Once again, I just want to thank all the people who took the time to review and give their feedback. I hope you enjoy the fight, as it was one of the harder parts to envision, especially Enterprise's reaction to seeing the Abyssals for the first time.
And to all who were wondering about the references from last chapter, Enterprise (the starship) was built at Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, both on the surface and in space. The task force designation (AL) is referring to Operation AL, the Japanese code name for the invasion of the Aleutian Islands, a failed diversion for the attack on Midway, which was spearheaded by the carriers Ryuujou and Jun'you.
With that out of the way, enjoy!
Chapter 2
Enterprise coolly regarded the twisted forms of the fleet of what she assumed were Abyssals as they advanced upon the civilian convoy, and the greatly perturbed sea between them. Their combination of biological, mechanical and what could only be described as eldritch was immensely unsettling and eerily reminiscent of the Borg, sending chills up her spine as memories of cutting beams slicing through her hull surfaced unbidden.
As much as her command crew's training as explorers and diplomats cried out for her to attempt to establish contact with a new species, research into the subject gleaned during her information gathering had indicated that all attempts at communication with the Abyssals had ended in tragedy for all parties that had tried to make contact. Enterprise knew there would be no peaceful resolution of this situation.
Her current thought process was focused on how to engage this fleet without causing severe collateral damage. Firing a Type 10 phaser at a target inside an atmosphere was incredibly dangerous, as even a fraction of a percentage of energy output too high could blow the planet's atmosphere away with thermal effects alone. Photon torpedoes were an even worse idea, as even the minimum yield of a Mark VI torpedo far outstripped the yield of conventional nuclear weapons, and using one without significant modifications would do just as much damage to the ships she was defending as her targets. As streams of sensor data from her tactical analytic subroutines poured in, she felt what she identified as relief as she reached the conclusion that the barest minimum of power from her phasers would be sufficient to obliterate all of the Abyssals in the current fleet composition.
She suddenly frowned, eyes narrowing as one of her sensors indicated that there was a small number of subsurface vessels with the attacking group. Her vision shifted as she accessed the tactical overlay, the ocean's surface becoming a translucent plane, allowing her to view all the way down to the ocean's floor and see the Abyssal fleet in its entirety. Targeting data scrolled across her field of view as she subconsciously made modulation changes to her phasers to allow them to pass through the water's surface without dissipating or being absorbed.
Adjustments made and targets locked, Enterprise's arm lifted as the order to fire was given. A furious orange glow traced a circle around her palm as she pointed it at the largest of the Abyssal vessels, ends of the twin semicircular segments meeting as her targeting solution was fed to the firing computer. The sky seemed to darken as the firing sequence completed, a brilliant, palm-width lance of directed energy lashing out at light speed, piercing what her data banks identified as Ru-class battleship, the immense thermal energy touching off a magazine detonation that tore the unfortunate victim asunder even as it was reduced to its component particles by the nadion beam.
The entire process had taken less than a second, and as the plume of water generated by the attack dissipated, the battlefield seemed to go silent, as those on the convoy and the Abyssals both attempted to process what had just occurred. Seconds later, more as a knee-jerk reaction to the new threat than conscious decision by leadership, the entire Abyssal fleet erupted into a storm of anti-aircraft fire, shells reaching skyward to bring down the new opponent.
Enterprise merely raised an eyebrow as fragments of the timed shells bursting around her bounced harmlessly off of her navigational deflectors, shields that were rated to resist impacts from micrometeoroids encountered at warp velocity barely registering the impacts. In response to the retaliatory attacks, she merely adjusted her aim slightly and unleashed a rain of phaser fire, decimating the entire remaining Abyssal fleet, including the submarines, in a matter of seconds. As what little remained after her fusillade slipped beneath the waves of the North Pacific, she turned back to the still fleeing cargo ships, intending to affirm that there were no injuries or damage.
The convoy coordinator had been unable to believe his eyes when Enterprise had appeared. Seeing a ship that had defined the childhoods (and on occasion adult life) of millions since its debut in late 1987 was pushing the limits of suspension of disbelief generally associated with interactions with kanmusu, but it was difficult to argue with what his eyes were telling him. Any thoughts that the threat of impending doom were causing hallucinations were cast aside as the horizon was lit by a barrage of what could only be phaser fire.
Seeing the pursuing Abyssal fleet vanish in the cleansing light, he shouted to his comms officer to inform the convoy to reduce speed and that the threat was gone. As he raised his binoculars to verify their saviour's condition, he froze as he saw her turn and begin gliding towards them. Thirty seconds later, accompanied by a loud hum that swiftly died off, the starship in woman form pulled alongside his vessel, hovering several meters above the swell.
"Greetings, are you the one in command of this convoy?" she asked, her voice calm and measured, with a noticeable accent that was quite similar to the one who had captained her. At his nod, she continued. "USS Enterprise, pleasure to meet you. Are any of your vessels damaged or crew injured?"
The captain shook his head as he responded. "No, nothing other than perhaps a few strained gearboxes. You arrived just in the nick of time. The little bastards didn't have a chance to launch any torpedoes."
"I am… relieved to hear that, as I was unsure that I had arrived in time." she replied, though her face did not show that, remaining as neutral as her voice. "Forgive me if that does not seem the case, I am rather new to the concept of emotions."
She lapsed into a brief silence, seeming to ponder something. Shaking her head, she continued. "If it is agreeable, I offer to act as an escort for your convoy, at least until the Japanese task force arrives."
"I would be incredibly grateful for the assistance. Would you like to come aboard so that you don't have to constantly hover?"
"No, thank you. That would be highly inadvisable, seeing as I displace more than 9 times your vessel's mass, and would likely sink it." she politely refused. "I appreciate your concern. However, I am capable of traveling on thrusters alone for an indefinite period of time, and I am currently not at more than .00001% of the trust my maneuvering thrusters are capable of outputting. They are fusion rockets, after all." After that, they lapsed into a slightly uncomfortable silence, which the captain took as an opportunity to get a proper look at their saviour.
She was a reasonably tall individual, he estimated her at just over six feet tall, with a slightly pale complexion, and was wearing the standard-issue red command staff uniform of the Next Generation series, a quartet of pips on her collar signifying a captain's rank. Her hair was a bluish silver*, and hung down to her shoulders, framing her face in a manner similar to how Beverly Crusher wore her hair. Her face bore some faint wrinkling, giving her an appearance that would be in line with a woman in their mid-thirties, but was still just as stunning as was the norm for kanmusu. Her eyes were a bright, vibrant blue, similar in colour to the aft glowing portions of her warp nacelles, a colour incongruous with her human appearance and somewhat unsettling, but overall did not detract much from her beauty.
At a glance, if stood in a line-up of other kanmusu the commander had encountered and not wearing her rigging, he would have said she was comparable in proportions to the Nagato-class, very attractive without going as over the top as the Yamato-class. Her posture commanded a certain respect, one that had been more than earned from those who were aware of her accomplishments. It held the gentility of a seasoned diplomat, as well as the hunger for knowledge of the greatest explorers, but whispered of the veteran warrior that even the most battle-hardened Klingon would think twice about crossing.
"Is there something you wanted to ask, Captain?"
The sudden question jolted the man out of his examination, and he had to supress a shudder at those intense eyes focusing on him. Shaking his head, he responded.
"No, not particularly, ma'am. Just never thought I would lay eyes on the most famous ship in Starfleet." Whatever kind of response he expected, it was not Enterprise whirling to face him with shock evident on her face. "D-did I say something wrong, ma'am?"
Her stare was unnerving, and it made the captain wonder if she was alright. It continued for several seconds before she responded.
"How do you know of Starfleet?"
"W-well, there's a pretty popular TV series about you that ran during the Eighties and Nineties. It was so popular that some channels play reruns and it's available on most streaming services. Everybody knows about the Starship Enterprise!"
That revelation rocked Enterprise to her core, and prompted her to delve back into her data uplink accessing the "internet" and running a search for her hull number. The sheer number of results that appeared was stunning, but none more so than the page she located on a site called "Memory Alpha." The sheer amount of information on her service life available on this site was troubling, especially as there were several events that her captain had decided not to report to Starfleet command included in her history. How could an Earth of the past, especially one that had yet to escape its own gravity well, have access to such information?
Her search turned up no obvious evidence of temporal tampering, leading to one mind bending conclusion.
"I'm not only in an alternate timeline, but my own is considered fiction to this Earth. It is highly disturbing to know that my life was considered entertainment for a less advanced humanity. The only consolation seems to be that they have done my crew and my history justice in their interpretation of the events." Internally cursing Q, she turned to the captain, noting his concerned expression.
"I apologize for my outburst, I failed to detect the information about my existence located in the data network I have access to, and was startled to learn you were aware of a potential future. It seems that the Prime Directive does not provide sufficient instruction cover this scenario. I was operating under the assumption that I would be providing assistance to a species unknowing of interstellar travel beyond the theoretical.
"However," she continued, her face shifting into an apologetic smile, "while I am prepared to continue interactions with the governments of this alternate Earth in light of the information I have just discovered, I will still be limiting my interference from here on out. So if you were curious, no, I will not be sharing the secrets of warp technology or matter/energy conversion. Not unless I see evidence that doing so would not cause a chaotic, potentially detrimental shift in human sociological development."
The captain gave a sigh, running his hand through his hair. "I understand. Personally, I don't care about more than doing my job and preventing people in isolated countries from starving to death. Now's not really the time for this conversation, and I'm not the one to be having it with, but let me just say that in this war, those replicators of yours would be a godsend."
He looked out over the ocean, a grim expression fixed upon it before closing his eyes and turning back to the bridge and heading back in to continue directing the convoy, leaving Enterprise to ponder her role in the world she found herself part of.
"What is your angle, Q? What thinly veiled lesson of morality are you attempting to teach? What is the test I find myself subject to?"
Aside from a flyover by aircraft that Enterprise's reference banks identified as A6M type 52 "Zero" fighters, the next two and three quarter hours progressed quietly with the captain only exiting the bridge of his tanker to check the horizon occasionally. As the sun began to touch the horizon, Enterprise turned her head to the Southwest, just as the forms of the kanmusu task force her sensors had been tracking since the captain had radioed to report the situation.
Her eyes quickly picked out and identified the forms of the carriers Ryuujou and Jun'you, as well as the battleships Ise, Hyuuga, Yamashiro, and Fusou and several cruisers and destroyers, as well as a single submarine cruising just below the surface, all closing at roughly 29 knots.
A floatplane buzzed over the convoy, circling once before vectoring towards Enterprise, who tracked it. As it passed, she spotted the pilot of the tiny craft, giving them a nod. As it flew back towards its parent ship, Enterprise sent out an audio hail to the approaching task force.
"Attention approaching fleet, this is USS Enterprise. I assume you are here to assist in escorting this fleet to their destination?"
The response was swift and professional. ["USS Enterprise, this is JS Ryuujou of Task Force AL. You are correct in your assumption, but I would ask if you would power down your weapons before we arrive, and accompany us back to Yokosuka for debriefing."]
"JS Ryuujou, I will comply with your request, though I reserve the right to leave formation on my own judgement. Is this arrangement acceptable?"
A sigh came over the radio in response. ["I guess that's the best I can reasonably expect. I know there really isn't much we can do to stop you; we're not equipped to deal with a Galaxy-class starship. We'll be coming alongside you in fifteen minutes. We'll continue this talk face-to-face then."]
"Agreed. I look forward to meeting you in person. Enterprise out."
Fifteen minutes after cutting the transmission, Task Force AL had deployed in a defensive formation around the cargo vessels, the destroyers and cruisers spreading into a ring around the convoy with the battleships and carriers interspersed amongst them. Enterprise continued to hover near the lead ship, having disconnected her phaser banks from their power feeds as instructed. After deployment, Ryuujou steamed up beside her several paper figures transforming into a combat air patrol as they took off from the scroll that served as her flight deck.
As the last Zero took off, she stowed her scroll and turned towards Enterprise.
"Sorry about earlier," she started, "but we can't be too careful. This wouldn't have been the first time the Abyssals have attempted to lure a fleet into a trap with a hostage convoy. I'm JS Ryuujou, flagship of Task Force AL. I take it you are the legendary Enterprise. I can't thank you enough for stepping in to save the lives of these men and women. If it hadn't been for you, we would be fishing whatever survivors we could find out of the water."
"It was no trouble. Prime Directive or not, I was not going to stand by whilst civilians were in direct threat from a known hostile force. I must ask why they had not been provided with a proper escort."
"A valid question, I suppose." Ryuujou sighed. "Our forces are stretched much thinner than we'd like, guarding the routes used to supply the Philippines and the few naval bases still active in the central Pacific, where Abyssal activity is more prevalent, as well as the trans-Atlantic convoys. We just don't have the numbers to patrol everywhere, so routes with lower numbers of attacks don't generally get escorts.
"Strangely, despite it being the major route for shipping in the North Pacific, the Alaskan Route receives the smallest number of attacks in the entire Pacific, and those convoys that are attacked rarely take significant losses. Even our regular patrol area rarely sees combat. Nobody's sure why, but we're not going to complain if it means we can get vital supplies through relatively unmolested. The fleet that you destroyed probably came from a more southerly base."
"I see." Enterprise responded. "When we arrive at our destination, who will I be delivering my report to?"
"Normally my direct superior Rear Admiral Goto, but from what I heard in when informing him of the situation, you might have to report to the command of US Fleet Activities Yokosuka and the Chief of Maritime Staff for the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force. We've had kanmusu show up in the middle of patrols and operations before, but since you don't answer to any active nation's navy, we can't just send you to the commander of the navy of whichever nation built your hull. Whatever happens, you'll probably under extremely heavy escort, seeing as you are effectively the ambassador of a nation that doesn't exist yet."
"Understood. I guess it is a good thing that I served as the diplomatic vessel for a number of first contacts during my career then." Enterprise stated with a faint smile, causing Ryuujou to snort at the meiosis.
"Well, if you need any information don't hesitate to ask. I have to get back to coordinating the fleet. We should arrive in Yokosuka in about four and a half days, how are you on fuel?"
"I am currently operating on maneuvering thrusters only, but my range is unlimited. You need not worry."
"That's good. Keep me informed if anything changes."
The next four days passed quietly, Enterprise taking the opportunity to obtain as much information as possible about this version of Earth and what it knew of her timeline, as well as to determine the amount of support she could afford to provide without completely flouting the Prime Directive. The Abyssal War had shattered the world economy, and placed many nations at the mercy of their neighbors. Rationing was rampant in many countries and those without such measures had seen huge spikes in the consumer price index as importation became incredibly difficult and dangerous.
Many island nations had been forced to declare martial law in order to maintain stability in the face of being cut off from certain goods, and large patches of the ocean with countless inhabited islands had found themselves completely at the care of Abyssals, usually with tragic consequences. Even the might of nations with modernized navies was insufficient to hold the line, and the remaining modern ships had found themselves more frequently spending time in port for repairs or to prevent them from being lost.
Despite the dire situation, several good things had occurred that gave hope. International cooperation had flourished in the face of this threat, countries with histories of rivalry and antagonism had banded together in a unified front, and the UN had strengthened significantly. Humanitarian aid organizations had come into their own as millions of individuals joined in the effort to aid their fellow humans in less fortunate circumstances. Technology had taken significant leaps forward as new ways to combat the Abyssals were pushed forward, and funding for vital medical research had been provided leading to innovative new medicines and treatment procedures.
The greatest beacon of hope for humanity, both for ending the war and keeping humanity from tearing itself apart in the aftermath, were the kanmusu. The spirits of warships, who had fought tooth and nail against each other in the second world war, had forged bonds and friendships that did not care about cultural and geographic boundaries. Several prominent members of kanmusu fleets had publically announced that, following the war, they would commit themselves to the defence of all nations, and there were talks of creating a single unified kanmusu fleet beholden only to the United Nations.
All this was taken into account in Enterprise's inner debate.
"As much as I respect the Prime Directive, I feel it is my duty to interfere in this Earth's development. It is highly unlikely that the major powers in this conflict will be willing to cooperate following the cessation of violence, and even less likely that they will allow the kanmusu to do as they please. I fear that relations between nations will degenerate quickly, and we may see a war nearly as bad as the Eugenics Wars break out within a decade.
"I do not have to teach them how to achieve warp travel, but it may be necessary to share fusion power and energy/matter conversion technology in order to provide stability after the Abyssals are defeated. If nothing else, it may ease the economic burdens of all nations."
The decision she eventually came to was by no means an easy one to make, and it went against many of the tenets held almost sacred in Starfleet doctrine, but she felt it was absolutely necessary to make. Ryuujou's voice sounded out suddenly, breaking her out of her introspection.
"We're almost to Yokosuka. The cargo transports are breaking off now, and we'll be making landfall in about half an hour." she informed Enterprise. "You ready for debriefing?"
"I am." Enterprise replied. Both fell silent as they made for port.
Landfall was an interesting affair. As the kanmusu walked onto the shore, the "rigging" they possessed vanished, leaving them indistinguishable from normal humans barring their somewhat idealized female forms and the occasional abnormal hair or eye colour. Enterprise wondered how one could violate thermodynamics this way, when her attention was pulled away from this line of inquiry by Ryuujou waving her over.
"You going to put away your rigging?"
Enterprise blinked, looking back at the manifestation of her saucer section. "I… am unsure of how to do so." she admitted as she turned back. "How would I go about doing so?"
Ryuujou sighed. "Mostly it's just about concentrating on the human part of you, and it just does it on its own." she stated. "Give it a try, unless you want to hover everywhere until you figure out how to adjust your weight while your rigging is equipped. It's also best not to question how it works, down that path lies madness."
Nodding in response, Enterprise closed her eyes, equating what she wanted to do to how she had manifested her "rigging" to begin with. A strange sensation washed over her and the weight of her hull vanished, which is the exact moment she remembered that she had been hovering several feet in the air. She looked down as gravity took hold, uttering a simple "Shit." as she was pulled mercilessly into the concrete, landing flat on her face.
Looking up as she heard Ryuujou struggling to contain her laughter, she fixed the light carrier with a glare as she drew herself up to her impressive height, grasping the waist of her uniform and pulling it to straighten it out. Oddly enough, this action caused Ryuujou to lose the battle against her mirth and she began to howl with laughter.
"Oh, God! You actually do the 'Picard Manoeuver,' too!" she managed to grind out through her gales of laughter. "That's freaking hilarious!"
"I fail to see what is so humorous about my actions." Enterprise groused. "Besides, performing a high warp manoeuver in atmosphere is an extremely poor idea, no matter what advantage it provides."
Fighting back giggles, Ryuujou elaborated. "Wrong 'Picard Manoeuver.'" she snickered. "In this case, it refers to how you straighten you uniform when standing up. Picard does it the exact same way all the time in the show."
Enterprise's glare dropped as she blinked, remembering that particular habit of her captain. She gave a fond smile.
"I think my Captain might have had a chuckle hearing it referred to in that manner, however I do not believe it advisable to continue calling it that, due to the fact that there is a legitimate battle tactic already going by that name, and that may cause some confusion."
Still snickering, Ryuujou nodded. Beckoning with one hand, she began walking towards a building labeled Administration, straightening her posture as she led Enterprise through the double doors. Scaling three flights of stairs, the two walked in relative silence, broken only by Ryuujou greeting a pair of destroyers. It took less than five minutes to reach the door to the commanding officer's workspace, and Ryuujou immediately ushered Enterprise inside.
The room within was relatively sparse, populated only by a single desk and a few chairs along the wall. There was a door in the back wall that clearly indicated that this was a secretary's office. Seated at the desk was a young woman with black hair, dressed in a blue-and-white uniform. The name plate identified her as Ooyodo.
"Hello, Ryuujou. They're waiting for you and our guest inside." Ooyodo greeted. "I recommend you be on your best behaviour, Vice Admirals Sawyer and Murakawa are in there, and I'm pretty sure they're not as lenient towards our antics as Goto."
Seeing her chaperone tense, Enterprise assumed that these two were quite high profile individuals, and subconsciously straightened her uniform once again. When signaled to enter, she followed Ryuujou into the office.
Both of them knew that the upcoming meeting would decide the course of human history irrevocably.
They could only hope it went smoothly.
And so First Contact has been made. Writing a battle scene like that was… difficult to say the least. Firstly, you have to take into account that Starfleet protocol states that force is the last resort, and only to reciprocate on an equivalent level. Second, it is very easy to just say "and then she obliterated the entire fleet," but many don't realize the amount of finesse using weapons designed for space combat in atmosphere requires. A Type X phaser outputs the same amount of energy per second at full power as the entire Earth's atmosphere absorbs from solar radiation in the same time span. An episode of TNG indicated that the Enterprise's phasers could blow away an entire atmosphere from thermal effects alone in one shot, and that wasn't at full power. Third, there's no indication of how a tactical computer collects and interprets data, so I needed to find a way that made sense. And lastly, I wanted a curb stomp battle that didn't just give no chance of retaliation, but the effects of that retaliation also had to make sense.
Moving on to the rest of the chapter, I wanted to ensure that at least an inner debate occurred before Enterprise tossed the Prime Directive out of the hangar bay doors. This is a seriously important piece of doctrine for Starfleet, and can't just be tossed aside for plot convenience, so I wanted at least some form of moral dilemma present before the decision to interfere was made. I also wanted to do some world building, and highlight just how dire the situation for Kancolle Earth is, as a war of that magnitude has some pretty serious ramifications. Reconstruction and resettlement efforts post-war will place even further strain in the time it would take to recover. To put it in perspective, Britain's WW2 rationing policies did not fully end until 9 years after the end of the war, and they were on the winning side.
As for her human body, I decided to pull elements from most of the major bridge crew. I took her height from Riker and Worf, her face and hair style from Crusher, her voice from Deanna, her speech patterns and core personality from Picard, and her unnatural eye colour is meant to inspire the Uncanny Valley of Data. Her trouble with emotions stems from similar problems to what Data encountered whilst using the Emotion Chip. I chose to locate her phasers in her hands to emphasize the omnidirectional and exceedingly precise nature of her armament, and I seriously debated her firing her phasers from her finger tips a la Byakuya Kuchiki, but decided against that for this battle as she is unfamiliar with how her body/rigging operates and was mostly acting on autopilot.
But I just had to insert a bit of the humor associated with Kancolle there at the end, so I hope you all enjoyed the inclusion of the famed "Picard Manoeuver."
As always, feel free to provide constructive criticism (this does not mean praise only, feel free to point out specific flaws, just do it in a polite manner), and I hope this at least maintained the standard set by the first chapter.
ANs:
*It's pretty much the same colour as her hull.