Ugh. The sheer number of typos in the last chapter is almost embarrassing. That's what I get for writing without editing properly though.
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I'd read in the paper clippings that Abyssals don't have to sleep or worry about supply lines. Instead, they relentlessly moved around the ocean at nearly top speeds, regardless of how long it had been since they last stopped.
As any Abyssal myself, I could attest to that not being entirely accurate. While it was true that I didn't need to "sleep" so to say, I did in fact require rest.
However, this "rest" was more akin to that of an ocean creature's, always moving and never fully coming to a stop, and always with at least some of my systems still active so I couldn't be taken fully by surprise. It wasn't quite at the level of some of the more extreme ocean predators like sharks, but it was a close thing.
As it was, my "rest" consisted of a lot of lazing around in a chair and idle ruffling of newspapers and magazines, barely reading anything but just sort of skimming along and picking up small tidbits of information. And despite the fact that I had had such a turbulent first day out on the high seas, it wasn't even sunrise before I was fully awake and back in control of my faculties.
At first, I had thought being on dry land would provide me with some comfort, but as the hours passed I began to feel more and more like a beached whale. My skin felt dry and cracked, and more than once I'd begun to sway as if to balance myself on waves that didn't exist. Regardless of how interesting the harbor town was, something was calling me back to the sea, urging me to get back into the water.
So it was with no small amount of relief that I stepped off the pier and back into the harbor, immediately welcoming the brisk splash of salty sea-spray on my legs. Bending down I scooped up an armful of seawater and dumped it over my head, a sigh of pure bliss escaping my lips as the water ran in rivulets down my body, taking with it the stress that had been building up for the past several hours.
As the sun began to rise I glanced to the edge of the horizon, eyes narrowed for any signs of storm clouds or smoke from ship-girl smokestacks.
Sure enough, the storm clouds I'd escaped from yesterday were still present, hovering menacingly over the ocean. At least the squall had traversed some, shifting -by my best estimates- a few hundred nautical miles to the south.
I frowned. At least they were a little farther away from me. I'd have preferred it if they were gone completely, but small mercies and what have you.
I sighed and began to chew on my bottom lip as I stared up at the squall line. At this stage I wasn't ready to encounter either side of the war, regardless of whether they were Abyssal or ship-girl. Neither had given me much reason to want to help them, what with my species basically declaring undying war upon mankind and one of my own Princess's trying to kill me.
Ah, yes. Therein lay my biggest problem. The Princess. The one who had summoned me, after quite a lot of effort if her words were to be taken seriously. She had been terrorizing this stretch of the North Sea for months now, making any kind of trade with England all but impossible. If I'd let her have her way with me, it's more than likely I would have been joining her in that pursuit.
I'll be honest, I wasn't sure how to feel about England suffering. There was just something about that place that left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the more I thought about it the worse it got. Half-remembered impressions of fire and fear passed through my head every time I even looked at a picture of one of their ships, and I shuddered to think of what would happen if I actually laid eyes on one of their ship-girls.
Most likely, nothing good.
I shook the thoughts from my head as I ran a hand through my hair, letting the salty spray of the ocean massage into my scalp. I winced as I poked myself in one of my horns, the small nub surprisingly sharp and spiny.
My issues with allegiance were a problem for another day. Now that I'd gotten my feet wet I was loath to go back on land, and there were plenty of ships in the harbor that were almost begging to be investigated. Maybe if I got lucky I could find a few more scraps of information lying about in one of their hulls, or even better, a hand radio. Sure, I had an onboard operating station, but finding a radio used by the locals would mean I could get my hands on the local frequencies. That way I'd be able to hear any chatter that might be coming near me.
I pushed off into the harbor, humming a tuneless sea shanty to myself as the sun finally crested the horizon of the harbor, warming my back up nicely.
I froze when I heard what sounded like the rolling of distant thunder. Turning my gaze to the horizon, my eyes widened as I caught sight of the storm clouds again. They were now being lit up from the inside, flashes of lightning and... something else sending bursts of white racing through the clouds.
Another series of booms rolled across the waves, so deep that my citadel vibrated from merely the candor of it. That wasn't thunder. The tenor and frequency of the booms was too regular, too powerful to be natural.
That was cannon fire.
Someone was fighting the Abyssals.
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Hipper let out a scream as she let loose yet another volley from her eight twenty-three-centimeter main battery guns. The shells roared out of their barrels in an explosion of sound and light, becoming yet another layer to the already oppressive cacophony all around her.
The ocean had been transformed into a watery hellscape. The sky was dark with storm clouds, lit only by fire and lightning as the Abyssals poured out from practically every wave. Towering swells were constantly lifting her up and down, spoiling her firing solutions and making it difficult to maintain her position on the northern flank. The rough terrain had practically destroyed any hope of keeping the Abyssals at range, forcing the escort fleet to begin to engage in close quarters.
Hipper grunted as secondary fire pinged off her armor, her own secondaries opening up on the careless Abyssal that had dared stray within her range. Forget close-quarters, this was practically brawling conditions.
The convoy was being ripped apart behind her, despite her best efforts to keep the cargo tankers defended. She could hear the Blucher's guns rolling out from the other flank, the two of them doing their best to keep the last few remaining ships alive.
The U-boats were doing what they could to engage the Abyssal ships , but the sheer press of firepower and disgusting amount of turbulence made it almost impossible for the little subs to get a proper target. She could hear the high-pitched pings of their sonar as they constantly scanned the waves, trying to tell if she was a friendly or not. Thankfully they'd refrained from firing upon her so far.
She shuddered. The last thing they needed was to add friendly fire into this mess.
The screams of Abyssal fighters echoed from overhead as they engaged with German aircraft. The KMS Graf Zeppelin, the sole aircraft carrier of the Kriegsmarine, was working her hardest to keep the flying monstrosities from overwhelming them. Hipper knew for a fact that Zeppelin was an excellent ship. Her fighters were all top notch, her crew was well trained, and her resolve remained uncontested. But no matter her quality, Zeppelin was still only one ship.
And judging by the sheer number of Abyssal ships in the air, the Princess had brought a lot more than just one carrier to this fight.
Hipper's anti-aircraft guns were blazing away on practically every side, her fairy gunners doing their best to keep the vicious little bombers off her while she focused more on the surface ships. At the sound of her sirens wailing in warning she glanced up, her blue eyes widening in horror as she saw a wave of dive bombers manage to break through her AA and begin to bear down on her.
She closed her eyes and shielded her face as the abominations opened their maws in preparation to let loose their payloads, but the pain never came. Instead, the monstrous aircraft were ripped apart as a veritable hail of flak shells bracketed their ranks. What few little of the twisted planes that managed to survive veered wildly off course, only one of them managing to drop its bomb. Hipper shivered as it exploded in the water only a few meters from where she stood, throwing sea foam high into the air and showering her in spray.
"Verdammte aircraft! I hate them!" a loud voice boomed from her starboard side. Hipper turned her head just in time for a crack of lightning to illuminate the battered form of KMS Gneisenau, the battleship staring up at the sky angrily while her own considerable AA lit up the clouds with fire. From the light of the fire Hipper could see the larger ship had taken quite a beating. There were more than a few impact craters in her belt armor and superstructure, and her radio tower had been sheered clean off . But the fury on Gneisenau's face as she stared up at the Abyssal aircraft managed to placate some of Hipper's worst fears. The battleship hadn't lost her resolve just yet.
Gneisenau let out a roar as her AA bracketed yet another squadron of dive bombers. "Evil, disgusting little things! Always coming at you whenever you're not expecting them! Oi, Hipper! You alright?"
Hipper nodded shakily as the bigger ship pulled up abreast of her, the battleship adding her AA firepower to Hipper's own.
Hipper's main batteries roared as she lobbed another volley at a reeling Abyssal cruiser. The twisted and blackened ship let out a hideous scream of pain as four of Hipper's eight shells ripped through her armor and exploded in her citadel. Red eyes stared hatefully at the heavy cruiser as the Abyssal toppled backwards, disappearing beneath the waves.
"I thought you were covering our western flank?!" Hipper called out over her shoulder as the battleship moved to cover her back.
"The western flank's collapsed!" came the battleship's response. Hipper could hear the tension in the bigger ship's voice even over the roar of both their secondaries, and a quick glance confirmed her suspicions. Gneisenau's face was wet with more than just surf and rain, and her eyes were ringed with red even as she poured more fire into an Abyssal sloop that dared crest the ridge before her.
"Galster and Lody are gone!" the battleship answered Hipper's unspoken question.
Hipper felt her heart twist. Those two destroyers had been so happy to once again be part of an escort group, just like they had back during Operation Juno. Galster in particular. The little destroyer was finally getting to be the lead escort for a battleship again.
To hear that they were gone….
She pushed it out of her mind as her guns clicked back into place, finishing their reload cycle. Two targets appeared before her, an Abyssal Re-class battleship showing broadside and an accompanying destroyer. Her cannons roared as six of her shots sped towards the Re-class , saving the last two for the vicious looking destroyer that was even now trying to turn and get its torpedoes into the water.
Three hits and two shatters on the Abyssal battleship. Fire swept across the hideous creature as the high explosive rounds did their job, tearing a scream out of the mutilated once-ship's throat. Hipper grimaced. A shame she hadn't fired armor piercing, that broadside was showing a lot of citadel.
One shot missed the destroyer by a country mile. The other slammed right into its ugly little mouth, sending fire racing through and erupting out of every orifice of its twisted little body. The heavy cruiser watched in satisfaction as the abomination sank beneath the waves.
A sudden shock swept through her system as a shell ripped through her armor, passing through the flesh of her shoulder and out the other side. Fortunately the adrenaline pumping through her veins numbed the pain, but her eyes were still wide as she gripped her bleeding shoulder. The battleship she'd taken her eyes off of smiled in satisfaction, even as a burst of fire from the Gneisenau's main batteries finished her off.
"Hipper! You alright?" the battleship hissed as she pulled up beside her.
Hipper felt herself nod, her damage control crew already pouring out onto her deck to start patching up the hole. "O- Overpenetration," she stammered out. It had missed her citadel and done minimal damage, but now she was starting to feel the pain. She bit the inside of her cheek, forcing herself past it and refocusing on the fight in front of her. She was about to sweep around with her rangefinders to find more targets when a hand on her good shoulder stopped her.
"Hipper, stop. This is too much. We need to withdraw or we're not going to survive."
Hipper turned and shot the battleship a shocked look. Retreat? Now? "B-But the convoy!"
An explosion lit up the world behind her, fire bellowing into the sky as the cargo tanker's fuel cell exploded. Hipper glanced back in horror as fire raced across the surface of the water, tracing from where the oil was spilling out from the tears in the tanker's hull. With the sound of groaning metal and screaming sailors the ship was ripped in two, pulled apart by the inertia of the waves and the heat of the fire.
Abyssal aircraft danced around gleefully above the sinking vessel, having finally completed their bombing run on the slow and unarmored ship.
Hipper could only stare in dumbfounded confusion.
"That was the last of the convoy!" Gneisenau yelled into her ear.
Hipper turned back to face the battleship, her eyes blinking owlishly in the firelight.
"It- It wasn't supposed to be like this…" she mumbled.
Gneisenau bit her lip, emotions twisting her face in a hundred different ways. Her hands were balled into fists, and the battleship was about to say something else when the screams of yet more aircraft cut her off short.
"Scheisse!" Gneisenau cried as she moved away from the Hipper, trying to draw some of the aircraft's fire off of the heavy cruiser. "Hipper, AA now- HIPPER! 6 O'CLOCK!"
Hipper turned to see a full two squadrons of bombers diving towards her, mouths already open and bombs on the way. Her mouth fell open in shock. The bombs seemed to be falling in slow motion, and almost in reflex she raised her arms to cover her face. It didn't matter, the firebombs hit her dead on regardless, exploding with the wrath of a full two squadrons of demon planes.
For a brief second she couldn't feel the flames, the shock-wave from the explosions knocking her back a step even as the oil-and-keratin compound washed over her body. Then the pain hit her, and it was as if she'd been doused with molten iron.
Indescribable. The pain was indescribable. Agony coursed through her body as her decks were set alight, her paint turning black and warping while her fairies battened down the hatches and tried to whether it. Her screams pierced the night as she fell to her knees, the water around her roiling as the bombs that missed her detonated just beneath the surface.
Within seconds her radar was knocked out, followed closely by her rangefinders and even her radio. She couldn't even hear herself screaming as she rolled along the waves, trying desperately to put the fire out. When that failed she staggered to her feet, struggling to even stay upright as a swell lifted her high into the air and spun her around. With her navigation systems destroyed she was sailing totally blind, her hands reaching out in a vain attempt to feel her way through battlefield.
Swaying, she set off at flank speed in the direction she'd last thought the Gneisenau was sailing in. Fortunately, apart from knocking out a large number of her systems her internals themselves weren't damaged, though one of the bombs had managed to rip straight through her armor and detonate in a bulkhead compartment. She was taking on water, but not a rate she couldn't control.
Her boilers pumped as she put on speed, desperately steaming away from the fire and heat.
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"Hipper! Hipper, come back!"
Gneisenau was practically screaming in desperation, but at this distance she could see that it was pointless. The heavy cruiser's bridge was practically non-existent, the only systems still operational being her basic navigation and her damage control. She watched helplessly as her friend sailed off in the exact opposite direction they were supposed to go, heedless of any and all warnings called her way.
A ping on her radar had the Gneisenau's head snapping to the side.
Coming over the top of a swell and steaming directly towards her was the twisted form of an Abyssal battleship, her gold finish and pronounced gun batteries marking her as an elite. Sickly yellow eyes stared out from a hauntingly beautiful face as the Abyssal smiled down on her. On the face of a normal girl that smile would have made the Gneisenau blush. As it was, the effect was ruined by the rows of serrated fangs the Abyssal had instead of teeth.
She was about to disengage when a thought occurred to her. From where she stood, Hipper was just inside of her radar, as was the Abyssal. That likely meant that Hipper wasn't showing up on the Abyssal's radar.
Which meant that if she disengaged now, and the Abyssal didn't follow, Hipper would be next.
"Heh."
She straightened the brim of her naval hat and met the Abyssal's smile with a cocky grin she didn't feel she could back up. Her guns clicked satisfactorily as they finished their reloading cycle, nine armor-piercing rounds ready to be fired at a moment's notice.
The Abyssal levied her guns at her, the gnarled black barrels glimmering dangerously in the firelight.
"Are you ready to return to beneath the waves, German?"
Gneisenau repressed her wince as the Abyssal's words washed over her. She'd forgotten that the stronger ones could actually talk.
With bravado she didn't have, she smiled and raised her own guns to point directly at the Abyssal's citadel.
"Try me, Schweinhund."
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I'll be honest, I'd been looking for somewhere to slot in "Schweinhund" ever since I decided to make the main fleet German. This chapter was supposed to end after Hipper got struck by the dive bombers, but it kept feeling like it needed more. This is actually the third rendition of the end scene. The first was too dark, the second too long, and I feel like this one could use a little more work too but I have to move on.