With New Jersey:

New Jersey tried the handle, and when the door proved locked simply kicked it irritably. It shattered, the heavy hardwood door exploding outwards into the room in a spray of splinters. She peered into the room, and snorted in disgust as it revealed nothing but more torn-up documents and the rising flames from piles of burning paper. She turned back, not bothering to step around the dead radio operator at her feet, as she tread over the bodies, coming back into the main office of the military HQ she and her Battleships had taken.

"How is Ru-06?" She asked the kneeling Ru-03, the woman knelt over the laid-out form of a grumbling 06. Said Ru quickly hopped to her feet, casually giving a hand to her 'patient,' hauling her up.

"She almost bought the big one boss, the blast wasn't large, but a few more inches to the right and the engineers say her main magazine could have gone up, fucking lunge-mines." Jersey nodded, taking in the ruined hallway opposite from them. One of the humans had ambushed the Ru from a broom-closet, stabbing the woman with a type-21 Chinese lunge mine before she could react. Of the human there were only scraps left, though the weapon had a shaped charge to at least have a chance of leaving a recoverable body, it didn't really matter much when it had been used indoors.

Damn the Chinese, fighting through patsy's using their equipment, again. Some things never changed it seemed.

New Jersey faced the two ships. "I want the rest of the building̶̹̓͐ searched, join the others, now. When I get an update from Ta-01 and 04, T̵̟̈́H̴̙̑Ḙ̷͍̒N̴̻̜̓ I can decide whether they are worth more to me in my fleet or as raw-resources on a barg̶̹̓͐e-headed East." The Ru's nodded before leaving, there would be no sympathy found with them. They had long disliked the slimmer Battleships, mostly a conflict of personality, the more polite Ta's unable to cope with the Ru's crassness, and likewise the Ru's disliking the Ta's blatant ass-kissing-

"HA! Found you!" There were sounds of a struggle downstairs, before Ru-01's cracked, grinning face appeared, stomping up the stairs with a struggling young man in an ill-fitting uniform in her grip. "Jersey! Found this little fucker hiding under the stairs, want it for anything? Or can I just break it?" The man yelled at Jersey in his native tongue.

"Fuck you you fucking whore-specter! You-" The man yelled in his native language, before Jersey stepped forwards and clamped a dainty but nonetheless comparatively huge hand over his mouth.

"-Will speak when spoken to, ȁ̴̜̌ṇ̸̨̽ṱ̷̨͘." She interrupted in rough but perfectly understandable Vietnamese. "Amazing what bravery your mouth finds when cowardice fails you, hiding away like a snake." She nodded towards the ruined hallway. "At least that one had the courtesy of dying quickly, now tell me, before I decide whether or not to kill you now or keep you horrendously, l̷̼͐a̴̢͆̐m̴̻̜̿̉e̷͙̲̔̈n̵̢͋̓t̶͕̄ä̴̱͇b̷̬̍̑l̶̩͗̚y̵̨̘̾́, alive. Where are the records pertaining to your Kanmusu and troop movements?"

He spit at her.

New Jersey sighed, before backhanding the man completely out of Ru-01's comparatively loose grip, sending him into the wall. "That was funny the first two times that happened, now it's just fucking annoying. Where. Are. They." The young man let out a groan as he straightened while clasping his face, before letting out a shaky laugh.

"We burned it! Orders were to wipe all computers and shred all documents, there is nothing left for you here, monster. Whatever you came here for, you have failed." Jersey's visage grew stormy at that, and even Ru-01, standing off to the side, began to shift nervously.

Jersey stepped forwards, grabbing the man by the throat before dragging the choking man across the room of the office they were in. "You know, I put the historical museum in Saigon to the torch myself, when we took that w̷̟͋ŕ̶̦̠̇é̴͔̻t̶͍́̌c̴̰̀̓h̴͖̍ẽ̴̡͇́d̶̮̄ city, and I remember a quote, paraphrasing of course, from some past general or other..." She held him pressed face-first against the window. "It basically went: As long as a single blade of grass grows in Vietnam, we will resist foreign occupation."

The land outside was scorched, Jersey's Battleships having bombarded the place with their main guns in a creeping barrage that they themselves had followed behind, the only thing that moved outside was Jersey's Rigging, as it peeled open a tank like a can of tuna, searching. Jersey flipped the man around again, and dragged him up the wall so that they were at eye-level, his feet dangled as he held onto her arm with both hands.

"I saw that as a direct challenge. I have time, I am not chained to a human lifespan, or even a single life, after all, I can be patient when I need to, ẗ̴̙̆ḣ̷͓or̶o̵̡̙̓̅ug̶̓h. When I am done I intend for there to be nothing but a̴̻̒ h̵̰̟̔ol̶e in̸ tḥ̵̀̄e̷̡͙͛̂ ẃ̸͕̬̏oŕ̴̯̪́ld̷, where this country once stood. And I-

Jersey was interrupted then, as the phone across the room, cast askew in the previous fighting, began to ring, drawing the silenced gaze of everyone in the room.

Brrring!

...

Brrring!

...

Jersey slowly looked back at the man, a sly grin forming on her face. "Expecting̶̹̓͐ a call, were you?"

With Admiral Matsumoto Keiko"

"...cont̷̞̯̋ḯ̴̜̳n̵̗̺̒̊u̸̡̫̒̓è̸̡̈́." Keiko double-checked the caller ID, it read correctly.

"Who is this? Forgive me, but you don't sound like any of G-like any of my other... acquaintances. The voice on the other end of the line seemed to be amused, as she responded:

"You mean those treasonous Abyssals? Yes, I was wondering who ç̷̦̆ould have been pulling their strings, I thought at first it was the Vietnamese, but it appears that was beyond them." The voice snorted at Keiko's surprised noise. "Oh, please, you think I wouldn't know who and what the Chitose is? After her past two years of celebrity? After a Japanese Tender was spotted by my forces alongside Abyssal traitors? Ha!"Keiko regained her composure, so this was a belligerent, one that had fought Chitose.

"You still haven't told me who you are." An Abyssal, that much was obvious, and an American one, from the accented English, probably from around the East-Coast, if her memories from college held.

"And you've forgotten thḁ̸̢̔̒t you have to introduce yourself first, Admiral." What?!

"How di- My name is Matsumoto Keiko, and that's all you will get until you return the favor." Hopefully, she wasn't about to enter a sass-fight with someother Abyssal with potential nuclear payloads.

"How did I know you were an Admiral? Well, you did just oh-so kindly clarify..." Keiko grit her teeth at the slip. "But honestly? Who else would command Kanmusu, other than one of those trumped-up human ship-fiddlers? It wasn't a particularly large leap of logic."Keiko remained silent at that, waiting for the Abyssal to continue.

"As for myself, you may ḁ̸̢̔̒ddress me by my hull-number, BB-62. Or if you prefer, simply New Jersey." Keiko sucked in a breath at that.

"So the Battleship-Hime of Vietnam is actually?-"

"-Oh piss off, I get enough Jap-speak from my ships, I don't need that 'Hime-Sama' shit from you. Just Jersey."The now-named New Jersey said. Keiko furrowed a brow, the ship was clearly hostile, but was being far too casual.

"Fine, Jersey. How were you able to intercept this call? This is a secure line directly into the military office in Long Xuyen."

"I'd say that's obvious, I'm IN the military offiç̷̦̆e in Long Xuyen. I was in the middle of a chat with someone when you called, I figured it would be only polite to take a message, after all, I doubt they'll be able to get back to you anytime soon." That was ominous. If the city had fallen to the Abyssals... Oh no.

"And you said your forces fought Chitose?" Keiko had to try and see if Chitose was still alright. Jersey laughed.

"Oh, no, not last I checked anyway. It's likely the little thing rḁ̸̢̔̒n off with her rudder tucked between her legs into the Northern tributaries almost as soon as my surface ships got a good look at her. If she didn't though, maybe I'll send you something to remember her by? Hopefully, there's a pieç̷̦̆e large enough to bother mḁ̸̢̔̒iling off." Keiko actually snarled.

"You lay a single hand on her and I'll-"

"-D̶͈́o̷̬͑. W̴̘̙̓̚h̴̠̩͂͗a̷̩͈̅t? Send the rest of your little battle-harem of tamed rowboats after me? To die in your place as you sit in your office? Let the IJN come. Please." The phone hung up with an ominous 'click'.

"Admiral, I-I heard everything, what should we do?!" Houshou rushed back into Keiko's office from where she'd been listening in from her phone, her Carrier's bow, normally kept leaned against her desk, with her in a white-knuckled grip.

Keiko wanted to gather up all her girls and march all the way to Vietnam herself. But she had to be careful of how she went about this, leaving holes in Japan's coastal defenses would be potentially disastrous. And having an expedition worded or taken wrongly by the media or foreign government intelligence could provoke China or North Korea, who were still jumpy around overactive Japanese fleets. She sat down to think, and eventually hashed out an idea.

"This is a direct and imminent threat to JMSDF naval assets, the Diet can groan all it likes, weneed to respond to this. The Reiwa party has been pushing hard to break Japan's self-imposed military isolation for a while, this will give councilor Ayumi a chance to rile the conservatives into supporting more proactive military expeditions in defense of other countries in the future. She will keep them off our backs for this, if only to see what she can benefit in the upper houses."

Keiko got up and began to pace.

"As for foreign interests... We need to keep this from being a purely Japanese affair, otherwise, the Chinese won't be able to see any crossing of major Naval assets in their Southern claims as anything other than an implied threat. The American fleet is still on-base, correct?" Houshou nodded, her tense posture relaxing as she watched her Admiral brainstorm.

If I can convince Admiral Tommen to lend a few of his ships, in exchange for some of our own, if only on a temporary basis... We can use its dual-national nature to help avoid tensions, maybe the Chinese will want to make their own logistic contributions to try and show us up while we clear out their back-yard?" The female Admiral sat down at her desk, shuffling a few reports off to the side as she brought out a fresh page to write on, as she furiously scribbled down the skeleton of a plan she spoke to her Secretary-ship, eyes not looking up from her work.

"I'll have the surveillance team bring up the log of that phonecall. You, get the Commanding ship of that convoy still on-base in my office, she'll want to hear the recording, I'm sure."

"Hai Admiral!" Houshou saluted with her bow, before rushing off as fast as she could while remaining dignified. Keiko finished her rough draft before dialing the number for the surveillance team on her phone.

"Something tells me Iowa will have a few things to say after hearing the recording of what was apparently her sister, to convince Admiral Tommen to help." Keiko thought wryly.