The fog enshrouded the sea in white. For hours, the only sound that could be heard was the lapping of waves and the rumble of engines. At least, for most other kanmusu. For Providence, the unnerving silence was only broken by the whine of her plasma engines.
Her main battery tracking some nonexistent targets also whined unnervingly. Their muzzle glows did nothing to help ease her uneasiness. While at long range she could easily destroy them in a few salvoes, if they got closer she would have to bring on her point-defense, and if they got too close—hand to hand. That was why she'd ditched her MAC for a Gauss Rifle. The antitank rifle's muzzle glistened in whatever little sunlight that got through the fog, as she placed it on her back and pulled out the MA5B she always had.
A gift from her former captain after her summoning, she always treasured it. Especially considering, that to her he was like a father.
Lighting a cigarette with a Zippo lighter, she turned her attention to the fog in front of her. The dense cloud literally hid everything from view, creating what was known as a zero visibility condition. While she could rely on her sensors, the radar of WWII tends to have nil accuracy and thus the sights needed visual contact to fire, a nightmare for anyone in either night or low-visibility conditions.
Her Ramparts were also nervously rotating around to face any threat that may come. While they could in mere seconds track and hit targets at relavistic speeds, the absence of the enemy was unnerving.
Exhaling and letting the smoke leave her breath, she stared at where her destination was supposed to be.
Fubuki nearby also took a drag of her cigarette. Letting out the smoke and watching it waft upward, she lifted her turret, swung it around, and put it back down.
The cold of the Artic chilled her, but she paid no attention to it. Fubuki, on the other hand, had simply chose to slap on a thick coat, and many other destroyers simply did the same.
A loud rumbling noise awoke her from her musings, as she looked up, her Ramparts locked onto a squandron of unknown contacts. Pressing the button on her glasses to zoom in on infared, she noticed a squandron's worth of divebombers, ready for the kill.
Ordering her point defense guns to open fire, they all obeyed. 50mm Flak projectiles flew up into the sky at 3,000rpm, obliterating the strikecraft upon impact. The Abyssals were simply vaporized.
"Target heading...two, seven, six, target distance, one, one, zero, target speed, zero, two, seven."
Providence nodded at the report. Arming her coilguns, she fired another salvo. The three 200-ton armor/shield-piercing tungsten carbide shells left the barrel at 0.4c, impacting dead on a Ru-class battleship. The shot, aimed over the horizon, took the demon's head clean off as the resulting shockwave caused the demon and every other demon within a few hundred feet to either cease to exist or be sent tumbling like a soccer ball, becoming target practice for happy destroyers.
Fubuki, along with the rest of the fleet, was basically limited to taking potshots at medium range. Not that she would complain, though. That many Abyssals would need someone who had as much firepower as Providence—or accept heavy losses. Sending another salvo of 127mm rounds at another Abyssal, she inwardly grinned. Providence was literally an unstoppable box of firepower, sending Abbies to doom from far away while deftly dodging everything the Abbies sent at her.
Providence turned her Ramparts to engage multiple Abbie divebombers headed at her. The Ramparts opened fire with flak rounds, the 50mm flak shells exploding and forming large walls of starburst shrapnel with insane accuracy, shredding the divebombers long before they could drop their payload. Wings and cockpits tumbled into the sea where they used to be.
Her Longswords, twelve in total, and another two squadrons of Broadswords and Sabres began their own fight for air domination, 50mm, 35mm, 120mm, and 110mm SAPHE tracers lighting up the sky as the rounds popped the Abyssal fighters effortlessly, Longswords even going as far as shredding command onis with their heavy-caliber weapons. Providence had to order her fairies to ditch the nuclear warheads on the fighter missiles and replace them with Siletto darts, in accordance to atmospheric combat doctrine and in account of overeager pilot-fairies lest they bust the entire battlefield. Even then, they opted for WWII-style divebombing runs, something that was a little hilarious considering that they were doing it in 26th century jet fighters running on Tylium.
A screeching noise and a tracer later, she turned her head to face the source. Spotting three Ru-class battleships and sixteen cruisers, her mind went into overdrive as she removed her MA5B, and clicked it to full auto.
Springing forward, the world came to slow motion. She grabbed the gun turret of one battleship and wrenched it to aim at another Ru as the slug traveled down the barrel. The salvo left the muzzle, as she fired a burst from her MA5B into the oni. Directing her attention towards another Ru, she switched her MA5B for a BR55 and sent her magazine of 9.5x40mm rounds at the oni. She didn't need to see it explode to know a kill, the solonite-propelled SAPHE rounds at Mach 40 would undoubtedly get its dirty work done.
Swapping the BR yet again for an M41 Jackhammer, she armed and sent both rockets in two directions, the High Explosive Anti Tank warheads fused with solonite exploding and sending the rest of the pack in all directions.
Switching for an MA5B yet again, she opened up with the 60-round mag against a group of Abyssal divebombers as her Ramparts offered extra firepower. Three divebombers fell, their bodies twisted beyond recognition as their twisted remains fell to the water.
Replacing the magazine, she turned around and fired the full 60 shield/armor-piercing high-explosive rounds at the oni, ripping it apart in a display of blood and gore.
Locking onto a group of Abyssal cruisers, she launched another pod of Archers. The SAPHE warheads impacted and sent a wave of flame, engulfing them all, sending a few gun turrets flying into the air to mark where they once stood.
As Fubuki slid another 127mm slug into a crippled battleship, she turned to stare at Providence. Ever since the battlecruiser had saved her from certain death, she had become rather close to her, almost, like sisters even, and perhaps even deeper than that—
Wait. Am I in the middle of a knife fight?
She snapped out of her stupor, only to stare in shock at a salvo of 450mm slugs racing at her at supersonic velocity. Each turn of the shell, each wobble in course, all but amplified the big Fuck You that was meant for her, the helpless destroyer in the salvo's path.
Only for her friend to slide herself in the way of the broadside. Part of Fubuki wanted her to scream, to shout, to push Providence out of the way, but her other part rebelled, refused to move. Before she could say anything further, Providence was covered in a plume of smoke and flame.
Two shots parted the smoke with the resulting shockwaves. Providence exited the smoke at flank speed, her thrusters on her heel burning plasma blue as she aimed at the offender, an Abyssal Ru-class.
Simply put, the result was an oversized roadkill.
Hibiki staggered to her feet as the rest of the fleet all turned and stared at the scene. Even the Abyssals turned to look. Staring at the mangled remains of the Ru-class battleship, it was Haguro who finally found her voice.
"Did...did that just...just happen?" she stammered.
"If by 'that' you mean 'tank a battleship's combined battery, emerge unscathed, and literally use it as roadkill practice, then yeah," responded Kaga, her voice shaking.
Two screeeching noises, and a few explosions, scattered the Abyssal remmants, and everyone turned to face the source. It was not Providence, but from another figure in the mist.
Jet black hair flowed among a steel gray uniform. Six-barreled 20mm rotary cannons gleamed in the searchlights that illuminated the newcomer. VLS tubes glistened in the meager sunlight. A gray jacket and skirt fluttered in the wind, in contrast too the black tights. A singular navy blue hat otherwise complimented her resolute scarlet irises.
Heading towards Providence, the two focused their attention towards each other. Tough steel met resolute scarlet, the tension literally bending the mist into a spiral.
Eventually the newcomer broke the silence.
"JS Myoko, DDG-175, Kongo-class guided missile destroyer."
A/N:
Sorry for the late update, and the short length. While I can bore you with tales of "muh how the fuck are things back home", which, to be honest, is still chaotic, I shall bring some good news: I am now an active dev on the upcoming project Sins of the Abyssals, a Halo/KanColle crossover mod Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. We are still short on manpower, though, and as of now I have been a modeler, to whip up meshes, but we are still stuck on soundtrack, sound effects, animations, and the honest dammed GameInfo. Still, it's a start.
For those who are intrested in joining, here is the link:
r/workinprogressmod/
I'll try to update this more often but, no promises. A lot of shit can happen in two weeks.
Still, bye, and untill next time, folks.