Mae stood at her desk, her chair, a sturdy yet fashionable construction made out of mahogany, pushed away up against the wall as the Hime looked over the map she'd laid out.

"So you disengaged East of Dalupiri Island?"

Roga nodded, her massive flight deck bobbing oddly as its tentacles swayed. "Aye, Mae-Sama, we made a brief stand here," She pointed to a specific spot near the Bashi Channel, "But we were outmatched, their guns had range on us for a good long while before we could bring our own to bear, and they had a significant air complement, more than I've ever seen."

"Zero's?" Mae inquired.

"Aye, Wildcats too, oddly enough."

"Wildcats?"

"I only saw them near the tail-end of the battle, but they were running a CAP near the main enemy Carrier group. My Submarine's said they spotted a silhouette that matches a Casablanca when they got close enough, the main problem was the Battleships."

Mae's mouth twisted, "Regardless, you can tell me what you think of the enemy fleet composition later, what happened next? Once you disengaged?"

Jillian spoke up then, a half snarl marring her features, "She led them right to me, is what happened!" She stepped forwards before the Wo could make a retort, stabbing a finger down on the map, "First sign we had of trouble was Roga and her pet Nu-class Carriers on the horizon, steaming East like her rudder was on fire."

"Like you'd have done better." Roga spat.

"Could've, would've, maybe if you had actual pickets and not half-drunk idiots on a cliff you'd have spotted them further out!"

"How could we have known the Japanese would finally find their bal-"

"Enough."

The words, softly spoken, still brought both capital ships up-short. Mae looked at both of them, making sure to catch both of their eyes with her own, before speaking, "What happened next?"

"I thought that she was making a play on my territory, traditionally, she's kept to her patch near the channel, hitting Taiwan, and I've kept to mine. We've had disagreements though, in the Captains meetings in Dongsha, so I thought she was finally deciding to get shooty about it."

The Ta crossed her arms, the long sleeves of her kimono hiding her hands completely. "I had half my fleet deployed to face her by the time we saw zero's coming in. We were out of position, and had to wheel to face them." She turned her head, perhaps to spit off to the side, before thinking better of it. "I don't know what human-shaggin' asshole it was piloting those planes, but she was good, too damn good. What airforces I had were thrashed, even with what was left of Roga's flight, we only barely held'em off long enough to scatter south, into the Northern Philipines. We bunked out overnight along the coast, among the shallows and grotto's, and when morning came we sent out a few scouts."

Roga jumped into the conversation again "They'd moved on, headed East, towards Dongsha, if there are any fleets staying there right now, well, alone they won't do any better than we did, and we were thrashed. We were in no condition to help, so we cut our losses, collected our dead, and steamed here." She shrugged, "We figured you'd at least appreciate the dead hulls we brought, enough to let us move through your territory, at least. Though we'd prefer to stay. We don't have the strength anymore to make it through the Banda arc, and I'd like to not get a torpedo up my aft trying to pass by Singapore."

Mae drummed her fingers on the table silently, looking over the map where the two Abyssals had indicated, "And your sure they are headed East?"

"Aye."

Mae looked up, "The only thing aside from Dongsha that lies in that path is the Battleship-Hime, New Jersey."

Roga scoffed, "That bint? She finally piss someone off enough to get a fleet sent after her? Good news if I ever heard any. I've had one or two ships in my fleet that were runaways from her, nothin' good to say about that one."

"And what happens when that fleet is successful?" Mae asked, "Do you think they will just pack up and... leave? Go home?" She shook her head at the confused capital ships.

"They will try to keep the ball rolling, will try and clear the South China sea while they are out and about. This sounds like a multinational effort, American planes means American ships, working alongside the Japanese, who haven't moved on the Philipines in-force since-" Mae stared for a moment at the wall, were her broken trophy's were on display, "...Since Manila."

She shook herself, getting back to the matter at hand. "We need these Kanmusu weakened, if not outright sunk. We need their fleet in such disarray that the last thing on their mind is continuing their sweep after they destroy Jersey's fleet."

Jillian grunted, "Bailing out Jersey huh? Suppose it would be too much for her to be grateful?"

Roga cast a disparaging glance at the Ta, "She said 'after' ya trussed-up tub." She looked at Mae, "What's the plan?"

Mae smirked slightly, glad to have someone paying attention, before she pointed at the coast of Vietnam. "I'm due to ship a load of un-activated hulls to Vietnam, for Jersey to replace some catastrophe or another she had sacking some human settlement. I've received payment, as well as a small group of barely seaworthy hulls that Jersey didn't scrap for whatever reason."

"They've been quite forthcoming with their information, not that they know much. Jersey has an end-game coming, and soon. That, paired with the Kanmusu fleet en-route? A confrontation is inevitable, now, let's say the shipment... doesn't arrive?"

Roga leaned in, intrigued, "A double-cross?"

Mae simply shrugged, "I don't see why I can't tell you, you've already just as well declared for me..." Mae turned, looking out the window, "Jersey was a scarecrow, a strawman of my own making. She'd have never become as threatening on her own as she did with my ships."

"Then why support her? She's completely bonkers! A madwoman!"

"A mad-woman that paid her bills." Mae said, "And regardless, her true purpose was always to scare the other fleets, attack them, absorb them, frighten them into buying more and more hulls of their own to defend themselves from her. There's no need now, the Kanmusu will fill that niche rather nicely in-place of Jersey."

Jillian slowly un-crossed her arms, voice tinged with dawning realization, "That big purchase, Captain Dalia and Whillmein made a year ago, when Jersey burnt the Eastern fleets to ashes..." Jillian's eyes widened, "That was all planned, by you. Wasn't it?"

"Fear breeds conflict, and conflict breeds Abyssal ships, or at least, the need for them." Mae said, "Rather than finding a need to fill, I simply created one."

Roga shook her head, "All that's fine and all, but that doesn't answer the question of what to do about that Kanmusu fleet!"

"Simple, we hold off on the shipment, until one side or the other is exhausted, then simply... deliver them."

"I'm assuming there's more to it than that."

Mae didn't answer directly, but instead walked over to the left wall of her office, where she picked a torpedo off of the ornate rack it rested on, "Tell me, what is this?"

Roga looked at the explosive warily, "A torpedo?"

"A Mark forty-eight homing torpedo." Mae flipped open the loosened hatch, showing the innards of the inert explosive.

"That's... I've never heard of those, where's the propeller?"

"It uses waterjets, as to where we found it, a... friend of mine kindly dropped off the specs for them a few weeks ago, when she wanted a Ri-class refitted to have them. We began mass-production shortly after."

"A few weeks? You're saying you have Destroyers armed with these... things, already?"

Mae's smirk turned to a frown, "No. That would require far more time, my Destroyers are too specialized to refit now in any appreciable timeframe for this operation, no, for this, we will be using PT Imps."

"Those little bastards? You're wasting these new wonder-weapons on them?" Jillian said, before catching herself, "Uhm, I mean, Miss Crizzette-Hime."

"My drydocks can construct a PT Imp from scratch within mere days. A PT boat built anddesigned to carry these MK 48's, they will be cost-effective, deadly, and replaceable. The torpedo's will be the most expensive thing about them."

"That's... So the shipment will be full of activated PT boats?"

Mae let out a rare smile, "Oh no, the shipment will, unfortunately, be sunk on-route by these new horrors, which will then disperse, continuing their trail of destruction along the coast, and, should they happen to run across Jersey's fleet or the Kanmusu coming to destroy her after the fact, well..."

She turned to the two ships, spreading her arms in a 'what can you do?" gesture.

"That's just unfortunate circumstance, isn't it?"