Chapter 35: Three-Woman Blitzkrieg

The return to the Asterism was a little rocky as there was an army of Ghosts and fighters impeding our progress. Even though Ether cores could run indefinitely there were still energy loads to consider. If the consumption of energy was more significant than the normal parameters the core could've suffered shutdown. So returning to the ship to wind down was necessary to avoid a grisly end by beam fire or a warhead.

As we returned to the hangar the mechanics swarmed out machines like flies. They stuck to resupplying any conventional weaponry we had or any repairs that needed attention. When the Ragnarok was locked into place a mobile lift made its way over. The lift raised until it became level with Ragnarok's chest. Disconnecting from the Animus, Ragnarok went into standby mode and the cockpit door opened. It was Talia in a normal suit carrying a box that smelled good.

"Alright eat up," she said as she handed me the box. Taking off my helmet I opened the box to find a cheeseburger and some fries. There was also a pack of sour worms on the side for me, more than likely left by Minerva.

"Thanks, Talia... The mess hall didn't have to break out the big guns though?"

"The mess hall is a little busy at the moment," she stated. She'd been staring at me a little too hard, almost as if she'd been waiting for me to do something. I shrugged it off thinking she was acting weird. Taking a bite out of the burger it tasted pretty good. I knew it wasn't the battle fatigue but the fact that whoever made it was good at cooking. The juicy and tangy mixture of bung and burger alone was enough to revitalize me.

"Is it good?" Talia asked as I ate.

"It's not just good, it's damned good."

Talia's frown turned into a cheeky grin, and I'm sad to say that was when I realized. "How did she run?" She asked as she got a little closer.

"It's like I'm out there fighting with a suit of armor on instead of a mech. The kind of firepower the Luminous Magnum has is insane."

"I was a little shocked myself," Talia admitted. "I didn't think you'd go full burst right from the start."

"How else were the three of us going to become legends?" Would you rather I did some sort of heroic pose and cut down a thousand enemies with a single swing?"

"Ok ok, ya made yer point. Still, though you were pretty awesome out there."

As our eyes met I could see a tinge of blue form around her cheeks. She'd been a bit fidgety as she sat with me inside Ragnarok.

"Something wrong?" I asked. "You look a little jittery?"

She tensed up for a second and hid her face in her hands. "N-No... It's just... "I just thought maybe you doing something cool like Go Raiser."

"In the middle of battle?"

"I dunno... Seeing ya fight kinda reminded me of Raiser all. Maybe you could afford the be a bit more flashy?"

"She's right ya know." Someone from behind Talia said.

Talia tensed up again and clung to me with her hands shaking in fright. As I looked over her shoulder I saw Andrew standing at the door.

"I'm glad you two are finding the battlefield a romantic place. But unfortunately, duty calls." Andrew pointed over to the right. The main display had still been on so I could see most of everything that was going on. In the hangar, there'd been a rather large Eidolon getting ready for launch. It had some hefty-looking armor and was armed to the teeth. Two shields on each arm with a Gatling gun underneath one and a missile pod under the other. Its backpack had four sub-arms, two on the top and two on the side. The two on the side had a pair of identical shields while the ones at the top had twin-beam cannons.

"That's... pretty huge," I said. "Who the hell is piloting that monster?"

"I believe her exact words were, I want as many guns as you can put on it," Andrew said. "Make sure you're able to keep the head."

As he called attention to it I noticed the head of the machine. While it too was encased in armor there was an odd feeling about it.

"Claire?"

"She's about to sortie," Andrew stated. "It seems you're wanted on the bridge though. You might want to see what Alice has to say."

I'll admit I was a little too worried about Claire to notice I'd still had Talia in my lap. Letting go I disconnected from Ragnarok and the two of us tried to get a little distance from each other.

Andrew couldn't help but smile. Though it wasn't his usual cheeky grin too. For a second I almost believed he was happy.

The three of us climbed out of Ragnarok and allowed the lift to bring us to the main floor. Andrew waved us away while he went over to his machine which was parked in the hangar in its flight mode.

Talia would follow me along the corridors of the ship. While we did see soldiers running back and forth to their stations it wasn't as chaotic as it was before since most of the soldiers should've been at their posts.

"So you rebuilt the Doss from scratch?"

"I only salvaged the head and core," said Talia. "For what Claire wanted, it was the only thing I could do. She wanted that Arjun guy to see the same head of the machine he destroyed."

"Talk about Psychological warfare. But you think she'll be alright."

"Relax. The Nightingale has the soul of Clarke Wright protecting it. Plus she's got Andrew and Claudia helping her out."

That was an eerie way of putting it, but it had to be one of my words. No sort of protesting the impossible.

Reaching the bridge, it didn't lose its chaotic atmosphere, though now Alice had been the only officer on deck.

"What happened to Minerva?"

"She said she had to use the washroom," Alice answered. "But you at least have perfect timing, come look at this."

The main display showed the battle map like it'd been displayed before. There were still a lot of enemy signals amid the battlefield though the work the Lance Unit put in wasn't a wasted effort.

"As well as you did out there, it seems the enemy has us outnumbered. Their advance isn't slowing either, so if we don't do something to slow them down they're gonna break our defensive line."

The numbers were a bit concerning but there was no need to do something reckless and risk the line being broken anyways. I thought to myself for a moment, trying to see what it was we could do.

"How long until the ambush fleet arrives?" I asked

"Another twenty minutes," Alice answered. "We just need to hold out a little longer."

Twenty minutes was what stood in the way between us and total victory. At that time, Arjun and Laufey's fleet would be right on top of us. Even though Asterism is an impressive ship it couldn't withstand the onslaught from a fleet.

"Shall I propose something?" Said Xain who'd been sitting at one of the operator consoles.

"Sure thing man... Shoot..."

"It'd probably be a good idea to piss Arjun off now."

"What benefit does it serve to agitate our enemies?" Alice asked sounding a bit beside herself with annoyance.

"Think about it... Arjun is reckless, even Lucian couldn't stop him from rushing forward. We get the king to leave his castle we can probably take him out."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

Xain began constructing a battle plan from his console and then swiped it over to the main screen. The icons for Crimson Lance, Emerald Shield, and Gold shield were in a triangular formation followed by Silver Lance, Diamond Shield, and Obsidian Lance.

"This formation should provide a sufficient break in the enemy's advance. Now if we play our cards right we should-"

Suddenly a warning signal blared over the intercoms followed by the image of a beam heading directly for the Asterism.

"Evasive Maneuvers now!" Alice shouted.

The helmsman pulled the ship's controls as far right as he could and the ship began to turn the same way as fast as it could. But it wouldn't be in time to avoid a direct hit.

The beam slammed into the ship's shielding and while it was partially diffused it broke straight through clipping the side of the hull. The beam itself looked similar to the one Lucian fired at Albion. The ship quaked violently and many warning signals flashed up on the screen.

"Moderate Damage detected at thruster 2," my A.I. stated. "Please take evasive action."

"Arcadia save us," I blurted out. "The hell was that?"

"It appears two cruisers are approaching the ship head-on," an Optima Operator answered. "They fired an unknown beam weapon and started scrambling more Ghosts."

"Dammit... Move us the hell out of here and deploy the Shield Unit. We can't allow them to breach the defensive line"

A communication request came up on the main screen, it'd been from Emerald shield. "I'm launching. Give me the order," Claire demanded.

Of all the times to be thickheaded but she could get out there faster than I could. "Fine, you're cleared for launch. Make sure Diamond and Gold shield launch with you."

"Roger that," she stated then the call ended. Turning to Talia first made sure she was ok. She hadn't fallen or anything, she just seemed a little shaken up.

"Hey Talia, get down to the Core room. You're the head honcho when it comes to the machines remember."

Talia nodded then turned and ran off to do her job. Before she could make it to the door it opened and there sat Minerva.

"Can someone tell me how in the blazes they managed to hit us"

"They've got two ships on their way here ma'am," a human operator said. "Please take a seat it could get bumpy."

Minerva started to march toward her chair until she stopped for a moment. She seemed to be a little perplexed by something to my right and when I turned to see it, it hit me.

Alice looked completely pissed off. Her expression contorted into some form of anger I'd never really seen before. She'd been gritting her teeth and cleaving her fist so hard I was worried something was going to break.

"Those bastards," she hissed biting down on her thumbnail as she looked at the screen. "How dare they... They'll pay."

The room began to grow colder as the seconds passed by, but that wasn't even the strangest thing.

Her hair was on fire. It was burning a bright blue color. She removed her cap and sat down in the commander's seat. After connecting with the Animus she stood back up again putting her cap on the seat. unbuttoning her coat, she took it off just enough to let it hang over her shoulders. Then she conjured Reitterpallach in her hand. The blue flames burned even brighter and they even ignited along the blade of her sword. Conversely, the room began to grow cold so cold in fact that I started seeing my breath. Everyone else began to shiver a little bit including Minerva and me.

"Claire... Claudia..." Alice called out. "I will need your assistance in buying us some time. Wreak havoc to your heart's content... Then dodge it if you can."

"Roger that," Claudia and Claire replied.

Reaching inside her coat, Alice pulled out a folding fan. With a swift motion, the fan unfolded and it depicted a rather excellently crafted picture of roaring waves. Holding the fan to her face she sat back down and crossed her legs.

"Soran!"

Y-Yes Ma'am!" I said, snapping to attention.

"Create fire to warm the room. I'll be absorbing some of it for a counter-attack."

Her chilling tone aside, something in me said, "whatever you do, don't make a fuss over it."

Opening my mechanical palm I created a campfire-sized flame and just stood there until told to do something else. Alice folded the fan again this time pointing it toward the screen. "All hands, prepare to fire the Stark Tachyon Cannon."

"Yes Ma'am!" the room chanted.

"Attention Crew of the Asterism," my A.I.'s voice boomed over the intercom. "The Stark Tachyon Cannon has begun its charging process. Please take caution as you traverse the ship."

The main monitor switched off and broke up into three separate displays. The first is a visual of Claire's Nightengale, which was speeding toward the enemy. The second was of the Kriemhild armed with an electromagnetic rail gun. It was positioned right on top of the ship with its feet anchored to the hull.

The final display depicted the enemy ships ahead of us along with a target reticule aimed directly between them. There was also a progress bar slowly loading showing the charging status of the ST-Cannon. The progress was already at ten percent and counting which was strange considering it just started charging.

My attention was split between that and the display of Claire speeding toward the enemy. The Nightengale raised its arms firing the Gatling guns at the platoon of enemies in front of her. She managed to cut down the first line while the second branched off attempting to flank her.

Portions of the Nightengale's chest, shoulder, and leg armor opened, and a swarm of missiles fired in a large cone in front of her catching the branching enemies before they could swarm her. Some of the enemy Ghosts were able to break free and began showering her in beam fire. The shields on Nightengale's backpack shifted to protect her from the beam fire. Firing the beam cannons at each machine, Claire blew them away only using one shot.

I was amazed at how well she'd been able to pilot the Nightengale considering this was her first time aboard an Eidolon. While the Animus did allow for an easier time for control, the fact that she was able to take down so many in her path was impressive.

It wasn't going to be enough to take down most of the platoon but she was making a sizable dent. Additionally, it seemed that Claire decided to be unnecessarily reckless and charged further ahead allowing some of the enemy to slip past her. As her Commander, I'd have to reprimand her for that later but she was probably in the middle of blowing off so steam.

The enemies that managed to slip past Claire were two Revenants and a Phantom. The Revenants themselves weren't going to be an issue but the Phantom might be. A highly maneuverable machine could easily cause a great among of disruption if allowed to roam freely.

Looking over to Claudia's display I sent her a quick message to handle the enemies coming for us. I wouldn't get a response via instant message but rather I saw the EM rail gun Kriemhild was holding begin to charge up. As electricity shot through the cannon's barrel, a projectile fired piercing through one of the enemy revenant's cutting it clean in half. It was at this moment I recalled a phrase I heard from one of my teachers. Sir Issac Newton was certainly the deadliest sonuvabitch in space.

By now the progress bar on the ST-Cannon was about forty-eight percent, which while a good thing still seemed a bit fast.

"Stark Tachyon Cannon energy levels rising... Commencing compression to critical levels. Asterism transitioning to Stark Tachyon Cannon firing mode."

With the A.I.'s announcement, a partition on the bow began to open revealing a massive cannon hidden underneath. As the barrel extended the heat from my flames began to grow even colder than before. It was as if it was getting siphoned by something else, but where?" I looked around until I found the source of the siphon. It was Alice herself. I knew she'd been siphoning the heat from the room but not from my flames. The heat was being channeled from Alice's Animus into the captain's chair. When I looked back at the ST-Cannon's progress it was getting even faster now. The cannon's charging rate had been at eighty-nine percent.

"You'll all pay," Alice spat through gritted teeth. "My very first friend that I ever made trusted me with this ship... Putting a scratch on it is the last thing you'll do!"

"Stark Tachyon Cannon transitioning to excited state. Warning... Abnormal energy levels have been detected, it is recommended that firing commence as soon as the charging process has been completed.

"Claire, disengage!" Alice ordered.

The Nightengale stopped its charge and turned around seeming to notice the ship getting ready to fire. It went full thrust speeding toward the left now to avoid being caught in the ship's crossfire.

"Stark Tachyon Cannon charging complete. Fire when ready."

Alice took in a deep breath and then pointed her sword directly at the main screen.

"Fire..!"

"Firing Stark Tachyon Cannon."