With Ta-01

"I found them!" The Ri said excitably, "They are moving up the Northern channel!"

"Good work, girls lets get moving!" Ta-01 said, raising anchor as quickly as she could.

They had just gotten underway when the Ri spoke up again, "How?!" they turned to look at her, "they've spotted my recon plane! It's being chased by Japanese Mitsubishi's!"

Ta-01 swore uncharacteristically as 08 grinned "shit, and here you were, worried that I'D give us away, ha!"

"Shut your damn mouth standard, or the rest of us will leave you choking on surf while we get the fighting done without you." She turned to the fleet, "all ahead flank speed! The enemy knows we are here now! Keep your AA ready. She turned to the Tsu's as they began to pick up speed, "you two! When we start to get closer keep your eyes on the water for vapor trails, Japanese torpedoes have less of a bubble trail following them than American ones, so keep your eyes peeled!"

The ships nodded, and moved towards the front of the formation as the Re cruised next to 01, pouting, an expression that stretched the black, inverted American flag carved onto the left side of her face, "Maaaan, I wish I had my air compliment so much right now! A few piddly Seaplanes would be no match for my Hellcats!" The Battleship slumped, before brightening, "Oh well! That just means I have to get closer to them~!"

Ta01 just nodded in response to the eccentric Aviation Battleship, her coal Stokers working overtime to get her Admiralty boilers up to full-burn.

The time for hiding was over, and the chase was on.

With Georgia:

I'd submerged, I was faster underwater, able to accelerate to a good 24 knots as the other ships cruised ahead, Lao lagged behind somewhat, such that even I passed under her. I raised her on my hydrophones, "Can't you go any faster?" I said, perhaps a bit rudely, "Even I passed by you, and I'm a friggenSubmarine!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" The Frigate huffed, seemingly out of breath as she tried to keep pace with the rest of us, "I only have two Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines! I can barely clear 17 knots on my own!"

Well, that just wouldn't do! She'd get nailed by aircraft before we reached our disembarking point at this rate! Even Chitose was capable of going a good 28 knots, hell, ANNE, for all that she was the Carrier hull of our group, was capable of going over 30! Actually, that gave me a solution right there...

I raised Anne, "Anne, hon, you listening?"

"Y̴e̵a̶h̵?" The ship of few words said.

"Think you can steam full-bore with a Frigate over your shoulder?"

With Pham Ngu Lao:

I pushed myself to the limit, my firemen working overtime as I strained against my mechanical limits, this was ridiculous! Weren't small ships like me supposed to be faster!? Even Anne, the horrifying Abyssal-Amalgamation ship, was going faster than me! Though she seemed to be slowing down...

"What are you doing!? Don't worry about me just keep going!" I said, my lack of speed was my problem, not hers, I wouldn't drag the fleet down just because I was too slow to keep up-

The Carrier/Cruiser/Whatthefuckisthat ship got closer, having slowed down enough for me to catch up. "G̵e̸o̶r̴g̴i̸a̶ ̸w̵a̶n̸t̵s̸ ̵m̶e̶ ̶t̵o̸ ̶h̶e̸l̷p̴"

"What?" Was she going to try and tow me? "We don't have time for that! Getting me under-tow will take too long!" Not to mention it would probably snap my bow off.

The big ship didn't respond verbally, as she cruised in dangerously close, "What are you doing!? Are you asking for a collision!?" I said frantically, afraid to try and swerve away from the ship at this kind of speed.

Anne reached down and plucked me out of the water, lifting me up and setting me across her shoulder like a sack of flour, I flailed a little in distress as Anne began to pick up speed again, "Y̶o̸u̶ ̵a̵r̴e̴ ̶b̸e̷i̷n̴g̷ ̶h̸e̷l̵p̸e̸d̴,̷ ̷p̴l̴e̶a̸s̵e̵ ̵d̴o̷ ̷n̷o̵t̸ ̸r̵e̶s̷i̸s̶t̷.̵ ̵I̴f̶ ̷y̶o̷u̵ ̴k̸i̸c̷k̸ ̵m̵e̵ ̸I̷ ̸m̶i̵g̴h̴t̶ ̴d̵r̷o̴p̵ ̷y̴o̶u̴.̶" I froze, looking down at the water fearfully, even at this distance, if I hit the water with my full displacement at this speed I'd probably break something important. I craned my neck to look behind me, catching sight of Chitose's Zuiuns as they flew by.

There weren't all that many now, their number practically halved since I'd first met her, we really needed to get to a dock, for replacements if nothing else. God knew what would happen if the Abyssals used it though, hopefully it wouldn't make 'em spontaneously combust or anything.

Speaking of Seaplanes, "Anne!"

"Y̴e̵a̶h̵?"

"I'm gonna reposition! Grab my legs!" I squirmed, grabbing Anne's head awkwardly as I hooked my left leg over, coming around and repositioning myself into a more stable position, sitting on the ship's shoulders, Anne did as I had asked, stabilizing my legs with her hands as I readied my launch catapult.

"I'm gonna see if I can spot anything down-river!" I said into the radio, launching one of my remaining Seagulls, hopefully Chitose would be able to blind the enemy by taking out their spotting planes in the meantime.

With Georgia:

The recon craft had been chased off by Chitose's floatplanes, at least for now, and we made quick progress down the river, I was the last to arrive as we reached our destination, Lao had directed us into an unassuming tributary, where we carried on for a short while, the relatively open river giving way to bunched reeds and cattails so thick that several times we could barely see the water under us, we were forced to slow down, unable to maintain our speed as we wove through the snaking waterway. This carried on for twenty minutes before Lao called for a halt.

"This is where it turns into footslogging, girls! That way!" The Frigate pointed to an unobtrusive spot on the banks, where the grass was a little shorter than the surroundings. Chitose spent the time it took for me to catch up well, craning her Zuiuns back into her hangers as they landed nearby, barely enough room for them to set down in the waterway we'd gone through.

Lao was still clinging to Anne's head as she piggybacked on the much larger ship. Chitose was helped up onto land after a near stumble by Diane as Hakone held out a hand to do the same with me. I just quirked a brow at her as I floated over the massive clump of reeds in my way, Hakone pouted, I grinned.

Hoverchairs were awsome.

"Alright, we're on land, now what?" I said, wringing my soaked shirt absently. Mosquitos and blackfly's buzzed around us, some landing on our hulls briefly, before buzzing off again, probably not recognizing us as food with our low natural temperatures. Now that we weren't steaming full-bore and Chitose's planes weren't raising a racket with their propellers the place seemed... quiet, save for their buzzing.

Lao twisted in her 'seat' to look my way, "I have a Seagull in the air, looking around for anything downriver, flying fish don't tend to operate too far from their parent ship. There may be Abyssal surface ships coming up the Tonle San river from Pleiku." Lao looked down at the crown of Anne's head, "Can you... Can you set me down, please?"

Anne wordlessly reached up, grabbing the Frigate under the armpits before lifting her over her head, she set the slightly blushing ship down as Chitose raised a hand to her mouth and giggled.

"Did you enjoy the ride?" Chitose asked.

"No, it was terrible and I was fearing for my life the entire time. Now-!" Lao brushed her skirt off as she continued, "If there are Abyssals coming this far North, I can only imagine they are coming after us, if they are? Our best bet is to continue on foot, into the jungle." She pointed East as she continued, "We're almost smack-dab in the middle of Virachey National Park, its thick forest most of the way through leading into Vietnam, but I know there are a few paths that lead directly into the Trail, we make it to those? We're golden."

I looked out into the field, it was pretty open here next to the water, but I couldn't see more than twenty feet into the treeline, "That canopy will be hell on our Radar... but I guess that the point, huh?" I said.

"Yeah, all we have to do is keep low and slow and we should be fine from observation planes. Now come on!" Lao said, beckoning as she broke into a small jog, her form swiftly becoming obscured by the tall reeds around us, "The sooner we get under tree cover the better!"

We followed her in, and soon we were swallowed by the foliage.

With Ta-01

"I keep telling you! There's no way that they kept going downriver! We even checked with the spotters once their floatplanes fell back, nothing." 01 said, exasperatedly as she swiped a cattail out of her face, it sprung back, just in time to bounce off 08's nose, making the Ru sputter slightly, unable to stop it with her Rigging keeping her hands busy.

"And if they went into one of the other trib's?"

"They didn't, see here?" Ta-01 pointed ahead of her, where the reeds had been violently snapped and bent out of the way." They turned off into this one, I'd stake my hull on it."

"You fucking are staking your hull on it. Remember that." 08 said grumpily, nonetheless ceasing her complaints as the fleet of Abyssal ships continued, winding through the twisted waterway.

"Hold up!"

The ships froze for a second, before looking over at the Re-Class, both of her heads cocked in puzzlement as she looked at the ground off to the side. The ground was torn up, like someone had slipped going up the embankment. The childlike Battleship went over to look more closely, and could see that the reeds had been disturbed there as well, leading off into the forest. She looked at the other two capital ships, and her face broke into a wide smile.

"Looks like this just became a real game of 'hide or spring leaks!'"