Chapter 9 is here and we finally will see some action!
After a very long time, Royal Navy finally got what they deserved: a UR build ship and it's Vanguard, the last battleship in existence to be ever built. But next time, please don't make us have to wait for nearly 2 years, Manjuu...
Special thanks to F-14 Tomcat Lover for helping with this chapter.
Beta by Vandenbz
Disclaimer: Gundam series and Azur Lane belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 9 – Fly Again, Gundam!
Azur Lane Base - Port
It was a quiet day. A few clouds up in the sky lazily drifted through it, the blue waters of the ocean gently turning a darker shade of green as they carelessly approached the shore. A number of white seagulls were up in the sky, letting the winds carry them as they flew.
At the port, one ship had just sailed out in all of its glory. The ship had the appearance of an aircraft carrier but its smaller size and structure identified the ship as an escort carrier.
On the flight deck, a few F4F Wildcats with their wings folded were lined up on the sides, but one thing that stood out most among them was a single white humanoid machine standing on the elevator of the deck. It held a white rifle in the right hand and a white shield with a red stylized 'A' insignia mounted on the left arm and a bazooka mounted in an upside down position on the back between the 'backpack'.
Inside the Nu Gundam suit, Amuro observed his surroundings through the HUD. It felt surreal to him having to re-learn how to pilot his Mobile Suit onboard a naval vessel that existed from the pre-Universal Century era.
But if the Gundam pilot wanted to help the organization known as Azur Lane, he needed to get a better grasp of control on the Nu Gundam. That was the reason why he was here today, to practice at the base's exercise area. The offshore waters southeast from the island was where the shipgirls honed their fighting skills against dummy ships, conducted friendly exercise battles against one another and sometimes mass naval exercises with another faction.
The White Devil glanced at the beam rifle and shield he had. Prior to boarding the ship, he performed a quick test in the repair facility to further study how the Nu Gundam worked now. Amuro learned that unlike how the shipgirls deployed their rigging complete with their weapons, Nu Gundam didn't fully deploy all of its armaments. Instead, they needed to be called forth to materialize via pieces of blue cubes on desired hard points.
Amuro had to admit that it was a convenient feature. If he had the Fin Funnels attached on the left thruster pack, he surely would have had a hard time maintaining his footing due to the extra weight.
'Besides, they're meant to be used in zero gravity.' He thought until a voice from the bridge loudspeaker brought him back to reality.
"We'll be entering the exercise area shortly. Are you ready, Mr. Ray?"
The Nu Gundam turned around and looked at the bridge where the Kansen operator of the carrier manned the ship. She had long silver hair, purple eyes and wore a pair of blue hairpins. For her attire, she wore a dark blue jacket over her white sleeveless shirt which exposed her bellybutton and red tie, a pair of fingerless gloves, short navy blue skirt, dark brown thigh-highs, and black long-boots.
She was Casablanca, the first ship of the Casablanca-class escort carrier.
The girl had been hearing the rumors about a male pilot in the base from the girls in the mess hall. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious whether it was true or not but she didn't give it too much thought since it was just rumors... or so she thought.
Her curiosity was piqued further when she overheard her fellow escort carrier, Bogue, told the Little Beavers' destroyer group that she met the man whom she initially mistook for the new commander.
Casablanca had finally met the man in person when Saratoga introduced Amuro to her while describing his situation. Like most of the shipgirls' reactions when they met Amuro for the first time, she was surprised to see another man in Azur Lane.
If she could be honest, Amuro Ray looked like one of the male leads in the novel she was reading.
What she didn't know yet was the man's true origins since Saratoga came up with a cover story that Amuro was a test pilot from the Eagle Union's Armory R&D division. His 'mission' was to test a new type of equipment which would enable humans to fight against Sirens.
Honestly Casablanca felt a bit skeptical since the human body was more fragile than a Kansen's, but nevertheless she agreed to help. She was also interested in seeing if this 'Gundam' would function as advertised which brought the two where they were now.
Amuro replied in an amplified voice, one loud enough for the shipgirl to hear from the bridge. "Yeah. I'm ready."
"Good. While these ships and fighters are using practice rounds I advise you to be careful since they still can cause minor injuries to us shipgirls." Casablanca warned.
"I'll keep that in mind." Nodding, the Nu Gundam turned forward and saw three ships, the Gridley-class mass production type destroyers, approaching from the front.
The White Mobile Suit held the beam rifle with two hands and squatted down before tilting the thruster unit's nozzles up and down then left and right. From the bridge, Casablanca watched in curiosity as blue flames came out in short quick bursts from the four holes on the backside of the humanoid machine.
'The thrusters are working fine. This should be no different from using my normal suit's verniers.' Amuro thought, focusing his attention back to the enemy warships and planes which were now marked in red.
"I can't believe I'd live to see a day where I'm going up against ancient warships and planes in my Gundam…" He muttered before announcing his launch, "Amuro, taking off in Nu Gundam!"
Once again, blue flames came out from the thrusters and started to lift the Nu Gundam off the deck. The Nu Gundam's green eyes flashed before it dashed towards its first target, leaving an awestruck shipgirl watching from the bridge.
Time to show them what a Mobile Suit was capable of...
[Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack – Main Title]
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area Observation Point
At the observation hill, Enterprise, Saratoga, Prince of Wales, Illustrious, and a few Royal maids were present to oversee the exercise. Each of the four Kansen was seated at a table with an empty teacup and binoculars provided by the maids.
One Royal maid, Curlew, then began serving tea for them starting from the pinkette eagle carrier. Saratoga watched in fascination as her cup was filled and then took a sip.
"Hmmm~ hmm~ Royal maid's sweet tea is always the best." complimented Saratoga.
The maid bowed gratefully with a smile. "Thank you for the compliment, Miss Saratoga."
Meanwhile, Enterprise raised her binoculars to her eyes and looked at the exercise area as the Casablanca escort carrier slowly came into view. But what caught her attention wasn't the ship or the aircraft on its deck. Rather, it was the white armored figure carrying a gun and shield standing in the middle of the deck.
The New... Nu Gundam if she remembered its name correctly.
But unlike the humongous titan she fought a few days ago, its appearance now had shrunk to maybe around 2 meters if she compared it to the Wildcats next to it. When Saratoga filled her yesterday on what she, Wales, and Amuro had discussed and agreed upon while she was out, the Grey Ghost genuinely thought her senior was too high on sugar that she started spouting nonsense.
For once Enterprise wished it had been the latter...
"So that's Sir Ray's Mobile Suit..." Enterprise heard Illustrious say. "It's so white, like a knight in shining armor."
"And the Wisdom Cube gave it that form." The Eagle carrier lowered her binoculars and turned to Wales and Saratoga who had their binoculars raised. "Is it really a good idea to let him fight with us? It's too dangerous for a human to fight Sirens and shipgirls directly."
Both Kansens said nothing as they continued observing. Suddenly Saratoga jumped forward in excitement, surprising the Grey Ghost.
"Whoa, look! He can fly!" exclaimed the fleet idol.
Enterprise raised an eyebrow before she raised her binoculars again and gasped at what she was seeing. True to what her senior said, the white and black machine was flying towards the F2A Buffalo.
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area
Amuro narrowed his eyes at the unmanned fighter before the latter opened fire on him. However, years of fighting had sharpened his senses and muscle memory as a pilot. Increasing the thruster output, the Nu Gundam evaded the shots by propelling itself over the plane and putting a precise beam shot through the enemy plane's engine.
The beam pierced through the metal like a bullet through paper before the Buffalo was destroyed in a fiery explosion. The Nu Gundam raised its shield as shrapnel bounced off and searched for another enemy.
That was one down...
Two planes, the dive bomber SB2U Vindicators flew past Amuro and dropped their payloads. The Nu Gundam responded to the attack by using its thrusters to propel itself to the right. As the result, the bombs completely missed the Mobile Suit and instead fell into the ocean where a few of them even hit the destroyers but the damage wasn't severe enough to incapacitate them.
The Nu Gundam chased after the two bombers but its radar alerted Amuro to the incoming danger from behind. In reflex, Amuro spun around and engaged his verniers to avoid streams of bullets from three F4U Corsairs.
One Corsair flew past and below the Mobile Suit, giving Amuro an idea.
Diving towards the fighter, the White Devil landed on the nose section and activated the foot hooks to secure his newfound perch. Now riding the Corsair like a Mobile Suit riding a Base Jabber sub-flight system, the Nu Gundam took aim and shot down the other two Corsairs.
Two... and three...
Little did the Gundam pilot know, his action had just earned him stunned looks from the observers below, mainly from the two Eagle Union carriers.
Amuro's Newtype senses kicked in again and he pulled the Nu Gundam's right foot pedal which made the Corsair tilt and turn left, evading the bullet stream fired from the Vindicators. The two planes darted past him and he guided his perch into a U-turn to give chase.
On Nu's HUD, two green targeting circles appeared on the dive bombers before turning red with the word 'locked-on' appearing above them. Instead of using the rifle, Amuro raised his left arm up and launched two missiles from the shield. It didn't take long until the missiles caught up with the Vindicators and made short work of them.
Another wave of enemy planes arrived. With no time to waste, Amuro charged straight towards them. The first plane was a F2A Buffalo fighter. As soon as the fighter was in sight and fired its guns, Amuro jumped off from the Corsair, letting it eat bullets and burst into flames before colliding against the Buffalo.
The Nu Gundam emerged from the flames, firing its Vulcan guns at another pair of unmanned Vindicators before cutting the thrusters' output to avoid a pair of Fulmars that collided by accident.
As his altitude decreased, Amuro shot down a further three planes. The first was a Sea Gladiator which took a direct hit right through its spinner and down its length. The shot caused the wings to fold backwards and be destroyed in the energy beam as well. A pair of Albacores were hit next, with one just vanishing altogether while the other lost its starboard wings and its tail just behind the cockpit.
What was left of that particular Albacore was grabbed and then hurled downward, where it absorbed some gunfire from a number of unmanned ships below the Nu Gundam.
The remaining fuselage exploded and the Nu Gundam used the fireball to slip through the AA defense. It crashed right into the deckhouse of a destroyer in the center of the formation.
…
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area Observation Point
"Hey! Look at that!" Saratoga exclaimed, pointing at the sky where the Nu Gundam was. "He's riding that Corsair just like how Enterprise rode on her planes."
Wales lowered her binoculars and gave the Eagle Union ace a sideways glance before turning to the pinkette with one eyebrow raised.
"Pardon me, Miss Saratoga. But did you say planes? As in Enterprise often does this?" She asked.
The idol carrier grinned from ear to ear at her and answered. "Riding planes is like Enterprise's special technique. I remember back at Eagle Union HQ, there was this girl who admired her enough that she tried to imitate her."
"Oh my, really?" Illustrious joined in. "She must have looked up to her quite a bit to go that far."
Throughout the conversation, Enterprise was more focused on the white Mobile Suit as it took out the remaining Corsairs and Vindicators with precise shots before another wave of aircraft came. No shots were wasted, either hitting the enemy planes' fuel tanks or engines.
She knew it wasn't an easy feat. Enterprise had to fall from her plane or miss her shots while riding many times before she could get used to the maneuver and master it. And right now she was watching Amuro pull off the same technique as if he had done this before.
'He's skilled.' She admitted, but it would take more than just shooting down planes to prove himself worthy of fighting alongside the shipgirls.
…
USS Casablanca – Deck
From the deck of the escort carrier, Casablanca also observed the dogfight with her own binoculars. Her jaw hung open, completely amazed at how a human in the power suit had taken out the airstrike group and now was going after the ships below.
"Amazing..." She trailed off, lowering her binoculars as she watched the white form of the Nu Gundam descending. "He looks like that superhero character from Reno's comic book I read."
Suddenly debris from the destroyed planes started raining down on the deck. Casablanca let out a surprised squeal and immediately went back inside while covering her head to shield herself. From now on she would observe from her bridge.
…
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area
After the Nu Gundam crashed through the deckhouse and landed, the White Devil made quick work of the ship. Two energy beams pierced the hull and destroyed a nearby Benson-class destroyer, the Nu Gundam slowly emerging from the now burning wreckage of the Gridley mass production type.
Somehow the visage of the darkened Mobile Suit standing in front of the fire as its green eyes flashed sent shivers down the observers' spines.
The White Mobile Suit turned to its next target and blasted off as one last explosion tore the ship into pieces. As Amuro made his way to a group of destroyers, the enemy ships greeted him with defensive fire from their main batteries.
Amuro's eyes were focused on his target as he danced between the shots while closing the distance. Suddenly sensing an incoming danger, he turned and raised his shield forward to block a high explosive shell from a 127mm gun turret. Though the Mobile Suit was barely damaged thanks to the durability of Gundarium plating, the impact from the explosion still shook the pilot a bit.
'If I didn't wear this suit, I surely would've been turned into bloody paste already.' Amuro thought before he shot the gun battery, destroying it in an instant.
Anti-air guns showered the Nu Gundam with a barrage of bullets, but their smaller caliber did nothing more than bounce off against the armor as the pilot flew over the smokestack and fired inside before thrusting away.
As the pink remnants of the beam shot dissipated into the air, the destroyer promptly detonated with a brilliant flash.
Continuing the battle, he kept dodging the incoming fire from the last group of destroyers and aimed at where their engine rooms were. A few destroyers that were still floating even fired their torpedo tubes to fight back even though it was nothing more than a futile attempt for an obvious reason: their target was hovering above the water's surface.
After taking out the last Fletcher-class destroyer, the Nu Gundam slowly landed on the floating wreckage. Amuro scanned his surroundings to observe his handiwork.
"This Suit handles like a dream." He mused. "It feels different and yet similar at the same time... must be the psycoframe."
Suddenly, Amuro's Newtype senses tingled, snapping him out of his personal thoughts. He took off into the air just before the wreckage he was standing on was blown to pieces. The Gundam pilot turned around to see where the shot came from.
From behind a smokescreen in the distance, multiple silhouettes of larger ships came into view as more red dots appeared on Nu's radar screen. The sea breeze slowly swept away the smoke and Amuro was greeted with the sight of the larger, better armored Royal Navy Town-class light cruisers and the Eagle Union's New Orleans-class heavy cruisers with an unmanned Yorktown-class aircraft carrier tailing from behind accompanied by two unmanned Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.
Smoke was drifting from one of the Queen Elizabeth-class ships which he guessed was the one that tried to blow him up.
The battleship's main gun then roared, expelling flashes and smoke as it fired another salvo at the white Mobile Suit. Amuro instinctively boosted to the left, evading the incoming shells.
Behind the helmet, Amuro narrowed his eyes at the guns. They were capable of long range attack which could pose a problem and needed to be taken out first. As tough as the Gundarium alloy was against the artillery, he wasn't foolish enough to try its toughness at the risk of his own wellbeing by tanking it head on.
Marking those battleship guns as high priority targets, he aimed the beam rifle and shot...
*CLICK!*
"What?"
...Only to hear a clicking noise from the rifle. A small blaring red window popped up on his HUD, telling Amuro that the beam rifle was out of ammo and required charging.
The White Devil clicked his tongue and took a mental note to fix the notification later. He put the beam rifle on the rear waist armor mount to recharge before removing the bazooka from between his back thrusters.
As the front row of cruisers approached the Nu Gundam, their turrets took aim at the White Mobile Suit and fired.
But the Nu Gundam was more agile and faster. Evading the cannon salvos, Amuro zigzagged around the group of Town light cruisers which caused them to get hit from the stray shots fired from the fellow cruisers that were trying to shoot down the white Mobile Suit.
Once he got closer to the unmanned Queen Elizabeth, he aimed the bazooka but broke off as two Wildcats tried to strafe him from behind.
"A surprise attack won't work on me!"
Noticing the incoming enemies, he spun around and fired the Nu's Vulcans. In a matter of seconds, the two fighters stopped firing before bursting into flames. One crashed into one of the battleship's main guns while another one collided with the deck.
Amuro seized his chance and fired the bazooka. The unguided rocket left a trail of smoke in the air.
*BOOOOM!*
A massive explosion shook the battleship as the rocket slammed into the belt armor near the stern, penetrating before it detonated, blowing out the ship's propellers and the rudder. As the smoke dissipated, a large gaping hole was now visible in the armored hull and waters started to make its way inside, slowly sinking the battleship and thus taking it out of the battle.
4 rockets left...
It wasn't as powerful as a mega particle beam weapon, but it was still a heavy weapon designed to take down armored targets like the warships.
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area Observation Point
Prince of Wales was at a loss for words.
While she wouldn't say it out loud -especially in the presence of Her Majesty or any of her sisters- the mass production Queen Elizabeth was outdated but had a considerable amount of armor plating to take heavy punishment from enemy warships. And yet she just witnessed how it was penetrated in a single shot from a portable rocket launcher which resembled the Eagle Union's bazooka in appearance.
'It's a good thing Her Majesty isn't with us right now.' She thought. If the Queen saw this, she'd have thrown a tantrum over how her battleship was easily taken out.
But if it was her personal bodyguard -who happened to be her sister as well- she would likely challenge Sir Ray in a one on one exercise match to gauge how good he would be against her.
Now that would be an interesting duel if it happened.
"What power!" exclaimed an awed Saratoga, "I've never seen such damage inflicted on a battleship in one shot! Not even from Colorado or any of her sisters."
"Oh dear, Sir Ray already took out the second..." Illustrious pointed out as another Queen Elizabeth battleship was shot in its smokestack which triggered a chain of explosions from inside that blew up its turrets before the ship was consumed in fire.
She lowered her binoculars, took a breath and shook her head. "Even if it's just a mass production model, I don't think Her Majesty will like it if she saw how her ship was destroyed so easily."
The busty Royal carrier turned to the battleship with a concerned look. "Speaking of Her Majesty, is it really a good idea not to immediately inform her, Wales? She won't be pleased when she arrives here and finds out that we've been keeping Sir Ray's presence a secret."
Wales was about to answer but Enterprise beat her to it. "It's unfortunate, but at a time like this it's necessary."
Saratoga chimed in, "We can't risk making a call about it. We don't know how secure our communications are."
The fleet Idol stood up and patted down the back of her one-piece dress, namely the skirt part which she then smoothed out. "We can't run the risk of the Iron Blood or Sakura Empire finding out about him. It's one thing for his Nu Gundam to be seen, but another for the pilot to be revealed."
Illustrious nodded. The white-haired woman could accept that.
Wales gave both a thankful glance. Enterprise merely tipped her hat and Saratoga merely smiled softly.
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area
The Nu Gundam hovered high in the air, beyond the range of the cruisers' anti-air guns before it lowered its bazooka and looked down at the burning shipwreck below.
3 rockets left. Amuro glanced at the beam rifle counter which said 1 minute left until it was fully recharged. That was faster than he thought, but it was expected. Nu's beam rifle used a rechargeable E-Cap instead of the more common magazine like E-PAC to make use of the Gundam's high generator output.
The alarm then blared again, warning him of an incoming wave of enemies. This time it came from the northeast. The Gundam pilot turned to his right to see a squadron of F6F Hellcats, one of the Union's best fighters. And they weren't ordinary Hellcats, they were F6F-5 Hellcats armed with 6 HVAR, 3 mounted on the underside of each wing.
The white Mobile Suit dived straight into the formation and the fighters greeted it by firing all their rockets. The Gundam raised its shield while firing the Vulcans, destroying a few of the rockets and shooting down two Hellcats.
The remaining rockets hit the shield and exploded. The White Devil emerged from the explosion once again, now wielding a beam saber in its right hand.
Now facing the lead fighter first, Amuro held the beam saber sideways. The hot plasma blade easily sliced through the fighter's fuselage like a hot knife through butter, leaving a glowing molten gash in its wake. The plane, now split in half, stayed airborne for a moment before it exploded.
After destroying the leading Hellcat, the remaining fighters broke off from their formation, but Amuro wasn't going to let them get away. Now having been fully recharged, he put the beam saber back into the backpack and took out the beam rifle again.
He aimed at the fleeing Hellcats and multiple lock-on circles appeared on the HUD. The Nu Gundam then fired the beam rifle at the remaining fighters. Thanks to its advanced targeting system, none of the shots missed and swiftly took down all of the Hellcats.
The White Devil looked down at the remaining enemy ships which now consisted of one aircraft carrier and a few cruisers due to their friendly fire trying to shoot him down.
Time to wrap this up…
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area Observation Point
"My word! Was that an energy sword?!" Wales exclaimed when she saw how the pinkish-hued beam blade sliced one of the best Eagle Union fighters like it was made of paper.
A shame he only used it once. As someone trained in swordsmanship, she wanted to see more swordplay from the man. Perhaps one day she should try asking Sir Ray to spar together, using training swords of course.
Saratoga gave her a nonchalant look. "You're always excited when someone brings out a sword."
The blonde Kansen ignored her remark and kept watching alongside the busty carrier and Grey Ghost. Once again, the four were impressed as the Nu Gundam easily dispatched the rest of the Hellcats compared to when it faced the first airstrike group. It was clear sign that Amuro had gotten used to the new Mobile Suit and in such a short time.
With no more enemies in the air, they expected him to go down and fight the remaining ships, but...
"Why is Sir Ray going up?" Illustrious asked what everyone had on their minds. "He's gone into the clouds. I can't see him anymore."
Enterprise lowered her binoculars before she answered, "He's planning something."
As predicted by the Grey Ghost, multiple beam shots began raining down from the sky and hit the ships below like raging thunderstrikes. None of the cruisers even had a chance to fire back as their target was too far above them, beyond their anti-air range. From the decks, turrets, bridges, and funnels, nothing was spared from the rain of death as the Nu Gundam descended while firing the beam rifle like there was no tomorrow.
"By the holy light…" The busty carrier trailed off at the sheer amount of destruction carried out by a single white Mobile Suit. For her, it was almost like witnessing Heaven's wrath in form of the Nu Gundam as the angel of death.
In less than one minute, the cruiser groups had turned into a sea of fire with only the Yorktown class still floating. The Nu Gundam slowed its descent and hovered in midair, now facing the only aircraft carrier as it switched the beam rifle with its bazooka.
Prince of Wales lowered her binoculars and glanced at Enterprise. Her expression remained unfazed, but for some reason Wales felt a heavy air building up around the ace carrier. Her intuition told the battleship that this exercise wouldn't conclude just yet...
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area
Amuro narrowed his eyes as he propelled himself towards the Yorktown. The aircraft carrier kept sending out planes while firing all of its AA guns to fight back as its remaining escorts attempted to shield it from attack. The heavy anti-aircraft fire was intense and thick with fighters screaming in to try and stop him.
This was, by far, the heaviest amount of defensive fire he had actually ever encountered and that was saying a lot.
However, the Nu Gundam could and did easily get past the defending fighters, dodging the worst of the old-fashioned heavy AA and artillery fire. It proceeded to shrug off the smaller AA guns' barrage thanks to its armor.
Now descending, Amuro aimed the bazooka and fired into the flight deck where another Hellcat was about to launch with more lining up behind it. The rocket penetrated into the flight deck before detonating fairly deep into the carrier. The explosion not only destroyed part of the flight deck, tearing a hole meters wide while upending and splintering decking, but also opened a clear hole leading to the hangar deck. The explosion also wiped out the forward line of fighters and blew away the nearby Hellcats in the center.
With the flight deck holed severely, it was now unusable and the waiting fighters were unable to launch.
Amuro found he had only 2 rockets left after a quick check of his HUD.
He guided the Nu Gundam through the hole in the deck, heading for the hangar. Though, on the way in, the AI of the Yorktown ordered its trapped fighters to open fire on him.
Still, those bullets did nothing more than try to scrape the paint off of his Gundam. Amuro retaliated with a burst of his Vulcans on his way down and lit up all the fighters as they exploded one after another.
Slamming down onto the floor of the hangar deck, crushing the front of a wrecked Hellcat, Amuro looked around.
Fires had started burning out of control despite the best efforts of the automated systems. To his surprise, there were little drones running around, attempting to fight the blazes using built-in extinguishers. He accidentally crushed a pair with the wing of the destroyed Hellcat he landed on.
'Who am I kidding? I've seen computer and smart home appliances yesterday and these ships don't even need crew to operate.' He thought.
Also, the fuel fires were unusual. They weren't burning a red-orange with yellow highlights, but a blue-green with white. The observation confirmed to the Gundam pilot that the fuel was not petroleum-based. He wasn't sure what the fuel was as the Nu Gundam's systems couldn't detect it properly.
Suddenly a rocket slammed into his Gundam's back, just above and slightly left of the verniers.
*BOOOOM!*
"What the?!" Amuro turned to see several Hellcats armed with HVARs which had been previously inactive but were now attempting to get a bead on him.
More rockets were let loose, but Nu Gundam raised its shield and fired the Vulcans. The entire lot was on fire as he dodged and let the fighters inflict damage on the carrier from the inside with their own rockets.
"They didn't even hesitate as long as it means taking me out! Better make this quick before this ship decides to just scuttle itself!"
A hole was formed as the result of the rocket barrage. Amuro jumped down inside the hole to escape from the chaos and landed on what appeared to be a marked pipe that led to...
"Is… Is this the ship's reactor core...? Incredible...!" He almost couldn't believe it. But there it was.
He jumped off from the pipe to get a better look of the reactor. The reactor itself looked more like a giant glass container connected with energy tubes to the rest of the ship. Inside the reactor was a blue energy core that constantly glowed, illuminating the area, and sending out energy waves throughout the tubes.
A quick scan revealed that it was clearly not nuclear or Minovsky-based physics or any other form he was remotely aware of or educated in. But the color of the ship's core gave him an idea on what it was developed from.
"Must be Wisdom Cubes... That explains the lack of smoke from the ships' smokestacks that I've sunk. It's meant for thermal exhaust." He theorized, placing Nu's armored finger under the red chin.
Amuro approached the reactor before he touched the glass, rubbing it gently. A part of him wanted to study more about this technology. He wanted to know how different a Wisdom Cube reactor compared to the Minovsky reactors that he often worked with.
But right now he had a final task to complete.
Amuro raised the Nu's bazooka and took aim. But before pulling the trigger, he set the two remaining rockets so they wouldn't detonate on impact. He boosted backwards to gain sufficient distance before he fired the last two rockets. The projectiles slammed into the reactor's glass surface but they didn't penetrate it. Instead, they got embedded in it as Amuro intended.
A countdown timer appeared on the Nu Gundam's HUD which told Amuro to get out of the ship immediately.
[End of Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack – Main Title]
...
Azur Lane Base – Exercise Area Observation Point
The atmosphere was getting heavy for everyone present. None of the shipgirls uttered a single word, not even from the Royal maids after they saw Amuro and Nu Gundam break past the Yorktown's defense and infiltrate the carrier.
He had taken out the air squadron, the destroyer group, two battleships, and the cruiser group, so what was taking him so long?
"Uhhh… How long has Amuro been inside?" Saratoga asked aloud, pouting in boredom.
Wales however took her rhetorical question literally and took out a pocket watch. "I'd say 15 minutes…"
Enterprise raised an eyebrow at the blonde battleship. "You've been keeping the time?"
"It's a good way to measure a performance as an observer, Miss Enterprise." answered Wales calmly as she put the watch back inside her pocket. "And I must say that Sir Ray is doing splendidly well for his first combat exercise."
The Eagle Union ace crossed her arms. "But this exercise is different from real combat. The Sirens can-"
"Oh, look over there." She was interrupted by Illustrious and everyone immediately turned to where the busty Kansen was pointing at.
From the hole on the Yorktown's flight deck, the Nu Gundam came out. A moment later a huge explosion followed, causing flames to be expelled from the deck hole and the smokestacks. Multiple bulges began to appear in the hull as the armor plating tried to contain the pressure from the inside.
But it couldn't hold on much longer. By the time the white Mobile Suit was hovering high in the air, the last two rockets inside the engine room finally detonated and destroyed the reactor core, releasing the power stored within.
Cracks with bluish white glows beneath them began to appear on the hull and they were the final nail in the coffin. The pressure from the chain reactions finally burst out, engulfing the Yorktown in ear-shattering explosions that shot a column of flame into the sky.
The carrier had already visibly jumped, showing off its red underside from the initial explosion. Now the Yorktown jumped again but this time from the fuel bunkers and ordnance magazine explosions. The hull was tearing itself apart before the Yorktown exploded violently, breaking into multiple pieces.
The explosion caused a strong gust of wind which was felt by the shipgirls, causing the Eagle Union and Royal representatives to shield their eyes and the Royal maids to hold down their aprons and skirts.
Pieces of the Yorktown's armor plating and flight deck were violently expelled from the explosion, ripping through the wreckage of the destroyers or being embedded into the battleship's tower.
When it was over, all they could see was the burning remains of the aircraft carrier and the silhouette of the Nu Gundam landing on the nearby small island, observing its handiwork.
The shipgirls were left speechless and some of the maids even covered their mouths while looking horrified at the scene. None could blame them though as while they had also experienced sinking enemy ships and Sirens, very few of them had ever seen what happened when a Wisdom Cube reactor overloaded before detonating.
But one Kansen had a different reaction...
Enterprise stood still, watching the floating ball of fire which used to be the Yorktown-class with her binoculars hanging in her hand. Its smaller pieces were raining down upon the area as her mind processed what had just happened. That carrier was the mass production version of the real Yorktown. It wasn't the Yorktown she knew. It was just another unmanned ship for training purposes.
However, watching its violent destruction and all the flames surrounding it was too much... bringing back memories of the past... those she didn't want to relieve...
...
"Why are you two crying at a time like this? We just won a decisive battle."
"Watching the two of you grow from immature children into the aces of the Navy... has been my pride and joy..."
"I'm sure you two will be able to do it... my beloved sisters..."
...
"No... I won't accept this!" Gritting her teeth and clenching her hands into fists, Enterprise turned around and left, an action that wasn't unnoticed by Saratoga.
"Huh? Enterprise! Where are you going?"
She didn't even look back as the Grey Ghost passed the Royal maids and replied with a snarl. "I'm going to see with my own eyes if this man is really worthy to fight with us."
Saratoga gasped in shock by her sudden change of in attitude. She glanced back at the Yorktown's burning wreck and immediately understood what had caused Enterprise to react like that. Seeing the aircraft carrier's destruction reminded her too much of what happened to 'her'.
Deep inside, she wanted to beat herself up because she was the one who came up with the idea of using mass production type Yorktown. Why didn't she suggest the Lexington or Nevada-class battleships instead?
"Enterprise, stop it! You're not thinking straight!" The senior carrier tried to stop her, but a hand stopped her from pursuing the Eagle Union ace.
It was none other than Prince of Wales.
"Let her settle it in her own way, Miss Saratoga." She tried to convince the petite girl. "And Enterprise also has a point. This is a chance to see how Sir Ray will fare against a Kansen as his opponent."
"But not in her current state!" argued Saratoga, "She's too emotional over what happened. She could hurt Amuro!"
Illustrious approached the two and crouched down before placing her hand on Sara's shoulder.
"Right now Miss Enterprise is trapped in the darkness from her past." She explained. "She needs someone to guide her back to the light. Maybe Sir Ray will be the light that will pierce her darkness."
The pinkette was about to argue back until a familiar voice suddenly called to them in the distance.
"Heeeeeyyy-"
Everyone turned to see Javelin, Laffey, and Unicorn running towards them. The Royal destroyer looked visibly confused.
"We... we just passed Enterprise and... she looked like she was in a hurry." She told them, panting. "What... What happened?"
"She also looked scary..." Unicorn looked a bit frightened as she hugged Yuni and turned to Illustrious. "Big sister, what happened to Miss Enterprise?"
Before any of them could answer the young shipgirls, a huge shadow suddenly zoomed past them, causing another gust of wind. Everyone looked up to see a familiar F4F Wildcat with Enterprise riding on it at full speed towards the exercise area.
...
CVE-55 Casablanca – Command Center
Onboard the bridge of the escort carrier, Casablanca could be seen sitting on the captain chair, reading one of her romance novels. From the teary eyes on her face, one could tell that the girl was really invested in the story which she found heartbreaking.
"Oh, Ilsa... You poor thing, you can only choose one person... (Sniff) What did you do to deserve thi–EEEK!?"
Suddenly static noise filled the bridge and the lights flashed for a moment, causing her to yelp in surprise and tumble off the chair. After recovering herself, Casablanca put her book on the armrest and went to check her ship's radar and the weather instruments.
Strangely, she didn't find any anomalies or abnormal activities.
"Everything is normal and works properly here..." She wondered aloud. "What just happened?"
Amuro has gotten used with his new Mobile Suit, but it looks like his performance has unintentionally relieved Enterprise's bad memories and now she is looking for another round. A fight between White Devil and Gray Ghost shall take place.
R&R