5475/Sub-Operation: Abyssal Transport Fleet

Sub-Operation: Abyssal Transport Fleet
Date of Scene:	09 September 2017
Location:	<AOH> Abyssal Pearl Harbor
Synopsis:	A standard attack on a transport fleet goes awry.
Thanks to:	To Re-Class for running the entire TP and for GMing this.
Cast of Characters:	Shigure, Nagato, Reina Kinney, 385, Leyanne Mace, Midway, Staren

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Shigure has posed:
    Kuma floats atop the water, on the far horizon the Abyssal transport fleet can be seen making best possible speed. They haven't detected anyone as yet, but it's only a matter of time. The light cruiser calls for her backup to form up. "Surface fleet, Double Line formation, kuma!" she orders, taking the center position and kicking forwards. "The plan is to sink the escort and capture the transports, kuma. But don't hold your punches with them, kuma."

    The cruiser's ahoge lashes side to side a little, trailing little sparks in the air as she radiates on radar. "Confirming surface fleet, Six contacts, kuma."

Nagato has posed:
    All rested and ready, Atago couldn't pull herself away from wanting to go on another mission! And when Kuma wanted people to go on a transport hunt mission, far be it from Atago to deny Kuma the Admiral's secretary ship! She pulls up at the end of the double line formation, "Pan Paka Pan~ Atago is here!" she cheerfully states, a bright smile upon her face. "I'll leave it to you, Flagship Kuma~" there's an idle stretch, a check of her guns and she just listens.

    "Confirming contacts~" she bounces, "Engaging when you're ready~!"

Reina Kinney has posed:
Flying up in the air above Kuma, but still fairly close, the Neo Falcon cruises along at a steady rate of speed. At its controls are Reina Kinney, the red-head with a red-hot temper sometimes. Sometimes she's also known for her red-hot tongue (OK, just sarcastic, but still.) Regardless, Reina's got her eyes wide open and is keeping a close watch on her radar and whatnot.

"This is Neo Falcon. I'm flying above you, Kuma. I'll keep an eye on things ahead." Reina's voice sounds calm, but behind that demeanor is a stern determination to perform her mission as best as she can. Her hands grip the controls tightly and even the slightest change on her radar draws her attention.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagurazaka half-closes her eyes briefly, her own radar verifying Kuma's report. "Six contacts aye, and they're definitely moving like they've got a schedule to keep ... No air cover detected so far." She glances at Kuma. "I gather the idea is to take out the escorts before they have a chance to call for help?"

This isn't quite anti-air defense duty, but a mission is a mission - and the blonde in light-cruiser fitout is always happy to set sail alongside the fleet girls. She's tempted to go ahead and launch her scout plane, but if the Abyssal fleet is already in radar range, she probably doesn't really need to. Besides, they already have some air cover, don't they?

Either way, it's too early to launch torpedoes. Kagurazaka goes quiet again, not even making too much noise with her radar. Her turrets traverse a bit, elevating, then levelling off - just making sure everything's working correctly. Naturally (and thanks as always to Akashi), everything *is*.

... Now if only there wasn't a corner of her brain starting to count the number of things that have room to go horribly wrong with this mission.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
A wooden-hulled PT boat circles Kuma and her fleet - the FMS Leeroy Jenkins. His crew is a motley bunch of former Martian pirates, serving members of Tiny's unit, and a couple of human bikers who're crazy enough to tag along. A Martian flag flies from the boat's jackstaff as maintains a constant 50+ knots, alternately planing and bouncing across the water.

"I'll wait for you to engage and then start picking off escorts as I can." Tiny radios. With her antennae intact she's happy driving again, in the open-top wheelhouse.

Midway has posed:
    It isn't long before surface contacts appear on radar, in the distance. The estimated position from the recon a few days ago turns out to be mostly correct-- a formation of ten Abyssals cruises steadily West-Northwest at a steady ten knots. That's ten distinct contacts, though the exact makeup of the fleet can't be told at such long range. However, air search radar does pick up the sudden ascent of a pair of Abyssal seaplanes, scouts in their own right, which circle back from the formation and approach the incoming formation. Radio traffic increases, though heavily encoded.

    "Enemy fleet in pursuit. Spotted and approaching. Orders."

    In a distant, dark location, violet eyes narrow as Destroyer Water Demon listens to the incoming transmission. Eyes slide sidelong to the unmarked Abyssal ship manning the radio station, "Convey orders. Transports must survive. Protect at all costs. All combat vessels are expendable so long as this objective is fulfilled."

    In the fleet, the flagship's eyes open. The hand she had touched to her ear raises, making a circling gesture and then pointing. As she leans out of the formation, two fish-like Abyssal destroyers and a similarly humanoid Ri class cruiser follow suit. The other five contacts, all of them bulbous, bloated Wa class transports, continue their previous course. One, her helmet lined with fanged teeth, 'glances' at the departing combat ships before she takes 'point' of her sluggish sisters.

    "We proceed until annihilated," Flagship Ru-Class reports back to headquarters, "Our mission will be completed at any cost."

    Her free hand reaches behind herself, unfastening the cannon-covered shield she had stowed there. As she brings it forward, mirroring one of her Demon leaders, the battleship slams her shields together. The sound of steel striking steel echoes across the waves.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma looks around at the gathered responders, smiling happily at each of them in turn. Her brown eyes then refocus onto the objective ahead... that's when her radar picks up the additional signal returns. "Tch, additional contacts. There's more than Kuma spotted before, kuma." She closes her eyes, as a launch rail angles out from the starboard side of her rig. A Type 0 Recon seaplane materializes on the rail, then launches off as its propeller spins up, angling up and gaining altitude. "They know we're here now, kuma. No need to be sneaky now, kuma." Eyes open, and the recon plane angles over to do a flyby of the fleet. Relaying back the split. "Escort ships closing, kuma! Prepare for surface engagement, kuma!"

Nagato has posed:
    "Eh? It's nothing we can't handle." Atago comments, a smile upon her face. Though, there's one thing going on... this fleet has no capital ships or aircraft carriers and the enemy is possibly fielding heavier. Oh well, to Atago, this isn't anything new, in fact, it'll be a good fun thing for her to do! "Aye~!" she replies to Kuma, angling her guns to be at the ready. "Atago, ready to fire~" as she sails behind, moving to get into range while staying within formation.

    She closes her eyes a bit, listening to her radar, the contacts pinging into her head as her turrets make micro adjustments, "I'm seeing a battleship on the radar. Be careful everyone."

Staren has posed:
    Flying up in the air, the Star Hawk pulls up alongside the Neo Falcon. In fighter configuration, it looks like a chrome F-14 Tomcat with some extra parts on. Staren's in the pilot's seat -- his flightsuit looks more like some kind of wild west leather armor painted safety orange, except for the modern space helmet -- the visor is tinted, but the 'ears' on the helmet make it clear who's there. Plus his voice. <"I'm up here too. Ready to commence long-range attack to soften them up.">

    Artillery range is about the same range as "Short" Range Missiles for Staren, so that's exactly what he brought a lot of -- The packs atop the Star Hawk open and begin to ripple-fire missiles, 40 of them in total, to rain down on the abyssal fleet. They're relatively small, for vehicle missiles -- the sort of thing a human could fire one of from a large shoulder launcher like a bazooka or LAW -- but there's a lot of them incoming!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagurazaka frowns a bit, and starts pinging away more actively with her radar. To the extent that 'ping' even applies to radar, not sonar (although she's using that too now; radar's the main focus). Ten ships, splitting their forces - almost certainly sending the warships to intercept the kanmusu and allies. They wouldn't be leaving the transports totally unguarded, though, would they ... ?

For now, Kagurazaka focuses on trying to take out the Abyssal scout planes - preferably with her first two shots, at the most, but if it takes more, she'll fire off the rest of her cannons to make sure the Abyssals lose *their* eyes in the skies. Information is power, and blinding your opponent can be useful, after all.

Once the scout planes are dealt with, Kagurazaka turns the bulk of her attention back towards the Abyssals, arming her torpedoes and reloading most of her turrets for anti-ship work. Two of them, though, she specifies additional anti-air shells for the equipment fairies to reload with; she's not sure the Abyssals won't have more planes of some kind ... and even anti-air shells can do some good against ships.

Reina Kinney has posed:
There's one thing that Reina knows about flying, and that is you have to learn how to balance your vision between flying and radar, and when the radar says something's up, you best listen to it.

When Reina spots the blips on her radar, she looks forward and sees the scout planes and the Abyssals. "How nice of you to join us!" Reina says with a sarcastic smirk. "We've been expecting you." She chuckles. "Too bad the party won't be lasting too long for you!"

Reina notices Kagurazaka heading towards the scout planes and Reina nods a little. "I'll back you up!" Reina says as she accelerates a little, firing her standard shots at the scout planes, before turning her attention towards the Abyssals. "And as for you guys, how about some of this?" Reina attempts to lock onto an Abyssal and fire off a missile.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leeroy stays with Kuma and most of the fleet, but even at this range, he's not useless. "Exocets 1 and 2, launch!" Leyanne commands from the wheel. The two at the launchers - a big Soviet piebald mouse (who looks part rat) and an almost as large human - bring their launchers to bear, locking onto friendly radar reflections from the Abyssal escorts. The missiles surge away from the boat on launch motors that ignite for a split second, letting them get safely away from the wooden vessel before their sustainer motors ignite and send them skimming across the waves towards their target - the nearest Abyssal destroyer.

    "Missiles 1 and 2 are away, keep the destroyer painted please."

Midway has posed:
    First to fight: Seaplanes. Yuna's anti-air fire peppers the sky around the two Abyssal scout craft and they promptly bank away. Completely unarmed, they've inadvertantly wandered into an unwinnable situation. One of the pair bursts into flames, spiralling down into the water on a plume of black smoke. The other, soon after, also catches fire while hot on the retreat. Trailing smoke, it scurries back towards the Abyssal fleet, though only makes it halfway before that scout, too, ditches in the sea under Reina's cannon fire.

    Swarms of mini missiles aren't too common in the Abyssal arsenal. Ru-Class, being the leader of the attack formation, is the most sensible target for them. She lifts her shields overhead, slamming them together in a spray of sparks just as missiles start slamming into that heavy armor. The action casts her face in shadow, and her eyes glow gold in the forced darkness. As the barrage abates and fires burn on her armored shields, Ru's left eye's glow flickers, then lets out a vibrant blue flame, trailing with her movement.

    The second humanoid Abyssal twists, Reina's missile sailing right through where her midsection had been. Baring shark-like teeth, she thrusts her hand out, gauges a lead, and returns fire with an aerial fragmentation shell, intent on catching the Neo Falcon in the shrapnel cone. As she completes the twist, her other arm's guns are lifted, firing a similar shrapnel shell at the Star Hawk. A snap-shot, but the reflexative response seems to suit her elevated, gold-eyed status as a Flagship type.

    The two Abyssal destroyers trail their larger cousins. Recognizing missiles, the nearer one suddenly dives underwater. The first Exocet misses, while the second reacquires. The second of the two destroyers, apparently less experienced, takes the rocket in its side. With a shriek, it's engulfed in the explosion. Flaming oil scatters across the water behind it, and when the smoke clears, the Abyssal ship is completely gone.

    The first destroyer, however, reveals her presence by surfacing again at very high speed-- so much so that she leaps from the water and lands on the bow of the Leeroy, balanced on stubby legs. In a furious posture, like a provoked animal, she dips her head and arcs her back, fangs bared in a hiss at the Mice on board.

    Flagship Kai Ru-Class lowers her flaming shields, glowering through the blue flame of her left eye. Guns adjust, ignoring the fire touching her armor. In sequence, each set of 14-inch guns opens fire, selecting different targets in the surface formation. Kuma, Kagurazaka, and Atago. Ru ignores Leeroy, who already has a problem to contend with.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma watches the opening salvos going out. She's still out of range for even the upgraded 15.5cm cannon on her rig mount, but at least one of those destroyers is down. The other one makes itself known on the Leeroy, but before she can turn to engage it, she spots incoming artillery fire. "Incoming fire, evade, kuma!" she calls, banking hard to evade the shell bursting in the water nearby. Shrapnel showers her form, shredding part of her uniform and leaving angry black streaks across her skin, oil leaking like blood. "It'll take more than that to stop me, kuma!" she snarls out at the Ru-class. "Kuma, moving to engage, kuma!" she says, pouring on the speed and breaking out of formation to run down the Battleship. "Launch Torpedoes, kuma!" She hops from the waters surface, and with a spinning windmill kick, sends four torpedoes hurrying out towards the Ru-class, two from each of her ankle-mounted launch rails. That should give both the Ru and the Ri-class something to think about.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
THe mice on board Leeroy rear back in alarm, the boat rocking in response to the destroyer's landing on board. The two manning the exocets scatter, while Leyanne ducks behind her bullet-proof shield, looking for something. She pops up moments later with a 12-gauge shotgun, which she levels at the I-class Destroyer.
"Get off my boat!" she growls, pulling the trigger. She racks the slide and fires another, starting to advance on the Destroyer. "Your hate's done enough harm here, I won't let you hurt anyone else. Now. Get. Off. My. BOAT!"

Reina Kinney has posed:
Reina grins as she scores a hit, only to watch with disbelief as her missile misses its target. "Nice aim, dummy!" Reina says to her targeting computer, before looking again and going wide-eyed. There's shrapnel coming at Neo Falcon. And it's coming very fast.

Instinctively, Reina banks to the left, but it's not fast enough. The shrapnel catches part of the craft, causing a bit of turbulence for Reina. "Oh, FALZ!" Reina can be heard screaming as she struggles to get her craft back under control. As she does, though, an alarm blares, causing her to glance at the console and do a double-take. "Oh great, the fuel tank's on fire!" With one hand on the controls, Reina frantically presses buttons on the console with her other hand.

Within a moment, the extinguishing systems are online and the fire is out, but its not without its damage. Some of the fuel leaked out of Reina's tank, leaving her at three-quarters of a full tank.

"Don't you know fuel is expensive?!" Reina snaps as she looks for the Abyssal that attacked her, but can't seem to find it. Instead, she fires a pair of missiles at one of the destroyers instead. "They try THAT again, there's gonna be hell to pay!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Kyaah!!" yelps Kagurazaka, jinking hard to starboard (i.e. to the right) to break out of formation before those shells can reach her. The shells proper miss; the explosions, and the spray they kick up, don't *quite* miss, and the abrupt swell of the ocean beneath her nearly pitches Kagurazaka onto her face before she manages to get her legs back underneath her, reaching behind herself to swat out what feel like embers in her skirt, ready to burst into proper flame. "Why, you ... !"

Leyanne has a problem. It sounds like she's already dealing with it, though - and Kagurazaka has other problems to focus on as it is. She takes a fresh look back in the the other Abyssals' direction, where those shells came from ... and she knows they're too far away for her cannons to reach. Even torpedoes would be tricky at that range. There's one real solution she can think of to *that* problem: Get closer.

Get closer to two Abyssals with heavier weapons than she has - or that anyone else in this fleet does, except maybe for Staren and Atago. And Staren already has his hands full.

Kagurazaka just swings around and pours on the speed, crouching as low as she can without spoiling her own balance on the water. Kuma's already closing the distance in a hurry as it is; Kagurazaka realigns her turrets, waiting for just the right moment, and plans her moves.

Her first shots are fired from extreme range - but they're not even intended to hit the Abyssals. Instead, her anti-air shells detonate in FRONT of Ri-Class and Ru-Class, a deliberately calculated attempt to blind them, or maybe to make them flinch. Hopefully that'll buy the time that Kagurazaka and Kuma need to get into *their* firing ranges and take the shots which will actually count: in Kagurazaka's case, a series of torpedoes accompanied shells from her other three cannons.

Staren has posed:
    The shrapnel cone hits the Star Hawk, scratching and scraping it and putting holes in the arm packs (under the belly in fighter mode.) His computers swiftly calculate the source, and now Staren knows to watch out for that.

    Staren considers his options, and then dives low over the water, coming in towards... the anti-air that just shot him! The gatling railgun spins up and sends a hail of hypersonic metal slugs her way, Staren ready to break off and circle if she aims that shrapnel cannon his way!

Nagato has posed:
    Shells from the battleship streak across the sky, crashing down near Atago, sending up spires of water that soak the Heavy Cruiser in the salty sea spray. She shakes her head and spits out a bit of water accidentally engulfed and breaks formation to head forward. She may not be much use against a Battleship, but she's damn well gonna try! The 20.3-cm guns upon her rigging take aim and as soon as she's in firing distance, the turrets light up and send off four shells, high explosive, directly towards that Ru-Class!

    "PAN PAKA PAAAAN~" she exclaims, "Get out of our seas~"

Midway has posed:
    On the Leeroy, the I-Class destroyer's mouth continues to hang open in a menacing hiss. However, from the back of the Abyssal ship's throat, it extrudes a main cannon and a series of smaller arms. The main battery and anti-air weapons. When she's shotgunned, the destroyer flinches, quickly re-acquiring target and opening up with her small caliber machine gun in an attempt to sweep the PT boat's deck from side to side. Each hail of shot causes her to flinch, staggering back on little feet, while she sprays her own lead in response. Up until the repeated fire from Leyanne's weapon pushes the destroyer over the bow. There's a series of heavy clunks against the hull as she's run over, and a trail of oil drags behind the Leeroy as it maneuvers.

    It was probably a bad idea to fire a missile at a destroyer standing on an ally's boat, though.

    Ri-Class shields her face with one arm when shrapnel bursts towards her head. Alabaster skin is marred, but when she lowers her arm, her teeth are clenched tensely. Her eyes shift suddenly from Yuna to Staren's Star Hawk, though, and she shifts her defense to contend with incoming hypervelocity slugs. Shielding her face with one arm and the associated equipment, she thrusts the other forward and fires off a quick succession of air-burst artillery, unable to aim adequately while under constant attack-- So she goes for saturation.

    The Flagship Kai Ru Class lowers her shields, now smoldering rather than openly aflame. Yuna's artillery bursts in her face, but it does little to quell the blue flame pouring from her left eye. Her expression is stern, focused, and calculating. She interposes her shields, Atago's shells slamming against them. A fire re-ignites and she ignores it, trailing smoke as she continues to advance.

    Nestled among Ru's large guns are numerous smaller-caliber cannons in single gun casemates. As she advances, these swivel out and open fire as well, favoring the three cruisers-- Atago, Kuma, and Kagurazaka. A sure sign that they're in main gun range, the fact that the same-size guns on Ru are also engaging. Though the small puffs of smoke and flame are suddenly interrupted by the bursts from her main battery, with enough force to deform the water in front of her.

    Even the torpedoes don't deter her. One slides past, the other explodes beneath her in a geyser of seawater. Her stance in the water lowers, but she continues to advance, her face a mask of grim determination.

    Ri is less fortunate, for while she's contending with Staren, she's unable to maneuver, and one of Kuma's torpedoes catches her from the side. She's hurled aside, sprawling across the sea's surface trailing oily ichor. Shuddering, she struggles back to her feet, smoke pouring from her equipment, the water up to her knees.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
The mice on board Leeroy scatter at the gunfire, a few of them taking hits to their body armour. A spray of blood indicates that at least one hits home pretty badly, the wounded mouse being dragged into the wheelhouse for medical attention. Whoever's at the wheelhouse has sharp eyes, because Reina's missile is spotted and the boat veers sharply, the missile splashing down into the water next to Leeroy. The detonation rocks the boat, and soaks everyone on board, but thankfully, the boat is undamaged, and trailing a lot of oil and debris behind her.

As everything settles a moment, Leyanne looks behind the boat. "...man, I hope running over that abyssal hasn't buggered the wheels..." she comments, heading back towards the wheelhouse to check on her buddy. "Let's prep for a torpedo run on the cruiser."

Nagato has posed:
    Yay, direct hit! That's good! But shells from smaller caliber guns from the Ru-Class mean that not only are they in range for firing... that secondaries are lighting up and she's gotta be on the run for good openings. With Kuma's torpedoes doing a good number on the Ri-Class, and Leyanne seeming to go in for the kill, Atago focuses... not on the battleship but the things the battleship is protecting. The Transports. "Taking shots!" as gunfire peppers her from the Ru-class's guns, ripping into her coat and sending sprays of 'blood' across the ocean as shells scrape past her.

    She winces and stifles a pained scream as she sinks slightly in the water, halfway to her knees, but she uses this listing to aim up a bit more... and with the noise of shells being fired she shouts once more! "PAN PAKAPAKAPAKAPAKA PAAAAN~!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren breaks off to start flying in an arc around the abyssals when Ri-Class raises her weapon... then he sees her shoot wildly and in a second realizes she's covered her eyes and doesn't have other sensors. The Star Hawk's arms and legs unfold from under its body and it brakes in the air, Staren grunting as the deceleration pushes him into his harness. Then the Star Hawk turns in place, now a hovering plane-with-arms-and-chicken-legs, and opens fire on Ri again from this new angle, alternating long bursts of railgun fire to try and keep her on the defensive with short bursts from its laser gunpod to conserve ammo.

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma lands after the launch, and banks hard around to the port side, breaking off the charge and opening firelines for those behind her. Unfortunately, this leaves her broadside on as the Ru-class' secondaries open up. "Cra---" Explosions ripple along her body, sending her sprawling similarly to the Ri-class she foundered. Smoke pours from a fire on her rigging, which a group of fairies is desperately trying to put out with tiny buckets of water and a large, soaked hammock sheet. "For Kuma to be damaged to this point... what a disgrace, kuma..." she groans, ahoge bent at an odd angle and giving off tiny sparks. "Nnn, radio's out, kuma... signal team, relay status, kuma." she commands, hauling herself back to her feet, sunk to her knees in the water.

    Defiant as always, the damaged gun turret, it's cap showing a large hole in the inner side, and the barrel shortened from part of it being blown off, angles and discharges a salvo of high explosive rounds into the Ru-class in return, as she turns away to try and clear some distance.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
And that would be the downside to speeding into closer-range combat with more heavily-armed opponents, thinks Kagurazaka as she evades for all she's worth. The amount of experience she has at trying to dodge in her Light Suit's assorted forms - from the clunky-but-durable Powered Form to fragile-but-swift Flight form, even Marine Form and El-Line itself - does help, and she's spent as much time in kanmusu kit as anyone *not* a native of Atago's and Kuma's world or those akin to them, but with that many rounds flying at her, whether aimed by Ru or dispensed en masse by Ri, even one slip-up is one too many for safety. Nothing less than perfection is enough to escape that barrage unscathed ...

... and, well, Yuna will be the first to admit that she isn't perfect.

Rather than falling back, though, Kagurazaka tries to power in - not directly 'closer' to the Abyssals, but trying to come around their sides, to flank them, or at least to force them to split their attention even further. Maybe the Hikari forces can set up a good cross-fire on the Abyssals, if they can just get into the right positions ...

For now, Kagurazaka launches another couple of torpedoes towards the Abyssal battleships, and keeps trying to dodge. Her uniform is already in tatters and her equipment fairies are trying to make sure nothing has the chance to stay on fire.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Meanwhile, Reina is already cursing herself for being so foolish. "Reina, how could you be so dumb?"

Then Laia comes on her frequency and starts berating her. "Ugh... please!"

Trying to force that out of her mind, Reina swoops lower but doesn't fire. Instead, she's preparing to cover her allies as they go in for a torpedo run. "I've got your backs, don't worry!"

Midway has posed:
    In the distance, the fleeing Wa-class transports have bumped their speed up to maxiumum. Which is not impressive for transports, as they've only moved from ten to sixteen knots at best. Even a standard battleship could catch them eventually. This slow speed comes with poor agility, especially when loaded, and the six fleeing transports lumber in slow turns when Atago's shells rain down on them. The damage seems disproportionately high, except that they're poorly armored as well. Though none are crippled by the shells raining down on them, they begin trailing smoke and leaking oil, marking their retreat and making them all that much easier to pursue.

    Flagship Ri Class appears to be barely holding on, struggling to stay upright under the onslaught of gunfire from Staren along with all of her mounting damage. She's in no position to counterattack, arms raised to either side of her head to shield her face from the gun and laser fire.

    Flagship Kai Ru Class determinates her way through the cannon fire hammering her body and her shield-like gun batteries. Kuma's high explosive shells ignite another fire, and she continues to advance, slogging through knee-deep water towards the heart of the formation. She lets her guns do the talking, both small and large caliber cannons selecting their own targets amidst the cruisers now surrounding her. A dreadnought that dreads nought, even as another fire ignites on her equipment. Yuna's torpedoes catch her from the side, bursting in plumes of seawater, but she just keeps advancing, even as she sinks further into the sea. She actually has to haul her shields up for the bottom-most guns to keep firing.

    In the distance, an oily stain appears on the seawater and the late model I-Class emerges. Battered, she retreats, re-joining the Wa class transports. Out of range of her small caliber guns, the little Abyssal instead starts running perpandicular to the transports' course, spewing out a plume of dense white smoke to help protect them from further artillery attacks.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leeroy begins lining up on the cruiser, but Leyanne gets nudged by one of her crew, who points towards the transports. She nods, and the boat swings around to catch up with the Wa-class. She's much faster than them, by a factor of almost fourfold. Even with a little bit of propellor damage from flattening that poor Destroyer, it's catching up with ease.

    Leyanne zooms in with her cybernetic eye. "Angle off the bow... fifteen degrees... set shallow run, impact detonation. Let's hope if we can bugger up some wheels, we want to capture them not destroy them." She calls to her crew, who set their torpedoes accordingly. "Fire full spread. Make ready with the sponsons!"

    Four short, plosive hisses of compressed air herald the launch of Leeroy's torpedoes as he gets within range. Leeroy himself follows close on the heels of his torps, the mice on board scrambling to their guns.

Nagato has posed:
    Orders are orders and Atago trusted Yuna enough with following her orders, after all, she is one of the Admiral's escorts. She keeps her listing state... feeling water upon her legs and rear, "I read this in a history book once. It seems to be working." and with that, she takes aim again, eyes closed, trusting radar... and with a plume of smoke, and the sound of shells being fired, those high explosive shells travel in that beautiful arc towards the transports.

    She works on reloading as the Ru-Class' shells continue to rain down upon her, hitting her here and there, one peircing one of her turrets to create an explosion right on the Heavy Cruiser's armor, practically ripping her outfit apart... "KYAAAAA!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Leyanne points out that the transports might get away if this takes much longer - and for a moment, Kagurazaka wrestles with the desire to split off and assist the Martian mousewoman in dealing with the transports. But just reiterating their mission orders for Leyanne helps her remember them for herself - their goal is to capture the transports if possible. And *that* means taking out the warship escort first - otherwise they won't be able to--

Kagurazaka's train of thought is blown off the rails as she hears an explosion from Atago, more over the radio than with her own ears. But that's still enough to make Kagurazaka abandon caution or evasion, dropping one more set of torpedoes into the water and heading towards Ri and Ru as fast as she can steam. All five of her cannons are loaded for direct anti-ship work now, and the turrets go off in sequence, the fifth cannon - the one she carries in her hands like a rifle - takes up its slot in the rhythm of firing and reloading. Ru-Class, weakened as she is but *still* launching attacks, is Kagurazaka's priority target; Ri-Class won't be left alone for long, though.

Staren has posed:
    She's not even fighting back anymore? It's almost pitiful... but letting up would be a foolish mistake.

    Seeing the other Abyssal return and put up a smokescreen makes him consider using the last of his missiles to attack in an arc -- they should be able to home in on the transports from above with their sensors, after all. However, the radio chatter reminding them to /capture/ stays his hand. The transports aren't moving THAT fast, it's not time for plan B yet.

    The radio also says abyssals don't surrender. Ah well.

    Ri-Class gets no break. Staren just keeps dumping kinetic and heat energy into her, marveling at a human-sized target's ability to take the punishment of a battleship.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Meanwhile, Reina continues to follow steady but keeps her eyes open. She then hears the explosion as well and she scowls. "OK, now I'm REALLY pissed off!" Reina grips the controls tightly and follows in behind Kagurazaka. "We're gonna make you pay for what you did to Atago!" She grits her teeth.

This time, using a bit more caution to avoid collateral damage, Reina fires off a missile at Ri-Class after carefully aiming and timing to avoid hitting any of her colleagues again.

Midway has posed:
    Ri Class does not take the punishment of a battleship. As it turns out, she takes about the same beating that a heavy cruiser takes. Under the constant barrage, the cruiser staggers, then drops to one knee. When Reina's missile explodes against her, she at last heels over, disappearing into the depths and leaving behind only a pool of oil, burning in patches.

    Flagship Kai Ru Class pauses, glancing over her shoulder as Ri goes down. Her eyes narrow, the flame surrounding her left intensifying as she swings her gaze back around. Kuma has retreated to a safer distance, but Kagurazaka and Atago are still in range.

    Ru plants her feet, knee-deep and rising. With a sweeping motion, she swings her right hand's gun battery around, tracking Yuna's motion and opening fire with her 14-inch main battery. Her left hand remains aimed at Atago, unleashing a similar broadside from her numerous twin gun turrets. She then follows through the motion, turning around and bringing her left shield towards Yuna, but primarily so her secondary guns can target and harass the Leeroy as it pursues the transport fleet.

    A torpedo clips one of the transports, and the Abyssal shrieks. A gout of smoke soon eclipses the water spray from the explosive, and she clings to the bulb of her cargo container. Coming to a stop she struggles to maintain bouyancy. Another of the six transports is struck while trying to evade. There's a rather catastrophic explosion as her cargo--ammunition--is detonated. The blast scatters the remaining transports, and one of them tries to keep oil from leaking from her bulb while turning away under Atago's gunfire.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Despite all the things that are happening at once, Reina remembers one of the golden rules of being a member of GUARDIANS. And that is, always keep focused on the situation at hand. No matter how difficult it is.

Reina takes a breath and blows it out. "Gotta stay calm, gotta stay focused." Then the orders come over her radio. She's to secure the transports. "Affirmative!" She replies, before flying towards the remaining transports. "I gotta do this."

Reina gets her craft closer to the transports, attempting to reduce speed enough to keep herself steady. Once she does so, she begins the process of securing the transports. "OK, proceeding as ordered!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
One more down, as best Kagurazaka can tell. But the Ru-Class is aiming that shield full of guns at her -

She turns sharply, to port this time, and just *books it*. Speed's the only defense she really has at this point ... and if it isn't enough: the tracking fire catches up with her, one shell cracking into the 'backpack' of her rigging, another drilling into her upper turret on that side. Then they explode in unison, and Kagurazaka is HURLED off her feet, screaming in pain and terror as she bounces across the water's surface.

Somehow she doesn't actually sink. At least not yet. Slowly, carefully, praying to the gods who watch over her, silently coaxing her fairies to shore things up as best they can, Kagurazaka starts moving again - ready to simply discard the hardware and *swim* if she has to - back towards where Atago should be. She's vaguely aware of how scattered they are: Leyanne's headed for the transports, unless she was doubling back to help Kagurazaka herself; Reina's shifting her focus to the transports, she's not quite sure where Staren is at the moment.

And if Atago sinks, Yuna will personally drag her back to the surface with whatever strength she has left, even if Elner needs to send Marina and let Yuna work in Marine Form instead.

Staren has posed:
    Staren also wonders how a bikini counts as armor. Maybe their skin is actually armored? Who knows? The one that was shooting him is down.

    But it seems the fight hasn't gone as well for others. Yuna's in trouble! Staren turns and fires a wild spray of railgun fire at Ru to get her attention, then dives, trying to put his machine between Ru and Yuna. The left arm lowers and deploys its beam shield -- It's kind of an awkward position, trying to block a shot at sea-level without letting his feet touch the water -- but hopefully it can make the shot a bit harder while Yuna flees. He starts up another spray of covering fire, but he's less focused on his aim and more on Ru's, watching for any further shots that might be at Yuna.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne brings the boat into the scattered pack of transports, bringing up a megaphone. "Heel to and you will not be harmed!" She shouts. "Cut your engines and indicate your surrender! We will give you food and water. Heel to or we will force you!"

    As she speaks, she uses the various weapons on the boat to put shots across the transports' bows, making her point.

The big Bofors gun scans around for any of their remaining escorts; should that last one be spotted, it opens up.

Nagato has posed:
    Hit confirmed and that's good. She's about to line up for another shot until the radio buzzes with activity. With all that, she gives out orders to secure transports and take out that Ru-Class! What she didn't expect was the next set of shells to be a direct hit... causing explosions on her rigging... and sending her face up into the water... slowly sinking. "I...is Tak...ao working properly...?" she questions to the sky... eyes closing... "Admiral..."

Shigure has posed:
    Kuma can't transmit voice, but she can hear the radio, crackling and and fading in and out. She comes about when she hears Atago's radio cut with that finality. <<All hands, flank speed. Brace all supports and prepare for towing operations.>> she commands her faires, teeth gritting as she pours back the speed to return to the sinking Heavy Cruiser's side. "Terribly sorry, kuma. Can't let you do that, kuma." she says, dropping to her knees and grabbing Atago's form with both arms.

    Metal strains as she hauls Atago back above the surface... and the Fairies do something uncommon for their kind. They rig the clearance charges, and blast themselves free from Kuma's back to give her the extra carrying capacity to keep Atago afloat. "Admiral would never forgive Kuma if she let Atago sink, kuma." she says to the blonde, holding her close until someone can come pick them up. She launches a distress flare into the air, indicating a need for rescue.

Midway has posed:
    Flagship Kai Ru Class skids slowly to a halt--she had continued going 'backwards' even when she turned around. But as she starts to advance, her secondary guns still firing at any and every target in range, she comes under fire from the Star Hawk. She slogs forward, up to her waist while high velocity rounds and lasers bore into her. But she's clearly come to her own end. As she sinks, she raises her right hand shield, elevating the guns over the water's surface, even as the rest of her slips below. The gun turret on top fires one final, defiant time before the Abyssal battleship has completely disappeared.

    The five remaining transports, in various states of damage and disrepair, glance amongst themselves with their faceless helmets. There's no way they'd be able to outrun the forces present, and even in the state of the Hikari force, the lightly armed transports could never win in a gunfight. One hesitantly raises her hands. The others, one at a time, follow suit.

    In the distance, red eyes burn against the sea's surface. The late model I-Class, still damaged and leaking precious fuel, hisses. Coming about, she leaps from the water and then dives, retreating underwater.

Reina Kinney has posed:
Once she's made sure the transports are secure, Reina realizes that Kuma and Atago are still badly injured in the water. "Hold on, I'm coming!" Reina spins her craft and flies towards Atago first, stopping only to activate the emergency teleport system to bring Atago onboard. While it's not much, Atago will find herself beamed into one of Reina's spare beds so she won't have to worry about lying on the ground or anything like that. "OK, one down and one to go!"

With that, Reina flies to where Kuma is and then teleports her aboard her craft as well, also placing her inside one of the extra beds. "OK, you guys just hold on! You're gonna be fine!"

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leeroy takes a few hits from the Kai Ru's last barrage, the wooden boat failing to detonate any explosives, which go straight on through. Holes are a problem, but they're not gaping craters from detonating blasts. That would really have ruined Leeroy's credibility as a threat there, had he had big craters blown in him there.

Leyanne pulls the boat in alongside the Wa-class who's using her cargo as a float. A life-ring is thrown out to her, to help her stay afloat. "Don't worry, we got you."

Nagato has posed:
    Being teleported onto a strange craft isn't enough to jar the unconcious Heavy Cruiser awake, but at least, thanks to Yuna's, Kuma's and Reina's care, she's aboard safe and sound and not sinking. Yeah, the Admiral would be upset if she lost her secretary ship... but looks like that won't have to happen.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Kagurazaka isn't entirely aware of Atago and Kuma getting rescued; she's too focused on her own predicament, such as it is. Staying conscious is taking an increasing amount of effort, though ...

And then the water no longer supports her.

Not because she sank - but because two pairs of armored arms are lifting her up gently from the surface, and a third figure wraps a large towel around her almost like a blanket, careful of the rigging she's still wearing. "Eh ... ?" Yuna blinks, recognition slow given the battering she's taken.

"It's all right, Yuna," Elner reassures her, flitting close and scanning her for injuries. "You're safe, and the mission is complete - the transports have been secured, their escorts sunk or retreating. Let's get you back to Hikari."

Yuna's head sags as she mumbles, "Mmkay ... zzzzzzz ..." And she's out like a light.

If necessary, the Matrix of Light can transport Yuna straight back to Hikari Sea Port, although if Reina's craft has room, or the Leeroy Jenkins has a bunk to spare, Elner would rather turn Yuna over to one of her friends for the trip back.