Chapter 144 28.5 Onboarding?

The [Rig] lurched with a loud groan, the pull of momentum almost knocking me off my feet if not for me bracing myself against the console as hard as I possibly could. The entire bridge seemed to tilt back against the bow, the whole vessel possibly lurching against the anchor as it kept us tethered in one spot. And at the speed that we were going, I almost expected whatever chain it was that kept us to the anchor snapping and setting us adrift.

"Is... Is everyone okay?!" I called out.

"I'm fine!" Shizu called out, her determination glowing in spades as she stared at me.

"I'm also fine," Shade sounded off. "And based on what I'm hearing, the rest are fine as well."

"That's good," I cracked my neck in anticipation as I watched the charts carefully. "All that's left is for them to drift towards us. From there, we board and commandeer the vessel."

"Yes! Finally some action!"

I chuckled at Shizu's eagerness to kick Vestygian ass. One would think that a princess wouldn't be a battle-hungry maniac, especially someone as delicate looking and beautiful as her, but apparently, Guidance had a propensity for cute contrasts.

"They're moving closer," Shade called out, his gaze locked on the enemy [Rig] as it drifted towards us. "Although, I'm starting to wonder as how we can even stop them from making us sink as well..."

...

...

Oh.... "That's.... We didn't think of that, didn't we..."

"Unfortunately, we didn't," Shade sighed, his anxiety starting to climb even as he kept his back turned against us. "This was a decision made in the heat of the moment, and we conveniently forgot that we still have to somehow make the enemy [Rig] come near us without their corpse of a vessel ramming against ours."

I winced at the image of that massive [Rig] crashing against ours. I was pretty sure that we wouldn't survive the fallout of such a collision, and even then, we'd be out of a [Rig] and we'd be afloat in steaming hot waters.

"W-Wait, they're gonna crash against us?" Shizu asked, a hint of worry eroding her excitement. "Can't we just avoid it then?"

I blinked at her suggestion. "Yes... We can just... It might work..."

Looking at the chart, their [Rig] wouldn't crash against ours until at least five minutes from now. It hadn't even been a minute yet, at least, but any second we wasted being stationary meant fewer seconds that we could use to change our bearing.

"Moriya?"

"Are they still firing at us?"

"They are," Shade quickly answered. "And they're starting to hit us more often than they miss."

"So that means Guidance won't be able to come back up here," I mumbled out, my mind whirring as I made one decision after the other. "Shizu, think you can switch to the engine kiosk?"

"What for?"

"Just do it!"

I bit my lip as I kept my eyes on the charts, my hand already on the trackball as I tried to look for a way for us to dodge this massive [Rig]. Our engine integrity was still as low as we last left it, and we didn't have the momentum to quickly move... Thankfully, we were still in battle mode, meaning we could magically still move from side to side like a spaceship.

"Shizu, watch the engines!"

"Got it!"

Hearing the princess's word, I began turning the trackball to the right, the engine straining as it forcibly moved us to the side.

[*ENGINE INTEGRITY AT 30%*]

"Moriya! The bar thingy here is dropping!" Shizu called out. "It's our energy reserves, I think!"

"But we still have enough, right?!"

"I... I don't know!"

[*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*]

"They're getting closer, Moriya!" Shade called out.

[*"What the hell, Moriya?! Why are we still on a collision course against this thing?!"*]

As if that wasn't enough pressure, Guidance's voice echoed out from Shade's kiosk even as I desperately fought for us to get away. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to answer back or even ask her for more as I quickly disengaged our anchor, reeling it back up to us and detaching ourselves from the seabed. The chart quickly gave us a projected heading, its estimates barely showing that we'd be able to dodge the enemy [Rig].

"They're right on top of us!"

"They are?!" Shizu exclaimed, her excitement audibly coming back. "Can we-"

"Not until we're safe!" I shouted back. "Keep an eye on those reserves! I have an idea!"

This was going to be a stupid idea. I just knew that we might kill our engines again, but it would at least prevent them from drifting too far from us.

With a click of my tongue, I barked out, "Shade, get on the weapon kiosk and reel the tether in!"

"But wouldn't that-"

"I know!" I cut him off. "Shizu, tell me if our reserves are gonna fall below ten percent!"

"But they're already at twenty-five!" she called out.

"Do you want to board them or not?!" I fired back, my eyes still on the charts as our two [Rigs] inched dangerously close to one another. "If we can't bridge the gap, there's no point in boarding them!"

"F-Okay!"

Smacking my lips, I waited patiently for the right time to make this gamble work. With every second that ticked, our vessel inched away from the trajectory of the enemy, our immediate problem of being sunk by the enemy thankfully averted as I moved on to the next course of action we had to implement. Eventually, the charts proved to be useless as I looked back up towards the windows, the sight of the enemy [Rig] looming over us as they thankfully stopped their cannon fire once they got close. Already, I could see other people pointing at us, their weapons raised and ready for a fight as we drifted past one another.

Still, the tether was lodged firmly on their hull. We only had one shot at this... Balance was the key, and I certainly didn't like not having a lot of tools to play with.

"Shade! Fire reel them in!"

[*FWOOOSHH!!!!*]

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