Tessa quickly investigated. The data she’d received last week told her that the captain of the SSN-752 Pasadena was still Commander Killy Benjamin Sailor. “Sailor-san,” she groaned. “At a time like this...”
Tessa knew the captain of the Pasadena. She had happened to meet him entirely by coincidence at Christmas, a year and a bit ago. He would have simply known Tessa as a maid on the luxury liner they’d been aboard, of course... He surely never would have imagined that she was the captain of the Toy Box.
“Shall we engage?” Mardukas asked.
“We don’t have time,” said Tessa. “The Leviathans will be coming soon. Come right to 1-2-5. Flank speed.”
“Aye, ma’am. Come right to 1-2-5. Flank speed.”
They accelerated further, rushing the Pasadena’s starboard hull as if they were going to slam right into it. They didn’t have time to fire a torpedo into the Pasadena. Because soon—
“Con, sonar! Enemy torpedo detected, bearing 0-6-2! It came from Sierra-17!”
Here it was... coming from one of the Leviathans at the worst possible time. Tessa gave a quick order. “Target, Sierra-17! Fire torpedoes two and four!”
“Aye! Target, Sierra-17! Firing torpedoes two and four!”
The high-speed torpedoes streaked towards the Leviathans. At the same time, still plowing at full speed towards the Pasadena, they dropped their depth. Despite expecting to take a hit, Captain Sailor launched his own torpedoes without flinching, but the de Danaan was out of their homing range now. The Pasadena’s torpedoes rushed by a hundred meters above and to the left, while their own torpedoes streaked over the Pasadena and headed for the Leviathan beyond it. To liken it to a sword fight, Tessa had dodged the tip of Sailor’s slash, then stabbed at the assassin coming up behind him.
The Pasadena passed just over the de Danaan, close enough that they could almost hear Captain Sailor’s bellowing from a few dozen meters above.
“Enemy torpedo, distance six hundred! Five hundred! Our torpedo is nearing the enemy! Distance Two hundred! One hundred!” Their two torpedoes were nearing one of the Leviathans, which took evasive maneuvers.
“Distance fifty... Enemy hit!” There was an explosion. The shock wave rocked the de Danaan from several hundred meters away. They didn’t have time to confirm their achievement. They had to deal with the enemy torpedo heading right toward them first.
“Another enemy torpedo approaching! Distance, four hundred!”
Distance three hundred. Distance two hundred...
“Left full rudder! Maximum dive angle!”
“Aye!” The pilot turned the rudder sharply, banking it as far to the left as possible while slamming down the dive rudder. Though almost driven into a tailspin by the incredible turbulence, he kept the vessel skillfully under control and changed their course smoothly.
Distance one hundred fifty. Distance one hundred...
“All hands, prepare for impact!” Tessa shouted over the comm.
Distance fifty...
The enemy torpedo exploded.
Sousuke was almost to the hangar when he heard Tessa’s voice on the comm. Prepare for impact—
A few seconds later, he felt it as the lights went out. The wall to his right tilted toward Sousuke and sent him flying. The ceiling came crashing down next, and stopped short just before it hit him. In fact, the ship’s rocking had just bucked him so high that he’d almost hit the ceiling, but the situation was so chaotic that that was what it felt like. If Sousuke hadn’t been wearing his AS operator’s uniform, he might have broken a few ribs.
Immediately after slamming hard into the floor, he tried to pick himself up. It was still pitch black. Through his tinnitus, Sousuke could hear some kind of loud hissing; it sounded like a gas leak.
The emergency lamps were on. The path was lid up in red, and a pipe along the wall a few meters behind him was violently spraying some kind of mist.
“Ngh...” he groaned. What pipe was that again? he wondered. Is that water spraying out? It felt hot... He couldn’t be sure. Should he try to stop the leak? And if so, how? The ship’s internal systems were outside of Sousuke’s purview. He’d have liked to ask a nearby crewman, but they were on a skeleton crew right now, so there was nobody around to ask.
There was a phone ten steps away at the entrance to the hangar. The boat was still rocking. Sousuke tottered up to it and called the control room. After one ring, the damage control officer answered.
“Damage control here! Status?”
“Sagara here! I’m at—”
“I know the phone’s location! Status, now!”
Sousuke had been looking for a sign with the hall’s number, but immediately switched gears and gave his report. “No injuries! Five meters from the entrance to the hangar deck... I don’t know what it’s called, but there’s hot steam spurting out from some pipe! And—”
Before he could finish that statement, Sousuke heard a roar as water began gushing in from the wall beyond the pipe at issue, the spurt as wide as a human leg and with the force of a fire hose. The water collecting on the floor flooded toward him, and quickly reached his ankles.
“We’re taking on water from the portside wall!” he shouted into the phone. “It’s coming in hard...”
“Got it. Anyone else there?”
“Negative! It’s just me!” The water had now reached knee level, and was flowing into the hangar deck, too. Sousuke felt like it might drag him under.
“Retreat to the hangar immediately! I’ll close off that hallway!”
“Roger!” Before Sousuke could even respond, the watertight door began to close. He’d have liked to ask about the status of the battle, the extent of the damage, and if there were any wounded in other areas, but he didn’t have time; a door as thick as a bank vault’s was closing on him with terrifying speed.
Sousuke sloshed through the water, slipped through the gap in the watertight door and toppled into the hangar as the door closed behind him. The hangar itself seems dry, he noted. The space was as large as a school gymnasium. Normally it would have been packed full of ASes, transport helicopters, recon helicopters, and STOVL attack craft, but it was currently empty. All he saw was the Laevatein, one mid-sized transport helicopter, and various cargo containers and heavy machinery strewn about.
The maintenance crew and deck crew were no longer on board, and Sousuke didn’t see any other people present. Despite the epic battle around them and the tremendous rocking of the ship, there were no screams and cries to be heard. It was a bizarre sight.
The reverberations of battle echoed in the silence of the hangar.
Just then, a shipping container fell, landing right in front of Sousuke before sliding to starboard as the ship tilted again. If that had hit him straight on, he’d have been lucky to get off with a few broken bones. It was a good thing the cargo hold was uninhabited...
No, wait, he realized. It’s not uninhabited. There would be one person working here. “Lieutenant Sachs!” he shouted. Sousuke knew that he should be here putting the final touches on the Laevatein, but Sachs was nowhere to be seen.
“Lieutenant Sachs! Are you here?!” he shouted again, but received no reply.
Sousuke ran to the starboard side where the Laevatein was parked, still looking for Sachs. The fully loaded Laevatein, including its emergency deployment booster, was fixed in place in an AS’s traditional prostrate position, but the external generator unit that should have been next to it had toppled near its legs. It was the size of a large refrigerator, but was currently bent as if having fallen from a great height, and parts of its casing had come loose. There was also fresh blood on one corner of the unit.
“Dammit,” Sousuke cursed under his breath.
Something was lying beyond the crumpled generator unit. He probably hadn’t seen it before because the Laevatein’s leg was in the way. It was Sachs, in a puddle of blood, next to the dimly lit wall.
“Lieutenant!” Sousuke ran up to him. The man let out a soft groan as he grabbed his shoulders.
Sachs was still alive, but just barely. His chest had been crushed, and he was losing a lot of blood. The generator unit had gone flying after the explosion earlier, pinning him to the wall and stabbing him through with a protruding portion. A man with a less impressive build might have been killed instantly.