What I wouldn't give for a towel right now. It would make drying out Luzon's hair far less of a herculean effort than it was proving. Seriously! I used to pride myself on my incredibly dense hair, which took water in like a sponge. This? Her hair was holding onto moisture like it was starving.

And at least back then water kept my hair in check! Luzon's? I might as well be fighting with a Kraken right now! I scowled, slowly pulling my fingers out of her thick hair, avoiding meeting the numerous black filaments that effectively glued themselves to my hands.

"Sorry, Luzon, but it's about as dry as it's going to get," unless my crewmates could find an unused towel to give me. Which was already being reported as a less than fruitful search.

Luzon spun, practically giving me a point-blank tackle hug.

"It's okay!" her smile warmed my heart. We'd be out of here soon enough.

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I let out a low groan as my body began to return to consciousness. What time was it? My eyes cracked open, only to reveal the darkness around me, not light filtering from the mouth of the cave. Luzon lay on top of me, breathing softly in her slumber.

Okay brain, every funny. But I need to sleep right now, so please send me back to dreamland now. I closed my eyes, slowly beginning to nod off.

Then I felt something. A rumble, moving its way through the ground. Earthquake? I paused, half ready to bolt at the next vibration. One second passed. Then another. Then another. Then another.

Maybe not? Or not a major one, at any rate. Still, I scowled. What was I thinking? I knew the Philippians were right on the ring of fire! I should have thought about that sooner!

Yeah, that's something I needed on my mind. On top of being hunted by Abyssal's through the jungle, I also now had to worry about volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Alongside volcanic eruptions causing earthquakes and everyone's favorite, earthquake causing eruptions! Thanks, brain. I needed that.

Once again, I closed my eyes. My mind was probably going a bit too fast at this point for shutdown to be easy, but trying to get some sleep is better than nothing.

Then another vibration came through. God damnit! My head bolted upwards, squinting. I wasn't going to disturb Luzon unless I needed to, but this was getting old, fast. Just let me sleep, damn you!

So, I stared into the inky darkness, making sure to keep my eyes trained towards what I was sure was the mouth. I only had to wait about a minute or so, before a faint flash came from the distance, followed by the sleep interrupting vibration.

Okay. That was, concerning. Sure, I had no clue what was causing that flash, but it was either big enough to cause the vibration itself or was acting as a signal for, well, whatever the Abyssal's were doing.

My first reaction would be to start heading in a completely different direction. Whatever it was, it was bad news. And I indeed to stay clear of such. However, there was this pit in my gut. This raw, gnawing sense that ignoring the problem was a bad, bad idea.

No, that was dumb. It had danger written all over it. I was a cruiser, for Pete's sake! Whatever it was, I didn't have the firepower to take out whatever it was anyway!

I scowled, thoughts spilling around in my brain. Fine. I might as well investigate.

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This is bad. This is really bad. The words I could use to describe what lay before would get my mouth washed out with soap. Sure, it wasn't the BFG, but it was still the largest gun I'd ever seen, period. And given I stood on the deck of the Missouri, with her sixteen-inch guns, that's saying something.

Also, I'd either gotten a lot further north than I expected, or my sense of distance was as much of a failure as it had ever been.

Because, yeah, this thing was partially out to sea! Not by much, with a stone path connecting the battery to the mainland. Look, there was no beating around the bush on this one. That thing was going to have to go.

A frontal assault was already off the table. From my position, I could already see dozens of destroyers, alongside a handful of cruisers and even a few battleships. That was not a fight I could win by any conceivable prospect. Placing the binoculars on the stone outcrop, I placed my hands on my head.

There had to be a way to destroy that artillery piece, or at the very least render it inert. My six-inch shells were probably not strong enough to disable it, and there was no way I could survive the counterfire even if I could accomplish that!

Planes? No, I don't think that's a good idea. Look. Those are scout planes, right? Do they even have bombs? I get it, nobody is going to expect an enemy air attack from the middle of their territory. But there's the issue of launching without being detected, dropping the bombs and destroying that gun, and then somehow picking you guys up. Because those planes are floatplanes too! Coming in on land is just going to cause you to crash, and landing in the ocean leaves you prime for capture. Too risky, no matter how you spin it. And that's not factoring AA into the equation.

Really? Did I honestly not have any options here? Because when the calvary got here, I didn't want them running into that rifle, still armed and operational.

Pulling the binoculars back to my face, I began making mental notes. There was a cliff running into the ocean, just north of the battery. Probably cover from retaliatory fire, if I had to guess. Maybe get on the other side and just start lobbing shells over?

No, that still wouldn't work. My shells just didn't have the punching power. Plus I'd be firing pretty much blind. Maybe leave a team for spotting? That might solve the accuracy problem, provided they couldn't read my radio transmissions. I was certain that they could by this point. Sure, my distress call had been anything but subtle, but still. This wasn't that desperate of a situation. Yet.

I scowled, watching the surf in the distance. Yeah, a seabound assault was just as dumb as a frontal one. At this point, I was just about ready to call the disabled boiler a lost cause. Outrunning the cruisers down there would be impossible, much less the destroyer pack. Even outrunning a battleship would be a struggle, and I'd be in firing range for a lot longer, too.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Maybe I could swim up to it and disable it somehow? My crew froze up, seeming to shake their heads all at once. A bit too close for comfort, though I knew that's not what they were shaking their heads about. It might work. A bit too close for comfort, perhaps, but possible.

I just had no idea what to do once I got close. Engineering was not a strong suit of mine under the best of times. Yet alone disabling a colossal cannon that was made from whatever Cthulhu mythology they dredged up to create that thing. If just had some form of bomb-like explosive, it'd probably be a lot easier.

Wait! That's it! My depth charges! I'd been planning on using them like land mines! They could work here! Set them up around the gun, and rig them to blow! An elegant solution it was not, but I had little time for elegance.

Alright, I had a plan. Now, all that I needed was to execute it.

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Naturally, working on the bomb took time. According to my crew, it was more a crime against reasonable explosive design and against good sense to boot.

Look, I'm not a bomb expert here! If I had it my way, I'd just duck tape a bunch of depth charges together. Elegant? Not. Was it functional? Yes.

I'd hope, anyway. Seriously. I didn't want that gun to be even recognizable by the time I was done with it. One-shot was all I had when it came to taking this thing out of commission, so, I wanted to make sure I did it right. If that meant overkill, then I was bringing overkill. Of course, I had no idea what constituted overkill when I didn't get much of an up-close look at the thing, so I was mostly just slapping together almost all the depth charges I possessed, keeping a handful in reserve.

Because knowing my luck? The water's just around the gun were probably swarming with shark-like submarines. No, I wasn't sure what abyssal submarines looked like, but it wouldn't surprise me!

Honestly, I'd take it over squids, personally.

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Under the cover of darkness, I crept along, slithering through the underbrush towards my destination. All I had were the faint twinkling of stars overhead, mostly obscured by leaves, and soon, the lapping of waves against stone. Eventually, the foliage parted, the light of the moon illuminating the landscape before me. It's mirror danced on the ocean surf, eerie light reflecting off the water's surface.

Beside me was the cliff, jutting out into the water. I took a deep breath, doing what I could to steady my nerves, the bomb secured safely in my haul, though ready to be brought out at a moment's notice.

I didn't like leaving Luzon like this, but it was best that she didn't have to worry. Bringing the poor child this close to an Abyssal was the last thing I wanted to do, either. She'd be safer back at camp then she would be right now.

Finally, I stepped into the surf, warm water lapping its way between my toes, up my legs, and higher still as I began to swim, doing my best to keep quiet. My head only peaked above the water for a gulp of fresh air as I paddled against the waves. Which wasn't as easy as it sounded.

Slowly, I made it out to more open waters, with less turbulence, allowing the ocean to settle. Moonlight shone faintly through the water, providing some light into what would by inky darkness. I continued, using the light to guide my path towards the massive battery, which was silent. Strange. Nightfall hadn't stopped them from firing it last time. Maybe just a weapons test?

Well, too late to pull back now. My eyes continued to scan the water below me, hoping to pick up on any submarines lurking in the water, but I hadn't spotted anything.

Once again, I felt the night air on my face as I silently rose to the surface. Thanks to the light of the moon, my vision wasn't awful. In the faint silver, I could make out the weapon, alongside anything around it.

Nothing. It was, by all accounts, completely unguarded. I scowled, peaking towards the coastline proper. No, that couldn't be right. There was no way they could leave a battery like this undefended. There was absolutely no way this wasn't some form of trap.

But if it wasn't, and Abyssal's were just that bad at having good sense, then I had to take advantage of this opportunity. I quickly moved to get as much as the oversized gun between me and the shore as possible, before getting to work.

Setting up the explosive only took a few moments, as it had pretty much been set up and ready to go for some time. All that was left to do was arm the timer, and get the hell out of dodge.

The timer began to count down as I dived into the ocean, already hearing the stirring of voices in the distance. Even with the water acting as a buffer, I felt the boom, as the shockwave tore its way through the surf.

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Slowly, painstakingly slowly, I pulled myself to shore. That timer had not been long enough. Nowhere near long enough. I hissed, pain flaring up in my leg, as I reached down and pulled out the blade metal shard that embedded itself there before I threw it into the surf. The rest of my body was covered in cuts, each trickling blood, and I sported several bruises from the debris rocketed from the blast.

I began moving towards the jungle, doing my best to ignore the pain in my leg. Hopefully, the lead I had on any pursers would be sufficient. My crew wasn't happy with even more damage control work, but I couldn't help but feel like it was worth it. I don't know where the feeling came from, but something told me I should be quite smug about destroying that gun.

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There was a loud crack, stone shattering under the strength of her fist. Quite frankly, she wished it was a skull instead, so she could feel the pain and suffering of the life she just extinguished. But the human praise about not shooting messengers applied here. No matter how tempting it was.

Despite everything, there was a plus to the situation, even if it was a bitter one. The cruiser likely wasn't that far away, which meant they weren't randomly searching the jungle anymore. Their search had been narrowed down, considerably. Now all that was left to do was capture her.

By any means necessary.