Note from author: So sorry for the extremely long wait, I had so much school work and personal stuff going on I hardly had time to write! I hope the fact that this chapter is slightly longer makes up even a little for the delay, again thanks for reading and sorry for the wait.
I moved quickly back towards the main building with my cap pulled down over my eyes as I stared down at the ground burning a trail in the stone with my blazing blue glare.
I walked with a purpose and weaved by any and every ship that crossed my path. I managed to make my way back to the main building and make it to our room. I stood there and took a deep breath before I entered the room.
I pushed open in a grandiose fashion and entered the room with a sense of humor.
"Your glorious leader has return, plus a few new additions!" I announced walking over and sitting down on my bed.
"Oh, do tell oh so glorious leader." Arizona said with a good natured slightly sarcastic tone.
"Yeah c'mon, tell us Penn!" Oak said practically bouncing.
"A full set of the AEGIS combat system, new autoloading main battery guns that halve my reload time, almost innumerable AA gun mounts, eight coaxial dual five-inch secondary battery guns, completely redone propulsion and steering machinery, and an updated superstructure." I said with a wide smirk.
"So cool..." Oak marveled.
"It's nothing you haven't seen before Oak." Nevada pointed out motioning towards Arizona.
"Yeah, but I never saw it on him now have I?" Oak countered.
"Well...true." Nevada sighed.
"Anyway lessons and refits aside, what should we do with the rest of our day?" I asked.
"Maybe we can go check out that new restaurant that opened up down in the courtyard?" Arizona suggested.
"Yeah, I heard their food's pretty good." Oak nodded.
"I can confirm that." Nevada said with a warm smile of recollection.
"Wow, I've never seen you smile just from the mention of food." Arizona remarked.
"You've never seen me think of their food then." Nevada remarked.
"Meh, maybe..." I thought.
My thought was interrupted by an all too familiar sound. It was an alarm.
We all jumped to our feet.
"Battleship Divisions One and Two, Carrier Group One, Support Fleet Two, and Torpedo Squadron Three report to the launching bays immediately." An unfamiliar voice called over the PA system.
I wanted to ask who that was but I knew better than to question orders especially during war. Without a word we all began our run out of the room and out of the building down to the launching bays. We entered the bays and they were already packed with ships at their respective stations ready to launch. We were stationed right next to the second Battleship Division which bore all familiar faces. The Pearl Harbor ships were like family after all so when we laid eyes upon West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, and California it was hard not to throw our arms around them in welcome but we had orders to listen for.
The Tennessee class was basically what the Pennsylvania class was to the Nevada class to the Pennsylvania class. A more advanced but nearly identical ship with slightly bigger dimensions.
Tennessee was one of my best friends. After the attack on Pearl Harbor I was a mess. I knelt over Arizona's body and cried my eyes out. I didn't move from that spot for at least a day or two. All of the survivors came to try and comfort me but I couldn't even look up at them as I looked down at my sister's mangled body under the clear water as she leaked dark red almost black oil like blood into the harbor.
The only ones who did anything that actually comforted me was Tennessee and Nevada. I remembered feeling guilty after that. They both had lost a sister as well and yet they decided to spend their time alongside me and comfort me. I won't ever forget that.
We locked ourselves into position alongside BatDiv 2 and greeted our friends with as much affection as could be professionally communicated.
"It's good to see you again, Penn." Tennessee smiled snagging my cap and ruffling my hair.
"Yeah, well it's good to be back. It's been too long guys." I smiled, gently batting her hand away from my head and looking over the other three.
They smiled back at me.
"Battleship Divisions One and Two, The First Carrier Group, Support Fleet Two, and Torpedo Squadron three. All units are assembled and ready ma'am, what are your orders?" The voice from before called.
"This is Nagato speaking. Fleet Four recently encountered Abyssal ships while out on expedition. On that encounter they discovered the enemy's base. We have reason to believe that this is the base for the Abyssal fleet which controls the seas around the Naval District. We are launching an offensive attack." She announced.
I held out my fist and gave Tenn a fist bump.
"Finally, a chance to go on the offensive against an actual surface force." I sighed giving a wide grin.
"This is gonna be fun!" West exclaimed pumping her fists.
"The formation is as follows. Battleship Divisions One and Two will be the Vanguard and will attack the enemy force directly and divert their attention from defending the base. Carrier task force with the first carrier group Ak-" She was cut off by a harsh cough.
"I apologize, I shall continue. The carriers will attack the base. Support Fleet Two will provide cover. Torpedo Squadron Three will go ahead of the others and provide recon. Understood?" She explained.
"The end goal of this operation is to eliminate the threat of the Abyssals. If our mission proves successful we will be able to secure the sea lanes around the Naval District. Most importantly and I want you all to remember this. I forbid any type of arrogance." She said singling someone out.
All of the American battleships' heads shifted slightly in my direction.
"That was either aimed at me or there's another newbie among us. Either way that was a little uncalled for." I said crossing my arms.
"Alright, Torpedo Squadron Three you will be the first fleet to launch. Today is the day we reclaim the seas for humanity!" Nagato called.
"Eh, more like today is the day we reclaim some of the seas for humanity but whatever floats your ship..." I remarked with a shrug.
Tennessee pulled my cap over my face in a swift motion.
"Hey!" I called straightening my cap.
The blast doors rose with a blaring alarm and they launched I spotted a particularly clueless looking girl among the Torpedo Squadron who look reluctant to even approach her platform and the dots connected themselves. She was a total newb.
"Newbie spotted, nine o'clock. Destroyer in the white and blue sailor outfit. She's just about as clueless as I was before my first launch." I said pointing her out from my position.
"Whoa, nice eye." Cali noted.
"Wanna bet she falls on her ass on launch?" Mary said with a slight smirk.
"I'll take that bet." Nevada nodded.
I looked her over and thought about it.
"Hm...I'm not so sure about that." I said shaking my head a bit.
"Well, we'll see." Tenn said.
She launched with apparent difficulty but to her credit she didn't fall down...yet.
"Aw..." Mary said feigning disappointment.
"Heads up people, chances are we're up next." Cali said looking forward.
"Alright Battleship Division One launch and take point. Battleship Division Two launch after and fall in behind Battleship Division One.
"You heard her BatDiv One, let's go!" I said ordering my division forward.
We stepped onto our platforms and launched in order of Me, Arizona, Nevada, and Oak. We were quickly followed by West, Mary, Tenn, and Cali behind us.
I quickly noted that my turning time was halved and I had gained at least two or three extra knots of speed. It was like a breath of fresh air.
"Been awhile since we all sailed together." Mary noted.
"Too long." Cali sighed.
"You can say that again." I smiled.
Tennessee is about an inch or so taller than me and a bit better built with long and wavy dark brown hair which darkened into deep red near the tips. She has a slightly tanner complexion to any of the ships in my division and golden eyes.
She wears a light gray and bold crimson red uniform the colors separated by a bold black line like on our uniforms. Her uniform is more reminiscent of army fatigues in design. Her cap is also gray, black, and red and on either side of her head what looked like the sides of a long triangle protruded. I knew these to be her range finder.
Cali is basically identical to her older sister, but her outfit is a bright almost cobalt blue and her hair and eyes are both silver with her hair fading into blue and she has a pretty bad scar down the right side of her face reminiscent of mine.
West and Mary are Colorado class battleships and stand about level with Tenn and Cali but finally broke the resemblance between US dreadnaughts.
West has long flowing pitch-black hair that reaches about half way down her back, she has a slightly more impressive build than me, intimidating crimson eyes that would scare you motionless if you didn't know how friendly she really is, and a ghost like complexion.
Her uniform looked a lot like Tenn's but bulkier and designed with naval camouflage Measure-32 which consisted of wavy lines of white, light blue, light gray, and black in a pattern meant to fool the eyes at range. She was one of the only ships from Pearl that actually took a liking to the newly designed camouflage and hence West and Mary were the only ones to adopt the new camouflage patterns.
Mary being West's sister was nearly identical, but she was slightly tanner than her sister. Not to mention her superstructure tower was that of a normal Colorado class battleship while West was modified when she was raised and repaired following Pearl. Her eyes, unlike her sister's, were brown and her hair matched them.
Her uniform was the same but her "Dazzle" Camouflage pattern contrasted her sister's. The intent of fooling the eye was the same but the lines were more pronounced and consisted only of light blue and black.
I felt relaxed in my friends' company and felt just a bit of nostalgia for those days before the war when we just sat around Pearl and drill every now and then. Mainly we just sat around, talked, hung around with the other ships, and joked around.
We had now been sailing at our new top speed of twenty-four knots for a good twenty minutes as we approached the coordinates Nagato gave us.
"Heads up, enemy spotted." West said pointing them out.
Only after she pointed them out my sensors picked them up. I wasn't surprised. She had a history of having the best detection range of almost any US battleship even with the exact same equipment.
"Enemy range is fifty kilometers out. They seem to be holding position." I reported.
I whistled in amazement.
"God, that's a lot of contacts." I added in a quiet voice.
"Easily a couple hundred." Mary confirmed.
"How didn't we detect them until just now? Doesn't this radar have a detection range of up to a hundred and some kilometers?" I asked.
"Abyssals have weird radar signatures. They don't even appear until about fifty kilometers." Oak explained.
"That's...strange." I said uneased by the news.
"How do you wanna do this people?" West asked.
"I have a suggestion." I raised my hand to draw attention to myself.
They all turned to me. I guess I had that kind of weight among the Pearl Harbor battleships because of my experience and achievements during the war.
"If you remember at Surigao when we turned our combined firepower onto an attacking force the power was devastating, almost nothing that was hit survived and nothing went unscathed. With the addition of Oak, Nevada, and with Arizona as a stand in for Mississippi we have even more firepower than we did then. I suggest we do this. Form a battle line with the tougher of the ships in front with the older and less advanced ships near the rear. The battle line would then be as follows. West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, California, myself, Arizona, Nevada, and Oak. We should approach in a line then as we get within main battery range we should turn and get our broadside firepower to bear. This time there won't be any pesky cruisers or destroyers in the way so everyone will be in the action but in case we are attacked before we're in position we need the tougher of the ships up front to mitigate the risk of losing a ship as much as possible." I explained.
"Solid plan, with our combined firepower it's highly unlikely anything would be able to break the line and if we are attacked from the front I can more than take anything they throw at us." West nodded.
"Personally I would lead the front since my armor advantage but there are two reasons why I can't this time. The first is rather simply I'm still not very experienced with this body and have never encountered the Abyssals and secondly when it comes to firepower West has me beat with her sixteen-inch guns." I explained.
"Makes sense to me." Mary agreed.
"Any objections or other ideas?" Tennessee asked.
Everyone shook their head.
"Alright, form up and maintain top battle speed." I ordered.
"Aye." They called and we formed up.
As we sailed closer an unnatural black cloud blocked out the sky. Moving even closer we could see that it was emanating from the Abyssal base itself.
"Alright people we're still a little under an hour out from our firing range of them. Keep your eyes open for any possible ambush." I advised.
"Keep an eye on your sonar arrays, they especially love ambushing ships by surfacing and taking pot shots in close proximity. Effective range of the sonar is limited due to the Abyssals' strange construction so be prepare for anything." Tenn advised me.
I trained my main turrets into my four corners and trained my secondaries to aim into the gaps. I kept close track of my sonar, radar, and constantly observed my surrounding visually.
We cruised along for about thirty minutes now. We were well within the black clouded area and were coming within firing range of the enemy.
"Starting to turn in, guns up people." West announced. She turned to port and brought her guns to bear.
The other mimicked her turn successfully but when I went to turn suddenly my sonar went off. A large target had snuck under detection and was mere tens of yards from me.
"Contact on me!" I called whipping my guns around.
Suddenly a massive black whale/shark monster rose from the depths and lunged at me. It surfaced and was immediately blown away by a volley of twelve fourteen-inch shells from my main battery and sixteen five-inch shells from my secondary battery. A convenient feature of this human form was that with the placement of my weaponry on my combat outfit it was possible to fire all guns in the same direction at once. Something that just wasn't possible before. It's burst into a cloud of fire and smoke but suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my back and a force nearly knocked me on my face.
"Agh! Fuck!" I called stumbling forward from the force of a twelve inch HE shell.
"Son of a bitch!" Arizona roared blasting the Abyssal that got behind us in half.
"Defensive fire! Arrow head formation, press the attack!" West called.
"This is Division leader Pennsylvania of Battleship Division One, General Quarters initiated! We've been ambushed and engaged!" I said over the radio.
"Acknowledged, our ETA is twenty minutes. Hold them until then." I heard an unfamiliar voice respond.
We retained our general formation with West and Mary leading as the point, followed by Tenn and Cali, then Myself and Arizona, and finally Nevada and Oak.
We push forward at top speed and suddenly we were surrounded by Abyssals as we pushed forward. There was a shield of fire and smoke around us as we staggered our fire to utilize the blinding blasts to our advantage.
This worked well as individual shots weren't very accurate but there were so many of them that we were still getting ground down by intense fire. However, we were made to stand up to this kind of beating and we pressed on blasting away at the Abyssals, each salvo from one of us downing anywhere from one to three or even four Abyssals at a time.
Realizing how fragile the Abyssals really were to large caliber guns fire I threw out the idea of focusing one target and aimed all my guns in different directions. My main battery was divided in four different directions firing every fifteen seconds while my secondaries fired in eight different directions every three seconds.
Each of my secondary turrets had enough firepower to potentially cripple an Abyssal if both shells hit while the main battery shredded through them like paper. Shells pelted my hull like rain and either detonated on impact causing minimal damage or bounced off of my thick armor. Needless to say that even if these didn't cause much structural damage they hurt like all hell.
I shut myself off from the painful impacts and focused on maintaining accurate fire on the enemy. With all of us taking up this new method of fighting the enemy the Abyssals almost seemed to be wiped from existence. This would've been a great thing if not for the pesky fact that for each one we killed five more seemed to replace it.
This went on for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of hellfire, smoke, and fierce explosions.
An Abyssal lunged at me and I spun on a dime and blasted it in half as it passed me in the air causing a massive explosion that masked me in smoke and fire.
"Penn you alright?!" Cali called.
"I'm fine, just a little singed!" I responded.
I brushed some splattered oil from my face and pushed on with the others. We had left the main Abyssal force in shambles. A decent third of their force laid either in fiery wreckage or on the ocean floor.
Reaching the center of their force we turned in and formed a circle. Then we heard them.
"Initiating surface battle Sendai up front!" A voice called.
Light cruisers and destroyers rushed towards the Abyssals. It was Torpedo Squadron Three.
"Looks like they finally decided to show up." Mary pointed out.
"Took them long enough." Cali remarked.
They weaved between shots and Abyssals firing small caliber guns and torpedoes to devastating effect.
"Heads up! Additional support coming from our other flank!" West pointed them out.
Some destroyers and a pair of battlecruisers charged from our other flank onto the Abyssals. Support Fleet 2 has also arrived.
"Alright people, let's sink these bastards!" I called.
With renewed vigor we opened fire on the Abyssals again.
"Base spotted." I pointed it out.
It was like us...humanoid but sickly twisted with pure ash white skin and glowing crimson eyes.
Suddenly I heard a commotion from behind us.
"Watch out!" One of the destroyers called.
A destroyer was rammed by and Abyssal and sent flying back.
"Fubuki, no!" One of the other destroyers called.
She looked up to see two Abyssals crashing down on her. She fired her weapon in vain, missing her mark.
"Head down, destroyer!" I called.
She ducked down and I blasted one of the Abyssals out of the sky but missed the other. Just when I thought she was done for a wave of planes strafed and destroyed the second one saving the destroyer.
"Excellent work! We got here as fast as we could." An infuriatingly familiar voice called over the radio.
"Fall back for now, the First carrier group will handle the rest of the low lives!" She ordered.
"In your dreams." West and I scoffed cutting radio with them.
Planes roared down upon the Abyssals adding an immense number of airdropped bombs to the fleet's firepower as we fought against the Abyssals. It took no time at all to finish off the surviving beasts and all that remained was the base.
"Fire on the base!" I called.
A bomb that fell on the base revealed that the base itself was surrounded by an invisible shell but that wouldn't matter.
We turned our guns around and trained all our firepower onto the base. Nothing was going to survive against a full salvo against all of our firepower. In one salvo our combined force was sixteen sixteen-inch shells, twenty-four fourteen-inch fifty-cal shells, forty-four fourteen-inch forty-five-cal shells, and one hundred and twenty-eight five-inch shells.
I don't care who or what you are, nothing survives that. Nothing.
With a blast that shook the very sea itself a massive wave of steel plummeted down on the base. The first few shells that struck the shield deflected off but even they caused damage by weakening the shield's structure. The onslaught of shells was just too much and the shield faltered. The Abyssal was left defenseless and the rest of the salvo crippled her leaving her a mangled wreck lying burning on the sea.
All this and yet she still clung to life. Looking up at the sky the last thing she ever saw was that one last bomb that crashed down on her and sent her to the bottom with a blinding flash.
"That's how we do it!" Oak said pumping her fist.
"My everything hurts..." Arizona groaned.
"Same." We all said in unison.
"Let's get home, I swear I'm gonna sleep for a month after I hit my bed." I said feeling exhaustion creeping in on me.
We turned and started to sail back towards the main fleet on its way back to port. The battle over and the adrenaline wearing off I felt the extent of my damage and I felt sluggish. We had been hit so many times it was hard to find an untouched spot. All of us were scorched from bow to stern and took several bad hits. We probably had a good long repair time ahead of us when we got back.
We grouped up with the others and they looked shocked when they saw us. All of them looked relatively untouched save for a couple of the light cruisers and destroyers. I couldn't find the destroyer from before in the massive fleet but I had a feeling she was just fine.
"Wow you guys are in pretty rough shape." One of the cruisers remarked.
"Well…yeah." West said with a smirk.
"You know how we were supposed to engage the enemies main fleet? Well they somehow snuck up on us and did the engaging part. We ended up just holding them until you got here." Tenn explained.
"Never realized how bad 12in HE hurts when it hits your back." I remarked.
"Wait…you held the entire Abyssal fleet on your own for over twenty minutes?" She asked with a surprised face.
"Yeah." We all said in semi-unison.
The cruisers and destroyers looked shocked.
"Wow that's amazing!" They marveled.
"No amazing would've been avoiding critical damage. As we are we're probably going to see a decent chunk of time in the repair baths." Tenn said motioning around to each of us.
"At that point don't you think you're expecting the impossible just a bit there? I mean that was a fleet of considerable size and you held them and took out a majority of their force with only two divisions of battleships." One of the cruisers pointed out.
"Maybe, but our combined force could take on anything. See these? They're just scratches, we'll be back in top shape in no time!" West said enthusiastically.
"God, you sound like South Dakota." I remarked.
"Well you know where So-Dak got it, right?" Mary reminded me.
"True enough." I shrugged.
"And that's a bad thing?" West asked.
"No, just brings back memories…" I sighed.
There was a bit of silence.
"I guess it does." Cali said softly.
"Let's just get home." I sighed tiredly.
That's when the aircraft carriers came into view about five kilometers out. We all saw them and I sensed an uneasy shift in my sister. I looked at them and froze. I went absolutely blank for a second before my bright blue eyes faded to burning crimson. It was them. The murderers. I was consumed by anger and then I did something on instinct that I didn't even know I could do. I snatched one of my secondary turrets from my hull and mounted it in my hand and raised it at the first one.
"Penn, no!" Arizona said pushing my arm up.
I fired and the shot soared harmlessly over them and exploded behind them. They stood surprised for a moment before sailing over to us. I struggled against my sister's and now Oak's and Nevada's grips.
"Do you have something you'd like to say to us?" Kaga asked calmly.
"What was that? You could've hit us you know." Akagi said sternly.
"Murderers. Cowardly murderers!" I growled.
"What?" Kaga asked.
"Pearl Harbor!" I shouted pulling against my friends combined strength as they restrained me.
"Don't you remember? How you took everything from me and my friends?! How you murdered my sister and a few of my friends before leaving several others close to death as well?! Do you even remember their names?! Arizona, Oklahoma, Nevada, West Virginia, California, Tennessee, Maryland, Cassin, Downes, Helm, Shaw, Helena, Raleigh, Honolulu, Oglala, Vestal, Curtiss, and Sotoyomo! You did you level best to destroy me in drydock as well. Well let me tell you something, I remember yours Kaga and Akagi! I'll never forgive you, if Abyssals don't see you put under the waves I will! Remember that!" I went on.
"I'm sorry about this…I knew he would be upset as we were but I didn't think he was brash enough to actually fire." Arizona said sailing over to them.
The began to talk as I was pulled away from them. My rage burned hard and my eyes looked like small but intense and brilliant flames.
Nevada and Oak pulled me back the whole way to the base and back to the room kicking and fighting them the whole way. Of course they were almost basically the same ship as me only slightly smaller so they found it doable with some notable effort. They locked me in the room and left me to cool off.
I saw my reflection and noticed the change in my eyes. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to calm myself a bit. I opened my eyes again and they had returned to blue but were still glowing fiercely but were fading slowly. Eventually they returned to their usual ice blue color.
I sighed and fell down onto my bed. What the hell was going on, why'd Arizona get in the way? Why did the others not do anything, why was Arizona talking to her killer so politely?! How were they so friendly with them? Why? Just…why? I was so confused and overwhelmed with emotion like nothing I've ever felt before. The light of day was gone and the sunset cast gold throughout the sky. I yawned and gave into exhaustion as my mind wandered and was out like a light.