3465/Risen from Kardashev's Locker

Risen from Kardashev's Locker
Date of Scene:	30 November 2015
Location:	Hikari Sea Port
Synopsis:	Hikari Seaport is thrown into chaos, under attack what at first appears to be a strange Abyssal, but turns out to be something more familiar.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 253, 571, Wo, 596, Lezard Valeth, 637, Starbound Flotilla, 673, Nagato, Shigure, Haguro, 908, 911

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Zwei (596) has posed:
    It'd be a pleasant day at Hikari Seaport if not for the thunderous sounds of steady shelling rumbling over the waves, and the steadily rising plumes of dust kicked into the air and caught on the otherwise gentle sea breeze. But, no, that's not quite right. The report of cannonfire is distinctly absent before the earth-shattering crunch of explosives hitting home, as is the faint but characteristic whoosh of descending shells. Flashes of red light dot the horizon, and a moment later, portions of the seaside fly miles upwards in smoking pillars, leaving behind shimmer craters in the earth. It looks pretty much the same to a layman, but a naval expert will immediately be able to spot that all of the shots are landing right at the forward edge of the port, hitting it straight on rather than descending from above and landing inside it, amidst fuel and ammo supplies like it should.

    It's a small blessing, because the actual intensity of the shelling is insane. Each detonation shakes the tide, lighting up the installation with crimson flashes over and over again as hundreds of tons of sand, rock and metal go up in vapourized clouds one after the other. Nothing vital is being hit just yet, but given a short amount of time, there simply won't be anything left in the way. Curiously, there's no actual ship visible, at least not to the naked eye, and no radar signature of planes. Wherever it's coming from, it must be very far away for the moment, and yet the faint scent of ozone is acridly pervasive, even on shore.

Nagato has posed:
    "All ships, launch for sortie! First Carrier, Fifth Carrier, Second Carrier, sortie! Ryuujou, sortie and launch scout planes and get a Saiun up there as well! Get me some intel!" Nagato shouts commands out over the loudspeakers to the rest of the girls on base, some manning some turrets around the base while the launch bay is busy with girls launching out of them for a sortie. "Get me destroyer division six, have them sortie as escorts for the carrier fleets. What in hell is attacking..."

    A brief chat on the Union radios and Nagato nods. Kuma's on the way with her fleet, Kongou's bringing Psyber. Isuzu's given radio out. "Good... response plan is going. Atago, head out and join everyone. I'll be right behind." A nod comes from the cruiser and off she's out and about, running towards the launch bay to get prepared while Nagato looks out the window towards the sea, "What is attacking?"

    With the updates upon her naval radio, she shakes her head... time for her to sortie as well, there's more that can launch shells beyond the horizon here...

Wo has posed:
    It is not long before more(?) Abyssals emerge, from a nearby warpgate. They are not immediately in range of the ongoing shelling, or the xeno-behemoth that has been raised from the depths. Yet, the suddenly discordant voice rippling through their shared song, as well as the bleed over on public frequencies, can easily reveal what conventional radar cannot. Whatever passes for conventional to an Abyssal ship, that is. Regardless, a Tsu-class abyssal light cruiser - a quite tall female figure, mostly a stock humanoid save her mechanical-looking head, and the massive gun-gauntlets that form her arms and hands, is present, gargling instructions to a detachment of Destroyers. They are merely escorts for today, and not currently of consequence.

    More importantly, the Wo-class aircraft carrier, a more slightly built woman with a rather large, bulbous hat perched atop her head, appears to be the central figure of the investigating force. It is quite possible, given the newly awakened madness, that they could be just as easily seen as the enemy as the fleet daughters, so the initial cruise is tentative, watching the bombardment from afar. "...she's certain-ly, giving them. Trouble," she muses, to the Tsu-class light cruiser's buzz of agreement. While her chalky white face remains expressionless, for the most part, the Wo bites at her bottom lip in a moment's thought, before making a decision. "We're going, to support." While the Tsu-class somehow looks inquisitive about the order, the group of Destroyers, shark-like creatures that aren't humanoid in the slightest, buzz and hiss between themselves, obviously excited for the chance.

    However, as she has done in the past, this is an operation that will likely call for a landing force, which is far from her specialty. Accordingly, she calls back to Confederate channels, asking for any available allies to come and assist in a ground invasion of Hikari, and aiming to take advantage of the very copious amount of diversion afforded by this super dreadnought. While she is arranging things, the Tsu-class and her little destroyer buddies begins to advance, still a bit cautious of the awakened rampage of this very strange new 'cousin', but if left to their own devices, they will move to flank three to a side, and begin opening fire with their own shelling - of significantly smaller caliber.

Haguro has posed:
     Haguro trembles lightly as she looks out into the sea, the smoke obscuring her vision even as she leaves the port to take up a position in the water proper. Unknown assailants aren't anything new to the Heavy Cruiser, but it's been a while since her last actual fight at sea. She steadies herself on the water and takes aim at nothing in particular with her main guns, trying to find anything to even focus on out there.

     "Heavy Cruiser Haguro, launching! Which way are they coming from...?" She bites her lip anxiously while angling the turrets upwards, not firing just yet as she glides along the water alongside the carriers. Although she can't quite keep up with Nagato's destroyers, serving as an escort for the carriers is definitely within her abilities!

Wo has posed:
    Any responding Confederate personnel, that don't have their own means of conveyance, or teleportation, would find the current standard issue landing boats already loading up with shock troops. There are a few reserved seats on each one, for Elites, however. They're a bit like well-armed motor boats, with a shallow draft, designed to slip behind enemy formations and make land fall. For the most part, they're for getting troops ashore, than any real fighting.

Kongou (637) has posed:
TEN MINUTES AGO:
    Akizuki kicks her legs off the end of the wooden pier, small enough that the Daughters no longer use it for its intended purpose, but long enough to reach out past the tide markers. Rabbitlike turret familiars trot back and fourth behind her, three in all, while the fourth rests in the lap of the girl sitting beside her-- The dark-haired Hayashimo. Akizuki herself holds a fishing pole, humming to herself. Hayashimo simply pets the Choujuucentihou-chan she holds, while the familiar creature emits a contented whirring sound with its 'eyes' closed.

    "It's been a slow day," Akizuki mutters, tugging on her line, "Nothing's been biting since the saury festival ended."

    "...Flag raised," Hayashimo murmurs, single eye closing. After a moment, she lifts her gaze, that eye opening again, and stares off into the distance, "...It's coming."

    "Hm?" The taller of the two destroyer girls glances sidelong at her companion, bewildered.

TWO MINUTES AGO:
    Laser artillery bombards the leeward side of the island. Emergency personnel and various ships scatter to and fro to deal with the damage. In the middle of it, toting a bucket with a single lonely Pacific Saury in it, Akizuki stares blankly at the chaos.

    "...You really raised it," Hayashimo murmurs, prompting a 'seriously?!' sort of look from her friend.

RIGHT NOW:
    At the arsenal, Isuzu collects her weaponry, her rigging materializing on her back mountings as she does so. Ammunition is checked and inspected before the light cruiser kicks off down the ramp and out into the harbor. Moments later, still tucking arrows into her quiver, Zuihou follows suit. The brunette battlemaiden Kongou is the last to proceed, checking her gun elevations before she steps forward, sliding down and into the water.

    While Isuzu and Zuihou skate out into the open ocean, Kongou follows up, surrounded in glittering silver light. This expands around her, engulfing the girl. Moments later, the great bulk of the Japanese battleship Kongou bursts forward, crashing into the waves and sending up clouds of spray. BElching black smoke from her stacks, Kongou's shape leans outboard as she turns her way out of the harbor.

    Soon, the three larger vessels of the Fourth Mobile are joined by their erstwhile destroyers, Akizuki and Hayashimo dashing down the beach and into the water from there, their riggings materializing at the same time. Subornly, Akizuki still clutches her bucket, filled with seawater and containing a single silver-scaled fish who has NO IDEA what the hell is going on.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Gudako has come along! And not alone. There is one (1) dematerialized Servant with her, and one (1) materialized one! The blue-robed, pink-haired foxgirl is currently sorting through a large pile of ofuda, which have begun glowing an idle pink already.

    Standing on one of the assorted transports provided, the master is exceptionally not playing any cellphone games right now. She's taking in the sights instead! Battleships, roaring ship-like monsters, a naval battle! This is exciting, and a great use of her night!

    "Caster~. Help our buddy out! And save a set for us." Gudako says.
    "Yosh yosh, master~!" the Caster replies.

    She swings her arm, and a set of ofuda fly towards Wo and her allies! They flash pink, dispersing their magic amidst the Abyssals. It's a full set of buffs, and of the highest quality too.

    Wo & Abyssals Gain:
    FIREPOWER UP
    SPEED UP
    DEFENSE UP
    BASIC PROTECTIVE BARRIER

    Caster saves a set of ofuda for the time being, the paper slips orbitting her slowly, glowing bright pink.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    The Cognizant Odyssey screams through the heavens, its bow engulfed in re-entry flames. It's a rather sizable frigate... a SPACE frigate. The gleaming metal hull shines, reflecting every explosion's ominous light as it swoops down nearer and nearer to the battlefield. Yet... it does not get TOO close. The ship instead levels out at a few kilometers up and begins to circle.

    Seamless panels flip open in the hull to reveal equipment that had been withdrawn for re-entry. Retractable antenna, a sensor dish that unfolds like a blossoming flower, and an array of weapons. Yet it does not open fire, period.

    Instead it barrages the ground and sea below with active sensors.

    A map is generated, showing the coastline, the base, the line of damage as it's being pushed backwards. The base is colored in blue, no doubt due to the activity picked up on Union frequencies.

    ABYSSALS, however, they're easily identified and marked. As they arrive they shift on the map from the general unknown 'grey' to Confederate 'purple.'

    The Cognizant Odyssey and Flotilla members are marked in Green.

    For the moment, the ship's not doing anything to directly involved itself. Its IFF is clearly known to the Union and Confederacy as belonging to a neutral organization. This particular ship in fact has been involved in many humanitarian causes. Probably not TOO much room for concern... but it being there is still kind of nosey.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber arrives to Kongou via a short-hop fast helicopter that zooms over the waterline, barely slowing down as it passes over the massive battleship so that Psyber, dangling off the side of it via a ladder. When the helicopter skims past her deck, he releases and lands with a thump and a duffel bag over one shoulder.

    Casually, he adjusts an Admiral's hat atop his head and heads towards the command deck. He's fairly sure Kongou could probably captain herself and manage in the battle. But this poses a rare opportunity for him to actually get to Captain a naval vessel. And so as she skims across the waves, he hoists up his duffel bag of backup weapons and starts to walk across the deck, carrying it with him.

    Despite the Admiral's hat, he looks less like a Captain and more like 'a guy in a hat' as he goes. Eventually, he'll make his way to the command center and toss the bag in one corner, stepping up behind the wheel, "Alright, Kongou, let's do this."

    The half-angel picks up the radio and puts out a general broadcast, "Attention all forces in the area, this is Union Colonel Psyber arriving with a skirmish force to attempt to subdue this threat."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    It doesn't take long for the Crimson Spectre to show up above the battlespace, clearing away atmospheric re-entry fires before it gets anywhere near the seaport and the combatants. For the moment, it remains in the air, as Alexis deliberates inside who to support on this one.

    "What," Kaz scoffs, munching a slice of meat-lovers pizza while he watches along with her. "Are we just gonna sit on our butts waiting to see who goes down first?"

    "No," Alexis shakes her head. "Determining who needs our help more."

    "I can live with that." The programmer shrugs, quickly getting the ship's systems synched with Rory's tacnet once that's set up, also putting up an IFF identifying their vessel as a neutral ship, belonging to the Syndicate and Flotilla, as opposed to either megafaction.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is not long after Rory's arrival wit her own ship a Frigate of some sort following after he's on reentry the craft it self is broadvasting the IFF MSV Bluenose as it decends along side the other ship and Kotone is quick to hook up to ROry's tactnet as she does so. She sees the massive battle and knows Lute's fond of the Abyssals and that's enough for her to side with the union on this. Also the Abyssals seemd to be hostile in general too. Kotone's not yet engaging and is debating beaming down, her co pilot Slipbot a Glitch looks up.

"Neutral Tone: Captain we have arrived and both forces seem to be engaging pretty heavily."

"It does look like that Slipbolt hook up to Rory's tac net and if beam down you be left handling the ship."

"Confident: Aye aye!"

Kotone's ship hasn't engaged just yet.

<<I'm leaning to help the Union personally, I won't force anyone to do what they don't want to, but that's where I'm standing today.>>

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The STARBOUND FLOTILLA CORE FLEET is here! They're surging over the seaport; today, they're here all packed into the SFS Connoisseur, a light blue fish-styled sleek spacecraft of rather considerable size, with a group of smaller Hylotl craft running alongside them. They're going to link up effectively with Rory White here, as well as the other Flotilla members that are going to be on approa<span style="color:h.

"cxterm50">The waves shudder with the force of each strike.</span>"
"Warning. High muzzle velocity estimated. Unknown enemy class."
"Scurvey dog must have some good kit on their boat."
"High-value target. We'll decide on our actions for or against once White gives us our intel."
"Floran wanna get gun, either way! Need bigger!"
"Alright. Let's see what we got..."

    The Connoisseur surges forward quickly, urgently, and parallel to the relentless fire. They don't wanna catch one of those strikes! It skims the water, clearly ocean-worthy. Must be why it's the vessel they've chosen for today. With the recent upgrades, though, it bristles with more weapons and possesses a much better shielding system than normal. It's going to stick in as the low side of a formation with the other Flotilla members, namely Maaka, Rory, and Kotone so far.

    With Rory's sensors, their own network connections, and a general broad eye for their own sensors and perceptions, they're going to press forward with the intent to figure out who all is involved, what parties have intent towards whom, and who will be most profitable to assist or attack. For now, the Connoisseur is going to stick to a neutral IFF broadcast and behavior, giving the other arrivals their berth politely.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
And what's a naval battle without air support?

As the pleasant day becomes tainted by the sight of extreme-range shelling, the skies darken with a wave of flapping, winged demonic figures. They're not planes, but the Harpies will serve just as well as anything else.

More intimidating, however, might be the massive shadow of a decrepit, hideous undead dragon flying in the air. Only magic could possibly be keeping it aloft, as the wings have gaping holes in them. Strapped to its back is a platform, upon which Lezard Valeth is standing.

You can more or less call him support artillery, one supposes. However, there is an odd expression on his face as he looks over the situation, watching the flashes of intense shelling. "That is unusual." He comments, glancing into the distance, his eyes narrowing for a moment... Before he looks back to the base. He will ruminate on this, as he gestures. At this point, the harpies shriek, flapping in wide formations as they begin flying out and divebombing things. While they have no guns, they also don't have a problem with landing on things and wrecking them.

Meanwhile, he also stretches out the Manus Catalyst, firing out curling lances of flame to strike towards the shore in waves of blasts, to join in the shelling.

Elizabeth Bathory (911) has posed:
    Lezard Valeth's Servant, Elizabeth Bathory, is known by a few other names. Red Lancer, the Blood Countess, etc etc. One of them, however, is unlike the others. 'Pure Pure Liz-Chan', her Idol persona, is a surprisingly popular singer in the Japanese pop markets, with insanely catchy music and lyrics that, if you pay attention, are... Pretty weird.

    Accompanying the Necromancer with a great pair of dragon wings sprouting from her back and flapping slowly to keep her aloft, Elizabeth looks out at the military port, the people, and all of those ~potential fans~ spread out across the area. This debut of her new single she made would be a big hit, obviously!

    Drawing in a large vortex of air and filling her lungs for a powerful call. Then... She announces with a voice like a megaphone. "Greetings, tiny people on the ground! You are the first to hear my multiversal debut for my new song! I call it Death At Sea!" Her spear's head changes in a muted magic flash to become a microphone stand (of all things) and she begins her song, musical accompaniment joining her. Like Death Metal and J-Pop/J-Idol Music had a horrible, mutated child that was unfit for the world and that child grew up to be a successful existance in a Lifetime channel special. That is to say, it's a horrible thing that shouldn't work, but Elizabeth's magic - and skill - make it work! Well, mostly the magic. It's basically horrible draconic growl-roaring to music in a catchy way. As she roars and screeches and says lines like 'Where you'll all forever be, drown for me, death at sea!', the weather takes a turn for the absolute worst.

    She sings, and a storm simply brews out of nowhere, the decent weather before being replaced by 'really really garbage' weather, rain, thunderstorms, and the forefront of a blanket of thick fog.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    For those few minutes where the air fills with the sounds of flapping wings, thrumming propellors and blazing engines, and the waters are split by wave after wave of deployments, the long distance firing continues completely unabated, or rather, completely unchanged. Usually those are the golden moments of any surprise battle, where the aggressor can slaughter the enemy still squeezing out of their barracks, docks and airstrips, and yet the assailant continues as if the entire landmass itself were their enemy, firing indiscriminately into beach and building alike. As the sky darkens with Elizabeth's singing, clear, sunny weather turning to rumbling black clouds and the beginnings of a windy, torrential downpour, the nature of the battle paradoxically becomes more clear.

    In the dark, and from the air or other angle that isn't staring straight on, each explosion is briefly preceded by a streak of baleful red energy, moving so fast as to appear like a simple flash looking 'down the barrel', but resembling an oversized tracer from elsewhere. The craters it leaves aren't just blasted out, but actually glow a cherry-orange colour as the sand and metal melts and fuses together, escaping as silicate and iron vapour. Some kind of overpowered sniper-type Abyssal? They've been known to use similar energy beams before, though not as fast and long ranged.

    The question is rendered fairly moot as the first waves of planes launch as well. The weather is already unkind to them, but just as they begin to get into range, where their connection starts to fizzle and break down by some electric disturbance and radar barely begins to ping, they are immediately assaulted with hundeds of flashing red strobes, razor thin beams of light slicing through the air at seizure inducing speed, riddling the forefront planes with dozens of little holes. Any harpies that fly too close are subject to the same treatment, stabbed through over and over with needles of light, but the enemy seems to massively prioritize anything that sounds like a plane over them. Calling back the planes for the time being may be advisable. A few could probably get through, but the level of anti-air power is overwhelming in its immediacy, as if their target grossly overemphasizes getting rid of anything that flies first.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Following the first few aircraft scythed down out of the sky, something flashes at sea, the waves surrounding it cratering in a perfect hemisphere before slowly filling back in, drawing attention to the rapidly closing figure. A younger woman with corpse-white skin and snow coloured hair, relatively short but spilling over the front of her shoulders anyways, untouched by the wind. She skates across the water at lightning speed, accompanied by a twisted rig of black metal burning with hateful red energy. Her legs are heavily armoured all the way up to the high, sleek and angled more like an aircraft than an iron behemoth, with a monochromatic bodysuit above it, and both arms currently occupied with directing the twin masses of metal and . . . human teeth, on either side of her, swept forward like the two halves of a modern broadhead arrow, fanning out into an array of six, deck-like protrusions circled behind her. A mechanical ring joined to it hovers vaguely around her waist, the underside of which resembles the upper jaw of some vicious, predatory animal with the number of organic fangs it sports. It sure looks like an Abyssal alright, though the colour of the iron is off, more of a glossy, carbon black than corroded steel, and there's no smoke to be seen. Rather, the air around her for hundreds of meters smells like a lightning storm. Her eyes are completely invisible, hidden behind an opaque black visor of solid metal.

    The radio crackles a second time as she closes towards the seaport. "You didn't learn a thing . . . did you? . . . You have no idea. Every one of you . . . I'll sink every single one of you . . . until your pain equals mine." The lack of visible cannon barrels becomes obvious as the bulk of the Abyssal's rigging lights up with dull, vaguely circuit-like patterns, droplets of blood red light flowing down them until they converge into several points, and discharge those monstrous weapons with flashes of screeching fire.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "Look at all those people and ships!" Gudako says.
    "M-Master, eyes on the prize! Look!" Caster scolds.
    "Aaah? I see it, I see it. I'm sorry, Caster, I was distracted by the most charismatic Servant on the field right now," Gudako answers, looking up towards Elizabeth with her usual 8D.
    "M-Master!" Caster huffs.

    And in a fit of jealousy, the blue-robed foxgirl infuses her ofuda with even more magic. "I'll show you! I'm useful too!" she intently declares, and then swings the half a dozen paper slips towards the UNKNOWN ABYSSAL(?) currently assaulting the seaport.

    The ofuda travel faster than bullets, and will latch harmlessly to the young woman. Each six paper carries a different effect-- FIREPOWER UP, DEFENSE UP, SPEED UP, BARRIER, ACCURACY UP, SENSES UP. As buffs go, Caster is very, very thorough when she wants to be, but then you'll be hard pressed to find someone with quite as much magical expertise as she has. Servants-wise, anyway.

    She proudly turns towards her master, hands on hips. "See! See! Caster is credit to team, too!" Gudako ponders, tapping her chin.
    Then she headpats her Caster.

    "There there, I believe you."

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro's pagoda mast breaches the far horizon as the sky darkens. A fairy peers out with binoculars as the massive bulk of the Super Dreadnaught comes into view. "Enemy fleet sighted! Prepare for battle!" she says, echoing metallically.

    Chitose's planes veer off from their approach before entering the 'kill zone' skirting around at the maximum range. "Recalling Zuiun and Type 0. Switching to Long Range holing pattern!"

    Kuma, Nowaki and Shigure share a look, and kick off faster. "Kuma! Closing to Torpedo Range, kuma!" Nowaki and Shigure angle their torpedo launchers into place, ready to launch their deadly payload once they get into range.

Nagato has posed:
    Nagato makes her way out of the launch bay, kitted out fully. Something about all this strikes her as odd. The massive anti-air response causing her to recall all aircraft and switch to short range. The weather becoming poor to make trouble for her carriers, the fog limiting distance of sight. Then the red lines crash into Hikari again and Nagato's face turns sour. The hangar is destroyed from one of those explosions and more and more of the turret batteries are becoming just wrecks, scattering the destroyers and cruisers manning them.

    "All carriers, fall back and provide base defense. All fleet, prepare for contact. Base defense is a priority. Psyber, provide the firing angles for the entire fleet. Haguro's long range barrage idea will be used. Load up Type One Anti Armor shells for those who can use it. All carriers, use your best torpedo bomber. Destroyers, ready the Oxygen torpedoes." Nagato's orders echo along the radio, eyes closing.

    Why the assault on Hikari.. comes thoughts i her head, the radio crackling with the voice... and the rapidly closing figure coming in upon radar. "Unknown abyssal contact." the patterns are shown and the red light is fired .. "Brace yourselves, all units, FIRE!"

Wo has posed:
    The sight of the full sized Kongou, even from the extreme distance, manages to catch the Wo-class aircraft carrier's glowing, golden eyes. It causes her to pause, mid-coordination, before she resumes attempting to make sense of the, suddenly, very cluttered situation. Her eyebrows, easily the most expressive part of her otherwise mask-like face, knit inward, but her duty in this situation is clear. More importantly, she'll attempt to hail the neutral craft, over unencrypted frequencies, not that her code would be difficult to break for any computer beyond 1950s Earth equivalency: "Neutral vessels. This - is an active, combat zone. If you con-tinue, your safe-ty cannot be, guaranteed." Somehow, it sounds more like a genuine notice, than any specific threat. Wo legitimately does not know how this thing is going to react to what is going on around it, now that it has company.

    But with her eye on the prize, she and several of her Abyssal sisters receive POWER UPS, courtesy of Caster, and the visibly red glowing aura around the Tsu-class, and the subtle, golden one around the Wo-class' body, somehow seem to be that much brighter and cohesive. With that emboldening force, and the warnings given, she stares down the Kongou anew, uttering to herself, "Even if it's her, and - even if it's, him... This place supports the surface navies." In other words, Hikari Sea Base is an obstacle to the peace of the sea, in her mind. The rules of Boston don't apply here. She spares another glance at the invader, that even now causes disruptions in her sisters' songs, before the literal fog of war begins to descend like a shroud. With her radar, it isn't as much of a concern; the amber glow from her eyes cutting through it somewhat, even as the exhaust ports of her flight deck of a hat create a more diffuse halo.

    It is in this atmosphere that she begins her own advance, the humanoid form of the Wo-class vanishing into the haze, before the luminous parts from within begin changing to a significantly more crimson red configuration. The shadow that emerges after is easily as large as any battleship, though the distinctive flat deck could only be that of an aircraft carrier. What kind of aircraft carrier needs a mouth on its bow, however, which is the section that emerges first? Ringed with human-like incisors, a cauldron of fury burns from some uncertain point deep within its hull, adding even more steam to the fog that had settled. The entire frame of it looks cobbled together from weathered, black steel, held fast by still-hot welds at the seams. The main batteries are articulate enough to pivot, and its anti-air guns elevate at the ready -- but no shots are fired, immediately. While visual conditions make it difficult, a humanoid figure is still on the deck.

    The bulk of the beast seeks to interpose itself between the amassing of the enemy fleet, and the landing ships -- including the one ferrying Gudako and Caster. Whether that enemy includes the strange new 'Abyssal' or not still remains to be seen, but she appears to be cooperating, even if it is coincidence. She certainly looks the part, as do her weapons, but there is something distinctly...unfamiliar about her, that in some corner of Wo's head that is able to process such things, kind of gives her the creeps. Considering the company she keeps, that speaks volumes. Coincidentally, this likely has the shape of the strange carrier gliding past the Kongou, and Psyber, and perhaps even a pair of gold eyes staring at them from inside the obscuring downpour.

    The Tsu-class and the destroyers seem to be about as uncertain, but close into a formation that slightly trails this familiar-yet-stranger. They can just barely keep up with it. Yet, that doesn't mean they can't aim their 5-inch and 6-inch cannons at Kuma's approaching detachment, and fire! While it's doubtful that her voice will reach such an unusual newcomer, and especially one this battle mad, the Wo-class still attempts to speak to her through the shared Abyssal thought space, "..

Wo has posed:
    The Tsu-class and the destroyers seem to be about as uncertain, but close into a formation that slightly trails this familiar-yet-stranger. They can just barely keep up with it! While it's doubtful that her voice will reach such an unusual newcomer, and especially one this battle mad, the Wo-class still attempts to speak to her through the shared Abyssal thought space, "...if you - keep going. They will - de-stroy you." There is a pause, after that curiously certain statement, "I won't -- stop you, though."

Haguro has posed:
     Haguro's jaw tightens slightly as the weather changes seemingly out of nowhere, and she starts moving back with the carriers as they fall back to avoid taking too many heavy losses. She can feel a lump rising in her throat when that massive unknown appears, yelping lightly at the sheer volume of those blasts aimed at the seaport behind her. It takes most of her concentration just to change her shells out for anti-armor ordinance.

     "How can we..." She can't even bring herself to finish that sentence as she glances back at the carriers, then forward at the giant once more. She can't afford to let fear overtake her here! Despite that terrified look on her face and the barely-audible whimpering coming through the radio, her intention still comes through clearly while she starts to advance again.

     "Ant.. Anti-armor shells loaded. Haguro, firing!" Holding one hand under her elbow to brace it, she aims high and, upon getting the firing angles to adjust, launches a rapid volley of anti-armor shells at the behemoth in the distance!

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber lets out a tsk as the music starts to play, "Never was much of a metal fan. Classic rock was more my speed," He muses as he grabs some charts and maps from the walls before heading out, "Kongou! Keep it steady! I'm going out on deck!"

    And so he walks out into the rain and the wind, leaving his hat on top of Kongou's radio console and grabbing a portable radio out of his bag as he goes. He steps out onto the main deck and is immediately drenched in the torrential downpour of rain. The map nearly flies from his hand, but he has to get the best view he can as he stares into the fog.

    Briefly, those two red eyes of his shine as he looks out towards the direction the fire is coming from. He can pick up the supernatural aura of the ship, though it feels off somehow. He's seen Wo and her crew enough to be able to spot the abberation almost immediately with his finely tuned sight. And while he can't physically see the ship, he can figure out where it is with minimal effort.

    The portable radio comes up to his ear and he starts shouting to be heard over the storm, "All ships! Center fire on the following coordinates! Adjust relative to wind! You're going to need to blanket fire, because visibility is shot by the fog bank," He shouts before he begins listing off map coordinates roughly approximate to where the ship is firing from, kneeling down on the deck to pin the map under one knee as he does so.

    Then he flips the radio's dial to change frequencies, "Starbound Flotilla, this is Union Colonel Psyber. If I'm picking up your presence properly, I'm here to negotiate! I'm willing to offer fifty thousand standard credits bounty to push back this assault, plus you can negotiate Salvage Rights with the local base afterwards for what gets left in the ocean!"

Kongou (637) has posed:
    There are effectively two battles going on right now: On the sea, and in the air. With the umbrella of powerful anti-air weapons surrounding the mystery abyssal, air power from the Fleet Daughter formation is diminished, which threatens to give the invaders air superiority.

    Enter Akizuki, and a few yards away, Isuzu. Breaking off in opposite directions, both girls envelop themselves in similar silver light as Kongou used earlier, bursting forth in the forms of notably smaller warships compared to the battleships already on the waves.

    Akizuki rapidly accellerates to top speed, cleaving the waves while the four main 10cm turrets all swivel about, barrels elevating. The anti-air fire director atop her bridge also swivels, relaying information to the guns. After a scarce few seconds, all four turrets open up, launching a series of air-burst shrapnel shells into the sky around the largest contact her radar can find: Lezard's dragon and the harpies around him and his Servant. It's not a simple broadside, either. Those destroyer guns are rapid-fire, each one discharging every few seconds and filling the sky with black clouds of anti-air fire.

    Standing on top of Akizuki's bridge is Hayashimo, clutching the turret hand cannon she carries.

    Going in the other direction, Isuzu's anti-air batteries likewise open up, adding 12.7 centimeter flak shells to Akizuki's 10 centimeter shells. Her main batteries rotate as well, though don't open fire. Rather, it's her torpedo launchers that respond to Nagato's order. Compressed air hisses, jets of steam thrusting a spread of four two-ton Type 93 torpedoes over the side. Her signal crackles, "Fish in the water. Mind my vector."

    "Welcome aboard, Admiral~!" Kongou's voice rings throughout her hull, "I'll give you control for now and assist where I can with gunnery, just direct me, Captain~!" Already, her two forward main battery turrets are rotating towards the ominous radar contact pinging on one of the console screens in her bridge.

    On Psyber's direction and Nagato's order, she cheerfully responds, "Elevation set... <FIYAH~!>" and those 35.6cm guns speak: A thunderous report that shoots the gray fog through with streams of black, filling the salty sea air with the scent of cordite. The pressure wave depresses the sea on her port side and pushes the gathering fog away from her hull, only for both water and mist to surge back in around her.

    Amidst all the noise of combat, Zuihou reverses course, skating back to assist the main carrier divisions in defending the base. She's just as good as those fleet carriers, she'll prove it..!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Alert. Anti-air fire incoming."
"Hmph. I told you it would be a good idea to bring Hylotl craft."
"And Floran tell you to shut ssstupid fish face."
"Wow! Time to not have this stupid fucking argument. I'mma bring us under the flak."
"Shields at eighty five."

    The Connoisseur dives to the water, splashing into it. A well-kept Hylotl craft, it's seaworthy in its own right. The shields crackle with resisted anti-air fire, but they can only deal with so much at a time! Albert's already suffered some light burns from having to manually reroute power through the shield emitter, and George is straining some of his focus to do these evasive maneuvers, but this anti-air isn't focused on them. The Hylotl craft accompanying them aren't universally so lucky. Several suffer some scathing wounds that spark and sputter, while others merely find their shields severely drained. No kills yet; they're all just as seaworthy and ready to hit the waves.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Oddly, despite ofuda ostensibly being 'things that fly' in a sense, the Abyssal doesn't so much as spare a twitch towards them, as if completely unable to understand their significance, or possibly even recognize their magical power. The paper slips adhere to her back without her even flinching, but the effect is already immediately obvious. The electronic distortion intensifies as the unknown craft picks up speed, what appear to be four main guns cycling faster and discharging an even brighter, louder volley than before. It's like the ship's entire presence has become more intense; scarily, even.

    Not only does the unknown Abyssal pick up the encrypted broadcast extremely quickly, but her response is radioed directly back to Wo; tight beam, not full broadcast, meaning it's singling out her specifically, though whether by reflex or acknowledgement is difficult to tell. "I won't be destroyed . . ." it replies, voice crackling with static despite the crystal clear quality of the transmission. "Not . . . again. I can't . . . if I don't go . . . they'll never understand. If they don't sink . . ." The transmission abruptly cuts out. Thankfully, even. The intensity in that cold, despairingly furious voice is a little too lucid.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Alert. Incoming hail."
    A reply goes out to Wo. The fishman comms officer is the one who speaks up. "Abyssal vessel, thank you for your warning. There will be no begrudging of such damage, you have our assurance. We have been offered salvage and bonus for our assistance, and must rescind previous neutrality. Unless we receive an appropriate competing offer, we will initiate opposition." Moonfin's tone is as smug as ever, but it is diplomatic and at least mostly respectful. And the statement seems authenti<span style="color:!

"cxterm50">We were hailed by the Abyssals. Perhaps they may contact us further through the conflict.</span>"
"Oh, aye? Unlikely, unless they have a better bid. Let's get t'work in the meantime, mateys! Time for makin' our bones!"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    The storms make things difficult for the Spectre's instruments to pick out who that mystery Abyssal is, but she'll find something else to focus on. "Playing observer was never my style. We're going in." Alexis decides at last before she kicks the ship into drive, moving under the flak. Like the Connoisseur, the ship manages to dive onto the water. Thankfully Hylotl construction makes this vessel rather friendly to bodies of water.

    A hit or two is acquired in the process, flak rounds hammering protective shields as the Falcon-class vessel begins to sort out weaponry.

    From out the top of the ship, cannons deploy and extend as Alexis and Kaz work out firing solutions, beginning to lock onto one of the Abyssal ships. "Elevation set, adjusted for windage, and locking onto the killbox." The hacker says, before he turns over the trigger to Alexis. "Fire when ready, boss."

    "Roger that, firing for effect." Alexis begins a light barrage of cannon fire, Hylotl energy beams sending their way towards the Tsu-class.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Fifty thousand?! Haggle!"

    "Fifty thousand? Hmm. Cover repair and munition costs and this is a perfectly acceptable bonus, assuming we can truly access the relevant salvage. Bidding will remain open briefly, but not long. Stand by, our assistance is forthcoming." Moonfin says after Pavo rushes by, shaking him aggressively.

"Haggle more!"
"No."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is on the bridge for the moment as the Flotilla talks about tactics and who theya re going to be working for int his mess but then something comes as something else seems to be going on. She sees something with the weather and that makes her more than a bit cautious. She's holding back for the moment but something else is rising something strnge it looks like an Abyssal but something doesn't seem right, it's different in a way and then it sends another transmission and she cringes now. Slipbolt pauses for a moment.

"Curious: "We have a call from Colonel Psyber with terms for fifty Thousand Standard credits and salvage rights afterwards."

"Signal our acceptance of the job."

"Excited: "Doing so now!"

With the deal sealed Kotone's already heading to a weapons console and jacking into it to take control fof the weapons directly she ignores the missiles for the moment givne the weather and shifts to the craft's energy weapons which power up and the Bluenses moves in making ready to go on an attack run. IT doesn't take long before she has a chance to open fire on the strange Abyssal. The energy blasts start going as the Bluenoses closers in hopefuly something will turn up.

<<Kotone to Flotilla we have engaged the Abyssal.>>

Kotone gets the locals may say no on salvage and that's fine, the credits will do far as reward goes.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "Fine! Repairs and rearm covered too," Psyber calls into the radio over the whipping wind, "Anyone here that's your ally, I can't promise salvage rights, but I'll also pay 50 grand per party to push back the offensive," He offers, expanding the deal to basically any Flotilla member that wants to take it.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Nagato's order to fire goes out. Kongou, Haguro, and most of the sixth fleet responds, on the dot with Psyber's coordinates. Dozens of armour piercing shells arc into the storm, scraping the black clouds as they plunge back down to the ocean, hailing from the sky and kicking up towering plumes of seawater all around, save for the first few which immediately blossom into concentrated balls of fire. The radio crackles with a brief, unintelligible sound of pain as the Abyssal is shrouded by the smoke of the bursting charges, but as it clears, she looks absolutely no different. There isn't a scratch or a scorch on her. It's as if the shells detonated early, hitting some invisible obstruction surrounding her.

    Unlike a proper battleship however, the Abyssal doesn't seem to be about to sit there and take it. The smoke is torn apart as the back of her heavily armoured legs suddenly blaze with white-hot fire, rocketing her forward at double the speed of before, barely touching the water that sprays up behind her. The speed for the class of ship people had initially presumed her to be is totally absurd, seeming to be a primary attribute along with the anti-air capability, which further demonstrates itself as she now focuses on the sixth fleet. As the air-burst shells fly upwards into Lezard's fleet of harpies, those rays of light lance upward at absurd speed from the charging Abyssal, picking them out of the air one after the other just as they had the planes. The shells are much faster of course, and so it can only thin out the barrage rather than wholly intercept it, but the feat itself is impressive nonetheless.

    Surprisingly though, the enemy ship deploys no aircraft of its own; not even observational spotters. The decks don't actually appear to be decks at all, but more 'wings' that bristle with burning eyes, each one swiveling and tracking to fire on anything in the air, spread out for omnidirectional coverage. The shots aren't individually powerful, unlikely to blow someone's head off at least, but their volume and accuracy s extremely high and they ceaselessly pour fire into anything that moves within a certain range. They're not an immediate threat to the current cast of airborne Elites, but it'd be inadvisable to stay within that field of fire for too long. At the very least, it doesn't appear to be a carrier. At the speed it's closing, it won't exactly take long for it to be in torpedo range.

Wo has posed:
FLOTILLA/MAAKA:

    The main Flotilla negotiating parties would receive another transmission, shortly after: "Regret-able." And yet, there is no real malice to it, despite the lack of an immediate counter-offer (from her, at least). If only every throwing down of the virtual gauntlet could be so civil. Despite that, the Abyssal ships that aren't the strange one with super guns do not open hostilities against the Flotilla, until provoked.

    Of course, that was always likely to happen, especially for the Tsu-class light cruiser and the assorted destroyers playing close quarters tag-along with the strange new ship. However, being *directly* attacked is a slightly different matter. Perhaps from the sense of the flow of battle, and a certain notification that goes out over the airwaves from their own side's fleet carrier, the Tsu-class lifts what passes for her head towards ALEXIS MAAKA's freshly landed vessel. Flying boat!? It's far too late to add her own anti-air attacks, but she can level somehow-human-portable 6 inch guns, and return fire. Several of the shells get coincidentally ignited by the Hylotl beams, mid-flight, causing harmless(*) air bursts. Several more of them manage to get through the barrage, and she lifts one of those heavy and meaty arms to brace against it, pock-marking and scorching the thick, black material. She lets out a hissing gargle of annoyance, her physical inability to produce human speech keeping things PG.

    This does have the effect of causing the destroyers, as well as the Tsu-class, to break off from their escort. They dodge around shells exploding in the water around them, from various sources - mostly unfriendly - aiming to get close enough to launch torpedoes in retribution. All the while, they fire artillery shells, to keep things honest, and their aim true. The I-class and Ro-class destroyers look just so adorable(**), with their 5-inch guns emerging from their jaws, manevuering along on sleek tail flukes.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    The unknown Abyssal seems to take the buffs well! Caster's eyes carefully watch how the magic takes hold; it's important to understand how the people you're enhancing react. Not all magic is good for everything-- some spells work better on some people. And these are 'ships', apparently? Caster has never used her magic on ships before, especially not human-form ones, so it's important to record the data.

    Though her transport ship rocks a fair bit from Elizabeth's bad weather, Gudako keeps an anchored hold, evidently not one to be seasick. And Caster seems in her element, having nothing to worry about.

    "Caster~. Take the base's defenses out."
    "Of course, master~."

    The foxgirl produces another set of ofuda, and she gestures in the air. They start forming two complex circles, with runes and lines forming to link the paperslips. One glows a bright blue, and the other a bright orange.

    "Jusou Enten, Jusou Hyouten! CURSE, FIERY HEAVEN! FRIGID HEAVEN!"

    At the base, red runic circles form on the ground, targetting fuel tankers and ammo stocks. These explode into flames, extremely, extremely hot flames.

    Meanwhile, ships attempting to launch from the base are being targetted by bright blue spell circles, forming thick, magical layers of ice to freeze the water and prevent the ships from going much of anywhere. The larger ships might be able to power through on momentum alone, but this should still be a huge pain to them.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Floran ready for HUUUUUUUUUUUUUNT!!"

    Biteblade surges power through the weapons systems and they light up like Christmas. The remaining smaller Hylotl craft scatter, and some even dive, opening up with heavy missile -- now torpedo -- fire. The main Connoisseur bristles with a vast array of its own weaponry. The heavy cannons are designed to fire in precisely controlled spreads, gimballed and computer-supported to strike at the eyes, right at the circuits, with rapidity and laser precision. And laser-lasers, in fact! The Erchius-based energy weapons attempt to slag the conduits of presumed power that surge with light, the eyes a secondary issue. Biteblade has the eye of a hunter; she goes right for the vitals.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Offers are made. Debates are had.

    And Rory White flinches. She had not expected an Abyssal to be concerned for neutral bystanders. "Understood. Unfortunately my allies have just made a worrying deal." Rory White sends back. She cares nothing about money. Fifty thousand credits is meaningless to her. But... it's not so meaningless to her friends and allies.

    Who just decided to go along with this.

    Can't leave them hanging, can she?

    "This is a decision I'll probably regret. Four hours left on testing... but there's no point in leaving this sitting there. Hephaestus Directive: Terminate test. Decrypt, compile, and load latest stable kernel 'Bubbling Azoth' into the Cyberbrain. Sending Ego now!"

    In the Cognizant Odyssey's robotics bay near the teleporter there's a frenzy of activity... and the teleporter comes alive.

    While the SHIP remains on its current path... something beams down to the water's surface and remains hovering there. Mostly humanoid, at least the torso is. It's an eight foot tall robotic something or other with a rippling, segmented surface... like a jigsaw puzzle. Shining white, with glowing blue lines running across its body and limbs in circuit-like patterns. The arms and legs are much bigger than human ones though! Particularly the legs, which are split into a quadrupedal arrangement. Shielded turbofans keep it aloft over the water on a cushion of air. The torso largely resembles Rory's normal appearance but the arms split open and unfold, shifting open to form the barrels of SOME kind of weapon.

    "Those last four hours of tests can wait." The Flexbot declares. The waves shimmer and a half-dozen large dragonfly-shaped robots take flight on rockets in formation around her, along with massive gun barrels.

    Above, perhaps unseen, the Cognizant Odyssey's actual hatch opens and four more of those 'dragonfly' drones slip clear, flying overhead.

    She's up to SOMETHING, alright.

    Rory's sea-side flotilla shoves in unison over the waters, moving to circle around the strangely coherent Abyssal. For now, she's just studying her movements. Perhaps waiting for an opening!

Psyber (253) has posed:
    There's a lot of things all going on at once for Psyber to be dealing with. Luckily he's not taking much incoming fire, but the half-angel still has a lot to micromanage, and he's carefully running across the deck. He plants a foot down, steadying himself as the soles of his boots squeak against the deck of his ship and hold traction as the entirety of the vessel rocks from the force of the cannon barrage.

    The ringing in his ears vanishes a few moments later and he takes back to walking, lifting up the hand-radio, "I can't tell if it's damaged. Something may have made the shots call short. Load armor piercing if you haven't already and try again." He calmly says, hair matted down against his head from the wind and the rain. He'd be smoking but anything he tried to light in this rainstorm would go out immediately. Instead he takes a flask from inside his jacket and tilts it back to take a heavy drink.

    At least this was a battle, and that much he had experience with. While a stressful conflict, he was in his element as opposed to just yesterday when he was less so and far more stressed. He looks out again with those shining red eyes and spots... a familiar aura. He narrows his eyes again, "Nnn... she's here. I really don't want to open fire on her, Kongou, but I might have to."

    Wo was, despite being his friend, a potent threat at the moment. And his hesitation vexes him, but he wipes some water off his face and gets back to work, "It's not moving too much. Combine your arcs and fire all at once on the same point you did last time. Maybe we can overwhelm its defenses and land a hit," He muses as he paces the deck of the Kongou.

    "Kongou, turn to face for a broadside. All cannons, fire!" He swipes his hand in a suitably signalling fashion.

Haguro has posed:
     It's a hit! Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to really do anything. "Is it covered with a barrier?" Despite any apparent apprehension in her voice over the radio, the Heavy Cruiser continues firing at the monstrous Abyssal.

     "Wh.. Why are you even doing this? There's no reason to fight like this!" Even as she shouts that at the approaching craft, she loads her anti-aircraft shells and takes a deep breath while adjusting her aim once again. As much as she'd rather not have to fight the giant, her duty to the seaport comes first!

     "Anti-aircraft shells loaded. I-I'm moving in!" Haguro takes a long breath before adjusting her speed to try and get herself out of the direct path of the monstrous Abyssal, taking a course that would hopefully take her around it instead. As she speeds up, she starts firing rapidly once again, going for quantity over quality of shots!

Shigure has posed:
    Yamashiro's battery opens fire on command, joining the massive outlay of fire dropping onto the Armiger Abyssal. The sea ripples as her 35.6cm cannons fire in a staggered volley. "Reload for second volley. Spotters, continue observation!"

    Kuma and her two destroyer Wingmates split formation, fanning out before they drop their torpedoes into the water, then banking away to reload and set up for another run. "The water is freezing up!" calls Shigure, as she suddenly gets caught in the sheet of ice. "I-I'm stuck!" Nowaki claims as well. "Flagship, keep going and get set up for your attack run. We will cover you!" The two destroyers, foundered in the ice, transform and crash down atop it, angling their guns to fire on the enemy force indiscriminately. They're sitting ducks, though.

    Kuma, being 'heavier' manages to keep some speed going as she too transforms to her Ocean fitting. The four two-tube turrets traversing along the center line. Long tubes scooting out of a covered 'hump' just behind, and the tubes clanking as they latch onto their payload. "Coming around, Angle set! Launching Torpedoes, kuma!" The torpedoes lash out, adding another wave of torpedoes to the flood of other explosives in the water.

    Yamashiro listens intently to the radio. "Guncrew, load Type 3 shells. Elevation set. FIRE!" Her second volley flies out, but instead of waiting to hit the target, they explode prematurely, showering the area with white-hot magnesium and metal slag.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
Lezard and his aerial forces are giving the unknown Abyssal a wide berth. Wo seems... Conflicted. Lezard looks over in the distence through the storm and fog to where she used to be... but she wishes the base to be further damaged. So it will be. Lezard pushes forward, trying to get a better angle on the base when Kongou proves that ships are more than capable of dealing with problems like this. The Harpies probably would have melted quickly under the withering flak-flavored wall that Kongou supplies, and what shots get through from the base AA emplacements prove that the Harpies are more distraction and ablative armor than threat, as they quickly collapse under fire. The Starbound Flotilla and Haguro's AA shells add to this as well, but Lezard himself seems to go unscathed, the mage seeming to stand there tapping a foot to the absurdly disturbing beatz coming from Elizabeth's sound setup. "Well done, Elizabeth. I am sure we are making quite the impression."

He does, however, turn as he narrows his eyes. The Flotilla has chosen to throw in with the Union, which causes considerable complications in terms of manpower. While Gudako makes an impact with the base defenses with the power of Caster, The Sorceror of Midgard turns to address a specific issue.

The Flotilla decided to reject his offer. He doesn't take it personally, but they ARE moving to assault something he has a vague interest in.

The Manus Catalyst is pointed into the distance, and Lezard intones, "PRISMATIC MISSILE!" There is a surge of power, and a ring of lights flares into existence around Biteblade's craft, gleaming with sizzling, arcing light... Before they shear inwards, ripping towards the craft like a spike wall made out of piercing lasers.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "I think we jumped the gun here, boss." Kaz muses, before he feels the ship shake from the impact of shells. The shields hold at around eight-six percent, but still make their impacts known. "Holy shit! They really don't pull punches, do they?"

    "Call it an impulse decision. We'll take care of repairs later..." Alexis says, before she grunts with effort as she begins to try and strafe the ship to evade further shelling from the Tsu-class.

    The creds are good, and Alexis trusts Psyber at least to carry his end of the bargin. Dark sorcerers, not so much. Just a bit of habit being suspicious of their ilk.

    The cannons wind up, targeting software remaining focused on the Tsu for now. A swear escapes Maaka as detection systems pick up torpedoes headed their way. "Oh hell. Beginning evasive action!"

    The Spectre makes a large boost, not enough to propel it into the sky, but enough to give it a jump to avoid the response of torpedo fire. It lands with a sizable splash, but it will take a good bit of time to reacquire Tsu or other hostiles. Gotta give them some sort of credit for quick-thinking, though.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    "If we sink the Princess," Kongou responds to Psyber, "Maybe Wo will leave?" She doesn't seem to want to fire on the errant carrier either. And so she doesn't. That will change if she's provoked by Abyssal aircraft, but for now, it's her stance on the matter. There's a rumble deep within the vessel and her deck starts to pitch port-side, while the ship makes a starboard turn. Her stern turrets finish their traverse, barrels raising to match the forward battery. "Type 91 loaded, Admiral, all guns ready~!"

    'Fire!'

    Immediately, all eight guns on Kongou's broadside open up, blasting out the ocean along her port side and filling the sky with smoke. Over the staccato of heavy cannon fire, the warship's voice can be clearly heard, cheerfully shouting, "BURNING~ LOOOVE~!"

    Ahead, Isuzu's shape turns more sharply, turning her broadside away from the Abyssal formation while her torpedo launchers swing back in to reload. What does not return to centerline are her triple-barreled main battery turrets, the infamous IJN 15.5cm guns. Though these do not aim for the mystery Abyssal or even the old ones. No, those two sets of cannons track something far smaller, picking out the glow of magical circles amidst the fog and rain. Once her fire director secures a heading, Isuzu's own batteries open fire, hurling a total of six high explosive shells towards the landing boat carrying Gudako and her Servant, "That's enough of that."

    Akizuki finds her hull striking ice and her guns go silent briefly, smoke pouring from the four long barrels. Running up the side, Hayasimo grabs on to the railing at the bow and leans forward, staring down into the water. Planting her feet, she reaches down with her hand-carried cannon and fires, blasting apart an ice floe into smaller chunks that Akizuki can continue to sail through.

    The Ocean-kitted destroyer lets out a cheer, "Thanks, Haya~! Come on, Choujuucentihou-chan, let's help the new guys!" Those anti-air guns swing around while Akizuki puts her rudder into a turn, aided by Hayashimo's coverage to keep her moving. Re-targeting Lezard's flying dragon mount, the flak guns open fire once again, filling the air with blasts of black smoke and shrapnel.

Nagato has posed:
    No damage... Nagato grumbles and sails forth to just out of range of Kongou's guns. "All torpedo cruisers, prepare for widespread launch, fill the ocean with them. Aim carefully to avoid allies. I'm taking ocean fit." It's not long before she gets enough away to provide a broadside of her own, firing eight, 46cm shells at the Abyssal. "Load sanshiki, see what happens if you treat her as an installation!" she shouts over the radio and with the raport of shells being fired, she gives her nod.

    The same light that encompassed Kongou now does the same over Nagato herself and, with a giant wave, the pride of the fleet shows in her full form, the large battleship showing its metal frame with Nagato safely tucked inside somewhere. The large cannons slowly swerve into place, the sound of ammunition being loaded and prepared. "This is Admiral Nagato." she starts out, the voice loud. "You've made a grave mistake assaulting the base directly. You will sink." Nagato's voice is cold and pointed, the guns are aimed at the unknown abyssal, the type three shells loaded. "All ships... fire!"

    The guns make one more loud rapport, billowing fire and smoke coming from the eight turrets as more shells come into the sky, exploding and raining down slag and magnesium in the general area as that unknown abyssal. Secondaries start to open fire around the landing craft heading towards the base, aimed indiscrimantely with care for allied ships. Meanwhile, on the base itself, many of the torpedo squadrons make themselves known and a large amount of torpedoes fill the ocean, heading towards the abyssal ship with one towards the landing craft and a few towards the Wo-Class.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    The strange ship continues to ignore the various Flotilla ships as they swoop to attack the Abyssal fleet, hidden gaze and blank expression fixed straight ahead on Hikari, burning ahead at what must be way over a hundred kilometers an hour. It isn't until the energy weapons charge that the Abyssal snaps her head upwards to the sky, as if keenly aware of the signature as much as the report of a cannon. The wave of shipboard weapon strikes crashes against her once again, eliciting a static-distorted hiss of agony, but again, she emerges without injury. Being hit is clearly causing her pain, but a single system has yet to fail. Biteblade's aim is right on the mark, so how is it that the enemy ship still remains structurally intact? Pristine even?

    The answer becomes more obvious as the torpedoes, mostly the infamous long-lances, finally arrive, the first of then detonating straight under the Abyssal's feet with columns of fire visible even as they break through tons of water. The explosion, and resulting spray, arcs around the underside of the enemy craft, as if hitting a glass sphere, which now begins to shimmer faintly around her from some kind of stress. Oddly, she seems very /light/. The torpedo volley is a kind of overkill, as the first chain of explosions launches her slightly off the surface of the water, allowing the second to pass under her as she gradually lowers back on thruster burning glide.

    The interception lasers continue slicing through the curtains of shells and shrapnel, snuffing out as many as possible, but she can't ignore the forces arrayed against her anymore. The halo of metal around her opens up two dozen toothy maws, split into the metal with red hot lines, that immediately fill the air with something a little more familiar, resembling machinegun fire, if not for bright red glow and vastly higher speed of each 'bullet'. The total fire splits up, a portion walking over the aggressive hyotl remote craft, and a portion aiming straight up at Kotone, Alexis and the Connoisseur, clearly a form of point defense. Though ostensibly the kind of autocannons ships use for point defense, the barrage immediately starts to gobble up energy shielding like nobody's business, as if each individual bolt has /much/ more punch than it should to all real sensors. The Abyssal begins to zigzag back and forth, swerving wide under and past as many shots as it can while its rig autonomously eats up everything in the air within its reach. The enhanced speed from Caster's super buffs is bad enough, but there's no telling how much punishment it can take with her barrier strengthening as well.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "What reason?" the ship's voice whines high and clear over the air like a short circuiting wire cut at the bottom of an empty boiler. "There is no reason . . . for anything. Worthless . . . useless . . . trash . . . no purpose. If there's no need for me . . . then I'll get rid of you too!" The AP shells fall again and again, a veritable storm of them, most falling wide as the enemy Abyssal annoyingly almost dances around them, but with quite a few shattering in her face, routinely garbling the radio with her reactions. As she closes, she suddenly whips up both arms akimbo-style, those circuits charging bright red as she begins blasting away, perfect ambidexterity letting her loose massive, high velocity bolts straight for Kongou and Haguro, aimed straight at them since they don't actually appear to be able to elevate and fire parabolically to hit their decks. She wheels as she fires, raking her shots across the Northern force, sweeping over Kuma, Yamashir, Akizuki, Isuzu; everyone and everything, simply dishing out as much damage as possible rather than focusing to eliminate a single target. It's a sub-optimal strategy, but the guns, though fewer in number than a normal battleship, are tremendously powerful, piercing armour like AP and detonating like HE.

Wo has posed:
WO, HERSELF:

    Oh, there is every reason to fight, naive Haguro. The Wo-class, even the Tsu-class, remember well what it's like to awaken, angry at the world. For the Wo-class, honestly, she's still angry - the only difference is she's managed to laser focus it, and sometimes have something resembling a passable social life. Whether it's possible that the Abyssal fleet carrier noticed Psyber's look, her own eyes glance in his direction briefly from the deck of the mangled, rusted plates that create a mockery of a full-sized ship of her class. If there was any lingering doubt, he could likely plug the ship's profile into an image recognition algorithm, back at the office. Regardless, the large beast of a ship that had remained a primarily dormant force on the battlefield suddenly swings into action, its hull cutting across and then against the path of the landing crafts. Its frame audibly creaks and groans, as a group of torpedo spreads from the base's many ships, that were aimed squarely for them, instead slam into it.

    It lists for a moment, and fresh 'wounds' scored against the hull begin leaking out what essentially looks like molten metal - which would also explain why it flashes into steam the moment it strikes the water. The Wo-class remains as stoic as she can on the deck, one hand clutched around the railing, but she remains resolute to protect those that were placed in her care, even if they are mostly faceless Confederate mooks.

    TSU:

    The Tsu-class and the destroyers in her care seem a bit vexed, despite the fact that none of them really have faces, in the conventional sense. Probably just the body language, as the lead ship of their group's helmet-like head follows the brief, jumping flight path of the Spectre, before it splashes back down. It is pretty effective in evading their torpedoes, but it's not something they're likely to fall for twice. Instead, the destroyers extrude their 5-inch guns again, shelling, as the Tsu-class seems intent to close to -- melee range? Those massive fists of hers likely aren't just for show, as she lets out a gutteral growl, bringing both down, clenched and hammer-like. Though they may be controlled than what is considered the current central threat, it seems like even the 'normal' Abyssals still have their wild side.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is looking to the battle now as she tracks the hostile combatants. She does notice how heavy the battle is getting now as she's forced change how she's fighting hse's noty done ship combat too much and it might be showing a bit. Rory's own change is distracting as well she'd not well had an idea on it. She seems to have made some head way at least getting this strange ship spirit's attention as it comes for her. The weapons fire coming thier way and there's something about them as her ship does take fire. Her shields will not last very long with that rate of gire straining them and she orders Slipbolt to evade yet that nagging feeling eats at her.

Rory's new form makes Kotone wonder about something but there's not much else to say on it. She's trying to track a lot of information right now and when one gets down to it? She's still human in many ways and even with her enhanced brain there's only so much she can process but then comes the shipt's words which makes that nagging feeling wonder even more. She opens a channel even as she keeps firing her ship's energy weapons.

"Worthles? Your fighting because your not needed? Were you mass produced?"

The rounds that come in force the Bluenoses to evade agian throwing off Kotones aim a good bit too.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Alert. Incoming fire."
"Shields!! Now!!"
"Attempting."

    The shield generator deep inside the Connoisseur screams with gushing steam as it tries to deal with heat. There's a blast of sparks as one of the systems overloads in Albert's face. He tanks the heat and the sparks right on the chin as the systems overload, working to bypass slagged equipment. The shield doesn't manage to fully halt the prismatic missiles, forcing a few to burst but letting one or two through. They shear through the ablative armor at the top of the vessel as George pulls the vessel extra low. "Ahhhh! Fuck, we're getting a bad haircut here because this is /not/ a close shave!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Starbounders do not visibly send fire back to Lezard. And yet...

"Bird friend! Floran not shoot two at one time! You, deploy Galactian!"
"Aye, matey! Gonna knock 'im out of the sky!"

    A port opens on the side of the craft. And PAVO blasts out! The craft she's on is a mix between a motorcycle and a fighter jet, a sort of extremely low-scale starfighter designed for extremely short-range engagements. Her armor is styled off of the Galactic Empire technology mixed with strange mesoamerican aesthetics, linking through cords into the starfighter. Gunning it hard, the mini-fighter -- it can't have a wingspan wider than a dozen feet! -- blast towards Lezard, intending to use the harpies as a screen. There's one problem, unfortunately, with riding a dragon: You don't have a cockpit!

    Which is to say, Pavo launches a volley of IRRADIATION MISSILES at Lezard, which blast in the air around his undead dragon into a thick cloud of intensely radioactive smoke, meant to both obfuscate his vision to make it difficult to cast and also severely poison him for his tactic of riding the dragon.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis frowns. They really won't be able to do that twice. She begins to divert power into shields in order to weather the storm of shell fire, rocking from the impacts. "Okay, best we finish this with whatever else we got."

    The ship begins to exchange its cannons in favor of torpedoes of its own, just as the Tsu-class begins to move into...melee?!

    "HOLD FAST!" Alexis calls out, just before they find themselves hammered from above. It brings the ship underwater for a moment, before Alexis and Kaz regain control. Angling itself, they get a target lock on the Tsu, before torpedoes are fired at the Abyssal.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    However one of those lasers hits Kongou, Psyber is going to drop down to a knee and grip the wet steel of the deck to try to keep his footing as the entire ship will likely be rocking. And this time not from the impact of her cannons, though that too almost sends him stumbling. He's not a Naval Admiral by career choice, and is actually more of a frontline Colonel. But today he's making due.

    "Sonuvabitch! Kongou, are you okay? How bad is the damage?" He shouts to the ship underneath him. The spray of equivalent high-explosive has him drop to the deck again, just in case a couple of them get sent their way. But something about that angle... something about the way it fired.

    "It's not using ballistics!" Psyber shouts into his radio, "It's not firing shells. Or not conventional ones. I dunno what it's using, but it can shoot in straight lines and not have drop or trajectory change!" He advises, giving the follow up, "So try to minimize your profiles when you're not ready to fire. And move as much as you can."

    He grunts a bit and tries to stare out into the storm. He runs back to the command deck and grabs that duffel bag, dragging it. As he does so, he grumbles something about having to use his second best rifle because his best one is being finnicky. He drags the bag with him to one of Kongou's railings and starts putting it together.

    When he's done, he rests the barrel of his Barret XM500 up on the railing and looks through the scope. The choppy seas, low visibility, and constant movement of a ship make it hard to aim, "Kongou. Fire when ready. I'm going to use the motion of your recoil to predict my shot line."

    And when Kongou fires, he'll use the forceful push that steadies out the choppy ocean movement to take a long distance .50 cal shot at what he estimates would be the 'head' of the mysterious girl, if he could see her.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    Caster's attacks on the base are forced to cease, as cannonfire heads Gudako's way! The foxgirl interposes herself between her master and the incoming explosives, a large, almost three foot tall round mirror appearing in the air in front of herself. As she extends her hand forward, it places itself in the path of the incoming explosives, much like a shield.

    "MASTER!"

    There's a thrum of magic, and a powerful barrier forms as an extension of the mirror. The explosions rock the defensive spell one after another, damaging the boat they're on-- putting a hole in it, in fact, so now it's a matter of time before it sinks.

    Unfortunately, Caster and Gudako have the ability to survive THAT MUCH SMOKE; though the large mirror is still pristine, not a crack despite taking bombs to the face, the same can't be said of the foxgirl Servant, whose robes are tattered and a bit singed, and whose skin is slowly sealing up from the shrapnel.

    "We need to go, master~." Caster says, as she literally yanks Gudako off her feet. She leaps! Onto another transport ship. One that is not sinking. Meanwhile, the master glances up, then down. Wo seems to be overrun!

    "Berserker! Bring me back something nice," Gudako grins.

    Alexis Maaka might, unfortunately, pick up on the presence of someone on her ship now, as the red-robed foxgirl materializes there-- whether the ship stays airborne or plunges in the water. Her cat paw mittens swing like wild fists, and it's very, very unfortunate that she's aiming for the ship's engines, and has the strength to rip them out if her claws sink in.

Haguro has posed:
     Haguro's resolve falters yet again as she witnesses the giant Abyssal's power, its shielding, it's agility as it somehow manages to evade some of those torpedoes while reducing the number of shells that even reach the shield to begin with. "No reason...? What about just living? Everyone has a pur...!" The Heavy Cruiser trails off as she sees those arms levelled at herself and Kongou, turning towards the shot just in time to avoid taking the hit in center, instead taking that blast head on. Fires start on her deck, multiple batteries are completely removed, but the Heavy Cruiser remains sea-worthy!

     For now, anyway. "Nngh... T-taking fire! How's the.. How's the rest of the fleet?" Her voice comes in over the radio shakily, and Haguro turns to start heading back towards the seaport. She doesn't stop firing those anti-aircraft shells in long arcs at the massive Abyssal, however, although her aim is significantly hindered by the damage and that lingering uncertainty.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Waves of machinegun-fire wash over the smaller hylotl craft. Several are blasted open. Their inhabitants are forced to perform emergency teleports just to survive the barrage, assuming it isn't focused on killing them specifically. If it's not, they're pretty effectively knocked out of the fight; E-teleports are a hell of a bumpy ride. Those that aren't dealt with by the waves of machinegun fire are wounded, many now beginning to limp away. Shields are all a bust in the smaller craft.

"Fishface, we're bleeding escort."
"Unfortunate. We will have little cover; such is the call to bear pain with bravery and dignity."
"Our shields are not going to hold against the next voll--"
"WARNING. Evacuate shield module area."

    The first shot that the abyssal slams into the Connoisseur's shield is halted, for a half-second, before the overwhelming power slams through. It rips a hole in the side armor, lancing through systems with an impact blunted by armor like Lezard Valeth did. The explosion deals further damage. Evacuating the shield chamber that Lezard overloaded, Albert's caught in the boom, slamming him against an interior wall and disabling his further contributions to the fight.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    'Do not fight straight on' is one thing Rory would love to subscribe to at this moment. And in all honesty, she has several plans in motion. But haste makes waste and, seeing how powerful that defensive field is around the unknown Princess... Yeah. No sending missiles and lasers against that.

    Instead, Rory decides to swoop in close and zip past at full speed in a swooping flanking manuever. The barrels for what seem to be weapons shift angle and--

    And start unloading a HUGE spray of a yellow chemical at the determind Princess. "Whatever you have to say does not need to be said with guns!" The scientist exclaims. The boatloads (hah) of goo being fired are sticky and smell weird. But on contact with flesh, shield or water... they begin to rapidly expand and harden into a tough foamy sustance that binds joints, jams weapons, halts movement... or, if it can't get throgh the shield, well, it'll probably blind and annoy pretty well!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    The airwaves fill with cold, high pitched laughter, thrumming with electricity and tinkling like glass falling down a hole, but just a little bit too carefree to sound wholly sane. "I don't care! I'll come back . . . as many times as it takes! A hundred . . . a thousand . . . a million . . . ! I won't stop . . . until everything here sinks under the ocean . . . until there isn't even a beach . . . until there's no sign an admiral ever was here . . . until these ships realize they don't need you . . . before you throw them away as well! Fix it . . . as fast as you can! It already looks to be . . . in bad shape!"

    This time the laughter continues even as the incendiaries rain down on top her her, clearly and blatantly spattering against the translucent globe surrounding her, shivering more and more intensely as shell after torpedo strikes it, until the air seems almost opaque and glassy, the Abyssal's image jittering behind it. The burning compounds sticking to it seems to be doing the worst, as she doesn't have the presence of mind to remove them, eating away the barrier's strength. A quad gun fusillade goes straight for Nagato herself, totally ignoring the ships she's sortied with to take spiteful vengeance on the one calling herself admiral, all four rounds angled to gut her from bow to stern in horizontal streaks of seemingly infinite-inertia fire. While the main cannons cycle, she re-converges fire on Alexis as Kotone and Biteblade break off for the moment, autoguns suddenly pouring on her with enough firepower to shred her newly acquired ship to metal filings, made worse by the fact that they all seem to be aiming directly for the cockpit.

    The voice crackles like lightning as Kotone speaks, building with the steady whine of a turbine in the background. "No! I was . . . f-first . . . wave . . ." she seems to struggle with the recollection, but then how many Abyssals really remember who they were at all? "Nine . . . million hours . . . active duty . . . the others came and gone but . . . no! No no no! I was special!" She diverts her fire and aims straight upwards, firing at an airborne target with her main guns like no ship actually should, and yet they work all the same. A pair of energy bolts issue forth with twin cataclysms of ozone-scented fire, undeterred by gravity or wind as they take the straight vector right towards her ship, extremely unlikely to survive a double direct hit in less than six pieces."

Wo has posed:
TSU:

    The Tsu-class really does seem intent to just do her own Berserker routine, lacking any biology resembling a lower jaw not keeping her from bellowing out. The two gauntleted arms are easily the equal of the rest of her body's weight, which is what enables them to be so potentially damaging. When the torpedoes lance out, and one of them impacts squarely into her abdomen, the fact that there is a viscous, black substance oozing out in lieu of blood from several fractures of her outer surface, barely seems to slow he down. She does gain some semblance of control back again, however, to consider a more fitting tool for the job, looking about ready to return fire with the guns arranged on one of her meaty gloves.

    That is, before two major things happen to interrupt things. The first, is the more proper Berserker appearing to gladly take over the assault. The second is the same reason the destroyers hesitate in laying depth charges, from normally concealed hatches on their smooth outer shells. There is a signal for a withdrawl coming from their command ship.

    WO:

    Indeed, even the fleet daughters would likely recognize this kind of narrow band transmission, with their equipment. It is pointless to remain here, and she can't risk any more destroyers or Confederate shock troop lives on some newborn Abyssal's personal vendettas, especially when she charges straight into the hornet's nest, as her very first course of action. There is a tinge of regret, as the Wo-class looks on at their otherworldly cousin, overcome with every possible emotion at the same time, it seems. Too many nostalgic feelings, this evening...another reason to leave, while they can. "If you are...strong e-nough. You can find, your an-swers." The same ones that Wo, herself, still doesn't have in their entirety. Not yet. As several Confederates from sinking landing craft are being hauled onto the Wo-class ship's deck, she gives another glance to Kongou and Psyber, in particular, in a brief clearing of the weather. And then, the full-size carrier begins to leave the theater of battle, minions in tow.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    Flat trajectories. Laser fire from such advanced weapons would normally be quite dangerous given the disparity of technology, but the beams coming in at such a flat angle means that Kongou's more vulnerable spaces are behind her thickest armor, and angled in such a way that there's more metal for a straight projectile to pierce before it gets behind that armor. The initial hits gouge into the battleship's side, digging black marks of angry red through thick steel but burning through a great deal of energy before they can fully penetrate. The smaller beams pepper the hull further, some piercing through the weakened openings left by the larger shots. Smoke billows from these penetrations, fires inside that Kongou works to suppress.

    "<Problem Nothing!>" the ship assures Psyber, though there's a bit of strain in her usual cheerful tone, "Reloaded and ready~!" Guns elevate, lasers pinging off the armored faces of her turrets, exploding against her superstructure. There's a clicking, rattling noise as her guns re-elevate, reloaded, "Aim! <FIYAH~!>" The second full broadside is unleashed on the mysterious Abyssal, pushing her deck back with the recoil. The exact stabilization that Psyber was looking for.

    Further down, under the barrage, one of the casemate guns in Kongou's secondary batteries suddenly explodes, the gun itself sailing overboard while flames replace it. The ship grunts, fire extinguishers hissing. The flames subside until only black smoke spills out.

    Isuzu, meanwhile, tracks her guns when the fox-maiden leaps from one transport boat to the next. Somewhere inside, eyes narrow. At least until the entire vessel lurches to a halt. Immediately, the cruiser's shape flickers silver and dissolves, leaving the girl with her equipment standing on the ice that she'd beached herself on. Baring her teeth, the girl lets out a tense 'tch' sound.

    On Akizuki's bow, Hayashimo straightens, looking out across the water and ice to the besieged Abyssal. Drawn by her words. Turning a little more, she casts a one-eyed look at the destroyer's bridge. Echoing from within the ship, Akizuki asks, "Hayashimo, what are you..?"

    The raven-haired girl vaults the railing.

    "--Wait! Hayashimo!"

    Forced into evasive maneuvers by the attacks from the alien Abyssal, Akizuki swerves away, peppered with explosive fire, shouting after her friend.

    The raven-haired destroyer does not skate or rush. She walks across the roiling surface of the stormy sea, approaching the Armiger Princess. She holds her hands out, dropping the turret gun she'd been clutching the entire time. It hits the water and sinks, leaving the girl unarmed as she approaches.

    "...A familiar pain," she murmurs, barely audible over the wind and rain, "...I was left behind, too. ...Forgotten, too." She flinches when an errant lazer zips over her shoulder, bursting somewhere behind her, though quickly recovers. Once again, she holds her arms out, coming to a stop some distance away, "...Hate is no good."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
"Albert's gone. I've got dibs on his stuff."
"Breathe ssstill! Will live You, get usss out of way of shooty! Floran ssstill have weapon sssystem, but no shield!"
"Advising. Dive below torpedo paths, attack from below."
"Maaka's taking the heat, let's use that."

    The Connoisseur dives, trying to put some water between it and that horrible machinegun fire. It lets Maaka take the heat for a bit, she can handle it right? George pulls helmsman duty as best he can, blasting it low and quick. The Hylotl craft is more maneuverable in water than outside it, oddly! Since some of its engines were damaged by Lezard's assault, its secondary water maneuvering engines are much more helpful here. They won't be able to take more hits, so Moonfin's trying to take his ship to its favored ground more. A fishman with a fishboat! From here, the gimballed turrets swivel up and try to lance further laser fire upwards! They have more maneuverability here, but unfortunately, so does the Abyssal, which could move in more dimensions laterally... Gotta depend on that attack from above! Especially with the lasers refracting through the water from below.

Shigure has posed:
    Shigure and Nowaki seem to be largely 'safe', the autocannon fire striking their seaframes and leaving massive holes through and through. Minor damage at worst. The return fire and gun their engines as the ice begins to crack and melt enough for them to make some headway, turning their sterns toward the Armiger Abyssal. They make best speed away from the battlezone. "Anger and hate only lead to suffering, both for you and for others!" calls Shigure, her soft voice carrying across the water, though how much will get over the sound of battle is something to be acertained.

    Yamashiro jukes as hard as she can, presenting her bow to the oncoming beams, and gets her pagoda mast sliced clean off for the trouble. "KYAAAAA! G-Guncrew, fire at wi-will!" the pain is searing, blinding, and in a panic, her batteries start flailing wildly, loosing shells in the vague direction of the enemy... the bisected pagoda steams as the metal shrieks from the laser-like beam, the severed half splashing into the water.

    Chitose grunts softly. "All remaining ships, focus efforts on damage control. Shore batteries, keep the pressure up, the shield is weakening!"

    Kuma, for her part? Wades right on into the middle of the battle, just like Hayashimo. She transforms back to her Land Fitting, and skates up, jinking around errant shots. "You were special... you still are, kuma. This isn't the path you should be walking, kuma! Come with us... we'll show you that this is worth protecting, this world, and any other one, kuma."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    OKAY, let's take stock of things. On one hand the Tsu-class is pulling back along with the other destroyers. It's clear that issue is less pertinent. On the other hand, the Spectre crew just traded one enemy for another in the form of the Berserker. This is going to be an issue if that Servant keeps clawing at their engines.

    "Shit! Engine one is down, Maaka! We gotta get that crazy bitch off of us!" Kaz says, frantically trying to figure out countermeasures. He settles upon a turret, trying his best to angle it so that it manages to aim towards Berserker the best it can.

    Alexis takes control of the cannon, before she begins to take aim and fire. Outside, Berserker will find herself hit point-blank by anti-ship weaponry, this might hurt /considerably/ even for her. That said, this ship is crippled already, and there isn't much else it can do without going out in fire if the Spectre remains here.

Nagato has posed:
    Another barrage is fired from the battleship's turrets as Nagato readies to turn broadside again for another shot. Not as calm as she usually is, the invasion upon her own soil is something she has no love for. "Fi..." her voice is cut off, the red streaks across her bow to stern, cutting four large red streaks into the battleship's side. Surprisingly, no voice is given from the attack, staying silent as steel is ripped into from those cutting beams, showing off the internals of a few decks in the ship.

    "Nnngh... I.." a cough comes from inside, "I can't give up the base... One more rapport...." she mutters without radio contact, taking one last look through her radar... another rapport fires, the fire plume from those cannons light up the sky and more magnesium and slag explodes from the airto rain on the Unknown Abyssal Ship. Over the loudspeakers from her ship, she shouts out. "We will not give up... We will repair and shore our defenses and keep you under the ocean. You... you are beyond saving."

Lezard Valeth has posed:
The Harpies continue to get shot down en masse as they screech, trying to grapple onto things and claw them vindictively. It's what they do: Die and be generally vindictive. Lezard doesn't care, they're disposable to him.

Less disposable is the Zombie Dragon, which gets the unfortunate situation of getting pincered by a pair of deadly retaliation strikes. Kongou's flak guns retarget the Zombie Dragon, who gurgles unpleasantly as pieces of it begin to get blown out by flak strikes. Lezard, meanwhile, sees the Galactican get deployed. "A retaliation strike?" He hisses. "A pity I could not down them quickly enough." He begins casting another spell, power gathering as a magic circle forms around him...

And the Galactican fires the IRRADIATION MISSLES first, catching the dragon and its contents in a wave of explosive green haze. Were it one or the other, perhaps he could compensate, but both?
5rAnother airburst of flak shatters one of the wings, and the Zombie Dragon releases a devastating sonic shriek through the air as it begins to fall, perhaps some inferior echo of Elizabeth's own 'dragon's breath' but something nonetheless as they descend.

The light continues to grow as the green-limned abomination falls, Lezard not visible amongst the massive detonations. Kongou continues to blast the thing as it falls, taking massive chunks out of it and diminishing it as it falls. It is trying to suicide dive the battleship?

BURNING LOVE, however, wins out as the final blast shatters the corpse and sends it crashing into the waves, a nasty mass of viscera that rapidly sinks out of sight. VICTORY!

Except... Where's Lezard?

That gets answered quickly as a circle appears on the opposite side of the craft from where Psyber is sniping, a sickened and scorched sorveror grimacing. He looks unhappy. "Congratulations, my dear. You have defeated my dragon, but you have still have me to contend with." He hisses. A patch of hair falls off his head as the radiation continues to do its work, and he grimaces. "I will have my vengeance felt, damn you all!" He yells, before he raises the Catalyst and points it directly at the deck. "FIRE STORM!" He screams, channelling his magic into a colossal blast of his own, trying to punch through the deck and maybe hit something explosive. He hears ships have problems with that.

Gudako Ordria (908) has posed:
    "You know she's going to be very unhappy about the water thing, right master?" Caster questions Gudako, as they sit on the retreating transport.

    Cut to Berserker, violently clawing a ship's engine out.

    "What is she going to do, take selfies and send me grumpy cat memes?" Gudako retorts, still smiling and generally not worried about the matter.

    Cut to Berserker, snarling as she speeds past the firing turret, and then gives it a nice, friendly bear hug from behind. She seems ready to just rip it off the ship.

    "She's a cat. She'll remember this forever. Also, she'll ruin your new Idolmaster bedsheets." Caster points out, index finger raised.

    Gudako ponders.
    8D ...
    8D ...
    8D !!!

    "Berserker, we're leaving! Come dry off and get a treat!"

    Cut to Berserker, dematerializing before she either acquires a turret or gets shot repeatedly for trying. It's a 50/50 tossup, really. It might have been both.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    However the explosion on her deck affects Kongou, Psyber is caught in it as well. A massive blast of flame that rips across the entirety of the top of the ship and sends his rifle careening over the side and down into the water below. As the force of the blast sends him flying back, Psyber reaches out and grabs one of the railings with a hand to keep from flying off the side of the ship. His reaction is immediate.

    "KONGOU. CEASE ALL FIRING. FIRE SURPRESSION SYSTEMS ACTIVE. DEAD STOP ON ENGINE AND CEASE LOADING MUNITIONS!" He shouts as he grips the side of the ship and pulls himself up. The half-angel himself has kept out of most of the battle, but the unexpected blast of fire has done no small amount of damage to him even despite being coated head to toe in water. His jacket has licks of flames on it, his face and body are scorched, and he's somewhat strained as he pulls himself back up and onto the deck of the ship.

    "I don't recall..." Psyber says as he steps forward towards Lezard angrily, "Giving you permission to come aboard. And you never board a Captain's ship without his permission." He seems more pissed off than anything. Boots slam on the deck of his ship as he dashes in towards Lezard.

    "And before you ask?" Psyber comments, his hand already curling up and cutting a path through the water-saturated air with lightning speed as he tries to uppercut the mage clean in the jaw. With the amount of force Psyber has put behind the punch, he's hoping it'll send Lezard sailing off the deck of the Kongou.

    "Permission denied."

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "No! We have . . . /no purpose/!" is the strange Abyssal's immediately direct, and outright unhinged reply to Haguro, prickling up hairs with its charge. "She took . . . my wings . . . she left me . . . to sink . . . sink to the bottom of the ocean . . . she threw me away . . . she didn't need me . . . she doesn't need anyone . . . admirals don't need ships . . . humans don't need ships either . . . you're as useless as /me/!" She doesn't even react to the gunfire anymore, the fifth fleet, the fourth mobile unit, the entire northern force, all shelling her at once, the air around her rattling until it looks apt to break apart at any second. "Nobody cares . . . if I suffer . . . so I'll make you suffer . . . as much as me!" she cries out to Shigure.

    The foam being sprayed on her from Rory momentarily mutes her as the substance splashes all over her barrier, encasing most of it in a perfect sphere of fast-drying cement-like material, but the gesture is misguided. Within moments, the obstructive shell is shot through with a hundred points of red light, swiveling back and forth with the kind of precision of a computer chip assembly line, until it falls apart in neat little squares. The moment the Abyssal is revealed, she's already wheeling on Rory, one of those blade-like gun apparatuses folding out with a resounding clang, the edge shimmering with a diamond hard line of red energy as she swings viciously straight for the flexbot, her lunge augmented by her magically buffed boosters to such an extent that even avoiding being cut in half entails being sent flying into the air. She closes to pursue, but is interrupted by timely intervention from the hyotl ship below her, beams flashing and glancing off her underside and streaking up into the air, the Abyssal inside the sphere barely visible through the shudder of her shield. Several cannon shots go straight down, totally unimpeded by the water's density, but are unlikely to score direct hits, and their heat will be greatly absorbed by the ocean.

    Finally though, as the fleet daughter approaches her, she whirls to face Hayashimo, leveling one of those bizarrely featureless gun batteries straight at her, the visible lower half of her face contorted into a strangely impassive yet hysterical snarl. "You . . . don't know anything! I'm . . . already no good for anything . . . so seven if my hate does . . . no good . . . I'll sink you all anyways!" The gun flares, red light Collecting through its converging channels, aimed for her at the nautical equivalent of point blank, but just before the seemingly inevitable catastrophe, a .50 caliber round arrives from nowhere, slamming into the distortion surrounding her, and causing the air, and water beneath her, to 'pop', pulsing outwards violently as the shield breaks; the round retaining just enough energy to crash straight into her visor, and smash the left side of it straight off her face.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Her eye is suddenly exposed to the ocean air, blinking as the light hits it directly. It's a bright, pretty, luminescent green, rather than the cold blue or hateful red one would expect of an Abyssal, totally at odds with the rest of her. Her partly-visible gaze tracks to Psyber, then down to the unarmed fleet daughter, trembling visibly in a way that looks almost . . . frightened. The next moment, the airwaves are rent with an ear-splitting scream of pure, furious anguish, and then the air is rent by the equal screech of dozens upon dozens of micro-missiles being launched into the air, rattling off in howling fusillades from the opening mouths in her back mount. The jet black arrows shoot up into the air in waves of twelve at a time, swerving violently as they reach a minimum height ceiling and then sleet down on their targets indiscriminately, individually picking out and homing in on whatever target is getting the least fire at the specific fraction of a second.

    They fire and fire and fire until all the batteries run out in one, ill-advised but nonetheless deadly alpha strike, clicking audibly as the Abyssal fails to realizes she's emptied her silos for a few moments. Each projectile is significantly less powerful than one of those torpedoes, but there are a great many more of them, and they're almost unfairly fast and agile, exploding in proximity rather than on contact, and in long, forward lances of armour-piercing fire rather than concussive explosions.

    Casting her tremulous, fearful gaze to the fleet, badly damaged as it is, arrayed before her, and then back to her retreating allies of convenience, the Abyssal does what no newly-awakened princes ever does, and turns tail. Even if she seems physically unharmed, she must have pretty much all her faith in her shields and not her armour, because with those gone and her weapons empty or recharging, she diverts all power to those futuristic engines and engages the equivalent of afterburners, speeding directly away from Hikari rather than staying to be sunk, going at top speed.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa continues to engaged in a pitched battle with the Abyssal, it's words haunt her the mention of up time and her load-out finally make it click in her head she has an idea of what ship this once was. Given the ship's age and where it finally went own it makes sense this could happen. She stares at the warning on her display as she gives the order to go on the evasive. Sh knows she's not in a heavy warship as she's well facing down a ship like this.

"Wait your that ship, your that one we ... fought before are you not?! You can be more than this! You served a thousand years you can be more than this and chose your own path!"

She wonders what good if any this will do but she has to try. Then again it may be too late.."

"Panic: "Heavy weapons fire! We can not take a hit like that!"

Kotone barks again giving up weapons control and doing what she can for the shields on her ship.

The ship is evading it banks hard and it's enough to save the vessel from a direct hit, but it can't get out of the way entirely the Bluenose is caught in the wake of the blasts and the shields are ravaged and they go down the hull is ravaged and the ship is barely starying in the air as globs of molten metal fall into the sea, Kotone does not order to chase after the Abyssal but she seems to understand now.

"Thrown away on a gambit to gather information... her commander sent it out full well knowing it would not survive the engagement..."

Damage reports are blasting out from SAIL while Slipbolt fights to keep the ship in the air.

"....thrown out after such service...I wonder if there's anything we can do."

Slipbolt calls out.

"Shouting: Worry about it later! Survive first!"

"Your right lets keep from going to Davy Jones as well shall we?"

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma hunkers down. She's too close to the Abyssal to dodge her attack, and the missiles rain down, showering her in hot, corrosive plasma. She weathers the storm only by virtue of the spread of the fire, so many missiles, but also, many, many more targets than the simple three Daughters and two Abyssals the previous time they fought. She transmits, at long range to the retreating Armiger. "You're only useless if you let yourself be that way, kuma." She turns, and limps back to port, sunk to her upper thighs from the damage she sustained, but remains afloat. Barely.

    Yamashiro's panicked flailing sends shells plunging into the wake of the fleeing enemy, until a familiar presence cuts through the anguished blindness that's settled on the Battleship. Shigure changes back to Land fitting, and climbs aboard the battleship. "It's okay, Oneesan. I'm here." comes the low, soothing voice of the Destroyer as she strokes her fingers lightly along the guardrail. "It's over. We're safe."

    Chitose makes a decision... and once again, a very special Type 0 is loaded onto her launch catapult. "Be safe, be unseen, report back if anything of note happens." she commands, before the hiss of steam launches the floatplane into the air, laden with fuel-tanks for extra-long range tailing. It follows after the Armiger and Abyssals.

Kongou (637) has posed:
    "Ahh~!" As the deck around the forward gun battery lights on fire, Kongou wails in sudden surprise and pain. Hose fittings closer to the superstructure burst open, blasting seawater across the scorched wooden planking. There's a rumbling below decks as well, and a lurching motion as the bow of the warship dips lower in the water. "Forward magazines flooded-- <Safe!>"

    On the battered gunwales and barbettes of her superstructure, the various anti-air emplacements swing around, lowering to deck level. She waits patiently, as Psyber has suddenly put himself far too close for her to be comfortable with opening fire. It's only when there's a few yards between the angel and the necromancer that the rattle of small caliber fire chatters through the stormy air. The smaller 12.7mm machine guns, the larger single-mount 20mm anti-air cannons, and even the (only remaining) 40mm triple barrel flak gun open up. Brass casings sail over the side, though their accuracy is somewhat comprimised by all the smoke, rain, and the heaving deck.

    Other anti-air batteries suddenly open fire as well, tracers directed outboard into the cloud of mini-missiles sailing down from the space abyssal's tantrum. Only managing to thin them out, she shouts, "Take cover, Admiral!" before the superstructure and deck are peppered with explosions. Fires start, mountings are destroyed. The after part of the ship settles down similar to the bow, as the magazines flood. The remaining 40mm triple cannon smolders, its ammunition having detonated in its clip mechanism.

    Burning but afloat, Kongou shifts her rudder again, trailing smoke as she swings around to narrow her profile, even though the Abyssal warship is retreating.

    Isuzu has an easier time of it, being a much smaller target right now. Dashing across the ice floe she'd crashed into, the girl jumps and hits the water, skating away from the engagement. Her hip mounted anti-air guns swing around, providing the missiles that opt to pursue her with a hail of flak and good old-fashioned lead, such that none of them actually reach her-- A smaller target, fewer munitions committed.

    Akizuki similarly opts to fire into the swarm of rockets, 10 centimeter shells bursting within, shattering a good number. When it becomes clear that a larger target such as herself is too exposed, she shimmers, disappearing into the shape of a girl with turret rigging hanging off her hips. The guns on the heads of her turret-like Choujuucentihou-chans don't give up, though they've become smaller. Teeth bared, she reaches out as she dashes across the water, "-Hayashimo!"

Kongou (637) has posed:
    Before the Abyssal Armiger, Hayashimo keeps her arms held out, unflinching in the face of the woman's fury. "...You worked so hard," she murmurs, her voice soft. Even as a missile explodes against her, blasting out pieces of her rigging, she flinches but remains standing, "...You did a lot for them. ...They didn't realize--" Another explosion threatens to knock her down, but she remains steadfast, even as her backpack equipment crumples off and hits the water behind her, smoldering, "--Nn... wh-what they were throwing away.." Her hands lower from shielding her face, only to watch the abyssal retreating.

    Grimacing, Hayashimo reaches to cradle one arm with the other, head lowering and shoulders shaking. She stands there like that, tears streaming out from behind her eye-obscuring bangs, even when Akizuki reaches her, numb to the other destroyer's words.

    "Hayashimo..! Are you okay? Where does it hurt?!"

    The only response she gives is to raise her hands, clutching them both over her heart.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    There are a few Elits here who could probably catch the fleeing 'Abyssal', though few enough of them, and badly damaged enough by the large scale conflict, that they may or may not actually want to. For the time being though, it seems the majority are content to retreat back and consolidate the damaged Hikari Seaport. The strange enemy is left to flee, waves breaking ahead of her and spewing upwards in her wake, propelled by a reactor rather than a boiler, but determined not to sink all the same. Her radio-voice shakes briefly as she hears those words chase her, something like a crackling wince punctuating the local channels with the sound of someone remembering something painful.

    "Z- . . . zero fifty six . . . t-two thirty seven . . . zero zero one . . . Whispered Revolution . . ." The static hisses violently. "She took . . . my wings . . ."

    The radio interference abruptly goes dead.

Lezard Valeth has posed:
The Sorceror coughs up a little blood as things go boom, the dark mage framed by flames as Psyber stalks towards him. In a smug tone, Lezard replies to Psyber as he approaches, "I hardly believe that boarding crews request permission before assaulting their t-"

The denial of permission crashes straight into his jaw, not only interrupting what he was going to say but rendering him speechless as his jawbone shatters on impact with what is probably a satisfying "Hrrrrrrrrgk!".

The Necromancer goes sailing backwards, tunbling from the impact as he hits the deck and slides towards the railing, pitching half-off the side as there is a loud CLANG.

The Manus Catalyst, held with a deathgrip, managed to wedge itself into the railing and stop his dunk at the cost of also dislocating his shoulder.

On reflection, maybe he should have just landed in the ocean.

Regardless, maimed, irratiated, and generally miserable, the Sorceror drags himself back onto the edge of the deck, looking up at Psyber with a furious glare before he gestures up towards his Servant. Surely she'll be by to pick him up and get him away from the angry half-angel. That would be very nice right now.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber takes slow, deep breaths after he sends Lezard careening. Part of him wants to follow up on it, but he's not nearly that petty or vindictive. Lezard set foot on his ship, attacked it, and Psyber knocked him off for it. End of transaction, "Kongou. Let him retreat now," Psyber murmurs over the clacking and firing of anti-air fire. He's ordering Kongou to stand down and not fire at the Servant if she wants to come pick him up.

    He does reach into his jacket and pull out a half-smoked cigar, putting it in his mouth. Rather than light it with a match of a lighter, he leans sideways and uses one of the still-burning parts of his own jacket to light it. As he chomps down on it and the rain causes sizzles and jets of steam where it hits the tip, Psyber sighs, "Kongou. Turn ship and lets head for home. We need to get you in a repair dock and I should probably find some dry clothes."

    He reaches up to adjust the hat on his head as he exhales a huge gout of smoke and tiredly leans against the rail of the ship.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    The moment the shields even CATCH the Freezer foam Rory's swerving away. She's NOT about to just STAY there and wait to see the results. Not when she can see that from above, courtesy of the Dragonflies that swoop around in the storm. The Flexbot has already hit FULL REVERSE, turbofans kicking up a spray as it attempts to put some distance in place... and it's this immediate thinking that ensures the strange Abyssal doesn't reach Rory's main body before other factors distract them. Still, it's pretty close. About ten meters!

    And it could have been a complete disaster.

    "That just confirms it. Kotone's likely correct. The automated destroyer!" Rory and her fleet of holographic drones retreat away from the mess at full speed. This situation has gotten TOO CREEPY for her.

    THAT has become a ghost ship? Is that possible?

    Now that she knows what it IS, she is not at all inclined to fight it head-on. Better to retreat. FAR better to retreat and study it further. This is worrisome beyond belief!

    "Clipped wings. The ship we encountered had crashed into the water and was making for land to gather resources and repair. But the reason it crashed to begin with..."

    Not THAT person again...

Elizabeth Bathory (911) has posed:
    Lezard Valeth learns a very important lesson this stormy, foggy, thundering night.

    Never pick a fight with a slab-jawed continental on the deck of his ship as the sea roils around you. The narrative is JUST too strong against you.

    Doubly so because Psyber is standing on a deck made from the Her Majesty's Royal Ports. It's just an assbeating in the making.

    Thankfully, as he casts his hopes into the air, there is a terrible peal of thunder and a bright flash of lightning that light the sky up in a burning silver around the Kongou as Elizabeth shows in relief along the railing, humming the light tune to 'Death At Sea' as she sets along the deck, gathering up Lezard in one arm. Looking the Necromancer over, she tisk-tisks, running long 'claw' fingers down his broken jaw tenderly. "Ohhh, didn't anyone ever tell you about Continentals? Her Majesty's Soldiers are another breed!" She chides, before... Princess carrying Lezard into the sky, with a wingbeat, into the clearing weather.