"You four there, get to the storage warehouse and fetch more bandages and medical supplies!" Yin commanded to four fellow admirals who looked worried and tense. His voice seemed to scare them as they ran off, causing Yin to sigh. "Why the hell am I leading this?"

"Because you're the best one for the job!" Kyousuke said with a smile as he walked over and dropped three boxes off by his feet. The boxes were unopened surplus military tents. Big, green, modular, and above everything else, hell to set up. They needed them though, as almost every building at HQ had been damaged in some way, and until all the damage was scouted, using the more damaged buildings wasn't safe.

"I say again, why the hell am I leading this?" Yin repeated. "The Admiralty Board should be commanding this effort, not me of all people. There are dozens of admirals who could do this."

"Yeah. But as I said, Yin, not as well as you. You are the only one who ever aced the Academy's Emergency Protocols test after all. Most people are lucky to get sixty percent on it. It's a hard test, I only got seventy two."

"Ugh, my father always said to be prepared for every contingency, and I took it to heart. I'm wishing I hadn't." Yin said with a sigh as a three admirals and their secretary ships came over and saluted Yin and Kyousuke.

"Admiral Yin, we've just arrived and have been told your operating the rescue efforts, what do you want done?" one admiral who looked to be well over twice Yins age asked.

"We need these tents set up for the rest of the wounded and need them up fast. Once they're set up, head over to the white tent by the academy cafeteria and join them with rescue efforts into the buildings." Yin ordered as he turned and walked away, looking out towards the sea.

"Something wrong, Yin?" Kyousuke asked as he walked up beside him and handed him a tablet from storage that had a rough map of the rescue operations on it.

Yin took it, looked it over and nodded before handing it back to Kyousuke. "Yeah, there is something wrong. This entire situation. Every admiral that was within fifty kilometers of the base is helping with rescue operations and is not allowed to communicate with their own bases until the rescue is complete. Yet admirals beyond that distance can clean up their bases and then head here in full uniform like it's for a meeting!"

Kyousuke looked behind to the three admirals who were now attempting to put together tents with mixed outcomes. All of them were in full clean uniforms, as where their secretary ships with them. In comparison Kyousuke's jacket had tears and rips in it, and Yin wasn't even wearing his jacket, showing how dirty and damaged his undershirt was. It was supposed to be white, but now looked almost grey and had tears so large he could probably fit his head through them. "I see what you mean. It seems like some bases got hit harder than others though.

"Yeah, the reports say that HQ and bases that were either new or fielded large numbers of fleets for major operations were hit hardest. Three days after the fact and we still haven't finished looking for survivors. The last live one we found was yesterday." Yin admitted grimly.

Kyousuke nodded and turned completely around to look at the battered and damaged HQ facilities as well as the Academy. Smoke had long stopped coming from the buildings, but occasionally fires broke out again in small pockets, and the day before an unignited shell exploded when someone stepped on it, killing them instantly as if it were a anti-personnel mine. "And meanwhile as people are hunting for signs of life and finding the dead, the board is deciding what to do in response. I hear they still want to go forward with the attack on Iron Bottom, under the same timeline as before."

"That's impossible and everyone knows it. It will take at least a week just to get everything sorted out and fixed up, and then it will take at least another week to reorganize. Is your sister doing alright?"

Kyousuke nodded. "She called me on my cell this morning. It seems the forward bases for the assault on Iron Bottom where completed just a few days ago, and they haven't seen any abyssal at all. The attacks never even neared them. It's like every abyssal attack force managed to skirt around the forward base undetected. The forward base being unscathed is probably why the board wants to go ahead with the attack."

Yin scowled as he recalled the underwater currents that the abyss used to travel. Just how far did they reach? "Small mercies and all that, I guess."

"No, a small mercy is that no public areas got hit in any of the attacks. The civilian populace has been really helpful for the rescue efforts as well."

"Most of the other admirals don't realize that." Yin said with a small growl. "they think they can fix things and then go back to their bases like nothing ever happened and expect medals for it. I just want to be sure my base is alright."

"I know what you mean, I had to ask Shia to send someone to check up on my base for me before the line went dead. The cell signals are a mess right now."

"Yeah, most cell towers are in naval bases for security reasons, so if most of them got damaged it would be hard to communicate between bases." Yin said with another sigh as a naval attaché ran over and saluted to him.

The attaché wore a light grey suit that was sodden in many places from the amount the man was sweating, and he did not look well. He looked like he was being run ragged. "Sir, the Admiralty board sent you this." He said as he took out a piece of paper and handed it to Yin.

Taking it Yin looked it over and let out a sigh before pocketing it. "Thank you, you may return to your duties, but take it easy, you look like you're about to fall over."

The attaché saluted and ran off, leaving Yin and Kyousuke alone again, though Kyousuke was confused. "What'd it say?"

"It said that the rescue operations were going well enough and that the board would take over so I could return to my base."

Kyousuke blinked and glanced around. "That makes no sense. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done. . . . . . .You think Admiral Kento is trying something?" Kyousuke almost whispered.

"It's possible, but we have no way of finding out for sure. I'll take it regardless though."

"I figured you would. I'll relegate things as I can before I'm sent back to my base." Kyousuke said with a chuckle. "Oh, and the dock master told me earlier that the boat you were to be given had gotten out unscathed. You'll probably find it at the southern docks area I think."

"Thanks, at least something goes well for once. I'll see you later, Kyousuke."

"Yeah, and be careful Yin. Something is wrong with this entire situation."

"I know that, I know."

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Battleship Symbiotic Hime pulled herself up out of the water and onto the inner docks of Iron Bottom Sound with a limp sounding slap. Her body was in tatters with over half of it unusable until she was repaired, and because of it, she had taken far longer than she expected to return to Iron Bottom Sound.

"You look like crap."

Battleship Symbiotic Home looked up to find Airfield Hime sitting few feet away from her with her feet in the water. She looked unscathed, besides a rather large bandage covering her left arms entire length. "Things, went better than expected." Symbiotic Hime replied with a smirk as she tried to move herself further onto the dock, looking like some sort of filleted slug as she tried to move.

"What? Aren't you mixing that up?" Airfield Hime asked with a chuckle. "I would thing it went badly considering how badly you are maimed. We'll need to get you repaired ASAP."

"Yes, I will need repairing. Can you help me get there? Most of my body is not willing to move." Battleship Replied as Airfield came over and pulled her up onto her shoulder, almost dragging her down the halls.

"So, what happened then?"

Battleship Symbiotic Hime smiled. "While attacking the ship girl headquarters, I found the Taboo Admiral himself, with none of his ships with him, only another human and it's ship. I wanted to test his strength myself. It turns out him beating Seaport isn't so farfetched."

"Really? He beat you?"

"Sort of. I released my equipment on him, but then I got sidelined by the other admiral and his ship girl."

"How?"

"Some sort of large rifle and a blunt object. They put a hole in my torso, then nearly broke my neck and paralyzed half my body. I was able to pull myself away while my equipment raged however."

"That explains quite a bit. Having met the taboo sort of is counterproductive though. How much damage did you do to the ship girl headquarters?"

"Quite a bit. It should push whatever their plans are quite a bit."

"Good. It seems everyone was rather effective. It should put at least half of their largest bases into the red for a while. Once everyone is repaired and ready we should go about regaining control of the oceans."

"I agree. If we control the waters then they cannot easily deal with us." Battleship Symbiotic added as the two of them entered into a large circular room that angle down into a bubbling pool.

"There is one thing that you should know, however." Airfield Said as she let Battleship go and allowed her to drag herself into the pool.

"Really? What is that?" Battleship Symbiotic Hime asked as she fully immersed herself in the water and took off the shredded remains of her clothing and let them float in the water beside her.

"The ship girls forward base in the ocean appear to be fully operational. If we attempt to assault it now, the defences and fleets there will likely repel us."

"I see. So we've gained territory in the ocean itself, but they have a forward base. Do you think they would use it to attack us?"

"If they know where we are roughly, I suppose they would. Only their submarines would be able to reach us however. So we are in little danger."

"No, we are in great danger. The Taboos can reach us. And the islands above us could be shelled. We must not be careless."

"I suppose. I've also noticed something these last few days."

"What's that?"

"Seaport has been acting strange. Lately. I'm not sure why either."

"Hmm, she could just be uncomfortable with not going out as much as she used to. Maybe she should go and take an ocean area for a while and stretch her legs and claws."

"Hmm, that may be an idea. I'll go tell her and let you soak and repair.

"Thank you. I'll see you in a bit, then we can have some fun with those ship girls now when their weak!"

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"You what?!" Ashigara asked in surprise as she dangled in her usual place In her cell. Below her was Seaport Hime, who stood before her stoically.

Seaport shook her head slowly from side to side." I will not repeat myself for danger of being overheard."

Ashigara hung there quietly for a few moments before looking to Seaport, "You are not lying to me, are you?" Ashigara asked, more a statement that a question.

"I am not." Seaport answered quickly.

"And the others that you mentioned. They are not lying either? They want the same thing?"

"For different reasons, yes." Seaport Hime said as she stepped closer to Ashigara and gripped the chain holding her right leg, as the left chain had yet to be replaced. Seaport clutched the chain a few times as if testing it and nodded to herself before stepping back away. "we are not prepared to go ahead with the operation yet, but when we are things will happen quickly, so I believed you should be made aware of it. May I ask if you are in?"

Ashigara was quiet for a moment before firm nodding. "Yes, I'm in. if I can get out of here and see my children again, I am completely in!"

"I'm thankful to hear that. I'll make sure the others come and speak to you when they have time." Seaport stated as she turned and walked out of the cell and closed the door behind her.

Walking through the halls Seaport began thinking on who to have speak to the Taboo first, and once she had reached her own room and touched the handle she had decided. But she also had a visitor.

"Ah Seaport, I have some news for you."

Seaport turned to find Airfield Hime standing nearby with both if her hands on her hips. She wore her usual smile full of deviousness and something about her expression caused a pang of worry to cross seaports heart. "Yes?"

"Battleship Symbiotic Hime finally returned earlier, and we decided that while everyone's repairing that you should go out and patrol some territory for a while. You've been looking strange lately, almost nervous so we figured it'd be good for you to go out and harass some ship girls. Sound fun?"

For half a second Seaport felt sick at the idea, then realized she had been given the perfect opportunity to move their plans forward. "AQlright, I'll take that up. I haven't been out of the base in a while so it should be nice."

"Good to hear. Sink lots of ship girls while your out!" Airfield said with a wave as she walked off happily.

"I won't be killing anyone," Seaport Hime thought as she opened the door to her room and knew she needed to take advantage of the situation immediately. She needed to leave immediately. '"it's time to talk a bit, Mister Admiral Taboo, Yin Akimoto!"