3Chapter 6 - New Threats
As Warspite rushed over to Pip and Seras' position, their shouting filled the airwaves, as if they were trying to fend off a hive of wasps they had stepped on.
Hearing this, she made haste. Drawing power from within, she strengthened her legs, adding power to them. Her next step hit the ground with a bang, and the sheer force of her push carved a hole around her point of impact, while she launched herself across the forest.
While she rushed forward with inhuman speed, her footsteps carving a line of holes into the ground, the buzz of aircraft engines signaled the arrival of Illustrious's air support.
Ahead of her marked the spot where the Hellsing Operatives were. Seeing the ground empty of anyone's presence, Warspite came to a halt, looking around, when out of the blue, the ground exploded, with Seras Victoria flying upwards like a shell fired from a cannon, a blood-red shield in the form of cone surrounding her.
Barely a moment passed after her sudden evacuation when a cloud of flickering lights poured from the hole, swarming the vampiress. It surrounded her like a tornado, a blizzard of blue and white.
Warspite stood there, dumbstruck. "What...are those?" Meanwhile, Seras attempted to fight off the swarm, a crimson blade bursting into existence and slicing through the swarm, which quickly seperated around the blade, avoiding any damage. It responded by crowding in further, blocking her from Warspite's vision.
As Seras struggled to stop the swarm from encircling hwr, Pip yelled into his radio. "What the hell are you standing there for?!"
Shaking out of her trance, Warspite replied with a "Got it!" and ran towards the fight. Opposite her, Illustrious's fighters came back for an attack run, having missed the two in their first pass.
A swarm of weird magical creatures? This should be easy to deal with... Stopping a few metres away, she yelled, "AA batteries, engage!"
A chorus of replies came from her crew, who swirveled and aimed their their guns at specific areas in the swarm, before firing in unison. As the rattling of machines guns mixed with the booming of cannons filled the air, hundreds of rounds and anti-air shells shot at the ever-changing swarm. Halfway through, some shells exploded into flak, filling any empty spaces with superheaded shrapnel. Meanwhile, the Seafires diving from the sky opened up with their cannons, adding to the deluge of fire targeted at the swarm.
With each rounds flying past the speed of sound, the swarm had no chance to react. Hundreds of the terrible creatures died as lead met their bodies violently, exploding like broken glass with unholy shrieks. Where the bullets flew, wounds were torn in the swarm, and Seras, taking the chance, swiped her shadow-arm through the weakest point, and jumped through, rolling away.
Their quarry lost, the swarm attempted to split and target both Warspite and Seras, but the Seafires came for yet another pass. Their guns blazing, they charged straight into the swarm itself, causing it to split and scatter under the hail of suppressive fire as well as attempting to duck away from the fighters.
The creatures hung in midair, trying to reorganise, but where continuously torn apart by Warspite's gunners, unceasingly laying down suppressive barrages, as she walked around the swarm, her rigging alight with the fury of hundred blazing barrels.
Suddenly, the entire swarm flew upwards, rising with a baleful shriek, before diving back to where they came.
As Warspite stood her ground, wary of the creatures, Pip Beradotte came crawling out of Seras's arm, stumbling to his feet while keeping an arm on his hat, heaving.
After a moment, the Frenchman shook his head and spat.
"What the fuck was that?"
A few meters away from the site where the fight had taken place, a few tents had been pitched, set up by the other Hellsing Operatives who relocated there at Pip's orders.
The man himself was in the command tent, agonising over the problem of securing the children, as well as dealing with the new threats they were now facing.
"Sir." Sergeant Thomas entered the tent. "We have sent our report to HQ."
"Do they have anything on those creatures we just fought?" Pip asked, taking out a lighter and playing with it.
"Other than agreeing with you calling them 'fucking fairies', nothing else, sir."
"Thank you, Sergeant." Pip placed his lighter back in his pocket, leaning back onto his chair. "Do you have any ideas on dealing with those fuckers?"
The Sergeant ponders for a bit. "I'm not sure on how you beat supernatural creatures, sir. I thought that was your specialty."
Pip chuckles before sighing. "I could deal with them already, if not for the children stuck inside - just have the battleship blow the entire thing to kingdom come, and then have her companion and you guys shoot any stagglers that come out. Standard procedure for attacking and clearing out some tyrant's hiding bunker, like my old days."
"Bunker, huh?" The Sergeant tapped his bearded chin in thought. "I think I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"Sir, your girlfriend is a demon that can pull all kinds of tricks. So I suggest..."
Listening to his XO's idea, Pip's smile widened.
"Excellent! I guess we will do that."
"Are you ready, Seras?"
"Yes, Mr. Bernadotte."
Around her previous point of escape, a square 5m long on each side had been marked. Around it, Hellsing soldiers surrounded it, their weapons pointing into the air, while Warspite waited at a corner. Above the entire site, Illustrious's entire air complement waited, circling almost lazily.
Seras checked her progress again. Underneath the marked area, she had extended her shadow arms until they encompassed the entire zone. Right now, all she needed was the signal.
"Begin!" Pip yelled, and the vampiress pulled upwards, yelling wih the strain. The entire patch of ground shook, and like a spade, it was lifted off the ground. To quickly relive herself of the load, Seras threw the entire thing backwards, and it landed with an earth-shaking crash.
Before the ground returned to where it came from, Warspite ran, and leaped into the wide open cavern. Inside, a swarm of the creatures had already gathered, and she landed within them, crushing some under her feet, as her gunners opened fire. With the battleship within their target, the fighters above banked and dived, like falcons after prey.
In the face of such a sudden, massive assault, the swarm of fairies, scattered, broken, shrieking with what could be called fear. With no way to fight back, many of them rose, attempting to evade the deadly fire of the anti-air batteries and the Seafires. Most however shattered as either flak, cannon rounds or a plane's wings slashed through their bodies.
And as they rose above the surface, they exposed themselves to the waiting soldiers.
"Visual contact with supernatural entity!"
"Fire!"
Around the escaping swarm, muzzles flashed as soldiers opened up with their assault rifles, the heavy rat-a-tat-tat of the guns echoing through the forest. Bullets sliced through the swarm, taking down multiple fae with each round as each soldier held down their triggers mercilessly.
The swarm wailed again, and a desperate attempt to counterattack was formed. A group of fairies gathered, and in a light of blue, shot like a missile at the nearest soldier, but found themselves deflected by a crimson shield that sprouted at the last moment. They bounced off pitifully, before a series of rounds obliterated them.
Below, in the cavern, as more and more of them were cut down by a relentless barrage, the swarm threw themselves at Warspite and her gunners in one final, desperate attack. But their counterparts were ready and waiting. Fighting raged all over Warspite's rigging, as fairy sailors dispelled their supernatural counterparts with accurate small-arms fire as well by swinging bats and an assortment of improvised melee weapons into their faces. Fierce but undaunting, they beat back the tide of blue, suffering minimal casualties
As their fellow beings continued to shatter, the gestalt of fae made a decision. With one final, baleful wail, the entire swarm formed into one, and shot off into the moonlit night sky, leaving their pursuers and the children behind.
Sir Integra sat alone in her office, studying a few reports that had come in from the field. A antique clock on her desk clicked, signalling the witching hour, as a cigar lay smoldering on an ornate glass ashtray.
The reports were very interesting to speak. It was not a vampire lusting after some fresh blood, but the work of some malevolent magical creatures, returning to life from the musty tomes of the past that told tales of their misdeeds. The report she was currently reading was composed by one of Hellsing's in-house experts, a series of theories posed by the professor on the nature, type and intentions of the faerie creatures.
She put it aside, and picked up one of the pictures that came along with the report - a bag full of the remains of those same fairies after they had been felled by lead. They looked like some sort of broken blue crystal, with only musings on what they truly were as the scientists were only beginning to analyze it.
Integra flipped to another photo; a still from a video camera, showing the full image of one of the fairies. Captured in that frame, it looked comical rather than terrifying, drawing a snort from her. Gazing at it for a few more seconds, she then put it down, before returning all the photos and reports back to the folder they had came in.
Grabbing her half-finished cigar, she placed it back in her mouth before getting off her seat and walking to the large window behind her. As she looked over the expanse of the Hellsing estate, she sucked in, and savored the taste of the flavoured tobacco in the cigar, tucking her hands in her pockets as she did so.
For a few minutes, she stood there, simply savoring her privileges as family and organisation head.
Riiiinnnnggggg... The phone on her desk rang, and she stepped back, picking it up with her right hand. "This is Sir Hellsing. You are late."
"Admiral Thompson. My apologies for the delay, the strategy meeting for another operation overextended quite a bit. I assume you are happy with the performance of our girls, judging from your tone?"
"Well..." Integra paused for a moment, thinking what to say next. "The creature - or rather, creatures, - that we were facing this time was not what we usually face, and frankly I din't get to see the full extent of their abilities..."
Her counterpart on the phone remained silent.
"...but all things considered, they worked out fine. Even if I dread to see what problems they could inflict on Hellsing in the future, I am happy with their performance."
The Admiral continued his silence, before resuming in a stoic tone. "Thank you. I'm sorry that I had to inflict them on you though, especially Warspite...the girl really needs to learn something -"
"Please do not inflict your concerns for any of your subordinates on me, Admiral. Hellsing is a military organisation, not a place where people go for counselling. In any case, the Round Table has made its decision clear, what's done is done, and from now on, we will just have to continue working with each other."
"Very well then. In any case, the additional support staff will be arriving at your estate tomorrow, with the success of your operation today. Good night."
"Good night." The line went dead, and Integra sat back in her seat. She grabbed the report on how the rescued children would be treated and returned to their families, but thought better of it and lightly threw it back onto the table. Her mind wanted sleep, and her iron will faltered. Getting up, she walked to her bedroom.
She thought back to the two shipgirls that she was now going to deal with. Hopefully, they aren't going to be as troublesome as Alucard...
That's said, where's in bloody hell is the Count?
End Of Arc 1