Vacelia's gray muzzle flashed as the moon's rays hit it. The old cruiser grimaced as the pains of her arthritis acted up again. Either that or her leukemia. She was too old to sail, let alone participate in war games. If they were games that is. She had no intentions of taking part in any simulation. What she did would be for real. Her target, the American cruiser USS Kyoga. She too was an aging warship. They'd last confronted each other off the coast of Cuba. They were attempting to enter port at the same time. Neither would give way. Kyoga had a broken nose and Vacelia 3 broken ribs out of that. Arleigh and Lazerov respectively were furious and both ships got a serious talking too. Served them right for causing the healers extra work, she supposed.
Now Vacelia was about to pull the same trick on her American rival. She increased speed to full, hiding her pain under a slight grimace.
Kyoga recognized the contact on her radar at once. She didn't need the radio call to do so.
"Vacelia, been a while." She said.
"Aye. How's the nose holding up?" Vacelia asked.
"Better than your ribs I'm sure." Kyoga growled, the topic sensitive for her.
"Good. Because it's about to be rebroken." Vacelia growled.
"What are you up to Val?" Kyoga hissed.
"Nothing you'd want to know." The Russian replied.
She was at 300 yards and closing, so close that the lookout could see her profile speeding towards them. Kyoga knew it'd be too late to evade collision. She threw her engines into reverse, knowing she'd be unable to stop in time.
"Not again." She thought before, crunch. Kyoga would've squealed as her nose broke again but she wouldn't give Valecia the satisfaction.
As it was, the Russian didn't just hiss in pain as she'd done the last time Kyoga's bow had broken her ribs, she screamed. She wasn't faking either, she truly sounded as though she was in agony. Kyoga wasn't aware of her rival's delicate condition but she now suspected something was seriously wrong with her. Valecia came to a full stop several miles later and both ships drifted. Kyoga pinching a wire across her nose to stem the flow of blood. Valecia holding her side, jaws parted and tongue lolling as she gasped for breath.
"V-Valecia?" Kyoga called. "Are you alright?"
"J-just peachy, Kyoga." She replied, her voice tight.
"Why did you do that? The Cold War's over." Kyoga said.
"Not for me." Valecia replied and with that she engaged her engines and raced off into the night.
...
It took Kyoga some researching before she discovered that Valecia, suffering from rhemitoid arthritis and terminal leukemia was scheduled to be decommissioned and scrapped following her return to Russia.
"Oh Val..." Despite herself, the American felt sorry for her. No ship deserved her fate. Kyoga was beginning to understand Valecia's intentions. Rather than die humiliated in the scrapyard, she would go down fighting. She knew she stood no chance against Kyoga. As she got word of the missile launch aboard her rival, Kyoga felt a flash of fear run through her. Regardless of her intentions, Valecia could very well start a war this way. "Valecia, what have you become?" She whispered.
...
Valecia's aging hull couldn't take impact as well as her rival's could and it burst open, flooding most of the compartments before the doors were shot. Despite her own perilous situation she did her best to ensure the two American officers aboard were safe. It wouldn't do to be remembered as the ship who killed two important foreign officials.
Then came the hit. Kyoga had fired her own missile in return and it made it through her defenses. It impacted below her bridge on the port side. Valecia's scream could be heard by all the men inside her and she shuddered bow to stern. The wound was a mortal one, she knew this. But her time was limited anyways and she'd come here never intending to come out. Water did its job and she began to roll on her side, resisting its weight long enough for her crew to get to safety.
Kyoga approached as she picked up survivors, her gray-blue eyes soft, sympathetic even.
"Don't." Valecia rasped. "I don't need your pity."
"That implies that you want it." Kyoga replied.
Valecia bared her teeth. "Don't push it Yank. I can still kill you." She said.
"Yeah, but you won't. You came here intending to die yourself. Maybe bring another down with you but you failed in that already." Kyoga said, her voice deathly calm.
Valecia whimpered. "So you know then?" She sighed in defeat.
"No ship deserves your fate." Kyoga replied. "Let me help you."
"No one can help me now." Valecia rasped, coughing. She spat blood and more glistened on her teeth and her lips.
"Let me kill you." Kyoga suggested.
Valecia looked at her, a flicker of hope lighting her dull green eyes. "Please." She begged. "End the pain."
Kyoga nodded, moving alongside and lifting the Russian's head so it rested against her. She pressed the muzzle of her five incher between Valecia's green eyes.
"I am ready." The Russian murmured.
"You can close your eyes you know. Might make it easier." Kyoga said.
"For you or for me?" Valecia snorted. "I want to look upon my killer. I fought with honor, I will not shy away from that now."
Kyoga sighed, locking her weapon in position.
"We were never friends Kyoga but we were the best of enemies." Valecia smiled, despite her pain.
"Goodbye, Valecia." Kyoga managed.
The shot rang through the night. 20 miles away healers Arleigh Burke and Admiral Lazerov exchanged knowing glances, the latter tearing up.
"I'm sorry..." Arleigh whispered.
"She wanted this. It is every ships' wish to die at sea. Very few ever receive it. I have to honor her choices." Lazerov replied.
Kyoga looked down into those lifeless green eyes, trails of blood running down between them from the hole that marred that gray head. Ignoring this, Kyoga leaned down and kissed her dead rival, pressing their bows together.
"Fae Olympia de fellow Oceania, sienna." She whispered.
Then she did something she'd never done in her entire career. She buried her bow into that lifeless side, feeling both the healed rib injury and the new one, and cried.