An hour into her journey and the giddy excitement had only just begun to wane; racing along the top of the cool Pacific waters. For the first time in over a century the Pre-Dreadnaught ruled the waves, the niggling feeling in the back of her mind in regard to her actual combat effectiveness only mildly keeping her from enjoying the crisp and salty ocean air.
She was so preoccupied in the moment she scarcely recognized the sound a of a light cruiser smoothly moving up to her flank "Having fun?" Atlanta called smiling and adjusting her glasses.
In an effort to recover some modicum of class, Iowa attempted to turn her giddy childlike smile into a polite ladylike one. "It's rather beautiful here, don't you think?"
"Yes, it's always lovely to get water beneath our hull once again."
"You can say that again, I had feared I'd be moored up forever."
The pair were interrupted by San Juan completing another lap around the large container ships that fell into their charge; giggling hysterically while Haggard, Franks and Hailey loudly gave chase, yelling enthusiastically before petering out nearby. San Juan threw an arm jovially over her sister's shoulder and eliciting unhappy protests from the older cruiser.
"Hey Iowa!" Hailey waved with an enthusiastically floppy wave, "are you having fun?"
Iowa nodded happily and waved back
"Alright, I don't like to spoil the fun, but I know no one else will," Atlanta began, "but we're pretty far off the shore, I'd like to get a submarine picket set up. Haggard will take the front, Hailey and Franks will take the rear, Iowa will stay in the middle." .
"Awww," the trio of destroyers protested before scattering wildly to their designated positions, rapidly accelerating and loading up their depth charge racks.
Atlanta turned to the lone girl on her far flank, "Stewart!"
"Ma'am!" The girl called, bringing herself into a more rigid cruising position.
"Up front with Haggard."
"Ma'am," came the affirmative
Iowa felt contented once again however, with two destroyers on her front, two on her back and a light cruiser on each flank she once again, in the first time in a century, had a full escort.
Her careless run. Through the sea continuec It wasn't long until she was in a full daydream. Familiar bittersweet feelings of her last trip to Japan with her sisters, the global turn of the century parade they proudly led, the first real international announcement to the glory and power of the US Navy, their voyage from Japan, the united kingdom, and everything inbetween under the title of the "Great White fleet." She found herself mulling over Oregon's love for the "Oriental harbors", when one of her bridge crew loudly and with squeaky voiced professionalism announced an incoming telograph.
"Who's it from?" Iowa asked
A squeaky voice relayed information.
"Really?" Iowa asked confused, "Haggard?"
Pulling out her binnolcuars she gave Haggard a look, the girl returned her a frustrated and impatient glare, taking the battleship by surprise
Opening the message, Iowa's face became one of deepening confusion eliciting a frustrated groan from the warship. "DUCKS ARE FLYING SOUTH GG FROM TF99 DD 555 HAGGARD BB4 IOWA X INCREASE SPEED TO CRUSING SPEED RR SINCERLY YOURS."
Iowa held the piece of paper for several minutes, flipping it repeatedly in confusion, before calling up her wireless operator. "So, it looks like Haggard sent a message to us."
A squeak in the affirmative.
"Do you know what it means?"
A squeak in the negative
"Right-" Iowa muttered rubbing the message, "let's try to get it clarified. We should probably make it simple, a bit informal, ready?"
A squeak in the affirmative.
"Alright, please send Haggard the following: 'USS Iowa, transmitting, stop. Last message unclear, please send clarification, stop'." Iowa finished her message briefly pondering the context, "Okay, go ahead and send that."
With a squeak of the affirmative and the rapid keying of a telegraph set, Iowa sighed, pulled out her binnolcuars and glanced over to the distant location of Haggard, who, for her part looked even more intensely frustrated.
Iowa's communication officer let out a noise to get the warships attention.
"We got another one? Does it have all that nonsense on it."
A squeak in the negative, though Iowa detected a faint hint of frustration on it as she picked up the message, reading it for herself, her face once again scrunched up in frustrated confusion.
"I don't understand, this is just a colon and an open parenthesis." Iowa announced with frustration.
Her coms officer let out a squeak in the affirmative.
"Do you know what this means?"
A squeak in the negative
"Does anyone else know?"
Several more squeaks in the negative.
Iowa sighed, "This isn't working, wheres my semaphore set."
Procuring her flags from deep within her frame, Iowa began waving the pair of brightly colored flags in slow deliberate fashion. Watching Haggard through her optics, iowa noted that the girl's face looked vaguely shocked at the presentation.
M-E-S-S-A-G-E U-N-C-L-E-A-R Iowa transmitted.
Haggard paused, stopped began reaching for her radio set and wildly gesturing to Iowa in the aside as if explaining the situation to an unseen party, Iowa sighed at the realization that a third party had entered the discussion, a quick glance to her flank through her rangefinders revealed Atlanta appearing on the radio in full 'lecture mode'
Haggard for her part gave a defeated look, adjusted her bearing and pulled out her semaphore set and held the flags awkwardly, giving them a few experimental waves in Iowa's direction.
Iowa gave her a confused gesture and was surprised to see the girl's frustration deepen to the point of anger as she violently threw the flag set far into the water, yelling incomphensible things.
Iowa's coms officer gave a squeak of alert, before handing her another message.
Iowa pensively unrolled and read the small slip of paper and sighed to herself.
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS SEMAPHORE, ALSO GO TO CRUISING SPEED.
"Tell her I'm already a touch past cruising speed and not to contact me again if it's unimportant."
The wireless operator loudly announced an affirmative while Iowa shot hateful glances towards the small frustrated girl in the distance.
The wireless operator proudly announced a recieved message.
"Do I need to read it?"
The fairy announced in the affirmative.
"Do I really?" Iowa asked skeptically acusing.
The fairy repeated the assurance.
"Fine," relented, unfurling the small message.
The tiny paper read: HOLY SHIT YOURE SLOW
The high pitched chuckles emenating from her bridge elicited led to a deep frustrated sigh from Iowa, as she gripped the bridge of her nose, before turning to her rigging, "First thing we do at Japan is make sure crew accommodations are reduced to a minimum, anything fun is there is going straight into the harbor. It'll be like the whiskey ban all over againx, except with everything else that makes any of you happy."
The giggling did not subside.
For her part however, despite the shift in mood, Iowa tried still to enjoy the calm roll of the cool Pacific waters beneath her hull, taking a small delight in the cool wind. The other girls were out of talking range, initially this and the lack of further messages served a boon, the quiet soon led to a distant feeling of loneliness. Iowa frowned slightly but continued sailing, the only sounds aside from the distant roar of water beneath the large container ship was water beneath her own hull and her flags flapping In the summer breeze.
"I wish Oregon or maybe even Maine were here," she stated, attempting to break silence, partially to her crew, but mostly to herself. "They were always the quiet ones, Oregon especially would enjoy this." glancing behind her she noted they were outside line of sight from land, "Maine would require some convincing, she never liked getting too far from US ports." she gave a meloncohly sigh. "Maybe they'll come back too."
Several minutes went by, Iowas daydreams and fond recollections of lost memories eating up time. Subconsciously the warship noted her internal clocks told her an hour went by before her fairies interuppted her again, snapping her into reality with an attention grabbing squeak.
"Another message?" Iowa asked hesitantly, "is it from Haggard?"
A squeak in the negative.
"Are you lying to me again?"
Another squeak in the negative, pushy and as serious as high pitched noises can get
Surprised she unrolled the small transmission.
WHAT WONDERS THE WORLD HAS GG TF99 CL-51 ATLANTA TF99 ALL SHIPS X ENEMY AIR CONTACTS RPT ENEMY AIR CONTACT SPOTTED BEARING 24 BY USS HAILEY CLOSE FORMATION AND AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS RR SO SAY WE ALL
Iowa flipped the piece of paper over as if another clearer message would appear on the back, "these god damn coded messages!" She yelled vainly. "Alright well, whatever the heck this front bit or last bit mean, it says 'enemy air', that means we've got some incoming enemy airplanes right?" She asked hesitantly "bearing two four?"
An unsure squeak sounded from her coms officer.
"Pretty sure it's airplanes." Iowa announced unsure, "regardless, it looks like we're supposed to close formation, so let's wait for Atlanta to fill us in, I guess now's a good time to dust off our secondaries and prove ourselves ready. Also, remind me that we get to Japan I'm not getting rid off all your nice things, I'm trading them for one of those lovely radios everyone is going on about."
She leveled her 12" guns toward the distant horizon, "alright time to sound battle stations, let's show them what a battleship can do!"