10 knots and expedited collection? Sounds like a good deal. Especially if we set the Anchor.
[X] Plan: Intelligence destroyers.
-[X] Majors
--[X] Increase Main Gun Calibre from 100mm to 127mm [4 Inch > 5 Inch]
--[X] Upgrade boilers (20k > 30k).
-[X] Minors
--[X] Increase Small AA Guns x1 [0 > 8 x .50 cal]
--[X] Install improvements to radio [N/A > Standard Radio]
I like the improvements in resource gathering, and onshore the benefits should be greater than the losses. In addition, if we decide to carry out this operation, speed will be very useful to us.
10 knots and expedited collection? Sounds like a good deal. Especially if we set the Anchor.
[X] Plan: Intelligence destroyers.
-[X] Majors
--[X] Increase Main Gun Calibre from 100mm to 127mm [4 Inch > 5 Inch]
--[X] Upgrade boilers.
-[X] Minors
--[X] Increase Small AA Guns x1 [0 > 8 x .50 cal]
--[X] Install improvements to radio [N/A > Standard Radio]
I like the improvements in resource gathering, and onshore the benefits should be greater than the losses. In addition, if we decide to carry out this operation, speed will be very useful to us.
[X] Plan: sensible amount of guns
-[X] Majors
--[X] Add additional Y turret
--[X] Increase to two guns per turret
-[X] Minors
--[X] Increase Small AA Guns x1 [0 > 8 x .50 cal]
--[X] Install improvements to radio [N/A > Standard Radio]
effectively identical to tabac's plan, but without cost-saving b/c I feel like radically increasing gun power while simultaneously cutting cost is a recipe for trouble.
[X] Plan: Discretion is the best part of valour.
-[X] Scavenge
--[X] Food: Send girls to look through the town for whatever edible food that might be left behind.
---[X] Shizuka (Flagship)
-[X] Small Defensive Emplacements: Destroyer and Cruiser guns emplaced around the base, used to keep smaller ships from closing to the base. (Destroyed) [0/10 Labour | 0/20 Steel]
---[X] Shinobu
-[X] Anti-Aircraft Emplacements: Stops aircraft from ruining your day, a mixture of small to large guns, all for anti-air. (Heavy Damage) [0/20 Labour | 0/20 Steel]
---[X] Hibiki
-[X] Refit: Create a new refit for an existing ship class. Will trigger a Ship Refit Subturn when initiated. [0/30]
-[X] Request Assistance: Ask one of the shipgirls to help you in one of your tasks, such as their knowledge or equipment on a research topic.
--[X] Princess.
[X] Plan: Intelligence destroyers.
-[X] Majors
--[X] Increase Main Gun Calibre from 100mm to 127mm [4 Inch > 5 Inch]
--[X] Upgrade boilers (20k > 30k).
-[X] Minors
--[X] Increase Small AA Guns x1 [0 > 8 x .50 cal]
--[X] Install improvements to radio [N/A > Standard Radio]
Shipgirl Operations: Scavenging
Shizuka
"13:27, Re 175 fires A and Y turrets at 175 degrees to port." Your eyes trace the ruined square as you step around the various shell craters, piecing together the faded mess that is the first pages of your logbook, the ruins of the target you had never seen with your own eyes surrounding you. The faded brown of camo nets set over flipped tables and fallen office supplies around the makeshift camp, a small smattering of those massive chain AA guns dot the park, brass casings as big as your hand lie in large piles around the base of the guns.
"THAT BITCH IN THE LAKE IS SHELLING US." The shout of anger is only audible to you via your linked comms, the bone-rattling roar of the 40mm gatling cannon you were seated on drowning out any possibility of speaking normally as it burns through the ammunition stockpile alarmingly quickly. "WHERE THE FUCK IS THE AIRFORCE?"
"YOU SO READY TO MEET GOD?" You snap out, the brisk two weeks worth of training following your conscription leading your hands through the resupply process, attaching the next box of ammunition before the current one ran dry. "IF THEY DO SHOW UP WE'RE GOING TO ENJOY A CRISPY NUCLEAR SUNTAN."
The mad fucker that was your childhood friend almost hits you with the loading tray as he jerks it to the side, following one of those tiny bastards as it zips by overhead. "AND IF THEY DON'T WE'RE GOING TO ENJOY THE TENDER MERCY OF A 16 INCH ENEMA." The gun seizes and jerks in place for a moment before shunting the shell jamming it out of the side, the familiar roar starting again a moment later. "HOPE YOU LAID THAT SIGNALS CHIC-" The brief shimmer of gunfire reflecting off of something is the last thing you see before a fragment of metal shoves it's way through your skull.
You spare one last look at the large, half fallen down, metal skeleton of a tower set in the middle of the camp and turn to leave, familiarity returning to you as the distance continues to grow. "13:28, Ho 649 reconnaissance aircraft signals target destroyed, Ru 57 identifies new target at 152 degrees to port." You can just about make out the other target a hundred metres down the stretch of green, a squat concrete bunker that almost appears intact if not for the caved in roof and small hole punched into one side.
"How far along is the evacuation?" Only the three foot of concrete and steel that make up the walls of your bunker is muffling the cataclysm raging outside, just enough that you can hear yourself speak. "We need to get them past the motorways before they start shelling it." It would be so much easier if the Abyssals didn't go out of their way to trap as many targets inside cities as possible when they attacked, the roads were the first things to catch a bomb.
One of your aids, a promising replacement from this very town and fresh out of school, speaks up from where she's leaning over her thick laptop. "North and Northwest roads are already gone, the units protecting the bridge to the south went out of contact 15 minutes ago and we just lost long range radio." The faint rumble of something massive falling over is felt through the floor but none of you comment on it. "Short range is still working and the western road reports open."
Thank god for small mercies. It was going to be tight, but you could centralise all of the forces you had left onto that road and hold it open for as long as possible. "Get everything we have pulled back to there, what the fuck is the airforce doing? They had units up already." The lack of a small nuclear bomb straight down the throat of those Abyssal bitches was screaming it's evidence as an explosion rocks the bunker.
"13:42, Ho 649 reconnaissance aircraft signals target destroyed, Ru 57 initiates landing operations." The inside of the bunker is almost exactly as you remember it, even with the new windows shining light inside it is dark. "13:57, I 382 breaches target at close range and eliminates command elements, recalled by Ru 57 for other operations."
You cough harshly as you roll over, dust thick in the air as everything spins, a high pitched ringing blocking everything out. Shakily reaching down for your sidearm and lifting it in front of you as a shadow climbs out of the dust. "Ah fuck me..." The blank face of a child greets you, pale skin smudged with soot on the cheek but otherwise spotless, the lone gun sitting on her shoulder turning to face you. The report of your gun would be deafening if you could hear anything but the Abyssal doesn't pay your barely aimed shots any mind, cold eyes staring down at you over the lip of a black metal collar.
You sigh and give up, letting the gun drop to the floor and your eyes with it, watching the death twitches of the girl you had picked as your assistant while her blood seeps out of the missing chunk of torso. You had promise you know. I took you in here because I thought you'd live long enough to let your wings out. And here she was, dead on the dirty floor of the command bunker as the Abyssal finishes reloading, a flash-
"21:33, Thunder Bay defences neutralised. Ru 57 and Wo 64 note the lack of aircraft retaliation before continuing with shelling operations." You take one last look around the ruined interior, the shot you had fired inside had demolished everything and the shockwave inside the enclosed space had finished off the rest. Exiting the tomb, you continue on your path back to base, feeling somewhat tired all of a sudden.
I think I'll go around next time. The note you left in your logbook said it was because the ground was uneven and took too long to move over, but it wasn't.
+20 Food.
Base Management: Base Repair - Small Defensive Emplacements/Anti-Aircraft Emplacements
Shinobu knows better than to question exactly how Princess produces the parts of the equipment you are putting together and she doesn't, but when she catches Hibiki humming something she can't resist her curiosity this time. "What is that you are humming?" Your fellow escort looks up from where she is working, the little tune slowly fading away as she blinks.
"Oh, it was just something I heard Shizuka humming to herself the other day, it's surprisingly catchy." She resumes her humming, a little louder so that you can clearly hear it and after a few repetition you join in, synchronising your voices as you go about your work. You silently count out the rhythm as you heft a barrel into place. 2-4-11~
Small Defensive Emplacements: A handful of 5" guns and one 6" double turret comes back into service. [Destroyed > Heavy Damage] -20 Steel
Anti-Aircraft Emplacements: Broken AA Directors are replaced and many of the disabled large guns are replaced. [Heavy Damage > Medium Damage] -20 Steel
Research: Shizuka Class Refit 1
With help from Princess and your growing insight into how Abyssals work, the task practically flies by. Some parts of it were more difficult than others, to be sure. Swapping out the 100mm gun for a more traditional 127mm gun wasn't particularly difficult, you barely had to change anything aside from adding a few ammunition boxes to fit the larger shells. The engine was a significantly more difficult affair, you weren't exactly a naval engineer despite your best efforts and you only knew how naval engines worked on a theoretical level.
Thus, your solution to more speed was rather crude, but you had to make do with what you had. Admittedly, cramming more boilers into the engine room until the ship scraped past 30 knots wasn't easy, nor was it safe, but you did it. If crew actually had to work in there it would be some kind of crime against nature, ambient temperatures sat at 30C at the lowest and you didn't even want to imagine what would happen if a shell found it's way into there. In the best case it would just halt the ship, worst case... well you'd see what a ship sized steam explosion looked like.
The .50's went on without issue, they are so light and small that you could pretty much just slap them wherever. Two each side of the bridge, a pair mounted back to back on the middle of the superstructure and another pair just before the empty aft space. At least they had something to scare off lone planes from taking potshots now, it wouldn't stop a strike wing by any means, but they were no longer completely helpless.
The radio was installed into the bridge, a very conspicuous empty slot was filled almost perfectly by said radio, making you wonder what was going on with these designs. It's like someone intentionally stripped down the ship of everything but the bare necessities...
Princess was beyond helpful for this task, it would have taken you at least another week if you had tried to do it without her help. You make sure to thank her gratuitously. +20 Progress
Shizuka Class Refit 1 completed ships can now be refit to this standard and new Shizuka Class ships will be built to this standard by default. (Other refits can be selected instead if desired.) [0/30 > 30/30]
Personal Action: Request Assistance From Princess
Taming Princess hair into a ponytail of her own was more work than you had imagined it to be when you made the offer. Yes, she did look amazing in it, but it felt like if you turned your back on it for a few hours the damn thing will have escaped it's bonds again, which of course means more hair-care. You finish tying off her hair again, using twice as many bands as you did last time and turn back to your work.
Your work is interrupted exactly 27 minutes later when Princess abruptly sits from where she is lounging next to you, the speed of it drawing your attention. "What is it?" You feel something inside you slowly start to tick over, like flicking a switch and your focus drops from your work.
She stares off into space for a moment, a little tell that she was seeing through the base equipment in some way. "Unidentified fleet approaching from the east, sailing directly for the mouth of the bay, they just passed the northern tip or Isle Royale." A moment later you hear a wailing start, a terrible shriek that could have woken you from the deepest of slumbers. "Five or six destroyers and two that could be either light or heavy cruisers, moving at combat speeds."
Her ironclad calm helps settle your nerves a little, following her as she makes her way out onto the docks. Hibiki and Shinobu quickly appear from wherever they were and gravitate around the two of you, Shizuka won't be far off, a few minutes at most, long before the enemy fleet arrives into gun range.
The old and new gun emplacements set around the base groan as they turn onto target, the loud shriek of the lone heavy turret sounding out over any other as it limps into position. The sun shines brightly above you, the waves are steady and there are no aircraft in sight. Princess glances at you as the guns finish training into position, "We are heavily outnumbered in hulls, but we have roughly equal parity in the number of guns." You know what she is asking, while you only had experience fighting people it was more experience than anyone bar Shizuka had at all and she wasn't here to grill.
[] Hunker Down on base, take advantage of your emplaced guns and shoot back from the coast, have your girls take cover and fire back from behind the destroyed battleship turrets.
[] Send your girls out to engage, forcing them to choose between shooting at the agile little destroyers or the angry mass of guns jutting out of the base, or just make them split their fire.
[] Send the girls into the city and have them fire out onto the ships in the bay from cover, keep them moving but not so far that they can't come to the base in a hurry.
[] Write In...
Having cover is a luxury they won't have, being out on the water and all. I reckon we should exploit that for all it's worth. I'm not sure if it'd be better to send our girls to the city or not though. On one hand it'd force the incoming fleet to split their fire a fair bit, on the other hand them being out of the base means they're vulnerable to a degree, and kinda limits our fire concentration. On a third hand not bunching up in on spot means that can't get all of us in one go...
[X] Send the girls into the city and have them fire out onto the ships in the bay from cover, keep them moving but not so far that they can't come to the base in a hurry.
[X] Send the girls into the city and have them fire out onto the ships in the bay from cover, keep them moving but not so far that they can't come to the base in a hurry.
I mean we did just add some speed to them so sending them out would sync with the refit.
[X] Send the girls into the city and have them fire out onto the ships in the bay from cover, keep them moving but not so far that they can't come to the base in a hurry.
I think I'll go around next time. The note you left in your logbook said it was because the ground was uneven and took too long to move over, but it wasn't.
Oof, that's some trauma. I suppose it's not surprising that the veteran boat has the PTSD to show for it, but it's still kind of sad that she's hurting like that.
"Oh, it was just something I heard Shizuka humming to herself the other day, it's surprisingly catchy." She resumes her humming, a little louder so that you can clearly hear it and after a few repetition you join in, synchronising your voices as you go about your work. You silently count out the rhythm as you heft a barrel into place. 2-4-11~
That's... also not a good sign. IIRC that particular song originates from the scrap value of a Naka in kancolle, so it's a rather grisly song to sing as you work. Still, I guess it would work as a work song, given "rather grisly" is not an unusual attribute for one to have.
As for the vote... no strong opinion at the moment, I'll think about it and might vote later.
[X] Send the girls into the city and have them fire out onto the ships in the bay from cover, keep them moving but not so far that they can't come to the base in a hurry.
I was hoping that we would be able to do the refit before the attack. Well, in a war with so many unknown variables, plans rarely go the way you expect them to.
Thunder Bay: Rising Thunder III - Divide and Conquer
[X] Send the girls into the city and have them fire out onto the ships in the bay from cover, keep them moving but not so far that they can't come to the base in a hurry.
Hibiki
The rumble of thunder behind you tells you that the battle has commenced, the scant few long range guns still working around the base roaring into the sky as the bombardment starts, the shockwave shaking your instruments slightly even from this distance. As the sound recedes, the loud thud and occasional crack fills your ears as your screws bite against the aged concrete and asphalt, ripping chunks out of the floor as you plough through the city.
In the past you had always been careful when moving through the city, the decades old damage and the toll of nature had left many things weak and dangerous to mindlessly step on. In your current rush you bull straight through barriers you had previously gone around, grunting as your bow parts the faded and cracked walls of a fallen building and into the street on the other side, ignoring the cacophony of the building finally giving out and collapsing into a pile of rubble behind you.
You check your map and finally halt your rush when you have passed beyond the two thousand metre mark, far enough from the base to avoid any stray shells and provide a distinctive target, but close enough that the distance shouldn't prevent you from rushing back.
15,000 metres. You carefully track their progress as they close the distance, the cruisers beginning to open fire as they pass 14,000 and enter the outer edge of their range. None of the destroyers, or your own guns, would enter range until they hit around 10,000. You calm your nerves as best you are able, feeling the minutes pass as they slowly sail closer.
13,000. You can tell the moment they arrive within range of the smaller guns of the base, a long series of rolling booms in the distance shortly followed by half a dozen shells landing amidst the enemy fleet. She must be targeting one of the cruisers, it looks like most of the shells are landing around her. The distant booming is constant now, the smaller guns firing in sequence to produce an unending line of fire, punctuated by a shot from the one working cruiser turret and completely eclipsed by the singular battleship gun still in operation.
12,000. A flash of fire catches your eye as a shell smacks into the second cruiser, but she shakes it off after pausing for a few moments and resumes fire. The rest of their accompanying fleet beings to open fire, a steady rain of shells arcing towards your home. What they hit, if anything, is concealed from view, but the shellfire reaching back out to them don't slack in the slightest.
11,000. You run through your final checks as they turn from a direct approach and start to move down the coast, keeping their target at the edge of their range as they gleefully lob shells at it. Ammunition boxes are opened, your gun prepared for rapid fire and the range is kept steady.
11,500. They take an abrupt turn that circles them back towards the base, keeping within 9,000 metres and firmly out of range of your own weaponry. If we stay here we'll never even get the chance to fire. You can't see where Shinobu is, somewhere even further along than you are and Admiral had only just finished the plans for your radio refit, let alone started with installing them. We have to get closer. Your boilers surge as you rush forwards down the street, quickly feeling sand beneath your feet as you rush as fast as your engines can take you. The new perspective lets you see the towering flames and constant explosions pounding into the base, the retort of Princess own guns punching through the background noise of destruction as she returns fire.
Water rushes up to greet you as you take the last few steps, screws chewing through sand as you quickly move further into the water, casting a look further down the beach and a brief burst of your horn. It doesn't take long for your sistership to catch sight of you and rush after you, breaking cover a few hundred metres down the beach and quickly moving to follow you. 11,200. You set out from the shore at an angle, aiming to set yourself off to the side of their fleet, forming an L between yourself and the base. Forcing any ship that turns to engage you to break direction entirely with the rest of their fleet.
10,400. The distance closes rapidly and none of them turn to engage you as you slip below 10,000, focused entirely on shelling the base. Your boilers groan under the immense pressure as you push up to 22 knots, feeling a burning in your lungs as you pant. Close, need to get close enough to spook them. You don't have torpedoes, but you don't know if they know that and Shizuka had showed you what a torpedo turn looked like. Close to 6,000, make mock torpedo run and then fire to get their attention.
A destroyer catches a stray shell as you close the distance, her guns immediately falling silent as she falls out of formation, drifting along her previous course without control. Engine room. She is so distracted that you manage to close all the way to 6,500 metres before the destroyer that broke off to assist her notices you, sort of stumbling in shock at your "sudden" appearance. You immediately twist into a mock torpedo manoeuvrer, catching sight of Shinobu behind you following your lead, opening fire a second before you do.
The damaged girl starts panicking as the destroyer towing her suddenly heels into a sharp turn, her gun pulled out of position to fire as you as your shells slap into the ocean next to her. The rest of her fleet doesn't react to your sudden appearance at all, ignoring the two of you as you start picking away at the burdened pair. They don't have radios either? It was the only explanation you had as to why you weren't suddenly the focus of half a dozen guns.
6,400. You hold the your distance from the pair as they continue on their new course after their wild turn, taking them well away from the rest of the fleet. Shinobu signals closing the distance but you deny her, you were about to pull the attention of the rest of the fleet and being any closer would be suicidal. But before you can turn your guns onto the fleet Shizuka suddenly appears to their front, far on the opposite side of the bay, abruptly launching from the long forested arm of that side of the bay and pulling into the exact same torpedo launch manoeuvrer she had shown you.
Their fleet rapidly breaks away, all cohesion shattering as they turn every direction, only the two cruisers and a destroyer each following their lead keeping formation. The shellfire raining onto the base immediately halts as they make their turns, the familiar rumble of Princess heavy gun pushing into the silence and clipping one of the cruisers, ripping into one of her rear turrets and detonating. The struck cruiser begins to lose speed and continues into her turn, rudder jammed into position.
Got them now! Reversing your previous decision, you sharply turn into the disorganised mess of their fleet and push your boilers as far as they can go, the already strained metal creaks ominously as you force 23 knots out of them. The pair of destroyers that had separated from the fleet don't notice you until you hit 2,000, far too busy looking frantically into the water for torpedoes that don't exist. The first warning they get is your shell slamming into the bridge of the leftmost girl, knocking her from her feet and obscuring the effects the strike had on her body.
Her partner reels about in surprise as Shinobu's shell clips the back of your fallen target, her reflexive shot whistling past your head as the two of you fire again. Your shell lands short and sprays her with salt water, but Shinobu lands true amidships, ripping a hole into her smokestack and generally ruining her superstructure. The damaged girl emerges from the smoke billowing around her, rigging bent and twisted but still moving and lands the first hit against your fleet, her shell skimming over the water and exploding against your midsection, ripping a hole high on your belt as pain rushes out from your chest.
The sound of pain that escapes you is hidden by the boom of your gun, your shot just barely sliding over her bow and smacking into the shield of her gun, tearing it to pieces and setting off the exposed shells on the deck. Her form is obscured by the explosion for a moment, but when the wind pushes it away you can see her bent over, fires burning hungrily over her body as she clutches the ruined stub of her right arm.
You take the brief moment of respite to catch your breath and let your boilers cool off, the way your legs painfully twinge as you move tells you that something has been damaged. I'm alive. I'm alive, we won and I'm alive. Shinobu comes up on your side as you finally drop from your breakneck pace, inspecting the slowly bleeding hole on your chest. "I don't really know repair work but it doesn't look too bad." Both of you turn your eyes towards the burning girl as you finish closing the last of the distance between you, a heavy feeling sitting in your chest as you hear her cries of agony, almost curled up on herself on the water as the fires rage.
You stare down at your enemy and satisfaction doesn't come to you, just a sort of numb emptiness, the headless body of her partner slowly drifting into view. You force yourself to turn away and block out her cries, looking over the water for the rest of the fleet and take a sharp breath. Oh crap. The rest of the enemy fleet has evidently figured out Shizuka's fake out and turned back towards the base, guns beginning to open fire again as Princess pounds the damaged cruiser with every gun she has left.
"Hibiki." Shinobu's oddly quiet voice and a small tug on your arm pulls your attention back to the present, the cries of pain are replaced by a quiet sobbing as the wounded girl lies curled up against the other destroyer, gently bobbing together on the waves as the fires spread. That pressing feeling in your chest starts squeezing as you stare, catching sight of her hull number just visible through the fires. 1185
A distant drone instinctively pulls your eyes upwards and you whimper, distant black dots in the sky quickly growing closer. You push off the water and quickly turn for the safety of the base AA guns when your eyes stick on the fallen form of 1185 and her sister, feeling an urge to do something.
1185
[] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[] Mercy: Letting 1185 burn isn't a fate you would wish on anyone, suppress the fires as best you can before the aircraft get too close, you can come back for them later.
[] Final Mercy: Sink 1185 and return her to the cold comfort Abyss.
Hibiki lost her nerve waiting and panicked in her first battle, following her instincts as a destroyer: Rush as close to the enemy fleet as possible and fuck their shit up.
Order of battle (As far as Hibiki knows)
Main Enemy Fleet: 1 Light Cruiser, 2 Destroyers
Isolated Light Cruiser: 1 severely damaged Light Cruiser
Fleeing Destroyer Pair: 1 heavily damaged Destroyer, 1 Destroyer towing
1185 and Partner: Partner incapacitated via bridge decapitation, 1185 severely damaged from ammunition detonation and spreading fires
Princess Status: Still firing, smoke from fires raises into the sky, but she's still in the fight
Shizuka: Last seen being shelled while retreating back into the forest on the opposite side of the base from you, status unknown
[X] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[X] Shizuka (Admiral)
It's a prize ship. More importantly, it's extra combatants once we bribe them with rice.
[X] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[X] Enemy Fleet
[X] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[X] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[X] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[X] Rescue: 1185's weapon has been destroyed and her sister is completely incapacitated unless she gets work at a dock, surely you could just tow them to shore... the Admiral will understand.
[X] Enemy Fleet
Despite the many surface level similarities between normal naval combat and Abyssal naval combat, there remains an incredibly important, glaring difference that one has to take into account. Naval weaponry is designed to aim at targets several hundred feet in length and Abyssals are the size of a single human being, a human sized target that can change speed and direction rather abruptly if need be. Now, when facing humans this was never much of an issue for Abyssals, their targets were several hundred feet long and moved as their instincts expected them to, but when facing Abyssals it completely flips the table of how naval warfare works.
That is to say, that when 649 had been sent to bombard the recently re-emerged Princess at the other end of the lake, she'd had certain preconceptions as to exactly how her fleet would eviscerate the defending fleet and properly chastise the unruly Princess.
Preconceptions that had been and were currently in the process of being rammed straight back down her throat.
"IGNORE THOSE DESTROYERS-" You yell out to the escorts closing around you, one of them had vanished onto the shore somewhere and the other two were towing off the two destroyers they disabled earlier, if you fired at them you'd almost certainly hit your girls. "SHELL THE PRINCESS." The pair of destroyers probably can't even hear you from here, but the shouting helps soothe your rattled nerves and you see them eventually notice your signal flags after a minute or so. Your guns continue firing as you close towards your trapped sister, readying your towing ropes as the Princess stray shells begin falling around you.
If only we still had our original equipment. You've had a very long time to get used to your limited refit and you understood why, the resources spent on you were almost completely wasted now that the war had stagnated into this thing, remodelling you down until your expenditure was minimal so that the carriers and airstrips had more to work with made logical sense. But now more than ever, you were really fucking missing your full armament, you were one of the only two in this fleet with a radio and it made rapid co-ordination completely impossible.
The dull drone of the small strike force you had called in with said radio slowly buzzes towards you from behind, relief filling you as they pass overhead. The sudden explosion of flak as they enter range is yet another unpleasant surprise -of course she got those repaired that fast- but the experienced light carrier hanging back well out of shelling range doesn't pay the intense fire much mind, aircraft pulling over into a dive as they arrive over the merrily burning base. You were going to owe 416 for this one, the light carrier had been a constant companion for the last decade or so, after she came back from whatever it is she did in the pacific.
At least we did what we came to do. The Princess wanted the upstart, as she called her, to come begging to her in surrender. She felt that demolishing her fuel supplies, what little she must have had left from the poor convoy she had stolen, would be both the safest and most humiliating method. Thus you had instructed the fleet to specifically aim at the gigantic and incredibly exposed fuel silo sitting out in the open, at the cost of ignoring the guns firing back at you.
Seeing your sister ship lying there on the water, legs mangled by the shell that had crippled her and battered by the half a dozen smaller shell impacts made you furious. Angry at the fucking Princess for landing the hit, angry at your own Princess for starting this stupid fight because she was so excited but too shy to go meet the new girl and decided to force her to come to her, angry at yourself for making so many mistakes. It's alright, it's fine. You brave the storm of shellfire and grab your sister, gritting your teeth as a small shell of some description demolishes one of your port turrets and lift her into your arms, turning your back on that accursed base as the bombs finally begin falling. We are FINE.
Your brave little escorts take position around you as the rain of shells slacks, bombers trained for years on hitting human sized targets obliterating the guns even as the aircraft are torn to shreds by the veritable ocean of AA fire. I am going to kiss you right on your smug fucking lips 416. The retreatwithdraw continues without any further problems, aside from 1393 catching some shrapnel from a near miss, and 1214 and 1215 both rejoin your battle line as you exit the bay, 1215 shouldering her damaged sister.
It doesn't feel very much like a victory and 416's normally energetic greeting is absent, the missing pair of destroyers weighing heavily on the fleet. At the very least they weren't sunk. The only dim hope you had was that the new Princess didn't decide to scrap them out of spite and instead put them into service, you couldn't imagine any of the Abyss would abandon their brethren like that- like the humans did. But the thought of having to fight one of your girls makes your stomach turn -I was there for their commissioning- especially not 1185 and 1774, those two were always off doing something together.
Such is the grim mood that 416 doesn't even tell you that you had been broadcasting with your radio when you had thanked her for three whole days, and she only did so in one of her stupid attempts to distract you by making you angry with her. You'd never tell her, she'd be insufferably smug for years, but it was only her help that got you through the grief of losing the girls who called you mama without doing something very unwise.
You tear through the smoking wreck of the main building towards Shizuka's room when you see the wayward cruiser shell strike the building, the deep familiarity with the structure telling you exactly where on the roof it had landed, shifting the control of your weaponry off to the background as you focus on the sight that greets you through the doorway.
The mangled ruin of Shizuka lies trapped under a slab of ceiling and wall, almost cut in half at the waist by several tons of concrete and steel. Your fingers twitch as the fire outside rapidly peters off, the painfully slow movements of her chest as she breathes and the slow twitch of a hand as it weakly paws at the immovable pile on her.
The rubble shatters with a punch and you crush something else as you ungracefully shove the rest off of her, not taking any particular care to avoid further damage to the room, and carefully left her into your arms. You don't know where to even start with this kind of damage, some kind of fuel was leaking everywhere and you didn't recognise anything.
"I will fix you." The repair bays of the slipway were the only think you could think of but Shizuka's design was almost completely incomprehensible to you. "I will fix you." The thin bands of elastic -Shizuka's bands- lose their hold on your hair, the hairstyle she had put up for you falling apart as you kick the door open, that final little step pushing you over the edge.
I am Princess, Princess of the Abyss, I am coming for you SISTER.
Events
ALARM! A small raiding party have attacked the base
Status Changes
Resources
Food 40 > -17 (19 * 3 = 57) | Your ships are unable to resupply themselves due to a lack of food, they can sortie for one engagement before being completely incapable of fighting.
Steel: 110 > 70
Construction
Small Defensive Emplacements: Destroyed > Heavy Damage | A handful of 5" guns and one 6" double turret comes back into service.
Anti-Aircraft Emplacements: Heavy Damage > Medium Damage | Broken AA Directors are replaced and many of the broken large AA are replaced.
After Battle
Resources
Fuel: Completely Gone
Construction
Small Defensive Emplacements: Heavy Damage > Destroyed
Entire Base: The rubble got a bit more rubbly. The Admirals bedroom and several surrounding rooms had the ceiling collapse from a stray shell.
Shizuka: Light Damage
Hibiki: Light Damage
A. Shizuka: Heavy Damage
Shipgirl Operations
Naval Activities
[] Sortie Ships into Lake Superior
-[] Patrol: Send ships out to patrol the water and generally have a presence. This allows you to stop shipping through an area, have solid intelligence of what is in your patrol zone and protect your own shipping from raids.
-[] Scouting: Send ships out specifically to look for other ships or Installations. Much more likely to find something and also less likely to get engaged in combat, will avoid combat where they can.
-[] Strike Force: Have ships ready at base for when an enemy fleet is detected, then sortie them out to engage in a fleet battle. Depending on the distance and the enemies willingness to engage you, battle may or may not start.
Operations
[] Operation First Blood: Take your all of your girls and sneak into the enemy base overland at night, then set about destroying as much as you can focusing primarily on their fuel supplies. It's a long shot but your chances in a conventional war are truly dismal.
[] Scavenge
-[] Steel: Send girls out to go and tear off chunks of that half-sunk ship, you desperately need more steel if you want to create any more ships.
-[] Food: Send girls to look through the town for whatever edible food that might be left behind.
Base Management
New Construction: Build something new around the base
[] Abyssal Anchor - Coastal Installation I: This construct will remove the upkeep of 3 ships under 2000 tons, selecting the most expensive, if those ships are based here. [0/500 Labour | 0/100 Steel]
[] Resource Processing Facility: This allows you to extract an additional 20% from the resources collected by scavenging for a specific resource. [0/150 Labour | 0/20 Steel]
-[] Steel/Food (Select One)
[] Airfield I: Construct a basic airfield from which you can launch aircraft. [LOCKED] Complete ??? Research
[] Minefield I: Start laying mines out in the bay around the base. [0/100 Labour | 0/10 Steel]
[] Small Slipway: Construct a small slipway meant for constructing, repairing and refitting ships under 2000 tons. [0/500 Labour | 0/100 Steel]
Base Repair
Repair Structure: Select a structure that has been damaged and repair it.
[] Small Defensive Emplacements: Destroyer and Cruiser guns emplaced around the base, used to keep smaller ships from closing to the base. (Destroyed) [0/10 Labour | 0/20 Steel]
[] Large Defensive Emplacements: Battleship turrets set into the ground, used to protect the Installation from long range shelling. (Heavy Damage) [0/80 Labour | 0/40 Steel]
[] Anti-Aircraft Emplacements: Stops aircraft from ruining your day, a mixture of small to large guns, all for anti-air. (Medium Damage) [0/20 Labour | 0/10 Steel]
[] Radar: Stops ships and aircraft from sneaking up on you without notice. (Destroyed) [LOCKED] Complete ??? Research
[] Radio: Lets you communicate with ships while they are away from the base. (Heavily Damaged) [0/20 Labour | 0/15 Steel]
[] Shipgirl Barracks: Human habitable housing, scavenging what materials you can from the nearby city to find them bedding and a few nice pieces of furniture. (Destroyed) [0/55 Labour | 0/10 Steel]
Ship Construction
[] Small Ship Construction: You may assign small slipways to build one ship, under 2000 tons, each.
-[] Slipway One: Select class to construct
[] Summoning: Use a Catalyst, such as a dead Abyssal or Shipgirl, to make a summoning attempt. [Have: 0]
Repair and Refit
[] Ship Repair
-[] Small Slipway One: Select shipgirl to be repaired
Ship Refit
[] Shizuka Class Refit I [0/15 Steel]
Research Admiral Shizuka is heavily injured
Personal Actions Admiral Shizuka is heavily injured
Princess [X] FIX. HER. Continued in subturn.
Next chapter is a subturn: 711.3 Fathoms Deep
Trying out a different voting block for this update, do you prefer this condensed version or the previous open version?
Your ships have run out of food! Since you didn't decide to send them out to engage the enemy fleet directly you only have to supply a light 100% food cost rather than the 500% a fleet battle entails, this still puts you into the negatives.
Emergency Research ends this turn, you are back to a single action per turn.
Refit Note: Ships are refit at slipway tons per turn * 3. So a small Slipway may refit (500 * 3) 1500 tons of destroyers per turn. So 3 Shizuka classes or 1 1500 ton DD.
If only we still had our original equipment. You've had a very long time to get used to your limited refit and you understood why, the resources spent on you were almost completely wasted now that the war had stagnated into this thing, remodelling you down until your expenditure was minimal so that the carriers and airstrips had more to work with made logical sense. But now more than ever, you were really fucking missing your full armament, you were one of the only two in this fleet with a radio and it made rapid co-ordination completely impossible.
The girls should be able to scavenge a bit of food on their own, we showed Shizuka what to pick out and even if she sticks strictly to that then they'll be alright for a bit.
Also, welp. We died again.
I'm sure that won't have any lasting negative consequences... well considering we probably got undead'd by the previous Princesses(' corpse) then killed by freezing to death, then drowning in short order, it might not at this point tbh.
Radar, heavy emplacements, anchor... or something. *shrug*
