Kantai Collection: The World Set Free (KC/SCP/FreeSpace:Blue Planet/Destiny)

ARBITRACOM · Feb 10, 2016

Over on SB, M90A4 posted this idea;

Anyway, had an idea related to the Iowa sisters...

Had this vision of the Iowas always reserving 6 seats everytime they eat in the mess hall, or whenever they dine out, or social functions. The Iowa's would react adversely whenever someone sits in those two vacant seats and force those transgressors to sit in another seat.

When asked why they constantly reserve 6 seats instead of four, they become rather tight lipped about it.

Well, this is easy to figure out why, the Iowas are always waiting for their 'unborn' sisters to join them someday.
I dont mind if someone takes this idea and use it in their stories.

This chapter is written based upon this idea. Credit goes to M90A4.

GROTESQUE: Rejection

"Did you devour them? Like those sharks in their wombs?"

-----

2025

Montana sits, curling on herself upon the walls of the massive redoubt of Fleetbase Antler's Keep, not far (relatively) from her namesake, Big Sky Country, on the north of East Coast. The wind gently sweeps on her long, flowing blonde hair, like it did on the great plains, and the coldness is familiar to her. Yet she is a visitor here. The Antler Keep's flagpoles fly the flag of the Joint Command: Wing, Star, Bloom, and Anchor, as well as the mark of its resident Composite Task Group, RECKONER: A stag's skull on red, with sharp, bleached antlers.

RECKONER by function hosts most primary line-combatant US Shipgirls, such as the Iowa-class. But Montana does not belong there-she and her sisters did once-but calls it home no more. They belong in GROTESQUE. A federation of the disquieting: anomaly-chasers and secret-hunters, daily courting danger deep within Abyssal territories. Its crews and officers few, its Shipgirls even fewer.

How does GROTESQUE, barely recognized, count among its ranks the sisters of the Montana-class, while RECKONER, a prestigious line unit, emanating with well-deserved glory and American pride, does not?

-----

Why am I here? Why are we here? Why not the others? Where are they?

Montana agonizes herself that question, every waking moment.

Even among the already causality-defying and reality-bending Shipgirls, the Montana class is a special case. Daughters of an impossible time, summoned from the depths of the ancient US Navy. Their appearance made the world wonder.

Certainly most are appreciative of their firepower, of their technology and the options they bring to the tactical holo-table. Much excitement, at first. Surely the other unbuilts and stillborns and never-weres are closer, now?

But she-and her sisters-are aberrations. They are not war-winners or even glorious failures like Yamato, their supposed rivals. Aberrant. Obtained from a glitch in the metareality material reification software used in the Summonings and Constructions, they say. A fluctuation within the contained singularity. Various methods attempted to replicate their arrival, to call upon the others. But the Summoning Forges are silent.

Questions of how complete must a ship be. Graf is here. Themselves of the Montana-class are here. But where are the others?

Why are they not here?

Amagi, Tosa, or the Lexingtons. Or the remaining two sisters of the Iowa-class.

-----

The Armoured Qualm, carved into the psyche of every armoured fighting shipgirls-those who call themselves battleships and battlecruisers. A part of it--

The specter of obsolescence and inefficiency and inflexibility hangs upon your head, a doctrinal Damocles-how do you make yourself worthy? How do you ensure that you are not a liability? That your presence will not hurt your allies?

That qualm is mostly doctrinal rather than existential, but nevertheless, one day Montana thought: that might be what my existence did. That her presence brings pain and grief to the others who are still waiting.

-----

2023

Two names, two empty seats on the dining hall, on the briefing room, two empty rooms and two unused beds, kept in waiting.

Illinois and Kentucky.

All the girls in the Montana-class are inexperienced, thus the burden on Montana the eldest was doubly heavy, for she must guide her sisters where she found no such guidance for herself. Naturally they would gravitate towards their predecessors, the Iowa-class for counsel.

Alas.

Like all fires, it started small. Just a misunderstanding. Montana approached the Iowas, to talk, and sat where she-as it turns out-is not supposed to. How could she have known?
Then months of unfulfilled waiting and anticipation, of jealousy and anxieties, too powerful to be contained anymore, erupted.

"Stop this, Iowa. You are out of line!" Missouri stepped, a barrier between Iowa and Montana.

"No. It is they-she-who went out of line. I reject this, I reject them! Why are you even here, Montana? How could you be here where the others don't? What did you do?!"

"You know it's not their goddamn fault, Iowa. You're better than this!" , Black Dragon interjects.

Montana stood silenced. She caused these sisters to fight. Her presence is unwanted. An error.

It's my fault, all of this.

Iowa's next words impacted with the force of a superheavy shell. So she went away. Missouri chased after her.

-------

Then I will correct this. I will bring them back, I will learn the secrets, the cosmic arbitration that brought us here. And you will wait no longer. I will bring them back.

Missouri caught Montana, lonely in her room, holding a slip of paper, her transfer to GROTESQUE.

"Please don't do this. Don't go, Montana. I did my best to talk to Iowa. Please forgive her. I'm sure she eventually--"

"No, Missouri. It is I who must apologize. My presence caused all this."

"But surely you don't have to go! Iowa's taking it too far--" Missouri, gentle and kind, tries to understand.

"It's approved. Admiral Fell Masterson understands. I will go to GROTESQUE with Louisiana. The others will go with ANATHEMA. We will learn. We will bring the others back...."

-------

CTG GROTESQUE is uniquely based not on an Arsenal Port or Naval District. It is the only CTG with a mobile base, the JCS Ambient March. Built upon the unfinished hulk of a Gerald R. Ford-class supercarrier salvaged from the ruins of Newport, bought and retrofitted as a mobile base by the Joint Command. Another daughter of the seas, born into war.

Ambient March docks on Antler's Keep to receive supplies. Food, like beef and salted fishes. Equipments and spare parts. So it is that her crew and Shipgirls went ashore. The thought of meeting the Iowa-class again fills Montana with anxiety and guilt.

But also with a resolve, a promise she will keep.

From up the walls she saw the Iowas walking together. Only Missouri sees her. They acknowledged each other, a simple nod.

A promise.

Don't give up the wait. I will bring them all back.

ARBITRACOM · Feb 21, 2016

Twei said:
Hmmm? There's a term for shipgirls I haven't seen before.

Also, Immortal Defense was pretty great, so I approve

In general I'm pretty happy with this. Lots of interesting stuff. Very interesting stuff.

I'm glad you like it, and thank you!

Quoth Wikipedia:

The naumachia (in Latin naumachia, from the Ancient Greek ναυμαχία/naumachía, literally "naval combat")

Various nation-blocs have their own terms for the Shipgirls. Naumachia Operant is how the EU refers to them. Before the TJC they all have their own organizations attached to their own national navies.

US has the USN Special Talents Division (when they were absorbed to the TJC, they did not waste time to discard the unfortunate abbreviation), and popularized the term "Shipgirl".

EU joins their collective forces together and forms the Joint Naumachia Commission.

Russia has the Resurgent Naval Arms Commission. I do not know enough Russian to make a unique name.

UK and the Commonwealth nations has the Commonwealth Special Naval Assets Intelligence, but rather unimaginatively calls them "Superheavy Naval Infantry."

Japan organized them in the JMSDF Reformed Fleet Corps, or the JMSDF Kanmusu Corps. Worldwide, in-universe, the term Kanmusu is the most popular and widespread.

ARBITRACOM · Mar 1, 2016

The Shape of Things to Come.

------

Choose the Joint Command. Choose to rise above petty national politics and self-interest.

Set the tide and storm of Grey and Blue upon the Pacific once more. Show them the reborn legacy of the Greatest Generation. Choose RECKONER.

All future is spoken by the echo of its past. Thus this is the Last Imperial Edict: Fight for a redemption, for a future, for the final will of the changed rising sun. Choose DECIDER. Choose MOZAIC.

Speed, precision, firepower. Paint the Abyss red with the bloom of war, and even it will know to fear the fire. Choose Burning Love. Choose INCENDIARY.

Sprawled between two oceans, Southeast Asia and India stands united. A millenia of culture and history put into test. Choose the power of a united front. Choose MANDALA. Choose KAMPILAN.

It all started with Fubuki, the Pathfinder, the Spellbreaker. Choose the causal ultima, and the one that started it all. Choose ARCANIST.

Take the oath of blood. Say thus; This is our unrelenting will, unsurpassed aggression, supremacy against any and all odds. Start the party, and let loose the hounds of war. Choose WILDFLOWER. Choose STRINGFIRE.

Be the latest in a long line of glory and legacy. Fight with growing confidence, upon the seas and the beaches and the fields. Hunt the greatest prey with sword and empire. Choose BEAST. Choose PENDRAGON.

Fight in the heart of past human conflict, the cauldron of cultures upon which the Abyss has its claws set. See the Abyssal black sands and burning oil. See the war-torn rebuilt, see humanity rekindled. Pick up the sword, together. Choose ZULFIQAR. Choose ELUCIDATOR. Choose CRUCIFORM. Choose AEGIR.

Understand the Fundamentals: Aspect, Context, Force, Effect. Understand the Optimums. Magic has always been sufficiently advanced technology. Choose this mastery. Choose CHTHONIC. Choose MASQUERADE.

March with the Wolf Winter Army. Break the Siberian Abyss upon the Winter Iron Line. The Wolves of the North hunts under the aurora. Choose OCTOBER. Choose ORCHESTRA.

Master the arts of the Forge and the Transmaterium. Wield the hammer, stoke the furnace. The world is your crucible. Choose Material Divinity. Choose IRIDIUM.

Choose this federation of the disquieting. Do the wetwork. Catalogue the madness. Take command of probability. Plunge into the depths of the Abyss, and take their secrets. Choose GROTESQUE.

Choose, or be chosen, to understand that the greatest enemy lies within. The human nature is still its own greatest enemy. Strike from the shadows. Be the unseen power. Choose Intelligence. Choose ANATHEMA.

Be the pillar of it all. Administration. Logistics. Organization. The economies of force are your arsenal. Choose this power to win campaigns with the stroke of a pen, to decide victory without a single battle. Choose INDEX.

Most of all, choose to set the world free.

Choose to engrave victory on the dawn's horizon.

This is the Unity Transformative.

------

Composite Task Groups are the crux of the Joint Command. The rework is underway. Please look forward to it.
Inspired by the Anonymous quote describing DELTA GREEN.

ARBITRACOM · Apr 13, 2016

Cold Phoenix.

"She liked the rain, cool and refreshing, feeling it as it patters down her chest and armour, a relief from days of fire. She would wash herself in the storm, standing on the deck on days overcast."

Philippine Seas, 2023

Behold Taihou, starmaker in the daylight. Explosions blossomed like red flowers across the Abyssal battleline as the modified gunship-variant Ryuuseis of TAH-02S "Kamakiri" squadron unloaded on the light cruisers and destroyers below.

Effect, effect. Claw immediate!

Roger, circling around for next attack chain! Kamakiris, banzai!

Their 30mm cannons fired heavier anti-armour incendiary shells, designed as an effect-optimum engagement heuristic against lighter ships as an alternative to torpedo bombers. Tsu-class cruisers found their heavy gauntlets exploding as their ammo stores catch fire and detonated in chains. The Kamakiri's shots are accurate, piercing, burning. They weaved around in an arc and expended their remaining heavy rockets on the last cruisers, sending them burning and bleeding to the bottom of the Marianas seas.

The light cruiser and destroyer formation is mauled, the anti-air network provided by its 14 Tsu-class light cruisers and scores of destroyers nullified. The path to strike against the main fleet that had besieged Philippines is opened.

This is a luxury once denied from her, the luxury of decisiveness. The Naval Gunship Doctrine was initially conceptualized by Fairy Aeronaval Command to free torpedo and dive bombers from hunting lighter ships. Critics asserted that this is but a risky gambit. Fast, radar directed bomber reaction squadrons were already in use for quite some time in a similar role. Despite this, FANC went forward, commissioning up-armed, up-turreted (where applicable), and up-armoured versions of the J7 Shinden, B7 Ryuusei, P-38 Lightning, F5 "Flapjacks" and Mosquito as the initial incipients of the new gunship program.

But a new threat emerges, that, ironically, vindicates this doctrine.

The emergence of Abyssal strategic fighters and superheavy bombers, with extensive durability and endurance, proved too much for regular aviation and anti-air doctrine. The failure of the IADS set up during the Mass Evacuation of the Hawaiian Islands was a narrowly averted disaster. Three Abyssal Superbombers breached the American fleet's IADS at its thickest point; Crews, fairy and human, and the shipgirls watched in awe as the the bombers simply struck through the thousand-ton clouds of FLAK and SAM barrages.

This is where the gunships stepped in. With speed, durability, endurance, and shipkilling ordnance of their own, they saved thousands of lives on the refugee convoys, landing the first kills on the new Abyssal designs. The gunships' concentrated heavy firepower managed to do what normal fighters and AA defenses failed. J7 Shinden strike gunships from Shinano's (herself a major proponent of the Naval Gunship program)Kusanagi Squadron and Flapjacks from Enterprise's Strike Five reaction squadron destroyed an Abyssal superbomber targeting Akagi. The Gunship Program secured itself that day.

Taihou was there, too, in that battle. She and CTG GROTESQUE paid back the favor, performing a deep strike in Abyssal territory-The Sprawl-and her own gunships and Reppuus and normal Ryuuseis proved their worth. Kamakiri squadron performed a close-strike that beheaded an Abyssal battleship. It was their proudest moment, told and retold, sung aloud in drunken banters in the Fairies' bar.

Now, today, she found herself in the same performance. Perhaps, not quite the same.

On the eastern flank, disaster struck. Ryuujou, Chitose, and Chiyoda found themselves ambushed by a cruiser squadron.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Ryuujou roared as she burned an Ri-class cruiser's face with Aspect fire. Too close, far too close. Their squadrons are scattered, claiming victory in the skies, but too far to help them now.

But Taihou's Keiun recon fighters from Bunraku squadron watched their distress, and began vectoring jump coordinates to her.

This is another aspect of her strength. Her Wake Drives fired, and she disappeared in a jet of electrified water and a thunderclap. Few other carriers will ever throw themselves into fire and none with Taihou's regularity. Taihou jumps between multiple tactical hotspots, shaping the battle on multiple fronts. This is how she fights.

She emerged between the firing heavy cruisers and Ryuujou's group. Her shields and armoured flight-deck shuddered and rippled. Fires began to break. But she endures. There is, for a fleeting instant, a memory of choking fumes and furious, armour-melting blazes. A dream of a burnt phoenix.

But Taihou, Great Phoenix and the only phoenix to ever die from a fire, gave a command to her damage control crews, one she took immense pride upon, for she decided a long time ago that this time, she will survive, and she will help others survive, by any means: her bow, her flights, her armour, her life if necessary.

She will survive now.

All hands on deck, alert one. Sand all fires!

Clouds of choking transmaterial dust bursts from cells embedded in the miniature hull and flight deck. Fires found no combustion in this swirling duststorm and began sputtering out.

She pulled herself upright, facing down the heavy cruisers. Ryuujou and the others have regrouped. Their squadrons-and her own-have rejoined the battle.

"Dry quench successful. Operations proceeding."

She smiled a little, and began loading her crossbow with solid, armour-cracking bolts…

The phoenix flies.

The phoenix burns and think herself a turkey.

The phoenix dreams.

The phoenix is reborn.

--------
You will find this story later on as part of a larger story concerning the operations in Philippines, when the new update is released. I figured this part could stand well on its own.

ARBITRACOM · Apr 22, 2016

First, The Transitionary Joint Command itself. The Joint Command, formerly UNJNC (United Nations Joint Naval Command) was formed in 2020 in response to the escalating Abyssal aggression upon the global seas. Throughout much of its early life the UNJNC was hobbled by nationalistic infighting. The emergence of the Shipgirls seemingly only exacerbated this fact. After the First Abyssal Blitz of 2024, UNJNC underwent a massive restructurization under the activation of the Contingency Codes: GJALLARHORN, CHIKARA, and KALI YUGA. The resulting Transitionary Joint Command emerges strengthened, more efficient, and more independent than before, capable of efficiently organizing its global assets in the war for humanity's future.

The logo contains four elements, each representing the Four Complex Pillars, its primary strengths.

Wing represents reach and military power: Complex FORTIORI
Star represents scientific achievement and progress: Complex SCIENTIA
Bloom represents the power of magic and nonconventional arts: Complex MAGIA
Anchor represents industrial and material strength: Complex INDUSTRIA

All these elements are intertwined and exists in support of each other

Joint Command primary hierarchy is termed the ÉCLAIR: Emergent Command Linear Authority Integrated Resolution. ÉCLAIR consists of the Global Admiralty which is further composed of two Theater Tactical Command and the Regional Authority Fleets:

GO-SENTAI: Guardian Office-Special Emergent Naval Tactics Admiralty International

TACCOM EAST and the following Regional Authorities:

Pacific Primary Region: Tempest Command

CTG RECKONER

CTG DECIDER

CTG MOZAIC
Pacific Secondary Region: Sparrowmark Command

CTG INCENDIARY

CTG WILDFLOWER

CTG STRINGHAMMER

CTG ARCANIST
Indian Ocean Region: Samudra Command

CTG KAMPILAN

CTG MANDALA

TACCOM WEST and the following Regional Authorities

Atlantic Region: Naumachia Command

CTG BEAST

CTG ELUCIDATOR

CTG CRUCIFORM

CTG AEGIR

CTG ZULFIQAR

CTG PENDRAGON

North Region: Borealis Command

CTG ORCHESTRA
CTG OCTOBER

Special Operational Authority, not region-based.

CTG ANATHEMA, global Intelligence assignment

CTG INDEX, global Administrative assignment

CTG MASQUERADE and CTG CHTHONIC, MAGIA aligned, Special Thaumatological Research Assignment.

CTG GROTESQUE, SCIENTIA aligned, Special Abyssal Battlefield Research Assignment.

CTG IRIDIUM, INDUSTRIA aligned, Forgemastery Council and Forge Command Authority. Is responsible for the operations of the three Fleet Forges: Boron Reform, Adamantine Reproach, and Solus Reclaim, as well as the numerous Minor Forges.

Immediately below ÉCLAIR is TIARA: Task Immediate Action Response Agency. It consists of the various subdivisions of the TJC:

Abyssal Campaign Developmental Analysis Bureau (AC-DAB)

Non-Conventional Physics and Dimensional Studies Division (NCP-DS)

Media Development Agency (MEDEA)

Battlefield Psychology (BatPsy)

Spiritual Aspects Division (SAD)

Quartermaster Logistical Command (QLC)

Internal Security Tasking (InSecT)

Fairy Aeronaval Command (FAnC)

Information Strategic Resources (ISR)

Combined Arms Command (ComArsCom)

Applied Naval Research and Strategic Advisory Office (ANR-SAO)

External Relations and Goodwill Commission (ERGOCOM)

Some of the TJC's bases include:

Warbase Avalon

Antler's Keep Fleetbase

JCS Ambient March

JCS Edict Forbearance

Raven's Perch Fleetbase

Vladivostok Arsenal Port

Sprawl Adjacency/Proximity/Vicinity Post

San Diego Naval District

Yokosuka Naval District

Murmansk Fortress District

Winter Iron Line Command Network

Forest Mansion

Blue Samudra Fleetbase

Adamantine Redoubt

Banten Arsenal Port

SEA Western Gate Command

SEA Eastern Gate Command

SEA Northern Gate Command.

-----

Sigils of the Joint Command CTGs:

TACCOM EAST and TACCOM WEST. Based on a mask-form.

Sigil of CTG ORCHESTRA: Blood Symphony.
Sigil of CTG OCTOBER: Red Avalanche.

Sigil of CTG MANDALA: Varunastra Satya Mandala.

Sigil of CTG MOZAIC: Temperance Vector.
Sigil of CTG STRINGHAMMER: Audacity's Bite.

Sigil of CTG KAMPILAN: Gale Orchid. CTG Kampilan is named in honor of Task Force Kampilan of the Philippines Navy whose valiant action during the Southeast Asian Inland Seas Campaign was crucial in the elimination of Abyssal activity in the Southeast Asian region.

Sigil of CTG INCENDIARY: Trigger Firebird.

Sigil of CTG DECIDER: Imperial Twilight.
Sigil of CTG RECKONER: Tempest Double.
Sigil of CTG AEGIR: Rain Pantheon.
Sigil of CTG WILDFLOWER: Hazard Heritage.

ARBITRACOM · May 15, 2016

"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.

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.

ARBITRACOM · May 15, 2016

PROLOGUE: SPELLBREAKERS

Credit:お別れの海。

1. THE SEA OF PARTINGS

Fubuki sits on a beach, here in her Garden Manifold, in this place where the end loops back to the beginning. These are the things she savored in flesh:

The warm prickle of the sand and the sun on her skin.

The sound of crashing waves and the smell of salt.

The soft scent of red flowers.

The wind, gently sweeping on her hair.

In the lambent world-sea swam ancient lifeforms. Fubuki took a red-hulled paper boat from the waves, where a fleet of similar boats bob around.

"A warship's dream is the dream of the world she sailed in, a dream of many minds, the sum of all its hopes and fears..."

"You exist as you are now because this is the only way you will survive."

The destroyer stood up on her feet, drawing her gaze to the wide sea. Heaviness on her chest, an inkling of joy and melancholy. From the fog horizon emerges shapes and geometries both alien and familiar:

A procession upon the seas.
Warships of every flag and design. From spearcaster rafts and longboats, to galleys and ram-prowed dromons. Tall-sailed first-rates and grey flattops, geometric hulls armed with electromagnetic weaponry. Not all of them can answer the call.

This is a gallery of the art of war, an array of all killing methods that has been and will be.

[From out of many, the chosen is assembled, given understanding and the sight...]

[But still we need one inflection point. One Pathfinder, one Spellbreaker.]

This is what she has become: a start, the convergence of all causal pathways and all beginnings.

[We have winnowed all possible futures, slaughtered every chance and possibility. Your path is the survivor. Your path is the one upon which the others will stand.]

In her mind quantum-braided topological logic gates synergizes with the firing of axon and neuron. She remembers and knows;

Blood of millions spilled on both foreign soil and on her homeland.

Burning ships in the Harbour. A flight of thousands over Tokyo Bay. A mountain of skulls and and a field of graves.

Every act of sin and cruelty, every honor and valor upheld. Every necessity.Everything forgotten, everything remembered.

In it all she saw the total of humanity, in ultima, and she knows it all, untainted, untampered with. Borne out of this war and every resultant emotions, every state of being, all cost and consequence, is her context of existence.

[Remember and know all of this. So foolish, do not repeat the tragedy.]

But what would a weapon gain from knowing all this? A weapon is a simple thing, it needs only a user and a vector. Fubuki was once such as a weapon, an argument, broken by a superior argument of gunfire and flooding. But she - and her kind - has returned. From the other side, with a new context, new form.

[You are a proof against despair, the counter-example to their fatal logic and cold binary. Imperfection is part of your arsenal, and through it all you will learn.]

[The Abyss preys on perfection. On definite, knowable things and proven logic and conceited patterns.]

[These they will turn into weaknesses. This war will be total. Do not become restricted.]

[Your path is a pillar of fire in the night.]

There was the final word. The final play between nightmare and dream was thus opened, the last vindicating dance and its music is started.

She raised her arm in salute. In the horizon rises the future and the dawn of victory, a blue planet with vast seas….

2024

"In the end, this is not a war between simply Light and Dark or Good and Evil;

...But a war between those who remember and those who forget."

---

"It has been four years now, Admiral."

Fubuki, half-asleep on World-Admiral Kurosawa's shoulder, muttered, a long reflection of struggle. They sat on Sparrowmark HQ's observation deck, the naval base itself built on one of the Solomon's dead volcanic islands, red earth and black ashen sands.

"It has, Fubuki."

Kurosawa, closest thing to a father Fubuki ever had, answered. Four years since her emergence at Tokyo Bay. Six months hence, the first Shipgirls since Fubuki emerged, Fubuki's closest: Hatsuyuki, Murakumo, Furutaka, Kako, Kinugasa, Aoba. Then Enterprise on San Francisco. The return of the Pearl Six to Pearl Harbour, this time as saviors. The Shipgirls arrived all over the world. The World Fleet was thus assembled.

The Joint Command worked feverishly during this time, establishing bases, traditions that follow, units, organizations, contingencies. Kurosawa was the product of the first generation of Joint Command's officer candidacy school, his mind sharp and discerning, cutting through the veil that is Abyssal behavior. Still other Admirals proved themselves legendary by deed and command in the war. Even mired in bureaucracy and nationalistic conceit as it was, Joint Command emerged as a rising power.

x-x-x-x

But before that, there was once a spell, cast over the world by the seemingly impenetrable nature of the Abyss, by the dark light that had consumed Hokkaido and razed the world's seas with poison and teeth. A conceptual tyranny of fear and desperation, gnawing the world with insularity and isolation.

The Abyss did not stop to negotiate, to make demand. Just wordless, methodical slaughter. Existence becomes a desperate thing, clinging to the cold prosthetics of doctrine and strategy, artificial things all. And the Abyss' strength is truer still, borne of teeth and fang and ordnance, pure in purpose and design.

Like all things conquering, they started small. TJC tacticians will mark 2019 as the start of the First Abyssal Strategic Epoch. Animalistic monster-ships with no sophisticated behavior, harassing first civilian, then military shipping. But that was not to be all. An onset of severe psychological effects and hysteria began plaguing maritime and naval crews all over the world. Shippings became hindered. The seas are feared, the gibbering of maddened and broken sailors giving rise to speculations and accusations.

Retroactive investigation would reveal this as the dreaded SOMNIC TAINT, a diseased dream, the Abyssal psychological arsenal. But then, at that time, there was only fear, of the sea and the chittering things that swam under it.

The First Abyssal Strategic Epoch ended with The Fracturing on January 2020. A 9.9 magnitude earthquake ripped the seas off Hokkaido. A massive wave washes the coasts of North Japan, bringing the dark monstrosities of the Abyss along with it.

"We're reporting live from the scene of destruction-seawater is rushing the streets of the city-hold, hold. Pilot, lower us. Camera, get closer--I think--what is that?! I'm seeing dark shapes in the water…."

"There is gunfire, origin unknown. Two rescue helicopters are shot down by unidentified entities. Drones of unknown designation are reported across the prefecture…"

Thus begins the Second Abyssal Strategic Epoch; the start of conquest. The island of Hokkaido is consumed by an advancing wall of darkness. Close to five hundred thousand are dead in the first week. But in those seven days, the Abyssal forces did not make a move past Hokkaido. Instead they focused on - seemingly - building something in there. Even now, it is unknown precisely what happened. But it is clear that Hokkaido is now isolated and cut off, permanently obscured by dark clouds and mists. A wall was built on the borders, containing and watching the activities there. It is an irony that even with the advancement of the war, the taken Hokkaido remains silent, the watches there uneventful.

Next comes the discovery of the Sprawl in the Pacific, and the Spire in the Atlantic. The Sprawl: an amalgamation of dimensional anomalies, navigational oddities, and heavy Abyssal activity in the heart of the Pacific. The Spire: a massive tower, rising through the clouds and into the space, seemingly unapproachable, mysterious in purpose.

Navies around the world designated both as the source of Abyssal forces. The nascent United Nations Joint Naval Command began drawing plans of attack. Human forces has reason to be confident, at first. Early Abyssal forces, even the humanoid ones, can be killed with enough firepower. Their fighters amounted to overarmed drones, of which modern jets can easily match. Their strategies unsophisticated and at times simply bestial, undirected and irrational.

But before any action can be taken to prosecute the invaders, The Abyss struck first. In what would be termed the First Abyssal Blitz, the Abyssal fleets moved to strike with terrifying speed and ferocity. In the span of several weeks, navies around the world are torn apart, most in broad daylight. The Abyssal forces stormed with new, unseen tactical acumen and capabilities, even electronic and cyberwarfare faculties.

Attempts at counter-attack are crushed. Countries receded into their own territories, crippling the Joint Command, but who can blame them?

The Abyssal spell split the world apart by its seas.

But that spell was about to be broken.

x-x-x-x

Tokyo Bay, 6 November 2020.

A civilization's endgame is a tale of four songs. The first is the song of malice; malignant, mind-killing. This is the song that the Abyss sings.

The sands that once adorned the shores of Tokyo are gone, replaced by fields of mud and dark water, tainted by the Abyss. The skies are dark, overcast with reluctant rain. Then-Commander Kurosawa of the JSDF felt the pressure mounting. They were holding on, just barely. He was a rational man, but that time would be just perfect for a divine miracle.

"Naval situation still developing, we will update---"

"Complete termination of effective resistance at---"

"Artillery Sections 24 till 27 silenced---"

Lt. Saito Suzuki turned off the radio within his sealed helmet (a measure against Abyssal pathogens), mud splattering his visors. The comms is rife with garbled mutterings and sometimes darker things. He can shout loud enough if necessary.

He ran across the trenches and emplacements that made the Tokyo beachfront into an impression of Verdun, the grind and whine of servos on his exoskeleton armour a welcome distraction from the screams and thunders.

"No one had thought we would ever fight them on land.

Our beachfront defense line crumbled that day. We fired and fired, and our artillery rained constantly on them, but they won't break. These whale-like creatures, they just threw themselves unto land and on us. Their black armor bounced our shots with contempt. They bite and crush everything. When you thought they couldn't get out of water, they grew fucking legs on the spot. There was a gun-nest next to our own. It was overwhelmed, the creature just devoured its occupants even as they poured machine-gun fire into its mouth.

Body-parts were everywhere. Then that one turned its gaze onto our own position. Our supporting tank fired at it, and we could hear the shell impact-a direct hit. It seemed to stun it for a while. "Fire!" someone said. As if we hadn't already. Then it roared, and its eyes were red. Our tank never managed its second shot. The creature charged right at it and crushed its turret, all that armor just crumpling. Red dripped down the mass of wrecked armour in its mouth."

His heavy rifle spat out a burst of 14.5mm AP needles that would overkill any normal infantry. He fired another burst of rounds at the Abyssal destroyer, cursing at every shot.

The second song is death. Everywhere you look, in the world now, is death. White-armoured medics pulling a legless trooper to the rearlines, stripping off the burden of his armour. Another soldier clutching his rifle close, curling and muttering, eyes bloodshot and filled with glass dust from his shattered visor. A sniper taking calm shots at a dismounted torpedo cruiser with an anti-tank rifle and getting blasted in return before he can relocate.

" It was very desperate, no? It was not like fighting a normal enemy-not that I would know-it was like fighting a piece of a hateful universe, just consuming, just killing…"

A spiteful chunk of reality grinded down at them. Awash with blood and sweat, Saito and his men held for their final moments.

Kurosawa sat alone contemplating, in his command room, cursing his inability to be there, cursing the death of plans and strategies in face of the Abyssal advance.

A transmission went in; clear and crisp. One of the JMSDF missile destroyers, of which he had consigned their fate to the Abyssal blockade, seemingly invincible:

"This is JDS Hatakaze. Tokyo Bay forces, please hold on. We-we found hope! We are getting through!"

There was a moment of stillness before Kurosawa reached for the comms panel.

"Say that again!"

x-x-x-x

Thus is the third song of hope. Perhaps a new dawn will rise. The first to see it is the pair of JMSDF ships: Hatakaze and Fuyuzuki, remnant of their classes, sortied to provide naval support for the Tokyo Bay defense line, shyly approaching the Abyssal gunline blocking the entrance. The first onlookers described a flash of lightning, the smell of burnt air. A sharp sword-shaped hull of an old Japanese design racing past them, blowing the Abyssal blockade up with a combined gun and torpedo strike . They followed.

Something as old as the Abyss is awakened. The air suddenly grew cooler, just enough to be comfortable.

And there was snow.

"We're seeing reports of anomalous weather activity and dimensional transit event, consistent with Manifold signatures—"

"Pursue and identify, try to confirm intent. Do not engage yet!"

All warfare is based upon deception, and the Abyss is deceitful indeed. Their EWAR capabilities had seized control of battles and campaigns. It has many forms; from causing system components to overheat, targeting 'phantoms', digital kill agents, up to infopathogenic code.

Therefore the first thing Fubuki did is to win the digital battlespace. Unknowing of the exact mechanisms of it, she set her fairies to work.

She did not understand how it worked, not at the time. Retrograde analysis would describe it as a "brute-force computational wash." Examination of body her rigging would later reveal presence of components optimized for computation and calculation in the quantum level, components that would partially explain her inexplicable abilities.

But she knew the feel, for the ship and the girl is one: the prickling of radars and targeting arrays both human and Abyssal on her skin, a thousand sources of malignant noise all chittering in the space of her mind. One by one the Abyssal noises in the digital battlespace were silenced.

Hope is then broadcasted on all open and not-so-open channels, repeated in a thousand languages in an instant. Systems crews on both ships and in the land later downloaded the data, the transmission that changed it all. Abyssal interference was suddenly gone, and the tactical officers cheered at the sight of a clear situation chart and gunnery plot. Firing solutions was entered.

When Fubuki entered sight of those on land, she was heralded by a barrage of missiles accompanying her approach like a spread white wings from behind her. The missiles made impact on the Abyssal destroyers, unshielded, ready to assault landwards, splattering them all. Soldiers and tanks closest to the event cheered and hooted.

Even then, Saito's fight is not yet over.

"Then those eyes, it turned its attention to us, all packed in there, in that trench. No finger was not holding the trigger down at that time, but it wasn't enough. As it pounced at us, we could hear a single gunfire that somehow made itself distinct even through all the static. The creature just exploded in mid-air, pieces of black armour and blue blood raining down. I peeked a look out. That gunfire seemed to draw all the creature's attention.

They abandoned their devastation on us and turned back to the sea. So I looked at the sea also. At that time I thought we finally had naval support, though the Commanders said in the briefing that there wouldn't likely be any. I saw the ship, but it's not like our modern ones. It fired another salvo again, hitting the swarm directly. Four or five of those things just gone in a flash each time a shell hits. The remaining creatures made it to the sea, and I thought this might be the end even for this savior-ship. They will swarm and crush her, just like they had done to the scores of MSDF ships before…"

But Fubuki is a shipgirl. Her kind will be referred to with many names.

Kantai Musume. Shipgirls. Warship Girls. Naumachia Operant. Special Talent Naval Operators. Superheavy Naval Infantry. Sapient Humaniform Integrated Versatile Armata.

It has been 92 years since Fubuki first sailed the seas of Japan, and 78 years since she was sunk. Something from the other side returned her as an actualization and synthesis of weaponry and technology and culture. A living, empathic weapon. The girl Fubuki which was inseparable from the destroyer Fubuki, first of the Fubuki-class Special Type destroyers.

The Abyssals who survived the initial attack wheeled around and began riddling her hull with gunfire. Her shields sparking, Fubuki made her next move and assumed human form, demanifesting her hull, storing it away in her Garden Manifold.

"A brilliant flash of light from the ship blinded me for a moment, made me drop my scope. When I picked it up again, I couldn't find the ship. But there was someone standing on the water, A little girl. All seemed silent for a moment, even those creatures stopped moving. Then in a blinding speed she charged at the black swarm. She fired her gun again and again, each hit blasting the accursed creatures with incredible force, shattering their armor. Then she launched torpedoes from some contraption on her thighs. I count six jets of water, and where the creatures were, black viscera and blue blood remained."

"Of course we didn't stand around like idiots. Somehow my mind was clear. And the tankers' too. And the artillerymen's and mortar-handlers' and AT teams'. And we fired again, all of us and all the surviving tanks and artillery. We advanced till just the edge of the beach, firing the entire time..

This time, our shots found their mark, when they didn't before. We finished them off. It was as if something had possessed us and our weapons at the time. Every shot felt surer, and it was calming. No, not possession. More like guidance. Then the seas were silent. It was finished."

See the aftermath.

Fubuki stood in the waters near the beach, littered with corpses,and bloods, black and blue. The soldiers were cheering, as was the crews of both JMSDF ships, anchoring themselves near the shore. Cheering at her, their savior who emerged in an old form but renewed their vigor. Cheering at the dawn of new hope.

One last deed remains, for now. She produced a sword, sheathed in black. The crowd watched in wonder and confusion.

She stepped in the black mud, her armoured shoes leaving deep impressions in it.

The sword is unsheathed, and she planted it in the ground. A wave of force channeled through the blade washes over the beach, absorbing the Abyssal sickness. The sands are white, pure and clean again, and the waters blue. A colourful explosion disintegrated the sword and in its place grew a grove of red flowers.

Fubuki has consigned her legacy to the world.

Though she did not know it, her arrival is perfectly timed. A team of daredevil reporters recorded the entire happening with drones from far away. Civilians not yet evacuated saw the form of their savior. Kurosawa slumped in relief, immediately calling for a transport, until now frustratingly denied to him.

The fourth song is victory. A song in the name of Fubuki, first of her kind, sung in the streets and refugee camps, watched in viral videos from the drones.

Fubuki Spellbreaker, Our Savior in the Snow.

"We saw her, saw what she did, and what it meant for us, all of us. And we knew something has changed, and the world wondered."

x-x-x-x

Two years hence.

Aoba: "Then, in that war, I cannot choose. But I saw and remember, when they slaughtered innocents on my deck, and I cannot do anything about it. But with the human form and mind comes the ability to choose. So this is what I chose: to bring out the truth, wherever it may be, at any cost. I will not let the past buried. If I have to answer my crimes, I will…."

Kaga: "Am I a nationalist? Yes, I am. No double-talking it. But in my mind: being nationalist is not the same as fanaticism and conceit. That way lies the Abyss. If I love my nation, then I will act as necessary to correct it if it errs, even more if I am complicit in it. Japan must not forget its history, and all its sins-mine included. Japan must not let itself be sunk by military fanaticism again. In this war we fight no longer for conquest but for the essence of humanity. And that is what I will say on this matter…"

Prime Minister Yoshisada rewatched the news recording, again and again, those words nearly mirroring his own. He emerged a dark-horse champion in the elections, youngest to become Japan's Prime Minister. In his campaign he took history as a basis: Japan must never forget or taint its own history with whitewashes or denial if it were to have a better future.

He had won, somehow, even if he now wrestles hardliners he had incensed both in Parliament and Cabinet. He had allies, of course; The more moderate members of Japanese military sides with him: Kurosawa, sharp-minded Admiral, and Shogo Kawamori, who commands most of the Japanese shipgirls in CTG DECIDER.

Ah, yes, the shipgirls. If ever the militaristic hardliners got hold of them, Yoshisada will be undone. But he knows the necessities of war, and so cast the first move, perhaps overstepping his bounds. He moved to understand them not just as weapons to reclaim old glories but as humans. Ands it has been worth it.

He had not expected to become a Japanese Prime Minister in wartime, the first since nearly eighty years ago. When he campaigned the threat of the Abyss was but a whisper, and yet here he is now.

Yoshisada convenes with the Emperor in the Tokyo Imperial Residence. Even now he finds it hard to not feel awed at the symbolic divinity radiating from the Emperor's presence. It was a mooncast night, both men weary from matters of state.

The Emperor views him and his efforts favorably. The Emperor's power has grown somewhat, in this years of war and uncertainty. Symbolic strength it may be, but it still is a kind of strength, and better than none at all.

"This girl, Fubuki. If ever there was any doubt that a single individual can effect change, she destroyed it as decisively as no one else could in this war. She, first, and the shipgirls all, they brought the world together. They destroyed conceit."

"All the world owes her gratitude. But her-and our-work is far from done, isn't it?

"Indeed it is not, Your Majesty. She has done much, now we must build upon it."

"For the future is spoken by the whispers from its past. This war is driven by historical and ontological inertia. From the moment she emerges, so many had changed. My father and I both, we loved the seas. And both of us reigned during times of war.

I give you edict to do whatever is necessary for the good of this nation and the world, Yoshisada. Perhaps, someday, I will live to see the calm seas again."

Yoshisada bowed.

"My lord. I give you my word."

Someday, as the seas return to calm…

x-x-x-x

Kurosawa had sent Fubuki away to get some sleep. The destroyer was obviously tired from her duties, her green eyes slightly dulled.

"Please get some proper rest, Fubuki. And thank you for today."

"Ah, yes, Admiral. By your permission, I'll take my leave now."

As always, she bowed, then saluted, and went to the residence blocks. Kurosawa turned his gaze on the darkening night once more before leaving the observation deck.

He returned to his command office. The holodisplay computer chirped. Whispers of dark movements, from hidden submarine-girl patrols and recon fairies and sentry positions. Strategic impulses and warnings converging.

The Third Epoch approaches. And it is the endgame.

ARBITRACOM · May 15, 2016

Abyssal Campaign Developmental Analysis Bureau

Formwatcher Division

NEMESIS BELOW Threat Profile

Abyssal Basic Combat Forms

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No.564 Abyssal Destroyer Analogue

Iroha Order "I"

Variants:

514 Elite
564 Flagship
575 Advanced
621 Advanced Flagship

The I-class destroyer analogue forms the core of Abyssal Fleet's basic combat capability, as well as being the first Abyssal form encountered. I-class entities readily assumes a multitude of behaviours, ranging from animal-behaviour mimicry up to sophisticated goal-oriented tactical organizations. The latter behaviour caught the conventional navies of the world by surprise during the dark months of 2019, resulting in disproportionate casualties in the Abyss' favor.

Hypothesized roles include primary algorithmic instrument, allowing for rapid adaptation of weaponry and tactics. Later model Abyssal destroyer analogues such as Ro, Ni, and Ha are speculated to be optimized and developed in accordance to combat performance data from the I-class' initial deployments.

In combat, the I-class represents an agility-force optimum. Introns include LINEAR, LANCER and SWARM. Flagship variants possess downgraded CHAIN encodings. Almost always deployed ahead of main force in swarms as force absorbers. 127mm electrochemical ARE cannons fire HE and FLAK shells. Specializations in elite form and further iterations include additions of munition launch cells (ASW mine, fragmentation dispenser for land combat), amphibious mobility, and accurized torpedo launchers.

Unless absolutely critical, Shipgirls are advised to ignore or bypass I-class swarms (and indeed any low-priority classes) and strike at mission-critical or objective priority Abyssal forms, which almost always will result in degradation in local Abyssal tactical capabilities. ACDAB has, concerning this latter point, advised against hasty attributions of an Abyssal "Hive Mind" and related impications thereof.

Note: The Formwatcher Division has been made aware of recent findings and reports of washed-up I-class corpses possessing white carapaces, seemingly dead of natural causes in lieu of combat. Investigation is ongoing.

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No.505 Abyssal Light Cruiser Analogue

Iroha Order "Ho"

Variants:

518 Elite
554 Flagship

As more and more sophisticated Abyssal forms are encountered, the Ho-class is increasingly rarely encountered. More advanced forms such as the Tsu-class and To-class takes prevalence. The Ho-class is one of the first Abyssals encountered possessing a semihumanoid secondary anatomy, giving rise to endless speculations. Yet it is seemingly caught in an uncomfortable compromise; Its humanoid form is stunted, not developed enough to become an advantage as in the Tsu-class and He-class, yet does not display the same ferocity as the animalistic To-class.

Others contend that the class' shortcomings is intended as a testbed for further progression of the Abyssal light cruiser class. A speculated developmental line splits the evolution of light cruiser instances into two lines; the humanoid/sophistication optimum line consists of the Tsu and He classes, derived from a development of the humanoid form of the Ho, while the animalistic/force optimum's sole incipient consists of the To-class. Sophistication in counter-torpedo and small-unit tactics will promote the emanation of To-class units, showing a prevalence in roles as a destroyer-killer unit. Severe aerial threats and high-speed response to multi-axis strikes promotes both Tsu and He deployments.

Tactically, the agility-force optimum Ho-class is armed with multiple rapid-firing light armaments but disfavor torpedo combat. Flagship variants possess enhanced sensor capability for ASW and AA roles. When used in AA role the Ho-class is deployed in the far edge of formations as a radar picket, allowing time for the more powerful Tsu-class to orient themselves. Introns present are LINEAR, FENCER, and CHAIN.

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No. 508 Abyssal Torpedo Cruiser Analogue

Iroha Order "Chi"

Variants:

521 Elite
559 Flagship

Blisteringly fast and exceedingly well armed, the Chi-class torpedo cruiser reaped a toll on the world's military forces in the early stages of the war, and indeed even now. Soldiers learned to fear dismounted Chi-classes rising from the sea unto the land, its mount creature overpowering even the heaviest of tanks, while the humanoid organism takes aim with precision fire.

Chi-class entities marks a radical transition from basic force-optimized Abyssal forms to the sophisticated effect-optimization intermediate forms. Torpedoes fired from this cruiser class features soft homing capability and terrifyingly hardened against decoys, necessitating point-defense response (not easily done, considering its speed) or extreme maneuvering. The Chi-class is one of the most effective basic combat forms yet encountered. 152mm cannons organically integrated on the humanoid's arm is capable of easily defeating destroyer-level shielding, while the creature's 'mouth' launcher can also fire concatenated bolts of plasma. While too slow to track moving targets and too weak against battleship or even heavy cruiser armour, it is effective against land targets and structures. The tall crest is one of the heaviest armour mounted on light Abyssal ships, but its protection arc is obviously limited.

Tactically, cruisers of this class follows the doctrine of sophisticated delivery of maximal force against gaps in enemy local structure. Chi-class cruisers mobilize in pairs, accompanied by multiple destroyers as a torpedo strike group, or alongside a single To-class as a BERSERK incipient, complementing its brute force. Introns include RIDER, LANCER, CHAIN, LINEAR, and INTEGRATE. The RIDER intron is first discovered from fragmentary remains of Chi-class, offering clues and insight to the symbiotic model of some Abyssal lifeforms.

Unconfirmed reports of an advanced variant wielding supercavitating torpedoes are noted in the Pacific and Northern Atlantic area of operations.

------

No.509 Abyssal Heavy Cruiser Analogue

Iroha Order "Ri"

Variants:

522 Elite
527 Advanced
565 Flagship Adv.

The fully humanoid Ri-class remains one of the most formidable Abyssal combatants, capable of giving even battleships a pause. The humanoid form of this class has invited many a doomed diplomatic and investigative efforts early in the war.

Ri-class heavy cruiser analogues are described as a performance-effect optimum, striking hard and fast, lethal in flanking and chasing engagements but suffering on defensive and prolonged engagements. 203mm and 127mm ARE cannons as well as a suite of high-velocity torpedo launchers equips it with a well-rounded arsenal. It is thickly armoured for its size, and maintains a suite of regenerative shielding that offers it extended durability.

As a heavy cruiser, it is fast and maneuverable, yet the cruiser's major source of tactical consternation lies in its willingness to actively engage in melee combat, using its arm weapons in conjunction with shock-jump tactics for a devastatingly effective strike.

In one notable instance, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Gettysburg fell victim to this during an engagement in Alaska. The force and shock of the Abyssal cruiser's jump inflicted severe structural damage on Gettysburg before the Ri-class ripped apart her superstructure and mauled Gettysburg's armaments. The Abyssal heavy cruiser then jumped off the ship and finishes her with a close-range torpedo salvo.

This behaviour's effectiveness is diminished against Shipgirls who possesses sufficiently fast reaction times and/or durability, but the threat it poses remain extant. Shipgirls locked in close-combat will be more vulnerable to unexpected developments and threat vectors.

The Ri-class contains LINEAR, CHAIN, hyperdeveloped versions of LANCER, and BERSERKER. Some variants may possess CASTER instead of CHAIN, allowing for a limited EWAR capability. Late iterations will see their melee capabilities enhanced with PUGILIST.

*ARE: Armament Rating Equivalent.

ARBITRACOM · Jul 12, 2016

Her Salute Remains

"On 6 November 2020, the world saw the shape of things that was to come. At that day, the world knows it is not alone."

"…I will reiterate again for the esteemed council here that the girl and the ship are NOT separable. If we are to expect performance at her full potential then responsible and reasonable action must be taken--"

Imagine for a moment, a girl in front of you. She is very young-she could be yours or anyone's daughter-she wears a sailor uniform. 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.

She saluted.

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- a no-nonsense weapon, instrumental of the purity of destruction- 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.

And her salute remains.

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.

For you, Commander, I will be everything.

I will do my best, now and forever

And in return, please teach me how to live. How to protect what is precious.

Take my hand

Make my will pure again.

------

SOM.PUR Fubuki

Basal State Neutral

Somnic Purity File no.11: DD Fubuki

Name: Fubuki
Class: Fubuki-class Special Type Destroyer, name ship.
Emergence: 6 November 2020
Current posting: 5th Tactical Unit "Spellbreakers" CTG ARCANIST, Solomon Region. FS: Kinugasa (120), CO: WADM Jin Kurosawa.

Qualifications: Basic Naval Tactics Course, Basic Destroyer Tactics Course (founder), Intermediate Torpedo Tactics Course (co-founder), Advanced Strategic Command Course: passed with Flagship Highest qualification, Anti-Air and Interception Course, Advanced Maneuver Warfare course.

Commendations:

First Emergent and Extended Service Medal of Honor
Emergence Campaign Victory Star
Home Islands Campaign Victory Star
2nd Solomons Multinational Campaign Victory Star
2nd Battle of Midway Battle Star

LIST TRUNCATED-75 Entries.

-----

BatPsy Evaluation

Highly self-conscious on any perceived faults of self on conduct or capability. Immediately noticeable are characteristics of earnestness, humility, and honesty. Destroyer Fubuki, as with most destroyers, thrives with a positive reinforcement and social environment. Obedience and loyalty towards senior figures takes precedence over personal initiative. Maintains a sense of normalcy and reliability to those around her.

TACCOM Evaluation

Destroyer Fubuki represents a baseline performance for all shipgirls. Teleonomic emergence pattern analysis puts her as a basal strategic state: in effect, a template instance for further growth and development of shipgirl capabilities. Fubuki displays a broad range of skills. She does not appear to have an overwhelming mastery of a particular field, but exhibits extreme versatility and adaptivity. Being one of the few destroyers to pass with Flagship Highest qualification in the ASC2 training, her field command is characterized by a bias towards quick on-the-spot decisions rather than complex pre-planned maneuvers. Despite this she will often defer to higher operational command in joint ops with multiple flagships.

Baseline: Uses standard lethality options; 127mm double turrets and triple 61cm torpedo. Minimal defensive probability but massive mobility potential standard on destroyers. Follows an agility-effect optimum with an ultima of flexibility. Default Strike Uplinks are Gunnery and Torpedo.

Upgraded (1): Incremental performance parameter improvement. 100mm versatile long-gun becomes an available lethality option. Refined motor and mass control capabilities. Maximum controllable mass increased towards a total of 1550 tons. Phase transition towards next stage of development into a versatility space.

Upgraded (2): Finalized performance parameter increases. Mobility-performance optimum with versatility ultima attained. New Dual-Mode Versatile Strike Uplink capability supported with air radar and fire director augments provides powerful effect-optimum response, complementing newer O2 61cm torpedoes in a flexible tactical toolset package. In addition, field command capability is enhanced by the prominence of command-role Fairy/SERVANT entities. Final extended definition as an Escort Flagship Destroyer.

Projected role as a counter against sophistication-optimum Abyssal combat forms.

Internal ecosystem exhibits large variance: Fairy/SERVANT sub-entities displays a wide diversity of capabilities, some of which are not typical on later destroyer shipgirls and provides no direct contribution to her mission profile. Present Fairy archetypes include: gunner, vigil, armorer, craftsfairies, menders, negotiators, raumsknechts, battle command staff, intrigues, marines, armsfairies, and infodaemons.

Fubuki's systems will spontaneously generate new Fairy instances at a much higher diversity level (high enough to achieve statistical power comparable to capital ships) as part of her internal ecosystem dynamic. Excess Fairy instances will be reclaimed and subsumed by a feed-forward mechanism as a stochastic seed during the bimonthly apotosis events.

----

SOMNIC PURITY

SYNESTHESIA TRAVERSE FUB-011-RECH.RAUM: WITH THE TREE ABOVE AND THE CHASM BELOW

First Emergent

I followed her path down a flower meadow. Picked one up. The flower was crimson and blue, jagged like a snow crystal, yet pulses with warmth. I crushed it and a red liquid seeped out. Tastes like salt and iron.

This is her Garden, subset of Indra's Net, her thinking space.

Wind carried the red droplets away, rustling the fields of green and blade-branched trees with the sound of chimes. Dark things move in the distant mist horizon. Far, far away, however, The World Tree stands tall, reaching high into the grey sky. Existence spans its entire height, from the roots up to the highest branches. It grows forever more, into the future and into the past.

<A tree, or a beast unto itself, or a Net, Indra's or otherwise. Describe it however you like, but extract this conclusion: the Universe is alive, it is a unity of many systems, it pulses with the thought and action of everything in it->

This place is eternity. There are tombstones scattered about, under that tree there, above on that cliff, broken under the grass, half-buried in the dirt. Jagged obsidian monoliths with a red tinge, overgrown with vines and blossoming with those flowers. All inscribed with the kana of her name.

吹雪

There has been many speculations on the topology of this dreamful place, accessible only in her sleep; but one in particular stands above all:

A closed timelike curve.

We surveyed her wreck but it was still there, unchanged. Save for a red coral sprawl blooming around it now. So her original hull was never literally resurrected. Neither is there the notional 'womb' from which the girl is thought to emerge from.

So what gives? Who returned her and the others, rebuilt them in the image of the old, but with technology far surpassing?

We hazard a guess that it might be spacetime itself.

.

.

.

As I got closer to her the whispering began, and the voice is none other than her own.

Her words are written here.

------

Through the years and far away.

It has been so long.

Under the light of this distant sun the trees are iron and they chimed in the wind

It's so lonely. I knew the others are there but they never got closer and that made me even lonelier.

Reborn from below.

I woke inside the red flower, ripped open the layer, pushed away the fluids and the vines and the armoured petals

Walked and breathed as I never did

Wondering and wandering inside this loop.

Involution.

I saw my deaths ran through a million iterations. All returns to this starting place.

I saw the changes in the world above, the webs of causality and ontology spun forevermore

I saw the shape of the Enemy, risen from the dark below, descended from the sky.

The smell and fire of war wafts again, familiar.

Deep War

The world burns again and the screams of the dead tinged the seas.

I walked the path as there is nothing I could do, looking for a way or a method

To make the seas calm again, to set the world free.

I know the others are doing the same. Perhaps they have already found Her.

But there at the end of the path, at the shores of jade water, that was where I found Her.

Her black hair streams in the wind. The Worldburner Serpent coils around her neck, and in her five arms she held the iterative weapons; the Blades Transform.

Armoured in black carapace and clockwork, carrying the terminal will of the universe.

The Destroyer.

Her voice was the voice of the Swarm, black and red and powerful, like a crash of waves and thousand chimes together in the wind, the breaking of stones in a deep place.

The ascendant Beast has burned itself in the Dawn War of the cosmos' youth.

Leaving behind a wormful corpse and a coldness that stalks these depths

Listen through manifolds and volumes

Its baneful dream, its sickened design

The Net frays, the noosphere subverted.

But in response: exostosis

In response: totipotency

In response: You.

I will give you the way, the means to achieve what you have desired since the beginning.

To stand at the edge of nightmare;

The path that is harder but kinder.

My desire is clear. Our sins are not forgotten and nothing will ever make us forget.

Let me fight again, for a better, worthier cause.

For a world of brightness and smiles

Take my hand

Make my will pure again.

ARBITRACOM · Jul 21, 2016

Emergence/Arrival:

Two Bridges and a Gate.

Crimson blossoms will spring from this garden;

Out of time, out of space, out of a dream, a wish and a memory;

And from this rusted, sleeping steel, the Blade Transform will be forged.

"Remnants of our collective past, guardians of our collective future."

x-x-x-x

GATE

Old Navy Never Die.

The first question was asked: which Gate? The word brings up several contexts in the post-Emergence world.

Residents of the Southeast Asian countries will refer to the three SEA Gates, the Samudra Fortresses, the Archipelagic Redoubts built to protect the Indian Ocean and adjacent parts of the Pacific. Once simple bases, now they have accumulated in strength and lethality, incorporating massive Arsenal Ports and artillery and missile emplacements.

It has a story: the story of the Second Indian Ocean Campaign. Indonesians will refer to it as the Inland Seas War. Broadly it was known as The Scouring of the Islands, the terrible Abyssal bombings that reduced Sabah, Singapore, and the cities of Sumatera to ashes, burning them in the terrible light of antimatter dawn. Three contained Black Zones stood in their place now, a graven reminder.

Further destruction was only averted by the combined efforts of twenty nations and the newly-arrived shipgirls.

But that would be a story for another time.

The second Gate that comes to mind exists, hypothetically, in the center of the Pacific Sprawl, in the center of nearly eight hundred thousand square kilometers of storms, eddies, anomalies, and mysteries. It is the Abyssal Gate, the notional origin point and centrality of Abyssal activities on earth. Veiled in intrigue, nearly unreachable, rebuking all attempts to breach it by force. It was said that within the Sprawl horizon merges and turns pale in the fog, the sea and the sky indistinguishable. Space would locally fold over itself, logic failing under the clouded skies, making navigation difficult, though not impossible. The Abyssal Gate itself has never been seen directly. Certainly its existence is not a complete impossibility. Others maintain that the notion of the Gate's centrality is a desperate hope, an anthropocentric idea of an inscrutable enemy's ultimate weakness, a stage set for a daring heroic strike, a vain rationalization in face of an enemy unlike anything before.

Until the veil of The Sprawl is pierced, it will still be there, a wound in the seas, a gaping malignancy, the haunting sovereignty of pale kingdom in a hidden place.

But here is the Gate that matters to this story: The First Gate, the gate that appeared overnight, in a ring of islands amidst the seas, the place where the fire falls from the sky in the pursuit of the science of annihilation.

It stands in the middle of the Bikini Atoll, a massive black construct resembling the traditional depiction of a Japanese torii. On its kasagi, its topmost, upward curve, grew a wreath of red flowers of unknown provenance.

On the dawn of a misty day, six months after Fubuki first changed the world, Battleship Nagato awoke under the gate.

She remembered the final moments, when the killing sum of science and technology, the wrath of a nuclear sun crashed down on the fleet gathered there.

The burn, the tearing and crashing of waves, the pain that assaulted her, and, more painful than anything, the slow death and rot afterwards.

She took the first few breaths of air, pulling herself upright, fitted on her headgear. Under the newly risen sun and the thinning mists she walked out of the shadow of the gate.

A rapid succession of steps, a splash of water. When she turned her gaze to the source it was as if dagger had carved out her heart.

"Sakawa…"

She had sunk in the first test, gone ahead of Nagato. Nagato had hoped it would be painless for her.

But there was she was, distraught, crying in confusion, the little purple-haired cruiser, her consort in their final moments.

She did the only natural thing, to hold her close, offering what little comfort she can give, anything to stop the tears.

"Sakawa, Sakawa… come here…"

She held her arms out, taking Sakawa in to the space of her hug, the hold of her arms.

"It's ended... Sakawa. The hurt will stop. I'm here, I will never leave you!"

"Na-Nagato-san, I was so scared...!"

She let the sobs, the tearful recollections, all the stored loneliness run their course. At the end of it, they both walked together, one gloved hand holding another.

Another voice called out to the pair, a voice aged, but firm and confident. She spoke, wrapped in a solemn black uniform, hoisting a scorched flight-deck in her arm. Her hair was loose in the wind, the tie of her miniature funnel gone.

An instant recollection on Nagato's part.

"Miss Saratoga."

"Miss Nagato, Miss Sakawa,"

Behind her, all the other Shipgirls, the reborn ghosts of the Bikini Atoll, walked together. Prinz Eugen, with her youthful smile, longing for her home and companion. Nevada and Arkansas, still proud and defiant. Stalwart Pensacola, and many others, the ghost-array of Crossroads.

Nagato had initially interpreted the tests as a rightful punishment, a retribution for the transgressions of her Empire's sins, but an opinion irreconcilable with the presence of the America's own ships in the killing zone, all sunk in the same way as her, as a scorched, agued hulk.

In those final moments before the sea claimed them, they had talked, trying to understand each other.

They had never truly left each other, and now in this time, they found each other beneath the shadow of the Gate, cast under the light of this new world, calling them to duty once more.

x-x-x-x-x

BRIDGE I

Ghosts in the Mist

---

Several days later…

The first bridge in this story bore also the name of the Gate. Fog had rolled in the San Francisco Bay area, blanketing the region in dread. Warships and garrisoned troops in there enacted high alert, civilians moved to shelters. Fogs and low-hanging clouds prelude an Abyssal incursion.

The mist, although thick and its area wide, was by all means otherwise normal. It did not obscure any of the Abyssals inside it, does not produce any interference beyond what is to be expected from a thick cloud bank.

So it is that the various sensors and radars displayed in full the complete scope of the threat, five Abyssal fleet carriers, ten light carriers, seven battleships, and a host of swarming destroyers.

They will never reach this far was the working words, until the First Blitz broke the might of the United States Navy. Three supercarriers buried under an avalanche of keelbreakers and deckburners, the fighters shot out of the sky by shielded flying monsters. Scores of other warships ripped apart in close combat. The storied Hog's Last Run, a battle in which the all remaining A-10 Thunderbolt IIs present in the continental US, drones and otherwise, made their final attack run against an Abyssal invasion fleet in conjunction with other elements of the defending US military, rebuking their advance, but destroyed to the last.

The Abyssals had therefore established themselves as the only force in history capable of mounting an invasion and a conventional war against the continental United States.

Now, in San Francisco, the defending warships put themselves in formation, guns and missiles ready. Jets flown in from airbases filled the skies alongside swarming drones. Artillery emplacements began establishing firing plots. San Francisco is a fortress, and she must hold.

The Abyssal fleet began their answering maneuver as swarms of skull-like fighters and bombers flew out of gaping maws. Their battleships began salvoing high-explosive bombardment shells to shore targets. Destruction erupted across the cityscape, San Francisco now seeing the same fate of many other of America's coastal cities, such as Newport and New York.

But her shields and arms are not yet broken. The battle was joined. US warships launched missiles and rapid-fired their weapons, claiming hits on the massing horde of destroyers. One cruiser turned too late and received a torpedo to the bow. Another's bridge was singed by a heavy shell from an Abyssal battleship.

In the skies, the Abyssal fighters began their attack vector on the jets. American fighters fired long-range missiles alongside their drones, who flew ahead to absorb the first hits from the Abyssal fighters' answering salvo. The furball was set to be joined as tracers and speeding missiles painted the sky in the colour of killing.

But an unexpected answer struck through. Antiquated shapes, blue and propeller driven, cut into the Abyssal strikecrafts, slicing a vector of destruction within the Abyssal formation. Rather than collide in the dogfight, the modern jets added their firepower to the mix, aiding the new combatants with their own answer. Fireballs plumed and spiraled out of the sky, plunging to the seas and city below.

Seeking the source of this reprieve, An F-15 fighter flew low, circling the top of the Golden Gate Bridge's suspension towers. Three figures stood on top of one of the towers. One wore a grey, hooded cloak.

Below, in the mist-covered waters, the Blue Navy emerged from out of the fog. The shipgirls of the US Navy emerged in the thick of the battle upon the Bay, immediately scattering the menacing Abyssal forces.

On top of the bridge, Enterprise drew her grey cloak close around her, seeing the sprawl of her nation laid beneath her, hurting and burning. Beloved sister Yorktown held her gaze. Hornet stood beside her, eyes ready and aiming.

She held up and fired her bow rifle, sending another wing into the fray.

The Grey Ghost and her sisters has returned. The Greatest Generation has returned. The storm is reborn, and it was time for the Abyssals' reckoning.

x-x-x-x-x

Bridge II

Arose From Out the Azure Main

---

The second bridge, almost half a world away, in the Old World:

"London Bridge… has fallen down."

Then-General Hawthorne of the British Army found grim humor in the transmission. His small hovercraft sped downriver Thames. The Thames Beast smashed the London Bridge into smithereens with a roar, angered and fuming-literally, as the heat spikes on its back radiated scorch produced by the biomechanical processes propelling its immense body.

Here, at the heart of the waning empire, the greatest chase. The Thames Beast had broken off its parent fleet and Princess, swum upriver Thames, leaving devastation in its wake. The hulk of the Queen Elizabeth supercarrier and a dead First Sea Lord bore testament. It had first passed London and Tower Bridges without destroying them (the same cannot be said of the moored HMS Belfast) but Hawthorne and his men had successfully baited it down on a reverse course, to the oceans.

The serpentine Beast swum rapidly, drenching the streets and buildings around it with the wakes of its movement.

On either side of the river Challenger tanks fired armour-piercing shells. Some tanks might be lucky enough to be loaded with the rare prototypes of the Beast Hunter shell, whose impacts on Abyssal organomusculature lattice armour are more pronounced, cracking small blotches of blue wounds.

"Faster lads! This is not yet over!" He beckoned the soldier at the hovercraft's controls. The Tower Bridge is rapidly approaching. On the corner of his eye he noted the eight-legged Strider combat robots leaping from rooftop to rooftop, relaying targeting data to the artillery deployed around the city. Shells made huge splashes on the river's water, smashing less-fortunate stonework.

A movement caught his eye again. One of his soldiers signaled the same. A figure was moving alongside the Striders. With a powerful kick the figure, now identifiably female, leapt towards the Beast. One of the Striders followed. As she flew through the air, an array of rapid-firing cannon turrets materialized on her personage, firing a barrage before she landed in an elegant poise.

Her gunfire hurt the Thames Beast far more than even the Beast Hunter shells. Shrieking in pain, it swiped at the girl, but she was too quick and had already leapt to another rooftop. It was a statement for the Strider's motor programming that it was able to keep pace with her.

A transmission went in the General's radio.

"Admiral, I am Belfast. Please continue the chase—"

"Wait! Admiral? What are you talking about? Who are you? Under whose command!?" demanded Hawthorne, as his hovercraft passed under the Tower Bridge. The Beast dove low after him. Hawthorne's hovercraft leaped a little, landing in the water with a spray. Hawthorne turned back, and saw several figures leaping from the bridge, armaments drawn at the Beast below. The foremost had not only the warship turrets at her, but also a red cloak, brandishing a greatsword.

As they struck the Beast with unprecedented and unrestrained wrath, delivered via gunfire and the strike of blade and spear, another transmission was received. The speaker was none other than the lady in red, the swordbearer, a voice steeled with age and experience, dripping with ferocious pride.

"Under my command. Warspite's command."

Returned, under the time of her greatest need, her royal protectors and stewards, with the eternal battle cry:

"Britannia rules the waves!"

Kantai Collection: The World Set Free (KC/SCP/FreeSpace:Blue Planet/Destiny)

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ARBITRACOM

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