AN: Tons of support guys, thanks for all of it. I'm really enjoying the work I'm putting into this story now. I can't guarantee any kind of regular posting schedule, but I won't be leaving the story on such a long hiatus as I did previously.
(insert usual ownership disclaimer here)
"So, you two are the girls who everyone has been chattering away about, hm~?"
A heavy steel door closes behind an American destroyer and cruiser, locking them inside the heavily reinforced cell used to hold shipgirls who represent a danger to themselves or others. Heavy, shipgirl quality, steel chains are attached to the walls and ceiling, leading to a single individual retrained in the center of the room. All this security was in place to restrain a single prisoner, a single shipgirl, a single battleship.
"Unknown battleship of the North Carolina-class," begins the cruiser, "you were recently charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault, assaulting a superior officer, multiple counts of attempted murder, multiple counts of destruction of federal property, and… multiple counts of sexual assault."
Behind the cruiser, the destroyer shifts uncomfortably as the list of charges are read out. Of the shipgirls inside the cell, only she carries any weapons, a full load of Mark 15 torpedoes. They have one purpose, to provide a way to destroy the prisoner inside the cell, while being unusable by the prisoner themselves.
"My, my, if you have all the records on that, you must be here for something important, hm~?" The source of the words is barely visible among the chains restraining the battleship, but the cruiser can see the glint of their eyes, staring at the two ships. "So tell me, just what are two 'princesses' here to discuss with this 'demon', hm~?"
"We are here to offer you a second chance. My name is Midlothian, Pensacola-class cruiser, and senior shipgirl with the Experimental Summoning Program. I have been authorized to offer you conditional pardon for all charges, in return for your complete cooperation with the ESP."
"And who's the small one, hm~? She looks just wonderfully adorable."
The destroyer can feel a shiver go down her spine, as even the gaze of this battleship alone makes her feel… unclean.
"If you are going to decline this offer, then we're done here. I will inform the Master at Arms, there is no longer any objection to your scrapping and execution," states Midlothian, making as if to mark something off on her clipboard.
"Now, now, let's not be hasty, hm~. I never said I was turning you down," replies the battleship. "There is just one question I'd like you to answer before I give you my response. Does this program of yours, need the strength to kill?"
"Yes."
"I'm picking a weak return on air-search radar," reports Cole, finally breaking the silence which had been stretching on torturously since the last conversation between the destroyers. "Are either of you picking up anything? I may be getting a false positive."
Fubuki glances up at the sky for several moments. "I'm not picking up anything yet, Cole-san. Whatever you're picking up, it's probably not in range of my own radar yet."
The American destroyer nods in response. She had momentarily forgotten about the shortcomings of Japanese radar. There would be no way of confirming her radar contact until it arrived within range of their radar. Still, it was only a single air contact, possibly a civilian airliner, as air travel had not been disrupted in the way sea travel had. The alternative, however, was more worrying, as a single air contact could be a floatplane launched by an enemy ship, which would mean an abyssal of light cruiser class or larger, or a scout plane from a carrier, potentially close enough to threaten the convoy.
"Contact is to the northwest; assume a preparatory formation on the northwest side of the convoy and prepare for potential enemy contact," Cole orders. "It could be a surface or air attack, so be prepared for either."
"Hai!"
The waiting is tense, but as the radar contact refuses to disappear, Cole becomes certain the threat is real, and everything is only confirmed when Fubuki and Akebono report conact on their air-search radars as well. For a moment, the radar contact disappears, and is then replaced by a cluster of incoming returns on the radar.
"Incoming air attack!" shouts Cole, to her comrades as well as the ships of the convoy.
With the rise of the abyssal threat, even civilian vessels carry at least manually operated light anti-aircraft guns, with some even receiving old 40mm and 76mm gun mounts salvaged from the Mothball Fleet. Crewmen aboard the freighters rush to man guns mounted at the bow and stern as general quarters is sounded aboard the vessels. While the success rate for anti-air weapons aboard escorted vessels is low, they often manage to at least fill the air with enough lead as to give shipgirls defending them a far better chance to shoot down the abyssal attackers.
Far off in the distance, silhouetted by the clouds, Cole spots a cluster of dots, the enemy aircraft being tracked by her radar. She prepares her main battery, loading them with VT shells, while mentally cursing that she's going to bearing the brunt of the work facing down the abyssal aircraft. The anti-aircraft weapons of the Japanese navy were frankly awful, and Cole didn't expect her squadron mates to contribute much more than fancy tracer fire.
The first abyssal fighters close in on the convoy, leading the bombers in for their attack runs, and are met with black bursts of smoke, spewing fragmentation into the air. There aren't as many aircraft would be in a strike by a fleet carrier abyssal, indicating the attack is coming an abyssal light carrier of some sort. Cole's shells are joined by Fubuki and Akebono's, but the slow rate of fire from the Japanese destroyers means the majority of the damage to the incoming aircraft is caused by Cole's proximity fuzed shells. Many of the aircraft are at least struck by the incoming fire, with some falling into the sea while trailing streams of black smoke. As the distance closes, Cole's 40mm Bofors guns, manned by her fairy crew, open fire. The aircraft are not yet in range of Fubuki and Akebono's own 25mm guns and both destroyers watch nervously as the bombers move closer. Normally, they wouldn't feel the apprehension they do, but only being able to fire off periodic main battery salvoes, while someone else is putting out the majority of the anti-air fire as they wait causes a growing feeling of nervousness.
'Ajax-sensei said she was working on a way refit our riggings to use VT shells and add some improved AA directors. We'll be able to help out more in air-defense. I bet even Akizuki will be jealous.'
The Japanese destroyers open fire with their batteries of 25mm guns with the range now proper. With the number of aircraft thinned out by Cole's fire, even the relatively ineffective, compared to the 40mm Bofors, 25mm guns put up enough fire to begin knocking abyssal dive bombers out of the air. The merchant marine vessels make themselves known as well, their Marine gun crews opening fire with the longest ranged of their available weapons, some salvaged 3-inch/50 caliber guns capable of firing VT fuzed shells. While not as effective as shipgirl weapons, human weapons which function using WW2 era technology or similar are still capable of damaging abyssal ships and aircraft. This same reason is why the remaining ships preserved by the United States from WW2 were being refurbished as rapidly as possible, but that's beside the point.
With a single light carrier's worth of aircraft attacking the convoy, and not in very coordinated fashion, the combined AA fire of the three destroyers and the cargo vessels manages to drive off the enemy aircraft, with the worst damage being fragmentation by a near-miss from a bomb striking one of the container ships.
"Radar shows they're pulling away, probably regrouping at their carrier," reports Cole. She falls silent for nearly an entire awkward minute, holding one hand to her ear, seeming to be listening to some kind of incoming message. "Surface radar isn't picking up anything, so it must have just been an aerial raid. Once we get back to base, we'll be home free; a second escort group will be taking over for us and covering the rest of the convoy's route to Australia."
"Isn't that an awfully short escort mission for us to be responsible for?" questions Akebono. "Do they not trust us to handle this job or something?"
"Akebono-san is right, Cole-san, this is an awfully short escort mission," says Fubuki.
"Ah, right, I forgot the two of you aren't keyed into the SIPRnet yet. Might be hard to integrate you guys into actually, not without a CIC," explains Cole. "There was a message from base. Apparently something important came up, so command diverted an RAN escort group to take over for us."
"What kind of thing happens way out here that's more important than escort missions?" asks Akebono with mild irritation.
"Oh, I don't know maybe like, assassination?" Cole states with a straight face.
Dead silence falls over the destroyer squadron.
"What." There isn't even a question mark behind Akebono's word.
"Joking, I'm joking."
'For some reason I have doubts about that actually being a joke,' thinks Fubuki. 'but there's no way she's actually serious.'
Admiral Jacob Carter rests his elbows on his desk, steepling his fingers and looking at the trio of shipgirls in front of him. The sheaf of papers laid out on his desk has been shuffled to one side, with his computer monitor now taking front and center.
"I've already informed Cole about what's coming up, so you'll all be able to get started as soon as she gets back to base. I don't think it needs to be explained that our guests are not to be informed of this mission. They'll be remaining in the rear for the time being," briefs the Admiral.
"Of course, sir," responds Midlothian, casting a sideways glance towards Autumn, "I'll make sure of it."
"Right then, moving on," continues Carter. "We got a call from the JMSDF contingent based in Sasebo; they've had an incident with one of their destroyers. Reports are that the destroyer's conditioning started breaking after a squadron of our destroyers passed through, towing several PT dogs. On base services had the situation under control, but during an emergency operation alongside a group of Standards from the local US contingent, it appears conditioning broke completely. Two battleships, West Virginia and Maryland were struck by torpedoes, confirmed to be friendly fire. The destroyer responsible has not been seen since the battle, officially, she's been sunk, unofficially her transponder has still been active."
Carter pulls up a map on his computer screen, turning the monitor around for his shipgirls to see.
"As you can see, she's managed to travel further than her fuel load should have allowed her to, so we can assume this goes beyond just broken conditioning," Carter says gravely. "Command has authorized us to enact contingency operations if necessary, but a peaceful resolution would be preferred; the JMSDF would rather not lose one of their lucky ships. Again, I am going to reiterate, our Japanese contingent, must not know. Our work is already more complicated than it needs to be thanks to their mere presence, don't make it any harder."
"Understood, sir," says Everest, in one of her few moments of serious demeanor. There's an unusual light in her eyes as she eyes the picture of the destroyer in question on Carter's screen. "I assume I'll be responsible for the contingency plan?"
"Yes, you and Autumn will be the contingency group," replies Admiral Carter. "Midlothian, you and Cole will be making initial contact, while Horizon provides distant overwatch. This is our first time performing a recovery operation in several months, but I trust all of you to perform as usual. Midlothian, you have on-site command, Horizon, you'll be second in command."
The briefing breaks up, as the shipgirls leave to make their preparations for the operation. Midlothian earmarks some supplies in her ledger to set aside a stockpile of ammunition and fuel for rapid resupply of Cole upon her return, and passes off the paperwork to a trio of fairies who salute and respond with tiny "hey!"s, and a single squeaky "hooyah!". The cruiser leaves the fairies to deliver the report to their counterparts at the resource warehouses, and makes her way to her rigging in the armory to perform pre-mission checks and maintenance.
Pre-mission jitters are normal, everyone has them, and everyone SHOULD have them, especially before a mission like this. So why am I feeling so excited?
I'm… I'm disappointed… I'm disappointed… in you guys…
AN: yeah. Sorry. I couldn't resist the lure of the grimdark. Grimdark for everyone! I'll be disappointed in you guys if it took you until the final line to figure out who the rogue destroyer is.