Chapter 89: Round Two, Start!

  Abyssal and company followed their predetermined evasive routes and awaited Sensenmann to strike at them. The crew of each ship were on high alert, their weapons were warmed up and ready to fire at a moment’s notice. They monitored their radars, their cameras and various other detection instruments in order to catch the slight movement or appearance of Sensenmann the Reaper from Crimson Blood. The only sounds that permeate through the S.A.S. Abyssal was the repeated sonar-like sounds, the occasional tapping noise from crew managing their stations and the sounds of the engines.

  They waited and waited for what seemed like hours. Yet, nothing seemed to happen. No follow up attacks from Sensenmann nor there were any signs of her ghostly remnants at all. It was the normal sight of five different ships traversing a cold dead space waiting for something to happen. Needless to say, it was a stressful wait with the fleet being on alert for an extended period of time. Abyssal could feel her own stamina draining away as time went on. This was despite the fact that she was just a cloud of nanites surrounding a skeleton core with almost unlimited energy. Physically, she could probably go on for weeks, maybe months, but mentally, she couldn’t imagine having to do this for even a day.

  ‘Perhaps, this is a weakness of a core that has attained awareness?’ Abyssal thought to herself.

  Abyssal hugged her drone, Kaon, as she observed her surroundings. She sat in her chair with an anxious feeling. The whole bridge was eerily quiet as everyone was concentrating on the situation. Nobody was talking through the open communication and no one in the bridge was moving around, just looking at the bridge monitors and displays with anticipation. Kuon was helping Abyssal monitor her surroundings while Meica was just hugging her knees as she sat down in her seat quietly so as to not disturb the others.

  “Um. You guys detect anything so far?” Abyssal asked awkwardly, unable to stomach the silence any longer.

  Astral was the first to respond. She did so with an uninterested tone, with her not even bothering to look at Abyssal. “Nothing here.” She said as her eyes were stuck to the displays in her cockpit.

  Jinko was the next to reply. She didn’t say anything in words, merely shaking her head from side to side.

  “Nothing to report here.”

  “Presence of enemy: nonexistent.”

  Hikari and Yoake replied almost immediately after Jinko.

  “Could it be that she isn’t here anymore? Maybe she left after that failed attempt?” Abyssal asked another question.

  “Nah. She’s out there somewhere. I’m detecting weird energy fluctuations here and there. She’s doing a good job trying to flatten it, but she needs to do better if she wants to go undetected. Just keep your eyes open. It’s just a few more hours,” Astral replied. She was quick and concise about it with no condescending tone in her voice. It was unusual for Abyssal to see Astral this serious of an attitude. In the past few weeks that she had met her, Astral had always been a laid back person always complaining about things. It was as if the person in front of her was a different person.

  “How sure are you guys so sure that she’s still around?” Abyssal asked another question.

  “Blue Abyssal, why would a predator leave when they are so close to their prey? She is just waiting. Being patient is a predator's strong point after all. For us to win this, we must be, if not more, patient than that murderer,” Jinko replied, emphasizing the word murderer.

  ‘Murder, huh. That’s some pretty strong words…’

  “You say that, but what is she waiting for?”

  “She is waiting for the weak to panic and abandon their positions. Being wary can also inflict quite a demoralizing effect to the defenders.“

  “But are we going to panic? Just eight hours ain’t going to do much to our mental health... I don’t see any difference if she attacked now or four hours in the future. By that time we are going to just warp to the next location, aren’t we? If she’s looking for a chance to strike, then why did that premature attack in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better for her to just… lurk around us without us knowing?”

  “Indeed, you have a point there. The thought has come to my mind from the beginning. Why attack us? Why reveal herself to be here. But alas, I don’t quite know the answer.”

  “I see…”

  “Blue Abyssal,” Jinko called out.

  “Ah? Yes?”

  “What is your theory?”

  “Theory?”

  “Yes. Why did the Reaper reveal herself like that? I want to know your thoughts in particular.”

  “Well… Maybe she made a mistake?”

  “...” no response nor a change in Jinko’s expression.

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  “... Maybe she wants us to know that she’s the one that’s attacking us?”

  “Hoh? Are you saying that she is playing with her prey?”

  “That, and she’s probably studying us. She probably wants to catalog our skill and capabilities for future reference of sorts. Our movements, our actions… She did the same to me when we first met,” Astral added to the conversation.

  “Studying us? ...Interesting. I must admit I am a little bit irate at being treated like this. Truly a person with no honour.”

  “There are times when one fight with honour and times where honour gets in the way, Commander Jinko,” Yoake replied.

  “Indeed, Yoake. That is true,” Jinko said with a smile as she took a sip from her cup. “Still, if all she wants is to study us, then she is merely wasting our time.”

  And with that, the entire place went silent again. Silence that Abyssal thought would go on for the next few hours. However, that situation was not meant to be, as not too long after, she let out a weird noise.

  “Hmm? That’s weird,” Abyssal looked towards her sides.

  “What’s wrong?” Astral asked.

  “I feel strange. A little bit nauseous. Like you know that feeling when you move through a room with strong magnetic fields and you just feel sick? Or that feeling when your nanites are clashing with another core’s nanites? Yeah it feels about similar,” Abyssal tried to explain.

  “Haah?! Speak proper language, I can’t understand you.”

  “I don’t know… I can’t really describe how I feel alright! It’s like there is something disgusting next to me. I don’t know how else to explain…”

  “What kind of answer is that? Have anyone told you that you are weir—” Astral was about to respond when suddenly she stopped halfway.

  The reason being that, like a phantom and out of nowhere, Sensenmann finally appeared. The worst part was that she appeared in a location the least expected by Abyssal— right beside her. The appearing ship was so close that she could feel the turbulence caused by the vortex that Sensenmann appeared from. The distance was close enough that Abyssal could see the details on her ship in full resolution— the symbol of a skull alongside other emblems on the ship. Another thing that Abyssal noted was that Sensenmann had all of her guns aimed right at Abyssal— big guns with all its glory and glamour.

  Abyssal had her eyes opened wide at the appearance, her nonexistent heart paused for a moment as she let out a shriek. The first thing that she did other than letting out an incoherent scream was to push her thrusters to their utmost limits, trying to avoid the guns before Sensenmann shot it.

  Abyssal, being lucky as she was unlucky, was saved by the bells when Jinko shot out her guns that were pre-armed and pre-aimed towards Abyssal— Abyssal who had been in front of Jinko the entire time. Six slugs of large projectiles shelled the smaller ship. Six large explosions were seen from the hull of the Sensenmann, the Reaper. Once the explosions and dust went away and vision restored, one could see the thin red layer of shield protecting the ship. Even though, Jinko’s guns were of a large calibre, the shells merely hit the shields, leaving little to no damage on Sensenmann.

  Although the attack proved ineffective, it bought enough time for Abyssal to move out of the way and perform evasive maneuvers. Unlike Jinko, it seemed that Sensenmann was not able to attack when her shields were up. The assault didn’t let up as Hikari, Yoake and Astral who noticed this, piled up on the appearing Sensenmann. Assault of red lasers and mass-based projectiles shelled the boxed-shaped destroyer. Unable to temporarily turn off her shields, Sensenmann just stood there, taking the brunt of the attack.

  Probably noticing her missed opportunity, a vortex appeared and swallowed Sensenmann into the Abyss. The situation went back to an empty unassuming state.

  “My theory seemed correct. She cannot attack while that curtain is protecting her. It is an older technology,” Jinko said to everyone.

  “There is a short cooldown before she could use her vortex thingy as well. About fifteen seconds,” Astral added.

  “Indeed. However, fifteen seconds is barely enough time for us to line up a devastating shot to pierce through those shields.”

  [Incoming barrage of missiles.] Abby sent out a notification warning Abyssal of an incoming attack from Sensenmann. It was a swarm of roughly three hundred missiles appearing from three different directions.

  It seemed that everybody else noticed this and began to engage their point defence system. The skies around the joint-fleet lit up as white bright explosions occurred all around them. Not a single missile. Peace was short as not too long after that, another barrage of missiles was detected— this time from different directions. The joint fleet engaged their point defence systems and disposed of the incoming missile barrage. Again, directly after that, another barrage of missiles appeared and engaged the joint fleet. The cycle continued with endless missile barrages engaging the fleet and the fleet disposing of them.

  “Jinko-Senpai! I’m detecting two extra entities around the battlefield. Missile platforms! Wait… there are more, three appearing on our aft!” Hikari reported after several cycles.

  True to her words, several box shaped platforms could be seen in the distance, launching several hundred missiles towards Abyssal and the others. The boxes then engaged in some sort of cloaking field before disappearing from the battlefield. A few moments later, the platforms de-cloaked themselves in an entirely different position on the battlefield.

  As if predicting that everyone would be concentrating on the platforms, Sensenmann decided to appear once again. This time she appeared very near to the fleet, in a totally different direction of the missile platforms and launched her own barrage of hundreds of missiles. This barrage was accompanied by several large homing torpedoes aimed towards Abyssal.

  Luckily, Astral was already prepared and moved to a good position, taking care of the missile barrage from Sensenmann while the others dealt with the missile barrage coming from the missile platforms. Once the missile problem was settled, Astral launched several large beams of lasers towards the torpedoes and the destroyer. This attack was supplemented by Abyssal with her own salvo of lasers towards the destroyer. The torpedoes were struck down but the attack on Sensenmann, unfortunately, proved to be ineffective as Sensenmann merely tanked the shot and disappeared into the abyss once again.

  “Of course that wouldn’t work…” Abyssal muttered out.

  “Dammit, this bloody ship,” Astral cursed as she redirected her focus on providing point defence. More and more missiles approached their location.

  Meanwhile, on the Dawning Star side, Jinko, Abyssal and Hikari had managed to predict and calculate the appearance of the missile platforms. Jinko launched salvo after salvo of shells into the unknown skies and several separate explosions could be seen in the distance, signifying the destruction of the missile platforms. However, no matter how many they destroy, more and more missile platforms will appear to take their place. Sensenmann would just appear and create more platforms while launching seemingly unlimited missiles towards the fleet. The endless numbers seemingly trying to overwhelm the joint fleet.

  The battle continued to rage on for what seemed like an extended amount of times before Abyssal yelled out openly.

  “HOW MANY MISSILES DOES SHE HAVE?!”