Author's Notes
Thank you, Dianherdianto for your feedback and reviews.
As to Shigure's H.A.L.O. suit, I read on the Kancolle Wiki that players named her 'Great Angel' for her pleasant personality, powerful Kai Ni remodel and clutch plays, so I thought, 'What do angels have?' 'Halos', 'What can they do?' 'Fly.' and that was the end of that.
The ship girls of Amazon and Ninja company were currently hiding in the woods surrounding the Kanayama Dam on the 24th of May as the two companies merged into the former and was about to make their next stand here, this dam being an important location for them to hold because of the scarcity of water bodies in a land-locked area, and locations like lakes and dams were used to bath, refill canteens and wash clothes and also to fill their portable docks along with the water cooling systems of their combat vehicles.
Intelligence determined that Naka and her elephant Beast Airavata were already on their way to this dam in order to bolster the Abyssal forces, who had suffered some casualties after failing to take the forested area during their previous engagement and was when Ashigara-7 dropped out of the sky.
The JSDF had already readied their mortars, artillery and missile batteries some distance away and had called in several fighter squadrons for aerial reconnaissance and bombardment runs, and they had several dozen ship girls sortieing onto the dam's surface to make sure that they had boots on the ground and the dam itself.
The dam had a bridge leading across it and was naturally mined with C-4, and the dam itself was shaped in an arced formation with the left side of the dam relative to the bridge stretching out into the North-West and split into a messy fork and meant that they had space and cover to maneuver and hide behind, and the East led to a meandering river course followed up by a 90-degree corner which allowed them to bottleneck any chasing Abyssals.
Tatsuta was ready to jump back into the fray with her glaive Sado, because if the Abyssals called in J.O.A.N. units in order to take over the dam, she figured that the ship girls should have New Wave units which stood by Amazon company partially as a morale booster and also a means of fighting back.
No rest for the wicked, after all.
She didn't deny that she was wicked with her sadistic, bordering on homicidal tendencies bubbling just beneath her saccharine demeanor, but the Abyssals were evil incarnate as they served as dark reflections of the ship girls, and she was certainly not going to rest until they were all sunk, or she was.
Tatsuta, having exited a trench which contained her 1st Fleet comrades, now hugged Tenryuu for dear life as her elder sister returned to them after taking some time off in order to get away from the war, and Tatsuta saw that even though her elder sister still looked as emotionally fatigued as ever, some of the color had returned to her face and into her eyes after her period of absence.
Pulling back out to look at a slightly exhausted but much more mature Tenryuu who had no doubt contemplated her own failures in isolation and how best to overcome them, she was certain that Tenryuu had become stronger in her time alone as she asked,
"Can you fight, Tenryuu?"
"Yes."
"Then that's all I need to know."
She knew that her elder sister was smart and mature enough to come through when it mattered, and she looked down at the replacement sword which was crafted for Tenryuu, asking her about what she had named this sword.
"What's her name this time?"
"Masamune.
I'm now cutting down Abyssals with a purpose, and I realized that it shouldn't be out of a misplaced sense of hatred for them."
Tenryuu's weariness belied the amount of thought she put into reconsidering what she was fighting for while naming her new sword after a swordsmith whose seemingly benevolent swords of legend appeared intent to only strike down those who were guilty and deserving of its wrath.
"My hatred for them will make me no better than them should I allow it to corrupt me the instant I let my guard down, since I'll be tapping into the same source of power as them and can be turned by it.
I'd rather have my sword be tempered in my resolve to protect all of you rather than my desire to stain it in the blood of fallen Abyssals."
Tatsuta nodded understandingly since she knew all too well about how the power of hate worked, and how in spite of her being typecast as a 'dark ship girl' had a lot of merit and truth to it, she also knew of the risks involved since ship girls who sank as they were being wrapped up in their hatred and regret were easy pickings to be Abyssalized and turned, and she certainly wanted to break away from that dreaded source of negative motivation by relying more on her teammates and sister ship.
Her tone then became somber due to her legitimate concern regarding Tenryuu's compatibility with the newly forged sword.
"Do you think you can adjust to the capabilities of your sword on the fly?"
Tenryuu's gaze hardened with determination as she looked down at the sheathed sword she held in her hand, and she reassured Tatsuta with a hint of what she had been up to during her isolation period.
"Don't worry, Tatsuta.
I've been practicing with Masamune in order to become stronger and protect you all.
I won't say that I'll beat the Abyssals for sure, but I dare say that it won't be impossible to fight them to a draw this time."
Tatsuta's gaze similarly steeled as she moved her hand to hold Sado, her glaive's shortened shaft allowing her to keep it on her belt for easy access as she nodded, her heart icing over as her tone mirrored her cold demeanor but expertly hid her burning desire to exact revenge for her injuries, dead comrades and humiliating loss on the roof of the Kamogawa City Hall.
"Then, let's go."
They both jogged over to the hiding 1st Fleet, picking up their M4 Carbines and flipping the safety switch off before assuming a semi-crouching position in order to join their comrades in the trench, accounting for everyone shortly before the 1st fleet made their way towards the Northern front by crawling through the maze of trenches.
Several ship girls had sortied and were sailing on the dam's surface thanks to the transportation trucks which carried their riggings around along with extra ammunition to prepare a prolonged battle, having arrived in time for several of them to suit up.
These trucks came in handy during times like this despite their limited production and use back in the Abyssal War where the rigging transportation vehicles were reserved to be used during floods or in the wake of tsunamis, where sorties and naval battles were expected to take place in flooded cities while the coast-situated naval bases were abandoned before disaster struck.
Right now, the Abyssals were flooding in from the Eastern to Southern front as the ship girls who sailed on the dam had just begun to engage the Abyssals in combat and were valiantly stalling their advance, with carriers and battleships located on the maze-like North-West side of the dam providing long-range support for the cruisers and destroyers by utilizing the terrain as a force multiplier, all while tanks and fighters coordinated their advance and maneuvers with the missile batteries in order to discourage the enemy's big guns from hunkering down to dial in on the ship girls either on the dam or on land.
The Tenryuu-Class cruisers were to move up the Northern front and meet up with Ma'am Jackie, where they would then seek out and engage Naka and Airavata in combat before attempting to take her out with help from Ma'am Jackie, who would provide long-range support.
Speaking of the devil, they crossed paths with Ma'am Jackie and Jintsuu grouped together and to act as a sniper-spotter duo, the senior light cruiser slowing down to take note of their presence as being their commanding officer who participated in the lost battle of Kamogawa City Hall alongside them would mean that she'd be privy to their not-so-well-hidden capabilities, asking urgently.
"You two are in charge of taking that incoming elephant Beast down?"
"Yes."
Ma'am Jackie didn't respond to that, but she reached into her pocket and retrieved two items which were a combination of earplugs and earpieces for them to wind around their heads to plug into both ears.
"Here.
I was told by Akashi to pass this to you."
Tatsuta and Tenryuu caught the earplug-shaped earpieces made for the both of them as Ma'am Jackie asked of them.
"You two have superpowers, and you're certain that you can stop the J.O.A.N. Beast this time?"
The both of them nodded resolutely, and Ma'am Jackie didn't question their resolve or hesitate to respond in kind as she spoke up about providing support for them while she held up a Barrett M82 sniper rifle, this situation almost mirroring the battle at the Kamogawa City Hall as the three light cruisers (four if you counted Jintsuu) were facing off against another light cruiser J.O.A.N. unit.
"Fine.
I'll be providing cover across the battlefield to clear up the cannon fodder, and I'll let you know when I can chip in to help take out the Abyssal boss unit.
From what I heard, this bitch's songs are hard on the ears, so wear those to protect them."
She started jogging up the hill to get into position and had Jintsuu obediently following behind her while carrying a military monocular along with pencil, paper and an M4 Carbine rifle in order to act as a spotter and a guardian to defend her older self.
The 1st Fleet then crept up to the front lines, where ship girls were engaging Abyssals in combat by trading pot-shots with the opposing forces while fearing to cross the No-Man's Land between them, a strip of land that was pockmarked by craters formed by prior mortars shells and missiles coming up short as Tatsuta heard Aoba speak up over the radio regarding a certain dark horse fleet of Yokosuka.
"Everyone, the 8th Fleet of Yokosuka is on their way here in order to tip the scales in our favor, since the Abyssals would never expect them to be sortied here!"
"Wait, why are they headed here, I thought they were patrolling the oceans with our other fleets and are supposed to be anywhere else but here?"
Everyone's concerns were seemingly voiced by Musashi's strained tone, which could possibly also be attributed to the hail of bullets in the background forming an unbroken chain of static with its roaring symphony, and the Aoba-Class heavy cruiser relayed the reason for their reassignment from the naval front.
"Our sources cited 'irreconcilable creative and professional differences' between the 8th Fleet and the other naval bases, which meant that they were too violent and family-unfriendly to be allowed to sortie with other bases' fleets."
"What, and that gives them the right to dump them on us?!"
"Kinda, yeah, since they're from Yokosuka like we are."
Kikuzuchi's remark was shot down by Akashi, who would no doubt try to speak up for her own fleet as they were ultimately there to help the ship girls and humans, Ma'am Jackie asking about the third ship girl veteran who had recently joined them.
"Does anyone know where's Ashigara-7?"
"She's…"
Speaking of the devil, a black dot jumped out of a helicopter and dropped into enemy lines with the grace of a diving eagle as the ship girl veteran in question screamed out loud for the entire battlefield's occupants to hear.
"I'M GOING TO VALHALLA!"
" … right there."
"Figures.
Urgh, Platoon 3, head up and cover her!"
The exasperation in Ma'am Jackie's tone wasn't lost on anyone, because even if they were both veterans, their fighting styles contrasted each other's like day and night as one preferred taking a strategically advantageous location and picking off enemies without fuss while the other preferred flamboyantly exposing herself to danger and tanking everything the enemy threw at her before returning it all in kind several times over, another announcement sounding out over the radio for all to hear.
"Just a heads up for all combatants.
We're not sure which it is, but another J.O.A.N. unit's airborne signature was detected to be heading this way, ETA fifteen minutes.
Best prediction is Cynthia and her hippogriff Beast Simurgh, our best advice is to take one out before they both become a problem."
"Fine, get the JSDF's jet fighters and missile batteries to delay its arrival for as long as possible, we need some time to take care of Dumbo here."
Ma'am Jackie audibly cocked her Barrett M82 sniper rifle in order to drive her point home, Tatsuta and Tenryuu moving up as Hiei, Junyou, Ayanami and Shigure all took their time to fire at Abyssals across the battlefield while Ma'am Jackie used her elevated position on a nearby hill in order to take out enemy snipers.
Tatsuta centered herself by taking a deep breath as she considered all the various participants in the Battle for Kanayama Dam and how it caused everything to devolve into unbridled chaos, as it included two J.O.A.N. units, her and Tenryuu, the 8th Fleet and even Shigure if they were forced to sortie her in her armored suit in order to engage Cynthia and her flying Beast Simurgh, eventually gathering the courage to pop up from the trench in order to advance and break this deadlock.
A distant whizzing of a large-caliber round got progressively louder as it flew across the battlefield, and a Wo-Class carrier who was wielding a Dragunov sniper rifle crumpled like a bag of bricks as the round entered her neck, Tatsuta hearing the senior light cruiser pipe up over the earpiece/ earplug in Tatsuta and Tenryuu's ears.
"One down, watch yourselves down there.
I'll cover you all whenever possible to get you two to that blasted elephant Beast.
Jintsuu, move."
"Y-Yes!"
Assuming that the two light cruisers had to relocate themselves so as not to allow themselves to be seen and hunted down by anyone who might have spotted the sunlight-reflected glint of the rifle's scope or the muzzle flash and might counter-snipe or call down a rocket strike on them, Tatsuta was wary of threats coming from every direction as she avoided another mortar shell which rained down on the battlefield and kept them on their toes by ducking and strafing, her teammates shaking the shock of the explosion out of their minds before pushing on while their allied air fighters did their best to soften up the enemy.
She fired at a Ri-Class heavy cruiser who attempted to slow them down as she appeared to be the point man to the rest of the Abyssal horde, and even though Tenryuu had certainly matured during her time spent alone, her impatient nature meant that she certainly wasn't going to dilly-dally and waste her time on small fry as she let her M4 Carbine hang by her side as she whipped Masamune out, charging up a Blade Rush even before fully unsheathing it from its scabbard before unleashing a horizontal Blade Rush with a might heave.
The devastating tidal wave of black flames warped the space which it occupied with a vengeance as it blotted out and mortally wounded, if it didn't outright kill the Abyssals caught in it as a large swath of the forest was wiped out but wasn't set aflame as the mana-powered flames, upon being flung out of Tenryuu's swinging sword, eventually petered out and faded back into oblivion and thus prevented a forest fire which Tatsuta was secretly worried about.
"Did any of you see anything?!"
Tenryuu roared at the ship girls standing behind her once the roar of her Blade Rush died down to allow her elder sister to hear herself, and several ship girls of Amazon company were advancing to put down the surviving Abyssals and had clearly witnessed Tenryuu's abilities, but were likely too awed or frightened to say anything other than 'no', several of them vigorously shaking their heads and others timidly answering,
"N-No, Tenryuu-san!"
"Good!"
"Tenryuu…"
Akashi's disapproving voice sounded out over the radio, and the Tenryuu-Class cruiser responded with the tenacity Tatsuta knew she possessed to let her know that she was truly back in action.
"Hey.
You consider it unprofessional; I consider it efficiency.
I got no time to waste on the scrubs who stand in my way, not when I'm here to hunt the big fish!"
And Tatsuta shifted her attention to the private channel between the Tenryuu-Class cruisers on their earpiece, mission control which included Aoba and Akashi, Ma'am Jackie and Shigure as well once she caught a glimpse of Airavata's wild movement patterns along with the ominous creak of unyielding trees being shoved aside.
"What the hell's Airavata doing?"
"Well, the Beast appears to be knocking down trees around the battlefield in order to open up new avenues of attack for the Abyssals, and I'm certain it'll try and march around to unleash its rockets wherever the infantry Abyssals call for a rocket strike.
We'll have to fight around it as it rearranges the battlefield, but we'll be depending on the two of you to do something about it!"
The elephant Beast Airavata blasted another hole in their defenses by charging up its red beam of incinerating death, the charging-up time taking long enough to allow ship girls to scramble out of the way as Tatsuta ducked before the beam breezed past her and lit a nearby tree on fire despite missing it, and an incoming projectile was brought to her attention with the blaring sign,
'INCOMING MISSILE',
On her HUD, evading the enemy missile which drowned out everything with the deafening volume of its explosion which showered her with piping-hot dirt both from the summer sun warming it up and the missile explosively heating it up with its fireball which eventually dematerialized before her very eyes, shaking herself clean as she heard.
"Everyone alright?!"
"Yep!"
"Yes…"
"Can I say no to be medevac-ed out of this battle?"
"No."
Hiei shot down Junyou's feeble attempt to try and excuse herself out from the battle much like a disinterested student throwing feigning all sorts of sicknesses in lessons to see what stuck, and a rejection might be disappointing, but it definitely didn't keep her down as Junyou appeared in her field of vision by standing over her to help her up, Tatsuta graciously accepting it but staggered a little from the delayed shock hitting her, focusing her attention on her surroundings instead of her condition as she turned to find Airavata.
Tatsuta looked towards where the enemy supposedly was, a plume of dust and falling trees being left in the Beast's wake as flares were shot out from its body like New Year fireworks in order to defend the juggernaut of a Beast from being hit by allied missiles that were bearing down on it, the JSDF raining hell down on it unceasingly to pressure it into making a mistake.
"Come on, let's take that elephant down!"
"Agreed."
Hiei took point as she laid down cover fire with her MINIMI machine gun while Tenryuu and Tatsuta moved up, and a salvo from the battleships in the water slammed into an Abyssal artillery piece up ahead as the explosion nearly flung them to the ground as Tatsuta, like everyone else, threw up her arms to shield herself from the heat of the blast wave.
"Jesus!
That was too close!"
Her attention shifted back to the elephant Beast as she watched rounds bounce off its armored forehead, trunk, ears, legs, back and flank as RPGs managed to make it stagger a little, Naka being protected by an armor-plated windshield-esque device likely raised to hide her behind it while riding on Airavata in combat in order to protect an exposed Naka.
Hopping before landing on the side of an artificially-formed ridge tall enough to shield them from gunfire but not artillery, mortars or missiles, she could feel the frightened earth trembling with the behemoth's every step while the leaves on the nearby trees similarly quivered and were shaken off their branches as Airavata, named after the Hindu god Indra's elephant steed, knocked the trees over and trampled them with ease in order to open up avenues of approach for the Abyssal horde as they crept up behind the rampaging Beast as Airavata fired rockets from its lower back, where the M270 MLRS's launcher was stored in its Beast mode.
Tatsuta had to admit, she hadn't exactly thought about how they would get onto Aivarata's back to fight Naka since she had been too focused about getting to the Beast and J.O.A.N. unit in one piece, but Tenryuu shared her concerns and gave voice to them as she asked the 1st Fleet to receive their input.
"Um, how exactly do we take it out?"
"Well, the best chance might be for us to get on its back and take out Naka before taking out the elephant Beast, since she would defend her own Beast to the death."
"Yeah, but just how do we get on it's back?"
"Have Hiei toss them up there."
Everyone turned to Shigure with bewildered looks, but even though the suggestion sounded so silly, with Hiei's super-strength, it stood a chance of actually working, and Hiei looked towards the New Wave ship girls who stood the best chance of and were thus tasked with taking Naka and Airavata out since their possession of New Wave powers was no secret amongst the 1st Fleet, and Tatsuta pulled out her glaive and uttered,
"W-Well, I can launch myself up into the air with no problems.
Tenryuu, however…"
She managed to tease her elder sister in the middle of battle as she outed Tenryuu's inability to do the same with her remodeled sword,
"She might require a helping hand, though."
"Shut up, Tatsuta!"
Tenryuu's seething aside glance could melt holes through steel, but it was useless against Tatsuta's inbuilt invulnerability to Tenryuu's abrasive side thanks to being her foil as she barely managed to suppress her ill-placed smile in the midst of a battle, and the Kongou-Class battleship then turned towards Tenryuu and dropped her MINIMI machine gun to do what she had to do.
"No.
No, no…
Nonononononono - "
Hiei stomped towards Tenryuu as the light cruiser's eyes started to shine with the dawning fear of being thrown like an airline baggage handler tossing luggage up and down a plane, her gloved hands waving in order to refuse the suggestion even as Hiei stood behind her and lifted her by the collar and belt to lift Tenryuu's legs clean off the ground.
Heaving the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser in a slight back-swing before using her battleship strength to swing Tenryuu forward so fast her mechanical ears scraped the dirt floor while her purple mop of hair and green army uniform blurred, Hiei letting go at the perfect moment to ungracefully fling a screaming Tenryuu into the air,
"Nononono…
DAMN YOU, SHIGUREEEEEEEEE!
YOU TOO, TATSUTA!"
Tatsuta couldn't help but giggle at the amusing sight of a soaring Tenryuu before getting back to business, breaking out into a sprint before performing a high jump as she watched an airborne Tenryuu whip out Masamune in order to stab it into the flank of Airavata and anchor herself to the Beast, Tatsuta pointing her extendable glaive downwards and extending it to launch herself in a jumping pole vault towards the rampaging Beast which Naka had sicced on her comrades.
Shortening it as she landed on Airavata's back, she was then greeted by Naka screaming bloody murder at them and releasing her banshee-like voice through the metallic jaw which covered her throat and mouth like a muzzle, it was now open to unleash sounds waves which made her feel nauseous as it warped Tatsuta's insides and heated her skin, and the fact that the both of them didn't immediately go deaf was thanks to her internal eardrum mufflers and the earplugs-slash-earpieces which dampened the effect of the sonic scream on her eardrums.
[EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!]
A similarly stumbling Tenryuu stabilized herself long enough to fire a Blade Rush in Naka's direction, forcing her to shut her mouth lest the infernal, pitch-black flames scorch her jaw and throat as Naka was forced to shield herself and opened up a possible avenue of attack, Tatsuta aiming Sado before firing.
The Beast then chose to shudder at that very moment and threw her aim off as it knocked over trees in its stampede, her glaive nicking Naka's shoulder as the two Tenryuu-Class cruisers had to hold on for dear life, but since the Beast had a telepathic link with Naka, she would naturally be in tune with her own Beast's movements as Naka jumped Tenryuu like a possessed predator, fingers and arms outstretched and her jaws open to either scream or draw blood.
Watching her crash into and displace Tenryuu in a body slam before opening her mouth to scream again at point blank range, Tatsuta retracted Sado as she performed Life Break to drastically close the distance between them with a high jump, swinging her reverse-grip held glaive to stab at the Abyssal and stop Naka ahead of time.
She could feel her cheeks stretch out into a slasher grin as Sado's blade messily pierced Naka's left palm upon slipping through the Abyssal's palm bones to come out the other side, Tatsuta having learnt to put all of her weight and momentum into Sado to ensure that her glaive's blade stood a decent chance of penetrating armored foes.
[Grrgh!]
Tenryuu's previous Blade Rush had superficially burnt the J.O.A.N. unit's skin, but this didn't stop her in the slightest as the three of them shook along with the Beast in which they fought on before Naka howled again while Airavata trumpeted, Tatsuta feeling her organs and blood vessels churn and twist as her mind was swimming from the pressure of her screams physically affecting her in various adverse ways.
The fact that the elephant which they rode on was a threat to their comrades hung over her head, several allied missiles which were thrown off by Airavata's flares shaking the elephant's back which they stood on as they detonated around them.
Jumping up and extending her glaive in order to plant into the elephant Beast's armored skin, she lifted herself to spin around her glaive's shaft which stuck out perpendicularly from the elephant's back, swinging her body around it with the lithe grace of an experienced pole dancer as she braced herself against Naka's sonic scream for a while longer before she slammed her army boots into the J.O.A.N. unit's face in a clockwise direction, using her momentum to dislodge her shortened glaive upon landing.
Naka recovered as she used the force imparted by Tatsuta's spinning pole kick to pull off a reverse spin kick by continuing to spin clockwise while leaning close to Airavata's back and lifting her right leg parallel to her downward-leaning body in order to catch either Tenryuu-Class cruisers with her upwards sweep.
Tenryuu leaned back and deliberately fell as her pulled-in knees allowed her to counter with a drop kick as she smashed her boots into Naka's rib cage, sending Naka flying and allowing Tatsuta to strike with a revised God Killing Spear.
True to being a J.O.A.N. unit and thus a head above most rank-and-file Abyssals, Naka bounced back up with little difficulty with a last-second backhand to slap the flat of Tatsuta's blade and alter its trajectory, letting out another deafening scream to force them to keep their distance.
"Khh!
She's persistent!"
"True, but she can't keep this up forever!"
Tatsuta responded heartily as she felt more alive than ever, the enemy standing before her while she had her Anti-Abyssal weapon in her hand.
Her objective was clear.
Naka then strafed to get out of the way as she coordinated an attack with Airavata, the Beast's snout lifting over its head to fire a Hyper Beam at the two ship girls on its back as the Tenryuu-Class light cruisers similarly evaded, and Tatsuta could feel the disintegrating beam singe her hair and threaten to set her uniform alight even at this distance.
Tenryuu shakily raised Masamune in a reverse grip while charging up and enveloping the surface of its blade in her mana to plunge it into the Beast and possibly paralyze it.
[No you don't.]
Naka growled while blitzing forward, shortly before slapping a hand on her elephant's back whilst raising her heel in a handstand to slam her leg into Tenryuu's wrist and halt her stabbing motion which gave her attack most of the power it normally contained, Naka then supporting her weight with both arms on Airavata's back as she used her free leg to slam into Tenryuu's gut to send her stumbling back.
Hearing enemy gunfire whiz over her head and harmlessly bounce off the elephant Beast's armor, Tatsuta was reminded that the Abyssal ground forces would try and shoot her in order to get them off of Naka's Beast and either take her prisoner or take her out, and another rocket was fired from the rocket silos on Airavata's back as the back-blast sent Tenryuu staggering forward while Naka exploited the opportunity to jump her, Tatsuta closing the distance again to cover her sister.
Watching Naka shoulder-slam her elder sister off the edge, her conflicted emotions got the better of her for a split second as she got into position and extended her spear in a cue-ball shot towards Naka's exposed back.
And it was promptly caught by the J.O.A.N. unit.
Gripping the shaft tighter, she retracted her glaive's shaft in order to pull herself towards Naka as she stretched her leg out for a kick and was promptly greeted by the Abyssal taking the chance to punch her in the gut in an exchange of blows, and with her enhanced strength as a J.O.A.N. unit, Tatsuta came out of that exchange more injured than Naka did as the Abyssal sent her flying while growling.
[Get… off… my… BEAST!]
Rolling about on the Beast, she slid over and tethered on the edge of Airavata's flank as she dug her glaive into the Beast's side shortly before her center of gravity precariously shifted over the Beast's body, Abyssal infantry soldiers firing several bullets which punched through her armored flesh and nearly caused her to lose her grip on Sado, but as Naka leaned over to finish her off with another sonic scream, the Abyssal instead chose to duck as the flash of a scope precipitated the whizzing of a large-caliber bullet flitting over her head.
Tatsuta recognized it as Ma'am Jackie laying down cover fire, and she shouted into her earpiece for both Jintsuu and Ma'am Jackie to avoid what was coming next, being forced to watch helplessly as two missiles silos lit up with erupting flames and were likely aimed at where she presumed Ma'am Jackie's and Jintsuu's were currently at.
"Ma'am Jackie, Jintsuu!
Move!"
"You don't have to tell us twice!"
Tatsuta took the chance to swing around Sado's shaft like a gymnast on the uneven bars, feeling the strain of her muscles as they pushed out the bullets from her muscles while maintaining her grip on the glaive, spinning around as she watched the ground and sky spin about her before she launched herself back onto Airavata's back.
Landing and firing her glaive in order to take out one rocket while the second managed to escape her glaive's range as she retracted it for another shot, she uttered an irritated,
"Tch!"
While hoping that Ma'am Jackie and Jintsuu were able to vacate the premises in time, shrugging off an erupting fireball caused by an allied RPG landing a direct hit on Airavata's flank as she made her way towards Naka, the J.O.A.N. unit opening her jaw to perform another sonic scream.
Tenryuu then popped up from behind Naka, her next Blade Rush aimed to kill as her blurred sword Masamune was aimed for Naka's neck, her eye burning with an unparalleled ferocity which Tatsuta had rarely seen before today.
Naka's reflexes were impressive to the point of being inhuman as she connected the dots between Tatsuta throwing herself onto Airavata's back with a dawning expression on her face shortly before doing the same in the instant Tenryuu's Blade Rush swooshed over their heads, Tatsuta grunting due to the amount of fatigue piling on her as she brought her glaive up to fire again.
The J.O.A.N. unit caught her glaive again and let Tatsuta know that her revised God-Killing Spear which was made deadlier by her New Wave would become too predictable if she kept fighting in a straightforward manner, Naka and Tatsuta both bouncing back up as the two Tenryuu-Class light cruisers sandwiched Naka while the Abyssal let go of her glaive to perform her one trick.
Tatsuta now knew when to brace herself for a sonic wave which she knew she wouldn't be able to block in time as it scrambled her insides, her sense of hearing mostly protected by Ma'am Jackie's earpieces while her sight was starting to fizzle into black and white grains, her HUD warping and tearing due to the deadly frequency of the sound waves which bombarded her.
And that wasn't even getting to the migraine that was coming on.
Firing a God Killing Spear to shut her up, she saw that the J.O.A.N. unit was now getting a little desperate as she shut her jaw and ducked, and she could hear that Ma'am Jackie was breathing heavily but was still in action as she heard the instructor speak up.
"Tatsuta, Tenryuu, I know that the both of you can hear me right now.
I need a clear shot at Naka, and that'll open up a window for you two to run up to the Beast's head and blind it.
It'll likely go berserk, but that's when we can leave it to the rest of Amazon company to take it down in its panic while Naka is too occupied with pacifying it."
She didn't respond for fear of Naka catching on to their plan, and neither did Tenryuu as she burst forward while Tatsuta provided cover fire with her M4 Carbine which had admittedly been rather underutilized thus far, shifting her gaze about to try and spot where the glint of the scope was so as not to block her senior's line of sight.
Naka threw her head back and released another sound wave which managed to stop Tenryuu dead due to the pressure wave stunning her, and Tatsuta was far enough to maintain her composure in spite of the nauseating sound waves bombarding her as she emptied her M4 Carbine's magazine before whipping her shortened Sado around her head while calling out,
"Tenryuu!
Get down!"
Her elder sister didn't respond, but there was no need to as she elongated her glaive to swing it like a whip as its extending shaft missed Tenryuu's dipping head while Naka was forced to use the lightweight armor making up her shoulder gloves (reminiscent of her ship girl self) to block the blade, allowing Tenryuu to lash out with a horizontal Blade Rush as her prone figure hugged the surface.
Naka leapt in order to evade the flaming arc just as the distant glint of a scope was seen.
The Abyssal J.O.A.N. unit using her impressive light cruiser agility to evade the incoming sniper round while in mid-air partially succeeded as it impacted her right collarbone instead of the chest as Ma'am Jackie likely aimed for center mass, the light cruiser being flung back as she howled.
[ARGH!]
Retracting her glaive in order to perform an about turn before sprinting straight for the Beast's head while hearing a familiar pair of boot-steps following closely behind, she spotted Airavata's flaming trunk lifting back above its head to point at the both of them again as she shouted,
"Evade!"
And she strafed to avoid the vaporizing Hyper Beam while hoping that she didn't cause Tenryuu's demise by blocking her view of Airavata's trunk as it charged up a Hyper Beam, but those grim thoughts were pushed to the fringe of her racing mind as she leaned down to jump over the edge of the Beast's head.
Throwing herself over the edge of Airavata's head to get a clear shot, she looked into the Beast's burning right eye as it was snugly tucked inside steel eyelids encircling it in order to provide some protection without limiting its vision, and as Tatsuta fired a God-Killing Spear in order to blind the Beast, she was then treated to the sight of an infernal mix that was eyeball fluids and burning fuel spewing out and splattering all over her along with a eardrum-shattering trumpet from the Beast itself and a pained,
[NOOOOO!]
From Naka herself.
An explosion on the other side of the Beast's head likely completely blinded it as Tatsuta could hear Tenryuu grunt over the earpiece after she performed a bone-crunching one-point landing.
"Grrgh!
Urgh, argh… Tatsuta, get off that Beast!
It's going berserk!"
That was stating the obvious.
Airavata's movements were erratic and changed directions without rhyme or reason, and Tatsuta still clinging and hanging onto the glaive which was still embedded inside the Beast's right eye meant that the Beast leaned to its right in hopes that her glaive would somehow dislodge itself and also meant that aside from hanging on it and wildly swinging her legs about to run on thin air, she also had tree branches seemingly stretching out just to slap her in the body and face as she spat out leaves and bark in response to the flurry of nature's bitch slaps reddening her face and causing her side profile to tank the brunt of consecutive impacts with tree branches.
The Beast's damn fan-like ears wildly slamming into her to tenderize her other side profile didn't help matters one bit.
And then Airavata's 'listing' tilt and panicked cornering stampede headed straight for a cluster of trees.
With her hanging off of its side.
She didn't say this very often, but she really, really had to this time.
'Fuck my life, man.'
Lifting herself up as if doing a pull-up before slackening her arms and letting her body weight give her glaive a downward jerk, Sado's white-hot blade dislodged itself as she slammed her already-sore right shoulder into an oncoming tree, greatly softening the impact by allowing her shoulder blade and back to tank enough of it in a rolling motion before destroying the devastated tree after being thrown into it and immediately crashing into the tree right behind it, Tatsuta panicking from the pandemonium of stomping elephant legs causing the ground beneath her to quake and also from bracing herself against the agony of crashing into two trees which, despite her superhuman body having gone limp in order to soften the blow, still fucking hurt.
Rolling down the side of the tree trunk as its gnarled roots were dragged out of the ground to be exposed to the air upon toppling over and allowed it to collapse into its side in slow motion while Tatsuta hit the floor, aches and sharp pangs of pain within her body complementing her swimming vision and the numbing wave of lethargy de-powering her in spite of the battle raging around her, finally recovering enough to successfully parse the words that were uttered by the chirping device in her ears as the world came back into focus.
" … suta?
Tatsuta, what happened?"
"Oh, nothing much.
Just lying here with several cracked bones and several dozen throbbing muscles in my body, all while contemplating my life choices thus far and wondering if it was all worth it.
I'm also starting to miss the good old days, where we used to kill Abyssals on the seas."
The fatigue lining her response wasn't lost on the recipients, not that Akashi cared in the slightest as she remarked,
"You mean the 'good ol' days' where you Tenryuu-Class cruisers were the trashiest light cruiser class before Project Psyche?
I sure wouldn't if I were you."
Tenryuu started muttering unintelligible angrish while Tatsuta seethed at the slight, but there was no denying the truth in her words as she heard Akio 'ooohh'ing along with Kousuke as the latter remarked,
"Oooohhh!
Two repair buckets for the Tenryuu-Class light cruisers, because they JUST GOT BURNED!"
Before audibly high-fiving Akio over the intercom while Tatsuta assessed the damage dealt to her body.
Her right shoulder was far more sore than either her left shoulder or back, but nothing felt broken despite the intense sores in several of her joints, and she got up slowly like a creaking old man as she limped back to her comrades all while watching the intense firefight continue in the distance, watching Tenryuu's distinct silhouette sprinting up to her without any apparent fatigue due to her burning concern for Tatsuta while casually flinging several Blade Rush attacks at any Abyssals who attempted to encroach on their position.
Tenryuu shouting into the earpiece upon nearing Tatsuta's location,
"Akashi-san!
I don't think we can fight with that airborne J.O.A.N. unit since neither of us can fly!
We'll take care of the enemies down here, but someone's gotta get up there and protect us from above like a guardian angel!"
"Agreed!
Shigure, suit up!
Do what you have to do in order to take that Beast out!
There's a time for secrecy, and there's times like these!"
"Uh, um… got it!"
"Aoba, take over from here, I'll be sortieing with my fleet!"
"Got it!"
The urgency in Akashi's voice was palpable and convinced Shigure to agree to sortie in her little metal suit without any disagreements, Tatsuta looking up at whom she thought to be the flying J.O.A.N. unit and her Beast, her suspicions being confirmed as it unfolded and transformed into the form of a mechanical hippogriff to instill terror in the hearts of those who witnessed its true form.
Suiting up took shorter than it did last time since they knew where everything went this time as well as how the suit came together, and Shigure watched her visor boot up again as Aoba got far enough from her to allow her to take off without getting anyone caught in the back-blast.
"This is Shigure, I'm taking off!"
And compared to before, when she was taking off for the sake of experiencing the sensation of flight and test out what she was capable of, she was now taking off in order to enter a battlefield to engage a far more powerful Abyssal unit who was also capable of flight, and even though she was given a quick explanation of how her weapons worked, she was still worried about how she was to take on an Abyssal who was several classes above her and similarly possessed New Wave powers.
Aoba filled her in as she headed towards the battlefield and took in everything that was going on around and beneath her all the while.
"Look, while the normal maximum speed of the Sukhoi-Su 27 which it disguises itself as has a top speed of Mach 1.13 at sea level and Mach 2.35 at high altitudes, it's best for us to go into battle with the assumption that it's been reverse-engineered and then improved on to achieve an even faster top speed.
It's got an autocannon, several rockets and roughly eight missiles for both ground and air targets respectively, and we're fairly certain that with the invention of Yuubari-san's light-saber, it'll likely have one or two beam sabers up its sleeves along with hidden weapons.
Please be careful."
"Acknowledged, thanks, Aoba!"
Before punching it and accelerating past the speed of sound in order to double-time it there, and she was glad that they didn't have their launching pad located too far away from where the heat of battle was.
Shigure headed for the battlefield in her H.A.L.O. suit as missiles screamed while mortars threw up heaps of dirt in an upwards funnel, uprooting trees while mobile artillery rang from both sides of the dam, and Shigure did her best to evade them wherever possible as her suit's interface came in clutch by locating their locations and projected trajectories or flight paths ahead of time to lighten her burden.
A missile whizzed by her as its jet of steel-melting flames threatened to scorch her and caused her to stumble in mid-flight, her insides threatening to regurgitate her lunch as she recovered some of her lost speed and flew towards were the dogfight was taking place above the battlefield and also where the airborne J.O.A.N. unit named Cynthia was with her Beast Simurgh.
Simurgh was previously disguised as a Russian Sukhoi Su-27 jet fighter, but it had now assumed some kind of assault mode with its wings outstretched and still flattened into plane wings as its thrusters propelled it forward, the hippogriff now looking more like some kind monstrous flying biped as its eagle-clawed forearms were swiping at the wings of JASDF jet fighters who got too close while its horse-like hind legs possessed another set of thrusters which struck out to kick at human jet fighters to try and down them.
Its eagle beak opened for a screech which could crack glass as the cockpit was folded down to be located where a human's sternum would be but was heavily fortified by armored plates, its right arm unfolding into a beam saber which sliced through a F-15J who didn't see the attack coming as Shigure felt a lump grow in her throat while being forced to listen to the terrified scream of the downed pilot.
"AAHHHH!"
Glancing downwards to check that he had ejected from his bisected fighter and had deployed his parachute, she prayed for his well-being as she heard Aoba call out as her mission handler,
"Patching you through to the JASDF squadrons!
You remember the codename and password to identify yourself as a friendly, right?"
"Yeah, do it!"
And she focused on Cynthia and got in touch with the JASDF fighters in order to make sure they were all on the same page and side.
"U-Um, misters!
My codename is 'SHI080', password 'H.A.L.O.'!
I'm an ally, and am here to help!"
"Hot damn, I don't know who you are, but please get this bitch off our asses!"
"Acknowledged, please keep your distance!"
These pilots were no different from sailors who accepted the help of the first ship girls when the first Abyssals who appeared back in 1995 before being sworn to confidentiality, because in times like these, any form of help was appreciated.
Recalling Aoba and Akashi sitting her down with some manga and comic books during her time in the docks to think up of some ideas and moves to be incorporated into her moveset, she decided on using this one as she pulled up and raised her two arms horizontally to point them towards and away from the Beast.
"Aoba-san, there aren't any allied units in this general direction, right?"
"Nope, you're good!"
A relief, then.
Replicating the motions she read in Katekyo Hitman Reborn, she was already charging up the left repulsor which would produce enough counter-force to negate the force of her right repulsor which fired at the enemy, stiffening her arms as she muttered the name of the move to herself,
"X-Burner."
Before unleashing her H.A.L.O. suit's wrath in both directions as the vault-door-sized beam which was targeted at Cynthia was detected before the hippogriff-chimera performed an impressive mid-air evasive maneuver, and while Shigure's spirit sank upon seeing her attack fail to connect, she guessed that the carrier J.O.A.N. unit had already detected her presence, but didn't expect her X-Burner to be this powerful as her downward-tilting beam carved a crater into the distant hill upon contact.
The Beast swiveling its head to look towards her was likely Cynthia doing so while nested within Simurgh's chest as if she were piloting a Gundam, and Shigure began the confrontation the only way she knew how.
"Um, hello there.
I don't suppose politely asking you to stop shooting at our planes and my friends is going to convince you to leave, right?"
[ … No.
But you get get points for trying, whoever you are.]
Simurgh's left arm was raised and transformed into a missile launcher as her right arm morphed from a beam saber back to a machine gun-totting arm while still hovering in mid-air, Cynthia idly firing a R-27 missile at the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer in order to take her out while wasting the least amount of her payload, and Shigure started to climb in order to outrun the missile as she had the barest framework of a plan forming in her mind.
The Abyssal J.O.A.N. unit didn't bother with her for now as she focused more on taking out the ship girls of Amazon company out with its missiles, rockets, machine guns and even with her own two hands if the situation required it, and Shigure didn't really mind it when people didn't take her too seriously.
They'd be in for a rude awakening later.
The skies were clear and allowed her some breathing space to believe that her plan would work, using a trick and its variants being used in media and in video games as she called out for Aoba to prepare herself for what came next.
"Aoba, prep the flares!
Fire them on my mark!"
"Got it!"
Flying to an altitude of 10 kilometers where she was certain not many jet fighters would interrupt her, she suddenly cut most of the power to her thrusters and allowed gravity to slow her down as the R-27 missile was locked onto her signature, transitioning into a strafe as she aimed her right repulsor to her side to boost out of the climbing missile's flight path while making extra sure that the distance she put in between herself and the missile wouldn't trigger the proximity sensor.
She didn't exhale and release the breath she was consciously holding as the R-27 missile shot up and passed by where she was a millisecond ago, and it was already adjusting its flight path and circled back around thanks to its lock-on feature, Shigure looking down and accepting the pull of gravity as she fired her thrusters and repulsors upwards to perform a seemingly suicidal dive back to Earth .
Sure, she could have shot the missile out of the sky, but she had to make a point clear to a certain J.O.A.N. unit that she was not to be taken lightly, especially in her H.A.L.O. suit.
Cynthia noticed her dive as Shigure's visor zoomed in to see Simurgh raising its arm in order to fire its autocannon at her, and she was suddenly the most religious ship girl in the world as shells whizzed by her from below and missed thanks to her evasive maneuvers while the R-27 missile was bearing down on her from above at a breakneck speed and would blow her up once it got in range, her HUD showing the drastically decreasing distance between her and,
1) the ground,
2) the Beast,
3) the blitzing missile, all in inverse proportion to her rising heart rate.
Pumping more mana into the H.A.L.O. suit for another speed boost and delay her oncoming doom for a second longer, she called out to Aoba,
"Aoba!
Flares! Now!"
She flew past Simurgh and avoided the Beast's clawed hands as they attempted to swipe her out of the sky, the flares distracting Simurgh and also causing the missiles to activate regardless of whoever was in range and caught Simurgh in the fireball, a hawkish screech piercing the air and temporarily overloading the acoustic devices in her suit which caused her to wince from its sharp pitch and resulting feedback.
Pulling up in time as she didn't expect that paltry little fireball to take the Beast out, she saw that the Beast was only slightly singed as the missile caught her in the blast radius but wasn't its main target, Cynthia pulling up as she whipped out her machine gun to let off several pot-shots in her direction, and since even one shot was able to take out a vital organ, Shigure performed evasive maneuvers in order to make doubly sure she wasn't hit.
As the smoke dissipated and some steel shards fell towards the dam, Simurgh revealed smoking steel surfaces and wounded pride as Shigure dared to ask, despite still feeling very frightened and wary about facing off against the winged Beast which towered over her by about nine meters.
"Have I got your attention now, Cynthia-san?"
Simurgh's demeanor shifted as the luminosity of its crimson slits for eyes increased and its clawed fingers scraped each other while ferociously lowering its head in a show of aggression, clearly out for blood.
[Oh, you certainly have.
You certainly have.]
In the face of Cynthia focusing her attention and wrath on her, Shigure blocked out all irrelevant thoughts and sensations from her mind, including doubts, hesitation and fear which was all borne of her traumatic past memories in order not to repeat them with her current batch of friends and comrades.
The enemy was before her.
She had the means to take Cynthia and Simurgh out, all for the sake of protecting her friends.
As Cynthia and the half-transformed Simurgh emitted an intimidating, ghoulish-black aura in order to pressure lesser foes into backing down, Shigure unconsciously found herself doing the same as her mind, body and soul unified under one purpose which increased her mana output, her H.A.L.O. suit emitting an ultramarine-blue aura which fell like tears and dissolved into cerulean blue trails streaking down like raindrops as she reached the pinnacle of absolute focus, a determined little rain cloud doing battle with Death personified.