Kanmusu Naval Base, Tokyo.

Keiko sighed, running a hand through her greying locks. Heh, it had been pure black before, back when she'd first signed on to the program. A brand new unit, composed entirely of Kanmusu and supporting staff, she'd been a newly minted Rear Admiral at the time, slotted in more due to no one else wanting to risk their careers in a new military division than anything. Oh, how eager she'd been. She still loved her job, and more so the girls that served under her, most of the destroyers these days treated her as a highly fragile version of Houshou, the mother of all Carriers. The fact that the woman and her shared what were essentially ship-girl parenting techniques didn't help the image much, to be sure.

But in the end, she took care of her girls, hated seeing them broken from battle or crying, whenever there had been casualties she'd been there, a shoulder to cry on while the Navy prepared the resources for a re-summoning ritual. Sometimes it worked, more often, it didn't until months, sometimes years later. It had been the case with Tenryuu, years before, when the poor Light Cruiser had been sunk by an emergent supply depot princess off the coast of Manila in the Philipines.

She knocked on the door again, calling softly. "Chiyoda, I can't help you if you don't let me in, please..." no response, again. She'd been like this for the past week, only opening her door for subdued archery training with Kaga (Who was absolutely no help in this situation) or to get her food. The Akatsuki sisters had been comparatively easy, they'd bawled their eyes out, slept in her room overnight in a big cuddle-pile on her bed while she did some overdue paperwork in her kitchenette, and that had been that. But at least they'd SEEN Tenryuu sink, not like this, this uncertainty with Chitose. "Chiyoda, you know I don't like being stern, but if you don't open this door right now there will be consequences." Still nothing, that did it, She'd have to go for the nuclear option. "Chitose would be disappointed to see you holed up like this, let me in Chiyoda, she wouldn't want to see you suffering alone." There was shuffling inside.

The door opened revealing the seaplane tender, sleeping yukata hastily slapped on and her hair a birds-nest of brown locks, It was noon. Her puffy eyes had dried tracts of tears down her face, Keiko immediately and silently pulled the girl into her arms in a hug (the fact she even could, given the qualities of Kanmusu, said she wanted the embrace as well) they stood there for a minute, Chiyoda's face buried in the crook of Keiko's neck at the threshold to her room. "Shhh, Shhh... it's ok" Keiko said softly, swaying softly back and forth as the Ship-girl sniffled. "how about I come in? don't want the Akatsuki's, or god forbid, Kongou, to swarm us out here, do we?" Chiyoda nodded, and let the older-looking human Admiral in, Chiyoda sat on her bed, hands wringing silently as Keiko took the desk-chair by the window. "We've got good news, and bad news, which do you want first?" Chiyoda looked up.

"Bad" Alright then.

"Chitose's summoning failed, the correct materials were used, incantations went without a hitch, even had one of her spare shirts in the offering pile, nothing, not even a whisper." Chiyoda made a high-pitched whining noise, seeming to shrink in on herself. Time for the good news. "The failure, however, wasn't because she couldn't come back" Chiyoda looked up. "The Miko in charge told me she was not summoned because there isn't anything to summon, she's alive out there Chiyoda." Chiyoda's look turned to one of shock, as she hastily jumped to her feet.

"She's alive!? but I thought... that explosion should have killed her! how?..." Chiyoda put her face in her hands. "She was in trouble, stricken, and I abandoned her?"

"No, you acted under orders from a superior to save a mans life, Ensign Bohai Chen would be dead if you hadn't taken him with you, and you had no way to know Chitose would have survived the torpedoes that struck her. Don't you dare blame yourself, USS Cowell and Harrison both stated in the after-action report that they both believed Chitose to be sunk, and Ying Rui concurred before steaming back to China. Keiko strengthened off her chair, saluting Chiyoda, a salute the girl hesitantly returned. "I promise you, I'll do everything my position offers me as an Admiral of the JMSDF to get her back, just you wait." Keiko grinned slightly. "You'll be falling asleep in her lap again in no-time" Chiyoda's stammering denials followed her as Keiko left the room, grin falling off her face as she walked down the hall of the shared Kanmusu dormitories, they would get Chitose back. Whether alive or through a re-summon in the future, however...

She was suddenly stopped, just outside of her office, when a blond blur came around the corner, tipping a trashcan over as Shimikaze, the experimental destroyer, skidded to a stop before her. Keiko didn't bother to try to get out of the way, that actually increased the chance of collision when it came to the girl, and having over two-thousand tonnes of destroyer smack into you was not something anyone needed in their life. The girl gave a quick salute as she handed Keiko a manilla folder, practically vibrating in-place as she waited for orders.

"This is a recon report?" The girl nodded, bouncing in place as her serafuku's skirt ( something she'd had to practically FORCE the young girl into to replace her original clothing) bobbed up and down. Keiko gave her head a ruffle as she opened the folder, dismissing the speedster as she opened up her door and continued on to her desk. Tossing the papers down, she reached for her reading glasses, great horn-rimmed monstrosities with accompanying chain to keep them on her face, intended as a mild joke-gift/prank from Akebono making fun of her age, she'd actually taken to wearing the glasses for reading reports, and had gotten more than one giggle from Kongou when she'd turned up for their Friday tea with them still on, making her look like 'A strict librarian' according to her.

She flipped through the report, pictures taken from a high-flying drone launched from Malaysia, she was receiving any major Abyssal activity reports in the South China Sea these days, ever since Chitose had gone missing she'd put out feelers in the general area amongst her peers, she had a lot of influence to grease the bureaucratic and military train these days, having one of the largest single force's of Kanmusu in the Asian theatre gave her certain leeway. In any case the report was actually good news for a change, a good change of pace in around the coast of Vietnam, the Spratly Islands to be exact.

Apparently, one of the stronger Abyssal bases in the sector had been cleared up, the static common to observation of Abyssals having cleared as of 23:00 hours yesterday, closer observational photographs upon the interference clearing up showed a massacre, a major fleet dead in the water, black smoke from what could only be oil fires trailing in places. Keiko's experienced eye could tell from a glance what the Class of most of the corpses seen were. and the sheer number was a welcome surprise, though when she turned the page, her optimism dimmed somewhat. This attack hadn't been authorized by any government, meaning whoever it had been, it was either a submarine who hadn't reported in yet, or someone had gone AWOL behind everyone's backs. Then she read the bottom paragraph and scrunched her brow in confusion.

Apparently, the attacks on the Abyssals matched impacts made by 109 Tomahawks, specifically matching the unitary warhead pattern of the BGM-109C... no conventional force could have done it. Not even regarding the fact that that many missiles launched could bankrupt a small country, the guidance systems were too modern, they should have missed most of the Abyssals entirely! though the photographs didn't lie; destroyers blown almost in half from strikes dead center in their backs, a Ne-class missing its head and most of its upper torso...

This was the work of a ship-girl, it had to be. As impossible as it sounded, a Kanmusu modern enough to equip cruise missiles had shown up! Who could it be? A Virginia Cruiser? One of the older versions of the Iowa class? Wait no they were all already accounted for, for better or worse. Maybe a Spruance? the Americans would be tickled pink at any of the possibilities, to be honest. Keiko Eagerly flipped to the last page, and her smile froze on her face, before shattering completely.

"Minor Abyssal interference presence detected on a collision course with base in timeline approximate to base's destruction, local interference ceased shortly before presence departed. Indications conclude base destruction case of internal strife between hitherto unknown factions of Abyssal. Minor presence last seen heading due North, on course to Ho Chi Minh City, currently under occupation by Abyssal forces. Contact lost among background interference from the Vietnam theatre anomaly. End of report"

There was an Abyssal out there who had armaments from at least the mid 1980's, one that had managed to wipe out an entire base of its own kind, before heading out towards Vietnam, one of the fiercest conflicts in the South Asian theatre, and disappearing. Keiko took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes tiredly, taking a word out of Kongou's repertoire.

"Buggery"

...
Bit of a break from the Georgian trio. takes place a day or so after the previous chapter. modern equipment cant track abyssal, but satellite and UAV imaging can see where they ARENT, most major Abyssal forces are known simply because of the wide area's that simply can't be observed, this isn't foolproof, however, as the area is large enough you'd still have several kilometers to search for one. and major activity has more interference, the Vietnam theatre has so many Abyssals the static goes almost as far as the Malaysian sea border claims.