Timmerman
"Yeah, I'm back! I saw Sean on the ship. He's my only friend. Aaaanyways, any new info?"
"Yeah, A whole freakin' Battlegroup, Of friendlies. Or so they seem for the moment."
The Admiral's eyes briefly widen. "I suppose that explains some of the capabilities demonstrated by Constitution and Shiloh," he mutters under his breath. He straightens up. "At ease, Commander." He then waves you over to the chart table.
On the table is a relatively blank map, with small models to represent the ships of the task force, and a number of relatively hastily made tokens to represent friendly ships like Constitution and Shiloh. "Captain Smith relayed that you had an intelligence report to deliver?" He looks up at you.
"Aye sir." She says, dropping her hand to her side and walking over to the table
A fairy pops out of her collar and walks down to her shoulder, a booklet in hand.
As Johnston takes the booklet, it changes to a normal sized booklet.
"So, one of my girls found a Eastern IJN fleet coming from the mainland, thus, to the East, and directly in front of us, and a strangely unescorted
Kongō-Class Battlecruiser from the North." She says opening her identification booklet to a page for the
Kongō-class. She pats at her ear a second or two later.
["Commander! A TB is being dispatched by the Japanese fleet and headed your way. A White flag is being raised."]
"Copy, Constitution, Thanks for the heads up." She says before rubbing her eyes.
"Sir, we have a Torpedo Boat from the Eastern force coming our way under a white flag." Johnston says to the Admiral.
All this talk about her being little irritates Blandy. Not enough for her to say or do anything--truth be told, she's kind of done with caring about all of. . . this. Maybe they sink her now, maybe they sink her later, who knows? Hell, she wouldn't even care if the group turned out to be full of Co--Comm--Commies.
Blandy feels something foul at the back of her throat. She forces it back down.
A shifty glance is all the U-boat gets as her hand makes contact. Physical contact is always a tricky thing. Hard to tell if the other party is trying to strangle you or something or other until it's too late.
Well, in any case, it's not like you could strangle Blandy if you tried--kind of hard to choke someone without a neck, so it's a good thing the U-boat didn't try anything funny.
Blandy speaks up once the U-boat has retracted her hand. "Do you always do that to the enemy?"
Seems like a rather stupid course of action. Blandy doesn't have arms, but there's no guarantee she wouldn't have tried to bite the U-boat's hand off or anything like that.
"Nein. But you are not an enemy, now are you?" U says, a small chuckle emits from her throat.
I tense at the unexpected contact, not exactly sure how to react towards suddenly finding myself at the center of a metaphorical emotional escort and being left to awkwardly stand between them until the destroyers had sailed back to their original positions. I might have been able to appreciate the extension of support on an intellectual level, but having someone give that amount of physical affection when it wasn't on my terms left me deeply uncomfortable. Which half of myself that came from, if not both, I still couldn't say...
A deep feeling on indignation welled up within me at the implication that my creation had been decided by the demands of a single man as I began to dig in my heels on position in this conversation, firing back in an annoyed tone, "It does not. My service history may not have been able to justify the amount of resources authorized for my construction, but my creation was the result of a unanimous vote by Congress to defend our homeland against the enemies that threatened the United States interests and I do not appreciate the implication that I am the result of the demands of a reportedly unpleasant man who was ignorant of the needs of the United States Navy and was already several years dead at the time. It is an insult to the faith that was placed in me by Congress, and I would ask that you never do so again."
"Dropping subject. Don't worry about it." The Virginian-Texan says.
Winding down from my previous... outburst I quietly added, "You yourself have said that we come from alternate timelines, and mine seems to have deviated significantly by the 1920s, if not earlier. I would have to discuss things with one of you to compare everything that I know with your version of events."
"I think were timeline went differently for me was the Washington Naval Treaty fell through. Without that to keep everyone in check there was a naval arms race that you avoided, and once tensions reached a boiling point the US and Britain went to war with Japan jumping in when they saw the opportunity to expand their holdings in the Pacific while we were busy dealing with the UK. I'd have to sit down and really think to remember all the details about what happened though.
"Alright." Hoel says as she nods.
"Well, it's good to see you're doing well too, Heerman. Don't have any idea what you're talking about with that Jap though, last I remember of her was sending her and hers running after Vella Lavella."
"It's...just something from the War the four of us fought, Sis." Heermann says, waving at her fellow Taffies.
Once again I tense up, just standing there awkwardly while waiting for the three to go back to their positions in the formation and trying not to trip over them in the mean time. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the red headed destroyer that Heerman had been talking to a few moments earlier making circles around us snickering at my situation with mischief in her eyes, causing me to quickly look down in embarrassment.
Everyone returns to focusing on the task at hand. Reaching your fellows.
Ricarda Howe, HMS Howe
Japanese Waters
Daytime
Of sisters and support 2
"Thanks," I answer, before deciding to sail along with my sister.
"No problem!" The destroyers chirp
Gambier Bay? As in the one who memetically gets lost quite often? Heh. [That's because I was converted into a carrier. Like Saratoga, or Akagi,] I radio back.
[
Ahhhh. Ok.] She says
[
Aww man...I hate having Biplanes. You?] She asks.
I mentally ask my patrolling pilots for a sitrep, for I'm not sure what's going on around me right now.
Your pilots report a Japanese Fleet in front of you and a Battlecruiser to your right, basically the same as what the radio chatter between your escorts has been readying for.
They also report another Carrier flying the American Flag, though she has distinctly Japanese lines, with the IJN battlecruiser, asking if you want them to take a closer look.
I freeze. "T-thank you.." Bleh. I hate feeling useless, but the moment I open fire on a enemy Abyssal, I risk getting shot. Or worse.
Sullivans smiles up at you, before grabbing your chained hands and placing them atop her head.
I stiffen. I didn't. Damnit I would kill to be on land.. "I didn't. Unless my memory's playing tricks on me.." I look away. Her control over me did cause some.. issues with my memories.
"O͂ͯ̿hͯͣ̚,ͬ͑̾ ̄I͂̊ͦ'̇̀̑m̛̌ ͮ̾͢tͨ̓ͬe͌r̈͊̊ȓ́iͦ̊̆҉b̢̔̎l̵͐͆y̆̆̌ ̶̆̓s͆̏̄o̢ͪ̃rͥ́ͫr̆͌͑҉yͨͫ͑To have confused you, yo̓̌u̷r̈̌́ ͧͧ̓m̈͋͐a̴ͤ͑j̏e̓͗̃sͬṫ͋́͆y̏̅ͧ, I was talking to Repulse here." Constellation says.
"You know what, never mind. Just confirming if that was Hood."
"So... Emmm... How's it going over there?" She asks rather awkwardly, clearly eager to change the subject.
"Oh. Ok." Constellation says.
"Pfffffttt!"
Repulse breaks into a grin.
Then a smile. Then she starts laughing.
"That's... that's Saturday night. You won't get an explanation out of me!"
"How did you-Nevermind." Sullivans says.
@CCBubba
You awaken on your deck, and hear the thunderous roars of cannon fire.
After a few minutes, you see a a battlecruiser sailing beside you, a British ship-spirit with a few Japanese features standing atop the deck. You recognize her as
Kongō. Speaking of her obvious British origin, you figure if she didn't seem to be her Pre-WW2/Abyssal War self, she'd be wearing a
Union Jack jacket. Maybe.
