Shigure was sitting down in a tent located in Chiba, specifically in the Kamogawa Naval Base on the 11th of May after taking a flight from Tokyo, the base itself now rife with JGSDF soldiers and workers running about in their preparations for Apocalypse, which was predicted to begin tomorrow.
Military vehicles were carrying who-knows-what to God-knows-where while the ship girls of Amazon company, Kamogawa and Yokosuka gathered around a television set as the Yokosuka ship girls were flown in to fight on the oceans and back up the naval bases in Chiba.
The television set displayed the American president Robert Miller sitting in the Oval Office and behind the fabled wooden desk of power, his aides giving the formal introduction to the president's address both to the people of America and of Earth.
"And now, ladies and gentlemen, the 45th President of the United States, President Robert Miller."
The American leader's expression looked haggard as if he had recently been put through the emotional wringer, this being expected when his country was nuked thrice by hydrogen bombs, more specifically, New Orleans, Atlanta and Chicago.
Judging from the preliminary damage assessment reports, the number of wrecked buildings left standing could be counted on one hand, and American ship girls who were in Operation Crossroads were in no position to fight right now after suffering panic attacks as soon as the detonations were streamed and news started to spread.
"Greetings.
Today, I address you all, citizens of Earth, in a time of great crisis and in the aftermath of a national tragedy which is but a horrific preview of what is to come.
In the last twenty-four hours on the 10th of May, a date which will live on in infamy, the United States of America came under attack by a deliberate and crippling nuclear strike by the Abyssal Forces, its destructive scale far outclassing the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
The partial destruction of New Orleans as well as the complete annihilation of Atlanta and Chicago weighs heavily on our hearts, and brave souls are working around the clock in order to repair the damage and provide assistance to our afflicted citizens, who were indiscriminately attacked without prior warning by enemies who held no regard for the internationally agreed-upon laws of war.
Rest assured, this injustice will not go unavenged."
His expression darkened and his jaw went taut upon uttering those words, and only now did Shigure understand just what they managed to provoke in the last world war by assaulting Pearl Harbor, and she was stunned upon seeing the Abyssals outdo Imperial Japan and Islamic extremists by terrorizing the Americans with such a bold and devastating attack on their territory.
President Miller's expression never wavered in its intensity even as he drew back, fingers interlocked as he spoke his mind.
"For too long, we humans have grown complacent in thinking that the we are simply spectators in the Abyssal War, one of the deadliest and costliest wars in modern times as we support our ship girls from the sidelines while they pay the price with their lives.
And as of yesterday, we were given a harsh reminder of the Abyssals' ultimate goal; The complete extermination of mankind and the enslavement and indoctrination of ship-girl-kind.
Their hatred of us transcends race, religion, ideology, nationality, borders, age or gender, amongst many other factors which divide us but are irrelevant in their eyes.
And it is because we are dealing with an alien military superpower which cannot be reasoned or negotiated with much like a force of nature, we must now move beyond reason."
"Gee, it took them all but 20 years for those blockheads up top to figure that shit out, but better late than never, I guess."
Akebono's bitter voice cut through the voice which was broadcasted by the TV set, but no one had the presence of mind to get her to shut up while watching a determined President Miller's address.
"To yield our land, our freedom and our very lives to these aggressors is not an option, and to ensure our survival is to set aside all our agendas, to find it within each and every soldier and civilian to work together as one and unite in our global struggle for survival, and to that end, I shall declare this on behalf of Congress, and the world at large.
The various nations and their respective ship girl navies of the United Earth Alliance will formally and unanimously declare war upon the Abyssal Forces, and shall henceforth strive to work together on an unprecedented scale to utilize any and all measures in order to bring this world war to a successful conclusion and triumph over the Abyssal menace."
Whelp, that was it.
This effectively marked the end of the lives and the naval battles which they were used to, Shigure feeling crushed about not getting to feel the sea beneath her feet for the foreseeable future, instead having to make do with the hard earth which simply didn't feel the same to them.
"This war shall test the human spirit and our will to survive as we bring about destruction on a scale that has been witnessed only twice in mankind's long history of warfare thus far.
Soldiers and ship girls will die, losses are inevitable, sacrifices will have to be made and pain is to be expected.
But all this is par for the course, for we are fighting to ensure the continued existence of mankind and ship-girl-kind for generations to come after the passing of this great storm.
And this storm will pass, of that there is no doubt."
President Miller's expression hardened, now addressing the Abyssals who were no doubt watching their unencrypted public broadcast, and he had a means of speaking to them while reassuring his watchers of their determination which was channeled through his short speech to the enemy.
"And should the Abyssals intend to take the fight to us?
Well, to them, I say this.
They will find one on every sea and every coast, in the skies, on every hill and forest, street and square inch of land which we shall only yield to them at the price of ten thousand dead.
We will come together and persevere in the face of staggering odds, for that is what we must do, and will do in order to overcome all who dare to threaten our way of life.
We will endure, and we will prevail."
Taking in a deep breath after delivering the monologue of his life to the world, President Miller cooled himself down and looked into the camera with a firm yet empathetic look, appearing more human than anything else as someone who was not only braving the storm alongside them, but was attempting to lead them through it as the most powerful man on Earth.
"Normally, I would end speeches like these with a mandatory 'God Bless America', but in the face of what is to come, I now say this as a prayer for the safety and success of all our soldiers, ship girls, civil servants and volunteers who risk their lives so that we may weather this storm.
I thank each and every single one of you from the bottom of my heart, and may God bless you all."
The screen faded to the picture of the President's Seal against a navy-blue backdrop, Shigure suddenly feeling the weight of the world pressing down upon everyone after having been through something like this before World War 2, the uncomfortable and oppressive air silencing Amazon company as they had previously thought things couldn't get any worse, a notion which had been proven wrong.
As every ship girl struggled to accept the increased possibility of death and prolonged suffering, Ma'am Jackie snapped them out of their thoughts with two quick claps, having flown here with them in order to repel the land invasion as a land combat veteran, drawing their attention by speaking up.
"Alright, standing around here isn't going to accomplish anything
This only confirms what we've been preparing for, and since Apocalypse is coming, we need to dig deep in order to survive what comes next."
Shigure blinked, still numb to the feeling of another world war actually starting on their watch, despite everything they've done up to this point.
All seemingly for nothing.
Still, if it was any consolation, the humans were in their element on land and in the air, and she knew that the Abyssals knew this, and if they were crazy enough to even try, they had to have surprises at the ready in order to balance the scales.
Hell on Earth.
Again.
It seemed almost inevitable for things to escalate to this, Amazon company shuffling out in order to join in the pre-war preparations and the end of the world that was to come soon enough.
The day went by fairly quietly, as Amazon company was too busy with preparations to think too much about things, although the myriad of makeshift tents were filled with the barely-suppressed sobs, sniffs and hiccups of ship girls crying all throughout the night, an infectious sentiment which almost swept Shigure up as she felt like shit while she laid down in her sleeping bag, lethargy weighing her body down while a lump was stuck in her throat and refused to go away.
No one was in the mood to talk even during breakfast on the 12th, and the invasion alarm which came at 8.36 a.m. was what truly jolted them awake from their insomnia-induced drowsiness and got them ready for anything, rushing to the docks en masse without needing to be briefed as they sortied with the strength of a naval armada while Amazon company still wore their army uniforms.
For some reason, Ooyodo spoke up about needing the battleships to sortie from elsewhere, but they had no time to wonder as their instructor announced,
"Battleships, I need you to follow Mutsu and move to the North West of this naval base, and she'll give you instructions from there on out!"
They all ran through the preparatory motions like a contestant in a competition, to do what she trained for to the best of her ability while letting fate decide everything which was beyond her control.
Hitting the sea was like slipping back into a set of clothes which seemed to fit comfortably throughout the years, Amazon company only listening to the mission briefing after they sortied and sailed towards the ocean's horizon as Ooyodo spoke up as a Coordinator who was part of Mission Control.
"Alright, the Abyssals have already entered the Safety Zone, and are now at a distance which we can safely and quickly break off our engagement and retreat inland at the drop of a hat.
The Japanese citizens are in the midst of an evacuation, and the JSDF are almost done with their preparations in order to combat the Abyssals on land.
Do not engage in a prolonged naval battle with the Abyssals even with the battleships acting as coastal defense with their large-caliber cannons, and make sure you retreat with guns blazing into the cities, where the real fight starts, understand?"
"Roger!"
So that's where the battleships went.
Even though Amazon company was tasked with being the rear guard, no doubt in order to make a quick retreat and take up arms for the inevitable land combat, the 1st Fleet was still jumpy, especially with Hiei somewhere else as they scanned the ocean for the Abyssal armada which intruded upon their Safety Zone, reconnaissance planes immediately sent out in order to join the Japanese and American jet fighters whose engines roared as they flew overhead at breakneck speeds, likely receiving an earlier warning in order to sortie sooner and deliver a preemptive strike so as to soften up the enemy.
Even discounting the battleships, whose riggings and relatively slow speed were best suited for coastal defense in this case, the number of bench-warmers had more than doubled with numerous clones in order to make up for the loss in manpower after creating the ship girl army.
And to see them all sortie together with the eight fleets of Yokosuka and the five fleets of Kamogawa and then some, made it a sight for the ages and bolstered the destroyer's confidence in their ability to repel any threat, although it also registered as a the shock in the back of her head as she wondered just how many enemies they were facing.
She didn't have to wait very long for an answer.
Within five minutes of finishing that thought, she heard the Coordinators back at base patching the human pilots through in order to give a heads-up,
"Yo, ladies.
Looks to be a swarm of enemies on our radar, and we'll be thinning out their ranks before engaging in aerial combat about five minutes from now.
Watch yourselves down there, over."
"Thanks for the heads-up, Sparrow.
Same to you."
It was after Ashigara, the designated leader, finished her thanks when the missiles were dropped, Shigure barely able to make out yellow pinpricks bursting into white spheres on the surface while Junyou tensed up and warned the 1st Fleet, her easygoing attitude now replaced with an urgency in her voice, raising her scroll in order to get the battle started.
"Enemy spotted, eleven o'clock!
There's an unknown Abyssal signature sailing beneath the ocean and approaching us, it's appearing as a giant… thing on my sonar!"
Tenryuu was unsurprisingly the one to start cursing at just what it was trying to do,
"I think I detect it too!
Fuck, I don't think that fits the signature of any known Abyssal thus far, and did they hide underwater in order to avoid being detected by the jet fighters?"
To which Tatsuta icily responded while brandishing her torpedo launchers, strapped around the long pants of her army uniform.
"I don't care what it is.
It doesn't seem capable of evading a torpedo salvo at the rate it's moving, and it's not sailing an inch closer to our shores."
"R-Right!"
Ayanami responded swiftly as the four ship girls fired their torpedoes along with the armada before them, who likely got the same idea as they fired their underwater projectiles while the bird carriers continued summoning their planes in order to start their bombardment of the distant Abyssals who survived the initial jet fighter bombardment.
The fireworks were starting as indistinguishable pinpricks flitted about in the air, but no matter how many Abyssals they downed or enemy signatures they blew out of the water with copious amounts of water, fire, steam, fuel and steel being thrown into the air, the enemy just filled in the gap and kept coming.
Admiral Mako's voice chirped on the radio, her voice and presence on the battlefield naturally putting Shigure a little at ease as someone who knew what she was doing, voicing her thoughts out loud.
"Huh, why would they want to send forth their infantry units before performing an air strike to clear the path?
Everyone, keep a distance and approach cautiously!"
Shigure continued firing her torpedoes as she heard Iku speaking up worriedly in a squeaky voice,
"Iku here!
The Abyssals are also walking on the seabed in order to approach our coasts, although like the naval mines which are stopping the mystery Abyssal signatures, the specialized land mines we scattered on the ocean floor are slowing down their advance!"
Oh god, the seabed too?
It was inevitable that the Abyssals would use that route in order to attack them, but thanks to tactical forecasters mining the easy way to their shores, it at least bought them some more time to keep the enemy at bay.
"Admiral!
I'm approaching the underwater Abyssal signature which has been neutralized by the naval mines.
Just what are these things?"
In which Admiral Mako exclaimed,
"Oh shit, I think that might be an armored personnel carrier!
Everyone target them all, there's bound to be several Abyssals inside one of them!"
Before a very confused Goya responded,
"Um, that's kinda the thing!
We're looking, but other than the wrecked APC, there aren't any body parts inside!"
The live feed of an underwater personnel was streamed just as Shigure was firing her paltry cannons at the enemy for what it was worth, observing that the wreck probably resembled something akin to a steel box before being blown up by the naval mine, serrated steel forming the edges of its torn walls while internal mechanisms floated out, a destroyed machine gun sinking to the ocean floor.
Problem was, there were no dead Abyssals, not even body parts.
Admiral Mako's voice came up on the radio again, stating something the instant it all clicked together in Shigure's mind.
"They're decoys!" "They're all decoys!"
Everyone turned to look at her incredulously as she echoed her Admiral's thoughts, but Admiral Mako was faster on the draw at giving out orders,
"Shit.
Ship girls, slowly retreat while aiming for the APCs behind the decoy APCs, because they'll probably be hiding in them and allow the decoys to set off the mines!
Drop depth charges sparingly, because the decoys might set them off; save them for those with Abyssals in them!
Eagle, Sparrow and all airborne planes, don't get caught out and overwhelmed, the JMSDF destroyer Choukai will be there in order to back you up!"
Everyone hit the brakes hard as the Abyssals got within range of the coastal battleships' long-range cannons, allowing the heavies of the two armadas to begin firing at each other, Shigure performing evasive maneuvers with the 1st Fleet as she noticed several Princesses making their presence known through their might, several APCs surfacing in order to start pushing the ship girls back towards the shore.
With machine guns and grenade launchers at the ready, these metallic boxes were all firing them at distances which diminished their effectiveness due to bullet drop and air resistance, but they were closing in without much regard for their safety as the grenade detonations threw up seawater upon hitting the ocean, Admiral Mako commanding,
"Fall back, keep firing on them and draw them in!"
Their cannons surprisingly managed to hinder the advance of the APCs, shell barrages smashing into the sloped front of an APC and denting it while bombers swooped down in an eagle dive to drop their payloads on their weak roofs, Abyssal units defending their APCs with everything they had on hand, like firing their Anti-Air cannons and sending out fighter planes.
The result was nothing short of complete pandemonium as Shigure fired at the myriad of Abyssals who were getting too close for comfort as several ship girls got creative by firing at the airborne grenades and knocking them off their intended trajectories, the rare white-hot sphere blossoming ephemerally in mid-air and injuring nobody before dissipating.
Bombers dived down from every angle while jet fighters duked it out at high altitude, dummy APCs tanking whatever was thrown at them while sailing Abyssals covered their approach, and the ship girls retreated back towards their naval base since they never had any intention of allowing the Abyssals to overwhelm them here.
Ooyodo was on the radio the entire time, giving them notifications while Admiral Mako was speaking in the background and was drowned out by the frenzy of activity on the other end of the line,
"Another wave of enemy aircraft has been detected, approaching your location in six minutes and are likely here to soften up the landing zone!
We're sending out intercepting planes and readying our Anti-Air missiles in order to fire upon them, and the turret pods lining the coast will be used to shoot down either the Abyssals or the APCs!
This will be danger close, continue to retreat while whittling down their numbers because there's no use in sticking our necks out here for too long!"
Tenryuu piped up with a question regarding relying on such a relatively ancient and untested piece of technology to back them up,
"Um, not to be a Debbie Downer, but those turret pods were created to prevent another land invasion, but we never really got to test them in combat until now, right?
So how useful are those antiquated weapons going to be against the APC's armor?"
To which Junyou responded offhandedly with her face red and slick with sweat as a result of managing as many airborne planes as she possibly could.
"Ah, I don't really care at this point in time, all they have to do is point at the sea and fire everything!
With so many bloody Abyssals in front of us, there's no way they can miss!"
"Amen to that!"
Tenryuu agreed with that logic as she fired all her cannons and torpedoes, the coastline now visible to them as Surface-to-Ship Missiles started flying in from behind them, wiping out hordes of Abyssals with a brilliant explosion or sending them flying head over heels.
And yet they advanced.
The grenade launchers and dive bombers provided a curtain of explosions to keep ship girls from getting too close to the horde while their battleships acted as the spear, standing behind the APCs to provide long range fire in order to keep them moving while poking at their defenses.
Ayanami then looked up in unadulterated horror at the sight of something or another and could only yell out a warning,
"Evade!"
And the destroyer didn't have to finish uttering that word before Shigure tensed up and jumped before looking, looking up and reacting to the sight of an enemy F-35 falling out from the sky, burning holes in its fuselage and smoking intake vents belying its imminent destruction as it blew up upon crashing into the ocean and threw the dispersed 1st Fleet into disarray.
The scream of soaring missiles and jet fighters sounded out and got sharper as they flew overhead, a disoriented Shigure starting to feel a fair bit nauseous at the choppy waves throwing her about, blast waves constantly bombarding her body and the scream of jet fighters buzzing overhead, although she was thankfully pulled back by Tenryuu while Tatsuta and Ayanami provided cover fire.
The coastal turret pods and battleships did their job as medium and large-caliber shells were fired from the mainland, carriers pointing and shouting into the radio in order to provide coordinates and improve their accuracy, and most of the APCs had surfaced by now due to the amount of naval mines detecting their underwater presence and detonating if they continued advancing while submerged, the first wave of decoy APCs almost wiped out by this point.
Admiral Mako was concerned with other matters as she spoke into the intercom in order to keep them updated on the overall situation,
"The Flying Dutchman has surfaced near the Kujukuri Naval Base!
There's nothing we can do for them right now, but our planes are already on their way in order to intercept it!"
Tenryuu noted,
"Kujukuri?
That's further up North of our current location, shouldn't we go and help them out?"
But Shigure vehemently shook her head, believing that the Flying Dutchman was a hit-and-run kind of enemy aimed at cutting off their escape by helping their forces carve a path from Kujukuri to the city named Chiba within the prefecture of the same name, and she shielded her face against the missed payload of an Abyssal Cat Fighter which threw a bucketful of seawater on her as the demonic plane screeched overhead, likely frustrated at having missed its target as she coughed over the din.
"We… shouldn't…
Because… by the time we get there, the Flying Dutchman will have left, and we should be focusing on the enemy… before us.
Besides, the Japanese created the Nagato-Class slow battleship which the Flying Dutchman's based off of, hopefully they've found something which works against it in the third encounter!"
"Grr…
Let's hope you're right!
Third time's the charm, after all!"
Now that they were approaching the coast, Shigure could see that Czech Hedgehogs lined the beaches, three I-beams bolted and welded together in order to form an X, Y and Z-axis which discouraged war vehicles below a certain weight from advancing, their grey surfaces contrasting with the yellow sands they were standing on while parked Type 88 SSM-1 and Type 12 trucks were firing all their missiles at the incoming Abyssal horde.
With another crackle of static, a male pilot's voice spoke up urgently,
"Girls, the enemies have got several dozen LCACs that are heavily defended!
And despite our best attempts to fend off these Abyssal planes with help from our surface-to-air and ship-to-air missiles, they'll overrun us soon enough!"
Tenryuu's barrage of shells and torpedoes fired from all her cannons and launchers managed to hit the mark, and Tatsuta hurling her torpedo in a javelin throw, aided by her superhuman strength, allowed it to easily clear a hundred meters and detonate on the face of an unfortunate Ri-Class.
The resulting explosion was nothing short of spectacular with the Ri-Class's head being the epicenter of the explosion and vanishing wholesale while its shoulders were blown off its body, its chest completely annihilated while everything beneath was charred by the searing fireball, impurity-colored ghostly-blue flames erupting while a fountain of blood, which spurted from the cross-section of her waist, came into contact with the sea as the remaining Abyssal half collapsed.
But Shigure had no time to dawdle as a turret pod shell threw up sparks upon hitting an APC, causing it to shift the instant it fired a grenade from its roof launcher in her general direction, and Shigure dived into the ocean and allowed it to envelop her in order to prevent the shrapnel from working its way into her body.
Several piercing sensations caused her to howl in silent agony which let out rising air bubbles as her soundless scream was lost in the cacophony of muted underwater explosions, muffled screams and rumbling noises, eventually hauled out of the sea by Tenryuu as she felt something within her move and ignite the afflicted area near her shaking hand.
A piece of shrapnel was embedded in her upper left arm, and even though blood was oozing out from the wound's entry point, the nano-machines which were injected in them performed as advertised as the tip of a metallic shard jutted out from her skin and was slowly being ejected, the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer grunting at the pain which came as the price.
"Ghh rkk! Urgh… "
Despite her trembling fingers becoming slick from her own blood, she finally managed to hold onto the slippery metal surface as it was halfway out and yank it out, before immediately regretting this course of action as triggered nerve endings flared up at her foolish action, flinging the damn thing away from her while she felt the shrapnel that was ejected from her torso start poking her in her uniform, Tenryuu hauling Shigure to her feet after dragging her away from the advancing enemy lines.
She noticed Junyou looking up in horror, and the skies were blotted out with the silhouettes of allied and enemy jet fighters blanketing the skies, battling for air supremacy while the mainland just did not relent with its missile barrage in order to bring down enemy fighters and also to cover the ship girls' escape.
The ship girls were now within a hundred meters of the shore as the submarines had already landed, and JGSDF soldiers were manning machine guns and auto-cannons amongst others, which were all prepared before today as the turret pod roofs produced missile racks containing short-range Type 81 Missiles, letting them fly and surprising both the enemy planes and the ship girls who certainly didn't expect this nasty surprise, a nearby Hatsushimo echoing this sentiment.
"Woah, looks like those old cannons had some tricks hidden from even us, huh?!"
The military's overwhelming firepower along with that of the ship girls, who retreated with cannons blazing, managed to discourage the Abyssal horde from getting too close as they hung back and chose to bombard the coast, some of them starting to target the protected turret pods which covered the ocean with their respectable firepower.
This next part of the battle plan was why the battleships were discouraged from fighting on the front lines.
The ship girls reached land as they slipped off their boat slippers and ran towards the road at the end of the beach and the town beyond that, their stamina now increased thanks to Ma'am Jackie's harsh training to make sure they could cross a simple beach with their riggings on without tiring out, turning back and firing their cannons while JGSDF soldiers fired Type 91 SAMs from their shoulder launchers at the enemy, others firing at the APCs with their Type 79 Jyu MAT, a tubular device stuck on a ground-hugging tripod in order to take out the AAV-P7 personnel carriers which were parked on the beach, Abyssals crawling out of these personnel carriers with firearms in hand.
Reaching the road on the other side of the beach was tough and made more difficult by the fact that their riggings were a burden on land, offset by the relatively short distance and Ma'am Jackie's strict emphasis on their physical endurance as they reached their checkpoint and dumped their riggings on the Fairy-modified trucks before suiting up for land combat, the modified trucks being one mode of transporting their riggings across the country.
Shigure asked Ayanami a quick question,
"So these trucks were created specifically for Apocalypse in order for us to sortie on lakes and reservoirs which are all located inland, right?"
Ayanami nodded as she held her own MP7 submachine gun with shaky hands after holstering a SIG Sauer P220,
"Of course.
Besides, if we were to all crowd around the harbor in order to get in and out of the sea, it would take one well-placed bomb landing on the harbor to cut us off from our main access to the ocean!
We didn't need these back when we were protected in our own waters and could sortie and dock at our own pace, but the times they are a changin'!"
All the while, battleship shells pounded the coast from afar while tanking large-caliber shells in return, with every aim being an intelligent guess more than anything else while enemy planes attempted to break through the iron dome defense above them, which thankfully protected them with fired missiles accelerating into the air in swarms with Anti-Air turrets, auto-cannons machine guns blazing as they spat out bullets in the tens of thousands while flares were fired in order to throw off their sensors and blind them to the sight of the beach, Shigure forcing herself not to look up at the light show which was far more intense than any firework, shining down on the retreating ship girls with a luminosity which outclassed the sun by twofold.
Retreating ship girls were divided into the army and the navy, where the navy would be transported to another coast with access to the ocean in order to sortie with the rigging-carrying vans and engage in flanking maneuvers or hit-and-run attacks, and the ship girl army would hold the fort that was now the abandoned town of Kamogawa, Admiral Mako giving orders all the while.
"The army will retreat into the town and back up the JGSDF's retreat before joining up with our forces from the South, and the ship girls will circle around to Kameda General Hospital up North!
Move!"
Tatsuta spun around as she held a lowered firearm which was a M4 Carbine, wishing to find a certain Kongou-Class battleship in the midst of the urgently-moving ship girl crowd.
"Where's Hiei?
We need her strength and firepower in order to round out the team."
Junyou, carrying an M24 Sniper rifle just like Saratoga did due to being a bird carrier, turned back to look at someone pushing through the crowd in order to meet up with them, the distant explosions getting louder while the big guns that were anti-tank weapons like the Panzerfaust 3 or the M72 LAW were being rolled out and distributed.
Hiei joined the 1st Fleet as she cocked the sturdy-looking Sumitomo MINIMI machine gun which she held with two hands, looking equally distressed about the situation yet relieved at how her comrades were safe.
"All of you are safe, that's a relief."
Another resonant explosion went off and shook their surroundings, several ship girls stumbling before recovering and moving on while Tenryuu started to fret for their immediate well-being.
"Not if we stay here for long.
Let's move inland and start joining the rest of Amazon company."
Everyone unanimously agreed to that, now starting to become desensitized to the sight and sounds of explosions, gunshots and the occasional piercing scream in the distance.
The JGSDF was on the retreat as the trucks carrying either the Type 88 Surface-to-Ship or the Type 03, 11, 81, 91 and 96 Surface-to-Air missiles carted their payload around, engines whirring as they flexed their horsepower in order to keep up with the infantry which escorted them, who in turn were carrying rocket launchers and battle rifles in order to leave a trail of fire and fury behind them, Shigure pulling back the cocking handle of her MP7 as she heard Ma'am Jackie speak up, taking over as adviser for land battles.
"Amazon company, we need you all to get back and help the JGSDF retreat beyond those tall buildings!
Don't bother occupying them for now, not when it'll expose us to fire from all sides!"
It was a reasonable deduction, seeing as the town of Kamogawa which they were in was filled mostly with short civilian houses with the occasional high-rise building, the occupation of which would allow the opposing forces to bombard said building with rockets and cannons from all directions, watching the Abyssals start advancing with their handheld firearms.
An enemy APC, and M113 was moving up with a resounding rumble permeating the earth, a Ri-Class manning the M2 Browning machine gun on its roof and laying down cover fire for the Abyssal infantry to move up, but as Akebono and Nagatsuki blind-fired with their MP7 submachine guns with help from their aiming systems, forcing the Ri-Class to duck behind her gun shield with sparks bouncing off it while Takao hoisted an Anti-Tank Panzerfaust 3 onto her shoulder and peeked around the corner before pulling the trigger.
The back-blast area was, as per training and common sense, not a place anyone wanted to stand in, and even though the back-blast contained little fire as Shigure imagined it would, she could feel the power by witnessing its velocity along with the equal and opposite force which it produced behind a rocking Takao and shook the cruiser's entire frame, the Ri-Class cruiser wildly firing at it in hopes of prematurely detonating it.
No chance.
The APC went up in a spectacular explosion with a metallic crunch, Shigure shielding her face and eyes from the intensity of the fireball's brightness, the radiated heat and the mini-earthquake which shook the ground yet again, several ship girls going,
"Kyaa!"
"Woah!"
While Abyssal infantry units were flung onto nearby walls due to the shock-wave, Junyou looking down her scope in order to fire at a Wo-Class who was similarly looking down her own sights, Shigure firing controlled bursts at the window which the Wo-Class attempted to snipe from after climbing up a two-story building, Shigure spotting the miniaturized Wo-Class headdress which now acted as a helmet.
Several JGSDF soldiers were helping to direct a few Type 87 Self-propelled Anti-aircraft Guns which were retreating with their two twig-like guns blazing, discouraging the Abyssal F-35 and Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighters from making their bombing runs, not that it was easy to do when AH-64 Apache Helicopters, F-4 Phantoms and Mitsubishi F-2 fighters were hounding them in order to protect their retreating infantrymen.
A Japanese soldier ran up to them in order to get Amazon company's assistance, shouting over the din around them.
"Protect these vehicles, they're the things that are preventing the enemy jets from dropping their payloads on us like birds taking a shitter on us, eh?"
"G-Got it!"
Grenades were now being thrown back and forth, Shigure jumping every time a grenade detonated nearby as abandoned cars were strategically positioned in order to clog up the street and shook with every explosion, firing at a corner where a Ne-Class was hiding beyond as they retreated beyond the high-rise building with the JGSDF and the ship girls giving them hell, but Ma'am Jackie spoke into the radio in order to give them a heads-up,
"Iku, hit it.
Amazon company, you might want to hold onto your butts for this one."
And before she knew what was up, the ground floor of a high-rise building blew up before them and lifted Shigure clean off her feet, the Abyssals looking just as confused as they did as the destruction caused the concrete to crack, the metal to screech and the building itself to moan in faux-agony, and Shigure hit the floor and had the wind knocked out of her, feeling the earthquake shaking the side of her face repeatedly while the demolished building started to collapse.
Her attention was drawn to a Wo-Class holding an M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle and was closest to the collapsing building, and as the Wo-Class carrier looked up with wide doe eyes in the midst of the ensuing dust storm, she felt something for the helpless Abyssal carrier which would never get out of the falling building's path no matter what, and could only make her peace before she was crushed by the building as it was torn from its roots and toppled over like the world's largest domino.
She didn't see any actual gore due to the dust storm whipping up and enveloping her like a tidal wave which threatened to displace her, but the shaking of the ground and the fissuring of the deafening earth was not unlike what she assumed a real earthquake was like, and the tremors plaguing her limbs along with the chills running up her spine was numbed by the adrenaline pumping throughout her body, and the air around her was full of bursting pipes, cracking earth along with horrified screams of any and all variants of,
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!"
And somewhere around her, her concerned comrades calling out each other's and her name in a hoarse whisper, Shigure's paralyzed mind able to discern the genuine fear that something had happened to her which she couldn't recover from.
"Shigure…?
Are… Are you there, Shigure?"
"H-H-Here I… am…"
Less than an hour into this war and she was already falling apart at the seams?
'Damn it, Shigure.
Pull yourself together.'
A feeble attempt to convince herself that she was alright as Tatsuta, surprisingly, was the one to seek her out as the teenager flexed her superhuman strength in order to move debris out of her way in order to get to the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer, and Shigure could only attempt to hold up a shaking peace sign to her face before quipping.
"Twenty t-three minutes and… fourteen seconds after sortieing before experiencing and surviving a life or death e-experience.
P-Personal… best!"
Tatsuta gave her an exasperated smile at how she was indeed a magnet for trouble, hauling Shigure to her feet by lifting her up by the collar and pushing in the direction of the retreating 1st Fleet.
The Abyssals were now blocked from advancing via this route, but the Abyssals were still attempting to force their way through with a Ru-Class Abyssal smashing through a wall with the super strength which battleships possessed, wearing her usual uniform and tactical gear over them.
Dust and white concrete powder which caked her entire body puffed and dispersed into the air as she came under heavy fire from Amazon company, but even as she fell while fighting valiantly, Abyssals just kept pouring out from the smashed hole or from shattered windows while both sides blind-fired their grenade launchers and mortar shells over the toppled building as though in a game of Battleship, Shigure pressing a button, slapping in a magazine and pulling back the cocking handle before opening fire while Ma'am Jackie announced.
"There's a strong Abyssal signature making land on the shore, and according to the Coordinators, it's a land boss unit with the acronym J.O.A.N.!
I'm coming down there in order to back you up, do not engage it in combat without fully understanding what it's capable of!"
Sounds of gearing up could be heard with Ma'am Jackie pulling back the cocking handle of her firearm before leaving her commanding post, and Shigure saw several ship girls shooting flares into the skies, confusing the missile sensors and causing them to collide with the flares instead of a ship girl.
These explosions shattered the windows of nearby buildings, Shigure feeling thankful for both the provided helmet and her skin armor which shielded her from the falling glass shards, although her bloodied army uniform didn't fare as well against the onslaught.
Isuzu fired her M4 Carbine at the riot shield which a Ta-Class battleship was hiding behind and was using to advance despite the hail of bullets raining on her shield, and the Nagara-Class was suddenly thrown back with a crimson blossom of blood spurting out from behind her right shoulder, emitting a piercing,
"Arrgh!"
As the smoking barrel of a M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle in a Wo-Class's hands was a dead giveaway as to who the culprit was.
The wall a hair above her miniaturized headdress-slash-helmet puffed out smoke as the holes punched into the concrete spread web-like cracks, the spooked Wo-Class holding up her rifle and getting behind an abandoned van.
Nagara predictably ran out in order to retrieve her sister, yelling out something or another while Nachi laid down cover fire with her HK417 battle rifle, and the radio crackled yet again with a gruff Japanese man shouting on the other end.
"Amazon company, we're preparing mortars in order to halt their advance!
Throw purple smoke grenades at them in order for our spotters to calculate the required trajectory!"
Tenryuu, now moving up to Shigure's side while keeping a low profile, pulled out a smoke grenade and lobbed it as far as inhumanely possible with her light cruiser strength before running back in order to rejoin the 1st Fleet.
And that was before the smoke grenade left a comet-like plume of smoke as it flew back at them with the sound of a metal-on-metal,
KLANG!
And looking down, Shigure and Tenryuu's eyes widened in abject horror at the sight of the activated smoke grenade coughing out dissipating purple smoke while rolling back towards them, Shigure barely registering the fact that an Abyssal's boots were made from steel and allowed them to kick it back in time.
They looked at each other and shared the brief glance of two soldiers about to be engulfed in a fiery and explosive death, the horror reflected in the displayed eye of the light cruiser before they bolted back towards their comrades, Shigure screaming into her radio all the while.
"Don't shoot!
They kicked the smoke grenade back at us, don't shoot!"
The blast occurred anyway, throwing her into the air like a ragdoll and allowing good ol' gravity to slam her face back onto the asphalt road, her ears ringing from the explosion as her body ached from the constant exertion.
She still had a death grip on her firearm, and she could barely feel Ayanami's hands on her in order to drag her away from the advancing Abyssal front lines, Shigure mumbling an incoherent question in her mind.
"Wuh… wuh…
Told them, not…"
But Ayanami solemnly shook her head as she clarified,
"No Shigure-san, it was the Abyssals who fired on us.
Kicking back the smoke grenade allowed them to mark us for their spotters to help the artillery target our position.
But, I think it clued us in on their position due to the shell trajectory, allowing the anti-AFV divisions to take them out."
Shigure nodded, lifting up a weakened arm in order to pat Ayanami's arm while she made an effort to stand up, the name-ship understanding her intentions as she helped Shigure up while hiding behind the cover of a car that was turned on its side in the middle of the road.
Since her radar worked on land, she detected an Abyssal who was about to round the corner as the two of them raised their firearms in response, but nobody could have predicted that the Ri-Class cruiser, which appeared with a bulletproof vest, helmet and an M16A2 assault rifle in hand, would perform an impromptu vanishing trick as a deafening explosion flared up from beneath her and consumed her entirely with a land mine detonation.
Both destroyers whipped their heads around in order to look away from the blast and to avoid getting a face full of shrapnel, Shigure peeking back to find that the Abyssal had vanished, bloodstains splattered over the cratered ground with a fine crimson mist permeating the air before them if Shigure squinted and stretched her imagination enough.
The shuddering ground shook them out of their daze with a M270 MLRS rolling up, a truck-like driver's cabin with an extended rear carriage in order to tow around multiple rockets in its launcher, all this on two tank threads which rolled to a stop in front of Amazon company.
What happened next would change not only Shigure's life, but also the entirety of the Abyssal War forever.
The MLRS unfolded and transformed before her very eyes, revealing internal machinery which was far more advanced than what its human military counterpart possessed as the cabin unfolded into a head and shoulders with two fan-like ears.
Its undercarriage and the launcher which it carried around joined together in order to form the Beast's hunched main body with four legs which were essentially as thick as tree trunks, revealing an elephant-like Beast which ohmygod.
'So that's what they were testing on Aogashima Island.'
Before everything clicked together in her head regarding the anomalies which she uncovered, swearing for probably the first time in her life since Mikura Jima Island.
"Fuck me…
There's no way my luck can be this fucking bad!"
And the rider atop the elephant's head looked suspiciously similar to a certain Sendai-Class cruiser…
There was no more time to think as the elephant Beast charged up a beam attack in its snout, reddish flames snorted out in ever greater intensity before Amazon company snapped out of their awed-slash-horrified stupor, everyone reflexively following the instruction of,
"DUCK!"
Before Shigure recognized it as her own, the beam warping the air above her prone position alongside Ayanami while hearing an explosion go off behind her.
The radio started to sound out with various voices crying out for attention and drowning each other out in the process, Shigure coughing at the smoke which was thrown into the air as she heard ship girls speaking up and trying to identify each other's voices as a way of accounting for strength.
The ground began to shake, everyone either going silent or screaming their heads off as movement was heard, gunshots being heard in front of Shigure as she tried to recover while combating a sudden wave of lethargy which slowed her body down.
That attempt was fully thwarted by the road popping with every bullet which penetrated the ground around her, Shigure involuntarily letting out a scream at the bullets whistling around her while another Ri-Class cruiser emerged, pointing her M16 right at Shigure and Ayanami and allowing the dust to settle in order to get a clear shot at her.
It came.
Just not from her M16.
A bullet was fired into her skull as it drilled into and deformed her left eye, looking as though it formed a vacuum which hollowed out her left eye and caused the flesh and fluid around her left eye socket to be sucked into the dome of her skull in its wake, whatever coming out the other side being a cauldron of squick.
Fragmented skull chips, cerebrospinal fluid and brain bits flew out in an enlarging circle as the bullet caused it all to spin as though in a vortex, the Ri-Class's head snapping back from the bullet impact while her right eye left the scope as it widened at the post-mortem realization that she was dead before expiring.
Shigure found herself freezing up at the aftermath of the gruesome scene which played out before her, and she allowed her comrades' arms to cart her away as her mind was threatening to collapse.
She had seen headshots before.
But never so visceral, and how if it came a second later, she might have…
She collapsed as her legs turned to jelly at the morbid thought, the 1st Fleet rounding a corner in order to take a shortcut through an alley, and the enemy war vehicles would have to bypass the abandoned vehicles which served as either barricade or cover, plus the innumerable number of land mines which were planted by the JGSDF and the submarines, and would only activate in the presence of Abyssals.
Junyou held her up and supported her as they retreated inland, earthly tremors now either a result of bombardment or from the advancing elephant Beast as the Hiyou-Class light carrier spoke urgently into her face.
"Yo, Shigure!
It ain't like you to space out when having a gun pointed at you, you alright?"
Shigure could only hold up her MP7 which was shaking like a leaf in her quivering hands as an answer, and Junyou sighed and furrowed her eyebrows in concern as she led them out of the alley, and before them, even more single-detached houses had been left unattended by the fleeing residents, and if they hadn't already been wrecked by artillery or missiles, ship girls and soldiers alike were breaking into and taking anything they could use.
It wasn't morally sound by any stretch, but since the Abyssals didn't eat human food anyway, they couldn't simply leave it to rot in the abandoned ghost towns they were retreating from, right?
Ma'am Jackie, having met up with Amazon company without Shigure noticing, was hurriedly motioning for them to keep moving inland, munching on a chocolate bar which she likely procured from a nearby convenience store as she yelled.
"Come on, slowpokes!
Move inland, their war vehicles will have a tough time traversing the hilly terrain!"
The 1st Fleet stepped into a retail store, finding several ship girls like Urakaze, Choukai and Kinugasa, amongst many others, sifting through the store as they grabbed whatever was useful on the field like shampoo, toilet paper, drinking water, repellent, survival tools, first-aid supplies, clothes, and above all else, food.
Everyone fied out from either the exit or from the human-sized holes in the wall which ship girls likely created in order to provide more avenues of retreat, Ma'am Jackie guarding them with Mutsu outside the mall as the former wielded a FN SCAR assault rifle while the Nagato-Class battleship carried an M2 Heavy Machine Gun.
Hiei slowed down as she took the time to step into a convenience store in order to reload her piping hot MINIMI machine gun, the rest of the 1st Fleet doing an inventory check while reloading their firearms and grabbing anything they could see.
The shelves were already partially emptied out even after an entire ship girl company breezed through this store, but as a form of etiquette, the ship girls took only what was necessary so as not to hoard resources, slow themselves down with extra baggage and to allow those behind them to receive some supplies.
Tenryuu passed out torn parts of a bread for everyone to feed on, and with an utterance of,
"Itadakimasu."
Before they scarfed down their food with the intensity of starving animals, listening to Ma'am Jackie relay instructions from above.
"Alright, Amazon company.
We need to move to Kamogawa City Hall, where the JGSDF is reinforcing in order to consolidate our defenses and hold our ground.
Several ship girl carriers are sending out dive bombers from Tokyo Bay in order to cover us, and - "
"DUCK!"
The 1st Fleet hit the floor without hesitation before the store roof caved in with a mighty explosion, because as their training demonstrated, anytime anyone shouted an order, it was because they saw a threat you didn't, and to disobey their orders was to court death.
Their world shook as falling dust and debris blanketed the 1st Fleet like an inverted mushroom cloud from above, hearing some unknown cruiser shout into the radio about who the culprit was.
"Damn, that stupid elephant Beast is firing its missiles at us!
And the driver is…
Is that Naka?!"
Another voice, clearly a distressed Jintsuu, spoke up as she clearly wanted to get in touch with and try to talk some sense into her sister ship.
"Naka? Naka!
Please, I have to go see Naka!"
Ma'am Jackie grunted, stepping up to the prone 1st Fleet and screamed at them.
"Get up, and keep moving!
Reach Kamogawa City Hall and get in touch with the JGSDF there!
The mines and the missile barrages from this town's elevated flanks isn't going to hold them off forever!"
Everyone jumped to their feet as they didn't dare to incur Ma'am Jackie's wrath even with the Abyssals piling the pressure on them, picking up their firearms and flinching as a shell penetrated the front of the building, throwing up more dust and debris while flash-bang and fragmentation grenades started raining in.
Shigure fired her MP7 submachine gun as she retreated from the retail store, which now had a gaping hole in the roof with sunlight streaming in and the noise of speeding jet fighters booming throughout the hall, and white-hot lead redecorated the architecture and the various displayed items flying about, with books and electronics being flung into the air while the retreating 1st Fleet were evicted from the crumbling retail store.
The rumbling of the earth told them all they needed to know about how far the enemy was advancing, following Ma'am Jackie as the instructor pulled the pin from her grenade and cooked it for about two seconds.
And right when everyone was starting to look unnerved about the prospects of Ma'am Jackie taking herself out with her own grenade, the light cruiser hurled her grenade in a fastball pitch in order for the grenade to close the distance.
The Ta-Class who rounded the corner reflexively angled her riot shield in order for the grenade to bounce upwards, but the resulting explosion still caused her to stagger while the loosened building debris fell on and temporarily incapacitated her as she went down.
Junyou looked down her M24 SWS's scope and shot at an advancing Wo-Class who got down into a crouching position and returned fire, and as Shigure saw the muzzle flash of the Abyssal's M39 Enhanced Marksman Rifle and felt her heart stop because of it, but even as Junyou crumpled from having a round pierce her stomach, Hiei and Tatsuta gunned down the Wo-Class who was in the midst of chambering the next round as she went down with blood splatters sprouting from her chest and stomach.
Hiei shifted her medium machine gun over to her left side while hoisting up a limp Junyou and propping her up on her right shoulder, and Junyou winced as she unbuttoned her army uniform and allowed the nanites to eject the bullet from her body.
Amazon company was now trekking through the part of the coastal town which was more hilly and less populated with buildings as they crossed an Izakaya Restaurant with JGSDF soldiers and ship girls from Amazon company exiting it, Admiral Mako sounding out over the radio about receiving backup.
"Girls!
Our girls are defending the Kamo River, which is within plane-sortieing distance of Kamogawa City Hall, and you'll be receiving backup from bird carriers sortieing in the nearby Kamo River and another river which is even closer to the city hall.
We're doing a good job of bottle-necking and killing the Abyssals sailing in from the ocean, but we can't keep supplying reinforcements indefinitely!"
Shigure reloaded her MP7 in response, trekking through the disfigured streets with her enhanced stamina.
And as they moved into the forested hills, they heard the consecutive thumps of something moving closer to them with tremors of increasing magnitude, Shigure turning on her radar to find a gigantic blob heading towards them through the streets.
Oh, no.
The building before them was demolished as Naka charged through a two-storied single-detached house with her juggernaut of an elephant Beast, and even as Amazon company flinched at the jump-scare, they recovered enough to begin firing on the enemy boss unit before the Beauty and the Beast got too close.
And then there came another surprise.
The mother of all screams radiated from the light cruiser and cracked the roads, shattered the windows of cars and warped the air as it threatened to displace anyone standing before her, Shigure instinctively dropping her firearm and covering her ears like everyone else did in response to such an unexpected development, the charged-through building now caving in and collapsing perhaps as a result of the sonic scream weakening the structurally-compromised columns holding the house up.
Some of the more resilient ship girls kept firing at the Beast, the elephant looking more and more aggravated than anything else as it trumpeted and snorted out hellish-red flames before lowering its head in order to charge them.
Shigure was understandably frozen at the sight of a 6-meter tall elephant charging straight for her even as Ma'am Jackie shouted into her radio,
"Get out of the way!"
And she almost did so in a fight or flight reflex, but realized that she left her MP7 on the ground and reached down for it, looking up to find the charging elephant Beast now only fifteen meters away from her with its flaming eyes and snout, steel tusks and thick tree-trunk legs causing the ground to quake with every step, a seemingly-impenetrable forehead which shone in the morning light and the Sendai-Class light cruiser atop it.
There was no more time to spare as she performed an evasive roll and felt the juggernaut of a Beast passing her like a moving freight train, her entire body shaking like a leaf while feeling chills plaguing her back, limbs and skin while she heard agonized screams coming from Amazon company.
She struggled to get up to her feet, falling back to the ground more than once and stupidly having her face tank the landing for the rest of her body before propping her body up with her trembling legs.
Everyone in her fleet was alright (although Junyou was still reeling from the sniper round despite the nanites doing their job), although the elephant Beast was already circling the corner of the faraway street in order to regroup with its comrades, and she could see that Tama was trampled half to death with everything between her abdomen to her thighs completely crushed and unnaturally shaped as though a steam roller had went to town on her.
Zuihou's status was marked as,
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
SHOUHOU-CLASS LIGHT CARRIER 113
"ZUIHOU"
STATUS: DECEASED'
After Naka's Beast gored her chest with its tusk and tore into her, as shown by the fissure-like gash which stretched from her gut to her right shoulder as it sundered said shoulder and arm from her body, blood free-flowing from her body and pooling around the corpse and caused Akizuki and Yura to slip and stumble as they attempted to retrieve the corpse.
Ma'am Jackie and Musashi were opening fire on the Abyssals who used this distraction to close in on their position, and the latter's M2 Browning machine gun helped to deter a vast number of them from even attempting to do while Amazon company continued their retreat, Ma'am Jackie willing the others into motion by shouting,
"Put suppressing fire on the Abyssals for our girls to evacuate the casualties!"
Another Abyssal bit the dust as Wo-Class's cracked helmet flew out of a window with the detonation of an explosive planted in the second floor of a nearby house, and Shigure reloaded her MP7 yet again but pulled out her SIG Sauer P220 pistol in order to conserve her submachine gun's ammunition, hearing the same JGSDF commander speak up again.
"Amazon company, we're ready to lay down another artillery barrage in order to cover your exit!
Due to the ability of the Abyssals to relocate smoke grenades, no thanks to their heightened physical capabilities, we need you to give us the coordinates to where the enemy is for a more effective barrage which can't be misled!"
"Got it!
Um, aim at the Izakaya Restraunt about a hundred meters from our position!"
"Alright…
Building located, firing now!"
And before long, the distant boom led to the whistling of artillery travelling at terminal velocity as they smashed into the area around the Izakaya Restraunt which they had passed.
And with the announcement of,
"Amazon company, reinforcements are headed your way from your seven o'clock!
Allied bombers also coming in hot, so duck and cover!"
She heard the familiar sound of allied dive bombers approaching their position, the heavy, chain-like cling of tracked vehicles coming up behind them making her pause for a second before recognizing them as friendlies.
About damn time.
An allied Type 89 IFV and a Type 10 battle tank rolled up, working in conjunction with the two Type 87 mobile AA guns blasting any and everything away with more firepower while Shigure ducked and hugged herself at the sight of everything quaking, and while she had seen combat, this was something else entirely.
So much fighting…
It was far more devastating than naval combat in so many different ways, Ma'am Jackie whispering ominously as their four allied war vehicles fought against an enemy American M1A1 Abrams tank, a Russian BMP-2 IFV and a German Kanonenjagdpanzer tank destroyer,
"Closer…
Just a wee bit closer…"
And while the Suisei Dive Bomber squadron scared the Kanonenjagdpanzer into retreating by dropping their payloads as one, Shigure felt another wave of chills radiating from her spine and into her limbs at the sight of an Anti-Tank mine blowing the M1A1 Abrams up, shocking almost everyone present as the turret was blown off with absurd ease with the eruption of hell-fire from its hull, the walls of the nearby buildings shaking from the blast wave as windows cracked or outright shattered.
Instead of reacting with the appropriate horror of Amazon company, Ma'am Jackie instead whistled in awe as she opened fire on an immolated Ri-Class who was attempting to climb out of the flaming tank, flesh seared from her bones and caused her to look especially ghoulish with her bulging eyes, charred body, burnt-off lips and impurity-tainted blue flames, their commanding officer putting her out of her misery with a controlled burst to her center of mass.
The no-nonsense light cruiser turned back and shouted at the ducking and immobile ship girls while keeping a low profile and kicking one of them in the hip,
"MOVE, YOU GODDAMN IMBECILES!
Get to Kamogawa City Hall, or so help me God, I'll fuck you all over by shoving my 'rifle' up your v-holes and fire my load into every single one of you until the end of time should we end up meeting Saint Peter and his merry band of angels instead of JGSDF forces!
You fucking hear me?!"
This threat jump-started Amazon company back into action, watching Tenryuu and even Tatsuta get back up on their feet and retreat with renewed vigor, the horror that was a world war playing out all around Amazon company, moving further inland and leaving nothing but destruction in their wake for the Abyssals to pick up the pieces, heading for Kamogawa City Hall for the first decisive siege battle to take place in Apocalypse.