Japanese Communication codes overhauled. Allied Counter-intelligence is slower to pick up on new coded message meanings. Can the allies figure stuff out before they get sideswiped? What's the deal with ships being recalled as females? Will Japan survive its Navy's desires?
Will try to finish another epilogue portion for this soon.
The European war was in full swing. His employers, the Naval Design Bureau, had just announced a general design push for any and all concepts of warships. He looked at the design before him and the companion sheaf of notes explaining most of his reasoning.
"... The Brits have their own 18" gun, so why not have a unique size? The way I see it, 17" is a perfect fit for claiming our own niche upon world history, and if we could ever make the 76 caliber come to fruition, it would be a resounding PR gig to centennialize..."
This was his main concern, IF the seventy-six caliber came to being, it would need a 30% longer turret to compensate for the longer barrel, at the very least. He had offered an alternative however, in the form of allowance for a 50 caliber should the 76 cal be considered too ungainly to further go past the testing stage. He had also suggested that, if the Navy further looked into quad barrel turrets, that using 16" guns of 50 calibers would also alternatively work for the ship. After all, if the size is unwieldly, then go for quantity instead. His alternatives offered that choice.
====================
"....So, these designs are feasible then and would be able to be built with correct research?"
"Yes sir. If you look at the final design package of your packets; that ship has the most room for flexibility in its design....."
"....28 guns.... or 21 guns..."
--------------
"... Very well Admiral, you'll get your funding for the next 10 years. Mostly research purposes, but you'll have your money."
========================
1926-
Tillman was dead, the research was still ongoing, but progress on the "patriotic" caliber was made. In the meantime however, the hull design tests continued, it would take at least another 5 years, or even ten, to fully unravel the long hull that the Behemoth project required.
========================
1934-
A great deal had happened, but the project had benefited from it; a floating slipway was in development, being constructed in one of the many natural inlets of the Chesapeake Bay, away from the curious. The hull problem had finally been overcome, as far as Research could figure, and scale model testing only went so far. Those hurdles had been passed. Naval gun progress was a more delicate balance as the turret boxes were somewhat more ovoid in shape, having to have more support and counterweight for the additional caliber.
-----------------------------
1935-
By Presidential Order, the Navy was pushed to finish one set of 17" 76 cal turrets [this amounted to 7 replacement turrets and 28 additional barrels]. The other two Montanas would be fitted with quad-barrel "1650"s due to easier production reasons.
--------------------------------
A small note on the WNT; while it did happen here, the parity was not that large of issue because the Navy had adamantly insisted and had been firm with the diplomats that any proposed parity deals were fine. So when Japan had counter-offered 70%, while reluctant, Hughes had accepted with little complaint. After all, he knew the Navy was neck deep in research for the best battleship, and this was a treaty that was aimed at what was being built, not really preventing study and research. So all walked away happy and none the wiser, if you trust what the media said at least.
--------------------------------
1936-
Japan walked out of the LNC. Congress nullified the WNT at the President's urging, citing job opportunities. Montana's keel was laid in the Big Slip #1, only days before Japan laid Yamato's keel.
--------------------
1937-
Intelligence was a funny thing, a low level British analyst mused as he looked at comparable photos that could've easily been copies of one another but were not, as evidenced by the backgrounds. From a distance, both looked the same in construction, but Japan was more rudimentary in design while the American was a solid object. Neither place offered any answers from the local areas, but MI-6 decided to play the photos off each other....
"...Huh, so they're building something..."
"...I see, I will pass this up to Tokyo..."
The other two Montanas, were laid in Big Slip 2 and 3 later in the year, in addition to other build projects.
=============
1940-
For the last two years, the administration had gone back and forth on the issue of Montana's launching. It was decided to post-phone the official public launching until next year, but the date would be a July 4th.
---------------------------
1941-
A small cadre of people gathered under the prow of the new ship. If Yamato had cared to, she could've looked over the edge to see, but she didn't need to. Tradition insisted, Yamato would be satisfied with the ceremony as it was. Taking a look around, the ethereal being noted that a lot still had to be put in place before she assumed her role at, if her builders were to be believed, the top of the food chain.
-------------
It was the Fourth, a near infamous holiday in America where fireworks abounded. A massive event on the Chesapeake Bay was held with a fireworks display and a special radio broadcast of a launch.
The tall form stood beside the aging leader of the country as he gave his speech, invisible to the crowds. After a time, he finished speaking and looked over to an important looking woman standing by the bow of her hull.
"Senator Rankin, you may proceed."
"Thank you Mr. President." The woman took the champagne bottle and smashed it against the ship, "I christen this ship the U.S.S. Montana."
Montana flitted aboard her hull as the leviathan tasted saltwater for the first time. Granted, she couldn't see well due to some areas not being installed yet, but she felt the water surround her hull. The form had no discernable head or arms as of yet, but she was there.
================
The media the next day showed a photo of the ship's bow at the moment of launching, "New Battleship Launched!" All one could see was the bow of the ship, which left little to read into, all that one could make out was that she was going to be a long ship.
This did both galvanize and stymie foreign intelligence circles, particularly Japan, where some Japanese reporter for the L.A. Times had managed to grab a few photos of the ship from the deck of a small sailboat he'd managed to charter for the day's festivities. Within the week, he would be on the train back to the west coast, having used the Japanese Embassy as a place to develop his photos.
Likewise, a British journalist managed to capture some images and such. The photos he took would be of interest to Britain.
Germany held off on sending Bismarck out.
============
July 10
Japanese High Command considered the copies of the photos that lay before them. The badly done night photo of the ship with light bulbs arrayed in a "1776" was concerning to them. They knew of information that one upcoming battleship would be armed with 17" guns, but was it this one or another?
In any event, Nippon had Yamato with the biggest guns ever built. Musashi would be along next year with Shinano as well. One Admiral frowned at the lack of information available, "This changes nothing, we still have the most powerful battleship afloat, and by the time the Americans are ready, we will be ready as well."
-------------------------------------
July 22
Aboard the Nagato, Yamamoto stared at the photo he had received from a staff member minutes prior. At risk to his position in the Embassy, one of the staff spooks had hired a local balloon and managed to get somewhat of an overview shot of the Naval yard where dock work was proceeding. And the picture was low quality, but one could make out more or less clearly 7 massive craters in the ship's hull. His old eyes traced the seven turret wells while his face showed a pensive gaze to no one.
Save for the form of his flagship, Nagato, stared at the image herself, silent and yet internally bursting with questions. "Who are you Kaiju?"
----------------------------------------
September-October
The communications system had received Imperial Edict to be upgraded. All codes were changed, diplomatic and Military codes alike; what was known as Purple in the west changed to Emerald. The Navy codes changed out like they usually did, but with more enforcement of coding procedures. The counter-intelligence section was also reorganized, retrained, and to the extent that the system was willing to flex, given catch-phrases to encourage analysts to think more widely related to the job. "Anything sound like it has a bit of a pattern? make sure to record a copy and report it...."
=====================
Late October, 1941
"Cygni, Vega, Taurus, Alpha. Have seen strange naval movements lately.... Hello again, its me, your nemesis."
------------------
One brand new intelligence analyst caught the weird message and passed it up the command chain, some parts were broken, but the gist was clear. Reporting on Japanese Naval movements, solution; quietly send in the army to suppress "treasonous" activity, all communication done by note. Reported result, radio found, snitch shot after trying to linger in one spot suspiciously for too long after evac order was given.
====================
In Australia, as part of the Lend-Lease deal; new docks were under construction outside Perth, big docks for ships no one that side of the equator had ever seen before.
---------------------------------------
Notes: Two prong attack idea, it was considered, but it was also extremely risky and used more fuel than what I'll coin as the gadget plan.
As for the PoD, Japan thought its code system was fine originally. Not this time, the Emperor is pushed to issue edict ordering the code system overhauled. Which combusts intelligence efforts for other countries. Codebreaking is simply much, much more difficult here, not non-existent, just really difficult at the start. Maybe 500 people in 1941, it'll balloon to about 100,000 people in 1943, and even then, message unraveling takes a up to a week..
Some will notice my reusing of one of my favorite alternative ship configurations. Basically the Navy gets a massive research budget for this one series of designs, and while they do build some ships [standards etc]. Most of this budget is allocated for research. North Carolina class and South Dakota class do not exist. Carriers do exist, though some are started later, I just don't mention this currently in the story.
And speaking of said story, that will be another post later this week.
And to properly get this going into the ship girl portion of the tags...
==========================
November 2, 1941
Embassy Naval attache takes one of his morning walks along a stretch of board walk along one of the few beaches around Tokyo; notices fewer ships in port than a few days before. Japanese began jamming activities on November first through to November 30th for radio transmissions. So, unknown to the attache, his message is lost [He missed the memo about the radio outage for the month that was sitting on his desk from the First as he had not been in the office that day]. Unknown to the Embassy and civilians however, there would be breaks in the jamming on a couple select days.
=========================
Yamamoto watched the last of the Naval Staff depart, he was exhausted, but pleased. His two prong attack had been approved at the highest level and there was no going back. His plan was focused on bombs to get the Americans moving, not torpedoes since those would need to have been adjusted for shallow water. Some of the bombs would be "blanks", his plan was to lure the Pacific Fleet to open water...
He realized there were a few who would adjust some bombs themselves, unofficially, with small amounts of gunpowder and shimosa. If said bombs hit, they would in theory explode hotter and basically divert enemy forces from their guns to damage control.
In theory.
Yeah, theory was great until plans activated and crunch time came. Isoroku knew that no plan ever survives in full action.
======================
October-November
Most of the Fleet quietly departed from Hokkaido area in the predawn light. The outward bound Fleet contained a hastily worked up Yamato and all of the carriers that could be spared. It was quite interesting that some of the oilers coming west from America would be used for this operation. The American Embargo was to go in effect on November First, therefore, the final shipment of oil that was loaded from ports to Japan was planned to be specifically Japanese merchant ships. All of them set off from the ports to home fully loaded with Oil on October 30th. Due to how the legislation was worded, Japan was able to load on oil and be out of US waters by the time the Embargo kicked in.
---------------------------
Nagumo nodded in acknowledgement of Yamaguchi's Force splitting south, this plan was risky, but it made more sense than shallow torpedoes. Everyone had just fueled up, and some of the oilers were sent home; it would be another day before Nagumo turned south as well.
==================================
November 30 / December 1
Bombs, all the bombs; Zuikaku mused to herself as she watched the loading procedures take place in the predawn hours. Every plane had a bomb slung under it to deliver to the Enemy.
------------------------
Yamato was pensive as she looked east, the form frowned at her own hull's inefficiency; but she was content at sea. Her part of the operation was the cleanup. She only hoped things went as intended by her commanders.
----------------------------------
"Mandolin, Mandolin, Mandolin. Poi strikes Koi. Fuji, Fuji, Fuji, Fierce Tiger, Volga, Moon." The call went out and planes began launching.
========================
It was a lazy Sunday morning at Pearl, there were few people around to bother the ship forms as they conversed about inconsequential happenings. A couple ships however, always had some steam up should an emergency present itself. The 3 carriers were inert this day, most of their crews on the island with only a few maintaining some semblance of lookout stations.
Enterprise held up a hand for quiet as she looked to the north, "I know some enforcements were coming in but... Pennsy, do you know anything?"
The Standard shook her head as her eyes also training on where the CV was looking. "No, but I don't think our engines sound like that-"
"-Uh, these aren't friendly guys-" Saratoga studied the planes as they drew closer. "I mean, the plane design is wrong... Wha-"
------------------------
"Honshu, Hokkiado, Kyushu, Akagi. Poi eats Koi. Nippon, Kaze, Tora, British Built Tanks, Yalu River."
-----------------
Nagumo smiled after hearing the message, full surprise indeed, and with the postage stamps as well. Today was a glorious day indeed.
--------------------------
"It burns! Oh so much pain!"
So far, the CVs had been hit the hardest, thirty live bomb hits not counting the special shimosa bombs, which basically made fires burn hotter. Crews that were aboard were diverted to damage control and not to the AA guns. The battleships received most of the fire damage in the form of melted or fused parts that rendered most of the AA inoperable, but few actual bomb hits.
----------------------------
Kimmel stared out at the burning harbor, or at least where the CVs were burning. "Get as many ships as you can up and running, we've got to save our battleships!"
"Yes sir!"
Everyone figured the carriers could take care of themselves, they were big ships after all.
"Second wave incoming!"
"Aw hell no!"
More bombs arrived, deep penetration bombs which rendered ships unable to move. All 3 carriers had their mobility impaired in some way.
"Where are you guys going?"
"Sorry E, Admiral's ordered the battleships out."
Enterprise saw the logic and grit her metaphorical teeth. Yes, in theory, the carriers could take care of themselves, and would be able to if their crews were fully present. Watching the battleships ponderously maneuver toward the ocean, she could only wonder if the Admiral knew what he was doing.
-------------------------------
"Akagi, Akagi, Akagi. Burnt Broccoli, Flamingo Poi Run. Junta, Junta, Missouri River, Sakhalin." Yamato blinked as her commanders rejoiced, and she saw....
The barest traces of smoke on the horizon as Torpedo squadrons raced ahead armed with short range torpedoes. While most of these runs were planned to control the Americans movements, there would be a few direct runs to keep the confusion high.
----------------------------------
Arizona glared at the aircraft approaching, watching as something dropped into the water.
"Torpedoes in the water portside and aft!"
"Puffs of smoke on the horizon!"
"Huh?"
-----------------------------------------
Yamato smiled as her big guns fired for the first time.
"Reload!"
-----------------------------------------
"Shell splashes?"
"Holy shit! this shell's a mon-" A deafening explosion silenced that man and gouged out a crater in the bow of the West Virginia.
Kimmel grit his teeth, they'd been had. The only hope was to get to suicide range, but with whatever was firing those big shells....
"Sir! The Pennsylvania!"
Pennsy staggered as a lucky shell exploded on her A turret and took most of the turret into conflagration. "Bast-" A secondary explosion in her forward magazine broke the old standard's keel.
"PENNSY!" Arizona looked on in horror as her crew prepared for SaR, even though they were still under attack....
====================================
Judging by the garbled messages, Enterprise could only frown in consternation as damage reports from afar made it clear that the Battleships had been snookered into a trap. Not that she was any better considering the mauling earlier.
"Both elevators out of commission, looks like I'm going to be out at least a year." Enterprise nodded to Lexington's vocal musing over her damages. All of them had received moderate to heavy damage in the bombings earlier, and fires were still refusing to die even with the help of some of the destroyers.
"Heads will roll for this guys... Heads will roll."
=======================================
December 1
The tension could be cut with a knife, then folded into a paper airplane to be divebombed into Japan. Montana decided, watching somber faces preside over her cousin's launching. Montana had been onshore in the base cafeteria when the news had been blared. Disaster at Pearl Harbor. Thus far, causalities were somewhere over 5000 dead; three heavily damaged carriers, 7 battleships sunk outside the Harbor, many destroyers damaged or sunk. For whatever purposes, America was now at war.
-------------------
"....Ask for Congress to declare a state of war existing....."
-------------------
"Read all about it! War with Japan!"
A near unanimous Declaration, yeah, the one person who christened Montana happened to be the dissenter. Infamous in its own way. Still, it was a step in the right direction as Montana's guns were fitted.
A step that saw work ramped up on the Montanas, and publicity as Montana herself was completed.
--------------------------------
USNCI recorded some odd codes on November 30th that they started analyzing the next day; said code proverbially laughed at them.
=======================================
December 20
Smiles around the table communicated the relaxed atmosphere. Yamamoto could relax with the known enemy carriers still burning and disabled according to the last report. It made the damages to their battleships nearly trivial, almost. He frowned internally, Kongo and Haruna came home with both battle and high seas damage, Fuso as well was down a couple turrets. Yamato was said to have finished off half of the American battle fleet herself.
And yet, for all the happy smiles, he was concerned. He had been to America in the past of his youth, and he'd gaped at the sheer size of the country from the relative comfort of the train. He saw the steel mills and factories in that land, and easily could imagine a focused nation such as this. In his mind, he could only pray that the gamble had given his country time to gain what they wished, before the giant recovered and buried them under his fury.
======================================
1942-
January opened with another radio broadcast, but this one would prove unusual. The mood was, for wont of a better term, seething vengefulness.
"My friends, and fellow Citizens. This past month has been difficult as we continue to count the cost..."
"....Pearl Harbor's death toll now stands over 10,000 brave Americans..."
"...Why I'm here today, on the deck of our newest Battleship, is to give you and those who may be listening from elsewhere a glimpse at the power of American Industrial Might..."
A boiling undercurrent of frothing rage indeed, and so America proceeded to tell her enemies about stuff that would hurt them, while showing the citizens that something was being done towards revenge.
------------------------
Hitler blinked as his various staff leaned in towards the radio.
-------------------
Churchill puffed at a cigar, listening to the broadcast. "What have you done Japan? Surely you would not awaken the unknown like this?"
----------------
Yamato tilted her head toward the radio with the other ship forms in port. They'd been called by Nagato to listen to this foreign broadcast; that the Admiral was there too was a moot point, it was his radio after all.
Yamamoto could only sigh to himself as the price for his planning wittery was spelled out.
----------------------------
"For a number of years, this ship has been in secret development, extending back to the Naval Treaty era...."
--------
A hoarse chuckle, "Bastards."
------------
"...The Montana floats here and now, all one hundred-"
--------------
"-seventy-"
"Sheibe."
--------------
"-one thousand tons-"
Well, she had been queen of the seas for a time. Yamato frowned.
Yamamoto calmly waited for the rest of the shoe to finish dropping, his hands tightening on the railing.
--------------------
"-of her. Recently, her main guns were installed. Big bastards they are, a monumental achievement of engineering that took a decade to master. What size are these guns? I can imagine some of you, and our overseas friends in particular-"
--------------------
"............."
"Ja mein Fuhrer, almost like he planned this."
---------------------
"-asking. Well, consider the year America was founded as a nation-"
-----------------------
"Well played President Roosevelt."
-----------------------
"-seventeen inch guns-"
Oh good, she still ruled the waves in that aspect.
"-but seventy-six calibers instead of fifty-"
Or maybe not, Yamato resolved to meet this ship these foreigners were touting.
--------------------------
-and I would be remiss in my manners if I did not mention to you her sister ships, who are being launched today. North and South Dakota; a different loadout, but with quad barrel turrets, giving both of them a possible 28 gun broadside of 16" shells. Not sure why, but this class of ship, both variants will have a combined broadside of Seventy-Seven Guns-"
------------------------
Yamato blinked, had she heard that right?
The Admiral frowned, thinking back to that photo months ago, seven turrets, assuming this Montana of theirs was legit. That meant that she had a 21 gun broadside, and her sisters.... Japan needed the other two Yamatos completed, not that it would be enough. Not against the industrial power of a continental nation.
==========================================
Late January, 1942
In addition to what amounted to be the year long investigation into Pearl Harbor. CI kept analyzing the codes used on the 30th, and eventually made a breakthrough. "Commander, we have discovered poi."
Said commander blinked, "Okaaay, so what's it mean then son?"
"I'll get back to you on that."
----------------
3 weeks later with a bit larger team, "Sir, why would the Japanese mention the Missouri River?
The commander stared, question was repeated. "Find out and let me kno-"
Another analyst piped up, "Regarding the code from early on the 30th; the Japanese used the phrase "British Built Tanks" and "Yalu River". Nothing fits sir."
"Keep slogging." The commander growled.
---------------------
5 weeks after that last breakthrough, a diferent Analyst comes to the desk. "Sir, the very first message on the 30th. "Volga" and "Moon", still no idea of the meaning, but seems like of what we've uncovered thus far have been end phrases and possibly a word from the middle."
"Its progress, keep it up."
=======================================
Note: Some of this is really rough, I couldn't decide whether I wanted two or three cvs at Pearl, or if there were elsewhere, where would they be? Considering the day, November 30th was the closing day to a long weekend, thusly if the Japanese had paid attention to the U.S. Calendar. They could assume that attacking on a longer weekend would actually be more beneficial to them. This time, they ignore the fact of a long weekend/federal offices closed. Deliver their packet to the White House, and let the attack go ahead. So, this time around, the only thing that changes for this part is that the code breakers do not break into the Japanese message and the Japanese actually deliver their packet with time to spare, its not their fault if the U.S. people don't deign to read it with urgency.
You may notice I focus some on Yamamoto's past here, this will come up time and again. As for Yamato's inclusion, primarily meant as a working up test if you will.
A major issue I have here is timing of things, and I will acknowledge that perhaps the January radio broadcast is unneeded, but who else has the capacity to match the U.S.A. at the time? No One Else. Most everyone had already allocated their resources to build what would be built, and keep in mind that America is angry, they feel like promoting their own arrogance and power. This also is linked to Germany not yet declaring war on the U.S.. Hitler has more mental cohesiveness here.
As you can see, code breaking is really slow. They are getting some of the words, but the exact meaning and context escapes them. As far as the Naval attaché goes, might be a little weird, but its more to symbolize how the intelligence reorganization has shifted views of communication.
No DooLittle raid, supplanted by Montana's Commissioning Day.
I must repeat, toss out original timeline stuff and just read. I know this part's a little rough and I more than likely will adjust it pending suggestions, but yeah, leave feedback.
==============================
Hood used to consider herself queen of the sea, but then the upstart showed up. 7 turrets.... Insane.... Oh, and something about test firing?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The upstart's guns roared off in sequence, causing 10ft shockwaves on the water and the ship spirit herself looked like she was off her keel.
----------------------------
Montana cackled in glee at her guns, "Yes my children, Heheh. We shall rule the waves with this POWER!"
===================================
November 1942
Japan had reasonable success in ousting the Philippines and forcing MacArthur to Australia. Yet it had to happen. All the Yamatos were launched and seaworthy, but remained anchored until needed.
-------------------------------
December 1942
Yamamoto directed communications to send a "coded" message to Rabaul about placing more submarines off the US West coast, the first word was deliberate to symbolize a possible operation, not an actual plan. "Lochness, Neptune, Neptune. Send Sushi boats to West U.S. Oakland. Angeles. Fransisco. Tone, Tone, Tone."
-------------------------------------
"Commander, a message picked up from Australia about Japan. Original code comes out to "Neptune twice followed by "Send Sushi boats to West U.S." Mentions Oakland, Fransisco. Angeles. Then ends with Tone three times."
"Send it in."
--------------
The three carriers who had been at Pearl were now repaired. Granted, they were now sent to patrol the West coast for enemy submarines. The news broadcasting this fact was put out on civilian radio.
=====================================
Mid-January to early February 1943
Three weeks later, at Japanese High Command.
"Counter-Intelligence has reported that the Americans have increased patrols off their west coast for our submarines-"
"But we haven't sent any there."
"Correct Admirals. We haven't, but they don't know that. And we know now that some of our messages our being listened in on." He raised a hand to ensure quiet, "Another test message will be sent out later this week..."
Counter-Intelligence again confirmed a media reaction in Australia and what seemed to be some British coded messages for patrols off New Caledonia. Waiting for a foe that never came.
"Hmm, good, while they think they know stuff, we have to keep them guessing. Now they will start to doubt, and since we have an idea of what to look for now, and since we know they have some force based in Australia now thanks to the last message. We will now......"
=====================================
"Commander," an Australian approached his desk at the Perth Naval Station. "We have another intercept. Message reads: "Honshu, Kyushu, Luzon. Ultraguard group patrol in area of Philippines. Kaze, Kaze, Kaze."
The commander grimaced, "I'll send it to local ops."
------------------------
Due to the carriers in the area on the East side of Australia, the local command advised sending battleships to investigate, and that they would send air recon if the weather was good. So the Montana class was sent along with their escorts. The area was of course filled with a variety of fishing boats from small local islands, some of these vessels sent messages about large catches [they had stacks of fish to help complete this illusion]. The local Japanese office on Java sent out, "Albacore, Shark, Tuna, Whales. Big Koi Caught, Hope for catch. Junta, Ginza, Poi, Thames River."
=============================
Night time, February 28
Aboard the Nagato, Yamamoto was pleased as confirmation transmissions kept coming in, weather reports that kept him updated. Navigational towers on multiple islands routinely sent broadcasts, he was just using those broadcasts a little differently tonight.
-----------------------
"No idea what these broadcasts are for; the weather reports are normal, the fishing reports are new though?"
"Oh?"
"Yes, "Weather Report, 2300. Fish school in good channel. Cloudy to the north, fog expected later." and other broadcasts like that, all in the clear."
"Interesting."
----------------------------
On the Montana, "Sir, radar reports some intermittent contacts at extreme range."
"Hmm, it is getting foggy out, shut the radar down and run a systems check and check the towers for moisture interference."
"Yes sir."
---------------------------
"Send it."
Nagato sent out the signal. "Alpha, Alpha, Alpha. There was Light. Omega, Omega, Omega."
---------------------------
Aboard the Heerman, the radar operator stiffened, "Three big radar returns close to Montana sir!"
"...And they would be checking their radio systems... Signa-blast it. Nevermind, its too late now."
"Torpedoes in the water, headed for us!"
------------------
Gun Battle of the Philippine Sea, Early 1943
"Pies, Kohai, Sempai. Poi sees biggest Koi. Bushido, Shinto, Bushido."
--------------------------
Foggy, it was foggy and the radars were down. Meaning Montana was reduced to her short range vision. A movement to port, wait-
Ow.
Chaos as her guns appropriately swayed to port.
"Punish them children!"
"These waters belong to J-Gaaahhhh!"
"Oh, what's that? Did you say someth--dammit!""
-----------------------
Both sides lost, in the end, the older battleships, destroyers and cruisers withdrew from a fight that cost 5 battleships and other smaller ships. South Dakota looked at the carnage in horror from her own mangled deck. Her sister due to sink within hours, and the nameship.... was nothing but a burning oil slick after being targeted by all three Yamatos.
Granted, Montana's first proper salvo had nearly obliterated the first Yamato. SoDak plainly witnessed the lead enemy ship getting over-penetrated at about 3,000 yards by Montana, and by the time the line leader was opposite NoDak, her bow was close to swiss cheese. Montana managed to get a second salvo off that focused partially on the lead ship stern and the second Yamato before being subjected to said Yamato's fire.
This battle only really featured the heavies on either side because the Japanese Admiral realized he would only get one chance. Indeed, South Dakota watched the fog of war slowly dissipate to reveal receding ships into the distance. While some part of her wanted to taunt them to come back finish the job, she knew her own damages would hamper efforts, and there was no point in mindless slaughter even if it was somewhat cathartic. A sudden call from a lookout distracted her musing.
"Why are there two women overboard here?"
-------------------
That melee was something else, my crew, very few of them made it past the oil slick that marked where my hull had imploded from being riddled with 18" shells. Something within me gave me the strength to push to the surface and wave like one needing rescue, I'm glad SoDak was still afloat. While I awkwardly swim to a place in order to be seen better, a strange sight captures my attention. It's a Jap female, out cold on a piece of hull plating, I quash the immediate fury and go to her, waving and hoping to get someone's attention on the SoDak.
===========================
Yamamoto stands next to Yamaguchi aboard the Nagato, preparations for returning to Japan after witnessing one of the most horrific battles of naval history.
"You saw Yamaguchi-san; the utter destruction that was unleashed back there. On the radio, I heard Yamato's captain scream something about holes in the ship's bow, and I wondered at first, but then realized that we had never planned for such short ranges. Neither side was dealt a decent hand. You saw, the lead enemy ship and how it bent and then broke in the face of focused fire."
A short croak followed by throat clearing came from Yamaguchi, who nodded then responded. "Yes Sir. Despite the enemy's greater armor, we prevailed-"
"No, we did not. For whose battle line is completely sunk while one of theirs remains standing?"
"I-- Gomen-"
"Do not apologize Tamon, had I not been to America in my youth, I would be as you are. Thinking to avenge our fallen blindly rushing at an enemy whose sword was primed to continue if need be. There is no point to throwing our ships away for a victory where no one would be able to report a win."
Yamaguchi considered and then nodded, "You are correct Sir. Attempting to have avenged would have required more stupidly close range exchanges from guns the enemy armor was built to withstand."
"Leading to our demise, even with both Nagato and Mutsu combined, any line we would hope to send against the enemy would have only led to death."
"Sir! Destroyer Shimakaze wishes to detach for survivor search."
Yamamato frowned and looked back at the receding area of battle, "Very well, but tell the captain to sail under a white flag so Americans know not to shoot."
"Hai."
================================
"...Well.............her....p!" She felt herself being raised from the water as she drifted in and out of coherence. Hands grabbing her almost carelessly in an effort to transport.
"T...ickba.....Take he....."
".ill do.....Bo....ou're....avy...."
--------------------------
Montana shifted the comatose girl in her arms and carried her as best she could through the passageways to sickbay, but was told there was no room and was directed to put the girl in a nearby empty supply closet. The ship turned human took the girl to the room and laid her on the floor, then sat at the door and examined the girl she brought in. Japanese ancestry, but slightly out of place. Frowning Montana took the girl's hand as her eyes widened in realization; the girl's skin seemed to be steel, just like her! What was going on? Deciding to experiment, she went ahead and asked to the room in general, "SoDak, are you there?"
And confirming Montana's thoughts, a form solidified at the doorway of the room. "Yes, wha-Montana! How? I'm sorry I wasn't paying-"
"Hush sis. I don't know why myself, but I'm here now, as human but not quite....."
------------------------------------
"Get us out of here Helm. This girl's damaged and needs a yard."
"Aye sir."
Slowly, the big damaged warship painfully moved out of the area signalling the rest of the fleet to RTB. Missing, in some part of the lingering fog, a figure moving her arm weakly in the direction of the departing ships. "Blast it sis..." The figure croaked as she slumped into the water, the hope fading nearly as fast as her wakefulness, then a rope hit her from the other direction; grabbing it she started reeling herself in before noticing the ship on the other end. "Blast it all."
---------------
"Movement 100 meters distant to port sir."
"Very well, toss a line...."
The soggy mess that climbed over the side of the destroyer was saved from a detailed inspection as another overboard call was heard, and the rescued toppled with a sudden crash to the deck in exhaustion. Nevermind that she could've staged a boarding action and effectively hijacked the destroyer for her own escape, but that was never thought of as her body collapsed on the deck. Little did she know, that the other one rescued was like herself, and that she was effectively a prisoner of the Japanese Navy.
----------
Shimakaze frowned regarding her two rescues on her deck. Her crew had investigated them to the point of their gender and left them alone after that, a typical Japanese superstition after all. The ethereal boat studied the rescue laying on the starboard quarter, this one seemed somewhat familiar. Japanese descent, traditional skin palette, but really tall with skin like.... a ship?!
Startled, she went to the port quarter and examined the other rescue; same lanky build, if not taller, but quite caucasian in skin tone. Shimakaze reached to touch, finding a similar texture to the other rescue. She eyed the gaijin nervously and moved toward the other rescue. The spirit focused and whispered toward the black haired rescue quietly, "Y-Yamato-sama?"
-------------------
"Destroyer Shimakaze returning Sir."
"What did they find?"
"They report rescuing ten stragglers out of the water and two unusual people who the captain feels it is better for you to see them personally."
Yamamoto angled his head, intrigued. "Very well, he has permission to transfer these unusual rescues to the Nagato. I will meet them."
--------------------
Something was poking her nose, slightly irritated, she opened one eye to glare at... a destroyer spirit. "What ya want squirt?"
"Ano...."
"What do you want, Jap?" A sudden pain on her arm reminded her that perhaps being obtuse was not the best idea.
"Don't bully the destroyer, Gaijin." A glance to the left confirmed what her radar saw, there was a Japanese battleship spirit at point blank range. Some further advice paused the American from her next round of actions. "You are currently aboard the Shimakaze, and we need your cooperation to move you to a larger vessel for debrief. Please come quietly."
NoDak considered her options briefly, then nodded and rose to follow her escorting host. Wishing her sister had seen her waving in the water.
---------------------------------------------
Isoroku stared at the transferred survivors in bewilderment, having had them assisted to his conference room for some semblance of privacy. They were obviously female, but were much taller than any of the fairer gender he had ever seen or met. The one with the lighter hair was taller and more western in appearance than her counterpart, not to mention seemingly rather prone to sleeping, but that seemed to be both of them currently. He frowned in thought, waiting for one of them to wake up; getting the feeling of unease as time marched on.
The old battleship shivered in fear, recognizing the one on the left side of the conference room for what she was. An Enemy ship. But Nagato knew well the rules of conduct herself, and watched the taller one like a hawk, only keeping her sanity in check because Yamato was the other rescue. She noticed the Gaijin's head starting to twitch.
------------------------
The feeling was odd, she was on a ship, but it seemed muted somehow, but the next thing she heard certainly got her attention. Again, she felt like sleeping, blast it, no they wanted attention didn't they; time to get it over with.
"Ano...." NoDak opened her eyes and found herself confronted by an unknown-wait, a Nagato- and a small man in a high ranking naval uniform.
"What is your name Miss?"
Her focus narrowed on the ship spirit, recognition manuals in her mind highlighting and underlining the enemy ship.
"Excuse me, Miss?" Heavily accented English broke her from Nagato's staring contest and she looked at the man in slowly maturing reality.
"USS North Dakota....... I'm a prisoner aren't I?"
----------------------
The man smiled slightly, "I would prefer that you would consider yourself an honored guest of the Japanese Navy."
"Right." The woman's gaze then shifted to something slightly behind him...? As far as Yamamoto knew they were alone....
"Nagato, right?"
"You are on-"
"Yes." A disembodied voice spoke up from Isoroku's left, and slowly an outline became barely visible.
"W-What-Nagato?!" The Admiral felt tired and drained all of the sudden and looked toward his stateroom briefly.
"Yes Admiral. You should get some rest. I will handle Dakota and Yamato myself."
---------------
North Dakota watched as the man rose and moved to his stateroom, closing the door behind him, leaving the room to the ships.
"If it helps, please...realize I never expected any of this to happen." Nagato remarked as she approached the only unconscious ship in the room; "You know, the whole ships becoming people thing; kinda took me by surprise when I saw you and Yamato come aboard from Shimakaze."
The older ship continued talking while studying the lines of the sleeping battleship. "Poor Shimakaze, she really did seem tired out be hauling you two out of the water. Destroyers aren't meant to be hauling battleships around....."
==============================================
Ever have that Feeling You Forgot Something?
--------------------------------------
The After Action Report, a summarization of everything that happened in an altercation or planned activity.
"....Approximately around 0100, radar on all ships is shut down for maintaince due to weather issues..."
"...At 0130, a lookout aboard Montana spots movement in the fog to port. Ten seconds later, shots by the enemy strike the Montana on her bow, seriously damaging the anchor."
"...0131, turrets A through D on the Montana return fire from point blank range, causing great damage to the Enemy ship. This is followed by more return fire from said ship. Damages mount."
"...0132, Montana's rear turrets fire on the lead enemy ship, inflicting more damage as the guns from North Dakota open fire. By this time, the lead ship is nearly dead in the water from the damage taken, and second ship in enemy lineup has fired upon Montana, penetrating her foremost magazine despite the armor."
"...0133, both leading ships of each side are heavily damaged. At this point South Dakota's forward guns fire on the enemy lead ship, detonating the forward magazine. Montana, still afloat and underway, is hit by another broadside from the second enemy ship, hastening more damage to Montana as North Dakota's forward guns fire again. lighting off the second ship's secondary magazine while the final enemy ship in the line fires the finishing blow for the Montana...."
"...0135, Montana explodes from magazine detonation and starts to sink. The second enemy ship also deconstructs from multiple hits to the magazine, a portion of a main gun lands on North Dakota as the final enemy ship in the immediate line fires. North Dakota starts taking on water and sinking according to radio reports."
"...0137, with forward navigation impeded, both remaining ships maneuver for visibility. It should be understood that at this time, South Dakota's radar was damaged and fire control was reduced to optics."
"...0139, enemy ship was sighted through the smoke and fired upon; the enemy return fire damaged B and C turrets on South Dakota. Effects of full broadside of 28 guns at close to point blank range resulted in catastrophic loss of integrity aboard enemy ship."
"...0140, at this point, the acting fleet commander made the choice to execute a withdrawal from the battle area after a brief SaR period. A clear count of survivors picked up has not been completed due to unclear circumstances regarding a few of those survivors."
"...This concludes the immediate After Action Report Briefing; additional indormation will be discussed in port once survivor debriefing is complete. Thank you for your time,
dismissed."
=====================
"Hmm, strange that she's been asleep for a couple days."
SoDak fidgeted, "Well, I did whack her pretty good after all. She was your death knell you know."
Montana frowned at the reminder, looking at the resting ship girl and grimaced. "Blast it Dakota, I-"
The door opened, revealing a rating with a Captain standing behind him, caused SoDak to squeak in surprise, momentarily forgetting she was invisible. "Captain Dawson Sir!"
Montana mentally facepalmed as both humans looked around in mystification, "Blast it SoDak, you aren't visible!"
"Miss, who are you?"
Montana looked up to find the officer speaking at her; she knew him of course. "USS Montana sir."
"Don't yank my chain ma'am-"
"It's true-" SoDak's head materialized out of the wall, forcing the captain to reel back in terror.
"Gaah! Who are you? Wait, South Dakota?"
"Yes Captain," The ship growled in annoyance.
"....I'd say something on your tone but you aren't merely a spirit are you?" The Captain turned to Montana again as South Dakota extracted herself from the wall into the visible range.
"No sir, we are not merely spirits, but ships. BB-59, USS Montana, lead ship of the class; 1776 version. Your ship is BB-61, USS South Dakota, third of the class; 1650 version."
"Ano..." The quiet unfamiliar voice caused everyone to turn toward her.
"Ok, I know you two, but I don't know you?"
"Relax Captain, I rescued her from certain death when I was waving for a ride."
"R-Rescued me... Ano...I-"
"I'm pretty sure that she's the third Yamato personified."
"What?!"
"Ano... Could I stand please? It is as she says. I am third of the Yamato class, Shinano."
"Ok, I think we all need to have a talk in more private environs. You three, come with me; everyone else.... Loose lips sink ships, got it?"
=============================
Shinano's eyes flitted around her like a scared deer being hunted as the four of them moved through the myriad maze of corridors. She was behind the one called SoDak, and was very aware of Montana bringing up the rear, but her attention was riveted on the spirit before her who promptly ducked into the radio room as they started to pass it.
"I'm sorry Capt'n."
A few moments a squeal of feedback was heard throughout the ship. "This is your ship speaking, yes, the USS South Dakota, the very ship you're serving aboard right now. You all know that SaR you did a few days ago after the battle yeah? We rescued an Asian female, now guys, just because she looks Asian DOES NOT mean she is Japanese; got it? Now get back to your jobs and stop trying to drill holes in the back of the poor girl...... Sorry Captain, needed to deal with it...."
Captain Dawson's face remained a bit pinched, but he nodded in agreement, "Best that you did I suppose, Not far now."
A few steps more and the group entered a wardroom "Get the guests some salt water please." The room attendant paused briefly, glanced at the two others and nodded.
Shinano looked around the room, it seemed familiar and so very different than her own wardrooms at the same time. After the attendant had come and gone the debrief began.
"Okay, first of all, this is really messed up all things considered. I saw you-your hull-sink after an explosion Montana. Yet you are here speaking with me. How does that work?"
"I agree with you sir, but as for my sinking and yet surviving, I just felt this need to live which drove me to the surface-" Montana glanced toward Shinano briefly, "-and chose to rescue her. She just seemed out of place, for a battlescape. Many things went through my mind as I approached her; the main question ended up being what if she was like me?" Montana shrugged, "Reaching her answered that question, upon touching her I knew she was a ship, like me, but seemingly dead in the water."
"A-arigato, for saving me, but if I-I may ask-"
"Hm?"
"-what about my sisters, where are they?"
SoDak paused, looking at Shinano. "You're right. Hey sis, if you're here with me, and she's here with us. Where's NoDak?"
"...."
".......That is a good point actually-"
The phone rang, Captain Dawson picked it up, "Wardroom 1, Captain here.......... Really? I see, thank them for their efforts XO. Yup." After returning the phone to the cradle, he turned to face the three ships. "That was a report from the Hoel; they had stayed around to try to find survives, but also saw a Japanese destroyer in the area doing the same. Lookouts reported seeing two odder survivors being picked up, one looked Asian, the other looked caucasian. So its possible that North Dakota is in enemy hands." He added further information to try to keep the two calm. "This information is over a day old. The Hoel is being refueled now after her sprint, please don't be too harsh on her girls."
SoDak sat down into a chair, "I can't believe I didn't see her." She barely moved as Montana put a sympathetic hand on her sister's shoulder.
"I know sis, I think I was unable to see her due to fire and smoke at the time."
"So that means-" Shinano's quiet voice took up the thought, "-that the darker hair color must've been Yamato. Musashi's spirit had white hair." The Yamato class explained out the difference.
"Interesting."
=================================
The ship in question was now aboard the Maya. The "missing" Yamato class had started swimming for where she knew the other fleet members to be almost as soon as she had blown up, the cruiser captain electing to not break radio silence and simply return to base with the middle Yamato laying on Maya's aft deck. Musashi was glad that Maya kept her company, gave her someone to talk to for help in constructing a post action report.
"...It was thrilling, that battle. Even if I lost, I gave my all. Looking back, I realize now it was nearly a literal knife fight, and we were not made for those close ranges. I was unprepared for how easily they penetrated my armor..."
=========================================
Note: So, this is the pivotal section where the point to this story becomes clear. Yes, I'm exploring the cultural issues surrounding only "Prisoners" but the idea of female combatants, specifically looking more at Japan in some respects, yet admittedly being light on the details... Because while I want to explore those sides, I also want this to remain somewhat light as well. I know my style of writing leaves a lot to be desired in terms of consistency, and I try to work on that.
This time, I've established a tentative pattern... The allies are getting the code, but unless the meaning is spelled out [which they will figure out thru results with this particular operation], the code teams are stumped and forced to rerun messages received for weeks just to uncover the words used. Even then, that's only the start and end parts with one or two words from the middle.
Place of battle is entirely artistic license due to several battles being axed simply because those were with the general knowledge that the code breaking brought. Ranges and detection are issues here, and I know I don't say very much on this in the leadup or even the AAR. Not to mention operating procedures, sure the lighter classes of ships possibly would've clashed, but my focus was strictly battleship sized. And trying to write all that in while effectively going for the goal sought is difficult. Even in my previous story, I kinda added in the battle around the focused battle as an after thought. I may rewrite part of this battle, in fact, let me know if you would prefer me to rewrite this battle, at least adding in other ships to it.
Next section after this entirely focuses on character building, because some of the characters are not well written as I'd like, but I can't really figure certain things out cause I want the conversation to flow a certain way, and while the wording possibly wasn't the best. I'd like to think the reader picked up on the gist and tone of conversation.
I'm still extremely far ahead in this story compared to posting, but feedback would be appreciated. So many edits.... Hard to do with such hot weather around... Glad its cooling off...
Almost to the point of caught up.
=========================
"We were baited. Sir, I request that we expand counter-intelligence to 100,000 people for analysis."
"That's a lot of people-"
"But it must be done. Their messages are simply taking far too long to decode and understand."
"I agree, I will see what can be done."
"Thank you."
=========================================
Yamato frowned internally, she was a bit more human now, according to the gaijin ship and Nagato. The idea was less than pleasing to her, for she knew and had realized the memories of her crew. How her country treated women was not preferable, even more-so as she was an exotic looking female along with Donna as the gaijin had decided to be called. Glancing at the light brunette, Yamato noted that the westerner was even more exotic than she herself was; taller, longer legs and all that.
The Japanese battlewagon had been surprised to learn that the American had given an honest account of the battle from her view. Yamato had listened as NoDak recounted watching her sister die to such heavy close range fire.
"We were ships designed to fight at range, not in each other's faces." Yamato found herself agreeing with that statement, optimum range was between 10,000 and 20,000 meters. The fight she fought was aptly in the enemy's face, and she certainly gave as much as she could, considering the imbalance in number of guns.
The Admiral came in quietly, looking like an old man, and he explained his haggard looks to the attentive ships in the room. "When I saw you that night, fighting that battle, I had recollections of Tsushima. I saw Yamato fighting Montana like two wrestlers vying for dominance, cannons belching fire, the Russians firing at us.... Gomen, this is hard for me to speak..." Yamamoto's voice trembled and shook as he continued, "I saw Yamato, and I could not be more proud of her fighting for Japan;" He paused and looked at the pale foreign ship girl. "But I knew that Yamato was outgunned. The entire class was outgunned, even if Yamato, Musashi and Shinano had fought as one; we still would have lost that fight."
Yamato wished she could turn her ears off at this almost blasphemous praise for an enemy ship, how could he sit there and praise both herself and the enemy at the same time? The answer came from within her hull now body. A gentle admonishment from her commanding fairy captain in a series of quiet Desus. "[You are a young one my dear. He is old and has seen too much war in his time. Respect and treasure his imparted wisdom.]"
North Dakota listened to the enemy Admiral recount past battles, it was amazing to her that he had been in that battle. "What were the ranges then Sir?"
Yamamoto smiled slightly, "If I recall correctly, the range between the flagships ranged from 10,000 meters down to 5,000 meters or so. I don't remember very well back then. But when I saw you ships fighting, it amazed me how fast the damage piled up, one salvo and over penetrations already."
North Dakota nodded, "Yes, I was astonished at how fast Montana sank, maybe 4 or 5 salvos before a detonation. Too close, we were too close, but we couldn't know that. Our own armor had been tested at greater than 5,000 yards, not less."
Yamato spoke up at this point, "Now that I think about it, your lead ship had larger guns didn't she?"
"Not only that, but her shell velocity meant she instantly punched holes straight through your hull. I saw from my own bow water on the other side of your ship as you were starting to go past me. Her AP weighed roughly 1,500kg each. My own shells are considerably less heavy than that... All this is probably classified information, crap, I shouldn't even be saying anything."
Yamamoto smiled slightly, "Japan does not have the required production capacity for such replication I'm afraid, so no need to really worry about that avenue of issues. There's a far weightier cultural issue at hand however, one that Yamato has likely been considering herself as we've talked."
"And that is?"
"Women in the military, or even combat support roles. There are none, and when they are used, it is more for the men to relax to put it lightly."
"No female nurses either?"
"Not in the field, no."
"Fox, unicorn, charlie, kilo." North Dakota joined Yamato in the brooding position.
"I am considering various ways of persuading certain connections of mine to accept you in their service, but much of that will have to wait for port I'm afraid."
The admiral quietly exited the room and NoDak looked at Yamato, "Now I understand you looking so somber nearly ever since we came aboard. I wish there was something we could do-"
"No. I'm sorry Dakota, let's let the Admiral figure something out. He will come through for us. I'm sure of it."
NoDak's focus turned inward as her crew began debating among themselves. She sighed, stupid war and stupid backward cultures.
An undisclosed code station. "....Whats this deal with pies anyway?"
============================================
Mid-March, 1943
Hiei was curious, such a gathering- "Whoa!" Her hull shifted as two very tall figures stepped aboard, the Kongo class narrowed her eyes as Nagato came up beside her.
"No cause for alarm, but you will want to be at the meeting yourself."
----------------------------
The mood could be described as intriguing, Hiei decided while watching the situation play out before her. Her eyes detected some form of shape behind the shorter one that almost looked like-.
"Yamato," The Admiral's voice addressed one of the two mystery guests in the midst. "Can you and your companion show yourselves?"
"Hai." Hiei had to stifle a gasp as Yamato was standing before her, on Hiei's hull, but most of the human attention was on the taller compatriot. Lighter brown hair, nearly blonde, forest green eyes, pale skin, clearly a westerner.
"Quiet please. Tell me, who are you, with the light skin and hair?"
North Dakota bowed her head, as she'd seen Yamato do. "I am designated USS North Dakota, BB-60, middle ship of the Montana class Your Honor."
The Emperor was slightly amused, even though a few others looked a bit put out. "And how is it you came to be here?"
North Dakota swallowed internally and began her first real after action report. "Due to the actions of one of your destroyers, the Shimakaze, spotting me in the aftermath of the battle..."
For the next hour, Hiei remained amazed as the description of the battle played out, but yet, it was still not the main subject of the meeting.
"Honored Emperor, may I elaborate as to the real reason for this meeting and why the Prime Minister is also present?"
"You may Admiral, although I think I've got a good idea already as do many of those present here. Even so, go ahead."
"It is as you surmise. These ships came back as women, and at present, the military's stance on women in uniform is non-existent, in the politest of terms. At the same time, these women are warships, naval origins notwithstanding, they were built to fight. We will need them in order to defend the Empire, but given how our society views human women..."
The Emperor nodded slowly, "By her recount, we lost the battle, and yet gained a possible advantage. Is that what you are trying to say Admiral?"
"Hai Emperor. Granted this will have to be managed very carefully..."
----------------------------
The sun hung low in the sky when the official meeting came to a close.
"Prime Minister, other admirals, you are dismissed. Yamamoto and the ships may stay."
"Join me Admiral, esteemed guests, we should eat."
===================
It took two weeks for the American battlegroup to reach Perth, mostly due to South Dakota's damage. In that time various discussions played out, and the conclusion was reached that they would have to get General MacArthur involved due to some of the steps needed.
"So, have you thought of human names for yourselves?"
Montana closed her eyes in thought, "Maybe, here's a couple choices; Melissa Manson, Mana Tone."
South Dakota brightened at the last one, "The second one I like... Sorry sis." She shied from the look Montana gave her.
"For that, how bout Dakota Dawso-"
"NO!/I object!" Came the stereo rebuttal, to which the name ship chuckled.
"Alright, alright."
"I think Dakota Sutton would be a good choice."
"Shina No would work for you I think for your human name."
Shinano just quietly nodded, "Hai." It did fit her after all, just what nationality though was No?
---------------------------
MacArthur rubbed his eyes, looking at the message contents again. "Navy requests Gen. Mac. Assistance at Perth ASAP. Top Secret...."
"Sir? Coming up on Perth Naval."
"Circle round before landing."
"Yes sir."
The plane banked and MacArthur saw the massive battleship in the dry dock. Holes pitted her sides and structure, two turrets had extensive damage. "Huh, she went through the ringer." He muttered as the plane leveled off to complete the landing operation.
--------------------
"Right this way sir, your questions will be answered inside General."
MacArthur nodded and followed the Navy rating into a shack near the South Dakota's dry dock, where a Navy Captain, a Rear Admiral and three really tall females waited.
"Ladies, introduce yourselves to the General."
The tallest one stepped forward, her hair just under the ceiling beam as she did so, and saluted. "BB-59, USS Montana, leadship, Montana class, 1776 version Sir."
The next one with a weird haircut that partially covered an eye, was that an eye patch? Stepped forward, saluting. "BB-61, USS South Dakota, Montana class, 1650 version Sir."
Wait, what? MacArthur frowned, looking toward the door briefly.
"Yes General, I am the ship in the drydock." On closer inspection, the woman had a partially empty sleeve.
The shorter black haired female stepped forward as SoDak stepped back, and saluted in a close manner to the other two. "Shinano of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Third of the Yamato class of battleships Sir. I am an...Honored Guest of your Navy Sir." Her accent was heavy but passable.
That last line made him smile a bit, "Action report?" He asked the two humans. The rear admiral handed him the requested compiled report and he spent a few minutes skimming the main points. "So, the battle was tight then?"
"Yes sir. I exploded from a magazine detonation. The Shinano was the last ship to fire on me and connect Sir."
"Yet you rescued her. Why?"
"At the time, I was acting on instinct, letting it guide me as I was confused over the whole human aspect. I saw something that was out of place on the field of battle, not taking my own new look into consideration, and assisted getting her to safety."
"It was the humane thing to do soldier, the situation was new to you and you acted rightly, even if some could construe it as aiding the enemy. What's done is done. I see your conclusion written here Captain, explain your reasoning......"
---------------------
In the end, we got our papers; myself, known as Mana Tone, SoDak as Dakota Sutton, and Shinano as Shina No. The General had to place some phone calls and directed us on what paperwork to effectively bring up. It was kinda funny to watch his face as a folder of papers expanded after leaving a jacket pocket in my hands, but having a set of typists aboard is awesome. Cuts down on time for sure.
In the ensuing downtime for approval, Shinano revealed more of what happened before that battle, its hard not to be slightly upset at her, but no fault of hers really. That Yamamoto guy really is a crafty one, that he managed to lure us big ships into play. Speaking of, I wonder how NoDak's doing, maybe she already met this admiral, who knows, I just hope she's safe.
Also SoDak wanted to try something, so a pool building was built [how they managed to keep the males out I'll never know], and we went to soak. Cue 3 hours later, Captain Dawson comes rushing in. "I don't know how you did it, but your turrets are good as new Dak. Erm, sorry ladies...." We had a good laugh about it. Then SoDak got melencholic, wondering about her sister; and Shinano started explaining about Japanese society and.... Blast it, SoDak, why didn't you spot her, why didn't any of us spot her?
================================
After the meal with the Emperor, it was decided that Yamato and Dakota would ship hop every week or so for the moment. One advantage to the ship jumping was that it allowed various ship spirits to get to know Yamato and their American "guest". A few ships, while tolerant of The pair, made it clear that they didn't like the big American; in these situations, Dakota would always sit on the bow or stern of whatever ship it was. She understood why some of them distrusted her.
-----------
Strangely, on of the best times she found was with Kongo, on Kongo's hull.
"Hello Dess! Yamato? You brought a friend, it's been a long time, where's your hull? Who's your friend?"
NoDak mentally facepalmed, this ship spirit is comparable to SoDak.... Outwardly, the American remained polite, answering when Yamato introduced her. "Hello Kongo, pleased to meet you. USS North Dakota-"
"Now Kongo, she is.... under my care basically for the time being. I think I will let you get talking. Kongo is the one to go to on Japan's modern naval history."
"So, a question." After she had made use of her wardroom, she got down to brass tacks, not before serving me a cup of tea though. "Were you a part of that ship broadcast America did over a year ago?"
Wow, Dakota took a sip of tea before replying to her question. "That was my launch date actually, along with my little sister's. That same day was our older sister's commissioning."
"Would it be possible for me to see what you look like as a ship?" She took a sip of tea as NoDak mentally had her crew go through some stock searching.
"I do have a small mock up model of myself as a ship." Technically it was her sister's mock up, but SoDak was close enough to her that resemblance is nearly the same ship wise. Dakota took another small sip of tea before she produced the model in question.
While Kongo studied the exterior a bit, North explained the differences between herself and her bigger sister. The faux battleship was quiet while she examined the guns.
"So much firepower, three and a half of me to equal one of you."
NoDak blinked, eyes wide, teacup poised at her lips; processed the remark and finished the sip of tea before responding carefully. "Yeah, quite crazy when you think of it. Speaking of crazy, I never thought I'd be sitting here talking to one of you a year ago."
"Aye, Vicker's Shipyards in England, that was where I was born. Built for the Japanese." Kongo's face took on a somber note. "At first I was happy to be Japanese, right up until the last ten to fifteen years. The ones in charge, they wanted more land, more resources, world acknowledgement that Japan was a player on the world stage. Then they decided to go into China, me and my sisters were part of those awful years. They barely avoided war with your country then. Now we're at war, or should be. Except that your navy fell into some disarray after we attacked you, and after an initial period of conquest, there's little for me and my sisters to do...."
The week with Kongo was very illuminating for the American battleship. Her crew put as much to paper as possible, to preserve and document the ships that NoDak visited. The middle Montana resolved to document what she could of the ships she visited, because it was clear to her that every single vessel had some sort of story to tell.
=============================================
Mid-May, 1943
The first test operation was finally getting started, it would be an air raid against Rabaul using the battleships to shell positions around Port Moresby as a diversion; the only issue was what to do with Shinano. After the Philippine Sea, understood scientific conventions regarding how ships worked were up in the air. The intellectuals at the time understood that the issue needed time and testing. While Shinano was understood to be a PoW, she just couldn't be put in a regular camp. There was a concern that she may inadvertently murder the other PoWs in self defense because of the cultural bias that existed in Japan.
At the same time however, the "guest" couldn't just come along on an operation to kill her own country either. So, she was placed under "guarded" escort using Houston and Perth while every other ship was sortied.
-----------------------------------
"I don't mean to be a burden for you two." Shinano said once more, the Yamato feeling nervous as she tried to keep her crew behaving nicely.
"It's no problem," Replied Perth, leaning up against some of the ammo boxes they'd removed from the battleship as a precaution, a measure suggested by Shinano herself. They had left her AA ammo alone though, at least, for the smaller guns. "Me 'n her saw enough at the start anyway."
-------------------------------------
A plethora of carriers steamed west; Yorktown, Enterprise, Hornet, Wasp, Saratoga and Lexington. Some of them had build times extended for various reasons, others had gotten adjusted to their new air groups. And there was the whole ship spirit issue as well. Some people in the future could look back on this operation and see a reverse Pearl of sorts, but that was for the future and the current focus was whacking the enemy off or out of Rabaul.
Enterprise led the procession of carriers and capital escorts within a double ring of destroyers and cruisers and every oiler the Navy could spare.
---------------------------
High overhead, lost to the midday sun for those on the surface, was a scout plane, and on this scoutplane, laying over the top of the canopy like some translucent seductress, was I-400. She didn't care about how her position looked to that of the out of body observer, no, Uyo had eyes for only what she was seeing below her. Like her pilot who was taking notes on what he saw, she copied those same notes on the basis that there was a likely chance she wouldn't recover this pilot or plane. Chances were likely indeed as she could see some of the carrier spirits turning their heads up toward her. "Kuso." Looks like she'd be calling this one in herself, but whether or not command would do anything about it was another issue entirely. The sub spirit flashed back to her own hull 150km away as she lost another observation plane.
--------------------------------
"That makes the third scout plane in the last two days."
"Yeah, wonder if there's a submarine nearby." Lexington observed.
"Communications reports some sort of transmission to the north." Wasp reported.
----------------------------
"Manta, Manta, Mantis. Observation of anti-rotational buffalo herd. Lyon, Paris, Berlin, Moskva. Bald Eagle."
--------------------------------
"What kind of code is that?"
"If I knew, I'd be in Texas, not here."
"Good point."
-------------------------------------
After her message was sent, Uyo dived as deep as she dared and headed parallel to the enemy fleet. She couldn't outrun them, but she could stay near them.
---------------------------------------
Kaga looked to Akagi as the latter looked over the messages her captain had received and nodded as her radio room caught the transmission. They knew this day would be coming; the entire Kido Butai vs the American carriers. The Japanese carrier force pushed east, determined to intercept the incoming force, keeping them from attacking Rabaul.
------------------------------------------
"Planes inbound... That's a lot of planes...."
-------------------------------
"Port Moresby is under bombardment, base says long range battleships."
Zuikaku grit her teeth as her captain maneuvered her through the bombs dropping, however, she did take some hits, but then, she had to deal with the torpedoes. Her emotions rose as she spied Shokaku on fire, needless to say, the temperamental Crane forced herself into visibility range and ordered all surviving pilots to follow the enemy home in rapid fire Japanese. Her orders were exclamated by a torpedo hitting the Kaga, and a bomb hit on Shokaku causing a final detonation.
---------------------------------
"Torpedoes in the water! Many tracks! Evasion impossib-" Enterprise frowned as Wasp took a number of torpedoes before succumbing to fire and water. Yorktown was burning, but still operational. Saratoga and Lexington were low in the water, trying to keep up with flooding.
Suddenly the radio waves exploded with furious Japanese, "ANY REMAINING PILOTS, FOLLOW THE BASTARDS HOME AND END THE-SHOKAKU, NOOO!" Transmitted in the clear, in every direction.
-------------
A brief silence came over the carriers, "Was that a female voice?"
"Anyone else hear that word for word?"
"Quiet, focus on spotting ditched planes."
"Sure seems to be a lot of static on the RDF today."
===========================================
American losses: Yorktown, Wasp, Hornet, Lexington plus many destroyers and some cruisers. All ships suffered some damage, whether trying to shield a carrier from a torpedo or maneuvering errors. Enterprise and Saratoga were down quite a few of their planes with an over-abundance of pilots due to a great many ditches.
The Japanese side Lost 5 of the 6 Kido Butai carriers. Zuikaku herself had lost one of her elevators, half her flight deck, and somehow managed to come out the other side, her captain picking up some of the survivors including a couple odd survivors. Several destroyers took the carrier under tow.
Either way, it was a horrendous bill for both sides, Americans could claim victory here, but not by much. Ship spirit recoveries for either side were tenative. Kaga, Akagi and Shokaku, all still unconscious and oblivious to Zui's ranting. Lexington, Hornet and Wasp were awake but resting while Yorktown remained unconscious.
Zuikaku sat on her stern deck, beside where her unconscious sister lay, brooding as her sea colored eyes stared eastward. Over time, the forest haired carrier began to relax, out of the corner of her eye, she looked to see Kaga slowly sit up.
"Where am I?"
For once, Zuikaku just answered without rancor, "On my hull, my crew rescued you, but then they left all of you back here once they did."
Kaga blinked, looking around as she bit back the obvious question. "I see."
The two sat in silence long into the night.
--------------
Rabaul was in sight as the Zuikaku made for a dry dock, only to be stopped by a terse conversation that ended in Zuikaku snarling in silence. The spirit decided to elaborate for Kaga. "Turns out that my hull damages are too extensive for the dock here and I'm not seaworthy enough to make it to Kure. So...." She gestured toward the approaching destroyers.
"Zuikaku-san, Kaga-san, I've been ordered to take you and the unconscious ones aboard."
Later, Zuikaku would weep as her hull was torpedoed because of damage received amidst cries of "Banzai!" from the humans.
==============================
"So, lessons learned from this battle?" Admiral Halsey asked the mixed group of ship spirits, girls and remaining human captains.
One of the humans volunteered first and launched into a litany of issues he'd compiled.
"Alright, those are mostly on the preparation end of things, but yeah, stuff to work on later. Any of the...transcended ships want to add anything?"
"Well..." Hornet began, but hesitated, then continued. "Towards the end of the battle, we got this massive radio transmission, in Japanese, and as a ship spirit, I could understand it without translation." Hornet raised a gloved hand, forestalling discussion. "However, that transmission had been sent clearly, without no coding of any kind. So, while we can hope they will error again, it is very doubtful they will do another accidental transmission like in this battle."
Yorktown raised a hand, Halsey nodded, and she offered an observation. "Just a thought, but, ya know, what if their carriers also, like, came back as we are? We know we at least decapitated two near the start, and had the other four burning nicely, but what do we do in the event they have their own....like us?"
Halsey frowned, writing that on the board. "Good question Yorktown. Some of the logbooks you gave us indicate high amounts of RDF static at certain points in the battle; have a look." He let them gather around the relevant pages of data, then resumed speaking. "Would these RDF bursts be consistent with any of you speaking?"
Lexington hummed in thought, only to be beaten to speech by sister Sara.
"It's possible, very possible. Would make sense now thinking about it."
Enterprise interjected, "However, before we rush off on another ghost code mission, let's wait a month or two before expending resources that, at present, we don't know if they'll be needed later down the line elsewhere."
Halsey stared, nodded, and turned away to hide a fant blush on his aged face. "Right, to finish up....."
======================
NoDak's head turned with the slap, she had gotten used to this ineffectual treatment after the first few slaps after the news of the carrier battle. The resulting entertainment from the humans recoiling in pained shock made it hard not to laugh, but she understood that humans needed to vent their anger. It was more difficult for a ship turned person to vent their emotion however. If they tried punching a human, the result would be very messy, and ship vs ship was pretty much combat.
So NoDak put up with being used as a punching wall for the Japanese, even some of the older ships like Aoba, that had actually left some bruising. Later the American would get into a discussion with Nagato about human choices and the resulting consequences which lasted a while.
===================
Yamamoto stood in the Prime Minister's office, "Our consolidation time is at an end with the American strike at Port Moresby and our carrier forces. We must consider options that were not on the table before spring."
Tojo grimaced, "You have permission for the research into the option Admiral, should it be successful, I will lend my support."
"Understood." Yamamoto saluted and left.
========================
Meanwhile... In the forgotten Atlantic of Summer 1943.
Texas clung to a rope leading to a ship she was not excited to see. "Blasted troublesome ocean," Sighing she started reeling herself toward the waiting battleship. "blasted German varmin'..." Her muttering decayed when she got alongside the ship.
"Velkomen aboard Frau Texas." Bismarck greeted her.
Texas glared, "That was a lucky shot you got and you know it."
Bismarck nodded sagely, "Let us talk on the stern."
--------------------------------
Hitler stared at the message, then Raeder. "I want to see this for myself."
"As you command, seig heil."
-----------------------------------------
Bismarck had actually rescued Hood as well after Texas, so when the ships arrived in Kiel, all three ship spirits were surprised to find a familiarly despised face waiting to greet them. A discussion between the three ships had spawned an idea in Texas, who internally, having a discussion with her engineers, found she could materialize a double barrel shotgun without needing her entire rigging.
So when Hitler had the ships pointed out to him, his immediate spoken phrase broadsided them, as well as just about any normal female watching said broadcast. "These are human ships? They look like the perfect specimens for breeding stock! Wha-"
Texas had a shotgun in her hand before she even realized it. "Where I come from, actual men don't say that. Go back t'the hell ye spawned from demon!"
BANG!
Some say it was the shot heard around the world as it was broadcast not only on German tv, but German radio, who allowed the BBC to take over....
=================================
"U.S. assassinates Adolph Hilter!"
"Europe freed from Tyrant, Hitler dead!"
"German Nazis in chaos after leader killed."
-----------------------
Summer of 1943 Folks, it was quite eventful in Europe.
And the reaction of Texas herself?
"The fool just had to go and say somethin' I didn't like. No good American man would ever talk that way to a woman, it jus' ain't done."
=============================================
August of 1943
With Europe being under a giant question mark, Japan could safely say that it had no interest in European affairs and plans were already in motion to nullified the Triparty pact. Russia was still in chaos after having lost Stalin in a German bombing attack earlier in the year, cue internal bloodbath and power struggle on top of having been decimated by German armies. Japan would wait until Russia had killed itself off and then hopefully grab some continent space for itself, provided the war in the Pacific didn't get any worse than it already was. Tojo was brought out of his musing by a knock at his door.
"Admiral Yamamoto to see you sir."
"Send him in."
"What do you have for me today Admiral, for that matter, you look a bit pale."
"I was given that report by our esteemed guest on her capabilities as far as engineering goes. I needed to lie down after seeing it for a spell."
".....I-I can see why. 167,000 tons! there is no slipway in Japan that could-! over 400,000 engine horse power?! She could bench press Yamato in her ship girl form!?!" The Prime Minister collapsed back into his seat, "Kuso. Americans...."
-------------------------------------
Onboard the Jun'yo, Kaga, Akagi, Shokaku, Zuikaku and a few carrier spirits stood as Zuikaku led the group through practice of archery once again. She had insisted that, as penance for being totally irresponsible in the use of radio at Rabaul, she be the one to assist teaching the carriers in archery. Their target, of course, was the "guest" ship, who was content to get spattered with paint rather than punches.
"Hey, Gaijin, why you smiling at us?"
North Dakota examined her painted uniform, "It beats watching humans try to smack me and just give themselves pain, and your reactions as well."
Zuikaku just glared at NoDak, "Everyone load, nock, aim and fire; at the same time please."
One issue which I've personally been having ever since we got word the Hitler died, are dreams. Weird dreams that I feel need to stay within my hull. A different life perhaps, I cannot say for reasons of Schrodringer's Cat. Basically its where if you observe an object, you have changed that object's nature. I feel this more applies to living creatures than objects. Where if you see a cat, and the cat knows you've seen it, that cat's future is then changed; because it's been spotted.
Ergo, if I tell anyone about my dreams of a WW2 featuring Iowas and North Carolinas, their impression of what the future holds will be changed. I mean, I know that Iowa exists here and now, but she was BB-61 and not BB-62 like she is here. To ensure less confusion, I will explain:
The Iowa class was the next battleship class built after my class was near completion. They were 12 gun variants in ab/xy format. Iowa was launched December 1st of '41, Indiana and Illinois were subsequently launched last year, and just a few days ago, the new battlecruiser Alaska was launched. The new BC class will have a layout of 15 guns in acd/xy format, only two will be made, and its not Hawaii being named for the other slot either. In some circles I'm privy to, we call it the "Aska" class, because both ships end with aska. So yeah, the dreams; Alaska was a large cruiser in some of them, and Nebraska never was. But I can't allow anyone to know these dreams, at all.
Now as far as shipgirls-
"Whatcha doin?"
---------------------
WDD-57 here, aka Johnston, Fletcher class. I was one of those sunk in the carrier action in the push towards Rabaul a few weeks back. Was sent here to Perth a week ago, I'm going to just come out of the closet and say it; I had a different life in the future. Never expected to be in the situation. As for the W designation, I think Montana's designer had something to do with that, W stands for wartime construction destroyer. And speaking of said ship, I only tapped her arm, never did expect to see her jump so high that her head went through the rafters.
"Blast it Johnston! Hey Shina!"
-----------------------
Shinano came in from the other room and glared at Johnston, then shook her head. "You're fixing that hole Johnston." The Yamato grabbed the bigger ship's legs and pulled, "Uoof!" Thankfully, Montana had managed to avoid falling on to either her or Johnston, and modulated her weight enough to avoid breaking the furniture when she landed. Johnston tried to run, but Shinano caught the smaller ship.
Montana walked over and knelt before the destroyer, "I'll tell you a story after you fix the roof, okay?" The battlewagon ruffled the destroyers hair before Johnston ran off to do her task.
======================
Later, after Johnston had completed the roofing project and the building was empty, she came back and I was treated to meeting a re-incarnate. Johnston told me of her previous life as a student who had accidently grabbed a live power wire when he was on some roof doing artistic impressions. He was only 16 at the time.
I shared my side, thinking that, because my designer died in the same year as I was laid down, it was possible he was a part of me. And yet, I didn't focus on myself much in that conversation, but what I had been musing about before the Taffy had interrupted me. She understood and trembled under the absolute certainty I displayed when I admonished her to be cautious about letting future stuff run rampant here in the past.
Looking around, I realize that there seem to be an awful lot of ships being transformed into human like personifications or having spirits, more than I ever thought possible. Why is this taking place? Why so many? In some respects it seemed like things are already changing and I need to figure this out by talking to someone like my sister, whom people had seemingly forgotten about even existing. I could try talking to one of the Royal Navy ships, but in the end, I decided not to and went to the Captain to request a special mission.
============================
"You want to do what?"
"Go to Japan, find North Dakota, leave Shinano in exchange for bringing my sister back. Sir, I need this, SoDak needs it-"
He nodded, "I'm not going to argue with you. I spent sometime aboard you after all before SoDak was complete. I'm not saying I don't agree with what you want to do, for all I know as a human, you could very well not come back..."
Captain Dawson looked up at her sadly, "But I'm sure you've already thought this through or you wouldn't be here asking me. Just-just come back in one piece alright?"
Montana nodded and turned away, hurrying out the door, she had plans.
--------------------
"Shina, how do you feel about going home?"
"Wha?"
"I'm not kidding, would you like to go home and see your sisters again?"
"I would love to! I-I mean, I've really enjoyed being here but-"
"So here's the plan....."
--------------------
I told SoDak and she wanted to come to, I had to remind her that she was still tied to her hull and that I would bring NoDak back.
Needless to say, the four ship girls slipped quietly out of the base on to the water one night and began the journey north.
========================
"Message for you Poi." Yuudachi handed NoDak a message who began to read it; the blonde hardly took a breath before being swept up into the battleship's arms in a hug that would've surely broken a human's back.
"I haven't been forgotten, Yamato." NoDak explained after she'd put Yuudachi down, and handed the other battlewagon the message. "Your sister is on the way too."
-------------------------
We met Shimakaze off of Formosa, luckily it was cloudy. The destroyer approached us cautiously, her eyes focused on Shinano.
"Ano... A Yamato traveling with Americans?"
"I saw you that night... I spotted you taking her sister." Hoel glared at Shima, and Heerman intervened.
"Hoel, behave! She likely doesn't know where Dakota might be."
"Dakota.... North Dakota?"
"Yes."
"I see, I will send a message."
"Shima to MHQ. Sister wanted. Yamato class in return. Under Truce. Orders needed."
"Directional radio now?"
"Hai. After the incident with one of our carriers, all ships were given directional transmitters. Tempermental Crane will be stuck with that name now."
"...Right."
"Wow, that didn't take long at all. Reply: Three BBs enroute. Hold at all costs."
-----------------------
Yuudachi felt odd escorting battleships, particularly when they were human sized and she was still a steel hull, Though she could see all of their original steel shapes around them as they traveled roughly 500m to her stern, considering the American's size at least. She watched the three battlewagons, keeping only a peripheral attention to her other functions. The blonde loved her crew and trusted them with keeping her afloat, she simply focused on watching the three powerful ships as they raced along at close to the Yamato's top speed.
As an aside, she could totally see the smirk on the American's face as the group moved at 27 knots, at least 5 knots under the American's speed. The kaiju had never told her top speed to any of the ships, but from the ship's stance and expression, it was clear to the destroyer that the USN ship girl was just cruising. In contrast, both Yamato class ship girl faces wore looks of concentration and focus due being at close to their top speed of 28-29knots. There were other sidenotes to be had from this scene as well; both Musashi and Yamato might've had largers guns than the counterpart, but the big ship had over 3 times more throw weight a broadside. But it was not a time for another seabattle, no, this mission more like a prisoner exchange of sorts.
A sister for a sister. Yuudachi could understand that, and even get behind it. She had sisters whom she'd like to see again, but they were lost early on, and apparently wouild not return. Shiratsyu was still around and escorting various things as far as she knew. After a while, she was alerted that they were approaching the meeting point and signaled the ships behind her.
She could see the big nameship of the Montana class in the distance, as they got closer however, Yuudachi could tell that it was simply a shape of the ship girl's original hull. And she spotted another Yamato behind the larger Montana, all before she spotted Shimakaze and the American destroyers.
------------------------------------
North Dakota could see her older sister on the horizon, fighting to keep her engines at a Yamato level of speed for just a little longer, until her sight caught Shimakaze's shape low in the water, and Hoel and Heerman. It all became too much for her and she rooster-tailed, 6 screws biting into the water as her engines surged to flank, pushing the capital to 37 knots.
"Sister!"
"Good to see you too NoDak.... Slow down there! Good to meet you Shinano, hope to see you under better skies...."
NoDak slowed down after she passed the third Yamato who was speeding up the opposite direction. "Sorry Sis... Just missed you. No SoDak?"
Montana shook her head as both ships settled into a rough formation, "She's still tied to her steel hull..... So, that must have been interesting, what was it like?"
"Well.... The last few weeks weren't very pleasant considering they lost so many carriers, a couple of the ships that played host to me basically had me stand as a punching wall so that sailors could vent their rage over losing. We're ships sister, even in human form, so our skin is basically hard as steel; the humans ended up hurting themselves far more than me, it was the spirits who also got into the act a few times. Ended up bruising from some of their beatings, certainly felt more like a prisoner these past few weeks."
Montana glanced sidelong at her sister ship, "As much as I'd like to be mad at them for doing that to you. You were there, I was not, and if anything my ChEng's report is to go by, you were better off there by yourself."
NoDak nodded, "Yeah, last couple weeks were okay though, their carrier force made it back home. Zuikaku I think it was, convinced Yamato to allow the carriers to use me as target practice; got painted a few times, was actually fun in some respects. Got to see carriers at work, with archery practice...."
The quartet of ships made their way back to Perth.
===============================
North Dakota here. My sister had hinted there would be a debrief, so a portion of my crew spent time copying logbooks and such on the safe side to be prepared. There were a lot of log books, considering half of them were also notes written up on some of the Japanese ships. It was much easier for me to simply produce written logbooks of what took place than to spend time recounting it all.
It took about a week after returning to Perth to get it all sorted out.
================================
The three Yamato battleships, together again at last, the destroyers escorted the three of them at a slightly less hectic pace then the American had set for them.
"So, what happened after you sank?"
Shinano thought before replying, "Well, I guess I blacked out, I did not expect to awake in someone's arms in the midst of rescuing me. Certainly did not expect to be in a human form nor rescued by Montana herself-"
"What/Huh?"
Shinano nodded, "I have it in my log books, she was also in human form...." She proceeded to tell her sisters about being aboard the South Dakota and most of the points after.
===========================
"Hai Admiral-dono, as my logs state, I was never in any prisoner camp due to several factors; my being female in appearance, and the fact that any self defense I would do would harm the other prisoners in a fatal manner."
"I see, and during the recent......"
"No, I did not, I took measures so that my crew could not jeopardize my well being...."
"Ok, and were you able to gather any......"
"All of what is in my logs is the truth sir...."
"It seems hard to believe Shinano....." One of the only Generals present commented and ventured into his opinion.
------------------------
Yamato and Musashi frowned when their sister exited the debriefing chamber; they'd heard almost everything through the thin walls. Shinano only beckoned them along and hurried outside and they did not stop until they reached the end of a pier.
"That....that, General!" She angrily picked up a rock and threw it into the distant horizon of the bay. "He kept....." She vented at her sisters, and Yamato put her hand on her sister's shoulder.
"I know, its part of society here, unfortunate, but true. Most Army personnel anyway are not the best people. Extremely odious when they start in on you for something unable to be changed."
"Speaking of change," A new voice said that belonged to Nagato's spirit. "I have a possible assignment of interest to you regarding...."
-----------------------
Shinano closed her eyes and tried to think calm and peaceful thoughts, "Are you sure Nagato?"
A nod was her answer, followed by a more elaborate answer. "A country should be unified in the goals; the Army has been less than accommodating lately." The flagship glanced at her steel hull before continuing, "The Admiral is aware of what I'm about to ask you to do and this is at the Emperor's request." The Spirit glanced around again before she started talking in a quieter tone than before. "His Majesty is really quite annoyed with the Army brass........."
The trio of Yamatos listened quietly, Shinano steeled herself and bore under the weight of expected responsibility, she would not dishonor her sisters by shirking expected duty. It was a crazy plan, but according to Command, it could work.
"......unicate using your RDF......."
Musashi listened closely, deeply interested in this apparently clandestine assignment, being it had been approved by the Emperor no less. She would do her part to carry it out, bringing more glory to her sisters and herself.
".......assinate A and........"
Yamato stood listening grim-faced, she thought back to the few weeks she had escorted the American around. The gaijin would've been eager to participate in this sort of operation, too bad it was limited to her family of ships; nonetheless, she would do what she expected to, her duty to the Empire.
".....mperor trusts you will do your duty to Japan."
"We understand what must be done......." They reply back and proceed to verify by recollection.
Nagato nods approvingly and hands out navigation aids. "You will get more assistive equipment before you depart for this place...."
====================================
"....Still can't believe the Yanks let women....."
Montana sighed internally as she left the human base HQ building, her crew already looking at the message she'd gotten from Sydney, where the carriers were. She didn't run into very many who were "old-fashioned" these days, but she was reminded of it at times when she had to come to the RAN building to pick up some messages. Entering the USN section of the base, she went through the identity process check on auto-pilot while much of her focus was on the message sent by Halsey.
"......Joint carrier and Battleship exercise/operation......."
Interesting indeed. She'd heard about the catastrophic loss of the steel hull carriers, along with their near instant re-animated state as human like. This sort of thing could prove useful in the future, provided certain things happed, like say, sinking SoDak's hull. Granted, Montana felt it would be extremely difficult to convince her little sister to allow such a thing, even citing symmetry of the class as a reason; silly though it seemed.
----------------------------
South Dakota looked at Captain Dawson for advice, said Captain grimaced and sighed, "Well that would free me and others up for duty elsewhere, but its your choice SoDak."
The aforementioned ship frowned, "This is going to sound weird, but.... I see you Captain, or I will see you in my hull and yet I'll also see you here here in reality; that of itself will be weird."
Captain Dawson blinked as he processed that statement, nodding. "Yeah, crazy."
"Let's get to it Captain, let's ask the Teaboats for....."
======================================
Well, she did it, not to say I'm proud of pushing her that way, but it gets hard when your sisters have more seeming flexibility in ability to travel then you do. Case in point being when I exchanged Shinano for NoDak, but that's not the main point here.
How does a ship girl kill herself? I'd imagine the worst way would be not being able to find food in any sort of reasonable quantity to have a decent supply. How SoDak did it was ask a British submarine to assist her; it only took the entire stock of torpedoes to do so, nothing major or anything [sarcastic]. The point is, that even attempting to sink one's self is very hard process. In theory, a ship's skin can bend to her own will, and yet, what if that's not the case? What if the skin will protect from self harm as well? You see where I'm going right? I heard NoDak shout something, going to check; be back later to write more.
----------------------------
North Dakota hugged her sister as she cried, glaring half-heartedly at their oldest sister standing in the doorway awkwardly with her head hung in sadness. The room was empty of humans where before there had been people there, most of them from South Dakota's crew who had made up the bulk of the USN Joint Operation Between OtherWorldly Ships and Humans. The eldest ship also basically blockaded the door while her sisters had their moment, blocking most of the view of curious ship spirits.
"I'm sorry Yank," Began HMS (a)Ustralia for the third time. "I didn't kn-"
"-You thought it would work, so we tried it." Montana's normal contralto was off by several magnitudes to the British sub girl, so the platinum haired risked a glance at the battleship to find an orange eye staring at her. "Go for now Oz-boat....."
------------------------
The sub girl left the building and basked in the evening light momentarily before swinging her course toward the RAN section of the base. Pausing to look at the Prince of Wales hull in the American drydock, she considered that least one thing had come out of this situation. Even though PoW had been in the dock for near a month now, there had been concern that the ship would manifest in some form. But the Prince remained a cold steel-hull even after Ustralia had sacrificed herself for the battleship's continued survival. Ustralia recalled the past year with a lingering sadness as she neared the sectional checkpoint.
The original HMS Australia had been in Batavia when the Japanese attacked the harbor on December 1st, the surface ship had taken a couple bomb and torpedo hits before sinking. Ustralia became the unofficial replacement for HMS Australia at the time, though she wouldn't know it until after her hull had been sunk on December 7th. The submarine shivered internally as she was waved through the checkpoint.
She could still remember it, her "luck" at just having finished fueling up from the Prince when the fateful air attack started. Her hull took the torpedoes meant for that battleship, which basically meant that no human survived, except for the inexplicable; herself.
----
"Oi! we got a..... What the hell?! Woman overboard! Hop to it lads!"
It had not been a pleasant year for the boat turned human female, at least until this spring after the USN ships arrived. She'd been tossed in the local orphanage at first, but that lasted only for so long considering her construction before she practically ran the place in figurative terms. Her life changed when the US ships had come in, she'd been standing with her fellow orphans when something caught her eyes on the big ships. A weird flickering effect could be seen aboard South Dakota, and it only got worse as the ships eased into the docks, needless to say, this was something she needed to confirm right now. So, ignoring the startled calls of her orphan mates, the sub-girl raced to the edge of the pier and jumped in, her long disused rigging springing into being as she floated on the water for the first time since she was rescued.
Naturally, this caused some consternation at first, but that lasted until people noticed the Union Jack flying from her conning tower. Still, some issues did remain, it was extremely difficult for her to be taken seriously due to her small stature and appearance.
----
Even now, after the Yanks had established themselves and made the humanoid ship thing a known entity, there were those who were offended that their world had changed yet again in a way they didn't really understand. All she knew is that the American ships were somewhat annoyed with her now, despite having recorded Captain Dawson's consent to the experiment. She'd torpedoed SoDak's steel hull and NoDak had shouted in panic from shore, luckily, everything was tight beam and the incident had happened some distance from civilized areas in no known shipping lane proximity. Montana had slipped her a note to lay low for a week to a month before sending her out, still, the anxiety alone was stressful to her engines.
----------------------------
"...So its left to us to run this gig..."
"You have the facilities for it sister. I do not."
"SoDak..." Despite my weak protestation, I knew she was right. I did have the Command facilities enough to coordinate a large operation, so running something like JOBOWSH would be up my alley. "Chex, see to it." The midget sized figure climbed out of my jacket pocket and with some weird physics breaking mechanic, upscaled to be able to use the office contents.
"First is to notify people of the slight change...."
So, I am aware that my writing may not seem realistic just because of how I write. For instance, I realize that there's a lot more that goes into various functions, like meeting the Emperor or other high ranking officials. For the sake of the story however, I omit a great deal of that. Also, what I have come to label "code-wars" will be added later to this section. I have edited previous posts to include the counter intelligence issues and have actually started a vague pattern of Japanese messages.
It is a similar case when it comes to writing battles and planning and that sort of thing. There's a great deal going on for battle planning that I don't talk about, and you know, just because I don't talk about it does not mean that said activity is not going on. A great deal of what we know happened in WW2 Pacific side is due to codebreaking being a thing. Guadalcanal has been more difficult this time, even though I've never commented on it. I plan to make some acknowledgement in story referencing various ships that this time took part in semi-familiar areas of interest.
All because I'm more focused on Japan rather than the U.S. side of things; and that turn is effectively coming up. I'm annoyed over a few points in WW2, Army vs Navy in more than a few countries, Hitler and Stalin, why I got rid of both of them. Too much death, they had to go. Sure, I understand that a few of us today incidentally likely owe our very existence to either of those two people indirectly, and that its impossible to ferret out just the precise situation or action that led to our being here etc.
Bismarck puts to sea June of 43, USS Texas is sunk, partially due to rougher waters and defending a convoy at the time. The Texas as ship girl is rescued by Bismarck, and it is on that return leg where Hood confronts Bismarck and is also sunk. There is a lot said that I don't say... In regards to Texas having a sawed off shotgun? Totally doable and fits that part of the country.
Just so people understand, I know some of this is quite rough and does not flow very smoothly... Comparing Shinano's debrief with NoDak's for example [the latter I haven't yet gotten to in any detail]; cultures are quite different and Army vs Navy is apparent [even though that is not very clear]. There's a lot of character polishing that could be added or edited in... But that aspect not necessarily my cup of tea for writing.
And as far as the last little weird plot goes? That's completely a ship girl thing... And yes, I do touch on re-incarnation a bit, but you may notice a difference in some regards compared to other stories.... Specifically, the technology thing.....
Comment, it will be a while before the next section is added anyway, I don't care if you dislike this or like it, have questions, please comment. Adding Counter-Intelligence sub sections to most posts. Yet to be properly addressed in this post. As you may notice, I've added some things... Would like to know people's thoughts on this iteration of Hitler....
Apologies to @LtRainbowSlash for borrowing some concepts.... Then again, writing is a hodgepodge of ideas anyway, bits and pieces from everywhere...
September - October will likely be the next installment, there's a lot happening with the characters. HMS Ustralia is my own amalgamation, a U class submarine like Upholder. Its interesting writing her. There will be more revealed later with her story. As for the Yamatos, that's something to find out... Later.
So, this is only the first part... And it is not what it looks like either.
Warning, Mature reader advisory here towards the end, Nothing outright, but certainly in that direction.
===================================
September 1943
It was a typical day in the South Pacific off the south coast of Australia, Hornet decided as she watched the bow of the Enterprise rise and fall between the waves. The change of seasons was certainly something to get used to, it was winter going to spring here instead of the Northern Hemisphere's cycle.
"Curious, isn't it?" A voice broke into Hornet's thoughts, she turned her gaze to E, who continued speaking, "Why Perth would suddenly request a different meeting due to unusual circumstances."
"Mmm. You ever met the Montanas E?" Hornet returned her gaze to the seemingly endless swells of a winter storm.
"No, this will be the first time."
A new voice broke into the conversation, "We are still superior though. Battleships are on their way out-"
"-But all it takes is a well placed shell from one to ruin your day, Wasp."
The neon green haired carrier shrugged, "True... So, are we there yet?"
Enterprise frowned, "Two more days if the weather cooperates, we'll be there next week either way."
=================================
The sunset redhead frowned at the tense atmosphere in the steel stateroom and looked toward the ethereal blonde head visible by way of a mirror. "You told me to get her and I did-"
"-Thanks Yank, now go." The spirit watched the other one glare at her briefly and leave. Prince shivered for a moment, feeling the other ship go topside before focusing on the submarine before her. "I'm sorry that I've refused to be more friendly to you 'Stralia. Its just that I feel useless here, my guns, they don't fire right; they jam up and cause issues......"
Ustralia listened as the blonde listed a whole litany of problems that her crew had no seeming answer for. Somewhat stunned that the seemingly happy ship spirit she knew over a year ago had degenerated to, well, a shell of herself.
".....So that's why I don't want to come back 'Stralia. Me guns are 'uck ups and......" The spirit in the mirror broke down crying, "I-I'm sorry..... f-for being a fail-"
"OH FOR FLIPPING DAVEY JONES PRINCE, DON'T EVEN GO THERE!" Montana loomed in the doorway, her orange eyes seemingly glowing in the dim room as she glared at the blubbering spirit.
Ustralia blinked, for such a big ship, the Yank was sure quiet on her feet. With that said, she did agree with the big ship too. "What she said Prince; you are not a failure for a ship! Why would you even think that? Because of your guns going haywire on occasion-"
"-Don't mention the circus that the MK-14 is...." Montana muttered as the British sub plowed on.
"Guess what, we've all been there at some point. Guns jam, torpedoes glitch out, armor has chinks in it. Stuff will always go weird at some point. You think our Yank friend has it any easier than you do? Think about it for a second, both of you have oddball gun sizes, did it ever dawn on you that you could maybe talk to her about it?-" A light hand on the submarine's head stopped her tirade.
"Easy kiddo," Montana smiled toward the small boat in the room. "I think your point has been made clear to both of us. We are effectively unique here, and we could use some time to compare gun stories." The redhead paused as her radio room caught a blurb, "At a later time however, looks like new arrivals, want to go topside to greet them?"
The spirit in the mirror paused, then gave a short nod. "Thank you 'Stralia. See you up there."
======================================
"....Carrier..." The British submarine muttered as she stared at the Enterprise being nudged into the docks previously mooring the South Dakota.
Montana spotted the telltale flickering of ship girl hulls, "Actually, more than that. Seems like E brought some friends."
"E?"
"Sorry, Enterprise."
"...Glad our Enterprise is in the Atlantic right now."
"Do we have our shared language to blame for this?"
"We both know the answer to that one Yank."
"Let me know if your Enterprise tries to become a carrier."
"Pah! Like that'll happen!"
---------------------
HMS Enterprise rubbed her nose, then glanced over at USS Campbelltown. "So your Enterprise is a carrier?"
"Yup!"
The British ship nodded absently. "Interesting..."
---------------------
"That's odd," Wasp pointed toward the British steel hull, "What's Montana doing there?"
Enterprise shrugged, her ethereal nose having ceased itching a moment ago, she spotted the Dakotas on the dockside among the other base personnel. "She'll likely tell us later."
--------------------------
Once the landing paperwork and ceremony had concluded, Enterprise traded half her crew dockside for the entire ship girl contingent plus relevant officers. Meaning that one of her largest officer's eateries was set aside for this meeting. Uniforms could be seen for USN, RN, and RAN with one or two Dutch attendees as well. However, the main course of discussion would revolve around the battleships and the future of JOBOWSH.
=================
It was a giant u shaped design of tables which Halsey opened the meeting to and introduced the first to speak. "....General MacArthur, as I understand, you had overseen the initial creation of JOBOWSH, so before we get into the joint exercise stuff, we should go over the recent changes."
The General rose and spoke from his seat at the table, "I am given to understand that both Montana and South Dakota have more experience regarding the current status of JOBOWSH than I do. Therefore I yield the lectern to South Dakota."
South Dakota frowned, but brushed her uniquely colored hair out of her eyes before standing and taking the spot at the lectern. "Greetings fellow ships, naval and army officers. As many of you present know, the creation of JOBOWSH initially depended on several crew of my steel hull; which you may have noticed, is not present at the docks." She continued on, proffering a hand to forestall any attempt at discussion at this time of her speech.
"JOBOWSH was initially under my commander, a Captain Dawson. Who oversaw the organization as best he could for the past few months....." The 28 gun battlewagon continued explaining out the situation, going over many of the details the best she could, glancing at Montana briefly, she came to the most recent portion of her speech.
"It was after Montana returned from her exchange mission for North Dakota that I started seriously reconsidering having my steel hull." She felt the presence of both Montana and the short submarine flanking her, "It was due to the suggestion of HMS Ustralia and encouragement by Montana herself that pushed me to float the idea to Captain Dawson about my steel hull." South Dakota paused to briefly sip some water and looked out to the crowd, seeing RAN, RN, USN, the few destroyers and plowed on.
"At this time, I will read a statement by Captain Dawson endorsing and supporting my decision to detach from my steel hull." She pulled a small packet of papers which became normal size on the lectern. "I, Captain Dawson of the USS South Dakota, affirm that my faith has been placed in South Dakota's choices regarding the fate of her steel hull, and by extension, the fate of her crew. Whether her choice is to keep or divest her steel hull, I as her Captain and commander of all the people assigned to crew this battleship, resign our fates to her choices from now till whenever the end comes." SoDak flipped a page.
"After having learned of South Dakota's intent to utilize HMS Ustralia's offer of assistance in steel hull removal. I, as the South Dakota's Captain, thusly informed her crew to make final preparations. If worst should in fact come to worst, and we humans die with her steel hull. Then the command of JOBOWSH shall pass to the command crew of USS Montana with continued support by both South and North Dakota." The paragraph went on for another minute before Captain Dawson's final statements.
"As of now, I would like to inform those who it may concern that the HMS Ustralia volunteered herself to assist South Dakota in resolving the issue with her steel hull. None of the submarine's intent was vitriolic in any way, she did what she said she would do to the letter. In no situation or cirmstances should the Submarine HMS Ustralia be punished for her voluntary actions by either the Royal Navy or the US Navy. Ustralia has served with distinction despite her status since December 7th, 1941...."
South Dakota finished up her spiel and after introducing Montana, she hastily returned to her seat before trying mightily to reign in her emotions.
----------------
Montana eyed the various people in the room, considering the various admirals, captains and generals in the audience. "Many of you will note that HMS Ustralia is still by my side; there are reasons for this. Yes Ustralia was the one to sink my sister's steel hull, and to the credit of the builders in the States and the dock workers here, it took the submarine's entire torpedo stock to insure my sister's hull sank....... As has been previously mentioned, Ustralia is not to be punished for her actions, and myself and my sisters will be displeased should any punishment be handed down........"
"...As for JOBOWSH, Captain Dawson and relevant crew disappeared from the office at the time South Dakota's steel hull went under. Myself and my sisters initially had the hypothesis that her Captain would remain living despite her steel hull being gone. Obviously, this thought did not turn out to be true, however, we must emphasize, that Captain Dawson gave his approval for South Dakota's experiment no matter the outcome......"
".....is of my thought, and after much discussion with fellow JOBOWSH members that the carrier forces be integrated into JOBOWSH if they either have returned as a ship humanoid or have manifested to at least a semi-visible state of being....."
"....Finally, the treatment of the fairer gender.... As ships, we have crew who many of you knew, all of us who are ships right now, have access to those crew. All of said crew being males, and we have to say this because it is true. All of you have refered to us ships as female at one time or another. Hence what you see is what you get, a ship compiled into a female entity; the guns, the engines, the armor, the crew, the sensors. All of it is here in this form....."
Montana finished up by giving an anatomy lesson on ships to those present, like showing in general where parts of the ship would be and their rough human form translations. She kept things vague enough, but at the same time detailed enough for both sensibilities and engineering. Sharing some of North Dakota's logged observations on how ship girls handle violence from humans.
Finally, after about five hours, it was decided to break for the evening, because there was a lot for the humans to go over and discuss amongst themselves.
------------------------------
"That was quite a heavy lecture."
Montana glanced at the hat wearing blonde beside her and resumed staring west into the sunset. "Hornet."
"Yeah, tomorrow, you'll hear from us carriers on Rabaul." The blonde eyed the extra fiery head next to her, "One of the things you'll hear about is a Japanese carrier squawking in the clear, we, and I mean all of us spirits at the time; heard every Japanese word plain as day."
Montana nodded, "When I went to retrieve NoDak, one of their destroyers mentioned a Temperamental crane; and NoDak herself later all but confirmed said moniker to be linked to Zuikaku. Who is a ship girl now, along with most of their fleet carrier force according to my sister's logs."
Hornet blinked, "Yorkie was right then. Their carrier arm is now far more dangerous-"
"Yup. One of the things we need to discuss with you as a class is aircraft launching methods. North Dakota's insight and logbooks from being a Nipponese guest will feature heavily in those discussions."
"Right." Hornet then shifted the topic, "About what you said with our crews," The carrier blushed into the sun, "Well, most of my men were-are-barely into their 20s. Its hard to understand how our builders found time to even build us, considering how much time they seem to spend contemplating romance."
Montana nodded slowly, "Yeah," She paused to shake off a blush. "There's reasons I don't go down that road of thought. One of my crew is a very good artist......"
Hornet gaped in embarrassed astonishment as the battleship told her of a piece of art that hung in the captain's state room. It was obvious to the carrier that the big ship hated telling the story, considering how intense the embarrassment seemed to be.
"...While the one Yamato class was here, we had some interesting discussions and exchanges, one slightly related to what I told you about-"
"-About what?"
"Blasted...." The two capitals turned to find Ustralia looking curious, "Oh, Oz-boat....."
"I think its crazy how us big ships with thousands of crew can be so easily scared by ships who carry hardly more than a hundred people." Wasp joined the discussion, carefully redirecting the topic.
"Now that you mention it......."
-----------------
Ustralia here. It isn't too hard for me to pick up on what the capitals had been talking about, considering there were crew I had aboard who partook in that activity. I can only frown to myself as people once again reflexively change topic because of how young my hull may look. I have to look inward once again and glare at my crew in general; its not their fault really, but all of their thoughts, personalities, attitudes; all of that combine makes up my personality, despite my looking female. It happens to be quite a dichotomy, let me tell you, anyways...
"I was sent by Prince, she wanted to discuss the things she heard today at the meeting." The submarine looked at the two carriers, "I guess you can tag along too if you want." Trying to be inclusive and welcoming even knowing that Prince would just rather not talk to new people just yet.
"Lead the way."
"We'll catch up with you later 'Tana."
=======================================
Notes:
So despite what it may seem, there is no shipping going on here, aside from cargo containers that is [Joke related to snowrunner and truck sims].
Yes, this is the first part where JOBOWSH is effectively made official, and things are made clear as to what happened to South Dakota's hull.
Yes, Prince of Wales is portrayed rather darkly with a semi-depressed vibe. This is intentional as to be different from the other story on here. Granted, PoW here is not a main character even though it may seem so at times.... And some of the transitioning is rough, I know... PM me suggestions...
The bulk of this part is explanation of what JOBOWSH is, and what the definition of potential members will be. My translation of various parts of a ship girl are as follows:
Head is akin to super structure, where radar, signals and communications are. Arms are effectively the main guns that she wields. Her body is similar to the hull, where fuel, ammo, food and supplies are stored in addition to the boilers and engineering. The skin and muscles are akin to the armor of her hull; the thicker the armor, the more dense her muscles and skin are. Legs; okay, the length of her legs generally equates to how fast her top speed is as a hull.
Montana class has 37knot top speed, which amounts to a generous leg height not to mention a 1500ft long hull meaning just really tall in general even though the Dakotas are 4000tons lighter than the name ship, so 7'7" for each Dakota compared to 7'11" for Montana rough ballpark height anyway...
Next part will be day two of the conference meeting thingy.
First a special thing.... Kinda shorter, but wanted to get this out today.
==================================
Special Independence Day Propoganda Film
---------------------------------------
A camera plane flies low over the water, headed toward a spot on the horizon that looms closer as the plane approaches. An overlay of a female face appears, were it technicolored, the female would have red hair and orange eyes; emblazoned on the bottom of this overlay is the ship name. "U.S.S. MONTANA". All the guns on this first ship are turned to port, each turret firing in sequence about 500 or so feet in front of the plane, but below the camera on the plane's underbelly. As the first ship is flown over, the word "Freedom" is imprinted across the screen, disappearing as the first ship disappears from view. The plane moves on to the second ship, where much like the first, an overlay of a female face appears, this time, a light brunette with green eyes with "U.S.S. NORTH DAKOTA". This disappears, and the guns once again start firing with the word "Liberty" appearing on the screen. The second ship completed, the third flyover begins with a now almost expected facial overlay of an American flag hair color and blue eyes with "U.S.S. SOUTH DAKOTA" before being replaced with "Life" as the third ship fires its guns.
The screen blanks a moment then reappears with the plane flying toward three ships broadside on. The words previously displayed reappear as "Liberty, Freedom, Life" a second before the trio of ships fires off a massive broadside. Two seconds later, a freeze frame is applied with the phrase "The Montana Class of Battleships, protecting America's devotion to Freedom, Life and Liberty." Smaller print: "Join the Navy today! Ensure future Independence Days!"
====================================
North Dakota stretched after having finished transferring the last log book to the upscaled form. "That's the last of them from storage." There were a few stacks of logs, each sorted by various categories, such as Yamamoto, Nagato, Mutsu, Kongo, Yamato, the Emperor, Hiei, Shimakaze, Yudachi, Carriers, Japanese carrier weaponry, Kaga, Akagi, Zuikaku, Shokaku. The collection of information was rather astounding.
MacArthur eyed the stacks of log books, "Can I start with the admiral?"
"As long as it doesn't interfere with the carrier stuff later, sure...." NoDak saw the General pick out one of the thicker volumes and grinned internally, mostly setting aside important stacks like the carrier observations for Halsey and the others to look at the following day. A few minutes later, some chuckling came from the General's direction. "Sir?"
MacArthur looked up, his face in a rare amused mode, " I have to say, this guy's a real piece of work for his astute observations. It's amazing that we are where we are now..." He went back to reading, only a few more pages later commenting once again, "It's like he correctly predicted the attitude of a country. "...Japan has no hope of defeating America outright, no, we must hope for a situation where they are forced to rebuild a portion of what is initially destroyed... My best estimate of time needed to consolidate holdings is Nippon being allowed up to a year of free roam time before the piper calls..." Utterly crazy, but if what happened at Pearl was his handy work. Guy's got balls alright...."
North Dakota left the General to his reading and left for the main deck. She was ambivalent toward the Japanese at this point, having had too much exposure to their various ships for her to really be objective. Hard to not change an opinion having met Kongo and others after all.
------------------------------------
"How do you do it Kongo? You ever think that one day, you meet your cousins in battle?"
Kongo frowned in thought, "If you and I were to end up fighting each other, I don't think there's any doubt I'd be the one sinking. I don't really have any choice not to fight as I'm a steel hull." She sipped her tea, closing her eyes briefly, sighing. "War is fecal business dess....."
---------------------------------------
NoDak nodded at the memory as she looked to the east, over the sleepy portside town where the day was just beginning to dawn.
=====================================
The two corporeal carriers eyed the three stacks of books, each labeled differently; "Insight into the Enemy", "Carrier Training Japanese style" and "Possible Carrier Girl Weapons".
"The carrier training stack is slightly dubious, as it is a mix of their human practices and my observations on their post-transcendent training."
"I see," Commented Hornet, who then picked one of the weapons books. "Hm, bows, crossbows..."
Wasp picked up the other weapons book, "Guns," she remarked in an interested tone. "Springfields, Garands, Gatlings?!" She looked at NoDak. "Explain."
"Much of the guns section actually came from my own engineers after consultation with some of the Japanese carrier spirits. You understand of course, that what I call consultation was in fact my being used as target practice for them...."
"So what sort of weapons do you suggest for us?" Enterprise walked into the conversation.
"That is entirely your choice as it depends on what you normally carry plane wise and the number of planes you want to put in the air at a time. Gatlings could be useful for those with heavy fighter compliments, while rifles or arrows are more geared toward bombers or torp squads..."
-----------------------
"You had reported at least 4 carriers sunk off Rabaul, right?"
Enterprise nodded, "Correct."
North Dakota nodded slowly, "You should be happier you know," The battleship marked all the Japanese carriers as sunk. "That is what eventually happened, according to Zuikaku and Kaga. You had sunk 5 carriers at the battle, and Zuikaku had to be scuttled at Rabaul due to damage. So you converted most of their Kido Butai into Ship girls, granted they did similar to our side too, but they don't know that."
"I see."
"As for what happened to you, I'm surprised more of you made it through that day considering how enemy squads were laying torps every which way."
"I know, right?"
===================================
Notes:
Just wanted to get this out and done with considering the special bit at the start.
"That was highly risky of you to suggest Admiral."
"I know, but it also worked Nagato." Isoroku stood and looked at the map posted on the wall, "We may not win in the end, but we need to not simply allow them to walk all over us." The aged eyes traced over east Asia while he continued to speak. "With phase one of the Yamato Project complete, we can begin Phase Two."
Phase 2 of the Project involved consolidation of Nippon's position by redistributing IJA assets closer to more defensible positions. Rabaul was to be.... derelict along with Port Moresby, hopefully by the Americans. Effectively, there would be a cessation of support from the Navy for the IJA, without those forces on the ground knowing about it. He began drafting orders along those lines for the Navy commanders in that area....
---------------------
"Redistribution, Redistribution. Naval resources needed further north, leave Moresby Land units unaware. Consolidation underway. May the Sun rise on Nippon Forever."
-----------------------
Hours later, an undisclosed location in Australia; a coding supervisor approached the facility commander. "So, a message here directing Navy units... Sacrificing the Army in Moresby? Interesting. Let the relevant commands know..."
===================================
Off Sumatra
A week later, the entire fleet was on the way to Moresby again, this time, we battleships got to do some practicing of shore bombardment of Sumatran oil frields. The first time I've been in my full size form since I sank; the feeling was glorious, It was also the first time we used carrier assisted spotting.
"So, what's your range?" Asked Hornet. she stood on my bow in her rigging form, providing just a bit of a list considering my guns were fully portside and elevated. She'd already launched her spotter and was letting it fly toward a halfway point between us and the big Indonesian island.
"57,000 yards. 76 calibers for my guns mean a lot of range."
Hornet nodded, "Ok, sending you targeting info, and jumping over the side."
"Right." I squinted, effectively using my Fircon as a scope, letting the reticle representations of my guns settle into the target area Hornet provided before mentally hitting that big red button.
-----------
Hornet stared in shock as Montana's hull actually rocked back in the water, the concussive waves pushing the water out from the ship below each set of guns as they fired. A twenty-one gun salute toward one of the Sumatran oil fields. Hornet figured that said field was a write-off now, and she wasn't far off in her mental estimation. "Good hit... at least one main well head hit..."
----------------
Prince stared at the horizon dumbly with Ustralia by her side on the former's bow. "50 kilometers...." She quietly said as if in a daze. The firepower was awesome to behold, even if it wasn't originating from her guns. The British ship watched her counterpart's giant oblong rear turrets rotate for a more proper reloading angle and shook her head slightly. The KGV class had never imagined to be outclassed by an ally; right after she'd been commissioned, she'd thought she was the queen of the sea, then she was sortied to the Med, missing meeting the upstart [according to Hood] by two months. Which was just as well she supposed, watching one of the smaller Montana's fire off a no less impressive 28 gun salvo. A sudden thought came to her, "Hey, 'Stralia, neither of us were around back in the day, but wouldn't you say that these Yankee ships are close to modern day ships of the Line?"
"Hmm..." Ustralia tilted her head slightly, then nodded slowly. "Indeed Prince... I think Montana herself is the scariest though... I'd hate to think if the Yanks ever turned that power on us..."
There it was, the monster beneath the bed so to speak; if the Americans ever went after her home, her king, the empire who built Prince, the submarine beside her, or the entire Navy wouldn't be able to stop them from wrecking the Royal Navy.
"I'm glad that they are on our side." Prince murmured as the rolling cacaphonic symphony finished its terrible and destructive chorus.
=============
"Sendai, Sendai. Sumatra Oil field south lost, shore bombardment. Battleship grade shells up to 435mm in diameter. Wellhead lost. Sun rises upon Nippon."
-------------------
"Sapporo, Sapporo. Java Oil field south reported destroyed. IJA elements badly damaged, requesting evac. Wellheads lost. Glory to the Empire."
--------------------
"Nagasaki, Nagasaki. Port Moresby under attack by enemy naval forces-"
==========================
Yamamoto pinned Moresby on the map and stared at his staff. He knew they had all read some of the logbooks from Shinano on the Montanas, primarily because he had ordered that they be aware. He paused in thought as an orderly came in.
"Message from the Musashi Sir." He took the paper and read its contents; "731 neutralized. O and I secured."
The Japanese CNO grimaced, "Ok, we will work on defending......."
==========================
Moresby was..... a very different place for us battleships. Myself and my sisters were given the ugly task of street fighting, and when one is packing massive smackdown in pistol sized weapons; precision is rather lacking. I don't think Australia will let us help them with clearing out a town again anytime soon. We leveled city blocks on top of Japanese infantry, if they were holding people hostage, well, far too late for that now. The anti-tank weapons we systematically strode up to the guns and then bent the barrels in such ways that had the enemy running for the hills. Granted, forcing surrender was pretty easy when entire tank squads are disintegrated by one shell grouping. Too bad we didn't feel like taking prisoners by the time we got to the enemy hq. We simply stopped and let the humans do their thing. I used my secondaries where I could though, but buildings still got shredded and manifesting some of our rigging caused some streets to sink into the muck below, made life fun.
The surrender wasn't so much a surrender as it was capitulation.
"So, where's your leader?"
"Ano, you're stepping on him-"
I applied some extra weight.
"-Grrk!"
"Oh, well, he appears to be dead-"
"I surrender!"
"Good, wait one will you?"
An Australian commander was flown in and surrender was finalized. Then my sisters and I started flattening the forest for stragglers and once a 20 mile zone of emptiness had been achieved, we returned to the water and began our debrief.
--------------------------
Cleanup duty, I suppose its only fair since we caused a fair portion of the damage but that's not the part we detest. It's the soldiers and engineers who we are "assisting" who are annoying. I don't get it, me and my sisters are near 8ft tall personifications of warships, and yet because of how we look, we often get asked if we need any help. I've taken to staring them dead in the eye and casually applying enough horsepower in the act of lifting an entire section of building.
"...Oh right, you're one of those..."
I'm sure they mean well on the surface, but considering my own crew and my own personality; I try to simply avoid interacting with too many males, it is difficult to avoid sometimes. Anyway, helping to repair Port Moresby will take a couple weeks, so the next portion of the campaign will be handled by the carriers.
=======================================
October, 1943
Somewhere between the Solomons and Philippines, a submarine floated just under surface, a pipe in the water observing a convoy of ships in the area.
"...Let's see, first target, the cruiser, designate Alpha 1, adjust for course and speed.... Headed roughly 357 at 10 knots. Flood tubes 1 and 2... Targets Beta, Cygni, one torp each, tubes 3 and 4. Fire!"
--------------
Tenryuu blinked as one of her lookouts spotted the incoming torpedoes, not that she could do anything about it as the lookout had spotted them too late with the somewhat rolling seas.
--------------
Albacore watched as her first torpedoes hit the cruiser. causing what looked to be moderate to heavy damage. "Huh, new batch works.."
---------------
The convoy of Japanese Army troops headed to the Philippines from Guadalcanal never reached their new posting due to Albacore. 9 transports hit and sunk outright, one sunk to being overloaded, and the cruiser eventually sank from damages and flooding.
=========================
A reminder to read the spoilered sections too.
I feel that at times we mousetrap ourselves into certain modes of thinking; that how it happened historically is nearly the only possible way for something to happen. This is not true, but things are documented primarily by the winners and not the losers in a conflict.
Also, I still have number issues in regards to range. At this point, if I go by the estimate that a single caliber is roughly 750 yards long. I end up with 57,000 yards at 76 calibers. Versus 50 calibers resulting in a max range of 37.500 yards. These are some long barrels here, hence why the turrets themselves are oblong shaped, with the extra support needed to help stabilize the turret as it rotates due to the weight of the longer barrels.
You will note that Albacore sinks Tenryuu just like in otl. Not necessarily sure what went on otl, but Tenryuu was playing convoy escort this time around. Still, this au isnt completely of the rails from otl.... Yet =P
And to once again remind readers that the Montanas are a variant of the Tillman-IVs, aka the Tillman IV-K [check other story in my sig].
Planes, as far as the eye could see, in nearly every direction. Enterprise could see some of the other spirits riding along on choice planes. Saratoga, Victorious, Hornet and others rode along on the first sortie to the Philippines. This mission was a scouting/bombing run to better ascertain certain aspects of a probable future venture.
--------------------------
Nagato whipped her head toward where her radar pinged and bit back an epithet. "Incoming aircraft from the south. Those who are able, prepare for evasive maneuvers! Scramble air defense!"
"Got one!"
"I-19's been hit!"
"My turret!"
"My eye!"
"Torpedoes to port! Aw-"
"Yuudachi!"
"Got another one!"
"Kus-"
"Inazuma, NO!"
"Huh? Nanodes-"
"Nagato-nee, look out!"
"Wha-kuso-"
------------------------
Some of the ships were able to get up a bit of steam, but most simply had turned most of their guns skyward in an attempt at anti-air defense. Japanese AA was rather weak in the knees, so most of the ensuing damage to the enemy forces was done by the defending air born defense, which was still on the weak side. It was only after most of the damage had been that fighters from the Ryujou had started showing up and had been asked to pursue the leaving enemy hordes.
Most of the makeshift docks had been forcefully redistributed by the raid, and quick thinking crews had cut the lines mooring their ships to somewhat minimize damages so that sinking docks would not sink ships too. Granted, a few ships would have to be refloated after damages were ascertained. There was far more damage to the area around the port than the port itself due to the nature of mid to high altitude bombing, and that would be the lion's share of cleanup.
------------------------------
Nagato took stock of the assembled group of ships as well as the small number of mostly shell shocked humans. Mutsu, Yuudachi, I-19, Inazuma, and Kirishima. Mutsu, being her sister ship, was dressed in a similar fashion, greatcoat over a skirt and blouse. Kirashima looked to have a sort of miko outfit topped by an officer's jacket mostly for purposes of modesty. Yuudachi wore what appeared to be a modified sailor's top with a skirt, Inazuma wore the same thing, but in white. I-19 was perhaps the most covered individual here, if you went by the amount of skin actually shown; she wore a full body swimsuit that also covered her arms and legs underneath a submariner's jacket and shorts. She also carrier what appeared to be a torpedo launcher type thing with a scope on it.
"First off," Nagato spoke to the small ground of Manifested, "We need to make for the Home Islands to let people know what happened. Captain," She addressed the Captain of the Kongo. "Like it or not, you will be our ride home. Please let Admiral Yamamoto know of what transpired here."
The captain frowned, but saluted. "Yes sir."
========================================
In the confines of a rudimentary pool, the Montana's sat, healing up while passing the time by talking. Contemplating the past few decades and appreciating the razor thin line of choices that enabled them to exist despite the country's issues. "Isolationism is a messed up way of thinking."
Montana looked toward the speaker, "I agree with you 'Stralia, I agree completely. All of my class of ships owe it to a former Senator and his forward thinking despite a society that had an ostrich mentally. War provides jobs in some aspects, but preparation is a thing as well. Without a forward looking President or people like the former Senator however, we would've been extremely ill prepared and caught flat footed if we woke up and discovered a fallen England. Had we not had the leadership we have, that is likely what would've happened with America given the desire for isolation....."
South Dakota signaled that she wished to speak. "...Um, yeah; so whenever I do sleep, I've had dreams of a divergence I guess one could call it. Where Naval funding was constricted despite the need for employment of the citizens. This dream had me as my own ship class, but the majority of ship construction was effectively too late to really have the hardware that was wanted......."
Montana nodded in thought, "I had a similar series of dreams myself; where the country started to ramp up, but stalled on the big ship production because not enough mining capacity had been developed....."
In truth Montana had had one dream where an isolationist government had effectively scuttled any attempt at assisting the world in the various conflicts. In that dream, America hadn't gone into ww1 and watched that European conflict just fizzle out in the early 20s. It was a country who reaped the profits of both sides. It was a problem of democracy really; in order to be in isolation or at least where no one bothered you, some defensive array was needed. At the same time however, the monetary expenditure could also go for other things, and usually did. However, to spite America, the Europeans [Britain really], pushed for a neutral sea rules treaty that basically was a written form of what happened in 1812. Yeah, that didn't go over well and war happened in the 30s over it.
===============================
Deep within Montana's hull, fairies were looking at the engines along with their counterparts from the recently created Materials Conversion Department. The MCD was a sublet of the Supplies and Resources Division which had to be created due to the sheer variety of incoming supplies needing conversion to consumables. For instance, a 76oz beef sirloin steak would hit the Incoming Resources room and get divided up according to use and need. Half of what was broken into more manageable sizes went the MCD for conversion into Fuel; Bunker C, freshwater, steam sanctioned water, ammo, etc. The other half of the broken down resources went to the Galley Storage for crew food.
However, when the rare piece of metal, ammo, or fuel was ingested, the material would be moved along to the appropriate area of the ship. Due to MB, or Magical Bolshevick as the crew coined it, the repair shop for the ship was much larger now than it used to be as who knew where the ship would be when repairs were needed? Specifically, when dealing with the engines, there was a great amount of complexity to the engines; it took time to change speed for one thing.
There were these things called Burner rods that basically controlled the amount of oil flow into the boilers. If a change of speed was requested, a crew fairy would, while wearing asbestos gloves, pull out a burner rod, and exchange the rod valve for either a larger or smaller size per the speed order. The burner rods would then be inserted back into the boiler and the process would repeat for each boiler. For the fairies, this process would take 15 to 20 minutes just for a simple speed change. However, due to MB, time within the hull did not flow like time outside the hull anymore, so yeah. Weird things happen.
=============================================
Note:
So, I'm having a block regarding carrier op stuff... However, I included a small bit of informative filler on Montana's engine room stuff, mostly since it kinda would be similar to an Iowa. Which is where this information comes from. A few days ago, Spartan_Elite43 posted a video part on his tour through the New Jersey; a very in depth look at the engine room. Which is where the little engineering portion comes from.
and why I use Bolshevik... Well, the first portion of Bullsh- sounds like Bolsh-, so it works.
So, I told someone about a week ago that I tended to dislike dark ending stories. Considering I'm also writing a story set in a war, dark stuff will happen regardless of my own predilections.
Ship girls were harmed in this writing. Please be responsible when viewing this post.
=============================================
Following the raid on the Philippines a weak ago, Naval High Command had decided to once again find the enemy heavies and sink them. Through Yamamoto, an order to sortie was sent out, which meant that Jun'yo and Taiho sailed as well.
"Scouting confirms enemy presence at Rabaul, carriers and battleships."
"Thank you Ensign." Isoroku turned to the other occupants of the room, "You know what to do."
"Hai., for the Empire."
Yamamoto watched as the females effectively dropped over the side of the ship and shook his head at the craziness of things. "I'm getting old."
---------------------------
Once each carrier had effectively positioned themselves to be in formation with the steel hulls, they prepared to launch their planes. That is, they all drew their bows and mentally went through the assorted squadrons for the mission. Torpedoes, lots of torpedoes.
The entirety of Kaga's allotment was torpedoes, Zuikaku's assortment was half torps and half CAP. Shokaku and Akagi, in addition to Taiho, were all fighter escort duty mixed with dive bombers. Jun'yo was a third fighter escort, CAP and what passed for Anti-submarine warfare.
------------
To the fairy crews, the launching seemed to take an eternity as planes were manhandled to the elevators and once on deck, fueled up and armed, then launched.
But to the carriers themselves, the launching only took a few minutes as the arrows fired morphed into full sized squadrons that grouped up and went on their way.
---------------
Each carrier effectively went into a sort of "Here, but not here." mode, closing their eyes and effectively re-orienting a "through the pilot's eyes" mode. The carriers had drilled hard over the past couple months to both get used to their new forms and work better as a cohesive unit together. It had been a very steep curve at first, both carrier divisions had to be extensively lectured by the CNO himself on working together to achieve a goal.
"Get the silly notions out of your heads both of you," He had said, rebuking their antics at one time early on in the training. "Pettiness and stupid rivalry only works against you. You all need to be focused on the task at hand, paying attention and being aware of what is around you..."
Now, while there were still some quirks of personality between the two ship girl carrier divisions, they worked like a trained unit, escort squadrons spaced out both in horizontal space and vertical space. With some of the various adjustments suggested by the carriers themselves as a way to improve their performance against the enemy. The escorting fighter squads were spread out as to both be spotter and early warning, with the foremost squadron skimming through the clouds and various other squadrons dispersed amongst the torpedo planes. The layout was very unorthodox compared to the old way of air training, and yet, this was an experiment of itself, to see if these carrier girls could do better.
This attack was under Zuikaku's command, she had put herself in nominal charge of the carrier girl division at a time when Kaga had still been recovering, and due to endorsement from High Command, the crane stayed in place. As a matter of fact, many of the improvements and adjustments to the carrier flight had been at the behest of the cranes or other carriers. Tradition was out the window with the carriers as kanmusu, and Yamamoto had taken extra time to make sure they all understood that.
Hence, what they were doing today, the opportunity to strike was present, and they'd taken that step. "Click, Beep, Click."
"Beep." Now entering contested airspace, the fighters spread out in squads as they came into contact with the enemy's cap.
========================
"Prince reports aerial radar contacts."
"Rog-" The air raid siren sounded. "-er. Headed to water now."
-----------
North Dakota frowned, her air search radar watching for planes. Her thoughts considering who she may be seeing in this battle.
"Looks like Vals, Kates and Zeros."
Well that was just dandy then. Her AA began firing when enemy aircraft could be spotted; 8 dual purpose 5 inch guns, 12 3" quad barrels, and 20 2" quad barrels. Multiple that by 3, and you had a massive amount of Anti-air being flung at the attackers.
"Got one!"
"I've been hit! Bomb through-"
"Torpedo in the water!"
"Good job AA, keep it up."
"Another one bites-"
"Coming in hot!"
"DamCon needed! Multiple Fires-"
"Torpedoes portside!"
"Turret A hit! moderate damage-"
"Portside TDS breached-"
"Got another one!"
"Flight deck damaged, fires under contr-"
"SARA!"
"Get those fires contained, or else-"
"Ah shi-"
"Get pressure to those hoses! We need to get these fires under-LOOK OUT!"
"Got another, looks like they're leaving."
"Oh good. Let's take stock and focus on cleaning up the damage."
-------------
Yeah, that was a mess. Saratoga settled into the harbor, but we managed to force her manifestation. On further investigation, it was determined by human Command that it was more effective to scuttle/scrap Sara's steel hull right there. However, before that happens, the repair facilities ironically need to be repaired so that we can heal up and repair.
After we managed to at least secure and seal the pool building, the cadre of us capital ships took stock of our damages for documentation purposes. I suffered a couple damaged main guns from bomb and or planes suiciding in addition to a couple torpedo hits. How that translated into human form damage was a couple dislocated fingers and the equivalent of a couple wounds in my leg.
Sara had to repair and heal the most out of us, it wasn't very pretty having to lead the carrier to the pool as her entire bridge was gone. Her flight deck was in tatters and her hangars were not habitable at that point. One of her screws was gone, resulting in a horrible limp, but now that the girl is resting at the shallow end of the pool; she should be good given time.
Prince.... She'd also lost her radar and suffered several torpedoes; its not clear yet what the Royals will do with her, and she hasn't manifested despite the efforts of Ustralia and myself. If it isn't obvious enough by my wording, Prince is heavily damaged, not like Sara was, but close enough that Royal Inspectors are looking her hull over to determine the feasibility of repair. After all, she did lose both screws and one of her quad turrets due to lucky bomb hits and torpedo attacks. Were she to be repaired, obviously it would need to be in Australia at the very least, a steel hulled dockyard for that one.
South Dakota got a great deal of her AA suite damaged and also suffered loss below the waterline due to torpedoes and simple aircraft strafing runs. Like all of us, our communication systems were damaged in someway, from radio send and receive to signal flags and lamps. SoDak's damage happened to be signals and air search radar along with the main fire control radar.
North Dakota's damage is likely the most detailed due to her brief time as a "guest" of the Japanese Navy. She breaks her damage down by which carrier the attacking squadron came from. Kaga's torpedoes only scored a hit on her rudder and in a seperate attack, a torpedo exploded on the TDS. Zuikaku's squadrons seemed to focus a great deal on strafing NoDak's AA suite; she estimates that nearly her entire AA compliment was wiped out despite heavy efforts of her AA gunners. North also remarked that she didn't see too many squadrons of fighters from Jun'you or Shokaku at least before her surface and fire control radar got destroyed, speculated that either their squads got chewed up by Sara's CAP and defense or were busy with defense of their fleet.
The docks did get torpedoed, one of my rudders got damaged from blast radius damage before I fully moved away from the dock. A couple of the storage buildings got hit, the pool was hit. Ustralia handled overseeing the fire extinguishing and building damage portion of stuff while we heavier ships dealt with the pool and getting it operational once again, meaning that we did have to refill it after it was water tight. The damage, while not as bad as it could have been, was certainly cause for concern; two ships effectively hamstrung, one lost for certain while the other was in operational limbo with the other major ships all damaged to some degree or another.
===================================
Yamamoto frowned, setting aside the message that had come from Manila in order to deal with what was in front of him currently, the four full Kanmusu standing rigidly at attention while the human commanders of the Jun'yo and Taiho stood present in the wardroom as well. "How did the mission go? Zuikaku?"
The younger crane spoke up, "The mission went well from what I was able to see and pick up from my pilots." Her facial expression wavered, "Most of my planes were lost however due to heavy AA fire, but that won't be a problem to repair sir! I just need a good meal and time in the pool and I'll be back to full strength on my pilots and planes... Sir."
The humans blinked and considered that piece of information, which was so revolutionary considering Japan's air wing policies up until this point. Their thinking turned to possible ways to use this feature, only the CNO forestalled the thoughts. "Kaga?"
"Sir, First carrier divisi-"
"Your own role please."
Kaga tried to keep the embarrassment to a minimum and adjusted her wording as she spoke. "-Yes sir. My squadrons did well in the face of heavy enemy fire, damaging or destroying at least two of their heavy ships and some of the docks. However, due to the skillfulness of enemy fire, many of my planes were lost on the mission."
A nodded of acknowledgement and a slight turning of the gaze, "Akagi?"
"CAP was undisturbed. The Val squadrons which were sent along reported a number of successful hits Sir. Plane losses were high."
"Seems like a common theme; Shokaku?"
"Sir, enemy resistance was heavy, and while a number of planes were lost due to the enemy CAP, our numbers exhausted theirs and the escort was successful, but again, at the mission area itself, many squadrons were lost to enemy AA fire. Some pilots pushed themselves to suicide runs Sir."
Yamamoto frowned and turned to the human commander, "And Jun'yo?"
"It is as they say sir. we lost some good pilots today and Jun'yo's airwing will need replenishment, not by the methods used by Kanmusu either. Sir."
Yamamoto frowned, more concerned over the loss of the Jun'yo's resources because of the fact that planes would need to be requisitioned and more pilots trained to replace the fallen. Likewise, it was similar with the Taiho; the squadrons that had gone had reported heavy losses in exchange for what seemed to be the loss of an enemy carrier and a battleship. He had no idea of the detailed damage that the raid on Rabaul had done and would not know for at least several days.
"At this point, we will set course for Nippon...."
----------------------
Yamamoto looked at the new arrivals would had come aboard the Taiho en-route to the Home Islands themselves; Nagato, Mutsu, Kirishima, Inazuma, Yuudachi and I-19. "Follow me."
After the group had moved to a significant interior room, the admiral took a moment to mentally muse on the hair colors of the kanmusu before him. I-19's being a sort of blue-green conglomeration while the destroyers, just what happened to make Yudachi's hair blonde anyway? Zuikaku had a dark forest green hair complexion while her sister had white hair. It was quite a menagerie to consider, and yet, it was easier to tell who was who in some respects. Seeing that the ships had all found seats he cleared his throat and began to speak.
"From what I understand, a few of you came under fire from a carrier raid while part of you conducted a carrier raid. However, after learning that your pilots effectively cannot die and planes can be recovered by simply eating and bathing." He held up a hand to forestall comment, "I realize I am oversimplifying things, but bear with me. My staff and I have discussed possible ways to use this to our advantage, however, it has also been suggested that we try to ascertain if the enemy carriers are like you are. And I find that to be the most prudent way forward, so... Yudachi and I-19 step forward. Also, I-19, if you could dispel your rigging?"
"I can do that?" The submarine closed her eyes and a moment later, her torpedo launcher disappeared along with the wetsuit, leaving her in a sailor outfit not unlike the destroyers. "Done sir, and if you could, please call me Iku sir."
"Noted. Now, from testing with the Yamatos, they have determined that they can shift to a near undetectable human mode should it be required. The problem is that they stand out too much for reasons of their hulls, you two would be more normal in that regard and thusly blend in far better."
"So, a highly sensitive mission behind enemy lines is what you're asking us to partake in Admiral?"
"I-yes Yudachi, that is it. You two are to collect information regarding any enemy kanmusu; their class, numbers, where they are located." He paused before continuing, looking at each of them to emphasize what he would say next. "Do not, under any circumstances, use radio communication to contact me unless it is absolutely life threateningly necessary to do so. This is an information gathering mission, no sabotage or anything that puts attention on you is to be done unless there is no way to avoid such action. This also means no unnecessary violence either. Is this clear?"
"Hai Admiral, for the Empire."
====================================
North of Port Moresby, between New Britain and New Guinea, there was a small port that had been cobbled together for use by the ship girl carriers. It was here that the force which had poked Manilla Bay earlier in the week had been directed to rather than Port Moresby itself.
It was also here that the first recon by ship girls against other ship girls was happening. Using land to mask their signature, the two Japanese got as close as they dared to the clearing edge to see what they could...
"Come join us!"
"-Poi?!"
"Don't be like that." An arm came out of the steam and grabbed Yudachi.
"POI!" Suddenly the Japanese destroyer found herself face to face with a freckled Fletcher, and instinct meant that Yudachi hit ship girl mode.
"Wha-OW, cut that out! Help guys, I'm under attac-glark."
Yudachi stared at the Fletcher she had just basically sunk with a point blank firing from her turrets.
"Fletch? What's going-Ack! Japane-" Yudachi triggered a full broadside of her torpedoes in the approaching carrier and then leapt at the surprised ship girl with her combat knife.
"Die, poi!"
The carrier tried to summon her rigging but was blindsided by the full broadside of torpedoes that slammed into her side. Yudachi just went for her throat with the knife, but was blocked by the carrier's longer reach, allowing the other enemy forces to close in.
"Iku, get out of here poi-ugh!"
---------------
Iku had stayed at the edge until her limited lookouts had spotted the enemy carrier forces. Three carrier girls at least, from what she could see before seeing Yudachi start wrestling with a carrier.
Nope, she was already running when Yudachi yelled for her go. Both of them knew what their orders had been, but the destroyer had been unprepared for the fletcher to pull her into the pond like that. The submarine ran, her form slider mentally shoved as human form as possible, trying to avoid detection. With luck, she could find a place to hide and escape in the dark, the information she had was important after all.
------------------------------------
Wasp and Hornet stared at the chaos as Lexington proceeded to stab at the Japanese destroyer with it's own knife. "Uh, Lex, I think she's dead."
After the other two carriers got over their initial shock, they examined their sister and found that, yes, she had taken a full 12 or more torpedoes to her midsection. Beyond where the enemy destroyer lay dead was the heavily damaged and inert form of Fletcher who's head had been blown off by a torpedo after the enemy destroyer had lunged for Lexington.
==================================
I-19 managed to catch up to the surface after two days of flank; upon climbing aboard the Taiho, she handed the admiral her notes. "Yudachi died in the fire fight sir...."
---------------
"I see, so she shot up one destroyed, spotted a carrier and attacked that one?"
"Yes sir, I finished off the destroyer with two torpedoes before getting out of there as enemy forces were alerted to our position. Yudachi had no way to know she'd be grabbed by an enemy destroyer sir, I'm pretty sure she managed to sink a carrier kanmusu with a torpedo broadside before being overwhelmed."
"I see, so torpedoes then... Would you be willing to go to Rabaul with-"
"Teitoku, Sir, if I may resupply first; I should be ready in an hour or two."
"... Alright."
===========================
Montana stared at Saratoga, who was chowing down on a piece of her steel hull, "I realize you need rest and repair Sara, but we will need to move-"
"Can we stay here another 48 hours?" Ustralia chimed in.
Just then, the TBS chimed in, "Hey, CV8 to BB59; we are incoming. Will update on arrival."
Montana frowned, "Did everyone hear that? Sounds ominous. Alright, we're staying here for the time being..."
------------
The sun was setting in the west as the other carriers pulled in. The battleships frowned as only Hornet and Wasp came into the makeshift pool area.
"Where's Lex?" Saratoga looked anxiously into the surrounding darkness, only to seemingly recoil in horror as Hornet carefully set the remains of what had been Lexington's flight deck on the ground. South Dakota frowned and turned her head away from Wasp as the other carrier girl similarly put down a Garand and a burlap bag. "Tell me what happened to my sister?!"
--------
"BLOOD-SUCKERS!"
------------
South Dakota held Saratoga as the carrier cried, North Dakota listening whilst having a hand on Hornet's shoulder. Montana listened to the story.
"...suddenly Fletcher out of no where just grabs the blonde girl who was in the trees. Only, she's actually a Japanese destroyer, see.... the blonde says something weird and her rigging appears and fires point blank into Fletch-" Wasp hiccups and continues, "Lexi starts moving toward her, and the destroyer sees her and fires a full set of torpedoes at her from 20 feet away- Lexi tried to summon her rigging but catches the torpedoes full in her midsection. In the meantime, the destroyer jumps for her face, knife in hand and tries to cut her throat. B-but by that time, me and Hornet were right there and proceed to wrestle the destroyers knife from her. at which point, she yells something loud and we hear another explosion. And Fletcher's head comes flying past us, by which point, both me and Hornet saw red and just joined in stabbing the Jap destroyer to death... Even though Lexi already killed her..."
-----------------------------------
Iku was surprised that there were radar contacts at the remains of Rabaul, she glanced at Inazuma, who nodded in sync with her as the two Japanese Kanmusu went south intending to come back by way of land....
=========================================
Notes:
Ship girls will die in this war, that said...
First ones to go: Fletcher, Lexington, and Yudachi.
Poor Sara.... Yeah, basically, shipgirls can take a lot of punishment but like anything else, if you focus all that damage in one area, they're done for like anything else.
The attrition begins as vengeance begets revenge and so on and so forth.
As for using Iku, well, in a few stories, she has been written with a "sniper of the seas" theme due to being a submarine. I have a number of ways in mind on how I-19 will be handled, but I'm not going to say too much on that.
I left some of fight dialogue purposefully ambiguous, I may add some description though with feedback to that.
So yes, I'm sure you've met Sir Clifford Hanger before, an annoying one to be sure at times. Stay tuned for the last portion of October. When I get it done.
So, much of this was inspired by a discussion on SB. Enjoy the read.
=========================================
Ustralia left the village southward, going for a bit of a patrol, keeping her TBS open as she ventured southward, not really paying too much attention, using her passive radar, which she should've known was useless on land. Rabaul was a distant glow in the forest when she got blindsided.
"BANZAI!"
"Uurf! S.O- ack!" A knife slashed at her throat. "HELP-"
------------------
A groaning creak of metal woke the capitals from their slumber as they became aware of two things; Ustralia needed help and the oppressive atmosphere that seemed centered around the British battleship.
The second was more concerning as far as the immediacy of situations. No one breathed a word as they watched a twisted form head south.
-------------------
"You dare to harm her?" A voice cut into Iku's focus as she straddled the British submarine, each trying to strangle the other, granted Ustralia was unable to speak very well presently, but the otherworldly voice certainly grabbed attention. It also attracted torpedoes from both Inazuma and Iku.
The thing retaliated by firing its A turret at Iku, who ducked to evade fire but still found her mobility severely impaired by one 15" shell that exploded, shredding her legs below the knee. "Retreat Inazuma- gah!" Iku's keel shattered under the stress of shell explosions behind her, where Ustralia had been.
Ustralia took two of the battleship shells to her bow, the high explosives breaking the submarine's hull even as the errant third shell exploded a foot from her feet, further ensuring the British submarine's demise.
"You weren't supposed to dodge Jap. DAMMIT! Ustralia, don't di-AHHH!" The red eyed entity screamed as shells landed from the approaching battleships, cracking the corrupted spirit's keel and forcing multiple cracks up and down her hull. Both 17 and 16 inch AP slamming the otherworldly form into the ground.
The corrupted spirit turned to look up toward South Dakota, her eyes leaking iridescent oil that glowed a lava gold, She struggled to speak, her anguished face stuck in a painful rictus of sensation struggling to hold gazes with the alerted battleship. "Th-thang-k y-you. I-I didn-not con-sder this....... result..... I-I am sorr-gllARrlk!"
South Dakota silently shed tears as the corrupted spirit vomited up a weird version of fuel oil before expiring, which was about the time that Montana showed up to the grisly scene. "I... Monty, I tried... Why?" The shorter battleship collapsed to her knees as Montana took in the scene before also kneeling beside her sister to share in the grief. The mangled hulls of the submarines laying strewn about several blast craters as a testament to the mourning ships.
"NoDak, go ahead and demolish Prince's hull, if anything is left that is." Montana ordered in a hollow voice. "Me and SoDak will bring back what's left, do tell the carriers to store what they can of Sara's old hull. We are heading out before dawn."
===================================
Somewhere northwest of Rabaul, Inazuma made best speed away from what clearly seemed to be a cluster-trucked mission. The destroyer was aware of procedure and mission protocol, but at the same time, it had been a massive shock to her seeing what amounted to an anomaly of a ship. She also felt that this needed to be brought to the Admiral's attention, hence what followed is perhaps the most detailed message concerning kanmusu.
"Foxtrot, Unicorn, Kanmusu, Nanodesu. Rabaul. Capital girls damaged from early raid. I-19 fight RN Sub. RN spectre capital sink both in salvo. RN Spectre ship unknown condition. Nanodesu."
-------------------------
"...... Did I hear that right, Capital girls?"
"Send it up the chain."
"Right."
"What's a nano desu anyway?"
"Beats me, maybe a micro secret?"
"Message from BB-59."
"Oh?"
"SNAFU. HMS PoW went otherworldly, BB-61 reported PoW abhorration splashdam killed Ustralia. BB59 and 61 investigated, put down PoWA, no remains. Motive to save RN sub, but miscalced. Took out both IJN and RN sub. Group will move west. End."
"Send it up. Sounds like they have some damage."
--------------------
"Another message, looks Japanese, but like the previous one, oddly in the clear."
"Read it."
"Y3 at Vlad, Killing insurgents. Intending repair soon. IJA no longer problem in sector."
"What the hell is going on up there? Send it."
===========================
With set faces, and as much of the spare parts as we could store away, or consume; remains of the dead, hull plates, copper, electronics and junk from the village, etc. The group of capitals set out towards the northwest tip of New Guinea, it was nerve wracking being unescorted, but the destroyers were long gone, having evacuated the human staff to Australia just hours after the air raid took place. Wasp and Hornet assisted Sara in getting used to her new configuration, primarily handling a multi-tiered CAP using a shoot if only shot at rule. The trip was mostly uneventful, save for Hornet spotting a lone destroyer headed west.
"CAP spotted something, matches profile of enemy destroyers, asking permission-"
Montana tersely cut in, "If its not looking to engage you, do not deviate from your patrol route."
Hornet grimaced and relayed the order to her CAP. "Doing as requested, he's not happy you know."
"Happy..." Montana stared resolutely ahead, her jaw set. "Hornet, I'm not happy with what had to be done last night. I'm not happy that Prince went into some sort of twisted abomination mode that axed her fellow ship in the act of attempting to save it! I'm not happy that the situation is what it is, but because said situation is what we were dealt..." The battleship seemed to slouch a bit, "We deal with it in a manner that conserves resources, which means no expending ammo without a bonafide reason. If said destroyer was in the company of a larger group, then we would deviate to excommunicate said group; since its only running for its life without being overtly hostile or reactive to our presence." Montana took a breath. "Perhaps I'm making a mistake here, but right now, I just want to get away from what happened Rabaul."
Silent contemplation returned to the group as they all agreed with that last statement. Recalling the spooky ozone from Prince's hull as an unearthly form appeared and floated south was too fresh in their minds to fully process it even half a day after the event. They would continue to their destination and consider the next leg from there.
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Yeah, I'm not cut out for leadership in my opinion, but when you're the Joint unit with the most experience being what you are, who else is there to rely on? Sara has no one, both Hornet and Wasp are slightly older, and yet... I was designed to be the main flagship, serving for an admiral, not meant to be executing decisions myself. I'm scared I'll make bad choices. I see that all of us are sailing along dandily and I go into an internal thought mode sort of thing. I guess kinda like the carriers when they go into "pilot view" mode, but I go into a "admiral fairy" mode. I look at my bridge and go down to Information and Plotting to consider various courses and plans.
Dimly, I'm aware of getting intercepted with a message from Communications, "Upside Underplate to JOBOWSH 1, Home Pitch fields new Units. RTHP requested. Long lost ships please come home to the place you belong."[*]
After briefly shaking my head over how that last part seemed to sound like a song, still within myself, I had the TBS guy send. "So, did all ya'll get that?" Before I mentally made the correct connection to reverse the mini-me conversion into full size.
"Yeah, looks like several reports need to be finished."
"Yeeeaah, with Ustralia gone, that limits the reporting on that to myself and SoDak."
I saw SoDak frown, "Forgot about that, thanks for the reminder Monty."
"To Sydney we go then."
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The reports prepared by my clerical records section read something like this:
REPORT OF JOBOWSH BATTLEGROUP 1 FROM MIDDLE TO END OF OCTOBER, 1943
Section 1: Rabaul Deployment for recuperational purposes. Not expected to see major combat on assignment.
Section 2: Forces deployed U.S.S. Saratoga [Carrier], U.S.S. Montana [BB59], U.S.S. North Dakota [BB60], U.S.S. South Dakota [BB61], H.M.S. Prince of Wales [RN BB], U.S.S. Hoel [DD], U.S.S. Heerman [DD], U.S.S. Johnston [DD], and H.M.S. Ustralia [RN Submarine].
Section 3: Combat Activity Report for Location Assigned: Rabaul, New Britain Island
Initial Combat Activity: Japanese Aircraft Raid on Rabaul.
Estimated Enemy Strength: Estimated over 200 planes.
Damages Received: Temporary loss of radars, gun turrets damaged, various deck emplacements wrecked. Loss of structure, hull and flight deck for Prince of Wales and Saratoga.
Results of Post Combat Ascertations: Saratoga Manifested as JOBOWSH CU-5. Hull damaged beyond floatation ability, ended up as mostly consumed materials for Saratoga. Prince of Wales declared unfit for operations, surviving crew offloaded and transported back to Australia aboard US DDs.
Addendum: Prince of Wales recommended to be a "Parts and Materials hull" for surviving ships. For further clarification, please see Third Combat Activity.
Second Combat Activity: Landbased Ship to Ship Combat. H.M.S. Ustralia
Enemy Strength: Discovered on land; One Enemy Submarine and one Enemy Destroyer Unaccounted for.
Damages: Melee knife fight before PoWA's involvement. See next Combat Activity.
Third Combat Activity: Land based Combat. Prince of Wales Anomaly
Enemy Strength: Prince of Wales Anomaly, Japanese Submarine and HMS Ustralia
Damage: HMS Ustralia, Japanese Submarine and Prince of Wales Anomaly; all declared to be destroyed in a battle on land.
Activity Synopsis: HMS Ustralia radioed for help with Japanese Submarine girl, who then managed to cut Ustralia's throat. Due to the fleet being at a relaxed state, the only ship to react to this with any speed was HMS Prince of Wales. However, Prince of Wales Abnormally Manifested; fog and steam exuded off her steel hull for several seconds before we saw a form similar to the ship girl form float towards the disturbance. BB59 and BB61 then followed after PoWA to the point where BB61 witnessed PoWA fire one of her turrets at the scuffling submarines who were far too close together for the ordinance type that PoWA used. BB61 immediately summoned her rigging, bidding me to do the same, once we had done so, both of us fired at PoWA in retribution for her actions. By this time, the results from the firing of PoWA's single A turret had resulted in both the Japanese Submarine's death and the death of HMS Ustralia.
The Prince of Wales Anomaly was a manifestation gone wrong, having glowing red eyes and an appearance of swirling steam and fog in addition to supernatural floating mobility. For these reasons, we sought to put an end to PoW's existence and as a further precaution, dismantled her remaining hull structure as much as possible before departing Rabaul.
ACTIVITY REPORT FOR NORTH COAST OF NEW GUINEA, NORTH OF PORT MORESBY
Section 1: Forces Involved; U.S.S. Lexington, U.S.S. Hornet, U.S.S. Wasp, U.S.S. Fletcher, and Enemy Destroyer along with possible Unknown.
Section 2: Incident: Lexington and Fletcher were repairing damage when the destroyer suddenly reaches out and grabs a female from the bushes. Said female is a Manifested Japanese destroyer who promptly summons her rigging and punches Fletcher in the face, severely wounding her with turret fire. Lexington moves toward Fletcher only to catch the destroyer's attention; mentioned destroyer [Shiriyatsu class possibly] fires off full broadside of torpedoes at Lexington. This severe hit is what sinks Lexington, who was already Manifested. The destroyer then pounces on Lexington after her torpedoes hit on Lexington's midsection, attempting what looks like a beheading. However, Lexington manages to fend off the destroyer and kill her with her own knife. One more thing regarding Fletcher; after the blonde destroyer moves off the stricken Fletcher, a torpedo from somewhere in the nearby forest explodes, causing Fletcher's superstructure to be vaporized. Something Japanese is yelled by the blonde destroyer just before she is sunk.
Conclusions Reached: Ship girls are vulnerable too, they may show damage differently than their previous steel hull form; but they are just as susceptible if not more so to injuries. Despite this vulnerability, the supply question in regards to operating Steel ships as opposed to Shipgirls tilts dramatically in favor of the latter in terms of repair, resupply and refits.
The primary caution regarding the girls who are ships is one surrounding their psychological makeup. While it is generally different for every ship to have its own "personality", different classes of ships will exhibit various "foundational traits" depending on the ship type and class. An easy to make comparison, if somewhat discouraged, is the appearance of the ship resembles certain human age stages.....
======================
Admiral Halsey frowned as he finished reading the battle reports, passing them off to the RAN admiral before regarding the girls before him silently. "Apparently, North Dakota was speaking the truth about Japanese Carriers also being Manifested now." He briefly held up Hornet's report and let it fall from his fingers back to his desk. "With proof that you girls are now not invincible as you are either. This is a lot to process in the last 3 to 4 weeks. Losing another carrier, losing a steel battleship to some weird psychological madness and losing an Allied Submarine Manifested." Halsey gestured toward outside, "And to top that off, you come in without a proper cadre of escorts, but that can be addressed later." He glared at the group briefly, "Dismissed."
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"Well, that happened."
"Yep, let's go eat."
"Agreed." With that, the group of us went to the base's cafeteria, where we spotted some newer spirits talking amongst themselves. After we loaded up on food, ignoring the sour looks the staff gave for being capital ships, myself and my sisters went to join the spirits.
"Who might you ships be linked to?"
"USS Atlanta."
"USS Flint."
"USS Alaska."
"So, two cruisers and a battler, how about your loadouts?"
"8 twin barrel 5" turrets of dual purpose design for both me and Flint." Atlanta replied, "Still waiting to really get some use too." The cruiser absently played with her ghostly brown hair.
"New ships huh?" South Dakota inquired as Montana stuffed a quarter pound steak into her mouth.
"Yes, we were escorts for the Battler." Flint gestured at the cloudy haired battle cruiser, whose ethereal features adopted a darker hue if one were able to tell with a spirit.
"I see." Montana swallowed the well-shewed food before speaking, "And do you know your future BatDiv?"
A new voice from beside the table chimed in, "Actually Montana, they will be assigned to your Battle Division along with the Taffies."
Eyes went to the Admiral's assistant before rotating back to the spirits. "Alright then."
"Just wanted to say that you all should finish up. You have a meeting in an hour, all of you."
"Yes sir." The three battleships watched the man walk away before resuming chowing down on their supply run, heedless of some of the looks that were received from the more human occupants of the base's cafeteria.
=====================================
The periscope watched the odd sight on the surface. "Are you sure on that sonar Johnson?"
"Yes sir, it's operating within normal parameters."
The OoW scowled and left the periscope to glower at the sonarman, "Have a look through the scope yourself." He whispered in an annoyed tone, "and tell me where you see the destroyer?"
Johnson blinked and did as he was bade to, "Begging pardon sir, but what the hell?!" He looked toward the watch officer's face and then took another look in the periscope, when his face again separated from the scope viewer; his expression matched the bridge officer. The sonarman moved back to his assigned station and looked on the scope again to confirm what he had just seen. Only to look at his crewmates utterly flabbergasted. "This makes no sense at all." He muttered, now thoroughly confused as the bridge officers.
The watch officer sighed and returned to the bridge to look at his commander. "No sir, you are not hallucinating; the destroyer that sonar is reporting apparently is the... entity we are seeing in the periscope."
"Surface." The curt order came. "This is crazy. We signed up to sink ships, not fellow humans."
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Albacore sighed as her crew went through the procedures to surface. Granted, she couldn't fault them for their doubt as all the humans would see is teenaged girl on the water. They didn't see what she and others like her saw, the steel hull that was there, less than 1500 yards to port, flickering in and out of focus. The turrets rotating to aim at the unveiled submarine. The spirit winced as she saw multiple torpedoes fall into the water and cursed at her dull witted crew.
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"TORPEDOS TO PORT! LESS THAN 1200 YARDS!" The sonarman shouted urgently as some officers were already in the presurfacing room of the tower.
"What? Um Helm, can-"
"It would take 30 seconds to change configuration-"
"-Right. Evade and brace for-"
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Inazuma glared at the American Submarine to her right. She'd noticed the periscope in the water some time ago, and despite her internal crew screaming in panic, she allowed it to close as she wasn't sure if it was friend or foe. When the sail started surfacing however, she could tell it was American and started preparing her turrets and tubes. It was difficult when she spotted the submarine's spirit, flickering in and out of focus glaring at her, then at her steel hull. Regardless of the American's issues, Inazuma would be a good little Japanese destroyer and sink the offending submarine.
As her torpedoes fell away on their course toward the American, said spirit came into focus and looked at Inazuma, pinning the destroyer with her gaze. The two of them held gazes until Inazuma's torpedoes connected, and the destroyer had to look away and speed away, mindless of the tears being shed in her eyes. Just salt in the optics, have to clean it out somehow.
-----------------------
Albacore cursed her crew silently as she watched the big Japanese torpedoes bear down on her portside, just starting to turn away as the first torpedo hit the submarine's hull outside the engine section. She stared at the Japanese destroyer intently, wishing that she had a better crew, holding that gaze, even into death and fire. She felt the second torpedo strike just behind her conning tower, severing her snorkel and killing most of the bridge crew.
She felt water rushing into her stern, where her stern used to be; feeling her crew become lost to the sea as that final torpedo that connected exploded and her world went white from the trauma. Pieces of her hulls slowly started to disappear into the ocean depths, both her pressure hull and outer hull could be felt as though her body were pulled and shredded simultaneously in a thousand different directions. Slowly, over what seemed to be decades, but was only likely a few seconds, she noticed that she had stopped sinking.
She looked around, feeling weird sensations from different inputs. Eyes; the surface was above her but she felt lackadaisical about that detail for the moment. Ears, accompanied by a sonar ping; odd, there was a destroyer about 5,000 yards to port. Extremities, okay, this would take some getting used to-- HEY, THAT DESTROYER FROM EARLIER!
Albacore shoved the mental throttle to the stops, following in the general direction of that lone destroyer, pinging away as the newly Manifested neared the ocean surface. However, it seemed that the enemy was able to outdistance her despite her high speed attempt. The submarine frowned as she surfaced, spinning on her back to look up at the orange sky of sunset, letting her batteries charge a bit, filing the enemy destroyer in a "kill it later" category.
It was then she felt some weird dalliances on her body, looking down to see what appeared to be her crew taking advantage of surface time. The same crew who.... Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "If I could have a word with you guys......" The Submarine began on her lecture as time continued to advance, waiting for no one.
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Notes that you really should expand and read:
[*]= A bit of a take off if you're familiar with John Denver.
This was a busy section. Ships died, again.
Sorry to Lt. Slash for killing PoW, but thats how the muse played out, a possible "abyssal" sort there too with the end of "PoWA".
A "Double Kill" on submarines I-19 and Ustralia, kind of unfortunate that the Anomalized PoW wasn't too observant, but thats how it went. Paid the piper for her ill-thought actions as well via salvos from the battleships. Kinda messed up how MSGS/MB works on land at least [how the sparkly stuff works, not my considerations what took place].
Then of course, Inazuma. Nanodestroyer's been lucky so far, she was lucky Albacore's crew were not experts in Manifested ships and managed to sink Albacore. Meanwhile, her choice to hold gazes with said submarine may have played into why Albacore Manifested after her sinking...
So, there are portions of this that I borrowed ideas from SB in writing some of this, even if I have no account on SB. The Atlantas, which are Cruisers, not destroyers; granted, with their fire rate..... Yeah. IIRC, Flint is Atlanta class. Calling Alaska a Battler, short form for battle cruiser, tho you could make a case for "Battleser" or "battuiser".
Allied Command is not liking the surprises they've had lately, but it will get worse before it gets better.
Editing the report thing was a chore, the joys of wordpad. October is Finally done. Next section will be ready when its ready. Considering rewriting the older earlier sections, but I'm not sure if changing the style for those early sections is needed. Advice would be nice.
No matter how much I pre-read thru this. Seems to be a word missing/misplaced or spelled wrong.
