"What the hell was that?" while Shiho didn't often agree with Mackeral's vernacular, this time, it was strangely fitting. Under the cover of night, it was safe to generally rest on the surface, even more so with them being outside the general patrol range.

That didn't stop either of them, or more accurately, their crews, noticing the erupting fireball that had lanced upwards, and for a brief moment, lighting up the moonlight night like it was the daytime sun.

Even if she didn't want to, an investigation would be warranted. At the very least, an attempt at such. There was simply too much going on to leave this unreported, even if it wasn't the result of the mystery cruiser. Said cruiser that still had a member of her crew aboard at that. Shiho hadn't heard from them in some time.

She understood why, of course. Radio silence was to be completely maintained. Even if this cruiser hadn't received orders, she'd already displayed a reluctance to make use of such contact methods unless completely necessary.

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1:30 Large explosion sighted off the eastern coast of the Philippines. Cause unknown. Origin unknown. Moving closer to investigate.

2:43 Abyssal forces in disarray. However, numerous destroyers and cruisers are in the area. Pulling back to standby point.

Admiral Richardson kept going over these two sections of the report. One explosion of indeterminate size, but likely extensive given the range Mackerel and I-402 were able to spot it likely massive. More than enough to stir up chaos among the Abyssal fleet. So much so that either submarine did not feel comfortable getting any closer out of fear of being discovered.

The odds of it being a simple accident were extremely low. Which meant their cruiser was the most likely culprit. Even if the azimuth direction she had given them during her first and so far only transmission had her going in a westerly direction.

Numerous events could have occurred for her to double back east. Intensifying enemy presence, realizing there wasn't enough time to cover that much ground in time for rescue. Or she simply suffered from poor navigation.

He'd worked with enough US vessels to know that each was just as likely as the other. Honestly, his gut was already telling him it was the latter case if anything.

At least they now had a general location to start from. And it wouldn't be hard to guess where she went next. Heading east into the open ocean would be tantamount to suicide. West would simply put her further into enemy territory. South would result in a much similar position. Staying in place was likely out as well, given the activity reported.

Which left northward, along the coast, about the only place Isabell could reasonably go. He'd have to send a message to Vestal's crew, provided the submarines hadn't done so on their incentive.

Regardless, if that Abyssal was as half as smart as he thought it was, then it'd know that too. Maybe not about their reinforcements, but the fact Isabell would likely retreat northward as a form of safety. Maybe even expect the light cruiser might attempt to flee via the ocean, after closing the distance on land.

If she did that, then it was possible to take it by surprise, or at least a significant portion of its force. Given the situation, he'd take any leg up he could get.

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This. This right here? This was the reception I had been expecting if I managed to make landfall. I'd expected to be hunted like my grandfather used to hunt deer.

I'd have to apologize to the deer because it was not a pleasant feeling. And to think, this was only part of the reason Luzon was traumatized.

Slowly, I peeked my head around the tree we'd been hiding behind. I hadn't heard any noise for several minutes now, meaning the destroyers had likely passed us by. But I wasn't throwing caution to the wind here. Being spotted meant death or even capture at this point, and I still wasn't sure which fate was worse.

I made a gesture, a more or less all clear to Luzon. Yeah, that's one of the first things I'm doing when we make it back to civilization. Brush up on my sign langue. Honestly, there is no reason I should be struggling this much right now.

Luzon rushed to my side as I limbed along. Having boiler down was bad enough? But this? If we weren't stuck in the middle of enemy territory right now, I would experiment with this.

Safely, of course.

But seriously, this was slowing me down way too much. Making it even worse was the fact the further northward we got, the more and more patrols we came across. Which, quite frankly, sucked. I'd consider retreating inland, but honestly, in my current state? We'd probably have a better chance breaking towards the ocean, rather than going inland.

Of course, giving up the cover of the jungle would be, suboptimal to say the least. They were the only reason we hadn't been spotted yet, and it wasn't due to lack of effort on the Abyssal's part.

Another noise lanced through the air, with Luzon and I ducking back into cover as an Abyssal plane screamed overhead.

The moment we got spotted, we were going to be drowned in the buggers. Sure, I was a US light cruiser. I was good, and Luzon was a minuscule target, but my first encounter with planes nearly ended up with my busting myself up. I'd shot down all of them, but still. It was a narrow thing, and they'd come at us with a lot more planes than what I managed to blow out of the sky.

A lot more. Light carriers I could probably beat in a gunfight, but a full fleet carrier, in my current state, was not a vessel I wanted to mess with. Provided they were launching aircraft of carriers. Which, for all I knew, they could have an airfield hidden away somewhere. And quite frankly, I'd pushed my luck enough as is with the cannon. Probably more than pushing it.

But what was done was done. No sense in worrying about the past right now. The present was full of enough dangers.

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Caves made for good shelter. Certainly beats being out in the open.

Though now my eyes remained glued towards the entrance, despite the guards being set up to cover the mouth of the cave. Causing a cave-in with shellfire and starving us out would be an effective strategy. As much as one made for great cover, it also backed us into a corner.

Luzon muttered softly, nuzzling into me further. Maybe I was being a bit paranoid here. But I couldn't help it. At this point, my brain was a buzzing mess, and as much as I wanted, no, needed, sleep, I couldn't find the off switch. This had been a problem in far less stressful situations, but back then I had medicine to at least compensate.

No such luck here. Hell, did medicine even work on shipgirls?

I internally smacked myself before my brain could go any further. This? Thoughts like these weren't going to help in the slightest. Seriously, I should try to put these errant thoughts towards something useful. Like a way out of this mess?

Honestly, I didn't exactly know what to do. The Re was in charge, or at least, I thought the aviation battleship was the head around here. And she was an odd cookie. Even if I'd only seen her once, I'd landed here without dying, which was proof enough she wasn't the typical Abyssal.

She built coastal batteries. Large ones, that could probably devastate attackers once they got into range. But rather than facing northward, towards Japan, they faced eastward. Well, anecdotally, anyway. I had no idea if there were northern facing batteries. Or maybe my sense of direction was messed up again. But if that were the case, quite frankly, a major if, it said something crucial.

Unless I happened to bypass, without noticing, a major human force or stronghold, there would be no reason to expect an immediate attack from the east. Unless Abyssal's were fighting one another.

Mercifully, Abyssal's didn't work as Orks did, but I digress, that isn't important.

What it did mean, hypothetically speaking, that the bulk of her forces were prepared to prevent intrusion from other Abyssal groups, rather than shipgirl forces. And, again, to my knowledge, Abyssal's weren't exactly known for being subtle, rushing headlong into battle like crazed Berserkers.

That's what made the ones that thought and strategized so dangerous. It was uncharacteristic behavior, and it was prone to be grossly underestimated.

Plus the fact it'd been able to hold this much territory was no small task, either. Quite frankly, either it'd been passive towards humanity to prevent them from trying to reclaim what would easily be an excellent launch point to reclaim the rest of the South Pacific, or she'd made taking the Philippines more trouble than it was worth.

Those or things had gone really far south. Of course, to lose the Philippines in the first place was probably a sign things were quite pear-shaped as is.

I'd take the former line of thought over the latter. I'd hope it was more of a situation of having bigger fish to fry.

But did that mean it could be negotiated with? It let me live for a reason, even if I didn't know what reason it was.

I scowled. Doubtful. Why it'd let me live was hardly likely to be benign. I wasn't dumb enough to be sold a bridge, even one I'd be trying to sell to myself.

But it was the head. I hoped the Re was the head of this, because if it wasn't, then the thought that ran through my mind was truly dumb.

My leg, ironically enough, was the key. This throbbing, painful mess? It gave me an idea. A dreadfully dumb one, yes, but an idea none the less.

Fight the Re. Dumb? Absolutely. But if it wanted to kill me, it had every opportunity to. And I most certainly wanted it dead. And normally, I didn't have the firepower, not even close. But that's where my leg came in. There was overlap, between my human body and my ship components. Abyssal's, especially the humanoid ones, were likely the same. Logically speaking, what would be the best analog for a ship's bridge?

The head. More accurately, the brain. Much like the brain controlled the body, the captain controlled the ship from the bridge. Navigation, command, and many other crucial components were kept in the bridge.

So what happened when the bridge became disrupted? Well, if the command staff wasn't outright killed, I'd imagine it'd be akin to a concussion. I've had one of those. Not a fun experience. Sure, far from a fatal blow, but a concussed anything was much slower, unsteady, unable to see straight, etc.

A lot less threatening. A lot less able to command.

Not to say it was without risk. I'd have to get close. Real close. Close enough I can dump nine shells right into its forehead. Way too close for there to be any comfort.

But that was only if I went out into the water. Which sadly, was not going to happen. My boiler was still down, so while Luzon could certainly go the distance, I wasn't. And quite frankly, getting her to leave me behind? Right now, Luzon was pretty much attached to my hip.

She wasn't going to let me out of her sight if only to make sure I didn't go running off again. Which I wouldn't anyway. My leg injury assured me that of much, even if I wanted to.

Slowly, I felt my brain's activity fade into the humming background. Good. I wondered how long it was going to take for my exhaustion to catch up with me. My eyes began to cease their wandering, and I fell asleep.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

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My sleep was uncharacteristically long as it was deep. Something I was thankful for. I'd been running on a tank of near-empty for close to two days by the time I'd finally gotten to rest.

Sleep helped, at the very least. Even if it made the pain in my leg a bit sharper, my mind was no longer lagging, which was a big plus. Still, I recalled my half-baked plan, if one could call it much of a plan.

At this point, it was a contingency of an unlikely event that shouldn't come to pass. Though it certainly didn't stop me from mulling the details over. If I needed to get close enough, my depth charges could give me sufficient cover when thrown, maybe even prevent it from launching planes.

Still, evasion was the name of the game. Didn't have to fight if we never got caught. Hell, I was perfectly fine not even taking advantage of the element of surprise to avoid combat altogether.

Sadly, it wasn't exactly an easy game. I scowled from behind cover, waiting for another of what felt like a train-line of destroyers made their way by. How many vessels did it have under its command? Either we were the absolute focus of its attention, or its forces easily numbered over a hundred.

Or we could be just running into the same group over and over. Another distinct possibility. I certainly wasn't popping my head out or dedicating memory space for every single time a Destroyer crossed our path without knowing. It might be usual in figuring out the odd, but I often struggled with putting names to human faces. This would be a hundred times worse.

Still, it was either my imagination or the time it took waiting for them to pass was getting longer and longer. And if it was the latter, then that was a bad sign.

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I stared out onto the water, as I felt Luzon quake against my side. Quite frankly, I couldn't blame her. Breaking out into the ocean wasn't my plan, and it certainly wasn't now. At least a dozen cruisers of various sizes, and I'm pretty sure a battleship. Sure they weren't doing much, but that was more firepower than we could ever contend with.

We'd stumbled across the coast on pure accident as well. Thankfully, they weren't paying any attention inland, or we may have been spotted. After a brief retreat to the treeline and into the shrubbery, we decided to observe for a moment.

Still, we'd have to go further and further northward. The opposition was bound to only increase, and we were restricted to overland travel. Which was naturally, much slower, even without my leg causing us to lag even more than it had before.

They could hop up and down the coast at their leisure, while we were stuck hobbling around.

This was going to be a pain.

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I bit my tongue, hard, to prevent me from yelping as pain jolted me awake, finally stirring me from my slumber. It wasn't enough to let a sound that was all too much like a whimper leak out. I looked down at Luzon for a moment. She was still sleeping despite the noise.

Then my gaze turned to the offending limb. While the sharp and intense shot was now beginning to subside, it felt different somehow. Like it was vibrating.

A yawn died in my throat. You know what? So long as it wasn't life-threatening, then it could probably wait until morning.

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Wait? You guys did what?

I know. I know. But I thought you said it was going to be impossible at this point.

Seriously. You guys are miracle workers. Pat yourselves on the back, and get some rest. You deserve it.

I had to admit, that was good news. Excellent, in fact. Borderline miraculous, really. The pain from last night?

That was my knocked out boiler coming back to life. I'd written it off entirely by this point. The fact my crew got the thing back online even partially would have been enough to cause me to bounce with glee. But they managed to resuscitate the whole thing!

Impressive damage control work that was going to have to be rewarded somehow. After we got back into port. Maybe ice cream or something. Food for thought.

Still, this was a complete blessing, no matter how one looked at it. Luzon didn't know about the good news yet, as she was still sleeping, but this increased our options significantly. Making a break over the ocean was now a considerable possibility. Sure, I couldn't outrun a fast destroyer, but with enough head start, it wouldn't matter in the long run.

Aircraft would still be an issue, but how far out could the relief fleet be at this point? A day or two at most? Spotting a cruiser and a PT boat wouldn't be easy, while the fleet heading our way probably had carriers, spotting planes, massive battleships. It wouldn't be hard to spot them and make our way over. Which would seriously deter further airstrikes.

Plus, once we got far enough out, I could probably start using my radio transmission again. Sure, it would mean we could be tracked by Abyssal's, but it also meant we could communicate with the relief fleet.

Still, this wasn't something I would undertake lightly. Or without talking it over with Luzon. Full stop. All the cards on the table.

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"Will this work?" Luzon's voice was small, not that I blamed her.

"We don't have to do this if you don't want to," I knelt down, patting her on the head softly. It seemed to calm her down if only a little.

I just hoped I was hiding my sense of unease well enough. The coast looked clear. I wasn't seeing anything out of the ordinary. Still. Something just didn't sit right.

"No. I think we should run," there was a bit that hung in the air. I knew exactly what Luzon was talking about. The fate of the Mosquito Fleet.

Slowly, as one, we stepped out into the water, rigging flaring to life. I almost lost myself in the feeling, not realizing how much I had missed it. Even with all the fleeing and the shooting.

The plan was a simple one. Break northeast until we were out of sight from land, before swinging northward, cutting slightly west towards where the fleet would likely be coming from.

Luzon had to dial back on her throttle for me to keep up. I mean, I understood that small size often came with greater speed, but she hit a blistering forty knots by the time she realized I was starting to lag behind. And she only looked like she was about to hit her stride.

Still, my eyes scanned the skies, looking for any potential threats to our escape. No planes had shown up yet, but that only made me feel more ill at ease.

You know what? I'm probably full paranoid at this point.

And that's when two geysers of water erupted around us. I scowled, pulling around a one-eighty degree turn as Luzon nearly got swamped, pushing out sputtering and spitting.

Coming face to face with my worst nightmare.

How could an aviation battleship be that stealthy? How!

This was bad, real bad. Even more so was Luzon beginning to slow down, preparing to turn around.

"Go!" I shouted, causing the smaller vessel to jump. "I'll be fine! Remember the plan!" She tettered for a moment, caught between two choices she didn't want to make, before speeding off.

I didn't want to be a liar so soon, but in this case, there might not be an alternative. We were both in range. Someone was going to have to play distraction. Might as well be me. After all, odds were, it didn't want me dead.

The range began to close. I'd begun to move, slowly and leisurely back and forth, both to calm my nerves, but to make sure I wasn't that easy of a target. But it hadn't fired another salvo. Instead, it crept closer and closer, until it came to a stop.

"Well, well, well," its voice was cold as the grave. Like a corpse that could somehow speak. "You seem confident, little human."

I came to a complete stop. What the? How? How did it know that? Immediately, my guns swiveled, aiming towards the Re, as I gulped down my fear. My face had to have betrayed my shock, as it chuckled.

"How? I can see your spirit, Kanmusu. It is weak, but it has grown stronger. But still not strong enough to betray what you once were," its laughter echoed like a haunted record.

Then, in a second, it was on me, face twisting with a savage grin as I staggered back, taken off guard by the sudden burst of speed, as her fingers found their way around my neck.

I tried to kick at its chest, struggling against its iron grip. It was about as effective as one might imagine. Do it. Do it now! My crew sprang into action as I clenched my fist, waiting for the right moment.

"It's almost a pity. I expected more out of you," I growled in response, the most verbalization I could do with her fingers wrapped tightly around my throat. I would have said 'expect this', but that certainly would give away I had something up my sleeve.

Or in this case, a depth charge. I felt the device slip into my fingers, pausing for a moment before throwing it. The Re seemed taken aback, its eyes tracking what I had thrown as it sailed past her head.

It opened its mouth as if to speak before the depth charge detonated. Its finger's loosened, sending my body back towards the ocean surface, air rushing in to fill my lungs. I gasped, taking in as much of the salty sea breeze as possible, doing my best to ignore the smell of gunpowder that hung in the air.

"You'll have to do better than that," its voice taunted, the Re practically unscathed from the blast.

"I'm aware," I ground out as it loomed over me, regarding me like a child regarded an insect. I looked up at its face, eyes gleaming with twisted pleasure. I wanted to see the look on its face.

My nine remaining guns swiveled around, aiming directly at the Re's head. For a brief moment, its eye's widened, before I fired. Gunpowder bloomed, obscuring its face as nine armor-piercing shells were launched at point-blank range. I didn't wait for a moment. I took off like a rocket, speeding away like hell was right on my heels. As it probably was. Now I just needed enough distance to regroup with Luzon. While its command was sorting out the mess I'd left the Re in.

Then something wrapped around my arm, grabbing it like a vice. For the brief moment I could, I struggled, eyes widening in terror, before I was yanked back, my neck finding itself being crushed, breath dying in my throat.

"That. Hurt," its voice was now consumed by rage. Anger. Even disgust. "I'll applaud you that much. You hurt me. I underestimated you. Too many times now. I'm not making that mistake again."

Its grip loosened, allowing me to breathe once again. I gasped, lungs pumping like mad. I needed to break out. I needed to escape.

"I think. I'll make sure you can't run away anymore," its hand began to wrap around my leg as I struggled and kicked. Then it began to pull.

My leg screamed in protest, metal groaning as it was bent and torn in ways it was never meant to. I ground my teeth together, unwilling to give it the satisfaction of seeing me scream in pain. But tears had already begun to well up in my eyes as I struggled more and more.

Then, with a bloody squelch, my leg came free.

I heard someone scream, as my vision began to blur.

I think it was me.