Date: 30 January, 2017
Time: 05:00 PST
Location: Naval Base Coronado, San Diego, California
The base mess hall was abuzz with activity. Humans and kanmusu intermingled and chatted. Texas stepped through the door.
"Admiral on deck!" The whole mess snapped to attention.
"As you were," Texas said. Soon, the noise resumed, but with hushed whispers and frequent glances at the battleship. Texas went over to the soda fountain and got a ice cold mug of rootbeer. Finding a secluded corner, she went over and sat down facing the windows. She could still see it in her mind's eye, the fireball that consumed Renegade, her friend and the closest thing she had to an actual sister ship. When the second Renegade joined the fleet, she was elated. She was almost the same one she knew, but it wasn't the same. Sure, she was captained and crewed by the first's, but 'Gade had changed. After awhile, she got used to the Tillman, but Texas would never forget the Turmoil class that beared the name before it.
"M'am, may I sit?"
Texas looked up from her drink to see California standing there.
"I heard what happened," the Standard said, sitting down across the table, "I know what you are going through."
Texas stared at her, "Who told you?"
The older ship looked uneasy, and with a sigh, said, "It was Quincy. She seems really worried about you."
Texas stood and looked down at California, "Nothing you've experienced can compare. You know nothing of how I feel." Her eyes briefly shifted to that same nuclear green. "None of you can."
Texas turned and strode out of the mess hall.
"Well then," California huffed, "Time to get busy I see."
The Standard got up and followed Texas out of the mess, she couldn't even make pace with the fast battleship, but she didn't need to. California knew where she was going. She got there just in time to see Texas' door close. California knocked on the door.
"Tex? You in there," she called. No answer. "Listen, I do know what you are going through. I was at Pearl, I saw my family die before my very eyes. I-" The door snapped open, a monstrous form of American steel on the other side. California, surprised, stepped back. The woman in front of her wasn't Texas. Her hair was short, charred, and her eyes, those eyes. They glowed nuclear green, their pupils filled with savagery and fire. Scratch that, one was actually on fire!
"YOU KNOW NOTHING! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WATCH AS THE BURNING CORPSE OF YOUR PREDECESSOR COLLAPSE ON YOUR OWN MEN TRYING TO RESCUE THOSE INSIDE! YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO WATCH AS THREE DIFFERENT SHIPS DIE BECAUSE I COULDN'T HELP, BECAUSE I COULDN'T SAVE THEM!" California opened her mouth to reply, but Texas continued her tirade, "ARIZONA! RENEGADE! RELIANT! ALL DIED BECAUSE OF ME! I WAS RUSHING TO THEIR AID BEFORE THEY COULD EVEN CALL FOR HELP!" The hulking mass moved closer, close enough that California could see the ice starting to form on her uniform from the waves of cold fury radiating off Texas. "GOOD, YOUNG MEN DIED BECAUSE OF MY INABILITY TO SAVE THEM! TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED ON ARIZONA! THIRTY-SIX HUNDRED ON RELIANT! EVEN FORTY-SIX OF MY OWN CREW DIED TRYING TO HELP! I WAS BUILT TO PROTECT THE PACIFIC FLEET! ONCE THOSE FIRST BOMBS FELL, I HAD FAILED! DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FEELS? DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO FAIL YOUR MISSION AND OVER FIFTY-FIVE HUNDRED PAY FOR IT? NO! YOU DON'T! YOU CAN'T! BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T HAVE THAT HAPPEN TO YOU!" Texas back up and slammed the door shut, leaving the small battleship in a cold sweat, shaking uncontrollably.