"Admiral Akimoto, we are nearing Kala Island!"
Yin opened his eyes and lifted his head at the officer's words, heaving a great sigh of relief as he looked out at the horizon and saw his bay coming into view. He had been questioned for three days straight, four days away from his base; he knew everyone was going to be anxious and worried.
"I'm guessing you'll be gathering resources for the upcoming assault on Iron Bottom then, right Admiral?" one of the officers in the boat asked. His tone was friendly enough, and it was clear he was just making conversation as Yin had been quiet for most of the trip, but he still didn't like it.
"I don't think the actions of an out of the way base like mine would matter to you, or even to other admirals. In all honesty, I'm sure I'll be relegated to the back of the battle, or used as security for our supply lines."
"Well yah, but your ship girls took out Bladereef Hime the first time she appeared, that has to count for something, right?"
"My base is not large. It is not suited for a large scale operation." Yin said, ending the conversation as the boat neared the island. He could already see his ship girl running about, and hoped that Wo and Ru would stay out of sight until the officers left.
"Have a good one, Admiral. And I know it isn't much, but I'm sorry about how you were treated back at the headquarters." the boat's driver said a she moved the boat to the dock, allowing Yin to climb up and out of the boat.
"Thank you, have a safe trip back to base," Yin said with a wave as he walked away from the dock, allowing the boat to speed off without a holdup.
After a few minutes, as if making sure the boat was gone, Tenryuu came over, her expression anxious and worried. "Is everything alright, Admiral? You were gone for a while so . . . "
"They just wanted to ask questions about Bladereef Hime's return. Admiral Kurokami's will, and his comment on reminding people that some Himes and Oni seemed to come back after death helped a lot, but multiple admirals ended up questioning me. Did anything happen while I was gone?"
Tenryuu shook her head and followed Yin towards the buildings. "Nothing worth mentioning really. I've been keeping the patrols and expeditions going to keep us safe and armed. Only other thing was an email came in on your tablet, but I didn't look at it."
"I see. It's probably the one I heard about at the headquarters, telling all admirals to begin acquiring resources in preparation for attacking Iron Bottom Sound."
"So a date has been set then?" Tenryuu asked
"No, but scouts are being sent to figure out the best route there it seems. Is everyone on base?"
"Yeah, dinner should be soon."
"Alright, let's go to dinner and explain everything to everyone, I'll look over what paperwork and emails I've missed tonight."
Tenryuu smiled at Yin and followed him to the mess hall with a smile, "Yes sir!"
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Yin groaned as he rested his head against his desks surface. Having been away from the base for four days the normally small and at most tedious amount of paperwork had piled up, causing him to have to set it aside and finish in the morning. He had even woken up early to finish it, but it still took him almost until noon before it was finished.
With the paperwork from the previous days finished however, he could now focus on more important matters like the upcoming attack on Iron Bottom Sound and the coordinates Tenryuu had gotten off of Airfield Hime.
The attack on Iron Bottom Sound would likely not be for at least a couple weeks. With the distance that needed to be traveled, and the amount of resources it would use it would be a massive operation, and such large scale operations required a significant amount of preparation.
"Airfield Hime's coordinates . . . . They seem accurate, and no navy has tried to even enter the North Pacific in years besides the Russians a few years ago. A base like that, something feels wrong about the idea of it being barely used." Yin muttered to himself as he tapped his fingers across his desk, his fingers brushing against his tablet in its charger.
Glancing at his tablet he noticed its one light blinking softly, and then remembered that he had gotten an email just before he was dragged back to the headquarters. Picking up the tablet he swiped it open and opened the email app, only to lose all of his breath as he looked at the two emails in his inbox.
Sender : HQ – Topic : Iron bottom sound attack preparations
Sender : High Admiral Ryu Kurokami – Topic : the key.
Yin swallowed heavily as his finger hovered over the second email, supposedly sent by Admiral Kurokami. It felt impossible though, especially since it was dated as to having been sent literally just before he had been dragged to HQ, long after Kurokami had died.
Finally sighing heavily to himself, Yin tapped the email and watched as it opened. The email was just the topic, the sender and a single locked picture file with the words, print me, typed under it.
Curious about what was needing to be printed Yin allowed it and placed the tablet onto his desk, walking up over to the printer as it whirred about doing its job. Once it had finished there was a single piece of paper, almost completely covered in black ink with only strangely angled symbols in white all over it. It looked like the printer's ink cartridge had exploded, but after a check Yin found that it was fine.
"Uh, must've been some sort of sick prank," Yin uttered as he tossed the sheet onto the printer desk and walked over to his own, pressing a button on his phone as he sat down. "Tenryuu, get everyone gathered in the mess hall. We're going to be sending both fleets out to scout the area toward the island Airfield Hime gave you coordinates to."
After a few moments Tenryuu's voice came through his intercom, sounding very interested and almost giddy. "We're going to take their base then?"
"Yeah, but only after we've scouted out a safe route to go there, I'm heading down right now."
"Alright! We'll be here in the mess hall!"
Yin smiled at Tenryuu's words as he headed out of his office. He couldn't care less about Iron Bottom Sound at this point, but a supply base that was claimed to be little used by an Abyssal Hime, that had his full attention.
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Daggertail Oni pulled herself onto the moss covered docks of the Hawaiian island chains primary Abyssal base. Years before it had been a base controlled by some allied navy, but had quickly been left behind when the Abyss took control of the Pacific. Considering its location, it seemed a waste to not use it for harassing and striking at Japanese and Russian targets and that was what she was here for.
Walking across the moonlight docks she came up to the bases only building, a small wall of concrete built into the island depths, and threw it open. The inside was pitch black, but her eyes were more than used to the darkness, allowing her to traverse the halls as she entered into the base. Navigating it's damp halls was no problem, but she was worried at how damp the building was In the first place. It had been a human installation initially, so the hallways should not be wet under any circumstance.
Reaching the dark underground docks that used to house human cruisers and submarines, Daggertail realized why the halls had been damp. A small increase to the water level had caused it to spill out and onto the docks themselves; through the wreckage of two human submarines sticking out of the water likely did not help the situation.
Pushing through the ankle deep water Daggertail made her way across the hanger docks and toward the back where a flight of stairs led up to a small, but easily noticeable room in the cave side. Gripping the handle she found the door would not budge, and quickly thrust her tail at it, tearing a massive hole in the door which she then used to throw it out of its frame with her tail, the door landing in the water behind her with splash.
Stepping into the surprising large mechanical room, Daggertail walked over to the primary control panel and grinned as she found a single light on, a light labelled start up. It was a stroke of luck that this old bases' reactor was still functional, and with a quick flick of her fingers she set it on and waited.
A few seconds later a low groaning became audible and quickly changed to a screeching whir as the reactor booted up for the first time in years. First the lights in the mechanical room lit up, flickering a bit as they did, then the lights to the hanger and the rest of the base.
Stepping away from the panel, Daggertail noticed a full length mirror in the room's corner and walked over to it with a smile, smashing it with her tail as she walked past it. The base had power and she could now let in the forces she had brought with her, but the base itself needed some work if she was going to use it for any length of time. The reactors would need maintaining, the hallways and rooms would need cleaning and maintaining, and the human wreckage in the docks needed to be removed. But first to let in her allies, as proof that she was more than just talk for her first real operation.
