Remove ads

Kantai Collection - Fanfic Idea and Recs

I admit, I had an amusing thought of Hiryuu/Dragon being thought of by Gambier bay, St. Lo, and White Plains (since they grew up knowing only her USN service personally) as the big sis with an unfortunate history.
 
You know... I had a bit of an odd thought...
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Staring into the mirror, the shipgirl raised one hand to her cheek and stared at the reflection that followed. Despite it being months, and the shock when she woke up in the hospital to it, she still had not gotten used to it. After all, she had actually screamed to her embarrassment when she had looked into the mirror there. But then, who could blame her at seeing the face that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

A face that she had last seen when she was fifteen years old almost twenty-five years before.

Before what had happened, she had been an Admiral, one of the very first for the beings known as shipgirls. She had been there when the others had appeared three years before. Had commanded those early, desperate battles. She had shared sweat, blood, and tears with her girls. Especially Kongou...

No, it was best not to think about that. Going down that road would cause her to think of that day four months ago when the Abyssals had managed to launch a strike against the base. The pain of her wounds from the Abyssal guns and bombs. Not to mention the emotional pain of seeing Kongou crying over her broken body, cradling it close as she tried to keep her awake before the medics came and took the Admiral away. Her last sight of the Fast Battleship seeing her being held back, tears running down her cheeks and making tracks in the soot on her cheeks as Kongou reached for her.

Or the more recent memories of seeing Kongou sometimes staring off into the distance, grief on her face before she covered it up with a smile that did not reach her eyes.

She wanted to tell Kongou, as well as the others who also grieved as they did not know if she was alive or dead, so damn badly. To tell her that she was alive and, not for the first time, cursed her superiors. They had wanted it to be kept a secret. After all, she should have somehow died due to her wounds she had suffered. Instead, to her shock and those of others, she had awoken as a shipgirl. One who looked much younger then her true age. But they didn't want to chance the panic that might result and so kept it secret. They had assigned someone else to her girls, much to her annoyance, though they didn't take to him as well. He was far too professional to get close.

Thankfully, she still had friends and, with the calling of favours, had gotten assigned as a shipgirl to her old base. If she was not going to be able to watch over her girls as their superior, then dammit, she was going to fight alongside them and protect them that way. Maybe the only good part of the whole mess. And now she had hope that it was going to end soon. After all, the news had reported on other humans, at first in America and then other places, who became shipgirls for some reason, some of them were older then she had been and were now much younger. However, she could only hope that her girls, and Kongou, could find it in themselves to forgive her for hiding who she was. It was just so damn hard that sometimes she wanted to cry...

All of a sudden there was a knock and she turned to the door. "Come in."

Yuudachi poked her head in and smiled. "There you are! Well, come on, Fubuki-Chan, Teitoku wants to see us for our next mission! Maybe we'll get to escort Kongou-San again!"

Pulling out, she missed Fubuki looking into the mirror for one last time before nodding. "Yeah... Fubuki will do her best."

And with that, she walked out.
 
Working on the next part of Blood and Iron. I just wanted to put this flashback memory/dream South Carolina is having at the beginning of the chapter to see what I need to fix in it.
Norfolk, Virginia

January 1920

"Mom's here! Hey mom, it's so good to see you."

USS South Carolina smiled as she saw the dots and dashes of New York's rather excited greeting. The Super Dreadnought's signal lamps flashing at a speed most would find unreadable.

"For god's sake York." Another set of signal lamps cut in. "Not every battleship that docked in Norfolk is mom." It belonged to Delaware, the oldest of her daughters sent to fight in the war in Europe. "I'm sorry about that. Our mothers supposed to be her somewhere and my cousin's a little excited to see her."

"I would certainly hope so after not hearing a single peep out of any of you in almost two years." South Carolina smiled as her own lamps sent out her message. She could practically hear the squeal that was no doubt coming from New York's mouth and she could see other signal lamps lighting up as the battleships of Battle Division 9 and their escorts returned after two years in Europe.

This had been a reunion she had waited months for. Because of her age, South Carolina had been relegated to stateside duty while Delaware, Wyoming, Florida, and New York had made their way to Europe to join the British Home Fleet as they blockaded Germany.

As it turned out the worry about her age had been more than justified when she had first lost her Starboard propeller shaft, followed soon after by the throttle on her port side shaft, while escorting a convoy back in April of 1918.

South still worried about her daughter's safety as they stared down the German High Seas Fleet. She had heard about the loses the much better trained and equipped British had taken against them at places like Dogger's bank and Jutland, their armor seemingly useless to the long range fire the Germans dropped on them.

It was a worry magnified when her youngest daughters, Nevada and Oklahoma, sailed with Utah to join their older cousins in Britain. Nevada in particular was excited at the prospect of seeing action after being relegated due to a lack of fuel oil in Britain, or "Bullshit supply excuses" as the first of the Nevada called it. While the first two ships of what was already being called the "standard" class were supposed to be two of the most advanced ships afloat, South still worried that their inexperience would be their undoing.

Fortunately, the expected battle had never occurred. Instead the Americans would meet the enemy not as combatant but as victors, helping their British allies escort the High Seas Fleet to its postwar internment at Scapa Flow.

Now South Carolina sat in dry-dock for a refit after sailing to Europe not as a warship but as an improvised transport, tasked with helping move the army of men sent to fight In Europe back home. She was surprised to see New York and the others Sailing into port, having expected them to still be in Europe after escorting president Wilson to France.

"I trust you ladies behaved yourself while you were guests of our esteemed allies." South Carolina signaled after the lightshow of hellos had subsided.

"For the most part." Delaware replied. "Had a couple of issues with U-boat's, and York had a nasty run-in with one off northern Scotland."

South gasped, thinking that her daughter had been the victim of a German torpedo. "How…how bad was it."

"Delaware's exaggerating as usual mom." York cut in as if reading her mom's thoughts. "One tried to occupy the same space as me over in Pentland Firth. It kind of ran into me and then ended up getting chewed up by my propeller." South felt a wave of relief wash over her as she heard her daughter explain what happened to her during the war. "…At least we think it was a U-boat."

"What do you mean?" a rather confused South Carolina asked.

"Well…" USS Florida chimed in. "We never found any wreckage, but if it wasn't a submarine, then York managed to find to find a shipwreck everyone else missed."

"As long as you're alright." South said.

"For the most part. The submarine took starboard propeller with it when I ran it over. Plus, I had this cool dent in me that they found in dry-dock. It looks just like the bow of a U-boat. You should have seen it."

South could practically hear the groan that precluded Delaware's reply. "For god's sake York. I don't think mom needs to hear about your hull damage, even if it was the most interesting thing that happened in Europe."

"What about that deal just before the armistice where you all-" Florida began before Delaware cut her off.

"We are not going to talk about November 1918. Especially you, miss clean-bill-of-health."

"But..."

"No!" New York, Wyoming, and Delaware all shouted.

South Carolina couldn't help but giggle as her daughters continued to banter back and forth over their exploits during the great war, glad that they had come home safe and sound.
1. this is still a rough draft, I'm willing to bet the spelling and grammar isn't perfect despite my best efforts.
2. I know there's a lot of artistic license with what happened in our timeline, but the idea of South greeting her war weary daughters was something I wanted to do to help show the momboat part of her personality.
 
Thinking about things with the Hiryu/Dragon angle. The Navy could just refit her to be a dedicated Marine Aviation carrier to carry dedicated close air support aircraft for Marine landings, freeing up all those new Essex carriers for what the Navy really wants to do.

Hmm.. the Black Sheep Squadron and Pappy Boyington as the CAG....
 
Last edited:
MagisterAurelius said:
Thinking about things with the Hiryu/Dragon angle. The Navy could just refit her to be a dedicated Marine Aviation carrier to carry dedicated close air support aircraft for Marine landings, freeing up all those new Essex carriers for what the Navy really wants to do.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's what dedicated CVEs do. And it's why they can afford to be built on 18 knot merchant hulls. While Sara, Big E, Hornet, and Wasp had to deal with such matters off Guadalcanal, by mid 43, the CVEs were doing the marine support while the Essex types got on with killing things.
 
Ultimate slap in the face to the IJN as well.

One of our carriers wasn't even worth giving to their actual navy.
 
MagisterAurelius said:
True, but those were still Navy pilots for the most part. And while the Marines appreciated the effort, the Marines always preferred having Marines do that work because then the job got done the Marine way. At least that's what I've heard from a couple Marine pilots I know.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You know, given that much of the Midway garrison appears to be made of Marines (source), they'd probably be the ones to seize her. Once the Marine Corp has their own carrier, I suspect they'd be reluctant to give her up, even if using her isn't the most efficient.
 
sebsmith said:
You know, given that much of the Midway garrison appears to be made of Marines (source), they'd probably be the ones to seize her. Once the Marine Corp has their own carrier, I suspect they'd be reluctant to give her up, even if using her isn't the most efficient.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

And if the Air Force found a tank, that still wouldn't make them experts in armored warfare. The Navy still gets the ship (Unlike the Japanese Army building its own carriers). At most the ship gets named Wake Island or Belleau Wood, or USS Tripoli. As for fighters, I don't know if Hiryu could handle Marine Corsairs or not. If not then she gets stuck with Wildcats if we insist on a Marine air group because the Fleet was not turning loose of Hellcats .
 
People, the understanding the USMC and USN have is this:

The Navy owns and operates the amphibious assault ships.

THe Marines use them to storm beaches.

My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment, Sir.

Edit: Like, c'mon, people. The gator navy is a thing. The marines and the navy have an understanding: the navy owns the ships that carry the marines to where the marines get off and do marine things. The marines have no desire to run ships of their own, not when the Navy exists to do that. As it was in the island hopping campaign, as it is now, as it shall be, Corps thst will exist for 500 years.
 
Last edited:
Anyone else here watched Angel's Egg?

Angel's Egg - Wikipedia

Without spoiling anything, there's a couple of lines that perked me up.

The speaker was retelling the story on Noah's Ark;

... Then he waited for seven days, and again sent forth the dove from the Ark.
But she did not return to the Ark anymore.
Where did the bird land? Maybe it was weakened and swallowed by the waters... No one could know.

So the people waited for her return, waited, and grew tired of waiting...

They forgot they had released a bird; forgot there was a bird. They even forgot there was a world sunken under the water.
They forgot where they were from; how long they had traveled; and where they were going.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Just something that I thought could be interesting. The film itself is quite vague at times, but it has such evocative imagery of the water, sea, and the mysteries within it.
 
I just had an odd thought about the snippet above where Fubuki was originally the shipgirls' Admiral before awakening. How would the shipgirls react to finding out that Fubuki, who they have been fighting beside and consider a friend and someone who has laid their lives on the line for them again and again, is really their missing Admiral. Would the fact that she was ordered into silence about that fact and actually had to fight to be allowed to be beside them make a difference.

Though now I had the image of Kongou, after remembering a story that Fubuki had told her when she was an Admiral, looking up said person's school and coming across an old yearbook with their picture in it. And then just staring as the fifteen year old image of her Admiral is looking back... and image that looks exactly like Fubuki...
 
The above snippet makes me wonder what would happen if Kongou's precious Teitoku were killed in the line of duty, given that if she's written well, she deeply cares for him (or in the above case, her).
 
CompassJimbo said:
The above snippet makes me wonder what would happen if Kongou's precious Teitoku were killed in the line of duty, given that if she's written well, she deeply cares for him (or in the above case, her).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I see a lot of grief on her side and some self-blame as she lost yet another Teitoku and was unable to protect them when she was needed. She might cover it up with smiles after some time, but I can see her privately grieving them deeply.
 
CompassJimbo said:
The above snippet makes me wonder what would happen if Kongou's precious Teitoku were killed in the line of duty, given that if she's written well, she deeply cares for him (or in the above case, her).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Irony: I spent lunch toying with who the first people posted to the kanmusu command would be, namely officers invalided from sea duty for injuries sustained fighting the Abyssals.

But then I also thought there would be more of them rather than singular Teitoku. If there's a fleet commander, and someone who looks after the FBBs specifically, who catches her eye first?
 
In one of the Kantaiverses, a kanmusu otaku made a discovery that sent her reeling, and certain elements in the country into a state of "Gakkk!". The natural-born kanmusu were all ai-no-ko. Every single one. Without exception.

It wasn't noticed until later that they also all came from families and clans with spiritual connections, often through miko and martial arts.
 
Night said:
Irony: I spent lunch toying with who the first people posted to the kanmusu command would be, namely officers invalided from sea duty for injuries sustained fighting the Abyssals.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There were no less than four flag-ranked officers in the IJN during WW2 named Abe. I only have three, so I think I'm okay.

When they started there had only been Abe, with his cane, to command the sixteen original kanmusu. At forty kanmusu they'd brought in another officer, a second Abe, this one with an empty uniform sleeve, and separated them into destroyers and heavier ships. At sixty-five, a third officer was brought in, with carriers and battleships under one officer, cruisers under another, and destroyers under the last. By now there were six torpedo squadron commanders, a submarine lieutenant, a heavy cruiser captain, a captain of the fleet carriers and a captain of the light carriers who had several lieutenant subordinates who looked after individual carrier divisions, two lieutenant commanders who handled the fast and slow BBs respectively under yet another captain, and finally Abe with the cane in charge of it all. He was the only one who actually issued operational orders as such. All the others were administrative commanders, who looked after their kanmusu's needs and prevented them from running amok as they had in the old days, when The List had been written. Many of them were quite close to their girls by now.

Lieutenant Commander Watanabe, with his prosthetic leg, had been the watch officer during The Bombardment when the Abyssals came after them in turn: Musashi had shielded him with her own body and saved his life, even if he'd lost his hearing temporarily as the battleship returned fire. It was an open secret on the base he and Musashi had an...unprofessional relationship since, but Rear Admiral Abe reportedly responded to being told by asking if it had no negative impact on his fleet, why was he supposed to care?

Lieutenant Abe, one of three women on the staff and separate from Abe with the cane or Abe without an arm, was the only officer who had ever made a combat sortie with her kanmusu: she'd donned scuba gear with a rebreather and joined her submarines for an ambush of an Abyssal bombardment force steaming through Bungo Suido. Everyone else envied her for that somewhat, tempered by the fact they also thought she was probably a bit unbalanced considering she'd actually tried to do it. What it meant for others' evaluation of her mental state that she had not only tried to join her submarines in battle, but had actually done so, was not discussed in polite company.

Lieutenant Commander Nishimura, whose lost two fingers made the battleships constantly mistake him for Isoroku Yamamoto when they weren't mistaking him for his distant relative Shoji, openly hated the fact he commanded the ship his distant relative had died on. Not because he held it against Yamashiro, but because she was constantly apologizing to him for something he honestly did not care about. He really just wanted it all to stop.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream…!

Safebooru - 6+girls archerfish (zhan jian shao nyu) bikini cassin young (zhan jian shao nyu) comic essex (zhan jian shao nyu) fletcher (zhan jian shao nyu) food hat ice cream kantai collection laffey (zhan jian shao nyu) multiple girls navel partially colored skirt swimsuit translated upper body white background y.ssanoha yamato (kantai collection) yukikaze (kantai collection) zhan jian shao nyu | 2037390

Safebooru - 5girls archerfish (zhan jian shao nyu) breasts cassin young (zhan jian shao nyu) comic enterprise (zhan jian shao nyu) hat highres laffey (zhan jian shao nyu) multiple girls north carolina (zhan jian shao nyu) partially colored skirt translated upper body white background william d porter (zhan jian shao nyu) y.ssanoha zhan jian shao nyu | 2037392

Safebooru - absurdres bird comic eagle essex (zhan jian shao nyu) food highres ice cream o'bannon (zhan jian shao nyu) partially colored william d porter (zhan jian shao nyu) y.ssanoha zhan jian shao nyu | 2037394

aka US Navy ice cream tales.
 
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top