Project 88 - Sovietsky Soyuz Battleship (KanColle New Ship Design and Story)
Soviet Union decides to restart Sovietsky Soyuz class battleship project to deal with Abyssal Fleet threat. 4 members of these ships are:
- Sovietsky Soyuz
- Sovietsky Russia
- Sovietsky Ukraina
- Sovietsky Belarussia
Four hulls of the ships are laid down and construction starts but sudden attack on Kamchatka hastens up the project. In a desperate attemp to deploy a capable battleship as soon as possible, a decision is made.
All four partially complete hulls and cannons are joint together form a single, new class of battleship with catamaran like structure, for lower surface resistance, faster speed and balanced manuverability.
To have enough propulsion for that new battleship with great mass, an experimental stage "molten-metal reactor" is chosen instead of turbines.
Since there is no escort ship available for new battleship for recon, anti-sub marine warfare and air defence roles she s armed with newly developed S-75 Dvina surface to air missiles, low frequency search radar and high frequency tracking radar, high caliber secondary batteries, and torpedos. Also torpedo/ mine countermeasures and a sonar is embedded in design.
Although calibers of her cannon, borrowed from previous design, are smaller than a Yamato class (406 mm vs 460 mm of Yamato) autoloader mechanisims increased rate of fire greatly.
Her armor is much thicker than even the famous Yamato (200 mm of Yamato vs 230 mm of Soyuz) and she is equipped with various modern countermeasures thus making her possibly the toughest ship ever existed.
She seemed the perfect battleship, no even the perfect "warship". A ridiculous top speed and cruising speed (52 knots !), never needing refueling, very balanced and highly manuverable design, able to defend herself from and destroy basically every target type. But there was a single point that condemned her for the rest of her life.
The thing made her the best was also the thing made her an exile.
Her nuclear reactor, although very much a breakthrough in nuclear engineering at that time, had a single weak point: The radiation shielding for her powerful reactor was very dense, and hard... which made it brittle. In case of high damage to Soyuz herself it was very likely that shielding would crack and let out a great amount of radiation, enough to kill her crew and even nearby ships' crews within a single day. And since there was no other available ships for the Pacific theatre and she was expected to fight all by herself against hordes of Abyssal ships, this scenario was very likely.
This made Soviet Admiralty very cautious with her. She was never let to return port for resupply of munitions and repairs. She was resupplied and repaired on sea with cargo and repair ships meeting every now and then. There were already no ships available for escort but even when new ships were constructed and available they were not assigned to Soyuz, on the fear that a possible radiation leak would wipe all fleet overnight.
Also her existence was kept a secret from the world and the Motherland she fought for. All she had was a single "Crew and Cruise Journal" on board. She was never registered as an official ship on the records and her code ,Project 88, was never registered as an official project even up to this day.
When she finally managed to destroy the Abyssal Bases in Pacific theatre after years of lonely fighting, she was sent to Japan and ordered to serve with the fleet there. Soviet Admiralty decided that whatever threat left would be dealt with smaller destroyers and her dangerous existence was unnecessary. This was a way to get rid of her "with honorable discharge" .
As a KanMusu (Character and Build)
As a long ship, she is the tallest KanMusu, towering well above 2 meters. This causes her to "look down" on other girls causing them to feel uneasy, although that is never her intention. She is also well built and strong. Although she is one of the youngest of the Soviet Navy ships, she is a young, well-built girl for her age.
The internal radiation in her body caused her to have very pale, almost transparent skin. Also her eyes shine in darkness for the same reason. Although these attributes normally conceived as beautiful in Japan when she is seen at night, she is mistaken for a ghost or Abyssal ship.
Since she pretty much fought all by herself on a cold and still ocean against a numerous enemy force she is completely oblivious to social norms and concepts like friendship, comraderie and so on. This causes her to do whatever she feels like no matter the situation, such as touching the face of other girls' face without asking or pulling their hair just because she found them "funny".
She only had two friends, a destroyer that escorted her once and the supply/repair ship that visited her on ocean. That compassionate feeling left her wanting for more. Thus more than willing to talk to and interact with other girls, her awkwardness and inexperience with dealing with other people, not to mention her tough build and stern face make things hard for her.
She is forbidden to tell her real name (Sovietsky Soyuz, readed as "Sayuz") and also her project coding. Thus she introduces herself as "88" (hachi jyu hachi). As she got friendly with other girls they shortened her name calling her "Hachi-Hachi !" (Kongou), Hat-san (Akagi, Fubuki), Hach-chan (Atago).Only the destroyer and resupply ship she met before rarely know her real name and they refer to her "Sayu-nee" .
(If admiral chooses her as her flag ship (marry her) she then disclose her real name to him and asks to be called "Sayu" simply )
She has an unrefined, almost rude language when speaking. She refers to herself as "Atai" instead of "Watashi" (Atai is a word used by delinquent ladies in Japan)
She is a battleship that hardened by battle as much as a battleship can be under extreme circumstances. Thus when it comes to battle she is serious and sharp as steel, experienced as much as a combatant can be, her aloof and weird personality disappears into a professional one, with machine like precision in both strategy and movement.
She was never registered and her existence was denied. That caused her to have a habit of "leaving proof behind" that she existed. She first started scratching her name on rocks or leave small flags on islands. When she joined the Japanese fleet that habit translated in drawing grafiti on walls of buildings and "putting small flags" on the heads of sleeping or unaware KanMusu. That is her way of saying "let's be friends" but usually taken as a "yankee act" by other girls.
Also since she was always alone she rarely talked. And in time she forgot that in order to communicate she has to "talk". There are still times that she forgets to talk while in a conversation and instead deeply staring the other girls, causing them to panic, thinking that they "made Hat-san angry".
She is nuclear powered thus she doesn't have to "eat" like other KanMusu, but once she tasted food for the first time she very much liked the feeling and developed a habit of eating every now and then just to feel the taste. She is also incapable of telling the difference of what is edible and what is not, since she has never eaten before. Thus whenever she sees something new, interesting or shiny she tries to eat or at least bite, often leading to funny/silly situations.
She also doesn't have to sleep because her reactor was not designed to "be switched off" thus always has more than enough energy to last 24/7. But very rarely she tries to "sleep" , imitate other KanMusu around her. And she has nightmares about "the real timeline", that is admiralty refusing her construction and scrapping all four hulls in development phase. That turned out be one of her two unique fears later; just like Akagi's dreams about sinking at Operation MI.
She also sometimes has very nice dreams of "pudding ocean", an ocean made of pudding that tastes great and she eats to her heart's content until she wakes up.
Relation with other KanMusu:
- Nagato: She has very good relation with Nagato as a higher-lower rank base. Since she had never before had a commanding officer and never had a different order than "destroy the enemy" this is a very much needed personal connection. She often talks with Nagato in order to learn convoy and fleet tactics, another new concept for her, also a very much needed one since now she is a part of an active fleet.
- Akatsuki, Hibiki, Ikazuchi, Inazuma : She is unable to understand the value of such small warships, since before she fought and destroyed almost a hundred of such vessels. She sees them as little "toys", or "pets" to be more correct and whenever she meets them she picks them up and carry them around (often all four of them at the same time) like cats, many times to their protest. She is also surprised "they are able to speak".
She gets scolded by Nagato very often for doing so...
Hibiki senses something very familiar with her, but just can't figure it out.
- Fubuki, Yuudachi, Mitsuki: They remember her the destroyer that escorted her back in the day, thus she tries to be kind to them however possible. She sees them as "little sisters" as a sort and pats their heads without reason.
- Shimakaze: Shimakaze is very much infuriated with her because despite having a huge body she simply leaves Shimakaze in terms of top speed thanks to a powerful nuclear reactor, catamaran design and many drive shafts. She challenges her whenever they are met and when she looses she always promises "to come back" .
- Kongou Sisters: Although enjoying very much their company even though unable to understand their high tension, Soyuz feels very distant and sad when near Kongou sisters. Nagato thinks that's because she was actually made of 4 sister battleships, combined into one and carries that memory today still. Meeting with "happy" Kongou sisters remebers her this and causes her to question her own existence.
- Kitakami, Ooi: They had a very rocky start with their relationships. When they first met Soyuz, she found Kitakami's double braided hair ,just like her's, very likable and started to play with it without asking her permission. Kitakami startled and Ooi went nuts. Unable to separate Soyuz from Kitakami, Ooi tries to drop kick and punch Soyuz out of the way without much success. Since then Ooi is extremely careful of Soyuz.
- Yamato: Unexpectedly Yamato and Soyuz go along very well. They are often spotted talking while having walks, or going into night sorties together. Akagi thinks that they are "same kind of children with opposite lives". She means while both are super battleships built as a trump card Yamato was always kept away from battle and hidden in home port, while Soyuz were never let into port and kept on fighting by herself. Thus they are able to learn from each other's experiences.
Indeed Soyuz tries to learn proper social behaviour from Yamato while Yamato tries to gain as much battle experience from Soyuz's endless, against-all-odds battle memories.
- Akagi, Kaga, Shoukaku, Zuikaku: Though Soyuz never had an aircraft on her side she knows how hard it is to take on a massed air assault from a combined carrier fleet, even with her modern anti-air equipment. Thus she at least tries to show some respect to carriers of the fleet, knowing their great potential.
- Sendai, Jintsui, Naka: Soyuz and Sendai often spotted together late at night going around in full equipment, looking for action. She likes these three lively siblings.
- Takao, Atago: Both Takao and Atago are very understanding towards Soyuz. Atago is the one who gave her the nickname Hach-chan in an attemp to make her easier to approach by other people. Having learnt her background from Nagato they act as "trouble breakers" for Soyuz and the troubles she cause for other girls. But that doesn't mean they don't have troubles themselves, since whenever they meet Soyuz tries to eat their hats and chews on Atago's hair (she thinks they are made of cotton candy)
- Yuubari: Interesting enough, even for an awkward girl like Soyuz, she seems insistent on making Yuubari comfortable. She often goes to factory, picks her up and puts her on a sofa and puts extra pillows around her, with Yuubari each time surprised and scared at the same rate. This is because she was taken great care by her supply/repair ship back in home and she thinks if she ever gets in trouble Yuubari will come and save her.
Yuubari isn't complaining...
- Ooyodo: She likes Ooyodo's strict and no nonsense approach in communications. But she never had any connection to a home base before and every now and then she sends interesting messages such as "Ocean is blue" or "Palm trees are delicious" . When questioned about it she said she just wanted to test her new communication equipment... with a grin on her face.
That is the only known time she has been seen enjoying a prank made by her.
Game Mechanics:
Strengths:
- Very tough warship with lower damage than Yamato but much greater HP.
- Can engage every target with same efficiency with her modern systems.
- Long Line of Sight thanks to advanced electronics.
- Highest speed of it's class.
Weaknesses:
- A great asset with a great risk !
- When she is damaged above moderate level her reactor cracks and starts to leak deadly radiation.
- All ships in the fleet including Soyuz takes damage each turn !
- She must undergo repairs at docks to stop leaking radiation.
- Weapon's can not be upgraded ! She is already her maximum with all the equipment
- Her only upgrades focuses on radiation shielding. With three available upgrades shielding improves and she causes less damage to fleet each turn in case of a critical damage.
- When her HP reaches zero she is not sunk, she is destroyed. Her reactor reaches critical mass within two turns and explodes. Causes great damage to both enemies and allies.
Lines:
Introduction:
- Greetings admiral ! Call me... 88... I have been sent to help root out the enemy fleet. No fleet is too large, no enemy is too strong for me.
Library Intro:
- The only ship of my class, I have been designed to fight battles one-against-many and win. It has been many years that I kept fighting around Kamchatka region and finally defeated the enemy by destroying their base. I can fight equally well against ships, submarines and aircraft. Don't worry about me Admiral, just let me loose !
Secretary:
- Yes Comrade Admiral !
- Of course I am here ! I don't have a light presence you know ! (She is afraid of getting forgotten or having her existence denied)
- Why do I have four turrets ? So that I can shoot at every direction ! (She is designed to fight against numerous foes at the same time)
- I look... pale ? Well.. I-I just don't like sun.. that is all... Really ! (She is powered by an unstable but powerful nuclear reactor and internal radiation keeps her skin from having pigmentation )
Secretary (Married) :
Admiral you look a bit pale... It is not... because of me is it ? (She is afraid she is leaking radiation that may cause harm to Admiral)
Wedding:
- Yes Admiral. Which enemy fleet goes down today ? What... that is not it... Wait... But...but... is it OK ? Am I not dangerous to you ? You... will ...acknowledge my existence ?... Thank ...you... very...much... By the way my real name is... Sovietsky Soyuz... Please call me Sayu from now on...
Show Player's Score:
- Ho-Home base... You copy ?
Docking (Minor Damage)
- Just scratches...
Docking (Moderate Damage)
- This is nothing compared to what I went through before
Docking Complete:
- Ready for another sortie
Start A Sortie:
- Another long journey starts.
Return From Sortie:
- That is how it feels like to be back at home ?
Battle Start:
- This waters will run red ! (Implying her origins)
Attack:
- Autoloaders ! Ready ! (She is equipped with autoloaders for rapid fire)
- Lock on incoming aircraft !
- Launch the Dvina !
- Fire the torpedos !
Night Battle:
- You think I was unprepared ? Huh ! (She is equipped with electronics for this situation)
MVP:
- This is just expected... But still... thank you...
Minor damaged:
- Not even worth mentioning.
- This is the best you got ? Really ?
Moderately Damage:
- I had much worse than this !
- We are just begining !
Heavily Damaged (Her voice starts to echo and her skin starts to crack)
- My reactor... cracks... (She start leaks radiation)
- The history... reckons... (She wasn't supposed to exist in the first place)
- The nightmares... call again (Her nightmares of never existing show themselves)
- Not... the others (She start leaks radiation but doesn't want to damage her comrades)
Destroyed:
- My Journal... please take it... (This is her only proof of existence)
- Save... the others... (She doesn't want to take others with her)
- Comrades... stay away... (She warns her comrades)
- Forget...me...not... (...)