Yet Still We Sail
Part 2
"They need us," Louise stated matter-of-factly, lowering the binoculars and staring out at the distant fight. "They will not make it otherwise."
If Lou's other friends were around, they would be able to tell that something was going on with her. Something about her current tone, the stare in her eyes… That did not feel like Louise at all.
"Don't worry Fletcher… We're coming," Tally said softly. "But how do we get down there?"
"A simple problem," was the reply from the French-American girl as she walked over to the railing, looking right down at the surface of the Pacific Ocean a good height down below. "Unless you're chicken."
The redhead looked at her companion, and her gaping mouth slowly turned into a manic grin. "But first things first, can I have my binoculars back?"
Quietly, Lou passed the binoculars back to Tally before stepping over the railing, hanging onto it as she waited for the other girl on the ledge. She was calm; too calm, in fact, given what the two girls were about to do.
"Our hulls will survive the impact," she commented nonchalantly.
"Of course they will," Tally replied, taking her binoculars and running them back to the Jeep. She took a moment to fiddle with the radio backpack. "Kay, Evans. The bombardment has ceased, but we can't be certain for how long. Lou and I have found some girls who need our help, and we're moving to assist. … of course. … we'll stay as safe as we can with all this going on. … You too. Evans out."
"Where is, repeat, where is Evans?" Lou snarked out loud meanwhile, getting impatient. "The world wonders."
"Reporting in, so that someone knows what happened when we get ourselves killed, dumbass," Evans snarked right back. The redhead set her binoculars down next to the radio, and took a moment to check her surroundings before she took off at a run, heading straight for the deck edge. She vaulted the chain railing with ease and tumbled down to the surf below.
Seeing the destroyer launch herself off the schoolship with ease and ahead of her, Lou frowned. "Tch. I wanted to go first."
With that, Tuckerman leapt off the edge as hard as she could, plummeting down towards the stormy Pacific waves.
Arriving at the ocean surface, Lou slammed onto the surface as if it were solid ground, the girl landing on her left foot, right knee and right fist with an impact that made her look like she was far heavier than a girl of her age. Or any human, for that matter. A large ripple on the surface caused by her spreaded out around her, the rear sides of it lapping onto the side of the Saunders schoolship while the rest spreaded out towards the open sea.
"Come on, slowpoke, hurry up!" a familiar redhead shouted from ahead, where she too was floating on the water without a care in the world. A metal contraption wrapped protectively around the girl's Sensha-do uniform, bristling with guns. Most prominent were four 5-inch guns, with a fifth held in her hands on a platform resembling a Thompson SMG.
"Wait," was the short, curt reply as the brown-haired girl slowly stood up, strangely completely unharmed by the landing, her eyes closed. Lou was now also carrying her own metal contraption, but this was bigger than Tally's, with different weapons mounted on hers. Paramount of these were the triple six-inch gun turrets that consisted her main armaments, two of them mounted on each side of the metal… equipment, supported by two twin gun five-inch turrets that made up half of the secondary weapons, one of them on each side.
Now properly standing up, Louise reached for her back, pulling out and revealing a fifth six-inch turret, mounted on a rifle body similar to a Browning Auto-5.
Holding it on her right hand, the girl finally opened her eyes, a cold, steely stare straight at the ongoing fight.
"I'm ready. All engines ahead flank."
"God… have you always been this slow?" Tally complained as she dutifully took vanguard position in front of Lou.
The light cruiser stared coldly at the destroyer, unamused.
"Hurry up, hurry up!" Tally insisted. "They need our help!"
"I cannot break the laws of physics," Lou growled. "Either you slow down and stay under my cover, or you can go right ahead yourself. Juvenile…" she hissed the last part quietly to herself. It seemed to do the trick, as Tally kept her position in front of Louise, quieting her complaints.
The sounds of gunfire continued to echo from the battle area, getting increasingly louder as the two girls approached.
"Your sisters and their friend are slipping up," Lou commented, pointing at the friendly ships ahead. "They're getting split up by the sheer number of those things. If they actually do get separated they're finished, and they don't even know they're about to be screwed over. But I don't blame them; they're destroyers. And this," she continued, targeting her main guns as a proud smirk grew on her face, "is precisely why you guys need me."
Tally gaped at the light cruiser. Then, with seemingly no way to respond to the jab, she keyed her radio. "USS Evans to USS Fletcher. I heard you could use a hand or two!"
"Evans?" Fletcher's voice filtered through the radio, occasionally punctuated by the firing of guns. "Thank god. Henley's badly wounded, and the rest of us aren't looking too hot either. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated!"
"It won't be much," Lou mused off-radio as she finely adjusted the four six-inch turrets mounted on her equipment, checking their targets both visually and on radar. "'Any assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated!' said the struggling destroyer to her similarly-armed sister, expecting her to be able to do something to save her three sisters and their buddy," she snarked, mocking what Fletcher had said to Evans. "But fortunately for you all…", she continued, a slasher grin growing on her face as she finally raised her rifle-turret, targeting it at a Nagara-class light cruiser firing incessantly upon a struggling Fletcher-class.
"... I'm a Brooklyn. Opening fire."
The light cruiser's 6-inches went off, three of the five turrets targeted at the Abyssal Nagara. The shells from the handheld turret streaked towards their target, the monster-esque light cruiser completely unaware of what was about to happen. Five of the shells missed, only proceeding to throw water up around their intended target, but the remaining four found their mark, the back mass losing focus on the friendly destroyer as a result. At the same time, the other six rounds had been targeted at an Abyssal destroyer a bit too close to one of the Fletchers, most of the shells missing as well. However, two of these shells managed to strike the black target, beginning to look like it was beginning to list heavily a few seconds later.
"I've gotten sloppy," Louise frowned, unsatisfied with the results. But now was not the time to analyze her shooting; instead, she finally decided to get on the radio.
"All vessels, this is the USS St. Louis. Come with me if you want to live."
"God, when did you become such a bitch? I liked you better when you were nice, and commanded Ace…" Evans muttered quietly. She finally broke formation and dashed ahead, bringing her much smaller guns to bear as soon as they had the range.
It was a poor showing, even compared to St. Louis's own sloppy gunnery. Shells landed all around her target, nowhere close to landing even a single hit. At least the other destroyers had managed to do some damage before they ended up in their current sorry state, laying smoke as they fled the battlefield towards the new arrivals.
"Sound the carillon! Church is in session!" St. Louis shouted out in what was starting to sound like her mainstay mocking tone as the four destroyers came steaming at best possible speed to her. "Report."
"Fletcher and Capps, moderate damage. John Henley is badly damaged and battling flooding. Hugh Hadley is minorly damaged and fully combat effective," Fletcher reported dutifully. "Hadley and I still have all of our torpedoes."
"Henley!" Evans cried, and she rushed over to help her sister. The wounded destroyer definitely looked like she needed the assistance, with one of her arms blown off at the elbow, her uniform torn to shreds, and a noticeable limp.
"Henley, stay back!" St. Louis ordered. "You're in no shape to go back in again. Capps, stay behind and look after her. Think you can do that?"
"Yes ma'am!" Capps said, snapping a salute. She maneuvered to take Henley from Evans' care. The redhead gave her sister ship a betrayed look as Capps pulled away with her twin, and then she shifted her attention, looking over at Fletcher and St. Louis. Awaiting for orders.
"The rest of you; listen close, listen hard," the Brooklyn-class light cruiser instructed. "Here's what I'm thinking; right now, that Kongo is our biggest threat. It also happens to be the most powerful ship of that fleet by a massive shot. So, if we can smack it with our torpedoes, we can severely damage or even sink it, and that will definitely force the rest to retreat. 'Cos let's be real, the only one able to actually harm me is that goddamn battlecruiser," she smirked confidently. "Now this is the plan; I'll deliberately draw fire from the Kongo while you guys get close enough. And if that goes well," she grinned, resting her rifle-turret on her shoulder, "I'll take out the rest. All of them. Any objections?"
Fletcher raised an eyebrow at St. Louis. "I wouldn't be too confident about that. They may only be Minekazes, but they can still hurt you plenty, and neither of those Nagaras are out for the count yet either. Guadalcanal showed me that much."
"I'll be fiiine," the light cruiser waved off. "I'm tougher and I know what I'm doing. But the main thing's still that Kongo. Screw her up bad and we've basically won. Is that clear enough?"
"Yes ma'am!" The three destroyers said in unison. Hadley even saluted.
St. Louis grinned. She loves it when people actually listen to her. "Alright, let's do it! Stay here, I've got a battlecruiser to catch first."
Her four turbines cranked to full power, the light cruiser charged forward and steamed out of the smokescreen, looking at the battlecruiser in question.
"HEY, ASSHOLE!" she hollered, waving at the Abyssal capital ship while blasting her horns and rapidly flashing her spotlights at the same time, moving on a tangent course closer towards it.
That did the trick. The light cruiser could see the enemy turn, as if to stare at her.
As St. Louis took aim, she could see the huge 14-inch turrets turn towards her. The cold, hard stare of the beast was still directed right at her. There were no eyes. Just… nothing. But she could feel the attention of the Kongo on her.
If she said she wasn't afraid, she would be lying. Right now her instinct was screaming at her to turn around and run. But she won't show weakness. She can't show weakness.
Not after everything.
"I CAST YOU OUT!" she yelled, making sure all of that attention was on her. "VILE! DEMOOOOOOOOON!"
All at once, her main batteries opened fire. The battlecruiser's attention was definitely on her now.
Precisely what she was waiting for.
"Destroyers! Go!" she practically yelled into her radio.
As cues went, it wasn't exactly subtle. Not that subtle meant anything while staring down the 14-inch rifles of a battlecruiser. The destroyers charged, all in a neat line, their small guns blazing for all they were worth. It wasn't much. They'd need more time to get into torpedo range, time she had to buy them.
"Yeah come on big girl, I know you want me!" St. Louis grinned maniacally as she continued to throw salvo after salvo of 6-inch fire at the battlecruiser.
At that moment, the 14-inch guns opened fire, their flashes clearly visible for everyone to see.
Lou's stomach dropped, and for a moment the overconfident look on her face broke, a tinge of dread coming through and breaking out to the surface.
But only for a moment. St. Louis quickly pulled herself together and changed course, beginning evasive maneuvers as she continued to blast at the Kongo. She could see her first salvo land around the capital ship, only one of those high-explosive shells actually finding its mark, to no real effect. But as long as it was focusing on her, everything would be fine.
And then came down the eight 14-inch shells.
Lou winced as they landed all around her, massive sprays of water surrounding her as she ceased fire out of fear.
When they cleared a few seconds later, however, the light cruiser found herself unharmed. Miraculously.
That face of shock was immediately replaced with relief, then cockiness.
"That's all you've got?" she mused to herself before blowing a raspberry at the Abyssal, promptly re-commencing her barrage.
A small stray shot barely flew past her out of the blue, striking the water beside her.
"Oh. Right. Forgot 'bout you asswipes," she muttered as she saw a substantial portion of the enemy cruisers and destroyers steaming straight towards her. "Fuck."
Diverting her attention away from the Kongo, St. Louis turned away more and targeted two destroyers, evading the increasing amount of fire that was coming down on her. The secondary and tertiary batteries came to life, the 5 inch guns doing the damage while the anti-aircraft armaments sprayed and harassed the targets.
Both targets were visibly taking damage from the 5 inches. Now all that had to happen was-
"Perfect," Lou grinned, feeling her main batteries having just finished reloading.
The light cruiser targeted two of her turrets mounted on her equipment and her rifle-turret at the closest destroyer.
She fired.
The dark ship immediately slowed down as most of the shipgirl's shells found their mark.
Turning to the next destroyer, St. Louis fired the other two main turrets, garnering a similar response.
"You think you can challenge me?! A Brooklyn-class cruiser?!" the light cruiser laughed mockingly as she turned her attention to the other ships.
A shell flew over and hit her face.
"Ugh!" she winced, reeling a bit before recovering, a black burn spot visible on her cheek.
Despite receiving no significant damage, Lou slowly and quietly turned to face the Abyssal Nagara-class responsible for the hit, her eyes radiating pure, unadulterated rage at the transgression it had just committed.
She turned all her guns to the one ship.
"You're dead."
But before she could pull her triggers, something else happened.
Amidst her anger and fixation on the Abyssal vessel that had managed to hit her, she had completely forgotten that a Kongo-class battlecruiser was still very interested in her.
She did not even hear the telltale whistling of the 14-inch shells.
BOOM!
To say Evans was starting to dislike her cruiser companion was like saying the ocean was a tad bit wet. A massive understatement. In the span of a half hour, she'd gone from being pleasant to interact with to being a bitch. But if she wanted to get herself killed doing a battleship's job, well, that was St. Louis's prerogative.
"Destroyers! Go!" came the order from St. Louis, and being the speed freak that she was, Evans led the way out of the rapidly dissipating smoke screen. Fletcher was right behind her, two of her turrets out of action, and Hadley was taking up the rear. Three destroyers, fourteen 5-inch guns between them, and thirty torpedoes. All aimed at one old battlecruiser.
"Minekaze, closing on our starboard side! Three-thousand yards!" Evans called out, shifting her attention over to the enemy destroyer. It was close, well within gun and torpedo range. That was the sort of range the Minekazes needed to be effective against the line of much more modern destroyers. Hell, it was close enough that even some of Evans' 40mm Bofors AA guns opened fire!
"Don't let her dump torps!" Hadley cried, her guns roaring. The Minekaze was turning to get a good line on their expected course.
Evans wasn't sure who got the killing blow, but an explosion ripped the Minekaze apart as her torpedoes detonated in their tubes.
"One down, far too many more to go," Evans muttered to herself. Even with St. Louis drawing most of the fire, three more of the Minekazes were moving to intercept the torpedo run, and the Kongo's secondary battery was opening fire as well.
Evans pulled a hard turn to starboard as shells began splashing around her, with Fletcher and Hadley following as best they could. A tower of water appeared directly in front of Evans, and she charged through it, getting soaked in the process. Not that she wasn't already soaked what with this incessant rain, but she felt that she needed to care for her clothes just a little bit. The olive drab jacket and blue skirt weren't exactly hers.
"They're gonna cut us off!" Fletcher warned, firing at the division of destroyers closing on their position. "We can't just blow past them, this isn't Sensha-do!"
"I know!" was Evans' only reply. Her attention was split between adjusting their course towards torpedo range, firing on the Minekazes, and arguably most important, not dying while she accomplished both of the previous objectives.
Shells landed all around her, and Evans suppressed the urge to duck, instead keeping her stance upright and her guns on target. Even her unfortunately inaccurate guns were getting close to the enemy destroyers. It was only a matter of time now, until someone scored the first blow against the other destroyer force.
Her luck didn't hold this time.
A 120mm shell crashed into Evan's bow and detonated, showering the girl with shrapnel. In these heavy seas, a hole right there, even above the waterline, was going to flood if she didn't slow down. The tough leather of her jacket was only partially able to resist the shrapnel, and Evans felt her torso become covered in small bleeding cuts.
Her guns finally found the target in return, and rapid fire, radar-directed 5-inch guns began systematically ripping the much smaller destroyer to shreds. Sure, she took a few more hits from the Minekaze line, but a few holes in her superstructure and some wrecked AA guns wasn't much to worry about in this fight. It didn't affect her ability to fight, to protect the schoolship and everyone aboard it.
And that was what mattered right now.
Evans' target was burning merrily, its superstructure blasted to bits, and it was finally going down. Fletcher and Hadley had ganged up on the second Abyssal in the line, and Evans watched as its stern was ripped clean off by an explosion. It rapidly began dipping below the waves.
"How far til torpedo range?" Evans asked, having to shout above the din of battle and the hammering of guns.
"Thousand yards til optimal!" came Fletcher's shouted reply. "We can dump them any time though!"
A scream of pain echoed over the radio.
Evans' first thought was to check on Fletcher and Hadley, but the scream was further away. Then, she saw it. Her eyes tracked the tumbling, limp body of St. Louis. Her hull was holed, and the Abyssal cruisers were closing in on her.
"Column, hard to port, dump your torps at that battlewagon!" Evans ordered, pulling into the turn. Ten metal fish left the launchers on Evans' middle, and she started a timer even as she began racing away, her sister and friend in pursuit.
An early detonation reached Evans' ears, and she turned back for a moment to see the splashes from two torpedo hits drench the Minekaze before it broke in two.
"Well shit. Now they know they've got fish incoming," Hadley commented. Evans glanced upwards and confirmed that the battlecruiser which had badly wounded the light cruiser… no, her friend. The battlecruiser that had hurt Lou was turning away from the battle.
But that still left two destroyers and two light cruisers closing in on the unconscious cruiser. Evans could almost feel the malice and murderous intent coming off of the cruisers.
She wasn't going to let that happen on her watch.
As soon as her Mk.37 fire directors were on target, Evans opened fire with her bow guns. The Thompson SMG kicked into her shoulder as the 5-inch mounted to it roared away. Evans quickly narrowed her bracket on the nearest cruiser, drawing its attention.
'Good,' Evans thought violently as she put on as much speed as she could muster. Despite the battle damage she had sustained, she was still the fastest of all the girls still in the fight, and she surged away from Fletcher and Hadley.
The cruiser turned to bring its broadside to bear against the charging destroyer, but that just gave her an even easier target. A hail of 5-inch gunfire came from behind her, bracketing the cruiser as well. A lookout informed Evans that Fletcher and Hadley had peeled off and were engaging with their full broadsides.
The firing of guns punctuated every thought as Evans continued to close the range. A 14cm round found Gun 53, and blew the turret clear off of its ring. Evans merely grit her teeth and continued charging.
With her four remaining 5-inch guns, Evans ravaged the light cruiser in a way that only radar directed fire could. She blew past it at point blank, opening fire with every single gun onboard as she passed. But that point blank pass was a double edged sword, and the Nagara's remaining guns managed to put some significant holes into her before they were silenced.
Tally screamed in pain. There was a sudden dip in speed as she slowed to a near halt, nearly dropping as two of her boilers were ruined.
Ahead of her, St. Louis was struggling to move, raising her guns towards the crippled Nagara as it rounded on Evans. The triple turrets fired in sequence, one… two… the third turret, the one mounted to St. Louis' rifle, failed to fire. Instead, it exploded in her hands. The fires it spread only lasted moments under the incessant rain, but moments were all that were needed to seriously burn the cruiser.
Thankfully, St. Louis' efforts were enough. The Nagara didn't have nearly enough armor to resist the Brooklyn's guns, and it began listing rapidly. Evans watched dumbfounded as the cruiser rolled and began sinking.
The thunder of guns lessened, and then ended entirely. The few remaining Abyssals were fleeing, their tails between their legs.
"That's right! Run you fuckers!" Capps cheered. The peace only lasted a moment before Fletcher pulled up alongside Evans. The redhead looked over to her sister, and was met with a disappointed stare.
"Evans you idiot!" Fletcher reprimanded. "That has got to be one of the most reckless, idiotic, suicidal things I have ever seen you do, and I watch you play Sensha-do! Now, gimme a damage report. Let's see just how fucked up you and St. Louis are."
She waited a moment for her crew to give the full report before she relayed it to her sister. "Gun 51 is disabled, 53 is just gone, and 54 is jammed. Lots of splinter damage. Buckling plates below the waterline from near misses. Boilers 1 and 2 are gone, and I've got contained flooding midships. I can maybe make 15 knots."
Fletcher looked over Evans. "You look as bad as you sound. You'll need a new jacket for sure. I'll give you a hand back to the ship. Hadley, can you hook up a tow for St. Louis?"
"You got it boss!" Hadley snapped a salute at Fletcher before moving over to the crippled cruiser.
The Brooklyn-class ship was barely conscious, taking shallow breaths as she lay on the water, listing rather dangerously to one side while her crew desperately tried to pump out as much water as they could. Smoke was still blowing out from inside her superstructure, coming from the embers of fires that were only just recently put out. Around her, the hissing of steam being ejected out of her boilers was unavoidable, done just in case the worst happened.
Evans looked over at the cruiser's eyes, observing how they were completely disoriented, simply stared towards and beyond the surface of the water. Her view was obstructed moments later as Hadley took out her towing ropes and got right beside the larger vessel.
Quietly, Hadley moved on to attach the ropes to St. Louis.
"What was that?" Hadley asked, out of the blue.
Lou's eyes were moving again, now staring at the destroyer. As Fletcher began helping her away, Evans noted how they looked different from the cruiser's usual steel-cold, serious, angry tone; this time, they were forlorn, complimented with regret.
This was the first time Evans had seen something like that.
"What's the matter?" Hadley bent down, taking the girl's hand and clasping it in her own.
There were a few seconds of silence.
But then, tears rolled down from St. Louis' eyes.
"... H-Helena… I'm… s-so… sorry…"
And just like that, the cruiser fell unconscious, the damage she received proving too much for her to remain up.
"Hadley, you okay?" Fletcher asked. To Evans, it was obvious. Her dark haired friend didn't look fine. She was shaking, even as she began towing the limp cruiser back to the ship. Evans let her gaze linger on the two before she looked over at their destination.
The schoolship was steaming away from them, but it was slowing down to let the injured shipgirls catch up. That was polite of them, since Evans doubted any of them fancied steaming back to Japan while this damaged.
The sun was setting by the time they'd reached the ship. There was a well deck open in the massive carrier's flank, and Capps was waving them all towards it. Hadley led the way, helping St. Louis up out of the water. Evans went next, with both Hadley and Fletcher helping her up. Sailing with a broken leg and climbing with a broken arm were most certainly not fun.
Pain embraced Tally as she set foot on the steel deck. Even with Hadley's support, she collapsed, crying out in pain. Tears streaked her face, and she very carefully crawled over to the edge of the deck and lost her lunch.
Salo's Note:
Yo, Salo here! Weren't expecting me to pop up, aren't ya? Anyway, here we go, Part 2! I'll like to state my thanks to Darkhound for agreeing to this project, we've been having a blast writing everything! We're gonna keep going, that's for sure! And I hope you guys are loving it as well!
Just in case it has to be stated, we don't own Girls und Panzer or Kantai Collection. This work is non-profit and purely for our own interests. And of course, do drop us reviews so that we can further improve. That's it from me for now!