Goto sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stared at the shipgirls assembled before him. He'd long since grown accustomed to their…energy you could call it, but it never made it any less taxing dealing with the resulting fallout.
"So…" He began, straightening as the destroyers and subs fidgeted nervously in place. "Somebody mind explaining to me why everyone is covered in paint?"
Standing before him was the entire training group for this morning's ASW drills, with the surprise addition of Kestrel standing front and center alongside Kashima, who herself hadn't been spared from the multi-colored carnage.
"Well, you see Admiral…"Kashima began, obviously not quite sure how to explain this. "The destroyers and submarines were going through the drills when-."
"Kestrel got hit by Goya's torpedo and it all went downhill from there." Shioi helpfully stated.
Goto turned his attention to the newest arrival to Yokosuka, a raised eyebrow the only prompting her gave the Carrier who was outright drenched in multicolored paint.
Kestrel stood at attention, hands clasped behind her back. "I let my temper get the best of me sir. Won't happen again."
Goto had the sneaking suspicion that it was more than just the carrier's temper in play here. Probably had to do with how she was sunk by a sub combined with getting covered in paint.
Still that left Goya, who was staring wide eyed off into the space ahead of her. "Dare I ask what happened to Goya?" Goto asked.
"Uhhh…" Kestrel fidgeted in place.
"Goya launched one of her torpedoes at Kestrel in self defense, Kestrel threw it back at her." Once again Shioi was supplying the information.
"So awesome…" Whispered Goya, never taking her eyes off of…whatever the hell she was staring at.
Goto nodded, figuring it was best not to question just how the carrier managed to pull that off. "And everyone else getting covered in paint is because…?"
All hands immediately pointed to Ikazuchi, who only fixed everyone with bewildered looks. "What'd I do?!"
Oh, you know exactly what you did!" Murakumo growled.
"She declared a paint war and started throwing depth charges at everybody." Hibiki stated flatly.
Ikazuchi only stood there sheepishly poking her fingers together. " 'm sorry…" She muttered, looking off to the side.
Goto once again sighed. He should punish them, and he was certain that he would've if it had been any Navy serviceman. But Ikazuchi looked apologetic enough and Kestrel looked downright miserable in all that paint. Not to mention that there hadn't been any damage inflicted that couldn't be fixed with a liberal application of soap and water. Besides, he couldn't officially punish Kestrel until she joined the JMSDF.
Speaking of, he'd need to be at that admirals meeting in a few minutes. "Alright then, all of you get cleaned up and put the training equipment back where you found it. Kashima, I want a performance report on my desk by 1600."
"HAI!" The Japanese kanmusu chorused while Kestrel responded with a clear and giant "Yes Sir!"
"Dismissed." He said. The Shipgirls promptly saluted and left for the showers, likely to get the paint out of their hair.
"Going a little easy on them, aren't we?" A sultry voice asked from behind.
"Mutsu." He greeted as the battleship came to stand next to him. She watched the retreating forms of the other painted shipgirls for a few minutes. "She's certainly interesting."
"Who?" Goto asked, giving Mutsu a sidelong glance.
"Kestrel." She replied. "She shows up in the middle of a battle and saves a good portion of the fleet, has an existential meltdown on the way to Yokosuka, then in a few hours she bounces back. The next day you find her playing with the destroyers during ASW drills." Mutsu turned to Goto. "She'll definitely be an interesting addition to the fleet."
"She's not part of the fleet yet." Goto pointed out.
Mutsu tilted her head to one side. "You mean you haven't asked her yet?"
"No, I'm waiting until after the meeting to ask her." Goto admitted. "I want to know what I could be getting myself into. The Americans have experience with the nuclear carriers. I'm going to ask Williams for his insight into how I could best employ her."
"I still don't see why you need to wait to ask her."
Goto hummed, trying to think of the best way to reply to that. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if she'd want to join the fleet. Most of the girls that've come back have jumped at the chance to serve their country again. Their countries needed them, and they answered the call. You answered the call." He paused. "Kestrel…doesn't have that. Her homeland isn't on any map, nor is it a recognized nation-state here. She may not want to sign up with the JMSDF."
Mutsu was silent for a while, biting her cheek as she processed what her admiral had just said. "Sounds more like you're putting off asking her because you're afraid she'll say no." She said, giving him a playful smile. "Worse comes to worse and she doesn't sign up, we can always offer her a friendly port to come back to. It's the least we can do after what she did."
Mutsu turned back towards where she came. She got a few paces away form Goto before stopping and turning to him. "Also, I believe that meeting is starting in few minutes?"
Goto smirked. "I thought Nagato was the Secretary Ship here?"
Mutsu shrugged. "My sister can't be everywhere at once. I'm just doing my part to keep her workload down."
-[]-[]-[]-
Kestrel stared at the bottle in her hands, reading the label as she looked back up at the paint colored clothes hanging on a succession of clotheslines in front of her. She and the rest of the shipgirls from this morning's practice had just gotten back from the showers, having successfully managed to get the paint off their skin and out of their hair. Now most of them were dressed in their casual clothes with Kestrel wearing the clothes she'd "borrowed" from Kongou.
Now they were going to get the paint off of their clothes. Which is why Kestrel was confused as to why she was holding the bottle she'd gotten from Kashima as the cruiser started dragging a collection of garden hoses out, removing the attachments as she went.
"Kashima…this is window cleaner…" Kestrel stated flatly, looking at the label again to make sure she hadn't misread it.
"Well…yes and no." The Cruiser replied as she dropped the hoses on the ground, the destroyers who were helping get the clothes clean rushing over to grab a hose and attach it to the spray nozzles on their own bottles. "We've emptied out the window cleaner and replaced it with laundry detergent. We just didn't take the labels off the bottles."
"…and why aren't we running our clothes through the wash like normal people?" Kestrel asked, grabbing her own hose.
"We used to." Kashima attached her own hose to a bottle and started heading over to the clotheslines. "But after a while the machines started to break down with so much paint residue clogging up their systems. We had to replace or repair a lot of them so we started to use this method to deal with paint since its faster than washing them all by hand."
Kestrel wanted to refute that, but couldn't find the words. Considering that there was a battleship on base that was capable of moving at speeds upwards of Mach 2 when she felt like it, it was probably best not to question this. "Okay I'll buy that." Kestrel said with a shrug attaching her own hose to the bottle in her hands.
After everyone had taken to their positions, Kashima signalled Murakumo to turn on the hoses. Soon enough, seven jets of soapy water started hosing down the clothes on the lines, paint starting to drip down onto the gravel underneath.
Kestrel had to admit, even though this was a very unconventional way to wash one's clothes, it was certainly effective. Soon she could chuck her uniform in the dryer and final get out of these clothes. These shorts did not fit right at all.
-[]-[]-[]-
Goto stood in Yokosuka's communications room. Multiple large screens coated the wall in front of him, and Nagato stood off to his side, as professionally stoic as ever. He watched as techs worked to secure the connections to the major players in the Abyssal War. Soon, one by one screens started winking to life as connections were established until all the screens were filled.
Goto gazed at each screen, one after the other, reading the names of the other admirals as well as their accompanying shipgirls and the countries they represented. Admiral Martha Higgs of the Royal Navy with HMS Warspite beside her. Admiral John Proulx of the Royal Canadian Navy with HMCS Ontario. Admiral Francois Joubert of the French Marine Nationale with Richelieu. Admiral Yurgen Lieberenz of Germany's Deutsche Marine with Bismarck. Admiral Georgio Petri of Italy's Marina Militare with Vittorio Veneto. Vice Admiral Daniel Williams of the US Navy with USS Saratoga. And finally, there was Admiral Georgy Voronin of the Russian Navy with the Battleship Marat of all people.
"Well seeing as how we're all here, let's get this started." Williams stated, calling the meeting to order. "Georgio, why don't you start us off?"
The Italian Admiral cleared his throat. "Not much change on our end, we've managed to keep the Abyssals out of the Mediterranean for the most part. We've been largely engaged in hunting down the subs that do make it through our blockade near the Straight of Gibraltar. We've keeping our eyes open for any sign of installation types appearing near the interior islands, but so far we've seen nothing."
"The French and British fleets in the area report the same thing." Added Admiral Higgs, earning a quick nod form her French counterpart. Beyond that our navy have been largely successful in hunting Abyssal wolfpack alongside our French and German counterparts in combined fleet patrols. We also recently intercepted a raiding flotilla trying to transit the English Channel. Beyond that there's not much to report." Both French and German Admiral agreed with Admiral Higgs' report.
"Moving on." Williams said. "Proulx. What's the story with the RCN?"
"Still covering your norther seas for you, Williams. Mostly sub hunting and acting in support of American steel-hulls. Other than a sharp uptake in Abyssal activity on the West Coast, not much to report beyond the usual."
"The Russian Navy has been doing its best to keep the sea lanes open in the Bering Sea and north pacific, but we've also been seeing a lot more activity in the past few weeks, especially sub packs" Admiral Voronin reported.
"America's Shipgirl fleets are still under construction." Williams stated, taking the time to make his own report. "We've gotten a few more destroyers, the cruisers Atlanta, Baltimore and Nashville and the carrier USS Yorktown CV-5. We've been constructing more summoning chambers and diverting more resources to the summoning process. Hopefully we can increase the rate at which we get new shipgirls."
"So that leaves only one front remaining." Voronin stated. "Goto? What do you have for us?"
Goto took a deep breath to steady himself. Ironically, he was never good a public speaking. "We've been noticing an uptake in Abyssal activity as well over the past week. Unfortunately, it didn't stop there. Yesterday our fleets engaged and defeated a large Abyssal combined fleet that was on course to attack Yokosuka harbour."
"A combined fleet?" Admiral Joubert repeated. "Please tell me you're joking."
"I'm not, our own forces sustained heavy damage, though thankfully none of our girls were sunk." Goto replied. "Which brings me to my second piece of news. We have a new shipgirl at Yokosuka."
That resulted in a few raised eyebrows. "Correct me if I'm wrong Goto…but hasn't Japan managed to bring back all of its World War 2 era vessels?" Asked Voronin.
"That is correct."
"Then who is she? Does Japan have a modern warship in its fleet now?" Asked Admiral Lieberenz.
"Yes and no." Goto replied. "She is a modern vessel, though I will admit that she isn't one of ours."
"Well don't keep us in suspense…" Biggs said, a slight grin on her face. "Out with it man, who is she?"
"That's difficult to explain." Goto admitted. "How many of you are familiar with Multiverse Theory."
At that, the room went silent. The shocked expressions of the other admirals displayed clear as day on the screens. It was broken only when Admiral Joubert shook his head and said: "Once again, Goto, I must ask if you're joking."
"He isn't." Nagato stated, coming to her admiral's defense. "Her name is OFS Kestrel of the Osean Maritime Defense Forces, and she is a Nimitz-Class carrier in all but name."
Williams leaned in closer to the screen, his face becoming hard. "Say again Nagato, did you say a Nimitz?"
"Yes, sir. She calls herself a Hubert Class, but functionally she appears to be a Nimitz." Nagato clarified.
"Well damn, now Japan has a Supercarrier." Proulx stated with a grin. "I'm gettin' jealous."
"We're all jealous, I think." Said Petri.
"Not quite." Goto interjected. "We've yet to formally induct her into the JMSDF, though she is already on base."
"Can I make a bid?" Asked Proulx.
"No, you can't. This is Goto's decision. She's on his base, she's his responsibility." Willaims stated.
"Aw."
"Actually, I'd say its more Ketrel's decision." Goto said with a shrug. "She has no country to call her own. He homeland, Osea, is not on any of our maps. As far as I'm concerned, who she serves with is up to her."
"So does that mean I can still make that bid?"
Goto gave Proulx a smirk. "I'll bring it to her attention." Proulx just smiled in response.
"So what's her loadout? Crusaders? Phantoms? Tomcats?" Williams asked.
"Tomcats, four of them plus one helicopter." Goto stated. "It's not a lot, but that's what she has and she doesn't appear to be able to increase that number for the time being."
"You're right, that isn't much at all." Lieberenz pointed out. "Four planes on a ship the size of a Nimitz is extremely limiting."
"That's true." The softy, heavenly voice of Warspite flowed through the speakers. "Though on the other hand, they are jets, and some fairly advanced ones as well. I'll admit that I'm not much of an expert in American Naval Aviation, but I'm willing to bet that those planes are worth ten Wildcats at least."
"It gets even better when you consider their pilots." Goto said, drawing another round of raised eyebrows. "They're Aces with an incredible record. They proved themselves in that battle with the Abyssal Combined Fleet, it's how we found Kestrel. She dictated that fight and her timely arrival prevented significant casualties. If her performance there was any indication, we back her up with an escort she can still be a potent force multiplier."
"Which brings the question of who she's going to serve with back to the fore." Said Joubert.
Goto nodded in agreement. "I'll ask her and get back to you with her answer."
"Good." Willaims said with a nod. "On that note, if there's nothing else to report this meeting is concluded."