Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014.
Day One of Operation Rising Sun. At the rate we're going and seeing what we've done today, it's looking like this'll be a short op.
We got up nice 'n early for the day - 0430 hours, when the night was still dark. Seal Team Six gave Kiyoshimo their last piece of equipment they had in store for her - the Yamato Cannon Type 0. Because of all the modernized weapon sets Kiyoshimo's already loaded with, they had to downscale the power of her original Type 0 Cannon, but otherwise it's the same as ever - goes right onto her 12.7cm secondary gun and works the same way. It's only fitting - Kiyoshimo and her Yamato Cannon is what makes this world right.
Before we embarked, I lined up the girls in parade fashion to give them a customary military speech that military officers tend to give their troops before a major excursion or major operation. I meant to just give the fleet a few words of encouragement and thank them for all the time that we'd spent together, however short that time might've been. But as usual, I got too caught up in the moment and turned my little speech into some kind of Hollywood movie-esque motivational speech, like I was trying to reenact Denzel Washington from Remember the Titans or whatever, I don't remember. By the end of it, half the platoon was in tears, and the soldiers around us, including the members of Seal Team Six, stood in full salute. With this grand opening, we set off.
As according to the initial plans of Operation Rising Sun, Carrier Strike Group 10, the fleet that transported the Moebius Platoon and Seal Team Six and me to the rendezvous point, linked up with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Navy, consisting of their listed fourteen ships. Today, just in this venture alone, we have made history: this is the single biggest naval battle in recent military history, the likes of which haven't been seen since the Second World War itself, probably even bigger.
And again, as according to plan, I transferred my fleet and myself onto my flagship, the U.S.S. George Washington. It was good to see the familiar faces of the veterans aboard my ship, the battle-hardened, the survivors, the faithful. The ship girls stared in awe when we came up onto the flight deck, seeing rows upon rows upon rows of soldiers and sailors all lined up in front of us in formal salute. I only gave my men a few words - let's give our baby the biggest goodbye party we could get.
With this, I took command of my old carrier strike group and kicked off the op. In light of our pre-emptive strike at Sector B to recover our ship girls and Losira over the weekend, there are two steps to Operation Rising Sun: the first step is to find the remnants of the Abyssal fleet, round them up, and systematically exterminate them. None of them are to escape and survive; the Japanese want to turn Sector B into a completely inhabitable combat zone, and they're going to get their wish because of the second step, which is to destroy all facilities on Sector B territories, all at once. With over two dozen modern warships equipped with the latest inventions of mass destruction, the second step won't be a problem. The first step is the bigger threat - and even then, it didn't seem that big of a threat to begin with.
I spent the majority of my free time in San Pedro developing as much battle information as I could from what I learned over the weekend, so going into Day One of Op. Rising Sun was a smooth transition. It took us roughly until 1800 hours to finally corner the Abyssal fleet near Charlie District, where they were trying to train the last of their newly constructed carriers for an imminent battle, and we pounced on their weakness. Instead of sending in initial airstrikes to soften up the enemy, I ordered the platoon to be deployed first, coordinating their supporting airstrikes exactly so that the bombs would land just as the platoon arrived on scene. Previously, while the first set of airstrikes did damage the enemy fleet a lot, they had ample time to gather themselves and counterattack the fleet. But with today's battle, it was a no-contest. With the platoon shelling away at them right after the airstrikes hit them, the Abyssals couldn't muster up their surviving forces well enough or recuperate individually to put up anywhere close to a fight, and the platoon just shrekt them hard. The entire battle didn't even last an hour. Anti-climatic as all hell, but I prefer it to be this way - an absolute, guaranteed victory in which I know none of my girls will be sunk. We spent the rest of the night going around Sector B making sure that there were no more Abyssals sneaking around, and the JMSDF submarines patrolled the outer perimeters of Sector B to ensure that no Abyssal escaped to sail elsewhere around the world, and we started the first stages of napalming all the islands of Sector B. Everything needed to be destroyed. The Abyssals would receive not even a shred of a chance to rebuild here ever again.
Needless to say, I'm sure that the right-wingers in the Japanese government will be very disappointed when the JMSDF navy reports back to them on what happened for Day One of their glorious operation. To remind you again, they want me to die in this operation, and that's why they've asked that I, the commander of the Moebius Platoon, lead the American carrier strike group in the final battle against the Abyssals in the hopes that I would become a casualty of war. Well, unfortunately, it's rather hard to become such a casualty if your platoon wipes out any semblance of resistance within an hour. I suppose I'll just have to watch my back for the next few weeks or so, at least until I get decommissioned from my post.
After the platoon defeated the remnants of the Abyssal forces and before they RTB'd to end combat maneuvers for Day One, I spent some time catching up with my men and officers. Many of them consider me like an older brother, because just as how ol' man Terryfield taught me to be the kind of officer I am now, I spent a lot of time dedicated to training my own subordinates to succeed my position in the event of me suffering a debilitating wound or dying, so we all more or less are on good terms. I spent almost an hour talking with one of them, Warrant Officer Morrigan, who's actually my underclassman from Hargraves. He's a good kid, a promising officer, the kind whom I can leave the duties of my position if I ever do fall in combat.
The fleet returned to my flagship at 2300 hours. I congratulated all of them on their splendid and flawless performance - none of them took anything more than light damage. Kiyoshimo was especially proud of herself, and Naganami and Hayashimo looked ecstatic when they came aboard. Sure seems like the reconstruction of Kiyoshimo was the glue that those two destroyers needed to really start meshing together, and Kiyoshimo's already become accustomed to addressing the two of them as her fellow ship sisters.
Mamiya and Irako whipped us up a hot dinner of hearty udon, and with the fleet's help, Houshou even managed to cook up enough Hakata ramen right there aboard the flight deck of our supercarrier flagship to feed the entire crew - something that I don't know how we even pulled off, but we did. I served up the ramen with Houshou, and my men saluted us as they got their bowls of ramen, as something like this is just about as common as sailors like themselves getting pay raises - in other words, it never happens. I told my men that if they wanted to salute anyone, they ought to salute Houshou, so that's what they did. Houshou said she was being given too much credit.
I took my own bowl of Hataka ramen and went over to the edge of the flight deck to sit at my favorite spot of the entire carrier. Even though it's dangerous and honestly a stupid idea, I really like sitting with my legs just dangling over the edge. God knows what would happen to me if I were to fall overboard, but it's never happened, and even if I did fall over, I don't think I would stop sitting here. It's just calming - being able to sit on the edge of my flagship, watching the black, all-encompassing atmosphere of the sea salt in the air, the dark water some dozens of feet beneath, and the stretch of uninterrupted air and sky, with the stars out in full force to twinkle their joyous lights across the sky, wherever I am in the world. There's something very calming about this experience that I won't ever forget, and every chance I get to experience it, I'll seize it.
The Akatsuki-Class destroyers, having already eaten their ramen, found me sitting at the edge of the carrier and asked me what I was doing, and I told them that I was doing what I liked to do most while on my flagship: stargazing at the end of my ship. So they joined me - though Inazuma and Akatsuki were scared of just how high off the sea surface we were, so they sat behind me, Ikazuchi, and Hibiki. Hibiki was unusually bold and seated herself on my lap, and even though I told her it might be dangerous for the both of us to sit like that, Hibiki said that she would save me from becoming hurt if we were to fall overboard. In response to this, Inazuma and Ikazuchi held onto both ends of my military officer's jacket so that I wouldn't tip over.
We talked about all sorts of nothings. Small talk, miscellaneous stuff. They asked me about what my favorite foods were, how long I'd been serving aboard such a big and cool ship like this, and how much stronger I thought they would get. Things like that, things that kids that the Akatsuki-Class destroyers appear to be would ask. I now really understand why the Akatsuki-Class destroyers were the darlings of the fleet - you can't hate them at all for anything. Akatsuki might be always going on and on about how she wants to be a mature lady, but the ways in which she fails are always hilarious; Hibiki is the ideal kuudere-style girl, always obedient, hard-working, and beautiful; Ikazuchi is the fleet's designated "loli-okan", or the loli-mother, always trying to help everyone and everything; and Inazuma is the clumsy-cute archetype.
But it wasn't long before the other ship girls found us and came to hang out; eventually the edge of the ship got crowded enough to the point where I decided that for everyone's safety, we should move to the middle of the flight deck, where we hung out on top of the various fighter planes that are parked out on the top deck. We had lots of fun pointing out the various constellations in the sky, and it got pretty chaotic when Taigei, who was trying to sneak her way over to me to cuddle up with me, got steamrolled by her submarines, who dogpiled on top of her and me, as collateral.
Tomorrow should be the end. We finish bombing Sector B, and we go back to base for the final time and await confirmation of the inevitable. This war is almost over...I just need to give the last orders, and that's another war I can tuck under my belt.
Hmm...someone's knocking at my door...at this hour?