Chapter 2: Meeting the Ships

Although her attempt to make small talk with the battleship ended in a disastrous failure, she was still able to attempt it during the interviews.

"So, Astoria, how long have you been at this base?"

"I've been here for about 8 months now."

"How did you manage it in the winter? It's so cold here."

"All you need to do is layer up on clothing. It also doesn't hurt that us shipgirls are naturally more tolerant of cold than humans."

Damn. This is going well! She's a nice, friendly ship. "So, as a part of the venerable New Orleans class of-"

"IT'S THE ASTORIA CLASS! THAT LITTLE FRENCH BITCH STOLE MY CLASS NAME!" The woman's friendly demeanor instantly changed from a friendly face to terrifying rage at the mention of the name 'New Orleans'. She immediately launched into an angry rant on the New Orleans.

Ellen practically shrunk a foot under the verbal onslaught of the cruiser. It didn't help that she could literally beat Ellen to a pulp with her superhuman strength. "I-I'm sorry, Astoria class." The ship instantly returned to a warm, friendly face when Ellen called her the Astoria class, but Ellen made a mental note to not fuck with this woman.

Houston was a little more sane. "I heard the shouting from my colleague from downstairs. Just don't mention 'New Orleans' nearby her and she'll be one of the friendliest ships you could meet."

Ellen sighed. "I sure hope so."

The light carrier, Princeton had the reserved, calm state of mind expected of her larger, standard carrier colleagues, offering to give the Admiral a tour of their dormitories after the interviews were done. Belleau Wood was the opposite, a fiery, passionate woman with the soul of a battleship, she came charging into the office with a marine globe and anchor, and ranted for a few minutes about her battle exploits, though it was obvious that she was inflating her own importance.

The light cruisers were a little more like Ellen expected. Boise spoke with a soft, maternal tone, and pat the Omaha sisters on the head as she left the office. The destroyers were super cute, especially the very close Clemson sisters. O'Brien surprised Ellen the most, coming in clearly drunk, with the younger Mahan trying her best to hold O'Brien back to hide her drunkenness. How the little destroyer was able to get ahold of alcohol when she looked like a 14 year old was beyond Ellen. Eventually Boise came back in and warned her that it was fruitless to try to keep alcohol from O'Brien, who seemingly could 'find alcohol anywhere", even if she were "a thousand miles into the pacific.'

XXX

She finally finished with the final interview, and waved goodbye to little Mahan. She took a relived breath, and looked at Pennsylvania.

"It is my time for an interview, right?" Ellen nodded. The battleship sat down in the chair in front of the admiral, and Ellen briefly flinched when the chair creaked and threatened to break under the battleship's powerful figure. It held.

"You've been here for about eight months, right?"

"Yeah. It's kind of nice here, even with the cold."

"Were you the first battleship assigned here?"

"Yes. Previously, the navy didn't have enough ships to have a battleship stationed here. They were too badly needed to defend California from invasion, or for the counterattack to take back Hawaii. They used to rely heavily on human aircraft to support the light shipgirl force in Anchorage. The Aleutian Islands were actually abandoned until about a year ago, since we simply didn't have the forces to hold them. Fortunately, the Abyssals ignored the islands while we were gone, for the most part. They established a small base at Atka, further west, but we managed to hit them by surprise while reestablishing our presence here."

"We were supposed to receive a large submarine force from California and resupply them so that they could push west and try to reestablish contact with Russia, Japan, and the old world. With the Atlantic so firmly locked down, and Iceland, Bermuda, and the Canaries, etc turned into a major bases by the Abyssals, it seemed like the Bering Sea was the best way to try to contact them. Unfortunately, the submarine force was delayed by the last major Abyssal campaign to try to take Hawaii again. By the time the submarines arrived, they were too small in number to safely reach anywhere but Kamchatka, and when they discovered that the peninsula was occupied by the Abyssals, the whole operation was called off. Now the Abyssals have had the time to fortify their hold on the Bering Sea, so we've lost our opportunity."

"Have you ever felt lonely by being the only battleship here, Pennsylvania?"

The battleship hesitated for a moment. It seemed like she did not expect that kind of personal question. "Sometimes it is, but the heavy cruisers and the Boise can usually cheer me back up." She looked back up to the admiral and gave a brief smile. "And sometimes I go and pat the Clemson sisters."

Ellen laughed and smiled. "They're adorable, aren't they?"

The battleship looked down again. "Also, Admiral, you can call me Penn if you'd like."

Ellen kept looking at her. "And you can call me Ellen. This is a small base. There's no need for much formality, I suspect."

Penn smiled.