Local Time: 2231 Hours
March 24, 2161
Location: Outskirts of Yokosuka, Orbit of Earth
Assigned Personnel: FFW Rochester, FFW Wasp, FFW I-401, FFW Z-23
Planetfall.
Four burning comets slowed their advance, observing the upper atmosphere of Earth below them. For all of them, this had been the most worrisome part of the trip, the one that had them all slightly terrified that they would melt from the sheer force of the pressures and heat against their hulls.
It was illogical, on a practical level, all of them knew damned well they were resilient to a scale unheard of, and yet this was still a part of their new forms that hadn't made it to the "back" of their brains, relatively speaking.
A part of them that still idly screamed that warships were not meant to fly, let alone orchestrate planetfall into the seas of Earth.
"Roche- are you-"
Rochester cut Wasp off, a harsh whisper.
"Yes. About as damned sure as I can be- 23, can you just, no! I'm not going to leave you alone, come here-"
The woman flicked up and over, soaring across the void to the deck of the destroyer. Who's occupant sat upon it and distinctly and clearly tried to force herself to leap into the atmosphere and fly down, and yet visibly struggled to do so.
Rochester was quick to land at her side, flicking to local communications even as Wasp finished her own preparations and stood above, looking down below her at the blue marble.
The sight took her breath away, the utterly gorgeous blue waters swaddled in thick clouds that broke apart and reformed seemingly before her very eyes. The landmasses of the earth lay out before her eyes, and as Wasp ducked under and past the threshold of the perimeter gently, she noted their response time to an intrusion into their network.
They were good! That was fun, but the carrier didn't have time, the sunken portions of Yokosuka awaited her arrival, at least, where the original pier and ports had been, that would be where they found the wreck of the Akagi, that would be where they found their target.
Wasp opened a brief link to Musashi, letting her know what she'd found about the orbital defenses, namely, that they were sufficient, but primarily aimed at long range area denial, using orbital assets around Luna and a powerful fleet that was assembled at the vector of-
Wasp paused, examining the orbital trajectory again. Before she giggled lightly.
"Wasp?"
Iona, I-401, cocked her head to one side, quietly speaking over the comms to Wasp as Wasp giggled. Before the carrier raised an eyebrow and sent over the data packets.
"This data woefully underestimates our capabilities."
Wasp nodded.
"I agree, they believe we're perhaps 50% faster than they are, and comparatively stronger, although… I'd point out that the majority of that fleet are armed with nuclear armaments and the few railguns that they seem to have."
Iona nodded.
"They do not underestimate our strength as heavily, but they do underestimate our speed."
Wasp smiled at her, ruffling the submarine's head as she brought her vessel into the extending field offered by Wasp's klein field. Iona didn't visibly react, the girl emotionless, but the slight shift in her body language under Wasp's touch told her that Iona had at the very least enjoyed the gentle affection. Which was good, good for her, meant that she hadn't lost her gentle touch.
But as much as she wanted to stroke the girl's hair further, they had a job to do.
"Rochester, how confident are you in playing with the fleet and their guns?"
The woman shrugged, measuring on her fingers for a time.
"I reckon I can give you maybe a few hours before I'd have to vent klein fields, faster if you wanted them just dead, but-"
Wasp was already shaking her head.
"No. We will not kill them, much as I'm sure many of us remember the events of the past, we would do well to remember that the bastards who forced us into that tomb on mars are not the people below us. And those same bastards would gain much if we kill off the UEG's fledgling attempt at space defense."
"Dodging?"
Roche shrugged, turned her head forwards and indicated her vessel's hull, hanging in the void and lightly glowing from the offcast light of the sun at their backs.
"I mean, I'm definitely smaller than most of them, but I dunno how much you want me showing off what I can do to them."
Wasp frowned, tapping her fingers in a rhythm against her thighs. She wrinkled her nose and frowned.
"23, how quickly can you take their faster elements for a ride?"
The small girl looked up, wiped at her eyes just a bit, and frowned for a moment, before she spoke.
"I can do it, but I'll have less endurance than Roche…"
Wasp nodded, before she turned and clapped her hands once.
"Alright ladies and children, here's what we're going to do."
Seconds later, as the women broke apart and moved to their assigned positions, Wasp smiled, leaned back, and tipped bow down into Earth's upper atmosphere. Her klein field narrowed, and a corona of flames burst to life as she fell into the warm atmosphere of the planet that had embraced her as a human, once.
Eyes glittering as she measured her fall, she let a slight, nervous giggle burst from her lips. This was not what she'd expected, given her deep water roots, but here she was, and she'd be damned if she didn't take it in as she fell into a planet she'd left behind.
Wasp cast a glance to the side of her, and watched Rochester let a serene smile go across her face, the sensation of falling for them was not one they were used to, sinking? Yes. The clammy and cold hands of the deep grasping them and firmly dragging them under as they screamed and cried.
But not this, not the way that just falling felt to them, the shrieking and whipping of the wind crashing past Wasp as she let her defensive barriers down by just a touch.
"Flag, approaching drop~!"
Rochester called out lightly over their comms as the cloud layer cleared and then, then she whooped and cast her arms out wide around her, long hair whipping up past her face as she tumbled and stabilized, legs and arms increasing her drag and slowing her fall. Eyes wide with exuberance, she laughed and flipped to face Wasp.
"I- We're doing this again! So much more!"
Wasp rolled her eyes at her subordinate's cheer, but she couldn't help the way her own lips twitched upwards as even Iona hid a small smile on her face.
It was fun, really fun.
But the mission loomed, and dropping in where they were was going to attract attention, so as Rochester rolled up and away, and her hull flared up and fired it's engines, Wasp nodded, sending a short burst of communications to her battle sister.
"Happy hunting, fair winds, comrade."
Rochester's lips pulled into a grin that was all teeth, as she pushed up past the cloud layer.
Z23 followed right beside her, darting into orbit as fast as they could, and Wasp closed her eyes.
She tamped down the ache of unease and worry that suffused into her spine every time this happened.
"They're going to be fine. The humans can't hurt us, they're going to be ok, it's all going to be ok."
Iona shot her a curious look, and Wasp forced her "absurdly competent and totally in control leader face" back on.
Right, she was in charge, this wasn't a big deal, just a simple extraction mission, with the fate of her leader's not protected at all daughter resting in a computer core that was not anywhere near waterproof enough to be a hundred feet below the surface of the water.
One hundred percent in charge. Mhm, no nervous jitters or shakes here, that was just her autonomic or sympathetic nervous system acting up, she never could remember the difference…
Ignoring the fact she had both of those systems, because that wasn't the point, she was cool, she was in command.
"Wasp, split point is directly ahead of us."
Iona's calm cut through the mental chatter Wasp was running herself through, and the carrier rolled her hull in preparation for a splash down, lowering her thrusters from recessed ports, she prepared to fire them.
That was another thing she hadn't gotten used to! Her old hull was a clanking behemoth of steel and machinery that needed actual time to start up, and it had noises too!
This new hull was deadly silent for a warship! Only the muted hum of her thrusters firing even made them sound like they were operating! It was bizarre and unpleasant! Like a buzz running across her teeth and the back of her neck. Everything was too quiet!
"Wasp, the silence disturbs you, doesn't it."
Iona spoke up, her head looking back at Wasp in the seconds before impacting the waters surface, Wasp simply nodded, and then their worlds were noise and darkness and frothing, angry seawater.
They'd come down as soft as they could, but that didn't mean that Wasp wasn't above splashing her entire hull with seawater. Like taking a bath, sympathetic sensors in her hull reflected the coolness of the water swimming across and over her as she looked up above at where the sea let sparkling beams of light through.
But she could appreciate the beauty of her parent's cradle later, she had a mission to do.
Iona, engage.
The submarine dived past her, the small girl recessed into the hull even as Wasp stood proudly above her ship, internal machinery spinning up as her form breached the surface.
A quick check, her head looking to the skies, revealed the elements of her fleet making good on their assigned tasks. She chuffed in amusement, saving a picture from her hi resolution, borrowed satellites, then turned and spun up her engines.
Local Time: 2310 Hours
March 24, 2161
Location: Orbit of Earth
First Fleet Engagement with Fleet of Fog.
Fleet Admiral Paras
Richard Paras was not a man who enjoyed being stuck where he felt the fighting wasn't. He was even less of a fan of being a test for ONI spooks who seemed so excited over the fact they could try and poach data off an advanced civilization that they completely forgot that real people served aboard the ships they wanted to use as distractions!
"Report."
His voice, growly and low from too many cigarettes in his youth, poured from his lips as he shuffled onto the bridge and took a seat.
Officers stood to attention, rather, the new ones did. The ones who knew him simply kept working at their stations and reported.
"Four objects, high metal content detected when they breached into the atmosphere, rough size matches with the data that ONI sent us."
Paras stroked his stubbled chin and waited.
"No detection satellites were pinged, we're not sure why they couldn't see them coming, with the bright glowing before they started entering atmo."
Then he growled.
"Position Marathon over their drop points and ready for orbital fire support. The fleet is to assume defensive pattern delta-5."
The helm officer nodded, and Richard, Dick, to his friends, felt the engines of the Marathon groan as she shifted her orbit.
"Sir, two contacts have broken off from the others, they're rising to the stars, one is the mid sized, the other is the small one."
The admiral leaned back in his chair and waited, if they wanted a fight they'd get one, but he wasn't happy about how his spine kept ringing like someone was screaming danger at him.
"Prepare to engage, I want tubes prepped for combat and keeping us safe at all costs, understood?"
He paused for a moment, standing up and moving to the front of his bridge as his crew jumped to respond around him.
Marathon keened and cried beneath him, burning and shifting as the vessel turned on her side and began to dance aggressively with the incoming fleet.
"Comms, get me HIGHCOM, I need permission to fire if they do anything overtly hostile."
The young woman seated beneath him nodded, and began hailing, before a shocked expression opened on her face, cracking the professional demeanor instilled in all UEG naval crews.
"S-sir, they say we cannot attack unless directly fired upon by the enemy vessels."
Richard wanted to curse and command them to do otherwise, but he forced that aggression down, forced himself to let go of the throttle, and stepped back.
"Then we wait. Allow them to close, send hostile challenges, then hold back."
His orders were received, he felt Marathon slow under his feet before her engines cut out and she hung in space, 3 kilometers of titanium and power, and yet… he couldn't do anything without explicit permission.
His fists bit into the seat grips as the seconds ticked by, as the comms officer opened, hailing and sent.
"This is the UEG Marathon, unknown ship, you are entering hostile space, declare intentions and leave or we will fire upon you."
The silence ticked by. Paras watched the display as the two enemy dots moved ever closer, as the cameras tracked their hulls and the strange, glowing markings.
"This is the UEG Marathon. You will be fired upon if you come any closer, divert away from orbital space and prepare to be boarded."
They didn't stop, they continued to get closer, within practically knife fighting range, and Paras gave the order.
"One more challenge."
Paras ground his teeth to what felt like powder as the comms officer broadcast it once more, his fingers tensing on his chair.
"Repeat. Unidentified vessels, cease action or be fired upon, this is your last warning."
Paras gave the order.
"Lock them, prepare to fire."
The fleet shifted its stance, as Marathon opened her jaws and command codes were authenticated.
The enemy vessels got closer, and Paras made ready to give the command, his arm grips creaking.
"Sir! They're stopping!"
He breathed a slight sigh of relief he hadn't recognized he'd been holding in.
"Cute security."
The voice broadcast from above, and around them, and Paras reached for his sidearm as a woman materialized on the bridge of his vessel.
She was tall, wearing a uniform of greys and blacks that stuck to her frame almost skin tight. A long coat floated around her, and at her side hung a weapon, but one Paras only barely recognized.
A pistol of some kind.
But MP's were moving and the bridge was chaos as he ordered.
"Marines to the bridge! Enemy aboard!"
The pair of marines at his side rushed her, and with an almost contemptuous ease, sidestepped the rushdown, and then kicked one of them into the hull.
Paras grimaced as the man groaned and slid to the floor. While the woman bent the other marine's hands back and twisted, forcing her to drop the knife and then bending her almost casually into a sort of "human knot" that looked… painful.
A moment passed, the bridge crew drawing weapons and leveling them at the interloper as she flashed a fanged grin.
"Please, let's not start a firefight that wouldn't even remotely hurt me, and would end up with half of you dead, mmkay?"
She moved to Paras, and with one finger, shoved the 6'3 man back into his command chair, before striding to the very front of the bridge as he sputtered.
"I'm not here to fight unless you want to, and I guarantee both of us are probably too important to lose, and too important to risk seriously. Unless I've read the situation wrong."
Paras flashed a look as a squad of marines entered the bridge weapons out, then rushed the woman. A look of indignant, minor irritation flashed across her face.
"Reall-"
Then three of them hit her with a flying tackle and Paras jumped to his feet.
"Everyone out! Marines, take her down!"
Then he ducked for cover as the sound of roaring gunfire filled the bridge.
"Fine. The hard way it is."
A pair of the marines grabbed him, rushing him past the group and sealing the bridge as they pushed towards the secondary bridge. But not before Paras saw the door tear open, and a trio of marines came tumbling out of the bridge.
"She's gone, sir!"
The man held up a hand and stopped them from proceeding, and cautiously approached the bridge. Flanked by a pair of marines he leaned past the torn open door, and saw a small, greyish cloud dissipating into the air, nothing left on the bridge but spent shell casings and the smell of gunpowder.
"What the hell-"
Local Time: 2310 Hours
March 24, 2161
Location: Orbit of Earth
First Fleet Engagement with EUG Naval assets.
Assigned Personnel: FOF Rochester, FOF Z23
"23 they didn't wanna speak to meeeee."
Rochester lay back on the deck of her vessel, mentally calculating the distances involved with the firing trajectories and missiles. They were a bit too close for comfort, all things considered! But, she didn't mind, between her own and Z23's klein fields, everything should be fine!
"Did you announce you were going to do anything like what you just did? Or did you create a decoy and simply appear on their bridge?"
Forming her lips into a pout, the older woman floated across the gap between their hulls and grabbed at Z23, who danced away from her with a put upon expression on her own face.
"They should have known better~!"
Z23 cocked an eyebrow at her.
"You are being childish."
Rochester responded.
"And you're not being childish enough! Aren't you supposed to be the- what did Akagi call it back home, the imouto?"
The German girl frowned, wrinkling her lips and nose as she did so.
"You could at the very least refer to me as fraulein, or if you insist upon honorifics, kleine schwester."
"That's boring."
Z23 colored red, and then launched herself at the other woman, beating at her with tiny fists.
"Rude! Unbelievable! Uncouth! Savage!"
Rochester laughed as the tiny girl slammed fists onto her chest and shoulders and yelled profanities at her in German, until-
"You did not just call me a skunk! I do not smell!"
23 grinned, the out of character expression pouring onto her face.
"Said the flabby chested idiot with more breasts than brains!"
The savage little smirk she wore on her face as she pulled away and flicked her engines to full did it. Rochester, staring in shock at her words, growled, and launched herself after the manically giggling destroyer.
"You little brat!"
The horsing around didn't stop until the UEG fleet hailed them once more.
Admittedly hailed downplayed the horde of missiles that sprang from their hulls.
"Awww, the humans are ruining our fun again!"
Pouting, Rochester lazily spun, and brought her full suite of point defense and CIWS online. Lasers, pinpoint accurate and just as deadly, spun out and brightened the skies over Earth as she began an evasive pattern.
Her mood was only slightly ruined, until she realized something.
Z23 had won their little wrestling match. She'd escaped.
That Brat.
A/N: Arc 2 begins, and what can I say except I wonder how you all think that this mission is going to go? Is it going to end well? Poorly? Who can say! But I hope to see your reactions, and I'm excited to see what you think!
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