The Abyssal patrols were pretty varied in their patrols throughout the seasons and the days of the week.
However, through patience, the Coordinators had managed to observe some level of repetition in their movement and patterns, as well as some frequented hot-spots.
Such information would surely have come in useful in the past.
But this was the present, and the Coordinators had been trying to capture a live, sentient Abyssal to interrogate for information about their activities and some strange observations observed around the world.
However, they all had pre-programmed mental self-destruct modules installed in them to be activated upon the possibility of capture to prevent themselves from being at the mercy of their captors, and could be toggled and reset with a grace period of 20 seconds to confirm the kill order, self-destructing almost instantaneously.
For the first few months, the few humanoid Abyssals they've tried to capture, who could understand and communicate in the human language have all committed mental suicide along with the frying of their hard drives and central processing unit that was located down their spinal columns, making interrogation nigh-impossible.
But they persisted in their research and efforts, and through studying the programming of the Abyssals, they managed to partially crack the code that guided their thought processes, and created an experimental liquid full of nano-machines that would temporarily stop the self-destruct module from being activated.
Although untested, they were certain that it would at least work in practice.
The downside? It had to be injected, preferably close to the nape of the neck for maximum effect. And the Abyssals would likely learn how to counter it quickly, likely making it a one-time McGuffin.
That was the second objective of the Infiltration Fleet, to test out the effectiveness of the experimental vial and also to obtain information from a captured Abyssal when the Abyssal patrol fleet arrived at the island.
Sifting through the schedules of their patrol routes and schedules surrounding the island as well as the landmarks that they would visit to check on their turf, they finally decided on an Abyssal Carrier Wo-Class as the target.
This was because she had higher clearance than the rank-and-file heavy cruisers and torpedo cruisers, but was easier to capture than a battleship Ta-Class or Ru-Class, who had enough firepower to fight back long enough for the self-destruct sequence to activate, and fatally wound someone with their immense firepower.
The carrier was simpler to capture due to her specialization in long range-combat and mediocre firepower at close range.
They simply had to ambush the patrol under the cover of night.
The island wasn't very large, but still consisted of a small hill, a cove, a small cave overlooking the ocean and the island was covered by some foliage and trees that populated the island.
Aside from the Abyssal showing particular interest in this island, its small size was an important factor in it being chosen due to the shorter distance to traverse the length of the island, which meant the prototype radio wave-jamming pikes could be installed faster around the island.
The fact that they knew that there was a small cave which could double as a spot to hide the Abyssal worked in their favor, seeing that the Infiltration Fleet would find whatever the Abyssals hid on the island, defeat the patrol fleet and interrogate the Wo-Class before getting out of there in record time.
It was also located on the edge of the Safety Zone, and any Abyssal backup fleet sent to kill the ship girls on the island and investigate the disappearance of their Abyssal patrol fleet would still have to take a while to get to the island should they decide to bring out the big guns, which would give the Infiltration Fleet some time to interrogate the captured Abyssal if they succeeded.
The Infiltration Fleet was now shrouded by the shadows, under the cover of the cloudy night as predicted by the weather forecast.
The moon was a double-edged sword at night when it illuminated the way at best, and at worst, eliminating any chance of a stealth-based approach to situations.
Hence new moons, rainy or cloudy nights were preferable during stealth missions or escapes, and a clear sky with a full moon at night for a patrol or a recovery mission.
The ship girls moved out as per their internal clocks indicated,
2 April 2015
1.15 a.m.
They spotted the incoming patrol fleet coming in earlier than scheduled, consisting of a To-Class light cruiser, 2 I-Class destroyers, a Ne-Class heavy cruiser, and the Flagship Wo-Class carrier.
The Infiltration Fleet predicting that the Abyssals might have detected their presence in the secret facility and would immediately respond paid off in the end, the Abyssal patrol fleet arriving earlier than their schedule planned for to search for the enemies detected in the area, the Infiltration Fleet used to adapting their plans or outright improvising whenever the Abyssals responded with curve-balls of their own.
Fortunately, the experimental pikes that were mounted across the island formed a "dead zone" where the Abyssal radar couldn't penetrate, blocking their radar from detecting the other side of the island in a small arc to also serve as camouflage.
This drew their attention as they discussed whether or not to go ashore to investigate this recent phenomenon as well as to find the ship girls likely hiding on the island.
What they failed to account for was that the ship girls had already prepared their equipment and were laying in wait, sailing out from the cove to slowly hug and sneak along the coast to maintain the element of surprise, the shadows of the cloud-filled night blanketing them and covering their approach.
As they spotted the Abyssals attempting to go ashore, they opened fire and dumped their torpedoes into the water, encircling the posse that surrounded the flagship while cornering and sandwiching the Abyssal Fleet between the shore and their incoming torpedoes.
The Abyssals, regardless of class, could all submerge and escape back into the Abyss.
However, they were too close to the coast, and the waters were too shallow for them to consider that as a viable means of escape.
The Abyssal Ne-Class was the first to go, blocking the initial salvo from the ship girls by jumping in front of the torpedo salvo, killing it instantly as the torpedoes detonated upon contact with her body.
Her gun turrets, twin tails that snaked out of her rear, were firing rapidly even in death, clipping Chitose in the shoulder and moderately damaging her.
The To-Class light cruiser, a twisted amalgamation of three black metallic, beast-like mouths and two pale arms that were stitched together and expertly weaponized to project whatever sick aesthetic tastes its creator held, was firing at anything that moved, including at the ship girls in the water who remained at a distance from the shore to shell their enemies without hitting their High Value Target.
A set of jaws on the To-Class seemed to roar and communicate in growls, its teeth gnashing together to create screeching noises as it seemed to rally the last two I-Class destroyers into action while laying down cover fire.
The destroyers followed suit, the I-Class destroyers trying their best to propel themselves forward against the waves that were crashing against the shoreline, unhinging their jaws to fire at the Infiltration Fleet.
The Wo-Class was busy preparing her planes for combat, also possessing shoulder-length white hair with pale skin and was wearing a large, black pod atop her head, a freakish abomination of an accessory to wear.
It sat atop the Wo-Class's head, with its large deformed mouth and two "eyes" that doubled as air vents to discharge exhaust. Two double barreled turrets were joined at its sides while several tentacles snaked down, extra appendages to protect its owner in a melee combat.
The humanoid Wo-Class herself had emerald-green eyes, with a collar that seemed to be the lower jaw of some unknown beast, with its pearl-white teeth and black gums.
A black cape shielded the back of the Wo-Class while she wore black leggings beneath her lean and pale torso, held up by a few pieces of armor.
Holding a black cane and wearing black high heels, the monochrome and stony-faced carrier wordlessly communicated with her top through a cable connected to the back of her neck, the pod's deformed mouth screeching open to summon black-and-white beak-shaped planes, each with an exhaust hole on its top and several turrets on its undercarriage.
They swooped down to bomb and fire at the ship girls, who dodged the payload with varying levels of success.
Some of the ship girls were hit by the Abyssal machine guns that were cycling through their gun barrels in rapid-fire mode, sustaining light damage in the process.
The ship girls decided to close the gap, gathering around the remaining Abyssal Fleet who were still putting up a fight as the ship girls tightened the noose around them.
As another Abyssal destroyer was sunk, the Wo-Class deduced that this wasn't a run-of-the-mill infiltration and an attempt to wipe the Abyssal patrol out, but a deliberate attempt to eliminate her security detail after luring her to the island and were trying to capture her for interrogation after seeing them all deliberately try not to hit her.
As she discarded her pod top to reduce weight for the eventual chase, a metallic tube was uncoupled from the nape of her neck to disconnect and discard the black pod.
The pod and the cable fell into the sea as she started to run towards the shore, the ship girls screaming to "get that bitch before she goes full Nazi-cyanide-pill on us."
They emptied their clips into the two remaining Abyssals, not even looking back as they discarded their boat slippers in a hurry and barreled down the beach after the clumsy Abyssal Wo-Class, who was too preoccupied with escaping to take off her high-heels, attempting to put some distance between them for the self-destruct sequence to activate.
Being a nocturnal ship girl, the active Sendai-class light cruiser was leading the chase and kicking up sand as she ran, but even running at her fastest with needle in hand to stop the self-destruct sequence upon injection, she was certain that she wasn't going to catch up to the Wo-Class, who had a pretty large lead despite the Abyssal stumbling several times and getting caught up in her fluttering cape, allowing them to close the gap considerably.
Finally, as a resounding gunshot pierced the air, the Abyssal was thrown forward, a wound opening as though struck on the left shoulder, falling face-first into the sand and dropping her cane.
Sendai was absolutely focused on her mission, reaching the fallen Abyssal, finding the nape of the neck atop her black cape with a hole for the cable of the black headdress to be inserted for mental transmission of signals, and stabbed the needle into a location on her neck.
Injecting the contents into the Abyssal, the Wo-Class shuddered, and then convulsed as the nanites began to affect her system, before her muscles finally loosened after a good 15 seconds.
Sendai removed the needle, and turned the Abyssal around to lie in a prone position, uncertain of both the effectiveness of the vial and her timing before she heard the weak Abyssal croak out in agony,
"… Wo…"
She smiled and looked up to see her arriving teammates, panting as the adrenaline of the battle and chase rushed through them, and were covered with specks of sand and blood on their uniforms due to the kicking up of sand and the Abyssal machine gun bullets hitting them and causing the latter.
Kagerou was holding her 12 cm Single Gun Cannon between her hands, with a smoking barrel that was pointed down at the paralyzed Abyssal, with a shit-eating grin on her face as she announced:
"It's just been revoked!"