Song Hau River, South of Long Xuyen, Vietnam.
Jersey watched the distant radar contacts scurry off, they weren't within eyesight of the City yet, just having passed the ruins of Thot Not, an amusing name, in this day and age, and were just coming within sight of the suspension bridge crossing the River. Jersey hadn't expected to approach Long Xuyen undetected, her force was too great for that, but she hadn't been expecting to be discovered quite so soon, PT Imps were supposed to be patrolling the embankments this far out, it was surprising the humans had found the bravery to come out this far.
New Jersey motioned for Kitty-Hawk, the Carrier cruising up next to her hesitantly, she needn't have worried, Jersey was in control, now that combat was promised and imminent her Rigging was silent. For now, she had nothing to fear. "Did you see those radar contacts?"
"Yes, do you want me to launch an intercept mission?" Jersey shook her head, watching as the Destroyer screen ahead fanned out now that they had passed the Island in the middle of the River.
"No, they will have already gotten a radio transmission out by now, by the way they scurried off like roaches they noticed us. Save your jets for when the enemy engages CV group one's planes, you're my ace in the hole here, I'm not throwing you in with my opening hand." The Carrier nodded at that, relaxing as her escort destroyers cruised up to her, entertainingly, they positioned themselves between Jersey and Kitty Hawk, as if to guard against her, how loyal, if pointless, at this range they wouldn't even slow her down.
New Jersey raised the mentioned Carrier group on her radio, the trio of Wo-class, along with escorting Destroyers and a few Cruisers, were making their way up the Mekong River, a couple of miles behind the encirclement force of Imps and Destroyers she'd sent ahead of them with one of her personal guard. "CV 01 Actual, do you read, over?" There was a moment of silence, before:
"This is CV 01 Actual, copy, read you loud and clear, your orders Battleship-Hime?" Jersey quietly snorted to herself, calling her 'Hime' as if she was a Jap, New Constructs always annoyed her like that, even if half the Risen took up the terminology by long exposure.
"Begin launching your Liberation bombers, make sure they have some Cat fighters escorting them this time. This isn't some hick strawhat village, this is one of the last real military strongholds in the area and we're cruising right down their throats, expect heavy human AA resistance, maybe some of those pathetic Kanmusu Seagulls supporting human MIG's. Report once you make contact with enemy aircraft, CVA Kitty-Hawk will launch her F-4 Phantoms to intercept the human jets while leaving the rest to your Hell-Cat's, understood?" There was a chorus of affirmatives from the three Wo-class as Jersey switched channels. "All forces keep the course, we cant bombard the City to ashes until we find out where those treasonous bastards went, Ru-7, 9, 2. come to a stop under the suspension bridge ahead and wait for further orders, you are on long-distance bombardment duties." The Battleships affirmed, though Jersey could pick out their discontent to being religated to fire support "PT Imp squadron 2, guard their positions along with Destroyer Division 8.
New Jersey watched as the assigned destroyers fell back from the screen to group around her girls. New Jersey had always had a soft spot for the Ru-class of Battleship, buying a disproportionate amount of them from the Supply Depot Princess. It probably had to do with their simple durability and bloodlust as they followed her into battle, they had always been at her side, never behind, as she snapped a human defense over her knee, and they had the silvery scars to show for it, she had only recently replaced her guard with Ta-class, more because they were faster gophers and errand-girls than anything. She'd tried Cruisers... But they broke too easily.
She once more raised a group on her radio, this time the encirclement group. "Ta-4, I do hope you are making proper headway? We don't want the Kanmusu haring off with the civilians again like last time, do we?"
"Yes Maam! We are just coming up on Tan Thuan Dong Island, we'll be peeling off into the Song My Loung River to cut off the ferry routes. They will not escape Maam."
"Good girl." There was no response as New Jersey closed the channel.
Mekong River, East of Long Xuyen, Vietnam.
CV Wo-03 launched another of her Liberation bombers, the little craft taking off with a high pitched keening, She'd never quite taken to the craft, they made such a racket compared to her old Hell-Divers! but they were significantly better at bombing land-based targets, not even mentioning the modifications the great Battle-Cat herself had given them! The Wo had to compose herself for a moment just thinking about it, the fact THE Kitty-Hawk, The only Abyssal Carrier in existence with Jet fighters, the terror of Hainan, and butcher of Bangkok, had deigned to share some of her armaments with her and her sisters? It was almost too good to be true, the mark 47 bombs, in particular, were absolute Abyss-sends for entrenched AA positions. Though her planes would never equal the speed of the jets the Carrier was known for.
Wo-03's daydreaming was interrupted by her sister 01 calling out to her. "03! Stop being weird over Kitty-Sama's modifications! We have a job to do! I don't want Jersey getting mad at us again, you remember what happened to 04? She had to go AWOL just to keep from getting blasted into chunks!"
"You're right, sorry, it's just, we got to actually TALK to her! I'm still a little star-struck." Wo-03 said, going back to launching her planes, a Hell-Cat fighter this time.
Fairy POV
I readied myself, making sure I was set for rapid wind correction as I got ready for the lurch just before Wo-03's sling caught on my catapult bridle, flinging my craft forwards and me back into my seat. I struggled briefly, a small breeze had begun to pick up, and for my plane that may as well have been a hurricane. The craft's round body aided me somewhat, there weren't any wings to help up-end me, unlike those unlucky Liberation pilots. I evened out after a while, gaining altitude as I approached the forming squadron above me, circling our Girl at about 20 human meters up.
"H-1 here, good of you to join us H-6! Saw you struggle on the takeoff, wind picking up?"
"This is H-6, yeah, its this damn storm Jersey's kicked up, the wind is starting to become a nuisance, ready to fly?"
"Be patient H-6! We still got another two squadrons launching before 03 gives the go-ahead to advance. The main initial bomber targets will be any flack positions the humans have set up, followed by vehicles, we've been told to avoid hitting the command buildings, but that isn't our job anyway, we'll strafe the ground a few times till enemy birds show-up, then thrash em and go home after the bombers are away. I acknowledged my flight leader as I joined their formation, Yui, my gunner, spoke up.
"Hey, what you wanna bet we'll see those cocky Phantom hotshots today? I heard from the command channel earlier that Jersey has 'em on call if Human MIG's show up." I looked back at her pudgy face, her eyes obscured by the black goggles covering her eyes as she looked back at me from the rear gunnery seat.
"Don't know why they'd bother, we might not be able to target the damn speed-freaks, but it's not like they can hit the broadside of a barn anyway. Why bother?" The human aircraft were considered something of a running joke among W0-03's pilots, They were in and out of the battlefield in seconds, and were hilariously difficult to target, but so far in the past year and a half, they'd only accounted for several aircraft kills among the slower spraying bomber craft, anything able to actually maneuver just laughed at their attempts to target them. Once I'd even personally made one stall-out by cutting my speed to minimum, the jet had tried to stay on my tail and ended up plowing into a mountainside, that had been a laugh for the girls back home on 03.
"They said this was going to be a major stronghold, a lot of AA expected, you know how stubborn these humans can be once they dig in and find a backbone somewhere! I'm just worried is all." She had a point, Yui was actually my second gunner, the first, Jinni, had taken shrapnel from an 88 flack round over Can Tho, and bled out before I could peel off to help stabilize her, hopefully we wouldn't get a repeat here.
"We'll be fine! Just stay on that rear gun and keep your eyes open, I'll take care of the rest!"
"So you say Rin, so you say." My flight cap slipped a little, letting some of my white hair spill out as I adjusted my flight harness, why we were made with knee-height skirts, and expected to strap into an aircraft without some WICKED chafing I'll never know. I accidentally knocked the picture taped to my console off as I tried to re-situate myself, and I stooped to pick it up, banging my oversized head on the ammo counter. "Dick!" I exclaimed, rubbing my forehead.
"You alright up there?" Yui said, I nodded.
"Yeah Yeah, just dinged myself."
I got some clear scotch tape out of my pocket, fumbling with it for a moment with my thick gloves before getting out a good tab and plastering it against the picture, securing it again. I grinned at the black and white photo, an aerial shot taken a few months ago.
The image of Wo-03's humanoid form grinned up at me.
