Chapter 13-
Marne kept his head down as the Jeep drove slowly through the shouting crowd of reporters.
"Captain, how long has the Navy been working with the ship-girls?"
"Are we going to see them in action soon?"
"Hey, Admiral!"
Marne looked up. "Captain," he snapped, only to realize his mistake when a half-dozen flashbulbs went off. Growling to himself, he looked back down again. "Let's get into the base, Private Belloni!"
"Aye aye, sir." Belloni abruptly gunned the engine, causing some of the braver or more annoying reporters- it was hard to express the difference- to leap out of the way. The gate guard saluted nervously, immediately closing the gate behind them as the reporters crowded around.
"Couldn't we just shoot them, sir?" asked Belloni critically, looking into the rear view mirror at the crowd.
"No, you can't shoot reporters."
"Why not?"
"No idea."
The Jeep rolled through the base, garnering several salutes. With all pretensions of secrecy gone, more and more personnel were arriving every day. It bustled with activity. Crates of supplies were being off-loaded to the storage building near the entrance, causing Belloni to swerve to avoid an inattentive truck driver. Belloni shouted something in Italian at him, causing the truck driver- a civilian- to shout something back in the same language.
"What was that all about, Belloni?"
"Uh, I was expressing my mild disdain for his driving habits."
"And his reply?"
"He was giving me some advice."
They flew past a sandbagged flak gun. Beyond that, the airfield buzzed with taxiing aircraft. Two P-51 Mustangs followed one another across the airstrip, engines roaring. "Army Air Corps is here in full force, I notice."
Finally, they pulled up to the administrative building. Security was less designed for secrecy and now focused on defense; they found themselves under the intense and slightly worrying scrutiny of the guards. Two .30 caliber machine guns pointed casually in their general direction.
A Marine sergeant stepped up. "Papers, Captain?" he asked politely.
Marne handed over his identification. After checking the picture against Marne, the sergeant stepped back and saluted briskly. "Good morning, sir. Have a nice day."
Returning the salute, Marne sat back down in the Jeep as Belloni pulled it into a parking space. "How are the girls doing, Belloni?"
The young private had found himself assigned to the guard that watched the ship-girls- a consequence of the night that had led to the loss in secrecy. Though seeming less ill at ease than he had been, he still showed no signs of viewing it as the envied position the rest of the Marines on base saw it as. "Raring to go, sir. They've added three new ones overnight."
"Really?" said Marne, surprised. "That's fast."
"They came all at once, from what I understand. Destroyers. McCall, Craven, and Gridley."
"Good," said Marne as they alighted from the Jeep. "We can use all the help we can get. With Montpelier and Columbia, we've got a pretty decent fleet going."
"Yes, sir."
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"I suppose you're all wondering why I gathered you here."
The three new destroyers looked blank. The pink-haired one- Craven- leaned over to Gridley. "What's he mean? I thought this was a daily meeting."
Hornet, who had her chair turned around so she was leaning on the back-rest, rolled her eyes. "He says that every morning. I think he's hoping it will be funny if he does it long enough."
"It's hilarious," said Marne. "Anyway, I'll let Enterprise take the meeting from here."
Everyone turned to look at the carrier as she stood. "The President called the Commander personally yesterday," she began.
The ship-girls' heads swiveled back to Marne. "President Roosevelt called you?" said Hornet. "Are you going to get court-martialed?"
"Oh, come on, I'm not that bad."
"Well..."
"The president wants a propaganda coup, now that the cat is out of the bag."
"What's proppy-ganda?" asked San Diego.
"It means they prop us up and say, hey, take a gander at this," said Hornet.
Marne frowned. "That is both wrong and strangely correct."
"In this particular case," said Enterprise, "it means we're going to destroy a large Siren force."
That got everyone's attention. Langley pursed her lips thoughtfully. "The New York base?"
"No, that's too big for what we have in mind," said Enterprise. The Siren base off the coast of New York- some one hundred miles or so away- was one of the largest on the American coast. "Although I actually did push for it. I think the element of surprise would have given us the edge."
"Enterprise," murmured Marne, slightly reproachfully. He wasn't keen on airing command disagreements in a briefing.
She gave him a abashed look- she had a good sense of what was and wasn't appropriate for command staff, even if she did sometimes forget- and forged on. "No, what we're attacking is a fleet that has been patrolling roughly halfway between here and Bermuda."
"Really?" said Langley. "That should be well within range of land based aircraft. Why haven't they dealt with the fleet?"
"Because it's pretty well defended," answered Enterprise. "It's not that the Army Air Corps couldn't take it out, it's that it would be too costly to do so. You know how many bombs it would take to sink an entire Siren fleet?"
"Seven?" guessed San Diego.
"More than that," said Enterprise dryly. "And while the B-17's are dropping those bombs, the Sirens will be shooting them down. Same goes for torpedo bombers and dive-bombers. But we have direct fire weaponry." She nodded at Arizona. "For example, battleships."
"And cruisers," put in Cleveland. "This sounds like fun, Commander."
"Let's hope so. There's one other thing."
Marne nodded. "There are at least three humanoid Sirens with the fleet."
"How dangerous are they?" asked Gridley. "I mean, I haven't fought one."
"I did, when I was a regular ship," said Yorktown. "They have the same advantages we do- speed, maneuverability, size. They're going to be tough opponents."
"Which is why we focus on them as soon as we see them," said Marne. "We'll have them outnumbered, so if we can focus our fire on them one at a time we should hopefully be able to defeat them in detail. We will have some assistance from land-based aircraft, but the bulk of the fighting will fall upon us."
He looked around. "Any questions?"
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Marne yawned.
He had decided to use the Langley as his flagship after long thought. On the one hand, he would have liked to use a powerful, well-defended ship like Arizona; on the other hand, using a ship limited the effectiveness of the girl whose ship it was, since they couldn't have their ship and rigging out at the same time.
Langley was an aircraft carrier, making her a decent command vessel, but also outdated. She would not be as powerful in direct combat as, say, Enterprise.
He had Long Island as a secondary flagship as well, reasoning that if Langley's ship got destroyed, Long Island could carry both of them. Although he had some doubts about that plan.
"Long Island," he said, his voice carefully controlled. "Did you glue my paperwork together?"
"Surprise!" she shouted. "Long Island is sneaky!"
He exchanged an exasperated glance with Langley. "We'll talk about this when we get back to port." He turned away from the suddenly apprehensive Long Island to the radio. "Report."
"No contact, Commander," replied Gridley instantly. "We estimate another hour before we have a reasonable chance of making contact based on their known patrol patterns."
"That's what I guessed, too," replied Marne. "Keep me posted."
"It's unwise to pester them like that," said Langley. "It makes you look nervous."
He shot her a look, about to snap, but realized she wasn't wrong. "Good point," he said with a sigh. "I'm not used to commanding a fleet."
"It's a bit different," agreed Langley. "But you should trust us. We may look like young girls, but we have years of experience as warships, not just commanding them. We're more competent than we look."
They heard a snore and both looked at Long Island, who was slumped over in her chair, murmuring softly in her sleep. "In some cases, far more competent than we look," said Langley.
"Contact!"
Marne seized the mike. "Who has contact?"
"Langley, this is Cleveland. We have contact, at least five surface, bearing three one zero."
Marne exchanged a surprised look with Langley. "Confirm three one zero, northwest?"
"Confirmed, contacts northwest."
"This makes no sense," muttered Marne. "Cleveland is on the northwest corner of the fleet. Where are these contacts coming from?"
"Raiding party returning to base?" suggested Langley.
"Maybe, I-"
"Contact," said Gridley briskly. "At least seven surface, bearing eight zero."
"Okay, that will be the main fleet," began Marne.
"Second contact, bearing one six zero, ten plus surface contacts."
"What?"
"Commander," said Long Island behind him, somewhat sheepishly. "You're not going to like this."
"What is it, Long Island?"
"I mean, if you want, I can just go ahead and-"
He closed his eyes and counted to ten. "Long Island, honey, just tell me what you got."
"Okay. Contacts, air, bearing two five five, almost dead astern."
"Okay, now that's impossible," said Marne flatly. "That's the direction we came from."
"Oh, good," said Long Island cheerfully. "I'll just tell everyone to ignore them, then-"
"Wait." Marne held up a hand. "The problem is, the Sirens are always doing something impossible."
"Contact," came Enterprise's voice.
"Oh, come on!"
"Surface and air, bearing one one zero."
Langley was marking a plot with the new contacts. "Hmm. Looks like they have us pretty well surrounded."
Marne studied the plot. "Yeah." He frowned. "It's a trap."
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"Here they come," shouted Gridley.
The first Siren attack aircraft screamed in, blasts of fire striking the ocean around the wildly dodging destroyers. One shot struck near Craven, knocking her off her feet. McCall swept up to her and helped her up.
"Commander, we're under fire! Orders?"
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"I've always wanted to say this," said Marne to Langley.
"You may fire when ready, Gridley."
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Enterprise stood on her deck, watching as the Sirens came on. The first ranging volleys came screaming in, splashing well astern. She ignored them. "Orders, Commander?"
"Engage immediately. Flank speed bearing nine zero."
"Aye, sir, flank speed bearing nine zero." She glanced across towards Yorktown. They were too far apart to see one another's face, but she knew her sister was wearing a frown. They would be heading pell-mell right into the teeth of the attacking Sirens.
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Marne was firing off orders. "Cleveland, head towards us and then make your bearing one zero zero when you are-" he marked off the distance on the plot "-twenty knots north of us."
"Aye, sir, twenty knots north of you then one zero zero."
One by one, he had his fleet converge, then head east toward the largest Siren force.
Langley frowned as she studied his maneuvers. "Commander, what about the other surrounding forces?"
"They messed up. Sure, surrounding an enemy fleet seems fine on paper, but at the distances we're dealing with, they've just given up a major advantage. They can't concentrate their fire." Marne pointed at the converging forces. "We hit the main Siren force hard with our main force, then defeat the others in detail."
"What if they reach us before we can take out the main force?"
"Well, I never thought I'd say this, but thank God for the Army Air Corps." He turned to Long Island. "Get me Colonel Carothers." Carothers was in command of the Army Air Corps B-17's and P-51's that were en-route.
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"Yes, sir," said Captain Wallace acknowledging the orders he had just been given. "Flight, we're headed towards that enemy formation northwest of the main fleet. Stay on my wing." Ignoring the chorus of affirmatives, he glanced at the co-pilot. "Sounds like we get to earn our pay today."
"Damn," said the co-pilot. "I don't like earning our pay."
Wallace gave him a wry look before keying the intercom. "Pilot to bombardier, stay sharp. We should be over the target in five."
"Gotcha, Wally."
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Cleveland saw the first shell splashes and ran to the front of her ship. "Ready, ladies?"
She had finally been joined by some of her sister ships, Montpelier and Columbia. They both nodded at her- they had decided to ride her ship- and without a word, all three girls leapt into the air.
Behind them, the Cleveland dissolved into a shower of shining blue cubes, which flowed toward Cleveland.
With a flash, her rigging appeared.
"Cleveland, ready for battle!"
Her sisters soon echoed her. "Montpelier, ready for action!"
"Columbia, let's do this!"
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"Ooh," said Long Island worriedly. "This is getting exciting. Long Island doesn't like exciting."
"Enterprise?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Engage."
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"Aye, aye, sir!" Closing her eyes, she concentrated.
The ship dissolved into thousands of glowing cubes, shooting towards her. Her bow formed, gripped in her hand. Half a dozen fighters shot forward past her. She jumped onto the last one, glancing over to see Yorktown do the same.
In front of her, the Siren fleet came on. A heavy cruiser belched flame, destroying one of her fighters. Warned by its destruction, the others nimbly avoided the anti-aircraft fire.
Dozens of Siren fighters appeared as if from nowhere, missiles launching as the two carriers flew forward. Their fighters responded, showering the enemy formation with machine-gun fire. Planes exploded, wings pinwheeling through the air, cockpits enveloped in fire.
Enterprise felt her torpedo and dive bombers coming into range. Mentally ordering them to start their attack runs, she raised her bow at the same time. A volley of arrows made of light flew forwards, blasting half a dozen Sirens from the sky.
The first torpedo bombers came in, dropping dead abeam of the Siren heavy cruiser. She watched the torpedo wakes as they slowly made their way to the enemy ship.
So focused was she that she never saw the humanoid Siren as it flew silently toward her.
"Enterprise, look out!" shouted Yorktown.
Her head shot up, her fighter banking so sharply that she nearly lost her grip. Plasma bolts shot past her, splashing into the water below with a hiss and gout of steam.
Two more Sirens appeared, flying practically at wave-top level. Yorktown unleashed a volley at them. They easily dodged the arrows, returning fire and forcing Yorktown to dodge.
"Enterprise to Langley, humanoid Sirens encountered," said Enterprise tightly.
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Langley silently marked the positions as Enterprise's report came through.
"Excellent," remarked Marne. Any sign of nervousness had vanished the moment combat was joined.
Langley gave him a quizzical look.
"They'll never get away now," said Marne in response. He gave her a predatory grin.
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A Siren light cruiser exploded, sending debris high into the air. "Scratch one," said Cleveland to herself. "Who knows how many to go."
"Cleveland, the northwest group is coming up fast," shouted Montpelier.
"One thing at a time," said Cleveland tightly. "Concentrate fire on that Pawn-class."
Her first volley straddled the Pawn, sending it into a tight turn to try and avoid the incoming fire. Cleveland blinked in shock. "They never dodge."
"Maybe they do when there's humanoid Sirens commanding them," said Columbia. She dodged around a volley of five inch shells.
"Point," conceded Cleveland. "Enterprise, the Siren mass-produced vessels are acting smarter than usual. Can you take out the humanoid Sirens?"
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"What does she think we're trying to do here?" muttered Enterprise to herself. The lead Siren fired at her, only to lose focus when Yorktown's fighters dove at her. She blasted two of them out of the sky, but one of the fighters winged her.
"Yorktown!" shouted Enterprise, pointing at the stricken Siren.
"Got it!"
They concentrated fire. The Siren frantically dodged, but moved too close to the water. She splashed down, skipping across the waves while trying to regain control. Enterprise saw her chance, giving a mental command to dive bombers overhead.
The Siren finally managed to stand upright, only to vanish under a series of bomb splashes. When the smoke cleared, she had disappeared.
"Got her!" crowed Enterprise.
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"One target destroyed," reported Langley. "Siren down."
"Outstanding," said Marne. "Good work, Enterprise."
"Still two more here, Commander."
He moved towards the radio. "Don't worry. I have faith in you," he said sincerely."You can do it. You always have."
There was a pause. "I'll do it, Commander," said Enterprise at last. Her voice was slightly rough with emotion.
"That's my girl."
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Flak burst around Wallace's B-17. "Flying Fortress, my ass," he muttered as he heard the whine of fragments ripping through the hull. "Pilot to bombardier, prepare to drop."
"On target, Wally." There was a pause, then Wallace felt the plane jump upward. "Bombs away."
Below them, the Siren ships maneuvered frantically to avoid the waves of bombs pouring from the sky. A few didn't dodge well enough- including the single carrier in the group. Several hits blasted through her flight deck. She came to a halt, burning merrily, before another stick of bombs blew through the already weakened flight deck. One must have struck something flammable, because her bow suddenly was enveloped in fire.
"I call that a mission kill," said Wallace with satisfaction. "Juniper one to Langley, scratch one flat-top!"
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Enterprise heard the triumphant report and grinned. "Hey, Siren!" she shouted.
The Siren and she paused, in sudden mutual agreement to stop fighting for a moment. "Yes?" said the Siren.
"You're outclassed and out maneuvered. You want to retreat now?"
"Mission objectives are incomplete," said the Siren. "Fleet losses are irrelevant to the operation."
"Oh, good for you. Because I really didn't want you to retreat."
"Then why-"
"I just wanted to distract you."
Yorktown's volley took the Siren from behind, blasting into her rigging. It exploded, sending the surprised Siren to the ocean below. She disappeared beneath the waves with a splash.
"One left."
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"The northest group has been decimated," said Long Island. "We have P-51's circling overhead. I'm going to pull off our CAP and head them toward the air contacts astern."
"Very good, Long Island," said Marne, surprised at her for once clear statement. "Just what I was thinking."
"I am a ghost possessing the Commander," she whispered. "I know what he is going to say."
"And there's the crazy." He turned to Langley. "Status?"
"The northwest group is in disarray," she said. "The main fleet has been virtually wiped out by Cleveland and Enterprise's group. Southwest group engaged by air. That leaves the southeast force."
"Got it. Langley actual to San Diego."
"Go ahead, Commander," came the cheerful reply.
"It looks like we have air defense covered. Break off and engage that last enemy group. Langley is going to divert some torpedo bombers to assist." He looked at the aircraft carrier, who nodded.
"Okay! Houston, follow me!"
There was a resigned sigh. "All right. But don't do anything stupid."
"I never do anything stupid," sniffed San Diego.
There was a long pause. "Riiight," said Houston. "Maybe I should-"
"Contact! Opening fire!"
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Enterprise fired a last volley, striking a Knight-class Siren ship amidships. The glowing arrows detonated just above the water line. The stricken ship listed, then slowly began to capsize. That was the last of them except for the humanoid Siren.
"Yorktown, do you have a read on that Siren?"
"I lost track of her about the time you sank that Rook," came the reply.
Enterprise frowned, looking around worriedly. "Enterprise to Langley."
"Langley here," said Langley instantly.
"We lost track of the last humanoid Siren."
"Oh, great. How long-" there was a sudden pause. "Never mind, I think we found her."
"Where?" asked Enterprise with a sinking heart.
"Dead ahead."
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The carrier rocked with hits, sending tremors through the deck. Marne put a hand on the wall for support. "Long Island, get ready to summon your ship."
The girl, very pale, nodded tightly and ran out of the room.
"I don't know how long I can stay afloat," said Langley tightly. "That Siren is good."
Another P-51 dropped out of the sky, narrowly missing the flight deck. "How long-" began Marne.
A blast shook the ship. He looked forward, seeing the bow of the ship disappear in a cloud of smoke. "How bad is it?" he asked, seeing the sudden look of pain on Langley's face.
"We need to abandon ship," she said tightly. "I'm working on damage control, but-" she shrugged. "I was originally a collier, not a warship."
"Understood." Ignoring a squeak of protest, he snatched her up and dashed out of the bridge.
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The Siren was as close as her kind could get to angry. While, technically, the destruction of a large fleet was merely a confirmation of the human ability to survive and could be celebrated, it was contrary to expectations. She felt the frustration of someone whose cherished hypothesis had just been falsified. With a grim smile, she unleashed another series of shots that wracked the already mortally wounded carrier.
Then she paused. Two figures- one carrying the other- dashed across the flight desk, dodging around a burning Buffalo fighter. A human.
A male human.
This was no ship-girl.
"The Commander," she murmured to herself. "Initiating experimental protocol."
Her rigging spread out. "Testing to destruction."
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The Long Island materialized to port. Marne shot towards it, still carrying the protesting Langley. As he neared the edge of the flight deck, he looked down at her. "Can you fly us over?"
"Um, I don't know. Maybe?"
He spotted the Siren sweeping in for another strafing run. "Going to have to be good enough."
Marne jumped off the Langley just before a series of detonations covered the flight deck. He felt the heat of the explosions on his back as a Buffalo blew up.
They fell towards the water. Then they snapped upwards so fast he felt like he nearly broke his neck. They shot over to the Long Island, where the anxious ship-girl herself was standing.
"Commander!" she shouted. "Look out!"
He dropped Langley unceremoniously and turned to see the Siren land lightly on the middle of the flight deck. Long Island threw herself to the deck as the Siren fired at her. The explosion picked up the girl and threw her off the deck into the water below.
"No!" shouted Marne. He drew his pistol without thinking, cracking off a series of shots at the Siren until his pistol ran empty.
She ignored them, pacing towards him with a predatory gleam in her eye. "Commander."
"Siren," he said, backing up. "Or do you have a name?"
"None that you would be interested in." She stopped, her guns swiveling toward him. "You have been tested and found-" she paused for effect. "Wanting."
Marne heard the whine of an airplane and glanced up. He looked back at the Siren. "Ten out of ten for drama. Zero out of ten for paying attention."
She frowned, then heard the plane engine herself. She turned to look up just before the Buffalo crashed into her.
It hit the flight deck at an oblique angle, ripping off the landing gear. The Siren had just enough time to register surprise before the plane smashed into. It shot across the flight deck before dropping off into the water.
Marne dashed to the edge and looked down in time to see the plane disappear slowly into the water. He watched long enough to be sure the Siren wasn't coming up, then turned to see Long Island shakily pulling herself up onto the ship. He grabbed her arms and pulled her to safety easily.
She let out a long sigh. "Was that right?" she asked anxiously.
"You mean crashing a plane deliberately onto your own flight deck?" said Marne. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes." He patted her on the head and she beamed at him.
"Commander!" shouted a voice. He turned to see Enterprise and Yorktown landing on the ship. They ran towards him.
Enterprise dashed up to him and stopped short, her eyes anxiously looking him over. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. A bit scorched," he added, glancing down at his uniform. He absently patted a smoldering sleeve until it went out.
"Permission to speak freely?" asked Enterprise.
He frowned. "Granted."
She leaped at him, grabbing his lapel and pulling him into a kiss.
A/N: So I am really sorry how long this chapter took to get out. Sorry, too, if it's a bit rushed. I had to work some seriously long shifts at work, then I had to rewrite the entire chapter when I made a mistake that was literally an order of magnitude, then I started a new relationship- suffice to say, I've been busy. Lucky Chapter 13, eh?
As always, please forgive any errors in nomenclature. I know a bit about military jargon, but little about the Navy specifically and I don't have direct experience with the military in general (I focused on military history for my degree and have a number of family and friends in the military, but haven't been in it myself). Please let me know about any major mistakes if you notice any.
As always, thanks for reading.