8530. All Refits/Rebuilds/Modernisations are to be signed off by the commanding Admiral.
As usual Scapa Flow was a hive of activity, shipgirls of all classes and types going around their business, either training, preparing for a convoy run, or simply relaxing after one, just a regular day at Scapa, however, what nobody seemed to notice was the observer watching them from a nearby hill, she remember the last time this had happened, it had been during the War, and like then she had been forced to sit and watch as her fellow ships had gone about there lives, whilst she had lain beached as a part of the harbour. The figure longed for the days of combat she remembered, and the thrill of the fight she had felt during them. But those days were long past, and now even in physical form, she found herself trapped in Scapa Flow once more, had she been able to swallow her pride, she might have thrown in the towel like Centurion had, but she couldn't, no matter how much Centurion, one of only two ships that even acknowledged her presence, tried to convince her to do so, sighing to herself, she silently wished that Belfast would hurry up and get back from Japan, she could do with talking to someone normal about normal things, chats with Centurion tended to end up on her 'bedroom habits'. However, as the figure moved to leave, she didn't notice that she too was being observed, Vanguard couldn't remember who she was exactly, but there was something familiar about her, her curiosity peaked Vanguard decided to discover this figure identity, and maybe the reason she seemed so sad, and that meant making a long distance call.
"Oh, you've discovered Ide, or rather Iron Duke, she tends to shy away from everyone, your actually only the third shipgirl who knows she exist's" Belfast explained over a video call, causing Vanguard to facepalm, now she remembered, HMS Iron Duke, lead ship of her class, Flagship of the Grand Fleet at Jutland; she had served for over 30-years before being sold for scrap, at least that was one question answered, but for such a grand ship, she had seemed upset, clearly there was more to this story.
"Ok, but she looked sad, I'm mean she looked miserable, any idea why?" Vanguard asked, despite being the most aloof shipgirl on the planet, Belfast was actually one of the most knowledgeable shipgirls there were, behind Victory and some of the older shipgirls.
"Yeah, its because she feels useless all the time, shes too outdated to fight and she knows it, but she can't bring herself to retire, Centurion has actually trying to persuade her to do so, and I'm thinking about whether I should do as well, but her pride stops her everytime" Belfast answered, causing Vanguard to feel sorry for the old battleship, she remembered her career as what had been described as a 'white elephant', she'd felt out of place amongst ships like KGV and her sisters, all hardened combat veterans, there had to be something she could do for her, and casting her mind back, Vangaurd for some reason rembered researching the proposed rebuild for the Revenge class, something Admiral Cunningham had asked her to do, right before he'd gone off the deep end, which had left the project buried in the ensuing chaos, pondering on this infomation, Vangaurd felt an Idea blosum in the back of her mind, a crazy insane idea, and those were the ones she liked, "Vanguard!, I know your scheming face, remeber you banned from any experiments after you summoned the Lions!" Belfast cautioned, but before Vanguard could even reply, she stuck up her finger to signify she hadn't finished, "So whatever your thinking of doing, make sure you don't get caught, and don't annoy Collingwood either" she added giving a sly smile, before ending the call, leaving Vanguard alone to flesh out her plan, and a few days of planning, gathering resources and willingly helping hands, Vanguard was ready to put her plan into action.
Consciousness came slowly to Iron Duke, the last thing she remembered was someone grabbing her and injecting her with something, no doubt a sedative of some kind, a quick glance around her revealed she was lying on a slab in one of the refit workshops, just how long had she been out of it?, a quick look at her internal chronometer revealed she'd been out cold for at least 2 days, just what the hell was going on!.
"Ah, your awake, I was wondering when you'd come round" Vanguard commented, causing Iron Duke to jump surprise, only to immediately summon her rigging in self-defence, Vanguard however simply looked on.
"Stay back, I have 10, 13.5-inch guns and I know how to use them!" Iron Duke barked, Vanguard however just looked amused at what she had said.
"I think you'll find your wrong on both counts there" Vanguard replied, an all-knowing smile plastered across her face, leaving Iron Duke a tad confused, it was widely accepted that the science shipgirls all had a screw loose, but how could Vanguard fail to see Iron Duke's five twin turrets, only for Iron Duke to realise that her Q turret, what had been her midships turret was gone, "Yeah, I had to remove that to make space for the new power plant" Vangaurd continued, as Iron Duke looked on in disbelif, new power plant? what the hell had Vanguard done to her?.
"What have you done to me!" Iron Duke demanded, the anger in her voice replaced by one of fear, she was starting to get freaked out.
"Well other than the new power plant, I've updated your fire control, up-gunned your 13.5's, to 14-inch guns, using some spare guns off of the KGV's, replaced your aa suite and fitted you with radar and torpedo bulges, you know, the usual stuff for a rebuilding/modernisation plan" Vanguard explained, only for the door to the workshop to be kicked down by a pissed looking Admiral Cunningham, backed up by pissed looking KGV and Yorkie, and a murderous-looking Centurion.
"Leave Ide alone you Bitch!" Centurion screamed as she pushed past the others, Vanguard simply sighed before turning to face the older battleship.
"Oh come on, I haven't even done anything bad this time, all I did was..." Vanguard began to explain only to be interrupted by Centurion punching her in the face, Iron Duke however, was still trying to process what Vanguard had done, she couldn't have done all of that, but one quick check confirmed everything she had said, Vanguard had completely rebuild and modernised her by WW2 standards, the only question was why?.
"Centi, wait!" Iron Duke ordered, preventing Centurion from landing another punch on Vanguard, who hadn't tried to defend herself, for fear of hurting the older battleship, "Why did you do all this?" Iron Duke asked, Vanguard simply turned to face her.
"Well when I saw you the other day, I got curious and asked Belfast about you, and well she said that you were upset because you couldn't see combat anymore because of your age, but couldn't face retirement, so I thought 'hey here's a good idea, why don't I rebuild and modernise her, that ought to make her feel better', so I did my research and, well here we are!" Vanguard explained, leaving everyone present speechless, of all the shipgirls to do something risky and selfless, Vanguard wasn't even in the top 100 candidates.
"You did all that, just to make me feel better?" Iron Duke wondered, causing Vanguard to simply smiled.
"Yeah, what can I say, I don't like seeing people upset" Vanguard answered as a trickle of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth, Centurion had hit her pretty damn hard, Iron Duke however, felt something she hadn't felt in a long time, she felt happy.
"Come here you" Iron Duke exclaimed as she pulled Vanguard into an embrace, whilst the rest of the shipgirls filed out, followed by Admiral Collingwood, who made his way back to his office, firstly to cancel the proposed gunnery practice, with Vanguard as the target, and secondly to make a new rule for the list, sometimes he hated his life
