Haida has a brief mental stroke as she remembers that these are not people that she's familiar with and that immediately running off from the group that she met less than an hour ago to achieve visual contact with a vastly more threatening squadron of opponents is in fact an objectively awful idea. Thankfully this does not stop her from noticing the roughly 20 aircraft streaming in from the direction of said vastly more threatening squadron of opponents. While making a wide sweeping turn to move back towards the ensuing melee, she tries to identify their make and model, radioing back "I see a bit over 20 air frames coming in, the ones Habakkuk ID'd earlier, get ready for company.".
Your crew search high and low inside the ship, before reporting that they can't find any aircraft recognition books.
That being said, 2 of the larger,
gull-winged aircraft break off from their formation heading towards you at their current altitude.
Habbukuk smiled darkly at her aircraft scoring a magazine det, the smile growing as the ambush is sprung, as the Beaufighters are told to begin the attack, while a trio of Vickers are prepped with 2000 lb azon bombs and put on standby to be launched as soon as the enemy bandits have been confirmed to be downed.
It's at this moment when the first 2 of your 11 Beaufighters break through the cloud cover above and to the right of the enemy, coming in from above and slightly behind them, as well as off to one side. This, combined with the fact that most of the enemy aircraft are paying closer attention to
Haida than they are to looking around for enemy planes results in both those 2 Beaufighters, and the 6 following them, each bagging one of the larger single-engine aircraft.
The 5 Beaufighters following them, however, don't have as easy a time of it - the enemy's
fighters have managed to get their wits about them, and 6 of them go head on with the Beaufighters. 3 are shot down with no damage to the Beaufighter they were attacking, but 2 others score mutual kills against their respective Beaufighter, leaving 1 enemy fighter free to fight the rest....
So, those bandits are coming. Time to ready my aircraft and anti-aircraft. I inform my gunnery and radar crew to ready themselves and their weapons, while two more arrows yield four more Shindens. Let's see how they like fighters from the dawn of the jet age.
... however, it's at
this point when
Shinano's Shindens drop out of the clouds like thunderbolts from an enraged god, shredding 4 of the remaining enemy bombers, and all of the remaining fighters, with 30 millimeter cannon fire.
However, the high closure rate and lack of dive brakes means that your pilots only have brief windows to engage their targets, and 2 miss completely and have to break off to avoid ramming their targets - and unfortunately, those targets were the 2 bombers headed for
Haida
'Did she figure it out?' Harder puts away three of the torpedoes in her right hand. She then manoeuvres to where she had launch the spread of four, almost close enough to speak with the destroyer if she were on the surface.
'Alright new plan,' Harder draws her blade in the right hand and throws the torpedoes at a dangerous range, if the torps were to hit then she would be caught in the blast. Then she shoots right at her, preparing to stab her as she dodges. 'I'll be far too close for her to use her weapons.'
All you hear from the enemy destroyer is a brief shriek of alarm, before she slams her engines to full power and heels over into a hard turn - but this reduces her speed enough that your lunge carries you straight into her back - and your dagger straight into her right kidney. Her body locks up, and all you can hear is a wordless howl of agony from the enemy destroyer.
"Hah! Didn't I tell you? One of my shovel's many nicknames is the Knee of Justice!" She pulls back her shovel and grins. Yeah, that's a lie, I just made that up to sound cool. "Eat shells, 'sister'!" She brings her right arm to "Tia"'s face as if going for a hook punch, though intentionally swings short. As each gun passes the head, it fires point-blank at it. Not sure how effective this will be, but torpedoes would blow me up too, so the guns are my only option.
Tia, already reeling from the shovel hit, has only just managed to stop staggering when your shells tear through her head. She wobbles, then collapses forward, blood pouring from the holes in her mask.
Suddenly, she grabs your arm as she falls, holding on with the last of her strength. She speaks, her voice faint, "thank... you... sister..."
Tia releases your arm, hits the water, and sinks, almost instantly.
One of the shells exploded against the side of her face while the other splashed harmlessly into the sea behind her. What? Why had she been so afraid? She was a battleship, she had obviously seen far worse.
Thankfully, your bridge crew had the sense to evacuate to the most heavily armored portion of your conning tower, which means that the damage to your bridge hasn't impacted your combat performance. However, your fire control crew report than your main battery gun directors are badly damaged - the lenses and mirrors have been shattered by the shock, leaving your main battery guns, and your fore most secondary guns, on purely local control.
"Danke," Stahl said as she resumed her charge towards the main enemy fleet, "It is... good to know I have... such reliable allies."
You hear one of the battleships back near the carriers on the radio, but the transmission is badly garbled - your crew then give you a damage report, indicating that your main radio antenna also was damaged, this time by shrapnel from the 10 centimeter shell that hit you. That being said, even as that crew member delivers a report, a burst of static issues from the radio set on the bridge - evidently, one of your other crew has managed to jury rig the antenna back into working order using some bailing wire and tape.
"Nice to be working with'cha." I gave the Battleship a light two finger salute as I level my sub-arms to 90 degrees, ensuring that the majority of the AA guns dotting all over myself would be able to aim and shoot at the incomming buzzers.
Michigan looks over at the battlecruiser. "Same." She then turns to focus on the incoming aircraft, AA guns and dual purpose secondaries traversing around to point in the direction of the incoming aircraft.
I looked at Cap'n and she gave a thumbs up followed by an 'aye' and a report telling me that the AA guns are all loaded and crewed. I smiled at her and the rest of the crew in thanks before turning my view on the skies, waiting for the hostile buzzers to buzz by.
Unfortunately, while your radar crew has kept you as informed as they can about the battle, you're too far away to shoot down the bombers targeting
Haida
As for my movement, I start charting my course towards that larger enemy fleet, intending to open fire with my main guns at their capital ships when I get there. Unlike a fleet carrier, most of my firepower is in my guns, not my planes. "I'll head towards the enemy fleet. Requesting a screen," I say to my allies.
"Roger. Wait one." I turned to the other escort and asked her if she wants to have a go at it. "Hey uh... Sorry I forgot your name but you wanna go with Bluenette and shoot things in the face?"
Michigan nod. "I'm
Michigan. And seeing as I have 18" guns, yeah, that sounds like a good idea."
With that,
Michigan turns to follow
Shinano, her incredibly powerful engines allowing her to easily catch up with and overtake the aviation battleship.
