Fleetgirls at Floodtide (Azur Lane/1900s Alternate History)

View: https://youtu.be/Ft36y4VMEKE

[Be dealing with Italian spoiling attacks from the south]
Air power against air power, a shock. New plans to be drawn up.

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

—

"I'm briefing Admiral's as they come in, we don't have time for a large meeting. Washington's already agreed to the plan," Ingersoll then looks at me. "It's about the only thing they do agree on. We'll be hitting the Germans from the west, the English from the east. The Germans are already a dozen miles inland so we don't have a lot of time, not if we want a base anywhere near Europe to work with."

"You'll be heading south and west, about ten miles out from Spain and a good two hundred away from the Channel proper."

I think about that for a moment, studying the map. Where I would be operating isn't even visible. But where I would be operating is such a large expanse of area… "Are we expecting moves from the Italians then? Or am I submarine hunting?"

"You'll be dealing with any flanking maneuvers from either navy along with several other task groups. As for what you'll be running into, we have no idea."

"... What's the status of Gibraltar?"

"Britain lost contact with them a week ago, a source in Spain reports still seeing gunfire around the island, but we don't know anything more than that. The Italian's have had their navy parked around it for months now."

"And we don't know if Britain is actually still holding it."

"No we do not. The ships we can spare for you are in port right now, you'll be sailing tomorrow morning for New York, then you'll be crossing the Atlantic with the rest of the convoy heading that way. You'll get more fleshed out instruction once you pass Greenland via airdrop. We're still working out the details. We don't have any up to date information about the Italian Navy either, just some battleships and smaller patrol craft around Gibraltar."

I would like to state that deploying roughly half the US Navy based on the flags on a not fully realized plan is foolish. But a part of my brain, a very loud part of my brain that is about as good at getting attention as a lighthouse at night is telling me that… for all this to happen… "I'll see that my ship is prepared. Anything I should know about my new ships?"

Ingersoll shakes his head. "New crews all around, Texas just finished a refit." The man then sighs, and as he moves to lean against the wall… he looks just about as tired as he sounds. The man looks like he hasn't eaten in days, let alone slept. "We don't have any word for the state of the Mediterranean Anderson. If the Italians come out of there, you may be taking the full brunt of it."

"We'll be ready sir, I have a good crew."

Ingersoll stares at me, or perhaps he's staring through me. His eyes are unfocused and his gaze is far away. They shift around the room, and the man moves a hand to cover his mouth for a few moments before returning his attention to me. "Good, good. Dismissed. Be ready to depart at 0600."

"Aye."

As I left the room I saw Admiral Ingersoll move to the window, looking out it for but a moment before his phone began to ring. He turned his head slowly towards it, and as I closed the door behind me, I wondered if he was about to jump out of that window.

—

The flightdeck was busy, very busy. The helicopter was halfway deconstructed, a swarm… gaggle? Of Machinist's working her all over to replace some plating on the side. For what, I had no idea. But it was just one of many things happening on the deck. Planes were being towed about by carts, others were missing engines, parts of wings. The works. The impromptu shakedown had revealed numerous issues and now the crew was working at full capacity to fix all of it. A few of the pilots were mixed in, either helping out as they could, pointing things out they had noticed. Or simply standing to the side and making themselves available to help while the Aviation Machinist's moved around them like they weren't even there. It was rare seeing pilots, in my experience, getting involved like that. But word from my CAG Ernst had made it rather clear the flight crews were feeling… rather useless after multiple nights where they could do little more than lay in their bunks and pray.

Mine was far from the only ship doing so. Bunker Hill just nearby was equally abuzz with activity, planes littered her flight deck, the crew running about to rapidly perform the checks needed for combat operations. That was to say nothing of the actual port around us as well. Thousands of men and dozens if not hundreds of trucks were moving about in the mother of all traffic jams. Sailors moving to ships, sailors leaving ships, supplies being loaded onto ships, supplies being loaded off of ships. Bells, horns, shouts, clangs, all this and more filled the air as the United States Navy prepared to go out to wa…

No, we had been at war for some time. But we were still getting dressed for church while our opponent was already in their car and halfway there.

…

"Leviathan."

The woman appears next to me, her expression carefully neutral… but there was no hiding the curiosity in her eyes. "Admiral Stevens."

"How's the ship?"

"Floating, sir." Leviathan replies. "We're scheduled to be fully fuelled within the next eight hours."

I nod my head. "Come with me to my quarters, I have our orde-"

A far, far more chipper voice than Leviathan's speaks up. "You do?"

I turn my head to see Cassin poking her head around a Hellcat. She runs towards me, spinning out of the way of a stack of bombs as she moves. "What's the plan Anderson?"

"Have you been hiding on my ship?" I ask the destroyer.

"No? I've been watching the Machinists work while waiting for you to get back from your boring Admiral v Admiral meeting. I'm way too amazing to need to hide." Cassin replies with a cheeky grin.

"No wonder you've always been the slowest destroyer in the fleet," you mutter.

Cassin blinks, then she's in front of me separated by mere inches. "Slowest?!"

"Hauling around that ego of yours? It's a miracle you can beat ten knots."

Cassin opens her mouth to retort, finds she cannot think of anything, then closes it and puffs her cheeks out like a chipmunk. I reach out a finger and poke her cheek, and distantly I can hear her horn sound out as she lets out a fake 'breath'. Her mouth then opens, and I pull my finger away before it is caught between 46k horsepower.

Leviathan, for her part, merely chuckles quietly, the tension broken. I smile back at my Carrier, then nod my head towards the tower. "My quarters."

"Oh? Both of us at once Anderson?" Cassin teases.

"If you want to stay here and watch the planes, that's your business." I reply matter-of-factly.

"Fiiiine." She then leans over towards Leviathan as the three of us start walking to the tower. "He's been trying to seduce me for years."

Leviathan arches a single, perfectly maintained brow. "Truly?"

"Yeah, but I've been making him work for it."

"She appeared in my room fully naked as a form of prank the first time we crossed the equator together."

"Yo-you aren't supposed to just say that!?"

I reach for the door, holding it open for Cassin and Leviathan, though the former was staring at me with a rather red face. "Cassin, if you are implying I should have shame. I am a sailor. Now, do hurry along, we have things to discuss."

—

One quick trip to my port-cabin later, I turned to look at the two shipgirls. Leviathan was standing in the center of the room, staring at me, expression serious and with all the grace and bearing of a lady of old. Cassin, meanwhile, was leaving assmarks on my desk as she kicks her legs in the air.

"We're not joining the main charge into the channel," I open with. "We won't be dealing with the Germany Navy."

"...Again?" Leviathan hisses out.

"We have a different assignment, one more important in my opinion once I had the chance to think things over. Patrolling around the west coast of Spain, keeping an eye out for German stragglers… and the Italian Navy." I stare at Leviathan, and speak slowly, and calmly. "We don't know their strength, we don't know where they are. We don't know if they'll even respond to our actions. We may find nothing but German patrol craft and Submarines, we may run headfirst into the entire Regia Marina. We flatly do not know."

"How's Gibraltar doing?" Cassin asks, her legs still now.

"We don't know. The Italians have it surrounded, Ingersoll couldn't tell me much of anything, the man was frazzled. But it's likely they own the strait now. So they can enter and exit as they wish."

"Fuck, like controlling all of North Africa wasn't enough of a problem." Cassin mutters.

"They also control the Suez, don't they?" Leviathan asks.

"Yes."

"And that's what you stated we'll be focusing on, once this is over."

"Yes."

Leviathan looks towards the window, a faint look of fear crossing her face before she controls it. "And we have no idea what we'll be confronting…"

Cassin shrugs. "Eh, that's normal. We never knew what the sirens had cooked up. I've fought with a few of the Italian girls in the past. Well, with them. They're all pompous snobs for the most part. More concerned with image than ability." The destroyer then turns her attention to you. "We hooking up with that big military convoy I heard some sailors talking about then?"

"If it's leaving tomorrow, yes." I reply.

"Alright," Cassin replies. "I'll have my crew ready for anti-submarine drills. We're gonna need it."

"When… are we leaving Sir?" Leviathan asks.

"Tomorrow, 0600." I say, turning my attention to Leviathan. "We'll need to have our dinner earlier tonight than expected. I'm inviting the CO's of our new ships over."

"What, Ingraham?" Cassin asks, the woman remarkably calm.

I shake my head. "No, the additional ships in our task group I was recently given… and Ingraham."

"More are joining us?" Leviathan asks, turning to look towards me again, the fear replaced by curiosity.

"Three ships does not a task group make, but yes. I was planning on visiting at least one of them while I had the time. Lord knows beyond basic smalltalk tonight I won't have time until we've docked in England." I smile. "We'll be getting further orders once we pass Greenland. But for the time being we've been assigned three new ships. The Texas, the Lafayette, and the Bunker Hill."

Cassin's lips twist. "That's… that Amazon, the wine addicts, and… don't know that last one."

"Oenophile." Leviathan says quietly.

"What?" Cassin asks.

"Wine lover, she would be an Oenophile. I have a good sized stock for just about any occasion." Leviathan answers. "And I do not know the Bunker Hill myself."

"She's one of the newer Essex's, that's about all I could tell you. She's the only one of the three I know hasn't seen combat however."

Leviathan's lip curls like she wants to say something. Then she flattens her expression again. Cassin took up the slack a moment later.

"Well, another carrier would be good. That's an old battleship though."

"A battleship is a battleship," I reply. "And she's been refitted regardless. We're in good hands."

"Wasn't saying we weren't," Cassin replies, hopping off the desk. "We gonna go meet them?"

"If you are, Admiral." Leviathan speaks up. "I would come with you, I would need to get a feel for their character as I prepare that dinner you asked for tonight."

I smile. "We only have time for one, too many things to do on the ship, but yes, we can make a visit."

"Wonderful," Leviathan replies with a smile. "I shall prepare the car."

Then she's gone, and I'm left staring at the spot she vacated.

"There's a car?" Cassin asks.

"I… am not aware, mine was destroyed during the attack at Pearl."

"We… not going to Bunker Hill then? Because she'd be just moving it to the otherside of the dock."

I stare at my destroyer, pondering yet another mystery of life. "I had planned on visiting the-"

—

[] [USS Bunker Hill]
Carriers were what you had been trained in, you would meet your new one as soon as possible. Only… you didn't find her, only an owl.

[] [USS Texas]
You may need those big guns of hers, especially if the Sirens decide to ambush you. Something was off about her though, wrong.

[] [USS Lafayette]
The converted French destroyer. She was across the entire dock, and was in the midst of a fight with another ship over… special orders?