2031/Operation Line Cut

Operation Line Cut
Date of Scene:	15 April 2015
Location:	Great Ocean - Western Loop
Synopsis:	Ryuujou leads a selection of Fleet Daughters on a mission to sever Abyssal supply lines.
Thanks to:	Thanks to Nagato and Wo for hosting what became a very emotionally charged scene
Cast of Characters:	222, 385, Wo, 637, Nagato, Shigure, 739

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Nagato has posed:
    Late afternoon, the sun is setting to the west in this beautiful day. The seas are calm, no squalls to be seen. All in all, it looks to be an average day around one of the small islands that dot the western ocean's oceanscape. Behind one of the jutting rocks in the water, the Union members for Operation Line Cut were there and waiting. Ryuujou's deck scroll was lying flat in the air, horizontal with small paper planes upon it and, with a few hand signs, start launching off into the Type 0 Recon Seaplanes... to the north east.

    "Alright, let's get the air coverage we need. Ready up bombers after the first wave of recon planes." Ryuujou cheerfully orders, "Though, this seems to be a really odd place for the Abyssals to come for their supply lines. I wonder why the Admiral sent us this way?" She turns to the rest of the 'fleet' and smiles, "Either way, let's make sure we can keep track of anything we get, kay~?"

Shigure has posed:
    Chitose stands near to Ryuujou, holding her launch rails skywards as she fires off another pair of scouts. "Aye Aye! Go my seaplanes!" she chirps happily, then switches out the 'magazines' for Zuiuns. "Bomber Wing ready for launch!"

    Kuma mms, as she adds her own Type-0 to the grouping, the plane flying off the launch rail over her right shoulder. The light cruiser grins to herself. "The Admiral sent us here for a good reason! Nowaki and Shigure found an Abyssal supply fleet coming through here, kuma!" she looks over at Ryuujou, then at the other Unionites. "Be ready! Once they're in position we're gonna strike fast and hard, kuma!"

Wo has posed:
    It would be an uneasy wait - but it always is. The seas are unusually calm today, the skies clear. Anyone can see for miles even without the assistance of radar or recon aircraft. No doubt it's an easy atmosphere for some uneasiness to have settled in among junior ranks of the ambush party. Was this really the right place? Was their timing off? Such unsettling thoughts would not have to wait much longer, however, as one of the spotter planes radios back. Contact, contact! Around the same time, those equipped with radars would also begin to have signatures returned. At first seemingly few in number - and then perhaps surprisingly numerous, and they just keep on filling, as the formerly clear sky itself seems to darken as the seas gain a degree of chop; like the appearance described in some old ghost tale.

    The notice is not unilateral, either. First visible on the horizon are the abyssal destroyers and light cruisers' sleek and hydrodynamic shapes, contrasting to what they had been escorting: transport ships - bulbous, bloated and grotesque creatures, seemingly with the torso of a female humanoid bolted against the frame, and with the head replaced with a toothy, chitinous mass. The former close ranks around the more vulnerable transports, as they hiss, buzz and gaggle between each other in what might be a language of some sort, but for which no multiversal transcription is available if so. They have been seen, but their supply lines will not be interrupted easily. They each number in the dozens, at least. This is a major convoy of some sort.

    Far behind their lines, a particular Wo-class also cruises, having received word of the spotting in a sort of telepathic fashion. So far, it's just a spotter plane and radar signatures. But this uneasy feeling, there's no doubt.. They've figured out their schedules. But this cargo is important enough that they also aren't alone, either. With a gesture forward of her staff, the gaping mouth of her hat opens, scrambling a wing of a half dozen abyssal fighters, their stingray like profile expanding out to two meters in width upon ejection, and they join the cacophony of the rest of their fleet's crackling and squelching as they take to the air. She allows herself a spoken thought, to the presumed fleet daughters and the allies they may have closeby, "..don't be..fools."

Suzuya (739) has posed:
"Don't tell anyone, Melon, but I'm kinda nervous. This is the first real sortie I've been on since I've joined the fleet here." Suzuya glances back over her shoulder at the light cruiser skating nearby.

"Mmm? Didya say something, Suzuya?" Yuubari looks up from fiddling with her guns. "I've been thinking about how I can improve these."

"...ehehe. Nothing. It's nothing! Suzuya is just fine!" The heavy crusier fiddles with her hairpin and pulls out a small piece of metal from behind it. A flick of her wrist, and it expands out into the shape of an airplane. "Type 0 Recon Seaplane... go! Let's see if we can give Ryuujou and Chitose a hand with scouting!" The airplane is flung almost like a frisbee, but it soon rights itself, rising into the air to joint he larger group of aircraft.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    Grouped with the two carriers and their escorts are two girls who lack aircraft of their own. Isuzu, clad in red and white with her kit hanging from her hips and back, makes an adjustment on the assault rifle-styled artillery rack held in her right hand. The one for her left hangs from its strap. The radars on her headband twitch and the cruiser glances up as aircraft soar ahead in attack formation. The girl nods, then glances over her shoulder, "We'll advance to secure the air. Isuzu, moving out!"

    "Akizuki, on the move!" A younger girl beside Isuzu kicks off as well, riding in echelon to her elder contemporary. Settled in holders on either side of her kit are the rabbit-like familiars, their guns elevated and their eyes wide and alert, "Count on me and Choujuucentihou-chan to keep the skies clear!"

    The little familiars raise their flipper-like arms and make an excited 'vwrr!' sound, while the two anti-air ships advance on the heels of the bomber raid.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     As the Abyssals start their defense efforts, there is a burst of energy from overhead. Wo's allies in the Confederacy have come to their aid. In the form of an octahedral ship over a kilometer across. The octahedron is really more like a frame around a central sphere made of hexagonal plates with glowing green lines marking the segments.

     There would be a sound like a radio tuning over the comm channels, then in a syncronized multitude of voices this message is conveyed. "We are the Borg. Lower your defenses and surrender. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your resources will be adapted to service us. Resistance...is futile."

     It will be a few moments before the Borg ship is in range to fire on the Fleet Daughters, so they have a few moments to feel the dread.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
When Yuna deploys alongside the Fleet Daughters, she's typically in her Marine Form, and such is the case today, her mermaid-like armor skimming below the surface as Ryuujou, Kuma, Kongou, and the others skate upon the waves. She does have the rest of the Matrix of Light within call, though: Elner is on high overwatch, keeping a tactical view of things; Jiina and Erina are a ways back, close enough to assist when needed but not to play an ongoing part in the immediate battle - or at least, that's the theory.

On the other hand, Yuna wasn't expecting this much of an air presence on the Abyssal/Confederate side. She knew they had air power - she tangled with the carrier-type Wo-class in Boston Harbor, after all - but the looming shape of a Borg cruiser is singularly ominous, not to mention *HUGE* compared to what Yuna expected.

Yuna drops back some, giving Erina a chance to catch up. She doesn't even have to query Elner before ruling out El-Line; the Matrix Figure would still be outmassed and probably outgunned, and she's not sure if focusing on Abyssal air forces would be better.

Then an idea crosses her mind - and Yuna leaps out of the water like a cavorting dolphin, only for her Marine Form to disengage and for Erina to initiate combination while Marina's reassembling. Before gravity can get two words in edgeways, Yuna is in her Flight form and heading for the Borg ship, trying to stave off that feeling of dread which threatens to overwhelm her.

She seems almost suspiciously unarmed at the moment, though.

Shigure has posed:
    Chitose grins as she opens her eyes. "Fou~nd you!" she transmits the coordinates to the rest of the fleet via short range comms. Then the Borg ship shows up, and the Seaplane Tender balks.

    Kuma erks a little and steps back at the Borg cruiser showing up. "Th-That's a big aircraft." She transmits to her recon plane to return, but it's pretty far out so it'll take a while to make it back.

Wo has posed:
    Any seaplanes and other reconnaissance craft still in the air would soon be joined by unfriendly company. As Yuna will have no doubt passed by - though they seem to ignore her, for whatever reason - the abyssal fighters surging ahead of the formation, making up for some maneuverability with sheer interception speed. They cannot allow the fleet daughters to maintain this presence and observe their movement so easily. At least, that's what one might imagine is going through what passes for a mind these things might have, since their warbling is otherwise indecipherable. They converge first on Chitose's wing, banking high before beginning to swarm with harassing fire from their belly-mounted gatlings. They climb again before making a strafe at Suzuya's eye in the sky. Kuma's plane is left unharassed for the moment, ironically because it was so far separated. Hang on to your butts, pilot fairies.

    This conveniently also gives Wo eyes ahead of her main forces, though they aren't as useful in that capacity as their fleet daughter-launched counterparts. She follows behind at cruising speed, though still out of range of enemy radars - even if her planes' presence will certainly tip them off that a carrier is somewhere closeby. Golden eyes, glowing from the shadow cast by the massive Borg ship, continue scanning the horizon to try and get any gauge of enemy troop numbers; though the familiar girl Yuna has certainly made herself conspicuous, in that respect, she also is seemingly intent on offering herself up for assimilation. So be it! After a brief period, she transmits a sort of thought command to the ships directly under her command: "Prepare..to break, through. Full speed. Maintain..formation. We'll - out-run them." Another burst of hissing and gurgling, and the already speedy abyssal ships seem to pick it up. Any interests of fuel conservation have gone out the window. The destroyers and light cruisers train their guns outward from the long line-ahead, daring any that come for their flanks to get caught in an unfavorable T-cross.

    Looks like we're on!

Suzuya (739) has posed:
Yuubari stares up at the Borg ship with sparkling eyes. "I -want- that. Do you think they'll take a deal to do the assimilate thing, only backwards?"

Suzuya glances back to her escort. "That didn't make any sense, but... maybe if you can fit it in your pocket, Nagato will let you." Turning away before she can see if Yuubari is drooling at the idea or not, Suzuya shifts her focus to her recon seaplane. "Let's see if you've found anything..." Her eyes go unfocused for a moment as she begins to look through the aircraft's own line of sight... only to let out a cry of pain and surprise as the seaplane is shot down. "Naaa!" Both hands cover her eyes for a moment, and when she lowers them, she's blinking rapidly to regain her bearings. "They've shot down my recon plane! But Suzuya knows where they are now..."

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     As Yuna approaches the ship, the Borg open fire. Searing beams of plasma as thick as a person lance through the air around her, and a plasma torpedo is fired at her. It tracks her as she moves through the air, and if it ever gets close it explodes in a devastating blast of superheated green.

     And the beams are aimed in such a way that any beams that do not hit their target will land in the ranks of the Fleet Daughters. The aircraft are such small targets that the Borg would probably not even bother targeting them. But, with beams and torpedoes practically strafing the surface, it is entirely likely that they might be caught in a blast.

Nagato has posed:
    Ryuujou frowns a bit, pulling back her scout planes. "You did good, Type Zeroes..." she pulls out a few more plane-shaped papers from her coat and places them upon her scroll. "Okay, let's do this!" with a few hand signs, the planes launch out into the Type 96 Fighters, movingto head into engage with the Abyssal aircraft coming in. Though, with the amount of planes and the relative inexperience of Ryuujou being a flagship...she starts to panic sightly, "Dia...line... no.. um.. Line ahead formation!" she orders.

    Ryuujou sails back slightly, her eyes going blank as she focuses her aircraft, moving to close into some of the aircraft that's on the way, "What's the quantity and type of ships?!" she questions out as she goes back to focusing, a few of the planes strafing the Abyssal aircraft with gunfire, trying to circle around to get any they missed. "Let's not let them break the line!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Well, so much for the unarmed approach, it looks like; as the Borg ship opens fire, Yuna instinctively starts to evade - and realizes almost immediately that the shots she's dodging are going to imperil the Fleet Daughters' formation. That torpedo is a major source of concern as well, and rather more immediate with its homing maneuvers.

At least she can do something about the latter. The Matrix Divider appears in her hands, and she starts firing bolts of concussive light to try and shoot the torpedo down before it can get too close. Additionally, Yuna's evasive maneuvers are carrying her higher up into the air; she's trying to get to an altitude where the Borg will have to decide whether to focus fire on Yuna, on the Fleet Daughers, or split the difference.

... and then she realizes with a sinking feeling that the Borg probably have PLENTY of cannons to distribute firepower between the Fleet Daughters and Yuna herself. At least the shipgirls should be small enough to be hard for the Borg to hit; Yuna needs to focus on being as dodgy as possible, too - and she does exactly that, swerving and jinking randomly, as if she were in a danmaku duel in Gensokyo.

Shigure has posed:
    Chitose nns. "My seaplanes..." she bites her lower lip and clutches her launch rails a little tighter. Her recon planes bank and jink through the incoming fire, but they're not nimble enough to evade dedicated fighter craft. The pilot fairies bail out as their planes begin to break up and go down trailing smoke.

Kuma kicks off, and skates out to try and get in front of the advancing formation, trying to cross /their/ T instead. Midstride, she gathers herself in, and a bubble of light encases her. The prow of her Ocean Fitout breaches the bubble, and her turrets traverse aiming 14cm cannons into the advancing Abyssals. "ALL GUNS. FIRE!" chimes the girls voice from deep within the hull, as seven barrels belch smoke and hot gas, along with their explosive payload. "Enemies to port, kuma!"

Kongou (637) has posed:
    Leading the advance for the non-carrier Fleet Daughters, Isuzu suddenly turns sharply to port, looking up at the monolithic form of the Borg cube now hovering overhead. After a moment's thought, she glances back over her shoulder, "We need bigger artillery to secure the air, let's go!" As she extends a leg from her latest skating motion, Isuzu engulfs herself in silver light. This expands into a sphere, growing out around her until the sleek gray hull of a warship erupts forth, crashing into the water. Immediately, the 12.7cm high angle guns swivel in their mounts, while beams slice through the water. The gunfire is returned, a heavy, repetitive pounding of smoke and flame hurling air-burst shells at the underside of the Borg vessel. Smaller weapons, large-caliber 25mm machine guns, swivel to target the smaller Abyssal aircraft.

    While Isuzu's main triple-gun 15.5cm battery transverses on the enemy convoy itself, there's another flash of light obscured by the cruiser's bulk. Bursting out of that glow, turning sharply and accellerating through the water, it's the destroyer Akizuki. All four of her 10 centimeter high angle gun turrets swing out over the side, guns elevating and opening fire. Like Isuzu, Akizuki targets the underside of the Borg ship with air-burst artillery, "While this Akizuki still has strength, I won't let you do as you please!"

Wo has posed:
    A decent amount of air power and surveillance, for the purposes of an ambush. The Wo-class is beginning to get a vague idea of the enemy's plan, but it's still hard to be certain without a good idea of their numbers or movements. If they weren't escorting the transports, she might risk dividing the fleet to search..but it's too much, right now. She'll just have to gamble on superior numbers, and thanks to the Borg, seemingly overwhelming firepower. Even so..the longer they remain here, the more likely the transports are to suffer damage that will slow their progress. Annoying complications on what should have been a relaxing expedition.

    Speaking of complications, one of the I-class destroyers in the line, keeping a glowing eye turned outward to watch to watch the fleet daughters, suddenly notices something in what likely looks like Terminator vision. It telescopes in on one of the shapes in the distance, range-finding to..Akizuki. Its normally hazy, nightmarish memory, clouded by the constant voices of its tortured sisters, suddenly clarifies enough to recall something important. It emits a buzzing sound of confusion and begins to slow, before breaking away from their formation and making steam straight towards the anti-aircraft specialist destroyer, even as Kuma's shells splash and explode in the water around it. This doesn't go beyond the Wo-class' notice, "..get back - in formation!" It doesn't seem to heed, whatever spell that is normally cast over its kind essentially broken by a tragic friendship. One that is, unfortunately, easily misunderstood as a berserker rogue even by Abyssal standards.

    As much as she hates to leave a sister alone, even one that had breached protocol, there is nothing to be done for it. Kuma's shelling is moderately effective, if not in direct damage then causing the formation to bend. Most of them fly just shy of a strike, though one of the transports - their bloated forms making them an easy target - catches a shell straight to what must have been a fuel tank. She lets out a harrowing and surprisingly human scream, despite lacking the apparatus to do so, as the main bulk of her body catches fire, before she capsizes. The abyssal destroyers and light cruisers nearby slightly break away, to avoid the explosion that follows, dirtying the sea with congealed oil. Nonetheless, they continue.

    As for her, with the skies somewhat secured, she castes a baleful look towards where Yuna is doing her best to evade super death space lasers. Hopefully the Borg can hold out a bit longer, since she can't afford to miss this window. The fighters, running short of fuel from their continued and quite successful run at the reconnaissance forces, return to their mothership - the hat, of course. A sound not unlike a metallic digestion follows, before the empty eye sockets flare up, producing a fresh wave. This time, it's bombers. They fly out over the abyssal formation once again, before turning sharply to make a run at where their fleet daughter counterparts are heading from - which would be Ryuujou's direction. The destroyers and light cruisers that were not disturbed directly by Kuma's shelling, not to be outdone, also open fire, broadside salvos from medium range with their 5 inch and 6 inch cannons being more for maintaining persuading the enemy from approach.

Suzuya (739) has posed:
"Don't give up, Chitose! We need your air coverage!" Suzuya grins at the seaplane tender and tosses off a mock salute as she skims past. "C'mon, Yuubari, can't let Kuma show us up!" Once she's pulled away from the others, a sphere of bright light surrounds her. "Nnn... Suzuya just wishes this form were a little cuter!" Despite the complaints, her Ocean fit-out soon emerges from the light. Several pairs of 20.3cm guns swivel forward, all of them opening fire at once. "Suzuya's got your back, Kuma!"

A similar light surrounds Yuubari, though she's a much smaller ship than even the other light cruisers when she emerges. She also seems to have more guns, though. "I wish I could shoot down those Borg things... This will have to do until they get closer!" A complement of 14cm guns open fire, sending a volley of shells toward the waters around the Wo-class and her escorts.

Shigure has posed:
    Chitose nnns, then brings her launch rails up. "Zuiun, go! Enemy air cover is thinning out! Probably low on fuel!" she looks over at Ryuujou. "Get your bombers up quick, then launch fighters... I doubt that Wo-class'll ignore our airpower!" she says, as she launches the flights. They veer off and head for the formation, climbing to attain dive altitude.

    Kuma grunts as cannon fire slams into her belt armour, rocking her from the impact force. She lets the running I-Class pass without harrassment, though her Torpedo racks swivel out into position. "Ready Torpedoes!" she calls to Suzuya and Yuubari as they line up. "Fifteen degree spread, stagger fire. On my mark!" there's a baited moment, just after that transport explodes. "LAUNCHING TORPEDOES, KUMA!"

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     Yuna's fears seem to be well founded. While a few beams keep firing on her, the Borg ship continues toward the Fleet Daughters. Once in proper range, it begins targeting them in earnest. First, a torpedo launches toward Isuzu. A torpedo that, judging by the explosion near Yuna, will cause quite a bit of damage if it hits. She directly challenged the Borg, after all. As that is flying down toward her, Yuna manages to hit the torpedo following her. Which might have seemed like a good idea, but the resulting explosion could easily harm her if she is close to it.

     That leaves the majority of the thick, destructive plasma beams free to focus on the other Fleet Daughters. Kuma and Chitose find plasma being aimed right at them, and every Fleet Daughter is in danger from stray plasma fire. Beams are cutting paths into the water all around them, causing explosions like depth charges as the sea is superheated.

Nagato has posed:
    Ryuujou continues to launch wave after wave of fighter aircraft, taking a few of the planes down as some of hers are shot down in kind. One of the pilot fairies radios back to Ryuujou about the Bombers... which send the poor Light Carrier into another panic. She's behind the fleet who are all ocean fit out right now, leaving the girl behind. The order is heard and with another pocket, more papers are placed before sending out more pilot fairies in bomber aircraft. "U..understood!"

    Some of the Abyssal Bombers do get through the wave after wave of aircraft, Ryuujou's eyes going wide as the bombs drop onto the girl. The resulting explosion causes papers to be strewn across the ocean and damaged, clothing torn and the flight deck scroll, on fire. "I'm hit! Aaaah, my flight deck is on fire!" she tries ducking down, dunking it under water to extinguish the fire, panicking even more.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     Those shells fired at the Borg ship impact an energy shield which absorbs the energy then sends the shells falling back toward the water. It will not be easy to sink this ship.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
That's the risk with shooting down missiles (or torpedoes), if the yield is high enough the blastwave can still smack you around by the time you succeed in destroying the incoming projectile. And sure enough, Yuna gets blown away a bit by the exploding torpedo; she's not damaged too badly by it, but she's temporarily out of control -

And then a plasma beam slams into her before she can regain control.

It doesn't simply vaporize her, or drill straight through her body; if it weren't for the Light Suit's protective aura, it very might well *HAVE* done so. She's badly hit enough by it, though, that her flight systems are sputtering - and she's starting to fall towards the water, occasionally regaining enough thrust to slow her fall ... but at best she's forestalling the inevitable right now.

And while Marine Form can operate out of water to some extent, if Yuna hits the water in anything *BUT* Marine Form, she'll be helpless. And she knows it.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    "Enemy torpedo incoming!" Isuzu flings her rudder to hard port. While her main artillery battery continues to fire on the Borg itself, the smaller 25mm batteries swivel around on their mounts, filling the air around the incoming photon munition with incendiary rounds before it has a chance to get close enough that the explosion could still cause secondary damage.

    While firing on the torpedo and the Borg with her anti-air batteries, Isuzu swings her rudder to starboard again, baring her broadside and her pre-transversed 15.5cm main battery to the Abyssal fleet, "A high speed battle is my specialty, you know~!" A claim that's punctuated by the crack of her main guns. A moment later, with a hiss, the first four Type 93 Long Lance torpedos eject over the side one by one, the centralized turret making a slight adjustment with each shot until all four fish are in the water with a spread of a few degrees.

    About a hundred meters ahead, now, Akizuki continues her own barrage, turrets transversing in pursuit of Abyssal aircraft now. Amidships, her single torpedo launcher swings out in preparation for launch. However, she does not commit her torpedoes to the water. Observing through the torpedo launcher's targeter, Akizuki carefully watches the I-class approaching her. The girl's voice sounds from within the vessel, "Just what are you doing?"

Wo has posed:
    By now, the intentions of the abyssal fleet will have been made clear. Their formation bends, but with the exception of that errant destroyer, doesn't break. Each time one takes damage enough to become disabled, the others close in around where it was with unnerving discipline. It doesn't mean there aren't outright casualties, however. A cyclopian Ha-class destroyer gets all but scissored between the disparate but effective shells from Suzuya and Yuubari. Plucked as if by chopsticks from its formation, it becomes easy prey to an incoming 20.3 cm round. More than exploding immediately, it makes a sickening crushing sound, as if the thin veneer of smooth flesh caved in to the metal endoskeleton below. It continues firing its main cannon, that appear from between their jaws oddly enough, at odd angles as it begins to list and leak more of that curdled crude from the gaping hole in its side. A final emitting of crackling 'gasps' finally see it explode as the otherwise non-lethal fires spread to its internal magazine.

    Some of the ones that remain, near the unenviable place at the front of the formation, notice incoming aircraft. Those few that possess them turn their multi-purpose cannons skyward, firing flak rounds in hopes of providing a discouraging cloud to cover their own bombers and seabound sisters. Some fighters and bombers still get through, making up for any other consideration with their numbers, and the bombing runs by the fleet daughters take out two more of the relatively plodding transports. One doesn't explode immediately, much like the destroyer before. But as its ellipsoid body splits in two, from within the oil, actual cargo crates appear to spill out, remaining afloat even as their former courier lapses beneath the waves, despite desperately trying to claw at the water as if to find purchase, screeching all the while. Yeah..war is definitely not a glamorous enterprise for their kind.

    The distraction and preoccupation with the air forces has a secondary effect, as the ones that had their guns trained skyward are themselves now vulnerable. Despite the gurgling between themselves as they begin to swerve in the water to take evasive maneuvers from the incoming torpedoes, courtesy of Kuma and Isuzu. They barely seem to have time to process it before they take solid hits, explosions even temporarily knocking one of the light cruisers noticeably out of the water. Meanwhile, at Akizuki, the I-class destroyer swims on up, if continued left alone. It stares directly at her, and then begins to spin around in the water, its rear tail 'flukes' paddling almost..playfully, as it buzzes in a way that could almost be called - excitement. Doesn't it realize what's going on? It's a literal war zone out here!

    Back behind the main formation, the Wo-class is - mostly - free from the pressure the front of the line is facing. She receives a transmission that the enemy's probably main carrier has been rendered inoperable, which is encouraging news for them. What bombers of hers remain, after having their numbers considerably thinned, return to her hat, before a second wave of fighters is launched to - hopefully - once again secure the air, now that the overall threat from the skies has been lowered. Whenever errant shells come at her, she slips around them, both hands propped atop her staff almost like an unperturbed noblewoman overseeing her forces. It's going about as well as an ambush could be expected to, thanks to their Borg allies and the apparent inexperience of the fleet daughters' flagship. They just have to break through...

Nagato has posed:
    Ryuujou gives orders over the Union's band before curling up her damaged scroll and sailing off towards Yuna's expected drop point.. "Alright, I got you. Ryuujou will get the praise for doing such a good job, I know it!" she frowns a bit, the carrier is disabled, the flagship disabled... maybe she won't be getting as much praise as she thought, and the hours upon hours she has to spend in repair... maybe the Admiral will be kind to give a bucket. Or not.

    She waits and waits, looking around. She's almost an open target too..

Suzuya (739) has posed:
As the plasma bolts rain down from the Borg ship, Suzuya lets out a cry as she's hit, leaving dark burns in her armor. "Waaah! What is that, lasers? And forcefields! No fair!"

"Eh.. heheh... not lasers, that's plasma! I wonder if I can get one of those..." A dark chuckle emanates from Yuubari as she elevates her guns and launches a volley at the Borg ship. Not satisfied as they bounce off the fircefields, she switches to high explosive shells and fires one more round. She may not be the best at anti-air combat, but it's not like she's aiming at a small target either. "Let's do a little experiment and see if this gets through your shields!"

"Melon, stay focused! They're... ewww, gross! They're going all gooey!" If Suzuya weren't in ship form, she'd probably be making a face as she sees the Ha-class leak and explode. "Poor thing," she mumbles softly, feeling a pang of sympathy at what the cause of the explosion was. "Suzuya will try to make this quick." Torpedo tubes open up and launch a trio of Long Lances into the water, followed immediately by a second set of three. The first is spread wide, the second focused on the enemy Wo-class. "Ugh... I hope those planes don't notice me here."

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma cries out as that plasma beam scythes across her midships. She loses one smoke stack, and a torpedo rack falls off into the water as it comes free of its moorings. "Gnnh. I'm hit! Bilge pumps, hurry!" she grunts out, throwing hard port to evade another blast of plasma, then hard starboard to narrowly evade a torpedo, which makes her 'buck' as it detonates in the water under her. "Gyah! M-My keel..." the damage forces her to drop out of Ocean Fitting, the girl sunk to her knees with clothes tattered. She holds her right arm gingerly, while her turret swivels to continue firing on the enemy fleet. "Th-that stupid green floaty ship!" she grumbles, turning to provide some screening support for Ryuujou.

    Chitose, meanwhile, hangs outside of the operation zone, eying the situation through her remaining bombers as they peel off and make wide return vectors. Hopefully that'll throw off the Wo-class' lock on her position. She loads a single, heavily modified Type-0 into her starboard launch rail. "Remember, shadow the formation, don't get spotted." she says to the Fairy as it puts on its flight helmet. A thumbs up is given and it clambers into the flight seat, prepping for launch, but not yet striking up the engine.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     When Yuna is hit and starts falling from the sky, a new beam fires on her. But, this is more like a flashlight beam. It engulfs her, and her fall is suspended. Then...she starts to rise. Like those old sci-fi shows where someone is being abducted by aliens. She is slowly drawn upward into the light.

     Yuna being disabled means that every weapon the Borg octahedron posesses is now available to fire on the Fleet Daughters. Isuzu avoids a torpedo with a combination of evasives and covering fire, causing it to explode before it is in range, but the explosion sends a shockwave through the water, possibly destabilizing her a bit.

     It is at this point that the Borg deploy their less conventional weapons. Energy dampeners fire on the Daughters closest to Wo. Much harder to avoid than the beams or torpedoes, when these beams hit they would make the ship they hit start to lose power. Another burst of energy targets Akizuki. It is more like a radio transmission, and any sensors she has, including vision, would become clouded, making it hard to distinguish friend from foe.

     And amidst all that, those deadly plasma beams continue to rake across the water, targeting the now vulnerable Ryuujou as she waits for the no longer falling Yuna. And Yuubari may be excited to find that she is the target of several beams herself.

     As shells and explosives continue to pelt the Borg ship, structural damage starts to appear, and a fire even starts in one of the spokes of the octahedron. It seems the Borg are not as indestructible as they lead others to believe. You just have to survive the plasma and other energy weapons.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
'No plan of battle survives contact with the enemy.'

It's the one axiom of military strategy that Yuna has really committed to her memory - and it's still a reliable adage, even if it's not the most optimistic saying out there.

So when Yuna figured that she could probably get inside the Borg ship and do more damage that way than she could by assaulting the outside, she wasn't really sure how she would get through the shields. Getting in close and finding an opening of some kind was the initial plan, but she underestimated a LOT about the ship, including how much its weapons hurt to get hit by.

It doesn't take a lot of acting skills to hang limp and (seemingly) helpless in the tractor beam; the hard part is not reacting as she sees and hears how the Fleet Daughters are getting mauled harder and harder by Borg weapons, on top of the Abyssal Fleet's fighting on their natural level. The best Yuna can do is hope that she'll be inside the Borg shields in time to do some good at the last minute - and to a certain extent, she's depending on Elner to help gauge when she's through, in case she can't tell for herself at the time.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    Isuzu's hull rocks on the waves caused by an exploding photon torpedo, throwing off the aim of her anti-air batteries. Closing off her gunfire for a moment, she lets out a tense "Grh..!" as the hull creaks. Ultimately, however, the nimble (for her time) cruiser makes it out less the worse for wear. Which is a good thing. Given the massive disparity in technology, all it'd take is one good hit to break the Nagara-class in two and send her down all over again.

    As soon as the waves have settled, Isuzu's batteries open fire again, splitting her fire between the Abyssal fleet with her 15.5cm three-gun main battery turrets and the Borg vessel with the 12.7cm high angle guns. Even at this range she can see the barrage is having an effect--So all she can do is pour it on as heavily as she can..!

    The steady pounding of Akizuki's guns fades, the barrels of her eight 10cm Long Calibur guns hissing with an angry red glow from the pressures and heat involved in their rapid firing. She also continues to follow the I-class with her torpedo launcher, perplexed by the black-hulled monstrosity's behavior.

    After a moment, even while the vision from her various emplacements starts to fill with static, the girl within the warship makes a connection, "...Icchan! It's Icchan, isn't it?" The hull adopts a silvery glow, then, and suddenly dissolves with a small girl wearing metal tackle dashing out of the confusing light of the Borg information warfare weapons. The Choujuucentihou-chans sitting in her kit both squeeze their eyes shut, ejecting their smoldering barrels with bursts of smoke and steam, but Akizuki's too distracted to reach for their replacements. Instead, she looks over her shoulder at the playful Abyssal destroyer, murmuring, "Did..did I really find friendship on the battlefield..?"

Nagato has posed:
    Ryuujou mmphs as that tractor beam starts picking up Yuna and the command from Kuma... the Flagship starts to skate towards the back lines, unfurling her damaged landing strip scroll and giving a sigh, "I may be able to launch a few planes..." she muttered, pulling a couple peices of paper... the last two she had. "Mmm.. Fighters." she mutters...

    "This is Ryuujou, I'm readying a retreat once we secure everyone..." she shakes her head, "I'm sending my last planes up towards that ship, guard me!" as she pats down the damaged scroll, the last two planes take off from it and head towards the sky, making a beeline towards the Borg Ship... if they get shot down or not, that's the question....

Wo has posed:
    Tsk, forcing such a cutting figure to have to actually put some effort in. Suzuya is far more cruel than she realizes! The Wo-class, thanks to alerts from her Borg allies and their position far above, is able to see the tell-tale streaks in the water fanning out towards her. They don't have to actually hit to throw her off balance, she knows that much. Picking up her speed, she ends up being the one that dares to break away from the line, slipping by the narrowest of margins out of their grasp. This is made more evident by her Charisma Break, dropping on to one knee as the timers detonate close, trying to find more balance in the sloshing water, which washes over her form. Steadying herself onto her staff and somewhat gritting her teeth, she rises again, glowing, honey-amber eyes fixed squarely on Suzuya from below the darkening brim of her hat. That's exactly the kind of attention she *didn't* want, as the fighters she had in the air veer to begin strafing at the one that dared bare her fangs. Perhaps this is exactly the kind of opening Chitose needed to do some more damage, as the abyssal jets are preoccupied with making Suzuya, and due to proximity, the Melon's, life difficult.

    It's okay.. This is just theatrics, by now. The Wo-class has already received a message in her head. The increasing damage that they're taking is being mirrored in kind on the fleet daughters' side. And that's before the bubbling in the water. That terrible bubbling. Ryuujou's worry and dread turns out to be well-founded, as from close range, a female head wearing a breathing apparatus with long, seawater-drenched hair emerges, giving little warning as her eerily glowing eyes flash wider. The torpedoes are already in the water, headed straight for the already crippled light carrier. The Wo-class narrows her eyes, and without moving her mouth, opens a wider band radio channel. "Call off..your assault, fleet daughters. If you..want to, survive." What was becoming a quagmire had given their submarines time to maneuver. Without a dedicated anti-submarine setup, who knows how many of them are out there. It might even be a bluff.

    What heart-warmingly wasn't theatrics, however, was the I-class that had come up to Akizuki. As she briefly dissolves away her own weapons, it similarly does not seem to be making any offensive moves. At the calling of its nickname, it once again gives that enthusiastic buzzing, and closes the last of the distance on up to her. Very briefly, through the haze of buzzing aircraft and the reports of cannons and torpedoes, if Akizuki deigns to hear it, something like the disembodied, light-hearted giggling of a young girl drifts in the air. Perhaps, just for this long, they won't have to fire upon each other. ..it's right around this time that a bubbling appears closeby, and Icchan startles at it. It looks, somehow considering it barely has a face, worriedly to Akizuki, and then to the bubbling again. And then begins to swim off! Did she do something wrong? Then, perhaps right with the poor girl watching, Icchan is rocked in the water by an explosion. Oh dear...

    The abyssal fleet, battered but not yet broken, continue forward inexorably and undaunted by their slowly pared away numbers. Their own shells continue to fly, leaving the burning wreckage of their fellows in their wake and streaking oil behind the ones damaged but still able to continue.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma nods as she starts escorting Ryuujou back away from the front... then, PING. Her eyes go wide. She tries to pick up her pace, but the torpedoes are already in the water. "SUBMARINES! Multiple sonar contacts!" She reaches behind her, pulls out a barrel-shaped item, and tosses it like a grenade at the nearby submarine. Depth Charge!

    Chitose mms, some of her bombers didn't drop their payloads... She orders them to vector back around, aiming for the Wo-class as she's distracted. "Try to disable her flight deck... I hope everyone else is okay..."

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     It is only a few seconds before Yuna is drawn past the shield perimeter. In other situations it might be unclear when the shield is penetrated, but with all the shells bouncing against it Yuna and Elner would easily be able to see it. It is where the shells no longer reach.

     Once through the shields, a door opens on the Borg ship, and Yuna might be able to see a set of Borg drones awaiting her, ready to inject her with the dreaded nanoprobes as soon as they get their dark, shining claws on her.

     When it seems their enemies are surrounded, the Borg join the radio chatter. "We are the Borg. You will withdraw, or you will be assimilated. Resist and you will be destroyed." they say in unison. Then, they resume firing. A spread of torpedoes fires at several Daughters, and those searing plasma beams focus on Kuma and Ryuujou. The shields of the Borg ship are starting to weaken after the sustained fire, and more cracks are appearing in the hull.

Nagato has posed:
    Ryuujou is on her way to the backline, the damaged carrier already in a world of hurt... but the worry the girl had only increases, then that fateful explosion that rocks Ryuujou, sending her flying and crashing head first into the water with a pained scream. "Re... retreat. Seaplanes... follow that oil..." she whispers. Shaking her head, the girl tries to get back up, noticing that she's knee deep into the water. "I.. I'm sinking?" she panics a bit more, looking around. Planes everywhere, now submarines... destroyers, cruisers... everything.

    "Kuma... help..." she cries out as she tries puttering towards the Cruiser, "Screen a retreat. Let them... get away. And somehow, get her back..." as she points to the sky, her last two fighters shot out of the air, taking the hits from those plasma beams. "Admiral is not going to like this..."

Suzuya (739) has posed:
Suzuya, being one of the closer ships to the Wo-class, finds herself struck with some strange beam. "What the--" She whines softly, "Suzuya doesn't like this at all! It's... it's..." Her ship form shimmers and fades, and Suzuya, bearing several scorch marks on her uniform, leans over, resting hands on knees. "Fwa! Maybe this will be better." She glances up at the Borg ship, then back toward Yuubari. "Melon, you okay?"

Yuubari, still in Ocean fit-out, lets out a sharp cry as more plasma bolts crash into her deck, sending one of the gun emplacements erupting in an explosion. "Yaaa! Cut it out! I didn't say I wanted to get shot by those!" The remaining turrets swivel upward, sending another volley of high explosive shells at the flying ship. "Maybe if I can blast a piece off, I can salvage it..."

Looking up again, Suzuya meets eye to eye with the Wo-class carrier. There's no real malice in her own face, though she does bring up her left arm, elevating the guns mounted there. "Y...yo, Wo. Why don't you just leave us and go? Suzuya promises not to shoot you in the back." Aside from aiming those guns, she hasn't really made any overt actions just yet...

But then the planes come. Suzuya gets a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she slowly looks upward. Gray eyes widen, and she lets out an ear-splitting SHRIEK as they begin to dive at her. "N..no, keep them away!" As the gunfire from the planes peppers her body, she curls over slightly, cradling her 'purse' to her chest to keep it out of line of fire.

"Suzuya? Hey, Suzuya, there's submarines and stuff and--whoah!" Yuubari doesn't panic as the planes dive at her, though she does stop shooting at the Borg vessel to switch her attention to the Abyssal aircraft. Smaller machineguns come into play, firing rounds toward the planes swarming in the air nearby. "Suzuya, we gotta go!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Sure enough, Yuna doesn't need Elner's confirmation when she's inside the shields; she 'wakes up' about then, opening her eyes and twisting around to see the open hatch, and what's waiting --

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

So much for acting; Borg drones are *SCARY*, they look like zombies with bits of high tech stuck all over them with the fashion-disaster sense of an old horror movie. The Matrix Divider rematerializes and Yuna opens fire with reckless abandon; it's like she doesn't care if she actually HITS the drones.

... which isn't that far from the truth, in a way. She doesn't want to get anywhere near anything that a Borg can stick into her, but her plan *did* depend on actually getting inside. So those drones kinda gotta go down, even if it's only for the short term. Her real target is inside the ship ... somewhere. But actually GETTING inside - well, she may not even have time to think that far ahead any more; the Fleet Daughters have been getting mauled, so getting loose from the tractor beam is kind of the bigger focus.

Her plan is also getting heavily revised thanks to the combination of worrying about her friend on the water below, and genuine terror at being in direct line-of-sight of real live Borg drones. She's inside the shields, the Borg weapons PROBABLY can't track her that well if she skims the hull, so - once she's out of the tractor beam, she starts zipping around the Borg ship and trying to blow away as many weapons emplacements as she can find in a hurry.

This was, in hindsight, probably a really really bad plan. But if she makes it out of this alive and un-assimilated, she can at least take 'get well soon' flowers and sweets to the Fleet Daughters who've been injured.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    "--Tch!" Isuzu hisses form within the hull of her warship form. Smoking 12.7cm cannons cease their reports and the speedy cruiser turns a hard port. With a new spread of space-age torpedoes deployed, her smaller guns open fire, focusing first on the munition headed for her and then, once she can guarantee her own safety, sweeping to spray incendiary rounds at the attacks targeting her fellow ships.

    Off her fantail, Isuzu swings out two sets of curved rails, locking into position at slight angles from straight back. With a thumping noise, heavy drums are launched down and off these rails, soaring through the air until they hit the water. Four pairs of these charges are launched as Isuzu makes full speed away from the Abyssal convoy, leaving a trail of unexpectedly large sub-surface explosions in her wake.

    Further away, Akizuki starts, then reaches down, fussing with the spare gun barrels on her thigh and clumsily slotting them into the heads of her Choujuucentihou-chan familiars. Each one lets out a cheerful 'vwrr~!' when re-armed, clapping its little flipper hands. With her turrets ready for battle once again, the girl slows her skating and turns, bewildered, to the playful destroyer. She quickly notes the response to the nickname, leaning forward excitedly, "Ah, it is you, isn't it! You've gotten bigger!" She reaches out when the I-Class ventures so close, resting a hand on that rubbery, subdermally armored hide, "You look good, Icchan!" That buzzing is something she's vaguely accustomed to by now, though there's something in it that makes her more curious, her head tilting when she notices it, though only a soft "Hmm..?" escapes her.

    Though Akizuki picks up the sudden worry in the Abyssal's behavior, it doesn't click to her just yet. She looks up, her anti-air director's dish rotating, rather than focusing inward on her sonar. Icchan dashes away quite suddenly, pulling a surprised noise, "H-hey, where are you--" And then she sights the unmistakable wake of a torpedo, "--Icchan, wait!"

    The explosion splashes seawater and traces of oil across Akizuki's face and chest and outstretched hand. Eyes wide, she freezes for just a second, shaking, then draws both hands to her chest, squeezes her eyes shut, and simply screams, "ICCHAN..!"

    Heartwarming or heartbreaking? The answer very well might be Yes.

Regina of Borg (222) has posed:
     As soon as Yuna starts firing again, the hatch on the Borg ship slides shut, barely giving those drones that were not hit time to get back inside. Yuna's shots within the shield are pretty effective. Pieces of the Borg ship are blown off, the hull is compromised in several places as Yuna moves about. Yuna does a pretty large amount of damage before the Borg ship releases the tractor beam, drops its shields a moment, then makes a short distance burst of speed and raises its shields again to lock her out. Several explosive shells pelt the ship in that time, and one of the spokes from the octahedron falls from the sky.

     Once Yuna is outside the shields again, the Borg ship opens fire on her with everything it has. At least eight beams attempt to vaporize her, and two torpedoes are fired at her. When the Fleet Daughters start their retreat, the Borg ship moves into a cover position above the Abyssal fleet again. It continues firing at Yuna, but it also starts firing at the retreating ship girls again. If they are not careful, both airbound and seabound torpedoes will get them! Not to mention the plasma shots.

Wo has posed:
    Just because things have turned in their favor, doesn't mean they are out of the woods yet. The fleet daughters are nothing if not stubborn. The Wo-class had just had a chance to return to standing, staring down Suzuya unflinchingly as she - somewhat spitefully, at this point - orders the continued assault. However, her own preoccupation leaves her vulnerable. By the time she hears the approach of enemy planes and picks them up on radar, the sound of incoming bombs is already filling the air, flying forward thanks to the stored momentum. And here she thought they might just leave after a bit more. Explosions. Mercifully, most in the water around her, but one nearly dead center, as she braces to let her hat take most of the brunt, the part of her form most capable of it. It suddenly has developed a huge hole from the blast, and its mouth is agape not to launch more aircraft, but in a silent scream. The tentacle-like projections on it, which normally hang limp, suddenly coil up in obvious pain, as the carrier herself grits her teeth even more, elongated canines easily seen. The abyssal planes around Suzuya and Yuubari begin falling out of the air, thankfully for them. Some by anti-air rounds, some seeming to just run out of fuel and ditching into the sea from the vengeance-fueled elongation of their sortie. Fate cruelly has one of the shot planes, still aflame, splash violently into the water next to Suzuya. Way too close.

    Despite how things turned out, though, and the heavy damage on both sides...that oil slick behind the damaged abyssals is one hell of a bread crumb. Once she's managed to steady herself enough, the Wo-class turns her look from Suzuya to that, as well as a glance over of the still-smoldering wreckage that used to be some of their sisters, bobbing up and down in the murk. Her angry expression fades into one of cold shock, and then contorts into what looks like a grimace of pain, as she reaches a gloved hand up to palm at her face. Several choked back sobs, in her slight, inhuman reverb, can be heard, before she throws caution to the wind and speeds forward to rejoin what's left of her fleet. She'll be holding Suzuya to that promise, if she herself isn't currently too traumatized to threaten.

    The submarines are not, besides Ryuujou and where Akizuki is, doing their dirty work. With the seeming impending retreat of the fleet daughters, they are currently standing by, even if their trigger fingers are awfully itchy. The one that attacked Ryuujou gets as good as she gave thanks to Kuma's depth charges, forced to submerge again..and shortly after, a bit of oil emerging from the depths telling the tale well enough. Otherwise, it seems, they're going to be content to allow the fleet daughters withdraw, as the Wo-class had offered.

    It would have been a lot more easy on Akizuki if the goodbye were suitably brief, speaking of. After they'd just managed to overcome everyone else's biases to become friends, even in a place like this, no less. The I-class doesn't sink immediately, once the spray of water and oil subsides, though it is heavily listing, bobbing up and down in the water in somehow pained static. The eye it has that remains undamaged remains glowing at Akizuki, as it continues making sounds at her. A few agonizing moments later, and the sea around it begins to..glow? Sparkles and motes of light wafting up, as its eye finally goes dim. A voice, more felt than heard, "..free.. ..I'm..free.. Don't cry.." The light fades, as what's left of Icchan's twisted wreckage is finally reclaimed by the sea.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" yelps Yuna as soon as the Borg ship jets away from her, and the kite shield materializes on her left arm -

Just barely in time, too; the first beam slams into the shield far enough to push her away with similar force to the blast that seemingly disabled her after she was flailing from the torpedo near-miss, although this time she doesn't take nearly as much damage from it. She's also fleeing at best speed right now; the Fleet Daughters are in full retreat as well, so it's basically time to run like a mob of unwashed fanboy stalkers were chasing her down the street.

As for the torpedoes ... well, the Matrix Divider is really a two-handed weapon, and using a shield takes up one arm. She *could* switch to her pistol, but instead, Yuna deploys the pulse-blaster arrays which were hidden under her right arm's vambrace, and trusts the rapid-firing bolts to help shoot the torpedoes down while she's trying not to get hit - or even NEAR-hit - again. If she can deal with the two torpedoes that are focused on her first, Yuna will lend some cover fire to the Fleet Daughters - somewhat ironically, she's actually moving whether consciously or not into a cover position above *them*, much as the Borg ship is flying aerial cover for the Abyssals.

Elner, Marina, and Jiina converge on Yuna as she's getting there - the other two androids supporting her in the air and lending some firepower of their own, while Elner helps coordinate their efforts for best effectiveness. Actually shooting at the Borg ship, or the Abyssals, isn't even on the menu at this point - just shooting down torpedoes.

There isn't anything they can do about the beams, though ... Yuna might be able to tank some of them on her shield if her armor was fully intact, but in her current state, she can't afford to try.

Shigure has posed:
    Chitose hmms. "Enemy Carrier disabled... better late than never." she then lifts the right hand rail. "Fly my little bird. Follow the enemy fleet right to their nest~." she coos, before pulling the trigger. Steam hisses, and the floatplane hurtles off the end as its propeller strikes up. It dips sharply, then pulls up and starts to climb, gaining altitude to follow the Abyssals at a distance. At least it won't be hard to follow that oil trail.

    Kuma grunts a little bit, sloshing through the water from her own slightly sunk position. She's at least stable, and starting to rise again as her 'bilge pumps' and damage control kick in. The cruiser reaches down and HOISTS Ryuujou clean out of the water. She gets the CVL into a princess carry and makes best speed away, zig zagging through the plasma beams that the Borg ship continues to rain down.

Suzuya (739) has posed:
As the planes begin to thin out, Suzuya cautiously lifts her head... and then lets out another shriek as a flaming plane lands in the sea right next to her. Still clutching her 'purse' cannon to her chest, the heavy cruiser shakily looks back toward the Wo-class. "S..suzuya isn't afraid!" She lifts her left arm again, though it's shaking, and takes careful aim. But when the Abyssal carrier turns away, she lowers her arm. "Y..yeah. Suzuya promised."

There doesn't seem to be much more danger from submarines, so Yuubari releases her Ocean fit-out as well, skating over toward Suzuya. "Let's get out of here before any of them change their mind, yeah? That flying treasure trove is still shooting at us..." She casts a longing gaze up toward the Borg ship. "Someday..."

For now, though, the two ships turn to skate back to the others. Both look the worse for wear, but at least there doesn't seem to be any danger of sinking.

Nagato has posed:
    Ryuujou lets out a squeak as she's hoisted out of the water and carried by Kuma. "A...ah. THank you Kuma. I think I need more training as a Flagship." she comments, before closing her eyes. "I think i'm going to take a nap while we go home. Sorry to let the fleet down..." she gives a light sigh before muttering something on the radio. "All units... retreat."

Kongou (637) has posed:
    After the initial shock and her scream, Akizuki wipes at her face, shaking with sobs. All she manages to do is smear oil and tears around on her cheeks, "Icchan.. Why..?" She nearly doesn't even see the glowing light, only pulled out of it by the sourceless voice, which snaps her back up to the floundering Abyssal warship, "..N..No!" Kicking off, Akizuki closes the distance, dropping to her knees and sliding to a stop on the water, placing her hands on the mangled black hull. Fruitlessly, she pulls upward, her legs submerging, "Y-you can't! Icchan, you never told me your name..! You can't sink..!"

    But a destroyer just doesn't have the displacement or the horsepower to lift her own weight. That eye goes dim and the hulk submerges. Akizuki bobs back up to sit just on the surface, splashing the sea with her hands, "N-no!" Though even she realizes how fruitless it is, going still, tears striking the water's surface.

    "...I'll cry for you," she murmurs, "...Even if no one else will..."

    Finally heeding the words buzzing in her own radio, the destroyer girl unsteadily rises to her feet, head still hung low, and kicks off. Her usual energetic personality is going to need some time to spin back up. Even the Choujuucentihou-chans seem concerned, both looking up at her face. One even reaches out, touching her arm with a paddle-like paw and making a curious whirring sound.

    Closer to the main formation, Isuzu dismisses her Ocean fit-out, splashing down feet-first and immediately skating on, looking over her shoulder at the smoldering aftermath of the ambush-gone-wrong. There's a tense frown on her face and she returns her attention forward, slotting in near the rear of the retreating formation.

    "This isn't over."