In the year 2014 humanity faces a threat that has never been seen before. They came from the deepest depths of the oceans suddenly and without warning. The first indications came from long overdo merchant ships and any attempts to locate the ships ended in failer. At first, only one ship went missing then another and within one month no fewer than thirty-four ships had been reported as missing. Humanity's first contact would come in the form of a Japanese destroyer patrolling a major shipping line. The destroyer Kirishima received a distress signal from an oil tanker on route to Japan the report was garbled and only gave a general area as to where the ship was located. Captain Hoashi Jun ordered the SH-60K helicopter to launch and scout ahead of the destroyer in an attempt to find the oiler as any attempts to contact the ship were met with static.
Two hours later the helicopter would spot smoke on the horizon. Alerting Jun they were given permission to investigate while Jun contacted any friendly warships within range and alerted them to the situation. The destroyer Myoko was the only one closest to respond within a reasonable amount of time. Once the helicopter was within visual range they reported the tanker was engulfed in a raging inferno and sinking stern first. Further searching of the area reviled six wake trails heading due south at a speed 16 knots. When the pilots attempted to contact the unknows they received no response for thirty seconds until a black flack cloud exploded right in front of them rattling the frame of the helicopter and forcing it to dive to the deck as the fire became increasingly more accurate and intense. Firing off both of their anti-ship missiles the pilots beat a hasty retreat back to Kirishima and informed the Captain of the attack. Alerting Myoko to their situation the destroyer began to make flank speed to Kirishima.
15:34 hours
October 5, 2014
Off the coast of China
Captain Jun rubbed his chin as he thought over the information that had been presented to him over the past two hours. What had started off as a simple patrol had quickly spiraled into something much more. First a distress signal from a tanker and now his pilots being shot at with flack rounds of all things. He'd already contacted JMSDF and they diverted the closest ship, Myoko, to assist and even then it would be over three hours before they were in a position to help even at flank speed. He'd ordered a change in heading to be moving away from the contacts he did not fancy his chances in a six on one fight. A flash of light out of the corner of his eye drew his attention back to the present. He turned just in time to see eight massive plumes of water rise up as the ship shook violently from the near-miss. Grabbing hold of a console he managed to keep himself steady until the shaking stopped.
"Report!"
"Shrapnel from those shells sir no damage!"
"Radar what have got!?"
"Nothing sir screen is clear!"
"Clear!? Those were navel rounds they have to be within range!"
"I don't know what to tell you sir I got nothing!"
Kirishima shook again as the shells splashed closer with one impacting right on the helipad destroying both the pad and the helicopter as well as igniting the fuel still onboard starting a fire that engulfed the helipad. As the crew rushed to extinguish it Kirishima pulled a hard turn to starboard and accelerated to all ahead flank in an attempt to outrun her attackers.
"Weapons fire six missiles at the targets and set their targeting systems to go active at a range of seventeen thousand five hundred yards!"
"Yes sir!"
At the bow of the ship six-cell doors opened up allowing six SM-2MR missiles to scream out of the ship their launch briefly covering the bridge in gray-white smoke. Hitting their activation range the six missiles began to search for targets. Despite being less than five kilometers away only one missile found a solid lock and raced toward the target. From the bridge, Jun watched as a single fireball rose from the enemy's location signaling that at least one missile found its target, though, without their radar, it was impossible to tell if it had sunk or not. A much more important fact is that only one hit which means that whatever they're using to avoid radar detection also worked on the targeting systems of the missiles.
"Helm hard to port!"
"Sir!"
Bringing the rudder hard to port Kirishima began to list as the maneuver carried her momentum to her starboard side. Eight shells crashed down on Kirishima's predicted path yet all missed the ship, some only by a few meters. Bringing the rudder back amidship Kirishima began to straighten out and regain her lost speed.
"Weapons fire six missiles range eighteen thousand nine hundred yards!"
"Yes Sir!"
Six more SM-2MR missiles launched from the bow cells and much last the last six screamed toward their target with murderous intent. Results were slightly better as two missiles managed to find a target while the other four passed over harmlessly. Two fireballs, seen from the bridge of Kirishima, signaled their hits.
In retaliation, eight more shells came plunging down on Kirishima and this time they found their mark. Five shells crashed threw her thin deck armor and detonated deep in the ship. She shuttered violently and almost seemed to groan in pain at the hits and the bridge crew grabbed on to what they could to keep themselves steady, although a few weren't so lucky.
"Damage report!"
"Sir, rounds missed anything vital but we have multiple fires onboard damage control teams are already on it!"
With only a slight nod he acknowledged what he had been told and narrowed his eyes at the area of ocean where the shells were coming from. He'd timed out the time between shots and it rounded out to be about every ten to twelve seconds. Exactly thirty seconds had passed since the last shots were fired. He didn't let himself or the crew relax until a full three minutes had passed, they'd managed to escape their pursuers. Slowing the ship to cruising speed allowed Myoko to rendezvous with them three hours later while lookouts kept their eyes sharp looking for any indication that their pursers would come back to finish the job.
Once Myoko arrived and their crew informed of the engagement Captain Jun informed JMSDF of their findings and subsequent engagement. He was ordered to return for repairs and to be ready to provide a full debrief about the events that took place, Myoko would provide escort. Within the day all JMSDF vessels were ordered on high alert and to patrol the major shipping lines around Japan. Hours later all of the nations located in the Southern and South-Western Pacific had also been alerted and placed their militaries on high alert. A day later the Japenese military announced the sinking of a merchant ship and the damaging of a JMSDF vessel to the Japenese people. Within hours news channels all across the world reported about the incident and backed up by live footage from the Kirishima there were no doubts about the legitimately of the report.
Two days later the United Nations held an emergency meeting as attacks on shipping began to escalate at an alarming rate even warships found themselves falling victim to the attacks their weapons having minimal to no effect on their attackers. In an overwhelming agreement, merchants were to be escorted by a nation's navy once they were within two-hundred miles, or 321 kilometers, of that nation's coastline. It was not enough.
The world navies quickly found their weapons had little effect on their attackers. With their ability to hide from all versions of surface-search radar they quickly found themselves relying on the mark one eyeball to spot targets but with their enemies' ability to just appear at times more often than not the only warning they got flashed on the horizon as their guns fired and then it was just too late. In response to rising casualties and ship losses, the convey system found its self brought back into use on a massive scale all across the world. This helped the situation to a degree, however, there were just not enough escorts for the amount of shipping crossing the worlds' oceans.
By early December of that year, the economies of several countries had spiraled into depressions worse than the one in the 30s, and more still were hanging on by the bearest of threads ready to be cut. Heavy losses to both the merchant fleets and warship fleets had all but brought global trade to a halt and the few conveys that were sent usually outnumbered their escorts by five and sometimes seven to one; on average over half of the convey would be sunk before they made it to safer waters and even then they were still at high risk. The USN, the most powerful navy in the world, had been reduced to a shadow of its former glory with numerous disastrous counter-attacks taking all but one of their carriers destroying over half of their destroyer fleet, all of their cruisers, and eighty-five percent of its submarine force. JMSDF barely had enough ships to cover their coastline and the Royal Navy had only a handful of ships left. It was much the same for the other navies of the world with some being outright destroyed, and it was about to get even worse.
On December 7th, 2014, 73 years after the attack on Peral Harbor, a full-scale attack was launched on the American bases at Midway, Wake Island, and Peral Harbor destroying most of what was left of the USN. Hours later coastal cities across the world were hammered by shore bombardments killing hundreds of thousands and wounding hundreds of thousands more. A day later enemy forces began to invade numerous islands and small nations in the Pacific. The defenders and inhabitants of the islands often put up suicidal resistance; they would not go quietly into the night. It was here that a glaring flaw was noticed in their enemies, although they ruled the waves humanity was the king of ground combat and helped by their enemies severe lack of experience they inflicted tremendous casualties on enemy landing forces despite this their sheer numbers often overran the defenders and dozens of islands fell to enemy control.
A glimmer of hope soon presented its self when an enemy invasion fleet off the coast of the Philippines was destroyed allowing the defenders to drive the invaders back into the sea within a week. This force was also destroyed and when Filipino ships went to greet the victors they were baffled to find six human girls seemingly skiting on the ocean surface toward them with weapons that belonged on battleships. When asked if they were the ones who defeated the enemy fleet they explained that they had and requested to see the Commander of forces in the area. Brought back to the Philippines they were questioned by the base commander on what exactly they were and how they got here. They couldn't give him a straight answer on how they were summoned as they themselves didn't fully understand it but they did explain that they were the spiritual souls of American, British, and Japanese warships. When the Commander explained the dire situation they were in the fleet girls, as they called themselves, asked one simple question with the fury of a thousand men behind it.
"How can we help?"
A day later military cargo planes transported the fleet girls to their home nations, two to Japan, two to America and two to Britain. Once they arrived and explained how to summon other fleet girls the Corps of Engineers got to work and within a week the first summoning pools had been built and the first fleet girls summoned. With other girls appearing to help their respective nations Humanity now had a weapon that could defeat their previously undefeatable enemies. The Abyssals, as they were called, were about to face the fury of Humanity a hundredfold.
A/N
So this is a thing. I have become very interested in Kantai Collection and decided to write a story about it. For anyone reading who thought this would be about Battlestar Renown, I'm sorry to disappoint. Truth be told I'm not sure if I'll continue the story about Renown so I offer this. If anyone reading this wants to take up Renown's story I have no issues with that who knows you might make a better story than I could. With that out of they way sit back and enjoy the story.
P.S No flames, please.