When Kenneth Jones and Simon Bukner infiltrated German occupied Europe during World War 1 and forced the German Hell Gate closed, they bought the world about a century to prepare for another attempt.
During the Second World War, Kenneth's daughter joined the Devonport Fleet; a group of ships built off recovered wreckage or repaired ships of unknown origin. That fleet proved themselves multiple times throughout the war and beyond, drawing enough of a reputation to be kept in service until 1995 before retirement.
In 2010 the abyssals started attacking shipping across the planet, eventually being revealed in 2012 as the cause of so many losses, when kanmusu or shipgirls started appearing to face them.
Two years later, an attempted trap by several shipgirls resulted in the re-emergence of Devonport's World War Two fleet, some of which being related to the ones which locked out the abyss previously.
AU – Do not expect everything to match up with the original canon of the source material. Do not expect everything to match real world history.
Multi-cross – While Kancolle is the primary canon, there will be other canons involved, some minor, some major.
Disclaimer – All pre-existing material belongs to the original creators, including fan made material if any comes up.
Chapter 1: Awakening
Howling screams tore the fire lit, smoke darkened skies above Plymouth. Out in the Channel, monstrous ships, many shaped vaguely like women exchanged fire with the defence fleet and fortresses, planes duelling above.
Tracers and shells lit paths through the smoke while the concussion of guns created a deadly symphony. The streets of the city echoed with screams of pain, the steady cracks of pistols and rifles underscoring the heavier sounds from bigger guns adding to the madness.
From the smoke a pair of shapes ran through a deserted section of the city. Two girls, tall for their age and well built, one sporting a blood covered hand to go with her red t-shirt, the other wearing soot covered blue.
A whistling shell had them ducking, darting into an alleyway, hurdling rubbish bags left in the open for garbage men to collect. Their hair whipped out behind them, the dark blue, near black colour getting lost in the smoke.
Pulling out the other side, they braced their backs against the nearest wall, panting. "Really shouldn't have punched that thing, Sal," one of the pair managed, her breathing calming slightly.
"I wasn't expecting to turn around and find a goddamn abyssal right behind me," the other girl responded, taking a moment to shake her blood soaked hand for emphasis. "Nor that it'd go up like that." An explosion sounded from somewhere near the docks, causing both teens to look in that direction for a moment, wondering what it had been. "Any idea what's going on, Megan?"
"Not besides the obvious," Megan responded, ducking as something exploded far too close. "We need to move, Sally."
Her sister nodded as another shell blew up another house somewhere on the other side of the river. "Where though?" asked Sally. "The nearest shelter is cut off by ugly's friends back there." She jerked her thumb in the direction they had come from.
Megan frowned for a moment before grabbing her sister's hand and starting off towards the river. "We need to hit the Tamar, we can either get to Devonport and hopefully their shelter, or we can hit the naval museum and its docks, Zephyr and the others should be open, at least for you. Maybe they'll have some ammo as well and we can shoot some of these abyssal fuckers."
A scream sounded in the distance, underscored by what sounded like old cannons.
The pair turned to look in the direction for a moment before sharing a grim, determined look.
Nodding, Sally followed her sister through the streets and back alleys of Plymouth, the pair doing their best to avoid the abyssals that were ashore.
The streets and alleys they darted down, barely evading cannon fire were disturbingly empty, if Plymouth didn't already have evacuation plans for far too many things.
Cutting through a building filled with tools they bulled past a pair of women wearing some sort of air mask, slamming the white skinned women into walls with sickening cracks.
Running past, they barely had time to see the light literally faded from the inhuman women's eyes.
The duo made it out of the building moments before a rain of hot metal tore it down.
Pausing for breath near a road traffic island, the pair rested their hands on their knees. Something screeched like a dying cat in the distance.
Light flared opposite them, a cloud of flame rising from somewhere deeper into the city.
The pair's blue eyes narrowed, a whistling sounding far too close, not a human whistle but something moving.
Eyes widening, they yelped, diving away from the island, hurled in opposite directions as it erupted in a plume of flame, stone, dirt, wood and concrete flying every which way as a shell detonated.
Crashing through the glass front of a restaurant, Megan bounced and rolled, slamming through several tables, her ears ringing. Swallowing hard, Megan eased herself up, hissing at the stinging wetness along her back and arms. "Ow… fucking…" she groaned. Eyes closed, she shook her head to clear it before starting for the door.
"L… Lyrene… need some help here," she ground out, limping for the door. She coughed at the soot filled air, a formerly brilliant summer day now ruined by fire and steel.
"Can't," the whisper sounded from the air near her, sounding like someone speaking through gritted teeth. "I can't manifest right now, something's preventing it."
Groaning as she made it to the door, Megan winced, looking around. "The Rhyfelwyr?" she asked, looking around for her sister.
"All locked out or engaged…" Lyrene responded. "The only… ugh… only way I can help is if you become a Rhyfelwr."
Wincing, Megan groaned, before spotting a black form standing over something red. It took her a moment to realise that something was her sister and the black shape was an abyssal.
She was moving before she even realised it. Slamming into the thing shoulder first, she almost bit her tongue as something broke, whiting her vision momentarily as fire shot along her nerves.
Sharp burning pain lanced from her already abused shoulder echoed by stinging pains along her back and arms, wrapping her arms around the abyssal before hurling it away with a yell as she fell.
Scrambling to her feet, she had enough time to see a girl about her age, skin and hair both stark white and wearing a torn black vest, whale-skull helmet and big hands.
Flinching back as the 'woman' swung a fist at her, she grimaced, air from the attack grazing her cheek.
"What's this? Has a little worm come to try to save the slave?" the creature asked, its voice young, but underscored with a mechanical echo that grated down her spine.
"That's… my sister… bitch…" ground out Megan, teeth clenched against the pain from her shoulder and back, "Like… hell am I watching her die to scum like you."
A large metal hand came at her forcing her aside. Were those torpedoes in the fingers?
Darting forwards, Megan slugged the abyssal. Its head snapped back as it yelped, a viscous mix of blood and oil spraying from its nose.
Two blows hammered into its stomach, folding it over before she was knocked to the pavement by explosion nearby.
Ears ringing again, Megan groaned forcing herself up. A wild fist from the abyssal knocked her reeling, blackening her eye as it smacked into her.
"Weak…" the abyssal snarled. "Human worm, lie down and die."
Touching around her eye tenderly, Megan shook her head. "Says the weak one," she hissed. "It's all destroy, destroy, destroy with fuckwits like you isn't it?" she asked. "Doesn't matter whether you're from the sea, land or air, something crawls up your arse and dies so you've got to kill everything. I've been encountering shitholes like you since I was five. Guess what that says about them."
The abyssal snarled, raising its larger hands but she darted in under the guns.
The loud cracks from the two twin cannons almost slammed her into the ground the way the shells blew out a building behind her, spraying rubble all over.
Pulling a dagger from its sheath at the small of her back, she drove right in next to the abyssal; swinging the blade up across the abyssal's uncovered gut.
It screeched, blood and oil pouring out of the wound. The knife flashed darkly, snapping back to drive through the creature's ribs again and again.
The abyssal staggered back, bleeding from a dozen wounds, Megan lunged, grabbing its hair in one hand, pulling its head up. "Oh look," she said, her voice barely audible over the ringing in her ears, "guess you're the weak one."
Frightened eyes looked up at her before she stabbed her knife into the abyssal's neck, just under the ear. Pulling it out, she slit the monster's throat, stepping forward from so the spray of blood hit her chest instead of her face.
Letting it drop, gurgling, she turned back towards her sister.
"Sis, look out!"
Megan barely had the time to look up at the yell from her sister before something exploded at her feet, throwing her hard into a wall.
"I don't know how you killed one of us, human, but you will not kill more," a voice almost exactly like the first abyssal stated.
Shaking the ringing out of her ears, Megan forced her eyes to focus on the abyssal above her. "You're hardly the only… demon I've… encountered," she managed before crying out as she was kicked in the side, feeling several ribs break, sharp explosions of pain that almost whited out her vision.
Rolling around after getting another vicious kick to the ribs, Megan looked up at the demon-horned mask covering the face of the monster in woman's form.
"Pathetic wretch, you and your kind will be erased from this world before long," the abyssal hissed, drawing Megan's attention to the demon mask over its face.
Spitting a glob of phlegm and blood out of her mouth, Megan glared at the abyssal. "How-how's that working…" she trailed off, grunting at the white heat flaring from where she had been kicked, matching another flare in her shoulder, "for you?" she managed through gritted teeth.
The foot came at her again. Pushing through the pain, Megan managed to grab it, holding it against her side before with a roar that was half anger, half agony, she rose up and slammed her hand into the side of the abyssal's knee.
The abyssal's scream joined her own as its knee buckled with a sound like a gunshot it went down.
Gasping, Megan clenched her eyes shut, hugging her ribs until the pain faded back to a throbbing ache before forcing herself to her knees.
A gun was raised by the abyssal and she hurled herself at it, sending the shot wild her ears probably bleeding from the fresh concussion of noise.
Landing atop the abyssal, Megan grunted in pain.
"As I said," she gritted out, "you're hardly the first demon to attack me."
Elbow in its solar plexus, she pushed herself up, grabbing its mask and slamming its head into the ground twice.
"Argh!" the abyssal hissed. "Sink, human," she snarled, a fist slamming into Megan's ribs.
Megan grunted, pinning the hand against her side with her arm. "You first," she snarled, her own fist breaking the abyssal's jaw drawing a yowl of pain.
Forcing the abyssal's arm down, she shifted, using her knee to pin it.
The abyssal snarled at her then yipped as her knee hit its breast.
Trying to ignore the feeling under her, Megan wrenched the abyssal's mask off, looking down into its glowing eyes.
Holding out her good hand, she ground out the activation phrase that called the dagger back to her hand.
The abyssal's eyes widened as it saw the dagger in her hand, shaking its head rapidly.
"Bit… different looking death in the eye isn't it?" asked Megan. "I'm not one for torture and I'd rather not be one for killing, but too many like you have tried to kill me and I'm not inclined to lay down and die."
"Stupid human…" the abyssal hissed. "You'll all die and we'll get our revenge for what you did to us."
"Not today though," Megan responded. Her knife flashed, punching in just under the abyssal's ear. It bucked under her several times, the light fading from its eyes.
Sitting there for a moment, Megan let out a shaky breath.
Retrieving her dagger, she reached down and closed the creature's eyes before rocking painfully back to her feet and moving to help her sister.
"You sure you're going to make it?" Sally asked as she and her sister limped along the deserted road. Nobody seemed to be left nearby; probably most had gotten to shelters away from the smoke filled air and the screaming of shells and planes.
When she had woken up after being knocked out by the abyssal shell, she had found out that her sister had taken on and killed an abyssal in hand-to-hand. She had seen her sister kill the second.
Megan swallowed, wincing. "I'll damn well crawl if I need to," she ground out. "We need to get to the dockyard."
Nodding, Sally shifted her grip on her sister, trying to avoid pressing too hard on any broken bones, even if they had field dressed the wounds.
A whump sounded somewhere behind them making both duck slightly.
Unfortunately they didn't get very far before a group of whale-like abyssal destroyers backed by what looked like a human-type seated on a throne of guns cut off their route.
Eyes widening, Sally barely managed to shove her sister out of the way before the human-type abyssal opened fire, the distinctive 'pom-pom' sound.
The next thing she knew, she was looking up at the monster, looking straight down the barrel of one of its turrets, unable to feel most of her body.
"Weak," the monster snarled, "A pathetic little slave, unfit even for death."
Death? Sally forced her lungs to work, blinking black spots from her eyes.
Death was one of the constants, everything dies eventually.
The thought lit a spark in her mind.
Death might have been constant, but she still had family, people that needed her.
Death wasn't something she was willing to bow to just yet.
In the distance the pounding of drums started up, someone – probably at the naval base – was sounding the beat to quarters. Too late, the enemy were already within the walls.
A moment of visual disconnect had her blinking.
One part of her was looking up the barrel of the gun in front of her; the other was looking at the monsters swarming the docks, swarming her home.
She could feel people inside her, people that were hiding from the monsters, whispering hope, praying to god, trying to survive. Her sister was trying to survive.
She was Sally Jones, daughter of Saria and Tomas Jones, the Grey Huntress and the Black Wolf, great-granddaughter of Captain Elizabeth 'Eliza' Jones; the same captain that sent Bismarck to the bottom with numerous sea devils and Nazis, great-great-granddaughter to Kenneth Jones, the Raven Knight that forced closed the Hell Gate Imperial Germany opened.
She was HMS Zephyr, the destroyer that sunk the Bismarck, the ship that captured U-556 by willingly taking a full volley of torpedoes, the ship that escorted the Lions and Unicorns from World War 2 all the way to the Gulf.
No damned sea demon was going to sink her now, not when she had already fought and sunk dozens of their kind.
GENERAL QUARTERS! All hands to battle stations! This is not a drill, repeat this is not a drill! GENERAL QUARTERS! Man your battle stations! Enemy ships in harbour!
The beat to quarters wasn't just from the docks anymore, it was inside her. Her country needed her, her city needed her.
She was not going to die here!
Not to some jumped up worm of a pissed ghost!
Inside her chest she felt heat as engines flickered and roared into life, thrumming with thousands of horsepower.
She could actually feel her electronics coming online, her senses expanding as radar and sonar pulsed outwards searching for threats she didn't already know about.
A hand snapped up, grabbing the barrel of the turret and forcing it upwards, much to the shock of the abyssal behind it as it creaked and screeched, bending in the middle.
Rolling to her feet as the abyssal staggered back, Sally slugged the abyssal, driving her fist into its gut, before smashing it to the ground with a solid punch causing its cheek to crunch inwards. "I am nobody's slave, abyssal cunt, unlike you and every other hell-spawned worm like you."
In the back of her mind, she could feel her hull, feel the civilians aboard. Eyes narrowing, she sent an order to clear the docks.
Several people screamed inside her.
Guns rotated, unlocked, cleared and loaded.
Her senses pulsed, six destroyers in range, five turrets to them, two guns per, decks echoed with the yells of her crew.
Bringing her hand up, another twin turret appeared over her arm, pointing directly at the monster just as it had her. "Fire," she whispered.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment as she caught sight of the whale-abyssals opening their mouths, fire and smoke erupting from the gun barrels within at the same time her own belched flame.
There was the sound of shearing metal as she turned to find her sister standing tall once more, dark plate armour covering most of her body. "Should keep a watch on your back, sis," Megan commented over her shoulder.
"That's what I rely on you for," Sally replied, checking the abyssal before turning to the rest of them, a second turret attached to her arm. A backpack shaped like her hull locked to her back, two pentad torpedo launchers locked to her legs and several other items forming over her body. "You good?" she asked.
"Never better, now, shall we evict our unwelcome guests?" Megan asked, a raven-themed closed helmet covering her head.
Raising her turrets, Sally scowled at the abyssals. The beasts had attacked her home, killed her people.
Above the moon rose red, casting a bloody glow over the city while shadows gathered around her sister, snapping into raven wings.
"Main battery, FIRE!" ordered Sally.
Ten high explosive rounds roared from her turrets, spreading across the abyssals, tearing several apart.
Others disappeared in explosions as Megan whipped from one side of the battlefield to the other and back again.
Letting out a breath, Sally looked around.
Cracks from the direction of the Tamar heralded her hull obliterating another three whale-like monsters in the river.
Scanning the area around them as the smoke cleared, Sally frowned when something pinged on her radar. "Meg, we've got company," she hissed.
"Where?" asked Megan.
"Alleyway just ahead of where the abyssals were, looks like destroyer weight," her sister responded.
Nodding, Megan moved to join Sally, the pair making their way to the alleyway. "Hey, anyone here?" she called, scanning the darkened alley. When she didn't see anything immediately, she cast a glare at the sky, and the red moon floating above. "Okay, how the hell do I make that go away?" she asked, only to blink as the vista dissolved, the moon seeming to set on its own.
"Got her," Sally said, nudging her sister and pointing to a large wheelie bin. "It looks like… one of the Warrior-class, though I'm not sure which," she expanded, "there's no IFF that I can see."
Megan nodded, motioning Sally on ahead while she moved to back her sister. Approaching the bin, they hauled it out of the way to find a girl about their age with blonde hair shot through with the oil-like blood of an abyssal, more of it covering her face and shoulders. Frowning, Megan removed her helmet before crouching down by the girl. "Hey, what happened?" she asked.
"I-I… there was an abyssal that-that t-tried to eat me," the girl responded. "I-I shot it." She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Guess we're not the only ones with craptastic luck today," Sally commented. "Sally Jones, HMS Zephyr of RN Devonport, this is my sister Megan." She introduced herself before indicating her sister. "You got a name we can call you?"
"Robyn… Robyn Stevens, HMS Zenith," Robyn answered. Looking up, she shivered then her eyes widened. "Sister?" she asked hopefully.
Sally frowned slightly. "You're a Zulu-class destroyer so yeah," she responded, getting a nod from Robyn. Getting to her feet, she offered the other girl a hand. "How about we get out of this alley, see if we can get to Devonport, if nothing else we should be able to find out what's going on today."
"It's got to be better than going back to a demolished orphanage…" Robyn muttered, getting looks from the twins. She sighed, shaking her head. "Orphan, no idea on my parents, I mean, I know who, but not what or why." She looked herself over and sighed again. "I was thinking, maybe follow grandad's footsteps if I got the grades, I guess I am, sort of."
Megan snorted softly, shaking her head. "You're staying with us if we have anything to say about it. Now, let's get the fuck outta here," she said.
All three girls looked around at the sound of more naval rifles being fired somewhere in the city before sharing a look and heading for Devonport.
Chain fences backed by concrete walls surrounded cracked and blasted buildings. Men and women in the uniform of the Royal Navy or the Royal Marines sheltered behind walls of sandbags or hid in craters beneath the walls.
Tracers arced in and out, lighting the area covered in smoke. Rifles cracked, almost covering the noise of the odd grenade.
Black and white – literally – corpses scattered over the road, lying in pools of rainbow hued oil while normal other corpses with normal skin lay still in pools of drying blood.
Pulling back into the shelter of a ruined building, Robyn tried to ignore the bunker oil gumming her hair down, turning to her companions. "Any idea what those are?" she asked.
"At a guess," Sally replied, scowling at the wall, "Abyssal infantry. Didn't think I'd see any though," she admitted, wiping oil from her face as it dripped down her brow. Wincing at a whistling boom, she risked a look around the corner to see a six-wheeled vehicle opening up with a big gun.
"Great…" Robyn muttered, "now what do we do?" she asked, surveying the throngs of abyssal infantry and PT imps duking it out with the marines of Devonport, their black and white bodies swarming like ants.
Megan frowned for a moment, scanning the area. "You two act as artillery," she said. "If you do shallow launches or really high ones, you should be able to drop the shells on those abyssals and mulch them."
The two shipgirls shared a look before Sally turned back to the sight in front of them, frowning. "We're using four-point-five inch forty-fives as our primaries," she pointed out, "with near twenty kilometres range. As close to straight up as we can get is around eighty degrees, which puts the shell going up twelve klicks… I think," she said, frowning.
"Let's… let's not risk the shells going wild up there," Robyn grimaced, wincing as someone screamed behind them. She wasn't sure why she wasn't gibbering in a corner, especially after they had fought their way past the museum against babies with guns for heads and whales with guns in their mouths. "Too close to our people."
Sally nodded while checking over her equipment. "Oh, hey, our anti-sub is a pair of hedgehogs, something like twenty-four explosives on a contact, sonar or depth fuse. Considering we can eyeball our targets…."
Nodding, Megan looked out over the hostile force. "Two hundred metres range, right?"
"Far as I know," Sally replied. Looking out, she frowned at the mob, "Means I should be able to hit them from here."
"Do it," Megan said.
Nodding, Sally patted Robyn on the arm, indicating two groups of abyssal infantry to her.
Moments later a volley of whipping sounds hissed through the air as dozens of small stick grenade shaped charges were flung skywards.
They came down in rings shortly after, explosions hurling concrete, dust, blood, shredded flesh and metal into the air in a loud rumble similar to a sustained lightning strike.
Many of the infantry simply vanished in the face of a weapon designed to break submarine hulls on a direct hit or shatter them with combined shockwaves.
"Switch your weapon," Lyrene's strained voice sounded in Megan's ear. "You have a rifle as well, use it."
Blinking while Sally and Robyn opened up with their anti-air artillery on the nearest abyssals, Megan frowned. She could change out her weapon? How did that actually work?
Ducking when a volley of rifle fire hit the building near her, she scowled at her sword.
A moment later it started to glow before reshaping into the familiar form of an SA-80 rifle. "Thank you cadet program that teaches weapons," Megan muttered before leaning out of cover and opening fire on the approaching infantry.
Standing awkwardly in a large room lined with comfortable looking chairs, the girls shared looks, while the man behind the desk eyed them with distaste. Black ichor, most likely some sort of oil coated all three, staining their clothes and clogging their hair.
Two marines grinned at them from either side of the doorway while the echoes of cheers and sirens from emergency vehicles sounded from somewhere outside rather than cannon fire and explosions.
Finally the officer at the desk let them through into a well decorated office where two people stood. Megan and Sally snapped salutes towards the man of the pair with Robyn clumsily copying them before they realised that the commodore wasn't alone.
"At ease ladies," the older gentleman with greying brown hair and a square jaw said. "If anything, we should be saluting you. Thanks to you four we managed to beat back the abyssals, this time."
Dropping her salute, Sally frowned at the commodore's words. "Forgive me for asking, Commodore, but what actually happened?" she asked. "Was this just a random attack or was it something more?"
The commodore shook his head and sighed. "The truth, midshipman, is that we're not entirely certain. While we're still picking up the pieces it might take a while to ascertain everything, though it looks like several shipgirls besides the two of you were involved, each one an incarnation of an HMS Drake."
"Involved as in…?"
"Are responsible for them coming here, some sort of 'honey trap' according to them," the commodore responded grimly. "Their admirals are already ripping strips off them for it." There was a sort of grim satisfaction in the commodore's voice.
Megan sighed, shaking her head. "Great, so we got screwed because they're idiots," she huffed. "So what happens now, Commodore Shipperley?"
"My secretary will be calling your aunt to let her know you're here while we're cleaning up the city, Miss Jones. The police have also been sent to look for your parents," Shipperley responded. "We, unfortunately, didn't get a response to our calls once we learned you two were here."
That news produced a grimace and a flinch from both Jones twins.
"Besides that, while we weren't planning on starting the department yet, with the three of you, it seems Devonport needs its own kanmusu flotilla, since we can't realistically uproot you two, Miss Jones, nor can we send the person that represents the port itself away from her strength."
He looked between the four of them. "Ladies, I suggest you introduce yourselves to one another then go get a shower, we can have a proper debriefing when you're not dripping abyssal ichor on my floor."
"Sally Jones, HMS Zephyr of RN Devonport," Sally introduced herself, offering a hand to the woman, who had been silent up until this point.
"Megan Jones, Rhyfelwr of… at least Plymouth," Megan shrugged. "Sally is my twin sister."
Robyn shifted slightly, "Robyn Stevens, HMS Zenith, also of RN Devonport."
The woman shook each of their hands in turn. "Angela Kilburn, HMNB Devonport," she introduced herself before pushing her glasses up her nose.
"Commodore Ian Shipperley," the commodore added, drawing their attention back to him. "As the Jones twins know, this base is under my command so you ultimately answer to me while you're here, though I will be seeing if we can give you a bit more oversight." He gave the quartet a slight smirk. "Now, Midshipmen, if you would take your colleagues to the barracks to get cleaned off and get some fresh clothes. As soon as we have word on your parents or aunt, we'll let you know."
Nodding, Megan and Sally led the others from the office to get cleaned up.
The off white walls and carved wooden trimmings did little to hide the sterile outlook of the stark white sheets covering dozens of beds along one wall of the room as Megan staggered through the doorway to the cadet barracks. Rubbing one eye, she made her way over to the bed she had been assigned.
Flopping into the bed Megan groaned softly, rubbing a hand over her face tiredly. Today had been… yeah, one of those, another one to mark up for dancing with death and convincing him to take other partners.
Coming close to dying wasn't exactly unknown to her. When your mother was a member of a fae court and your father was (usually) a police detective – and side-lined as a monster hunter, one that copied from the Witcher game and novel series while your aunt was a navy officer and was one of few who could fight abyssals like they were humans… even without counting her great-grandfather or Lyrene, she'd had a few close encounters over the years.
At least the transformation into a Rhyfelwr had healed her injuries.
"You look about as good as I feel," Angela's voice sounded from somewhere to the left of her. Her voice sounded a lot rougher than earlier, like she had been crying or vomiting between times.
Raising her head, Megan glanced over, seeing the older woman sitting on another bed, looking rather pale and a bit green. "First fight?" she asked.
Angela barely nodded.
Megan sighed, letting her head drop back onto the bed to stare at the white tiled ceiling. "I won't lie and say it'll get better, but you probably will get more inured to it," she said. "If you're going to be working around me and Sally… there's probably going to be more than just abyssals show up to try ripping your face off."
Rolling herself onto her side, she levered herself into a sitting position. "You said you were Devonport, right?" she got a nod from Angela. "Means you can probably access all the personnel records if you put your mind to it," she muttered. Taking a deep breath and letting out, she looked at the woman. "I don't know if Robyn has had any issues, but for me and Sally, our parents are famous… or infamous, depending on your circle, so is our aunt."
"Your family is famous?" Angela asked, arching a delicate eyebrow at the teen across from her.
"At least the four generations before us," Sally cut in, moving to drop next to her sister, Robyn sitting somewhat more cautiously next to her. "Kenneth Jones, Kenjo, Old Ken, Raven… our great-great-grandad's got a few names. He was in World War One, got mixed up in Liberty Division and later Germany tried to use some experimental weapon, he was the one that survived stopping it."
She jerked her thumb towards the naval museum with its docks, "The Zephyr out there? Our great-grandma was her captain, she fought through World War Two, sinking Bismarck, being involved in the mess at Scapa with Royal Oak, though that one was Zenith's win, and a lot more incidents over the years."
Megan nodded slightly. "Our grandad is 23 SAS up Brum way; he was involved in the Embassy Siege in 1980 and killed some of the terrorists, got involved in the Falklands and the Troubles as well. He's still in the Sports and Social, training them these days or running a desk." She shrugged and frowned. "Gran… she's in Brum with him as a local MP."
She shifted, biting the corner of her lip briefly, "Mom and Dad? The Black Wolf and Grey Hunter, they got a number of criminals and other things. Hell, dad's killed supernatural beings several times, one of the more infamous being that pack of werewolves back in 05." Both twins grimaced at that memory. "There were thirty-four, thirty-five of them, maybe a few more. Dad got at least thirty without getting bit, Sally and I got a couple each, one of which was our former babysitter."
"It was a rough one and we were severely lucky to get hold of silver coated daggers and fae daggers, but they were actually targeting us and used Kim to get at us," Sally looked up at Angela, her face set in stone. "She actually begged us to kill her… a fifteen year old kid asking her charges, who were five to kill her." She swallowed hard, blinking back the tears.
Megan hugged her sister tight, ignoring the gasp from Angela and the feel of Robyn pressing against her sister's side. "Then there's our Aunt Lauren, the Abyssal Spooker," she continued while Sally shook off the memories. "The abyssals tried to kill her specifically at the most recent Battle of Faroe about two, three weeks back, maybe a month."
She shook her head. "Two abyssal fleets completely sunk or routed from what little we've heard, for the loss of HMS Dragon. The ship pulled off something not seen since the Second World War though, her entire crew got off, dead included. She went down empty and took the bastards with her." She smirked savagely, even as she felt some tears sting her eyes. That ship had been their home for weeks on some training cruises. Losing her was like losing a friend, to say nothing of what she meant to their aunt.
At least the crew made it, though they were missing Scotty, he was one of the most likely to survive alone, plus Faroe hadn't been too far away.
"Speaking of your parents," Angela started, frowning slightly. "Is there any news of them?"
Megan grimaced. "They're still picking apart our home, but what it looks like is that our parents were caught inside, since their phones, keys and such is still there."
"They also found a note addressed to us that said 'fell back to Avalon'," Sally added. Looking up and seeing the confusion on Angela's face, she shifted. "It's the name of the fae realm, where the Once and Future King sleeps. Our mom is a fae, hopefully they made it and the gate is intact, but we can't exactly go look right now."
Snorting softly, Megan leaned against her sister's side, sighing when she felt an arm wrap around her. "The gate's pretty well instant, unless it was damaged before it was used, they'll be with grandpa and grandma. Coming back though… what the commodore's secretary said, our house is pretty wrecked, so god knows if mom and dad can get back right now."
Slipping her arm back around her sister, she closed her eyes against the tears starting to burn her eyes. "I just… if we do meet the morons responsible for this mess, right now I'm pretty inclined to shove my sword up their arses."
Angela nodded. "While I'm not as affected as you two, I still lost my home. The commodore was talking about making people believe I self-summoned in the base then made my way out, but… I can't even move back in with my parents because they're both in an old people's home, they were older than most when they had me and after I started university they were in an accident that left them unable to care for themselves." She huffed out a sigh. "I barely have any savings because most of what I did earn was going to their bills."
"Orphan… I doubt I'd be able to get into another orphanage now and barely anybody goes for teenagers to adopt or foster," Robyn grimaced, blinking when Sally pulled her close.
"I guess we're all living in the barracks for a while," Sally sighed, getting nods from the others.
Miles away from the girls, in a room containing twin beds sat a woman that looked very similar to the twins. Huffing out a sigh, the dark haired woman with commander's bars on her uniform looked around the shared room she had been assigned at Portsmouth naval base again, trying to find something to occupy her mind instead of turning over ever more horrible things for her family to have encountered thanks to the honey trap set in Plymouth.
She was so goddamn tired of waiting.
She hadn't wanted her nieces or any other cadet on her ship precisely because of the risks in this war, something that had fortunately been pre-empted by the Sea Lords, but to have the abyssals attack a city….
They hadn't done that in years.
Who knew how much damage had been done and how many lives had been lost just by the time they had heard about it.
Shaking her head to clear it, she took a breath and let it out slowly, counting seconds. Far too many needed her in a position to fight, especially now, as much as she wanted to go back to Plymouth and check on her family, since they weren't answering her calls.
Crossing to her sea bag, she opened it and pulled out a sketch pad, flicking through to the pages showing the design of a metal backpack with wings, a backpack that had engines on said wings along with mounting points for multiple missiles.
She looked up at the sound of a door opening to find a tall, equally dark haired man standing there. "Nathanial," she greeted him. "Is there something?"
"I wanted to apologise, Lauren," Nathanial responded. He moved to sit on the other bed opposite her. "For both me and Dauntless not being able to help Dragon more during the battle," he continued. "I—"
Lauren shook her head, holding one hand up to cut him off. "Nathanial, you did everything you could, all of you did, and it's not like Dauntless, Duncan or Daring got out of the fight unscathed even if the abyssals chose to focus on Dragon." She gave him a look. "It's not like you could have said much before either, what with the brass keeping everyone isolated while they run around trying to figure out what to do about the fact two goddamn fleets attacked the same place aiming for the same ship."
"Still, you lost your ship and we just sat by while she fought to the last," Nathanial said.
She looked over at him and snorted softly. "Nathanial, you know as well as I do how hard it is to sink an abyssal with a conventional warship these days. You know as well as I do that they dropped cannons in favour of missiles and even with APEX or SAPHE rounds, a 4.5 inch rifle isn't rated for hard targets.
"Heck," she continued before he had a chance to say anything. "Unless you could have rigged Dauntless' missiles to fly-by-wire or had rigged up a laser designator of some sort for them to target, abyssals spoof them far too easily." She shook her head and snorted. Dragon only managed to handle the heavy ships because she was somehow controlling her missiles as she was sinking to take out the abyssals' leaders."
Frowning, Nathanial tried to come up with an argument against his ship being unable to affect the battle. "What about you? You managed to do something to them; otherwise you wouldn't have been targeted like you were."
Lauren grunted and let out a breath as she slumped. "Honestly, magic," she replied.
"Magic?" he raised an eyebrow.
She nodded. "Even then, with knowing relatively powerful 'spells', the bigger the abyssal, the harder they are to take down. As far as I know, there aren't any others that have shown themselves capable." She raised a hand, an orb of frosted ice appearing over it. "There are reasons why my family is infamous in some circles, but not all of us have the same abilities."
Nathanial was prevented from saying anything by Lauren's phone ringing. Digging it out of her pocket, Lauren accepted the call and placed the phone to her ear. "Hello, Commander Lauren Glenn, Royal Navy, how can I help you?"
"Commander Glenn, this is Captain Jefferson at HMNB Devonport. Commodore Shipperley requests that you present yourself there as soon as possible," the voice on the other end of the line responded. "The Commodore is already cutting orders for you to return to your station for reassignment. There will be a car waiting for you at the Trafalgar Gate Pass Office in an hour."
There was a click as the call ended, leaving Lauren looking at the phone for a moment before sighing and putting it away. "Looks like I've got to go, Nathanial, maybe I'll talk to you again someday." Putting the drawings away and gathering her sea bag and backpack, she slung them over her shoulders, giving Nathanial a wave as she headed for the door.