The roll and pull of the seas were nothing that the girls of the Saunders Naval Studies had not faced before. After all, the Pacific they trained in was as perilous as any other. Rogue waves? A happenstance. That's why the USS Washington usually stuck to just barely international waters. Beyond being safer since D.C aboard had civilians, the school ship had to stay in range of a capable port. All of this was usual, but that did nothing for their current predicament. Open sea trials in for a school ship were something MEXT had yet to test. It was simply uneconomical to waste aviation fuel when the Washington had an onboard nuclear reactor. Testing her salt against the open waves was key to opening the door for an integrated international Tankery community.
"WAVE, BRACE!" The wave crashed into the side of the bridge, water breaking upon the hardened Philadelphia steel. The creak of the aging ship was a constant now. She was old but the Washington could handle it. Naval Studies girls were, by now, in varying states of cold and wet or just cold. Leaks were being patched up and water mopped up best the girls could handle. The tossing and turning…had made Kay's vice commander Arisa green in the face. Naomi, however, still popped her gum.
"What's our heading?" The stoic faced gum popping tomboy was, mostly, unfazed. They had had to swing north towards the Bering Strait to avoid the April winds that would have set them back. As such, they were now in the midst of an April doozy that came down from Alaska.
"55 degrees North, 177 West. We're turning East to put into Dutch Harbor since it's closest. We'll have to resupply there and then head back south toward home. Thankfully, there was no major flooding." The entire front bridge window groaned and outside a wave cast its shadow onto the bridge. "OH HELL, WAVE! BRACE! BR-"
"-by! Hey, Ruby Rose, wake up!" Said girl groaned as she was shaken awake by her white-themed partner. Ruby Rose, youngest student of Beacon Academy in decades, sighed as she awoke. She had just fallen asleep after a long night of studying. 'Stupid homework,' she mused to herself as she burst out of bed. "I'm up! I'm up! What is it, Nice Weiss? Homework canceled? Cookie delivery?" The Schnee Heiress scoffed.
"No, you- Ruby. We still have Glynda's report to make before the Vytal festival next week. I digress, Ozpin's called us to his office. Some mission he wants us to work on with Atlas." Jaune perked up. Ruby's nose scrunched as she took in her teammate's comments.
"What could be so serious as to warrant us as well as Atlas collaborating?" By now, the team had, with assistance of their leader Pyrrha Nikos, retrieved their equipment and headed to speak to their Headmaster. Said man in emerald simply sipped his mystery drink (bets were it was coffee or cocoa) and stood by the far window. Both Glynda and General Ironwood were in attendance.
"Team PRWJ (Prodigy). Pyrrha Nikos, your team was picked by myself to accompany an Atlas, what did you call them again, James? A boarding reconnaissance team?" Professor Ozpin had yet to turn to look anyone in the eyes. "Point is, a ship was spotted out at sea between Atlas and Vale. Technically, it's closer to Atlas…but I digress. You are to accompany Specialist Schnee and four Atlas engineers as you investigate this ship. So far, no Grimm have taken interest, but time is of the essence. The engineers have already taken off from Atlas. Your Manta, graciously provided by General Ironwood, will follow alongside the engineers and make entry onto the ship and determine where it's from and who is aboard, if survivors remain. Good luck, TeamPRWJ." Weiss Schnee scoffed as she left the office.
"A ship? This better be a cruise ship full of grateful Remnosi. I can't bear the thought of anything else." She was clearly unhappy with the fact they had to go out to sea for this mission. Dry land was safest, after all. Sure, Grimm existed…but land Grimm don't dive and then blast you sky high on land. Pyrrha sighed.
"Come now, Weiss. It's not like the ship is full of-"
"SHIT! We've lost propulsion and power to Sections D through P. City power remains constant." Naomi, head bandaged and woozy, thankfully was only lightly concussed. They'd be having a word with the window manufacturer…if they could reach anyone. So far, the most they got was static-filled radio signals advertising some tournament. Thankfully, most of the Naval Studies girls spoke and understood English. "We're taking on some water in Section B and C, but the pumps are working to keep us afloat. Good news of all this is that Fisheries has a new source of water to use for the salt fish tanks." Naomi blinked as the bridge CO brought her up to speed.
"Injuries?" Naomi winced as the noise of the bridge hatchway's door being unlatched and then squeaking open hurt her ears. Yeah, she was concussed. There goes showing off her Firefly. Medics had arrived, these being the adults from the D.C hospital and the Naval Studies Doctor. As she was being evaluated, the BCO smiled.
"Beyond yourself with two bruised ribs, a concussion, and small glass cuts? Relatively the same. Bruised ribs and glass cuts. One broken arm from a fall when the ship listed port and settled back. Few other concussions from the bridge shift before we managed to get the door shut." Before she could say more, power to the bridge flickered, emergency power kicking on. "Well, I guess we're forced to stay put for now until we hear from Engineering about the reactor. Last I heard, the reactor was fluctuating wildly. Safe levels, but fluctuating."
"Well, Kay'll be glad to hear that." She sighed. "I'm heading to Sick Bay. I need to be monitored. Arisa…where is Arisa anyway?" Naomi looked around for the pig tailed girl.
"Coordinating with Commander Kay and our instructor about defending the Washington after they spotted some new plane in the air earlier. Arisa seemed to think it was some new Chinese patrol plane. Akiyama-san seemed to disagree." Naomi popped in new chewing bubble gum. The Gloriana-Oorai addition to their trip. Having won the recent 63rd National High School Senshado Tournament and made a vast impression, it was natural Oorai sent along their resident spy master Yukari Akiyama, or as Lay called her, Oddball. Gloriana, sending its Comet A34 commanded by Akane "Strawberry" Sato, had sent the Comet to retrieve parts for a Firefly, as the other member of the Big Three was experimenting with running a Firefly and Saunders had accepted the request to pick the order up. Naomi looked at the BCO, popping her gum.
"Evacuate D.C to Section R and secure the bridge. We're going to prepare to be boarded. Open the ROTC armory and assemble ROTC and D.C Civilian Defense Corps for duty. Don those respirators we got second hand from the JSDF and lock the joints between sections. Keep all of R totally locked down. and give those defenders the thirties and Trenchguns. Rest of us will have the Thompsons and Garands. Now, you have command of the bridge."
"Aye, ma'am. Sound General Quarters, this is NOT A DRILL!" A klaxon alarm blared, the entire process Naomi ordered having been standard drill on Saunders due to rising Chinese tensions. As Naomi was carried away to see doctors, she wondered who was even eyeing them.
Winter Schnee looked out her Manta window and observed the very odd looking ship. It reminded her of Vale's Great War designs for the precursors to bullheads. Who even HAD such a relic? These answers would have to wait as six blue objects took off from what she assumed to be a launch surface, banking hard. Her eyes widened as the other Manta with whom she assumed to be PRWJ arrived…and the group of blue objects split up. Three on her Manta, three on PRWJ's.
"PILOT, GET US DOWN TO LAND!" The spray of bullets finged off metal armor and caused her aura to flare as hits registered to her. A few bullets found their way into the glass of the cockpit, making it spiderweb. Larger projectiles forced the Winter's complement to jump onto the mystery ship, the engines now on fire.
With team PRWJ, things were chaotic as bullets blasted apart the cockpit and front half of the passenger compartment, Ruby clearly able to see the shell pass by her face, both triggering her aura from the heat of the tracer but also from the shell detonating against the rear of the copilot's seat, blasting the Manta apart and sending the entire Manta spiraling. The entire team jumped…just as the fuel lines lit up and the Manta exploded in a fireball before tumbling into the surf. A third Manta came in at a glide, dropping off a girl in a blue dress and…
"PENNY?!" The group bolted for an open door ahead of them leading down a stairwell, the door blocking most of the incoming fire from the aircraft that ping dinged off the solid metal. "Well…we're in." Here, Winter took charge and navigated the halls flashing with red alarm lights silently and a female in some unknown language said something that was clearly not asking for them to tea.
"We need to find the control room first. From there we can see what happened and how this ship got here." The group began to navigate the dark and scarcely lit corridors and passages, the many doors and entryways locked fast.
"Understood, Bolt 1." The Acting Bridge commander sighed and looked at the crew on the bridge. "They've entered Section R-S. We'll get to who forgot about the R flight deck hatch later. For now, Commander Kay is heading there from Section C and Fisheries while Arisa's on her way from the Infirmary. We have no idea where in R they are…so it's up to them now. Do we have propulsion yet?"
"Negative, ma'am! We're still dead in the water but efforts to restart are underway!"
"Skipper, you should hear this." The hydrophone and sonar operators looked clearly nervous. "We've done training to detect anything from whales to submarines to torpedoes. This is larger than the Empire State and coming at us from six thousand fathoms up angle 30, speed…twenty knots." The ABCO listened to the hydrophone and paled.
"Christ Almighty. That's no whale."
How Jaune wished he had remembered to bring a flashlight. The barely lit corridors felt confining as he made up the middle of the group currently moving through what best could be described as a relic. Though, something seemed off.
"Hey. What's this other stuff by the text on the signs? It looks like someone took an ink bottle and did finger painting." Pyrrha stood near the sign Jaune was looking at. She looked in thought.
"It appears like Mistrali. Or a more evolved form. But what perplexes me is the ship design is Valian. Mistrali should be nowhere on this ship. Something is not as it should." A door creaked open, two girls no older than Ruby wearing an olive drab uniform and what appeared to be a Valian sailor's uniform. The two groups stared at each other for a few seconds before the olive-garbed girl started sending pistol-caliber rounds at the group.
"クソ！クソ！クソビッチの息子よ！今いる場所に留まるべきだったって言ったじゃないか！おい！私は彼らを見つけた！こっちだよ！アラームを鳴らしましょう!" More girls arrived, one shooting a rifle at PRWJ and Company…only for one of the Atlas members of their group to catch the bullet, inches from a female engineer's face, whom went pale as her savior merely blankly stared down those aiming their weapons at them. The door slammed shut and muffled yells could be heard on the other side.
"Hm. It seems we were expected, Specialist Schnee. Might I suggest we proceed more carefully?"
"Hmph, Ciel take point. Normal Aura check procedure to determine amount of force required."
"Understood." A nod before the blank faced woman with the hat and skirt walked forward…and knocked politely on the door.
"...Really Soleil?" Winter asked exasperatedly.
She shrugs, "No reason to not be polite. It is their ship. And the door will be opened one way or another anyways." Ciel looked perplexed. "I don't read any aura. None at all." A knock back was given just before a fierce roar rumbled through the ship, as did frantic, sustained gunfire. The female engineer gulped.
"Brothers Above."
"They knocked back, that was nice."
"Ciel, we should focus on more important things." Penny gently suggests.
Naomi hated being laid up. Sure, she needed to rest from being tossed into the back of the bridge, but she hated not being allowed into her dorm room. Something about boarding and doors being shut. Then the gunfire and screaming started. She slowly cocked back the hammer on the 1911 now tucked under her blanket, pretending to be asleep. Heavy, plodding movements sounded in the infirmary, snarling and an odor Naomi had only smelled before when the meat freezer had died during the summer a year or two back. Rot, she concluded. It smelled of rot.
Then she heard the crunching. The sound of tendons snapping and bone being crushed. Was it EATING people? She heard wet slop hitting the floor before the steps sounded by her feet. The blanket started to move…and then she bolted up, putting two between the eyes of something she would never forget until the day she died: the bloody, agape, maw of what she could describe as a leopard seal. In its mouth was bits of flesh from her fellow classmates. The rot was nauseating and she bolted to the garbage and emptied her stomach into it. She looked back and the now limp corpse. It began to dissolve into black bits as it vanished.
"What the fuck was that thing?" No one could answer her. Naomi winced as she began to wobble her way to the infirmary door, caved in and stained with blood.
"H…hello? Arisa? Kay? Anyone?" Her heart began to beat hard in her chest, leaning against the door frame as she burst around the corner and bumped into a mass of blue.
FIN ACT I, CH 1