Day 25

Sapphire came to me this morning. I am not entirely sure, but I think she expected some sort of punishment for hiding away two days long. At least I could subvert expectations that way, considering that I just shrugged it off.

"Walk with me," I told her. Ionia got back earlier too, so I had her come along as well. There were questions I needed answered.

Like this one: "Why is it so important that we kill all humans and shipgirls?"

There was silence afterward. Neither knew quite what to say; when I looked back to them, they were staring at each other as if trying to silently discuss it. Sapphire opened her mouth several times, but faltered before a single noise came out. Ionia was just confused.

The answer Sapphire finally gave me was unsatisfying and really telling: "Because we gotta. Don't you feel it?"

And there was indeed that little nudge from the Abyss. No stronger than before. I only realised hours later what I missed in that regard. Maybe it took talking to the girls to figure it out, too.

"Not really. Truth be told, I could not care less about destroying humanity."

Somehow, it felt blasphemous to say out loud; both girls with me gasped in surprise, Sapphire even threw a hand over her mouth in shock. To say I was unimpressed is an understatement, but I thought about what to say to them for hours. "My first priority is to stay alive and enjoy that life. This includes the lot of you, too. You are not dying anytime soon."

Which is really the crux of the matter. I feel responsible for them and that means I will not just use them up like resources. Unless I must, I guess. But considering that Sapphire's answer boils down to 'But we're made to destroy them, nothing else matters!', I have the feeling she would happily throw herself into death for me.

I kept quiet for a while after that, but ultimately shook my head. "At my current level of power and advancement, we do not stand a chance if they send any notable force our way. Building more ships is not enough; if I already go into a fight, I want a flawless victory. We can talk about fighting them again in the future, but right now we will keep hidden."

That had her grumble, but she acquiesced in the end. Ionia was quietly listening with a soft frown. "I think I understand your reasoning," was her comment. "My duty is to transport materials. If there is no place left to deliver them to, I am bereft of a duty and adrift. But Sapphire's duty is to sink ships, Princess. What is she to do when you do not allow her to fulfill it?"

I admit I had no real answer to that. I also underestimated how thoughtful Ionia actually is. All I could do in that situation was to tell them I will think about it, and that I had new orders. At least being out and about will help them pass the time.

Ionia is delivering my new orders to set up a proper drone factory in Orion's current position on top of the depot, but not create anything yet. I really need to tech up on communications soon. Sapphire is still out on patrol. I reasoned with her that her duty under me is to be my eyes below the waves; to scout my domain and keep me informed of every intruder or oddity she can spot. She was not entirely convinced, but also not opposed to the idea.

Which brings me to the issue I spied: these nudges the Abyss gives me? They are a lot stronger with the girls. I do not think it is on purpose, I just have decades' worth of memories and learned behaviours in my head. These girls are brand new, basically newborns with adult minds and bodies. But even if they are mature, they do not have any memories beyond what the Abyss gave them and their experiences here. So what is just a little nudge to me is a burning desire for them.

The Abyss is equally interested in my thoughts on this, but I do not think it can or wants to change anything about it. Eradicating humanity is what it wants after all.

Time and experience may give my girls the opportunity to put this urge aside. For now I need to hope we do not meet any more shipgirls. Maybe it was an error not to consider these racial memories and nudges before; it neatly explains why Abyssals are so hostile to humans, though. Not to mention that I now know for certain there is no way to get peace. This war only ends if one side eradicates the other. Humans are spiteful if nothing else, they will not forget the many lives lost.

Well, I guess I could try becoming king of the Abyss and broker for peace then. Chances of that working are miniscule. If what I heard about the setting before is any indication, Abyssal on Abyssal violence is a thing as well. And the Abyss just confirmed that. Princesses generally get along well enough while negotiating, but differences in opinion have led to firefights before when things got heated. That would not go well with me being unarmed.

Besides, conquering the Abyss poses the same problem as destroying all humans: I do not want to. This sounds like way too much work and will make me a ton of enemies on top. No, thank you.

Day 27

I got over myself and took a proper bath today. There was no incentive before, considering Abyssals have no real body odour. At this point I was curious, though.

My verdict: it is nice enough. I also talked to Sapphire when she joined me partway through. She ended up brightening a bit over her scouting mission, maybe that talk about duty helped her more than I thought. Here is to hoping this holds, I think I prefer her peppy over pouty. She went back to carving, too.

In other news, Orion finished setting up our first offshoot base. She moved on to another deposit with her group of drones, safely hidden in the depths. I do not get much in terms of resources right now, but I am still good for a while with what I have. Ionia's deliveries are spaced out more, so she spends more time with Orion until enough extra was mined to fully load her.

Next on the agenda is nothing, really. I have no idea what to do next. At the same time, I do not want to just wait for things to happen to me. Anything that could happen has the potential to be bad or worse.

So my next techs will go into weapons research. I was musing over putting a big cannon on Hydra's back. That is the plan for now, but I will also drive up my resource generation as far as I can. The more I get for free in a day, the better. My Fairies work around the clock, much more efficient than any human crew could ever be. I still do not know if they are actually aware or just constructs. The Abyss does not quite know, either.

Either way, I am doing well. My tech base will be fairly solid before long.

Day 35

It has been almost two months now. I think I got more used to being an Abyssal. Somehow I doubt it will ever be actually comfortable, but I will live.

Nothing really happened the last week, though. I mostly just went through the motions. Still no convoys or shipgirl patrols, but no other Abyssals either. The Abyss at least coughed up that there are others out there. Either I really am somewhere in the middle of nowhere, or they try to stay hidden just as much as I.

This is the opposite of a complaint, by the way. I am perfectly happy not having any neighbours to be mindful of. Sapphire keeps scouting under her again improved stealth capacities, Orion builds factory after factory. I authorised another batch of drones for her entourage after she requested that, so her building speed has risen further.

In retrospect, letting her do what she wants was the best thing I could have done. Orion builds these outposts and puts drones inside to keep mining whatever is in reach, then moves on. It is tempting to make another ship just to keep an eye on resource extraction, but I refrained for now. Upkeep and all that.

For now I have Ionia tour the depots and went harder on my tech base; first item on my bucket list is getting my generators to their maximum output. I am already a good way along, enough to have a B-team of scientist Fairies study Hydra's big cannon. Still no sign of growing intelligence with her, so she is probably stuck at "smart dog". In that case I might as well make her a very scary one.

Resource-wise, a number of lighter cannons would be easier to research and build. In this case I decided I want the heavier one. Sure, it falls flat against a bunch of stuff, but I am not building a fleet anytime soon; I want to have at least one huge gun to scare people with. Hydra and Sapphire together should be enough to deal with singular intruders. Anything else will just roll over us anyway.

Besides, this is a precaution; my plan in case of enemy contact is to evacuate and vanish into the sea. As much as I do not want to be underwater, I will use it to hide if I must.

Day 40

I got done installing Hydra's huge gun. She seems oddly happy with it, prowling around and playing at being an apex predator. It covers the entirety of her back and is adjusted with the tentacles that were just hanging around otherwise. I let her shoot it once just to test that it works; the result was impressive enough. The water splashed at least a hundred metres high and Sapphire heard it from deep underground.

Here is to hoping nobody was in the area.

All that aside, communications are done as well. I make sure to call Orion once a day to get progress reports and just talk to her; we may not be human, but I think she should get some more exposure to people as well. At least Sapphire seems to have grown more mellow recently; I can not test how that plays with her instincts without any shipgirls around, but I am hopeful.

Speaking of Orion, she has been a busy bee; I have factories ready for about half the existing Abyssal ship types, as well as my own Mi-class. They lie dormant while Ionia keeps emptying their steadily replenishing stocks of resources; all of those are funnelled into my own labs and the extras I had built into the island base.

Come to think of it, maybe I should give this place a name. Just calling it 'this island' gets stale. It does not need to be fancy or unique, but I do not want to be silly and call it 'Home' or something like that.

Ah. Haven. That sounds fitting but not dumb, at least to me.

Anyway, Haven is continuing to grow. Sapphire carved lines and patterns into most of the gold I laid into the inside, so I gave her some silver to add to it. She seems happy spending her free time carving or playing with Hydra, but we are starting to hit the limits of her capacity; the area scouted and mapped is getting big, more than a single submarine can patrol within a few days.

Either I finish expanding the area under my control, as far as one can call it that, or I build more ships. Improving Sapphire's specs was a stopgap to that end, but it can no longer keep up.

I am good on resources for the moment, though. So there is no real reason to make another sub. Definitely not for any other type of ship, considering my focus on stealth.

Day 42

We are close to the two months mark. Time sure flies.

And of course it is today of all days, the answer to everything, that Sapphire made contact. Thankfully no hostiles, but maybe I would have preferred that. She was so excited to meet that other submarine at the edge of our territory, she talked about it through our entire bath. Ionia seemed just as stumped as I while Hydra kept vying for pets. That was weirdly domestic in retrospect.

So yes, another group of Abyssals is entering this area. I had Sapphire exchange map data with the other sub; curious thing was that the other side do not seem to have improved communications. She had to rush back to her Princess to report. At least there were no attempts to encroach on our marked territory yet; I do not think I could bluff with what little I have.

Then again, I have Hydra. That might work.

Right now I am a little anxious about meeting this new faction.

Day 47

Everything went better than expected. The other Princess, Frostbite, requested parley via that sub Sapphire already knew. The poor girl had to swim halfway here before stumbling over Ionia on a supply run. I think the fact Ionia could radio it in tipped her off to our comms tech, but nobody said if she asked.

Anyway, I understand it is customary to meet at the border between one's territories. Considering how much fuel my engines chug, I decided to invite Frosbite to Haven instead. I also told that sub in person why, with Hydra being my backrest when I met her. And just in case that would be taken the wrong way, I offered to cover the fuel Frostbite needs to come here and back to her own territory.

Maybe that display was a little overkill. She was definitely intimidated by my pet eldritch horror. Or maybe because she saw my specs; I displace more weight than Bismarck. If you do not know that is all research space and resource storage, you would be very worried about the amount of firepower I have. I guess bluffing is a possibility after all.

Communicating all this back and forth took a little while, but Frostbite accepted and came over with a small escort of destroyers.

Sapphire led them to my quickly built throne room over land, partway through that blinged out main base. I told her not to reveal our underwater entrance, partly for safety and partly for the image. Abyssals do not respect each other as a matter of course; a weak Princess is worthless, so I displayed strength as best I could.

But really, I always wanted to sit on a throne. My verdict is that I need some pillows.

I had Hydra dozing nearby, too. She upset the gaggle of petite destroyers following their Princess by her mere presence; even Frostbite gave her a long, discerning look. Or maybe it was the huge gun on her back.

Anyway, things ended well despite me bullshitting my way to victory there. I got up once they had time to take in the sight and met Frostbite halfway. Shaking hands with an Abyssal was an experience, even if I am one myself; her grip was tough as steel for obvious reasons.

"Be welcome," I started. "I am Dagon, the Tech Administrator Princess."

She already knew that, but this was the first time we met face to face. I think my voice wavered a bit, but she did not react to it. There was no subservience or anything from her, though; just a nod and a faint twitch of the lips.

"Thank you for having us. I am Frostbite, Battleship Princess."

In retrospect, the way she said it makes me think there are several Battleship Princesses. And the Abyss just told me this is correct; some titles are unique like mine, but most are not. It does not really matter in the end, though; I invited Frostbite to a separate room for a proper conversation, the only one I spent time furnishing with wood. Good thing I can generate that, too. Sapphire showed her destroyers to the baths for a rest and I sent Hydra to play outside.

Frostbite went straight to business once we sat down. No chit chat, no nothing. I appreciate that a lot. We were in there for no more than an hour, talking over how we expected to interact with the other. I told her I am mostly just consolidating my current holdings and gathering resources, she revealed that she is still establishing herself nearby. Turns out her previous base was bombed to hell, but she and her escorts fought themselves out. They repurposed a destroyed human airbase not too far away as their lair.

I told her to expand in the opposite direction of my holdings then, not like there is a premium on territory here. She agreed readily enough; I am glad arrogance is less of an issue with Abyssals, or at least those I met so far. She could have easily taken offense. Or maybe that is because I am also a Princess?

Either way, she seems perfectly fine coexisting without bothering the other. The one thing we had to argue about was technology; they noticed my improved comms, just like I thought. It makes sense she wants to get her hands on that. I needed a while to mull it over, at least until she said to name a price. Then things got easier.

I have not agreed to anything yet, but I am considering the matter. I could try to get a ton of resources out of this, at least as much as I paid to research communications to begin with. But asking for too much will probably upset her. I could easily gift this one to her too, but that may make me appear weak.

But honestly, I am not cut out to be a businessman. I rather be nice. If it ends up biting me in the ass, so be it.