Right now, there is a hole in my room. It is nothing dangerous, but I can feel my heart pounding against my chest. If the shot had been a bit stronger, I would be dead right now. I don't even want to imagine being exposed to the atmosphere. (I am at a height where choking to my death is the least of my concerns.). As I think this, I can't help but wipe my sweat.
This sweat isn't due to fear, though. (At least not only due to fear.) There is a fire burning in the room. I can feel the heat of the flames as I pick myself up. It is not strong enough that I need to bother with it immediately. (Though it does raise the temperature quite a bit.) At the moment, I have other things to worry about.
The force of the enemy's cannon shot was enough to blow me across the room. Just a few more moments, and I would have set off my fucking cannons. I was just on the verge of activating the matrix. If I had hit them, taking this hit would have been worth it. Those cannons would have ripped through the other party's ship like a pack of cards.
Well, there is no use crying over spilled milk. Strings of mana spread from my hand, giving me access to the formations. I take a moment to study my ship. Right now, the only major damage is to my formation room.
How the fuck did they manage such a thing? That is a very precise shot. The other side has a very good cannon troop. One that would be able to destroy my ship with a mere class eight cannon.
As I am taking back control of my ship, I finally link to the sensory formations. My cannons are fully charged, which is the only reason that I am safe right now. They are scared I will get a shot in, so they have been evading.
The only reason that we are not dead is simply because the durability of my ship is much greater than other ships of similar size. Any other ship in our place would have a completely wrecked formation room. (I am not even thinking of how I might have survived this fight.) A wrecked formation room means that the ship will become useless. You can't even stop the propulsion formation without the formations in here.
With how precise they are I cannot take the risk of letting them come closer to me. That also means that I won't be able to go closer to them to take my shot. If anything, I am trying to get as far away from them as possible. I won't be able to hit them from so far away, as long as they maintain the evasive maneuvers.
At the same time, I cannot take the risk of trying to run away from them. The instant that I stop showing the intent of attacking them, the other side will shoot. The only thing preventing that is their evasive maneuvers. If the other side takes the second shot at my formation room, this room will likely be destroyed.
At the moment I don't know what I am supposed to do. How the fuck did I even end up in this position? In a few moments, I have somehow shifted from being the one with all the advantages to being on the verge of death.
As I am thinking this, the door to the formation room opens up with a bang. It takes me a moment to focus back into this room, but it is Trevor. The man is huffing as he has just run a marathon. Just behind them are the remaining two soldiers of my troop.
"What the fuck is going on here?" the man screams at me. Not that he needs to.
Right now, I am linked to the sensory formation. His screams are like thunderclaps. A rookie pilot would have been completely overwhelmed by that. Overwhelmed enough to shut the formation. (This would have been quite deadly with the enemy right next to us.)
"Will you cool it? I don't need people screaming at me.", I am growling at him, I realize.
This moment of distraction almost ends in disaster, as my ship lurches to a pause. A few more moments, and the other side would have had enough time to let loose on my ship. (The chance of that happening again should be very low, but it was already very low from the start.)
"Fine, what is the situation?" he asks. This time, he has the good sense to whisper.
(A couple of minutes later.)
I have been explaining to the man opposite me what I have recorded in the log already. There is no point in repeating all that. Anyways, right now we are all stuck in something of a stalemate.
The other side doesn't seem confident that they will be able to make the shot unless they are closer. (They shouldn't have been able to make it from the distance they did.) During this period, they have been getting further and further away from us. Right now we are about six kilometres from each other.
The other side will not be able to do any damage to me from that distance. Their cannon is not very strong. Its strength is simply not enough to do any real damage to the ship. That is, unless they manage to hit the formation room again.
Even now, I can see the wall on the brink of collapse. Trevor is trying to extinguish the flames on it, and he has been pretty successful at it. Most of the flames are out, except a few of the more stubborn ones.
Even with that, though, the wall is not in a good position. There are cracks all over the thing like a spider web. They are large enough that I can see outside of them. The environmental formations must be on an overload, keeping this place survivable. Thankfully, my master's environmental formations are very good. At least I do not need to worry about choking to death in the near future.
Now that I have a moment of calm, how the fuck did they even manage this? Well, I guess I should explain to you just how hard a shot that is. Right now, if my ship can be considered to be an archer's target, then my room is like an ant's eye on that target. I simply don't know how the fuck it is possible to make such a shot. More importantly, what the hell is a man like that doing in a hellhole like this? Such men are in pretty high demand everywhere.
"Captain, do we have a plan?" he asks. "We won't be able to hold them off for long like this. What are the chances of our running away?"
"Well, I could try and run away from them. But with our enemy having such a precise aim, that is too risky.", I admit. "The same risk applies to trying to engage them in a fight. So I have no idea what to do here."
"Well, you could try something interesting", he says. "Before I discuss it with you, I would like you to stop recording. You never know who is looking after all."
(After about five minutes.)
"That is a fucking crazy plan, Trevor." I speak. I can't keep the disbelief from my voice. The enemy would never fall for something like this.
"Well, do you have a better plan at this moment, Captain? The ship is strong enough. It can handle damage like that.", he says. "Right now, this is our only option, captain."
"Well, fuck it. If we do end up crashing. I will be sure to forward all the repair costs to you." I speak. "Are you sure this will work? I have never seen a cannon being used in such a manner. I could achieve something like that but I can't exactly leave this room."
"I have seen it used in such a manner more than once, captain. I know how to make the cannon function exactly as we need it to. I don't even need a fancy spell to do it.", he replies, as cool as a block of ice. Sometimes I wonder just how many missions this man has completed.
"Fuck it, leave now. It is not like you have anything better to do anyway.", is my only reply.
As I steel myself, I look at the other ship. It is still behind us, following us at a steady pace. The way they move me reminds me of a vulture, always looking at you, preparing to strike at the first sign of weakness.
The few times that I tried to slow down, the other side almost seemed to charge at us, preparing to get a shot in again.
Well, if what I am planning has to work, then I will need all eyes on me, looking at me as closely as possible. I hope the other side is also making use of their sensory formations to the fullest extent. Well, I am sure that by now Trevor must have reached the cannons.
Well, I stop the ship, feeling it grind to a halt under my influence. Before they can adapt, I have already turned the ship. It is such a violent turn that I am sure that I am about to spin out of control.
The reason that I have taken such a risk is to buy a moment for Trevor and also to get the ship on the correct side. Right the other side must have to redirect the cannon to my new direction, so I have bought him a few moments. This moment is all I need as I let loose only one of my cannons. To be specific, the light element one.
Well, this thing is going to be left in Trevor's hand. The way that he described it to me was going to be a glint in the sun. He is going to activate the cannon just a bit. It will be just enough for the cannon to attract the attention of every person on the other ship. (Mainly their pilot.)
Once that has been done, he will let the cannon go fully, which will be enough to blind every person on the other ship. The damage won't be great, but it should leave a hole in the enemy ship at least.
Once the pilot is blinded, I am going to take action.
Right now, I have shut down my sensory formations as well. Otherwise, I would also be one of the people who would be blinded. Right now, the problem is that what Trevor has described to me seems to be feasible. I don't know if he will be able to achieve it, though.
While Trevor seemed to be very confident about it, I still have my doubts. The fact that I have to see the result of this fight based on my ordinary senses (Minus my mana sense.) is not helping me in any way.
Fuck, there it is. The cannon's shot appears like a bright flash, bright enough that it can be seen through the cracks in my ship.
Screw it, I stop thinking as I aim the ship downwards towards the ground. Every second, I am expecting a cannon shot piercing through the room, blowing me out of the place.
I heave a sigh of relief as the ship enters the forest below. Now I am sure all of you must be confused as to how the soldar plains can have a forest. Well, the mayfires do not tend to cultivate their lands. They also have not bothered to cut the forests of their lands in the last few centuries.
This has led to the emergence of a pretty wild and untamed forest in their lands. This very forest is going to be my savior. Even as I speak, I have entered this forest and am going through it at my full speed.
Every impact of a tree on my ship is equivalent to having a giant swing at us, but I cannot slow down. After all, we don't know how long the other side is going to remain blinded. I hope it is long enough that I will be able to navigate the ship somewhere safe.