The Initial Report

Archerfish honestly hated reconnaissance missions like this. Alone, deep within what was–until very recently–enemy territory, scouting what was left of what had been the Fortress Island of the Pacific's most powerful Installation-class Abyssal, with strict radio silence orders until well away from the area unless absolutely necessary. It brought up memories of the bad days at the beginning of World War II.

At least she could rely on her Mk 14's this time.

Thankfully, due to the liberation of Kure and Midway, the Abyssal presence in the area was significantly reduced, though MQ-4Cs out of Barking Sands indicated that the Atoll located less than 200 miles away, to the South and East, was still heavily built up, meaning that there was still a significant possibility of encountering Abyssals. So far, though, Archerfish had been lucky and had been able to avoid any attention. Almost too lucky.

She'd arrived at Midway Atoll proper the day before yesterday and spent the 36 of the intervening hours circling the island at periscope depth, surfacing when it became apparent that the island, while still covered in ruined Abyssal structures and battle damage ("Damn, those Type-3 shells of Yamato's do insane damage in the shore bombardment role." she'd remarked in the later video documentation.), was completely abandoned. She had then made for the island to get closer documentation and to obtain any samples–and souvenirs–she could for the brass back home.

"Hope they can find a way to retake this place..." she thought, sitting on the Eastern shore, back propped up against a slab of Abyssal steel that had embedded at a seventy degree angle in the ground, providing some respite from the burning sun as she finished an MRE provided by Taigei before she infiltrated the area. "At least it could give us subs a place to resupply without putting girls like her at risk all the time."

Then everything went to hell.

It hadn't been an ambush, or even some booby trap left by retreating Abyssals. It was a pair of flashes, incredibly fast and back-to-back. And almost blinding, despite the distance to its source. As her vision cleared, Archerfish paled in horror, MRE dropping from nerveless fingers at what she could see.

There on the horizon, exactly in the direction of the nearest Abyssal base, an orange ball of fire could be seen climbing inexorably into the sky, a rapidly forming column of ash visible beneath.

For nearly a minute, she sat paralyzed, dumbstruck by what she was witnessing. Then almost at once, she came back to life, leaping to her feet and summoning her WGS communications uplink from within her hull.

"Standing orders be damned, this needs to be escalated to command yesterday!"

Opening the communications frequency back to command faster than she ever had, she held the satphone up to her ear.

{USS Archerfish, you are under strict orders to observe radio silence. This better be good.}

"I know Admiral. I'm reporting a nuclear detonation near my position, positive identification."

{Say again? You're reporting a confirmed nuclear detonation near Midway?}

"Yes, sir. I saw the double flash, and am watching a fucking mushroom cloud climbing into the air from Midway's Eastern shore. Considering that the only thing in that direction is and Abyssal stronghold, and the fact that the mushroom cloud is visible from here..."

{That would mean a multi-megaton detonation, likely on the scale of the Castle Bravo shot. Stay on the line, I'm requesting data from a satellite that just passed over.}

The next two minutes passed in agonizing silence, dragging on as the mushroom cloud finished climbing. Archerfish could only hope that her commanding officer had the sense not to send her in that direction. It wasn't very well known, but Shipgirls weren't actually immune to ionizing radiation. It just killed them much slower.

Her uplink crackled back to life.

{We have confirmation from the satellite images. It passed over just after the initial blast, and we have visual confirmation of the cloud. Your new orders are as follows: Get the hell out of there, Archerfish. Don't bother submerging, any Abyssals in the area will be heading for that blast, get out as fast as possible. Head South as far as possible and the make for Pearl at best speed. Best of luck.}

"No need to tell me twice." She thought, stowing her uplink. She took a quick snap of the mushroom cloud on the horizon, stowed the camera, and then dove into the waters in front of her, sprinting South toward safety.

Behind her, the stem of the cloud was suddenly parted violently by the passage of a high-speed object. An object moving Northwards at hypersonic velocities.

So here we have the first sighting of the opening salvo of Yamato's complete annihilation of the Abyssal stronghold. This is not intended to be a full chapter, but to provide some context on how the Americans and Japanese navies know about Yamato's "I am here!" moment, for lack of a better metaphor, so quickly after it happened. It's also to show a somewhat believable aftermath to the Battle of Midway (at least that's what I think it is) depicted at the end of KanColle (Season 1?) anime. Feel free to share any thoughts on how it could be made better.