AN:I'm frankly only doin' this AN so there's no indent thanks to the chapter scroll.
Enterprise had gotten Sheffield and Edinburgh's distress call while they were securing the second grouping of refineries. The broken artificial island's multitude of buildings were all rubble that remained after the initial Siren assault in the Pacific. The place had had a dam once, a massive construct of concrete that had kept the water out of the streets and provided the electricity needed for it to survive as its own thing, but that broke, flooding everything. The Dragon Empery and their supervising nation, the Chinese People's Republic, had had some fun building artificial islands pre-war.
Still, Enty had to admit, it was strange. Having to go fight in what was basically a Ghost town? She sat atop her rigging as it travelled forward, alongside her escorting destroyers, Cruisers and battleships, as well as their friendly neighborhood repair ship. Cleveland jumped onto Enty's rigging from hers, then said "Yo, Enterprise!" as she approached.
"Ah, Cleveland." Enty nodded, "Something up?"
"Just came to check up on ya, honestly." The girl smirked, arms crossed to her chest, "Glad to know you and Hornet are back to normal. Gotta say."
Enterprise smiled, "Trust me, I'm glad too. I'd suggest getting back to your Rigging though... We're closing in. We can talk more at base."
With a salute and a smirk, Cleve obliged, returning to her ship-form rigging as a thick fog began to set around the island. Enterprise felt uneasy, like something was bound to go wrong out here. Still, the fact of the matter was that they'd lost this place a long time ago, both to natural disaster and the Sirens' grasp. Few, if any craft were on her radars so far, mostly thanks to the fog, but she knew very well what may've been coming to intercept Sheff and Edinburgh.
She flicked on her coms system, then said "All ships, form around me. We're ditching radio silence... I'm pretty sure the Sakura are expecting us to be coming to get our girls."
Affirmative calls echoed over the radio from the whole battle-group. The Battleships rallied up as fast as their rigging forms allowed them, while the destroyer and Cruiser escort formed up in a wedge ahead of the line. She looked over the radar detection system once, more 'listening' and 'scanning' the skies herself for enemy aircraft. Indeed, she caught wind of several Zeroes as her picket of advanced warning Hellcats started taking shots.
"Enemy birds at one o'clock, scouting Zeroes," She reported, "Cleve... Anti-Air up."
"Ready to go! Come get some!" The big sis of the Clevelands arched her rigging's cannons upward, alongside the machine guns and quad-mounts, to greet any oncoming strikers with all the thunder she could get out. The heavy fog obstructed their vision, but they could see the remnants of the Chinese city, half-flooded and dead empty, the marks of the first Siren attacks still scorched into the old buildings. Gashes, broken glass, piles of rubble tall enough to be over the water.
She hummed, then squinted and looked up. Locking eyes, she met the sight of the first enemy aircraft to breach through, its engine a sharp, piercing scream as it dived toward them. She gasped, redirecting one of her second launched unit of fighters toward it and calling out, "OHKA! OHKA MISSILE, AT TEN O'CLOCK, OFF MY BOW! SCATTER AND ACTIVATE RIGGINGS!"
"JESUS FUCK!" Swore Nevada, veering off to the left as hard as her rigging could, with Enterprise veering her own rigging to the right while trying to activate it. The white-haired girl stared up, going bug-eyed as she saw them. Bloodshot eyes and a very strange uniform, not resembling anything in the Japanese arsenal of the Second World War. That was a human in there!
"They're..." Her mouth went dry as the sky lit up with anti-air fire from Cleveland and the other escorts, "They're using humans..."
"WHAT?!" Hornet balked. The girls watched the flying torpedo aim for Enterprise, its speed ever-increasing in its dive, the pilot's face morphed into a combination of ecstasy and fear, his eyes wide. Enterprise went full portside, almost veering onto Hornet herself and narrowly managing to avoid the Ohka's strike. The pilot had died on impact with the water. If he didn't, the explosion of the munition inside, one that kicked up a pillar of water thrice Enterprise's hull height, clearly did him in.
With eyes wide as saucers, Enterprise ordered, "Hornet! Get your fighters out as a screening unit! Nevves, divvy up, take the left! We'll be less likely to be hit if we don't travel in a full formation! And for the love of God, convert your rigging to mobility, now!" taking command as best as her shattered psyche could right now. She'd just witnessed a suicidal maniac throwing himself at them on board one of Imperial Japan's superweapons of ultimate sacrifice.
She shook it off, then said, "Enterprise, engaging!" as she let her rigging break apart and reform around her, into its standard configuration. The blue light gave other Ohkas above sight, of course. Soon, Enterprise caught five more of the damn things on radar, with her fighters now turning to intercept them, Zeroes be damned. The girl took the side of a terrified Cleveland as the girl fired a continuous stream of tracers and rounds into the sky.
"What the hell's gotten into them!?" She practically demanded.
Enty shook her head, "I don't know... Keep firing," and focused herself on directing her fighters. Two Ohkas got caught by a returning trio of Hellcats from Hornet's squadron, both of them careening into one-another and detonating mid-flight, low enough that shrapnel rained down onto them, scratching plating and armor and skin and leaving minor cuts. Enterprise scowled, then murmured, "I thought human-run vehicles couldn't damage us... Vestal!"
"I'm here!" The girl replied, her rigging's anti-air running over-time as she joined Enterprise on her advance toward the city.
"Can you get me a reading on this stuff? I thought human kit couldn't properly hurt anything Kansen-like..." She asked.
"When we get home, I'll try," She nodded, "For now, let's just focus on surviving."
The girls broke formation, dodging as at least four more Ohka missiles dived on them, followed by Dive-Bombers and even Zeroes raking them with machine-gun and cannon fire. Enterprise and Hornet's fighter cover worked tirelessly, shooting down whatever they could while Cleve's main guns fired a hailstorm of proximity flak rounds into the sky, fast enough that the barrels of her guns glowed by the point they'd broken through to the city.
"Cleve! That's enough!" Enterprise ordered, "Take Cassin and find Edinburgh and Sheffield in the ruins! Keep your eyes peeled!"
The girl nodded quickly, eyes still wide as she saw more Ohkas breaking through the fog and clouds. Enterprise turned to greet the incoming enemy, raising high her bow and launching two more squadrons to meet them. Fifty-Cals raked the targets and one of the flying bombs was even slammed into by one of the fighters, which caused its warhead to detonate, raining even more shrapnel down onto the girls.
"Jesus Christ, Enterprise..." Hornet said, "We have to get the hell out of line of sight! We got any idea what's launching these things!?"
"None! Radar can't reach through the cloud layer! If there's any Bettys around, they're staying high above!" The girl replied, launching another wave of fighters, followed by Hornet launching her own squadron. Enterprise looked to the girl and said "Get at least one Hellcat above the Clouds! Maybe we'll get LoS on the bastards then!" her voice hard, authoritative. She needed to get control back.
"On it, sis," The girl nodded, then she gasped as she heard the whistle of... "OH, SHIT!"
She shoved Enterprise out of the way as three high-caliber shells splashed into the water, detonating with all the force their payload entailed, washing the girls in the salty water of the Pacific. Enterprise growled, then redirected her squadrons as their destroyers maintained the screen, firing high their flak and STAR rounds. The Carrier hefted her bow again and launched a bomber squadron, if for nothing else than to track the enemy fleet.
High in the sky, the dozens of Aircraft launched by both sides' carriers were engaged in dogfights all across, above and below the cloud layer. One of Hornet's own fighters breached the clouds, speeding past the dogfighting Zeroes and its sister-craft, the automated systems aboard, all linked directly to Hornet, focused on finding out the bombing patrol that kept deploying Ohkas toward them. Indeed, dozens more missiles streaked through the sky ahead of it, bursting through the clouds, divided into two streams and aiming for both halves of the combined fleet.
Bursts of flak fire breached the clouds overhead. Some Ohkas caught blasts directly in the nose and either detonated or flew off-course, landing god-knew-where in the water. Still, the fighter found itself needing to bank through a swarm of Zeroes and Kate bombers, some of which it'd shot down with its already-limited supply of rounds from the last run through, to see them. Several Bettys still orbited the battlefield, manned aircraft from the looks.
... They were...
"Holy shit..." Hornet murmured, "Modified Bettys, flying at our three o'clock! It's like they're spawning those Ohkas outta thin air!"
"Well..." Sighed Enty, "Push through. Find their fleet," She radioed in, "Nevves... The moment you spot what's been raining artillery on us, I want you to put a full salvo into them! At least distract them enough until the fog breaks and we get to leave with Edinburgh and Sheff!" And she paused. An affirmative grunt, punctuated by gunfire, was all the answer Enterprise knew she was gonna get out of the girl for now. Instead, she focused.
The caliber of those shells. It was too familiar.
She looked to Vestal. Her friend seemed distraught as her AAA raked the skies and filled the clouds black and gold with explosions. The girl looked to Enty, gashes on her face and part of her clothing torn by the constant rain of seemingly volunteer-driven suicide jets. The girl swallowed empty, then said, "Enterprise. The Shells... Eighteen Inches," words to which Enterprise's heart stopped.
"No..."
Pushing through the deluge of shells and bombs, the girls had crested the rubble-filled northern coast of the artificial city-island's ruins with, so far, medium damage. Downes had gotten a near-miss with one of the massive hi-cal shells and was hobbling behind, being tended to by Vestal as Enty and Hornet pushed forward, Sammy close beside them. The Escort looked to the girls and said "I have a feeling..."
Enterprise raised a hand, showing them to halt as the artillery rain seemed to have halted. Ahead of them, two towering figures stood, obscured by the fog and followed by several dozen others, including one Enterprise recognized from among the fog, stating bluntly and angrily, "I see you in there, Taihou..." as she was the first to emerge. The red kimono-wearing madwoman smiled vilely at Enterprise.
"Good to see you too, my friend," She replied, her voice mocking.
"Who else did you bring with you this time...?" She asked, "Those eighteen-inch shells..."
"Oh, so she has figured it out, sister," A voice spoke from within the fog, smooth like silk and warm like early morning coffee, with a sprinkle of surprise.
"So it would seem, sister," Another replied, similarly welcoming, though a bit more brunt, rough. Joyous as well, clearly.
Two figures strolled forward into the light, their massive riggings hanging off their backs like walls of ever-shifting steel. Three massive turrets, each housing three eighteen-inch guns, were pointed at the pair of Carrier sisters and two pairs of amber eyes seemed locked onto them. Pale skin hid behind scarlet kimonos with black fur 'snakes' wrapped around their necks. Silver hair, caught in a classic Japanese topknot, with a fringe of hair over the right eye, the hairstyle was mirrored in her same-faced sister. One of their only differences, beside the eye make-up.
"Yamato... Musashi..." Enteprirse stood there, all color drained from her face and the faces of her comrades,
"Enterprise," The twins said creepily, in unison.
"It has been a while," Musashi spoke.
"We are glad you recognize us," Yamato added.
"... We saw you two sink..." Murmured Hornet from beside Enty, "We saw you two fucking SINK! When Ryoukou was hit in the first Siren wave! You told us to run!"
"Operation Ten-Go... Yes, we remember," Yamato nodded.
"Thankfully, it seemed as though our beloved pride of the Navy, both of them, were more resistant than some dumb alien creatures' weaponry," Taihou grinned deviously, "They returned to us and we nursed them to health!"
"Huh..." Enteprise didn't believe it. She remembered clear as day Yamato and Musashi's duel with Observer. The night sky was lit by a second sun that evening, as shell and bomb struck around the girls. They had fought bravely and heavily wounded Observer, but both had gone to the very bottom. She saw that through one of her her older Wildcats the whole ordeal, "... What now?"
"We will sink you," The two sisters voiced, yet again, together.
"Something's wrong with them," Whispered Hornet, "They're too synched up... Too... Alike... Musashi was way more brash than this... And Yamato...?"
"I know," Enterprise remarked, her mind focused on a little surprise she had left in the air not too long ago. She watched the sisters train their guns on her, while Taihou seemed focused on the bombers overhead as well. Good, meant she didn't notice Enterprise's own concentration on one particular squadron. She murmured to herself, "C'mon, McClusky... Don't fail me now, old friend..."
Gunfire echoed from the city's ruins. Tracers flew above and Enterprise could swear she heard Cleveland calling out to her. Artillery followed not long after, shells landing wide from the rear of the IJN fleet and almost striking a string of destroyers, among which Fubuki and Mutsuki. Thankfully, for what it was worth, Enterprise was glad to hear Nevves and her crew had found their way around, forcing the Yamato sisters to turn around.
She grinned, hearing the droning of the propellers through all the hellfire above. Their nose-mounted thirty-calls raked enemy aircraft as they dived in. McClusky, you old dog, your spirit was still a damn fine fighter. She wrapped her hands around Hornet, Sammy, Vestal and Downes and dragged them out of the area as the first bomb fell, skimming inches from Taihou's face and detonating just below the Carrier's fleet.
She staggered, sliding back onto the water, then growled as she patted down her singed kimono, crying out, "ENTERPRISE!" In a fit of rage. She had to dodge another bomb from the squadron, while Yamato and Musashi's Anti-Air opened up at the same time, filling the sky full of tracers. She sent VF-6 out to intercept the Bettys before they started throwing shit their way again, then barked, "Hornet! Doolittle, NOW! Cover our retreat and take out whatever you can!"
The blonde grinned, "Roger that!"
And soon, sixteen B-25 Mitchells lifted off, swiveling about in a swarm and high into the sky as they dropped their payload, creating a sort of water-spray cover that allowed the girls to all rally up. Enterprise voiced over Radio, "All units, all units, rally up east of the Island and let's get the hell out of here! NOW!" as they turned to the right. Enterprise summoned her aircraft back, those few she could after she got the report that most of the Ohka launchers had been dealt with. That was something to report to the Chief the moment they made it the hell out of dodge.
Enty and Nevves gave each-other nods as they met up, watching Cleveland, Cassin and their two mades, plus a third passenger emerge from the rubble, Sheffield and the Cleve firing toward a squadron of Destroyers, among which Yuudachi. The dog-eared girl growled at them, ducking behind the cover of a damaged pillar while the group escaped. Enterprise looked to the green catgirl hanging off of Edinburgh's shoulders and stated, "I'll ask later! Let's move!"
Shells whistled above, arching high into the sky. Detonations echoed around the group as they formed back up, with Enterprise calling over the radio, "This is Enterprise to Pearl, we're on our way out, Sheffield, Edinburgh and the ship..." She looked over to the girl, "Looks to be the Sakura's only repair ship, I think... Akashi... In tow. Requesting reinforcement and resupply in the south for the second group of enemy-owned stations."
"Roger, Lady Enterprise," Belfast replied graciously,
"Bel," Enty smiled, "Good to hear you,"
"Likewise. Chief's off on a mission with his team and Wales and Hood are away on their own jobs, so they left me in charge. The first Deuterium haul arrived not too long ago, so they thought to power their armors and head on out, investigate something," The Royal Navy ship explained, "I'll be asking Logistics to deploy a convoy and assist you girls... Anything important happen?"
"Quiet a lot," Replied the girl, looking at the battle-damage some of her teammates had sustained, including her sister and herself, "We'll give a briefing once we're back... Send the Logi to meet us near the first refineries."
"Roger that. Stay safe out there. Pearl, out."
That was the plan, Bel... That was the plan... Now, the Chief, on the other hand?
What the hell was he up to now?