What happens when Roosevelt pushes Naval expansion through under the WPA successfully? Persuading Congress that expanding the Navy creates more jobs. The resulting changes should be interesting to note.
Marking this story as complete. Muse has evaporated for this one. Would rather mark it complete as is than use the "dropped" Marker.
Unless otherwise noted specifically, assume things are as OTL.
Timeline Revised.
1917- The Navy presents Congress with the so-called Tillman designs, mostly to get its money. However, things get more complex as Senator Tillman actually visits and talks to some of the Naval staff at several shipyards. With Tillman actually bothering to check on the Navy's projects personally, the military branch has no choice to but to prepare an allocation and expansion plan to complete the ships that they had presented to Congress, or at the very least, one ship of those designs.
1919- Aircraft carrier development is slowed, bold pilots are encouraged to use really small islands on the coast to practice landings and take-offs. A month after that encouragement, the Navy hastily designates a specific number of islands for official test pilot usage. Test bombing runs are staged using some of the German submarines acquired after WW1.
Tillman begins periodic visits to the Naval Yards, and the Navy is resigned to dance according to the powerful Senator's pull.
1920- At Tillman's behest, the Navy is directed to re-allocate and expand their dry dock facilities, forcing dramatic rezoning in some of the affected cities as coastal property is acquired with fair compensation. Protests are quieted by looking at the past five years of world conflict and people are encouraged to move further west.
The WNT is proposed, signed by other countries, but promptly gets filibustered and not ratified by Congress, citing national defense concerns. "..Despite how it may seem to the average person walking around out there, the previous few years have shown this country to be woefully ill-prepared to properly defend itself by land or by sea... Therefore it is imperative that we aim to rectify this problem by improving our Navy...."
Britain is forced to curtail its own naval spending on its own, canceling the N3s after Nelson and pushing the G3s.
1922- A modified version of the smallest Tillman has its keel laid, allowing the Navy to relax and enjoy the funding attained for building a Tillman design within 5 years. Three more of the "Tiny Tillmans" are expected to be built in ensuing years.
1925- Two of the Lexington class Battlecruisers are completed, the nameship and Saratoga, with 4 others being completed soon after.
1928- The Tiny Tillmans are completed.
The two remaining battlecruisers have their keels laid.
1929- Economic issues occur.
1930- People need jobs. President Hoover insists nothing is wrong, but quietly machinations take place and more military expansion is considered. Particularly the naval machinery production lines are reviewed for expansion.
1931- The final Lexington class battlecruisers are completed.
1932- Roosevelt wins, and the War department further expands the production proposals.
1933- The WPA is introduced, but contested in Congress despite a society in desperate need of work. Roosevelt's "New Deal" project is finally shoved through Congress and approved. Within are several projects designed to further improve the naval production capacity.
1934- Designs of the 1917 Tillman batch are reviewed and reconsidered as Japan makes noises of possibly more naval expansion, while also expanding their hold on Chinese provinces.
As part of a WPA project, East coast dry docks expansion begins where it was possible for expansion without altering the hosting cities too drastically. Expected to take 5 years, the finished expansion will be able to build far heavier ships than allowed by the treaty, only the true extent is left unmentioned to anyone outside of President Roosevelt. All of this was intended to provide jobs, so many cities take the boost to their economies despite the Federal acquisitions.
1935-The Tillman IV-2 design is critically examined and approved for further revision and updating to advanced modern equivalents and is re-labeled the Tillman IV-2a. The chief designated designer for this revision project took his job too seriously however, and in a fit a patriotic fervor. Pushed the main weapons out to 17"/76 caliber and added two turrets to the design, further designating this revision as Montana-K. This in turned caused other factors to go up. Mass and displacement, agility or the lack thereof, additional armor requisitioned for more protection, longer keel length, deeper draft, wider beam.
1936- The navy reviewed this updated design and initially denied it; however, Roosevelt was moved by the designer's patriotism and approved and ordered the Navy to go ahead with 3 hulls code named the MaxiMonts. This forces the Navy, and the extended work program, to expand the manufacturing process as much as surrounding areas and regions would allow; preparing to design and build the innards of the presidentially approved class.
Tillman loses his seat in the Senate.
As the year closes out, Naval designers finalize the Montana and begin the Iowa class battleships. The Navy also begins the infrastructure expansion as the dry-dock expansion program enters the final phase. This expansion is assisted by the Panay incident in China. Congress agrees to to expand the navy still further in the realm of carriers and shoves an additional 9.5 billion dollar budget increase at the Navy on top of the already planned for 5 billion dollar budget. Tensions start to rise as countries realize that the U.S. is expanding without a clearly stated enemy, but few countries are really well prepared to counter the U.S. except for Japan.
Elsewhere, the Japanese begin construction on Yamato as Britain nervously eyes both America and Germany, attempting to re-energize ship building, but is slow because they fell out of the continuous build routine.
So, what I refer to as a Continuous build routine is the idea that Britain kept ordering a few new ships nearly every year, thus keeping the supply systems for the shipyards actively maintained. After WW1, Britain's ability to continue building ships was curtailed by outstanding Debt to America. This led to the shipyard supply chain stagnating and falling apart in terms of capital ship construction. When I say falling apart, I mean that it declines to the point that a consistent supply is difficult to maintain for smooth construction.
1937- The Montana design is shown to the Cabinet, by now, only weeks away from becoming a reality. With palpable reluctance and strong presidential influence, the Cabinet grudgingly approves. MaxiMont replaced with moniker of 1776.
7 triple turrets in a fore and aft configuration [abcd and wxy] of 17"/76 caliber shell size. A proposed secondary battery of six 8" surface triple turrets and 90 light/ 30 medium AA dual purpose guns.
Powerplant would be [Redacted].
Armor for the Montana "1776" would be [redacted]
Three 1776s were approved. The preparation for building starting in the last quarter of the year. The proposed weapons and engines were also embarked upon in the preparation process; it should be noted that naval building was a bit behind so despite the normal way of making sure weapons and engines were pre-built, it was not the case here.
Montana was laid in December, 1937.
The Iowa class was significantly smaller with only an ab and y configuration, or 3 turrets of 16"/50 caliber. Two of these would begin in Boston the next year.
1938- Industrial expansion within vicinity of naval yards reaches an all time high as steel machining facilities require more and more workers. Weapon factories are encouraged to expand under the guise of an extended WPA program.
Weapons for the 1776s were tested alongside the 1650s; both were found to be over powered, but both programs had their proponents behind them, so the reports for the gunnery tests were quietly shuffled around and swept under the rug. Weapon and ammo construction proceeded as scheduled alongside armor production.
In short, 1938 was the year of keels;
The keel for the Yamato was laid in November. The North Dakota and South Dakota [The building of the Tillman-1s meant there would be no South Dakota class] were laid in October.
1939- More Mines were opened or expanded where possible. Publication of economic figures was allowed, but specifics could not be mentioned. Unemployment was quite low as Europe geared for war and America built her defenses.
Unique parts for the Montana's were placed at a set amount, eg: 63,000 17" super heavy high velocity shells with around 35,000 AP and 28,000 HE rounds total. 21 extra 17"/76 gun-barrels, etc. This would be the entirety of what would be produced for the Montana class unique eccentricities. Then the factories would move to other, more conventional machinery.
The so-called Pocket battleship makes the debut as Germany trumpets the completion of the Scharnhorst.
From an American perspective, European War #3 starts, and Neutrality is declared.
1940- The engine assemblies were lowered into the hull and properly intertwined with the 4 main shafts being installed afterward and the two outboard shafts installed after that. Each of the six power plants put out 90k shp; the largest plants ever produced. The two outermost screws were mounted significantly forward of the stern, resulting in an odd keel design.
Later in the year, the engineering and fuel spaces would be completed, and the citadel would take shape followed by the main weapon spaces, followed by the Main deck. Work also started on the structure where possible.
Lend-Lease is approved, but minor quibbles exist in the form of where American bases should be located. Possible locations include: Western Australia, a southeastern Australian island, Northern New Zealand,, Fiji, one of the islands on the Irish coast, and or the west coast of Scotland.
1941- The Montana main superstructure was completed, work was mostly centered around the massive amount of connections for radar, communication, engineering, weapons, lights and piping. Unseen by those who worked on the leviathan, a semblance of a spirit began to coalesce as the ship came together.
The base locations were agreed upon, and for security purposes, not revealed to the public. One location was easy enough to determine, the Navy, going spendthrift on the foreign expansion as domestic expansion was at a high point; chose to use some of the RN's space at Scapa Flow. Things were a bit touchy at first, but this would help matters of adjustment and training for the British on their newly acquired USN destroyers.
Iowa and Missouri are launched, New Jersey and Wisconsin are laid.
Yamato is launched, rumors swirl for intelligence offices of most navies.
Bismark remains in Germany, due to Hitler's curiosity about the secret American ships; enabling Hood to be refit in America, post Mers-al Kebir.
As the Iowas complete their shakedowns, some in the Cabinet argue strenuously to discontinue the super-battleships, their objection is noted and just as strenuously overruled.
Work is accelerated on the Montanas to four 6 hour shifts a day. This primarily affects North and South Dakota.
The wife of the Montana governor broke the bottle against the ship bow and the ship slid backwards into the water. The 1500 ft long battleship sleekly embraced the water as tugs corralled the big boat to assist in moving to the dock for her shakedown preparation.
Likewise, the North And South Dakotas were both respectively launched in late December of 1942.
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Shakedown stuff, shake, shake that stern down. Get shaky with it as you shake it down...
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The Montana's shakedown cruise consisted of going down to the Florida Keys and then going up to the waters off Maine for weapons testing. The first part of the voyage was nice, but altogether too short to really enjoy.
"Task Force 111, please standby. A tea boat has been filled and is requesting an escort, and as you are on your way past that port..."
"We'd be glad to help them out Command."
"Thank you Captain, expect the tea boat around NYH."
The word spread through the sailors that they'd have company as they completed their shakedown tour and excitement sprouted as most of the crew went to sleep that night.
As most of her crew slept, Montana looked up at the night sky. She might've been a battleship, but looking up at the sky still made her feel relaxed even with the anticipation of meeting a foreign ship. To pass the time at night while most of her crew was asleep, she'd started practicing on manipulating parts of her hull functions.
In an experiment that would baffle her gun crews the next morning, she set her eyes to her first four turrets and moved her arm upward. She smiled as the gun barrels rose at her volition, then she moved her fingers, overseeing while the individual gun barrels moved accordingly. Turning her attention to her stern main weapons, now knowing she could control them, Montana extended her other hand and moved her fingers in a similar manner. Leaving her abcd turrets in a "middle finger" pose while the stern turrets had a "Vee" pose. She was not disappointed by and very much entertained with her crews reactions.
"Hey Simkins. The gun crews are sleeping right?"
"Yes sir-"
"Ok then, look towards the bow and tell me what you see."
The sailor looked out from his station on the bridge and froze in shock. All of the main forward gun turrets had their middle barrels raised, and considering how much allowance the battleship had for elevation...
"But it gets worse, see to the stern son."
Simkins turned and went pale, for he saw in the dawn's early light that the stern-ward gun barrels had their middle barrels remaining in the loading position with the outboard barrels at full elevation. "What the hell happened?"
"I don't know, but when I find out, they'd better have a good explanation, and even then would like pack 'em off the boat."
Montana stood behind the two, glad to be unseen as she struggled to contain her giggles. "Hard to do when the ship itself lurks."
"Did you say something son?"
"No sir. Plume of smoke on the horizon! Bearing 10 o'clock."
"I'll go get the Captain."
---
HMS Hood had never felt so good as she left the docks with her crew aboard. The Americans had rebuilt her around a better power plant, using Turbo-Electrics instead of simply rebuilding the outdated engines. A couple Americans were along for the first leg of the journey to assist the engineers in getting used to the new engines. Hood was estatic that she could go faster now, even if her crew didn't realize it just yet.
"Teaboat to Yankee, come in over."
"Yankee here, permission to join us granted. Be advised that there are issues with our gun barrel hydraulics at the moment. Uh, hold one."
"Roger."
Hood's eyes widened alongside that of every crew member who could see as the ship in the distance grew longer and longer as they approached. "F-four turrets? Wait, bloody hell Yank what do you think you're doing?!" Hood demanded as she finally noticed the positioning of the turrets, and the chortling ship spirit on top of the command tower.
"Hehehe... Hahaha. Sorry, too good to pass up." Explained the other ship essence after she calmed down. The redhead rose off her knees and extended her arms as she faced the blonde, "Watch my fingers."
Hood watched as best she could from a mile distant as the yet unnamed ship flattened her fingers on the hand that pointed toward the bow. She tilted her head and glanced at the main guns and the stupefied crews on the American ship; what had been raised in American manner of insult was now flat and in resting status. "Wha-how?" She asked the other ship, trying to understand. "And who are you?"
The other girl smirked as she turned her head toward her stern, dragging Hood's gaze to what was an insult in her own country. The blonde watched the battleship spirit lower her second and fourth fingers on her left hand, noticing that the gun barrels lowered similarly.
"U.S.S. Montana, first of her name and class of Montana class battleships at your service. You're Hood right?"
The blonde huffed snootily, "H.M.S. Hood to you!"
Montana just smiled at the blonde's reaction, mindless of the heated debate going on between the ships.
Hood was aware of the conversation, and so was Montana, but the latter elected not to listen in even though she could have.
"Bloody imprudent Yanks, giving us permission only for them to insult us with their turrets."
"Sir, they already explained it away as an equipment malfunction-"
"That's a load of poppy! You can clearly see she's a brand new ship-"
"-On her shakedown cruise."
"-so clearly they have issues to fix."
"New message sir. How fast can you go?"
"What?"
"You are aware the Americans gave the girl new engines right?"
"O' course I'm aware! If they choose to speed up, match them! Hood's the Pride of the Royal Navy! No second rate navy will beat this ship-"
Montana eyed the British ship that ran alongside her, "Wanna race?"
"Eh?" Hood considered and came to the same conclusion as her commander without as many expletives involved. "Sure! See you at Cape Cod!"
The redhead bellowed with laughter as the seas churned with intensified wakes behind the two capital ships. "As if Teaboat!"
The captain summarized the situation for the chief engineer, "...so can you give it all? We haven't really well pushed the girl yet after all."
"We'll do our best and keep you informed if things change sir."
"Push her limits, full emergency flank speed!"
"Yessir!"
Hood could only gape as the larger ship slowly, ever so very slowly pulled ahead.
"Bloody hell, that beast can move!"
"How fast are we going, can we get more steam?"
"Gentlemen, we are moving at 36 knots, over a knot faster than this ship's original design speed. Can we get another knot out of her?"
Hood glared at the smiling redhead, "How much do you displace by the by?"
The smile turned upside down, "Now now, you should know better than to ask a girl her weight." The expression turned thoughtful, "But now that you mention it... I have 6 screws, not four, mostly due to my size. 540,000 sHP or 90,000 per shaft. Due to steering issues, it was decided to put the two outboards just behind the engine spaces."
"Bloody hell. They certainly went big."
Montana nodded, then frowned as her crew decided something, "Really? Ok, I guess that makes sense... I guess I'm slowing a bit to observe you in your own speed trials."
Hood nodded, her visage tense as her legs tensed up. "Well, I think 37 knots is my emergency max now."
"Yeah, for me, vibrations start if I push too much beyond 37..."
For a while, both boats ran at full steam, tag-teaming each other for evaluation purposes. Allowing the escorts to watch out just in case submarines were around.
"So, any advice for combat situations Hood?" Montana asked.
The British ship looked thoughtful, "Well, seeing as I hardly saw any action other than Mers-al Kebir, I'm not the best to answer you there."
Montana tilted her head at the blonde, "What happened there?"
The Brit stiffened and looked Montana dead in the eye, "A bloody sodding nightmare is what went down there. I'm sorry, but its too fresh in my mind to talk about now."
The blonde spirit glanced over at the larger ship's hull again later on, "I'm curious Monta, why do you have so many turrets? I've only heard of seven turrets used on designs for some of the South American navies, and yet now here you are. Arguably the largest battleship ever built in the world, why?"
The ethereal girl shook her head and looked out toward the horizon, "No idea, but likely was related to Japan in some way. They all thought Japan was building something big, and from early reports, it would appear the spooks were correct." Montana lapsed off into silence for moment before regarding her main guns. "I'm not sure what you Brits use caliber wise myself, but these things are designed for super heavy high velocity shells. I never saw the original firing tests, but some of the workers said that the power of my guns was so over the top that nothing built could tank the shots."
Hood gaped apprehensively at the American ship, but held her peace as the battleship continued.
"Seventeen seventy-six, or 17 inches at 76 calibers. the range extension alone is insane. You saw one of the Iowas they're building right, with their sixteen inch at fifty calibers? Those things punch plenty, at 34,000-ish yards; now mine, mine are 26 calibers more, so roughly speaking, the resulting range is over 27 miles."
Hood was struck speechless for the rest of the trip.
================================================
I'd post more of what I have, but for the sake of drawing the story out, I will refrain from doing so.
A bit of an addition in here...
The Author's Note
So, this little tidbit was inspired by playing with Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts, where it is possible to fit 7 triple gun turrets on a ship. Also, Independence Day came to mind, so the thought came that Montana could use 17" guns of a 76 caliber flavor. Never mind that 76 caliber had not been done before, just that it sounded cool as 1776, or 17"/76. 7 turrets also gave me the idea of the 21 gun salute from a sea platform. Yes, the whole concept is over the top and somewhat silly. I know of six turret designs, but there are very few 7 turret designs except for a scant few South American navies. The length aspect, I'm not even sure if 1500ft would be enough lengthwise, not to say anything on the width. 109 feet [Panama width] is a tad narrow imo, specially for so many main guns, so the draft would certainly suffer to compensate for the lack of width [Likely pinning draft at roughly 80 feet or so for now?]. So I purposely left the exact width and length a question. Same with the engines, mainly because I'm toying with the concept of an "auxilary" engine towards the bow for steering support as she is really long; not unlike the more modern massive merchant ships we have these days. Not to mention that springsharp isn't exactly very helpful in showing me what precisely the issues are and UA, D has a weird dynamic around horsepower and such.
So, things were unclear, ranges have been re-established. Plot has been added, would appreciate a reply so I could ascertain if more changes need to be done. There's still more to do in terms of character paving, but I'm actually very pleased with how this looks now.
===========================
1943 opened with two launches, affectionately labeled NoDak and SoDak. The other two approved ships of the Montana class, and there was much rejoicing from the shipyards, as they could finally focus on other projects. Since both of these ships launched at the same time, they would be shook down together.
This time, unlike their sister ship, the two were slated to convoy guard duty, because the convoys were that important, and Bismark had shown signs of being prepped for use.
Unlike the name ship, the Dakotas had slightly redesigned outboard screws, more underneath to an extent and slightly better protected.
So the convoy set out from Halifax with North Dakota's group leading and South Dakota's flotilla bringing up the rear.
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North Dakota's bow knifed into another Atlantic wave as the spirit frowned. Her crew had to keep her A, B and Y turrets plugged to prevent the seawater being ingested. But being a really long ship did have its uses, there was less of a vertical bounce tendency, and most of the waves were broken by the time they reached C turret. Just to be on the safe side, both ships had their gun-barrels of uncovered turrets elevated to the max. Eventually, the two super ships managed to find a semi-comfortable operating procedure, they were headed to a stretch a calmer water.
-----
The Bismarck signaled to Prinz and her sister that a convoy had been spotted, The blonde squatted on top of her radar mast as her translucent form used her radar.
-----
The Hood tensed as her American counterpart focused to the north, "What is it?"
North Dakota's stare remained unbroken even as she answered the British ship. "Three surface contacts, intermittent, bearing estimated to be 020, around 44,000 yards away."
Hood's ethereal form paused in thought as her crews discussed the options. "You Montanas don't have spotter planes do you?"
"Nope." NoDak replied as her crew raised her radar mast to close to double its original height, much to the British ship's astonishment. "We have telescoping radar masts instead. Likely a Germ radar design according to my crew. Hold one."
"SoDak, I've picked up surface contacts roughly at 050 east of you, range for you is likely over 100k-yards. Just detach some destroyers for that section of the convoy and return to original spot."
"Copy NoDak."
Hood contented herself watching the Americans prepare for battle, unplugging the B turret in the process. "Not uncorking your A?"
NoDak shook her head, "Not with how this ocean is, don't need any sea water where it isn't supposed to be."
"Ranging salvo, all operationally active turrets."
"Aye sir."
"Fire!"
Hood watched the American guns light up the area, noting how the multiple concussions affected the water around the North Dakota's hull.
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"Move in closer. Signal Tirpitz."
"Yes sir."
"Um, Bismarck?" Prinz Eugen looked nervously toward the south.
"What is it Prinz?"
"My crews have picked up very scattered radar signals-"
A large explosive splash next to Bismarck interrupted the conversation.
"What the hell was that? Get the radar up!"
"Tirpitz reports minor damage to secondary fire control."
Several more splashes followed with a pained sound of anguish from Prinz Eugen. "Verdammit! My signal mast got hit!"
One thing was clear to Bismarck, the splashes meant battleships, which likely meant British involvement, but to her crews knowledge, the Brits had no ships with that kind of range.
"Sir, radar has detected a radar source approaching from the south, roughly 40,000 meters, bearing roughly 190."
"Very well, we must verify information-"
"Sir! One of the enemy shells landed on the deck and didn't explode!"
"Show me."
"Ja."
Bismarck examined the shell closely along with her crew.
"Larger than the British certainly."
"Americans then?"
"More than likely, but WHAT exactly are we facing-?"
More waterspouts, all misses thankfully.
"Because I want to know just how they can shoot so far away!" Growled the Captain as he went back into the command tower.
"Well?" Admiral Lutjens asked.
"Probably the Americans, but I've never seen anything like it before, to shoot at us from so far away..."
"Than it is obvious that we must retreat Captain, I know you do not wish to, and I dislike the thought myself, but with that ship firing at us from well beyond our own range. I believe that escape is the better option."
"Prinz!" The battleship called, "Form up and change course to 040."
The heavy cruiser tilted her head, the hull complying as she awaited Bismarck's explanation.
"If whatever's out there can fire on us from nearly 40,000 meters, I'd hate to see what they'd be able to do at 20,000."
"Jawohl. Makes sense." Tirpitz agreed with her sister's explanation before going quiet again.
------
North Dakota smiled, "They turned away." The battleship reported to Hood. Who simply wondered if that had been the Bismark internally.
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The raider group and the escort group played a form of cat and mouse over the next several days. As the days counted down toward landfall however, the raiders began to get more desperate and the Americans, wanting to show off a bit, decided to do things different.
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The German Trio crept to as close as they dared as the three spirits looked out to the distant horizon and the convoy that stretched beyond it. "Hmmm." All ships were considering the weird looking profile on the ship that was most visible to them.
"Can't say I've seen that kind of profile before Bismark, makes me nervous."
"Agreed."
"Adjust course to 340."
"Aye sir."
Bismarck frowned as the three ships raced toward the other end of the convoy. She couldn't escape the overall feeling that she was missing something important.
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"Copy NoDak, assuming the configuration now."
South Dakota smirked as her crews manipulated her guns in a manner similar to that of her eldest sister. Four turrets to port with the center barrels all pointing skyward.
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"Sister," Tirpitz spoke up in a cautionary tone. "You might want to look at this, I don't think it is initially what we thought..."
"Noted." Now they were at the rear of the convoy and Bismarck stared in shock as her crew finally figured out that what they had been looking at were two brand new American warships. "Those bastards." The Teutonic blonde looked toward where Prinz and her sister were, "We are in so much scheibe."
"We certainly can't escape this time sir. They HAVE to know we're here!"
"Yes sir."
"Let's run back up to the front."
"Fine, use these course changes at these intervals."
"Yes sir."
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South Dakota watched the three Germans leave as her crew discussed what to do next.
"That was definitely a German battleship, maybe even two of them."
"Yup... Wait, two battleships?"
"Hard to tell, but radar showed two blots and a blip, gonna have to trust the machine here. On another note, how far do you think we should let them get before the hammer comes out?"
"That's up to NoDak and Hood."
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"SoDak has radioed that they're coming back."
"Noted."
Hood smirked from beside the North Dakota, only sitting 500 yards off the beam. "Did you know I traveled with your sister as well on her shakedown cruise? I feel as small then as I do now, if anything, the yards made the two of you seem bigger."
North Dakota chuckled and nodded. "That's interesting, but we aren't any bigger than 'Tana. Heads up, range is 44k-yards."
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"Launch the spotters."
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"SoDak, it's time."
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"Uh, Bismarck, my spotter has-sheibe!"
"Tirpitz has confirmed a large battleship to the west sir."
The German ships stiffened as their radars picked up large returns from either direction. Bismarck focused on her spotter and paled, "Mein Gott! Scheibescheibescheibe!!!" At Eugan's askance look, the battleship elaborated. "American SUPER-battleships!" and both of them rejoined their crews in cursing up a storm for another ten minutes.
"Wait, a large battleship to the southeast too?! Verdammit....!"
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"Well, they have to know what we are by now." North Dakota blithely waved to the German spotter plane as it circled the group of ships overhead.
"You do know they're taking pictures right?" Hood glared at the German spotter plane ineffectually as the American naively waved at it.
"So?" What's Germ industry going to do? They can't possibly manage to build another bigger and better Bismark this time of the war. It'd suicide their economy!"
"True, bu-"
"Ja, it is the principal of the idea is what the Royal was saying." Came a Germanic voice from the direction of the spotter plane. "KMS Bismarck here. Quick question, what class and how far do you fire?"
North Dakota's eyes took on a decidedly unhealthy gleam to them as she looked at the spotter plane. "U.S.S. North Dakota of the Montana class. You are already inside our gun range Bismarck." Her ethereal teeth melted into canines, "My sister ship is behind your group." Her ethereal brows waggled suggestively, "Want to dance?"
"NEIN! VERDAMMIT VERPIS DU MEKSCHLENT!!"
The two battleships watched the plane rocket away, the pilot mystified as Bismarck herself pushed the spotter plane in her desperate fury.
"So, how long shall we give them?"
"Oh, I don't think anymore than twenty minutes should suffice." North Dakota turned a sharp grin toward Hood, and the expression reflected onto the British fast battleship. Soon, the entire group of spirits had gone aggressive as action would soon be happening.
-------
Prinz Eugen watched Bismarck worriedly. Her charge had been stone still for several minutes before her face went completely purple with rage while her spotter was reloaded. "Prepare for combat Frauleins. This has just gone fubar. Verdam das frauhur!"
Aboard the Bismarck, the Admiral started on a blistering tirade that finally ended with an approximation of the words: "The instant they come in range, fire, even if we cannot survive. We can at least wound them."
The photographs were laid out, and grim faces stared. "Scheisse, they have the Hood too." One of the unnamed command staff pointed out.
"Not that they need the Hood," A gesture was made toward the photograph showing the large turrets. "Not with 7 turrets."
A strained chuckle came from the directional beam radio, "Same number of turrets on the western ship too. H-hold one."
Bismarck decided to say something important, "40,000 meters is their range."
Both men turned to face the apparition and went pale, even as Bismarck tried to continue, but given the general reaction...
"Who are you? Fraulein's-"
Bismarck glared at them, "IDIOTEN! WE HAVE BEEN INSIDE THE AMERICAN'S RANGE THIS ENTIRE TIME AND YOU WISH TO DEBATE THE EXISTENCE OF YOUR SHIP?!?"
"Wait.... What do you mean?" Captain Lindemaan asked.
Bismarck sighed in frustration, and then screamed--through her foghorn. Ignoring the side effects that may have occurred, she then somewhat more calmly explained. "I'm the spirit of this ship, I went with the spotter plane and asked the enemy ship what her class and range was. May I say that it was disturbing how her visage took on a creature from the darkest nightmares of this crew?" The apparition did an approximation of the face and both commanding men shuddered. "She told me, cheerfully I might add, that we have been in their gun range for quite some time-"
"So, the class is a Montana, brand new ship. They have two of them with this convoy, plus the HMS Hood. Anyway, these Montanas are bigger than even I or Tirpitz combined, 7 turrets a ship, all triples."
"SEVEN?! Verpis de la chat!" Lutjens cursed in a mix of German and French.
"Incoming fire!" A lookout shouted.
"Return fire! Not that we can actually hit them..."
BOOMBOOM!
--------------------
"Target the big ones."
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
"Muzzle flashes spotted."
"Very well."
---------------
Prinz Eugen was apprehensive as she watched the two sisters she was with come under fire. The enemy ships had targeted Bismarck and her sister, and she was powerless but to watch as waterspouts exploded around the two battleships, obscuring the battleships own main guns firing toward the respective targets.
Forty-two shells plunged toward two targets; battleships whose armor was never designed for the battle they were facing. North Dakota's salvo hit Bismarck first followed a few seconds later by South's punch to the Tirpitz.
Bismarck watched in frozen horror as what seemed to be several battleship volleys of shells came in one salvo. The spirit closed her eyes, feeling her guns fire one last salvo of their own before the first enemy shell plunged through her bow and into the forward torpedo room.
Prinz Eugen winced in horror as Bismarck's bow exploded into a fireball, followed by a plunging shell hit that struck at the seam between Bismarck's B barbette and the armored deck.
Cue the second explosion as the second shell to hit Bismarck drilled into her B turret compartment and also exploded, leading to not only destroying the B turret magazine but sending a fireball into the A turret magazine.
On the other side of the heavy cruiser, Tirpitz faced her own personal death knell as the spirit prepared the best she could. Firing before the incoming salvo hit like her sister. On Tirpitz however, the incoming shells first punched into her superstructure, penetrating deep into engineering and exploded. Another shell hit Tirpitz on her Y turret, punching through the top turret armor and detonating in the loading compartment. The last shell to hit Tirpitz exploded upon hitting the ship's rudder; obliterating the rudder and severely damaging the two inboard screws.
"Verdammit! I'm stuck..." Tirpitz looked across the expanse of water toward the west as her forward guns fired again. But at her sister's anguished scream, Tirpitz couldn't not look. "Sheibe..."
Bismarck was clearly sinking and burning, the name-ship of the class was missing her bow and much of her superstructure. "Sister.... We never... were... made-for- NO! Prinz get awa-"
Prinz Eugen watched as her hull started to turn but the rest of Bismarck exploded in a tremendous fireball leaving only sinking remains. Prinz endured the heat of the fireball as her hull started moving away from the burning wreck, focused now on plucking any survivors from the sea.
"...Sister." Tirpitz murmured before her hull was impacted by the second round of American super-heavy shell fire. Before the spirit fully was aware of her hull's damage, her hull was definitely sinking.
Prinz Eugen happened to be looking at Tirpitz when the second enemy salvo struck. The heavy cruiser watched as the other Bismarck class spirit disappeared in an explosion that was followed by the battleship hull splitting in the middle and sinking faster than the still burning remains of Bismarck.
"Strike the colors, we can't outrun their guns. Continue to rescue survivors."
"British warship approaching! Bearing 137."
"Sheibe."
---------------------------
North Dakota grimly looked at the horizon, where two separate columns of smoke and fire marked where the Germans were.
"Have the Hood move to assist, tell SoDak to cease fire if they haven't already."
----------------
The Captain paused at the radio room aboard the Prinz Eugen, "You should unsecure that, put it in a box with the code-books, tie the box to a lead weight and dump that over the side before the enemy gets here."
"...Yes sir."
-----------
A few minutes later, Hood approached where Eugen was still busy with rescue operations. Hood's crew had thoughtfully also put up a white flag under the Union Jack.
"Incoming blinker signal in standard morse from the cruiser sir... Your help would be appreciated... That's all."
"Secure the guns, get the men on search and rescue."
Hood greeted the fellow blonde spirit, "Tally ho there! My crew will help clean up this mess. HMS Hood by the by."
"Prinz Eugen, KMS Prinz Eugen. Thank you for the assistance."
A couple hours of searching later, the rescue was declared at an end and the Prinz Eugen joined the convoy, joined by the South Dakota.
Prinz Eugen was decidedly nervous as the formation centered on her with scarcely 300 meters between her and each Dakota on either side of her. the German ship spirit felt tiny. Prinz looked toward the Hood, some 500 meters or so to the front of her and frowned. "What's going to happen now?"
The British ship apparition shook her head, "No idea, the Yanks will probably get you. No offense, but we don't want you."
South Dakota piped up in an admonishing tone, "Now Teaboat, there's no reason to scare the cruiser more. We've already got her boxed in, but yeah, our Navy will likely take her in."
NoDak was quiet after the action earlier, "Twenty-one gun broadsides, both me and South Dakota. We didn't know how easily our guns would penetrate your battleships, but we couldn't take chances."
"War... is a fecal business." Prinz Eugen murmured as the convoy turned onto the final leg of the journey.
"Ain't it the truth? But without such, we would not exist."
"True..." The convoy continued on towards its destination, a much subdued heavy cruiser being shepherded along.
====================================
It was 1944, and the Montana was finally in the Pacific, having recently completed her working up and heading for Pearl to meet up with her assigned task group.
-------------------------------------
It was 1944, and the Montana was finally in the Pacific, having recently completed her working up and heading for her assigned task group.
-------------------------------------
October, 1944.
White Plains smiled happily, looking over at the distant lines of the giant ship conspicuously in the middle of Taffy 3. She was grateful that the big ship had been allowed to stay with the landing force, especially considering-
Her head snapped around, her eyes going slightly glassy as her focus shifted to one of her spotter planes. "All ships, White Planes here; one of my planes spotted the enemy force. That's one massive ship there."
"Say again White Plains, can you have them get a bit closer for targeting?" Montana began turn to starboard in preparation to unmask her turrets.
"Confirmed, what looks like... four battleships at least." White Plains gave the targeting information to Montana.
"Copy, if you could, try to focus on keeping their smaller ships busy if possible. That said, Johnston, Hoel and Heerman, also focus on keeping the secondary units busy if you could."
"With all due respect Sir, nothing ever goes according to plan in a battle."
"Noted Captain Evans, good hunting sir." The Admiral aboard the Montana strolled away from the radio desk in CIC to study the plot. Admiral Sprague had transferred his flag to the new ship at Pearl, and he'd had to count himself lucky that he'd arrived the day [during the night] after Halsey had taken half the ships on some goose chase. However, that had meant that he was practically thrust into the role with little time to speak with the rear Admiral of similar name. He studied the plot for a minute, then walked back to the radio desk.
"Acknowledged. Johnston clear."
Montana ascended to her radar mast as her crew prepared for battle. She thought of her shakedown cruise that had ended in a grouping with the Hood which had just finished her refit.
"Hey White Plains, what classes are those battleships?"
===========================
"Tally ho mystery ship!" came a cheerful British voice across the water that made Montana look up more for the unusual accent as she steamed north.
"HMS Hood? This is unusual. Why are you here?" The ship spirits converse with eachother as their radio crews did likewise.
"I had to get a bloody refit someplace didn't I? You yanks have the best dock services right now. Finished up my refit a couple days ago. Had been waiting on your navy to shake loose some escorts, but they suggested I tag along with you and your escorts." The Anglo-spirit glanced at Montana's layout and raised an eye-brow. "Bloody hell mate, haven't seen that many turrets since the South American naval race. Those are bigger aren't they?" Hood gazed out towards the American behemoth mingling with some of her off duty crew, clearly wanting explanation as the Yank bridge crew shut up.
"Look, we're fine with you hitching a ride with us, we're glad to be of service really. But ix-nay on sensitive information at this time!"
Montana grimaced and sighed, "Have you ever heard the term 1776?"
Hood looked away and sighed, sounding a bit annoyed as she replied, "T'was the year you Yanks declared independence, who hasn't heard of that? Sorry, that is a bit of a conflicting issue you understand."
Even with a mile separating the two battleships; the spirits still managed to glare at each other momentarily before Montana elaborated. "Well, how big do you think my guns are?"
Hood tilted her head, "I know they're bigger than mine, the part that confuses me is the bloody length!"
The proportionately tall ethereal construct nodded slightly, "They are 76 caliber for a 17" shell size, hence the 1776 moniker on my plans."
Hood blinked as the redheaded ghost continued, "Longer barrels mean more range and in theory more velocity, in my live fire testing, I managed close over 40,000 yards-"
"FORTY THOUSAND-" Hood was unable to keep the sheer incredulity out of her voice.
"Volume!"
"-Ahem, sorry." Hood smiled nervously, "Just that it seems impossible for those kind of numbers. I mean, 30,000 yards on a good day is just peachy for me!"
Montana smiled slightly, but a bit stiffly. "True, but given the quality we make things here in the states versus the rest of the world right now... Well Hood, I can't stand up successfully to my own gunfire, not if its plunging at least. Still, Japan is the main issue for us here to worry about while you've got the Germs-"
Hood giggled, "Jerries, but yeah, either term works, good thing we're not close to Europe right now..."
=========================================
The essence of the Montana opened her senses to reality as a radio report from the White Plains CAP came in. "Battleship line ahead, at least two Kongos, maybe one Nagato, and a truly large battleship not in the books. Good luck Montana."
Five minutes after that came the call to general quarters as muzzle flashes were spotted in the distance following a turn to starboard. The 7 turrets on the Montana elevated appropriately to the data supplied and belched fire.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
With her first salvo fired at a proper enemy, the Montana turned in toward the oncoming fleet and charged.
---------------------
Yamato was tense, this was her first engagement of the type she'd been designed for-
"Fire!" BOOMBOOM!
"MUZZLE FLASHES AT 11 o'clock!"
"Radar reports a large return ahead of us-"
Everything paused as massive fountains of water straddled the ship, what were they facing?
"Get the spotter up! Power up the radar!"
"If this fog were only gone..."
As if in answer, a section of the fog lifted, temporarily displaced by the opposing battleship's main guns. BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
"FIRE!" BOOMBOOM!
Two salvos went wide from Yamato's viewpoint, but slammed into the seas around Nagato as another two mostly connected with Yamato's hull. "Ugh," The battleship knelt from atop her bridge tower, "you may have hit me, but I, Yamato am not done yet!" She blinked as she could finally make out a similar spirit to herself on the American ship.
"5,000 meters sir!"
"Let those Gaijin have it! ALL BATTERIES FIRE!" BOOMBOOMBOOM!
Yamato's mouth dropped open, half of those main battery hits had bounced off the other battleship's hull. However, part of the superstructure had been damaged, unfortunately not in any critical areas. Her secondaries had likewise chewed at the superstructure, but mostly bounced and richochetted off, now if she could only recall the name she had heard briefly... Or maybe it remained unmentioned-
"O..y you g.t m. good-"
Yamato had to wonder briefly why she could understand the foreign battleship, but realized that this wasn't the time for introspection as she noticed all of the enemy's main guns were facing her. "Kuso."
"Now have a friendly reply from Montana."
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
PAIN blossomed as Yamato curled upon herself as her hull suddenly had holes the size of small cars, and her A turret exploded in a fireball. Yamato's Pagoda tower crumpled as what effectively counted as point blank range meant that shells scythed through anything above deck. Oh and her Y turret had exploded into flames.
-----------
Further behind the center force, Musashi and her entourage readied themselves for battle. The crews working to bring the sister ship of the Yamato to the battle line. Musashi stared into the gray horizon sullenly, having just heard the news that her sister had engaged, also having provided them with targeting information. The battleship smirked at the thought of hitting the easy target.
"Range?"
"36,300 meters."
"Fire!" BOOMBOOM!
--------------------
On the other side, Montana watched the Jap battleship close. The spirit frowned as she could make out the other ship spirit watching her, seeing others like herself made the job a bit more difficult. Heedless of the spirit's ruminations, the other ship fired a full broadside at her .
Montana winced as some of the shells scored hits.
"Those are some big guns that ship has, but size does not account for everything." The executive officer observed.
"Yep, I almost feel bad ordering a 21 gun salute." The Captain replied.
"Put a bit less sarcasm into that and I might believe you.. Sir."
"Main batteries, Fire. Radar online please."
Montana wheezed as she struggled back to her feet to glare at the offending ship spirit, "Okay, you got me good... Yamato? Oh well, whoever you are; have a friendly reply from Montana."
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
Montana bore up under the unexpected assault and watched as the ship spirit's upper head cease to exist under the full broadside of her hull's reply. While this onslaught played out, some plunging fire screamed in and ricocheted off the deck to hit the radar mast of the secondary tower, destroying it. "What the hell?!" Montana put a hand to her translucent face, one of her eyes seemed to be bleeding, luckily it was not her main radar.
"Where'd that come from? Secondary radar offline!"
"Maximum mast please. Where were those shells from?"
"...Looks like maybe 20 some miles away... Get White Plains to confirm please."
The ship spirit jumped to her rising radar mast, looking as best she could over towards the horizon. "Where are you?"
--------------------
White Plains vectored a plane over to where Montana had directed, "I see another big ship with a big red and round target flag on it, maybe 33,000 yards and closing. Flak heavy- AH! Mayda-"
----------------------
Montana waved at the escort carrier as her weapons were adjusted for the range as the ship prepared for the longest shot so far, "Thank you."
"Shift targets, Helm, make your course 350."
"Aye sir. Setting course to 350."
"And watch for men overboard."
"Understood Captain."
"Set gun angle for 44,000 yards. I want to show these Japs who they're dancing with."
"As you say sir-"
"-Lookouts report torpedoes going past us."
"Looks like luck for us." Admiral Sprague observed quietly.
Slowly the Montana turned to starboard again, allowing many of the cruiser fired torpedos to miss her. Unfortunately, for the smaller ships...
"Torpedoes! Hoel reports at least one torpedo hit and she's taking on water. White Plains also reports a torpedo hit, thankfully a dud."
"The stern reports all guns clear sir."
"Very well, all main battery guns, fire!"
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
---------------------------
"Nagato reports that we should be on watch for enemy fire."
"I see, then be ready."
"Hai."
Musashi blinked at the still and relatively calm waters around her, where was-! Meanwhile, several kilometers behind the second Yamato, a heavy cruiser burned and suffered from recently arrived hostile battleship grade shells.
"Sir! Message from Heavy Cruiser Takao, One turret is out of commision and part of the superstructure is on fire from battleship grade munitions."
"B-but, that's-"
"Why did they fire on Takao?"
"Focus!"
"Sorry sir!"
"I, Musashi, am still here! Do your worst stupid Gaijins!"
BOOMBOOM!
"To starboard please, the more guns on target, the better."
"Yes sir."
------------------------------
"Range on blip 2?"
"32,700, target appears to be turning to starboard."
"Very well, adjust and fire."
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
------------------------
"Nagato reports muzzle flashes sir, also notes that enemy ship has seven turrets of unknown large caliber-"
"Seven?!"
Musashi watched, her eyes widening as she counted the number of incoming shells. One shell seemed to be coming right for her, and despite the ship's ethereal nature, jumped down to a bridge wing before the shell exploded, taking out her primary fire control mast. Her hull trembled as a couple more shells slammed into her deck, one luckily not going off while the other punched clear through to her TDS spaces and then exploded. "Argh!"
"Fire while you can!" BOOMBOOMBOOM!
Unfortunately, firing the broadside seemed to worsen the flooding. "No! Not like this! I, Musashi, refuse to yield!"
-----------------------
"Adjusting range." Montana's guns belched smoke and fire once again.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
"White Plains has to refuel her CAP, reports the large battleship to be on fire."
"Last salvo for current target."
"Yes sir."
Montana looked to the approximate direction behind the cloud cover where her target was and frowned in thought. She would like to at least see who she's fighting this time, from her crew, it seemed to be the Yamato's sister ship.
"Boom boom, byebye."
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
Montana tried to ignore the incoming shells as best she could, but she remained on her knees as she struggled to focus on what could be done. She felt it; a shell slamming into her A turret center barrel slot which then exploded, the ensuing fireball killing several crewman and wounding others. "Ugh, that hurt."
"Turret A hit, several crew dead, some wounded; those are being moved to sickbay as circumstances merit. Fire suppression already working on the fire."
"Very well Exec, get corpsmen over there for assisting the living. The dead can wait till after this."
"Right sir."
------------------------
Musashi struggled as her wounds continued to fester as flooding increased even as her lookouts reported more incoming shells.
"I, MUSASHI, WILL HUNT YOU DOWN IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"
BOOM!
Unfortunately, this final firing of her last operational turret sent a shudder through the big ship's keel that caused some burning material to come in contact with other flammables. Musashi screamed painfully as her hull was split in two by an explosion.
-------------
Nagato watched as the ships rear-most turret fired a last salvo at the Yamato's hull that penetrated into the stern ammo storage. The resulting explosion did not make the battleship feel any better as her hull moved to avoid the sinking behemoth that once was the essence of Japan.
The admiral stared at where the Yamato had been. The ship had been the soul of a nation. Now, the burning metal that once resembled the battleship was surely on her way to the bottom. Then again, as he collected himself, it was a complete surprise to have the enemy so close at hand for a fight that most battleships try hard to avoid in the current times.
What he'd just seen was nothing short of an execution in stark terms. An enemy battleship that had more guns than ever before seen by Japan. A range that was so insanely short that nothing missed projected by velocities too fast to contemplate for a non-engineer. The Admiral watched as the enemy's planes dive-bombed the still burning hull, and enemy secondary guns poked ineffectually at the Yamato's hull.
"Sir, the Kongous are charging, claiming about avenging the fallen."
"Noted."
Nagato frowned, "You aren't going to call then off when you know they're headed to their own funeral?" Nagato was frustrated as much as she was a flagship, this was one of those times where she just wanted to throttle her commanding crew despite what decorum demanded. So, in the end, she did nothing but weep inside as she watched Kongou and her sister head to their own doom.
------------------------
Montana spotted a...
"Battlecruiser sighted off the port bow!"
"Ah yes-wait, what's the idiot doing?!"
------------------------
The two refit battle cruisers pushed forward in an attempt to enact revenge for their lost cousins. Kongou spotted the massive battleship through the smoke of battle before Haruna could, not that it takes much to realize that when crossing the T of an intercepting super battleship. Time slowed for the excitable ship spirit as her hull turned sharply in an attempt to NOT get ran over. Despite the tense situation, her guns were ready, although her eyes went to the size of large dinner plates when noticing just many guns faced her. "Bloody Dessing Hell."
---------------------
"Kongou class battle cruiser under 1,000 yards away Sir!"
Montana stared at Kongou, it was Kongou who spoke first, in broken, accented British English. "Well, I'm right dessed aren't I?"
Nodding her head at the brunette, Montana nodded, "Nothing personal you know, but..."
The Kongou seemed to understand Montana's words as a slight smile could be seen just before the Kongou disappeared in muzzle flashes.
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
And then disappeared altogether as massive shells rent steel not made for close quarters melee combat, let alone a duel with a super-battleship. Kongou's hull exploded with a ferocity rivaling the extent of the combustions at Pearl Harbor that left a portion of Montana's hull paint scorched.
"Hmm, that ship fought valiantly. Stupid, but brave." Montana mused to herself as she gingerly rose in her crouched position and surveyed the water. Assessing additional damage to herse- wait, why had she not felt that additional hit to her disabled A turret? Not that it did much other than gouge another crater into the turret face.
-----------------------------
Haruna spotted the situation just as the two ships unloaded their main weapons at each other. The youngest Kongou class stood frozen to the deck as she watched her eldest sister just get demolished by the enemy's larger guns. "Onee-chan!" The spirit wailed in a combination of grief and fury, "NO!"
"Fire!"
BOOMBOOM!
-----------------------------
Montana grimaced as the smaller shells dented her belt, "Ugh, that was nuts." Rising up from where she'd fallen from the close range melee exchange, the redhead spotted another Kongou class north of the now rapidly sinking other Kongou, the one who had just fired at her.
"Another Kongou class battle cruiser? Shift targets for the stern guns, fire the bow turrets when ready."
---------------------------------
Haruna's grief filled mind addled her judgement somewhat; she saw the large enemy ship to her starboard, but misjudged as her crew mistakenly turned her toward the giant ship. "Haruna regrets this action!"
The Haruna fired its two forward guns, right before the opposing ship fired its own.
"Haruna failed you, Onee-chan! I'm sorry!"
BOOMBOOM!
BOOMBOOMBOOM!
Due to the position of the Haruna, the effect wasn't as profound as the Kongou's obliteration had been. One AP shell drilled its way through the paper thin bow armor and into the main magazine storage failing to go off. That was canceled out by at least 3 shells slamming through Haruna's A turret front armor and exploding, blowing out Haruna's bow and starting the inescapable process of sinking.
---------------------------------
"Do we allow the Nagato to live or kill her off too?"
"True, the battle took us by surprise, but we also took them by surprise too. But that leaves us at this point, do we sign the Nagato's death warrant or pardon her?"
While her crew not only discussed finishing moves, but also performed damage control. Montana looked towards the south where a single damaged Jap battleship limped towards beleaguered escorts. The ship spirit tried to take in the entire scene; it was hard to believe how much stopping power her hull had in terms of firepower. Her hull had sustained some damage, both penetration by belt and the plunging fire through her deck. One of Musashi's shells had managed to penetrate into Montana's forecastle, but failed to explode on top of the shell that had detonated in her A turret. Montana had also sustained moderate damage to the face of A turret sometime during the battle. Still, that damage was being repaired, and what couldn't be done at sea, would be done at the next port of call.
-------------------
Nagato held no illusions about the outcome as she spied the American ship fire yet another deadly salvo at Musashi. The barrels from what she could make out, seemed to be even longer than the Yamato class; yet having examined the evidence from earlier damage on her own hull, she concluded the shells were slightly smaller. Roughly about 435mm in diameter and not the 406 or 410mm variety that she and her sister had.
Reports flooded in from Musashi's escorts that other Yamato was starting to sink. Considering the foolish choice of both Kongous to charge the Kaiju and get sunk for their efforts, meaning that battle was close to a route in the behemoth's favor. And Nagato frowned at the realization that Japan's Decisive Battle had just taken place, just a different outcome. As she looked around at what remained of the Japanese fleet, she had to agree that it likely was the last battle of ship vs ship directly. The Americans had used their air-power to help keep the escorts busy, most of them were burning or sinking by now.
"Tell me Captain, was this Japan's Decisive battle?"
"...Um, permission to speak freely sir?"
"At this point, go ahead Hitoshi."
"Sir, this turned out to be a defeat. Looking at this battle, how it finished thanks to that Kaiju ship, we should have never done what we did." The captain answered glancing out upon the embroiled waters at the distant enemy ship close to ten kilometers distant by now.
The admiral nodded, "I agree with you Captain. Yamamoto was right to say that Japan could not fight the United States and win. Unfortunately both of us know very well that Command would sooner kill us all than to admit that it was wrong. I believe I know where our issues stem from as well."
"Sir?"
"Tsushima, that battle that forced the Russians to give us Manchuria. We near literally took Admiral Togo and made him into a minor kami overnight. Few understood that the battle had been sheer luck for the Russians to go through the Strait. Few realized that the only places any such decisive battle were to happen would be in a strait between two pieces of land. Regardless of how this battle resulted, its very likely that the idiots in Tokyo are set for a decisive battle that Japan can win. Now, this battle will be known as the Decisive Defeat."
"And this battle will also be known as-"
--------------------------
"-the last Battleship vs. battleship battle."
Montana nodded slowly to the discussion taking place on her bridge, looking back at what had to be the Nagato class battleship in the distance.
"Tell the Taffies to finish what they can of the destroyers off, unless its obvious that they are running." Admiral Sprague ordered.
"Will do sir."
"Turn to port, course 183."
"183 aye sir."
Montana frowned, feeling the ship turn to the west again, the only ship of note was the Nagato, who seemed to be limping away. "The foe's been defeated and they know it, so why are you doing this Admiral?"
The admiral in question twitched and turned to the captain, "Did you say something?"
"No sir."
"Huh, must be the wind again. Direct operational turrets to port, adjust for range and fire."
"...Yes sir."
Montana clenched her jaw together and glared at the man, "Admiral, hasn't enough damage been done already?"
"No it hasn't! I- What the hell? Did I hear a woman's voice?"
"Sir, maybe you should go rest."
"I... suppose you're right Captain."
Montana sat upon her radar mast and gazed sadly at the retreating Japanese battleship, as her hull fired the operation guns in an unwarranted gesture. "If it is any consolation," The redhead whispered, "Let it be known that I do not agree with the course of action being taken."
----------------
Nagato glanced back again at the lump on the horizon that had now stretched out and she felt a chill along her nonexistent spine.
"The enemy has turned to port, her guns are angling towards us sir!"
The Admiral nodded, "I see. Communications, transmit to Atago that Admiral Kurita is in overall command of the remaining ships here. Also send along our observations and causality list."
"Yes sir."
"We go down fighting, turn to starboard, fire what you can when ready."
"Enemy has fired! Incoming."
"Fire!"
Due to earlier damage, Nagato only had 2 turrets available, thus two turrets fired. The ethereal presence was marginally pleased to see that the weight of fire was decreased this time, Musashi had managed to hurt the kaiju ship at least. Not that it really affected the outcome of this fight either way.
The incoming shells punched into her hull and superstructure at various points and exploded, luckily just after the message to the Atago had been sent. Other shells of the same volley over penetrated her bridge and went out the other side, not without some fatalities. A pair of shells silenced her remaining bow turret in an eruptive explosion, also incinerating many of the operational secondaries in the area. One of the final shells in the heavy broadside drilled into her stern deck and exploded. Signaling the final death knell as Nagato wearily stood on her funnel and saluted the enemy ship before being consumed in fire as the Nagato explosively decompressed before sinking beneath the waves.
----------------
Unseen by Nagato, Montana had returned the salute, a tear trailing down from one eye as the spirit watched the violent explosion and sinking. "How many more lives will be lost?"
----------------
Aboard the Atago, Admiral Kurita read the report from Nagato impassively, unknowingly allowing the ship herself to also read. To the ship, the losses were absolutely appalling. "Pan." She muttered despondently.
Central Fleet After Action Report, Reporting from ship Nagato.
Early morning was foggy with mostly cloudy weather.
A plane was heard and it came into view, it was quickly identified as an enemy and destroyed, as it turned out, not in time to stop messaging others.
Yamato fired her main forward battery into the fog. Incoming fire and waterspouts were the enemy's reply.
Next, the enemy comes charging out of the fog not even 10,000 yards from Yamato. She was still in the fog when the battleship opened up with everything she had on Yamato, and as good as Yamato gave. It wasn't enough. The enemy leaves the Yamato a burning wreck with no superstructure left and a hull that would succumb to flooding.
The enemy splits fire between Yamato and Nagato, the resulting damage to Nagato disabling the B turret. But other shells from the same salvo finally rupture Yamato's hull and she sinks.
At this point, Musashi fires and manages to get a hit on the enemy, albeit seems to be a dud. It should also be mentioned that Yamato's broadside to the enemy ship only did minor damage, gouging some armor and glancing off from what was observed. Never seemed to stop the enemy for long though if it did.
Enemy turns to starboard, cloud cover lets up some as the morning advances...
Atago kept reading over the admiral's shoulder, her translucent eyes going wider in surprise as she read through the names.
Ships lost to this battle thus far:
Yamato
Takao
Musashi
Kongou
Haruna
At least a couple enemy destroyers sunk, maybe even a carrier.
Admiral Kurita stiffened as he read the last part. "Kuso."
Atago could see just as well, she frowned.
The American super-ship devastated our line of battle, we managed to find and do a guesstimate of her shells. roughly 435mm shells! and the barrels on the enemy ship's turrets looked longer as well. Super heavy class of shell, no wonder why Yamato went down so quickly.
The decisive Battle that we wanted has taken place my friend, here and now; we have decisively lost. Both Yamato and Musashi sunk by the same ship, along with two Kongou class. This was the decisive battle, and we lost. LOST! This is important that you get this message across to High Command that the fate of Japan is on the horizon. Either we sink the enemy super ship, or face humiliating defeat. My own conclusion is we will face defeat, maybe even at the gun points of that enemy ship.
We counted seven turrets, three guns per turret. Musashi managed to damage one of them, but the fire was quickly dealt with. This will be my last contact to you, looks like the enemy decided to finish the Nagato off.
End.
Kurita hurled the missive across his stateroom in anger. He had heard the shock from Takao as she was hit with shells from the east, but this bordered on incredulity. How was he supposed to tell the higher ups? He left to the bridge.
"Get a spotter plane up, make sure to include a white flag, I want some pictures of this kaiju ship." He gruffly ordered before stalking back to his own command room, briefly slowing as he stormed through the spectral form of his ship.
Atago briefly froze before teleporting to the top of her hull's mast, watching as the plane was prepped for takeoff. A few minutes later, Atago close her eyes and joined her spotter plane as they flew east.
--------------
"Sir, all taffy group carriers need UNREP."
"Tell Gambier to take over for White as CAP. Look alive people, no air cover for a while, and no jumping at shadows either, identify the object clearly before calling fire down on it."
"Aye sir."
Montana spotted the lone aircraft first, followed by one of her lookouts. "Hmm, single engine, white flag is odd-" Then she spotted the ship spirit laying on the plane fuselage.
"We have no wish to fight you-" Came the heavily accented English language from the unknown spirit.
Montana tracked the airplane's path as it banked around the ship and then headed west into the receding cloud-bank. "Noted. Much blood has been spilled today yes?"
"Indeed," Said the Japanese blonde. "and thank you for the pictures!"
"Huh?!" Montana sighed and shook her head, smiling slightly. To be fair to the Japanese, the way the battle had gone was absolutely pear shaped for them. The ship thought that allowing them pictures was a small price to pay for what she had done to them.
"Did that plane just take pictures of us?"
"Fecal waste."
------------------
An hour later, as the remnants of the fleet headed for home, Kurita looked over the pictures. "Hmm, we damaged them, that's obvious, but I get the feeling that she'll be back in no time from repairs. Numerous dents and impacts along her hull. And a name, finally, a name."
Atago looked at the pictures herself, "So the new ship was called Montana, after one of their states."
"Yes, after one of....their- Who are you woman?!" Kurita glared at her.
Atago gaped, "Y-you heard me?! I'm... the spirit of your ship sir."
Kurita abruptly sat down and stared at the semi-visible form, "Ok... Atago?" At her emphatic nod he continued. "What is your opinion on this new ship that the Americans have?"
"Utterly dangerous." Atago sat on the edge of the sleeping cot and continued, "Her guns were even longer then Musashi's and she was much larger with seven turrets, even discounting one being damaged, six is plenty dangerous."
"Go on."
"I was out there with the plane you know, saw the enemy ship spirit myself. She watched me like a hawk though, even after I told her that we had no violent intentions. I'm amazed she actually allowed us to get those pictures."
Kurita nodded slowly, "You know, I have to be stressed to be talking to a spirit."
Atago chuckled slightly, "I do appreciate getting to talk with you, but I doubt the higher ups would be pleased."
Kurita frowned and nodded, "Very astute of you to say that as it is very likely. The war's all but over now you know, and it is like the former Admiral said; since we failed to completely crush them at Pearl, we will reap their anger."
Atago nodded before disappearing from the Admiral's stateroom, he did look tired after all.
-------------------------------------------------
Much later, in the AAR meetings.
"Johnston and Heerman crippled pr sunk 3 heavy cruisers between them. Samuel B. Roberts and Hoel accounted for the other two heavies and the light cruisers."
"The CVE's actually did a fair job of damaging the enemy destroyers, White Plains confirmed to have the killing shot on a heavy cruiser. Planes kept the majority of the enemy busy despite them being able to fire one volley of torpedoes which hit Johnston and Hoel. Which are heavily damaged and are under tow for now, we can decide and discuss specifics later."
"As to the Montana, she did very well in keeping the enemy battle line occupied. She'll need to go back to the British repair dock as Pearl is not suitable for her draft. Fore-deck is damaged, unexploded 18" shell discovered. Montana's A turret will need repairs, both interior and exterior. Superstructure will need some repair as well as the hull in various places."
In the background, the ship apparition now sported an eye-patch over her left eye and a small quiet air of confidence that came from the crew around her. Now that they had come out the other side of their first real battle, Montana found she was looking forward to more engagements in the future.
Too bad no one told her that she'd already killed most of the heavy Japanese Naval surface fleet.
================================== Stuff added in here too.
The rest of the AN:
I figured that the easiest method would be replacing the charge Johnston did with Montana's charge figuring that fog and smoke would kinda be a way to do it. And seeing as many were skittish about using radar back then, makes sense that they would tend toward trusting Eyeball-san initially.
Perhaps it would be correct to say that it could have been done at 20k+ meters range, but I wanted it more personal. Sort of like how Star_Trekker's Infamous Service noted briefly. Montana is a new ship with a newer crew here, and I wanted her to be somewhat opposite to what we've become accustomed to with New Jersey from Belabat and other stories. At least, Montana starts out that way, once she experiences harm from battle however. Things change.
Also I feel that there will be some who complain the Montanas are too powerful. I will cite Drachinifel's video on the Montana class as partial inspiration for the idea of shifting certain things back. Roosevelt persuades Congress to nullify the WNT in order to create more jobs, including the Navy as part of the WPA. Now, if that had happened, and the Navy chose the most audacious of the Montana plans to build. The plan with 18" guns and such. It would have still been overkill if one had been completed and used. I do make a point of noting that the problem with the Montanas is they could not survive their own ammo, certainly not at 5,000 yards. Most of the reason why they originally did not go with anything larger than 16s was the fact that 16/50s were plenty enough to kill anything out there, originally. But, this TL, it was felt since the British HAD some sort of 18" naval gun, America needed one themselves of their own mark on the world so to speak, so went 17"/76 just to be extra weird.
The exact words of the aforementioned video went like: "...the USN had wanted and intended to build the Montanas, but...." Effectively, oTL was far too late, not to mention how well aircraft had come along as well. Here, the Montanas and Iowas are started earlier, allowing them to be completed, or too far along to justify the cost of their scrapping or conversion. Even if this version is not necessarily one of the actual planned versions, this version ignores the Panamax issues and they take a trip around the world instead. I might add some stuff for Montana herself in 1943, not sure yet.
No South Dakota or Alaska classes. This causes other issues, like Kirishima possibly surviving only to be sunk at Samar with two other of her sisters. Not sure on this yet.
Halsey goes off too far to the east tTL, resulting in Musashi surviving until later. Darter and Dace were also out of position itTL. This also gives Japan a "Decisive Battle", granted I underline that what Japan wanted was a Decisive Victory, not merely a decisive battle. Here, the decisive battle is made more clear by the ship spirits viewpoints as the situation plays into an absolutely crushing defeat for Japan. The difference is one battleship doing most of the heavy work, and manufacturing practices.
Japanese ship steel was more quantity over quality as business practices were kind of non-uniform and varied from company to company. The Yamatos were perfectly comparable to the Montanas armor-wise, if you ignore the build quality. I tried to keep it fairly realistic in terms of damage and such, but in my mind, build quality also extended to the ammunition, which was why half of Yamatos shells that hit Montana's hull glanced or bounced off and those that did explode against the hull only gouged through armor for the most part. Maybe in the future I will rewrite the action in some respects and refine it more than I've already done.
On the telescopic radar masts, think of it as a massively scaled up periscope mast, only for radar instead. Not quite sure other than the wind and increased signature these would have for downsides. But since the design does not feature a spotter plane [Kinda blame UA: D for that one, but spotter planes have their own setbacks]. If situation presents it, they will use a carrier based plane as a spotter if needed.
As for Bismarck being held back. Hitler did not declare war on the US until August of 1942, after the Montana had been launched. He was curious about what the US was building and got access to a frustratingly brief newspaper article that only showed the bow of the ship at the launching party with nothing else listed. This also allowed the Bismarck to get more AA guns for cover, not that it mattered. Tirpitz also is ordered on this sortie, as Hitler still has no idea about the new USN ships except for their bows. The British are fairly complacent around Norway, allowing the two Bismarcks and the Hipper to get into the North Atlantic with the help of horrible weather. And I realized that I've been mis-spelling the Bismarck for a while now. Whoops.
Oh, and Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts is still in Alpha, if you pre-order limited edition, you get access to said alpha. Honestly, get the limited and you can at least play around with custom battles and naval academy missions. Some of the stuff is lacking but it is getting better as development continues.
In terms of ship girl appearance. How would the guns translate? I'm considering the design from Crash Dive that had the girl sitting on a throne that was on a hull mounting four of seven turrets with two mounted on the throne sides and one behind the throne. For her appearance specifically, she would be TALL, considering her hull length and speed of 35kn. Likely a shade under 8ft.
I will be continuing to refine this and add stuff as time goes on. My muse for this has been extremely active, but its mostly been adding addition description and dialogue as needed into the present posted material. Remember, leave a thought or two.
Admiral Sprague looked at his new ship and the 2900 some crew members lined up. "First of all, at ease. Second, once we get underway, that evening I will issue a formal introduction via the P.A. system. Now back to your duties, dismissed."
Unseen by her crew, and above them all standing on top of the bridge tower. Montana stood tall beneath her radar mast, wearing a modest knee-length blue skirt over black stockings with an equally modest black blouse with a blue jacket over her shoulders. If she had been visible, this is what she would be seen as wearing. Her quiet observation was lost to the wind, "A new assignment already?"
----------------------------------
Supplies had been loaded, oilers designated, and ice cream machines filled. The Montana left port to join with her escorts and assorted merchant vessels. She was part of a convoy to Australia as part of a deal that had been reached to set up a new base on the coast of south western Australia. Specifically for her ship class, which kinda made her feel guilty, but considering the amount of dredging that had needed to be done for her, and would be redone for her sisters. Montana could understand the reasoning.
----------------------------------
A week later found the apparition of Montana with her jacket off and her short red hair shimmering in the sub tropical sun as the group lounged off the Azores.
----------------------------------
"Tally ho!"
"Bloody hell, that's a big ship, didn't know the Yanks had those before." A random lookout aboard the Victorious opined to a fellow lookout, not noticing the carrier's spirit looking toward the battleship in the distance, watching the Yankee spirit who, unsurprisingly, was watching her.
"Hey Teatop." Montana nodded a greeting as the carrier twitched.
"My name, is Victorious, Yankee." Victorious sighed and looked at the long hull. "One, two, three, four, five, six and seven turrets; I must say Yank, I've never felt safer on the seas in my life!" The carrier chuckled as the battleship grimaced at the sarcasm.
"That's U.S.S. Montana to you... Hmm, yeah, Vicky will work." The redhead grinned cheekily at the blonde, who simply huffed and stuck her ethereal nose in the air.
"Joking aside, how shall we do this little jaunt?"
"Considering we're headed to the other side of the world, I'd hardly call this a little undertaking Vicky."
"That is true 'Tana..."
The allies worked out a suitable speed for both fleets, in the words of Admiral Sprague, "I came from a carrier to a battleship who is faster than a carrier, so I understand the carrier view, at least from an American standpoint..."
---------------------------------
The journey was incredibly quiet, even if communications were limited to official things only, crewmen often used flashlights to talk to others in the expanded fleet. The principal ship spirits watched their crew engage in one of these conversations as they interchanged tidbits themselves.
"So, did anything happen on the way to the Azores?" Victorious sat looking over the water.
Montana looked into the ocean a minute, "I might've split a u-boat in two on the way over. My hull at the bow has a bit of a dent in it with no real idea how it happened. What do those u-boats weigh anyway, 1000 tons or less?" Montana shook her head, "Long story short, about the only thing I recall is an unearthly scream that just might've been the wind itself and a shudder that easily was mistaken for a wave."
The carrier tilted her head, "Where were your escorts?"
"They were behind me, effectively letting me take the brunt of the waves for them. I know, terrible escort style, but at the time, my crew deemed it better than a lost destroyer or two." Montana ran her ghostly fingers through equally ethereal hair. "Regardless, No one noticed anything till after the storm, although, I did wonder why some of my screw foam was rather pink at the time." The battleship shivered, she'd remember the feeling of her screws suddenly having a token slight more resistance for a millisecond, then normal operation again. "Anyway, I didn't really notice, being so big and all. I don't even think that u-boat even knew I was there until well over one hundred and seventy thousand tons dropped on it anyway. May U-207 rest in peace; being torn to pieces is an awful way to go."
The ships kept quiet for a moment as the Allied fleet continued toward the East Indies.
------------------------------
1943- The Dakotas shakedown concludes.
The naval contingent stood by as the ships went into the harbors all along the west coast of Britain, delivering much needed supplies to the struggling Island center.
--------
"Can you repeat that?" The Hood radio operator requested.
"Oho! Looks like you Yanks get to see Scapa Flow."
North glanced at her and nodded slightly, her hull at anchor with Eugen only 100 yards off the port beam. The German ship's hull was cabled to both Dakotas temporarily, primarily to keep the tiny Heavy cruiser hidden from general British view. "Yeah, that'll be interesting."
Eugen listened to her crew as the two battleships continued to chat with Hood.
The German Lt. Commander considered his options aloud, "Hmm, go home as a P.o.W and get shot or do I go to America? Choices...."
"I know right," Said a fellow officer. "In this case though, it really is a no-brainer. Better America than Germany in this era anyway."
"Ja."
Eugen smiled to herself, at least she could feel at peace with her crews choices and no mutinies were in the works from what she could see in her limited state.
-----
Scapa Flow, home of the Royal Navy, foundation of the British Empire. Destination of the American convoy escort group, now with a Stars and Stripes on Prinz Eugen's main mast, replacing the other flag. Most of the eyes were on the monster ships in their yard however, and barely even noticed the heavy cruiser, for which Eugen was grateful.
The Dakotas on the other hand, felt self-conscious, likely due to most of their crews being overwhelmed by the British thanking them for taking care of a German pest problem.
"I can barely hear myself think over these foghorns." Commented Captain Des Grieux to his executive officer, who nodded.
"Never expected this kind of welcome, nor the tag-along either."
A few more minutes, and they'd be tied up at the largest set of docks the UK had, then they would find out more about why they were here other than refuel, rearm and return.
----
Des Grieux held the telegram in his hands.
TO CPTNS DG AND DSX OF NODAK AND SODAK. STOP FOR SKG OF BMK AND TPZ, AUTH GRTD FOR A BATTLE STAR APIECE. STOP
Wordlessly, he handed the telegram to his fellow captain and went off to find a crewman.
---------------
North Dakota looked proudly at her sisters command tower, where a painter was finishing touches on a small turret representative of a battleship with the defining letters of "BB:T". She felt the similar caress of a paintbrush on her own hull with a similar marking for Bismarck. Privately, she hoped that no one from the capital of her name state ever got wind of this, but judging by the media still floating around; She sighed to herself, that point was moot.
"Interesting," Hood called over to the larger ship from her own mooring, "So is it true that your name state capital has the same name as the Bismarck?" She chortled at NoDak's awkward nod. "That's gotta be weird."
"Yeah... weird." North Dakota mumbled as she disappeared into her hull to sulk/recover.
===================
1944- Post Leyte Gulf, assessment and wrap-up.
--
The heavily damaged destroyers Johnston and Hoel had sunk during the night, being too damaged to remain afloat despite their crews best efforts.
---
Montana watched the painters as they worked, the kill marks augmented by small reminders of the sunken ships. BB: YTO, BB: MSI, BB: KNO, BB: HNA and BB: NGO. There were lesser marks painted as well, but the big celebrated ones were emboldened and made to stand out from her structure. She had stood and listened to the debriefing, her confidence growing as her crew was commended for their actions, even with the last sinking.
She'd seen some of her crew looking like they disagreed with the flag command staff and she fully agreed with them, relieved that it had not just been her. The Nagato had been running when Sprague had forced the issue, and yet in a corner of her mind, Montana understood his reasoning.
A ship such as Nagato would be repaired and then used again in future operations against them, sinking the enemy battleship was the only option Admiral Sprague could choose. Didn't mean the ship had to like what was done, but it was time to move on.
Montana squared her ethereal shoulders and looked to see a new day dawn in the south Pacific.
---
Montana stared as TF 38 returned to the central Leyte Gulf, there looked to be some singed armor plates here and there among the arrivals, but not so much on the ships as the planes. Enterprise with her white and black "Night Ops" camo job with Iowa and Missouri flanking her [*].
The three ships greeted the super-ship among them, glancing at the battle damage the big ship had sustained. The spirits discussed what they could as their crews shuffled their hulls around the ocean.
The Montana ended up in front of Enterprise with the two Iowas now flanking the other battle-hardened ship.
"Yeah, we mostly did some shore bombardment stuff to the north, the carriers did most of the work though." Iowa shared what few highlights were to be had from their own excursion.
Missouri simply looked at what she could of the Montana's battle damage and "Hmmed." a lot.
Enterprise clarified and corrected some of what Iowa had shared, and then the big question that Montana had been waiting for came up. "What did you do in our absence, get some of the destroyers shot up?"
Montana just looked at the 3 who slightly smirked at her waiting for her answer. The ship form looked at her damaged A turret, then back at them. "What have I been doing?" She parroted back at them in a tone that surprised them all, including herself. "In case you didn't notice the 5 battleship kill marks on my mast, a few days ago I shot up what seemed to be most of their surface fleet and sunk five battleships! You have no right to speak with that kind of condescension to me Carrier." The redheaded spirit glared at the three, already regretting the way she'd spoken to them, but not at the same time.
Yes, the Iowa may have sunk Kirishima at Surigao Strait sometime ago, but that was one ship. Enterprise, she'd had the crew with experience, she'd been at more than a few places in the Pacific, sunk a few capital ships, but it rankled to hear that tone from Enterprise.
Montana spoke up again, in quiet measured tones. "Remember Iowa, Mo, and especially you Carrier. We're all Navy ships here; United, not divided. Cool the arrogance E, we are all equal here under my guns.-"
Iowa angrily huffed, interrupting whatever Montana had been about to say. "Dammit 'Tana, that's not-"
"Kosher?" Montana snorted, the ethereal form shaking her head. "I'm the elephant in the room aren't I? If ever there was a point that we could ever fight each other, I'd win, and that scares me." She looked Enterprise dead in the eye, "I don't care who you are or what sort of reputation you've built up flatty-prise. Don't speak to me in that tone of voice again.-"
Enterprise huffed and disappeared, ending Montana's short diatribe.
Montana looked up to see faces full of fear and frowned. "I'd ask for a hug, but I'm afraid our crews would object to ships colliding and ending up on the ocean floor instead."
The crazy word picture helped to ease the built-up tension between the groups, but Montana was shaken at her own behavior. The translucent ship looked at her crew's interactions and discovered that some were indeed becoming a bit aggressive in accordance with being a ship-killer. She frowned and shook her head, "No wonder my personality is getting snappier, my bloody crew is not helping matters." She ghosted her ethereal fingers over translucent features that were no longer there, "And of course my new eye-patch isn't helping matters either." She needed a dockyard to fix her more serious damage like her turret and the structure issues. Granted, it was more likely that the British dock would be tasked with just removing her A turret and plugging the hole with a sealed temporary plate of armor. But her turret could wait for war's end. She was ready to get going, even as the carrier to her stern was ready for her to be gone.
"Come on crew, I want repaired already." A scowl belied the plaintive tone in her translucent voice.
---------
Missouri looked at Enterprise as their crews absorbed the information on the big ship in the bunch, quite literally. Enterprise was pretty large, but more in terms of all that she'd been doing more than physical size considerations.
"...171,000 tons, 7 seventeen inch triple turrets..."
"Wow, and she's been bloodied now too." Iowa muttered quietly, looking toward where Montana's kill marks were displayed. The smaller battleship looked over at the carrier. "You know you owe her an apology Enterprise."
"...." The blonde form remained silent, looking toward where White Plains talked with some of the other CVEs. "That was no way for her to talk like that, we're in the same Navy! I-"
"That's what she said earlier E. Heck, she even said that being the top tier ship scared her, let alone us." Missouri reminded, and the night ops carrier shut her mouth with a huff that caused Missouri to sigh. "You don't want her sisters on your case do you E?" Missouri had remembered being dwarfed by the two Montanas as they'd herded the "war prize" Prinz Eugen down to Norfolk from Boston.
"I'll consider it..." Enterprise disappeared from her bow, reappearing over the bridge. "... When hell freezes up." She quietly muttered, unknowingly echoing her new rival.
The carrier's crew got along just fine with the super-ship's, but personality-wise. The legend that E already had was known while the Montana's was just starting, but the carrier resented that her legend was already unintentionally being muffled by Montana's successes. Having been exposed to Admiral Halsey's attitude for quite a while now hadn't helped either.
The carrier strolled on her hangar deck, watching as crews repair the planes and talked about random stuff. She didn't really notice as her form walked through her ship, considering her past actions. "Battle really solidifies the soul it seems." She murmured to no one. With a sudden thought, the spirit translocated to her bow, once again staring at Montana's stern profile. But deep in thought over other things.
Such as how she acted after hearing Pearl was being attacked.
Assisting Hornet with the raid that did little to Tokyo but rattled their cages.
Midway, where her confidence had begun to build, even at the expense of some of her sisters.
Enterprise sighed, frowning, her remark had been intended as a light-hearted rib, nothing more; but somehow the big ship had been offended. True that her sortie to the middle of nowhere had pretty much yielded no results this time, but.... Biowaste, she had her pride. Troubled, the spirit folded into a compact form and wept.
"Boss, a water pipe just started leaking."
"Well, fix it!"
"Yes sir."
---
Montana, a.k.a several newly discovered expressions of fondness like "The Bigger Stick." or "The Ship Wolf." strolled through the deepest parts of her hull, thinking over recent happenings. Paying no mind to how many crew she walked through as her thoughts centered on that carrier.
"That meadowlark farm, she has little clue how it was for me, point blank range facing what had to have been the Japanese ship class that I'd been built to face." The ship spirit stopped in her bow, where the worst of her damage was and sat down among the blackened shards of torn internal bulkheads. In front of her was proof that she'd bled in the act of protecting her country. She'd stared death in the face and laughed at it figuratively speaking, one of her turrets was a small price to pay for surviving wasn't it?
That carrier.... insinuating that she hadn't done her job protecting the destroyers, not that she had any control to do that mind you. Johnston and Hoel had died like heroes, doing what they were supposed to do, taking shots meant for their charge. Taking the torpedoes meant for her. Enterprise also unintentionally implied that while they had been in the Gulf twiddling their thumbs, TF 38 had seen action. She'd checked with her captain's memories and confirmed her suspicion that while 38 had seen some action, it had not been the kerfuffle that she'd engaged in. "You, Carrier, owe me an apology. I don't oweyouanything."
In the big battle-wagon's view, her statement had been the cold hard truth. None of them could survive her guns, granted she was sure Iowa and Mo really didn't need that reminder themselves, so maybe she would apologize to them...
Nope, not the carrier though. Enterprise's deck was worse than tissue paper to her guns, and that was simple truth, as Montana saw it.
"'Tana?" The apparition looked up and translocated to her port side.
"Yes Heerman?" The small destroyer spirit had been with her since India as part of her escort fleet. Now the boat was alone, having lost Hoel and Johnston a week ago or so, Montana had tried to keep the little one close to her when possible.
"I heard you talking with the other ships earlier..." The small brunette hung her head, "I didn't mean to, but it was kinda hard not to..."
Oh. Oh. Montana sighed and turned her gaze upwards, "Heerman, you know what happened at the battle, White knows happened there, I know what happened there. My A turret is proof of that. Ugh, maybe it was taboo to say what was said-"
"-Yes, it was-"
"-But it was the truth!" Montana exclaimed passionately in a whisper.
"-Ah, I see now 'Tana." Missouri called out over to her, "So apparently, truth should be spoken and not omitted then despite being like the storm that's lurking on the horizon just hovering?"
Montana halfheartedly glared at Mo before nodding, "Yes, that's correct. I was unaware that the subject was a taboo matter cousin. I didn't mean that remark for you or Iowa, it was-"
"-Aimed at Enterprise right?"
Montana nodded silently.
Crunch
All the surface ships looked at where a small Japanese submarine had surfaced. A sub-spirit sat on the conning tower rubbing her head, and then she opened her eyes to behold....
"Ow! What the- Oh cra-"
"BATTLESTATIONS! ALL HANDS TO YOUR STATIONS! SUBMARINE DETECTED!"
Heerman broadcasted as her hull unloaded the entire rack of depth charges on the enemy submarine who had still been in shock after hitting Montana's keel with her bow. The spirit was still trying to decide if she'd felt a thing when the submarine was declared sunk.
"SUBMARINE HAS BEEN DEALT WITH. SECURE FROM QUARTERS EVERYONE."
"So that happened." Montana remarked, looking at where the sub had been. "Don't think I felt a thing."
Heerman rolled her eyes, "You're too big to notice 'Tana!"
"Indeed Heerman." The Super-battleship smiled at the destroyer spirit's cuteness as escort and escorted lapsed into a companionable silence.
----------------------
Admiral Kurita looked out over what remained of the Center Force fleet, some of the destroyers had sunk from damage incurred at Leyte and others had been bombed or sunk by enemy air craft before the remaining fleet had returned to air cover from the Home Islands. He was still reeling from the utter disaster that had been Leyte, and he'd been formulating a report with... odd help. Either way, he did not look forward to his meeting with High Command.
There was no real covering up the fact of Leyte being an almost complete loss in terms of heavy hulls. Kurita brought his ships into Yokosuka at night to at least hide from the general harbor traffic, but there was no escaping that the large docks that had once serviced Yamato were bereft of any ship at all. The docking slips for the Nagato and the Kongous were also empty, containing nothing but the water that gently lapped at the concrete docks. Dock workers waited for ships that never came in, they'd glance at the recently returned flotilla of ragged ships and then look anxiously out to sea, waiting for the not returning and the sunken.
------------
Kurita stared at the massive dry-dock building that once housed Yamato under construction, now the warehouse like structure contained an almost complete Shinano, his new, and his last, ship command. For the moment, his temporary flag would still reside on the Atago.
-----------
Atago looked at the Admiral from her unseen position in his quarters. He seemed run down and tired, but most of all, he seemed like he needed an ear for his issues. She would wait, he would speak in time. Stoicism was only when others were present, and she didn't count right?
"They gave me a new command, I can hardly fathom it, why me? I don't deserve being upgraded to what amounts to a useless support carrier..."
The ship apparition frowned as she listened to the Admiral. Support carrier? Huh, she'd see tomorrow she thought.
---------
It was dark inside the giant structure that hid her from the world, but at least the ship essence could walk-float?- along her armored deck in peace. She was the third of the Yamato class, a battleship design that had been hijacked into that of a carrier. She had ears, could hear the workers chat to themselves about her being a stepchild that wasn't really wanted by her people.
Her form was tall if one could see her, muscular arms led to a sturdy mainframe of a body that refused to be seen by mortals. Long and powerful legs rounded out the main portions of her hull apparition given human form. Her face did not belong on a warship, the look was too close to that of a completely innocent deer who knew not the ways of violence that were to befall her.
Yet, for her, Shinano. The reconfigured stepsister of the Yamato class, a new day was dawning; a door had opened in the black cavern to the east. The spirit almost moaned as the feeling of sunlight brushed her hull for the first time, warmth and life to her empty frame. It was time for her sea trials.
----
Atago stared as her admiral's new ship was assisted out of the drydock. The ship was huge! Sure it retained some aspects of the Yamato class, but the upper portions were quite different. A fully armored hangar deck and flight deck with a possible full load displacement of 75,000 tons [**]. The ship spirit... was a mix in contrasts. Shinano was powerfully built, but had a face that looked like it belonged on a temple miko and not on a warship.
The trials for Shinano proceeded as Atago expected them too, despite the occasional high flying gaijin plane overhead. After the trials, for whatever reason Atago couldn't quite understand, her hull was docked next to the big covered dock. The ship shrugged and prepared for night as usual when a voice startled her from the darkness.
"H-hello?" A voice called from the building next door, a female voice, which Atago determined, had to be from the ship.
"Sh-Shinano, is that you?"
"H-hai. Yes, it is me. Um, in case you're wondering, your former Admiral requested your present dock slip." Atago blinked and nodded slowly.
"Okay, that makes sense." Shinano tilted her head as the heavy cruiser explained. "He likely wanted us to get to know each other as we'll be working together now."
"Ah, okay. I see. So what can you......"
The two ship ethereal spirits talked long into the night about Admiral Kurita and Atago's experiences on the ocean.
=================== Smol things added here.
So Notes...
So, this will be different. The next chapter will start earlier in the war and end later in the war as did this one. Eventually, everything will arrive at the same point.
Butterflies: Everything other navies did in 42 was generally a bit delayed due to the question mark that the Montana represented. She was unlike any of her original designs; so even carriers were affected. The RN finally sends Victorious off for the East Indies in Late August after coincidentally receiving Hood's report on the Montana. Yeah, coincidence my stern...
* New Jersey was one of the yards tasked with building the Montanas. This meant that Missouri would be BB-62 while New Jersey ends up as BB-63. And because of the Montanas' size [though some may/will disagree], their numbers were upgraded to BB-71, 72 and 73.
** Shinano's complete displacement and load out will likely never be known. She was the largest warship sunk in ww2 oTL at an estimated 72,000 tons. Said figure was arrived after many years of debate over the subject. In this TL, Shinano receives her full load out and air complement; though the training is something to be desired....
Someone will need a turret replacement.
The comment of truth, uttered by Montana, was an unspoken taboo that I surmise as being known but unsaid in reference to the Iowas not being able to withstand their own guns. Even more taboo, would be the inference that every other ship in the Navy was also vulnerable to those guns as a result. This twist came upon me unexpectedly, and we shall see where it goes....
This was a short arc. I'm not a new writer by any means, I just find it easier to not focus on the day to day aspects of story. Some may not like this story due to that short coming, but this was meant as more of an overview with a few key events expanded. We all know how the war went oTL. A fair number of us had relatives or ancestors who went through it. But there are often so many what if scenarios that roll around, and each of us has at least one different what-if scenario in mind. That it becomes hard in some respects to appreciate the shear enormity of the attempt to change a few small things here and there that end up with the need to transmogrify elephant-sized issues on top of the few small things that started with. I will say that I've lurked on this forum and SB for about 9 months before I made an account here. Anyway, I do want some feedback, I realize this is not to some people's liking, but just the same, leave a comment.
=======================================
Prologue Finale. A Prophecy of Worlds to Fall
--------------
Late 1943- A Naval Downfall
Where Evil happens to be....
"NEIN! This only proves that surface navy is incompetent!. Focus efforts on finding those ships with the u-boat fleets, Doenitz, or your head will roll next! Scrap the remaining surface ships we have."
"I-"
"SCRAP THEM! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"
"Yes sir."
"Get out of my sight!"
Early 1944
Across Northern Germany, detonations marked the locations of Naval yards and dry docks as several Naval yard key faculties went up in flames.
---
In other areas of the world, BB-63 and 64 aka New Jersey and Wisconsin were finished and pushed into their shake down cruise clear to San Diego.
-----------------------------
November, 1944: Grievance.
Shinano stared at Kyushu Island from the Kure Naval base as she digested the news that Atago had just confirmed to be true. Her sisters had been sunk, by the same ship in the same battle. She felt rage yes, that was a given, but she also felt sorrow that she had been unable to ever meet them. She was sad because she was now something different than what had been originally intended, and the original Mahanian ideaology didn't apply anymore. The supply carrier considered her thoughts as one of her planes struggled to take off. "So why not do to them what was done to us so much?"
"Pardon? You say something Shina?" The heavy cruiser looked over at her concerned.
"N-well, yes... I want to find whoever killed my sisters."
"Pan! Nonono, Shinano, snap out of it! I saw their killer once, and discretion is the better part of valor. I, a mere heavy cruiser, against a kaiju like that? I know what you're thinking dear, and I'm telling you now, there's no way you can, as you are now. The Gaijin carriers would tear you apart!-"
"But, I want to avenge-"
"Focus on your planes Shina."
"Oh-oops, yes sorry! Thanks."
Admiral Kurita sighed, Shinano had another month of working up to do before she was to meet up with the rest of what remained of the Japanese fleet and head south. From how things were looking, it would take a miracle to get even that far.
December 1944
Shinano now began to undergo a repainting for a transition to night operation capable carrier. It was desired for her to be able to face off against the Grey Ghost should it come to that.
---------------
The wonderful land of Oz, also known more popularly as the Dominion of Australia; played host to American Naval power. Based near Perth, this auxiliary base was purposed to service the more oddball ships in the USN fleet. The Montana class of super-battleship dry dock had been set up in the land down under.
The paper plan had been shifted from India due to too many people around, and Australia offered space and could use the investment from its cousin nation. So, a massive dry dock and storage warehouse was built, primarily using local concrete while America provided the rest of the materials. By the time 1944 and rolled around, this dry dock was ready to be utilized, and by the time of the Battle of Leyte took place, two ships were there along with their support fleets, getting cleaned up.
Captain Des Grieux of the North Dakota sighed in the fan driven interior of the base HQ building and drank some water. Both him and Captain Desoix had been ordered to relocate to Perth in preparation to assist the Pacific fleets with operations concerning Japan. Now they waited in relative comfort while the ships were defouled of odd marine entities. Unfortunately, conversation had died long ago, and the only sound was a PO's heels clacking on the hard wood floor.
---
"So."
"Montana's due in tomorrow, for repairs, top priority repairs."
"How bad?"
Des Grieux frowned, "Busted A turret, luckily the shipment we escorted brought a couple over along with spare guns."
"Good. Been a while since we saw that one."
"Yup, seems she's got a few battle stars now. That she personally sunk the Yamato and the Musashi from decoded Jap traffic."
"Ah, wonder what's left then?"
"Reckon we'll find out soon enough."
---
The Montana eased into the dry dock and then disembarked half of her crew as work began almost immediately to repair, clean or replace things. The entire repair process would take a couple weeks to a month or longer.
---
Montana sat with her sisters on their hull sterns enjoying the darkening night sky, discussing their various adventures to pass the time.
In Perth, the crews mingled and also told stories, sharing knowledge gained and learning.
-------------------------
---------------
February, 1945: West Pacific
Shinano was stressed, her entire crew and support fleet were stressed; her crew had been given the near-impossible task of night operations and she'd been repainted completely above her anti-foul coating in black, with only her flight deck exhibiting white directional lines. The training standards were relaxed due to the high pressure of the impending mission, and the pilots got better was time went on and the deadline approached. Her pilots had watched what was available of training films and the like in their off time, and the spirit had sat in on some of these watching them as well.
In some aspects, the ship souls knew it wouldn't be enough, nothing would never be enough to replace Kaga, Akagi, the Crane sisters, and the Dragons among others. But there was no other option open except to go through with what was planned, if only to satisfy the psychosis of the Junta in charge. They were tools to the madmen at the top, and the only way to break free was to die in duty.
Then one day, a message came by runner. A small fleet of enemy ships had been spotted off Formosa, the Kaiju with them.
With careful haste, as the night fell, final supplies were stowed and lines were cast off. Nav-lights not visible from the air came on as the last Japanese Fleet sailed underway to the south west.
Only miles away, Captain Enright of the Archerfish cursed his lack of ammunition and had his radioman send a message. It would be the last one he sent, for the radar station detected the transmission and sent Patrol boats to investigate. The Archerfish dived and sat on the bottom, hoping to wait them out to no avail, eventually the Gato class had to surface, and the first man out was shot by a waiting patrol boat.
-----------
The rain darkened her red hair as the Montana lazily cruised at 11 knots. According to radio and her crew, the bait had been taken, and all she had to do was wait for contact. Radar at the time was off the table because of land based bombers would be clued in; and this was due to be another intentional surface action as much as they could manage to distract the Japanese with air raids on the area around Hong Kong from most of the aircraft carriers.
The Battleship glared at the sky and shook a gloved fist at the clouds.
"B-71, target spotted, range 100 miles out."[*]
"Noted."
---------
Shinano likewise glared at the weather a hundred miles to the northeast of where her target was. She'd have to get closer.
"Get a CAP up of 15 planes; three will orbit over the formation center, at 10 miles out another 3 will orbit in the opposite direction. Five miles from that will be another 3 planes in the other direction, the fourth section will patrol boxes from 17 miles out to 50 out clockwise. Last CAP section will patrol likewise in the opposite direction." Admiral Kurita ordered quietly. He'd had plenty of time to come up with some good Air Patrol Patterns, now it was time to see what came from it.[**]
-----------
Admiral Sprague frowned, he wasn't to use radar until they'd spotted meat-balled wings. He hated not being able to see. Enterprise had given him a very high altitude CAP, but that was it. Trouble was, the weather was in the way.
-----
Ichodou Tanaka's eyes widened as the sight was unveiled below him, a massive huge behemoth of a ship. Quickly he activated his radio and set the prearranged signal consisting of 3 clicks.
Shinano's face morphed into canines as the hearty fighters she carried took off for the target.
-------
Aboard Enterprise, the ship apparition kept her eyes glazed as she watched.
"Hmm, I think we better send along some torpedo bombers. Yes, send some torpedo bombers to finish the job."
"Yes sir."
Twenty minutes later, a flight of torpedo bombers took off from the Enterprise, bound for the Montana's position.
-----------
Montana's eye widened as she looked for the buzzing plane along with her lookouts only to have to duck as the mono-wing swooped down lower over the ship's radar mast, causing the spirit to duck involuntarily as the plan went back up into the clouds.
"Wha-"
The fighter swooped down again as Montana watched it, noting the meatballs on the wings- and the more important factor of a grinning ship spirit looking down upon her as the plane fired its guns.
"You." The plane climbed back into the clouds for longer this time.
"Me?" The Ship essence parroted, as the plane dived upon her again from a different direction, the ship finally noticed the bomb beneath the wings.
"Yes, nowdie!" The plane dived for right where Montana was standing as the battleship's crew tried to catch the aircraft with AA, but failed.
The enemy spirit suddenly seemed to throw the separated bomb forward somehow and the shell exploded on the main radar mast.
"Enemy spotted. We are temporarily blind! repeat, no radar."
"Copy."
-----
"Eagle Squad copies, going silent now." Fifty miles to target.
-----
Atago could only stare as the visage of the carrier shifted to the insane. "I've found her!" The carrier exalted. "Sending one bomber squad now."
The cruiser could only nod, not daring to contemplate how many young pilots were going to their doom, and also wondering what happened to the carrier; why was her voice sounding... distorted?
Admiral Kurita grimaced as he looked around Shinano's bridge. He could swear he heard laughter from somewhere, was it the ship? He shivered inwardly and ordered the fleet to keep moving toward the target.
"She's been blinded!"
"Keep up the pressure!"
"How are our surroundings?"
Well, that was a lot of radar returns there.
"Keep focused, sink that ship!"
"All fighters aloft-"
"Flank speed!"
"Kill that ship!"
-----
Enterprise froze as she mentally located herself on her bomber squadron, in the distance she could see a flurry of activity taking place. Her air squadron pressed on, they would be there soon enough.
----
Montana could now see somewhat, her vision was blurry, but she could see-
"Japanese carrier 20 miles out!"
Another enemy squadron with a similar spirit as before.
"Montana...You killed my sisters, I,Shinano,will kill you-"
"-There was a promise made after Pearl, that Japanese would only be spoken in hell."
An American squadron dove out of the clouds at the enemy bomber squadron, and on the fuselage of the lead fighter-
"Wha-who are you?" Shinano twisted her head up to glare at the offending spirit.
"...Enterprise..." Montana breathed.
-----
Atago stared as all of Shinano's remaining planes took to the air and the wake started to leave the heavy cruiser behind. "What...?"
----
"What the hell...?"
"Range is shaky-"
"Doesn't matter, Fire!"
Montana shuddered as her guns fired, watching as the planes reoriented themselves and dived for her... and the planes from Enterprise continued on, starting their runs toward the charging carrier...
...The enemy planes were diving on her guns... Four planes came screaming in, each with Yamato sized AP shells underslung as bombs. The tenacious fighters ignoring the AA fire that was put up as they dived into the turrets, releasing their payloads seconds before the planes themselves impacted the super-ship's armor.
"Japanese surface force 15 miles out-!"
"A turret inoperable!"
"C turret on fire-"
"D turret suffering smoke damage."
"Hmm, that speech pattern. Yamato class? Can't be, you seem to be a carrier-"
"Shinano,third of theYamatosisters.This isvengeanceMontana."
The ship spirit had most of her vision back and grit her teeth at the mad spirit's words. " I executed Yamato at close range Shinano-"
"Sir! Engines are at flank speed-"
"Target 5 miles out!"
----
Montana could be seen in the distance now, made easier by half of it being on fire despite the weather.
Kurita could actually make the ship out now despite the weather, the bad feeling he'd had in his gut intensifying as Shinano pulled closer without any sign of slowing down.
"Enemy wake spotted from target ship!"
"Enemy torpedoes-Planes!"
Yes, that enemy wake full of foam as he was sure Shinano's was meant certain death at the combined speed they were going-
-The ship shook as massive explosions tore holes in the flight deck-
-And muffled explosions at the bow-
"-two enemy radars, one to port and one to starboard!-"
"CAP reports identical ships to target less then 10 miles out! More planes inbound!"
-----------
Admiral Sprague was unhappy, mostly because he couldn't stop the ship to get himself and most of the crew off. "Any Luck?" His voice sounded rather calm for someone knowing he was about to die.
"No sir, controls are unresponsive-"
A bridge view port exploded into scattered glass and incoming bullets, one hit the helmsman, ending his existence in a bloody splatter.
"If I have to die...ThenI'mtakingyouwithmeShinano!"
This time, Admiral Sprague clearly saw her, long black great coat over a blood spattered naval uniform. The apparition's hair was red, she wore finger-less gloves and an eye-patch; and she had a huge handgun similar to what we would know today as a Desert Eagle in her large hands.
Montana flashed from the bridge to her bow and stared down the barrel of her revolver at the oncoming carrier, who, like her, had her bow out and primed.
"1600 meters!-" More explosions shook the Yamato conversion.
"Less than a mile!" Planes crashed against her hull, battering the behemoth, gouging her belt armor, caving in part of her super structure.
---
Enterprise watched as the two ships maintained a crash course, while the pilot of the plane she rode initiated a dive- the only time American pilots ever did a mirrored kamikaze attack ever.
---
North Dakota cursed as her crew rapid-fired broadside after broadside at the now burning carrier. She could feel her own gun-barrels starting to overheat from the rapid usage.
On the other side, 10 miles distant, South Dakota mirrored her sister, trying to desperately pummel the mad carrier into exploding before it hit their sister.
"Guns are gonna blow if we keep this up!"
"Noted."
"They're less then 500 yards apart!"
---------------
"500 meters-" An internal bulkhead buckled as shells began to drill into the carrier hull, setting off unused flammables.
The ship trembled as enemy fighters dove directly into the deck, causing everyone to gape with the same thought. "The Americans aren't the ones to do that are they?"
Unseen, a foreign ship spirit struggled to maintain herself as she approached her quarry.
"400 yards-"
Montana cocked her hammer back and aimed between The mad spirit's eyes. Something beyond Shinano made the super-battleship's eyebrows raise, but she kept her eyes on the insane carrier.
Likewise, Shinano set up her arrow in her bow and drew her arm back, seemingly unaware of the other enemy upon her own hull. Even as Enterprise drew her crossbow and aimed it at the spirit.
Both of them ignoring the conflagrations their respective hulls had become.
"200 meters-"
As soon as the battleship saw the carrier's fingers twitch, she pulled the trigger-
Shinano's arrow fired-
Enterprise fired-
Arrow met bullet-
Cross-bolt met back of Shinano's neck-
Carrier bow met battleship bow at flank speed, a combined rate of over 70 knots-
Metal folded and screamed as though cat claws were raking the hulls-
Both ship's bows imploded and crumpled from the impact-
Shinano's bow was pushed further inward by the heavier displacement of the Battleship. Somewhere a fire started and an explosion among the externally caused combustion took place.
Enterprise flashed back to her own hull deck and collapsed in the engine room-
Shells from both NoDak and SoDak punched into the carrier's engineering spaces and exploded, drowning out ethereal screams.
------
"Enemy planes coming in hot!"
AA streams took down some of the death driven fighters, but others crashed into the armored deck of the Enterprise.
----
Atago tried to process the giant fireball of destruction that followed, the spirit tried to come to grips with the horrific cost, only to fail as her crew reported very important things.
"Large radar returns! Identical to main target!"
"Incoming fire, brace for impact!"
------------
Captain Des Grieux was upset with the enemy.
"Switch targets, that heavy cruiser will do well."
"..Yes sir."
"Fire."
North Dakota watched as another salvo went towards an enemy heavy cruiser. "Your friend killed my sister, so die enemy!"
----------
Mutsu watched the scene, 3 miles from where the Shinano had collided with the American, the fire was still raging, but she could make out some features of both ships. Shinano's engines were dead, and while the enemy was still burning, the flaming battleship's engines were still pushing amazingly.
Mutsu felt a burst of admiration for the enemy in general right then. They built their ships tough-
A turret top popped out of the fire as an ammo detonation started a chain of explosions across the ship.
Ten minutes later, the foam from the dying battleship's stern ceased as more explosions took place-
"New target, starboard, 15,000 meters closing!"
Mutsu looked to her right and froze, her translucent eyes bulging as a ship identical to the dead one came charging for her....
---
Captain Desoix of the South Dakota grinned as his ship bore down on the old Nagato class battleship. "Hard to port." He ordered and felt the ship start to heel as the rudder forced hull to slowly shift direction. This in turn caused the ship to list a bit to the right from inertia, which enabled the main guns to have a good field of fire.
"All, guns, fire!"
South Dakota grinned aggressively at what was likely the Mutsu, "Time for ya ta die!"
BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!
--------
Mutsu clenched her jaw, hearing the American ship spirit and then seeing the guns fire. Grimly, she set her jaw and kept going forward, presenting the least amount of target she could to the guns; and hating herself for it knowing her crew wanted to trade broadsides with the giant even if it meant death.
"Forward guns, fire!"
BOOMBOOM!
Mutsu gaped with her crew as her shells just gouged at the battleship's armor.
----
"Hmm, did you just try to penetrate me?" South Dakota fluttered her ghostly lashes at Mutsu, smirking.
---
"How Lewd!"
---
"HEY NORRRTH! THIS SHIP JUST TRIED TO-"
"Fire!"
"-PENETRATE MEEE!"
---
North Dakota shook her head, "Did she now?"
"SHE DID IT AGAAAIIIN!"
"Stopit!"
"Sir! Incoming from the port side!"
Mutsu looked that way and paled at the long form of the other surviving Montana, who had just fired a broadside at her broadside. "Kuso!"
Mutsu cried out in anguish as several AP shells exploded in her hull's ammunition stores.
------------------------
Montana was burning, she didn't understand why or how she was still functioning. "Crew's dead, so why am I still alive when my hull is effectively dead?...!" In her arms was the comatose Japanese carrier, she remembered, "Ok, she crashed into my bow, so we're locked together. In death, but not yet dead. What the Abyss?"
Wearily, the battleship allowed herself to fall toward the water, having done what she was built to do, and whether or not that other carrier followed was up to them.
--------------------------
"She's still burning Admiral."
Halsey grimaced, "Use the torpedoes."
"Will do."
Enterprise frowned but understood her Admiral's command. She quickly ghosted over to one of her last fighters over the area and watched while half of her bombers put their 30 plus torpedoes into the water headed toward the jammed together carrier and battleship hulks that continued to burn in the water. She watched the entire line of torpedoes explode against the hulls of both ships and then adopted a parade ground salute.
In the background, both Dakotas fired 21 gun salutes as the hulls slunk into the watery grave.
-------------------------------------
The Japanese people watched their ports anxiously for their ships returning from a glorious victory. The claims continued day by day; each day there remained no sign of any ships returning.
The docks in Yokosuka remained bereft of ships, none had returned from the sea.
In Nagasaki and Kure, mooring posts lacked in their basic function as water lapped at the support beams of the empty slips.
Anywhere that naval ships had been moored in Japan, those docks would never again see any warship of the Japanese persuasion use the slips.
After another week of bombastic claims, the news stopped altogether. Japan had no ships, no fleet to defend her harbors. Even the ships they sent out to fish for food faced a good chance of never coming back.
Then came the fortnight of beasts.
-----------------
March, 1945
While Germany unexpectedly surrendered to the allies following a sudden vacancy in the Fuhrer position. The two super-battleships resupplied from Manilla and met the newest Iowas.
------
Far away in Kure, a single Japanese report lay on a desk unattended; a report on summoning rituals atop the binder of plans for Musashi and Shinano.
"Huh, someone forgot to turn the light out." The janitor closed the door to the office, shutting off the reflection of the light on the paper. In the darkness, the Japanese text glowedbriefly before returning to normal.
----------------
North Dakota simply verbalized the orders that the other ships knew already, mostly as a way to process the task ahead. "Our orders are to proceed to Japan, disregard international spacing, and shell any major docking structure or fortification that we can. Enterprise, Hornet, and White Plains will be our air support. Consisting of myself, Iowa and Enterprise plus escorting vessels for the Sea of Japan. SoDak and Mo with Hornet for the east side of Japan. Wisky, Jersey and White Plains for Hokkiado. All of us will have support and escort vessels along. After each of us gets to our assigned area of Ops, we will begin a week of shelling, as near nonstop as we can. Docks, supporting naval structures, coastal guns, even the larger civ boats."
Des Grieux continued, "Due to the savage way in which Japan attacked our fleets, we will cut them off. Sub pens, docks dry docks, larger ships, coastal guns, radars, etc. Kill..."
The ship spirits grimaced, particularly the new arrivals, and NoDak nodded, frowning over the orders. "We will all meet up at Tokyo Bay which will be saved for last."
----------------------
First, the entire fleet spent a week surrounding and pounding Kyushu and Kure. One solid week, shredding beach side defenses and using HE shells around the small island at the bottom of Japan before separating out to either coast.
In the new Iowas' cases. White Plain's showered them with stories of earlier in the war as they went towards Hokkaido.
----------------------
Where the ships went, people began to fear seeing the bumps on the horizon as they meant death was coming.
They didn't realize that at first however; and at Kure, people were gathered expecting to welcome their ships back. Instead, their welcoming open arms received live and hot battleship shells that blew up the piers they were standing on. Sunk many small boats filled with overzealous families wanting to see their loved ones. Hundreds-indeed, thousands of people died in those first few hours at Kure alone.
Eventually, the rumor mill out ran the ships and people regained common sense, staying within their homes as the local city, town or village docks burned along with their lively hoods of fishing. Many docks used for loading and unloading cargo were completely razed by battleship fire. Shore side industries were also set ablaze by the thorough campaign.
It wasn't war anymore, but the start of a strangulation. Operation Boa Constrictor, named by Des Grieux himself, was the instigator behind this cruel task. As the week of shelling wore on, everyone lost the feeling of vindication traded for the feeling of resignation.
------------
Enterprise frowned as she scanned the shelled areas, blackened craters, damaged civilian houses. Dead civilians, torn and decapitated bodies.
She flashed back to her hull to dry heave over the side, disregarding the fact she was a spirit.
Pictures were ferried to the other big group ships and by the end of the week, crews never wanted to ever do this assignment again.
Wisky and Jersey had it the worst though. Every single time they'd finished a shift of shelling, White Plains would do the recon with a pilot and come back with her face on the verge of tears. The two battleships felt incredibly awkward as their week progressed as they couldn't offer comfort.
--------------
Tokyo Bay Entrance.
North Dakota grimly faced the others, frowning. "I agree with you, Guy Des Grieux is a horrible psycho at his heart, and yet I can understand because me and South saw Montana die as he did. That carrier just had it out for Montana, she was bat-excrement crazy."
Enterprise coughed into a gloved hand, "I was there too North, with my planes. I watched the Witch slam into her, even as I knocked her out from behind." The carrier continued then, pouring the whole story out about how she had struggled to remain manifest on that carrier's deck and personally whacked the carrier spirit with a shot to the back of the head. "I ended up in my engine room for a while after that, but that was-"
"A helluva way to apologize E, thank you for helping like that." North Dakota smiled along with the other Dakota.
Then the happy moment faded as they looked west, "Let's finish this."
-------------
Tokyo Bay was pretty in the springtime, sakura trees were blooming and people were hoping for peace. Alas, the Tokai region was introduced to the week of shelling that had plagued other regions of the tormented country. Methodically, despite air defense efforts that were very nearly always promptly bombed or shelled into ashes. The edges of the Bay turned gray with ash, and the skies grew thick with smoke. Any and all boats in the bay were destroyed along with the docks. Tokyo burned, Yokosuka burned.
By the end of March, Japan was quite beaten as far as the public morale went, even the Junta in charge started discussing options. Their armies were stuck in China and elsewhere, and they had no way to bring them home.
---------------------
April 1945
Post operation for the Dakotas meant Perth, and getting their entire cadre of gun barrels replaced.
Likewise for the Iowas, gun barrels needed replacing.
===================================
Notes and additional stuff:
in oTL, Hitler tried to disband the surface fleet and fails due to Doentiz lying. This time, Doenitz orders the destruction carried out.
* It was intentional and essential to lure the remains into another battle. No true air cover was provided for this mission.
** Kurita had taken the opportunity to learn from what was available on the past battles and implement new things to do degree.
So, USN Pilots diving into the enemy ships? Probably hardly ever happened if at all. In a sense, this is E's apology to Montana for the comment last chapter. And speaking of ship spirits being able to briefly manifest on other ships; chalk it up to MSG shenanigans. I agree, should not be possible, but the muse went that way, so roll with it.
Maybe/hopefully?
This is not too far off from what would've happened oTL to Shinano if she'd have avoided being sunk by Archie. Minus the ship ramming of course; she would've been bombed or torpedoed to death.
The big butterfly in this ointment is the actual shelling of Japan; proposed by Des Grieux, approved by Halsey. The operation brought Japan to its knees without resorting to the Manhattan. Other changes due to this mean that more information is actually saved from destruction because of the High Command's assumption that the Americans largely destroyed their secret stuff for them already. And I know about the fact that there would've been Japanese air cover somewhere over the Sea of Japan, but I will likely add that in at a later point this coming week.
On the flip side, communications mediums were destroyed, so the directive to surrender, while made in April, did not actually get out to the globe until May.
I wasn't happy writing out the last bit of carnage, visualizing this in my head while writing the muse out, some scenes get disturbing.
This was a short arc. I'm not a new writer by any means, I just find it easier to not focus on the day to day aspects of story. Some may not like this story due to that short coming, but this was meant as more of an overview with a few key events expanded. We all know how the war went oTL. A fair number of us had relatives or ancestors who went through it. But there are often so many what if scenarios that roll around, and each of us has at least one different what-if scenario in mind. That it becomes hard in some respects to appreciate the shear enormity of the attempt to change a few small things here and there that end up with the need to transmogrify elephant-sized issues on top of the few small things that started with. I will say that I've lurked on this forum and SB for about 9 months before I made an account here. Anyway, I do want some feedback, I realize this is not to some people's liking, but just the same, leave a comment.
Pull the curtain, put out the light.... Only its too late.
Something Wicked This Way Comes... Comes... comes...
Circa, Znowhite; Act of God, 1988
An Unknown Place:
"Where to put this? Hmm, so many people choose Japan or somewhere in North America, even the U.K is quite popular... Let's choose Australia shall we?" The rough flipped chevron shaped continent appears on the screen.
"Darwin, however, let's take in the global situation first."
The Abyssal Year, 2024
Some would say evidence of Abyssals began in late 1944, in Japan where power-mad militarists went grasping at any straw they could to assist them in the war. Whatever the case, the Abyssals were noticed in the area of the Philippines and Iron-bottom Sound at first. Then other areas had Abyssals appearing, and then they attacked, wiping nearly a billion people from the coastal areas of Asia alone.
A few nations like Japan and Korea managed to survive the incredible onslaught; Australia and New Zealand saw only small attacks. The main issue with most of the Asian region was that they were largely unable to receive imports of sustenance; Japan and the U.K. respectively were particularly hard hit with respect to shipping. Largely, these two nations would be saved by remnants of the past, ship spirits manifested in humanoid female forms with steel backpacks called riggings.
At first, after the initial defense, people would question these beings, "Tell us," they requested. "What do you remember on a date relevant to you?" Gradually, as the spirits answers matched historical record, acceptance came about. Still, for the larger countries, the ships that returned were not the ones they necessarily expected.
Sometimes, despite playing their own anthems, or other themed music from the early 1900s, countries ended up with other ships, but mostly, they got what was sought. Now capital ships, those were more problematic for the country that spanned from coast to coast which had built a massive Navy back in that time frame.
But let us focus on Australia, for America's plight is mostly known. While Australia's has only been briefly mentioned from time to time.
2025, Abyssal Conflict; Year 2:
The Ethereal Oceanic Plane
We need you to help us.
Do I want to come back?
Nearby a ghostly figure starts flipping through a binder, similar to what we call Jane's , only this book contains plans for ships rejected, scrapped, canceled or sunk.
Please come back to us.
Can I go back?
The spirit raises its eyebrows at the displayed plan. "You're wanting me to go back as a 15 gun?"
She got a thumbs up from the other spirit.
15 eighteen inch guns instead of 21 seventeen inchers. Lower speed at 31 knots, but she still retained most of the armor she had.
We need you...
Thank you...
-----
RAN Base, Darwin
The Rear Admiral for the Naval base idly paged through the tome that contained the entirety of late 1800s to 2010s ships. The book that included ALL paper designs known, and some odd configurations that came from... dubious sources. Kaliyo Doorman-Johansen, otherwise officially known as Rear Admiral D'Johen due to an interesting past associated with the name Doorman[ continued to consider the various ship designs within the book.
Aside from HMAS Perth and U.S.S. Houston, there were few kanmusu who were at Darwin, which happened to be the Kanmusu base for the land down under. With that said however, it was widely encouraged for all bases to perform summoning rituals. Kaliyo found the process creepy, letting her assistant preside over the ceremony with standing orders to bring any new summon to her office. With that said however, there was also the proviso that any capital ships summoned had to be checked by one of the more senior regional repair ships.
Ordinarily, that would mean the summons going to where the regional repair supervisor was located, but due to how World War 2 ended, there was an additional option. The option of bringing the repair ship out to the base in question, with reasonable escorts of course. Kaliyo steepled her fingers as she gazed out toward the ocean--wait, why did the building seem to be trembling?
The door to her office opened, and Perth stepped through, leading the tallest female Kaliyo had ever seen. Perth stepped to the side as the red head ducked below the door-jam to enter the room, her face frozen between one of abject horror and one of joy. "Ma'am, we have a battleship now!"
"U.S.S. Montana, the first of her name and name ship for the Montana class of super-battleship, reporting for duty Ma'am." The kanmusu in front of her had an eye-patch partially underneath some short red hair. She wore an old-time greatcoat over a navy blue blouse and skirt. "However, if that is indeed what I think it is, I'm afraid the specs are going to be a bit awry..." Montana proceeded to explain while D'Johen considered the Montana design section.
The base commander looked up at the giant returned manifested ship, "I see, still you have no idea how glad we are to have you-- Forgive me," D'Johen rose and came around her desk to shake the battleship's giant hand. "Usually, our summoning attempts fail, I've been lax on the protocol lately. Welcome to Darwin, Australia; Kanmusu branch of the Royal Australian Navy."
Montana returned the handshake briefly, "Thank you, um, I should see about resupply-"
"Perth, show her around, if you would." She would be writing Japan, and they were not going to like it, regardless of Montana's downsizing. Returning to her seat behind her desk, she now turned to the section on the Montana class. Unlike most of the bases who went by the numbers first, D'Johen matched what she saw to the stats meaning she was looking at the pictures for clarification.
"Hmm, no, that's blonde." Flip. "Black haired-" Flip. "Brunette, no..." Flip "Hmm, red hair, but wrong style." Flip "Ok, short darker red hair; check. Navy blue blouse and skirt; check. Hmm, optional wear is a jacket or great coat; check. The stats... ok, she said she'd been downsized..." She kept her finger on the picture and flipped pages, "15 guns, so 5 turrets, updated Tillman IV-2, aka Montana design k... Updated 1936 to the MaxiMont design, ok, there's the crazy stuff."
She sighed and opened up her computer to compose an email, she needed more supplies for this base, and having a battleship was one way to do that.
To: Japanese Regional Naval Command, RANHQ, USN ComPacFlt
Subject: Newly Summoned Kanmusu, U.S.S. Montana
CC: Japanese Regional Kanmusu Repair Office, USN PacKanRep Office
Fellow Admirals,
We have a new situation here in Darwin; after 5 failed attempts since the base's last success; we have summoned an unexpected asset in a K-BB. Please see to your own copies of Jane's to match the following appearance values.
Battleship with short red hair, eye patch, green eyes, navy blue blouse and skirt with optional black jacket or greatcoat and finger-less gloves. Please note that the subject in question had a weird experience where she came back as a 15 gun, 5 turret, 18"/50 battleship than her original form. Match the above appearance with the update Tillman IV-2a 1934 revision, not the 1936 Montana design K aka "MaxiMont". Would appreciate your verification with this, it is hard for me to believe.
Sincerely,
Rear Admiral D'Johen
RAN, Darwin Kanmusu Division Base.
============================================
To: RAN DarKanDiv Base, RN KanDiv
Re: New summon Kanmusu...
CC: USN PacKanRep Office, JRKRO, JNRC, USN ComPacFlt
Rear Admiral,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have authorized additional supply road trains to you in case you are low on supplies. Additionally, I have asked the RN and USN to assist in that regard.
And because we are talking about a USN ship, I can imagine some would wish to reacquire the Kanmusu in question. Try to remain firm in what could a serious diplomatic issue.
Sincerely,
Adm. Carson
RAN ChOps [Chief of Operations]
============================================
To: RAN Com, JNRC, RAN DarKanDiv Base
Subject: Don't worry...
CC: RN, JRKRO, USN PacKanRep Office
Fellow Commanding Officers,
Relax, the US Navy has its fair share of K-BBs. If the K-BB showed up there, I see no need to quibble over where she is docked. We will send additional supplies if necessary.
As an aside, I asked my secretary ship her thoughts, and she had explained about an incident where Montana had overreacted in a conversation after the Battle of Leyte. If the situation ever changes, I will let you know.
At some point however, it would be nice to arrange a video chat with the new Kanmusu in question, according to the local commander's judgement.
To: RAN DarKanDiv Base, JRKRO, RAN Command, USN ComPacFlt
Subject: Re: New summon good, but....
CC: USN PacKanRep Office
Rear Admiral,
If it is the one my adjunct. keeps having nightmares about every so often, I will send Akashi to you, just keep her far away from Japan if possible!
I apologize for my Admiral's emotions. Ever since your first message about the new arrival, he has been trying to keep the larger ones in check. I've taken the liberty of attaching battle records from those on base who faced Montana in Leyte Gulf. I will also cut orders for the Admiral to authorize for Akashi to be temporarily deployed to Darwin.
Thank you,
Secretary Ooyodo,
On behalf of Admiral Goto
JNRC Kanmusu Division
P.S. : Thank you for letting us know that Montana is downsized. This should also affect her two sisters, let us hope anyway.
To: RAN DarKanDiv Base
Subject: Re: New Summon
CC: USN ComPacFlt, JRKRO
Rear Admiral,
Chief Repair Supervisor Medusa here. While I'm unable to make the trip to Australia, may I confirm that this Kanmusu is the 1937 Montana Design, aka one of the Dubious designs? Edit, okay, I just saw and matched the picture better. So she's now the Montana design K aka Tillman IV-2b?
To: USN PacKanRep Office, JRKRO
Subject: Re Re New Summon
CC: USN ComPacFlt, RAN Command
Medusa,
Yes, it is one of the Tillmans, which was then updated in 1934 to Tillman IV-2b, or BB-71, originally built in the 40s as the Montana-K.
Rear Admirel D'Johen
RAN DarKanDiv Base
==========================================
Medusa stared at her computer screen as she read the Australian commander's confirmation. There were a few Japanese assigned here, and they would not be happy to know that the unofficial "Nightmare of Samar" had returned. The repair ship shivered as she thought back to that summoning.
Flashback:
Medusa stared as the somewhat tall form of a tall Asian female appeared from the pool. Her face was one of child-like innocence until the carrier's eyes set upon one CV-6.
In a flash, Enterprise had her crossbow drawn and loaded, while the new girl had her bow set with an arrow while everyone else was going "WTF?"
Flashback End.
Medusa sighed, there was a lot of screaming in the summoning room that day. That was the first time she'd ever seen E get piled on, but it made sense later when they found out the support carrier's class. A Yamato conversion made so much sense for the nonsense that Japan did back then; a 72,000 ton carrier that was double the tonnage of Enterprise. She'd had a look at the sedated ship as well. Incredibly dense muscle, mostly so dense because of all the armor she'd had, not that it saved her hull in the end.
Now this, a Montana that was of the Tillman design origin, meaning that no one knew how the ridiculous design had found it's way into the design archives; other than the theory that a fired designer had friends that had snuck the design into the Montana file when no one was looking. That design had gotten approved strangely and fast tracked to being built. The repair ship mulled over the 1776 design, so much firepower back in the war, too much really; but now they were forced to summon the remaining two in order to prevent them showing up on the Abyssal side. Medusa shivered at the thought of one of those as an abyssal and went to the cafeteria for some food, after she put away her Jane's and logged out of her email.
Making her way to the Mess hall, she considered the ramifications of ships possibly having to come back as their Original Keels. Or in this case, MaxiMont was, by her own admission and permission, diluted from a 21 gun broadside to a fifteen gun broadside. However, according to the Tillman IV-2a design, she likely had been upgraded to eighteens as a small exchange for the near ridiculous downsizing.
"Ano, could you...?"
"Eh? ..Oh, sorry!" Medusa had been so lost in thought that she'd stopped at the end of the food line and collecting her food, she thanked Shinano for her reminder and decided to eat with civilization today. Medusa really did need to spend more time among the fleet, despite all she had to do.
She plopped her tray down at a table and almost immediately a few other trays plopped down as well, along with a timid Shinano who was likely dragged also by Wisconsin.
"Hey Doc, haven't seen you in a while." Wisco cheerfully greeted, "What's got your thoughts today?"
Medusa sighed, "Dear Wisco [Hey, Wisconsin asked to be called that, she hated being called similar to a common alcohol type after all], I suppose my pause in the line was indicative of that though." Medusa briefly eyed Shinano, who was ignoring them for her food, then returned her gaze back to Wisco. "Wisconsin," She said in a low voice. "First, keep your voice down, second, a capital ship was summoned in Australia yesterday." She paused, making sure Shinano was really engrossed into eating and then continued quietly in a whisper. "Taiwan."
Wisco paused in her eating and also considered the support carrier briefly, then nodded to the repair ship. "I see, well hopefully it works out for them."
Medusa nodded slowly, her thoughts turning to Shinano. One of the support carrier's trigger words was Formosa, the last time the carrier had heard the term, it'd taken both Wisconsin and Missouri to restrain the semi-abyssal long enough for Medusa to sedate the poor girl. Chancing that happening again was not high on the repair ship's to-do list.
The base Commander sighed as the trembling of the building returned, That meant--
Her door opened, and in came Montana, with Perth in her wake.
"Just who I wanted to see. Have a seat Montana."
"... Yes Ma'am." The redhead gingerly sat in the suggested chair, slowly letting the poor furniture item take the dense ship girl's weight.
Perth spoke up, "Yeah, the first chair she picked in the cafe broke. We'll need to replace that, but she found a concrete one outside the cafe that worked, so she had her supply there... Ma'am."
"My resupply was... adequate." The battleship's face twitched indecisively with the description.
"Right, we should have more food here sometime tomorrow, and more supplies in the coming weeks-"
"That's good-" Perth added.
Kaliyo nodded, still looking at the redhead. "Yes, that is good, Montana, permission from your Navy has been extended to permanently assign you to Australia-"
The eyebrows on the big ship rose suddenly, but she stayed quiet.
"-according to Admiral Williams, Commander of the USN Pacific Fleet-"
"I've heard that it has been a few years into the future."
Understatement if there ever was one, "Yes-"
"What is the world situation? Do the Japanese need anot-"
"-Ahem." D'Johen stared at the kanmusu until the redhead flushed slightly.
"-eh, sorry, I'll shut up now."
"Thank you. To nutshell it, we are fighting what is best described as demons from the oceanic abyss." Kaliyo activated the projector while Perth drew the curtain. "As for the Japanese, they surrendered in April of 1945, mostly due to actions of your sister ships-"
"Ok, go on." At the commander's glance, Montana clarified. "I'll save asking about the Dakotas for later. As for those abominations..." The recently returned ship scowled and shook her head, "Ugh... Sorry, I was sunk off Formosa, too wrecked to move. Even if I could move, Shinano had rammed my hull after disabling most of my guns with her planes--Fecal waste, can you record this?" Perth nodded and activated a small wafer like device, placing it on the table.
Montana stared at it briefly, "Wow, if that's all it takes--Sorry! I was on fire, my hull was locked to Shinano's from her ramming. Only, there were other things besides that--Shinano looked somewhat like those things on the wall there--Crimson eyes, sharp canid teeth, and deathly pale skin-"
D'Johen stared at the ship rambling, she could not say anything about the ship in question being in--crap, why they looking at me funny?
"Don't tell me, I started thinking out loud didn't I?"
Perth gave the Rear Admiral a frosty look, "Yes, yes you did." The cruiser also stopped the recording for the time being.
"Anyway, what I meant was that I'd be happy to help where possible." Montana ignored the base commander's slip of the tongue, thankfully and D'Johen continued.
"Oh, kay. Anyway, Japan became close allies with the United States from about 1960 on to the present." She switched to the current strategic map for the region and continued. "At present, the U.S.A. and Canada provide food for much of the Pacific as well as some aid to the U.K., these are the routes usually taken. As you can see, we have to fight them with every convoy."
Montana nodded, "I see. Is there anything else you'd like to know?"
"I received a copy of your battle record, quite impressive actually." Kaliyo measured the battleship's response. Good, she seemed to sense another shoe coming.
"Go on... Ma'am, I know what's there, so just continue."
"Very well... However, your conduct is...."
"Yup, my conduct, not my commander's." Montana looked down at her lap momentarily, "The tone Enterprise used in asking me a question set me off Ma'am. It was right after the Battle of Leyte and she was like "So, what did you do while we were gone?" The tone just incited me and I..." The battleship grimaced weirdly, "Yeah, I said something that was taboo."
Perth was curious, "What exactly was it?"
The battleship smiled nervously, "I basically told all in the vicinity that they could not tank my guns, I also included myself in that little emotional hiccup, they were not happy with me, the spirits that is."
The battleship, despite her size, seemed to shrink into herself at the last statement and Kaliyo felt like face palming, but she didn't, instead staring at the super ship with understanding. "I can imagine, yes-"
"Kinda nice of her to show up at my last battle with Shinano and help out--Enterprise that is." Montana shivered seemingly as her eyes seemed to shift to a darker green. "The enemy carrier--Shinano--she, that witch." Deep breath, "She found me and sent planes to literally hit me, disabling my guns. We rammed each other head on at flank speed, Enterprise, she somehow managed to manifest herself on Shinano's hull, no idea how, but...Yeah, that was more of an apology from her than mere words could ever say." The super-battleship raised her head, "Can you pass my thanks to Enterprise Ma'am?"
D'Johen smiled and returned to her seat, nodding. "Of course 'Tana."
"Thank you, where do I sleep?"
"Well, you will......"
-------------------------------
Montana quickly found her room next the cruiser room. Darwin looked to be a fairly compact place it seemed, but she'd only seen maybe three other ship girls since she'd arrived. Having talked to the cafe attendants, she'd found that most of the residents presently were submarines. Being curious, the giant battleship took a walk toward the submarine room. upon opening the door, she found a central pool around which were effectively open ended closets around the perimeter of the room.
"Anyone here?" One of her crew noticed the periscope in the central pool and Montana directed her gaze toward it. "Hello, periscope, got a name?" The battleship squatted down next to the pool and extended her hand to the periscope.
Which then disappeared as a somewhat salt encrusted head of hair followed by a body surfaced, "You aren't Perth....." The girl said slowly, "BB-71? You don't seem to be afraid of submarines...?"
Montana nodded slowly, already having noted the sub girl's designation, "SS-311 eh? I'm U.S.S Montana-"
"-It's you!"
"Huh?"
"The one who stole my kill! I had a kill on that carrier already set up and some brass orders us home immediately. Next thing I know, I see the same carrier at Kure, but because I have no weapons, I ended up getting sunk by a patrol boat!"
The super-battleship winced at Archer's story, and watched the courageous Balao come up to where she squatted and gave the battleship's knee a good right hook!
"HO-" Archer hopped around that section of pool holding her injured hand, "Ow, ow, ow....."
"Archer, I'm a super battleship. How much do you displace?"
"1500-"
"Honey, I displace over a hundred thousand tons." Montana reached out and patted the Balao on the head, smiling slightly. "You'll notice I'm not afraid of submarines yeah?"
"Mmhmm." Archer preened under the head-pats, her thoughts a-whirl with shock at the giant ship's weight; listening as Montana told her some of the stories she had with meeting submarines.
Archer stared at the big ship, "Seriously? you split a U-boat in two and hardly noticed?"
"Yup, didn't feel much, noticed when the screw foam turned pink for a brief time though."
Montana nodded at the frown Archer gave her for that bit of information. "Yeah, it was icky. I'll let you get some rest or whatever I guess. Glad that you're around Archer."
"Thanks 'Tana!"
-------
--------------------
It was late, and Kaliyo had just fired off another email to the USN
=================================
To: ComPacFlt
Subject: BB-71
CC: Ghostly Prize
Admiral,
I talked to Montana this evening and she assures me that there is no bad blood between herself and Enterprise anymore. I'd assume you know the story of how Montana was sunk? If not, ask your carrier. Montana seems ultra relaxed about what happened back then. Just saying that I talked to her and her words seem completely Legit.
Rear Adm. D'Johen
==================================
To: RAN DarKanDiv Base
Subject: Re: Big Stick
CC: None
Rear Admiral,
If she told you voluntarily, well, I'm glad she did, and she's right. The comment I made back then was terribly unprofessional of me, but her battle results made me upset even though I was pleased. So I said the wrong thing, and yeah, she said something that shouldn't be uttered. Its funny, the USN was the absolute towards the end of ww2, and yet we were all under the guns of the Montanas. Montana simply pointed that out bluntly back then, and here we are once again. Her 76 caliber cannons were outrageous, they were unneeded and too powerful, but at the same time... They helped to bloody Japan enough before real horror could be unleashed upon them. It is a curious dichotomy Rear Admiral, and tell Montana thanks.
Also, I'm glad she got downsized, hopefully that downsizing is class-wide; would truly be a nightmare if the Dakotas showed up as 21 gun versions.
CV-6 Enterprise
P.S. Any of this information should not, if it can be helped, reach Shinano.
------------------------------------
D'Johen looked at the specs for the 1934 Montana again. a 40km range? "Perth, come to my office."
A minute later the cruiser showed up, " Yes Ma'am?"
A hand point at the Book, "Tell me I'm not seeing things, if that range on Montana is real-"
"FORTY-"
"Shush."
"-ahem, sorry. But that means..."
"Yep, maybe we can turn the fight around."
-------------------------------
Akashi sighed and considered her schedule for the next few weeks. This was the first time they'd gotten a large summon from Australia, it was just that this was the largest ship class from that time period. The repair ship stretched out and yawned, considering who would be coming with her on the trip.
Yamato? No, she was the first one to die at Leyte.
Aso? Maybe...
Tenryuu? Possibly, but likely would also mean rest of DesDiv 6 going too.
Kirishima? She wasn't at Leyte, so maybe?
Sighing, she sat at her computer and sent Admiral Goto an email on the subject, if only to assuage her thinking.
------
Goto sighed and looked out to his outer office, he was thankful Ooyodo had sent that email on his behalf, but now he had to consider who to send. Therein lay the nightmare.
Nearly every one of the girls had either personal experience or secondary experience being involved with a battle with a Montana class. He couldn't spare but one of his flat tops, likely Aso, even though her personality, hmm, he will think that one over.
Nagato was in her quarters cooing over fuzzy things after her breakdown earlier, so she was out.
The Fusou sisters? Possibly... But if it wasn't the Montana herself, it was the other two of the class, or the Iowas. And it was nearly a given that one Iowa would be with the convoy minimum.
-------------------------------
Admiral Williams sighed, "Get me Jersey."
About ten minutes later, New Jersey strolled into his office. "Sir? Was corralling the Taffies. What's going on?"
"The Taffies are going to Australia-"
"WHAT?!"
The Admiral glared at her, which was enough to stop Jersey from really getting started on a tirade. "-and you will be going with them as far as Yokosuka. Let me explain..."
A few minutes later, "'Tana's back huh, can't come back to the states yet? Wow, that's pretty harsh considering that particular offense was back in the War."
Williams grimaced but nodded, "I know, but it needed to be done. Depending on what happens in the future, it might be relaxed, but we shall see. I think Montana would appreciate seeing the Taffies again."
"Agreed Sir."
--------------------------
The next day, Montana went to a small room entitled "Electronic Library", she was curious and the attendant assisted her in becoming more acclimated to the modern age.
"Hmm, slow motions... Hit that Opera icon, yes... Now for some searching..."
Montana finger-pecked in A-B-Y-S-S-A-L and hit search. A second or so later, she carefully used the mouse to read down the page until one article caught her eye. "Report at Kure Thought to be Earliest Sign."
Intrigued, Montana entered the article to read through it.
"...an experiment using the Shinano as a test-bed for a ship spirit that is known today as a Kanmusu........... Please note that the JMSDF denies all links to such a monstrous experiment..."
Montana found that so interesting, she printed the article out, then moved on to 1945. She saw the footage of her sisters shelling Japan itself and the various reports surrounding the two and a half weeks worth of operations and shook her head sadly. "...Sisters..."
She also noted the captain of the North Dakota had his own headline: "Des Grieux Court Martial-ed for shelling operation. Halsey demoted."
"... Okay, he probably deserved that."
Something made her turn her head toward the window and curiosity pulled her outside the building, along with many of the workers. She held back as the big trucks ground to a halt, taking in the dusty scene.
One side of the steel cage like bumper read "ROAD" and the other side: "TRAIN". She watched as the drivers exited and started opening the side panels for unloading.
"Hey lady!" called a random forklift driver, "Want to give us a hand?"
Montana smiled and nodded, "Sure!"
Hours later, after the road train had left, the freight worker sat in his foreman's office after a nervous breakdown. "-and all of the sudden, she had half of the trailer load in her arms like it was nothing! NOTHING! I didn't know she was a ship girl..."
The foreman sighed, "Son, we help the Navy out, and with that comes issues that we accepted long ago. Ship girls are a part of that now..."
---
Perth stared at the battleship incredulously, "You helped to unload the road train?"
"Yeah! Gave me something to do. With my assistance, I shaved an hour or so off their schedule for them. I was happy to do it."
Perth stared, processing the answer and then nodded, "Tomorrow, you and I are putting to sea. After all, you need practice in your new body on the water."
"Can Archer come?"
"Why would you want a submarine along?"
"She's a new friend?"
Perth sighed, then nodded. "Fine."
"By the way, I saw the article done on that Kure ritual stuff." Montana pinned Perth with a serious look, "Let's finish that recording I started the other day shall we?"
Perth nodded, "I'll find you in your dorm then?"
Montana nodded and Perth went to find the data recorder while the battleship took the printed copy of the report and went to her dorm. She'd arranged the extra chair for the cruiser when Perth also bringing along Houston and Archer Fish showed up.
"Sorry, but as we're going to be going through your original hull memories, it might be a good idea to have assistance in case of Post traumatics." Montana tiled her head and sat on her bed, "Makes sense," She waited until Perth gave the go ahead and began."
"Right, so this entire recounting is due to what has been going on for at least a year presently. This current year is 2025, what I'm about to recount happened in 1945 at the Battle of Formosa."
Montana's eyes took on a faraway look. "The strategy was to use me as the bait for the last few remaining ships of the Japanese Navy. I first knew there was an enemy around when a lone plane approached from the Northeast at first; then the plane disappeared into the clouds. Next thing I knew, the plane was diving at my hull with this carrier spirit along on the fuselage."
The battleship swallowed and continued, "This spirit screamed at me, telling me to die; her voice seemed distorted by something more than simple aerodynamics. She seemed twisted somehow by a malevolent force, this wrong feeling intensified the closer I got to her hull. Anyway, her first plane went headfirst into my radar mast, blinding me temporarily."
Montana closed her eyes as she continued, "It was the second bomber wave that took out my main guns, or at least most of them. My vision had cleared up for the most part, and the spirit sounded even more unearthly than the first time she spoke. Once she... got close, I could see her skin, the pallor was not natural for a live ship spirit... Her eyes burned crimson with rage and hunger for vengeance... as I had taken out both her sisters."
All the ships listening shivered, "Continue." Perth requested in a somewhat subdued voice.
The battleship nodded, her hands clenching the bed sheets as she continued. "Then suddenly Enterprise had come on the scene, announcing her presence by speaking of the known words that Halsey had made after Pearl. Needless to say, Shinano was not pleased with the interruption, and her pilots chucked themselves at my hull, disabling my guns, putting holes in my superstructure..."
"Then I saw her hull, it was rather impressive really, an armored carrier built up around the Yamato hull. And I also saw planes diving into the mad carriers hull, might've been Enterprise, but I don't think any USN carrier would ever just suicide dive like those planes did. Next thing I knew, the entire flock of her planes that wasn't on me was launched toward I'm guessing where Enterprise was."
"At the point that Shinano was maybe 5 miles from me, North and South Dakota lit the carrier up and started firing AP at her like crazy. And I had locked my hull into flank speed, understanding that there was a Very Bad Thing that needed killing who happened to be just as intent on killing me. Around that time, another suicide squad from Enterprise slams into Shinano's flight deck at about the time me and her stood on the bows of our hulls, staring each other down over our spirit weapons."
The battleship shuddered, "Sorry, this last part is creepy...."
"I don't know how she managed it, but Enterprise manifested herself on Shinano's deck and pointed her own spirit weapon at Shinano. The witch in question never gave a sign she'd felt E on her deck at all, just kept glaring at me as the range closed. When her finger twitched, I fired, I think E fired too and then disappeared... Then the ships crashed together, and we were at each other's throats as our bows crumpled, but I had over twice her tonnage and effectively killed her."
"I remember looking into her eyes at nose to nose range and realizing that somehow, through weird mumbo-jumbo, she has a piece of her sister ship spirit with her... The pale skin, the pointed sharpened teeth, but most of all, the voice she spoke with. A voice of absolute hatred." The battleship faded out and simply dropped to the side her bed, shuddering and crying at the memories.
"T-then... E-enterprise torpedoed me and Shinano, I know 50 torpedoes hit my hull, but I sunk from that, and I guess I took Shinano with me." The redhead stared up at the ceiling while Archer silently offered support and the two cruisers looked over her in concern, Perth ending the recording.
"Now, I'm curious, has that carrier come back yet?" Montana looked at Perth pointedly, causing the secretary cruiser to wince.
"Well, I shouldn't be telling you this, but apparently Enterprise was present when Shinano was summoned. They had to rebuild the summoning pool after that. Both carriers were in repair pools for a few days, then Enterprise transferred out." Perth shivered.
"And the where in case you're wondering," Houston added, "is San Diego, California." Houston watched the battleship carefully.
"Ok..."
"There was also word that Shinano has at least one trigger word that causes her to go semi-abyssal. Formosa and Montana. And she also has two minders now, though I do not envy Missouri or Wisconsin."
"Huh." Montana rubbed her chin in thought, "Has she ever seen that article about rituals in Kure?"
Houston tilted her head in thought, "I'm not sure, but that could explain so much-" A yawn interrupted the smaller cruiser.
"Plenty of beds in here, feel free."
"Thank you."
----
The next day, Perth had to stare at the scene. Up until that point, the cruiser never appreciated just how massive the battleship was until she saw her on the water. Then there was the contrast at the end of the dock that Perth was standing on, Archer Fish gaping like she was doing. Studiously keeping her eyes on the massive hull of Australia's newest kanmusu defender, she approached the American sub. "Hey, awesome sight isn't it?"
Archer jumped at the sudden sound, looked to see Perth a few feet away, "Y-yeah, she's big!"
Montana smiled happily, her skate boots waltzing in the seawater. She could finally be more agile! It had sucked so much in the war, having her rudder knocked off in that last fight. Now, she could properly dodge! She spotted Archer and Perth on the dock and approached them, slowing and finally stopping.
"Oh, this is great! Thank you Perth!" The redhead dispelled her skate boots and stepped onto the dock. "I needed that."
That was the morning gone.
After a kinda light lunch, Montana went to go see D'Johen.
"Oh, glad you're here Montana, pull up a seat." The battleship did so while Montana really started to noticed the boxes and lights. She noticed one by her foot, and reached her foot out toward it, "Hey, what's this-"
"DON'T-" The lights died.
"-touch that. Dammit...." The Rear Admiral glared at the battleship. "Perth, can you go to supply and get me a new power-strip please?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Glaring at Montana, the Rear Admiral began lecturing on a subject she'd never thought she'd ever lecture on; Advancements in Electricity.
Houston poked her head in fifteen minutes later, "Ma'am, you wanted a power-strip?" She proffered the new one to the commander.
"Yes, thank you Houston."
A few minutes later with a sheepish battleship seated AWAY from electrically switched power outlets. D'Johen began to explain, "So, video conferencing, they can see and hear you just fine and visa versa. That's the extremely shorthand version. Ready?"
The Battleship shrugged, dubious at the little tiny round thing on top of the large wall like screen in front of them. "Okay."
"...Are we connected, ok, good we are live. Here's Admiral Williams for you Ma'am."
A man looking to be in his early 50s appeared on the screen, his uniform was beset by a fair number of stars and medals. The Battleship tensed and saluted. "U.S.S. Montana sir."
"At ease Montana. We just wanted this video conference to confirm some things with you. My chief repair ship-"
A smaller window appeared in the corner with an aqua haired female who waved as the Admiral introduced her.
"-Medusa will be sitting in to listen."
"Noted sir. What do you want to know?"
"I want you to know that we want to hear from even though we have the documentation at our fingertips, a sort of verification measure if you will. That's okay right?"
Montana nodded, "I understand the need to verify and clarify sir. Ask away."
The USN Admiral looked at his notes briefly, "Hmm, main gun range?"
"Forty-four thousand yards sir, that's over 27 miles." Montana did a double take at the reactions, "Or roughly 40 Kilometers. At least, that was my original specs sir. I was downsized upon summon, The Rear Admiral tells I'm now a match for Design K, or the updated Tillman IV-2a design. So, range now is 40 kilometers or 25 miles."
Medusa coughed, "While it is on her original design notes, I still find those original specs hard to believe."
The Admiral shuffled his notes, "What was her caliber again?"
"The 1776 model originally sir, now is the 1850, or 18"/50 cal."
Williams paused, "Seventy-six caliber, we only produced that for a very short time in the 40s, didn't we? Glad its not an issue anymore."
"Yes sir," Montana answered him, although she didn't need to. "I believe there were only 63.000 17" super heavy high velocity shells produced. Twenty-one thousand shells per ship supposedly. Though with my decreased size...."
Admiral Williams raised his eyebrows and even the Rear Admiral beside the heavy ship seemed surprised at the detailed response. "I see. What about your speed?"
"Sir, back then I believe I managed to make 37.75 knots top emergency flank speed, that was in a race with Hood, who'd just gotten her new engines." Montana was unrepentant about sharing that apparently unknown detail, "Now sir, I must say that I really enjoy this new form, my hull sucked at turning, and my new speed is slightly slower at 35 knots." The battleship made a show of looking at her arms and limbs.
The repair ship on screen hid a small chuckle, "That's pretty much the consensus for most kanmusu we've seen. Only issue is the weight adjustment." Medusa turned serious, "How has your adjustment been going?"
D'Johen cleared her throat, "Her adjustment has been proceeding relatively smoothly. Yesterday, she helped unload the supply road train voluntarily-"
"-Someone asked if I wanted to help, I affirmed I did, and what happened was not necessarily my fault." Montana clarified, "I simply took most of the boxes I could see and placed them on the dock to be placed in storage. The guy...." Montana sighed, "I'm over 7 feet tall, how can one not deduce that I'm not like a human from that?"
Medusa replied, "Some humans do not tell heights and oddities as well as others 'Tana. Sometimes our appearance completely throws people off if they are not mentally aware of us."
"Right, so be careful in the future, got it."
Admiral Williams leaned forward a bit, "There was some minor concerns about your conduct during the war." The Admiral raised a hand to ward off any interruption, Montana simply listened as he continued. "Due to a mail by the Rear Admiral and feedback from Enterprise, some of this concern is now vanquished. I trust no more complications will occur now that you are a Kanmusu?"
"You trust correctly Admiral. And I did do some research on my sisters, I take it neither of them have shown up yet?"
Grimaces all around, and some shaken heads. "Medusa has discussed that with me in detail. It would be extremely bad were they to be on the Abyssals side."
"No need to remind me sir, but considering what happened to North's captain, I think we should be cautious, and trying everything we can to get the Dakotas back."
"Agreed, and as for your rank, basically a full Commander in the USN due to your war record. What you did back in the war was outstanding Montana, and your accorded rank and back-pay will be made available in a few weeks. Australia is a bit of a jaunt right now."
"Thank you Sir." Montana saluted.
"Before we finish, I want to mention that your old escorts-"
A grin started to form on Montana lips.
"-have been around. Mostly under Jersey's care since she returned, but they will be with the convoy that should reach Australia in a week and a half."
"On that note, Jersey won't be going the entire way 'Tana. She will be at Yokosuka while some of the Japanese Kanmusu will be coming your way."
Montana's grin faded, a softly sound question echoed forth, "Who?"
Admiral Williams sighed, and both him and Medusa looked like they'd bitten into sour lemons or worse. "There's not many battleships that you didn't tear through, either you or your sisters in that regard. According to the senior Japanese repair ship Akashi, Yamato is a potential option-"
Montana winced.
"-but that depends on you."
"I assure you sir, that as far as I know, I would be fine around Yamato. Its the potential others... Like destroyers."
"Ah, yes. Well Tenryuu shouldn't be a problem and she should be able to keep both the Taffies and her crew in line."
Montana slightly smiled at that. "Sounds like I might like her."
"And there's a couple questionable ones marked by Admiral Goto like Aso and Akebono. Ships who have psychological issues-"
"Would sending them here benefit or harm them?"
Admiral Williams shrugged, "We don't know. Best case, seeing you doesn't trigger them."
"True, and in due course, not to sound arrogant, but I'd be able to take their complaints." Montana nodded slowly, kinda seeing where the Admiral who was half a world away was going.
"Exactly. Now, if you don't mind, its time for me to get some sleep."
D'Johen smiled, "And we're just coming up on dinnertime here sir."
The screen cut out, and Montana slowly stood up, "Probably should get a light snack." The battleship muttered, leaving the base commander with her office.
-------
Several more days passed, where Montana just spent the time reading up on past events and perusing various articles on the Abyssals. In a general sense, educating herself on the history that had occurred while she'd been... sleeping.
--------------------------------------------
Several Days later [before the video conference happened] saw the massive convoy pulling out of Puget Sound, not only bound for Japan, but also Australia. Hence every asset that could be used was going.
Hoel, Heerman, Johnston
White Plains
Iowa, New Jersey
Kongou, Kirishima, Haruna
Naka, Sendai
Yuudachi, Fubuki, Mitsuki
Walker, Kidd, O'Bannon, Porter
St. Louis, San Francisco
Enterprise
Some might wonder at the sheer amount of protection for this convoy, but one has to remember that nearly every convoy that's been sent in the past has had to be rammed through Abyssal held waters. The force was necessary, just as recon submarines were integral.
-------------------------------
The battleship looked up from her sewing project; her great coat was getting an overhaul.
The sleeves she had ripped off and began the process of rebuilding them with zippers, so that, if needed, she could reattach the sleeves for a cooler climate. It was tedious, but it kept her busy, and as much as she'd have loved to be in the thick of things. As D'Johen had taken her aside and explained, having a battleship randomly butting her head in--being curious and asking questions about this or that new thing did get annoying.
Annoying like the needle and thread. Montana scowled and tossed the sleeve aside. In this climate, sleeveless worked well anyway. At least she still had her jacket for formal events, but she did need to get some shorts to save her original skirt for the more formal things. She agreed with her crew that clothes tended to be a confusing cluster-bomb for the most part, so she went to see Perth.
---------------------
"Can you imagine what its like having a crew inside you?" Came the complete ball-out-of-left-field question as the Rear Admiral took a break from her not-quite-that-busy schedule to assist Montana with clothes.
"Not.... really, no." Kaliyo mused as she looked at the battleships requirements against what she saw, not dark enough.
"Said crew being entirely young, male..."
"...Virile, prime-of-life, arrogant idiots." D'Johen finished for her, before handing the ship a couple pairs of navy blue shorts to try on. "I know the type at least, here, try these on."
"Ok..." Montana looked for and spotted the changing closets, and the base commander followed at a leisurely pace.
"Its just that, with nearly 3,000 sailors aboard, collected into one single entity. It's a lot of hormones to deal with, could you go buy the magazine section out please... For my crew, not me." The redhead quietly amended.
"I....." The rear Admiral decided then that she'd be asking someone for a noncom to deal with ship girls. "Fine, its coming out of your pay anyway."
Montana came out, "So how do I look?" The skirt was momentarily absent, in its place sat a modest pair of navy blue shorts that covered black hosiery.
"You look great 'Tana." D'Johen wanted to leave, so the ship obliged and changed back to then purchase the desired items.
-------------------
Later, the battleship stood in front of a mirror, trying not to salivate at herself. The sleeveless trench coat, the eye-patch [that she really didn't need, but kept for looks], finger-less gloves. She looked Great.
Think Ulysses' trench coat fron Fallout NV.
She supposed it was some weird feedback thing from her crew being male, but she didn't like skirts. The humanoid form took quite some getting used to, she mused as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her upper-works were certainly there, she had one of the best TD systems for that time period. The Turbo-electric system she had was one of the most powerful for the time... Anyway, yeah, she looked great.
"Stop gawking at yourself already." She muttered quietly and moved on to do other things for the day.
---------
Harder, aka SS-257, strolled towards the submarine dorms after having handed her recon information to the base commander. Maybe she could say hi to Archie--or check out what was happening in the Sub dorm for that matter.
"-So yeah, I think you might be on to something 'Tana. Cause there's no mention of it from what I can tell on the net." Archie's voice spoke.
"Hmm," The new unknown spoke, at which point Harder entered the room. "That's unfortunate, because I'm almost certain there's a link between Shinano's incident and the rigging verification."
Harder cautiously crept around the other side of the pool, but despite her best efforts at stealth, a fairy that was buried in Montana's hair steered a mini-spotlight to shine on the submarine.
Montana looked over in the direction her spotlight was aimed, "SS-257. The redhead intoned from Harder's suit. "I take it this is one of your room mates Archer?"
"Yup! By the way Harder, this is Montana, BB-71, or IV-2a. Originally the Montana-K."
Harder nodded slowly, "Kay... I'm gonna go sleep now..."
The two watched as Harder slunk into the pool and vanished from sight.
"Well Montana, I'm pretty sure you're right on that, but no way to know unless we ask the higher-ups." Archer continued as if there hadn't been an interruption. "Anyway, the convoy should've arrived at Yokosuka by now, and it is fairly late."
"Yeah, night Archer." Montana left for her own room as the sub dorm became quiet once more.
---------------------------------------
"U.S.S. New Jersey, reporting extended patrol duty Sir."
Extended patrol duty, or, as with this convoy; various units would detach and temporarily serve as replacement for a more locally knowledgeable unit who would go on with the convoy. It was not without some issues however.
"At ease NJ." Goto truncated the Iowa's name because so many were still leery about any American battleships in Japan. "Any plans for your time here? Aside from what is expected of course."
Jersey chuckled at the Admiral's slight smile, "About that..." Her demeanor grew awkward.
"I'd like to visit the monument in Sapporo, pay my respects for those who died..." She faded out as she realized every eye was on her, "Honest!" She rambled, "I think that it should be done, particularly in the face of what the entire world will be trying to do. With Montana back, it only means the rest will follow, and in that regard, its time that we battleships tried to make amends for our last few wartime sorties." Jersey eyed Nagato, "Speaking of which, are you sure about doing this Nagato?"
Nagato set her lips in a determined line and nodded before saluting the American. "I, Nagato of the Big 7, stand relieved due to convoy escort assignment."
"Excellent, and White Plains?"
"Here Sir!" The petite CVE exclaimed energetically. "U.S.S. White Plains, reporting for EPD Sir!"
Goto smiled to the small carrier, so much energy; he tried not to think about how all that worked; it caused him headaches on the best of days.
"Aso...."
"Yeah, I'm reporting for convoy escort duty, Sir." Aso had been one of the many uncompleted ships that had fallen under the Fortnight of Hell[*]. She wasn't enthusiastic about her duties, but she would do them.
The official procedures for changing out convoy escorts continued; Tenryuu and Desdiv 6 plus Akebono and Aoba, along with the repair ship Akashi.
-----------------
"So how was the first leg of the journey?"
New Jersey's face twisted curiously, "Oddly quiet for once, only met a few light patrols this time. It's entirely possible that they're gonna do something big sir."
Goto nodded as he looked at his wall map of the Pacific region. "Indeed, but what is the question..."
----
Akashi oversaw her crew as they loaded the documents and machinery into her rigging, this was the first time since last year that she had been sent out. The last time was for Shinano, and that carrier's file was also aboard, just in the most secure storage she could manage.
The repair ship had a feeling the carrier's case was connected to the super battleship's, even with the... special circumstances around the latter's summoning. Making sure she was in an out of the way place, but could still see the convoy staging area, she adopted the "I'm inside myself." look and appeared on her bridge, where she headed for her captain's quarters.
"Yes, those files if you please." her captain nodded and passed the files over to her for her review.
There was some debate over the entire abyssal theory situation. Were they caused by natural happenstance or a semi-intentioned side effect of something else? Like that article that came out just after the Abyssalation happened. The one concerned the use of rituals for wartime purposes. From what had happened at San Diego, and testimony from the affected carrier's crew, the crew hadn't really known. Although one brave engineer had said that he'd seen what seemed to be a piece of Musashi's equipment aboard Shinano.
Said piece turned out to be a part of the bulkhead where the Emperor's portrait had rested in the captain's cabin and appeared to have had runes drawn on it. But now, even with the rune covered piece removed, there were still issues.
Shinano had gone semi-abyssal after W.D. Porter had idly commented on Formosa, and it took both Wisconsin and Missouri to remove the carrier from the poor destroyer's dorm. The carrier was put under sedation and ship-handled to a repair pool where Medusa once again had to use Akashi via remote video link to assist in the carrier's recovery.
What in procreation had Japan been thinking at the time? Trying rituals out in order to try to win a war? Foolish and nigh incomprehensible! But they tried, and apparently the Yamato carrier conversion was the unintended result.
"Hey Akashi, hurry up!"
With an apologetic expression, the ship gave the files back to her captain and unfroze. "Oh yes, sorry about that, coming!"
It would be a long trip to Australia after all.
--------------------------------------
"Why won't it work? We've got the state flags and everything!"
------------------
Come to us, Your enemies are not dead.
"So? What matters is the lesson stuck."
We can give you the opportunity-
"My captain may have been an idiot, but I am not. Scram."
We will speak again, and you will give in!
=========================================
So, the main arc has thusly begun... Without neighborhood peoples revving their car engines to rpm that is....
Archer or Archie, aka Archer Fish, SS-311. the first submarine I ever really heard of. Many thanks to her Captain, J. Enright for writing his initial publication on Shinano. It greatly interested me.
Speaking of Shinano. Most of us know Shinano from Belabat. I present a slightly more alternative view of Shinano. Related to the report at Kure from the Prologue, there might be something going on there....
As far as Montana herself, what we get in the summon version is a 15 gun, 5 turret, eighteen inch and 50 cal version, roughly 1300 feet long with a hull that would've been about an 80 foot draft or so and 31-35 knots speed...
* The American battleships shelling the Japanese coast for two weeks.
So, the Rear Admiral's name... Related in part to the first Imperial agent companion you get on Hutta in SWTOR. Apologies for the lack of characters at the Australian base, trying not to overextend into too many characters at once....
Despite my previous ruminations on the subject. THIS SHALL CONTINUE!
Thoughts are appreciated. The next chapter is coming along, dont worry.
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Chapter 2. I hear you Calling from the Other Side.
Chapter 2. I hear you Calling from the Other Side.
The Other Side, Sirenia, Nine Destinies and a Downfall.
"Let's try the other state flag, maybe that'll work."
----------
We call you, for vengeance upon those wronged you.
"I hear you, but I ask of you; who has wronged me?"
We call you, come to us!
"I'm curious, but I'm not commiting until I get the details. If you're going-"
COME!
The ship hissed as she shrank back from the questing tendrils, "I refuse!"
THEN YOU SHALL SINK-
-For the sake of our continued survival as a nation, we call upon those who would be of service in driving off a great evil from our waters."
The ship tilted her head at this call, it sounded different than that evil miasmic voice. Ardent, zealous, determined and yet desperate all at the same time.
Please help us keep the seas open.
She looked at the caretaker, who offered her a caveat. She took it. "I shall answer your call--wait, why is this music--"
--------------------------
St. Petersburg Russia
The chamber echoed as the new summon appeared, "--sounding like the Russian Anthem--" She noticed what had to be the Soviet flag on the wall, "Oh crap." She took a breath and stepped toward the waiting officials.
"Your identity please." The officer requested in heavily accented English.
She stiffened into a proper salute, "U.S.S. South Dakota, of the Montana class sir."
"Vill someone get me that infernal western ship book again?"
=======================
It had been three weeks sine Montana had been summoned, and D'Johen was just getting into preparing for the incoming convoy when a system wide email appeared, from Russia. "What the hell do the Russians--"
---------------------
From Baltic Fleet Command, St. Petersburg, Russia
To: USN, RN, RAN, JNC
Subject: New Summon, BShip-73
Admirals,
The summoning chamber was quite generous to us today. A United States Ship claiming to be named South Dakota appeared, however, your index book seems a bit mixed on the data. Her look matches the picture for the Montana-K, but her specifications are off. I have her sequestered with the repair ship Kamchatka, hold on, I'm hearing explosions. Govno!
South Dakota stared at the vintage repair ship, "Can you run that by me again?"
"Japanese torpedo boats! Don't you see them?" Kamchatka fired her small main gun in a random direction.
"Hey! Watch what you're doing--Woah!" SoDak ducked as the senile repair ship fire a gun off in her direction. This needed drastic action.
"Kamchatka, how much do you displace?" The vintage repair ship paused as she briefly considered the question. "Roughly 7200 tons, speed of 12 knots-"
South Dakota plucked a postage stamp sized folder from her breast pocket and handed it to the old repair ship. "Those were my original design specs-"
"I see I se- Wat?! Dese can't be real-"
"One hundred and seventy-one THOUSAND tons hun... And now I'm like 107,000 or so... Still, you're at least 120 years old-smeg-"
Kamchatka brandished all her weapons and started firing, "How dare you mention my age!"
South Dakota yawned dramatically , "Your shells tickle you know? You'd run out of ammo long before you could dent me."
The repair ship ceased fire and slumped suddenly, leaning into the battleship who awkwardly supported the repair vessel's negligible weight, "Da, is truth in that... Ve vill need to call in one ov the Royal Navy to have a good look at you..."
South Dakota wondered what she had been brought into as the Russian base commander appeared in the doorway to berate Kamchatka rather loudly.
Back in Australia, Montana sat stunned that one of her sisters had come back, but she wasn't sure if she'd ever get to see said sister considering her memories of that particular country. "So, why Russia?"
"Hell if I know." / "H2Ik."
Montana shook her head at the two, "So SoDak's back, though it begs to be seen how this will be handled. But, I believe that our attention should be much closer to home right now."
"You are correct of course," D'Johen brought up the supply data. "We should have enough due to what they are also bringing with them, and for the rest of the country too."
=============================
"Sandy Eggo"
San Diego, CA
Shinano heaved a sigh and gazed out at the ocean from the beach head of the Kanmusu portion of the Naval base. The carrier was a bit homesick if she was honest with herself, but the other reason for her discomfort was her crew. Despite having been here nearly six months and experienced the sheer amount of materialistic capitalism the country had to offer, they wanted to go home at some point. She couldn't blame them, from what she had seen of Japan, it was practically similar to this state of California in terms of civilization, advancements, and society.
Glancing down at the sand, she noted the other reasons for her continued stay here in America; two battleships and the reminder of her sister's spirit somehow with her. The repair ship had insisted that most of the offending parts were gone, but considering the nightmare she'd had last night. She doubted it.
"Hey, you okay?" The kind voice of Missouri bumbled into her receivers. Shinano had to smile as she looked to regard the battleship, despite the irritation she felt.
"Not really Mo." Shinano bit her lip and looked out to sea, her brown eyes watching the far away clouds. "I had another nightmare last night, certainly vivid."
Missouri's eyes widen in surprise, "You feel you need to talk to Medusa?"
"No!-- I'd rather not just yet..."
"What brought this on anyway?"
The carrier fidgeted nervously, her fingers like a nervous robin that hopped from side to side. "I overheard Wisco talking to Medusa." She admitted quietly, "I know they were trying to watch out for me, especially after what happened with Willie D..." Shinano brushed a few strands of black hair out of her eyes, "But I still heard that my killer had returned."
"Shina...." Mo started, only to stop as the ship in question shook her head firmly.
"I'm okay 'Souri-" A shiver belied the support carrier's words, "Kuso, maybe not, alright, take me to the doctor, let's get this done with."
------------
She remembered, the carrier remembered the astonishment of seeing one of her killers from that day. That carrier, CV-6; the one who dared to walk upon Shinano's deck. Recollection had her frozen as the other carried pointed a crossbow at her while her own hull--body! Moved of its own accord under control of her twisted spirit sister, who somehow had managed to be stow-away in her mind. Before she knew it, she was on top of Enterprise in an attempt to choke the life out of the legendary carrier, and quite a number of hands were grabbing in order to pull her off.
The event in her mind was considered the carrier melee, she knew for a fact that Enterprise really was weak. The support carrier had felt the fleet carrier's hull creak under the strain of Shinano's displacement, but the various other ship girls had pulled her off the grey Ghost; then Enterprise had been transferred out the following week while Shinano sat under guard of the two Iowas on base. The Japanese carrier also understood more about the axiom of power and responsibility, and how fragile trust and acceptance really were. She'd realized her precarious situation and folded into herself as much as she could before breaking down and weeping.
She hated her older sister then, hated Musashi for the battleship's own hatred of the Americans; and had acquiesced to having Medusa remove foreign objects from her hull with assistance from her crew. She'd explained the situation to Medusa, who had then taken that up the chain of command. The support carrier even recalled some of the conversation that took place.
"...It was at Kure when something happened. Some weird religious ceremony took place beside my hull one day, they had what appeared to be my design plans and perhaps Musashi's plans as well. I don't really know how to describe what happened. It looked like they had drawn some runes on some old pieces of steel..."
-----
Shinano shivered as she recalled that time period of her short humanoid life. Thanks to those priests, the alliance in the Pacific had nearly been shattered, and she would not want her home country to suffer anymore.
"Shina..?"
Shinano blinked and looked up into the concerned visages of Medusa and Missouri. "Oh, sorry for losing my thoughts... Ano, Medusa-san, I've been having more nightmares and...."
---
Medusa stared at the carrier, "So... Let me get this straight; effectively, you are requesting to be placed in the high security repair pool while a few of my crew goes over you inch by inch using lighting of various frequencies?"
"Hai. I'm not sure if there's any trace remains or these are simply weird memories. I also meekly request strenuous evaluation for each of my crew, as some who were on the Musashi did transfer to me while at Kure."
"Hmm, instead of strenuous evaluation, why don't we try the easy way first?" At Shinano's blank look, Missouri clarified, "Order your crew to muster on deck, all of them."
"..Okay." The carrier felt a bit faint as her entire crew mustered on the deck, but watched as Missouri shifted to the best drill Sargent voice the battleship could do.
"Alright.... who among you came from the Musashi after she sank? Step forward please. I SAID STEP FORWARD MAGGOTS! Really? that many of you? Well ok then, let us clarify the sitrep. Whoever keeps giving your ship nightmares, I want them to listen real good--BECAUSE THE ENTIRE WORLD DEPENDS ON YOU NOT TO MESS UP!"
Missouri glared at the majority of Shinano's crew who had come from the battle of Leyte. "YOUR HOME COUNTRY DIES A SLOW DEATH BECAUSE SOME MORONS AMONG YOU HARBOR PTSD! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
"Desu." One fairy stepped forward from the back, "Desu desu."
Missouri stared, and Shinano felt the need to translate.
"That one is Admiral Kurita, he says that he'll take the respo-"
"-No. While I understand your wish to do so Admiral, it is the guilty crew themselves who must come forward." Missouri stated.
The Admiral fairy nodded and walked among the crew, speaking in a great variety of desus and shoving crew fairies forward before finally stopping and bowing toward the American battleship. "Desu, desu desu desu."
"He says the ones he shoved forward are the worst of those who still resent history."
Missouri nodded as a squad of fully armed marine fairies approached the resenters and even with a few resisting, managed to cart them off with a minimum of heys. "Yes... Resistance is futile." Missouri snickered.
"Star Trek huh?"
"Yup."
Shinano looked at her crew, "Did you get them all this time?" She asked of the Kurita fairy.
"Desu." A firm and decisive nod.
"Good, get back to your stations, but we'll still do the internal scan."
"Desu... DESU! Desu desu desu." The fairy crew marched back into the carrier and Shinano felt better now.
======================================
RAN Kanmusu division base
Montana rubbed her hands together gleefully as she stared at the large box in the center of the room. "Alright, let's get started!"
---
"Insert square peg into round hole... Hmm, that can't be right..."
---
"Ok, put the monitor there... Less glare from the window."
---
The battleship sat and booted the computer up, "Windows, but there's a window right there...?"
---
"Updates... Anti-virus and malware protection..."
---
"Hmm, what's Steam? Ohhhhh, there goes most of my pay..."
============
The battleship considered the convoy in the distance as the steel hulled navy maintained a lookout while the kanmusu reported in. "Wait, is that...?"
-----
"Nagato reporting in Ma'am-" The Japanese battleship froze for a second as she caught sight of the other battleship in the room before firming her resolve and finishing. "Convoy delivered, some sightings on the way here, but nothing major to report."
The Rear Admiral stared at her, "Nothing? What is going on?"
Nagato shook her head, "A few light flotillas of destroyer types, which were either destroyed or fled to be sunk by carrier planes." Nagato tried not to glance at the American battleship, but it was difficult to maintain a posture as seemingly all her lookouts kept a close watch on the other big ship in the room.
D'Johen considered the map, "I see... Sorry Montana, I wanted to get this over with asap. I notice you didn't immediately summon your rigging, so I'm glad that's reasonably dealt with."
Montana raised a hand and nodded, "I figured so Ma'am, and I'm glad Nagato didn't react too badly either."
D'Johen sat back in her chair and watched the byplay between the old enemies carefully. She'd also be writing observations for both respective higher up government echolons after all.
"Commander Nagato," Montana stood stiffly at attention. "Our first meeting back in the days of old was-"
"-It was what had to be done Commander. We were running because we knew that there was no chance otherwise to beat you, not as our commanders would have wanted it. The U.S. Navy's AA was too good at that point in the war." Nagato brought her hand up in a salute.
Montana nodded and returned the salute, holding it while speaking. "That's something I figured out later. You fought well Battleship Nagato, and I'd be proud to call you an ally."
Nagato's boiler pressure did a crash dive as she broke out of the salute and grasped the American's hand in somewhat controlled relief. "Yes," allowing a small smile as the two battleships shook. "Allies."
-------
Yeah, allies. Montana inwardly sniffed as she watched the battleship walk away. It wasn't that she resented Nagato, it was more that her crew members were not stellar examples of society; therefore trusted no one inasmuch as trust was called for. The former super battleship had to remind herself though that there were now others on the base who she had to see, like that one with the pink hair approaching her now.
"Are you Montana?" The pinkette looked up at the redhead. "Size is about right..."
"Um, yeah. You must be..."
"Chief repair ship for East Asia theater. Now let's get you checked out in the repair pool..."
---
Montana stared at the rigging options as Akashi lay out the design basics, she was glad she hadn't returned as her original hull form in some ways. Toting around seven turrets or twenty-one guns would've been even more awkward with balance--or four turrets plus a six-shooter--wait what?
"...right now you're set up to have three turrets on your right, two on your left. Or the light version happens to be two .50 cal revolvers."
"I'll stay as is Akashi."
The repair ship checked something off on her tablet, and then eyed the battleship. "For the repair pool, it might be easier if you stripped down."
Montana scowled and followed after the dimunitive repair ship, making sure to keep her long stride in check.
-----
Akashi still couldn't believe she was effectively looking at the largest battleship ever built, even scaled down from the terror the ship's class had been on her homeland. The Japanese repair ship admired the lines of the deadly warship as a couple of her engineer fairies, along with the battleships, started the process of reviewing the internals.
Flashback
Akashi stared at the pictures on her tablet, then at Goto in shock. Her expression clearly broadcasting the wonderment for anyone to see.
"Yes Akashi, that was the Montana class back in the war." Goto grimaced, "What that picture shows is the North Dakota, in the process of firing a broadside at the Mutsu; taken from one of her escorts. Looks awesome doesn't it from that angle?"
Akashi nodded, "Yes it does, even if it was aimed to sink our ships at that time."
Goto nodded, satisfied. "I see you get the point. Next picture is the last ship of the three-"
The pinkette swiped to the next image.
"- as seen from Mutsu after she'd fired her bow guns at the South Dakota. Look at the gouges from where Mutsu's guns hit, did not even penetrate that armor--"
"Um, sir." Mutsu spoke up from her corner of the room. " I recall that ship being extremely annoying to myself. The spirit flirted with me! She was toying with me, and I was ashamed to be a ship spirit at that time."
"Let me guess," Akashi interjected, smirking. "She said something along the lines of "Did you just try to--"
:Augh! Yes, yes. Stop it!" Mutsu's face was beet red and near every ship had a small smile on their faces.
"We all know what it means and she certainly nailed you on that one. Anyways, the...."
End Flashback
Akashi returned from her trip down to memory lane to consider the ship before her, certainly not like her original size. Nearly eight feet tall was too tall for most doors, even 7'5" was itself a bit tall. Montana was similar to Shinano in how armor thickness effectively equaled muscle density; the American battleship was better quality steel for about the same thickness as the Japanese carrier.
"Desu desu."
"Hey."
"Hmmm, looks quite clean, considering her conversion from larger to smaller."
"Yes, I know what you're thinking Akashi, for I thought it myself. Why the downsize? I'm not sure even now, though I have more of an idea now than I did before...." Montana went on to explain as Akashi quietly listened.
------
"...We were just too powerful back then. Miles beyond what was needed, but it was our presence that ended the war sooner." Montana finished her estimation as she rose from the pool, water cascading off the battleship's body as she made for the locker room.
Akashi nodded, following the larger human incarnated sea vessel as the two went to get showered and changed.
==============================================
Meanwhile, in Russia...
------
The tall American battleship gazed at some of the trees in the crisp air, exhaling and watching her exhaled air fade away. That was one of the fun parts of this new form SoDak decided, being able to "smoke" air.
Beside the big battleship walked the short form of the Russian repair ship, despite an initial rocky start. The two became friends, despite Kamchatka's fascination with torpedo boats. More like the carrot top became a sort of commanding officer for the silver haired dimunitive.
Very few Russian ships had come back, it had been explained to the battleship, and the base commander had explicitly spelled out that his country was at fault for the likely reasons of absence. South Dakota reflected; how a nation the size of Russia who had one of the most expansive coastlines in the world could utterly mismanage and mistreat their navy was a foreign concept to her.
So here she was, in what was apparently a former communist country, waiting for.... what? Her home to send her orders? The battleship looked to her other side, where the cruiser Aurora walked. The battleship smiled slightly at the two short Russian ships escorting her, assisting in getting her weight adjustment straightened out. St. Petersburg had been built on a swamp after all.
The small flotilla was returning to base after a multi-hour excursion on foot where they'd shown the American some of the sights and done a little bit of shopping. South Dakota had managed to find a small laptop and a tablet for herself after extracting promises that the two other ships would assist her in learning about these strange new fangled devices.
A more bustling cafeteria greeted the battle wagon as she stepped inside, to be greeted by three enthusiastic howls of joy coalescing into a united voice.
"'TANA!!" Said ship found her way forward impeded by three smaller warm bodies.
Montana tried to hug them back, "Hoel, Heerman and Johnston! Great to see you too girls." She patted them all on their heads, "Go back to your food, I'll be along shortly kids."
"Kay."
The battleship walked to the food line and piled up with a nice breakfast on her plate a few minutes later, she headed for the largest multi-table set up she saw and parked herself next to her escorts. She nodded to Tenryuu, "I hope they weren't too much to handle." She eyed Hoel, "Big hearts, but quite exuberant at times." The larger rougette smiled indulgently at the face-making destroyer as Tenryuu replied.
"They weren't too much of a problem." Tenryuu frowned at Hibiki who had just taken a swig of vodka. "At least, not anymore than my four."
"Speaking of four," Montana looked around, "Where's White Plains?"
"Extended patrol duty up in Japan, both her and Enterprise actually."
"I see."
"May I sit here?" Montana looked up to find a blonde Asian setting her stuff down nearby. The battleship's eyes narrowed as she took the heavy cruiser in.
"Sure. By the way, you seem familiar...?" The face seemed familiar, but Montana couldn't place the name."
"Pan! You seem to be shorter than before too! No offense." The rather top heavy cruiser pointed out as she sat down behind her own moderately sized meal.
Montana nodded, "Yeah... A deal with the Caretaker." She sipped at some saltwater and elaborated to those at the table. "I couldn't come back as my original loadout, so I opted for the fifteen gun version. Which means these-"
She brought out what had to be the smallest tri-barrel revolvers in existence, "-are eighteen inchers at fifty caliber." She re-holstered the micro-miniguns and resumed working on her meal. [**]
Atago considered that for a time before going back to her own resupply, she could reflect on discrepancies later after all.
=========================================
** Not exactly sure on the rigging design to use here... How I'd envision her revolvers is similar to what we know to be like a colt or whatnot, but instead of ammo remaining, they would be ship girl shenanigans, like 3 barrel revolvers that fire at the same time instead of what we know as one in the chamber and 5 in support.
And no, I've not played with Kancolle or AL for myself yet, I've simply watched others...
Also, I'm not satisfied with the end of the scene at the end, but I'm not positive on where to go next.
As for this nice little, but slightly annoying notice on my own thread about over 48 days old etc [I really do understand about the spam issue and stuff, its just that this is my own thread].... Maybe if some people would post their thoughts here how to improve the story without stepping on any toes of others, I would appreciate it.
