Epilogue One; July to September, 1944
Spherical_Light
Likely Illuminating a room near you
- Location
- NW US
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Epilogue 1; Late July, 1944
-------------------------------------
Granted, this particular story begins 6 months earlier, in the halls of the Capital Building, where some senators decided to push the Navy to rename the "battlecruiser" classes not currently launched or commissioned. This meant that the Guam and Samoa would be launched as Yosemite and Yellowstone, and the other two in the slips would be Shasta and Shastina. In some respects, this renaming cleared up the line between classes of ships and would clarify naming conventions for ships launched in the future.
The so-called "Y class" were officially designated as "Super Large Cruisers" even though they were commonly called battle cruisers; their subclass was of the so-called "chaser" variety of ship layout. Where 4 of the five quad gun turrets were placed to the front of the command structure with one turret sternward, all of the main guns being 16" instead of 18" triples. The Y class displaced nearly 75,000 tons fully loaded and had a turning circle of nearly 1.5km with a speed of about 35 knots with a shp of 346,000 divided into 86,500hp per shaft.
The Shasta class of ships were of the "Kiter" subclass, with the entire compliment of main gun turrets behind the superstructure. Fifteen 16" guns in 5 triple turrets, adjusted from the 18" guns in a trade for more speed from 34knots to 37knots at 400,000 shp divided evenly between 4 shafts at 100k shp each. The Shastas were also heavier at nearly 82,500 tons with a turn circle of just over a mile.
Both subclasses sported highly controversial torpedoes of the Navol variety; four launchers of 5 tubes each, complete with extra reloads. Yet, those mounts were in different places and that was not the only difference between the subclasses. Engineering setting was very different between the chaser and kiting editions; the kites had far longer propulsion shafts than the chasers. This would mean that the two kiting ships would be the only two of their kind ever built due to the costs of the engineering section while the chaser version would go through several iterations, mostly getting smaller and more nimble while retaining the 16" main gun configuration.
History and sidenotes aside, these four ships would be launched just on the heels of Japan's surrender [**], meaning that as their guns were mounted and finishing touches applied. Their usefulness would be questioned concernedly by the financial staff and numerous times it would be suggested that these ships undergo the "Manifestation Protocol", only for the Navy to insist on allowing the ships to be commissioned first. Later, as the issues with Japanese ship girls became clear, the Navy would insist on accelerated tour cycles for the 4 ships so that the ships themselves would have some sort of conduct training before becoming an entity.
====================================
The lone Yamato class set foot upon the waters of Lake Baikal, the distant skyline of Irkutsk aflame once again. Shinano had had to defend herself and ended up having to kill most of the remaining people there, before she'd had the time to review incoming radio messages. Now all the brunette wanted to do was escape somewhere, and the lake was right there, she needed time to process her sorrow.
But she still listened to the various radio broadcasts as she sailed roughly northeast.
"JNHQ to Y3, please respond with intent to surrender and proceed to the closest naval base..." That sounded American, a false broadcast to lure her in perhaps? She debated with her crew and decided upon a course of action after reviewing all the transmissions received in the past 2 months.
"Y3 to HQ, I will surrender only to someone face to face. Come find me in eastern Siberia, and then we will talk."
In truth, this was because she was so disconnected by distance, that she felt safe only on a large body of water, and her crew had enough bear meat to last a few months. In the middle of the lake, there was some safety at least, so she was content to let them come to her. Even if that took another year for them to do so.
==================================================
Hokkaido was in fact peaceful and largely disconnected from the chaos of the main island; a presence wasn't necessarily needed but appearances demanded it just so. I let Mutsu, who was assisting me, handle most of the speaking and communication with the locals. The North island was mostly given to agriculture and seemed to have little in the way of the nationalist rage that had swept the main population centers of Japan.
Duty required that Mutsu and myself patrol the island a minimum of twice a week; which is what we did, mostly to guard against the odd Russian refugee boat. It was strange, once Mutsu had explained to the islanders about what was happening to the south, they grudgingly allowed my presence and went about life, but they still resented foreigners. Even Mutsu admitted that she was a foreigner to me in passing during one of our patrols when I'd notice some of the locals looking oddly at her as well.
What does a super-SotL like me do on this peaceful island anyway[*]?
Mutsu had chuckled at my question and replied cheekily, "Well Monty-san, you can take long walks on the beach and admire the sunset... with me" A faint smirk hovered on the older ship's lips as my face cartwheeled between expressions, "Relax," she chided gently. "I was kidding Monty-san!"
Granted, she said that while giggling, so I am not sure what I should be thinking. I'm U.S.S. Montana, the biggest warship ever put to sea; yet these sort of social situations are grey to me. Give me a tactical or strategy issue and I'm fine, but sticking me in a strict social realm where objectives are not clearly defined and I'm confused. There is a small part of me that reasons now that the main conflict is over, I should be considering my own personality developement, I asked Mutsu one day about that and she replied with the following.
"Really Monty-san, just pick various aspects of your crew that are the best qualities while avoiding the not-so-good types if possible."
I understood what she meant, as her face suggested that she also had certain elements of her crew who could be best described as young, barely restrained, hormone addled young men, older boys really. The majority of both our crews could be labeled as such, and usually the officers were fair bit more mature and disciplined folk. I was kind of scared to really go beyond the initial stages of what I'd been doing in relation to forming my own sort of ship-self, because that required delving into the crews' memories on a more direct level.
"It is the latter part of your response I worry about Mutsu-san."
She sighed, nodding her head absently as we watched over Sapporo Harbor. "You have to accept that part of human nature and simply focus on their other, not so apparent qualities Montana-san."
Sighing, I did as she bade me, going deeper than the various surface level thoughts of my crew, ignoring the shallow and diving into the deep end of my crews' consciencenesses. I have to admit that I was surprised by my findings, as most of the men had signed up out of a desire to fight for their country and protect their loved ones despite all their general banter about various female parts and related copitulatory acts. They all had their own deeper principles and I started to understand where Mutsu was coming from.
Then the message from the missing Yamato happened, and with it came the end of July and the start of August.
================================
August, 1944
---------------
Alaska frowned as she listened to the message playback that had been routed to her radio room. Now that the battlecruiser was repaired, she'd been asked to start preparing for a scouting mission into that unknown part of the world called Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka. The Pale haired ship figured that her mission was related to this message which originated from somewhere in the lower Lake Baikal region.
She frowned as she reviewed the maps of the area and concluded that her mission would involve more hiking than voyaging. She would start by Vladivostok before getting a local map with more details and moving from there.
-----------------
September, 1944
Yeah, Russia was a big place, Alaska decided as she looked at more detailed terrain map she had found in a partially caved in structure. Having consulted the map, she thought the best method to find the rogue ship was to go to the north end of Lake Baikal and start there.
=========================================
A/N:
Thanks for the Likes, please feel free to leave comments too.
Epilogue 1; Late July, 1944
-------------------------------------
Granted, this particular story begins 6 months earlier, in the halls of the Capital Building, where some senators decided to push the Navy to rename the "battlecruiser" classes not currently launched or commissioned. This meant that the Guam and Samoa would be launched as Yosemite and Yellowstone, and the other two in the slips would be Shasta and Shastina. In some respects, this renaming cleared up the line between classes of ships and would clarify naming conventions for ships launched in the future.
The so-called "Y class" were officially designated as "Super Large Cruisers" even though they were commonly called battle cruisers; their subclass was of the so-called "chaser" variety of ship layout. Where 4 of the five quad gun turrets were placed to the front of the command structure with one turret sternward, all of the main guns being 16" instead of 18" triples. The Y class displaced nearly 75,000 tons fully loaded and had a turning circle of nearly 1.5km with a speed of about 35 knots with a shp of 346,000 divided into 86,500hp per shaft.
The Shasta class of ships were of the "Kiter" subclass, with the entire compliment of main gun turrets behind the superstructure. Fifteen 16" guns in 5 triple turrets, adjusted from the 18" guns in a trade for more speed from 34knots to 37knots at 400,000 shp divided evenly between 4 shafts at 100k shp each. The Shastas were also heavier at nearly 82,500 tons with a turn circle of just over a mile.
Both subclasses sported highly controversial torpedoes of the Navol variety; four launchers of 5 tubes each, complete with extra reloads. Yet, those mounts were in different places and that was not the only difference between the subclasses. Engineering setting was very different between the chaser and kiting editions; the kites had far longer propulsion shafts than the chasers. This would mean that the two kiting ships would be the only two of their kind ever built due to the costs of the engineering section while the chaser version would go through several iterations, mostly getting smaller and more nimble while retaining the 16" main gun configuration.
History and sidenotes aside, these four ships would be launched just on the heels of Japan's surrender [**], meaning that as their guns were mounted and finishing touches applied. Their usefulness would be questioned concernedly by the financial staff and numerous times it would be suggested that these ships undergo the "Manifestation Protocol", only for the Navy to insist on allowing the ships to be commissioned first. Later, as the issues with Japanese ship girls became clear, the Navy would insist on accelerated tour cycles for the 4 ships so that the ships themselves would have some sort of conduct training before becoming an entity.
====================================
The lone Yamato class set foot upon the waters of Lake Baikal, the distant skyline of Irkutsk aflame once again. Shinano had had to defend herself and ended up having to kill most of the remaining people there, before she'd had the time to review incoming radio messages. Now all the brunette wanted to do was escape somewhere, and the lake was right there, she needed time to process her sorrow.
But she still listened to the various radio broadcasts as she sailed roughly northeast.
"JNHQ to Y3, please respond with intent to surrender and proceed to the closest naval base..." That sounded American, a false broadcast to lure her in perhaps? She debated with her crew and decided upon a course of action after reviewing all the transmissions received in the past 2 months.
"Y3 to HQ, I will surrender only to someone face to face. Come find me in eastern Siberia, and then we will talk."
In truth, this was because she was so disconnected by distance, that she felt safe only on a large body of water, and her crew had enough bear meat to last a few months. In the middle of the lake, there was some safety at least, so she was content to let them come to her. Even if that took another year for them to do so.
==================================================
Hokkaido was in fact peaceful and largely disconnected from the chaos of the main island; a presence wasn't necessarily needed but appearances demanded it just so. I let Mutsu, who was assisting me, handle most of the speaking and communication with the locals. The North island was mostly given to agriculture and seemed to have little in the way of the nationalist rage that had swept the main population centers of Japan.
Duty required that Mutsu and myself patrol the island a minimum of twice a week; which is what we did, mostly to guard against the odd Russian refugee boat. It was strange, once Mutsu had explained to the islanders about what was happening to the south, they grudgingly allowed my presence and went about life, but they still resented foreigners. Even Mutsu admitted that she was a foreigner to me in passing during one of our patrols when I'd notice some of the locals looking oddly at her as well.
What does a super-SotL like me do on this peaceful island anyway[*]?
Mutsu had chuckled at my question and replied cheekily, "Well Monty-san, you can take long walks on the beach and admire the sunset... with me" A faint smirk hovered on the older ship's lips as my face cartwheeled between expressions, "Relax," she chided gently. "I was kidding Monty-san!"
Granted, she said that while giggling, so I am not sure what I should be thinking. I'm U.S.S. Montana, the biggest warship ever put to sea; yet these sort of social situations are grey to me. Give me a tactical or strategy issue and I'm fine, but sticking me in a strict social realm where objectives are not clearly defined and I'm confused. There is a small part of me that reasons now that the main conflict is over, I should be considering my own personality developement, I asked Mutsu one day about that and she replied with the following.
"Really Monty-san, just pick various aspects of your crew that are the best qualities while avoiding the not-so-good types if possible."
I understood what she meant, as her face suggested that she also had certain elements of her crew who could be best described as young, barely restrained, hormone addled young men, older boys really. The majority of both our crews could be labeled as such, and usually the officers were fair bit more mature and disciplined folk. I was kind of scared to really go beyond the initial stages of what I'd been doing in relation to forming my own sort of ship-self, because that required delving into the crews' memories on a more direct level.
"It is the latter part of your response I worry about Mutsu-san."
She sighed, nodding her head absently as we watched over Sapporo Harbor. "You have to accept that part of human nature and simply focus on their other, not so apparent qualities Montana-san."
Sighing, I did as she bade me, going deeper than the various surface level thoughts of my crew, ignoring the shallow and diving into the deep end of my crews' consciencenesses. I have to admit that I was surprised by my findings, as most of the men had signed up out of a desire to fight for their country and protect their loved ones despite all their general banter about various female parts and related copitulatory acts. They all had their own deeper principles and I started to understand where Mutsu was coming from.
Then the message from the missing Yamato happened, and with it came the end of July and the start of August.
================================
August, 1944
---------------
Alaska frowned as she listened to the message playback that had been routed to her radio room. Now that the battlecruiser was repaired, she'd been asked to start preparing for a scouting mission into that unknown part of the world called Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka. The Pale haired ship figured that her mission was related to this message which originated from somewhere in the lower Lake Baikal region.
She frowned as she reviewed the maps of the area and concluded that her mission would involve more hiking than voyaging. She would start by Vladivostok before getting a local map with more details and moving from there.
-----------------
September, 1944
Yeah, Russia was a big place, Alaska decided as she looked at more detailed terrain map she had found in a partially caved in structure. Having consulted the map, she thought the best method to find the rogue ship was to go to the north end of Lake Baikal and start there.
=========================================
A/N:
So, Super Ship of the Line is what super SotL means. The term could also fit the ships from the Tillman Sea Queens thread mentioned a few posts ago. Just instead of 100+ guns, its more 100+k-tons and far more destructive potential.
The American "Y" class and the "Shast" class are nods to the OTL Alaska class which came out in late 1945, after the war ended. Both of these classes will be covered in the next Epilogue segment.
The American "Y" class and the "Shast" class are nods to the OTL Alaska class which came out in late 1945, after the war ended. Both of these classes will be covered in the next Epilogue segment.
Thanks for the Likes, please feel free to leave comments too.