V
Hikari
This time neither side allowed the other any advantage.
Two swarms took off as soon as the Abyssal fleet got into sighting range. From afar, it seemed the enemy force released a cloud of spores into air, like an exploding puffball. Hundreds of particles rose in chaotic patterns, sheer numbers supposed to compensate for the lack of intelligence and tactics.
Above their fleet, a smaller armada assembled. Planes grouped in flights and squadrons, circling and gaining altitude. Three carriers released arrow after an arrow; to her great delight, Souryuu had no problem keeping up with Kaga or Akagi. Ryuujou unfurled her scroll with verve, paper planes transforming into their metal forms one by one. Finally, the flagship signaled to commence the run. Like a school of fish, all aircraft made a coordinated, synchronized turn towards the enemy and sped up.
"Begin the attack. All ships, fire at will" crackled Kaga's command.
Both swarms met midway, their clash signaled by trails of machinegun fire. Soon first explosions lit the sky, debris falling to the waves below. Strike craft on both sides tried to plow through the furball, chased by those few fighters not engaged in dogfight. Sky turned into a hectic firework show, its gruesome beauty underscored by the setting sun illuminating the battlefield.
Numbers on their side, the Abyssal floaters formed a tight formation, breaking off from the engagement. The group dove just above the waves, using speed gained this way to bypass the escorts. They just buzzed between Kitakami and Suzukaze, first attempts to shoot them down coming too late to prevent the strike.
"Crap!" a high-pitched scream came out of shipgirls' radios.
Unlike bombs, torpedoes caused little shockwave; Nachi glanced over her shoulder, to see fountains of water already up, obscuring all four carriers. Kaga and Souryuu emerged unscathed. Akagi came next, losing balance and tubling to the waves. She stood up, her clothes tattered and face bleeding. Neither the flightdeck, nor the bow were anywhere to be seen.
She sighted Ryuujou only after most of the foamy mist had settled settled; the carrier hurriedly discarded her burning scroll, trying to put out the flame spreading to her clothes.
They just lost half their carrier force.
She turned back to the enemy fleet to see explosions and geysers erupting among the Abyssals. At least Fusou's squadron approached undetected and struck without complications. From that distance, it was hard to assess exact damage - but at least some explosions indicated direct hits. The black cloud of flak fire above the enemy meant Hiyou and Jun'you's planes found their targets.
In the middle of the enemy squadron stood a tall figure. She was surprisingly humane, compared to the monsters surrounding her. If it wasn't for pieces of ebony armour and Abyssal carapace partially covering her, she could have been taken for another shipgirl at first. But that first impression became painfully verified once they closed in into firing range.
Her hair were snow-white, extending well beyond her height and matching the necrotic paleness of her skin. Her eyes shone with a blood-red glare, far more vigorous and more terrifying than the ones of a regular flagship. All around her, seemingly out of thin air, Abyssal floaters materialized and took off, reinforcing the cloud of steel and fire hovering above the battlefield.
But there was one thing that made her even more dreadful.
The way she acted.
Riding on top of what seemed to be an overgrown destroyer, she moved smoothly, unlike the cumbersome Ru-class battleships or cruisers surrounding her. Each motion was graceful and precise, each gesture commanding and imperious. And the monsters obeyed without delay.
Nachi didn't even dare to think how could this creature alone match four of their carriers.
"So this is the Princess…?" Suzukaze instinctively moved closer to her, as if that could in any way protect her against the enemy armada.
Despite the distance, ignoring the buzz of engines and blasts of explosions, a distorted voice could have clearly been heard; humanlike, but at the same time deeper, vibrating, dripping with spite and hatred:
"Come… Come and sink...! Let the Abyss greet you...! SINK!"
The last word shook the air around them, like a shockwave. Suzukaze cowered behind Nachi, the other escort ships almost stopped in their tracks, their faces pale and eyes terrified. Nachi grabbed the destroyer with her free hand, shaking her back to senses.
"We can do this! Can you hear me? Suzukaze-san!"
Just behind them, Myokou turned to Hibiki.
"You remember our lessons? This is what we practiced for. You can do this! Don't be scared, together we cannot fail!"
Suzukaze's breath slowed down, white fog of fear subsided from her mind. Hibiki looked up, straight into her teacher's eyes. Her bold, confident face was but a thin mask, barely obscuring the horrified girl beneath - but it held together just fine.
"Yes!" both voices responded to Myokou and Nachi's encouragement. They soon sped back up, rejoining the escort force just before Hiei's yell sounded in the radio:
"Enemy in range! Opening fire, with all my strength!"
Her shells struck the Princess' mount, throwing her off-balance. But that didn't seem to disturb her too much. She quickly stabilised her course, her scream resounding even louder than before:
"SINK!"
Floaters that struk Akagi and Ryuujou, thinned out by the fleet's anti-air fire, turned back and headed straight for the battleship. Swifter and faster than regular ones, they almost effortlessly outran Zeros chasing them.
Hiei barely had time to dodge, her heavy rigging slowing her down. A cluster of explosions zeroed on her, a yelp of surprise and pain struck their ears.
"I'm fine!" she responded to an unspoken question once the smoke cleared. "Just keep them away!"
"Easier said then done…" mouthed Nachi, aiming her guns towards the closest destroyer.
Not even Okinoshima could have compared to this.
It was said that every naval battle sooner or later devolved into a series of duels. And so would that one, if it wasn't for one small detail.
They were outgunned.
For every destroyer Nachi blasted, two more came. She circled between Ashigara, Myokou and Sendai, pairing up and decoupling as the situation dictated. Abyssal cruisers and battleships stayed behind the protective screen of escorts, shelling them and dodging Kitakami and destroyers' long range torpedo salvos. Kaga and Souryuu redoubled their efforts, thinning out enemy airforce. Soon their bombers also broke through, aiding Hiei in her desperate attempts to hit the enemy dreadnoughts and the Princess.
Nachi cursed her halved firepower at first - but before long, she realized she was no longer the only one handicapped. Ashigara got caught in a crossfire, losing her torpedoes and two turrets. Myokou's rigging took a direct hit, making her weapons barely responsive and listing her to the right. But all three of them fought on, their skills and anger making up for damage and injuries.
"We need to hold out until the sun sets completely!" Sendai shouted over the gunfire. "If we can close in then and torpedo the Princess…"
"We don't have time for that" even Kaga's voice lost its usual calm. "Where is the escort flagship?"
"It's that cruiser!" Sendai fired a flare, an artificial shooting star coming to life above an Abyssal ship.
"Good. All ships, concentrate your fire on that enemy. Souryuu, we take out that other cruiser between us and the Princess. Understood?"
A chorus of short confirmations followed.
Focused upon, the flagship crumbled quickly; no matter how agile and swift, the Abyssal got struck repeatedly by torpedoes and shells, ultimately toppling and sinking in an instant. They quickly pushed into the gap created, repeling Abyssal destroyers that tried to close the breach. In front of them, covering the Princess, were two Ru-class battleships and a Ne-class cruiser.
Kaga and Souryuu's planes wooshed from behind them, striking the cruiser down in a relentless wave attack. Another explosion blossomed where the closest Ru-class stood, coupled with Hiei's joyful scream. The battleship crumbled, its rigging torn away along with its whole arm.
They made it through. Only one ship stood between them and the Princess.
And then, as Fusou would say, misfortune had returned from its distant journey.
Destroyers closed the gap behind them, forcing Suzukaze and Hibiki to fall back and face them. Sendai joined the pair, her agility put to better use against the nimble Abyssals.
"SINK!" sounded the Princess roar, fury in her words burning like a firestorm.
Her floaters regrouped and struck again, almost effortlessly avoiding Kaga's interceptors. Attacked from two sides, Myokou had little chance to dodge; her already listing rigging prevented her from turning fast enough. She detached a battered part of it to block an incoming torpedo. But even though it covered her from the blast, metal shrapnels exploded into the air, shredding her skin. Blood tainted the purple of her uniform.
The last battleship fired two salvos in quick succession. The first one bracketed Kitakami. The second hit directly, but the cruiser's light armour actually saved her; massive shells went right through the rigging, exploding deep underwater. The shockwave was powerful enough to throw her high int air, making her tumble and land a dozen or so metres away from the blast zone, but apart from that she seemed OK. Still, stunned and shaken, she visibly had problems standing up.
The realization they were down to just her and Ashigara struck Nachi like a sledgehammer.
"We can handle the destroyers, don't worry about us! Just get to that witch and kill her!" crackled Sendai's voice in the radio.
"Roger that!" Ashigara confirmed. "Let's do this, nee-san!"
"Uhm"
The Ru-class had enough firepower to overwhelm them both at the same time. Luckily, it lacked in agility. And that was their best hope.
Ashigara and Nachi closed in, circling the behemoth, their shells splashing and shattering against its thick carapace. High caliber guns roared one by one, always a split of second too late to catch up with the shipgirls. Shells as big as steers slammed into water and exploded underneath, huge plumes of foam erupting high above their heads. Finally, their relative positions aligned the way they should.
"Away!"
The single surviving launcher on Nachi's hip came to life with a disturbing creak, but dispatched all the projectiles without failing. Fired from just a metre or two more than the arming range, torpedoes left no chance for the battleship to dodge. A massive explosion roared in Nachi's ears, as the giantess toppled to the waves, her right leg blown to tiny bits.
"Brilliant! Now onwards, to victory!" rejoiced Ashigara, spinning towards the Princess.
She didn't notice the agonizing battleship rise its guns one last time as soon as she showed it her back. Trembling with pain, gushing ichor out of its wounds, the Abyssal trained its barrels for one last salvo.
For the first time during that battle, Nachi was grateful for her injuries preventing her from keeping up with her sisters.
"NO!"
Fired from point-blank range, her shells penetrated the carapace, ripping the battleship's upper torso open. Oily gore erupted into her face. Ashigara was safe.
She heard the omnious buzz overhead a second too late.
This time there was no darkness, no pain. She just blinked - and when she opened her eyes again, the whole world around fell apart, shattered like stained glass.
She remembered standing one moment, but floating on her back in the next, a warm feeling gently embracing her from behind. The whole battle, the carnage she participated in just a while earlier, became distant. As if she watched it through some kind of fog. Stained glass got covered in steam she could not just wipe off her eyes.
Sounds of battle came muffled, disconnected from the blurred images she saw. Things - she couldn't tell if they were planes, floaters or bombs - fell from the skies, their splash always coming a heartbeat too soon or too late. Explosions blossomed on darkening skies, their vibrations out of synch and surreal. Voices were twisted and distorted, human and Abyssal mingling into a single cacophony.
One blurred silhouette came closer. Close enough for her to finally distinguish some details. Long hair. Dark eyes. Nee-chan.
Ashigara was saying something, maybe even screaming - but words came jumbled, a random stream of sounds and silence weaved together. It was harder and harder to focus. Onee-chan's voice became more and more garbled, while the warm embrace from behind got tighter and tighter.
She realized she didn't remember the blast. Could the shock have been that bad? Or maybe that bomb missed and she was just stunned? But then why...?
She tried moving a hand. It felt surprisingly light, but also numb. Carefully, every single muscle steered individually, she rose it up, to her eyes. It seemed OK. Her left hand looked perfectly fine. This simple move proved to be incredibly exhausting - but she carried on, slowly reaching out for Ashigara's face.
Her cheek was soft and warm, even through the glove's thick leather. Two gentle strokes were all she could do - the effort made her even weaker, darkness started creeping up from the edges of her vision. She saw Ashigara stop screaming, a single tear trickle down her face. The embrace from behind tightened.
"You see, nee-chan? It's… al...right" she mouthed before the numbness overcame her, darkness closing between them like a starless canopy.
Whatever was beneath finally won, tugging her away from Ashigara's arms.
The bloody stump that used to be Nachi's arm dropped back to the water, as the whole body went limp. Ashigara couldn't make out the words that escaped the shrapnel-torn throat. A pool of blood, gushing from a gaping hole in her sister's side, expanded rapidly. In the dying light it looked black, mixing seamlessly with Abyssal ichor.
"Nee-san…? Nee-san, please! NACHI!"
But not a sign came back.
Over the waves, another voice reached her ears; coarse. Inhuman. Overjoyed.
She looked behind. Battered and propped against some protrusion growing from her mount's body, the Princess laughed. Her cackle echoed in the air around them, mocking and triumphant.
Ashigara felt world around them go silent. All that was left was that guffaw and the buzz of raging adrenaline in her veins.
She gently put Nachi down, using the Abyssal's dead body as a makeshift raft. All that mattered was the monster in front of them. The one that dared to hurt her sister. The one that openly mocked her in front of their comrades. The one-
Something grabbed her arm just as she was about to stand up and take aim. Out of reflex, she looked to the side. Sendai. She was saying something. Whatever it was, it had to wait.
An attempt to rip her arm out of the cruiser's grasp failed. She pulled harder, her fury slowly spilling towards the unruly brat. If she doesn't-
It took her a heartbeat too long to register Sendai's other hand's trajectory. She barely felt the slap - but it threw her off balance just enough to let the other girl's words through:
"-op it! Ashigara, stop it!"
Stop what…? she thought, seeing the Princess slowly back off, the floaters coming back to her safety. She tried to push Sendai away - in vain.
"The Abyssals have called in for reinforcements! They'll be here soon, we can't-"
"Of course we can!" the Wolf roared, finally freeing her arm from Sendai's grasp. "If you can't I will, while you take Nachi out of-"
"No use"
She started to hate that voice.
"What do you…!?" she spun, the sight making her heart stop.
Nachi's mutilated body was already half-sunk, the Abyssal battleship nowhere in sight. The only thing keeping her sister afloat was Kaga, her hand gripping Nachi's wrist. The mixture of blood, oil and ichor soaked her outfit.
"She is gone, Ashigara-san" she finally said, letting Nachi go. The body sank fast, before Ashigara could even try to grab the palm disappearing beneath the waves. "And so will be all of us, if you don't accept the reality and help with the evacuation"
The Wolf fell to her knees, trying to reach out into the abyss, hoping to catch her sister's hand. All the rage, all the fury seeped out of her mind, leaving nothing behind. Only vast emptiness, hollow and boundless like the ocean around her.