YGMH Repair Ship Akashi
Waves beat against the warm metal hull, gently swaying the ship as it made a decent 14 knots through the Pacific. Several crew members raced to and fro, rigging the ship for landfall even as the speck on the horizon grew ever larger by the minute. A girl in an oversized grey-green winter coat hefted her binoculars up to her face, scanning the surrounding seas for any traffic. Apart from the occasional civilian traffic, the seaways today were rather light.
The usual trading convoys had only made their rounds a week ago, leaving the residents of these far out islands well supplied for the next few months. The captain's middle school friend, captain of the Mamiya, was now taking part in those very same convoys as part of a community outreach programme from Yokosuka Girls Marine High School.
The Mamiya was supposed to be escorting her. That's what soured Sango the most. Just as they were underway, the Mamiya had been updated on a new mission for them, and just like that, the Akashi's convoy had to be delayed while a replacement supply ship was assigned to her.
What this meant for Sango Sugimoto was that her Akashi had to take on an extra load of ammunition and supplies that the Mamiya was supposed to carry. Trailing behind her ship was the Irako, her replacement food supply ship. What made Sango irritated was not just because her ship had to be laden down with extra things they had no business carrying, what with the poor seakeeping of that ship, they had to effectively escort the Irako!
The Irako was a smaller version of the Mamiya, which means with it came less supply capacity and more shore-shuttle trips than Sango was anticipating when working with the Mamiya. To make things worse, the Irako had a shallower draft compared to the Mamiya, as well as a much lower cruising speed. The severe limitations being imposed on her was really too much for Sango to bear with, and was starting to wear on her nerves.
Turning around, she spotted the Irako trailing about 2km behind them. There were two escorting ships, the Maikaze and the Tanikaze. The Maikaze took point at the forefront of the convoy while the Tanikaze took the rear end in a loose line ahead formation. They maintained a set distance of 2km from the nearest ship.
Satisfied that the convoy was still intact, she studied her escorting ship. The Maikaze looked no worse for wear, if not for the almost undetectable list to starboard. Even as she watched, something flashed on the bridge of the Maikaze. Sango counted the flashes, whispering out loud as she translated the message. "Land… ahead. Dot. Confirm… target… ship… I-201. End message."
Dropping the binoculars, she swiftly moved back up to her bridge, where a communications officer was waiting on standby with the searchlight. On the deck, her Damage Control parties started hauling some floating debris on board. Sango spoke to her Comms officer in a clipped and hurried tone, "Signal: Target ship confirm I-201." The officer nodded, and began flipping the on and off switch on her searchlight. Satisfied that the message was being sent over, Sango mentally composed herself for the next thing on hand.
Dealing with the submarine's crew.
TBMH Submarine I-201
"Hi there." Norita walked into the brig, a small confined space also known as the storeroom or warehouse. His best friend sat there, busy scribbling over his many sheets of papers scattered around. A quick glance told Norita that he was back at it again.
"Hmpf." Yahachi grunted back as he punched a bunch of numbers into a calculator. Carefully stepping through the sea of papers, Norita gently set down the two plates of curry rice on the wooden crate they were using as a makeshift table. Laying out the cutlery, he looked back at his friend, still hunched over his precious papers while he worked at a problem known only to him.
Norita still remembered what had gone down last night. Once the captain had left, the First Engineer turned his fury on his direct superior, Miwa Kenji. He had started shouting at him, unleashing his anger on the Chief Engineer. What shocked Norita was how despite the verbal lashing, the Chief Engineer had just stood there and taken it. When Imai had paused to catch his breath, it took a few moments before Miwa had just broken down and started crying. He fled back to his bunk, leaving a thoroughly surprised Imai and Norita.
Watching the Chief Engineer's retreating back, it took Imai a few moments to gather his wits and just chase after him. This left Norita together with Yahachi and Nakamura in the suddenly quiet hallways of the submarine. Norita looked at Nakamura and mouthed to him, "I want to talk to you later."
The boy had just nodded and walked away, leaving Norita feeling more alone than he ever had before.
Now, Yahachi had been placed under guard in the warehouse. Given that there was nothing that he could do, they let him bring in his blueprints and documents to work on, which he took to with gusto. Norita spent his time foregoing his sleep, instead keeping Yahachi company. After several failed attempts to explain his project to Norita, involving something complicated called "lift" and how air pressure can differ simply because of how fast the air flows over differently shaped surfaces, they decided to just leave it at that.
Norita ended up just being a presence in the room, keeping a steady stream of conversation with Yahachi as they caught up with their lives through middle school.
"There was this one time, when the Instructor was trying to pull her speedboat into port, when out of nowhere some mad woman just shot past us on a skipper. Threw water all over us and drenched the maps. We had to spend soo much time trying to dry them out again at the fireplace overnight, 'cause we needed them again the next day. It was one hell of a sleepless night."
"Hah! Oh, on my side, the Instructor took us into the Katori's engine room. Had us run some standard engine maintenance. All of a sudden, this steam pipe someone was working on just blew a valve, throwing the steam everywhere. The whole place was shut down instantly, everyone evacuated, and the poor sod had to go to hospital for second-degree burns. Best accident ever."
The two boys shared a laugh. Yahachi went back to tinkering with several pieces of wood he had spread out in front of him. Curious, Norita got off the upturned crate he sat on to peek over his shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"Making a scale model. This is the smallest dimension I can build the glider with to get enough lift with the motors I have." As he spoke, Yahachi heat-sealed the foam body of what he called the fuselage. "I already have the power supplies, a bunch of watch batteries inside. Just need to pray that everything works. Something fails, and I've got to dismantle the whole thing again."
Setting down the candle, Yahachi blew it out before moving over to the next piece. He fitted each individual piece, something that Norita noted that he had been making using some custom moulds and plastic beads. It took him a while before he realised that he was looking at the parts of a motor built into a small conical space.
Once the final gear was in place, the screw shaft firmly secured, and the screw itself on the tip of the cone, Yahachi relighted the candle and began heat-sealing the cone to the fuselage. While Norita called them screws, Yahachi had been rather insistent on calling the little plastic piece a propeller.
He had just finished attaching the cone when the door opened, emitting the constantly nervous face of the secretary Kouda Kinzo. He peeked into the room, the one visible eye of his quivering as he took in the carnage that had overcome the warehouse. Documents and papers littered the floor, blueprints of all sorts tacked to the wooden frames of the shelving units, and what appeared to be the parts from some custom engineered Lego set scattered in a halo before Yahachi.
He managed to get his voice out of his throat. "Erm… the captain... would l-like to see you, Hashimoto-san."
Norita's heart sank. "Alright. Give me a moment."
As the secretary watched, Norita got up from his half crouch behind Yahachi, bidding the boy goodbye as he left the room, his own share of lunch still in his hand. Just around the corner was the bridge itself. Shovelling down the last remains of food, he took a swig of water and carefully set aside the empty plate and disposable cup of water.
Steeling himself, Norita entered the bridge.
BOOOOWWWW
The ships' foghorns sounded as they slid into harbour. Some of the local fishermen had come out in their boats to receive them, to which some of her crew had already begun trade talks with them. Sango wasn't particularly concerned about that. What she was concerned with was the suspicious line handlers on the piers. She never trusted them to not scratch up her ship some way or another, which meant that she had to go down to the deck to observe them at work.
Her crew tossed the mooring lines across to the line handlers on shore, who began tying them up along the shore. A tugboat helped to nudge them gently – as gently as controlled ramming could ever be – and within moments, her helmsman gave the order for the engines to be cut.
Limping in at the rear end of the convoy was the Maikaze. The ship arrived right after her, sidling into the empty pier just ahead of the Akashi.
Nodding appreciatively to her crew, Sango made her way over the gangway to visit the harbourmaster. Her accounting officer following along behind her. As she walked in, Sango noticed the other military vessel in port. It had a rather strange design, being long and sleek and slim, with no superstructure save the one massive sail on its deck. What stood out the most was its tumblehome design and the massive symbol of Toumai Boys Marine High School painted on the side of the tower.
It could only mean one thing.
She was looking at the submarine I-201 while it was surfaced. The utter strangeness of it gave her the creeps. Her accounting officer looked in the same direction as Sango and visibly shuddered. "Hey Taichou, sure looks creepy, huh?"
"Mm…"
Norita stood to attention, raising his hand to his forehead in salute as he called out, "Assistant Navigation Officer, Hashimoto Norita, reporting!"
Across the room, the Captain sat behind his table as he raised an eyebrow at Norita's performance. He was flanked by the Deputy Captain and the Chief Engineer, Nakamura and Miwa. All three of them looked like they had gotten not a wink of sleep since last night.
"At ease, sailor."
Norita dropped his hand, reverting to a parade-rest posture. The Captain now leaned over his table, his hands forming a steeple as he looked at Norita through half-lidded eyes. "I trust you know why you are here?"
"No, sir."
The Captain now scrutinised Norita even further. "Very well. We can begin. Gentlemen, please gather closer." Norita hesitated for a moment, before rapidly walking over to the table. The other two boys also moved away from the captain to surround the table.
And to flank me.
"So, Hashimoto-san. How good are you at keeping secrets?"
Norita's mind blanked. He remained silent.
"I shall take that as a yes. What you are about to see and hear is of the strictest importance and confidentiality. None of this information shall leave these four walls. If you are discovered to have leaked even the slightest bit of intel through any means whatsoever, the reprisals will be harsh. Am I clear?"
Norita nodded. At the Captain's insistent gaze, Norita forced his voice to work. "Crystal clear, sir."
"Good. Nakamura-san, if you would." The boy in question stepped forward, flicking a switch on the device sitting on the table. A light from the device turned on, lighting up a small square of plastic on the clear top of the box-like device. With a start, Norita realised he was looking at an OHP, an Overhead Projector.
The light was cast onto a folding arm that Nakamura now snapped into place. With a few adjustments, he had the arm lowered to focus only on the plastic square. The light was focused through a lens in the arm, reflecting off a mirror and onto a sheet of paper attached to a movable board.
The number of names sent chills down his spine.
Sango departed the harbourmaster's office, her accounting officer trailing behind her once more while she worriedly counted their remaining money. The wind was starting to pick up again, and while it was still springtime, the strong winds the Akashi faced out at sea meant that she went everywhere with her massive grey winter coat just to keep warm. Sango still couldn't figure out how her friend Yui managed to walk around dressed in just the standard school uniform, what with it being so breezy and all.
A message had been sent to her crew that the non-essential personnel were allowed to roam the island. Meanwhile the others would be helping in moving the ship over to the I-201 to start repair works. Sango could see from here some of the crew, namely the cooks, purchasing several baskets of crabs from the fishermen. Most likely for dinner tonight. Just the thought of eating crab caused her mouth to water slightly in anticipation.
She had to forego lunch so far, given the massive amount of work she had to deal with in the past few days. They had gotten in an accident involving a submarine that they had nearly run over on their travels. The Akashi had managed to steer clear, though it was the Maikaze, her escort, that took the hit.
The submarine had been surfaced at the time, recharging batteries. The noise from the diesels had limited the submarine's sonar capabilities. While the submarine's lookout on board did spot the oncoming convoy, and the Maikaze had indeed detected the flooding noises of the ballast, given that the diesels had to be shut down first before they could dive, amongst other things on the diving checklist, the submarine could not dive fast enough to escape the Maikaze completely. The Maikaze itself had spotted the foam on the surface when the ballast tanks had been flooded and assumed the submarine had gotten clear. What the captain had not realised was that the submarine was not deep enough to avoid the bow of her ship just below the waterline.
The resulting collision had damaged the keel of the Maikaze, tearing a shallow gash into her bow. The other ships of the convoy scattered and stopped in their tracks, while the Akashi went over to send help and damage control. The worst hit of all the parties involved was the submarine itself. The force of the impact had caused the submarine to sort of roll an almost perfect 90 degrees. What came as a massive stroke of luck was that the Maikaze had only hit the stern of the submarine, disabling just the screws, the rudder, the stabiliser fins...
While there was shock damage, the flooding in the submarine was containable, and they managed a successful resurfacing that took up all their reserve air. As such, the convoy was delayed several hours to repair both vessels. The entire event had eaten up so much of her time that Sango had been running on a full three days with no sleep. The surly and untrusting crew of the I-6 had been extremely unwilling to allow Sango's engineers on board, to the point where she had to actually go over and threaten to leave them with a leaking and sinking submarine. Only then did they allow them access.
The girls came back reporting that the submarine stank to high heaven, that the interiors were cramped beyond belief, and that someone had given her number away to one of the submariners. A routine job well done, if not for how some of the girls noticed that when the submarine's crew were not fighting the flooding, they were actively cordoning off certain sections of the submarine.
While they do need to hide some of their secrets, that much Sango understood, this almost seemed to be taking it too far.
Ah well, Sango had brushed it off. It's not like it's my problem anyway.
Boarding the ship, Sango gave new orders for the ship to change berths. The remaining crew responded well enough, though slightly disgruntled at having to continue working while some of them got to have shore leave early. With the mooring lines cast off, the Akashi began to carefully move around the harbour via tugboat. Settling to a stop beside the I-201, the anchor was dropped and boarding ramps prepared.
As per her recent experiences, the captain was supposed to board as well and request permission from the submarine's captain for them to carry out their work. The boarding ladder was dropped to the submarine's deck with a sharp clang. Sango walked over, only to be halted by a voice calling from above her.
"Hey there! You from the Akashi?" It was a rather lanky boy, dressed in a green windbreaker with a noticeable bulge in the left jacket pocket. And he had acne.
Sango repressed a mental shudder. At least the girls bothered to keep themselves clean. As for the boys… well, good thing she never really needed to ever actually go inside the submarine. She had to conduct repairs of submarines a grand total of three times, including this afternoon's incident. None of them had needed her to enter the things for long, if at all.
Just by standing so close to the submarine, she had a rather nauseating feeling coming from it. Something this unnatural had no business being tied up next to her precious Akashi.
"Yes! I'm Sango Sugimoto, second year captain of the repair ship Akashi. Requesting permission to board your submarine, skipper."
The boy seemed to blush slightly. "Uh… I'm not the skipper here. Just the watchman. Hang on a moment, I'll get the captain for you." With that, he retreated over the edge of the tower, hidden from her view. Shrugging, Sango waited while her engineers started chatting amongst themselves on the Akashi.
The boy popped up again. "The captain is in the middle of an important strategy meeting with his officers. He requests fifteen minutes for them to finish up, then you can come in. Is it fine?"
Sango really wanted to bang her head against something. "Is there another way in?"
"Apart from the supply hatch! Any person entering the sub will have to pass through the hatch up here, which will pass through the bridge where the officers are having their briefing. You can board the submarine, load your equipment, whatever. The captain's got no issues with that. Just don't come in."
Sango looked around herself, across the bridge at her engineers waiting for further orders, and back up at the watchman. "Very well! Fifteen minutes, you say?"
"Yes. Fifteen minutes."
"Girls, come on over!"
With relieved sighs, the engineers began crossing, bringing over the tools that would be needing. A report from the I-201's chief engineer specified that a fire had destroyed one engine and motor block, with another damaged motor having been repaired from the remains of the first destroyed motor. The remaining equipment were all fine, having suffered nothing more than some scratch damage from the soot, smoke and heat. On the Akashi, one of her massive cranes got to work, lifting out of her hold the replacement engine and motor blocks. While they waited, her girls might as well be productive.
"What the f***!?"
"Exactly, Nishina-san. That was my reaction as well when I saw it myself, but it's true." Norita spoke as he comfortingly rested his hand on his superior's shoulder. The boy in question sagged in his chair, like he had just been told that he had been walking around with a dozen hitmen aiming for him.
"Then… does this mean those things are still here? Still… in here?" He shakily brought his hand up, to lightly poke the side of his head. He had just been discharged by the corpsman, who deemed that there had been a strain of an unknown virus running through his body. While the virus was dead, Kaburagi Ichiro had been able to isolate a few of the dead cells before the body destroyed them all.
"Not anymore," the doctor said from across the room. "Whatever it was, it seems something caused a sudden spontaneous wipe out of the virus in your body. Given the information in the report our friends sent us, this was just stage 1 of the virus. They still don't know why it works like this, but here is what we have gathered so far."
The doctor walked to the front of the screen, wordlessly taking the pointer stick from the Captain. "The virus has three stages. The first stage is when the victim is first infected. The virus lingers for something between a few hours to a few days, documented as 12 hours to two and a half days." he gestured to the words projected on the screen.
"The second stage occurs after that. It has mutated into a more permanent form. While some antibiotics seem to have a mild effect on the strain, nothing is able to do much to it before the thing adapts and resists that antibiotic. This stage lasts roughly 2 to 12 days. After that, it mutates into the third stage." Nakamura wordlessly adjusted the lens so they could see the lower portion of the magnified image on the microfilm Sakamoto had brought back.
"The third stage is completely invulnerable. Nothing is able to budge it, nothing is able to counter it, and the victim would have to be either locked up in a containment ward or mercy killed." While the others took in the information, Nishina just got even paler.
"The good news for our good friend Nishina-san is that he was infected for something between the range of 3 to 8 hours before he went swimming and snapped out of it. This is well within the timeframe of the stage one virus, so rest assured, you won't be contracting some bloody 'Totalitarianism Disease' that no one's ever heard of before."
The doctor took a step back, letting the captain continue his briefing.
"Ok, since we have that settled, on to bigger things. There is a massive fleet exercise happening off the coast of Nishinoshima, the volcanic island that the lookout may or may not have spotted on our way here. There will be submarines there, were we will be conducting underwater battle drills and simulations. The Blue Mermaids may or may not be joining in to act as a surface fleet for us to work together against."
Tanabe Sato, the Chief Sonar Operator, had been so quiet that Norita had almost forgotten that he existed in the room. He now raised his hand. Seeing this, the captain gestured over to him with the pointer. "Yes?"
"Alright, captain. What's really happening?"
A nervous chuckle flitted around the room. The captain just smiled as he nodded to Nakamura. The Deputy adjusted the lens again.
A massive battlelist of all the submarines expected to join in the exercise was shown on screen. Above this was a map of the area, showing the estimated underwater situation and the locations of where any oppositions may be coming from. The estimated battle area covered a 200 nautical mile radius from the midpoint between the Ogasawara island chain and the Nishinoshima. Several markings scribbled on the map seemed to indicate notable locations and coordinates.
"What we are going to do, is to sink this bastard of a floating lab." He gestured to the map and the marking indicating the last known location of the YA-93. "We have two live torpedoes, and our list of instructions. The goal is to, with the assistance of the fleet, put a bunch of holes into that ship and have it sink, where no one can get to the RATts within." Approving looks were passed around the table.
Sakamoto raised his hand. "Taichou?"
"Yes, Sakamoto-san?"
"What about the crew?" Quite a number of smiling faces sank as they realised what this meant. "I mean, Taichou, if we are to attack the YA-93, then won't we be committing murder?"
The captain bowed his head in thought. Other bridge members nervously cast looks around the room, with the exception of Norita and Nakamura. The two boys just looked straight ahead, though Nakamura's knuckles were whiter than before as he held onto the projector.
"Good question, Sakamoto-san. In dealing with the crew, we will have live rounds loaded in our 25mm deck guns. Our allies will have several lifeboats prepared for the YA-93, so they can choose to either get in or go down with their ship. Anyway, our allies have managed to gather some small arms for us, for our own self defence as well as if we need to coerce them."
The mutterings in the room ceased, though the captain's words failed to stop the general feeling of a terrible mistake waiting to happen.
Author's notes
To KodokSangar: Thank you for reviewing. I'll PM you on the rest of your questions. And thank you again for that.
Well, we'll be coming to the end of the Ogasawara Islands phase soon, I promise! To be honest, I didn't know exactly when I should be expositing the battle plans: when they actually get there or when they are still on shore. I needed to really push things along though, so I decided to get this out of the way. The Admiral of the Coalition will get some screentime as well.
For the curious, the I-6 suffered a series of interesting mishaps in its operational life.
1 August 1935:
Off Ise Bay. At 1427, during joint maneuvers, submerged I-6 collides with destroyer AKATSUKI, damaging her periscopes. Departs the area for Yokosuka for repairs.
25 February 1942:
W of Timor. At 1230 (JST), when running on the surface, I-5 and later I-6 are spotted by a Mitsubishi C5M Type 98 "Babs", escorted by nine A6M Zeke fighters from the 3rd NAG Ambon detachment. Misidentifying both subs as Dutch, the fighters repeatedly strafe them. I-6 is forced underwater, but receives no damage.
16 June 1944:
I-6 departs Yokosuka for Saipan.
NE of Hachijo-Shima. The 5,123-ton freighter TOYOKAWA MARU (ex-BANGOR), chartered from Matsuoka Kisen Line of Kyoto, departed Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands on 14 June en route to Yokosuka in convoy No. 3606, comprising four marus, kaibokans AMAKUSA, NOMI, OKI and converted subchaser SHOWA MARU No. 7.
At 2233, TOYOKAWA MARU sights a submarine surfacing near the convoy. A submarine alert is given. TOYOKAWA MARU makes a sharp turn and rams the submarine's starboard side slightly abaft the conning tower. The submarine takes on a heavy list, turns turtle and sinks in a few minutes. TOYOKAWA MARU opens fire with machine guns and drops some depth charges. There are no survivors of I-6's crew of 104.
The sub had a very unlucky life in the war, being attacked by friendly fire. While she was also the one to score the torpedo hits on USS SARATOGA, she was also subject to three friendly fire incidents. The last one is hilariously epic. A freighter tries to defend its convoy by ramming a friendly submarine! A noble sacrifice, but an extremely stupid one at that.
I always strive to include references throughout my story, be it real life or other media. Try to spot them all :)
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This information was taken from combinedfleet. com