obssesednuker
Commander of 10 Million Men
- Location
- In the Kremlin, activating Perimtr.
Out of curiosity: will we be seeing any European or Russian shipgirls in this fic at any point?
Belated Battleships (KanColle) [REHOST]
- Thread starter theJMPer
- Start date
- Location
- 'Murica
Yeah, pretty sure. Jersey's in her WWII kitout, which is why she hurt herself so badly pushing herself to 35 knots. (She was also very light on fuel when she sprinted up the Sound, which partly made up the difference.)
I haven't really planed on doing so, but they're not out of the question.
ecs05norway
Zenryoku Zenkai!
Which is a little odd since she remembers everything up through her final decommissioning. And made a major point of it earlier in story.
I guess it's one of those little dichotomies like the "person vs ship", "body vs hull", etc?
It also may be what works better. Cause four CWISs, each with what four seconds of fire time, isn't that good of an AA suit. Through I bet she is wishing she had those sixteen Harpoons.
The Iowa class never had their fire control system converted to digital for the guns. WW2 load out was 4x Mk1 fire control computers and a post war refit changed them to Mk1A which is basically a Mk1 with more electronic parts speeeding it up but it's still electromechanical and analog. Mk 38 fire control for the main batteries and Mk 37 for the 5inch secondaries. Youtube has some great 1950s navy training videos on how the fire control computers work if you feel like more details.
obssesednuker
Commander of 10 Million Men
- Location
- In the Kremlin, activating Perimtr.
Hey, JMP... if Sasa doesn't decide to return to work on GG... you think you'd be willing to take up the torch of Yamaprise?
CompassJimbo
Where’s Your North?
- Location
- The former Rubber Capital of the World
I think folks want it incorporated here. Naturally, Big E has to be recruited first.
Icywinter
50% ice, 50% winter
- Location
- ?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I am the gospel of Yamaprise, bearer of the one true ship. Feed me bitcoins and I will deliver*
*Note: Don't actually feed me bitcoins. Just give me story ideas and I'll write a silly Slice of Life story, branching off from the Life with the Shipgirls thread.
*Note: Don't actually feed me bitcoins. Just give me story ideas and I'll write a silly Slice of Life story, branching off from the Life with the Shipgirls thread.
Ditto
obssesednuker
Commander of 10 Million Men
- Location
- In the Kremlin, activating Perimtr.
Same. And I do have one I'm gonna send you in a moment.
Here's one, first time Enterprise had a Yamato's home cook meal.
Icywinter
50% ice, 50% winter
- Location
- ?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
I could throw in Yamaprise in my fic, though it'd understandably be awhile...
That's off topic though.
That's off topic though.
obssesednuker
Commander of 10 Million Men
- Location
- In the Kremlin, activating Perimtr.
An idea. It works more for a full story on it's own but I figure one might be able to make an abbreviated story with enough modification.
Icywinter
50% ice, 50% winter
- Location
- ?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Only because I'm wary of offending two battleships at once.
Even though I managed to waifu three at once, I'm not that suicidal.
I'm wary of contact with other shipgirls, because of Bisko's polyamory aspirations.
Old Iron writeup 2
- Location
- 'Murica
While I work on the next chapter, have this Omake/Writeup/SideStory (I'm not sure which is the right term, other than that I'm apparently wrong) by Old Iron over on SB!
Fast Battleship Hiei heaved a sigh of relief as she exited the primary command staff building of Sasebo Combined Fleet Command headquarters, officially named Building CSHQ-01 and more commonly named Fort Doom. She really hated seeing that glare on Admiral Richardson's face. It was scary and unnerving and generally gave her the heebie-jeebies. At the very least it hadn't been directed at her this time.
"I wonder what happened this time." She crossed her arms and adopted a look of deep thought as she meandered towards the mess hall. "Hmm... Arizona was there. Maybe she stole his coffee again? He was reading something. Ahh! I'll worry about it later. I'm hungry!" It really wouldn't do her any good to spend too much time trying to figure out the latest source of her commander's foul mood. All she really cared about at the moment was the fact she wasn't the one under his horrifying glare. Well, that and refueling. Her night patrol with Mutsu and Combined Escort Detachment 75 had been painfully dull and left her with far less fuel than she liked running on.
She wasn't a carrier like Akagi, but she still had a healthy appetite.
A growl of near epic proportions made itself known as she walked. Hiei clutched her stomach in embarrassment before deciding to throw caution to the wind just seek out breakfast at flank speed.
"Halt sailor!"
"Whoah!" Just as she was getting up to speed, a voice called out and brought her to a near screeching stop. Hiei flailed her arms for a moment to regain her balance and avoid a what could have been a rather painful faceplant. Concrete wasn't a very good cushion.
She turned towards the direction of the voice and her startled expression turned into a wide grin. Hiei immediately adopted the most serious expression she could muster while snapping to attention with a salute even Nagato would be impressed by.
"Good morning Ensign Richardson! How are you this fine morning?" She retained her posture even as the ensign approached and began giving her and thorough looking-over. Some might break into a nervous sweat under the sudden scrutiny, but like her namesake, Hiei did not so much as twitch.
"Hungry. And I was hoping a nice lass like you would join me." Ensign Richardson spoke with an all too serious tone. "Well, sailor?"
"It would be an honor, sir! In fact, I was already on my way there." Hiei kept her blue eyes firmly focused on the slightly off-center cover adorning the nine-year-old's head, doing her very best to avoid eye contact. It was not easy at all. Especially considering just how hilariously out of place everything about the little girl was.
There was a sputtering sound as an aborted laugh managed to slip its way past the lips of the third, and thus far silent, member of the gathering. Jintsuu was trying her hardest to not give in to the giggles with very little success. Both Hiei and Ensign Richardson turned to look before locking eyes on one another and breaking into their own fits of laughter. It didn't take long before all three were caught up in the amusement completely.
"Commander on deck!" The ensign hollered out just long enough to give Hiei warning before leaping at the battleship who caught her with considerable ease.
Ensign Jane Sarah Richardson was an ensign in name only. Much like how other members of the service might play along with the make-believe world of someone's child imagining themselves as being a member of the service or even a superior officer, Jane's situation differed only in that the game had been going on for months. And that the members of the service she was playing with were warships from an era long since past. Her father happening to be the same admiral that nearly gave Hiei a heart attack.
"You slept well I bet. All full of energy." Hiei lifted the ensign up onto her shoulders with a grin and held her fast with a firm grip. A rather easy task even if she didn't have the ludicrous strength of a battleship. Jane was a slip of a girl and appropriately featherweight. Small hands gained purchase on her headgear as she steadied herself. "And I'm staaarving. No amount of burning spirit can substitute for a hot meal. Especially after running around at sea all night."
"I slept really good. And I'm reeealy hungry too." Jane pointed in the direction of the mess hall and gave a rallying cry that the battleship mimicked. "To food!"
"You slept well, Jane. Not 'good'." Jintsuu's soft voice sounded out, now having recovered from her bout of laughter. In her hands were a multitude of folders and papers bound together. Some of which looked ready to spill out onto the ground and make the light cruiser's morning more hectic than usual. She had come across Jane whilst on her way to the admiral's office and been swept up in the girl's morning routine of 'base inspection'. It was a day off from school so there was no need to worry about truancy officers.
There weren't always other children for Jane to play with, so she had gravitated towards the shipgirls who were almost constantly running about doing something or another. The battleships especially drew her attention. It did make sense, really. Mutsu especially had a knack for interacting with little ones and Hiei had energy to spare for virtually anything a rambunctious group of children could throw at her. Arizona was... Arizona was... steady. Like a security blanket. Jintsuu couldn't really put it any other way. And it wasn't like the American warship was forthcoming with explanations either.
"Oh, lighten up a bit Jintsuu. You going to join us?" Hiei smiled before twirling about, much to Jane's amusement. "Mutsu's probably debriefing the Admiral right now and Arizona was in there too. I think she stole his coffee again. He had one of those super angry glares going." She shuddered slightly.
"Hehehe. Ari's always taking daddy's coffee." Jane giggled while Jintsuu sighed in resignation at the statement.
Going almost hand in hand with the seemingly unending consumption of caffienated beverages, Arizona had resorted to various measures to ensure she was properly wired up and awake at all times. The measures employed had resulted in Admiral Richardson's morning brew almost always being mostly or completely drained by the time he reached the pot. Thus often forcing him to make more while existing in a state not too dissimilar to a zombie.
Jintsuu idly wondered if the obsession with coffee was a Western thing. Or caffienated drinks to be more specific. She'd seen plenty of Japanese people enjoy such beverages, but in her mind it never really compared to the near slavish devotion she saw demonstrated in particular by the Americans. The armed forces seemed to have their own branch-specific rituals related to coffee and she rarely saw any serviceman without a cup, canteen, or thermos filled to the brim with the black liquid. Especially in the morning. And if Arizona and the rumors about the other American warships were any indication, battleships were particularly devoted.
The fact that Kongou was born in England and showed a comparable fanaticism for black tea made her worry for Hiei. And the rest of the fast battleships for that matter.
"Daddy makes the best coffee in the world." She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to Hiei. Whispered in the sense that anyone nearby could hear her. "Ari even said so!" Well, more accurately, Arizona had said she preferred the admiral's coffee to the stuff she could find around base. But to Jane that was close enough to being the best in the world.
"If she said so, then it must be true." Hiei laughed before gesturing to Jintsuu, breaking the girl out of her thoughts. "Come on. Breakfast is more fun with more people. And then we can brag to the admiral how he keeps missing out." She wished that her sisters, Kongou in particular, would have been able to join them, but they had their own missions to take care of. She'd have to make sure she made up for everything they missed.
"Certainly. I'm rather hungry myself." Jintsuu chuckled softly. "And we'll drag him out of his cave one of these days." The Admiral had an unfortunate tendency to skive off breakfast, or eat it in bar form on the way to his post. Neither really lent themselves well to him spending quality time with his child in her opinion. Or with the girls under his command for that matter. She'd heard some of the other admirals in charge of shipgirl fleets went out of their way to make some time to get to know them a bit better.
The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force was still adjusting to the new challenges brought on by the massive number of unknowns and new discoveries that came with the onset of the Abyssal War. Certainly not helping was the resource crunch. But one thing that many commanders had realized was that it was much harder to treat a shipgirl like a regular soldier. After all, not many soldiers were warships from the early half of the 20th century made flesh.
Still, flimsy excuses for Admiral Richardson aside, she really ought to find a way to drag him away from his desk more frequently. As his secretary it was her duty to help her commanding officer and find ways to keep him from being buried in work. Whether that be through paperwork or confiscating those historical fiction books of his. Jintsuu wanted to put a hand to her head in sorrowful exasperation. They were a bit too much of a distraction and she knew quite well how the time could fly if you weren't paying attention. And he seemed to have a never ending supply of them.
But she'd worry about that after she had a full tank.
"Then lets get some grub." Hiei turned towards the direction of the mess and raised a fist to the sky. "Breakfast Corps! All ahead flank!" Both Jane and Jintsuu raised their hands to match the battleship, the former sounding off with a far more energetic voice than the latter.
Fast Battleship Hiei heaved a sigh of relief as she exited the primary command staff building of Sasebo Combined Fleet Command headquarters, officially named Building CSHQ-01 and more commonly named Fort Doom. She really hated seeing that glare on Admiral Richardson's face. It was scary and unnerving and generally gave her the heebie-jeebies. At the very least it hadn't been directed at her this time.
"I wonder what happened this time." She crossed her arms and adopted a look of deep thought as she meandered towards the mess hall. "Hmm... Arizona was there. Maybe she stole his coffee again? He was reading something. Ahh! I'll worry about it later. I'm hungry!" It really wouldn't do her any good to spend too much time trying to figure out the latest source of her commander's foul mood. All she really cared about at the moment was the fact she wasn't the one under his horrifying glare. Well, that and refueling. Her night patrol with Mutsu and Combined Escort Detachment 75 had been painfully dull and left her with far less fuel than she liked running on.
She wasn't a carrier like Akagi, but she still had a healthy appetite.
A growl of near epic proportions made itself known as she walked. Hiei clutched her stomach in embarrassment before deciding to throw caution to the wind just seek out breakfast at flank speed.
"Halt sailor!"
"Whoah!" Just as she was getting up to speed, a voice called out and brought her to a near screeching stop. Hiei flailed her arms for a moment to regain her balance and avoid a what could have been a rather painful faceplant. Concrete wasn't a very good cushion.
She turned towards the direction of the voice and her startled expression turned into a wide grin. Hiei immediately adopted the most serious expression she could muster while snapping to attention with a salute even Nagato would be impressed by.
"Good morning Ensign Richardson! How are you this fine morning?" She retained her posture even as the ensign approached and began giving her and thorough looking-over. Some might break into a nervous sweat under the sudden scrutiny, but like her namesake, Hiei did not so much as twitch.
"Hungry. And I was hoping a nice lass like you would join me." Ensign Richardson spoke with an all too serious tone. "Well, sailor?"
"It would be an honor, sir! In fact, I was already on my way there." Hiei kept her blue eyes firmly focused on the slightly off-center cover adorning the nine-year-old's head, doing her very best to avoid eye contact. It was not easy at all. Especially considering just how hilariously out of place everything about the little girl was.
There was a sputtering sound as an aborted laugh managed to slip its way past the lips of the third, and thus far silent, member of the gathering. Jintsuu was trying her hardest to not give in to the giggles with very little success. Both Hiei and Ensign Richardson turned to look before locking eyes on one another and breaking into their own fits of laughter. It didn't take long before all three were caught up in the amusement completely.
"Commander on deck!" The ensign hollered out just long enough to give Hiei warning before leaping at the battleship who caught her with considerable ease.
Ensign Jane Sarah Richardson was an ensign in name only. Much like how other members of the service might play along with the make-believe world of someone's child imagining themselves as being a member of the service or even a superior officer, Jane's situation differed only in that the game had been going on for months. And that the members of the service she was playing with were warships from an era long since past. Her father happening to be the same admiral that nearly gave Hiei a heart attack.
"You slept well I bet. All full of energy." Hiei lifted the ensign up onto her shoulders with a grin and held her fast with a firm grip. A rather easy task even if she didn't have the ludicrous strength of a battleship. Jane was a slip of a girl and appropriately featherweight. Small hands gained purchase on her headgear as she steadied herself. "And I'm staaarving. No amount of burning spirit can substitute for a hot meal. Especially after running around at sea all night."
"I slept really good. And I'm reeealy hungry too." Jane pointed in the direction of the mess hall and gave a rallying cry that the battleship mimicked. "To food!"
"You slept well, Jane. Not 'good'." Jintsuu's soft voice sounded out, now having recovered from her bout of laughter. In her hands were a multitude of folders and papers bound together. Some of which looked ready to spill out onto the ground and make the light cruiser's morning more hectic than usual. She had come across Jane whilst on her way to the admiral's office and been swept up in the girl's morning routine of 'base inspection'. It was a day off from school so there was no need to worry about truancy officers.
There weren't always other children for Jane to play with, so she had gravitated towards the shipgirls who were almost constantly running about doing something or another. The battleships especially drew her attention. It did make sense, really. Mutsu especially had a knack for interacting with little ones and Hiei had energy to spare for virtually anything a rambunctious group of children could throw at her. Arizona was... Arizona was... steady. Like a security blanket. Jintsuu couldn't really put it any other way. And it wasn't like the American warship was forthcoming with explanations either.
"Oh, lighten up a bit Jintsuu. You going to join us?" Hiei smiled before twirling about, much to Jane's amusement. "Mutsu's probably debriefing the Admiral right now and Arizona was in there too. I think she stole his coffee again. He had one of those super angry glares going." She shuddered slightly.
"Hehehe. Ari's always taking daddy's coffee." Jane giggled while Jintsuu sighed in resignation at the statement.
Going almost hand in hand with the seemingly unending consumption of caffienated beverages, Arizona had resorted to various measures to ensure she was properly wired up and awake at all times. The measures employed had resulted in Admiral Richardson's morning brew almost always being mostly or completely drained by the time he reached the pot. Thus often forcing him to make more while existing in a state not too dissimilar to a zombie.
Jintsuu idly wondered if the obsession with coffee was a Western thing. Or caffienated drinks to be more specific. She'd seen plenty of Japanese people enjoy such beverages, but in her mind it never really compared to the near slavish devotion she saw demonstrated in particular by the Americans. The armed forces seemed to have their own branch-specific rituals related to coffee and she rarely saw any serviceman without a cup, canteen, or thermos filled to the brim with the black liquid. Especially in the morning. And if Arizona and the rumors about the other American warships were any indication, battleships were particularly devoted.
The fact that Kongou was born in England and showed a comparable fanaticism for black tea made her worry for Hiei. And the rest of the fast battleships for that matter.
"Daddy makes the best coffee in the world." She leaned over and whispered conspiratorially to Hiei. Whispered in the sense that anyone nearby could hear her. "Ari even said so!" Well, more accurately, Arizona had said she preferred the admiral's coffee to the stuff she could find around base. But to Jane that was close enough to being the best in the world.
"If she said so, then it must be true." Hiei laughed before gesturing to Jintsuu, breaking the girl out of her thoughts. "Come on. Breakfast is more fun with more people. And then we can brag to the admiral how he keeps missing out." She wished that her sisters, Kongou in particular, would have been able to join them, but they had their own missions to take care of. She'd have to make sure she made up for everything they missed.
"Certainly. I'm rather hungry myself." Jintsuu chuckled softly. "And we'll drag him out of his cave one of these days." The Admiral had an unfortunate tendency to skive off breakfast, or eat it in bar form on the way to his post. Neither really lent themselves well to him spending quality time with his child in her opinion. Or with the girls under his command for that matter. She'd heard some of the other admirals in charge of shipgirl fleets went out of their way to make some time to get to know them a bit better.
The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force was still adjusting to the new challenges brought on by the massive number of unknowns and new discoveries that came with the onset of the Abyssal War. Certainly not helping was the resource crunch. But one thing that many commanders had realized was that it was much harder to treat a shipgirl like a regular soldier. After all, not many soldiers were warships from the early half of the 20th century made flesh.
Still, flimsy excuses for Admiral Richardson aside, she really ought to find a way to drag him away from his desk more frequently. As his secretary it was her duty to help her commanding officer and find ways to keep him from being buried in work. Whether that be through paperwork or confiscating those historical fiction books of his. Jintsuu wanted to put a hand to her head in sorrowful exasperation. They were a bit too much of a distraction and she knew quite well how the time could fly if you weren't paying attention. And he seemed to have a never ending supply of them.
But she'd worry about that after she had a full tank.
"Then lets get some grub." Hiei turned towards the direction of the mess and raised a fist to the sky. "Breakfast Corps! All ahead flank!" Both Jane and Jintsuu raised their hands to match the battleship, the former sounding off with a far more energetic voice than the latter.
Part 23c: Night Rising Sun
- Location
- 'Murica
Night Rising Sun
Heermann gulped as she pulled alongside Jersey, matching the battleship's generally-westward course as best she could in the pounding waves. She'd never really seen a battleship gun-duel, especially not with her own eyes like this. And she'd never seen what the end-result of a close-in savaging looked like.
"S-Skipper?" she stammered, glancing from her bloodied friend to the churning ocean as she tried to edge close enough to use her fire hoses.
"Eh?" the battleship grunted, but her gaze was fixed straight ahead. Her waist-length braid was burned back almost to her neck, and Heermann saw the tell-tale sighs of 5 inch gun fire raking across every square foot of her super structure.
Her vest was torn to shreds, and her shirt wasn't much better, revealing the charred skin of her stomach and the dull-gold of her sports bra. Her shorts were burned black, and her legs oozed blood and fuel oil from a thousand ragged cuts.
"H-hold still," said Heermann, starting up her fire hose pumps and spraying down the battleship's battered decks as she tried to wash away the grime as best she could.
Jersey… actually laughed. Laughed a dry, humorless laugh as she gave Heerman a wry grin.
Heermann almost dropped her fire hose into the ocean as she gasped. Jersey's radar was just gone, leaving nothing but a ragged tear across her brow and a bloody socket where here eye'd once been.
"That bad, is it?" asked the Battleship, reaching up to touch ever so gently at the raw flesh around her missing gun director.
"Y-yeah," mumbled Heermann, hastily looking away as she concentrated on hosing off Jersey's superstructure… which was also her very flat, very toned, very naked belly. She felt so lewd right now.
"Relax, kiddo," said Jersey, glancing away to save Heermann from staring into her mangled face much longer. "I'm a battleship."
"A bleeding one," said Heermann, pulling up even closer to make sure she could hose off… anything that needed hosing!
"I'm a brawler, it's what I'm for," said Jersey, reaching over to muss the destroyer's hair. "I got twelve inches of the best damn steel mankind has ever produced protecting my belt."
"Yeah, but-"
"But I'm not like you," said Jersey. "I have a citadel. Unless they punch though that, I can't die. And…" she glanced down at her fully displayed, but suspiciously unscathed bra and boyshorts, "Seeing as I still have my dignity, they didn't. Apparently."
Heermann gave the battleship a sidelong look.
"I didn't write the rules," said Jersey, fishing her somehow-intact aviators out of her mostly-destroyed vest pocket and slipping them on. "I look like hell, don't I?"
"Sorta, yeah," said Heermann, swallowing a cheeky grin that somehow escaped onto her face.
"Don't worry, kiddo," said Jersey, adjusting her shades and hat to hide the worst of her facial wounds. "This is… this is just a flesh wound."
Heermann had just started nodding in response when Jersey suddenly… snorted. At first, Heermann thought it was just some straggler of a fire getting put out, but then the battleship's cheeks started to twitch up in a smile, her shoulders quivering as she tried to hold in a laugh. "Skipper?" asked Heermann, her firehose at the ready for… hosing.
"Flesh wound," gasped Jersey between bouts of snorted giggles.
—|—|—
Gale's smile was one overbearing tax away from declaring independence and seceding from the rest of her face. She stared from person to person at the mess hall table, her eyebrows bobbing on her face as she waited for her dining companions to acknowledge what was clearly the best idea ever.
"Okay," the semi-shaven bear of a Master Sergeant who'd played guitar earlier stared at her with bemused comprehension. "The only words I understood from that were 'love child'."
Crowning just shrugged, taking a solid bite out of his burger to absolve him of the need to say anything further.
Gale huffed, her smile fading to a grimace. "Okay, let's work the problem here," she said, slumping back to her seat. "You need emotion to rouse a sleeping ship girl, right?"
Crowning tilted his head, giving the Yeoman the 'I'm waiting for you to unpack that thought' look seemingly all teachers had in common.
"Think about it," said Gale, grabbing a salt shaker to use as a visual aid. Somehow, "despair when Big J showed up. Wasn't, like… there was a huge thing all over the country when that happened?"
"Sure as hell was over here," said the Master Sergeant.
"And when White showed up… I swear every sailor-"
"And Marine."
"Yes, and Marine," Gale was too excited to bother with a snide response. Especially since he outranked her by a generous margin, "was getting pumped when Big J came storming up the straight and…" Gale threw a massive haymaker at the air, "With the music and everything? I swear, The Admiral was this close to jumping into the air screaming."
"Okay…" said Crowning, pausing for a moment to dab at his mouth with a napkin. "I still don't see how love children factor into this."
"Let me finish! Uh, sir," said Gale. "When we summoned the Taffies, I mean… it was Danger Zone. That song… that movie drove Navy recruiting up like five-hundred percent."
The Marine nodded in agreement, "It was pretty fucking rad."
"And what could top all that emotion but…" said Gale in a bouncy sing-song, turning to focus right on Crowning, "A kiss between forbidden lovers, shared before a mission? Sammy's your love child, doc!"
Crowning sighed, rolling his eyes ever so slowly. "Yeoman, you do know I'm an English professor, yes?"
"Yeah? So?"
"I know when someone's reaching," said Crowning, his tone not once rising from flat academic detachment.
—|—|—
"This suuuuuucks," droned Johnston,her feathers hanging slumped off her head. "I hate this and it suuuuucks." She raised one hand, thumbing the hammer down on her revolver and firing off a salvo at the flying boats meandering in and out of her maximum range.
"You want another battle?" said Hoel, a resigned smirk on her face. Johnston knew, knewthat her sister was just as ready for a fight as she was. But she had to be all 'responsible' because she's the 'division leader.'
"It'd be better than…" Johnston paused, throwing up a few 5 inch anti-aircraft rounds at a flying boat that ventured a little too close, "Better than spending the night plinking while they play hard-to-get."
Hoel shrugged, "Yeah… yeah, I guess it would. Least the seas are calm though."
"Yeah… and the torpedo boats are gone. I hate torpedo boats," scowled Johnston, her nose burrowing into the scarf she'd brought along for the arctic weather, her bare arms crossed accros her chest in defiance. "I hate them and I hate stupid… pussy-pedoes."
"Uh… Johnston?" said Hoel, rolling her eye so hard they probably generated more torqe than her screws.
"Yeah, sis?"
"What're those?" asked Hoel, pointing to the quintuple torpedo tubes hanging off theFletcher's hip holster.
"Uh… my leg?"
"Over it."
"My pants?"
"Oh my god!" scowled Hoel, throwing up her hands in defeat. "You're so stubborn!"
"It's why you love me."
Hoel sighed. "Yeah… yeah it is, sis."
Johnston beamed, letting out a little giggle as she reached over to fuss with her sister's flaming hair.
"Wait," the two girls said in harmony, their eyes snapping over their shoulders to the same exact bearing. "Is that-" the looked to each other. "Shiiiiiiiiiit."
"Skipper!" screamed Hoel, "Incoming-" she squinted as she tried to make sense of the returns, "Uh… heavy bombers, I think. Like… thirty of 'em. Is your AA up?"
"No Joy," said Jersey, her arms strategically placed to preserve as much of her dignity as possible. "No radar for the fives… only about half the 40s are good."
Hoel cursed using the worst words she could think of. Jersey alone had more AA guns than everyone else in the convoy put together… Maybe if… "White! Is your deck spotted?"
"Working on it!" chirped the little carrier, tossing TBFs over the side of her cramped little fight deck to clear space for her Wildcats to form up.
"No, just… just store them," said Jersey, sailing over to bring what AA she could over the tiny carrier girl. "And purge your avgas lines."
"On it!" said White.
"Hoel," said the battleship, "Talk to me, what're we going against."
"Uh… uh…" Hoel squinted into the early-morning sun, straining her eyes to pick out details. "Four engine… twin tails maybe? There're definitely land-based."
"Land based?" Jersey scowled as she swung what AA guns she still had on target. "Where the hell are these little bastards coming from."
"Wherever it is, let's send them back!" growled Johnston, spinning her guns around her fingers as she traversed them on-target.
"We'll, like, send them down to hell!" agreed Yuudachi, taking on an obligatory "poi!" to the end.
Hoel gulped. She was a badass, she and her sisters. Hell, after last night, she'd even count Poi, Bucky, and Naka as badasses too. But heavy bombers were… heavy. Big, tough brutes with tons of bombs apiece. If her guess was right, twelve-thousand pounds. Each. Headed straight for their noses.
"Sisters?" asked Johnston, offering her fist to Hoel.
"Sisters," said Hoel, stacking her fists atop the other girl's. "To the end."
"I hate waiting."
"I know," said Hoel, her eyes glued on her fire control computer, counting off the seconds before she could open fire.
"Hell of a ride though," said Johnston with a cocky grin.
Hoel's only response was a booming salvo of gunfire, tearing into the approaching wave of bombers as best she could. But they were smart, flying so high her guns could barely even reach, let alone actually hit worth a damn.
Johnston was doing moderately better, forcing the bomber formations apart with each salvo, and even clipping the odd wing or tail here and there.
It was Fubuki who had the best luck. Those stupid aren't-I-cool-my-guns-shoot-so-hot-they-eat-themselves 100mm guns were lobbing shells fast enough to foil the lumbering bombers' lazy evasions.
"Must shoot more," muttered Johnston, her guns barking in rapid harmony as she slammed shells into breaches as fast as humanly possible "Must shoot faster, must shoot faster," she chanted.
Hoel echoed the sentiment, throwing up 5 inch shells as fast as her guns would let her. If she couldn't knock a plane down, maybe she could shoo them away from the freighters.
"GOT ONE!" screamed Johnston, allowing herself a split-second of celebration as a shell slammed into a bomber's wing root. The plane simply cracked in half as it suddenly lost lift, rolling over in a lazy aileron roll as it plowed towards the surf trailing sickly black smoke.
"Make that two!" said Hoel, smiling as shrapnel from the first bomber shredded the one behind it.
"We need to do better!" said Fubuki, her long-barreled guns barking in hungry rhythm, straining to make their first kill.
Hoel focused on her shooting, trying not shut out the recurring thought of "it's not going to be enough." If only she had a CAP to back her up! A few of White's Wildcats… hell, at this point she'd even take-
Zeros? The fuck?
"Johnston?"
"Yeah?"
"Bearing two-six-zero, you see what I see?"
Johnston glanced over her shoulder, squinting as her radar acquired her target. "Zeros? the fuck?"
"Heya," chirped a new voice, one that Hoel thought sounded every so vaguely southern. "You girls won't shoot down my planes, yeah?"
"Uh… no?" replied Hoel. "Just… just stay out of our firing solutions."
"Alright! Attack squadron sortie out!", said the voice with equal measures resolve and playfulness. Hoel got the feeling she'd like this new voice. "Light carrier Ryuujou, heading in!"
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