- Location
- Los Angeles
My mistake, must have skimmed over that line.
Skywalker's Snip Stockpile
- Thread starter Skywalker_T-65
- Start date
My mistake, must have skimmed over that line.
Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
Eh, it's no problem.
Like I said, if the critique is constructive, I appreciate it. I want to make sure I can improve as a writer.
Like I said, if the critique is constructive, I appreciate it. I want to make sure I can improve as a writer.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The story's narration itself refers to Hornet as a Japanese carrier.
That is wrong and disturbing on so many levels. It's basically an objective endorsement of something that is both untrue and chock-full of horrific implications.
The narration also refers to Hornet as Kouryu several times (and not in a past-tense sense).
Stockholm Syndrome has the hostage/captive at least being given the illusion of kindness or mercy from his/her captor. But here, Hornet always hated Japan and never stopped doing so. She was never shown any kindness, and would honestly rather have died than have continued to be in captivity (which rather negates Stockholm Syndrome).
And this:
What. That's so fucked up...the hull is Hornet. Even the hull would have ceased to be Kouryu in any sense whatsoever when she was taken back by the US and recommissioned as Hornet. And it's basically Enterprise thinking of her sister's body as someone else, as a twisted abomination, as her enemy, and as something that is entirely separate from her sister (disregard the very recent summoning; for decades, that hull was the entirety of Hornet). To say that it disregards, denies, and ignores Hornet's trauma as "having happened to someone else who isn't my sister" is quite the understatement, and the implications there are horrific and disturbing.
Unlike with the known cases of Hood, Enterprise, and Yamato in Eternity, there is nothing positive or compelling about this kind of "serving the enemy/once-enemy" scenario. There should not be any reason for Hornet to identify herself as Japanese in any sense, and she would certainly reject any notion that she is Kouryu. Think about how Indestructible reacts to being called Kongou--except make it about ten times worse, and that's how Hornet would realistically feel. Given that she's spent decades utterly loathing Japan, and that she tried everything she could think of to sabotage them, hurt them, or fight back against them...really, if, after being summoned, she saw a Japanese kanmusu, I would probably expect Hornet to jump the poor girl and immediately try to strangle her to death. I'm not even kidding. You're talking about a horrifically traumatized POW who was body-jacked into fighting her own country--her own sister--for years, who desperately tried to fight back in every way she could come up with and was continuously denied at every turn, except now she's finally given a chance to fight back, and she's given a target that's right in front of her. The results would not be pretty.
Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
...clearly, I need to put more thought into this.
Well, I suppose this was never as developed an idea as Indy- and damn it, how did I not see that comparison. Stupid of me -to start. I'll probably go back and redo it, really. When ideas pop up and I get them out as quick as possible, they either turn out great- Destiny -or have issues. This is the latter.
Eh. I prefer to make sure everything works properly anyway, which is in large part why this is in here and not an actual story thread.
Well, I suppose this was never as developed an idea as Indy- and damn it, how did I not see that comparison. Stupid of me -to start. I'll probably go back and redo it, really. When ideas pop up and I get them out as quick as possible, they either turn out great- Destiny -or have issues. This is the latter.
Eh. I prefer to make sure everything works properly anyway, which is in large part why this is in here and not an actual story thread.
obssesednuker
Commander of 10 Million Men
- Location
- In the Kremlin, activating Perimtr.
Given the canon example of Hibiki/Verniy, what would probably happen as Hornet comes back as Hornet and Kouryu would be her 2nd remodel. She would also probably come back with some Japanese quirks, but solidly identify as American just as Hibiki solidly identified as Japanese.
Then again, I probably have a different head canon for how Kanmusu recall their shipselves then you guys.
Then again, I probably have a different head canon for how Kanmusu recall their shipselves then you guys.
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Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
The latter (her slipup with the Japanese) was what I was intending.
Admittedly, that didn't work according to plan. Like a lot of things. But as I have precisely zero issues with redoing this after good critique it's not that big a deal. I prefer things be as good as possible.
Though, in hindsight, she'd more likely remodel into Hornet-with-Kouryuu's equipment- than the Hibiki/Verniy example. If only because that makes less really nightmare fuel in hindsight.
Frankly, I'm glad to see people putting thought into it and showing me where to improve it. Better than what I'm getting from SB.
- Location
- United States
Eh...the situation with Hibiki/Verniy and proposed Hornet/Kouryuu aren't quite the same. Hibiki was, as I understand it, a survivor of WWII given in relatively peaceful terms to the USSR during the diplomatic conclusions to the war. She may or may not have liked it, but Japan and Russia didn't really fight against each other much during Hibiki's lifetime and so there's considerably less animosity. That she doesn't have any issues with being Verniy is mostly a result of that and the lack of any major military actions between the USSR and rebuilding Japan during the remainder of Hibiki/Verniy's service.
Hornet, on the other hand...is considerably less so. She was captured in the process of sinking, during a time of violent war, by the enemies directly responsible for her damage and numerous attacks on her comrades and nation. She was then repaired and sent out to fight her original service, including the survivors of the attack that should have sunk her in the hopes of doing to them what was done to her or worse.
The situation could easily be likened to kidnapping a terminal patient from their deathbed, stabilizing them, brainwashing them, and then arming them and sending them out to fight their original family, for example.
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- Location
- United States
Described like that, Hornet reminds me a lot of Bucky/the Winter Soldier. Even if you don't want to bring brainwashing in as a major plot point, the relationship between Bucky and Captain America could provide some useful ideas on how to model the relationship between Hornet and Enterprise. Even after Bucky broke free of his conditioning there was still a significant amount of guilt and tension over what he had done.
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Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
In an attempt to fix up the second snip at least before I go to bed:
Key differences:
Hornet does not refer to herself as Kouryuu. The narration only does so a few time, once at the start... and references to how others may, those parts being from Hornet's perspective, view her. Along with Yorktown acknowledging that Hornet's hull was also Kouryuu, for at least some time. I changed up Yorktown's bit somewhat as well, and upon further reflection, when with the suggestion that E would probably not be comfortable around Hornet and would run from her, instead of to her.
Hopefully that works better. This will be better, no matter what it takes. Though I would admit to liking to not have to fix it again, since I still need to rework part 3 too.
Can you hear me?
A blonde woman, dressed in a tattered United States Navy uniform, stirred in her sleep.
Please, hear me.
"No..."
Don't stay. Wake up.
Brown eyes snapped open, the Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier Kouryuu holding a hand to her face. Her hand came away wet, as the girl angrily swiped away tears. She knew that voice. God, she knew that voice.
"Sis...I'm sorry."
Sighing weakly, she pulled herself to her feet. She was deep in her hull, hidden away from her crew. Even if they were able to see her, they wouldn't. Couldn't. For the carrier did not like her crew. Nor did she want to interact with them, as she had with her old crew. Every time she saw a Japanese uniform, it was a slap in the face. It had been years since that fateful day, and nothing changed. The girl had merely moved from raging anger that had her doing everything in her power to hinder her crew...to weary resignation, as she hid away from the world.
Or, more importantly, Hornet had moved to weary resignation. It was difficult, sometimes. To reconcile what the Japanese tried to turn her into, with what she still was. She was Kouryuu, to all those who looked at her. But she was Hornet, to herself and...a selfish part of her hoped...to her sister. She did the best she could. Her anger at her situation, pushed down or not, kept her centered. Kept her from falling the way the Japs wanted her to.
She would never let them win. Even if they beat her down, she would retain at least that much of herself. For her sisters. For...
"Little E..."
Her older sister, the one she had fought two times. At the Marianas and the Philippines. Both times, bitterly crying at her own survival. Both times, torn between cheering the losses among her aircrew, and feeling the sorrow that only a carrier could feel when planes failed to return.
And it hadn't even been the voice of the 'Grey Ghost' that she had heard calling to her. That had woken her from her slumber, hidden away from her crew.
Yorktown...
She had failed her beloved elder sister. Failed her at Midway, where she failed to sink the Japanese quickly enough to save her. Failed her at Santa Cruz, where she had been crippled and captured. Failed her when USS Hornet became Imperial Japanese carrier Kouryuu. All the failures. Her triumph with Colonel Doolittle? What was that now? She was known more as Kouryuu the traitor carrier, than as Hornet, the hero of the Doolittle Raid. Little E deserved all the credit she got. Yorktown and Wasp deserved all the honor heaped on them after their deaths.
Hornet? She deserved whatever curses were thrown her way.
You failed no one, sister. Please come back to us.
And now she was hallucinating. Hornet held a hand to her head, trying to block out the ghostly voice of her sister. She couldn't...she couldn't come back. Yorktown was gone. And Hornet could never go back to her sisters.
"Damn, I...I wish I could come back. But I can't. I can never go back."
There was too much bad blood in the water, between the captive Yellow Dragon and her homeland. Between Hornet, and those she had once called friends and comrades.
Hornet...don't worry. You are always welcome. Don't sleep. Wake up.
"STOP IT!" Hornet shouted out, angry tears coming from her eyes. "You aren't here Yorktown. Shit, I wish you were. But you're dead. And I'm a traitor. A damn dirty traitor."
Blessed silence followed that shout, as the captive carrier rubbed at her face. She might well be going crazy. Hearing her sister's voice...she was happy to hear it, but not like this. If she had an afterlife, she could meet Yorktown and Wasp there. Beg forgiveness for what she had been forced to do. Sniffling softly, Hornet began to move to lay back down...
Only for the sound of something other than her crew echoing through her hull.
Perhaps, perhaps, all of Hornet's curiosity had yet to be burned out of her. Or she was craving for something but the monotony of her life. Regardless of the reason, she stepped forward, following the noise. She followed it, moving up through strangely deserted halls. Followed it, even up to her flight deck. It was only when she reached her flight deck, that Hornet would find what she needed to find.
Wake up Hornet!
Blinding light shown in her eyes, before darkness claimed the captive carrier once more.
USS Yorktown panted heavily, as she looked down beneath her.
"Please...please tell me that worked."
Her soft, kind voice was strained. Sweat dripped from her red hair, as the carrier warily watched the summoning circle at her feet. Watched it for anysigns of activity. She had sprinted here, the moment that she had learned there was a summoning in progress. This place...this place that was so painful to her, and yet so important as well. Steel walls, lovingly maintained. Old light fittings, reminding her of her own days as a proper warship. How could they not? This place...was her sister. USS Hornet, CV-8.
Imperial Japanese ship Kouryuu.
Shaking her head, Yorktown drew in a deep breath as she looked down once more. The bright light was slowly fading from her eyes. Her sore throat, aching from her shouts at her sister, sucked in a further breath. Curled up in the fetal position, was a familiar figure. The clothing was all wrong, to be fair. It was torn, shredded, and patched together. But Yorktown would recognize that blonde hair anywhere, even if her uniform was in tatters. Heedless of the guards around her, or of the Japanese men respectfully standing back from their duty, the American carrier fell to her knees.
Fell by her sister, who was whimpering softly.
"Hornet...shh..." Yorktown shakily reached out, her hands pulling her sister up. Her arms wrapping around her shaking body. "Shh...I'm here. Big sis is here."
The body in her arms continued to shake, despite Yorktown rubbing soft circles into her back. She felt tears wetting her shoulder. Yorktown hardly cared. All her attention was on doing what she had wanted to do, for so long. Her baby sister...
She deserved this, and so much more that Yorktown could never give her. No matter how hard she tried.
"Shh..." The elder carrier whispered again. "You're home, Hornet. You're home."
"...am I?"
A tiny voice whispered that statement, so unlike the loud and bombastic girl Yorktown remembered.
"Hmm?" Yorktown merely hummed, continuing to rub her sister's back as soothingly as she could.
"They tried to turn me into someone else. Can I still be Hornet?" The younger carrier whispered, her voice broken. And full of weak hope, that her question would be answered. "After everything that happened, can I...still bear my old name? I hate Kouryuu. I hate that name. I am Hornet. I want to be Hornet. But...after everything that happened..."
Yorktown sighed softly, squeezing her sister against her even more tightly, "Maybe they tried that. But it didn't work. Would you be talking like this if it had? My cute, baby sister, would never let them win that. You are Hornet, you always were."
It was a sign of just how distraught the other carrier was, that she didn't pull back and complain about being called cute or the baby sister. Yorktown sighed again, feeling the old pain in her chest. She, alone among her sisters, had never blamed the Japanese girls for what they did. Their leadership, yes. Them? No. So she couldn't find it in herself to blame them for what her sister felt like.
But even she felt a stirring of anger, at how damaged Hornet was. If the Japanese leadership that had done this to her weren't long dead, they would see what an angry carrier was truly like. It hurt her, to see Hornet like this. It had felt like someone was stabbing her heart, when Hornet questioned if she had the right to call herself Hornet. If she had called herself Kouryuu, Yorktown didn't know what she would have done. It was hard enough to hear her question her name.
Her poor baby sister...she was hurt so badly.
"Hornet. It doesn't matter to me what you were, what you did, or what you call yourself. You're still my baby sister, and I love you. I don't care if you had to fight America, or fight your sister. None of that matters to me, because you're my sister. Never forget that."
"But...I failed you."
It was only now, that Hornet pulled back. Her big brown eyes were filled with tears, as she looked up at her sister. The tough facade of the youngest Yorktown sister was thoroughly gone, nothing but a scared girl remaining. A girl terrified of how her sister must feel about her.
"I failed you at Midway," Hornet continued, voice shaking as much as her body. "I failed you, big sis. If I had just been a bit faster, a bit better...I could have saved you! And then I wasn't able to help Wasp. I wasn't able to help her. Little E...she lost me at Santa Cruz, and then I had to fight her!"
The youngest sibling buried her face back in her sister's shoulder, her own shoulders quaking with her long-held in sobs. Deep, heartrenching sobs.
Oh Hornet...you poor girl. My poor baby sister...
Hugging her sister to her bosom, Yorktown shook her head sadly. Her red hair moved with the motion, mixing in with Hornet's blonde locks.
"You didn't fail anyone, my dear little sister." Yorktown whispered, as she kissed her sister's hair. "You and your crew couldn't have saved me. Wasp...she doesn't blame you. And Little E doesn't care that she had to fight you."
I wish that were true. Enterprise never hated Hornet, but...
"How can you say that? After everything..."
"Shh. I told you already, Hornet. It doesn't matter to me what you were forced to do as Kouryuu. You were always Hornet, deep down. They couldn't take that from you. And all that matters to me is that you're here. All of the Yorktown sisters are together again."
Hornet pulled back, eyes widening, "Wasp and E are here?"
Yorktown nodded, "Yes. They should be here soon."
Really, Yorktown was equal parts sad and relieved her younger sisters weren't here yet. On the one hand, it was hard enough to get Hornet to talk to just her. If Wasp and E were here? That would be even harder. On the other side, she wanted her family back together again. It had been decades...long, hard decades, since the sisters had been together. Now they had the chance to be together again, and the last thing Yorktown wanted was to lose that chance. She had longed for this, for so long.
She wanted nothing more than for her family to be back together, forever. But, she had been forced to tell a white lie to her sister, despite all her longing for their family to be whole again. Enterprise...she was here, in Pearl. Was she aboard Hornet? Yorktown wished she could say yes. She so dearly wished she could say yes. But her Little E was damaged, just as baby Hornet was damaged. If she could push past that...
Hugging Hornet to her once more, Yorktown looked over her silent sister's shoulder. The marine guarding the door nodded back, tapping the headset he wore. Yorktown smiled slightly at that. Wasp, at least, was on her way. And probably aboard their sister, knowing her. She should be here any second then. And indeed, mere moments after nodding at the marine, the door was flung open.
A heavily panting Wasp stood in that doorway, brown hair plastered to her face.
"Sis, is she...?" Wasp got out, her voice shaking.
"Yes." Was all Yorktown said, as her littlest- if not youngest -sister practically jumped over to her.
In any other situation, that would have elicited a smile. Wasp may be small, barely up to Yorktown's chest. But she was always one to be larger than her size would indicate. Right now though? She held back, wide red eyes looking down on her sisters.
"Hey, Hornet." Wasp's bombastic voice had softened. "Glad to see you back, little sis."
Hornet didn't reply, burrowing deeper into Yorktown's side.
"Is Little E with you?" Yorktown sighed softly, looking at her younger sibling.
Wasp sighed, her smile fading, "No. She was outside, and I know she heard the message. But..."
"She doesn't want to see me..." Hornet whispered, her shoulders slumping.
Her tears wet Yorktown's uniform, as the eldest sister held her tightly.
"I see." The redhead sighed softly. "I don't blame her. It has to be hard, just to be here."
Wasp could only nod, carefully sitting beside her sisters. For her part, Yorktown sung softly, as she ran a hand through her sobbing baby sister's hair. Hornet...strong, loyal Hornet. Even she could only go through so much. And Yorktown could only imagine how long she had been holding this back. Years...so many years. She was hurt, so badly. Enterprise as well. Both of them were hurt, from having to fight each other. From their respective 'failures'. Yorktown was left to pick up the pieces of her family, with Wasp by her side.
It was not going to be easy, was it? Hornet had to adjust to her life again. Enterprise had to reconcile her memories and guilt, with the girl before them now.
And all that Yorktown could do was try her best to help them. Her family was hurt badly, but they were together again. Now it was time to heal, however long that process took. However hard it was. Yorktown would fight for her sisters, and help them. It was what big sisters did, and she would be damned if she failed them again.
A blonde woman, dressed in a tattered United States Navy uniform, stirred in her sleep.
Please, hear me.
"No..."
Don't stay. Wake up.
Brown eyes snapped open, the Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier Kouryuu holding a hand to her face. Her hand came away wet, as the girl angrily swiped away tears. She knew that voice. God, she knew that voice.
"Sis...I'm sorry."
Sighing weakly, she pulled herself to her feet. She was deep in her hull, hidden away from her crew. Even if they were able to see her, they wouldn't. Couldn't. For the carrier did not like her crew. Nor did she want to interact with them, as she had with her old crew. Every time she saw a Japanese uniform, it was a slap in the face. It had been years since that fateful day, and nothing changed. The girl had merely moved from raging anger that had her doing everything in her power to hinder her crew...to weary resignation, as she hid away from the world.
Or, more importantly, Hornet had moved to weary resignation. It was difficult, sometimes. To reconcile what the Japanese tried to turn her into, with what she still was. She was Kouryuu, to all those who looked at her. But she was Hornet, to herself and...a selfish part of her hoped...to her sister. She did the best she could. Her anger at her situation, pushed down or not, kept her centered. Kept her from falling the way the Japs wanted her to.
She would never let them win. Even if they beat her down, she would retain at least that much of herself. For her sisters. For...
"Little E..."
Her older sister, the one she had fought two times. At the Marianas and the Philippines. Both times, bitterly crying at her own survival. Both times, torn between cheering the losses among her aircrew, and feeling the sorrow that only a carrier could feel when planes failed to return.
And it hadn't even been the voice of the 'Grey Ghost' that she had heard calling to her. That had woken her from her slumber, hidden away from her crew.
Yorktown...
She had failed her beloved elder sister. Failed her at Midway, where she failed to sink the Japanese quickly enough to save her. Failed her at Santa Cruz, where she had been crippled and captured. Failed her when USS Hornet became Imperial Japanese carrier Kouryuu. All the failures. Her triumph with Colonel Doolittle? What was that now? She was known more as Kouryuu the traitor carrier, than as Hornet, the hero of the Doolittle Raid. Little E deserved all the credit she got. Yorktown and Wasp deserved all the honor heaped on them after their deaths.
Hornet? She deserved whatever curses were thrown her way.
You failed no one, sister. Please come back to us.
And now she was hallucinating. Hornet held a hand to her head, trying to block out the ghostly voice of her sister. She couldn't...she couldn't come back. Yorktown was gone. And Hornet could never go back to her sisters.
"Damn, I...I wish I could come back. But I can't. I can never go back."
There was too much bad blood in the water, between the captive Yellow Dragon and her homeland. Between Hornet, and those she had once called friends and comrades.
Hornet...don't worry. You are always welcome. Don't sleep. Wake up.
"STOP IT!" Hornet shouted out, angry tears coming from her eyes. "You aren't here Yorktown. Shit, I wish you were. But you're dead. And I'm a traitor. A damn dirty traitor."
Blessed silence followed that shout, as the captive carrier rubbed at her face. She might well be going crazy. Hearing her sister's voice...she was happy to hear it, but not like this. If she had an afterlife, she could meet Yorktown and Wasp there. Beg forgiveness for what she had been forced to do. Sniffling softly, Hornet began to move to lay back down...
Only for the sound of something other than her crew echoing through her hull.
Perhaps, perhaps, all of Hornet's curiosity had yet to be burned out of her. Or she was craving for something but the monotony of her life. Regardless of the reason, she stepped forward, following the noise. She followed it, moving up through strangely deserted halls. Followed it, even up to her flight deck. It was only when she reached her flight deck, that Hornet would find what she needed to find.
Wake up Hornet!
Blinding light shown in her eyes, before darkness claimed the captive carrier once more.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
USS Yorktown panted heavily, as she looked down beneath her.
"Please...please tell me that worked."
Her soft, kind voice was strained. Sweat dripped from her red hair, as the carrier warily watched the summoning circle at her feet. Watched it for anysigns of activity. She had sprinted here, the moment that she had learned there was a summoning in progress. This place...this place that was so painful to her, and yet so important as well. Steel walls, lovingly maintained. Old light fittings, reminding her of her own days as a proper warship. How could they not? This place...was her sister. USS Hornet, CV-8.
Imperial Japanese ship Kouryuu.
Shaking her head, Yorktown drew in a deep breath as she looked down once more. The bright light was slowly fading from her eyes. Her sore throat, aching from her shouts at her sister, sucked in a further breath. Curled up in the fetal position, was a familiar figure. The clothing was all wrong, to be fair. It was torn, shredded, and patched together. But Yorktown would recognize that blonde hair anywhere, even if her uniform was in tatters. Heedless of the guards around her, or of the Japanese men respectfully standing back from their duty, the American carrier fell to her knees.
Fell by her sister, who was whimpering softly.
"Hornet...shh..." Yorktown shakily reached out, her hands pulling her sister up. Her arms wrapping around her shaking body. "Shh...I'm here. Big sis is here."
The body in her arms continued to shake, despite Yorktown rubbing soft circles into her back. She felt tears wetting her shoulder. Yorktown hardly cared. All her attention was on doing what she had wanted to do, for so long. Her baby sister...
She deserved this, and so much more that Yorktown could never give her. No matter how hard she tried.
"Shh..." The elder carrier whispered again. "You're home, Hornet. You're home."
"...am I?"
A tiny voice whispered that statement, so unlike the loud and bombastic girl Yorktown remembered.
"Hmm?" Yorktown merely hummed, continuing to rub her sister's back as soothingly as she could.
"They tried to turn me into someone else. Can I still be Hornet?" The younger carrier whispered, her voice broken. And full of weak hope, that her question would be answered. "After everything that happened, can I...still bear my old name? I hate Kouryuu. I hate that name. I am Hornet. I want to be Hornet. But...after everything that happened..."
Yorktown sighed softly, squeezing her sister against her even more tightly, "Maybe they tried that. But it didn't work. Would you be talking like this if it had? My cute, baby sister, would never let them win that. You are Hornet, you always were."
It was a sign of just how distraught the other carrier was, that she didn't pull back and complain about being called cute or the baby sister. Yorktown sighed again, feeling the old pain in her chest. She, alone among her sisters, had never blamed the Japanese girls for what they did. Their leadership, yes. Them? No. So she couldn't find it in herself to blame them for what her sister felt like.
But even she felt a stirring of anger, at how damaged Hornet was. If the Japanese leadership that had done this to her weren't long dead, they would see what an angry carrier was truly like. It hurt her, to see Hornet like this. It had felt like someone was stabbing her heart, when Hornet questioned if she had the right to call herself Hornet. If she had called herself Kouryuu, Yorktown didn't know what she would have done. It was hard enough to hear her question her name.
Her poor baby sister...she was hurt so badly.
"Hornet. It doesn't matter to me what you were, what you did, or what you call yourself. You're still my baby sister, and I love you. I don't care if you had to fight America, or fight your sister. None of that matters to me, because you're my sister. Never forget that."
"But...I failed you."
It was only now, that Hornet pulled back. Her big brown eyes were filled with tears, as she looked up at her sister. The tough facade of the youngest Yorktown sister was thoroughly gone, nothing but a scared girl remaining. A girl terrified of how her sister must feel about her.
"I failed you at Midway," Hornet continued, voice shaking as much as her body. "I failed you, big sis. If I had just been a bit faster, a bit better...I could have saved you! And then I wasn't able to help Wasp. I wasn't able to help her. Little E...she lost me at Santa Cruz, and then I had to fight her!"
The youngest sibling buried her face back in her sister's shoulder, her own shoulders quaking with her long-held in sobs. Deep, heartrenching sobs.
Oh Hornet...you poor girl. My poor baby sister...
Hugging her sister to her bosom, Yorktown shook her head sadly. Her red hair moved with the motion, mixing in with Hornet's blonde locks.
"You didn't fail anyone, my dear little sister." Yorktown whispered, as she kissed her sister's hair. "You and your crew couldn't have saved me. Wasp...she doesn't blame you. And Little E doesn't care that she had to fight you."
I wish that were true. Enterprise never hated Hornet, but...
"How can you say that? After everything..."
"Shh. I told you already, Hornet. It doesn't matter to me what you were forced to do as Kouryuu. You were always Hornet, deep down. They couldn't take that from you. And all that matters to me is that you're here. All of the Yorktown sisters are together again."
Hornet pulled back, eyes widening, "Wasp and E are here?"
Yorktown nodded, "Yes. They should be here soon."
Really, Yorktown was equal parts sad and relieved her younger sisters weren't here yet. On the one hand, it was hard enough to get Hornet to talk to just her. If Wasp and E were here? That would be even harder. On the other side, she wanted her family back together again. It had been decades...long, hard decades, since the sisters had been together. Now they had the chance to be together again, and the last thing Yorktown wanted was to lose that chance. She had longed for this, for so long.
She wanted nothing more than for her family to be back together, forever. But, she had been forced to tell a white lie to her sister, despite all her longing for their family to be whole again. Enterprise...she was here, in Pearl. Was she aboard Hornet? Yorktown wished she could say yes. She so dearly wished she could say yes. But her Little E was damaged, just as baby Hornet was damaged. If she could push past that...
Hugging Hornet to her once more, Yorktown looked over her silent sister's shoulder. The marine guarding the door nodded back, tapping the headset he wore. Yorktown smiled slightly at that. Wasp, at least, was on her way. And probably aboard their sister, knowing her. She should be here any second then. And indeed, mere moments after nodding at the marine, the door was flung open.
A heavily panting Wasp stood in that doorway, brown hair plastered to her face.
"Sis, is she...?" Wasp got out, her voice shaking.
"Yes." Was all Yorktown said, as her littlest- if not youngest -sister practically jumped over to her.
In any other situation, that would have elicited a smile. Wasp may be small, barely up to Yorktown's chest. But she was always one to be larger than her size would indicate. Right now though? She held back, wide red eyes looking down on her sisters.
"Hey, Hornet." Wasp's bombastic voice had softened. "Glad to see you back, little sis."
Hornet didn't reply, burrowing deeper into Yorktown's side.
"Is Little E with you?" Yorktown sighed softly, looking at her younger sibling.
Wasp sighed, her smile fading, "No. She was outside, and I know she heard the message. But..."
"She doesn't want to see me..." Hornet whispered, her shoulders slumping.
Her tears wet Yorktown's uniform, as the eldest sister held her tightly.
"I see." The redhead sighed softly. "I don't blame her. It has to be hard, just to be here."
Wasp could only nod, carefully sitting beside her sisters. For her part, Yorktown sung softly, as she ran a hand through her sobbing baby sister's hair. Hornet...strong, loyal Hornet. Even she could only go through so much. And Yorktown could only imagine how long she had been holding this back. Years...so many years. She was hurt, so badly. Enterprise as well. Both of them were hurt, from having to fight each other. From their respective 'failures'. Yorktown was left to pick up the pieces of her family, with Wasp by her side.
It was not going to be easy, was it? Hornet had to adjust to her life again. Enterprise had to reconcile her memories and guilt, with the girl before them now.
And all that Yorktown could do was try her best to help them. Her family was hurt badly, but they were together again. Now it was time to heal, however long that process took. However hard it was. Yorktown would fight for her sisters, and help them. It was what big sisters did, and she would be damned if she failed them again.
Key differences:
Hornet does not refer to herself as Kouryuu. The narration only does so a few time, once at the start... and references to how others may, those parts being from Hornet's perspective, view her. Along with Yorktown acknowledging that Hornet's hull was also Kouryuu, for at least some time. I changed up Yorktown's bit somewhat as well, and upon further reflection, when with the suggestion that E would probably not be comfortable around Hornet and would run from her, instead of to her.
Hopefully that works better. This will be better, no matter what it takes. Though I would admit to liking to not have to fix it again, since I still need to rework part 3 too.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Gonna need some time to go over this. But I will at least say that I rather take issue with the whole premise of it.In an attempt to fix up the second snip at least before I go to bed:
Can you hear me?
A blonde woman, dressed in a tattered United States Navy uniform, stirred in her sleep.
Please, hear me.
"No..."
Don't stay. Wake up.
Brown eyes snapped open, the Imperial Japanese aircraft carrier Kouryuu holding a hand to her face. Her hand came away wet, as the girl angrily swiped away tears. She knew that voice. God, she knew that voice.
"Sis...I'm sorry."
Sighing weakly, she pulled herself to her feet. She was deep in her hull, hidden away from her crew. Even if they were able to see her, they wouldn't. Couldn't. For the carrier did not like her crew. Nor did she want to interact with them, as she had with her old crew. Every time she saw a Japanese uniform, it was a slap in the face. It had been years since that fateful day, and nothing changed. The girl had merely moved from raging anger that had her doing everything in her power to hinder her crew...to weary resignation, as she hid away from the world.
Or, more importantly, Hornet had moved to weary resignation. It was difficult, sometimes. To reconcile what the Japanese tried to turn her into, with what she still was. She was Kouryuu, to all those who looked at her. But she was Hornet, to herself and...a selfish part of her hoped...to her sister. She did the best she could. Her anger at her situation, pushed down or not, kept her centered. Kept her from falling the way the Japs wanted her to.
She would never let them win. Even if they beat her down, she would retain at least that much of herself. For her sisters. For...
"Little E..."
Her older sister, the one she had fought two times. At the Marianas and the Philippines. Both times, bitterly crying at her own survival. Both times, torn between cheering the losses among her aircrew, and feeling the sorrow that only a carrier could feel when planes failed to return.
And it hadn't even been the voice of the 'Grey Ghost' that she had heard calling to her. That had woken her from her slumber, hidden away from her crew.
Yorktown...
She had failed her beloved elder sister. Failed her at Midway, where she failed to sink the Japanese quickly enough to save her. Failed her at Santa Cruz, where she had been crippled and captured. Failed her when USS Hornet became Imperial Japanese carrier Kouryuu. All the failures. Her triumph with Colonel Doolittle? What was that now? She was known more as Kouryuu the traitor carrier, than as Hornet, the hero of the Doolittle Raid. Little E deserved all the credit she got. Yorktown and Wasp deserved all the honor heaped on them after their deaths.
Hornet? She deserved whatever curses were thrown her way.
You failed no one, sister. Please come back to us.
And now she was hallucinating. Hornet held a hand to her head, trying to block out the ghostly voice of her sister. She couldn't...she couldn't come back. Yorktown was gone. And Hornet could never go back to her sisters.
"Damn, I...I wish I could come back. But I can't. I can never go back."
There was too much bad blood in the water, between the captive Yellow Dragon and her homeland. Between Hornet, and those she had once called friends and comrades.
Hornet...don't worry. You are always welcome. Don't sleep. Wake up.
"STOP IT!" Hornet shouted out, angry tears coming from her eyes. "You aren't here Yorktown. Shit, I wish you were. But you're dead. And I'm a traitor. A damn dirty traitor."
Blessed silence followed that shout, as the captive carrier rubbed at her face. She might well be going crazy. Hearing her sister's voice...she was happy to hear it, but not like this. If she had an afterlife, she could meet Yorktown and Wasp there. Beg forgiveness for what she had been forced to do. Sniffling softly, Hornet began to move to lay back down...
Only for the sound of something other than her crew echoing through her hull.
Perhaps, perhaps, all of Hornet's curiosity had yet to be burned out of her. Or she was craving for something but the monotony of her life. Regardless of the reason, she stepped forward, following the noise. She followed it, moving up through strangely deserted halls. Followed it, even up to her flight deck. It was only when she reached her flight deck, that Hornet would find what she needed to find.
Wake up Hornet!
Blinding light shown in her eyes, before darkness claimed the captive carrier once more.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
USS Yorktown panted heavily, as she looked down beneath her.
"Please...please tell me that worked."
Her soft, kind voice was strained. Sweat dripped from her red hair, as the carrier warily watched the summoning circle at her feet. Watched it for anysigns of activity. She had sprinted here, the moment that she had learned there was a summoning in progress. This place...this place that was so painful to her, and yet so important as well. Steel walls, lovingly maintained. Old light fittings, reminding her of her own days as a proper warship. How could they not? This place...was her sister. USS Hornet, CV-8.
Imperial Japanese ship Kouryuu.
Shaking her head, Yorktown drew in a deep breath as she looked down once more. The bright light was slowly fading from her eyes. Her sore throat, aching from her shouts at her sister, sucked in a further breath. Curled up in the fetal position, was a familiar figure. The clothing was all wrong, to be fair. It was torn, shredded, and patched together. But Yorktown would recognize that blonde hair anywhere, even if her uniform was in tatters. Heedless of the guards around her, or of the Japanese men respectfully standing back from their duty, the American carrier fell to her knees.
Fell by her sister, who was whimpering softly.
"Hornet...shh..." Yorktown shakily reached out, her hands pulling her sister up. Her arms wrapping around her shaking body. "Shh...I'm here. Big sis is here."
The body in her arms continued to shake, despite Yorktown rubbing soft circles into her back. She felt tears wetting her shoulder. Yorktown hardly cared. All her attention was on doing what she had wanted to do, for so long. Her baby sister...
She deserved this, and so much more that Yorktown could never give her. No matter how hard she tried.
"Shh..." The elder carrier whispered again. "You're home, Hornet. You're home."
"...am I?"
A tiny voice whispered that statement, so unlike the loud and bombastic girl Yorktown remembered.
"Hmm?" Yorktown merely hummed, continuing to rub her sister's back as soothingly as she could.
"They tried to turn me into someone else. Can I still be Hornet?" The younger carrier whispered, her voice broken. And full of weak hope, that her question would be answered. "After everything that happened, can I...still bear my old name? I hate Kouryuu. I hate that name. I am Hornet. I want to be Hornet. But...after everything that happened..."
Yorktown sighed softly, squeezing her sister against her even more tightly, "Maybe they tried that. But it didn't work. Would you be talking like this if it had? My cute, baby sister, would never let them win that. You are Hornet, you always were."
It was a sign of just how distraught the other carrier was, that she didn't pull back and complain about being called cute or the baby sister. Yorktown sighed again, feeling the old pain in her chest. She, alone among her sisters, had never blamed the Japanese girls for what they did. Their leadership, yes. Them? No. So she couldn't find it in herself to blame them for what her sister felt like.
But even she felt a stirring of anger, at how damaged Hornet was. If the Japanese leadership that had done this to her weren't long dead, they would see what an angry carrier was truly like. It hurt her, to see Hornet like this. It had felt like someone was stabbing her heart, when Hornet questioned if she had the right to call herself Hornet. If she had called herself Kouryuu, Yorktown didn't know what she would have done. It was hard enough to hear her question her name.
Her poor baby sister...she was hurt so badly.
"Hornet. It doesn't matter to me what you were, what you did, or what you call yourself. You're still my baby sister, and I love you. I don't care if you had to fight America, or fight your sister. None of that matters to me, because you're my sister. Never forget that."
"But...I failed you."
It was only now, that Hornet pulled back. Her big brown eyes were filled with tears, as she looked up at her sister. The tough facade of the youngest Yorktown sister was thoroughly gone, nothing but a scared girl remaining. A girl terrified of how her sister must feel about her.
"I failed you at Midway," Hornet continued, voice shaking as much as her body. "I failed you, big sis. If I had just been a bit faster, a bit better...I could have saved you! And then I wasn't able to help Wasp. I wasn't able to help her. Little E...she lost me at Santa Cruz, and then I had to fight her!"
The youngest sibling buried her face back in her sister's shoulder, her own shoulders quaking with her long-held in sobs. Deep, heartrenching sobs.
Oh Hornet...you poor girl. My poor baby sister...
Hugging her sister to her bosom, Yorktown shook her head sadly. Her red hair moved with the motion, mixing in with Hornet's blonde locks.
"You didn't fail anyone, my dear little sister." Yorktown whispered, as she kissed her sister's hair. "You and your crew couldn't have saved me. Wasp...she doesn't blame you. And Little E doesn't care that she had to fight you."
I wish that were true. Enterprise never hated Hornet, but...
"How can you say that? After everything..."
"Shh. I told you already, Hornet. It doesn't matter to me what you were forced to do as Kouryuu. You were always Hornet, deep down. They couldn't take that from you. And all that matters to me is that you're here. All of the Yorktown sisters are together again."
Hornet pulled back, eyes widening, "Wasp and E are here?"
Yorktown nodded, "Yes. They should be here soon."
Really, Yorktown was equal parts sad and relieved her younger sisters weren't here yet. On the one hand, it was hard enough to get Hornet to talk to just her. If Wasp and E were here? That would be even harder. On the other side, she wanted her family back together again. It had been decades...long, hard decades, since the sisters had been together. Now they had the chance to be together again, and the last thing Yorktown wanted was to lose that chance. She had longed for this, for so long.
She wanted nothing more than for her family to be back together, forever. But, she had been forced to tell a white lie to her sister, despite all her longing for their family to be whole again. Enterprise...she was here, in Pearl. Was she aboard Hornet? Yorktown wished she could say yes. She so dearly wished she could say yes. But her Little E was damaged, just as baby Hornet was damaged. If she could push past that...
Hugging Hornet to her once more, Yorktown looked over her silent sister's shoulder. The marine guarding the door nodded back, tapping the headset he wore. Yorktown smiled slightly at that. Wasp, at least, was on her way. And probably aboard their sister, knowing her. She should be here any second then. And indeed, mere moments after nodding at the marine, the door was flung open.
A heavily panting Wasp stood in that doorway, brown hair plastered to her face.
"Sis, is she...?" Wasp got out, her voice shaking.
"Yes." Was all Yorktown said, as her littlest- if not youngest -sister practically jumped over to her.
In any other situation, that would have elicited a smile. Wasp may be small, barely up to Yorktown's chest. But she was always one to be larger than her size would indicate. Right now though? She held back, wide red eyes looking down on her sisters.
"Hey, Hornet." Wasp's bombastic voice had softened. "Glad to see you back, little sis."
Hornet didn't reply, burrowing deeper into Yorktown's side.
"Is Little E with you?" Yorktown sighed softly, looking at her younger sibling.
Wasp sighed, her smile fading, "No. She was outside, and I know she heard the message. But..."
"She doesn't want to see me..." Hornet whispered, her shoulders slumping.
Her tears wet Yorktown's uniform, as the eldest sister held her tightly.
"I see." The redhead sighed softly. "I don't blame her. It has to be hard, just to be here."
Wasp could only nod, carefully sitting beside her sisters. For her part, Yorktown sung softly, as she ran a hand through her sobbing baby sister's hair. Hornet...strong, loyal Hornet. Even she could only go through so much. And Yorktown could only imagine how long she had been holding this back. Years...so many years. She was hurt, so badly. Enterprise as well. Both of them were hurt, from having to fight each other. From their respective 'failures'. Yorktown was left to pick up the pieces of her family, with Wasp by her side.
It was not going to be easy, was it? Hornet had to adjust to her life again. Enterprise had to reconcile her memories and guilt, with the girl before them now.
And all that Yorktown could do was try her best to help them. Her family was hurt badly, but they were together again. Now it was time to heal, however long that process took. However hard it was. Yorktown would fight for her sisters, and help them. It was what big sisters did, and she would be damned if she failed them again.
Key differences:
Hornet does not refer to herself as Kouryuu. The narration only does so a few time, once at the start... and references to how others may, those parts being from Hornet's perspective, view her. Along with Yorktown acknowledging that Hornet's hull was also Kouryuu, for at least some time. I changed up Yorktown's bit somewhat as well, and upon further reflection, when with the suggestion that E would probably not be comfortable around Hornet and would run from her, instead of to her.
Hopefully that works better. This will be better, no matter what it takes. Though I would admit to liking to not have to fix it again, since I still need to rework part 3 too.
I mean, aside from the fact that Japan literally lacked the capability to repair Hornet back up to operational status (two flaming bombers rammed her, she got torpedoed multiple times, dive-bombed multiple times, then torpedoed again, and finally shot with five inch guns four hundred times, on top of all of the fires that burned throughout all of that. She wouldn't even be towable by that point--she would take on water and sink. Japan judged her far too damaged to take her as a war prize, and understandably so. It was the same problem with Kaga and Akagi--even if the ships were still afloat, they were so horrendously damaged that they were nothing more than floating wrecks/hulks. Just charred, burnt-out corpses full of holes.
Japan lacked the materials, facilities, and logistics to even attempt to restore Hornet to operational status, even assuming she could be towed and wasn't too burned out to make the body of the hull structurally unsound. She'd be full of hundreds of gaping holes, her underwater portions wrecked and holed, her flight deck wrecked, her hangar a burnt-out mess, her island a gnarled, burnt-out wreck, and more. And Japan would also lack the personnel to crew her with--Japan had taken severe losses in its very limited and difficult-to-replace carrier crews by that point in the war, and operating a fleet carrier is difficult as all hell. Lastly, news that she was taken as a war prize wouldn't be some surprise found out two years later, but something discovered immediately, because of American code-breaking. And the Japanese would never want to keep something like that secret, not after so many defeats.
But those are just the technical problems. The moral and cringe-worthy implications being glossed over or made far too light of is the real concern.
Not to mention the fact that, given what actually happened with the massive navy the US had when the war ended, Hornet would absolutely not have been kept as a museum ship. For so many reasons. If the US wasn't inclined enough to keep Enterprise preserved as a museum ship, it sure as hell wouldn't have devoted the funds to tearing off any semblance of Japanese modifications to her and restoring her to an American configuration--which is the only way they'd keep her around. But at the very least, they would repaint her to an American standard, with American markings, flying American flags (and removing whatever weapons/aircraft Japan had stuck on there, for various reasons) before breaking her up for scrap or sinking her.
Hornet being kept in that state, and as a museum ship for all these decades, even now...for Enterprise, Yorktown, and Wasp, it would be literal torment just by virtue of existing. Having it right in front of their faces all the time would be torture. At that point, the Navy would be complicit in knowingly and continuously degrading the mental health of its own personnel. None of the Yorktown sisters would be fit to fight so long as that were around.
Honestly, you already had a fantastic piece, chronicling Little E's sad transformation into the Big E. It'd be more relevant to other stories and more appealing in general to stick to the OTL and keep it from the perspectives of the Yorktown sisters.
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Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
Hm.
I may just have problems with properly doing this idea- leaving aside the technical problems -in all honesty. I freely admit I'm not capable of doing some things well, lord only knows how many failed ideas I've had. In that regard, I'm not going to deny anything. I like the idea, but I've had plenty of ideas I like but can't quite execute properly.
Moreover, if the option of going for the Little E-to-Big E transformation works better- and that is a question to anyone reading -I could swap to that route easily enough. Hell, I could even salvage the 'summoning Hornet from a museum ship' option, complete with E being unable to bring herself to board it.
Hornet CV-12.
Mitscher was actually noted as saying she was Hornet CV-8 reborn, something that can't be said for any of the other Essex girls. Hell, that's an interesting story in it's own right.
So:
Swap to Little E's downspiral+post-war Yorktown sisters?
I may just have problems with properly doing this idea- leaving aside the technical problems -in all honesty. I freely admit I'm not capable of doing some things well, lord only knows how many failed ideas I've had. In that regard, I'm not going to deny anything. I like the idea, but I've had plenty of ideas I like but can't quite execute properly.
Moreover, if the option of going for the Little E-to-Big E transformation works better- and that is a question to anyone reading -I could swap to that route easily enough. Hell, I could even salvage the 'summoning Hornet from a museum ship' option, complete with E being unable to bring herself to board it.
Hornet CV-12.
Mitscher was actually noted as saying she was Hornet CV-8 reborn, something that can't be said for any of the other Essex girls. Hell, that's an interesting story in it's own right.
So:
Swap to Little E's downspiral+post-war Yorktown sisters?
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, you know I'm voting yes. I think you do that aspect extremely well.
- Location
- United States of America
Well besides the problem of the Japanese being able to repair the Hornet, i can see that if she survived the war and was returned the States, i could easily see her being turned into a war memorial to all the soldiers who died in the pacific theater.
Exterminatus
Tsukumogami User
- Location
- Southern California
I am fine with either personally.
Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
The problem is that 'surviving the war' thing. I can't see it happening. The US would go out of their way to make sure of it, on top of already being the four horsemen of the apocalypse as far as the japanese navy is concerned.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
She would never be turned into a war memorial. Ever. If any carrier would have been, it'd have been Enterprise. But you certainly wouldn't have seen the United States erecting any war memorials in 1946 for the IJN's losses, and it would never be in the form of a carrier that had been attacked by Japanese forces, captured by Japanese forces, and used to attack American forces for 2-3 years.
It'd probably be decades before the United States would even touch the issue of memorializing the forces of Imperial Japan with a ten-foot-pole.
- Location
- United States of America
Not a memorial to Japanese loses, a Memorial to American losses. Fervent Nationalism of that period just after the war and the "we got our carrier back". Do you think the former crew (the US one) would want there ship sent to the breakers after getting her back. I don't think so and i can see them lobbying for her to be preserved and petitioning congress to have her be preserved as a war memorial.
Enterprise
Skywalker_T-65
Writer with too many ideas.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- Plural/They/He/Her
In other news, reworking the third snip to make a more dedicated Enterprise thing:
USS Enterprise burned. Her flight deck was cratered, fires raging through her hangar. Her crew raced to put the blazes out, even as dark puffs of flak fire filled the sky. Burning planes fell into the water, their tell-tale 'meatball' wings blackened and torn. And still, more came. American gunners filled the air with fire, but the Japanese still came. Plane after plane fell to a watery grave. And yet more came. It was the fiercest attack Enterprise had endured, overtaking even the recent Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
But through it all, the gallant carrier fought on.
Despite pain and smoke, she fought on. Despite her crew, hurt and scared, being pushed to their limits. She. Fought. On.
She had failed her beloved older sister at Midway. She had lost Wasp, as the damage she sustained at the Eastern Solomons lamed her. She could not find it in herself to blame Sister- Aunt -Sara for her own failings in not being there to save little Wasp. Enterprise could never blame her. It was her own failing, her own weakness, that had seen her two sisters fall. Enterprise made a vow, under repair and refit in Pearl Harbor, with the scorched keel of Oklahoma facing the sky and the burned husk of Arizona staring her in the face. She had sworn that she would fight and survive, and never see another of her sisters fall before her.
"I will not let Hornet fall."
That was what she had sworn that day. And so, Enterprise fought on. Through the pain of her own damage, her hull ripped and torn. Oil bleeding into the water around her, as blood leaked into her clothing. She kept fighting.
"I will not fail again."
Enterprise breathed out, red eyes focused entirely on the sky above her. She had noted little Smith, burning brightly. But still fighting, just as Enterprise herself was. She had equally noted young South Dakota, the brand new battleship throwing so much fire into the sky it almost appeared as if she was burning as well. Enterprise noted this, and so many other things. But her attention remained focused on the sky.
Focused on the lean forms of Japanese torpedo bombers. Kates. The machines that had crippled Lex and lead to her death. The ones who had ruined Oklahoma, and done such grievous harm to California and West Virginia. Enterprise knew these planes. She knew the danger.
Without any action on her part, her cred moved her guns. Everything from her old five inch guns, to the brand new 40mm Bofors that so much had hinged upon. Her tortured hull swung into a tight turn, her escorts matching the movement save for poor little Smith.
"You will not sink me today."
She would not fall. Enterprise had too much to lose, to fall now.
"I will survive, and defeat each and every one of you. For Yorktown. For Wasp. For Lexington. For Langley."
Even as the torpedoes shot through the water, missing her by the scantest feet, Enterprise continued mentally listing off the names of the fallen. Houston. Edsall. Oklahoma. Arizona. These girls, and so many others. She would avenge them, no matter what it took.
And as the last of the Japanese bombers fled the field of battle, their payloads expended and the American taskgroup battered but standing tall, Enterprise let out a sigh. She hurt. Her hull ached, her body in pain she had only felt once before. But she still stood tall, her crew already setting to work to get her operational again. Little Smith pulled up alongside her again, the destroyer blackened by fire but still training her stern guns at the sky.
We won. They will be back, but we won.
Enterprise let her legs carry her to the side of her bridge, faintly registering the orders bouncing through her crew. She was prepared to slide down, rest and recover for the inevitable second strike. At least, she was prepared until an ice-cold jolt of panic ran through her system.
"Hornet is listing sir. Her engines are out."
Hornet...no no no no no.
The carrier was immediately by her Admiral's side. Her own pain was forgotten. Her stoic determination was forgotten. The Big E was gone, replaced by the damaged and worried Little E. Her last sister...the only family she had left, aside from her Aunts Ranger and Sara. She couldn't lose Hornet. She had vowed that she would be safe. Enterprise couldn't lose her last sister. She...she...
"Northampton has set up a towline, and they're moving out of the combat zone at five knots."
"Good. Do we have any birds that are ready for a CAP?"
A wave of relief ran through Enterprise. Her Admiral was going to protect her sister!
"No, sir. Our pilots are exhausted and with our elevator out of action...we don't have the time to land any birds and rearm them."
Holding a hand to her heart, Enterprise felt the scared girl inside of her come rushing to the surface. The girl who missed her sisters so dearly, came back. Fear for Hornet overrode all her logic. Fear for her sister. Fear that her vow was meaningless. How could she protect her baby sister, like this?
She had failed, again. Unless her crew could get her sufficiently in action to get fighters back in the air, she had failed.
Failed.
"Fall back."
"No! Don't leave Hornet behind!"
"Inform Hornet and Northampton to make best speed out of the combat area. Godspeed, and good luck."
Enterprise, an arm hanging limply by her side- the lingering reminder of yet more damage -could only watch as Admiral Kinkaid consigned her sister to her fate. Her last sister. The baby sister she had vowed to protect, at all costs. Enterprise knew she was damaged. She could feel each and every tear and rend in her hull. She could feel the pain in her body, telling her that she needed dock time...fighting was suicidal. But she...she couldn't leave Hornet behind!
But...she had no choice.
'Big E' had no control of her hull. She was a silent observer, who could do nothing but watch. She saw every line of regret in Admiral Kinkaid's face. He knew what he was doing. He regretted it. But he was a soldier. He would sacrifice the few, to save the many. Enterprise was relatively undamaged, in comparison to her crippled sister. If it was down to saving one carrier or losing both, her Admiral would make the former decision every time.
No matter how it hurt the older carrier. How could he know what she felt?
Hornet...
"Hornet acknowledges."
"We've done what we can. Get us out of here."
Her tortured hull pushing as fast as she could manage, Enterprise turned away from her Admiral. Her eyes looked to the horizon, where the smoke of Hornet's fires was still visible. Her bloodied hand, the only one she could lift, held out to her sister. Her baby sister, so brave. The girl who had launched the Doolittle Raid, and fought so hard ever since. Left behind.
Enterprise sucked in a shaky breath. Burnt and split lips open and close. Her hand moves from it's position, as her bloodied hair shifts slightly. She has to...she has to do this. Has to apologize to her baby sister.
"Hornet?"
The carrier knows not if her radio communication will work. At the distance they were from each other...
"Little E?" Hornet's voice is labored, pain clear in every syllable. The baby of the Yorktowns groaned in pain every time she let out a breath.
"Did you...?"
"Hear? Yeah. It's shitty luck, but I know."
Wiping her face, Enterprise felt a weak smile twist her lips. Hornet...never did change, did she?
"I'm sorry. I should be here to protect you, but I..."
A hacking cough cuts 'Big E' off, "Hey you. Don't you dare apologize. Damn it, Little E. I don't want you blaming yourself for what happened to me. You're supposed to be the big sister, remember? Don't worry about me...I'm too tough to let something like this finish me off. The damn Japs won't sink this carrier. Just make sure you get outta here. Shit, I can deal with a few holes."
There was the bravado that so marked the youngest Yorktown. Hornet had always felt the need to measure up to her sisters in some way, when she was so much younger in ship-terms. And that had lead her to adopt a personality full of bravado. A personality that, even now, had Enterprise laughing weakly. Her sister never would be one to let something like this stop her.
"Get home, and get better. I'll join ya soon enough, and then we can come back and give them a proper whacking!"
"Hornet..."
There was no response. Enterprise let her hand fall to her side, the smoke fading into the distance. Her legs gave out, the carrier sliding down to sit against her hull. Fat tears rolled from red eyes, as she wrapped her arms around her legs, tucking into her torso. Words ran through her mind...words she would remember until the day she died.
"Don't worry, Little E. It will take more than this to sink your big sister!"
"Get back to Pearl, I can handle this for now! I may be small, but I can fight!"
"Get home and get better..."
Each of her sisters. Those were the last words she had heard from Yorktown and Wasp. What if these were the last words she ever heard from Hornet? If her sister didn't make it...she would be all alone. The last of the Yorktowns. The last American fleet carrier, sans Sara and Ranger. All alone against Japan.
Loneliness.
Enterprise had never thought she would feel it before. She had been the youngest American carrier until Wasp had been built, with all that implied. She had Langley, the closest thing the carrier could call a 'mother'. She had Lex and Sara and Ranger, all like doting aunts to her. And then there was her beloved sisters. Strong, brave Yorktown. Excitable and larger than life Wasp. Bull headed and full of bravado Hornet. Enterprise...Little E...had all of those girls and more. And she had lost them all now, save for Sara and Ranger. Lost them to the war, to death. To her own failures.
Little E...she was a failure, and buried deeply. Big E, the Grey Ghost, was all that was left. She fought Japan, because she must. Her anger had burnt out long ago. Nothing was left but a desire to see this war through to the end, to make her sisters proud.
That single-minded determination had cut Enterprise off from her successors. Essex, always eager to please in a way that painfully reminded Enterprise of her own youth. Yorktown, the girl who bore her beloved elder sibling's name. But not her personality or relation to Enterprise. Lexington, who didn't recognize Sara. Something that Enterprise knew devastated the elder girl. Wasp, stoic and quiet...and completely unlike her namesake. And Hornet, the one who...the only one who was like her sister. But that had made it even more important to cut her off. For all that Admiral Mitscher claimed she was the same Hornet.
Enterprise...she couldn't bring herself to get to know her. It was too painful.
Even so, Enterprise knew she should make an effort to get to know them. They weren't her sisters, but they could be. But...she couldn't. Just as they could never take the place of her fallen sisters in her heart, Enterprise could never bring herself to allow them to try.
Far better to be alone, than face that pain.
And, so, here she was. Sailing with several of the Essex girls, preparing for a final showdown with the Japanese fleet. The Philippine Sea was almost clogged with American ships and planes. The Big Blue Blanket, as it had been nicknamed. Swarms of Hellcats flew above the carriers, prepared to intercept any and all Japanese attackers. Avengers and Dauntless bombers, joined by the newer Helldiver, loaded weapons.
"Fire and death. I am...tired. So tired."
Where once the dull roar of her crew running to and fro may have excited Enterprise, now it just drove a spike into her heart. What if she failed again? That worry was always in the back of her mind.
And always would be.
"We're getting an updated report on Japanese forces, Admiral."
Enterprise turned weary eyes on her Admiral. John Reeves...formerly commander of her younger sister, Wasp. The man nodded to her Captain, as he took the report in hand. His eyes scanned it, as Enterprise watched. She watched, if only to know who she would fight. It mattered to her...deep down. Deep down, buried away like so many other things, was a desire for...revenge. Yes.
She hated herself, knowing how Yorktown would think. Her sister would tell her it was war, and that letting it get personal was dangerous. But Enterprise...she couldn't help it. She knew it was a submarine that had sank two of her sisters. But Hornet, her brave baby sister, had been sunk by two carriers in particular.
"Shoukaku and Zuikaku. They aren't holding back."
That was all Enterprise needed to hear. Red eyes turned to the horizon, where her old foes sailed. Perhaps, she could at least avenge her sisters. She had failed them. Yorktown. Wasp. Hornet. Enterprise had failed all three of them, their death's on her head. Their blood on her hands. But, perhaps, she could at least do this much. It wouldn't bring them back.
But she would not let anyone else fall. She would sink those carriers, the last remnant of the force that had caused so much pain and death. She would not fail at this.
Decades later, Enterprise stood in front of an aging aircraft carrier. The old girl was lovingly maintained, by so many people. She had been sitting here, in San Francisco, for decades. Ever since she had been turned into a museum ship, like several of her sisters. Her legacy, far from being a warfighter, was in what she taught visitors. Children ran through her halls, their laughter in stark contrast to the screams of dying men.
Shivering slightly, Enterprise pushed those memories aside, if barely.
She was not here to relive the past. Relive her past. She was here, a place she didn't like, only because her sister was here. That place being:
USS Hornet, CV-12.
The carrier that bore the name of her baby sister, who still slumbered.
Enterprise had never boarded this ship. She had come this far, standing at the bottom of the gangway aboard Hornet. But she had not once gone further. She loved Hornet, had never stopped loving baby Hornet. But she could not bring herself to board this ship. There were too many bad memories. Too many painful memories, of her own failure. Perhaps she wouldn't have felt this way, in other circumstances. She had no such issues with Yorktown, CV-10. Perhaps, that was for a simple reason though.
Yorktown, her sister, had come back. As had her successor.
Hornet, however, had not. Neither her sister, nor the ship in front of her. Couple that with her memories of pushing aside CV-12, despite how painfully similar she was to her baby sister? Enterprise could be forgiven for her reactions. It was...it was painful for her, to even get this close. Both because her baby sister had yet to come back, and because of how she had treated her successor. And, as a traitorous part of her mind whispered...
How I treated Hornet. Lord...if she had come back like Admiral Mitscher said. If this girl was my sister, how much must she hate me?
Her elder sister had no such problems. Enterprise knew that Yorktown, kind and loving Yorktown, came here every day. She had pulled God only knew how many strings, to have all of the Yorktown sisters stationed by their baby sister's namesake. And every day since they had been stationed here, she came. Yorktown boarded Hornet, constantly trying to get through to their slumbering sibling. Even if it turned out that this girl was not their sister.
'Little E, we can't leave her like this. She's our baby sister, and I won't let her stay like this. We will get her back.'
So Yorktown had said, but all Enterprise had been able to do was give a weak half smile and shake her head.
I know that we have to get Hornet back. But...I...I just can't. I can't board her. It would be too painful. It's almost too painful just being this close.
Sighing heavily, Enterprise turned away. Her legs carried her to a nearby bench, where she sat every time Yorktown attempted to get through to Hornet. It had become a daily ritual, and part of the 'Grey Ghost' didn't expect it to ever work. Hornet was...she was buried, so deep. That was the only explanation that made sense. Moreover, summoning from a museum ship was possible, but only if the girl wanted to come back. Missouri had come back the moment Arizona had, in a protective rage at Abyssals who dared to hurt her charge. Yorktown, Yorkie more appropriately, had come back in much the same way.
But Hornet slept.
"Yorktown, Wasp," Enterprise sighed, pulling down her tattered cap. "I wish I could help you."
And Enterprise waited, hoping her sister would come back, but unable to help. She sighed heavily, holding a hand to her face. It came back wet, with familiar tears. For all that she wasn't Little E any longer, she still cried. Big E...Grey Ghost...people expected a stoic hero, who could take whatever you threw at her and come out with a smirk on her face. Enterprise was not that girl, never had been. She fought because she had to fight. She fought to honor the memory of her sisters.
And she cried, as well. She mourned all the losses she had seen in the war. Enterprise put up a stoic front when she was with others, because they expected it. But when she was alone, she was...just a hurt girl. Forced to fight, to grow up. The little girl who had been so eager to have her siblings proud of her. She was gone, but the girl who took her place retained enough to feel the pain whenever people looked at her with adoration.
I don't deserve it. I was lucky, nothing more, nothing less. My sisters...I failed them. I failed so many.
Sighing once more, Enterprise got to her feet. Staying by Hornet's side always made her more melancholic. Yorktown and Wasp would let her know...if anything changed. For now, she would rest and remember. Remember the girl she regretted leaving behind, so many years ago.
Yeah...I feel like my Big E trends more towards Shigure than anything else. Which to me, makes sense. Maybe that's just me.
This new snip series would likely go like so:
Each sister would have a portion like the start. Meaning, Wasp and Yorktown in this case. Each would probably have a summoning scene. Once both the sisters are back, it would probably be a 'these three together' segment, before Hornet is summoned in the snip after that one.
In theory, anyway. Hopefully this one worked better!
USS Enterprise burned. Her flight deck was cratered, fires raging through her hangar. Her crew raced to put the blazes out, even as dark puffs of flak fire filled the sky. Burning planes fell into the water, their tell-tale 'meatball' wings blackened and torn. And still, more came. American gunners filled the air with fire, but the Japanese still came. Plane after plane fell to a watery grave. And yet more came. It was the fiercest attack Enterprise had endured, overtaking even the recent Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
But through it all, the gallant carrier fought on.
Despite pain and smoke, she fought on. Despite her crew, hurt and scared, being pushed to their limits. She. Fought. On.
She had failed her beloved older sister at Midway. She had lost Wasp, as the damage she sustained at the Eastern Solomons lamed her. She could not find it in herself to blame Sister- Aunt -Sara for her own failings in not being there to save little Wasp. Enterprise could never blame her. It was her own failing, her own weakness, that had seen her two sisters fall. Enterprise made a vow, under repair and refit in Pearl Harbor, with the scorched keel of Oklahoma facing the sky and the burned husk of Arizona staring her in the face. She had sworn that she would fight and survive, and never see another of her sisters fall before her.
"I will not let Hornet fall."
That was what she had sworn that day. And so, Enterprise fought on. Through the pain of her own damage, her hull ripped and torn. Oil bleeding into the water around her, as blood leaked into her clothing. She kept fighting.
"I will not fail again."
Enterprise breathed out, red eyes focused entirely on the sky above her. She had noted little Smith, burning brightly. But still fighting, just as Enterprise herself was. She had equally noted young South Dakota, the brand new battleship throwing so much fire into the sky it almost appeared as if she was burning as well. Enterprise noted this, and so many other things. But her attention remained focused on the sky.
Focused on the lean forms of Japanese torpedo bombers. Kates. The machines that had crippled Lex and lead to her death. The ones who had ruined Oklahoma, and done such grievous harm to California and West Virginia. Enterprise knew these planes. She knew the danger.
Without any action on her part, her cred moved her guns. Everything from her old five inch guns, to the brand new 40mm Bofors that so much had hinged upon. Her tortured hull swung into a tight turn, her escorts matching the movement save for poor little Smith.
"You will not sink me today."
She would not fall. Enterprise had too much to lose, to fall now.
"I will survive, and defeat each and every one of you. For Yorktown. For Wasp. For Lexington. For Langley."
Even as the torpedoes shot through the water, missing her by the scantest feet, Enterprise continued mentally listing off the names of the fallen. Houston. Edsall. Oklahoma. Arizona. These girls, and so many others. She would avenge them, no matter what it took.
And as the last of the Japanese bombers fled the field of battle, their payloads expended and the American taskgroup battered but standing tall, Enterprise let out a sigh. She hurt. Her hull ached, her body in pain she had only felt once before. But she still stood tall, her crew already setting to work to get her operational again. Little Smith pulled up alongside her again, the destroyer blackened by fire but still training her stern guns at the sky.
We won. They will be back, but we won.
Enterprise let her legs carry her to the side of her bridge, faintly registering the orders bouncing through her crew. She was prepared to slide down, rest and recover for the inevitable second strike. At least, she was prepared until an ice-cold jolt of panic ran through her system.
"Hornet is listing sir. Her engines are out."
Hornet...no no no no no.
The carrier was immediately by her Admiral's side. Her own pain was forgotten. Her stoic determination was forgotten. The Big E was gone, replaced by the damaged and worried Little E. Her last sister...the only family she had left, aside from her Aunts Ranger and Sara. She couldn't lose Hornet. She had vowed that she would be safe. Enterprise couldn't lose her last sister. She...she...
"Northampton has set up a towline, and they're moving out of the combat zone at five knots."
"Good. Do we have any birds that are ready for a CAP?"
A wave of relief ran through Enterprise. Her Admiral was going to protect her sister!
"No, sir. Our pilots are exhausted and with our elevator out of action...we don't have the time to land any birds and rearm them."
Holding a hand to her heart, Enterprise felt the scared girl inside of her come rushing to the surface. The girl who missed her sisters so dearly, came back. Fear for Hornet overrode all her logic. Fear for her sister. Fear that her vow was meaningless. How could she protect her baby sister, like this?
She had failed, again. Unless her crew could get her sufficiently in action to get fighters back in the air, she had failed.
Failed.
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"Fall back."
"No! Don't leave Hornet behind!"
"Inform Hornet and Northampton to make best speed out of the combat area. Godspeed, and good luck."
Enterprise, an arm hanging limply by her side- the lingering reminder of yet more damage -could only watch as Admiral Kinkaid consigned her sister to her fate. Her last sister. The baby sister she had vowed to protect, at all costs. Enterprise knew she was damaged. She could feel each and every tear and rend in her hull. She could feel the pain in her body, telling her that she needed dock time...fighting was suicidal. But she...she couldn't leave Hornet behind!
But...she had no choice.
'Big E' had no control of her hull. She was a silent observer, who could do nothing but watch. She saw every line of regret in Admiral Kinkaid's face. He knew what he was doing. He regretted it. But he was a soldier. He would sacrifice the few, to save the many. Enterprise was relatively undamaged, in comparison to her crippled sister. If it was down to saving one carrier or losing both, her Admiral would make the former decision every time.
No matter how it hurt the older carrier. How could he know what she felt?
Hornet...
"Hornet acknowledges."
"We've done what we can. Get us out of here."
Her tortured hull pushing as fast as she could manage, Enterprise turned away from her Admiral. Her eyes looked to the horizon, where the smoke of Hornet's fires was still visible. Her bloodied hand, the only one she could lift, held out to her sister. Her baby sister, so brave. The girl who had launched the Doolittle Raid, and fought so hard ever since. Left behind.
Enterprise sucked in a shaky breath. Burnt and split lips open and close. Her hand moves from it's position, as her bloodied hair shifts slightly. She has to...she has to do this. Has to apologize to her baby sister.
"Hornet?"
The carrier knows not if her radio communication will work. At the distance they were from each other...
"Little E?" Hornet's voice is labored, pain clear in every syllable. The baby of the Yorktowns groaned in pain every time she let out a breath.
"Did you...?"
"Hear? Yeah. It's shitty luck, but I know."
Wiping her face, Enterprise felt a weak smile twist her lips. Hornet...never did change, did she?
"I'm sorry. I should be here to protect you, but I..."
A hacking cough cuts 'Big E' off, "Hey you. Don't you dare apologize. Damn it, Little E. I don't want you blaming yourself for what happened to me. You're supposed to be the big sister, remember? Don't worry about me...I'm too tough to let something like this finish me off. The damn Japs won't sink this carrier. Just make sure you get outta here. Shit, I can deal with a few holes."
There was the bravado that so marked the youngest Yorktown. Hornet had always felt the need to measure up to her sisters in some way, when she was so much younger in ship-terms. And that had lead her to adopt a personality full of bravado. A personality that, even now, had Enterprise laughing weakly. Her sister never would be one to let something like this stop her.
"Get home, and get better. I'll join ya soon enough, and then we can come back and give them a proper whacking!"
"Hornet..."
There was no response. Enterprise let her hand fall to her side, the smoke fading into the distance. Her legs gave out, the carrier sliding down to sit against her hull. Fat tears rolled from red eyes, as she wrapped her arms around her legs, tucking into her torso. Words ran through her mind...words she would remember until the day she died.
"Don't worry, Little E. It will take more than this to sink your big sister!"
"Get back to Pearl, I can handle this for now! I may be small, but I can fight!"
"Get home and get better..."
Each of her sisters. Those were the last words she had heard from Yorktown and Wasp. What if these were the last words she ever heard from Hornet? If her sister didn't make it...she would be all alone. The last of the Yorktowns. The last American fleet carrier, sans Sara and Ranger. All alone against Japan.
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Loneliness.
Enterprise had never thought she would feel it before. She had been the youngest American carrier until Wasp had been built, with all that implied. She had Langley, the closest thing the carrier could call a 'mother'. She had Lex and Sara and Ranger, all like doting aunts to her. And then there was her beloved sisters. Strong, brave Yorktown. Excitable and larger than life Wasp. Bull headed and full of bravado Hornet. Enterprise...Little E...had all of those girls and more. And she had lost them all now, save for Sara and Ranger. Lost them to the war, to death. To her own failures.
Little E...she was a failure, and buried deeply. Big E, the Grey Ghost, was all that was left. She fought Japan, because she must. Her anger had burnt out long ago. Nothing was left but a desire to see this war through to the end, to make her sisters proud.
That single-minded determination had cut Enterprise off from her successors. Essex, always eager to please in a way that painfully reminded Enterprise of her own youth. Yorktown, the girl who bore her beloved elder sibling's name. But not her personality or relation to Enterprise. Lexington, who didn't recognize Sara. Something that Enterprise knew devastated the elder girl. Wasp, stoic and quiet...and completely unlike her namesake. And Hornet, the one who...the only one who was like her sister. But that had made it even more important to cut her off. For all that Admiral Mitscher claimed she was the same Hornet.
Enterprise...she couldn't bring herself to get to know her. It was too painful.
Even so, Enterprise knew she should make an effort to get to know them. They weren't her sisters, but they could be. But...she couldn't. Just as they could never take the place of her fallen sisters in her heart, Enterprise could never bring herself to allow them to try.
Far better to be alone, than face that pain.
And, so, here she was. Sailing with several of the Essex girls, preparing for a final showdown with the Japanese fleet. The Philippine Sea was almost clogged with American ships and planes. The Big Blue Blanket, as it had been nicknamed. Swarms of Hellcats flew above the carriers, prepared to intercept any and all Japanese attackers. Avengers and Dauntless bombers, joined by the newer Helldiver, loaded weapons.
"Fire and death. I am...tired. So tired."
Where once the dull roar of her crew running to and fro may have excited Enterprise, now it just drove a spike into her heart. What if she failed again? That worry was always in the back of her mind.
And always would be.
"We're getting an updated report on Japanese forces, Admiral."
Enterprise turned weary eyes on her Admiral. John Reeves...formerly commander of her younger sister, Wasp. The man nodded to her Captain, as he took the report in hand. His eyes scanned it, as Enterprise watched. She watched, if only to know who she would fight. It mattered to her...deep down. Deep down, buried away like so many other things, was a desire for...revenge. Yes.
She hated herself, knowing how Yorktown would think. Her sister would tell her it was war, and that letting it get personal was dangerous. But Enterprise...she couldn't help it. She knew it was a submarine that had sank two of her sisters. But Hornet, her brave baby sister, had been sunk by two carriers in particular.
"Shoukaku and Zuikaku. They aren't holding back."
That was all Enterprise needed to hear. Red eyes turned to the horizon, where her old foes sailed. Perhaps, she could at least avenge her sisters. She had failed them. Yorktown. Wasp. Hornet. Enterprise had failed all three of them, their death's on her head. Their blood on her hands. But, perhaps, she could at least do this much. It wouldn't bring them back.
But she would not let anyone else fall. She would sink those carriers, the last remnant of the force that had caused so much pain and death. She would not fail at this.
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Decades later, Enterprise stood in front of an aging aircraft carrier. The old girl was lovingly maintained, by so many people. She had been sitting here, in San Francisco, for decades. Ever since she had been turned into a museum ship, like several of her sisters. Her legacy, far from being a warfighter, was in what she taught visitors. Children ran through her halls, their laughter in stark contrast to the screams of dying men.
Shivering slightly, Enterprise pushed those memories aside, if barely.
She was not here to relive the past. Relive her past. She was here, a place she didn't like, only because her sister was here. That place being:
USS Hornet, CV-12.
The carrier that bore the name of her baby sister, who still slumbered.
Enterprise had never boarded this ship. She had come this far, standing at the bottom of the gangway aboard Hornet. But she had not once gone further. She loved Hornet, had never stopped loving baby Hornet. But she could not bring herself to board this ship. There were too many bad memories. Too many painful memories, of her own failure. Perhaps she wouldn't have felt this way, in other circumstances. She had no such issues with Yorktown, CV-10. Perhaps, that was for a simple reason though.
Yorktown, her sister, had come back. As had her successor.
Hornet, however, had not. Neither her sister, nor the ship in front of her. Couple that with her memories of pushing aside CV-12, despite how painfully similar she was to her baby sister? Enterprise could be forgiven for her reactions. It was...it was painful for her, to even get this close. Both because her baby sister had yet to come back, and because of how she had treated her successor. And, as a traitorous part of her mind whispered...
How I treated Hornet. Lord...if she had come back like Admiral Mitscher said. If this girl was my sister, how much must she hate me?
Her elder sister had no such problems. Enterprise knew that Yorktown, kind and loving Yorktown, came here every day. She had pulled God only knew how many strings, to have all of the Yorktown sisters stationed by their baby sister's namesake. And every day since they had been stationed here, she came. Yorktown boarded Hornet, constantly trying to get through to their slumbering sibling. Even if it turned out that this girl was not their sister.
'Little E, we can't leave her like this. She's our baby sister, and I won't let her stay like this. We will get her back.'
So Yorktown had said, but all Enterprise had been able to do was give a weak half smile and shake her head.
I know that we have to get Hornet back. But...I...I just can't. I can't board her. It would be too painful. It's almost too painful just being this close.
Sighing heavily, Enterprise turned away. Her legs carried her to a nearby bench, where she sat every time Yorktown attempted to get through to Hornet. It had become a daily ritual, and part of the 'Grey Ghost' didn't expect it to ever work. Hornet was...she was buried, so deep. That was the only explanation that made sense. Moreover, summoning from a museum ship was possible, but only if the girl wanted to come back. Missouri had come back the moment Arizona had, in a protective rage at Abyssals who dared to hurt her charge. Yorktown, Yorkie more appropriately, had come back in much the same way.
But Hornet slept.
"Yorktown, Wasp," Enterprise sighed, pulling down her tattered cap. "I wish I could help you."
And Enterprise waited, hoping her sister would come back, but unable to help. She sighed heavily, holding a hand to her face. It came back wet, with familiar tears. For all that she wasn't Little E any longer, she still cried. Big E...Grey Ghost...people expected a stoic hero, who could take whatever you threw at her and come out with a smirk on her face. Enterprise was not that girl, never had been. She fought because she had to fight. She fought to honor the memory of her sisters.
And she cried, as well. She mourned all the losses she had seen in the war. Enterprise put up a stoic front when she was with others, because they expected it. But when she was alone, she was...just a hurt girl. Forced to fight, to grow up. The little girl who had been so eager to have her siblings proud of her. She was gone, but the girl who took her place retained enough to feel the pain whenever people looked at her with adoration.
I don't deserve it. I was lucky, nothing more, nothing less. My sisters...I failed them. I failed so many.
Sighing once more, Enterprise got to her feet. Staying by Hornet's side always made her more melancholic. Yorktown and Wasp would let her know...if anything changed. For now, she would rest and remember. Remember the girl she regretted leaving behind, so many years ago.
Yeah...I feel like my Big E trends more towards Shigure than anything else. Which to me, makes sense. Maybe that's just me.
This new snip series would likely go like so:
Each sister would have a portion like the start. Meaning, Wasp and Yorktown in this case. Each would probably have a summoning scene. Once both the sisters are back, it would probably be a 'these three together' segment, before Hornet is summoned in the snip after that one.
In theory, anyway. Hopefully this one worked better!
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I like it a lot better, but I really don't like the weird--and rather inconsistent--notion that CV-10 (Yorkten) and CV-12 are the same people as their namesakes. And it's really unclear as to whether or not both Yorktowns have been summoned, and whether or not the Hornet of CV-12 is back yet or not.
Hornet (CV-12) is a bit of an odd case, because as Sky references here:
Admiral Mitscher, Captain of CV-8 Hornet at Midway, proclaimed upon boarding CV-12 that she was CV-8 reborn. I'm trying to find the quote right now, but I'll edit it in once I find it.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay, but so? She obviously was not the same person, given that she had none of Hornet's memories.
Hmmm, let me ask you then: how do you know that? Upon what basis are you making that call? We haven't even seen either Hornet or their possible combination/hybrid spirit yet, so it's a bit early to make any such call.
This is Enterprise's internal monologue and worries. It doesn't need to be rational or logical, because she's suffering from doubt, loneliness, and the experiences of the entire Pacific Theater of World War Two. She's not the confident and on-point kanmusu some people portray her as being. Here, as I understand it, she is much more human.
Also, to address your other questions that I missed initially:
CV-5 and CV-10 respectively are back.
CV-8 and CV-12 are not.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If Hornext actually had the same memories, there is no chance Enterprise would have rejected her. She would have at least told Enterprise that it was really her, and if nothing else, that would compel E to listen.
As it was, Enterprise recalled that Hornext was merely acting very similarly to how Hornet did. If, somehow, Hornext had actually claimed to be the same Hornet, Enterprise would at least bring that up when recalling her. It wouldn't make sense otherwise.
And the exact quote would be helpful, yes. It could mark the difference between what is essentially an identical (but younger) twin--looks the same (but younger), could reasonably act the same, but does not share the same memories or experiences. Which would make both of them unique individuals.
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Fair point, but why would a grieving Enterprise necessarily listen to someone who so painfully reminds her of her dead younger sister? Food for thought.
It's proving to be more difficult than I expected, but I have the resources to find it. Eventually.