Chapter 84. Temporary Reprieve

[Swarm missiles approaching from starboard, distance 3000 km, the estimated number of missiles: 56] Abby sent out a notification towards Abyssal.

Towards Abyssal’s right, was Meica yelling out and pointing towards the screen in the bridge. “Abyssal, Abyssal! Dodge dodge! Green shells coming from below!”

“Master, contact! Sensenmann spotted towards our port!” Kuon said out towards Abyssal’s left.

All of this just adds to the number of things that Abyssal already had to juggle within her mind. Things like navigating through a minefield, dodging shots, staying alive and also trying her best to shoot down Sensenmann with her guns. Though the part of actually doing damage to Sensenmann was nearly impossible to do with her magic trick of disappearing and reappearing at a moment’s notice. There was never a point where Abyssal could coordinate a full-strength attack on Sensenmann with all of her guns. Needless to say, her temporary ally, Yoake was not able to do so either. Even though Yoake was the slower less manoeuvrable of the two, Sensenmann’s focus seemed to be entirely on getting rid of Abyssal.

Just like the previous attacks by Sensenmann, Abyssal merely avoided what she could and left the disposal of the missiles to Yoake who was handling point defence. However, it didn’t pass Abyssal’s notice that Sensenmann was getting more and more accurate with her main shots, the corrosive green shells that flew towards Abyssal. They were getting bigger, more accurate and more predictive. It was as if Sensenmann was learning Abyssal’s ability to dodge shots. If things keep up the way they were, Abyssal would eventually eat one of the shells.

Lucky for her, she didn’t have to dodge them for much longer. She looked towards a timer in the upper left of her consciousness. Within minutes, Astral would be arriving in the battle zone to assist her. Or at least, that was what Astral and Abyssal agreed upon earlier during a previous discussion. Should that, at any point, if Astral and Abyssal were to lose contact with each other, both of them would rendezvous with each other at the area Abyssal was currently in.

Still, in a battle, a few minutes could easily determine life and death. Abyssal made sure to stay focussed and kept her eyes on the battlefield. With her smaller, more compact size, Abyssal led the way through the minefield towards the hideout, making sure to keep being on the move to make it harder for Sensenmann to have a lock on her. Her eyes were glued to the radar in order to detect any sudden appearance of the black and red boxed shaped ship.

Sure enough, a barrage of missiles came towards Abyssal in another one of Sensenmann’s attempts to bring her down. Something was off though, as this time the silhouette of the ship was nowhere to be found. The only thing that Abyssal could detect were small signatures of missiles coming right at her— from every virtually discernible direction. Unlike the previous times where it was simply about fifty or so missiles, this time, it was a number in the hundreds, almost to a thousand. The scale of the attack was so different that it caused Abyssal’s nonexistent heart to stop a beat. Her eyes widened at the sight of the incoming missiles.

‘Where did all the missiles come from?!’ Abyssal yelled out internally as her head scurry around in all directions, seeking direction where she could move to avoid the incoming attack. Her attempts were futile as she couldn’t see any opening large enough for her ship to go through without getting bombarded.

Right behind her was Yoake firing all of her guns to intercept the ridiculous amount of missiles coming at them. What was more surprising to Abyssal than the number of missiles coming at them was the fact that Yoake and her cruiser were seemingly able to keep up with destroying the projectiles. The missiles, seemingly in the thousands all were destroyed forming a bright white bubble all over Abyssal. It was like a barrier that was made from pure explosions.

The only missiles that weren't being shot down were the ones that were blocked by Abyssal’s own ship. These missiles hit the Abyssal’s shields which successfully blocked the damage from reaching her hull. Though it wasn’t like her shields could take that much in the first place. Eventually, her shields were going to run out and she would be in a world of pain. Luckily, Yoake seemed capable enough of fending an attack of this scale and Abyssal let out a sigh of relief.

That relief didn’t last long though. No matter how much time passed or how many missiles were blown away, more and more kept coming. It was a never-ending stream of missiles coming towards them from all directions. The very fact that the attacks were endless caused her nonexistent heart to drop once again.

‘How many missiles does this ship have?! Unlimited ammo cheat?!’ Abyssal let out another internal yell.

As if to make matters worse, the surrounding explosions around them disturbed Abyssal’s sight, including her detection capabilities. It was as if the explosions were acting like a smokescreen, reducing the effectiveness of both ships to detect anything beyond the bubble of explosions. Abyssal felt a deep tightness in her stomach, fearing that Sensenmann might take this chance to attack either Abyssal or Yoake and neither of them would have been able to do a thing about it.

As if conforming to Abyssal’s fears, Sensenmann appeared out of nowhere, at a location right beside Yoake, the Dawning Star cruiser. The distance between the two ships was so close to each other that Abyssal could roughly compare the sizes of both of them side by side. The bigger ship immediately tried shifting her guns towards Sensenmann to protect herself. This was accompanied by an assortment of missiles and small torpedoes which were launched towards Sensenmann instantly. The much smaller ship, the destroyer merely shrugged off the attacks from Yoake and had her guns ready and primed. Six barrels and six shots were shot towards the cruiser, bypassing the shields of the cruiser. Explosions and splinters of metal were seen as the destroyer immediately disappeared back into the void before Yoake could mount a counter-attack.

Abyssal winced as if she could feel the pain that coursed through Yoake. Having been hit by that attack before, Abyssal knew just how painful it must have been for Yoake.

The effect from the attack could be immediately seen as the concentrated fire from Yoake’s point defence wavered temporarily. Her guns were stopped for a good few seconds before the blanket fire continued as normal. However, the intensity of her barrage diminished a significant amount. Not only the intensity, but Abyssal also noticed that its accuracy faltered as well. Abyssal also noticed that the point defence on the side that took the damage was completely disabled, further reducing her effectiveness.

Bit by bit, Abyssal could see that more and more of Yoake’s point defence were failing and the closer the explosions around them got. It even got to the point where Yoake couldn’t destroy all of the missiles coming towards them as a few missiles here and there struck Abyssal’s shields. Looking towards the cruiser, Abyssal could also see a few explosions hitting the hull of Yoake’s ship. They were both slowly, but surely being overwhelmed by the relentless attacks. If things continued this way, demise would likely be the outcome for both of them. The worst part was that there was nothing Abyssal could do about the matter.

However, as unfortunate as Abyssal was, she was also very lucky at times. Just like the attacks coming out of nowhere, her saviour would also come by in the same fashion. Just in the nick of time, Astral came blazing through Abyssal's optics. Just as seen many times from the small crimson red fighter, small but accurate laser beams coming out of its pores, hitting and destroying roughly every projectile in the area. The missile barrage was pushed back immensely by Astral’s presence alone.

As if not enough, came the arrival of another ship, another cruiser of the Dawning Star— a yellow and navy blue theme ship. The gap in between explosions restored just enough of Abyssal’s sight that she could see the ship pointing its guns towards Abyssal’s general direction. Not at her, but towards something either above, below, or next to her. It shot three shots in three separated volleys, the shells of which travelled to a seemingly random location.

The attack definitely hit something as explosions after explosions happened in the not so far away distance. Together with the explosions, the barrage of the missiles grew weaker and eventually stopped, giving Abyssal and Yoake time to metaphorically breathe again.

Voice only communications then came in from Astral, one that Abyssal immediately accepted.

“Sorry for the delay, you guys alright?” Astral asked.

Abyssal turned around to look at her crew for the first time in a while. What she saw was Meica hugging her knees while her head pokes out to look at the screen on the bridge. Kuon, on the other hand, could be seen slouching on her seat with one hand on her chest. She was letting out a relieved sigh.

“Yeah, we are fine,” Abyssal replied.

“Good, keep sharp, things aren't over just yet,” Astral replied before closing communications.

“Right…” Abyssal replied as she got back into steering her ship out of the minefield.

Things became peaceful for just a moment as Astral orbited around Abyssal in patrol still in alert. Yoake did damage control and quickly got back into fighting form as Abyssal could see that her shields went back online and she drifted alongside Abyssal in some sort of formation. The other arrival, the other Dawning Star cruiser joined them in this formation, forming the simple shape of a line, their guns and weapons scattered all over the place in order to cover as much space as possible.

The four of them remained in this position for what felt like an hour. During this hour, Sensenmann didn’t make any attempt to attack them. It seemed that together with the end of the barrage, the consistent harassment from Sensenmann also stopped.

‘Did she run away?’ Abyssal thought to herself.

Not too long after the silent wait, an incoming transmission came from the two Dawning Star cruisers. As usual, Abyssal accepted it and the bridge displayed Astral, Yoake and another woman in a yellow kimono on the screen— a four-way call between everyone in the area was made. The first thing that Abyssal noticed about the new person was her fluffy ears and fox tail.

“Armoured Cruiser Hikari, I am pleased to meet all of you,” the woman said with a respectful tone.