Disclaimer: Kancolle and all of its character belong to its respective owners
Three days had passed since the ship breaking incident. That section is no more, and the girls decided to use part of it as docks and bathhouses, the rest was up to Akashi and Yuubari to decide. Seems like they would put up an equipment improvement arsenal in order to repair and enhance armaments' characteristic. They are now under construction
Hiroshi's internal clock told him it was about 0700, so he opened his eyes. He quickly got out of bed, stretched his arms a bit and got dressed. But as he was about to leave for breakfast at Mamiya's food court, he took a glance at his watch on his bedside table…
"…I'm a dead man…I'M A DEAD MAN!"
It was actually 0900, his internal clock was horribly wrong; he was an hour late. His reaction was completely opposite from his usual composed attitude. He is now in the state of panic of being late for his duty, moreover, today is his first sortie so being late is even worse.
Hiroshi rushed out of his room toward his office, climbed the stairs to the second floor. Didn't even bother to knock, he opened the door loudly, impolitely. The three ship girls, who had long been in there, looked his way. Noticing his awkward position, he corrected his composure and returned to his calm self.
"I apologize for being late. Is there anything that I missed during my absence?" Hiroshi asked, effectively hiding his embarrassment
"Nothing much sir, we just did some reconnaissance on the region we are going to sortie." Nagato replied while giving him a document. The paper consisted of a table with 3 columns, a map of the region and mission objective. In the table was a list of enemy vessels and their strength spotted at certain areas.
"For better illustration purposes, you can come to this map over here Admiral" Mutsu indicated a bigger map on the table. The map showed two islands, one was to the right of the map while the other at the upper-right corner, cut lines and nodes indicating the planned routes and area where it is most expected to meet the enemy fleet. The fleet was expected to encounter an enemy fleet and then went east for the island
Hiroshi compared the list with the nodes and noticed something strange. There were no reports on the fleet composition at both islands, while the number ships at the pre-island nodes were mysteriously low.
"Nagato, what happened during recon?" He asked. "Nothing were said about the island's fleet composition"
"Somehow all recon planes our carrier launched were shot down after we got around the typhoon." She said pointing at the map. "Our second waves of planes met the same fate as well. But we managed to get a clear look at the island. It appeared to be their main base of the region."
"What concerned me is how those planes were shot down. It's like they know that we were coming" Mutsu chimed in
"However if they had known it from the beginning, they could have shot down the planes from the first nodes. So that means our recon planes were spotted while they are flying over node G, the node where we have to choose our direction"
"But there were no ships at node G and it is too far away from both the ships and islands' radar range" Mutsu refuted her sister's deduction
"Then it doesn't make sense…" Nagato commented. The room went completely silent, so silent that the blood pumping inside the veins could be heard. Everyone was deep in thought, trying to come up with something that fits into everything nicely
"The typhoon." Hiroshi finally spoke up, interrupting the silence. After all hearing all the clues from the two battleships, he let loose and let his intellectual mind take his place
"The enemy is inside the typhoon." Hiroshi finished his sentence. This stirred up surprises and confusion among the room's occupants. Seeing that, he decided to back up his statement
"To be exact, the enemy is in the eye. A battleship." He said with utmost confident. "The only place planes can't go into is typhoons. A ship with detection range long enough could detect anyone passing through while remaining concealed. The only ship that could manoeuvre well in a storm and has high detection range is a battleship"
"Hmm…could be. That explains most of our questions. But how are we going to reach the base with that 'thing' sitting there?"
"Simple, we just send 1 fleet into that storm, and decimate it." He answered so bluntly that it was too insane to believe
"...Admiral, that is too risky. There is absolutely no evidence what type of ships in there and how many. Moreover, we can't tell if the 'thing' inside the storm is a battleship. Attacking might result in waste of resources or being critically damaged during battle." Nagato said
"Here's the second fleet's composition" He said as he handed his secretary ship a piece of paper. "Follow it and the fleet will return home moderately damaged at most"
Nagato looked at the paper and back at Hiroshi. The order of battle was as insane as his plan. Hiroshi said nothing, he just looked at her with the eyes of an eagle. His face showed complete faith and confidence in a total victory, as if saying everything is possible, no doubts were noticed.
"Alright Admiral. But what about the island?" Nagato replied, seemingly convinced.
"The Abyssal can rot there. They won't pose a threat to us. " Hiroshi said. "And, may I ask, if there is any JMSDF's vessel at our disposal?"
"Uhh…no. What is it about sir?"
"Just to make this battle more personal. Don't mind that, let's get to work."
It was about 1000 when the assault began. Flagship of the supporting fleet Maya was fired up for her first sortie in a while. Fighting in a storm or not, she didn't care, getting the chance to fire her main guns brightened her day. In contrast to her energetic spirit, the others were pretty negative. Destroyer Asashio and Arashio tried their best to stop trembling inside. Light cruiser Jintsuu checked her armaments over and over again, probably truing to forget what was coming. Torpedo Cruiser Kitakami was also nervous about the sortie while her partner Ooi comforted her, comically
"Fleet status." Hiroshi said to his two fleets' flagship
"All ship girls ready. Setting sail!" Maya followed suit
"Alright, morning ladies, welcome to today's sortie" Hiroshi confirmed their report. "I believe I had already explained our battle tactics, so it's better not to repeat it, our radio frequency might be intercepted."
"Hai~" The flagship shouted
"Is this gonna work? It sounded crazy." Muttered Jintsuu
"I don't know senpai, but we had no choice but to believe it anyway." Replied Asashio, reassuring her
About 30 minutes after departure, the fleet reached the first node. They were immediately met with hostile resistance. However, because they all consisted of light ships, they were easily taken care of in a short firefight.
But the battle has only just begun. After reaching node G, the fleet sailed into the storm according to plan. The wind speed reached up to 94 kilometres per hour, combined with enemy firepower caused severe difficulty navigating. Hiroshi figured out that much, he tried to give directions to the girls through radio but it was proven near impossible due to the heavy rain and strong wind.
"…hzz…gine…hzz...put…hzz…hzz…mum"
"Admiral, I can't hear you at all. Repeat please!" Maya said, her words couldn't reach the Admiral at all.
"Stupid storm! It's soaking my Kitakami-san!" Ooi complained in anger
"The rain is too heavy, I can't send out my recon seaplane." Jintsuu joined in. Asashio was the only one not saying anything but she was obviously struggling to get through.
"How long it would take if we kept going at this pace?" Arashio asked tiringly
"About 10 minutes to the eye. We'll engage as soon as they are on our sight" Maya checked her radar and answered
Finally, after barrages of rainfall and enemy shells, the fleet managed to reach the eye, luckily without significant damage. With no more rain or strong wind, the radio interference was cleared up.
"Maya, status report!" Hiroshi's voice could be heard, loud and clear
"We've passed through the storm and are engaging the enemy" Reported Maya
"Fleet composition?" Asked Hiroshi
"Umm…2 Ri-class heavy cruisers, 2 elite Wa-class transport ships, 1 elite Ro-class destroyer and 1 elite Ta-class battleship"
'So that's the thing spotting us the whole time'
"Very well, the battleship is our main threat, focus your firepower on it. Those with light armour stay back and provide cover fire. Girls, wishes you the best of luck" Hiroshi sent the order of battle
"Hai!" All fleet girls replied in unison
At 1105, the two fleets started their engagement. The first phase turned well for Maya's fleet as the 2 Ri-class got sunk instantly by Ooi and Kitakami's torpedo salvo. At 1110, the battle was in full swing. The battleship had proved its superiority with its heavy firepower, but the rest of the Abyssal ships' firing were considerably frail. Many of the Abyssal gun armaments had fallen silent owing to the damage they sustained after 10 minutes of engagement and almost all of Abyssal ships excluding the Ta-class were crippled and unable to offer resistance by 1130. This opened an opportunity for the second fleet to focus on the battleship.
"Here comes my pain train, eat it!" Maya gave a cry, firing her two 20.3cm twin gun mount. One shell scraped its amour while the other struck one of the triple gun battery, effectively disabling it. The battleship roared and in response she fired her other battery.
"Ahh!" Jintsuu gave a squeak. It appeared one of the shells grazed her. She retreated back a bit and resumed firing. The high evasion of the fleet proved effective, the battleship couldn't manage to land another hit. But sinking her was still a problem. Her armour effectiveness was too high. Asashio and Arashio's 12.7cm were rendered useless against her thick armour. Fortunately for them, ammunition was not unlimited, the battleship slowly ran out of ammo. The fleet slowly but steadily disabled her armaments and then her turbine. The Ta-class soon gave a scream and fell to her knees, she dropped her defence, lost her ability to resist and was at the mercy of the fleetgirls. The other Abyssal ships tried to attack but was sunk without any damage done.
"Five enemy ships destroyed, the battleship is still floating but cannot continue fighting. Our fleet only suffered minor damage to light cruiser Jintsuu." Maya gave a brief battle report
The three girls back at HQ was surprised at the result. The Admiral was true to his words, no ships reached critical damage in a battle seemed too crazy to fight in. Hiroshi just stood there, his radio still on his head, and sighed with satisfaction. His battle plan was perfect, nothing went out of expectations. But as he was about to give the fleet orders…
"Admiral, the Ta-class is looking at us right now. I think she is trying to tell us something" The report from Maya stopped him from giving further orders
The Ta-class was looking at all the girls expectantly, her eyes ceased all hostilities. She was still on her knees, gazing up and reaching out her hand. She looked nothing like the girl a few minutes ago, she looked like a small guilty pet. Her gaze looked as if, as if…
"…as if she is trying to give in to us" Asashio commented, her voice reached the Admiral
The girls were obviously confused. Taking a prisoner was something they had never done before. The Abyssal usually fought till the end and sank. They didn't have experience with prisoners, so taking her with them would be a hassle. But the thoughts of sinking her never crossed their mind. Despite being enemies, she was just a girl, sinking her would be cruel since she already surrendered. A moment of silence passed, the girls still didn't have a clue on what to do.
Then a cold voice rang through the radio
"Kill it…"
"What?!" Maya couldn't comprehend the voice at all
"I said kill it! Sink it to the bottom-most reaches of the ocean!" The voice this time was loud and clear. It was Hiroshi. Although the identity of the voice was already known, the girls couldn't believe that it was their commander who gave the order. Hiroshi's voice was cold and unforgiving, deeply contrasted his usual self that they see, as if he was a demon from hell himself.
The Abyssal suddenly revolted, her eyes became combative, taking the good opportunity. She pointed one barrel of her main gun, apparently still working, towards the girls and open fired. All they heard afterwards was a bang and a loud yelp. Arashio suffered a direct hit, tattering her clothes and destroying her boiler. Upon seeing her sister ship got shot, Asashio was immediately filled with anger. Several explosions came after, the battleship was no more. It sank to the abyss, to where it came from.
"Maya! Report!" Hiroshi's yelled on the radio
"Sir, the battleship retaliated and Arashio suffered heavy damage" Maya said with a low voice, still recovering from the sudden retaliation
"What happened?" He suddenly asked with a dark expression
"…"
"Why didn't you shoot?!" He made his question clear in fury
"I-I'm sorry, it's just that she didn't look like she could cause harm"
"Then look! Look at what she has done! Next Abyssal you meet, waste her without hesitation! A creepy looking shark or a cute girl in a fancy dress, I don't care! Make sure you shoot her, again and again until she no longer floats!" Hiroshi roared, apparently in utmost disappointment and rage
"…" Maya was rendered speechless after his sudden outburst. Her usual self would retort against him, but she couldn't, she was too scared after hearing his reprimands. Not just her, but others on the radio as well
"Admiral…" Nagato began, her voice concerned of the fleet girls
"Mission Accomplished. Return to base."
Hiroshi turned to his secretary ship
"Prepare the baths for their arrival"
"Yes sir."
He nodded in approval, then left the room, not without emitting a breath of sadness
I'm not quite satisfied with this chapter but it at least gives a glimpse of the MC's attitude towards the war and the Abyssal. Stay tune for more chapters to come