Thursday, March 27th, 2014.
Today, I completely neglected my usual morning officework in order to train the fleet personally during their training hours in the morning.
From what I'd studied from Akagi's post-action mission report yesterday, I found a lot of things that I felt the fleet could execute better. I told the fleet that what I was suggesting may not be the most effective fixes to their combat strategy, and that they needed to take my advice with a grain of salt, since in the end it's not like I was going to go out there and fight using my own advice anyway.
I felt that the fleet had such awesome first strike potential, but that they weren't utilizing it to its full effect. Because thinking about it, we have two solid strategies for a devastating first attack: either the fleet can go the stealth route, or the loud route.
The stealth attack would be comprised of everyone who had the Silencer augmentation. That means Suzuya, Akatsuki, Hibiki, Imuya, and Shioi. Imuya's included because she has the Lockdown Converter, and that's essential to this strategy. Suzuya by herself has more than triple the firepower of everyone else in that squadron combined, but that's only part of the strategy. Akatsuki and Hibiki need to fire first to distract the main enemy fleet, and because they're only firing 12.7cm shells, it'll lure the enemy fleet into thinking that they're not being attacked by anything major. This'll give Suzuya enough time to paint her most desirable target and attack, and Shioi and Imuya need to throw their torpedoes in conjunction with Suzuya's volley so that the torpedoes' approach is masked by Suzuya's shells when they confirm their hits. With that, Imuya's Lockdown torpedoes will hopefully hit their mark, and the rest of the fleet can go in fromt there.
The loud attack would be focused around Yamato and her Yamato Cannon. The Yamato Cannon, because of the fact that it gives Yamato about an additional 50% extra firing range, just due to the nature of how the Cannon works, is the crutch of this strategy, and because of that extra range, it's realistically unlikely that the Abyssals would sniff out this kind of opening attack in time to defend against it. However, the carriers and everyone who can deploy recon planes need to launch them well in advance, and they need to keep eyes over the fleet so that Yamato can triangulate the video feeds to calculate exact enemy fleet position and firing coordinates. In addition, whether this was intended or not, Yamato's main augmentation, the Automated Reloader Mk. II, also affects the Yamato Cannon augmentation because it's connected directly to Yamato's triple 46cm guns, which the Automated Reloader Mk. II is supposed to affect. So now, Yamato's cooldown time on the Cannon is reduced to twelve minutes instead of fifteen. The fleet is to protect Yamato as the MVP until they reach effective combat range of the enemy fleet, at which point they are allowed to break formation and charge if the flagship decrees it so. But this strategy's only weakness is that it revolves around Yamato as the crutch, as I've mentioned before. If Yamato doesn't adequately hit her targets, then this strategy is a massive failure. But I have confidence that Yamato won't miss her shots, she's too good to miss. Plus, she's got that 25mm M109 that can shoot out to 2 kilos, too, let's not forget about that.
Now that I think about it, there is a third option, but I don't know how well it'll work, but I'll mention it to the fleet tomorrow about it. It's the torpedo option. Because all the destroyers have torpedoes now, the fleet has insane torpedo output, meaning that the fleet can afford to dump a volley of torpedoes downrange as a first attack. Considering this, at close enough range, this volume of torpedoes is bound to get a few good hits in, but the fleet will probably be firing outside of torpedo lock-on range, meaning that they'll have to be blindfired, and accuracy is thus shot to shit.
That being said, I also advised the submarines, Imuya and Shioi, that in combat, they needed to hit their targets, and that it was imperative that they did not miss. I've studied everyone's combat records closely, having been in charge of this fleet for nearly three months now with another week, and I've observed that the submarines have a tendency to let themselves get panicked easily by the chaos of the fight and start throwing their torpedoes at anything and everything that got close. Especially Imuya, since she's been killed in combat once before and isn't so keen on dying again. I told them that despite this, they needed to keep calm and pick their targets wisely. Since they only use torpedoes (they can use the miniature machine guns attached to their legs if they surface, but they rarely use them since it's suicide for a submarine to surface during combat anyway), their torpedoes needed to deal damage every single time. Now, since all the destroyers have torpedo launchers now, lots of the pressure on the submarines for torpedo support has been lifted, but that doesn't mean that their contribution to fleet torpedo power is any less important. If anything, now that Imuya has the Lockdown Converter augmentation, Imuya's torpedoes are now even more important than ever, since her torpedoes can lock down any Abyssal ship that's giving the fleet a hard time.
Therefore, starting today, I announced to the fleet that I would personally give them training regimens to help each ship type to improve their combat skills, starting with the submarines. In order to simulate the chaos of a live fire mission, I divided the entire fleet in half - one half with the submarines, and the other half without the submarines. The half of the fleet with Imuya and Shioi stood for the main fleet, while the other half stood for the Abyssal enemies. They equipped training rounds so no one would end up with more than light damage, but Imuya kept her live torpedoes, but instead, Imuya's personal objective was to throw at least five Lockdown torpedoes with no more than one miss in a thirty-minute fight. Imuya's Lockdown torpedoes don't hurt their targets and can detonate on friendly targets if she so chooses to target them. Shioi had a similar objective, but because she didn't have to worry about using Lockdown torpedoes, her objective was to maintain a 90% accuracy rate with a minimum of ten confirmed torpedo hits.
The combat simulation training proved to be very difficult for the submarines at first, even though it was only a simulation. Shioi did well, managing to hit eight out of the twelve torpedoes she threw, but Imuya only managed to lock down two out of five targets, Yamato and Kirishima. Shioi was more disappointed in herself that she wasn't able to hit more and asked me if we could go at it again, saying that she'd surely do better the next time. Imuya, on the other hand, complained that the Lockdown torpedoes were too hard to use. The Lockdown Converter, while it was great and all, apparently increased Imuya's lock-on time onto her targets and felt less accurate than her normal torpedoes when she launched them. Imuya claimed that when it came to Lockdown torpedoes, it felt like her skill with them just turned into somewhat of a guessing game, like it was just up to pure RNG that her torpedoes would either hit or miss. In addition, it was much easier for her to hit bigger, slower targets like the two battleships she did manage to lock down, and that it was just ridiculously hard to hit the faster, more nimble targets like the destroyers and light cruisers and sometimes even the more aggressive heavy cruisers, notably Suzuya, since she's hyper-aggressive in combat. So I took note of that, saying that perhaps it wasn't Imuya's fault, that maybe the Lockdown augmentation itself needed some tweaking by the guys over at Seal Team Six.
Imuya at one point griped about why she had to do this kind of training, that it was too difficult, that she wasn't the sort of ship girl who could handle so much responsibility put on her all at once. I explained to her that in combat, it didn't matter who was the strongest ship girl or the most capable, there will be times when Imuya would have to take the most important shot of the entire battle. The game winner, the buzzer beater, Evo Moment #37, whatever you wanna call it. Imuya's Lockdown torpedoes had the potential to save the fleet just like Kiyoshimo's Yamato Cannon shots had, and that Imuya needed to train to the point where when that time came, Imuya would recognize it and take the shot and have a much better chance of succeeding than failing. I told her that this was the reality of modern combat, not just in the kind of war that the ship girls fought, but the kind of war that soldiers everywhere had to fight. In war when one shot is more than enough to kill a single enemy, sometimes more with collaterals, one man with a sniper rifle, one soldier with the perfect positioning or the perfect flank on the battlefield, is enough to turn the tide of the fight.
Regardless, I had the fleet continue this training regimen for the rest of the morning. In the last such training match before lunchtime, Shioi managed to increase her hit accuracy to just over ninety percent, with eleven out of twelve targets hit, and Imuya, too, scraped up her record to an eighty percent hit accuracy with 4 out of 5 targets successfully locked down.
I took some time just before lunch to look over the daily satellite image photos that HQ sent today. HQ pointed out several gatherings of large Abyssal forces. They were anticipating the fleet's arrival this afternoon, and they were going to try to shut the fleet down before they reach any of their territories. This meant that they completely left Baker District and Dog One and Two wide open, meaning that we had two choices for the sortie today: either the fleet could flank south and hit the districts and burn them to the ground again, or they could accept the duel with any one of the Abyssal task forces and engage them directly. I shared this with the fleet and asked them which strategy they wanted to take. When asked what I thought was better as the Admiral, I told them that either strategy was equal in terms of the potential damage that could be dealt.
The fleet chose to engage the northernmost Abyssal task force, the one that's easiest to reach from our base in a straight sail path, directly.
They still want retribution.
Before they sortied, I told Yuudachi that Samidare and I had spent lots of time with Shigure. I told her that even if she was scared of Shigure, Yuudachi had a responsibility as a sister to make sure Shigure wasn't going to go completely fucking out of control. Yuudachi was really uncertain, and she mumbled to me in private that she didn't know if she was anywhere near as powerful as Shigure if the latter were to lose her mind and go Hellsing on everyone.
I also asked Samidare to help Yuudachi watch over Shigure with her. She saluted me and told me that she would, and the fleet deployed to Sector B.
After they were gone, I went back to my office to get started on my work. Houshou entered my office with some onigiri and plum tea, thanking me for my work today. I was surprised - I don't remember Houshou ever thanking me for my work before. I asked her what the occasion was, and she replied that today was the first day she saw me acting like a proper Admiral, giving direct instruction and orders to the fleet instead of just letting them train on their own. I just smiled back at Houshou, saying that I wasn't the type of guy to give my subordinates direct orders all the time unless I had to, either because of military protocol or because of combat necessity. Even still, Houshou said that she slightly preferred seeing me take a more commanding, more charismatic role in the fleet.
An email from Seal Team Six...
"I got your email requesting the Kai upgrades for Shigure and Akebono. I understand the situation with Shigure; seems like it's the same kinda deal that we had to sort out with Yuudachi's codex glitch too. We'll start getting the resources necessary for the upgrade surgeries, but it'll be a while, sorry to say. Our resources haven't been coming along too well.
We've seen the reports that you've been sending over to HQ. Seems like the new augmentations are working well, and your fleet's back to it again, kicking ass.
We've also received the report from the Pearl Harbor platoon - Carrier Strike Group 5, that is. Seems like the girls did well, the platoon owes you one for that, even if they don't want to admit it.
The situation with the Ministry of Defense is still developing, we'll get back to you on that."
The fleet returned just before dinner again.
The post-action mission report submitted by Fubuki, the flagship for today, indicated that Imuya was the MVP of today's battle. With her opening salvo, she locked down both capital Abyssals in the enemy task force that they fought, Anchorage Demon and Isolated Island Demon, and one of the Ta-Class battleships. On top of it, throughout the battle, Imuya managed to chain-lock Isolated Demon over and over, so she literally couldn't do anything for the entire battle. Imuya's last Lockdown field essentially left Isolated Demon alone as the rest of the surviving Abyssal task force fell back and abandoned her, so the Lockdown Converter finally achieved one of its most important potential uses and captured Isolated Demon for us.
When I went out to greet the fleet upon their return, Imuya, who suffered moderate damage, jumped into my arms and demanded a whole lot of praise for her work today. Because I hadn't read the mission report just yet, I didn't know the context to it, so without knowing why Imuya suddenly wanted to be praised, something she's never really done before, I gave her lots of praise. Imuya thanked me for putting them through that training session this morning, that she was sorry that she didn't have faith in my advice for her and Shioi at first. Samidare looked very disgruntled that I was giving another girl who wasn't her ship sister lots of attention like this, and Suzuya, as usual, nearly butted Imuya out of my arms to bury herself there.
Shigure, too, when the rest of the fleet headed to the baths to dock and heal up, gave me a hug out at the piers, and Samidare and Yuudachi, who stuck around with her too, also joined in. Shigure said that Yuudachi and Samidare had stuck with her the entire battle, and when they were returning to base, Samidare revealed that they were fighting with her at my request. Shigure said that I shouldn't do anything more for her, because she didn't know when her inner demon would leak out again, but I just shut her up by giving her too many head rubs and head pats. Samidare and Yuudachi got jealous and demanded that I give them head pats too. So for fifteen minutes, I stood out there in the evening with the sun setting quickly behind the mountains of Okinawa, giving the three ship sisters head pats. Shigure needed them the most, and thus enjoyed them the most.
I sent Seal Team Six a quick reply email about Imuya's Lockdown Converter and its potential problems and that we had captured a capital Abyssal ship girl, Isolated Demon. Afterwards, I went to go see our new prisoner, but true to her name, she locked herself away in the docks and refused to come out. So much for being able to talk to her tonight.