Author notes: Another day and another new chapter! After writing, I now suddenly have a strange craving for coffee. Weird.
Now then, going by the newest chapter on Patreon, I expect that the Side Story arc will end in five chapters (meaning it will be Side story chapter 20, give or take one). After that, it's a home run baby!
Yuki in a very nice casual dress.
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Morgan wakes up to the smell of freshly cooked breakfast and fragrant coffee. Sitting up with a slight but not uncomfortable aching in her lower body, Morgan blushes as she hazily remembered what happened last night. Touching her lips with a finger, Morgan can just about taste the milk that Aria lactated in last night's carnal activity. Growing a shade redder, Morgan shakes her head as she steps off the bed. Scanning the room, Morgan finds that whatever mess they made yesternight was cleaned up by Aria.
Finding herself smiling at Aria's attentiveness, Morgan makes her way to the kitchen area. There, she is greeted with a splendorous view of an apron-wearing Aria. Like a dutiful husband in their relationship, Aria is making a healthy portion of Farmer's Omelet and dripped coffee to kickstart their day. Stepping closer, Morgan drapes her arms alongside Aria's waist, taking in the sweet morning scent of Aria's body, moaning comfortably at the Valkyrie's body temperature. Softly chuckling at Morgan's childish behavior, Aria bids her good morning. "Good morning, Morgan. I hope you slept well enough?"
Nodding her head, Morgan peaks out from behind Aria, gazing intently at her blue eyes with a sunny smile. "Un~! I slept like a log! Only to wake up at the smell of your delicious breakfast! Say, how about you? Have you rested well?"
Returning a nod of her own, Aria answers. "I did, Morgan. After all, you're too comfortable as a sleeping pillow. What a great thing it was for me to have you all for myself." Aria then ruffles Morgan's hair, earning a giggle from her. "Good, good! Praise my cuddliness more!" Morgan plays along with Aria, puffing her chest out in pride with the pride of being huggable.
Aria can only shake her head with a smile at Morgan's morning antics. "Ok, ok. You're the best plushie in the world, Morgan. Now go and refresh yourself. Breakfast will be done shortly." Aria advised gently, earning a nod and another hug from Morgan before she skips away. Aria laughs softly at the energetic way Morgan's acting after last night. She then finishes up the preparation for breakfast, carrying the omelet pan and utensils out to the table. After that, Aria proceeds to pour two cups of coffee, placing them neatly next to arranged dishes.
Aria then heads over to the kitchen sink, to wash her hands. It's at this moment that Aria hears a knock on the door. While wondering who it's that is knocking, she hears Morgan calling out. "Let me get the door!" Then comes the pitter-patter of her footsteps and after a few seconds, the door is opened with Morgan saying.
"Oh! Good morning, SCAR-L, SCAR-H! Do you two want to come in?"
"Morning, Morgan! And excuse us for intruding."
Aria comes out of the kitchen after wiping
her hands clean to see that Morgan has invited the older SCAR sisters in. "A good morning to you two.
SCAR-H raises a hand and smiles in return while SCAR-L greets the Valkyrie. "Morning, Aria! We were thinking about inviting you two for breakfast with the rest of the team." SCAR-L then looks at the source of a delicious smell that has been flagging her nose. "But seeing that you've already had it handled, I guess we can leave it for another time."
Morgan nods. "That's a bit unfortunate, how about we join you for lunch or dinner?"
SCAR-L turns to look at Morgan, though she works up a blush when she notices the girl's nightgown. "Y-Yes! That will be good! The team will like to know more about you two. Especially when we have browsed the data packages you sent. P90 and HiPer have been very vocal about their curiosity about your magical technology."
Morgan nods understandingly. "There will be enough time for me to answer the questions you may have. Maybe when we're servicing our aircraft and analyzing our flight data after breakfast? If your team is off-duty then, you're welcome to join us." SCAR-L nods, finding that her echelon's schedule is free at the time. Morgan then smiles, offering. "Do you want some coffee before going, at least? Aria makes nice coffee and it will be a shame to miss out."
Aria beams at the compliment. SCAR-L takes up on the offer, pulling out a thermo flask from her pocket. "Then can you fill me up? I am a sucker for good coffee and if you have milk, that will be even better." Aria takes the flask with grace, though she notices that SCAR-L and SCAR-H are stealing glances at Morgan's revealing form while they're making light talks. It's funny to see how fast Morgan's charm can affect a person.
Once Aria fills the glass with milk coffee, she returns it to SCAR-L, who thanks her with a grateful smile. "Thanks a lot, Aria. Just from the aroma alone, I know that it's good."
"You're welcome." Aria replied kindly.
SCAR-L then taps SCAR-H on the shoulder. "Come on, sis, let's join the rest in the cafeteria. Be seeing you two in a short while!" SCAR-L waves goodbye with SCAR-H offering a few parting words with a finger gun. "Nice form you have there, Morgan. Very sexy, me likey."
Understandably, SCAR-L bonks her big sis with a blush. "Hey, that's not a thing you should say in front of another's girlfriend."
SCAR-H rolls her eyes in protest while she rubs her head. "I'm saying that as a sincere compliment! Besides, they don't seem to mind that!"
SCAR-H speaks correctly for Morgan and Aria are chuckling at the compliment, taking it at face value. "Don't chide her too much, SCAR-L. It's just SCAR-H being SCAR-H, very nonchalant which I don't find it discomforting. Rather, it's a nice change of pace." Morgan commented with a light smile.
This earns a smirk from SCAR-H. "See?"
It's now SCAR-L's turn to roll her eyes. "Please, don't indulge her, Morgan. I've had enough trouble keeping her in check on the field already." She then moves to push SCAR-H by the shoulders and out of the room. "Now move your lazy butt and leave them alone! Let them have their breakfast in peace!"
"Hey! I can walk on my own!" SCAR-H protested before the door was closed.
Morgan and Aria share a look with Morgan saying. "Well, that's an interesting way to start a morning. Being complimented that you're sexy by T-Dolls of comparable beauty."
Aria chuckles at her words. "I know, right? Whoever designed the T-Dolls sure have a peculiar mindset to make them as rowdy as that."
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With their respective morning routines out of the way, the humans and Dolls of Base 794 resume the task of rebuilding the battle-stricken base. The progress is faster than what Morgan and Aria predicted for it seems like they've recovered more than half of the battle damage in the span of a day. Most notable are that the perimeter defenses are fixed and reinforced and the airstrip is repaved for additional supplies to be airlifted over. The pilots are also surprised to see a construction mech being operated by an Ushanka-wearing T-Doll. They almost laugh when the girl tripped over and nearly crashed into a minty-delivered server rack. Thankfully, the girl controls the machine in time, otherwise, they would have seen Gentiane's sour face right now.
Moving on from the busting activities, the pilots then move to the hangar that is storing their aircraft. There, a set of electronics and basic toolings have been delivered, allowing Morgan and Aria to perform basic servicing of their planes. Aria volunteers herself for the menial tasks that require muscular strength with Morgan working out the aircraft's software and flight performance. They then review the combat data of yesterday's flight, debugging any issue that they had before the next sortie.
While Morgan and Aria are working, Gentiane, Helian, team FN and a few unfamiliar girls, T-Dolls most probably, join them. Seeing the opened cockpits and the removed ordnances, Gentiane comments. "You guys sure work fast. Need any help over there?"
Morgan, who is sitting in the cockpit of Aria's aircraft with Aria herself perching on the fuselage, turns around with a wave. "And a nice morning to you too, Gentiane. Thanks for the offer but I don't think any of you know how to interface with an aircraft, much less one this advance."
Gentiane shrugs, knowing what she said is true. "But the offer still stands if you ever need it. I, for once, think that HiPer will be very quick to pick up anything you are willing to show her." Gentiane points at the black-hair girl who is already skipping all over the place to marvel at the Arias. Not just her but most of the T-Dolls also. Sighing at their antics, she turns to SCAR-L. "Please, help me keep them in line. Those are live ordnances they're running around and the last thing we need is for someone to drop a Molotov in front of a heat-seeker." SCAR-L flinches at this but takes up the unenviable task nonetheless.
Leaving the Dolls out of their mind for now, Gentiane and Helian move closer to an opened PC that is connected to the mainframe of an Aria. While they can't understand most of the data shown, nor can they even keep up with the flickering streams of data, they can understand the Belkan version of the German language just fine. And from a single glance, the information they can glean proves that the Arias are unmatchable for the current Earth's air force. Seeing their inquisitive look from the corner of her eye, Morgan smiles before saying. "It will be great if we can rearm our planes. At the end of the day, we don't have unlimited munitions to throw around. If we expend everything then the best we can do is unarmed recon and electronic warfare assistance for the girls on the ground."
Helian raises an eyebrow at this. "You can even function as an AWACS?" Gentiane is also interested in this. Depending on a combat scenario, an electronic warfare suit can be a hundred times more effective than fire support.
Morgan nods with pride. "I designed the Arias with a massive bulk for a good reason, you know. These girls are equipped with the best of the best the Reich has to offer. Serving as a mini-AWACS is just the tip of the iceberg for them." Having said that, Morgan then glides her palm along the gleaming fuselage of the Aria lovingly.
While they're surprised that it was Morgan who made these crazy machines of war. They're even more impressed that Morgan treats the aircraft like her babies from the warm gaze that she is showering them with. In fact, it's not just the Arias that receive the motherly treatment from Morgan. Rather, all of the machines that are ever born from Morgan's blueprints have received her love at some point. After the amount of effort she put into them, it will be out of place if Morgan didn't take pride in her creations. Seeing Morgan like that, Gentiane and Helian once again affirm that she will be treating the T-Dolls right. Their looks of approval sure do not escape Aria's notice, however, she chooses not to comment on this.
Morgan then controls the PC from afar, showing them the sensor data from yesterday's combat. "I've compiled a 3D map base on the readings we have gotten. Have a look at it and see if you can come up with something of interest, you two."
Hearing that, Gentiane and Helian are quick to get to work. Gentiane operates the computer, scrolling over to the highlighted portions of the map. After a couple of minutes, Helian gives her comment after an in-depth scanning. "Outposts, radar sites, communication relays, jammers... Just the locations of those alone would have aided us big times had we known about them earlier. Most of the time we have to rely on risky recon ops deep in Sangvis' territory just to get a portion of this force deployment map you sent over, Morgan." Gentiane flinches at the seemingly effortless reward just from a single flyby with their aircraft.
Smiling, Morgan says. "Took a hefty investment to get such clear data though. Anyway, I highly doubt those are all you can gather from the map?"
Helian nods in response. "You're correct to say that." Helian then operates the computer, sharing a portion of the map with Morgan. "Here, right at the edge of your sensor range and deep inside the Carpathians. There's a large build-up of Sangvis' structures. That spot is new, for documents of Sangvis' infrastructures before they went rogue has never listed it. From the look of it, Sangvis clearly wants nobody to notice that installation, hence they carved out a mountain range just to house whatever is hidden there. And with them being that far in Sangvis' territory, we can't even mount an aerial recon with our UAVs without them disconnected for unknown reasons."
Morgan and Aria look at the place Helian has shown, with Aria commenting. "Whatever it is, the energy reading is abnormally high, even by our standards. You think that they're running a jamming field, Morgan?"
Morgan nods. "It's only logical to have a jamming field around to cover up whatever they're doing there." Thinking up something, Morgan turns to Helian. "Say, do you have accessed to SATINT?"
Shaking her head, Helian replies. "Unfortunately, we don't. There is too much orbital debris for any satellites to orbit Sangvis-controlled territory. Not to mention that most of their logistics are based underground, we won't even be getting much from satellites anyway."
Morgan nods. "Yeah, that will be an issue then. So, how do you want to tackle this problem? We can probably perform aerial recon for you but we will be flying in blind. There's no telling what sort of detection and triple-As Sangvis has deployed there."
Helian shakes her head, looking at Gentiane. "Using aircraft will be too risky if we don't know what we're dealing with. With the location being so deep in their heart of operations, they won't leave it open for air incursion like what you did yesterday. So, Gentiane, it will be a ground game for you then."
Raising an eyebrow, Gentiane replies. "While I do trust in my Echelons, they will be conducting recon with additional ground support in a place that is further than everywhere we've been to. No doubt they will also run into a Ringleader or two. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Don't get Gentiane wrong, she is willing to carry out the order. It's just that the price of failure will be the annihilation of the Echelon that is sent behind the enemy line.
Helian sighs, fully empathizing with the young commander's concern. "I understand this is a troubling order for you, Commander. But unfortunately, such a military build-up can't be ignored. We need visuals on the ground to figure out what we're dealing with here. With my experience as an intelligence officer, I have a feeling that whatever is hidden there will be beyond our capability to deal with if we stay idle."
Sighing ruefully at words that can't be truer, Gentiane can only turn her eyes to SCAR-L, the girl who has approached them during their tense conversation. SCAR-L, knowing what's about to be asked by Gentiane, smiles confidently. "Leave it to us, Commander. I will get the team sorted and ready to move out at a moment's notice. We will get that intel back for you!" She asserted with a conviction befitting of a WW3 veteran.
SCAR-H, who overhears their talk, shrugs. "Great... Another stressful task is assigned to us. Can't say I hate it though."
P90 laughs while throwing her arms in the air. "Of course, you can't hate it, this is our chance at being heroes again!"
"Don't worry," SCAR-SC deploys her blue visor. "I will make sure to extract everything of note!"
HiPer nods along, putting a hand on her chest. "I am confident that I can keep the team at maximum efficiency, Commander. You can trust us to return with splendorous results."
Hearing their assertations personally, Gentiane decides to lay her worries to rest, putting on a smile instead. "I understand." Turning to Helian, Gentiane asks. "Chief, is it ok for the mission to be carried out in three days? I would like the team to get some R&R while they still can."
"Granted. Until that day, Echelon 1 can request whatever thing they need, as long as the request is reasonable and doesn't hamper their combat readiness three days later." Helian's generosity sure placed smiles on team FN's faces. They can just about feel whatever cool toys they will be able to requisition now.
The other T-Dolls look at them with envy, one of them even saying. "I am jealous, of your group. Better make good use of the chance and make sure to come back alive, yeah?"
SCAR-L smiles, nodding at the girl wearing a black skirt with a WW2 rifleman jacket. "We will, BAR. You will be seeing us coming back victorious in no time."
BAR nods with a smile before she returns to her own Echelon, leaving team FN to continue their discussions with the commanding officers. Morgan picks this moment to interject.
"Before you deploy though, I will see if I can improve your gears and if at all possible, your bodies. That is if you are ok with me inspecting you."
SCAR-L tilts her head before going through the few scenarios she can think of before shrugging. "Sure. It's not that different from what we promised you yesterday anyway."
Morgan nods, pleased. "Great! I will see to it that you will have the best chance of survival! As for further support, without sufficient air-to-ground munitions, we can only offer up ourselves with the roles of air superiority, recon, and electronic warfare whenever you need us. Maybe a few precision attacks with our remaining AGMs? Unless..." Morgan turns to Helian.
Knowing what she's asking for, Helian shakes her head with a rueful sigh. "Unfortunately, additional ordnances won't arrive in time for this mission. You will have to make do with whatever you have."
SCAR-L nods, not dishearted from the lack of constant CAS overwatch. "That's fine by us, ma'am, it's not like this is the first time we operate without sufficient support. We will deliver results all the same."
"I will take your word for it, SCAR-L." Helian nodded, pleased with her confidence.
Gentiane also nods before putting on a brighter smile than before. "With that out of the way, why don't we talk about something else? For example, what sort of powerplants fuel our two Guardian Angels here?"
Predictably, HiPer immediately swivels her head over to Morgan, eagerly awaiting a response like a puppy. The sudden change of atmosphere easily gets a laugh from Morgan. She has a feeling that their stay here will be filled with situations like this in the future.