Chapter 9

"I don't understand, did our radar get spoofed?"

"Erm…"

An hour since their pursuit began, they tracked the smuggling ship to a nearby archipelago, what a cargo vessel nearly twice the size of Sovereign herself did there initially confused them. A vessel of that size could not manoeuvre, or hide very well after all. However, as if they were chasing a ghost all this time, an hour of searching bore nothing for them, and they had to consider other options.

"There is tech that can do it…maybe they smuggled it from Atlas?"

"You know Atlas keeps their toys locked up tight, no, I believe we got tricked by a semblance. This has happened before, so I'm really not surprised. Damn semblances, they make everything complicated for no reason…"

Indeed, Sovereign shared in her captain's frustrations. You didn't get this far in the Valean Nav-Coast Guard without at least having a bit of pride, and losing a cargo ship twice her size of all things stung it like a hornet. Though she was not to stew in her own thoughts for long, however, as she felt someone board her ship. Looking around quickly, no one had noticed the presence on the bridge, and never had she ever thought that she would be the subject of a boarding action. She cursed her ability, or lack thereof, to interact with her crew members.

With frantic speed, she reappeared directly at where she felt the new 'addition' to her ship was, only to see something that stupefied her. In one of her electrical rooms, stood what appeared to be a black-haired teenage girl in an…eccentric outfit. But more importantly, she was messing with the fuses on her vessel; and worst of all, she knew exactly what to mess up. She tried to grab the girl on instinct, but alas, she simply phased through her like nothing. Faced with such a thing, she did the only thing she could do, curse at her.

"OY! Get your bloody hands off of those fuses you spineless brat-"

"Shut it."

"How dare you! I am going to give you a piece of my mind-"

"Sure, Aunty."

"AUNTY!? I'll have you know that-wait, you can bloody talk to me?!" Sovereign did not realize that the girl actually responded to her until now, and her jaw was left hanging at her, all the while her fuses continued to be messed with.

"I wonder what this does…?"

Her hands went over the fuse box responsible for her four turrets, and as she pushed a lever next to it down, Sovereign felt her four turrets immediately lose power, unable to be used.

"Ack! You listen here, young lady! I don't know what you're trying to do, or how you can talk to me, but what you're doing here is illegal-"

"You know I'm the smuggler you've been trying to catch, right?"

Why was the Electrical Room unattended?! Where were all of the engineers-oh right, a lot of the functions got turned over to a computer after her refit…meaning that she had less crew compared to previous years…

"You?! But you aren't a cargo ship, you're…you're…" The more Sovereign looked at the girl, the more of a familiar feeling she got with her. It was a sixth sense that told her where the spirits of other ships were if they had one, and this girl most definitely felt like a 'ship' to her. But that was not possible, because she was currently physically interacting with her ship.

"Hutten. And I am not a 'cargo ship'."

This teenage-looking brat actually had to audacity to use air quotes in front of her, the other younger ships in the Valean Coast Guard feared her! Who was she to give her such disrespect?!

"Ah, there you are. Ship propulsion. Dust Engines, effective, but easily disabled."

Hutten pulled another plug, and flipped another lever, this time taking her propulsion out. At this point, Sovereign was beet red with anger and shame. Shame for letting someone like her sneak onto her ship easily, and take out a good portion of her vessel's capabilities. She was no longer 'operational' at this point.

"And just for good measure…" She crushed the fuse in her hands, ensuring that a replacement would have to be brought up and reconfigured before it could be used again. A process which unfortunately took some time…

"See ya around, I'll make sure to tell Valean about this." Valean?! Pride of the fleet, and last Battleship of Vale, Valean?! This brat knew her personally?! Sovereign saw a smug, victorious smirk coming from her as she exited the electrical room, the other fuses were untouched, thus arising no suspicion from her crew members. Continuing to curse her guts all the way back out onto the deck, she let out a tirade of truly impressive swearing too graphic for any of her juniors to hear. Some of it was even in the old Valean language, which was still in fashion when she got commissioned.

"ENCULER! SALOPE! CONNARD! Sac à Merde! I CURSE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY! A THOUSAND LIFETIMES OF SUFFERING-"

"All this anger isn't going to make you any younger, Aunty. Au revoir."

"I AM NOT AN AUNTY!" As soon as she got out her last insult, Hutten simply fell over the sides of her ship. Running over to see where she landed, there must have been a rowboat of some kind that took her here, and there was a chance for her crew to spot it-

"What…" Hutten simply floated above the water. No, she did not walk, but it was honest to the divines floating. The water rippled along the path she sailed away towards, and she soon lost track of her in the dark ocean. Stomping her foot on the ground, she had not felt this way since finding out that Faunus blockade runners had slipped past her task force all the way back during the Faunus Wars. Well, the next time that she moored in Vale for whatever reason, she had something to ask Valean about-

FWOOOOOOM

Jumping into the air in surprise, a loud and massive ship horn sounded off very close to her. She knew it wasn't from her own ship, so it had to be from someone else-

"Sacré bleu…"

Her searchlights flared to life, manned by her human crew. All of them were pointed at the source of the sounds, and eventually, they all triangulated on it. She saw no cargo ship, as she initially expected, but instead, a massive, floating block of steel. The secondary turrets alone that she saw on the ship rivalled her entire main armament, and that was only one side. Four massive turrets were then shone on by the searchlights, each of the guns on them probably twice the size of her own main guns. There was no mistaking it, what she and her crew were seeing right now, was a Battleship.

She felt her bridge explode into a flurry of activity, and she reappeared on it a second later.

"Captain! Propulsion systems not working, Engine Room reports an electrical fault-"

"All four main turrets offline! Gun crews report an electrical fault-"

Just as she expected, everything that the brat touched, stopped working. The room was then silenced by another shout.

"Sir! The…ship, it's sending a signal in flash…" Or Morse, as the old way of saying it was called. As they watched the battleship sail off into the distance, a signal was being relayed to them through that ancient, but tried and tested method of communication. Sovereign read the message, and deciphered it instantly, her face darkening as a result.

"See…you…around…Aunty? The hell does that mean?" Her Captain asked no one in particular, but there was only one person, or spirit, that knew what it really meant. All she could do right now was watch Hutten sail off, which filled her all the more with rage.

"YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

With that distraction out of the way, Ruby made good time in her remaining journey. Sure, she could have just hidden from it using her rigging form, but it had the annoying habit of producing a much larger radar signature than what was actually there. So even though her rigging form was barely larger than a medium-sized rowboat, it showed on radars as a full-sized battleship. She chalked it up to Wisdom Cube functions and accepted it. So even if she did successfully get away, the radars could eventually pick her up again, thus leading them to where she had to drop her cargo off. Considering that her client probably preferred to not have the Coast Guard arrive at the same time she delivered her cargo, disabling Sovereign temporarily was probably the best idea. She could cry all she wanted, Ruby was the one who had a rigging, not her.

Sailing right up to an abandoned pier, the Seatown she was specified to drop her cargo off at was overrun by Grimm some years ago. Though the infrastructure had rotted slightly, it was an ideal place to conduct illicit transactions, without the use of a major port that is. Still in rigging form, she checked the time.

"I'm early…"

Even with the hour-and-a-half detour in her journey, she still made it according to her plans by sailing at maximum speed instead of her cruising speed. It made more 'noise' sure, but it was useful to do in a pinch. Finding a suitably sturdy pier, she summoned her rigging and let Schwarz take out her cargo.

"Just right here, be careful-"

WHAM

"...What did I say?"

Schwarz whimpered a bit. The 'resizing' process was something that baffled many observers at first, a full-sized cargo container could be shrunk into a miniature version, then re-enlarged. Technically there were counted as speciality Kansen equipment as they functioned on the same principles. Aircraft Carriers for example had planes on their riggings that were the size of toys, yet they functioned exactly like the full-sized real thing. Tech boxes also held things like torpedoes or entire battleship turrets in miniature form, so the possibilities were truly endless. Shame it never got past being used for Kansen only, however.

With the delivery complete, she sent a message off to Junior and took a picture as proof of another 'job well done'. What happened to the cargo container next was not her issue, and she could now begin the long journey back home-

"So, the rumours were true."

Schwarz instantly turned towards the new voice with a loud growl. Ruby calmed her down by patting it on the head, but her eyes were still locked onto the red-headed man that just appeared on the pier. Ruby did not notice him, which was another blunder, she should have at least scouted the place out first.

"Who are you?" She asked with some hostility, though she was prepared for a fight, she honestly preferred not to. The last time one of her delivery jobs ended in a fight, it resulted in her client 'haggling' over damaged goods, and she did not want a repeat of that.

"Hm. I thought my face was recognizable across all of Vale by now." Now that Ruby had a better look at him, she saw that aside from his red hair and Grimm mask, he also had bull horns, the signs of a Faunus. Apart from wearing a gaudy red and black Mistralian robe, he also had a sword strapped next to him, she did not doubt that he was proficient in its use.

"My name is Adam Taurus. And the White Fang would like to retain your services."

Somehow, she was sure this was payback from Junior, she just knew it…

AN:

Man, I've been thinking about making a Honkai Impact 3rd fic, but I have no idea what to cross it with. Oh well, time to think about it some more. Bianka is my favourite.

Compared to previous naval vessels, the amount of crew needed in each one has reduced drastically. USS Cleveland (the WW2 version) for example, had roughly 1200 crew. The Ticonderoga class meanwhile, which is roughly similar, only needs 330 crew to run. Technology changes, and we are all going to be replaced by machines one day or something. Penny may dispute that claim, however.

Be civil in the comments below.