B-baka!
Frustrated Art
- Location
- Some town in the Philippines
We love you too you tsundere.
Belated Battleships (KanColle) [REHOST]
- Thread starter theJMPer
- Start date
- Location
- Pacific NW
Old Iron, you haven't gotten Arizona sloshed yet? For shame man, the night is not complete until Madeleine Blair takes the conn.
Admiral_Corgi
The Admiral of the PT Boats
- Location
- The Strange land of Florida
As I see it JMPer has become Church. But that raises the question of who's Caboose.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
"Halp! ....wait, no, don't stop them. This is cool. I can walk, you know. ....damn, I just had this uniform cleaned. Oh well!"
You are a mean, mean woman, Hiei.
You know Adm. Richardson is going to pay this back in full when it's your turn, too.
ijnfleetadmiral
CinC Rengo Kanmusutai
- Location
- Admiral's Bridge, HIJMS Kongo
Thanks for posting this so that I could find it before I have to head into work on a waterlogged morning...I needed some BelBatt Wedding Goodness.
Wow...Pennsy actually being somewhat civil to a Japanese ship?! Perhaps she's finally coming around. I kinda saw her as Seven of Nine there for a moment, taking everything literally and not having any room for frivolities. She needs a Petty Officer or Ensign who worships the ground she walks on or has endless patience to possibly break through the titanium-mixed-with-liquid-diamond wall surrounding her heart. Perhaps she and Ashigara will commiserate while out on patrol?
And Hiei pouncing on John like that...is she staking her claim, too or just out to embarrass the crap out of him? Never can tell with Hieeeeiii!
CompassJimbo
Where’s Your North?
- Location
- The former Rubber Capital of the World
Ashigara found herself on the wrong end of an NTR doujin. She's going to be less-than-happy.
Dirtnap
Kanmusu Affecionado
Chikuma =\= Choukai.
LEARN YOUR BOTES.
Main armament: 5 twin mounted 20cm/50 3rd Year Type naval rifles
Secondary armament: 4 twin mounted 12.7cm Type 89 batteries
Torpedo armament: 4 Quadruple Type 93 'long lance' torpedo launchers
Armor: Up to 127mm of belt armor, 37mm deck armor, 25mm turret faces.
Main armament: 4 Twin mounted 20cm/50 3rd Year Type naval rifles
Secondary armament: 4 Twin mounted 12.7cm type 89 batteries
Torpedo armament: 4 Triple Type 93 torpedo launchers
Armor: Up to 100mm of belt armor, up to 65mm of deck armor (over aviation facilities), 25mm turret faces.
Aviation facilities: Could operate up to 8 E13A 'Jake' or F1M2 'Pete' float planes
I'd post the boatgirls but I'm at work.
Old Iron
Admiral Unfun
- Location
- The Southwestern Deadlands of America
*ponders and plots in an ominous manner*Old Iron, you haven't gotten Arizona sloshed yet? For shame man, the night is not complete until Madeleine Blair takes the conn.
Hiei: *Kongou Grin*You are a mean, mean woman, Hiei.
You know Adm. Richardson is going to pay this back in full when it's your turn, too.
Somehow I think a dirty uniform will be the least of your worries.
Hiei gonna Hiei.And Hiei pouncing on John like that...is she staking her claim, too or just out to embarrass the crap out of him? Never can tell with Hieeeeiii!
She is discovering new, less disruptive and less painful ways of venting her displeasure.
Pennsy don't care. They got work to do.
And then Arizona took all the Duckies and Shimakaze to the donut shop.8/10. Insufficient Duckie Feeding.
B-baka!
Frustrated Art
- Location
- Some town in the Philippines
I've said this on SB but it's really hard to believe Pennsy has... well, been civil like that since she's going through PTSD. But if this is the start of good change, then I must say that this is a good start.
But what Ari didn't expect to find was her certainly small bote self munching on what appears to be her sixth donut as she emptied the rest in the box.
Duckies end up having to be rolled out, heh.
Old Iron
Admiral Unfun
- Location
- The Southwestern Deadlands of America
Arizona: We need to talk about sharing.But what Ari didn't expect to find was her certainly small bote self munching on what appears to be her sixth donut as she emptied the rest in the box.
Smolzona: ...Zona.
And that's why Ari requested the really big truck.
Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
You know, the real test of how Kongou our Brit cat is will be how much she has the BURNING LOVE in her...isn't it?
Poor Tiger.
Poor Tiger.
Dirtnap
Kanmusu Affecionado
Tiger had always been one for tea, what good upstanding Ship of the Commonwealth wasn't? Of course Tea Time was important, don't look at me like that Amy, you need good black tea and scones and crumpets and cucumber sandwiches and every thing else, dess.
- Location
- Canada
I was just rereading about Samar and realised Jersey and Iowa only got there in time to see the grisly aftermath. Ouch. Now i know why it messed her up so badly. Oh, and Wash was part of TF34 too.
B-baka!
Frustrated Art
- Location
- Some town in the Philippines
How much does a good tea cost dess?
- Location
- Canada
Kongo has never met a tea she didnt like.
A dream given form
- Location
- 'Murica
"Sorry, what?" Heavy cruiser Maya blinked as her mind was suddenly wrenched from the lazily orbiting float plane she'd thrown up an hour ago and back to her very surface-bound hull. Someone—Sendai, probably—had just said something to her, but she'd been too spaced-out to hear anything about the question beyond its existence. That in itself lent further credence to the 'Sendai did it' camp, as Maya had gotten very good at tuning out the impossibly loud traffic cone.
It wasn't even that she didn't like Sendai. She did, she even considered the neon orange ninja to be her best friend. Most of the other girls were too demure and… well girlish for Maya's taste. But that didn't mean Sendai's constant bombast wasn't annoying sometimes.
"Maya-Sama," Sendai made a show out of drawing out the honorific. Maya just rolled her eyes and adjusted her gloves. "You really need to learn to pay attention to things."
"Oh, but I do." Maya shifted the balance of her attention to her floatplane, keeping just enough on the surface to properly engage in a battle of wits with her best seagoing friend. "I pay attention to the important things. Why do you think I tune you out?"
Sendai huffed. It was hard to take her seriously when she pouted like that, not least because of how much shorter she was than the flagrantly treaty-defying Takao-class. "Well—"
"And let's face it," said Maya. "You're so stealthy you're easy to overlook."
Sendai's pout morphed into an odd combination of pride, frustration, and then more pride. Pride that her vaunted skills at SNEAK ATTACK had been complimented. Frustration that she couldn't turn that around on Maya without making it a self-diss. And then pride again that Maya had gotten so good at bants. "The student has become the master!"
"That from something?" Maya glanced in the light cruiser's general direction, but her eyes were a cloudy silver with her attention focused on her plane. She knew Sendai hated that.
Sendai's long gloved hand met her face with a quiet pomf. "Maya… if we ever get back to Sasebo Jintsuu is making you watch Star Wars."
"Psh!" Maya threw out her chest and let a hearty laugh rumble out from her boilers. "Like the quietest traffic cone could do a thing to Maya-Sama!"
"You don't know," said Sendai with uncharacteristic fear. "She's got an Admiral wrapped around her little finger."
"Really?" Maya gave the littler cruiser a sideways glance. "Last I heard he was pining for Mutsu's ample upperworks."
"That's what I was trying to tell you, Maya-Baka!" Sendai huffed like a beleaguered schoolteacher forced to wrangle a field trip of third graders, all of whom had consumed close to their own body weight in pure uncut cocaine. "Mutsu and Richardson got hitched!"
"Damn, I missed it," said Maya with utter ambivalence. She didn't so much detest girlish stuff as… well, she found it trying. It was half the reason her friendship with her sisters was distant at best. She liked Takao and all, Choukai was sweet when she wasn't being weird, and she was pretty sure nobody could dislike Atago.
But she'd much rather play Call of Duty in her cheeto-stained underwear with Sendai for twenty-nine consecutive hours than go to some wedding. Being girlish just wasn't in her design, and formal wear clashed with her brash persona.
"C'mon, it'd be cute." Sendai giggled and swished her flowing scarf over her shoulder. She loved that scarf, and bragged to all the destroyers that she'd found it floating among the wreckage of an Abyssal battleship she'd defeated in an epic three-day night battle while patrolling up above the arctic circle. Which, Maya supposed, was a better story than picking it up during a beer-run to Walmart because she didn't want to look like an alcoholic.
"It's Japan," said Maya. "All they'd have is Sake. maybe." She didn't mind Sake—as long as there was enough of it to get her properly buzzed—but it just didn't compare to a good Long Island Iced tea.
"You know Mutsu's got two on the slips?"
"I'm a cruiser," said Maya, "Of course I, the fuck, know!"
For a moment, the two warships stared at each other.
"Yeah… that doesn't really work," Maya shuddered. English had such a plethora of profanity for her to use, but the cruiser was still a novice at the art of obscene grammar.
"Not really, no." Sendai shrugged.
Maya sighed. "She'd be a couple months along by the time we reach Sasebo, won't she?"
"Mmm, at least," said Sendai. "Word is she and her admiral got to fucking… pretty much as soon as he admitted he liked her."
"Mutsu's a mommy…" Maya giggled at the mental image of proud, strong Mutsu tottering around with a bowling ball in her belly. Only for the image to quickly shift to her own figure doing the pregnancy-induced waddle. And then the cruiser noticed she was resting her own hand on her middle. She blushed and hastily moved her hand to her hip. "Wash is too, isn't she?"
"Mmm," said Sendai. "And Gale."
"Gale made Warrant, didn't she?"
Sendai nodded.
"Good for her," said the heavy cruiser. "She deserved something for all the suffering Kirishima put her through."
"You know 'shima's sidling up to Crowning now, right?" said Sendai.
"I thought he was still with Jersey." Maya sighed. Keeping track of everyone's relationships was never her strong suit. But it beat talking about what she was most certainly not doing with her hand and/or fantasizing about.
"Dude," Sendai rolled her eyes. "They broke up… like… months ago."
"I still say she's a riverboat."
"Stop saying that," said Sendai. "It's not going to catch on."
Maya flipped both pointer fingers at Sendai. A moment later she hastily switched to her middle fingers.
Sendai rolled her eyes again. "Poor girl though."
"Who, Jersey?"
"Yeah," said Sendai. "She doesn't deserve to be alone."
Maya howled with laughter. "Jersey? Forever alone? Have you seen her aft?"
Sendai buried her nose in her scarf. "Okay, point." After a moment's pause she contunied. "Think 'laska and Cameron are gonna make babies?"
Maya shrugged. "Nah. 'lest not for a while."
"But they love each other so much!"
"Exactly!" Maya waved her hand at the smaller cruiser in a dismissive way. "He's bow over screws for her. If he hasn't railed her until she can't even float yet, he's not gonna until they tie the knot."
"That's going to be one epic honeymoon," said Sendai with a lascivious giggle.
"I feel bad for her poor shaft galleries."
"Her?" Sendai laughed. "I feel bad for his pelvis. You know how Americans are with Dam-con."
"Yeah, well—"
"Speaking of Americans," Sendai's smile turned venomous.
"Sendai, no."
"How's Garret?"
Maya scowled. "He's fine." Honestly, she wasn't sure why Sendai even needed to ask. Their quarters stateside weren't that big to begin with, and the light cruiser had never let a little thing like Maya and her boyfriend spending hours as a temple of carnal lust displace her from her Mario cart time trials. It was honestly unnerving how well Garret and Sendai could hold a casual conversation while he was hips-deep in her bilges.
"You two gonna try for a little one?" Sendai teased.
Maya abruptly realized she was cradling her middle again and scowled. "Sendai," she ignored her blush, "Do you know how I know it's impossible to hate someone out of existence?"
Sendai rolled her eyes.
"You still exist," said Maya. "That's why."
She'd spent months working up and training, toning every muscle and fiber of her lithe body into the instrument of Aryan perfection she knew she was born to be. She was the fastest, most powerful battleship the world had ever seen.
She should have drained her foes white with fear as she painted the oceans red with the blood of their shipping. Should have punished their insolence and deprived their soggy island of its lifelines one by one, until hunger drove men to madness and women to eat their own children. Should have laughed as their hunger drove them to such desperation they begged to be annexed into the Reich.
It should have been hers. It should have all been hers. But the cruel strings of fate tore it all from her talons. What should have been a campaign of terror on the high seas that would stand in triumphant supremacy for generations was nine pointless days accomplishing nothing.
She'd been hounded across the frigid Atlantic, driven like the hapless merchants that were supposed to be her pray. She was the hunted!
Not anymore.
The princess opened her eyes once more, taking in the sight of unblemished ocean extending in every direction as far as she could sea. The ocean was hers now. There were no cruisers shadowing her in the fog, no carriers scrambling to lay a trap for her… There was only her primal instinct: hunt and kill.
She licked her lips and idly ran her tongue across the razor-sharp obsidian shards lining her pallid gums. The thrill of the hunt coursed through her calcified veins and fueled her howling, ravenous boilers.
By her side, her demons cruised in tight formation. They were simple things, hunting dogs to drive her prey under the punishing gaze of her rifles. Their faces were featureless masks of gray skin stretched taunt over smooth, sun-bleached bone. A twisted maw of crooked incisors constantly oozing bloody oil was the only disturbance to their otherwise unadorned visages, and their eyeless gaze stared impassively at the horizon.
But the princess knew. They were her demons. Birthed from her own frigid womb, suckled at her own icy breast. She could sense the thrill of the hunt coursing through them, burning like wildfire deep inside their armored bosoms.
"Soon," the princess planted her gauntleted hands on her hips and let her talons sink into the stiff fabric of her greatcoat. "Soon you will have sisters, my demons."
As if on cue, the reconnaissance plane she'd launched hours ago signaled for her attention. The princess closed her eyes and looked through those of her airborne spotter. It took her barely a second to get her bearings, and a second more to spot what her spotter had been so eager to alert her of.
A smile crossed her stony face as her turbines built up to flank. She would feast tonight.
"Don't say it," A few hundred yards ahead of her, Maya had to fight down a scowl.
Sendai ignored her friend. "A cool breeze, nice warm water," she sighed, her chest puffing out as she took a deep breath of the sweet winter air.
"If you say it, I'll hurt you."
"And not even a cloud in the sky!" Sendai tossed the streaming end of her scarf around her neck with a sly grin.
"Sendai-"
"The perfect weather," Sendai giggled.
"Dammit, Sendai, no."
"For-"
"Don't say it!"
"Yasen!" Sendai threw her fist out with a flourish, her other arm holding an imaginary katana behind her.
Maya shot the light cruiser a look that could sink a battleship. Her sea-green tank-top showed off the sinewy muscle of her arms, and at the moment, all that sinew was tensed and ready for combat. "I will hurt you," she drawled.
Sendai rolled her eyes, "Like you would, you big softy."
"I hate you so fucking much," said Maya. "If I was in a room with you, Hitler, and Stalin, do you know what I'd do?"
"Shot me twice?" asked Sendai. "I watched The Office too you know."
"No," said Maya. "No no no no…. see, I'd shoot each of them twice. Then I'd shove the still hot—" The cruiser abruptly stopped, like her voice had slammed into a brick wall.
"What?" Sendai noticed the change in her friend's demeanor, and instantly dropped the teasing act. Her posture stiffened, then relaxed again into a tightly coiled ready stance.
"E13A," was Maya's only response. The lion's share of her attention was focused on her little reconnaissance floatplane, with only enough to keep formation with the flotilla of freighters under her protection remaining on the surface. "We're being shadowed."
"Shadowed?" said Sendai with guarded cautiousness. "Or—"
"Scratch that," said Maya. "They're going fast. Running us down."
"Shit," Sendai cursed under her breath. "What? What's the fleet?"
"Bismark," said Maya with utter certainty. She didn't know how she knew, but there wasn't a shred of doubt in her mind as her crew cleared for acion. "And… two Scharns."
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiit," Sendai hissed. "That's what… thirty knots?"
"Maybe if we run for Pearl…" Maya's voice was as distant as her gaze.
"At thirty knots they'll still catch us," said Sendai. "We'd need… another day, day and a half just to get under their air umbrella."
For a moment, the heavy cruiser was silent. Then she stiffened her spine, held her chin high, and straightened the knot on her neckerchief. "Sendai," her voice sounded calm, but Sendai knew the Takao well enough to pick out the faint notes of strain holding it all together, "If we extend towards Pearl at flank, we can delay engagement until after sundown."
Sendai nodded. "Yeah… guess we could." She blinked. "Wait, you're not—"
"I am," said Maya. "you said it was perfect weather."
"Not against that," said Sendai. "Three battleships…"
"Can we do it?"
Sendai thought for a moment, then hung her head. "We have to."
"Mmm." Maya nodded. "Murakumo," she barked for the lead destroyer of the little escort division steaming along with the freighters.
"Hai!"
"You're in command of the supply fleet." Maya's voice was clipped and precise as she relayed orders to the stunned destroyer. "When darkness falls, try and shake them in the dark. Sendai and I will hold the Abyssals in place for your escape."
"But—"
"Once you've disengaged, make for Pearl at best possible speed and do not, under any circumstances, double-back for us," Maya fixed the destroyer in her stare. "Do you understand?"
"But—," Murakumo was frozen in place by the cruiser's glare. "What about you and Sendai?"
"We'll…" Maya trailed off. "We'll link up with you."
"Oh, Murakumo's voice was quiet and subdued. "H-hai, Maya-Sama."
"Sendai," Maya glanced at her friend. "Are you in the mood for a night battle?"
Sendai put on a smile. "With you, Maya-Sama, any day."
The battlecruiser pulled herself upright as best she could. Her lithe body was quivering with adrenaline, and it was all she could manage to run her shaking fingers through her sweat-slick hair. It was her nightmare again. The same one she'd had for months. The same one she'd had every time she drifted from consciousness for more than a few moments.
Bismark looming out of the fog, leveling those mighty fifteens squarely at her defenseless hulk. A thunder of cordite… and then nothing. Only this time it was so more vivid then the last. She saw every detail of the ship that haunted her dreams. She saw the rifling on those mighty guns, saw the waves crashing over every plate and seam on the battleship's hull, even saw her Teutonic features shift with a few silent words a moment before the guns roared.
Hood squeezed her eyes closed and hugged her slim legs against her chest. She knew it wasn't real, she knew it was just a dream. But it still shattered her to her core. She hated it. She was the pride of the navy, the first of Her Majesty's warships to return. She should be stronger than this, yet here she was. Quivering in her bed a nervous wreck.
It just wouldn't do. Hood forced herself to stand. The floor was cold under her bare feet, and Hood let her self believe the chill was bracing. She peeled off the nightgown glued to her sinewy body with clammy sweat and stepped into the shower.
"It's not real," she murmured as cold water poured down her back. "It's just a dream, it's not real." At first, the manta was shaken and quiet. But with each repetition, the battle cruiser built strength. But try as she might, she couldn't shake the lingering worry gnawing at the back of her mind.
Bismark… or… some shadow of Bismark was out there. Hood knew it in her ancient bones. But she also knew how impossible that was. She was a proper warship of Her Majesty's Navy, and she was putting stock on superstitions? Still, she wouldn't be able to sleep until she put this to rest.
Hood dried herself off and changed into her uniform. The buttons on her blouse took longer than she would have liked, her fingers were still shaking like she'd just come out of a freezer. Try as she could, Hood couldn't force her appendages to lay still.
"Damn," Hood cursed under her breath and buried her hands in her pockets to at least hide her shame. She doubted anyone would notice. The only sailors still up at this hour were those manning the base CIC, and it was so cold nobody would look twice at her if she kept her hands in her pockets.
Still it was proper unsightly and…
Hood blinked. She'd opened the door like she'd planned. But instead of seeing the quiet streets of the base after hours, she was confronted with the worried visage of her Admiral.
"Admiral, I…"
"Hood." His voice was kind, his eyes as gentle as they were tense. And then she knew.
"No," Hood's voice was barely above a wispier. "No, that's… no."
It wasn't even that she didn't like Sendai. She did, she even considered the neon orange ninja to be her best friend. Most of the other girls were too demure and… well girlish for Maya's taste. But that didn't mean Sendai's constant bombast wasn't annoying sometimes.
"Maya-Sama," Sendai made a show out of drawing out the honorific. Maya just rolled her eyes and adjusted her gloves. "You really need to learn to pay attention to things."
"Oh, but I do." Maya shifted the balance of her attention to her floatplane, keeping just enough on the surface to properly engage in a battle of wits with her best seagoing friend. "I pay attention to the important things. Why do you think I tune you out?"
Sendai huffed. It was hard to take her seriously when she pouted like that, not least because of how much shorter she was than the flagrantly treaty-defying Takao-class. "Well—"
"And let's face it," said Maya. "You're so stealthy you're easy to overlook."
Sendai's pout morphed into an odd combination of pride, frustration, and then more pride. Pride that her vaunted skills at SNEAK ATTACK had been complimented. Frustration that she couldn't turn that around on Maya without making it a self-diss. And then pride again that Maya had gotten so good at bants. "The student has become the master!"
"That from something?" Maya glanced in the light cruiser's general direction, but her eyes were a cloudy silver with her attention focused on her plane. She knew Sendai hated that.
Sendai's long gloved hand met her face with a quiet pomf. "Maya… if we ever get back to Sasebo Jintsuu is making you watch Star Wars."
"Psh!" Maya threw out her chest and let a hearty laugh rumble out from her boilers. "Like the quietest traffic cone could do a thing to Maya-Sama!"
"You don't know," said Sendai with uncharacteristic fear. "She's got an Admiral wrapped around her little finger."
"Really?" Maya gave the littler cruiser a sideways glance. "Last I heard he was pining for Mutsu's ample upperworks."
"That's what I was trying to tell you, Maya-Baka!" Sendai huffed like a beleaguered schoolteacher forced to wrangle a field trip of third graders, all of whom had consumed close to their own body weight in pure uncut cocaine. "Mutsu and Richardson got hitched!"
"Damn, I missed it," said Maya with utter ambivalence. She didn't so much detest girlish stuff as… well, she found it trying. It was half the reason her friendship with her sisters was distant at best. She liked Takao and all, Choukai was sweet when she wasn't being weird, and she was pretty sure nobody could dislike Atago.
But she'd much rather play Call of Duty in her cheeto-stained underwear with Sendai for twenty-nine consecutive hours than go to some wedding. Being girlish just wasn't in her design, and formal wear clashed with her brash persona.
"C'mon, it'd be cute." Sendai giggled and swished her flowing scarf over her shoulder. She loved that scarf, and bragged to all the destroyers that she'd found it floating among the wreckage of an Abyssal battleship she'd defeated in an epic three-day night battle while patrolling up above the arctic circle. Which, Maya supposed, was a better story than picking it up during a beer-run to Walmart because she didn't want to look like an alcoholic.
"It's Japan," said Maya. "All they'd have is Sake. maybe." She didn't mind Sake—as long as there was enough of it to get her properly buzzed—but it just didn't compare to a good Long Island Iced tea.
"You know Mutsu's got two on the slips?"
"I'm a cruiser," said Maya, "Of course I, the fuck, know!"
For a moment, the two warships stared at each other.
"Yeah… that doesn't really work," Maya shuddered. English had such a plethora of profanity for her to use, but the cruiser was still a novice at the art of obscene grammar.
"Not really, no." Sendai shrugged.
Maya sighed. "She'd be a couple months along by the time we reach Sasebo, won't she?"
"Mmm, at least," said Sendai. "Word is she and her admiral got to fucking… pretty much as soon as he admitted he liked her."
"Mutsu's a mommy…" Maya giggled at the mental image of proud, strong Mutsu tottering around with a bowling ball in her belly. Only for the image to quickly shift to her own figure doing the pregnancy-induced waddle. And then the cruiser noticed she was resting her own hand on her middle. She blushed and hastily moved her hand to her hip. "Wash is too, isn't she?"
"Mmm," said Sendai. "And Gale."
"Gale made Warrant, didn't she?"
Sendai nodded.
"Good for her," said the heavy cruiser. "She deserved something for all the suffering Kirishima put her through."
"You know 'shima's sidling up to Crowning now, right?" said Sendai.
"I thought he was still with Jersey." Maya sighed. Keeping track of everyone's relationships was never her strong suit. But it beat talking about what she was most certainly not doing with her hand and/or fantasizing about.
"Dude," Sendai rolled her eyes. "They broke up… like… months ago."
"I still say she's a riverboat."
"Stop saying that," said Sendai. "It's not going to catch on."
Maya flipped both pointer fingers at Sendai. A moment later she hastily switched to her middle fingers.
Sendai rolled her eyes again. "Poor girl though."
"Who, Jersey?"
"Yeah," said Sendai. "She doesn't deserve to be alone."
Maya howled with laughter. "Jersey? Forever alone? Have you seen her aft?"
Sendai buried her nose in her scarf. "Okay, point." After a moment's pause she contunied. "Think 'laska and Cameron are gonna make babies?"
Maya shrugged. "Nah. 'lest not for a while."
"But they love each other so much!"
"Exactly!" Maya waved her hand at the smaller cruiser in a dismissive way. "He's bow over screws for her. If he hasn't railed her until she can't even float yet, he's not gonna until they tie the knot."
"That's going to be one epic honeymoon," said Sendai with a lascivious giggle.
"I feel bad for her poor shaft galleries."
"Her?" Sendai laughed. "I feel bad for his pelvis. You know how Americans are with Dam-con."
"Yeah, well—"
"Speaking of Americans," Sendai's smile turned venomous.
"Sendai, no."
"How's Garret?"
Maya scowled. "He's fine." Honestly, she wasn't sure why Sendai even needed to ask. Their quarters stateside weren't that big to begin with, and the light cruiser had never let a little thing like Maya and her boyfriend spending hours as a temple of carnal lust displace her from her Mario cart time trials. It was honestly unnerving how well Garret and Sendai could hold a casual conversation while he was hips-deep in her bilges.
"You two gonna try for a little one?" Sendai teased.
Maya abruptly realized she was cradling her middle again and scowled. "Sendai," she ignored her blush, "Do you know how I know it's impossible to hate someone out of existence?"
Sendai rolled her eyes.
"You still exist," said Maya. "That's why."
—|—|—
The raider princess smiled as warm tropical air filled her ashy lungs. Her breasts swelled against the pebbly, face-hardened surface of her turtleback bustier, and she closed her burning electric blue eyes for just a moment. Her proud bow cut through the azure water while her tipple screws churned the calm sea into an icy gray froth. In her life, pointless and short as it had been, she'd never experienced truly being at sea.She'd spent months working up and training, toning every muscle and fiber of her lithe body into the instrument of Aryan perfection she knew she was born to be. She was the fastest, most powerful battleship the world had ever seen.
She should have drained her foes white with fear as she painted the oceans red with the blood of their shipping. Should have punished their insolence and deprived their soggy island of its lifelines one by one, until hunger drove men to madness and women to eat their own children. Should have laughed as their hunger drove them to such desperation they begged to be annexed into the Reich.
It should have been hers. It should have all been hers. But the cruel strings of fate tore it all from her talons. What should have been a campaign of terror on the high seas that would stand in triumphant supremacy for generations was nine pointless days accomplishing nothing.
She'd been hounded across the frigid Atlantic, driven like the hapless merchants that were supposed to be her pray. She was the hunted!
Not anymore.
The princess opened her eyes once more, taking in the sight of unblemished ocean extending in every direction as far as she could sea. The ocean was hers now. There were no cruisers shadowing her in the fog, no carriers scrambling to lay a trap for her… There was only her primal instinct: hunt and kill.
She licked her lips and idly ran her tongue across the razor-sharp obsidian shards lining her pallid gums. The thrill of the hunt coursed through her calcified veins and fueled her howling, ravenous boilers.
By her side, her demons cruised in tight formation. They were simple things, hunting dogs to drive her prey under the punishing gaze of her rifles. Their faces were featureless masks of gray skin stretched taunt over smooth, sun-bleached bone. A twisted maw of crooked incisors constantly oozing bloody oil was the only disturbance to their otherwise unadorned visages, and their eyeless gaze stared impassively at the horizon.
But the princess knew. They were her demons. Birthed from her own frigid womb, suckled at her own icy breast. She could sense the thrill of the hunt coursing through them, burning like wildfire deep inside their armored bosoms.
"Soon," the princess planted her gauntleted hands on her hips and let her talons sink into the stiff fabric of her greatcoat. "Soon you will have sisters, my demons."
As if on cue, the reconnaissance plane she'd launched hours ago signaled for her attention. The princess closed her eyes and looked through those of her airborne spotter. It took her barely a second to get her bearings, and a second more to spot what her spotter had been so eager to alert her of.
A smile crossed her stony face as her turbines built up to flank. She would feast tonight.
—|—|—
"It's a beautiful evening, isn't it?" Sendai smiled into the setting sun, her cheeks all but glowing in the warm purple-orange dusk. Her long silk scarf billowed behind her as the wind raced across the shimmering sapphire waters of the south pacific."Don't say it," A few hundred yards ahead of her, Maya had to fight down a scowl.
Sendai ignored her friend. "A cool breeze, nice warm water," she sighed, her chest puffing out as she took a deep breath of the sweet winter air.
"If you say it, I'll hurt you."
"And not even a cloud in the sky!" Sendai tossed the streaming end of her scarf around her neck with a sly grin.
"Sendai-"
"The perfect weather," Sendai giggled.
"Dammit, Sendai, no."
"For-"
"Don't say it!"
"Yasen!" Sendai threw her fist out with a flourish, her other arm holding an imaginary katana behind her.
Maya shot the light cruiser a look that could sink a battleship. Her sea-green tank-top showed off the sinewy muscle of her arms, and at the moment, all that sinew was tensed and ready for combat. "I will hurt you," she drawled.
Sendai rolled her eyes, "Like you would, you big softy."
"I hate you so fucking much," said Maya. "If I was in a room with you, Hitler, and Stalin, do you know what I'd do?"
"Shot me twice?" asked Sendai. "I watched The Office too you know."
"No," said Maya. "No no no no…. see, I'd shoot each of them twice. Then I'd shove the still hot—" The cruiser abruptly stopped, like her voice had slammed into a brick wall.
"What?" Sendai noticed the change in her friend's demeanor, and instantly dropped the teasing act. Her posture stiffened, then relaxed again into a tightly coiled ready stance.
"E13A," was Maya's only response. The lion's share of her attention was focused on her little reconnaissance floatplane, with only enough to keep formation with the flotilla of freighters under her protection remaining on the surface. "We're being shadowed."
"Shadowed?" said Sendai with guarded cautiousness. "Or—"
"Scratch that," said Maya. "They're going fast. Running us down."
"Shit," Sendai cursed under her breath. "What? What's the fleet?"
"Bismark," said Maya with utter certainty. She didn't know how she knew, but there wasn't a shred of doubt in her mind as her crew cleared for acion. "And… two Scharns."
"Shiiiiiiiiiiiit," Sendai hissed. "That's what… thirty knots?"
"Maybe if we run for Pearl…" Maya's voice was as distant as her gaze.
"At thirty knots they'll still catch us," said Sendai. "We'd need… another day, day and a half just to get under their air umbrella."
For a moment, the heavy cruiser was silent. Then she stiffened her spine, held her chin high, and straightened the knot on her neckerchief. "Sendai," her voice sounded calm, but Sendai knew the Takao well enough to pick out the faint notes of strain holding it all together, "If we extend towards Pearl at flank, we can delay engagement until after sundown."
Sendai nodded. "Yeah… guess we could." She blinked. "Wait, you're not—"
"I am," said Maya. "you said it was perfect weather."
"Not against that," said Sendai. "Three battleships…"
"Can we do it?"
Sendai thought for a moment, then hung her head. "We have to."
"Mmm." Maya nodded. "Murakumo," she barked for the lead destroyer of the little escort division steaming along with the freighters.
"Hai!"
"You're in command of the supply fleet." Maya's voice was clipped and precise as she relayed orders to the stunned destroyer. "When darkness falls, try and shake them in the dark. Sendai and I will hold the Abyssals in place for your escape."
"But—"
"Once you've disengaged, make for Pearl at best possible speed and do not, under any circumstances, double-back for us," Maya fixed the destroyer in her stare. "Do you understand?"
"But—," Murakumo was frozen in place by the cruiser's glare. "What about you and Sendai?"
"We'll…" Maya trailed off. "We'll link up with you."
"Oh, Murakumo's voice was quiet and subdued. "H-hai, Maya-Sama."
"Sendai," Maya glanced at her friend. "Are you in the mood for a night battle?"
Sendai put on a smile. "With you, Maya-Sama, any day."
—|—|—
Hood woke with a gasp. Her throat was dry as gravel, her lungs only barely managing to haul meager scraps of air down her shaking windpipe. Her skin was slick with frozen sweat, and her bedding was so drenched she thought for a moment she was adrift in the icy waters of Scapa Flow.The battlecruiser pulled herself upright as best she could. Her lithe body was quivering with adrenaline, and it was all she could manage to run her shaking fingers through her sweat-slick hair. It was her nightmare again. The same one she'd had for months. The same one she'd had every time she drifted from consciousness for more than a few moments.
Bismark looming out of the fog, leveling those mighty fifteens squarely at her defenseless hulk. A thunder of cordite… and then nothing. Only this time it was so more vivid then the last. She saw every detail of the ship that haunted her dreams. She saw the rifling on those mighty guns, saw the waves crashing over every plate and seam on the battleship's hull, even saw her Teutonic features shift with a few silent words a moment before the guns roared.
Hood squeezed her eyes closed and hugged her slim legs against her chest. She knew it wasn't real, she knew it was just a dream. But it still shattered her to her core. She hated it. She was the pride of the navy, the first of Her Majesty's warships to return. She should be stronger than this, yet here she was. Quivering in her bed a nervous wreck.
It just wouldn't do. Hood forced herself to stand. The floor was cold under her bare feet, and Hood let her self believe the chill was bracing. She peeled off the nightgown glued to her sinewy body with clammy sweat and stepped into the shower.
"It's not real," she murmured as cold water poured down her back. "It's just a dream, it's not real." At first, the manta was shaken and quiet. But with each repetition, the battle cruiser built strength. But try as she might, she couldn't shake the lingering worry gnawing at the back of her mind.
Bismark… or… some shadow of Bismark was out there. Hood knew it in her ancient bones. But she also knew how impossible that was. She was a proper warship of Her Majesty's Navy, and she was putting stock on superstitions? Still, she wouldn't be able to sleep until she put this to rest.
Hood dried herself off and changed into her uniform. The buttons on her blouse took longer than she would have liked, her fingers were still shaking like she'd just come out of a freezer. Try as she could, Hood couldn't force her appendages to lay still.
"Damn," Hood cursed under her breath and buried her hands in her pockets to at least hide her shame. She doubted anyone would notice. The only sailors still up at this hour were those manning the base CIC, and it was so cold nobody would look twice at her if she kept her hands in her pockets.
Still it was proper unsightly and…
Hood blinked. She'd opened the door like she'd planned. But instead of seeing the quiet streets of the base after hours, she was confronted with the worried visage of her Admiral.
"Admiral, I…"
"Hood." His voice was kind, his eyes as gentle as they were tense. And then she knew.
"No," Hood's voice was barely above a wispier. "No, that's… no."
CompassJimbo
Where’s Your North?
- Location
- The former Rubber Capital of the World
Let's sink the Bismarck. Again.
- Location
- Arizona
Only song appropriate for this...
Dirtnap
Kanmusu Affecionado
Maybe you should make it a bit clearer that Maya and company are escorting a convoy. Because when they were talking about speeds and said 'oh they'll run us down at 30 knots' I kinda cocked my head because Takao class could likely clear 35 knots in good seas and Sendai wasn't too far behind.
Other than that I'm not looking forward to them dying. Because there's no real alternative here. Wide open sea, no islands to ambush from, no air cover...yeah.
Other than that I'm not looking forward to them dying. Because there's no real alternative here. Wide open sea, no islands to ambush from, no air cover...yeah.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
We've been running on WAFF and SOL for too long. The story really hasn't done a setback, much less anything heartbreak-y, for awhile.
owlmessenger
Parts Guy Extraordinaire
- Location
- New York
It's time for Mo to kick some abyssal ass, prove the steel-hulls still got it