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Abyssal Collection [A KanColle AU/SI]

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Is this one of those interpretations where shipgirls and abyssals are pretty much the same thing with only a relatively minor thing determining which side of the spectrum they fall on? If so, breaking then converting all of the super shipgirls would be a worthwhile endeavor.
 
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Chapter 2-07 (Part 2) - Capture
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    • ALL THE CHAPTERS

    ================

    Battlegroup Two of the EAC's 4th Naval Fleet was in complete disarray.

    The moment their commanding officer and his staff had been captured right under their noses, they lost their ability to fight back against the Abyssal attack.

    To make matters worse, the Abyssals had managed to detonate their pseudo-ECM weapon right above the battlegroup, cutting off their eyes and ears on the enemy.

    Despite these disadvantages, the remaining officers had tried their best to prepare. The railgun turrets aboard the ships swiveled around and began lining up their targets while shipgirls were quickly redeployed to the left flank of the battlegroup. The ships themselves began maneuvering, attempting to aim their bows at the enemy.

    But it was not enough - shipgirls received conflicting orders on where to position themselves, while the formations of the warships broke apart in frantic turning and the lack of any coordination.

    And the Abyssals opened their newly-gained bag of tricks.

    As the captain of the EACS Yu Huang tried to perform his new duty of Acting Admiral, a black tentacle suddenly grabbed him where he was standing and dragged him screaming out of the bridge.

    Before the bridge crew could respond, yet more tentacles forced themselves through the door, attacking them. The helmsman was stabbed multiple times and thrown across the room, while the weapons and communications officers were sliced in half.

    The butchery continued across the ship. The tentacles grabbed anyone who wore a jumpsuit and tied them up before throwing them into separate rooms, unconscious, while those who were wearing uniforms, or simply not holding any tools or devices were slain on the spot, or unceremoniously tossed overboard. In the deployment bays, a group of shipgirls who were preparing to deploy were caught with their metaphorical pants down, and quickly dealt with.

    Rally-Of-The-Needed, grabbing hold of the bottom of the Yu Huang's hull, began making the ship hers.

    Meanwhile, on the surface and facing the enemy fleet, the shipgirls tried to get into position in a bold attempt to stop the enemy, lining up in groups and by squadron.

    A storm came out of nowhere, rain and wind buffeting the shipgirls. Used to all-weather combat, the shipgirls pressed on, but the strong winds and lightning further disrupted their formations. Static filled their ears as the magical storm began to interfere with their personal radios and communication devices.

    Suddenly, one of the battleships stopped firing and clutched her head, beginning to shake on the spot and muttering all the while. As her squadmates approached her in confusion, she let out a blood-curdling wail, then collapsed to her knees, gibbering away in broken sounds and whimpers, her mind broken beyond measure.

    While medics and officers attempted to deal with the situation, a missile destroyer began screeching like a banshee, causing those in her communication channel to wince and falter in their defense. Suddenly the same shipgirl stopped shrieking and, laughing madly like a hyena, released her entire payload of missiles at her own squadron, causing screams and explosions to shake the shipgirls even further.

    The unrelenting psychic attacks, the confusion among the ranks, and the storm itself finally broke themselves. Some shipgirls, veterans and rookies alike, began retreating further and further. Squad leaders screamed for permission to break ranks and retreat, while others broke down on the spot in fear.

    It was this discoherent, weakened force that the Abyssal main line came into contact with.

    The Abyssals kept their guns cold at long range to avoid hitting the human warships, but as they closed, they could finally hit their targets accurately.

    Black and twisted gun barrels tilted downwards, stopping parallel to the water's surface, and fired.

    Shipgirls twisted as shells slammed into them and detonated, wincing in pain as they did so. A unlucky few had armor-piercing shells penetrate their citadels, and they vanished in screaming plumes of smoke and fire.

    For their part, the human forces tried valiantly to fight back. The shipgirls fired their weapons desperately, while the warships tried to dent the enemy battle line with their railguns, blue plasma streaking past or into Abyssals.

    But it was all for naught - the human attacks were like pebbles hitting the surface of a tsunami. Too disorganised, few and weak, the shots did nothing to slow the Abyssal charge. Soon the two forces were barely several metres apart, and the Abyssals went in for the kill.

    Now in melee range, the Abyssals tore apart the human forces with impunity. Two Abyssals jumped on a battleship, using their enhanced armor to absorb the battleship's shots. Grabbing the shipgirl, the two Abyssals proceeded to stab her with their sharpened claws. When two shipgirl cruisers came to assist, two more Abyssals appeared, smashing a large piece of scrap metal into them.

    A squadron of missile destroyers that stood at the back providing supporting fire suddenly found themselves beset by another Abyssal wielding a large sword. Teleporting from side to side, Juri evaded their attempts to get a lock on her, before slicing them apart with her katana. Several meters away, Yuri did the same to another group of defenseless shipgirls.

    Barely a few minutes in, most of the shipgirls had been killed or were attempting to escape. With the main force gone, the destroyers were now defenseless. While a number of Abyssals continued to mop up the remaining shipgirls, most of the Abyssals turned their attention to them.

    Under the cover of the storm, the Abyssals began to board the ships. Even when the warships gunned their engines, attempting to escape, the Abyssals simply latched onto their hulls, clawing their way upwards with little difficulty. A few simply grabbed hold of Juri or Yuri and teleported aboard the vessels.

    On the decks, the crewmen barred the doors, attempting to prevent the Abyssals from gaining entry, but the Abyssals simply tore them open with their superior strength, forcing their way inside. Sailors tried to hold them off with small arms, firing madly, only for the creatures to shrug off their attempts and rend them apart with their claws.

    Carving through the halls, the Abyssals painted the walls with human blood and gore, screeching all the way.

    ================

    "Have we regained contact with Battlegroup Two?"

    "No contact from them sir. We have raised them quite a few times, but we still aren't receiving any response."

    Rear Admiral Zhang bit on his lips. A few hours ago there had been several garbled transmissions from the various ships of Battlegroup Two, all screaming about coming under attack from Abyssals. Then suddenly a massive storm had risen over the ships, and all radio signals from them had abruptly and ominously cut off.

    Even now as they directed their attention towards the position of Battlegroup Two, there was still no sign on what was happening. Transponder signals from the ships still confirmed that they were there, but they were stationary and haphazardly positioned.

    The remaining human battlegroups had already recalled their forces, and a detachment of shipgirls were cautiously advancing towards Battlegroup Two, on alert for possible Abyssal ambushes. It was blatantly obvious that the monsters were present - the pseudo-magical ECM was present again.

    What the hell was going on? Zhang wondered, while his staff whispered nervously among themselves. The storm had already died down, so there was no reason for Mizuki's command to not contact them. The ships themselves had not sunk yet, which would indicate that there was some human presence left-

    Suddenly, on the tactical map, one of Battlegroup Two's destroyers began to move.

    "Sir! Movement detected from Hakuryu!"

    A second one followed, trailing its sister.

    "Movement detected from Soryuu!"

    "Sir! Both ships are ignoring our hails!"

    On the tactical map, the entire battlegroup started moving, forming a straight line, with the Yu Huang taking up the back. As the staff watched, the battlegroup moved north-east, away from any human forces

    Aiming for what would be Abyssal territory.

    While the staff stared in shock, Rear Admiral Zhang quietly considered the possibilities, evaluating them one by one. Finally, he came to a very unwelcome conclusion. Stumbling into his chair, he ran through his calculations again, trying not to believe it, hoping it wasn't true.

    Finally, he came to a snap decision. "Get me a line to Rear Admiral Sun."

    Zhang spoke as Sun appeared on the screen. "Sun, given what we are seeing now, I believe that Battlegroup Two is now under Abyssal control."

    As both Admirals' staffs stared at him in stunned confusion, Rear Admiral Sun simply asked, "Are you sure?"

    "I am! Battlegroup Two is currently heading for Abyssal territory at full speed and are ignoring our attempts to raise them. Given this sudden change in behavior, I am very positive that the Abyssals are currently in control of those ships." Zhang said in a tone both firm and fierce.

    "Are you sure about this? Perhaps we should contact High Command first-"

    Zhang cut him off. "Dammit, Sun, we don't have time! We've just seen Abyssals capable of using strategy, it's not impossible they're capable of boarding actions too! If we contact high command now, we are ensuring they get to retreat with some of our high-end technology! In fact, this scenario is exactly what the First Admiral warned us about!"

    Sun gazed at Zhang for a few moments before replying. "You have a point. So an immediate missile strike on Battlegroup Two's ships?"

    "Yes." Anger seeped into him. "Mizuki and his crew are probably dead at this point, the fuckers..."

    "Alright." The connection was disconnected, and Zhang issued his next set of orders.

    "All units! In light of recent events, Battlegroup Two is to be designated hostile and under the control of the enemy! All destroyers, target Battlegroup Two and fire at will! Shipgirl divisions are to chase down Battlegroup Two and destroy it!"

    ==========================

    Finally, one more fucking chapter, and I can actually finish this damned prologue section.
     
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    • UbeOne said:
    The Abyssals. They managed to obtain a battle group and take out many kanmusu. That's definitely something.

    I hope they have more tricks for the next round of enemy vessels...
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Depends on if the fleet can catch up with the captured vessels. Can't and theyre limited to fighters and missile systems which the Abyssals can jam/shoot down. If they do catch up to start direct fire via railguns etc, the Abyssals can potentially pull the boarding action trick again assuming they gave the forces and energy remaining.

    After all from what we have seen, high technology/magi-tek or not, humans versus Abyssals in close quarters combat is like pitting a child against a grizzly bear.
     
    Something to add:

    wildredlifer said:
    Yeah he isn't the Abyssal Admiral yet Military advisor is what the poor Guy is so far.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Quite a few people on SB have already been suggesting/asking for the SI to do certain command actions. :/

    I do appreciate those inputs, but this is just a friendly reminder that Magician is not an Admiral, just some poor sod contracted as advisor (for the moment).
     
    Also, what kind of ECM/ECCM do you envision humans having in the future? We already have some cool stuff like electronic 'noise', non-nuclear EMP, missile jamming and what not.

    Could someone explain to me how some of those work and also give some examples on future electronic warfare?
     
    Nice, running on the X-com style of combat. Attack your enemies minds, sow confusion, then hit them with all you've got and take any survivors back to base to be interrogated.

    Hope the Magician keeps up with this.
     
    Chapter 2-08 (Part 1) - Messing with Stuff
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    • Again, some problems with the 'military end' of things. If anyone would like to correct my description of the bridge or consoles, kindly please comment below!

    ==========

    The bridge of this ship...what was it called?

    I ran over back to one of the consoles...EACS Yu Huang? Jade Emperor? Is this a Chinese ship? What did the prefix even mean?

    Funnily enough, I actually had never been on the deck of a military warship before, even as some sort of 'naval enthusiast'. I should have actually bothered to go to a Navy open house when it happened...

    Right now, walking across it - while trying to avoid staring at some of the very conspicuous bloodstains splattered randomly across the walls - a strange combination of familiarity and awe touched me. The bridge was pretty much the first...human thing I had seen in days, with all the designs, the lights and colours...even if it looked uncannily futuristic.

    Speaking of futuristic...I took another look at all the holographic map, the consoles, and every piece of advanced technology that was in the room. It was...amazing. Seeing the fruits of humanity's advancement in the war against my current allies, all in this massive room...it was a sight to behold.

    All in my hands...

    How many people died here though? Killed by Rally, at my command? I'm being a thief, a murderer of my own species -

    "Magician, do you think that we have lost them?"

    I spin around, watching Phoenix walking towards me. "Um....hang on a bit..."

    I ran over to the massive holographic map in the middle of the room. I had tried to create contingency plans in case we ran into problems taking over the ships or if they had safeguards in place to keep us from operating the vessels

    Thankfully, since we captured the ship while their crews were still operating them, there was no safeguards facing us - at least for now; I saw quite a few bio-metric scanners installed around the ship, but the problem was operating the equipment;I didn't exactly find any manuals on the bridge.

    Not that I should have expected to. I mean, military personnel had training to use these systems, they wouldn't need any frakking manual in combat. Perhaps searching the bunks would be a better prospect... At least the Abyssals had a clue about driving a boat; a few had comfortably settled into the role, although stuff like radar or the goddamned weapons systems was completely out of their league.

    Maybe I could just rip the information out of the Admiral we captured with a psychic mage - gah, don't think about that!

    I pounded my head a few times, trying to banish the echo of a certain blood-curdling scream from my head.

    "Magician?" Oh right, Phoenix is talking to me...

    "Sorry, its nothing." I hurriedly assured her, before turning my attention back to the console.

    Right, this damned thing. I spent quite a while messing with it while Siren was trying to get this...carrier moving again. Actually, now I think about it, this ship is rather weirdly designed - dammit, focus!

    As far as I knew, it was pretty much a tactical map for the moment. There could be some other features, but I definitely haven't discovered them yet. Placing my hands on the map, I played with some of its features. 'Pulling' the map with my hand, not unlike how one would move the map in an RTS, would 'move' the 'camera' to other parts of it. Units were displayed as holograms, and each of them had a small label stating their specifications. After moving it to show the captured ships, I tapped one of their holograms, and the label opened up, showing a couple of different options, which I hesitated to touch.

    Taking a small breath, I tried to concentrate on the job. Placing my hands on the map, I sharply moved them closer, 'zooming' out of the map, revealing a greater portion of the 'world', along with the other human warships and shipgirls. As I watched, the labels on the units changed, dots and units merged together, forming new units or squadrons.

    Their markers were still coloured blue, just like the captured ships, which meant that they haven't declared us hostile, or...?

    Shrugging, I tapped on the icon which represented the Yu Huang, then dragged out my finger, causing a circle to expand out from the icon. Right next to the circle, a label displayed the distance between the circle's edge and the ship. When I dragged it to the point of the nearest human battlegroup, I released it. Twenty kilometres, eleven nautical miles.

    "Not by a long shot." I muttered. "Either we have to get out of weapon's range, or into your own territory - that is, your 'fog'." I looked out the window, but only saw pitch-black darkness and the moon overhead.

    I collapsed on a seat near one of the command consoles. This was going to be one hell of night, even if we actually made it to Abyssal territory before the human forces caught us.

    "Hey, Juri, are you sure you have that throttle at one-hundred percent?" I asked, after some thought.

    "Yes." I stared over at her, standing at the helmsman's spot, holding the steering wheel with both hands. Siren had picked her to do the piloting, and as far as I knew?, she was doing a brilliant job. The same could be said for all the Abyssals, who had settled comfortably enough onto the ships. Right now, Phoenix's carrier division was on the flight deck, having their aircraft patrol the airspace around us, while the curious Abyssals explored the ships and the rest remained on the bridge.

    I did ask Phoenix and Beacon to tell their respective fleets to not mess with any of the weaponry, machinery, or crew bunks. The former two to prevent anything bad from happening, and the latter...well I didn't tell them but personally, I felt like it was appropriate to show some...respect to the human crews to not disturb their effects...until later.

    Hmmm.

    Beeeeeeep

    Eh? Did that come from the map?

    I stood up and walked over, scanning it carefully-

    Wait, where the fuck did the human forces go?

    =============

    "Transponders deactivated. Changing all communication and sensor systems to stealth mode."

    "All units report having their weapons primed."

    "This is Carrier Division Six, our birds are in the air and en route to target."

    "This is Carrier Division Four, birds in the air and en route!"

    Zhang took one careful look at the map again before uttering, "Begin."

    Across the battlegroup, weapons officers hit their launch buttons simultaneously. The caps atop each launch rail opened and missiles came shooting out of the deck, turning and directing themselves at the now-Abyssal battlegroup. The Tsukuyomi began to close its mobile dock, water flowing off of it as it was raised out off the water, and the battlegroup prepared to move.

    En route to their targets, the missiles cut their engines, jettisoning them in midair, while their metallic paneling began falling off, revealing a cluster of smaller missiles within them. Those missiles ignited their engines, splitting off to form separate groups. Meanwhile, a set of larger missiles veered away from the main group, approaching the enemy from a different attack vector.

    The swarm, guided by the powerful computers installed within them, descended on the enemy.

    =============

    I looked at the map, shivering.

    The human warships had suddenly disappeared from the display, which must mean that they had started up their stealth systems. Which again, most likely meant a second swarm of missiles was headed this way.

    "Crap. The enemy is most likely attacking us." I announced to the rest of the Abyssals on the bridge.

    Siren, recently brought back by Yuri via emergency teleport, spoke. "And? Do I launch some of the-"

    "No no no, that wouldn't work. They are most likely targeting the ships themselves, which would mean that we can't use that to deflect the enemy. The best way in fact..." I swallowed hard. I hadn't actually planned for this. "...would be actually to use this ship's weapons to defend ourselves."

    "You said that it was best for us to not touch the human weaponry." Phoenix pointed out.

    "I did, but that was because I didn't expect to be discovered so soon! I was hoping that they would be confused a little longer before launching missiles at us." I clenched my teeth. "Right now, I will need to try operating them. Yuri?"

    "Yes?" The long-haired Abyssal answered.

    "I need you to teleport me over to the other ships so that I can arm their point defense systems. Phoenix, is it possible for the weather mages to create another storm around us?"

    "No. They are too tired to fight, let alone use magic." She shook her head sadly as she spoke.

    "Dammit. Alright, looks like I will have to try to do so-" Suddenly, a series of loud warning beeps filled the room. I took another look at the map, which were covered in red warning signs- holy crap, how many missiles are there?

    "And that's my effing cue." I muttered as I rushed to the Master Weapons Console.

    Alright, let's see what you have...on the screen, is a replica of the map, except in a simplified, top-down-view. On the map was a massive number of lines that indicated the incoming swarm of missiles, descending on the right flank of our ships.

    "Now...how do I use this?" I muttered. While there wasn't a confusing mass of buttons, there were only a handful of them and the map itself. That was it. I touched the screen, and a dot appeared on the map. Thank fucking god, it was touchscreen.

    Okay...I looked at the buttons, and found one that was labelled 'weapons'. Hitting it, I looked back at the screen. Now the screen had a new window on the left, which had two buttons on it -'Missiles' and 'Point Defense'.

    I tapped on the second option, and yet another menu appeared, this time showing two weapons, what seemed to be a normal CIWS system and- is that a laser system? - and an anti-missile missile system, that makes three systems -

    And next to the first two was a message: 'auto-fire enabled'

    ...I'm such an idiot. Of course they had auto-fire enabled, what were you thinking?

    I hit the third option, anti-missile interceptors, and it went back to the map - this time, target recticles appeared on top of the incoming missiles.

    I stared at it for a few moments before I finally realised what they meant. Derp, the computer systems had already done the damn targeting!

    Now, how do I activate it...looking around, I found a flashing red button, with a cover over it.

    Oh, I see.

    I opened the cover and hit the button.

    I looked out of the window, wondering where the missiles would emerge from, and spotted lights suddenly appearing from in front of the bridge. As I watched, a set of missiles flew out, quickly escaping from my point of view.

    A sense of relief hit me, and I slumped in my chair for a moment, before sitting up again.

    "Looks like I didn't need to bother, the point defense systems were already active." I turned to speak to the Abyssals. "Right now I just need to go over to the other ships, and make sure that their's are also act-"

    A second loud beep came from the holographic map. Ok, what was going on now?

    I rushed to it, looking it over again. There were the ships, the missiles, and -

    A bunch of torpedoes far off to our left.

    I froze mid breath, my hairs on end. "Juri! HARD TO STARBOARD-"

    Then the torpedoes accelerated at a frightening rate, moving at speeds I could never imagine them travelling at.

    Unless...supercavitating torpedoes???

    ================

    Cliffhangar ahoy!
     
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    • Good story so far. It looks like your SI and the Abyssal traveling with him have almost gotten away. I'm curious what their objective will be once they are free from immediate threat of destruction. Will they want to wage war on the humans? Will they simply claim territory to defend? Or will they attempt to open communications from a position of power and negotiate a cease fire between their faction and some of the human forces?
     
    Chapter 2-08 (Part 2) - Losses
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    • Phew, one lllllaasssssttt sub-chapter and we are done!

    Music:





    =============

    Crap!

    I repeated my orders, much louder this time. "Phoenix! Get all ships to reduce speed and turn right- I mean to starboard!"

    I felt the ship roll under my feet, and I grabbed the console to try and keep myself stable while it turned. Looking back at the map, the torpedoes were still on course for our formation and still moving ridiculously fast.

    My mind considered several options. Could we get out of the way in time? Could we intercept the torpedoes? Would the CIWS or anti-missile missiles work?

    As I continued to think, the torpedoes closed the distance, coming ever closer to impact.

    ...

    Perhaps...

    "Rally! Do you still have tentacles outside of the hull?" I screamed in panic.

    "Yes?"

    "Good! Can you use them to intercept the torpedoes?" I yelled, anxiously checking the map again and again, watching the progress of the torpedoes.

    "I will try." She closed her eyes, and the whole ship shook.

    I looked back at the map again. The torpedoes continued to leap across the battlefield, crossing kilometers in seconds.

    Come on come on come on-

    One of the torpedoes disappeared from the map. Followed by another. And another.

    I looked out of the window, and sure enough, there was a line of massive plumes of water in the air, the after effects of the torpedoes being intercepted by Rally.

    Looking back at the map, I held my breath anxiously. Come on, intercept all of them-

    "Magician! I missed the last few torpedoes!"

    -fuck!

    On the map, I saw that the remaining torpedoes were headed for the ship at the front of the formation.

    Dammit!

    "Warship 1!" I screamed with both mind and mouth. "You are about to be hit! Abandon ship-"

    The torpedoes touched the hologram representing the ship, and it flashed a few times, with a message labelled 'MULTIPLE IMPACTS DETECTED' appearing over it. Seeing the message, I looked away, wincing. Shouts and yells filled the network, ringing in my mind.

    Looking through the window, I saw another massive plume of water in the distance, right next to the stern of the frontmost ship. Checking the map again, the previous message had been replaced, with another warning.

    I read it, and paled. Not only had the ship's hull been breached, The engines had been completely wrecked. It didn't matter how severe the damage was; the fact that damage had been sustained was enough, given that the Abyssals had no way of repairing it.

    In any way, the ship was lost.

    I slammed my fist on the table, and turned my attention back to the incoming enemy missiles. The missile interceptors had done their work on the swarm, reducing their numbers, and slowly the point defense systems on the ships were tearing apart the rest.

    But was it enough?

    Ok, tackle things one by one...

    Firstly..."All remaining units, prepare to maneuver around the damaged vessel. All units aboard Warship 1, prepare to evacuate."

    Paying no attention to the replies, I looked back at the map, and took stock.

    Firstly, the incoming missiles. I had already settled that problem by using the interceptors and point-defense, but they might not be enough...

    Then, there were the enemy pursuit forces, including any shipgirls or their air forces. While we hadn't seen them yet...they would definitely be on their way here-

    More warning signs light up the map, red icons that are labelled with the names of aircraft and their respective squadrons.

    Welp, speak of the devil and he shall cometh. Damn. What shall we do?

    The missiles are getting shot down, but they are still closing and at this rate, the weapons on the warships might aim for the planes rather than the incoming missiles. Which meant...

    We had to get the enemy planes as far away from the ships as possible.

    "Phoenix! Get your carriers to keep the enemy planes as far from the ship as possible!" I turned and yelled, before redirecting my attention back to the tactical map. What else could I use? I didn't dare expand any more of the limited missile stores, for we could need it for later-

    Oh hang on...

    I look back at the stricken warship on the map. Tapping its hologram, labelled EACS Huanglong, I looked at its statistics.

    I scrolled down the menu, looking for the damage label...apparently, its weapons, despite the ship having suffered a terrible hit, were still operational, even if the ship was guaranteed to sink in a couple of hours.

    It was going to be - no, it is already lost to us, so...

    "Yuri! I need your help now!

    ==============================

    Zhang looked at the tactical map carefully. The shipgirl squadrons were already advancing on the ships, attacking from the south-east. Meanwhile, several groups of aircraft sped ahead of them, preparing to launch their strikes on the now-enemy ships. At the same time, the decoy swarm of missiles advanced further, getting closer and closer to the enemy.

    As he watched the missiles be slowly whittled down by various anti-missile systems, he wondered about the state of the weaponry on the once-Battlegroup Two. Were the Abyssals commandeering them? It seemed unlikely - more likely it was due to EAC naval doctrine that decreed that all point-defense weaponry had to be kept on auto-fire at all times.

    Besides, if the enemy had been able to use the weapons, there would already be a missile strike heading for his battlegroup.

    Then again, they had managed to commandeer the ships...

    His mind fought a vicious tug-of-war. Were his forces under the threat of a missile strike, or...

    "Sir, our aerial forces have made contact with the enemy."

    Zhang looked back to the map at the technician's announcement. Around the enemy ships, red and blue holographic icons swerved around each other, trying to shoot down the other. He looked at it more closely, frowning. "Aren't their point defense systems active?"

    A tech appeared at his side. "It appears that the enemy aircraft is engaging our aircraft just outside the range of their point defense systems, sir." Zhang measured the distance on the map, and sure enough, the technician was right.

    Something's not right. If they did this deliberately, do they understand that allowing the missiles and our aircraft enter their defense zones might overwhelm their defenses? How much do they know of our capabilities?"

    For several minutes, the battle raged on while the Admiral observed. The missile strike which had been a decoy for the torpedo attack was whittled down and removed from the equation, while the Abyssals avoided the crippled Huanglong and pressed on with their escape. Meanwhile, the battle in the skies continued to rage, neither side ceding any ground to each other, and the shipgirls prepared to cut off the Abyssals. On their warships, the destroyers released a second wave of missiles, larger than the previous one, meant to utterly wipe the Abyssals off the map.

    Suddenly, the Abyssals made their move.

    "Sir! The Abyssals have began pulling back their aircraft!"

    On the map, the icons representing the enemy aircraft began retreating, disengaging from the shipgirl aircraft. Immediately, the latter gave chase, aiming their weapons for the enemy warships.

    Flying into weapon's range, the shipgirl planes began to let loose all their weapons, ignoring the of laser beams lancing up on them. A few were hit, and their flaming wreckage fell into the ocean.

    As the guided bombs, torpedoes and missiles fell, their guidance systems and engines activated, and flew towards the vulnerable decks of the ships.

    Black shapes suddenly appeared right next to each warship, rapidly rising out of the water. As they rose, they blossomed into black shields, covering each warship.

    The shields absorbed the blasts, shaking under the power of the many missiles that impacted it. As the last piece of ordinance finally exhausted itself against them, some of the shields broke apart, cracking and falling into the sea, while the survivors began to retreat back to whence they came.

    The shipgirl aircraft began to retreat, when suddenly everything happened very fast.

    "Sir! We are registering missile launches from the Huanglong!"

    ================

    Moar cliffhangar!
     
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    • Chapter 2-08 (Part 3) - Full Retreat(Raw)
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    • DONE! Bam!

    ============

    The missiles rose like flaming dragons, shooting one by one frlm the deck of the Huanglong. As they reached a certain altitude, they peeled away from each other, flying on their respective preset vectors.

    From the map, Zhang watched in shock, before turning around and staring at his suborndinates. "Do we have any anti-missiles interceptors ready?!"

    "Yes sir, but even if we launched them now, they may not make it in time-!" With that reply, the admiral turned back to watching the battle unfold.

    A mass of anti-air ordinance went for his air forces. Originally pestered by the Abyssal aircraft as they made a break for it, the enemy fighters were peeling off to let the missiles do their job.

    Even as the shipgirl fighters broke ranks to evade the missile swarm, their own human technology was used against them with great effect - missiles detonated around the fighters, launching uncountable pieces of shrapnel at them.

    Their airframes torn apart and holed by the vicious assault, the fighters slowly fell, exploding in midair due to ruptured fuel tanks or splashing into the water, the high-pitched cries of their fairy pilots lost to the wind.

    While some managed to survive, barely seconds passed before they were set upon by the Abyssal aircraft, who came back to feast on their remains.

    Meanwhile, the other set of missiles flew across the battlefield in a parabolic arc, crashing down on the shipgirls that were pursuing the main Abyssal battlegroup.

    The shipgirls' point defenses engaged the missiles as they arriving, battleships and cruisers spraying a wall of superheated cannon rounds into the air while the missile destroyers launched missile interceptors.

    Several missiles were shredded by the cannons, exploding midair as their explosives were set off prematurely. Others were hit by the missile interceptors, who proceeded to force them off course before exploding, destroying both themselves and their targets.

    But some of the enemy's missiles got through, and right above the ocean surface, they detomated. The explosions sent shipgirls flailing, while shrapnel stabbed them repeatedly, rending holes in their armor and superstructure.

    As the missiles impacted the shipgirl formation, the shipgirls were forced to slow down, breaking ranks in an attempt to evade the strikes and aid their fellows.

    With their advance stopped, the Abyssal battlegroup continued to sail past them, and a couple Abyssals took a few potshots at them as they passed. Some shipgirls attempted to retaliate, only doing superficial damage to the enemy.

    Watching the tide of battle change from his post, Zhang looked in horror as the Abyssals began to reach the edge of their own territory unharried, out of reach of the incoming missile strike. One by one, the ships vanished into the fog, disappearing from their sight. Silence filled the room as the officers considered the consequences of their failure.

    One officer finally spoke up. "What shall we do now, sir?"

    Zhang finally shook off the shock that had filled him, which was slowly being replaced by anger. In a professional voice, he replied, "Redirect the remaining missile volley to strike the Huanglong. Begin recalling all forces."

    "Also..." He took in a sharp breath. "Prepare to contact High Command in a hour, and raise Rear Admiral Sun..." He sat down on a chair and took off his hat, pulling a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat off his face.

    There is no way to continue pursuit of the enemy fleet...they managed to retreat under the cover of their ever present fog, and if I gave the order to pursuit, there would be no idea what we could do...

    In other words, I failed.

    A sinking feeling settled in his chest.

    ==================

    "That should...do it, I guess."

    I looked once more across the screen of the EACS Huanglong's weapons master command console. Right now, the final set of missiles were being reloaded into the missile launchers, and were set to fire immediately as they were fired.

    I wiped some sweat off my brow. Somehow, I managed to figure out how to use some other commands of the ship, like setting a general attack area for the anti-shipgirl missiles, or setting which missiles to be loaded into which tube. Otherwise, it had been the same process as what I did on the Yu Huang, selecting each weapon and letting the onboard computers do the targeting for me.

    That said...how the hell did the missile loading systems on the ship work? The whole process was automated, but it definitely wasn't that easy, right?

    Under the constant wailing that indicated the ship was slowly flooding to death, I looked at the tactical map once more. As far as I knew, the main Abyssal battlegroup had pretty much disappeared into the fog, and were right now probably continuing their retreat, pass the fog into the first pocket of clear sky within their territory, then to the remains of the old base.

    I scanned the map, and saw the swarm of missiles headed straight for the Huanglong.

    Welp.

    "Yuri? Time to blow this joint." She walked up to me, and I grabbed hold of her arm.

    A strange feeling surrounded me as I blinked, and when I reopened my eyes, I was back on the bridge of the Yu Huang. Back on the bridge, I finally let loose a breath, and collapsed into the nearest chair.

    "So...Magician, are we safe now?" Siren asked me after a moment's silence.

    "Yeah...we are. They won't pursue, mainly because it would be too dangerous for them to do so... Even if they tried, we would have backup from Beacon's forces. Thankfully we had this fog cloud ready for us to hide in."

    When I answered that question, no other ones came from the rest.

    ...

    So I finally won a naval battle, saving my poor ass, and that of the Abyssals...and got myself a fleet.

    Funny, I'm not laughing or anything...

    ...

    Now what?

    ===========Chapter 2 End============​
     
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