With Georgia:

I slammed my head repeatedly onto the desk in front of me, not full-force, of course, but enough to create a resounding 'crack!' as my bridge reverberated off of the lacquered wood.

"Why is it asking me for my launch date agaaaaain!? This is thethird-page that's asked me for that! Isn't there, like, a stamp I could use?!"

Hakone scratched her head next to me, her own form laid out in front of her, "I just wish I could understand what they're saying, they made these forms in English, and I can understand most of the words, but together they make no sense!"

"I don't find them all that complicated, actually..." Diane said cautiously, pointy-legs crossed daintily as she went over the legalese on her stack.

"Oh, of course, the British boat can understandye olde English," I said somewhat smarmily, as I lifted my head from my latest bout of percussive therapy.

Chitose, meanwhile, was still talking to the Admiral on the phone, taking the chance provided to catch up with the old bird. At least, that's the vibe I got. I turned the page idly, fanning myself with it, before something caught my eye.

"Oh god damn it, girls." The three other Abyssals looked over to me, "These things are double-sided."

Hakone looked back at the first filled-out page, turning it over to see an entire wall of text, with several blank spaces for filling-in, "Oh."

I threw my head back in despair "Reeeeeeee~!"

With Chitose:

The Admiral had filled Chitose in on the happenings since she'd last heard from her, and the conversation had slowly steered toward more informal subjects.

"So Houshou is finally seeing someone, is she? It's about time, she's too sweet and works too hard to not have herself a man, what's he like?"

"I don't know, as I've never met him myself, from what I've been told he's the manager of a small firm downtown, he's old too. I think she mentioned he was in his... early sixties?"

"But admiral, isn't that your age?"

There was a sputtering sound, "What!? No! I'm not even halfway to fifty yet! What makes you say that?"

Chitose twirled the phone cord around bashfully, "Well, you have a bit of grey hair..."

"And you have a full head of it."

Chitose pouted, "But that's my natural hair color!"

"I know I know... I'd put it down to stress, to be honest, I swear, every time a fleet sorties I get another grey hair in worry. And that's not even mentioning the crow's feet and creaky joints.Though that may just be the desk job catching up to me."

Chitose smiled, "That's why the Destroyers love you so much, Admiral, they know you care."

Keiko harrumphed over the line, "Well, I wish they'd love me a little less sometimes, a certain someone almost turned me into a red mist last week with a tackle-hug, I jumped out of the way and the lamp-post behind where I had been standing snapped-in-two."

Over the line, Chitose could here a distant yell, from the sounds of it, it was Shimikaze, "You dodged it! Let it go already!"

"I'll bring it up for as long as my spine is in danger of being turned into a fine powder, young lady!" The Admiral put the phone's receiver back to her mouth, "My age aside, and back to actual business, how is the paperwork going?"

Chitose looked back, and, upon seeing Georgia scree'ing at the ceiling, turned back to the phone with a sigh, "About as well as to be expected. To be honest, I was pretty surprised as well when I saw how much paperwork was involved, you must have gone to a lot of effort to get it all together!"

"Ha! No, no Chitose, the letter that I put together was only about four pages long. When the Chairman and CIRO were brought in on it, THAT'S when the sheets of paper started to pile up." The Admiral let out a sigh, "They had quite a bit to add in particular, personally, I think they are just trying to make themselves useful. Kami-knows there hasn't been much need or use for them so far in this war, with most Abyssal's complete disregard for discourse and natural EW abilities."

"Ah, well..." There really wasn't much to say to that, especially over a phone that would probably be sending a recording of the conversation to the agency in question.

"In any case, there should be a return fax number included in the mess somewhere, when you've completed the forms fax a completed copy off to me and have your... friends, keep the originals, as long as they have them it will keep the political vultures at bay. Long enough for Nagato to get there at least. Speaking of which, we need to come up with a rendevous point-"

At that moment the door swung open, admitting a slumped Lao to the room, who trudged over to an empty seat next to Chitose before plopping down and splaying out in a rather unladylike fashion, especially considering the skirt.

"Uuuurg..."

"Excuse me a minute." Chitose put a hand over the receiver, looking over at the slumped girl, "Trouble?"

The Frigate looked over, before giving a crooked grin, "Nah, relief." She straightened in her chair before continuing, "I was able to get on the horn with Vice Admiral Dai Ky herself, we were always expecting the Xuyen pocket to pop eventually, so there wasn't any real surprise there. But when I mentioned how we survived, she was... well, she thought I was full of crap at first, basically, when I told her about the Abyssals."

"That doesn't seem like something to be relieved about..."

"Yeah, I'm relieved, because apparently she received concurring reports from separate sources at about the same time, and then get this, a freakin youtube video-"

"The Admiral already told us about that." Chitose nodded towards her phone.

Lao made an 'O' of understanding before continuing. "But anyway, yeah, long story and boring conversation short, she's sending Ky Hoa and a few guerilla's to meet us on the trail near the Laotian border.

At Chitose's blank look the Frigate explained, "Ky Hoa is another Kanmusu, her launch name was USS Sentry. She was captured back in the day at the end of the second Indochina war, same as me and the Vice-Admiral. She was made as an Admirable-class mine-sweeper, though these days she sets more traps than she disarms. Regardless, she'll be helping sneak us the rest of the way to Da Nang"

Chitose grinned, before taking her hand off of the receiver, "Admiral, are you still there?"

"Of course."

"I think we found a good spot to meet the strike-force."

Lao looked at Chitose, puzzled, "Stike force? What strike force?"

Chitose grinned, "Ahh, If you thought you were relieved before..."

With Ta-01:

The Re-class ahead of her stopped suddenly, forcing her to cut power to her propulsion as well to avoid a collision in the narrow confines of the canal they were using, Ru-08, behind her, swore.

"The fuck is the hold-up?"

The Aviation Battleship turned, looking somewhat puzzled.

"Didn't one of you just call me?"

"I didn't say a word," Ta-01 looked back, "You?"

"Not a damn thing," Ru-08 said.

"Huh, could have sworn I could hear someone screaming my name, ah well, c'mon mister slithers! We got a traitor Ta to turn to tartine toppings!" Her 'tail' a monstrosity only slightly diminished by its still largely ruined hanger, seemed to nod, and the ship started forward again.

"Ru-08 and Ta-01 shared a glance, before Ru-08 muttered under her breath to the Fast Battleship, "Why'd you bring that basket-case anyway? She's nuttier'n squirrel shit."

"She's strong, capable, and she volunteered. I was a little afraid to tell her no..."

08 scoffed, "Typical."

01 simply shrugged, starting up her propellers as the group of Abyssals started off again up the irrigation canal towards the Cambodian border, "You tell her to turn back, then."

08's silence was telling.