Iowa held the folder in her hand, steady shaking and a steel grip, steadily crumpling the contents into less and less identifiable sheets of information.

"Dreadnought." She muttered with quiet resignation. "I-" she started again before her expression deepened into a further frown.

Commander Andrews for her part did an excellent job of hiding the growing the battleship's reaction imparted upon her, parcing herself through a folder to help distract from Iowa. "The Royal Navy apparently was just as desperate to find a place for her as we are for you and frankly she's about as unprepared for modern warfare as you are." the Navy woman sighed and finally made eye contact with Iowa, offering a sympathetic expression. "I understand this may be a distressing combination, so I'll pull you out of the squadron if needed, we can always find mission support roles for you and your sister."

"No." Iowa interjected harshly, before taking surprise at her own sudden outburst. "I mean-, I'll grant you that this is not a welcome change but-" she hesitated, searching for words. "I got my fair share of being a mission support ship."

"I stand by my promise that the US Navy won't scrap or sink you, even if you don't trust me on my principles, we really do need you, no matter the mission."

"I do, I really do welcome the opportunity, the circumstances are just-" Iowa searched for the word. "Jarring. I certainly wouldn't have expected her to be an option."

"I could switch the roster we've established," commander Andrews explained, "the Japanese are working on sticking Kawachii's turrets back on. It might take six months, but had you refused we were going to stick her with dreadnought. And I know that the Swedes have a few older designs that-"

Iowa shook her head, "No." She interrupted quietly. "I may have my frustrations with Dreadnought but I don't hate the woman, I don't think my personal feelings will cause trouble."

There was a silence as the answer was mulled over. "And Oregon?" Andrews asked pensively.

Iowa laughed quietly, "they didn't call her the 'Bulldog of the Fleet', for nothing, she's a stubborn gal in a great many ways. It's going to be a hard sell" Iowa reflected wistfully "still, she's my sister, I think she'll at least trust me enough not to make a scene or at least notcause an international crisis.

Andrews sighed with relief, "I would like to talk a bit more about her actually, I've read several books over her history," she explained, gesturing towards several lengthy tomes, "but there's only so much I can gain from that."

"Certainly," Iowa replied, smiling lightly, "what would you like to know?"

A sudden and violent crashing noise interrupted the conversation as the painted concrete wall to Iowa's back erupted into rubble, sending debris, dust, and the several pieces of art that hung on it, crashing through the room accompanied by the for of two individuals, one in a clear bear hugged tackle around the other.

Iowa shot up quickly, kicking her chair out from under her as she rapidly materializing her mismatched turrets around her flanks, quickly assessing the danger.

Staccatos of tiny rifle and machine gun fire began to echo through the melee as the aggressor pulled herself up, angling her own cannons in seemingly random directions and instead focusing her efforts at throwing wide swinging punches directly into the face of the warship below her.

Initiative soon fell to the ship on the bottom, as the larger woman recovered her composure and rolled her opponent to the ground, returning the favor with heavy handed strikes into her opponent's bridge, a wide maniacal grin taking hold on her face.

Oregon, despite being pinned, continued fighting her opponent, strikkng the British warships flanks and midsection, the sound of the blow mixing with the faint groan of buckling squeals. Between the two, blue clad American marines uttered excited squeaks and began anchoring grappling hooka itno Dreadnought's midsection. Swinging through the melee with Kragg-Jorgenson rifles and proudly brandished flags. They were met with determined counterfire from Dreadnought's rigging.

"Oregon!" Iowa announced in an alarmed tone, finally gauging the nature of the fighting. Lunging towards dreadnought, Iowa plowed hard into the battleship's side, kicking her heels into the floor to pull the larger ship of her sister. To her credit, dreadnought staggered noticeably before twisting herself Against Iowa and offering an elbow to Iowa's bridge, sending the America sprawling backwards onto the ground.

Dreadnought turned to bring full attention to eliminate the stunned threat, but missed the importance of the old one as Oregon staggered back to her feet. With the newer ship distracted, Oregon used the opportunity to deliver a fierce sidelong kick to Dreadnought's now exposed stomach.

The British vessel was hardly slowed, letting out a predatory laugh before staggering. herself back towards the hole in the wall to meet both opponent's at once, her expression one of savage glee. "Come on then you bloody cunts." She announced her voice only barely betraying the beating she had taken. "you want to prove you're not a bunch of washed up has beens."

Oregon began to move to the flank to engage, hands held in a defensive posture.

It was for the second time a loud bang signaled an interruption as a series of five naval guns discharged one by one.

A silence descended as all three warships had their attention drawn to the noise.

Stepping through the gap in the wall, USS Stewart wore a blank expression, the telltale wisps of smoke drawing from the series of cannons attached to her for arms and flanks betrayed the origins of the noise. Pausing only to step over the rubble and shoot a death glare at Iowa, the destroyer stepped to the center of the room, clicked her heels together and offered a crisp salute. "USS Stewart reporting as ordered." She announced in a professional tone.

"Thank you Stewart," Commander Andrews muttered, offering a half hearted salute in return as she slowly ascended from behind her desk. "I must say, that was rather exciting." she added in a bitter tone.

"Most exciting indeed." A light hearted French voice sounded from the new gap in the wall as Bearn stepped through the hole, daintily avoiding rubble. "I am pleased I am to have such fierce battleships defending me, but what's do you say to keeping our fighting against the enemy, yes?

Iowa was the first to register the French Woman's reply and the first of the battleships to speak up. Offering a sheepish grin, "that seems amiable," she muttered with embarrassment, rubbing her jaw absentmindedly, where a faint bruise was growing.

Oregon said nothing and instead continued to offer a distrustful glare at Dreadnought before spitting a glob of blood onto the carpet in response, drawing an irritated grimace from the room's owner. Oregon ignored her look and after fishing through her mouth with her tongue followed the blood up with a tooth. Behind her Dreadnought finished a muttered sentence with a half audible "daft bitches."

It was on after Andrews began filing through her desk that Dreadnought glanced towards the desk as if only now registering that someone occupied it. "Apologies ma'am." she offered in a polite southern English accent. "It's been awhile since I've been in a brawl and never with someone close to my own tonnage. I lost myself a bit there." She offered an outstretched hand to the Commander. "HMS Dreadnought, world's first at our service."

Andrews did her best to ignore the fact that one of Dreadnought's fingers was bent completely backwards and shook the hand, "a pleasure." She muttered. "I must say that was quite the entrance."

Dreadnought laughed, "hardly planned, I didn't even realize I had been tackled through the right office until I saw your name. That battleship of yours seems to be quite the excitable one."

It was Oregon's turn to finish a muttered sentence with colorful profanity.

Ignoring the hostility, from the back of the group Bearn pushed herself past the Americans towards Dreadnought's flank and up past the British warship to the center of the desk. "And I am Bearn!" she announced happily to the woman occupying it, offering an outstretched hand.. "It is so good to meet you."

"A pleasure." The American officer muttered absentmindedly shaking the hand before quickly turning her attention quickly back to the battleships. "Now. I was planning on smoother introductions, but I guess that's out of the picture and at this point I've been pretty effectively derailed" She muttered dryly. "that being said I'd be remiss if I didn't at least tell you what's going on before sending you off for the evening." She began.

"The quick and dirty is that we're building a coastal defense force to patrol the Japanese isles. The Royal Navy has so kindly offered Dreadnought on loan to our coastal defense program as well as insisted on assigning her some escorts, Zubian and Ardent were chosen as they are already here and not in a mission critical role." phe turned her attention to Iowa and did her best to ignore the death glares Oregon was sending her. "On the American side of things Iowa and Oregon are to take Stewart as their escort, the later of who will be in strictly administrative control of the fleet until we can find a flagship that won't cause Oregon to throw someone through a wall."

Oregon's glare didn't abate or increase, but the additional glob of blood she spat on the floor effectively expressed her annoyance at the comment.

The officer finally gave the Warship a reproaching grimace, "I've elected to be generous given the nature of your return but I would like to discuss proper behavior and conduct as a US Navy warship."

Oregon said nothing.

"And on France's side, Bearn!" The carrier provided excitedly, still positioned near the desk, "I will do my very very best to keep all of you safe from airplanes."

Andrews for the first time focused exclusively in the carrier. "Yes. We've been negotiating pretty intently with our allies for some aviation assets. I'm pleased France was willing to send their finest carrier. You won't need to worry either miss Bearn, you'll be operating exclusively under land based aircraft, you'll be well protected yourself."

For the first time Bearn's bubbly aura faded slightly, "Oh." She muttered, surprised disappointment encroaching on her accent. "Very good."

"Right I think that does about the down and dirty, a bit different to the briefing I had planned Does anyone have any questions?"

Iowa was the first, briefly raising her hand before a pained grimace caused her to lower it again and she decided to simply speak up, "I thought I already had an assigned escort, where are they in all of this?"

"The taffies are off to convoy duty between Japan and Taiwan, they'll still be around. The light cruisers are being pushed to support Japanese surface groups."

"With due respect the real goal here," Dreadnought followed, crossing her arms authoritatively, "are Japan's coasts really vulnerable? Furthermore why Japan?"

The officer considered the question briefly, "The idea is to offer relief to the heavy warships that act to assist anti submarine patrols that get jumped close to friendly waters, in Europe these heavy warships would be often too much, but with the large distances it's hard here for the Abyssals to get anything bigger than a light cruiser past the recon aircraft." She took a moment to let the report sink in "I'd be lying to you if the propaganda value of having an international task force with American surface prominence wasn't something that went unconsidered."

Dreadnought's demeanor took a cold turn, though the battleship said nothing.

"This is still a combat assignment." the commander assuaged, "and you still hold an important role in the defense of your countries allies. " that's all you have for me, I'll get an email sign to show you to your quarters, that'll be all, Stewart will brief you on training and classes in the morning."

A series of collective affirmatives marked the departure of the task force with a few well concealed limps.

Wordlessly, at their departure, the Commander pulled open her lowest desk drawer, removing several piles of folders and boxed mementos from her career and stacked them on her desk before settling on her prize. Briefly considering the crystal glass she pulled out with the near full bottle of Scotch she instead set it near the growing pile and uncorked the bottle, taking a healthy swing before slamming it down.

"Fuck." She muttered to no one in particular, glancing over the chaotic rubble pile that her office had become.