I had gotten a first taste of what it really meant to be the Admiral of those girls.
And by that i don`t mean the black eye and the bruises i got from the hand-to-hand session with Tenryuu, but… well, i was in no condition to go with them this time. For once, the girls went on an expedition on their own, leaving me behind with my thoughts and my loneliness.
After giving the headquarters my reports, looking over the fleets movements in regard to the enemies movements, and finally, drinking lots of coffee, i found myself with nothing to do. At all.
There was no one here, except the fairies which weren´t very talkative and for the most part were quite hard to understand. I didn`t want to waste my time playing games or watching TV, either. I had a job to do, even though I didn`t know what to do with it. An idea came to me, and although selfish, it was my only option at this point… checking the resource status, I nodded to myself and went down to the factory. Musashi wouldn`t arrive until tomorrow, so my only option now was to build a new ship.
What I didn`t expect was that there was someone already there. Amongst the fairies, there was someone in the back room, an almost mature girl with long, neatly tied pink hair wearing what looked like a sailor uniform- and smoking a cigarette while welding a damaged turret back together, without bothering with a protective mask, instead she simply had a pair of sunglasses on. A boombox on one of the shelves was playing what seemed like a mixture of techno music and hardcore, American rap- at least I assumed it was American, since the singer yelled something about "niggers" "smoke em` dead" and "fucked yo wife".
"Uhm…." I began, raising my hand, which made the girl look over her shoulder to notice me, raising an eyebrow, before turning down the music.
"Yeah? What do you want?" Not the sort of welcome I would`ve expected. Then again I didn´t know what I was expecting with this sort of setup.
"…I was going to commission a new ship, but for now… I didn`t see you before." That was a weak response, but I couldn´t help it. My surprise was too much to give any sort of punchline comeback right now.
"Name`s Akashi. Been here since Maruyu came." She grumbled, taking a drag from her cigarette. "I`m just the repairship though, so i`m not gonna go into combat or anything. Wouldn´t have much of a point. … So you´re the Admiral, huh? …What the fuck happened to your face?"
"I see…" Well, there´s a lot I didn`t see, but that was a start at least. "Well, yes, i´m the commander of the base, Shichiro Yamamoto, I got into a bit of… an argument before, and… is that fairy doing what I think it is?"
I pointed over to a little blue haired fairy that seemed to inhale fumes from a puddle of oil with a straw. Upon me pointing it out, Akashi instantly got quite mad.
"Oh for the love of…! How many times do I have to tell you numbnuts not to get high during work hours?!" Well, they certainly had a good role model there.
"E-either way." I started, trying to keep her from keelhauling that fairy. "Since you´re familiar here, I was wondering if I could watch how the new ship is built."
That moment about five fairies started arguing with me, and I didn`t get a word of it, while Akashi sighed.
"Nope. Being built is like being born, ya know. It's the most intimate moment in a ship`s life…. Except unlike a human birth you also get to see their bones and guts."
That sounded… nasty, but I still wanted to see it. For numerous reasons. The shipgirls became more and more human to me, and I wanted to know just how human they really were… where the machine ended and the girl began.
"I won´t tell anyone else. I just want to see it once.. get a better understanding of shipgirls in general. Everything Unryuu and Tenryuu tell me baffles to a degree, and its starting to get embarrassing as if didn´t know what I was doing." I explained, hoping she would understand.
….She did not, and we ended up arguing for another half hour, before finally she gave in as half the fairies had gone to sleep by this point.
"Ugh! Fine, fine! Don`t blame me if she hates you when the whole thing`s done and over with. So whats it gonna be, huh?" Akashi asked, her eyebrow twitching in irritation as she glared at me.
"A destroyer this time. We`ll need a couple of those for the future." I responded to her, arms crossed triumphantly as I grinned slightly. "Think the fairies can do that?"
"They`re as dumb as a doornail, but they can handle machinery. They`ll build you a spaceship if you give them enough resources."
The fairies got moving just as she mentioned that, hushing over to an archive of blueprints before selecting one (The one on top of the pile, that is, which would explain the randomness of the results) before putting it into a scanner, which translated it into the machines… they then got moving, shifting and changing the molds with a huge amount of racket, adjusting size and shape of the components to the ship`s size and measurements. At the same time, more fairies carried steel, bauxite blocks and chemicals to the forge up above, dumping them into the smelting pot.
"The first step in building a ship is making the materials- that's also what takes the longest amount of time. Destroyer alloys are lightweight but weak, we can make those in a few minutes. Whipping up the palladium-dornite armor for a battleship on the other hand… that takes a while." Akashi explained, gesturing over to the smelting pot. "Steel and Bauxite are heated to 2300 degrees, before electrodes change the molecular structure of the alloy. The materials only differ for whats underneath the first layer- the topmost layer is always the same."
A hiss followed, and after a few minutes of waiting, the pot opened a hatch on the lower end and boiling hot metal poured out into forms, where it was cooled down to blocks of it in just a few seconds, heat treated and hardened. The fairies pulled out equally shaped blocks of the material, a blue-tinted, shimmering metal, before placing it on a conveyor, where they were sent to various work platforms… as they were labelled, each one was for a different part of the limbs.
"Next, the building of the frame. The bones. Well, most call it a chassis, because that's what it basically is.. its holding us together, and its where everything is attached to. Each class has its own chassis, with very little differences in between ships… for instance, the Yamato class ships all have the same frame under all that armor. Real ship plans are used, so anything´s possible- any ship you want can be made into a shipgirl, no matter what kind. The computer will adapt the measurements of the ship, the armor thickness, the abilities and the history and convert it into the pieces necessary for construction."
Lathes, drills, CNC machines and grinders started to work on the blocks of metal, carving out piece after piece which resembled bones the most, although it was by no means a human bone- it looked like it from afar, but the pale blue color as well as the lack of any biological shortcomings, and the hardpoints all over it gave it sort of an uncanny feel. Two fairies brought over a container from a machine in the corner, and upon opening it, it revealed what looked like a brain… except it didn´t look like anything you`d seen in a biology class. It more or less consisted of carbon-wrapped tubes, thicker and thinner fiberglass wires, electronic components that I couldn´t possibly hope to identify. It was placed in one of the carved out pieces that roughly resembled a head, before it was closed up… the fairies kept working on it, not allowing me to see. Supposedly they had to build the whole thing before putting the shipgirl together.
Speaking of that, the next station we came to they assembled the bones of arms and legs, testing their flexibility and functionality. Bolts and black rubber connected them, the blued steel limbs reminded me of prosthetics when seen from afar. Of course, it didn`t take long for them to put them onto the midsection, which was assembled in the middle of the factory.
"There we are- Tritanium bones joining together to form something awesome. The alloy´s light, the assembled frame merely weighs sixty pounds, but it takes thirty five tons to separate the limb from the body once its properly assembled." Akashi explained, and I noticed the ribcage could actually be folded open at this point of the process- as fairies lifted flexible tanks, most likely the lungs, several kilometers of tubing and wires, various machines, ….something that very much resembled a uterus and a compact, hexagonal machine into the frame.
"Whats that…? It doesn`t look nearly as advanced as the rest." I asked, pointing at the hexagonal thing that seemed to have an endless amount of connectors on it.
"The central conversion unit. It converts fuel into electricity and steel into useable material for the nanites inside their system to repair them… I guess you could call it the heart, it does give off a thump each time it burns up fuel, afterall. The stuff attached below is for converting human food into energy- a much less efficient process."
….So that was a shipgirls heart… a metal box, barely bigger than my fist. Somehow that depressed me… the whole process seemed bizarre and surreal, but something so simple and unappealing was their only way to live… they would die if it would fail.
"Hey, Akashi." I asked, bothered by this. "…Do shipgirls die when that thing fails..? Is it… possible for them to die?"
She nodded slowly. "I guess you could call it that. You can put them back together, sure, but the brain`s fragile… if the CCU fails, it could short circuit. Either way its going to fragment a bit, and the memory core isn´t going to last very long without electricity. …what does it matter though, when they sink they`ll be crushed by the water pressure anyway." I swallowed as to how….. indifferent she was about that topic. Perhaps she didn`t like to be about people for a very good reason… either way, the fairies were done by the time I had finished asking about that, and they sealed the ribcage before the head was attached, thousands of wires sown together to connect the girl.
"Next, we fuel up the system, add the coolant water and fill up the temperature keeping fluid… you know, that red stuff they bleed, give it a dry run, and then follows the meat- silicium-carbonite, bulletproof muscle. …though that stuff is only used for destroyers, because even a rifle causes damage to that. Its not the best kinda material."
Said and done, grey tubes were attached to the limbs and hooked up to the other tubes, before they were… inflated, one could say, to the correct size, kept like this for a moment, and then they moved on to the next muscle. By now this looked like a biology project for xenophilics, as sensors and other such functions were added… especially in the chest area, where two little humps of soft looking… stuff bedded them. Finally, Akashi patted me on the shoulder.
"Dry run. You might wanna turn around."
And by that she really wasn´t kidding. The body that still had no skin on began to move, flexing and wiggling into every direction- it was bizarre, like something out of a horror show, until it finally stopped and the fairies seemed satisfied- at which point the body was hoisted up, moved over to a large, rectangular box, where it was strapped inside and closed firmly.
"Finally, the Organium… the flesh. Its in two layers- the lower one provides temperature control, with the so-called bloodstream on top of it, and on top of that is the final layer… the layer you see everyday." She poked her own arm to demonstrate. "Once that's complete, little details are added- finger and toenails, hair, the coloration… or paintjob, I guess you could call it. Then she`s done… what follows is outfit and weapons, but the shipgirl herself is completed. So yeah, you can hush off to your office, unless you wanna see the girl naked."
I blinked a bit, looking over to the pink haired one. "Why so hostile all of the sudden…? I didn´t mean to bother you."
She huffed, turning around and grabbing onto the railing. "I have good reasons for being down here, rather than at the front! Been repairing shipgirls for years now- served under five different Admirals. Each one… crappier than the last. Both in performance and in character. When their toys ceased to work, I was useful to them- as long as i`d fix them up, they`d leave me alone. I was responsible for scrapping them, too. Getting rid of the bodies, so to speak… its an even nastier job than this, pulling a ship apart and melting it down. At least this… creates something. Ripping girls to pieces to forge them into bullets…"
I carefully put my hand on her shoulder.
"Akashi, I promise you I will never have you scrap a ship. Despite this, they`re still… people. They might be built in a factory but they have feelings. Its not right to honor them like this- if we ever lose someone, i`ll have them buried rather than this."
She said nothing at first, but I could feel her tense up.
"Naval headquarters won`t let you do that for long. They`re worth a lot of money, afterall. Burying them all is-"
"If I lose someone, then that's a tragedy, not an inconvenience." I interrupted her, gripping her shoulder a bit. "Just because you`re built in a factory doesn´t mean you have no right to be treated with ethics. If you have feelings, then people should respect them."
"Should, yes." She muttered, quiet. "They should. But they don't."
We were quiet for a little while, I let that sink in, and it seemed she did the same, before she gave it a little nod, and touched my hand.
"… you`re an okay guy, Yamamoto." She whispered, not showing her face to me. "It might be… not so bad to serve here in this fleet if you can live up to those words…"
I gave her a nod as well. "I promised you this, and i`ll keep it, no matter what. I already love those three like my own family- they`re special to me, each and every one of them. It wouldn`t be right to.. do this to them."
"Alright, alright, I got it." Akashi said in return, bringing up her voice in a failing attempt to be tough about it. "The girl should be about done now."
In the briefest of moments as she turned around, I could see her face- it was red, and her cheeks glistered wet.
So, they could even cry, huh…
Then my breath stopped as I saw the rectangular lid open up, and expose the girl inside… from just the looks, you wouldn`t be able to tell the difference between a regular girl and a shipgirl, as had discovered at that very moment. Shoulder length, pinkish-purple hair, pale but healthy complexion, small green eyes… she even had a belly button, as unnecessary as that was for someone built in a factory.
Oh, and she was completely and entirely naked, which made me turn around just after I had gotten a few glances at her body. …Very anatomically correct, indeed. My lower half agreed.
"….Whats with this guy, doc?" I heard her say, and felt a finger pointed at me. She sounded… disinterested, which made me wonder why.
"How would I know? And dammit, i´m a repairman, not a doctor. Put some clothes on, i`m sure the fairies are done with that by now- you`re getting the poor guy all embarrassed."
"I`m not… embarrassed.." I brought out, clearly embarrassed. "I just find its more appropriate if I don´t watch you dress. We haven`t even been introduced yet, afterall."
Akashi poked my shoulder.
"Then why do you insist on being here to begin with, huh? I told you to wait in your office, smartass." Damn, she caught me.
"So that's our commander, huuuh. Doesn´t seem like a lot." Oh, this brat behind me was talking. Taking a breath, I turned around again, and found her bend over forward, just now putting on her socks… and whilst showing off a lot of cleavage, I also got a good look at her back. I tried my hardest to ignore it, and pump up some authority as I saluted.
"You guessed correctly. Lieutenant Commander Shichiro Yamamoto, your commander." I introduced myself, trying not to flinch as the girl poked me straight underneath the ribcage. She reached me to about my shoulder, petite. I guess that's to be expected from a destroyer.
"LT-CMD, huh. No wonder he blushes." Damn it, I was blushing too?! "Shiranui. Kageru class. I look forward to your guidance."
So formal, and yet so… what was the word? Something with T. Its like she didn`t even mind being naked, so long as she could destroy my authority with it.
"Likewise, I look forward to working with you, Shiranui. Meet me in the office after you finish, there`s a few things we need to take care of first."
"Whatever."
W…whatever? Now it was like she was bored with me. Either way, I decided to play it cool, and do as I announced. Heading to my office, back through the corridors of the very empty base… I wondered if it would always be as empty as this.
Then I ran into someone, face first.
"Ugh!" I gave off, and again I was embarrassed for not looking, but who was it now? The person I ran into, a tall brunette with below-shoulder-length hair, didn´t even budge from the impact. She turned and smiled at me, scratching the back of her head.
"O-oh? You must be my commander then. Here, let me help you up." Her hand gripped the back of my shirt, and a powerful yank brought me back up. Not exactly gentle either.
"Th-thanks, I guess. Who are you? I didn`t expect anyone else so soon." The response was a smile, as that powerful hand let go of me.
"I`m USS Maryland! The Pacific Forces of the USA`d like to have an eye on the Japanese, so the naval headquarters selected this base for it! Just treat me like everyone else though, I don´t wanna be special!"
….Headquarters was a bunch of assholes, that way. Not just Admiral Moran, it seemed even Fleet Admiral Natsume hated me.
Meanwhile, unaware to me, something else happened underneath the sea.
"So, the new one… arrived at their base… right?" Anchorage Princess rubbed her temples, suffering from a minor migraine due to the sisters debate from earlier on. It seemed they were still dissatisfied with Nazara`s decision to have them be lead into victory by an Admiral… the same one, Chelsey Nimitz… as more and more people dared to call her by now, much to her displeasure.
"Seems that way. The bug we planted in her reports she has arrived, and is currently inside their base." Admiral Nimitz responded, looking at a tablet computer displaying the current position. "I look forward to her report… after five expeditions in a row, this guy has not suffered any losses whatsoever…"
"They can`t say… the same about you." Anchorage teased, prodding her in the side, receiving a glare. "Well, perhaps… she will clarify… what his secret is, if there is… one at that."
The woman dressed in black nodded, tucking the computer away for now. "They haven`t given me a fleet yet, so don`t judge me. It seems as if Midway and the others still argue about it. How am I supposed to show my potential and worth without being able to?"
"You could start… by speaking to them… more respectfully. They have… been doing your job… for years now." Anchorage glanced at her, although much less harsher than most of the others did. "They will trust… you very soon. You`ll see."
"Hmpf. I guess you´re right. I haven´t really been able to converse with them at all yet… somehow, they`re all busy with something else, and I don`t get what Battleship´s assistant Wo is saying either."
She twitched, feeling a hand on her shoulder, massaging it with clawed fingers.
"The Wo-class carriers… have their own, unique language… as do all lower Abyssals. Every … octave is its own word… a different pitch is a different sentence entirely… it is hard to understand… and almost impossible to speak. But be assured… she understands you. Every word."
Admiral nodded. "I see. Then its best not to talk about secrets in her direct vicinity, right?"
A reply never came, as doors in front of them were opened the next moment.
That these doors even opened as easily as they did was only possible due to the watertight nature of the Abyssal base Deep Delta Seven, DD7 for short- a gigantic underground complex located a hundred meters below the ocean floor, with a system of elevators for fleet deployment, retrieval and airlocking, several hundred meters in diameter. There were no windows anywhere in the base, everything was a very plain, steel clad – much like the guts of a large ship`s hull. Despite this, it was lit and well kept with no rust anywhere. It was divided into four sections- The first and biggest section was the hangar, two hundred meters long, where destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers docked for supplies, repairs, remodeling. Fully automated machines built spare parts and ammunition, work drones with no intelligence of their own put them to use. The second section was the resource storage- in itself divided into two parts, where one was dedicated to solid resources such as fuel, steel and bauxite, the other half mainly consisted of shipgirl bodies that were retrieved from the ocean floor, and scheduled either to be scrapped for materials or used to build new Abyssals. The third section was the midmost one- well armored and deeper submerged than the others, this section was designed as a war room. This was where the Princesses looked over holographic displays of maps, higher ranked Abyssals discussed the new findings and information and plans were made to attack and defend- this entire section was electromagnetically sealed, no phone signal, sonar or depth radars would find them here.
The fourth and final section was like a dormitory- while lesser Abyssals required no beds to rest, and slept in the hangar, the Princesses, demons and the Admiral were to sleep here- this was the only section with any sort of livability to it, something which wasn`t dimly lit and plain, as the inhabitants were allowed to decorate their rooms as they liked. Of course, it was hard to do so when everything had to be acquired from the surface…
The doors that had opened revealed Aircraft Carrier Demon, crossing her armor-clad arms in front of the Admiral, and a few lower ships waited behind her.
"Nazara has deemed you… ready for your first deployment. Do not disappoint us." She said briefly, glancing at Admiral Nimitz.
She gritted her teeth in return, and tried to take Anchorage`s advice."I won`t. Please have faith in me, Carrier. Whichever task it is Nazara chooses for me, I will perform it along with you."
It worked, to some extent, as the face of the humanoid carrier cleared up and she nodded, gesturing over to the war room. "We have received… our orders already. Review them… and then decide what we should do."
Back in the office, I took a seat behind my desk, rested my eyes for a moment as they felt dry from the heat in the factory, and looked up to face the two girls in front of me.
The pink-purple haired one in a cute, practical outfit, Shiranui.
The brunette in an American sailor`s uniform, hat included, Maryland.
The two newest additions to our fleet, and something rubbed me the wrong way about both of them… Maryland, especially. I´d just gotten the papers regarding the transfer… three hours after she arrived. Americans normally didn´t work this fast… either this was something way over my head, or… something was off. I decided to remain quiet about it and spoke up.
"Alright, you two. We`re expecting a battleship to arrive tomorrow, and we`ll need to establish that the flow of resources is stable and secure. The rest of the fleet is still out at sea, patrolling and retrieving some fuel and steel, but later today we`ll head out to an outpost in the Solomon sea."
"So?" Shiranui interrupted, tilting her head. "That's a field trip, right? I´ll go pack up the picknick basket."
"Shhh. Let him finish." Maryland gave off, which only served to interrupt even more.
I glanced at both of them. "Its not a field trip. Shortly after the fleet departed, all communications with the base were lost. Seismic activity suggests multiple explosions, perhaps a battle- spy satellites can only see a a blackened cloud, like from a fire… we don`t know if the Abyss is involved, their vessels are too small to be picked up by pictures like those."
"Oh." Said both of them at the same time, looked at each other, and i`m pretty sure they thought the same thing I did.
"They were probably annihilated then." Shiranui, bluntly, put it the best. I nodded.
"That's what the higher ups think, too. Originally, we were going to hand over patrolling and defending these resource stations over to them… but this turned into a search and rescue operation by the looks of it. We`ll depart as soon as the first fleet returns- there`s no time to lose. I`ll come along too, some of the girls will likely need repairs or supplies."
"…You sure? I wasn`t going to ask, but your eye looks-" I cut off Shiranui by putting my finger on her lips.
"That was Tenryuu punching me in the face, not an Abyssal. I would be a lot more proud about it if I got into a fist fight with a Princess."
"…but either way you were punching a girl…" Maryland threw in, and I sighed, leaning back into my chair and taking a sip of coffee. "Maryland. That –Girl- can bend steel bars with her hands, is made of metal and wears shorts. I think she can handle it. By the way… Maryland is quite a mouth full."
The battleship blinked. "Is it?"
A nod from me. "Yeah- its fine if I just call you Mary, right? Sounds cuter anyways."
It seemed as if she didn´t know what to think about that at first, looking down to the desk with a troubled impression, and slightly pink cheeks, while Shiranui… made a dark grimace that included a grin.
"Ooooh? So, will you call me Nuinui then? Go ahead. I dare you. Call me something cutesy…"
"First fleet is baaaack." Tenryuu called out, punching the door open as they entered, putting a stop to that conversation BEFORE Shiranui would do something she`d hopefully regret. However… they returned in a state I didn`t expect. While there was little in the way of physical injury, the clothes they were… got mangled, to say the least, Unryuu was trying to tie a knot into her ripped top, Tenryuu had a few grazes here and there which even had a few reddened spots, as if she had been bleeding, Maruyu hid behind the other two in attempt not to be seen at all. I swallowed, felt my face grow warm and nodded. "Alright… you look like you went into quite a bit of trouble, what happened?"
"The Abyss is what happened, ya genius." Tenryuu grumbled, a few sparks coming from her headgear… it had a bullet hole in it. Outch.
"….so why is only your clothes…?" I rubbed my forehead, a bit dumbstruck. Akashi mentioned something…
"We regenerate on our own." Unryuu responded, after she gave up trying to fix her top, and simply held it there with an arm. "Although it makes us feel tired and heavy, our bodies can fix themselves. Of course, our clothes and equipment are not part of our bodies… so they will need to be fixed otherwise…"
"Makes sense. Listen, which one of you is still capable of putting up a fight? We´ll need to depart this instant for a rescue operation. I´m expecting enemy activity there, so if you feel too tired to fight, stay here and dock first.."
As if on instinct, Tenryuu´s arm shot up and she put up a stern grimace. "I`ll fight some more…! I still got some fire left in me, Admiral…!" … good god, she could be cute, without even trying to be. But truth to be told, she did look fitter than Unryuu, who seemed even more tired than usual. Combined with the fact that Maruyu was probably even worse off damaged than ususal…
"Alright, good. Mary, Shiranui, Tenryuu, head down to the dock, i`ll follow after I gathered some fairies- we might encounter some damaged shipgirls when we`re there. Be there in five."
"Aye aye."
Boarded with about twenty repair fairies, some spare resources and the usual loadout, my patrol boat departed, being the rear of our T-formation, with Shiranui and Tenryuu being the left and right side, and Maryland being in front of me… her massive rig nearly took away my sight, so we switched pretty soon, but… I wasn`t sure if I that had been a good idea afterall. Something rubbed me the wrong way, something felt… bad.
"So, what do you think happened, Admiral?" Tenryuu asked, scooting along. "An accident, or an attack?"
"Who knows at this point." I sighed. "Could be either, or both. Or something we would never have thought about… that's why I prepared for everything I can think of."
Slowly we approached what the radar told me was the island, but I could only see a pillar of smoke on the horizon, polluting the nearby sky with blackness. As we drew closer, I started to notice why…. The island was flat. Completely flat. No buildings, trees, hangars or installations- it seemed everything that was on it had been burnt to the ground with something hotter than normal fire. Napalm, maybe, or even thermite…
"Oh, holy fucking…" I heard Tenryuu say, then looked ahead, and wish I didn`t. Surrounding the island was a multitude of body parts, some of them sparking, others drifting dead in the water- from time to time, torsos or heads drifted by, leaving no question that those bodies used to be shipgirls… some of them were bleeding too much though… humans, likely.
"Good god… what happened here…?" I asked myself, while Shiranui and Maryland remained was bothered, but held herself together like the veteran she was… I slowed down the engines as we approached closer, not wanting to damage the screw if a hand or something got caught inside it…. I reached into the water, feeling around in it, until my hand hit something metallic, small, box shaped. Instinctively, I pulled it out- the next second every single fibre of my body froze, I was unable to breathe, ice ran in my veins and for a moment, my heart didn`t make a single beat.
That box… was a small, plain hexagon, with burnt tubes coming out of it, the front pierced by what seemed like a small shell, or a fragment. That was… that CCU… The heart of a shipgirl… drifting dead in the water, with a hole in it…
Panicking, I threw it back into the water and got back behind the wheel, kicking up the engine as it roared… I could swear Tenryuu was yelling something after me, but I heard none of it… nothing until a fairy slapped me in the face, and pointed into the water.
There was a whole body, the eyes still open… long blonde hair, a red, grey and black patterned uniform with holes torn into it, singed in several places… With my hands still trembling, I reached to the water- I nearly cried out when another hand touched mine, weakly grasping it.
With the combined strength of myself, that shipgirl and the fairies, we managed to lift her into the boat and accessed the damage- well, at least she still had all limbs attached, even though she was missing her boots and one of her socks, kept muttering something about rudder damage, most of it in a foreign language, and had several dozen smaller impacts all over her uniform. She seemed too weak to even sit up, understandable in her situation, but it seemed like she was going to make it through…
…then the ocean became black in front of us, and a multitude of Abyssals rose from it.
Seven Ha-class destroyers. Four I-class destroyers, a humanoid abyssal with white hair, dressed in armor and sitting on a giant piece of rigging, where a multitude of flying balls rose up from, and.. a human, standing on the back end of it. …Was it a human? She was staring at me with red eyes, her arms tightly crossed- her uniform was much like mine, except in a black shade of color with golden accents- long black hair came down her averagely sized body, which seemed to have no shape within the baggy nature of the uniform. She continued to glare, while the Abyssal in front of her stepped aside to let her come forth- as she did, I could see that she was armed, with an American Colt pistol on the right side and what appeared to be an old navy saber on the other. Naturally, I left my Taisho at home in the hurry I was in, and I didn`t have a gun with me either… except for those machine guns mounted on the boat, which couldn´t angle that high up.
"Tactical retreat." I ordered, pressing it out under my breath. We couldn´t win against this fleet, and I didn`t want to risk any unnecessary deaths. This place had seen enough death already.
"W-what?!" Tenryuu spat out, turning her head to me, but I glared back.
"Tactical retreat! Didn`t you hear me the first time?! Back to port, full speed!"
The red eyes of their commander glared at me, I could feel them even when we turned around in a boxed formation…
"Carrier. Chase them down." I heard a soft, but nevertheless cruel voice say… planes started from the massive rig they were standing on, and the enemy destroyers started to chase us as well.
"Tch… Tenryuu, Shiranui, fire torpedos at the enemy to hold them off! Maryland, anti air turrets!"
Mary seemed a bit… shocked at this order, but after a glance from me did as I ordered- the smaller turrets on her rig turned to the aircraft and started firing, time fuzes exploding in midair and causing damage to the abyssal jets chasing us.
Two explosions, two planes were shot down… I could hear Tenryuu`s guns booming in my ear, seems like she gave off a few shots just to keep them away even further.. then, a series of much more potent, louder bangs made me duck my head down- Marylands main guns had fired at the enemy as well, likely sinking a few of them.
I didn`t look. I steered on straight ahead, feeling the damaged shipgirl hold onto my leg like her life depended on it, which did more than enough to make me press onward. The home port was just two hours away, we could shake them off, then we would-
A hole appeared in my windscreen, another the controls of the boat, then… blood sprayed over them, and I could feel my fingers clenching onto the wheel. My air was gone, I couldn`t breath in or out, my chest felt rigid all of the sudden- then, sharp, undiluted, pure pain hit me, what little air remained in my lungs was pressed out in a pained grunt.
One of the aircraft had hit me. I got shot. Figures, because afterall, I was stupid enough to be on the front lines even though I didn`t have to. It only served me right to be punished for doing things differently. Still… I felt myself pressing on, never letting go- like a drug, adrenaline caused me to go beyond my limits. If I would stop, that girl clutching my leg might die. I would definitely die, and the girls behind me, holding off the enemy fleet with a few shots here and there…
My memory cuts off here, the next thing I remembered was at the factory. Akashi was fixing up my wound, muttering curses and insults out to me, while the shipgirl next to me was being put together by fairies.
"…You have my thanks, Japanese. Mein Kommandant died protecting my fellow companions, my home has been lost to flames. For saving my life, it is only natural that I, Bismarck, offer my services to you." The blonde shipgirl said, pridefully touching her chest at this, and the only thing I brought out was a grunt... it took a few moments before I could respond in full.
"I would`ve done this for anyone, Bismarck. But I appreciate it, of course. …i`m… Shichiro.. Hgn… Yamamoto, not 'Japanese', though."
She raised an eyebrow at this.
"You`re not? I was assuming that, with the black hair, the uniform, the Schlitzaugen-"
"No, no, I am a Japanese man, of course. I was just saying, that's not my name."
"….Oh. I see. Very well, I was mistaken. …I presume you´re going to ask me about the attack, ja?"
I managed a nod. "That`d be helpful. I need to report this to headquarters."
"There is not much I can say. From one moment to another, the sea turned black, and the Abyssal fleet emerged. They started a Bombardierung, both shelling us from the coast as well as dropping… fire bombs, I would assume, from airplanes. A single bomb caused steel and stone to melt, and trees to catch fire." Bismarck`s eyes became distant. "I was in the magazine back then, underground, I only came up when the base was already burning down. Kommandant Mengelmann was holding onto Scharnhorst, who`d lost a leg, and told me to hold them off until help arrives- I did not manage to do so."
"You survived, though. So either luck is on your side, or you´re quite good at what you do." I smiled at her, which caused her to huff out in frustration.
"Luck and myself are not on speaking terms, Herr Yamamoto. I suppose I am skillful, sinking the worlds biggest battlecruiser with just one broadside, but I sank during my first mission. ….still, you can praise me more. It makes me feel a bit better."
I chuckled. "Will do, as soon as talking stops to hurt. Welcome to the fleet, Bismarck."
"Danke. I appreciate it."
"So, the boy escaped..?" Midway asked, her arms crossed as she listened to the results.
"Yes, although one of Aircraft Carrier Demons planes managed to injury him. He ran off as soon as he saw us, and we were fresh out of bombs and torpedos." Nimitz responded, nodding lightly. "Our total losses include four aircraft and two destroyers, both of which sank during the assault on the base. We`ve counted thirty seven sunken ships, thirteen dead humans, and a blind number of ships and humans buried under the rubble of the base."
Midway nodded in response, neither pleased nor angered. "Good. An acceptable result for a first mission. Admiral Hegelmann –"
"Mengelmann." Carrier corrected, clearing her throat.
"Whatever. The german Admiral will no longer pose a threat to our transport ships, which is good. Still, we have much more humans to exterminate. What about our spy?"
"She confirms Yamamoto to be injuried, although not fatally. Apperantly, they rescued one survivor, and they expect a Yamato-class Battleship tomorrow." Admiral Nimitz responded, holding back her displeasure about Midway`s lack of enthusiasm. Carrier then put a hand on her commanders shoulder, causing Nimitz to raise an eyebrow.
"Midway is hard to impress. The rest of us isn´t. You did well, Admiral." She whispered, giving a fangy grin, before removing that hand again.
"I suppose." Regaining composure, Nimitz straightened her uniform. "Whats the next step, Midway?"
"That is up to you, Admiral. My agenda merely concerns Midway Station… you may plan and execute as you wish. I no longer have objections." She glared at the holographic map in the war room, pointing at a small island in the pacific. "My revenge draws near. Until then… I would appreciate it if you kept them busy. That is all."
A/N: This concludes chapter four- and did you notice the length of the chapters keeps increasing? I´ve set myself this challange, trying to make each chapter at least 1500 words longer than the last. Additionally, the final chapter is supposed to have a 20.000 word length- more than three times longer than this one! I am insane. Still, I like challanges, and this fic is very amusing to write- it helps me to get all those shipgirl ideas out of my head when nobody wants to play RPGs with me.
Incidentally, this fic is also based on an RPG- its a prequel to a Kancolle RPG i`ve been playing for six months nearly everyday. Finally, you may have noticed the rating went up- because Yamamoto had found out about the sexiness of shipgirls, which may lead to some... interesting situations. If actual sex will be involved- who knows, but i`m pretty sure we´ll get to that at some point. For now- next week, Musashi joins the team.
Hopefully next week, these chapters keep getting longer and i only have a limited amount of time to write.