Chapter 9
Nagatenjouki Destroyer #01 - V.C.
Haifuri battleship competition semi-finals. Nagatenjouki, eight ships, versus Tokiwadai, five ships.
Objective is to immobilize enemy flagship.
Nunotaba Shinobu
"Firing main batteries at starboard side in THREE! TWO! ONE!"
*boom* *boom* *boom* *boom*
Four incredibly loud shots rang out. A slight rocking could be felt here in the bridge.
*BOOM*
One secondary explosion could be heard... Only one shot landed.
We will have to turn and prepare another volley I guess.
"White flag is displayed. Enemy destroyer immobilized." My intercom crackled.
Eh? Lucky.
I kept silent. The crew should not know how I felt. Maybe except for Febri and Janie.
Now... We have taken out four of Tokiwadai's ships. Where is that girl's ship.
Tokiwadai Destroyer #01 - Railgun
Haifuri battleship competition finals. Nagatenjouki versus Tokiwadai.
Objective is to immobilize enemy flagship.
Suzushina Mikoto
Crap. All our ships were down.
I hope Misaka can pull off a win.
She's an amazing captain. It was almost as if she had some kind of mental link with the entirety of the bridge crew when they wore those goggles.
What kind of idea was that? What would they call the network? The Misaka network?
I slapped my cheek softly and shook away those ridiculous ideas.
As the gunner for the ship's railgun, I could not afford to be distracted.
In Haifuri competitions, only Destroyer class vessels were used. After all, if a school popped up with a Battleship or Cruiser, it would be far too big to be crewed by just students. And one Battleship could take on four or more Destroyers and win.
But they hadn't imposed any rules on modifying ships.
Most schools just added extra gun batteries, torpedo tubes or even modified flak guns to shoot down ememy shells.
Ours added a railgun.
A high velocity electromagnetic accelerator cannon.
Because of safety precautions, the railgun is only allowed to fire arcade coin sized tungsten rounds.
Though each round is relatively tiny compared to a ship, the round has a range of half a kilometer before melting from the immense heat caused by friction and air resistance. And with an initial velocity of Mach 10, one round is all it takes to immobilize an enemy.
Once, we had fired a shot at the rudder of an enemy ship.
The back of the ship left the water's surface and flew up into the air for a whole three seconds. It had took so much damage that the Academy City Five-Over Case Seven, a GIANT flying fortress that over watched all Haifuri matches had to personally step in and save the ship from sinking.
The Five-Over was shaped kind of like a UFO, but with cranes sticking up from the top... Now that I think about it, it's more like a flying oil rig. And being almost two kilometers long and one kilometer thick, it sometimes carried Objects (A.N. from another Kamachi-senpai book, Heavy Object) that were modified for peaceful use.
But I had no idea how it floated... It's almost as if it was done by some unexplainable power. There were no visible propulsion devices or even the hum of electromagnetic levitators.
Well, it was modelled after the legendary Attack Crash. A boy that could wield amazing but unexplainable powers and even had a legend that he caught a railgun with his teeth.
But that's nothing more than a story...
Oh shit! I was dreaming again!
I looked around, I was alone in the railgun turret… Then again, there weren't many people in the ship. Most of the ship was now automated because only the radio, weapons, medical, radar, crows nest and bridge crew were needed... Pretty much the whole crew except the cooking crew.
Instead of the usual thirty three people need to crew the ship, only twenty were used. Five for the bridge crew, two for torpedoes, two for the main cannons, me for the railgun, six for the boiler and engine rooms, one for the medical, another for the crows' nest and two more for the radio and sonar.
(A.N. Im not sure I covered all the required positions needed to crew an actual ship, but if you feel anything is amiss, just pretend it's automated by the amazing Academy City tech.)
My earpiece responded to my earlier question. "Railgun, we are now going to do some tough maneuvering while charging to the enemy flag ship. We are going to orient you straight at its stern so follow my instructions carefully."
I grinned. This was a fun challenge. As the student with the highest hit rate of 97% and a kill count of 16, I was aptly titled the Electric Princess. I had a reputation to maintain.
"No problem with that! Misaka! Good luck!" I cheered for my twin in the bridge. If we won, it would be a miracle.
"Thank you Onee-san. I will do my best." And with that, my earpiece returned to silence.
I thought for a moment. We had ran away from the enemy about ten minutes ago... And the Harekaze had gone to buy us time against their remaining five ships and lasted for about three minutes. So if we don't move, they would be thirteen minutes away... And since Misaka is charging, we have about five minutes before we encounter them...
Oh yeah! I'd better explain what happened earlier that got us into this situation.
Twenty five minutes ago
Suzushina Misaka. Bridge.
The enemy outnumbers us by three... But their upgrades are almost identical. The seven escort ships all have an extra cannon from the usual three while the flagship had a flak gun plus four cannons.
Our ships were much, much more varied.
The Yuudachi has only one cannon but has something most others don't have. Torpedoes. She had around fifteen of them. More than enough to take out three enemies.
Harekaze had a smoke bomb launcher. Essentially a catapult for a land to air middle that spewed smoke.
And the Pyonko and Gekota have a flak gun and an additional cannon respectively. By the way, those two childishly named ships were named by Mikoto.
I had chosen the names 'Musashi' and Hiei' but I was dismissed as I had already named two of our five ships and those names were names of larger ships that were not Destroyers. Pity...
I picked up Dog, my cat from the table beside me. I always brought her along for missions. She helped get rid of rats on the ship. Though I did get picked upon for naming my cat 'Dog'... Though I can't understand why.
As for this ship, the Railgun, it was decided by the entire team that it should be named after its signature weapon.
The railgun.
We had actually sold one of our Destroyers to buy that weapon. The crew of that ship were all graduating so it would not be used anyway. The crew and I could not understand why they were so angry.
Though they were not angry anymore after seeing the weapon. Heheheh.
Ahem... Back to business. Mikoto and I had this bad habit of going on and on in our own thoughts.
I glanced at the bridge crew. They all wore the new type electron NV goggles. Each piece of eyewear connected to each other and we could see what each other saw, greatly improving our synchronization.
A good example of this would be our torpedo commander, 19090, knowing where to aim even before I told her and could fire at the exact moment I told her to give the order.
Oh yes. Our bridge crew called each other by code names when we were alone with each other. We were very close, almost like sisters.
10031 was our main radio operator that took calls and gave instructions from and to the secondary operator who would broadcast messages to the whole ship, call or answer incoming calls from other ships, and can contact the Five-Over that acted as a security guard.
19090, as you know was the torpedo in-charge that gave orders to the girls controlling the torpedo tubes orders. She also doubled as the secondary gunnery officer when all four torpedoes were expended.
The main gunnery officer who gave orders to the main cannons and the railgun was 10039.
And the vice-captain who doubled as helmsman because I didn't really need a vice-captain was 13577.
I do not intend to tell you their names because they treasure their privacy but I can say that they are quadruplets with the surname Misaka. Like my given name. They also had their hair styled like mine but was colored a natural black with a different color highlight for each of them to help people tell them apart.
Then I noticed something behind a nearby sargasso. As we were off the coast of Tokyo, there many of these wreckages.
There was a legend that in the past, a great woman had achieved godhood here and became a Magic God on one of these sargassos.
But now was not the time for these thoughts.
Why? Because there was a Destroyer poking it's front cannon from behind one of those sargassos.
Even before I could say something, 10031 had already seen what I saw via the goggles and broadcasted to the fleet that we had been ambushed... Technically she didn't do it. It was the secondary radio operator but for the sake of simplicity I will just say it was her.
Setting Dog on the table, I told 13577 to take evasive maneuvers and had told the Pyonko to fire her flak guns. The captain of the Pyonko, Shirai Kuroko squealed in happiness and said something about making Mikoto Onee-chan happy with her efficiency...
And was promptly hit by three cannons from the enemy because she didn't give the order to fire and was squealing in happiness instead. Why do I even have friends like her? She was so unreliable sometimes...
In the end, only three of us, the Harekaze and the Yuudachi had escaped. The Gekota was taken out by eating a shot to the bow for us. I had to thank them later.
We had managed to take out one of them for two of ours. Horrible trade.
Five minutes later, we realized that the extra gun was not the only modification Nagatenjouki ships had. Our sonar officer had noticed that their ships had four propellers instead of the normal two and had caught up to use despite the Yuudachi destroying a few sargassos to block their path.
Then the event that was later broadcasted to the world as the play of the tournament occurred.
"Yuudachi... What are you doing..."
The Yuudachi was turning away from our formation and was starting to charge at the seven enemies.
"10031, tell them to come back now."
"Hai."
I could hear what the secondary radio operator was saying since 10031 had put the bridge radio on loudspeaker. "Secondary, message to Yuudachi. 'Return to formation immediately.' Over."
Almost instantly, the operator relayed the Yuudachi's reply, "Primary, message from Yuudachi. 'Run. Use your railgun to fuck them up later.' Over."
I frowned at the use of that word. I had to have a word with the captain of that ship, Lessar, later.
But I accepted their sacrifice and told the Harekaze to join us full speed to another field of sargassos.
Then I heard several explosions from behind us. I nodded to my crew to take care of themselves and ran out to see what happened. They could see what I saw so they were not really pressured to go see for themselves.
I was greeted with a most amazing sight.
The Yuudachi had charged into one enemy ship and fired all her torpedoes at the enemy, severely damaging three and eliminating two.
I had better praise Lessar later.
Not long later, the Harekaze had also sacrificed herself so that we could get into a more favourable position.
~~~~~~~~~Mikoto~~~~~~~~~
So that's pretty much all I heard about what happened from Misaka when she called me by her cell phone earlier to explain what happened.
I HAVE to watch a replay of that.
The ship started to turn in various directions and dull explosions, vibrations and the crash of waves hitting our ship could be heard.
Next our two main cannons started firing as fast as they could. And the familiar 'ptumph' sound of a torpedo launching from the exposed ports echoed in my turret room.
When will my turn come?!
As if in response to my question, my earpiece crackled. "Turn railgun turret to eighty degrees port side and fire in three seconds."
Heh. The fun begins.
ONE. I rotated the turret. Good thing Academy City had increased turning speeds.
TWO. I looked through the periscope. It had horrible visibility. But as long as the angle given to me by the gunnery officer was correct, it would be a definite hit. The turret was still moving... Seventy eight degrees now...
THREE. The earpiece screamed "UTE!" I grinned. The bridge crew would never shout but the ever friendly Saten-san would get really emotional when an important shot came. The ship I was gunning probably was the enemy flagship.
I pulled the trigger... It was big enough to be called a lever but it was still called a trigger. The creators must have been very afraid that a misfire would occur and installed such a hard to fire trigger. Look at those normal turret ones, they were like tank triggers. Everything else was mechanized.
Sometimes I wish I was in a poorer school that did Senshadou. I found it more exciting that this. Not to say that Haifuri wasn't exciting.
I pulled till the trigger activated. A short, split second 'zzzz' followed by an incredible 'BOOM' followed almost instantly by nine smaller 'boom's that signified each time the round exceeded the speed of sound.
The recoil from the shot sent the ship tilting to its side. And the shockwave rattled everyone in the ship. As the person closest to it, every bone in my body was rattled and my muscles did not want to move.
But this was why I loved every second of firing the railgun.
~~~~~~~~~~Misaka~~~~~~~~
The railgun fired.
The ship rocked backwards.
If a single shot hit us before we tilted back to normal position now, we would capsize for sure. Luckily, none did.
Thank god Worst had sponsored us with these handy earplugs from Academy City. They were like hearing aids but looked a lot cooler. And they allowed us to hear normally unless a sound that was loud enough to damage one's hearing was detected.
Back to the railgun shot.
It tore through the air, an orange-red line following the tungsten round as a visible shockwave came off as a circular explosion behind it every time it exceeded the speed of sound.
It hit the tip of the bow of the enemy flag ship. The entire front half of the ship flew out of the water and spun in a circle three times before the Five-Over intervened and caught it in some kind of electromagnetic field before it slammed into a sargasso.
Tokiwadai won. Again. Heh. We're being carried by this railgun. It's already gotten us three wins... Though my tactic to charge in like the Yuudachi was what allowed us to get the shot in.
Hehehehe. Worst must be proud.
~~~~~~~~Worst~~~~~~~~~~~
AAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA! OH. MY GOD! I NEVER THOUGHT MISAKA WOULD DO THAT!
Some nearby spectators were looking at me weirdly but most were cheering madly.
We were watching the match live from stadium four and even though they were almost thirty kilometers away from here, the sound from that railgun could be heard rather clearly from here. Good thing I managed to snag some of those bionic earplugs for Mikoto and her crew. They would be deaf by now of they didn't have them.
Praise be to Academy City tech.
~~~~~~~~~~Kano~~~~~~~~~~
Ugh... The afternoon sun is horrible. Yuriko was smart to bring her umbrella. All I had was my cap.
I was with Yuriko watching Uomi and rest of Keizoku Girls's match with Pravda. Apparently, Touma, Fukiyose and Tsuchimikado had come just for her but we're sitting in a nearby restaurant and would come and join us later at three.
The match was being held in Stadium One. Which was only used for Championship matches. This was the quarter finals. Ten versus ten tanks. In desert terrain.
Keizoku is gonna have a tough time. They specialized in winter and snow terrain and they had no set country where they got their tanks from.
For example, Saunders high in Japan was affiliated with Saunders University in the Americas so most of their tanks were American tanks such as Shermans and Pershings.
However, Keizoku was one of the few schools like Ooarai that did not exclusively use tanks from one country and unlike Ooarai, many if their tanks were modified in unbelievable ways.
The arena was massive. It is a forty by sixty kilometers large rectangle with four different terrains - Snow down, desert, jungle and open plains. The match had started an hour ago but the arena was so massive that the were not even in sight of each other.
As I explained all this to Yuriko who was rather new to this and seemed very interested, a loud 'boom' cut through the noise of the crowd.
"What the... None of the tanks fired right?"
I frowned. That was far too loud for a tank... And that sounded more like a jet plane reaching Mach speed than a tank.
Then I remembered to the Haifuri competitions were going on. And today was Tokiwadai against Nagatenjouki.
And Tokiwadai was known for one thing... Okay two things.
One was the Queen of Tokiwadai, Shokuhou Misaki, one of the most beautiful girls in the education system. Though I always felt that her bust was far too large for my liking.
The second thing was the Ace of Tokiwadai. It was the unofficial title for one of the most well known Destroyers in Haifuri recent Haifuri competitions. The modified Destroyer that was named after the weapon that it wielded.
The Railgun.
"It's probably Tokiwadai's flagship. The Railgun."
"Tokiwadai?" Yuriko seemed surprised.
"Yeah. Their flagship has this large railgun they added to it. One shot, even if it barely hits an enemy, can immobilize it." I fiddled with my phone. Trying to find out what happened. "Ah! There it is!"
It was a cut-out from the live broadcast of the match.
The Railgun had fired it's signature weapon thirty kilometers away just four minutes ago and the sound of the shot had only just reached here.
The video showed the Railgun turning around one of the Nagatenjouki ships and almost plowing into another one before suddenly turning and firing it's railgun and the enemy flagship.
A girl with light brown hair climbed out of the railgun turret and started jumping in joy. The words 'Tokiwadai's Electric Princess' superinposed on top.
I heard Yuriko gasp. "That's... Mikoto... My imouto..."
I stared at her incredulously. "You didn't know that your sister is a celebrity in the Haifuri scene?"
She shook her head. "I never had much interest in these things before I met you."
I blushed. It was the first time someone had said something like that to me. Even Uomi hadn't said anything relatively close to that to me. Yuriko seemed to be blushing slightly too.
"Well then," I grinned. "Let's get you more interested."
Its been an hour since the railgun shot and the crowd has lost most of its enthusiasm waiting for Pravda to attack Keizoku despite having multiple chances to.
"So... Pravda is intending on surrounding Keizoku?"
"Mmhmm... Keizoku is rather bad in this terrain. They work better in the snow. Most of the students there hate the heat too. Pravda likes double encirclements and baits."
She nodded and frowned. From the two matches I watched with Yuriko, she often spent her time watching them in silence. As if she was thinking of tactics for the team she was supporting to win.
~~~~~~~~~Uomi~~~~~~~~~~
Ugh... This heat is... Horrible.
"How long more till Pravda shows up? I bet we would have died of a stroke by the time they attack." My tank's commander complained as she wiped a layer of sweat off her brow.
"Well, Pravda is used to fighting in the snow as well so we should be on even ground..." I tried to console her with a little lie. Pravda did some of their training in Russia as they were affiliated with the country because many of the students are children of Russian immigrants.
And Russia was known for its varied landscapes of hills, forests, deserts, mountains and more.
They definitely had the upper hand.
And their commander was known for being rather cruel when she knew she had the upper hand...
~~~Nonna. Pravda's second in command~~~
"Nonna! I want to take a nap. Keep them in that position till they surrender. And if they try anything like Miho-sha, snipe their flag tank." Katyusha declared from the radio.
"Katyusha-sama, are you sure you want to take a nap in this heat? It may be artificial but Academy City has done a great job with that artificial sun. The tanks may become ovens soon." I tried to get her back to task but…
"Nonna! I trust you. And I'm just sleepy. Maybe you can just snipe them now."
Klara pitched in to help me. "Katyusha-sama," this one of the rare times she spoke in Japanese. "I do not think even Nonna can snipe them from three kilometers away. Think about Nina in the KV-2! They must be in unbearable heat."
~~~~~~~~Nina~~~~~~~~~
Sooooo…. Hot…. Can that commander be quick with this match?
~~~~~~~Nonna~~~~~~~~
I agreed with Klara. The most effective way to get our commander to do something was to tell her than her precious KV-tan was in trouble. She loved that tank so much that she used it in all her matches despite it never working out for the team. Not that the crew was bad. Its just the KV-2 being too large, cumbersome and unwieldy in most tank battles.
"Katyusha-sama. The enemy is going to reach our T-thirty-fours in one minute."
Katyusha's angry squeal could be heard on the radio.
She might be incredibly short and suffered a bad case of Napoleonism and often abused her underlings and enemies. But Katyusha was a great commander that secretly loves and cares for her whole team. Though her methods were questionable.
"Ugh. Fine! Nina, stay behind Nonna and fire at the enemy as fast as you can. Nonna snipe them one by one." This was where Katyusha shone. Her tactics were unbeatable by most and the only times she had been beaten was when the Keizoku tanks completely outclassed ours in the snow, as well as Maho and Miho Nishizumi beating us multiple times in a row. "Flag tank! Hide behind my beloved KV-tan and the rest of you come with me. You two T-thirty-fours in the front, bait them back to Nonna and we will come and surround them. Hehehe this is when they will feel the great might of Katyshua-sama!"
We promptly won that match.
Though Mika-san and her B-42 gave us a ton of trouble… That modified tank should not even be legal! What kind of tank moves faster without treads than with treads!
~~~~~~~Yuriko~~~~~~~
"Did ya enjoy your match Uomi?"
"Not really. I hate the heat"
The match had ended rather early and Uomi had been dismissed at four after all the congratulations, paperwork, debriefing and sending her tank off to maintenance, she had joined Kano and I and now we had just met up with the other three.
"Huh… that's sad." Tsuchimikado seemed to be glancing at me a lot today… "Oi Suzu-chan! You seem rather close to Kano-dono today. Did something happen?" He was grinning madly. Touma wanted to join in too but was held back by glares from both Uomi and Fukiyose.
"Nothing happened Tsuchi. Right? Suzushina-san." Kano smiled at me and we shared a hidden laugh.
I smirked and agreed with him. Leaving Tsuchimikado down in the dumps.
We eventually decided to eat in a nearby family restaurant and most of the conversation was about Uomi complaining about her match. She was a really nice girl to be honest.
Its eleven… Kano was sitting beside me on the train home and was half asleep. Touma and Fukiyose had their parents pick them up while Tsuchimikado disappeared mysteriously at ten after paying for our entire dinner bill. Uomi had gone back with her school. My relations with Kano's close friends were getting better and they accepted me as one of them. Now it was me who hadn't accepted them and continued to keep a distance.
I sighed and looked at Kano's sleeping face. He was almost leaning on me. And he was kinda cute when he was like this. I was then struck by a sudden case of giggles which woke him up.
He grinned at my horrified expression and adjusted his posture. Most of our time was spent in comfortable silence.
We skipped his station and we went to mine. He walked me to the park as usual. It almost routine by now… Hahahaha! I never thought that having a guy walk me home would one day be routine. And as if I was possessed by something, I said something that was kinda awkward for him.
"Hey Kano."
"Hmm?"
We entered the park.
"Can I erm… call you by your… first name? And you can call me by mine of course…" I trailed off as I mentally slapped myself.
He seemed hesitant. His face contorting from a calm and happy expression to a surprised one, then to an awkward one and now he made an embarrassed face with his face flushed red.
We continued to walk in silence. He didn't say a word other than his goodbyes. And left me alone wondering if I messed up.
'How could you say that Yuriko?!' I thought to myself as I sat in my bath. I slammed the back of my head on the wall, inducing a piercing pain that would mark the beginnings of a horrible headache.
What I said was what people said when confessing… UGHH! He must have thought that way too. I had just felt so calm with him that I saw him like a brother that I never had.
*bzzt* My phone on the table beside the bathtub vibrated. The words 'Message received' followed by 'Kano' appeared on the screen.
I took a deep breath and prepared for the worst.
'Hey Suzu-chan. Im sorry if I caused you any trouble. I was kinda surprised and didn't know how to respond. So yeah! I don't mind! I get to call you Yuriko too! See you tomorrow! =D'
I sighed in relief.
"ONEE-CHAN! YOUV'E BEEN IN THERE FOR ALMOST AN HOUR! CAN YOU GET OUT NOW?!" Mikoto was screaming at me.
"MANAMI AGREES THAT YOU HAVE BEEN IN THERE FOR FAR TOO LONG MANAMI SAYS AS SHE WANTS TO USE THE BATHROOM AS WELL!" Even Last Order was in on it.
"I ALSO GOTTA SHOW YOU GUYS THE RECORDING OF TOKIWADAI'S MATCH! WE ARE ALL WAITING FOR YOU SO WE CAN START WATCHING!" Worst was in on it for a totally different reason.
This is why I love my sisters.
A.N. WEEEE I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you guys enjoy it. Its not amazing but I pray its decent =D and this is also a filler. I intend to skip a few days and then develop the Kano-Yuriko thingy and thennnnn... who knows? the way I write is dependant. on what interests me and is more spur of the moment than anything. Plus, I had swapped the genders for the cliché embarrassed guy and girl... well. to me its switched. it may not be to you guys XD
MarkJ: THANKS A BUNCH! Hehe I hope you like this one too!
Once again, reviews are loved. pls send me some for improvement. and faves and follows are like... finding diamonds while walking in a cave.
Thanks for reading and... uhhh... see you guys? I guess? XD HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED READING!