jaune arc: a pilot's legend

chapter 24: bael's first battle

the day went by nothing of note occured that being said the entire squad was exhausted holding a connection from dawn to dusk was no easy task after a quick report they hurried off to bed as quickly as possibly and the moment jaune hit his bed he was immediately out like a light the next thing he knew he heard the ringing of his communicator which he almost through across the room but dutifully he picked it placing it to his ear

"a klaxosaur has been, you and code 015 report to the docking bay immediately" hachi said i sighed

"on my way" i responded tiredly getting out of bed i went on my way to the docking back because of this mission we were always in our parasite suits for this reason exactly

when we did actually get out there it was a single conrad class klaxosaur i was fuming it wasn't even a battle we killed it in seconds returning to the plantation you sent a glare at hachi

"you said we were helping guard the facility right that there was a small staff there" i asked

"yes they have two franxx" he said

"right and neither of them could take on a single conrad-class klaxosaur" i said he opened his mouth and closed it

"i swear if you wake us up for that again i'm gonna take the delphinium's bael swords and pierce you with them" i said as i passed him head to my room and to bed

the next four days passed similarly to the first the difference being you weren't on call and because we were previously on call you were at the back of the duty roster meaning those four days me and ichigo got a FULL nights sleep and weren't lugging ourselves around the day after our duty ended everyone could tell i was in an incredibly grumpy move not even ichigo could calm me....not that she even tried she was just as grump and jumpy as i was though the fifth day oh the fifth day was such fun......can you hear my sarcasm

"movement" chlorophytum called

"over here as well" argentea also called

"welp we couldn't have gotten an easy weak could we" i said

"nope, commander we have multiple contacts converging on our position" delphinium said

"unfortunately there is more, we have confirmed at least another fifty contacts bearing down on you and the site, including what we believe is a gutenburg by the size" hachi said

"we are in the process of contacting other plantations for support"

"okay, help is on the way everyone we just gotta stall out as long as we can genista, argentea, your with us as we take on the south, chlorophytum you give strelizia cover fire" delphinium said as she drew her blades from her for arms twirling them experimentally

"alright people let's get to work" she said as she and argentea rush towards their group cutting through a group of five in a single swing

"these blades are so much easier to work with then my old ones" delphinium said i smiled glad she liked them i preferred them too for that reason they were simply easier to use

"strelizia, chlorophytum report" delphinium ordered

"strelizia is doing well i and mitsuru have been covering her as best we can we are running low on ammo though

"sakura how are you two doing" i called out

"we're fine these are just small fry an easy task" sakura said

"keep her in line hiro i don't really want to pick up the pieces of my sister" i said

"roger" was hiro's reply just after he said that delphinium was thrown to the ground losing her left sword in the process, the offender was a lynx-like klaxosaur who wastes no time in pressing its advantage quickly pouncing on us however a quick reaction from me as i control ichigo to catch the creatures neck in it's hand as she throws the beast to the side while rolling back onto her feet

"thanks jaune" she said

"what i'm here for" i told her she smiled at that ichigo flexes her index and middle fingers in a come motion taunting the beast her right sword at the ready to strike unsurprisingly the klaxosaur takes the bait allowing delphinium to cut it in two she walks up to her second blade picking it up and returning to the rest of the battle

the fighting continues for another hour with neither side gaining ground the problem was the enemy seemed to be an endless hoard

"MORE INCOMING" argentea called i cursed at that

"commander we can't hold this forever we need backup" delphinium said over comms

"squad 13 this is code 174 of squad 67, we will be arriving in three minutes time, can you hold out until then" code 174 asked

"we will make it" i answered

"a little longer and help we be here guys" delphinium called to the rest of the squad

but as that is said the ground begins to tremble as you here a growing sound you can't describe except that it was getting louder it was also getting hard to maintain footing thanks to what could be considered an earthquake

"oh crap" i said

"their running away" genista called in utter disbelief

"does that mean we won" argentea asked somehow i doubted it this was only the beginning

"no something isn't right" i said but just as squad 67 arrives the ground erupts as a pair of enormous jaws emerge and snap closed around their lead franxx their wasn't even a scream from either code 174 or his partner, and their fate was very clear to all but there was more as the beast continued to ascend from the ground revealing a long serpentine body immediately my instincts kicked in and i activated the wings getting us in the air just in case it chooses to target us

"everyone pull back immediately" i ordered as we got as close to the facility as we could

"squad 13 if you can buy us time we can force it to withdraw" the new acting leader of squad 70

"you have it, strelizia let's test just how good these new upgrades are, the rest of you take on the small fry while we keep this thing buys" i called

"right" she said with a huge shit-eating grin

"understood" the rest of the squad said in unison

"time to get to work" delphinium said smiling

"oy stop stealing my shtick" i said

"well come up with a new one" she said

"alright, fine, shall we dance in the darkness partner" i asked her

"let's she said brandishing her blades we charged at the serpent aiming for it's eyes

we weren't able to blind it like we hoped but we succeeded in keeping it's attention i took a glance at strelizia and smiled and the sight of her expert use of the mace

"haruna would be proud" i whispered

it didn't take long for squad 70 to exit the facility but they were carrying large orbs as opposed to the usual spears and i knew immediately what they were doing and i didn't like it at all

"we are ready squad 13 all that must be done now is for you to provide us a route to the gutenburg" the leader said

"strelizia" i called

"aye" she said as we charge for bashing and slicing our way through the klaxosaurs the rest of squad 13 behind us providing back up as we go as we complete the path a communication line is open

"we have it from here, please withdraw" the acting leader of squad 70 said

"WHAT, are you insane" zorome said 'no their suicidal literally' i thought

"squad 70, you have served APE well, but now we make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of papa and humanity, your valor in the line of duty shall not be forgotten, we salute you all" a gruff voiced man similar to hachi stated but it most definitely wasn't

"wait did he say sacrifice" genista said

the force of the explosion coming from the self destructing was enough to take delphinium off her feet who was over a mile away as she seen that she raises to her feet before disconnecting entirely

"you knew what they were doing didn't you" she said

"i have seen it happen before so yes i knew what was coming" i said