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

My hands still steering the trackball, I turned my gaze towards our resident dev, her body still standing still as if she didn\'t know what to do either. "Y-Yes?!"

"Can you help me decipher all this stuff?" I anxiously asked, my eyes flitting back and forth between her and Shen frantically shuffling in clear indecision. "We\'re gonna die at this rate."

"R-Right!"

As if finally holding herself together, Guidance took her place beside me by the console. The red alarms were still blaring, and the ominous sounds screaming from below deck were indicative that something was clearly wrong with the [Rig] right now.

"I-I have to get out there and fix things!" Shen yelled out, her wrench already glowing as she shakily stood her ground. "We\'re gonna sink!"

My eyes widened. "Not yet! Not until we can navigate without a spotter!"

"I\'ll do it," Guidance quickly chimed in, a grim determination on her face as she left my side just as quickly. "Shen, go below deck and stop us from taking in any more water."

"Gotcha!"

And with that, our little mechanic sprinted out of the bridge, leaving me alone with Guidance as we navigated the dark waters of the Deep.

[*SPLASH! BOOM!*]

I winced as two more shots echoed from behind us. I at least knew that one of the shots missed, but that second shot didn\'t seem to hit us? The [Rig] didn\'t shudder like the previous times we were hit... Was that Maruki\'s work?

"Focus, Moriya!" Guidance quickly yelled out. "Land mass on our twelve!"

"G-Got it!"

Moving the trackball, I steered us to our right, hopefully dodging the island while putting some distance away from the enemy [Rig] at the same time. Damn it... Being stuck with this overview of a chart was just not helping at all!

Fvck it! "I\'m gonna start randomly pushing buttons here, Guidance!" I called out. "Tell me if I turned something on!"

"Copy!"

Hearing the dev\'s shaky reply, I turned my attention back to the console in front of me. Forcing myself to look at it from an analytical perspective, I mapped out all of the known buttons on this thing.

"Right... Trackball in front of me... Chart just beyond that..."

There was a blaring red light flashing to my left-hand side just above the trackball. Looking at it, there was actually a label underneath it that said \'hull breached\'...

Well, that was helpful.

[*BOOM! BOOM!*]

The [Rig] shuddered as two explosions rang out. This time, however, it sounded more like nothing was breaking apart. Were they Shade and Shizu\'s work then? "Guidance!?"

"Two shots fired from our end!" she tersely replied. "Both missed though! Focus on the console!"

"Okay!"

I almost let out a nervous chuckle as I turned my attention back to the task at hand. Moving my eyes further, I saw a few buttons that had labels so small that it was no wonder that I missed them earlier.

"Let there be light..."

[*ffwwoooOOM!*]

The [Rig] shuddered as the entirety of our deck suddenly came to life. The red error-filled waters beyond us were now clear to see as a massive flashlight illuminated our path.

"Thank god for that!" Guidance laughed out. "I can stop squinting now!"

"That\'s one good news at least!"

I shared Guidance\'s excitement as I looked at the console again. With the lights now blaring down on us, I can actually see everything beyond the damn LEDs flashing at me like I was specifically trying to ignore them. There were indicators labeled everywhere. From navigational systems to an actual autopilot, this was actually more complicated than I thought.

And of course, one of the most important things I was looking for finally showed itself.

"Anything we need to look out for?!" I called out against the sounds of battle happening behind us.

"Nothing so far!"

Nodding at Guidance\'s words, I pressed the button that will hopefully switch the chart away from this massive scope of the Shallow Deep.

[*zoom...*]

With a small whistle, the massive top-down perspective of the Deep shrank down, zooming in on our location as it showed a more detailed minimap of our general surroundings. Sure enough, the enemy ship was right on our tail, blinking red with a massive designation flashing right beneath it.

"VWR Coal, huh..." I whispered out. "Cool name..."

Judging from the interface, the enemy [Rig] was a registered Vestygian vessel. And looking at our call sign, I could only imagine why they\'d shoot us on sight.

"ICR... random numbers and letters... Joy..."

From the name alone, it was pretty much obvious that we were Kattleynan. Imperial-Class [Rig]? From there, it was clear that our [Rig] was one of a kind. Ignoring the fact that our [Rig] still didn\'t have a name, it was probably more than enough for our enemy to shoot at us as if cannonballs were going out of style.

"And we\'re up against a Vestygian War [Rig]," I whispered out. "Have to at least call them out on it. Guidance?!"

"Clear so far!"

"Nice!" I chuckled. "That means we can call the enemy and tell them they ain\'t shit!"

"Wha- Are you serious right now?!" Guidance incredulously asked aloud. "They\'re literally shooting at us! And I can only imagine what\'s happening with Shizu and the rest! I can\'t exactly see them from here!"

Oh, right... "Change of plans then!"

Moving my hand away from the InterRig communications button, I searched for what I only hoped to be something that was standard for any sort of vessel that needed an entire crew for it to function. Coordination was key, and-

"Hard left! Hard left!"

"Wha-"

[*CRASH!*]

A loud screeching sound echoed from underneath the hull as the entire [Rig] shook in pain. Alarms blared out as I forced myself to stay upright, hoping that the loud noise would stop until it finally, well, stopped.

"W-What the hell was that?!" I immediately called out.

"S-small rock hidden underneath the waves!" Guidance replied, her tone obviously guilty even as she forced herself to stay professional. "I didn\'t notice it, so-"

"That\'s enough!" I grimaced. "Just focus for now!"

"G-Got it!"

Gritting my teeth, the damn enemy [Rig] was still on our tail as I finally found the button that I was looking for. Pressing on the Public Announcement button, a small microphone appeared from underneath me before I yelled out.

"What\'s our situation out there?!"

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