Chapter 16: Sulking Abyssal

Three days have passed since Abyssal's grand defeat against the Crimson Red Fighter. The defeat left a sour taste in Abyssal's imaginary mouth and she was rather depressed about it. Her personal drone, Kaon, was idling near a corner in the cockpit looking at the black displays.

The fight between her and the red fighter had caused quite the damage to her systems. As a result of her forcefully going over her deceleration limit, she had sustained multiple internal damages. Control panels were damaged, wires and cables were pulled loose, there was minor damage to her nuclear reactor, and more. 

She was obviously shocked to find out when Abby told her that her reactor was damaged. Abyssal couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief when she found out that it was only a small dent and that the reactor was still functional. It seemed that she was lucky this time around.

The captain's quarters and the cargo room were also trashed during those manoeuvres Abyssal had to do during the fight. Kuon was very busy cleaning things up during these past three days. 

'... This is nothing like in the games and stories. This is beyond hardcore mode. It hurts… Muuuuu...' Abyssal thought to herself as she sulked in the corner of her consciousness.

If it was just the damage, then Abyssal probably wouldn't have minded. The thing was… She could feel herself reeling in from the pain of her damaged components. It was like having severe back and muscle pains. The pain was so intense that Abyssal had no choice but to take a day off just resting as she couldn't concentrate at all.

This was just the internal damage too. The external damage like the burns on her hull added to the pain. One injury, in particular, was especially painful for Abyssal. It was as if someone took a blow torch and drew a line on her back. The pain she felt was probably from that one laser beam that made a line on her bottom hull.

The upside was that as the days passed, the pain became more bearable and she felt herself feeling better. By now the pain has mostly subsided, but she could still feel a bit here and there. Could it be that her nanomachines were slowly repairing the damage to her systems?

She had tried to figure out the cause of her pain, but couldn't find anything concrete. Even Abby couldn't answer her why. In the end, Abyssal has no other choice but to assume it has something to do with her nanomachines and her assimilation of the ship. When assimilating something, she could taste what it feels like, so perhaps the pain she's feeling was similar to that?

'I didn't sign up for this! Nobody told me that getting shot at would actually hurt me!' Abyssal complained.

Abyssal fumed in anger as it made no sense to her why it was necessary to feel every little burn and sensation she received on her hull integrity. But that anger soon turned into fear as she thought to herself:

'Wait… What if I get blown up or ripped apart in half?' Abyssal shivered and hugged herself as she imagined the feeling of having your body torn in half.

'Scary… I need to be more careful in the future… better not get into fights that I can't win.'

Abyssal let out a sigh and decided to push the scary thoughts to the back of her mind. No point being afraid at this point in time. With a lackadaisical attitude, Abyssal glided over to her cargo room. The cargo room contained bulks of scrap metal that she collected from the cruiser a few weeks back. Though that wasn't the only thing inside the cargo room. Near the corner lies a locked metal crate. The crate was painted black and red and had red glowing lines, giving the crate a sinister feel.

It was the crate left by the Crimson Red Fighter before it blasted away. Abyssal had not forgotten to beam the crate, of course. Despite suffering a humiliating defeat and reeling in intense pain, there was no way she could let go of free loot. Even if it was from an enemy.

Usually, in any normal situation, Abyssal would be excited to find out what was inside this mysterious looking crate. It could contain something good, could contain something bad— could even be a bomb or a trap. None of that mattered to Abyssal though, finding the truth is part of the fun. 

However, none of Abyssal's signature energetic attitude could be found anywhere. Her recent defeat has put her in such a state that she doesn't really have the energy or the mood to do anything. This includes trying to figure out the content of the crate. She just let out a tired sigh as she observed the crate through the green filtered image.

'Hmm?' Abyssal felt a presence appear next to her as she sulked. It was Kuon.

Abyssal had wanted to ask what was wrong when she suddenly moved closer to Abyssal. She then put one of her robotic arms on Abyssal's drone before rubbing it left and right. It seemed that Kuon was trying to comfort Abyssal who was looking rather down as of late.

'Kuon…' Abyssal mumbled as she saw the kind action of the Living Core.

'Oh right… She has no clue about the fight I had a few days back, does she?' Abyssal thought to herself.

There was no way for Kuon to know about the battle Abyssal had with the red fighter, of course. She has no access to the omni-directional cameras and she has no vision of what's going on outside of the ship. Kuon only knew that something bad happened because of the warning message that Abby sent. There was also that one manoeuvre that Abyssal had to do, causing damage to the internal systems. Damage that Kuon could visibly see as she moved around the ship. That and the fact that Abyssal went silent and moody after the said emergency event.

Abyssal hadn't ordered her to do anything and yet, the maid immediately went to work to clean up the place and even went out of her way to comfort the sulking Abyssal. Abyssal could feel warmth in her heart as Kuon patted her 'head'. Kuon and Abyssal may have only known each other for a month but the bond between them was strong. A bond of friendship between two Living Cores.

Two lost Living Cores who were stranded in space and had nowhere to go. Two Living Cores who want to find a purpose in this galaxy.

'What am I doing?' Abyssal asked herself. 

She's not alone in this matter! What good would it do if Abyssal sulked all day? Her luck and situation may be bad but nothing will change if she just sits around and does nothing! She needs to be strong for her crew and for herself. 

'It's not over yet! I can still make this work! It's not yet time for me to call GG. Not until every part of me is broken!' Abyssal yelled out internally as she soon regained her vigour and energy again.

"Thank. You. Kuon." Abyssal said to Kuon and raised her arms up into the air to show that she was fine. Abyssal then used this newfound energy to begin the investigation on the mysterious crate.

Seeing Abyssal going back to her energetic self, Kuon waved back and gave her a respectful bow before getting back to cleaning up the ship.

Kotohood

Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be out on the 29th (Sunday)