Chapter Twenty-Four - Wednesday Night IV - Critical Strike

After fifteen minutes or so into our little reunion discussion with the dear Saho sisters, a 7.5 tonne truck arrived, which cut our time a bit short.

A man and woman emerged from the cabin, with the guy announcing that they came on behalf of YHI and had come to deliver us a set of turboprop motors.

Initially my mind filled with excitement but also concern; my strength still remained pretty depleted, so I wouldn’t have been particularly comfortable working on the things straight away, despite the fact that we probably didn’t have the luxury of time, following the operation we pulled off over ten hours earlier.

Putting my own rough condition aside, the issue of actually lifting the things would have been a bit of an issue. The girls are strong, but strong enough to hold up 330 kilos for a sustained length of time? They’d probably all end up looking as ragged as me by the time I’d finished bolting one to the mounts, especially considering that we’d have to go through that process four times.

I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when the first of the motors left the back of the truck held aloft by a relatively small (metre long and metre wide) tracked robot. Times like that, I reflected on how I’d treated our kitten and laughed; she’s a bit of a risky bet, but she does definitely bring big returns if you’re willing to take the apparently long odds.

After the little robot trundled into the hangar and raised the motor into place, it took little more than ten minutes to bolt up each of them, so we were done with that part not too long after midday. That only left the various things that connected to them, namely the fuel system and my absolute (not) favourite; the electronics and sensors.

The others (well, Hikari and Kasumi) insisted on helping me, but I shrugged them off. As much as I appreciated their offer, I still felt pretty guilty about making them worry so much and forcing them to put up with me not being able to join them in combat. None of them had really said anything, aside from the playful jabs, but a part of me genuinely believed that I’d been a complete liability when they most needed me to do what I should do best. Their polite and friendly behaviour constantly prodded at my heart and mind; after what I’d put them through, their compassion was more than I deserved.

My own internal conflict aside, the lingering issue of the document that Koneko managed to find also continued to subconsciously gnaw away at me, so when evening arrived, I decided to track off from connecting the flight deck of the C-130 to the new motors.

I decided that the time to face the music (and hopefully lighten a bit of the load that bore down pretty fiercely on my conscience) had come, no pun intended.

As my luck would have it, she happened to be in our room. So far as I knew, Tsubaki and Hikari were busy making dinner, so the likelihood that we’d be interrupted was fairly low. With that in mind, my heart rate sped up a decent bit and my breathing became somewhat laboured and sharp, as I sought the notebook leaf by calmly rummaging through the drawers nearby (what had up until last night been) my bed and eventually searching underneath it.

Mercifully, after pulling my arm back from underneath the bed and turning to face the other bed, Kasumi either remained blissfully unaware that I’d been searching for something, or wilfully chose to simply let me get on with it until whatever point I requested her help. Although being sat on the bed didn’t really give her much of a height advantage, the low angle that I peered up to her from still amplified how dominant her presence could be, even when not standing tall.

Fighting off any thoughts borne of desire and affection for her, I meekly suggested, ‘Um, sorry to interrupt your reading, but do you mind if I show you something quickly?’

‘I don’t mind,’ she calmly replied, turning her head to face me and shuffling across the bed slightly, as if to invite me to take a seat beside her.

I might as well have been back in that cockpit last night, patiently waiting for the ASDF to wipe us out of the sky. I’m almost certain that sweat verged on gathering around my underarms, so tense I’d become in the lead-up to giving her the page. I probably looked like a cardboard cut-out with how stiffly I ambled over to her bedside, before setting myself down beside her at the head of the bed, shoulder to shoulder.

I didn’t feel like I had the energy to look her in the eyes, so I hoped that I could get away with rather casually handing her the sheet while softly informing, ‘I wrote this for you.’

After the note had passed from my hands to hers, the rest of the world essentially faded into insignificance while I waited. No sounds, sights, smells, or tastes; only the wild beating of my heart and the slightly painful sensation that lingered in my respiratory system with each tense breath.

Rather than wait for her to give a thorough grilling, which would probably have left me burned to a crisp, before long, I drew on whatever little energy and strength I had left, to confess, ‘I’m sorry.’ Probably unsurprising, but my voice faltered. Pretty unbecoming of a military captain, I know, but in that moment, Kasumi was all that mattered and I couldn’t hide my vulnerability behind physical strength and gusto.

‘I should have been more aware and should have done a better job at keeping myself out of trouble’s way. When I woke up however many hours later, I felt terrible, thinking about what that must have been like for you; watching yet another person close to you hurrying on their way to death and leaving you. I know there isn’t really anything that I can say that’d fix anything but—’

I had more to say, but I’d been quite firmly stopped.

I say firmly; in reality it was a fairly soft left hand on my chin and a bit of my right cheek.

The hand guided my face in the very direction that I’d been too afraid to look in. As much as I wanted to resist, I knew that ultimately, I couldn’t escape and that following the hand’s guidance was probably for the best.

My face ended up maybe ten or so centimetres from hers and she looked me straight in the eyes. I might as well have been a balloon excessively inflated and ready to pop with the amount of internal tension that had built up within me; a state only made more precarious by the sight of her handsome face and mesmerising eyes leaving me powerless to do anything besides wait in agony for her judgement.

She smirked and gave a little smile.

My mind went blank; confusion left me not knowing where to initiate a train of thought, so I didn’t bother trying.

‘It’s okay. You’re alive and on your way back to normal; that’s the most important thing. I could give you a hard time about it, but I think holding onto this lovely little poem alongside the sticky note will be a good enough reminder to you on what you’ve learned in the past few days.’

She briefly flashed another slight smile after she concluded her coolly-delivered verdict. I pondered telling her that I love her in that moment, but honestly felt I didn’t deserve the right to make such a self–indulgent statement. Not really knowing what else would have suited the situation, I leaned against her more heavily and gently wrapped my arms around her, before the words softly drifted from my lips.

‘Thank you. For everything.’

❀

As the sun’s presence had almost been waved away completely, with the stars and almost-full moon entering the stage, with only faint traces of blue on the far horizon. One woman, with an orange highlight in her brown hair sat on the floor of the hangar, surrounded by an assortment of trigger modules, barrels, upper receivers and bolts, among other components, along with cloths, a bottle of neutral cleaning fluid and brushes.

‘Seriously; do you two clean your weapons, like, ever?’ the captain asked.

‘Um, sometimes?’ the younger woman with short hair and a cherry red streak shrugged.

Displaying the back of her hand to Aki, ‘Not often enough, young lady. If these nails get chipped or too fouled, I’m totally billing you for a new bottle of gel polish. This stuff wasn’t easy to find,’ Renka asserted. If we get a continuation story, I’m definitely gonna look for some short acrylics…

‘Right, right, Captain. We get it.’

‘We? Your sister’s grenade launcher’s in pretty good shape, to be honest. It’s just your SCAR that’s a mess. These things foul up even quicker when you’re running them suppressed, so you should clean them fairly regularly.’

‘Don’t worry, Captain. I’ll make sure she takes better care of it. I am the more responsible of us after all,’ the sister with a double ponytail hairstyle reassured, with a smug smile.

‘Here we go,’ Aki exasperatedly remarked, rolling her eyes. ‘How often should I clean it, Captain?’

‘Ideally after each mission, but that’s a bit time–consuming, so maybe once every four or five hundred rounds. That’s what’s recommended for my SD and that thing, awesome as it is, fouls up faster than most, if not all comparable modern weapon systems.’

‘Sorry to break up this little maintenance party, ladies, but I think we’re ready to head out now.’

‘Ehh? Sensei’s really immersing herself in the role of dedicated strategist,’ Renka playfully remarked. ‘Would you care to inform me what you’ve got planned while we finish up here?’

‘While I ran through the entire list of CSS facilities and studied each of their descriptions, there was one which stood out as strange. The details of it were fairly vague, but using a process of elimination, I have a good idea of what it might be. Personally, I think it’s a stupid place to put a facility of that purpose, but I guess their main priority was and is to keep anybody from accessing whatever’s stored there…’

Narrowing her eyes and sharply glaring at Tsubaki, Renka suggested, ‘You’re being awfully ambiguous, Sensei.’

‘We’re going to need a boat and possibly our wetsuits again. If the sisters are coming with us, then we’ll have to plan around that. Also, from what I could see, the site doesn’t have any human staffing, so we should probably be prepared for a sturdy digital defence system.’

Hikari’s eyes darted to the doctor as she uttered her final sentence.

So much for subtly asking for more specificity. Sarcastically, Renka remarked, ‘So, we’re heading out to sea again. This’ll be fun; there’s no way that the MSDF aren’t on increased alert, probably along with the ASDF as well. So, what exactly did you have in mind? Also…’ The captain’s gaze drifted across to and rested on the black and purple-haired woman. ‘Is there something you’d like to share with the rest of the class?’

‘Well, um, not anything meaningful; the details of this op are already pretty crazy… When I pilfered that processing unit from one of their development facilities, they had testing models of massive walking autonomous robots with railguns for arms. In other words; we go in there and there’s a chance we’ll be burned to a crisp by one of them.’

‘Well, you managed to survive an encounter without your then not–girlfriend’s help, so it can’t be that bad, surely?’

Hikari replied, with a nervous chuckle, ‘I only escaped because there was only one of them, and that bitch ran out of power or had some other malfunction.’

‘Right,’ Renka tentatively replied. ‘It’s a good thing I’m still not particularly fit for direct combat engagements then, I guess,’ she added, with a playful smile.

‘Real classy, Cap.’

‘Pfft, please. Unlike you, if I were fit, I’d be totally excited to face off against and almost get fried by some evil mech-droid thingy.’

‘Good to know that poisoned bullet hasn’t affected your weirdness,’ Hikari murmured, with a small warm smile. I doubt your girlfriend would be happy to hear it though…

Why would you encourage her though? After emphatically taking a deep breath, Tsubaki continued, ‘Seeing as our guests are insistent on coming with us, I guess they could help us with getting into that site. If it has what I think it does, they can also help with keeping the robots busy while I get what we need. Once we’ve got that, then obviously we leave them a calling card before scampering away, hopefully not into the crosshairs of your SDF colleagues.’

Again, peering with narrowed eyes through her glasses, Renka queried, ‘You really are adamant that I shouldn’t have many details, aren’t you?’

With a playful smile, Hikari replied, ‘Yep; we want it to be a bit of a surprise. Consider it our get-well-soon gift to you and a “haha; hold this big bag of Ls” for them.’

Turning back to the sisters, Renka blankly asked, ‘And you two are certain you want to be a part of this?’

‘Unbeknownst to you, Captain, putting aside the fact that we can be useful to you, it’s very much in our interest to assist you, so, yeah,’ Aki replied, with a mischievous smile.

❀

Under the nearly-clear skies and almost perfectly circular moon which loomed large above, a white Lancer Evolution VII and light grey RX-7 turbo barrelled north east along a variety of expressways. The almost two-hour journey featured a number of pauses where the women loudly and spectacularly cleared a number of gang roadblocks, with the assistance of gas, stun and experimental electric charge grenades sent hundreds of metres or so from the barrel of Saki’s MSGL (when the black and pink-haired spotter determined there to be no risk of civilian casualties, of course).

The high-speed dash concluded, with both groups coming to a stop at a bay within a 60km radius of the capital city.

A bit after 10pm; the night is young and ripe for another shitstorm, I guess. I’d better savour the sight of the moon’s bright shimmer on the sea’s surface while I can, Renka pondered, keeping her eyes fixed on the tranquil surface of the open waters as she headed from the just-closed front passenger door of the Evo, to its rear.

After the four-minute or so period where the women prepared their equipment, Renka warmly remarked, ‘Look at you, Sensei; a week ago you were too embarrassed to wear that thing and now you’re fine stripping in front of everybody to put it on without hesitation,’ with a teasing smile.

‘If; we don’t have the luxury of wasting time on being embarrassed now, do we?’

‘Uwah; Sensei’s evolved. At some point we’re gonna have to come up with a new nickname for you.’

‘Please don’t.’ Of course, you’d be snickering; two peas in one idiotic pod you two are… Turning to the black and purple-haired woman, the doctor issued a sharp glare, ‘Don’t go getting any ideas.’

‘Yes, master!’

Sigh.

‘We’re all set, right? If we head down to the shore, we can get this operation underway? I can see you’re about to ask something, Cap. Please save it for when we’re at the water’s edge,’ Hikari playfully advised, with a wink.

After the short descent, from the cold, hard paving of the parking area, to the soft, sandy stretches of the shore, the women came to a halt at the edge of the slightly darker regions where the waves peacefully broke after rolling up the beach.

‘Okay, so which one of you wants to explain why we have a twin–motor tactical RIB here?’ Renka enquired, keeping her eyes fixed on the all-black watercraft.

‘Well, after we finished with that beach clear-out two Fridays ago, I asked one of the locals to keep hold of the boat for me, in case I needed it. Once Tsubaki came up with the details, I requested that they drop it off for us, so here we are,’ Hikari confirmed, with a pleased smile.

‘Good work, Koneko. I think you owe her a treat, Sensei.’

Rolling her eyes, Tsubaki wearily replied, ‘Please, Captain; don’t encourage her. We agreed on no funny business until you’re back to normal.’

‘Ah,’ the captain whimpered.

That’s done the trick superbly. A bit heavy-handed perhaps, but whatever…

Note to self; teach Tsubaki how to read the room… ‘Okaayy; how about we get going; we don’t want to keep our guests out too late two nights in a row now, do we?’ Hikari lightly suggested.

Quietly, almost the entire group of women boarded the 6.8-metre-long inflatable boat, with the captain at the helm.

The black and pink-haired member of the party shoved the tail of the boat, allowing it to harmlessly bob on the water’s surface. Once she clambered aboard and sat down cross-legged in the space ahead of the control panel with her G28 in her lap, the pair of outboard motors spluttered into life and soon after, the watercraft surged forward, painting a white trail on the sea’s surface behind it.

With the pair of outboard motors almost permanently run at around 6000 RPM and the boat majestically leaping from large wave to large wave amid the wild sprays from the seas, the women covered the four-kilometre distance to their target in slightly less than four minutes.

Well, this is certainly something; a large, very nondescript almost monolithic dark-grey structure in the middle of the sea. Pretty sus, to be honest, even if it does look completely harmless. At least they have sheltered unloading bays?... As the engines settled to a low burble and the boat drifted toward a metal walkway in a dark cave like feature of the building, the boat’s pilot suggested, ‘I guess I’ll be sitting around and watching the escape route then? Not sure how sharp my shooting’ll be, but as long as the SDF don’t turn up, I should be alright without you all helping me out. That said, I hope you plan on being quick in there.’

‘Do you think you could back us up a bit, Cap? If there are doors to this place, they definitely don’t make their presence known, that and I don’t think they’d be willing to grant us entry even if we did find them.’

‘As you wish, Kitten.’

‘Thanks, Cap.’

‘Judging by the fact that the rest of you have your weapons primed, am I correct in thinking that we’re all ready to give them another kicking?’

‘Yes, Captain!’

‘Well, have fun in there.’

The lady with a twin-ponytail hairstyle joined Kasumi in the front area of the boat and raised the muzzle of her M32A1.

After alighting onto the nearby platform, with two light clanks and puffs of smoke from the end of the launcher’s barrel, a pair of small projectiles quickly flew through the dark area.

In under a second, a rapturous blast, brutal shaking, and wild eruption of a deep grey cloud preceded an all-encompassing blaring.

Hastily, the five women charged through the large, misshapen hole which had been roughly bored into the building at the far end of the docking bay.

Hurriedly, Tsubaki commanded, ‘Sayaka, could you please descend as far into the building as possible, if you spot any large clusters of data storage units or computers of any type, then please alert me.’

Almost instantly, the whizzing drone surged ahead of the group of women and vanished from view, rapidly diving straight down the central cavity of the structure.

A loud and heavy rolling sound could barely be heard beneath the dominant ring of the alarm. Almost instantly after the noise ceased, a crisp crack emitted with the almost white flash that ripped across from the other side of the metal circular perimeter walkway drew the eyes of all five women.

‘Fuck!’

Following a clatter, the women turned to find Aki clutching at her upper left arm, grimacing and quietly grunting.

‘Are you, okay, Sis?’

‘It’s fine; it’s just a burn; unlike the shirt, it’ll be pretty easy for me to sort o—’

Another white flash filled the area as Hikari tackled both sisters to the ground.

‘Sorry girls, but that motherfucker won’t give us time to chat,’ Hikari hastily advised, before shouting another command, ‘Tsubaki; give us all of the protection that you’ve got.’

With a silent nod from the doctor, the three women clambered back on their feet and collected their weapons as yet another white–hot trail sped across the central cavity.

‘So, um, does anybody have any ideas on how we deal with that thing? It’s kind of blocking the stairs.’

‘This might sound stupid, but why don’t we try pushing it over?’

Four derisive stares fixed on the shorter-haired sister.

‘Saki has electric shock rounds, so maybe we could temporarily disable it and either topple it over or send it falling however many storeys down to the bottom. Look at its legs; I highly doubt that thing could right itself if it ended up on its back.’

‘Well, we’ve got nothing else, so I guess it’s worth a shot,’ Hikari shrugged.

As each step from the hulking robot shook the metal walkway and bright flashes raged forth from its arms, Saki extracted the HE grenades from the MSGL’s rotating drum and quickly slotted in yellow and black shells. After winding back the rotating drum mechanism, she quickly raised the launcher and with a pull of the trigger, sent the little capsule arcing across the central cavity.

Just as I’d hoped; the robot’s sparking, the light’s gone off and it’s temporarily stopped moving. With no hesitation, Aki sprinted toward the large, still mass which stood on the far area of the walkway, thrusting the entirety of her weight against it through her right shoulder with a forceful shoulder barge. Shit; immovable object!?

Less than a second after Aki rebounded off the hard metal exterior of the robot’s upper section, both her sister and Hikari also pushed against it using their shoulders.

Uwah; the sight of those thighs at work… With a brief flick of her head, Aki joined the other two women in pushing against the inert mass of metal and circuitry.

After a short while, the towering figure began to lean over and soon after, the impact of the robot striking the walkway rumbled strongly enough force to women a short distance into the air.

Will it be stuck like a turtle? Who knows… ‘Let’s get going before it gets back into action,’ Hikari hastily suggested, as the women admired the results of their collective effort.

With quick nods, the women scuttled down the winding staircase, toward the next circular walkway level.

Lovely; another swarm of drones. Without warning any of the other women, Kasumi darted to the inner railing of the walkway, set her footing a shoulder’s width apart and emitted a loud C4 note in the direction of the swarm of buzzing quadcopters which had suddenly appeared and begun to fill the air with bold yellow and black projectiles and subsequently, bright white flashes.

Again, the structure experienced a fierce rumbling, as the beautifully sung note competed with the alarm for a short while and threatened to become the overpowering source of sound within the building.

…and there they go. I hope they don’t land and damage something that we need lower down… As the last of the flying attackers initiated a wayward tumble from their attacking positions, Kasumi abruptly cut her wail and invited the alarm to assert its dominance once more.

‘Uwah,’ the sisters synchronously and distractedly remarked, their eyes fixed on the black and pink-haired woman.

‘Yes, you two; she’s marvellous. You can admire her all you like later on, come on!’ Hikari loudly urged, flapping her arms while standing at the top of another swirling metal staircase.

The next few minutes saw the team of ladies quickly flit down seemingly endless similar staircases as they descended deeper into the dimly-lit cylindrical space.

‘Eek!’ Tsubaki squealed as the low lighting rapidly brightened.

Hikari turned back and as warmly as her voice would allow while still hurrying along the metal walkways, ‘Just keep moving, Hon. So long as you can keep us covered until we get down there, it won’t be a problem for you,’ she offered the then whimpering doctor.

Yeah; if I wasn’t used to this, I’d be scared too, especially since I got a glimpse of what’s slinging those 50 BMG rounds our way… There’s only two levels left, so we better get that game plan ready now… Still following behind Kasumi, Hikari forcefully questioned, ‘How much ammo do you have left, Saki?’

’Ten HE and ten electric shells; four of those e-shells are in the drum.’

‘Good, when we get down there, I’ll need you to strike the almighty tank–looking thing as soon as you can and keep hitting it if/ when the anti-surge system makes it wake up. Keep hitting it even if I’m sat on top of it, okay?’

Even if you’re sat on top of it!?! Have you finally gone off the deep end?

‘A quick glance at the thing suggests I’ll be out of its offensive reach if I sit on top of it. I’m not sure what countermeasure it has, but at least while I’m up there I can take the guns out of action.’

That still sounds like a terrible idea…

It’s just as I thought I saw; a huge autonomous tank, with two M2HBs on a top-mounted turntable. Depending on whether or not I can find a weak point, using a few pieces of the PE4 or the grenades in my backpack should have an interesting effect. Those launchers are a concern though… ‘So, um, does anybody have gas masks in their backpack?’

‘Yep!’ Saki called from the back of the train of women. ‘Five masks with filters to deal with heavy chemicals and particulates.’

‘Ha; no wonder you love your sister so much, Aki. Is there anything she hasn’t planned ahead for?’

‘Getting a girlfriend, Sweetie.’

Really?? We’re all being shot at by a huge, autonomous fighting vehicle and you still have the capacity to joke about things like that?? We’re almost at the floor of this place, so, I guess it’s time… ‘Sayaka, could you do us a favour and engage the major enemy presence? After one immobilisation, return to the target location and re-engage marker lights, please.’

Good to know you’re not gonna cave in on us, Hon.

Kasumi’s boots and Hikari’s socks lightly landed on the protective grid that separated the large underfloor fans from the arrays of computer systems which lined the walls and also sat in pattern-like ring arrangements in the centre of the floor space.

Shortly after the first few quick steps had been taken by the leaders of the train, a large spark from the massive tracked vehicle briefly lit up the previously only dimly glowing area. Hikari dumped her backpack, skittered across the floor and entered a sprint, before jumping, twisting and pushing off from the tank’s protruding front area to launch herself atop the machine using a stretched Tsukahara vault.

Uwah; just what are these women all made from??? The two sisters remarked. The manoeuvre, flawlessly executed and neatly landed (as far as we could tell), surely belongs in the Olympics or something?

While Tsubaki dashed away to reconvene with her flying companion, the two sisters and Kasumi dashed towards sheltered positions.

Saki waited alongside her sister with the barrel of her grenade launcher trained on the menacing machine, closely spectating Hikari as she fumbled about with a long belt of ammunition the led into one of the HMG feed ports.

As soon as she heard the loud whirring and various clicks and clatters of the machine readying itself, she sent another yellow and black projectile hurtling in its direction.

The resulting bright flash of light forced it to fall silent and still once more.

Instantly, Kasumi hurried towards the machine with the backpack that she’d dumped, along with Saki handing up a gas mask. ‘Thanks. Look after Tsubaki until your package is ready; I’ll deal with our friend here in the meantime,’ Hikari replied, with a playful smile.

‘Understood!’

As the three women disappeared from view, Hikari lifted the gas mask over face and set about tampering with the second HMG’s feed system. The guns are fairly easy to take outta the equation but the launchers are sealed, so I guess sticking some charges in a sensitive area will have to suffice…

‘How are things going here, Tsubaki-sensei?’

‘Not too bad; Sayaka’s now directly wired into their systems. She may look like she’s resting, but she’s actually busy collecting all of the data and transferring it to the storage devices. They should be ready in about eight to ten minutes.

‘Is there anything that you need us—’

‘I think it might be time to put the gas masks on; those clouds of orange smoke can’t possibly be good,’ Tsubaki interjected, pointing to a large rising mass of dark orange beyond the central arrays of computer stacks.

Less than a minute later, a large blast rattled the floor of the structure.

A few seconds after the grey smoke ascended above the top edges of the computer arrays, Hikari arrived and immediately suggested, with her voice muffled slightly by the gas mask, ‘The big guy’s been taken care of, so if you want to get going and escape the gas, Team Wetsuit will see out the basement shenanigans from here.’

‘I’ll send Sayaka up to you with the storage devices, Kasumi. Presuming that you’ll have to deal with another robot before you get out of here, she’ll probably catch up to you, before you leave.’

Kasumi silently nodded.

‘Good luck, you two,’ Saki warmly offered, smiling along with her sister.

As the lower regions of the building increasingly hazed, filled with orange mist, Kasumi and two sisters zipped across the metal grid floor, towards the swirling staircases and rose from the thickest of the murk that had gathered.

Setting herself down on the floor in front of Tsubaki and the collection of wires, portable devices and the quadcopter, Hikari asked, ‘How are you holding up?’

‘Well, I’m quite low on strength and energy, we’re surrounded by probably poisonous gas and if we are going to destroy this place on exit, there’s a very real chance that falling debris will kill us.’

‘Ah, keep your head up, Hon. I didn’t let you mess me about for the three weeks just to die a few days after getting you. I’m still doing okay for strength and energy, so I’ll happily haul you out of here. I’ll be back in a little bit; gotta make sure nothing in here survives past our visit.’

While busy pasting all of the PE4 charges which filled her backpack to the walls of the building, a short distance above the towering units of machines with flashing green and orange lights, a brief smile appeared on Hikari’s face. I guess Rose got bored and has started tampering with the alarm system? It’s nice to have relative peace again, not that it’ll last long…

After placing the sets of charges along the wall, Hikari dragged each of the detonators back to the central array. ‘Still hanging in there?’ Hikari asked, as she extracted the air tanks, hoses and masks from Tsubaki’s backpack.

‘Just about; there’s a minute left and judging by the commotion overhead, I’ll probably struggle with getting to my feet by then.’

Her voice is starting to weaken as well; not good. Hikari hastily slung her air tank onto her back and held her breath, to swap the gas mask for the diving mask, before connecting the other set of apparatus.

‘And we’re done!’ the doctor exclaimed, before hurriedly disconnecting the cables and storage devices from the terminal and the quadcopter.

Hastily, Tsubaki loaded the storage devices into a plastic container affixed to the outer shell of the quadcopter before commanding, ‘You can get back in the air now, Sayaka, but I will need you to carry my bracelet with you.’

‘Really? Those things aren’t waterproof?’

‘Well, they are, but I don’t really want to test out whether or not they can survive being twenty or thirty metres submerged for however long,’ Tsubaki replied, while slipping off her green bangle and slipping under a strap of the air tank being placed onto her back by Hikari.

After depositing her bangle in the storage case, the diligently waiting quadcopter whizzed up and away.

Not long after its departure, the sharp blasts above fell silent and the bright flashes also ceased.

‘Oh shit,’ Hikari waywardly commented, as she sharply towed Tsubaki along with her slightly further away from the centre of the computer tower array.

A heavy clatter and sharp clank filled the space, along with heftily vibrating the floor grid. ‘Huh; yeeting a heavy-ass robot down the central cavity of an underwater offshore data hub. That’s gotta be one for the scrapbook…

‘Don’t worry about using your arms, try to mimic my leg strokes and we should get outta here without too much struggle, okay?’

Without a word, Tsubaki nodded, prompting Hikari to take one of her hands, while forcefully dropping her right foot on the detonators which lay bunched together on the floor.

Multiple thunderous blasts boomed and massive grey clouds raged from the walls, closely followed by clanking and dinging of confetti-like concrete scraps being flung in all directions.

Dammit, Tsubaki; that much trembling is surely gonna waste whatever little energy you have left… Ugh, desperate times… Hikari clasped the doctor’s hand and drew in closer, standing face to face. ‘Calm down, please; I need you as relaxed as you can be, okay? Ugh; keeping your eyes closed isn’t helping…

As much as I thought I’d become a bit braver in this past week, I can’t do this. I want to yield to your body and voice’s command, but fear has a crushingly tight grip on me…

‘Open your eyes, Tsubaki.’ She tightened her grip on the doctor’s hands and after the delay and the eventual revelation of the doctor’s sparkling emerald eyes, she calmly added, ‘If you don’t trust the situation, then at least trust in me.’

The rumbling of everything that surrounded the pair grew increasingly violent and water started to spout in through numerous holes in the structure’s walls, initially pooling at the women’s feet. Mere seconds later, the holes expanded, ushering in strong gushes of water, which soon swept the two women up off the floor and increasingly rapidly toward the top of the tall cylindrical space.

Maybe I underestimated this task a bit. Although you’re normally pretty light, Hon, with the tank and mask, keeping you moving steadily is a pretty tough ask, especially when there are lumps of rock the size of a kei-car tumbling through here…

Meanwhile, out at the still–dark entrance area, the other three women hurriedly arrived on the loading platform, heavily panting, with their flying friend’s rotors steadily whirring nearby.

I see you’ve been having your own fun out here this whole time then? Night vision goggles in use, prone position and your TPR resting on its bipod. ‘With that many spent cases lying around, it looks like you’ve been busy,’ Kasumi steadily accused.

After lifting the tubes of the NVG-50 unit attached to the front of her helmet, the captain calmly replied. ‘Well, I had to get some practise in at some point as part of the recovery process, right? Not long after the alarm went off, a few boats loaded with those grey and black asshats that we love oh so much had a go at arriving.

‘Twas a lot of fun picking off the pilots, watching them send someone else up to the helm and picking them off shortly after. A couple of them did try to swim for it, but I camped behind that hole in the wall you lot created and once they made landfall, packed them off all the same.

‘Anyway, it looks like this place’ll completely crumble in a few minutes, so we should probably load up and push the boat out. Where are Team Totally-Determined-To-Not-Be-Useless?’

‘We haven’t heard from them since we started our retreat, but Sayaka made it out…’ Kasumi plainly replied.

‘Ah. I wouldn’t worry just yet; cats have nine lives, right? I’m sure she’s still got one or two left,’ Renka jested, as she rose to her feet and steadily traipsed over to the black RHIB, keeping her rifle aimed at the open waters and her right eye in place behind the observer lens and focus dial of her TPR’s PM II High Power scope. ‘All aboard!’ the captain playfully commanded.

‘Aye, aye, Captain!’ the two sisters replied, with a mildly serious tone.

‘If you could push us out gently, Kasumi, please. A little survey of the seas suggests that the MSDF are now interested in joining the party, so, um, how good are you at manipulating sonar signatures?’

‘I’m not sure, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to mimic regular sea surface behaviour.’ Drowsiness is starting to creep into my system though, so ideally, I don’t want to have to do it for too long...

As the boat leisurely drifted back into the moonlight, Renka quickly instructed, ‘Stay down; I’ll steer us away from where the patrol boats are coming in from.’ Come on, lovebirds; we could really use one or both of your he—

A knocking at the side of the boat sharply interrupted Renka’s thinking.

‘Did you all miss us?’ a playful voice asked from the surface of the waters below. ‘Before I can start with the vanishing act, I’m gonna need some help pulling our dear doctor here back aboard.’

After the two sisters hauled the uncooperative, green wetsuit-clad mass onto the deck of the boat, the same voice strained to then ask, ‘Um, could you give me a hand as well, please?’ with a conceding chuckle.

After being hauled aboard, with the woman in the blue and black wetsuit emitting irritated groans, the boat and its occupants vanished from view.

‘Are you two alright, Kitten?’

Removing her face mask, Hikari wearily replied, ‘We’re alright; Tsubaki’s just tired and I’m both fatigued and a bit sore from getting a few bumps and knocks on the way back here.’

‘So, I guess she owes you two treats now then, huh?’

‘Ha; you’re gonna have to let her know when she wakes up, Aki.’

Two nights in a row spent hiding from the SDF… I really hope you have enough left in the tank, Kitten; whatever tiny shred of hope I have for returning to any military career hinges on you pretty much. That said, giving them something else to look at might not be a bad shout… After trading positions with Kasumi, Renka periodically sent more rounds rapidly ripping through the air, toward the circling RHIBs loaded with grey and black-clad armed men. That boat’s hanging back, curiously. If the brief bit of research that I did on the way here this evening is anything to go by, that’s a Hayabusa-class patrol boat. Meaning that we’re either going to get lit up by a 76mm naval gun, M2HBs or, if they’re feeling really spicy, an SSM-1B ship-to-ship missile… Fun times…

Less than a minute later, the captain ducked even lower to the boat’s deck and peeped over the top edge of the inflatable tube. Yep; successfully taken the bait. Those snaps and the whizzing sounds above our heads should me—

In fairly quick succession, three terrifyingly-heavy sounding blasts disrupted the relatively calm sea air.

Uwah. Looks like somebody’s in trouble, heh. From that range, it could only be the 76mm guns that could completely obliterate a boat like that with only a single fireball and large resultant splash column. Hell; there’s absolutely nothing left but the disrupted water’s surface by the time the large plumes of water settle down. No surprise that I’m beginning to sweat pretty much everywhere now…

The women and their vessel languidly drifted along the sea’s surface, at the complete mercy of the currents and tides. While four of the crew members admired the stars of the night sky, one slept and one studied closely through the scope of her rifle.

Now she’s slowly studying the area. Unlike last night, this wait’ll probably be longer and more gut-wrenching than last night, especially if she’s roaming the waters that slowly…

After almost half an hour spent almost completely still, Renka released a long and deep sigh. ‘Ugh, Kasumi, dear; I think you’re gonna have to carry all of us back home tonight. My clothes are soaked and not thanks to the sea spray. The patrol boat’s disappeared beyond the visible range of this scope, so, we should be able to head back to shore without issue if we keep our weapons down. That said, it’s probably still best for you to all keep your heads down.’

‘I doubt I can carry anything beyond my own weight; masking a sonar signature for that long has left my body worn and probably feeling like how Tsubaki-sensei looks.’

‘At least you two are still awake. Look; Hikari’s joined her girlfriend in claiming an early night,’ Saki interjected, with a teasing smile.

‘We’re totally gonna mess with them, right? Can’t get caught slipping like this out here.’

‘You read my mind, Sis,’ Saki replied, with a devious smile.

❀

‘I don’t suppose we could get this boat delivered to the hangar, by any chance?’ Renka asked, as her boots softly pressed into the moist sands of the shore which they set out from roughly an hour ago.

‘You’d have to ask the purple one when she wakes up,’ Kasumi shrugged.

‘I guess we should wake them up now?’ Saki queried, with a playful smile.

‘You get the green one; the “purple one” is mine,’ her sister replied.

The pair prodded, poked and made a series of silly statements for almost half a minute, quickly retreating from the two wetsuit-clad women, at the first indications of wayward grumbling and shuffling.

‘Oh, uh… Hey?’ I’m pretty sure I didn’t fall asleep laying on top of you with our chests touching, but I’m not really in any rush to move either…

I don’t even have the energy to protest, nor to push you away. Where was this still calmness when I needed it in the base of that building??

Ehh??? Pulling Hikari down for a passionate smooch? What exactly happened in the bottom of that building?? ‘Woo!’

‘Indeed,’ Saki’s sister smugly replied, with a pleased smile, as she met her sister’s offer of a fist-bump with a fist of her own.

‘Why are you two so proud? We never told you that Sensei’s pretty fond of that kinda thing?’ Renka quietly asked.

‘What?’

‘So far as we know; she was the first one to kiss our dear Koneko on Sunday as well, heh. They’ve been at it pretty solidly for a good twenty seconds or so now, which should tell you everything that you need to know, heh’

‘I don’t know why you’re laughing, Captain; giving her a treat was your idea,’ the doctor remarked, turning her head, to glare at Renka.

‘You still owe her one more according to our records, but we’ll update you on that later,’ Renka fired back, with a teasing smile, as Hikari slid an arm behind the doctor, ready to haul her from the boat’s deck.

‘And here, sis’ and I thought that you and Kasumi would be the pair getting it on like tomorrow’s not coming, while those two have the relatively cute fluffy relationship.’

After fighting to drag themselves and their equipment to their peacefully-waiting car, as if battling fierce winds, the four women waywardly slung their weapons and backpack into the luggage area of the Evo VII, closely followed by Sayaka, after Tsubaki retrieved one of the data storage devices from the quadcopter’s little top-mounted storage box.

After shutting the luggage area lid, Tsubaki leaned against the back of the car, holding up the metallic cuboid, similar in length to her palm, ‘A copy of all the data from that site. We also have a device with the same data and there’s a third, which we plan on handing to some other friends of ours. Losing both the data and their stupid offshore site will probably tick them off, so, if you find out that we all died, then you know what to do with it.’

‘Understood,’ Saki replied as both sisters nodded, prompting the device to pass from a hand with dark green nails to one with neat, rounded white nails.

‘I don’t know about you two, but I think we’d all like to get home and get some sleep. Running the same route as you to get back won’t bother us too much, so how about a little race to the junction where we part?’ Hikari playfully suggested, as she pulled a pair of socks on.

‘Well you’ll probably need our help if the roadblocks have set up again anyway, so you’re on. What are we racing for though?’

‘To get those endorphins rushing through my system and help keep me awake, of course.’

‘Weak. But I’m down if Saki is,’ Aki replied, turning her head slightly, to glance at her sister.

‘Why not? We’ll probably never get an opportunity like this again in our lifetimes after all,’ Saki shrugged, with an encouraging smile.

‘I thought you were the responsible one,’ Hikari chuckled.

‘Sweetie; have you met me before? Responsible maybe, but I’m still here running around with you oddballs,’ the dress-wearing sister replied with a teasing smile.

Steadily advancing to, and stopping with her hand resting on the Lancer Evo’s driver’s black plastic door handle, Hikari gently replied with a warm smile. ‘Spoken like a true oddball, heh. Well, as Cap would probably say; as Selene watches over us on this fair night, let’s go.’