"Um Miss Oregon?" Franks began, nervously fidgeting her hands together from behind the sightlines of the battleship.
Oregon gave a half look over her shoulder, shooting. a glance at the destroyer, trusting the younger of her pair of escorts to continue guiding her to the Commander's office as she continued her steady and determined plod forward.
Franks flinched, wilting beneath the focused and angry gaze of a battleship on a mission.
"N-nothing," Franks stammered out hastily waving her hands disarmingly, "I mean- nevermind. sorry I-". Franks' eye was caught by a sudden movement ahead of the battleship, her sister, locking eyes on her and showing the same desperate uncertainty that Franks herself felt.
As Oregon turned again and continued her determined pace, Franks took the opportunity and with a nervous swallow raised her hand slightly as if to get the attention of the battleship. "Actually-" she began, stopping in her tracks with a sudden sense of determination.
"Miss Oregon, you're really scary." Franks called put with sudden energy, balling her fists in the effort.
Oregon stopped in her tracks, turning slight to confront the destroyer, her expression one of sympathetic concern and confusion. "I am?" She asked, cocking her head slightly and adding to the look.
A gaze from Hailey from behind Oregon offered an even more bewildered expression, though mostly at Franks's sudden courage rather than the statement itself.
Franks shrunk once again and avoided the battleship's expression, "not normally-" she stammered. "I mean before you were like Iowa, nice and friendly. but now you seem intense and demanding you see the commander." The Destroyer sucked in a determined breath and a pair of sextuple torpedo tubes angled themselves out from her hips towards the battleship. "I can't let you hurt the commander!" The destroyer managed to out through her trembling lower lip.
Hailey's confusion continued momentarily until she elected to follow her sister's lead, adopting a determined expression and angling her armaments towards Oregon, trapping the larger ship in the hallway between the pair of them.
Oregon took a placating stance, hands raised defensively against the pair of escorts, "I'm just going to talk." She declared.
Franks did nothing to change the angle of her torpedoes, her expression forward, at Oregon's midsection, desperately using the lack of eye contact to keep her composure, she felt a slight tremble in her shoulders develop, feeling the gaze of the larger warship shift between her and her sister.
Switching her steely gaze between two escorts Oregon's defensive and placating demeanor melted in a pair of narrowed eyes when neither destroyer decided to budge. Glancing between the two of them, Oregon found her opening, grabbing Hailey by the shoulder and using her superior tonnage and angry look to passively push the destroyer to the side.
"I can find my own way." She declared coldly, continuing her path down the hall.
Hailey stood stunned, watching as Oregon departed with heavy footsteps echoing down the tile hallway before the destroyer spared a wide eyed gaze at her sister.
The look shook Franks out of her similar revere. "Miss Oregon!" she called with a resurgence of determination to the retreating figure.
Oregon spared no response, not even a second glance over the shoulder.
Franks shuddered shut her eyes and relayed a set of mental orders to her crew. The faeries took to action quickly, scarcely ten seconds passed since her call before five mk. 14 torpedoes shot from their tubes with sequential hisses of rushing gas.
-And proceeded to land against the tile floor with echoing reverberations of steel on ceramic before harmlessly rolling to and fro with their propellers spinning uselessly in the air.
Oregon stopped and took a quick second to gauge the sounds origin before glancing back at the pair of destroyers, her eyes growing wide with alarm at the set of ordnance rolling between the ships. "Did you just try to torpedo me?" she asked after several seconds of bewilderment.
The failure of her attack had a similar effect on the destroyer for the briefest of moments before panic set into Franks, a mind blanking terror that made her knees buckle, a horrified choking noise escaping her mouth. She braced for impact, starting at the ground as she ignored the battleship ahead of her.
A second series of clattering noises noises signaled the equally ineffectual barrage of Hailey's torpedoes as Franks's sister attempted to defend her.
Oregon stood for a second, watching the torpedos rolling harmlessly against the floor as the panic in both destroyers continued to deepen,
From her position on the floor, Franks did her best to ignore the imposing form and the incoming vibrations of the battleship approaching her position, stifling back her horror she braced herself for reprisal.
Hailey on the other hand still stood, though she took a few nervous steps backwards, stuttering incoherent apologies on the way.
As the form of Oregon stopped closer, Franks fought to repress the shudders, finally letting a terrified jump and squeak when she felt a heavy hand set up her head-
-and awkwardly ruffle her hair.
"I haven't seen such pointlessly stupid courage since those rusted Spanish cruisers challenged me and my sisters." The battleship muttered, "of course they were trapped, you're just dumb."
Franks whimpered slightly and looked up with teary eyes.
"I'm not going to murder your Commander." Oregon muttered, turning towards Hailey, "I really did just want to talk. Granted, yes, I intended to be pretty assertive in our talk."
"Oh." was all Hailey could manage from the sidelines.
Oregon sighed, taking a seat against the wall next to the confused and sniffling form of Franks. "You mentioned you had sisters and how important they are to you." She muttered turning to the confused destroyer. "I did too, I had so many goofy and wonderful siblings."
She cast a forlorn gaze against the wall. "I was the last to go really. though a few remained stripped and broken I was the last of us to be a true battleship. I just-." Oregon began, before taking on a bittersweet smirk. "I just was so happy to get Iowa back, when you mentioned new jobs for her I thought of her last assignment," Oregon muttered sadly, pulling her legs to her chest and leaning her head down on top of her knees in an effort to make herself into a safe ball.
"Last assignment?" Muttered Franks.
"When the Navy decided the older battleships weren't needed and started bringing in dreadnaughts, they decided they might as well get rid of all of us." Oregon's words came out dryly and with no emotional tone, anger and frustration tempered by sadness. "None of us survived. In Iowa's case they drug her broken and battered body out to shoot her full of holes as a target ship."
Frank's blanched and made a guilty look at the tiles.
Oregon "I should have asked earlier, but if you could, I'd like you to help me keep my sister safe."
"I'll help!" Hailey declared with sudden enthusiasm, "I'm sure commander doesn't want to replace Iowa, but if she does try and scrap her I'll hold her down so you can beat her up!"
Oregon laughed a bittersweet laugh and looked up from her position on the floor.
Frank's for her part stood up, her knees still shaking slightly but she offered her assent in a tear faced, but determined gaze, her steadfastness barely marred by a pitiful sniffle.
"Lead on then," Oregon insisted, offering Hailey friendly grin.