Usual disclaimers apply to the works on site. Anyone you recognise belongs to the original author, mostly the guys that made up Kantai Collection in this case.
Additional authors on this; Myself, Dnite77, MagicalGeek and Quince over on SpaceBattles.
This fic is part of the Rules multi-verse for Kantai Collection, the same one that CV12Hornet writes, though it's somewhat AU to his.
We're also dedicating it to those that were hurt or lost in Hurricane Harvey. Gods give them peace.
6704: Please note. The Coast Guard Shipgirls have been given leave to deal with Hurricane Harvey. They are there to provide safety from Abyssals and to save lives. As such, they outrank everyone in their zone of operation. If they tell you to do something, do it, don't ask for an official order. THAT MEANS YOU TAFFY.
6705: As an attachment to 6704 the Amphibious Assault Ships and Landing Dock Ships has suspended all Amphibious Operation to help with Hurricane Harvey.
Stepping into the mess hall at Norfolk Naval Base, Sally sighed in relief. Three and a half thousand mile trips were killers, even when you had the fuel to make it in one hit – provided you wanted to cruise rather than run. Still, the fruits and such from the new base on Mars would likely be useful. Her sister was already making a fairly good profit on shipping the shipment around the UK and into Europe with that rail company she had bought into. Sally allowed a slight smirk to creep onto her face. A rail company dedicated to the military or at least run by someone that knew military needs was a godsend in a lot of ways, and the fact it was self-sustaining to a great degree had Anna sighing in relief at the price drop on shipping.
Looking around the large room, she nodded to some of the shipgirls she knew before taking her place at the line. One thing about US bases, more than the rest of the world, it wasn't unusual to find food available at all hours of the day and night, just due to the number of people running at off times, not even getting into the quantity, which was honestly stupidly high for most people.
Claiming a pile of sandwiches and a table, Sally had just managed to sit down to eat when the television in one corner of the room switched from some innocuous time eater show to a news report. Her eyes snapping to the screen, she watched as mountainous waves crashed down onto the area around Texas City and Houston, swamping streets and washing away cars as they were driven by wild winds that tore at houses, shredding buildings and sending rain almost flat horizontal.
How many lives were in danger from Hurricane Harvey?
When she had first become a kanmusu, Sally had promised herself that she would try to live up to the family legacy and protect people to the best of her abilities and no damned weather was going to stop her from doing her best to do just that.
Dropping the sandwich she had grabbed to eat back onto the plate without a second thought, she spun to find the rest of her group, the rest of the Z-class, HMS Unicorn and UEC Conqueror standing in line, watching the news as well. "Conqueror, can you get down to Texas as stands?" she asked, getting a nod from the black haired assault carrier. "Grab some food to go and get going, everyone else; we're heading out as soon as we've got full tanks and supplies."
Spinning back around, she snagged her food, stood and bolted from the mess hall, following paths she had long memorised to Admiral Briggs' office.
Nodding to the secretary, she cocked an eyebrow. "Any chance I can talk to Admiral Briggs about sortieing a relief fleet to Houston?"
Saipan frowned slightly, reaching over to check with the admiral himself before nodding to Sally. "He's in the midst of trying to ready one now, if you want, you can go in."
Taking a breath and letting it out slowly, Sally knocked on the door to the office and entered, blinking a little at finding a pair of destroyers – Fletchers from their outfits – standing in front of the desk Admiral Briggs used. Placing her food on the side, she stepped up and offered a quick salute before glancing over at the pair. Red hair, freckles and glasses marked one, thin wireframes as opposed to the milk bottles some people saw, Sally nodded to William D. Porter, Kaylie Tavare as she knew the girl. The other, with rear admiral's bars, was likely Nicholas. "Admiral, is this meeting regarding an expedition to Houston and Texas City to help the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey?"
"It is," Briggs replied.
Well that helped, at least she didn't have to try bringing it up. "I'd like to request myself and the rest of the escort group I led here join the expedition," Sally said. "We might be mostly destroyers, but Conqueror is the equivalent of a helicopter landing dock, except she can reconfigure both her tanks and her planes on the go. The rest of us have at least spent some time helping with things. SAR was one of the things we were taught and I've asked all my sisters to help out with the RNLI back in Plymouth."
Briggs arched an eyebrow at the younger destroyer. "And what of your fuel situation?" he asked. "If you've only just gotten in, you must be low on fuel right now."
"We'd be about quarter of a tank left if we'd sailed under our own power the whole trip," Sally replied with a shrug. "At least for my sisters and me, Unicorn has about triple our fuel capacity and Conqueror's pretty much unlimited range. I've already ordered them to be ready to sortie again."
He frowned, clasping his hands together as he rested his elbows on his desk. "Indeed and why do you believe I should send you along, particularly without a chance to recuperate?"
Sally pondered that one for a moment. "We just got in, we're still fairly full on fuel, we're all at least trained in search and rescue, okay maybe not all of us on hurricane response, though given how often all shipgirls move around we should all be trained in it." She paused, taking a breath. "We have someone that's fully capable of getting her parasite craft ready for most anything without having to return to a dock and her partner can probably haul us several hundred if not several thousand tonnes of materiel through blockade or weather if we need her. I've been running operations since I was fourteen, six years plus now, and I'm trained by the Special Boat Service in addition to working alongside Britain's Royal National Lifeboat Institute, both of which give me training in medicine, at least enough to deal with field trauma and first response along with hostile territory operation. The aftermath of a hurricane is hostile territory, maybe not from people, but from the devastation left behind, though speaking of people I can work as crowd control, though Zest and Zebra are better having been with the police department, and Zodiac worked in a hospital.
"Along with those, we can all work in mixed country teams, Willie and I were friends before we awakened, I'm fine with Japanese, Naka and Fubuki were also part of our group and I did my initial training there. My sister and I also won the respect of one of the admirals from the Philippines, Admiral Knight, plus you probably know my aunt and know she doesn't go for nepotism. I earned my stripes the hard way and I'm willing to continue to do so. I also made a promise to myself that if I could, I'd at least do what I could, whatever my best was, to help and protect those that couldn't do so themselves." Sally took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking the Admiral in the eye. "But most of all, sir? I'd go myself if necessary. Normally I obey the chain of command, even for when I'm not in my home country, I respect the amount of work you've put in to earn your rank enough that I'm not going to disobey orders, but with a disaster like this, I'll take the brig time once people are safe."
"If she goes, I wouldn't be surprised if at least the rest of her sisters go with her," Kaylie commented softly.
Briggs nodded thoughtfully. "We were, actually, discussing who to send to help the survivors. Most likely the Coast Guard are already on site, but they would likely appreciate help offered, particularly if the people offering have the skills they need and are willing to follow orders." He looked at Sally. "You said you worked with the RNLI, did you try to lead or did you follow them?"
Sally blinked, caught slightly off guard by the question. "Generally followed them," she replied. "They're volunteers, but they're actually more used to the situations than I am."
Nodding again, he turned to the other girls. "Willie, what do you think?" he asked.
"Zephyr's actually got more command experience than I do, even though I'm the higher rank, she's been Devonport's third since they established, plus she's generally looking out for her people." Kaylie frowned slightly, remembering her interactions with Sally over the years since they had been introduced through a pen pal project. "There's possibly another reason to keep the British girls with the expedition. With the amount of mess Harvey left, it's possible it stirred up supernatural, Zephyr's probably the best we've got on hand for that issue."
Arching an eyebrow at the slight blush on Sally's face, Briggs studied Kaylie for a moment. "Nicholas, what are your impressions?" Briggs asked, turning to Nicholas.
Nicholas shrugged her shoulders. "I can't say, but I know Zephyr has been active since the attempted honey trap in Plymouth, since then she's worked her ass off. Enlisted seaman training in school, combined with shipgirl classes, officer and SBS, and around that commanding in reality if not name. Broke up a scuffle between Vanguard and several members of MI-6 in front of the queen, supernatural ace," she continued. "She's already adapting to having heavy ships under her and I heard about the incident with Plymouth's first carrier and two of our Essexes, she's the one that resolved it rather than the Commodore."
Briggs nodded again, more slowly this time as he turned back to Sally. "Zephyr?"
"Sir?" she asked.
"Get your girls refuelled and get them to the port in three hours, you'll meet the rest of the convoy there," Briggs ordered. "You are to take them to Texas City and Houston and join up with the Coast Guard and National Guard units already there and assist them in any way necessary, understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!" Sally snapped, saluting before turning on her heel and leaving the office to give orders.
"Good girl, shame she might not have the rank she should have," Briggs commented, getting blinks from the Fletcher girls. He smirked at the pair of them. "Both of you were in here arguing against being the lead, in spite of you both having more than enough rank to take command, then we have someone you've both at least heard good things of come in wanting to join the convoy, not for prestige or anything like that, but to help people, to the point she would go herself if necessary? She's running this one. If she does the job I believe she will, I'll likely be getting in touch with both her aunt and Admiral Graham about her." He looked over his girls. "Go get the rest of the convoy together, and grab the two British LHDs we have on base to help out." Both girls snapped salutes before leaving the room on their errands.
Looking around as she surfaced next to one of the Liberty-shipgirls, Maruyu took a deep breath, tugging on the cauldron of fuel that represented the cargo she carried with her. "Maruyu reporting," she said, pressing a finger into her ear as she picked up a radio ping from Yokosuka.
"JMSDF relief convoy, Yokosuka, come in," Admiral Goto's voice sounded from her radio room as she skated along the ocean's surface.
"I've volunteered to join with the Liberty ships on a hurricane relief convoy." She broke off glancing around at the girls with her. "Mogu, mogu, we've just left the Panama Canal, should be in the Gulf of Mexico now. We will be continuing towards Cayman and should hopefully reach the Texas coast on schedule."
There was a moment of silence from her radio as the admiral and anyone else with him in the war room digested that. "What is your convoy's condition?" he asked finally, "Any losses or damage to report?"
"Nothing to report, Admiral," Maruyu responded. "We've seen no abyssal activity and my spare diesel pod may not be needed at sea."
"Good, Maruyu, the diesel you are carrying should help. There was enough to run most hospitals' backup generators for nearly a week," Goto said. "Radio us back once your convoy reaches the Cayman Islands."
"Hai, Teitoku," Maruyu replied. "I will work hard, out."
Closing the communication down, she blinked at the sound of a commotion from the convoy ships, several of the escorts swinging around towards the starboard side of the convoy. Training drilled into her head almost from the time she returned swam to the surface and had her reaching for her near useless torpedoes as she spotted a churning, bubbling patch of water.
"Hey, Maruyu-san!" The shout made her, and several of the others, jump slightly.
It took her a moment, before she recognised the heads surfacing from the churning ocean currents. The literal red hair on one and the purple/blue on another helped her recognise the submarine girls, her colleagues from Yokosuka. "Nani?" she called. "Aren't you supposed to be on the Orel Run squad? Why are you girls here?"
"Nah," one of the blondes started, this one with a darker hair colour whipping in the wind of their passage. Hachi pushed her hair out of her face, giving her glasses a quick wipe as the destroyer escorts stood down. "We heard about the hurricane halfway through the sortie."
Maruyu blinked, if they had dropped their sortie, even for this, they could wind up in trouble with command. "And you dropped your sortie to come here?" she questioned, cocking her head at them as she shifted her tank of fuel.
Iku snorted softly, shaking her head. "You're one to talk; I heard you dropped what you were doing when teitoku asked for a convoy volunteer."
"The Liberty girls said they were two transports short," Maruyu snapped. "Kiso-sama told them I was a supply runner back in the war, so they let me join them."
The other blonde of the group smiled, thumping Maruyu on the shoulder. "Good for you," Ro said.
Catching her balance again after Ro's thump, Maruyu looked around at the group curiously. "Why are you girls here?" she asked, causing all the other sub girls to grimace or look down. She got the sudden feeling that that question was one she probably hadn't wanted an answer to.
"I want to do something worthwhile," Hachi admitted, her shoulders slumping. "My life in Orel sucked."
School blouse soaked from where they had obviously been swimming underwater, the girl with light brown or orange hair spoke next. "Goya doesn't want to be an Orel mule."
"It was this or go back to face Kongou," Iku grumbled with a shrug that caused several of the girls to snort, having a good guess why Iku might be facing Kongou, again.
The next one to speak up was a German girl with blonde hair down to the bottom of her shoulder blades. "Ro wants to see Texas," she said giddily. At least there was one of the group that was actually happy about things.
Maruyu nodded at her friends' comments before looking around, though she drew a blank that showed on her face when trying to figure out why Orel was such a bad thing. "Well, the more the merrier, I think, if you want to come with us." She paused for a moment, remembering why they were all heading out this way. "You can always go ashore and help there."
"Definitely," two of the subgirls replied, while the others nodded in agreement.
After a bit of rearranging so that the submarine girls weren't in the way of the existing escorts or Liberty girls, and time to console the worse off ones of the group, the convoy started out once more.
"Hey, look, land! Is that Cayman?" Maruyu asked, spotting a beach on the horizon.
One of the Liberty girls skiing across the water near the group of submarines looked over where Maruyu was pointing and snorted. "That's one of the Corn Islands, Maruyu. The closest part of America is Nicaragua, Central America." She shifted easily in spite of the mass she was hauling. "Keep up girls; we've still got a ways to go yet."
"Hai!" The Japanese responded, even as the other Liberty ships grunted, having made this trip several times before.
Steaming through the wreckage left by Hurricane Harvey along the US coast, Conqueror (carrier version) looked around at the destruction and sighed. She had known, mentally, what could happen due to weather in any particular area, but it was another thing to see the results live.
"Manta 1, Manta 2, launch and orbit, I want eyes on what's going on, see if you can find me a coast guard ship that we can talk to," the assault carrier ordered, shifting her deck up as two of her mantas rose on their lifts and started their engines, roaring into the skies. "Devonport Actual, Conqueror," she pressed a finger into her ear as she connected to her home base. "I'm on site looking at the destruction left by Hurricane Harvey, haven't seen who I'm supposed to be getting field orders off yet. Instructions?" she asked.
"Conqueror, Devonport Actual," the reply took a few seconds to bounce around half the planet and back, even without the discussion on the other end that likely had to occur. "Orders are to make your way to the coast guard command post and lend what assistance you can. We're getting reports that the Japanese have a fleet on route now and Europe is putting together its own group to lend aid. It will take a while to get them there though so you're our onsite lead on this one for anyone below your rank, at least until US coast guard give orders."
Conqueror nodded and frowned slightly as one of her mantas radioed in they had eyes on the local HQ. "Affirmative, Devonport Actual. Mantas have eyes on HQ, moving to link up now. Out."
Turning, she scanned the area with her radar as she moved towards the coast guard's temporary base when she had a thought. Opening her radio up again, she broadcast on all frequencies. "UEC Conqueror to Coast Guard Emergency Response HQ, requesting communications channel and orders, over."
The radio crackled for a moment, letting her get within sight of the headquarters, and the field of injured and dead that had already been pulled from the ruins that had once been a town or city. So many, and they probably hadn't even scratched the surface yet.
"What's a Brit boat doing in our area of operations?" a voice asked as she drifted up to the point where she could step onto land, drawing her attention to a younger girl with dirty brown hair.
"Tag end of an escort run along the Arctic with some of the navy girls. I was the best equipped to help without stopping to shuffle things around or resupply from the trip," Conqueror responded. "Are you the commander of the coast guard here?"
The girl nodded, offering a hand. "That's right, USCGS Argo, and you are?"
"UEC Conqueror, amphibious assault carrier allied with the Royal Navy," Conqueror replied. "I've orders from Devonport that say I'm supposed to report to you and aid where I can. They also said that both Japan and Europe are sending aid but it'll likely be a bit."
Argo frowned up at Conqueror. "Have you ever done search and rescue before?" she asked before cocking her head slightly. "Along with that, what are your capabilities and carried craft?"
"A bit, but it's been a while since I went for SAR," Conqueror replied. "In terms of carried craft, eight walrus amphibious armoured vehicles and twelve manta VTOLs, two are currently airborne and circling. I can equip my walruses with excavation equipment or construction modules that can get some shelters up at least. I also have a mixed company of men and androids that could be deployed into smaller spaces."
Argo nodded thoughtfully, frowning at the sound of engines running and one of her subordinates yelling at someone about disobeying orders. "Alright, get one of your vehicles to start setting up some sort of shelter here," she ordered. "Get the rest of your fighters on patrol, we don't want Abyssal forces sneaking up on us while we're busy, for the rest, work out from here, bring back anybody you find if they're safe to move."
Conqueror nodded slightly, raising her flight deck. "All mantas equip for anti-sea air patrol and scramble, walruses seven and eight outfit with construction tools and deploy a command centre, all other walruses equip excavation and SAR equipment and deploy a roving patrol." Even as she said it the lifts on both her flight deck and her legs started moving, dropping six-wheeled vehicles onto the ground as half a score of VTOL fighters launched in groups of four, breaking off to circle around the area.
It didn't take long for the two walruses assigned to construction to have a large structure built with command relays and medical facilities, drawing in several other girls from around the area. Argo looked somewhat bemused by the building, rather than impressed, before she turned to yell at everyone else for standing around.
Taking a seat back at his desk in his office, Admiral Goto sighed. With Texas having been hit by Hurricane Harvey, it seemed that nearly half the naval forces allied with the US were mobilizing to render aid. It hadn't been long since he had talked to Maruyu, who was running fuel up to the city along with a fleet of Liberty shipgirls that happened to be in Japan when the hurricane struck. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ignore the images he had seen from the news helicopters when the door to his office burst open to reveal Akitsu Maru in her grey duty uniform.
"Sir, I request leave to lead our amphibious disaster relief force to the States," Akitsu Maru stated, quickstepping to a place in front of his desk as the door swung back closed in the wind of her passage. "They reported that their shipgirls are swamped and they are in need of more assistance, sir."
"I can believe that," Goto said, cupping his chin in his hands. "I saw the news reports of the disaster. Maruyu is already on her way with a fleet of Liberty girls to supply materials for the relief efforts." He frowned slightly. It honestly wasn't a big surprise that the shipgirls in the USA were swamped, they didn't generally experience the aftermath of hurricanes themselves, but there should be numerous relief teams, the Red Cross and others available. "Did they send the request through properly?"
Akitsu Maru nodded, taking a sheaf of papers out of her uniform pockets and passing them to the admiral. "Here, sir," she said.
Looking the papers over, Goto frowned slightly, noting the fact he held a message copied to several areas, including Europe and the Philippines. "This all seems in order," he said, looking up at the shipgirl. "The question remains though, who will replace you while you're in the US?"
"Katori and Sazanami have volunteered to take my place," she replied, allowing her shoulders to slump slightly. "I've not doubt they will be able to hold the fort until I return to my office, sir."
Goto nodded, reaching over to a button on his desk. "Ooyodo, get the word out, Operation Harvey is a go," he ordered before turning to the landing dock girl. "Your fleet will meet you at the launch area. Get to it, and make Japan proud," he ordered.
"Hai, Teitoku!" Akitsu Maru snapped, hand coming up a sharp salute before she spun on her heel and left the office.
"Good luck out there girls," Goto murmured softly.
Hearing the sound of naval engines winding down, Argo looked up, blinking at seeing a Cutter-class corvette coasting into dock. Her eyes narrowed as she studied it. It didn't have the jack for the USA, or for any of the closer nations, but it was obviously friendly since air patrol had allowed it through. Whose was it though? The jack looked like a Philippine one, but why would they be sending aid? Looking around, she saw that her companions were just as surprised as she was; obviously nobody had bothered to send word ahead on this ship's arrival.
"Whose ship is this?" she called out to the nearest rescue personnel but before the man could answer another voice called out.
"It would be mine," the voice drew Argo's attention to a man leaning on the ship's rail looking down at her. She didn't have much of a chance to look at him before he leapt over the railing, causing her to gasp at his insane actions, but she did spot the black BDUs he wore. "Sorry if I managed to arrive unannounced, it wasn't my intention," he said as she landed with nary a grunt.
"And you are?" the Coast Guard shipgirl asked, eyes narrowing as she looked him up and down. Now he was on the ground, she had a clearer view of his uniform, standard black BDUs with the patch for the Philippines army and an officer's sabre in addition to the usual sidearm military personnel favoured. Hadn't swords been relegated to ceremonial wear for the most part?
"Lt. Col. Drake Knight, Philippine Army, 4th Scout Ranger Company, ma'am," he introduced himself, "Along with Admiral at Corregidor Naval Base. The US Navy sent out a call for emergency assistance."
That was unusual; word through the grapevine was Corregidor was a supply base, why would they call a commander from there when it was quite a ways off? "Shouldn't the US Army be the ones calling you in?" Argo asked.
Knight shrugged slightly. "A favour," he answered. "They apparently didn't have enough time to go through the proper channels and decided to call me in directly, calling in a favour I owe them."
Argo frowned. He made sense, in a roundabout way, but still, Norfolk was responding, and apparently Japan and Europe were putting teams together, so why add the Philippines? Not that she couldn't use all the help she could get, but it was odd. "What do you have with you?" she asked. "And do you even know about SAR operations or disaster response?"
"I've got standard care packages and disaster relief supplies for both civilians and rescue teams along with a company of Scout Rangers, three squads of engineers each with a Luzon-class repair shipgirl and a group of volunteer doctors and nurses under BRP Hospital ng Katulugan, lastly I have a flotilla of sub chasers under my direct command." He closed his eyes as he listed off everything. "As for SAR, it's a requirement for all soldiers within the AFP to have at least basic courses in it, so yes; we all know how to handle SAR ops."
"Good," Argo said with a nod as she filed away what he had told her. "Begin offloading your supplies now and have your sub chasers patrol the perimeter." She frowned slightly as she decided where best to deploy the rest of the group. "I want your engineers helping out with surveying the city for damage and your doctors helping tend to the wounded in the evacuation centre. Any questions?" she asked.
"None so far, ma'am," Knight responded.
Argo nodded. "Good, now do it," she commanded, watching as Knight pulled a radio handset from his belt and started speaking into it, gesturing at his ship. A moment later she heard the buzz and crackle of acknowledgements.
"All done, what's next," he asked, turning back to her.
Argo blinked slightly. Far too often in her experience, people that out ranked her officially in some region tended to be more than a little officious or outright disruptive of her doing her job, that Knight hadn't bathed him in a much more respectable light than most of his fellow officers, particularly among the US Navy. "Follow me," she ordered, "We need to talk and the FOB is better equipped for it than the docks." She turned, noticing him step up to follow her. Why were the foreigners the ones that were respectful? First Conqueror, who was running clearance and patrol, now this man, she huffed out a sigh, silently wishing that her superiors were as kind and respectful as the outsiders.
Standing outside the landing docks at Yokosuka, Akitsu Maru frowned slightly at the crowd of shipgirls in front of her. "Is this everyone that can equip Daihatsu?" she asked, looking around at the group. "Does anyone have a roll?" She was handed one by one of the girls and started reading names off it, frowning when she came up short one person that was supposed to be there and long four people that weren't through the chorus of 'hai', 'yes' and 'da'.
"Nagato, why are you here?" she asked, spotting the tall battleship in her customary, if skimpy, outfit. "Where is Hoppo?"
"I can equip the landing craft for the disaster relief operation too," Nagato responded testily. "I volunteered in her place; my little girl shouldn't be seeing things like that."
Akitsu Maru frowned. While Nagato made a good point, a disaster zone was never a nice place to be, there was the fact that Hoppo was an Abyssal installation-class, Nagato was a battleship. "But Hoppo-san can carry four of these to your one," she said. "Are you sure you can fill her spot, Nagato-sama?"
Nagato nodded, "I will do my best to fill Hoppo-chan's spot for this duty."
Nodding slightly, the landing dock girl frowned as she checked the next issue she had. "Understood," she said flatly. "Now, I requested Hibiki, why are the rest of Destroyer Division Six and Tenryuu here?"
"A lady does not leave suffering people in their time of need," Akatsuki said, tilting her nose into the air.
The two brunette girls were next to offer their comments, almost speaking over one another.
"I want to help, nanodesu," stated Inazuma somewhat shyly.
Ikazuchi was somewhat louder than her twin in saying, "We won't leave our sister alone. If Hibiki goes, we all go!"
"They're my charges, Akitsu Maru," Tenryuu said, folding her arms across her chest and staring at the landing dock girl with her uncovered eye. "If they sortie overseas, I'm going with them."
"I see," Akitsu Maru said. "We can use all the help we can get, so you might as well come along." That said, she turned to check her equipment and blinked at the sight of something she wasn't expecting. "Why is there a light tank in my—"
One of the fairies interrupted her question. "Desu desu desu desu!"
She blinked again. "Since when do we have a fairy-sized excavator?"
"Desu desu desu!"
"What do you mean you converted a light tank?" Akitsu Maru asked. Tanks couldn't be converted, could they? Well… maybe not to digging machines, but she remembered some of the war pictures had Shermans with dozer blades on them.
The fairy harrumphed and started again, "Desu, desu desu desu."
"Alright, alright!" She sighed, waving her hands at the fairy. "We don't have time to change them back and we might need them when we get to Texas, fine." Muttering something uncomplimentary about the fairy's parentage and likely offspring, she moved to get herself equipped with her rigging. "Shipgirls, move out!"
"You mean sortie," Nagato commented.
"Close enough," Akitsu Maru grumbled.
Reaching the coast of Houston, Zephyr looked around at the wreckage of Texas City and its outlying areas briefly before turning to the large group of shipgirls with her. "Escorts and sub chasers, start patrols, at one, three and five miles out initially. If you come across anyone drifting, alert and help if you can, otherwise stay with them until a lifeboat can get to you. Straight carriers, get your planes rotating CAP so we can see any hostiles coming in to take advantage. Hospital ships and anyone with medical training I want you ready to deploy to whatever medical posts are already set up, engineers prep for rubble clearing or shelter creation, everyone else hold fire for now apart from the RNLI girls, I want you five out in the ocean with escorts, make sure nobody's stuck on ships or sat in the bay from flooding." She got nods from the assembled group, most of whom – apart from the RNLI who had self-summoned while they were on route – were mixed British and American ships from up north, most of the Brits having just gotten off an Atlantic convoy run when the call came in."
Turning her attention back to the city, she frowned slightly at the sight of a UEC command centre. Conqueror had to have gotten that up already, which was a good thing; at least they had a reference point and a FOB ready to go. "USCGS Argo, HMS Zephyr," she called into her radio, thankful that they had the codes from Conqueror. "I'm on final approach to the FOB with a mixed group of British and American shipgirls including several LHD and LHP girls and freighter girls with emergency supplies and medical equipment, request meeting to handle deployment, over."
"HMS Zephyr, USCGS Argo, you're cleared to come ahead and meet at the FOB. Who have you got as support?" Argo's voice echoed through her radio room.
Waving the group forwards, Zephyr started towards the base herself. "Argo, Zephyr, I have all the Z-class destroyers apart from myself on sub patrol in the bay along with several US Fletchers and others, Taffy 3 among them FYI. LHD/LHP ships include HMS Ocean, HMS Intrepid, USS Guam, USS Ichon and USS Okinawa, all outfitted for SAR and carrying several tonnes of supplies we can off load once we've a location. I also have USS Wasp and HMS Unicorn as full carriers running combat air patrol, USS Relief, USS Tranquillity, USS Mercy and USS Rescue came along as medical ships waiting your orders for deployment, USS Hoist and USS Grapple for engineers and five RNLI lifeboats, City of London and City of Edinburgh both Tyne-class, Barham and St Patrick of the Waverly-class and Arun, name ship of her class, all five are currently scouting for people in the water or trapped on ships."
Stepping onto the shore, she nodded as Argo called them in, making her way through the corridors until she found what was probably a war room with a table full of maps of the surrounding area being looked over by Conqueror, a man she recognised as Drake Knight, the Philippine Lieutenant Colonel whose base she had spent some time at. The last, and youngest looking, was likely Argo. Making her way to the group, she gave a quick salute before nodding to the Lt Col and Conqueror. "Commander Zephyr, Royal Navy, I understand you're in charge here Argo."
Returning the salute, Argo nodded. "That's correct, Zephyr. Do you have any problems with that?"
Zephyr shook her head. "I've helped out the RNLI a few times, plus my sister ranks me in some areas, just wanted to get confirmation as to who I was looking to. Only reason I was in charge coming down was that I was the ranker that people were willing to follow, now we're here you're the one in charge."
"Good," Argo said, looking Zephyr up and down briefly. "How much experience do you have on search and rescue?"
"Covered it a few times, as I went through seamanship, FOST and SBS training," Zephyr replied. "I've also assisted the RNLI a few times. One of our local subs was one of the first runs I did with them."
"Alright, in that case, get your ships to start unloading their supplies into the base store rooms and have the hospital ships helping out in the evacuation centre and the engineering ships helping with surveying the city, see if they can find good ways to remove the rubble that might be trapping people."
Nodding, Zephyr pressed a finger to her ear to relay the orders, causing an increase in noise as various ships launched helicopters to help hauling cargo around. "Should I keep the destroyers and escorts on patrol or bring them in to do lift and shift? Going along with that, do you want me to keep the lifeboats on waterborne SAR ops?"
Argo frowned, turning to look at the maps spread out on the table. "It would be better to have them rotate; we have several sub-chasers from Lt. Col. Knight's contingent so we can afford to have some hauling rubble. Keep the lifeboats out, but see if you can pair them up with some of my girls, they'll know the waters better."
"Hoel, Heerman, Johnston, Sammy B, Nicholas, Fletcher, Willie D, pull back to the city and meet up with SAR teams at the FOB, you're on heavy lift. Z-class, keep patrol, we'll rotate in a few hours. RNLI, local coast guard suggests pairing up with them, sending coordinates." Zephyr frowned as Argo passed her a list, sending each of the lifeboats to partner with one of the coastguard ships. She got affirmative replies from the British contingent, Nicholas and Willie, the former having agreed earlier to Zephyr taking lead on this operation. The remaining girls, however, were less happy.
She rolled her eyes at the comments from Taffy 3's destroyers and destroyer escort, along with Fletcher. "Girls, enough," Zephyr snapped. "At this moment in time I am the officer giving orders, but I am also only relaying them. Yes, Willie and Nicholas do out rank me, though they decided to let me be in charge for the run, Argo – as lead coast guard ship here – outranks both of them so knock it off unless you want to spend some time in the brig!"
The silence at the other end of the line, followed by a pair of slow claps told her she had managed to get something through to the boisterous murderballs. Taking a breath, she tuned out the radio for now, turning to Conqueror. "Conqueror, if you've not been ordered to do anything else, bring some of your MANTAs in and get them re-equipped for cargo hauling then send them to help out the other girls with that or hauling larger pieces of rock." She paused for a moment. "Get your scout drones airborne as well, the sooner we find people, the better and they're quicker than running around or flying over places." Zephyr turned to Argo, cocking an eyebrow at the coast guard. "Anything else we need to get done now or is it waiting on reports?"
"Actually," Argo started, "could you go here and help out with the excavation of the shelter there?" she asked, pointing out the location on the map.
Zephyr frowned and nodded. "I'll take Conqueror with me and grab Ocean along the way; three of us should be able to haul more than one." She looked at the two ranking officers. "You'll call if there's anything else?" She got a nod. "If you can't reach me, either Zenith for the British or Nicholas or William D. Porter for your own will be the next ones down, or up, as the case may be." She nodded to Knight. "If there's time later, I'd like to know what that thing in the rules list was about, but we can deal once less lives are in need of rescue."
Heading out of the building with Conqueror in tow, she paused for a moment to get her bearings, and watch the various fairy helicopters and cargo ships haul things around, setting up larger aid areas or supply bunkers as they shifted supplies into the FOB or to where it was required. She ignored the larger ship recalling her MANTAs and launching both them – after refit – and her drones as they made their way towards the buried shelter.
USS Valkyrie braved the stormy winds as she set sail full speed to Houston, joining her are USS Titan and their escorts of Arleigh Burke-class destroyer shipgirls from the Pacific Fleet.
They are currently filled to the brim with aid supplies even buying and carrying extra bags of aid supplies just to make sure.
Before leaving she ditched her M1A2 Abrams and AAV/P-7s for more RHIBs for SAR ops, all her Marines are lock and loaded not just for SAR ops but law enforcement roles if needed.
Valkyrie looked at her GPS and saw that they are closing in on the picket line of sub chasers and destroyers… she hoped they were not trigger happy.
"Sailing through a storm, just like the South China Sea," Valkyrie muttered on the net.
"Here we go again," one of her destroyers added.
Valkyrie nodded, watching as one of the destroyers ahead of them placed a hand to her ear before nodding slightly and steaming through the storm towards them. As the girl got closer, she blinked, seeing orange top and blue leggings that clung to the wet shipgirl.
"Hoy there," the new girl called as she approached, a pair of taller girls in Royal Navy BDUs moving to flank her. "You people here to help?"
Valkyrie nodded. "That's right, USS Valkyrie, USS Titan and escorts," she introduced them.
"RNLB Arun, currently in charge of sea bound search and rescue, USCGS Argo is in overall charge," the girl introduced herself. "You didn't happen to see a bunch of Liberty-class with a submarine escort on your way in, did you?"
Shaking her head, Valkyrie frowned slightly, trying to place where that prefix would be from, it wasn't one you heard often. "No, we didn't see any other ships coming in. If you don't mind my asking, what's your prefix?"
"Damn, wonder what's keeping them," one of the two British navy girls muttered. "They ought to be here by now given they were last heard near the Corn Islands."
Arun shrugged slightly. "Can't be helped, Myngs, we'll just have to call HQ see if they can raise them," she said before turning to Valkyrie. "My prefix is RNLB, Royal National Life Boat, name ship of the Arun-class; we're a volunteer organisation in Britain and several parts of the Commonwealth, but sea rescue is our main focus."
It suddenly clicked, the orange and blue colour scheme, an accent from part of Britain, the fact that there were Royal Navy ships here. Of course the lifeboats would appear for something like this if they didn't appear for anything else, a hurricane hitting the coast needed sea rescue and if British ships were involved, or if it was around Britain, that would mean that their lifeboats would be involved.
"Myngs, Zodiac, can you two escort these girls to Argo and see what she wants them to do?" Arun asked, turning to the two Brit destroyers.
Myngs nodded. "We're probably going to be called in soon, there might be another hurricane on the way," she said, waving at the group to follow her.
"Agreed, and I doubt we're going to find any more for a while, at least not here," Arun replied. "I'm going to get the rest to start working back, see if there are any others around while we're still just seeing rain."
Nodding again, the two destroyers waved as the lifeboat started away from them, instead starting towards the shore.
"Yo, you girls here to help out?" a voice called through the storm that had been getting steadily worse the last hour or so of their trip, causing all five Japanese subs and several of the Liberty girls start for a moment before something roared down, lighting them up with a spotlight from above. A couple of minutes later a red-head destroyer girl skated up to them wearing the 'uniform' of the Fletcher-class. "USS William D Porter, the light's from one of UEC Conqueror's MANTAs," Kaylie introduced herself, repeating the greeting in Japanese.
Maruyu nodded, blinking as a particularly large wave crashed over all of them, leaving them looking even more like drowned rats than before. "Yeah," she replied. "Maruyu, supply submarine helping out with a convoy," she said, indicating the rest.
Kaylie nodded, wiping water from her face. "Come on, we're going to have to race another hurricane. Trust me, this blow is going to get much worse, but Argo will probably have good places for people once we can work again." She turned, pushing ahead as the sound of a storm warning sounded from the city ahead of them.
"Is a hurricane bad?" Goya asked as they followed the destroyer and the flying machine – calling it a plane was probably inaccurate, but it certainly wasn't a helicopter or a standard drone – to a large concrete building.
"We're here because of one, Goya," Hachi pointed out, walking up into the building and flinching as the doors slammed shut behind them. "Another one will probably make things worse if it runs the same path."
Kaylie nodded, grabbing a towel and drying herself off as best she could. "We're in Tornado Alley, there're a lot of them through this region," she said, offering the other girls towels. "Or rather, this is one of the major start points for them blowing through the States and we're in the right time of year for it." She shrugged before turning to the Liberties. "If you girls want to unload, the storage is down that way, on the right. I think City of London and Triton are in there sorting supplies at the moment. Everyone else… you might as well follow me, we're not going to be able to do a lot of anything until the storm's passed." She turned, leading the subs and destroyers to a large mess hall filled with humans and shipgirls both, most nursing what looked and smelled to be hot drinks.
"Why the hell are we just sitting in here?!" A voice yelled from somewhere deeper in as the girls were led to the line to get some hot food and drinks themselves.
Sighing, Kaylie shook her head. "Sammy still doesn't get that Argo's in charge. I swear that girl will get herself killed again, and this time it'll be something completely moronic rather than just suicidal due to bad circumstances." She grabbed a cup of dehydrated soup from the line, filling it from the hot water dispenser nearby.
"Is she always like that?" Ro asked, blinking slightly.
Kaylie nodded, "Think Miss Lewds here–" she indicated Iku with her thumb "–but for action and blood rather than porn and sex."
"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Iku denied, only for her to end up getting flat looks from just about everyone in hearing distance of her. "I can settle down, some. Heck, I've got a girlfriend."
There was a snort from somewhere nearby just before Iku felt a finger tap her earlobe. "I seem to remember you and Harder trying to get in to feel me up while the Plymouth baths were out from a slime infestation," Zenith commented as the busty sub turned towards her. "Ended up with you getting a face full of puddle slime," she commented dryly, causing Ro, Goya and Hachi to start sniggering at the look on Iku's face.
Iku flushed, crossing her arms over her ample chest. "Well, it wasn't my fault and that thing wasn't even the fun type of slime, plus it tasted disgusting."
"I think it was karma," Zenith smirked at Iku. "Though as far as Sammy goes," she sighed. "Zephyr can generally keep her roughly in check, along with the rest of Taffy 3's escort group, but her, Willie and Nicholas are arguing in circles with them, particularly since Argo said we're going to sit on our arses until this hurricane passes over." She looked over at where Nicholas and Sally were both arguing with the Taffy 3 destroyer group and shook her head. "I know we're tin cans, live fast, die young and do whatever damage you can, but still… there's a difference between dying for a good reason and dying for a bad one, and they're going to end up doing themselves in from pure stupidity."
"Why is Zephyr in command?" Ro asked as they got their own hot food and found a place to sit. "I thought she didn't take the command course."
Zenith snorted. "A bit hard to take a course for people legally eighteen when you're legally fourteen. She went through officer training and FOST once she was of age, straight boost to commander, I'm lieutenant commander. Plus she's been the third for those of us based out of Devonport since the get go."
Kaylie shifted slightly. "Admiral Briggs put her in charge of the group that came down from Norfolk. He was trying to put me or Nicholas in charge. Zephyr has more experience leading, more at search and rescue or disaster relief and was actually willing to the point of being willing to head out without Admiral Briggs' say so. He chose her." She shrugged, sipping her soup. "She does know a few things, got CAP out and a patrol on the harbour once we got here, sent the lifeboats to start SAR on the waters and ordered the hospital ships and engineers to stand by for where to go. Zephyr's been pretty much running for Argo since, her and that Knight guy."
Zenith nodded as the subs blinked. "I didn't know about Briggs, but the rest… it's Zephyr, she's one of the 'sensible' ones of us, though that's not to say she's not capable of crazy, just better at dealing with things than the rest of us are."
Kaylie snorted, almost choking on her soup at that. "You Plymouth girls in general are less inclined to crazy stunts than some of us, at least so far." She frowned, setting her mug down for a minute to watch the argument and watch Sammy sulk off. "Zephyr's plenty crazy though, just different crazy to say Taffy 3 or what goes on at Yokosuka."
"So," Hachi started as the silence between the girls dragged on. "What happens now?"
"Well, not much doing until after the hurricane, unless any of you know nursing or first aid." Zenith watched as the five sub girls shared a look and shook their heads. "Then once we've finished here, we'll take you to Argo, see where you get put. You'll probably want some engineering suits or at least BDUs before you go out into the city though, there's a lot of rubble, most of it sharp and while your skin is metal, your clothes aren't." She smirked at Iku. "I doubt Iku will want her boobs squished by shifting concrete." She wasn't disappointed when Iku flinched, wrapping her breasts with her arms. "Yeah, toes, fingers and hair are all fairly major issues, and of course, the bigger your breasts, the more annoying they are in these situations." She shrugged before gesturing vaguely in the direction of the entrance. "I think there might be something to wrap them a bit smaller, but yeah, for clothing, before you go out you'll want BDUs to cover yourselves, steel toed boots, workers gloves and hard hats, maybe breast wraps. We're ships but we're not invulnerable, so the PPEs help. The other thing to be aware of is experience. Me in a sub or underwater in general, I'd be listening to you girls 'cause you're the ones constantly dealing with it. Here, doctors and nurses or engineers primarily while you're in the field."
Ro shifted in her seat, looking around the room. "Is there any real reason to come here? I wanted to see Texas, now…."
"How about pulling someone alive from rubble?" Kaylie asked softly. "Or hell, maybe even something, a dog or cat, someone's pet? These events always leave a lot of people dead or injured and right now, we're in a race to save people. Besides, the entire planet is watching," she continued, leaning forwards slightly. "Have you ever seen the look on someone's face change when you pull someone or something they love out of the rubble alive? I think with all the fighting, maybe even those of us naturalborn are losing sight of what we're fighting for. As much a tragedy as this is, it's also a reminder, particularly for those of us here."
Zenith nodded. "Not an hour ago, I was one of the last to leave a wrecked house. Place had been completely flattened, but I heard something just as I was leaving." She shifted, a slight smile quirking her lips. "It turned out to be a puppy, a mongrel pup, but it had a collar. I got it back here and this little kid, maybe five or six just came running up chasing an older dog. The look on the boy's face when he saw the puppy…" she trailed off, rubbing tears from her eyes. "Both dog and boy just laughing and crying, cuddling this little runty thing like it was the most precious thing they'd ever had and when we led them back and found their parents." She smiled, swallowing against a lump in her throat. "We fought a war to protect those we believed in, whichever side we were on, we're doing it again now and it's for sights like that." Kaylie nodded beside her as the other girls blinked, their reasons for being here suddenly having taken a much different turn.