“Ticia, I think you should say something…” Rika lightly elbowed Ticia, seeing that the latter had stayed frozen in place.
“Huh? Oh, sorry.” She snapped out of it, now wasn’t the time to worry about how many daughters she had. “...ECG-099?” She asked, knowing the clone’s codename thanks to the faint feeling of connection they had between them.
“Yes, Mother?” The latter replied emotionlessly, but Ticia could still feel expectations in the clone girl’s voice.
“Thank you for coming to your mother’s help.” She said, giving an implicit meaning to her words.
“!!!” ECG-099 caught on the meaning of her words, Ticia had recognised her as her daughter! She saluted again. “It is my sisters' and my pleasure.”
“Yay~! Mom acknowledged you!” Vinia jumped in, happy for her little sister.
“...Who are those people?” Andrew mumbled to himself, unsure of what was happening. The only answer he got was a hand put on his shoulder.
“It's not the time to ask such stuff, young man! We have the same enemy, that's all that matters right now!” Berdo declared. He had caught on to what was happening, but more than that, it was necessary for them to take advantage of this sudden attack and surround Felgoron’s troops. “Come on, help me rally the men!”
“Me?” Andrew frowned. “But I'm only a-”
“Who cares about your rank right now! If I say you help me, then you do so!”
“Y-yes sir!”
Berdo went to the camp where soldiers had begun to gather, and a flustered Andrew quickly followed after him. Because Felgoron had been taken by surprise, he had completely forgotten to order his troops to engage them, and Berdo was not going to let this mistake go to waste. Meanwhile, Rika wanted to assess the situation and know how many clones were currently there.
“How many of you are there?” She asked ECG-099, but only received a silent treatment. In fact, ECG-099 did not even bother looking at her, and just waited for her mother’s next order.
“Uhm, who are you?” Vinia asked, giving a cautious look to Rika and tilting her head. This action alone had a destructive effect on Rika, who barely managed to keep her poker face. Licia and the others were something, but that girl was even more of a cutie!
“She's an old friend of mine, Vinia.” Ticia said warmly to her daughter, unaware of the struggle of her former general now turned friend.
“Mommy's old friend!?” Vinia’s cautious gaze immediately changed to a curious one directed towards Rika, who flinched. She didn’t expect a second blow in such a quick time!
“But presentations can wait, dear. Answer her question.” Ticia redirected her daughter towards what was urgent.
“Y-yes!” The girl was startled, but straightened herself before giving a report to her mother. “Uhm, A-4 put every ressources left into the production of clones, to the point that the cloning facility is a mess… But even with that, only one hundred sisters were made. Besides the new sisters, we're all here too.”
“Everybody?” Ticia frowned, now worried, what were her daughters thinking, going on the battlefield? No, in the first place, how did they manage to make clones grow up in such a quick time?
“Yes, because we were worried.” Vinia answered, unaware of her mother’s current state of mind. “Uhm, there's also a bigger problem, A-4 and our home, the-”
Before she could speak more however, the noise of another jetpack was heard, and not soon after, another clone, similar in all aspects to ECG-099, landed.
“Prime Sister Vinia, Mother.” The clone said, saluting.
“Eh? 100? Why are you here?” Vinia asked, making big eyes at this unexpected arrival.
“Apologies, but I bring orders from Prime Sister Ria. Sister 099 and I must act as bodyguards to Mother.” The clone, ECG-100, replied, looking at Ticia with a gaze similar to ECG-099.
“Roger.” ECG-099 accepted the orders, saluting back.
“Bodyguards?” Ticia frowned, she never expected to receive such treatment. But, this also proved how much her daughters cared about her, so she couldn’t just refuse…
“Just deal with it, Ticia.” Rika shook her head, a wry smile on her face. “That’s how you’re treated when you’re in a position of command. Besides, it’s not a bad thing.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Ticia frowned, unsure where this conversation was going.
“Despite being tired, you just want to jump into the fray, right?”
“...” She could not deny that point. Now that she knew that her daughters were fighting for her sake, how could she just watch?
“Then go, I'll make sure the four troublemakers stay put, and of course, that includes the new cutie that appeared.” Rika said with a smile, and before everybody knew it, she had positioned herself behind Vinia, hands put on the girl’s shoulders.
“Fueh?” The clone girl let out a voice at the sudden move of Rika. “B-but I must continue my mission and help mom…”
“Nope, your fate has already been decided, little one.” Rika said, a glint in her eyes that immediately silenced Vinia.
Ticia frowned, seeing the interaction. She could not help but feel like there was a hidden meaning behind Rika’s actions, despite the trust she had for her. Still, she accepted.
“...Thanks, I'll be on my way then.” She turned towards her two new daughters, who stayed at attention near her. “You two, follow me.”
““Yes, Mother.”” Both replied, and the three of them caught up with Berdo, who was now commanding the troops on a hoverer jeep. As much as Ticia wanted to immediately join up with her daughters, she knew that a soldier with a precise goal and duty would be more effective to end the battle more quickly.
“Gramps, tell me where I need to go.” She told the busy old man, signaling her presence.
“Ah, Ticia, just in time.” Berdo said back, turning towards her with an awkward smile. “We managed to establish a communication line with our ‘allies’, but the one in command refuses to tell us anything…”
“Send the line over.” Ticia replied, and Berdo gave a quick look to one of his subordinates, who nodded and worked on his computer, and soon after, a voice Ticia knew well was heard through her own coms.
“How many times do I have to tell you that we have no intention of speaking with you.” The voice said with a bit of exasperation and some clear hostility in it.
“Ria, it’s me.” Ticia said in a serious tone.
“Wha-!? Mom, are you alright!?” Ria seemed surprised that her mother answered, so Ticia reassured her.
“I am.”
“And the others!?”
“Everyone is fine, Ria, nobody is hurt.”
“Thank god…” A short sigh of relief was heard as Ria calmed down, but she soon asked another question. “Did you meet up with Vinia?”
“Yes, don’t worry, I’ve also met the two guards you sent me.” Ticia said, sending a glance towards her two new daughters.
“That’s good then.”
“Ria, I want you to coordinate with the people over here.” Ticia said in a very serious tone, she wanted Ria to understand the importance of her words.
“What? But they’re…” Ria, however, stayed hesitant, there was even some rejection and disgust in her tone, so Ticia insisted.
“This is an order Ria, Gramps has more experience on the battlefield, so you must listen to him.”
There was a small silence, before a reticent Ria gave her answer. “...If that is what mother wants…”
Ria’s answer worried Ticia a bit. She felt like there was something more to her daughter’s words than simple mistrust of a stranger… She’ll need to have a serious talk with her later.
“Thanks, girl.” Berdo, who was also on the line, gave his thanks to Ticia before addressing Ria. “Kid, can you tell me what your current plan is?”
“Yes…” Albeit reluctant, Ria obeyed. She told Berdo and her mother the battle plan she came up with.
“We have divided ourselves into five groups. Two of them are currently holding the line, and are our main force. Willia and Nillia are in one while Miria and Tiria are in the other. Ah, and they’re not facing the enemy directly, just manning up heavy mortars. Nicia is providing sniping support from afar, and I’m coordinating the troops from my position.”
“Umu, an excellent tactic.” Berdo nodded, in agreement with what the girl said. The heavy mortars were an excellent idea. While the Borkians and Ionians were fearful of using artillery, the clone girls were not. There was no risk of damaging Clone installation 3 at this distance, after all…
“Seeing how the pig’s troops are disorderly, you shouldn’t have much problems.” He continued, looking over to the battlefield where explosions swallowed the enemies. Armored skinsuit or not, artillery was the worst enemy of infantry, and that stayed true on any battlefield.
“Of course we wouldn’t.” Ria replied with a snort, which Ticia would have reacted to, were it not for a worry that now occupied her mind.
“What about Ticinia? Is she with you or Nicia?” She asked, with a bit of urgency in her voice.
“Uhm, no, actually, Ticinia is playing the biggest role in our plan…” Ria seemed hesitant to answer her mother this time, but still did so, and when Ticia heard where Ticinia was, she roared in anger.
“You what!? You sent Ticinia at the head of a mission to kill the ennemy commander?! Are you crazy Ria!?”
“No, this was the most logical choice, mom!” Ria tried to defend herself. “We didn’t want to, but she volunteered for the task!”
“And you just let her!?” Ticia could not believe it, while she did not question her daughter’s ability to achieve the mission, something else was bothering her. “Ria, must I remind you of your sister’s condition?”
If Ticinia overused her powers, she would end up in the same state as before, or worse…
“I-I know! But I also wanted to respect her choice!” Ria continued to defend her sister’s choice, which only made Ticia curse.
“Shit, I’m going there!” She declared, but Berdo stopped her before she did so.
“Calm down, girl! Don’t rush into the enemy like this!”
“Ugh, I know, but-”
“Yes, you’re worried about your daughter, I can understand that, Ticia.” Berdo reasonned Ticia. “I don’t know everything, but I don't think there’s much to worry about. I mean, just look at our enemies.”
Ticia looked at the battlefield as Berdo said, and what she saw, rather than an orderly unit of soldiers, was an utter mess.
“Agh! What should we do!?”
“It hurts! It hurts so much! I didn’t sign up for this!”
“They said it would be easy!”
“...” Ticia was left speechless. Wherever she looked, there was panic. The enemies in front of her did not act at all like disciplined soldiers, but rather… incompetents… Felgoron’s orders were the only thing that kept them fighting instead of fleeing, in fact…
This was the truth behind Felgoron’s unit. It was not a true military one, meaning it didn’t even receive proper training! From those first reactions, Berdo had guessed that the troops here were just a bunch of hooligans and some mercenaries that had been baited by Felgoron’s backers. As for the armored skinsuits? It was most probably the contribution of Rika’s family, they were more than wealthy enough to provide for each soldier after all.
Still, despite this, Ticia wanted to find Ticinia, which made Berdo sigh as a result.
“Fine, I get it. You won’t change your mind. But in that case, we’ll provide support, girl. I don’t think the fat man is any danger to us now, but make sure your daughter is alright.” He said with a small smile, before telling one of his soldiers. “Tell Devil 7 to commence his advance.”
“Yes sir. We also just received a message from Captain Rowla of the 506th cavalry company, they’re on their way to support us.”
Berdo nodded at the information. If Captain Rowla, a neutral, was allowed to make a move, then it meant that the Twill faction had nothing to do with what was currently going on. Well, Berdo even doubted the Twill faction would even bother sending such undertrained men to do their bidding, it wasn’t their style…
“Well, there you have it, girl, I won’t hold you back, but be careful, alright?” He said, turning back his attention towards Ticia.
“Thanks, gramps.” Was all that Ticia said, before beginning a sprint towards the battlefield, her two daughters following after her.
She reached the frontline quickly, where she could see a bunch of soldiers progressing slowly behind their armored vehicles. They were Devil 7, and she silently joined up with them. She received some frowns from the soldiers, but that was all, they continued their advance without questioning.
The enemy had of course spotted them, and some laser beams were sent their way. But not many were precise.
Just like the other soldiers, Ticia fired back from behind the cover of the armored vehicles, but she found herself increasingly frustrated at the slow advance.
“Damn! If only we could go faster!” She mumbled to herself, but she knew it wasn’t anybody’s fault. This was just the speed that granted the most safety to the troops the vehicles were covering.
But her mumble did not go unheard, both ECG-099 and ECG-100 reacted to it. To the surprise of everybody, they came out from their covers.
“Wha-!? What are you two doing!?” Ticia cried out to them, but before any laser beam could touch them, she heard the clone girls say.
““Shield: Scutum mode.””
Immediately after they said that, an energy shield of a rectangular, curved shape, covering the entirety of their bodies, appeared on their left forearm that they had placed in front of them. The energy shield absorbed the laser beams that entered contact with it. The two girls also responded by fixing their rifles under their right shoulder, and firing back at the enemy.
The soldiers who watched the scene were left incredulous, including Ticia. Never had they seen such a scene. In the first place, could energy shields even hold this long?
“Mother.” ECG-099 called out. “Take cover behind us.”
Ticia could feel the seriousness of her new daughters, and after taking a breath in, she went behind them, putting her trust in them. Once she did so, both ECGs began to speed up their advance, passing the armored vehicles under the incredulous gazes of both allies and enemies.
“Wh-what the hell?!”
“It’s just an energy shield, keep shooting!”
The enemies were confused by this advance, and began to focus on the three women advancing towards them. But their fire was imprecise, and whatever managed to reach them only got absorbed by the shield. What they got in return were laser beams that destroyed parts of their armors before killing them.
“G-grenade! Throw a grenade!” Someone yelled, and a grenade was quickly thrown at Ticia and her daughters, however… The grenade was shot in the air by a laser beam, and exploded in the air.
““Wh-!?”” Everybody was stunned, even Ticia wasn’t sure she could do that! She looked at ECG-099 in disbelief and amazement.
“How did you do that!?” She asked, but the answer she got was not what she expected.
“I do not know, Mother.” The clone girl shook her head. “I just sneezed.”
“...” Ticia was left speechless. What was with that girl, shooting while sneezing, and managing such a lucky shot? No, in the first place, why did she sneeze even though she had a helmet with an air philter?
In the end, Ticia gave up finding a reason. The performance just now had made their enemies fearful and that’s all that mattered. Their firing had become even more inaccurate, and no one dared throw a grenade anymore… They did not even think of using heavier weapons like rockets against them.
This unexpected result had for effect to bolster the allies, who became bolder in their attacks, and now, Ticia and her girls were reaching the enemies’ position. Lucky for them, the enemies had not expected to be the ones who defended, so they were exposed, the relief, not playing in their favor.
“How to proceed now?” Ticia asked herself, should she just charge in? With only three of them?
When she asked herself such questions, her coms opened, and a familiar voice came in.
“Willia here! The enemy is about to break, so I’m launching a general charge!”
“What in the- Willia!? Stop!” Ticia yelled, but unfortunately, the other side had already broken the line, the only thing she could hear now was a cute yell coming from the other side, followed by a multitude of war cries and the screams of fright.
“No choice then, we’re charging too!” Ticia decided and both of her bodyguards acquiesced.
““Roger. Shield: Hoplon.”” Their posture changed as the shield took a circular, convex form. They grabbed their rifles like a spear, and, without a word, began to charge at the enemy while letting out a war cry of their own, and did not even bother to dodge the enemy fire.
Ticia, albeit a bit bewildered, followed after, covering them with her trusty pistols. The enemies at first shot at them, but as the laser beams got absorbed by either the shields or the armored skinsuit, they grew restless, and when Ticia finally reached the enemy lines, their ranks broke, and the soldiers began to flee.
“Agh!” Those who stayed behind were impaled by ECG-099 and ECG-100, leaving a hot, melting mess when the two clone girls retracted their weapons. The heating bayonets were so hot they passed through the armored skinsuits like butter!
Not soon after, the rest of their allies arrived, capturing those that surrendered and shooting the ones that resisted. Ticia did not care though, she continued on, killing those in her way.
She needed to find Felgoron, who had cowardly hidden himself in his troops. That, or find Ticinia. The latter was more important to her, but Felgoron had also said he wanted to capture her daughters, so she wasn’t going to let him go for that.
She went further into the troops, followed by her two daughters, massacring anybody who resisted. At some point, she found a man that was trying to galvanize the men around him. She immediately immobilized him.
“Agh!” The man cried out as he got tackled to the ground, and before he could understand what happened to him, a gun barrel was pointed at his forehead.
“Where is your leader?” Ticia said in the most cold tone she had.
“O-over there.” The man pointed in a direction, fearing for his life.
“Thank you.” Ticia said, before killing the man with one pull of the trigger. Most of the enemies had already fled when she looked up, and the others were being finished by her two daughters. She did not lose any time and continued on in the direction she had been pointed at.
“!!!” She saw a pair of twintails wave in the air to her right, and immediately turned in this direction.
“Ticinia!” She yelled as she finally saw her daughter, but froze at the situation.
Ticinia stood there with an innocent smile on her face and eight ECGs behind her, but the problem was what Ticia saw on the other side. Facing Ticinia was a lump of flesh on his butt, who had already pissed on himself, and was pleading for his life while crying…
“Fueh? Mom?” Ticinia was surprised by the appearance of her mother, but she beamed a smile, and immediately went for a hug. “Mom!”
“Ticinia, what happened here?” She asked, keeping an eye on the man. He and the subordinates near him were unhurt, yet looked at Tininia with true horror in their eyes…
“What happened?” Ticinia tilted her head. “I just asked them to stop their assault?”
“M-monster…” Felgoron stuttered. “Th-that thing is a monster!”
Ticia frowned, she didn’t like how he called her daughter a ‘thing’ and a ‘monster’. Ticinia is not a monster, she’s the cutest hugging pillow she ever knew! Well, except for her other daughters but that is that, and this is this!
“ECG-061” She said, looking at one of the ECG who had a helmet crest made of red hair. “Tell me what happened.”
“Yes, Mother.” The clone saluted. “Prime Sister Ticinia led this unit, which had the objective to ‘eliminate’ the enemy leader. But once we arrived here, she changed her mind, and began talking to him.”
“...I see, I think I get it.” Ticia said, before sighing, the sound of battles surrounding her were ceasing, meaning the battle was coming to an end. She then looked at the girl in question. “You used your powers again, didn’t you?”
“Tehe.” Was the only answer she got from Ticinia, who was just happy to have a hug with her mother. Ticinia had used her mysterious power, and turned the situation to her advantage somehow by making Felgoron’s fear rise…
“Silly girl…” Ticia sighed, before giving a fickle on the girl’s forehead. “Do you know how much you made me worry? Doing such a thing… and while recuperating at that…”
“...Sorry.” Ticinia said, reflecting at the wave of worry she felt from her mother.
“N-no! She must be killed!! That monster must not be allowed to live!” Felgoron yelled, but was still on the ground, whatever he said, he wouldn’t be the one to move… His words pissed off Ticia.
“...Ticinia, close your eyes for a bit.” She said, and Ticinia nodded, obeying her mother. After that, she got closer to Felgoron.
“You.” Ticia said in a cold voice.
“W-what?”
“Don’t ever call my daughter a monster ever again.” She pointed her pistol at the genital parts of Felgoron.
“W-wait don’t-!” Felgoron pleaded, but Ticia pulled the trigger, just as Willia appeared with a bunch of clones.
“Mom! You’re-”
*Blam*
“Aaaaaagh!” Felgoron cried in pain, before fainting.
“W-Willia, uhm…” Ticia immediately turned to face Willia, who had frozen and was making round eyes now. She had messed up again!
“Mom…” Willia looked at her mother with a sudden look of understanding. “...I see, if you want to take care of a male enemy quickly, you must focus on this part!”
“Fueh? What part?” Ticinia asked innocently after opening her eyes, and as Willia was about to say what part, Ticia closed her mouth with her hand in a panic.
“N-nothing, Ticinia! Willia saw something wrong, that’s all!” She said as bullets of sweat flowed through her back and Willia struggled to speak up, she’ll need to have a discussion with Willia now…
“Okay… But what happened?” Ticinia asked, curious about why Felgoron had fainted, and why the people around were sending frightened gazes towards Ticia instead of her now…
“That is-”
“Prime Sister Ticinia.” ECG-099 spoke up before Ticia could. “Just now, Mother taught us how to-”
“STOP!” Ticia yelled out frantically to stop ECG-099's next words, the ECG clones seemed to have taken the meaning of the act wrongly too…
“Ugh, why is something always going wrong!” She could not help but cry out to the sky as she thought of the aftermath of all this, for some reason, she feared Rika learning about this incident, and the preaching she would receive afterwards…
***
Felgoron’s troops had surrendered, and the ones that did not had long fled into the wilderness or died. As for the man himself, he was now being treated for his wounds, and Rika, reading the report, had sent an exasperated look towards Ticia, who flinched because of it.
Not soon after the battle had settled, a group of Borkian soldiers riding lamacorns arrived. They were the 506th cavalry company, with Captain Rowla at the head. She was a bit surprised to learn everything had already been settled, but what Rika and Berdo noticed the most was her reaction when she saw Ticia, reunited with all her daughters. She seemed to know what they were, but did not comment.
They even received words from Fika, praising them for their efforts, and the capture of the ‘traitor’. He excused his lack of support by the fact that the Ionians had escalated the conflict, now making it a full blown war against the Borkian Confederation, that he had been called to an emergency meeting and was as a result unaware of what was happening. It sounded like an excuse, but the informants Berdo and Rika had affirmed this claim.
The casualties on the allied side were low, thanks not only to the sudden arrival of the clone girls with their artillery pieces and overall equipment, but also the fact that Felgoron’s troops were not official soldiers of the Borkian confederation, Berdo was sure of that after interrogating some. What would happen to them? Well, Most of the men will probably be judged as criminals, and be executed. Felgoron on the other hand would be judged as a traitor, and there were high chances all the blame from this operation as a whole would be put on him, leaving Rika free of any charges against her. By failing, he had become the new scapegoat of the higher ups.
In a fortunate twist of events, all clone girls had survived. Some had minor injuries, but none that would incapacitate them. After a warm hug with her twelve daughters, Ticia took some time to speak some words to each of them. They were her new daughters, and despite their appearance, and their almost emotionless answer, Ticia wanted to act as a good mother for them too, not just for the Null class clone girls.
As for the twelve Null CGs, they had broken into smaller groups. Mia and Nia were having a serious conversation, like Ticia had asked, and although Mia seemed sad, she was not angry at her teary-eyed sister.
Licia on her siad had apologized to everyone, before taking Ria and Vinia aside, and apologizing for her misdeeds to the two. They ended their conversation with a hug and some tears of happiness. Things were going back in order, and Ticia was happy about this.
“Phew…” Ticia sighed, happy this day was now finished. She was not going into a third battle today! “Well then, girls, we should soon get back home…” She told her daughters, but received some strange looks from some of them. “What’s wrong?”
“Uhm, mom…” Ria began hesitantly. “I don’t think we can do that…”
“Eh? Why?” Ticia asked, tilting her head.
“A-4… Shut down the place… Clone installation 3 and A-4 went into off mode…”
“...What?” Ticia froze, unable to understand what her daughters just said… She looked for confirmation, but the other clone girls nodded, ria was telling the truth.
“...” Ticia was left speechless. Just now, did she and her daughters get expelled from their home? What…would she do now?
Chauchat
Author's monologue:
Hey there! I'm back with another (late) chapter!
Another battle! This one less intense, but that's because the enmies were badly trained, so it was just a show of force! Or was it?
Anyway! I'm still not so confident in my ability to write battles, but this one seemed fine to me? The ECGs are a reliable bunch anyway, and Ria's good at leadership, so there wouldn't have been many problems, probably...
...Ticinia is cute, but also scary at the same time for strangers... Well, the ability to read feelings is kind of OP, but has a heavy backlash...
Also, what's up with A-4 and Clone installation 3? What is happening exactly?
Well, as you have probably guessed, we're reaching the end of this arc of Clone Girls, so the answer will come in the next chapter!
Now, if you excuse myself, an old childhood game of mine which had not been updated for a long while has received an update, so excuse my gamer side that just wants to jump on this occasion and experince this "summer update" in all its glory!
I'll see you all in the next chapter!
“Ticia, I think you should say something…” Rika lightly elbowed Ticia, seeing that the latter had stayed frozen in place.
“Huh? Oh, sorry.” She snapped out of it, now wasn’t the time to worry about how many daughters she had. “...ECG-099?” She asked, knowing the clone’s codename thanks to the faint feeling of connection they had between them.
“Yes, Mother?” The latter replied emotionlessly, but Ticia could still feel expectations in the clone girl’s voice.
“Thank you for coming to your mother’s help.” She said, giving an implicit meaning to her words.
“!!!” ECG-099 caught on the meaning of her words, Ticia had recognised her as her daughter! She saluted again. “It is my sisters' and my pleasure.”
“Yay~! Mom acknowledged you!” Vinia jumped in, happy for her little sister.
“...Who are those people?” Andrew mumbled to himself, unsure of what was happening. The only answer he got was a hand put on his shoulder.
“It's not the time to ask such stuff, young man! We have the same enemy, that's all that matters right now!” Berdo declared. He had caught on to what was happening, but more than that, it was necessary for them to take advantage of this sudden attack and surround Felgoron’s troops. “Come on, help me rally the men!”
“Me?” Andrew frowned. “But I'm only a-”
“Who cares about your rank right now! If I say you help me, then you do so!”
“Y-yes sir!”
Berdo went to the camp where soldiers had begun to gather, and a flustered Andrew quickly followed after him. Because Felgoron had been taken by surprise, he had completely forgotten to order his troops to engage them, and Berdo was not going to let this mistake go to waste. Meanwhile, Rika wanted to assess the situation and know how many clones were currently there.
“How many of you are there?” She asked ECG-099, but only received a silent treatment. In fact, ECG-099 did not even bother looking at her, and just waited for her mother’s next order.
“Uhm, who are you?” Vinia asked, giving a cautious look to Rika and tilting her head. This action alone had a destructive effect on Rika, who barely managed to keep her poker face. Licia and the others were something, but that girl was even more of a cutie!
“She's an old friend of mine, Vinia.” Ticia said warmly to her daughter, unaware of the struggle of her former general now turned friend.
“Mommy's old friend!?” Vinia’s cautious gaze immediately changed to a curious one directed towards Rika, who flinched. She didn’t expect a second blow in such a quick time!
“But presentations can wait, dear. Answer her question.” Ticia redirected her daughter towards what was urgent.
“Y-yes!” The girl was startled, but straightened herself before giving a report to her mother. “Uhm, A-4 put every ressources left into the production of clones, to the point that the cloning facility is a mess… But even with that, only one hundred sisters were made. Besides the new sisters, we're all here too.”
“Everybody?” Ticia frowned, now worried, what were her daughters thinking, going on the battlefield? No, in the first place, how did they manage to make clones grow up in such a quick time?
“Yes, because we were worried.” Vinia answered, unaware of her mother’s current state of mind. “Uhm, there's also a bigger problem, A-4 and our home, the-”
Before she could speak more however, the noise of another jetpack was heard, and not soon after, another clone, similar in all aspects to ECG-099, landed.
“Prime Sister Vinia, Mother.” The clone said, saluting.
“Eh? 100? Why are you here?” Vinia asked, making big eyes at this unexpected arrival.
“Apologies, but I bring orders from Prime Sister Ria. Sister 099 and I must act as bodyguards to Mother.” The clone, ECG-100, replied, looking at Ticia with a gaze similar to ECG-099.
“Roger.” ECG-099 accepted the orders, saluting back.
“Bodyguards?” Ticia frowned, she never expected to receive such treatment. But, this also proved how much her daughters cared about her, so she couldn’t just refuse…
“Just deal with it, Ticia.” Rika shook her head, a wry smile on her face. “That’s how you’re treated when you’re in a position of command. Besides, it’s not a bad thing.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Ticia frowned, unsure where this conversation was going.
“Despite being tired, you just want to jump into the fray, right?”
“...” She could not deny that point. Now that she knew that her daughters were fighting for her sake, how could she just watch?
“Then go, I'll make sure the four troublemakers stay put, and of course, that includes the new cutie that appeared.” Rika said with a smile, and before everybody knew it, she had positioned herself behind Vinia, hands put on the girl’s shoulders.
“Fueh?” The clone girl let out a voice at the sudden move of Rika. “B-but I must continue my mission and help mom…”
“Nope, your fate has already been decided, little one.” Rika said, a glint in her eyes that immediately silenced Vinia.
Ticia frowned, seeing the interaction. She could not help but feel like there was a hidden meaning behind Rika’s actions, despite the trust she had for her. Still, she accepted.
“...Thanks, I'll be on my way then.” She turned towards her two new daughters, who stayed at attention near her. “You two, follow me.”
““Yes, Mother.”” Both replied, and the three of them caught up with Berdo, who was now commanding the troops on a hoverer jeep. As much as Ticia wanted to immediately join up with her daughters, she knew that a soldier with a precise goal and duty would be more effective to end the battle more quickly.
“Gramps, tell me where I need to go.” She told the busy old man, signaling her presence.
“Ah, Ticia, just in time.” Berdo said back, turning towards her with an awkward smile. “We managed to establish a communication line with our ‘allies’, but the one in command refuses to tell us anything…”
“Send the line over.” Ticia replied, and Berdo gave a quick look to one of his subordinates, who nodded and worked on his computer, and soon after, a voice Ticia knew well was heard through her own coms.
“How many times do I have to tell you that we have no intention of speaking with you.” The voice said with a bit of exasperation and some clear hostility in it.
“Ria, it’s me.” Ticia said in a serious tone.
“Wha-!? Mom, are you alright!?” Ria seemed surprised that her mother answered, so Ticia reassured her.
“I am.”
“And the others!?”
“Everyone is fine, Ria, nobody is hurt.”
“Thank god…” A short sigh of relief was heard as Ria calmed down, but she soon asked another question. “Did you meet up with Vinia?”
“Yes, don’t worry, I’ve also met the two guards you sent me.” Ticia said, sending a glance towards her two new daughters.
“That’s good then.”
“Ria, I want you to coordinate with the people over here.” Ticia said in a very serious tone, she wanted Ria to understand the importance of her words.
“What? But they’re…” Ria, however, stayed hesitant, there was even some rejection and disgust in her tone, so Ticia insisted.
“This is an order Ria, Gramps has more experience on the battlefield, so you must listen to him.”
There was a small silence, before a reticent Ria gave her answer. “...If that is what mother wants…”
Ria’s answer worried Ticia a bit. She felt like there was something more to her daughter’s words than simple mistrust of a stranger… She’ll need to have a serious talk with her later.
“Thanks, girl.” Berdo, who was also on the line, gave his thanks to Ticia before addressing Ria. “Kid, can you tell me what your current plan is?”
“Yes…” Albeit reluctant, Ria obeyed. She told Berdo and her mother the battle plan she came up with.
“We have divided ourselves into five groups. Two of them are currently holding the line, and are our main force. Willia and Nillia are in one while Miria and Tiria are in the other. Ah, and they’re not facing the enemy directly, just manning up heavy mortars. Nicia is providing sniping support from afar, and I’m coordinating the troops from my position.”
“Umu, an excellent tactic.” Berdo nodded, in agreement with what the girl said. The heavy mortars were an excellent idea. While the Borkians and Ionians were fearful of using artillery, the clone girls were not. There was no risk of damaging Clone installation 3 at this distance, after all…
“Seeing how the pig’s troops are disorderly, you shouldn’t have much problems.” He continued, looking over to the battlefield where explosions swallowed the enemies. Armored skinsuit or not, artillery was the worst enemy of infantry, and that stayed true on any battlefield.
“Of course we wouldn’t.” Ria replied with a snort, which Ticia would have reacted to, were it not for a worry that now occupied her mind.
“What about Ticinia? Is she with you or Nicia?” She asked, with a bit of urgency in her voice.
“Uhm, no, actually, Ticinia is playing the biggest role in our plan…” Ria seemed hesitant to answer her mother this time, but still did so, and when Ticia heard where Ticinia was, she roared in anger.
“You what!? You sent Ticinia at the head of a mission to kill the ennemy commander?! Are you crazy Ria!?”
“No, this was the most logical choice, mom!” Ria tried to defend herself. “We didn’t want to, but she volunteered for the task!”
“And you just let her!?” Ticia could not believe it, while she did not question her daughter’s ability to achieve the mission, something else was bothering her. “Ria, must I remind you of your sister’s condition?”
If Ticinia overused her powers, she would end up in the same state as before, or worse…
“I-I know! But I also wanted to respect her choice!” Ria continued to defend her sister’s choice, which only made Ticia curse.
“Shit, I’m going there!” She declared, but Berdo stopped her before she did so.
“Calm down, girl! Don’t rush into the enemy like this!”
“Ugh, I know, but-”
“Yes, you’re worried about your daughter, I can understand that, Ticia.” Berdo reasonned Ticia. “I don’t know everything, but I don't think there’s much to worry about. I mean, just look at our enemies.”
Ticia looked at the battlefield as Berdo said, and what she saw, rather than an orderly unit of soldiers, was an utter mess.
“Agh! What should we do!?”
“It hurts! It hurts so much! I didn’t sign up for this!”
“They said it would be easy!”
“...” Ticia was left speechless. Wherever she looked, there was panic. The enemies in front of her did not act at all like disciplined soldiers, but rather… incompetents… Felgoron’s orders were the only thing that kept them fighting instead of fleeing, in fact…
This was the truth behind Felgoron’s unit. It was not a true military one, meaning it didn’t even receive proper training! From those first reactions, Berdo had guessed that the troops here were just a bunch of hooligans and some mercenaries that had been baited by Felgoron’s backers. As for the armored skinsuits? It was most probably the contribution of Rika’s family, they were more than wealthy enough to provide for each soldier after all.
Still, despite this, Ticia wanted to find Ticinia, which made Berdo sigh as a result.
“Fine, I get it. You won’t change your mind. But in that case, we’ll provide support, girl. I don’t think the fat man is any danger to us now, but make sure your daughter is alright.” He said with a small smile, before telling one of his soldiers. “Tell Devil 7 to commence his advance.”
“Yes sir. We also just received a message from Captain Rowla of the 506th cavalry company, they’re on their way to support us.”
Berdo nodded at the information. If Captain Rowla, a neutral, was allowed to make a move, then it meant that the Twill faction had nothing to do with what was currently going on. Well, Berdo even doubted the Twill faction would even bother sending such undertrained men to do their bidding, it wasn’t their style…
“Well, there you have it, girl, I won’t hold you back, but be careful, alright?” He said, turning back his attention towards Ticia.
“Thanks, gramps.” Was all that Ticia said, before beginning a sprint towards the battlefield, her two daughters following after her.
She reached the frontline quickly, where she could see a bunch of soldiers progressing slowly behind their armored vehicles. They were Devil 7, and she silently joined up with them. She received some frowns from the soldiers, but that was all, they continued their advance without questioning.
The enemy had of course spotted them, and some laser beams were sent their way. But not many were precise.
Just like the other soldiers, Ticia fired back from behind the cover of the armored vehicles, but she found herself increasingly frustrated at the slow advance.
“Damn! If only we could go faster!” She mumbled to herself, but she knew it wasn’t anybody’s fault. This was just the speed that granted the most safety to the troops the vehicles were covering.
But her mumble did not go unheard, both ECG-099 and ECG-100 reacted to it. To the surprise of everybody, they came out from their covers.
“Wha-!? What are you two doing!?” Ticia cried out to them, but before any laser beam could touch them, she heard the clone girls say.
““Shield: Scutum mode.””
Immediately after they said that, an energy shield of a rectangular, curved shape, covering the entirety of their bodies, appeared on their left forearm that they had placed in front of them. The energy shield absorbed the laser beams that entered contact with it. The two girls also responded by fixing their rifles under their right shoulder, and firing back at the enemy.
The soldiers who watched the scene were left incredulous, including Ticia. Never had they seen such a scene. In the first place, could energy shields even hold this long?
“Mother.” ECG-099 called out. “Take cover behind us.”
Ticia could feel the seriousness of her new daughters, and after taking a breath in, she went behind them, putting her trust in them. Once she did so, both ECGs began to speed up their advance, passing the armored vehicles under the incredulous gazes of both allies and enemies.
“Wh-what the hell?!”
“It’s just an energy shield, keep shooting!”
The enemies were confused by this advance, and began to focus on the three women advancing towards them. But their fire was imprecise, and whatever managed to reach them only got absorbed by the shield. What they got in return were laser beams that destroyed parts of their armors before killing them.
“G-grenade! Throw a grenade!” Someone yelled, and a grenade was quickly thrown at Ticia and her daughters, however… The grenade was shot in the air by a laser beam, and exploded in the air.
““Wh-!?”” Everybody was stunned, even Ticia wasn’t sure she could do that! She looked at ECG-099 in disbelief and amazement.
“How did you do that!?” She asked, but the answer she got was not what she expected.
“I do not know, Mother.” The clone girl shook her head. “I just sneezed.”
“...” Ticia was left speechless. What was with that girl, shooting while sneezing, and managing such a lucky shot? No, in the first place, why did she sneeze even though she had a helmet with an air philter?
In the end, Ticia gave up finding a reason. The performance just now had made their enemies fearful and that’s all that mattered. Their firing had become even more inaccurate, and no one dared throw a grenade anymore… They did not even think of using heavier weapons like rockets against them.
This unexpected result had for effect to bolster the allies, who became bolder in their attacks, and now, Ticia and her girls were reaching the enemies’ position. Lucky for them, the enemies had not expected to be the ones who defended, so they were exposed, the relief, not playing in their favor.
“How to proceed now?” Ticia asked herself, should she just charge in? With only three of them?
When she asked herself such questions, her coms opened, and a familiar voice came in.
“Willia here! The enemy is about to break, so I’m launching a general charge!”
“What in the- Willia!? Stop!” Ticia yelled, but unfortunately, the other side had already broken the line, the only thing she could hear now was a cute yell coming from the other side, followed by a multitude of war cries and the screams of fright.
“No choice then, we’re charging too!” Ticia decided and both of her bodyguards acquiesced.
““Roger. Shield: Hoplon.”” Their posture changed as the shield took a circular, convex form. They grabbed their rifles like a spear, and, without a word, began to charge at the enemy while letting out a war cry of their own, and did not even bother to dodge the enemy fire.
Ticia, albeit a bit bewildered, followed after, covering them with her trusty pistols. The enemies at first shot at them, but as the laser beams got absorbed by either the shields or the armored skinsuit, they grew restless, and when Ticia finally reached the enemy lines, their ranks broke, and the soldiers began to flee.
“Agh!” Those who stayed behind were impaled by ECG-099 and ECG-100, leaving a hot, melting mess when the two clone girls retracted their weapons. The heating bayonets were so hot they passed through the armored skinsuits like butter!
Not soon after, the rest of their allies arrived, capturing those that surrendered and shooting the ones that resisted. Ticia did not care though, she continued on, killing those in her way.
She needed to find Felgoron, who had cowardly hidden himself in his troops. That, or find Ticinia. The latter was more important to her, but Felgoron had also said he wanted to capture her daughters, so she wasn’t going to let him go for that.
She went further into the troops, followed by her two daughters, massacring anybody who resisted. At some point, she found a man that was trying to galvanize the men around him. She immediately immobilized him.
“Agh!” The man cried out as he got tackled to the ground, and before he could understand what happened to him, a gun barrel was pointed at his forehead.
“Where is your leader?” Ticia said in the most cold tone she had.
“O-over there.” The man pointed in a direction, fearing for his life.
“Thank you.” Ticia said, before killing the man with one pull of the trigger. Most of the enemies had already fled when she looked up, and the others were being finished by her two daughters. She did not lose any time and continued on in the direction she had been pointed at.
“!!!” She saw a pair of twintails wave in the air to her right, and immediately turned in this direction.
“Ticinia!” She yelled as she finally saw her daughter, but froze at the situation.
Ticinia stood there with an innocent smile on her face and eight ECGs behind her, but the problem was what Ticia saw on the other side. Facing Ticinia was a lump of flesh on his butt, who had already pissed on himself, and was pleading for his life while crying…
“Fueh? Mom?” Ticinia was surprised by the appearance of her mother, but she beamed a smile, and immediately went for a hug. “Mom!”
“Ticinia, what happened here?” She asked, keeping an eye on the man. He and the subordinates near him were unhurt, yet looked at Tininia with true horror in their eyes…
“What happened?” Ticinia tilted her head. “I just asked them to stop their assault?”
“M-monster…” Felgoron stuttered. “Th-that thing is a monster!”
Ticia frowned, she didn’t like how he called her daughter a ‘thing’ and a ‘monster’. Ticinia is not a monster, she’s the cutest hugging pillow she ever knew! Well, except for her other daughters but that is that, and this is this!
“ECG-061” She said, looking at one of the ECG who had a helmet crest made of red hair. “Tell me what happened.”
“Yes, Mother.” The clone saluted. “Prime Sister Ticinia led this unit, which had the objective to ‘eliminate’ the enemy leader. But once we arrived here, she changed her mind, and began talking to him.”
“...I see, I think I get it.” Ticia said, before sighing, the sound of battles surrounding her were ceasing, meaning the battle was coming to an end. She then looked at the girl in question. “You used your powers again, didn’t you?”
“Tehe.” Was the only answer she got from Ticinia, who was just happy to have a hug with her mother. Ticinia had used her mysterious power, and turned the situation to her advantage somehow by making Felgoron’s fear rise…
“Silly girl…” Ticia sighed, before giving a fickle on the girl’s forehead. “Do you know how much you made me worry? Doing such a thing… and while recuperating at that…”
“...Sorry.” Ticinia said, reflecting at the wave of worry she felt from her mother.
“N-no! She must be killed!! That monster must not be allowed to live!” Felgoron yelled, but was still on the ground, whatever he said, he wouldn’t be the one to move… His words pissed off Ticia.
“...Ticinia, close your eyes for a bit.” She said, and Ticinia nodded, obeying her mother. After that, she got closer to Felgoron.
“You.” Ticia said in a cold voice.
“W-what?”
“Don’t ever call my daughter a monster ever again.” She pointed her pistol at the genital parts of Felgoron.
“W-wait don’t-!” Felgoron pleaded, but Ticia pulled the trigger, just as Willia appeared with a bunch of clones.
“Mom! You’re-”
*Blam*
“Aaaaaagh!” Felgoron cried in pain, before fainting.
“W-Willia, uhm…” Ticia immediately turned to face Willia, who had frozen and was making round eyes now. She had messed up again!
“Mom…” Willia looked at her mother with a sudden look of understanding. “...I see, if you want to take care of a male enemy quickly, you must focus on this part!”
“Fueh? What part?” Ticinia asked innocently after opening her eyes, and as Willia was about to say what part, Ticia closed her mouth with her hand in a panic.
“N-nothing, Ticinia! Willia saw something wrong, that’s all!” She said as bullets of sweat flowed through her back and Willia struggled to speak up, she’ll need to have a discussion with Willia now…
“Okay… But what happened?” Ticinia asked, curious about why Felgoron had fainted, and why the people around were sending frightened gazes towards Ticia instead of her now…
“That is-”
“Prime Sister Ticinia.” ECG-099 spoke up before Ticia could. “Just now, Mother taught us how to-”
“STOP!” Ticia yelled out frantically to stop ECG-099's next words, the ECG clones seemed to have taken the meaning of the act wrongly too…
“Ugh, why is something always going wrong!” She could not help but cry out to the sky as she thought of the aftermath of all this, for some reason, she feared Rika learning about this incident, and the preaching she would receive afterwards…
***
Felgoron’s troops had surrendered, and the ones that did not had long fled into the wilderness or died. As for the man himself, he was now being treated for his wounds, and Rika, reading the report, had sent an exasperated look towards Ticia, who flinched because of it.
Not soon after the battle had settled, a group of Borkian soldiers riding lamacorns arrived. They were the 506th cavalry company, with Captain Rowla at the head. She was a bit surprised to learn everything had already been settled, but what Rika and Berdo noticed the most was her reaction when she saw Ticia, reunited with all her daughters. She seemed to know what they were, but did not comment.
They even received words from Fika, praising them for their efforts, and the capture of the ‘traitor’. He excused his lack of support by the fact that the Ionians had escalated the conflict, now making it a full blown war against the Borkian Confederation, that he had been called to an emergency meeting and was as a result unaware of what was happening. It sounded like an excuse, but the informants Berdo and Rika had affirmed this claim.
The casualties on the allied side were low, thanks not only to the sudden arrival of the clone girls with their artillery pieces and overall equipment, but also the fact that Felgoron’s troops were not official soldiers of the Borkian confederation, Berdo was sure of that after interrogating some. What would happen to them? Well, Most of the men will probably be judged as criminals, and be executed. Felgoron on the other hand would be judged as a traitor, and there were high chances all the blame from this operation as a whole would be put on him, leaving Rika free of any charges against her. By failing, he had become the new scapegoat of the higher ups.
In a fortunate twist of events, all clone girls had survived. Some had minor injuries, but none that would incapacitate them. After a warm hug with her twelve daughters, Ticia took some time to speak some words to each of them. They were her new daughters, and despite their appearance, and their almost emotionless answer, Ticia wanted to act as a good mother for them too, not just for the Null class clone girls.
As for the twelve Null CGs, they had broken into smaller groups. Mia and Nia were having a serious conversation, like Ticia had asked, and although Mia seemed sad, she was not angry at her teary-eyed sister.
Licia on her siad had apologized to everyone, before taking Ria and Vinia aside, and apologizing for her misdeeds to the two. They ended their conversation with a hug and some tears of happiness. Things were going back in order, and Ticia was happy about this.
“Phew…” Ticia sighed, happy this day was now finished. She was not going into a third battle today! “Well then, girls, we should soon get back home…” She told her daughters, but received some strange looks from some of them. “What’s wrong?”
“Uhm, mom…” Ria began hesitantly. “I don’t think we can do that…”
“Eh? Why?” Ticia asked, tilting her head.
“A-4… Shut down the place… Clone installation 3 and A-4 went into off mode…”
“...What?” Ticia froze, unable to understand what her daughters just said… She looked for confirmation, but the other clone girls nodded, ria was telling the truth.
“...” Ticia was left speechless. Just now, did she and her daughters get expelled from their home? What…would she do now?
Chauchat
Author's monologue:
Hey there! I'm back with another (late) chapter!
Another battle! This one less intense, but that's because the enmies were badly trained, so it was just a show of force! Or was it?
Anyway! I'm still not so confident in my ability to write battles, but this one seemed fine to me? The ECGs are a reliable bunch anyway, and Ria's good at leadership, so there wouldn't have been many problems, probably...
...Ticinia is cute, but also scary at the same time for strangers... Well, the ability to read feelings is kind of OP, but has a heavy backlash...
Also, what's up with A-4 and Clone installation 3? What is happening exactly?
Well, as you have probably guessed, we're reaching the end of this arc of Clone Girls, so the answer will come in the next chapter!
Now, if you excuse myself, an old childhood game of mine which had not been updated for a long while has received an update, so excuse my gamer side that just wants to jump on this occasion and experince this "summer update" in all its glory!
I'll see you all in the next chapter!
