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

[*"Wha- The engine died again?!"*]

Shen's frustrations were audible to all as her line audibly died shortly after. A few seconds later, the predictable happened.

[*vvvrrrOOOOOOOMMMM!!!*]

Once again, the [Rig] sputtered back to life, the engine below us clearly chugging way above its normal capacity as it strained to provide for our energy needs.

"Okay! Shizu, kill the cannon now!"

"O-On it!"

With a loud smack, the princess practically destroyed her kiosk as she slammed down on the power button. Almost immediately, the cannon out on deck sizzled back down, its blue crackles of energy dissipating, leaving us with a tether that we... can't really use unless we wanted to be stupid and ran down it like ninjas with magnetic boots.

"There," Shizu sighed out in relief. "It's powered down. Hopefully."

"Well, considering that we're still brightly lit, I'd consider that a success," I chuckled. "In the meantime, we should-"

[*"What about me?!"*]

Err...

Looking down, I looked at my rudimentary hull integrity bar on the charts. It read out at around 67%, so there was still work to be done on that end even if we weren't taking in water anymore.

"Tell Shen that she should keep repairing any damage that she sees needs fixing," I commanded to Shade, which he promptly relayed to Shen without any sort of edits to my words.

[*"Gotcha!"*]

And with that, that's one crisis averted. I almost wanted to celebrate, but then again, we still had crises two to ten that we still had to address.

"Alright, any ideas on how to get rid of these guys without us being able to reel this thing in?"

"We could always-"

"No, Shizu. We're not running across the tether to board them," I sighed, cutting her off before she could even attempt to speak. "We've done-"

[*BOOM!*]

Oh dear... "Any reports?!"

"They're attacking again?!" Shizu angrily shouted out. "Even after we managed to gut their ship?!"

"So it would seem," Shade scoffed aloud. "I told you they still had cannons."

Looking back down on the chart, I sighed as the holographic screen showed me exactly that. The enemy ship was still glowing red, trajectories beginning to show up from its broadside despite the massive harpoon that was piercing its hull.

How were they even still floating anyway?

"That's just par for the course," I sighed, hanging my head low as I wracked my brain for ideas. "I think Maruki intercepted it, at least?"

"Judging by his [Manifest] flaring out in front of us, then yes," Shade nodded, looking at the glow of blue wings currently shielding us from harm. "Still, we need a new course of action."

The three that were with me on the bridge all looked at me for direction even as the sounds of cannon fire and splashing water echoed out from outside the room. These were the kind of times that I really didn't want to go through. I had a few bad experiences leading people through critical situations, especially if I had no clear idea of what to expect. Thankfully, this wasn't such a case. It was a clear-cut problem of people were shooting at us, and we needed them to die before we could actually go and do our thing.

And of course, as time had taught me over the years, the best way of dealing with things you didn't know as a leader was to pawn it off to the next most competent person in the group.

"Guidance."

"Yes?"

"Any ideas?"

The dev looked at me looking like I had just betrayed her family even as her brows slowly furrowed in deep thought. "With our power being limited and our means of attacking pretty much gone, Shizu's idea might have some merit in that we should just run through the tether and commandeer their [Rig]."

"See? It makes sense!"

"However, that doesn't mean we have to do that, I think," Guidance continued, making Shizu pout in the background as she spoke. "We can... maybe pull the [Rig] along and go from there."

"Wouldn't that mean us going in reverse?" I asked aloud.

"As opposed to us not doing anything?" Guidance scoffed. "You're the one that asked for my opinion."

Fair play...

"Lady Guidance is right, Moriya," Shade concurred from where he stood. "While it will have us moving blind, all while taking in potential cannon fire from the enemy, the Deep will eventually do our job for us. With a hole of that size in their [Rig], even Vestygian ingenuity will fail against the warm waters around us."

Huh, I guess that's that then. "I'm assuming we're all in agreement then?"

Guidance and Shade both confirmed their agreement to our makeshift plan. Shizu did so as well, but the pout on her lips made her dissatisfaction clear to us even as she acquiesced to the majority.

"Okay then," I nodded. "I'm putting us in reverse. Shade, tell Maruki to keep the defense up."

"Of course."

Placing my hands on the trackball once more, I slowly eased our [Rig] backward, the chart blinking back to action as it charted our new heading. The engine below thrummed at the exertion, but it went through anyway as we slowly tugged at the enemy [Rig].

[*ENGINE INTEGRITY AT 40%*]

Well, that wasn't good...

"I.. I think I take my suggestion back. The engine's really not liking this one bit," Guidance grimaced from her kiosk. "I don't know how long it'll take before it dies again, but maybe we can cause ourselves to drift?"

"I... guess that's still better than nothing?" I asked aloud, also unsure of what to do even with all the cannon fire trying to blow us to smithereens.... "Although...."

I blinked at the chart, my mind running a mile a minute as our speed slowly picked up. I knew it wouldn't last, but maybe that was all we needed?

"What is it, Moriya?"

"Maybe we can force them to drift right to us," I thought aloud to Shade's benefit. "We're gonna have to fight, but we'll at least have a way of finally addressing them once and for all."

"Truly?!"

I let out a nervous chuckle at Shizu's excited tone. "Yeah. You'll get your fight later."

Well, hopefully, it was a fight we could take. There were only theoretically four of us, and the enemy might just have a whole army waiting for us to board them.

"I... You know what? Fine. Let them come," Shade chuckled darkly. "I've been itching for a fight myself. And I'm sure they'll be easy pickings once I turn the tide with my [Rozen]."

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