Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Tanya was so tired… past the point of exhaustion. It had been weeks of nonstop fighting then resting in a trench for a few hours followed by a counterattack then a retreat, then rinse and repeat. Her men were beyond tired as well, and they had truly been worked to the bone by the General staff, as expected of an organization like the army truly a black company if there ever was one.
“So much unpaid overtime” Tanya muttered as she flew at cruising speeds on yet another recon flight with her adjutant at her side.
“What was that Ma’am!”
“Nothing Visha, do you see or sense anything?” Tanya shouted back.
“It’s faint but I’m picking up a magic signature to the east do we investigate?”
“I sense it as well but it’s moving away, they most likely sensed us first due to our higher altitude and are fleeing. I’ll call it in”
“This is Fairy Zero One to control we have picked up an unidentified bogy during recon and are in pursuit over.”
“This is control to Fairy Zero One Rodger that Proceed, control over and out”
“Ok Visha, Let’s go find out who’s running away from little old us shall we.”
“Roger”
It was around the second time they had lost the signal and then picked it up again that Tanya started to get a bad feeling, and Tanya had learned over the years to trust her gut and it was telling her something was wrong.
“Lieutenant this doesn’t feel right. How long have we been chasing this guy?”
“Nearly thirty minutes Colonel but you’re right the distance we lose their signal isn’t consistent something is definitely off.”
“That’s it we’re pulling back I’m not getting lead into and ambush today”
Banking right and performing a perfectly executed hundred-and-eighty-degree maneuver Visha’s left shoulder never straying closer or further than fifteen centimeters from Tanya right heel the two elite aces prepared to RTB. Unfortunately, after flying back for another fifteen minutes, they picked up enemy magic signatures cutting off their path of retreat from the left. No matter, thought Tanya, bearing right and increasing her speed to full combat levels.
“We have to go around them. Speed up Visha!”
But still the pit in her stomach would not go away.
Several minutes later. SHIT! The worst had happened; somehow those bastards had gotten above them; no, this was a new group a completely different set of mana signatures was blocking their retreat, and this time they had taken the high ground. There was no way for just the two of them to break through and gain the altitude advantage under constant fire.
“Ma’am the other group is closing in from the left, and I just spotted a fighter squadron approaching from our rear. They are far out but if we engage the mages here…”
“I know lieutenant.”
Think, Tanya, those Bastards got you in a fishbowl, get yourself out. Normally, it’s almost impossible to hold two mages in place if they want to escape. But this was just ridiculous. It felt like a wide net was closing in with multiple layers of bogies coming in staggered lines, able to react to any breakout we might try to make.
There was only one option that would be viable: Split up and hope to divide the enemy’s focus between the two. The way they were currently flying wouldn’t work. The enemy only had to concentrate their fire to hit both of them. Even their overlapping defensive shells would not be enough to keep them alive for long.
If they split up there was a possibility that half the enemy would focus on Serebryakov, and Tanya, with the help of the cursed Type 95, could possibly break through on her own.
The thought turned her stomach; Meat shields were meat shields, but the loss of such a stellar human resource that she had raised for so long left Tanya feeling bile rise in her throat. What’s more, she’d allowed these bastards to force her into such a situation as this. Where she must sacrifice her buddy, the one she had been with since the Rhine, she had no one to blame but herself.
But feelings were feelings, and this was the real world, this was war, and if either of them wanted to survive, they needed to split up. The enemy was closing in.
“Visha, I need you to buy me a few seconds while I punch a hole for you, fly through full speed and throw a couple of explosion formulas on your way out!”
With that being undoubtedly her final command to her faithful adjutant, Tanya turned away and began activating the Type 95. Her heart clenching, probably from distaste for the cursed relic.
“YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY…”
Visha’s heart was pounding in her ears. They were surrounded, and a breakout looked impossible. Just as she heard the angelic voice of her comrade and commander begin to pray, Visha kicked herself into action, launching multiple explosion formulas all around them, obscuring their position.
“THOU PREPAREST A TABLE BEFORE ME IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES…”
Managing to pick off one of the foremost rushing mages with a well-placed optical sniping formula; he must have sacrificed his defense for speed, she idly thought as she continued to lay down fire and shield her flight buddy. She could feel the mana building around her wing mate even as the enemy frantically tried to stop whatever it was they thought she was doing. Feeling the energy start to crescendo, as the words trumpeted from her friend’s lips, her voice was like the rushing of great waters or the rolling of thunder!
“SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCY SHALL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE: AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOR EVER.”
“To your one o’clock; max speed. GO!”
Visha snapped out of her reverie at the sound of her commander’s normal voice and took off following her orders. As she felt a searing heat pass above her, she closed her eyes in anticipation of the bright flash that would light her path forward. Her speed was building, she could see again, and a clear sky showed ahead of her.
Time seemed to slow as her commander’s orders replayed in her head. “Punch a hole for you to fly through.” Not for us to fly through. Visha’s senses felt off.
Over the years, she had developed a feel for where her buddy was positioned next to her in the air, and that space now felt empty. Years of being together in this hellscape had honed this sense to insane levels, and Visha’s heart froze as she realized her wingmate was not there; she couldn’t feel her nearby. She knew she shouldn’t slow down, shouldn’t lookback, but she had to. Visha turned her head and glanced back towards where her commander’s mana signal was.
Tanya spat to the side, trying to clear the words of prayer out of her mouth. Only to have to fill it again with the lyrics of a battle hymn, overcharging her protective film and defensive shell.
The enemies had moved in much closer now, with some diving in for a slash with a magic blade and others employing sniping formulas. There were so many enemies that they were getting in each other’s way more often than they were getting shots on her. Still, too many were getting through, and her shell was starting to warp and had several cracked areas.
She had hoped to boost her shell and just bulldoze her way out with the type 95, but there were just too many layers preventing her breakout and now she was seriously contemplating pushing her magic to core critical and trying to play possum on the ground, like in Norden. But something about the whole situation made her think that wouldn’t work and that these fellows would be dragging her dead body back as some sort of sick prize.
Way too much effort had been put into ambushing two random Imperial mages; they were after her, she concluded especially since she didn’t notice any mages break off after her big shot to chase after “VISHA!!?”
Visha’s Shoulder slammed into her, knocking them both out of the way of several formulas. Grabbing her adjutant’s arm the two tumbled through the air before righting themselves. Panting heavily as shrapnel was slowly pushed out of their defensive shells.
< MOMENTS AGO >
Visha looked back and noticed that no mages were chasing her; they had all focused on the Colonel. Tanya was surrounded by an undulating swirling ball of enemy mages diving in and out to attack her beloved commander. Even through the din of battle she could still hear her commander’s voice crying out in song as she defended herself alone.
On the Rhine, Tanya had left Visha behind far too many times. Flying ahead into danger with no wingmate because Visha couldn’t keep up, because she was too weak and would just get in the way, so Tanya fought on alone. Visha knew that if it wasn’t for that giant of a little girl, she would be dead in the mud, and blood of the trenches ten times over.
Was she going to leave her buddy to fight alone again? Visha felt it build up in her breast, NO! She decided. Without Tanya she would have been dead! Therefore, with Tanya; at her side, she will die! That was her choice.
Blasting off back the way she had just come, Visha prepared her magic blade and charged into the enemy.
Slaying a few in her mad dash back in and causing no small amount of confusion in the process, she saw her. Tanya was taking fire from all sides, blocking and dodging magic blades left and right.
Suddenly, Visha sensed several high concentrations of mana building. Shit, they were charging up several major artillery spells. Launching forward, she had to get the commander out of the blast zone. Moments later, she found herself slamming her shoulder into her commander pushing her out of the line of fire.
“Visha!!?”
Tanya grabbed her, pulling her into a spin with the momentum of her charge. The two spun together for a moment, then separated in a move that looked like a choreographed dance.
“Since when do you disobey orders, Lieutenant!”
“Just, Visha paused to take a pained breath. “Just worried about the chocolate I stashed with you, Colonel,” cough, “what if it gets holes poked in it?”
Visha tried to show a cheeky smile, but even Tanya could tell that it was far too brittle. Then she noticed blood from the cough on Visha’s chin. A red stain was slowly forming over Visha’s left breast.
Tanya quickly flipped up and over to get behind Visha only to witness the exit wound on her back; it was big, too big. Pulling her adjutant close, using her own chest to apply pressure to the wound, trying to slow the bleeding, knowing the futility of it. Maybe if they were close to base and the medical staff there, but they were just too far away with too many enemies between them.
Tanya continued to dodge, all the while boosting her shell with the Type 95. Searching for a way out. But she still noticed the moment Visha’s own defensive shell collapsed, not because of damage but because she had stopped supplying it with mana. She heard Visha mumble something while clutching at the arm Tanya had wrapped around her before Visha’s hand fell away, hanging limply at her side.
There were many things Tanya noticed after that, such as the stickiness of Visha’s blood on her chest. The pain of a bullet entering her leg. How heavy Visha felt all of a sudden. Strangely, what she didn’t notice was the absurd levels of mana she was pouring into the Type 95 or the heat radiating from its four cores as they began to desynchronize.
Tanya considered herself a rational human being. She had emotions, she felt things, she always had. However, being the rational human being that she was, she didn’t make choices based on those emotions. No, she made the most rational and logical choice possible in any given scenario, in spite of said emotions even, oh they factored in, but they were only a small, insignificant variable in the grand calculus of cold logic.
But! But! But!
But! Sometimes, when survival is impossible, all other options have been eliminated. Well then, the only logical and rational choice left is to go stark raving mad and take as many of these bloodthirsty bastards down with you as you can!
Tanya saw red and then the world went white, and time stood still.