Captain Goes Down With The Ship…

"Captain, what are your orders?" Mashiro asked as she looked at the frozen girl in front of her. She didn't reply at first and when she did, it was with a sigh and a decisiveness to her voice.

"Load the torpedo tubes with live warheads – aim for the stern section so we only disable them. Rin, be ready to swing the ship round and head for home. Engine Room – how much time can you give us at full power?"

"None" came the reply.

"Please give me a few minutes" Akeno begged. "We're being attacked and we've got to get away or we will be sunk"

"Is that what has happened…? Fine – I will give you about five minutes, but then we will have to slow down"

"Could you give us more if you stopped and turned off everything we don't need?" Akeno searched her scattered memory for a half thought of thing she learned in Engineering class.

"I could cut power to everything except lights, radar, sonar and the radio – they might give us a bit of a longer burst of full speed"

"Right" Akeno agreed. "Be ready to do that because I'm going to fire torpedoes and then we're getting out of here. Mei, load the torpedoes with enough explosive to put a small hole in her – I want to cripple but not sink. As soon as the torpedoes fire, swing the launchers back inwards. Tama, only the aft batteries will fire, so I want the rest of your people helping with damage control" and Akeno took out her weapons key. "Deputy Captain, will you turn the key?"

"If we fire on them, we'd be guilty of mutiny"

"No it wouldn't – we're just defending ourselves. Once the Sarushima is disabled, we'll turn round and head for Yokasuka at full speed and sending constant radio messages"

"I'm sorry, Captain, but I can't" and Akeno nodded and sighed.

"You are relived of duty – Kouko, take her weapons key, give it to me and confine her to her cabin. Rin, be ready to swing the ship around. Tama, you will get one salvo from the forward battery as we turn. I want you to fire at the airship hanger and take it out, but only fire when the target is off the bow" she looked at the girls staring at her on the bridge. "I know it seems bad, but if we don't stop Furushou's ship, we'll be at the bottom of the ocean"

"TORPEDOS!" came the voice of Kaede in the sonar room.

"Rin, hard to port" Akeno said. "Fire the gun… Mei, fire all torpedoes" and the torpedoes launched against them missed while the Harekaze's all hit their target. "Engine Room – I need as much speed as you can give me"

"Fine" came the less than enthusiastic reply.

"Radio Room, send out a distress call and our position – tell whoever answers that we're under attacked and heading back to port"

"Bridge, we're getting close to a turbine explosion"

"Anything you can do?"

"There isn't – we'll have to slow down to cruising speed in the next ten minutes"

"Okay – do what you can" and Akeno looked at Kouko. "You have the Bridge… I have to speak to the Deputy Captain"

# # # # #

"You disobeyed me"

"I couldn't agree to fire on them, but I'm sorry for disobeying"

"By rights, you should be excluded from the school but that isn't going to solve anything. Right now, we're being pursued by the rest of the training fleet right back to the school. The Navy is getting what ships it has to help us, but its not going to be enough" Akeno sighed. "I need my Deputy Captain back"

"Please… I don't want to let people down" Mashiro said quietly.

"Then return to duty, Deputy Captain… I want everybody ready with lifebelts on in case we sink"

"Aye, Aye, Captain. Do you think we might sink?"

"I don't know, but my main task is the safety of the crew. For some reason, our radio messages have stopped being answered – I wonder if this is war"

"The Instructor would never go against Japan"

"That you hope"

"What else could it be?"

"Brainwashing?" shrugged Akeno. "Anyway, go round the ship and make sure that all the crew have their lifebelts and jackets on. Once that's done…" Akeno hesitated.

"Captain?"

"Have the Skippers and the boats ready for launching" and the two girls locked gazes. "I'm going to have the crew abandon the ship"

# # # # #

"Everybody is off, Deputy Captain" Kouko said.

"Where is the Captain? Is she on another boat?"

"I guess so"

"Actually, I don't think so" the normally quiet Tama said and pointed to the Harekaze as it swung to port far behind them and presented its side to the oncoming fleet. Moments later, it stopped and dropped both anchors and seemed to be laying down a challenge.

"Perhaps she is going–" Mei was stopped by the guns of the Harekaze firing salvo after salvo at the oncoming fleet. "What is she doing?"

"She's buying us time to escape" Mashiro realised sadly. "By turning and standing to fight, the Captain is giving us enough time to escape. By the same token, she's delaying the fleet so the Navy can arrive"

"We have to help her!" Rin cried out.

"No… This is something she has to do herself" Mashiro felt tears as she watched the Harekaze take incredible fire and yet was still able to return it in great amounts. As they sped quickly away, the ship's starboard more lamp suddenly started flashing a message. "Goodbye and be safe" and, at that moment, shells struck the Bridge and obliterated it in a fireball and hail of metal fragments. The last image of the Captain was of her being thrown to the deck and engulfed in flames – Mashiro had to be held back because she wanted to go and board the ship to take over. The Harekaze, still following Akeno's commands, kept on firing until it ran out of ammunition and the guns and torpedo launchers fell silent and motionless. The girls all stopped and stared at the ship which was silent except for the last echoes of gunfire.

"The Navy is here!" somebody shouted and they all turned to see the Japanese navy come steaming at top speed towards them. A muffled thud made them spin round to see the anchors fall into the water completely before more thuds came from the hull as the Harekaze tore herself apart and broke in two with the stern tipping forwards and going down fast. The bow, though, stayed afloat for a much longer period before tipping upwards and slowly slipping below the surface.

"The Captain!" Rin pointed out to where a body was floating on the small waves. "We have to go get her body so we can send it to her parents"

"I don't think she has any parents" Mashiro muttered. "I read her jacket when I found out who she was and it said her parents died in an accident years ago" and she sighed. "Get everybody off this Skipper – I'm going to get her"

"I wonder why she stayed" pondered Maron who had, up to now, stayed extremely quiet.

"Father to her men… It was something I overheard her ask Instructor Furushou. She stayed behind to make sure the training ships were distracted while we escaped. I'm going to get her"

"We all will" said Kouko silently. The others all agreed and they turned their Skipper round moved carefully to where Akeno floated.

"Did… Did I do good, Shiro?" the question took them by surprise. Akeno was clinging to life and she was quickly lifted out of the water and some of the girls fussed over her as Mashiro took the Skipper towards a Destroyer that had come close to take on the shipwrecked crew.

"You did good, Captain" Mashiro assured her.

"That's nice to know" Akeno sighed and her eyes closed.

"Captain? CAPTAIN?" the girls crowded round but it was too late – Akeno had passed away.

"I don't believe that a girl could have done all that by herself" one the naval crewmen said. Something in his tone angered Mashiro and the normally level headed student rose, turned and punched him in the side of the head.

"That 'girl' is Captain Akeno Misaki, commanding officer of the Harekaze. She saved the lives of her 30 crew members, the lives of thousands of people at Yokosuka and gave you enough time to get here and disable the training fleet and board them – I challenge you to do better"

A/N:

Basically, what if Akeno had been more decisive and willing to do what was needed when attacked by the RAt infested ships…?