The underground bunker which the 1st Fleet hid in on a humid afternoon on the 15th of May was well-maintained, with discarded food wrappers buried in one corner above their cooking and eating utensils, two pails with sponges standing in the second along with cleaning and healthcare products which were previously procured from abandoned stores thrown in the third, cleaning tools like brooms, dustpans and garbage bags along with six gas masks (you never knew) thrown in the fourth.
Lessons had been learnt from World War 1 about horrific living conditions in makeshift bunkers, and the ship girls were strongly encouraged to maintain some semblance of discipline in terms of hygiene, and being girls meant that they were at least a little more conscious about it even in times like these.
The fact that their superhuman bodies were resistant to the effects which preceded the onset of horrid diseases like dysentery and the like were a godsend.
Wooden columns held up the insides of the underground bunker, stale and thick air being filled with the expectant breaths of the five other ship girls stuck in the cave with her which Ayanami ignored in favor of listening to the vibrations in the ground of the trench, her ear touching the ground in order to gauge the enemy's position.
With the aid of her super-hearing, she detected the minute vibrations produced not just by the walking Abyssals, but also the sluggish and rumbling movements of their armored vehicles shaking the ground beneath them.
She couldn't determine the exact distance due to not knowing the hardness of the dirt beneath around them, the formula for calculating distance in this case and also being an unfortunate victim of the fear which gripped the hearts of the ship girls in hiding, tersely whispering to her comrades.
"They're coming."
The 1st Fleet was mostly present aside from Junyou and Tatsuta, who were held back for observation purposes lest they collapse on the field, and they were replaced with Suzuya and Kitakami, the usually-cheery aviation cruiser now donning her game face as she nodded in response while the torpedo cruiser cocked her M4 Carbine.
Kitakami looked up with eyes which had clearly lost some sleep over the last few days, looking haggard as she commented on the exceptional events occurring around them thus far,
"So, what do we got?
We came from killing Abyssals on the seas to fighting on land in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, and we're going up against 6-meter tall transforming war elephants made from steel, jellyfishes with a real nasty touch and several million Abyssals on our beaches.
What the hell is even going on anymore, man?"
Everyone else also looked equally distressed about the recent chain of bizarre events while Ayanami chipped in with the hearsay and gossip which had been floating around Amazon company, who had unfortunately taken on several of these oddities due to some strange twist of fate which tied all these Abyssal powerhouses back to their base and put them right in their cross-hairs.
"I understand, Kitakami-san.
Even though it should feel no different than fighting Princesses which are tailored to walk on land, but everything we've trained for has been rendered almost useless when these New Abyssal units possess superpowers, which we've most assuredly not been trained to handle."
"Yeah,"
Hiei shifted where she sat, looking despondent about their missing comrades and how the midnight light show on the roof of the Kamogawa City Hall was likely related to their injuries, and her concern was clearly witnessed in her cloudy expression.
"That light show on the City Hall roof, Tatsuta and Tenryuu were called in to handle whoever took out Junyou, Saratoga, Zuikaku and Kinugasa and likely got taken out by the perpetrator.
I heard the medics say that whoever did this, they likely electrocuted Tatsuta via some sort of taser to scorch her skin, and she then used some sort of superheating cutter in order to cleanly sunder Ma'am Jackie's arm.
What the hell are we supposed to do against that?"
Everyone wordlessly sighed as one as their shoulders sagged and their spirits dampened, but not the kind which would stop them for good when they were soldiers first and foremost, and there was a war to fight and Abyssals to kill.
Ayanami then looked to a withdrawn Tenryuu, likely still using this respite to worry about Tatsuta, asking her a question which was bouncing around in her mind.
"Tenryuu-san.
Why were you and Tatsuta-san called up to go onto the roof on that day, anyway?"
Tenryuu snapped out of her thoughts as Kitakami gave her a deadpan look and lightly knocked on the side of her boot with her own as the eyepatch-wearing light cruiser wearing a face of utter surprise like a kid who was called up to answer a question which he hadn't prepared for, but Shigure piped up with an answer in order to cover her teammate.
"She was protecting me."
"Oh.
And what were you doing up there that day?"
"Junyou was up there.
I wanted to check on her condition."
"Oh."
Nobody knew how to continue the conversation as it led back to the downed Hiyou-Class light carrier of the 1st Fleet, and it was awkward of them to question any further due to how delicate it had become, and to question Shigure and Tenryuu any further was to question their intentions in wanting to help a comrade which would make themselves look bad.
The 1st Fleet then anxiously held their breath as another unapologetically loud jet fighter flew by their position, the copper wire mesh pasted onto the walls of the underground bunker preventing either side from detecting one another via possible use of ground-penetrating radar while tree logs acted like the bones in a human body and prevented it from caving in.
Hiei wiped the sweat from her temple using her sleeves, and Ayanami could see that everyone was silently bemoaning the fact that the instruction from Ma'am Jackie was for them to camp in the hills and defend them at all costs, and the senior light cruiser had to be forcibly held down by her younger doppelganger Jintsuu and a mildly annoyed Akashi in order to stop her from jumping back into the fray immediately after recovering.
Ayanami flicked the safety switch off and pulled back the cocking handle to her MP7 submachine gun while Suzuya manned a jerry-rigged periscope made of mirrors, cardboard, steel, wood, black-tinted translucent paper and a lot of leaves in order to conceal both the periscope itself and the reflective properties of the lens.
Another earth-quaking shudder from the surface.
The Abyssals were using metal detectors to try and bypass their land mines, and they now had to resort to using Antipersonnel Claymore mines in order to target as many enemy Abyssals as possible, taking a page out of the Viet Cong by utilizing pit traps filled with sharpened metal poles, mace-and-chain dangling from above head level and released with the pull of a tripwire and false hideouts were filled to the brim with C4, plastic explosives which couldn't be picked up by metal detectors and could be remotely detonated.
Tenryuu nervously uttered in the cave which they hid in,
"Man, those submarines sure know how to plant those explosives and booby traps, huh?
They're already this close, and yet the Abyssals are still finding it this tough to advance…"
"Well, from here on out, there's nothing but forests and jungles keeping us hidden, and it's not as if we're in a tight enough pinch to be throwing ourselves at them in our haste to defend this area.
We do have to stop their advance, though, or they'll keep on rolling along with this momentum all the way to Tokyo and beyond."
Tenryuu lifted an eyebrow in agreement to Kitakami's rebuttal, Ayanami hearing a sharp sound in the distance which sounded more like a twig being stepped on in the muffled cave, Shigure coming up with an educated guess as to its origin.
"Sounds like our snipers have already engaged the Abyssal forces in battle.
We'll have to start moving."
Nodding, the 1st Fleet remained crouched as they exited the maze of tunnels while trace amounts of dirt fell on their uniform, the dirt above them shaken loose due to the distant tremors in the distance which radiated from unknown, likely enemy origins.
Their faces were painted with removable green and black paint in order to serve as camouflage since it went well with their brown-green-black army uniforms instead of their flashy and impractical ship girl uniforms, and the air in the cave was humid with six ship girls all vying for oxygen in a cramped space while sweating and moving about, carrying loaded weapons for battle.
Shining only one flashlight in order to move about underground stealthily, the nameship occasionally heard the leading Kitakami hold up a fist for them to stop, in which the 1st Fleet anxiously echoed down the line,
"Hold!"
"Hold."
Before they met up with another group of ship girls as another lone flashlight danced in the distant darkness, and Ayanami could hear the Kuma-Class cruiser speak up after a while,
"Sunray!"
And the countersign was whispered loud enough for them to hear,
"Moon!"
"Ok, let's move."
That was uttered when the ship girls before them moved out of the way, shortly before arriving at and escaping through the cave exit as the cramped cave gave way to dense foliage some distance away, the last man being Suzuya as she replaced the floorboards to the cave exit, but not before arming it with landmines which would go off should the Abyssals discover and enter the cave.
The forest was a crowd of trees with life teeming in every tree crevice and square inch of land around them while forming walls of leaves with trees standing in everyone's way just like in a packed rush hour train, and the ship girls were doing their best to blend in with it all as they crawled through the jungle, and before the operation, Amazon company was told the position of the concertina wires, sniping trees, booby traps, land and clay-more mines so as to avoid them entirely.
Even if their presence couldn't activate these traps, it was still not a wise idea to next to explosives in the first place.
Keeping their firearms pointed down so as not to be spotted, Kitakami lowered her body frame as she called out anxiously to the 1st Fleet for them to echo,
"Hold!"
"Hold."
Ayanami followed everyone else's example as she took cover behind one of many deliberately felled trees in the area which provided some cover, listening to the light cruiser now calling out to someone in the distance in a wary tone using their agreed-on callsign.
"Sunray!"
And the countersign was whispered loud enough for them to hear,
"Moon!"
The 1st Fleet exhaled in relief as one, Ayanami raising her head a fraction in order to spot ship girls doing the same and identifying familiar faces such as Kinu, Fubuki, Mikuma, Maikaze and Houshou in the foliage.
It was still a strange sight to see ship girls dressed up as soldiers and hiding in a sea of trees, another distant boom sounding out in order to signal the Abyssals getting closer while Kinu, mostly recovering from her sustained injuries at the Kamogawa City Hall along with Yahagi and Kiyoshimo to be combat-ready, wildly gestured for them to cross over the concertina wire from the right as Fubuki was already moving, likely in order to open a gap in their defenses.
"Move."
The 1st Fleet moved across the opening in half-crouch positions while keeping low profiles, and as they circled around in order to meet up with the vanguard of Amazon company as Kitakami spoke up.
"The Abyssals are approaching our location, likely arriving in about five minutes."
"How many?"
Kinu's concern was understandable, and Suzuya piped up with the answer,
"Probably about a hundred or so foot mobiles."
"And armored vehicles.
Don't forget the armored vehicles shaking the earth."
Suzuya looked behind her shoulder and jerked her thumb at Ayanami, and Kinu face planted into the relatively shallow dirt trench which they laid in while Fubuki, looking positively frightened about their odds of survival, squeaked about possible reinforcements.
"Um…
If that's so, then when can we expect backup to arrive, either as planes or reinforcements, Ma'am?"
Hiei shrugged as she sat up straight and cocked her machine gun, looking up into the sky as it was blotted out by the dense foliage of leaves and branches above their heads which formed a shade of sorts for them to fight in, remarking darkly.
"Well, today's the 15th of May, which means that the ship girls of Ninja company should be approaching our location by tomorrow.
We need to hold this location until then, otherwise it'd muck up the entire plan."
Shigure, squinting her eyes while studiously looking at Hiei's back, suddenly asked a question which no one saw coming.
"Hiei-san.
Why do you have bite marks on the back of your neck?
The skin around it is also discolored, do you need to see a medic?"
The ship girls present lapsed into dead silence upon hearing that, the void now filled only by the sound of the chirping birds, rustling leaves as well as the buzzing insects all around them, Ayanami turning towards Shigure as did everyone else while the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer shrunk back within herself upon having ten pairs of eyes staring holes into her.
Hiei's face was burning, although she still maintained enough of her composure to give Shigure an exasperated look as she pleaded.
"Shigure, can we please focus on the fight at hand?
Don't we have, like, a World War to win?"
"... Oh. Ok."
Ayanami exhaled through her nose as the 1st Fleet got back to discussing their next possible course of action while Hiei conspicuously flipped up her collar, the Ayanami-Class destroyer understanding that Shigure's curiosity, while a positive trait, could crop up at the most inopportune moments as she asked about whatever caught her fancy at that moment, leading to awkward situations like these.
Houshou suddenly froze up as her horrified expression caught Ayanami's eye, suddenly tackling Fubuki and Maikaze to the ground even before she yelled in a panicked tone,
"DUCK!"
Everyone immediately followed suit and threw themselves to the ground, and even though the mortar shell missed them by a considerable margin, it's falling whistle was likely what the light carrier heard as the dirt and dust that was thrown up began to rain on them, Hiei pulled them up and started shouting into their ringing ears,
"They're shelling us!
We need to start fighting back; where the hell is the rest of Amazon company?!"
Sharp cracking noises could be heard from behind them, the first sounds of gunfire sounding out in the distance as leaves were perforated and trees branches were splintered from the bullets flying in from both sides of the battlefield.
Ayanami then saw Mikuma gesture behind them, remarking with a shaky confidence lacing her voice,
"Right behind us!"
Before the ship girls began filing out from the forest itself, several of them discarding the copper wire-laced poncho as they broke away from the trees and spot of earth which they were hugging, and others burst out from tunnels and started opening fire from the foxholes which were dug out beforehand, light carriers and cruisers hiding in distant trees and raining death from above with sniper rifles.
Smoke grenades were thrown, and these were different as the white smoke which they exhaled fogged up Ayanami's radar, which she highlighted in her question to her teammates,
"Umm, just asking, but…
Are those smoke grenades supposed to do that, blocking our radar and all that?"
"Well, look on the bright side, at least the Abyssals also can't detect us because of the nano-machines in the smoke reflecting radio waves in every direction."
"That isn't much of a consolation, just so you know!"
"It wasn't meant to be one, just so you know!"
Ayanami's banter with Hiei helped to ease some of the tension, the 1st Fleet now in a full-on firefight with the Abyssals as they fired into the smoke, white-hot lead being thrown in both directions and causing Ayanami to crouch behind the trench and sandbags which they were lying behind, concertina wire before them now looking pathetically weak in comparison to the amount of firepower which the Abyssals brought.
A dull boom sounded out in the distance, trees being felled and dirt being thrown up immediately after shell-to-earth contact as a tank made its way through the battlefield, Ayanami hearing a spotter reveal whatever was approaching them.
"It's a light tank!
Um, two, no, three PT-76 light tanks moving up!"
The rumbling of the earth was a minor spoiler before the reveal, Atago sounding out with a notification to all of Amazon company.
"Everyone, Atago here!
I'm moving up with a Panzerfaust 3 rocket launcher in order to take them out, I need covering fire along the way!"
"You heard the woman!
Let's move!"
The smoke was dissipating, and the Abyssals were now hiding behind some sort of artificial wall which was erected in order to stop Anti-Abyssal rounds from penetrating them, Ayanami getting a sneak peek as to how they worked.
A Ri-Class semi-crouched as she pulled at a steel rod in order to extend a black wall of what she could only assume to be bullet-resistant material like unrolling a roll of tin foil to form a horizontal wall, and she planted it into the ground before taking cover behind the portable defensive wall.
That was shortly before a grenade plopped into their trench, Ayanami and Fubuki turning to face the grenade which was conspicuously missing its lever and safety pin, which meant -
Ayanami's expression contorted in fear as she bolted for it and went against her fight-or-flight instincts telling her otherwise, scooping it up and hurling it straight into the air while aiming it slightly outside the trench while screaming,
"DUCK!"
And the ship girls around them followed her instruction to the letter while Ayanami collapsed onto the floor and covered the nape of her neck, feeling the air, earth and her insides quaking with the explosion about a second later, being partially buried by the loosened dirt which was sprinkled on her prone body before someone pulled her up, still dazed from the shock of what just transpired before Tenryuu shook her awake, remarking in an impressed tone and a grateful smile.
"Jesus, Ayanami, you just saved several of the ship girls in this trench with your quick action.
Just don't make this a recurring thing, alright?"
"A-Alright."
Hiei popped up behind them, sounding concerned about their position being overrun as she remarked tersely.
"Not that I don't enjoy you girls having this bonding session, but we need to get moving before we get overrun by these damn Abyssals!
Second line, defend the retreating first line, we're headed back to you and regrouping!"
The second line was directed at the second line of ship girls located behind them, and the battleship looked back at Suzuya, who nodded as she produced a packet of C4 and primed it by pressing buttons on a disposable phone before producing a mirror which was glued to a tree stick in order to peek above the trench sandbags and scout for available targets, all while the ship girls retreated through another underground cave.
It was immediately shot up into oblivion as a distant crack smashed the glass into innumerable pieces, Suzuya suddenly doubling over and seething,
"GODFUCKINGDAMNIT!
NOT THE FACE!"
While Kitakami moved up to her, picking up the dropped C4 and hurling it out of the trench in a Hail-Mary shot before slapping Suzuya on the shoulder, the aviation cruiser getting the message as she pressed the call button.
And since the radio wave-blocking smoke had all but dissipated by now, the button press precipitated a distant explosion which definitely caused damage due to the screech of flaming steel in the distance as Suzuya allowed herself to be pushed into the tunnel by the Kuma-Class light cruiser, Ayanami taking over and guiding her in before she recoiled slightly at the sight of the Mogami-Class aviation cruiser's bloody face.
Shards of glass were being pushed out thanks to the nanites and dropped them into the ground, but there was no hiding the blood which was drawn as a result of the broken glass cutting into her face as it flew into her face like shrapnel, and Suzuya now smearing red 'war-paint' on her face as she wiped her face with her left forearm and cleared the glass shards away, now two applications of eye-shadow away from becoming a complete ghoul in appearance.
The radio crackled again, static slightly muffling it somewhat but was still tolerable as Mutsu's voice complemented.
"Whoa!
Whoever threw that, good job, because the explosion destroyed one of the PT-76's tracks and caused it to fall into the pit created by the explosion!"
To which an invigorated Tenryuu-Class cruiser called out,
"Yeah!
That's what I'm talking about!"
"Ow!"
Kitakami, despite feeling some pain at the meaty impact which was likely Tenryuu punching her either on her shoulder or butt in the dark cave, the torpedo cruiser's tone was lighthearted enough to know not to take it seriously when she knew what Tenryuu was like.
Kinu came up to the end of the tunnel as she waved and called out,
"Sunray! Sunray!
It's us!
The Abyssals are hot on our tails, fire everything we have downrange while getting sections to flank them with heavier firepower!"
Ayanami popped out of the tunnel in order to see Arare helping her up, and Hyuga was firing her Browning M2 machine gun with no fuss despite the recoil which would give most humans and even lesser ship girls sores for days, the Ise-Class battleship firing controlled bursts so as to conserve ammunition.
Mortar shells were falling in a dispersed pattern to try and keep them moving before concentrating their fire, and the wafting smokescreen helped to disrupt their aim somewhat as they cowered from another shell creating a mini-earthquake and throwing dirt everywhere, causing Maikaze to smack the sprinkled dirt off of herself as they hugged the wall of the trench.
Up in the tree, Ayanami could see that Yahagi was manning an M24 SWS in order to snipe the enemy due to a lack of bird carriers in their company, and the mortar explosion shook her camouflage-colored poncho as the light carrier's next shot went wide.
Another mortar shell hit a little too close to home as Ayanami felt the shock-wave even from here, the shell chucking up and dislodging swaths of land like a dynamite excavator to partially bury Shigure, the tremors still present in the soil as Ayanami rushed over to her comrade.
Throwing aside her MP7 submachine gun, she hurriedly dug Shigure out of the makeshift grave while fearing the worst, shortly before she jumped as the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer's head popped out like a budding tree shoot from the mound as she comically spat out dirt from her mouth, feebly attempting to shake the dirt off of her while Ayanami helped her in that regard by digging in deep and hauling her out, a leaf-wearing Samidare moving up to pat her sister ship down as she squeaked.
"Come with me!"
The previously blue-haired Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer had her ocean-blue hair bleached before being cut and dyed black just like all the ship girls with colorful hair colors which didn't belong in a forest and made them stick out like sore thumbs, the leaves having been plucked from their surroundings and stuck to their uniform in order to further conceal themselves, but there was no hiding the concern in her expression as Samidare led the two 1st Fleet destroyers through the maze of trenches.
Hurling another unpinned fragmentation grenade over the trench sandbags, Ayanami mentally counted the seconds leading up to the explosion while preparing to duck in case an Abyssal decided to hurl the grenade back at them, and that possibility thankfully never occurred as an Abyssal corpse was sent flying into the trench thanks to the grenade explosion and had the three destroyers dumbly staring at the smoldering remains at their feet.
A Tsu-Class cruiser with charred skin was missing three limbs after having them blown clean off her body, and the helmet which the ship girls were familiar with due to their encounters on the ocean was cracked with parts breaking off to allow them the dubious honor of looking at the rarely seen sight of the Tsu-Class's shrapnel-shredded face, having blue-tinted flaming stumps for limbs and exemplifying the horrors of war as her bloodshot, empty eyes stared into the distance and had blood free-flowing from the mouth.
Samidare holstered her MP7 and dug into the walls of the trenches with trembling hands in order to scoop out dirt and bury the Abyssal corpse in dirt and smother the flames before it blew up in their faces, and she turned back in order to frantically gesture for them to move while they could.
Ayanami's HUD wasn't forgiving in what it displayed as it succinctly read,
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
ASASHIO-CLASS DESTROYER 089
"ARARE"
STATUS: DECEASED'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
TAIGEI-CLASS SUBMARINE TENDER 184
"TAIGEI"
STATUS: DECEASED'
A resounding boom in the distance followed the woody fracturing of steel against wood and caused a tree to be felled as Noshiro, camping on the sniping platform on the treetop, jumped ship as the tree collapsed rather than be crushed by the tree possibly falling on her, thankfully landing on the ship girl side of the battlefield while the fallen tree transformed the landscape yet again with a mighty crash.
Hearing someone else yell into the radio,
"Watch out!
A Ri-Class is about to use a bangalore in order to carve a path through the trenches and wires!"
It was followed up by a crack of a high-powered rifle being fired before Yahagi noted,
"No she's not!"
Several ship girls were crying out about getting shot, and the curt response over the radio was to tell them to either walk it off or suck it up, and a masculine voice sounded out over the radio as a JSDF soldier spoke up,
"Amazon company, the artillery battery is set up over the ridge, ready to shoot and scoot!
Awaiting target coordinates!"
To which Atago sounded out anxiously, Ayanami barely noticing her silhouette on the peripheral of her vision with a rocket launcher propped on her shoulder.
"Men, target these coordinates which I'm sending you, I'm targeting the incapacitated PT-76 tank!
This will be danger close, over!"
"Acknowledged, firing now!"
The forest then rang with the shrill scream of missiles and shells flying everywhere, Ayanami clutching onto the nearby tree trunk columns for support while feeling the soil tremble beneath her feet as though in the midst of the earthquake, her insides and mind being similarly shaken as her clenched teeth, shut eyes and brain shuddering in her skull hurt quite a bit from the vibrations plaguing her insides.
The aftermath wasn't any better, the little destroyer shaking her head to get rid of the tinnitus in her ears after being in such close range of a battery bombardment, the dust settling down on whoever survived the initial bombardment while her dazed mind was starting to lag a little from the mental fatigue which started to creep up on them, despite the earlier reprieve in the woods.
Samidare yelled into her ear as another mortar shell impacted, cratering and shaking the earth which surrounded them on three sides,
"Come on!
We have to keep moving!"
Before the unique growl of an armored vehicle's movements became apparent in the chaos along with its tracks causing the earth to quiver as it rowed along the earth, and the Abyssals were approaching their location while shouting about something or another, keywords including,
[Kill],
[Ship girls], and,
[Clear a path].
Samidare pushed Shigure into a tunnel just as the rumbling reached a crescendo and Ayanami could hear wires being snipped with heavy-duty cutters, and she let her MP7 submachine gun hang by the sling she had crafted for her main firearm as she unpinned a fragmentation grenade, cooking it for two seconds and almost dropping it out of fright as the PT-76 tank approaching their location fired its main cannon and caused her to jump.
She tossed the grenade over the trench and hoped that the sloped surface would direct most of the lethal explosive force away from them and towards the Abyssals, a notion which was proven right as the grenade performed as advertised, throwing up harmless dirt on her while Abyssals on the other side seethed,
[Urgh!]
[Sskkhh!]
And in her haste to celebrate having done some damage to the Abyssals, a niggling thought in her back of her mind piped up with a question as she brought up her MP7 submachine gun.
'Wait, won't that grenade explosion blow a wider hole in the wires and sandbags for the Abyssals to crawl through?
Shit.
No time to - '
Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw a Wo-Class's helmet popping above the crest of the trench and was wielding an AK-47 to wipe out ship girls who were hiding in the trenches and tunnels.
Ayanami, pushing on Samidare's butt to shove her into the tunnel before entering herself, was faster on the draw due to spotting the Abyssal's helmet, spraying bullets in her direction while climbing in and causing the Wo-Class's shots to miss except for two which hit her kidney and and left shoulder blade, and the latter started to heal almost instantaneously while the former was slower to reform.
The pain was similar to getting shot with shells, and yet so different.
With shells, those which couldn't straight-up penetrate your armor was reflected with blunt trauma leaving you feeling as though you'd been punched, and those which did penetrate simply carved out their pound of flesh, bone and body from your body like cutting a cake.
Firearm bullets were far smaller and bounced off due to the uneven contours of their bodies and their armor providing some protection, but its intense velocity was concentrated in a small projectile and allowed for more thorough penetration even if their metal bodies could stop its trajectory, which could deal potentially lethal damage andwhywasshethinkingaboutthiswhileshewasbleedingout?
Not that she should hang around Shigure less, but she tenderly clutched the entry to the bullet wound, panting for dear life and feeling her flesh close up in her palm while wondering if she was becoming too smart for her own good like the Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer.
Samidare pulled her in and shielded her just as another grenade went off at the mouth of the tunnel and shook up the entire cave while Shigure cocked her reloaded MP7 submachine gun once the shock wore off, Samidare revealing herself to be hurt by the shrapnel drawing blood and staining her uniform while Shigure took note of both their conditions and guarded the rear flank as she urged,
"Retreat.
I'll cover you two as you move to the tunnel exit on the other side."
Ayanami crawled with both hands in order to move through the tunnels as quickly as possible, trying to block out the throbbing pain in her side in order to recount which ones were the correct paths, since several of them were dead ends aimed to mislead the Abyssals who crawled in along with them, if the proximity mines planted within its walls didn't blow them up and cause the caves to collapse in the first place.
Bursts of gunfire were heard directly behind her while thunderous growls of the earthen walls around them rang from raining mortar shells, and Ayanami could feel her trickling blood escaping through the pores of her bloodied uniform while the stifling darkness eventually gave way to the light at the end of the tunnel, shouting the password,
"Sunray!"
Before the clacking of lowered firearms could be heard, human hands reaching down in order to help her out as a dirt-covered Kinu thankfully remarked.
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright!
Our left and right wings are attempting to flank the Abyssals, and we need to hold this area until Tateyama's Ninja company arrives tomorrow!"
Ayanami nodded weakly, leaning over as she shook the bullet free from her uniform while Samidare, ever the concerned ship girl, leaned in with a steel patch for her as she remarked.
"Ayanami-san?
Please, use this to ensure a full recovery."
"Oh, but what about you, Samidare-san?"
The Shiratsuyu-Class destroyer gave her a pained yet determined smile with her camo-painted face, shaking the shrapnel from her uniform in the meantime.
"Oh, don't you worry.
My injuries aren't severe since they didn't penetrate, but your bullet wound is since the assault rifle rounds went through you.
And is that another wound I see on your shoulder…?"
Samidare leaned in to check her second wound once she caught a glimpse of it, but Ayanami gently pushed aside the leaves on Samidare's uniform which tickled her skin as she got closer, not wishing to be caught off-guard by any Abyssals as she hastily accepted Samidare's gift, pulled up her top and slapped it on while dismissing.
"Oh, that's nowhere near as serious as this one.
Can we, you know…"
The difficult and pleading look which she gave Samidare was enough for her to understand the severity of the situation, hardening her gaze as they pulled back the cocking handles of their MP7 submachine guns, popping up from the trench crest and unloading white-hot steel into any Abyssal unfortunate enough to stand in their way.
One of many disguised booby traps was activated as a Ri-Class heavy cruiser was caught in a snare, being hoisted up by a lasso which caught her by the ankle and caused her to drop her assault rifle as she wildly flailed her arms about in a panic, several bloody holes being torn into her helpless form and ending her life right then and there.
Hearing Musashi call out with a question,
"Birdmen, is the area free of enemy scouts on elevated positions or incoming aerial units?"
" … No, there doesn't seem to be enemy snipers on our platforms, and the skies are clear of planes as of now!
The last light tank also seems to be hanging back and taking pot shots at us!"
"Then it's time to push back!
Smoke 'em!"
The two PT-76 tanks were keeping their distance, but the commotion coming from the left flank made her think that the ship girls there were doing everything they could in order to take them down while missiles were flying in after the JSDF missile battery had relocated, Hiei, Musashi and Hyuga propping their MINIMI machine guns on the trench crests in order to lay down cover fire on the Abyssals hiding behind the mechanical roller walls.
Hiei stopped her firing in order to snap her fingers at them before reloading, and on cue, more smoke grenades were thrown over the trench as Ayanami saw Tenryuu, Kitakami, Kinu and several other ship girls reload and prepare their firearms before climbing the trench in order to take down the Abyssals at close range.
Ayanami felt the adrenaline coursing throughout her body with every beat of her steel heart, and she wondered if this was what World War 1 soldiers felt like, climbing the trenches and suddenly being the most religious person in the world, with explosions going off all around them while bullets whizzed and either spat into the ground at their feet or kissed her skin as they flew too close for comfort.
All they needed was someone playing a bagpipe, and they were set.
The fact that both parties' radars were disabled by the smokescreen was far from comforting, instead making her wary of everything around her.
This was all so similar to naval warfare, yet all too brutal and … permanent for her to get used to as the forest was changed by the tides of war for the worse whereas before, the ocean was mostly a neutral plane of existence in which those who went under were either sunk or were Abyssals, the line between the two being blurred in the murky depths which was the abyss.
She trekked over the body of Kitakami writhing on the floor as Suzuya covered the torpedo cruiser who was in the midst of recovering, and a downed Ri-Class materializing through the smokescreen revealed the perpetrator, the Abyssal lying at the foot of a tree and was still alive even after several rounds were emptied into her, still attempting to reach for her Mossberg 500 shotgun which was resting in the fork of a tree root.
Without thinking, the Ri-Class could only utter a surprised,
[Motherfu-]
From her bleeding mouth before Ayanami emptied the entire magazine into her face in a panic.
Armor didn't mean much when firing into sensitive areas like the eyes, nose and mouth as the muscles on the Abyssal's face were ripped from her, well, face, eyeballs popping and more blood erupting from her mouth while her tongue was perforated and was turned into a lump of bloody mush.
The bullet caliber of her submachine gun was enough to do all that, but it had some trouble penetrating the heavily-armored skull as it was dented with every impact, but was ultimately unable to get the job done.
Her firearm clicked as it rang empty, and with it, came the dawning horror of Abyssals possibly being attracted to her position if they heard the gunshots, relying on the fear of dying more than training to push herself forward to pick up the pump-action shotgun which the damned Ri-Class cruiser was still trying to reach for, even if the Abyssal had to blindly crawl towards it.
Holding it awkwardly since it was never designed for a child to wield, she simply said,
'To Hell with it!'
With the shotgun stock which was unable to fit on her shoulder and went under her armpit, holding it by the foregrip and bringing it up as best she could before pulling the trigger.
The recoil was beyond anything which her body was used to handling, feeling as if a heavy cruiser had punched her in the left shoulder and caused her to move back several steps, and the fired shell roared as it flew out in a flaming conical arc from the muzzle and erased the Ri-Class's head from existence and caused Ayanami to jump at the sound of the gunshot going off right before her.
That wasn't something she would ever see when fighting on the ocean.
She really wished she could've stayed on the ocean.
A bleeding stump which was the neck was what was left as the Abyssal's grey matter and skull bits were strewn behind her, and the enemy heavy cruiser fell to the ground and polluted the earth with her blood, and Ayanami found herself hyperventilating at the gruesome sight as the smokescreen fell on it like a curtain call, now flinching at the sound of rustling trees and urgent voices amidst the white haze of death enveloping her and hiding everyone else.
[ - ver there!]
Time to go.
Tingling sensations crescendoed at the ends of her limbs as she crouched and crept foward just as she heard a tanned Yamato-Class's voice yelling while moving up,
"MOVE FORWARD!
PUSH THEM BACK!"
To which an Abyssal voice called out derisively, likely in retaliation,
[Abyssals!
Hold your ground!]
And with their radar disabled due to the smokescreen, Ayanami really held off on pulling the trigger every time she saw anything fade into sight, understanding that backs facing her were friendlies, and the white faces and black clothes peeking through the smoke were very much enemies.
Shifting her balance on the uneven ground of the unforgiving forest, she whispered hoarsely to a small back in front of her,
"Sunray!"
The figure looked back to reveal Fubuki, her frightened green eyes wide as saucers while the natural-black hair extensions down the sides of her face were the only things left of her old look, the rest now covered by paint, helmet, uniform and combat gear while she held an acquired AK-47 with an ACOG scope on it, looking like a bona fide child soldier.
Ayanami gave her a reassuring nod to calm her cousin down (their classes were close due to being sub-classes in a greater Fubuki-Class classification), gesturing with her Mossberg 500 shotgun for Fubuki to follow her as she took the lead.
Fighting without radar was like entering a fistfight with one eye blinded; you could compensate for it, but the lack of situational awareness which couldn't be overcome made you jumpy, and the fact that she couldn't see three feet in front of her made her fearful to the point of outright paranoia as every beat of her heart resonated throughout her body, ready to leap out of her chest at any time.
Hearing another whisper to her left,
"Sunray."
"Moon."
She didn't even need to look back to know Tenryuu was behind her as they moved, and a Kevlar-like wall appearing before her with a peeking Ta-Class staring right back at her with emerald orbs caused every fiber of her being to go into overdrive, shrieking,
"CONTACT!"
And the four of them fired at each other at the same time, the Ta-Class battleship outclassing them with an Ultimax 100 light machine gun but was outgunned in a three-to-one match-up as Ayanami's reflexive shot to her torso stunned her long enough for Tenryuu and Fubuki to empty their magazines into the Ta-Class.
A Tsu-Class light cruiser likely circled the bulletproof wall, because she came up from their flank and sprayed fire at Tenryuu and Fubuki to scare them off, and Ayanami raising her shotgun and turning to her side was met with a shoulder strike to her face, feeling her nose crack sickeningly as she hit the ground hard as her butt slapping on mud while she felt her nose flood with the slick texture and the metallic scent of blood, but all that was undercut by the Abyssal Tsu-Class emptying several of her HK416 assault rifle rounds into her.
Pain.
Just… pain.
Everywhere.
She could feel the bullets which weren't aimed at her torso and thus stopped by her Kevlar vest biting into her flesh and drawing blood as they caused a throbbing ache deep within her body as though she had taken a sledgehammer to her internal organs, the nano-machines doing their job as her muddled vision started to clear after the surprise facial.
She valiantly struggled to remain conscious as Tenryuu tackled her assailant while Fubuki, after giving her a concerned look, circled the downed Ayanami to get at the Abyssal who was beyond her upward-looking field of vision, feeling her pooling blood stain the back of her uniform.
That was gonna be a bitch to wash off.
She assumed that they took out the Tsu-Class together with the sound of gunfire as Fubuki came back to her, helping her up as her muscles were still attempting to piece themselves back together.
"Ayanami, please retreat!"
She vehemently shook her head at the mere thought of that, weakly propping her enemy shotgun close to her armpit while hearing the steady beat of a heavy machine gun being fired as its owner advanced, eventually responding with,
"I… I'm fine.
The enemy is before us, let's move."
Her cousin was reluctant to allow that, so Ayanami gently shook off her arm and stood on her own two feet while double-wielding her Mossberg 500 shotgun in order to convince her cousin, and Fubuki finally acquiesced with a compromise being that she went in front this time, although they both lagged behind Tenryuu as the light cruiser led the charge.
A few more notifications dampened her spirits even further as they read,
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
SENDAI-CLASS LIGHT CRUISER 046
"SENDAI"
STATUS: DECEASED'
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
JUNSEN TYPE-B SUBMARINE 283
"I-26"
STATUS: DECEASED'
The smoke was only now starting to disperse, allowing her to spot Musashi firing her M2 machine gun at anyone who dared to stand in their way, easily piercing through trees and less-armored foes who weren't behind sturdy enough covers, Kitakami, Nachi and Kinu flanking her and frantically watching the trees in order to cover her advance.
If the battlefield was chaotic before, it had nothing on the cacophony of noises which filled Ayanami's ears now, understanding Ma'am Jackie prediction that compared to previous human wars in which the discharge of enemy firearms would allow them the chance to make an intelligent guess as to where they were, this would be complete pandemonium.
Since the Abyssals plagiarized firearm designs from various countries (including Japan) and the ship girls would eventually find themselves using Abyssal firearms, it would be a mess where it sounded like enemies were firing on enemies and allies firing on allies, further muddying their situation awareness and putting everyone on edge.
Damn it all.
Ayanami felt the weight of her combat gear as well as the unwieldy and heavier Anti-whatever shotgun which she held take a toll on her stamina, compounded with the fact that she was shot several times and it made for a very winded Ayanami, but she had no time to rest as another wave of Abyssals were advancing as they attempted to push them back.
Taking cover behind a tree and temporarily discarding the Mossberg 500 shotgun, she reloaded her MP7 submachine gun as she was afraid that taking it slow and preparing for any scenario was leagues better than rushing forward without a plan.
Having reloaded her submachine gun and pistol sidearm, she picked up the shotgun again to check how many shots she had left (two) before rushing to catch up and jump into the firefight which was heating up before her, with three Wo-Class carriers attempting to pick off anyone who strayed from the pack.
Ayanami heard Nachi call out with no small amount of concern in her voice,
"Right flank, the left flank's dealing with the PT-76 tank, so where the hell are you all?!"
"We'll be there!
We'll be there!"
Ayanami sidled up to Fubuki as they both crawled on the forest floor and allowed her to taste dirt and the low-lying vegetation which was only slightly above calf-level height, spying an opportune moment to peek from her hiding spot and fire at one Wo-Class carrier.
Another funnel of hell fire burst from her firearm and caught the Wo-Class off-guard, and the Abyssal stumbled back as her skin ripped apart with white-hot 12-gauge steel tearing into her skin, and Fubuki backed her up by putting the afflicted Wo-Class down with several dozen 7.62×39 mm bullets piercing her armor and dropping her, the rest of the Abyssals now turning their attention and wrath upon them with a vengeance.
Tenryuu chose this moment to show how she had circled around before attacking from a ten o'clock direction in contrast to Ayanami and Fubuki's seven o'clock assault with the right flank finally sweeping in from the three o'clock direction as the Abyssals were forced to focus on three threats, the medium-damaged Wo-Class and an undamaged Ri-Class cruiser hunting Ayanami and Fubuki down.
Pushing Fubuki away before scampering away herself, the name-ship of the Ayanami-Class was now preparing to catch one of them off-guard with the remaining shotgun shell into one Abyssal before switching to her sidearms to finish the other off.
And everything went to shit as a flash-bang grenade landed in front of her.
FOR THE LOVE OF -
Her entire field of view turned to a painfully luminescent white while her ears started to ring from the million or so high-pitched bells suddenly and incessantly chiming within the delicate inner canals of her ears and forcing her to double over while her mind and body attempted to recover, causing her to lose her balance as she stumbled and drunkenly fell into a ditch while the feeling of disorientation which plagued her body was being flushed out by her internal systems, squinting as the swirly double vision began to subside.
Swallowing the rising bile in her throat and flexing the control she had over her body to shakily hold up her Mossberg 500 shotgun while using the ground she laid on to prop it up, she was jumpy, disoriented and paranoid enough to simply fire at the first person who showed her face.
The appearing Ri-Class cruiser, wielding her own Mossberg 500 shotgun, stumbled back from the 12 gauge shell fired into her as the Abyssal's jerking of the trigger caused her shots to go wide despite her successful attempts to maintain her footing and not double over, and Ayanami was desperate enough to push her sore muscles beyond what she was normally comfortable with by throwing the empty shotgun at the Ri-Class.
[Urgh!]
The wounds on the Ri-Class's body did not take well to a foreign object smacking them if the Abyssal's seething expression and flinch was any indication, but Ayanami understood that this was now or never with her life on the line, whipping out both her MP7 submachine gun and her SIG Sauer P220 pistol in order to empty them both into the Ri-Class while closing her eyes and angling her helmet forward so as to protect her vulnerable optics, praying the entire while.
Tanking the 12-gauge shell flying into her helmet and body felt like a handful of heated beads tearing into her flesh while also acting like a flurry of fists coming down from above and pounding her into the dirt as her ribs creaked and her helmet painfully pressed on her skull, both firearms clicking empty with the fireworks abruptly stopping as the Ri-Class was inexplicably still standing even with holes filling her body and bloody steel bones being exposed, and repeating her trick of throwing both her firearms was folly at this time as it would leave her defenseless.
Ok, compromise time.
Throwing only her pistol in order to squirm on the floor and reach for her magazine, the Ri-Class was certainly fuming at Ayanami's audacity to even attack her but was too dazed from the pain induced by her wounds to aim straight while Ayanami's HUD read,
'ERROR: SHIP GIRL VITALS NOT FOUND
FUBUKI-CLASS DESTROYER 011
"FUBUKI"
STATUS: DECEASED'
No.
No.
A second wind drove an infuriated Ayanami to her feet but was instantly knocked right out of her as the Ri-Class's Hail-Mary 12-gauge shell pounded her chest through her Kevlar vest like a battleship's punch and pushed her to the ground again, but she ignored the breathlessness and the throbbing pain in her chest while hearing gunshots in the distance, the world in her eyes sharpening in resolution yet slowing down due to the adrenaline in her body.
Slamming her magazine into her trembling MP7 submachine gun, she emptied everything into the Ri-Class heavy cruiser while her labored breathing significantly threw off her aim, and the Ri-Class cruiser was then tag-teamed by Tenryuu who put her down for good with a barrage of bullets penetrating her body, the Abyssal dropping like a sack of potatoes as the Tenryuu-Class light cruiser came into view.
The panting Tenryuu-Class light cruiser then turned her attention to Ayanami as she offered a hand, Ayanami accepting it and climbing out to join Tenryuu in crouching beside Fubuki's dead body.
The deceased Fubuki-Class destroyer's uniform, like Ayanami's, was ripped as it was riddled with bullet holes, and a bullet wound in her throat instantly killed her and likely shot out the nape of her neck as well, strips of flesh keeping her head attached to her neck being as fresh-red blood had already pooled beneath her head and tainted the dirt while empty eyes looked to the sky.
No.
Ayanami kept a low profile as she closed Fubuki's half-lidded eyes while complicated feelings began to well up within her like a boiling cauldron which threatened to overflow, and her expression started to sour as her throat clamped up and her vision started to water as precursors before a crying fit, feeling Tenryuu's reassuring palm on her shoulder, the both of them tuning out the cacophony of whizzing bullets, screaming ship girls and booming explosions as Tenryuu's tone was understanding and was even choked up with grief, but was also pleading.
"Ayanami…
There's nothing more we can do for her except to call in for a medevac, which I already did.
Can you still continue on?"
Continue the fight.
Finish it.
Those ingrained values kept urging her on despite her wish to be with Fubuki until she was revived, inhaling sharply as she remembered Junyou and Tatsuta's states as an indirect result of her weakness, channeling all her bottled feelings of impotence, grief and frustration into a curled fist which splintered the tree root beneath them, cratering the soil in the process.
Despite bruising her knuckles and greatly surprising Tenryuu, she exhaled and nodded tersely before giving a simple,
"Yes."
To answer Tenryuu, feeling the catharsis reliving the tension from her body and allowing her to bring her breathing under control thanks to an action which she once found quite silly, but she realized the merits of occasionally letting off steam, looking up at Tenryuu with a steely gaze which was softening by the second as her body was brought back under her control, humbly requesting.
"Yes.
Tenryuu-san, can you please help to reload and pass me Fubuki's procured AK-47 rifle and magazines?
I'll find and salvage more 12-gauge shells from the dead Ri-Class's body…"
Motioning with her chin to the recently killed Ri-Class courtesy of Ayanami and Tenryuu,
"And we'll use their weapons against them.
Might as well take this time to find my pistol as we - "
Tenryuu jumped as another tremor of considerable magnitude shook the earth thanks to the JSDF missile battery raining hell down upon the enemy, but Tenryuu reached into a pocket and handed Ayanami's thrown P220 pistol back to her, Tenryuu's distressed expression belying her concern regarding Ayanami's status.
"You sure?
You've taken a lot of punishment already, and…"
Ayanami's breathing stabilized as her gaze stopped Tenryuu from finishing her question before she walked towards the Abyssal corpse, hearing Tenryuu comment,
"W-Well, I'll use the shotgun, then!
I'm better built to use it!"
"Huh.
Good point, alright."
She moved over to the Abyssal corpse and picked up the shotgun to check for the shells left in it (one), and she searched the enemy's combat gear for shells to load the Mossberg 500 shotgun with, because carrying excessive ammunition was going to tire them out prematurely.
The shotgun was now in Tenryuu's hands due to its ergonomic incompatibility with Ayanami, reloading her weapons and giving Tenryuu a grim nod which was returned as the cruiser brought up the enemy shotgun, looking back to find Akizuki and Yuugumo moving Fubuki's corpse onto a medical stretcher, the former cringing in disgust as she cradled Fubuki's head, shoulders and almost-severed neck with her bloody forearms so as not to allow it to detach entirely.
Ugh.
Creeping forward, the smokescreen was now gone with Abyssal corpses strewn everywhere and ship girls hiding behind cover, a Wo-Class cruiser being impaled and pinned to a tree by long, steel-tipped sticks fired from a buried harpoon gun as her head was partially destroyed after suffering a head-shot after being pinned, several more Abyssals killed in action by these booby traps which included mines and pits, amongst other.
Everyone in Amazon company looked haggard with bloody uniforms, ragged breathing, glossy skin and ruined camouflage along with Ayanami as she felt the nano-machines demand payment in the form of stamina and fuel and glanced upwards upon hearing an approaching chopping noise, recognizing it as a helicopter's blades at work as a Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter hailed them over the radio,
"Amazon company, Helios-4 here.
Laying down cover fire.
Requesting manual acquirement of Abyssal targets for a more accurate barrage."
As a machine of whirling death descended from above with missiles, mini-guns and machine guns at the ready to deal death from above, watching Nachi fire at and scare off a cheeky Ta-Class who tried to peek out of a ditch with a Stinger missile launcher, Amazon company now emboldened to advance with it in order to prevent their backup vehicle from being shot down.
Several ship girls used laser attachments and specialized binoculars to mark their targets while Musashi advancing with Hatsuzuki followed behind and carried her roaring machine gun's ammunition, Tenryuu turning back and motioning for Ayanami to take a tunnel route as she heard Helios-4 open fire on the Abyssals with a steady BRAAAPP sound of certain death, one of the two pilots grunting.
"Helios-4, recommending clearing out the Abyssals who're targeting us with Anti-Air rocket launchers!
We're getting multiple attempted lock-on signatures, and we can't keep out of their sights for much longer!"
"That isn't your only problem!"
Ma'am Jackie's urgent voice made herself heard over the radio within the claustrophobic confines of the tunnels, sounding winded as though she were exerting herself which she very likely did even after the Kamogawa City Hall Roof incident.
"Reports of multiple vehicular signatures closing in from your East, recommend that Helios-4 pull back, circle around and flank them when you're done, Amazon company will advance further before taking the other flank!
You'll be receiving vehicular backup in about ten minutes!"
"Rrgh!
Acknowledged!"
Tenryuu snuck through the tunnels along with Ayanami, the duo coming across a few ship girls along the way headed for various other locations, hurriedly whispering,
"Sunray!"
"Moon!"
In order to confirm that an Abyssal wasn't crawling with them in the tunnels, and as they came up to an opening thanks to the memorization of the network's entrances and exits, the light cruiser pushed aside the camouflage hiding it from the Abyssals, peeking at the back of an occupied Ru-Class with a shoulder-mounted SA-7 Grail MANPADS launcher and was covered by other Abyssals.
Tenryuu peeked out with her shotgun and fired into her back while Ayanami unpinned a fragmentation grenade to pass to the light cruiser.
[SON OF A BIT-]
The Ru-Class battleship tumbled forward from the 12-gauge entering her back, and it was enough to momentarily distract her before Tenryuu's cooked grenade plopped into their midst in order to send the Abyssals scurrying away while exclaiming,
[Duck!]
Tenryuu slunk back into the tunnel and protectively hugged Ayanami as her face was pressed against the light cruiser's Kevlar vest, the earth rumbling like an underground subway tunnel for an instant before stopping, the both of them releasing their hold on each other as the sound of gunfire sounded out again.
Flashbang grenades were thrown out as Helios-4's stream of gun fire either perforated the armor of lesser Abyssals or cut down trees like wheat before the scythe by messily penetrating them and sent splinters flying everywhere like a field of sprinklers on full-blast, Tenryuu yelling into her ear,
"Let's take these bastards out and use their own weapons against them as we move East!
Those enemy vehicles aren't going to take themselves out, and we don't have much Anti-Tank weapons with us!"
Nodding, they scurried through the tunnel network in order to get to another exit, and this time, they popped up from beneath a collapsed tree as though it had been felled by a dynamite stick thanks to the Apache's firing, which rearranged the landscape and was now circling around and rising into the air in order to fire its Hellfire missiles at enemy vehicles.
Encircling the Abyssals in order to take them out, the firefight resumed its usual intensity as Ayanami hid behind cover, something which was quite the sensible thing to do despite the Anti-Abyssal rounds being entirely capable of penetrating trees, and she heard Ma'am Jackie speak up about backup, only seconds before said backup arrived.
"Amazon company, I just got news from the Japanese Princesses, Amaya and Ayane.
Their escort, Ashigara-7, just used the UH-1J helicopter they came in on and was headed your way four minutes ago!
She'll be on the scene any moment now!"
Ayanami didn't bother to register that announcement since it didn't immediately concern her immediate prospects of survival as she got a Tsu-Class Abyssal in her sights, but as soon as an enthusiastic voice shrieked,
"HEADS UP!"
Everyone's gazes turned upwards ship girl fell out of the sky as the Abyssal light cruiser also looked up warily, a ship girl's high heels meeting the Tsu-Class's helmet, and if this wasn't a live demonstration of what a Goomba stomp was like in real life, nothing was.
The Tsu-Class light cruiser's helmet caved in as a mystery ship girl landed on her, and she was partially driven into the ground before the structural integrity of her steel bones failed as her body crumpled like a soda can being crushed on a sailor's forehead, bones cracking loudly while innards flew everywhere as Ayanami thought she saw the Tsu-Class's head and neck get curb-stomped into her torso beneath shoulder level before being squished.
The dust wave thrown up upon touchdown thankfully obscured the worst of the gruesome scene as the impact caused the ground to crater and the air to swoosh and burst out from its epicenter, causing ship girls to take cover while exclaiming every variant of the following two sentences.
"What the hell?!"
"The fuck?!"
And as the dust settled, Amazon company sneaked in with raised weapons to find that the Tsu-Class cruiser was suffering from a very bad case of dead, the Abyssal now a smear in the center of the crater as whatever remained of her was either disfigured or broken beyond any means of recovery, the crater now completely colored with the alien's fluids which got on the heels of the unidentified ship girl as she wore a blue uniform top, a black form-hugging miniskirt, ivory pantyhose along with bloody steel heels and chestnut-brown hair, recognizing her as Ashigara due to the unique collar ribbon, headband and gloves.
Except this wasn't Ashigara of Yokosuka.
Ayanami wasn't entirely sure of this, but the vibe given off by the heavy cruiser who tried to wipe the blood and grey matter from the soles of her heels was far more different, sensuous, and much more powerful than Yokosuka's Ashigara.
Amazon company warily sneaked up on the Myoukou-Class cruiser because, well, she was a ship girl after all, but unlike Helios-4, Ashigara's arrival here was an unforeseen occurrence which came out of left field.
And even though the she wasn't carrying her rigging and weapons of any sort, there was an aura of subdued strength around the Myoukou-Class heavy cruiser which subtly convinced Ayanami that it wouldn't make a difference even when on land.
Ashigara turning back to acknowledge their presence just as the AH-64 Apache opened fire in order to cover them along with the JSDF's timely missile barrage, Ayanami jumping with her AK-47 along with Tenryuu carrying the Mossberg 500 shotgun as the heavy cruiser noticed their existence, holding up a hand in a horizontal victory pose to her winking left eye as she exclaimed cheerily while putting on a million-dollar smile.
"Victory is at hand!
Ashigara-7, better known as Mata Hari, on the scene!"