circled around it to try and get a clear shot. Noticing the French girl, it jumped to the side rather than block the next attack, letting Ichika's momentum carry him forward and putting him in the line of fire. "Ichika, you moron, move!" she shouted too late. Bringing the other javelin up, it fired into his chest, sending him hurtling into Charlotte and sending them both into the wall of the dock. "If that's all you have, little boy, you might as well leave now," it taunted, standing on the ship. "Damn you…" Ichika murmured as he tried to get back up. Before he could he was kicked to the side as the Fairy landed near them and turned its attention to Charlotte. Reaching down, it picked her up by the shoulder and threw her back towards the assault ship.
"I think we need to have some alone time," it said as it followed her. Jumping to her feet, Charlotte summoned her two SMGs and opened fire, catching it off-guard. After taking a number of rounds, it ducked down below the deck, using the ship as a shield. Moving over to the side of the deck, she kept her weapons trained on where it disappeared in case it came back. She was not, however, prepared for the attack from behind. Landing a kick into her back, the Fairy sent her into the deck before bringing its javelin down between her shoulder blades. Her shields bled away at a rapid pace, triggering an alarm, and she struggled to roll over and throw the thing off her. Before her shields could drop below 40%, Ichika barreled into the Fairy's side, sending it through the wall of the ship. "You okay, Charls?" he asked while watching the hole. "Y-yes, I'm okay," she said, getting back up, "Thank you."
She turned to the hole just in time to see the Fairy fly out and ram into both of them, throwing them through the guard rail and back onto the dock. Recovering first, Ichika charged a beam in his left hand while he triggered an Ignition burst, sailing back at the Fairy. Bringing its left javelin up, it prepared to smack aside his obvious frontal assault. Instead, he stopped short and fired his beam, landing a solid blow into its chest before diving below it to avoid its return fire. Coming at it from below, he swung his sword up and felt it make contact with something softer than its weapons. Cutting clean through whatever it was, since he couldn't see through the smoke, he cleared the cloud and swung around, prepared for a counter attack. When the Fairy charged him, he noticed that a piece of its right foot was missing. So I can damage them he thought as it crashed into him again. "You will pay for that, human!"
Outside on the beach, Tatenashi was grappling with three Harpies at once, while Rin and Kanzashi were fighting off another four out over the water. Laura was the only one not currently fighting, but she was planning on changing that. Rather than focus on the enemies fighting her allies, she trusted them to deal with them while she prepared another shot. Lining up her sights on what appeared to be their communications building, she fired and blew off what she assumed was their main antenna. Smiling, she turned her attention back to her friends only to be blindsided by a powerful blast. Dodging to the side to clear the smoke, she turned and had just enough time to see a large IS with a shield before it slammed into her, its blade coming down towards her head. Raising her left arm, she deployed one of her AIC and stopped it cold before focusing on the enemy in front of her.
It was the knight IS, the one that had hospitalized one of her friends and had beaten Ichika. "Well, if it isn't the child soldier," it said, leaning into its shield and struggling to free its sword. "I hope you are prepared to die, Hündin," Laura spat back. Shifting to her right, she let the knight's weight carry it around her as she released its sword. Deploying her left energy blade, she swiped at its head but only managed to put a gash into its shield. Backing away, she deployed her wire snares to buy time to line up a shot. Dodging three of them, it tossed its sword up above it before wrapping its hand around the fourth wire. With a powerful tug, it pulled Laura back towards it as the sword came back down. In one swift move it caught the weapon and brought it down towards her head again. Stopping it with another AIC, she tried to line up a shot with her cannon but she was too close. Before she could think of a way to attack it, the IS brought its foot up and kicked her away before back flipping to dodge a blast from Rin.
She had come up behind it, hoping to catch it unaware. As it spun to face her, she gulped as she brought her swords up. This is not good she thought as it pointed its shield at her. Realizing what it was doing, she ducked to the side as it fired at her. Charging her own cannons, Rin circled it and moved closer as it tracked her with its own cannon. Before ether could fire a wave of missiles came in and hit it from behind. Taking advantage of the opening, Laura and Rin cut loose on the cloud, peppering it with Shock cannon rounds and railgun shells. They stopped the bombardment after a few seconds and waited for some sign that they had defeated the thing. Rin had even began to pray to any god that would listen that this monster of an IS had finally been put down. Instead of answering that prayer, the IS came shooting from the cloud and smashed into Kanzashi, taking her with it as it flew back towards the beach. "Crap," Rin muttered as she and Laura moved to help her.
Before they could get there, the knight had slashed through one of her missile pods and kicked her in the stomach, sending her rolling across the sand and knocking the wind from her. Wheezing, she tried to stand back up only to be stopped as it placed a foot in the middle of her back and forced her back down. Reversing the grip on its sword, it said, "I hope you were prepared to die here, little girl." As it brought its sword down towards Kanzashi's head, Tatenashi crashed into its side, sending them both rolling across the sand. Getting to her feet first, Tatenashi brought her spear up and tried to hose the knight IS down with bullets. Instead, it kicked itself over to dodge the first stream of shots and brought its shield up to blast her.
Right before it could pull the trigger, one of Laura's shells hit it in the back, while Rin landed on its right side and opened fire with her Shock cannons. Kanzashi and Tatenashi joined in a second latter, pouring as much fire as they could into it. After two minutes, they stopped and watched the dust cloud, praying that it was finally dead. When the smoke finally cleared, what they saw made their spirits plummet. The knight IS had undergone its second shift and its new weapons were…discouraging, to say the least. It held a broadsword in each hand and had a double-bladed battle axe sheathed down its back. It also had four floating shield bits hovering around it, in addition to the fact that its wings had changed to accommodate a pair of cannon barrels, each. "This isn't going to go well, is it?" Rin asked, looking at the others. Brandishing its new swords, the IS answered, "No, it won't," and charged.
Breathing a quick prayer of thanks that the alarm had stopped, Simon turned to his IS and stopped the diagnostic. It's now or never he realized as he triggered his stand-by form. He watched as his IS disappeared in a flash of light, only to reappear around him a moment latter in another flash. Checking over his limited weapons, he sighed in frustration. His two remaining fangs were still fairly damaged, so he could only use them once as a kind of blade-bullet. His left sword was also questionable, but he was confident it would at least activate once. Turning to the main door, he triggered his right blade and slashed through the flimsy metal before taking off down the hall. Taking a moment to notice that the girls he had seen wandering around, the 'initiates,' weren't there, he tried to find the closest fight to where he was currently.
Suddenly, he heard a large explosion to his right followed by the wine of a rifle discharging. That's Cecilia's rifle he realized as he took off down the hall. Rounding a corner, the scene that met him was enough to stop him cold. Cecilia was grappling with the Gospel at close range, fending it off with her rifle and combat knife, the former of which was useless as a gun at this range. The trade-off was that because she was so close, the Gospel was kept from using its major firepower since it would be caught in the blast as well. Instead, it was fighting hand-to-hand, and since its fingers were more like claws, like all IS, it was managing to hold its own. It was still slightly surreal to watch two people used to fighting at range grappling at close-quarters. However, when the Gospel leaped forward and tackled her, he was shaken from his momentary pause and rushed forward.
Leaning over Cecilia, the Gospel pinned her down with its left arm as it brought its right hand up, fingers together in a makeshift blade. Growling, Cecilia brought her knife up into the first available target, stabbing into its chest. "Sorry, but that's a wasted effort," it told her without flinching, "Goodbye, Cecilia." As it brought its hand down to stab into her chest, Simon landed behind it. Reaching down, he grabbed its shoulders and heaved, pulling it off her and tossing it into the wall. Without even pausing to register who attacked it, the Gospel fired off a wave of bombs into Simon's face, dropping his shields by 25% and knocking him into the other wall. Stepping forward and trying to catch his breath, he stared at the Gospel as it looked back at him, its arms dropping to its sides. "B-brother? But, why?"
Ignoring it, he turned slightly to Cecilia and asked, "Are you alright?" She just nodded as she got back up, aiming at the Gospel. "You didn't really expect to keep me here, did you?" he asked, turning back to the Gospel, "You had to have seen this coming." "B-but, I thought…we… you and I, we were finally together again," it said, clearly confused, "Why? Why would you just throw me away? After all I went through to get you back…why?" Looking down, Simon thought about it for a few moments. She deserves an answer after all she's suffered through he concluded as he looked back up. Even though it didn't have a real face, he could see the pain and confusion in its body language; his actions had hurt it, hurt her. "I've thought about what you told me," he began, "About what it took to take the form you have now. I can't express how sorry I am that you're trapped in that body, that there's nothing we can do to reverse it. But…" He stopped there, looking at Cecilia. It felt good that she had come for him, better than he was ready to admit, at least right then.
"But, I have people I care about, friends that I've made. I can't just abandon them for a chance at a 'better life.' And also, I'm sorry to say this, but you're wrong." "I'm wrong? About what?" it asked, not following. "I'm sorry, but you're not my sister," he answered, feeling like trash at how it flinched at that, "My sister died almost two years ago now. You may have her memories, but like you said, pieces are lost. Whatever you are now, you're not Sarah." He couldn't have known it at the time, but those words cut deeper than he could have ever imagined. He had been her reason for clinging to her sanity during the experiments when it would have been so easy to sink into madness and let her mind fracture. The thought of being with her brother had held her together for two years, and here he was dismissing their connection like she was a stranger.
Looking down and clenching her hands, the Gospel tried very hard to block out the anger that was trying to surface, which was extremely hard for her since her mind was now that of a machine. "Then go," it managed, "Leave now, while I still have control over myself." Without hesitation, Simon turned and followed Cecilia back the way she had come. Watching them go, the Gospel felt an almost irresistible urge to stop them. Instead, she turned around and went back towards the command center. There were matters that needed her attention, attack or not. She had decided that the Fairy had been right, and that it was time to start acting on the plans she had laid out. Soon, they will all understand this pain she promised.
Landing hard on her back, Maylin rolled to avoid the flames hurtling towards her. Getting back up, she trained her rifle on where the spider IS had been, only to see nothing there. Looking around the room, she reached out with all of her sensors, trying to find some hint of where it had went. This thing, whatever it was, had a very well-developed stealth system and could disappear in a flash. "What's the matter, little girl?" it taunted from the shadows, "Can't find me? Even with your 4th gen suit? That's too bad." At the last part, a bolt of energy came screaming at her from behind, forcing Maylin to duck. Coming back up, she leapt into the air to avoid another tongue of flames only to be hit by a pair of energy bolts from the side. Landing in a three point crouch, she fired at where the bolts had come from, but only hit crates and the wall. This one is tricky she thought as she looked around again. Shifting her right weapon back to its rifle form, she slowly walked forward as she scanned the room.
"If I'd known you were this easy to take, I would have killed you a long time ago," it said, still trying to psych her out. "I think you will find that I am much tougher than that," Maylin responded, whirling around and firing behind her. This IS seemed to favor attacks from behind. If she could get to a wall, she would be able to limit its options and possibly force it into the open. As she neared one of the walls, she felt something tug on her left foot. Looking down, she had just enough time to see a thin thread wrapped around it before she was pulled off her feet and into the air, her head slamming into the ground and disorienting her for a moment. Shaking her head to clear it, she looked up and saw she had walked straight into a snare. Pointing one of her rifles up, she shot the wire just as three bolts came screaming towards her. Two of them missed, and the third caught her in the leg, doing negligible damage.
Dashing towards the wall, she turned and slammed her back into it, aiming outward and prepared for the next attack. "You're much more of a challenge then my previous playmates," it taunted, "Do try and keep this pace up. I don't want to get bored." "You enjoy tormenting people?" she asked, disgusted. "'There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those that have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter,'" it said, sounding like it was in some kind of ecstasy, "Ernest Hemingway. I always loved his work." While Maylin thought that particular sound bite through, another pair of bolts came at her head, forcing her down and to the side, only to have flames come at her from the right. Turning the duck into a slide, she fired back along the path of the flames and heard the blast hit something besides the wall and crates. Smiling, she stood back up and slowly looked around her. "You can run, spider," she said, "But you cannot hide from me forever."
Struggling to see through the smoke, Ichika barely had enough time to dodge the Fairy's next attempt to skewer him, only to receive a knee in his stomach. Stumbling back, he charged up a beam to fire back, only to have to release the charge and use that arm to block a swing at his head. Instead, he tried to lash out with his sword, only to hit empty air as the Fairy backed away. Before he could even think about moving, it raised one of its javelins and fired into his chest, sending him back into the wall. Thankfully, he managed to avoid the fires below him. Several of the stray blasts from their battle had managed to hit ammo stores and fuel tanks, and the dock was starting to fill with smoke as the fires burned.
"Are you alright, Ichika?" Charlotte asked, landing next to him. "Yeah, I'm fine. We need to get this thing outside," he responded. Looking back at the door, he realized that it had made no attempt to block it or close it. Charging up a beam, he fired at the Fairy while Charlotte moved towards the door. When she got there, she turned and summoned her rifle, covering Ichika as he moved outside. Once they were clear of the dock, they turned and waited for it to follow, but only saw smoke pouring out of the gate. The sound of weapons fire suddenly registered with them, and they returned to the beach to see Rin, Laura, Tatenashi and Kanzashi struggling to defeat the knight IS. Ichika almost charged in to help, but stopped when he saw the change it hand undergone.
It was using its shield bits in a rotating circle, constantly adjusting them to intercept the dangerous shots aimed at it from behind, while it lashed out with its two swords, batting Rin aside. Turning, it blocked Tatenashi's attempt at stabbing it, flicking its swords out and throwing her back. Without giving her a chance to recover, it launched itself at her and brought one of its swords down, slamming her into the ground, only to bring its foot into her back and kicking her into her sister. The two landed in a heap as Laura tried to ready her cannon, only to have the knight IS in her face, its sword moving towards her stomach. Acting on impulse, Laura stopped it with her left AIC, only to look back up and see one of its cannons in her face. She didn't even have time to squeak as it fired into her face, sending her into the surf. Rin tried to put a pair of shots into its back, only to have the shield bits block them without the IS itself moving. Turning to face her, it noticed the other two pilots.
Making a decision, Ichika triggered an Ignition burst and charged the IS, preparing his last free use of his one-off. He had already used it twice trying to take out the other IS, but both attempts had ended in a miss. This would be his last before he risked his shields, and since they were currently at around 30%, it would probably result in them collapsing. As he closed on it, the IS just stood there, its swords at its sides. Right as Ichika swung, trying to cut the IS in half, it stepped back and brought two of its shield bits up. He managed to slice through them and destroy them, but they did their job and kept the sword from getting close. Growling in frustration, he tried to use his momentum for another attack, but it brought one sword up and smashed the flat end of the blade into his face, sending him rolling across the beach. Springing to his feet, he brought his sword up as the others landed around the IS in a circle. All of them had various looks of determination, but privately Ichika wondered if they would be able to beat this thing at all.
Simon and Cecilia entered the room Maylin was fighting in right as she had finally driven the spider from hiding. Lunging at it, she tried to cut the damned machine into pieces, only to be stopped by an energy bolt to the face. Leaping to the side to avoid the stunned girl, Widow saw the two new pilots and quickly dissolved back into the shadows. "Oh, looks like we have company, little girl," it said before disappearing. Getting back onto her feet, Maylin fired after it, but only hit the floor and wall; it had disappeared again. Before Cecilia and Simon could rush to her aid, she raised a hand and said, "Stop! Do not come any closer. This thing has a very effective cloak." Moving so they were back-to-back, Cecilia and Simon looked out into the room, trying to find any signs of movement.
Simon saw a flash right before an energy bolt came out of nowhere and smashed into his chest, driving him back into Cecilia. Turning to see what was wrong, she was caught by a burst of flames from behind, causing her to launch herself forward or risk cooking. Turning back, she fired along the path of the flames, only to hit nothing but the room like Maylin. "Quick little bugger, isn't it?" she asked, smiling coldly as she looked around. The three of them backed into each other, looking out and trying to find where this machine was hiding. "So, anyone have a plan to deal with this one?" Simon asked. "Don't you know how to beat them?" Cecilia asked back, sounding annoyed, "I mean, you spent two days with them, and you don't know their weaknesses?" "I'm sorry, princess. They didn't exactly invite me to spar." "How about we focus on the problem at hand?" Maylin suggested, heading off any argument that might have started.
With a 'huff,' Cecilia and Simon turned their attention back outwards. "Simon, you are an expert in engineering, correct?" she asked, starting to formulate a plan. "Sort of, yes, why?" "What would be required to maintain a stealth system like this?" "Let me think," he said, racking his brain, "You would need a reflective coating to divert any radar waves, a smooth body to assist in that, and very efficient heat-sinks. Oh, and special supports on the feet to mask noise." Taking a moment to think about all of that, Maylin turned to the nearest crate and fired her rifle on a low setting, blowing the front of it off, but more importantly setting it ablaze. "What are you doing?" Simon asked only to clue in a second latter. "Cecilia, start firing at the other crates," he said as he moved to scatter the burning ones around the room. Not really following, she opened fire anyways.
In short order they had half the room on fire, the debris scattered around and making it fairly hard to see. Suddenly, Maylin opened fire into the cloud, forcing the Widow out from its hiding place. And then Cecilia understood; the spider's stealth system was effective, but that in itself was a disadvantage. With all of the fires around the heat sinks had been set against it, turning it into a cool spot against the heating background. Training her rifle on the IS, she opened fire as well, while Simon slipped off to the side and disappeared into the smoke. "Clever use of the crates in this room," it said, sounding annoyed, "But it won't do you any good in the end." When it landed, it trained its four beam rifles on Cecilia, prepared to take the British girl out. "I don't know, I think it's helping us quite a bit, Widow," Simon said, appearing beside it and slashing through one of its legs.
Growling, it jumped back and tried to shift its aim to him, only to have Maylin appear behind it and remove two more legs, as well as cut into its chest armor. Releasing a smoke screen of its own, it blinded the two and tried to disengage. But, when it jumped clear of the cloud, it was only to have Cecilia's rifle barrel in its face. "What? How?" it asked, too stunned to move. "What can I say? It's like we know each other," she responded, firing and blasting away a portion of the helmet. Stumbling back, it felt the drop in output and response as Simon's and Maylin's blades pierced its chest from behind. As they slashed their respective weapons outward, it experienced instant oblivion as its core was cut clean through. Letting the now dead machine fall to the ground in a heap, Simon took a moment to be grateful they had survived; this machine had had a very real chance at killing them all. If they're all as bad, or worse, than this one, we've got a problem he thought as they moved to return to the outside. He couldn't have known how right he was.
Struggling to maintain his footing, Ichika tried to shift the sword he was blocking to the side, only for the knight to lean into it more. Glancing to the side, he saw that Kanzashi and Rin were still down, unconscious. Tatenashi, Laura and Charlotte were trying to both back him up, and keep it from getting to the other two girls. Needless to say, it wasn't going well. They were all exhausted, with shields hovering around the danger zone. Their only saving grace was that this IS wasn't making good use of its superior firepower, instead opting to use its swords and brute strength to try and pound them into a pulp. Thinking quickly, he tried to calculate how long he would have with his current energy for another one-off before deciding screw it, time to wing it. Triggering his one-off, he slashed clean through one of the swords before bringing the blade back towards its chest. He had managed to catch it off guard, and as a result managed to cut a good way into its chest before his energy hit zero and his shield collapsed.
Dropping the now useless sword from its left hand, the IS brought the free hand up and punched him in the chest, denting the chest plate, knocking the wind from him and cracking a few ribs. Dropping to the ground and clenching his stomach, he struggled to breathe as it stood over him. "Nice effort, boy," it said, "but you should have saved such a desperate move for latter." Bringing its foot back, it kicked him aside as Tatenashi and Laura charged the IS, brandishing their melee weapons. They had burned through their ammo a while ago, as had Charlotte. She had been forced to bring her own knife out with her shield and had moved to defend the two unconscious girls. As Laura and Tatenashi got closer, several energy bolts impacted one of the knight IS' shields. Looking back, they saw Cecilia, Maylin and Simon coming out of the wrecked main building.
"So, you've made your choice, Felix?" it asked, turning to this new threat. The others had been reduced to punching bags at this point, and it knew it. "Did you expect something different, Crusade?" he returned, landing on the beach and taking up his own stance. Maylin and Cecilia landed next to him, prepared to back the blonde in whatever he was planning. "No," it said with a sigh, "I suppose not. Your decision was clear from the beginning. I will say that I'm disappointed, you would have been a great fighter among our ranks." Without hesitation, it brought its cannon barrels up, two above its shoulders and two below. Seeing the electricity ark between them, Simon immediately understood the type of attack. "You two, move! Now!" he yelled, ducking to the side. The other girls did, and just barely avoided the blast. It wasn't the four independent shots they had expected, it was one massive blast that carried out over the water and would have probably killed them right there.
Getting back up, Simon charged the IS, deploying his other wrist blade and hoping that his IS would continue to hold out under this strain. He was already starting to get warnings that certain systems were starting to fail. As long as flight isn't one of them he thought as he brought his right arm forward, only to impact one of the shield bits. Using the impact as momentum, he spun around the bit and brought his right foot up, deploying the blade and slashing into its chest. As the knight brought its own sword into play, Maylin moved in on its left side, slashing away at the other shield bit. Trying to fend off the two attackers, it didn't realize that Cecilia had taken flight. Aiming carefully, she put a bolt into its left shoulder, causing it to stumble back. Taking advantage of this, Simon and Maylin moved in and attacked as one. She cut through the left arm just below the elbow while he slashed through its right knee, putting it off balance. Before it could even start to topple Cecilia put another bolt into its chest, sending it to the ground.
The knight IS lashed out with its remaining shield bits, knocking the two back while it activated its flight system and took off. Bringing its cannons into play, it fired in volleys rather than the one large blast. Charlotte grabbed Rin while Tatenashi grabbed her sister as they were forced to scatter to avoid the blasts. Cecilia, meanwhile, had been trying to return fire, but the blasted machine was blocking her shots with its shield bits. Grinding her teeth in frustration, she deployed her own bits and sent them off. Suddenly, the IS accelerated towards her, blowing through her bits and bringing its remaining sword down. Reacting on instinct, she brought her rifle up to block the blow, and it managed to work, mostly. It cut into the barrel, rendering it useless, but stopped at the body of the gun. Twisting the rifle, she trapped the sword in it and brought them face-to-face. "Now your sword is mine," she growled, summoning her knife and hoping to take the machine out.
Rather than struggle to free its weapon, the IS let go of the handle and drifted back, bringing two of its cannons into her face and firing at point-blank. The blast destroyed the rifle and sword, and also managed to bring her shields down into the single-digit range. Before it could finish her, Maylin was behind it, slashing into and destroying one of the guns. Whirling around, the IS grabbed the handle of its battle axe and brought it down on her, smashing one of her swords and sending her back a few meters. Simon was right behind her, however, and lashed out with his own blades, stabbing both into its chest and breaking the left one off. Bringing its arm up, it used the handle of the axe and struck him in the throat, sending him back and gasping for air. It followed that blow up with another, smashing one of its shield bits into him before triggering its self-destruct, consuming him in a ball of smoke and fire.
Maylin took that as her que to attack and swept in beneath it, finishing Simon's work and severing the right leg. As she came up to face level, the IS let go of its axe and grasped her shoulder. Stunned, she tried to bring her other blade up into its chest, only to have the other shield bit slam into that arm. While the bit impaled itself on the sword, it was still intact enough to stop her from bringing the sword up fast enough. "Game over, little girl," it said as it brought its remaining cannons around. While she was too close to be shot outright, she was close enough to the point of convergence for it to hurt. As the guns took the second to charge, Maylin felt her suit receiving some of it, sparks starting to fly from the damage she had taken. Before anyone could try and get her away from the IS, it fired, the blast going out towards the water. They could barely hear it, but Simon knew he heard Maylin's scream of pain.
When the blast subsided, it let go of the girl and let her drop down to the ground before turning to the others. Before Simon could act, it fired off several canisters around it from hidden compartments around its armor, creating a massive smoke screen. Rather than try and take it at close range, Simon soared back down onto the beach and picked up the unconscious Maylin before saying, "Grab the others, we need to go, now." Without arguing the point, they grabbed their wounded teammates and made their way off the island. Looking at the girl in his arms, Simon felt a pang of guilt. She had risked her life for him, someone she had never known until a few weeks ago. There was something else, though, something that he couldn't pin down. For whatever reason, holding her like this felt right, and he didn't know if that should comfort him or not.
An hour into their flight back, Maylin awoke and realized the position she was in, and who was carrying her. Looking up without moving her head, she was thankful that her helmet was still intact. It allowed her to examine the boy holding her closely without alerting him to it. She could see why her mother had been stricken with him when they had met; he was very handsome up close. His eyes were the most striking; a deep green, they looked unbearably sad up close, but also very caring. It was almost enough to make her try and comfort him, but she knew it wasn't her place. He was Cecilia's, and it would have been wrong to try and get between their happiness for the sake of her own. Instead, she reached up and tapped his chest plate to get his attention while she collapsed her helmet.
When he looked down, she said, "Thank you for the help, but I can fly on my own." "You sure?" he asked, concerned, "You took a bit of a pounding back there." When she nodded, he stopped and released her. He watched in concern as she steadied herself before turning and catching up with the others. Rin and Kanzashi had woken up by this point, but their IS were too damaged to manage flight, so they were forced to let Charlotte and Tatenashi carry them back. Bringing up a self-diagnostic, Maylin took stock of her own damage and was stunned with what she found. Her IS was barely holding together after that battle, which made her wonder how so many of them were able to fly at all, considering they were all using less advanced suits. However, it wasn't the damage to her suit that concerned her the most. Looking back at Simon, she made sure his attention was focused forward and not on her. We just need to all get back, and it will be fine she thought as they continued along.
Looking at her wounded comrade, Sarah felt anger like she never had before. They had come and attacked their home, stolen her brother, killed one of her friends and severely damaged another. Crusade was undergoing extensive repairs, and she was clearly not happy with the fact that she had been so badly damaged. The only silver lining had been that she had unlocked her second shift, highlighting another part of the technology they depended on that annoyed them all. For whatever reason, despite the fact that they were one with their IS they weren't able to consciously trigger their higher shifts. Fairy was still waiting on hers, and Widow…well, she would never get the chance. They were still looking over her remains, but what had happened was fairly clear; she had been overpowered by three different opponents. Sarah was willing to bet that it had been that British girl, the other girl with the 4th gen IS and her brother. That last one hurt her more than the other two, since she had pinned so many of her hopes on him.
And he just walked away she thought again. She had been playing that scene over and over again, trying to decide if there had been something she could have done differently. But, no matter what she simulated, the end result was the same; he had chosen that girl over his own sister, regardless of what it would do to her. "Gos...Sarah, we need to make a decision," Fairy said, trying to be diplomatic. She knew full well what she was trying to process and could imagine just how hard it was for her to come to grips with it. She was more than used to fights and death, but Sarah wasn't, at least not when it was people she knew. "I know we do," Sarah answered, turning away from the window and heading back to the control room, "We're going ahead with your plan." "Are you sure? It's going to take a lot more material than we have available here." "I'm sure. Start loading the ships with whatever we can. As soon as Crusade is repaired, we sail. And one more thing," she said, turning back and facing Fairy, "It's Gospel, not Sarah."
The second battle has come to an end, and both sides have suffered loses. What will come from Simon's denouncement of his connection to the Gospel? What kind of plans have the IS laid against them? And what will it take to put Crusade down? (spoiler; it's going to take a hell of a lot) Till next chapter, dear readers.
Damn, that was a long one. This is probably only going to happen with this fight and one or two others, so don't use this as the new standard. Just had too much happening at once and I didn't want to brush over too much.