[X] Look around carefully for the attacker.
In the middle of the bay there was no real cover.
When you had stepped out onto the water, feeling the rocking of the waves beneath your feel as it helped sooth the ache of your bruised 'rudder', you hadn't really thought about where you were going. Instead you had let your reflexes guide you and you had moved out into middle of the bay where there was the most room to manuever.
You raised a hand to shield your face against a series of stinging impacts and brief flares of heat, narrowing your eyes as your gaze followed the stream of bullets and tracers back towards their source. It wasn't a pleasant sensation, but so long as you took the hits on your armour you could stand here all night.
"
Oww, oww, oww..."
Unlike Puppy who you could make out over near the edge of the bay, leaning against the hull of some sort of yacht as she pressed her hands against her face. The destroyer wasn't as tough as you and it seemed that the spread which struck her had gotten lucky.
"
Has this attacking vermin damaged you cruelly?" You asked Puppy over the radio even as you tried to judge exactly where the now sporadic bursts of bullets where coming from.
"
It's just a little owie." Puppy called back, a slight sniffle in her voice, "
A bit got in and I can't get it out..."
You could tell that Eager Puppy was trying to be brave about this, the first injury she had suffered in her so-far mayfly short existence (you made a note of that phrase because it was a good one), but for now you decided to trust her word and assume that it wasn't anything too bad.
"
Attend to that then while I crush this irritation." You commanded confidently, taking heart from your own words, "
The fools who have done this shall rue the day that they marred our paintwork!""
Puppy wouldn't just lie to you while trying to be brave, right? And it was only an eye after all.
Didn't she have two of them
and her radar?
You shoved aside that thought as the machine gun opened fire again, the shots leaving a series of unpleasant grey streaks of lead on your rigging along the other side of you. You frowned at this, resisting the urge to try scrubbing the marks off, and tries to focus on the task at hand.
(Maybe those Dockworker people had a sandblaster and a little black paint you could borrow?)
Now that you did think about it tracing back the shots to find out where they were being fired from was being frustrating. Without your armaments your fire control seemed lousy, and that included calculating reverse trajectories, but these shots were being made from quite a distance away and came from different places along the Bay with each new burst...
Come to think of it didn't humans normally have problems seeing in the dark? You were standing on the water well away from the broken patches illumination along the land and while your radar wasn't helping much, bouncing back crazy echoes from the moored ships and the cargo containers rather than anything helpful.
Another spray of bullets arched down on you and you bit back a snarl of frustration. When the shooting stopped you took a deep breath, thought about matters, then realised what you were doing wrong.
You weren't being cool about this and hadn't monologued properly!
Straightening to your full height you took a deep breath then spoke at your full volume.
"
Pah, what foolishness is this?" You asked, your voice lacking the tones of the Abyss but being loud enough to produce echoes from the structures lining the harbour, "
Why does a pitiful thing hide from my glorious presence, running and hiding rather than properly weather my might? Who is it who does this? Who is it that oh so properly deems themselves unworthy of my ti-"
Shots pinged off of you again, interrupting your speech, but this was what you had wanted.
Your engines roared, your propellers churned the salt water, and spray was left in your wake as you headed into the oncoming fire with a arm shielding your face. The bullets hurt more this way, one hitting your chest bump in a way which made your eyes water, but you held firm as you traced your attacker back by lunging in the direction where the fire was the heaviest.
"
The darkest mistress of the Abyss does not run," You screamed as the ammount of bullets doubled but did little as you weathering the head-on impacts easily, "
You shall break and die like the cowardly... cowardly..."
You stumbled verbally as a suitable word failed to come to mind. Frantically scrambling for a proper insult before you ruined the cool impression you were trying for you found one then hurried blurted it ou.
"
...you cowardly captain!" You yelled, a spark of
hate flaring inside of your at the half formed memories that it triggered. "
You're like a captain, aren't you?"
There was no more water ahead but, caught up in the moment, you followed the same reflexes which had gotten you on land before and literally jumped up with your momentum carrying you on.
"
A coward who'd abandon his ship, who'd let her go down into the waters alone, after he'd set off the charges himself which sunk her." You barely felt the impact as your feet hit the ground, turning your forward charge into a run even as the words came from somewhere inside of you.
"
You'd scuttle a girl who'd served you well, who'd loved you and who you'd said you'd loved, and just let her sink alone into the cold depths. Into the darkness. I don't care, I like the dark. I LOVE THE DARKNESS!"
There were flesh people here now, some of them wearing that white triangle symbol, and all who had been clustered by the water's edge. However it was the female in the centre had your attention, the first to be carrying anything resembling proper weaponry, and the calmer part of your mind tagged her as a possible ship-girl because of that.
But why was she carrying a heavy machine-gun in each hand rather than having a rigging?
(And why were there tears on your face? You had been doing something cool so why did you feel sad?)
oOo
Out of the Fog
A (Not So) Safe Harbor 1.13
oOo
You have several minor injuries and 'marred paintwork'.
Minor damage to your "rudder" and radar.
oOo
At current range further machine-gun fire will do damage.
Point blank explosion may also be harmful.
oOo
Do you want to call in fire support from Puppy?
(Risks shots hitting you. Talking to her is distracting.)
[ ] Yes.
--[ ] (Write in any details, if any, said to Puppy.)
[ ] No.
How do you try to handle this fight?
(Events may negate certain actions in whole or part.)
[ ] (Write-in a short plan).
