Chapter Seven: Same Problems, Different Days

"The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed in war"

-Norman Schwarzkopf-

"So in short, when I signed up for this top-secret outfit bringing back dead ships, I didn't realise that my wife had been replaced by one of those dead ships using me so that she could be one of the ships that we brought back.

The carrier that my daughter was serving on, was sunk and then came back as well. Japan has only sent a pittance of reinforcements to this conflict that threatens to completely destabilise the South-East Asian Region.

Our naval personnel, both of which were unintentionally summoned, were the only thing that saved us. I'm putting in those three workers for medals.

My superiors are putting me in for an investigation for sending out Liaoning, that nearly blew the secrecy and security of our program, and because my wife was actually a ship of Japanese origin, which raises a lot of questions as well.

Most of the equipment, people and facilities for our department are dead, wounded or been directed elsewhere.

Our reinforcements were ambushed and destroyed on the way to Dalian, so we might come under attack again very soon. It's not been a very nice and co-operating day has it?"

Boris Corschkov had to agree with his friend.

The one carrier and one helicopter destroyer that had been successfully brought back by the Chinese Navy were pulling the wounded to the canteen, one of the few buildings that had been unscathed in the attack and now served out first aid.

They had been ordered by an increasingly stressed sounding Rear Admiral Chengli to get back up to fighting strength and then stow away their rigging, but keep it close by for when the Abyssals came back.

Rear Admiral Xian Chengli had then given them both standard-issue uniform and sent them out to help the recovery effort.

The Admiral had not been able to look into the eyes of either of them and had dismissed them rather detachedly.

Both of the ships, although it was obvious that they belonged to different navies, maybe even rival nations, had quickly bonded over the fact that they had both had each other's back while they'd been in a whole world of hurt.

Izumo had been impressed at how calm the under-equipped carrier had been when she engaged that horde of Abyssal airpower with just six fighters and twelve helicopters. She had held up well for someone who had been alive in this form for only a few hours now.

Liaoning was impressed that Izumo repeatedly took the messiest and bloodiest jobs with little or no reaction.

Right now Izumo was performing surgery on a medic with their directions.

"You see the shrapnel?"

"Yeah it's embedded in your intestines."

"Give me more painkillers then."

While the Chinese naval personnel program had gone "smoothly":

"What the hell, "grumbled Boris Corschkov, "Apparently for the Chinese, summoning the ship girls just 'happened'."

"Just like your parents and you?"

Boris threw his shoe at the mechanic. Yet he still had both his shoes on at the end. What? Nikita Khrushchev approved.

There was no rest for Xian Chengli.

Not time to mourn with the battles still going on. After Seoul and with his 'wife' recovering in hospital, he had been posted in North Korea in an ongoing and secret effort to modernise and turn the nation into a bastion of Communism once more.

With the fall of the cities Seoul, Kamchatsky and the continuing violence upon many others besides, the Chinese government aid to North Korea had mushroomed. If the Korea Peninsula fell, who would the Abyssals take out next?

After all, allies give the enemy something else to shoot at.

China had participated and taken heavy losses in the Korean War to put physical distance between the US allies and itself. Materiel and men had been funnelled into that meat grinder for the purpose of maintaining that buffer zone. The times were slightly different, but the reasons were the same.

Half a million Chinese had died for that cause. They weren't going to let their sacrifices go to waste.

They'd sent over schematics and copies of the latest hardware, helped install the newest software and imparted as much know-how and training they could. As well as sending over a plethora of supplies and surplus military hardware. These secret efforts had ensured that the North Korea was still relevant in this fight.

With the sharing of intel for this battle, some were already levelling criticism on China and North Korea. They pointed out how reckless it was to arm a very unpredictable nation. They also said things like: What about after the war? What are you going to do if they threaten us in the future?

But those detractors couldn't argue that North Korea was pulling its weight. It was especially important since South Korea and its forces had been decimated. Although decimated actually had the subtle implication that one in ten died when in truth probably one in ten of those who hadn't evacuated the country after the fall of Seoul, were lucky to still be alive.

Xian had been asked to send a report to the United Nations of what exactly and how much had been accomplished and what the status of the whole North Korean military was.

It was a boring report, but since his superiors had stood him down for questioning, he had been given grunt work.

The questioning was not going to be pleasant. He could justify his actions for deploying Liaoning and the interrogators would just have to see the logic and demanding reasons that had pushed him to deploy the naval personnel out in the open.

His wife was going to be a different matter.

His superiors were just as incredulous as he was. The destroyer captain Lin Jingfei was dead. She had perished quietly, in the company of a stranger.

They'd attributed her strange behaviour afterwards to the trauma of losing so many friends and acquaintances as well as adjusting to new wounds. The truth of the matter had been too outlandish. The person receiving the highest honours for the battle were effectively two dead women.

One of them being a Japanese destroyer that had perished in the same battle that made the other famous.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Come in" came the weary reply.

The helicopter destroyer, Izumo manoeuvred cautiously into the room.

"What can I help you with?"

To be honest, the Admiral looked like shit, and he hadn't been one of the numerous wounded and corpses that she'd just been tending to.

"I, uh, just wanted to return some things."

JS Izumo took of the locket around her neck and dropped it on his desk.

She then tried tugging off her wedding ring.

The Admiral laughed, something neither of them expected.

"Good luck getting it off. Don't sweat it. Just keep it."

Izumo stopped. She was not sure what was going through the Admiral's head at the moment. She just saluted.

"Thank you. I'll keep it then."

Izumo retreated out. Her prosthetic right arm was going to need replacement. It hadn't been designed for high strength actions or launching aircraft for that matter.

Xian knew he'd only see his dead family in locket. He put it into a briefcase for when he got home.

Home. But there was really no one to return to now. He only had his job and country to fight for he supposed.

"Ah! Liao-san."

"Izumo, how is the Admiral?"

Liaoning was not aware of what had transpired between the two.

Izumo wasn't wearing her necklace any more, Liaoning idly noticed.

"He'll get better. I hope."

Not a comforting answer.

"Anyway, the chief petty officer once us to help move the wounded out of the canteen. They also want us to wash the blood off the food."

Night time.

The defenders of Dalian guessed that the Abyssals would probably attack soon, or at dawn.

If they attacked at twilight, they would be able to conduct the infamous twilight torpedo attacks with full air support.

Or they could attack later that night, and their air support would be limited by the quality of their night-fighting equipment.

Izumo sat on the stairs leading up to the canteen. She sighed as she held up her left arm to the stars.

Now that she was a ship back up to strength what should she do now?

Her loyalties and duties stated that she should be heading straight back to Japan.

The pretty rose shaped diamond ring sparkled as it caught the harsh illumination from what could be described as stadium floodlights.

She listened to the defenders of Dalian. She tweaked her communications suite and translation software to factor in all the different accents and languages.

"The city has evacuated but South Korean refugees are set to pass by as well."

"Keep away from the cables. We need those lights or the enemy will rip us a new asshole."

"We might be able to raise our ships that've sunk. Some didn't sink into places very deep."

"It's your shift now. I left the RPGs in that crate over there."

"I wonder how the fight is going elsewhere."

"How long are we going to be here?"

"I can't eat that food when they haven't cleaned half my platoon out of it."

"I'm sorry, evacuees can't stay here. I know it seems safer but we're expecting another attack."

"We don't have enough morphine to kill all the heavily wounded. Find something else."

"We've hung up the radio tower with ropes. It should work fine."

"The missile in silo K12 is damaged. Keep clear."

"We just lost the one over here. Next."

"Northern anti-aircraft gun emplacements have been repaired."

"The Ground Force has set up automated defences. Those Abyssals are going to feel the heat."

"This is Mughal One. We won't land until you've cleared the dead off the runway."

"You should have to rest. I know it's hard now that you're blind, but please stay calm."

"We finished pulling the bodies out of the control tower. Or where it used to be."

"Nothing friendly is coming up our way from the sea. They just destroyed our reinforcements."

"I heard that the force they sent from Japan didn't actually fight."

The mention of her country had Izumo at attention. She hadn't considered how her country would have been affected.

"Japan wasn't attacked was it?"

"No. They're just sitting there while the rest of Asia burns."

"They wouldn't one to get involved when this could finish off their competition."

"Honourable gits, my foot!"

"Apparently their ships were ordered to only fire to scare the Abyssals away from their ships."

"Maybe they're herding them towards us."

"They just want to be doing something."

"They just run if the Abyssals come too close."

"Didn't even pick up the survivors of Seoul when they ran."

"I reckon we're going to survive these attacks. But we're going to be too weak next time."

"Hey guys! Don't mope over there and give this poison to the dying."

Izumo tried reaching for the comfort of self-righteous anger or battle lust. She could only find wetness in her eyes.

It wasn't even her country. Wasn't her people. She could barely plumb the depths of their despair.

She'd left her Admiral as he had fallen apart in front of her. She convinced herself that she was leaving because there had been nothing left to say. She had run down the hallway leading away from the office.

She was terrible to speak like that to the man. She'd barely considered the ramifications of masquerading as the man's wife. She was a terrible person. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible.

"Izumo?"

Izumo quickly fixed her stiff mask onto her face. But there were still tear in her eyes. How to wipe it away stealthily?

"Y-Yeah?"

60,000 tons of Ukrainian-born Chinese carrier sat down next to her.

"Thank you for fighting for my country."

Izumo sniffled a bit. Liaoning hadn't prepared a speech, but she hoped speaking that her gratitude would get through with the words.

"You have the thanks of all the people that are here because of you.

Not just because you saved their lives, but you also ensured that there would still be a place for the people who want to protect and believe in, to also be here as well.

You lived up to everything noble and selfless, true and universal when you stood with my countrymen so that others may have the chance to live, the chance to save, the chance to fight with that almighty fire in their souls and a prayer on their lips.

You have the thanks of my country.

You, who could have left us to dry, could have let evil, greed and indifference triumph, as all good-intentioned people let triumph when those who polish their arms, their laws, their privilege, their comfort, and let rust their duty, their compassion, their willpower, their honour.

I do not confess to offer adequate platitudes and fame for your actions.

I can only say that having joined our cause, the blessed and the truest promise that any truly great military aspires to, is also the quietest and most under-appreciated of promises.

To fight as long as we draw breath, so that others may draw breath.

To fight as long as we can protect, so that others may be protected.

And that this promise, which has been carried out by all before us and now must be upheld for those guardians of justice who can no longer.

I, Liaoning, thank you for service on the behalf of my people."