Authors' Notes: This is a collaboration work with AlfaWurst. We work together on all the chapters of this fic.
Chapter 0
— Sundown —
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The first thing Gura remembered was ringing. Painful, piercing ringing. She felt like a bird tossed around in a hurricane.
Anti-aircraft fire shook her plane.
"Damn it to hell, everything's in Pavie language...!"
"Watson...!" choked a voice through sharp, blood-stained teeth. "Watson, please, get a parachute... get a—"
"Th-There's only one... You have to— Oh, shit. BRACE, GURA, BRACE!"
A blaze consumed the nose of their aircraft. Violently, the plane rattled even more. Though half-conscious, Gura felt a canvas bag getting strapped around her chest.
"Watson, no, don't...!"
Suddenly, she was thrown into the sky. She no longer felt the squeeze of a warm hand on her own. Cold, bitter winds bit at her tear-streaked face. Her head throbbed with dull pain. Gura watched the sky swirl around her through glassy eyes. A massive canopy guided her slow, agonizing descent to the Earth as the cacophony from nearby air raid sirens trickled into earshot. Her parachute caught on a tree, and she watched a black cloud blanket a tiny, helpless plane, its swept wings shaking as its siren wailed.
"Amelia... She's in there... No..."
Gura held her breath when the aircraft barreled under the tree line. Her heart sank when she saw the forest billow smoke in the distance. The pitch black heavens erupted to life with massive spotlights and flashes from airburst shells. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she freed herself from the parachute. She hit the snowy dirt so hard that she felt her bones rattling when she landed. She stained the snow beneath her crimson. She groaned shakily and crawled towards what looked like a clearing. She leaned on a tree stump and waited for the cold to take her.
The night was silent. Frigid. Lonely.
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Gura woke up to the sound of snow crunched under boots, but her eyelids felt too heavy. Instead, she lied there, eyes shut. She hoped that this was a Pavolian patrol that could put her out of her misery painlessly.
"...'Ey, what's that over there...? A dead Pavie...?"
"I don't know, man. Check it."
"...Shit, she's one of ours. And she's... she's still alive...! Take 'er to HQ, now, now!"
Gura flicked open her eyes. She still heard that ringing. That horrible ringing. But her body was numb. Gura felt her limp body rising up from the snow and then set down onto the back of an open-topped car. A couple of blankets were wrapped around her too.
She turned to look at the men seated ahead of her. The patches on their arms didn't have the peafowl insignia of the Pavolian Empire. Their uniforms weren't royal blue. Instead, Gura saw a familiar triangle insignia with her half-lidded gaze.
It's... Elysian. Friendlies.
Gura felt winter winds chip at her skin as they drive off. She let out a shaky exhale. Relief washed over her as she curled into a quiet sob in the back seat. Her hand still trembled for a warmth she won't feel for a long while.
"Don't worry, lieutenant," she hears one of the men up front say. "We'll get you back to base. Just hang in there..."
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"So, let's get your story straight, second lieutenant. You and the first lieutenant managed to nab the intel and hijack a Pavie Stuka, correct?"
"...Ma'am, yes, ma'am," Gura says as she nods at the red-haired woman seated by her bedside. The lady raps her fingers on her lap as the rat ears on her head twitch impatiently.
"You two got shot down right over the forests outside the city of Xenokuni, however, and you alone were rescued by a couple a' my boys. But the Pavie documents you were supposed to gather, along with first lieutenant Watson, are... lost now, ain't they?"
The woman's tone stings Gura's heart like venom, but she pays it no heed. She only nods.
"...Ma'am, yes, ma'am."
The captain stands up, running her fingers through ruffled maroon bangs and slicking her hair back, inhaling sharply. Gura quietly sits and watches her with squinted eyes. She grips her blankets tighter, ignoring the slight pain burning from her bandaged palms.
"...And you really think that she's out there, still? Whaddya figure would even be left of your first lieutenant? Your intel?" she drawls, raising her voice with every question. "Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we'll hafta carry Miss Watson back in a bloody bucke—"
"PLEASE, CAPTAIN HAKOS," Gura shouts. "JUST LISTEN, ALRIGHT?!"
Gura's sudden outburst silences the medical tent. Her eyes glow fiery red for a moment and stare daggers into the redheaded captain who freezes in place.
"...Alright, then," Hakos huffs. "Sell me your plan, second lieutenant."
"Sell you my plan?" Gura growls, her tone rising like a wave about to crash into shore. "I've told you everything that you and your second lieutenant need to know. We— The first lieutenant and I had gathered intel that could change the course of this front of the war. We had reports on Pavie troop movements, possible deployment locations, Pavie materiel and equipment shipments, everything they have been piling up behind the Xenokunian border for the past months—"
"You say everything, second lieutenant Gawr," Hakos barks back, "But you don't seem capable of remembering anything specific."
...There it was again. That ringing.
"How can I even be certain that you even had that kind of intel to begin with, huh?!"
Gura clutches her sheets tighter, the ringing growing louder.
"Fact is, you and Lieutenant Watson failed your mission, understand? Besides, there's no way in hell that I'm sending my men out to pick up the pieces of your mission and your first lieutenant, got tha—"
"MADAM CAPTAIN," a voice from outside cries, "ORDERS FROM TOP BRASS!"
The ringing stops.
Captain Hakos averts her gaze from the bedridden second lieutenant, turning to the entrance of the medical tent.
"Jesus, Ollie, tone down!" Hakos hisses. She pulls the field tent's flaps to let the loud intruder in, who salutes her.
"Second Lieutenant Ollie Kureiji, reporting for duty."
Lieutenant Kureiji hands her a sheet of paper, which Hakos takes time to read. She pulls the seat next to Gura's bed away and to the corner, and she sits.
"Find lieutenant... gather the intel... send the... What the hell!? Does the brass expect us to pull that much firepower out of our asses, Kureiji?! And for what, for one lady and some Pavie papers?!"
Captain Hakos lazily waves the sheet, prompting Lieutenant Kureiji to take the paper off her hands. Hakos leans forward, her ears hanging low as she squints at the shark girl.
"Who are you two," Hakos grumbles, "and what the hell kind a' crap did you just get my company into...?"
"Well," Gura starts, "I'm just a... special intelligence officer, just like Miss Watson. You, however, do not have the clearance to know whatever it is that we do. Only the higher-ups know, and should know, and here they are telling you the exact same thing I asked of you."
Captain Hakos sighs. She slicks her hair back again as she slumps in her seat.
"...Kid, best I can give ya is my armored platoon. Provisional Correctional troops. I'm sure you're aware, special intelligence officer."
Gura grimaces in disbelief at the captain. All Hakos can do is shoot her a lazy look and a shrug.
"Hey, what're ya lookin' ugly at me for? There are only two kinds of soldiers who are this close to the Xenokuni hot zone: soldiers disposable enough to be sent here — that's us, the Provisional Correctional Company — and dead soldiers. Pick your poison, second lieutenant."
Gura's eyes widen, brows furrowing at the revelation.
"...Your company's reputation precedes you all. No other company called 'The Fighting Undead,' huh?" Gura retorts.
"Fitting name, ain't it," Second lieutenant Kureiji huffs. "The captain and I are glorified babysitters, if you ask me... well, if babies were ex-cons sent as living sand bags for the proper troops."
"Just my luck," Gura sighs under her breath, pinching the bridge of her bandaged nose. Picking her chin up, she asks, "So, what'd the big brass ask you to send to retrieve my— the first lieutenant and the intel, captain?"
"Well," Hakos sighs, "they asked for the whole company to move. They were really insistent that armor and a couple of platoons be sent off to nab the first lieutenant outta hotly-contested territory."
"What's the hold up, then?" Gura asks impatiently. "Send the whole compa—"
"Half of the company is out of commission," Ollie cuts in, "especially two of our three armored platoons. Army Ordnance doesn't give us the right equipment to keep the damn rust buckets running and shit." She furrows her brow, "And the regular Army's only gonna step in when us P.C.s have literally nothing left."
The two second lieutenants in the room shoot glares at one another. Ollie's glare proved steelier.
"Other companies don't get stationed here." Ollie explains, "Allied air drops don't always come close to this part of the front." She crosses her arms, squinting at the bedridden shark girl. "You said we're undead soldiers, right, second lieutenant? That's basically what we are. Left. To. Die."
Gura tears her gaze from Ollie and looks incredulously at Hakos. Again, all Hakos can do is shoot her a lazy look and a shrug.
"She's not wrong," Hakos says. She stands up and stretches her arms and legs. "Best we can offer ya right now is probably the one armored platoon we have left, led by second lieutenant Kureiji over here."
"A handful of armor — all light tank M3s." Ollie chimes once more, "They're rust buckets that make Jeeps look like Pavie HaKu tanks, but... they run, at least."
Gura looks at the two officers before her in disbelief. She feels like she was going to throw up. once more, but she chins-up and just heart tries to sink
"...Beggars can't be choosers," the shark girl groans, running her palm over her face, ignoring the fact that it's still bandaged. "I'll take any help I can get out there."
Hakos shoots a confused look Gura's way. "Hold on a sec, what do you mean by out ther—"
Gura tries hopping off her bed, but a sharp pain in her head keeps her from taking more than two steps away from it. She hisses as the ringing returns, and she lays herself back down slowly.
"Hmm, that's what I thought. Not doing too well yourself now, are ya, lieutenant? You just stay put here while we get your girl and that intel — or what's left of 'em," Hakos says with a smile too wide to not be seen as forced. Captain Hakos and Lieutenant Kureiji leave Gura, saluting the injured lieutenant in the hospital tent and then the private standing guard outside it.
Walking toward the company tents, Captain Hakos brings Lieutenant Kureji aside and asks, "...So, y'think your platoon can pull this off? Going by what fish-breath back there said, our special intelligence agent is well within enemy soil, just a couple a' clicks from Xenokuni Forest and the Pavie-occupied city."
Kureiji guffaws. "Big brass probably thinks not. That, or they don't give a shit. Hell, they wanted to send a whole company into occupied territory without hesitation, and I could even hear their excitement when they radioed in that bullshit order. Hah!"
"Besides," Ollie sighs, "to them, we're rotting corpses that just so happen to be capable of firing at Pavies. Doesn't hurt none either that some of us seem to get a kick out of it."
Kureiji then salutes her captain, declaring, "But we can do it, ma'am, no doubt. Half-ass supply priority ain't keepin' us from kickin' full Pavie ass."
Hakos huffs as she offers a half-impressed smile to the lieutenant.
"You may be a Pavie, lieutenant, but you sure got the balls of an Elysian," Hakos says as she pats Kureiji on her back and salutes her. "Go round up your men, and they better not be slacking off this time 'round. Also, Xenokuni Forest ain't far from here, so you should be back by sundown, provided that Pavie machine guns don't rattle your tits off."
"...Oh, and one more thing, Kureiji," Captain Hakos adds before sending the redhead lieutenant off.
"Bring that blue-haired kid and his Stuart with you; prove his worth."
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— TEMPEST —
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