With Ta-01:

01 came over the lip of the rocky outcropping, pulling herself over the edge, she quickly turned and gave a hand to the Ne-Class Cruiser behind her, lifting the ship up over the rocks.

"I've discovered that I absolutely despise climbing." 01 said irritably, still slightly shaking from where she'd almost lost her footing.

"No kidding, one slip and we'd have been a scrap pile at the bottom like Tsu-12." the Ne replied, dusting herself off.

They'd finally found a pathway up the other side of the ravine, or, well, most of it. An earthy ramp, created by a landslide due to erosion, had given them the means to easily climb most of the way up, only giving way to sheer rock at the last ten or so feet. Now with them both over the lip they cou-

'Crack!'

The two ships scattered backward briefly as pebbles and dirt sprayed out from the lip below them. Ta-01 carefully moved to the lip, leaning over.

Ru-08 reared back again, lit up in the darkness by Ta-01's searchlights, before driving her Rigging once again into the rocks in front of her. The Rigging sank into the cliffside effortlessly, sending another cascade of rocks and displaced earth scattering around her.

"What in God's name are you doing!?" 01 called out, getting the Battleships' attention.

Ru-08 shook her massive arm-mounted Rigging up at the Ta, "You think I can fucking climb with these?!" she stepped into the massive hole she'd created in the rock face, leaving Ta-01's sight, before rearing back and driving her Rigging into the roof of the hole, "I'm making a goddamn ramp! Step back unless you wanna fall in!"

01 quickly stepped back as the grassy dirt began to be displaced at the lip of the cliff face. Gradually, the ground gave way, revealing Ru-08's blue bridge lights even as the dirt showered the grumbling standard.

"Stupid rocks, stupid jungle, stupid goddamn DIRT!" She pummeled the ground ahead of her, flattening it and extending the freshly created ramp. The Ru then simply walked up the freshly packed earth to stand next to the other ships.

...

There was a moment of silence.

08 gestured into the forest, "Well!?"

01 startled, "Right!" she started off, the other two ships falling into line behind her as they plowed through the dark undergrowth.

"The cannonfire came from East of here," 01 said, brushing a massive fern out of her way, "If the rest of the fleet isn't there, we can at least pick up their trail."

"I've been trying to reach Ri-04 or Tsu-18 for a while now." The Ne said, "I haven't had any luck."

"You haven't tried the Re?" Ta-01 asked, stepping around a palm tree as she plowed through a bush.

The Ne shook her head, one-eyed gaze blinking as she replied, "Hellno, I'm having as little to do with that girl as possible. Less chance of being eaten that way."

Ru-08 grunted, "Fine you pussy, I'll do it."

While the Ru tried to contact the Aviation Battleship the rest of the ships fell into the easy silence of travel. Concentrating mostly on keeping their feet on the uneven terrain of the deep jungle at night.

It was far from quiet. The calls of nocturnal birds and the constant buzz of the local bugs making a white noise to fill the silence when Ru-08 stopped trying to raise the other fleet elements.

"Hey, watch out." Ta-01 turned to the Ne, who gestured off to the side, "over there." The other two ships turned to see a snake staring at them from the lower branches of a tree 01 was about to pass, it had brown blotches bordered in black down its back, though it was difficult to tell at first, lit as it was by the glow of their searchlights. Its tongue flicked out, tasting the air, before it slowly continued its decent down the tree, quickly disappearing into the undergrowth.

It was at least fifteen feet long.

"What's the matter, afraid of snakes?" 08 said mockingly.

The Ne turned back to her, "So that's what those things are called?" she turned back, to look at where the creature had gone, "Huh. Seen 'em around, didn't know what to call 'em."

08 shrugged, the movement akin to a rolling mountain of metal as she started walking again, "The bigger ones make for good eating. You can stick them through with a branch once you gut them and cook it over a fire, tastes alright, ribs are fiddly though."

Ta-01 hurried for a moment to get ahead of the others again, before calling back, "I've been more partial to the Water Buffalo myself, a lot less difficult to acquire, and it has more meat on it."

"Yeah, lot of them are full of that shit the planes spray everywhere though, hate finding tumors when I cut one open." the Ru stepped over a particularly large rock, deciding not to raise a racket by smashing through it so she could be heard more clearly, "I mean, I eat them anyway, but picking the damn things out is tedious."

"I've tried those leggy-snake things near the Delta," the Ne said, catching a branch as it sprung at her from 01's passage ahead of her, "a sister ship called them 'Monitors' but I think she's full of bilge, didn't look anything like a river boat."

"She wasn't yanking your chain, that's the actual name of it, it's a type of lizard."

"Huh."

The easy chatter continued for another hour, interrupted only by when they had to concentrate on the terrain. Eventually, they saw the first signs of battle.

"Hey, look!" The Ne said, pointing at a bifurcated tree, the splintered stump clearly destroyed by recent cannon fire, "We must be getting close!"

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"08, try the radio again, both of you, keep your searchlights on a swivel." 01 said shortly, scanning the forest ahead in the direction the tree had been shot.

They found the trail of destruction the shell had made, apparently it had been an AP shell, and had crashed through several trees on its downward trajectory. They walked cautiously in the direction it had come from, seeing more and more signs of destruction as they progressed, soon, the dense forest gave way to an artificial clearing.

It had been created by shellfire.

"Sixteen inch HE shells," Ru 08 said, glancing into a crater nearby, "has to have been for this much damage."

"Spread out, look for anything metallic, there's no way this many shells were fired without connecting with something." Ta-01 said quietly, moving away from the other two Abyssals as she scanned the ground. The other two followed suit, moving away from each other as they searched the area.

"Hey!" The Battleship's looked over, to see the Ne holding something, "Found a turret!"

"What caliber? One of ours?" 01 asked.

"Looks like it was a 5", it's pretty mangled though..." the Ne looked more closely at the twisted machinery in her hands, "Looks Japanese whatever it is! Didn't that Tender we spot have a Japanese silhouette?"

"Yeah..." 01 finally got close enough to take the piece of twisted metal out of the outstretched Cruiser's hands. She looked it over, noting the battle-damage, "Looks like it was torn off right where it would sit in the barbette," she turned it over, "definitely Japanese, look here," she showed the other ship the Kanji written against the casing, "this was a 12.7cm"

The Ne opened her mouth to reply-

"GIRLS!" Ru-08's voice practically thundered, GET THE FUCK OVER HERE!"

"What is it now?" 01 said, dropping the turret as the two ships moved towards where Ru-08 had gone.

"I found 18," The Ru said, sounding a little... off. The other ships came to her side silently, looking down at the unrecognizable twisted mass of girders and stripped superstructure at the Ru's feet.

"T-Thats... 18?" The Ne said shakily, kneeling down for a closer look, "There's, there's nothing left of her!"

That wasn't strictly true, there was a great deal left of the ship, but it was mostly the inner compartments, bent and twisted, bereft of structural support as the outer hull and struts had been mostly pared away, leaving the Cruiser a mere skeleton of metal beams and bare rooms.

Ru-08 wordlessly pointed at one of the few intact sections of hull, where, in black numbers, was the Light Cruisers hull number, "They, skinned her," the Ru looked back, eyes perfectly round in barely concealed fright, "Why would they skin her?"

…

"L-lets keep moving, there has to be more if they had the time to do...this." Ta-01 started to walk away, before stopping and looking back, "come on, I..." she looked at the remains and shuddered, "I don't think its a good idea to spread out anymore."

08 and the Ne looked at each other, then back at the corpse, before scurrying after the Fast Battleship.

They found the next body a few minutes later, this time it was the Ri, 04.

She had been mangled as well, though, comparatively, she was in slightly better condition than 18.

Mostly because she was recognizable.

Her head had been caved in from behind, and from the shape of the impact and the damage on the arm lying a few feet away from her, the weapon that had caved her bridge in was obvious. Her outer hull had been stripped as well, though it left her upper body relatively intact, a large hole burrowed into her side as well, exposing her boiler room.

Of the boilers themselves, there was no sign, though from the cut pipes leading to where they would have been, it was obvious that they'd been cut out.

"D-did t-the Re go nuts on them or something?" The Ne asked shakily, looking around nervously.

"Wouldn't doubt it, that damn thing! I knew you should have refused to let her tag along! I fucking... knew... it." 08 had whirled to yell at Ta-01, but trailed off as her spotlights illuminated the area behind the Fast Battleship. And Ta-01 was treated to the first look of pure, un-masked fear she'd ever seen on the woman's face.

She turned to look at what had the Standard so spooked.

…

"J-jesus."

They'd found the Re.