The battle that everyone had anticipated had arrived. The modern Kansens' psychopath and Iron Blood's psychopath had crossed paths in what could be called the battle of the crazies.
Laffey-200, with her M134 Minigun proudly sponsored by General Electric (because it spins to make things disappear).
Roon, with her MG-42, proudly representing the Mustache-Man's buzz-saw.
Both Psychopaths stared at one another, as if a mutual understanding formed in the language of murder, each proudly presenting their nation's death machine with a glee that even their colleagues questioned such ecstasy.
As the tension between the two heated up like standing in front of a furnace, Eugen spoke. "So, you're the one who injured Hakuryuu, in Pearl?" Her voice sounded doubtful, but the intense pressure coming from her made her take it more seriously.
"Sorry, your intense gaze meant nothing compared to the situation you were in," she said, as if searching for a window of opportunity to strike, but finding none.
Eugen's brows twitched as she noticed that her radio and radars were glitching and not working properly. She surmised that it was electronic jamming, but the scale was palpable; her radio smoked from short circuits. "Scheisse!" she muttered, as the connection was cut.
Laffey-200 didn't respond, only staring at her 'menacingly'. She and the others just stared at each other for minutes, until one of them spoke.
Z-1 spoke, feeling uneasy with the tension that made even her hair stand on end. "Why do I hear Eagle screeching in my head?"
"Hahahaha. We surround you, six to one," Roon laughed, as if mocking the front she was putting up.
"I love those odds," Laffey-200 responded in kind with her own lifeless monotone voice. Everyone tensed up and was confused by her response and the tone she implied.
"What???"
"Is she gone mad?" Z-1 reeled at the absurd response.
"It means... Laffey can shoot in any general direction."
"Let's see about that!" Graf Zeppelin was the first to break the staring contest, her flight deck Rigging raised as she launched her Navalized Version of the Me 262, armed with mounted rockets under its wings.
Eugen, Roon, Odin, and Z-23 followed suit, opening fire with a large barrage of their main gun turrets. Laffey-200 countered the incoming attack with her M-134 Minigun, intercepting all the incoming shells with a row of bullets.
Her CLaWS swiveled in front to intercept and shoot down the Me 262 flying towards her, the concentrated heat melting the airframe like plastic.
Z-1 used this opportunity as the 'Bunny' was being distracted by the others. She jumped to her back, thinking it was her blind spot. "Gotcha!"
Z-1's surprise attack failed; she didn't notice the small box with 21 holes swiveling to face her direction. One hole popped a cover, and a rocket fired towards her.
Odin was quick to move and shielded Z-1 with her armor. Her Rigging was scratched from the explosion, the plating charred and dented. The smoke settled, and Odin and Z-1 were unscathed.
"I'm alright," Z-1 bellowed, telling them she was unharmed.
Z-23 breathed a sigh of relief as Z-1 contacted them to confirm her state. "Z-1 is still and unharmed it six of us against her..." she remarked.
Odin fixated her gaze on Laffey-200, who returned the same gaze with the same message. Odin couldn't grasp what level of chaos this Bunny could bring, but the attack she deflected was only a scratch on the surface.
"Did she just shoot down my planes with... Siren Tech?" Graf Zeppelin asked in confusion, seeing the same laser weapon used by the Sirens in the Modern Kansen's hands.
"Seems like it... or not," Eugen said, unsure about the origin of the weapon they just saw in action.
"HAHAH. Let's see what you got!" Roon lit up everything as she raised her MG-42 and spewed fire like a buzz-saw in action, showering lead.
Laffey-200 returned fire with American policy in mind, two lines of lead crossing each other's path. The two psychos rained lead on each other like spewing unauthorized fireworks, everything in their path shredded as bullets whizzed past.
Eugen, Graf Zeppelin, and Z-23 moved in separate ways to avoid getting taken out by the whizzing bullets.
Unable to use radar to guide their aim, everyone was forced to aim with their sight. Z-23 and Eugen had to precisely aim their shots with their eyes, and their shots missed their targets.
Graf Zeppelin launched her planes armed with Fritz-X bombs, to her surprise and total ignorance of the jamming capability of a Modern Destroyer. Her Fritz-X bombs were useless as unguided bombs, slamming into unintended targets.
"What?! How? How did she?" she frantically asked why her Fritz-X guided glide bombs failed to hit their targets.
Eugen bellowed, "Graf! Her jamming is too strong, it can fry your electronics!" she warned of the danger of the jamming.
Graf Zeppelin only noticed her mistake as she was engrossed in the battle; her radios and radar were all smoking. "Damn it," she cursed.
Z-23's voice cut in over the raised voices of the two. "MISSILE!"
Two BGM-109 Tomahawk Missiles flew towards them, their AA-guns lit up to intercept. The detonation sent them all flying off the water as the shockwave blew them away.
Laffey-200 turned her attention to the three, as the others were been dealt with. Her engagement with Roon didn't pause, as both continued to spew lead at one another. Their tenacity was off the charts, with everything around them exploding from the unregulated amount of bullets being thrown aimlessly.
Roon, like a waifu on crack, never let go of the trigger of her MG-42, unleashing all her bullets as if the end of the belt magazine would never come.
Laffey-200 strategically aimed her M134 Minigun, maneuvering amidst the wrecks of the Siren Ships. Her aim was precise, targeting each Shark Rigging that the Iron Blood Girls used as cover.
Z-1 moved out of the line of fire of the two psychos, feeling like a child in the middle of an Airsoft Gun battle where everyone else was geared up. She felt like a child lost in the game with a revolver in hand, as everyone else went full-auto with unlimited ammo.
"Better to get out of here," she deduced to herself, not wanting to end up as Swiss Cheese from the whizzing bullets. Bad luck for her, she was stuck in between.
Odin summoned her lightning and struck, but her aim was off, as her Radar and Analog Electronics were all smoking from the heavy jamming.
Laffey-200 had all the advantages of electronic jamming and accuracy, as her AEGIS Combat System predicted all incoming attacks. But with all her technological advancements, she was surrounded. Surrounded she might be, but she now had a reason to fire everywhere a threat might pop up.
Her eyes glowed red with the ecstasy of battle, feeling the need to finish this exchange without missing a target, she launched more missiles. BGM-109 Tomahawk Cruise Missiles and ESSMs at the Iron Blood Shipgirls.
Z-1 ran out of her cover as the Siren wreck she used was blown to bits. Odin received massive damage to her Rigging as she tanked the raining Tomahawks. Luckily for her, her ammunition storage didn't catch fire, but sadly, her Rigging was inoperable.
She fell to her knees, taking damage, and Z-1 came to her aid, towing her out of the battle to regroup with the others.
Roon was unscathed, dodging and leaping over Siren shipwrecks, continuing the engagement with Laffey-200 in the language of bullets.
Both Psychotic Waifus with machine guns treated the battle like a pillow fight, with attacks thrown at each other with a whole new level of destruction.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! This is the battle I was looking for!" Roon crazily shouted, her inner demon coming out as she went full psycho.
Laffey-200 kept her M134 Minigun turning, not letting go of the trigger. "Same as me."
Roon's Shark Rigging opened its mouth, firing a concentrated blast. Her active defense system came to life, spewing metal radar deflectors and flares into the air.
After the attack passed, she retaliated with her own, but this one was painful. "My turn," she said, as one of her VLS cells opened.
From the canisters of her VLS cells, MAKO Missiles, a variant of the MAKO Missile family made to fire from ship's VLS cells, were launched.
The MAKO Hypersonic Missile, with its boosters lit up, screeched as it flew. Roon's Rigging was wrecked by the attack, even with her shields up.
The first attack broke her force field like bullets on a mirror, and the second penetrated her armor, destroying the face of her Shark Rigging.
"Ach! Damn you!" Roon shouted in anger as pain and rage surged through her. Not going down, she continued firing her MG-42.
As Laffey-200 was busy dealing with Roon, above, four navalized Me-262s dropped Fritz-X Glide Bombs in her direction. The four Fritz-X Glide Bombs Glided towards her with an eerie whistling sound.
Her RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile swiveled towards the incoming glide bombs, slamming into the threats with precise accuracy.
ESSMs flew out of their canisters to meet the Me-262s above, and four of the Me-262s exploded in the air and crashed into the ocean's surface with a big splash followed by secondary explosions.
Now that the aerial threat was dealt with, her attention shifted back to Roon. Roon seemed to be gone. A forced retreat? She deduced that someone like Roon wouldn't run from a battle.
~Temporary hideout~
Iron Blood Shipgirls: Eugen, Graf Zeppelin, Odin, Z-1, and Z-23 were all hiding in one of the wrecked Siren shipwrecks, big enough to house them with their Riggings. Odin and Roon's Riggings were in bad shape, having received substantial damage.
"Damn it!" Roon slammed her fist against the wall in anger, humiliated and, truthfully, defeated.
Z-23 and Z-1 tended to Odin's wounds, sustained from tanking a Tactical Tomahawk. She was lucky that her magazine was unscathed and didn't suffer ammunition cook-off.
"I was close to defeating her... why did you have to drag me here?"
Graf Zeppelin spoke, "Close to defeating her? She was close to killing you; your Rigging was damaged beyond repair."
Eugen, bruised, cut in between the two. "Enough, you two... we're all defeated," she said, trying to mitigate the rising tension.
"I can't believe she managed to beat down Roon and destroy our electronics," Z-23 muttered, lamenting their situation.
"Ja. I gotta admit, she's kinda scarier than Roon. And her red glowing eyes make her even more menacing," Z-1 said.
"What's our plan now, Eugen? I think we've collected all the data we need about the Modern Kansens' capabilities," Graf Zeppelin said, asking about their next move.
Eugen pondered their retreat and its complications. They couldn't just dash away; their presence would be detected and intercepted based on the missile technology. Fighting her head-on wasn't in their favor.
"We need a distraction," she uttered.
"Distraction???"
"Ja, a distraction."
"You can't be serious, right? I mean, she can see us even from her back; she has full detection all over her," Graf Zeppelin interjected.
"I say we face her directly and beat her from both sides; she can't react in time to that," Roon said, slamming her clinched hand into her palm.
"Have you forgotten that I almost got blown to bits with that kind of sneak attack?" Z-1 reminded them.
"We can't just wait here for her to leave; we have an injured," Z-23 said in concern.
As everyone descended into chaos, throwing out escape plans, and Roon suggested a frontal confrontation, Eugen pondered a real escape plan. She muted the rising chaos around her as she thought. Then, her ears caught a chopping sound in the distance. She raised a hand to silence them.
"Quiet down," she said, her voice low yet audible.
Everyone fell silent, confused by Eugen's sudden remark. It didn't take long for them to hear the chopping noise outside, the sound of chopping blades circling their hiding place.
"Did she find us already?" Z-23 inquired, shaken by the chopping noise.
"I think she's searching," Eugen said, her tone low and serious.
"It's circling the Siren wreck," Graf Zeppelin said, having a bad feeling about the chopping sound.
Two MQ-8D Fire Scouts circled the Siren Wreck, searching for the hiding Iron Blood Shipgirls. The two MQ-8Ds were tasked with finding them and flushing them out of their rat hole.
Their infrared cameras swept through the wreckage. Eugen peeked through a hole in the wreck, catching a glimpse of the MQ-8D. She described it as similar to their FL 282 Kolibri, with two ducted lift fans on its sides and one on its tail. At its wings' hard points were small rockets.
"A ducted fan," Z-23 said, her voice whispering.
A few moments later, the two MQ-8Ds left the area, their search yielding no results in the Siren shipwreck. As everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Z-23's radio crackled, as if being forced on.
"What the?!" she exclaimed.
"Turn off your radio, Z-23!" Eugen's voice went frantic, knowing they had been discovered.
"Oh, come on!!!!!!" Z-1 cried out.
*BOOOM*
Everything exploded around them as if they were being bombarded by artillery. The two MQ-8Ds turned their attention and bombarded the Siren shipwreck with their arsenal of Hydra Rockets and AGM-114 Hellfire Missiles.
They all rushed out of the Siren shipwreck like rats being flushed out of their hole, and as they escaped, the entire wreck exploded from another Missile Strike.
What followed was the familiar sound of whizzing bullets and trails of lead heading in their direction. Roon went into full battle mode, her MG-42 reloaded and greased. "Take this!" she cried out, her MG-42 spewing tracer rounds and normal bullets.
Graf Zeppelin launched her planes armed with rockets and Fritz-X bombs to provide air support for the raging Roon. Soon enough, she fired her four twin SK C/33 AA guns mounted on her Rigging.
The time for rest was over; the battle continued.
Laffey-200, with the help of her advanced Aegis Combat System, detected the incoming planes. She pointed her M134 Minigun at the planes. A distinctive high-pitched sound and a line of lead came from the rotating barrels, shredding the incoming aircraft along with their rockets and Fritz-X bombs.
Assisting her were her two MQ-8D Fire Scouts, joining the fray. Their Hellfire Missiles flew off their racks and headed towards them, and their chin-mounted machine guns spewed lead.
The two Z-Destroyers were targeted, as they were easy picking.
"I've had enough of this!" Z-1 cried out as one of the MQ-8Ds bullied her.
"Schiesse!" Z-23 fired her main gun at the flying terror. The MQ-8D, with its ducted fan, maneuvered out of the way of the frantically firing destroyer.
Z-1 and Z-23 were both sprinting for their lives as the two MQ-8Ds chased them like predators chasing their prey.
"Hey, why are you sailing beside me!" Z-23 cried out as the two drones were chasing them. "Let's separate!!!!!!"
Z-1 was reluctant, but went along with it, separating from Z-23. The other MQ-8D changed course and chased after her. "Why!!!!!!!! why are you chasing me!!!!!" she screamed.
~Back at the Daka Daka~
Laffey-200 went full-blown modern warship on them, with lasers, missiles, and her rotary cannon lighting up and echoing through the battlefield. Her M134 Minigun kept its rotating barrels red hot.
Roon was pinned down, shields up, cornered by the sheer volume of bullets from the M134 Minigun. The volume was insurmountable, with the bullets drawing lines of hot, bright lead.
"Graf! A hand here!" she bellowed for reinforcements.
"Hang on tight," Graf Zeppelin's voice boomed. She launched her Me 262s to rescue Roon from her pinned position.
Like usual, her planes wouldn't make it in time or even drop their bombs. The relentless CLaWS tore the Me 262s apart like paper planes in the air.
"Damn it!" she cursed, never in her life as a carrier feeling so useless without her planes landing a hit.
Odin was forced into melee and medium-range attacks; her main gun was inoperable from previous damage, leaving her Secondaries and Sword available.
She tried to close the gap for a melee attack, but the RIM-116 RAM was in her way, making her reconsider her attack.
"Damn it, I need to get closer on this one," she uttered, her breathing erratic as she slowly succumbed to her wounds. Her movements slowed as time passed.
In aerial support, Graf Zeppelin struggled to keep her squadron of Me 262s in the air. Every time she launched an airstrike or provided air support, this forsaken 'Death Bunny' wiped them out like they were nothing.
"Oh, come on! For fuck's sake! At least let me hit!" Graf Zeppelin shouted in anger.
"You're mine!" Eugen declared as she hopped onto a Siren shipwreck, her Turret Rigging pointed down at Laffey-200.
"You're finished!" she declared, spewing fire from each twin turret on her Rigging.
With the quick maneuverability of a Destroyer and 360° awareness, no scope, Laffey-200, with the tenacity of someone summoned to a Waffle House during a brawl, reacted.
"What the? – "
Eugen received a sneaker shoe to the face, courtesy of Laffey-200's high kick. Unexpected and unpredicted, she was kicked in the face.
-Remember the kick you gave to one of the Siren clones, Eugen?-
After the 360° kick to the face, Eugen was sent flying into a Siren shipwreck, leaving a hole upon impact.
"Eugen!" Graf Zeppelin, concerned about Eugen's well-being, disengaged from the fight to tend to her.
"One down. Five still remaining," Laffey-200 said, her voice cold, monotone, and lifeless.
Roon, lunging from a corner with her MG-42 blazing, shouted, "You'll pay for that!"
Both continued to exchange fire, bullets whizzing past each other. Both engaged in their typical exchange of messages through bullets. With the amount of lead they threw and dodged, both were just waiting for the other to run out of bullets first.
Like a comical timing, totally comical – both ran out of bullets at the same time, the muzzles of their killing machines reddening from the heat of spewing thousands of bullets.
"Out... of... gas," Roon said, huffing.
"No, not an option," Laffey-200 replied.
A moment of silence for the two as the muzzles of their weapons sizzled from overheating. After catching their breaths, they went to their secondary options.
Both Roon and Laffey-200 quickly drew their sidearms like in a duel. Roon pulled her Luger, Laffey-200 pulled her Desert Eagle.
Laffey-200 was the first to pull the trigger, striking Roon in the shoulder joint. The injury caused her to drop her Luger.
"Oh, come on! Even with that... you still have an edge," Roon complained, as if the game was rigged.
Good guess, because everything was rigged from the start.
"It's part of the system," Laffey-200 said emotionlessly. "That's two down then."
"Hey! I'm not out of the equation yet," Roon said, not liking being called inoperable. She was literally bleeding from the shot to her right shoulder, and parts of her body were bruised from flying shrapnel from her damaged Rigging.
Laffey-200 just looked at her like a harmless hamster squeaking for attention. She turned her attention to her next target.
"Hey! Don't you dare ignore me!" Roon called after her. "Hey! I'm not done with... you..."
Roon slowly succumbed to her injuries, her vision blurring and her breathing slowing. But even in her weakened state, she managed to cling to life, kicking death in the face, as she was too tough to succumb.
Z-1, during her relentless escape from the chasing MQ-8Ds, came across Roon in a state she wouldn't have imagined possible.
"Roon! Roon, are you alright?" she asked, assessing her health while helping her up. "Bastard got me... She's quick with pistols," she admitted.
"Well... by the looks of you, yeah. She got the upper hand," Z-1 teasingly said.
Siren Shipwreck
Outside the shipwreck, Graf Zeppelin supported Eugen as she walked, having been thrashed by the Death Bunny. Getting kicked in the face and slammed into a Siren shipwreck took a toll on her.
"Can you still move?" Graf Zeppelin asked.
"Ja... It's just my head spinning for some reason," Eugen said, feeling the headache from the kick.
As they were about to leave the infested waters with Siren shipwrecks, a familiar figure stopped them. They didn't need to know who it was; it was the Death Bunny herself.
"Good to see you're awake, princess. I guess you don't need a kiss for that. Now raise your hands in surrender," Laffey-200 demanded.
Eugen, still maintaining her cockiness, responded, "It'd be better to just shoot me than arrest me."
"Negative. Capturing you alive would be more beneficial than putting you in a coffin."
"You damn monster!" Graf Zeppelin shouted.
"I get called that often," she said, maintaining her emotionless personality.
"Guess I have to drag you ---"
Odin lashed out at her, immobilizing her. Odin's Shark Rigging, albeit damaged, still had some teeth left, and those teeth bit into Laffey-200's Rigging, making her unable to move.
"Go! Now! I'll handle her!" she shouted, bellowing them to escape while she could hold her off.
Graf Zeppelin didn't hesitate, dashing away while carrying Eugen. The two headed towards Z-23's Destroyer, making its escape at high speed. Her ship's boiler and machinery were put into full throttle to escape the Death Bunny's Missile range.
~Back at the two~
"Alright... just you and me... Come on!"
Odin declared as she locked herself to Laffey-200, immobilizing her. She couldn't hold her off for much longer, but it was enough to give the others time to escape.
Laffey-200 faced the warrior of Valhalla, as both stood their ground. "Move."
"Nein."
"You won't last long..." she said, seeing Odin giving her all to stall her and let the others escape.
"Nein... I won't let you..." she said before collapsing, her strength drained.
Laffey-200 looked at her with her typical bland expression, but behind those glowing red eyes, she acknowledged her sacrifice.
"This is Laffey, Primary Mission Complete. Secondary Mission Complete," she radioed back to the Task Force.
Laffey's Primary Mission: deter any Iron Blood shipgirls. Secondary Mission: capture one.
"Copy that, Laffey. Mission Primary and Secondary complete."
"Laffey requesting Medevac, ASAP," she said, her eyes on Odin.
Z-23's Ship
"AH, thank God we managed to get away from that monster," Z-1 said.
"Yeah..." Z-23 said, panting. "That damn Helicopter chased me like some sort of prey!" she yelled out her frustration.
At the bow of the destroyer, Eugen and Graf Zeppelin conversed.
"What now... Eugen?" Graf Zeppelin asked, as she finished applying bandages to Eugen's head.
"Our previous plan was to assess the Modern Kansens' capabilities... Now, we need to retreat to one of the closest territory we have in Asia in one whole," she said, her expression grim.
"But, we have this. This is our second goal," she said, brushing off the grim expression a moment ago as she pulled a folded blueprint from her pocket and showed it to Graf Zeppelin.
"It was Orochi's Blueprint," she said.
"So, this is what we were after?" Graf Zeppelin asked, her gaze fixated on the blueprint. A small smile formed on her face with satisfaction.
"JA. But, our real main goal is to steal this," she then waved Orochi's blueprint. "As the Sakurans are busy fighting Azur Lane... But thanks to PM Tojo, I was able to exchange it with our 'Top-secret projects', in exchange for Orochi's Blueprint."
Those Top-Secret Projects are now burning in one of the buildings that Enterprise-80 bombed in her initial strike on the Capital.
Graf Zeppelin gazed above the clouds and spoke. "Tojo, you damn bastard~." She smiled in satisfaction.
Then a massive fireball engulfed the 3rd main turret of Z-23's ship. Z-23 was lucky that the turret had depleted its ammo; otherwise, a chain reaction of explosions would have followed, splitting the Ship's Hull.
The whole ship rocked from the explosion, throwing everyone onto the deck. Z-1 groaned as her injured shoulder impacted the hard deck. Z-23 was also thrown and smacked against the ship's superstructure.
Eugen and Graf Zeppelin clung to the rail to avoid falling off the ship. Shrapnel and debris from the explosion littered the deck.
"She struck this far," Eugen exclaimed in surprise, as they were out of Sakuran territory.
Graf Zeppelin spoke. "Looks like Odin, now free, has focused her attention on us... Odin has been taken down," she said with sadness in her voice.
Everyone fell silent at the news. Odin was the one who wouldn't give up without a fight to the death.