3459. From FOSGF in Ottawa: Please keep in mind that Canada's "Adopt A Shipgirl" policy for those frigates and corvettes who were never built or named (but still answered the call to arms) is meant as a morale booster for both the ship and the town whose name (or chosen nickname) the shipgirl bears. This is meant to promote fighting efficiency and doesn't imply that the shipgirl in question has some attributes certain people would disagree with.
3459(A). For those shipgirls who still have problems accepting that some of your sisters are pursuing relationships with other shipgirls, this is the Twenty-first Century! Deal with it!

Canadian Forces Base Cornwallis...

Lingabar took a deep breath. "Where do I belong...?"

Hearing that moan from the once-never built River-class frigate lying on her bunk in one of the training division barracks overlooking Trunk Highway 1, Rainbow looked over her shoulder before she sighed. "Lingabar, it's not your fault or the admiral's that we couldn't find the source of your name," the Apollo-class light cruiser that was one of the first two ships to be brought into the service of the Dominion in 1910 gently chided. "I'm sure that some community out there would be honoured to adopt you as 'their' shipgirl. Just let it come."

Hearing that, the frigate with the dark blue eyes and the sea-green hair sighed. "Aye..."

The "Adopt A Shipgirl" project had started when the mass summoning of frigates and corvettes were made at Cornwallis in the wake of Sackville's summoning. During World War Two, the number of such ships initially ordered had been much higher than what was actually built; the changing of Navy operations as the war against the U-Boats forcing the government in Ottawa to switch from cheap corvettes to more expensive frigates and eventually new destroyers. Because of that, thirty-six Castle-class corvettes that would have been built in Canadian yards had been cancelled before construction began...yet because the need had been there and the spiritual energy that had created shipgirls in the first place was still quite plentiful, all thirty-six of those would-be corvettes had answered the call to arms. That had sent Rear Admiral Harlan's staff into devising new names for those girls following the Canadian tradition of naming escort warships after cities, towns and communities as had been done during the war. With that, the Navy brass in Ottawa solicited local communities across the country to "adopt" those new shipgirls as "their" own fighter in the war against the Abyssals. Soon enough, every shipgirl that had actually served as warships in the Navy wound up being "adopted" by communities across the nation. Sadly, given that the source of the name "Lingabar" remained a mystery despite all the work the Directorate of History and Heritage poured into finding the story...!

DING!

Rainbow perked on hearing the sound of her e-mail alert going off on her iPhone. As she delicately tapped on the plastic/glass screen of her smartphone - once again mentally cursing the device for its devilish ability to addict her to things like gossip chat lines - to get the message in question...then she gaped. "Oh, my!" the light cruiser breathed out.

"What is it?" the frigate asked.

"It appears a community has risen up to adopt you."

That made Lingabar gasp in delight. "EH?! REALLY?!"

Rainbow smiled. "I just got a letter from the councillor representing Ward 13 of Toronto. That's the same area of the city that used to be the town of Swansea before they amalgamated it with the city in 1967. That means you can join Escort Group C-6 once you're fully worked up!"

Hearing that made the frigate scream with delight...

A month later...

Shipgirl escort teams in the Royal Canadian Navy were normally built around a "two-plus-five" system of two River-class frigates combined with five Flower-class or Castle-class corvettes or Fundy-class, Bangor-class or Algerine-class minesweepers that got reborn as "quasi-corvettes" with better diesel engines, surface-to-air missiles and other goodies that had made life hell on the Abyssals ever since Sackville emerged from Cornwallis a half-year before. When it came to escorting large convoys, two escort teams formed a numbered escort group that sailed from Halifax, Sydney or Saint John's for the trip across to Southampton, Dublin or Le Harve.

Group C-6 was popularly nicknamed the "Toronto Argonauts" in tribute to the Canadian Football League sixteen-time Grey Cup champions; this was because all the ships in the group took names from either communities that now formed part of Canada's largest city or were near neighbours to Toronto. Naturally, the frigate Toronto served as the group's flag when they were deployed.

After Lingabar had been assigned to the Argonauts, she got herself a proper dark blue team jersey with her name and pendant number 311 on her front and back.

She also got something else.

"Lingy...!"

"What is it, Boss?" Lingabar asked as she scanned the southern horizon for possible threats; the Argonauts had been assigned to do a sweep of the area around the Grand Banks near Cape Race to ensure the next convoy now massing at Sydney would have no issues before their escort team came to take them across the pond to get new supplies over to Ireland.

"What the hell are you doing flying the Rainbow Flag from your masthead?!"

That made the green-haired frigate blush. "I HAVE to, Boss...!"

"Huh?!" came the eloquent reply from the frigate with silver-tinged brown hair and blue eyes.

Swansea snickered. "Oh, c'mon, Hoggie!" the silver-haired frigate with the blue eyes chimed in as she put her fists to her hips. "You know it was the folks who run the Pride Toronto festivals who pressed the city council to have Lingy adopted by that part of town!"

Toronto took a deep breath. "So what, Swanny?! It doesn't mean...!"

"Boss! Enemy surface contact starboard!"

Hearing that shout from Runnymede, all the members of Group C-6 tensed as they looked to the south. "There!" Mimico snapped, pointing. "A fuck-ton of destroyers coming our way!"

"Castles! Ready ASROCs!" Toronto snapped. "Everyone else, load up torpedoes!"

The five Castle-class corvettes in the team - Leaside, Markham, Clarington, Mississauga and Vaughan - instantly loaded the rocket-launched torpedoes into their Mark 13 launchers; when the Canadian Atlantic Fleet had been destroyed in the Battle of Sable Island, several Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates from America and the two Cassard-class frigates from France had also been sunk. Their steel, weapons and electronics had been salvaged, then melted down into the magically-treated materials that went into the summoning chamber at Cornwallis. The result was that the Castle-class corvettes - the first Commonwealth escort class to be built to include a radar set - wound up returning with the ability to use the famous "one-armed bandit" missile launcher fitted to their bows and a 57 millimetre Bofors gun aft, along with the normal outfit of Enhanced Sea Sparrow missiles, Phalanx Mark 15 CIWS systems and Mark 46 torpedoes...!

"WAIT! WHITE FLAG!"

Hearing Forrest Hill's shout, the others looked...

...then gaped on seeing the white banners flying from the masthead of the destroyers now facing the Argonauts. As the shipgirls all stopped on seeing the enemy force approach, they then jerked as someone surged up from the depths, revealing the tomboyish form of a Ri-class cruiser. "Oh, fuck...!" Toronto hissed out as she readied her Harpoons...

...then she gaped on seeing a white flag pop up from the cruiser's mast!

"What the hell...?!" Toronto moaned...

...then she crashed her bow into the water as a now-crying Ri-class ship lunged over to hug Lingabar by the legs, wailing in delight. While the frigate in question immediately moved to comfort the weeping cruiser, several of the shipgirls seeing this sweated in confusion at the sight. Noting that the cruiser's eyes had locked in on the LGBT flag that was flying from her sister's mast, Swansea shook her head. Even if Abyssals were supposed to be destroyed on sight, a white flag had to be respected...and by the looks of it, she now had a good idea why this one wanted to surrender.

So did Mimico. "She'll be an interesting sight on Yonge Street next year," she whispered to Long Branch.

The other corvette snickered...

Fin...!