Date: 6/7/15
The offensive on the ground has been going for five days. With assistance from the fleet ground forces have broken through the defensives surrounding Keelung City and fierce fighting for the city has been ongoing since the sixth. The fleet's guns have since fallen silent but the carriers are still providing support.
Fifty-three kilometers from the battle Karukaya is part of a squadron patrolling Taiwan's coast. The squadron consists of herself, Shinonome, Uranami, Yakaze, and Yura who is the commander of the squadron. Their objective is to hunt for abyssal submarines and search for an abyssal squadron that was reported in the area by one of their submarines four hours ago. They wouldn't have air support from the carriers but Yura did have a floatplane so they would have some spotting assistance from the air.
As they cruised down Taiwan's coast it occurred to her that no abyssal aircraft have attacked them. Stranger still is that her air-search radar hasn't picked up any contacts. With the battle for Keelung city raging she figured she would spot some warplanes heading for the city. Of course, there may be warplanes heading toward the city they're just not entering the range of her air-search radar.
"I've got a contact."
"Range?"
"I can't tell. It keeps disappearing and reappearing at different bearings."
"Can you give me a general range of bearing?"
"1-1-9 to 2-1-0. The range is thirty to fifty kilometers. That's my best estimate so it could be off."
The sound of an aircraft engine reached Karukaya ear's as Yura launched her floatplane. "That's a large amount of ocean to cover. If you get a solid contact let me know."
"Understood. Yakaze-san, do you have the same contact?"
"Yes, but I have a narrower search bearing. 1-3-0 to 2-0-5."
"I have a second contact. Bearing 1-9-6."
"Understood."
A few kilometers away Yura's floatplane is searching for abyssal warships. The pilot was doing a crisscross pattern to search as much ocean as possible. He pasted through a low cloud and when he exited he spotted a single abyssal destroyer holding position. He slipped back into the clouds and exited twenty seconds later. Five more destroyers had joined the first and they were heading North. He reported this to Yura-san and continued to shadow the destroyers.
For fifteen minutes he hid in the clouds peaking out periodically to make sure he was still following the destroyers. When he peeked out again he spotted a cruiser that had joined the formation. Before he could contact Yura-san he was shot down.
Back with the squadron, Yura looked to the sky when she felt her plane be shot down. "There is an abyssal force consisting of six destroyers thirty nautical miles from our position. They are likely led by a light or heavy cruiser." The destroyers reformed into a line formation off Yura's starboard side.
"What's their formation?"
"I don't know. They shot down my floatplane so they know we are in the area. Zuikaku-san do you copy?"
...
...
...
"Zuikaku-san, please respond."
...
...
...
Yura shook her head, "Something is jamming our transmissions. We're on our own for now."
Karukaya took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. "This happened to us at Okinawa naval base as well. The abyssals jammed our communications before they attacked."
"I heard about that. Was the abyssal reasonable sunk?"
"No. They retreated before we could sink any of them."
"So we have no info on this new type of abyssal?"
"Correct."
"Great."
"Since its primary purpose is to jam communications it will not be near the engagement. If we want to restore our communications we need to find it and sink it."
"That's going to be difficult since they shot down Yura-san's floatplane."
"We don't have to sink the abyssal. If we can drive it far enough away its jamming will not have an effect."
"We have no idea what its jamming range is though."
"Good point... Alright, here's the plan. We destroy the abyssal force steaming towards us. After that one destroyer breaks off and informs the fleet of the situation while the rest of us steam South to try and spot the abyssal."
"I'll break off once we're done with the battle," Karukaya said. Yura nodded, "Alright. Make yourselves ready we're almost in range."
The next three minutes were spent in tense silence as they closed the distance. At sixteen thousand-five hundred meters Yura's guns started to turn and elevate. Ten seconds later she fired. Six fourteen cm armor-piercing shells exploded from her guns and flew toward the abyssal cruiser. The shells crashed into the ocean around the cruiser and only one shell hit.
The abyssal returned fire sending nine armor-piercing shells Yura's way. She cut speed and turned in causing seven of the shells to go long. While Yura engaged the abyssal cruiser Karukaya observed the abyssal destroyers with worry. Their rigging looked more modern then hers and there is a high probability that they are more advanced than Yakaze-san and herself.
Suddenly, the destroyers broke away from the cruiser and charged. Shinonome, Uranami, Karukaya, and Yakaze moved to engage them. Shinonome and Uranami started to fire and the abyssals responded shortly after. Karukaya watched as Shinonome-san, and Uranami-san avoided the shells fired at them and fired accurate return fire. Despite their best efforts, the number of shells being fired at them ensured some would hit.
Two high explosive shells hit Shinonome but other than destroying some of her AA guns they didn't do any damage. Uranami was hit by a single shell that destroyed an AA gun and started a fire. The fire set off ammunition lockers for the gun and bits of burning wood and shrapnel set off the ammunition lockers for a second gun which was close by.
Finally, at ten thousand meters, Karukaya and Yakaze opened fire. Karukaya turned to Port to avoid a salvo fired at her and quickly found herself focused down by three destroyers. Yakaze, who was behind her, was focused down by the other three destroyers. Karukaya winced when two high explosive shells slammed into her hull; they didn't start a fire but her skin was badly scared where the shells hit. She returned fire and scored three hits on the lead destroyer but it shrugged them off. She aimed her torpedoes for the lead destroyer and launched them, Yakaze launched her torpedoes shortly after Karukaya did. A total of ten torpedoes were running toward the abyssals.
Behind them, Shinonome and Uranami focused down the rearmost destroyer. Their high explosive shells ripped into the abyssal and started fires on its rigging. Black smoke poured out from the holes that scared its hull and it started to slow and list to Port. It redirected its fire from Yakaze to Shinonome while a second destroyer redirected its fire to Uranami. Uranami targeted the destroyer engaging her while Shinonome continued to engage the original target. The abyssal's fire began to wane and a huge explosion tore a piece of its hull away. It rapidly slowed and rolled over on its Portside where it sank.
Ahead of Shinonome Yakaze activated her smoke generator and turned hard to Port. The damage she had sustained was rapidly affecting her combat ability and with fires raging and an increasing list to starboard she is in danger of sinking. Around this time the torpedoes she and Karukaya launched were spotted and the abyssals took evasive action. The sudden and violent maneuver through off their aim as their firing computers had to compensate for the violent maneuver. This bought Yakaze valuable time to increase the distance between herself and the abyssals.
The torpedoes missed but it created a window where the abyssals couldn't fire and Shinonome exploited this. She scored multiple hits on her target before it was able to fire back. Her high explosive shells started two fires and flames started to appear out of its funnel, soon its speed began to drop. She winced as its return fire struck her hull but she had the advantage and it showed. The abyssal's fire began to slow and its accuracy decreased. It aimed for her torpedo tubes but the shells missed and Shinonome finished it off with another three salvos. It fell out of formation and started to sink.
Karukaya winced when one of her guns was destroyed. She wasn't being focused down which was nice but the destroyer she was engaging outgunned her and that was before she lost one of her guns. So, instead of engaging at range, she closed in.
"Karukaya-san! What are you doing!?"
She ignored her shout and continued to close in on the abyssal which stopped firing. It had a savage grin on its face and waited for her to get closer. A blade formed out of its right arm and it swung at her neck. Karukaya ducked under the blade and slammed her fist into its stomach. She followed this up with an uppercut that staggered the abyssal. She jumped away and avoided its attack.
It snarled and its left arm formed into a blade. It rushed her and started to swing wildly. Karukaya continued to back up but with every swing the abyssal drew closer. Then, the abyssal swung both blades at her leaving it open for attack. Karukaya rushed forward and delivered two heavy blows to the abyssal and avoided its next attack. She grabbed one of the blades and snapped it in half; the abyssal snarled and swung at her face. She jumped away but the blade caught her and left a deep cut from her forehead to her lower lip.
It charged her again but could only attack with its right arm. Karukaya avoided the attacks and then blocked one catching the abyssal off guard. Karukaya exploited this and buried the blade in the abyssal's neck. She pulled the blade back and sliced open the abyssal's neck. It fell forward and quickly sank beneath the waves. She tossed the blade aside, activated her smoke generator, and retreated.
"Karukaya-san! What were you thinking!?"
"I was thinking that engaging in close combat was better than fighting a gun duel I wouldn't win!"
"She has a point Shinonome-san and she won didn't she?"
"...Fair point."
BOOM!
"AH!"
"Yura-san!"
An armor-piercing shell slammed into her turret and the explosion that followed disabled her second turret. Despite losing two-thirds of her firepower she continued to engage and launched a spread of four torpedoes at the cruiser.
Karukaya turned to Port and then to Starboard to avoid incoming fire. She reduced and increased her speed to through off their aim and never held a steady course. Some of the shells landed close but none of them hit.
Shinonome launched her torpedoes at the destroyers and her sister launched her torpedoes a few seconds later. A few seconds later Uranami spotted torpedo tracks, "Torpedoes!" Uranami turned toward the torpedoes and watched them swim past her. Her sister had a much closer view of one as it missed her by mere centimeters. Around this time the abyssal cruiser turned hard to avoid the torpedoes fired by Yura. One torpedo hit and a huge column of water erupted upward. It started to list but halted this before it posed a serious threat.
Unknown to both sides four Zeros were inbound. Zuikaku-san had gotten worried when Yura-san missed her scheduled contact. When communications with the soldiers on the ground became spotty Kirishima-san told her she had seen something like this at Okinawa. The abyssals jammed their communications and launched a probing attack before retreating. With this new information, she ordered four Zeros to head to the squadron's last known position.
When they arrived the squadron wasn't there so they followed their last known heading. Eventually, they spotted flashes on the surface and then spotted the squadron engaging an abyssal force. They attempted to contact Zuikaku but static blared through their radios. With no chance for support anytime soon the Zeros entered a dive and strafed the destroyers. The destroyers didn't have much in the way of AA defense but the cruiser posed a much larger threat. Close range AA guns filled the sky with tracers and scored hits on two Zeros. One was set on fire and crashed into the ocean while the second leaked fuel and water. Despite the threat the cruiser posed and the lack of bombs or rockets the Zeros continued to attack.
The abyssals turned away and started laying a smokescreen. When the smoke cleared they were gone.
"Why did they retreat?"
"If I had to guess, they were worried about an air attack." Shinonome looked up at the Zeros now circling them.
"Let's get back to the fleet. We need to report this to Zuikaku-san."
"What about the abyssal jamming our communications?"
"Zuikaku-san has that handled." She looked up and saw a squadron D3A1s flying overhead. "They'll deal with the abyssal jamming communications. Come on, let's get back to the fleet."