"WHERE THE FUCK DID THEY COME FRO-"
"TORPEDOES! TORPEDOES IN THE WATER!"
"DAMMIT! WE ARE TOO CLOSE TOGETHER TO CONDUCT EVASI-"
"AHHHHHHHHHH!"
In the land of the confused, pandemonium reigned.
Staff hurried around, frantically looking for a solution as they checked and rechecked readings in disbelief. The tactical holographic map was in disarray - a group of symbols indicating any friendly forces were in complete disarray after the devastating flanking attack performed by the Abyssals, which had, to disbelief of the bridge crew, appeared out of completely nowhere.
Through the live video feeds and inter-fleet communications, the situation was even more dire - explosions obscured or damaged cameras, causing them to shut off with each crewman fearing for the fate of its bearer. Screams and cries for help filled the comms, causing mass confusion as important data was lost in transmission, commands all but ignored. Mass panic took hold, turning the entire force - and the bridge - into disarray. The weapons directed at them which were firing mercilessly did not help.
All in a couple of seconds.
On his chair, Rear Admiral Zhang's face was blank as his mind rapidly cycling through strategies too quickly to spare a thought to changing his expression. The requests for any kind of support passed by him as a counter plan formed inside his mind.
He was a veteran, and while this situation was completely unexpected, he could turn the tables, but only if they acted fast.
"Air support we can provide immediately, but the combatants are too close to actually provide long range missile support. Problem, is that we need to retreat - and as far away from their 'teleporting'."
Barely seconds passed when his solution came up.
"All shipgirl units! Activate all boosters and head nearer to the Abyssal Base! Get away from the enemy forces as far as possible, and Phi Squadron is to take up the rear! Suppress them with medium range fire Air units are to slow down the enemies as they can and watch out for the incoming Abyssal air support. Battlegroup, prepare 'Spears' for launch and begin targeting the Abyssal forces."
With his voice refined by years of naval warfare, he brought order to his command. Stunned bridge crew returned to their duties with renewed determination honed by training, and shipgirls took new heart, preparing to retaliate.
Looking upon them, the Admiral also felt savage determination fill him. By hook or crook, he would win this.
Hinata Tsumiki's thoughts were also in disarray.
At the head of the formation while they were suddenly hit from the back was not good. Especially with all her comrades blocking any available line-of-sight she had on the enemy.
So currently, she was now stuck at the wrong side of the fighting while she watched others get butchered by the monstrous Abyssals.
She began to manouver, her massive bulk narrowly dodging a pair of stray shells. Gritting her teeth, she switched her main communications frequency from the completely chaotic main channel to her squad's personal channel. 'Phi Squadron," she growled, "prepare to move around the main formation and begin our counterattack on the enemy -"
A fleetwide broadcast cut through any order she was about to give, with the voice of her confidant.
"All shipgirl units! Activate all boosters and head nearer to the Abyssal Base! Get away from the enemy forces as far as possible, and Phi Squadron is to take up the rear! Suppress them with medium range fire Air units are to slow down the enemies as they can and watch out for the incoming Abyssal air support. Battlegroup, prepare 'Spears' for launch and begin targeting the Abyssal forces."
Right after the broadcast, immediately order and discipline retook the shipgirl forces, overturning the disarray they were originally in. One after another, light glowed on various shipgirls as they activated their personal booster packs and took the moment to bug out. They passed by the Lieutanant, ignoring her as they rushed past in a position optimised for speed.
Meanwhile, Hinata stood in place, silently switching the communication channel to Phi Squadron's personal channel. Already, her squad was assembling into place.
"Squad Leader?" Sayaka was the first to report in, her voice no longer timidly soft. She appeared at Hinata side, weaveing through retreating groups of shipgirls.
"I'm here, Lieutenant." Jae-Hee was next, appearing while steadying herself. As she moved up, Hinata watched another shipgirl limp away, her uniform bloodied and torn.
"Here!" Xiaoyan was the last to pop up, arriving as the rest of the fleet retreated - ironically, in fact - towards the Abyssal base.
With almost no delay, Hinata yelled, "Fire at will!"
All four shipgirls raised their turrets, electricity humming as the railguns hummed with power, and magic capacitors charged with energy.
As each of them pulled the trigger on their weapons, thousands of volts of electricity shot through their barrels of their cannons as magic flowed through each piece of loaded ammunition. Supercharged with magic and electricity, shells shot out out of their barrels, the cannons answering the loud blasts of the Abyssal guns with sleek, near-silent throoms.
Hinata's quarry, a battleship, was busy snarling when all 8 of the railgun shots slammed into her. The shells utterly smashed through the battleship's armor, destroying magically enhanced armor with sheer kinetic force. Barely a moment later the stored magic within the shells detonated with catastrophic effect, the shockwave buffeting the nearest Abyssals. As the smoke cleared, nothing of the Abyssal was left, completely obliterated by the attack.
Yet a second after the death of 3 others, Phi Squadron's guns were already reloaded, the advanced loaders of their cannons quickly loading a new shell. Firing again, they damaged yet another 2 Abyssals, snarling as they delivered death to the monsters. But even as they held their ground, the Abyssals closed in, forcing them to begin dodging a volley of shells.
"Phi Squadron, good work, but stay out of range of the Abyssal attacks. They are also quite capable of mauling you guys too. Besides, the carriers have finally got their heads out of their heads, and they are sending heavy ordinance down your way!" A second voice came over the comms, which Hinata accepted with a simple nod and 'yes'.
"Squad, retreat!" Hinata spun around and activated her own booster pack, letting magic rush through her body and propelling herself foward at superfast speeds. Looking back, she watched as a couple of flares flew towards the Abyssals, from the direction of her carrier. Smiling, she turned around -
Only to see a large fleet of Abyssal flyers sweeping forwards, heading for her - and the forward fleet. As she watched, a flock of the monstrous machines detached from the main battlegroup, swooping towards the already damaged forward.
Yet she hoped they wouldn't do much damage. At least the other groups would be able to handle them, even if some of them were injured -
Her thoughts were interrupted by a whooshing sound filling the atmosphere. She looked up, seeing a strange missile cut through the air. It had a pair of wings, and it a prominent vapour trail followed it. Frowning, she looked at its vapour trail, following it to...
...the Abyssal base.
Heart seized by terror, she looked back at the strange missile, which soared lazily through the sky -
Before exploding above the Abyssals.
Frowning agin, she wondered what its purpose was -
Out of a sudden, the 'flares' - or missiles headed for the Abyssals went completely haywire; they swooped in multiple directions, spiraling, falling out of control. The missiles either went plunging into the oceans, or went spinning into the sun.
No way, they can't have-!
A loud buzzing sound reminded her that she was in danger. As she looked up, she spotted three Abyssal aircraft aiming for her face, bombs and guns poised to kill.
"Magician, I see flares in the sky." As I stared at the radar screen, watching shipgirl forces dash away from Abyssal forces, Phoenix's voice rang out in my ear. Missiles? Dammit, with the airborne radar gone, we can't exactly identify them...
"We are now under attack by enemy aircraft." Juri. Alright, the main force is finally getting engaged by aircraft. Not good too, that needs to be countered or shut down ASAP.
I leaned back in my chair, nearly sighing. How should I approach this?
How did the generals and commanders of old planned their strategies?
Hmmm...they started...with their objectives...I think...
Right, focus on your objective, then work on accomplishing them...
What are my objectives? The focus of this battle...is to defend this base. To defend this base, the Abyssals have to eliminate all hostile forces.
Given our position, the human forces are most definitely based from a carrier...which is hidden from our 'eyes'. So the way to win is to search and destroy the carrier, or deplete its forces.
The second is what we are doing here...but...no, this isn't how I should do this.
I need to counter the current moves of the enemy, while trying to complete mine. What they are doing now...is launching a salvo of missiles at our forces, having their air forces bombard ours, and manoeuvring their shipgirl forces away from ours.
What's their overall objective? Its to destroy this base - no, no, its...to get their forces back safely.
So...back to destroying their forces.
...this is hard.
Planning while trying to see the wider picture and looking at the tactical level...playing and sucking at C&C does not prepare this for you...
Right, don't reminisce! Goddamn, this is a battle! Focus!
So...the missiles. Well, time to deploy that 'chaff missile'...
As for the enemy aircraft...tch. That was a huge problem, mainly because we don't actually have a single silver of info on the aircraft they had. For all we knew, they could be literal spacecraft.
Still, we have to deal with them..."Ok, Phoenix, how are far are your planes away from the enemy?" I asked.
"Within visual range of both shipgirls and aircraft." Right. So...how to maximise their use...I checked the piece of paper that I had recorded the strength of the Abyssal forces in the field.
A quick look at the paper informed me of the force composition - a fleet of bog-standard fighters and bombers. Ok, I guess I can use them to bombard the shipgirls and defend our forces...and also get visuals on the aircraft the
How about the naval Abyssal forces? Hmmm...
Maybe...I could get Beacon to do - no, no. I don't think that her power would help much here...I guess...I will just have to tell them to continue chasing down the shipgirls, forcing them in between the base's defences and the Abyssal forces.
Hmmm. There's still those 'strange shipgirls' holding down the line. They were the ones using railguns on their rigging...they could do a lot of damage to the Abyssal forces.
What to do?
I think...what did the Art Of War say about encirclement again? 'Always leave a hole open so that the enemy will not fight to their death'?
If I go by that train of thought...then, I could split the forces in two again, and charge at the shipgirl units from two sides..hmm, lets go with that
Ok...the missiles, the enemy aircraft and the shipgirls...what else? Should we also use the floating missile platforms? There's probably no need for them at this rate...yeah, I guess I should conserve their limited ammo.
...That's it, time to consolidate my orders...Done.
I clear my throat and begin.
Siren-Of-Knowledge was busy at work on the few pieces of prototype equipment on the deck of the base when the command came in.
While humming a strange ditty to herself, she busy organised the team that was in charge of the damaged airborne radar, who were gently pushing and attaching the now repaired radio mast to the podium it was originally placed on.
Staring at it for the umpteen time in a row, she giggled. Despite it looking like a piece of bizarre patchwork, Siren clearly was proud of the fruit of her labour from the last few days. Since it was actually cobbled together from a couple of still working equipment parts and held together by the twisted black metal so associated with Abyssals, it was of no surprise that on its third activation, it had, quite literally, fallen apart.
Not that it was of any concern to Siren. To the Gatherer, the device had worked once, which meant for all intents and purposes, she was right.
Of course, that attitude wasn't earning her any compatriots soon.
While the Abyssals under her command were busy fixing the radar, Siren was busy contemplating how to improve on its existing design. "So, that part has to be attached more tightly...maybe if I move the oscillator there, the power required would be less...and oh, I have to make sure that it is more durable -"
"Siren!" Magician's voice suddenly interrupting her thoughts caused Siren to jump out of her skin.
"Y-yes!" The hybrid battleship-carrier cum scientist froze in attention.
"I need you to fire one of the chaff missiles, set to explode right above our naval forces. Hurry!" Receiving the command, Siren dropped her things and ran over to a piece of equipment mounted near the edge of the deck.
As she got closer, Siren caught a glimpse of the battle, watching shipgirls and the Abyssals fighting them edge closer to the base. Up in the sky however, was a series of sharp lights.
The piece of equipment mounted there was a very crude missile launcher- a pair of hollow rails with metal bindings and a launch pad, mounted on a dirty-looking turret mount. Alongside it was ordinance placed in the most careless way possible - a series of multi-coloured missiles laid out along the deck.
Each missile was largely reminiscent of a V1 flying bomb - a rounded bullet like shape with a pair of wings attached to their sides, along with two engines attached to either side of its back. It was completely black in colour, except for a single ring in the middle - Magician's suggestion for differentiating the two types of missiles she had came up with. A yellow ring for the live missiles, and a white one for the chaff missiles.
Grabbing a white one by both ends, Siren heard Magician telling her to hurry up. "Sorry, but I'm busy loading them right now!"
As she placed the missile on the launch pad, she heard Magician shout at her in stupendous disbelief. "What? You didn't load one already?"
Ignoring her superior's complaints, she ran to the back of the launcher, grabbing hold of a pair of hand holds. With a grunt she started to aim the entire construct, tilting it till the very top aimed above the heads of the Abyssal force.
Satisfied, Siren took a few steps back and aimed her hand at the base of the missile. After a few moments, it started emitting a hissing sound, before a flame shot out of its engines, propelling it and causing it to shoot straight up the rails and into the horizon.
Not missing a beat, she pointed her hand at the missile and concentrated, and her point-of-view suddenly switched to the missile's, high above the battlefield. As a carrier, Siren also had the ability to assume control of any of her aircraft, and that was the same trick she had used on the missile. The only problem was, that she could not exactly control it, due to it lacking control surfaces of any sort.
Not that she needed that, all she needed to do was detonate the missile at the right place and time. Of course, if she could develop such a feature, it would be all the more amazing; being able to remotely control them and guide them into the faces if their enemies...
Siren returned to reality as she caught first sight of her allies. She counted down for 3 seconds, before detonating the missile.
When she reopened her eyes, she spotted the cloud of silvery dust scattering light rays all over the place. Tenseness seized her as she watched the incoming enemy missiles. Would it work? Or would she have to go back to the drawing board again -
And the missiles went haywire.
Each of them which were following a set graceful parabolic curve suddenly went spiralling in all directions - some went soaring in other directions as if tracking a new unknown contact, some simply detonated on the spot as they believed to have found their mark, while others simply spiraled downwards and smashed suicidally into the ocean, creating great plumes of water on the way.
Siren's jubilent voice filled the base and any mind-networks it contained as she jumped for joy. "YES! HAAHHAHA! YEEEESSSS!"
"Allright! Juri, Yuri and Phoenix, commence the second round of attacks!"
Giant-Phoenix-that-Watches stood silently on the deck of the base, her hands on her staff that was positioned in front of her.
"Acknowledged."
With that, she began giving out orders to the units under her command. 12 other Abyssal carriers - around half of her personal division - were standing with Phoenix on the deck of the Abyssal base, on an area separated from the place where Siren's machinations were located.
As they had all trained and used their abilities together, all eleven of them worked as a singular entity - the formation of aircraft in the clouds that they controlled was perfectly synchronised, travelling at a steady speed.
As Phoenix divided each fleet of aircraft into two groups, the swarm easily transformed, morphing and changing with minimal effort. The fighters put up a burst of acceleration, zooming as far as possible to attack the enemy aircraft, whereas the bombers duck downwards while retaining their cruising speed, tilting their noses downwards as they aimed straight into the eyes of their vulnerable enemies.
Before long however, a wall of lead met them - superheated shells shot from rotary autocannons and fast-firing flak guns, and not to mention quite a few missiles were included, creating large explosions that threatened to throw any of her aircraft out of control. All shot from the 'new' weapons mounted on the shipgirls.
But Phoenix had planned for this. She had brought her personal division simply for the purpose of dealing with this threat. Having being briefed on the enemy's current anti-air capabilities, she had drilled with her division's airgroups on how to counter those threats.
At the chance to finally try them out, grim determination filled her thoughts.
She sent put her command again, and the other carriers obliged. With a single movement...all of the attacking bombers dipped their noses straight towards the sea.
The swarm decended at ferocious speed, diving from the clouds like a falcon after its prey. The targeting systems of the shipgirls attempted to correct for their enemy's tactic, but to no avail; the shells and bullets thrown out at such high rates of fire were narrowly missing the aircrart, and missiles just simply could not lock on to their targets fast enough.
As they were barely tens of meters above the sea, the swarm swerved upwards, heading straight for the shipgirls.
But even as it closed in, the advanced technology mounted on each of the shipgirl's rigging managed to scrape out some victories. Autocannon tore through the ranks of the aircraft, forcing them to perform wild loops and dodges in attempts to escape the line of fire.
As such, when they were fully committed to their attacks, the aircraft suffered massive hits to their accuracy. Bombs flew wide and hit the water, whereas torpedoes shot in between shipgirls. But, as battered as they were, they were full of the dogged desperation of their carriers, and soon explosions filled the air as various pieces of ordnance found their mark, followed by the screams of pain of their targets.
However, Phoenix had not let her squadrons fully commit to any attacks. Instead, they streaked above the melee, aiming for a target at the back of the enemy.
At the start of the battle, she had spotted the strange shipgirls, and she knew.
They were the ones who wielded blue spears of light.
They had been responsible of trashing her old commander, sending her crashing into the water before it even began.
And she had watched them slaughter the sisters under her command.
One thought filled her now, and it was vengeance.
Reaching out, she now assumed direct control over the bombers flying over the enemy.
Finally, they made their descent, and they aimed for all four of them.
Gunfire assaulted them, but she ignored it.
And with a cry of retaliation, all of the surviving bombers released all their weapons, delivering her anger to the enemy.
"Sir! The missiles are...they have diverted off course!"
"What?!" The Admiral pushed himself upwards in disbelief. "How?!"
"We...we are checking the diagnostic logs now, but the missiles...they just go completely haywire when they hit a certain area around the the enemy fleet!"
"Admiral! We have detected a massive amount of magic pollution around the enemy fleet! Our magic-based sensors are unable to see through the pollution, and we have lost contact with enemy forces!"
Admiral Zhang collapsed back into his chair in shock. How the hell are the Abyssals doing this, he thought. Our technology shouldn't be affected by Abyssal magic pollution, and yet...wait...
Turning to his command, he asked, "How are the communication systems holding up? And the other parts of our sensor suite; are they unaffected by the blast?"
A radar operator turned to him. "Sir, currently all other detection systems are working, and we still have positioning and communications on our forces. However, with the magic pollution over the enemy fleet, we cannot detect their presences or triangulate their positions. As far as I know, this means that our battlegroup are not able to launch missiles of any sort."
Heaving a sigh of relief, the Admiral calmed himself down. "Fine. How about our air forces? Are they anyway affected by this outburst of magic pollution?"
"Their onboard sensor suites have been affected, so they will not be able to execute long-range attacks, but overall dogfighting capability have not be reduced at all."
"Alright -" Before he had a chance to settle down however, more bad news came.
"Sir! Our forces have just come under attack by Abyssal air forces! They are currently engaging both our air and naval forces!"
"Sir! Our forces report that the Abyssals have regrouped, and they are advancing in two groups on their position!" Two seperate technicians yelled dire warnings, their voices reverberating throughout the bridge.
Zhang's heart skipped a beat. "Damn! What are our forces' remaining strength?"
"We only have 21 shipgirls afloat, and at least 4 of them are in no condition to fight. Phi Squadron is still operational, but currently they are heavy fire from airborne attacks."
The Admiral quickly refered to the holographic battle map that was mounted on his armrest. Reactivating the tactical input from the magic detectors, he was greeted by a mess of false signatures and enemy warnings. Looking away, he asked, "Have the relief teams been readied for action?"
"Relief teams are on standby and waiting for your order, sir."
"Launch them. Relief carriers are to have their airgroups put pressure on the enemy battlegroup. Same goes for the relief teams. As for the remaining main forces, they are to circle around the enemy fleet, and head straight back here. Again, Phi Squadron is to take up the rear of the two groups." Turning to the officer responsible for the fleet's cyberwarfare suites, he ordered, "Isolate the cause for the magic pollution. Find out what the hell's going on."
==============
"Guh!"
As multiple bombbay's worth of explosives hit her, Hinata let out a grunt of pain.
Despite dodging with as much agility she could muster, she was a battleship, and the enemy had planned out its attack run so meritoculously that she could barely escape. Not to mention the falling star that it launched just seconds before impact.
She pulled herself up, changing from the prone position she had assumed to block the brunt of the attack. As she moved, she felt herself shake uncontrolably. Shit, she thought. She reactivated the HUD on her visor, only to get distorted lines of code as the computer systems struggled to repair and stabalise themselves.
Turning the visor off instead of letting the distortion impair her vison, she checked her own integrity. Parts of rigging were smoking, although those came from left over superficial flames on the superstructure. Dented, bent and damaged armor plating could be seen everywhere, highlighting the seriousness of the blow, and fairies were flying all around her, repairing and fixing broken parts to the best of their ability.
Reaching into herself, Hinata felt the energy streams that formed her 'components' Relief washed through her as energy pumped through her, with no irregularities stemming from damage appearing. Quickly reasserting herself, she reactivated her HUD, now clean of any broken code, and began contacting her squad.
"Phi Squadron, damage report!" Affrimatives came in from the other three, reporting only armor damage and nothing serious. Stunned by the claims of superficial damage, she looked down at herself again. I've been aware of the upgrades I got, but I never they could shrug off that much damage-
The bit of ocean to her left suddenly exploded, a shell having hit its surface with lethal force.
Don't marvel at yourself, Lieutanant! Your aren't invincible yet! Training reminded her of her own capabilities, and she took it, quickly retreating to avoid contact.
In doing so, she opened her tactical map, but instead faced a map full of flashing Abyssal signatures.
What-? What happened? "Phi Leader here- what is going on?!" Hinata shouted in her microphone, her voice directed straight at the bridge of the Tsukyumori.
As she dodged to avoid even more shells raining from the Abyssal forces, she got only static from the transmission. "Tsukyumori- hello?!"
"Tsu- *kssh* -mori here." A voice finally answered her, despite being heavily hampered by static. "To all squad- *ksssh* -leaders, be advised that the enemy has- *kssssh* -some kind of magic- *ksh* -device. Any magic-based sensor suites have been disrupted, and- *kkkkkkssh* -munications may be affected. Missile support of any type is unavailable at the moment."
"Huh?!" Hinata shouted in disbelief. "Then what's coming to assist us!?"
"Phi Leader, currently-*ksssh* -a relief team is being deployed to aid you in- *ksssh* -your retreat. Right now, however, you are required to lead all remaining -*ksssh*-ces out of the enemy's pincer movement. Your map has been updated with your new -*kssh*- objectives."
Hinata swapped her visor's view to a image of a map. On it were a large red blob indicating the Abyssal forces and another red rectangle indicating the Abyssal base. Right now, a cluster of white dots which indicated friendly forces was currently trapped in between the two red shapes, but on it, as the map switched to a simulation mode, the white dots rearranged themselves into two lines, before each line 'escaped' out of the openings on either side of their formation. Meanwhile, yellow dots indicating her squadron formed up the front and rear of each line.
Hinata immediately understood. Spinning herself around, she speeded up, again activating the booster packs on her back. Bracing herself for yet another barrage of shells, she contacted the other members of her squadron. "Did all of you get the command?"
"Yes." "Yes." "Yes." All three replied at the same time, with the same words, with quiet determination.
"Alright. Tsunemori, launch the Hawk!"
"Understood!" In the distance, Hinata saw a black shape shoot upwards, before suddenly expanding into a large, sleek quadcopter. It then began to rise under its own power, flying to stay above its bearer.
The ATD-201 Hawk that Sayaka carried was a prototype lookout drone that was meant to aid Phi Squadron in targeting its enemies. 2 and a half metres long and wide, it was equiped with a powerful set of computers and sensors to do its duty. As it rose, it used its suite of cameras to focus on the approaching enemies. Calculating and swiftly determining its enemies' and allies' positions, it began submitting its targeting data to the Tsukyumori as well as its operators.
Hinata watched her map as red dots appeared on it, the Abyssals' true positions revealed by Phi Squadron's eye in the sky. Selecting one target, she swirveled her turrets around, trimmed her aim, and fired.
Unfortunately, the blue spears were off, and they slammed into the patch of water right next to her target, and provoking a retailatory salvo from the Abyssals. Most of them missed and hit the ocean, but two aimed true and slammed into Hinata's back.
"Guuhhck!" As the hot flame of the explosion washed over the battleship, she tried to withstand the pain of having two shells nearly knock her over. Gritting her teeth, she fired again, her guns loading faster than her opponent.
This time her aim was true, and the Abyssal disappeared from the map with a scream.
Both sides traded fire even as the distance between them widened. Blue fire and glowing shells arced pver the battlefield, yet most of them simply plunged into the ocean, missing their targets again and again.
As Phi Squadron reached their fellows, they were greeted by a sorry sight. Damaged shipgirls were trying to moved into lines, and the limping wounded were slowly marshaled into in more defendable positions. Already some shipgirls were in inflatable rafts, their rigging shattered, no longer in any capacity to fight. As Phi Squadron came in however, their spirits rose again, and the organising of the remaining forces sped up.
"Ok, Jae-Hee, Xiaoyan, take up the left side. Tsunemori, follow me." As Hinata moved to her position, another squad leader moved up to her. "How far back are the monsters?" she rasped.
"At least several minutes behind," Hinata replied. The other squad leader nodded, before going into a angry triade.
"Fuck, how the hell did those beasts suddenly do that? Why? Fucking assholes..." as she walked off, Hinata heard the pain in her voice - the pain of one having lost men.
Shutting out any new voices in her head, she turned to Sayaka, who was standing behind her, "Take the rear, I'll take the front." Nodding, Sayaka moved to the back of the line, and the formation moved.
Returning her senses to battle, Hinata once again took stock of their situation. Right now, they were moving at maximum speed, hoping to circle around the Abyssal forces, and meet up with the relief forces. Meanwhile, they would bombard the Abyssals to force them to stay back -
"Ma,am! The Hawk is reporting fresh aircraft leaving the Abyssal Base!" Sayaka's voice came over the comm, as the sounds of anti-aircraft weapons activating filled the space.
"Dammit." Hinata swore to herself.
"All squadrons, burn the rest of your boosters! Get out, get out of there!" Not a moment too soon, the Tsukyumori's warning was followed by the whistling of enemy shells.
The fleet splitted apart, and simultaneously activated their booster packs. As their magic fuel slowly began running out, a wave of shells fell on each shipgirl's previous postition, splashing many of them with even more water.
Screaming with rage, Hinata swirveled her guns, and fired-
And a demoness descended from the sky, with a flaming spear held high, its tip aimed straight for her head.
Juri and Yuri had been providing fire support, lobbing shells into the air when Magician's panicked shout came over the network.
"Shit shit shit! Juri, Yuri, grab some of your forces and block off the enemy's path!"
Acknowledging the command, both of them stopped shooting and zoomed in on the movements of their targets. They were speeding off, trying to circle around their formation while retaliating with artillery fire.
In other words, escaping.
"Shall we cut them off? If you wish, I will again take the left and you take the right."
"Indeed."
Moving off, both sisters selected 5 other Abyssals from their battlegroups, telling them to stay put. Desummoning their own rigging, they warped through space, grabbing each of their selected units one by one.
"Let's aim for the head of the serpents, shall we?"
"Agreed!" Addressing each other in hypnotic tones, both of them appeared near the front of the two lines, dropping their loads, who then fired their first devastating salvo. As enemy shipgirls cowered under their sudden appearance, Yuri took the chance to scan her enemies. Her attention was immediately diverted to the frontmost unit, the one who
-the one with the strange aura, she thought. Focusing on her, Yuri studied her features. She had the bulk of a battleship, with four dual-barrel turrets adorning her person, each humming with energy. Her armor was damaged, but it was only superficial - and the damaged areas showed a metal - or some other material - that she could not recognize.
Most importantly however, her attention was elsewhere, completely ignorant of Yuri.
Putting herself in a battle stance, Yuri snapped her right hand to the side. A black liquid, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, flowed down her arm and into her hand. Gradually, it began forming a pole within her hand, growing and lengthening, until it was an almost two-meter long polearm with a spearhead at the end.
She leapt, and teleported. Feeling herself reappear right above her self-designated opponent, she swung her weapon down, its tip aiming downwards at her opponent's head.
However, the enemy had felt her presence, and thus jumped out of the way in time. Yuri crashed into the water, kicking up a massive spray into the air.
Moments later, two shells shot out of the water, heading directly for the shipgirl, followed closely by a wild-eyed Yuri. As she charged, the shipgirl angled her armor, causing the shells to ricochet off her armor, before hurriedly spinning around to avoid Yuri's charge.
Slamming one foot into the water, Yuri regained her balance, swinging around to meet her opponent. The shipgirl attempted to finish the engagement, firing her spears of light again; but Yuri had seen the turrets move, and thus before they had locked on, she leapt, and was back in the air.
As she flew, she drew her weapon back, and the spearhead violently transformed back into liquid metal, before coalescing into the form of a guandao. As she fell, she swung her weapon downwards, hoping to cut her opponent in half-
Except her opponent had not be idle, and quickly put a few meters between her Yuri again, causing her to slice the water surface again, creating two waves on either side of the weapon.
The two enemies faced each other for a few moments, heaving-
When the shipgirl ducked and ran for it.
Yuri suddenly found herself aiming a weapon at no one, wide-eyed, staring at the retreating back of her enemy-
-and barely ducked under the hot wrath of yet another salvo of railgun rounds.
Snapping out of her confusion, she teleported yet again, appearing right in front of the shipgirl again. Propelling herself forward, she swung her weapon, as a sheath of energy surrounded its head.
The shipgirl quickly sidestepped, and the blade, instead of dealing a fatal blow, sliced into the armor belt of the shipgirl's rigging. The superheated blade cut through, but barely penetrated it, leaving a glowing gash in its wake.
The enemy's turrets swivelled around again, impossibly fast, and once again Yuri was forced to disengage, pushing away from her quarry.
Resummoning her gauntlets, she fired yet another salvo, and her enemy disappeared under a cloud of black smoke. Barely seconds passed as two more rounds shot out, narrowly bypassing her.
Grunting, she put herself back on guard, as she watched the smoke dissipate. Her opponent emerged from the smoke, looking just as infuriatingly unhurt as before, if not more pissed off.
Again, she quickly took stock of the situation. Her enemy was not getting weaken or damaged by her ranged attacks, her armor was way two strong for her to simply cut, and her guns were fast and dangerous.
The speed and agility of a destroyer combined with the sheer power of a battleship.
How then, to defeat her?
Very quickly did she find the answer though.
She charged at her enemy, straight on, brandishing her spear in front of her. Its head glowed as a massive amount of magic and energy surged and filled it.
She watched as the turrets spun around, their barrels struggling to track her.
As they glowed blue, she warped, reappearing right next to the shipgirl.
Throwing all her momentum into the blow, she drove the spear right into the upper-right turret of her enemy. The spear-head penetrated the turrets armor, driving straight into the inside of the turret. Delicate components and instruments all broke under the brunt of the attack, splintering and breaking into pieces.
Electricity arced over the turret as damaged capacitors prematurely released their stored charges, forcing Yuri to quickly dive away. The entire piece of weaponry then exploded, causing the shipgirl to scream and clutch her side in pain.
Smiling, Yuri prepared, a second strike, this time aiming straight for the heart -
Only to be cut of as suppressive fire came in from the side. Ducking and dodging, she frantically tried to evade the constantly incoming shots from afar. Finally she teleported away, and she looked for her new assailant.
She was another shipgirl similar to the one she had been fighting, except that this time she was blue-haired, a little smaller and had 6 dual barrel turrets instead. As the new entrant spotted Yuri again, she spun around and began firing her guns in sequence, pouring an relentless barrage of fire on Yuri.
Scowling as her kill was interrupted, Yuri quickly teleported back to the main Abyssal formation.
At the same time Yuri began her assault, on the other side of the battlefield, Juri was preparing hers.
Seeing a line of shipgirls moving at high speeds, she carefully plotted out a path. She planned to teleport quickly, dodging between each enemy unit, striking them down before they had any chance of reacting.
With her plan of attack settled, she extended her arm to the right. Black liquid flowed down that arm, slowly forming into a sword similar in size and shape of a katana.
Everything set in motion, she made herself ready, and attacked.
Charging forward, she teleported onto her first target. With one stroke, she spun around and threw her whole body into the attack, slashing across the shipgirl's chest. Ignoring the red liquid that poured out from her blow, she teleported-
And found her attack blunted by what was supposed to be her second target, who angled her armor to meet her head on. The shipgirl who bore that armor had a deadpan expression on her face, except for the steel in her eye.
Both of them glared at each other, when the shipgirl pushed, forcing Juri off herself. As she hit the water, the shipgirl swiveled her turrets around, and fired them in sequence. Juri found herself moving backwards as she hastily moved out of the line of fire.
Before she even got anywhere fast, yet another salvo of suppressive fire came in from her left, forcing her to teleport. Reappearing a safe distance away, she scowled as she observed her opponents. They were wearing the same rigging - the 'strange' kind that Siren was unable to identify earlier on - and were now searching for her.
She looked at the turrets. Each of them brimmed with a strange energy that Juri was unable to identify herself. She knew of their destructive power, having watched several of her units fall to them.
Looking back at the shipgirls themselves, Juri scowled. With both of them on overwatch now, she couldn't execute any surprise attacks on the flotilla, and most likely they would cover each other's backs. Not to mention one salvo from those weapons would most likely be enough to take her out of comission.
As she planned out her attacks, she heard whooshing sounds from the sky. Looking up, she spotted quite a number of incoming air forces.
"Maybe Magician would know more of this." She spoke to herself.
There was too much, too much to continue fighting. The humans, despite being on the disadvantaged side, had still managed to cut their losses in time and retreat
With that last thought, she sheathed her weapon and disengaged.