This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

For the past few weeks, I've found myself uttering out the most ridiculous sentences I've ever heard in my entire life. From 'I'm in a broken game?' to 'I can't drive a thing this big,' the amount of firsts I've been going through could probably put a baby book to shame as I've once again checked off another landmark first from my bucket list.

Then again, I wasn't even sure if I should be proud of what we just did.

"A direct hit!" Shizu cheered from the offense kiosk as we've come to call it. "The cannon actually tore through their armor like crazy!"

"That's great!" I smiled, my mind still reeling as I stared out in front of us. "What did it fire?"

"Well, it says here that it's a Tether Cannon," Shizu relayed, her own curiosity seeping through her tone. "I can currently reel us in somehow? It also says here that I can anchor us down and pull them to us."

Wait, "It's a harpoon?"

Looking back out, I tilted my head to the side in an effort to see just what exactly was happening on deck. Sure enough, the massive cannon was still smoking, blue sparks coming off of it as a massive chain dangled right from its mouth. Stretching out for what looked to be almost half a kilometer away, the enemy Rig was pierced right through their hull, smoke coming out of them as it clearly tried to break free from our grasp.

[LEVEL UP!]

I almost flinched at the prompt that showed up. I got a level from what we just did?

"They're obviously panicking from the looks of it," Shade smirked from his side of the room, his hands still on the microphone as he manned the comms kiosk. "I don't know who's commanding the ship, but I can tell that they're currently assessing the damage that-"

[*WARNING! ENERGY LEVELS CRITICAL! SWITCHING TO POWER SAVE*]

"Well, that's not-"

[*FWWooooommm....*]

And just as we were about to celebrate our first decent hit, the lights went out. Gone was our brightly lit bridge as we went back to relying on red dim lights to survive. It also meant that our brightly lit deck also went out, leaving us completely in the dark as we all stared at one another in complete confusion.

Guess my level up wasn't that bright right now. "What the hell just happened?" I asked aloud. "Is everyone okay?!"

"Still here, Moriya."

"I'm okay!"

Well, Shade and Shizu were just fine, at least. Guidance didn't bother saying anything as her [Manifest] glowed a dull green, giving us some light in all of this darkness... The dev was frowning as she looked over the engine kiosk, clearly denoting that the problem was probably on her end.

"Shen? Maruki? Can you hear me?" I heard Shade speak into our comms systems. "Can you hear me, Shen?"

[*"Loud and clear!"*]

[*"Of course, Shade!"*]

A wave of relief washed over the bridge at the sound of their voices. The amount of damage that we took before we fired our shot was kind of ridiculous, but at least we landed a massive blow on the enemy [Rig] in exchange. We could only hope that we could repair the damage, but then again, Shen was confident that she could do it with her so-called new and improved [Fixit].

Still, we had a massive problem to take care of. "Shade, ask Maruki about what's the situation outside."

A few seconds passed as he did what he was asked. Tensions were still running high despite the clear lack of cannonballs raining down on us. After all, we still didn't know if the harpoon could even sink the enemy [Rig] in the first place, let alone be able to detach itself so as to not get us dragged down by the [Rig]'s corpse.

[*"It is currently dark out, and the enemy has ceased with their attacks!"*] Maruki relayed from his side of the [Rig]. [*"The enemy [Rig] is burning out in the distance, and it also seemed as if they have stopped!"*]

"That's good news, at least," I sighed, my hand keeping the trackball steady. "What about Shen?"

[*"Pretty dark down here, but we're not taking in any more water!"*] Shen's childish voice proudly echoed from the comms. [*"All the explosions stopped too. Did we get 'em!?"*]

"Not yet," Shade chuckled into the comms. "We're currently dead in the water. The engine's stalled on us again. Think you can fix it?"

[*"Fix it?! Ya bet I can!"*] the little mechanic proudly exclaimed. [*"I'll have a look at it as soon as I'm done here!"*]

[*"Orders, Shade?!"*]

Maruki's voice reminded me that he was probably not doing anything at the moment. Then again, as much as I'd like the last empty kiosk to be filled out, we still might need his defensive [Manifest] to keep us alive in case the enemy might have any bright ideas.

"Shizu? Moriya?"

I turned to Shade just as he looked at us for direction. Taking a glance at Shizu, the princess nodded at me, which I took as a sign for me to go ahead and order, "Have him relocate to the main deck by the cannon. From there, he'll remain on standby in case they might have any bright ideas."

Shade nodded, "Sure."

A few more tense seconds passed by as Shade relayed my orders. Once he was done, we were left once more in the dark as we all stewed on what exactly even caused this blackout in the first place.

"The engine just died on us..."

All eyes went to Guidance as she grumbled out the cause of the problem, the light from her keyboard illuminating her face.

"It's saying that... The shot from the cannon practically drained all of our power?!" she incredulously stated. Then again, I probably wouldn't believe what she was saying either if it weren't for her being in front of the kiosk in the first place. "Just one use of that cannon killed all our reserves, and the engine just died because it didn't have enough to keep up the reaction?"

"Huh?!" I almost gawked out. "You mean that we have a weapon that the engine can't even power properly?!"

"That's what I was afraid of...."

All eyes went to Shade as he shook his head.

"Explain."

Shade shrugged at my order as he sighed. "Kattleyna doesn't have the technology to properly power a Marquean Tether Cannon of that size. At best, even the Marqueans themselves have limited their weapons to around half the size of what we have."

"So we're just dead in the water then..."

"I'm afraid so..."

I gritted my teeth at the ridiculous amounts of problems that never seemed to end. Damn... Why the hell did the engine just die on us?!

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