Scene #8168: WCW: Against the Whirlwind

Owner	Pose
Midway	The briefing takes place in the navigation room of the Wilkian Freedom Force cruiser Fenrir, under command of a fairly straight-laced young officer by the name of Erwin Schulz. Accompanying him are familiar faces from the Sea of Okhotsk; Admiral Tsukuba and Doctor Braun, having been taken on by the WFF as advisors since the coup. The space itself is roomy and sparsely decorated. A large central table is currently host to a map of the American West Coast, specifically central California. Several pieces dot the board, held in place by magnets and clearly representing various units. The chunky piece of the Skidbladnir is clearly marked, as is the lead WFF squadron including Fenrir and Ratatosk. A handful of American squadrons are also marked along the coastline. A large unmarked ship piece is placed on the board as Nagi speaks. "Our mission is to secure passage into San Francisco to seek asylum with the Americans," Lieutanant Nagi articulates, a skinny young woman still wearing her comm station headset. She gestures to the map display table, moving a magnetic piece with a rod, "The American fleets have been getting hammered by monster warships similar to the ones that reportedly overthrew Japan and Hawaii and is currently on the defensive." "What are we dealing with?" Schulz cradles his chin in thought, eyeing the map's various pieces while Nagi arranges them. "The enemy vessel sighted in this area is larger than any battleship I know of," Nagi explains, "And American reports claim it travels upwards of eighty knots." Opening a file, she casts out a large photograph of a vessel that combines ultramodern lines with current-era weaponry. "Eighty knots?!" Braun blurts out. Recovering quickly, she pushes her glasses back up her nose, eyes closed, "I would normally say that is impossible, but it's clear the Empire is fielding something incredible here." "Moving at that speed would make gunnery nearly impossible," Tsukuba strokes his chin in thought, "Do the reports say anything about its attack strategy?" "Mm," Nagi nods, "It seems to slow down to attack, then speed away again. Hit-and-run is how it thrashed the 2nd Pacific Squadron." "Then our plan is clear. We use the Fenrir and Ratatosk to lure the enemy ship close. Once it slows down to attack, we hammer it," the Japanese officer smacks his fist into his palm, "Hope we hit something vital. Steering, engines, bridge." He casts a glance aside towards the briefing's guests, "Or a boarding party."
John Doe	"I'm guessing eighty knots is fast..?" John asks, not sure what a knot is, and why it's impressive a large ship can travel it. Though when he puts the pieces together and realizes it's not just a big ship but a big and /heavily armed/ ship. He scratches the underside of his chin and then holds a finger up. "Well, good thing I'm here today. If you can get me close to that ship I can basically stop it in its traps. My chains are good for more than just hitting things and locking them down...but I can make things go slow around me. Doesn't matter how fast it is, I'll turn it into a snail," he says, fist into his own palm. "Not only that, any ship I'm with I can provide a lot of protection against. However...we /do/ need to get relatively close to it. It's an aura around me..."
Kirishima	Kirishima, like any good ninja, arrives at the briefing well ahead of schedule. She's actually been waiting there for a while, having opted to hide herself through a combination of ninja invisibility and standing on the ceiling . It's not clear when she actually makes herself visible, but anyone looking up at all by the time the Lieutenant starts moving pieces around will easily notice her loitering up there. "Incredible vessels indeed. Such speeds would be unthinkable for my namesake, and I couldn't imagine weapons from that era being able to strike such targets in a conventional manner" She strokes her chin through her mask, donning the classically stealthy ninja colors of white and blue colors as always. It takes her a moment to consider her options, and then she punches a palm into her fist. "But if that's the case, then we simply need to set aside conventional gunnery. No... We shall strike them head on as they come to us, forcing them into a battle of attrition!" She declares authoritatively, grinning under her mask at the general having the same train of thought. "They may have superior speed, but our will is strong, and our cause is just!" John asks a rather important question, and Kirishima promptly disappears from sight. She needs a moment to check the conversion on her phone, and she only reappears once she finishes putting it away. "It's roughly ninety miles per hour, Mister Doe." For this moment, at least, her style of speaking is far less flamboyant than before. "Far above the highway speed limit in most places, and enough to paste someone if you were moving that. To be able to do that in the water with all that armor on, though..." She furrows her brow, and then returns a hand to her chin while going back to her louder tone. "No matter! I have confidence we'll be able to take them regardless. Our spirits are our strength, but we must remain vigilant and ready once they arrive. I will join the vanguard to weather their initial assault, and then I'll show them the true power of a ninja up close!"
Midway	Within two hours, the cruiser Fenrir and destroyer Ratatosk have entered American coastal waters. The sun is beginning to set, casting the sky in fiery orange. It would be picturesque if not for the black smoke billowing forth in the distance. A squadron of hardy American warships including what could only be a battleship engage with a much larger collection of Imperial Mass-Produced drone ships. Radar picks it up first at extreme range, well behind the firefight. Glimpsed through the smoke is an enormous, stark white warship composed of sleek modern lines, covered in large and small caliber weaponry in densely packed turret formations. Even at this distance, it's clearly larger than the American battleship, approaching at incredible speed. Compared to the almost graceful movements of the other vessels around it, the Wirbelwind seems almost cartoonishly fast. This is where the Ratatosk opens fire, just as the much larger vessel's speed cuts. The initial shots fall well short, but with the fast reload of a destroyer's relatively small guns, the second volley clips the warship while it's firing on the American battleship. Fenrir follows suit, blasting black marks into the whitewashed armor. Wirbelwind's response is immediate, accelerating. In response, the Wilkian ships swivel bow-on to the approaching superweapon. As it approaches, it becomes immediately clear how colossal this ship is in comparison. It easily rivals the Skidbladnir in scale. It is likely too large to even dock with the floating harbor at all. It's like something out of a pirate movie, with Ratatosk breaking left while Fenrir breaks right, with the colossal Wirbelwind passing between them. The smaller ships bob in the superweapon's bow wake while the trio all exchange fire. Fenrir in particular focusing fire on the swept-back superstructure while machinegun fire rattles across the deck. Despite how this often works in films, though, the flanking ships are not going to come out of this exchange in favorable condition. The difference in weaponry is pretty vast between them. It's a calculated risk that Commander Schulz has committed to for the best use of the resources and personnel available to him.
John Doe	John decides that his trip to the other ship has to be alone. He'll likely be ignored until he's already on the ship causing a problem. Sometimes the curse is useful, even if it's torture on a day-to-day. He stands on top of the Ratatosk. He watches things unfold, including the massive ship breaking off. Of course, intelligence proves correct. It has to slow down to fire. He crouches, tapping something on his shoes. He brought some gear to this thanks to the Concord. The moment they hit the right moment, right when the physics breaking ship was between both other ships. He leaps. The boots activate, being a sort of 'rocket boots' that lets him easily clear the distance with his speed. He aims to land on the back of the ship and immediately smashes his hands down. If he can get here he creates the field around him. Metaphysical chains aiming to sink into the Wirbelwind. He's likely too close for larger weapons to fire, but it just leaves whatever defenses the ship has. John stands up, smirking. "MAN IN THE IRON MASK COME FORTH!" he shouts, as the massive Persona appears behind him. Chains stretched out across the field he's manipulating.
Kirishima	Joining the ships in the vanguard is Kirishima, one hand in front and one hand behind her as she glides along the water while waiting for the first sighting and the battle to begin. She steals glances at her phone every now and then, occasionally slowing down to fire off a boring-looking email or two, but that stops sooner rather than later as the radar picks up the first hints of movement from the Wilkian battleship. Once the Ratatosk opens fire, she starts to move with actual speed. Instead of simply sliding along the surface of the water, Kirishima goes low with her knees just barely scraping the surface as she sprints along the water. She only spares a quick glance upwards as she sees John's chains springing forth, and that's just the signal she needs to get aboard herself. "Wilkian Empire! Stand down, or your great accomplishment will have to be sunk!" She calls out in warning as she reaches the front of the ship, opting to get aboard by just sprinting up the sid as though gravity is an optional thing for her. She zigzags on her way up towards the main deck of the ship, slapping paper* talismans** on it along the way. "Kirishima, leader of the IFAS, is here to halt this unwarranted attack!" She avoids the areas that she can see the Persona's chains, however, and she seems to be intent on getting right in the firing path of the ship's weapons once she's finally up there. It's almost like she's trying to get their attention with all that shouting. shaped C4 *bricks
Midway	After the jousting exchange, the smaller Ratatosk veers off, trailing plumes of smoke with alarms going off. The destroyer doesn't make an effort to come about and, instead, swerves again towards the American fleet and their battleship. The larger Fenrir weathered the close-range exchange a lot better. She smolders in places, but is still very much in the fight, swerving off and coming about once more with those eight-inch guns of hers. Torpedoes also are in the water, soon exploding against Wirbelwind's side below the waterline. The colossal ship's deck vibrates under John and Kirishima's feet, growing more intense as the ship accelerates again. However, it doesn't... go anywhere. Or at least, nowhere fast. The effect of the Man in the Iron Mask counteracts the superweapon's main advantage perfectly, producing colossal amounts of drag and holding the ship mostly in place. The more it struggles, the more pronounced the vibration, and the more strain it puts on the chains that try to hold it in place. The Wirbelwind's main deck is not, however, defenseless. While the main guns swing back out to aim at the defiant Fenrir, machine gun nests clearly intended for anti-air operations sweep across her own deck in defiance of the boarding party. Kirishima's shouting gets no human response, but a deep rumbling honk from the Wirbelwind's foghorn, audible even over the rattle of machine guns. This ship doesn't feel like any other ship, but it doesn't feel like the hollow shells of the Mass Production types either. It feels more like a piece of something greater. Like something that doesn't answer her not because it is empty, but because it is too fragmented to understand. Kirishima gets in the way of one of the forward main battery turrets. It actually makes an effort to aim past her, traversing a bit left, then right. Eventually whatever crew commanding the gun gets fed up and simply fires despite her being right there. When the ~~shaped charges~~ ofuda go off, they blast a line into the forward armor and knock one of the anchors free, dropping it into the water with its chain dragging across the deck.
John Doe	John lands perfectly, and just as he thought the field does work. He wasn't COMPLETELY sure if it would work, because of the magic science bullshit. Thankfully, being optimistic paid off today. Machine guns turn on, firing at him. Forced to cover his face with his arms, bullets bounce off his body thanks to a well-placed buff spell from Iron Mask. John punches down into the top of the deck, aiming to put holes in it, and slooooowly rips up part of the deck. Eventually, he tries to tear it off from the rest of it and toss it at the machine gun turrets before jumping down to the deck below him. Man in the Iron Mask fades for now, but he's never far away from John. If he gets inside, his goal is to actually make his way to the engine itself. He could just rip it off, as well as anything else that looks particularly shiny and magi-tek for study...and certainly not just Concord gain. Not at all!
Kirishima	It's not quite the response Kirishima was hoping for, but it's enough of a response that she hasn't lost hope for the strange ship just yet. She can't let her guard down, however, even though John's chains are keeping it pinned down. The violent shaking has her wary of just how it'll move should it break free, and it's enough of a momentary distraction that the initial volleys from the machine gun nests can catch her unaware. "Even firing on your own surface? That's not..." Clearly troubled by this turn of events, Kirishima remembers to start defending herself as she hurls herself into the air to avoid having to weather even more glancing shots across her entire body. Her hands clasp together briefly in a series of rapid hand seals before she unleashes her own volley of fireballs* into the nests. The followup shots from the main battery have her reeling from the residual shockwaves of each one firing so close to her, too, but she digs one hand into the surface of the deck while the other continues moving through more vague motions. "What are you...? Can you understand me? If you are being controlled, give me a sign!" She shouts at the Wirbelwind even as she launches some more fireballs* at the batteries to try and gum them up with a lot of combined explosions, and then she's sprinting once more towards the center of the ship to try and find a way deeper into the innards of the entire thing.
Midway	The vibration is clearly the engines straining against the chains of the Man in the Iron Mask. Holding something so massive, with so much power behind it, can't be easy. But for now it's holding. Especially with the Wirbelwind's own anchor now hitting the bottom and contributing to the fouling holding it fast. Fenrir weaves around incoming shots as she comes about, continueing to hammer the superstructure with her own batteries of cannons. It's the smaller secondary guns on Wirbelwind that most reliably strike her, but it's a level of damage the cruiser can manage without too much trouble. John's chains find the seams of a deck armor plate and, with some effort, he is able to tear it open. Inside is a corridor clearly designed for humans; but no humans. There's no shouting, no bustle of movement. If it wasn't clear before, it's abundantly clear now: The Wirbelwind is completely unmanned. John's deck-hole is a handy entrance for Kirishima to make use of as well, and this presents both with a conundrum. Going straight aft towards the main battery magazine or going further into the guts of the vessel in search of the engines, which are likely deep within the hull and much further aft. Something topside lets out a 'ka-chunk' sound. A few seconds later, a fist-sized canister bounces into the corridor through the opening John had ripped in the deck. It's quite clearly a grenade. Probably best to decide quickly.
John Doe	John lands on the lower deck, turning to look back at Kirishima. "I'm headin' towards the engines.." he says, in that way that says he's going to do that no matter what she does. Because that's how John rolls, and he has an eye on a prize. The grenade drops in front of them both. "Son of a..." he starts before leaping for cover and going around a corner deeper into the ship and towards the engines. He thinks. He's sure the back of the ship is where the engines are, right? Man in the Iron Mask appears again, as more chains outside manifest to keep the ship still. The two just attempt to rush forward, trying to find their way to their goal... No matter how many bulkheads they smash.
Kirishima	Upon slipping inside the ship through John's hole, Kirishima is finally able to confirm that this ship is completely unmanned. It still doesn't shake the confusing feeling in her about how much it's capable of understanding her, if at all, but it does make it easier to proceed. Slightly. "If it's being remotely controlled... No, it didn't feel quite... Dead enough to do that. But it doesn't seem to understand me, even if it knows I'm here." As she considers her options, Kirishima brings out her short sword, but she doesn't start stabbing anything or anyone yet. Instead, she uses it to mark her path, making a few quick cuts along the walls to mark the start of her path. "This should make it easier for us to find our way back, Mister Doe." She nods at him as he decides on heading towards the engines, but before she can decide on whether to go deeper in or towards the battery, a grenade comes into the corridor! Well, it's not like she's ever going to make a name for herself taking the safe route. "Let us go, and find glory in discovery!" She shouts as she sprints alongside John, turning the two into three as she runs along walls and the ceiling in progressing further into the ship, gravity be damned while bounding from wall to ceiling to floor and then again. Kirishima continues making markings with her sword along the right side wall the whole time, too, although she's less inclined to smash up the ship since... Well. It still feels kind of weird, being inside a ship that isn't quite mindless, but not quite sapient.
Midway	Much like venturing into the body of a great beast which heaves and shudders with the thunder of its guns and the bursts of incoming fire. The occasional great jolt beneath one's feet when torpedoes strike the torpedo bulkheads. The ever-present vibration as the engines strain and struggle. As the vessel continues to resist the Man in the Iron Mask, it begins keeling from side to side, canting the deck sharply in either direction in an attempt to work itself free. Kirishima's questions receive no response save the Wirbelwind's continued fight against Fenrir outside. Some form of alive, like an animal in its current state, reacting to commands from a distant trainer rather than true control. As the pair venture deeper, further from the deck weaponry's ability to lob grenades at them, the interior of the ship changes. It gradually grows less 1930s-era Steel and more alien-advanced, the vibration growing louder being their guiding star, walls be damned. Sparing the details of the journey, John and Kirishima eventually break through a densely armored internal bulkhead she would recognize as the ship's citadel. Something her namesake also possessed around her beating heart. And on the other side of this steel barricade, something that absolutely does not belong in the core of a warship built in the 1930s. It doesn't...look like anything in particular. The engines are simply large boxes of slightly corroded black metal, connected to interfaces which are in turn connected to large overdriven dynamos. Due to the strain, components within the dynamos have adopted an unhealthy red color, but they continue to spin away, shedding sparks on occasion. The engine, whatever it is, is clearly older than the vessel built around it and, though it's easily the size of a house, the actual way it functions is no more clear now than it was when everyone was still on board the Fenrir.
John Doe	John and Kirishima arrive, dodging grenades the whole time. The place the engine sits doesn't look like anything he's managed to look at before now. It's just /weird/. A box, which shouldn't do much, but somehow does actually run the engine? It doesn't make any sense to /him/ but maybe someone smart can figure it out. Man in the Iron Mask manifests again, as chains whip out to wrap around the black boxes...and he starts pulling back. This is probably how he engages with this unless Kirishima can find something else. Probably not.
Kirishima	No response. Kirishima's not too surprised at this point, but it's not going to stop her from trying every now and then during the journey deeper into the Wirbelwind. Fortunately for John, she only does it once or twice by the time they reach the ship's citadel, and she even gives him a convenient (and extremely truncated) rundown on what this room is supposed to be: "This is the room where ships often carry their explosives and important machinery behind the most armor so it doesn't explode prematurely." With that riveting explanation given, it's time to figure out what to actually do in the room! Kirishima takes a moment to inspect those weird boxes, prodding at the corners and trying to find some way to peek inside, and furrowing her brow at the dangerous-looking dynamos seemingly being pushed to their limits. "This ship won't last long in this state..." She guesses with a light sigh of irritation, then steps back as she steels herself to get back to work. She and John are still working on a time limit, after all, so she can't afford to dawdle too long. John suggests ripping the boxes out, and she actually manages a laugh before bringing out her own set of chain sickles to toss said chains around the black boxes. "I like the way you think, Mister Doe. Let's!" And so, with John and the Man in the Iron Mask, Kirishima too lends her great strength towards starting to dismantle the boxes. She only does that for a moment, however, before recalling those generators being a suspicious shade of red, and then she brings John's attention to them with a loud whistle and pointing at them. "Keep pulling! I'm going to overload the connection." With that, Kirishima brings out more of those 'paper talismans' in one hand while her other hand goes through the prerequisite NINJA HAND SEALS. She lobs the talismans at the interfaces between the boxes and the generators, then blasts them with a fireball* from her mouth. *It's another cannon shot, but now it's indoors!
Midway	John applies chains and strength to the 'engines', straining the mounts built around them to hold them in place. Kirishima pitches in and something creaks ominously. Metal buckles and the 'engine' starts to keel down towards the pair. Kirishima breaks off to attack the dynamos, which are already on a knife's edge. One of them jams on the ~~explosive charge~~ talisman tossed into it well before the explosive goes off, the other bursting into flames with a shower of electrical sparks shortly after from the gunshot. Concussive force lurches the engine off its mounting brackets entirely, keeling the entire thing over. It is, however, so large that it slams into overhead catwalks and eventually the wall, resting at an unstable and precarious angle, clearly disconnected from the dynamos. The vibration doesn't cease, evidently coming from the black box itself; but the thrashing of the Wirbelwind ceases immediately. A few seconds of relative peace later, something aft of the engine citadel explodes violently, prompting the colossal ship to lurch under their feet. The deck begins to angle downward, as the vessel begins to go down by the tail, another smalller explosion shuddering somewhere forward, followed by more, as if every ready-use magazine has started going off one after the other.
John Doe	John watches the ~~brick~~ talisman soar right toward its target. The turbine blade smashed off somewhere above and behind him. He's glad of that because he didn't want to test his resilience against that kinda force if he could avoid it. He's tough, but it doesn't mean that taking that damage doesn't hurt still! "You heard the Commander, let's go!" he says towards Kirishima. Looking at the very large box. "Seriously how did they get this inside here..? Guess it can't be helped," he says disappointedly. He doesn't have enough time to rip a hole large enough to get the box out. He runs, following Kirishima's path. If they can get to the hole, he soars out on his jet boots. "I didn't know I needed these until I got them..." he says, with a grin. He'll need to pick up because the boots don't move /that/ fast.
Kirishima	Kirishima finds herself actually losing her balance momentarily when the internals of the ship get wrecked, and the vibrations that had once been unending suddenly stop. Holding a hand to the ground, she pauses to glance at John, then around the interior of the citadel now that the engines appear to have been stopped. "... I think we're okay now." And then things start exploding, throwing the whole ship into disarray and forcing Kirishima to stick her boots to the ship's 'floor' even as it threatens to become a wall instead. "Perhaps were built, and then the rest of the structure formed around it. Or the boxes were set into the frame on land, and then brought out...? In any case, you're right. Let us make haste!" As Kirishima joins John in making their perilous escape with plenty of totally sick parkour QTEs, she still finds time to make small talk. "I must say, that guardian spirit of yours... It's quite the potent force! What name does that man in the metal mask go by?" Upon getting out of the hole, Kirishima just straight jumps off the ship and splays her arms and legs out. Although she doesn't have jet boots, she does have extra cloth on her outfit (and convenient release methods) to turn herself into a living kite, gliding away from the ship towards safety rather than simply plummeting to the water below. "If you need speed, then consider following the way of the ninja!"
John Doe	John, the person who is nearly perpetually invisible gives Kirishima a face after that last sentence.
Midway	Considering the relatively straight line John bored into the guts of the warship, escaping is just as straightforward although rendered more perilous by the ship canting backwards and shuddering with random explosions. As the list increases, the dislodged engine shifts and rolls backward, smashing into the ruined dynamos and further destroying them-- but appearing none the worse for wear itself from all the rough handling and smashing about. Breaking back out into the sunset amidst the explosions rocking a now-half-submerged Wirbelwind produces a lovely view of the vessel as she at last keels over onto her side, capsizing. About when the deck has fully rolled over, the forward magazine explodes just as the aft one had, blasting the bow free in a plume of smoke and flames. Within seconds, the Wirbelwind's remains have slipped below the water. In the near distance, the Fenrir comes about, steaming into the area of the sinking. She's definitely the worse for wear, with multiple holes gouged out of her superstructure and one of her turrets missing, but-- in this contest, the Fenrir is the one still afloat, and that is ultimately all that matters. In the far distance, the American coastal defense fleet has mopped up the remaining mass produced Wilkian Empire ships and now cluster around their ailing battleship and the battered Ratatosk, with two cruisers evidently towing the disabled New Jersey towards San Francisco's harbor.
Kirishima	As she drifts back towards allied waters, Kirishima still has her eye on the Wirbelwind. Rather than celebrating victory over such an adversary, however, there's a distant look in her eyes and an almost longing sadness in her tone. "Whatever you were... I'll find out who did this. Who's guiding your body, even as your minds..." Do they even have minds? She's not sure, but there was certainly something off about the entire matter that has Kirishima looking bothered even now. She reaches into one of her many stuff-holding compartment, withdraws a single kunai, then tosses it over towards the sinking wreckage of the Wirbelwind before turning to John. "Let us go. There'll be more of this mystery to uncover, I'm sure. Attacks, too, so we must be prepared for anything."
John Doe	John continues to slowly move along the air hovering over the water. The Fenrir is more likely to reach him before he could reach it...which to be fair, his movement boots were there for short movement. "Yeah, right on that. If they got weird tech like that, it's likely that's why they did this and are now trying to commit a war on the world."
Midway	Fenrir slows as it approaches, drifting to a stop in a good position to pick up both John and Kirishima. Schulz is on the bridge lookout, or what's left of it, scanning the water through binoculars while hanging on to what remains of the railing with his free hand. Admiral Tsukuba waits on deck to offer assistance to those being brought aboard; he makes a point of doing this to keep the other crew free to continue working on the damage the ship has sustained. Doctor Braun is on deck as well, though further forward near the bow flagstaff, also looking out over the water with a spyglass and a tense frown. When it becomes clear she won't find anything, she lowers it and folds the device up. Only once everyone is back aboard do the Fenrir's engines rumble back to life and the ship gradually turns towards the port of San Francisco. It won't be long before Skidbladnir makes her way in as well, with the King and his entourage on board to make their case for asylum with the Americans here.
Kirishima	After boarding the Fenrir (normally, for once), Kirishima greets Tsukuba with a firm salute. She doesn't look too much worse for wear, either, aside from a bit of clothing damage here and there along with a few scrapes and bruises from getting shot up. "THat was the first one. I don't doubt we'll encounter more, but we did learn quite a few things on board that ship. The structure, the lack of humans on board to control or maintain anything, that response it gave...." She still sounds troubled about that last part. "It wasn't quite... Understanding, but it recognized that we were on board. Whether that was because of someone controlling it remotely or something else entirely is uncertain for now, but... Let's hope the recovery of those boxes reveals something new once that's done."