I'd say that remoras and other symbiotic fish would be more like mini-subs for BMINTs.
A Crown of Biosteel (Kancolle)
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
Well, as Ukraine has recently demonstrated remotely piloted drone boats can be quite effective, so maybe BMINT ships could have remora-like mini-sub symbiots that work like Grace's airwings? Something big enough to carry 2-4 torpedoes (like a PT boat I guess, but submersible) and make over-the-horizon attacks like aircraft, but with submarine stealth and being ultimately expendable without directly risking their BMINT cruiser (probably, for the sensors and for the sake of being able to run away if needed) host.
Might also be decently agile on land when their girl is doing human things and have friendly-small-dog personalities, but it could be too trauma-inducing if they easily invite emotional bonds.
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NHO
Dumb is a state of existence
- Location
- ᓚᘏᗢ
Torpedoes or containerized anti-air missiles that can be launched from underwater. Good for keeping ASW helos honest and swatting low-flying planes, but useless against anything flying high or flying fast or flying stealth. Increasing stand-off AA radius.
- Location
- Malaysia
Oh my! How I-lewd!
- Location
- Somewhere between here and there
If Bmint mini-subs ARE remoras, I can imagine the first few showing up unprompted and the fleet having to figure out what it's looking at. Like, Grace (or another of her kind) is out on some training voyage and a friendly sub pops up like: "Hey, you've got a hitchiker!"
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
Remember, 14. And not a returned shipgirl with hull-memories of being home to hundreds of horny sailors. Probably best not to risk sailing such waters...Oh my! How I-lewd!
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ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The supercruisers probably would need remora crew for minesweeping operations, because that's definitely a case where massive hulls are going to be a disadvantage. They could also assist with ASW, but I'm thinking the idea of using them for over-the-horizon attacks runs into the problems of them being slow to be stealthy. It'd an option but it's something you'd have to set up in advance.
I've also been thinking about what pennant code these supercruisers would get. CAV doesn't seem to fit. There's CMV (Multirole Flight Deck Cruiser) or CBV (Large Flight Deck Cruiser) but I'm sure there are other options.
May I bring your attention to the gay old Midget Sub. Named in the "Late Modern Period" (1800ish to 1945) and hasn't seen much meaningful military use ever. I assume we now have more PC names for these.
Midget submarine - Wikipedia
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
Interesting... one of the tasks mentioned for them is delivering frogmen for rescue or sabotage missions; if such a scene were to come up I propose the relevant crew symbiotes be more pr less based on the Crab-eating Frog, the only known living frog that prefers brackish water and can tolerate regular excursions in salt water. (wikipedia link)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QTvZuxzOcQ
edit: Oh, right, I forgot: @ltmauve subs usually do need to stay slow for stealth, yeah, I was mainly just meaning to say that their range would be similar to airwings, so a cruiser could drop them off by sneaking between the outer patrols' perimeter and then scoot while the remora-subs get in close for recon or a surprise strike or whatever, and iif they don't make it back, well, too bad, but it's just a matter of adding an extra burger or two to the messhall order when she gets back to port.
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ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I've seen the term used in recent news articles. The ******* fleet will probably default to "Remora crew" and the USN personnel will probably use "minisub."
My immediate thought here was "here's the landing craft used by the fleet's troopships." Because once the the front ramp is down (mouth is open) out comes infantry and maybe some kind of Mobile Gun System... which in the fleet's case is "Crab." (A troopship's heavy symbionts will probably have access to more weapons than the things Grace's Arsenal Nodes can produce, and better armor than just a plate carrier. Heck, they might have integrated armor as well.) Any tanks they use will probably also be carcinizied.
CaramelTheMoo
Rat and Cow combined
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Creb
Chapter 6 - Belly of the Beast
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A Crown of Biosteel
Chapter 6 - Belly of the Beast
CW: Discussion of pregnancy, indirect mention of infant death, -/Cassandra Wayne (AFDB-178)/-
The restaurant wasn't too far from the piers, well within walking distance even for the humans. The doors had old-style cargo cranes painted over the glass, and in this case labeled with "0093 William H Prescott" on them.The interior was laid out in a U around an open kitchen. The dining area wasn't too crowded at the moment. Barker and Alden waved with their hands and rigging-arms to indicate to everyone that this was under control.
That didn't stop the stares. Cass knew she was going to be getting a lot of questions later. The hostess came up to them, hands fidgeting
"Hello." Barker stepped up. "Party of seven. And we're required to keep our rigging out."
The woman nodded wordlessly, then directed them to a table, pulling together two of them and dragging away a couple of chairs.
Grace stared down at the menu, eyes flicking up and down.
"If you're worried about what to try, keep in mind that you have sea trials starting tomorrow at 1230." Fowler said. "You're going to want your reserve tanks full."
"They're not tanks per say." Grace said. "But sure, I'll eat up. You said I should need 25,000 calories to top up?"
"Yeah, that's my best guess." Fowler said. "Use your best judgement."
"How do you store your reserves, if not in tanks?" Cass asked.
"How else does any other animal?" Grace asked back.
That gave everyone at the table pause.
"Why is there a menu dedicated to fresh fruit offerings?" Grace asked, looking at the separate menu that was on the table when everyone had sat down.
"Because when we get back from long sorties, we want stuff we couldn't have brought on board." Barker said.
"So basically, fresh fruits and vegetables." Alden added.
"Ah." Grace nodded.
There were several moments of silence.
Then Grace dropped her menu on the table. "Okay, I've decided."
"Give me a minute." Smith said. "Never been here before."
About that time, a waitress came along to get their drinks, not even giving her name and scurrying away. Cass went for a root beer, her go-to soft drink. Fowler got a beer - bold move there, assuming they aren't going to work us to the bone on a Saturday so we can figure out how to give her a refit - while the destroyers grabbed hard cider, Smith got a lemonade, Mirka ordered orange soda, and Grace went with Coke.
"Did you get to go out to eat often?" Smith asked Grace.
"Nope." Grace shook her head, and rolled her eyes. "According to my gene donors, the 'good' restaurants were all closing down over the past decade. And the new places were all 'not real food' or whatever."
"Yeah, the inland migrations kicked off by the Abyssal War were pretty stark." Mirka said. "My family moved from California to Michigan, and we weren't the only ones. And it shows. When we showed up Mom had to improvise to make half her recipes. Last Christmas, she told me that she got everything she needed from the chain grocery store two blocks away."
"Let me guess - your esteemed gene donors considered that worse than the Abyssals." Smith pointed at Grace.
"I actually don't know." Grace shrugged. "They may consider all of these to be part of the same overall conspiracy."
The waitress returned with their drinks, dropping her payload cleanly and quickly in a display that might get her considered for piloting a strike fighter.
"Have you all decided what to eat." She stated, more than asked.
Everyone looked towards Grace.
"Can I get a... triple swiss and shroom burger at five-ex." Grace said. "With fries, and an appetizer of fish sticks, please."
"Chicken apple bacon burger, one-ex, with a side salad." Smith said.
"Ruben, two-ex, with fries and vegetables." Alden stated.
"Cheeseburger, two-point-five-ex, with fries." Cass said.
The efficient collection of orders was interrupted by Grace, who was coughing and spitting into her napkin, her other hand holding down the glass of Coke on the table. Her eyes had squeezed shut, her shoulders had tensed up like a mast line, and her body was shaking.
"Uh..." Everyone said, before Grace tossed the napkin down on the table.
Grace turned to the waitress, who made eye contact but otherwise did not move. "Pardon me, but can I get a glass of water instead? And a new napkin, please?"
"Ah... certainly." The waitress gave a brittle, plastic smile, took the two objects from Grace's gauntlet, and scurried away.
That left an awkward silence hanging over the table like dense fog.
"I think caffeine is toxic to me." Grace moped.
"Wait, what?" Everyone asked.
"Yeah, I tried coffee this morning and I could not stand it." Grace sighed.
"Well, no sleep for you tonight, then." Barker said.
"Huh?" Grace asked.
"It takes a carrier several hours to heat their boilers from a cold start. But as shipgirls we can just drink caffeine." Barker raised a finger. "So you didn't sleep last night, I see."
Grace dropped her face into her hands.
"You know I have a weird logistics setup. You know my weapons aren't standard. My skwings are so different compared to airplanes. And you know my 'shipness' is weird. What makes you so sure I even have boilers?"
There was a moment of profound silence. Diesels didn't have the heat-up time, but they would have horrible power output that would mean she would be straining herself to reach fleet cruise.
"You put on my paperwork not to make assumptions, and yet." Grace sighed.
Cass slumped, as well. "Sorry?" Then she sat up. "Wait, how are you powered, though?"
"I'm drunk, so I can't take notes." Wayne said, holding up a barely-sipped beer and very clearly sober. "Therefore, this conversation can wait."
At that point their poor, stressed waiter arrived, dropped off the water, and immediately began her RTB.
Grace sighed and stood up, sending her chair skidding backwards. "Pardon me." She said.
The woman froze.
"You still need to get their orders." Grace stated, pointing at Barker and Mirka. "Also, thanks for the water." Then she took a half-stride back and hooked the chair, then she pulled her foot forward and raised her arm a little and somehow she was sitting back where she was, chair included, without even looking back.
There was a tense moment before the waitress scurried away with the last two orders.
"So, uh, how much can we tip her without breaking the rules on the project account?" Grace asked.
"Not sure." Barker shrugged. "I can have my quartermaster check."
The conversation lapsed for a moment after that.
"So...." Grace pursed her lips for a moment. "Shipgirls can get pregnant?"
Barker and Alden winced. Fowler pushed her hands together in front of her, mouth flat, and Cass frowned.
"Grace, you're 14. Even if you can physically handle giving birth...." Fowler said.
"Yeah, money, housing, time, knowing a woman who would be..." Grace trailed off, trying to figure out the word.
"Willing to sire your daughter." Cass interjected.
"And who I... basically, yeah, not an option." Grace said, shaking her head vigorously. "Plus, my gut instinct is saying my daughters would be B-mints themselves, including sharing my color scheme."
The humans looked at her with wide eyes, leaning back a touch.
"Well that would be several shitstorms in a one-toilet 'rack." Barker said. "Might be worse than when everyone found out we could get knocked up."
Alden facepalmed. Everyone else looked towards the senior destroyer-captain.
"I find myself curious." Grace said.
Barker sighed. "Shouldn't have said that." She muttered under her breath, then louder: "Okay, a lot of stuff is classified, including the identity of the two shipgirls involved in that case. And the particular shipgirls involved is part of why the shitstorm was so big."
"She's a teenager. Should you be swearing so much around her?" Smith asked, looking a bit smaller than normal.
"Let." Grace clapped, grinning. "Grace." Another clap "Say." A third clap. "Fuck." A fourth and final clap. "But seriously, I've heard a lot of swearing already. My lovely gene donors liked to pretend swearing didn't exist."
"Fuck yeah, kid." Alden laughed. "But that... there was a lot of blame going around because no one thought about sex ed for shipgirls, despite the fact that it was clearly needed. New Jersey's wife was visibly pregnant at their wedding, which was only six months after Day One. The brass had no excuse for not knowing that shipgirls were 'fully functional.' And normally this would only be a small crisis, except for the shipgirls involved."
"Huh." Cass said, her brain starting to spin up its pumps. She hadn't awakened back then and was still in private practice, so this was new for her too.
Grace frowned in thought as well. The humans, too were starting to consider things.
Alden spoke up again, breaking them out of their thoughts. "The office debates got pretty heated. A three-star admiral got shoved out a window, and we know this because his hospitalization records got leaked to the press. There's a rumor that USS Constitution threatened SECNAV with a wiffle bat, but I haven't been able to confirm that."
Everyone at the table turned to look at her.
"You're... it can't be. Even she would have been reprimanded, right?" Barker said.
"Considering the amount of flak getting thrown around the halls of the Pentagon, it wouldn't be completely unreasonable for them to bury the incident under the rug store." Alden shrugged, smirking.
The conversation was left to flounder for a moment, Barker seriously considering what her sister said.
"Grace, you might actually be lucky if your daughters are B-mints." Cass said. "No need for a C-section, unlike normal shipgirls. On the other hand, you're going to need one heck of a house to withstand tantrums."
Grace hummed in thought. "Are shipgirl children humans?"
Meanwhile, Smith and Mirka were exchanging glances behind Grace's back, trying to be anywhere else but the conversation.
"Yup." Cass said. "Problematic for shipgirl mothers, but very kind to human mothers."
"Speaking of human mothers, please make sure that the Batoidea class does not get the same reputation as the Brooklyn class." Alden said.
"Hmmm?" Grace raised an eyebrow.
"The Brooklyns are notorious for loving and leaving women, and in particular leaving them pregnant." Alden said. "I think there are somewhere around... fifteen hundred bastards that the class has sired."
"Yeah, they do seem to be trying to give shipgirls a bad name." Barker sighed.
"I mean, I feel like I want to try carrying a child myself first." Grace looked off to the side and blushed.
Then Grace blinked a couple times, and tuned back to Alden. "There are like, 300 Brooklyns, right? Surely they can't all be like that?"
"322, if I'm up to date. There's the theory that to be a certain class of ship, you need certain characteristics." Cass said. "The Brooklyns are one solid data point in favor, with their attitude towards relationships, comfort with certain body parts, and a very distinctive type of charm. And from what I've heard, those all tend to be present before the awakening."
"Can confirm." Fowler stated. "Every single time I've gotten a Brooklyn in for a checkup, they treat the questions about their sexual health as an excuse to brag about their one night stands."
"But-" Cass raised a finger "There are plenty of classes with no real common trait. Like, the Iowas are all charming, but they're all charming in different ways. Essexs were another good data point until CV-102 came along."
"I'm pretty sure the brass keeps track of all this." Alden added. "There was a partial leak a few years ago. Apparently they keep track of all the shipgirls, even those who aren't part of the navy."
"I mean, there's the military aptitude test thing." Grace said, fingers wiggling in thought. "Right? So if there's something like that deciding the ship class and it isn't properly calibrated...."
"Yeah, that's a theory that gets tossed around a bit." Cass nodded. "Thought I have to wonder what's going on that sort of thing is on an aptitude test. And it supposes there's an intelligent force at work there."
"If that's not the case, then why has there never been a case of a shipgirl needing SRS?" Fowler raised her finger. "Or the nationality matches?"
"That could be entirely on our side, and not the other." Cass pointed out.
"Ah, I see you subscribe to afterlife theory." Fowler said smugly.
Cass rolled her eyes. "Illegal salvager ID'ing. Explain that with CC theory."
Meanwhile, the two human men slumped to the table as their levels of discomfort reached critical mass, probably both from an uncomfortable topic and from the current niche topic they had no idea about.
Fortunately, at this point, the waitress came back with Grace's appetizer, a plate with enough fish sticks to qualify as a meal for a human.
"Thank you!" Grace called at the woman's back. "What? No reason not to be polite." Then she somehow managed to stuff an entire fish stick in her mouth without a crumb falling out.
Wait no that didn't help the humans.
"So, anyone seen the new anime about the orca-mermaid?" Cass tried to lead the conversation towards something a bit lighter.
"No." Grace pleaded. "What's it like?" Oh good.
"Well, the two main characters are Mimi, a girl who just had to move out to the countryside, and Via, a six-meter orca-mermaid." Cass started her explanation.
Grace nodded in understanding, tossing another fish stick down the hatch, once again perfectly clean. Cass was suddenly reminded of a couple of scenes where Via did that to whole, live fish.
By the time the main courses came out, the topic had shifted from Via In The Harbor to another slice of life anime from a couple years ago, Uninvited Wife, With Daughter!
Cass's cheeseburger was served on a smaller plate than the ones the humans had, but her fries were on a separate, larger plate. Grace had a large bowl of fries, and a large plate containing the two 2.5x burgers she received. Presumably, a burger weighing five times as much as normal would fall apart if picked up with normal human-sized hands. Cass hadn't experimented with that herself. She hadn't been much of a cook before her awakening, and she barely even thought about cooking for herself after enlisting.
Somehow the discussion had shifted to the production of the Shipgirl's Heart anime way back in 2020. The company that made it had an agreement with the JMSDF, but the JMSDF was expecting something of a war drama. The company had instead made a wartime romance story between a few pairs of shipgirls and sailors.
The JMSDF brass was upset about the company's change to the thematics of the series from what had been planned, how completely off-base the combat was, and some aspects of the shipgirls' portrayal. Meanwhile, the shipgirls and their friends were significantly less happy about the way they were presented, and started a pranking campaign that quickly escalated past the typical limits of shipgirl shenanigans.
The matter was finally settled when the company agreed to destroy all copies of the episodes they hadn't yet released (So from the fourth onwards), then create at least a dozen lesbian romance series. The shipgirls added the last term, and apparently they made it brutal. Not only did those series have to be approved by the shipgirls they had slandered (and a few others), before they counted, they also had to make one series that got approved for every series they wanted to make with even a hint of heterosexuality in it.
"So they still haven't finished that yet." Smith said.
"But we did get MagiRevo and Fluffy Miko out of it, so at least we have some benefits, right?" Cass asked.
"MagiRevo was made by Kadokawa, not these people." Smith said. "And My Fluffy Fluffy Kitsune Miko Life was their fifth attempt at lesbian romance. My niece was super excited for Mermaid Kiss and then two months later at Thanksgiving dinner she had a twenty-minute rant about it. That's why I started looking into this stuff.
"And unsurprisingly, Flower Blossom, the first straight romance they made in six years, was actually pretty good. Subaru was actually a compelling character in his own right instead of just being a bland cutout character intended to be possessed by the audience, according to the reviews." Smith concluded.
"Was that reflected in the ratings?" Alden asked. "Because I've seen far too many anime with good qualities snuffed out by bland harem garbage getting more votes from viewers with no taste."
"No idea." Smith said. "But that poll was in Japanese."
"Hrm." Alden shrugged. A different waitress approached, holding a platter.
"Thank you." Grace called, giving a warm smile, as her five-times order of a Buffalo Chicken Sub arrived, consisting of two long subs each cut into three pieces. As well as a side order of fruit salad, in a bowl that could fit enough pasta to feed two.
Said waitress did not hang around long enough to notice Grace's response, however.
Grace slumped a little and sighed. She perked up a little as her food started vanishing down the Precision Void Aperture.
But that broke the momentum of the conversation, and there were several moments of awkward silence. Fortunately Grace had abandoned moderation in her refueling efforts. Somehow, despite her speed, not a single crumb had escaped onto her face or clothes.
Most of the party had started looking at their phones.
"It looks like the weather for the next few days are going to be nice, at least." Barker said. "So we have that at least. Your... skywings aren't rated for rain or storms, are they?"
Grace paused her eating, thinking.
"They should be able to handle quite a bit of weather. Plus they're radar-equipped, so visibility isn't as much a concern for them."
"Up until you run across a Demon that can jam radar." Barker said.
"So, what is the policy of the USN's aviators, human or fairy, when it comes to engaging radar-invisible aircraft in poor visibility conditions?" Grace asked, raising an eyebrow.
Barker laughed. "'Don't.'"
Grace grinned, then returned to resupplying herself.
No, there has been no recorded case of infant death from a shipgirl mother. But someone immediately realized it could be a possibility (followed by everyone) and so every child of a shipgirl mother has been a C-section.
On the other hand, Grace can go from "asleep" to "murdering Abyssals" faster than any other ship ever built or awakened.
Grace's Notes 6
Yes, as mentioned in the notes for Chapter 4, Grace cannot consume caffeine. Which potentially could be because of carcinization (but don't put that as primary canon yet.)On the other hand, Grace can go from "asleep" to "murdering Abyssals" faster than any other ship ever built or awakened.
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I understood that reference xD
Is this one also real, or exclusive to this? Because I would love to read that.
Peak worldbuilding, I love it xD
Poor Grace, trying to be nice to the waitress and getting ignored. I can't blame the waitress for being freaked out, but still.
CaramelTheMoo
Rat and Cow combined
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hmmm. Sounds like either serious gas/diesel or...nuclear
Draxsis
SANLOST
- Location
- United states
Poor Grace. At least there are a number of caffeine free carbonated drinks out these days so she doesn't have to swear off soda forever. Also part of the issue might be the large amount of caffeine in coffee and most sodas. She might have luck with some mild, low caffeine teas. Though if it's an issue stemming from her crustacean symbiotes then she's just going to have to deal with a no caffeine diet. Not the worst thing she could be restricted from consuming. Just imagine having that same issue with something like sugar or some other, common to most foods, ingredient.
Suryn
On the wings of a Dragon
Just how many more shipgirls are there then ships made?
So are these extras just copies of ships already summoned/appeared or something else?
The US only built 40 carriers by the end of WW2
Only 9 Brooklyns
So are these extras just copies of ships already summoned/appeared or something else?
Sylent-M
Be Trans, Take to Heresy
- Pronouns
- Was/Were
My understanding is that all naturalborns are just based on various existing ship designs (Grace excluded). None of them are the reincarnation of a ship spirit. Copies is the easiest way to think of it, but there aren't like a dozen Helenas who all look the same but with different names.
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/Her
5 kids per Brooklyn is crazy. Those girls must be really dedicated to their 'hobby'.
Not_Interesting
The Munchkin of Megastructures
- Location
- In your walls(the walls between realities)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
As far as I understand it, there are two ways for shipgirls to be made in this AU:
- Summoning = The Spirit of the Ship is summoned(The originals as it were)
- Awakening = A human becomes a shipgirl(that is where all the extra Kanmusu come from)
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Just finished reading this after stumbling across it. I'm pretty impressed with what you've done.
Does Grace have an actual, perceivable-by-humans, aura? Or, is it her appearance? Or something else we've not found out about, yet?
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
I...
Okay, so reading through the comments a bunch of others saw this and got real interested. As such, I'm assuming that the 'extras' come from Naturalborns being 'Awoken' and possibly some Summonings going odd when they couldn't Summon the actual Shipgirl that was intended?
Either way, it's going to be real interesting what happens when those Brooklyn Daughters start reaching 'Enlistment Age'. Because it's absolutely going to answer the question of if they 'count' as Unawakened Naturalborns (rather than Shipgirls from birth), if they're more pre-disposed to joining the military thanks to 'spiritual influence' from their Sire (as it sounds like the Brooklyns are focused on being the Sire rather than the Mother) and all that.
Also the discussion on Shipgirl pregnancies strongly implies that in this setting, Shipgirls are able to somehow impregnate women or be impregnated by women. Is this accurate and if so, is there ny comprehension of the mechanics of how that works?
Oh and finally, it sounds like Shipgirls are very strongly biased towards being lesbian or bisexual. Did I make a mistake or is that 'just a thing' with how it works in this alternate universe? Which, if it is the case, I am absolutely going to blame on Warships having a very strong tradition of being male crew only, so it messed with the metaphysics of things.
... So ending on a different topic, what this implies here is that Grace's Skywings are absolutely radar-invisible. Aren't they? And Grace is absolutely looking forward to pulling off that reveal.
Thief of Words
Trans lesbian librarian
- Location
- Best book girl
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's really not. As someone familiar with dining while trans and non-passing, Grace is lucky she has company the wait staff can't or don't want to alienate.
Refusal to do their job where you're concerned is a bigot's polite response.
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