Disclaimer: Indy Best Girl
So I had a little extra time this week, so you all get an extra *long chapter!
I'm still too lazy to do any extra week tho, sorry!
Reviews:
The One: Portland is always certified cultured lady. The best Siscon and Indycultist in Azur Lane! (Might also be the only one, but shhh)
Severak: Portland logic is less logic and more "creativity"
John: I am so sorry for dragging out Guadalcanal this long, lmao. At least it's going to start within a few chapters, I think. No promises though!
Hornet's POV:
"Hornet, send out your patrols." Northampton reminded me.
"It's 5!" I groaned. "Even if there are Sakura ships out there, we wouldn't be able to find any!"
"It never hurts to double check." Northampton responded. "On the mere chance that we find a Sakura Task Force, we would be given the first strike, and we know how powerful a first strike was at Midway."
"But it's 5!" I pointed out. "San Diego isn't even awake yet, and you know how hyper San Diego normally is!"
"I'm awake." San Diego muttered.
"What time is it?" I asked.
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"I'm awake." San Diego repeated.
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"You see?" I whined. "I really doubt that the Sakura would be out here in the middle of the night just ready to spring a fight."
"It's far from midnight, but think of it this way." Northampton offered. "If we find them first, we can launch a first strike. If our first strike in any way resembles Midway, then we can shorten the length of the war by a few more months. Then, we can all relax at base and you won't have to wake up at 3 anymore! Sounds good?"
"I would rather fight a war that is less grueling but longer, rather than this nonsense." I countered.
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"As the lead representative of the Officer Corps, and your current superior, I order you to launch your scout planes." Northampton gave up on convincing me. "Or prepare to be court marshalled."
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I glared at her before reluctantly launching my aircraft. "You're going to look so stupid when we find nothing."
"Thank you." Northampton turned away.
Please don't find anything, Please don't find anything, Please don't find anything…
I closed my eyes and prayed.
A loud alarm clock beeping noise alerted me to enemy contact. I sighed and looked at the report. 3 carriers and a whole squadron of surface vessels.
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Yup, the Sakura fleet was here.
I'm never going to hear the end of this. I should have kept the radar on snooze. I heard Northampton barely cover her snickering as coughs as she approached me.
"So... who looks stupid now?" Northampton patted my head.
"Make an attack on the smaller one if possible." I refused to acknowledge the smug cruiser. "I'll send a strike force."
"So what do we do?" San Diego asked, stars glittering in her eyes.
"Just set up your AA guns." I shrugged. "We're not going to actually engage in a fight."
"Come on, stop joking." San Diego nudged me with her elbow.
"What part of this is a joke?" Northampton asked.
"Saratoga told me that we are the celebrities of the Ocean." San Diego took her right hand and slowly dragged it across the sky. "The Eagle Union, monarch of the waves."
Oh poor girl, spoonfed Saratoga's propaganda. I can't say it hasn't helped though.
"I thought Monarch was being built in the Royal Navy?" Juneau interrupted nervously
"Don't question Sandy." Pensacola answered. "We'll have to listen to her longer." (1)
"But think about it." San Diego drew her fist to the sky. "We can't have my autobiography filled with boring routines such as patrolling."
"Instead, we have it filled with convoy escorting in South america." Northampton offered.
"You don't have to be mean about it." San Diego huffed. "My life is supposed to be more than this dull nonsense."
"This dull nonsense is quite important." Northampton reminded her. "By controlling Guadalcanal, we would force the Sakura Empire away from threatening the vital supply lines connecting us to the Outback Confederacy. If we give this ground, our invasion foothold is gone."
"But it's borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring." San Diego whined. "Why can't we have any surface battles? San Francisco gotta fight at Cape Esperance, and I don't want to be left behind my peers." (2)
"It's okay." I desperately tried to keep my composure as I slowly began to dab. "No matter what, You will always be my sidekick."
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San Diego turned red, then pink, then I think green? I didn't know a face could ever turn that color. "I'll make sure to give you an inferiority complex to your sister when my autobiography is published." She sneered.
"And I'll make sure that will never happen, sidekick." I took my hand and scrubbed it against her head.
"And just like that, you're ugly!' San Diego whipped her hair away and snapped aggressively.
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"Is she trying to assert dominance?" Juneau asked.
"She's failing to intimidate her." Pensacola commented. "What a futile attempt."
"Shut up!" San Diego pointed.
"There they are." I licked my lips as I lowered my binoculars. In view was a palate of Sakura ships, hues of warm feathers all revolving around the red coated fowl. The peacock of ships strode across the waves, its springy nature churning the tides of the sea. "The Sakura Fleet at the western horizon."
"It doesn't seem like they are aware of our presence." Northampton noted. "We have the honors, launch a strike and retreat."
"Let's beat them up instead." San Diego motioned. "Hand to hand combat is my speciality."
"You have never fought before." Northampton noted. (3)
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"We can't beat them in a surface fight just yet." I opted for Northampton's tatic, opening my landing deck against the wind. "They have two battleships, we have none. I will launch a quick aerial strike, then we shall disengage."
"Fine." San Diego crossed her arms, before doing a rather distasteful yet uncanny impression of Northampton. "Let's do it your way." Sometimes, I forget that she still has the vocal capabilities of an Idol.
"Oi." The cruiser in question turned towards her. "What did you just call me?"
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"Nothing." San Diego wisely shut her mouth.
"That's what I thought." Northampton nodded her head as my dive bombers took flight, arranging themselves in a square like fashion.
A second ring from my radio blared upon the tranquil ocean waves.
"More targets?" Northampton asked.
"No it's a call from … Enterprise…" I bit my lip as the lack of any memories of the precampagin mission made themselves clearly apparent.
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Now, in my defense, it was 4.
Enterprise is not going to like this...
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I drew my hand away from my body and grimaced as I received the message.
"HORNET!" Enterprise shouted. "What happened? Are you okay? We just found a Sakura Advanced vanguard, there might be a carrier task force nearby."
"Yeah, about that." I laughed slightly. "We kinda already found them."
"What?" Enterprise did not sound amused in the slightest. "Why didn't you report this?"
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I looked to my taskforce for help. Northampton shrugged.
San Diego formed her right hand in the shape of an L and placed it on her forehead. I stuck my tongue out back.
"We were going to just report it." I lied. "I'll send you the coordinates."
"Have they found you yet?" Enterprise asked.
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I shook my head no.
"She can't see you, stooopid." San Diego snickered. (4)
"No." I responded, tugging on the dumb cruiser's hair.
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"Did you call me 'stooopid'?" Enterprise voice slightly trembled.
"Absolutely not." I replied, letting go of the little punk.
"Okay." Enterprise reshifted the attention to the battle. "Let's meet up, and then we can both launch a coordinated surprise attack."
I glanced to the sky, as my dive bombers shredded through the curtain of the clouds, flinging their ornaments with the screeches of 750 Kilowatt engines.
"You already launched an attack, didn't you." Enterprise plainly read me.
"Uhhhhh." I lowered my head.
"Alright, it doesn't matter." Enterprise sighed audibly. "Disengage for now and make sure you don't get spotted okay?"
A volley of shells detonated uncomfortably close to San Diego, drenching her (well deserved, in my opinion) in water.
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"Run away." Enterprise caught on. "I am currently hurrying to your position, advanced fighters will arrive soon."
"Got it." I turned off the radio and quickly hopped from one spot as geysers of water erupted from my feet, seconds after the blinding flashes of 15 inch barrels.
A pause in the war anthem of the Sakura Orchestra gave way to the piercing melody of a soft flute, accompanied by the Mezzo Forte buzz of Aircraft engines echoing the quivering ringing of 800 kilograms bullets. The beat of the battle crescendoed with the reverberations and unsteady pitches off the ocean reefs, a scattered performance from the vanguard fleet.
"We don't have enough air cover for this!" Northampton shouted over the traumatizing carol of murderous flying reindeers.
"San Diego, you're supposed to do something here!" I grunted as another metallic package scraped the side of my deck before sinking into the ocean.
"I can't do everything!" San Diego complained. "There's too much of them!"
In between the Sakura waves forged with pure vehemence and crude oil, I briefly glanced at the three unfazed factories continuously flooding out new ammunition into the blue sky choked with grey smoke, white planes, and the Rising Sun. I glanced at my empty deck, coated with aviation fuel and skid marks. Beneath were several half-full squadrons helplessly trapped between a broken catapult and the rampage of the Sakura Empire. (5)
"I'm going to fight them." I shook my head, bankrupt of ideas. "You guys make a break for Enterprise."
"But that's suicide!" Northampton exclaimed as the surrounding lethal thunderstorm of nitroglycerin cackled.
"We're all going to die anyways." I turned around to give a brief futile spray of Anti-aircraft fire. "And there's no way to outrun aircraft."
"Enterprise's aircraft will be coming soon." Pensacola repeated.
"Enterprise's aircraft is not going to help with this." I covered my head as my deck took another slam from a Sakura bomb. "You go on ahead, I'll stall them here."
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"Are you absolutely sure?" Northampton confirmed.
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Am I?
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Yes.
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"Well, it was nice while it happened." My shoulders relaxed as I accepted my fate, steering back to face the Sakura Empire.
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"God speed." Northampton saluted as the taskforce scampered away.
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"Hey San Diego!" I shouted as they began to fade away in the fumes. "In your autobiography, you better make me the coolest carrier ever!"
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With my final wish aside, I turned to face the storm of the First carrier division.
"You're braver than most." The white crane approached me, sword drawn. "Or perhaps more foolish."
"Well I certainly can't deny that." I chuckled, secretly lining up my planes on the flight deck. "What are your terms of surrender?"
"Don't play us as fools." The red crane shook her head. "We all know this cliche backstabbing move."
"Let us entertain her with a trial at least." The white crane motioned.
"Why thank you." I deviously stepped forwards. Just a few more closer, and my job will be done. "It's often rare to see this much civility in war."
"Very well." The red crane coughed into her fist. "You are convicted for your crimes against humanity during the Doolittle raid, as well feigning surrender."
I quickly jumped back as a sword sprang out towards the after-mirage of my hull.
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"Thus, you will be sentenced to a speedy execution." The red crane pulled back.
The white crane jumped at me first with a burnt zeal, flames rolling from her deck. I hopped cautiously from her hasty complement of aircraft strikes and kicks, an eerie resemblance to the fluttering of deciduous leaves in autumn. Her strikes were as elegant as it was unrefined; I began to decipher her attack pattern, spread across uneven lines. With the Crane's eyes glowing red, a growl of frustration then a single reckless thrust was all I needed to launch my counter attack.
I took the blunt top of my flight deck and swung against the unprotected side of her hull. Turning the momentum of her religious fervor, the white crane stumbled sideways, a critical mistake. With this window of opportunity, I slung my dive bombers point blank into the wooden top of her hull. Immediately, the roof began to crumple from the pressure. Undeterred, the nimble crane shot to her feat, launching a bomb that grazed my cheek and ended my attack. Immediately, she restarted her relentless assault. Adamant in her strategy, the white crane opened her wings of iron projectiles, the scattered blooming of the flowers of vengeance.
I held up my deck to block, deforming the league of torpedo bombers into burning comets sinking to the ocean. Yet the sacrifices of her aircraft blossomed in the wake of my belt, buckling under heat and sweat. Steadfast in her advantageous position, and whittling down the integrity of my hull, I reached into my pocket and resorted to the final gag Saratoga played on me so long ago.
The preemptive detonation of my bomb in the sky covered our bodies in powered ash. The tempo of the field had changed, and I made a mad break towards the frozen crane. Savoring the fragrant odor of smoke and petrol, the blur of the battlefield shielded the duel from intervention. The Crane's numerical advantage was gone, and so was her victory. The season of autumn had changed to a ghastly winter, suffocating the delicate Sakura petals in cinders devoid of light. Seizing my fortune, I took my final swing downwards upon the white crane.
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"Fool." She laughed as the sparkling glare of a sharpened blade shot from behind her.
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It was too late.
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My deck is too slow to block; My fighters are too far away.
I stared as the blade parted the grey mist, and into the eyes of the red crane.
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I was far too aggressive, and I let them take advantage of my final gamble.
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A sudden whirlwind of wildcats snapped the blade in two. A followup squadron of Dauntlesses pursued closely, carpet bombing rows of explosives wildly into the ocean, caging the twin Cranes into invisible lines of fumes.
Enterprise!
"Your fleet has escaped." Grim cawed, "Get out of here."
I launched a second screen of soot over my head and scrambled away from the field.
Footnotes:
(1): For Reference, San Diego would not shut up until Northampton duct taped her for an hour. No ships in the Task Force objected.
(2): Kinda skipped over this battle because It's not really that significant, but basically, a very confused San Francisco accidently lead Helena and Co. to sink Furutaka and Fubuki.
(3): This is actually True! San Diego was a new rookie, even missing out on Eastern Solomons.
(4): *San Diego was later eaten by a 9000 year old shark
(5): Hornet did not have a broken catapult. However, there were several very large objects that penetrated into 2 holes inside her deck.
(Lewd)
Wait, will Hornet actually survive Santa Cruz?
Being one of the Authors Waifus certainly does help.
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(Spoiler alert: No)
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Or maybe?
Anyways, see you next week!