Chapter 3
Base SAB-23 is just one of the many outer naval base that is owned by the IJN, It was a small base that its only function was as a transit supply port and to monitor this area of the sea as well as giving assistance to any nearby fleet that requires it.
The small size of the base means it didn't have many personnel in it. Although its position near the front line in the war against the abyssal was enough reason for the higher ups to place a single fleet girls squadron to guard it. This resulting in a relaxed atmosphere of the base. The only major event since the past month was the recent battle near the base that involves more than three dozen abyssals.
But right now the usual atmospheres of the base was disturbed by the sounds of warning alarms blaring and the sounds of multiple explosions.
Some of the buildings are in consumed by flames, The protective sea wall that is mean to keep the enemy from entering the port has been breach. The sentry guns on the wall silenced.
All non combat personnel is already ordered to evacuate the base.
In the inner bay area inside the sea wall, a desperate battle is now being fought. The base assigned fleet girls, two destroyers Samidare and Suzukaze, one heavy cruiser Furutaka, and one light carrier Hiyou, are trying their best into stopping their enemy.
But so far all of their strategy prove to be ineffective. Although there is only one enemy, the attacker was a new type of abyssal never before seen. Facing this unknown enemy without any prior data making them cannot fight back effectively.
/Fleet girl side/
It hasn't been long since the enemy succeed in breaking through the sea wall, and this stalemate happens, but for heavy cruiser Furutaka, it feels like a very long time has passed.
She fired her twin 20,3cm main gun at her enemy, only to duck at the next second to avoid a retaliatory projectiles aimed at her head.
She was not given any time to rest however, because in the next moment is forced to turn her engine full reverse to avoid the large clawed hand that is coming down on her previous spot.
But before she could reorient herself, the enemy in front of her aimed the large cannon on its right hand to her, in an angle and range that she will not be able to dodge.
Fortunately she was saved by her destroyers partner firing at the abyssal staggering it although no lasting damage is done because before the shots hit, a red skintight barrier formed around the creature.
But even then the time it gives to her is enough for her to make some distance between her and the creature.
She retreated back to her fellow fleet girls. "Furu-chan! Are you alright." Called Samidare.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Thanks for the save". Answered Furutaka. She and the destroyers turn back to their enemy, who is now chasing a retreating Hiyou.
"What should we do? Our guns aren't having any effect on it!" Asked Samidare out loud.
Furutaka could only grit her teeth, because it's true, the small twin 12.7cm caliber gun on the pair of destroyer, so far didn't have any desired effect on the enemy barrier only staggering it and no more. Only her 20.3cm gun and the bombs from Hiyou planes that could deal some visible effect.
But their enemy despite its size is an agile one, between its agility and the strength of its barrier, the fleet girls could not deal any significant damage. A call for reinforcement is already sent but after the large battle that is recently happening, most of the fleet girls in the area will need to be repaired and resupplied, so the chance of immediate reinforcement is small.
"What is this thing anyway? There is no data about this abyssal type anywhere in the database."
Indeed, the abyssal in front of them is a unique and unknown one. It stands on a pair of armored feet that is ended in two talon in the front and one on the back, making it like a bird or lizard leg.
The body is muscular, covered in black metal armor plate common among the abyssals, what the metal armor didn't cover shows white colored skin that is ripe with muscles.
Its armored broad shoulder is connected with large muscled arms. It's left arm ended with large 5 fingered claws with two thumbs along with a pair of 5inch twin cannons on top of the forearm. The right hand ended with a wicked large unknown caliber cannon, with a smaller 6inch rapid-fire cannon on top of the larger one.
The head was equally unique, it looks nearly insectoid, with wide tapered head that has two large antennas or horns near the front. It has six eyes pair of eyes, with a large jaw filled with sharp teeth below the eyes. A pair of 5 inch twin gun turrets sit comfily on top of its shoulder, one for each shoulder.
Overall, it stood almost as tall as the demon of battleship symbiotic hime, albeit it has more armor and far more agile although it large head armor and large arms appendage making it look slouched masking its high agility. Its appearance is completed with a flaming blood red aura around it signifying its elite status.
Another direct hit from Suzukaze main guns delay the unknown type enough for Hiyou to evade a nasty claw swipe.
The unknown shriek in anger before it looks at the three fleet girls clustered together. Furutaka widen her eyes when she sees what the unknown in front of them about to do.
"Sh*t! Everyone scatter!" The unknown raised its right hand and aimed at the three. The large cannon barrel on the abyssal right hands glows brightly.
Following the warning the three fleet girls quickly scatter themselves before three large glowing orb hit the locations they previously standing simultaneously before exploding in a large wide area explosions.
Furutaka wiped the sweat from her brow. That attack is dangerous, The base main administrative building that is now reduced into smoking ruins after previously being hit by it along with the breached sea wall is prove of the danger that cannon possess.
'Luckily the damn thing needs to charge its cannon first before it could fire.'
The unknown let out a shriek that is the same as an abyssal destroyer before a squadron of planes from Hiyou who used the momentary distraction to launched some of her planes peppered it with their auto-guns.
The turrets on the unknown shoulders comes to live and fired at the planes. The rest of the fleet girl spotting a chance fired their guns at it, scoring multiple direct hits.
Bellowing loudly the unknown fired several times with its attached left hand cannons at the fleet girls forcing them to dodge or cover themselves with their hands before charging at the lone light carrier.
Since the beginning of the battle it always chase after the poor light carrier, only attacking the other fleet girls if they stand in its way or becoming too much of a nuisance.
A behavior that is not lost on the fleet girls. As a result most of the battle is consist of the unknown chasing Hiyou and the other girls firing at the unknown ineffectively and to distract the unknown if it comes too close on hitting Hiyou, while Hiyou will try to launch her planes as much as she can between the lapse of the unknown attack.
It has become a game of mouse and cat, with them as the mouse while the unknown is the cat.
That's when Furutaka caught something in the corner of her vision, that she blanched. There from the large hole that is the breach on the sea wall, she could see a fast approaching fleet. An abyssal fleet, with the unmistakable form of a Princess leading them.
One word comes in the forefront of her mind. 'Sh*t!' They really need that reinforcement now.
/2 hours earlier, middle of the sea, on the recent battle location/
The sea around her is calm with only little waves splashing against her leg, while the blue sky with scarce white cloud could be seen clearly. But for her, the sight of this serene sea could not erase the sadness from her face.
Indeed, although because of the time that has passed many small pieces of metal floating about scattered by the sea waves could be seen. The only sign that there was a battle here recently.
The amount of the remains floating showed how many of her sisters and brethren that has fallen. All just to give some transport to escape. According to the report about a entire full generation of destroyers were lost.
Normally the lost of few transport ships won't be a matter of concern for them. After all they could away salvage the remains and if lucky revive them. But this time is different, the difference is on the cargo that the transports carried. Most of the transport succeeded in escaping from the enemy, but even with the sacrifice of entire generation of destroyer, the fleet girls still succeeded in sinking two of the transports.
And that is what make her come in this place presently. The cargo was important enough that they send her a princess to recover the cargo from the wreck of the transport ships.
Lady Iowa, one of the few Battleship symbiotic hime. She released a sigh of gloominess. So many have died, and here she is with a salvage fleet trying to recover the fallen as many as they can.
The sound of something surfacing caught her attention. It was one of elite the Ka-class submarine she bring along and it looks like she have something to report.
"What is it?" Asked Iowa.
"Hime-sama, we cannot find it."Reported the submarine, Iowa nearly let out a sigh of exasperation.
"Well, search harder. Use your sonar. Maybe you mistake it with the wreckage of the destroyers."
The elite Ka answered back. "We already done it Hime-sama. And that it is, there number is too little."
Iowa raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Explain."
"The number of wreckage on the bottom of the sea is too low. There is only a little bit more than a dozen or so on the sea floor." Explained the elite Ka.
"That is impossible, according to the report there should be more than 3 dozen ships sunk in this place. Most are destroyers, there body are not small."
"That is it, Hime-sama. We cannot find them nor the transport ship."
Iowa furrowed her brow. "Impossible, did those human start to salvage our remains. If they do this is the first time they have done it."
Suddenly another Ka-class, this time a normal one surfaced. With her she bring along a piece of metal armor.
"What is it this time?" Asked Iowa.
"Hime-sama, I believe we have found what had happened to the wreckage." The Ka-class handed her the piece of metal. Iowa examine the piece of metal that is looks like it was a piece of destroyer armor. Then she notice the strangeness in the metal.
"What is this? Bite marks?" Indeed one side of the metal seems to be bitten by something, shown from the jagged torn edge that looks like teeth.
"Someone or something has eaten those abyssals. What could possibly do it? To eat more than a dozen abyssal body?" Then she remembered something.
"You!" She pointed a finger at the elite Ka-class. "You said that the transports is also missing, right?"
"Yes, hime-sama." A foreboding feeling comes over Iowa mind. The thing those transports carried is dangerous if it fall to the wrong hand. And it save to say, that whatever is eating the abyssals wreckage has also eat the transports along with their cargo too. She turn to her escort that has since standing silently beside her, a Ta-class and a Ru-class battleship.
"Tabitha, Ruby. Did the both of you bring the detector device?"
They both answered. "Yes Iowa-sama." "Hai ojou-sama"
"Good, activate the device now. Turn it on the highest sensitivity level!" She ordered the black and white battleship sisters.
"Hai!" Answered the sisters.
They both took out a blocky device like GPS with two antenna protruding from it and proceed to fiddle with it. The device let out a small crackling sound like the buzz of a radio. After staring at the device for a moment while directing it right and left in a slow motion, they turn to each other in a silent conversation before nodding.
The Ta-class give out their report. "We already got the cargo signature."
The Ru-class continued after her sister. "And we also found a faint trail of the signature moving from this place."
"And into that direction." Finished both sister in the same time. They both pointing at the direction of Northwest.
"Good, gather the fleet. We will follow the trail. Left only just enough to recover the rest of the wreckages. The rest follow me." Ordered Iowa. She proceed to let her demon pick her up and then jump into its shoulder and without waiting for the others, proceed to go at full speed following the trail. Tabitha and Ruby following besides her.
They must recover it at all cost, after all the humans must not know that the abyssal has gain access to a cache of Uranium.
Their journey led them into an IJN outpost naval base. From their distance they could see columns of black smoke and sounds of explosions coming from the base. It is a good sign for them, this means whoever their mystery eater are, is still in the base.
As they approached the device on Tabitha and Ruby hands start to emit more louder sound the same time as when a noticeable large explosions happens on the base.
When they reach an eye-view distance, they could see a large hole punched through the thick sea wall of the base.
It was when they entered that they see four fleet girls fighting against what is unmistakably their quarry.
It is huge, easily as large as the demon belongs to the battleship princess. The unknown abyssal because there is no way it was not an abyssal released a shriek identical with that of an abyssal destroyer, before charging into one of the fleet girl. The unfortunate girl, getting distracted from seeing them cannot evade in time. A single swipe of the claw of the unknown throw her away and inflict a large gash wound across the torso. It shrieked again.
Hearing the shriek, the abyssal destroyers that comes with Iowa, shuddered and move back slightly.
'Does they afraid of it?' Though Iowa. 'No this isn't it, there is only little who could scare a destroyer. They are agitated because they know they are in front of an alpha.' Indeed a higher ranked abyssal destroyer usually rein among their fellow by using their power and aura.
That is also one of the way destroyer use to know who is their superior. Because among the abyssal the destroyers have the lowest aura intensity even the flagship one.
The destroyer with her must have sense the wild aura of the unknown in front of them. And they acknowledge it.
"Hime-sama, according to the device there are several trace of the signature scattered among the base."
"But the largest concentration seems to emanate from that unknown. I thing we have our culprit." Said Tabitha and Ruby in turn.
iowa stared at the rampaging'But for them to be like this... and the aura of wildness and rage that unknown emanate.. Wait, wait. An entire generation of destroyer lost... the missing wreckage of the destroyers... along with the missing cargo... added with the bite marks and the animal tendencies of a destroyer.' Iowa widen her eyes when the conclusions of what is happening settle in.
'That thing must be one of the destroyer that manage to survives. It survival instinct must have kick in and he proceed to the nearest energy source to regenerate. Some animals have a tendencies of cannibalism.
It must also accidently eat the uranium when it was eating the transport. Add with the mutation inducing property of the radioactive uranium along with the massive energy it provide and the robust nature of a destroyer constitutions. The unknown in front of her must be one of the destroyer that manage to survive.
It wild berserker like condition against the fleet girl must have stem from the rage of losing its fellow sisters. (A/N: She doesn't know that the consciousness inside was a male, so she treat it like a human call a ship as a she)
But still it present condition is not healthy, the uranium inside of it mustn't have stabilized properly yet. They must calm this beast down before it kill itself.
A pretty large explosions shook her from her contemplation. When she come too, another of the fleet girl has been downed after taking a blow mean for the light carrier among the group.
She shook her head and focus on the job before her. What they must do is subdue the rampaging mutant destroyer, and calmed it down.
"Tabitha, Ruby and the rest of you we must stop that beast, before it rampage any further." Shouted Iowa. Tabitha move closer to her princess, a confusion on her face.
"What is that thing, hime-sama? Why should we calm it down." Ask Tabitha. Iowa proceed to explain her deduction to her subordinate. Once it was clear the group of abyssal disperse themselves into surrounding their rampaging mutant brethren intending to subdue it.
The fleet girl themselves was surprised at seeing the abyssal didn't engage them but instead blocking the unknown type.
It was a surprise for a wounded Furutaka and her fellows when the newcomer abyssal fleets haven't already fired at them. Surprise turn into shock when the abyssal do the unexpected. Instead of attacking they seem intent to stopping the unknown type.
She know that she is already at her limit because of her heavy wound from the previous claw swipe. Suzukaze also has gone critical from blocking one of the shots mean for Hiyou. There's no way they could fight off the newcomer if they mean hostile.
'Is it because it was the result of an experiment that escape, so they come here to collect it. There's no way that it was a stray right?'
A Ru-class battleship fired her cannon scoring a direct hit. The unknown staggered from the surprise attack cannot recover in time before a closing in from its back and fired her cannon.
Under simultaneous barrage from a pair of battleship grade weapons the skintight barrier of the unknown starts to flicker and cracking.
It needed another barrage from the two battleships and a torpedo salvo from an elite Ka-class submarine to finally dispelled the barrier.
Once the barrier has disappeared, the guns of the two battleships become silent only to be replaced by a couple of destroyers and a single light cruiser that start to pepper it with their guns.
On the corner of her vision Furutaka, could see a large form approached her. Turning her face so she could see who is it, she gulped once she see the hulking form of the personal demon of Battleship Princess along with said Princess on the demon shoulder.
"What's this? A wounded little heavy cruiser?" Said the abyssal princess. It was not a question as it is a fact. Furutaka could feel herself become smaller in front of what qualify as an enemy boss.
Fortunately her friends quickly come into her aid. But between their exhausted state and facing a princess that still fresh they know there's little chance for them to win.
"W-what do you want?" Asked Furutaka.
The princess raised a non-existent eyebrow at her question. "Ooh... a brave one are you?"
The Princess take a look over the condition of the base.
"By looking at the base and your... condition, I don't suppose you could tell me anything you know about... that fellow?" Asked the Princess while waving a hand at the unknown type.
Feeling that complying is the best course of action the fleet girls decided to answer the Princess.
"W-we don't know much. It just suddenly appeared from nowhere and start to attack this base in the morning." Explained Hiyou.
"E-ever since then we have been fighting it since it succeed in breaking through." Continued Suzukaze.
"Oooohh... is that all? There isn't any more detail that you left?" Asked the Princess.
"The-there is one, it seems to have a grudge against Hiyou... It always attack her as much as it can. It's main weapon also u-unique, It is destructive but need to charge a bit." Explained Suzukaze, while Hiyou and the rest nodding their head in agreement.
"Is that so?" a synchronized nod, the Princess is silent for a moment before she close her eye and turn around. "That's all I need, you are free to go."
Blinking Furutaka voiced her confusion. "W-we could go?"
"Yes, you are no use to me. And I better spend that time subduing it than wasting my time sinking you all. Now go." Dismissed the Princess before she moved towards the unknown type.
Still wary, the fleet girls decided they won't look a gift horse in the mouth and proceed to dismiss themselves as fast as they can.
With the abyssals, up to this point their plan seems to be working but suddenly when the fleet girls start begun their withdrawal, the mutant abyssal suddenly became more aggressive.
It flared its aura and charging at the retreating figures of the fleet girls, uncaring at the rounds fired at it.
Only when the demon of the Battleship Princess blocked its path and punching it did its mad charge stopped.
What follows is a wrestle match between the two. Their nearly same size means they were caught in a deadlock. But the demon is still fresh while the mutant has sported many wounds on its body and exhaustion has begun to catch up with it.
Unsatisfied the Princess curled her hand into a fist and gathered her aura into it. She punched the mutant in the face, stunning it.
A giant fist from the demon causing the mutant to be thrown back a few meters. It cannot recover in time before the demon pounced on top of it and pummel it repeatedly.
The mutant helpless under the onslaught, shrieked its frustration. The demon suddenly caught the mutant in a headlock, trying to suffocating it. It shrieked in resistance clawing at the hand choking it.
"You are a tough one huh? Snap out of it. The fleet girls already gone. There is no more enemy here!" Shouted Iowa towards the mutant.
It shrieked back in defiance. "Tch! Hold it down!"
Complying with its master, the demon forced the mutant down so that the head is only a couple feet above the water.
Iowa hop down from her demon and proceed to press her hands to the side of the mutant head. She closed her eye, and a red aura begun to coalesced on her hand and into the mutant head.
What she done is to connect with the mutant telepathically, this is one of the method for princesses to bond with their demon.
She now going to use this method to calmed the mutant. When the connection was made, she could feel the animalistic rage inside.
She sends out calming and comforting thoughts to the mutant. "Calm down, there is no enemy here. Relax, we are your friends, you are safe now."
It needs several moments but she could feel that it works, the rage has lessened. Then she feel an unexpected emotion. She could feel shame from the mutant.
Deep inside the psyche of Lucas consciousness, a humanoid form is floating in a fetal position. The being didn't have any face, but its humanoid form is clearly seen.
This is Lucas after his near death experience and the subsequence release of his animalistic side, he has been floating in here.
Inside his mind there is only the loud mad whisper of a beast. The whisper of rage, vengeance and hunger. It nearly drive him insane hearing the whisper of the beast.
RAGE! REVENGE! EAT! MAIM! KILL! BURN!
RAGE! REVENGE! EAT! MAIM! KILL! BURN!
Then suddenly the whisper subsided, he could hear a female sound resounded within him.
"Calm down, there is no enemy here. Relax, we are your friends, you are safe now." The sounds repeated again and again. His mind start to become more clear, the mad whisper reduced into a mere distant echo.
Then the memory of what he has done returned. The memory of him surviving while the other of his pack dead, the memory of him eating his fellow abyssals, becoming cannibal. He was ashamed, throw everything from him inside his deepest core he is still human, so the memory ashamed him for him to become that low just to survive.
The calming voice return now with love, not the love of a lover but like the love of a mother to her child.
"Don't worry, there's no need to be ashamed. What matter is you survive. Survive for them, be at peace that at least they have become one with you."
It continued again for a long moment until the motherly feeling wash away his shame. It is still there but isolated, no longer weighing his mind.
"Now sleep, sleep my child. You have done much, now rest and sleep. You are safe now." He becomes more sleepy and it was not long before he feels the grasp of sleep embrace him.
"Sleep now, young one. Welcome to the family." Was the last thing he heard before he fall into the most content sleep he has in the past months.
Iowa release the mutant now a new member of her family no not a new member but a child once lost now found and let it sleep, her demon already released the chokehold and now supporting the mutant body with its both hands.
Even though it looks like this but in the core it is still a couple months old. A young one, that needs guidance, no matter the form its take.
She released a sigh and smiled. They may have lost the majority of an entire generation of destroyers but they have gain something that is more than an ordinary destroyer.
She hopped back into her demon and ordered it to turn around. "Plunder what you can from the base, maybe their warehouse still survives, take every intel you can then burn the base. We won't want the IJN to reuse this base again."
"What will you do Iowa-sama?" Ask Tabitha.
"I will return to base. There's someone that I need to introduce to my fellow sisters. Now be quick."
"Yes, Iowa-sama" Saluted the gathered abyssals. Looking at the blue sky above, Iowa let out a smile.
Author Note: Alright CH 3 is done! What do you thing? Sorry if some of the fleet girl seems to be OOC, I'm just human. Oh yeah, sorry if there is error in grammar or tenses. Once again I'm just human and not native English speaker, so sorry.
Now what will happen to Lucas once Iowa bring him back. What is the princess plan for him will be?
Please review and comment. Thank you, see you in the next chapter, whenever it will be written. ^^ Descartes2404 out.