The shuttle opened the hatch at 150,000 feet. Kita turned to her two pets waiting in their cages behind the life support barrier. Their cages would open automatically for them when the shuttle landed. Blowing each a kiss, she sprinted down the ramp. Jumping, she opened her wings enough to gain control. She looped upward, rolled, and dove for the ground.
Keeping her wings in tight, she raced toward the ground at a steep angle. An orange and yellow halo appeared. The halo burst into an open flame. She left a fiery trail behind her.
The islands grew bigger. She changed course slightly as she selected a target.
***
"Look!" said Snowy.
"A meteor? That's all we need," Paladin grumped, firing his tank barrel.
"I bet it's," Snowy fired her rifle, "not any ol' meteor," she said with her first smile in days.
"Kita?"
"I don't know anyone else who'd want to make that big an entrance."
Kita streaked overhead and impacted on the next island over.
***
Kita struck with as much force as she could. Anything underneath her disintegrated before impact. Kita landed on a Red Legion command center. I might as well decapitate my enemy to add to my grand entrance.
Streaking out of the cloud, Kita burst into flame and smashed through a gunship. Flying to the next gunship, she pried open the cockpit and tossed the crew out then set the gunship down gently.
Bullets peppered the gunship. Kita shook her head and waggled a finger at her attackers. Jumping, she landed amongst them. Humming happily, she dispatched the group with Dawn and Dusk. Her flames turned white. She flew down the line of enemy troops just over their heads, leaving fifteen yards bare and slightly melted rock. She incinerated two miles of the enemy's front line.
Dousing herself, she landed on the top of a tank. Prying open the hatch, she pulled out the commander.
"Excuse me, you're in my tank," she giggled breaking his neck.
Tossing the body aside, she climbed inside. A shot rang out, then two more bodies flew out the hatch. Climbing out, Kita watched a bullet hole in her side close.
A tank nearby fired at her with its main gun. She comically spun, stopping with the round in her hand. She phased to the top of the tank. Opening the hatch, she imbedded the tank round into the commander's head. The driver's hatch opened. The two crewmen jumped out and run. Kita threw a star then drew Midnight. The star slice through the first man. Firing her arrow, she struck the star redirecting it into the throat of the second man.
Kita continued her crusade against the enemy line, disabling tanks and gunships, and fighting groups of infantry. For fun, she would glide into the air and throw a body at the troops below. When she discovered the infantry came with grenades, she'd pull the pins and then throw the body.
When she'd cleared half the island, she went to check on the Arconians. Lazily flying across the grass plain between the jungle and volcano slope, something struck her and she tumbled to the ground. She stood and dusted herself off. The wound in her side and back matched the one Anthrax received. The pain came, but she shrugged it off. The marksman better be on the mainland.
Appearing from behind a rise, a pair of Demon clones clanked toward her. They were bigger than the original. Well, whoever's making these things is at least learning.
Kita sprinted into a series of handsprings. Performing a simple layout, she sailed over the head of the first demon. She grabbed a long horn coming from the top of its helmet. She swung around. The head twisted backward and the neck cracked. The demon collapsed.
The second demon grabbed Kita as she landed It pressed against her wound causing Kita to grunt in pain. The demon's hand spun and something pushed into Kita's stomach.
She burst into flame, becoming white hot, but it had no effect. The thing burrowing into her stomach was beginning to hurt. I need away out fast. Drawing Dawn, she jammed the blade against the wrist as she spun. Sparks flew and the hand wobbled. The hand and Kita flew off.
The clawed foot of the demon came down toward her. Kita rolled out of the way with the hand still attached. She phased behind the demon, leaving the hand behind. Slamming her fist through the fan port on the demon's life support backpack, she grabbed whatever she could and yanked. The demon spun tried to dislodge her. Kita continued to yank pieces out, until the demon collapsed.
Kita stood over the demon, stuck her thumbs against her head, waved her hands, and stuck out her tongue in a raspberry. So there.
Kita tried to remember which direction the shot had come from. She couldn't remember; the merry-go-round ride had disoriented her. Well, there's the unpleasant way to do it.
Drifting into the air, she opened her central vision to the complete panoramic view. A shot struck her in the leg. She phased to where she saw a flash. Landing on a cowboy with a long rifle, she drew Dusk and Dawn and pressed them against the shooter and another cowboy with a pair of binoculars. She laughed when she saw them.
"Guess this makes me the Indian?" Her voice became playful and menacing, "Well cowboys, I think I'll take you back to my wigwam and have my way with you."
With two quick strikes, she knocked the pair out. When she tried to stand, she found she couldn't. She was missing a big section of her thigh. Hovering off the ground, she picked up the pair and the rifle. Struggling, she flew toward friendly lines. I hope that Tina's around, I'm beginning to feel a bit faint.
Kita flew over a line of tired looking Black Watch.
"Where's Commander Zidin?" she yelled.
The Black Watch pointed her farther down the line. Shifting her load in her hands, she saw Xeen. That'll do for now.
While landing, she put her bad leg down and collapsed. The two bodies and rifle tumbled out of her hands. Xeen and several Black Watch ran to her.
"By the Crushing Depths child, what've you done to yourself?" said Xeen.
"Let's just say the goose bagged the hunters. It took a couple rounds to flush them out."
"And the section of gut you're missing? Or is that just a scratch? Medic!"
"I'd say it's just a bruise. I ran into a pair of demons on my way over. The good news is: I cleaned off the back side of the island." Kita said with a grin.
"We saw something was going on over there. No one's told us anything. Right now this sections quiet."
"Should stay this way for a while, I made sure to land on their headquarters."
"So you made the big bang then? I should have known." Xeen chuckled.
"Where is she? Is she over here with you Xeen?"
Serin's voice sounded sweet to Kita's ears.
"Aye, lass. She's here, missing a few chunks."
"Neptune's rings girl, what took you so long?" Sarin said sliding in next to Kita and giving her a hug and a kiss, much to the medic's annoyance.
"I had to work through some things, but I feel much better. Look, I brought you a present." Kita pointed to the cowboys. "I believe they're the ones who took a shot at you a few months ago."
"Looks like they took a few at you," Sarin said worriedly.
"I'll be fine, love. You look like you've had more rough days than my last hour."
"It's been a long hard fight. You Arconians fight like caged dogs, but they've slowly pushed us back."
"Where's everyone else?"
"Nell is in a chamber after running into a demon. Paladin saved her, but she's pretty messed up. Snowy and Paladin moved to the second island to head up the forces there. Tina's heading up the casualty collection point on this island, but she moves between all three. I don't know where she is right now. Zidin's around somewhere. Omega and the doctors are also at the casualty collection point."
"Don't worry." Kita reached up and stroked Sarin's face. "As soon as I'm healed, we'll go rain some terror down on them."
Sarin shook her head. "This isn't fun anymore Kita. I just want it over."
Kita nodded. "Then I'll make it over." She shooed away the medic.
Pressing her hands to her wounds, Kita cauterized them. Painfully, she stood up.
"Where are you going?" Sarin said astonished.
"To do what the Angel of Death does." Kita hugged Sarin. "When War can take no more, it's my turn. For them it's the end of the world."
"But you're not healed and you nearly died just getting here. Are you even well from what happened to you? You shouldn't go out alone."
Kita laughed. "I've never felt better. Don't worry about me, but I do worry about you. I never expected to have you fight in something like this. I designed you to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon and we can go home."
"Promise?" Sarin said quietly.
"I promise. You can bring Alexia up and have a grand old time."
Sarin smiled at Kita, and then threw her arms around her crying.
"Easy, big girl. It's ok. It'll be over soon. I promise," Kita said softly, stroking Sarin's hair trying to sooth her.
"You've been gone so long, and I've been so worried about you. And then Nell got hurt. What wound I do without either of you?" Sarin said softly.
"We're both here. I'm back and mentally fit to fight. I'm going to drive these red bastards back into the sea. Then I'm taking you and everyone else home. Ok?" Kita said with an upbeat smile.
"Ok," Sarin wiped her tears away after she let go.
Kita lifted off and burst into flame. Stopping, she turned around and blew Sarin a flaming kiss. Sarin caught it and blew one back.
Kita didn't want to fool around. If Sarin couldn't be War anymore, this had to end. Yet, she still wanted to capture as much equipment as she could. She couldn't think of any way to do it. She destroyed everything with her heat. This really was a job for Sarin.
Turning around, Kita raced back to Sarin. Not giving her a say, Kita scooped her up in her arms.
"Kita where are we going?" Sarin said terrified.
"Why haven't you gassed them yet?"
"Because I figured they had masks and..."
"You didn't want to get shot again," Kita finished her sentence.
Sarin nodded, and then spoke softly, "Guess that makes me a coward doesn't it?"
"Of course not. Believe me the first time I fought Zidin he cut me up badly. It took a lot of convincing to get back in and fight him a third time." Kita said with a well-practiced liars smile. Of course, it wasn't true, losing just made her want to beat Zidin more.
"Really?"
"Yep. Now it's your turn. If I torch these guys we lose the equipment; if you gas them we keep the equipment. This is a job for you. Not me, but I'll fly cover for you. You'll fly inside my heat shield. It'll keep everything off you."
"Are you sure it'll work?"
"Of course it will. It's called tactics. They've been reacting to us. Now we react to them."
Letting Sarin go, Kita followed as Sarin dropped low over the battlefield. The sound of a sniper rifle rang out. Kita winked at Sarin when nothing happened. They raced along the miles of front laying down a thick cloud of gas. They finished and Sarin led Kita back to Zidin.
"About time," said Zidin gruffly.
"What? Better-late-than-never doesn't work for you?" Kita said laughing.
"You're in a chipper mood."
"You better believe it. I fixed my head, killed a ton of red legionnaires, took out a pair of demons, captured a sniper team, and helped get Sarin back to being a war machine." Kita's bandana disappeared. She fluttered her eyelashes at Sarin, who laughed and blushed. "On top of that I get to stand here and look at your big ugly mug." Kita rocked back and forth in the air happily.
"I see that sniper team got a piece or three out of you," Zidin said raising an eyebrow.
"Lucky shot, honest," Kita said trying to say it with a straight face.
"Uh-huh. Well, it looks like you've decimated their lines. Guess we should mopping up. I take it you're headed to the other islands?"
Is that an order? "Of course, Commander. While I'm out should I get you a pineapple?"
"Just go help the other islands. The island Snowy and Paladin are on are getting pounded by those ships out there." Zidin pointed out to sea.
Kita's eyes went wide like a kid on Winterfrost. "I want those," she whispered.
Grabbing Sarin's hand, Kita pulled her along. "Come on, we're going to go have some fun."
***
Invisible, the Angels approached the ships and flew low over the them laying down a cloud of gas. The Red Legion made it easy. All the ships had formed into a line.
They landed on the deck of the first ship. Kita found the air intake for the ship.
"Pump your gas through here. That should kill anything below," said Kita.
While Sarin cleared below deck, Kita checked the upper decks. She found a few sailors and cut them down. On the bridge was the captain in full Sturmtruppen regalia. Kita knocked him out and carried him back to Sarin. She stood watch with her light pistol out, standing over two dead sailors.
"I really need to get one of those bullet pistols. These light pistols won't stop a damn thing."
Kita held up her prize. "Look what I found! A Sturmtruppen ship captain."
"By the time we're done we'll have a collection."
"I can mount them on my wall back on Roost, or maybe just one of them. Then collect all the different ranks and have a collection."
"The last one will be a bitch to collect."
"True, but it'll be worth it," Kita laughed wickedly.
Using some chain found on the deck, Kita secured the captain. Kita didn't know anything about ships, but she did know that lowering the anchor would keep it from going anywhere. Looking over the side it didn't look like the ship was moving. I hope the engines are off. At least with the anchor down it shouldn't go too far, right?
The rest of the ships had gone to high alert requiring another dose of gas to clear the decks. The Angels landed on each and cleared them. Kita found two more captains alive. Kita secured them with the first captain for safekeeping. They set the anchors on all the ships and flew to the island.
***
After circling the island twice searching for any signs of the Arconians, someone had come out of hiding to flag the Angels down. Sarin and Kita landed in front of a soldier from the Lava Guild.
The soldier spoke with a heavy burr, "It's good to see ya, Black Rose. I take it you be looken for the cat and the metal man? Ya can find them over yonder about two hundred yards. They most likely be waiten out this rain o' shells."
"Pass the word. You won't have to worry about that anymore. We've taking out the ships." Kita motioned out to sea.
"I noticed there hadn't been some for some time. But da bastards will stop to lure us out o' the caves and then rain down on us when we come out. If ya say there finished, that be a load off our backs."
"I plan on having them start raining down on the other side."
"Good, da bastards could use a taste of their own steel."
Kita and Sarin walked in the direction the soldier had pointed.
"Yoo-hoo, Snowy. Paladin, can Snowy come out and play?" Kita called.
A hail of gunfire peppering the rocks around them. Floating above the rocks, Kita called out to the shooters, "You keep that up and I'm going to turn you into scrap."
She released a superheated blast melting the rocks where she thought the firing had come from. Two melted exo-soldiers fall over.
Something yanked Kita back to the ground.
"Are you crazy? They'll take your head off. Now get inside before the start shelling again and I can greet you properly," Snowy hissed.
Kita gave Snowy a hug and lifted her off the ground. "I wouldn't worry about your steel rain and I got you six presents. They're sitting out on the water now."
"You mean the ships out there?"
"Yep, all yours captain."
Snowy giggled. "Well you definitely know what this girl wants."
Excited, Kita bounced up and down with Snowy in arms. "I also have three Sturmtruppen ship captains waiting to entertain you."
"Now you're just spoiling me," Snowy said with a laugh.
"Anything for my girl."
"You are definitely feeling better, kitten." Snowy hugged Kita happily.
Kita nuzzled Snowy. "Yep. I got rid of what was on my mind, Tina left a little present that helped too."
"Good, but I'm afraid we'll have to finish this later. We still have tin cans to kick."
Kita stuck out her lip in a playful pout.
"Hey, I don't mind," Sarin said with an innocent smile.
Snowy raised an eyebrow.
"I would rather not. Something's should remain private," said Paladin.
"Oh, do we make you uncomfortable? I thought two girls with a third watching was every man's fantasy. I guess we don't want you blowing a capacitor."
"Some of us were raised with some decency and morality," said Paladin while he fired his tank barrel at something.
"Think of all the fun you're missing," said Sarin with a grin.
"I've had plenty of fun, just privately."
"You realize you're not going to win against three horny girls, right?" said Kita.
"How vulgar. Then let's move on to how we're going to clean up this rusty scrap. We could also use a resupply. I'm running low on HE and Sabot rounds. I ran out of missiles and rockets days ago."
"I can get rockets and tank rounds. I don't know what else you want."
"They'd have to come from Roost. If you send someone up there's several crates in my workshop."
"Ok, can't promise you anything. Sarin can you bring the tank rounds and rockets over on the shuttle? And bring that big rifle we captured earlier. I bet it'd do a great job of taking of the heads of exo-soldiers and maybe the demons. Snowy you're going to come with me. We're going to go up the slope and finish what we started."
Paladin huffed. "I—"
"I'm kidding. I need her and Zidin out on the ships to get them operational. I'll see if they have any kind of communication equipment and try to tap into it so you can direct fire. So, you'll be here alone for a while. Think you can handle that?"
"Just bring the ammunition and I'll be fine."
"Good, let's go."
***
Kita hovered over the deck of the ship as the new crew exited the shuttle. Zidin and Snowy met Kita at the three ship captains.
"Here you go, love, like I promised. Three Sturmtruppen ship captains. Hopefully they'll provide you with all the information you need to run one of these tubs." Kita rocked back and forth in the air happily.
Snowy knelt in before one of the captains. Extending a claw, she traced it along his jaw. The claw came to rest under his chin. She lifted his head to look at her. "Oh, I think he will," she said, dragging another claw across the other side of his face leaving a small bloody line. Giving the captain a big toothy smile, she tapped the bloody claw on the end of his nose. "Won't you?"
Kita laughed at the terrified captain. "They're not much help if you scare them to death."
Getting up, Snowy spun, hitting the captain across the face with her tail. "I think by the time I get through the first two, the third will be willing to tell me everything." She hugged and nuzzled Kita. "You know how to brighten this girl's week."
"I can't decide if this behavior is characteristic of the two of you or just disturbing," said Zidin with a disapproving look.
"Sheesh, it's not like I brought her three villagers from Champagne." Kita's voice climbed to the Fallen Angel's, "they're going to die one way or another."
Snowy flicked her ear from the sound. "Not in my ear, kitten."
"Compelling point. Snowy grab one. We'll see if he's willing to cooperative before you get medieval on him." Zidin shook his head. "How did I ever get mixed up with a group of evil psychopaths?"
"Because you belonged to me until I died, we're fighting for the same thing, and you love me."
Zidin rolled his eyes.
Darting over to him, Kita gave him a hug. "You two have fun. I'm going to the third island to see how it's doing."
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