[A/N]: Alrighty y'all. I'm just gonna get down to brass tacks here. The lack of feedback despite the huge number of views is discouraging. I've got an extra few chapters stored away, but if y'all don't enjoy the story then I'm gonna stop writing it. I don't want to do that, given that Touhoufanatic's story 'Daemons of the Fog' parallels mine, but I've got other stories that I've left to collect dust in favor writing of this one.
I'm not asking for in-depth reviews, though they would be nice. I just want feedback. Do you like it? If not, why? Any questions regarding the story?
That is all. Enjoy the chapter, or don't.
Upon our arrival back at the fleet I walk across from Scylla's 'borrowed cruiser' to Hope's ship, having Roberts help me, since my Klein Field is still inoperable.
Naturally, Samoa wraps me up in a hug the second my feet touch the deck, babbling incoherently about how worried she was. I just hug her and rub her back to calm her down, and then once she's calmed down I send her over to Guam just to keep her out of my hair long enough for Hope to get me fixed up.
On my way down to the medical bay I run into the new girl.
"Jesus, what happened to you? You look like hell."
"Thanks. I'm Alaska, and you are…?"
"Oh, sorry. I'm Mi-err… Kako. Furutaka-class heavy cruiser."
"Nice to meet you Kako. To answer your question, I'm just saying one thing. Do, not, get, captured. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to see Hope." I start to brush past her, but she grabs my shoulder and stops my movement.
"I asked you a question. I expect you to answer it. What did they do to you?"
"You'd best check your attitude before it gets you knocked on your ass. They beat the hell out of me and hooked me up to a car battery. Happy?" I grit my teeth and look down the hall, waiting for her to let go.
"What? But… That's torture! The Navy wouldn't do that!" She yells, evidently shocked.
"Well they did. So are you going to let me go? Or am I going to have to remove your hand?" She lets go of me slowly, as if stunned by my report of being tortured, and before I walk away I sigh. "You might want to rethink how humans are going to treat us. Let me know when you come to terms with reality."
With that I walk away, heading through the narrow pathways to the medical bay.
"Hope! Doc, where you at?!"
A clap down the hall can be heard, and a holopanel lights up on the floor, pointing the way to an open door. When I reach the door I find Hope sitting inside, a worried and pained expression on her aging face. "Yes what is- Goodness what happened!?"
"Electricity and… just torture in general, but that's not the big problem Doc, something's seriously wrong with my core."
"Sit. Sit down. I'll run an in-depth diagnostic, and then we'll get you fixed up." Hope orders immediately, pointing to an examination table.
I sit down and four different panels appear in front of Hope, flashing various information across them. I can't tell what any of it means, but given the look of alarm in her eyes I can guess that it isn't good. Finally once the information is done she bolts to her feet and grabs a syringe from the nearby cupboard. "I'm taking you into surgery immediately. Your core has been on emergency functions for the past fifteen hours."
"So you're replacing my core?" I ask.
"No, just some components, now hold out your arm."
I do as instructed, and she deftly jams the needle into my arm, injecting the anesthetic before I can so much as squeak.
"I'll never understand how you're so good at that…" I'm perfectly coherent at the beginning of my sentence, but by the end of it I'm heavily slurring my words and am struggling to stay awake.
"Practice my dear. Practice."
"Hey Pops, do you think we'll ever be able to drive the Fog away?"
"Definitely. It's the human way to overcome problems."
"But… Most of our weapons don't even scratch them! How are we supposed to win?"
"We will find a way. We have to."
[Union Core Reinitialization]
[1%]
[2%]
….
[98%]
[99%]
[100%]
[Union Core Reinitialization Complete.]
[ERROR: Data corrupted or lost.]
...
[Medical Override Accepted.]
As I open my eyes I immediately notice two things, one being I feel really good. I don't ache, or hurt. The second thing being I can't move. My arms and legs simply refuse to move, even though I can move my fingers and toes.
"Hooooope!" I whine, understandably uncomfortable with being paralyzed.
"I'll be there in a moment!" I hear Hope yell from down the hall out the open door. Roughly a minute later she moves into the doorway, then moves to sit in the chair beside the bed. "How do you feel?"
"I can't move my arms or my legs, but otherwise I feel fine."
"Oh, that should pass in a few minutes. Your motor functions were temporarily shut down during the overhaul process."
"Overhaul? You said you were only replacing a couple components!"
"That was before I spent five days replacing components and troubleshooting what was wrong with your core. The old components kept malfunctioning, which caused new components to malfunction… put simply it was a mess. I finally made the decision to replace everything to prevent further problems."
"Oh… That's understandable. Thanks again Hope. I owe you one... again."
"Nonsense, you don't owe me a thing. I'm simply doing my part."
"In any case, thank you."
"You're quite welcome, now hold still while I check your vitals."
"I don't think I have a choice." I joke, grinning at her. That seems to break the gloomy mood, because she smiles and chuckles in amusement.
"No, you really don't."
After concluding my check up, Hope sends me to Brisky. The soviet-era battleship sits in its usual place beside Intrepid, but to my surprise, beside it is also a heavy cruiser, with a familiar sigil on it.
'Did Scylla get an upgrade? And why is she anchored next to Brisky?'
I continue onto the battleship, and the instant my feet touch the deck I'm dragged into a concept comms room, standing before Brisky, whose scowl sends a shiver down my spine. "What is it you need?"
I straighten my posture and do my best to act official. "I was told by Hope to report to you following my core overhaul. I no longer possess my Alaska-class assignment due to the overhaul, and if possible I would like to request a more powerful ship."
She looks me over with those cold, calculating eyes before taking a sip from a cup of tea on the table. "You do know that the Alaska-class is the most powerful ship we can give hybrids without consulting the admiralty, yes?"
"Yes ma'am. But given my usual position as a raid command ship, I feel that at times the Wave Force Armor of the Alaska-class was somewhat lacking, as evident by the most recent situation I was involved in."
"... I will consult the admiralty. You will be left unassigned until the admiralty reviews your service history and produces a verdict. Dismissed."
Before I can respond she ends the comms room, and I jog across her deck, climbing up a holopanel stairway to Intrepid's deck. Finding the flight deck completely empty I head for the conning tower, descending the stairs to the lobby, where everyone is laughing and joking. I stick to the edge of the room until I hear Enterprise cheer.
"Hey y'all! Look who's back!"
I had wanted some time to think. Some time to myself, but I'm swarmed by people from both fleets, welcoming me back and joking with me. I put on my best smile and go along with it, even going as far as joining them for a game of pool, but after a while I drift away from the usual festivities and head up to the flight deck, moving astern to sit on the end of the flight deck, with my legs hanging over the edge.
'Why did I kill her? No, why did I torment her like that?! And why did it feel so right?!'
For at least another hour my internal struggle continues, until it's interrupted by a voice behind me.
"You look like a bridge jumper when you sit like that you know."
"Hmmm? Oh, hey Guam. What's up?"
"Don't "what's up" me, I know something's wrong in that head of yours. Talk to me, I can help." Guam sits down next to me, looping an arm over my shoulder.
"It's nothing, I'm just… Homesick. I'm so close to home, to seeing my Mom, and Dad, and even my dog, but I feel so far away." I lie, yet I also tell a partial truth.
"I know how you feel. When we were near Florida I was so close to home I could've put a shell through my front door. But the fleet is home now, and that run-down shack in Florida is just a place I stayed."
"... How come you don't hate people like Topeka, or Mobile? Surely there was bandits and the like."
"Because where I lived everyone had enough trouble surviving the damn gators and snakes. To hell with the bandits." That draws a laugh out of both of us, and Guam squeezes my shoulder reassuringly. "Remember, we're one big family here. You can talk to me at any time."
"Thanks. I'll let you know if I need you."
"Good. Now come on, let's go party."
"I'm actually going to sit out here for a little longer. I'm kinda also waiting for Brisky to get back to me 'bout somethin'." I respond, leaning back so I'm laying down with my legs dangling off the edge.
"Ah, alrighty then. Anything I should be worried about?"
"Nah, let me do the worrying."
"'Kay then, don't try to get yourself killed." Guam says with a serious tone as she gets up and starts sauntering away.
"Right! Because I totally have to try!"
A couple hours after my chat with Guam the sun is starting to set, casting a warm orange glow over the water. I'm sitting atop Intrepid's conning tower -after asking permission of course- when I'm sucked into a concept comms room with Brisky and one other Fog, both of whom sit across a small table, looking at me expectantly.
I straighten my posture and salute them out of respect, knowing that a single fuckup could get me fried.
The other Fog mental model smiles and salutes me back before motioning to the chair across from her. I take my cue and sit down in it before she starts speaking.
"Hello Alaska. I do not believe we've met before. I am the East Pacific Fleet Flagship, Montana."
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end, but I manage to maintain my composure. "It's an honor to meet you Montana. Enterprise has always spoken highly of you."
She smiles and leans forward, resting her elbows on the table. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Enterprise always has high praise of you included in her monthly reports. But enough of the ego stroking. You wish for a stronger ship than your previous assignment, yes?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Well, I normally wouldn't allow such a change." I stiffen up, and she smiles even wider. "However, due to your excellent combat record, I suppose I can permit it, so long as it's not an Iowa-class."
"As preparation for this I have prepared four choices-" Brisky starts, but she's silenced by Montana.
"No. I want her to choose. She has sufficiently earned this."
Brisky looks at Montana for a second before unenthusiastically nodding her head. "As you wish." Then, she looks at me. "Choose wisely."
I think for a minute, then my sister's rambling pays off, and I think of the next best thing to the Iowa.
"South Dakota-class battleship."
Brisky scowls at me and opens her mouth to say something, but she's cut off by Montana laughing heartily.
"A wise choice! I knew you were a smart one!" She pulls up a holopanel with at least two dozen lines of zeros and ones on it and modifies one or two numbers before swiping it in my direction. It disappears before it can hit me, and Montana grins like a lottery winner. "With your new ship I have a new secondary directive for you."
"Yes ma'am?"
"You are to hunt down those pesky human battleships, and sink them. When you aren't performing raids, that is what I expect you to do, and you have my permission to patrol solo to do so. Do you have any questions?"
"No ma'am." I add in a shake of my head for good measure, and Montana leans back, stretching her arms above her head.
"Excellent! Dismissed!"
With that I'm back atop Intrepid's superstructure, propped up on my arms, watching the sunset.
I get to my feet with a smile on my face and stretch before descending the conning tower. I find both Intrepid and Enterprise relaxing in the sun on the flight deck.
"Hey E. All those things you said about Montana? You're full 'a shit. She's awesome!"
"Eh? How would you know? You've never met her!"
"Except I have. I just got out of a concept comms room with her and Brisky."
"Oh Jesus, you're not in trouble, are you?" Intrepid asks, looking somewhat alarmed.
"Nah, I actually just got an upgrade. Guess who's now the biggest, baddest mother in the fleet? Aside from E. of course."
"You? But you were always that way." Enterprise raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but this is a serious upgrade over my battlecruiser. I'm a damn battleship now!"
"Bullshit." Enterprise spits out in denial.
"You don't have to take my word for it, I'm about to go get 'er built." I shrug and start walking away, headed for one of the two nanomaterial tankers.
I walk across the open water to Atascosa, and find the eighteen year old strawberry blonde laying in a beach chair on her deck.
"Hey Atty." I make my presence known, and she lifts her sunglasses before looking at me.
"Oh, hey Alaska. What's up?"
"Well, I just got an upgrade, and I need some nanomaterials… Okay, maybe a lot of nanomaterials."
"The hold's open, take all you need. Sorry to say but I'm out of Thanatonium."
"When are you going to go collect more?" I ask, leaning against the railing as I begin construction of my ship. Forming the outer hull, then the inner hull, and the engines.
"Tonight probably. Victoria is running low too, so we might just go together."
As we continue to talk the ship takes shape, the deck forming, followed by the superstructure and the empty gun mounts. Then the turrets start to form, giving the ship its full glory. Lastly is the torpedo bulge and the radar, making the ship complete. My sigil remains unchanged, and the black striped lighting gives the ship some element of camouflage in low-light conditions.
I wrap up my conversation with Atascosa and cross over to my ship, instantly connecting with it when my foot touches the deck. The feeling of connecting with a ship is like chugging an energy drink, and then immediately getting hit with the effects of the caffeine. You suddenly feel alert, and ready for anything. Or like the adrenaline spike when you almost fall down a flight of stairs.
I will the ship forward as I climb to the wheelhouse, preferring to physically get to know the ship inside and out rather than just the gut feeling of where things should be, and once I'm inside the wheelhouse I make my bed, then my chair, and generally get things set up the way I want them before anchoring in my usual spot, near Enterprise on the inside circle surrounding the two carriers. Before my anchor even hits the bottom I can practically hear my sister squealing with glee as she runs across the water, and ultimately prepare myself for her to start nerding out.
She bursts through the port side bulkhead a few seconds later and glomps me, knocking both of us to the floor. As I expected she starts rambling on about how awesome my ship is, and then after a minute or so she gets off of me and helps me up. "How'd you upgrade?!"
I laugh and mess up her hair. "Don't bother, because I got an exception."
"Awww…" She pouts, slumping her shoulders.
"Plus now I've gotta wait for the tankers to go restock on Thanatonium before I can do my conversion. So unless I want to use these guns I'm stuck waiting."
"I can't wait to see the guns fire! Erm… the converted ones, not these."
I mess up her hair a little more before wandering to the windows at the front of the wheelhouse. "Me neither, but I guess we've got no choice but to wait…. How the hell is Scylla doing that…?"
Samoa walks up beside me, and together we both stare in awe at Scylla as she completely defies gravity, walking along her hull parallel to the water, as if she was on a sunday stroll.
"That's some Cheshire cat stuff right there. I honestly don't know, but she was glowing for the past like four days, and Brisky wouldn't let any of us near her."
"Hmmm… Well, I guess the best way to find out would be to go talk to her, yeah?" I start towards the bulkhead, and Samoa follows right behind me, muttering to herself something about ship class.
Together we saunter in Scylla's general direction, watching as she walks all over her ship, along the sides of the hull, then up the side of her superstructure, and then back down to walk along her hull again.
"Scylla!" I call out with a friendly wave. She turns and looks at us as we approach, and I'm so confused by how she's defying gravity that I can't even form the proper sentence to ask her how she's doing so. "What…? How….?"
"Magic!" She gives that big grin of hers and walks up the side of her hull until she's standing upright on the deck. "Long story short, I'm a Mental Model now!"
"... You're joking, right?" Samoa asks in disbelief. In the meantime, I stare at Scylla in shock.
"But… how? I…. just… what?!"
"Because I earned it!" Scylla says with a grin as her metal arm presses against her chest, sinks in, and then pulls out a Union core that's dark green with a lighter green glowing symbol on it. She grins and then sticks it back inside herself. "I think that's enough proof eh?"
"... I…. I can't even. Nope, I'm not drunk enough for this shit." I throw up my hands in mock surrender and turn around, walking back towards my ship.
"Being drunk won't help you aim those new guns of yours!" Scylla calls out.
"Maybe so! But it's better than dealing with this!" I yell over my shoulder before stopping in my tracks after a realization dawns on me. I groan and turn around, walking back over to where Samoa still stands. "Whatever. I need to go get some Thanatonium, and I'm not waiting for the tankers to take all night. Care to come along?"
"Sure, I'm not on patrol till a couple days from now anyway." Scylla says without skipping a beat.
"Great! You know where any is? I exhausted my last source before I got captured."
"One sec." Scylla says as a trio of data rings suddenly come out of her and spin around at random for a couple seconds before disappearing. "Got it. There's a mine for the stuff over on Hawaii, and I just got Oktyabrskaya's go ahead to escort you there. She seemed a little miffed though."
"I'm honestly not surprised. During the meeting with Montana she pretty much got told to shut up. Montana gave me complete freedom of choice for my own ship class."
"That sounds fun. Oh, and she's saying to escort our supply ships there too. Crap, this just turned into a supply run!"
"Joy… I'll get underway and tell the tankers to fall in with me." I groan, turning and jogging to my ship.
Once I'm inside the bridge I raise Victoria and Atascosa on a comms channel as I raise the anchor. "Both of you, weigh anchor and follow me. We're making your supply run now, as opposed to later."
{Roger that!} {'Kay.}
{Alaska, Samoa and Kako are coming along too.} Scylla informs me.
"Alright. Fine by me."
As we all exit the formation the others move into formation surrounding me, with Scylla leading us. Kako and Samoa make a column with Atascosa and Victoria, making the formation a combination between a battle column and a dual column.
Our carefree, laid-back attitude hardly lasts three hours before Kako and Samoa get into an argument.
{I'm just trying to give some pointers!}
{And why should I listen to your advice?! You're a kid! What do you know about naval warfare?! I went to naval academy for six years!}
{I've been studying naval warfare ever since I was ten! You trained for modern ships that use missiles and a tiny gun! We're talking about actual cruisers here! Y'know, ones with big guns, and this thing called armor!}
{Oh really?! Give me a break, you're still just a kid! How about you turn your naive little ass around and stick to escorting the carrier so she can babysit y-}
"That's ENOUGH!" I yell, thoroughly fed-up with Kako's attitude. "Sis, don't talk to this prissy new girl! Kako, you'd better pull the stick out of your ass or I'm gonna rip it out and beat you with it!"
{Oh really? You're gonna kick my ass? And how are you gonna do that!?} Upon hearing her laugh I turn my main guns to bear on Kako, and after a minute of silence she speaks up, her voice no longer containing the hostility that it did previously. {Okay, you win. Sorry.}
After Kako signs off the communications net I walk up to my wheelhouse, flopping down on my bed, burying my face in my hands, and groaning in frustration. "God damn it these military types are going to be the death of me."
"Nah, you're tough enough."
Startled, I jump up from my bed and wheel around to find Scylla relaxing in my chair. "Jesus Christ- When did you get in here?!"
"Just now. Technically I'm not even here. My core is still on my ship."
I stare at her in confusion for a brief second before flopping down face first onto my bed. "I'm not even going to try to make sense of that. I take it you're enjoying being a mental model?"
"Oh you have no idea! I know where everything is on my ship, can control anything with a tenth of a thought, and can literally be in numerous places as once, like I am right now. Hell, I could probably make a miniature version of myself to do things if I tried hard enough, and having access to the entire Fog Database and network, priceless!"
"That does sound handy." I admit. "What're the requirements?"
"For what? Full Mental Model?"
"Yeah. If I'm going to be hated, might as well go all the way."
"Technically I'm not supposed to say, but pushing yourself to be better and more efficient should help, as should coming to terms with things." Scylla answers, sounding like she's willingly avoiding explaining it.
"Okay… that makes sense. Oh, by the way, I need the designs for those ABM's again. New core memory and all that."
"Oh okay." Sylla says as she snaps her fingers, making a panel appear, showing everything on the ABM's. "Done!"
I save the plans and store them until I have enough materials to build them. "Cheers. Now, if I could figure out a way to change quickly between my conversion and these guns…"
"Meaning?"
"Meaning quickly changing between firing actual shells and the way the guns are now. One's better for shelling shore targets but sucks for naval targets, and vice-versa."
"Heh, that'd take up a lot more room than you think, and after having looked over the Admiralty code, you're lucky you were even allowed to go back to kinetic shells. Even my missile alteration is just barely allowed technically, though even Brisky ignores it because it's insanely useful."
I sit up and lay on my back, putting my hands behind my head. "Precisely why changing between the two would be great. That way I can be efficient, while also being within the limits of the code."
"That'll take a lot of resources and room, even on a battleship." Scylla explains as a pair of panels appear to either side of her, one showing a photon gun, the other a kinetic one. "The two tech's use completely different principles, so you'd need to have both in the same gun, beside each other. And depending on your calibre, either separate barrels or automatically repairing ones. Seems like too much trouble."
"Well, as it is, the shells are made on the level directly below the guns, meaning I've still got plenty of room if you ignore keeping the Thanatonium stores well-protected."
"That'd be up to you really, and considering you're a battleship now, watching those stores detonate would be like new years. Could probably fiddle with an okay middle ground though if you give me your kinetic gun plans."
I quickly pull up the modified plans for my new configuration and send them to her with a swipe of my hand. "Those are the new plans."
A Data ring suddenly pops out of Scylla and the panel gets pulled into it before both disappear again. "I'll look over it with a back processor and see what comes up. Should be done by the end of the supply run I think." Scylla says as she spins in the chair a bit and then stops, tilting to the side. "I wonder if we'll have an encounter on this run, that'd be nice!"
"Well, one of the human battleships was last spotted further south from here, but I doubt they're dumb enough to pick a fight with a group like this."
"Heh, just our two ships could probably take out an entire fleet. . . . .are those two arguing again?"
"I don't know, I muted them. What is it this time?"
"No idea, I muted them too. Let's find out! Oi what are you two buggering on about!?"
{She called my seaplane catapult a waste of space!} Samoa whines.
{It is! There is absolutely no reason for her to have a working seaplane catapult! I mean we're in the jet age!} Kako snarls, her attitude back again.
"Tactically speaking she is right." Scylla says calmly "Fog aircraft don't have klein fields and get shot down like flies after all when engaging human fighters and AA. The aerial view can be of use though for scouting I suppose, so it's hit and miss."
"I started using them to observe the fall of shells for indirect fire. I could get away with firing over an island. But yes I do agree, they're weak as hell compared to modern jets… though they do make good remote-controlled bombs." I mutter back.
"They'd be good for that, but catapulting fighters would be a complete waste. Too bad Hybrids can't access the advanced fighter details that some Fog Carriers conceived. Though they've never launched them." Scylla finishes over the comms making both Samoa and Kako quiet for a second.
"Now, are you two done bickering like little children? Or do Scylla and I need to give you both a time-out like the little brats you're acting like?"
"And that means target practice!" Scylla adds with a maniacal grin as half her missile tubes suddenly start opening and closing at random.
{I'm done! Please don't hurt me.} Samoa squeaks shyly.
{Excuse you Alaska?! I'm older than you are!}
"And? You're still the new girl. How old you are doesn't mean shit." I snap at her, turning my aft main turret to point in her general direction.
"Especially as I'm the head Fog here, so straighten up or we turn this escort mission into a live fire exercise!" Scylla says gleefully just before her expression goes weird. "Oh yeah, how you two girls doing back there?"
{All good here, though it'd be better if Kako would shut up.}
{A-Okay here! Are we almost there yet?!}
Both Atascosa and Victoria respond happily.
"Almost, should be able to see hawaii in a few minutes I think. Humans still live on some of the islands too, so watch out for them taking potshots at ya!" Scylla says, sounding oddly happy, as if expecting something.
{Sounds like a good time to me! It's been ages since I last got shot at!} Atascosa giggles lightheartedly.
{If you're supply you're not supposed to get shot at!} Kako exclaims, sounding irked.
{Ahh shaddap, it's more fun than you think. Especially when all we ever do is sit with the carriers!}
{We're glorified storage clerks; Let us have some fun too!}
{Getting shot at isn't fun! It's terrifying!} Kako yells, sounding more and more appalled by the second.
{Speak for yourself! Spoilsport!} Atascosa responds.
The radio net falls silent for several minutes, and Samoa then cheers. {Land Ho! So that's what Hawaii looks like…}
I get up off my bed and walk to the front window, peering out over the water. "I don't see anything."
{I might be using my floatplane… The islands are only forty miles out. Can I move it closer to check out the islands?}
"Go ahead, but keep a good distance. You don't need to buzz the locals." I respond.
{Roger that!}
"Maybe her plane will get shot down. Then we'll have an excuse to have some fun!" Scylla giggles madly, bringing a smile onto my face.
"Maybe. Though personally I've had enough 'fun' for one week. I wouldn't argue with this supply run going off without a hitch."
"Come on Alaska! You're so boring! Live a little!"
"I have lived a little. I just need a break from it all. I never got any R 'n' R, and before you joke about it, no, I don't count time in a hospital bed as relaxation."
{Missile launch! I don't think I can… yeah no, that plane's fucked. Whatever's on Oahu they definitely don't want us finding out what it is.}
I sigh and walk back to my bed, flopping down face-first with a frustrated groan before grumbling into the sheets. "There's your party Scylla. Let me know when it's over."
"Samoa, did the missile come from the south or north side of the island?" Scylla suddenly asks, sounding oddly serious as she finally gets out of my chair.
{North side. I didn't see the launch site, sorry.}
"Don't worry about it. We'll find 'em." I start, getting up and reclaiming my chair. "We'll find 'em and make 'em regret fighting back."
"Just a minute ago you were talking like you didn't want anything to do with it, why the change?" Scylla asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know, just a feeling I guess. Plus somebody's gotta break in the new girl." I respond with a shrug before speeding up. "Kako, with me. Samoa, Atty, Victoria, Hang back a little, but collect what the fleet needs."
"I'll stay with Samoa and guard the Supply ships. Take a look for what shot down her plane and take it out if possible, but remember you're running low on resources and we don't know what is here." Scylla advises me, sitting down on a backup system I made for controlling my ship. I quickly disconnect it before anything happens, and turn towards the north side of the island, pulling up a small tactical map on a holopanel to make sure Kako is following me.
As we get closer I start communicating with Kako, using a video feed from my primary gun director to get a magnified view of the island.
"Alrighty, we're gonna find the SAM site and put it down. Hold your fire until either we find it or something else starts shooting at us."
{...How can you plan to do this so simply? Aren't you scared?}
I grin, standing up and walking to the front windows of my wheelhouse. "Experience. I used to get scared going into raids, but not anymore, because I'm the biggest and baddest person on the block."
{You're a big, fat target.} Kako responds in a monotone voice, sounding very unamused.
"Hey now, I take offense to that. I've worked very hard to keep my figure!"
"Alaska, it's possible the missile launch was not from a land based installation, but from a Stealth submarine. Don't move in such a way that will give openings if there are any about. That is, unless you like getting torp'd." Scylla suddenly advises, grabbing my attention in an instant.
I look over to her and give a nod, combined with a thumbs-up. "Roger that. Kako, we're going to slow down. I want you to run active sonar. We've got the possibility of something else sneaking around. Follow me, but keep some distance so we can both maneuver. Samoa, how much surplus nanomaterials do you have reserved for planes?"
{Enough for five more. You want me to send another up?}
"Please. Send me the control code once it's airborne."
{One floatplane, coming right up!}
{Those things are obsolete, why are you bothering to use them?} Kako asks.
"You'll see. This is like a glorified game of chess. One mistake can cost us the entire game. First smart step, is to take control of the center of the board, with a pawn. Many people think of pawns as being useless, simple cannon fodder to throw at the enemy. However, if you manage to keep a couple pawns until the tail end of the game, they suddenly get much, much more valuable." I respond with a smile, watching the plane fly past my wheelhouse. I receive the control authorization from my sister and have to plane climb up to ten thousand feet.
"Alright Sis, one more plane, set it to fly at five thousand feet, below the one I'm controlling."
{Ahhh, I get what you're doing! You got it!}
"Time to turn the hunters, into the hunted." I mutter to myself with a grin, feeling like the good old days when I would hunt black bear with my dad. That thrilling adrenaline rush of hunting something equally as lethal as you are.
I roll my shoulders and start up my surface radar, running it at full power to try and pick up anything should one of the submarines try to use their periscope.
"Come on, just take a little peek. You know you want to." I mutter to myself, scanning the surface of the water with a pair of binoculars.
Then from the island there's a muffled thump of a large gun being fired, followed shortly after by Atascosa's excited cry.
{Woah-ho! That was close! Hey can we shoot back now!?}
{I've got the position of the gun. First salvo… on the way!} Samoa cheers before I hear her guns fire. Seconds later a raised portion of trees in the forest on the island erupts in a ball of flame, her first salvo striking the gun position and the surrounding area dead-on.
"Nice shot Sis!" I congratulate her before returning to my sub hunt.
{Thanks! Came down right on their heads! They're using disappearing gun mounts camouflaged by false foliage, so you can only really see them when they fire.}
As if on cue another gun fires from the island. I see the flash and the plume of smoke out of the corner of my eye before a large shell screams in and bounces off the top of my fore superfiring main turret, leaving nothing more than a scratch as it careens out towards the open ocean.
"Huh, these gunners are actually pretty good. I guess I might want to raise my Klein Field." I say absentmindedly, turning all of my secondary guns on the gun position. I start to pound the position with laser fire for a solid ten seconds before I get tired of not getting the desired result, and I turn my main battery on it just as the gun fires again, this time missing by a couple hundred yards. My return salvo with my main guns gets the desired effect when it goes up like a roman candle, sending flaming debris and concrete flying.
Not knowing what could shoot at me next, I raise my Klein Field and put it in a semi-active state.
"Kako, the next gun is yours to kill. Do your best."
{...Yes ma'am…} Kako responds solemnly, presumably dreading the task.
"You might want to start turning your ship. I've detected four homing torpedoes coming at you. I think you pissed them off." Scylla warns.
I immediately start turning away from the island, towards the direction I expect the torpedoes to be coming from. I grab a set of headphones hanging from the arm of my chair and put them on, giving my engines a burst of power before idling them. I turn one knob on the right earpiece and listen intently, until I hear a pinging sound. Then I depress the knob and keep turning it until I find another.
It doesn't take me long to figure out that I turned away from the pair of homing torpedoes. But by the time I give the engines full power, the torpedoes have all gone into their terminal phase of tracking. They start pinging sonar more and more rapidly as they fine-tune to hit me, and I sit down in my chair to avoid being knocked off my feet just before they impact, the blasts being absorbed by my Klein Field.
"Samoa, Salvo, bearing one-one-six, range fourteen thousand. Time delay on impact, vary between a quarter second and two seconds."
{Roger! Standby… ready to fire!}
"Fire."
Scylla looks at me with a puzzled expression. "What are you doing?"
I watch for the salvo to impact, and when it does the rounds only make small splashes before huge columns of water spew skywards.
I smile when my idea comes together perfectly. "Improvising."
"Improvising what?"
"Depth charges. Samoa, raise sixty, use your secondary battery too and give me a wider spread on those shells."
{On the way!}
With another sharp rumbling Samoa sends more shells flying, and blankets an area roughly four square football fields in size with high-explosive shells.
One of the water columns has a strange coloring to it, and my suspicions are only confirmed when a small slick of something starts to form on the surface of the water.
"Samoa, do you see the slick?"
{Yeah.}
"Good. Give me a concentrated salvo in that area. Either sink 'em or force them to the surface."
The only response I receive is the sound of her guns firing, and after a few seconds the shells all splash down around where the oil slick is gathering. The blasts once again send columns of water skyward, and after everything settles I can see air bubbling to the surface.
"Kako."
{Yes?}
"Finish that sub off with a homing torpedo. There's no point in letting them suffer."
{...R-right. One away.}
Listening on active sonar I hear Kako's torpedo surge through the water, followed by the muffled thump of the torpedo going off.
"Aaaand they're out like a light." I sigh, watching a gigantic bubble breach the surface.
"I-" Scylla speaking grabs my attention, and I look over at her just in time to see one of her eyes flash green before she continues her sentence. "I've caught sight of the other two submarines. Deal with them while I tend to some other… business."
I'm just about to acknowledge her order when a large missile flies up out of her deck and angles for… empty sky? I admit the green trail it leaves looks kinda cute, and as I'm watching it climb into the sky Scylla sends me a map update with the general direction of the two remaining subs.
Then, my radar lights up as a missile breaks the surface of the ocean. I quickly pinpoint the location of the breach and send it as a map update to the others, just as a second missile from Scylla intercepts the missile from the sub.
"There, now you know where another sub is. It's all yours!" Scylla cheers.
"You heard 'er! Let's go get 'em! Samoa, stay with Atty and Victoria while they take on materials. Kako, get ready to launch more homing torpedoes."
{Roger that Sis!}
{Yes ma'am...}
As Kako and I turn towards the location of the confirmed submarine I sigh, glancing at Scylla. "In hindsight, we should've brought a destroyer."
No sooner do those words leave my mouth than there's a rumbling the echoes across the water, and I glance over at Samoa in time to watch two shells from a pair of shore guns strike her Klein Field.
{Scylla, I think it's time for me to use that missile design you and I worked on!} Samoa cheers excitedly. I look over in time to see five missiles shoot out of her deck and arc towards Oahu. All five fly above the island and detonate roughly fifty feet off the ground. Once the smoke clears the air seems to shimmer, and I stare in confusion for a second before it registers in my mind what it is.
"Nanomaterial? What the hell?"
Before I can ask Samoa what she's doing Kako speaks, sounding slightly scared.
{Sonar contact! Bearing zero-four-eight! Four torpedoes, angling for you Alaska… wait… no they're after me!}
"Your Klein field is up, four torpedoes you can take. Mark the subs firing position." Scylla suddenly orders.
The map is suddenly updated with a red circle to indicate a general area, and I just now realize how pointless it is for me to chase submarines right now.
"Samoa, switch with me. I can't do shit until I get some Thanatonium." I order while turning around, heading for the supply ships as my sister speeds up and turns towards me. No sooner does she get turned around than Scylla fires off three missiles that angle towards one of the islands. They plunge into the water, and a few seconds later she fires two more.
"Samoa, Kako. I need you two to work together to take out the other sub. Kako use your sonar to get their general location, and then Samoa I want you to drop shells on their heads."
{Hunter-Killer, got it!} Samoa chirps back, not really surprising me that she knows the proper name for the tactic.
As Samoa and Kako start working together, trying to pinpoint the location of the final submarine, I join up with Atascosa and Victoria at the Fog mining platform, which pulls Thanatonium and Nanomaterial to the surface from the surrounding seabed and below, much like an oil platform. For the tankers, hoses are lowered by the rig that they hook up to their interior stores, and then the materials are pumped in. For me however, since I'm not a dedicated supply ship the process is slower, due to a thinner hose being used. The hose hooks up to an opening on the side of my superstructure, and it deposits the Thanatonium using a gravity-feed system, rather than a pump.
After only an hour the two tankers have taken on more than four times what I could hold, and are outbound, headed back to the fleet. Meanwhile, I've only filled my stores up halfway.
"You guys can go on ahead. I'm going to run a patrol along the coast on my way back, to see if I can sucker a battleship into a fight."
"You sure you'll be fine in your lonesome? you should probably have either Samoa or Kako stay with you. You're not exactly a sub hunter, and the Humans love using subs along the coast!" Scylla suddenly says as she looks at me, a strange look on her face. Not care, but similar to worry.
I simply shrug. "I'll be alright. I'm not going to stay close. I'm just going to sorta probe near any major ports. Put out bait and see what bites, y'know?"
"Alright" Scyla says as her body suddenly becomes shimmery and begins breaking up into particles that began drifting across the water towards her ship. "Have fun then!" Then she was gone completely.
Sighing I make my way down to the deck and sit down on a bollard, making a fishing rod with a heavy jig on the end of a thin yet strong nanomaterial fishing line. Without anything better to do I drop the jig over the side and spend another forty-five minutes just lifting it up, then dropping it back down, just like I did when I went tuna fishing.
To be honest, I didn't expect to catch anything.
Four hours after resupplying near Hawaii I'm sailing north up the coast. I stay roughly fifty miles out most of the time, then come closer in to roughly thirty miles whenever I get close to a major port.
San Diego? Nothing comes out. Then I try San Francisco, only to have the same result. Astoria is a total bust too, and I even sail into the Juan De Fuca Strait for a little bit before turning around and heading back out to sea. From there it's almost a straight voyage west to the fleet, a couple hundred miles out.
Except I don't actually get to the fleet. When I'm somewhere around the quarter of the way mark I get an alert from none other than Montana herself.
[Human Battleship spotted near human port of Anchorage. Seek and destroy.]
I send her a message simply reading "acknowledged" and turn towards Anchorage, proceeding at full speed while preparing my primary weapons for surface warfare. This means configuring them to kinetic shells while I build a couple ABM's just to be safe, but I don't plan on needing them.
Nearing the area that the battleship was last seen I open up a communications net with Scylla.
"Hey sorry to bother you, but since you've got access to the Fog network I was wondering if you could help me with learning the habits of these battleships."
{Sorry I was in a comm's, what do you need?} Scylla replies after a couple seconds, sounding a little strange.
"Info. Could you do a bit of research on any previous engagements with these battleships? I'm hunting one up by Anchorage. There's gotta be some technique or setup they rely on."
{Oh yeah sure. One sec. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . looks like an Iowa-class according to reports. They also say it has friends, though the number, mainly destroyers, seems to shift over time. Seems to like using island's, shore guns and fjords to split attention so it has time to calculate firing lines and . . . huh.}
"What? Let me guess, no single ship has ever survived an engagement with one?"
{No, there two notes alongside the data. One that it just recently got a kill against a cruiser a while back, and a more recent one that was just added by . . .Montana. You probably don't want to hear it honestly.}
"Anything that helps me figure these things out."
{That's the thing. Montana left a note explicitly stating to not tell you additional information. Looks like you're flying blind. Oh, it does say the battleship is alone at the moment though.}
"Well that's just peachy… are there any recordings or anything of previous engagements?" I ask while launching a floatplane for recon.
{There's one recent one, but you kind of already know what happens} Scylla replies as a data file is sent over.
"It's mine isn't it." I grumble, opening the file. Sure enough, it's footage from Topeka from the engagement in the strait. "Well shit. Thanks for trying, guess I'll wing it."
{Have fun!}
"Nothing like hunting dangerous game." I respond before ending the communication. With one plane already airborne I launch a second, and then a third to ensure I spot this thing before it spots me.
Minutes turn to hours, then the hours turn into an entire day. Spent doing nothing but patrolling, sending out planes and scouring every mile for any sign of the battleship. First sending them East, then sending them West, to no avail. I even sail into the bay, and fire a few shells at the fishing village in New Homer before heading southwest along the west side of Kodiak Island through the Shelikof Strait.
"Man… I always wanted to go to Kodiak to hunt, but I never would've thought it'd be like this…" I sigh, looking at the dark silhouette of the island and remembering my grandfather's stories of huge Brown Bear and Sitka deer.
Then I'm jerked out of my own daydreaming by the distant roar of sixteen-inch guns. Too far away to be firing at me, but close enough to be heard.
I accelerate to flank speed and send up my planes again as adrenaline starts to course through me. Once I'm around Kodiak Island I can see the flash of guns to the south, accompanied several seconds later by a bright violet flash and a fireball. I pull up my radar and acquire the battleship, then prepare eight missiles.
Another flash of guns, and another violet explosion before I fire the missiles and start to maneuver into firing position for my guns. The entire time I sail towards the battleship I watch the range to target like a hawk, but as I get closer the seas get rougher, and the battleship stops shooting.
"What are you up to…?" I murmur to myself, watching the distance between us close more rapidly than before. When they get within firing range and don't fire I grin to myself and prep another six missiles, since the last eight were all destroyed by the Phalanx systems on board.
As the distance closes to twenty miles a genuinely exciting thought passes through my mind.
'I wonder how close I can get?'
Grinning to myself I load all the kinetic guns with high-capacity corrosive shells, to increase the probability of a first-salvo kill, then start recording the whole ordeal via cameras placed in points of good visibility on my ship. I slow down to a reasonable thirty knots and reroute that processing power to be on standby for traversing the guns.
More slowly now but still pretty steadily the distance continues to close, to fifteen miles, then twelve, ten, eight, and at seven miles a searchlight is turned on aboard the ship and aimed at me.
'Gotcha now.'
I apply hard right rudder and traverse all my main battery to port, bringing my secondary battery to bear in seconds. A quick firing calculation while the battleship struggles to track me with its main battery, and it's game over. All nine of the sixteen-inch corrosive shells slam into the waterline as the ten five-inch shells hit the superstructure and the guns.
After the corrosive fields do their work most of the port side of the ship is corroded away, and the ship sits in the water for a brief second before the ammunition magazine detonates. Much to my surprise, the vast amounts of shrapnel produced from the explosion actually increases the saturation level on my klein field, if only barely. I immediately begin to slow down and come about to start the process of searching for any survivors, shining spotlights in the water to spot any floaters before lowering a motor launch into the water and starting a more in-depth search, ignoring the rough seas.
Near the fore end of the sinking ship I find an unconscious woman floating in the water, her uniform identifying her as a member of the bridge crew. Her oriental features and ebony black hair almost reminds me of Kako, and I quickly search her after pulling her into the boat. Pistol, fried cellphone, wallet, Navy ID. Nothing special. I take the pistol and stuff it in my waistband before checking her for any injuries.
She looks to be relatively unharmed excluding a piece of shrapnel in her right shoulder, which is embedded too deep for me to even think about trying to remove it without Hope being nearby. I bandage up the wound as best I can and head back to the ship with her, concluding my search just as day starts to break on the horizon.
Having completed my objective I send Montana the video and a report, stating I've found one woman for the hybrid program, and that I'm ending my patrol.
Then as I'm carrying the woman up to my bridge I hear a voice from down in the water.
"Hey! A little help up!?"
I look down and find a small life raft with three people sitting in it, each in a navy style uniform, with a Fog sigil on the shoulder of their jackets.
I make a staircase from the railing down to the water and carry the woman inside my bridge, laying her down on my bed before heading back out. By now the three are standing on my deck, and I wave them up to my bridge, making yet another staircase for them. They all ascend and meet me inside, the first person being a strawberry blonde with a rather pale complexion, followed by a chestnut-haired woman who looks to be the oldest of the three, probably in her late twenties or early thirties. Lastly is a tall blonde girl, who presents herself like she means business.
"Hello. Thank you for helping us. I'm the hybrid medical ship Tryon. These are my escorts Roanoke and Worcester. Worcester-class hybrids." She salutes me before motioning to the blonde, and then to the strawberry blonde.
"I'm the South Dakota-class hybrid Alaska, previously an Alaska-class. Pleased to meet you all, and welcome aboard." I respond, sitting down in my chair after returning the salute. "Feel free to make yourselves comfortable. We're in for a bit of a voyage back to my fleet."
"You mind if I take a look at her?" Tryon asks, pointing questioningly at the unconscious woman.
"Be my guest, just don't wake her up." I yawn, reclining my chair while making some beanbag chairs and a couch in the rear of the bridge by my bed. "And don't wake me up. It's been a long twenty-four hours."
"Can do, enjoy your rest."
"Always."
[A/N]: I've got two chapters stored away. If y'all want more, just say so.