"Just what are we going to do about you, Coral Sea?"
Two young women sat in an open plains stretching as far as the eye could see with the sun shining brightly down on them. The chirping of birds and the buzzing of small insects added a pleasant feeling to the area, though this was completely lost on one of the women.
The one that had spoken was a tan skinned Native American women around twenty with long, straight ebony hair and dark eyes who wore bearskin wrapped around her as if it were freezing cold.
The second women, a short brunette haired girl appearing in her late teens, wore an elegant black dress with white trim that appeared to be something straight out of late 1800s New York City. Her hair was artfully composed in a series of ringlets that cascaded down below her shoulders. She had sharp features and possessed an expression of barely contained agitation.
Gritting her teeth, the girl in the dress responded "Cora. Call me Cora."
"I am your flagship and I shall refer to you as your ship designation, thank you," the other women responded.
"Very well, Missouri," Cora responded, barely able to contain her irritation. "Just why have you summoned me here?"
"I would mind your tone, if I were you. And you know why," Missouri responded. "Lexington is rather upset at you entering her territory without permission from, well... anyone."
"I detected an anomaly and wanted to investigate it immediately," Cora began to explain herself.
Missouri shook her head once. "No. That's not how things work. If you detect something that may demand attention, you notify me and I notify whomever needs to be concerned, in this case Lexington. You don't break formation and just do whatever you please."
Cora gritted her teeth even harder.
"Furthermore," Missouri continued. "I would have thought you would have learned your lesson about doing these sorts of things by now. The Supreme Flagship has already had to intervene personally and pass fleet command from you to me because of behavior just like this."
"You don't need to remind me!" Cora snapped. "I know what happened!"
"Oh, but I feel I do need to remind you," Missouri leveled her gaze directly at Cora. "I'm testing to see if you have any sense of shame. If you do, you might demonstrate changes in this unfortunate pattern of behavior."
"But, I-"
"Must I notify the Supreme Flagship...?" Missouri cocked her head to one side.
That shut Cora up.
"No, fleet flagship... That won't be necessary..." she finally said, looking at the ground.
"Good," Missouri smiled. "I was hoping to settle this 'in house', as the humans say."
"May I go?" Cora asked.
"You may not," Missouri's smile disappeared completely. "You will, of course, be punished for this infraction. You will sail to the islands of Hawaii and begin a series of patrols immediately. I will send you your exact instructions."
"Fleet flagship!" Cora exclaimed. "There's nothing happening there! There's never anything happening there! Those pathetic humans are dying off and nothing there concerns us or the Admiralty Code's orders!"
"Do not test me, or I'll add another few months of patrols around Midway," Missouri warned, her voice hardening. "I'm surprised you mention the Admiralty Code as some sort of defense, given your consistent inclination to violate it. You will do as I have ordered or I will turn this matter over to the Supreme Flagship and trust her better judgment to figure out what to do about you. If you think I am too embarrassed or prideful to admit to the Supreme Flagship when I can't control one of the ships under my command, then you are sorely, dramatically mistaken."
Missouri cocked her head again. "Do you know why that is, Coral Sea?"
Cora didn't answer, calculating this was what the humans referred to as a rhetorical question.
"That's because it's part of the Admiralty Code's instruction," Missouri stated. "If I can't enforce its orders, then my duty is to route the matter to a higher party who can."
Letting her words sink in for a few moments, Missouri said "Begin your new assignment immediately. Texas will assume your former route and responsibilities. Dismissed."
And with that, Cora was forcibly disconnected from the Second North American Patrol Fleet's Joint Tactical Network.
Back on her ship body, Cora kicked the side of the large commander tower repeatedly, until the nanomaterial composing her shoe, her foot and the bulkhead she was kicking began to disintegrate.
She shouted obscenities that even a human sailor would cringe out, until, after a while, she calmed down and repaired the damage she had just inflicted to herself. As it turned out, the series of patrols were just circling the Hawaiian islands for six months. It would be absolutely, dreadfully boring. And, to add insult to injury, it was the sort of work that was far below even the smallest Fog destroyer. Even Fog ships that couldn't support mental models wouldn't be sent on missions so pointless!
"Fine," Cora finally said to herself. "If this keeps Yamato off my back, I'll do it."
And with that, Fleet of Fog Assault and Suppression vessel Coral Sea began her journey to the islands of Hawaii.
She had been cruising at max speed for nearly a week when Cora detected something out of the ordinary. She was incredibly thankful for this because she had become so bored.
It was only a flash, a quick blip on her radar, but it was definitely there.
Cora surrounded her mental model with the white rings of light that displayed all the information she would need as she tried to figure out what she had just scanned. It was an American SSTO, she realized with a start. She knew that the American SSTOs were equipped with stealth capabilities, which made it very difficult for even the Fog to spot them, but like everything human hands built there were flaws.
Briefly calculating if she should report this to Missouri, Cora ultimately decided against it. She was nearly a week away from the coastline of North America, far outside any Fog fleet patrol zones. No, this was something she could deal with just fine all by herself. Cora grinned at the thought. She hadn't had the chance to engage a single human target since recently forming her mental model and she had been hoping that the time would come soon. It seemed as if now would be that moment.
There was a second quick blip on radar and Cora calculated where her target was. She groaned a little to herself, as it was far enough away where conventional lasers and warheads would likely prove ineffective, not to mention the tracking capabilities on said warheads wouldn't be able to pick up and track the stealth craft, anyway.
No, she would have to go all out on this one.
Cora smiled wickedly. She hadn't had a single opportunity to use her Super Graviton Cannon since the great navel victory over the humans in 2039. And all by her lonesome all the way out here? No one could tell her not to.
The enormous deck of her ship body split and began forming the huge cannon. She would only get a single shot at the SSTO. At the rate it appeared to be moving, it would be out of range soon and her cannon wouldn't have nearly enough time to recharge for a followup shot.
She charged her cannon, the black and red energy patterns crackled the air around her and created the ozone smell she loved so much; it was the smell of her energy weapons and to her, it reflected pure power. She herself was a weapon, after all, and any chance she had to be one in practice was overjoying.
The radar chirped again and she made a quick calculation and fired, grinning ear to ear as the deafening cacophony of the unleashed Super Graviton Cannon filled the world around her in a way no other weapon could.
She felt and relished the cracking of the electricity as it danced around her hair and dress and caused a wonderful sensation on her mental model's skin.
Somehow she knew, she just knew, that she had hit her mark and had completely obliterated it. Cora took complete joy in being the harbinger of such an act.
Cora felt a laugh escape her replicated lungs; she couldn't help it. The fact that she was operating well within the guidelines of the Admiralty Code only made her all the more deliriously happy.
Sometimes she could be exactly what she was and be completely and totally justified doing so. It was the best feeling that Cora had ever known.
She studied the small, quickly dying fireball of the SSTO way off in the distance with immense satisfaction and she dearly hoped that the humans would send more. She would gladly destroy anything in her path that violated the Admiralty Code. She had six months to kill in one of the most boring places in the world for a ship of the Fog, after all, so having viable targets was about the best thing she could hope to look forward to.
Cora altered her gaze towards the Hawaiian islands, less than two days travel away and once again a grin found its way to her features.
Whatever those pathetic, destitute humans were up to, they weren't at all prepared for Coral Sea.
Author's Note:
Firstly, thank you all for the reviews! The feedback I'm getting is proving most helpful. Big thanks to Theblackbird123, Dunov, Thuzan117 and andrewopk for your continued support!
To Thuzan117: The reason I have the soundtrack listings at the bottom is it had never occurred to me that people would listen to the music as they read. I wasn't, in many cases, lining up songs with chapters that thematically fit together. It was more just a collection of songs that helped inspire the story and songs I've been listening to as I write. I did consider moving them all to the top after your suggestion, but I'm going to leave them where they are. If you'd like to listen to them as you read, go for it! But since each song doesn't perfectly line up thematically with each chapter and I don't consider it integral to the reading experience, I'm just going to leave them at the end. It was a good suggestion, though!
Finally, I'm incredibly happy about the positive feedback of the word I'm trying to create (while remaining as faithful as possible to the original manga), though, again, it's going to be primarily seen through the eyes of my two leads. It's a large scale story told on a small scale, if that makes sense. Though, I can absolutely promise large naval battles and action at some point down the line (which is certainly in the plot) what fascinates me the most is the dynamic between Marcus and Rosie, who are literally the main inspiration I have for writing this. So, of course, their story is most important to me. Hope people don't terribly mind small character dramas...
Thanks again everyone and hope you all continue enjoying the story!
Tropics (Erase Traces), by My Morning Jacket