Naval Military Region 3 Command, Da Nang
The offices were a bustle of activity, technicians and radio operators keeping the volume of the room at a dull roar as they communicated with units in the field. This was the local seat of the Vietnamese command, where the highest-ranking officers planned to counter, or at least slow, the Abyssal advance.
The center of the room was taken up by a large table, charts and maps detailing the regions around the province. around it stood several officers, including the Lieutenant-general Thái Đại Ngọc, Trinh Dinh Thach, and Admiral Dai Ky.
The Admiral, a small woman with American features, paced slightly, nibbling at a thumbnail, "And you are certain they were to take the northwestern route?" She asked, not looking up from her pacing.
The ground force VPA general next to her, a slightly overweight man in his sixties, wiped his reading glasses off with a cloth, before leaning in to look at the map more closely.
"As certain as I was when last you asked, five minutes ago." He leaned back, "You must calm yourself, I'm sure we will receive word from your subordinate Ky Hoa soon. In the meantime, the defense of the city limits are our top priority." He answered, squinting at the indicated location, before looking to his side, craning his neck to look down at the short woman next to him.
"Bah! I suppose you are right, though it does not stop my worry." Dai Ki said, stopping her constant pacing to her straighten an askew service ribbon, before beginning to fiddle with the ship-steel blade sheathed at her side, a small, largely ornamental dress sword. "Where the hell are you Abbie, Ky Hoa...?" She said, too quietly to hear.
Thach made to speak, but the political commissar quieted when a harried young man, holding a small sheaf of papers, almost ran over the Admiral, entering the room from the hall outside.
He brought himself up short, leaning over the Admiral for a moment due to momentum, before managing to straighten himself.
"Sorry miss!" The man, clearly in over his head, looked at Thái Đại, "I was told to bring news to the commanding-"
Dai Ky narrowed her eyes, putting both bands on her hips.
"To me, it's 'sir' or Admiral, ensign, you should know this. Now, what is it?" She interrupted.
The ensign, realizing the obvious error, performed a hasty salute after finally seeing the rank patch on the girl's shoulder.
The fact that she was wearing her Rigging honestly should have been a clue. There weren't many flag officers who sported a chimney on their back.
"S-sorry Admiral!" he handed over the papers, still saluting with the other hand, "We have received reports from the front line, enemy forces have begun a general advance all along the lines, the Major in charge of the Bắc Trà My District reported unusually heavy enemy presence as well, moving northeast." He finished.
Trinh Dinh Thach, a rather square-set man with a mole on his left cheek, sucked in a breath, before looking at the provincial map.
He pointed at the mentioned district, tracing a line to the coast north of the city, "They are attempting to encircle us, cut off any potential evacuation..." He looked at Dai Ky, "And you say a large naval force was spotted?" He asked.
The Edsall-class nodded once, idly dismissing the messenger, "Yes," she turned, circling an area of coastline already marked with a series of thumbtacks, "some of the spotters I had placed along the coast reported back, apparently the Abyssals are moving a heavily escorted CV Battlegroup along the coast. Along with the new intel, likely its purpose is to decrease flight times in support of their coming ground push."
The general, squinting again in thought, leaned against the table, boring a hole into the map as if doing so would reveal its secrets. "Surprising that they would endanger their air support by coming so close." He said.
Dai Ky shook her head, sending the ribbons of her hat fluttering, "Not really." She nodded towards the marked enemy positions, "The men were unable to get a proper count of the enemy fleet, but from rough estimates, it looks like the majority of the Battleship-Hime's sea-locked forces are taking part." That got some surprised and concerned looks as the Admiral continued, "Over two hundred individual craft at last count, mostly Destroyers and Imp PBR's, but plenty of CL's as well. All escorting a pair of standard Carriers."
There was a short moment of silence at the estimated count of their enemy. The general swallowed, hard, before speaking, leaning in so as not to alarm the men around them.
"That's far more than we can handle. We can't even hold our main battle lines inland, a flanking naval force of that size..." He nodded at the city, as if to indicate its impending loss.
A technician, stooping low, whispered something into the Frigate's ear.
Dai Ky, surprisingly, let out a short grin, "Luckily, we may not have to." she looked up at the two ground commanders, "We've received communications from the east. The Japanese are closing in with their American allies." She said, slightly smug to be the one delivering the news.
The commissar frowned, "And you think we can count on their help in this?" The squarish man rubbed his chin in thought, brows scrunching, "Their main goal is recovering the Chitose and... sundry, is it not? Who is to say they will not simply leave once they achieve that objective?"
"Of course we can count on them. Vice Admiral Nagato of the JMSDF may be in command, and I would never trust the woman alone in the same room as me or the Admirable's, but she is not one to leave an ally to founder, besides..."
The short Destroyer escort grabbed a few red thumbtacks, sticking them into some coordinates off the coast, to the northeast.
"They are mere hours from getting within shore bombardment range, with..." at this, her voice faltered briefly, "with Ky Hoa and Pham Ngu Lao a no-show, along with their... VIP" her mouth downturned briefly, "They will be forced to wait for them, and thus weather the storm with the rest of us."
She grinned a bit bitterly now, "Even if they wanted to avoid conflict, which, considering Iowa is there, is unlikely, the Abyssals will doubtlessly force the issue." She began to walk off, heading to where the long-range radio sets were, "I'll fill the coming Kanmusu Battlegroup in on enemy positions, hopefully we can rope them into an offensive action to save a few of our rotten hides."
The general watched her go, before turning to the others.
"Hmmph" he placed his knuckles down on the table, leaning forward, "regardless, we need to increase combat patrols in the meantime, Abyssal fast movers have been pecking at our perimeter defenses, staying out of range of any appreciable amount of AA we can put together to shoot the little bastards down." He looked at the small group expectantly.
Another officer, this one with the blue patch and red shoulder lapels of an air-force lieutenant general, stepped forward.
"The 940th, 375th, and what's left of the 929th are ready to start running regular combat patrols to counter them, but we have to reserve any ground strikes for those crazies from Xuyen. Our regular fighters have had negligible effectiveness against the Abyssals... ground troops." He finished with a wince.
The commissar made to spit off to the side, but thought better of it, instead twisting his mouth into a snarl/wince, "If they didn't have some of the oldest planes in service and the knowledge to use them I'd have had them incarcerated, along with the desperate fool that decided to arm a civilian group with enough munitions to blow up half a town." He ground out.
The VPA general made a limp shrug, "Well, that desperate fool is dead. And they DO have the knowledge to fly those old junkers, so we will simply have to make do, won't we?"
Meanwhile, several hundred miles East:
Nagato cut the channel, after exchanging final pleasantries with the commanding naval officer in Da Nang. The relief in her voice had made the BB question silently to herself just how dire things had gotten.
She looked back at Kongou and Iowa, who had been listening in on the situation report, as well as I-401 and Akagi.
"So, it looks like we'll be arriving just in time, ne?" Kongou said, grinning a little uncertainly.
Nagato nodded seriously, "So it would seem." She looked down at the rushing surf at her be-ruddered feet, brow furrowed. "The timing is perfect... suspiciously so," she eventually said.
Iowa scratched at her blonde locks, "How do yah figure that Naggie-chan?" She asked.
Said 'Naggie-chan' elected to ignore the nickname this time, though her serious look now sported a small twitch, "There's no way our approach went un-reported, Akagi may have shot down several Abyssal scout planes mere hours ago. But even more managed to escape her," she turned to look at Iowa, "if the Abyssals think their enemies are about to receive reinforcements, an all-out attack with the goal of knocking out the port before we arrive wouldn't be all that far-fetched."
"You think this attack was triggered by us?" I-401 asked, looking up at the surface ships from just above the surface as she cruised beside them.
Nagato rubbed one of her turret barrels, which had swiveled under her hand like an armrest, "It very likely influenced the Battleship-Hime's decision to attack now, yes." She patted the air consolingly at the looks of discontent, "Whether or not that's the case, our orders stand. It is clear the Battleship Him-"
Iowa frowned, not meeting anyone's gaze for a moment, as she interrupted the black-haired BB, "Just say her name Nagato, we all know who it is," Iowa said, sounding serious for once, even using Nagato's actual name.
Nagato nodded wordlessly, before continuing where she left off, "...Clear that New Jersey, has made Da Nang her target. And if we are to extract Chitose as well as USS Georgia we'll have to help repel their assault." Iowa brightened at the confirmation of impending combat with her sister's forces, as Nagato carried on, "The Vietnamese have passed along enemy movements, and it looks like the lions' share of Abyssal ships are moving up the coast from the south, while their ground forces move in from the west. Supported by a few Cruisers on foot."
Akagi blinked, a little confused, "Ground forces?"
Nagato waved away the question, "Not important, suffice to say the Abyssals have come up with some new horror that needs dealing with. I doubt they will become our problem land-locked as they are, however, what IS our problem, is the enemy Carriers."
Kaga's attention became laser-focused on Nagato as the BB continued, "They have two Wo-class standard Carriers, and from what intelligence we have, it's likely that they are based off of Essex. Expect Hellcat fighters, a lot of them." This got a round of nods from everyone, before she continued, "This, in addition to large amounts of land-based aircraft, means you will have your hands full in the air." She looked at CarDiv 1.
Akagi pumped a gloved hand in the air, "Yosh! No problem Nagato-Sama! Kaga and I will keep them busy for you!" She blinked, lowering her hand, "With Shinano, Gambier and Chiyoda's help, of course," she finished, risking a glance back at the other bird-farms further back in their formation.
Kaga nodded stoically in agreement, "Together, they will be no match for us." She cocked her head, letting her side-tail hang low, "What of their surface fleet? Intelligence suggested New Jersey has a large force of Battleship's, did it not?"
Nagato nodded, "They have yet to be spotted, though they have been committing frequent fire missions against Vietnamese positions over the past few days," she crossed her arms, "It's very likely they will be hanging back further down the coast, ready to zero-in on coordinates provided by the heavily escorted CV Battlegroup."
"That amount of light craft... they may try to bog us down. Open us up to torpedo strikes from their DD's."
Iowa, however, shook her head, "That doesn't sound like New Jersey, she'd want to be closer to the action than that." The American Battleship crossed her arms under her chest, looking pensive, "Are you sure she hasn't been spotted? That stupid tiara she used to wear is hard to miss, if the evil alter-ego version of her even still has it that is," she finished.
Nagato simply shook her head in the negative, as Kongou spoke up, placing a finger to her lower lip inquisitively, "Hmm, so from my understanding, there may be a large group of capital ships beyond the main force, bereft of most of their escort craft, and without any ASW equipment..." She nudged I-401 gently with her leather boot, getting the boat's attention, "I'm giving you a lead-in to the conversation dess!" She stage-whispered at I-401 through the corner of her mouth, loudly.
The other capital ships looked at the large Submarine, who wilted for a moment under the sudden attention, before shaking her head, rallying even as a wave broke over her head.
"If we can circumnavigate the main enemy force, we can check over the area with our floatplanes. Even if the enemy BB's aren't there, it will still put us on the Abyssal force's flanks." Shioi said, miming a backstab to communicate the advantage it would give.
Nagato nodded, considering, "It's likely our Carriers will remain busy containing the enemy CV group, they are likely to stay within their considerable escort's AA, so we will have to try and contain their aircraft with air superiority fighters until we can weaken the defensive screen through surface action." Nagato looked at I-401 again, "If you can get a few of your Submarines to pick at the enemy group, get the DD's to chase you and isolate themselves..."
The Submarine nodded appreciatively, "It will leave them open to air attack, doable, though I don't think Maruyu will have the speed to pull it off."
Nagato didn't shrug, but it was a near thing, "Her cargo is far more important than any damage she may potentially do to a few DD's. She can help the most by guarding the main CV group along with Kongou and Desdiv 6." She looked at the Battleship apologetically, "I'm sorry, but-"
Kongou simply waved off the concern, "Oh don't worry dess! I know my limits, I'm a particularly slow Battlecruiser, I'll keep the fly-girls safe and free you and Iowa up for engagement neh?" She gave a thumbs-up, winking.
Nagato smiled, relieved at her easy acquiescence, "Thank you for understanding," she looked back at the group, "Hopefully, by the time the coming battle ends, we'll be able to get a proper lead on where exactly Chitose is, as well as the... as well as the USS Georgia" She caught herself.
Iowa shrugged, mind far more occupied with the thought of impending conflict with her twisted little sister, "I'm sure they're fine, how much trouble could a Kanmusu get into on land, anyway?"