this chapter is a bit of an unplanned story for the overall plot, it won't derail anything and I'll try to keep from introducing too many more OCs in the future, but it seemed a good way to reflect dialogue without just having Franks and Iowa yelling. But regardless things will be either mostly on track for the future or feature this arc going a bit off, but either way the ending and major pllt is the same.

Zubian yawned loudly, though taking care to block to mic on her headset with her hand as she slowly coasted through the warm ocean waters. Her patchwork skirt and hastily repaired red coat dancing in the shifting winds.

"Tired yet?" Ardent teased from her flank, eliciting a girlish scowl from Zubian.

"We're rested!" Zubian hissed, making a show of scanning the archipelagos, "just bored."

"Right," Ardent replied, suddenly disinterested in teasing her counterpart further and instead focusing on the duo of Japanese ships behind them. The more forward of their Japanese counterparts continued as she had for the entire trip, grumbling to herself in low angry tones and scanning the islands.

"What's up her bum?" Zubian asked, noting Arden's gaze while blatantly indicating with pointed finger towards the destroyer in plain view of the ship in question.

"Probably just miffed we don't have nothing to do out here," Ardent speculated.

"Can't say we blame her."

"Not a lick."

The vessel's grumbling grew louder, though still inaudible for the rest as she kicked angrily at the incoming waves.

"What are you on about?" Ardent asked, turning about again

"Just tired of all these shitty patrols we keep getting sent on. So useless!" she spat angrily, kicking another wave. "All this admiral does is send us to stare at islands and no matter what I say we keep getting sent!"

"Right, complaining about complaining, nice bit there." Ardent replied dryly.

"What, you asked!" Akebono retaliated angrily.

"You did ask," Zubian defended casually

Ardent sighed staring up at the sky, "I am actively praying for an air attack now, a big one, big enough to sink all of us."

Akebono looked even angrier, but thankfully as far as Ardent was concerned, she held her tongue, allowing Ardent to do a map recon of the surrounding archipelago in silence, trying to plot routes and possible alterations in her patrol route.

The blissful silence continued on even less than Ardent had expected, as Zubian interrupted not 30 seconds later. "You reckon any pirates got out here back in the day?" Zubian asked offhand, staring a bit too intently at a nearby picturesque beach, "We reckon there were pirates."

"I don't think the kind of pirates you were after are way out here mate." Ardent answered while pulling the map up between Zubian and her in an attempt to passive aggressively end the conversation through improvised barrier

"Says you!," Zubian countered with a pout before addressing the fourth of their patrol, "Oi!"

The fourth girl continued as she had uninterrupted, happily staring away at the passing remote islands, gazing intently at the lush picturesque jungles and sunny beaches as the foursome headed along, swaying slightly as she clutched her sticker coated turret as if listening to a nameless tune.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Akebono defended loudly. "She doesn't like you bugging her!"

"We just want to ask her about the pirates,"

"I told you, there aren't any bloody pirates." Ardent interrupted.

"Just leave her alone!" Akebono spat.

"And we're pretty sure there were!" Zubian spat before reattempting to get the attention of their fourth member. "Oi! Oo-shoes."

"That's not even a bit right," Ardent flatly stated.

Akebono looked distinctly angry, though Akebono always looked angry.

Zubian cupped her hands and shouted towards the destroyer, "OI, OO-SHOES,"

Ushio let out a startled yelp, jumping backwards and glancing over Zubian with confused and alarmed eyes gripping her turret as a shield between her and the surprising outburst of the British a short time of threat processing she recovered from her tremble and peaked slightly above her turret, returning to her expression of tentative unease.

"Fucking christ!" Ardent exclaimed. "You've nearly gone and made the poor girl piss herself!"

"I told you to leave her alone!" Akebono spat angrily.

"I'm- I'm okay," Ushio exclaimed between calming breaths, "just-um, just a bit startled," she exclaimed, red in the face and avoiding Zubian's gaze.

"Right, what do you think about the pirates!" Zubian asked excitedly, ignorant of the girl's nervousness, "we think they probably buried a lot of good stuff out here, Ardent thinks not."

"Don't lump me in with your shitty theories!" Akebono declared. She gave a stern but somewhat sympathetic look to her countryman as she crossed her arms disdainfully, "you don't have to answer them Ushio, they're just a bunch of morons with stupid ideas."

"We weren't lumping you in with shit." Zubian declared, "'sides we never said she had to answer, it's all in good fun."

"Um-" Ushio began, nervously clutching her turret "there-there could have been pirates." she stammered.

"See!" Zubian declared proudly.

"That's hardly a decisive statement." Ardent declared, rolling her eyes at Zubian.

"Well you can't have any treasure we find."

"There is no treasure!" Ardent responded.

"Well, as soon as that metal detector we ordered arri-"

A sound of voices from the headset round her ears

interrupted Zubian.

"Wait, hold the bloody phone- or" she moved the mic on her headset down, "I guess that's our job-"

"~this is Zubian~" she sing-songed into the mic.

"I've got someone!" the voice happily declared to someone outside the conversation with Zubian. "Zubian, this is Franks, we're about 200 miles due east of Japan with a load of angry Abyssals chasing us, can you get some help for us?"

"Hold on a tick," Zubian answered before the small bits of commo training she paid attention to returned to her, "we mean-uh, wait one."

She covered the mic, despite again not keying it in the first place "Oi! Ardent," she called to her British counterpart "Your girlfriend needs your help."

Ardent shot a confused glare, "Who the hell are you talking about?"

"You know, that Yankee lady you're always sending love letters and chocolates to?" Zubian replied seriously.

"For God's sake, she's not my girlfriend. I've told you; My psychiatrist said-" Ardet gripped the bridge of her nose in frustration, "just give me the goddamned headset."

Zubian obliged, realizing the frustration she caused and grinning merrily at her self proclaimed victory.

"This is Ardent." Ardent stated tersely upon donning the headset

"~Hey Ardent~!" Franks replied merrily, though through a thin veneer of stress.

"What's the issue?"

"We've-uh- we've got ourselves in a tough situation…"

"How tough?"

The voice on the other end was silent for a short period of time, "San Juan says about fiftern but, it's hard to tell, we just see smoke columns now."

"Right, do you know what they are?"

"Well, at least one carrier, possibly some Battleships or battlecruisers."

"Oh." Replied Ardent, "that's a right bit of a pickle there- We've got four destroyers here, where about are you?"

"One sec." Franks replied. A minute's of pause revealed the answer, "Golf Sierra. one. three. four. six, about 200 miles out from Japan."

"Right, that's a bit nasty. We're nearby, will try and help out, but I've fired enough of me four and a halfs at battleships to know it's pretty fucking worthless, you know what kind they are?"

"Uh-" Franks hesitated briefly, "they're probably British."

"Ah, well, that is tragic there. Not like the Bosch or Italians chasing you down, right proper British vessels," she paused thinking, "can you not outrun them?"

"Uh-no, we've uh-" Ardent detected a deliberate effort to avoid treading on an as of yet unseen ships feeling, "We're currently a bit of an off roster."

"Right." Ardent answered tersely, pushing the headset back into the hands of a confused Zubian, who unsteadily donned the piece and flipped the mic down. "Contact Task Force Teacake, get them northward," Ardent explained. "They should be enough to assist"

Zubian nodded and began to process the orders. Without instruction her faeries began adjusting soundboards while she awkwardly fiddled with the headset up and down, after a short time a squeak of accomplishment sounded and static began to flow through her headset.

"Hello?!" An excited accented voice practically yelled through in English in response to the channel change, causing Zubian to flinch. "You have Kongou!"

"Kongou, we are Zubian," the destroyer explained, recovering steadily from the aural bombardment,"we've got some ships about 100 miles off of you under threat of enemy fleet attack, can you give them a bit of a hand?"

"Hai!" She replied with loud excitement "We will show them what we're made of! We'll set off right away!" Kongou sounded to turn away from her comms equipment and began excitedly talking in Japanese to whatever ships she found herself with.

"Hello?" Zubian asked tentatively.

The mic was silent, "hello?" She repeated.

"We'll be there soon ~bye" the reply sang with sudden quickness before Zubian heard the sound of a radio being somehow hung up.

"Are they coming?" Ardent asked tenatively

Zubian paused briefly before acknowledging the comment, "I don't know what the hell they're doing, or even if they know where they're going, but they seem to have a goal."

"Eh, they're like that, should be fine."

"But how?"

"Try not to think about it." Ardent replied, before turning around to her other charges, "Ushio, Akeboner, we need to get moving, provide some cover to our Yankee friends."

"Hai- uh- yes!" Ushio stammered, barely audible over Akebono's loud, intensely irritated, and probably correct complaints over her name being intentionally mispronounced.

"Right!" Declared Zubian fist pumped forward. "Let's go!"