Chapter 0 – Prologue
"Next up is the discussion about Admiral Mitaka's replacement for the Kanmusu Naval base."
Admiral Tarkov put his notes back on the table.
"I know some of you won't like this, but our best bet probably is to promote one of our front-line commanders to the position."
His speech was interrupted by the other admirals breaking into loud, murmured discussions.
Tarkov cleared his throat and proceeded to speak, not masking his Russian accent any more.
"May I continue?"
Silence.
"Good. As I was saying, our best bet is to promote one of our front-line officers. As of yet, we don't know what exactly Mitaka was doing, but as we concluded earlier, during the discussions of Haruna's report on the situation and Hosho's private log on the sorties, the shipgirls don't trust the admiralty board, with good reason, and probably won't trust whomever we will assign to the base."
He moved his hands behind his back and continued talking
"So we should make sure to choose someone for the position who will have it easier to re-gain their trust, right? A newly promoted front-line officer would have two advantages there: Firstly, their hands-on experience in fighting the Abyssals and secondly, being freshly promoted, they would create the impression of being the unlucky guy, chosen by the admiralty to clean up their mess."
He waited a few seconds for the pondering mumbling to die down.
"That being said, we also need to keep in mind that the investigations about Mitaka's action are starting and from what we currently know, every single person in the chain of command who are or were involved with the Kanmusu-project is a suspect. All of us and most of our subordinates. Just try to imagine the shipgirls finding out that their new admiral was one of those who made it possible for his predecessor to abuse them that badly."
Content, he listened the the sounds of the realisation setting in echoing through the conference room for a minute.
"Which brings me back to our front-line officers. They all are more than capable of handling the tactical demands of the position and none of them were involved with the Kanmusu-project in any way. So unless there are any objections, let's hear some suggestions."
After a moment of quiet mumblings, impossible to make out, some of the admirals started raising their hands.
"Tahaka."
Tarkov motioned towards one of the Japanese admirals that had lifted their hands. The addressed stood up, tapped on his tablet a few times to send a staff file to the conference room's computer system and answered
"Captain Matthew Featherstonhaugh"
in the same moment as the staff file of the British-Japanese Captain in his mid-twenties appeared on the room's main screen.
Another of the Japanese admirals jumped up shouting:
"There you go promoting your protégé again, Tahaka! Don't you think you should take this more seri-"
He was interrupted by one of the American admirals slamming his fist on the table, followed by him barking:
"Oh shut it, Katahara! You know just as well as I do that Mato is our best possible candidate!"
The admiral took a quick breath and continued in a calmer fashion."
He doesn't have the most Abyssal kills, but he is among the top. His wary attitude towards the board is a nice advantage in this situation. He also can use Operation Argus as emotional leverage, since he was, just like the shipgirls, betrayed be the admiralty board."
Katahara was about to retort, only to be shot down by another Russian admiral with extended index finger.
"Don't even think about it Katahara! We messed up badly with Operation Argus. Everyone involved knows it. We are sick of your explanation attempts."
He motioned the American admiral to continue.
"Richards."
"Andmost importantly, Mato already has a shipgirl that trusts him. And not just any shipgirl."
He paused, for a moment of suspense.
"Haruna. The first battleship to return as a shipgirl trusts him. He must have made quite an impression on her in the three hours they fought together."