It was early in the evening, roughly 1800. The sun was starting to hang low on the horizon as they continued to steam towards their destination. They had been on the water for about nine hours now. Admiral Daimlon spent most of those nine hours on the bridge, assisting on the ship wherever he could. In those nine hours he had seen many things, but there was also one thing he hadn't seen. He had never seen Jintsuu anywhere, and he was starting to wonder if she was even on the ship. After wrapping up his assistance to the captain, he headed out to try and find her, he wanted to discuss something with her anyway.
She was nowhere on the deck, and a quick check of the mess hall proved fruitless. He decided to check their quarters, as they were both assigned the same bunk room on the ship. He found her large bag of belongings in the corner of the room, but no Jintsuu. 'At least she made it on the ship.' Daimlon thought to himself. Both bunks were empty, minus his shoulder bag laying on the bottom bunk. He decided to check the main cargo bay, maybe she was giving a hand over there.
After a thorough search, still with no Jintsuu, he became somewhat frustrated that she was this elusive. 'This better not become a habit of her's.' He thought to himself as he continued towards the lower levels. It was dark, hot, and unbelievably humid in the lower levels thanks to the engines at work. The constant drone of the engines was rather loud, and Daimlon immediately began to wonder why he would even check down here. After spending some quality time with the ship's engines, Daimlon wiped the sweat from his brow and evacuated to the front half of the lower deck. The drone of the engine was fading to a tolerable level the further he got, and he could finally hear himself think again.
He pressed on in his epic quest to track down one girl in a small ship. while a good portion of humidity remained, most of the raw heat vanished, and it was rather dim. He stopped for a second to remove his Admiral's hat to vent it of heat, as well as brush any moisture off the top of his hair. When he put his hat back on he heard something. A soft rhythm of breathing. He turned around, and sure enough, Jintsuu was right there.
She was sitting against the wall, sleeping. Her head propped against a vertically running pipe, with another pipe on the other side of her. It formed a nice little pocket where she could sit while staying out of the way. He just took one long sigh of relief, if he hadn't stopped to remove his hat he would've walked right past her. He took two steps over to her, and looked at her. He almost didn't want to wake her up. He tapped her on the shin with his foot to wake her. "Jintsuu. Get up." He said sternly.
Initially, she stirred slowly. "Jintsuu. Wake up." He said slightly louder, giving her another tap on the shin, pushing against her leg slightly. She pried her eyes open slowly, and began to move a little. Daimlon crouched down in front of her and waved his hand in front of her face. After doing so she jolted awake, accompanied with a large inhale through her nose. She scrubbed her eye for a second before realizing who it was that woke her.
She immediately stiffened and backed further into her pocket. "A-Admiral, I, uh, I-" She stammered before being cut off.
"Why the hell are you sleeping down here?" Daimlon asked, still crouched down in front of her.
She starting playing with her fingers. "I, uh, was tired." She said.
"...And?" Daimlon asked, awaiting further explanation. "What made you decide to sleep here instead of in the bunk? How long have you been sleeping anyway?" He asked sternly.
"I.. The porthole.. Made it too bright in the bunk room... S-So I tried to find somewhere darker..." She explained softly. "What time is it?"
Daimlon pulled out his tablet from his jacket pocket, and glimmered it on for a second before turning the screen off. "1849." He said while he shoved his tablet back into his jacket.
"I.. I'm not sure, but.. I think a couple hours.. maybe?" Jintsuu said while re-positioning herself slightly.
Daimlon stood up, while maintaining his gaze on Jintsuu. "You know, where I come from, if someone offered you a place to sleep, it would be incredibly disrespectful to accept and then sleep elsewhere." He said, lying through his teeth. "I don't care if you sleep while it's still early, there's nothing for you to do yet. However, I do have a problem with you being disrespectful as a guest on this ship." Daimlon stated.
Jintsuu could only chin down before saying "I. I'm sorry. I'll be sure to sleep in the bunk from now on."
Daimlon allowed a few moments of silence to transpire. "Jintsuu, I have a very important rule I've kept to for most of my life. I want you, along with every other ship girl who will work with us, to adopt this same rule." He said calmly.
Jintsuu looked up at Daimlon. "W-What kind of rule?" She asked quietly.
"It's a rule of life. It is more than wise to always live by them. I am going to tell you the single most important one." He explained confidently. He took a brief pause before continuing. "The most important rule, is that everyone makes mistakes. However, everyone knows that, what's important is the second part... It is perfectly acceptable to make a mistake, no matter it's severity, so long as you learn and grow from it." He finished. Silence fell between them for several seconds. "Do you understand what I'm saying?" Daimlon asked.
"Yes." Jintsuu said softly.
"What does it mean?" He asked, making sure she was listening.
"It.. It means that as long as you have the right attitude... It's okay to make mistakes." She said.
"Good, so you were listening." Daimlon said as he extended a hand to Jintsuu. It took a second for the action to process, but Jintsuu grabbed on lightly, and he helped her onto her feet.
"Now, I had something I wanted to talk to you about." Daimlon stated.
"Wh-What is it?" Jintsuu asked. She placed her hands behind her back.
Daimlon hesitated for a moment. It didn't feel right. Every instinct in his body was screaming at him not to say what he intended. So he didn't. He frantically scrambled for an alternate topic to take it's place. He failed miserably. "...On second thought, It's not that important. If you're tired you should get back to sleep. We arrive at the base tomorrow morning, so I need you at one hundred percent." He said.
"O-Okay... I think I'll do that." She said. It was obvious that she was still incredibly tired.
"If you need me, I'll be on the bridge." He stated as he began to walk out of the room, and immediately started navigating his way to the bridge. 'I searched this ship for almost half an hour to talk to her, and I end up walking away empty handed simply because I wanted her to rest properly. I need to talk to her about it tomorrow morning, before we reach the base.' Daimlon thought to himself as he progressed through the ship. He continued doing what he could in the bridge until the sun ran down, and slipped far below the horizon.
Daimlon was walking down the hallway leading to his bunk room. He pulled out his tablet to take note of the time. It glared brightly at him, reading 2113. He reached the door to his bunk room. Understanding Jintsuu was likely sleeping inside, he gently opened the door, trying to avoid making noise. The room was totally dark, but he could make out the silhouette of a body in the top bunk.
He plugged his tablet into an outlet on the empty side of the small room, and left it. He took off his shoes, and gently removed his jacket, still trying to avoid any unnecessary noise. He felt around for the coat hook that he knew was there, and placed his jacket on it. He untucked and unbuttoned his formal shirt, and placed it on the hook as well. Left with just his pants and a plain white T-shirt on, he crawled into the bottom bunk. Much to his disgust he found himself laying on his shoulder bag. He picked it up and placed it on the floor, and slid it underneath the bunk. Making himself comfortable, he shimmied his way beneath the thin sheets and flipped over to his side, facing the dark empty space of the room. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
A dreamless night transpired, and he lay awake, staring at the bottom of the bunk above him. It was still dark outside, but Daimlon was no longer tired, and he was itching to get started. Plus he had to piss. He threw the sheets off his body, and carefully stood up, just in case Jintsuu was still sleeping. The top bunk was empty. He walked over to the outlet and flickered his tablet on to get the time. 0521. The sun wasn't even up yet. He dug through his belongings, and began his morning routine.
Fresh uniform on his back, he placed his hat on his head. He checked the time, 0557. He started to walk up to the deck of the ship. The sun was just beginning to rise as he took his first steps on the deck of the ship. He saw Jintsuu leaning against the railing, holding her head in her hand, looking on at the impending sunrise. He walked over to her. "Sleep well?" He asked her.
She perked up and turned her head around towards him. After a quick glance she faced the horizon again. "I can't really complain." She responded softly.
"Would I be intruding if I were to join you?" He asked respectfully.
She paused for a second or two. "N-No, not at all." She said.
Daimlon took the final few steps toward the railing, just barely within arm's reach of Jintsuu. "When did you wake up?" He asked, gazing on at the blazing red sky in front of them.
"Several hours ago." She said. Silence fell between them for several moments. "How long until we get there?" Jintsuu asked softly.
"Hard to say for sure, but we should be docked within the hour." Daimlon said. Silence fell between them again. 'I need to lay on the pressure.' Daimlon thought to himself. His instincts resisted the idea, but not as strongly as the previous night.
"Jintsuu. I still need to talk to you about something." He said as he faced her.
Jintsuu looked at him. "W-What about?" She asked.
"It's about you... I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. I need to know why so many Admirals have dismissed you. I need to know why you've been put in the situation you're in." He explained sternly.
Jintsuu could only avert her eyes. She looked down to the waves below. After a long pause she finally responded. "I.. I don't know." She said.
"What the hell do you mean 'You don't know?'. You have to know something. Anything." He stressed.
She was clearly incredibly uncomfortable discussing this. "I don't know... They never explained why to me..." She said meekly.
It was clear to Daimlon that she was trying to brush off the subject. She had to know something. "Jintsuu, It's impossible you don't know anything. There has to be a reason, they wouldn't dismiss you without one. Your life hangs in the balance. Let me in, I'm trying to help you." He explained harshly.
"I told you, I don't know." She said, her voice was bold for the first time.
Silence fell for a few seconds. Daimlon crossed his arms, irritated he was being brushed off. "Fine. I get it, you don't want to talk about it, so I'll leave you alone." Daimlon said as he prepared to bring the hammer down. "However, in the interest of keeping you alive, I'm going to tell you what you need to do to keep it that way. I expect nothing but the best you can offer. I have zero tolerance for slackers or incompetence. If you want to stay alive I would suggest you bring me the results needed to keep the decision to scrap you at bay. This means obeying my orders without question, and carrying them out efficiently. It means being helpful in whatever way possible, as well as being respectful to myself, and your comrades. Finally, most importantly, failures of any kind are completely unacceptable. If you cannot keep up with these requirements, there's nothing I can do for you. I will scrap you and find someone who can keep up with those demands." Daimlon finished. Jintsuu didn't move or respond, continuing to stare down at the waves below. "Understood?" He asked, somewhat harshly.
She continued to stare. "Y-Yes." She said softly. Her voice wavered as if she were fighting back tears.
"Good." Daimlon said. He started to walk away, but after taking several steps, stopped. "Another rule of life. When someone offers a helping hand, take it without hesitation." He said, and immediately began walking away again.
He went nowhere in particular, just wherever his feet took him. He wandered about the ship aimlessly until he decided to go back to the bunk room. He continuously thought about what he had just done. He pulled his shoulder bag from under the bunk and opened it, pulling a wad of papers out of it. He sifted through them, most of them typed up official orders he had been given by the Grand Admiral. He continued to sift until he arrived at the hand written letter that contained the Grand Admiral's personal orders regarding Jintsuu. 'Scrapping Jintsuu is to be a final solution to an impossible problem. I trust your judgement, but if at all possible, refrain from scrapping her.' Those were the key phrases that stood out to Daimlon.
He eventually decided to head towards the mess hall to get something to eat. As he grabbed his tray, he continued to pondered as to whether or not he did the right thing. 'Perhaps it would have been better to just see what happened, instead.' He thought. 'It doesn't matter. What's done is done.' He saw the Captain of the ship eating his own breakfast, and decided to join him. Daimlon worked with him all of yesterday, and liked him quite a bit.
"What's wrong there, sport? Looked like you had something on your mind while you were getting your grub." The ship's Captain asked, as Daimlon planted his tray of food in the seat in front of the Captain's. The Captain was an older man, younger than the Grand Admiral of the Pacific Fleet, but still at least twice Daimlon's age.
"Ah, nothing too bad. Just wondering if I messed up or not." He said, laying it flat.
"Hah! You're already better than most Admirals I've met, most of them think they can do no wrong!" The Captain said jokingly. "So what did you do?" He asked.
"In Layman's terms, one of my people is having having some trouble, and I'm trying to help. I may have laid the harsh reality of the matter on a little too hard. I'm worried it could affect their better judgement down the road." Daimlon explained as he took another bite of his food.
"Ah, that's a classic one. I've been in that situation plenty of times in my career. In my opinion, it's always better to lay it on too hard rather than not hard enough." He said. "But overall, it depends on how hard were, as well as the individual you talked to, everyone takes it differently. What's the individual you're referring to like?" The captain explained further, topping it off with a question.
"I know that. This one is... Shy. Timid. Has the look of a lost puppy in her eyes." Daimlon said.
"Oooh, that's not good. In my experience, shy and timid doesn't respond very well to harsh. They prefer to be cradled like babies, being told everything is going to be alright. They also tend to hold grudges more often than others. Definitely ease up on that one." The Captain said.
Daimlon took a deep breath as he weighed his options.
"I can tell you one thing about the shy and timid type, though. I can assure you that ninety percent of the time, their judgement is spot on, even under pressure." The Captain explained. "So don't worry about her judgement right now. Right now, if I were you, I would worry about her mental state." He said.
"I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what you're talking about, but what exactly do you mean?" Daimlon asked, seeking further clarification.
"Those types hide their true thoughts and feelings like a pirate hides their treasure. If you really want to help her, you need to find the treasure map. Only when you find the treasure will you be able to truly help her." The Captain said.
"I see." Daimlon said simply.
The sound of the ship's horn could be heard. They were about to reach their destination.
The Captain rushed to finish off his tray of food. "Well, duty calls, I need to guide this baby into harbor. Good luck with your friend, Don." The Captain said as he stood up.
Daimlon stood as well. "Thank you, I appreciate your advice, as well as your hospitality on this ship." He said.
The two men exchanged a firm shake of hands. "Don't worry about it, we were all clueless leaders at one point or another." The Captain joked as he dropped his tray off at the counter, and scrambled out the door.
'Don't worry, I'm not exactly clueless.' Daimlon thought to himself, as he sat back down to finish the remaining bits of his food.
Daimlon stood on the bow of the ship, shoulder bag hanging on his right shoulder, the Island right in front of him. The ship was quickly approaching the concrete arms of the harbor wall that bottle necked all ship traffic passing through. As the ship steamed past the concrete wall, it quickly expanded to a network of docks, easily capable of holding a dozen large ships. It was relatively small for a harbor, but it was still massive. Cranes lined the docks, but other than that the harbor was completely empty. There were multiple large buildings along the docks, but no visible foot traffic. It was like a ghost town.
The ship veered to the right, and made itself comfy, sliding into the dock. Daimlon eagerly walked over to the ramp that would be dropped to let him off. Daimlon soon found Jintsuu, her large bag in hand, in the same location, though neither of them said anything. He soon found himself stepping off the ship's ramp, and taking his first steps on his very own base. Jintsuu followed shortly behind. Daimlon observed a group of three fairies approaching to greet them. While they maintained bodily proportions, they were small, roughly the size of an orange, and floated at head level.
The middle fairy spoke first. "Are you Admiral Daimlon, along with the Light Cruiser, Jintsuu?" She asked, adjusting her glasses.
"Yes we are." Daimlon stated.
"Right. My name is Regina, Operations Fairy. To my right is Nonna, Lead Construction Fairy, and to my left is our Compass Fairy, Marie." She said, the two girls beside her each said a quick hello. "We're under your command as of now. We all look forward to working with you." Regina finished. Regina had short brown hair, her glasses clearly too large for her own face. Nonna had long free flowing black hair, and kept her appearance simple. Marie possessed long, twin tailed, blonde hair that was as long as her own body. She had a small purple wizard hat on. Daimlon decided it was better not to ask why.
"Nice to meet all of you. I want each of you to explain what your role is, and elaborate upon what you do." Daimlon said.
Regina spoke first. "My job, as Operations Fairy, is to manage all operations that fairies handle going on inside the base, such as manning base defenses, transporting resources from building to building, or even trivial matters such as cooking, or doing laundry." She explained professionally.
"Wait, Fairies handle all of that? Isn't that a little convenient? How many of you are there?" Daimlon questioned.
"Don't worry, the only ones you need to remember are us three, all the other fairies are just dummies with no free will of their own, they exist to follow our orders, and we exist to follow yours." She said. "We can continue to perform all of these tasks as long as we have enough fairies at our disposal to meet the demand. Of course ship girls such as Jintsuu can assist us in performing these tasks. In order to increase the number of Fairies at our disposal you'll have to upgrade the Fairy Quarters, which is rather expensive, but still much cheaper than enlisting humans." She finished, adjusting her glasses again.
"Okaay. And you?" He said, looking at Nonna.
"Lead Construction Fairy is fairly self explanatory, but I'll entertain you. My job is to manage all works of construction, be it constructing a new ship, or a new building on the base. I'm also responsible for repairing damaged ships, remodeling them, as well as upgrading existing base structures. As I'm sure you've already guessed, I also have fairies help me in these projects." Nonna explained. She seemed much more easy going than Regina.
"Alright, then I'm giving you my first order. I want you to construct some anti-ship batteries along the harbor wall." Daimlon ordered.
Nonna pulled out a clipboard, and wrote on it a little bit. After a short delay, a large menu floated in front of Daimlon's face. On it, he saw how many resources of each type the construction would take, as well as how long it would take to complete. Two hundred Ammunition and Steel, along with four hours. They only had a pool of eight hundred of each resource, including what was on the ship.
"Simply place your hand on the bottom right, and the order will be officially given." Nonna explained.
Daimlon took note of a box with a hand print in the middle of it, located in the bottom right. He hovered his hand over the hand print. It scanned for several seconds, and then the screen vanished as quickly as it appeared.
"What about scrapping equipment? Do you also handle that, Nonna?" Daimlon asked. Daimlon could feel the ripples of disturbance emanating from the girl standing several steps behind him.
"I sure do, why?" Nonna said.
"No reason. I also want to begin construction on a ship. Teach me how to do that." He said.
Nonna immediately began scribbling on her clipboard again before a screen, similar to the one he had just been staring at, appeared.
"You allocate resources to our construction building, and depending on how many resources you put in, you get a higher chance of getting a larger ship out. So putting in five hundred of each resource would give you a much greater chance at obtaining a larger ship as opposed to one hundred. However, there is no guarantee that you will get what you paid for. There is always the chance that you could end up getting a Destroyer for the cost of a Heavy Cruiser." She explained.
"So it's just a gamble... That's wonderful, I've always been great at gambling." Daimlon said sarcastically. He adjusted the resource counter to read five hundred of each resource, except Bauxite, which he put at three hundred. Nonna floated over next to him, hovering above his shoulder. She examined the display along with him.
"You just said you're bad at gambling, so you're going to go straight in and go big right off the bat?" She questioned.
"The Grand Admiral said there were a few Heavy Cruisers reported in the area. I need something that can easily stand up to one should we encounter them. If we encounter them without our own Heavy Cruisers it'll be fighting an uphill battle. I also hope that by leaving the Bauxite in we might be able to luck out and get a Light Carrier." He reasoned.
"Fair enough." She said.
Daimlon placed his hand in the confirmation box. However, after scanning, the screen did not dissipate as it had before. It swapped to a large timer instead. It read 5:00:00, and began counting down. After counting down for five seconds, it dissipated.
"Five hours? What are we getting, Do you know?" He asked Nonna.
"Not even we fairies know what it will be until it's finished. You put in a lot of resources. You could be lucky and get a Battleship, or you could fall flat and get a tugboat. Nobody knows." Nonna said sarcastically.
"Alright. Can I check the progress of it's construction whenever I want, and will you notify me before It's completed?" Daimlon asked.
"Yes, your tablet should already be synced to the base's systems. You can check the construction timer in your tablet in the construction section. From there you can also page me should you have any questions or requests for me. Also, you can page Regina from the Operations tab in your tablet should you need her. Finally, I will always notify you fifteen minutes before construction completes to give you ample time to head over to the Construction Yard to greet them." Nonna explained.
"Very well. Thank you Nonna." Daimlon said. "And finally, Marie, what do you do?" He asked.
"I don't do anything outside of fleet operations. I'm responsible for keeping track of the fleet's position and heading, as well as updating your Personal Battle Map. I relay information gathered by our ship girls to your PBM, and it displays a map of the area, as well as all ships in the vicinity. It allows you to get a bird's eye view on the battlefield to assist in making critical command decisions from your Operations room in the HQ. Other than relaying information to your PBM and offering navigational assistance, I do not interact with the girls in any way." She explained.
"Excellent, is that it?" Daimlon asked.
"That sums it up all right." Marie responded with a massive smile on her face.
"Then I have your first mission for you. Jintsuu." Daimlon said.
Jintsuu took a few steps forward. "Y-Yes, Admiral?" She asked. Marie floated over to Jintsuu, and hovered over her shoulder.
Daimlon turned to face her. "I want you to patrol the waters surrounding the base. You are to notify me if you see anything, and then engage any targets at your discretion unless I say otherwise. The goal is to keep them out of this harbor until those guns are finished. Understood?" Daimlon commanded.
"Yes." Jintsuu responded, as confidently as she could manage.
"Leave your bag, I'll have some fairies take it to your room. Now go." Daimlon said simply, without hesitation. Jintsuu immediately headed off to the staging area to prep her equipment and set sail, Marie still floating at her side.
Daimlon paused for several seconds. "Now, why don't you two take me on a tour of the base? show me where everything is." Daimlon said somewhat excitedly.
"With pleasure." Regina said. "We'll start off with the Construction Yard on the far right side, work our way to the left, and finish off at the Staging Area." She said as the three of them walked down the docks. It was then that Daimlon noticed that the construction of the guns was taking place. Fairies were already transporting steel to the concrete arms that served as a front door to the harbor. The Construction Yard had four large bays, one of the bays was closed, with fairies running resources into it through the back of the building. He also saw fairies unloading what resources the ship was carrying into the Storage Facility. The ghost town had spontaneously sprung to life as he gave his first set of orders.
Several minutes after leaving the ship's dock, as they were approaching the Construction Yard, he took note of Jintsuu leaving the Staging Area on the opposite side of the harbor. She quickly skated across the water, with guns sprawling up both arms, a catapult on her right arm, and torpedo launchers attached to her hip. Marie was keeping pace, hovering over her shoulder, probably feeding information to her as she went. He continued to watch her until she skated past the arms of the harbor, and out into the open ocean. She was on her own now, on her first mission under the command of Admiral Daimlon. He couldn't help but hope nothing would happen.
Author's Note: This chapter ended up being far larger than I originally intended, so I decided to take the opportunity of a good stopping point to push out what I had, and break it up into two parts. In the next part we'll get to explore the base, along with it's many functions, and we'll have the opportunity to officially meet and welcome the new girl that will be added to Admiral Daimlon's roster.
Feel free to leave a review, detailing your thoughts so far. I have some questions posed for potential reviewers. Am I explaining the base's mechanics adequately enough? Is this information necessary or would you rather I leave it out? Most importantly, how is the pacing? As I sit at my desk and type away at it, the pacing seems... Odd. It doesn't quite sit right with me, so a reader's perspective would be much appreciated. Thanks guys, and I'll see you soon!