Happy New Year, thought I was dead right.
Now I take most of the blame for this long-awaited chapter, and yes, it's in two parts. Writer's block, plus laziness, made the perfect storm to sap away my motivation. However, I'm here and almost done with part 2. Most likely, it will be done within two days of this chapter being published.
Enjoy the chapter which has no Action, sorry but I'm saving the best for last!
Also, it will recap just a bit of the fight from a different Point Of View.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It all happened too quickly to digest what was actually happening.
One moment, it felt like they might actually win the defensive war, only for a mysterious entity to arrive with no clear intention.
Her blue eyes carefully scanned the physics defying structure that appeared in front of them, but that wasn't how it started.
5 unidentified objects suddenly appeared raising eyebrows among the kansens. The situation escalated even more as a sizable force split off from the rest of the combined fleet and set an intercept course for those objects.
Similarly, a call was made for 5 squadrons of jets to scramble from the carriers but that order came at the wrong time. All the carriers were spent and had to rearm and do emergency maintenance. The only carrier that could somewhat scramble jets was the supercarrier in the group even though she took the most punishment.
Shinano glanced over at her deck as her manjuus worked around the clock to arm 2 squadrons of her fighters. The situation got even more strange as she watched Ginga quickly move to her side and position herself in front of her almost in a protective manner.
Her worry grew even more as she watched her elder sister warp to the aid of her allies even though she was pushing past her limits. Minutes later some smaller explosions occurred as she focused on the clash only for her eyes to be filled with white as an impossibly large explosion clouded her field of view.
Her reactor immediately dropped in output since her sister was at the centre of that explosion, and with all those wounds, she feared the worst, but soon her fears were quelled as her sensors detected her sister's familiar energy, but something was different.
The beeping of her sensors increased in intensity until they stopped functioning entirely. This caused Shinano's tails to bristle as she watched a golden light pierce the blackness of space.
This sight didn't go well for Ginga as she shouted at Yamato over the radio to stop, to not sacrifice herself and in the end, to not leave her there alone.
Shinano's eyes widened as the true weight of what was happening pressed down on her.
Her radio crackled to life as she picked up a transmission from her elder sister.
"Ginga ... Take care of everyone." A brief pause followed before she spoke again. "Shinano ... forgive me for everything."
Tears pricked her eyes, making her blue eyes glossy. It wasn't fair for her to give up everything to protect everyone. Her gaze sank to the floor as she realised that the cycle of sacrifice wouldn't end. It had happened in the past, and now it was happening again right in front of her eyes, and it hurt.
A few moments passed until her radar blared to life as new contacts were detected relatively close to the ship. This caused her to look up just in time to see multiple giant explosions rip through the new enemies.
"No way," Shinano picked up a transmission from Ginga," How are they still alive?"
A look of confusion was on her face as one of her displays turned on to reveal a line of 5 ships that emerged from blue portals, and the weird thing was that the ship's insignia was similar, if not the same, as the one on Ginga.
A cascade of thoughts passed through her mind, but at the forefront of them all, she hoped that her sister was safe since she never saw the discharge that came from her firing her trump card.
Yamato's POV
Moments before her finger pressed on the trigger, she firmly closed her eyes before taking a deep breath and pressing the trigger, expecting her body to be torn apart, but after a couple of seconds, nothing happened, only for her to open her eyes and watch clusters of Gatalantis ships get obliterated in one salvo.
The blue wake in the explosion all pointed to it being possibly the deadly graviton spread shots, but that was impossible.
Multiple alarms were blaring in her head as all her power was being drawn from backups, her Wave Motion Engine all but silent.
Her fears or her hopes were answered as on her left she could see a familiar deep blue hull slowly edge forward, while on her right she saw a light blue hull inch forward too. She didn't want to believe it, but the pain stimulating her nerves all the more told her that this was real.
On her left were Aldebran and Apollo Norm, while on her right were Antares and Achillies it was just missing one ship to round off the fleet. Using the limited power at her disposal, she craned her neck slowly just in time to see the warrior herself edge out of the portal.
Her hull was remade anew for extra mobility and strapped onto her were 2 dreadnoughts giving her some serious firepower for the lead ship of the class, Andromeda-kai.
The ship continued forward, a blue glow covering the entire ship, making Yamato close her eyes, only for her to feel a pair of arms wrap around her. This shocked her, only for her to open her eyes and meet the gaze of the one ship that was meant to be her successor.
"Andromeda.." She was speechless in front of the super dreadnought. She wanted to say many things, but all her thoughts were abruptly cut off when Andromeda flicked Yamato on her forehead, sending her backwards at a slow speed.
"What was that for!" Yamato demanded as she angrily pointed a finger at easily the strongest ship in the theatre at the moment.
"For you almost killing yourself again. *sighs*. Do I have to save you in every universe?" Andromeda said with a small smile on her face as her sub engines lit, propelling her forward slowly.
Her red eyes, which were formerly blue, looked over Yamato's numerous injuries and the state of her rigging, making her smile disappear.
"Yamato ... you don't have to always sacrifice yourself to protect everyone," Andromeda said as the 2 of them slowly coasted to infront of Andromeda's sisters.
"And who decided that, Andy, even if I had to repeat this day, I would choose to do this over and over again to protect humanity. Even at the height of our power, we couldn't stop gatalantis, what makes you think this time is different, Andromeda?"
A smile plastered itself on Andy's face as her sub-engines stopped, her waist length black hair with red accents floating in front of her.
"This time is different because we are prepared this time."
As soon as she said that, multiple lights flashed behind her as fleets of dreadnoughts and E-class destroyers appeared.
To their left, the rest of the normal AAA Andromeda class ships warped out, being led by Amaterasu as her 10 shock canons were primed for a rematch; they were supported by multiple Asuka class dreadnoughts mixed in.
To their left, the rest of the unmanned BBB series and ZZZ warped out, filling that area with hundreds, if not more, in that space.
And to crown it all, the space left in between Andromeda's sisters, where they were at, crackled with immense energy as a new ship was punching its way through into their realm.
An enormous bow slowly emerged as a colossal vessel warped out into the world. The universe itself seemed to reject this vessel as the space around it distorted almost as if space itself was in a silent agony as the blue leviathan forced its way in. 3 prominent horns were present on its bow, followed by huge WMG that could put even Andromeda's twin WMG to shame.
Yamato's eyes slowly widened more and more as the massive craft emerged from the portal, and soon its main armaments popped out to reveal 6 massive triple barrel main guns, which came into view, followed by 2 smaller secondaries that were still triple barrel. Finally, its massive bridge appeared, followed by a pair of very large wings placed just below its waterline, making it look like a dormitory if viewed from afar.
On its aft section were 2 secondary and 2 main guns, rounding off its armaments as the colossal super battleship crossed their paths, the portal behind it closing off, and Yamato could see along its bow, illuminated with some lights, its name.
Blue Noah
Earth Federation Flagship 2220
Her face was left in a state of shock since in her entire service life, she never heard of a ship of this class nor was it in any plans she remembered. A chill passed down her spine as she wondered what it would take to push Earth to make a monster like that.
"Yamato, as I said, this fight will be different, and we intend to win this round. So.." Andy placed a hand on Yamato as the space beneath her distorted, "Get some rest."
A diamond pattern appeared at her feet as the space beneath her feet churned like water, and she was forcefully submerged into subspace. She tried to escape, but most of her systems were down for the count, and her backup power was running on fumes, making her easily captured.
She felt tiny hooks attach to her rigging, and through blurry eyes, she could see a cosmo hound light up its engines and tug her broken self a safe distance away. Once some time passed, the hound began to float, dragging her along with it until they finally emerged over a familiar city.
With its landing thrusters on full throttle, it gently landed her on a rooftop before submerging once more into subspace. At that point, Yamato didn't have much energy left to yell; thus, she closed her eyes and meditated, conserving the last bits of her backup power while her manjuu got to work doing emergency repairs where possible.
Sparks flew off her rigging as Yamato briefly opened her eyes and looked up at the sky erupting into multiple explosions as the war raged on and she could only hope that Andromeda wasn't lying.
EDF Forces
AAA-06
Amaterasu
She was the only ship of her class modified for a full frontal assault on her targets giving her 9 front facing guns and 1 at her rear giving a total of 10 shock canons which, to any enemy, would have invoked fear, but against Gatalantis, it was like a drop of water thrown at an inferno.
But her other function was a command battleship; if any ship had a chance to coordinate the chaotic battle, it would fall to her since she was better suited for it.
For most of the other ships, you could say that they looked like twins, the only difference being height sometimes and style of hair, even if everyone's was light blue except those who were lucky to get different paint schemes. The unmanned Andromeda variants were straight up twins, though if you look at their eyes, you would note the lack of any light since they had no crew and could only operate in a logic view, thus almost everyone unanimously decided to keep distance from them even if they shared the same hull.
Amaterasu was slightly different due to her mods and the time spent in the Time Fault; she was slightly taller than the others, even if they all had the same hull length, 444m, with a more developed body and longer hair around her shoulders, while for others, it would normally reach the neck region. Her eyes were, of course, a light blue colour, and her uniform was the standard UNCF captain's uniform.
For now, we could see Amaterasu in an elevator descending to her CIC (Combat Information Centre). She leaned against the cold, hard metal, her eyes closed, contemplating many things as she was going to face this hellhole all over again. A sigh escaped her lips as the elevator stopped and its doors opened.
The lights of the command well dimmed as Amaterasu stepped forward, the deck responding to her presence with a muted hum as systems were brought online, and in the centre, a large floor screen/projection came to life. She walked towards the centre where the projection of the immediate combat area was shown. Blue, white (allies), and hostile red light were each displayed on the map; her position on the map was illuminated with a bright golden glow.
She stopped at the centre of the projection. The glow illuminated her face, catching her glowing blue eyes that studied the multiple paths that both they and the enemy could take. Enemy formations pulsed a deep red coating their position due to the sheer number of ships in that area. Even after their first strike, they barely cut down their numbers, and this reminded her of the massacre they had in the defence of Earth in 2202.
Her first and last time in action.
Back then, she had hoped that they could somehow pull through due to the sheer number of WMGs being spammed at them together with the hundreds of ships that were pouring through from the time fault, together with some Gamilas forces. They held the line for some time and even managed to stop the advance for a good couple of days, but oh, how wrong she was. She put too much faith in their ultimate weapon, and when Gatalantis surged with numbers that shocked even her, they had already lost. She remembered vividly seeing her allies and friends drop like flies, some being gutted apart by Eaters, while she had the unlucky effect of being blown apart in her bottom midsection by an annihilation missile.
She could only watch as the enemy steamrolled past them towards Earth. She had failed, and that loss had followed her even to the afterlife, always thinking of what she could have done better.
Amaterasu drew a slow breath and let the memory settle, not pushing it away, not indulging it. The past was a nightmare that held her by the neck, but this time would be different. This time, they would face the monsters at their door and win.
"This time," she said quietly, voice steady in the empty chamber, "we strike first."
She raised her hand and focused on the enemy formations. The system responded instantly, zooming into the enemy formation. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of Calaklum battleships with some Gostoke sprayed at the front carrying their dangerous payload of missiles and at the rear were some Apocaplix carriers that carried those Eaters and some fighters. Her eyes narrowed, her focus sharpening on those carriers as she was planning, more and more ships were warping in, easily dwarfing the number of ships in the battle for Saturn.
"Andromeda," she said, opening the channel. "Report."
Since she was taking command, she might as well make full use of it.
"Andromeda here, Amaterasu."
Amaterasu focused on the rear capital ships, which, if not dealt with swiftly, would bring a headache later on. That's why she needed a ship that could strike fast and run, Hit and Run.
"Andromeda, take charge of the ZZZ fleet," she ordered. "Warp straight into the rear of the Gatalantis forces and take out their capital ships in a 2 pronged formation, one from the top, another from the bottom and make it delayed. Once done, get out and regroup. You'll be in charge of hunting down any capital ship that appears, and for the rest, have them flank the enemy "
A fractional pause, then:
"Understood."
She shifted the display again to focus on the frontal ships, which were a huge multilayer formation of Calaklum ships. But she knew just a ship to take charge of this, and it glowed a dark blue hue with a sharp icon—Blue Noah.
"Blue Noah," Amaterasu said. "You are the tip of the spear. Frontal assault. You break their front and keep it broken, the rest of the regular ships will back you up."
The reply came sharply.
"Confirmed, I'll carve an opening for the rest."
"Good," she said. "Once their formation fractures, Andromeda exploits it."
Her focus moved again, drawing back from the front lines. The hybrid carrier silhouettes of Apollo Norm and Antares rotated into view, their importance a lifeline in any battle.
"Apollo Norm. Antares," she continued. "You pull back as soon as fighting starts. Maintain distance. I will not lose our air/space? Superiority to suicide charges."
Both acknowledgements came quickly.
"Understood," Apollo Norm replied. "We'll maintain safe range."
Antares didn't reply, but given the slight underlying tone from Apollo, they both weren't happy, but they'd have to stick with it since that was one of the reasons why they lost in 2202.
For a brief moment, silence returned as the dull hum from the systems filled the air. Then Andromeda spoke again.
"Amaterasu... allied ships from ... Azur Lane.. have signalled readiness to participate. Do you think it's a good idea to allow them?"
Amaterasu did not answer immediately. Her eyes moved across to the white icons. Having more ships would be better to try to close the disparity in the number of ships, but timing, coordination, and the lack of firepower. They might help, but with too many variables, she could only come to one conclusion.
They would slow them down.
"No," she said at last, voice firm and final. "Signal them to standby and if any enemy ship manages to leak through our lines, they can neutralise those."
"Understood"
Amaterasu exhaled as she watched the fleet form up, ready to attack, and her eyes dropped to the support ships, which were their hidden cards.
" Andromeda, start the operation." She said firmly.
Today was the day that they would rewrite the fate that had doomed them in the past.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You've finished the short part 1.
Don't worry, part 2 will have all the action, but I think the multiple ships in there are kinda hard, but I'm trying to iron out the plot holes.
I wish you all a blessed New Year. May you all have a fruitful day, month, and year.
Remember, Never Give Up!
Here's a slight sneak ;)
"Move!" A sharp reply came from Andromeda as her sword lit up in a blue fire.
The siren in front of her smiled devilishly as she looked at the massive amounts of energy being discharged by the superdreadnought.
"Yes, that's exactly what I want" A black covered their hands as they prepared for another round.
This ticked Andromeda even more as white lightning shot up from her form. Her cluster missiles, rapid fire missiles and deadly graviton spread launchers were all prepared for launch.
"Seems like you didn't quite hear me," her tone full of malice echoed as she summoned another sword in her left hand, "Get Out Of My Way!"
The battleship launched herself as her eyes looked past the threat in front of her and towards another ship in an even worse situation, Blue Noah.
The ship being referred to coughed up blood as their vision clouded over.
Multiple hull breaches, damage to turret 1-4, reduced Wave Motion core output
She felt so tired, she wanted it to end but she couldn't. Her grip on her greatsword tightned as a blue flame burned from her sword. How could she give up so easily when everyone needed her the most.
A memory surfaced from a moment on the moon.
"It pisses me off that I'm being turned into a museum ship just to be replaced by you, greenhorn"
An annoyed Shunran said as she watched her ship get towed to the museum. Her ship which served the UNCF with all its might and through countless battles was finally being laid to rest. blue Noah, who was next to her, lowered her head since she didn't feel well replacing a ship like Shunran when she had so much expireince while Noah was just fresh from the docks with zero combat experience.
"Hey," Shunran called out to Noah as she nervously lifted her head, "what's with that look on your face, noob."
Noah tried to put on a more serious face but out of nowhere Shunran patted her head.
"Listen here Noah. I'm proud that you're my successor. Don't listen to whatever I'm saying its just my ego taking a hit. In all seriousness I think you will do a great job leading the UNCF. You have strength that's unmatched in this galaxy, heck I'm pretty sure other capital ships with run away from the sight of your big guns, though your shields and armour are a bit of a weak point. Just make sure no matter how tough the enemy, shock canons are always the solution."
A smile now plastered Shunran's face as she gave a salute to the young battleship who returned it.
"And above all, protect humanity no matter what."
Blue Noah grit her teeth as she remembered the people who were rooting for her. Even if her rigging was badly damaged and smoking she'd fight. Even if she was on her last legs she'd fight no matter what!
She gripped the handle of her sword tightly as she rushed back into the fight, the 2 cruisers who were seemingly at their limit as each one of them was sent back by a strong strike to their shield that buckled under their immense strength.
Noah swung her sword which was quickly blocked by the enemy.
"I knew that wouldn't have put you down," A laugh escaped their lips, "Came at me with your full strength Blue Noah!"
Noah yelled as she gave this fight her all for the first time in her entire service life.