A/N: Wow. Ew. This Chapter is ridiculously short and I know it. Not proud of it but I know it.

I've also made the realization that action, combat chapters just aren't my thing. You give me a character and what they're like and I will write you a novel based on their thoughts alone. But so help me if you ask me to write about how a battlefield is turning out.

The only reason I posted this as now is just to let you guys know that the story's still alive and all that. So no one has to ask if it's coming back.

—/—\—

The breeze amongst the Boston Harbor blew strong, whipping her hair around in and every which way. It was a different, but not entirely unwelcome feeling to the woman. It was one that she did not know, but also one that she would readily welcome as today pressed on. She did not know where she would stand after the coming battle, if she stood at all, but she knew that if she did not even try, thousands would die. And it would be her fault.

For all the feelings that she had not known until minutes ago, the newly reincarnated spirit of Constitution felt fear for the first time in her entire existence. Over two hundred years old and she was feeling the emotion known as fear for the first time. And for good reason.

Constitution was not deluded. She was not under false pretenses. She knew that the monsters that she was willingly taking herself towards were ages ahead of her own. Modeled after ships, that even for their time were far surpassed, laughed at her own technological status. She was under no delusions that this would be a simple fight.

But, glancing back to the Harbor, finding the people of her city lining the waterside, all eyes on her, simple wasn't the focus. Worthwhile was. She owed her existence to them. To the people. If hadn't been for them time and time again, she wouldn't be here now. Two hundred years past her prime. She wouldn't be here to fight for them.

But as she glanced back at the people once more, looking over their shrinking forms, she had to wonder. Why weren't they fleeing? Why weren't they running for safety?

"Because you are their champion." A voice filtered past her ears. The words so close to her, the breath with which they said it all but absent. "You are their champion." The voice repeated, one she'd not heard before. And she knew every voice she'd heard over her lifetime. Millions. Sailors and Civilians alike.

"They're in danger. They should leave." Constitution said, putting stress on the final word. She would not see someone die today if she had any say in the problem before hand. She would not the let the blood of the innocents stain her resting place.

"In times of peace, it is the Champion who watches the people. In times of war, it is the people who watch their champion. They can not be swayed. They will not be moved. Your fate and theirs are one in the same. If this is to be your end, then they will gladly meet their's alongside you." The voice offered her in simplistic nature, the closeness of the voice tickling her ears somewhat. But she knew that no one was there, that there was no person to actually look to to respond.

"I owe them everything." Constitution offered, her voice a hoarse whisper, as if the magnitude of it all was just now setting itself upon her shoulders.

"Then let not the debt go unpaid. Pay them in blood. Pay them in the pound of flesh they are owed. Carve it from their enemies, those who have taken and will take again. And if all else fails, pay with your life, for they will never forget your actions." The voice came again. The tone was that of familiarity, one of forgiveness. But it's words spoke up of fear, of that of the damned, the broken, and the gone.

Constitution's following nod was minuscule, so much to the point that even the woman herself had figured that she'd just ignored the action all together. But with one hand still on the helm, she looked back once more, glancing at the people of the city. Of her city.

Of Boston.

With one simple breath being exhaled, she turned back to the task at hand.

The water's under her were calm, but they were growing restless. Agitated, as if the water itself knew what was about to occur. The wind the more she strayed from the relative safety of the harbor, but it was safety that was null and void now. They were coming, and she knew that when they did, there was no one that was safe.

She could feel the wind in her sails, pushing her along as she kept herself on a steady and straight course, intending to meet them head on. But the disadvantages that faced her were far too numerous to count. She'd have to make what time she could have worth it in the coming fire.

She could feel her bow gliding amongst the water, pushing her way through. Orienting herself to the east further more so, she could feel her guns twitching. Like a feeling that she knew more than anything in the back of her stomach. Alongside the gnawing fear within.

She knew she wasn't here to kill. She wasn't here to try and be a hero. She wasn't going to try and kill a foe that would merely laugh at her.

She knew what she was here to do.

She was here to die. So that others could live.

With a careful and timid breath, she could feel as she herself sped up, moving through the water as she fully left he confines of the Harbor, now out on the open ocean. And so it began.

What she could only describe as what sounded like the thundering of a distant titan sounded in the distance. But Constitution was not ignorant nor was she deluded. She knew exactly what had made the sound as she looked skyward, spotting the small objects that had just reached the apex of their climb before gravity resumed control of them. Doing all she could, Constitution braced for impact as the telltale whistling noise began to scream through the air at her.

She braced.

It wasn't enough.

Pain shot through her body like lightning as the Abyssal's shells tore through her hull like butter. One towards the aft. One at the bow. Wood splintered and flew through the air as she pushed back the urge to scream. Keeping her sight ahead, she turned to being her guns to bare on the closest opposing force, a simple Abyssal destroyer.

With one sudden and uninterrupted thought, Constitution's guns fired, ones that hadn't spoken out in anger in centuries. Not nearly as loud as the opposing guns that came with the demons, she made it count. But as she watched her apparent salvo slam against the closest of the destroyers, their armor was unwilling to relent against the onslaught of outdated technology. Constitution grimaced at that as she watched, the Abyssals leveling their guns directly at her. She sucked in an apprehensive breath.

And they fired.

For a second time, Constitution was racked with pain as their shells tore through her hull, over-penetrating everything. She could feel as each individual shell tore through her side, only to come screaming out the other side, leaving her racked in pain and the Abyssals that much closer.

And this was the just the destroyers, as she spotted what was to be called cruisers and a lone battleship approaching as well, their guns already finding their firing solutions. But Constitution would not be put to rest so easily. Not while these things attempted to murder them in cold blood. Gritting her teeth, she steeled herself as she felt her guns being reloaded. Casting a glance down at the deck, she found what could almost be described as ghosts. Whispers of the past. She could make out their form, but no details. No face, no voices, simply lone figures, echoes of the past once more called forward to do their job.

Orienting the ship to prepare another salvo as she could feel her starboard side guns almost finish their reloading sequence, Constitution spared another glance at those opposing her.

"They will kill you." The voice told her in a snide and cruel tone. But Constitution merely focused on the battle at hand, her bow swinging to port, bringing the ship equal with the Abyssals.

The thunder of her guns erupted, quiet in comparison to the guns of her opposition. Once more, her salvo flew at the encroaching Abyssal destroyers. But once more, her salvo found itself lacking in power as her fire merely bounced away from the Abyssals opposing her, watching as they seemed to almost laugh at her in both pity and disgust. There wasn't even a three second window before they fired again.

She felt the burning pain racking her body almost three seconds later as their shells tore their way through her once again, the woman screaming as she could feel each and every hole that they left her. But she would not relent, she would not run.

She owed everything to her people.

And she would make good on that debt.

—/—\—

Admiral Hipper's guns thundered away over the water, killing yet another of the many Abyssal destroyers that had been brought her way. Maybe the ninth or tenth to fall at her hands. At her own doing. And the Heavy cruiser, despite recent events and her feelings leading up to the encounter, relished it.

As she watched the waves engulf the newest destroyer to fall by her hands, she looked back to where they'd originally come from, finding that there was no shortage of approaching enemies. Letting a near killer grin tug at her lips, spreading by the second, Admiral Hipper pushes forwards with little to no concern for her own well being. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she told herself to slow down, to bring it back. But Hipper was too far gone at the moment, so easily consumed by an unseen bloodlust that even she herself was taken by surprise.

But she kept pushing on as her guns loaded once more, raising to their proper angles. Already lining up the next Abyssal destroyer in her path. Her grin never fading, she let loose, her guns barking at the destroyer, it's death swift and hot a few seconds later as it exploded. But the others only slightly pulled back at that, still poking away at the cruiser before them, as if they thought they had a chance. Hipper laughed internally as their shells either missed or plinked away at her armor. It was as if the Abyssals has decided to take pity on the woman, something that she would make sure they paid dearly for.

Shifting her rudder, Hipper slowly oriented herself to port as she intended to get a better angle on the closest of the destroyers yet again. Though, despite the amusement, despite the unease of the situation, something from within nagged away at Hipper, some previously intrusive thought.

Where was the rest of the Abyssal fleet? Sure, from what she'd learned from Tirptiz and some her fellow cruisers on base, an Abyssal fleet fully comprised of Destroyers was a rare sight if it even happened at all. The Abyssals only sent fleets so lightly armored when they were just scouting or trying to sink something that bothered no second thought. The Heavy cruiser wasn't sure if that was a comforting or terrifying thought.

But her thoughts were interrupted when she was brought back to reality as she could feel her guns load once more, slamming shells into their holdings. Taking no time, she leveled her guns at the closest of the Abyssal forces, yet another destroyer approaching near her with haste. Narrowing her eyes in distaste, she fired, adding what she counted to be the ninth kill of the afternoon.

Sparing a glance at both the horizon and her radar suite, Hipper still only found the signatures of those that had first shot at her. The destroyers, which were now numbering in at under three. With only two of them left, they barely warranted a fight. But the message from the allied fleet had been clear, even so from Maryland, despite how much Hipper thought badly of her. Do not under any circumstances underestimate the Abyssals, something that the cruiser, begrudgingly, had no intention of doing.

Feeling her fairies begin to work on loading her guns once more, she worked to change her path, making it harder for the opposing destroyers to attain a proper firing solution. Rolling her shoulders, Hipper began to turn her guns on one of the last two remaining destroyers, she cast the thought from her mind. Feeling as her guns stopped their rotation, finally finding a proper firing solution, Hipper's frame shook as her guns fired once more.

But this time, the opposing destroyer had been ready for that salvo that had brought about the end for so many of it's compatriots. When Hipper fired, the destroyer leapt from the water in response, surprising the cruiser somewhat. And then it fired in return.

Hipper only caught the briefest of glances of the shell that had been fired at her, only the smallest of looks. And then it hit her, despite her best chances of dodging.

The shell exploded across the right side of her face, her neck, and her upper body. At first, she'd thought it had been a dud shell, something to simply push to the side in importance. Something that she didn't need to bother herself with at the end of the day. But that line of thinking was wiped away as it began to burn, the Abyssal's white phosphorus shell igniting.

Immediately, Hipper seethed in pain as the weapon burned away at an entire side of her face, her neck, and a large majority of her right arm. With one eye slowly being lost to her, the cruiser found her ability to sight her enemies lessening but not fully gone. Taking aim with her guns once more, her face burning, Hipper's feral grin turned to a scowl as she let loose once more with her guns, the shells tearing the destroyer to pieces almost seconds later.

Despite the burning, the pain of feeling her flesh sear, she took a moment to rest. To take solace in what she'd done. She'd killed all that had come in her wake, the destroyers in total, all laid out on the ocean floor for the depths to consume. She'd done her work and she would allow herself a small-

Something in the back of her mind suddenly nagged at her, a voice that she'd been repressing somewhat up until that point. Her navigators suddenly began to draw up a path of where they'd gone chasing the destroyers. Farther and farther and farther. Away from her allies.

Hipper had been so concerned with busying herself with the destruction of the destroyers that had so readily given themselves to her, she had neglected to take notice or heed of where exactly they had been leading her.

Her singed skin, her pale complexion, visibly paled as she realized what exactly that they'd been doing this entire time. They'd been goading her, leading her from her supposed safety near the bay of Tokyo to open ocean,  place that currently played to their rules, to their strengths. Her guns didn't even have so much as spare seconds to twitch when her radar began to blare so rapidly that she thought she'd gone deaf.

Immediately, her body willed itself to move, which she did just as the first shells
splashed down behind her, blanketing her in a geyser of water. Only for more and more shells to fall from above, their whistling ever so slightly louder than the alarms blaring aboard her, her fairies scrambling like mad to both contain the damage to her and to ready themselves for actual combat and not what had been essentially an over dramatic target practice.

As Hipper watched her surroundings light up around her, no longer the mere destroyers but instead cruisers and battleships galore, she willed her guns to load faster as the white phosphorous burned away at her skin continually. She quickly shifted her rudder once more, barely escaping the shell fall that Came moments after.

As her breathing ran ragged and she watched the opposing Abyssals close in on her, she vowed that they would not take her alive.