Long Xuyen, Vietnam.

Georgia POV

I briefly connected to my UAV as it buzzed away towards the East. It would take a while before it would be in range of the Carrier group that was spotted, now I just needed another spot to send the other one sitting on my back as I did a dead-mans float in the waters of the river. It had been a relief when I'd slowly submerged myself. I had been worried that I still had minor breaches in my hull that would show themselves when exposed to any amount of water pressure.

Apparently I was worried over nothing, my crew had done good work sealing me up again. I could even move my arm again! Though my Captain told me in a no-nonsense tone that I wasn't to put too much strain on it for a bit, or it would pop right off again. The Commander, an adorable little Americanese girl, had translated the last target to me from the fighters flying overhead, and was still on the net now, giving orders in Vietnamese.

Suddenly there was a flurry of panicked-sounding gobbledygook over the net, Lao speaking to them in rapid-fire Viet-speak, when there was finally a lull I spoke. "So what was that all about? sounded pretty tense."

"The MIG fighters have been intercepted! The Abyssals have some kind of advanced fighters capable of keeping up with them, the Colonel mentioned sidewinder missiles!" I laid there for a moment as my Captain explained what those were.

"Arent those, like, modern weapons?"

"Yes! that's the problem!"

"Oh, well what can we do about it?" I was a submarine with sea-to-ground missiles after all.

"The Colonel is trying something, wait one." I waited as the Commander spoke to the Colonel, his words not understandable but sounding incredibly strained."He's coming in close to the water, using himself as bait. He said the F-4's wouldn't be able to resist getting above them on their tail, the Captain is getting the AZP's down-river to reposition their skybox's down-range, he'll lead them right into their cone of fire." I nodded mutely, impressed by the man's brass balls if nothing else. I lifted off the drone on my back, finding my happy place so I could look through its little magical drone-eyes, and watched as the jets turned the bend down-river, going at least 1000km per hour, which I was helpfully told by my Captain was them going slow. They were followed by several tiny black fish-things with fixed wings, big 'ol human teeth and glowing eyes giving them away as Abyssal craft, they were coming down on top of the human fighters, flying above and behind them, though they weren't firing anything I could see... There! Several missiles streamed out after the MIG's as they rocketed past and over me, so close that they sent my drone tumbling through the air before it was able to catch itself.

When I finally straightened out my drone and was able to look again the MIG's were already downriver, one was careening down into the water at full speed, trailing fire as I could see a parachute deploy behind it. The other was un-touched, banking around the Island downriver that had suddenly lit up with AA fire, shooting over where the MIG's flight path had been. The Abyssal jets, unknowingly having run directly headlong into the fixed sights of the mass of human guns, scrambled out of their formation. but not before at least five of the planes went down, practically blown apart by the 57mm flack rounds. Unfortunately, just because they had been taken out didn't mean they'd stopped moving. Two of the three planes went down short of the island, sending up large geysers as they crashed short, the other three, at what I'm assuming was almost full load, crashed into the island at over a thousand kilometers an hour.

After the massive explosions died down, I watched what remained of the jets get chased off by another two squads of flanking MIG's coming in from above, I raised the Commander. "The guys on the island OK? that was a hell of an explosion!"

"Wait one... One of the batteries took losses, two guns, fourteen dead. One of the guns is salvageable, sending replacement crew now." Her voice was strained, and it was pretty obvious why. I hope she didn't know any of them personally. Man, humans were really fragile, weren't they? I resolved to be more careful around the brothers from now on.

"Our infantry on the forward South-West embankment is reporting lead Abyssal surface elements inbound, and the Colonel said that he spotted the main force when he was turning into the river. Ambush is imminent, Georgia, you have a new target for your other drone," I affirmed, sending off my drone as I began to dive.

"I'll move up and see if I can give them a hand." The Commander quickly responded.

"No! Georgia you are a ballistic submarine! Getting in close is the last thing we need you to do!"

"How are they gonna shoot me if I'm under them inside their formation?"

"Depth charges are a thing, Georgia!"

"Then the Destroyers sink first, got it," I replied.

The Commander went silent at that, and I, taking that as silent permission, slunk downriver, sinking nearly to the riverbed. My hull was still holding at the increased pressure, which was lovely. after fifteen minutes I started to pass chains stabbing up from boxes strung along the riverbed, I looked up, seeing them attach to big old balls with spikes on em near the surface. These must be the Naval mines I'd been told about, wow, it was a good thing we hadn't driven closer to let Chitose off when we came here originally! We'd haveEATEN these! I paused at that thought, looking at the chains contemplatively as I started to feel the shockwaves of explosions ahead of me, looked like the fight had started without me!

I upped my speed, Scooter accelerating to a good 18 knots, coming to a stop as I finally saw the underside's of the Destroyers floating above me, a Cruiser as well. So I was here, now what? I could probably start gutting them right now, but that would alert them to my presence probably... I looked at the mines again, the idea I'd briefly entertained earlier coming into full bloom. I scooted with... Scooter, over to the nearest chain. I took it into my hands and bit into it, my teeth severing the links like butter. With my new Naval mine-balloon I drifted under the nearest destroyer. Making sure to tug the mine down a bit so it was directly under the ship, I let go. The Mine rose gracefully up into the keel of the Destroyer, making contact with a dull 'Twonk!' and for a second I wondered if it would go o-'BOOM!' -There we go! The keel of the Destroyer quickly started to take on water through its new hole as I grabbed another Mine-Balloon.

I put holes in three more Destroyers like that before the buggers caught on that something was up. They began to fall back slightly, scattering outwards and away from the minefield, I couldn't drift any more into them without it taking far too long. I noticed that the fighting had stopped topside, the humans defending from the shore likely having fallen back. Alright, guess it was time to get my hands dirty. There were five Destroyers left, three having been taken out by the humans presumably. The ones I'd driven the mines into slowly slipped under the water as I finally fired off my first round of wire-guided torpedoes, my crew guiding them independently into the remaining ship's keels as I zeroed in on the last.

Just as the final torpedo hit I rammed my good hand up into the floating belly of the beast, feeling around before feeling the can-shaped object I was looking for. I yanked out the Boiler, and the Destroyers thrashing ceased, I sighed in relief as I let go, letting the machinery drift down to the riverbed.

I turned my gaze to the now un-supported Cruiser. I felt kinda bad about this, didn't feel fair fighting something without ANY ASW weapons, but hey, I'd try to make it quick. Oh! Maybe I could pinch her 8" gun to add to Countess's collection?

Song Hau River, South of Long Xuyen, Vietnam.

Ignoring Kitty Hawk's ongoing look of inexplicable shock, New Jersey continued up-river with her forces, soon they would have a visual on the edge of the minefield. She sighed as she received another message from Ri-12. "If this is more screaming in my ear I'm going to sink her." She muttered, opening the channel.

"T-There's something in the water! It sunk all the Destroyers!" Jersey shifted her full attention to the transmission, ignoring the Carrier next to her as her look of shock turned into one of deep concentration.

"Ri-12, this is New Jersey, can you get an ID on that contact? Over." Kitty Hawk began to launch more of her jet's, as the ones off to the East sped towards the human contacts. Apparently, she was having difficulties with something.

"No! N-Nothing on Sonar! Even w-when I was looking right at one of the Destroyers getting sunk! It's like some kind of ghos-" The Ri's report was cut off by a crunching noise, followed by the sound of rushing water. The transmission cut.

New Jersey switched off her radio, turning to the occupied Carrier, one of the destroyers, Maddox, tugged at the woman's sleeve before the Battleship could do anything more drastic to get her attention, the woman snapping out of her trance briefly. "Yes? What? I'm busy." Jersey glowered dangerously at the woman's tone, before regaining her composure after a visible struggle.

"You had best outfit your Sea Kings for ASW. We have a submarine in the river."