Kantai Collection - Fanfic Idea and Recs
- Thread starter sasahara17
- Start date
I'm planning on depicting what happens when combat with abyssals gets up close and personal eventually. I'm thinking an anchor would be used mostly to ensnare and unbalance enemies as well as as a compact bludgeon up close. Maybe modified by Akashi at times so the curved tips point outwards like a pickaxe.
Pyeknu
Cross-Dimensional Magical Sith Lady
- Location
- Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada
And here's another group of ships with human names for the A Girl's Name and The Seventh Shipgirl. This time, I'm listing all battleships, battlecruisers, heavy cruisers, light cruisers and destroyer leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet Union), split by which actual country they serve. In this list, I also include proposed names for the Project 66 heavy cruisers, which all World of Warship fans will immediately recognize as the Tier X cruiser Moskvá; in this, I propose classical names from the shared history of those states who border oceans (no, the Caspian Sea doesn't count). Of course, all names in that class are my invention and I will explain the origins.
The basic reason I split a lot of classes between Russia and Ukraine is because of their places of construction; it was either a shipyard near Sankt-Peterbúrg (Leningrád) on the Baltic Sea in Russia or Mykolájiv (Nikoláev) on the Black Sea in Ukraine. However, given that all the CIS states, even the land-locked ones, would probably want to help out as best they could, some of the ship spirits will wind up in some very interesting places.
Ship names will, for the most part, be the original names on launching. If there were name changes from the old Soviet days, it'll be noted.
Please note that I've modified my Romanization approach to Slavic languages, eliminating all the háček marks over "z", "s" and "c" when I want to say "zh", "sh" and "ch". The slurred "šč" that ends words like the Russian translation of "comrade" will be written "sch". I do use "j" in lieu of "y" as there are two "y" type sounds in Russian; the "y" stand-alone sound is Ы while the "j" stand-alone is the Й "short i" sound. Thus, Ё, Ю and Я are written "jo", "ju" and "ja" respectively.
Anyhow, here we go...
ARMENIA (no universal ship prefix)
AZERBAIJAN (no ship prefix)
BELARUS (no universal ship prefix)
ESTONIA (ship prefix EML [Eesti Mereväe Laev])
GEORGIA (no ship prefix)
KYRGYZSTAN (no universal ship prefix)
LATVIA (ship prefix LJS [Latvijas Jūras Spēki])
LITHUANIA (ship prefix LKL [Lietuvos Karinis Laivas])
MOLDOVA (no universal ship prefix)
RUSSIA (no universal ship prefix)
Due to the fact that this section is rather big, this part will be split by classes.
UKRAINE (no universal ship prefix)
Due to the fact that this section is rather big, this part will be split by classes.
UZBEKISTAN (no universal ship prefix)
And that is all for now.
The basic reason I split a lot of classes between Russia and Ukraine is because of their places of construction; it was either a shipyard near Sankt-Peterbúrg (Leningrád) on the Baltic Sea in Russia or Mykolájiv (Nikoláev) on the Black Sea in Ukraine. However, given that all the CIS states, even the land-locked ones, would probably want to help out as best they could, some of the ship spirits will wind up in some very interesting places.
Ship names will, for the most part, be the original names on launching. If there were name changes from the old Soviet days, it'll be noted.
Please note that I've modified my Romanization approach to Slavic languages, eliminating all the háček marks over "z", "s" and "c" when I want to say "zh", "sh" and "ch". The slurred "šč" that ends words like the Russian translation of "comrade" will be written "sch". I do use "j" in lieu of "y" as there are two "y" type sounds in Russian; the "y" stand-alone sound is Ы while the "j" stand-alone is the Й "short i" sound. Thus, Ё, Ю and Я are written "jo", "ju" and "ja" respectively.
Anyhow, here we go...
ARMENIA (no universal ship prefix)
AZERBAIJAN (no ship prefix)
BELARUS (no universal ship prefix)
ESTONIA (ship prefix EML [Eesti Mereväe Laev])
GEORGIA (no ship prefix)
KYRGYZSTAN (no universal ship prefix)
LATVIA (ship prefix LJS [Latvijas Jūras Spēki])
LITHUANIA (ship prefix LKL [Lietuvos Karinis Laivas])
MOLDOVA (no universal ship prefix)
RUSSIA (no universal ship prefix)
Due to the fact that this section is rather big, this part will be split by classes.
UKRAINE (no universal ship prefix)
Due to the fact that this section is rather big, this part will be split by classes.
UZBEKISTAN (no universal ship prefix)
And that is all for now.
Last edited:
baofengyu
moonfaced assassin of joy
- Location
- Pain Amplifier
Saw this when I was browsing Anime this evening...apparently Kancolle is getting into the Valentine's Day gig...
Ship Girls Say "I Love You" in "KanColle" Valentine Campaign
Ship Girls Say "I Love You" in "KanColle" Valentine Campaign
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
So, I had a plotbunny. I started writing it. This is a horrible idea because:
a) College is about to start again.
b) 95% of my knowledge of Kancolle is secondhand
c) All of my knowledge of the crossover verse is secondhand
Without further ado, 4.3k words, provisional title of "Don't Feed Her."
------------------------
Sendai hated boring patrols. Honestly, she'd love to pick up a few destroyers on her radar, but the only thing she'd picked up so far was a fishing boat that had probably just drifted loose from a bad mooring. The only sign of the enemy was the constant, thin layer of fog that marked this water as Abyssal territory. Not that they seemed to be bothering to enforce it.
DesDiv 19 was almost falling asleep on their screws, and Sendai was tempted to call off the patrol half an hour early. But then Goto would chew all of them out and then dole out some punitive measures. Alternately, she could complete the northward leg of her patrol, and then pull into port in her namesake city instead, cutting a few hours off the patrol so Ayanami, Uranami, Shikinami, and Isonami could get some more sleep. Then they could catch a military train back to Yokosuka in the morning.
Except wait… weren't the garrison ships at Sendai City going to be relieved soon? Would Goto just assign them as garrison replacements? On the one hand, it might be good to see limited deployment for a while. On the other hand, it would be so boring. Unable to decide now, Sendai decided she'd wait until she was passing Kinkasan Island on the way south to make the decision.
That determination was made moot ten minutes later when a bright bluish flash flared over the horizon, followed shortly by a clap like thunder. The destroyers all jolted awake at that.
"Yokosuka, Yokosuka, this is Patrol-1-9-actual. Over." She spoke, broadcasting over her radio.
"Patrol-1-9, this is Yokosuka. I read you. Over." Katori had the night shift as radio officer tonight.
"Yokosuka. Observed bright flash followed by loud boom. I estimate the position of the flash to be 3-7 degrees 5-0 arcminutes North, 1-4-2 degrees 0-5 arcminutes East. Patrol-1-9 will perform reconnaissance. Over."
"Yokosuka copies. Good luck. Over."
"Alright! Uh, out." Sendai said, then cut the channel. "Hear that, girls?"
"Hmm." "Ah… yes." "Yep!" "Gotcha!"
"Great, let's get there soon! Increasing speed to 35 knots!" Sendai ordered as she accelerated, and several dozen meters away the destroyers followed suit. With the origin of the flash firmly in Abyssal territory they'd rather not dally. But at the same time, Sendai wanted to keep a bit of speed in reserve… and maybe also didn't want to get yelled at by Akashi about her props.
Ten minutes later, thicker fog curling around her ankles and calves, and Sendai's radar picked up a surface contact.
"Surface contact ahead, 10 klicks!" She announced to the destroyers. "You see it?"
"Not yet." Ayanami said. "Probably too much interference."
"Um… are your air radars picking up anything?" Isonami asked.
"Which direction?" Sendai asked immediately.
"Ah, East, bearing 87." Isonami said.
"Right." Sendai said, and fired up her fire control radar, aiming it in that direction. Ah. Oh, geez. There were a few dozen planes in the air. "Ayanami, Shikinami, keep on eye on the bogeys, tell me what they're doing."
And then her surface radar cleared up enough for her to get a good size reading on the unknown. At least 500 meters long. That, or multiple contacts. But Abyssal formations usually just looked like huge blobs because of how shipgirl radar worked, rather than what was definitely, sans interference, a straight line.
Geez, she's a big ship. Are there any ships that are 500 meters or longer? Maybe an American one? But Sendai couldn't figure out why an American capital ship would show up right 80 kilometers off the coast from her namesake city- last she'd heard, all of the old American battleships and carriers had been showing up in American ports. Also, there was something different here, she knew. They'd picked up stray ships before - the half-dozen Fletchers at Sasebo proved that - and there had never been that weird flash.
"It looks like the Abyssal craft are heading towards the unknown." Ayanami said.
"Load flak." Sendai said.
"Eh?"
"Our contact is massive. We're not going to sink her with anything besides torpedoes, because our shells will just pinprick her. What we can do is shoot off her radars and directors. Hopefully we won't need to, and it'll just be the aircraft we're fighting. Which is what the aircraft are suggesting. We've never seen Abyssals transfer aircraft before."
"Right."
A minute later, and Shikinami spoke up.
"Sendai. Looks like the aircraft are being shot down."
"By our unknown?" She asked. "But she's 40 klicks away."
"Maybe." Shikinami said. "Or it could be another shipgirl we can't see."
"Well, we'll know in a few minutes." Sendai said.
Several minutes, and Sendai had slowed down to a near-docking speed, her full-hull shadow overlapping with the unknown's just ahead.
"I'm turning off my radar, so keep an eye out for me, alright?" She asked. A shipgirl's radars would produce returns based off other shipgirl's full-hull shadows, not their human body. While useful for spotting Abyssals, it also meant an instant headache to turn on the radar from inside another ship's shadow. This was why shipgirl formations tended to be as large as full-hull formations.
"Right!" The destroyers chorused.
Sendai marched up to the figure, knee-deep in fog.
She was tall, as expected from someone with such a massive radar signature. The first thing Sendai noticed was the peaked cap that integrated into an opaque visor, hiding her eyes from view. A couple of antennas stuck out from the cap, and a chinstrap held it in place firmly, but Sendai hardly paid those any attention. What was visible of the shipgirl's face was as still as stone.
Her rigging seemed to consist of a pair of wings, each made of five massive, blocky feathers. Blocky fins stuck out from the ends of the wings and from behind her shoulders. In one hand she carried a polearm, a trident but with four identical prongs.
She was dressed in blue-grey fatigues, with a slitted chestplate for protection. Additional bits of armor covered more of her body, most of them painted a deep blue. A thick collar wrapped around her neck. A sling went across her shoulder to hold a set of metal canisters at her waist. Sendai couldn't look at her feet because of all the fog, but she would have guessed that the other shipgirl didn't have much under her heels.
And she was absolutely not moving.
"Hey!" Sendai greeted.
The shipgirl didn't move, still looking somewhere to Sendai's starboard.
"Hello?" Sendai asked. "You there, miss, uh?"
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Do you have a name?" Sendai asked.
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Hey, anyone home?" Sendai shouted, waving a hand in front of the shipgirl's face. She didn't dare touch her right now. That tetradent looked like it would go through her hull even with her rigging up.
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Hey! Listen!"
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Look, we're knee-deep in fog here." Sendai said. "So that means that sooner or later an Abyssal is going to come looking around here. Which you will probably want to avoid. So, are you going to follow us or not?"
At this, the shipgirl turned to face Sendai. Sendai paused and blinked.
"So you are paying attention to me. Good. I'm Sendai. What's your name?"
The shipgirl remained silent.
"Can you even talk?"
The shipgirl remained silent.
"Sendai!" Ayanami shouted. "More fighters incoming! A lot more! Way too many more!"
"Right." Sendai growled. "Come with me if you want to live." With that, she turned and fired up her screws again. A moment later, she heard the splash of water, and turned her head to see that the other shipgirl did in fact follow her.
"We're going straight back to Yokosuka right now!" She shouted.
"Right!" Her destroyers yelled, already moving as well.
There was a rushing sound from behind her, and one of Sendai's fairies chirped in her ear.
"AA rockets?" She muttered, still picking up speed. "I don't know any ships that would summon with those." Isuzu had gotten RAM launchers recently but Sendai hadn't gotten to see her use them yet.
The strange shipgirl dropped back as Sendai sped up. She did not want to leave her behind to get sunk or, worse, captured, but she couldn't do much. Actually…
"Diamond formation!" Sendai shouted. "Ayanami, take center next to our guest! I'll take point!" She got a chorus of affirmatives in response, and pushed her speed even higher. She was already past 20 knots and the stranger was still keeping up. Her escorts circled around, careful to keep from getting in the massive shadow of the new shipgirl, who kept launching wave after wave of missiles.
Strangely, the moment the girls started moving into formation, the stranger dropped back to hang even with Ayanami. But she kept herself halfway between Isonami and Ayanami rather than right next to Ayanami as was standard in the formation. Still, with the shipgirl no longer shadowing her radar, Sendai fired up her arial search radar.
And promptly bit back a swear. "Ayanami! You should have told me three princesses decided to play with us!" There were over 400 planes after them. Why? Maybe if Yura had been leading the Akizuki sisters they could have handled this,
Wait. The first group that they had seen hadn't been the first group. Scouts or fighters had investigated the initial flash. Then, when those had been shot down, half a carrier's worth of planes had been sent in to deal with the problem. So then rather than risk losing lots more planes via attrition, the Abyssals had sent an overwhelming wave of three princesses worth of planes. And presumably, there were plenty of ships following behind the planes. Not that she'd last long enough to fight them with this many aircraft.
Also, she didn't trust the destroyers to make it back on their own.
And enough talk, time to channel Yura or Isuzu. Her guns swung back and elevated, before belching out smoke and shells. Or even Naka, she's better at handling planes than I am. Clouds of smoke and shrapnel blossomed overhead and behind, lit by the explosions of missiles and burning aircraft.
"What kind of fighters are they?" Sendai quietly asked her fairies. "Ah, skull-types? Good, volleyball is better than skeet." The massive cross-sections those had made them a lot easier to hit. "Wait, flagship grade?" And then a final chirp. "Dodging now!"
Sendai danced, hostile torpedoes going every which way around her feet. But for a shipgirl, a plane's torpedo was a viable stepping-stone, and Sendai used them in her performance of "You can't hit me." Rooster-tails poked from the fog everywhere as the attacks ran at surface level to hit shipgirl feet. Her radar screamed with contacts, and she kept firing.
But Sendai was well aware that they weren't focusing on her. No, they were focusing on the new shipgirl, the one with the missiles. She couldn't check how well she was holding up, and she didn't want to distract her charges while they needed to dodge as well.
Oh, and their guest had started to drop back out of formation. Either she'd gotten hurt or 31 knots was her top speed. Sendai didn't ponder the matter as her engine room leveled out her speed.
A few more moments, and Sendai was clear enough to glance back at the shipgirl.
She was a mess. Her wings were mostly fine, with only the top part being blackened, but her torso and head were charred like Hiei's cooking. Sendai couldn't see her feet under the fog but she'd be willing to bet her dessert privileges that they were a even more of a mess. She watched half a dozen dive bombers scream in at the shipgirl's wing. She looked away to focus on herself for a moment, balancing on her one heel for an instant to get through the mave of munitions cutting through the surface.
She looked back, finding the shipgirl barely looked any worse-looking. At least she can take the beating they're giving out. She watched her take a loaded dive-bomber crashing into her face with only a small black mark.
And nothing was stopping the missile barrages the girl was putting out in return. Four streams, one from each shoulder and each wingtip, blasted into the air before arcing around to destroy the massive orbs attacking the ships. It didn't look like she was prioritizing anything though. If the missiles were just plain heatseekers, then that didn't bode well for using her in fleet engagements.
Dozens of eternities later, the swarm of aircraft had thinned out, reduced from a fiery hail to a light drizzle of hatred.
Sendai frowned as her guns ran dry. The booming of cannon fire had mostly faded. Sendai looked around, seeing only Isonami and the strange shipgirl still firing. The Abyssal skull aircraft, deciding that they were going to die anyway, dove into a suicide run against the massive shipgirl. Isonami managed to pick a few off before they rammed into their target… who proceeded to not even flinch. Even completely blackened to a crisp and all her armor being bent in, she just didn't care.
"Well…" Sendai sighed. "That was one of the more interesting night battles I have ever participated in. Everyone okay!?" She called back to the rest of the formation.
"I-I got hit!" Ayanami said. "Magazine explosion."
"Can you make it back to port, or will we need to call for a lift?" Sendai reduced her speed a bit to check on her a bit closer.
"My hull held below the waterline, and my boilers still work. I can make it…" Ayanami said. Sendai could see the open wounds where her torpedo turrets had exploded.
"Alright, but don't hesitate to tell us if that changes." Sendai said.
"No damage." Isonami stated.
"Some paint got burned off." Shikinami reported.
"I got a bit cooked there." Uranami said. "Had a fire break out on the deck and lost a turret."
The final member of their formation remained silent.
"Well?" Sendai twisted around to look at her.
The shipgirl wasn't even looking at Sendai, instead staring directly ahead. Or presumably staring, since Sendai couldn't even tell if she had eyes. Or still had eyes, because that level of damage could definitely have destroyed them even behind a metal visor. With all the burns all over her body, she'd need a good long rest to heal.
The fog was down to her ankles right now. She could probably check in. She let out a yawn as the rush of adrenaline started fading.
"Yokosuka, Yokosuka, this is Patrol-1-9-actual. Over."
"Patrol-1-9, this is Yokosuka. I read you. Over." Katori responded after a moment, with only the slightest amount of static.
"Yokosuka, Patrol-1-9 has recovered one shipgirl, unknown class, unknown type, unknown nationality. Patrol-1-9 also confirmed the presence of heavy enemy carrier presence in area. No shipgirls lost. Over"
"Patrol-1-9, copy. Damage report."
"Yokosuka, reporting damage. Destroyer Ayanami suffered magazine explosion and hull breeches above the waterline, and lost weapons. Destroyer Uranami suffered minor damage and a lost weapon. Unknown guest took a lot of pounding. Over."
"Patrol-1-9, do you need a lift? Over."
"Negative. Our guest isn't even listing. See you in about two hours. Out."
-----------
Two hours of weary sailing saw them in sight of Uraga Fortress. The stubby walls that protected Tokyo Bay were lined with lights and sensors more than weapons. Most demon- or princess-level enemies could simply bash through a lot of obstacles humanity could set up. The concept of a single inviolable layer of defence didn't work with them. Instead, the walls were set up more to prevent enemies from entering the bay undetected, and slow them down. This was usually augmented with a shipgirl adding her radar coverage.
And while they were slowed down, the coastal defense railguns could really go to work. Once through there, Tokyo Bay had already been mined. And the naval port had another layer of defences on top of that.
Of course, that also meant friendlies had to navigate through the defenses. First were the walls. Sendai signaled a full stop, and braced a hand on Ayanami's shoulder to stop her from tipping over. She'd trusted Isonami and Shikinami to keep an eye out with their radars while pulled aside Ayanami. Their guest had dropped behind Uranami when she did that, and Sendai had focused on the injured destroyer.
Following a radio exchange with the channel fortress, the formation compressed to approach a small door built into the wall. This door slid up, with barely enough displacement for the shipgirls to sail over it. Sendai turned to make sure their unknown follower was coming.
"What the?" She asked. When she said nothing, the destroyers turned to look.
"That- that's not fair!" Ayanami whined. For behind them, the strange shipgirl was perfectly pristine, armor shining like she'd never been attacked. Ayanami's damage control fairies had covered the holes in her legs with tarps and sealed them down to prevent spray from getting in, but she would still need repairs.
"Are we sure she wasn't replaced?" Sendai asked. A fight at the wall would be pretty bad, even if they won. And given that hundreds of aircraft hadn't put her down, she wasn't sure a time-on-target strike from all the railguns would deal with the shipgirl effectively.
"Pretty sure." Shikinami. "We had our radars on the entire time, so if she was replaced it would have had to be by a submarine with an identical radar profile surfacing right behind her and sinking her without us noticing. I think I'd notice that."
"Okay, okay." Sendai said. "Right. So she can apparently repair herself. And no one saw how she did it. Right. Let's dock and get some rest."
After traveling through half a dozen walls, over the minefield, and through the defensive perimeter of Yokosuka Naval Base itself, the group was greeted by Nagato, standing on the dock. A few human sentries were also stationed at the dock.
"Welcome back." She said.
"We're home." Sendai said, and patting Ayanami to indicate to her that she should go up on dry land first. Uranami, Shikinami, and Isonami all followed. Sendai waited for their guest, but the shipgirl was sitting perfectly still on the water behind her. Sighing, Sendai pulled herself up the steep stairs to the water and stepping off onto the pier itself.
Then the shipgirl sailed up to the stairs and climbed up.
Except she fell down two steps up, making a splash as she landed right on her back, her wings only making that worse.
"This is the mysterious shipgirl that you found?" Nagato said.
"Yeah…" Sendai said. "Not sure what's up with her." Nagato raised an eyebrow, asking her to continue. "She didn't talk at all, and while she can-" There was another splash as the shipgirl fell down again, "-understand us she really doesn't seem to… actually care that much."
Nagato hmmmed in response, and they watched the shipgirl attempt to climb up again, this time slipping forward and banging her wings against the stone of the pier, scratching the stone but looking intact herself.
"Wait a moment, we'll get you help." Sendai said. The shipgirl stood back up, but otherwise remained perfectly still after that. Nagato stepped forward, but Shikinami put a hand up to block her.
"She's close to 600 meters long. You're going to rip your arm out of your socket like that." Shikinami said. Shipgirls with their riggings deployed acted like women wearing fancy metal outfits when interacting with most things. The exceptions to that were other ships, including other shipgirls.
"Katō, Nobutaro." Nagato said, unwilling to lower her rigging around the unknown shipgirl unless she had to, "Help her up, would you?" The two sentries stepped towards the stairs and held out their arms for the shipgirl.
"Come on." Sendai said, when the shipgirl didn't respond. The shipgirl kept her unnaturally stationary stance.
"Move it." Sendai half-yelled, gesturing broadly, and the shipgirl moved. This time, with the help of the sentries, she made it up. She took a step forward....
And promptly started tipping forward, onto Sendai. Thinking quickly, the cruiser dismissed her rigging and caught the shipgirl, who promptly recovered.
"Does she know how to walk?" Nagato asked.
Sendai blinked. "That makes too much sense."
-----------
Forty minutes later, Sendai was waiting outside one of the examination rooms, on the other side of the hall from her guest. The trip had taken three times as long as it should have because of the shipgirl's lack of walking skill. She'd already missed revellie, but a shipgirl had to be watching their guest, so Sendai had volunteered. This meant that she, as well as Navy Police Shoji and Ijuin were stuck waiting for the medical staff to show up. Her stomach growled, but hopefully she'd still be able to get something from the cafeteria.
"Hello, hopefully you weren't waiting too long." Akashi said as she rounded the corner, followed by Dr. Kure and a few nurses and apprentice shipwrights.
"It's fine." Sendai said, though the other shipgirl said nothing. Dr. Kure let out a little "hmpf" at the assumed snub. The medical team moved past them, opened the door, and headed inside to the chittering of drydock fairies.
Sendai followed, and then sighed when she realized the shipgirl wasn't following her.
"Come on, move!" She yelled back, and the shipgirl started walking. "Stand there." Sendai pointed to the center of the room, surrounded by fairy-scale lifts and scaffolds. The shipgirl made it halfway before tripping over a taped-down cable. Akashi, Dr. Kure, and Sendai all tried to catch her. Sendai had her rigging down, and was fine, but Akashi had hers up and went flying from the impact.
The shipgirl calmly stood up again, and continued walking to the center of the scaffolding. Kure huffed indignantly.
"I don't think she can talk." Sendai said.
"I'm okay!" Akashi said, then stood up and shook her head. "Alright, uh,..." She turned to Sendai. "What's her name?"
"Dunno." Sendai said. "She doesn't talk. Let's just call her 'Silent Blue' for now."
"She can't talk?" Akashi said. "Really?"
"I don't know about 'can't,' but she doesn't talk." Sendai said.
"Hmmm." Akashi pondered. "Hey!" She shouted at 'Silent Blue.' "You need to turn around."
After a moment in which she did nothing, Sendai marched up and started trying to manhandle the other shipgirl, but with her rigging off she massed maybe 55 kilos while the larger shipgirl had probably 170 with her rigging deployed.
"Come. On." Sendai said. "You need to move-" And promptly nearly lost her balance as the shipgirl started moving with her. She walked the shipgirl back, then turned her around once she was far enough back her wings wouldn't knock over the tall columns of scaffolding. Then she backed her into position and slipped out all sneaky-like between the scaffolds.
"Now stand there and wait until they're done." Sendai added.
"Alright, Silent Blue? Strange shipgirl?" Akashi asked. "I'm going to begin the checkup now."
There was no response. Akashi stepped over to the scaffolding, and hatches on her rigging opened, disgorging a small army of fairies. In addition, more faires swarmed from the toolkits lying around the room, and the dockyard fairies joined Akashi's fairies in investigating the shipgirl. Akashi pulled a tape measure out of her rigging pockets, placed it on the ground behind the ship, and grabbed a lift filled with fairies. The fairies grabbed the ribbon of the tape, and Akashi held the case down as the lift ascended.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kure grabbed her stethoscope and put it on before stepping up to the shipgirl's bow and placing the head on different parts of the girl's chest.
In the meantime, the lift of fairies hand reached the top of the shipgirl.
"That can't be right." Akashi said.
"What?" One of the shiprights asked, right next to her with a clipboard.
"This says she's 578 meters length overall." Akashi said.
"Wait, what?" "No way."
"That sounds about right." Sendai interrupted the exclamations of impossibility. "Her radar shadow was that big."
Akashi sighed, then motioned for the fairies to bring the lift down. "She's 578 length overall. Perpendiculars are… she doesn't have any." She put the blocky tape measure back in its pocket, then pulled out a sewing tape measure.
"I'm not hearing any turbine noises." Dr. Kure said, as Akashi started wrapping the tape measure around the shipgirl's waist.
"Goddammit." Akashi said.
"Couldn't her turbines just not be running?" Sendai asked.
"No." One of the nurses said. "That's called death. A shipgirl's turbines are her heart. If you were to listen to your own heartbeat it would sound like turbines."
"I can't hear anything, actually." Kure sighed.
"I'll take a listen in a moment." Akashi said. "Beam of 105."
"Fairly wide." Kure said, still trying with the stethscope.
"Overall height of 150." Akashi said, then adjusted the tape measure. Then she frowned and adjusted it again.
"More weird things?" Kure asked.
"Yeah, I'm trying to find her draft and I can't." Akashi muttered, and then frowned. She was broken by a fairy contingent on the scaffold chirping at her. "Go ahead." She said, and held out her arm. The fairies vanished under her sleeves, then returned, carrying saws and cutting torches. As they started back up the scaffold, Sendai got up from where she was leaning against the wall and walked over.
"What are you doing?" Kure asked Sendai, who was looking at the fairy team climb back onto the wingtip.
"Hey, pretty sure that's one of her missile hatches." Sendai said to the fairies. "You probably don't want to force that one open."
There was a few moments of silence, before everyone turned to the cruiser and stared at her.
"Why didn't you mention that!?"
"Was I supposed to? Normally it's the patient who's doing the talking." Sendai shrugged. Then blinked. "Oh right."
"Yes." Akashi glared at the cruiser. "So, what else do you know?"
"Top speed of 31 knots, four AA missile launchers, durable enough to take getting wailed on by flagship-grade bombers for about 20 minutes, capable of self-repair somehow, we didn't see how. I think that's it."
There was another moment of silence.
Then incoherent screaming.
-----------------
a) College is about to start again.
b) 95% of my knowledge of Kancolle is secondhand
c) All of my knowledge of the crossover verse is secondhand
Without further ado, 4.3k words, provisional title of "Don't Feed Her."
------------------------
Sendai hated boring patrols. Honestly, she'd love to pick up a few destroyers on her radar, but the only thing she'd picked up so far was a fishing boat that had probably just drifted loose from a bad mooring. The only sign of the enemy was the constant, thin layer of fog that marked this water as Abyssal territory. Not that they seemed to be bothering to enforce it.
DesDiv 19 was almost falling asleep on their screws, and Sendai was tempted to call off the patrol half an hour early. But then Goto would chew all of them out and then dole out some punitive measures. Alternately, she could complete the northward leg of her patrol, and then pull into port in her namesake city instead, cutting a few hours off the patrol so Ayanami, Uranami, Shikinami, and Isonami could get some more sleep. Then they could catch a military train back to Yokosuka in the morning.
Except wait… weren't the garrison ships at Sendai City going to be relieved soon? Would Goto just assign them as garrison replacements? On the one hand, it might be good to see limited deployment for a while. On the other hand, it would be so boring. Unable to decide now, Sendai decided she'd wait until she was passing Kinkasan Island on the way south to make the decision.
That determination was made moot ten minutes later when a bright bluish flash flared over the horizon, followed shortly by a clap like thunder. The destroyers all jolted awake at that.
"Yokosuka, Yokosuka, this is Patrol-1-9-actual. Over." She spoke, broadcasting over her radio.
"Patrol-1-9, this is Yokosuka. I read you. Over." Katori had the night shift as radio officer tonight.
"Yokosuka. Observed bright flash followed by loud boom. I estimate the position of the flash to be 3-7 degrees 5-0 arcminutes North, 1-4-2 degrees 0-5 arcminutes East. Patrol-1-9 will perform reconnaissance. Over."
"Yokosuka copies. Good luck. Over."
"Alright! Uh, out." Sendai said, then cut the channel. "Hear that, girls?"
"Hmm." "Ah… yes." "Yep!" "Gotcha!"
"Great, let's get there soon! Increasing speed to 35 knots!" Sendai ordered as she accelerated, and several dozen meters away the destroyers followed suit. With the origin of the flash firmly in Abyssal territory they'd rather not dally. But at the same time, Sendai wanted to keep a bit of speed in reserve… and maybe also didn't want to get yelled at by Akashi about her props.
Ten minutes later, thicker fog curling around her ankles and calves, and Sendai's radar picked up a surface contact.
"Surface contact ahead, 10 klicks!" She announced to the destroyers. "You see it?"
"Not yet." Ayanami said. "Probably too much interference."
"Um… are your air radars picking up anything?" Isonami asked.
"Which direction?" Sendai asked immediately.
"Ah, East, bearing 87." Isonami said.
"Right." Sendai said, and fired up her fire control radar, aiming it in that direction. Ah. Oh, geez. There were a few dozen planes in the air. "Ayanami, Shikinami, keep on eye on the bogeys, tell me what they're doing."
And then her surface radar cleared up enough for her to get a good size reading on the unknown. At least 500 meters long. That, or multiple contacts. But Abyssal formations usually just looked like huge blobs because of how shipgirl radar worked, rather than what was definitely, sans interference, a straight line.
Geez, she's a big ship. Are there any ships that are 500 meters or longer? Maybe an American one? But Sendai couldn't figure out why an American capital ship would show up right 80 kilometers off the coast from her namesake city- last she'd heard, all of the old American battleships and carriers had been showing up in American ports. Also, there was something different here, she knew. They'd picked up stray ships before - the half-dozen Fletchers at Sasebo proved that - and there had never been that weird flash.
"It looks like the Abyssal craft are heading towards the unknown." Ayanami said.
"Load flak." Sendai said.
"Eh?"
"Our contact is massive. We're not going to sink her with anything besides torpedoes, because our shells will just pinprick her. What we can do is shoot off her radars and directors. Hopefully we won't need to, and it'll just be the aircraft we're fighting. Which is what the aircraft are suggesting. We've never seen Abyssals transfer aircraft before."
"Right."
A minute later, and Shikinami spoke up.
"Sendai. Looks like the aircraft are being shot down."
"By our unknown?" She asked. "But she's 40 klicks away."
"Maybe." Shikinami said. "Or it could be another shipgirl we can't see."
"Well, we'll know in a few minutes." Sendai said.
Several minutes, and Sendai had slowed down to a near-docking speed, her full-hull shadow overlapping with the unknown's just ahead.
"I'm turning off my radar, so keep an eye out for me, alright?" She asked. A shipgirl's radars would produce returns based off other shipgirl's full-hull shadows, not their human body. While useful for spotting Abyssals, it also meant an instant headache to turn on the radar from inside another ship's shadow. This was why shipgirl formations tended to be as large as full-hull formations.
"Right!" The destroyers chorused.
Sendai marched up to the figure, knee-deep in fog.
She was tall, as expected from someone with such a massive radar signature. The first thing Sendai noticed was the peaked cap that integrated into an opaque visor, hiding her eyes from view. A couple of antennas stuck out from the cap, and a chinstrap held it in place firmly, but Sendai hardly paid those any attention. What was visible of the shipgirl's face was as still as stone.
Her rigging seemed to consist of a pair of wings, each made of five massive, blocky feathers. Blocky fins stuck out from the ends of the wings and from behind her shoulders. In one hand she carried a polearm, a trident but with four identical prongs.
She was dressed in blue-grey fatigues, with a slitted chestplate for protection. Additional bits of armor covered more of her body, most of them painted a deep blue. A thick collar wrapped around her neck. A sling went across her shoulder to hold a set of metal canisters at her waist. Sendai couldn't look at her feet because of all the fog, but she would have guessed that the other shipgirl didn't have much under her heels.
And she was absolutely not moving.
"Hey!" Sendai greeted.
The shipgirl didn't move, still looking somewhere to Sendai's starboard.
"Hello?" Sendai asked. "You there, miss, uh?"
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Do you have a name?" Sendai asked.
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Hey, anyone home?" Sendai shouted, waving a hand in front of the shipgirl's face. She didn't dare touch her right now. That tetradent looked like it would go through her hull even with her rigging up.
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Hey! Listen!"
The shipgirl continued not moving.
"Look, we're knee-deep in fog here." Sendai said. "So that means that sooner or later an Abyssal is going to come looking around here. Which you will probably want to avoid. So, are you going to follow us or not?"
At this, the shipgirl turned to face Sendai. Sendai paused and blinked.
"So you are paying attention to me. Good. I'm Sendai. What's your name?"
The shipgirl remained silent.
"Can you even talk?"
The shipgirl remained silent.
"Sendai!" Ayanami shouted. "More fighters incoming! A lot more! Way too many more!"
"Right." Sendai growled. "Come with me if you want to live." With that, she turned and fired up her screws again. A moment later, she heard the splash of water, and turned her head to see that the other shipgirl did in fact follow her.
"We're going straight back to Yokosuka right now!" She shouted.
"Right!" Her destroyers yelled, already moving as well.
There was a rushing sound from behind her, and one of Sendai's fairies chirped in her ear.
"AA rockets?" She muttered, still picking up speed. "I don't know any ships that would summon with those." Isuzu had gotten RAM launchers recently but Sendai hadn't gotten to see her use them yet.
The strange shipgirl dropped back as Sendai sped up. She did not want to leave her behind to get sunk or, worse, captured, but she couldn't do much. Actually…
"Diamond formation!" Sendai shouted. "Ayanami, take center next to our guest! I'll take point!" She got a chorus of affirmatives in response, and pushed her speed even higher. She was already past 20 knots and the stranger was still keeping up. Her escorts circled around, careful to keep from getting in the massive shadow of the new shipgirl, who kept launching wave after wave of missiles.
Strangely, the moment the girls started moving into formation, the stranger dropped back to hang even with Ayanami. But she kept herself halfway between Isonami and Ayanami rather than right next to Ayanami as was standard in the formation. Still, with the shipgirl no longer shadowing her radar, Sendai fired up her arial search radar.
And promptly bit back a swear. "Ayanami! You should have told me three princesses decided to play with us!" There were over 400 planes after them. Why? Maybe if Yura had been leading the Akizuki sisters they could have handled this,
Wait. The first group that they had seen hadn't been the first group. Scouts or fighters had investigated the initial flash. Then, when those had been shot down, half a carrier's worth of planes had been sent in to deal with the problem. So then rather than risk losing lots more planes via attrition, the Abyssals had sent an overwhelming wave of three princesses worth of planes. And presumably, there were plenty of ships following behind the planes. Not that she'd last long enough to fight them with this many aircraft.
Also, she didn't trust the destroyers to make it back on their own.
And enough talk, time to channel Yura or Isuzu. Her guns swung back and elevated, before belching out smoke and shells. Or even Naka, she's better at handling planes than I am. Clouds of smoke and shrapnel blossomed overhead and behind, lit by the explosions of missiles and burning aircraft.
"What kind of fighters are they?" Sendai quietly asked her fairies. "Ah, skull-types? Good, volleyball is better than skeet." The massive cross-sections those had made them a lot easier to hit. "Wait, flagship grade?" And then a final chirp. "Dodging now!"
Sendai danced, hostile torpedoes going every which way around her feet. But for a shipgirl, a plane's torpedo was a viable stepping-stone, and Sendai used them in her performance of "You can't hit me." Rooster-tails poked from the fog everywhere as the attacks ran at surface level to hit shipgirl feet. Her radar screamed with contacts, and she kept firing.
But Sendai was well aware that they weren't focusing on her. No, they were focusing on the new shipgirl, the one with the missiles. She couldn't check how well she was holding up, and she didn't want to distract her charges while they needed to dodge as well.
Oh, and their guest had started to drop back out of formation. Either she'd gotten hurt or 31 knots was her top speed. Sendai didn't ponder the matter as her engine room leveled out her speed.
A few more moments, and Sendai was clear enough to glance back at the shipgirl.
She was a mess. Her wings were mostly fine, with only the top part being blackened, but her torso and head were charred like Hiei's cooking. Sendai couldn't see her feet under the fog but she'd be willing to bet her dessert privileges that they were a even more of a mess. She watched half a dozen dive bombers scream in at the shipgirl's wing. She looked away to focus on herself for a moment, balancing on her one heel for an instant to get through the mave of munitions cutting through the surface.
She looked back, finding the shipgirl barely looked any worse-looking. At least she can take the beating they're giving out. She watched her take a loaded dive-bomber crashing into her face with only a small black mark.
And nothing was stopping the missile barrages the girl was putting out in return. Four streams, one from each shoulder and each wingtip, blasted into the air before arcing around to destroy the massive orbs attacking the ships. It didn't look like she was prioritizing anything though. If the missiles were just plain heatseekers, then that didn't bode well for using her in fleet engagements.
Dozens of eternities later, the swarm of aircraft had thinned out, reduced from a fiery hail to a light drizzle of hatred.
Sendai frowned as her guns ran dry. The booming of cannon fire had mostly faded. Sendai looked around, seeing only Isonami and the strange shipgirl still firing. The Abyssal skull aircraft, deciding that they were going to die anyway, dove into a suicide run against the massive shipgirl. Isonami managed to pick a few off before they rammed into their target… who proceeded to not even flinch. Even completely blackened to a crisp and all her armor being bent in, she just didn't care.
"Well…" Sendai sighed. "That was one of the more interesting night battles I have ever participated in. Everyone okay!?" She called back to the rest of the formation.
"I-I got hit!" Ayanami said. "Magazine explosion."
"Can you make it back to port, or will we need to call for a lift?" Sendai reduced her speed a bit to check on her a bit closer.
"My hull held below the waterline, and my boilers still work. I can make it…" Ayanami said. Sendai could see the open wounds where her torpedo turrets had exploded.
"Alright, but don't hesitate to tell us if that changes." Sendai said.
"No damage." Isonami stated.
"Some paint got burned off." Shikinami reported.
"I got a bit cooked there." Uranami said. "Had a fire break out on the deck and lost a turret."
The final member of their formation remained silent.
"Well?" Sendai twisted around to look at her.
The shipgirl wasn't even looking at Sendai, instead staring directly ahead. Or presumably staring, since Sendai couldn't even tell if she had eyes. Or still had eyes, because that level of damage could definitely have destroyed them even behind a metal visor. With all the burns all over her body, she'd need a good long rest to heal.
The fog was down to her ankles right now. She could probably check in. She let out a yawn as the rush of adrenaline started fading.
"Yokosuka, Yokosuka, this is Patrol-1-9-actual. Over."
"Patrol-1-9, this is Yokosuka. I read you. Over." Katori responded after a moment, with only the slightest amount of static.
"Yokosuka, Patrol-1-9 has recovered one shipgirl, unknown class, unknown type, unknown nationality. Patrol-1-9 also confirmed the presence of heavy enemy carrier presence in area. No shipgirls lost. Over"
"Patrol-1-9, copy. Damage report."
"Yokosuka, reporting damage. Destroyer Ayanami suffered magazine explosion and hull breeches above the waterline, and lost weapons. Destroyer Uranami suffered minor damage and a lost weapon. Unknown guest took a lot of pounding. Over."
"Patrol-1-9, do you need a lift? Over."
"Negative. Our guest isn't even listing. See you in about two hours. Out."
-----------
Two hours of weary sailing saw them in sight of Uraga Fortress. The stubby walls that protected Tokyo Bay were lined with lights and sensors more than weapons. Most demon- or princess-level enemies could simply bash through a lot of obstacles humanity could set up. The concept of a single inviolable layer of defence didn't work with them. Instead, the walls were set up more to prevent enemies from entering the bay undetected, and slow them down. This was usually augmented with a shipgirl adding her radar coverage.
And while they were slowed down, the coastal defense railguns could really go to work. Once through there, Tokyo Bay had already been mined. And the naval port had another layer of defences on top of that.
Of course, that also meant friendlies had to navigate through the defenses. First were the walls. Sendai signaled a full stop, and braced a hand on Ayanami's shoulder to stop her from tipping over. She'd trusted Isonami and Shikinami to keep an eye out with their radars while pulled aside Ayanami. Their guest had dropped behind Uranami when she did that, and Sendai had focused on the injured destroyer.
Following a radio exchange with the channel fortress, the formation compressed to approach a small door built into the wall. This door slid up, with barely enough displacement for the shipgirls to sail over it. Sendai turned to make sure their unknown follower was coming.
"What the?" She asked. When she said nothing, the destroyers turned to look.
"That- that's not fair!" Ayanami whined. For behind them, the strange shipgirl was perfectly pristine, armor shining like she'd never been attacked. Ayanami's damage control fairies had covered the holes in her legs with tarps and sealed them down to prevent spray from getting in, but she would still need repairs.
"Are we sure she wasn't replaced?" Sendai asked. A fight at the wall would be pretty bad, even if they won. And given that hundreds of aircraft hadn't put her down, she wasn't sure a time-on-target strike from all the railguns would deal with the shipgirl effectively.
"Pretty sure." Shikinami. "We had our radars on the entire time, so if she was replaced it would have had to be by a submarine with an identical radar profile surfacing right behind her and sinking her without us noticing. I think I'd notice that."
"Okay, okay." Sendai said. "Right. So she can apparently repair herself. And no one saw how she did it. Right. Let's dock and get some rest."
After traveling through half a dozen walls, over the minefield, and through the defensive perimeter of Yokosuka Naval Base itself, the group was greeted by Nagato, standing on the dock. A few human sentries were also stationed at the dock.
"Welcome back." She said.
"We're home." Sendai said, and patting Ayanami to indicate to her that she should go up on dry land first. Uranami, Shikinami, and Isonami all followed. Sendai waited for their guest, but the shipgirl was sitting perfectly still on the water behind her. Sighing, Sendai pulled herself up the steep stairs to the water and stepping off onto the pier itself.
Then the shipgirl sailed up to the stairs and climbed up.
Except she fell down two steps up, making a splash as she landed right on her back, her wings only making that worse.
"This is the mysterious shipgirl that you found?" Nagato said.
"Yeah…" Sendai said. "Not sure what's up with her." Nagato raised an eyebrow, asking her to continue. "She didn't talk at all, and while she can-" There was another splash as the shipgirl fell down again, "-understand us she really doesn't seem to… actually care that much."
Nagato hmmmed in response, and they watched the shipgirl attempt to climb up again, this time slipping forward and banging her wings against the stone of the pier, scratching the stone but looking intact herself.
"Wait a moment, we'll get you help." Sendai said. The shipgirl stood back up, but otherwise remained perfectly still after that. Nagato stepped forward, but Shikinami put a hand up to block her.
"She's close to 600 meters long. You're going to rip your arm out of your socket like that." Shikinami said. Shipgirls with their riggings deployed acted like women wearing fancy metal outfits when interacting with most things. The exceptions to that were other ships, including other shipgirls.
"Katō, Nobutaro." Nagato said, unwilling to lower her rigging around the unknown shipgirl unless she had to, "Help her up, would you?" The two sentries stepped towards the stairs and held out their arms for the shipgirl.
"Come on." Sendai said, when the shipgirl didn't respond. The shipgirl kept her unnaturally stationary stance.
"Move it." Sendai half-yelled, gesturing broadly, and the shipgirl moved. This time, with the help of the sentries, she made it up. She took a step forward....
And promptly started tipping forward, onto Sendai. Thinking quickly, the cruiser dismissed her rigging and caught the shipgirl, who promptly recovered.
"Does she know how to walk?" Nagato asked.
Sendai blinked. "That makes too much sense."
-----------
Forty minutes later, Sendai was waiting outside one of the examination rooms, on the other side of the hall from her guest. The trip had taken three times as long as it should have because of the shipgirl's lack of walking skill. She'd already missed revellie, but a shipgirl had to be watching their guest, so Sendai had volunteered. This meant that she, as well as Navy Police Shoji and Ijuin were stuck waiting for the medical staff to show up. Her stomach growled, but hopefully she'd still be able to get something from the cafeteria.
"Hello, hopefully you weren't waiting too long." Akashi said as she rounded the corner, followed by Dr. Kure and a few nurses and apprentice shipwrights.
"It's fine." Sendai said, though the other shipgirl said nothing. Dr. Kure let out a little "hmpf" at the assumed snub. The medical team moved past them, opened the door, and headed inside to the chittering of drydock fairies.
Sendai followed, and then sighed when she realized the shipgirl wasn't following her.
"Come on, move!" She yelled back, and the shipgirl started walking. "Stand there." Sendai pointed to the center of the room, surrounded by fairy-scale lifts and scaffolds. The shipgirl made it halfway before tripping over a taped-down cable. Akashi, Dr. Kure, and Sendai all tried to catch her. Sendai had her rigging down, and was fine, but Akashi had hers up and went flying from the impact.
The shipgirl calmly stood up again, and continued walking to the center of the scaffolding. Kure huffed indignantly.
"I don't think she can talk." Sendai said.
"I'm okay!" Akashi said, then stood up and shook her head. "Alright, uh,..." She turned to Sendai. "What's her name?"
"Dunno." Sendai said. "She doesn't talk. Let's just call her 'Silent Blue' for now."
"She can't talk?" Akashi said. "Really?"
"I don't know about 'can't,' but she doesn't talk." Sendai said.
"Hmmm." Akashi pondered. "Hey!" She shouted at 'Silent Blue.' "You need to turn around."
After a moment in which she did nothing, Sendai marched up and started trying to manhandle the other shipgirl, but with her rigging off she massed maybe 55 kilos while the larger shipgirl had probably 170 with her rigging deployed.
"Come. On." Sendai said. "You need to move-" And promptly nearly lost her balance as the shipgirl started moving with her. She walked the shipgirl back, then turned her around once she was far enough back her wings wouldn't knock over the tall columns of scaffolding. Then she backed her into position and slipped out all sneaky-like between the scaffolds.
"Now stand there and wait until they're done." Sendai added.
"Alright, Silent Blue? Strange shipgirl?" Akashi asked. "I'm going to begin the checkup now."
There was no response. Akashi stepped over to the scaffolding, and hatches on her rigging opened, disgorging a small army of fairies. In addition, more faires swarmed from the toolkits lying around the room, and the dockyard fairies joined Akashi's fairies in investigating the shipgirl. Akashi pulled a tape measure out of her rigging pockets, placed it on the ground behind the ship, and grabbed a lift filled with fairies. The fairies grabbed the ribbon of the tape, and Akashi held the case down as the lift ascended.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kure grabbed her stethoscope and put it on before stepping up to the shipgirl's bow and placing the head on different parts of the girl's chest.
In the meantime, the lift of fairies hand reached the top of the shipgirl.
"That can't be right." Akashi said.
"What?" One of the shiprights asked, right next to her with a clipboard.
"This says she's 578 meters length overall." Akashi said.
"Wait, what?" "No way."
"That sounds about right." Sendai interrupted the exclamations of impossibility. "Her radar shadow was that big."
Akashi sighed, then motioned for the fairies to bring the lift down. "She's 578 length overall. Perpendiculars are… she doesn't have any." She put the blocky tape measure back in its pocket, then pulled out a sewing tape measure.
"I'm not hearing any turbine noises." Dr. Kure said, as Akashi started wrapping the tape measure around the shipgirl's waist.
"Goddammit." Akashi said.
"Couldn't her turbines just not be running?" Sendai asked.
"No." One of the nurses said. "That's called death. A shipgirl's turbines are her heart. If you were to listen to your own heartbeat it would sound like turbines."
"I can't hear anything, actually." Kure sighed.
"I'll take a listen in a moment." Akashi said. "Beam of 105."
"Fairly wide." Kure said, still trying with the stethscope.
"Overall height of 150." Akashi said, then adjusted the tape measure. Then she frowned and adjusted it again.
"More weird things?" Kure asked.
"Yeah, I'm trying to find her draft and I can't." Akashi muttered, and then frowned. She was broken by a fairy contingent on the scaffold chirping at her. "Go ahead." She said, and held out her arm. The fairies vanished under her sleeves, then returned, carrying saws and cutting torches. As they started back up the scaffold, Sendai got up from where she was leaning against the wall and walked over.
"What are you doing?" Kure asked Sendai, who was looking at the fairy team climb back onto the wingtip.
"Hey, pretty sure that's one of her missile hatches." Sendai said to the fairies. "You probably don't want to force that one open."
There was a few moments of silence, before everyone turned to the cruiser and stared at her.
"Why didn't you mention that!?"
"Was I supposed to? Normally it's the patient who's doing the talking." Sendai shrugged. Then blinked. "Oh right."
"Yes." Akashi glared at the cruiser. "So, what else do you know?"
"Top speed of 31 knots, four AA missile launchers, durable enough to take getting wailed on by flagship-grade bombers for about 20 minutes, capable of self-repair somehow, we didn't see how. I think that's it."
There was another moment of silence.
Then incoherent screaming.
-----------------
- Location
- Canada
So what's the crossover?
- Location
- United States
I don't know if I asked this or not, But what would the Galactic Empire do if Spaceship Abyssals appeared in the galaxy?
- Location
- Little Red Dot
What they always do. More ships and bigger. Quantity is its own quality, and it's not like ISDs were particularly crap.
And they weren't really losing the war they were already fighting by any stretch of the imagination (before SW OT).
The Rebellion was just pretty cockroach-esque in their ability to hit hard somewhere, then go to ground, hide and recover from their still notably less easy to recoup losses.
The Abyssals are going to need a lot of serious Spess Magick to do significantly better than that. So yes it does come down to what sorts of (essentially) Spess Magick you want to give em.
And they weren't really losing the war they were already fighting by any stretch of the imagination (before SW OT).
The Rebellion was just pretty cockroach-esque in their ability to hit hard somewhere, then go to ground, hide and recover from their still notably less easy to recoup losses.
The Abyssals are going to need a lot of serious Spess Magick to do significantly better than that. So yes it does come down to what sorts of (essentially) Spess Magick you want to give em.
Last edited:
Thrawn will push for truce. With Rebels and everyone. Even maybe considering building droids army.
Besides than that, galaxy is boned, especially if KOTOR stuff start going out from Darkness.
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sendai: Boy, that's a good question! I'd like to know that too! ::holds torpedo against ltmauve's neck::
Are you seriously threatening me with one torpedo?
Anyway, the crossover is going to remain unknown until either "Blue" or ****** ****** Princess gives it away.
That said:
How are my characters so far? Does this Sendai work? (Since she's going to pretty much be the viewpoint character)
Do you think this will be interesting? Do you find yourself intrigued?
Inter-VersaLoli
Delusional Aspiring Writer
- Location
- Singapore
Question: How do guided missiles fare against Shipgirls? I know the KC fanfic are in general agreement that they don't do so hot against Abyssals (or how else would a bunch of lolis with mounted cannons overshadow millions of dollars worth of hardware).
Actually, to pivot into an even bigger question I've been wondering for some time, how do you think the Shipgirls would affect the world after the Abyssal War. I mean, after the Abyssal War, each country would have their own fleet of walking, talking, superhuman ships. If they're immune/very resistant to guided weaponry (which fits with most depictions in which they're essentially the benevolent mirror of the Abyssals, who are often portrayed as messing with modern guided munitions), then the paradigm of warfare would shift significantly, and nor just in the seas.
In the event of each of one of these Shipgirl-wielding nations going to war with another Shipgirl-wielding nation, how would their Shipgirls feel about having to gun down other Shipgirls? Humans? After spending so long fighting alongside all Shipgirls, and protecting all humans?
And what about the Abyssals? If they weren't all genocided at end of the War, then what would be their place in this new world order? Would they be relegated to something akin to a rogue state (e.g. North Korea), where they are still organised, but are just barely tolerated, due to the cost of wiping them out completely being far too high for what it'll get (remember, the rest of the world is still recovering from what is essentially a world war), and the Abyssals not being a significant threat anymore (since they know that if they try anything, the rest if the world will just crush them like a bug).
Or they could just completely collapse into sectarian in-fighting. Not that they weren't doing that (in many depictions) before their defeat, but at least back then they were somewhat united by a common disdain for humanity and shipgirls.
I could see various Abyssals, no longer having a coherent purpose, getting hired by various unscrupulous groups, in fact. Warlords, PMCs, terrorist groups, even the various Intelligence Services. All the firepower and portability of a Shipgirl, minus the pesky morality and burdensome national loyalty.
Actually, to pivot into an even bigger question I've been wondering for some time, how do you think the Shipgirls would affect the world after the Abyssal War. I mean, after the Abyssal War, each country would have their own fleet of walking, talking, superhuman ships. If they're immune/very resistant to guided weaponry (which fits with most depictions in which they're essentially the benevolent mirror of the Abyssals, who are often portrayed as messing with modern guided munitions), then the paradigm of warfare would shift significantly, and nor just in the seas.
In the event of each of one of these Shipgirl-wielding nations going to war with another Shipgirl-wielding nation, how would their Shipgirls feel about having to gun down other Shipgirls? Humans? After spending so long fighting alongside all Shipgirls, and protecting all humans?
And what about the Abyssals? If they weren't all genocided at end of the War, then what would be their place in this new world order? Would they be relegated to something akin to a rogue state (e.g. North Korea), where they are still organised, but are just barely tolerated, due to the cost of wiping them out completely being far too high for what it'll get (remember, the rest of the world is still recovering from what is essentially a world war), and the Abyssals not being a significant threat anymore (since they know that if they try anything, the rest if the world will just crush them like a bug).
Or they could just completely collapse into sectarian in-fighting. Not that they weren't doing that (in many depictions) before their defeat, but at least back then they were somewhat united by a common disdain for humanity and shipgirls.
I could see various Abyssals, no longer having a coherent purpose, getting hired by various unscrupulous groups, in fact. Warlords, PMCs, terrorist groups, even the various Intelligence Services. All the firepower and portability of a Shipgirl, minus the pesky morality and burdensome national loyalty.
Bro. I knew it's fun to be coy but it's really annoying to be told "it's a secret"when asked what the basic premise is...
Mega1987
A TTK somewhere at Kancolle's Iwagawa Airfield
- Location
- somewhere at Kancolle's Iwagawa Airfield
@guided missile vs kanmusu...
Unless your missile can track and hit a human size targat with good hit rate...
But otherwise... You're wasting alot of money to hit a kanmusu with thise missiles.
@post abyssal war.
Depends on the kanmusu's plans after the war.
Some might stay with the navy.
Some might settle down...
Some might go a trip and visit placed they wanted to see....
Or they go rogue....
And if there's any abyssals remained after the war... It will also depend if they're still going to continue their old directives/objectives.
Or they do what hoppou in most fandom do and just stay on their territory and will not attack nir distrub anyone in their area as long they're not bothered and/or given certain gifts they want that they cant have normally.
Or join other organization that can provided them with whatever their need in exchange of their serivces for them....
- Location
- Canada
In the immortal words of probably most people who make shit up
"Depends on what you want."
A space opera where humanity explores the stars would have the shipgirls operate under roughly the same organization, so there'd be little to no shipgirl-on-shipgirl fighting. Or you could do a post-apocalyptic thing where humanity has united into one organization under the benevolent leadership of superhuman ship-people.
As for Abyssals, again, depends on what you want. Are they angry ghosts? Aliens? Alternate universe invaders? Can they think, or are they all just part of a hive mind? Do you want to treat them as a background danger, an animalistic antagonistic force, or as intelligent adversaries? Would you have the characters talk to them, or do you want the Abyssals to come at the protagonists like the Terminator? The answer changes based on what you want to do.
One idea I had was that the Abyssals were shipgirls from a Giger-esque universe, come here to terraform the Earth for colonization (because trans-universal travel is easier than space travel or something). Then the idea spiraled off into Abyssals gradually winning the war, the shipgirls leading humanity into another universe to survive, the Abyssals breaking into a civil war over letting their own humans lord over them, and the conflict leaving them with no way to contact home. This forces them to start their own civilization and they eventually get to the spacefaring stage, and then it's sci-fi from there. I gave up because I had no idea what I wanted out of it.
I am enamored with the idea of a post-apocalyptic world that's been permanently wrecked by the war between shipgirls and Abyssals
Last edited:
Diazo
Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
- Location
- Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood
Going off on quite a tangent from your question, as you say the general agreement is modern military hardware just fails against Abyssals to allow the game to happen, but I've never seen any real attempt at an alternate explanation of what would allow the game to come around. (Referring to the game here as it is the "original" canon for the setting, for what that's worth.)
Keep in mind in the game it is Ship-Girls vs. Abyssals, we simply never see a crewed ship of any sort. In any scenario where modern weapons fail against Abyssal, I would still expect there to be significant modern naval units available (most of those that were in dock when the war started for one....), instead in the game the only seagoing units are Ship-Girls and Abyssals. Never mind all the civilian vessels that would have survived by just running away. A relatively small percentage of civilian vessels would have survived being attacked, but that still a pretty big number in absolute terms, even before we get to the ones that were in port when the attacks started.
Civilian not being present do make sense from a game play perspective, but where's my escort quest to protect civilian cargo ships? And if there are any civilian ships left, why are Ship-Girls running resource expeditions?
Having said that, any alternate explanation would take significant world-building, the modern weapons just not working due to MSSB may not be canon, but it's as close to canon as fanon can get at this point and you need to explain to your readers why, and how, of the difference as it has become the default explanation.
And having said all that, I don't really have any solid alternatives to offer up, I do have three ideas I'm going to post, but they all have outstanding issues.
1) There was no surprise attacks, rather the Abyss/Davy Jones/Enemy Admiral had had enough of humans on his oceans and went "your are mine now!" and every ship afloat was consumed in a dark cloud, leaving only skeletons of themselves behind.
Then there would be a significant length of time before any Abyssals appeared as the Enemy Admiral has to take all the materials (and spirits) he has just obtained and convert them into Abyssal units. During this time it would be more of a mystery/adventure story as humanity goes WTF? and tries to figure out what is going on. (Also, this makes this story potentially quite dark as all those cargo freighters carrying food have also vanished.....)
This first mystery arc would end with the first actual attacks by Abyssals and humanity figuring out a little bit of what is going on and learning how to summon ship-girls, leading into the events of the game. Ship-Girls would require a catalyst (spiritual weight) of some sort to summon, hence the relatively well-known ships of WW2 being the primary ones summoned, although as the story progressed I would see the skeletons left behind also working for summoning purposes.
So both sides get a method of gaining power, the Abyss gets more powerful as it has more time to convert more spirits over to it's side, and so convert more powerful (and more modern) units as time goes on. Humanity figures more and more out about the summoning process and so can summon bigger units with more spiritual weight as time goes on, and also gets better at using catalyst so a weaker link would work to summon Ship-Girls, such as a modern DD from the skeleton left behind that is still sitting in the harbor.
And as interesting as that is as an idea, once you reach the combat part of the idea where the Abyssal's are attacking, there is no functional difference story wise really to the original idea of modern weapons not working due to MSSB, so anything that made use of this idea would have to be in the first mystery arc, but there are no Abyssal or Ship-Girls present, so it's not really a Kancolle fic at that point.
2) The bombs flew, WW3 happened in the blink of an eye and the survivors are left stumbling around in the ruins of civilization trying to survive.
The bombs also destroyed the ancient seals holding back humanity's ancient enemy in the deep of the ocean's abyss and it sets forth to finish the job.
But humanity is resilient and while there are no grand stories about WW3, stories from WW2 (including notable units such as ships) are now told around the campfire as inspirational stories of how their ancestors persisted and survived and how they can as well in this wasteland they have now been thrust into.
So when the Abyss attacks from the ocean, humanity prays and hopes for salvation and (filtered through the WW2 stories told) the famous units of the time appear to defend humanity once again.
And again, this idea suffers from the same problem that is a huge chunk of work to redo the backstory in order to end up at the same location of Ship-Girls vs. Abyssal we see in the game, without really affecting the game at all.
3) Really, the best I have is simply give Abyssals (and so Ship-Girls) damage immunity to everything except "spiritual", with humans counting as (weak) spirits.
So a gun fired by a human by eye would work, so coastal defense batteries are an option, but a computer aimed gun wouldn't, sharply limiting the effective range.
The same way a lookout with binoculars can spot incoming Abyssal planes, but they are invisible to human radar. Ship-Girl radar being spiritual would work as expected.
This sidelines all modern units, but if you want human-crewed units in the field is does allow for old ships with human-crewed direct fire guns to take the field in your story.
It also allows you to limit the combat to purely Ship-Girl vs. Abyssal we see in the game.
Hopefully that all makes sense, keep in mind all these ideas are about removing human crewed ships from the story and making it purely about the Ship-Girl vs. Abyssal fight. If you want human-crewed ships in your story they don't really work.
Okay, this post is long enough at this point, but it feels good to get that off my chest.
D.
Last edited:
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, first off: That guided missile is only going to take out one Aybssal if it hits. Meanwhile, for the cost of that single missile, you can feed, clothe, and care for multiple shipgirls (Source about the cost of raising kids in Japan - average cost of about 1 million Yen/$9,000 per year. Harpoons cost 1.2 million dollars a shot.) That's over a hundred shipgirls worth of upkeep for a single missile, which can handle Abyssals on a continual basis much better than that single missile. DDGs wouldn't just be cost effective at all. A carrier group costs 2.5 million per day. (source) Even with pessimistic estimates about much more a shipgirl costs to care for than a normal girl, the carrier group's operating cost should be exceeding the annual cost for all the shipgirls in the game by the end of the week. When replacements and repairs are factored in the cost gets even worse.
Next, for full-sized ships versus shipgirls: Before any MSSB (besides giving equivalent firepower and durability) the shipgirl already has an advantage in hitbox size. A modernized Iowa versus a Ta, Re, or Ru is going to lose because by the time the Iowa manages to score a hit versus the tiny target, the Abyssal will have already put hundreds of shells into the sinking ship, just by the size difference.
If you add in MSSB and Abyssal fuckery, it gets worse. Any MSSB is going to make shipgirls either better suited to handle Abyssals or better than their full-sized counterparts. Any Abyssal fuckery is going to make conventional forces even more worthless.
Sorry,. Anyway, I think the story will be better if you're in the same shoes as the characters in not knowing who this creepy shipgirl is. So I'm not going to say.
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
Missile vs shipgirl has the problem that a shipgirl is a small human sized target, and the missiles that you use for shooting human targets - man portable ATGMs - are poor weapons against any ship bigger than a speedboat. As for missile vs Abyssal, it depends on the nature of the Abyssal; @Sheo Darren 's Eternity runs on 1:1 scale evil replica ships because he was more than a little tired of Abyssals easily no-selling human weaponry.
While your figures are correct, I feel I ought to point out that cost parity doesn't exist in war. The US uses 95 million dollar Super Hornets to drop 25,000 dollar JDAMs on insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria. 4 million dollar tanks die to 70 thousand dollar ATGMs. A guy paid 200 bucks plants an IED that kills men with tens of thousands of dollars of training and equipment. Keeping missile stocks husbanded and unused because shipgirls are cheaper doesn't really make sense, because war isn't a game of Counter Strike: you're not buying your weapons before you get into a scrap, the costs of equipping your military are all sunk costs, paid for years ago. Say Abyssals showed up right now in the Malacca Strait, our Hornets are going to be firing Harpoons and Mavericks at them right now, because we bought those Harpoons and Mavericks 20 years ago with our Hornets.
Well... if you're any navy other than the Royal Navy. Due to budget cutbacks, the RN can't afford to buy Harpoons and service them, so instead RN ships carry dummy missiles to train weapons handling and use computer simulated Harpoons for sim training, the idea/hope being that if a shooting war happens, the RN can make the Treasury release emergency war funds and they can call up the US and order Harpoons, and the US will release Harpoons to the RN from existing war stocks and in 48 hours the missiles are in England. (I can see no way in which this approach can go wrong.
)What is going to be an issue is time, because you need time to make these weapons and load them onto their platforms. As an example, Boeing can build 150 JDAM kits a day, which means just under 55,000 JDAMs a year, which is okay for the current op tempo (the US dropped 24,000 JDAMs in 2016), but we're going to have problems if it's Abyssals everywhere. In that regard, shipgirls are much, much superior. Once a DDG empties its cells you have to bring it back to port to reload. Shipgirl? Give her lots of food and she's good to go. That's something we touched on in the worldbuilding for Eternity; human weapons work well enough on Abyssals, but shipgirls are just so much easier to sustain and support and thus more effective vs Abyssals.
Well... in the Pacific, at least. In the Atlantic, on the other hand...
Last edited:
Harry Leferts
Suave Shadow Cabal Kaiju
Eh... I sort of dislike the whole "Missiles can't really hurt Abyssals due to their size" bit. I also dislike people taking the "Leveling Effect" to an extreme and having it effect everything. For me? It's only two things that allow Abyssals to fight modern navies... One is that somehow they degrade sensors so they operate at a WWII level. Other then that, weapons are unaffected. The second is a number's game. You can have the absolute best ship in the world, but if it's getting pounded on by six or seven others, it's going to get badly damaged or sunk.
Shipgirls can win the number's game with quality because "Rising up in levels" is basically them becoming more powerful spiritually. Eventually, they become powerful enough to face off against groups of Abyssals.
Shipgirls can win the number's game with quality because "Rising up in levels" is basically them becoming more powerful spiritually. Eventually, they become powerful enough to face off against groups of Abyssals.
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
I hate the leveling effect, which is one thing The Greatest Generation has going for it, for all that it is a monument to all my sins: no leveling effect, but missiles do have the problem that their seekers were meant for multi-thousand ton ship-sized targets, not girl-sized hate demons.
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The discussion of the PT boats and how to integrate them got me thinking.
If ever there was another Kancolle/Azur Lane/WSG-esque game, (because we clearly don't have enough as it is ) it might make sense to introduce the ships to the game in the order they were created IRL, starting from the first steam-powered Dreadnaught made in Britain leading up to WWI. That way, the inevitable Power Creep would reflect the actual shipbuilding advancements made in history.
If ever there was another Kancolle/Azur Lane/WSG-esque game, (because we clearly don't have enough as it is
) it might make sense to introduce the ships to the game in the order they were created IRL, starting from the first steam-powered Dreadnaught made in Britain leading up to WWI. That way, the inevitable Power Creep would reflect the actual shipbuilding advancements made in history.Link?
I'm still not clear on what the deal is with TGG; just vague stuff about questionable themes, and having something to do with the Enterprise/Yamato shipping that swept the scene a while back?
Last edited:
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Going to PM it to you.
ltmauve
"Excuse me?"
- Location
- Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Right. Okay then. Oh, hey, backstory notes.
...(I can see no way in which this approach can go wrong.
If Abyssals appeared today and the USN couldn't ship the RN the missiles, would EU nations sell some of their missile stocks to the British? Because I could plausibly see them refusing, and for reasons that aren't just "screw you because of brexit." This is a new, dangerous enemy who requires a lot of firepower to bring down, and the full stockpile is needed while a more sustainable solution is developed. Also, any shipping routes will probably be swarming with Aybssals, making shipping the missiles dangerous and likely to just get them destroyed.