Chapter 9: Settling In

Boyd was surprised that she was selected to be a representative of the destroyers. She wasn't all that experienced, and she didn't think of herself as a particularly strategic person. Perhaps it was just because she was a powerful destroyer, but O'Brien was more powerful. Following behind her was Huron. The poor girl just got here and was already being brought into a strategy meeting. Boyd remembered being deployed from the construction complexes to Seattle. She got separated from a lot of her sister ships, and she felt pretty overwhelmed, but in time she began to appreciate the many different people there. This wasn't Huron's first deployment, and Boyd was sure that she would feel comfortable fairly soon. She would have undoubtedly already worked with the US navy ever since she left her construction, so Boyd doubted that that would be a barrier for long.

The two destroyers sat down in front of the holo-table. It was rare to see technology like this, since commercial electronic products were under very heavy regulation, and often confiscated due to their precious rare metals. They were super-cool though!

The Admiral began by displaying a map of the Aleutian Islands. Labels appeared over Unalaska and the new Abyssal base. "The enemy has begun establishing a base at Atka. Unfortunately, it is guarded by a fleet too powerful for us to engage." An intimidatingly long list of capital ships appeared by the base. "And there are even more ships patrolling around this new base." More dots began to appear all around Atka. "Fortunately, we still have authorization to use some of our existing drone stock to monitor Abyssal fleet movements. We only have a limited window of time that they can be used. We cannot risk losing too many, since our resupply of them has been shut down since the Caribbean got hit, and is very unlikely to restart anytime soon. We will have to make use of our drones while we can. We will have to use the Porter for maneuverability, and we'll likely be out on sorties a lot."

The Admiral's plan was actually fairly simple. She was a good strategist, though no genius. Huston, Astoria, and Pennsylvania convinced her to make several minor edits, but her core ideas were sound. Unalaska did not have the power to survive in a full engagement, so they would be forced to harass and slow down the Abyssal forces for as long as they could. The base would gradually be evacuated to a skeleton staff, and ships would sortie from the Porter to engage Abyssal patrols. The Porter would leave with the first sortie tomorrow.

"We will evacuate those civilians who came back, but for now it doesn't look like the Abyssals intend to attack Unalaska directly. They've spread a lot of patrols out, instead of concentrating their firepower."

"They should have an idea of where are base is, right? We already abandoned Unalaska once," Princeton said.

"Yes. I think that, instead of trying to find and destroy our base, or fight our fleet, they're looking for something. It's possible that they are submarine hunting, and, after all, we have used submarine intelligence extensively here. Still, they should know that we have a fleet presence here when we attacked that light carrier fleet."

Pennsylvania said, "The Abyssals can sometimes be reckless, but this sort of strategic vulnerability is not something I've seen them do before. It's also fairly rare for them to make a strategic blunder, so I think it's more likely that there's information that we're missing."

"But we still can't just sit around and wait because they're being suspicious. With the balance of force here, or lack thereof, we don't have the privilege of waiting for more information."

XXX

After the strategy meeting was finished, Huron felt exhausted. She was still suffering from jet lag. She decided to go and check out her new dorm. Boise offered to accompany her there. "The other girls will be very interested in what happened, and it looks like you're pretty tired." It was a large building, but seemed robust. From the outside it looked dull, but the inside was filled with energetic ships.

"When are we gonna blow the Abyssals out of the water?!"

"Are we going to Sortie tonight?"

"Is the base going to get dangerous?"

Boise practically pushed her way through some of the younger destroyers. Gently, of course. Huron was too tired to really pay much attention to the questions or Boise's answers. They eventually reached her new room, and Boise gave her a key. Huron didn't really look around the room, she just went straight to the bed. Luckily it was already made (the Clemson sisters later admitted to preparing it for her, in anticipation of jet-lag induced exhaustion). Not even the only partially muffled voices from outside the door prevented her from falling soundly asleep.

XXX

Sorties began the next day. The Admiral called through the speakers: "Today's sortie will include Princeton, Astoria, Boise, O'Brien, Fox, Bache, and Shields. Please report to the Porter to begin preparations to depart. Belleau Wood and Pennsylvania, also report to the Porter as backup." Huron would be staying on the base, so she hoped that she could get to know the other destroyers better.

First, she went to the Cafeteria for breakfast. Mahan and Boyd were in a table off to the side. Huron decided to seize the initiative and sit with them.

"I hope we didn't tire you out too much at the strategy meeting. I noticed you were getting tired near the end." Boyd seemed like a good friend. Hopefully Huron could spend some more time with her.

"Oh, it's fine. I was just a little jet-lagged."

"Well, I'd love to show you around the base. The Admiral says that you are a good escort. Princeton also said she would feel safe with you around."

"Thank you, although I'm not experienced with fleet escort. I usually escorted convoys on the Atlantic coast, or patrolled with a destroyer flotilla."

"Well, your powerful guns serve well at sinking lighter ships, like Abyssal destroyers and torpedo boats, and against aircraft, since they're dual purpose, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm still not as powerful as your Sumner class."

"At least you're sober. Right, Mahan?"

"Hey! I like O'Brien. She's a really friendly drunk."

"What! I didn't think the US would allow alcohol for destroyers." Wasn't the US known for stringent alcohol laws? Did they even apply to shipgirls?

"O'Brien wouldn't allow the Navy to stop her. She was born with alcohol in her hand, like you were born with 'sorry' on your lips."

Huron couldn't help but chuckle. She could play the teasing game too. "And you were born with a Bigmac in your belly."

Mahan seemed to be opening up now. "Heh. Anyway, I've heard that Boise's organizing another destroyer practice session sometime this afternoon. I hope she has some more goodies."

"Did she have one before I got here? What did she give out?"

Boyd smiled. "I won a whole bunch of ice cream! I even have some leftovers that I can share with you, though most of it was demolished by hungry destroyers. I'm lucky that I managed to rush a bunch of it to my room and kept them out."

"I would love to eat some nice chocolate!"

"Luckily for you, most of the other girls prefer vanilla, so it's mostly chocolate left." Boyd winked at her. "Whoever wins Boyd's new session, come to my room and we'll share some ice cream and maybe watch a scary movie. It'll be nice to have some fun time before things get heated up."

"Can I come!" Mahan was getting excited.

"Sure, little Mahi-Mahi"