-Prologue-

When humanity first encountered the Abyssal's, they greatly misunderstood the threat, mostly down to the lack of credible evidence and no witnesses, they had attributed the mysterious loss of ships, to freak accidents and bad weather and any rumours of something otherwise were dismissed as just people trying to scare others for fun, there wasn't anything to contradict this theory, and what little evidence they had in the form of garbled and panicked radio messages, were brushed aside as the crews trying to call for rescue as their ship went down.

That was until the USS George Washington and her battle group on patrol in the Atlantic had received a radio from a ship in distress and had sent a search plane to try to locate the ship, only to find said ship being attacked by a force of what was later described as 'humanoid monsters with naval cannons' from all sides, the response to the threat had been at first, utter confusion as to what was going on, it didn't make any sense as to what they were seeing or rather hearing in the form of the panicked radio messages from the search plane as it bid a rapid retreat back to the carrier, but then their training kicked in and they had moved to respond to the threat by the book, that being to send some jets loaded with anti-shipping missiles to blow the crap out of the enemy, and then back home in time for medals and drinks, that was the plan anyway, and as was so famously put by Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder 'No plan survives contact with the enemy', and so when the jets found their missiles unable to lock onto the Abyssal's, the carrier force did the only rational thing left to them, run the fuck away and raise the alarm.

There were only two problems with that plan, firstly the jets had been rather noisy and had naturally drawn the Abyssal's attention to the presence of a nice juicy aircraft carrier, and secondarily as the crews of the ships discovered, when they suddenly found plips on their radars that marked where the Abyssals were, and that said plips were steadily closing on their position, that the abyssals were faster than them, fortunately for the American's nearby was the nuclear attack submarine HMS Ambush which had also been responding to the distress signal, and listening in on the American radio traffic to see if they were needed, and so had were well informed of the nature of the threat by the time the Abyssal fleet had moved to pursue the American's, and realising that the Americans couldn't outrun them, the Ambush's crew had sent a message to the Americans that they were moving to intercept, adding that they had the best chances of stalling the Abyssal's long enough for the carrier and its escorts to disengage, whilst also being able live to tell the tale, the American's had wished them luck.

Now though the battle swung in favor of the Human's as whilst the jets guided missiles had been for some reason unable to gain a lock on the abyssal's, the abyssal's were making a lot of noise even compared to large unstealthed ships going full speed, and that logically meant the Ambush's acoustic homing torpedoes had something to track, and so not feeling too confident, Ambush's crew had decided on the 'throw enough shit at the wall some of it will stick' approach and had launched a full salvo on the unsuspecting enemy, only to be surprised as all six of the deadly spearfish had homed in on the two noisiest and coincidentally largest abyssals, later classified as a pair of Ta-class battleships, the crew of the Ambush had almost painked when the first torpedo, didn't blow the abyssal to pieces and were about to start thinking that this new enemy was completely invincible, when two more torpedoes struck the wounded Ta, this time blowing it apart; the other Ta had strangely reacted to its comrade's demise by attempting to zig-zag like it was trying to avoid an unguided weapon, the result, however, was the same.

The Ambush's crew would have normally gone deep and run at this point, but the other Ta's action had peaked their interest and so had stayed to monitor the Abyssal's for intelligence purposes, and had watched the sonar screen with interest as the abyssal's began executing classic Anti-submarine warfare tactics, classic as in it they were using WW2 Anti-submarine warfare tactics, which against a submarine as stealthy as the Ambush, was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but not the haystack they were searching in; after an hour or so the Abyssal's had moved off back towards open waters, the crew of the Ambush deciding they'd pushed their luck, didn't follow.

Within a week, the world found itself under attack, any pretence of trying to hide their presence was replaced by pure aggression, the loss of merchant shipping skyrocketed to levels not seen since WW2, humanity had tried to respond using the information gathered by the crews of the George Washington and the Ambush, by using weapons which relied on principles and technology found in WW2 weapon systems, but that had only turned a total defeat, into a slow grinding match they couldn't win, the navies and air forces of the world found themselves executing hit and run guerrilla attacks, using jets and submarines to get in close to drop bombs or launch torpedo's and then get out quickly before any retaliation, which occasionally resulted in one maybe two ships sunk, which would be replaced by ten more each, the Abyssal horde seemed endless, humanity did have a few things going for it, such as due to having superior technology than their counterparts, their subs and aircraft could dive deeper than the abyssals could deep charge or climb higher and outrun any threat respectively, which meant they were maintaining what strength they had, and with fighter jets rearmed with additional guns, they could give Abyssal fighters a run for their money.

But with international shipping non-existent, air haulage barely managing with the bare essentials and land routes over-stressed and under constant threat of literal highway robbery, the world was falling apart, not even the world's armies, despite the lack of resources could be stripped of what they had, whilst being totally useless against the Abyssal's they were the only thing preventing some countries from descending into a state of civil war, and as a deterrent from others who saw the crisis as a chance to settle old grudges.

Mercifully though, whilst the Abyssal's had been wreaking havoc on the world oceans, they had so far stayed away from major population centres, many believed that they simply deterred by the heavy military presence that was defending the world's ports, but that theory was busted when, nearly three months after the first confirmed contact with the Abyssal's, a force of light cruisers and destroyers descended upon what they saw as a soft target, as the military had nothing defending it, but in their defence, with the Abyssal's focused on naval and maritime targets they hadn't thought to stretch what little they had to defend it, after all, central London didn't have any ports, not anymore at least.

October 9th, 2020 - London - 10:22 Hrs - HMS Belfast

Not for the first time in its long history, the city of London was on fire, and not for the first time were its citizens, like their forebears before them, were cowering in fear in the tube stations which spanned the city, normally packed with commuters, now they were packed by people seeking safety from the hellfire which was raging above their heads, the skies over London for the first time in 80 years, were filled with aircraft, RAF Typhoons and Lightning's duelled it out with Abyssal fighters, both trying to achieve aerial supremacy, and both locked in a stalemate; but it wasn't the Abyssal aircraft which were doing the damage, that horrific honor fell to the fleet of Abyssal's sitting in the Thames, opposite the tower of London, launching volleys of murderous shellfire into the heart of the city, and Belfast standing on her quarterdeck had a front row seat to the whole show.

Belfast could believe what she was seeing, her home for the past 50 years, one she had watched grow and prosper with pride, was being reduced to rubble before her eyes. She desperately wanted to blow the crap out of the monsters destroying her city with her 6-inch guns, but without ammunition, propellant or anyone to fire them, she could only watch in horror, as the anger within her grew and grew.

"No, I can't let the anger consume me, not again, I can control it, I did during Korea, I can do it again!" She mentally screamed at herself, she wasn't letting that monster out of the hole she'd buried it in, after that night in 1945, but in Korea, she'd been able to distract herself from letting the monster consume her, but here, now, what could she do! The only thing which came to mind was to mentally run a gunnery drill, she wasn't sure why maybe imagining her guns tearing the Abyssal's apart would help distract her from the horror before her. She quickly selected a target, the largest of the Abyssal's, right at the centre of the pack, quickly she feed the calculations to her turrets; range to target, speed, course, the lot, she figured that if she wanted to make it believable to her imagination, she needed to go through the whole procedure, and when all that was done, her imagination informed her, her guns were ready to fire, "open fire" she sighed aloud.

Suddenly there was a roar of gunfire, which drowned out the sounds of battle all over the city, followed by the Abyssal promptly exploding in a cloud of fire and brimstone, with nothing remaining after it cleared, Belfast could only stand, her mouth aghast at what had just occurred, she knew that noise, it was a noise she'd heard many times in her life, only she hadn't heard it since her service days, that was the last time she'd fired her main armament; but that was impossible, there wasn't anyone aboard her and it wasn't like she could fire her..., Belfast thought, right up until she saw her gun turrets, which had been long trained at in the same positions for decades, were now pointed straight at the Abyssal's, barrels smoking ominously, she couldn't fathom what appeared to have happened, she couldn't have fired her guns, there wasn't anyone aboard her to fire her guns, nor propellant or shells either, yet her guns had fired, then Belfast noticed something, it was suddenly a lot quieter, turning attention back to the Abyssal fleet, who were looking just as confused as she was, even the Abyssal fighters were confused, by the fact that their organisation and tactics had completely collapsed, which was leaving them sitting ducks for the RAF, who were capitalising on the sudden confusion.

"All turrets ready, awaiting new target" a voice in the back of Belfast's head announced, catching her off-guard, she couldn't be controlling her guns, she was simply a spirit after all, but all the evidence seemed to be pointing to that conclusion, she needed to see the prove it, quickly she selected another target, compiled the calculations and, watching her aft turrets as she fed the information to her four turrets, and watched in amazement as the turrets adjusted their aim according to her calculations, she couldn't believe it, she was controlling her guns, she didn't know how, but that didn't matter, what mattered was that she could do something about the monsters attacking her home.

"Ok then, let's see how you like it!" She announced forcefully, and then her guns barked their deadly chorus, once again her target disintegrated under the weight of her broadside, this time through the Abyssal's noticed, and Belfast could only watch with grim satisfaction as the looks of confusion plastered on the Abyssal's faces, turned to ones of utter panic, clearly they hadn't been expecting her to be able to fight back, quickly four of the smaller Abyssal's, for some reason she identified them as destroyers, turned to engage her, only their shots missed by a substantial distance, Belfast simply responded by ordering her turrets to split their fire between the four Abyssal's, and watched with pride as all of her shells slammed home, leaving the Abyssal's as bleeding, battered hulks, sinking into the Thames. The sound of diving aircraft drew her attention, 4 Abyssal fighters diving on her, almost instantly her 40mm Bofors cannons opened up shredding the lead pair, the latter pair tried to pull away, only for the 3rd to be blown from the sky by a direct hit from one of her 4-inch guns, leaving the 4th climbing away, and might have escaped had it not been for the pair of Typhoon's tearing it apart under the hail of 20mm cannon shells as they roared past, the pilots staring at her empty deck and unmanned yet operational guns, probably wondering what the hell was going on.

With the threats from the air being kept at arm's length, be that by her guns or by the RAF, who were engaging in what Belfast would call 'a turkey shoot', she'd really screwed up the Abyssal's plans, Belfast meanwhile noticed something, she felt different, like she was alive, like when she had been commissioned, she felt warm?; It was then Belfast noticed something else, she was glowing, her spirit form was glowing, in fact, her entire hull was glowing, and she was getting warmer, and warmer, not painful, but she was feeling weird, really weird. Then suddenly it felt like her skin was on fire, skin? she didn't have skin, so how could she feel it? and then there was a blinding flash, and when it cleared, Belfast felt really different, not like she had when she was commissioned, this was more than that, the world seemed brighter, the air reeked of cordite, the wind on her face ruffled her hair which she had let grow into what most would call a long pixie cut.

"Wait, I don't feel the wind, I don't have a sense of smell" Belfast realised aloud, spirits didn't feel anything, so why was she feeling things, then she noticed something else, her guns had stopped, strange, as she moved to shift a strand of hair that had dropped over her eye, she found an answer, namely that there was a miniaturized version of one of her guns mounted to her right forearm, another was mounted on her other forearm, with the remaining two mounted on her upper arms, now she was really confused, but as she glanced at the Abyssal's she realised they saw her confusion and raised with looks of complete and utter terror, their looks fixed on her, not at her hull but directly at her, almost like they could see her.

Then pieces all the pieces suddenly clicked into place, working weapons, human-like senses, feeling like she was alive, the fact the Abyssal's could see her! there was only one conclusion, a crazy, impossible conclusion, she had somehow entered the human realm, figuring out how could wait, right now she had guns, she had targets and those targets needing killing. The Abyssal's meanwhile had regained some form of organization as they had developed a plan, that being to turn and flee in panic, Belfast meanwhile, figuring that if she had a physical form and weapons like the Abyssal's did, she could probably move on the water like they did, maybe.

"Well in for a penny, in for a pound," she said doubtfully, before leaping off of her old body, only to be rewarded as she landed on the water's surface, confirming her theory. Returning her attention to the fleeing Abyssal's, a grin formed on her face, not fueled by hatred or anger, but one of determination, the Abyssal's had just made a big mistake, they'd woken her up, and now they were going to pay for it.

Author's notes

Did you miss me?, So here we are again, I didn't know how to put this one down, there was a lot of setting up to do, and I didn't know if this seemed a bit long-winded, but now I've got the set up sorted, we can get down to the story itself, but if you disagree please tell me, I love reading feedback so any is welcome.

And now for a little shout out to all those who commented on the primer for this piece you guys/girls (can't be too careful), especially Jrandom42, for not only being the first person to review any of my stories but for correctly guessing how I was going to summon Belfast, kudos my friend, give yourself a cookie.

So now that I've got that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the continuation of the story, which I didn't expect to do as well as it has because I'm going to enjoy writing it.