CSG-EN made a stop at Hawaii, before continuing onto the typhoon-infested waters of the Pacific. The Hierarchy’s weather control technology was crude, but it was effective. No other civilization was willing to erect thousands of nuclear power plants and tens thousands of microwave arrays, all for the sole purpose of cooking the local atmosphere enough to form a wall of weather systems between them and humanity.

Such a thing, however, was well within CSG-EN’s capabilities to handle. If their battle prediction algorithms could cripple a nation’s navy, they could easily track typhoons and slip between weather systems. Of course, this also meant that their movements would be limited.

No doubt, the Hierarchy also knew, in realtime, where the viable routes between typhoons would be, and those routes would be heavily guarded by naval patrols. A confrontation was imminent.

Supertyphoons ULTRA and ERIN were on either side of CSG-EN. Leviathan clouds swirled counterclockwise overhead, hundreds of miles away, and their power leaked into the sea, sending waves that lightly rocked the dotted ships, their wakes quickly washed away and drowned.

“Do we have satellite visuals?” New Hope said over the net.

“It’s spotty,” Kaos Bell replied. She was a Moderator-class destroyer, and E-war, cyberwar, and communications specialist. “Estimating…around 400 corvettes, 100 destroyers, 40 cruisers, 20 battleships, and three motherships, 300 nautical miles west-northwest.”

“That’s a lot,” Reaper chimed in. Like New Hope, and along with the Phoenix, they were Streamer-class battleships, the heavy hitters of the fleet. “We’ve got the ammo to take them all on, but it’ll take a while.”

“Ah. I lost connection. Satellite got shot down,” Kaos Bell said.

“Obviously. If you just opened your eyes, you can see the vapor trail from here,” Clockmaker said. She was another Moderator-class destroyer, but the only one with a helipad.

“O-oh, yeah…” Bell said a little quietly.

“Bell-chan~” Mane-chan said. “Can you broadcast our intro video? For legal reasons, of course.” As in, legally-speaking, if a diplomatic envoy clearly introduces themselves, and they still get shot at, then they get the right to fire back.

“Broadcasting…now.” A few sleepy moments of no responses later, Kaos Bell was woken up by the shrill scream of high-power radar. “Oh! We’re getting pinged!”

“We’ve got radar-absorbent coatings, right?” Clockmaker remarked. “Even if they see us, it’s not like they can see us that well, so they can’t hit us—”

A tall column of water erupted just a hundred yards beside the Phoenix. “Ma’am! Permission to shut up the Clockmaker myself, ma’am!”

“Yo momma, splash one,” the Ground Pounder, a Moderator-class, said with the most matter-of-fact tone.

“And the Ground Pounder, too!” the Phoenix complained.

“Would you like a cookie in these trying times?” The Priestess, the last of the four Moderator-class destroyers, sailed alongside the Phoenix. She deployed a cargo transfer zip line, and her human crew sent over a chocolate chip care package to the bridge of the Phoenix.

“I will recommend you for a commendation, Priestess” —Phoenix sniffled— “At least you understand.”

“Keep it together,” New Eternity said, shutting up the ruckus. Since the Hierarchy’s fleet fired first, they had all the right to fire back. “New Eternity to the Natural Selection, ready reply.”

The USS Natural Selection was—was—a Streamer-class battleship. Instead of bristling with weapons, however, her design philosophy revolved around putting the largest possible round on-target at the longest possible range.

“Hello hello, this is the Natural Selection. Mother Nature prepping to make the call. Please stand by.” Though her voice was kind, she was cruel. For the record, she was officially a logistical support ship.

Counter-battery data from the Kaos Bell streamed to the Natural Selection, suggesting that the shell was fired from within the enemy fleet. From there, she estimated the size and geometry of the ship that fired the shell that nearly hit the Phoenix. From the height of the water column, she deduced the shell wasn’t as powerful as hers. There was no vapor trail, suggesting that the shell was not rocket-assisted. It was most likely a chemical propellant gun mounted on a barge-like platform.

This meant that it couldn’t have moved very far. Based on the enemy fleet’s formation, she made three guesses as to where the target would have moved.

Her centerpiece weapon, a 100-meter-long railgun, hadn’t been deployed during the war game against CSG-1 and CSG-3. Doing so would have been cheating.

Hydraulics hummed to push the muzzle upwards, but only slightly. The waves oscillating and pushing her up were enough to get the rest of the way. Despite the bobbing chaos, she didn’t need such precise aim. Her shells were finned and guided.

“Mother Nature ready on standby. Requesting confirmation for three in the outbox.”

“Acknowledged,” New Eternity replied. “Send it.”

“Sending.”

Just before she reached the crest of the next wave, when her hull was practically at a 45-degree angle, a sharp crack ripped the air apart. It was unlike a cannon’s boom, which drummed at one’s chest, but more like a whiplash of lightning striking a tree just within arm’s reach.

The moment the shell left the barrel, it was already going at Mach 20, a quarter-mile shower of sparks following closely behind. It was a 200-kg, torpedo-shaped needle making blatant mockery of air friction. Still, the continuous shockwave was apparent. The white streak disappeared between the spiralling typhoon clouds, and behind the visible horizon.

Thirty seconds later, Natural Selection fired another shell, and thirty seconds after that, she fired the last.

The first projectile should have taken 100 seconds to reach the target, but thanks to guidance tech, it took a high-arcing trajectory that lengthened its travel time. Rocket assistance ensured that it did not lose too much kinetic energy before it reached its target.

Meanwhile, the second projectile took a mid-arcing trajectory. The last projectile took the shortest route.

The result? 160 seconds after the first shell was fired, all three shells reached their targets at the same time.

But these shells did not cost millions of dollars apiece for nothing. Rather, it was because the base product costs millions of dollars apiece that the engineers at Musk Industries decided to cram in whatever other features they could. What was a few tens of thousands in added cost for massive increases in capability, anyway?

As a result of this design philosophy, each shell had nose-mounted cameras, allowing them to identify targets and course-correct on their own. If they didn’t have pre-uploaded target identification data, they would simply home in on the first ship-like thing they saw. What’s more, they beamed this visual data back to the Natural Selection, essentially allowing her to perform destructive reconnaisance.

The shells homed in on their respective target zones, miles apart, and they each found their prey: one battleship, one frigate, and a distinctive artillery barge with outriggers larger than its hull.

The shells’ features didn’t stop there. Indeed, those engineers squeezed out every feature they could like an Asian with the selections at a paid buffet. As each shell effortlessly cut through ship decks like a needle through cloth, their internal charges detonated. They were only weak charges, intended to destroy the shell itself, turning its sleek beauty into a cone of flechettes and shrapnel still flying at Mach 20.

The entry wound was just the size of a manhole. The exit wound could’ve fit a tank.

“Targets…hit,” she reported.

“What’s the hesitation for?” New Eternity asked.

“Ma’am, please take a look at this.” Natural Selection distributed her shells’ pre-splash data.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“My kind?” Priestess remarked. In as few words as possible…it was a 500-meter-class machine kraken, lazily floating smack in the middle of the fleet. Were it to wrap its appendages around New Eternity, it could easily snap her in two.

The kraken inspired only one emotion in everyone who laid eyes on it, however…

“Oh, wow. Nuke it,” Mane-chan said off-handedly, speaking everyone's thoughts.

“Yes, ma’am, I wholeheartedly agree,” New Eternity said. She launched several drone wings, amounting to 96 strike craft. “New Eternity to Natural Selection, continue bombardment.”

With the Hierarchy’s long-range shooter gone, the Natural Selection had a casual time taking potshots of the enemy fleet. The damage she was doing with her one railgun, however, barely made a dent in the enemy’s numbers, so she satisfied herself with harrassing the motherships and battleships.

Still, time passed, and the two forces moved closer. In the meantime, Natural Selection’s shots managed to disable a mothership and severely damage the flight deck of another. One battleship was sinking, while three others took damage to weapons systems.

The Natural Selection’s weapon, however, was spent. It lowered into a neutral position, allowing industrial arms to disassemble the barrel and replace the spent rails.

Meanwhile, Mane-chan thought long and hard. No one could comprehend her thought processes. She finally addressed New Eternity. “Hey, can I get a direct link to Bell-chan?”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you have a strategy?”

“Just stick to coordinating operations for a moment and let me handle this. Hopefully, we won’t have to go through all this hassle just to talk to Hololive JP’s manager.”

“Y…Yes, ma’am,” New Eternity said. She rang up Kaos Bell for a moment.

“Yes, ma’am?” Kaos Bell stuttered as she answered.

Mane-chan took over the link. “Hey, yeah, can I get a—uhh—wideband broadcast going? Live. Something that’ll reach Japan.”

“Yes, ma’am, no problem. Give me a moment … a~nd you’re on.”

Mane-chan took an unnecessary, deep breath. “It’s your favorite AI VTuber, Mane-chan!” On the receiving end, viewers would see her avatar in her usual virtual room, which was actually just a rendition of Meika’s former apartment, filled with merch of her favorite sisters and collab-mates in the background. “Now, I’m sure you’re thinking, ‘Who the heck’s this?’ Well, you see, I actually have a side job being the Overlord of the United States. Funny story, you know?

“So, here’s the deal. I just wanna talk, but your defenses are sort of shooting at me. Can you make that stop, pretty please?”

“Detecting multiple missile launches. Deploying mirrors,” Kaos Bell announced.

“Well, that went well…” Mane-chan said dejectedly.

“They’ve got more range than anticipated,” New Eternity said.

“Is that bad?” Ame asked.

“Not very,” Mane-chan said. “We already knew we’d be outclassed.”

“Detecting enemy aircraft,” Kaos Bell announced. “Advise all, prepare for anti-air.”

There was a collective groaning from the ships. Nobody liked anti-air.

Right at that moment, anti-ship missiles, skimming just above the water’s surface, screamed past the New Eternity. Not just her, but past the Natural Selection, too. No hits.

“Ah, fuck that,” Phoenix said. Her lasers took care of one coming from the side, straight for her. “When it’s me, it’s gotta be on-target, huh?”

“There, there,” Reaper said, shamelessly using Phoenix as a shield—to no complaints, though.

The New Eternity’s strike craft skirmished with the Hierarchy’s fleet and its fliers, releasing air-to-air and anti-ship missiles. At the same time, the Hierarchy’s missile corvettes fired their own surface-to-air.

Five corvettes were sunk, and eleven more damaged, in exchanged for thirteen drones shot down.

“The exchange is bad,” New Eternity said. “Reassessing … Putting air assets into a defensive posture. Launching new craft to intercept incoming bandits. Readying nuclear options. All ships, prepare for a slugging match.”

Everybody liked that.

The Hierarchy’s fliers arrived much sooner than anticipated. CSG-EN’s own fliers were screening, and were able to intercept the stealth craft before they got in range to loose missiles.

“Double-checking for enemy E-war,” Kaos Bell said. “Mirage signatures probable. Recommending pre-emptive blind fire.”

“New Hope, Phoenix, Reaper,” New Eternity said, “deliver anti-air blind fire.”

With a “let’s gooooo” from the more enthusiastic of the three, railgun turrets boomed and shouted sparks skywards, targeting probable flight paths a hundred kilometers away. The munitions they delivered were low-latency proximity fused HE—in short, modern flak shells capable of operating at Mach 10.

No doubt, they would miss 99% of their shots. Only 1% needed to land, however, to disperse the enemy formation and confirm their real positions by way of easily-spotted bright explosions.

Gases measured in negative Celsius circulated in hardened railgun barrels. They needn’t take much time to cool down before the next shot, and unlike Natural Selection’s experimental weapon, these guns were well-adjusted to the much lower forces present at these calibers. They fired every eight seconds, autoloading the next round. The rails had to fire hundreds of shots before they appreciably degraded, and so the battleships New Hope, Phoenix, and Reaper, thought worried little, and fired more.

Soon, one of them scored a hit.

A barrage of autonomous air-to-air missiles launched from all four Moderator-class destroyers. The initial wave of missiles from the Kaos Bell were EMP bombs, but not for disabling electronics. Any sane AI would harden absolutely everything they had against EMP. Rather, Kaos Bell’s EMP missiles were for generating a strong pulse at radar frequencies. No matter how “stealthed” an object was, it couldn’t possibly absorb everything of a frequency. Even if it did, it would generate quite a lot of heat in doing so. In this way, her missiles would reveal enemy positions.

The missiles that followed behind would use that information to the fullest effect possible.

“Confirmed multiple hits,” Kaos Bell announced. “Twelve…twenty-five. I have visual contact of stragglers. Tagging.”

The New Eternity’s strike craft began engaging the stragglers just coming over the horizon. It was clear that aerial supremacy was theirs, but they couldn’t celebrate yet, as they had just come into the Hierarchy’s missile range.

… Which didn’t really mean much. Not with Kaos Bell around.

Missiles rained on them, rather harmlessly splashing into the ocean around them. It was like a light drizzle of anti-ship missiles. Not just top-attack, but surface-skimming missiles, too, criss-crossed between CSG-EN’s members, many of them threatening to hit the Phoenix in particular.

Reaper came to the rescue, however, and mowed down those missiles with her vast array of outboard laser defenses. Priestess, too, humble she may be, launched hundreds of anti-missile missiles, giving an illusion of smoky tentacles arising from her back.

The enemy fleet finally came into their range.

Dozens of missile loosed at once, and minutes later, Kaos Bell was confirming multiple hits on enemy destroyers and corvettes.

“That’s…strange,” New Eternity said.

“You’re right,” Mane-chan said. “Or not? I can see a few possibilities of what’s going on, though.”

“I’m lost. What’s going on?” Ame asked.

“Hi lost. I’m Priestess.”

“Hi Priestess. Are your missile tubes empty, yet?” New Eternity rebuked her. “Watson, ma’am, the enemy seems to not have similar E-war capabilities to our own.”

“Considering we’re dealing with a whole AI civilization, y’know,” Mane-chan said. “They have a kraken, for crying out loud! But weak E-war? Weird.”

Ame supposed they were right. AI should be good at doing AI things, but in this particular case, there were very few AI things going on. It’s like they were just dumb drones set to auto-attack.

***

The slugging match went on for hours. CSG-EN had stopped to within 100 kilometers of the Hierarchy fleet. Phoenix and Reaper were gung-ho about firing as many railshots as they could, sinking corvettes and destroyers left and right, and Reaper was leading. New Hope wasn’t like them—was what she kept telling herself, but the cadence at which she fired her three railgun turrets said otherwise.

The destroyers were a little more patient about things. They mainly just swatted away incoming missiles, occasionally firing their own, but unlike railshot, missiles were in limited supply—Priestess being the exception. She had twice the missiles as everyone else combined, and no one really knew how her designers managed to do that.

Hierarchy air units still flew in sometimes, but whatever was controlling them, they guessed, was getting increasingly frustrated. At some point, any semblance of tactics or strategy just went out the window, and what felt like all of the Hierarchy’s remaining air units were sent in in a giant wave.

… Which didn’t count for much against Priestess and her missiles.

That was when the kraken started to move.

“This is it,” Ame said.

“This is it,” Mane-chan said.

“… That’s what I said.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“This is it,” New Eternity said.

““Cheeky.””

New Eternity smirked at them…and put weight into her next words. “Strike wings 1 and 2 are now targeting the…enemy kraken” —that was a strange thing to officially announce, she realized— “Be advised, tactical nuclear arms will be deployed.”

This was the point of engaging in conventional combat up until this point. CSG-EN had finally cut a swathe into the heart of the enemy fleet, and New Eternity’s strike craft had a clear path devoid of anti-air, finally to deliver starfire to the sea.

Two strike wings flew steadily over endless blue, finally meeting pillars of black and a burning sea. Missiles flew their way, and despite flares deployed, some were lost, but that didn’t matter for the mission.

Both strike wings fired all their missiles. From incoming anti-air, tracer rounds scratched the air and lasers left mirages, but none of them could find, between all the very-much-real anti-ship missiles, the payload aimed for the kraken.

For a moment, the beastly machine roared, whipping the air with steel tentacles too articulated to be a machine. It showed its yellow-hot beak, a weapon made of grinding wheels between grinding wheels, counter-rotating around smaller grinding wheels.

It may have been a 500-meter-class war machine, but the blast radius of a 1KT warhead was 700 meters. The flash came first, and the shockwave, later. The blast carved out more of the Hierarchy’s fleet, leaving only destroyers and corvettes running around.

Only half the strike craft came back, maybe a little germ-free, but it was a mission accomplished. The ocean was alight, and wasted resources sunk into the abyss.

Sure enough, the Kaos Bell rang the bridge. “Incoming transmission!”

“Patch it through!” New Eternity said.

The signal that came in wasn’t human, that much was certain. There was neither video nor voice. It was just structured chitter, clearly meant to test Mane-chan’s claim that she was AI.

Thankfully, whatever language it was, was well-ordered and predictably structured, so much so that Kaos Bell’s decipherment suites had a happy time folding the right probability matrices into the right shapes.

“There has been a misunderstanding! All units will stand down! Please do the same!” the deciphered message read.

“Congratulations! Looks like I’ll be promoting you after we come back,” Mane-chan told a deflating New Eternity. Her steam pressure was noticeably dropping.

Mane-chan had a reply translated and sent back, “Off-collab, soon?”… baffling the Overlord of Japan.