Kanmusu Naval Base, Tokyo.
Matsumoto Keiko POV
The new caller joined our conference call shortly after Houshou switched lines. I was thankful I hadn't gotten far into Chitose's latest report, the mouthful of bourbon I'd sprayed out of my mouth had only been the second, I didn't want to be sober for this, but I wasn't about to flub the first real contact with Abyssal forces because I was fucking Tipsy. I finished wiping down my phone's speaker just as a new voice pitched into our conversation."Hello? Hello?... Ms. Houshou?" The voice sounded Abyssal enough, there was no real mistaking that echoing quality all of their voices shared, though this one sounded remarkably... chipper.
"Hakone? Is that you? You sound different on the phone." Chitose picked up my momentary verbal slack, "I thought you would be back to the open ocean by now. Did you find a phone looking around one of the towns on the way out?" That would place them around the south coast of Vietnam, near the Delta, if Chitose's location was their previous destination, a UAV would be next to worthless among all the background static from the Battleship-Himes forces, I'd have to check to see if any submarines or a low flying jet mission could be spared in the area to get a visual on their exact-.
"Yeah! Georgia and Countess are here too! We are in a small town called Doan Ket, just West of a City called Can Tho! We've taken shelter in a gas station there." The Abyssal said, giving away almost their exact position. While I let out a loud noise of confusion by the Abyssals just straight out TELLING ME where they were, Chitose gasped, before responding.
"Taken shelter?! are you girls in trouble or something?" I could 'hear' her shaking her head. "Never mind that, put Georgia on the phone Hakone!"
"But what about your Admira-" It was definitely time I threw my hat in the ring, I was fairly certain of what they thought the problem was.
"I speak English just fine, don't worry about me." I somewhat rudely interrupted. "My name is Admiral Matsumoto Keiko, of the JMSDF, Kanmusu Division. May I have the pleasure of knowing who I am addressing?" I already knew, of course, but it never hurt to ask, especially in this case. The phone crackled a bit on their end, shuffling could be heard before a voice in English spoke up:
"Hello? Yeah, this is the USS Georgia! Nice to meet you!" The new voice sounded... young, very young! "I'd give the big Naval Commander a salute but my left arm is kinda holding on through spit and prayer right now, so better not to risk it, also this is a phone conversation, you wouldn't see it." There was a pause as I digested that information, before the Abyssal continued. "Should I use Ohio as my last name? But that would make Ohio 'Ohio Ohio' Wouldn't it? Anyway! yeah we are in a bit of trouble here and I'm rambling, would you be able to do me a solid?" I ignored Chitose's demand for an explanation about Georgia's arm as I replied.
"That would really depend on the favor, tell me, what would make you think I, a Commanding officer among the Kanmusu forces, would help you? an enemy I have spent the past eight years fighting?" My words didn't match my genuinely curious tone, just WHAT was this Abyssals angle here?
"OK, first off, I was born literally like... Less than three WEEKS ago, I doubt I was at war with much before that." The Abyssal continued, "Secondly, me and my... Forces? Are trapped between the Vietnamese and New Jersey's fleet, as it stands we'll have to punch through one side or the other right now, and I'd rather side with the people who DIDINT blow up my house!" Chitose gasped at that, I finally let her get a few words in.
"They attacked you? The house is gone? Georgia... Was it because of me?"
"Oh Chitose," I thought, "don't start blaming yoursel-"
"Totally, yeah, some Cruiser Bint-Hime mentioned you were spotted leaving our boat when they came to 'talk' to us, then she shot my arm off and exploded all over me," Georgia answered mercilessly. "Luckily Hakone put the beat-down on a Tsu fast enough that she was able to get my sorry butt out of there before her ammo stores went up. AH! Rambling again! Look, long story short, Me and mine are willing to fight for you, at least until New Jersey is a smoking pile of scrap, I have a Heavy Cruiser, a Light Battlecruiser, and yours truly, a nuclear submarine." I leaned back in thought, this was far, FAR outside of my jurisdiction, and I said as much.
"I am only responsible for Japanese Kanmusu forces, and only one fleet out of a dozen at that. The only reason we are even speaking is because I was in the middle of a call with Chitose when you phoned in at my secretaries desk. If I were to... Hire you? It would be a severe breach of my current mandate, and could cost us an international incident." 'As well as my job' I didn't say. "The fact that you even EXIST has only just been confirmed, by me, in this very phone call. Not that I didn't believe you, Chitose." I quickly reassured the woman. "But two late-night long-distance calls from Vietnam are not things I can bring to the Prime Minister as proof we are dealing with a post-cold-war submarine Abyssal.
"I'm sensing a 'but' here..." And she was right, this may be outside my reach as a Naval officer of Japan, but I wouldn't be caught dead being remembered as 'That idiot officer that turned away the Ohio' while Cruise Missiles saturated Japan. I thought hard for several seconds, my eyes flitting across the office for inspiration, before settling on one of the trashy pirate romance novels Kongou had given me, Fabio's handsome face taking up the cover. Hmmm, that's IT!
"I, personally, am unable to do much until and unless both governments allowed it, and that will take time you no doubt do not have. But I CAN give Chitose the operational freedom she needs to act in her full capacity as an "Advisor" To the Vietnamese Kanmusu forces, such as they are. I signed the papers faxed from Xulen last night, they were... Eager, to ensure you stayed. According to International law, if you were to deem it fit to hire Mercenaries to achieve your mission in Vietnam, I would have to punish you afterward, severely. However, the Declaration of Paris, forbidding the use of letters of marque and the use of privateers, was never signed by the Japanese government, nor Vietnam's, and so I would have no way to legally punish you outside of a slap on the wrist. The paperwork will be faxed off to Xulen for Chitose to 'Independently make up' for your Fleet. something tells me we are hardly going to receive lettered accusations of piracy regarding Georgia from the Battleship-Hime.
I heard whoops and laughter on Georgia's end. "We're gonna be a Privateers?! that's AWESOME! I already got the eyepatch and everything!"
"What's wrong with your eye?! Georgia!" Chitose tried to get her attention as I closed the trap.
"As soon as you get to Xulen, you have to sign and complete the application, then I'll use a favor the Prime-Minister owes one of my girls to get stamped approval and a signed letter, I'll send you all a copy while holding onto one myself, deal? you'll have rights to any salvage from enemy Abyssal ships sunk." Like there would be anything useable to take off of burning ghost-wrecks, ha!
"You got it! I'll try and get over to where Chitose can pick us up as fast as we can! Speaking of, Chitose, you-"
I didn't hear the rest as I fist-pumped uncharacteristically, I knew what the application would entail. A shipowner would have to state the name, description, tonnage, and exact armaments of the vessels, the name and residence of the owner, and the number of crew, and promise strict observance of the country's laws and treaties and of international laws and customs. If she agreed I'd just have to look at her application to see exactly what the submarine was armed with, along with the rest of the ships with her! I'd get a legal, binding paper to wave in peoples faces, and a potential threat to Japan would be re-directed into its enemies! Now to get the Vietnamese to agree...
"-ou really think they would buy that?" Georgia said skeptically, I had apparently missed some of the conversation.
"I'm technically higher-ranked than anyone else here, and the local military is pretty desperate... I'm sure I'd be able to make it work!" Chitose said assuringly. Ah, they must be coming up with a way to meet, that took care of that problem.
"Alright, I'll go and make up the applications, I assume you and Chitose would like to continue the conversation?" I had some ancient documents to track down and print out! The entire conversation was set to record anyway, I'd select some... 'Choice' parts to present to the Prime-Minister as proof of Georgia's existence and work from there. It was a good thing he still owed my fleet for that fiasco off the coast of Korea.
"Yeah sure! do we have to do anything on our end, or...?"
"No no, I'll just leave the conference call, you'll still be connected." And with that I hung up, falling back into my chair like a deflated balloon. "PHSseeeew... I was just talking to an Abyssal." I said to myself. screwing the cap back onto the bottle of Bourbon as I put it away, I got my reading glasses on as I turned to boot up my desk computer. She seemed nice enough, bit hyper sounding though, like an Abyssal Shimakaze...
I shook away THAT disturbing mental image.
Letters of Marque? with Abyssal ships? My Admiral, is that... Legal?
"I will make it Legal."
