With the Kanmusu Submarines:
I-401 dipped back under the waves, bubbles trailing her mouth as her ballast tanks emptied, "Alright girls, we have our orders! Encircle the main enemy force and await priority targets!" She turned to Maruyu, who was holding onto her freight container nervously. "You... might wanna sit this one out, stay underneath the Battleships, their Destroyer escorts will keep you safe."
The Submergence transport nodded glumly as I-14 spoke up over their shared radio frequency, patting the transport on the shoulder "Ah! Don't worry about it Mogu! Think of it this way, you're too important to risk with all our extra supplies! Without you, we'd starve before we even got to the Paracel Islands!" She waved at her nearly identical twin, "Isn't that right I-3?!"
The timid type-AM Submarine nodded in agreement, simply giving a weak thumbs up.
I-401 nodded, before giving an underwater fist pump, "Alright, let's go!"
The submarines fell-in behind her, traveling a decent pace of 5.5 knots.
They cruised for a good twenty minutes as occasional shellfire whizzed by, only barely visible from the depth they were traveling at, though the occasional stray shot impacted the water nearby, temporarily shattering their sky, giant pockets of air forced downwards, only to float up again slowly as massive bubbles.
I-8 watched as the crumpled remains of an 8" shell drifted down from where it had slapped into the surface, "So when do we split from each other?" She asked her flagship.
"We're about halfway to the enemy's main Carrier group, we'll split up to encircle them once we're close enough to see their Destroyer screen. Iowa said they were run-of-the-mill old I-Class, so as long as we avoid their ASDIC Sonar's effective range we should be good." I-401 replied.
I-8 switched on her radio again, "How far is that again? I haven't fought I-class all that often, usually more Ro and Ha-Class in the waters these days-" She interrupted herself, head darting off to the side, "Warten! Anyone else hear that?"
The other subs quickly quieted their crew and killed propulsion, listening intently with their hydrophones.
I-8 quietly whispered; "I thought I heard something popping nearby... Nagato said there might be enemy submarines, didn't she?"
I-401 nodded mutely, making a fanning gesture with her hand, before giving out orders just as quietly, "Go dark, spread out, I-8, your Kouhyouteki ready?"
The bespeckled Junsen nodded, withdrawing two of her midget subs from the pages of one of the books strapped to her side.
"Let them take a look around, when I give the signal, let out a ping and get ready to dodge."
With the Abyssal Submarines:
The Wolfpack of six Ka-class submarines drifted to a halt, having cut propulsion as their leader, a So-Class, held her fist up silently. They'd gathered to strike at the Kanmusu's Carriers, and had made it roughly halfway.
One of the Ka's slowly swam over, using her actual arms and legs to avoid noise, and gently tapped the So's hull, asking why she'd stopped in morse code. The So replied by reaching over and tapping on the Ka's forehead, where her bridge crew would hear it clearly. " .. .. / ... . .- .-. -.. / ..-. .-.. - - -.. .. -. -. / .-. .. .-. . ... .-.-.- / . -. . - -.- / ... ..- -... - .- .-. .. -. . ... / .-.. .. -.- . .-.. -.- -..- / ... .-. .-. . .- -.. / - ..- - / .- -. -.. / .-. .-. . .-. .- .-. . -I heard flooding pipes. Enemy submarines likely, spread out and prepare."
The ka nodded, and swam to the nearest other pack-member to spread the message along, soon, the Abyssal submarines were on the move, silently paddling along with their engines barely running at all-
PIIIIIIIING!
They froze as the active Sonar ping reverberated through the waters around them, practically rattling their teeth as it emitted from eighty degrees above them at 9 fathoms, portside. The So-Class, doing away with secrecy, signaled to three of her pack.
"They know we're here! Attack that submarine, make as much noise as you can before retreating, the rest of us will carry on under them to continue the mission, meet us on the way back."
The three nodded, getting their torpedoes ready and pushing their batteries to the max as the rest dove deeper, carrying onwards towards the Carrier group.
PIIIIIIIING!
Everyone waited with bated breath as the active sonar went off, this was the moment of truth. There was a pause, then...
POOOONG! They got a cluster of returns.
"Shit! 80 degrees down, to starboard!" I-401 said, readying her torpedoes as both sides frantically made a bid to evade one another, filling their still-open hydrophones with enough noise to deafen several operators.
Several torpedoes, white trails giving them away as Oxygen torpedo's, lanced out towards I-8, who nimbly-dodged out of the way, twisting in the water as the tubes lanced past her. One of them, however, had been poorly aimed, and thus put into the path of the evading submarine.
I-8 threw one of her books into its path, and there was a muffled 'thwump!" as the torpedo connected.
"I-8!"
The other submarines quickly returned fire, shooting their own type 95's as the struck Junsen's Kouhyouteki launched their pair of type 97 torpedoes as well from their positions around the group.
The Abyssals seemed to be actively trying to be spotted, maneuvering into visual range with their spotlights on, the breath-masks revealing them as Ka-class as they reacted to the first brace of Kanmusu torpedoes.
The ensuing game of 'underwater torpedo dodgeball' was quick and deadly, but the Kanmusu vastly outnumbered the three enemy submarines, and after a brief exchange the Abyssals quickly made to retreat, only one managing to disengage as the other two sank into the depths below. I-401 checked in with her group.
"Casualties? where is I-8?"
I-26 answered her, "She, she was forced to the surface! Her frontal compartment's flooded, what do we do?!"
I-401 winced, before waving upwards, "OK Nimu, you surface and help tow I-8 back to our lines before enemy surface-ships get a bead on her! We'll continue with our mission, but keep your hydrophones peeled, we don't know if those Ka had friends or not.
The others nodded.
With the Carrier's:
Gambier looked worriedly at Kaga, whose expression had been growing more and more tense over the past few minutes, her brow furrowed in concentration as she started to tremble.
Akagi looked over as well, and seemed to pause for a moment, clearly talking with her fellow fleet Carrier over radio. She turned to the other three Kanmusu.
"Kaga's having trouble on the flanks, a large group of MK-2 Abyssal fighters are trying to escort torpedo bombers into firing range of us. She's tying down the fighter escort with her own, but the bombers are still coming."
"What should we do?!"
Akagi looked in the supposed bomber's direction, shading her eyes with her gloved hand, "My squadrons are occupied with the fighters coming in from the Abyssal's main force, Nagato and the others are plowing through the Destroyers and the Cruiser's they are screening for, but they'll be vulnerable if those torpedo bombers break through. Peel off some of your CAP, un-escorted bombers shouldn't be too difficult to take out with your Wildcats and Shinano's Zero's."
"W-Wont that leave us pretty much undefended?" Shinano spoke up.
Akagi shrugged, "Maybe, but most of the enemy's airpower is deployed already, we shouldn't have to worry too much about any additional craft making a run for us. Besides, this is exactly what a CAP is for, right?"
The two Carriers obeyed, sending off the majority of their planes.
Meanwhile, Houston was minding her Destroyer squadron's ASW formation nearby. Taking distant pot-shots at the Abyssal's Western flank as Taylor, Strong, O'Bannon and Northhampton patrolled around the Carriers, letting off the occasional Sonar ping. She was suddenly called up by USS Taylor, the frantic brown-haired Destroyer coming in over the radio. "I'm getting four contacts on Sonar, getting close!"
"Track it but wait for positive ID, might be one of ours, if they don't answer send a practice charge down to make them remember they have radio's." Houston didn't want to be the one giving the order to accidentally depth-charge a friendly Japanese Submarine, she shuddered to think of what the rest of Japan's version of the 'silent service' would do to her in recompense.
The Battleship line moved forward, out of their Destroyer screen, "What the hell is Nagato doing?! Does she want to catch a torpedo with her keel?!" Houston brought up Iowa over the radio, asking what the hell was going on.
"One of the subs got hit and was forced to surface, Nagato's having us move in to support her retreat while she's towed back."
"Depth charge attack?" Houston hadint thought they'd have reached the enemy Destroyers by now.
"Nope! Group of Ka's ambushed them, they said there might be more, keep your eyes pee-"
Houston rudely switched channels to her Destroyer squadron, "Contacts are enemy subs, enemy subs! Blast 'em to hell girls!" The Destroyers scrambled for their depth charges as they made to cruise over where they'd last seen the Sonar Contacts, USS Strong pulsed her active sonar and-
They were almost right below the Carriers.
Houston yelled at them, getting all but Kaga's attention, "Enemy submarines in the water! Evasive maneuvers!"
Akagi neatly scooped the kneeling Kaga into a princess carry, skating to the side to avoid the sudden torpedo trails, the other fleet carrier simply tucking her head into the crook of Akagi's shoulder, not even opening her eyes as she continued to direct her vicious personal battle against the enemy Wo-Class's planes.
Chiyoda skipped backward as Gambier Bay flung herself to the side as well, though none of the shots had been targeting them, Gambier looked over.
Shinano had frozen at the phrase 'Enemy submarines" Shivering in-place as a full set of torpedo trails went right into her massive keel.
The explosion was comparatively small, being below the waterline, but sent the massive Carrier to her knees, one of which began to sink into the water.
"Aaargh!"
"S-Shinano!"
The American Destroyers started deploying Depth charges, flinging them into the water all around them, and very shortly after the muffled 'thwump!' of detonations could be heard, as the water bulged up all around them. Gambier Bay rushed to Shinano's side, coming to a stop beside the stricken ship, unsure as to how she could help. Shinano, meanwhile, was having a full-blown panic attack, rocking back and forth on her knees, which only drove them deeper into the water. The damage didn't look that bad, compared to her massive bulk, but that didn't seem to matter to the Carrier.
"I can't fix this, I cant fix this! Help me please helpmenonotagain!" Gambier put her hands shakily on the Shinano class's hull. She looked up, tears in her eyes.
"My Damage control teams cant seal the damage! Help me!"
"I-I..." Gamby looked at Akagi, who was still carrying Kaga, "I-I'll try and hold up your list, OK? I'll give you some of my damage control crews and they'll help! Alright?" The Carrier nodded as Gambier let her teams jump aboard. She tried to hold up the Carriers bulk, but it was an exercise in futility, as Shinano truly dwarfed the Casablanca. If she fully capsized, Gambier was fairly sure she'd get dragged down too. Still, her presence seemed to give her some sense of comfort, and the Carrier seemed to slowly calm down as Gambier's damage control teams got back to her over radio, having been quickly read-in by Shinano's crew.
"She took bad hits, but it's containable. We're sealing off the sections now, luckily her old Battleship belt-armor took a good amount of the damage, it's only as bad as it is because she keeps forcing more water in with her movement, get her to stay still!"
While Gambier tried to talk the practically gibbering Support Carrier down, USS Taylor reported to her Division leader.
"Three of the Sonar contacts are scurrying off! They must have gotten scared by the charges!"
Houston nodded, her face stony, "And the fourth?"
"Hasn't moved, She might be sinking, we're gonna give it another pass to finish it o-
The Ka-Class submarine, the right side of her face a crumpled-in mess from a depth-charge hit, rose up out of the water next to Shinano and Gambier, torpedo in-hand as it made a mad lunge-
-A Potato struck her in the forehead, spattering against her hull and shocking the submarine into hesitating for a split second, long enough for the Carriers to react, one of them rather violently.
"KYAaAH!" 'SPLAT."
...
...
Gambier Bay wiped the oil out of her eyes, then picked a stray piece of ruptured pipe out of her hair. looking at where the Ka's upper...Everything had been. "W-Wow..."
Shinano just shivered, the back of her right arm-bandages coated in oil and other fluids, from where she'd back-handed the Abyssal submarine out of fear, with the force of over 70,000 tonnes.