The admiral's intuition is sometimes too sharp for anyone's good.
Why?
Possibly because it could mostly be seen as a random thought coming out of nowhere. If she relays it as an order, it would bring in, first and foremost, questions among the rank as of why she would make the order.
For example;
"…Kitakami…" Her voice echoes on the command room across the live feed of the ships she's in charge of. The ships around her, however, was somewhat worried about the tone she said it in; "can you please send a torpedo salvo toward your one-zero-five? Full broadside, if possible…"
"…huh?", thus an expected answer comes from the torpedo cruiser she ordered, "B…but why, miss admiral?" her 25 torpedo tubes take quite a long time to reload, so why would her admiral tell her to throw it toward nowhere?
The admiral herself understood this, and she felt bad just by giving this order.
But for her, time is ticking. The tingling feeling that she felt at the back of her neck slowly becomes more intense as every second they pass doubting, so as much as she didn't want to push her lovely subordinate, she still had to.
"I…I have no explanations…but please, just trust me for now. Adjust two degrees to the left from last calculation."
Kitakami herself was still doubtful, but she already had her tubes pointing at the provided direction; "um…calculation sent…not that there's anything to calculate,"
The calculation was always needed to be underwent to ensure maximum accuracy of torpedo salvoes, but as the calculation requires the relative cruise direction of both the enemy and the vessel sending the torpedo, which the ship will first do and then checked by the admiral. Right now, however, there are nothing to fire upon. There are variables that weren't present for a proper calculation, so both the torpedo cruiser and the admiral could only do some minor adjustments.
"Adjust spread by 7 degrees and launch every two seconds," she said. Her forehead was sweaty from the nervousness, but she didn't bother and kept folding her arms to supporting her massive breasts.
"Torpedo tubes one to five, launched," Kitakami transmitted uneventfully. Every two seconds for four more times, she reported the same thing again until she emptied her starboard-side torpedo launchers.
"All 25 torpedoes launched," the cruiser said, somehow with a hint of sarcasm in her tone. Without any delay, the cruiser begun reloading her tubes, but as everybody might have expected, it takes time.
"…Since miss Kitakami is reloading her tubes, can miss Hamakaze help with the star-shelling for now?" Yamato, on the other hand, thought that Kitakami's reloading would hinder her duty if she's the only one in charge of star-shelling, so she asked Hamakaze to help out, to which the destroyer happily agreed.
Meanwhile on the command room, the few who paid attention to the fight expressed their concerns; "What could possibly be in the area miss Kitakami fired upon, miss admiral?" asked the admiral's wife, but the admiral couldn't be more honest;
"I don't know, honey" she mumbled, "I just have a bad feeling about that area…"
Little does the other ships know that the admiral's worry goes even deeper than just thinking that a part of the Bramble fleet was there, northwest of the Basking fleet's formation. It was far deeper of a worry that she would argue the feeling to be similar to that of a dread.
Now then,
The fleet had been fed with information from Atago's night reconnaissance aircrafts, so everyone could see the precise location of the enemy fleet's formation; although not by direct vision and rather by radar. So far, they haven't changed their course, possibly because they were busy controlling the damage the destroyer squadron had inflicted upon them with multiple torpedoes, or it could be because it's their strategy.
So what could there possibly be, northwest of their position?
"?!"
What could possibly cause that muffled explosion?
"T-torpedo hit! Contact on one-one-one!" upon seeing her HUD light up, Kitakami panicked. It simply alerted her that at least one of her torpedoes reaching a target.
But if so, what would that mean?
"There actually is a target?!"
"Anyone's fine, quickly send a star shell that way!"
For once the admiral panicked.
The sound of gunpowder exploding within Hamakaze's breech strums the anxiety in her heart; it doesn't give her even a second to calm down as the star shell thrown in the sky lit up and descended slowly with glaring light.
And under the incandescent light was a massive formation of bubbles.
What that was from, the girls could only speculate. Maybe it's from the torpedoes hitting corals? The admiral did explain that there were minor islands and shallow areas, so maybe Kitakami's torpedo hit them and exploded.
But at the same time, everyone understood.
That thought was merely a form of denial.
The bubbling water swells, and from within, a dark matter emerges.
Its design betrays any expectation of what one would call a functional vessel. The long hull was colored unnaturally black and it was covered with a mix of barnacles, corals and rust, as if the vessel had been sunk long ago, consumed by the sea and came back to life as a haunting ghost. Alongside the vessel also appear a ghastly figure like that you would see emerging from the well from the movie The Ring. The difference was that the woman was wearing a gas mask that adds an even more ominous presence.
It was a figure far too familiar for the girls to see, yet it was a figure that aren't at all familiar to see at the current situation.
"H-Hamakaze reports sightings of abyssal submarine surfacing on torpedo impact location!" The destroyer reports in third-person while trying to hold back her panic.
The admiral, unexpectedly, was doing the same thing; holding back her panic. She took a deep breath and opened a communication channel directed to every single ship out on the seas;
"All units, attention! Provide me with every single detail of whatever is on your radar at once!" she said sternly.
"Basking fleet reports confirmed sighting of one abyssal submarine at surface level! Sonar ping suggests another one near its vicinity!" It was Hamakaze who replied first, almost overlapping with another report. Incidentally, that person immediately continued after Hamakaze even before the admiral had a chance to reply;
"Light Carrier Shouhou reports of unidentified vessels engaging our position from the west! Mogami, is the star shell prep not done yet!?" Amidst her report, Shouhou was also shouting at Mogami, who were also noticeably panicking over the sudden turn of events.
"F-Firing now!"
"…As expected," muttered Hyuuga, "Battleship Hyuuga confirms sighting of two Na-class abyssal destroyers, one To-class light cruiser and one Ta-class Elite battleship!"
Without delay, the admiral compiled the information in her head and proceeds with her next order: "All units, we've got ambush! Our defensive perimeter had been breached by an abyssal fleet! Pay attention to your hydroacoustic detection to avoid any incoming torpedoes! I order you all to consolidate whatever force you can muster! The naval base will send a backup fleet ASAP, so set a course for port, now!"
"B-Basking Actual copies,"
"Bramble Actual seconds,"
After hearing the response from the two fleets on the seas, the admiral's attention turned to those around her in the room.
Almost every one of the active fleets was there; from the Hammerhead fleet down to the Mako fleet, though of course, with limitations such as the Tiger fleet being two members short as they were assigned to assist the Basking fleet, and a certain member of the Thresher fleet, away to pick up the damaged Yamakaze and Maya.
The question is, who should she send as backups?
One would argue that they should be sending fast ships, but they should also consider ships with plenty of firepower given that the enemy fleet also consist of only one, but powerful battleship. At the same time, naturally, carriers were out of the question now that the sun had already set, which brings down the selection to mere few.
She would've liked to take her sweet time choosing, but the enemy is closing on the two fleets fast, as hinted by the panicked chatter on the radio, so the admiral could only make a flash decision;
"I'll be creating a temporary fleet consisting of Fast Battleship Gangut, Light Cruiser Naka, Destroyers Shigure, Veriny, Fubuki and Isokaze. Akashi, prepare their equipment and get them ready to go!" The admiral yelled her orders as if she's Gordon Ramsay listing the customers' order in Hell's Kitchen. The mentioned ships simply responded with a brisk salute as their name was called.
"Understood, it'll take 10 minutes—"
"Make it in 5!" she said again, "And Gangut, I'll be overseeing the battle from your bridge, no buts."
"Wh…!? But Komandir!" the Russian battleship cried. The rest of the crew in the room seemed to be putting on the same expression, but they decided that making multiple noises would be redundant and let Gangut voice everyone's concern;
"I told you, no buts!" However, before Gangut could say anything, the admiral yelled back. As she was hard-headed toward the ship on the other hand, the ship too was insistent in not letting this happen;
"Я отказываюсь! Это будет слишком опасно для вас!" She lapses to Russian, throwing her gaze away while not even bothering to translate what she said to the admiral, hoping that if she didn't understand, it would mean that the capability of communications is compromised, and it would prevent the admiral from insisting to go
However, such a childish tantrum wasn't enough to deter the commander's will.
"Я не спрашивал, блять, I wasn't asking!" the admiral responded in a near-perfect Russian accent, "Доберитесь до доков и будьте готовы к развертыванию за 5 минут…и перестать тратить наше время!" She continued pressing with Russian as she stepped forward close to Gangut, giving immense pressure toward the battleship who is only slightly shorter than the admiral.
It was the first time they've seen the admiral so frustrated and the Russian didn't really help her image. However, everyone feels that it was somewhat understandable; they have found an enemy fleet crawling through a training area usually thought as a safe area within the harbor.
So far, the admiral hadn't noticed anything wrong; security was perfect, and patrols are consistently and diligently upheld in the waters surrounding the naval base and to a marginally huge defensive perimeters around it, so how the abyssal ships could have slipped through their grasps are way beyond her. If anything, it will add a lot more things for her to manage, which frustrates her even further when she thinks about it.
The admiral ended up heaving a huge sigh before making a last stand; "Any more excuses and I'll be observing the battle in the frontline on board of Shigure, is that clear?"
"…да," In the end, Gangut could only agree to the condition with clear dejection and defeat.
"Hold on, if we are to allow this to happen, we need an assurance," Finally, the admiral's wife voiced her request; "We need to know that you will come back alive and unhurt, otherwise we will keep you here by any means necessary."
The admiral hesitated, but every ship in the room and even the admiral herself understood that it was a sound argument, but there's no time to hesitate.
She sighed and reached for her right thigh and took out her trusty sidearm. "I'll stay back on board of Gangut to coordinate the fleets from the distance," With a swift movement, she ejected the magazine, pulled back its bolt to eject the one bullet out of the chamber and spun it around to hold it by the barrel. The scene was a lot similar to when the admiral proposed Houshou; she was holding the gun and offered it to her wife with a stern expression, but there was no hint of a romantic end this time. "I trust Gangut and I trust the rest of the fleet, so I won't be needing this." The admiral was sweating from her frustration, but her smile was trustworthy. "I'll be right back, honey, okay? I promise." As if she felt bad for making her wife worry too much, the admiral continued with a softer, more loving words as well as giving Houshou a gentle brush on her cheek.
"Promise us too," said the other spectators; they were mad because they failed to convince the admiral and not getting as much attention as Houshou, but they all still wanted to trust their commanding officers that they love so much, so that request was all they could squeeze out. "And miss Gangut, please bring our admiral and our allies home safe."
"Of course, comrades. Вам не нужно спрашивать," Gangut replied, picking up her coat and adjusting her cap.
"C нами Бог."
With that remark from the admiral, she, along with the six, departed for the docks.
– On the other side of the seas –
"I, Shouhou as the flagship of the Bramble fleet will take temporary command of the combined fleet," The light aircraft carrier limped her way onto position as the remaining 9 out of 12 ships to fight back against the sudden invasion.
9 ships against 6; if the math works correctly, they should have clear advantage, but they should also remember that firstly, they only have 8 ships that are combat ready in the situation as aircraft carriers are strictly ineffective in the darkness of the night. Additionally, three ships of the Bramble fleet were moderately damaged from the torpedoes from Basking fleet's torpedo squadron, and Yamato lost her third cannon, so no one could judge them as completely combat ready.
Currently, they formed their fleet into a diamond-shaped formation; Shouhou is spearheading the cruise home, followed by the damaged Mogami and Hyuuga diagonally left and right behind her respectively. Behind them from the left to right are Atago, Yamato and Hamakaze. After them, Kitakami covered their port side after the three while Ushio monitored the whole rear of the fleet next to her. Lastly, serving as the makeshift armor on the rear was Ashigara.
"Combined fleet, be advised; help is steaming your way from the direction of home port consisting one battleship and a small torpedo squadron." The radio that had been silent suddenly boots up again, bringing in the voice of their beloved commander, "Provide me with anything that you can report while attempt a defensive formation while maintaining stealth and steam back to home port until at least the range of the rescue fleet's protection or the range of our port's coastal guns. Fight back only if necessary."
"Already on it, ma'am," Hyuuga responded briskly, "We've just finished making our formations; now we're carrying out any sort of repairs we can do."
"What's the status of the enemy fleet?"
"From my observation, they seem to be reforming themselves as their attempt to take us by surprise had failed," reported Hamakaze, peering far away into the darkness "We've broken vision since the start of their assault but there have been no instances of torpedoes coming our way."
"On the other hand, their surface fleet has been going crazy on us," Ashigara said. She seemed to have received some hits from the enemy's surface fleet, though none of them critical. "We've been taking care of them without issues, but if we're pressured back by just their harassment shots, we're not confident we can take on their full force."
The admiral cursed something barely audible to anyone and told the girls; "I feel like I don't need to tell you anymore, but eyes up and fight under the assumption that you are facing two whole enemy fleets. Don't let your guard down!"
The nine voiced their acknowledgements, maintaining their speed as they limped their way home…but sadly, the enemy wasn't just going to let them pass.
Kitakami grunted as the she received a hit. She was the one ship who was at the outer ring of the formation, so it should be obvious that the enemy would target her first. As a matter of fact, the less-damaged vessels were deliberately put on rear/outer guard by the girls to prevent further damages for the already-damaged ships, but then again, there were only one with heavy armors and two lightly-armored ones, so it left a lot to be desired.
"Received one instance of damage from small-caliber main gun," Ashigara reported, "nothing major so far, but I suspect they'll keep sending barrages after barrages."
"Another barrage incoming from their surface ships!" This time, it was the scout Ushio who reported after seeing cannon flashes in the distance, "Miss Ashigara, avoid to port! Miss Atago, starboard!"
The two didn't have any time to hesitate nor respond, but thanks to their quick reactions to Ushio's warning, the shells from the enemies scored no hits and crashed onto the water violently.
"Good call, Ushio," Hyuuga commented, "They'll just keep harassing us at this rate…Miss admiral, are we clear to scout with star-shells?"
"Granted! Highlight their positions with star shells and engage if necessary!"
"Shouhou copies," said Shouhou. She'd prefer to mention herself in third person using a code, but as the makeshift combined fleet is yet to be named, she had to use her name for clearance.
"Ushio, ready for star-shelling!"
"Ashigara, ready!"
"Hamakaze too, ready for star-shelling!"
"Atago…ready!"
"Hyuuga, anytime."
"Kitakami…I'll have a hard time getting an angle with my frontal main guns, but given the right moment, I can contribute!"
"Shouhou copies all," She was initially about to ask the fleet if anyone was available for star-shell tasking, but everyone except those who are unavailable such as Yamato who lost her rear cannon and Mogami who doesn't have any on her aft. "Having everyone on light duty will be too much, I'll assign Ushio, Hamakaze, and Kitakami for it. The three of you, please take care of the shooting orders amongst yourselves."
"Kitakami copies,"
"Hamakaze; understood,"
"Ushio; I will do my best!"
"The rest of the you who are able, load HE shells on your turrets and prepare to engage. If possible, only attack them if you are sure you can disrupt their formation and/or attacks."
"Understood. Loading HE shells," echoed Hyuuga.
Shouhou was a capable shipgirl. Her ability to command the fleet was impeccable, enabling her to be one of the few candidates the admiral could trust as second-in-command if others aren't available. As such, the girls trust her with her orders that could only be described as almost perfect. "Miss Atago, what is the status of your reconnaissance aircrafts?"
"Eh? Ah…" But the new girls still haven't built up their trust yet. Combined with their nervousness of facing an actual battle for the first time, their inexperience slows down the chain of command significantly. "Um…ah…one is…within range of…the enemy fleet and had taken quite some damage…th-the other one is on standby…but my crane is out of commission, so…I was unable to…"
"Understood. How many do you have left?"
"J-just one more…I just deployed two, so…"
"Copy. Mogami, are you available for tasking?"
"I'm here, lead, ready for anything."
"Miss Atago, please land your recon aircraft nearby Mogami. She'll retrieve your damaged aircraft for you and attempt maintenance. In the meantime, use your aircraft that's on standby and the one you haven't launched to provide information for our guns!"
"Y-yes, understood!"
There are significant differences in the use of reconnaissance kits such as floatplanes, radars and hydroacoustic detections and star shells. Equipment that provide detection informs the ships of the enemy fleet's position as a circle in the radar they can see in their wrist-mounted device, and consequently, an instinct that tells them where the enemies are roughly positioned. The more equipment they use for detection (i.e. the more floatplanes deployed), the clearer it would feel, and the circle would shrink up to becoming a pinpointed location, but at best, the ships could only 'feel' a silhouette.
That's where direct vision comes in. In the darkness, that rough feeling of where the enemy is located would not be enough to land a hit, so the ships would deploy a star-shell to see the enemy in full detail. This way, it would be possible for them to aim correctly and even attempt at shooting specific, crucial modules, such as the enemy's gun batteries or even their magazine.
Unfortunately, Atago, and consequently the fleet, had only three of them.
Mogami wasn't equipped with night-recon aircrafts despite her deck that had higher capacity than that of Atago's. It was simply because their goal as a fleet is to finish the entire fight before night falls.
But the darkness had already enveloped the battlespace. The Bramble fleet had already lost all their advantages…and thus they had to collaborate effectively with what's remaining of the Basking fleet to repel the enemy force lurking behind them.
That was why Shouhou suggested Atago to pull back her damaged aircraft and leave it to Mogami for repairs before deploying them again.
"Star shells, at the ready!" The three ships on star-shell duty finally reached an agreement, thus the torpedo cruiser reported.
"Roger that. As the enemy is very much directly behind us, torpedo strikes will not be possible unless we expose ourselves to attacks…so destroyers, as you are the ones with good eyesight, you will be our fire detector. Warn us about who they're targeting and when they are shooting…pretty much just like what Ushio-chan just did."
"Understood! I will begin star-shelling shortly!"
"…Even if it's my time to shine I won't be able to do so this time, huh…" Right after Ushio's reply came dissatisfied chuckle from Kitakami.
""Star shells, on the way!""
But as dissatisfied as she is, there's a battle to be won regardless