The first Gramscian KanColle fic.
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Kantai Collection: The World Set Free (KC/SCP/FreeSpace:Blue Planet/Destiny)
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Opening
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
"Man zayyana samaa-a wa djammalal fadaa-a wa arsala diyaa-a liyarsoe mad-dallaal?"
<Who decorated the sky and made outer space beautiful, and sent forth light to draw shadows?>
- Nasheed Thaak Al Adheem
"Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?"
The Holy Bible, Job 38: 16
x-x-x-x-x
"The apocalypse is not coming. It is not a distant whisper. Only the blind and conceited will say that. Only those who view this new war as some kind of glorious hunt to bring back old glories will say that.
The apocalypse had already come. It swallowed Hokkaido in black, made a tomb out of Pearl. It buried Singapore in antimatter light and poisoned the Atlantic with the malignancy of its Spire. Killed our children with tainted vaccines and cultist outbreaks. War has changed but its cost remains the same.
So how did we held, how did we survive; for me to write this and you to read it?
The shipgirls?
Part of the truth, but not all of it.
We must accept the fact that the Abyss has perfect knowledge of our warfare, knows every form and counter of blade that can be wielded against it, while we have no such advantage.
No single ship, fleet, strategy, or nation can win this war.
But an apocalypse is a revelation, and now we are enlightened. A system that restricts itself to a single approach restricts itself to defeat. All systems can be subverted. We must purge ourselves of dependence to any single instrument and method.
We have obtained the means and the knowledge to turn any weakness to strength, to bring a higher form of warfare against them: Circumspect Warfare.
If you ask, what will we become in this war?
We will become the dancers in the cosmic garden.
We will perform the divine performance of destruction and renewal.
We will set the world free.
We will become SHIVA."
- The Nataraja Thesis: The Blade Transform: A Treatise on the Principles of Circumspect Counter-Abyssal Warfare. Written by World Admiral Jin Kurosawa, CINC Sparrowmark Command, Solomon Region.
x-x-x-x-x
ACATALEPSY ACATALEPSY
IT rose from the lambent world-sea and the floodplains found confidence in legs the runner in the high grass and IT saw the final shape and thinks it beautiful and all the wonder it could be IT IT IT a WORM burrows between manifolds who gnaws on the rich roots of the world-tree killed the eagle and the rat pale breathing whispers of the infomorph and the flesh and the machine and IT turns the red flowers pale IT waits in the dark and in the light and IT opposes both dark and light opposes Creation and Decay IT hegemonic antidiversity MALIGNANCY outbreak and IT lurks within the cosmic sea IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE with entire worlds of thinking matter IT calculates and writes itself into reality and IT frays Indra's Net and IT is coming IMMINENT IMMINENT IMMINENT and in the END, IT will say; behold! The dream of the WORM, the pale kingdom in a hidden place!
x-x-x-x-x
"From the first they had to see the round globe as one problem; it was impossible any longer to deal with it piece by piece…"
- HG Wells, The Last War: The World Set Free.
x-x-x-x-x
KANTAI COLLECTION: THE WORLD SET FREE
A Kantai Collection fanfiction.
Start: CHAPTER 1
ACATALEPSY ACATALEPSY
IT rose from the lambent world-sea and the floodplains found confidence in legs the runner in the high grass and IT saw the final shape and thinks it beautiful and all the wonder it could be IT IT IT a WORM burrows between manifolds who gnaws on the rich roots of the world-tree killed the eagle and the rat pale breathing whispers of the infomorph and the flesh and the machine and IT turns the red flowers pale IT waits in the dark and in the light and IT opposes both dark and light opposes Creation and Decay IT hegemonic antidiversity MALIGNANCY outbreak and IT lurks within the cosmic sea IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE with entire worlds of thinking matter IT calculates and writes itself into reality and IT frays Indra's Net and IT is coming IMMINENT IMMINENT IMMINENT and in the END, IT will say; behold! The dream of the WORM, the pale kingdom in a hidden place!
x-x-x-x-x
"From the first they had to see the round globe as one problem; it was impossible any longer to deal with it piece by piece…"
- HG Wells, The Last War: The World Set Free.
x-x-x-x-x
KANTAI COLLECTION: THE WORLD SET FREE
A Kantai Collection fanfiction.
Start: CHAPTER 1
I hope it has been worth the wait. KC: TWSF has been re-written. The Chapter 1 has been rewritten and expanded. New chapters and lore entries as well as rewritten ones are coming soon.
Certain elements of this story are inspired and/or borrowed and may be considered a crossover with the following works; all belongs to their respective owners.
FreeSpace 2 by Volition and specifically its mod: Blue Planet, by The Blue Planet team.
Immortal Defense
Destiny by Bungie
SCP Foundation
The works of HG. Wells:
- The Last War: The World Set Free
- The Shape of Things to Come.
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Hull Fragment: Defense
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Hull Fragment: Defense
Imagine for a moment, a girl in front of you. She is very young - she could be yours or anyone's daughter - A sweet girl. Standing at the edge of the firing range, she salutes. You stand inside the insulated observation post some kilometers away, breathing recycled air. Inwardly you remember. Pearl Harbor burns-again. Half of Japan is consumed. Mediterranean is overrun. The Siberian ice slows them down, but not for long. Only these Shipgirls stand between them and our destruction. Skin stronger than steel. Bones like the keel, they say. But there are uncertainties abound. So you are here. An observer. A 155mm artillery gun (one of the purest forms of human expression) zeroes in on the girl. Voluntary Ballistic Testing, they called it. But you saw within those girl's determined, loyal eye-a hint of tear.
Any knowledge here will be crucial for defeating them. Knowledge-you know for certain that a 155mm shell will obliterate a normal human so thoroughly-through shock, heat, shearing force, any combination of the three. Yet you remember that she is not technically a normal human. You swallowed that doubt like a bitter pill-and with every ounce of your being hoped that she is not normal. You gave the order of fire. It thunders. You see it strike down. For an instant you saw something glinting. When the smoke and dust clears, you can see her again. Now she is standing inside a crater. Slightly battered, damaged clothes. But she stands; she is alive.
In an instant relief washed down your body. Yet something in your mind yearned more. So you ran out of the observation post. Towards her. Through the ash and cinder of a thousand prior weapon impacts, across that field where humanity's killing machines were tested. She saw you and she understood. She ran towards you also. And you scooped her up in a hug-so tight, so close to your heart-and in that moment you understood. This war will be different. Not just because of the nature of your enemy, nor the weapons you use to fight them-like the one now sobbing in your arms-but because of what you must become to even fight and stand a chance...
-Codex Armada, Chapter 1: Fundamentals: "Shipgirl Defense Capabilities"
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This story was posted before in the Ideas and Recs thread, now it is incorporated into this series
x-x-x-x-x
Imagine for a moment, a girl in front of you. She is very young - she could be yours or anyone's daughter - A sweet girl. Standing at the edge of the firing range, she salutes. You stand inside the insulated observation post some kilometers away, breathing recycled air. Inwardly you remember. Pearl Harbor burns-again. Half of Japan is consumed. Mediterranean is overrun. The Siberian ice slows them down, but not for long. Only these Shipgirls stand between them and our destruction. Skin stronger than steel. Bones like the keel, they say. But there are uncertainties abound. So you are here. An observer. A 155mm artillery gun (one of the purest forms of human expression) zeroes in on the girl. Voluntary Ballistic Testing, they called it. But you saw within those girl's determined, loyal eye-a hint of tear.
Any knowledge here will be crucial for defeating them. Knowledge-you know for certain that a 155mm shell will obliterate a normal human so thoroughly-through shock, heat, shearing force, any combination of the three. Yet you remember that she is not technically a normal human. You swallowed that doubt like a bitter pill-and with every ounce of your being hoped that she is not normal. You gave the order of fire. It thunders. You see it strike down. For an instant you saw something glinting. When the smoke and dust clears, you can see her again. Now she is standing inside a crater. Slightly battered, damaged clothes. But she stands; she is alive.
In an instant relief washed down your body. Yet something in your mind yearned more. So you ran out of the observation post. Towards her. Through the ash and cinder of a thousand prior weapon impacts, across that field where humanity's killing machines were tested. She saw you and she understood. She ran towards you also. And you scooped her up in a hug-so tight, so close to your heart-and in that moment you understood. This war will be different. Not just because of the nature of your enemy, nor the weapons you use to fight them-like the one now sobbing in your arms-but because of what you must become to even fight and stand a chance...
-Codex Armada, Chapter 1: Fundamentals: "Shipgirl Defense Capabilities"
------------
This story was posted before in the Ideas and Recs thread, now it is incorporated into this series
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Background Post
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Background Post: I realized that I haven't been communicating my ideas properly; so hopefully this post will fix some of that issues. By their nature, these are spoilers.
Kantai Collection:
Obviously KC is the basis of this fic. I want to leverage the unknowable, alien nature of the Abyssals, as well as the supernormally powerful Shipgirls.
Both of them are extremely powerful and mysterious beings, and their presence flies in the face of conventional warfare. Conventional militaries will still have their role, as there are points where the Abyssals can be made vulnerable to normal weapons. For their part, despite wielding what appears to be WW2 weaponry, Shipgirls are significantly more powerful and advanced than our modern arsenal and not restricted to WW2 capabilities; This renders the question of modern-armed shipgirl retrofits or modern warship-girls moot.
There will be an in-universe cause for the appearance of only WW1 and WW2 ships.
FreeSpace:
Destiny:
SCP:
These are my thoughts that led to the creation of this series. Other than these, Greatest Generation by sasahara is the first ever textual Kancolle fic I followed, and it led to me joining the KC fanfic scene. I will try to the best of my ability to develop these ideas.
Kantai Collection:
Obviously KC is the basis of this fic. I want to leverage the unknowable, alien nature of the Abyssals, as well as the supernormally powerful Shipgirls.
Both of them are extremely powerful and mysterious beings, and their presence flies in the face of conventional warfare. Conventional militaries will still have their role, as there are points where the Abyssals can be made vulnerable to normal weapons. For their part, despite wielding what appears to be WW2 weaponry, Shipgirls are significantly more powerful and advanced than our modern arsenal and not restricted to WW2 capabilities; This renders the question of modern-armed shipgirl retrofits or modern warship-girls moot.
There will be an in-universe cause for the appearance of only WW1 and WW2 ships.
FreeSpace:
Combat is based upon FreeSpace's depiction of capital ship and fighter combat, mixed with the usual KC shipgirl combat. Whether or not this works, well...
Shivans are the parallel of Abyssals. They are an extremely powerful, alien, and extant force. What they consider victory may not fit our definition thereof. They have a purpose, and the means and cause of their genesis will be explored. The depiction of Shivans in the Blue Planet mod is a major inspiration, and I borrowed several concepts such as Introns and internal ecosystems from it.
Chronologically: the timeline resembles the events of FreeSpace 1 and 2.
-Humans have been fighting the Abyssals for sometime with limited success; The emergence of Shipgirls allowed us to go on the offensive. FS1
-Success brought by Shipgirl program led to complacency and division, in which the easy victories are mined for their propagandistic worth for each individual countries' purposes. This led to unhealthy competitions and selfishness between each nations who possesses shipgirls, thus crippling the global response when the Abyssals struck with their worldwide Blitz. Like in FreeSpace 2, GTVA is lulled into complacency with the Colossus' triumph over NTF and the first Sathanas.
Nagato and Warspite and Enterprise's role is central in the formation of Transitionary Joint Command-later formalized into GO-SENTAI--which managed to effect an organized global response in defeating the Blitz.
This mirrors the Vasudan-Terran unity in FS1, which allowed them to defeat the Lucifer.
The various CODEs above are contingencies for this kind of event that warrants the creation of a global shipgirl/military organization detached from any one country's purpose. These are created when the shipgirls first emerged with secret backing from the UN, who in a fit of competence anticipated the Blitz scenario.
After the formation of GO-SENTAI, the story moves towards the Abyssal's inscrutable actions and our efforts not only to defeat them, but also mend this broken world-if possible, to a state better than before the war.
One possible ending is a far-future epilogue, in the future on which FS is set, linking the Shivan's appearance with the past war against the Abyssal
Shivans are the parallel of Abyssals. They are an extremely powerful, alien, and extant force. What they consider victory may not fit our definition thereof. They have a purpose, and the means and cause of their genesis will be explored. The depiction of Shivans in the Blue Planet mod is a major inspiration, and I borrowed several concepts such as Introns and internal ecosystems from it.
Chronologically: the timeline resembles the events of FreeSpace 1 and 2.
-Humans have been fighting the Abyssals for sometime with limited success; The emergence of Shipgirls allowed us to go on the offensive. FS1
-Success brought by Shipgirl program led to complacency and division, in which the easy victories are mined for their propagandistic worth for each individual countries' purposes. This led to unhealthy competitions and selfishness between each nations who possesses shipgirls, thus crippling the global response when the Abyssals struck with their worldwide Blitz. Like in FreeSpace 2, GTVA is lulled into complacency with the Colossus' triumph over NTF and the first Sathanas.
Nagato and Warspite and Enterprise's role is central in the formation of Transitionary Joint Command-later formalized into GO-SENTAI--which managed to effect an organized global response in defeating the Blitz.
This mirrors the Vasudan-Terran unity in FS1, which allowed them to defeat the Lucifer.
The various CODEs above are contingencies for this kind of event that warrants the creation of a global shipgirl/military organization detached from any one country's purpose. These are created when the shipgirls first emerged with secret backing from the UN, who in a fit of competence anticipated the Blitz scenario.
After the formation of GO-SENTAI, the story moves towards the Abyssal's inscrutable actions and our efforts not only to defeat them, but also mend this broken world-if possible, to a state better than before the war.
One possible ending is a far-future epilogue, in the future on which FS is set, linking the Shivan's appearance with the past war against the Abyssal
Destiny:
There is an interesting parallel between Guardians and Shipgirls; both are dead things resurrected for a new purpose by some unknown, mysterious yet benign force. The force that created the shipgirls is unknown for the moment, and will not be revealed until much later in the story. The Abyssal's genesis is linked to an entity known as type:WORM as well as something known as The Deep. Several concepts such as Dreams are also taken from Destiny.
The Abyssals take on features from the Vex and the Hive: the massive computational networked cognition and space-time control of the Vex, and the superorganic existential horror of the Hive.
There is a question: If the Abyssals have this kind of ability, why haven't they wiped us out already? This is a question that will be answered later in the story.
The Abyssals take on features from the Vex and the Hive: the massive computational networked cognition and space-time control of the Vex, and the superorganic existential horror of the Hive.
There is a question: If the Abyssals have this kind of ability, why haven't they wiped us out already? This is a question that will be answered later in the story.
SCP:
Shipgirl Object Catalog and NEMESIS BELOW Threat Recognition files are obviously inspired by SCP documents. After the emergence of shipgirls in this universe, anomalies and phenomenas formerly referred as magic has become increasingly explainable, analyzed and researched upon, until it becomes a fact of life, publicly known and (mostly) accepted.
There will be an investigative "shadow war" aspect to the story as well, possibly by introducing a Cultist faction, but at the moment it's not final yet.
There will be an investigative "shadow war" aspect to the story as well, possibly by introducing a Cultist faction, but at the moment it's not final yet.
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ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
DELETED, REWRITE IMMINENT
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Well, that's a really shitty admiral. Does he even understand international cooperation?
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Enterprise will have to wait a bit longer for an admiral worthy of her... All in due time.
That's a shame. She had a lot of great admirals in WW2.
OLD CANON Hull Fragment: Offense - Shinano.
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Hull Fragment: Offense
Shinano was her name. Clad in green, braided hair. Tall and large, like her sisters; elegant Yamato and outrageous Musashi. Alongside them, the three giants from the depths of the ancient Imperial Japanese Navy. With a finger to its bridge, she adjusted her circular glasses (Yamato chose it for her, like she did for Musashi), and set off. Her objective-an American carrier (a conventional one) in distress. Outflanked, and her escorts trashed. Normally Shinano would be escorted, but due to "disadvantageous circumstances" none could be given. JMSDF Tactical has refused to spare her some ships to help the American carrier, on grounds that the American carrier is attacked on American waters. At this, she stormed out the Admiral's office, retrieved her gear on the docks, and went alone.
Of course she remembers what happened the last time she did that.
Her gear-freed from their past flaws as she was reborn-is a unique variation of the standard carrier bow-and-quiver gear. Her quiver is large and thick, fully intended to be part of her armor. It is mounted on articulated arms, and can be sealed and unsealed rapidly in the event of emergency. Adorned with machineguns and rocket launchers to protect her rear arc. Numerous DP, launcher, and autocannon emplacements on her shoulders, hips, and thighs protected her other approaches. Her bow is large even by daikyu standards. She could launch all 144 of her aircraft in three minutes.
Normally a large portion of her complement was intended as replacements for other carriers and bases, but modifications helped by Musashi and Midway's faeries allowed her to service, arm, and launch all of them. Her arrows are metal, jet black and distinguished with the circular red and her kana. Her deck is also heavily armored, painted green and black. If her bow is inoperable, she could use it to launch. This is how she has been equipping herself. Contingencies layered upon contingencies.
Significant concentration of ordnance will be required to sink this dreadnought carrier-or just one in the right place-she reminded herself. A chirp on her radio array. Her Saiuns returned their reports. American carrier bears the number 76. She is trailing fire. Her fighters and escorts are warding off the attacking Abyssals. Not long before they crumble. One of the escorting CGs is limping off-formation. Gunfire and missiles fill the air. Two Abyssal fleet carriers is supported by four light carriers and eight destroyers, defying the guided weapons of the American ships and fighters. Their own light cruisers are spread out as AA pickets.
Shinano reads the situation, and moved upwind. Her braids fluttering in the wind, she closed her right eye and took aim. She will fight now. She has not nearly the practiced finesse of the 1st and 2nd CarDivs. Not the youthful dynamism of the Fifth, or the US carriers' sheer skill and sophisticated tactics. What she does have in abundance is brute force. Barring certain rare American and British planes, hers are the fastest, toughest, and the most powerful air wing in the Pacific. This force needs to aim at no gap-it creates and exploits its own gaps-both hammer, chisel, and anvil. Holding her breath, she fired---
The first arrows burned into A7M Reppuus,two wings of six. Their objective, relieve the American carrier. Saiuns count at least 48 attacking planes. The Abyssal fighter/bombers, looking like the decapitated head of some abomination, were lining up for their final attack run. Final, for the Reppuus screamed down from the sun and struck them like a whirlwind. They managed no drops. The Reppuu wings cut into their formations again and again, loosing rockets and machinegun fire the entire time. The American pilots, having been trained in joint tactics, renewed their defense with vigor.
In her second shot, Shinano released two arrows. One burns into Ryuusei Gunships, sacrificing torpedo load and ASW capability for heavy cannons,turrets, and rocket pods, three wings of three. These will fly low, avoiding the Abyssal CL's radars. Flying so low as to touch the waves underneath, the Gunships struck from the Abyssal AA picket's blind spot. Their cannons and rockets ripped the thin-skinned CLs apart, detonating ammo and burning armor. Of course they didn't have many ammo, but it was enough. The Gunships bailed out. When the Abyssal counter-air wing arrived, only their slaughtered light cruisers are visible, the Gunships long gone....
The other arrow burns into Ryuusei Kai torpedo bombers, four wings of four. Their success is predicated on the Reppuu wings annihilating the majority of Abyssal fighter/bombers in their attack on the carrier, and on the Ryuusei Gunship wings drawing the rest of the Abyssal CAP away by destroying the light cruiser pickets. And they did. Approaching in a pincer, the first two wings scored direct hits on the leading Abyssal carrier, while the rest followed suit, hammering the Abyssals with torpedo and gunfire. By the end of it both Wo-class are sunk, and the rest are crippled or retreating.
Receiving these reports, Shinano allowed herself to breathe freely. Then she picked a radio transmission:
"Aircraft carrier Shinano, this is the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. We extend our most sincere gratitude for your prompt action. We are in your debt. Please come aboard, your aircraft are waiting for you..."
x-x-x-x-x
Shinano was her name. Clad in green, braided hair. Tall and large, like her sisters; elegant Yamato and outrageous Musashi. Alongside them, the three giants from the depths of the ancient Imperial Japanese Navy. With a finger to its bridge, she adjusted her circular glasses (Yamato chose it for her, like she did for Musashi), and set off. Her objective-an American carrier (a conventional one) in distress. Outflanked, and her escorts trashed. Normally Shinano would be escorted, but due to "disadvantageous circumstances" none could be given. JMSDF Tactical has refused to spare her some ships to help the American carrier, on grounds that the American carrier is attacked on American waters. At this, she stormed out the Admiral's office, retrieved her gear on the docks, and went alone.
Of course she remembers what happened the last time she did that.
Her gear-freed from their past flaws as she was reborn-is a unique variation of the standard carrier bow-and-quiver gear. Her quiver is large and thick, fully intended to be part of her armor. It is mounted on articulated arms, and can be sealed and unsealed rapidly in the event of emergency. Adorned with machineguns and rocket launchers to protect her rear arc. Numerous DP, launcher, and autocannon emplacements on her shoulders, hips, and thighs protected her other approaches. Her bow is large even by daikyu standards. She could launch all 144 of her aircraft in three minutes.
Normally a large portion of her complement was intended as replacements for other carriers and bases, but modifications helped by Musashi and Midway's faeries allowed her to service, arm, and launch all of them. Her arrows are metal, jet black and distinguished with the circular red and her kana. Her deck is also heavily armored, painted green and black. If her bow is inoperable, she could use it to launch. This is how she has been equipping herself. Contingencies layered upon contingencies.
Significant concentration of ordnance will be required to sink this dreadnought carrier-or just one in the right place-she reminded herself. A chirp on her radio array. Her Saiuns returned their reports. American carrier bears the number 76. She is trailing fire. Her fighters and escorts are warding off the attacking Abyssals. Not long before they crumble. One of the escorting CGs is limping off-formation. Gunfire and missiles fill the air. Two Abyssal fleet carriers is supported by four light carriers and eight destroyers, defying the guided weapons of the American ships and fighters. Their own light cruisers are spread out as AA pickets.
Shinano reads the situation, and moved upwind. Her braids fluttering in the wind, she closed her right eye and took aim. She will fight now. She has not nearly the practiced finesse of the 1st and 2nd CarDivs. Not the youthful dynamism of the Fifth, or the US carriers' sheer skill and sophisticated tactics. What she does have in abundance is brute force. Barring certain rare American and British planes, hers are the fastest, toughest, and the most powerful air wing in the Pacific. This force needs to aim at no gap-it creates and exploits its own gaps-both hammer, chisel, and anvil. Holding her breath, she fired---
The first arrows burned into A7M Reppuus,two wings of six. Their objective, relieve the American carrier. Saiuns count at least 48 attacking planes. The Abyssal fighter/bombers, looking like the decapitated head of some abomination, were lining up for their final attack run. Final, for the Reppuus screamed down from the sun and struck them like a whirlwind. They managed no drops. The Reppuu wings cut into their formations again and again, loosing rockets and machinegun fire the entire time. The American pilots, having been trained in joint tactics, renewed their defense with vigor.
In her second shot, Shinano released two arrows. One burns into Ryuusei Gunships, sacrificing torpedo load and ASW capability for heavy cannons,turrets, and rocket pods, three wings of three. These will fly low, avoiding the Abyssal CL's radars. Flying so low as to touch the waves underneath, the Gunships struck from the Abyssal AA picket's blind spot. Their cannons and rockets ripped the thin-skinned CLs apart, detonating ammo and burning armor. Of course they didn't have many ammo, but it was enough. The Gunships bailed out. When the Abyssal counter-air wing arrived, only their slaughtered light cruisers are visible, the Gunships long gone....
The other arrow burns into Ryuusei Kai torpedo bombers, four wings of four. Their success is predicated on the Reppuu wings annihilating the majority of Abyssal fighter/bombers in their attack on the carrier, and on the Ryuusei Gunship wings drawing the rest of the Abyssal CAP away by destroying the light cruiser pickets. And they did. Approaching in a pincer, the first two wings scored direct hits on the leading Abyssal carrier, while the rest followed suit, hammering the Abyssals with torpedo and gunfire. By the end of it both Wo-class are sunk, and the rest are crippled or retreating.
Receiving these reports, Shinano allowed herself to breathe freely. Then she picked a radio transmission:
"Aircraft carrier Shinano, this is the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. We extend our most sincere gratitude for your prompt action. We are in your debt. Please come aboard, your aircraft are waiting for you..."
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OLD CANON Hull Fragment: Chess Against a God
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Hull Fragment: Chess Against a God.
[CHK]...End in four?
[WPL]... Three.
[WPL]...Wait ok four.
[CHK]Four it is. Rook to A6
[WPL]King to E8. Let's talk about victory and calculations.
[CHK]Rook to A7. Your victory is a singular act of precision and control amidst all that chaos. One shot in the rightest place possible.
[WPL]King to D8. Your loss is the convergence of multiple disparate factors; lack of armored shutters, general volatility of the Long Lances...
[CHK]And these Abyssals, they emulate me. Well, some of them. Oversized surface torpedoes on exposed launchers. Rook to B7. Combined with heavy artillery...
[WPL]Suboptimal. Maladaptive. Any of my planes can hit them and blow them apart then. Why do that? King to C8.
[CHK]Says the one who kept this game going for 250 turns now...Rook to G7. Anyway, yes. The Abyssal ships has exhibited some defective adaptations as of late.
[WPL]King to D8. Indeed.
[CHK]Knight-B6....*sigh*
[WPL]King to E8. Well....
[CHK]My King to E5. What is it?
[WPL]Listen, sometimes the winning strategy isn't-wouldn't look optimal at first. King to F6.
[CHK]Their mind is vast and alien, their endgame isn't necessarily comprehensible to us...King to E8.
[WPL]...Yes. Playing chess against god, how would you know His endgame, His preferred outcome? Rook to G8. Mate.
[CHK]...End in four?
[WPL]... Three.
[WPL]...Wait ok four.
[CHK]Four it is. Rook to A6
[WPL]King to E8. Let's talk about victory and calculations.
[CHK]Rook to A7. Your victory is a singular act of precision and control amidst all that chaos. One shot in the rightest place possible.
[WPL]King to D8. Your loss is the convergence of multiple disparate factors; lack of armored shutters, general volatility of the Long Lances...
[CHK]And these Abyssals, they emulate me. Well, some of them. Oversized surface torpedoes on exposed launchers. Rook to B7. Combined with heavy artillery...
[WPL]Suboptimal. Maladaptive. Any of my planes can hit them and blow them apart then. Why do that? King to C8.
[CHK]Says the one who kept this game going for 250 turns now...Rook to G7. Anyway, yes. The Abyssal ships has exhibited some defective adaptations as of late.
[WPL]King to D8. Indeed.
[CHK]Knight-B6....*sigh*
[WPL]King to E8. Well....
[CHK]My King to E5. What is it?
[WPL]Listen, sometimes the winning strategy isn't-wouldn't look optimal at first. King to F6.
[CHK]Their mind is vast and alien, their endgame isn't necessarily comprehensible to us...King to E8.
[WPL]...Yes. Playing chess against god, how would you know His endgame, His preferred outcome? Rook to G8. Mate.
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OLD CANON Hull Fragment: LIONS ROAR
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
HULL FRAGMENT 02: Roar.
This message written by: Her Majesty's Ship, Vanguard, armed with Eight BL 15 inch cannons of finest make;
It has come to my ATTENTION that certain MISCHIEVOUS elements of our esteemed allies; that is JAPAN and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA-
has engaged in unseemly behaviour; That of MOCKING us, Her Majesty's Battleships and Battlecruisers as being "habitually undergunned", and questioning the power of our primary armaments.
I offer thus in counterargument:
A lion is not regarded by the size of its fangs and claws, but by the ferocity with which it uses them in combat. Let it be KNOWN that in that regard, you shall NOT find Her Majesty's Shipgirls lacking.
---Vanguard.
This message written by: Her Majesty's Ship, Vanguard, armed with Eight BL 15 inch cannons of finest make;
It has come to my ATTENTION that certain MISCHIEVOUS elements of our esteemed allies; that is JAPAN and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA-
has engaged in unseemly behaviour; That of MOCKING us, Her Majesty's Battleships and Battlecruisers as being "habitually undergunned", and questioning the power of our primary armaments.
I offer thus in counterargument:
A lion is not regarded by the size of its fangs and claws, but by the ferocity with which it uses them in combat. Let it be KNOWN that in that regard, you shall NOT find Her Majesty's Shipgirls lacking.
---Vanguard.
OLD CANON: Shipgirl Object Catalog - The Dragon's Eye
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
"This is The Dragon's Song: To the Clouds you will return; Become Master of The Skies once more..."
Shipgirl Object Catalog Entry 0342
The Dragon's Eye
Handling: Safe level 3 (General Shipgirl Usage, Specialist personnel only)
Security Level: 4 (Essential, High Value)
Description:
Object 0342 is a large (10cm in diameter) emerald gemstone, cut into a smooth spherical form. Object 0342 is currently in general usage by Aircraft Carrier Unryuu (UNY201), posted on CTG MAGIC, Atlantic Region. It is most commonly used to bind her rather voluminous hair into a braid, and appears to cause her no discomfort despite its weight. When in combat, 0342 functions as the primary component of Unryuu's flight operation capabilities. In this respect, 0342 functions in conjunction with objects 0343 (Cloud Gate) and 0344 (Cloud Banner).
0342 hosts the spiritually encoded infomorphic forms of her Air Group. This spiritual encoding is read and printed by 0343 into Unryuu's complement of paper puppets. One paper puppet does not necessarily represent one individual aircraft; on certain conditions up to 8 aircraft can be printed into one paper puppet, however this may compromise the integrity of the paper puppet and resultant aircraft. Spiritual encoding includes instructions on the material reification process, which is used by 0344 to transform the paper puppet's mass into the desired Faerie-operated aircraft (See p.761-Material Reification and Non-Equivalent Exchange-Shipgirl Usage by Prof.Seijiro, 2034)
Visual observation of 0342 in inactive state results in highly variable results, however common patterns and themes involve eastern dragons, clouds, and the sky. Most common visual imagery reported by 85% of test subjects is in the form of constantly coiling body of a dragon filling the entire field of view. In rare occassions a reptilian eye can be seen staring from inside 0342.
In addition, a soft singing can be heard emanating from it in permissive audio environments. Content analysis of this song is underway.
Shipgirl Object Catalog Entry 0342
The Dragon's Eye
Handling: Safe level 3 (General Shipgirl Usage, Specialist personnel only)
Security Level: 4 (Essential, High Value)
Description:
Object 0342 is a large (10cm in diameter) emerald gemstone, cut into a smooth spherical form. Object 0342 is currently in general usage by Aircraft Carrier Unryuu (UNY201), posted on CTG MAGIC, Atlantic Region. It is most commonly used to bind her rather voluminous hair into a braid, and appears to cause her no discomfort despite its weight. When in combat, 0342 functions as the primary component of Unryuu's flight operation capabilities. In this respect, 0342 functions in conjunction with objects 0343 (Cloud Gate) and 0344 (Cloud Banner).
0342 hosts the spiritually encoded infomorphic forms of her Air Group. This spiritual encoding is read and printed by 0343 into Unryuu's complement of paper puppets. One paper puppet does not necessarily represent one individual aircraft; on certain conditions up to 8 aircraft can be printed into one paper puppet, however this may compromise the integrity of the paper puppet and resultant aircraft. Spiritual encoding includes instructions on the material reification process, which is used by 0344 to transform the paper puppet's mass into the desired Faerie-operated aircraft (See p.761-Material Reification and Non-Equivalent Exchange-Shipgirl Usage by Prof.Seijiro, 2034)
Visual observation of 0342 in inactive state results in highly variable results, however common patterns and themes involve eastern dragons, clouds, and the sky. Most common visual imagery reported by 85% of test subjects is in the form of constantly coiling body of a dragon filling the entire field of view. In rare occassions a reptilian eye can be seen staring from inside 0342.
In addition, a soft singing can be heard emanating from it in permissive audio environments. Content analysis of this song is underway.
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how long until they run into the shiva?
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Soon enough.
The Abyssals will take the role of the Shivans. I have an interesting idea (in my opinion at least) to transplant our favorite Nebula to earth.
I try to keep the references subtle, and borrows ideas and concepts from Destiny, SCP, and FreeSpace( in particular the Blue Planet mod) that are thematically suitable (Abyssals to parallel Shivans for example).
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OLD CANON Blitz 1
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
03.Blitz Part 1:
"On 2 December 2024, after four years of static, deadlocked warfare, The Abyss made its move. We call it the Blitz. Across the world, like a storm; entire islands consumed, millions devoured or fleeing. Abyssal landfall can not be averted. Complacency made by earlier easy victories against the Abyssals crippled our answer; serial mismanagement of Shipgirl assets complicates matters. From the ashes of this devastation, however, a new fire will be sparked to light our path against the Abyss..."
///////////
Refugee camp, Japan, 4 days after the initial strike.
Fast action coordinated by Nagato repulsed the first Abyssal Blitz strikes across Japan, but not before massive damage is incurred. Soberingly, she spent more time wrangling the chain-of-command than fighting at sea.
Refugees are pouring in from Japan's outer islands; Ryukyu, Tanegashima, and others. Survivors from the American garrison at Okinawa has also retreated to the Japanese mainland. Aid is being flown in from less-affected regions, and even from China and South Korea, under escort by the Carrier Divisions' aircraft. As the military forces regroup and plan their next move, the refugees are herded into shelters and camps; far from home, and in meager conditions.
---
To describe the sights inside this refugee camp is to describe that sights that has repeated across the thousands of years of warfare and its results. Hunger and sickness and cold. Children without their parents, parents without their children. There are death, there are life neglected. Aid workers, medics, and volunteers giving their best. Soldiers and shipgirls standing guard over them, for the enemy has finally made the terrifying extent of their strength known.
That day, Musashi was there. She regarded the sight with grim resignation. As she walked and made her way through the camp, people bowed and knelt in her presence, even in their grief. This knives into her heart, but she suppressed that for now. She is looking for someone, and in this kind of place there can be only one place where she can find that person.
She found her quarry; her reasoning was correct. In the middle of the refugee camp, Yamato was there, distributing food and care for the displaced people. Several members of her fleet aided her in various ways. Yahagi helped her prepare food; Hatsushimo and Yukikaze distributes medicine, in-between playing with the children.
Musashi is already hating herself for what she is about to do; to pull Yamato from these people who needed her-who needed hope.
"Yamato. I need you to come with me. The Fleet needs you."
Pausing from her work, Yamato answered:
"The JMSDF almost made us abandon these people. They would rather me stand watch in Tokyo Bay rather than help bring these people's boats and transports to safety. If that's what they want me to do, then no, they don't need me. These people's grief-Japan's-are mine. Let me be with them."
At this, Musashi stared at Yamato, her red eyes pleading. She spoke:
"Nagasaki does not exist anymore, Yamato. It is razed to the ground. Do you not think I would rather be there, among the people of my hometown? I want to protect them as much as you do these people! Listen carefully. If The Abyss strikes again-and they will,-none will survive if we fight alone. I do not talk about the JMSDF, but of the Fleet. "
"What do you mean?"
"Nagato is in contact with the remaining naval leadership authorities worldwide. She is rallying all the remaining Kanmusu forces. This situation here-this devastation- is repeated all across the world-some even worse. The old command crumbles. She-alongside the other nations' Kanmusu-is making something new, and she needs us-she needs you. This Fleet needs you. Please, Yamato."
....
"The world needs all of us."
"On 2 December 2024, after four years of static, deadlocked warfare, The Abyss made its move. We call it the Blitz. Across the world, like a storm; entire islands consumed, millions devoured or fleeing. Abyssal landfall can not be averted. Complacency made by earlier easy victories against the Abyssals crippled our answer; serial mismanagement of Shipgirl assets complicates matters. From the ashes of this devastation, however, a new fire will be sparked to light our path against the Abyss..."
///////////
Refugee camp, Japan, 4 days after the initial strike.
Fast action coordinated by Nagato repulsed the first Abyssal Blitz strikes across Japan, but not before massive damage is incurred. Soberingly, she spent more time wrangling the chain-of-command than fighting at sea.
Refugees are pouring in from Japan's outer islands; Ryukyu, Tanegashima, and others. Survivors from the American garrison at Okinawa has also retreated to the Japanese mainland. Aid is being flown in from less-affected regions, and even from China and South Korea, under escort by the Carrier Divisions' aircraft. As the military forces regroup and plan their next move, the refugees are herded into shelters and camps; far from home, and in meager conditions.
---
To describe the sights inside this refugee camp is to describe that sights that has repeated across the thousands of years of warfare and its results. Hunger and sickness and cold. Children without their parents, parents without their children. There are death, there are life neglected. Aid workers, medics, and volunteers giving their best. Soldiers and shipgirls standing guard over them, for the enemy has finally made the terrifying extent of their strength known.
That day, Musashi was there. She regarded the sight with grim resignation. As she walked and made her way through the camp, people bowed and knelt in her presence, even in their grief. This knives into her heart, but she suppressed that for now. She is looking for someone, and in this kind of place there can be only one place where she can find that person.
She found her quarry; her reasoning was correct. In the middle of the refugee camp, Yamato was there, distributing food and care for the displaced people. Several members of her fleet aided her in various ways. Yahagi helped her prepare food; Hatsushimo and Yukikaze distributes medicine, in-between playing with the children.
Musashi is already hating herself for what she is about to do; to pull Yamato from these people who needed her-who needed hope.
"Yamato. I need you to come with me. The Fleet needs you."
Pausing from her work, Yamato answered:
"The JMSDF almost made us abandon these people. They would rather me stand watch in Tokyo Bay rather than help bring these people's boats and transports to safety. If that's what they want me to do, then no, they don't need me. These people's grief-Japan's-are mine. Let me be with them."
At this, Musashi stared at Yamato, her red eyes pleading. She spoke:
"Nagasaki does not exist anymore, Yamato. It is razed to the ground. Do you not think I would rather be there, among the people of my hometown? I want to protect them as much as you do these people! Listen carefully. If The Abyss strikes again-and they will,-none will survive if we fight alone. I do not talk about the JMSDF, but of the Fleet. "
"What do you mean?"
"Nagato is in contact with the remaining naval leadership authorities worldwide. She is rallying all the remaining Kanmusu forces. This situation here-this devastation- is repeated all across the world-some even worse. The old command crumbles. She-alongside the other nations' Kanmusu-is making something new, and she needs us-she needs you. This Fleet needs you. Please, Yamato."
....
"The world needs all of us."
Blitz Interlude-The Hunt.
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Blitz Interlude-The Hunt.
Flash-order.
Flash-order.
[AUTOMATED WARNING] Detecting multiple simultaneous Abyssal incursions on all sectors. Major force breakthrough imminent. All available forces immediately----
CODE GJALLARHORN INVOKED
BEGIN CASE IMMEDIATE SALLY RAGNAROK
..........
Royal Navy Advance Base. 2 days after the initial strike.
"Theaterwide situation has mostly stabilized. Atlantic Front objectives is secured and safe for now."
"It's the Channel Front and inland situations we are concerned about."
"The Abyssal Channel Princess-your bane, Warspite-who has eluded you five times now..."
"I'm liable to give you a smack, Repulse..."
"...has been seen off Brest and moving towards open seas after making Brest the latest victim in their severe hit-and-run strikes against French maritime assets."
"Two French battleteams are pursuing her. Jean-Bart's and Richelieu's. Jean-Bart's has already engaged and disengaged, Richelieu's are rolling in."
"If this is like the archetypical engagements, then they are likely in trouble. We have to move soon."
"Agreed. Gear up and prepare, ladies. We have a beast to hunt." Warspite said, a predatory grin on her face, all too familiar for her fleet...
Flash-order.
Flash-order.
[AUTOMATED WARNING] Detecting multiple simultaneous Abyssal incursions on all sectors. Major force breakthrough imminent. All available forces immediately----
CODE GJALLARHORN INVOKED
BEGIN CASE IMMEDIATE SALLY RAGNAROK
..........
Royal Navy Advance Base. 2 days after the initial strike.
"Theaterwide situation has mostly stabilized. Atlantic Front objectives is secured and safe for now."
"It's the Channel Front and inland situations we are concerned about."
"The Abyssal Channel Princess-your bane, Warspite-who has eluded you five times now..."
"I'm liable to give you a smack, Repulse..."
"...has been seen off Brest and moving towards open seas after making Brest the latest victim in their severe hit-and-run strikes against French maritime assets."
"Two French battleteams are pursuing her. Jean-Bart's and Richelieu's. Jean-Bart's has already engaged and disengaged, Richelieu's are rolling in."
"If this is like the archetypical engagements, then they are likely in trouble. We have to move soon."
"Agreed. Gear up and prepare, ladies. We have a beast to hunt." Warspite said, a predatory grin on her face, all too familiar for her fleet...
Old Canon - Blitz Part II-End of The Hunt.
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
04. Blitz Part II-End of The Hunt.
"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
...and all the world wondered after the beast..."
/////////////////
"Delacroix Team, we are going in fast. The Channel Princess is fleeing to open seas, but the Contre-Torpilleurs of Jean-Bart's Paixhans Team has blown a hole in her escort. We must finish her before she is able to link up with the Abyssal Main Body. We owe it to the defenders of Brest and to Paixhans Team to do this. We shall not disappoint them. Today, France fights back."
Battleship Richelieu relayed those words with exceeding calmness. The entirety of Europe is now in chaos on the level unseen since nearly eighty years before. Delacroix Team was assembled in haste: Herself, Dunkerque, Bretagne, Strasbourg in the front. Algerie and Dupleix leads two heavy torpedo wings: 4 heavy destroyers and 3 light cruisers each on their flank. They were sortied at best speed, too late to save Brest, but not too late to exact vengeance.
The French shipgirls have a particular affinity with speed; The Dunkerque and Richelieu class were among the best fast battleships, and their heavy destroyers are the fastest in the world, and not at all weakly armed. It can be said that speed was their element, and now they must prove this decisive, for their target is in sight.
Their target-The Channel Princess. A pale visage of a woman, wearing an expression simultaneously menacing and serene on her face. Dressed in black armor that defies simple weapons, with flowing pale white ribbons on her back. Her living turrets snarl with vicious fangs, and her presence warps reality, turning the waters around her black. She stood among the carcasses of her escort, courtesy of Jean-Bart's Paixhans Team.
Staring at the attacking Delacroix Team, she closed her eyes, and clasped her hands together with a smile.
"What's she doing?" Bretagne asked.
"I... shit! Delacroix Team, break formation!" Richelieu shouted; the alarm in her voice shook her team into action.
The Princess parted her hands, and a wave of energy bursts outward. Surprisingly, it was not aimed at Delacroix Team, but at a stretch of water in front of her.
She has opened an Entry Rift; a wound that bleeds darkness in space-time, and summoned her Beast. Her companion, an enormous Feral Abyssal familiar, emerged with a thundering roar . It is a massive black giant, hunched with jutting segmented armour plating and heavy turrets on its shoulders. Seven eyeless faces; each one spewing black, liquid fire from gaping maws crowned with thorns and tentacles crimson. On top of the central face is a large quadruple turret, each other face is adorned with one single rapid-firing turret. It turned its eyeless gaze towards Richelieu's fleet and fired, again and again, immediately saturating the seas with hellfire.
As she and Delacroix Team dodged the shells, Richelieu's comms crackled.
"Richelieu, this is Jean-Bart. Wake sensors detected an Entry Event in your AO. Say your situation!"
"Good to hear you, Jean. We've...hit a snag. Princess has summoned her consort. We will need heavy resolution or a strike mission fast."
"...I'm sorry, Richelieu. My ships and myself are hit hard from the last attack. Command has all other assets tied. We have invoked CODE GJALLARHORN on all open channels, see what help we can get. Richelieu, I.."
"It's alright Jean. This is what we do. We fight."
With a faint smile, Richelieu closed the comms.
"This is what we do..."
"Delacroix Team! Listen! I'll be honest-we aren't likely to have any support soon. For the moment, we are alone. So these are your orders: do as much damage as you can! Gut her, and make the defenders of Brest rest easier. Now, strike! Go to rapid fire-all guns, all tubes!"
With incredible crispness, those words are delivered, and with incredible valor, followed to the letter. The four battleships spearheaded the charge. Richelieu at their forefront, firing the entire way. With eight guns forward, the usage vector of her armament is simple; more guns to focus on one target, let secondaries and escorts handle the rest. Their shellfire impacted with terrifying force, cracking armor and starting fires. Off to their flank, Algerie and Dupleix's team executes their torpedo run, adding to it their own gunfire...
The Channel Princess was no less fearsome in her response; Casting monstrous thaumaturgy and firing Abyssal shells that rend and explode and poison with excellent accuracy, unfazed by the hundreds of shots landing in and around her. The Beast roared and slammed the waters with its fists, knocking torpedoes out of the water and catching shells from the air, exploding harmlessly on its biological reactive armor. It bursts liquid fire from its mouth.
Delacroix Team and The Channel Princess and her Beast fought like two opposing typhoons; charging and blasting into each other, cutting with wild abandon. And yet, the battle began to take its toll on Delacroix Team. Several of the destroyers was caught in the Beast's black fire; they immediately disengaged and dumped torpedoes. As she moved to cover the destroyers, Bretagne put herself in the Princess' line of fire, who wasted no time in firing shells and witchcraft on her; she was struck in the legs, crippling and listing her.
Then the Princess blinked herself, reappearing in-between Richelieu and Dunkerque and Strasbourg, staring them down and preventing them from helping Bretagne. Bretagne, lying in the water, aimed her guns one last time at the approaching Beast intent on finishing her-as she aimed upwards at it, a movement in the clouds caught her eye.
Then the skies screamed.
The first strike hit the Beast's top quadruple turret, shattering its armor and ripping its barrels off. The second rained upon the Princess; a danger-close strike that tore her wards and sent her reeling. As soon as it hit them, a series of explosions hit the Beast's flank, severing its myriad arms; it screamed cataclysm. Another barrage took advantage of the Princess' weakened defenses and ripped her apart with burning shrapnels. At this, Richelieu and her Team looked with a mix of elation and bewilderment.
Immediately they scanned the seas, looking for the source of this righteous apocalypse. It was the warships and aircrafts of the Royal Navy; Warspite's Hunter Fleet. Warspite, Valiant, King George V, and Repulse took vanguard. Hurricanes, Sea Furies, and Barracudas flown from the Illustrious and Indefatigable circled their prey. The Lions had arrived for the Hunt; now the Beast is the hunted. "Fire again! Second Strike Wing, attack!" Warspite's voice boomed across the comms, sounding positively divine for the beleaguered shipgirls of Delacroix Team.
An encore of the devastating play was executed. Another wave of torpedoes and bombs descends on the crippled beast; a barrage of heavy cannon fire to its head from the Hurricanes finished its fate. Then the warships opened fire on the Princess. Warspite charged ahead, dodging the Princess' desperate counterattack with agility belying her age. Warspite's shells, however, found their mark again and again, and the Princess' blue blood sprayed whenever it hits. Increasingly weak in her response, the Princess finally found herself staring down eight barrels of vengeance. With finality, Warspite fired, and with finality the Princess closed her eyes.
Thus she ended The Hunt; with a grin and eight armour-piercing fifteen inch shells.
"Thank you, Warspite, and the ships of the Royal Navy. If you hadn't arrived as you did--"
"No, Richelieu. It was yours and Jean-Bart's team's efforts that allowed us to triumph today. You deserve further credit. Know that the seas of France and Europe are now safe, thanks to your efforts. Our support ship will arrive momentarily to aid you. And I bring another message. It concerns The Fleet."
"The Fleet! Is it time already?"
"... Yes. Nagato has declared CODE CHIKARA in effect. Transitionary Command will rise soon."
"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
...and all the world wondered after the beast..."
/////////////////
"Delacroix Team, we are going in fast. The Channel Princess is fleeing to open seas, but the Contre-Torpilleurs of Jean-Bart's Paixhans Team has blown a hole in her escort. We must finish her before she is able to link up with the Abyssal Main Body. We owe it to the defenders of Brest and to Paixhans Team to do this. We shall not disappoint them. Today, France fights back."
Battleship Richelieu relayed those words with exceeding calmness. The entirety of Europe is now in chaos on the level unseen since nearly eighty years before. Delacroix Team was assembled in haste: Herself, Dunkerque, Bretagne, Strasbourg in the front. Algerie and Dupleix leads two heavy torpedo wings: 4 heavy destroyers and 3 light cruisers each on their flank. They were sortied at best speed, too late to save Brest, but not too late to exact vengeance.
The French shipgirls have a particular affinity with speed; The Dunkerque and Richelieu class were among the best fast battleships, and their heavy destroyers are the fastest in the world, and not at all weakly armed. It can be said that speed was their element, and now they must prove this decisive, for their target is in sight.
Their target-The Channel Princess. A pale visage of a woman, wearing an expression simultaneously menacing and serene on her face. Dressed in black armor that defies simple weapons, with flowing pale white ribbons on her back. Her living turrets snarl with vicious fangs, and her presence warps reality, turning the waters around her black. She stood among the carcasses of her escort, courtesy of Jean-Bart's Paixhans Team.
Staring at the attacking Delacroix Team, she closed her eyes, and clasped her hands together with a smile.
"What's she doing?" Bretagne asked.
"I... shit! Delacroix Team, break formation!" Richelieu shouted; the alarm in her voice shook her team into action.
The Princess parted her hands, and a wave of energy bursts outward. Surprisingly, it was not aimed at Delacroix Team, but at a stretch of water in front of her.
She has opened an Entry Rift; a wound that bleeds darkness in space-time, and summoned her Beast. Her companion, an enormous Feral Abyssal familiar, emerged with a thundering roar . It is a massive black giant, hunched with jutting segmented armour plating and heavy turrets on its shoulders. Seven eyeless faces; each one spewing black, liquid fire from gaping maws crowned with thorns and tentacles crimson. On top of the central face is a large quadruple turret, each other face is adorned with one single rapid-firing turret. It turned its eyeless gaze towards Richelieu's fleet and fired, again and again, immediately saturating the seas with hellfire.
As she and Delacroix Team dodged the shells, Richelieu's comms crackled.
"Richelieu, this is Jean-Bart. Wake sensors detected an Entry Event in your AO. Say your situation!"
"Good to hear you, Jean. We've...hit a snag. Princess has summoned her consort. We will need heavy resolution or a strike mission fast."
"...I'm sorry, Richelieu. My ships and myself are hit hard from the last attack. Command has all other assets tied. We have invoked CODE GJALLARHORN on all open channels, see what help we can get. Richelieu, I.."
"It's alright Jean. This is what we do. We fight."
With a faint smile, Richelieu closed the comms.
"This is what we do..."
"Delacroix Team! Listen! I'll be honest-we aren't likely to have any support soon. For the moment, we are alone. So these are your orders: do as much damage as you can! Gut her, and make the defenders of Brest rest easier. Now, strike! Go to rapid fire-all guns, all tubes!"
With incredible crispness, those words are delivered, and with incredible valor, followed to the letter. The four battleships spearheaded the charge. Richelieu at their forefront, firing the entire way. With eight guns forward, the usage vector of her armament is simple; more guns to focus on one target, let secondaries and escorts handle the rest. Their shellfire impacted with terrifying force, cracking armor and starting fires. Off to their flank, Algerie and Dupleix's team executes their torpedo run, adding to it their own gunfire...
The Channel Princess was no less fearsome in her response; Casting monstrous thaumaturgy and firing Abyssal shells that rend and explode and poison with excellent accuracy, unfazed by the hundreds of shots landing in and around her. The Beast roared and slammed the waters with its fists, knocking torpedoes out of the water and catching shells from the air, exploding harmlessly on its biological reactive armor. It bursts liquid fire from its mouth.
Delacroix Team and The Channel Princess and her Beast fought like two opposing typhoons; charging and blasting into each other, cutting with wild abandon. And yet, the battle began to take its toll on Delacroix Team. Several of the destroyers was caught in the Beast's black fire; they immediately disengaged and dumped torpedoes. As she moved to cover the destroyers, Bretagne put herself in the Princess' line of fire, who wasted no time in firing shells and witchcraft on her; she was struck in the legs, crippling and listing her.
Then the Princess blinked herself, reappearing in-between Richelieu and Dunkerque and Strasbourg, staring them down and preventing them from helping Bretagne. Bretagne, lying in the water, aimed her guns one last time at the approaching Beast intent on finishing her-as she aimed upwards at it, a movement in the clouds caught her eye.
Then the skies screamed.
The first strike hit the Beast's top quadruple turret, shattering its armor and ripping its barrels off. The second rained upon the Princess; a danger-close strike that tore her wards and sent her reeling. As soon as it hit them, a series of explosions hit the Beast's flank, severing its myriad arms; it screamed cataclysm. Another barrage took advantage of the Princess' weakened defenses and ripped her apart with burning shrapnels. At this, Richelieu and her Team looked with a mix of elation and bewilderment.
Immediately they scanned the seas, looking for the source of this righteous apocalypse. It was the warships and aircrafts of the Royal Navy; Warspite's Hunter Fleet. Warspite, Valiant, King George V, and Repulse took vanguard. Hurricanes, Sea Furies, and Barracudas flown from the Illustrious and Indefatigable circled their prey. The Lions had arrived for the Hunt; now the Beast is the hunted. "Fire again! Second Strike Wing, attack!" Warspite's voice boomed across the comms, sounding positively divine for the beleaguered shipgirls of Delacroix Team.
An encore of the devastating play was executed. Another wave of torpedoes and bombs descends on the crippled beast; a barrage of heavy cannon fire to its head from the Hurricanes finished its fate. Then the warships opened fire on the Princess. Warspite charged ahead, dodging the Princess' desperate counterattack with agility belying her age. Warspite's shells, however, found their mark again and again, and the Princess' blue blood sprayed whenever it hits. Increasingly weak in her response, the Princess finally found herself staring down eight barrels of vengeance. With finality, Warspite fired, and with finality the Princess closed her eyes.
Thus she ended The Hunt; with a grin and eight armour-piercing fifteen inch shells.
"Thank you, Warspite, and the ships of the Royal Navy. If you hadn't arrived as you did--"
"No, Richelieu. It was yours and Jean-Bart's team's efforts that allowed us to triumph today. You deserve further credit. Know that the seas of France and Europe are now safe, thanks to your efforts. Our support ship will arrive momentarily to aid you. And I bring another message. It concerns The Fleet."
"The Fleet! Is it time already?"
"... Yes. Nagato has declared CODE CHIKARA in effect. Transitionary Command will rise soon."
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NEM.LOW: Channel Princess
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
NEMESIS BELOW Threat Profile
//////
No.035: Command Form type 72-Abyssal Channel Princess
Status: Defeated in engagement by Paixhans Team (FS:JBART059), Delacroix Team (FS:RCHL074), and Royal Navy Hunter Fleet (FS:WRSP003) on 4/12/2024. Remains recovered 02/05/2028. Engagement later known as The Battle off Brest. No repeat instances.
Description: First encountered off Calais on 7/3/2023. Sapient Humaniform Integrated Persona (SHIP) form is a pale human woman, moderate-length wavy hair, visual appearance around 25-30 years of age. DNA analysis returns inconclusive racial prevalence, including presence of REDACTED genotype. Armor coverage is concentrated on upper body. Two triple heavy cannon (ARE:381mm/50)* turrets are flexibly mounted on shoulders; secondary and AA coverage is on lower body and various attachments. Ribbons and tassels made from Abyssal organofabric are present on back; holds residual electrical charge channeled in intricate patterns, purpose unknown, possibly aesthetic. Capable of local Entry Rift generation for purposes of strategic teleportation of self and forces. Aspect Shielding rated at Rank 4 Moderate-Heavy/Tactical. Spectrothaumaturgic Aura is White.
Companion is one Abyssal Feral familiar, known as The Sea Beast. Bodyform follows Type 3 Feral/Large Scale (See: Battleship Princess/Water Demon). Has seven faces, hard-chitin beaks and thorns. Manipulative tentacles are present. Armament heuristics include one quadruple heavy turret (ARE:406mm/50), two medium triple turrets (ARE:356mm/50), and six dual-purpose single turrets (ARE:90mm/50). In addition, fluidic pyrogenesis organs offers extreme short-range response. Spiky organic reactive armor covers chest, shoulders, and back. Normal layered armor covers head and forearms. Average RHA equivalency 3530mm. Aspect Shielding rated at Rank 5 Heavy/Tactical. Spectrothaumaturgic Aura is Black.
As a whole, engagement behaviour typifies Model 7 Bracket, with slight tendency for Submodel 19 Bait-and-Switch. As in The Battle off Brest, Sea Beast is often held in reserve to mislead opponent tactical priority. Proficient in counter-torpedo and counter-capital tactics, as well as using The Beast's physical prowess and the Princess' tactical thaumaturgy in combined tactics to great effect. Excellent strategic agility is employed in hit-and-run strikes against critical targets or to evade destruction, as exemplified in engagements 0321A, 0424C, 0885F, 0771S, and 0901X against Warspite's Hunter Fleet.
Promoters include usage of fast capital ship tactics, heavy escort, and minimal naval aviation presence.
Introns include LINEAR, PUGILIST, LANCER, RIDER, CASTER, CHAIN, and INTEGRATE. Optimization in sophistication-scale and effect.
Internal teleonomy and ecosystem data is restricted to EPSILON/Benthic clearance and above.
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*: Armament Rating Equivalent.
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No.035: Command Form type 72-Abyssal Channel Princess
Status: Defeated in engagement by Paixhans Team (FS:JBART059), Delacroix Team (FS:RCHL074), and Royal Navy Hunter Fleet (FS:WRSP003) on 4/12/2024. Remains recovered 02/05/2028. Engagement later known as The Battle off Brest. No repeat instances.
Description: First encountered off Calais on 7/3/2023. Sapient Humaniform Integrated Persona (SHIP) form is a pale human woman, moderate-length wavy hair, visual appearance around 25-30 years of age. DNA analysis returns inconclusive racial prevalence, including presence of REDACTED genotype. Armor coverage is concentrated on upper body. Two triple heavy cannon (ARE:381mm/50)* turrets are flexibly mounted on shoulders; secondary and AA coverage is on lower body and various attachments. Ribbons and tassels made from Abyssal organofabric are present on back; holds residual electrical charge channeled in intricate patterns, purpose unknown, possibly aesthetic. Capable of local Entry Rift generation for purposes of strategic teleportation of self and forces. Aspect Shielding rated at Rank 4 Moderate-Heavy/Tactical. Spectrothaumaturgic Aura is White.
Companion is one Abyssal Feral familiar, known as The Sea Beast. Bodyform follows Type 3 Feral/Large Scale (See: Battleship Princess/Water Demon). Has seven faces, hard-chitin beaks and thorns. Manipulative tentacles are present. Armament heuristics include one quadruple heavy turret (ARE:406mm/50), two medium triple turrets (ARE:356mm/50), and six dual-purpose single turrets (ARE:90mm/50). In addition, fluidic pyrogenesis organs offers extreme short-range response. Spiky organic reactive armor covers chest, shoulders, and back. Normal layered armor covers head and forearms. Average RHA equivalency 3530mm. Aspect Shielding rated at Rank 5 Heavy/Tactical. Spectrothaumaturgic Aura is Black.
As a whole, engagement behaviour typifies Model 7 Bracket, with slight tendency for Submodel 19 Bait-and-Switch. As in The Battle off Brest, Sea Beast is often held in reserve to mislead opponent tactical priority. Proficient in counter-torpedo and counter-capital tactics, as well as using The Beast's physical prowess and the Princess' tactical thaumaturgy in combined tactics to great effect. Excellent strategic agility is employed in hit-and-run strikes against critical targets or to evade destruction, as exemplified in engagements 0321A, 0424C, 0885F, 0771S, and 0901X against Warspite's Hunter Fleet.
Promoters include usage of fast capital ship tactics, heavy escort, and minimal naval aviation presence.
Introns include LINEAR, PUGILIST, LANCER, RIDER, CASTER, CHAIN, and INTEGRATE. Optimization in sophistication-scale and effect.
Internal teleonomy and ecosystem data is restricted to EPSILON/Benthic clearance and above.
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*: Armament Rating Equivalent.
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ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
DELETED, REWRITE IMMINENT
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Background Post
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Background Post: I realized that I haven't been communicating my ideas properly; so hopefully this post will fix some of that issues. By their nature, these are spoilers.
Kantai Collection:
Obviously KC is the basis of this fic. I want to leverage the unknowable, alien nature of the Abyssals, as well as the supernormally powerful Shipgirls.
Both of them are extremely powerful and mysterious beings, and their presence flies in the face of conventional warfare. Conventional militaries will still have their role, as there are points where the Abyssals can be made vulnerable to normal weapons. For their part, despite wielding what appears to be WW2 weaponry, Shipgirls are significantly more powerful and advanced than our modern arsenal and not restricted to WW2 capabilities; This renders the question of modern-armed shipgirl retrofits or modern warship-girls moot.
There will be an in-universe cause for the appearance of only WW1 and WW2 ships.
FreeSpace:
Destiny:
SCP:
These are my thoughts that led to the creation of this series. Other than these, Greatest Generation by sasahara is the first ever textual Kancolle fic I followed, and it led to me joining the KC fanfic scene. I will try to the best of my ability to develop these ideas.
Kantai Collection:
Obviously KC is the basis of this fic. I want to leverage the unknowable, alien nature of the Abyssals, as well as the supernormally powerful Shipgirls.
Both of them are extremely powerful and mysterious beings, and their presence flies in the face of conventional warfare. Conventional militaries will still have their role, as there are points where the Abyssals can be made vulnerable to normal weapons. For their part, despite wielding what appears to be WW2 weaponry, Shipgirls are significantly more powerful and advanced than our modern arsenal and not restricted to WW2 capabilities; This renders the question of modern-armed shipgirl retrofits or modern warship-girls moot.
There will be an in-universe cause for the appearance of only WW1 and WW2 ships.
FreeSpace:
Combat is based upon FreeSpace's depiction of capital ship and fighter combat, mixed with the usual KC shipgirl combat. Whether or not this works, well...
Shivans are the parallel of Abyssals. They are an extremely powerful, alien, and extant force. What they consider victory may not fit our definition thereof. They have a purpose, and the means and cause of their genesis will be explored. The depiction of Shivans in the Blue Planet mod is a major inspiration, and I borrowed several concepts such as Introns and internal ecosystems from it.
Chronologically: the timeline resembles the events of FreeSpace 1 and 2.
-Humans have been fighting the Abyssals for sometime with limited success; The emergence of Shipgirls allowed us to go on the offensive. FS1
-Success brought by Shipgirl program led to complacency and division, in which the easy victories are mined for their propagandistic worth for each individual countries' purposes. This led to unhealthy competitions and selfishness between each nations who possesses shipgirls, thus crippling the global response when the Abyssals struck with their worldwide Blitz. Like in FreeSpace 2, GTVA is lulled into complacency with the Colossus' triumph over NTF and the first Sathanas.
Nagato and Warspite and Enterprise's role is central in the formation of Transitionary Joint Command-later formalized into GO-SENTAI--which managed to effect an organized global response in defeating the Blitz.
This mirrors the Vasudan-Terran unity in FS1, which allowed them to defeat the Lucifer.
The various CODEs above are contingencies for this kind of event that warrants the creation of a global shipgirl/military organization detached from any one country's purpose. These are created when the shipgirls first emerged with secret backing from the UN, who in a fit of competence anticipated the Blitz scenario.
After the formation of GO-SENTAI, the story moves towards the Abyssal's inscrutable actions and our efforts not only to defeat them, but also mend this broken world-if possible, to a state better than before the war.
One possible ending is a far-future epilogue, in the future on which FS is set, linking the Shivan's appearance with the past war against the Abyssals.
Shivans are the parallel of Abyssals. They are an extremely powerful, alien, and extant force. What they consider victory may not fit our definition thereof. They have a purpose, and the means and cause of their genesis will be explored. The depiction of Shivans in the Blue Planet mod is a major inspiration, and I borrowed several concepts such as Introns and internal ecosystems from it.
Chronologically: the timeline resembles the events of FreeSpace 1 and 2.
-Humans have been fighting the Abyssals for sometime with limited success; The emergence of Shipgirls allowed us to go on the offensive. FS1
-Success brought by Shipgirl program led to complacency and division, in which the easy victories are mined for their propagandistic worth for each individual countries' purposes. This led to unhealthy competitions and selfishness between each nations who possesses shipgirls, thus crippling the global response when the Abyssals struck with their worldwide Blitz. Like in FreeSpace 2, GTVA is lulled into complacency with the Colossus' triumph over NTF and the first Sathanas.
Nagato and Warspite and Enterprise's role is central in the formation of Transitionary Joint Command-later formalized into GO-SENTAI--which managed to effect an organized global response in defeating the Blitz.
This mirrors the Vasudan-Terran unity in FS1, which allowed them to defeat the Lucifer.
The various CODEs above are contingencies for this kind of event that warrants the creation of a global shipgirl/military organization detached from any one country's purpose. These are created when the shipgirls first emerged with secret backing from the UN, who in a fit of competence anticipated the Blitz scenario.
After the formation of GO-SENTAI, the story moves towards the Abyssal's inscrutable actions and our efforts not only to defeat them, but also mend this broken world-if possible, to a state better than before the war.
One possible ending is a far-future epilogue, in the future on which FS is set, linking the Shivan's appearance with the past war against the Abyssals.
Destiny:
There is an interesting parallel between Guardians and Shipgirls; both are dead things resurrected for a new purpose by some unknown, mysterious yet benign force. The force that created the shipgirls is unknown for the moment, and will not be revealed until much later in the story. The Abyssal's genesis is linked to an entity known as type:WORM as well as something known as The Deep. Several concepts such as Dreams are also taken from Destiny.
The Abyssals take on features from the Vex and the Hive: the massive computational networked cognition and space-time control of the Vex, and the superorganic existential horror of the Hive.
There is a question: If the Abyssals have this kind of ability, why haven't they wiped us out already? This is a question that will be answered later in the story.
The Abyssals take on features from the Vex and the Hive: the massive computational networked cognition and space-time control of the Vex, and the superorganic existential horror of the Hive.
There is a question: If the Abyssals have this kind of ability, why haven't they wiped us out already? This is a question that will be answered later in the story.
SCP:
Shipgirl Object Catalog and NEMESIS BELOW Threat Recognition files are obviously inspired by SCP documents. After the emergence of shipgirls in this universe, anomalies and phenomenas formerly referred as magic has become increasingly explainable, analyzed and researched upon, until it becomes a fact of life, publicly known and (mostly) accepted.
There will be an investigative "shadow war" aspect to the story as well, possibly by introducing a Cultist faction, but at the moment it's not final yet.
There will be an investigative "shadow war" aspect to the story as well, possibly by introducing a Cultist faction, but at the moment it's not final yet.
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What Is a Fairy?
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
What is a fairy?
Ask a scientist involved, get an answer: Class 4 Strange/ Aspect Technological Subset SERVANT entity.
Ask the dock crew, get an answer: Small, useful cute little things.
Ask a shipgirl, get an answer: A friend, her crew, a subset aspect of herself.
Ask a fairy herself, get an answer: A creature of memories.
------------------
Red is a fairy pilot. She belongs to Akagi, long-haired, brown-eyed, her queen in red. Thus she named herself, Red. She tied a red band, not unlike those holding Akagi's muneate, on her sleeve, below the twin chevron insignia. As they mark her skill (107 sorties, 71 kills, 14 assists), so does the red band marks her bond to Akagi. To her, Akagi is home.
Her home, her master, and her queen.
This is Red, now, as Pearl Harbor burns for the third time;
"As you all have heard, our defense of Pearl Harbor has failed. Abyssal strikes are massive and overwhelming. All Fleet units stationed there are in organized retreat, bringing with them refugees and casualties from the initial strikes. Fleet TAC-ENG units is setting traps as they go to buy us time. TJC Global Admiralty has declared Condition One. The Third Great Pacific War has begun."
"Your mission is to intercept the Abyssal CVBG on attack vector to the refugee convoy outbound from Pearl. They approach from the north, and will enter convoy engagement range in 30 minutes. Kaga's Delta and Rho wings has engaged another swarm due east of your position. Shinano's gunships and strike fighters will handle surface threats. Akagi-Actual, you will clear the skies. Protect the convoy from any aerial threats, and neutralize the Abyssal CVBG when possible. We are scrambling reinforcements right now, but it will take some time."
TJC TACCOM-EAST's needle-sharp voice delivers its directives. "We cannot allow any more losses. These people have lost much. The least we can do is protect them now. Fight hard, and godspeed."
"Acknowledged, TACCOM." Akagi answered, with her usual calm voice-a favorite of Red's.
"Red, you will be Alpha One. Union will be your second. Uvi will take Beta with Wildgoose. Yisha, Gamma is yours." She liked those callsigns-names, one of the habits they took from American carriers (so much to learn from them).
"Lead the fighter wings and protect the refugee convoy. Gamma will fly escort pattern around me."
"Red, when you have met the convoy, please send them my regards. Happy hunting, and please return safely, all of you."
Were she not The Red Castle, and her knights sallying forth?
Akagi's words stayed with Red- Akagi Alpha 1- as she materialized from the arrows and flew her mission. She looked around her cockpit, integrating all inputs within from the myriad instruments. A fairy's craft is a technological anomaly, anachronisticallly advanced despite their frame based on the warbirds of old (In Red's case, a Zero-62 F/B). Red views the MFD panels-SYS/GENERAL display. TACCOM/ELINT-CLEAR (Condition:2) glows softly green to her right. A miniature digital map and compass just in front of her displays the battle in a flat plane. The convoy is an arrangement of yellow shapes, beset by the red of the Abyssals on all sides. Small, rapid movements of the allied green held them off. To the south, the Abyssal Surface Fleet contend with the fast battleships of the USN-Iowa, North Carolina and South Dakota and their sisters. Akagi and Kaga moves against the Abyssal Carrier Battlegroup from the north. Shinano moves alone, sending her squadrons in support all across the battlespace. The carriers of the 2nd and 5th executes a feint against an Abyssal locus alongside the Kongou sisters.
Strategically, Shipgirls surpass any force on earth in terms of speed. They can make rapid transitions through a subset dimension-the Freespace- to instantly reposition themselves, whether escaping or outflanking. Of course this ability has its limitations and of course, the Abyssals can do it to. Entry Rifts, wounds gored and bloody in the spacetime. Against them, Admirals of the world plays a game of cosmic chess and N-dimensional gambits. This is the new war, in which Fairies like Red are an integral part thereof.
Her wing has arrived above the convoy, a sad mix of cruise-ships, liners, freighters, and hospital ships. Even amphibious carriers, LSTs, and LHDs converted for this grim purpose. Some of them had seen better days. Red hailed the lead ship, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. "This Alpha 1, leading Alpha and Beta flights from Akagi. She sends her regards. We apologize for not arriving sooner, Jacinto Actual. What is your condition?"
"This is Jacinto Actual. Good to see you, Alpha and Beta. Our missiles are depleted, close defense only. We will be relying on you for long-range ACM. Captain Norman gives his regards to Akagi."
"Acknowledged, Jacinto Actual." That bit at the end has Red thinking on how much the world's view on Shipgirls, particularly Japanese, has changed. Especially the Pearl Six.
Akagi, one of the murderers of Pearl in the Old War. Now she acts in its assistance. There are things about this only Akagi knows and remembers. But this is what Red remembers.
The beeping comms snapped Red up. It was Union, her Alpha 2. "Boss, bandits approaching, seven klicks eight high."
"Acknowledged. Alpha wing, fangs out. Snap to new threat heading, go for schyte advantage." (It was a surprise for tacticians worldwide when they discovered that the Fairies came already speaking their own brevity codes-one that accomodates international cooperation, even.)
Like a practiced dance, Alpha snapped to intercept the Abyssal strike-bombers threatening the convoy. Beta stayed, ready to intercept any new arrivals. It was common knowledge among Fairy pilots that Abyssal bombers will always come in waves and swarms-therefore there is particular emphasis on being never caught-off guard.
"Alpha Wing, engage Abyssal bombers, break to attack, GO GO GO!!"
Soon enough the flash-smoke of missiles from the Abyssal bombers filled the sky-where Alpha Wing would have been had they not broken formation. Vicious things-the Abyssal bombers fired their proximity missiles, detonating and saturating the air with burning submunitions. While the submunitions are lethal, the host missile is slow and easily dodged. Red remembers this-the consequences if she is ever shot down. No, she won't die. As long as Akagi lives and there are resources to replenish, she will live on. But it would still create a gap, a loss of a useful field asset. And where there are gaps, the Abyss is sure to infect it.
Infectious, cognicidal, entheogenic-that's what the Abyss is. Every ground they tread, the waters and skies they move in, were poisoned, warped for their nightmarish purposes. Red hears the Abyssal's hunting song-TACCOM/ELINT/EWAR CONSENT-ALERT beeps. A soft singing, lethally cloying in its harmony, in some wretched, black tongue. Many of the casualties in the early war were psychological, men and women reduced to gibbering souls. They say it is not mystic. It is scientific, technical, counterable-a form of electronic warfare visited upon the mind.
Shipgirls, by their presence, naturally dispels these, and as confidence in the Shipgirls rise, servicemen and women finds they can fight-and rest-easier. But the menace is still there, looking for gaps in the mental perimeter, lethal as always.
Red lined her gunsights-released a burst of autocannon fire. It catches one of the Abyssal bomber's own cluster bombs, detonating it. Turning around-seeks new prey.
"Alpha 5, bandit on your five-high. 40521, 40521 has pure. Pressing now." She fired a spread of rockets, causing the Abyssal fighter chasing Alpha 5 (calls himself 40521, God knows why) to break. Alpha 5 seizes the chance-twisted around-catches the fighter in his own fire.
"Beautiful kill, Five."
"Thanks to you, Boss."
Off to their side, Union slides and loops between two Abyssal bombers, evading turret fire. She twisted again, and jousted one out of the sky, firing a full spread of rockets and cannon-fire to the bomber's head. It crashes into the other-both are introduced to gravity shortly.
For Red and her crew, this model of engagement is textbook-standard. Distract fighters, disrupt bombers. Fifteen minutes later, whatever intelligence commanding the Abyssal flight decided it has enough, seeing an entire flight of six bombers and twelve fighters splashed in rapid succession by Alpha Wing, a mere six fighters.
Alpha Wing paused to celebrate a moment, when their comms come to life.
"Alpha, Wildgoose here. Situation developing, enemy surface elements has emerged. Currently staking vampires." In an instant, Alpha Wing turned around to the convoy at highest speed. From the distance, gunfire fills the air, bursts of CIWS and SAMs picking their targets. All armed vessels of the convoy is hitting back, contributing to the convoy's screen.
"Alpha Wing, now on station. All fighters, engagement tight, defensive. Go for dagger advantage. Remember, bombs before bombers!"
"Image-image, music on, guns hot!" There's the cheerful battlecry of Beta 3(Hisso), who always looks for a fight.
"Check your six, check your six! Hisso, you're spiked seven-low." ... and the worried voice of Beta 4(Satin), her cautious minder.
The defense develops in their favor, but Red reminds herself that Murphy hasn't had his way with them yet. And she was right.
Several kilometers away, the waters turn black, and a mass of shadows gathered itself, cutting open an Entry Rift. Carrier Wo-class emerged from the blackened accretion disk, eidolon of the Abyssal storm, eyes trailing blue fire, guns tracking, fighters hungry.
"God, what a jump! Entry Event-Abyssal fleet carrier has emerged on our broadside. New Abyssal bandits going for a fighter sweep."
"Alpha Flight, Carrier is firing ranging salvos. Prompt action would be nice..."
Red answered: "We hear you, Jacinto. Beta, banzai those fighters. Get out of their targeting envelope. Alpha, we'll strike that carrier."
"Right, boss!"
"Ready when you are."
"Damn straight, willco."
Uvi and Wildgoose charges forward with Beta Wing, evading their LRMs all the way, until it becomes too close for any missiles. Slow and ungainly, the Abyssal heavy fighters are at a disadvantage against the nimble Shidens of Beta Wing. Shidens are both trainee-unfriendly and acemaker, rewarding mastery with extreme performance comparable to any late-war fighter of any nations. Wildgoose has 66 killmarks on her, and when the last of the Abyssal heavies are shot down, she has three more. Sadly, Hisso took too long to finish one off, and another Abyssal fighter fired its scattergun on close range, severing Hisso's right wing before it itself was shot down by Beta 4.
"Hisso is down, confirmed ejection. Marking for CSAR. Dammit Hisso. What does it take for you to be careful?"
"I downed it, calculated risk, worth it baby!"
"Alpha, sky is clear. Do your thing before this changes." Uvi radioed Red.
"Thanks, Beta." This carrier had no escorts with her, but Red's not gonna complain about that. Abyssal FLAK-electrified metastable vacuum torn into the air-rattles around Alpha wing as they made their approach vector. Alpha 5 and 6 flew ahead and feigned a drop. The Wo-class charged her staff with some dark power, then shot it into the air-knocking their imaginary bombs away-and creating an opening for the rest of Alpha Wing.
"Rifle, rifle. Birds away."
The combined power of four heavy anti-ship bombs made themselves apparent: the first tore her shields, the second killing the Upper Organism and detonated the active munitions within. The third and fourth finished her off.
As her body disintegrates, a train of thought stopped at all of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma's minds. Too easy.
Murphy's not done with them yet.
Red felt her miniature body turn cold with another memory. Weakness. Day of red, blood-red, and of Red.
Another voice speaks through the comms-broke the silence.
"This is Thestral, Enterprise Strike Five. Something unknown-big-crashed right through our AA screen and moving at high speed to your position, Akagi!"
"Akagi, TACCOM. Can you jump?! We are vectoring support now."
"N-no, engine's still cold. I will hold till able! Launching Lambda and Theta wing to supplement escort. I will hold."
No. Not enough. This is not happening again. Not again.
"This is Jacinto Actual. Go, Akagi Flight. We are safe, it's okay! Go, protect her!"
"Thank you, Jacinto Actual. All fighters, follow me!". After that , Red was silent the entire way to Akagi.
"Don't worry, Red, we are approaching..."
"Theta One, tally one visual on unknown contact. God, it's massive. Detecting launch...multiple..Vampires, vampires. Daggers out, stakes out. Engaging..."
Still wordless, Red-again-unchained her power channeled through the Zero. It picks up speed, and Red sees the black shape of the unknown, the trails of the fighters engaging her. It draws closer, until its shape resolves and Red gets a full view of this latest evil. It is a flying nightmare, a dragon-like visage with angular black wings and cannon-fangs lining its jaws, compound eyes burning red. Multiple missile bays line its belly.
All around her, Gamma, Lambda, and Theta wings are unloading their firepower on it and intercepting its cluster torpedoes. Akagi-trailing smoke-is firing direct-fire arrows at it, each exploding metal arrows crashing against its shields.
No,nononono. It will not happen again. I'm here, I'm here. Red charges forward, leaving her Wing behind. Fired a stream of rounds at its head and knocking one of its eyes. It seems to draw its attention, as it ceased its attack on Akagi and turned towards Red.
Good. Come here. I'll kill you.
Red turned and jinks around, leading the Abyssal Superbomber on a wild chase. All around them is a cacophony of destruction, as all the other fighters are divided between covering Red, shooting it down, and evading its own turret and missile-fire. It was absolutely toying with them-none of their shots worked-and then it stopped doing so.
It turned around-you can see thrust being vectored on its end- and launched a wave of ten missiles at Akagi.
No. I won't let that happen. Not again.
Red sped forward, and fired at the missiles. First down. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. All down. Missile threat eliminated. Momentarily, Red was relieved for Akagi's safety. Until a shadow looms behind him, overtaking him to Akagi. It was the Dragon, and its maw open, all fangs pointed, intent on devouring Akagi.
No. I'll kill you.
Red sped even faster, faster than on the Red Day, channeling every bit of her power. Passed the Dragon, and brought herself to a hard turn, almost ripping her wings. Putting herself directly between Akagi and the Dragon. Trigger down, all remaining ordnance aboard Red's Zero was unloaded to its open mouth. A series of explosions blossomed, ripping out the monster's innards. Red's momentum brought her forward, and it's too late to turn. She ejected, her Zero crashing against the creature's pointed brow.
No...
Amazingly, the monster endured. Parachuting down, Red despaired as it turned around for another attack-powerless to stop it. Long has scientists and philosophers debated the sapience of Fairies-whether they have genuine emotions or a simple mimicry of humans. Red's despair and her crying at that moment was real enough.
So does her look of utter surprise as a trio of green triangular aircraft split the skies with their cannon fire. Propellers on the rear, swept wings and canards. Shinden Kai, the heaviest fighter in the Japanese arsenal. Their shots landed on the monster's left wing root. The forces of its own maneuver shears them off.
"Hammer, hammer. Good hits. This is Empire One, leading Empire Flight off the Shinano. She sends her regards."
No sooner than that happened, four flat strange-looking aircraft, black as the Abyss, but marked with the familiar Star roundel of the US Navy. Flapjacks. They too, fired their heavy cannons at the now-stricken Superbomber. It crashes with an infernal scream to the waters below, its red glow dimmed as the seas drowned it.
"Thestral again speaking. We chased this one for three hours already. Empire, mind giving us the kill?"
Red listened to the banter with relief, even as her hands shook and her vision blurred. Then she felt her seat landing on soft, gloved hands. Akagi's. Red looked up and sees the familiar face, the hair coming between her brown eyes, her gentle smile.
As Akagi held her close to her chest, another surge of memories flows within Red. Of happy memories.
Today, after all the grueling battles, there is a new memory. Of Akagi's smile, even with the numerous scars on her, even as she recovered the other planes and bid farewell to Enterprise Strike and Empire. Red,standing on her palm, stared at her brown eyes, tired but ever-brilliant.
"I'm here. I'm here....." Red's voice trailed to tearful sobs.
"Calm down, Red. Shhh. I'm here for you. You're home....Thank you for everything...."
Ask a scientist involved, get an answer: Class 4 Strange/ Aspect Technological Subset SERVANT entity.
Ask the dock crew, get an answer: Small, useful cute little things.
Ask a shipgirl, get an answer: A friend, her crew, a subset aspect of herself.
Ask a fairy herself, get an answer: A creature of memories.
------------------
Red is a fairy pilot. She belongs to Akagi, long-haired, brown-eyed, her queen in red. Thus she named herself, Red. She tied a red band, not unlike those holding Akagi's muneate, on her sleeve, below the twin chevron insignia. As they mark her skill (107 sorties, 71 kills, 14 assists), so does the red band marks her bond to Akagi. To her, Akagi is home.
Her home, her master, and her queen.
This is Red, now, as Pearl Harbor burns for the third time;
"As you all have heard, our defense of Pearl Harbor has failed. Abyssal strikes are massive and overwhelming. All Fleet units stationed there are in organized retreat, bringing with them refugees and casualties from the initial strikes. Fleet TAC-ENG units is setting traps as they go to buy us time. TJC Global Admiralty has declared Condition One. The Third Great Pacific War has begun."
"Your mission is to intercept the Abyssal CVBG on attack vector to the refugee convoy outbound from Pearl. They approach from the north, and will enter convoy engagement range in 30 minutes. Kaga's Delta and Rho wings has engaged another swarm due east of your position. Shinano's gunships and strike fighters will handle surface threats. Akagi-Actual, you will clear the skies. Protect the convoy from any aerial threats, and neutralize the Abyssal CVBG when possible. We are scrambling reinforcements right now, but it will take some time."
TJC TACCOM-EAST's needle-sharp voice delivers its directives. "We cannot allow any more losses. These people have lost much. The least we can do is protect them now. Fight hard, and godspeed."
"Acknowledged, TACCOM." Akagi answered, with her usual calm voice-a favorite of Red's.
"Red, you will be Alpha One. Union will be your second. Uvi will take Beta with Wildgoose. Yisha, Gamma is yours." She liked those callsigns-names, one of the habits they took from American carriers (so much to learn from them).
"Lead the fighter wings and protect the refugee convoy. Gamma will fly escort pattern around me."
"Red, when you have met the convoy, please send them my regards. Happy hunting, and please return safely, all of you."
Were she not The Red Castle, and her knights sallying forth?
Akagi's words stayed with Red- Akagi Alpha 1- as she materialized from the arrows and flew her mission. She looked around her cockpit, integrating all inputs within from the myriad instruments. A fairy's craft is a technological anomaly, anachronisticallly advanced despite their frame based on the warbirds of old (In Red's case, a Zero-62 F/B). Red views the MFD panels-SYS/GENERAL display. TACCOM/ELINT-CLEAR (Condition:2) glows softly green to her right. A miniature digital map and compass just in front of her displays the battle in a flat plane. The convoy is an arrangement of yellow shapes, beset by the red of the Abyssals on all sides. Small, rapid movements of the allied green held them off. To the south, the Abyssal Surface Fleet contend with the fast battleships of the USN-Iowa, North Carolina and South Dakota and their sisters. Akagi and Kaga moves against the Abyssal Carrier Battlegroup from the north. Shinano moves alone, sending her squadrons in support all across the battlespace. The carriers of the 2nd and 5th executes a feint against an Abyssal locus alongside the Kongou sisters.
Strategically, Shipgirls surpass any force on earth in terms of speed. They can make rapid transitions through a subset dimension-the Freespace- to instantly reposition themselves, whether escaping or outflanking. Of course this ability has its limitations and of course, the Abyssals can do it to. Entry Rifts, wounds gored and bloody in the spacetime. Against them, Admirals of the world plays a game of cosmic chess and N-dimensional gambits. This is the new war, in which Fairies like Red are an integral part thereof.
Her wing has arrived above the convoy, a sad mix of cruise-ships, liners, freighters, and hospital ships. Even amphibious carriers, LSTs, and LHDs converted for this grim purpose. Some of them had seen better days. Red hailed the lead ship, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser. "This Alpha 1, leading Alpha and Beta flights from Akagi. She sends her regards. We apologize for not arriving sooner, Jacinto Actual. What is your condition?"
"This is Jacinto Actual. Good to see you, Alpha and Beta. Our missiles are depleted, close defense only. We will be relying on you for long-range ACM. Captain Norman gives his regards to Akagi."
"Acknowledged, Jacinto Actual." That bit at the end has Red thinking on how much the world's view on Shipgirls, particularly Japanese, has changed. Especially the Pearl Six.
Akagi, one of the murderers of Pearl in the Old War. Now she acts in its assistance. There are things about this only Akagi knows and remembers. But this is what Red remembers.
The beeping comms snapped Red up. It was Union, her Alpha 2. "Boss, bandits approaching, seven klicks eight high."
"Acknowledged. Alpha wing, fangs out. Snap to new threat heading, go for schyte advantage." (It was a surprise for tacticians worldwide when they discovered that the Fairies came already speaking their own brevity codes-one that accomodates international cooperation, even.)
Like a practiced dance, Alpha snapped to intercept the Abyssal strike-bombers threatening the convoy. Beta stayed, ready to intercept any new arrivals. It was common knowledge among Fairy pilots that Abyssal bombers will always come in waves and swarms-therefore there is particular emphasis on being never caught-off guard.
"Alpha Wing, engage Abyssal bombers, break to attack, GO GO GO!!"
Soon enough the flash-smoke of missiles from the Abyssal bombers filled the sky-where Alpha Wing would have been had they not broken formation. Vicious things-the Abyssal bombers fired their proximity missiles, detonating and saturating the air with burning submunitions. While the submunitions are lethal, the host missile is slow and easily dodged. Red remembers this-the consequences if she is ever shot down. No, she won't die. As long as Akagi lives and there are resources to replenish, she will live on. But it would still create a gap, a loss of a useful field asset. And where there are gaps, the Abyss is sure to infect it.
Infectious, cognicidal, entheogenic-that's what the Abyss is. Every ground they tread, the waters and skies they move in, were poisoned, warped for their nightmarish purposes. Red hears the Abyssal's hunting song-TACCOM/ELINT/EWAR CONSENT-ALERT beeps. A soft singing, lethally cloying in its harmony, in some wretched, black tongue. Many of the casualties in the early war were psychological, men and women reduced to gibbering souls. They say it is not mystic. It is scientific, technical, counterable-a form of electronic warfare visited upon the mind.
Shipgirls, by their presence, naturally dispels these, and as confidence in the Shipgirls rise, servicemen and women finds they can fight-and rest-easier. But the menace is still there, looking for gaps in the mental perimeter, lethal as always.
Red lined her gunsights-released a burst of autocannon fire. It catches one of the Abyssal bomber's own cluster bombs, detonating it. Turning around-seeks new prey.
"Alpha 5, bandit on your five-high. 40521, 40521 has pure. Pressing now." She fired a spread of rockets, causing the Abyssal fighter chasing Alpha 5 (calls himself 40521, God knows why) to break. Alpha 5 seizes the chance-twisted around-catches the fighter in his own fire.
"Beautiful kill, Five."
"Thanks to you, Boss."
Off to their side, Union slides and loops between two Abyssal bombers, evading turret fire. She twisted again, and jousted one out of the sky, firing a full spread of rockets and cannon-fire to the bomber's head. It crashes into the other-both are introduced to gravity shortly.
For Red and her crew, this model of engagement is textbook-standard. Distract fighters, disrupt bombers. Fifteen minutes later, whatever intelligence commanding the Abyssal flight decided it has enough, seeing an entire flight of six bombers and twelve fighters splashed in rapid succession by Alpha Wing, a mere six fighters.
Alpha Wing paused to celebrate a moment, when their comms come to life.
"Alpha, Wildgoose here. Situation developing, enemy surface elements has emerged. Currently staking vampires." In an instant, Alpha Wing turned around to the convoy at highest speed. From the distance, gunfire fills the air, bursts of CIWS and SAMs picking their targets. All armed vessels of the convoy is hitting back, contributing to the convoy's screen.
"Alpha Wing, now on station. All fighters, engagement tight, defensive. Go for dagger advantage. Remember, bombs before bombers!"
"Image-image, music on, guns hot!" There's the cheerful battlecry of Beta 3(Hisso), who always looks for a fight.
"Check your six, check your six! Hisso, you're spiked seven-low." ... and the worried voice of Beta 4(Satin), her cautious minder.
The defense develops in their favor, but Red reminds herself that Murphy hasn't had his way with them yet. And she was right.
Several kilometers away, the waters turn black, and a mass of shadows gathered itself, cutting open an Entry Rift. Carrier Wo-class emerged from the blackened accretion disk, eidolon of the Abyssal storm, eyes trailing blue fire, guns tracking, fighters hungry.
"God, what a jump! Entry Event-Abyssal fleet carrier has emerged on our broadside. New Abyssal bandits going for a fighter sweep."
"Alpha Flight, Carrier is firing ranging salvos. Prompt action would be nice..."
Red answered: "We hear you, Jacinto. Beta, banzai those fighters. Get out of their targeting envelope. Alpha, we'll strike that carrier."
"Right, boss!"
"Ready when you are."
"Damn straight, willco."
Uvi and Wildgoose charges forward with Beta Wing, evading their LRMs all the way, until it becomes too close for any missiles. Slow and ungainly, the Abyssal heavy fighters are at a disadvantage against the nimble Shidens of Beta Wing. Shidens are both trainee-unfriendly and acemaker, rewarding mastery with extreme performance comparable to any late-war fighter of any nations. Wildgoose has 66 killmarks on her, and when the last of the Abyssal heavies are shot down, she has three more. Sadly, Hisso took too long to finish one off, and another Abyssal fighter fired its scattergun on close range, severing Hisso's right wing before it itself was shot down by Beta 4.
"Hisso is down, confirmed ejection. Marking for CSAR. Dammit Hisso. What does it take for you to be careful?"
"I downed it, calculated risk, worth it baby!"
"Alpha, sky is clear. Do your thing before this changes." Uvi radioed Red.
"Thanks, Beta." This carrier had no escorts with her, but Red's not gonna complain about that. Abyssal FLAK-electrified metastable vacuum torn into the air-rattles around Alpha wing as they made their approach vector. Alpha 5 and 6 flew ahead and feigned a drop. The Wo-class charged her staff with some dark power, then shot it into the air-knocking their imaginary bombs away-and creating an opening for the rest of Alpha Wing.
"Rifle, rifle. Birds away."
The combined power of four heavy anti-ship bombs made themselves apparent: the first tore her shields, the second killing the Upper Organism and detonated the active munitions within. The third and fourth finished her off.
As her body disintegrates, a train of thought stopped at all of Alpha, Beta, and Gamma's minds. Too easy.
Murphy's not done with them yet.
Red felt her miniature body turn cold with another memory. Weakness. Day of red, blood-red, and of Red.
Another voice speaks through the comms-broke the silence.
"This is Thestral, Enterprise Strike Five. Something unknown-big-crashed right through our AA screen and moving at high speed to your position, Akagi!"
"Akagi, TACCOM. Can you jump?! We are vectoring support now."
"N-no, engine's still cold. I will hold till able! Launching Lambda and Theta wing to supplement escort. I will hold."
No. Not enough. This is not happening again. Not again.
"This is Jacinto Actual. Go, Akagi Flight. We are safe, it's okay! Go, protect her!"
"Thank you, Jacinto Actual. All fighters, follow me!". After that , Red was silent the entire way to Akagi.
"Don't worry, Red, we are approaching..."
"Theta One, tally one visual on unknown contact. God, it's massive. Detecting launch...multiple..Vampires, vampires. Daggers out, stakes out. Engaging..."
Still wordless, Red-again-unchained her power channeled through the Zero. It picks up speed, and Red sees the black shape of the unknown, the trails of the fighters engaging her. It draws closer, until its shape resolves and Red gets a full view of this latest evil. It is a flying nightmare, a dragon-like visage with angular black wings and cannon-fangs lining its jaws, compound eyes burning red. Multiple missile bays line its belly.
All around her, Gamma, Lambda, and Theta wings are unloading their firepower on it and intercepting its cluster torpedoes. Akagi-trailing smoke-is firing direct-fire arrows at it, each exploding metal arrows crashing against its shields.
No,nononono. It will not happen again. I'm here, I'm here. Red charges forward, leaving her Wing behind. Fired a stream of rounds at its head and knocking one of its eyes. It seems to draw its attention, as it ceased its attack on Akagi and turned towards Red.
Good. Come here. I'll kill you.
Red turned and jinks around, leading the Abyssal Superbomber on a wild chase. All around them is a cacophony of destruction, as all the other fighters are divided between covering Red, shooting it down, and evading its own turret and missile-fire. It was absolutely toying with them-none of their shots worked-and then it stopped doing so.
It turned around-you can see thrust being vectored on its end- and launched a wave of ten missiles at Akagi.
No. I won't let that happen. Not again.
Red sped forward, and fired at the missiles. First down. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. All down. Missile threat eliminated. Momentarily, Red was relieved for Akagi's safety. Until a shadow looms behind him, overtaking him to Akagi. It was the Dragon, and its maw open, all fangs pointed, intent on devouring Akagi.
No. I'll kill you.
Red sped even faster, faster than on the Red Day, channeling every bit of her power. Passed the Dragon, and brought herself to a hard turn, almost ripping her wings. Putting herself directly between Akagi and the Dragon. Trigger down, all remaining ordnance aboard Red's Zero was unloaded to its open mouth. A series of explosions blossomed, ripping out the monster's innards. Red's momentum brought her forward, and it's too late to turn. She ejected, her Zero crashing against the creature's pointed brow.
No...
Amazingly, the monster endured. Parachuting down, Red despaired as it turned around for another attack-powerless to stop it. Long has scientists and philosophers debated the sapience of Fairies-whether they have genuine emotions or a simple mimicry of humans. Red's despair and her crying at that moment was real enough.
So does her look of utter surprise as a trio of green triangular aircraft split the skies with their cannon fire. Propellers on the rear, swept wings and canards. Shinden Kai, the heaviest fighter in the Japanese arsenal. Their shots landed on the monster's left wing root. The forces of its own maneuver shears them off.
"Hammer, hammer. Good hits. This is Empire One, leading Empire Flight off the Shinano. She sends her regards."
No sooner than that happened, four flat strange-looking aircraft, black as the Abyss, but marked with the familiar Star roundel of the US Navy. Flapjacks. They too, fired their heavy cannons at the now-stricken Superbomber. It crashes with an infernal scream to the waters below, its red glow dimmed as the seas drowned it.
"Thestral again speaking. We chased this one for three hours already. Empire, mind giving us the kill?"
Red listened to the banter with relief, even as her hands shook and her vision blurred. Then she felt her seat landing on soft, gloved hands. Akagi's. Red looked up and sees the familiar face, the hair coming between her brown eyes, her gentle smile.
As Akagi held her close to her chest, another surge of memories flows within Red. Of happy memories.
Today, after all the grueling battles, there is a new memory. Of Akagi's smile, even with the numerous scars on her, even as she recovered the other planes and bid farewell to Enterprise Strike and Empire. Red,standing on her palm, stared at her brown eyes, tired but ever-brilliant.
"I'm here. I'm here....." Red's voice trailed to tearful sobs.
"Calm down, Red. Shhh. I'm here for you. You're home....Thank you for everything...."
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Sword
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
06. Sword.
"Brave is he who knows fear but conquers; who sees the Abyss, but with pride."
-----------
"Leander, anything on the radar?"
"Nope. The seas are calm, Jintsuu."
Leander's report dampens Jintsuu's racing heart a bit. So far, their path has been relatively calm, punctuated only by Ikazuchi's small incident. Rather silly actually. After finishing their transport escort run, Jintsuu, Tenryuu, DesDiv6, Leander, O'Bannon, Nicholas, and Taylor uses an alternate path to return to their base: Sparrowmark HQ, the TJC's operational base in the Solomons.
A path that takes them through Kolombangara.
"What, you scared, Jintsuu? I thought the Night-Battle Idiot's breed would be more--"
"Tenryuu-san, that's not ladylike at all, mocking Jintsuu-san like that!"
Purple-haired Akatsuki shines her searchlight on Tenryuu. Her three sisters snickered a bit around her.
"Hey, it's just banter. You'll understand when you're a bit older, Akatsuki. Now turn your light somewhere else." Slightly annoyed Tenryuu waves her sheathed sword.
"Hmph." Akatsuki pouted.
"It's okay, Tenryuu, Akatsuki-chan. It's just the history in this waters..." Jintsuu answered, meek as always. Leander throws a smile-reassuring, but concerned-at her.
"S'okay, people. None of us here had no experience in night battles. If they come a-knocking, we'll be answering." O'Bannon, confident as always, assuages further.
"She's right, Jintsuu. We're together now. Besides, Honolulu and St.Louis passed this path not three hours ago, and they arrived safely." Taylor added.
Jintsuu smiled at them. They're right. But something nags at the back of her mind.
"I don't doubt you, friends. But I'm launching my Night Recon for the path ahead. Is that okay?"
"Sure, sure. It's fine."
The Fairy pilot-Douma-saluted before she launches off from Jintsuu's catapult. She circled around several times around the flotilla before heading off to the east. The flotilla continues their path, treading darkened water, the moon shining faintly through the clouds. Their sweeping searchlights cuts through the thick mists, while radar crews maintain vigilance.
Several minutes later, the silence was broken by a wide-band transmission from Douma.
"Flotilla Alert. Tally visual with possible one unknown, contact lost. Possible ASSASSIN behaviour. Configuration unknown. Vector intersect imminent. Alert."
"Shit. All ships maintain high alert, tighten formation. Watch each other's backs!" Leander immediately commanded the motley group.
"Picking up contact on surface radar. Jumps around all over the place. Launching flares now. Weapons ready." Jintsuu answered, and several other shipgirls did the same. Their flares
illuminated the sky, before falling off to the misty waters. These flares are special-they do not extinguish immediately upon touching water, instead maintains the burn for several minutes, creating "lightspots" and opening many tactical applications.
A whirring sound approached them. Douma returns, landing on the water near Jintsu. Storing her away, Jintsuu is consumed by a tide of terrible thoughts. It was as if this terror is slowly gaining form, making itself more definite each moment in her mind. Something familiar, yet alien. Intimate and distant at the same time. A frigid coldness washes over her.
"Leander, this is..."
"I know, Jintsuu. We're all here. We will make it."
Silence returned as the Shipgirls scanned the waters with radars and lights in search of the enemy unseen, weapons drawn.
Then, the quiet night was broken again by a curt transmission, stoic and emotionless.
------
Hibiki searched the waters around her, having positioned herself on the edge of the formation. As she swept her searchlights, the cone of light caught something-a rapid movement of blue light. She immediately surged her engines and chased it. A sound of close gunfire-- and with a clang an Abyssal shell ricocheted off her shield-plates which she had brought up mere moments earlier-saving her from what might have been a killing shot.
Hibiki saw the source-less than a hundred meters away from her, a mass of shadows resolves themselves into the lithe form of Light Cruiser Princess.
Hibiki smiled a faint smile. She immediately returned fire, opening with both guns and torpedoes. She sent a message:
"Target found. Engaging in close combat."
------
"Wha.... fuck!! Hold on, Hibiki!!" Tenryuu immediately turned herself and charged to Hibiki's position. The rest followed suit. Some of the girls closer to Hibiki where she was has already searched for her.
They found Hibiki locked in battle, alternately firing her guns and swinging her battle-anchor. The combined illumination of their searchlights and flares revealed the full form of the Light Cruiser Princess. Short-haired, clad in a black sailor uniform. Her left arm is encased in a massive agglomeration of cannons, launchers, and searchlights, ending in a gaping jaw. Her right arm is armored with a smaller gauntlet that hosts small turrets. A horned black mask conceals her eyes.
Seeing this revenant enemy, Jintsuu turned towards Leander. Leander nods, her face cold.
The rest of the fleet is here, and the Princess shifted her behavior for mass engagement.
"Hibiki, retreat!" Tenryuu shouts as she draws her sword and entered her stance. Nicholas and Taylor engages the Princess from the front, firing their 5/38 guns styled as assault rifles while launching torpedoes from its underbarrel attachment. Jintsuu charged forward, passing the retreating Hibiki. She illuminates the Princess, never looking away from her, tracks her continuously. She fired her array of guns at her, while Leander and O'Bannon maneuvered to the Princess' flanks. With disciplined and unerring calm they fired at the Princess, the hits sparking off her shields. The Light Cruiser Princess is facing down three light cruisers and six destroyers, all radars tracking and lighting the night with gunfire. Unwilling to be outdone, she moved and leapt around with incredible agility, firing her weapons with lethal grace like a dance within the blue light.
However, by their nature most destroyers and light cruisers aims and fires faster than other shipgirls, and her movement is increasingly restricted as they caught her in their crossfire.
Until a string of words spoken in a warped, distorted impression of Jintsuu's voice entered their minds forcefully. They were stunned, an unseen force restraining their movement, their minds bound in the Princess' malignant grip.
"You don't have to come anymore... Why are you coming...?"
When they regained their senses, Light Cruiser Princess has jumped away, leaving a massive plume of darkened water in her place.
She reemerged in striking position of Inazuma, Akatsuki, and Ikazuchi, who had been covering Hibiki's retreat. Before she can strike, however, Tenryuu blinked and reappeared in front of her, flourishing her curved sword, superheated edges glowing with circulated plasma. She stares the Princess down and smiles.
"You're not hurting them that easily."
She presses forward, striking the Princess with a flurry slashes and jabs in rapid succession. The Princess blocks with her armored left arm, never counterattacking. Tenryuu sees herself in advantage, wielding her sword with directed fury. The other shipgirls are closing in, already targeting her again and preparing to attack. Tenryuu delivered one last blow and leaped backwards to put some distance before firing her guns alongside the other shipgirls.
Then everything went wrong.
Regret... hate...!
Another mental assault--terrifying imageries of dead future and nightmares primal struck their minds. Jintsuu-leading the counterattack- fell to her knees, coughing blood. She covers her ears, and sees that the other girls have similarly fallen, retching and curling on themselves.
Tenryuu, however, stood up against the assault even as the vice-like grip on her mind tightens. She lunged at the princess, intent on cutting her down-swings her sword overhead.
This time the Princess reacts faster, first parrying it with a backhand from her right arm, then, as Tenryuu countered, catches the sword with her left arm-jaw.
The jaw snaps down and crushes her sword. It spits residual plasma and crushed alloy. Light Cruiser Princess sends Tenryuu flying with an uppercut, landing unconscious. Then she turned to the vulnerable DesDiv 6 girls. Akatsuki, trembling and crying, struggled to stand, even as the Princess aimed her vicious weaponry at her. Akatsuki braces herself. Before she can fire at Akatsuki, however, two things happened.
The first is a beam of brilliant solar light, far brighter than before, suddenly illuminating the Princess. She immediately abandoned her attack and faced the direction of the light. Then with a distant delayed boom, a massive explosion hit her, collapsing the forward quarter of her shields.
"Traumatic disintegration of target defensive structure. Kako, again: four-hundred. Target unknown Abyssal Princess, prepare to fire."
Furutaka said as her augmented left-eye searchlight illuminates the Princess, spotting for her sister.
"Ready! Ammo up!" A predatory grin on her face, Kako electromagnetically suspends an armor-piercing 203mm shell in front of her. Her outstretched arms are sparking with raw electricity, and her Aspect Shielding geometry is altered to further contain and direct the charge.
Furutaka shouted: "Ninety-nine percent charge, fire!" Kako snaps her arms together, and the shell travels down it, accelerated to hypersonic velocities by the electrical charge vectored by her arms. Kako, shipgirl and railgun, smiles as the shell scores a headshot, shattering The Princess' mask and staggering her with incredible force.
With the taste of blood fresh on her lips and tongue, Jintsuu, forcing herself up, leapt and pinned the prone Princess down. She gripped the Princess by her neck with her remaining strength, and sees a pale face, a visage of her own, under the shattered mask.
They both stood up, Jintsuu finding herself locked into place and unable to do anything. She trembles as The Princess wiped the trail of blood in her mouth and caressed her face with cold, pallid hands. The Princess then disappears in a burst of shadows into the mist. As the rest of the fleet recovers-aided by Furutaka, Kako, Akashi, Fubuki, and Hatsuyuki-Jintsuu stood silently weeping. Leander puts her arms around her.
"Let's go home. "
------
204 5558 1114
REPORT-ENCOUNTER 588G
TIARA 0201-KRSW
Keyword: ROADBLOCK
Distribution: CIRCULAR
From: Kurosawa, CINC Sparrowmark, Solomon Region
To TJC TACCOM EAST HIGHER
....
lacanian real best real
MESSAGE BEGINS:
1. Transport Expedition Team (OOB find attached) on 14/7/2025 was attacked in a night engagement by a previously unknown NEMESIS BELOW entity, designated Light Cruiser Princess, Command Form type 53 while en route to Sparrowmark HQ.
2. Engagement behaviour suggests presence of ASSASSIN, LONER, BERSERKER, CASTER, and LANCER introns.
3. CL Princess retreated after massive long-range response resolution by a quick reaction force from CTG ARCANIST. QRF instituted first-aid and field repairs. Transport Expedition Team was escorted to Sparrowmark HQ without further incidents.
4. Aggressive usage of cognicidal psywar/SOMNIC TAINT tactics is of major concern. Expedition Team severely affected and undergoing treatment by Battlefield Psychology and Spiritual Aspects.
5. Current night patrol, expedition, and operations schedule undergoing reorganization. Sparrowmark HQ and CTG ARCANIST, STRINGHAMMER on Condition 2 and continued defense posture.
6. Battle telemetry and theater engagement trend analysis suggests continued usage of forced/stereotyped World War II recapitulation strategy by NEMESIS BELOW forces.
MESSAGE ENDS:
to see we are being
....
-----------
"So, how's her?" O'Bannon asked as she entered Tenryuu's treatment room, carrying a small bowl of mashed potatoes. She sets it in the nightstand, leaving with it a note.
Leander sits beside Tenryuu's bed, watching over her as she slept and recovered. All four DesDiv 6 girls are sleeping in various positions around her.
"She's going to be fine. Heavy damage to rigging and some major injuries, but nothing too threatening. Off the sortie roster for at least a month." Leander sighed as she picked up Akatsuki's fallen hat on the floor.
O'Bannon pulled another seat and sat down on Leander's opposite. "Can't sleep after them psych scrubs. So does Taylor and Nick. Guess it's for the better,though."
"How about Jintsuu?"
"She's either alone or with her sisters. Poor girl. We must take some time to talk to her. Soon, before..."
"Before what?"
"Before she does something stupid. You know what I mean."
"..."
""...Yeah. Gotta go now, promised to treat Furutaka and Kako some eats. Wanna join?"
"I'm good. Take care, O'Bannon."
"You too."
-----------
Jintsuu lies in her bed. She holds a tablet, its browser open with myriad articles. Battle of Kolombangara. Leander. Honolulu. Herself. Vella.
She remembered as her Allied fleet-mates and sisters talked to her.
"Jintsuu, please. This isn't that Japanese honor-code thingy, okay? We'll do something about her, together. Do not go off doing something stupid."
"We care about you, Jintsuu. I care about you. You're my sister. I will not trade your life even for all the nighttime privileges in the world."
The image of her encounter that night persists like a deranged lover, a revenant of bad memories and dark thoughts. It beckons her. Made her shudder and her body cold.
Tenryuu stricken down, the little destroyers on the verge of death.
Leander and the others helpless, convulsing in a pool of their own blood. Though you couldn't see it now, given how fast they recovered. Maybe they're just hiding it.
It was too much. She was prepared to die and sink alone again. She could not,however, bear the thought of any one of her friends and sisters suffering that again. This will not involve them, she will not bring them to this.
She sat on the edge of her bed, and set off to the docks. Sneaking past asleep Naka and Sendai is easy enough, being their sister trains and equips you for it.
"Sorry, nee-san and Naka-chan. I'll be back."
She could not use the usual guarded launchbays-there aren't any night sorties scheduled after all-so she picked a sheltered spot on the bay's rocky outcropping. Sendai likes to use that spot for her "discreet" night-cruises. Having donned her rigging, loaded her torpedoes, she tied her green ribbon to the back of her head, and prepared to set off.
"Good evening, Jintsuu."
Jintsuu turned to face her greeter. Pink-haired, with an array of armor plating on her left leg and arm. Sweet, green-eyed Akashi.
"Good evening, Akashi-san." How did she know....
"A lovely night, Jintsuu. Why don't you come with me for a moment?"
"Where?"
"To claim your sword."
-------------
"A sword? But you see what it did to Tenryuu. Her sword is shattered and crushed. " Jintsuu was concerned, to put it lightly.
"She wielded it in defense of those she held dear. She used it to protect, and it did not fail until she had managed to stymie the Princess, holding her in place long enough for Furutaka to aim. Only then was it shattered, and not in vain. Her swordplay is one of the decisive elements of that battle. But yours will have a different purpose."
They arrived at Akashi's workshop, a section concealed within the massive Arsenal Bay.
"Don't worry about being found. Everything is accounted for. Consider it retroactive authorization."
Jintsuu, puzzled at that statement, simply gazed around Akashi's workshop. The myriad tools and crafts and weapons and half-finished projects within. Some looked completely alien, neither human nor Abyssal. A drawing board is tucked in the corner, a massive jug of coffee sits on a table beside it. At the center of the workshop rests a Transmaterial Forge, the crux of equipment Development systems.
Akashi is not "just" a simple inventor-tinkerer and repair ship. She possesses Level 7 Zeta/KHARAM clearance, possessed by few shipgirls and even fewer admirals. By this right, she is privy to the deepest ontological secrets of the Fleet.
She is neither Supreme Flagship, like Enterprise, nor World Admiral, like Kurosawa, their commanding officer.
She is Forgemaster, and the power to wield the burning fire of creation against the cold fire of the Abyss is hers.
Shipgirl Construction and equipment Development is notoriously tricky- a combination of the most sophisticated science, the most advanced engineering, and the most arcane of magic.
Akashi donned her mask, put on her armored apron. She wears a robotic glove with various tools attached to it. She started her work, speaking as she did:
"Abyssal weaponry-the entirety of Abyssal Warfare-induces malignant isotropy on its target structure. Alloys becomes uniform and brittle. Complex EWAR and battle management systems reduced to crashing networks. Sophisticated strategies become routs. Cognition becomes void. The lynchpin of their entire warfare is confusion and noise. They seek and infect our weakness, while presenting their own monolithic front at us-no visible weakness-unknowable and irresistible."
She poured liquid Transmaterium- matter suspended in a liminal state, waiting to be defined and given purpose-to a computer-machined mold. It a glows a brilliant aurora, and hardens with a hiss in the Forge, hot as a heart of a dying star. In fact-it is. The process of Transmaterium definition involves pulling material from other subset dimensional manifolds by the power of a contained singularity's ergosphere. By probability manipulation, the Transmaterium is reified, given purpose and context in this world, in the form of Shipgirl rigging, for example.
Or a sword, in this case.
"Why do they force us to recreate the Old War? We tried resisting this but they persisted. Why not just invade us with the true extent of their power, crushing us so utterly in a sweeping war? Because their entire warfare is predicated upon the basis of reducing their opponent systems into simple, basic, primal forms, easily crushed one-by-one. By recreating the Old War, they are trying to ensure our division. Nations will remain separated, except in their own fragile power-blocs. They will ensure that animosity exists between us, that we may never truly unite by conflicts of interest and pride.
A world that is separated, bickering among themselves, is the world in its basest, most primal form. This is what the Abyss favors. A system reduced into its basest and simplest form, easily defeated. To defeat us in a single massive overwhelming strike is of course the optimal strategy for beings like them and they have the capability for it. Furthermore, it's not like we can resist if they ever decided do so. However their cognition and logic prevents them."
"Why?" Jintsuu asks. She notices an array of arcane characters and symbols. Names, equations, and passages. Engraved to walls and the floor.
"Why? Because they fear defeat." Akashi took the molded, raw, sword and cools it in a vat of water. She hammers it into its final form, sparks flying and trailing multicolor spectra as she did.
"This is our hypothesis, formulated by months of calculation and simulation in the HAVEN mainframe. Because to use the optimal strategy means to be predictable. Our warfare is based on cognition against cognition, strategies against another. Theirs is a war of matter against matter. If they revealed their optimal, they would no longer be unknowable. Then they would be reducible and defeatable, when they seek to be irreducible themselves."
"But, you know all this, Akashi-san. Doesn't that make..."
Akashi smiles as she and her Fairy crew sharpened her sword.
"Yes. By the act of founding the Joint Command-the true Joint Command, not the half-hearted cooperative programs we had in the early war- we have already broken their war-winning equation. They tried to split us apart, but we stood together. A world united, its war-cognition combined and resources pooled, is a much less predictable opponent. Where they use chaotic methods, we will use methodical chaos. Which is why the Diversification Act pushed by Kurosawa won him the position of World Admiral, and the Optimal Standardization Plan is discarded. We must become as variable, as irreducible as the Abyss had been. "
She assembled the long-bladed, curved sword into its hilt with help from a quartet of Fairies. Sheathed it into an ornate sheath that Jintsuu didn't even saw was crafted.
"There are many more to this, things I can't tell you. But this should be enough."
Akashi held the sheated sword with both hands, examining her and her Fairies' work. Its finish, its gleam, the ornate carvings in the sheath. She turned, and presented it to Jintsuu.
" This is the Surpassing War, your Blade Transform, your axiom-killer. Variability courses through its alloys, to resist the destructive uniformity wielded by the Abyss. The Abyss will learn, they will adapt. But so will we. We will become the variable, the aberration in their plan."
Jintsuu accepted it from Akashi's hands. She pulled it from its sheath, swung it in practice several times. She regarded its beautiful balance, the exquisite hilt, its lethal sharpness. She found herself using it with skill she never knew she had. She had basic melee training before, but it was as if she had mastered it for a long time, wielding it as an extension of her will.
"...How?"
"Our arsenal and existence transcends physicality, bends causality and ontology. By the act of its creation, it has already become your sword. By the act of using it, you are already its wielder. It will become your sword, it is your sword, it was your sword. Your skill is not new neither foreign, it is yours as it was, as it is, as it will be."
"Akashi-san, thank you, I..." Jintsuu sheathed her sword and bowed, bewildered and trying to process all this unexpected development.
"Thank them, Jintsuu." Jintsuu looked up, and found her sisters and friends-Japanese and Allied-surrounding and smiling their support at her. Leander. O'Bannon. Sendai and Naka, ever-cheerful.
"Do what you must, Jintsuu. Remember, if you need help, we are not far behind."
-----------------
Thus Jintsuu returned to that part of the ocean again. Carrying her sword, configured on a mechanized arm to hold it on her rigging. As she sailed further into the near-perpetually dark, mist-covered water, she remembered those words.
She hears the song again, the familiar voice, the lethal harmony in her mind. She turned her searchlight, but another bioluminescent blue light has already found her.
She is here. Jintsuu turned and saw her Abyssal counterpart, her blood shadow, her antithesis. Her mask has healed over, lines of blue imperfection marring it, once uniformly black. Her left arm-jaw growled, and vomited a black mass.
She inserted her right hand into the jaw, and pulled her own blade, jagged and burning black, like a piece of an accretion disk broken off and hammered into a blade-yes, a blade, not a sword. Jintsuu saw nothing like a hilt or a handle on it, the Princess simply holding it by its flattened base. The Princess seems to not be bothered by this, even as it cuts her own palm. Blue blood spilled, and seems to harden the sword into her hand, integrating it into her biology with pulsing black veins. Light Cruiser Princess looked up at Jintsuu with a thin, wicked smile.
Jintsuu watches the proceedings with cautious disgust, and draws her own sword. It shimmers in the blue light, a portion of Jintsuu's own will and power surging through it. She flourishes it with an arc in front of her, holding it and entering her stance.
In her mind, Light Cruiser Princess whispered a wordless challenge. So shall it be.
With a burst of blinding speed, the Princess surges forward, reversing the "grip" on her blade, going for an uppercut slash. Correct decision, for Jintsuu's current stance would have inhibited her defense of that area. So, she simply surges forward and met the charge with a similarly incredible force.
Their blades met with a resonating clang, sparking as they pushed each other, and the opposing powers flowing within clashed. Jintsuu gritted her teeth and pushed the Princess back, releasing their locking blades. The Princess skids back on the water, slightly dazzled. She aimed her left arm, and fired a burst of rounds, each splitting the air with a boom.
Jintsuu surged her engines and dodged, blinking a short distance away, leaving the shells to impact empty water. Sheathing her sword, she held her breath as she first launched flares at the Princess' general direction-hoping to use them as a sort of smokescreen-then a salvo of torpedoes from her waist-launchers. Then a dark explosion appeared from behind the flare screen. Drawing her sword again, Jintsuu's vigilance was rewarded as the Princess appears charging from within the explosion, her sword seemingly extended and taking on whip-like qualities. She swung it overhead and slams it into the water, creating a line of burning plasma spikes that would have impaled Jintsuu had she not dodged to the sides again.
Riding on a wave, she counter-charges at the Princess' flank, leaving a trail of electrified water in her wake. She thrusted her blade forward, but the Princess immediately reconstituted her sword into a solid form and parried it. Seeing an opening, Jintsuu immediately pulled another strike, then another, and another, stringing together an array of swipes and thrusts. The Princess' block is impeccable, though, and she hit back with her hardened fist, knocking Jintsuu back with a crack. Nearly losing grip of her sword, she regained balance and countered with another wide swing, slicing a burning line across the Princess' chest armor. Obviously she didn't like it, because she fired a salvo from her guns that forced Jintsuu to make distance.
Jintsuu paused a moment, her thoughts racing as her chest heaved with labored breath. Three words entered her mind.
A Blade Transform.
She felt a slight (slight might be understating it a bit) disappointment that her blade can't actually transform, especially in light of Akashi's speech and what she has seen of Light Cruiser Princess' war blade. However, she also thought this;
What if she is also part of the conceptual Blade? Her friends and sisters, even? Something to consider.
Become variable, do not become restricted.
She sheathed her sword and fired another spread of torpedoes-easily dodged by her opponent-but drawing her to a chase as Jintsuu sped off into the night, the Princess in pursuit.
Jintsuu has never felt her life more threatened, as she evaded the burning lashes of the plasma whip-sword and dodged shell after shell. It was strangely exhilarating.
The Princess' dark whispers engulfs her mind once again, clawing and gnawing, but she resisted this time, partially using the combat high to sustain her, partially by sheer will.
Just a bit closer.....
Jintsuu's percolating thoughts are interrupted by a sharp pain across her stomach. The lash of the burning spikes caught her, ripping her clothes and cutting a deep wound in her stomach. The Princess charged her prone form, her blades already hungering to impale Jintsuu. Time seems slowed down, as Jintsuu regained footing. In spite of her injuries, she entered another stance and sheathed her sword.
Then, with a serene ferocity, she executed a quickdraw maneuver in the split second before the Princess can put her blade through Jintsuu's body. The slash caught the Princess' sword-arm, severing the black veins connecting it as well as some of her fingers. She roared, and slammed her left armored arm to Jintsuu's already-bloody stomach, Jintsuu is launched back several meters away. Jintsuu lets out a pained smile, one eye bloodied. As the Princess walked to Jintsuu for the kill, the waters below her exploded.
//////
Ikazuchi's incident. The little destroyer reported sensing a large metal object underwater in the flotilla's path, nearly sending them on ASW panic.
"Is it dangerous, nanodesu? Could it be a sunken ship-what if someone need rescuing..."
"Damn, you had us right there." O'Bannon answered, as the other girls realized and breathed a sigh of relief.
"But what is it?"
"It's a torpedo trap, probably left by the retreating TAC-ENG units." A simple defensive tool, one of Yuubari's invention in answer of excessive manufacture of low-quality torpedoes early in the war.
A sensory trip-wire will trigger a cell of six one-shot torpedo tubes in Abyssal presence. Simple and cheap, though prone to duds.
"You probably wouldn't want to rescue that one, Ikazuchi." O'Bannon said as she pats Ikazuchi's head.
//////
Jintsuu rolled a natural 20 in whatever cosmic dice determines the probability that all six torpedoes exploded on-target. The impact left the Princess' shields and armor shattered, killing her right arm organism while one of her legs is on the verge of falling off. Their positions reversed, Jintsuu approached her counterpart's stricken form, lying in a pool of blue viscera. Her mask is gone again. Jintsuu aims her guns at her.
"My next shot is already loaded."
Jintsuu fires, and the last thing Light Cruiser Princess sees is its flash of impact. Three 140mm shells, right through the skull.
A massive feeling of relief washes over Jintsuu's body, as if some dark weight is burned away from her. She is even more relieved when Leander, O'Bannon, and her sisters, having followed her through the night, rejoined her on the way back to HQ. As they embraced under the rising sun, Jintsuu realized that she has never been more happy than she is now, among her sisters and friends.
She found something within her that day.
.................
image credit: 照射 | 田中草男＠2日目東E59b [pixiv].
EPILOGUE:
---
"What do you mean, they're missing? Both of them, Arashi and Hagikaze?"
"Yes sir. We believe they pursued a target they believe to be strategic in value."
"And that target is....?"
"The Destroyer Water Demon, Command Form Type 71"
"Goddam--hold on. Yes, speaking. FUCK. Yes. Sorry. You guys aren't paying me enough--yes, yes. Ok"
"What is it?"
"Kaga has gone missing too."
"Brave is he who knows fear but conquers; who sees the Abyss, but with pride."
-----------
"Leander, anything on the radar?"
"Nope. The seas are calm, Jintsuu."
Leander's report dampens Jintsuu's racing heart a bit. So far, their path has been relatively calm, punctuated only by Ikazuchi's small incident. Rather silly actually. After finishing their transport escort run, Jintsuu, Tenryuu, DesDiv6, Leander, O'Bannon, Nicholas, and Taylor uses an alternate path to return to their base: Sparrowmark HQ, the TJC's operational base in the Solomons.
A path that takes them through Kolombangara.
"What, you scared, Jintsuu? I thought the Night-Battle Idiot's breed would be more--"
"Tenryuu-san, that's not ladylike at all, mocking Jintsuu-san like that!"
Purple-haired Akatsuki shines her searchlight on Tenryuu. Her three sisters snickered a bit around her.
"Hey, it's just banter. You'll understand when you're a bit older, Akatsuki. Now turn your light somewhere else." Slightly annoyed Tenryuu waves her sheathed sword.
"Hmph." Akatsuki pouted.
"It's okay, Tenryuu, Akatsuki-chan. It's just the history in this waters..." Jintsuu answered, meek as always. Leander throws a smile-reassuring, but concerned-at her.
"S'okay, people. None of us here had no experience in night battles. If they come a-knocking, we'll be answering." O'Bannon, confident as always, assuages further.
"She's right, Jintsuu. We're together now. Besides, Honolulu and St.Louis passed this path not three hours ago, and they arrived safely." Taylor added.
Jintsuu smiled at them. They're right. But something nags at the back of her mind.
"I don't doubt you, friends. But I'm launching my Night Recon for the path ahead. Is that okay?"
"Sure, sure. It's fine."
The Fairy pilot-Douma-saluted before she launches off from Jintsuu's catapult. She circled around several times around the flotilla before heading off to the east. The flotilla continues their path, treading darkened water, the moon shining faintly through the clouds. Their sweeping searchlights cuts through the thick mists, while radar crews maintain vigilance.
Several minutes later, the silence was broken by a wide-band transmission from Douma.
"Flotilla Alert. Tally visual with possible one unknown, contact lost. Possible ASSASSIN behaviour. Configuration unknown. Vector intersect imminent. Alert."
"Shit. All ships maintain high alert, tighten formation. Watch each other's backs!" Leander immediately commanded the motley group.
"Picking up contact on surface radar. Jumps around all over the place. Launching flares now. Weapons ready." Jintsuu answered, and several other shipgirls did the same. Their flares
illuminated the sky, before falling off to the misty waters. These flares are special-they do not extinguish immediately upon touching water, instead maintains the burn for several minutes, creating "lightspots" and opening many tactical applications.
A whirring sound approached them. Douma returns, landing on the water near Jintsu. Storing her away, Jintsuu is consumed by a tide of terrible thoughts. It was as if this terror is slowly gaining form, making itself more definite each moment in her mind. Something familiar, yet alien. Intimate and distant at the same time. A frigid coldness washes over her.
"Leander, this is..."
"I know, Jintsuu. We're all here. We will make it."
Silence returned as the Shipgirls scanned the waters with radars and lights in search of the enemy unseen, weapons drawn.
Then, the quiet night was broken again by a curt transmission, stoic and emotionless.
------
Hibiki searched the waters around her, having positioned herself on the edge of the formation. As she swept her searchlights, the cone of light caught something-a rapid movement of blue light. She immediately surged her engines and chased it. A sound of close gunfire-- and with a clang an Abyssal shell ricocheted off her shield-plates which she had brought up mere moments earlier-saving her from what might have been a killing shot.
Hibiki saw the source-less than a hundred meters away from her, a mass of shadows resolves themselves into the lithe form of Light Cruiser Princess.
Hibiki smiled a faint smile. She immediately returned fire, opening with both guns and torpedoes. She sent a message:
"Target found. Engaging in close combat."
------
"Wha.... fuck!! Hold on, Hibiki!!" Tenryuu immediately turned herself and charged to Hibiki's position. The rest followed suit. Some of the girls closer to Hibiki where she was has already searched for her.
They found Hibiki locked in battle, alternately firing her guns and swinging her battle-anchor. The combined illumination of their searchlights and flares revealed the full form of the Light Cruiser Princess. Short-haired, clad in a black sailor uniform. Her left arm is encased in a massive agglomeration of cannons, launchers, and searchlights, ending in a gaping jaw. Her right arm is armored with a smaller gauntlet that hosts small turrets. A horned black mask conceals her eyes.
Seeing this revenant enemy, Jintsuu turned towards Leander. Leander nods, her face cold.
The rest of the fleet is here, and the Princess shifted her behavior for mass engagement.
"Hibiki, retreat!" Tenryuu shouts as she draws her sword and entered her stance. Nicholas and Taylor engages the Princess from the front, firing their 5/38 guns styled as assault rifles while launching torpedoes from its underbarrel attachment. Jintsuu charged forward, passing the retreating Hibiki. She illuminates the Princess, never looking away from her, tracks her continuously. She fired her array of guns at her, while Leander and O'Bannon maneuvered to the Princess' flanks. With disciplined and unerring calm they fired at the Princess, the hits sparking off her shields. The Light Cruiser Princess is facing down three light cruisers and six destroyers, all radars tracking and lighting the night with gunfire. Unwilling to be outdone, she moved and leapt around with incredible agility, firing her weapons with lethal grace like a dance within the blue light.
However, by their nature most destroyers and light cruisers aims and fires faster than other shipgirls, and her movement is increasingly restricted as they caught her in their crossfire.
Until a string of words spoken in a warped, distorted impression of Jintsuu's voice entered their minds forcefully. They were stunned, an unseen force restraining their movement, their minds bound in the Princess' malignant grip.
"You don't have to come anymore... Why are you coming...?"
When they regained their senses, Light Cruiser Princess has jumped away, leaving a massive plume of darkened water in her place.
She reemerged in striking position of Inazuma, Akatsuki, and Ikazuchi, who had been covering Hibiki's retreat. Before she can strike, however, Tenryuu blinked and reappeared in front of her, flourishing her curved sword, superheated edges glowing with circulated plasma. She stares the Princess down and smiles.
"You're not hurting them that easily."
She presses forward, striking the Princess with a flurry slashes and jabs in rapid succession. The Princess blocks with her armored left arm, never counterattacking. Tenryuu sees herself in advantage, wielding her sword with directed fury. The other shipgirls are closing in, already targeting her again and preparing to attack. Tenryuu delivered one last blow and leaped backwards to put some distance before firing her guns alongside the other shipgirls.
Then everything went wrong.
Regret... hate...!
Another mental assault--terrifying imageries of dead future and nightmares primal struck their minds. Jintsuu-leading the counterattack- fell to her knees, coughing blood. She covers her ears, and sees that the other girls have similarly fallen, retching and curling on themselves.
Tenryuu, however, stood up against the assault even as the vice-like grip on her mind tightens. She lunged at the princess, intent on cutting her down-swings her sword overhead.
This time the Princess reacts faster, first parrying it with a backhand from her right arm, then, as Tenryuu countered, catches the sword with her left arm-jaw.
The jaw snaps down and crushes her sword. It spits residual plasma and crushed alloy. Light Cruiser Princess sends Tenryuu flying with an uppercut, landing unconscious. Then she turned to the vulnerable DesDiv 6 girls. Akatsuki, trembling and crying, struggled to stand, even as the Princess aimed her vicious weaponry at her. Akatsuki braces herself. Before she can fire at Akatsuki, however, two things happened.
The first is a beam of brilliant solar light, far brighter than before, suddenly illuminating the Princess. She immediately abandoned her attack and faced the direction of the light. Then with a distant delayed boom, a massive explosion hit her, collapsing the forward quarter of her shields.
"Traumatic disintegration of target defensive structure. Kako, again: four-hundred. Target unknown Abyssal Princess, prepare to fire."
Furutaka said as her augmented left-eye searchlight illuminates the Princess, spotting for her sister.
"Ready! Ammo up!" A predatory grin on her face, Kako electromagnetically suspends an armor-piercing 203mm shell in front of her. Her outstretched arms are sparking with raw electricity, and her Aspect Shielding geometry is altered to further contain and direct the charge.
Furutaka shouted: "Ninety-nine percent charge, fire!" Kako snaps her arms together, and the shell travels down it, accelerated to hypersonic velocities by the electrical charge vectored by her arms. Kako, shipgirl and railgun, smiles as the shell scores a headshot, shattering The Princess' mask and staggering her with incredible force.
With the taste of blood fresh on her lips and tongue, Jintsuu, forcing herself up, leapt and pinned the prone Princess down. She gripped the Princess by her neck with her remaining strength, and sees a pale face, a visage of her own, under the shattered mask.
They both stood up, Jintsuu finding herself locked into place and unable to do anything. She trembles as The Princess wiped the trail of blood in her mouth and caressed her face with cold, pallid hands. The Princess then disappears in a burst of shadows into the mist. As the rest of the fleet recovers-aided by Furutaka, Kako, Akashi, Fubuki, and Hatsuyuki-Jintsuu stood silently weeping. Leander puts her arms around her.
"Let's go home. "
------
204 5558 1114
REPORT-ENCOUNTER 588G
TIARA 0201-KRSW
Keyword: ROADBLOCK
Distribution: CIRCULAR
From: Kurosawa, CINC Sparrowmark, Solomon Region
To TJC TACCOM EAST HIGHER
....
lacanian real best real
MESSAGE BEGINS:
1. Transport Expedition Team (OOB find attached) on 14/7/2025 was attacked in a night engagement by a previously unknown NEMESIS BELOW entity, designated Light Cruiser Princess, Command Form type 53 while en route to Sparrowmark HQ.
2. Engagement behaviour suggests presence of ASSASSIN, LONER, BERSERKER, CASTER, and LANCER introns.
3. CL Princess retreated after massive long-range response resolution by a quick reaction force from CTG ARCANIST. QRF instituted first-aid and field repairs. Transport Expedition Team was escorted to Sparrowmark HQ without further incidents.
4. Aggressive usage of cognicidal psywar/SOMNIC TAINT tactics is of major concern. Expedition Team severely affected and undergoing treatment by Battlefield Psychology and Spiritual Aspects.
5. Current night patrol, expedition, and operations schedule undergoing reorganization. Sparrowmark HQ and CTG ARCANIST, STRINGHAMMER on Condition 2 and continued defense posture.
6. Battle telemetry and theater engagement trend analysis suggests continued usage of forced/stereotyped World War II recapitulation strategy by NEMESIS BELOW forces.
MESSAGE ENDS:
to see we are being
....
-----------
"So, how's her?" O'Bannon asked as she entered Tenryuu's treatment room, carrying a small bowl of mashed potatoes. She sets it in the nightstand, leaving with it a note.
Leander sits beside Tenryuu's bed, watching over her as she slept and recovered. All four DesDiv 6 girls are sleeping in various positions around her.
"She's going to be fine. Heavy damage to rigging and some major injuries, but nothing too threatening. Off the sortie roster for at least a month." Leander sighed as she picked up Akatsuki's fallen hat on the floor.
O'Bannon pulled another seat and sat down on Leander's opposite. "Can't sleep after them psych scrubs. So does Taylor and Nick. Guess it's for the better,though."
"How about Jintsuu?"
"She's either alone or with her sisters. Poor girl. We must take some time to talk to her. Soon, before..."
"Before what?"
"Before she does something stupid. You know what I mean."
"..."
""...Yeah. Gotta go now, promised to treat Furutaka and Kako some eats. Wanna join?"
"I'm good. Take care, O'Bannon."
"You too."
-----------
Jintsuu lies in her bed. She holds a tablet, its browser open with myriad articles. Battle of Kolombangara. Leander. Honolulu. Herself. Vella.
She remembered as her Allied fleet-mates and sisters talked to her.
"Jintsuu, please. This isn't that Japanese honor-code thingy, okay? We'll do something about her, together. Do not go off doing something stupid."
"We care about you, Jintsuu. I care about you. You're my sister. I will not trade your life even for all the nighttime privileges in the world."
The image of her encounter that night persists like a deranged lover, a revenant of bad memories and dark thoughts. It beckons her. Made her shudder and her body cold.
Tenryuu stricken down, the little destroyers on the verge of death.
Leander and the others helpless, convulsing in a pool of their own blood. Though you couldn't see it now, given how fast they recovered. Maybe they're just hiding it.
It was too much. She was prepared to die and sink alone again. She could not,however, bear the thought of any one of her friends and sisters suffering that again. This will not involve them, she will not bring them to this.
She sat on the edge of her bed, and set off to the docks. Sneaking past asleep Naka and Sendai is easy enough, being their sister trains and equips you for it.
"Sorry, nee-san and Naka-chan. I'll be back."
She could not use the usual guarded launchbays-there aren't any night sorties scheduled after all-so she picked a sheltered spot on the bay's rocky outcropping. Sendai likes to use that spot for her "discreet" night-cruises. Having donned her rigging, loaded her torpedoes, she tied her green ribbon to the back of her head, and prepared to set off.
"Good evening, Jintsuu."
Jintsuu turned to face her greeter. Pink-haired, with an array of armor plating on her left leg and arm. Sweet, green-eyed Akashi.
"Good evening, Akashi-san." How did she know....
"A lovely night, Jintsuu. Why don't you come with me for a moment?"
"Where?"
"To claim your sword."
-------------
"A sword? But you see what it did to Tenryuu. Her sword is shattered and crushed. " Jintsuu was concerned, to put it lightly.
"She wielded it in defense of those she held dear. She used it to protect, and it did not fail until she had managed to stymie the Princess, holding her in place long enough for Furutaka to aim. Only then was it shattered, and not in vain. Her swordplay is one of the decisive elements of that battle. But yours will have a different purpose."
They arrived at Akashi's workshop, a section concealed within the massive Arsenal Bay.
"Don't worry about being found. Everything is accounted for. Consider it retroactive authorization."
Jintsuu, puzzled at that statement, simply gazed around Akashi's workshop. The myriad tools and crafts and weapons and half-finished projects within. Some looked completely alien, neither human nor Abyssal. A drawing board is tucked in the corner, a massive jug of coffee sits on a table beside it. At the center of the workshop rests a Transmaterial Forge, the crux of equipment Development systems.
Akashi is not "just" a simple inventor-tinkerer and repair ship. She possesses Level 7 Zeta/KHARAM clearance, possessed by few shipgirls and even fewer admirals. By this right, she is privy to the deepest ontological secrets of the Fleet.
She is neither Supreme Flagship, like Enterprise, nor World Admiral, like Kurosawa, their commanding officer.
She is Forgemaster, and the power to wield the burning fire of creation against the cold fire of the Abyss is hers.
Shipgirl Construction and equipment Development is notoriously tricky- a combination of the most sophisticated science, the most advanced engineering, and the most arcane of magic.
Akashi donned her mask, put on her armored apron. She wears a robotic glove with various tools attached to it. She started her work, speaking as she did:
"Abyssal weaponry-the entirety of Abyssal Warfare-induces malignant isotropy on its target structure. Alloys becomes uniform and brittle. Complex EWAR and battle management systems reduced to crashing networks. Sophisticated strategies become routs. Cognition becomes void. The lynchpin of their entire warfare is confusion and noise. They seek and infect our weakness, while presenting their own monolithic front at us-no visible weakness-unknowable and irresistible."
She poured liquid Transmaterium- matter suspended in a liminal state, waiting to be defined and given purpose-to a computer-machined mold. It a glows a brilliant aurora, and hardens with a hiss in the Forge, hot as a heart of a dying star. In fact-it is. The process of Transmaterium definition involves pulling material from other subset dimensional manifolds by the power of a contained singularity's ergosphere. By probability manipulation, the Transmaterium is reified, given purpose and context in this world, in the form of Shipgirl rigging, for example.
Or a sword, in this case.
"Why do they force us to recreate the Old War? We tried resisting this but they persisted. Why not just invade us with the true extent of their power, crushing us so utterly in a sweeping war? Because their entire warfare is predicated upon the basis of reducing their opponent systems into simple, basic, primal forms, easily crushed one-by-one. By recreating the Old War, they are trying to ensure our division. Nations will remain separated, except in their own fragile power-blocs. They will ensure that animosity exists between us, that we may never truly unite by conflicts of interest and pride.
A world that is separated, bickering among themselves, is the world in its basest, most primal form. This is what the Abyss favors. A system reduced into its basest and simplest form, easily defeated. To defeat us in a single massive overwhelming strike is of course the optimal strategy for beings like them and they have the capability for it. Furthermore, it's not like we can resist if they ever decided do so. However their cognition and logic prevents them."
"Why?" Jintsuu asks. She notices an array of arcane characters and symbols. Names, equations, and passages. Engraved to walls and the floor.
"Why? Because they fear defeat." Akashi took the molded, raw, sword and cools it in a vat of water. She hammers it into its final form, sparks flying and trailing multicolor spectra as she did.
"This is our hypothesis, formulated by months of calculation and simulation in the HAVEN mainframe. Because to use the optimal strategy means to be predictable. Our warfare is based on cognition against cognition, strategies against another. Theirs is a war of matter against matter. If they revealed their optimal, they would no longer be unknowable. Then they would be reducible and defeatable, when they seek to be irreducible themselves."
"But, you know all this, Akashi-san. Doesn't that make..."
Akashi smiles as she and her Fairy crew sharpened her sword.
"Yes. By the act of founding the Joint Command-the true Joint Command, not the half-hearted cooperative programs we had in the early war- we have already broken their war-winning equation. They tried to split us apart, but we stood together. A world united, its war-cognition combined and resources pooled, is a much less predictable opponent. Where they use chaotic methods, we will use methodical chaos. Which is why the Diversification Act pushed by Kurosawa won him the position of World Admiral, and the Optimal Standardization Plan is discarded. We must become as variable, as irreducible as the Abyss had been. "
She assembled the long-bladed, curved sword into its hilt with help from a quartet of Fairies. Sheathed it into an ornate sheath that Jintsuu didn't even saw was crafted.
"There are many more to this, things I can't tell you. But this should be enough."
Akashi held the sheated sword with both hands, examining her and her Fairies' work. Its finish, its gleam, the ornate carvings in the sheath. She turned, and presented it to Jintsuu.
" This is the Surpassing War, your Blade Transform, your axiom-killer. Variability courses through its alloys, to resist the destructive uniformity wielded by the Abyss. The Abyss will learn, they will adapt. But so will we. We will become the variable, the aberration in their plan."
Jintsuu accepted it from Akashi's hands. She pulled it from its sheath, swung it in practice several times. She regarded its beautiful balance, the exquisite hilt, its lethal sharpness. She found herself using it with skill she never knew she had. She had basic melee training before, but it was as if she had mastered it for a long time, wielding it as an extension of her will.
"...How?"
"Our arsenal and existence transcends physicality, bends causality and ontology. By the act of its creation, it has already become your sword. By the act of using it, you are already its wielder. It will become your sword, it is your sword, it was your sword. Your skill is not new neither foreign, it is yours as it was, as it is, as it will be."
"Akashi-san, thank you, I..." Jintsuu sheathed her sword and bowed, bewildered and trying to process all this unexpected development.
"Thank them, Jintsuu." Jintsuu looked up, and found her sisters and friends-Japanese and Allied-surrounding and smiling their support at her. Leander. O'Bannon. Sendai and Naka, ever-cheerful.
"Do what you must, Jintsuu. Remember, if you need help, we are not far behind."
-----------------
Thus Jintsuu returned to that part of the ocean again. Carrying her sword, configured on a mechanized arm to hold it on her rigging. As she sailed further into the near-perpetually dark, mist-covered water, she remembered those words.
She hears the song again, the familiar voice, the lethal harmony in her mind. She turned her searchlight, but another bioluminescent blue light has already found her.
She is here. Jintsuu turned and saw her Abyssal counterpart, her blood shadow, her antithesis. Her mask has healed over, lines of blue imperfection marring it, once uniformly black. Her left arm-jaw growled, and vomited a black mass.
She inserted her right hand into the jaw, and pulled her own blade, jagged and burning black, like a piece of an accretion disk broken off and hammered into a blade-yes, a blade, not a sword. Jintsuu saw nothing like a hilt or a handle on it, the Princess simply holding it by its flattened base. The Princess seems to not be bothered by this, even as it cuts her own palm. Blue blood spilled, and seems to harden the sword into her hand, integrating it into her biology with pulsing black veins. Light Cruiser Princess looked up at Jintsuu with a thin, wicked smile.
Jintsuu watches the proceedings with cautious disgust, and draws her own sword. It shimmers in the blue light, a portion of Jintsuu's own will and power surging through it. She flourishes it with an arc in front of her, holding it and entering her stance.
In her mind, Light Cruiser Princess whispered a wordless challenge. So shall it be.
With a burst of blinding speed, the Princess surges forward, reversing the "grip" on her blade, going for an uppercut slash. Correct decision, for Jintsuu's current stance would have inhibited her defense of that area. So, she simply surges forward and met the charge with a similarly incredible force.
Their blades met with a resonating clang, sparking as they pushed each other, and the opposing powers flowing within clashed. Jintsuu gritted her teeth and pushed the Princess back, releasing their locking blades. The Princess skids back on the water, slightly dazzled. She aimed her left arm, and fired a burst of rounds, each splitting the air with a boom.
Jintsuu surged her engines and dodged, blinking a short distance away, leaving the shells to impact empty water. Sheathing her sword, she held her breath as she first launched flares at the Princess' general direction-hoping to use them as a sort of smokescreen-then a salvo of torpedoes from her waist-launchers. Then a dark explosion appeared from behind the flare screen. Drawing her sword again, Jintsuu's vigilance was rewarded as the Princess appears charging from within the explosion, her sword seemingly extended and taking on whip-like qualities. She swung it overhead and slams it into the water, creating a line of burning plasma spikes that would have impaled Jintsuu had she not dodged to the sides again.
Riding on a wave, she counter-charges at the Princess' flank, leaving a trail of electrified water in her wake. She thrusted her blade forward, but the Princess immediately reconstituted her sword into a solid form and parried it. Seeing an opening, Jintsuu immediately pulled another strike, then another, and another, stringing together an array of swipes and thrusts. The Princess' block is impeccable, though, and she hit back with her hardened fist, knocking Jintsuu back with a crack. Nearly losing grip of her sword, she regained balance and countered with another wide swing, slicing a burning line across the Princess' chest armor. Obviously she didn't like it, because she fired a salvo from her guns that forced Jintsuu to make distance.
Jintsuu paused a moment, her thoughts racing as her chest heaved with labored breath. Three words entered her mind.
A Blade Transform.
She felt a slight (slight might be understating it a bit) disappointment that her blade can't actually transform, especially in light of Akashi's speech and what she has seen of Light Cruiser Princess' war blade. However, she also thought this;
What if she is also part of the conceptual Blade? Her friends and sisters, even? Something to consider.
Become variable, do not become restricted.
She sheathed her sword and fired another spread of torpedoes-easily dodged by her opponent-but drawing her to a chase as Jintsuu sped off into the night, the Princess in pursuit.
Jintsuu has never felt her life more threatened, as she evaded the burning lashes of the plasma whip-sword and dodged shell after shell. It was strangely exhilarating.
The Princess' dark whispers engulfs her mind once again, clawing and gnawing, but she resisted this time, partially using the combat high to sustain her, partially by sheer will.
Just a bit closer.....
Jintsuu's percolating thoughts are interrupted by a sharp pain across her stomach. The lash of the burning spikes caught her, ripping her clothes and cutting a deep wound in her stomach. The Princess charged her prone form, her blades already hungering to impale Jintsuu. Time seems slowed down, as Jintsuu regained footing. In spite of her injuries, she entered another stance and sheathed her sword.
Then, with a serene ferocity, she executed a quickdraw maneuver in the split second before the Princess can put her blade through Jintsuu's body. The slash caught the Princess' sword-arm, severing the black veins connecting it as well as some of her fingers. She roared, and slammed her left armored arm to Jintsuu's already-bloody stomach, Jintsuu is launched back several meters away. Jintsuu lets out a pained smile, one eye bloodied. As the Princess walked to Jintsuu for the kill, the waters below her exploded.
//////
Ikazuchi's incident. The little destroyer reported sensing a large metal object underwater in the flotilla's path, nearly sending them on ASW panic.
"Is it dangerous, nanodesu? Could it be a sunken ship-what if someone need rescuing..."
"Damn, you had us right there." O'Bannon answered, as the other girls realized and breathed a sigh of relief.
"But what is it?"
"It's a torpedo trap, probably left by the retreating TAC-ENG units." A simple defensive tool, one of Yuubari's invention in answer of excessive manufacture of low-quality torpedoes early in the war.
A sensory trip-wire will trigger a cell of six one-shot torpedo tubes in Abyssal presence. Simple and cheap, though prone to duds.
"You probably wouldn't want to rescue that one, Ikazuchi." O'Bannon said as she pats Ikazuchi's head.
//////
Jintsuu rolled a natural 20 in whatever cosmic dice determines the probability that all six torpedoes exploded on-target. The impact left the Princess' shields and armor shattered, killing her right arm organism while one of her legs is on the verge of falling off. Their positions reversed, Jintsuu approached her counterpart's stricken form, lying in a pool of blue viscera. Her mask is gone again. Jintsuu aims her guns at her.
"My next shot is already loaded."
Jintsuu fires, and the last thing Light Cruiser Princess sees is its flash of impact. Three 140mm shells, right through the skull.
A massive feeling of relief washes over Jintsuu's body, as if some dark weight is burned away from her. She is even more relieved when Leander, O'Bannon, and her sisters, having followed her through the night, rejoined her on the way back to HQ. As they embraced under the rising sun, Jintsuu realized that she has never been more happy than she is now, among her sisters and friends.
She found something within her that day.
.................
image credit: 照射 | 田中草男＠2日目東E59b [pixiv].
EPILOGUE:
---
"What do you mean, they're missing? Both of them, Arashi and Hagikaze?"
"Yes sir. We believe they pursued a target they believe to be strategic in value."
"And that target is....?"
"The Destroyer Water Demon, Command Form Type 71"
"Goddam--hold on. Yes, speaking. FUCK. Yes. Sorry. You guys aren't paying me enough--yes, yes. Ok"
"What is it?"
"Kaga has gone missing too."
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ALL OF MY LIKE. I really liked how you did this update.
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Thank you!
Have I mentioned how much I love the mystery and maliciousness of your Abyssals by the way? I have sort of drawn inspiration from you when writing Abyssals for my own ideas and such. The line about humanity fearing what it cannot understand or know being a big deal I feel for Abyssals.
ARBITRACOM
Sic transit gloria mundi
Thats.... new. I'm happy enough that people liked it. But to actually inspire something, that's new for me.
I can't be more grateful, I guess. Thank you.
I can't be more grateful, I guess. Thank you.
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