"So it all depends on you, Helena," Saratoga said with a bright smile, clinging to Helena's arm. "The entire team is counting on you for anti-air and detection."
Technically, carrier shipgirls also had strong detection capabilities—they used their aircraft as scouts, which gave them long-range and accurate recon. But Helena had a god-tier detection skill, and even Saratoga had to admit it was impressive.
Helena hesitated. "It's too risky. I think we should prioritize completing the Commander's mission."
Saratoga turned to Bismarck. "You're the secretary ship and the squad leader. What do you say?"
"Plan two," Bismarck replied crisply. "We need to weaken the enemy forces to prevent them from attacking the base."
No one wanted their naval base to get hit. Helena didn't object to Bismarck's call either.
Prince of Wales added, "Not sure how many level-100 Abyssal flagships we'll face. But as long as there aren't more than twenty, and none of them are some bugged-out freak like Abyssal Barbarossa, we should be able to take them."
Prince of Wales hadn't hit level 110, but she had passed the level 100 mark and could go toe-to-toe with any flagship of that tier. The other four girls were all level 110, more than enough to suppress standard Abyssal flagships.
Plus, the base currently had ten elite damage-control fairies. The five of them had each been assigned one—that was their biggest trump card.
With the plan decided, Saratoga and Ranger launched scout planes while discussing tactics with Bismarck and the others.
Yamato stood awkwardly off to the side and pointed to herself. "What about me? What am I supposed to do?"
Bismarck glanced at the battle plan and said, "Just survive the bombing."
"I hate carrier aircraft! I hate Abyssal carriers!"
Under a storm of incoming ordnance, Yamato wailed while clutching her head, running frantically across the violently churning sea.
Tens of thousands of Abyssal bombers and torpedo planes rained down from the sky, dropping waves of bombs and torpedoes like ominous black clouds.
The sea roared and trembled under the relentless explosions. Countless sea creatures, stunned by the shockwaves, floated belly-up—only to be blown to bits by the next bombing wave.
Steam rose from the surface—billions of tons of seawater were being vaporized.
In the face of such intense air raids, Yamato didn't have time to distinguish between different types of bombs, or to figure out which ones she could tank and which would definitely hurt.
Her mind was consumed with just one word: dodge, dodge, dodge.
When it came to stats, J-type and G-type shipgirls were not known for their anti-air. Historically, the Yamato-class battleships were sunk by aircraft—so every version of Yamato harbored both fear and hatred toward planes.
Yamato cast a sideways glance at Bismarck and felt a pang of bitterness.
Unlike her own mess, Bismarck, Saratoga, and Ranger were strolling through the rain of bombs as if it were a garden walk.
They even had the leisure to analyze which bombs were basically harmless, then intentionally take a few hits to fake being seriously damaged.
Yamato spaced out—and didn't notice a small palm-sized bomb slip through the rising steam and land right on top of her head.
Boom.
A fireball engulfed her entire body.
Through the thunderous barrage, Saratoga and Ranger shouted at each other:
"Is she heavily damaged yet?!"
"Not yet."
"She's close though."
"Alright, then we counterattack in ten minutes. Don't want her to get actually killed."
Yamato burst out of the fire.
One of her cannon barrels was twisted from the blast. Her clothes were in tatters, and her hair—let's not even talk about it—looked like a bird's nest.
She spat out a puff of black smoke and let out a long, miserable sigh.
"I hate this so much!"
Yamato was mentally breaking down.
If we're talking poor anti-air, there were two others here who were statistically worse.
Bismarck, for example—historically, one of the biggest jokes was her 37mm manual-loading AA guns. The twin-barreled, hand-cranked cannons had a rate of fire around 30–40 rounds per minute and were infamous for being unable to hit even ancient Swordfish biplanes.
In the shipgirl registry, Bismarck's base anti-air stat was a laughable 25!
To put it in perspective: Prince of Wales, also infamous for being sunk by air attack, had an initial anti-air stat of 52—not great, but still miles ahead of Bismarck.
[End of Chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]