Interlude: The Heartcrusher

Two twin 300mm, sixteen 150mm, twenty 80mm, and ten 40mm guns, all turreted around the ship with twelve machine-gun emplacements and a naval mortar as support. Corsair’s beloved ship, the heartcrusher, had them all, and she would dare anyone to call it outdated.

The Heartcrusher was an old ship, of course, but it was much better than anything those pretentious navy guys could manage.

At least, that was true in Corsair’s case. Her style, and profession, worked best when she didn’t need to rely on formations and allies when moving around. And that was why this one battleship was overfitted enough to be as fast as a cruiser.

It was also a couple of times more explosive, but engaging ships that could break through its armor was never the plan.

Engage those she could outgun and flee from those that could cause damage, that was Corsair’s mentality. A mentality that was keeping the archipelan support fleet at bay ever since it arrived. This was likely the only reason why the failure at keeping the encircled dock controlled didn't end in a complete loss yet.

“It wouldn’t be like this if they let me do what I wanted… Using all my gunboats and torpedo carriers in a frontal assault is such a waste.” The dragon lady complained to no one in particular while watching the fifth failed back-and-forth between the two fleets. It was impressive for her that both sides would keep at it for so long though. For her, cutting losses and retreating after the interference spell failed and the enemy managed to flee was for the best.

By now, something close to a third of all her lighter craft went to the down bellows by now. Their tries to approach enough to make their torpedoes and oversized gun useful always ended in failure.

Some of them were intercepted by the fleets on the flanks and many others went down with a single shot of the battleship’s cannons. But at the same time, when these same battleships tried to approach the awakened dragon turtle, they would be the ones forced to retreat.

Corsair warned them that it was too risky to try something this straightforward, but she was only a pirate to the big boss, so it didn’t have much effect. She still took reign and tried to do her best, but there was only so much she could manage under the conditions of the operation.

If it was as she wanted to, they would spend a few extra days picking fleets off and forcing the Archipelago navy to spread. Only then, she would do the big assault and spring the whole trap. The dragon turtle, her flagship, and the few medium-sized ships she had would be enough then. All others would be focused on harassing the approaching reinforcements and picking off any easy targets.

A much better, although much slower, plan that would also end with fewer casualties.

Of course, they would still win with enough time as is. Their base was more resistant than the target, and it wasn’t as if they needed to destroy it to win either way.

It would fall by itself with enough time even if the explosions stopped, her boss would make sure of it. Even to Corsair's standards, he was simply that strong. Likely the strongest person she had ever seen even.

She only didn’t like that he stole the position of commander to the boarding force. This would be her best chance of finding that rumored inquisitor, which she thought was the real reason why the Watchmaker was here.

Worst case scenario, she was praying the dangerous girl would flee the base and make it so Corsair could hunt her later.

“Ow? They’re trying again, is it? And their plan now is...” The blue-haired woman observed as, once again, the cruisers started to change formation in another try to break past her. Their new plan seemed to be a head-on charge to sneak some of their forces away.

A very boring plan if she could say, and one she already countered once too.

With a sigh, Corsair took her radio and gave coordinates to the naval mortar and her bigger cannons before also telling the bridge where to move.

Her plan wasn’t about stopping the flankers but about forcing them to take a longer route. As she did before, it would make them ineffective when trying to reach the moving port.

As long as less than half of these cruisers managed to make through, they would never be a decent flanking force. And without a flanking, the battleship’s trying to assault the turtle fortress would keep failing.

All in all, very manageable even if the cruisers actually engaged her instead of baiting only. Even the bigger one, a vessel named Tortuga, wouldn’t be able to pierce Heartcrusher’s armor.

“Eh? They already gave up… That was fast.” The pirate captain looked in dejection as, with only a few close calls, the enemies started to move away again. “Back to keeping watch then… Maybe call for another assault around… Huh?! What’s that?”

She forced her sight in a hurry to try and see the fast-moving dot on the water approaching her position in a straight line. It was very fast, very weird, and gave her some weird chills. And that was without even considering the fact this thing appeared out of nowhere.

From what she could see, it was a wooden boat that moved way too fast with what seemed to be two passengers. Again, very weird, so her reaction was easy to choose.

“Hey, kids, fire everything on that approaching something, okay? I’ll be giving the coordinates so just aim well and keep firing. I also want people on the machine guns at starboard.”

Corsair didn’t trust very much that her cannons would hit the small fast-moving target, but not firing at it would be a waste. Letting it approach uncontested was too dangerous too.

It was always best to be on the safer side.

And so, for a minute, the approaching target was bombarded for nothing more than some close calls. And for the next, machine-gun fire rained on it, failing to take the lifeboat down too, but only due to a kitsune keeping a barrier on the bow of her vessel. Then, the whole battleship shook when the charging boat crashed into its beam.

Just some minor damage, which was still some damage. But more importantly than that, it was…

“Very interesting, little girls… Will you try to climb up now or will you sabotage my engines? What’s your plan…?” The dragon lady moved to her blades only to stop a few centimeters before she could reach them due to the surprise explosion that hit a nearby turret. “Oho? Now that’s even more interesting.”

As if to answer her wishes, a red-haired girl had just landed on the deck, firing at anything and everything that moved. How fast she was disabling, and she had to repeat it to believe, disabling her crew was as impressive as how fast she was damaging her ship.

It wouldn't sink, she was sure of that, but letting her run amok would make her job impossible.

Corsair had a hardy crew, to say the least, but the surprise effect of the attack and the perfect aim of the shots was too much for them. Arms, legs, and even parts of the chest that wouldn’t kill instantly, whoever entered the girl’s sights would be hit all around. And when she wasn’t taking some crewmate down, she would instead blow up a turret or two.

“Hey, funny girl!” Corsair hurriedly took her weapons and jumped from the top of her ship’s tower, landing a few steps away from the new arrival.

“Tell me your name and duel me as it's proper! This Corsair will have you now.”