Admiral Daimlon found himself staring at the large metal door to a very large building. He could hear within the sounds of welders sparking, hammers making contact with metal, and the loud whine of drills being pressed into steel. The Construction Yard looked like a series of large single room garages lined up, one next to the other. "When your ship is ready to be presented, this metal door will open, and you will be allowed to step inside to meet her." His right ear quirked as a sharp voice spoke into it. Making herself comfy on his right shoulder, Nonna continued to explain what the Construction Yard was, how it worked, and what he needed to do.
"I can assume that since there are four of these buildings that we can construct four at one time, right?" Daimlon questioned, as he quizzically looked at Nonna.
"That would a somewhat safe assumption, yes." Nonna answered. She swung her legs back and forth sitting atop his shoulder, like a child who couldn't sit still. "That's pretty much all there is to the Construction Yard. If you head left, the next building over will be our Supply Depot. Can you guess what it does?" She asked jokingly, a slight smirk on her face.
"Not in the slightest. Care to fill me in?" He said sarcastically, he took his first steps toward what looked, to him, like a large warehouse a good forty feet away. The drones of construction waned as he left the premises, and approached the front of the Supply Depot. It had a set of double doors up front, and no visible windows of any kind.
"This is where we store all of our resources until they are put to use. Whenever you place an order for anything that consumes resources, it comes from this building." His left ear picked up the familiar sound of Regina's voice. He looked over to find Regina sitting on his left shoulder, yet again adjusting her glasses. She sat professionally, and didn't appear to be as restless as Nonna was. "Go ahead and take a look inside." She said, eager to show her new Admiral her organizational skills.
Daimlon pulled the right side of the double doors open, and walked in. He found himself in a massive room with metal racking lining both sides of the wall, and identical racking running down the middle of the room. There was a large garage door, which was open at the moment, on the opposite wall. Most of the racks were bare, but in each corner of the room the racks bore a unique resource. Far left corner was Fuel, far right - Ammunition, close left - Steel, and close right - Bauxite. Each resource was stacked neatly, and fairies with hardhats too small for their own heads were flying in and out to gather resources and take them to their destination.
The supplies were smaller than life size, but still larger than the fairies themselves, so it took three fairies to transport one drum of fuel. They would then place the supplies on a large flat bed cart, which would then be wheeled over to make the delivery. If there was no cart available, the fairies would simply fly the item over to hand deliver it themselves. He couldn't help but be slightly impressed at how efficient it seemed for how impractical it sounded on paper. "Is there anything else I should know about the Supply Depot?" He asked, looking at Regina.
"Not really, the Supply Depot can be expanded, and it would be wise not to smoke in here. That's about it." Regina said, adjusting her glasses. "Head out the back door and I'll show you arguably the most important part of this base." She said, excitedly pointing towards the back wall. He did so, being careful not to get in the way of any fairies that were working in the area. He stepped out in the empty space behind the building. "Now turn left and keep walking." She commanded.
He immediately saw a small building conjoined to the Supply Depot. It had no doors on it, and wasn't insulated. He stepped inside, and found himself staring down a rather large set of equipment that lined the back wall. It looked almost like four large storage containers for fluids, congruent in size. They had tubes that looked like outlet pipes coming from each one, but there was no drain in the floor. They were each painted a different color. From left to right they were painted green, dark brown, silver, and a bright bronze. Daimlon just stared at it for several moments. "What the hell is it?" He asked.
"Just wait, you'll see." Nonna said. She was still kicking her legs back and forth like a child. He let out a sigh and started impatiently waiting. After a good ten seconds of down time, the dark brown cylinder began to produce an odd noise. It came alive with activity for several seconds, a couple pistons being driven up and down, and a few lights began to flicker. It sounded almost like someone was crushing a soda can, but fifty of them. It ceased all function, and after a short delay, the outlet pipe coughed up a shell of ammunition. It clanged loudly on the concrete a couple times before several fairies picked it up and took it to the Supply Depot that was right next door.
"Yeah, I have questions." Daimlon stated. "First of all, a shell was just plunked on the ground like a toy, isn't that just a little bit unsafe? I mean, shells like that are a little notorious for exploding. Second, How the hell does that work? What does it take to make those resources? Finally, can it be upgraded?" He asked, taking a deep breath as he finished his series of questions.
Nonna just tapped him on the neck to get his attention as she began to speak. "First, it's a resource. It is broken down into live ammunition, the resource itself is not a live round of ammunition and cannot explode. Example, the Staging Area requests more ammo, we ship it, it then breaks the resource Ammunition down into the particular shells and torpedoes necessary for a full restock." Nonna stood up on his shoulder and crossed her arms, taking an extra breath as she did. "Second, I would have to write an essay using words you've never even seen before to explain the process to you, just say it's fairy magic and call it a day. Third, of course it can. When you upgrade it, it will periodically spit out two shells instead of one, and continue to increase by one as you upgrade it. This applies for each generator, and each generator must be upgraded individually." As she finished, the silver cylinder began it's process, and promptly spat out an I-beam of steel, again it to clanged loudly on the concrete before it was retrieved. "Any more questions?" She asked, sitting back down on his shoulder.
Daimlon just tried to come to terms with the fact that he had to deal with 'Fairy Magic' on his base. "I suppose not." He said, still a little upset that there was something on his base he would never understand. He always loved knowing how things worked.
"Then that's it for the Resource Generators, on to the next building." Regina said, adjusting her glasses "The next building is the Repair Docks. I bet you can already guess what it does, and before you ask, yes, it can be upgraded." She said as she pointed at the building to their right, which was much smaller than the Supply Depot and Construction Yard. It was a small single story building made of wood, and had no windows.
He approached the front of the building, which had a wooden door that you had to slide open. "Admiral, it's important to note that this is the only building that is off limits for you. Nobody likes a peeping tom." Regina said. "For demonstration purposes we'll let you in this once, but after that you aren't allowed inside." She stressed.
"Why would I be off limits to a building in my own damn base?" He questioned, scowling a little at the thought of having red tape on his base.
"Just step inside." Regina said, a little frustrated that 'peeping tom' didn't make it blatantly obvious enough.
He slid the door open and walked in, surprised to be stepping on a wooden floor, and found the first room to be essentially a locker room, except with wooden shelving instead of lockers. It had shelves lining the walls with a bench running down the middle of the room. On the far end of the room was a doorway with only a curtain draping over it. He pressed on, brushing the curtain out of his way, and stepped into the second room. It was a small room with tiled floors, with three small tubs sitting side by side on both sides of the room, for a total of six. The tubs were only big enough to fit one person per tub.
"I understand now. So to repair they just take a soak?" Daimlon asked.
"Yeah that's pretty much it. They take a good eleven hour soak while we pump the necessary resources into the water, and with time they're repaired back to brand new. Each upgrade will add an additional two tubs, by the way." Nonna said, flicking her long black hair back with her hand as she finished. "Oh, one more thing, there are things called Repair Buckets that will instantly rejuvenate any damaged ship girl back to full health. They're exclusively found on expeditions, and are rather hard to find, so use them wisely." Nonna finished.
With no remaining questions, Daimlon walked through the first room, his shoes echoing loudly against the wooden floor. He stepped outside, sliding the door shut behind him. "What's next?" He asked, looking to his right to find a large building, similar to the Supply Depot glaring back.
"That would be the Mess Hall. That's where everyone gathers to eat their food, it also cannot be upgraded in any way. Other than that... Well, that's really it, honestly." Regina said, keeping it as simple as possible.
"I don't have any questions, but I would like to have a look inside." Daimlon said. He approached the large concrete building, and pushed through a set of large double doors. It revealed a stereotypical Mess Hall, on the far end of the room was where the food was served on trays, with large tables on both sides of the room, parting in the middle to make a 'hallway' of sorts. He observed the kitchen in the back, behind the counter, and noticed several fairies were already starting lunch. He wasn't sure what he expected to find other than what he did find, but he left somewhat dissatisfied with it. He pushed the large double doors open again, stepping out into the sunlight once more.
"Next up is the Crew Quarters. It contains all the rooms dedicated to housing the ship girls under your command. Each girl gets her own room, and is free to customize it as they wish. The Fairy Quarters is also located here." Regina said, adjusting her glasses as she spoke.
It was a large two story concrete building, with plenty of windows on both stories. It too had a heavy set of metal double doors guarding the entrance, which he promptly pushed open, revealing a hallway that stretched all the way to the end of the building. He took note of a stairwell to his left. Doors lined both sides of the hallway, and continued all the way to the end.
"I can assume the next floor is identical?" Daimlon asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"That's right. There are twenty rooms on each floor, and additional rooms will be needed to house more girls. Additional rooms can be implemented through upgrades." Nonna explained, kicking her legs once again.
"Alright, is this where I will sleep as well?" Daimlon asked
"No, you have your own personal quarters in the HQ." Nonna responded
Daimlon decided to take a stroll down the hallway, and immediately noticed that the first door on his right had a name tag on it. It read 'Jintsuu' on the label. He approached it, and quizzically looked at Nonna, making sure it was okay if he had a look. Nonna simply nodded in acknowledgement. He turned the knob, and stepped inside. It was a small room, a futon was spread out in the middle of the room, and behind the futon in the back corner was a table. It was too small for chairs to be used, so you would sit on the floor at the table. In the middle of the table sat Jintsuu's bag of belongings. There was a window just behind the table, and to the left of the table was an open door, letting him see the bathroom that lie beyond, complete with shower and everything. To his immediate right was a dresser, likely empty at the moment.
After satisfying his curiosity, he began to close the door again. "Where is this Fairy Quarters you spoke of?" Daimlon asked as he latched the door closed.
"Step outside, and turn right." Regina said.
He shoved the door open and hung a right. He wasn't expecting what he saw. He saw a small bird house hanging from the drain runoff pipe that ran just beyond the edge of the wall. "A bird house?" He asked, staring at it, rather confused.
Nonna immediately stood up and floated right in front of his face. "Hey, that's our home, show some respect!" She had her arms crossed with a small scowl on her face.
Daimlon raised his hands in an apologetic manner. "I'm sorry, I just said the first thing that came to mind. So all fairies sleep here?" He asked.
Nonna took her seat on his shoulder again, her arms still crossed. "Yeah, that's right. As said before, if the demand for work gets too great you'll have to upgrade it to house more. Other than that, there's not much to it except lots of fairy magic." She said, still somewhat irritated at Daimlon's comment.
"Great, more fairy magic." Daimlon rolled his eyes, it bothered him to no end when he didn't get a proper explanation, but he knew he'd never understand this 'fairy magic'.
"Glad you love our magic, anyway, we're almost finished. Up next is the HQ, after that is the Staging Area, and we're done!" Regina said somewhat excitedly.
Daimlon trudged his way over to a somewhat small two story concrete building, with only a few windows on the second floor. It had a set of metal double doors, which he pushed open, and stepped inside a tiled room. It was a large open room, that was also completely empty. To his immediate right was a staircase leading up to the second floor. Regina hopped off his shoulder and flew around in front of him. "Follow me, I'll show you around the building. This first room is generic, you can make it what you want in time, but for now it's empty." She said, adjusting her glasses.
She flew up the stairwell, which led him to a small hallway that had a couple doors on the left. The wall on the right was lined with windows. She approached the first of two doors, Daimlon followed behind her, and opened the door. "This is your Personal Office, this is where you will be most of the time, managing the base, and doing paperwork." It was a mostly empty room, with the exception of a very large desk on the far end of the room, facing the door. There were windows on the back wall, and the wall to their left, giving a clear view of most of the base. The desk was empty other than a few papers neatly placed in the center, and there were no other points of interest other than a door to their right. Regina flew over to it and beckoned for him to come.
Daimlon adjusted the hat on his head, and walked over to the door, opening it as he arrived. He found himself staring at a spacious room with a large bed in the center, the head pressed against the wall. A small night stand on the right hand side, and a small window to the left. To his immediate right was another desk with a nightlight affixed to it. There was a closet shortly after the desk on the right, and slightly further down was the doorway to his personal bathroom. He liked it, both his office and his bedroom were rather nice looking, and didn't seem to be lacking anything of immediate concern.
"I don't think there needs to be any explanation here." Regina said.
"None at all." He said, with a sly smirk on his face
"Right, then the final room is the Battle Room. It contains your Personal Battle Map, as well as theater information, and reports of enemy ships in the area." Regina said, immediately flying out of the room, out of the office, and into the hallway.
Daimlon followed behind her, being quickly left behind as he had no intention of rushing through this. He arrived at the final door, and pushed it open. A large majority of the room was occupied by a large metal table that stood hip high in the right side of the room, it left plenty of room to be walked around on all sides. There were no windows in this room, and instead had a large bulletin board on the far wall. The wall on his left contained a map of the area, the floor space between the left wall and the Personal Battle Map left enough space to fit five people, and still have room to walk about. Mounted on the wall to his right was a dry erase board, complete with eraser and markers.
"Any questions?" Nonna asked.
"Just one. Teach me how to use this PBM." Daimlon said, walking over to it, placing his hand on the metal edge.
"It's easy, it's essentially just a touch screen map. Go ahead and poke it, Marie will get a request to broadcast the area, and she'll upload all information to it." Regina explained, adjusting her glasses.
Daimlon reached out and gave the center of the table a nice tap. The table came alive as the primary display turned on. There was a message on it. 'Establishing Link' It displayed this message for several seconds until finally a readable map was displayed. He could see a blue dot in the middle, he could also make out the opening to the harbor. The blue dot had a small arrow indicating heading, and had lettering above and below it, displaying 'CL' at the top, and 'Jintsuu' at the bottom. "The blue dot represents a friendly ship, in this case it would be Jintsuu. Any red dots will obviously be enemy." Regina explained.
The map was surprisingly easy to read, all land masses were accurately portrayed, with correct terrain make up such as trees and sand, as well as correct colorization. The ocean itself was a deep blue while friendly ships were a light blue. It had a standard grid reference, one grid square for every kilometer in distance. Jintsuu was approximately five kilometers offshore. "A-Admiral, can you hear me?" He heard a familiar voice call out, emanating from the table.
"Jintsuu? Is that you? Can you hear me?" Daimlon asked, unsure of what exactly what happening.
No response. "Admiral, you have to press the button to broadcast outgoing messages. You can press it twice to lock it in broadcast mode." Regina said, pointing out a button residing close to Daimlon's right hand.
He pressed the button twice and repeated his message. The button illuminated red to indicate he was broadcasting.
"Loud and clear." Jintsuu responded. He could faintly hear the water being churned up behind her as she went, traveling slowly across his screen.
"Excellent, anything to report?" He asked. He took hold of his map, interested in learning more about how it worked, and zoomed in on Jintsuu. After zooming in, he noticed a set of fainter lines appear within his grid squares, which he determined to be set for every one hundred meters.
"E-Everything is quiet so far... But I'll let you know if that changes." Jintsuu said softly.
"Alright." Daimlon said, he continued to look closely at his map, and zoomed out until he could see the entire Island. It turns out the Island wasn't too much bigger than the base itself. He decided to zoom in on the base, and could make out the individual buildings on the map. "I still need to see the rest of this base, and I don't want to sit here and distract you. I'll be in touch soon." He finished.
"O-Of course, See you when I get back." Jintsuu replied.
"Alright now teach me how to turn the damn thing off." He said, turning to Regina, pressing the button again after making sure Jintsuu caught the last thing he said. As expected the button's light turned off to signify he was no longer broadcasting.
"It's simple, just triple tap the center of the screen." Regina explained, flying back over to him before sitting on his left shoulder again. He leaned in and tapped it three times, after which a message popped up. 'Terminate Link?' It read, with a yes or no option below it. He went ahead and tapped the 'Yes' option.
Ding! The sound emanated from Nonna. All eyes were on her as she pulled out her clipboard. "Admiral. This is your fifteen minute notification that construction of a new ship will be complete soon." Nonna said, glaring into Daimlon's eyes as she did.
Daimlon raised a brow or two. 'It's been that long already? It feels like we just got here.' He thought to himself. He checked the time on his tablet to make sure she wasn't mistaken. He was somewhat shocked to find that she was right, it had already been almost five hours. "I guess we should head over to the Construction Yard then." He said simply. Nonna smiled at him and nodded.
He walked out of the HQ, and briskly walked over to the other end of the base. As he approached the Construction Yard's large metal doors, he pulled out his tablet to check the time left before they opened. It should be any minute now. He felt ants crawling around in his pants as he impatiently waited. "Remind me to add a bench here, Nonna." He remarked jokingly.
"Of course, Admiral." She said, writing on her clipboard after a short delay. He continued to listen to the sounds of construction from within for what seemed like an hour. "Are you nervous?" Nonna asked, taking note of how he couldn't sit still
"If we're being honest, kind of, yes." He admitted. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently.
"Just take a deep breath. Also, so you aren't shocked, she's going to know everything but names. She'll know why she's here, what she needs to do, and what she's capable of." Nonna said reassuringly.
"Yeah, I know... This suspense is killing me. Go ahead and shorten the notification time to ten minutes for me, would ya?" He said.
"As you wish." Nonna scribbled on her clipboard a little more before putting it down.
The sounds of construction halted, causing Daimlon to perk up, providing full attention to the door in front of him. After a dreadful delay, he heard the door begin to open. It opened painfully slowly as it rose up, fitting against the ceiling as it went like a garage door.
Beyond the door was a large curtain. Daimlon brushed the curtain out of his way to walk into a pitch black room, he couldn't see a thing beyond basic shapes. He could see someone standing in the middle of the room. The lights flickered on brightly, revealing a small girl in the center of a platform.
"Hiya! Are you my admiral?" She asked cheerfully, a wide grin on her face.
He walked across the room, and stood in front of her. "Yes. My name is Admiral Daimlon, you may call me Don if you wish. Who are you?" He introduced himself as professionally as he could, hoping to make a nice impression.
"Alright Donnie, nice to meet ya!" She said excitedly, a smile still plastered on her face. She was short, and appeared to be rather young. Daimlon guessed she had to be in the realm of nine years old. She had short black hair that was done up in a bun with a bright yellow uniform on. "I.. uh.. Don't know who I am." She said playfully, that same smile still being worn.
"What do you mean you don't know who you are?" Daimlon questioned, seriously concerned at what she had just said. Both the fairies, clearly just as concerned, elevated off his shoulders.
"I don't know my name!" She said, placing her hands behind her head. The smile wasn't going anywhere either.
"Nonna, what's up with this?" Daimlon questioned. He looked at her for some sort of explanation.
"I'm.. Honestly not sure, there's never been a case where they didn't know their own identity. Can you tell us what class of ship you are?" Nonna explained, topping off with a question for the little girl before them.
"Nope!" The girl responded, removing her hands from behind her head.
"She should be able to at least tell us what she can do, right?" Regina asked, adjusting her glasses in a slightly frantic manner.
The girl bit her lip and held her hand up to her chin, clearly thinking about it. She immediately resumed her cheerful expression as she appeared to have figured it out. "I know! I latch on to ships and help guide them into harbor." She smiled the biggest smile Daimlon had ever seen.
A few moments of silence elapsed before Nonna began audibly cracking up, holding her hand up to her mouth to help keep it in. Daimlon was dumbstruck.
"So... You're a.. Tugboat." Daimlon said, still completely dumbstruck.
Nonna was now uncontrollably laughing. "If that's what you want to call it, then sure!" The little girl said cheerfully.
Daimlon simply face palmed. "You have to be kidding me." He muttered to himself.
Nonna was showing signs of difficulty breathing she was laughing so hard.
"I seriously thought you were joking about the whole tugboat thing." Daimlon said, completely let down.
It took Nonna a few seconds to respond, before she finally managed to catch a breath in between laughs. "I was!" She shouted. Her eyes were beginning to tear up.
The girl before them assumed a somewhat pitiful face. "Are you... Are you disappointed with me?" She asked. Her pitiful little face was somewhat cute, Daimlon had to admit.
"No, no, no, no." Daimlon said immediately. "We just need more firepower at the moment, we only have one ship. We're glad to have you, but your timing was... off." Daimlon explained, trying to patch the situation together. He plucked Nonna in the face lightly to get her to stop laughing. She stopped laughing, but was still cracking up a little bit.
"Okay. I trust you, you don't seem like someone who would lie." She said, smiling brilliantly.
"Oh man, my ribs are killing me. I thought you were kidding when you said you were bad at gambling. I've never even heard of a tugboat being constructed before." Nonna said, wiping the tears away from her eyes.
"Ah, shut it." Daimlon said to Nonna. "So, since you don't remember your name, what should we call you until you remember?" Daimlon asked her, crouching down to her level as he spoke.
The girl assumed her thinking pose for several seconds before letting out a long sigh. "I can't think of anything." She said.
"Alright, if you don't mind me giving you a temporary name, how does Lilith sound?" Daimlon asked.
Her eyes lit up like the night's sky. "I love it! Just call me Lilly!" She exclaimed.
Daimlon smiled, and extended his hand for a handshake, still crouched down to her level. "Pleased to meet you, Lilly. Welcome aboard." Daimlon said.
Lilly immediately ran past his extended hand, and wrapped her arms around his neck. Daimlon could only feel his smile grow larger, and he wrapped his arms around the little girl.
"So, Donnie, who's the other ship here?" Lilly asked after they released their brief embrace.
"You'll like her, her name's Jintsuu. She's not here right now, but she'll be back soon." Daimlon reassured. "Come to think of it. Those guns have been finished for a while now. We could probably call her back now." He said.
"Admiral... About that. You should probably sprint over to the map room. Jintsuu's in trouble." Regina said, an earpiece was affixed to her left ear.
"What? You're joking, right?" Daimlon said, standing up with a concerned face.
"No i'm not." Regina said, looking right at him with dead serious eyes.
"Shit." Daimlon said, immediately sprinting back to the HQ, both fairies kept up easily, but Lilly was struggling to keep up with him.
Jintsuu glanced at her wrist watch. 'It's been almost five hours now, the guns have been finished. Why am I still out here patrolling? Did he forget about me already? It doesn't matter. He told me to stay out here and I will.' She thought to herself as she continued to stream along her patrol route. Marie then spoke up "The Admiral is requesting a connection. I will return when he is finished." She said, before quickly soaring high above, and began writing on her clipboard.
"The blue dot represents a friendly ship, in this case it would be Jintsuu. Any red dots will obviously be enemy." Jintsuu's earpiece rang in her right ear. The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn't remember who it belonged to. Several seconds of silence elapsed.
"A-Admiral, can you hear me?" She called out over the radio, somewhat nervous as to what was happening.
There was no response for several seconds.
"Jintsuu? Is that you? Can you hear me?" Daimlon asked, his voice was surprisingly clear considering she was equipped with only an earpiece.
"Loud and clear." Jintsuu responded, somewhat happy to have someone to talk to other than Marie.
"Excellent, anything to report?" He asked. Jintsuu couldn't help but note how serious he sounded.
"E-Everything is quiet so far... But I'll let you know if that changes." Jintsuu said softly. She made a sharp right as she reached the edge of her patrol route.
"Alright. I still need to see the rest of this base, and I don't want to sit here and distract you. I'll be in touch soon." He finished.
"O-Of course, See you when I get back." Jintsuu replied.
"Alright now teach me how to turn the damn thing off." He said, his voiced trailed off like he was walking away at the end.
'He's so crude.' She thought to herself. Marie floated down from above and resumed her position above Jintsuu's left shoulder. Jintsuu then saw something black to her left off in the horizon. She decided to turn towards it to have a better look. Upon closer inspection she determined it was an Abyssal Destroyer. It immediately took note of Jintsuu, and began to run away.
"Don. Don, can you hear me?" Jintsuu called over her radio. There was no response.
"The connection has already been cut. He can't hear you." Marie said. She had to grip her wizard hat firmly to keep it from flying away.
"Alright, I'll try contacting the base then." She said. 'One Destroyer all by itself, immediately running at the sight of a lone enemy... Sounds like bait to me.' Jintsuu thought to herself. She mounted her float plane on her catapult, and launched it skyward. It flew as high as it could, in front of the Destroyer's current path.
"Command, this is Jintsuu. I have located an enemy Destroyer, patch me through to Admiral Daimlon immediately." She called over the radio. Still nothing. She tried hailing command several more times, all fruitless attempts. "Oh, come on, work damn you." She said, frustrated that all attempts at communication failed. The scout plane arrived at it's position well above the enemy Destroyer, with no other ships sighted in the area.
"I could patch through to Regina, and have her relay a message to the Admiral. It'll take time, though." Marie said.
"Go ahead and do it. It's just a single Destroyer, but he still needs to know." Jintsuu said.
"Alright, I'll be back." Marie said, she peeled off and headed back in the direction of the harbor.
The enemy Destroyer was nearly in range. She figured she could fire a few shots to see if she could get it to weave left and right, allowing her to close the small gap in range.
'Maybe it would've been nice to tell me where you're going?' Jintsuu thought to herself. She resumed her focus. She fired off a few rounds in the Destroyer's direction. They splashed down near enough to induce the weaving she was hoping for. It was only a matter of time, but she had to keep up the sustained fire in order to keep it occupied. She continued firing off shots until she finally managed to get within range. Marie returned at that time.
"I have notified Command. They will notify Regina, and then the Admiral should head back to his map room. I also feel it's a good time to note that you are surrounded." Marie said, with a smile on her face.
"What!?" Jintsuu shouted. she immediately turned around. She saw five enemy Destroyers barreling in from behind. They were coming from the same direction the harbor was, she couldn't hope of breaking through to the harbor with those Destroyers on her all the way home, and there were too many to fight head on. Jintsuu then realized just how bad her situation was. The Destroyer in front of her began to turn around to engage her.
She immediately fired all her guns along the predicted path the Destroyer would take. With a couple near misses, none of the rounds hit home. She had to land at least a couple hits before it got into firing range. She fired another salvo, with a single hit as a result. The Destroyer was now in range, and opened fire. She darted to the left before firing another salvo. The Destroyer's round splashed up water a few feet to her right, missing by quite a margin.
Again, she only scored a single hit, but this round hit the rear of the Destroyer. It's engines were quickly losing power, and the Destroyer's rudder was jammed. Quickly realizing this, she darted out of it's line of fire. It had no turret to traverse it's gun across, so she was safe from return fire. She opened up again, approaching melee range. All but one round struck it's mark. The Destroyer burst into flames, it was fairly obvious that this one was sinking.
"Establishing connection." Marie said, as she floated up, high into the sky. Jintsuu continued to run away as fast as she could.
"Jintsuu, What's going on!?" Daimlon shouted between shortened breaths.
"I.. I messed up. What do I do!?" She said, the sound of fear prevalent in her voice. Even though she was running away at top speed, the enemy Destroyers were faster. If she waited too much longer they would be within firing range. If that happened, she stood little chance.
"You listen to me... Calm down, and just listen to what I tell you, okay?" Daimlon said, getting a grasp on the situation at hand. "Turn left slightly, you should see a small Island in front of you, right? I want you to head straight for that Island." He commanded, rather calmly.
Daimlon drummed his fingers on the table incessantly, as he stared on at the map before him. The blue dot that belonged to him was cut off from the harbor by five red dots that had 'DD' listed above them, they were in a line abreast formation, forming a solid wall between Jintsuu and the harbor. "Okay, I'm going there now." He heard Jintsuu say over the radio.
He nervously waited as he saw Jintsuu approach the Island. "Turn right, and hug the beach of the island. Loop it all the way around until you see the harbor, then make a break for it." He commanded. If he couldn't save Jintsuu, nothing short of a miracle could.
"Understood." She said, as he observed the blue dot hug the coast to the right. She traversed halfway down the length of the Island before the Destroyers showed up at the Island. They split their formation, sending three Destroyers left to cut Jintsuu off, while sending two to the right to continue pursuit. Just as Daimlon expected. He refrained from telling her for the moment. He waited for the three Destroyers to commit to going left, ensuring she couldn't be cut off again.
"Jintsuu, double back the way you came. You're going to encounter two enemy Destroyers. Ready your guns, and be prepared to evade torpedoes if necessary." He commanded. A drop of sweat began to run down his forehead, still drumming away on his table. His heart was pounding out of his chest.
Jintsuu made the turn as sharply as she could, and began training her guns on the water in front of her. She saw the two Destroyers rounding the corner, and immediately fired her salvo. A single hit on the Destroyer on the left. The Destroyers immediately returned fire, the first shot missing. The second round struck home, hitting her directly in the left shoulder. She passed between the two Destroyers, luckily they didn't have the time to ready their torpedoes. She shouted out in pain as she clutched her left shoulder tightly, a small chunk of flesh was missing after the explosion, and she was bleeding steadily from the wound. Her uniform had a large hole in the location she was hit. She increased her speed as much as she could.
Daimlon could hear her cries over the radio. "What happened? Are you okay?" He asked.
"I took a hit... But i'm fine.." Jintsuu said, she bit her lip, trying to hold back the pain. She soon approached the point where she could see the harbor off in the distance. She immediately broke from the beach and headed out to sea, still clutching her shoulder to help with the bleeding.
Daimlon observed from his command room as the three Destroyers doubled back as soon as she slipped past the two on her side. The Abyssals communicated rather quickly. The two Destroyers on her side turned sharply to continue the pursuit, however the left one impeded the progress of the turn due to damage.
While the three Destroyers weren't going to cut her off, they were going to be right on her in a few moments. "Jintsuu, fire a full salvo of torpedoes at bearing two-seven-four in a narrow fan at fast speed. Now!" Daimlon commanded. Even though he was commanding the situation, he felt as though he had little control over it.
Jintsuu immediately turned sharply to her right without changing heading, lined up with compass bearing two-seven-four, and fired all eight torpedoes, immediately returning to face the harbor in front of her. Daimlon took a deep breath as as he watched small torpedo icons traverse the map. Everything was going just as he had planned. while most of the torpedoes had little hope of hitting, it did force the group of Destroyers to break off and evade. They had no choice but to evade to their right, the opposite direction of Jintsuu, which essentially erased any chances of them catching up to Jintsuu in time. A single torpedo connected with one of the Destroyers.
However, while the group of three were out of the picture, there were still two Destroyers hot on her heels. They were still out of range, and would be for a few minutes. Daimlon thought about having her turn to fight, but then that would give the group of three a chance to catch up. "Just keep running, Jintsuu. Once you get inside the harbor guns' range you'll be safe." He said simply. That was it, there was nothing more he could do. All he could do was sit back and watch helplessly as the enemy Destroyers continued to close in.
Jintsuu came close to the harbor before the Destroyers finally reached firing range. Water splashed up around her, and she began to weave back and forth in an attempt to throw off their fire. 'Just a little bit... further.' She thought to herself. Just as she finished her thought, she felt a sharp pain on her back. An enemy shell had landed dead center on her back, inflicting a wound similar to the one on her shoulder. She let out a loud groan of pain, but quickly gritted her teeth to hold it back. She was just about within range of the guns, she could see the guns begin to take aim in anticipation.
Another round struck her. This time in the right foot, cutting her engine power in half. 'I'm so close... just a little..' She thought, as she began to overwork her left engine to help compensate. Unfortunately she couldn't continue to overwork it for long, and eventually her speed dropped. It was then that she saw the guns open fire on the Destroyers. She turned around and fired what guns she could at them, roughly half of them. Water splashed up all around the enemy Destroyers as both Jintsuu's guns and the harbor's guns impacted at the same time. None of the shells hit their target, however.
The Destroyers understood they couldn't stick around, and turned sharply to leave. They both fired their torpedoes as a parting gift, aiming directly at Jintsuu. The Destroyers turned back out of range of the harbor's guns, but also out of their own range of Jintsuu.
With only her left foot working properly, she quickly began to assess how to dodge the torpedoes. No matter what she thought of, she was eating at least one of them. She turned sharply to her right, and braced herself.
Daimlon felt his heart drop as he watched the red torpedo icons close in on the blue dot in front of him. The torpedo exploded, sending a shroud of water skyward. Jintsuu was completely dazed. She could feel her right foot losing buoyancy, and her ears rang loudly, washing out any sound. 'I can't... Not like this...' She thought. In her daze, she was struggling to maintain her balance.
"Lilly, move in, go get her. Don't let her sink." Daimlon commanded, he watched another blue dot leaving the harbor at a relatively slow speed. He immediately left the room and headed out to the docks.
Jintsuu lost consciousness, tumbling forward. She floated in a shroud of her own blood, face down, her right leg beginning to sink below. Lilly then left the entrance to the harbor, and quickly tried to turn her face up. After doing so, she latched on to the battered Jintsuu with a small hook assembly fixed onto her back, and slowly trawled her into harbor. Lilly took her up against the only ramp leading from the harbor to the base, just in front of the Supply Depot. Lilly dragged Jintsuu with all her might, but could barely move her an inch across the concrete. Several fairies moved in to assist her.
Daimlon looked on as he watched his newest girl and several fairies drag away a limp Jintsuu, leaving a trail of blood in the concrete as they took her to the repair docks. He felt a complex mixture of emotions that he couldn't quite explain. He felt like someone had just kicked the dog he had raised from birth. Marie then descended from the sky, and floated near Daimlon.
Daimlon immediately looked over to Nonna, who was still sitting on his right shoulder. "Open the ship construction panel." He said coldly. Nonna whipped out her clipboard and scribbled on it. Daimlon continued to allocate his remaining resources on the screen in front of him. Two hundred Steel, Fuel, and Ammunition. He confirmed it's construction. The timer began to count down from seven hours. Construction would finish shortly after sun down.
"Nonna, will she be alright?" He asked, his voice was suddenly an emotional wasteland.
"I'm not sure. I'll know soon, however." She responded. She sat perfectly still atop his shoulder with a grim look on her face.
"You're all dismissed. Nonna, as soon as you find out, I want you to tell me." He commanded, immediately walking back to the HQ.
Nonna hopped off his shoulder, and made her way over to the repair docks. Marie could only look at the trail of blood left in the concrete, visibly saddened.
.
.
Daimlon sat at his desk in his office, unable to think of anything other than what just happened. He held his chin in his hand, deep in thought. Nonna appeared in front of him in a puff of white smoke. "I just heard from the repair docks, she's going to be just fine. It will take five hours to repair her." She stated.
"Thank you. Have you gathered any information on how the hell she got into that situation?" He asked, glaring menacingly at her
"Apparently she was baited. She saw a single enemy Destroyer and decided to engage it. She attempted to contact you, but all communications attempts failed. She scouted the area ahead and found nothing. However, she failed to check her flanks, which was where the ambush was lying in wait." Nonna explained. She was uptight in the presence of this Daimlon she hadn't seen before.
Daimlon breathed heavily, thinking deeply. "Thank you. You're dismissed." He said. In a similar fashion to her entrance, Nonna made her exit.
He thought about what he should do. He had to make a choice right here, and stick with it. Either he was going to take the Captain's advice, and ease up on her, or he was going to go with his original plan, and be as harsh as he could be. He couldn't stop thinking about what he was going to say to her. The Captain's advice was solid, and he definitely wasn't wrong, but his gut screamed at him to be tougher on her.
Being the thinking man that he was, he spent the next several hours deliberating internally. He thought about the pros and cons of each approach. He tried to piece together as much about Jintsuu as he could based off what he knew, he also tried to logically explain why she was undesired. No matter how much he thought about these things he just didn't have enough information at his disposal to form a solid conclusion.
He leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh, and placed his hands behind his head, running his fingers through his hair as he stared at the ceiling. All he knew was that he never wanted to see the blood of one of his girls on that concrete ever again.