Arizona stared in wonder at the commander as he picked aircraft on a 3D projection of the area with one hand and touched a red button with the thumb of the other, the coastal AA defenses responding in kind and tearing the enemies into shreds. Only a few managed to get through, only to be stopped either by Helena and Cleveland's own AA fire or by Enterprise or Shoukaku's own aircraft and that made her realize something.
They knew this attack was coming and prepared in advance, she thought and aimed her main guns at where the enemy CVs were most likely located, waiting for the commander's approval to fire.
Luckily, he noticed what she was doing and nodded, even though his eyes were still glued to the 3D display and soon, her main guns fired a salvo of HE shells in the direction, achieving a brief hole in the enemy air formations as the CVs were forced to reposition to avoid getting hit. But then, Helena reported something that she honestly hoped wasn't going to happen.
"An enemy DD and CA approaching. Vanguard, engage them," she said and Arizona saw the surprised look on the commander's face as he didn't expect Helena to take charge in that situation and frankly, neither did she.
And then, she watched as both vanguards closed in to engage each other.
Takao nearly tripped, when she saw Atago, flanked by two DDs, approaching her and Ayanami. After all, she didn't expect to see her sister not showing any signs of harsh treatment or craziness, like Zuikaku did. And to be honest, if Akagi and Kaga weren't near and keeping an eye on her with two Siren jets with cloaking tech, she'll join her sister right then and there.
"Atago, why?" she asked, trying to put as much hurt and anger into her voice as possible, and unsheathed her katana, Ayanami responding in kind a few moments later, while Atago's escort with heterochromatic eyes balled her hands into fists and went into a sloppy fighting stance.
"Ara? Onee-sama will tell you only, if you let me give you a hug and give up," she responded, making Takao roll her eyes in annoyance at her sister's antics, which also told her that she was doing fine.
"You're a traitor, Atago. And I shall treat you like one, desu," Ayanami spoke and lunged at Atago, only for the sleepy enemy DD to step before her, effectively blocking her path.
"No one hurts Laffey's friends," she stated as Atago drew her own katana and Takao was saved from being smacked by the blade's blunt side a few moments later, thanks to her instincts. And then she dared only to take a quick peek at Ayanami, noticing that she would be unable to retreat, thanks to both Union DDs blocking her.
"You're a naughty girl. Let onee-sama punish you," Atago said with a sing-song tone in her voice and Takao barely blocked the incoming attack, thanks to her being distracted by Ayanami's situation.
Damn it… I need to stop being so distracted! she thought as she dodged yet another strike from Atago. But then, she heard something that she, nor anyone else present, would never expect to hear.
"Laffey doesn't want to fight you. Laffey wants you be be my friend."
Those two sentences were enough to stop the fighting going around them for a few seconds and all four Kansen stared at Laffey with a mixture of shock and amazement in their eyes. She is even bolder than most of the girls I know, Takao thought and looked behind her, just in time to see Zuikaku speeding by, her own katana drawn and eyes focused on a single person somewhere behind the Shikikan's vanguard.
And then, Takao turned and watched as Kaga took her mask, which then disappeared in a blue flame and a giant white canine appeared, slowly walking towards the stalemated vanguards.
I've got you now, traitor! Zuikaku thought as she raised her katana to strike down Shoukaku, who was too focused on deploying aircraft to notice her, only to be stopped by a strange looking bow, which belonged to one other person she hated the most in the entire world.
"Gray Ghost!" She shouted in frustration and glared into the eyes of her mortal enemy, who was also the symbol of the Union's flawed vision of so-called "Freedom" and "Naval superiority".
"Step aside and lay down your weapon, so I'll be able to stop that beast!" Enterprise countered, but Zuikaku didn't budge. She knew that whatever the Grey Ghost was referring to, it would win the battle, if she didn't let her go.
"Never. I'll kill you right here and now and then remove the traitor of a sister from the mortal plane!" Zuikaku responded, not caring that she sounded like Akagi does at times, but she did savor in the brief look of shock that Grey Ghost failed to hide.
And they then attacked and blocked each others' attacks perfectly for several minutes, Zuikaku getting more and more aggressive with each blow, using more and more strenght and speed behind each blow for several minutes and grinned, when a kick went past the Grey Ghost's guard and sent her skidding a few feet back, but she recovered quickly, making her close to be truly pissed off.
But, in her anger she failed to notice a single Zero suddenly turning and aiming at her neck, before firing a short burst from the Type 99 cannon at a normally unassuming spot, but it was too late for her to react and then darkness overtook her vision and she lost consciousness, but not before hearing someone shout.
"Zuikaku!" Shoukaku shouted and quickly grabbed her sister, before she fell down, and watched as a black sludge poured from the small wound into the water, briefly giving it the same look as if oil was spilled there, killing several small fish unfortunate enough to make contact with it. It was a disgusting sight for everyone who saw it happen.
"Let me heal her. I am the only repair ship here and she needs my help, if you want her to survive," Vestal said firmly and Shoukaku reluctantly gave her unconscious sister to her and put her flute back to her lips, whistling more and more aircraft into existence as anger boiled in her veins. Anger at Akagi for teaming up with the Sirens and more importantly (for her) making her sister go crazy with their tech that also forced her to say such heartbreaking things.
I'll have my revenge soon, she thought and glared at Kaga's beast, before she noticed that several of those Siren CVs appeared out of nowhere after a brief flash of light and she grew a bit more desperate to summon more and more aircraft, slowly tiring herself out at even faster rate than before.
Ayanami was conflicted. After all, she had to kill her enemies, but it was harder than she thought it would be. She didn't want to kill them for some reason! It was just maddening!
But then, she noticed that she had the chance to retreat, when everyone else was staring at Kaga's beast and almost took it. Almost, because the enemy DDs moved in such a way to not let her get away.
Looks like I'll be killed by Kaga, she thought as the canine slowly walked towards its newest prey - the sleepy Union DD - and closed nearly half of the distance, when a salvo from the enemy BB, that should've been nothing more than a wreck, according to the reports, suddenly impacted with its head, but did nothing more than irritate Akagi, who sent dozens upon dozens of dive bombers and Siren jets in the BB's direction, fully intending to sink the one who dared to hurt her sister.
But then, the three formerly quiet merchant ships suddenly joined in to the battle with their own AA guns blazing and sending bullets against the incoming aircraft, most likely hoping that they'll manage to get their attention, but firing with far worse precision and coordination than the CLs. It was as if…
Impossible! The Shikikan is the last of them! she thought as she stared in shock around the base, spotting more and more uniformed humanoid shapes that were clearly male and most importantly, living, some of them running around with stretchers. And that was enough for her to be even more conflicted to such a point that she spaced out and didn't know that she did, until she noticed that she pushed the enemy DDs to the side, just a bit out of Kaga's reach.
Cleveland was trying her best not to curse and lose focus, when the giant canine appeared, but when it nearly snacked on Laffey and Downes, she was ready to lose it then and there. After all, they were too close to losing their vanguard to some kind of Sakura empire's magic.
"Stay here, Cleveland. Enterprise is already going to face off against it and the vanguard is good enough to support her," Helena said and Cleveland sighed, before returning to her AA duty, thinking about just how it would be easier, if San Diego was there.
But then she shook her head to clear it and focus on firing on the newest incoming enemy planes, finding it much harder than before, but also a good way to test her own skills in AA gun usage to the very limit.
"Fire!" Harvey shouted, when Arizona told him that her main guns were reloaded and their aim adjusted, not even bothered by the massive swarm of dive and torpedo bombers, which got thinner and thinner by each passing second, thanks to the efforts of AA guns of his fleet and Shoukaku's aircraft.
But it still wasn't enough to stop them in time and so, he said the thing he felt would have the best chance of success and wouldn't result in either of them dying… at least not right away.
"Arizona, deploy your rigging and start evasive maneuvers! After that, engage the enemy!" he commanded and prepared to collide with the water… only to feel a surprisingly strong, yet gentle, arm grab him around the waist as the ship around them disappeared into particles similar to the cubes and only then he saw that it was Arizona, who held him.
But, the feeling of hovering in the air didn't last long as the sea closed in as they fell. And yet, the surface didn't close behind them. No. Arizona was standing on it, much like the rest did and gracefully glided on the water and dodged several bombs to carefully put him on the pier with a small, sad smile adorning her lips, before turning and gliding away to meet with the enemy head on, leaving Harvey no room to give more orders.
And after he finally realized that he was like a sore thumb just standing there on the pier, he ran towards the trusty lifeboat and sat down under the tarp that covered it, confident in its ability to hide him from the enemy CVs' sight and narrowly dodging another attempt of the enemy trying to turn him into a bloody paste by a bomb, but feeling a bit like a coward afterwards.
I'll need a better ship to use than this later on, he thought and tried to remember, where he'll be able to find a command ship - or materials to build one - nearby, only to remember that the two destroyed Siren fleets had a lot of material that might be useful.
And then, he risked a peek outside to see the enemy vanguard force stand side-by-side with his own vanguard against the damned giant canine, who seemed to not care about attacking its own allies, the occasional salvo from Arizona only irritating it more and more. It was as if its hide was too thick to be penetrated.
It then ignored the vanguard and went straight to Arizona and Harvey could do nothing, but watch as the canine opened its maw to swallow its newest adversary… only for a blue eagle of all things to suddenly fly inside, followed by Enterprise soon after shooting three bombs for her bow at its head, somehow successfully stunning the beast and then, she ran on it to reach the enemy main fleet.
The tables have been turned to our favor, he thought and smiled to no one in particular as he saw Enterprise reaching who he thought was the one controlling the beast, thanks to her having the same color scheme, just like the beast had, on her clothes.
And then, he selected the app labelled "radio" and after choosing the right frequency, he gave the order to start with the cleanup, which meant destroying and salvaging the Siren-made CVs for shipbuilding materials and research, not even paying attention the massive swarm of Siren aircraft flying at high speeds towards the base, knowing that they'll miss their mark, much like the wave before.
Toichi reloaded his Garand yet again as he and his men were carefully picking out the dive and torpedo bombers, firing at their load to take them out before they were able to release their load onto their allies. He also didn't bother talking, focusing all of his senses on dealing with the enemy attackers.
Then, he finally noticed that there were less bombers to target and he looked around just in time to see Shoukaku give someone to Vestal, quickly noticing the CV-style rigging, but then he shook his head to clear it off of any annoying questions that he'll ask her later. For now they had a battle to win and it was turning out just fine.
Well… That was until he finally noticed that Kaga summoned her beast, soon followed by Akagi using some sort of witchcraft to summon a fleet fully composed of Siren CVs and then, he watched as a giant swarm alien aircraft, the likes of which he had never seen before, was rapidly deployed from about a third of the CVs, way too quickly passing by their position and slamming either into the land or the sea behind the remains of Pearl Harbor.
"Ute! Don't let the next wave hit allies or allied structures!" he shouted at his stunned men, right as the rest of the summoned ships deployed their aircraft, which moved much slower than before for some reason and also were in a much tighter formation, making them even easier targets… or so they thought.
Right as the volley of bullets hit the aircraft, red energy flashed for a brief moment, leaving no trace of damage being inflicted, when it disappeared, all the while the AA guns and allied aircraft cut through them like a knife through butter, forcing Toichi and his men to switch back to attacking the Suiseis and Tenzans.
Akagi was getting more and more angry. No, scratch that. She was almost pissed off at her enemies as they refused to just kneel before the power of her love and die already. Not to mention the incompetence of the vanguard in dealing with the traitor and her two pet DD followers. But, the fact that Zuikaku failed to kill the other one of the traitors made it even worse for her mental state.
"You dare stand up between me and my love?! I'm going to show you the true power of it! You traitors and enemies shall be purified by it and forced to kneel before its power! Ahahahahah!"
As she was maniacally laughing, she pulled out a Black cube and used it to unleash a fleet of drone ships of the CV variant, quickly adding their jets into the fray… with little effect, because the combined AA of the Union dogs was placed strategically enough and also was precise enough to take out most of them before they were close enough to kamikadze into the buildings.
And yet, those jets that survived, missed even the farthest building enough to not damage it at all, making Akagi even angrier and angrier than before. Which also meant more and more jets produced, but that also reduced their speed to that of a Swordfish biplane. And that made shooting them down ridiculously easy for the defenders.
She then sneered at the enemy, not noticing Enterprise firing an arrow straight at Kaga's chest, until it was too late, which also doomed the canine that threatened to destroy both allied and enemy vanguards in its rampage, before it was supposed to destroy the enemy main fleet and kill the insects living in the base.
"Kaga!" she shouted and ran towards her sister to save her from the same fate that befell Amagi, not wanting to lose more than she already did to the accursed Eagle Union and not noticing that she dropped a document about the usage and creation of Wisdom, Origin and Black cubes, that was made by some long dead scientist duo called Anzeel and Aoste, from another reality.
Luckily for her, several of the newest jets (and the last she could support without blacking out) suddenly changed course to kamikadze themselves into the enemy CV, forcing her to dodge long enough for Akagi to take Kaga and flee behind the line of drones, not even caring about Ayanami and Takao's fate, both of them joining her about two minutes later, troubled expressions visible on their faces.
But Akagi didn't notice them at first, because her focus was fully on treating the wounds inflicted on the now unconscious Kaga. And after dodging one last stray shell fired from the BB that should've been at the bottom of the sea already, she sent one last glare at Pearl Harbor, vowing to get her revenge on them.
I'll kill you all for standing up to my love! But for now, I'll allow you to get some time to fall into a false sense of security, she thought and then smirked as she finally noticed Ayanami, thinking about how she'll discipline the DD for denying Kaga her kills, not even noticing that a small fleet, definitely not of Sakura, Royal Navy or Union make, composed of a CA, CL and three DDs, was tailing her.
A/n:
Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter but yet again, RL caught up with me and I had next to none time to write. And if you think this battle feels rushed, it is because this was but a skirmish, compared to the battles to come.
Also, anyone who guesses everyone in the unknown fleet tailing Akagi, will get a cookie.
See ya later!