Thursday, April 3rd, 2014.
Well well well, look who decided to show up all badass-like. We'll get to this a bit later.
Woke up to find nothing in my bed with me today. Was half expecting Yuudachi or Ooyodo or Samidare to be there again. Well, if I'm at the point where I'm expecting to wake up to find a cute girl sleeping next to me like the beginning of any generic harem anime, then I should probably stop being a Commander.
I found Yuudachi with the pets lounging around in my office, surprisingly. I mean, Yuudachi's surprisingly an early waker like me, but usually she just hangs out in her dorm, but today she was in my office romping around with Toyoda the Akita dog, and Batsubyou and Chika were sitting on the couch, watching them like spectators. When I came in, Yuudachi squealed and tackled me to the ground like a Great Dane would, even going so far as to give me a bit of a licking on my face. Toyoda, thinking this was all fun and games, walked over and gave me a big sniff on my face before also slurping his tongue all over my face. Never in my life did I ever think that my mornings would come down to getting tackled by a Poi Cannon and her sidekick in my own office.
For today's training, I had the destroyers, light cruisers, heavy cruisers, and carriers practice their boost-dodges. It's a very basic training maneuver compared to the training regimens I've given the fleet so far and even compared to their own training that they'd been doing up 'til now, but it's a badly needed one. See, there's this...how should I call this?...there's this sentiment among the ship girls that somehow, taking damage is like a sign of valor. "Wounds are a warrior's pride" or something like that. I don't know if it's like an inherently Japanese thing, but whatever its origins, I'm pretty sure there's a sentiment like that in the fleet. The immediate result of this's that oftentimes the girls come back to base with injuries that could've been wholly avoided. Mind you, the vast majority of these kinds of injuries are nowhere near fatal or crippling or critical, so I may be blowing this issue out of the water, but it's the long-term results of allowing an attitude like this that worry me, because this could lead to one of the ship girls thinking that she'll be a badass or a valiant warrior and end up tanking a shot that she can't tank and die. So I had everyone except the battleships and submarines practice their boost dodging, with the battleships acting as the shooters firing dud rounds at low-power to avoid anything beyond moderate damage. I wanted the girls to practice managing their boosting with their other actions on the field to make their combat efficiency as...well, as efficient as possible. That sounded dumb.
Today's supply drop contained the light cruisers' weapons that Kitakami had asked that I get for them - a very big surprise. I suspect there's someone at HQ who's secretly like an American sympathizer or something and is getting my weapon orders through. A few 14cm naval guns, a 15.5cm Triple Gun Mount, and even a 20.3cm Twin Mount, for some reason. But when I tried to have Kitakami and Ooi equip extra 14cm naval guns, they found that to their dismay, they couldn't. They had only enough data processing power to handle two weapon sets at any given time. Kitakami and Ooi were both terribly disappointed by this to the point where they even apologized to me for making me go through all the trouble of even getting them and their fellow light cruisers extra equipment when they neglected to realize that they themselves didn't even have the space to equip any of it. I said it was fine; they had the choice of choosing whichever weapons they wanted to bring with them into combat, but they insisted on letting me choose for them. I ended up having Ooi keep both her quad torpedo mounts, but I had Kitakami switch out one of her quad torpedo launchers for the 20.3cm Twin Gun Mount, so now she has heavy cruiser-level shelling power and still retains a significant amount of torpedo power. It still hurts to cut Kitakami's torpedo prowess in half, but having Kitakami equip a standard gun like this would solve Kitakami's complaint of not having enough staying power and battle relevancy in combat.
How light cruisers can equip heavy cruiser equipment is way beyond me. So don't even ask. They just...can.
I had Yahagi equip an extra 14cm naval gun and Akashi equip the 15.5cm triple gun mount. Since we had two more 14cm naval guns left over, I gave one to Suzuya for additional firepower (she wanted to kiss me for that, which I declined) and the other to Atago, who's got the Automated Reloader Mk. II augmentation and thus will make more effective use out of having an additional gun.
With that done, I sent the fleet to Dog District again. Today's satellite image photos revealed that something's going on over at Dog Five, the central island of Dog District's five islands, and I think HQ wants me to send the fleet in to find out what. The fleet's objective was to penetrate Dog District's southern defenses and get close enough to Dog Five in between Dog Three and Four so that the carriers could launch their fleets of recon planes to Dog Five. Most likely, anti-air defenses of the district will gun down most of the recon planes before they can reach their destination, and even if they do, getting out is even more unlikely. But as probability states, and as Russia vouches, if you throw enough shit at something, eventually you'll get what you want. All we need is one plane's worth of information. That's it.
I told the fleet that this was going to be the riskiest mission profile I was giving them since the last night battle, the battle in which both Yuudachi and Kiyoshimo fell. I told them that I didn't want to see any of them have to leave this base in body bags again, since I'd seen enough of them in my own time.
The fleet gave me an excellent salute - one of the best platoon salutes I've ever received.
Right before deployment, Yuudachi and Samidare came up to me and both gave me a hug, at the same time.
"Just in case..." they said.
Upon hearing this, I hugged the two of them back.
And of course, Suzuya pushes the two of them out of the way and hugs me, demanding that I give her some attention too. Goddamn it, Suzuya.
So many flags raised that I thought my base was celebrating International Flag Day.
With that being said, I deployed them.
I spent today helping Mamiya, Irako, and Houshou do some spring cleaning, as we'd call it in America. Tidying up the base and whatnot, especially the places where they really needed it. When they wanted me to help them clean up the ship girls' dorms, I tried to decline, saying that it'd be rude of me to go in for the sake of cleaning, but they told me not to worry about it. So what a fun day I had, going through my own ship girls' personal stuff and tossing various articles of old clothing into laundry baskets and whatnot. Yes, that also meant that I handled my ship girls' panties. Oooh, perverted, someone call the MP on me already, boo fuckin' hoo.
After that, I just took a nap in my office. Another sleep attack hit me after we finished cleaning, so I indulged it and laid down on the couch. Batsubyou joined me, sprawling out on my belly and napping with me. I woke up a bit later to find Chika also snuggling up next to me on the edge of the couch and Toyoda sniffing at my face. It appears he likes to sniff my face. A lot.
When I woke up again, I found Akebono sitting against the front of the couch, sleeping sitting up. Chika was in her lap, also napping, and Toyoda was lying down next to her, also asleep. I put my hand on Akebono's shoulder to see who it was, since the room was dark and I couldn't see her face properly, and Akebono woke up from that, grabbed Chika from her lap, and bolted straight out of my office.
What the hell was that all about?
Takao, the flagship for today's mission, left the post-action mission report on my desk already, so I got up and flipped through it.
The fleet had no trouble infiltrating Dog District and, as ordered, stationed themselves at the waters in between Dog Three and Four. The carriers launched basically all but a few of their recon planes, and anyone else who had recon planes launched theirs too at Takao's orders to help out. However, the Abyssals got wind of what the fleet was doing and reinforced Dog District way quicker than the fleet was expecting, and they surrounded the fleet. Basically, the mission turned into a desperate hold-out mission until the planes could come back, and the Abyssals started their long-range bombardments onto the fleet.
Then Seal Team Six showed up. With four MV-22B Ospreys all modified to have bomb-bay doors, they made it rain with clusterbombs all over the Abyssal lines. They didn't just drop bombs - they dropped Akebono Kai right on top of them too. Whatever Seal Team Six did to Akebono, I don't think Akebono qualifies as a mere destroyer anymore. Well...unless you take her title literally.
Akebono had over 40 confirmed kills today. Over half of her kills were against heavy cruisers, battleships, and carriers. On top of this, she fought alone for nearly an hour, ripping open a huge hole in the Abyssal surround with her own hands so that the fleet had an exit plan if they needed to evacuate until Yuudachi, Murakumo, Samidare, and Wakaba came to reinforce her and back her up. Without Akebono's and Seal Team Six's intervention, today's mission may have ended up just like that last Operation Blackout mission. Akebono was, without a doubt, today's MVP.
Upon checking my email, I found a nice little note from Seal Team Six.
"Hope you liked our supply drop - sorry we couldn't deliver her straight to Okinawa, we're having some issues on our end here dealing with 3rd Echelon.
By the way, expect Shigure sometime next week. If you think what we did with Akebono was cool, you ain't seen nothin' yet."
As it turns out, Akebono Kai's new stock equipment are the 10cm Twin High-Angle Gun Mount and a 61cm Triple Torpedo Launcher, unlike the other Kai destroyers' Quad Torpedo Launchers. However, Akebono's triple torpedo launcher is special: it carries double the standard amount of torpedoes of a normal triple torpedo launcher at 90 torpedoes (more than even Kitakami Kai's or Ooi Kai's! Holy shit!), and it has a built-in Shotgun Ordinance-style mechanism that allows it to launch all three torpedoes from its tubes simultaneously, and it doesn't need an augmentation to do this, it's just part of the weapon itself. But perhaps the most dangerous aspect of her torpedo launcher is that it configures her torpedoes to have multiple-torpedo warheads. In other words, Akebono's torpedoes, when fired, can now fire three smaller 20.3cm armor- and shield-piercing torpedoes from their warheads, basically tripling her torpedo power.
It's like having a gun that shoots more guns...that shoot even more guns...then shoot bullets...that also shoot guns...
Akebono Kai also received her own internal augmentation: Slayer. This augmentation allows Akebono to exponentially ramp up her damage capabilities depending on the strength of her target, meaning that her weapons are most effective against capital Abyssals or any of the bigger Abyssal ship types. You do the math: torpedoes that launch extra piercing torpedoes, making every single one of Akebono's 90 torpedoes quadruple torpedo launchers in themselves, and her Slayer augmentation. And let's not forget Akebono's Ammo Manufacturer, meaning that Akebono has an endless supply of overpowered torpedoes. It's little wonder that Akebono slayed so many of the Abyssal battleships by herself - she'd been one-shotting most of them, and she didn't have to use more than two torpedoes to kill.
With this, Akebono has just earned her rank as one of the most powerful ship girls in the fleet. I'm not sure if she's the undisputed most powerful destroyer just yet, because Yuudachi with her Nightmare Protocol and Wakaba with her JDAM converter can give Akebono a run for her money, but if Akebono's torpedoes hit, whatever they hit is gonna feel it.
I saw Akebono again at late dinnertime, talking with Hatsuharu and Wakaba about torpedo tactics, but when she realized that I was coming over, Akebono fell quiet. I welcomed Akebono back to base and told her that she'd done an excellent job today getting the fleet out of a tight pinch. Akebono tried to put up a tough facade and image, saying things like "Of course, this's how strong I'm meant to be, after all!" and stuff like that. Wakaba called in a deadpan voice to continue praising Akebono, so I took her advice and began praising Akebono lots with stuff like how strong she was and how proud I was of having her in my fleet. Thus, Akebono's steam boilers overheated too quickly, and she punched me in the gut screaming "You fucking shitty Admiral!" as usual and booked it out of the cafeteria without bothering to put away her dinner.
Hatsuharu said that she would be there to attend my funeral, for which I thanked her.