Taylor as the "Grey Ghost", especially if she can get some awacs into the air or scout planes. Think of the multi-tasking and shared targeting data.
 
Taylor as the "Grey Ghost", especially if she can get some awacs into the air or scout planes. Think of the multi-tasking and shared targeting data.

*Taylor and Haida sitting perched on the shore, scarfing burgers and tossing depth charges into the bay*

Haida: Think Squealer's feeling brave enough to surface yet?

Taylor: Nah, let's keep her down there another hour or two.

*Meanwhile, hiding at the bottom of the bay as depth charges go off overhead*

Squealer: *unprintable obscenities*
 
All Squealer wanted to do was give Haida a welcome back hug is all. She disn't mean anything by surfacing her vessel at ramming speed.
 
Was that... Squealer using some sorta supercavitation effect to get speed... and because the water was churned up like that, it wasn't normal buoyancy?

Yup, Supercavitation is sometimes referred to as 'underwater warp drive' because it skews the properties of the medium it's working in. Of course, it also means that screws (propellers) stop working; but that's what the rocket engines are for. Actually steering might be an idea to research as well. There are operational models of the Soviet Shkval torpedo that can exceed 200 knots submerged (And it can steer).
Squealer sat up abruptly, then swayed unsteadily. "Imma gonna buil a boat. 'S gonna be awesome; it'll have, like, spikes n' shit. Anna drill. Big ass drill right onna front; soz it can drill through the water. Rocket drill, yeah. Awesome." The drug-addled Tinker pulled out a pen from somewhere and started sketching on a napkin, crooning softly to herself. "Boaty boaty-boat booooooooooat..."


Interestingly, Enterprise (CV-6) became the first carrier to launch a night attack. She'd be an even bigger terror with confoam dive bombers than Haida is with her regular artillery.

Knowing Taylor her locker used recicled metal from the USS Enterprise CV-6 back from when it was scrapped (sad ending for the fightiest ship in the US Navy), and she will be forced to integrate the memories of ALL members of her crew during her 13 years of existence, from the pilots who sank the japanese carriers at Midway to the naval engineers who sailed with her to patch up her damage after the Battle of Santa Cruz.

Taylor as the "Grey Ghost", especially if she can get some awacs into the air or scout planes. Think of the multi-tasking and shared targeting data.

Taylor's not going to trigger as The Big E; either in her WW2 incarnation as the Grey Ghost (Scrapped), or the as-yet unscrapped Mobile Chernobyl version. Though pairing the most decorated Canuck and Murican ships would have been appropriate.

There's already been a massive hint in a prior chapter. :whistle:


...Whoa, Sophia was an unhelpful bitch here. FFS, that was so freaking dumb of her.

It's Sophia Fucking Hess. "Unhelpful bitch" is when she's in a good mood. She's probably going to get away with it too; since she was 'just greeting a teammate I hadn't seen in a week' and the whole situation escalated so quickly.
 
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I thought the first night attack launched by an aircraft carrier was the British assault on the Taranto naval base with Enterprise doing her first (first for the US navy, and even then I think there might have been one before but without radar guidance) 3 years later ?

Edit: heck, if you count night as before 07:00 the Tondern raid of WW1 might count
 
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Taylor's not going to trigger as The Big E; either in her WW2 incarnation as the Grey Ghost (Scrapped), or the as-yet unscrapped Mobile Chernobyl version. Though pairing the most decorated Canuck and Murican ships would have been appropriate.

There's already been a massive hint in a prior chapter. :whistle:
If Taylor keeps the bugs in the first trigger, would the second one include spacewarping?
You want Taylor to become a (Abyssal) instellation or so???
Or do you mean the USS Tripoli (CVE-64) - Wikipedia by change?
But USS Tripoli (LPH-10) - Wikipedia could also work.
 
I am feeling pretty blind at the moment, seeing as I just re-read twice looking for that massive hint about Taylor's trigger. Unless of course it was the mention of Haida's shard needing to nom an existing hull, in which case I'm not blind, just a little dumb.
 
Squadron 3.1
03Jan11, 1215 Lima
Winslow High


How hard was it to christmas shop when the closest thing you have to a family are a team of superheroes? Vista was easy. Assault and Clockblocker got checked off my list with a quick stop at a practical joke shop. A pet store got me a foam bat that I'm sure Battery will enjoy hitting Assault with. I ordered a Tim Hortons gift card online for Dragon and made up a 'Get out of Paperwork Free' card for Aegis. But then I started drawing blanks. Gallant's family was rich; Kid Win would just disassemble anything for parts.

Shadow Stalkers' gift was a little bit tough because it was out of season; but when I explained who it was for, the Walmart manager was happy to order me an entire pallet of barbeque charcoal. Gift wrapping that was a problem; Clock was happy to help. Some things are worth the inevitable disciplinary action.

And what the hell do you buy Armsmaster? Dickens' A Christmas Carol in audiobook; obviously since that'd be the most efficient format. The hint was lost on him.

I ended up giving Lisa a call; she was good at the whole shopping thing. It was that or Victoria. Lisa suggested a "get out of shopping trip free" card for Gallant. Then just a gift card from Radio Shack for Kid Win. Let him get his own parts.

Mostly though it had just been time to catch up on all my missed schoolwork. And continue to wonder at this strange fetishization of wealthy white male slave-owners. History didn't just start in the 1770s. The assignment just said 'A short oral report on the battle of Chesapeake Bay'. The only reason I scraped a C- was because I pointed out the assignment sheet never specified which battle, and I feel the Powhatan extermination of the Chesepean Tribe merited at least one students' time. I might have pushed things by actually delivering it in rote Algonquin.

I stayed a few minutes to talk with Mrs. Knott about some trouble I'd been having with an Excel assignment, and nearly plowed into a pack of sniggering cheerleaders in the hall on my way to lunch. It only took one look to realize they were far too cheerful. Command voice time. "Ok Christi; what's going on?"

"Oh. Um. Dani. Uhh…" A little bit of head tilt, narrowing my eyes slightly; just a hint of disappointed frown. Screaming like a boot camp drill instructor was for amateurs. "Ok, listen, none of us had anything to do with it. It's Hess and her group; they finally got that stick Herbert good. Honestly, that's all I know."

"Where?" My voice cracked like a calving iceberg.

"Uhh, outside the chem…" I was already moving before she finished her reply.

"MAKE A HOLE!" Drill instructor voice does have its uses. Clearing a path in a school hallway was one of them. I was moving at a pretty appreciable sprint when I hit the top of the stairwell and leapt, tucking my legs up and intending to ping-pong around the switchbacks.

[DESTINATION]
Or not, fuck me sideways.

[AGREEMENT]

I dragged myself out of the crater two kilotons of impacting shipgirl had made of Mr. Gladly's red convertible; trying to shake the cobwebs from my head. Looking up, I'd left a Looney tunes perfect hole in the wall of the stairwell. "Bosun, damage report?"

"Eh? Eh-eh, eeh." The little sailor standing on my shoulder sounded despondent.

"Yes Bosun, I know I totaled a perfectly good porche. He's got insurance, what about me?" I hauled myself to my feet. Fuck, ow. Foot.

"Eh! Eh eh eh eh eh eh. Eh!"

I wiped some blood from my nose and nodded carefully. "Still better than Eskimo. Tell the engineer I need best speed; we've got a merchie to round up and that blasted U-boat isn't going to make this easy.

"Eh?"

"Aye, sound battle stations." My rigging formed around me as I half-limped, half-hopped towards the schools' main entrance. I definitely caught Blackwell's attention as I hauled myself past the main office.

"Miss DeWolfe, where do you-"

"Working."

"Come back eep!" That last as my B turret tracked smoothly in her direction. I kept moving. Down the hall, hard starboard, and there it was. A bank of lockers; one of them leaking putrescence and effluvia like the worst Somali garbage scow pumping bilges. Someone had set up 'wet floor' cones. Very funny. A few yards up, two of Hess's accomplices were helping the track star to her feet.

"HESS!" I'm pretty sure I rattled windows at the far end of the building. I fired one of my depth charge throwers, hurling a containment foam bomb at the trio. Hess saw it coming, but I was already closing in its wake. I slammed an arm through the still gooey ball of foam and hit nothing but locker. Goddamned u-boats.

She surfaced again just out of reach, on the far side of the foam ball. I could see her eyes go wide as I laid both my fore turrets. I started to give the fire command just as she started to go smoke.

[DESTINATION]
Safe guns, safe guns, safe guns-

[AGREEMENT]

My head was still ringing when I pulled myself back to my feet. Ow, fuck. Foot. No sign of Sophia fucking Hess; but I still had her accomplices confoamed. And more importantly- I ripped the tinfoil door off the locker in question. A wave of filth gushed out onto the floor. Inside was. My brain tripped a breaker. Tall girl, eight hundred seventy feet long. Too close, too close! She started to topple, thirty six thousand tons of blue steel collapsing towards me, only to go hazy and hit me like a wall of Newfoundland fog before sprawling across the hallway. All things considered, that sounded like a good plan, so I leaned back against a still-intact locker and slid to the floor as well; keeping my injured leg straight out.

"Console, Haida."

"Haida, Console." Oh good. Armsmaster. This is going to go so well.

"Console, Haida, Mike - Sierra."

"Haida, Console, authenticate Lima six two."

"Console, Haida authenticates whiskey four pineapple."

"Authentication confirmed, go ahead Haida." Asking for Master/Stranger confirmation had gotten Armsmasters' undivided attention.

"Console, Haida. Code Cyan; Winslow high. Additional: Parahuman initiated bioterror attack. Require immediate quarantine. Code cyan not; say again, NOT initiator." I took a deep breath. Part of me was screaming that you never, ever threw a shipmate to the sharks. But Hess had gone too far beyond just being a petty, spiteful, lazy bitch. "Initiator was Shadow Stalker."

There was a brief pause from the other end. "Haida, Armsmaster. En route. The Director has been informed. All available BBPD and PRT units en route for perimeter. Can you elaborate on Code Cyan at this time?"

I leaned over, reaching past the massive wooden pauldron to check the older girls' pulse, then looked again and smirked slightly at the number16 on the top end. "Yeah, might want to call Corpus Christi and tell them we know where their museum went."

05Jan11, 2347 Lima
Brockton General


Thankfully Amy had been able to put Miss Hebert to sleep and cause her to de-Rig; because there was no way I was going to be able to tow a fleet carrier. After being decontaminated, again, I'd escorted the girl to the hospital. Code cyan protocols automatically gave her a private room; I'd insisted one with a view of the water. Her father had been in as soon as he could be contacted. One of the Dockworkers Union; he recognized me from Halloween. I'm not sure he really accepted my apologies for failing to protect his daughter, but eventually he had to go home and sleep. A weakness I didn't share.

"...mmie ou…" She started thrashing, fighting the blanket. I grabbed her hand and squeezed before she could flail enough to pull the IV out of her arm.

"Easy there, you're OK. It's all right, you're in the hospital."

"Whu…" Her eyes opened slowly, and I gave her a reassuring smile.

"It's all right, Taylor. You're safe."

"Nuh Taylor, name's L-" I cut her off, squeezing her hand and snapping my fingers in front of her unfocusing eyes.

"Stay with me. You're Taylor Hebert, you go to Winslow High. Your father's name is Daniel. You like reading and computers. Focus Taylor. Don't drift."

"What happened? What's happening to me?" She seemed to be fully present for the moment, so I took a deep breath.

"You've had what's called a Trigger Event. You know how Alexandria, Legend and Eidolon talk about 'pushing beyond human limits' as a way of unlocking powers? What they leave out is that it's usually about enduring more fucking shit than any human possibly can. A day so bad that reality snaps and you get powers. I'm pretty sure Hess pushed you to that point with the locker stunt." I quickly gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "The police and PRT are investigating; we won't let her get away with this. Director Piggot is a woman with a very small tolerance for bullshit."

"So… you?" At Taylor's hesitant question, I sighed and nodded I needed to get her trust.

"I… ok. I'm gonna show you something that I haven't showed the other Wards. Panacea's figured it out; but she doesn't talk." I took a deep breath and pushed mentally, forcing Haida as far away from me as I could. It took an effort, there were aspects I'd never wanted to divorce myself from. It was hard; I hadn't fully disabled my power since the first week after my own Trigger. I heard Taylor gasp softly and looked down at the back of my walnut-brown hand. With a sigh, I brushed my thin black hair back and tried not to squirm.

"You're…?"

"A guy? Yeah, but it wasn't my choice, nobody asked me. And when I decided I wanted to start fixing that little oversight, well… I know what you went through with bullies."

"I was going to say indian."

I facepalmed. Ok, so it was better than calling me a Chug. "Please, Native American or First Nations. Salish,if you want to be specific. India's a completely different continent."

"So, changing topic…" Taylor gave my hand a squeeze as I quickly reverted to 'Dani'. "Why is my memory all…"

"Right. When a trigger event occurs near active power use, the new capes' power can reflect aspects of the other capes nearby. I was trying to capture the person who … did that to you, so your power seems to have copied a chunk of mine. Congratulations, Taylor; you're now also partly an Essex-class fleet carrier. CV-16, USS -"
"-Lexington." she finished with me.


Author's notes:
CV-16, the Blue Ghost. Flagship of the Fast Carrier Taskforce that lead the way in the Pacific. 11 Battle stars, Presidential Unit Citation. Claimed as sunk by Tokyo Rose more than even the Big E. The longest-serving Essex Class and the oldest existing, intact fleet carrier in the world. Like Taylor, Lexington's mother (CV-2, Lady Lex) was a teacher.

Cruise 2.5 said:
The Director gestured for me to continue, so I pointed at another member of the press pool. "You, miss? No, not the idiot jumping around like a sugar-buzzed four year old, the woman politely waiting her turn next to the lady in the fedora." The reporter who stood was an older woman, hair starting to fade to grey, with a scar on her right cheek. She had a look about her that reminded me of the Director or Miss Militia. A look I'd occasionally seen in my own bathroom mirror after a particularly bad nightmare. I immediately pegged her as some sort of war correspondent in her younger days.

"Carrie Voltaire, Lexington Tribune. How did you feel?"

And yes, I'm aware that the Essex actually has more gun power than a Tribal. It's going to come up.

Oh, and for the nitpickers: The cheerleader got Taylor's last name wrong. It happens. It was a deliberate step on my part.
 
Gladly got a Porche while working as a teacher in a lower middle class high school? How much money did they stole from the Ward's program?.
 
So I'm guessing that she got some phasing ability to live up to the Blue Ghost nickname, and also Plane Administration from QA, on top of Haida's dimensional bullship. That's a nasty combo.

Will she be able to work with RC planes or will she need to pick up some full-sized fighter planes to apply shipgirl shrinking to?
 
She'd also just fallen through a wall, three stories through a car and parking lot. I should have made the concussion a little clearer.
 
You know, I'm so used to shipgirl stories having fairies that I didn't think about that but yeah, this story was going with no fairies wasn't it?
maybe an addition because pilotless planes with Taylor would have been weird.

though if that was the case the fairies would have worked better as a Taylor only thing explained by QA turning bugs into fairies
 
Dear Taliserian,
Wow, I went to the Wiki sight for the Lexington. The ship kind of reminds me of the Galactica from the reboot series, but real and now Taylor possesses all of her capabilities, plus shadow stalker's powers...I wonder what would happen if she fazed nuclear ordinance inside behemoth? Not only that, but Taylor can hold all the capes during an Endbringer fight and have them combine their powers to help her and keep them safe at the same time.
I was a little confused with the main character gender/ethnicity explanation (possibly because I am feeling under the weather and I will go back and re-read it again), but I understand it is hard to describe powers with words. Either way, the trio is in deep trouble and Taylor is now Queen of the Seas. I imagine she could do well working with the DWA transport goods across the ocean if she dosen't want to work with the PRT.
Thank you for letting us read your work and I can't wait to read more of it.
Sincerely
John
 
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