February 20, 2042, San Diego Naval Base, [0600 hours]

A combination of feeling hungry and the sounds of her stomach grumbling unpleasantly woke Missouri. She found herself lying face down into a pillow, which had quite a bit of drool on it as she pushed herself up. The bed was a mess, as was her uniform. All her award ribbons and badges were scattered on and around the bed, while her coat was full of wrinkles and creases.

"Mmmnnnh...d-did I...oversleep?" she mumbled to herself as she looked at the bedside clock and the balcony door, which was still covered by curtains. Some sunlight was peeking through.

Missouri rubbed her eyes lazily before she fumbled around for her ribbons and badges. She carefully placed all of them on the bedside cabinet before getting off the bed. Afterwards, she pulled aside the curtains to light up the slightly-dim room, smoothed out the bedsheet and opened the balcony door. She then placed the slightly wet pillow on the floor to let it dry under the sun before re-entering the room.

The shipgirl unbuttoned her coat and laid it on the bed before going over to the bathroom sink to splash some water on her face.

*GRRRUUMBLE*

"I need to go eat something later..." she thought after turning off the sink. Upon looking at herself in the mirror, Missouri finally took note of how she looked.

Because of all the activities she was put through in the recent days, Missouri never had the time to check out how she looked like as a human. She was fairly attractive to say the least. She had slightly messy, medium-length brown hair, with a long loose lock which went between her blue eyes as she scrutinized herself, fair skin, but with a very slight tan, an hourglass figure, and not to mention an impressive, perky bust which probably exceeded an H-cup, which was somehow contained by her white blouse.

This surprised her. It wasn't really noticeable when she wore her coat.

When she was turned human, Missouri never thought about how and what her appearance would be. She certainly didn't expect to look like that, which would explain the lengthy gazes she got from the men she passed.

She couldn't blame them though. Same thing would happen during the tours they held on her back when she was still confined to her ship form to attractive women who attended. Just a simple case of attraction to the opposite gender.

Missouri wondered how her sisters Iowa, Wisconsin and New Jersey would look like as she re-entered the bedroom, upon which she started fixing her coat by putting all the ribbons and badges back in their proper locations.

However, while doing so, she heard a few knocks on the door. The shipgirl quickly walked to it, and looked through the peephole.

The visitor was none other than her superior officer, Jansen, who looked visibly nervous.

"Uh, Missouri? It's me. Are you up yet?" he asked aloud.

The shipgirl opened the door, which took the rear admiral off-guard.

"Morning, sir. What's up?" she asked.

The first thing Jansen saw upon the door swinging open was her wet blouse, which unnecessarily alerted him to the fact that she was not wearing a bra. He shifted his eyes to the side as fast as possible, but not without blushing first.

"I, uh, just got word that Arizona's showing signs of waking from Kaeriga. So, umm, we're gonna need your presence, you being friends with her and all," he said as he looked down at his CommsTab.

"What? Really? Give me a minute to fix my coat! I'll be done in a jiffy!"

Missouri didn't wait for an answer as she darted back into the bedroom, leaving Jansen out in the hallway by the door.

"Wow. That was...weird..." the admiral thought to himself as he tried to register what he just saw.

"Never in my life have I seen breasts that hu-WHAT AM I THINKING?! Focus Oscar! There's no time for this!"

"Alright! I'm ready to go!" Missouri said, interrupting Jansen's mental self-admonishment. As expected, she was back in her usual, custom attire.

Jansen silently sighed in relief before they both descended the stairs.

Jansen and Missouri were joined by Penny at the hospital waiting room. The three were waiting for Kaeriga to escort them, as she had stated in her message to Jansen earlier that morning.

"Good. You're all here," the scientist woman said as she walked over to them. The three all stood up from the waiting chairs.

"How is she?" Jansen asked in concern.

"She's fine. Nothing off about her vitals and body. Although I observed earlier that she started squirming around at random intervals during her sleep."

The shipgirl and the admiral looked at each other before she spoke again.

"That's normal though. But I think it would be best if you..." she said as she looked at Missouri.

"...were the first person she sees. Given how you claim to have a friendship with her, it would help her adjust to what's going on."

"Of course, Doctor K."

"Follow me."

Kaeriga led the three to the elevator. They got off at the second floor and walked to a room near the end of the hallway.

The scientist lightly knocked on the door.

"Y-Yes? Who is it?" the voice of a young girl with an old-timey 40s accent replied.

"Arizona? This is Doctor Kaeriga. I've brought them over."

Kaeriga didn't wait for an answer as she let Missouri open the door.

"Heeeeeeeeeey!"

Arizona was seated on a simple hospital chair pulled up next to a table. She was busy eating her provided breakfast when Missouri walked in upon which she turned her head to the door. The WW2 shipgirl dropped her spoon and fork as she immediately stood up, the chair almost falling back.

"Mi-Missouri!" Arizona exclaimed as she rushed to the aforementioned woman, who wrapped her arms around her as she did the same.

"Oh my God, I missed you! Where have you been all this time?" Arizona asked, looking up at Missouri.

"Oh, just tests and stuff. How was your nap?"

"It was...alright for the most part. I'm just...sooo glad that you're here."

Arizona rested her head on Missouri's chest as Jansen, Penny and Kaeriga entered the room.

"Are we...errr...interrupting something?" Jansen softly asked.

Arizona and Missouri looked to the rear admiral, with Arizona widening her eyes in surprise. She immediately pushed herself off Missouri.

"S-Sir!" she said as she stood at attention and saluted.

"Woah there. At ease now, uhhh, Arizona. Don't get too worked up. You might pull a muscle or something, y'know?" Jansen said as he put his tablet down beside her food.

"I-I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting an officer to be one of my guests..." Arizona said as she put her arm down and blushed in embarrassment.

"No need to apologize," Jansen said as he approached her. "I'm actually quite new to all of this myself."

Kaeriga closed the door as Missouri put her arm around Arizona's shoulders.

"Arizona. This is Rear Admiral Oscar Jansen. The lady with him is his secretary, Yeoman Penny Cartwright," she pointed out.

"It's a pleasure to meet ya both," Arizona said as she held out a hand to Jansen and Penny, who both shook her hand in that order.

"Same here, Arizona," Jansen replied.

"So...err...I assume you're here to get me up-to-date on what's going on?" she said as she crossed her hands in front of her.

"Precisely," Kaeriga interjected, mildly surprising everyone as she was just quietly observing prior.

"So Arizona...I'm sure you're aware of what happened at Hawaii a few days ago...right?" Jansen said as he pulled a chair towards him and sat down.

"Well...yes but it's not very clear. There was this ceremony or something going on beside Missouri, then a bright flash of light. There were also these black things in the sky, but then another flash happened and that was it."

Jansen took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Well, you see, Pearl Harbor..." Jansen trailed off as he looked to his side.

"...Pearl Harbor got attacked...again."

He looked back at Arizona, who appeared to cringe briefly before her face returned to a neutral expression.

The previously cheery atmosphere was replaced with a serious one.

"Who was it this time?" Arizona asked in very serious tone. Jansen felt a shiver run up his spine.

"That's...uhhh...the thing here, you see. Oahu was just the latest in a series of attacks that started in December last year."

Jansen propped up his tablet on the table as he spoke.

"On December 4, 2041, Tokyo was bombarded by an unknown enemy force, with weapons capable of destruction on a greater scale than ours."

Arizona's eyes widened.

"What?"

"The surrounding areas of the city and a big part of Tokyo itself got devastated by explosions that rivaled the power of tactical nuclear weapons. Although surprisingly, there wasn't any radioactive fallout."

"Nuclear weapons...you mean like the two bombs we dropped?"

"Yes, but on a much smaller scale."

Jansen turned on the tablet and opened the YouTube app. He played a video of the attack.

The video itself was from NHK World-Japan, showing footage taken from a helicopter tour and NHK's own news teams on the ground.

"Yesterday, parts of Tokyo and the Kanagawa prefecture were devastated by an attack by several vessels of unknown origin. Sighted off the coast of Chiba prefecture were 15 vessels that could only be described as 'giant alien sharks with cannon-mouths'," the newscaster stated.

The chopper footage displayed multiple back-to-back explosions throughout the area of the Kanagawa prefecture near Tokyo. For the footage from NHK, many people were shown running away from the carnage as buildings could be seen falling apart or getting violently destroyed in the distance.

"The JSDF attempted to engage the vessels. Unfortunately, the JASDF's air strikes proved to be ineffective: None of the vessels suffered any visible damage and continued attacking. JGSDF mobile artillery and armor engaged the vessels from the waterside only to be destroyed in subsequent attacks. JMSDF vessels from Yokosuka were also mobilized. All deployed ships were destroyed before they could open fire."

The footage shown was from the day after the attack. The JASDF airbase at Tateyama was riddled with large craters. The same could be said for the Kanagawa prefecture, mostly Yokohama, and some of the wards near Chiyoda.

"The enemy vessels departed after approximately an hour of bombardment. What remains of the JGSDF has devoted themselves to helping rescue survivors from the affected areas. The Prime Minister has ordered an emergency evacuation of all citizens living in the affected areas and near the coasts of the country. The damage to the infrastructure in Yokohama, Tokyo and Tateyama is estimated be in the billions. Casualties have not been finalized but it is predicted to be high."

The rest of the video was mostly endorsement for aid and donations for the victims of the attacks, so Jansen paused it. Arizona just stood with her arms crossed as she tried to absorb the information.

"That was only Tokyo. Other cities in Asia also got attacked after that, and there's still many more at risk."

"Holy...what the hell are we dealing with here?"

Jansen exited YouTube and searched the military database for the UAOs. He found the entry and opened the file containing the pictures of the Abyssal destroyers.

"These are what attacked in Asia and at Pearl. The UN have dubbed them as 'Unidentified Aquatic Organisms' or 'UAO' for short," Jansen said as he handed her the tablet so she could see.

"Heh. Sounds similar to 'UFO'."

"I know, right? The similarity is intentional."

"So what's this all got to do with me and Missouri?" Arizona asked she looked at the pictures.

"You see, Arizona. People like you and Missouri are the only ones capable of actually fighting these things on an equal level," Kaeriga said as she walked towards them.

"On the same day Pearl Harbor was besieged, we were conducting an experiment to see the effects of one of our weapons on a warship. The Navy let us use Missouri for that purpose."

Arizona widened her eyes again as she looked at the bigger shipgirl, who was paying attention to Kaeriga's explanation.

"The effect was...well...her creation."

"How...does that work?"

"Truthfully...we don't know either. We also only found out that you could fight the UAOs head-on when Missouri single-handedly saved the base."

Arizona nudged her.

"Is that true, Mizzy?" she asked playfully.

"Ehehe...yeah."

"Dang it! I missed all the fun!" Arizona jokingly whined.

"Your creation was - pardon my language - an accident, though. An accident which was my fault..." Kaeriga said as she pushed her glasses up.

"But in doing so, we found out that the process also works on wrecks as well."

"Really now? Looks I should be more grateful to you, now that you mention it."

"The pleasure's all mine, Arizona."

"Oh yeah. Admiral Jansen's also our commanding officer now," Missouri said.

"All of us are going to be part of this special naval unit, of which Jansen here's the commander."

"That's right. Also, there's going to be more of you guys here starting today," Jansen said as he took his tablet back while Arizona pondered it all.

"Because of what happened at Pearl, our mission is to kick their alien derrieres back to...well...wherever the hell they came from," Missouri said to her.

"So Ari...what do you make of this?"

Arizona walked towards the table and leaned forward with her hands on it.

"What they did to Tokyo...and I thought the firebombings back in '44 were destructive enough..."

Arizona sighed as Jansen quietly adjusted his position on the chair to face her.

"Are you...erm...are you up for it?" he asked her.

"If we are the only ones standing between these...'aliens' and the West Coast...then of course I'm up for it!" she announced.

"The earthquake in '33, what happened in Hawaii back in '41 and the thing in NY in '01...those were bad enough already! I absolutely cannot fathom letting that happen to San Fran. LA, here or basically anywhere around here."

Jansen assuredly smiled at her.

"We're gonna kick ass and chew bubblegum, baby!" Missouri cheered as she put her arm around Arizona's shoulders.

"They can't sink what's already sunk!" Arizona cheered as well.

"Well I'm very glad to have you with us, Arizona," Jansen said.

At that moment, Kaeriga's tablet started ringing.

"Oh, let me get this..." Kaeriga said to them all as she turned to answer the call.

"Hello? Admiral Baxter...yes, he's with me...the one...she's already up..."

Kaeriga turned to Jansen.

"The Vice Admiral wishes to speak to you, Jansen," she said as she gave him the tablet. It was audio only, but Baxter's name and rank were displayed on the screen with an audio visualizer.

"Hello, sir?"

"Jansen. I assume you've gotten to know the other one already?" the superior officer asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. All of you need to get here at the dry dock. The conversion process can't start without Dr. Kaeriga being here."

"Affirmative, sir. We'll be off soon."

"Double time, Oscar. Baxter out."

Jansen returned the tablet to Kaeriga.

"So? Who's up next?" Arizona asked.

"Let me take a look.." Kaeriga said as she looked up the list of ships docked in San Diego to be converted.

"...USS George Washington. The Nimitz-class carrier."