5319/AOH: Purify This Hate

AOH: Purify This Hate
Date of Scene:	17 June 2017
Location:	Scorched Earth
Synopsis:	The Black Fleet makes its first move. Their target: The Asherah mobile water purification plant in Scorched Earth.
Cast of Characters:	Eryl Fairfax, Midway, 1110, Nagato, Sanary Rondel, 691, 385, Staren, Kotone Yamakawa
Tinyplot:	Abyssal Operation Hydra

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Eryl Fairfax has posed:
The skies above Scorched Earth are blue and clear, the sun beating down on the near-dead planet like a drum. Over the seas to the east of the continent reclaimed by ReGenesis, winds blow in a southeasterly direction.

    The Asherah Mobile Water Purification Plant sits upon this ocean of Scorched Earth like a big bowl. The inside is lined with black solar panels that power the facility, while the 'rim' and external area is a network of windows, doors, and scaffolding that make up the residential area. Once rusting and rotting in sections, ReGenesis has assisted in rebuilding and repairing the whole facility. Thus, it now flies their flag proudly.

    Though the facility is mobile, it is currently rooted in place. The reason why becomes apparent beneath the surface of the sea. The structure extends deeply, covered in slits that take in water to be desalinated, purified, and pumped down the pipes that extend to the seabed to connect with more pipes that feed to the mainland, providing it clean drinking water.

Midway has posed:
    The calm seas around the Asherah start producing unusual contacts on anything from military grade sonar to everyday fish-finders and collision-avoidance systems. Slick black shapes dart about just beneath the surface. This comes to a head when, out of nowhere, a young woman in a ragged black military uniform erupts from the surface to stand atop the waves. Reaching up, she adjusts the visor of her seawater-soaked peaked cap until only the red glow of her eyes can be seen. Behind her, snake-like tails rise up, affixed to the small of her back. Each one ends in a fang-lined mouth, the top of the 'head' replaced with a twin-gun naval turret.

    Around this Abyssal interloper, the smooth shapes of various fish-like Abyssal destroyers surface, moving around the Heavy Cruiser Water Demon in slow, concentric circles.

    A few moments later, a second humanoid emerges, about a hundred meters away. A smaller girl in a tattered sailor's uniform, a torn 'dixie cup' askew on her head and her eyes hidden by a metal 'domino' mask. Her arms disappear into heavy gauntlets made out of pitted, black steel, the fingers apparently formed out of torpedoes. She flexes her hands into fists, slamming her knuckles together twice as more destroyers erupt from the surface around her. Behind the circling destroyers and Water Demons, the bulbous, rounded shapes of Nu class aircraft carriers likewise emerge. Their round bodies open like enormous mouths, launching groups of small, round white aircraft reminiscent of cartoon ghosts with hideous mouths and weapons attached.

    But neither fleet nor aircraft do more than threaten. First contact occurs in the Asherah's control room.

    A pale-skinned girl in a black hoodie, sporting a striped scarf, pops up in front of the main observation window of the control center. She's somehow clinging to the outside of the purification plant, with small holes and ruptures showing how she's gouged her way up there.

    "Hey!" She pipes up as soon as a window is opened, "You're all kinda taking advantage of the ocean and it's pissing us off. So my friends down there are gonna rip this place apart and put the metal to better use. Buu~uut~ we're not interested in killing civilians right now, so if you'd evacuate-" Her face splits into a shark-toothed smile, "That'd be great~!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    The command room for the plant is like the bridge of a ship crossed with a laboratory. Monitoring equipment for all the instruments on the vessel, including the purifying plant sit alongside radar, sonar, and the helm. Right now it's running a skeleton crew of four.

    As the girl suddenly clings to the window, they all flinch and spin to look at her. Of the group, three are at a total loss. Two appear to be technicians or engineers based on the oil and grease-splattered suits. One is a woman with a pair of glasses wearing a black suit with blue stripes and images of churning water in the same blue.

    The last is a bald man in red with gold stripes and a sword emblem upon his chest. As the Abyssal delivers his message, his response is clear. His hand dips to his belt, and he draws a futuristic pistol before firing several rounds through the glass and at the girl!

    "Get on the horn and call for help!" he barks at the woman in glasses, who nods and flees the room in pursuit of a radio. The technicians also flee, deeper into the facility.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Conveniently in an area neighboring the Scorched Earth, Chevalier realized quickly enough that he could reach the area of the distress call in short order. Multiversal navigation is convenient in many ways. Like having teleporters around when responding to an Endbringer. When a Teleporter was available, Chevalier never missed a fight if he could help it. Subconsciously now, he's finding himself expecting a sea-based assault. Something like Leviathan. Destructive, nearly unkillable, fast and terrifying.

    The truth, it seems, is a bit weirder. Instead of a fifty foot tall Godzilla-like monster, something else is threatening this platform. Stepping out from the bowl of the purification plant to the railing, Chevalier looks out across the vast ocean, shielding his eyes with one hand raised almost as if in salute.

    "Your call." Chevalier says to whomever of the facility's personnel are in range. "We'll protect the facility as best we can, but evacuation seems to be in order. If you want to retreat, best do so quickly." he says. "Any security forces, form up with me. Whatever weapons you have ready to repel pirates should be at least somewhat effective against what's coming. A warship is coming in to help with the defense, and other forces should be arriving shortly. We need to repel boarders until then." he states.

    Speech delivered, such as it is, Chevalier turns back to the railing. "Time to prepare a welcome." he drawls, drawing his blade. Pointing it out to sea dramatically, he holds it steady as the weapon extends to thirty feet in length. Only when it's at full extension does he lower it, setting it atop the rail, sighting down the weapon's length. He'll give civilians time to evacuate but he's quite ready to open fire at a moment's further provocation.

Nagato has posed:
    There's a response from the Hikari Defense Alliance, a single heavy cruiser skating over the water from a warpgate, the blue-coat wearing woman speeding along the water, a couple cannons at ready along with two women behind her, one with anti-air gunnery and one with a bow and quiver, both wearing the Special Division Project uniform.. "This is Special Division Ten reporting in. Flagship Heavy Cruiser Atago reporting with Anti Air Cruiser Kagurazaka and Light Carrier Yamakawa entering the operational area."

    She looks behind her, a smile given to the two other 'kanmusu.' "We have permission to operate aircraft in this area. Send up scouts and get us artillery spotting along with coverage to see who we are dealing with. Line ahead formation, Kagurazaka in the middle, Yamakwa at the rear." she faces forward as a small scout aircraft launches from a hidden rail, "Heee, Pan Paka Paaaaan~" and the three start speeding ahead!

Sanary Rondel has posed:
If Sanary's learned one thing since becoming a free agent, it's that distress calls over multiple channels frequently involve people with enough money to afford to make distress calls over multiple channels on short notice. Said people also usually aren't too stingy with repaying their rescuers, especially since water treatment facilities don't seem like the sort of thing to grow on trees.

     Thus, the healer arrives via the warpgate, armed to the teeth with a really big magitech axe and a pair of staves. She takes a position beside Chevalier while aiming the gun portion of it, but stops when she notices his weapon lengthening.

     A lot of lengthening. "Careful not to poke someone's eye out with that thing. You gonna.. Be okay swinging that?" She sounds moderately concerned, but doesn't stick around for long. Instead, Sanary pumps energy into her anklets, and she takes off to rendezvous with the Fleet from the skies!

     Or about twenty feet above the water, anyway. It's easier to fly when she can actually see what's happening.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
It takes some doing to get in position for a proper stealth attack, and given the speed of the Abyssal's attack? Yari has to resort to slightly more overt methods. That basically involves actually exiting a warpgate, rather than being on hand before the operation begins, as is her habit. One quick switch into a wetsuit, a check of her diving equipment and weapons, and then she pauses at the edge of the facility.

"Just be careful out there, Sanary." A little smile, a salute, and then she's into the drink.

She takes a slightly more circular route than her more proper Fleet companions, aiming to try to get to one of the Destroyers circling on the edges of the engagement. Maybe one that's just slightly farther out than they should be. Yari has a harpoon gun at the ready.

Time to fish for Abyssals.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Technically, it's not the first mission Yuna's been on since the incident with the Warp Iris, but it's her first combat deployment and her first sortie in what's been dubbed the Kagurazaka-class equipment. So a small amount of jitters are probably in order.

Just a small amount, though: the dance-like motions of equipping her rigging are still very familiar, and even the swells of the water's surface under her feet bring a reassuring sensation as she compensates for the shifts in her own balance. The familiarity is welcomed, even embraced, while it lasts - because she's sure she won't have much time to cling to them once they join the fray. She forms up with Atago and Yamakawa, letting the former lead the way across worlds ...

And then they're there. Kagurazaka is quickly all business, listening to orders and shifting into formation. "Aye aye, flagship! Kagurazaka, launching scout and preparing for anti-aircraft ops!" Her launch rail is visible enough on her left forearm; her scout takes to the sky, its fairy pilot looking all around and reporting back via whatever magical radio the kanmusu and their fairies use.

"At least we have plenty of friends out here," Kagurazaka remarks, looking across the sky with her own eyes (and her gear's radar). Chevalier's evident enough with his sniping sword, Sanary and Yari are familiar and welcome ... a piece of her wonders if any others she knows are replying to the distress call - but there's time enough to catch up after the threat has been repelled. Kagurazaka focuses on Atago again, making sure she's not drifting out of formation, and similarly ensuring that she's matched the heavy cruiser's speed.

Staren has posed:
    A 40-foot tall humanoid walks out of the warpgate. Inside the cockpit, Staren frowns as he sees the extent of the enemy forces. That's a lot of abyssals... He should have brought heavier firepower... But with no information and no promise of an expense account, he left the missile packs at home...

    The Star Hawk runs to the edge of the platform. Staren doesn't know if these abyssals recognize it, so for the moment he'll hide that it can transform and fly. Besides, right now... there isn't much for him to do aside from being point defense. A panel opens on the front of the right arm pack, three barrels behind it spinning up before staren begins firing streams of hypersonic metal slugs at the groups of ghost-like 'aircraft'.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone was closer to the port so she deployed with those forces comming from Hikari. She was already geared up and sailing across the waves in formation. "Understood." Kotone falls into formation at the rear and she'll make sure she's ready to start launching scout planes the moment she's in place, no combat wings yet, nope. She's got to be reay to deploy them though and she's not going to let them get caught on aware.

"Scout wings deployed, combat wings on stand by."

She trusted Yuna and Atago, so there was a feeling of ease working with them both today. IT was also strange to see an ex fed or two helping out, but that's the sort of world it is now. It really hammers home the old war is over at this point to her. Sadly war never changes nor does it ever fully go away.

Midway has posed:
CONTROL ROOM
    A security officer responds to the abyssal girl's ultimatum by shooting her in the face. Glass shatters, the rounds striking her pale skin. Two ricochet off completely while the third manages to bite, sending off a brief spray of oily black ichor. She's then pelted with shards of glass, but simply refuses to move. Instead, her grin simply grows wider, "Alright! Thanks for your prompt reply. I'll tell 'em to get started, then."

    Instead of doing what might be expected, like crawl in through the window and create an orgy of blood, the unknown pink-eyed abyssal girl retreats from the open window. Descending a few meters, she releases and drops the rest of the way to the sea, disappearing beneath the surface rather than landing on top of it.

THE SEA
    Out to sea, the elder of the two humanoid Abyssals lowers her hand from shading her eyes, upon seeing her companion drop from the facility. Glancing aside, she jerks her head towards the purification complex. The destroyers around her break off their circling, forming up into two rows with the snake-tailed girl oriented between them. She lifts a hand, examining the cold, black rivets driven through the armor on her forearm. Eyes travel, fixating on the Asherah. A hesitation. And then she thrusts her hand outward. Upon her signal, the guns on the ends of her tails whip forward, opening fire on the station itself. The destroyers around her--each one shaped like some sort of alien aquatic creature, smooth and black-bodied, with nightmare teeth and glowing blue eyes-- react in kind. Their guns are produced from their mouths, fired, and then retracted as the Abyssal turns back into formation.

ELSEWHERE
    The smaller Abyssal Water Demon glances skyward, as the bulbous white shapes of Mark 3 aircraft pass over her position. There's a neutral, almost wonderous expression on her face. And then an aircraft is struck by gunfire from the platform. Her eyes widen behind the metal mask, following the flaming wreckage as it spirals down to the sea. A gauntlet is raised to the side of her head, as if listening.

    Enemies on multiple bearings.

    Eyes snap open and information is spread across the unspoken network that Abyssals use to communicate. Letting out an audible growl, the gauntlet-equipped abyssal turns herself around, travelling in the opposite direction of her snake-tailed sister. Her own escorts give chase, forming a single battle line of high speed Abyssal ships moving clockwise to the snakewoman's counter-clockwise course around Asherah.

Midway has posed:
SKY
    For those familiar with Abyssal aircraft, these are a completely alien thing. Instead of sleek, black futuristic jet-like hulls, these are round white things. Sporting glowing red eyes and tooth-filled mouths, they resemble nightmarish cartoon ghosts more than any actual aircraft. Some carry bombs or even torpedoes under their bodies, while all of them are equipped with very obvious machine guns.

    And Staren's opening volley shreds through the advance vanguard. Aircraft spiral down to the sea, trailing flames. The attack incites the rest of the formation to spread out into evasive maneuvering, transforming the sky from an orderly arrangement of air formations into a complete mess of ghostlike aircraft dashing every which way as they close in on Asherah's airspace.

    However, something is noticed, and a squadron of fighters in twin V formations break out of the initial chaos. Banking sharply, this airgroup homes in on the distant shapes of Kotone and Yuna's scout aircraft. There are no bombers with them, so it appears to be, at least initially, investigation of new contacts rather than an attack wave. It's just that these scouts have teeth. And guns.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Chevalier isn't about to explain the intricacies of his power, not to a stranger. He just smiles at Sanary from behind his faceplate. "I can handle it." he says confidently. He won't BE swinging it, not at first anyways. Not unless the attackers manage to close. And if he DID have to swing it, well, the weapon doesn't exactly weigh what it appears to weigh. Its weight, like its size, is something he can change at will. It gives Chevalier the appearance of having superstrength, being able to wield such a massive weapon... and he's perfectly fine with that false appearance.

    But first, he has a few adjustments to complete. Firing his cannon at this size, over this distance, is going to cause monster recoil. While he could diminish that, it'd end up causing his shell to be pushed out at useless velocities. He can break physics, but not all physics. Momentum, in particular, still has its due. For every action there's still an equal and opposite reaction. To counter that momentum, Chevalier begins to accumulate mass. Slowly so as not to stress the platform he stands on, he feeds power into his armor. A hundredweight. A ton. Several tons. He keeps on going until the platform beneath him lets out a low groan of protest. He dials the mass back slightly, not wanting to collapse anything, then takes up sights again at incoming enemy warships.

    When Chevalier pulls the trigger, it'll be apparent to everyone in the area. 30 foot long cannons aren't quiet things, and he's firing supersonic 'bullets' besides. While not quite the size of a battleship's main cannon, the weapon's still immense and powerful. Temporarily at least, Chevalier's given the mobile platform a standing defense that can rival the attacking warships. And though his weapon is somewhat smaller than a battleship's primary cannon, it also fires quite a lot faster. He has to absorb the recoil of every shot, and even with his increased mass he ends up skidding back several feet every time, then having to reset his aim. Still, cannonblade shells begin to smash down on the attacking fleet. Accuracy, at this range at least, is questionable. If he's firing at full-size warships chances are good some of his shots will land. If instead there's only human-size "warships" out there, they'll have to contend with the explosive impact of huge shells vaporizing on supersonic contact with the nearby water.

Staren has posed:
    The aircraft have spread out. So much for easy target practice...

    For the moment, Staren switches targets. The snake-tailed girl and the destroyers... He draws some kind of mecha-size energy rifle, and the stream of railgun fire is turned snake-girl's way. When destroyers ready to fire, he switches targets long enough to send a triple-pulse of laser fire at one of them, but he can't take on the whole group and he's focused on the obvious 'commander'.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    The security chief, Kyle O'Brien, was not expecting to walk out of that room alive when he shot that girl. So when she dives back into the sea, he is overcome with relief that is driven away by his own fury. Running from the room, he gets outside and finds Chevalier rallying his men.

    "Right, man the machine guns! Drive them back! Louisiana, you get the women and children on the aircraft we have and get them out of here. ReGenesis will probably be along with reinforcements soon, so tell everyone else to hunker down!" The security forces nod and begin to spread along the scaffolding, pulling tarps off of futuristic machine guns and loading them up. The sea, and the Abyssals, are sprayed with bullets!

    Louisiana, the stuttering woman in glasses, nods and begins directing panicked civilians to a large helipad, upon which many advanced flying vehicles are warming up. Several try to push their way on, but more security keep them back, only allowing the most vulnerable on first. They begin to take off... likely a tempting morsel for Abyssal aircraft, and another thing to defend.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Perfect. As the snake-tailed one speeds away, rather than attack her outright, Yari lies in wait for her escorts. She doubts she could survive fighting both escorts and the demon herself, so she waits below until the last destroyer gets close.

Then she takes aim, sucks in a breath, and fires below the Destroyers' 'deck'. Should it hit?

The harpoon gun then tries to reel the thing underneath towards her, a kunai in the other hand. Like some kind of murderous jellyfish, she's ready to cling and knife the thing's eyes out. Or what passes for them, anyway.

Nagato has posed:
    And the fun starts.

    With scout aircraft in the air, it's time to do what it's meant to do... scout the area.. At least, that was the plan until they're met with enemy scouts, those strange balls with ghost-like features and red eyes meet the Type 0 scouts. Concentrating, Atago looks around through the Type 0's sensors, what's being seen isn't good. "Enemy aircraft." she plainly states towards her little battlegroup. "Maybe Ryuujou should have come to support."

    No matter, they have a look and the Scouts start turning back in an attempt to get away from the enemy fighterscouts while Atago's guns elevate. "Okay! Type Three Shells loaded." a grin, "PAN PAKA PAAAAN!" the hips wiggle and the light green shells are fired out of the turrets with each motion, arcing up into the air and exploding, raining down the magnesium and shrapnel to try and thin out the enemy air coverage for Yamakawa's bombers. "Reloading. Kagurazaka, Anti Air if you please?" a sweet smile, "And let's send these Abyssal threats back home!"

Sanary Rondel has posed:
<<"Heh... If you say so, big guy. Just holler if you pull something, alright?">>

     Sanary's expression quickly shifts to a more straight-faced one when she hears Chevalier's blast coming from behind her, then rocketing past her. She even slows down a bit while watching it rocket off into the distance. How the hell is she supposed to ocmpete with /that/?!

     Maybe she doesn't need to. She regains her composure soon enough, slowing down a bit and settles into more of a hovering advance. The axe healer bracing the top of her gunaxe against her shoulder, then start pouring more energy into her anklets to speed up.

     The tricky part is figuring out what to hit. Noticing movement from below the surface, though, she makes a beeline towards the destroyers. With Yari attacking from below and behind, she takes it on herself to aim for the one in the lead to try and cleave her oversized axe right through it.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Abyssals, in this world? Kagurazaka isn't sure what to make of that, but she doesn't let the potential confusion slow her down. She already had anti-air shells loaded as per her normal mission profile, and when the Abyssal fighters head towards the scout planes, Kagurazaka's turrets elevate and traverse. "Atago, Yamakawa, have your scouts follow mine on evasive," she says to her immediate allies - and sure enough, Kagurazaka's lone scout plane pulls up from its current flight path, engine buzzing louder as its fairy pilot pours on the speed while, to all appearances, trying to get AWAY from the incoming fighters.

But if the Abyssal fighters actually try to give chase, then not only will they have Atago's anti-air barrage to contend with, they'll have Kagurazaka's own spread of anti-aircraft shells - five staggered detonations of additional magnesium and shrapnel, so that if they tried to dodge Atago's shots, they'll probably blunder RIGHT into Kagurazaka's instead.

The blonde girl in the light-cruiser armament isn't going to take it easy, though - as Staren mentioned, there are a LOT of Abyssal aircraft and Kagurazaka can only fire so much at a time. Staggering her turrets' fire helps minimize the time before she can fire again, but she can't completely eliminate it ...

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa does pick up incoming scouts, which are far better armed than her own she'll do what she can to delay them but she knows that her scout planes won't last long not against fliers like that. She gets her fighters ready to deploy even as her allies get to work. She now has some iea of where they are even if she's going to start losing scouts. She puts them on the evasive and then starts to draw again. This time fighters deploy to give the forces here some air cover but will it be enough? She is a light carrier after all but she will do what she can andshe also makes sure to send some to cover Yuna as her planes move to engage hoping to give Kagurazaka a bit more help.

Midway has posed:
THE SEA
    A heavy artillery shell erupts from the Asherah complex. The snake-tailed Cruiser Water Demon reflexatively twists away from it, though the abyssal destroyer behind her isn't so swift to react. The high-velocity shell impacts the ship-monster's side and barely slows down, erupting out the opposite side in a spray of metal, oil, and flames. The destroyer shrieks, twisting out of formation, heavily listing. Smoke billows from the entry hole, the much larger exit hole, and its mouth. Barely able to do anything else, the abyssal rolls, sinking by the head. Just below the surface, those glowing blue eyes flicker and die.

    The cruiser princess bares her teeth in a growl, glancing from her foundering comrade to the fortress itself. Where did that shot come from..? She's distracted from her search by incoming laser fire, shielding her face with both arms. The heavy armor riveted to her forearms serves its purpose, absorbing the energy and scattering the rest, leaving angry red marks on her blackened hull. Her tails swing forward again, each one baring its fangs as she unloads a full eight-gun broadside of armor-piercing artillery on the Star Hawk. It's a big target standing on a bigger target, after all.

YARI
    With a squeak of surprise, one of the I-class destroyers escorting the Heavy Cruiser Water Demon is harpooned. Force tries to drag it under, and it resists, breaking out of formation and accelerating in an attempt to simply tow its submerged attacker. A hatch opens on the top of the destroyer's head-- where a blowhole would be, were it the whale its body vaguely resembles-- and the ship starts ejecting canisters into the water behind it. These sink for a time and then explode. Depth charges.

SANARY
    When Sanary soars down after the second destroyer formation, she encounters a sudden splattering of anti-air fire from all of the ships in the line. However, being spread out along a line means they can't cover each other as effectively. Her axe bites into one of the black-hulled abyssal ships, cleaving through rubbery skin and into metal beneath. The creature shrieks, dipping in the water. This one doesn't sink, but opts instead to retreat immediately, leaving behind only an oil slick.

    At the lead of the formation, the Destroyer Water Demon shoots a look over her shoulder. Her face twists into a scowl and she breaks from the formation. Her gauntlet is held out, fingers spread to expose her palm, and the two cannons concealed there. These are what she engages Sanary with, peppering the sky with flak artillery.

Midway has posed:
    THE AIR
    The Abyssal scout squadron encounters...unarmed Hikari scouts! And ship-based anti-air artillery! The formation breaks into two three-plane V formations. One keeps its distance while the other dives into the flak after the fleeing scout planes. These only turn back when one of them at last takes a hit, trailing dense black smoke while its comrades come about. As the trio gains distance, that damaged Hellcat wobbles, losing altitude until it hits the waves, breaking apart on impact. Being fighters, they can lurk further and higher up where the AA umbrella is less effective. With no enemy carrier present, it's been relayed that fighter cover is very weak right now, and so the Abyssal Hellcat fighters regroup into their squadrons and swing in pursuit of the aircraft trying to leave the area.

    Abyssal Helldivers, split into separate squadrons, circle over Asherah. When they find an opportunity, the first wave banks into a sharp dive, releasing their bombs over Chevalier. The second squadron that dives in releases their bombs above the Starhawk.

    The distinct absence of Abyssal Avengers over Asherah is because they're torpedo bombers. Accompanied by a third wing of Hellcats, these slower, lower-flying Abyssal aircraft veer in on Atago's formation from the side. One by one, they release their torpedoes and bank out to escape. Several are lost, losing control and crashing into the sea, some even before they've released their weapons..!

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Even with literal tons of armor, Chevalier has no particular wish to stand there and be bombed. This of course is the problem with using mass to counter the momentum of his giant cannonblade. The mass means he can't easily move.

    As the helldivers fly close however, the shining knight switches tactics. The reason he's good isn't because he has powerful weapons and armor, it's because he knows his gear perfectly and is flexible in battle. He shrinks his weapon to a more-moderate eight feet in length, simultaneously shedding the armor's mass until it weighs somewhat less than steel. With the smaller weapon in-hand, he doesn't need the mass itself to protect him. His weapon's little more than a long rifle now, better-suited for dealing with incoming abyssal aircraft.

    "Need to deal with incoming ... aircraft." Chevalier says tersely over the local comms. "I'll back up our fleet when I can." His audio feed cuts abruptly before he begins opening fire, doing so while also attempting to dodge bombs. His armor's more than good enough to survive shrapnel but the explosions themselves would do internal damage which his armor would do little to block. Especially if a bomb detonated point-blank.

    Chevalier's goal isn't to protect the water treatment platform, not exactly. That's a secondary goal, and he's not really equipped for the task. His goal is to give civilians a chance to flee, and to take down the enemy before they can do too much damage. As such he prioritizes offense over defense, trusting in his armor to sustain him, and does his best to skeet-shoot helldivers with rapid pulls of his weapon's trigger.

Staren has posed:
    Staren frowns. The cruiser princess is a dangerous target, but also well-armored. Should he be focusing on the destroyers instead?

    He sees the tails swing around, and the Star Hawk crouches, holding its left arm in front of itself defensively, an energy shield flickering into existance.

    ...And back out of existance again as it's hammered by the powerful abyssal weaponry. Damn.

    Actual /bombers/ are trying to attack him. With dropped dumbfire bombs, not homing missiles or anything. Please. The Star Hawk dodges out of the way... and there goes a chunk of platform. Oops.

    Still, it seems all the bombers have made their run. They can't do that again, can they? Staren finds another position to shoot from and resumes attacking the destroyers.

PLAN A (Helldivers are out of bombs)
    Staren focuses on attacking the destroyers with bursts of laser fire, and some covering fire from the railgun.

PLAN B (Helldivers come around for another run)
    Staren raises the Star Hawk's left arm and three missiles launch into the air. One targeting each squadron of helldivers, with the third arcing down for cruiser princess. The right arm sprays covering fire at cruiser princess and the destroyers to distract them.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Sanary doesn't give chase to the destroyer that retreats, seeming rather content with just doing enough damage to get it out of the way. She couldn't afford to even if she wanted to, anyway, with the Destroyer Water Demon taking offense to her existence and blasting her with flak fire. The healer's not nearly nimble enough to avoid it cleanly, either, grimacing as multiple chunks of metal rip into her and bring her down several yards until she's nearly plummeting into the ocean outright.

     The healer's not going down completely yet, though, as she braces the gunaxe in front of her as a makeshift shield, continuing her advance despite the pain. "... Oh, you /ass/." Her new target is the Destroyer Water Demon this time, though, and she just goes straight for her, not quite opting for any sort of fancy aerial maneuvers.

     No, she's just going to try and ram right into her axe and all, apparently intent on using her own weight and power to make herself a nice big target! If the ramming maneuver actually hits, meanwhile, she'd follow up with trying to actually drag the water demon up and out of the water with her.

Nagato has posed:
    Mmm, "The enemy knows we don't have a full Fleet Carrier here." Atago's nervousness shows a bit before that bubbly optimism comes into play, "Yamakawa~ send a wave of fighters to assist our friend on the platform and let's get a torpedo bomber squad towards the enemy carriers. We have a word with them don't we?" she gives a bit of a grin as she sails forth into the dangerous game everyone's playing today." there's a bubbly giggle from the blonde heavy cruiser, guns trained up and the click of ammunition loaded...

    And the annoying sound of something traveling along the water at high speed catches her ears from sonar. Her eye looks towards where it's coming from, the tell tale sign of Abyssal Torpedoes. "Stand back!" she shouts to her two fleet members as the torpedoes converge into the area and explode, sending up a massive pillar of water. Once it dies down, the dress is smoking, parts of it are missing and Atago's been damaged. Not as bad as it could been but, she's taken a decent hit.

    "Nngh, that's okay... Atago's fine, I took a hit like this from Gaius." she comments, aiming towards the Abyssal Light Carriers and sending a small report of 20.3cm shells at them! "I'll need some patching up but I'm not in danger of sinking. Though... another hit like that may get me to that point!"

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Yari's greatest asset most definitely /isn't/ strength, and so the ninja gets towed along for a few feet. That's when the thing starts dropping depth charges. The first one explodes after a quick kunai to the falling thing, but two of them get far too close. The explosion catches Yari in the side as she desperately swims away. Then she's forced up to the surface.

Leaping up onto the water, a quick handseal and her feet fall onto the water to keep her afloat. Her side is bleeding, wetsuit torn open. Flicking her wet hair out of her face, she sucks in a breath.

And breathes out. A massive fireball races for the Abyssal Destroyer, her harpoon well abandoned. Her gaze briefly scans the battlefield, particularly towards Sanary as the Demon turns her guns on the axehealer. It may take the two of them together to take out escorts and Demon alike!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagurazaka's scout plane isn't exactly 'leaving the area' - and in fact, as both the fairy and Kagurazaka's own radar (also fairy-crewed) report the bulk of the Abyssal air forces trying to stay too high to shoot at, said scout starts descending again, banking into a wide spiral. It's a calculated maneuver: if the Hellcats try to keep on the scout, they'll descend into range of Kagurazaka's shells again, whereas if they're focused on avoiding her, the scout can probably make it down safely.

Not that the fighters are Kagurazaka's only concern. Those bombers, be they armed with torpedoes or plain old DFA-'splosive bombs, are still a threat to both the Asherah installation and Kagurazaka's fleetmates - not to mention, potentially, the REST of her allies.

Or rather, her *friends*.

So when the wing of torpedo bombers comes in from their flank, Kagurazaka twists to offer at least three of her turrets a good firing arc - waist, thigh, and hand-held 'rifle' - along with letting her regular anti-air machine guns add to the aerial hazards facing the Abyssals. "It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from," Kagurazaka calls out as she showers the invaded airspace with bullets, shrapnel, and other perils, "you're NOT sinking my friends today!!"

And there are some actual torpedoes in the water despite that. Kagurazaka's lips tighten, and she kicks out some torpedoes of her own - not guided, just timed to go in a fairly straight line and explode where she anticipates the torpedoes will be at the time. It's not much, but it's the best she can do on short notice ... and even if it isn't enough, every little bit helps. ... Right?

*BOOM*

"Ouch ... !!" Kagurazaka hisses post-torpedo-detonation(s); she's somewhat the worse for wear too - but still quite capable of giving the Abyssals more than her fair share of hell.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Asherah is not getting out of this unscathed.

    Missed bombs impact against the solar panels, fracturing them and causing the internal mechanisms to burst into flames. Bullets and shells impact the scaffolding, sending entire buildings crashing into the sea. The men on the machine guns are being cut down by Abyssal fire, some of them continuing to fire even as they bleed. This is their home, and they won't let it be sunk so easily.

    As for the fleeing aircraft, they put on as much speed as they can muster! But they are heavy with civilian life, and are made purely for transport, not combat. As such, they're still outpaced by the horrid weapons of the Abyssals. They're sitting ducks unless someone comes to their aid!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone's scouts don't last long, thjey are going to do their best to keep them busy, while they flee. The orders come in and she is quick to respond to them.

"Aye aye."

the planes are not launched as she was ordered to. She gets the idea of where this is going. Soon there's another wave of fighter heading to aid those fighting on the platform. The small plaqnes move at top speed away from Kotone to the platform.

While she moves to launch a wave of torpedo bombers, the planes deploy rapidly as Kotone can get them going as she's understaing now. The bombers will make for the carriers and attempt to assault them hopefully doing some damage or if a miracle happens sinking them.

"I like the way you think it's time for some meaningful dialog with them."

Midway has posed:
CHEVALIER
    The 'artillery piece' suddenly becomes a lot more nimble, and as a result the bombing run on Chevalier winds up whiffing near-completely. The bombers seem to be alright with damage caused to the Asherah though, as they bank away and ascend. Pinpoint shots from the ground chew into the scattering aircraft. One of them suddenly drops altitude, spewing smoke, while another catches fire and then spirals out of control towards the sea. A third takes a hit, spewing smoke as it banks away, but doesn't appear to be crashing. There's just too many planes to try taking them out one at a time, but at least Chevalier was able to make them pay for their attack.

STAREN
    Likewise, the bombers that attacked Staren bank away, once they've dropped their ordnance. Even something as big as the Star Hawk can avoid them, it seems, though the bombs chew into the Asherah platform instead. Something this big can take a little punishment if it means it's still floating, right? Since the planes are retreating, rather than make another attack run, his plan is clear. Destroyers are under fire, and return fire in kind. Not with lasers, but with medium-caliber artillery.

    The Heavy Cruiser Water Demon lets out an inarticulate shout, thrusting her hands down to either side. Her tails re-orient, opening fire again with large caliber armor-piercing shells. A far cry from the explosive bombardment rounds used by the destroyers, some of which are on fire or smoking, the Demon's planned for armored targets.

SANARY
    The Destroyer Water Demon keeps her flak artillery barrage up until it's clear that the flying axefighter is charging right at her. She plants her feet, presenting herself head on to Sanary's charge with both gauntlets held at the ready. One hand is thrust forward, fingers spread out, and this is what the Healer slams into. The Water Demon's elbow bends, her feet skidding back across the water while her small body absorbs the impact. Metal strains in her outstretched gauntlet.

    And then she yanks her extended hand back. The opposite gauntlet is thrust out to the side, her fingers ramrod-straight. There's a hiss of compressed air as her fingers launch right off the glove, one after the other striking the sea and charging off at high speed right for the Asherah.

    Around the two fighters, the less-humanoid Destroyers discharge torpedoes from their mouths as well, all targeting the Asherah facility.

YARI
    What would one expect a destroyer to do when attacked by something underwater? Anti-submarine warfare is one of the many hats a strong destroyer wears! When the rope on the harpoon goes slack, the late-model I Class allows itself a moment of pride. A glowing blue eye snaps back, examining the emerging, battered lizard ninja. It starts to turn, to bring its mouth (and its guns) to bear, but soon finds itself engulfed in flames instead. Something explodes in the inferno, and the rapid popping of an anti-air magazine detonation fills the air. The destroyer shrieks, turning away instead. As it emerges from the smoke and flames, it moves with a heavy list to one side, nursing a smoldering ichor-oozing wound. Rather than try to fight on, it retreats, submerging in a pool of oil.

Midway has posed:
THE AIR
    Bombers angling away from Atago's fleet come under further fire. Even though they've dropped their payloads, letting them get away means they might come back for another run! Another handful of planes, one by one, flame out or break up as they charge out of range of Yuna and Atago's anti-air batteries. Above them, like angry vultures, Abyssal Hellcat fighters continue to circle in formations of three. Waiting for the right time.

    And that time is now. When Kotone launches her fighters, two packs of Hellcats break out of the pattern and descend on the deployed Zero fighters, attacking from above with bursts of gunfire and then banking away to make use of their gathered speed to keep the altitude advantage. The remaining two packs stay on alert, and start harassing the torpedo planes in a similar fashion once the bombers are deployed. They've been waiting to get the drop on the Fleet's aircraft in an entirely unsportsmanlike way.

    However, with what's left of the torpedo planes on retreat, and the dive bombers engaged elsewhere (and also retreating to rearm), there's nothing to immediately threaten the Hikari trio for a few moments. Aside from Kotone's unfortunate aircraft.

    Elsewhere, however, the Hellcats are getting uppity. Despite apparent orders to ignore unarmed targets, the nightmarish fighters are buzzing uncomfortably close to fleeing helicopters, hissing at windows and bumping against the fuselage. Minute by minute they're getting more violent with these tantelizing, unarmed air transports. If someone doesn't do something, things are likely to get ugly.

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    High explosives scuff Chevalier's armor, doing little more than marring the gleaming surface with the near-misses. On the outside at least. Within the armor, the purely mortal knight has been staggered by blasts, rocked hard, and is now at least somewhat disoriented due to the ringing in his ears.

    Shaking off the effects, or at least trying to, Chevalier returns to the rails. Once again his sword extends, the cannon swelling to maximum size. "If anyone's good at taking on air... dogs, be my guest." he says into the local link. They need to be dealt with, and while he's mostly paying attention to his own local issues he's somewhat aware of the trouble among the crew fleeing the platform. "I'm going to light up the attackers." he promises.

    Again, his cannon booms. Again, bullets scaled up to the size of artillery shells begin to fall among the abyssals, preferably the carriers. His shooting is a little more wild now, though he at least tries to keep shots away from friendly fleets. Chevalier's not the type to fire on temporary allies even 'by accident'. If he does, it's quite literally unintentional.

Nagato has posed:
    After a brief little yell at Staren over some radios, Atago moves closer to Yuna and grasps her hands and tugs her close for an embrace. "Atago saw Ooi and Kitakami do this." She whispers towards Yuna with a bright smile. "We're going to launch all of our torpedoes at the Abyssal Fleet and create a wonderful curtain fire for all those aircraft." she smiles, letting go of the embrace and keeping the hands held, "Now say it with me, Pan pakapakapakapakapaka pan!~"

    Atago takes a good look around... torpedoes heading towards the base... shit... that's going to be a pain, but for now... "Yari, take care of those torpedoes, will you?" she smiles at the (hopefully right) direction of the lizard ninja before taking a spin around the water with Kagurazaka! As soon as she joins in with the Pan Paka Pan-ing... "And fire everything~" there's a wide spread torpedo ring launched in almost every conceavable direction, convinently fired to avoid hitting the water base while anti air guns blaze on overdrive. She's no Maya, but she'll do.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Strength versus strength? That's the sort of challenge that's hard for Sanary to ignore, and... Well, she doesn't. Axe collides with gauntlet, and the healer's relying entirely on brute force to try and break the Destroyer Water Demon's arm off. As she keeps pushing, however, Sanary's gaze can be seen darting from the Abyssal to those depth charges, to Yari, then to the other Destroyers.

     "... Feh. If that's how you wanna play it, then...!" She pulls back on the axe as if rearing back for another burst of force forward, then... Slips one of the Physic staves off her back with her free hand to direct a burst of healing towards the ninja. A broad grin creeps across Sanary's face as she does that, almost as if she was trying to goad her into making the next attack. Two can play the 'I have better things to focus on than you' game!

     Well, aside from the fact that she doesn't really have an answer for the torpedoes heading for the Asherah facility.

Staren has posed:
    Lasers and railgun slugs go out, shells come in. Staren turns to present a smaller profile, but still, some put holes or blow chunks of armor off his arm and leg, and the ones that miss still hit the water purification platform.

    He's just not prepared for the sort of overwhelming attack that could quickly finish things today. He's in a giant robot, it can take and dish out a lot of punishment, so that's what he's going to do.

    Slowly, steadily, either they'll take too much damage and retreat, or he will. It looks like this might be a close one. Perhaps as great a contribution as the actual damage, though, is that he's keeping whichever water-demon-and-destroyer-group is passing him busy, and they're keeping HIM busy.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
With the Destroyer taken care of, Yari has a choice to make. Defend Sanary, kill the Destroyers, or...

The burst of healing energy hits her, and her bleeding slows until it stops. A small breath of pure relief. She's buying Sanary three dinners for that one! Thankfully, it's Atago that makes her choice clear. Rather than finish off her prey, the ninja leaps backwards into the air. Mid-leap, her eye peers back to the torpedoes speeding away. A few mental calculations, and her tail and arms flick. With a graceful landing, she skids along the water. Wiping a bit of sweat off of her brow, she makes a few handseals almost in an offhand manner.

Half a dozen shuriken turn into an absolute firestorm of raining metal lashing into the water, all aimed to strike into those torpedoes! That might not be enough to destroy them outright normally, but it's the explosive tags attached that act like very soggy depth charges to seal the deal. Luckily, she had some of the lacquered kind on hand, just in case of a sea mission.

Her hand taps her radio.

"Acknowledged, Flagship Atago. Eliminating the enemy as ordered, ma'am." Deadpans the lizard ninja.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is indeed still in experienced with this she's not a raw rookie, but she's still very new at this compared to anyone else in the fleet really. Still she does keep with her training as her duties as a Paladin allows, she's listens to the conversation with Rekyu. She will make sure to not have her planes do not go after their sudden allies she keep supporting Atago and Yuna. She's hanging out a bit behind the pair as she makes sure to keep her air power in the game. Well as long as she can the Hellcats descend upon her Zero fighters and whelp that end sup being messy while the Zero has speed, and agility the hell cats have armour and firepower. The sky is a mess of explosions and weapons fire the Zeros are not getting out of this unharmed and several of their number go down.

Meanwhile the bombers are being chased as they attempt to carry out their mission, but they are forced to juke and try to not get shot down as she makes an attempt at her attack runs, but? This may be a mistake given she's going to take losses and with how they are being hounded few if any might even get to make off an attack on the enemy carriers.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Uwah?!" Kagurazaka yelps briefly as Atago pulls her into a hug; she has the good grace not to struggle, but it's a surprising maneuver even with that hint of forewarning. She listens to the older cruiser's whisper, then nods and repeats, "Pan pakapapapakapakapaka pan!"

... Okay, she goofed but there's no time for another attempt. Besides, that was the practice session, better to mess up on THAT than the real one. She lets Atago lead, still holding the other blonde's hand with her left, right hand getting her rifle into position, and --

"PAN PAKAPAKAPAKAPAKAPAKA PAN~!"

Cue two cruisers' worth of firepower - guns, cannons, and torpedoes all in one sustained barrage - spreading out across the battle, and Kagurazaka just prays briefly that none of their allies get friendly-fire'd in the process. She adjusted her own firing pattern to avoid pointing anything near Asherah, so that's not as much of a worry.

Midway has posed:
CHEVALIER
    Return fire on the Abyssal group surrounding the Heavy Cruiser Water Demon suppresses the destroyers still present in the formation. Their numbers have dwindled, with damaged ships falling out of formation and submerging to retreat. One, having caught fire from one of Staren's laser shots, attempts to submerge and then suddenly explodes when the fire reaches something valuable. One of Chevalier's shells pierces another of the fish-like Abyssal ships, punching right through at hyper velocity through such a thinly-armored target. Another is forced to turn away, breaking formation to protect itself while it trails smoke from assorted damage.

SANARY
    Destroyer Water Demon lifts her free hand, the 'shields' over her launchers flexing as fresh torpedoes are slotted in place of the ones she'd launched. More torpedoes, fired from her flotilla, streak through the water around the pair following the first launch. The pale-skinned girl bares her teeth, the metal in her outstretched gauntlet buckling from the pressure Sanary puts into it through her axe.

    And then the Demon pulls her hand back, allowing Sanary suddenly that much closer. Destroyer's free hand balls those fingers into a fist and she swings it around the axe's blade, swinging at the healer from the side with a giant gauntlet haymaker.

STAREN
    The formation of destroyers around Heavy Cruiser Water Demon is growing smaller by the minute, due in part to the Star Hawk's advanced weaponry and Chevalier's abnormal artillery. Though the attention paid on Cruiser's group has resulted in Destroyer's group getting far less attention. She can accept that kind of outcome. Trailing streamers of smoke herself, the Heavy Cruiser Water Demon redirects her efforts.

    The mass of the Star Hawk means that even if she can penetrate the armor, it can absorb a lot of punishment. But the person aiding the robot appears to just be a man in a suit of armor.

    The Demon's tails change their orientation, and her next salvo of armor-piercing shells is directed not at Staren, but at Chevalier.

Midway has posed:
YARI
    With the destroyer dealt with, Yari has free reign to try and counter the torpedo attack. Coming from a dozen ships at various angles, there's no way she could get them all. But the explosions filling the water between the flotilla and Asherah are a good sign that several have been destroyed en-route. At the very least this should mitigate the potential damage the attack might cause.

THE AIR
    Hellcats continue to harass Kotone's zeros, locked in a tense dogfight. The Kanmusu carrier manages to down some of them, but the battle isn't decided yet. The pack of fighters chasing those torpedo planes do not let up the pressure for an instant, diving in pairs on the vulnerable bombers and then banking away to confound tailgunners. In the distance, the Nu class abyssals are also turning away, forcing the torpedo planes to chase them for a good attack angle, though at the very least those two carriers have no surface escorts and are keeping their distance from the surface action around the Asherah.

    The wings of bombers return, having rearmed with fresh ordnance, but they've learned not to harry Atago's fleet with such a strong anti-air cruiser on hand. Instead, the squadrons of torpedo planes skirt the battlefield and then soar in over the destroyer flotilla, Sanari, and Destroyer Water Demon. The Avenger torpedo bombers dip low, dropping their torpedoes into the water and banking away under defensive fire from the Asherah's machine guns. Their target: Asherah itself, on the same side that the flotilla is attacking with their own torpedo armament.

ATAGO
    The unorthodox maneuver scatters ordnance into the air. The Hellcats dueling with Kotone's zeroes are caught in the flak barrage, several of then spiralling down to the sea. The remainder break off and ascend, another one bursting into flames as it attempts to escape. Shell fire rains down on the nearest surface targets, Heavy Cruiser Water Demon's battered flotilla, and another destroyer keels over in a spreading oil slick. The Demon herself is battered from behind, casting a glare over her shoulder. Suspecting torpedoes, she turns suddenly away from the Asherah, even as one of the torpedoes impacts the last destroyer in her squadron, blasting the unfortunate Abyssal in half.

Midway has posed:
    In the distance, easily missed in all the smoke and gunfire, is a pale-skinned girl in a black hoodie, wearing a scarf. She sits crosslegged on a white rock protruding from the waves, her hands in her lap. Her eyes dart about, watching the battle intently with a shark-toothed grin barely hidden by her neckwear. After a few moments, when she feels it's right, the unknown girl raises her hands from her lap and spreads them over her head. From behind her, launching in waves, are the familiar black-hulled Abyssal aircraft. These ascend in spirals, grouped in wings of four, and break off once they hit their target altitude.

    Moments later, this black swarm descends on the white Hellcats threatening the heli transports and the sky around the civilian craft is suddenly filled with gunfire and explosions, smoke and flame. The Hellcats seem to be caught completely off guard by this attack..!

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    The air fills with the sound of groaning metal as torpedoes impact against the Asherah. Holes in the outer hull are ripped open, followed by more in the inner hull. Salt water begins to flood in, causing electrical equipment to spark and splutter.

    As the hull rips apart, the entire structural integrity of the place begins to go. Slowly, then with renewed speed, it begins to list to the side. Several fall from the scaffolding to the sea as people emerge from the inside, fleeing the rising water, exposing themselves to enemy fire.

    But the helicraft, so threatened by the Hellcats, are suddenly offered reprieve. By... one of the enemy? The pilots are confused, but they don't question it, jetting well out of the engagement zone. The escaping civilians are safe! Now there are just the ones on the facility to worry about.

Nagato has posed:
    The Pan Daka Pan maneuver seemed to have worked... but she's expended a lot of her arsenal on that.. Atago looks around to take a breather and then giggle for a few seconds, "You did well~! Uzuki likes to go Pu Puku Puu but it doesn't have the same Ta-da factor. And look..." she points to the skies where there's a bunch of planes falling to the ocean and even and exploding destroyer! "See, mimicry is a bit of art." She coughs a bit, her legs are quite deep into the water, up to her knees...

    "Oh my... I'm sinking a bit... I need to get patched up but I think we can finish the operation." she comments, looking around as she sees the incoming fighters, the black hulled one, similar to a certain Carrier she knows... "Wo?" she whispers, looking towards the incoming aircraft's former direction... "Is... Wo-Class here?" comes another whisper, but when the Hellcats are being taken by surprise, it does bring a relaxation sigh to her. "At least we know one Abyssal who isn't attacking us." little does she know about the broadband conversation....

Chevalier (1110) has posed:
    Chevalier's armor may not be as visibly tough as Staren's mecha but it can probably absorb just as much punishment. Though seemingly just steel or at least silver and gold, it's got the stopping power of a warship's armored sides. Of course even that can be penetrated by a Heavy Cruiser's guns loaded with armor-piercing rounds. And at the range the cruiser's firing from, Chevalier's not even going to be able to see it coming to be able to shift mass in time to dodge.

    Luckily for him, he's nowhere near as large as a warship. At the range the shots are coming from, it'd take a miracle to accurately track and strike him with a single shot, let alone to strike him true enough that it penetrates instead of deflecting aside by the curves of plate mail designed to turn the thrust of a sword or lance. The salvo lands around Chevalier, one shell spinning him heavily to the deck as it deflects. The high mass of the armor protects him from being crushed by the impact while the armor's unnatural toughness keeps the shell from breaching. Still, it takes some time for the armored champion to once again rise. Clearly injured, his armor gouged and dented, he raises his sword once again, levelling it braced across one arm before returning fire yet again in a blast that sends him sprawling yet again, his cry of rage and pain sounding out even as the echoes of the cannonfire fade.

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
A small breath, and Yari draws her hands together. Sanary and the Destroyer Water Demon go at it. The amount of torpedoes sped away from her has Yari narrowing her eye, and she dives underwater. She's at least dampened the strikes upon the scientific base, and it looks like Sanary needs a hand as the creature swings at the axe-cleric!

Deft legs kick, and a few depths beneath, she'll try to spring up on the other side of Sanary's opponent! Her handseals complete, and she hauls back her fist!

"Raiton!" A massive bolt of lightning appears in her hand, and then she's aiming straight towards where she hopes is some kind of ammo deck on the Water Demon! Roughly straight through her water-facing 'decks'. Should it hit, it will be a wrenching, twisting, elongated smash inside of the Abyssal, before yanking out and retreating from behind!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
The dogfight rages on but kotone's fightes are holoding them at bay for the moment and that's part of the point. The batlte goes on even as some fall she attemps to take the fighter sinto play she'll send a smaller wave to try and aid the bombers, but it may be too late.

The bombers that even make attack runs and are not shot down, are going to make for their torpedo runs but it's not lookign good. The good news is? There are no surface escorts so this might not be a totally lost cause.

It seems the teamwork has worked as the hellcasts are caught inteh AS fire which may free up the suriving Zeros to race to the aid of the bomber though the battle seems to be winding down but it's not yet over. Still they may have just saved the ship's crew hc h is the most imoprant thing as it's what they came for, right?

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Just as planned! Sort of. Although Sanary was expecting Destroyer Water Demon to lash out at her, she wasn't expecting a blow from the side. The best she can do is brace herself for that oncoming impact as she twists around to take the blow with her bicep instead of her elbow. She can still feel something cracking in there, but at least she doesn't have a broken elbow!

     "Ghk... Now that's more like it!" Sanary straps the staff back to her back before adjusting her hold on the gunaxe, obivously favoring the right arm while sizing up the Abyssal again. "So.. My turn!" Bellowing out a shout in challenge, she hurtles forward against while bringing the gunaxe up overhead. Instead of bringing it down at Destroyer Water Demon as would be expected, though, she instead aims a broad horizontal swing to try and catch the Abyssal from the side opposite Yari.

     It's like she's trying to use the same around-the-weapon technique that Destroyer Water Demon had just used on her. Even Sanary can learn things once in a while!

Staren has posed:
    The shells fly past him. Huh... Oh. They must be attacking the platform... and Chevalier. Hmm.

    Well far be it from Staren not to take the opportunity to dump continued firepower into the destroyers! Alternating pulse bursts from the laser rifle with bursts from the gatling railgun while it cools.

    Unfortunately, as nice as getting a free shot is, he now has other problems: The platform is starting to collapse. If he doesn't go through the warpgate, is he sunk too? Not necessarily; he can probably fly to another one, as long as the transformation system isn't damaged. Ordinarily not a concern, but this fight looks like it will test the Star Hawk's endurance.

    Staren retreats inward from the edge of the platform, toward a position next to the gate. He'll fight from there, and retreat at the last possible moment if need be.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    As the transports fade over the horizon, other specks begin to grow. They fly fast, quickly approaching the caving facility. These are proper gunships, bristling with weapons. On the ocean surface, boats skim across the waves, also packing weapons. The ReGenesis calvary is here to defend their own!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagurazaka takes a moment to catch her breath (and let her fairies reload all of the guns) while surveying the results of the battle thus far.

The enemy Abyssals have taken a proper shellacking, including by Re-Class's 'friendly' Abyssals, and additional reinforcements are on the way - presumably local forces. And none of their Elite allies are out of action, which is always reassuring.

On the downside, Asherah is definitely NOT as stable and securely upright as it was earlier; Kagurazaka just hopes it wasn't one of her (or Atago's) errant shots which did it, but more importantly, she's trying to figure out what she can do to help support or prop up or *something* to keep Asherah from tipping any further. If the Matrix of Light were here, El-Line could *probably* support the platform for a little while, but in her light cruiser loadout, she's drawing a blank ...

For the time being, she can probably at least take a closer look at the damage to Asherah. And she doesn't have to do that alone. "Atago, Yamakawa ... if the fight's taking care of itself for now, let's cruise around Asherah, see what kind of damage we can identify up close. Maybe our fairies can help do some patch work and reinforce the structure a little - if we have to give up some of our guns for metal they can work with, it'll be worth it. Even if Akashi is going to be mad at us, better that than letting the plant sink."

Besides, anything that denies the Abyssals a 'win' under these circumstances HAS to go towards 'mission accomplished,' right?

Midway has posed:
    Destroyer Water Demon thrusts her hands out to either side once Sanary is knocked further away, her fingers splayed at the ready and fury written all over her young face. White hair dips between her eyes, kept in a rough updo ponytail behind her off-set cap. She's ready for the axe-knight's charge, though clearly expected an overhead. Correcting at the last second, she manages only to clumsily intercept the axe coming in at her side by meeting the blade with her gauntlet's palm. The blade sinks into the metal all the way into what would be her wrist, spraying streams of black, oily ichor. She winces, one eye shut with a resonant grunt over the screech of damaged metal.

    As Destroyer Water Demon raises her other hand for a close range counterattack, Yari fires off a Raiton behind her. Electricity crackles through the abyssal ship and she lets out a surprised, painful scream. Being covered in metal and seawater makes her FANTASTICALLY conductive. The oil leaking from her damaged hand ignites, followed shortly by the torpedo warheads in her fingertips. The explosion hurls her aside, bouncing across the ocean's surface as if it were solid ground. She comes to a stop on her side, her left hand gone up to the elbow, trailing sparks and oil and red-hot metal. With a grimace, she scoots backward, then submerges, leaving behind only an oil slick dotted with flames.

    Uncertain of what to do without their flotilla leader, the remaining destroyers that had been following the Water Demon likewise submerge in retreat, with oil seeping from the damaged ones that Staren had managed to score hits on after he helped clean up the first division.

    Harried by Kotone's torpedo planes, one of the distant Nu class carriers does suffer a torpedo hit, listing and trailing oil as she struggles to keep up with her twin. Bombers return, diving into the mouths of both bulbous abyssal carriers, and the Hellcats not engaged with Re's are also returning to them to protect them as they retreat.

    In the middle of burning oil and wreckage, the Heavy Cruiser Water Demon comes to a halt. Her eyes shoot to one side, taking in the ruined ships from her flotilla. To the other, she watches her fellow Water Demon retreat. Starting to shake, she turns her eyes upward to the Hellcats engaged with Mk.2 aircraft and Kotone's fighters. Her gaze wanders, spying the reinforcement gunships arriving from the mainland. Glance. The approaching silhouettes of Atago's response squadron.

    Hunching down, she grabs at the sides of her head, her voice resonant and reverbrating, "NOT AGAIN..! I.. WON'T BE.. CAPTURED AGAIN!"

    Her snake-tail cannons lift up above her, discharging their rounds into the water around her and throwing up a huge spray of seawater. When the water drops back down, she's already submerged.

    First one, than the other Nu class carrier likewise submerges, disengaging from the battle once they've recovered their surviving aircraft. The black-hulled Mk.2 abyssal planes break off and start circling lazily until they receive an unspoken command, darting back from whence they came.

    In the distance, the hoodie-wearing girl stretches her arms up over her head, then settles them with her hands folded behind her neck. Pink eyes glance up and back, as groups of black planes spiral down into the yawning black chasm of her backpack, "Mmm~... Time to go, fellas."

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
On the other end of the magical conductive steam, Yari lets out a huff. The ninja ends the sparking attack, her left hand smoking from the strike. Her eye narrows, but the Destroyer Water Demon is already on her way. She blows out the smoke, and is already over to Sanary as the rest of the Enemy Abyssal Fleet is off to retreating.

Far beyond her range, even if she had a sniper rifle with her! Cursing her luck Yari offers her arm to Sanary. "The Re-class...isn't anything like Wo-Class or the Abyssal Leader. What do you think, Sanary? Turning on her own, is she just some kind of fanatic for conflict, or..." She trails off, and sighs.

A smile. "She'll make for a good hunt, either way."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    It's bad.

    As the boats and ships pull up to aid survivors and retrieve the dead, assessments begin immediately. Right off the bat, it's clear that the Asherah is not currently fit to supply fresh water. The purifier has been damaged by the flooding, and the strain of the collapse has buckled the pipes, allowing salt water to contaminate what was already there. Those pipes will have to be sealed until repairs are complete.

    Louisiana and Kyle survived, thankfully. The stuttering woman broke her glasses again, but she works to comfort the relatives of those lost and organize people onto the rescue vehicles. Kyle is wounded, having taken a shard of shrapnel to the side. He sits there, fuming.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Victory! Or close enough to one. Sanary's certainly more than willing to take a win where she can get it, a hint of smugness crossing her face as Destroyer Water Demon falls back with the rest of her crew in tow. She doesn't stay that way for long, though, lowering closer to the water level to hover besides Yari and take her assistance in getting back.

     "Samar, right? Yeah, this one's... She's still able to talk, but she wasn't anything like either of 'em. Way too..." She rubs her face lightly, then grunts once. "... Unstable? Yeah, that sounds about right."

     Yari's smile has her raising an eyebrow. Not in a questioning way, but a curious one. "Just don't get too in over your head, alright?"

Yari Takane (691) has posed:
Yari huffs just a slight bit. Head-tilt, and her head is on Sanary's forearm. A shake of the head.

"Completely without any sense of restraint. It's embarrassing." Huff huff tail flick!

"I know when to retreat. This will be a good way to sharpen my skills." Her head nodding sharply, she's off back to the warpgate. They'll need to prepare against this particular Abyssal Fleet!

Staren has posed:
    'Victory' might be stretching it, but driving them off without the platform completely collapsing is obviously better than losing it completely. The Star Hawk disappears through the gate. No point in sticking around, this is a Paladin world and they have people to help with the reconstruction. He needs to get materials and engage the self-repair systems as soon as possible. Who knows how quickly another attack will come...

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
The Battle is over they saved mot of the crew or so it thinks but the ship?The ship could be a loss. She's not sure at the moment. Worse yet? They know they have a lot more problems than they thought. It seems there's a lot for the Hikari and others to deal with. she will aid with any recovery and resue efforts tht are needed. She seems happy they didn't lose any of the force they sent out well people. Her remaining planes are recalled to return to her duties helping with the aftermath.