Forgot to post this here yesterday, but most everyone on SB seems to like it.
[=]
"Do you have a good track on him!? Can you find that ship!?"
The almost
desperate words of Ashigara rang clear as a whistle in Shigure's ears. Not what was needed when she was tracking a submarine, and one far more advanced than the ones that slaughtered her country's shipping before claiming her, too. She had read up on these things, and everything else related to naval warfare after she sunk. Even if her former enemy were now allies, it didn't hurt to know what they could and could not do, levelling effect or not.
The fact that she found that thing at all was a miracle, as she began focusing on somewhere that sounded a little
too quiet.
"Ashigara-san, submarine hunting takes patience," she said, trying to stay focused on the task at hand. She squinted her eyes shut. There was definitely—
"I need to give him my number! I've fought for so long, and victory is just within my reach!" She shouted. "All I need to do is
take hold!"
Dammit.
She was so excitable, almost like Kongou, but the obsession with tea and the Admiral was swapped out for curry and men in general. Shigure would admit to herself that to have someone who loved her wouldn't be so bad, but the reasons why she didn't were different to those of Ashigara.
Her radio crackled to life, disrupting her search even further.
Dammit…
"
Shigure, this is Myoukou. Do you copy?"
"I read you, Myoukou," she responded with a sigh. "Are there reports of enemy activity?"
"
Negative so far, but we just received word that Pearl Harbor has been retaken from the enemy. CarDiv One and New Jersey were instrumental in driving the enemy out, and I hear that the Americans got several new battleships as well. Also, is Ashigara alright? She couldn't quite speak so coherently after she returned from Mutsu's wedding."
"Ashigara apparently has a boyfriend now," the destroyer responded curtly.
"There is no 'apparently' with this!!" Barked Ashigara behind her. "He's
mine! He even said that he would work this out! I've waited
too long for this!!"
"
Oh goodness…" groaned Myoukou. "
Let me guess: she fell head over keel for one of the groomsmen?"
"That's affirmative."
"
Which one?"
It appeared that Ashigara was now starting to tune in, because Shigure saw her eyes light up brighter than a star shell. "His name is James, and he's very patient! Oh, I can see the two of us in front of a fireplace—"
"
Ashigara, you need to take this one step at a time," Myoukou cut in, gently chiding her sister. "
Make sure that your resources are secure before you start laying down keels."
"But victory requires a fast, decisive move!" The Hungry Wolf complained.
"
Victory in this case involves a degree of patience,
Ashigara." Myoukou continued to chide. "
And you're looking for someone aboard a submarine on top of that. Once they leave port, they vanish—"
"I brought Shigure with me!" Ashigara countered. "And she's one of our best at ASW! We'll find—" The sight of a set of flares shooting up from a stretch of open water caught their attention. "The hell was that!?"
"I believe our submarine found and sunk us both," Shigure flatly informed her. "We allowed ourselves to become distracted, something we cannot afford against submarines, especially the newer ones."
There was a long, silent pause as the two stood, before it dawned on Ashigara what just happened.
"Son of a—"
[=]
"Contact Sierra-Two, Myoukou, is breaking up, sir," I called out as the sound of a certain Wolf's angry grunts and growls rang through the headphones. "Contact is also expressing extreme frustration."
A low laugh rumbled through the sonar room, among those who weren't buried in their own headphones. Even with the enemy reducing our boat to a joke, loud surface contacts were still loud surface contacts.
"Excellent work, Hunter," the Captain replied. "Next time, though, you're not using the ship to torpedo her. I'll shoot you up to the surface if I have to."
A deep flush spread across my face, and a louder laugh followed the Captain's comment. "Uhh, yes, Skipper," I hurriedly replied.
Even though Ashigara was cursing towards the heavens, I could still hear it over a hundred feet below the waves, or at least a semblance of it. Low growls echoed below her position, picked up by
Seawolf's passive towed array as we crept along at barely five knots. The boat was probably enjoying this, too, even if it couldn't quite make up for the denial of endless sunken U-Boats topped off by an H-series battleship.
This was far easier than hunting down Abyssal forces, a fight that shouldn't have even amounted to 'one-sided', and yet here we were, engaging in impromptu exercises with one obsolete, if voluptuous, heavy cruiser, alongside her sole escort, a destroyer who chalked up her survival against all odds to sheer, bloody luck, rather than the wit and extensive training of her captain.
However, I heard something splash into the water, something
heavy and
rattling. "
What the hell…" I muttered, as the rest of the sonar room began looking upwards. Was someone dropping anchor?
The sound of something clanking against the hull seemed to confirm my suspicions, followed by the almost deafening noise of it scraping.
Various swears and even terrified cries echoed through the boat, as the anchor snagged onto something.
"Emergency blow, now!"
The lights faded to a deep red as the sound of our ballast tanks being blown echoed through the boat, and I realized that someone had fucked up. The boat rose, causing my ears, and probably everyone else's, to pop.
I promptly took the headset off and buried my head in my hands, wondering just what in the hell possessed them to literally
go fishing for submarines.
It wasn't long before we reached the surface, the Captain asking us just what happened.
"It appears that someone dropped their anchor directly on top of us, sir," I informed him, calmly as I could. I wasn't sure whether to panic, get angry, or laugh.
The Captain's hand met his face. He, too, was unsure what to think of this. "If this is that cruiser who did it, I'm going to give you some rather
unconventional orders."
"Only one way to find out, sir," I replied, face going deep red.
"Right. Hunter, you're with me. We're gonna see just what the hell is going on, here," the Captain ordered, groaning at the sheer absurdity of the situation, and probably not wanting to think of how long we're going to be spending in the dock waiting for repairs.
A few minutes later, and blinding daylight met me, causing me to wince and avert my gaze. The first thing I heard aside from the roar of the waves was the Captain cursing to high heaven.
"That's the fucking… gyahhhhh!!"
Adjusting to the light, I could see a long gash from near the bow of the boat all the way to the bottom of the sail, the anchor dug in somehow. My eyes widened at the sight, at just how
nasty it looked. While I didn't see any breached bulkheads, I did see severed wires and piping. Thank god we weren't even that deep when it happened. But our sheer, bloody luck came at the cost of our passive towed array, which had been cut and now needed replacing.
"So who's footing the bill?" I quipped, just as shocked at what had happened. Total repair costs were easily in the high seven figures, and I wouldn't be surprised if they broke eight.
"
Hunter, please don't be a little shit…" the Captain growled.
But beyond his fuming form were the paralyzed ones of Ashigara and Shigure, the latter of whom was on the other end of the chain and had the look of a puppy who had broken someone's expensive Surround Sound system while playing around, and was facing the tender mercy of its understandably upset owner. Oops.
Ashigara, on the other hand, just
stared at me, no doubt assuming the worst.
"It's alright, Ashigara!" I hollered, trying to reassure her. Both of them were no doubt
fucked because of this. Attack boats, like most modern warships, didn't grow on trees, even if Electric Boat was delivering new
774s ahead of schedule and under budget. The only thing that would be worse is if they had done this to
Jimmy Carter.
Focusing my gaze somewhat, I could see her hyperventilating, practically on the verge of a panic attack. It was understandable, if nothing else. God, did I get myself into a mess…
"Skipper!" I heard someone shout from below. "We got good news and bad news! Good news is that our radio works! Bad news is that our Sonar's out!"
"I can kind of see that, Lawrence!" the Captain yelled. "Get on the horn and call a goddamn tow!"
"Way ahead of you, sir!"
The Captain turned to me. "Hunter? Inflate a raft and have a talk with your girlfriend and ask just what the fuck happened, here, could you?"
"Yes, sir," I replied before slowly making my way down the ladder. "Hey, can someone spare a lifeboat!?" I shouted below. "Skipper didn't give any orders to abandon ship or anything, but we kinda need one!"
"Did he order you to have a good time with that cruiser, Hunter?" one of the crewmen ribbed me.
"I'm pretty sure I'd have to treat her to dinner, first!" I countered.
"Which I'm pretty sure was at the wedding!"
I groaned. "Don't be a smartass, Davenport! Just give me that raft!"
"Belay that order! Looks like someone sent a boat for us!" the Captain yelled.
Groaning in frustration, I cursed my luck and began climbing back up, seeing an old rowboat slowly being paddled towards us. Somehow the thing had expanded to full size, in spite of being manned by fairies.
Climbing down from the top of the sail, I carefully made my way over to the launch, remembering that the Japanese didn't have a whole lot of rubber for inflatable boats.
"Uhh, permission to come aboard?" I asked, standing at attention. One of the fairies, donning a dress uniform, waved me on as I slowly stepped onto the boat. I felt at least a dozen pairs of eyes upon me as I took my seat. "
This is probably the least weird thing about this…" I muttered to myself.
"Desu," one of the fairies went.
It was admittedly amusing watching those tiny figures, no bigger than one of those Pop vinyl dolls or a Nendoroid, work the oars with their stubby arms and cartoonish expressions. My mother was going to have a hard time believing this, nevermind Cathy.
Reaching into one of my pockets, I took out a little pack of Smarties. It was supposed to be reserved for tonight's poker game once the watch was over, but they deserved
something for their troubles.
"So, anyone want this?" I asked. The officer promptly snagged it, putting a knife through the plastic. "That's not how you open it, sir," I half-heartedly informed the fairy, before letting out a small groan and tilting my head back. "
Whatever…"
"Desu!"
This was so goddamn
weird, I couldn't even
begin to come up with the words to describe it.
The sound of propellers in the distance drew our attention, and I noticed the distant form of an aircraft flying low, a lone patrol. As it flew overhead, I could see that it was a P-3 that had no doubt caught our message and was investigating. Well, we weren't likely to be ambushed by surface vessels, at least.
Ashigara, meanwhile, drew closer and closer, not that she was terribly far off in the first place. The boat came to a halt next to her, as she turned to look at me. "Oh, James!" She smiled, mood shifting. "I'm so happy to see you again!"
"Yeah, same," I replied, scratching the back of my head. "Not under the best of circumstances, though…" I continued, shifting my gaze towards
Seawolf.
"I'm sure it'll buff out!" Ashigara cheerfully shouted.
"That anchor cut our hydrophones, and I'm not sure if we have replacements back in port."
Shigure had pulled up next to the boat, profusely apologizing for what had happened. I could hear the Captain chewing her out from here.
"Look at it from the perspective of victory!" Ashigara barked. "We can make up for what happened at the wedding!"
"You're not
wrong," I replied. But the time on solid ground would likely involve reports, hearings, and disciplinary actions. And that was before repairs and replacement parts. A nasty-looking gash had been torn into the sail, and something told me Shigure desperately tried to pull her anchor back up, not helping the situation. Not exactly crippling damage, but that definitely wasn't buffing out. "So how exactly did you find us, anyway?" I asked. "Attack boats tend to vanish once they leave port and submerge."
"Pennsylvania felt really sorry for what happened and gave me stuff pertaining to your mission!"
My face paled. "Ashigara, you realize that's classified, right?"
"It was just a simple patrol, from what I read! And it's not like the Abyssals are making any big moves right now!"
"Didn't they push against Pearl?" I asked.
"It was just liberated! New Jersey and the First Carrier Division smashed them!" she smashed her fist into an open palm. "Oh, I wish I was there to take a bite out of those bastards!" She excitedly filled me in.
'
That mess wouldn't have happened with some working attack boats…' I thought to myself. There was no problem in this war that couldn't have been solved with even an aging
688. And yet the Silent Service was perhaps the most heavily-fucked branch of the Navy. But still, a defeated enemy was a defeated enemy, and that brought a smile to my face. "
Get wrecked, Abyssal scum…" I growled. Most of the recent contacts we encountered were of German origin, primarily
zerstorers and the odd CL, and all were reported to be flying
Kriegsmarine flags by the periscope operator. "
Should've stayed dead."
"Damn right!" Ashigara agreed. "We'll send them all back to hell! I'll drag them with my own sinking hull if I have to!"
"Try not to raise any flags, Ashigara," I jabbed. "We already lost one CA."
"Not like I plan on sinking anytime soon!"
That confidence of hers put an amused smile on my face, as we took the time to just enjoy the moment of relative peace. The Captain's yelling had died down, and I could see damage control teams trying to wriggle poor Shigure's anchor out of the sail. A few more began popping out of the hatch with blowtorches, ready to just cut the thing. "Lemme tell you, I'm glad I'm not part of that mess."
"It it wrong for me to mention that Shigure found a book of herself doing that exact thing?"
"Using her anchor to fish for submarines?"
"Something like that."
We talked and talked, almost ignorant of the damaged boat and the Orion circling overhead, as the afternoon sun slowly dipped towards the horizon.
[=]
Slowly removing her gloved hand from her face, Myoukou wasn't sure whether to weep or laugh at what happened. On the one hand, this James didn't seem to have any hard feelings. On the other, Ashigara was likely to be dragged before a hearing.
"Is everything alright, nee-san?" Came the soft, concerned voice of Haguro, eyes wide.
"Ashigara seems to have gotten incredibly lucky," she said with a groan, before leaning herself against the wall of their dorm, a sigh escaping her. "She had a bit of an incident with the submarine her… ahh… boyfriend was stationed on."
"The one from Mutsu's wedding?"
Myoukou nodded. "Everyone seems to be okay, but I'm unsure how the Admiral will handle learning of this incident. Apparently Shigure could barely even move after what happened."
"M-May I ask what exactly happened?"
Another sigh. "Apparently, Pennsylvania felt bad over dragging Ashigara away from the wedding and James, and made it up to her by somehow providing information pertaining to where they were going to be patrolling. Ashigara, being Ashigara, somehow got Shigure involved, and now we have a damaged American submarine and a destroyer in need of a replacement anchor," she summarized curtly, before letting out a small, perhaps amused laugh. "I have no idea what this means for Ashigara, but I think Pennsylvania is going to be in for a rough time."
"Doesn't she hate us?" Haguro pointed out. "I k-keep hearing stories from Sasebo about how she's, umm, racist?" the raven-haired cruiser recalled, wringing her hands.
"She's still bitter over the war, yes," Myoukou stated, before scratching her head. "Which makes me wonder why she would provide such information to Ashigara?"
There was a moment of almost
deathly silence, the two wondering if maybe Ashigara was going to be in deeper trouble than it appeared. Only Haguro thought to break it. "I-I just realized that I might be following his sister," she said, changing the subject.
"Who? James?"
Haguro nodded and smiled. "She does photography, and her pictures are really pretty!" Myoukou watched as her youngest sister took her phone out of her pocket, a few swipes and taps pulling up one of her social media apps. "Do you still have a copy of the wedding program?"
"I do," Myoukou replied with a smile, before heading into the bedroom. The program was pinned onto a board, which she promptly removed. "Ah, yes, a 'James Hunter', representing the US Navy," she called out.
"Yeah, it's his sister, alright!" Haguro hollered back. "I found a picture of the two!"
Pinning the program back, Myoukou made her way back and grabbed a pair of reading glasses, before looking over her sister's shoulder. While she didn't
need them, they looked nice on her, and they certainly helped to
emphasize things. "Oh yeah, it
is him," she stated, remembering the out-of-context photos Ashigara had tried to show. She never really lingered on them, and it was only in hindsight that Myoukou realized what had happened. "He almost looks like Ooyodo's male American counterpart," she mused, adjusting the frames.
"Y-Yeah, I can kind of see that," Haguro agreed. He was smiling, a small grin unlike his sister's open, excited mouth.
'
I miss those days' the little blurb beneath read.
"I wonder how well she's taking all of this?" Myoukou wondered, eyebrows raised in concern. But the pictures
were well-done. She remembered something about how Shigure was interested in photography, and Myoukou couldn't help but feel the two would get along.
"I'm sure she's proud he's helping to fight the Abyssals," Haguro tried to reassure her. Still, something seemed off about all of this. Even the photos of this 'Cathy' seemed…
distant, as if she were no longer really a part of the world around her. The photos gradually shifted away from her and her friends to empty houses, still suburbs, and faded backgrounds. It was beautiful, but tragic.
One photo was recent, being shot in a town called Peninsula, according to the accompanying text. A few small stores lined the road, with empty parking spots for cars. A train could be seen passing by in the background, black and orange engines nearly rendered invisible by the falling snow.
'
Once upon a time, that was a train filled with kids and their parents, not scrap metal and chemicals.'
Myoukou guessed that some kind of a Christmas train ran through there, service no doubt cancelled. All of this was a peek into life outside of their quarters, and beyond the harbor itself. America was once again dedicating itself to war, even though its people were used to nothing but peace.
Another photo showed a mall with barely anyone shopping, and another was of an empty bedroom, a single bed in the corner and a few Lego models on a chest.
'
I hope we don't have to touch it.'
"My g-goodness…" Myoukou found herself stuttering, eyes slowly growing wet.
"I'm doing my best to help her through this," Haguro said. "B-But she seems kind of… reluctant?"
"Tell her that we have the best wishes for his safety as well," Myoukou said. She couldn't help but feel that there was something even
more to all of this, but the photos were already telling much of the story. A young woman fearful of losing a family member, which nearly happened from a bizarre accident rather than enemy action.
They still had to win this, no matter what.
[=]
A note regarding the Home Front:
Everyone's eyes might be glued to the TV when a battle between Shipgirls and Abyssals breaks out, but once they change the channel or turn it off, they're forced to face the reality of a tanked economy, among other things. The Midwest was particularly hard-hit, even as formerly-abandoned steel mills are slowly re-opened in the wake of the loss of China as a trading partner. Many a disgruntled local are quite smug about it, if only because the horrifying truth has yet to be publicly revealed, though a few rumors have begun to circulate.
Also, Peninsula is a real town in Ohio, nestled in the middle of the Cuyahoga Valley. Normally a tourist train runs through there, but service was suspended as a result of fuel rationing. The Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway took over operations shortly after to service new customers in Cleveland.
I have no words for how much I disagree with that statement.
