Railway Cannons had the dubious distinction of being an extremely effective alarm clock.
The natural terror of artillery ingrained into the hearts and minds of most people combined with the raw power and noise of Erebonia's most lethal guns ensured that each and every member of Thors Branch Campus was rolling out of bed and preparing for battle well before the crack of dawn thanks to a single shot from one of those massive guns.
While Class VIII prepared for general battle and Class IX rushed to their stations, Class VII spent much of the predawn period with their instructors in the conference train getting a report on the rapidly unfolding crisis. According to Agate and another bracer named Toval, the Northern Jaegers had managed to capture the four Railway Cannons stationed in the province before using the teleportation abilities of the final Aion to relocate them into a position to shell Ordis.
After that Major Lechter made an entirely unsurprising appearance before calling the Ashen Chevalier into battle once again. Once again Rean chose to leave them all behind as he left for the canyons north of Raquel alongside Sara and the Old Class VII members to deal with the cannons that were stationed there.
But while Fie and her friends were a little miffed at being abandoned by their teacher once again, at least this time he had left them with a mission. The Aion supposedly wasn't in the canyon with the guns so he ordered them to prepare to respond once it decided to surface.
"...So how exactly are the six of us supposed to stop the same Aion that obliterated Garrelia Fortress?"
Juna brought up a valid point, but Musse reassured her with a hand to the shoulder, "Although that was our given mission, it isn't exactly what Instructor Rean wants us to do." That she was wearing an uncharacteristically serious expression and didn't make a single sexual innuendo spoke depths of the situation going on.
"The Aion won't be alone." Fie added in support of Musse, "Dunno if it'll be those Stahlritter, or the jaegers, or someone else, but we'll be fighting whoever it ends up being."
"More likely we will merely be holding them off until Instructor Rean and the others arrive." Altina's dig at their combat skills irked the former jaeger a little, but it wasn't as if any of them could refute it given their encounter with the Stahlritter the day before.
Ash let out a short barking laugh, "They may be monsters, but I ain't planning to letting that glory hound swoop in and steal the credit. Plus don't forget Randolph left us two of the soldats."
The Hector and the Kestrel. Fie knew exactly what that meant.
"You ready for this, Jaeger?"
"Damn straight I am."
It was her time to shine. Well, her and Ash. But mostly her.
While Juna, Kurt, and Musse got to work making sure their bikes were ready for a quick deployment, she and the others went to Tita to make sure those two soldats along with Rean's Divine Knight were all ready for the moment when they were called upon. Thankfully her friend had done a great job and there was little Class VII actually needed to do. Midway into their tasks Randy, Major Michael, and the rest of Class VIII departed towards Raquel to help with the battle in the canyon.
With all their preparations completed came the hardest part of any major battle: The wait. They couldn't move out until Ouroboros made their move, something which left Class VII with no other option besides standing around until the attack began. Fie – despite her nature – was somewhat prepared for this awkward pause thanks to her time in Zephyr, but for some of the others...
"This sucks!" Ash yelled, "We should've gone with Schwarzer, orders be damned!"
"Right? How do we even know the society is going to act now?"
"They'll act." Musse responded calmly, "It sounds like most of the shells are just missing the city and landing in the water. Either they are struggling to aim the cannons, or more likely they aren't intending on doing damage in the first place."
Fie agreed, "It's probably a distraction." The rumble of a distant cannon served to place emphasis on her words, "...An extremely loud and terrifying distraction."
"Still, I highly doubt those cannons will be left defenseless." Altina pointed out, "I am worried for Instructor Rean and Millium."
"Your sister will be fine." Fie said in an effort to calm her friend.
Of course in so doing she very deliberately teased Altina, "...For the last time she isn't my sister."
"Argh! This is taking forever!" Mount Juna seemed ready to explode, "How long has it been!?"
"Since the last time you asked? Maybe two minutes or so?" Kurt's matter-of-fact reply only served to frustrate Juna more as the girl stomped her foot petulantly, "Please, try and remain calm. It'll do none of us good if you stress yourself out before the battle begins."
"I know that! But it's hard, you know?! How can the rest of you be so calm!? I'm gonna go crazy if I have to wait any-"
"Class VII! There you are!" An out of breath Towa exclaimed as she ran up to the students, "We just got a message that Ouroboros has launched a major attack-"
"Thank Aidios!" Juna's exclamation drew several pairs of eyes, causing the pinkette to deflate as she realized what she just said, "Uh.. I mean I'm not thankful for the attack or anything but-"
Fie rolled her eyes. As funny as Juna's bumbling was, they were on the clock, "Ordis or Juno?"
"It was Juno Fortress." Towa replied, not even remotely phased at the former jaeger's deduction, "It sounds like the White Aion appeared and cleared away the heavy weapons before the Stahlritter and the Northern Jaegers teleported in. Most of the fortress was abandoned to assault the canyon so the defenses were quickly overrun."
That... wasn't good. While none of them had any doubts that the society's attack would be successful, that it overran the entire fortress in minutes was a huge problem. With the military in the canyon that meant the task of liberating one of Erebonia's largest fortresses fell squarely into the hands of Class VII.
"I already called Rean. He and his team are on the way. I want you to meet up with him before you assault the fortress. Leave the soldats here for now as they'd be easy targets approaching the base before you've cleared a path."
Towa's orders dig bug Fie a little as simply waiting for Rean meant them hanging back was kinda pointless in the grand scheme of things, but a little annoyance sure beat the idea of having to assault the place on their own. With orders given Class VII got on their bikes and left camp. The ride to Juno was a short one, but the six of them stopped short of their destination since Rean's group had the much longer ride from where the cannons were located north of Raquel.
A few minutes later and the roar of orbal bikes and the hooves of horses alerted them to the arrival of their predecessor class. Few words were spoken as the combined group concluded their trip to the fortress.
Juno had definitely seen better days. Smoke was rising from multiple spots, an entire row of weapon emplacements had seemingly been vaporized, the silhouette of the Aion on the roof, and the twin banners of Ouroboros and the old North Ambrian royal family hung proudly on the wall signifying the complete occupation of western Erebonia's most powerful fortress.
And yet that grim sight barely held any interest to Fie as her attention was drawn to the large group between them and Juno: The Boss, Xeno and Leo, that Azure Siegfried guy, and a large group of Nidhoggr jaegers.
"Fie, Ashen Chevalier, and the rest of you fine folks from Thors. Good to see you again."
"Boss." This time at least she was able to keep her composure at seeing the dead man and her brother figures, "I take it you guys are here to deal with the fortress as well?" They'd been at the previous two battles as well, after all.
"You got it. Sorry, but you guys just aren't needed this time around. If you want to get yourself some front-row seats to the show, I won't tell anyone."
Fie couldn't help but clench her fist angrily. Once again they were faced with an opponent too powerful for them, but at the same time just backing down meekly went against her pride, both as a jaeger and as a member of Class VII.
"Kiss my ass."
"In what world do you think I would accept that?"
It seemed the others were of a same mind based on the comments from Ash and Jusis.
"Heh. I appreciate that determination. I really do." Boss' praise meant little as the man drew his Buster Glaive and took his combat stance, with the others following suit, "...But up there is the Steel Maiden. Determination only means so much against a person like that. Unless you have the power to back it up you'll only be throwing your lives away, and I don't want to see that."
Classic Jaeger King. It was nice that he was still looking out for her, but his way of looking out for them would probably be to break as many bones as their bodies could sustain if they tried to force their way in.
"Then I will be happy to provide that power."
Fie, her classmates, the old Class VII, Boss, Zephyr, and the members of Nidhoggr all found themselves drawn to the newcomer's voice and the rapidly approaching airship it came from. It was a voice that promised great pain and suffering, but for once it wasn't directed towards the poor students gathered on the bridge.
Principal Le Guin had arrived at Juno Naval Fortress.
Professor Schmidt also disembarked once the airship touched down, but nobody paid any attention to that crockery old man as one of Erebonia's most powerful individuals approached the group as if she owned the place.
Fie blinked. She actually did own this place, didn't she? That would certainly explain her arrival.
The silver-haired student watched in mute shock as the Jaeger King and the Golden Rakshasa argued over who should get the chance to attack the fortress. With the principal on their side the two groups were probably evenly matched in her estimation, but in the end it mattered little as Boss gave in with a smile after only a token argument.
"Good." Le Guin nodded decisively as the jaegers began to make their exit, "Oh, and by the way? I've recently managed to have a crate of my stiffest drinks delivered to the academy. You will be joining me soon, won't you?"
Despite being a question it sounded more like a demand, not that Boss seemed to care, "Of course. I wouldn't dare turn down a request from a beautiful woman like yourself."
Hold on. Were her principal and father... flirting with each other!? The mere thought was enough to cause her stomach to churn.
"I've got an idea." Boss continued, oblivious to Fie's inner suffering, "Why not invite Schwarzer along? Red Reaper, too."
"H-Hold on a sec." Were the conversation not so horrific the silver-haired girl would've laughed at her teacher's expression. Poor guy was gonna have a terrible night very soon-
"Mmm. I agree. I'll force Head Instructor Michael and Instructor Herschel to join us as well."
Her mirth died as realization set in. Boss... was going to be meeting with all of her teachers. Over drinks. This was even worse than listening to the two monsters flirt! Who knows what kind of stories they'd be swapping while drunk out of their minds!?
"Heh. Seems like daddy dearest is gonna have a fun night with our teachers and principal. I bet that make you feel- Yeowch!"
Were they not about to head into a fight she would've punched Ash in the face for his stupid comment. Instead she settled for stomping his foot with as much righteous anger as she could muster.
"Well, alright. We're heading out now." Boss gave a lazy wave as he followed his subordinates away. That changed as he briefly stopped and turned to look back at her, "Oh, and Fie? We'll be seeing each other quite soon, I think. I'll be expecting your answer then."
And then he was gone, leaving the girl to mull over those parting words. She was becoming increasingly confident on what that answer was going to be, but the idea of voicing that decision still caused her stomach to churn. No matter what she said she'd undoubtedly be locking out a crucial piece of her life.
She'd never admit it, but she was grateful towards the sound of an artillery shell hitting the nearby city, as it forced her back into the moment. As the large group approached the unbarred entrance to Juno Fortress Aurelia explained the layout of the base. Supposedly it was designed so that if a crisis occurred, mechanisms controlling the gates would force the attackers to split their forced into two groups.
It sounded kinda absurd to Fie, especially since Ouroboros simply cheated the system by using their teleportation powers, but that wasn't the kind of thing any architect could've possibly planned for.
Although the inner courtyard was unguarded they soon found themselves facing their first obstacle as the same cryptid from the previous day appeared before them. Sure such a fight wouldn't be much of an obstacle, especially with the Old Class VII at their side, but it was an annoying distraction that would sap some of their strength before the real battle-
Or Principal Aurelia would simply choose to obliterate the cryptid in a single attack. That worked too. Absolutely terrifying woman.
Upon entering the fortress itself they soon discovered what their principal meant as the path split into two forks. Fie glanced towards her friends and they nodded back to her, confirming they were thinking along the same lines. Given the numbers they had and with the path to the tower supposedly being the more dangerous one, there was one obvious way to split the group up.
"We'll handle the second side while you guys deal with the Steel Maiden."
Rean – being the mother hen he was – seemed reluctant to accept the idea, but thankfully most of his classmates saw the reasoning, and between both classes they were able to convince the teacher to relent.
The Old Class VII, plus Sara, Angelica, and Aurelia would lead the main assault, while the six members of the New Class VII would handle the secondary route.
Sure this meant they likely wouldn't be participating in the big fights, but the previous day had shown they still weren't quite up the level of their predecessor class. That didn't change the fact they still wanted to contribute, however, and splitting up the students would only serve to weaken the teamwork they'd forged together over the past months.
It was the best they could've asked for in the moment.
After seeing the elderly off, New Class VII began their own assault. Fie recalled just how confusing the layout of the base had been the first time they visited, but having to do so again with the place under total lock down really made it apparent just how miserable their mission was going to be. Every hallway appeared the same, every room looked identical, and there were no signs or anything to point them towards the stairs they needed to climb if they wanted to reach the tower.
And it didn't help any that the place was crawling with archaisms.
Luckily the machines were only about as dangerous as the owns they faced in Sutherland and Orchis Tower, which meant that they weren't all that difficult for the more experienced and more cohesive Class VII, even without their teacher around. There were a lot of them, however, and given they were supposedly needed to help open the way forward for Principal Le Guin, Rean, and the others, so they'd need to move quickly.
If they were having little difficulty with the archaisms than the others probably barely noticed their existence. Fie could easily imagine the Golden Rakshasa cleaving through an entire group of them in a single slash. Hopefully the fortress would survive her onslaught.
Their diligence in checking each room paid off after a handful of minutes when they came across a room with a massive switch attached to the wall. Something about it fascinated the girl and she reached a hand out to give it a pull-
"What are you doing!?" Kurt asked in alarm.
"Pulling the switch, duh."
Altina tilted her head, "Is that safe? We don't know what it does."
"Who cares? It's a giant switch. It's begging to be hit."
"Jaeger's right. We see a switch we pull the switch. That's how it works."
Juna opened her mouth, probably to argue in their favor, but the ringing of her ARCUS II interrupted her, "New Class VII here!"
"This is Schwarzer. We've come across a locked door on our end. What's the situation over there?"
Fie's eyes lit up. Rean's group was at a locked door and they were standing at a switch? "Open sesame~"
With joy in her heart she pushed down on the switch, basking in the sound of something opening in the distance.
"The door opened...! We can move forward!"
Fie was too mature to exalt in her victory over the more analytical members of her class too much. Any mocking victory sign she made in that moment was purely coincidental.
With a better understanding of the fortress they ended the call with their teacher and continued forward, dealing with archaisms and confusing paths in equal measure. That continued for some time, but their patience was eventually rewarded when they came to a promising looking door.
And guarding that door was a Northern Jaeger and two military monsters.
It was a good thing they weren't looking in the direction of Class VII as they entered that hall, as that gave Fie the chance to yank her more bloodthirsty classmates back behind cover, "Wait a sec."
"C'mon, Fie. We gotta fight him eventually, right? Don't think a single jaeger is much of a threat."
She rolled her eyes at Juna's straightforwardness, "Sure, but he knows he won't stand a chance against us either. The first thing he'll do is reach for his radio and call for reinforcements. No way we'll keep up with Rean's team if we get bogged down here."
"That makes sense." Kurt gave a nod, "Do you have a plan?"
That her classmates turned to her when dealing with jaegers would've left her feeling all warm and fuzzy, but the responsibility was also a daunting one. Still, a challenge like this was a small one, all things considered, "You and me are the fastest, so we'll distract the dogs. That'll leave the jaeger wide open for the rest of you. Just suppress and overwhelm. Don't give him a chance to grab his radio."
Her brief but simple plan was executed without a hitch. The jaeger was so surprised at the sudden arrival of six teens that he failed to instantly respond, giving plenty of time for her friends to overwhelm him in a barrage of bullets and arts, culminating in his face being introduced to the flat-side of Ash's switchaxe. With him gone the two remaining monsters fell quickly.
After the brief skirmish Class VII entered the door, and shortly after that they came across another door. But this one was already open and waiting for them. It was a little disappointing to know they were running behind the other group, but not unexpected at all given who was on that squad.
With renewed haste they found themselves climbing some stairs and through a door that took them outside Juno for the first time since they entered. Temporarily freed of the labyrinthine fortress they were able to hear the sounds of gunfire elsewhere, while the four railway cannons in the canyon continued their slow but steady barrage against the city to their south.
Their time in the light was brief a their path only carried them over one section of the wall before heading back inside the building. There was just one teensy tiny problem preventing them from making that trip.
"The database has it listed as a Gespard Gerrod."
Altina's words were in reference to the massive archaism standing between them and their goal. A colossal four legged brute with arms and more guns than the average tank. Fie stiffened as she felt eyes on her, "Hit it really hard until it blows up?"
She did her best to ignore the unimpressed looks. She was a jaeger expert, not an archaism one!
But given nobody else had a better idea they went with her brilliant strategy. If the Gespard had any other archaisms supporting it it would've been a dangerous opponent, but since it was alone and it could only track a single target with all its guns it proved to be a relatively slow but safe battle for Class VII: Run away when it targeted you, attack it when it wasn't, and make sure to stay away from the front where it could try to ram you or grab you with its arms. With those lessons in mind victory was assured, even if it took time.
With Operation Hit It Really Hard Until It Blows Up a rousing success the group of teens followed the path and reentered the fortress. There they found themselves in an extremely large room with a rather large gap dividing it in two. Both sides held one of those big levers needed to open a door. But that wasn't what caught their interest.
"Glad to see you're all in one piece!"
"Hmph. Any longer and I would've been forced to smash down my own door."
The room was divided in two because it was where both paths temporarily met up, and Rean's group was waiting on the other side.
"O-Oh... Were you guys waiting long?" A sheepish Juna asked as Class VII approached their own lever while Rean did the same on his side.
It was Jusis who shook his head, "A minute, tops."
Only a minute and their principal was ready to destroy her own fortress to continue? She truly was one of the most intense women ever to exist.
"How are you doing?" Rean asked, "I think we're over halfway through, but I expect opposition to pick up as we near the top."
"Heh. Worry about your own damn self, alright?" On the surface Ash's words were as brash and stupid as ever, but from Fie's perspective he seemed to lack his usual heat. In fact he almost sounded concerned about the group destined to face the Steel Maiden.
Did something happen between the teacher and the obnoxious student since last night to cause a softening of his bad boy persona?
Whatever the case Fie shelved it for now as both Rean and Juna pulled on their levers causing the paths forward to open up, "Hehe! Race you to the top, Tilly!"
With that the older group was off, "We need to hurry ourselves." Altina blandly stated as she approached the door in a jog.
"You really want to win that race, huh?" Fie asked the fellow member of Team Silver Hair as she easily caught up.
"N-Not at all." The slight twitch gave away Altina's true thoughts, "I merely believe we should be doing our utmost to keep up with Instructor Rean and the others."
Their path took them up a flight of stairs and through a door that once again led them to the outside. Fie was surprised at just how high they'd climbed since the start of this mission, as they could see many selge into the horizon. And yet the tower that served as their final destination still loomed ahead of them.
"L-Look at that!"
"It's the white Aion!"
Indeed. As Juna and Kurt successfully pointed out, that massive weapon of war was visible atop the tower. It wasn't moving or anything, but the mere sight of it was a good reminder of the high stakes battle to come.
"I say we break it down piece by piece. We can waste it before our precious little Ashen Chevalier even has to life a finger."
Fie rolled her eyes at Ash's stupid comment. Sure it was just sitting there, and yes Rean's team would probably be facing the bulk of the resistance moving forward, and they did have two soldats to call on should the chance arise...
No! The former jaeger shook her head to clear those thoughts. That Juna was falling for his terrible idea was one thing, but not her! She'd need like ten times the amount of explosives she owned to even put a dent into the Aion, and while their soldats could work they'd be screwed if the Aion activated and fought back against them without Valimar to help.
Once again a railway cannon fired, bringing Class VII back to the mission at hand. Whether they beat Rean's team to the top or not their mission remained the same, "Okay! Class VII, let's move out!"
"How odd... Anyone else get this strange sense of deja vu? Like we've done this already?" Kurt whispered as they began following the path towards the tower.
The former jaeger wanted to roll her eyes, but for some reason both Altina and Musse – the only other two in hearing range - were nodding their heads with thoughtful looks on their faces. How come they were all having that weird feeling of being there before and not her? Pretty rude in her opinion.
As expected, the number of archaisms grew as Class VII got closer to the main tower. Still, the increasing number of battles was offset by the fact they were getting better at fighting the predictable machines. So long as nothing like another Gerrod barred their way Fie was confident they'd be at the base of the tower in just a few-
Stupid! She should've known that thinking that was tempting fate, something which was proven by the two massive archaisms that teleported in in front of them just as they were about to cross underneath a bridge.
These two were unlike anything they had seen before, resembling giant medieval knights with massive axes and shields. Altina's comment that these machines were used specifically by the Stahlritter made a lot of sense in that context.
Still, even if these were some of Ouroboros' most powerful archaisms, at the end of the day they were simple machines. Any wariness she felt at seeing these new dangerous opponents was offset by her confidence in their ability to beat them, something which was further enhanced when she formed a combat link with Juna and felt that same confidence from the brash girl.
Fie darted in under the cover of Ash using his switchaxe's ranged attack, with the chain wrapping around one of the weapons leaving the agile jaeger to only need to avoid the second. Something which she accomplished even as she fired some close range shots from her gunswords, doing little damage but keeping the archaism focused on her.
Musse and Altina double teamed the distracted Archaism with powerful arts and for a hopeful moment Fie thought it'd be enough, but the machine lived up to its reputation as one of Ouroboros' finest by gamely enduring the assault and remaining upright.
Too bad.
Even if it didn't go down it was still wildly unbalanced by the combination attack, something which the opportunistic Sylphid was more than happy to take advantage of. The one consistent flaw of the more humanoid looking machines was that they shared the same weaknesses that heavily armored humans did: The joints and other such gaps between the armor plating. With their enemy so out of sorts she was free to seek out one of those spots with her gunswords, scoring multiple critical hits and all but crippling the large machine.
She was about to go in for the kill when Musse formed a combat link with her. Through that link Fie was able to understand just why the mint-haired menace was about to miss with her next arts attack.
How devious.
Without hesitation Fie settled into her assigned role, moving herself in front of the crippled archaism and intentionally shot it's thick armor repeatedly with her gunswords. Though the attacks did little damage they were enough to aggravate the machine as it raised its massive axe in preparation for a blow that was as deadly as it was desperate. It launched its attack-
Just as Musse's fire art exploded just behind it, causing it to stagger past Fie leading to its attack slamming straight into the other machine, which had been too busy fending off her classmates to notice.
A quick cleanup later and Class VII watched with satisfaction from a safe distance as the last of the enemies exploded into ruin. With that barrier overcome they were free to enter the primary keep and finish their field exercise with style.
That plan lasted right up until the moment when the Sharp and the Stout teleported onto the scene.