I couldn't make it through -you talking about- Chapter 1. I didn't even really read it.
And yeah, wriiiiite it!~
it's like just -asking- for a proper Kancolle option if the Abyssal Blitz (Magic Ghost Ships Are In Ur Ports Attackin Ur Citizes) happened.
Ancient Ghost Ship Things showing up and wreaking havoc, Texas breaks her moorings and powers down the ship channel, then just -BOOMx10- and opening up on the Abyssals with heavy 14 inch guns.
Am at work so can't look for fanart, but I believe the general consensus was that Texas would either go with a cowgirl outfit or Southern Belle, from what I recall?
(And she's an ex-flagship to boot, so there's your ready to use Secretary Ship to wrangle the US Kancolle into line. Especially those hellions from Taffy-3. So troublesome!)
Hey! I don't go for Kumos who are happy with their partners! I rescued Murakumo (A:AFS) because she doesn't deserve that suffering, and I'm only going to get Murakumo (Kisaragi IV) if K-toku grants me permission!
Now where were those plans for the coastal defenses of Manila Bay? Captain Darren needs a proper bribe for Siren of Spring...
That might set off the rabid cultists who keep that particular Elder God of literature alive through their constant unintelligible chanting, and they're sure to attack you in myriad ways that defy logic and sanity.
But if you can handle the salt and sabotage that is sure to be slung your way...
Hey! I don't go for Kumos who are happy with their partners! I rescued Murakumo (A:AFS) because she doesn't deserve that suffering, and I'm only going to get Murakumo (Kisaragi IV) if K-toku grants me permission!
Now where were those plans for the coastal defenses of Manila Bay? Captain Darren needs a proper bribe for Siren of Spring...
That might set off the rabid cultists who keep that particular Elder God of literature alive through their constant unintelligible chanting, and they're sure to attack you in myriad ways that defy logic and sanity.
But if you can handle the salt and sabotage that is sure to be slung your way...
Sorry for the delay in getting this done, I'd have had it saturday by technical issues with a certain MMO that my avii hails from had me emotionally drain for the day.
We open this chapter with a literal bang, as it seems mura is awoken by rather loud, and rather close, gun fire. I feel that our resident Murderhobo Damon "Crazy Steve" Mcwhatshisname is at it again.
"Eeek!?" Murakumo yelps out of reflex in reaction to the extremely loud gunshot that she has not heard before. Granted, she has only heard the pops of AK-47's and M16-A2's and the strong thumps of Damon's MK-14 Rogue Chassis, but this gunshot is more destructive and ear-shattering than any she has heard before. She peers out of the truck windows, trying to focus her slightly blurry vision in the hazy morning sunlight, and she can make out the sight of Damon kneeling behind one of the supply boxes that they were sitting on for dinner last night, peering intently through the scope of the AMP DSR-50 bullpup sniper rifle propped up on its bipod and sitting on top of the supply box. Murakumo watches as Damon slowly pulls back the bolt and ejects the spent .50-caliber casing, catching it in midair before ejecting the magazine, sliding the bolt closed, and putting the safety back on.
Well aside from the requisite Gun Porn *Ding*, and the random unneeded super-reflexes with the spent cartridge *Ding*, I've got no problems so far.
That gun he;s using is a German made .50 Caliber rifle, used by police forces in a few European countries and military's across the globe. Odds are it'd end up in the US at some point.
It helps he also remembers to put the damn safety on, this man is many things, unsafe around firearms (that he isn't using) is not one of them. Practice proper gun safety kids! *Grabs check*
Damon shows her the casing that he caught, holding it by his thick fingernails so that his skin wouldn't get burned by the intense heat still packed within the metal of the casing.
both stupid show-offy garbage and not how heat works. *DING*
"In a world like ours, where any and every resource is valuable enough to the point where people would fight and kill each other to have, fifty-caliber bullets like these are hella expensive to buy, let alone produce. If I really wanted to wake you up, I would just shake you or something."
First off, he used "hella," so that's a sin sip unto itself. *Ding* Next, if it's so expensive why shoot the damn thing!
"Then what were you doing?"
"Test-firing." Damon closes the lid to the DSR-50's weapon case and pats it. "The only other opportunity I've had in using military hardware of this scale and high-techness was when I flew as a passenger in one of the cockpit of a Russian MI-24 that a Russian pilot that defected over to American soil brought with him after the nukes dropped. That guy's fuckin' rich as hell - you wouldn't guess how useful his helicopter became in transporting heavy stuff like vehicles and large debris..."
Quotation-marks go before the period. *Ding* (Awake all night, I can be picky dang it!)
Damon explains the differences between firearms because hackyuu gives Murakumo the idiot-ball in the weirdest of circumstances.
Damon grabs the AK-47 that is standing on its wooden stock against the side of the supply box and tosses it to Murakumo, who catches it. "You're going to be practicing with that AK so you know how to shoot a gun."
"E-Eh..." Murakumo looks awkwardly down at her Russian assault rifle. "...but I've never shot before..."
Oh joy, training montage! I give him half a page before he smacks her for not aiming properly.
"Which is why I'm going to have you learn right now. There's a first for everything, and some are bound to happen, like firing a gun. Soon, you'll know what it feels like to kill someone, too."
"That second part is something I don't want to do, after seeing what you did yesterday."
Oh jesus christ, I'm horrified by the thought of him having Inazuma in his little army. Poor girl'd not be able to stomach it. Now this is a good plot angle, a Kanmusu (Shipgirl in japanese for the uninitiated if I've not explained it before. It sounds better.) who when confronted by the horrors of the kinda shitty and radioactive Post-war world, I shorrified by the violence and bloodshed she must now endure for her own survival. Kinda muddled by the whole slave thing, but It might be salvageable! (Post-apocalyptic does not fit this story. And I care too little to see how many "post's," I'd have to add for it to count)
How does he fuck it up?
Damon sighs. "You're a destroyer ship. I don't want to be told that - your whole existence revolves around the destruction of other ships, and with it, the killing of lives as well. Don't give me that bullshit."
Well this confirms it's probably Charleston Carolina.
After that hour, Damon and Murakumo sit cooped up in the utility truck as he drives eastbound along the same highway. Fortunately for the survivors of the war in the United States, the vast majority of the nation's highway systems escaped debilitating damage from the earthquakes, though in some places, scars left behind by the quakes still mar the earth and bar drivers and vehicles from passing over safely without detours. After about seven hours of driving, only interrupted by bathroom and food breaks, their utility truck rolls into the former city of Mobile, Alabama.
Also, how the hell did our Highway system survive atomic war? We can barely keep this shit together as is!
After the outbreak of World War III, some American Southerners saw and seized the opportunity to carve out their own familial kingdoms that only they held sovereignty over
Within a few years after the bombs fell, there were at least four dozen separate such entities of local power holders squabbling over one another for control over local resources and the ability to tax people who had no choice but to live under their "protection". Some who were wealthy enough had quickly bought their own radiation cleaning equipment and supplies, but most of these power holders, even though some of them had the money to buy such equipment, chose to hide in underground bunkers and facilities and simply wait for federal and volunteer radiation clean up crews to do the dirty work for them. On top of which, after their areas had been cleaned up enough to live above-ground safely, those people and their followers forcibly drove out the volunteers, oftentimes violently. The death toll never became significant enough to call for governmental or an otherwise coordinated action against these Southern power holders, but it cemented their reputation across the rest of North America as general scumbags waiting to take advantage of anything and anyone to protect their "sovereignty", a reputation that certainly held true for the most part.
Say what you will about the south, this is retarded. Like these "Southerners," aren't all inbred bitter confederates waiting for the bad o'l govamint to fall so they can rise again! Jesus Christ I know you have to have really bad people as your antagonists so Crazy Steve seems like the good guy (Which you fail at because Slave army) but this is ridiculous!
So they arrive in Mobile, Alabama, home of the southern petty king most likely. 40 god damn USD that they attack Damon and Murakumo because they want to rape the latter. I'm taking bets.
Now, the number of sovereignties has decreased from four dozen down to only six, located in the cities of Little Rock, Nashville, Mobile, Atlanta, Orlando, and Charlotte. Such a political division of power can harken back to the days of the American Civil War, reminiscent of the old Confederacy. However, this time, these six municipalities are all vied for competition of any kind and are more than willing to wage war over the smallest and most trivial reasons in the name of maintaining sovereignty.
Pretty much, yeah......I hunger for granola now, damn.
"For some reason I have a backlog of historical textbooks in my central memory database. I'm guessing whoever was in charge of my development project was a history professor or something."
Damon shrugs. "They were all scientists, so it's not surprising. The people who built you and the other ship girls had to be proteges and people who were probably decades ahead in technological intelligence and development. Otherwise, your production would've never been possible, even for the technology that we had back then. I'd imagine it wouldn't have been too difficult for them to pick up multiple Ph.D's in different fields."
YOU DON'T GET TO TO "CUTE," BY POINTING OUT YOUR BULLSHIT PLOT POINTS!
That's my job!
The utility truck drives to a stop before a heavily stacked barricade reinforced with electric fencing and barbed wire. Two wooden deer stands loom behind the armed barricade that restricts the highway's access into the rest of the city, and a night shift guard, armed with a simple .22 hunting rifle and a .357 Magnum revolver on his hip, gets up from his chair and waves at Damon, who rolls down the window to talk to him.
"Ay yo, brotha!" the guardsman yells in a slightly intoxicated southern accent. "Ya plannin' ta stay da night in dis here town?"
They aren't Caijun! This is Alabama! That tic is more associated with Louisiana you fool!
"If yer got cash, gonna be twentah a soul 'n fortah a car, but seems he-ah dat you gotcher-self a mighty fine roadsta! Dat's gonna cost ya extra, let's see...dat gon' be sixtah, mister!"
Damon reaches back into his backpack in the back seat and fishes out some twenty-dollar bills, then exits the truck to give the money to the guardsman who has climbed down from the tower.
"Thank ya, thank ya," the young guardsman says as he pockets the money. "I'll open up dis he-ah gate, so sit tight, ya hear?"
Horrible butchering of the American language aside, nothing too awful so far. I fear that will change when they see Murakumo. No I am not getting over that until they leave, I honestly fear that's what is going to go down.
So their boss is collection paper money, possibly post-war print considering the state of the USA in this world. He's getting some guns, odds are from the US government who'd take said tender.
"Like, you talked about how Southern United States is broken up into six municipalities, right? During the ride here. It seemed like by the way you were talking to that guy, this place is better than the others."
"That's because it is," Damon replies, twisting the end of another lemon cigarette and enjoying the fresh fruity taste. "This stronghold down here in Alabama is surprisingly chill when you compare it to other strongholds across the South, because the 'Boss' that the guy on the tower was talking about is a man by the name of Baxter Harrison. I hear the locals call him 'Pops' 'cause he's a really chill guy who isn't a selfish prick like the other 'Bosses'. After the world got nuked, he was the one who brought together the survivors down in the South that didn't like how people were always fighting for power and control."
Oh hey it's The Governor again! Watch him turn out to be secretly evil, if he ain't I'll eat my damn hat.
Damon explains how he's goteen together the cash to pay for the toll, and we have Murakumo ask what's been on our mind since chapter one.
"...what the hell are these...'CCPL' things...? You keep talking about them, and I think I know what you mean, but..."
"Sorry, that's my bad. CCPL stands for Cleaned Centers for Protected Living - basically government-established communities for American survivors in areas where radiation levels have been cleaned to the point of human habitation. It's just that everyone knows what it means, so I forgot that you weren't aware."
Well, that tells us nothing. But god damn it's good to know what CCPL stands for. Bugged the shit out of me.
"So are these Southern states CCPL's?"
"No. They're independently ruled and owned factions that operate out of American government jurisdiction, so they don't have CCPL status and thus don't get government aid."
"Then why doesn't the government do something about these factions?"
"Too busy maintaining what they already have control over in what used to be known as the United States of America. The Feds want to concentrate on protecting what CCPL posts they already have, cleaning up more places with high levels of radiation, and making more CCPL posts. Once they can get a strong enough military going to reclaim what used to be the US, then they'll start cracking down on these independent factions."
So this confirms what a few of us probably thought, the USA is still technically an entity. Odd in the kind of fiction that they exist in such a unified form, usually it's scattered splotches here and there rather than as a recognizable Nation-State.
Murakumo narrows her eyes. "And you're planning on doing exactly that, aren't you?"
Damon nods. "If I use you ship girls to accumulate a military strength powerful enough to take on these factions and destroy them, then the Feds will owe me one giant fucking favor that I can use to my advantage. I'll take control of America, then move on elsewhere...probably Europe, is what I'm thinking."
If it were any other character doing this (especially Damon) I'd be livid.
The utility truck rolls into Tillmans Corner. "Confucius once said that living well is the greatest revenge," Damon cites. "You can say I modified that just a bit. You'll learn what I mean...eventually."
Prediction: He was in the Military due to his Dad's relation to the Super-Solider program, he got spurned by an officer who may or may not be his father, he wants he ass on a silver platter and the way to get that without being hunted down by the Feds is to negotiate him from them with his slave army.
I will in fact be checking back to this as we go on to see if I am correct, remind me if I forget my prediction.
Another half-hour later, Damon and Murakumo arrive in the busy city landscape of downtown Mobile. Survivors of all nationalities and ages lounge about on the lazy, easy-going streets, socializing, laughing, and drinking.
"Seems like a really nice town," Murakumo murmurs, looking around from inside the truck as Damon carefully navigates the streets for a place to stay for the night. "Not all of these factions are like this, right?"
Be careful what you title your chapters, it might just give everything away.
"Hey, Admiral..." she calls quietly, "...why is almost everyone carrying around a gun?"
Sure enough, virtually every single adult on the streets is carrying some sort of gun. Pistols, civilian rifles, even military-grade firearms like submachine guns and marksman rifles - almost every single soul who looks over the age of eighteen appears to be visibly carrying a gun in plain sight.
"It's Mobile's most famous rule here," Damon says. "If you're eighteen or over, you're required to have a gun on you."
"Required?"
"You heard me right. Mobile's known as one of the safest places down in the south because of this rule."
"Everyone here just wants to live their lives in peace without having to worry about worrying about how they're going to get their dinner for the day. So when he made his faction, Mr. Harrison wanted to make sure no dipshit assholes ruined his faction from the inside, so by making everyone carry a gun and know how to use a gun, he basically forced people who might become potential troublemakers think twice about fucking around in his territory. Absolutely brilliant, in my opinion. Can't rob a bank if the people goin' to the bank, the clerks at the bank, the security officers at the bank, and every single fucking person you see has a gun. Here's that hotel..."
Well that should tell you his stance on the matter, I'm just gonna walk waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over here.
Murakumo, stay here and make sure no one comes along and starts screwing with the truck. The back is exposed, and there aren't any shutters that the truck has to close it off, so I need you to watch it for a minute while we get our keys."
They share some banter that's alright enough to read, and he gets them a room for the night. The car'll be in a parking garage at the hotel for the night so shit stays where it is.
"Excuse me," Damon asks the receptionist, "is that man in the cowboy hat and shades Mr. Harrison?"
"Yes, it is. He is here with some of his advisors regarding some financial decisions for the city.
"Mr. Harrison?" Damon asks for attention, and the suited man turns to him.
"I'm your man," a heavy, deep-set voice that is oddly devoid of a southern accent responds to Damon, and Baxter Harrison offers his hand to Damon, who politely shakes. "What can I do for you, son?"
"Not much, sir. I just wanted to thank you for making a place down in the South like this a safe place for travelers like me to come and not have to worry about the rogues wandering around the place."
Mr. Harrison chuckles. "My pleasure, son. It's for people like you who wanna live the free life out in the wilderness that I built this city after 'em nukes fell on our poor souls. There's gotta be at least one decent man in charge somewhere, and seein' the other folks who like to be in charge around these parts, I had to step up, y'know?" Then, Mr. Harrison stops chuckling abruptly, keenly peering into Damon's eyes, its sickening yellow hue staring back at him.
"Pardon my askin', son, but...you're not by any chance one of those unfortunate souls from that God-awful Genesis Thesis Project, are you...?"
Damon's eyes widen in surprise. "...how did you know?"
Mr. Harrison sighs. "It's quite the long story, son, but I happen to know about that Project through associates of mine that live in the CCPL posts up north in Yankee territory."
"Genesis Thesis Project". That is.....*DING*....Well we have a name!
"No, I don't. I only heard about you and the others that were...pardon my rudeness...'created'. I don't know the details...but I wish I never came to know. I'm sorry, son, for what they did to ya."
What I don't get is, why would a shipgirl that is expected to fire with naval weaponry get startled by a normal gunshot? They also seem to have been given only a very small amount of combat knowledge which just doesn't make a lot of sense even if they were built for naval warfare.
Also nothing extra horrible has happened in this whole chapter. What is this sorcery?
What I don't get is, why would a shipgirl that is expected to fire with naval weaponry get startled by a normal gunshot? They also seem to have been given only a very small amount of combat knowledge which just doesn't make a lot of sense even if they were built for naval warfare.
Also nothing extra horrible has happened in this whole chapter. What is this sorcery?
....Well, some of us would consider the butchery of Southern culture and such to be extra-horrible. That and the miserable mash-up of grimderp in the setting revealed here.
Depends upon the manual of style you're using. I do it consistently cause that's how I was taught. Of course, that's only if you're not continuing the paragraph after the Quotation marks, if you are you should use a comma inside the brackets
*Ding*
Depends upon the manual of style you're using. I do it consistently cause that's how I was taught. Of course, that's only if you're not continuing the paragraph after the Quotation marks, if you are you should use a comma inside the brackets
*Ding*
The most common question people ask about quotation marks is whether periods and commas go inside or outside, and the answer depends on where your audience lives because in American English we always put periods and commas inside quotation marks, but in British English periods and commas can go inside or outside
Article:
Put commas and periods within quotation marks, except when a parenthetical reference follows.
Article:
The rules set forth in this section are customary in the United States. Great Britain and other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations are governed by quite different conventions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Rule 4 in this section, a rule that has the advantage of being far simpler than Britain's and the disadvantage of being far less logical.
[snip]
Rule 4. Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks.
The most common question people ask about quotation marks is whether periods and commas go inside or outside, and the answer depends on where your audience lives because in American English we always put periods and commas inside quotation marks, but in British English periods and commas can go inside or outside
Article:
Put commas and periods within quotation marks, except when a parenthetical reference follows.
Article:
The rules set forth in this section are customary in the United States. Great Britain and other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations are governed by quite different conventions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Rule 4 in this section, a rule that has the advantage of being far simpler than Britain's and the disadvantage of being far less logical.
[snip]
Rule 4. Periods and commas ALWAYS go inside quotation marks.
