Chapter 15: Abyssal's First Fight!

 

Abby was good at a lot of things— great even. She’s great at calculating stuff and great at processing information. The only problem was that… Abby was horrible at making split-second decisions or making predictions with limited information. It wasn’t just that too, she was also very predictable and followed a set pattern of logic. Like any computer program, when faced with an unknown situation, Abby would not know what to do. While she is not all too terrible at non-logical matters, she wasn’t particularly good at it.

However, that’s where Abyssal comes in. Her emotional self was anything but predictable and she was a master at adapting. She is the exact opposite of Abby. Her logical abilities may not be all too terrible, but she wasn’t particularly good at it. Abyssal makes this up by being a very good decision-maker. She’s the part in charge of predicting future outcomes and minimising randomness. There is a reason why she’s the dominant personality of the entity known as S.A.S. Abyssal.

When all is said and done, Abyssal and Abby are one and the same. They are just two different sides of the same coin.

Combined, the two make for a very deadly combo. Abby controls the more complicated and tedious part of the system while Abyssal concentrates on the finer parts of the engagement, providing Abby with the instructions needed for further action. The two personalities were now working in tandem in order to combat the threat that was endangering their lives.

‘Let’s drag this bastard to the Abyss. I. HAVE. CONTROL!’ Abyssal yelled out internally as she gained advance command of the ship. 

Abyssal weaved left and right, doing barrel rolls at random intervals in order to get the red fighter off her tail. Despite her propulsion system being damaged, Abyssal still managed to perform quick and precise manoeuvres, preventing the enemy from being able to lock onto her. Although a slight victory there, this was far from enough to shake the red fighter off. 

The enemy proved to be just as agile if not more agile than Abyssal and was seemingly able to follow every move that Abyssal took. Even the more random and desperate turns were easily followed by the red fighter craft. Abyssal’s best efforts were found to be lacking as the enemy managed to keep up and shot another large red beam towards Abyssal. It once again, grazed Abyssal— this time hitting the bottom part of her ship. A small red line of molten metal could be seen on Abyssal’s bottom hull.

‘Oooouuuucccch!' Abyssal yelled out as she could feel the burns from the beam weapon. Her control of the craft slipped slightly as she lost concentration for a moment.

'Urghh… What the hell… isn't this guy too bloody good?!' 

“Energy Reserves:  31880 / 49 880 MJ

Estimated flight time remaining: 106 seconds. Energy draining at 300MJ/s.“  Abby sent out another status update on Abyssal’s energy reserves.

Abyssal became more anxious as she watched her energy reserves depleting slowly. Her reactor was not functioning at full capacity so she was running on reserve energy stored in the ESTs. Abyssal only has a limited time to pilot the ship before she’s dead in the water. She needed to win this fight within the next minute or else.

‘Dammit, I need to get on his back somehow! … If these basic manoeuvres won’t work, then I’ll have to try something more advanced. It’s been a while since I did this but here goes nothing. Behold! One of my favourite air manoeuvres, the Split S!’  Abyssal thought to herself as she directed all powers to her frontal thrusters, wanting to make a nose climb. 

The Split S is a basic combat manoeuvre that consists of diving a craft into a half loop before doing a 180° roll to level the aircraft back. It is a defensive manoeuvre that forces an attacker to overshoot, effectively disengaging the enemy from her tail. The Split-S is also more well known by its opposite counterpart— the Immelmann turn.

Abyssal, rolled left and right in preparation for the Split S. The enemy fighter just followed closely, imitating Abyssal’s rolls and stayed on her tail. Abyssal only needed to find the right opportunity to execute the Split S.

In space where there is almost no gravity, there is no such thing as losing speed during a climb or gaining speed during a dive nor there was a need to level the ship back. This concept changes the playing field quite a bit in terms of dogfighting but ultimately gives an advantage to Abyssal. This meant that the Split S can be done at any angle and at any direction.

Her plan was to act as if she was making a dive when in actuality she would be making a climb. The enemy would then have to follow her or do their own manoeuvres in order to not overshoot Abyssal. Though, there was no way for them to do that unless they are a god at dogfighting or something. Once the red fighter overshoots her, she would then enact another air manoeuvre known as the ‘Yo-Yo’ in order to get the enemy in her sight. All that’s left to do from there was to shoot the red fighter down.

Abyssal saw a good opportunity to climb during one of her rolls. She directed the powers to the frontal propulsion system and pointed her nose upwards— immediately changing her direction to above. She was now in a vertical climb.

Or so Abyssal thought was going to happen…

Just as Abyssal was about to climb, a red beam appeared right on Abyssal’s flight path, effectively blocking her way. Having no other choice, Abyssal immediately cancelled the manoeuvre and rolled away in order to not get hit by the red laser beam of doom. If she would have continued the climb, there would be no doubt that she would have gotten split in half by the beam.

‘Tsk.’

Abyssal clicked her imaginary tongue and attempted to try again, this time in a sideways climb instead of a vertical climb. The attempt failed as the red fighter shot another beam on her path once again, blocking her from doing the Split S. Abyssal attempted again and again, but every time she attempted the Split S, she was subsequently interrupted by a shot from the red fighter. She stopped attempting when Abby sent her an update on her current status.

“Energy Reserves:  13580 / 49 880 MJ

Estimated flight time remaining: 45 seconds. Energy draining at 300MJ/s.“  

‘Dammit, dammit! I’m running out of time! Get off my back you pervert!’ Abyssal yelled out internally as she tried to do a few random spins and turns to see if she could find an opening to attempt the Split S.

None could be found as the opposing craft was hot on her tail and thwarted her every move to execute the said air manoeuvre. Maybe if Abyssal was more agile, she could have successfully executed the move without being hit by the beam. But alas, there was only so much she could do with a damaged propulsion system. 

‘I just need him to overshoot me and I can get my shot at him!’

Abyssal clenched her imaginary teeth as she viewed the red fighter from her omni-directional cameras— looking for inspiration or something. The enemy fighter was so near to Abyssal that she could see all the small details of the spacecraft. The jet black fighter with red glowing stripes stared down menacingly at Abyssal. Abyssal saw the fighter’s thrusters, thirteen fins in total on the wings and the body of the craft, shooting out blue flames. She observed the enemy ship further and saw that the ship was about quadrupled her size as well. It was basically almost a frigate rather than a fighter. She pondered on how such a large fighter could be so agile and so fast.

‘Wait a minute… a ship of that size… there is no way that it can decelerate faster than... Abby! How long does it take for me to decelerate to zero speed? How fast can it go?’  Abyssal thought up a new plan as she observed the enemy ship, dodging its shots.

“Calculating…
9.78 seconds.

Due to safety features on ship's inertial dampeners, maximum allowed deceleration is at 30 km/s².”

‘What’s the risk if we go over that limit?’ Abyssal asked.

“Unable to override safeties. Abyssal is unable to go over the deceleration limit.”

‘Just tell me!’

“Risk includes but not limited to :
-Potential severe hull integrity damage
-Potential death to all biological life
-Potential damage to internal components.” 

‘Just potential damage, huh? Good enough for me. Abby, prepare for immediate deceleration! Divert powers to propulsion and weapons systems.’

“Power re-routed.”

‘Let’s do this. Decelerate now!’ Abyssal gave out the signal and the ship immediately slowed down. 

The enemy noticed this and attempted to decelerate themselves, though Abyssal could see that they were starting to overshoot her. It was as she suspected, the enemy was unable to decelerate that easily against her. The only problem was that Abyssal wasn’t decelerating fast enough. The enemy fighter could still compensate by attempting a turn or two.

Though she has a plan for that.

‘Fire Twin Mass Drivers! Full power!’ She yelled out and the two kinetic based weaponry that was attached to Abyssal fired out.

The weapons rapidly fired out large solid munitions at speeds of 1400 km/s. Each one of them hitting absolutely nothing but empty space. To any other normal person, this would just look like a desperate attempt and a waste of ammunition. However, if one monitored closely enough, they could see that Abyssal was decelerating even faster than before, bypassing her 30 km/s² deceleration limit.

N*wt*n's Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Her weapons systems were firing something forward, so there must be an equal force pushing the ship back. This simple concept meant that for every shot that Abyssal fired, she would receive a force in the opposite direction, further decelerating her. 

Although this was a smart plan by Abyssal to bypass her deceleration limit, it came at a cost. Abyssal could feel the pressure of breaking the 30 km/s² deceleration limit. She felt herself in massive pain as if her body was pulling itself apart. Nevertheless, she endured the pain. Anything was better than dying in the middle of nowhere, after all.

Her effort finally bore fruit as the ship slowed down just enough for the red fighter to overshoot her. Immediately, Abyssal stopped firing and took aim at the red fighter that was now in her sight— her thrusters engaged in order to keep up with the enemy’s speed. The enemy tried it’s best to roll around to avoid the lock-on but Abyssal wasn’t about to let them escape. It was time for her to shoot down this damn ship.

‘I’m sorry, but this is nothing personal. You forced me to do this.’ Abyssal thought to herself as she pulled the trigger to her guns, shooting projectiles at the red fighter craft.

Time moved slowly as she witnessed the two large projectiles flying towards the red ship. It was then, at this moment, that Abyssal realised that the ship in question had one of its fins— the thrusters on the middle of its hull— shooting bright red flames instead of blue. No, it wasn’t fire, but rather light particles that were simply red in colour. 

Right after witnessing this, the red ship did a weird manoeuvre that Abyssal had never seen before and spun around in place unnaturally. It dodged the mass projectiles by an inch before slowing down to a crawl. To Abyssal it was as if she reached zero speed in just under a second. 

‘Wh-what?!’

Abyssal couldn’t believe her eyes as she witnessed the red fighter do all that within a fraction of a second. Not only that, the red ship even decelerated so fast that Abyssal was now, once again, in front of the red ship, overshooting it in the process. Once past, the red ship immediately accelerated to Abyssal’s speed, effectively getting on Abyssal's tail once again.

“Energy Reserves:  2700 / 49 880 MJ

Estimated Flight Time Remaining: 9 seconds. Energy draining at 300MJ/s.“ 

Abyssal heart raced when she saw her remaining energy reserves. She had one shot to take down the fighter and failed to capitalize on it. At this rate, she would run out of energy and blacked out. Or worse… Get shot down by the laser beam and be destroyed in this place.

Not wanting to give up, Abyssal used her last few seconds and tried everything that she could think off to shake off her pursuer. It was unfortunate that nothing worked. Any attempt she did was perfectly followed by the red fighter who stuck on her tail all the way. Any desperate attempts made by Abyssal were easily followed by the red ship as it kept Abyssal in its sight— never letting go.

'Is this it..?' Abyssal thought to herself as she sees her energy reserves dwindle.

…
…
…

“Energy Reserves:   360/ 49 880 MJ

Estimated flight time remaining: 1 second.”

‘Dammit...Abby cut off all power to thrusters. There is nothing we can do now…’ Abyssal said to Abby. She would much rather see it end for herself than blacking out.

The power to the thrusters was cut off and now Abyssal was just flying straight in a line at 300 km/s— the red fighter right on her tail, aiming its weapon at Abyssal.

Abyssal couldn't help but feel sad about this matter. She had so much more than she wanted to do. Sure, she didn't really do much until recently, but things were starting to look up!  She wanted to explore more about space and continue to do more exciting adventures. She wanted to find her place in this galaxy! She wanted to get along with Kuon more! 

'That cute maid Living Core will die together with me huh…' Abyssal brought her attention to Kuon who had recently become her first mate, using her night-vision cameras to monitor the maid.

She was just sitting calmly in her charging port, secured to the hull of the ship, waiting for everything outside the ship to end. It seemed that Kuon had no idea what was happening outside. Even still, she just remained calm and waited for good news.

'Poor Kuon… she doesn't deserve to go down with me like this…'

If Abyssal knew this was going to happen then maybe it would have been better to leave Kuon at the cruiser. Now, Kuon was just going to die a horrible death and she won't even know why.

Though, there was nothing that Abyssal could do now. The only thing left to do was to use her omni-directional cameras and observe the red ship— waiting for it to shoot its weapon and end her life.

Abyssal has now accepted her death.

Although she has some regrets about the matter, ultimately, she felt rather happy that she got to do one serious dogfight in space before the end. She always wanted to know how it would feel like to fight in space, after all.

‘Welp, I guess this is it. It’s been a good run. Even managed to make a friend. I hope it won’t be painful,' Abyssal thought to herself as she let out a sigh.

‘Who am I kidding? It’s gonna be hella painful isn’t it?’ She thought to herself as she awaited the moment where the red ship would blast her out of existence. 

…..
….
…
..
.

'Hmm?' Abyssal let out a bewildered voice when she noticed that the red ship had not shot her down. All it did was follow Abyssal's tail and aimed its laser beam at her.

The two ships stayed in that position for what felt like minutes. Abyssal just flying straight and the red ship just following from behind, but never firing once— never finishing the job. It was then that the one thruster on the red ship, the one that shot red particles turned back to shooting blue flames and the ship gained speed before stopping right next to Abyssal.

The red ship jettisoned a crate before engaging its thrusters at full power and blasting away at speeds that Abyssal didn't think was possible. Its disappearance was as sudden as its appearance. The red fighter was now out of Abyssal's sight.

'What the…' Abyssal thought to herself. She was rather distraught at the weird actions that the red fighter took.

'Why didn't he shoot? He could have easily taken me out in that state!' 

There was something weird that Abyssal realised about this entire dogfight as well. She recalled all the beams that the enemy fired and how every single one of them only grazed Abyssal rather than outright destroying her.

'Unless, of course... those shots were meant to graze me, not shoot me down…'

She was then assailed with a feeling of anger and frustration. The enemy was just toying around with Abyssal the entire time. There was no way an advanced ship like the red fighter could miss so many shots.

'Scary…' Abyssal shuddered. To think that the red fighter could have destroyed her from the very first hit. It was a depressing thought for Abyssal. She never stood a chance from the beginning. 

'Did I really think that my obsolete and damaged self could even hope to win in the first place...?'

And so, Abyssal ended the first dogfight of her life in a defeat. The defeat even came with a big blow to her pride and confidence.