The thing about squid artillery is not just that there's so much of it, but how it just completely wipes out your ability to maneuver flexibly.

-Brigadier General Henrietta Lewis, 14th Regiment, 4th Magical Division, 3rd Army Group of the Yangtze

It's too bad magical girls aren't more common. I'd prefer they didn't die, obviously,but it would be nice to have a few of them around when things get really bad.

-Tank Commander Adam Decu, 8th Squadron, 12th Regiment, 8th Armor Division, 7th Army Group of the Huang River

The tension in the bunker slowly rose as Emma waited with the command team. There was a sense of deja vu as Emma quietly loaded and unloaded her sidearm. The ammunition block clicked as it latched and unlatched in the quiet of the operations room. Team C-4, the platoon's E-warfare Specialists, were just down the hall, monitoring things on their equipment.

Emma glanced to the side as her TacComp pinged again. The tide of red on her map had advanced far enough that the main line was falling back again. Everything appeared to be as close to on schedule as might be expected for a war.

It occurred to Emma suddenly that this was the first time she was actually waiting for an offensive. Sims didn't count, you always had installed memories to help you through them. Emma had spent the down time in the sims fiddling with her sidearm, but it felt strange doing it now. Or rather, it felt natural, but it felt odd for it to feel natural.

Or maybe the weirdness was just nerves.

"Could you stop that, Lieutenant?" asked Beckett. He and Han were sitting nearby, still as sculpture while they waited. Ingrid was much the same, save for the occasional twitch as she checked something. "The clicking is driving me mad."

Emma blinked as the ammunition block clicked into the weapon. "Oh, sorry," she said, putting the gun back in her holster before laying her hands on the table.

It was only about ten seconds before Emma stood up and began pacing. It really was nerves, it seemed. Eight steps one way, pivot on toes, eight steps the other. She was wearing the boots that came with her costume, though the armor plates had been retained, and clicked with each step.

"Lieutenant," said Beckett again. His voice sounded strained.

Emma grimaced and apologized again. She stepped lightly over to a nearby medical crate, one of many stored in the bunkers across Cluster 14. A dozen emergency trauma drones were stored inside each crate, and they chittered as Emma leaned against it. She sent them a mental gesture to go back to sleep mode. Her finger itched to begin tapping on the top, and it took a conscious effort for her to stop.

This was maddening. Emma sighed and pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes. Slowly, she counted to ten.

"You know, it helps if you find something to do," said Beckett dryly. "Sitting around doesn't really come naturally to kids your age, after all."

Emma swallowed back a snipe at Beckett. Calling him an old geezer more likely to fall asleep than be ready was probably not the best idea. Instead she plunked to the floor beside the crate and stared moodily at a table leg, drawing her legs up and folding her arms atop them.

…She decided to start a call with Ayane. CAS was grounded, in anticipation of the huge quantities of projectile fire soon to be incoming. Ayane wouldn't be doing much except waiting, and they hadn't had any time to… to just talk lately.

Jeez, that had been back on the Salvation. That'd only been a couple of days ago, but it felt like nearly a year. Emma sighed as she sent the call request in. This was mad.

"Hi Emma," said Ayane. "What's up?"

"Nothing much, just antsy and wanted to talk," said Emma, rubbing her nose and sighing again. "How's the waiting?"

"Oh, you know," said Ayane. "Bored. I mean, I feel kind of bad, since people are going to be dying, but I really just want this to get started."

"Yeah, same here," said Emma. "At least we'd be able to do something about it instead of staring at a red blob. Is the 12th CAS doing anything specific for, uh, for later?"

"We've bombed up with more anti-armor and cluster weapons," said Ayane. "I mean… what else would we do?"

"I dunno," said Emma, shrugging. "Groundpounder, remember? I never learned up on what you CAS people do."

"Well, it's pretty simple really," said Ayane, scratching her ear. "Have target, will bomb."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much. Unless you want to get into the details of combat."

"Nah, I got enough to worry about on the ground," said Emma. "Oh, I forgot to ask earlier, but uh, how'd you guys end up, after the fight?"

"We did alright," said Ayane with a tired grin. "Busy as hell, but we didn't lose too any girls, and we've got a ton of supplies and spare drones."

"I guess us ground-pounders kept you guys busy?"

"Mmhm, lots of calls for air support," said Ayane. "My wingmate and I are part of the fast attack team, so we were running around a lot."

"You're alright though?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," said Ayane. "Why do you ask?"

"You were saying, at the med center, that the sims had you dying a lot," said Emma. "I just figured, since there was a lot of double-A that, you know."

"Oh, well, I mean, I lost a bit of my liver and a kidney," said Ayane with a shrug. "Nothing major, really."

Emma blinked at this, before laughing. "Hehe, I didn't really expect you to say that."

"Eh, why?"

"Well, I mean, it's just that, you remember what we were talking about, in your hotel room that one time?" said Emma, scratching her nose. "Back when we'd just contracted for like a week?"

"When I visited Mitakihara, you mean?" asked Ayane. "We uh… I remember talking about going to war and having a pillow fight."

Emma smiled fondly. "The pillow fight was fun. I was just thinking, you were kind of nervous back then, and now you're talking about losing major organs like its no big deal."

"Oh," said Ayane. "Uh… I uh, I'm not sure, I guess."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"I mean uh," stuttered Ayane, caught off guard. "I mean, I don't feel any different, is all."

"I guess not," said Emma. "It'd be kinda weird if you did, I guess. Growing's a gradual thing, right?"

Ayane nodded. "Right. I guess, uh, I guess it makes sense that sometimes, I feel like the day I contracted?"

Emma paused, before nodding cautiously as well. "I… guess."

"You guess?"

"I mean, I feel kinda different from all the way back then," said Emma. "I've definitely learned some new things and can do better in combat than before."

"But, aren't you scared?" asked Ayane.

"Of what?"

"Of.. of… I dunno. Just stuff, I guess."

"I mean, I'm always afraid of stuff like dying, I guess," said Emma. "Or of getting my platoon killed by screwing up. Stuff like that, you know?"

"I guess," said Ayane. "I… it's just, you don't really show it."

"Well you don't either," said Emma with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, you gave me that whole motivational speech a couple hours ago."

"I gu—."

"Bah, stop," said Emma. "Hey seriously now, are you having a crisis of confidence on me here, Ayane?"

"I… I guess?" said Ayane. She giggled at Emma's mock scowl. "But really, I don't know! It's like when you're busy, you don't think about it, but when you're sitting around it all comes rushing in."

"Uhh," said Emma. "I… uh."

"…You don't do that."

"Uh, no."

"Well now I feel weird."

"Nono, I mean, I bet a lot of people do that," said Emma hurriedly. "Like, I'll bet that a lot of the soldiers think about dying all the time."

Ayane's face fell. "Mm," she sighed sadly.

"Hey, chin up," said Emma. She half reached out towards Ayane's image before stopping herself. Ayane glanced up exactly as Emma began pulling her arm back and blinked.

"…Were you going to try and touch me?" asked Ayane.

"…No," said Emma, looking away, embarrassed.

Ayane giggled. "You totally were!"

"No I wasn't!" protested Emma.

"Hehe, did you forget that it's a mental call?"

"S-shut up!" said Emma, flushing. "I just-! It was just that-…"

"Yyyyyeeeeeess?"

"…It was just that you looked sad," said Emma, looking away and scratching her cheek nervously. "And I… I wanted to cheer you up.

Ayane blinked at this. "I, uh, thanks?"

Emma continued refusing to look at Ayane. "I uh, I didn't make it awkward, did I?"

"Oh, no, it's fine, I uh, I appreciate it," said Ayane, blushing slightly as well and scratching her nose. "I really do. Thanks."

Emma glanced back and smiled. "…Do you feel better then?"

Ayane nodded, smiling back. "Yeah."

The two of them were quiet for a moment. This time the silence did begin to grow awkward.

"So, uh, what are your flight mates like?" asked Emma, switching topics as soon as possible.

"Ah, yes, well, my section lead—."

A thunderous explosion from outside cut her off. Ayane and Emma both dropped to the ground instinctively, then immediately turned red. Maybe they should be paying more attention to the battle at hand…

"I'll, uh, call you back," said Emma as she picked herself up off the floor.

"Right, um, stay safe," said Ayane. She smiled once more at Emma before her image blipped out.

"…You too."

"Have a nice conversation?" asked Beckett wryly as the command team quietly chuckled. Even Han appeared vaguely amused.

"I, er, yeah I did," said Emma. "…Why are you all- is there something funny?"

"You kept making faces when you were on your call," said Beckett.

"And blushing," added Ingrid.

"And forgetting that you were on call," continued Beckett. He was clearly grinning behind his helmet as Emma went red all over again.

"S-shut up," she said, and primly swiveled away from him. "This isn't the time to be making fun of me, Beckett."

"Hehehe…."

Emma ignored the sergeant's chuckles and looked through her updates. The artillery barrage was arriving largely as expected, although it was slightly late. Emma flicked her map into a 3D representation to watch the fall of the shells, as well as track the movements of friendly units. By the looks of it, things would be rough for anyone out in the open. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any issues that needed Emma's—

"Company HQ to Third Platoon, prepare immediately to move out," ordered Fatima. "Part of the 24th Combined Arms Regiment is requesting an escort action through the barrage."

—attention.

"Oh fun," said Emma sarcastically, getting to her feet and handing the medical crate to Ingrid. Across the battlenet, the rest of the platoon switched from "idle" to "underway". "Understood, Third Platoon is loading up."

"Be careful," said Fatima. "You know how big those explosions are."

"We'll bring plenty of ammo," said Emma. She set a box of ammunition down on the floor of her IFV and sent the reminder down the line as she said it. Their IFVs' targeting systems could be reconfigured to perform anti-air duty. Modern artillery fired shells large enough to be tracked, so it wasn't difficult to either avoid the projectile or shoot it out of the sky with the integrated defensive suite.

"Right. Stay safe then. Company HQ out."

Emma blinked at the departure and bit her lip. Everyone was tense, it seemed.

"Lieutenant, we're ready to go," said Beckett. His tone no longer carried his previous amusement.

"Right," said Emma. She checked her sidearm one last time, reviewed her grenade and grief cube inventories, and paused as she wondered if she ought to bring anything else with her.

"Do we have any flechettes?" asked Emma.

"Yes," said Beckett. "They're over there in the corner. Why do you want them?"

"Just an idea," said Emma thoughtfully. She considered it another second, then jumped down and ran over to the crate of flechettes. The long, stiletto-like projectiles were explosive and designed to be fired out of a light anti-armor railgun. They also made excellent melee weapons, if you were so inclined.

"Going ninja on us, Lieutenant?" asked Beckett.

"That is strongly inadvisable," said Ingrid and Han in almost perfect unison. They both seemed extremely concerned.

"Don't worry," said Emma. "I'm thinking about using them at range. Let's move."

The two IFVs moved quickly out of their bunker, joining the widely spaced, vaguely triangular formation of constantly circulating IFVs that were what remained of Third Platoon.

It was distressing, actually, now that Emma looked over their numbers in more detail. Third Platoon was down to almost exactly 48% strength, with some variation for injured and equipment maintenance. This was distinctly alarming, especially since most of the squid forces were at nearly full strength. There wasn't much time to do huge amounts of damage when you were fighting a delaying action.

With a bit of luck, they'd get away with minimal casualties. Escort missions were all about running as fast possible, after all.

Emma pushed these considerations to the side and sent a ping towards the magical girl, Captain Rena Ogilvie, of the 24th's Mechanized Battalion, A Company. The response was filled with static and incomprehensible.

"We're being jammed pretty hardcore," said Rena over telepathy. "Talk here."

"Right, well, we're moving out right now," said Emma as the platoon's IFVs moved over the trenches, keeping their guns as quiet as they could to conserve ammo. "Where do you want us?"

"The squid are pushing hard against our rear," said Rena, highlighting the relevant strip of land on Emma's map. "When you get here, make a hard flanking assault, then pull back as we retreat."

"What's the status of your MGs?"

"…It's been difficult, we've lost more than I had hoped for," said Rena. Emma realized that the captain must have been under suppression, the slight pause giving it away. "But we're holding steady. Grief cubes are low, we can't spare too much flash at the moment."

"Right," said Emma, considering her options. "I'll coordinate with the girls on the ground. You're retreating?"

"Unfortunately," said Rena. Emma could hear a tint of bitterness in her voice. "I'll see you around."

"Stay safe."

"You too."

Emma flicked her telepathy over to the MG team. A pair of girls were whirling about, keeping the squid pinned as their platoons retreated, then falling back to recharge their gems as their platoons returned the favor. Emma waited until they had dropped into a trench to recharge before breaking into the conversation.

"Fucking hell," said the first girl, Sasha. "Took you long enough!"

"Sorry," said Emma.

"How many of you are there?"

"Just me," said Emma, biting her lip.

"What, why?" asked the second girl, Hisako. "We're getting torn up out here!"

"Dunno, didn't ask," said Emma before she quickly moved on. "But uh, I've got plenty of juice and grief cubes though, so how do you want to do this?"

There was a pause as they all glanced through each other's personnel files. Hisako was a powerful illusionist that fought using an electric guitar and various magically floating amps. Sasha was an ice mage and fellow pole arm user, possessing a whaling harpoon and long coil of rope. Both had several years experience on Emma.

"Well, at least you're a competent newbie" said Sasha. "Hisa, you wanna do the usual smash-em-up routine?"

"She's AOE, so that'd be best," said Hisako. "She can take Justine's place for now."

"I'll do my best," said Emma. Justine must be one of the mages their company had lost.

"Whack in from the right and give us a nice, loud bang," said Sasha. "You're a wind mage, so I'll try and coordinate some sort of blizzard with you. Hisako will cover your approach with a solo. As soon as you hit, we'll move the troops back."

"Got it," said Emma. She checked the weather, the rain was steadily getting worse, as she sent the command out. The platoon veered right, Ingrid apparently having little to add. Then again, it wasn't a plan that Emma'd come up with. "We could do a hailstorm."

"Sounds plausible," said Sasha. "We'll worry about it later. Get in position."

"Right," said Emma. She switched to the local battlenet, boosted by the IFV's internal transmitters. "Third platoon, we'll be doing a standard smash and grab operation. 24th's Hisako Tsukino will provide illusions for cover, so hopefully it won't be too bad. There's a lot of jamming, so don't get too far from the vehicles. MGs first, followed by delaying action to fortified positions. I'll buy you as much time as I can."

A chorus of affirmatives.

"Good luck," said Ingrid as their IFV accelerated and moved to the head of the formation.

"Thanks," said Emma. "The 24th's taken a lot of hits. They may need medical attention."

"I will take care of it," said Ingrid. "Stay safe."

"I will," said Emma. She stood up and prepared to propel herself out of the turret hatch. The rest of the platoon compressed for maximum impact, forming into a tight wedge.

Emma shivered as a tingle swept over her.

"Illusion is on," Hisako whispered. Emma figured she must be concentrating on her music.

"ETA forty seconds on my mark," said Emma. "…Mark."

"Roger that," said Sasha. "Will commence my attack at T-Plus ten."

"Understood," said Emma. She took a deep breath. The world stilled around her. She closed her eyes and unlatched the hatch.

Another intake of breath…

…Time to go.

Emma launched upwards. She felt herself tip sideways as the wind hit her from the side. With a grunt, she remaneuvered herself upwards and fired a jet of air down and back, pushing her forward to arc high over the battlefield. Below, her enhanced vision saw clearly where the squid infantry was trying to push forward, slowly making its way up despite the fire from the human soldiers.

Emma grit her teeth and popped a series of vortex spheres into existence. Pivoting in midair, she began kicking them with pinpoint accuracy into the enemy positions. Fireteams scattered as the mortar-like explosions displaced them from their positions. Immediately, lasers arced upwards to search for her, but Hisako's illusion kept Emma safe.

As she neared the ground, Emma chucked a blast of wind downwards to slow herself. It was also liberally filled with wind blades and massively accelerated raindrops. The large gust of wind was on track to slam into part of the enemy line—

—and then condensed into razor sharp droplets of ice, still moving at velocity. Tiny little things, hardly dangerous, except they'd been made by Sasha's magic. Emma blinked as the entire section of the enemy line disappeared into a greenish brown haze, ripped to pieces by the mixing of her magic with Sasha's.

"Holy shit, newbie, that was wicked!" said Sasha. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma saw a figure with a large furry hat charge up from the trench. "What else you got?"

Emma grinned. It felt good to be useful. "How about this?"

She twisted in midair, pirouetting like she'd seen Rene do several times as she landed on the ground. It also helped accelerate a large jet of air. Emma planted her foot and pushed forward with a shout, the air jet screaming through space to rip straight down the enemy line.

Alone, it would have been decently effective, but again Sasha added her ice magic to the jet and turned the whirling dervish of death into a howling dragon that clawed through earth and flesh with wild abandon.

"Goddess be damned!" cheered Sasha. "Holy shit, newbie, you should—!"

An explosion cut her off, sending her flying. Emma swore and leaped forward, the older magical girl spinning limply through the air. They impacted with a thud, before Emma managed to get them both to the ground. A quick scan showed that no, Sasha hadn't died, her gem was intact and healthy enough.

Moments later, Sasha blinked and shook her head. "Ow."

"You got hit by artillery," said Emma, lying on her stomach in the mud to peek over a crater's rim. More artillery was inbound, but by now Third Platoon had smashed into the enemy's flank and was providing limited anti-air support. "You're okay?"

"Musta hurt my brain a bit," said Sasha, flexing her fingers and taking deep breaths. "…I think I'm okay."

"Good," said Emma. "What next?"

"Move everyone back two hundred meters and give them time to get there," said Sasha. She rolled onto her stomach as well. "Hisako?"

"Here."

"You want to do cover duty, now that we got a good AOE?"

"That'd be nice, yeah."

"Cool, you cover the guys. Newbie—.""

"Emma."

"—Emma and I'll give suppressing fire."

"Let's do it then."

"Do you need any grief cubes?" asked Emma. She extruded several HE grenades from her backpack. "I'm pretty juiced, so…."

"It's cool, we'll wait till we get back to the line," said Sasha. She pushed her hat back on her head to get it out of her eyes. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Let's do this thing!"

Both girls burst up and sideways, swinging left and right in wide arcs to get an even spread across the enemy line and its upcoming reinforcements. Emma ran five meters, planted her left foot, spun, and pulled a gust down the length of the trench, swishing past Sasha. In what was quickly becoming routine, Sasha froze the air as it passed, turning it into a blast of deadly ice that ripped into the lightly armored standard troopers.

The first line was now effectively clear. With Third Platoon now moving back in careful, coordinated leapfrog fashion, Emma and Sasha ran forward to deal with the upcoming reinforcements. Emma braced herself again, pulled at her magic—

—and dived sideways as no less than seven snipers tried to kill her.

"Holy shit," Emma gasped, before launching herself upwards as another salvo came in. "Shit, Sasha!"

"I can't find them!" Sasha called back. She was ducking and weaving herself, throwing up the occasional magical shield. "Fuck, they learn quick."

"Yeah, well," Emma began, before scooting sideways in midair, then diving for the ground. "I kind of wish they didn't!"

"Shoulda said that when you contracted!" Sasha laughed. "Close and attack in melee, they can't shoot you if you're in the middle of their own troops!"

"Right," said Emma, skidding in the mud before running forward. An idea occurred to her as she ran. Her magic shield shimmered into place, before she gathered a huge burst of magic and launched herself into the reinforcements, scattering them like bowling pins with her impact.

"Nice one!" said Sasha. The older girl stabbed with her harpoon and yanked the pole back, a fresh rope and harpoon-head appearing.

"I'll work towards you!" Emma shouted, pulling a halberd out and whirling to hack into a squid. With a grunt, she slammed the stricken cephalopod into the mud, pulled the ax head free, and launched the spear point into another's face.

"Right!"

Combat turned into a mad whirlwind of flying ichor and just-dodged laser blasts. Emma kept herself fluid, letting her instincts slip her through the fray with minimal damage. A few lines scored across armor, one or two knocks to the head, but standard troopers were routine and she could handle them easily.

A beeping drew her out of the nearly mundane act of cleaving heads in two. Hisako and the three platoons had withdrawn sufficiently, it was time for Emma and Sasha to pull back.

Emma spun and dropped a spray of smoke grenades around her. They popped and exuded thick clouds of nano-scale smoke, giving Emma perfect screen to make a run for the rear. To her left, Sasha had done the same and was slowly pulling ahead, the older girl better at magically-accelerated running. A tingle spread across Emma's skin again as Hisako began an illusion to keep them safe. Artillery shells fell at random, trying to find them but easily diverted around.

"Same plan next time," Sasha said over telepathy. "We'll recharge and then keep moving back. If all goes well—."

Instincts shrieked at them simultaneously. Emma ended up rocketing back and up, while Sasha made an ice block to slam into. Neither knew what had made them stop—

—until a searingly hot blast ripped into the ground along the human line, tracing sideways with a sound like the sky ripping apart. It was like a column of light, except the air crackled and ionized around it. A massive laser, impossibly powerful, had impacted the line. Seconds later, Emma and Sasha were peppered with fragments of bodies, charred armor, and baked earth.

"HISAKO!" Sasha screamed, leaping forward. The illusionist had dropped out of all sensors. Emma dived out of the sky and slammed Sasha into the ground as a second blast came from on high, burning its way through the ranks of the 24th and Third Platoon.

"Fall back!" Emma ordered. She had no idea what was happening, but there wasn't any time.

"Emma, we can't-"

A third laser blast. Emma ducked a piece of flying debris. Then a lull. Mercifully, it seemed it would take time for the squid to recharge.

"Ingrid, get everyone back to Cluster 14," said Emma. "The platoon is too exposed, and we can't rejoin you without getting blown up. If we stealth cloak and follow, we should be okay."

There was complete silence over the battlenet as everyone processed this. Nobody wanted to abandon a magical girl, much less two. It went against everything they had been trained to do. But holding back a tank battalion was a far cry from letting yourself get blown to pieces from the air.

Ingrid made a snap decision. She hoped she wouldn't regret it.

"...God speed, Emma," said Ingrid. "You heard the girl, everyone move!"

En masse, the remnants heaved themselves out of the trenches and made a run for it, piling into what active vehicles remained and abandoning the position. Emma took a deep breath and pushed a handful of grief cubes into Sasha's hands.

"Were you and Hisako close?" Emma asked, pulling more cubes for herself.

"Yes," said Sasha, almost absently, as she purified her gem. "We were friends from training."

"I'm sorry for your loss," said Emma. Over head, the massive laser streaked past, ripping into other platoons across the 24th's retreating column. Behind them, a fresh wave of infantry began advancing at speed. "…C'mon, we need to pull back, we'll be overrun if we stay here. Let's go."

"…Yes," growled Sasha, face darkening. "Let's."