The pair of Abyssal Cruisers fired again into the fog, standing in amongst the rice-stalks where they had lain in wait for their prey, waiting for the human vehicle to enter the pre-set Killzone while their... allies, had positioned themselves around. A squad was milling about near the pair, standing and firing from upon the earthworks that divided the fields. One thing the Abyssals had learned was that, while the apparitions didn't need to breathe, they didn't float particularly well, either. And their guns, for all their ghostly origin, didn't work particularly well underwater.
Initially, they had been on sweep-duty, and not even five hours previous had managed to run down a convoy of escaping humans as they fled Jersey's onslaught. They hadn't even managed to start removing the bodies before they had received new orders.
Someone was shooting at the Ru's spotters, and were headed this way.
They had waited for the Revenant troops to open fire, lighting up the area in enough firepower to kill a tank, before adding their own, belatedly, to the fight.
Then, whoever it was shot back.
"Shit! These are fucking Kanmusu, arent they?!" The Tsu said heatedly, sending another salvo from her 5" DP's downrange, before swiftly skating to the left as what was unmistakably a heavy-duty artillery shell shot past. The weather was giving them away, smashed-aside rain droplets making misty 'tracers' as they opened fire, tracers the enemy were capitalizing on.
At least they hadn't attracted the same amount of fire as the East flank had, they had been almost completely wiped out. By enough firepower to make the two Cruisers believe they may have shot at one of Jersey's Ru by mistake.
The other Light Cruiser looked over, helmet inscrutable as always, "My com officer just passed along; Enemy is advancing East, looks like they don't want to sit still for the Battleships."
They needn't have bothered, Jersey's Ru-class had been called away from artillery duty, for some mission-or-other. They wouldn't be benefitting from 16" artillery strikes anytime soon.
"Tell her to tell the damn creepers to keep contact, we need to know what the hell we're dealing with here, those areNOT human troops, not with that firepower."
"Yeah yeah, keep shooting," She turned inward as the pair fired another salvo, "squad five come in, do you have visual-"
She interrupted herself, as she heard fighting through the radio channel. Whatever it was, it seemed to be engaging the squad in close combat, as scuffling feet and crunching flesh mixed with feminine grunts.
*crak! Crak CRAK-*
*-Pssssssssshshhshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...*
The channel went dead.
The Tsu looked up at her sister ship, "Somethings coming."
"What the fuck you mean, 'something?!'"
"Squad five just went dark, they were positioned right in front of the fields!"
The other Tsu paused for a moment, looking a little confused, before looking at the revenants in front of her, "Hey!" She shouted over their fire.
The troops, a good fifteen riflemen, kept shooting, oblivious.
The Tsu, if she had possessed them, would have scrunched her brow, "I said hey!" She shouted again, "Stop shooting!" She ordered.
All fifteen men immediately stopped firing, in unison, before turning to look at the pair of Abyssals.
One of the closest had a missing jaw, withered tongue hanging down through the ghostly outline of the missing flesh.
The Tsu was, understandably, creeped the hell out. But not enough to keep her from continuing with her order, "Spread out in a search pattern! Something is moving up on our position and I want it found!" She said, a tad shakily.
The men turned back soundlessly, and some climbed off of the earthwork while others kept watch, wading forward as they fanned outwards in the chest-high water, guns held high as they pushed through the stalks of rice.
If it's an Abyss-damned Ship Girl they aren't going to do jack, you know that." The first Tsu said distractedly, pausing from her shooting as her turrets swept the now-silent field.
The other shushed her, "They'll spot her for us, which is just as good, now keep your Petrol-sucking hole shut."
There was silence for a moment, the only noise the continuing firefight to the East, where the majority of their forces had engaged the rest of the enemy.
The first Tsu turned toward her compatriot, "Do you think-"
One of the Revenants sweeping forward, wearing the tattered vestments of a US Marine, was suddenly ripped off of his feet. Flailing backward before disappearing into the dark water with a splash.
His Winchester shotgun twirled in the air for a moment, already coming apart as it went into the drink with a muted *ploop!*
Before the spray from the splash had even hit the water, the Revenants on the earthworks overlooking the area were firing at the spot where he'd gone under, followed by the Tsu's own, more effective, firepower. The water, only four feet deep, erupted at the heavy ordinance, blasting back the reeds and revealing the muddy ground for a moment before the water rushed back in.
"What the hell was that?!"
"I don't know!"
Another Revenant, further out, twirled in-place, as something grabbed onto one leg and pulled. A few rounds reflexively firing out of the type 56 in his hands in a wide arc as he was yanked into the water.
Another fusillade was already blasting new holes in the field as the next two went down simultaneously, one drawing a knife and stabbing at his attacker as he was grabbed, while the other didn't even have time to react.
The Tsu were beginning to visibly panic now.
"What is it? WHERE is it?!" The first one asked.
"It's more than one!" The second replied, scanning the water frantically, "Maybe we can use our torpedoes?" She asked, as another Revenant disappeared into the stalks.
"In four feet of water?!"
"You have a better fucking idea?!" The second Tsu yelled, as a trio of men were pulled under. The remaining Revenant troops started to wade up onto the earthworks again, as they sprayed rounds, seemingly uselessly, into the rice-field.
"Look, whatever these are, they can't get to us without coming over the field-divider out of the water, we just have to keep a lookout and it can't get to us!"
With whatever These are:
I grabbed the zombie-thing by the ankle just as it made to climb out of the water, hauling it back in and under, where I quickly wrapped my arms around its midsection in a parody of a hug and squeezed.
The man-thing promptly exploded, his ribs popping like a soap-bubble. I was glad these things seemed to largely fade away when killed, otherwise I'd be absolutely caked in zombie-innards by now.
I was briefly struck by a revelation, as I swam away from the latest round of panicked gunfire. I was fighting zombies with AK-47's in the jungle as a goddamn submarine in a rice-patty.
What even is my life?
The wondertwins had finished off another two zombies before the rest managed to scramble out of the water, and I was now faced with a conundrum.
The enemy Abyssals (A pair of Light Cruisers, from the looks of them) were on the opposite side of the earthworks. I'd have to get out of the water to get at them, unless I wanted to chuck a torp at them like a lawn-dart or something. And I doubted they'd let me surface to do it...
Oh well, nothing for it. hopefully, I wouldn't catch a 5" shell, I was fairly certain one would mess me up pretty good, or at least put a hole in my ballast tanks. I needed those!
I willed Scooter to dart away, making sure to move juuuust slow enough as to not make a wake above me. Luckily, the wind was strong enough that the plant stalks above me were rustling too much for my nudging them aside to be noticeable.
After I'd gained enough distance, I lined up with the Light Cruiser on the left, who was standing on the water a little closer to the earthworks than the other, a Tsu-class, if I wasn't mistaken.
I hit the throttle.
The sudden acceleration was almost immediately noticeable above-water, and I could feel as zombie bullets peppered my hull as I quickly sped up.
I readied myself, feet braced on Scooters's nose, and once I'd reached terminal velocity, I leaped, just as Scooter breached the surface.
"Reeeaä̵̪̼́̀ā̷̒̇͜a̵̮̔̅agh!" I howled, half in aggression, half in fright, as half-aimed shells sped past me, the turrets unable to traverse fully in time as I cleared the small mound of dirt.
One of the zombies was half-in the way, but was sent tumbling backward into the water as I simply bowled him over. He was not my target anyway.
I landed on the Tsu's front, wrapping my legs around her waist as I accidentally-on-purpose sent my forehead into the bottom of her helmet in avicious headbutt, snapping off her helmet's front teeth. sending her ass-over-teakettle as my weight was simply too much for her superstructure to bear upright. She capsized, screaming, while I rode her down into the water.
You're in my world now, sucker.
The Light Cruiser bucked, trying to throw me off, while I held on for dear life, waiting for her compartments to fill-
I felt more than saw as the torpedo rack on her right-hands Rigging swiveled to push against me.
I twisted, getting an elbow around the offending turret, holding it still in my armpit and keeping it from getting flush against my midsection, as the Tsu tried to wrap her giant left hand around my head, to crack it like a walnut, no doubt.
I slid my armpit off of the torpedo turret and onto the trio of armed torpedoes themselves. Keeping pressure on the elongated shafts, I rotated my upper body, even as I wrapped my other hand between the joint of her thumb and index finger, bending it at an odd angle and setting a stream of bubbles to burst out of her ruined helmet.
With the trio of torpedoes now removed right out of their turret, I swept my other hand up to grab her index finger. Making a wish, I snapped it off, using my other hand as a lever.
Air-bubbles started to pour out of the opened compartment as I was briefly knocked off of the Cruiser by her other hand, I didn't particularly care though, and in fact, kicked off of her and started swimming away as fast as my humanish body could muster, sans Rigging.
The trio of torpedoes, let loose from under my armpit by me moving my hand upwards to snap off her finger, drifted down into her torso.
*BA-BA-BOOM!*