5602/Operation Quicksilver: Assault on Battery

Operation Quicksilver: Assault on Battery
Date of Scene:	10 December 2017
Location:	Hikari Sea Port
Synopsis:	First stage assault, break the defenses, open the way for further infiltration of the island.
Cast of Characters:	Shigure, 929, 385, Gaonoir

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Shigure has posed:
    The call's gone out, Shigure has called for aid in assaulting the Abyssal Base in the river delta. "I tasked some recon flights over the area... we may be facing shore battery emplacements, these will be higher caliber than anything we can field, but that is where our speed advantage comes into play... And I have refitted Yuudachi-chan with a prototype rocket launcher battery. This should give us an edge on the fortified emplacements." The blonde destroyer's rigging has a thirty-tube launch rail in place of one of the cannon turrets, it rotates, elevates then ratchets out into a firing position, before clipping back into place. She salutes, grinning like a mad woman. New Toys!

    The area of operations is that same lake. The island in the center now obviously fortified with large concrete bunkers. The group is spotted as soon as they breach into the lake space, little Abyssal Patrol Hawks flying around, shrieking alarms as they bank away toward the island.

    The Abyssals don't waste time engaging. Loud reports from 14inch cannons ring out, the muzzle flashes coming just before the shells start landing with great splashes and plumes of water around the two Destroyers, and anyone else on the water. "Break formation! Full evasion!" calls Shigure, peeling off to port, while Yuudachi peels starboard, splitting up and forcing the guns to split their fire.

    Meanwhile, a small form skulks in the shadows in the lee of another river, watching the group engage, before slinking back into the shadows, "We'll see if they can break through before helping 'em out." "Nnn, yeah... but I feel kinda bad for not being out there right now."

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    "Bunkers," Sakuya repeats. Lifting her gaze into the distance, the maid considers. This kind of warfare is beyond her expertise. And yet. The opponent is enough like a Youkai that her talents still apply. Just. Differently than usual. She nods once, "The enemy aircraft will be cleaned up. I leave tidying the shoreline of those unsightly fortifications to those with the proper tools."

    As the formation breaks into the lake and patrol hawks scatter, Sakuya ascends quite suddenly and disappears in that sudden way she does.

    She reappears an eye-blink later in the midst of the Abyssal aircraft formation, arms spread to either side. Silver-bladed knives wink into being in arcs to either side, as well, promptly hurling themselves towards bodies and engines, wings and tails.

    How unsightly these youkai can be. Time to work.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Given the chance of shore batteries, Yuna's decided to deploy in her Light Suit today - mostly because, back during the operation to reclaim Pearl Harbor, she had a fair amount of good luck attacking the fortifications and the big guns housed therein with El-Line. This *shouldn't* require anything as big as the Matrix Figure, though ... and if she has to go aquatic, well, that's why Marina is coming along. So are Jiina and Erina, of course - and it's Erina who's combined with Yuna's Light Suit as they all approach, the tiny form of Elner staying further up and, hopefully, out of sight of the Abyssals.

On the downside, it's her Fleet Daughter friends who come under fire first - and Yuna spends a brief moment trying to sort out whether those big cannons can actually shoot high enough up to threaten *her*, before deciding that it doesn't really matter that much. Sakuya's already going after the Abyssal aircraft; Yuna just pours on the speed, opening fire with Flight Form's pulse blasters as she dives towards one of those cannon emplacements. Jiina and Marina are close behind her, unleashing their own firepower - a heavy beam cannon in Jiina's case, and a minitorpedo launcher (or missile launcher, if you like) for Marina. All three of them are weaving and spiraling in different patterns as they bombard the target - and Yuna in particular looks like she'd rather plow headlong into the artillery battery than break off to let it keep shelling her allies ...

(She won't actually go that far, mind you - unless it looks like she needs to try melee-ing something.)

Gaonoir has posed:
    Move in fast and hit hard. That's right up Gaonoir's alley, and much of the reason why he's only in his Perfect stage. Yes, Umbra Gaogamon would be a heavier hitter and more durable. But literal on the heavier part which also makes that form slower, especially when flying. So it's better to stick with the faster jet-powered cyberdog that isn't going to be a big sitting target.

Dark MachGaogamon being more suited for this also made it easier to convince Erika to stay safely back at base. As much as he tried to remind himself he shouldn't care so much, he just doesn't trust dropping the girl into middle of a battlefield that's going to be hell on water, if the previous encounters are any indication.

A shell slams into the water as he rolls out of the way and barely skims ahead of the shower of water resulting from the impact. Pausing for a moment mid-air, he actually smirks a little. "Abyssals sure know how to greet company if nothing else." The second plume of water is from the backwash of his jet engines as he launchs back into motion towards the island. Fists clench at his sides, motes of black and purple energy starting to gather around the heavy metal gauntlets. "I can try to knock some of them out, but I gotta get closer."

For now he just peppers a few small shots of dark energy towards the batteries as he's closing in, seeing if he can't get some of the attention on him instead of the destroyers.

Shigure has posed:
    The Hawks shriek as they're skewered by those knives, some exploding outright as their engines detonate, others trailing smoke and beginning to spiral down, crashing into the island in little plumes of flame and ichor. Others manage to avoid the fussilade, for the most part, landing back at their origin point... and then come the Type 2 Abyssal Aircraft, Fighters climbing to engage Sakuya and Gaonoir, the latter getting a diving assault from the triple mounted autocannons of the Abyssal plane, accompanied by the high pitched whine of its jet engine. Abyssal Dive Bombers peel away, aiming to engage Yuudachi, who valiantly opens fire with her AA battery, A bomb strikes true, though, and the Blonde is left battered, but unbroken. "Heh, you're just making me angry, poi." she snarls, turning in to close range. "Yuudachi, Assaulting now!" The Weregarat ratchets out, and with a horrific growling whine, begins to shower the bunker that isn't being attacked right now, causing horrific damage to the outer shell, and revealing the cannon inside. It looks like a PT Imp got a giant cannon hat welded to it, the tiny frame shuddering under the weight, more a case of bracing the cannon than carrying it.

    The bunker being assaulted by Yuna and Gaonoir weathers the storm of fire a little better, the imps inside firing at Gaonoir, unable to elevate enough to attack Yuna as she dives in.

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    Sakuya's outline flickers, like film skipping a few frames, and the discarded knives she'd scattered disappear in the same instant. A single knife is lifted and, by spreading her fingers, promptly becomes multiple knives tucked neatly between her fingers. This is drawn up, then hurled down in an arc at the fighters ascending towards her. Her outline flickers again, and four knives becomes four dozen, all descending at high speed.

    The focus on attack pushes her to the defense immediately, however, as small caliber bullets riddle her airspace. Dropping several meters, the maid pauses, then dashes sidelong, eyes fixating on the scattering fighter formation while a new knife is procured. Her outfit is more tattered than it was when she started, though Sakuya doesn't seem to be paying much attention to it just yet.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The Matrix of Light finally pulls out of their dive - not so much 'breaking formation,' since they weren't in a terribly cohesive formation to start with, but peeling from mostly-vertical to horizontal flight and shedding most but not all of their respective speeds.

Yuna is closest to the battery's bunker, vambraces snapping closed over the pulse blasters before the Matrix Divider flares into existence in her hands. Rather than levelling it to shoot, though, she brandishes it much like the sword which the hybrid weapon also resembles; greenish-gold light blossoms around the barrel/blade assembly, crackles, flares bright -

"HYAAH!!"

- and as Yuna brings her weapon sweeping towards the nearest corner of the bunker's structure, she pulls a trigger, causing the focused energy to erupt with an added concussive impact, far more than if she'd just smacked the wall itself with the Matrix Divider.

While Yuna was occupied with that, Marina simply slipped beneath the water's surface, readying another volley of minitorpedoes - and in the immediate wake of Yuna's strike, the little projectiles fly, aimed to detonate among the barrels of that battery. Jiina, on the other hand, is moving to form up with Yuna - ready for the next stage of their attack on the bunker, if the battery is still firing ten or twenty seconds from now ...

Gaonoir has posed:
Gaonoir doesn't have much difficulty in evading the Imps' returning fire as he tries to close in on the bunkers. But plans change quickly when the Type 2 comes swooping in with it's autocannons blazing. With a growl he swings his lower body forward, looking almost as if skidding mid-air as he uses his jets to brake off some speed, and then kick back to rising into the air. Autocannon fire plugs away in the water, but he doesn't pull the maneuver unscathed either, the 'hit flash' effect of his digital physiology visible several times were shots score across his side while he's switching directions and diverting to a higher altitude.

Diverted but not undaunted there's stilly a fangy smirk on his face. "Oh good, an actual challenge."

At the peak of his rise Gaonoir flips over, and then comes rocketing back at the Type 2 aircraft from an upward angle. But unlike the fighter he doesn't start shooting, he speeds in fast and hard and then spins around as darkness congeals around one of his bionic legs, sending it lashing at the fighter. "ECLIPSE KICK!"

Shigure has posed:
    The Fighters take the knives, the blades lodging into their metal hulls. Some lose engine power and plummet out of the air before they can even gain any altitude, skidding to a stop in the treeline. The others continue onward, smoke pouring from the damaged sections, or ichor leaking into their wake, they retask onto Sakuya once she stops doing the evasion blinks for a moment, firing up their autocannons again. They've scored damage, even if superficial.

    Yuna's assault on the bunker causes the outer layers to spall off. The torpedoes crack the outer casing, exposing the impcannons inside. These brandish their cannons right in Yuna's face... but they're still clankclicking as their reload. Who will get there first?

    Gaonoir's engaging the Type 2 in melee! The craft rolls out and tries to break away but is caught in the engine by the kick, knocking it out of the air, into the water with a large splash. He's not engaged with just one, however, more swoop in, aiming to avenge their fallen wingmate.

    Shigure angles in to engage, lifting her cannon tonfa to fire into the air melee, tracer fire combining with the flak shells to sweep some of the aircraft away. "I'll take care of the air unit, finish off those bunkers!" she calls to Gaonoir. Yuudachi, meanwhile, reloads the rocket pod, and leaps up onto the island, pulling her knife to shank one of the cannon imps in the bunker she cracked open, her laugh ringing sweetly across the water... unhinged and bloodthirsty.

Gaonoir has posed:
That's one aircraft down, but it's not the only one as more start swooping in. "Hmph," is all Gaonoir responds with, even as he wheels around and with rockets red glare flies off, expecting the arriving fighters to give chase. "I need some distance anyways," he replies to Shigure.

See he's hardly running away. He's trying to lead his pursurers into Shigure's flak spread, using his superior maneuverability to pull out of the way at the last moment and shoot upward. Hopefully the Abyssal Type 2s will either be too focused on him or too slow to change directions and fly right into the flak fire.

An upward arc and spiral roll reorients him towards the island bunkers, and engines open the throttle back up to launch the jetdog blasting back towards them. Eyes narrow behind visor as scanners lock onto the target, and Gaonoir winds back with one of his energized metal gauntlets.

"KNUCKLE CRUSHER!"

And punches at the terminal point of the dive to bring the combination of speed and blunt force smashing down on top of a bunker.

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    The maid's eyes close, working through the ticking of seconds in the back of her mind. Keeping mental track of the flow of the battle in the air and on the island itself. Eyes snap open, and her silhouette loses what little color definition she had to begin with. Autocannon shells punch through her, creating large round holes that trail smoke. The maid's outline continues for several seconds, then disappears, winking out of existence.

    Sakuya herself has reappeared behind the formation pursuing her and currently punching holes through her, in that same instant that the color in the targeted maid had washed out. It's complicated. It's two maids in existence at the same time.

    It's [Clock Sign] Time Paradox.

    A single knife is produced, this time, and hurled at only one of the planes. The maid's outline flickers again, and the knife accelerates, but won't pierce. Instead, using magic, it is intended to ricochet amidst the fighter formation, striking and bouncing off as many as it can at extremely high speeds before the spell wears off.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
There's a flare of light as Yuna's Flight Form armor reverts to the basic Light Suit; Erina of the Sky reassembles herself next to Yuna, and takes to the air - right as Jiina of the Earth goes translucent, her shape phasing over and around Yuna's form, then disappears entirely as a wireframe 'outline' surrounds Yuna, pushing her up into the air so her feet no longer touch the ground. Yuna isn't left hovering long, though - the wireframe vanishes again, and the pieces of a large, exo-skeletal battlesuit begin materializing and connecting, both to the Light Suit and to each other. Yuna is left staring down the barrels of those cannons a lot longer than she'd like to (at least subjectively; objectively it's only a couple of seconds) -

But as soon as the transformation to Powered Form is complete, the big manipulator arms mounted above and outside of Yuna's shoulders come up, grabbing the barrels and starting to crumple them; Yuna would tie them into a literal knot if she had the patience and the manual dexterity for it. Meanwhile, the lenses set into the exo-arms' shoulders slide open, emitter arrays once hidden behind those covers crackling to life -

She brings the arms back down just before the beam cannons fire, trying to scour the battery entirely from whatever semblance of a foundation it was built on. The Imps themselves ... Yuna hopes they'll be okay (in the long term), but she doesn't think she has the time to be particularly gentle. Worst-case scenario, she thinks, should see them bouncing across ground, water, and/or whatever else lies behind her line of fire. That *shouldn't* include any of her allies.

Shigure has posed:
    The Type 2's are tunnel visioning on the Digidog. When he pulls up and away, they have but a split second to realize they're being shot at, before their fuselage split and fuel tanks erupt, sending them falling in burning pieces into the water around the black-haired Destroyer.

    Sakuya's maneuver earns a little confused chirp from one of the Abyssal aircraft, before that pinball-like knife starts cutting into them, severing fuel lines, puncturing oil tanks and severing ammunition lines. The craft rock, cant at odd angles, before dropping from the sky as their flight models are torn apart into uselessness. Some detonate on impact, others just slip beneath the water or just dig into the soft mud of the island side.

    Yuna's staring down the barrel of that (.45) 14inch cannon barrel. One reloads, but can't fire fast enough before the barrel is crushed. The imp literally explodes as the shell backfires, sending the turret cap spinning away into the treeline, and the imp crumpling into an ichor-leaking heap. The others try to scurry back and away, but get smashed by the Beam Cannons from the Powered Form, skipping back through the treeline, and across the water, sinking beneath the surface half way to the other bank.

    "ENOUGH!" booms a familiar voice, as Destroyer Escort Water Demon leaps out of the treeline, bringing her saber in an overhead chop at Yuudachi. The blonde shifts, and brings her knife up to parry, grunting from the sheer power of the strike as she skids back in the mud. She shoves, then leaps back onto the water, firing a broadside of her 12.7cm cannons back at the Demon.

Gaonoir has posed:
Gaonoir is just pulling back from the assaults on the bunkers when DEWD (seriously that name is too long to spell out) comes leaping out into the fray in a fight of fury. His attention snaps in her attention as she descends on Yuudachi, visor sensors locking in on her as he rises back into the air. Fists clench at his sides and much like the Big Bad Wolf of lore he appears to suck in a heavy breath from the air around him.

"MACH. DARK. VORTEX!"

The previous anology continues as he heaves forward and lets loose the charged attack, sending a spiraling force of wind and dark energy surging towards Destroyer Escort to try and push her away from Yuudachi before the latter's defenses can be broken.

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    On its final ricochet, the knife thrown by Sakuya is caught, and the maid twirls with a flourish. There's no immediate air threat remaining, but she certainly expects more to be launched from their youkai master. That figure bursts forth to engage Yuudachi in close combat and the maid considers her for a moment, as the destroyers engage with all the fury of enraged animals that she's come to expect.

    Could the human ship girl also be a youkai? They do ping similarly to her senses, after all. A question for another time.

    The maid sweeps her hand in an arc, leaving a trail of knives twirling in the wake of the gesture. These orient, then surge downward on the Destroyer Escort Water Demon, followed by Sakuya herself descending heels-first. She'd heard Kochiya refer to this as a 'Mario Stomp', whoever that may be, but the intention of attacking with her weight and then springing off is sensible enough.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna winces a little at the sight of that one imp's crumpled form, but hopefully she'll be okay. The others, she doesn't get a chance to look closely at; Yuna just hopes for the best for them ...

And then there's a Water Demon. Destroyer class, is Yuna's first thought - although her appearance isn't that close to Lamson's Abyssal form. Yuna's next thought is of her beam cannons - but she JUST fired them, they won't be ready to fire again so quickly.

Also, Sakuya is attacking the Water Demon already, and Yuna doesn't want to risk her heaviest firepower that close to an ally. Not from this distance, anyway. Yuna weighs her options quickly, sorting through ideas; ironically, *now* she wishes she had her light-cruiser loadout ...

"Jiina, form up with Erina and be ready to provide cover," Yuna instructs, and her Powered Form disassembles. "Marina!" the blonde calls out while Jiina is reassembling; the third of her 'doubles' immediately comes back out of the water - and after another transformation, Yuna splashes down, in Marine Form, to head out and join her allies.

Her approach is preceded by a few crackling bolts from the Matrix Divider, flying up from water to air to Abyssal, aimed perfectly despite the difference in refraction between the two. Also aimed to carefully avoid Sakuya or Gaonoir; from *this* angle, that's not so difficult ...

Shigure has posed:
    DEWD recoils from the impacts of Yuudachi's shells, engulfed for a moment in black smoke from the High explosive detonations. She cuts the air with her saber, and returns fire, her 5inch guns lobbing shells back at Yuudachi, who skids backward. Yuudachi ratchets the Werfgarat out again, opening fire again with the 30 tubes, until one jams in the rack and detonates, adding to the damage. She drops to a knee, leaking oil from a gash in her side. "Mmmmoooh, Baka! I can't keep on fighting like this." Shigure skates up, scooping her sister up and turning to flee.

    Gaonoir's assault staggers the Demon, causing her to cross her arms before her face, which leaves her open for the attack from above by Sakuya. The knives stab into her skin, causing black ichor to leak across alabaster skin, and the dive kick makes her sink a little into the mud... though the Demon does sweep her saber up in a riposte, trying to shoo the maid away.

    Yuna's bolts slam into the Demon's back, staggering her again which also makes her even angrier. "I TORE THE NOSE OF A CRUISER DON'T THINK I WON'T BREAK YOU OVER MY KNEE THE SAME WAY!" she roars, dropping torpedoes into the water to chase after Yuna, while her AA battery opens up on Gaonoir, little jabberjaws unfolding from around her shoulders, spitting(Almost literally) tracer fire up at the black digimon.

    That's when new movement comes in from behind the formation. "Shimushu, Pincer attack!" cries a pink haired girl, looking barely into her early teens as she breaks cover and comes in from the left at the Demon. "R-Right! Got it Kunachii!" replies a paleblonde girl in return.

    The pair move quickly, and fire cannons at the disoriented and overwhelmed Demon, before they close for a cross strike! Pink going high, Blonde going low, sending the Demon into a flat spin, and ending face down in the mud.

Gaonoir has posed:
Gaonoir stops and hovers, holding up his gauntlets in front of himself defensively as DEWD opens her artillery maws to return fire. AA rounds slam into the bionic limbs, sending sparks shooting through the air. It's not enough to knock him out of the air but it does leave spiderwebs of fractures forming along the surface of the gauntlets and some of the murky digital darkness of his innards visible underneath. For a few moments before the digital energy reforms a grid-frame and some Dark Digitron seals itself over the cracks before they break farther and aggrivate the damage already farther.

Shit, looks like the prototype weapon had a little backfire problem. Shigure's got her, but that's going to be an opening for the enemy...

... Or not, as two different ship girls storm into the fight and send the DEWD sprawling face to the ground. ".. If she's smart, she'll stay down." But Gaonoir remains hovering at ready should she not, to make sure Shigure has enough time to get the damaged Yuudachi clear.

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    Sakuya's kick plants all of her weight on Destroyer Escort Water Demon, but only for a second or so. As the Demon swings her sword up, the maid is already springboarding off the smaller girl's shoulders, hurling herself into a flip. A knife is brought to bear, but only in a defensive fashion, something metal for the saber to slam into. Regardless, the force pushes Sakuya several meters back through the air, floating upside-down.

    As she slows down, she rights herself, ready to engage, when a pair of small girls dash into the fray in her place. Sakuya considers their actions for a moment, knife still held ready. After they bring the Demon down, though, Sakuya drifts closer.

    Her outline flickers as she comes to a stop a meter or so in front of the Destroyer Escort Demon. In that instant, countless knives bury themselves into the mud all around the stricken shipgirl, including several between her fingers. Not one actually wounds the downed Abyssal, though.

    With a trio of knives tucked between her own fingers, Sakuya cradles her chin with her free hand, displaying the fan of blades. Her goal is intimidation.

    "I have no interest in killing you. Surrender now."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The roar from the Water Demon is quite enough to send Yuna swimming *away* again, or at least breaking off from her attack run and heading in a lateral direction. The torpedoes make an excellent reason to do much the same - but with an even greater quantity of speed. She isn't relying on evasion alone, though; Yuna sneaks a look 'back' at the pursuing torpedoes, aims the Matrix Divider in their direction, and tries to blow them back out of the water.

By the time she's finished dealing with those torpedoes, the Water Demon has been .... pretty much blown out of the water, almost literally at that. Yuna warily pokes her head up above water, Marine Form's 'helmet' still enclosing her head and neck, the rest of her body hidden inside the mermaid-like armor.

Meanwhile, following Yuna's orders, Jiina and Erina are flying above the withdrawing destroyers, ready to interpose themselves in the event of any parting shots from the Abyssals, or to offer Yuudachi additional support so that she doesn't slip below the surface.

Shigure has posed:
    There's a scream, like a banshee, from further in the island. This transitions into more air power being thrown out as the Princess senses her Demon under threat. The planes are unorganized, scrambling to engage. The Pink and Blonde girls move to flank Sakuya, leveling their guns on the downed Demon, who doesn't even move... save to lift her head and glower.

    The two Escorts grab the Demon, lifting her bodily out of the knife silhouette and start carrying her off in the wake of the two destroyers, their turrets tracking to fire back at the pursuing aircraft. "We've got the prisoner, cover us!" calls the Pink-hair.

Gaonoir has posed:
Ears stiffen at the shrieking coming from inland. "Somebody is pissed." Duh, obviously. Shigure is getting their wounded ally clear, and the surprise duo is hauling out the Demon. Prisoner is prisoner, can't really argue with who's grabbing them at the moment.

He turns his attention to the large, if somewhat disorganized glut of aircraft being launched after them. "Guess we'll have to slow them down a bit." He smirks, which makes it all the easier to notice the little arcs of electricity that crackle between his fangs for a moment. He cocks his head in the direction of the oncoming onslaught, gaze narrowing as his sensors ping as many of the inbound craft as it can manage to lock onto. He's not going to be able to get all of them, but he's not the only one here, either.

"HOOOWLBACK CANNOOOOOOOOON!" The digimon draws on his disruptive power and fires a wide dispersing electrified shockwave into the path of the incoming attackers, it's effect much like that to an EMP pulse combined with the sonic feedback. Because digimon powers are weird, yo.

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    "Of course," Sakuya comments when requested to cover the retreating escorts and their prisoner. Her outline flickers again, the knives on the ground disappearing in an instant while she glances up towards the disorganized mess of fighters, bombers, and patrol hawks filling the darkening sky. Her lips curl slightly downward with a light 'hm' sound. The rare display of emotion from the Perfect and Ordinary Maid. Annoyance.

    The silver watch is produced, and she flips it open as if checking the time. Her other hand holds out, producing a physical talisman-- a simple card with a decorative back design, runes covering the front, "Spell Card. Time Sign." While the card itself disappears in a blue flash, a spell circle erupts around the maid's feet, spinning clockwise, while a second spreads out to spin counterclockwise, "Imaginary Vertical Time."

    A single knife is produced and thrown-- It stops nearly the instant it leaves Sakuya's hand, then spreads into phantasmal 'paradox' versions of itself. Which quickly propagate into lines of knives in arcs, following every possible trajectory that one knife could have followed depending on where she had released it.

    When the possibilities have propagated to her liking, Sakuya snaps her watch cover closed, and each instance of that single knife suddenly becomes its own physical object, dozens of blades hurling into the swarm of aircraft in multiple arcing directions. Multiple temporal possibilities for one knife collapsed into the same paradoxical instant by the Luna Dial.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
That really is a lot of Abyssal aircraft, Yuna thinks to herself as she sees what that blood-chilling scream has heralded. They're not in any kind of organized formation, which might be a good thing ...

But that doesn't change the fact that without her light-cruiser loadout, the aerial maneuverability of Flight Form, or the heavy beam-artillery of Powered Form, there is very literally almost nothing Yuna can do to hold off the approaching mass of fighters, bombers, and who knows what else. Sure, she has *some* firepower, and she might even be able to take a few planes out with her current armament - but not enough of them, and not quickly enough or reliably enough to keep her friends and their new allies safe.

Yuna turns and starts swimming after Shigure, Yuudachi, and now the two new Fleet Girls and their prisoner, letting the Matrix Divider disappear as she goes. Once she catches up with the two destroyer girls from Hikari, she might be able to switch up to Flight Form - just in case there's still a battle to be fought - but Elner is right: getting out while the getting is good really does seem like the best available option. Besides, she notices, Gaonoir and Sakuya are doing *plenty* of damage.

Elner is, at this point, flitting away from its aerial-surveillance spot of choice, flying down to rendezvous with Yuna and the rest of the Matrix of Light.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure keeps pushing her engine, little smoke stacks emerging from her cannon rig, pouring out thick black smoke as her engine struggles with dragging her sister's dead weight along with her. "You should just, like, leave me behind Sis..." says Yuudachi, one eye pinned closed by a black stain, the other, burning a very unhealthy looking red. "I'm useless. Should just let them sink me." is she slipping? The blonde's legs are clearly slipping further into the water. "No. You're coming back with us Yuudachi. Stop talking like that. That's an order."

    The mass of aircraft comes in, swooping and shrieking. Gaonoir's EMP knocks some of them clean out of the air, plunking into the water as their systems shut down. The ones that don't get EMP'd, get knifed, many getting skewered by multiple blades and blossoming into flowers of expanding fuel and detonated ammunition. The swarm seems unending though, as that wail of rage becomes one of anguish, then despair, as the Princess feels the Demon's presence slowly fading as the distance increases.

    Eventually, the aircraft stop coming, and any that survived, turn back as a small voice speaks in utter despair. "Don't take her away from me... we're all each other has left..."

Gaonoir has posed:
There is, for a moment, a faint twitch breaking Gaonoir's demeanor. Claims like that just bring back all the half-truths he was fed to keep him working for his previous masters.

"Let's get out of here while there's a break in their forces," is all he's actually going to say on the matter, turning and jetting off in the direction Shigure carried off Yuudachi.

Sakuya (929) has posed:
    The Perfect and Ordinary Maid floats backwards from her initial landing point, observing the chaos wrought by her spell card as well as Gaonoir's weapon. Her mouth is a tense, straight line, expression largely impassive. It's only when the planes give in to their losses and start retreating that she lowers the knife in her hand. It disappears with little fanfare.

    "Separation is temporary. You will be reunited shortly."

    Once Taffy, too, is captured. Though she doesn't feel a need to point that out.

    The maid turns about, then, and floats in pursuit of the little girls and the disabled Demon they're carrying.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna quickens her pace, coming up alongside Yuudachi and Shigure, angling in next to the red-eyed blonde. "No sinking, Yuudachi," she says sternly. "Nagato would keelhaul us under her *own* keel if we didn't bring you home. I don't think she's forgotten our losses during Rei-Go, even if everyone's been accounted for since then ..."

That despairing voice speaks out from behind her, and Yuna's heart cracks just a little more. But she continues onwards - ready to physically prop Yuudachi up if necessary, or to bodily carry her on her own if it comes to that.

She can't do anything for the Abyssal grieving an increasing distance behind her. She *can* do something to keep one of her friends from slipping under the waves - and by all the shining gods of heaven, she *will* see that Yuudachi makes it back to Hikari.

Shigure has posed:
    Yuudachi closes her remaining eye, chuckling softly as Yuna and Shigure tell her off. "Eeeeh, fine, fine..." she capitulates, leaning on both as they support her. Once they're out of the lake, it's a clear run back to the forward operating base at the sea-wash station where the delta pours out into the ocean proper.

    The voice doesn't come again, only a soft, hiccuping sob that echos across the water as the others leave. The two new girls continue to carry the unresisting Demon between them, while said Demon just stares into the muddy water as she's dragged away.