"Dive bombers! Four o'clock! High!"
"Torpedo bombers incoming! Six o'clock! Wave top level!"
"Fighters inbound! Twelve o'clock! High! They have rockets!"
"Karukaya-san! Look out!" She turned hard to Port and then turned hard starboard. The rockets missed and her AA guns managed to shoot two down before they escaped. "They're going to have to try harder than that to get me!" Ise smiled and turned her AA guns on another dive bomber squadron. The fleet was doing their best to create a wall of flack that would shred abyssal warplanes once they entered it. The results spoke for themselves. Dive and torpedo bombers turned into fireballs and crashed into the ocean. Rocket attack planes are shredded before they get close but some found a way through.
Four abyssal dive bombers dive to the deck and slip under the wall of flack. They pulled up and were met with fire from 25 mm guns and 13 mm guns. They dived on Fuso-san and dropped their bombs. Three bombs slammed into her destroying some of her AA mounts and starting a fire. Sendai and three destroyers shot down half of the dive bombers before they escaped.
Three torpedo bombers slipped through and dropped their torpedoes. Tosa cut her speed and turned hard to Port and avoided two of the torpedoes. "Come on! Are you too scared to face us in open combat!?"
"I think they are! The abyssals fear our guns," Kirishima shouted with glee.
"They don't fear anything! They're doing this because they know they have a higher chance of sinking us with airstrikes than they do in a fleet engagement!"
"Your logic is not welcome!"
BOOM! BOOM, BOOM!
"FUSO-SAN!"
Fuso waved off her sister's concern, "I'm fine sister." The fire had spread to her 25 mm mounts and cooked off their ammo. However, the fire was doing more than just setting off ammunition boxes it was also painting her as a target.
A dive bomber squadron had flown around the flack wall and was coming in off the fleets' bow. Instead of targeting the Kanmusu at the front of the fleet they flew through concentrated AA fire to try and hit Fuso. Because of this, they were shot down before they dropped their bombs. A squadron of rocket attack planes tried the same and managed to fire off their rockets but they did little damage and were shot down on their way out. A second dive bomber squadron tried to attack her and met the same fate as the other two squadrons.
"I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HURT MY SISTER!" Yamashiro focused her AA fire on any abyssal warplane that dared to go near her sister. Redirecting her AA fire left a hole in the flack wall that destroyers and cruisers had to fill.
"Sister, I'm fine. Focus on defending yourself."
"But..."
"Sister." Yamashiro reluctantly nodded and turned her guns on the abyssals that threatened her and added her dual-purpose guns to the flack wall. This allowed the cruisers and destroyers around her to focus their fire on abyssal planes that get through the wall.
Hatsuharu just avoided the rockets that were fired at her when she spotted three more planes inbound from her Port. She turned to starboard to avoid the rockets but three hit her. The rockets tore through her thin armor and she bit back a scream as pain exploded through her body. Her crew, eager for revenge, opened up with every AA gun she had. They shot down two of the planes before they escaped.
"SISTER!" Ariake appeared off Hatsuharu's Port side. "I'm not sinking. Not yet."
"I'm staying with you so don't try to change my mind." Hatsuharu winced and nodded.
The number of attacking planes begins to drop until the AA guns of the fleet fell silent. They stayed alert but after ten minutes and no radar contacts they allowed themselves to relax a little. Ariake was joined by Yugure and the two sisters assisted their older sister in repairing her damage and getting one of her boilers back online.
Myoko had dropped her speed to repair the damage done by a torpedo hit and fight a fire. Ayanami was helping her fight the fire while Asagiri stood watch for them. Fuso was working on getting the wrecks that once were her range finders operational so that her main guns would be able to hit something if they engaged in a surface action. Tosa had slowed to cruising speed and was pumping out the few thousand tons of water that had flooded her do to the torpedo hit.
"Shokaku-san. Enemy air attacks on the fleet have stopped. They might be heading for your fleet." When she responded Ise heard the sound of gunfire mixed in with the transmission. "They are already here. I-34 reported an abyssal surface heading your way three minutes ago. By her estimates they will enter engagement range in thirty minutes."
"Understood." The transmission was ended. "Intel reports an abyssal surface fleet coming our way. They will enter engagement range in twenty-seven minutes." Tosa grinned at this, "Hatsuharu-san, how are you feeling?"
"I won't be able to hit my top speed but I'm ready to fight."
"...Alright. Fuso-san?" She nodded to her unanswered question. Ise nodded back and they entered formation. It was a standard formation with the destroyers in front to screen the fleet followed by the battleships and then the cruisers. What is different about it is a squadron of eight destroyers off the fleet's Port side. Once the fleet closes to a specified range those destroyers will engage will the rest of the destroyers continue to escort the fleet. Ise and Fuso launched their floatplanes. Ise sent hers South while Fuso sent hers to the South-east.
"Radar contacts! Bearing 1-5-3 eight contacts ten kilometers out!"
"Those have to be land-based bombers."
"More contacts! Bearing 1-7-3 seven kilometers out!"
"How many?"
"I can't tell. My radar just shows one large contact."
"Probably a single large squadron or two squadrons close together." Tosa 'tutted' at this, "When will they learn that airstrikes are useless against battleships like me."
"Uh, Tosa-san. History will disagree with you."
"Yes, but history is in the past. This is the present."
"She has a point."
"Enough. We have unwelcomed guests." Fuso pointed to the sky where dots started to appear.
"Let them come! I care not for their flimsy planes!" With that declaration, Tosa's guns opened fire. Ise, Kirishima, Fuso, and Yamashiro followed her example. Flack bursts appeared around the dive bombers followed by tracer rounds. There are twenty-four dive bombers in the attack wave and they split into three separate groups of eight bombers. AA fire shoots down four, five, six bombers before they enter their dive. Ise turns hard to Port and Fuso follows her lead but Yamashiro, Tosa, and Kirishima hold their course.
They continue to dive and Ise's eyes go wide, "THEY'RE TRYING TO CRASH INTO US!" She turns her rudder hard to starboard while Fuso continues her turn. Furutaka and Kako adjust their course slightly to avoid a collision with Fuso and two dive bombers break off and target them. Their AA fire shoots down one of the bombers but the second one gets through and Kako raises her arm and closes her eyes. The bomber slams into her arm and flips into her face. The bomb crashes through her armor and detonates deep inside her hull. She cries out in pain and opens only her left eye. The wing of the abyssal bomber had buried its self in her right eye causing extreme pain. When the bomb detonated it killed dozens of her crew and started fires that quickly spread out of control; black smoke and blood poured from her wounds and tears started to run down her left cheek.
Fuso watched this play out and a cold rage filled her. Her AA guns continued to blaze away and shot down four of the dive bombers aiming for her. Her hard turn to Port caused the last two to miss and she turned them into fireballs.
Three dive bombers got through Ise's flack. The first one slammed into her number four turret and the bomb exploding jammed it in place. The second bomber dropped its bomb but it bounced off the top of her turret and exploded destroying the abyssal and disabling her number six turret. The third bomber slammed into her head killing some of her bridge crew, and destroying most of her range finders. She gripped her katana and snarled like an animal.
Yamashiro, having heard Ise's shout, turned hard to starboard at the last second throwing off the abyssals aiming for her. Two of them were shot down while the other three picked new targets. A third was shot down and the remaining two targeted Tama and Namikaze. Namikaze avoided the one gunning for her and it was shot down. The one aiming for Tama had its wing blown off and it dropped its bomb before slamming into her. Aviation fuel splashed into her hull and the fire ignited it. It quickly spread to her torpedo tubes and a huge explosion followed. She cried out and turned hard to Port nearly colliding with Namikaze. Her sister, Numakaze, cut speed and turned to Starboard to avoid colliding with Tama.
The last two dive bombers target Kirishima but between her own AA fire and that of a dozen other Kanmusu they are quickly shot down. "Medium bombers coming in at wave top level!" AA fire greats them and blows four of the bombers out of the sky. They crash into the ocean where they cartwheel twice before disappearing beneath the waves. Two bombers targeted Kirishima and the other two targeted Kako
Kirishima turned hard to Starboard to avoid the four torpedoes the bombers dropped. Two torpedoes slammed into her and she slowly started to list. Kako turned to Port but it wouldn't be enough to avoid the bombers. As they closed in to drop their torpedoes two sliver streaks slammed into them and cut them in half! The two steaks were joined by four more and they changed into six Zeros coated in silver flame.
Furutaka watched the Zeros circle the fleet with surprise. As far as she knew no Zeros launched from their carriers were bathed in silver flames. Regardless, she was thankful for them and gave them a small nod before sailing next to her sister and transferring her DC teams over to her.
Fuso watched the Zeros before looking to Ise. Her katana was unsheathed and pointed at where the abyssal medium bombers were. Her eyes filled with surprise when she saw a faint flicker of silver fire from the blade. "Ise-san?" She looked at her and 'surprise' as well as 'confusion' was written across her face. She shook her head, "I-I don't know." She sheathed her blade and the Zeros disappeared into wisps of silver fire. Fuso sailed up beside her and placed her hand on her shoulder, "Are you alright?"
She shook her head, "I-I don't know. Can we keep this between us?" Fuso nodded. "We can but you should tell Akashi-san when you have the chance." Ise nodded. "I will." Fuso nodded and headed toward her sister. "Status!?"
Kako moaned, "I'm... not feeling too good at the moment." She winced and Furutaka watched with a worried expression. Namikaze sailed up beside her, "A fire spread to Tama-san's starboard torpedo launcher she needs repairs as soon as possible." Ise nodded. "Alright, Furutaka-san take Namikaze-san, Numakaze-san, and Yamakaze-san make sure Kako-san and Tama-san reach Okinawa." Furutaka nodded and she escorted her sister out of formation followed soon by Namikaze-san, Numakaze-san, and Yamakaze-san escorting Tama-san.
"I might be a little slower but other than that I'm fine," Kirishima reported.
"Understood. Shokaku-san, do you read me?"
...
...
...
"Shokaku-san, do you copy?"
"Ise-san, this is Zuiho-san. Shokaku-san took some bad hits during the air attacks. She's not in danger of sinking but, it's bad Ise-san." Ise clenched her fist, "Was anyone else hit?"
"Zuikaku-san's flight deck is out of action but it should be repaired in one hour at most."
"That's good to hear. Tama-san and Kako-san are heavily damaged, they're being escorted back to Okinawa. Can you give them a fighter escort?"
"Yes. I'll launch a squadron now."
"Thank you Zuikaku-san."
"No problem. Out."
Her crew reported the number six turret was operational and she rotated it and elevated the guns to make sure nothing felt off. She nodded and thanked her crew before asking what the condition of her number four turret was. They informed her that the bomb had destroyed the hydraulic systems reasonable for rotating the turret and the only way to get it operational was to return to the docks. She nodded and then contacted her floatplane asking for the position of the abyssal fleet. The answer surprised her. According to the pilot the abyssal fleet had turned around and was heading South. That surprised Ise, she didn't expect the abyssals to turn and run. If the surface fleet coordinated their attack with the airstrikes they could have done serious damage to the fleet. So that begs the question, what made them retreat?