Chris lifted her head in a daze. Where was she? Why was it so dark? There was something hard on top of her and something soft below her. Panic set in as she realized she was having trouble moving.
"C-Chris?" The terrified voice of Komichi snapped the Ichaival wielder out of her daze. Everything came rushing back to her: the award ceremony, her exchange with General Shaw, Tsubasa's sudden warning, the explosion…
Oh shit, they were under attack!
"Komichi!" Chris shouted, her worry chasing away any sense of embarrassment at the realization that she was on top of the brunette. "Are you okay?"
"I… I am fine. But…"
But they were trapped underneath a bunch of rubble, right. Fortunately that was an easy problem for Chris to solve. Closing her eyes, she sang...
"Killter Ichaival tron."
Beneath the silver-haired girl, Komichi's eyes widened at the holy chant. Her astonishment only intensified as light filled the enclosed pocket of rubble. This was Chris's Symphogear? It felt surprisingly cool, albeit in a pleasant, comforting way.
Then the light and it's comforting coolness swiftly faded, and Chris wasted no time in leveraging herself up, the previously unmovable rubble giving way easily. She took stock of her surroundings and scowled. The first thing she noticed in the new light was the translucent redness of anti-LiNKER gas. '
Of course,' Chris throught grimly as she almost instinctively dropped her armor combination in response, '
It had to be the fucking Horsemen.'
Turning, she offered her hand to Komichi, who accepted it blankly as if in a daze. Only after Chris had hauled her friend to her feet did she take the moment to examine the surroundings.
The others were already standing up, transformed, pushing rubble off of themselves and likewise hauling the people they had tackled to their feet. The exceptions were the Ogawa brothers, who simply appeared with their bemused guests, no doubt having ducked out with some kind of esoteric ninja trick. But the rest of the room?
Well, there technically wasn't a room any more: the roof was gone and red-tinted sunlight filtered in through the space. The view around them was little more than rubble, the smoke was thick, and flames licked the wall where cameras had once been. Hibiki was already moving to assist those who were stumbling to their feet with obvious injuries, some so stunned that they didn't even seem to realize that their arm was bent wrong or that they were limping. But for every moving figure, there seemed to be two or three more who lay unmoving, including some distressingly small figures. And the figures that could be seen represented a fraction of the attendants: who knew how many were crushed beneath the rubble?
From where she stood, Maria opened her mouth to ask if everyone was okay, but a glance at the walking wounded told her that was a stupid question. Her moment's hesitation was interrupted as she heard Tsubasa gasp and turned towards her friend. The swordswoman's attention was on the floor, such as it was, and Maria followed her gaze.
A single uniformed hand hung limply out of the rubble, the packet with the silver star that was to be awarded to Tsubasa clutched in it and a trickle of blood running down onto an adjacent stone. The Major who had been reading the citations. Tsubasa quickly scrambled down, but before she could finish shoving the rubble out of the way, General Shaw calmly leaned over, checked the pulse on the arm, and stopped the frantic adaptor just before she was about to toss aside the last piece of debris with a hand on her shoulder, and sadly shook his head.
Maria's heart almost broke as Tsubasa's expression crumpled. But she was forestalled from offering any comfort by an incoming whistle. The adaptors' heads snapped upward, their Symphogear-endowed superhuman eyesight peering through the translucent red mist of Anti-LiNKER and making out the shape of several incoming bombs unerringly falling onto them.
In an instant, Chris aimed her crossbow and let loose a torrent of unerringly accurate bolts into the descending bombs. The blast wave that descended upon them was powerful enough that most of the regular humans in the room instinctively raised their arms to shield themselves.
With their attention focused by the threat, the remaining residents of the room could properly notice the sounds that until then had been background noise: the distant chatter of gunfire, shouting, explosions, sirens, battle.
"We're still under attack!" Maria snapped. She was just about to command Shinji to get people to safety when she abruptly remembered that he was the commander now, ordering him out in the open like this would be improper.
Fortunately, he seemed to have the same idea. "We'll see everyone here to safety and contact headquarters."
Komichi barely heard any of it. She just stared. She had thought Chris looked beautiful when singing, but her radiance when she was in her Symphogear in person was positively blinding. And her friends, the other adaptors… they were almost as awe-inspiring.
How could someone like herself ever be worthy to be with someone like
that?
"Komichi." Chris said, turning to her. "You better take shelter with the others."
Having the concern of someone so… so…
angelic felt like a mental truck rammed into her brain. She couldn't seem to shake the haze of the aura like the other people in the room were doing. It wasn't until Souji clamped a hand on her shoulder that the brunette came to her senses.
"We'll take care of her, Yukine." The elder Ogawa said. Chris nodded, then she turned and, together with her friends, leapt clear out of the roofless building in a leap no ordinary person could match. As Komichi let herself be shepherded towards the base shelters, she couldn't help but peer back over her shoulder. If she couldn't do anything but run away, what right did she have to be Chris's friend?
Chris's worry about Komichi took a back seat to the situation before her. Bomb craters were blasted into the runways in a manner that seemed random at first but were clearly directed so as to disable it and every hanger had been hit, as were aircraft parked out in the open. Chris noted the aircraft with her likeness painted on it was shattered, save for the nose with her image which now pointed skyward. The paint was melting under the heat of a nearby fuel fire from a burning tanker truck.
There were also several canisters that had clearly fallen out of the sky laying scattered across the ground, the hissing red mist shooting out of them making clear the source of the lingering Anti-LiNKER. But Chris had more immediate concerns that quickly grabbed her attention. Namely the force of Automen storming across the base towards the adaptors, ignoring the gunfire from base personnel and cutting them down with mechanical ruthlessness with their grasers and coilguns as they advanced.
"Let's go!" Maria shouted, the music in her heart starting to swell as she launched the counter-charge first.
"
What is true strength? I wander in search of it." She began as she leapt forward. Airgetlamh unfolded and lashed out, clearing away a crowd of Automen with a sweep of the chainsword. "
To be proud? To make a vow? I still can't find it."
Drawing upon the power of Maria's song, Chris swapped over to
Billion Maiden and opened fire, watching the Automen jerk and spark as she walked her fire over them. Hibiki used her pile-drivers to fling herself upward and then crash down into the midst of one group of Automen turning to raise their coilguns and grasers after her, fist-first. The Automan she slammed into directly crumpled like a tin can smashed by a boulder and the ones immediately around it shattered into their component pieces.
"It's the Symphogear adaptors!" One of the base personnel shouted in relief.
Hibiki quickly gave an acknowledging wave and shouted, "We'll take care of these things! You guys get to cover!"
None of the adaptors contradicted her. Maybe if there were some Staples, the soldiers would be able to fight with them. But against Automen, they'd just be going to their deaths.
"Erm, right! You heard the lady!" One of the SDF soldiers barked at the others. And as one last farewell, he shouted. "Rock on, Tachibana!"
"I continue to ask the smile in my memories.
I won't forget the warmth lingering in my hand."
Miku kited left and right to throw off the Automen's aim, blasting back with Shenshoujing in beams that punched through their armor. Ame No Habakiri flashed as Tsubasa practically danced forward into yet another group, slicing several down with each swing. Then she turned and released a
Blue Flash that tore through one end of the group and kept going into a slightly more distant column of approaching androids moving to reinforce their mechanical colleagues.
"While lost, confused, and suffering
I gouge out my sins without running or hiding.
With my voice, as I am,
I ask my courage, I strike my resolve.
This is my holy sword, behold!"
"How did these guys get in the base without anyone noticing?!" Kirika shouted the question as she sliced through a mechanical monstrosity.
"Maybe they were snuck in?!" Shirabe suggested, jinking to the side just in time to avoid a burst of graser and coilgun fire from a skirmish line of Automen, too spread out for her to cut through with her sawblades in a clean sweep. Instead, she tossed her hands to either side, her razor yoyos extending out. One of the minor surprises she had found when facing them at the Mountain facility was that her yoyos couldn't cut through the exotic metals the Automen were made out of.
They could, however, effectively entangle them. The yoyos arced wide and curved back around at Shirabe's deft command, the yoyos extended past either end of the skirmish line before turning inward. The wires constricted, instantly smashing into all of the Automen and bringing them together into a big, twitching clump. Skating in close, a single swipe from Shul-Shagana's two
Friction Blades were all she needed to finish the job.
"It's fine if I'm weak, it's fine if my tears flow,
As long as this invincible song stays in my heart.
Destiny and the past and grief and memories and love,
I hold them tight and now I struggle bitterly and stand!"
As the adaptors fought, they quickly noticed there was something different about these Automen. Two vertical tubes, absent on the ones they had previously fought, extended across their backs. None of the adaptors thought much of it until Shirabe staggered in pain under a connecting barrage of coil gun shots and grasers descending from an unexpected direction: above.
"Shirabe!" Kirika shouted, swivelling her head to follow the violet beams to their source. She quickly spotted the culprits: more Automen fell from the sky and the distant aircraft above, their descent slowed to a manageable speed by columns of fire shooting out of the back-tubes.
"Jetpacks?!" Tsubasa exclaimed, "They're deploying from the sky!"
Miku and Chris swiftly spun around and levelled their armed gears against the descending group of Automen, quickly reducing them to falling scrap metal in a matter of seconds. But behind them, several much faster, white streaks of fire descended out of the sky, tearing down towards Maria.
"Maria!" Chris shouted in warning as she turned her guns back down towards the Automen on the grounds. "Missiles!"
She expected Maria, appropriately warned, to deal with the incoming weapons easily enough, and indeed the pinkette darted to the side, out of the path of the missiles' descent. That should have thrown off most guidance systems, so it was something of a surprise when the missiles smoothly turned to follow Maria's movements.
"I found myself and today I carve it in my chest!" Maria sang, turning and lashing out with Airgetlamh to tear through the barrage of missiles. The blasts of their destruction seemed comprehensive, but one last weapon streaked out of the dust and slammed right into the pinkette. She vanished in dust and smoke for a moment but her body, somewhat scuffed, was launched skyward out of the debris.
"Maria!" Tsubasa screamed.
"I'm good! It just dazed me!" Maria shouted back, flipping around mid-air and continuing her song as she turned to descend on another group of Automen firing up at her. "
That shine which became a cross, what is its meaning?" Swinging Airgetlamh around, she attached it to the elbow of her gauntlet, facing backward. "
The forgetfulness -OBLIVION- contained in a name, my justice -BLAZE-!"
As she finished her line, Maria's descent impossibly accelerated. Airgetlamh blasted through the Automen's barrage of fire and finally the Automen themselves in a final
SERE†NADE. But another barrage of missiles and bombs was descending from the sky, followed by more Automen jetpack-dropping in.
"Yukine, Kohinata!" Tsubasa shouted, as she slid into another group of landing Automen, Ame no Habakiri flashing. "We need point defense!"
"Where are they coming from?!" Miku shouted, following the instructions.
Chris's eyes narrowed as she swept Billion Maiden skyward, peering past the missiles and the Automen, towards their origins. She picked out the drifting shapes high overhead, leaving contrails in their wake as they twisted and turned. From the smaller ones, the streaks of missiles and more solid ovals of bombs detached from beneath. From the bigger slower ones, box-shapes fell out the back only to split up and flash with the ignition of jet packs.
"Aircraft, ten thousand meters! Looks like multi-role fighters and heavy transports!" Chris swore. "Dammit, they have the high ground!"
"It's not over!" Hibiki shouted back, as she twisted around a jab from an Automan, seized its arm, and smashed it into one of it's brethren.
As one, their communicators crackled. "Everyone!" Elfnein's worried voice came over. "Are you all okay?!"
"We're engaged with… well, there are a lot of Automen here!" Kirika reported, scything into another group that Shirabe had entangled with her yoyos. "And we're getting constantly bombed."
"You're not the only ones." Fujitaka grimly informed them. "The Horsemen have launched air and missile strikes at ASDF facilities across the entire Central Air Defense Force Region. Initial losses are reported as extreme. The other regions are scrambling reinforcements, but they'll take some time."
"What about civilians?" Shirabe rang back as she continued to fight. "The city's completely exposed!"
"Air raid alerts have gone off and everybody's evacuated into the shelters." Tomosato reported. "They were built for Noise, but they provide protection against conventional ordnance just as well."
"Shit!" Chris swore as she blasted away another wave of missiles and bombs arching down from the pinpricks in the sky. If not for the Symphogear-granted enhancements, she probably would have pulled several muscles in her neck by now from the way she was constantly whipping her head around scanning for incoming weapons. There were so many, that between her and Miku they were barely holding them back and couldn't spare any attention to interdicting the descending Automen, relying on their friends to protect them from the ones which had already landed. "Headquarters, we've got guided bombs and missiles that are coming straight for us! You have any idea how those things are targeting us?!"
"We're reviewing the sensor information from your armor now. No active sensors detected." Fujitaka said. "No laser designators. Camera guidance?"
"They're tracking too smoothly for that." Tomosato pointed out.
"Well it can't be passive guidance! What sort of signal is there for them…" Fujitaka trailed off as he realized there was one particular, Symphogear-distinctive signal for the Horsemen to guide their warheads by.
"The Aufwachen Waveforms!" Elfnein said what everyone on the bridge was thinking. "The weapons are homing in on your Aufwachen Waveforms!"
"We can't stay like this." Shirabe called, darting in to slice up more Automen, who were now prioritising Chris and Miku as targets. And she thought there were a lot at the Mountain Facility! "So long as those aircraft are up there, they'll keep shooting off missiles and bombs and dropping Automen on us."
"We have to cut off their reinforcements and fire support." Tsubasa agreed, her head twisted. "Yukine, are you able to do anything?!"
Chris chewed on her lip in thought as she took a moment to gauge the distance. The aircraft were clearly too high up for her gun or bow attacks, as well as MegaDeth Party. Fortunately, she had longer-ranged options then that. She leaned back as Ichaival gear shifted and unveiled the two massive rockets of
MegaDeth Fuga. Picking out two transports in the cloud of distant aircraft, the missiles soared skyward.
But two other dots grew bigger as a pair of strike aircraft responded to the threats, nodding downward and launching air-air missiles that unerringly blew apart the large rockets.
"Fuck. I was afraid of that." Chris muttered before loudly calling out to Miku. She contemplated Red Hot Blaze for a moment, but discarded it. Unlike Fuga, she'd have to put away Billion Maiden for that and leave them vulnerable to the descending weapons. Plus, the thing never seemed to work. "It's no good! I guess you're up."
"Alright, Chris." Miku said, the whine of Shenshoujing growing as she rose higher.
Hibiki shattered the last Automen of the group she was currently facing and turned in concern. "Miku, are you sure about this?"
"Don't worry, Hibiki!" The black haired girl called back as she started to climb, "I trained for this!"
Hibiki watched her go for a moment, then jerked forward with a hiss of pain as an Automan took advantage of her distraction and pumped several coilgun rounds into her. Whirling around, she launched herself forward at the offending android. Miku could take care of herself, she had her own battle to fight.
—
[T-Minus: 6049]
As Miku ascended, Elfnein's voice rang in her ear. "Shifting to optimize for air-air combat."
The horns on either side of Miku's head folded inward and locked together, a transparent pseudo-glass visor descending from them over Miku's eyes and activating a heads-up-display.
"We're patching in what radar data we can." Fujitaka told Miku as in the bottom left corner of her vision a 2D map of her immediate surroundings with a mass of contacts fading in and out popped up. Data about her air-speed and altitude appeared in her upper left, with the general state of her Symphogear popping up on the right side. "SDF AWACs will be up momentarily. They'll be taking over battle control for your part when they arrive."
"Roger!" Miku answered. The distant pinpricks of the aircraft cohered into distinct shapes. She quickly took in the two different types. First were the heavy lift transports lumbering along in a circle, their rear-cargo doors open. At a steady pace, a large container would drop out their backs to fall towards the earth, breaking open to release their cargo of Automen who would right themselves and activate their jetpacks to slow their descent.
Then there were the strike fighters. These smaller, nimbler aircraft darted about, constantly rolling into position to launch a missile or drop a bomb towards the adaptors below. Several missiles, in fact, were already streaking down to meet the ascending Miku, but she lifted her armed gear and let loose laser fire that blew them out of the sky.
Blasting the middle of the formation of Horsemen aircraft, she flew right up alongside one of the transports, levelled her armed gear right at it, and unleashed a violent
Lamentation of energy that vaporized not just the aircraft's midsection, but a second transport flying parallel to it. Miku quickly coasted to the side, just in time to avoid a pair of missiles which tore right through where she had been hovering and started to circle back around before she speared them with more beams from her gear. Twisting around, she quickly blasted the offending fighter that had launched the weapons out of the sky.
The formation was already reacting to her presence, the lumbering transports now shying away while the more nimble drone fighter banked around to fire more missiles upon her from their internal bays. Jinking and constantly changing course, Miku released her mirrors and, with a thought, commanded them to fire on the inbound missiles and fighters. She used the minimap to aim her mirrors so as to leave her other one free for her priority target: the big transports with Automen. Quickly, she blasted at one aircraft. It tried to bank out of the way of her shot, but the beam shaved off one of its engines, causing the plane to spiral downwards. Well, that worked just as well… although maybe the others might have to deal with any Automen that survived the crash.
It was a massacre. The enemy could not seem to adapt fast enough to a flying Symphogear trained for aerial combat. After the last burning wreckage of the drone aircraft hurtled towards the ground, Miku recalled her mirrors. She glanced down back towards the base. Her Shenshoujing-enhanced eyesight was able to pick out her friends far below, engaged in combat with the the much larger swarm of Automen around them. Now that the flow of reinforcements was cut-off, they would be able to deal with those that had managed to land.
"Adaptor Kohinata, this is Air SDF AWACs, callsign Sky Bird." A new voice, male, professional, and respectful, came over her communicator. "We have you on scope. We'll be providing early warning and coordination with SDF forces. Your callsign is Sunshine-"
"No. I'm Hibiki's sunshine, no one else's." The words were out of Miku's mouth before she realized she was even saying them. For a moment, she contemplated apologizing for the outburst, but decided against it. As far as she was concerned, it was true.
"But-" Sky Bird was interrupted by some muffled voices, presumably other personnel on the aircraft. They were like jumbo jets with big sensor dishes, so they had to have a lot of people on board, right? Though Miku couldn't quite make out what was said, she almost certainly heard someone say "Don't argue with the magical flying laser girl."
"Okay, Kohinata, we'll hold off on a callsign for now." Sky Bird finally said, sounding somewhat chastened. "Be advised, we're still trying to calibrate for their stealth aircraft so we don't have solid numbers or target information. We can track their ordnance though, so we'll give you a heads up if they lob a missile at you."
"Sky Bird, how long until the SDF fighters arrive?" Miku asked.
"ETA is approximately twenty minutes."
So she had to hold off a massed Horsemen air force by herself for at least that long practically by herself while preventing said air force from blowing up anything important. Well, Symphogears were pretty much built to do the impossible. Retrieving the last of her mirrors, Miku quickly angled forward and took off westward, where the feed from Sky Bird indicated most of the remaining Horsemen aircraft were massing.
----
[T-Minus: 5,421]
"There's just no end to them," Tsubasa breathed. She cut down yet another one of the Horsemen's androids before deflecting another one's fist with her sword, her next swing vertically bisecting it. A third one leapt up and attempted to come at her with a flying punch only to be knocked out of the air by Maria's thrown knives.
Maria then swung Airgetlamh out, the chainsword unfolding and slicing through more homing missiles descending from above. "Don't lose hope, Tsubasa! Our friend in the skies will end this."
"Yeah!" Chris fired at another bunch of flying androids with her miniguns, reducing them to piles of scrap metal. "I made damn sure she practiced aerial combat until her eyes were sore. If anyone could beat them, it'd be her."
Kirika's guillotine blade bisected another group of androids that were trying to get to Chris while she was distracted by the jetpack Automen. "Yeah, but how do we know when she's all done?"
Suddenly, she felt a giant shadow come over her. Looking up, she saw a giant box falling from the sky right on top of her. "DETH!" She yelped as she barely ducked out of the way. The crate landed with a crash, its contents spilling all over. Damaged Automen climbed out, but before they could even stand up, a pair of yo-yos wrapped around them before Shirabe's giant saws sliced them into pieces.
"Well," Shirabe said, her voice panting. "I guess that's as good of an answer as any."
No sooner had the words left her mouth then did a giant aircraft, missing two engines and tumbling nose-over-tail, slam into the earth a good several hundred meters away. A few androids, missing limbs and sparking from holes in their armor, stumbled out of the burning wreckage just in time to be impaled by Tsubasa's sword.
Chris grinned, "I think that's an even better one."
"Yeah!" Hibiki said as she threw an android into another set of androids before tearing them apart with her pile bunker punch. "That's my Miku!" She flashed a V-sign with her fingers and smiled really wide.
Suddenly, the panicked voice of Fujitaka came through on the comms. "This is HQ! We're under attack! The Horsemen aircraft are targeting SONG's port. Shenshoujing is here, and we're scrambling some fighters, but we're barely holding out over here!"
"Headquarters! We're…" Maria trailed off as she realized the problem. They were on the opposite side of the bay! Even at the superhuman pace of a Symphogear, they'd never make it in time. The pinkette swiftly glanced around, trying to see if there was a helicopter or other aircraft they could commandeer, but the only vehicles she could spot that weren't burning wrecks were some service trucks and the odd humvee. She chose to summarize the issue. "Rather lacking in transport."
"Chris!" Hibiki shouted, turning to the Ichaival user. "Can't you use your rockets to get us across the bay?"
"Sure." Chris said, but her scowl was quite at odds with her words. She jabbed a finger upwards, at a pair of distant shapes that even on the ground the girls could tell were Horsemen air superiority fighters, flying off in the direction of the port. "If
they don't send some of
those at us to blow us out of the sky! If that happens, we gotta swim."
"Not to mention, we still have some enemies here, Tachibana!" Tsubasa thrust her sword towards a hanger where the last surviving group of Automen had just stormed around the corner.
"Yes." Maria flipped Airgetlamh around as she readied herself. "We'll just have to trust in your love! I know she won't let us down!"
Hibiki thought back to how hard Miku had been working to catch up with the rest of them, even leaving aside the special training she had put in for this scenario. "Right!"
She turned towards the final wave of oncoming Automen with new determination, raising her fists. Trust in Miku, not just to handle herself, but to also handle protecting others.
----
[T-Minus: 4,495]
Miku blew the wing off another fighter that was lining up to release its anti-ship missile at the SONG headquarters. The jet aircraft spun away into the water, pieces of debris sailing skyward. Miku then made a ninety-degree hard turn to avoid the gunfire from an escort that had lined up on her. She did so just in time to see a group of strike fighters breaking away from the fight to start dropping their payload of bombs on the port itself.
Smoke and debris shot upwards as the weapons detonated. Multi-story buildings crumbled, fuel depots erupted in enormous balls of fire, warehouses were smashed. In a moment of anger, Miku contemplated pursuing the fighters that had done the deed before realizing it would be a needless distraction. The Submarine and everyone in it - Elfnein, the bridge crew, Hibiki's family, her parents - were all in danger. She couldn't let that happen! So she settled on praying that the base personnel in that section were already in their shelters.
Then her heart fell as a flight of strike fighters armed with anti-ship missiles emerged out of the smoke of the burning buildings and oil tanks, circling the furball in a roundabout manner to strike at the SONG submarine from the landside. A glance at her more immediate environments saw her spot another flight of similarly armed strike fighters begin their attack run through the storm of AA fire from the SDF vessels also docked at the port. Miku could intercept one or the other, but there was no way she would get both.
'
Like hell there isn't!' She scowled. '
Hibiki wouldn't give up, so neither will I!'
Angling right at the flight making their attack run from bayside, Miku unfolded the Shenshoujing into its shield-mirror and carefully, but swiftly, raised it. A precisely aimed
Flash of beams tore through the flight, with one jet flipping backwards as the beam slammed into its rear. Then, turning towards the second flight approaching from land, she throttled her Ionocraft modules.
Slamming up against the sound barrier, she pushed through and shot over the submarine, moving to meet the attacking aircraft head on. Raising her armed gear, Miku let loose a torrent of beams into the oncoming strike fighters. Most exploded or spun down into the building aflame, but four barrelled on through and shot straight past the Shenshoujing user.
Flipping herself over, Miku reversed direction in a move that would have instantly reduced a regular human being to jello from the G-Forces. More lasers blew the first jet out of the air and the second disappeared in a fireball as one of Miku's increasingly frantic beams struck one of the anti-ship missiles it was carrying. The third broke in two as one of her beams speared it horizontally.
But the last strike fighter jinked and juked erratically, the controlling artificial intelligence clearly devoting every bit it had to avoiding Miku's beams while still closing the gap towards the submarine. A slice of worry wormed its way into Miku's heart as the strike fighter screamed across the last bit of distance before it reached launching range. She wasn't going to make it!
A missile flew in from above and blew the strike fighter out of the air.
"Good job holding out so far, kid." A confident and eager female voice rang through her communicator. It actually reminded her a little of Chris when the Ichaival user's blood was up. "This is Major Kome Higa, callsign 'Archer', Fifth Air Wing, Western Air Defense Region. We're here to back you up. Now come on, let's show these drones who's boss."
—
[T-Minus: 3,486]
Major Kome Higa's grin was filled with cold anger. The Horsemen were responsible for the deaths of some buddies of hers last time and probably a couple more this time. This was her opportunity to even the score, even if the Horsemen's air forces were almost entirely drones.
She also needed to help the Symphogear adaptor. Magical flying beam spammer or not, Higa didn't consider herself the type to leave a teenage girl in the lurch on her own. No matter how formidable the Horsemen's hyper-agile drone and kinetic/energy weapon bullshit was, the kid had fought for the world on a repeated basis. Protecting her was a nice way to return the favor.
She cut the speed on her X-2 air superiority fighter, dropping out of supercruise and down into the subsonic range more appropriate as her squadron shot past the floating figure of that Symphogear adaptor, Miku Kohinata. Glancing over her shoulder, the pilot was gratified to see the kid was swift on the uptake and quickly accelerated after them. Further back, beyond Miku, she could see the contrails of more ASDF squadrons sweeping in to reinforce.
"Sweeper, on me." She ordered. "Gator, Aquila, coordinate with Kohinata. Let's show these assholes that the Symphogears aren't the only reason you don't fuck with SONG."
Higa's flight, with the impromptu addition of a Symphogear adaptor, shot back over the distinctive silhouette of the SONG submarine. The arrival of the fighter aircraft prompted the MSDF vessels to stop firing, not willing to risk friendly fire. In one respect this was bad, because it gave the current squadron of Horsemen strike fighters making their attack run on the submarine a clear shot.
In another respect, it was good, because it meant Higa and her squadron had a free shot at the strike package.
"Fox-Two!" The Major whooped as she heard the lock-on tone and fired her first missile. The strike fighter she targeted jettisoned counter-measures, but weighed down by the anti-ship missiles under its wings it couldn't maneuver in time to avoid the seeker from reacquiring and it splashed.
That was the signal for the furball to properly begin, a chaotic, twisting dance of maneuver and counter-maneuver as the ASDF and Horsemen aircraft engaged each other with their missiles and guns. Missile trails, tracers, and coilgun slugs crisscrossed the air, burning wreckage of Horsemen drones and shot down Japanese fighters alike falling from the air. In the latter case, some of the pilots managed to eject and some did not. Higa didn't permit herself to be too torn up by the latter. They knew the risks and there would be time to remember them at the bar tonight. For now, she concentrated on the air battle.
Triggering her gatling guns, Higa was rewarded by the sight of the Horsemen drone in her crosshairs spiralling away uncontrollably. Pulling a high yo-yo to place herself above the furball, she scanned the AO for either another target or potential threats. Then her radio crackled and she heard someone from another squadron, call sign 'Garuda', shout, "Hey, look at the kid go!"
Higa twisted her head towards where the sensors feed told her Miku was and noted that the Shenshoujing user had stopped moving and deployed a series of mirrors that hovered around her. A positive
blizzard of beams shot in every direction in concert with the adaptor's own beam-gun-fan-thing. They were well aimed too: not a single shot missed or hit a friendly, and each reduced a Horsemen drone to scrap metal. Any drone aircraft that tried to take advantage of the adaptor's stillness to line up a shot swiftly found itself getting jumped by one of the ASDF fighters that constantly shadowed the girl.
"Woah, she's practically making it rain!" Sweeper shouted as his aircraft dove in on another enemy fighter trying to take advantage of the Symphogear users stillness.
Making it rain, huh? Keying her radio, the Major opened up a channel to the AWACs. "Hey, Sky Bird, I think I got a good call sign for Kohinata..."
—
[T-Minus: 2,133]
When the last burning Horseman fighter cascaded into the ocean, Miku breathed a sigh of relief. Glancing around, she found the skies bare of hostile aircraft. The only thing flying now were ASDF aircraft. She turned towards the SONG submarine but paused as she noticed a reminder that it hadn't been the sole target of the Horsemen strike fighters. One of the air defense cruisers was burning away and listing at anchor. Fire trucks from the base were barrelling down the pier, and those men from the vessel who couldn't jump to land were instead jumping into the water to swim the rest of the way.
Miku's first instinct was to do what Hibiki would do. Help, now and immediately. But then she realized there could be more fighters incoming. Burdening herself with rescue work could put even more lives in danger. She keyed her communicator. "Sky Bird, this is Kohinata, am I needed anywhere else?"
"Kohinata, we've got more bandits forming up at the mouth of the bay." Sky Bird replied. "Signatures are faint though, no strike fighters. Probably all the remaining multi-role drones. ASDF squadrons are moving to engage."
For another moment, Miku hesitated. Help the sailors or help the ASDF? She took another look at the burning cruiser. Several rescue boats were motoring out and the firefighters were out of their vehicles and hooking up the extinguishing foam. They seemed to have it well in hand. That made the decision for her.
"Copy, I'm intercepting." Miku answered, falling in at the edge of one of the ASDF fighter formations moving out that way. She noticed the figure of the pilot in the cockpit glance at her, then double-take at the realization she was tagging along before they shot her a salute and focused their attention forward.
"And, uh… hey." Sky Bird sounded a bit more reticent. "One of the pilots suggested the callsign Rainmaker for you. That work okay?"
Rainmaker, huh? Miku turned the word over in her head then shrugged. "I don't mind that."
"Okay then, Rainmaker it is."
After the hair-raising furball of taking on the mass of Horsemen strike fighters and their escorts, the flight out to engage the new group of enemy aircraft seemed almost boring. Idly, Miku switched her comms to listen in on the ASDF pilot chatter.
"So, any more advice?" She caught one pilot from one of the newly arriving squadrons saying.
"Stick with Rainmaker." Another answered. "Given how good she is with those beams of hers, you'll make it."
Miku blushed a little at that, wondering if she should have objected to the nickname earlier. Ah well, too late now.
"Missile launches, straight ahead." Sky Bird warned. "They see you coming."
"Kohinata here, I'll lead." Miku announced, peeling off of the formation she had attached herself too and adding a bit of power to her Ionocrafts to pull ahead of all the aircraft.
"What are you-" The pilot who said didn't get a chance to finish their objection. As the streaks of incoming missiles appeared, Miku snapped her fan up and blasted rapid fire with her beams, tearing into the oncoming missiles. Behind her, the ASDF fighters rocked as their pilots were surprised by the sudden mid-air detonations, but they quickly recovered from their shock and launched their own missiles back at the approaching Horsemen fighters.
Another dogfight developed, but this one didn't last long. The Horsemen's numbers were seriously depleted already, and Miku had considerable back-up on her side. Within a matter of minutes, Miku destroyed the last Horsemen fighter's fuel tanks, creating a great explosion. That left the Shenshoujing user floating there at thirty-thousand feet with the ASDF aircraft circling in formation around her.
"Huh…" Major Higa's voice gave words to Miku's own thought. "Was that really all they got?"
As if in answer, Sky Bird chimed in. "New contact, bearing one-three-five. Due south. Uh… wow, this is a big one."
Miku turned south just in time to see the flying wing breach the clouds as it lumbered towards the mouth of the bay. Indeed, it was a big one. In fact, big didn't do it justice. With a vague resemblance to a manta ray, it was
massive. A veritable flying fortress that put the airship from Val Verde that Miku had seen pictures of to shame. A runway running through the central structure constituted its 'mouth', making it clear precisely where the Horsemen aircraft had all launched from.
Nor was it obviously limited to just aircraft. Either wing of the immense aircraft was positively dotted with turrets that slew forward in the direction of Miku and the ASDF fighters. On top of its head, an immense array of small doors indicated the presence of missile tubes. Just fore of the tubes, printed on the flying vessel were the letters and numbers: 04P164-CVB-10.
"Holy
shit." Major Higa summed up the sight for everyone.
Miku's eyes narrowed. So this was the final boss then? Well, if the Horsemen thought she would be impressed by their giant flying toy, they had another thing coming. Unfolding her knee plates and hooking her cables up to the ring, the Shenshoujing glowed with power. A ball of energy popped up in front of Miku before spitting forth in a continuous beam. Like a
Shooting Star, the beam rocketed forward towards the massive flying wing.
And abruptly came to a halt as it slammed into a light blue-glowing
something a dozen meters in front of the massive airship. Miku shifted the beam, but the apparent shield shifted with it, precisely matching her. It gave no sign of faltering or succumbing.
Miku was not a girl prone to swearing. That was more Chris's thing. But the sight of her most powerful attack - or the most powerful available in this combination at any rate - being halted dead came very close to dragging a curse out of her. How?! Against the Shenshoujing, any relic-based shielding…
Miku internally thwacked herself. Of course, it wasn't relic based. This was the Horsemen, it had to be another of their inexplicable technological leaps.
For a moment, the airship seemed content demonstrating the futility of Miku's assault on it. But then the pair of especially large turrets on either side of the racks of VLS missile tubes swing onto her.
"
Massive Gamma-ray spike!" Miku could hear the panic in Sky Bird's voice. On her map, two thin pairs of red lines appeared extending out from the turrets, with her directly in the middle of the intersection. "Rainmaker, move now!"
Miku obeyed, swiftly retracting her Liuxing form and darting out of the way of the redlines. No sooner did she clear them then did two immense violet beams snap into existence where she had been floating. Even through her armor, she felt the heat and radiation coming off of the beams. If she was hit directly by those heavy grasers… well, it probably wouldn't kill her but it'd certainly be enough to break through the Symphogear's defense fields and seriously hurt her.
Miku dropped down, dipping beneath the arc of the turrets that had fired on her from atop the airship. But almost immediately, the pair of redlines popped up again. There were another pair of turrets on the bottom of the vessel too!
Pushing her Ionocraft modules hard, Miku shot out of the lines of fire just in time for the beams to fire. She powered in close to the great vessel, figuring she could get between its shield and the vessel and use her beam attacks freely.
But the Horsemen had accounted for that. A barrage of fire leapt forward from the smaller coilgun and graser turrets dotting the airship's structure. Miku immediately reverse-coursed in order to avoid the practical wall of firepower being thrown at her.
—
[T-Minus: 1,236]
"Well, fuck." Higa muttered as she watched the flying fortress flat out no sell every attempted attack by one of the seven most powerful people on the planet. Swinging her plane around, she gunned the engines. "Let's give her a hand, people! Line up for your shots and call in by squadron. I'll give the order."
One by one, the ASDF squadrons fell into a holding pattern around the giant. The enormous flying wing paid no attention to them, apparently considering them beneath it's notice. Only those aircraft which ventured close enough to provoke the secondary weapon systems were immediately swatted out of the sky.
"If you're not set up, you've got ten seconds!" Higa commanded, starting the countdown in her head as she came in directly behind the vessel. The tone in her ears told her she had full lock but it was pretty much an afterthought: given the size of the target, she couldn't miss. "Five, four, three, two, one. Launch! Rifle, rifle!"
A storm of missiles bore down on the flying fortress from every compass direction, with a few even plunging in from above or below. They all slammed home, enveloping the monster in a storm of fire.
Pretty much immediately, the airship emerged out of the debris, not even scratched.
"No effect on target, I say again, no effect on target." Higa said. "Damn it. No wonder it's ignoring us! Only Rainmaker poses any sort of threat!"
Higa's radio crackled. "Archer, confirm: you did see the missiles make contact? The shield did not block them?"
Higa thought back before answering. "Some of the missiles approaching from Rainmaker's bearing ran into it, but otherwise all made direct contact." She watched as Miku dodged another volley of those heavy grasers and fired off retaliatory shots from an oblique angle, shots that stopped that same dozen-or-so meters short of the vessel. "It looks like the shield can cover all angles, but can only be in one place at a time."
There was a long pause before Sky Bird finally spoke up again. "Archer, redirect to Tateyama Airbase for a landing. We have a plan."
The Major arched an eyebrow and keyed her comms. "Uh… copy, redirecting now. Care to fill me in?"
"Not over the airwaves, too risky." Was Sky Bird's answer. "But you'll probably be able to figure it out when you land."
Taking one last glance at the adaptor desperately flitting about in the sky, Higa kicked in her afterburners. Whatever plan Sky Bird had thought up, she hoped to hell it worked.
----
[T-Minus: 819]
Hibiki's eyes flitted from left to right. Piles of smoldering metal and broken rubble lined the area. Soldiers, Japanese and American, were out and about, guns slung across their backs, trying to clean up. Hibiki worked with them in search of survivors. Though the constant surge of Automen had long ceased, there were still unfortunate people trapped in the rubble who could use her help.
One such person was a Japanese soldier whose lower body was pinned by a part of the building that had fallen on top of him. Perhaps some graser fire had damaged the support frame of the building, or some vehicle had fallen out of the sky, landed on the roof, and collapsed it. Either way, Hibiki freed the man from what could have been a death sentence.
"Here, let's get you up," the Gungnir girl said as she lifted the man up and carried him with his arm slung over her shoulder. Though he was probably a full head taller than her, he didn't seem to weigh anything at all.
"Tha-thank you," he said in a pained voice. He was pretty beat down, but he was still lucid in spite of the state of his legs.
"It's my pleasure, sir." Hibiki replied.
"Sir…" The man chuckled to himself, even as he grimaced from the pain. "Almost deific compared to us, yet she still calls me sir."
Hibiki smiled awkwardly, not sure how to handle the soldier's comments. With her free hand, she waved down to one of the medical teams standing by to help treat the injured.
Hibiki was able to get the man onto a stretcher carried by the two medical personnel before they started running off with them. Another life, saved by her. Maybe this is what being a hero is like.
But as satisfying as it was to save people in the here and now, the battle was still far from over.
The Horsemen still had some aircraft in the skies, and, on occasion, would send some flying Automen or try to drop bombs on their heads. This would inevitably lead to more people being injured and in need of rescuing. Most of the base personnel were keeping a respectful distance from the adaptors, both from a combination of awe and in order to avoid getting caught in the crossfire whenever a group of Automen showed up.
To make matters worse, SONG HQ was under a massive assault like never before. Sure, Miku was protecting them, and Hibiki trusted Miku to defend their family and friends as well as Hibiki could've, but knowing they were in danger and being unable to do anything about it really, really sucked.
Hopping down off the structure, Hibiki glanced around to see if anybody else needed help. She spotted Shirabe, carefully cutting a piece of steel rebar being used to patch up one of the more essential structures. One of the base engineers had worked up the courage to approach her and inquire about the precise capabilities of her cutting saws. The answer had immediately seen her practically shanghaied to help with repairs, with the small girl relenting when it was pointed out that getting the base back in operation was necessary to help the SDF aircraft that were entering the battle.
As the runway repair crews were the most exposed to a sudden Horsemen attack, Chris stood guard over them, Billion Maiden still out and her eyes scanning the skies. Maria had quipped at one point she had become a point-defense turret. The Ichaival user had some pointed things to say about that.
A familiar hand clasped Hibiki on the shoulder and she glanced over to see Kirika smiling up at her, Igalima resting on her shoulder. "Worried about Miku-san?"
Was she that obvious? Hibiki sighed before returning the smile. "Yeah. I know she'll be fine and all, but I can't help it. I guess this is the universe's way of getting revenge for all the times I made
her worry."
"I know that feeling." Kirika's smile gained a bit of bitterness to it, her eyes drifting over to where Shirabe finished precisely cutting through the rebar and waved to one of the workers to take it away. "If anything ever happened to Shirabe, I…" She trailed off.
Hibiki frowned, her worry for Miku suddenly being joined by worry for Kirika. She had heard about the blonde's breakdown a few days ago but still wasn't sure how to address that. Deciding to make a careful probe, Hibiki asked, "Are you okay, Kirika-chan?"
Kirika blinked a few times and abruptly intensified her smile a little
too fast. "Uh… yeah! I guess we should find Tsubasa-senpai or Maria and see if they need any help."
Hibiki's frown deepened slightly as Kirika quickly about faced and began to walk away. Why did her friends have to resemble… well, herself at times?
The roar of jet engines snapped the Gungnir user's attention away from her friend, her body automatically tensing in case it was a Horsemen bombing run. Turning, she relaxed as she spotted an Air SDF fighter quickly coming into land on a patched up section of runway. Out of the corner of her eye, Hibiki noted that Chris had also reacted to the sound of jet engines and trained her guns on the aircraft before realizing it was friendly.
But the aircraft didn't taxi off the runway, instead turning around and making ready as if to take-off again. Then the cockpit opened and a short-haired brunette lady stood up out of it, tearing the fighter pilot helmet off her head and shouting. "Yo, one of the adaptors! Rain-uh, Kohinata needs help,
fast!"
Hibiki stiffened momentarily before immediately pellmelling it across the airfield towards the aircraft. She only
just didn't manage to make it to the aircraft first, being beaten by Chris who shouted up, "What?! What's going on?"
"We don't have time to explain here!" The pilot shouted down. "I only got room for one of you!"
Hibiki heard the other four racing up behind her, but her reply was instantaneous. "I'll go! It's
my Miku who needs help, after all."
The lady glanced down at her for a moment before smirking. "Alright, get in Lovebird. And drop your armor, we don't want them to know we're coming."
Hibiki leapt up onto the aircraft, startling the pilot slightly, before dispelling her transformation, reverting back to her SONG uniform, and climbing down into the cockpit. The other adaptors backed off, clearing the runway for the aircraft.
As Chris watched the SDF fighter take-off and begin to climb away, she couldn't stop a snicker slipping out from her lips. Lovebird, huh? Well, the dummy's hairstyle
did remind her of a bird's sometimes. Oh, she was gonna have fun with that one.
----
[T-Minus: 317]
Miku was in a stalemate. The airship's heavy grasers were easy enough to dodge with Sky Bird's warning, but the shield was immune to all of her attacks and any attempt to get close was immediately driven back by the storm of point defense weaponry. She had tried to release her mirrors, but the arc of the shield was greater then the distance the mirrors could move from her. The ASDF fighters had made several more attacks, with just the same lack of results as the previous ones.
Miku was very frustrated. As she ducked out of the angle of the latest heavy graser barrage, she chanced a look at her map and felt a cold shiver of realization run down her back. She was wrong, it wasn't a stalemate. After all, that implied she had prevented the airship from moving. But that wasn't the case: the need to keep dodging the heavy grasers and stay out of range of the point-defense weapons meant the airship had been able to fly across Tokyo Bay and was now approaching Yokosuka, where the SONG submarine was anchored.
Glancing over her shoulder, Miku spotted the port and small pinprick of the submarine. Apparently, in the intervening time they had managed to get the vessel underway but it was only just clearing the pier and it would take time before it reached waters deep enough in the bay to submerge.
Miku looked back at the enormous airship. Her eyes widened as the hatches to the VLS missile tubes started swinging open, a clear indication the vessel was about to enter range. From the sheer quantity of tubes… there was no way she'd be able to stop all of these missiles!
In desperation, Miku shot up so she was diagonally above and in front of the vessel. Deploying her Liuxing form and aiming directly at the missile field, she sent another immense pulse from Shooting Star slicing down. But the now familiar light blue shimmer of the vessels shield snapped into existence a dozen meters out, halting the beam dead.
"Don't despair, Rainmaker!" A female voice called out over her communicator. It was the same pilot as back at the port… Archer. "We've got more help!"
Miku blinked as a moment later, the aircraft of Major Higa shot right by her, climbing up towards a point high above the flying wing. Inside, Higa constantly glanced between her altimeter and the airship.
"You sure I can't call out to her over the radio?" Hibiki asked in the backseat anxiously.
"Horsemen might be listening in. We don't want them to focus on this plane before we're ready." Major Higa answered, although most of her attention was on the enormous flying wing, keeping an eye out for any ordinance heading their way. "Cool yourself Lovebird, I'll get you in position to help ya girl."
Hibiki cringed at the nickname. She hoped it wouldn't catch on like MegaDeth did.
Paying no mind to the Gungnir user, Higa judged the distance correct and rolled the aircraft upside down. "Right, Lovebird! Now!"
Without giving any response, Hibiki hammered the ejection seat button Higa had instructed her to use at the proper time. The canopy over her head blew out and her seat rocketed away. Forcing her arms through the g-forces of her descent, she hammered the buckle and separated from the seat before grabbing Gungnir and singing…
"Balwisyall nescell Gungnir tron."
From where she was hovering, Miku heard the familiar chant and her head whipped around. "Hibiki?!"
Her armored gauntlet expanding, her internal mechanisms whirring, and her rockets firing, Hibiki descended like a meteor towards the vessel with a battlecry that could be heard even over the immense airships jets. The aircraft rushed up to meet her, quickly growing so that there was nothing in view but it. She was a thousand meters away, seven hundred, five hundred, two hundred, one hundred…
At about fifty meters, she threw her punch, just as the shield popped into existence in front of her. With a strange electrical screech, she impacted and felt the shield wobble slightly under the force of her blow. Wobble… but hold. It wasn't enough, Hibiki could tell right away. Not with her current combination. Maybe if she was at the level when she fought the Illuminati, most certainly if she was in her latest. But the Anti-LiNKER exposure meant that wasn't an option.
In spite of that knowledge, Hibiki gave a triumphant grin as Gungnir's mechanisms whined and her rockets roared. She knew it didn't matter if she could break the shield or not. Because if the shield was
here…
Miku's next Shooting Star, arcing down well off too Hibiki's right, speared right through the missile tubes and swiftly burned through to the bottom-rear of the airship, punching straight through the central runway in the process. But Miku didn't let the beam up, instead she turned, carving a path of destruction right across the airship's portside.
The shield under Hibiki's fist just died. Now freed from the obstacle, the rocket punch resumed and though it had lost a lot of power, it was still more than enough to smash through the crippled behemoth. Hibiki shot straight down and speared right through the airship. Although at that point, the damage she inflicted was something of an afterthought compared to what Miku just did.
The Gungnir user smashed her way out through the bottom of the vessel just as it violently exploded. Even descending away from it, she felt the heat of blast through her Symphogear and was buffeted. Bits and pieces of burning wreckage, none bigger than one of her fingers, shot past her. Miku must have hit an internal ammo storage or something.
"Confirmed destruction of enemy flying wing." Sky Bird reported as the shrapnel fell towards Tokyo Bay. "No further contacts, mission complete."
Miku, however, had more immediate concerns. Dropping her Liuxing form and angling downward, she shot forward. Pushing her Ionocraft engines up to her now-familiar limit as she chased after the falling Gungnir user. Hibiki had spread her arms and legs out, breaking as hard as she could. She had already braced herself when Miku swooped in and grabbed her, hauling herself back-up with the chestnut haired girl cradled in a classic princess carry. Hibiki simply gave a short grunt at the impact into her sunshine's arms, before wrapping her arms around Miku's neck.
"Hibiki!" Miku started in a scolding tone as her visor folded back into her gear, dropping out of her air combat mode. But her worry quickly faded at the smile Hibiki sent her back. It was a smile that said everything that needed to be said: they both knew Miku would always catch her, just as they both knew Hibiki would always catch Miku. In the face of such complete and total trust, Miku couldn't stay angry although she spent a few seconds trying. Finally she let out a sigh. "What am I going to do with you?"
Hibiki's grin became downright cheeky. "Love me? Maybe throw in a kiss?"
Miku laughed. "I suppose that works."
She started to lean in, but before they could connect, their communicators crackled. "Yo, Lovebird Squadron!" The two glanced over as Higa's ASDF fighter jet pulled up alongside them. They could see the fighter pilot give them a jaunty wave. "Maybe ya'll will want to wait to make out until the boys have RTB'd? Some of 'em have been ordered to keep their flight cams on you for SONG's benefit, and I doubt you want one of your more intimate moments all over the 'net. Trust me: the threat of a bollocking from the base CO won't deter 'em."
Both of the adaptors blushed as they glanced around and realized that most of the fighter jets had formed up into their squadrons, but had centered their formations on Miku.
Pushing through the embarrassment, Hibiki decided to give a quick reply. "Well… ah, thanks for the lift?"
"Hey, you're a world-saving hero." They could hear the woman's shrug in her voice. "A lift to see ya gal is the least I could give you. Besides, I got to see quite the light show. Speaking of which, hey, Rainmaker!" Miku turned her head at the call to look directly through the canopy at the pilot. "You know you made ace several times over in this engagement?"
Miku shrugged. The phrase meant nothing to her. "Did I?"
Archer sighed exasperatedly. "Come on, sound proud! It's an impressive feat. Sheesh, you'd think you hadn't just downed a big-ass flying fortress." She paused. "Hey, if either of you are ever by the base, I'll buy you a… well, I guess you're too young to drink, so we'll make it your choice of soda for now. Deal?"
Miku sincerely doubted they would be up at wherever Archer was based out of any time soon. But there was no harm in accepting the gesture. "We'll keep that in mind."
"Hope to see ya around, Lovebird, Rainmaker." Then her voice shifted, clearly talking to the others. "Alright, guys. You got your look at the heroines of the hour. Those who need to refuel and rearm, RTB. Everyone else, get to your assigned CAPs and await further orders from Sky Bird. Archer, out."
And with a roar of their engines, the SDF jets peeled away and soared off into the distance.
Miku glanced curiously at Hibiki. "Lovebird?"
Hibiki gave a long-suffering sigh. "I think I know a bit how Chris feels about 'MegaDeth' now. At least Rainmaker sounds cool though. How did you luck out with that one?"
Miku giggled in response. The two lapsed into silence for a minute as they flew back towards the port.
"Hey, Miku?" Hibiki spoke up suddenly.
"Hm?"
"Is this what you always see when flying?"
Miku blinked at the question before she really took a look around. She had been so focused on training or fighting when using her Shenshoujing that this was the first chance she had to really take in how it
felt to fly. And it took her breath away.
The endless sky, the distant horizon, and the sun glinting off the skyscrapers of Tokyo which looked more like toy blocks at this altitude. The feel of the wind whipping against her as she soared through the sky. And with Hibiki in her arms, the distance from anything else made it feel as if, in this one moment, the entire world belonged to her and her shining sun.
It felt wonderful.
"I guess so." Miku finally said. The two fell back into their comfortable silence, Miku actually slowing a bit so they could enjoy the journey.
[Initiation]
Miku snuck a glance at Hibiki, using her unstated girlfriend privileges to ogle the Gungnir user and admire how pretty she looked with the wind whipping through her hair, even if it was in Miku's shadow.
Wait, her shadow? It was late-afternoon, and Miku was facing west. The sun was in
front of her, so she shouldn't be casting any shadow on someone in her arms.
Hibiki looked over her girlfriend's shoulder and gave a short yelp, causing Miku to come to an abrupt halt and turn around. Neither girl was prepared for the raw intensity of the burning light they were now facing. In fact, both of them were certain that they would have been blinded if not for their Symphogear armor. As it was, the glare was awful enough that they were forced to squeeze their eyes shut.
It was a light like the sun and unlike the sun. Horror arose in both of them as they realized the light was familiar. They had seen this before, just after Hibiki had been freed from the Divine Weapon. Except
that light had been constrained by the power of the Lapis Philosophorum. The light they could see even through their closed eyelids was constrained by nothing.
After several interminable seconds, the light faded and the two girls opened them again, blinking away the afterimages. The vision they opened their eyes too confirmed their worst fears: an immense column of smoke and debris mushrooming skyward into a terribly familiar shape they had only ever seen in their history textbooks before.
"Hibiki…" Miku muttered in dread as she watched the nuclear explosion unfold in front of her. The Gungnir user tightened her grip around Miku's neck in an attempt to comfort her, her eyes narrowing towards the expanding mushroom cloud, trying to judge the distance. She was slightly relieved as she realized the mountains and hills of the Bōsō Peninsula were between them and the nuclear explosion. Their friends, at least, were probably safe.
"It's okay, Miku." She said after a few moments. "It looks like-"
She was interrupted by the arrival of the shockwave. At this distance, it amounted to little more than a heavy breeze, but both girls nonetheless flinched at the accompanying sound. The roar sounded like the door to hell slamming open.
A sullen stillness fell over the two adaptors as the roar faded. Neither really could think of anything to do other than watch as the mushroom cloud grew and solidified in the distance.
When I came up with the idea of "sci-fi military organization vs the Geahs", I knew I would have to work in an air battle. I foreshadowed this as far back as the Panau battle, but no one commented and I wonder if anybody predicted this. This chapter was inspired by a number of my fond old times with the Ace Combat series. That's also why there is not that much in the way of Beyond-Visual-Range fighting in this chapter, despite the fact that logically the Horsemen should be shooting off their missiles at the SONG submarine from somewhere in the Pacific. But this is Symphogear, and that would be boring.
Also, since no one seems to have caught it, Maria's canonical birthday is August 7th. I was astonished when I realized how perfect that was.
