"Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven." The young voice muttered repetitively, a thin veneer of worry on the words.

A knock at the door interrupted.

"Who's there?" The voice called out.

"Atlanta," a friendly voice answered, "can I come in Stewart?"

"Um-sure- I mean- yes ma'am!" Stewart answered standing up fro. Her position on the floor.

The door opened and Atlanta entered surveying Stewart's quarters. The room was large, several crisply laid beds augmented the room along with several dressers and bureaus for each, all in mint condition, the television and couches, intended to be used for groups of girls to watch together sat idly near a small table in the corner. privately Atlanta doubted if Stewart had ever bothered turning it on. The sole signs of occupation was a large American flag on the wall near a desk and a series of historical books and field manuals near the lamp on one of the nightstands. In front of the bed, Stewart had currently laid out a staggering amount of miniature shells and appeared to be keeping count.

Atlanta grimaced internally at the girl standing in rigid attention, still in her neat and crisp Navy uniform.

"I've told you before Stewart stop doing that, at ease, whatever you need me to say," she announced with a frustrated hand wave.

Stewart relaxed ever so slightly, "was there something you needed ma'am?"

"How are you holding up?"

"Fine ma'am. Near full combat effectiveness. Exception being a shortage of Type 2 depth charges and 6.5mm machinegun ammunition, I've made a formal request with supply, but it appear they'll have to special order the ammunition, I apologise for my lack of foresight, but I believe my anti-submarine and anti-aircraft capabilities will be moderately compromised during this operation ."

Alanta sighed, "If you need to talk things through, or need help in Japan, just ask, please."

"I don't think that'll be necessary ma'am, the Japanese are our allies now and have caused little trouble in the past."

"You know that's not the issue here."

"With due respect ma'am, I'm fine, I appreciate the concern."

Atlanta paused briefly, thinking her approach over.

"If that'll be all, ma'am, I have a lot of pre-combat checks to go through again and only-" she checked her watch, "two hours to do them."

Atlanta crossed her arms, "actually Stewart, I'd like to make sure you're set and ready aside from the- existing deficiencies, could you point out what I'm seeing here?" She asked in her signature southern drawl, gesturing at the assembled munitions.

Stewart stiffened briefly before I engaging her report, "Aye, ma'am, I've got three hundred of 76.2mm anti-aircraft shells, seven thousand rounds of 25mm, two thousand rounds of 13mm, four, type two torpedoes, and six type two depth charges." The girl rounded off her numbers with cold accuracy. "As I stated earlier, I'm still short of Machine gun ammunition and depth charges. if we had time to make a requisition we might be able to get some imported, but as is I'll have to go short."

Atlanta grimaced, holding the pause I the air briefly "Stewart I know this is hard on you, I'll talk to the commander, try and get you pulled, I know she'll be agreeable to it."

"That's hardly necessa-"

"Bullshit!" Atlanta interrupted.

"Ma'am?" Stewart questioned uneasily at the outburst

"Stewart, you've spent the last 6 hours acquiring and taking inventory of thousands of rounds of ammunition for weapons you don't even carry."

Stewart glanced at her hands with an alarmed look on her face and back to the ammunition pile, before taking again her characteristic passive look, "apologies ma'am, I've undergone a fair few refits and it must've slipped my mind, i'm-" she hesitated, "I'm still good to go, just need to re-requisition everything."

"I can get you pulled."

"No, I'll go," she stated determinedly before her facade slipped into a defeated grimace, "We both know it'd only start more rumors anyways."

"What's I say about that?"

A half smile passed the smaller ships face, "to tell you if anyone is talking smack so you can put enough 5" rounds up their ass that they'll be shitting high explosives for a week."

"exactly! Don't ever let anyone say you're not the hardest working damn ship in the fleet."

Atlanta brightened and the vague smile on the girl's face.

"Besides, the Japanese girls are great Stewart," Atlanta reassured, "still friendly, that girl Fobuky emailed me last month asking about you, you know."

"Fubuki." Stewart corrected.

"Oh- well, regardless, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to see you there."

"I'm not afraid of the Japanese girls bullying me," Stewart solemnly muttered to the aside, "i'm just- I'm not sure I'm ready for them to see me, particularly with all the-" she trailed, making gestures to the well maintained uniform. "Plus what will the Taffy's say…"

"Come on stew, remember, just how many 5" shells I can put out? besides, the taffies have always been good to you right? That's why we keep them around, nice and mellow compared to other destroyers. Now let's get you some proper ammunition, don't want to miss the setout time."

Standing up, Stewart mumbled an affirmative before weekly heading out the door.

"Hey, if we've got enough time before the operation, we met even be able to stop for ice cream."

"Really?"

The docks as per usual were a bustle of Navy personnel moving supplies, or offloading and loading from the various transport ships that came to and from the post, far down the pier however things were free of incoming forklifts or stacks of pallets. Here all that was present was a single shopgirl sitting on the edge of the dock.

Iowa stared outwards to the pier patiently kicking her feet out over the docks, waiting for the rest of the ships to assemble, while humming slightly to herself between bites of the large, but rapidly shrinking carrot cake on her lap.

Hearing a small set of footsteps behind her, the battleship gave a glance over her shoulder, Franks gave her a war smile, which she returned.

"Hey Iowa!" The girl greeted warmly "Are you waiting for everyone?"

"Yeah." Was Iowa's curt reply before offering the cake to the girl, "carrot cake?"

"I don't like carrots."

"It's not carrots, it's carrot cake, the difference is night and day, besides, I think Atlanta would be upset with us if we ate cake this close to an operation."

"Hey I'm coal fired, means I need constant resupply!" Iowa stated over-defensively gesturing to the large smokestack on her assembled rigging.

Franks laughed, before turning to Iowa and quietly asking "Hey Iowa, how are you feeling about the operation?"

"Pretty excited! It's been over a hundred years since I got to sail under my own power! My boilers are tuned and reading! I've got a near full combat load of shells," Iowa stated excitedly before tapering off "well excepting Gatling Gun ammunition, but apparently for all the future is, you don't even carry simple Gatling Gun rounds."

"Of course!" The girl stated hesitantly.

"But I'm a little nervous too." Iowa reassured softly, noticing the girl's hesitance

"Battleships get nervous?"

"Of course we do!" Iowa reassured, "Destroyers are used to operating alone, bravely ahead with no help, Battleships are used to be told exactly what's up ahead and having a whole bunch of other ships with them."

"oh."

Iowa passed the now quarter of a cake over to the girl, who hesitantly grabbed it. Taking an apprehensive bite, she smiled slightly.

"I'm stuck in a new world with two world wars of design ahead of me, there are airplanes, dreadnoughts, submarines, and all sorts of other nastiness I have no idea how I'll face. On top of that, apparently some of them are possessed by the devil or something. And then who's to say what new fleet policy will do to me when I get to Japan."

"Oh," Franks muttered again through a mouthful of food, noting pensively that Iowa appeared to shiver only after the last statement.

"But at least I've got someone with experience at my back," she announced happily rubbing Franks's head and eliciting an embarrassed squeak from the destroyer. "You can tell me all about what I'm supposed to do when I get there."

"O-ok!" Franks said with newfound determination

"I think we'll do okay, I'll get your back if you get mine, okay?"

A crackling loudspeaker interrupted both their discussion and the sounds of work from the docks behind, "Attention all 'Warship Personnel', report to pier 8", the authoritative man on the speaker repeated himself as Iowa stood up, glancing at the sign above the pier which clearly proclaimed 'pier 7'. Rising, she offered a hand to the smaller girl

"All done?" Iowa asked, looking at the empty plate.

A sheepish nod from the smaller girl elicited a grin from Iowa. "I thought you didn't like carrots?"

"This is different!" She defended! "It tasted sweet! Not like carrots and all."

"I'm only teasing, come on, let's meet up with the others, apparently this is the wrong area."

"Okay!"

"Have you been to Japan recently Fran?"

"Yeah!" The girl stated excitedly, "it's a lot of fun!"

"I look forward to seeing it," Iowa stated, taking Franks's hand.