My radar shows a dozen planes inbound. My destroyer companions have little anti-aircraft armament, while my armament is primarily close range where the modern jets are hard to hit.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

In an effort to gain the upper hand I launch all of my floatplanes, though they are slow I can still use them to drive off any aircraft on an attack run, and if push comes to shove I can always ram the rugged planes into the RAF jets. One hundred miles until they reach us.

Then, I have a serious facedesk realization. I can just have the destroyers lay a smoke screen until the jets run low on fuel and head home!

"Roberts, Turner, lay the thickest smoke screen you can manage and stretch it out."

{Confirmed, laying smoke.}

They immediately speed up, and start belching black smoke out of their funnels, which I'm soon shrouded under.

Range to the planes is now ten miles, close enough for them to see me if not for the smoke. We proceed in relative safety until Turner contacts me.

{I am out of nanomaterials to spare, I cannot continue laying smoke.}

Sure enough, the smoke I'm under thins out, and I can see daylight through it, whereas earlier the sky was pitch black.

I'm cursing my luck when I'm interrupted by the Samuel B. Roberts.

{I got bad news, I'm out of spare nanomaterials, no more smoke screen from me either.}

My blood runs cold as I look to the sky, watching the smoke gradually thin until I'm staring at dark gray clouds.

"How far out does your plasma fizzle out for your anti-aircraft weaponry?"

Roberts slows down until she's beside me. "About a mile and a half, why?"

"Because I'm going to need you both to open up when I do, we need to rattle these guys, scare the shit outta them with sudden force, they might make mistakes."

She gives me a skeptical look before speeding up again. "Alright, let's do it!"

Right on cue I see four planes fly over the island, staying low and fast, under their bellies I can tell there's enough bombs to flatten two city blocks.

I hold fire, watching, impatiently and anxiously waiting.

They nose up at five miles, climbing steeply and suddenly before diving down at us.

"Ready!"

Range is two miles.

"Aim!"

I don't even care about preserving my hearing anymore, I just want to survive this.

"FIRE!"

If I could best describe the reaction of the first pilot it would be like a deer in the headlights moment. His plane suddenly pitches up, like he's trying to escape, but then noses in to try to hit me. But it's too late, and he flies over me without dropping any bombs. Then the port side anti-aircraft tears him to shreds, hitting one of the bombs hanging on his wing and detonating it along with the plane, sending flaming wreckage flying everywhere.

The other planes in the flight are more lucky, and do manage to hit my Klein field with half a dozen bombs, while the other bombs land short and send water flying hundreds of feet in the air.

I glance at my radar and find another four planes coming in from the stern, where I have the weakest anti-aircraft coverage.

I can only grit my teeth and watch as they streak in and pound my Klein field with bombs. If I had turned that would've given them a bigger target to hit, so I keep sailing in the same direction.

I manage to knock down two from that flight as they fly over, but I can't get a break, and four more come in from directly ahead.

This time I get frustrated and elevate my twelve inch guns, sending a salvo their way in defiance.

I missed of course, but it was enough of a scare to get them to wave off the attack.

Yet another glance at my radar gives away a group of four coming in from the ocean, trying to catch me off guard from an unexpected direction.

I use my floatplanes this time, having one ram the lead plane while two more come in with guns blazing, to my surprise one actually shoots down a jet.

Two down, two to go.

Once they're in range I open up, concentrating on one plane at a time until they're both shot down.

The final attack comes from directly above, and this one does a number on my Klein field, to the point where I don't think I can stop another attack if I tried. Thankfully all the remaining RAF planes fly off in the direction of London, and I let out a sigh of relief when they're gone.

"You alright?"

Turner pulls up alongside me, showing a bit of damage to the superstructure.

"Yeah, I'm good. I can't take another hit though."

She gives me a thumbs up and flops down on the deck, looking at some maps. "We're almost to the rendezvous point. I'm surprised we haven't seen any planes from the carrier."

A strange sound catches my attention, coming from the direction of the island. It's a hissing sound, different from the sound of the waves on the shore, different from the sound of the waves caused by my bow cutting through the water. I can't quite put my finger on it.

Until the source flies over the edge of the cliff, headed straight towards me.

"CRUISE MISSILE!" I yell, my voice laced with fear as my death races towards me.

There's no avoiding it, my turning circle is too large, and it's moving too fast.

"Not gonna happen! Not after that!"

Something blocks my view of the missile, something gray and blue. It's Turner!

The little destroyer pulls in the path of the cruise missile and takes it right in the waterline, sending metal flying everywhere when the warhead detonates.

I look on the foredeck for the girl, but she's nowhere to be found.

Then I hear something on my deck by the fantail, and look down to find her leaning against the railing, watching as the two halves of the destroyer sink. "Damn it…." She must know I'm gawking at her, because she turns to face me, flashing a grin and a salute. "Stowaway reporting for duty!"

I can't help but laugh. The way she just presents herself after nearly being blown up is damn near comical.

"Come on up to the bridge." I giggle once I somewhat regain my composure, shaking my head.

Roberts takes the lead, using her sonar to search for any mines, and a few hours later we reach the rendezvous point on the coast of Norway.

We're first greeted by a flight of F6F fighters, which fly low and slow over us before turning around and flying towards a fjord.

We follow the aircraft down the large fjord, and when we come to open water there are less ships than expected. Then I see it, a huge battleship, anchored beside a carrier.

"Yo Alaska! I'm going to anchor up here, head on down and talk to that battleship." Roberts points towards the battleship before she maneuvers around and drops anchor, with Turner on the deck with her.

I slowly sail past, standing in my usual spot atop the superstructure.

I have to carefully navigate through the anchored ships, slowly weaving through the various cruisers and destroyers.

Finally I pull up alongside the battleship and drop anchor before climbing down to the deck. Remembering my floatplanes I call them back and walk halfway across the gap before stopping and addressing the blonde girl in a black dress on the deck of the battleship.

"Ma'am, permission to come aboard?"

"Huh? Oh, of course."

I walk the remainder of the gap and finally set foot on the ship, sending a respectful salute in the direction of the model.

"Large cruiser Alaska reporting as summoned."

She holds her hand out, and I take it in a firm handshake.

"You don't need to be so formal with me, I'm not a mental model. I'm a hybrid just like everyone else here, with the exception of a couple mentors. I'm Tirpitz."

"Tirpitz? Like, the Tirpitz?"

She smiles and nods before looking to the sky as a joke. "Yes, German Bismarck class battleship that was tall-boyed by the RAF in these same fjords. I'll be our flagship."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Would you mind helping me get acquainted with the others? I'm not exactly the best with social interaction."

"Sure! I'd be happy to help. I'm not exactly the best myself. Follow me."

We walk up onto the flight deck of the carrier, and Tirpitz looks around, confused.

"Hey Big E! Where you at?!"

One of the flight elevators raises, to reveal a muscular redhead sporting a black t-shirt and jeans. "Here, what's up?"

"New ship, this is Alaska, she's the large cruiser parked opposite of me."

I step forward, offering my hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

She takes my hand in hers, gripping it firmly for a second before letting go. "Name's Enterprise. Yorktown class aircraft carrier. I hope you've gotten some practice shooting down planes."

I nod. "Yep, I got three coming up the east coast and another six off Britain."

"Not bad, I think we'll get along great."

I smile and Tirpitz hurries me along, stopping in front of three cruisers.

"In order from left to right, we have the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, the light cruiser Leipzig, and the light cruiser Fiji. They're still asleep, so you'll have to get acquainted later."

I give a little hum to show I heard and we walk further down the fjord on a walkway made by Tirpitz.

"Here we have the heavy cruiser Helena, the light cruiser Juneau, your sister ship Guam, and you already know the two destroyers."

"Indeed I do. I owe Turner a drink first chance I get. If not for her I wouldn't be here. She pulled out in front of a cruise missile to spare me."

Turner walks out onto deck and waves at us before jogging over on a walkway.

"Hey Tirpitz, when are the auxiliaries going to get back?"

"They should be back sometime tomorrow morning, then we leave at dusk tomorrow night. Be ready."

"Yes ma'am!"

The destroyer 'captain' runs off to the Samuel B. Roberts, smiling like a lunatic before jumping off the side and into the frigid water.

I shake my head at her childish actions, though I know it's all in good fun.

I follow Tirpitz back to her ship and enjoy casual conversation among the hybrids that are awake and not busy.

The arrival of a short raven-haired girl catches me by surprise, she was quieter than most.

The only reason I notice her is because Tirpitz calls her out. "Oh, hello Fiji! Sleep well?"

Fiji sits down in a chair by Roberts, and her voice is quieter than I'm used to.

"I slept alright. It was different sleeping without the waves rocking the ship, so I had trouble falling asleep initially."

"I see….well, we had a new arrival while you were asleep. This is the large cruiser Alaska."

I reach across the table and smile. "Pleased to meet you."

I can tell she's uncomfortable with the gesture, but she still shakes my hand. "Likewise."

Tirpitz looks at her watch and groans before angrily glaring at the other ships further down the fjord that are still asleep. "Can someone go wake everyone up? I would like to get our orders out of the way."

Everyone looks around at each other, most shaking their heads.

Finally Tirpitz looks to me. "I guess you get the joy of waking everyone up. Sorry."

I get nervous for a minute, then I get an idea. "I've actually got an easy way of doing just that, though it's a tad bit loud."

She raises an eyebrow at me, and I motion to the number three gun turret on my ship as the center of the three guns elevates. In response Tirpitz snorts dismissively. "You can try but it's not going to be loud enough."

A quick glance at Roberts shows she's plugging her ears, and I giggle a little.

"Rise and shine everyone~!"

I fire the gun, and it rockets its shell off to god knows where with a terrific blast that echoes through the fjord. Enterprise, who was leaning back on the rear two feet of her chair falls over in surprise, while Tirpitz and Fiji both jump.

Once the reverberation of the blast fades away Tirpitz sits down again and raises an eyebrow in my direction. "You changed your guns to the traditional armament instead of keeping the Fog weapons?"

"Yep! It's got more advantages over Fog weaponry, and the disadvantages are minimal."

"I see…. I might follow suit, but that's a conversation for later." She looks down the fjord at the other ships, and waves over the newly awakened hybrids.

The first, and by far the most grouchy, is the girl from the Prinz Eugen.

"What's the purpose of all that racket? Some of us are exhausted."

Tirpitz waits for the other girls to show up, and invites them all to sit at the table with a wave of her hand towards some empty seats. "First off, we have received our directive. Secondly, we have a new arrival to introduce." She looks to me, and I give an 'after you' gesture. "Our directive is as follows. We will be moving along the coastlines of varying and random areas, and we will be destroying ship manufacturing and logistical facilities, including drydocks, refueling stations, and even destroying marinas. We leave for the eastern coast of North America tomorrow at dusk." She slowly looks around the table, and gets several nods in return. "This next bit is not official, but keep it in mind. Let's try to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. We may be part of the Fog now but we all started out as humans, and if one of us gets sunk and captured they'll be more likely to show us mercy if we don't kill innocents."

I grin a little, that's what I was hoping she'd say. Finally Tirpitz motions to a tall blonde girl wearing a navy uniform, though she's obviously too young to have joined. "Guam, stand up please."

The hybrid stands up, holding her captain's hat under one arm.

"Guam, this new girl is your sister ship. Get to know each other because you two will be our biggest output of anti-aircraft fire aside from myself, Enterprise, and Eugen. This is Alaska, she's an Alaska class large cruiser, and likely going to be part of the raiders."

I stand up, sending a respectful nod towards Guam before turning my attention to the remainder of the group.

"Hello everyone, it's a pleasure to meet you all."

The grouchy German girl next to me stands up and introduces herself. "I am Prinz Eugen, Admiral Hipper class heavy cruiser. Please just call me Eugen."

She sits down and a rowdy looking redhead in a green long sleeve and jeans stands up.

"Light cruiser Leipzig, Leipzig class cruiser, pleasure to meet you."

Across the table from Leipzig the next hybrid stands up.

"I am Helena, a Baltimore class heavy cruiser."

Then the next girl stands up, looking very familiar to Helena, if only a little younger.

"I'm Juneau, a Cleveland class light cruiser. Nice to meet you."

Finally Guam stands up and introduces herself, though I already know her name and ship class.

Once introductions are done Tirpitz quiets everyone.

"Alaska brought up a good idea to me. She has abandoned the photon cannons that we all currently use, and is using actual shells. Alaska, would you care to elaborate on the pros and cons?"

"Of course. I'll start with the pros. For one is the increase in range. Then you also have the fact that I can fire over obstacles. There's also the morale effect of the humans not knowing where the shells are going to land, combined with the sound the shells make in flight. Moving onto the cons. Firing rate is slower, calculations for firing are slightly more difficult than just point and shoot, the shells aren't the most accurate things in the world at the outer limits of the range, and it's difficult to hit anything at long range in rough seas."

I sit down while everyone absorbs the information, and Eugen speaks up first.

"Well, I'm changing over."

There's a collective agreement to change over, and I end up lending some of my stockpiled nanomaterials to Tirpitz so she can finish her refit. By the time the sun sets everyone has upgraded their armament.

I don't bother to stay up after Tirpitz finishes her refit, I go to bed, and sleep like a baby the entire night.

Come morning I feel a little better than I did the previous day, but I'm still tired.

Regardless I get up and head up on deck in my sleepwear, which isn't much at all, to find that the auxiliary ships along with a few more destroyers and cruisers showed up in the middle of the night. Including the Fog hybrid cruisers Ajax and Sydney, along with some ships that catch my attention.

Thankfully Tirpitz is awake, so I ask her about the large LST troop transports.

"Oh, those are used to transport our fleet of PT boats in heavy seas."

"Wait, we have PT boats?"

"Of course! The hybrids are all a little crazy but they're good at what they do."

I look down the fjord to find a pair of PT boats slowly cruising down towards us, both have black camouflage that matches their lighting. Tirpitz notices them too and waves hello.

"Speaking of which, here comes the first night patrol, they should be loading up soon."

Over at the auxiliaries Turner is patiently waiting while her new destroyer is formed from nanomaterials. Though I notice this time the ship has received a larger contingent of anti-aircraft armament.

The PT boats cruise up to the front of the LST's, and wait for the front of the ships to open before being hauled inside with the help of a clamp.

The hybrids walk out onto the deck a few minutes later and begin talking with Turner as the fleet begins to wake up.

I get to meet with all the new arrivals throughout the day, even getting as far as enjoying a friendly artillery fire competition against the town-class light cruiser Belfast once she finished with her refit. We quickly became friends when I found out she was from Oregon, but had been visiting family in Maine when she was caught fishing in the Atlantic by a Fog submarine.

A quick nap and a poker game later, it's time for the fleet to move out. Several destroyers head out first while all the cruisers get underway, forming a protective perimeter around Enterprise and Tirpitz, with the auxiliary transport ships in the rear of the convoy, protected by more cruisers and a small handful of destroyers.

The second we leave the safety of the fjords I get buffeted by high winds and tall waves. The weather is nothing like what it was in the sheltered area we were anchored in.

I focus on the task at hand; protecting the convoy. But Fiji, Ajax, Sydney, and Belfast are so relaxed in the rough weather that they casually converse over tea, and I catch a glimpse of Fiji dozing off, though her ship maintains perfect positioning and doesn't stray from its designated position a single time.

Halfway through the night we're finally blessed with calm seas and clear skies, giving a beautiful look at the stars.

I must fall asleep during the break, because I'm awoken several hours later when we near the eastern seaboard of the US.

Thankfully, the seas remain calm enough to begin operations immediately, and Tirpitz contacts us all using the concept comms system.

It's different than it was the first time I used it with Baltimore, this time it looks like a briefing room, with a large projector screen in front of several rows of chairs.

Once we're all seated Tirpitz begins briefing us.

"The targets for today are a pair of drydocks on the Hudson River. They are heavily guarded by at least six guided missile cruisers and a ton of aircraft."

I hear Enterprise groan behind me, eliciting a laugh from everyone before Tirpitz motions for us to quiet down. "Yes I know, sorry Enterprise, but you're not participating in this one. The raiding party will consist of the cruisers Eugen, Alaska, Juneau, and Belfast. They'll be accompanied by four destroyers, which will be Roberts, Ross, Prichett, and Turner. The entire PT boat fleet will be deployed this time." Several cheers of joy come from the back of the room. "I won't be participating in this raid. I'm not going to show them everything we have now, but in the future once a few new ships catch up with us we'll be attacking in full force. Any questions?"

I raise my hand, and she points at me.

"What's our rules of engagement regarding structures such as bridges?"

"Good question. Try to avoid destroying any bridges, but if they get in the way of our primary objective don't hesitate to destroy them. Any other questions?"

Nobody else raises their hand.

"Great! Remember to use the fog for cover, and don't let any human cruisers get close to our cruisers. Alaska is in charge of this raid. Dismissed!"

I'm suddenly back on my bridge, and I pull ahead of the convoy, being joined along the way by the other ships, along with the dozen PT boats.

I order all the cruisers with me to launch their scout plane if they've got one before we get close, and before we get into position to fire I notice Juneau looks incredibly nervous, so I cross over to her ship and lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Just scared. This is my first time in combat against humans."

"Hey, trust me, I'm scared too. Fear is natural. Stick close by and we'll both get outta this."

"O-okay….this is also really the only time I've ever gone anywhere without my sister…."

"Really? Who's your sister?"

"Helena. Before all this happened her name was Tanya."

"And yours?"

She looks out towards the shore, though it's not visible due to the thick fog.

"Sanya."

"That's a nice name. Here, I'll tell you mine, but remember to use my new name in front of the others."

I lean in and whisper it into her ear, just barely loud enough for her to hear, then I straighten up and check my map.

"All cruisers, hard to port. All stop."

I say goodbye to Sanya for now and cross back over to my ship, turning the large cruiser ninety degrees to port before halting my momentum.

Thanks to my spotter plane I can easily find our target, and train my guns on it while the PT boats slowly move into position near the jetty, ready to go through once I give the order. The destroyers remain in the thickest part of the fog bank with the cruisers, ready to go out and challenge any human cruisers that come close enough.

{All PT boats in position, awaiting your 'go' Alaska.}

"All cruisers sound off for readiness to fire."

{Eugen ready to fire.}

{Juneau ready to fire.}

{Belfast ready to fire.}

"Alaska ready to fire. All cruisers…..Fire."