Intel mission - Kiriko

Four days after the attack mission, the airship was heavily damaged. But they manage to never back off; the ship engineer worked hard day and night to repair it, so they can continue the fight. Alongside them are other giant nature creators commanded by the fauns. They fight together, but the living are much more fragile than machines. At some moments, the creators need to back down for healing, and that's when hell's flames are pouring down on them. The firepower of Arma Caeli almost tore them to pieces; luckily, they found a way to dodge and make it out alive until the fauns returned with more reinforcements. After four long days, the enemy finally decides to retreat but has not totally given up on this realm yet. Both sides were just using their front troops; the real force needs time to prepare, and they're ready by this day. The news came right at the moment when the human fighters were in their worst state, and Kiriko was so happy to know they would retreat from the frontlines. That's when Tsukino announces another mission, less fierce than the last one, but it's still not time for them to rest yet: the Intel Mission.

One day later, the team was separated again; they will meet at the same location after three days. Every member of them will rather sneak into the enemy ship or confront smaller groups of Arma Caeli to gather information about the Arma Vault. Kiriko walks alone to a forest where she can find a place to hide and rest her weary bones until morning. She decides to use her newfound artifact power to at least threaten some aliens into spitting out the facts. But not for now; any hero needs to rest sometimes.

- Ugh, what a cruel plan! Now I need to work alone and die alone! No friends, on a dangerous mission. What are they thinking? In horror movies, this move leads to doom!

She expresses her feelings to the night sky and listens to the sounds of Arma Caeli's ships flying. Some sporadically resounding shooting sounds. Lights flicker on the dark background of the night, showing the thick layers of clouds that look very close to her. It sounds nearly like planes, which reminds her of a bomber attacking at night. Those memories of the war come back to fill her brain. Kiriko laughs at it because she isn't the soldier that bathed in the rain of bullets; she's the one who lay still at home like a useless piece of meat without limbs, a lot of organs got damaged or missing, a lot of blood loss, and awaiting death. But she didn't die; she continues to live a useless life filled with pain and despair. And now…

She heard a large, explosive sound, which was enough to burst her eyes open. It's the morning; the sunny light shines brightly, which makes her have a little headache. It took Kiriko 5 minutes to finally wake up. The fight has started between the main forces of both sides; she can see it clearly with the help of the sunlight. An army of airships is flying over the sky, with one side of people who strictly keep their formation and another side of people who dynamically change formation based on the battle state. She can tell easily which side are the fauns of Ihrutia; their ship was made of organic materials and had a distinct shimmering glow. She wants to stay a little longer to watch the mesmerizing aerial battle, but she knows it's her time to go. The intel of where the key is... where should Kiriko start? As her squad was one of the first people to encounter and stop the Arma Caeli, she can be sure that the fauns of Ihrutia don't know more about the key than her.

At first, Kiriko wants to avoid joining the aerial battle above, as her artifact power needs time to recover from the big realm hop a few days ago. However, in urgent cases, she can still be ready.

- Let's not waste time. How about searching for... an Arma Caeli ground base? They should have one, right?

Kiriko runs over the vast flower fields of Ihrutia, the lakes of beautiful blue reflection, the farms of luscious green crops, and the towering mountains in the distance. She stopped by another village just to see how it was destroyed by the enemy's firepower. This place used to be crowded with people living, trading, and having fun. Now it's an empty dead land with ashes from the things that used to be houses, serving as a haunting reminder of what once was. She doesn't say the Arma Caeli was ruthless, though; she and her comrades are nothing different. Kiriko looks away and keeps running.

In that day's afternoon, she found nothing related to an Arma Caeli ground force. Ihrutia is goddamn large; maybe the enemy will build a base in another location? But she thought about this; it's not going to make sense since they've just arrived recently. Kiriko watches the aerial battles to learn Arma Caeli's building speed based on how fast they repair their damaged ships during battle. All of them were flying and being proud of their air force, so Kiriko guesses there's no ground base. When she's about to find another ship to sneak into, she receives a call from Tsukino. The transceivers start making glitching noises before her voice, which sounds very calm and easy, like the ongoing mission is nothing to her.

- Kiriko, do you copy?

- Yes, commander!

- I want to bring one thing to your attention: it seems like one of our men was arrested by the enemy. Two others will follow to rescue her, and the rest will find their way to get on an enemy ship. Are you still on the ground?

- Yes, commander!

- Good. Then stay there; I'll be going, so I need you to update the battle status and how it looks from outside. Do not attempt to enter any enemy airship!

- Copy that, commander! Over.

Kiriko puts the transceiver back in her bag and takes a break near a tree. Damn it, now she'll need to stay down there while people have fun above. What an unfair task! But if it's for Tsukino, she'll just sighed and get that done. Before she could pass out from sleepiness, she heard a loud engine sound and very strong winds, like they could lift her up. Kiriko looks at the sky. There's one of the Arma Caeli ships! It's small, but that's enough of a threat for her. She hides behind a large rock, her notebook out, trying to document anything she can learn. Those were just the aliens who wanted to take a short break and check their engines.

- This is not safe enough to fly, and it may fall off if we hit higher speeds. Do we have a fixer here?

She heard an alien saying that. She tries to look into their ship without entering, but there's not much she can see. Coming out of the ship were two dusk soldiers; maybe the rest of them chose to stay inside. She knows this is crazy and too risky, but adrenaline can do more than one can imagine. Kiriko slowly went out of her hiding spot, using dark magic to cover her existence, then sneakily got inside the ship.

- "Wow, this is like any sci-fi movie! I'm doing that for real, and I'm in real danger! This is so exciting!"

Her brain was filled with thoughts like that when she walked on tiptoe through the long hall. This short break won't bring any results, and she'll need to get off the ship before they return and depart. This would not likely be a good intel-collecting trip, and she was willing to try without thinking about what she could gather. Kiriko walks around the ship, trying to stay close or memorize the way back to the entrance to escape at any time. When she's enjoying the futuristic interiors, she hears an Arma Caeli conversation behind a door. Not daring to go inside, she eavesdropped on them in excitement. Sounds of hammers resounded from outside the ship; she cursed them and tried to hear what they said. It's a woman and a man's voices; they seem to be chatting out of business.

- Hey, did they bring the vault? Unexpected _____, an important thing, shouldn't be brought onto the battlefield.

- Then, where do you think it should be? Armanite? We need it for the attack, and when we___, you think the enemy will just leave us unharmed to pause the battle, return to our homeland, and _____ the vault?

Kiriko curses the fixing man again for his dear hammer-pounding sounds. Some words can't be heard clearly, but for now she can still understand what they mean.

- No, I don't think so. But the vault still holds a mysterious ____ for us. Have you entered it before?

The man asks, and his voice seems to rise slightly.

- I did, but not for very long. The vault brings creation, power, and ____, it's hard to tell exactly what it does. I only have the right ___ use a ____ of its resources; I can't tell if that's everything ___________ do. This time, it seems to be located on the 3rd or 4th ship or so…

Kiriko heard the sounds of the door closing. Shit, she has been so into the conversation that she forgot to watch the entrance! No time to be sneaky, she rushed on the way she memorized to reach the door. It's half-closed, with two Arma Caelis returning to the ship. She knows she will face them right away for a chance to escape; there's no other choice. The little garlic boy always knows when to give her a hand. It moves out of her bag; she throws it between Arma Caelis. The garlic emits a weird flow of air that blurs their vision for a short moment. Vines summoned from Kiriko's altered form hold the door and prevent it from closing. While the enemy was still confused with their eyes blinded, she ran through them, grabbed Lilonion, and fled the ship. She cuts the vines, and the door closes. There's no time to stop and breathe; one second can cost her life. Kiriko carries her companion and runs into a forest nearby.