Spectre
eternal servant to the Fire/EMS gods
- Location
- NY
true.... word of advice gale, make sure the destroyers never learn about superballs.......ever.
Belated Battleships (KanColle) [REHOST]
- Thread starter theJMPer
- Start date
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
Gale: You think that I don't know that?
still_guns
For the Empire!
- Location
- Bridge of ISS Conundrum
I'm sorry, I'm dumb, but why is White "White-sensei"? And how did she save the Japanese carriers?
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
She went and began to teach the Japanese carriers how to perform ASW as that is one of her specialties. At one point, they weren't too sure about it, so she roped in one of the Japanese subs... who managed to "Sink" some of the carriers because they weren't following what she taught. Hence, she saved them from being sunk by subs.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Because she's done some badass shit. Killed Choukai with her single gun in the Battle of Samar, and made a high-speed, direly needed escort mission from the US to Japan that damn near broke her little body.
EDIT:
And considering a number of them were sunk by subs in WWII, White's well-earned the honorific 'sensei'.
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Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Re-reading to find the White-lessons section now, because I can't remember which 'Part' it was, but that sounds familiar.
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Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Yup, that's it! Thanks.
Stahor
BookWorm
- Location
- Russia, Moscow
I see what are you doing here. I wonder how she get red eyes.
Happy 104th birthday, Kongou!
May 18th 1912 was her launching day, 104 years ago.
wtdtd
slow thinker, with crippling abundance of time
- Location
- The Netherlands
Did Jersey ever get her sword?
Old Iron
Admiral Unfun
- Location
- The Southwestern Deadlands of America
Stained red with the blood of her Abyssal foes! So drenched is she in th-
Poi: Um, they're like, contacts, poi.
Happy Birthday, Kongou!Happy 104th birthday, Kongou!
May 18th 1912 was her launching day, 104 years ago.
He's trying to hype you up, Yuudachi. Why not go along with it for now?
Conjunctivitis from windburn and getting seawater in them during the transit? :lol
KONGOU-RATULATIONS, old biddy!Happy 104th birthday, Kongou!
May 18th 1912 was her launching day, 104 years ago.
Dark Mage
Sanity is really overrated...
- Location
- Out of My Mind
I see what are you doing here. I wonder how she get red eyes.
Happy 104th birthday, Kongou!
May 18th 1912 was her launching day, 104 years ago.
Well, looks like I'm not the only one celebrating a birthday today.
Congrats Kongou! :lol
I made a cake, but . . .
I'm a little afraid to light them!
Looks over.
Oh, very funny.
Stahor
BookWorm
- Location
- Russia, Moscow
You can use only eight candles, and light only three of them, using this pattern: 01101000
[english muffins]
Omake: A certain lady
Old Iron
Admiral Unfun
- Location
- The Southwestern Deadlands of America
* * * * *
"I want everyone to sit down and shut up. Now." Admiral Richardson was privately glad every occupant of the room actually listened to him on the first command for once. The older girls he wasn't too concerned with. It was the little ones that gave him quite a few headaches. While he wasn't bad at it, herding destroyers was not something he considered himself extremely skilled at. Sure, he had some of the more well behaved ones on hand, but they were still destroyers by and large.
Before him was assembled all available shipgirls currently stationed at or around Sasebo and capable of surface combat. There were more out there, but these were the only ones who could reasonably be called up for this mission.
And one had been called in from all the way up in Yokosuka from Admiral Goto's fleet.
The fact there were only eleven individuals waiting for him to continue drove home exactly how thinly stretched they were.
"We have received intelligence from I-8, I-58, and Albacore that there is an Abyssal task force travelling north-east and headed in our direction. At time of detection, their bearing could have taken them anywhere between Kaba and Fukue islands." Richardson paused momentarily, allowing his audience to digest that sliver of information. "That is still a possibility. However given their fleet composition, our analysts believe they intend to hit key military targets and set the stage for a blockade. They can't hold it, but they can get one started."
Richardson picked up a laser pointer and nodded to Jintsuu, who tapped the screen of her tablet. On the large projector was displayed a sea map of southwestern Japan and a larger portion of the East China Sea. Multiple areas close to the cost were highlighted in yellow while an ominously positioned red triangle emanated from a black diamond. The triangle covered the majority of the yellow sections, but it also encompassed a tremendous swathe of what were implied to be non-military areas.
"As you can see, that's a lot of area to cover." Richardson circled the black diamond with the laser before continuing. "Probably the only saving grace is they're staying in formation at a uniform speed. So far they haven't gone above ten knots which means they have a fatass or two holding them back."
There was a snort of barely held laughter from Shimakaze.
A hand raised and the Admiral gestured to its owner: Takao-Class heavy cruiser Takao.
"Admiral, were we able to determine their composition?" She lowered her hand and regarded Richardson with a calculating eye.
"Fortunately, yes."
Jintsuu brought up the next slide to display an overhead image of the encroaching Abyssals ships. While I-8's plane had been forced away moments after initial contact, I-58's had fared far better.
The forces displayed brought on a rather unnerving silence.
"That's a lot of boats..." Shigure's calm remark never deviated in tone, but it was easy enough to tell she was taken aback by the number of ships headed their way. It was not often that this many attacked en masse. Smaller groups tended to be the norm. That is, assuming the Abyssals adhered to any kind of norm she could comprehend.
"Thank you captain obvious." Kawakaze wrapped her arm around her sister and poked her playfully in the ribs. There was a tinge of bloodthirst in her jovial tone and hardly a sliver of worry. The more time she spend worrying, the less she'd have for focusing on taking out the enemy. "More for us to send to the bottom. Just like always!"
"Pay. Attention." This time it was Arizona who spoke up with a rough and displeased tone of voice. It was a balm to her sanity that the silence resumed. The rings under her eyes were still prominent and the disheveled state of her hair gave her a menacing appearance. Among the destroyers, only Hatsuzuki did not flinch. The plush from Jane may have helped her stave off the nightmares when she had been able to fall asleep again, but it did not undo the damage of so little sleep.
The presence of a certain individual seated nearby did not help.
"You won't get any snacks if you don't." Tatsuta's teasing tone, for once, lacked the slivers of dark humor and trollish undertones that normally accompanied the vast majority of things to escape her lips. But they were in briefing and she wanted to avoid playing around. And nobody wanted to deal with spooked destroyers.
They faced front and center almost as one. Hatsuzuki's motion was not dissimilar to lightning in its haste.
"Done goofing off?" Richardson leveled an even glare across the row of destroyers, who all nodded in the affirmative. Though Shimakaze seemed to be trying to nod the fastest. Her bunny ear like bow bobbed furiously.
Satisfied, he used the pointer to mark the smallest of the Abyssal ships. There were a decent number of them to be sure.
"Our best estimates are painting at least six destroyers from the images we have. But these things are tiny. Even a Shiratsuyu is practically double everything on a few of these. So don't be surprised if there aren't half a dozen more running around. Keep an eye on your surroundings so you don't wind up with a torpedo coming out of nowhere." Richardson pointed to Shimakaze, who had raised her hand in a surprisingly dutiful manner.
"Are they fast?" She refused to give up her title as the fastest, but even she could see the Abyssal destroyers looked like they could haul if need be. Her grey eyes narrowed as she memorized the outline of the offending boats.
"More than likely. We're working right now to see if they fit any profile of any known ship to see if we can get you more information. Same goes with the cruisers, but they seem to be a mix of British and Russian design." There was a pause in Richardson's words as he circled the mish-mash of cruisers. "The cruisers look pretty fragile at a glance, but don't let that fool you. I don't think I need to tell you that dropping your guard might be the last thing you do. As for the battleships..."
"We know what they are, right? Or what they were. There's too much detail in that pic to not know by now. And they're big targets." Hiei's commanding voice cut into the chilly briefing and drew all eyes to her.
"Yes. Yes we do, Lieutenant." Richardson rarely used Hiei's rank when addressing her. Moreso on its own. But the three battlewagons they'd discovered at the center of the formation were not something he could work up any measure of comfortable word over.
The red laser light blazed over the two smallest Abyssal battlewagons.
"Orion-Class. Two of them. The aforementioned fatasses. Ten thirteen point five forty-five caliber rifles in five two's apiece with a twelve inch belt just to get started. They're super-dreadnoughts with torpedoes, so getting into a slugging match is suicide."
"But, what about that one?" Tatsuta pointed almost hesitantly at the one warship they had yet to go over. It filled her with a kind of dread she'd never felt before. She could be staring down the rifles of a dozen other Abyssal battleships and it wouldn't feel like this. The incoherent and ever present rage and disgust she felt was almost overwhelming.
"That?" Richardson turned to look at the screen and forced himself to not shiver. Every time he looked directly at it, he felt some inherent wrongness in the world. His hand barely twitched as he pointed the laser at it. "That is..."
"...The worst opponent, right?" came Yamashiro's dark observation. "Only a c-carrier would be more misfortunate..."
"In a way, yes." Richardson internally scowled as he shot a glance to the back of the gathering. There was a tensing in the woman's jaw and her eyes were wide in a very poorly concealed rage. He wouldn't have been surprised if she tried to blow up the wall just for the sake of not having to lay eyes on the Abyssal at the center of the formation.
"That, has been code named Battleship Princess. But it's a ship that almost was and never came to be. It-"
"Tosa." Kaga's seething voice burned away Richardson's words. The air around the normally frigid carrier all but smoldered as her fury built. Her sister ship. Her original sister ship.
"Kaga. Stand down," Hiei commanded. For a moment, she was concerned she might have to restrain Kaga. But fortunately it proved for naught as the dark haired woman stilled. With a gesture, she motioned for her Admiral to continue. "Sir."
"As Fleet Carrier Kaga so bluntly stated, this is a Tosa-Class. The how's and why's don't matter. All you need to know is that this thing was supposed to succeed the Nagato-Class of battleships." He snapped a finger and Jintsuu advanced the presentation to show the layout of Nagato alongside the design schematics of Tosa.
"Uwa... It's like a super Nagato." Kawazake swallowed the now building bundle of nerves as her bravado began to falter.
Yamashiro looked like she wanted to cry as she glared silently at Richardson.
"That's, uh... Not a bad way to put it." Hiei smirked somewhat grimly in the destroyer's direction.
"You're better off driving the bitch off than trying to kill her. Nagato took two atomic bombs and would have walked them off if she hadn't been too radioactive to patch up. This monster is guaranteed to be worse in every possible way." Richardson tightened his grip on the laser pointer. "I'm not trying to frighten you, but I'll be damned if I don't tell you exactly what you're up against."
"Admiral," Takao began, "Will we be receiving any air support to aid Kaga's air wings?" Without an Abyssal carrier to fend off, the more air power they could bring into the fight, the better. It would keep the enemy busy enough to make putting shells through their belts slightly easier.
"Yes. I can actually give you girls some good news and say we'll be getting support from the JASDF. Not much, but it's better than nothing. There are some surviving F-4's that will launching ahead of you to soften up the heavies with bombs and whatever torpedoes they can manage to strap on. Even if we don't get any kills out of the deal, it should scatter their formation and keep their firing solutions a mess." Richardson almost allowed himself a smile at Takao's approving expression.
"Now then, we'll go over formation before moving on." Jintsuu stood from her seat and handily took the pointer from Richardson's offering hand. Another tap on the tablet and the screen changed again, this time to another top-down image of the battlefield. "Because we are limited in force and the fact we cannot pinpoint the number of enemy destroyers, we'll be operating in a spread out formation centered on Kaga with Hiei acting as the flagship."
The bright red light shone on a green icon composed of an arrow with two bars atop each other trailing it. Next to it was Kaga's name displayed in both kanji and English lettering.
"Hiei and Takao will be positioned aft of Kaga to her to port and starboard while Arizona and Yamashiro will be positioned fore to port and starboard." Jintsuu circled three thick-bodied tags with a pair of diagonal lines cutting through it before moving to two similar icons bearing only a single line. "Tatsuta and myself will be positioned along the mid-line on either side of the formation. We don't have much armor, but we are quick so we'll be able to adjust our position more easily."
"Am I up front? Am I up front?" Kawakaze interrupted with an energetic nod of her head, which quickly turned to disappointment when Jintsuu shook her head. She shot a dirty look at Shigure who was stifling a small bout of giggles.
"You and Shimakaze will be guarding the rear while Hatsuzuki and Shigure take the advance. We don't expect any enemy aircraft, but we're spreading you out just to be cautious." While Hatsuzuki could probably handle an entire sector's anti-air duty, Jintsuu did not want to run the risk of her being overrun because they put all their eggs in one basket.
"Leave it to us. Don't worry." Hatsuzuki's deep and reassuring voice seemed to mollify the battle-hungry destroyer. "There will be plenty of action for us all."
"Fufufu... We'll have to work extra hard to keep up, now won't we?" Tatsuta's eerily gentle tease brought grins to all four destroyers. Well, Hatsuzuki didn't so much as grin as smile slightly. It was so hard to get that girl to crack a smirk or a grin or some showing of mirth even when she was in a good mood.
Shimakaze simply stuck her tongue out playfully.
Shigure turned to offer Yamashiro a reassuring gesture. She'd make sure the battleship came home safe and sound. Without fail. A smile graced her features when Yamashiro seemed to relax ever so slightly in response.
"Any questions?" Richardson took center stage again as Jintsuu motioned to turn off the tablet and projector. When a plethora of negatives were his response, he raised an eyebrow. "None at all? Really?"
"None, sir," Takao replied confidently.
"Kaga? Arizona? You two have been pretty damn quiet." Richardson gave the two warships a hard stare, eliciting no response from either. "You two stay behind. Everyone else is dismissed! Hiei, get them ready to go."
"Yes, sir!" Hiei replied with a crisp salute followed by a grin of anticipation. She pointed to the door and shouted, "Everyone, forward march!"
Even the gloomy Yamashiro seemed to fall in line with a sliver of a spring in her step.
Admiral Richardson silently strode towards Kaga and Arizona as Jintsuu shut the door, leaving the three of them alone in the briefing room. There was a tremendously awkward silence.
"If you two fuck up, there's going to be one hell of a body count as a result. But I don't have the time or resources to sideline either of you." He really couldn't afford to deal with any kind of bullshit right now. And neither could the rest of the fleet. He could not be their friend right now. He was their commanding officer. He was an Admiral of the United States Navy. "You two air your grievances right here. Right now. Or people will die."
Both women steeled their jaws, but did not budge. For whatever reason there was no movement.
It was Kaga who ultimately broke the stalemate and turned to face Arizona.
"Our actions on tha-erg!" Kaga was unable to finish her statement as Arizona met her and hoisted her fully off the ground by her uniform. Her amber eyes were forced to stare into furious steel, flecked with glowing gold.
"Hiei told me." Arizona's furious voice was more a snarl than actual words. "She told me when she found out you were coming here."
"To-!" Kaga's voice was cut off as Arizona pulled her in close enough that her vision was filled with nothing but a furious American battleship.
"She told me you would, after the war, march down to Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor. The place where so many ships and sailors were slain. MY sailors. Slain like dogs! And you would gut yourselves as penance if we, if I, demanded it!?" Arizona's eyes were all but alight with an undiluted rage as furious tears streamed from them. "Is that right!?"
Arizona dropped Kaga, who only staggered slightly at the sudden release.
Kaga met Arizona's gaze and stood up straight, back firm like a blade.
They did not desire death. Not in the slightest. But the image of the repentant had to be upheld.
"Yes. If our lives will appease the fallen and ensure the safety of our home." There was steel behind her words and in her stance. Unyielding and proud, even in shame, like the warrior she strove to be in all things. "Then both Akagi and I shall fall upon our swords without hesitation if it is asked of us."
"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" Battleship Arizona roared.
Kaga blinked.
"My death. My sisters' deaths. The deaths of my crew and everyone else. You think vengeance hasn't been taken a thousandfold?" The stoic silence of the Japanese carrier only further fueled Arizona's fire. "You were butchered at Midway along with Akagi, Hiryuu, and Souryuu. I will let no one but those who survived that day make their grave next to mine. No one. There is no room for you there."
Both Kaga and Richardson seemed taken aback at the brutal words spoken by Arizona.
"Your blood will change nothing. Nothing!" Arizona pulled her handkerchief free and wiped her face with a shuddering, angry breath. She took a deep breath before locking eyes with Kaga once more. "Live. If you place your lives in my hands, then I order you to live. Pray to the fallen if you must, but I condemn you to live."
"That... That is truly what you wish?" Kaga maintained her stoic visage as best she could. But there were cracks. Cracks that had been growing ever since her introduction to White Plains. ...White Plains who would be devastated if she were demanded to uphold the offer of taking her own life.
"Sometimes living is the most harsh punishment of all." Arizona scowled and wiped her face once more before turning to Richardson. "Sir, p-permission to rejoin the fleet."
"Granted. Go get cleaned up." Richardson jerked his thumb over towards the door. When the redheaded battleship had taken her leave, he spoke again. "Not how I expected that to go."
"You are as wretched and cruel as Admiral Goto stated." Kaga affixed a glare of her own upon Richardson, even as her eyes shone with unshed tears.
"Sticks and stones. You've got Pretty Pink Princess Tosa to deal with." Richardson released a heavy breath. "She didn't give you much of a chance to explain yourself. Sorry about that."
"No. It is understandable. But I'm not completely certain she understood what we said was an offer, not plan." Kaga took a hard look at the door where Arizona had exited the room. "We do not want to die. But if that is what it takes to ensure support for our home remains, then we will do it."
"Walking the walk, huh?"
Kaga only nodded. The offer had been placed on the table, but she had hoped that it would be removed or never taken. It seemed that Arizona, in her anger, had thrown it out the proverbial window.
"She was informed of it by Hiei, so I doubt that it was properly conveyed." Kaga frowned ever so slightly. "I doubt she has seen the press conference as well."
"Probably not. She's been spending more time getting fixed, training, and not sleeping than keeping up with all the recent newsreels." He really ought to fix that. "Doubt she'll change her mind though."
"I concur, and hope that remains." Americans had their own brand of stubborn. Not one she was readily fond of at times, but she would be grateful for it this time.
"Right. You two can catch up and straighten things out more after the battle. I just wanted to get the heaviest stuff out of the way before you had to watch each others' backs. You have bigger fish to fry now." Richardson's nose crinkled in disgust as he thought of the Tosa.
"That... vile shade will not remain. It should have stayed at the bottom." It was bad enough having to fight against the mind-warping and hateful entities from beyond the deep. For one to be a malevolent reminder of what she could have been? What she was supposed to have been? It made her skin crawl.
"It'll learn the hard way." Richardson struck Kaga with a smirk. "You going to be okay?"
"Yes. And I intend to speak further with the Lieutenant after this. But right now I have other things to take care of." Even if she had to beat that monster back to the grave with her bare hands, she would not allow it to remain.
"That's what I want to hear. Now get your ass in gear. Arizona's supposed to be the slow one here."
"Sir!" Kaga saluted and took her leave.
Richardson collapsed on the nearest vacant chair and stared at the ceiling.
"Bring them home. Safe and sound. Please..."
* * * * *
EDIT: Fixing font size shenanigans.
"I want everyone to sit down and shut up. Now." Admiral Richardson was privately glad every occupant of the room actually listened to him on the first command for once. The older girls he wasn't too concerned with. It was the little ones that gave him quite a few headaches. While he wasn't bad at it, herding destroyers was not something he considered himself extremely skilled at. Sure, he had some of the more well behaved ones on hand, but they were still destroyers by and large.
Before him was assembled all available shipgirls currently stationed at or around Sasebo and capable of surface combat. There were more out there, but these were the only ones who could reasonably be called up for this mission.
And one had been called in from all the way up in Yokosuka from Admiral Goto's fleet.
The fact there were only eleven individuals waiting for him to continue drove home exactly how thinly stretched they were.
"We have received intelligence from I-8, I-58, and Albacore that there is an Abyssal task force travelling north-east and headed in our direction. At time of detection, their bearing could have taken them anywhere between Kaba and Fukue islands." Richardson paused momentarily, allowing his audience to digest that sliver of information. "That is still a possibility. However given their fleet composition, our analysts believe they intend to hit key military targets and set the stage for a blockade. They can't hold it, but they can get one started."
Richardson picked up a laser pointer and nodded to Jintsuu, who tapped the screen of her tablet. On the large projector was displayed a sea map of southwestern Japan and a larger portion of the East China Sea. Multiple areas close to the cost were highlighted in yellow while an ominously positioned red triangle emanated from a black diamond. The triangle covered the majority of the yellow sections, but it also encompassed a tremendous swathe of what were implied to be non-military areas.
"As you can see, that's a lot of area to cover." Richardson circled the black diamond with the laser before continuing. "Probably the only saving grace is they're staying in formation at a uniform speed. So far they haven't gone above ten knots which means they have a fatass or two holding them back."
There was a snort of barely held laughter from Shimakaze.
A hand raised and the Admiral gestured to its owner: Takao-Class heavy cruiser Takao.
"Admiral, were we able to determine their composition?" She lowered her hand and regarded Richardson with a calculating eye.
"Fortunately, yes."
Jintsuu brought up the next slide to display an overhead image of the encroaching Abyssals ships. While I-8's plane had been forced away moments after initial contact, I-58's had fared far better.
The forces displayed brought on a rather unnerving silence.
"That's a lot of boats..." Shigure's calm remark never deviated in tone, but it was easy enough to tell she was taken aback by the number of ships headed their way. It was not often that this many attacked en masse. Smaller groups tended to be the norm. That is, assuming the Abyssals adhered to any kind of norm she could comprehend.
"Thank you captain obvious." Kawakaze wrapped her arm around her sister and poked her playfully in the ribs. There was a tinge of bloodthirst in her jovial tone and hardly a sliver of worry. The more time she spend worrying, the less she'd have for focusing on taking out the enemy. "More for us to send to the bottom. Just like always!"
"Pay. Attention." This time it was Arizona who spoke up with a rough and displeased tone of voice. It was a balm to her sanity that the silence resumed. The rings under her eyes were still prominent and the disheveled state of her hair gave her a menacing appearance. Among the destroyers, only Hatsuzuki did not flinch. The plush from Jane may have helped her stave off the nightmares when she had been able to fall asleep again, but it did not undo the damage of so little sleep.
The presence of a certain individual seated nearby did not help.
"You won't get any snacks if you don't." Tatsuta's teasing tone, for once, lacked the slivers of dark humor and trollish undertones that normally accompanied the vast majority of things to escape her lips. But they were in briefing and she wanted to avoid playing around. And nobody wanted to deal with spooked destroyers.
They faced front and center almost as one. Hatsuzuki's motion was not dissimilar to lightning in its haste.
"Done goofing off?" Richardson leveled an even glare across the row of destroyers, who all nodded in the affirmative. Though Shimakaze seemed to be trying to nod the fastest. Her bunny ear like bow bobbed furiously.
Satisfied, he used the pointer to mark the smallest of the Abyssal ships. There were a decent number of them to be sure.
"Our best estimates are painting at least six destroyers from the images we have. But these things are tiny. Even a Shiratsuyu is practically double everything on a few of these. So don't be surprised if there aren't half a dozen more running around. Keep an eye on your surroundings so you don't wind up with a torpedo coming out of nowhere." Richardson pointed to Shimakaze, who had raised her hand in a surprisingly dutiful manner.
"Are they fast?" She refused to give up her title as the fastest, but even she could see the Abyssal destroyers looked like they could haul if need be. Her grey eyes narrowed as she memorized the outline of the offending boats.
"More than likely. We're working right now to see if they fit any profile of any known ship to see if we can get you more information. Same goes with the cruisers, but they seem to be a mix of British and Russian design." There was a pause in Richardson's words as he circled the mish-mash of cruisers. "The cruisers look pretty fragile at a glance, but don't let that fool you. I don't think I need to tell you that dropping your guard might be the last thing you do. As for the battleships..."
"We know what they are, right? Or what they were. There's too much detail in that pic to not know by now. And they're big targets." Hiei's commanding voice cut into the chilly briefing and drew all eyes to her.
"Yes. Yes we do, Lieutenant." Richardson rarely used Hiei's rank when addressing her. Moreso on its own. But the three battlewagons they'd discovered at the center of the formation were not something he could work up any measure of comfortable word over.
The red laser light blazed over the two smallest Abyssal battlewagons.
"Orion-Class. Two of them. The aforementioned fatasses. Ten thirteen point five forty-five caliber rifles in five two's apiece with a twelve inch belt just to get started. They're super-dreadnoughts with torpedoes, so getting into a slugging match is suicide."
"But, what about that one?" Tatsuta pointed almost hesitantly at the one warship they had yet to go over. It filled her with a kind of dread she'd never felt before. She could be staring down the rifles of a dozen other Abyssal battleships and it wouldn't feel like this. The incoherent and ever present rage and disgust she felt was almost overwhelming.
"That?" Richardson turned to look at the screen and forced himself to not shiver. Every time he looked directly at it, he felt some inherent wrongness in the world. His hand barely twitched as he pointed the laser at it. "That is..."
"...The worst opponent, right?" came Yamashiro's dark observation. "Only a c-carrier would be more misfortunate..."
"In a way, yes." Richardson internally scowled as he shot a glance to the back of the gathering. There was a tensing in the woman's jaw and her eyes were wide in a very poorly concealed rage. He wouldn't have been surprised if she tried to blow up the wall just for the sake of not having to lay eyes on the Abyssal at the center of the formation.
"That, has been code named Battleship Princess. But it's a ship that almost was and never came to be. It-"
"Tosa." Kaga's seething voice burned away Richardson's words. The air around the normally frigid carrier all but smoldered as her fury built. Her sister ship. Her original sister ship.
"Kaga. Stand down," Hiei commanded. For a moment, she was concerned she might have to restrain Kaga. But fortunately it proved for naught as the dark haired woman stilled. With a gesture, she motioned for her Admiral to continue. "Sir."
"As Fleet Carrier Kaga so bluntly stated, this is a Tosa-Class. The how's and why's don't matter. All you need to know is that this thing was supposed to succeed the Nagato-Class of battleships." He snapped a finger and Jintsuu advanced the presentation to show the layout of Nagato alongside the design schematics of Tosa.
"Uwa... It's like a super Nagato." Kawazake swallowed the now building bundle of nerves as her bravado began to falter.
Yamashiro looked like she wanted to cry as she glared silently at Richardson.
"That's, uh... Not a bad way to put it." Hiei smirked somewhat grimly in the destroyer's direction.
"You're better off driving the bitch off than trying to kill her. Nagato took two atomic bombs and would have walked them off if she hadn't been too radioactive to patch up. This monster is guaranteed to be worse in every possible way." Richardson tightened his grip on the laser pointer. "I'm not trying to frighten you, but I'll be damned if I don't tell you exactly what you're up against."
"Admiral," Takao began, "Will we be receiving any air support to aid Kaga's air wings?" Without an Abyssal carrier to fend off, the more air power they could bring into the fight, the better. It would keep the enemy busy enough to make putting shells through their belts slightly easier.
"Yes. I can actually give you girls some good news and say we'll be getting support from the JASDF. Not much, but it's better than nothing. There are some surviving F-4's that will launching ahead of you to soften up the heavies with bombs and whatever torpedoes they can manage to strap on. Even if we don't get any kills out of the deal, it should scatter their formation and keep their firing solutions a mess." Richardson almost allowed himself a smile at Takao's approving expression.
"Now then, we'll go over formation before moving on." Jintsuu stood from her seat and handily took the pointer from Richardson's offering hand. Another tap on the tablet and the screen changed again, this time to another top-down image of the battlefield. "Because we are limited in force and the fact we cannot pinpoint the number of enemy destroyers, we'll be operating in a spread out formation centered on Kaga with Hiei acting as the flagship."
The bright red light shone on a green icon composed of an arrow with two bars atop each other trailing it. Next to it was Kaga's name displayed in both kanji and English lettering.
"Hiei and Takao will be positioned aft of Kaga to her to port and starboard while Arizona and Yamashiro will be positioned fore to port and starboard." Jintsuu circled three thick-bodied tags with a pair of diagonal lines cutting through it before moving to two similar icons bearing only a single line. "Tatsuta and myself will be positioned along the mid-line on either side of the formation. We don't have much armor, but we are quick so we'll be able to adjust our position more easily."
"Am I up front? Am I up front?" Kawakaze interrupted with an energetic nod of her head, which quickly turned to disappointment when Jintsuu shook her head. She shot a dirty look at Shigure who was stifling a small bout of giggles.
"You and Shimakaze will be guarding the rear while Hatsuzuki and Shigure take the advance. We don't expect any enemy aircraft, but we're spreading you out just to be cautious." While Hatsuzuki could probably handle an entire sector's anti-air duty, Jintsuu did not want to run the risk of her being overrun because they put all their eggs in one basket.
"Leave it to us. Don't worry." Hatsuzuki's deep and reassuring voice seemed to mollify the battle-hungry destroyer. "There will be plenty of action for us all."
"Fufufu... We'll have to work extra hard to keep up, now won't we?" Tatsuta's eerily gentle tease brought grins to all four destroyers. Well, Hatsuzuki didn't so much as grin as smile slightly. It was so hard to get that girl to crack a smirk or a grin or some showing of mirth even when she was in a good mood.
Shimakaze simply stuck her tongue out playfully.
Shigure turned to offer Yamashiro a reassuring gesture. She'd make sure the battleship came home safe and sound. Without fail. A smile graced her features when Yamashiro seemed to relax ever so slightly in response.
"Any questions?" Richardson took center stage again as Jintsuu motioned to turn off the tablet and projector. When a plethora of negatives were his response, he raised an eyebrow. "None at all? Really?"
"None, sir," Takao replied confidently.
"Kaga? Arizona? You two have been pretty damn quiet." Richardson gave the two warships a hard stare, eliciting no response from either. "You two stay behind. Everyone else is dismissed! Hiei, get them ready to go."
"Yes, sir!" Hiei replied with a crisp salute followed by a grin of anticipation. She pointed to the door and shouted, "Everyone, forward march!"
Even the gloomy Yamashiro seemed to fall in line with a sliver of a spring in her step.
Admiral Richardson silently strode towards Kaga and Arizona as Jintsuu shut the door, leaving the three of them alone in the briefing room. There was a tremendously awkward silence.
"If you two fuck up, there's going to be one hell of a body count as a result. But I don't have the time or resources to sideline either of you." He really couldn't afford to deal with any kind of bullshit right now. And neither could the rest of the fleet. He could not be their friend right now. He was their commanding officer. He was an Admiral of the United States Navy. "You two air your grievances right here. Right now. Or people will die."
Both women steeled their jaws, but did not budge. For whatever reason there was no movement.
It was Kaga who ultimately broke the stalemate and turned to face Arizona.
"Our actions on tha-erg!" Kaga was unable to finish her statement as Arizona met her and hoisted her fully off the ground by her uniform. Her amber eyes were forced to stare into furious steel, flecked with glowing gold.
"Hiei told me." Arizona's furious voice was more a snarl than actual words. "She told me when she found out you were coming here."
"To-!" Kaga's voice was cut off as Arizona pulled her in close enough that her vision was filled with nothing but a furious American battleship.
"She told me you would, after the war, march down to Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor. The place where so many ships and sailors were slain. MY sailors. Slain like dogs! And you would gut yourselves as penance if we, if I, demanded it!?" Arizona's eyes were all but alight with an undiluted rage as furious tears streamed from them. "Is that right!?"
Arizona dropped Kaga, who only staggered slightly at the sudden release.
Kaga met Arizona's gaze and stood up straight, back firm like a blade.
They did not desire death. Not in the slightest. But the image of the repentant had to be upheld.
"Yes. If our lives will appease the fallen and ensure the safety of our home." There was steel behind her words and in her stance. Unyielding and proud, even in shame, like the warrior she strove to be in all things. "Then both Akagi and I shall fall upon our swords without hesitation if it is asked of us."
"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" Battleship Arizona roared.
Kaga blinked.
"My death. My sisters' deaths. The deaths of my crew and everyone else. You think vengeance hasn't been taken a thousandfold?" The stoic silence of the Japanese carrier only further fueled Arizona's fire. "You were butchered at Midway along with Akagi, Hiryuu, and Souryuu. I will let no one but those who survived that day make their grave next to mine. No one. There is no room for you there."
Both Kaga and Richardson seemed taken aback at the brutal words spoken by Arizona.
"Your blood will change nothing. Nothing!" Arizona pulled her handkerchief free and wiped her face with a shuddering, angry breath. She took a deep breath before locking eyes with Kaga once more. "Live. If you place your lives in my hands, then I order you to live. Pray to the fallen if you must, but I condemn you to live."
"That... That is truly what you wish?" Kaga maintained her stoic visage as best she could. But there were cracks. Cracks that had been growing ever since her introduction to White Plains. ...White Plains who would be devastated if she were demanded to uphold the offer of taking her own life.
"Sometimes living is the most harsh punishment of all." Arizona scowled and wiped her face once more before turning to Richardson. "Sir, p-permission to rejoin the fleet."
"Granted. Go get cleaned up." Richardson jerked his thumb over towards the door. When the redheaded battleship had taken her leave, he spoke again. "Not how I expected that to go."
"You are as wretched and cruel as Admiral Goto stated." Kaga affixed a glare of her own upon Richardson, even as her eyes shone with unshed tears.
"Sticks and stones. You've got Pretty Pink Princess Tosa to deal with." Richardson released a heavy breath. "She didn't give you much of a chance to explain yourself. Sorry about that."
"No. It is understandable. But I'm not completely certain she understood what we said was an offer, not plan." Kaga took a hard look at the door where Arizona had exited the room. "We do not want to die. But if that is what it takes to ensure support for our home remains, then we will do it."
"Walking the walk, huh?"
Kaga only nodded. The offer had been placed on the table, but she had hoped that it would be removed or never taken. It seemed that Arizona, in her anger, had thrown it out the proverbial window.
"She was informed of it by Hiei, so I doubt that it was properly conveyed." Kaga frowned ever so slightly. "I doubt she has seen the press conference as well."
"Probably not. She's been spending more time getting fixed, training, and not sleeping than keeping up with all the recent newsreels." He really ought to fix that. "Doubt she'll change her mind though."
"I concur, and hope that remains." Americans had their own brand of stubborn. Not one she was readily fond of at times, but she would be grateful for it this time.
"Right. You two can catch up and straighten things out more after the battle. I just wanted to get the heaviest stuff out of the way before you had to watch each others' backs. You have bigger fish to fry now." Richardson's nose crinkled in disgust as he thought of the Tosa.
"That... vile shade will not remain. It should have stayed at the bottom." It was bad enough having to fight against the mind-warping and hateful entities from beyond the deep. For one to be a malevolent reminder of what she could have been? What she was supposed to have been? It made her skin crawl.
"It'll learn the hard way." Richardson struck Kaga with a smirk. "You going to be okay?"
"Yes. And I intend to speak further with the Lieutenant after this. But right now I have other things to take care of." Even if she had to beat that monster back to the grave with her bare hands, she would not allow it to remain.
"That's what I want to hear. Now get your ass in gear. Arizona's supposed to be the slow one here."
"Sir!" Kaga saluted and took her leave.
Richardson collapsed on the nearest vacant chair and stared at the ceiling.
"Bring them home. Safe and sound. Please..."
* * * * *
EDIT: Fixing font size shenanigans.
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Adamantium9001
Sworn enemy of the dragon-tyrant
- Location
- Inside my own head
*bursts out from beneath a mountain of paper, gasping for air*
Aha! Finally done reading this!
(
)
And music. Music seems to be a huge help. Unifying and amplifying the crowd's emotions, perhaps?
Fun fact: I'm not even American.
Almost.
And that's one of the reasons I'm never joining the militar-
Literal.
Hovercats.
This is a fucking pivotal moment in history.
Aha! Finally done reading this!
(
)This...this is beautiful. The United States was the Trope Codifier for "modern democracy," in which the leader is not [supposed to be] a dictator claiming divine right, but rather a servant of The People, doing work with their blessing. A person in the U.S. military [ideally] isn't fighting for god or king, nor even country per se, but specifically to safeguard the lives and comfort of The People. So if there's one thing that could rouse a true American patriot servicemember from beyond the grave, it's the impassioned pleas of The People.
And music. Music seems to be a huge help. Unifying and amplifying the crowd's emotions, perhaps?
Fun fact: I'm not even American.
That's a bullshit argument that betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what fiction is.
Part of the premise of KanColle is, "They're warships, and fight accordingly. But they're also people, and walk, talk, think, emote, feel pain, etc. accordingly." And by "premise," I specifically mean the set of axiomatic truths about the world in which a story takes place, that are conveyed to the audience at the very beginning of the story, and that need to be true in order for there to be a story at all. (Credit for all of this, BTW. For those who read that link, I'm only talking about the explicit premise.)
The important point here is that we need to distinguish between internal and external consistency. When a story's premise "doesn't make sense," i.e. could not reasonably be expected to happen in the real world, then that's external inconsistency, and that's fine. That's when the audience is supposed to use their suspension of disbelief to get past it. But when something happens in the story that doesn't make sense GIVEN THE PREMISE, then that's internal inconsistency, which is by definition a symptom of bad writing (unless the author is doing it on purpose to make a meta-point of some kind).
You can easily see this principle in action in XKCD What-If: Relativistic Baseball.
To put it another way: the kanmusu's Warship-Person Duality in KanColle is like light's wave-particle duality in physics—you don't have to feel like it makes intuitive sense; you just have to accept it as true and move on. But if something happens later that it can't account for, you still have a problem. Using "Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit" as an excuse for anything other than the Warship-Person Duality is cheating.
The important point here is that we need to distinguish between internal and external consistency. When a story's premise "doesn't make sense," i.e. could not reasonably be expected to happen in the real world, then that's external inconsistency, and that's fine. That's when the audience is supposed to use their suspension of disbelief to get past it. But when something happens in the story that doesn't make sense GIVEN THE PREMISE, then that's internal inconsistency, which is by definition a symptom of bad writing (unless the author is doing it on purpose to make a meta-point of some kind).
You can easily see this principle in action in XKCD What-If: Relativistic Baseball.
The author is very clearly laying it out: "This is exactly where everything you know changes, this is exactly how it changes, and now you have all the information you need in order to understand how this fictional world of mine works." Similarly, Jersey carrying Heermann makes perfect sense in context, because we've already established that they're warships-that-are-also-people. But a handful of kanmusu carriers defending the entire Pacific doesn't make sense in context, because we've also already established that kanmusu fight just like ordinary ships (except for their tech being immune to {Magical Revolting Abyssal Bullshit}-powered anti-modernity countermeasures).Randall Munroe said:
To put it another way: the kanmusu's Warship-Person Duality in KanColle is like light's wave-particle duality in physics—you don't have to feel like it makes intuitive sense; you just have to accept it as true and move on. But if something happens later that it can't account for, you still have a problem. Using "Magical Sparkly Shipgirl Bullshit" as an excuse for anything other than the Warship-Person Duality is cheating.
With that title, I half-expected you to kill off Heermann on the spot. Given that, what ended up actually happening was almost a relief.
Almost.
And that's one of the reasons I'm never joining the militar-
Ah...actually, I don't have any condition that requires medication but you've just described exactly the reaction I would have to basically any of the yelling in that video. Why would I respect someone who so obviously has no respect for me?
If that was your intention, then you should rewrite the relevant passages. I reread them to make sure, and confirmed my initial impression that, as written, it was really fucking painful for Jersey. It was hard to read, in the same way that Heermann's surgery was (albeit at ~20% of the magnitude). I suspect that @Icywinter's objection came from a similar place.
Hovercats.
Literal.
Hovercats.
This is a fucking pivotal moment in history.
....And so it begins. We can only pray, just like Richardson.
I like how you handled Arizona with respect to Kaga.
- Location
- 'Murica
Awesome, thanks for leaving a comment!
There are a few standard rule sets here though. Most importantly, there is no free lunch. You can't just lob standoff missiles against Abyssals and hope to land hits without any risk to yourself, winning battles takes roughly the same amount of effort as it woud've taken back in WWII.
Huh, maybe it's because I wrote it, but I don't see it being that bad at all. Victory's a wooden ship. Even if she smacked Jersey hard enough to splinter her own hand, the most it would've done would be superficial damage to her unarmored structure (a few cuts and bruises, maybe.) Jersey's gotten worse by running into doors. It didn't even hurt her that badly, she's just whining because Jersey's a whiny little bitch sometimes, and she's still getting used to the idea of "my dream can hurt me when I'm being a little shit."
Plus, Victory didn't smack her around all that hard either. Just hard enough to leave a mark so Jersey could remember her lesson.
NuclearNickel
smug.jpg
- Location
- Bootes Void
Gahhhh, muse, where have thou gone?
Wanna write somethin' for this.
But
Mreeeeee
D:
Wanna write somethin' for this.
But
Mreeeeee
D:
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Oh hallo
- Location
- Vancouver, Washington
Rather than Pearl Harbor, Arizona and Kaga need to go to Mikasa park.
NuclearNickel
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- Location
- Bootes Void
Lisa?
:?