Chapter 143 28.4 Onboarding?

Letting out a sigh, I clicked my tongue as a hint of hesitation seeped into my mind. It wasn't par for the course, but a part of me still thought that what we were about to do was a bad idea. But then, what else did we have as options? We couldn't just wait here and hope that the situation changed, that our engine would magically have enough power to reel them in and spare us the pain of running backward.

Then again, life was unfair like that.

"I'm going to start putting us in reverse then."

Breathing through my teeth, I rolled the trackball back, the engine below audibly protesting at the action as we ever so slowly began to move. The chart blinked agonizingly slow, our bearing pretty much changing at a snail's pace as we built up momentum.

[*BOOM! SPLASH!*]

Outside, the enemy [Rig] was still firing at us. It was slowing down, at least, and Maruki seemed to have us on lock as he kept us alive. Though, I could only imagine that he was probably riddled with wounds right now.

"Guidance, think you can give Maruki a heal?" I asked aloud.

"I'd have to leave the engine kiosk for that, but sure."

With a nod, the dev promptly left her station and left the bridge, leaving me with Shizu and Shade as we all waited with bated breath for this plan to work.

"We're slowly moving, at least," Shade called aloud as he looked out the window nearest to him. "And it seems that we're pulling them along for the ride."

"We're getting them closer to us?" Shizu excitedly asked. "I hope they get here faster. I don't really have anything to do here except to wait for them to show up."

"Well, assuming this plan works, we'll have them by the bow in a few minutes," Shade chuckled against the backdrop of the cannon fire whizzing past us. "Isn't that right, Moriya?"

I blinked at the sudden attention. "We're slowly picking up speed, thankfully. The engine really isn't liking it, but we're pushing."

Even now, using the rudimentary displays I had on the console. the engine's integrity was dropping at a steady rate. I didn't think that it would die on us in the immediate future, but it'll hopefully survive this encounter. Cause for all we know, we might be dead in the water after this.

[*BOOM! BOOM!*]

"Woah!"

Shizu's yelp was the least of our concerns as the [Rig] shook, two hit landing right in front of us as the blue wings shielding us almost cracked. I didn't think that the kinetic force of the projectiles would even reach us, but apparently, it still did.

"That's not good," Shade alarmingly intoned, his eyes trained at Maruki's blue wings as he moved back to his kiosk. "I've never seen his defenses crack before..."

"You think?" I sarcastically asked as I shook my head. "On the bright side, those hits should've pushed us backward faster."

And sure enough, the charts were updating at a faster rate than last time, our bearing changing in longer increments as we pushed our speed to their limits. We were drifting at around 60 kilometers per hour now... or was it knots? I had no idea about naval stuff like this...

[*ENGINE INTEGRITY AT 20%*]

[*HULL INTEGRITY AT 48%*]

"Well, they're still above zero, at least," I hesitantly chuckled, my hands still spinning the trackball with everything I've got. "What's the situation below deck?"

At my question, Shade took the initiative and hailed Shen on the comms. Thankfully, the young mechanic quickly picked up.

[*"Why in da world are there new leaks springing up in here?!"*] Shen noisily complained, her tone clearly strained despite the chipper in her tone. [*"It's getting really hot in here, ya know!?"*]

"That answers that question, at least," I weakly chuckled. "Does she need any help down there?"

Shade relayed my words, and Shen's immediate answer was telling of her usual confidence.

[*"Help?! I don't need any of that!"*] the girl proudly intoned, and I could already imagine her puffing up her chest as she said that. [*"So long as I have [Fixit], I'm invincible!"*]

"Well, she certainly seems to have everything covered," Shade amusingly scoffed as he killed the line. "She's proving herself to be a capable [Manifest]."

I smiled at that. "I most certainly hope she can keep up though. The closer these guys get to us, the more constant their shots will hit," I sighed out a chuckle. "Say, do you think Maruki can handle any cannon fire from point blank range?"

Shade visibly frowned as he answered, "Despite his [Manifest] being an amazing tool for defense, even he can't possibly handle a straight shot from a top-of-the-line Vestygian cannon. Even now, his defenses are crumbling."

I winced at the answer I got. "Well, that's one thing I needed to hear. Thanks for that."

"I can only hope we survive this, Moriya," Shade shook his head with a faint smile. "I'd be very cross if the princess died on our watch."

"Hey, I can take care of myself, you know!" Shizu pouted. "Ugh... I just feel so useless right now! Can't I just run over there already?!"

I sighed at the byplay I was hearing. A part of me was tempted to just give Shizu the go-ahead and let her have her fun, but the logical part of me was still stopping me from doing so. Then again...

[*SPLASH! BOOM!*]

Looking at the charts, we were starting to top out on our speed. We weren't getting any faster, which meant that I should cut the engines and make ourselves stop somehow.

Thankfully, the anchor button wasn't as obscure as the other stuff I had to find earlier.

"I think we've picked up enough speed," I mumbled to myself before I called out. "Shade, tell everyone to brace themselves for a hard stop!"

"Sure thing!"

I waited for a few seconds as Shade did his thing. After hearing everyone's callback, I cleared my thoughts as I let go of the trackball. Okay, now was the time to stop and brace.

"Get ready!"

Slamming on the anchor, a faint thud echoed from behind the [Rig], something that I could only assume was the anchor dropping from behind us.

A few seconds passed as we all waited with bated breath. And suddenly-

[*ANCHOR ENGAGED*]

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