The Exeter Project

by Shadow0Fire

After the untimely destruction of America's rampaging I.S, the Gospel, the nation lost all privileges to own Infinite Stratos tech. It's new project, Exeter, carries the dream of a new breed of aerial ingenuity, and with it, the mission to become ruler of the skies for the USA. Only two things stand in the way of this dream; the I.S. Academy, and the heart of Exeter's own pilot.

27. Allied Powers

Battle scenes are sometimes few and far between in this story. But I like to think they end up being decently good. You guys let me know if you agree when this is all over.

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Church wasn't predisposed to subterfuge. That was an ironic acknowledgment, considering that the nature of his mission for Umbra Stratum was almost entirely espionage of a sort. But they hadn't actually trained him much in the way of spying and sneaking around. They had trained him to fly and shoot and fight.

If he were being honest with himself, that was why Church was happy to have left all of the subterfuge involved in making the current situation work to Charlotte and Laura. Church peered out over the passing woods as the armored car he sat in continued to move along the road. This vehicle was the last in a convoy of three, with another armored car in the lead and the truck carrying absolutely nothing in its trailer in the middle.

Each of these vehicles belonged to Laura's Black Bunny squadron, as did the personnel operating them. Truth be told, it would have been much better to fake an oversea route in order to avoid any danger to civilians, but getting an entire freight ship to make a bogus run to another country just to lure out the bad guys was just beyond Charlotte and Laura's influence.

That said, Church was still surprised that the two of them had managed to organize this much over the past week since the initial hatching of their scheme. Charlotte had subtly disseminated false information that would appear to be the leaks of the incompetent or unwary, all while avoiding the incrimination of any particular person within the Dunois Company. Of course, said company had picked up on these false rumors as well, and were on the hunt to figure out where they had come from. But according to Charlotte, their search would turn up nothing concrete that could be acted on. Frankly, Church wondered who within the Dunois Company would take such risks to aid the girl, but for obvious reasons, Charlotte had not divulged their identity.

Meanwhile, Laura had come through with the needed hardware to pull off the physical aspect of this trap. The Germans had been a little reluctant to commit to a plan that would likely lead to a direct engagement with enemy I.S., but at the same time, they had acknowledged the potential of the opportunity. After the UK had lost Silent Zephyrus to Phantom Task, it was obvious to all the major countries that they would have to worry about similar threats to their own I.S. interests as development continued. And while most I.S. representatives were political assets more than anything else, Laura was primarily a military one as far as her country was concerned.

So, they were willing to leverage her against potential enemies if need be. With a plan in place and supporting units involved with the operation, they'd given their special forces the green light to participate in all of this. Of course, there was a not altogether small danger to their valuable Schwarzer Regen, but it was a calculated risk.

Aside from Church and the girls, there were two I.S. flying over watch far in the sky above. The pilots of the Black Bunny squadron had simply switched their I.S. cores with typical Rafale Revive basic armaments. Obviously the Rafale was a Dunois Corporation armament, so it made sense that the 'bodyguards' for this escort would be I.S. of that nature, to further sell the illusion.

And considering that the convoy was currently moving from France to Germany, the Germans could get extra air support to their location relatively quickly if needed. Church wasn't sure how many political hoops were being jumped through here to make all of this work, but things had grown much larger than he had anticipated. Hopefully, it didn't expand so much as to get out of hand. If this ambush evolved into a huge air battle over the skies of Europe, it was probably not going to end up in Church's favor. He had hoped to keep things relatively clandestine, but he probably should have known better: it wasn't that simple of a matter to launch a combat operation that involved friendly and hostile I.S.

All things considered, this plan had the potential to fail just as much as it did to succeed. Actually, it was probably more likely to fail. Church just wasn't sure how. It could be completely dull: Phantom Task might not show up at all, and the only thing that was lost was time and money. Or it could go horribly, with everyone present getting killed in a life or death shootout. It could also fall somewhere in between the two. Regardless, none of those outcomes were good, and they certainly weren't what Church was hoping for.

And even if things went relatively well, it was still possible that it would end poorly for some of them. Most of what was going on here was technically (or blatantly). Charlotte had practically conducted corporate espionage. They were planning on using Infinite Stratos in direct unsanctioned combat in a civilian area. Sure, they had gotten a few governments to agree to this, but some of what they were doing broke international law. Depending on how well the coverup went when this was all said and done, Church and his friends could end up in a lot of hot water. Hopefully, things would go well: if they managed to strike a major blow against a seriously threatening terror organization, it would be hard for anyone to condemn them.

Besides, all that stuff about I.S. never being used for war was smoke and mirrors anyway. Sure, the Alaska Treaty specified them as sporting equipment, never to be used in conflict, but it was a fucking flying mecha suit with lasers and missiles and guns. Everyone knew it was a weapon, and weapons were used to destroy your enemies. Right now, everyone was just worried about how destructive an international conflict that involved I.S. could be. It was Mutually Assured Destruction II, Electric Boogaloo. If you used your I.S. to attack, your enemies would use theirs to attack back, and that was bad.

After all, even the most advanced nations on Earth didn't have any sort of overwhelming numerical superiority when it came to I.S. So even if you had three and the enemy only had one, it would be difficult to stop that one enemy from flattening a city, or destroying an army, or blowing up your capitol building. This was especially true since I.S. could be summoned out of thin air. One person you thought was a tourist could instead be a pilot with a WMD available to summon on demand.

That said, it wasn't like you could actually convince nations to not use the strongest weapon at their disposal at all. Church was certain that plenty of countries had black ops squadrons making use of I.S. in clandestine operations. For instance, the Black Bunny squadron currently taking part in this operation…

Glancing over to his fellow passengers, Church was glad in the end that Laura had been brought on board for this plan, completely aside from how helpful she had been for this devilish charade. The usually relaxed girl was tense, staring into the sky outside the window for any sign of enemies, even though it was unlikely that she would ever notice a hostile with the naked eye. Church felt oddly comforted to have someone who had actual military training at his side. Church himself had some experience in deadly combat prior to using Exeter, but… well, it wasn't really the same as this. He wasn't sure if Umbra Stratum viewed him as a soldier, but the truth was, Church was not one. He tended to keep a calm head in serious situations, but that didn't mean he was used to this kind of thing. Though if these types of situations kept coming up, that would likely change in the future…

Unlike him, Laura was a soldier in every way that mattered. Born a soldier, raised a soldier, living as a soldier. She had almost literally been bred for war, and for that reason, among many others, Church was glad to have her by his side. While he was not a complete stranger to real combat, he felt a lot better with an experienced individual at his side. Of course, it was possible that Laura had never seen real action outside of the Gospel Incident, but at least she had been trained to handle these types of scenarios.

As for Charlotte, she was most certainly not as prepared for lethal combat as Laura, in Church's opinion. She was in the other armored car, and though Church knew she had great skill, he was worried for her performance when it came to the potential for life and death. While all I.S. pilots were trained for real combat simply by the principle of what they did for a living, it was like saying a dueling fencer was prepared for the rigors of a medieval battle. You could have skill in several crafts related to fighting, but it didn't mean you were actually prepared for a real fight. It was the mentality of war that really made the difference, the understanding and acceptance of kill or be killed.

Few I.S. pilots these days had such a mentality, because it was irrelevant for them. Every 'battle' they fought was little more than a mock sparring match, in which their only goal was to deplete the shield of their opponent, and their opponent the same. There was no feral, primitive understanding of killing them before they killed you. Of snuffing out a life to save your own, or that of a comrade's.

This all of course begged the question of whether or not it would even come to that. It was possible that their opponents wouldn't be the bloodthirsty type, or that they would cut and run as soon as they realized they had been tricked. Unfortunately, Church got the feeling that they weren't very big on mercy, considering how one of them had tried to blow his head off right away back in Bath.

As for Laura, while Church was grateful for her unyielding focus on the potential danger at hand, he would have liked for her to be relaxed enough to at least talk normally. She'd barely said a word the entire drive, which was stretching on to its third hour by now.

Granted, perhaps her trepidation was warranted. In most convoy situations, the rear or lead vehicle was attacked first. In this case, even an armored vehicle like this one would be quickly obliterated by an I.S., and if they were ambushed, it was extremely unlikely that neither he nor Laura would have enough time to manifest their respective machines to save their lives. In that sense, they could die at any moment.

Though that wasn't particularly likely. The I.S. guarding the convoy would almost certainly detect incoming threats long before they were in range to attack, and said I.S. escorts would likely be targeted first anyway. Church hated to feel assured in knowing that someone else would be attacked before him, but it was what it was.

Though none of this would matter if Phantom Task decided not to show up. Had they seen through the ruse? Had they somehow not picked up on the rumors floating around about all of this? Were they just taking their sweet time? The fact that three hours had passed with nothing happening was almost more excruciating than any other aspect of the operation.

In an attempt to stave off the dull fog of boredom, Church wondered how the others would react when they got wind of this. Of the members who had once made up Ichika's Fan Club, only Charlotte and Laura were privy to this situation. Rin, Cecilia, Houki, and Ichika were none the wiser to the immense danger their friends were placing themselves in. Assuming they all came out of it unscathed, Church imagined they would get a livid earful for all of this.

Church's musings were cut short when the voice of one of Laura's comrades came over the vehicle's radio. Of course, it was in German, so Church couldn't understand it until Cerberus translated for him. Apparently there was a blip on the radar approaching their area at high speed.

Laura spoke into the open since the radio was advanced enough to pick her up. Naturally her response was in German too, and Church didn't really need it translated; someone had taken the bait. Now it was just time to find out if it was the right quarry.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly a shoot first, questions later situation. If government sanctioned military forces ended up attacking someone they shouldn't have, things would get very bad, very quickly for everyone. So they had to wait until they knew who they were fighting, or for the mystery pilot to attack them first. That always sucked, since it meant you had the chance to get killed before you were even allowed to defend yourself.

But the members of Laura's squadron that might need assistance any second now were lucky, since their backup was prepared and very readily available. Their visual systems had already been synced to Laura's own, and she was able to see what they saw. If they were endangered by the approaching potential foe that was coming at them at suspicious speeds, Laura would inform her friends and comrades, and there would soon be several more Infinite Stratos units in the air to assist the bait.

Naturally, what was first visible to the airborne German pilots was little more than a speck. Even with enhanced optics, it was much too far out to identify properly. That didn't last long however, as it was coming at them far faster than anyone without ill intent would be. Soon enough a gold and red I.S. with a long tail-like appendage could be recognized, and with it, a lack of any real recognition at all. This confusion was made clear by the pilots in the air right away.

"What the hell is it?"

Church decided that was a very good question, seeing as how Cerberus couldn't identify the machine either. Whatever it was did not belong to any country, at least not on the straight and narrow. Maybe it was part of some type of black ops unit, it certainly seemed a little too flamboyant for the military. Then again, Phantom Task seemed pretty flamboyant in general, considering Arachne and the crazy pilot that used it.

While they technically weren't under attack yet, Church got the feeling that it would be good practice to go ahead and deploy. There was enough evidence that the mysterious I.S. coming at them wasn't friendly.

Apparently Laura thought the same thing, as the two of them merely glanced at each other before pushing open the doors of their vehicle and peeling out into the open, activating their machines as they did so.

Honestly, it was a good thing that today's technology was capable of manifesting so quickly, as they would have ended up as ugly stains on the asphalt if they didn't. But since they did, both Exeter and Schwarzer Regen were rocketing into the air within moments, with Charlotte's Rafale Revive performing the same maneuver from the lead vehicle but a few seconds later.

With his own enhanced optics to take charge of the situation now, Church quickly analyzed it. He needed just a little more to go on before he could take blatant aggressive action.

Obviously, Church had not gone through typical flight school, because the suit itself didn't operate like a fighter aircraft. But he had still been subjected to many of the same theoretical and tactical training that conventional pilots were, and Church could see without a doubt that the unidentified I.S. was hostile. Any aircraft that was approaching you from above at speed had ill intent.

With that knowledge in mind, Church wasted no time selecting a weapon with sufficient range to attack the enemy from this distance. Thankfully, any laser could do the job as long as it was a high enough power.

Selecting an automatic beam rifle, Church allowed it to manifest on his shoulders before adjusting the aim of the cylindrical weapon accordingly and letting loose. At great distance, quantity was more likely to land hits over precise firepower. Thankfully, lasers also reduced the chances of hitting bystanders to near zero, as long as he didn't aim them at the ground.

The sight of his neon green volley alarmed both of his female comrades, though Charlotte was the only one to question it outright. "Church, we don't even know if-"

"Trust me, it's hostile."

That was all he said on the matter, and all he was able to say before the other German pilots followed his lead and opened fire as well. When one member of your team opened fire, it usually paid to follow suit. Though of course, they would have to be careful as well. It would be ideal if the battle area could be moved away from the highway below…

Exeter's computer systems confirmed that Church landed a few hits on the enemy, but there was apparently no damage caused. From this distance, Church couldn't tell what may have nullified his attack, but he got the feeling whatever it was would end up being a big problem in this fight.

Despite taking no damage, the mysterious golden I.S. still peeled away from the assault, breaking off its attack on the Rafale Revives of the Black Bunny squadron, both of which quickly entered pursuit of the temporarily retreating foe.

While Church knew he had no actual authority over his two comrades, he saw fit to give commands. They had already told him before that he gave good orders and often agreed with him, which had been revealed during their tactical exercises in Bath.

"Laura, hang back and pressure the enemy with long range fire. Charlotte, form up with me!"

Laura just barely stopped herself from responding like a soldier to a commander. Admittedly Church had a pretty commanding feel to him when he was in combat. But it was a dependable authority, like he was carefully considering everything and picking what was best for everyone Of course, Laura and Charlotte were expert pilots themselves and more than capable of operating without someone telling them what to do, but even experienced combatants were assured by the command of someone who behaved confidently.

With direction given, Laura mustered her usual railgun, saving Blitzkrieg until she knew it was needed. It never paid to bring out the big guns before you knew the full capability of the enemy. No need to reveal your trump card if it was never even necessary. Still, looking at the very strange and admittedly intimidating I.S. they were fighting, Laura got the feeling she would need her most powerful weapon sooner rather than later.

As for Church and Charlotte, they were going to operate in tandem with the German team that was pursuing their target. Even if they didn't outright communicate, it was easy enough for competent combatants to act and react based on the maneuvers of their allies. That said, it wasn't difficult to determine that they should attempt to cut off the enemy's escape route, and box her in between four combatants; all while staying out of Laura's line of fire, of course.

Unfortunately, with five different opponents attacking her, it didn't take long for Church to determine one thing about the mystery pilot; she was good. It was impossible to dodge every single bullet from three Rafale Revive's from different directions, not to mention the shots from Laura's railgun and the lasers Church was using, but she was doing a damn good job of cutting it close. She still dodged every blow that would have really hurt, which no doubt irked Laura to no small extent.

Needless to say, Church was already worried about the outcome of this battle. They still had the advantage for numerous reasons, but they were already having trouble against just one enemy pilot, and who knew if another one would show up at some point? The I.S. they were facing was obviously not the Silent Zephyrus, so that one could show up at any time.

Still, they had a trump card in the form of the Academy's best pilot… it was just a mystery why she wasn't airborne yet. Hopefully she would be able to help them before things went too far south.

Regardless, no battle could be won solely on defense, and the Phantom Task pilot they were facing knew that well enough. Whoever she was, she quickly manifested some strange golden orbs of energy that launched towards her pursuers at ludicrous speeds. One of Laura's compatriots managed to avoid the attack, but the other was smashed head on by it, blasting her out of the sky in a single shot.

A quick scan revealed that the Rafale Revive has been rendered totally inoperable by that single attack, and Church didn't like what that meant for them.

Cerberus, just what are we dealing with here?

I'm uncertain, Operator. The enemy unit is not registered in any database I can access, legitimate or otherwise. Where it comes from or what it is capable of is a mystery. However, scans of the golden energy used just now point to an absurd power output best avoided by us.

Hoping the pilot that had been hit was still alive at all, Church scowled. If anyone died on this mission, it would sort of be his fault, having proposed it in the first place. Taking that into consideration, he was determined to defeat their foe as quickly as possible.

Starstreak, now.

Affirmative.

With little more than a bit of glowing light, Exeter transformed from its usual cold steel to the deep blue of its faster variant. With a much larger ignition system to speak of, he closed the distance between himself and the mysterious foe much faster, much to Charlotte's chagrin. She didn't think it was a very good idea to rush into danger without a clear idea of the enemy's capabilities, but on the other hand, there was a familiar nobility to Church putting himself in danger for others. It was arguably the most admirable quality of Ichika's.

Either way, Church figured that for once, he wouldn't open with his usual weapon. Even though Chrysaor was his most effective melee weapon, he did have other options, and he felt as though now more than ever he should play his cards carefully. His opponent was an obvious ace, and with a powerful I.S. to boot. He couldn't afford to go in without some semblance of a strategy, even if that strategy for now amounted to nothing more than feeling out the enemy.

With that in mind, he settled on a pile bunker not unlike the one on Charlotte's I.S., though with a significantly smaller spike. There was something crude about using hydraulics to ram a metal spear into things, but it did make a wonderfully chaotic sound when it pierced enemy steel. It had always been an interesting concept, but also a useless one until Infinite Stratos became a thing.

Church readied the weapon on his forearm just in time to make contact with the enemy. While being smaller than any I.S. equivalent, it didn't really make that much of a difference. After all, a pile bunker was essentially a melee armor piercing round. It did damage to a very small, specific spot, but it was very heavy damage in that one spot. It was also a great way to test enemy defenses.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the defenses he was testing were very strong. For one, the enemy pilot had the reflexes to mount a defense in the first place. Secondly, she made use of that same golden energy from before to form a little shield right at the point of contact, completely stonewalling the pile bunker and no doubt doing some damage to the weapon itself, since it was certainly not designed to stop halfway. For the split second while he was near, he saw that the enemy was wearing some sort of helmet that hid her face entirely, the visor a deep black with red stripes along it. He also noticed that her sync suit did very little to hide her ample cleavage, which seemed less than practical all things considered. He didn't get the chance to notice anything else, because he was quickly smashed away by the scorpion like tail of her I.S.

Thanks to the shields, the armor, and the inner insulation, the blow didn't feel nearly as bad as it sounded, nor as bad as it looked. A quick glance at his shield readout proved that they had dropped seventeen percent just from that blunt force blow. It took a hell of a lot of strength to manage that, and it spoke ill of what could happen in the very near future.

Still, the melee encounter slowed the mysterious pilot down for a brief moment, and it was enough for Laura to finally land a shot with her rail gun, without the interference of the golden energy that had thwarted Church's attack. How much damage it did was a mystery, but at least it wasn't completely shrugged off, giving Church and company enough time to surround their foe, only one ally down.

Charlotte leveled two different guns at the unidentified woman, clearly planning on attempting to force a surrender, but she wasn't even able to utter the first word of a demand, as Church pressed the attack as soon as he was able. The German pilot still in the air quickly followed suit, and the two of them simultaneously blitzed the enemy with bullets and plasma blasts, the latter of which obscured the enemy for the moment, granting Charlotte enough time to question the seemingly bloodthirsty nature of her comrade.

"Church, I thought we were capturing-"

"This one's too good for us to hold back against! We've got no choice, shoot to kill!"

Church had plenty of reasons for being so ruthless, but there wasn't time to explain all of them. The enemy pilot was obviously extremely dangerous. It was possible that the German pilot that had been hit was dead already. The enemy possessed a powerful machine and could very well have no issue slaughtering them all. They couldn't afford to risk their own lives by holding back on an unknown enemy of unknown capabilities. He wouldn't allow it. They could try and take her alive after she was clearly incapacitated. If she died, that would make this whole operation a failure, but at least they would all be alive.

Laura shared a similar sentiment. She had the realistic view of the matter, and knew that there was no reason to risk their own demise just to spare the life of the enemy. Tactically speaking it would be beneficial to capture the enemy so they could learn of their intentions, but not at the cost of their own lives. At the very basic level of things, it was more important that they eliminated a threat to them as quickly as possible. And for that reason she continued to attack with as much lethal force as her rail gun could muster.

Unfortunately, the effect they seemed to be having on their enemy was negligible, as her gold and red I.S. escaped the blitz with enough ease and maneuvering room to counterattack with more golden globs of energy that seemed to rupture the very air around them as they screamed by their targets.

The nature of this weapon seemed important to discern, mostly because Church had no way of knowing what it was capable of, how much damage it did, or how to defend himself from it.

Cerberus, anything on that weapon? What even is it?

My limited opportunity to scan the weapon in question prevents me from answering with anything definite. All I can say is that damage output is absurdly high, and the energy is capable of both offense and defense.

No offense, but I could discern all of that pretty easily myself.

Suddenly the entire team was on defense, despite outnumbering the enemy four to one. Her I.S. was capable of manifesting enough golden energy to harass all of them, and simultaneously at that. She was even capable of manifesting energy to defend herself as her opponents returned fire during evasion.

"Dammit, how is she reacting this fast? Attack and defense against four targets simultaneously?!"

Even Laura, being at a greater distance than any of her allies, was forced to take evasive action as spheres of golden energy flew her way at extreme speeds that truly tested her reaction ability.

"I can't imagine that she's this good without some sort of assistance! Maybe her unit has an AI?"

Being in position of an AI himself, Church could tell that it was more than just that. Even the Silver Gospel hadn't been this capable, and it had possessed a pilot and AI combination as well.

Still, talking about it made it clear that Church needed to rely on his AI companion to boost his effectiveness as well. It was too difficult for him to return accurate fire and evade dozens of high-speed attacks at the same time.

Cerberus, you're in charge of keeping me on target. I have to dedicate everything to defense.

Affirmative, Operator.

Unfortunately, 'defense' really amounted to nothing more than dodging like mad, which was actually made more difficult half the time since Cerberus had to keep his body properly situated for attack while he was doing this.

Needless to say, this scenario was not going in any way Church had been hoping for, so he was quick to open the channel to all of his allies.

"OK, OK, this isn't going well at all! Ideas?"

Charlotte's voice was strained coming over the radio, but she was clearly working hard to avoid getting obliterated by the storm around her. "EMP maybe? If we can disable her power source-"

The young blonde was cut off by an extremely close call with the enemy's projectiles, but Church wondered if her idea had merit. Unfortunately, nearly all I.S. had EMP shielding since it was one of the first countermeasures to be considered against them, but that didn't mean the tactic was completely nonviable.

As far as military technology was concerned, armor was always outpaced by weapons. Defenses and countermeasures were always playing catch up to new weapons. Rarely was it the other way around, in which a weapon had to catch up to armor, especially now in the modern age where most conventional weapons were so powerful that there was no real, foolproof defense against any of them. Infantry body armor still only marginally improved odds of survival against small arms. Conventional aircraft really had little chance of survival if a missile hit them. The best defense was always just to avoid getting hit at all.

Point being that EMP weapons had obviously advanced further to counter I.S. defensive measures. There was no guarantee that an EMP wouldn't work on the enemy. But there was no easy way to go about it. An EMP burst would have a chance of affecting all allied vehicles just as much as the enemy. He could direct the pulse at the enemy, but that was no different from trying to hit her with a conventional weapon. Still, it wasn't like Church had a better idea...

We could always use Niddhog, Operator.

Let's hold off on sonic superweapons until the situation is hopeless. That could be more of a problem for all of our allies than our foe.

With that exchange over with, Church readied a directed EMP weapon in one of his palms. "I'm going to need cover fire! Maybe we can suppress her!"

The obvious implication of this tactic was that enough offense might force the enemy to put more of her hopefully limited energy reserves into defense rather than attack. While Church's EMP weapon could easily fire at range, it would still be to his favor if he had less suppression on his end of things. Besides, getting closer to the enemy would improve his chances of hitting them, and maybe even have a higher chance of actually affecting the target. It was impossible to really tell considering the lack of available specifications on the target.

Figuring that more firepower was better in regards to maybe forcing the enemy to dedicate more energy to defense, Laura manifested Blitzkrieg so she could shell the enemy with the most powerful weapon she had. Charlotte took note of her friend's tactic and used her dual projectile weapons to try and corral the target, preventing her from being as evasive as she could have. All things considered, it was only mildly effective, even with the remaining Black Bunny member lending her gun to the cause.

Still, Laura was no pushover, and she managed to calculate where her enemy would be in the next few moments: the shot she fired was completely on target. At this range, as long as she could shoot straight, there was no way anyone could avoid a round fired at the speed her weapon provided. It was beyond the reaction time of even technologically enhanced human foes.

This was proven quite handily as the Blitzkrieg round smashed into the target before she had any chance of manifesting her usual golden energy to absorb it. It sent the gold I.S. careening through the air just long enough for Church to close the distance on her, and by the time she recovered he was right in her face, ready to blast her with his weapon of choice.

Maybe he underestimated her machine. Perhaps it was the pilot herself. Either way he was once again smashed by the scorpion tail of the enemy I.S. before he could launch his own attack. Still, the reaction time was insane, and Church wondered if perhaps the tail itself was operated by its own AI, separate from the human pilot. It seemed to be the only explanation for how he could have been countered even after his foe had suffered what had to be a disorienting blow.

He was unable to attack and was now off-balance himself, and the enemy I.S. was ramming him towards Earth faster than any of his comrades could intercept. Unfortunately, it was situations like this where Exeter's weaknesses really showed. Because he was so much smaller than pretty much any I.S., he would almost always lose in a direct confrontation of force. It didn't really make a difference in a clash of energy weapons, but when it was raw steel against steel, it was almost guaranteed that he would be overpowered.

That being the case, he was unable to remove himself from under his foe as she essentially performed a high tech pile driver on him.

Cerberus, maximize rear shielding, engage maximum thrusters! This needs to hurt as little as possible!

Operator, prioritizing rear shield strength will increase damaged sustained from the I.S. that will undoubtedly crash on top of us.

The ground is a much bigger mass than any I.S.!

Despite how opinionated Cerberus was, ultimately, it followed the orders of its Operator. Exeter's thrusters were cranked up to the max, doing everything in its power to push back against the much bigger and heavier I.S. on top of him. It was good that the Starstreak unit was equipped, as it had a lot more thrust than the usual propulsion system that Exeter sported.

The standing energy shields of the day, used by both I.S. and Exeter, could absorb both kinetic and ionized energy. So of course it could deflect solid objects as well as energy based weapons. But the ground was a very big solid object, and being rammed into it at high speed meant that a lot of kinetic energy would need to be absorbed. Chances were that Church would not get out of this one unscathed no matter what he did.

He briefly wondered if he could just blast the enemy off of him with Niddhog, but at this range he would probably do more damage to himself than if he just let himself get plowed into the earth.

This was all occurring in the span of a few moments, and neither Church nor any of his allies had time to disrupt his high speed descent to the hard ground. He was ultimately smashed directly into the woods to the side of the motorway, kicking up a ton of dirt and knocking over a few trees as his entry made a new, not so scenic crater in the ground.

As for Church, he was eternally grateful for just how well science had progressed thanks to Tabane. Exeter may not have been an I.S., but it had definitely made use of a lot of I.S. technology. And with that technology combined with other brilliant minds around the world, Church had miraculously survived being plowed into the ground at hundreds of miles an hour, and he came out of it mostly well off.

The same could not be said for the suit, since the shielding had been completely eradicated by the heavy physical blow. The focus on rear shielding had saved Church's thrusters from outright destruction, but unfortunately, the front of the suit had taken more damage as a result, with even the helmet itself being cracked and nearly caved in. Admittedly, it was a damn close call, since any further and it would have been his skull.

As it was, Church couldn't see jack shit through his visor with all of the damage it had taken, so he allowed it to recede as much as the damage would allow. This left him truly vulnerable since he had no shields at all, but he definitely couldn't defend himself if he couldn't see anything.

Glancing up at the pretty massive I.S. on top of him, Church prepared to catch or deflect any attack that came at his exposed face, but the enemy pilot simply leaned down, peering a little closer at him. Why she felt the need to do this, Church had no idea, but she crouched down fully a moment later, the opaque visor that obscured her face fading away so she could make eye contact with her foe.

Despite the fact that the woman above him was aesthetically different from her in almost every way, Church was for some reason reminded of Chifuyu. Her hair was blonde, her eyes were crimson, technically she looked nothing like the eldest Orimura at all, but she had that same... aura. Confidence, ability, danger; just looking at the way she eyed him, with almost full assurance in how everything would turn out, Church could tell this woman was of the same breed. If her skills hadn't been sign enough already, somehow just looking at her now was.

The somewhat older woman smirked at him as she rested her chin in one of her palms. "Oh, your boss didn't tell me you were such a cutie."

Feeling the substantial weight atop him, Church wondered if he would have been able to safely make a joke about how heavy his new acquaintance was, but he didn't think it was safe to taunt her when she could probably kill him pretty easily. He didn't really think flattery was going to get him anywhere, but it couldn't hurt to try.

"So, while we're in this intimate proximity, I gotta ask; is there like, a superior genetics thing to whether or not a woman can be an I.S. pilot? I mean, every single one of you is so downright beautiful, it just seems improbable..."

The woman's smirk widened a bit. "If you're hoping to flatter your way out of this, you shouldn't compare me to the little girls in your entourage."

Ironically, Church didn't feel like he was in lethal danger at this exact moment. Of course, he got the feeling that this woman just happened to flirt with everyone she spoke to, or even that flirting was just her means of communication in general. From a superficial standpoint Church actually kind of found this sort of thing attractive. Naturally Chifuyu was not a flirtatious person at all, but it was the same way of carrying oneself that made her so damn sexy. She was just so fully confident in everything. She carried herself in a way that spoke volumes of how sure she was of her own ability. And this blonde actually had the same air about her.

"Admittedly, there's definitely a unique attractiveness to you that the other girls are missing. To be fair though, you've got a few years on them."

"Shooting a little above your league here, aren't you? I'm afraid I'm already taken anyway. Though if we're coming down to concessions, Autumn's grown a little irritating lately…"

Whatever that meant, Church had no idea, but he didn't get to inquire anyway, as someone finally came to his rescue. It was not, however, any of the girls he would have expected way before now. It was the last member of their troop, who had for some reason not made an appearance until now, in all of the glory of her standard, katana armed Uchigane.

"Took you long enough, Chifuyu. I could have been dead already."

Standing behind their mysterious foe, Chifuyu frowned at him, though it may have been due to his blatant appreciation of seeing her in an I.S. sync suit more than his words. "If you were dead already I would have been genuinely disappointed in you."

Admittedly, the idea of having Chifuyu disappointed in him actually had some real weight to it. After all, she couldn't be disappointed unless she had faith in you first, and for someone of her caliber to believe in you at all was kind of a huge honor.

The blonde on top of Church finally rose to her full height as she stepped off of her unwilling perch to glance over her shoulder at Chifuyu. "The legendary Chifuyu Orimura herself? I have to admit, something about seeing you like this is almost wrong. Without the White Knight you almost aren't yourself. You certainly aren't as intimidating."

If Chifuyu was successfully goaded by this, it didn't show on her stony face at all. "Uchigane is not so different from the White Knight. Both are speed based melee units with only a sword as a weapon. I think I'll manage."

She turned her hazel gaze on Church. "The others could use your help. Get back to them as soon as you can."

Confused on why anyone else would be in danger if the foe was down here, Church glanced back up to his friends in the air, only to find them engaged with what he recognized as the Silent Zephyrus. When it had appeared, he had no idea.

Under normal circumstances, Church would have questioned whether or not his ally was sure about being left alone, especially when that ally was flying a very basic I.S. against a very advanced and mostly unknown enemy unit.

But this was Chifuyu Orimura. One of, if not the, only reason she had condoned this operation was because she had elected to come with Church and the girls. When Church has raised this plan to her a day or two after getting his phone back, Chifuyu had been adamantly against it. But with some persuasion and the suggestion that she could lend her arm to the cause, the elder Orimura had relented.

All of this was to say that, humble though she may be, Chifuyu was confident in how skilled and capable she was. Confident enough to agree to this plan primarily because she got to be involved in it, and that was enough for her to think it feasible. So, if Chifuyu said she could handle it, Church was inclined to believe her.

For that reason, he simply gave his savior a thumbs up as he rocketed into the air. "Come help us when you finish!"

Chifuyu almost smirked back at him, finding his implied confidence endearing. It felt kind of nice, though it wasn't actually strange to her. Lots of people had confidence in her abilities as a pilot, as those were well proven. But they were almost always young girls (or Ichika) that looked up to her through an idol worshiper's lenses. That Church had experienced first hand the ability and skill of the enemy that had just thrashed him pretty easily, and yet still thought Chifuyu could beat her in no time flat with a basic Generation 2 training I.S. honestly did come very close to putting a genuine smile on her face.

But she knew it wouldn't be that easy. True, the Uchigane was similar in concept to the White Knight, but it was far less capable than the original Infinite Stratos. Still, it had a sword, and that was what Chifuyu knew. A sword was all she had needed to sweep the first Mondo Grosso.

That said, the woman across from her didn't seem intimidated by the basic katana available to the legendary pilot. "You're a little young for senility, aren't you ? You can't possibly think a single sword stands a chance against my I.S., even in your hands."

Preparing for what would no doubt be a truly heated contest, Chifuyu steeled both her gaze and her nerves. She had reluctantly agreed to this plan only because, aside from some good points about the continued threat Phantom Task would pose to them all, Chifuyu could come along and protect everyone. That had already been rendered moot by the teething issues of a basic I.S. trying to conform to her physical and mental abilities. She had been out of the fight long enough that someone could have been killed already. If anything bad happened to the others, it would be her fault for agreeing to any of this. So, she had to give everything she had to destroy this foe before that could happen.

"When all you have is a hammer..."

As for Church, it occurred to him very quickly that he wasn't exactly in top fighting shape at the moment. With how much damage he had taken just a moment ago, the mere exterior of his suit wasn't even done repairing yet. That said, he decided that maybe right now was not the best time to close in on the mysterious enemy that was attacking Charlotte and Laura.

Of course, with his helmet mostly busted at the moment, he couldn't accurately attack the enemy at this distance either, and even Cerberus couldn't do much to assist him since it saw mostly through that same visor. Cerberus could see out of Church's own retinas, but that was almost equivalent to literally just having normal vision. The AI wouldn't be able to track targets at extreme distance that way, and even if Church was a good shot, trying to nail an I.S. with the naked eye was nearly impossible if it was moving at all.

Under normal circumstances, Exeter could have manifested a Heads Up Display even without the visor active, but considering how much damage the helmet had taken there was just no way to do it right now. The fact of the matter was that he couldn't go and help his friends until Exeter had at least marginally repaired itself, and even though Cerberus was working on that as quickly as possible, it just wasn't quick enough.

No one felt this pressure more acutely than the girls currently facing off against a mysterious foe that bore an uncanny resemblance to Cecilia's machine. Other than the very obvious butterfly aesthetic and the darker, purple-black color scheme, it may as well have been Blue Tears. The difference was that it was better in every way. Laura especially could tell, because she had fought against the aforementioned I.S. in actual no holds barred combat before.

Whatever they were fighting was just better. Stronger, faster, more heavily armed, more heavily armored; and most importantly, its pilot was far more skilled. Laura didn't want to slander her British friend now that they actually were friends, but the truth was undeniable. Whoever they were facing was good. Better than good, she was excellent. Laura had never seen anyone pilot their craft so masterfully, save once.

Until now she never would have thought anyone could match Chifuyu's prowess.

And yet their mysterious foe had not only eliminated the only remaining Black Bunny pilot with little trouble, but she had swiftly forced both Charlotte and Laura into retreat. Similar to the situation with the first golden I.S., they were so busy trying to stay alive that it was almost impossible to even attack.

With Schwarzer Regen being a relatively heavy I.S. frame, Laura was having an even harder time of avoiding damage, especially with six different BITS chasing her around with high precision lasers.

Shooting these down was not easy for her, because Schwarzer Regen was mostly equipped with big guns for shooting at big targets. The BITS chasing her were hardly the size of her reticule, and they were ridiculously mobile. So mobile in fact that it seemed unlikely that they were automated. No matter what kind of trickery Laura tried to perform, they always reacted with foresight well beyond what Cecilia's BITS ever would have managed. It seemed more and more likely that the pilot they were facing was in control, but that level of competence would have been well and truly insane, especially considering the fact that she was pressuring Charlotte at the same time.

As she tried and halfway failed to avoid all of the laser fire coming her way, Laura wondered if they had made a mistake in not bringing the others along. There had been a sort of noble notion in the idea of endangering as few of their friends as possible, but as things stood now they most definitely needed the backup. As much as Laura hated to admit any shortcoming of her own, she knew her I.S. was not well suited for the current engagement. She could be of greater help if she could get away from the enemy and act as artillery, but as things stood now that just wasn't possible.

Naturally, Charlotte wasn't doing much better. In fact, it could have been fair to say she was doing the worst out of everyone.

Charlotte really, truly loved her I.S. While the Rafale Revive was an extremely common model, she had spent months tuning and customizing it into a unique vehicle that fit everything she wanted in an Infinite Stratos unit. It had guns no one else had access to, fine tuning to the thrusters that were all her own handiwork, and bits and pieces here and there that made it just as unique at the I.S. all of her friends used.

But unfortunately, that didn't change the cold hard fact that it was just an enhanced Gen 2 model I.S. Even though it could still hold its own against the next generation for the most part, new I.S. technology was constantly pushing her opponents beyond her means. Whatever she was facing now, even if it wasn't a Gen 4 like Houki's Akatsubaki, was much more advanced and capable than her own machine. She had always known that there was a risk in piloting older technology on a cutting edge field, but this was the first time she had felt that disparity so acutely.

She couldn't outrun her opponent. Even though they were fighting what felt like an advanced Blue Tears, the enemy pilot was pushing for close quarters, which she was certainly capable of pressing with the energy bayonet on her rifle.

She couldn't outgun her opponent either. Charlotte's array of munitions based weaponry was faring very poorly. The fact of the matter was that bullets just didn't travel as fast as lasers, and even in close quarters her enemy was still dodging around everything Charlotte attempted to hit her with, all while returning accurate fire with her beam rifle.

Her shields were already greatly depleted, and no matter how hard she tried, Charlotte couldn't think of a tactic to escape this situation.

And that was utterly terrifying.

She was used to fights with low stakes. Battles in which the only thing on the line was a title or maybe her pride. But there was every chance that her current foe would just kill her. Charlotte had no idea how these people operated, or how far they were willing to go. The idea that she could be killed if her shields died, and the knowledge that her shields were being drained so quickly scared the living daylights out of her even as she desperately bobbed and weaved through the sky in a mostly futile effort to escape her pursuer.

As her shields took another hit from a high power beam, Charlotte realized that this was usually the time that Ichika showed up, doing something both reckless and stupid in an attempt to protect someone. And even though Charlotte and all of the other girls always berated him for his foolish and nearly suicidal tactics, it was possibly the biggest anchor of their affections for him. Everything else notwithstanding, he would risk his own life for his friends, and that noble heroism was at the core of almost everyone's feelings.

With the almost unspoken knowledge that today could be her last, Charlotte wondered if that was all there was to it though. There had always been a nearly chivalrous feeling to Ichika, but it was as troubling as it was endearing.

Charlotte wasn't a moron. She paid enough attention to the things Ichika said and did to pin down why he did those things in the first place. When he leaped into battle to protect them, half of it was because they were his friends, and the other half was because they were also girls.

He'd actually made it very clear that he felt some obligation to do certain things just because of their sex, which, while mostly unsaid by the girls, was mildly insulting in its own way. But moreover, it brought a lot of things into question. Chief among them was one Charlotte only chose to entertain because it may not have mattered in a minute or two anyway.

How much of Ichika's actions were for his own personal sense of honor and duty rather than feelings of love at all?

By now, it had been a few months since Charlotte had become Ichika's girlfriend. But the longer their relationship progressed, the less satisfied she felt. While the technical status of their relationship had changed, nothing had in reality. He still treated her like he always had, with the only exceptions being when she pressured him to actually do something fitting of a couple with her. Truth be told, staring at what could be her demise right now, Charlotte was fairly certain the only reason she was his girlfriend right now instead of any of the others was because she had gathered the courage to ask first. And the only reason he had said yes was probably because he felt obligated to.

There was something distinctly sad about realizing the shallow nature of her relationship here at what could have been the end of the line, but she supposed death was the time when most people had some sort of revelation about their life.

As she tried and failed to deflect a hit from her foe's bayonet, Charlotte noted her shields dropping into single digits. Realistically, she only had a few seconds left before she was left vulnerable to the extremely deadly weapons being used against her.

Perhaps sensing an end to her foe's ability to survive, the mysterious Phantom Task pilot moved in for the kill, and for the briefest of moments, Charlotte wondered if she should have felt insulted to be killed by a butterfly of all things.

Before she had a chance to extrapolate on that thought, an object zoomed by at high speed and blasted her opponent away with some sort of high power concussion attack. Thankfully, the force of the blow put considerable distance between Charlotte and her impending doom.

Naturally, the identity of this person was obvious from the get-go, as Church was the only one around to step in considering the position of everyone else. He turned to face her without hesitation, and for a moment Charlotte expected him to say something heroic, noble, or courageous.

"Fall back until your shields recharge sufficiently, then assist Laura with those BITS! I'm going to need both of you to take down this I.S.!"

With that, he rocketed after his foe, even though his own machine looked a little beat up and not at full force. Unlike Ichika, he hadn't said anything along the lines of saving or protecting the damsel in distress. He was all practical, even going so far as to give orders. And yet, there was no talk of her running from the battle, of keeping herself safe while he fought to what could be the death with a mysterious foe.

No, he simply rescued her from a tight spot, taking it for granted that she would return to aid him when she was capable of doing so. Unlike Ichika, there was no lasting relief, knowing that he would take the brunt of the enemy's attention for her. Church expected her to come back and help him, while Ichika generally expected her to help from a very safe distance, lest she endanger herself again.

And while it was scary, knowing that she would have to come back and face the enemy that had bested her so easily, Charlotte had to admit that it was also kind of empowering. Church had faith in her. He needed her help and admitted it without hesitation, treating her like the ace pilot she really was. It was a slightly intimidating change of pace, but one Charlotte was ready to embrace completely. As soon as her IS had recovered, she was going to get Laura, and they would all take down the enemy together, with equal amounts of risk.

As for Church, his reasons for sending Charlotte away were twofold. He of course wanted her to get some distance so she could recover from a close call, but he also needed a moment alone with a Phantom Task operative. Sure, he had that moment just a minute or two ago with the sexy blonde, but he hadn't really been in any position to demand answers from her.

Although to be fair, he probably wouldn't be in a position to question the pilot of the Silent Zephyrus unless he had her at gunpoint anyway. He briefly noted that this was the very pilot he had been concerned about facing, but despite his own misgivings Church knew he had to fight her to the best of his abilities. His comrades were trusting him to fight his hardest, just as he trusted them to come to his aid when they were able. Teamwork was their only path to success.

Or maybe letting Chifuyu cream the bad guys by herself was viable too.

Either way, Church had no time to see if the once-upon-a-time White Knight was thrashing her golden adversary, and right now he needed to focus on his own opponent, especially since he was attacking her with bare bones sensors. Seeing the trouble Charlotte and Laura were in, Church had entered the battle as soon as Exeter had finished repairing the helmet to the minimum operational level. He had some functions available, but certainly not the full system suite he probably needed.

His long range analysis of the ongoing battle had already led Church to the same conclusion that Laura had reached. The BITS assaulting Schwarzer Regen were probably being controlled by the pilot of Silent Zephyrus herself. While there was the underlying appreciation of such skill, Church consciously only considered it in a tactical light.

He needed help from Laura and Charlotte. They needed help dealing with those BITS. So this was obviously a 'help me help you' situation. Church just had to put enough pressure on his opponent that she was forced to focus entirely on him, leaving her BITS to their typical automation.

Cerberus, I need rushdown weapons, now.

Affirmative.

Cerberus took it upon itself to load up as many weapons as the suit could reasonably support while maintaining speed. Effectiveness right now didn't matter as much as commanding the enemy's attention. With that in mind, Church poured enough missiles, lasers, and munitions at the Silent Zephyrus in close quarters to force the pilot into immediate evasion.

Unfortunately, the advanced Blue Tears was extremely maneuverable, and of course its pilot was beyond an ace. As she twisted and turned through the sky, she blasted missile after missile to kingdom come with accurate laser fire, dodging every incoming laser as she did so. As for the not so easily avoided storm of bullets, apparently Silent Zephyrus had defensive BITS as well, with shielding that was keeping her from receiving much damage at all.

But doing damage at the moment didn't matter. He was just grabbing her attention, and even if she seemed to be handling the situation rather easily, it was not without a great deal of focus.

In fact, since his tactic was what it was, Church decided now was as good a time as any to add on another distraction or two, so he opened a private comm channel to his opponent even as they duked it out in the air. He might as well try and glean some information from his opponent on top of everything else.

"I doubt this is going to work, but I'm going to try anyway. Your friend in gold mentioned my boss, so it's clear that Umbra Stratum and Phantom Task are in cahoots to a degree. You got anything you want to share about Aggregate Paragon?"

While Church had not expected a reply at all, especially while his enemy was busy fighting him, he actually got one. Unfortunately, it still wasn't a very useful reply.

"I wouldn't know. You'd have to ask Squall."

Squall, Autumn, who is naming these people?

"So what, you're the grunt or something? I hope you aren't considered the weakest member considering how good you are."

The girl he was facing smirked, though there was no way Church could see it at the speeds they were moving. "Of course not. Autumn is by far the most pathetic. I simply don't care for Squall's plans."

Finding it odd that he could actually hold a conversation with his foe, Church wondered if it could be considered funny that they were talking like this while shooting at each other.

"You're in it for some personal goal that Phantom Task can just help you reach?"

"Precisely."

"So theoretically I could totally get information on Phantom Task from you, if only you actually knew anything worth sharing?"

"Perhaps."

Church wondered just how far he could take this. "So, I don't suppose I could actually just talk you down from fighting?"

He still got an answer from her, but it came in a package deal with a laser blast to the torso that found its way through the storm of missiles going the opposite way. "No."

At a slightly lower altitude, Chifuyu was experiencing more difficulty than she had in a very long time. While she held a powerful and well-earned reputation in the Infinite Stratos world, it had been quite some time since she had last engaged in a real conflict between I.S. Not since the last Mondo Grosso really.

Not to say that she was rusty. Even back during the days of her youth, Chifuyu had longed to fly. The goals others had set for her were their own. She still remembered the day she had seen a wing of F-4EJ Phantoms performing stunts at an airshow on TV: she'd fallen in love with that plane. Longed to feel the freedom of the skies, to understand an unmatched liberty that the circumstances of her birth had robbed from her.

But reality had not been so kind. She had never known parents. She had not been a ward of the state. And when Tabane revealed herself to the world, invalidating the very reason for her existence… some tough choices had been forced on Chifuyu. She had taken Ichika from that place and fled, aiming to make a life for them. A life that required her to be responsible and grounded: a life that had required too much time and effort for her to commit to the military and flight school.

But fate worked in mysterious ways. Trying to live the life of a normal girl, Chifuyu had somehow enrolled in the very school that Tabane, the girl whose existence invalidated her own, was attending. She even ended up being her only friend. And in the long run, Tabane invented Infinite Stratos, and even gave Chifuyu the opportunity to pilot the very first one. The elder Orimura then had a way to not only make plenty of money to take care of her brother, but to achieve her dream of flying.

Sometimes, Chifuyu wondered if she was the sole reason Infinite Stratos had been invented. If Tabane had made the world's most powerful and advanced war machine just to resolve her friend's unsatisfied life crisis.

Whether or not that was true, Chifuyu had always been grateful for Tabane's invention. For a brief while, she had been given a way to both enjoy life and care for her family. Naturally that had not lasted very long, since her star popularity had endangered her brother, but for a brief while she had been happier than ever before. She had been in love with piloting, with pushing herself to the limit against foes of great strength.

And even though she had not flown an I.S. since the first Mondo Grosso, right now Chifuyu was finally able to get that rush again. Despite the tight situation she was in, Chifuyu couldn't deny that she loved it. The thrill of flight, the rush of battle, the looming threat of a skilled opponent; this was what Chifuyu had wanted her life to be, and admittedly, it may have been the primary reason she had gone along with Church's pretty rough plan. Maybe she really had bottled up her frustrations and dissatisfaction long enough to give into something reckless.

But even though she was excited, that was not to say that she was in no danger.

This was made ever clearer as Chifuyu blocked a powerful blow from the enemy's scorpion-like tail with Uchigane's only weapon. The force of the strike pushed her I.S. back, but in the end Chifuyu avoided any damage.

She and her opponent were locked in a struggle beyond the likes of anything her students had ever experienced. The Representative Candidates were all skilled pilots, especially for their age. But their fights were child's play compared to the truly masterful skill of Chifuyu and her opponent as they clashed in IS.. of vastly different capability.

Despite the Uchigane being similar to the White Knight in concept, there was no denying that Chifuyu's machine was far outmatched by her opponent's. The enemy was just far more versatile, and truth be told the machine Chifuyu was using just wasn't well-suited to her.

There was more to piloting an Infinite Stratos unit than just skill. The more you piloted a certain frame, alongside a certain core, the more attuned to your traits that I.S. became. As in love with the machine as she had been, Chifuyu and the White Knight had achieved a level of synchronization almost unheard of in the I.S. world. It was not a pilot controlling a machine, or a machine housing a pilot. They had practically become one fluid being, pushing their capability in combat to what was considered the peak of performance in the short lived history of I.S.

And of course, this was partly due to the fact that the White Knight had been personally tailored to her. It had been built solely for her, responding to her biology and even her genetics in ways that a base model never could. For all of her skill and talent that was purely hers, Chifuyu could not match her past self in Uchigane. It was a mass produced, average model, made even more obvious by how long it had taken to customize its own parameters to an exceptional pilot. She would have been on the field much sooner if not for that.

Spiraling through the air as nimbly as possible to avoid the dozens of golden orbs coming her way, Chifuyu couldn't help but note all of the disadvantages of her machine.

The Uchigane was widely regarded as a training model, meaning it was inherently inferior to anything purposefully designed for combat. While Chifuyu had made sure that this particular suit had released the many limiters it bore for training exercises, it was still a Gen 2 model facing what was definitely a very advanced Gen 3. Uchigane was slower, and aside from a lack of armaments, its shield strength was rather poor. Truth be told Chifuyu had been on defense since she had come to rescue Church. She hadn't managed to land a single damaging blow on her opponent, but at the same time she had not taken any major hits either.

It was stalemate in the most annoying manner possible.

Knowing that she had every advantage, Squall wasn't feeling very threatened, even considering the identity of her opponent. While she had to admit the level of defensive skill being displayed was impressive, it was next to impossible for an Uchigane to even touch her. It had one weapon that lacked the firepower to get through her special armaments, and even if she could manage to do that, Golden Dawn had greater speed and a significant shield advantage. Power, speed, defense, and versatility all outclassed the Uchigane by a massive margin. Even if the skill of the pilot helped to compensate, there was no way for Chifuyu to turn this around and win.

And being an exceptional pilot herself, Squall knew how to push her advantages. When Chifuyu dodged a projectile, the blonde used her speed to close in for a powerful melee strike. When Chifuyu blocked that, she was forced to deal with dozens of ranged attacks in close quarters. It was just an endless circle, but one that Chifuyu couldn't break with any ease.

The next time the Golden Dawn came in for a melee strike, Chifuyu decided to catch the enemy's tail in one arm rather than simply deflect it, taking some minor shield damage but still giving her an opening to finally strike. Unfortunately, the extra appendage meant the enemy still had her arms free, and that was enough to manifest more of that golden energy as a defense.

Locked in a very brief stalemate, the blonde piloting the Golden Dawn nevertheless made a verbal jab at her legendary opponent. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you've gotten pathetically out of practice. You know, if that handsome young man is distracting you, I'd be happy to take him off your hands."

Chifuyu scowled for a myriad array of reasons. For one, being looked down on or made fun of had always infuriated her. Two, she didn't like the implication of what her foe was saying. And three, she was worried by the fact that the latter half of her jab had well and truly struck a nerve.

But someone of her caliber was not going to get distracted by something like that, and she quickly made use of the only other weapons at her disposal to counter the enemy: her limbs. Hand to hand combat was mostly frowned upon in the elite circles of Infinite Stratos, but Chifuyu knew for a fact that getting kicked by a machine like this was just as effective as using a sword. Sometimes even more so, as the results of her attack proved.

Taking advantage of their lock, Chifuyu simply slammed a knee into the Golden Dawn's midsection, forcing the frame to flinch in a manner not all that dissimilar to the human body.

The others weren't privy to her situation because they were now dealing with their own. Once Charlotte was free to do so, helping Laura with the BITS harassing her was much easier. With the Rafale Revive having more suitable weapons for attacking such targets, as well as a far more predictable autonomy pattern thanks to Church's heavy rushdown on the pilot controlling them, Charlotte disabled the attack BITS in under two minutes, and both her and Laura moved to assist Church as soon as the Schwarzer Regen recovered some more shield strength.

Despite her own ability and objectively superior I.S., the girl piloting the Silent Zephyrus did seem mildly concerned with the now three-on-one standoff. With her offensive BITS destroyed, she had less options available to tackle three opponents at once, and their classifications meant they could threaten her at almost any range.

In fact, now that Schwarzer Regen was free to attack, it by far provided the greatest danger, since it couldn't be harried without her BITS. She was positive she could handle each of them alone, or even two of them simultaneously, but two close range fighters and a heavy sniper were a real problem for any pilot.

On the opposing team, the three combatants that were all moderately damaged did their best to work out a plan of attack. Normally this would have been Church's job by now, but he deferred to his allies this time.

"Either one of you have a good idea?"

Both Charlotte and Laura seemed surprised that he would ask, but neither of them frowned on it. It was nice to be so openly relied on, though now wasn't really the time to enjoy it.

Unfortunately, Laura had spent most of the fight dealing with the enemy BITS, so she didn't have enough insight on the enemy I.S. to really have a clever plan. Charlotte, on the other hand, could say the opposite.

"I don't think my regular weapons are strong enough to get past those shield BITS, but if you two can get them down for just a second I can do damage with my pile bunker."

While a simple plan, Church imagined that it would be effective enough. But he didn't know exactly how the enemy shield functioned, so it was impossible to know which weapon he would be best off using. If it could only absorb a limited amount of damage, then harming the shield gradually was fine. But if it could shrug off any amount of damage beneath a certain threshold, then they'd have to hit it with significant firepower.

Then again, Laura was right there, so there was no problem on that front.

"Sounds like a plan. Stick close to me, Charlotte, and we'll cover each other until you have an opening. Let's go!"

There was no need for him to specify Laura's role, as it was always obvious what the Schwarzer Regen was suited for. As her two allies rocketed away, the German supersoldier readied the largest weapon in her arsenal, fully aware that her allies were trusting her to fire dangerously close to their own positions to attack the enemy.

She had no intention of letting them down.

Approaching the enemy that could have very nearly killed her at attack speed, Charlotte was understandably nervous. But despite that, she felt confident now that she had two comrades at her side. Oddly enough, even though this situation was not so different from the battle against the Silver Gospel, the atmosphere was still not the same.

That time, it had felt like just holding the line until Ichika could show up to save them. Now she was part of the solution instead of the temporary fix, and it was because of a far more compelling team dynamic, brought on by a leader that both trusted and appreciated the skill and abilities of his friends. There was no 'knight in shining armor' paradigm here. Ironically, that notion being one of the most charming aspects of Ichika in a certain light, Charlotte admitted that it felt good to feel as though she was playing a truly important role instead of being a footnote for the heroics of someone else.

Church accelerated ahead of her a bit, covering her I.S. with his own torso, since she could still fire around his small frame. They both unleashed a storm of projectiles at their foe as the Silent Zephyrus twisted away from them, but they had to carefully avoid returning laser fire as they did so. As expected, the shield BITS of the enemy deflected all of the munitions, but as things stood now, Laura was unmolested and free to carefully aim Blitzkrieg at her foe.

She still needed time though, and the pilot of the Silent Zephyrus nevertheless had exceptionally good aim, landing hits on both Charlotte and Church as they pursued her though the sky. Charlotte's Rafale took less hits than her ally however, as he would intentionally swerve in front of some shots that would have hit her normally.

Usually this would have been the typical 'sacrifice myself to save you' thing that Ichika did, but just because the person in question was who it was, Charlotte could tell it was a tactical decision. He was covering her because she was the one who had the most important job, and she needed to stay in the fight more than he did at the moment.

It felt like they were making little progress against the enemy, but right now they weren't the ones attempting to do damage. That was Laura's job, and she was simply waiting for the right moment, one in which she knew she could not miss.

That moment came soon enough when the pilot of the Silent Zephyrus flew in a straight line for one second too long, and Laura released the shot that would hopefully obliterate those shield BITS for at least a few moments.

Similar to the fight with Arachne, no amount of technology could repel firepower of that magnitude completely without consequence. The moment that supersonic shell smashed into the enemy I.S., it was sent spiraling through the air, the pilot fighting for control even as her shield BITS were overloaded for just a few moments.

Charlotte saw her opening and raced forward with an Ignition Boost, readying her Rafale's pile bunker for a direct hit on the enemy. A few meters from her target, it was obvious that said enemy was not going to let this happen without any resistance, as she raised her rifle to fire at Charlotte with full power. Admittedly, with her shields already damaged, it was possible that the attack would penetrate completely and kill her.

The French pilot recognized this possibility, but felt no fear as she continued with the push they needed to succeed. Her friends had placed their faith in her, so she would place her faith in them.

And true enough, the enemy's weapon was knocked off target by a well aimed high caliber round from Church, giving Charlotte the split second she needed to strike her foe square in the helmet with one of the strongest melee weapons in the entire arsenal of Infinite Stratos frames.

There was a flash of electric blue light as the Silent Zephyrus' shields were overwhelmed by the high power strike to one point, along with an ear-splitting screech of twisting metal that would have definitely shattered ear drums if not for the protective systems available to all of the pilots. The Silent Zephyrus was sent careening through the air a second time, accompanied by scraps of metal from her frame's helmet. Her recovery was much slower in coming this time, as she fell hundreds of feet through the air before making it, and it was a wobbly one at that.

When she finally came to her senses again, the enemy pilot leveled a pained yet murderous glare at the pilots above her, her face now halfway revealed to them. And that reveal did not come lightly, for reasons Church vocalized first and foremost.

"S-she... looks just like Chifuyu!"

Having been a personal pupil to the woman for so long, Laura could tell that this was far more than uncanny resemblance. Everything was the same. Her eyes were the same shade of hazel, her hair was the same raven black, even the structure and angles of her face were exact replicas of Chifuyu Orimura.

To say this confused them was a complete understatement, but there was no time to act on this new information, or even ask the girl who she was. Mere moments after she took Charlotte's pile bunker to the face, she was joined by the golden I.S. Chifuyu had been fighting, with Uchigane right on her tail.

The two adult pilots moved to positions near their own allies, which allowed Church to see that Chifuyu had not gotten through her combat without trouble. Aside from looking exhausted, there was a huge gash going down her right arm, where the armor of her I.S. had been smashed apart. As opposed to her opponent, Chifuyu did not seem to have come out of the engagement on top. Apparently the difference in technological ability was still difficult to surpass even for a pilot like her.

Even though Church would have liked to ask Chifuyu if she was alright, he knew she was tough, and that now was not the time to show concern. If the battle reignited, they all had to be ready.

Speaking of Chifuyu, if she was shocked by the appearance of a doppelganger, it didn't show in any way. She merely glared at her foes in preparation for another exchange if there was going to be one.

However, it didn't seem like the enemy was going to make an offensive move. The woman in the golden I.S. merely allowed her opaque visor to fade away so she could taunt her foes one last time.

"It's been fun, but frankly, we only came here to humor you, and at this point you've been pretty bad sports. Keep in mind that next time you lay a trap, you should consider bringing more firepower. Be thankful that we already got what we came for."

With that, the woman looked at her comrade and jerked her head in a direction away from their enemies, signalling her desire for them to leave. While it didn't look like the mysterious Chifuyu clone wanted to do that, she begrudgingly followed her superior when she made her retreat.

Laura almost gave chase, but the instinctual desire to pursue the enemy was quickly swallowed by the nature of her allies. Both Black Hare pilots were down, and Chifuyu was injured. To engage the enemy now would have been inviting destruction, even though it stung her pride to let them escape with the upper hand.

After all, they had not managed to capture or destroy even one of their enemies, while receiving losses themselves. As much as she hated to admit it, this was a defeat through and through.

---

Following the swift conclusion to their battle, the pilots from the I.S. Academy had been quick to make an escape from the immediate combat area. They had gathered up their wounded and fled the scene just before the local air force arrived, and in the end no one except those who were supposed to know had any idea what had transpired that day. Some sparse footage of the battle had made it onto the internet, but most of it was hazy and poorly shot. Most people didn't have immediate access to high-speed cameras that could cleanly capture the movements of I.S. in battle.

The wounded, including Chifuyu, had been rushed off to a hospital to receive treatment for their wounds. Chifuyu had assured them that she would deal with the political ramifications of what had transpired, though it wasn't like she had to go it alone, since the German government would have to take part in the cover up as well. Church had some questions he wanted to ask the woman, but he was content to leave them for later and let her rest.

All things considered, they had not returned to the Academy that night. Being halfway across the world, Church once again found himself spending the night in a decent hotel, though everyone had their own room this time.

Laying in the one bed available to him that night, Church didn't consider the events of the day to be as one-sided as Laura had. While it was true that they hadn't really accomplished much, they had learned at least a few things about the strength of their enemy, and any intel on the strength of their foes was welcome. They now had more knowledge on how formidable their opponents were, and it was obvious that any future engagements would probably require the assistance of all of their friends, no matter the situation.

Furthermore, they had also learned that tricking their foes wasn't going to be so easy. Apparently they had been aware of their trap right from the start, and had come anyway just to gain intelligence of their own, or maybe even for the sole purpose of amusing themselves. Either one didn't bode well for Church and his friends, as it meant they were at a disadvantage in almost every way that mattered. Even with Chifuyu present on their side, they had still been essentially defeated.

Needless to say, Church had not been able to get his mind off of the doppelganger that had been the pilot of the Silent Zephyrus. Why had she looked just like Chifuyu? It seemed unlikely that the elder Orimura had some young twin that she just never spoke of. Was she a clone? Was human cloning even far enough along as a science to pull that off? And if so, what was her purpose? To surpass the greatest I.S. pilot to ever live? Was her existence that of a weapon? If so, they had done a hell of a job, as she had nearly throttled all three of her opponents that day.

And that other woman in the golden I.S., she was definitely a force to be reckoned with. Whether it was because she was an expert pilot or her I.S. was ridiculously advanced, either way she had been more than a match for both Church and Chifuyu in a one on one, not to mention all of them together prior to that. If they encountered her again, and Church was certain that they would, they would need to discern a more effective tactic for taking her down. Ironically, the very I.S. Church had been sent here to spy on may have been the one most critical to defeating such a powerful foe.

Lost in his thoughts, Church almost didn't hear the light knocking on his door, though he naturally got wind of it soon enough. Rising to his feet to investigate, Church opened the door to his rented room to see Charlotte waiting on the other side, for once not dressed in any shade of orange, her usual uniform not withstanding. Considering that it was late, Church had no actual idea as to why the blonde would be here right now.

"Charlotte? Is everything alright?"

The French native gave him a warm smile, though it was a bit nervous. She'd been anxiously fidgeting in her room, debating whether or not she wanted to share her thoughts with the young man in front of her now. Part of her thought it was silly, but another part felt that it was the right thing to do, to express gratitude. Besides, for some reason she found difficult to explain, she wanted him to know how she felt.

"There's nothing wrong. I just... I came here to thank you for today."

Recalling the moment in which he saved her from what could have been an untimely demise, Church shrugged dismissively "There's no need for that Charlotte. Protecting your teammates is-"

"N-no, it's not that. I mean, I am grateful for that of course, but what I really wanted to thank you for was, well... trusting me to have your back."

Not exactly sure what she meant, Church merely cocked an eyebrow at her, forcing the girl to give a deeper explanation. "Well, you see... how do I put this...? I've been in a few 'real' battles with Ichika at my side just like you were today. And in a way, I know he trusts me and the others to back him up, but... he's always trying to protect us, trying to do everything himself and only letting us help from a safe distance. In a way, that's... kind of comforting, I guess. I know it's cowardly, but it's nice to be safe while someone else takes the risk. But it always bothered me too."

Church wanted to intervene to at least say that Charlotte wasn't a coward, but the girl wasn't done explaining herself. "Today, you came to rescue me, but you expected me to get back in the fight, right there with you, so we could face the enemy side by side. That... it felt empowering, to know you needed me instead of just expecting me to hang back and stay safe while you fought. That's what I wanted to thank you for. Thank you for trusting me to fight with you instead of behind you. I... I hope you'll continue to do that in the future."

Seeing that she was done, Church gave her a smile of his own. "You don't have to thank me for that either, Charlotte. You're a talented pilot with exceptional skill, and I know how capable you are. I'd never expect someone of your ability to hang back, and I certainly can't think of any reason why I wouldn't be able to rely on you, especially after today. If anything, I should be thanking you; it's only because I had you and Laura at my side that we came out of that battle as well-off as we did. And besides... being scared of getting hurt isn't cowardly. We all like to feel safe. And everyone is afraid of dying. It's pushing through that fear to help your comrades that is considered bravery. Like you did today, incidentally."

Charlotte's heart swelled with joy at the praise, knowing full well just how genuine it was. Sure, it had been empowering to feel included in the fight as an equal member of their force, but it was even more gratifying to know that Church didn't even think it was something notable. In his eyes it was only natural to expect her to be his equal in combat. He considered his faith in her completely natural, and that inspired a feeling she had never had before, though she wasn't quite sure how to describe it.

Either way, she could feel a blush coming on, so she figured that it was time to make her exit. "W-well, thank you. I appreciate that. Um, well, I guess we'll be getting up rather early tomorrow, s-so, bonne nuit!"

She made her retreat with that, leaving Church to wonder about this late night rendezvous. That bashful look on her face at the end seemed a bit unusual… either way, Church figured it was best to appreciate her behavior now, because he was certain that he would face all nine circles of hell when he saw Rin and the others again.

---

Did you guys watch subbed or dubbed when you watched I.S.? Apparently the English dub voices are pretty stereotypical as far as accents are concerned, but a lot of people supposedly like it.