The Deadliest Watch

by Admiral Dooshner

What was meant to be a simple shake down cruise and transit across the northern pacific quickly devolved into a fight for their lives. In the midst of the RaTt virus outbreak on the high seas, a select group of students from the Yokosuka American Marine High School are thrusted into naval action in the waters around and beyond Japan that challenges them to their very core.

1. Chapter 1

The Deadliest Watch

Chapter 1: Report of the evening watch

Crew on watch:

Bridge and navigation:

-Captain Louisa Chandler (In command)

-Commander Amanda Hopper

-Master Chief Petty Officer Juniper Hayes

-Senior bridge and navigation crew.

CIC and weapons release:

-Commander Yuki Kikuchi (TAO)*

-Lieutenant Lynette Palmer

-Sophomore CIC and weapons release crew

Engineering and propulsion:

-Lieutenant Commander Samantha Cutter (Chief damage control)

-Lieutenant Rebecca Edwards

-Junior engineering and propulsion crew.

Quartermaster detail and communications:

-Freshmen quartermaster detail and communications crew.

Marine-cadets detachment:

-Non-applicable.

*Covering for lieutenant Ellen Mathers.

---

"Master chief, sound general quarters."

With a nod, her classmate opened the box housing the 1MC. As another salvo of shells landed around the ship, she applies the bosun whistle to her mouth and blows the unmistakable minor third chord.

"General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. The route of travel is forward and up to starboard, down and aft to port. Set material condition zebra throughout the ship. Hostile surface contact."

The high pitched alarm blares through every speaker of the ship as her structure begins vibrating from the hurried footsteps of students running up and down, forward and aft of the ship. As the maser chief closed the lid on the 1MC, the crew on the bridge felt the ship lurching forward as the screws kicked into full power. A few meters away, a pair of students rushed to the conning tower's armored door and began feverishly working at the turning wheels to seal the bridge crew inside the relative safety of the armored box.

"The fuckers really shot at us?" The X.O. asked, rhetorically. "Captain Chandler, your orders ma'am?"

"I have the con!" Chandler declared.

"Captain has the con." Her X.O. affirmed.

"Navigator, plot a course to disengage with the hostile surface contact."

"Already done ma'am," The navigator replied promptly as Chandler glanced over at the chart monitor.

"Recommend course 1-1-2 for 12 nautical miles which will put us behind the island on our left. We will then use the cover of the Island to make course 0-5-7 and make a break for open waters to promptly disengage with the contact."

"Make it so!" Chandler orders as she turns her eyes over towards the direction of the surface contact to see bright flashes lighting up the horizon. "Helm, make course 1-1-2."

"Helm, making course 1-1-2, helm aye." The student at the helm repeated her superior's orders

"Incoming, incoming!" A voice shouted through the bridge's speaker. "I count 12 projectiles in the air. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, they are the size of a car!"

"Helm, steady course 1-1-2 at 3-3 knots." The helmsman declared, returning the helms wheel to the neutral position and seemingly unfazed by the declaration of incoming fire.

"Very well." Chandler acknowledged as her hands worked the intercom which patched her over to the 42MC that connected her to the CIC room located deep within the citadel of the warship.

"TAO, intercept with CIWS. Fire as they bear."

[TAO= Tactical Actions Officer. The one in overall charge of releasing weapons and armaments aboard a ship]

"Aye ma'am, intercepting with CIWS, prioritizing targets with highest impact probability. Firing as they bear."

Looking forward to the B turret, Chandler watched the 20mm autocannon come to life as it raised its 6 rotating barrels from the resting position to engage the incoming 18-inch shells. For a few seconds, the weapon made awkward tilts up and down barrels, left and right, aggressively spinning its 20mm as it calculated which of the 12 incoming projectiles had the highest probability of impacting.

Then…

BRRRRRRT

A continuous stream of green tracers carved an arc into the starry night followed immediately by a blinding explosion of light. The bridge crew did not have a chance to recover from the flash as the CIWS reoriented itself and began engaging another 18-inch shell. It too was bracketed by 20mm fire which caused it to explode accompanied by even brighter flash.

"All hands, brace for impact." The Master Chief barked into the 1MC.

Chandler stood firmly at her position on the bridge, determined to face the incoming fire while those around her cowered behind what futile protection they could find. Her logic was, the 10.6 inches of armor surrounding the conning tower of her ship had no chance in stopping the 18-inch shells of a Yamato class battleship. Everyone on the bridge will be singing like angels and playing a harp if a shell found its mark.

CLANGK

The sound of peeling metal could be heard aft of the tower as an 18-inch shell tore a clean hole through the main smoke stack before exploding harmlessly in the waves a few tens of yards away from the ship. Not a second later, the superstructure of the battlecruiser was pelted by a hail of burning shell fragments leaving a variety of cuts and scratches along the carefully painted steel. The damage was worrisome however the students of the battlecruiser could do little about it until they had disengaged.

"Damage report!" Chandler immediately called out.

"Over penetrating hit to the smoke stack but otherwise we're OK!" The damage control officer over the 54MC speaker. "We might lose some speed but I'll see what me and the girls can do about it."

"Keep everyone inside until we disengage." Chandler replied into the 54MC. "I do not want anyone getting cut up by exploding shell fragments."

"Aye ma'am!"

"Ma'am, we can't just sit here and keep on the defensive." Chandler's X.O. noted as another salvo was fired by the Musashi.

"I am well aware of that Hopper!" Chandler annoyingly replied, raising the 32MC.

"Anything from Pacific command?" Chandler continued.

"Negative, shore-based communications on all frequencies appeared to be jammed and we are in a geographic satellite blindspot." Replied a member from her staff.

To Captain Chandler, this meant that in the absence of communications with her superiors, she was permitted to take on a reasonable level of defensive measures to ensure the safety of her ship and crew. The ROE dictated she can fire upon an aggressor vessel if she a) received incoming fire, b) have already begun active and purely defensive measures to ensure the survival of her ship, and lastly, c) sustained damage as a result of intentional enemy offensive fire.

"Kikuchi, I want a firing solution on that Yamato class battleship."

"Aye, ma'am. Yamato class battleship has been identified as the JS Musashi. I have a 95% firing solution on the battleship. TAO, awaiting orders."

"TAO, target their range finders. Load armor piercing into turrets A through C. Set delayed fuse timers on every shell to 5 seconds. Turret A and B will fire upon the forward range finder. Turret C, target the rangefinder on the secondary tower of the Musashi. Staggered firing, 2 second intervals. On my command"

Kikuchi shifted uncomfortably in her chair as she realized they would not be shooting training rounds. Calmly, she speaks into her receiver.

"Captain, I would like to confirm that order." She said, brushing a follicle of hair aside. "Target Musashi Range finders. Load Armor Piercing shells with a fuse delay of 5 seconds. Two second intervals between shots at your respects."

"Shoot the main range finders, Load AP with fuses set to 5 seconds. Staggered fire, two second delay intervals at my respect." Chandler repeated herself.

"Aye, ma'am."

With these orders, the main battery came to life as the massive 305mm guns of the warship began to rotate, the automatic loaders grumbling whose sound could be heard throughout the ship as they loaded the 305mm shells and tube powder into the bore of each gun. As the loading process was completed, the painted 12-inch 50 caliber barrels glistened under the moonlight as they elevated into the sky.

"Normally, I will shoot high explosive to light ablaze that ship but I do not know what is going on nor am I aware of the bigger picture therefore I shall spare Captain…." Chandler monologues, aloud before raising her tablet to check the information she has on the Musashi. "Captain Moeka China the frustration of putting out fires on her ship. Meanwhile, the fuses on the AP shells were set to 5 seconds to prevent detonation of the projectile within the superstructure of the ship which, will be morally and politically, very dangerous."

"All guns ready to fire at your respects, ma'am." Her TAO came over the 32MC

"TAO, Fire."

"TAO, firing, aye."

In a staggered fashion, two seconds between each turret, all nine barrels from the Alaska's 12-inch battery cracked in anger sending nine tracer shells towards the Musashi. The shells arced through the night sky, still smoking hot from the controlled flash explosion of the tube powder in front of the breach of the 12-inch cannon towards the two main range finders on the Musashi.

"You think they'll hit?" Hopper inquired.

"We'll find out in a few seconds." Chandler replied, taking a brief glance at the clock inside the conning tower. "I think so…"

"Incoming, incoming!" A familiar voice screeched through the speaker into the conning tower. This was followed by the same bursts from the 20mm CIWS.

As the gunnery crew in the CIC defended their ship, a shell would find its way through the hail of 20mm fire. Finding its mark on the Alaska, a 460mm high explosive projectile slammed into the secondary superstructure obliterating a twin 127mm dual purpose gun, setting alight its ammunition, and setting a fire a few meters astern of the no.2 range finder. From the inside of the conning tower, Chandler had narrow glimpses of what remained of the secondary gun mount. Where once stood a 127mm dual purpose gun was but a mound of twisted steel and arcing flames from ammunition cooking off in all directions. It was as if a fire breathing dragon was venting its bright blue and orange flame out from inside Alaska.

"We're hit!" came the chief damage control officer through the 54MC. "Fire on the secondary tower, one 127mm DP gun destroyed. The ammunition for that mount is cooking off!"

"Damage con, lay to the damage control panel. Flood the magazine on the affected mount. Send damage control parties to extinguish that flame." Chandler ordered. "Be safe."

"Aye aye!" The student responded.

Confident in the skill of her damage control crew, Chandler reoriented her attention to the shells still flying through the air towards the Musashi.

"Impressive, the captain of the Musashi must have thoroughly trained her gunnery crew to be able to execute a first hit on my cruiser." Chandler applauded her opponent in her mind.

The American Blue Mermaids Yokosuka Forward Deployed taskforce possesses a training division aptly named: 'Yokosuka American Marine High School'. The school shares the same facilities and assets with their Japanese counterpart: Yokosuka Marine High School. It is not uncommon for the students of both schools to collaborate and execute naval exercises together. The girls of Yokosuka American Marine High School, or, the 'yams' stood out from their Japanese peers for their impeccable skills in naval artillery. It is said that an experienced crew aboard any yam ship can land a shell on any select point on a targeted ship with a +/-2 meter deviation from the intended point of impact. That said, the yams did lack in a few specific departments, of which, are points of heated contention between them and their Japanese counterparts.

In a testament to their school's reputation, the students aboard the USS Alaska executed their gunnery operations flawlessly. A grin would slowly materialize on Hopper's face as she watched the first volley clip the wings on the Musashi's forward range finder, blowing them clean off of the pagoda mast. The arrival of the second volley decapitated the cylindrical module off pagoda mast, sending it tumbling onto the secondary armaments on the side of the battleship's superstructure before rolling off the side and plunging into the abyss below. A similar fate would be struck on the range finder position on the Musashi's secondary mast as it was rendered inoperable.

"OH, HOW DID YOU LIKE THAT YOU LITTLE SHITS?!" Hopper gleefully cussed. "You bring the pain to my ship; I take away your ability to aim. What else do you want? Oh wait… I see an awfully delicious conning tower for me to shoot at."

Hopper took a glance at her C.O. and her rather unbecoming tone was quickly mellowed by 'the look' on Chandler's face.

"Do that again and you will be relieved." Chandler sternly warned her right-hand woman.

"Aye ma'am." Hopper replied, shrinking back to her post. "Sorry ma'am."

As the bridge crew refocused from Hopper's sudden outburst, the automatic damage control systems of the Alaska proved its worth. It extinguished the potentially dangerous cook off on what remained of the destroyed secondary mount before flooding the associated magazine with sea water.

On her way up to the burning secondary tower, Samantha Cutter roused members of the sleeping senior crew in her department and together, three of them departed the relative safety of Alaska's interior. Armed with fire hoses and firefighting gear, the trio began efforts to extinguish the fire before it spread to other parts of the ship while spouts of water exploded around them.

Once the Alaska disengaged from the surface contact, the crew will attempt to recover whatever salvageable 127mm ammunition that could be used elsewhere. The fire astern of the no.2 rangefinder had to be extinguished manually, which took time. Time which exposed members of Chandler's crew to exploding shell fragments she did not want to risk.

"TAO, make CIWS only engage projectiles with an 80 percent or higher hit probability on the Alaska until Sam gets her girls off the tower." Chandler ordered.

"Aye ma'am. CIWS, engaging projectiles only with or above an 80 percent hit probability, TAO aye."

Thankfully, Chandler's fear of spraying the decks of her cruiser with lethal shell fragments would not materialize. Alaska's TAO and chief gunnery officer, Yuki Kikuchi held the trigger on the ship's CIWS steady as she closely monitored the automatic updates being sent by the ship's advanced sensor suite. On a few occasions, she held her mind steady as the computer calculated 77…78…79.5 hit probabilities. However, as the probability never exceeded 80 percent, Yuki kept the CIWS from firing upon the incoming projectiles.

Back on the conning tower…

"We will hold fire as we have exercised the length of what can be reasonably described as offensive procedures in pursuit of self preservation. Without orders from higher authority, the rules of engagement dictate we shall not fire upon an aggressor less we are rendered incapable of fulfilling our duty to retreat from battle." Chandler declared to her staff, reciting perfectly from the book, as Alaska sailed closer to the protection of the island a few miles ahead.

As the Musashi continued firing upon the wounded Alaska, the students of the US warship stood steadfast at their posts, weathering the bombardment with nerves of steel. Gradually, the accuracy on the Musashi's gun declined and soon shells were landing sporadically left and right, hundreds of yards off target. Before long, an island would separate the two warships from one another providing the Alaska the opportunity to slip away behind the cover on a head of 0-5-7 making a modest 25 knots after sustaining damage to her smoke stack.

Radar contact on the Musashi would be established fifteen minutes after loss of visual contact. The crew of the Alaska let out an exhausted sigh of relief as they determined the fearsome battleship was headed away from them.

This also meant an end to the surface action.

"Master chief." Chandler called out after reading the report from CIC. "Secure the ship to readiness condition two. X.O., you have the con. I will be inspecting the damage to the ship before making my way to my at-sea cabin if anything requires my attention"

"X.O. has the con." Hopper declared.

Master chief Juniper Hayes would once again make her way to the 1MC, announcing throughout Alaska the order to set the ship to readiness condition two. While this happened, the same two girls began working on the wheel mechanism, unsealing the bridge crew from within the conning tower.

With a nod, Chandler exited the conning tower and proceeded aft to first inspect the destroyed secondary mount. There, she would meet Samantha, the chief damage control officer onboard the USS Alaska under the starry night sky.

"Can you fix it?" Chandler asked, getting straight to the point.

"This? I can fix the autoloading mechanism beneath the turret, the turret ring and clean what needs to be cleansed but we're going to need someone to winch on a new dual-purpose gun if you want the mount to be operational again." Samantha replied.

"Noted, thank you Sam." Chandler nods. "The fire on the secondary tower?"

"Burnt paint and some deformed steel. Mostly cosmetic damage that we can ignore."

"And the smokestack?"

Samantha shifted uncomfortably where she stood before replying.

"The 18-inch shell bored a hole clean through the stack. Simply patching it with sheet metal won't bring us back up to 33 knots as the exhaust evacuation pipes inside the funnel itself have been bored through as well. When possible, we're going to have to drop anchor and turn off the engine for an hour or two so I can send my girls into the stack to fix those pipes manually. Even then, the Alaska is going to need a thorough engine inspection due to the inefficient evacuation of exhaust fumes likely causing some havoc in the turbines. I have advised the engineering department that we are unlikely to break 28 knots unless we override the safety limiters on the engines."

"Can the engine be inspected and repaired at sea within the 2 hours we are set at anchor?"

"I will consult with Lieutenant Palmer about that but most likely, yes. We may be able to go through a handful of diagnostics and make any temporary repairs to the engine to bring us up to 29 knots without having to override any safety mechanisms."

"Get me as much speed as you can, Sam." Chandler replied, writing down her classmate's assessment on her tablet. "If we get another surface contact, I want as much speed as Alaska can muster to disengage. We can weather anything up to a light cruiser, however if we run into something like a Deutschland class battlecruiser, every knot will count in the effort."

"Understood."

"Anyone hurt in your department?"

"The gear protected us from the flames. Other than the smell of smoke and gunpowder on my girls, everyone is accounted for and uninjured. A well-deserved shower will make the girls ready for general inspection if that will be necessary."

"Very well, carry on Lieutenant commander." Chandler patted Samantha's shoulder. "An inspection will not be necessary. Tell the girls I am proud of them for their work."

The two classmates would part ways with Chandler continuing her independent damage inspection making detailed notes on her tablet. After touring the ship aft to stern, and port to starboard two times, she opened a bulkhead and proceeded down a steep flight of stairs into the belly of the ship making her way to the CIC room.

"Yuki, nice shooting." Chandler complemented as she opened and cleared the armored door into CIC.

Coffee was brewing in the CIC office and the minifridge was open as the captain properly stepped into the CIC, an underclassman closing the door behind her.

"Excellent work, all of you." She continued shaking the hand of the sailor closest to her before hugging another.

"Captain." Yuki spoke up. "Permission to speak."

"Go ahead Yuki."

"Ammunition on the sea whiz is in the red, dark red. We are down to fifteen percent, an amount that can only last us through another handful of bursts before we go black on 20mm. Unless we are headed straight back to Yokosuka, we will need a resupply at sea."

"Thank you, Yuki, I will make a note of that."

"I will send a report on all remaining ammunition less the training rounds we have aboard." Yuki continued. "It's not much and at the current rate of expense, we may need to consider ramming a surface contact at some point."

Despite the impressive firepower the Alaska carried onboard and its mint condition, the latter reason would be the primary reason behind the crew's current predicament. Chandler and a majority of her crew had been recalled to school earlier in the month. They were sent on a flight to San Diego to witness the commissioning of the Alaska and pick her up for transit to its homeport in Yokosuka. The voyage was intended to be a simple ferry crossing and as such only the necessary load of fuel, perishable stores, and a small allotment of live ammunition had been embarked. Though the ship was highly automated, a crew of 90 were still required to operate it to peacetime standards, of which, Chandler only had a measly 60 as it was determined the rest of the crew could be picked up in Yokosuka once the cruiser made homeport. Alaska did not even have her standard marine-cadets detachment onboard nor any firearms to defend against boarding action from pirates.

It was obvious to Chandler that if the Alaska was to be pressed into action, she would require a resupply of food stores, more sailors to amount to 150 for wartime operations, and most importantly of all, ammunition if her ship were to put up a competent fight.

"I will see about replenishing our supplies but for now, Yuki, make the most out of what we have left."

"Will do."

As everyone in the CIC settled down, a mug of coffee was offered to Chandler who gladly accepted the drink and imbibed the concoction. As a less formal conversation was struck up between the classmates, Chandler would receive a call from the bridge asking for her to return immediately.