Corporal Shoko POV
"Take cover! Take cover!"
"Incoming!"
BOOM!
"I need a medic over here! MEDIC!"
"I need ammo I'm out! AMMO!"
"They're coming at us again; get ready men!"
I ducked as a rocket flew overhead and exploded behind me sending debris flying, I stood up and fired off three bursts before ducking down to reload. The machine gun nest to my left opened up sending hot lead toward any abyssal unlucky enough to be in its line of fire while riflemen to my right fired at any abyssal lucky enough to be out of the machine gun's ark. Gun loaded I stood up and added my fire to the hailstorm of bullets yet every time we cut one down three more seemed to take its place.
They didn't have a plan they just whittled us down through attrition and its working. They overran the beaches a few hours ago and if they push any further they'll cut us off from the rest of the island a fact they seem to be aware of. I ducked to reload and the rifleman directly to my right caught a bullet to the head he was dead before he hit the dirt.
I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a sergeant crouching behind me his face and uniform covered in dirt, "Our left flank is collapsing you three are with me!"
"Yes sir!"
Making our way through the zig-zagging trench I'm blown on my back when a machine gun nest in front of me exploded. My vision turned blurry and the ringing in my ears deafened the world around me; I could feel someone shaking me and as my vision cleared and my hearing came back I could hear a soldier yelling at me.
"Corporal! Corporal you alright!?"
"Never better." Moving into a crouching position I could see a smoking crater where the machine gun was with no sign of the crew who manned it.
"Come on we have to reinforce the left flank."
"I'm right behind you."
Rounding the corner the next section of the trench had been destroyed and the men who defended it lie dead in the dirt allowing the abyssals to walk in. Snapping my rifle up I fired two quick bursts into the back of one's head dropping it instantly, I ducked behind the corner to avoid return fire. The soldier behind me stood up and fired so I swung around from my cover and watched an abyssal slump against the trench half of its head gone. As I approached I finally got a detailed look at it.
Two arms, two legs, five fingers on each hand, two eyes, what looked like ears, and a mouth it looked like a human but with a few glaring differences: One it had no nose, two the alabaster skin color and, three the strange dark black armor that covered their entire body save for the head. I'm not sure why the abyssals modeled their infantry after us then again nobody as an idea of how the abyssals came to be or why some of them look like females so I'm just gonna call it magic and leave it at that.
Continuing down the trench I rounded the corner and one of our men is engaged in CQC. I raised my rifle only to have it kicked out of my hands as an abyssal jumped into the trench, it slammed me into the wall and began to strangle me. Throwing punches into its face didn't faze it so I grabbed my knife and tried to stab it in the neck only for my hand to be caught and twisted until I thought it would break forcing me to release the knife. Air was forced out of my lungs when it kneed me hard in the stomach and its hands wrapped around my neck with a steel grip. Just as I started blacking out its head jerked to the side and it dropped dead, I fell to the ground rubbing my bruised neck trying to catch my breath.
Looking left the soldier who followed me got kicked hard in the head knocking his helmet off and dazing him. An abyssal grabbed him by his vest and started slugging him repeatedly in the jaw. Drawing my sidearm I unloaded the entire mag into the back of its head and neck causing it to slump dead against him. The soldier to my front managed to shove his pistole down the throat of the abyssal attacking him and fired multiple rounds threw its neck before pushing if off him and continuing.
"You alright?"
"I've been better sir fucking hell they hit hard," he groaned rubbing his jaw.
"No rest for the weary come on."
Making our way through the final zig-zag we reached the far left flank of the trench where five soldiers and a single machine gun defiantly held off an onslaught. Taking position the two of us added our fire in a desperate attempt to help stem the tide. I lost track of how long I stood there fire, duck, reload, fire, duck, reload, fire, duck, reload a cycle that seemed to stretch on endlessly.
The machine gun fell silent but I didn't worry about it just continuing the cycle fire, duck, reload, fire, duck, re- "CORPORAL GET ON THAT MACHINE GUN!"
Snapping out of my trance I looked over toward the machine gun finding the position empty with the gunner laying against the trench wall screaming in agony holding what was left of his shredded arm while another soldier desperately tried to stabilize him.
"MEDIC! I NEED A GODDAMN MEDIC!"
"CORPORAL!"
"SIR!"
Jumping on the gun I checked if it was loaded and began to fire its roar drowning out all sound around me. When the gun ran empty I reached for the last hundred and fifty round magazine slammed it into the gun racked the charging handle and continued to fire. The barrel turned red hot from how long it'd been firing and somewhere in the back of my mind I worried the rounds might cook-off in the barrel destroying the gun and allowing the abyssals to overrun our position. I held fire to allow the barrel to cool and that's when I noticed the abyssals are retreating.
"They're retreating!"
"That's right fuckers run!"
"ARTILLERY!"
"OH SHIT!"
"TAKE COVER TA-" BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
I jumped off the gun just as an artillery shell landed right on top up it obliterating the gun nest and sending hot pieces of metal flying like bullets. The ringing in my ears is deafening almost like someone fired a shotgun right next to my head.
I could vaguely hear yelling, and gunfire and placed my hand on my chest only to feel something sticking out. Looking down a jagged piece of metal had buried its self in my chest and when I went to pull it out someone grabbed my hand.
"Don't do that son its helping slow the bleeding. Now I need you to work with me alright stand up on three. One, two, three!"
The soldier helped pull me to my feet and keep me steady. "Alright you're gonna have to work with me some more we need to get you off the front."
With the soldier supporting me we made our way off the front line and towards the rear passing soldiers along the way. When we exited the trenches a jeep pulled up in front of us and I'm laid on my back; he grabbed my feet while the driver grabbed me by the shoulders and they picked me up before placing me on a stretcher.
"Alright let's get him to the medical tent," he leaned over and looked me in the eye, "I need you to stay awake buddy can you that?" I tried but I could feel my eyes slipping shut from how exhausted I am.
"Hey, keep those eyes open! HEY! Stay awake man stay awake!"
Ise POV
We arrived at Okinawa the day after we sortied and the fleet has split up as planned, but Furutaka placed half of her force under my command.
"Its time to get some experience commanding your own battlegroup in an actual battle."
It surprised me but I agreed. My battlegroup consists of the light cruisers Tenryu and Natori along with the destroyers Aoi, Hishi, Karukaya, Isonami, and Shirayuki. The plan calls for Furutaka and her force to engage the abyssals first allowing my force to flank them and force them to split their fire I modified my plan of attack though. Tenryu along Aoi and Hishi are sailing ahead of the battlegroup once Furutaka and her force engage they will close in on the abyssal flank and fire torpedos and with the abyssals focusing on Furutaka's group they won't notice until its too late if they're spotted my force will provide covering fire while they retreat.
"Tenryu are you in position?"
"Ready and waiting."
"Alright, Furutaka just needs to kick it off."
"She needs to hurry up I'm getting bored," Shirayuki grumbled.
I shot her glare and she averted her eyes and stopped complaining. She's hyper just like Miyuki so she's easily bored, however, unlike Miyuki she can be very aggravating probably should've put her with Tenryu. For the next few minutes, we closed on the abyssal force until we're practically parallel to them and with our guns trained we awaited the signal to fire.
"Tenryu begin your attack run."
"Ma'am?"
"It will be chaos when the battle starts I want you to be in a position to take advantage of that."
"Understood." Thirty seconds Furutaka started the attack, although, I didn't hear her guns fire the effect is instant when six armor-piercing shells crash into an abyssal cruiser. They immediately stopped shelling the island and turned their attention toward Furutaka as another salvo of armor-piercing fire found its mark nailing an abyssal destroyer.
With the attack in full swing, I looked for Tenryu and her squadron and found them charging back toward us. Figuring they already launched their torpedos I watched the fleet looking for the geyser of water indicating a torpedo hit. They fired a spread of fourteen torpedoes three hit a cruiser while two hit another cruiser and one hit a destroyer of all things dooming all three ships to a watery grave.
"Open fire!" BOOM!
The deafening sound of my rifles is music to my ears followed by the whole battlegroups' guns in short order deleting a cruiser and turning a destroyer into a burning hulk. They either saw my group as the greatest threat or the weakest link as they turned and headed right for us.
"Tenryu does your group have any more torpedoes!?"
"No ma'am fired them all on our attack run!"
"Understood, focus your fire on the cruisers and destroyers!"
"Yes ma'am!"
I fired upon the enemy battleship, unfortunately, I did little to no damage. Its return fire is ineffective as the shells hit my armor at such a angle they ricocheted leaving a tingling sensation where they hit. My next salvo is much more effective than my last with two solid hits and I nearly had a panic attack when a felt a shell scrape my rudders luckily it didn't so any damage.
Guns reloading I took a count of how many ships were left: One battleship, six cruisers, and six destroyers. An abyssal cruiser slowly fell out of formation and grinded to a halt while two destroyers are sunk within seconds of each other make that five cruisers and four destroyers.
"Isonami take Shirayuki and engage the destroyers once they're dealt with try to launch torpedo attacks against the main force!"
"Yes ma'am!"
"YES! It's about time I get involved!"
"Natori target the destroyers help the sisters take them out."
"On it," her voice is slightly strained and I saw her wince every so often from the damage she has taken.
Turning my attention back to the battle another enemy destroyer fell to gunfire thanks to Karukaya and a second one isn't too far behind with the sisters double teaming it. More AP fire sailed overhead from Tenryu's group followed by fire from Furutaka's group sinking one cruiser and battering another along with crippling one of their last destroyers.
My next salvo scored three solid hits ripping away its uniform and heavily scaring its skin; it didn't even flinch and the return fire is far more accurate than it had been before. My secondaries began to fire although at this range they struggled to land consistent hits with shells going long, short, and wide and the few that did hit did minimal damage. Directing them to focus on the cruisers I ordered the fleet to turn hard to starboard allowing the abyssals to pass us before turning back to port causing us to sail parallel with them and we engaged in a battle line. Tenryu's force rejoined us while Natori and Karukaya tacked to starboard leaving me closest to the abyssal formation.
Isonami and Shirayuki had finished off the destroyers and are making their way back at flank speed ducking and weaving to avoid abyssal fire. Judging from the two colossal explosions of water they launched torpedos at the abyssals before retreating and struck a cruiser along with the battleship, although they didn't escape unscathed. Isonami has fairly light damage some burn marks and light cuts nothing major, Shirayuki has much heavier damage. Her clothes are shredded barely able to cover her modesty and grievous wounds. Her right arm is mauled and held to her chest, the left side of her face is horrendously burned, deep lacerations cover her stomach, and she's having a difficult time holding a steady course.
"What the hell happened!?"
"This crazy bitch thought it'd be a good idea to close point-blank range with a battleship," Isonami answered helping Shirayuki stay steady.
"I managed to torpedo that bastard so it was worth it," Shirayuki hissed in pain.
"You nearly got killed in the process," Isonami roared.
"ENOUGH! We still have the battle to win, Isonami take care of her."
"Ma'am, I can still fight," she protested.
Natori answered for me, "You'll get yourself killed in the process you did your part now let us do ours."
"Yes ma'am," she said, disheartened.
Their torpedo attacks were extremely effective with the cruiser already sinking and the battleship in serious danger; I hissed as two shells crashed into my side that battleship may be down but it's not out.
BOOM!
One of the remaining cruisers exploded in a fireball just as my guns fired, eight shells hit the battleship sending it down on its hands and knees. It glared at me glowing blue eyes filled with deep-seated hatred and then it smiled like it had already won. Determined to wipe that smug look off its face I fired and all twelve shells slammed into its side yet that smug smile was still on its face even as it slipped below the waves.
The remaining two cruisers were quickly dispatched with Fuso getting the final kill as her force already dealt with their fleet. With the seas around Okinawa clear and destroyers watching for submarines and enemy reinforcements we turned our guns on the invaders. For ten minutes straight we hammered positions the abyssals had overrun allowing ground forces to retake them one at a time and within half an hour the abyssals were driven back into the sea and Okinawa is still firmly under our control.
Two hours later reinforcements arrived at Okinawa along with a small squadron of fleet girls who relived us allowing us to head back to Sasebo naval base for some R&R.