Ho Chi Minh Province, Ruins of Ho Chi Minh City/S̶̗̉ä̴̺́i̶̳̽g̸̟͌o̴̱̐n̸͇͑, Vietnam.

Spoiler: Caleuche Theme: watch?v=UsFSiA_cS2E&feature=emb_title

"So it worked, then" New Jersey Stated more than asked, as she turned to once again to find that Caleuche had entered her office, somehow. The Ta-guards she always had on hand didn't startle nearly as much as the first few times, and Jersey had long since stopped beating them for allowing someone unauthorized access to her private sanctum. Caleuche couldn't be barred from anywhere she wished to go, and punishing her subordinates for failing to stop someone like her was too much, even for her.

"Even for me?" Whispered her Rigging.

"Shų̴̹͌t. up." Caleuche Ignored Jerseys words even as the pair of Ta guards near her desk winced.

"It went splendidly, other than a minor hiccup when one of your... Soldiers, fell into the array, the summoning was a success. You now have roughly nine thousand... Men, at your disposal, along with those fancy contraptions the humans ride in these days, Hell-copters and those quaint horseless caterpillar buggies, I believe. New Jersey snorted at Caleuche's casual disregard for human advancement, before she latched on to the first part.

"One of the Battleship escorts sank? what was left? anything salvageable?" New Jersey didn't truly care, New Constructs were always replaceable so long as she kept Mae Crizzette's greedy human-loving grease-hole stuffed with raw materials.

"Nothing but her legs up to the mid-shins, I'm afraid, her companion seemed quite upset, I've been extra careful with the poor dear, the fact she didn't join the other in death shows a certain strength of..." At this Caleuche grinned slightly. "...spirit."

"And what is this force you summoned doing? Where are they? Having soldiers is worthless if they cannot be commanded." New Jersey said, already putting the loss of the battleship behind her.

"They are awaiting orders in the remains of Dak To, in the Kon Tum Province, I believe." Caleuche continued. "As for contact, they possess long-distance talk-boxes similar to your own, why not give them a ring?"

"How the hell would I know their frequencies?"

"By remembering what they were before, it's not like they have changed theirs." Caleuche's grin widened as New Jersey's eyes widened slightly.

"You didn't."

"I did"

"She did, I feel it."

Jersey swung an arm to the side in a backhand suddenly, catching one of her guards in the hip, sending her twirling to the ground with a grunt. "I said S̵͙̲̩͈̐H̶̓͌ͅU̷̡̐T̴͖͌. ̷̯̩͚̯̃́̇U̸̮̱͗̅P̶͙͈̝̎̃̍̔!" Jersey screamed at the downed woman's face as The other Ta-class edged around the desk carefully, keeping Jersey in-sight as she helped her comrade stand.

"Such anger..."

"You wanted an army, I gave you one. You never mentioned who it would include, you should be happy! Maybe you'll see someone you know, and you can catch up?" Caleuche didn't dodge the chair that went sailing through her, mist trailing after the furniture as it left her body. "When are you going to stop trying that?" She said sardonically.

"Once it works and I can finally rip your masts off," Jersey replied. Caleuche gave out a giggle as she turned to the door.

"I will return to the force I have called, don't worry, I'll be sure to put them through their paces to see if they can live up to your, expectations. I expect them to a clear a path to Huế for the Main Event, in the meantime, it appears another messenger has arrived, do try not to eat this one, will you?" And then she was gone, between one instant and the next. Leaving nothing but a mark of soot and the smell of sulfur.

"I hunger."

"Be silent or I swear I WILL-" There was a knock on the door, cutting off New Jersey's fit of violence before it could start. She shook herself, seemingly coming to her senses before standing behind her newly chairless desk. She took several deep breaths "Come in." The door opened to reveal a Destroyer-Hime, a rather short American girl wearing a scaled-down I-class hull as a 'helmet', Turner was a Gleaves-class, noticeable from her twin smokestacks. The girl was absolutely dwarfed by Jersey. "Ah, Turner, have the rest of your pack arrived?" The battleship-Hime said.

Turner nodded, before speaking in a small, dead voice. "Kitty-Hawk brought everyone, she wanted me to let you know." More like the Carrier didn't want to deal with Jersey and her volatile temper, and had sent the quiet, inoffensive destroyer in her place. New Jersey nodded, beginning to turn towards the window before Turner continued. "Kitty-Hawk's recon planes spotted a battle to the west, had a closer look with her planes, found a large pack of mixed destroyers with no higher class present, Galveston's sunk." New Jersey froze.

"What?" Jersey's voice didn't sound angry, or even irritated. Her tone sounded like a death sentence, Turner didn't appear to care, placing her hands behind her back as she stood, staring directly at Jersey with her dead eyes.

"Kitty-Hawk's recon planes spot-"

"I H̵̱̜̟͖̫̊̿̿EARD YO̶̝͚͐U THE FIRST T̷̗̩̹̣̍̎̾ͅIME!" Jersey practically roared, before looking down, deep in thought.

"feed?" whispered her Rigging.

"Fuck off, I'm trying to think," Jersey muttered. Turner took that as her cue to leave, closing the door behind her with a quiet 'click'.

"Those damn Cong'kissers, they must have beaten Galveston, but how? they only had three ships..." The point was moot, she was down six cruisers, and while that wasn't particularly noteworthy, one of them had been Galveston, a Hime, they'd been in the Korean war together, and though the Cruiser hadn't maintained as much of her memory as New Jersey would have liked, she had been a friend, once. More than that, anyone able to take her out would be a threat she couldn't ignore.

Spoiler: Jersey Theme: watch?v=G-qAL3eiYIo&feature=emb_title

New Jersey walked over to the right wall, where a large map of the Country had been posted, she opened up a radio broadcast on all local frequencies. "This is New Jersey, all forces in Saigon are to assemble in the main courtyard for a mass-briefing, over." She ignored the avalanche of acknowledgments as she traced her finger up the Song Be River to Can Tho. "I'll find you, you fuckers, I'll find you."

She continued her trace North, coming to a stop at Long Xuyen, a City she hadn't bothered with until now due to the fact it was largely abandoned. That and the fact it was quite far inland, far enough that bombardment would be too inaccurate without moving up the river, a prime spot for losing ships to ambush.

She'd been conducting her campaign with thoroughness in mind, sacrificing military expansion for sheer body count and environmental devastation. They could afford to, the rice-hats couldn't throw anything at her worth shutting them down hard over, that had changed.

So would she.

Outside Hôtel de Ville de Saïgon, Ruins of Ho Chi Minh City/S̶̗̉ä̴̺́i̶̳̽g̸̟͌o̴̱̐n̸͇͑, Vietnam.

It had been almost half an hour since the Battleship-Himes broadcast, with no traffic and only a few spots where rubble made movement difficult on foot, most of the Abyssal forces in Saigon had assembled outside of the City Hall, there was muted mutterings and conversations as everyone speculated on the assemblage's purpose. There were a grand assortment of Ri and Tsu-class, sprinkled with one or two Ne-class heavies, as well as the Trio of Wo-class Fleet-Carriers from the harbor, clustered around the visiting Hime Kitty-hawk, talking shop about their planes and tactics with the legendary name-ship Carrier from the old times. Turner was aside and behind her, standing guard alongside another Destroyer Princess, the USS Maddox, as ever loyal escort-craft.

There were over a dozen Ru-class standard battleships present, even a single Re-class Aviation battleship. They had been the bulk of New Jersey's early purchases from the Supply Depot Princess, and had contributed largely to the surface bombardments that had taken Saigon. Many of the ships were scarred, patch-jobs and old wounds visible from the un-painted shiny metal replacing the old, it had become a tradition in the fleet to avoid repainting the repaired armor plating, proudly displaying their survived wounds to the world.

The noise abruptly died down as New Jersey walked out onto the balcony of the second floor, her Ta-class guards fanning out behind her. Jersey looked over her forces, snarl barely staying from her lips.

"Sisters! New Construct, and Risen! Galveston is dead! Sunk along with five of our cruiser sisters, sunk by Traitors to all Abyssal-kind!" There was an Outcry at that, while the Cruiser Princess hadn't been that important or powerful in the hierarchy of the fleet, she had remained well-liked by most of the New Constructs.

"The treasonous dogs have likely fled to their human masters at Long Xuyen! For too long we've let the human rats breed in the dark! For too long we've sat idle while they plotted! Starting today, the 'Peoples' Republic of Vietnam, will, BURN!" The outcry turned into howls of delight and anger, the Re-class, an inverted American flag purposefully carved onto the left side of her face, whooped loudly, deafening some Imps next to her by letting off a trio of shots into the air from the 16" triple mount attached to her tail's head. This triggered a fusillade of fire, as many of the lesser disciplined Abyssals began firing wildly into the air with their small-caliber turrets, filling the sky with a hatred to match the ground.

New Jersey leaped over the railing, crashing into the pavement with enough force to powder the concrete and create a large crator around her, she straightened from her kneeled position as a rumbling could be heard, deep within the bowels of the City Hall, the rumbling grew louder, before there was a brief pause.

"Feed?"

"Yes."

The entire front of the building exploded outwards, a massive creature smashing its way through, dragging itself forwards on two massive arms corded with muscle and Abyssal machinery. A horrendous amount of turrets covered Jersey's Rigging from its Spiked head to its vestigial feet, Three 16" triple mounts among them. Its long slavering tongue practically dragged on the floor as it effortlessly picked up New Jersey, setting her upon its shoulder, almost daintily. Before raising its head to the sky and roaring at the heavens.

" ̴͚̳̥̿͊͂ ̸̨̧͚̪͙̥͖͉̠̟̞̱̒̌́͒ ̴̢̦̋̈́͝ ̴͚̳̥̿͊͂ ̵̧̧͈̠̼̰͕̰̭͚̯̯͌͋͋̈ ̴̤̯̱̟͉̠̠̗̬̖̠̪̩͚̽̈́̄̀̔̽͌̐͂͠͝ ̴̡̨̛̮̫̫̜͙̮̮̱̀̊̀̆̈́́̂̾̋̿̕̚ ̵̡̢̧̤͖̼̱̰̤̜̩̝̈́̐̂̓̄͊̽͗ ̴̨̤̝̈͛͋͒͛̑̀͂̔͜͠ ̷̪̞͖̦̯̔͜ ̶̙̘̞̬̜̬͐͒̽͋̄͗̈͘̚͘ ̵̨̨͔̤͙͉̓̍͗̊́̏̐͑̚͝ ̴̡̥̭͙̮͚̪̅͜ ̷̧̣̒ ̸̛̦͚̱̞̘̻̲̻͍̂̅͋̈̓̀͋́͗̈̏ ̵̛̺̣̠̻̭̺̲̭̳͖̬̬͋͆͜ͅ ̴̨̞̱̻̲͖̙̜̝̮͈̣̊̆̈́̓͝ ̵̹̘͕̣̹̟͙̗̰̓̀͋̂̏̓̔́̿̎̽̏͜ ̸̨̧͚̪͙̥͖͉̠̟̞̱̒̌́͒ ̴̢̦̋̈́͝ ̴͚̳̥̿͊͂ ̴͙̦̣̙̩̜͉̗̺͎͍͙́͂̿̽̎̄̐̋͒̒̈́̚͘ ̴̖̺̩̮̳̼͎͚́̾̋̄̀́̂̈́ ̷̡̛̛̛̼͍͎͚̝̟̠͒̃̂̉̅̑͘͘͝ ̶̢͔̘̲̝̟̮̱̯̮̺̾̆̆̕ͅ ̷̟̣͙͍̥͍͈̅͜ ̵̡̟̫͉̜̠͂̊̏͂̋̽̌͜͝ ̷̤̟͉̱͔̱̈́͆̾̈́̊̂̇̕͜͝ ̴̛͖̎̄̿͛̆̐͠͠ ̵̜̟͕̮͇̗̘̓̃͜ ̴̛͎̊̔̀̅̋͂͂́̈́̚̕ ̴̡̫͇̘̤̲̿̎̃̈́̇̆̄̂̌͛͝ ̸̨̧͚̪͙̥͖͉̠̟̞̱̒̌́͒ ̴̢̦̋̈́͝ ̴͚̳̥̿͊͂"

Jersey looked upon her forces from her perch, and for the first time in a long time...

She smiled.


Well that's ominous. Jersey's forces tend to use an inverted and upside-down American flag as their symbol, usually in monochrome.