Rule by Grathryn
10831. The British Sea Lords have released the civilian names of the shipgirls to their base commanders and staff. Except for medical personnel, it should go no further into the civilian domain
10831a. Just because some shipgirls share names with flag officers or their staff, that doesn't mean that they can call on them for 'emergencies'
10831b. Do you even know how many people share surnames in the UK alone?
10831c. It should also be said that even when people in the same family are on the same base, there are at least some good examples of people avoiding nepotism
"DON'T YOU IDIOTS GET IT?" the bellow from outside brought Sally's head up from where she had been starting to doze off on the paperwork she had been dealing with, most of which was just requisitions and accounts for what materials the last sortie had used. "JUST BECAUSE MY SURNAME IS 'BRIGGS' THAT DOESN'T MEAN I'M RELATED TO YOUR ADMIRAL! EVEN IF MY SISTER AND I ARE RELATED TO HIM, WE'RE FIVE OR SIX GENERATIONS REMOVED, MINIMUM!"
"What the heck is going on out there?" Sally asked, looking over at her sister.
Megan shrugged. "No idea, Sally," she replied.
"You have mail," snarled a deep, creepy voice that drew a raised eyebrow from Sally.
"How'd you get that old thing working on there?" Sally asked, watching her sister work on the computer. "That theme is from the Win95 days, I didn't think 7 would work with it."
Megan shrugged. "It's a theme, pictures and sounds; it's not exactly hard to rejigger things in the theme set up. Besides, it's a good way of spooking the Intel pukes." Frowning, she pulled up the new mail from her aunt and read through it. "Huh, looks like the Sea Lords made some official lists of who each shipgirl is in their civilian life."
"WHY THE HELL DO YOU THINK THAT I'M GOING TO PUT IN A 'GOOD WORD' FOR YOU WITH ADMIRAL CUNNINGHAM?" Lydia Cunningham, HMS Myngs' voice sounded from somewhere in the vicinity of the base's railway station, "I'VE ENOUGH TROUBLE WITH THE RAIL LINE AND HE'S NOT MY FATHER, GRANDFATHER OR OTHERWISE RELATED TO ME!"
"And apparently some of the sailors or marines learned that Myngs' real name is Lydia Cunningham and that Unison and Unrivalled are Lilly and Stephanie Briggs," Megan continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. She sighed, rubbing her eyes as she leaned back. "Someone must've gotten a copy and let the enlisted know about it." She paused, frowning at something. "Though…" a few moments later, she got up as the printer started to chunter away, ink print heads roving back and forth under the cover.
Collecting the print out, she passed it to her sister, who blinked as she read the name on the sheet. "We need to talk to our cousin about some things apparently," Megan said.
Looking down, Sally scowled. There, on the page in black and white, was the name Tegan Jones, HMS Unicorn along with a photo that was both obviously the Unicorn they both knew along with another showing their cousin – well, second cousin on their father's side. "Seriously?" asked Sally, frowning at the bleached white hair and purple contacts Tegan had apparently opted to use along with makeup to highlight different portions of her face.
Megan nodded absently as she texted their aunt. "I don't know why she didn't tell us, unless," she waved a hand at the outside world to indicate what was going on. "Hell, Commodore Shipperley pretty much admitted that while bringing in our aunt was somewhatnepotism, it was more that she was the next in line, had the best qualifications and he knew if anyone would ensure we survived, it'd be Aunt Lauren." Grabbing their uniform jackets, she tossed Sally's over to her before slinging her own on.
Reaching the carrier training area, Megan paused for a moment, frowning slightly as she watched the four young women send their fighters and amphibious assault vehicles against one another's, the aerial fight literally being too fast to truly track, even with her supernatural capabilities. It didn't help that for all their speed, the MANTAs were on the par if not better at manoeuvring in three dimensions than most modern vector control thruster equipped jets.
After several minutes of watching, Epona's planes managed to drop torpedoes at just the right angle to cover Enbarr – or as most called her, Ember – in red paint, which Pegasus took several critical hits from Unicorn's WALRUS compliment. "All right, girls," Sally called out, catching the group's attention. "Call it time and get some clean clothes, Unicorn, a word."
"Oh boy," Epona commented, "Zephyr's looking pissed. What did you do, Unicorn?" she asked as the quartet started skating back towards the shore, their MANTAs and WALRUSes moving in to land on their decks or be picked up by their elevators.
"Hell if I know," Unicorn responded, holding her arm out to let her fighters land on her deck. "I don't remember doing anything that'd get the flag coming down on me."
Following her sister down, Megan narrowed her eyes at Unicorn as the shipgirl stepped onto solid ground. "We need to talk, Teggie… starting with why you thought we wouldn't find out about you being a shipgirl."
Tegan flinched as her sister ships hissed in sympathy. "Ooooh… busted," Epona commented, getting a groan from Tegan.
"Yeah, yeah, up yours, Kayleigh," Tegan grumbled before turning to her cousins and sighing. "What was I supposed to say, girls?" she asked. "I didn't want to have anyone trying to use my connections to get better, nor did I want you going easy on me because we're second cousins."
The twins both gave her unimpressed looks. "Really?" asked Sally. "I mean, really? You've been around long enough for you to see us do this job and get to our positions the hard way, why do you think we'd go easy on you?"
Megan nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Aunt Lauren, if anything, was harder on us than on Robyn or Anna when we started out. Teg, we earned our bars, and every medal that we've got on our dress uniforms is something we got from hard work. If anything, we'd be pushing you harder than the others, because we know you better."
"Ask Kayleigh about the after effects of her encounter with the Yank Essexes someday," Sally added, shifting her weight back slightly. "And remember, we spent the best part of half a year dealing with hurricanes and storms, did you see any of us in command slacking off or giving anyone we were close to lighter jobs?" she asked.
Tegan shook her head a little unsurely before recalling just how often her cousin had come back to the temporary barracks scratched, scraped and covered in stone and concrete dust and sticky from who knew what fluids. "Nnnooo… no you didn't." She turned her head as Megan cleared her throat.
"How often, Tegan, have you seen me trying to get away with things from our aunt?" asked Megan, cocking one eyebrow. "How often have I given others a boost or pushed things off onto them when it comes to the supernatural? Heck, how many times have I been right in the thick of the abyssal mess, or have you seen our aunt with that chain gun of hers holding the line, or lashing out with spells at any hostiles around."
"N-never…" Tegan admitted.
"So why," the twins asked in sync, "did you think we'd let you take advantage of family relations for a free ride when we got a rough one?"
Tegan looked between the pair for several moments before letting out a sigh, her shoulders drooping. "I've been an idiot, haven't I?"
"Yes you have," Lauren's voice cut through the silence before it could become heavy. "While I've always said that no matter what comer, they can get at my family after they've pried my heart from my cold dead chest, that doesn't mean I'll let you become so lazy you can't defend yourself or live for yourself if the worst happens." She looked her cousin over as she made her way forward. "And the first two things you're doing, Tegan Helena Jones, are coming to the Dapper Lioness so we can actually catch up, and you're calling your parents. They've been worried sick about you."
Tegan swallowed hard, looking up at her cousin's stern gaze. "Yes ma'am," she whispered.
Character listing - The idea came up due to randomiser throwing out names where we already had humans while I was filling in the rest of Devonport's shipgirls' civilian names on there.
Tegan Jones - HMS Unicorn (Zephyr (Sally) and Megan Jones)
Lydia Cunningham - HMS Myngs (Admiral Cunningham (rtd))
Lilly and Stephanie Briggs - HMS Unison & HMS Unrivalled (Admiral Briggs in the USA)