First rule by Phantom Menace. Let me know how he did so I can pass it on.
RULE 10835: Yes, we get that what happened at Surabaya was disastrous thanks to an Abyssal infantry and armor assault. But most of the collateral damage to the base and surrounding city could've been avoided if you just used the infantry weapons you have access too in your hammerspace.
Walker grimaced as she heard a soldier from the Indonesian soldier fall to the ground with a pained scream amid a heavy meaty smack of a bullet striking flesh. She hated ground combat, despite the vivid memories of it from her past life, it was just so unnerving and incredibly stressful. Plus you could clearly see the face of your opponent, it made combat way more personal and savage. Naval combat rarely got up close and personal, she shuddered but when it did.
She shoved the memory down with a growl, she could think about the Battle of New Scapa Flow later and maybe she could finally work up the courage to tell her RON-mates about what had happened to her and the events she had experienced. "Come on Walker, snap out of it!" The harsh thundering voice of Boise, Houston Sr's second in command snarled, snapping her out of her musings.
"Sorry ma'am, it's just been, awhile since I've been in a battle like this." she growled in response as she reached into the cartridge box that was secured to her via strap over her left shoulder. She pulled out a gleaming metallic cartridge with a straight rimmed case and after inspecting the round she slotted the Baalkpan Arsenal .50-80 round into her Baalkpan Arsenal Allin-Silva .50-80 Trapdoor Rifle.
Then she closed the breach, latched it shut, pulled the hammer back till it clicked. Then she rose over the barricade that herself and the rest of her RON was at. The Abyssals had come out of nowhere and were now laying waste to Surabaya with ground forces while a naval force tried to pin them in. There was quite simply nowhere to run and nowhere to hide since war was literally all around them.
The majority of her fellow destroyers were using M1928 Thompson Submachine guns, the lighter and smaller weapons being easier for the Clemsons that formed the majority of DESRON 29 to handle, the heavy bellow of the .45 caliber weapons was just filling the air. A few were using M1903 Bushmaster Carbines that were way smaller and lighter than the regular M1903 but it still produced a hefty crack when it fired. Honestly, probably the biggest reason they hadn't been overrun by Abyssal infantry was because Paul Jones the DESRON Flag had summoned a four-inch fifty.
BOOM, that naval rifle belched its payload and the shell eviscerated what looked like an Abyssal Armored Car that was based upon the Deerhound with a harsh flash of light. The sight of that Abyssal Armored Car going up caused the exhausted destroyer girls to cheer slightly as syncthing shrapnel cutdown any unfortunate Abyssal infantry that had been too close to the vehicle.
"Nice shot!" Walker congratulated as she lined up an Abyssal Commander, her far better night vision thanks to her Lemurian lookouts allowing her to spot the thing. She pulled the trigger and the rifle boomed, the Abyssal dropped with a wail of pain and a spray of blood.
"Thanks!" Paul Jones replied as Walker flipped open the trapdoor breach and a smoking shell was ejected from it. She then loaded a new round, they might just win this with no injuries suffered.
The clatter of tracks caused that hope to die. "Tanks!" she yelled as two of the meanest looking bastards she had ever seen rumbled around the corner. The turrets had elephant ears with a noticeable gun mantlet that were mounted upon wide hulls that were fairly tall and had considerable slopping.
"Firing!" Paul Jones called and an instant later her 4in/50 boomed. The shot crashed into the lead enemy tank and skipped off with an audible gong. "Ah shit!" the destroyer said as one of the enemy tanks returned fire.
The shot hit Paul Jones square in the torso causing the destroyer to scream in mortal agony as she collapsed in a heap.
Something hot and sticky splattered across Walker's face as her flagship fell. "BOSS!" Whipple, Stewart, and Peary shouted together. Peary and Pope leaped over the barricade and wove through machine gun and rifle fire. Every now and again Walker could hear one of them get hit.
"Covering fire! If you have a rifle mad minute!" Walker shouted before firing and reloading as quick as she could. All around the intensity of the rifle and SMG fire seemingly quadrupled. Abyssal infantry dropped or cried out in pain as they were hammered by rounds.
"You motherfuckers." Boise hissed as she dropped her heavily modified Orelinkon to the ground and concentrated. Glowing white and blue light pulsed and glowed around her, seemingly coalescing around her. When it faded, Walker's heart went into free-fall with dread.
"Main battery fi-GAH!" Boise yelled before crying out in pain as the other tank fired. The round caught her square in the face, where upon it got into an argument with the Light Cruiser's conning tower armor. Thankfully for all involved, the shell lost the argument and crashed to the ground.
Unfortunately, Boise had already initiated the firing sequence when she got hit, which had resulted in her stumbling backwards. Thus fifteen 6in/47-caliber shells went sailing off into the distance and then the glowing tracers descended, well beyond the confines of the base.
The chaining series of explosions sends fire and shrapnel pulsing into the sky. "Well bugger." Walker sighed as she shook her head at the sight.
What happened next didn't surprise her as her radio picked up pieces of a conversation between her panicky tender Blackhawk and one of the heavies dueling in the harbor. "Roger, steel rain away. Seven seconds to splash." The petite voice of Tillman said in response to Blackhawk's fire-mission order.
Walker slapped a palm to her face as the rattling roar of no less than fifteen 18in/50 caliber filled the air. It seemed only natural that Blackhawk would either due to panic or thanks to sheer rage, call in fire support from the biggest set of naval rifles she could get into contact with. Moments later, the Abyssal Tanks and the majority of the block on either side of the vehicles vanished in a series of towering explosions that blew buildings apart.
After Walker could hear again, she swore she heard Marblehead whooping along with the crack of her six-inchers. But wasn't she on land? The unique four-stacker groaned again, at least the girls of DESRON 29 weren't going to be blamed for the excessive collateral damage that was likely occurring.
"Let's go and get these bastards!" Pope snarled as she stood up and summoned one of her four-inchers. Roughly half of the DESRON followed suite.
Mahan gave her a look and she sighed. "If we survive this, we need to train everyone that you aren't supposed to use naval guns as small arms and need to work on teaching them how to resist that urge." she noted.
"Oh your one to talk! You got your three-incher out!" Walker snarled as she gestured to the crappy little naval rifle that her older sister was holding like a pistol. She decided then and their that she would have two or three shots of Seep after the battle was over. To hell with the fact she would have a monster of a hangover afterwards. Tonight was turning into one of those nights.
