Northern Atlantic, 2200 hours:
The ships continued sailing through the ocean, their hulls lifted by big waves before crashing down, water splattering to the frontal windows. The flag of the star and spangled banner waving like a strong river stream going down from a high elevation, appearing dark as they're wet from the heavy rain. This would continue on for a few minutes until, all of the sudden, the rain stopped. The wind that was once strong, gone. The waves below were no longer going up as high as a three story building.
Medellein went out from the bridge, holding her head in pain from crashing into the walls from the rough waves earlier. She regained her composure before staring at the now calmer waves. "W-What just happened?"
"Uhh, Ma'am. What's happening right now? My sensors are saying that we're still under the storm, but it's all calm out here." Rosey asked, her voice tone was one of confusion.
"Probably it's just your potato powered old ass sensors, Rosey." Marie teased.
"Say one more word and I'll-"
"Silence." Medellein looked back at the now calm waves. She turned on her computer vision, opening up the weather sensor display. It's all bright red. She looked back toward the sea. She felt a strange feeling inside her; she doesn't know what it is; it's not one of fear, worry, or curiosity.
She then opened up the GPS display, no satellite connection, strange.. She then opened up a communication display, where she attempted to speak with the Fleet HQ. No signal. She can feel tension and worry rising inside her; something is wrong. Then, suddenly, the warning display appeared in her vision.
"Warning. Multiple bogeys detected. Bearing 280. Distance, 100 nautical miles away and approaching fast. Jamming signals have been detected."Lisa spoke in a monotone tone, informing Medellein of an incoming unknown flight.
"What?" Medellein opened up the radar display, showing around 20 small dots flying fast towards her fleet from the north west. The numbers changed drastically to 100 small dots. "Christ almighty, what are those contacts?" She then went on to check on the E-2D that was sent flying earlier to replace the previously fuel-exhausted E-2D. But there is no connection to it.
"Lisa, where's the current airborne E-2D?"
"I've been trying to connect with Hawkeye 2, but it seems that we've lost contact with it during the storm."
"Goodness.." Medellein focused her eyes on the radar, whatever those contacts are miles away. Counting now, specifically 125 contacts. "Send another up in the air."
"It shall be done, Rear Admiral."Lisa acknowledged. Just after that, another E-2D was seen being towed by a tractor from the deck to the launching area.
The E-2D was soon hooked onto the catapult, and a blast shield swung up, facing against the aircraft's rear. The E-2D's wing detracted, its engines revving up and lurched forward slightly before being held back by the hook. Seconds later, the hook pulled the E-2D forward, pushing it off the flight deck within seconds. The E-2D flew off, and began flying up to the sky, beyond the clouds.
"Holy, I'm spotting a fuck ton of bogeys on my radar!" Rosey cursed.
"Maintain radio discipline, Rosey." Said Medellein in a stern tone.
"Hawkeye 3 is in the air- Warning. Multiple bogeys detected. Bearing 150. Distance, 100 nautical miles away and approaching fast. Locking signals have been detected."Lisa warned once more. Displaying radar contacts detected by the E-2D.
Medellein felt an uneasy feeling inside her. She had this kind of experience back when she was in a short transfer with the 7th in the south china sea where she and some others experienced getting mock attacks by the Chinese, but this amount of aircrafts from them in the Northern Atlantic? It's abnormal..
"250 bogeys! Holy shit, since when did the Chinese have these many aircrafts in Greenland?" Rosey panicked further on the radio.
"Chinese? This many in the Arctic?" Marie questioned.
"Madame, what should we do?!" Nana's panicked tone could be heard through the frequency, distressed.
Medellein thought, this many aircraft outside sitting on an island? Just not possible- No, she has to focus back on the serious matter. She then leaned onto the mic and ordered. "All units, keep your weapons tight. Do not fire unless we're fired upon. I'll try to talk with HQ regarding this matter."
"Yes, Ma'am!" The five shipgirls replied in unison.
"Lisa, set this ship against the wind, and I want all available airwings to be up in the air for fleet defense operations. Double time."
"Currently, only squadron one is equipped with standard C.A.P. loadouts. Squadron two's fuel tanks are full, but not all of them are armed."Lisa informed in a nonchalant and monotone tone.
"Launch off any aircrafts that is available. Get the rest of them armed as quickly as you can. Try to get comms back to HQ while it."
"I'll do the best I can, Rear Admiral."Lisa reassured her.
Time was not on her side. She looked back towards the radar display, the unknown contacts were 85 nautical miles away and approaching fast towards her fleet's position. She thought once more, the aircrafts were too fast to be Chinese, specifically regular aircrafts, which would probably be J-16's or J-15's. They would've exhausted their fuel already. Unless they're not the usual J-16's or J-15's,. Maybe J-20's? Or some kind of new aircraft the Chinese have in store?
The deck of the carrier erupted into a flurry of activity as aircrafts were seen being towed by tractors to the launching area. The weapons elevator was seen lifting up and down carriages full of aircraft munitions, before being towed away towards the aircrafts on deck. Aircrafts were seen being launched off the deck, flying up against the thin rain, through the thick gray clouds. Up in the sky, several thousand feet from the surface, multiple F-35's were seen circling around the fleet's position, flying in pairs, waiting for the rest of the aircrafts to lift off and join their formation.
Just half an hour later, the sky was filled with 13 aircrafts, circling above the clouds just above the fleet. Medellein looked through the radar display in her vision, seeing the number of her aircrafts that were circling above. Loud thundering noises could be heard even with the headset she was wearing, although it was deafened to a small amount.
"Should I split my force into two?" Medellein thought before shaking her head. "No, bad idea.. But I have to hold out against two fronts filled with 100 aircraft each.. Damnit, what should I do?"
A look of worry could be seen on her face, wondering if she should split the force or not. An air wing is not enough to deter or take down a horde of aircrafts.. Still thinking on what she should do, Lisa's voice could be heard once more delivering a distressful warning.
"Warning, unknown bogeys bearing 280 and 150 are now 45 nautical miles away."
Medellein was filled once more with stress, they're getting closer by the hour and minute. She has to act fast. She then made the decision. "Lisa, send the current assets in the air to intercept the bogeys. Do not fire unless I say so. Also, I want half of the remaining air wings on deck to intercept the other unknown flights."
"Will do, Rear Admiral."
The deck continued to launch aircrafts off the deck, some were still being armed and fueled by the tractors. She looked out below, hoping whatever's out there heading towards them is not coming with malicious intent and that they were just doing a show of force. But that idea was shattered as Lisa delivered yet another, more distressful warning.
"Warning. Unknown Bogeys bearing 280 just released their munitions. Re-classifying them now as hostiles."
Not good, they just fired their munitions towards her fleet. It's going to be minutes before they either prevail or get sunk. She looked back towards the radar display, hundreds of smaller dots than the previous dots before now flying fast towards her fleet.
"Warning. Unknown Bogeys, bearing 150 just released their munitions. Re-classifying them now as hostiles."
"Missiles away!" Streaks of light and smoke could be seen from Rosey's ship (CG-54), as she fired off her SM-6's from her VLS cells. Flying high for almost a thousand meters before turning vertically, it flew straight to its intended targets in the south-east, leaving white trails behind, which were later erased by the light rain.
"Firing off!" Another streak of light and smoke was seen on Marie's ship (CG-52), firing off her SM-6's from her VLS cells to meet the enemy. This was followed by the destroyers from the rear firing off their own SM-6's from their VLS cells. The sky thundered, blowing with activity as missiles streaked through the sky.
"Lisa, order all flights to engage immediately."
"Will do, Rear Admiral."
The flights of F-35's that flew off earlier began making their way to the bearings, where the unknown hostiles were detected. Flying in pairs, side by side, forming a wall of fighters in the sky. A new mission entry came into each of their systems, coming in from the E-2D.
WEAPONS FREE. ELIMINATE ALL HOSTILES.
Soon after, streaks of light appeared coming out of the F-35's as JTAM's were launched off from the internal weapons bay, heading straight towards the unknown enemy who knows who they really are. Cutting through the wind like a knife through butter, leaving behind white trails in the sky, and moving at very high speed. Passing through the subsonic speed missiles that were moving just below the clouds, close to the surface of the sea. The JATM's eventually arrived at their targets, a large horde of unknown alien-modernistic-like aircraft flying away after releasing their munitions.
The wall of missiles began hitting their targets, hitting them down as if a large swatter fell upon them. The sky was filled with airframes as explosions rocked the once calm and windy sky. Aircraft falling from the sky. Burned, split in half, and blown into small pieces. Sent hurling down to the ocean surface. In total, 75 aircraft were shot down, and increasing.
The E-2D Hawkeye watched from afar as it helped guide the JTAM's to their targets. Counting aircraft shot down by the F-35's, along with other data, before sending it back as reports to the fleet.
The sky was still filled with white trails and streaks of light as SM-6 missiles continued to be fired from the carrier fleet's escorts. The sky was still thundering with the sound of rockets pushing the missiles through the light rain. Not yet ending. The last aircraft, which was a Super Hornet, just launched off from the aircraft carrier, making its way to intercept the hostiles in the north west.
"Lisa, give me a sitrep."
"80 hostiles from bearing 280 have been shot down. The airwings that went after them have expended their munitions and are now making their way back to be rearmed. 65% of hostile munitions have been successfully intercepted and destroyed by escorts. No losses so far."
All was manageable so far, Medellein thought. But she cannot lower her guard just yet. She then asked once more. "What about the comms with HQ?"
"All attempts have failed so far, Rear Admiral- Warning. Incoming hostile munitions 5 nautical miles away and approaching rapidly."
"Incoming! Shit, shit!" Rosey warned, tagging multiple munitions flying just above the surface and heading towards the fleet. Just then, the ships erupted as more missiles were launched from the VLS cells, now firing off ESSM's towards the incoming threat. The missiles were intercepted like flies, but some managed to pass through the wall of steel.
"Fuck!" Rosey cursed, and her ship's CIWS came into action, unleashing a heavy rain of bullets towards the incoming munitions towards her, intercepting many, but one passed through and hit the bridge, causing a large explosion to occur, along with creating a large hole on the missile cruiser.
"CG-54, are you alright?!" Medellein's nerve broke, her tone was frantic. She went out from the bridge, staring ahead towards the missile cruiser ahead of her carrier, burning like a campfire. Multiple small robots could be seen flying around, spraying the ship with water.
Medellein looked at the burning ship for a few seconds. Tears dripped down from her eyes before shaking her head and wiping her face before regaining composure. She then leaned onto the mic. "Lisa.. Status on CG-54?"
"The superstructure is destroyed. The cube is still active. System still intact. Ship still in control. No vitals detected."
"How far are we now from the port?"
"Unknown right now, Rear Admiral. I am still unable to connect to the satellites."
No connection to the satellite.. There are two possibilities that came to Medellein's mind. Either the enemy's jammers are that good or.. They've already shot down their satellites from orbit. Last time, she remembered that the Chinese do have the weapons to take down satellites.. Maybe that.
Outside, aircrafts from the previous flight were seen descending from the sky, attempting to land on the aircraft carrier's deck. Tractors were seen on the deck, with their towing equipment and other tools, ready to immediately drag the aircrafts off the landing strip. Just then, two mysterious feminine figures were observing among the clouds, the only thing that was visible from them were their body silhouettes and their rigging, watching the event unfold in front of their eyes.
"Quite the scene, yes? Observer?" The figure with a rigging armed with six armed large cannons and eight large torpedo tubes spoke, commenting on the battle unfolding in front of them.
"Oh, yes, Tester! Our Overlord and Zero will surely be satisfied with the data we collect. Though I wonder what it is for,. But, eh, I can't be asking too much, it's not what we're programmed for." The footwearless figure with eight large cannons and multiple tentacles replied.
"Right. Well, shall we conclude the test then? The machine's draining more energy than I expected." Tester looked at a hologram, showing the status of the machine at 10% power.
"Well, what do you expect? You literally placed a thousand aircraft in a messy, large cluster, like a child. Not even a single escort for them. I expect more from you.. Tester." Observer gave a disappointing face to Tester. Staring into her eyes.
"Hey! The machine is just.. Garbage.. Ok?!" Tester pouted, looking away from Observer's stare.
"Ck,. so you really are... Childish. Should've brought Tester Beta. She's more mature than you despite being a month younger than you."
"H-Hey.. Don't compare me to her.." Tester kept on avoiding eye contact with Observer. Her tone hinting that of jealousy from being compared.
Then there was silence between the two, observer continued watching as the F-35's continued to land on the deck and were being towed off at the same time by the tractors. She then decided to start a conversation to break the silence.
"Say, do you think we'll be able to fight them?" Asked Observer as she looked towards Tester.
"We cannot even fight against a bunch of old junkies led by a foul junior. Now imagine fighting against shipgirls who are like, What? 90 years ahead of the shipgirls we usually fight?" Tester sighed. "I bet they'll be able to take us out without even looking at us. Anyway, time to turn the machine off and send these ladies back to their place."
"Right." Observer then looked towards the dark gray clouds, where she could see lightning brewing inside on her right. Before she shouted. "Hey! Purifier! We're done here, pack up the equipment! We're leaving right now."
No voice came back replying. Observer scoffed. "Purifier, are you there?"
Tester flew towards the dark clouds, where she thought Purifier may be. Lightning exploding inside like cluster bombs, she eventually came across a young feminine figure, wearing a serafuku with short sleeves and yellow ties and a black short skirt, along with shark-like rigging, its fins armed with four large cannons. She was floating, her eyes closed, her chest going up and down, and her snore barely audible.
"You fall asleep again.." Tester leaned closer to Purifier's face. "Wake up."
"W-What.." Purifier opened her eyes, yawning. She began stretching her body, starting with her arms first. "Is it over yet?"
"You missed the entire show, silly." Tester gave a sharp glare towards Purifier.
"Well, what am I supposed to do? Sit back here and watch? I want to fight." Purifier stared up at Tester with a tired look on her face.
"Well, I wish we could. If our dear Overlord and Zero approve.. But they explicitly told us not to engage and just let aircraft do so. Now, do your job. Make sure none of our assets get captured by them.. Or else we'll be in big trouble."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Purifier finished stretching her body, and she then stared at the battle that was unfolding below, staring at the ships as they're defending themselves from the incoming missiles. "Those are shipgirls? They look more like mass-produced ships to me."
"Oh, well. I don't really know why they're in that shape. Observer Zero is being stingy about giving out information regarding this timeline or universe. Those flags look like Eagle Union, but at the same time, they are different. The only thing she told me is to avoid as much contact as possible with mortal beings and do something very specific."
"Strange.. Anyway, let me get things cleaned up first." Purifier raised her hands, and multiple holograms appeared in front of her with displays showing status of.. Pillars? She first went on to the option of clearing up all objects that are the aircrafts and wrecks that were shot down earlier, and then going to the option of turning off the pillars, ending the simulation.
"There, done. Shall we go back then?"
Observer was seen behind, forming a rift in the sky, before looking back towards Tester and Purifier. "Come on, you two; we're leaving."
As the three went inside through the rift, the sky began to darken once more, rain began to intensify, and lightning clawed the sky. The waves began to rise high, and the rift began to close, before then disappearing into thin air.
F-35's continued to land on the deck, while others circled around waiting for their turn to land. It was until the sky began to darken, with the waves crashing onto the hull of every ship in the fleet, and the wind going strong, along with the rain intensifying, and all of a sudden, all the missiles that were hurling towards the fleet were gone into thin air.
"No contact on radar."Lisa informed Medellein regarding the missiles, which had gone out of sight both visually and on radar.
"W-What.." Medellein checked the radar display once more, but nothing could be seen on sight. Not even a single small dot. Suddenly, the ship tilted to the right by a few degrees, causing her to fall and slip back inside the bridge, her head slamming against a chair. "Agh.."
"What is with this weather..?" Marie commented regarding the weather, her voice was that of fatigue.
The storm brewed more like a rabid dog, with waves as high as a three story building bringing ships up before crashing them down, causing water to splash into the windows. Tractors swung here and there as the waves shook the ship. Aircrafts were still seen up in the air, moving around the fleet, hit hard by the rain.
"Lisa.. Cancel all recovery operations and order all aircraft to go above 14.000 feet." Medellein held her head tight, feeling very dizzy and still lying on the floor.
"Will do, Rear Admiral."Lisa acknowledged.
"Oh and.. Try to scan for CG-54's vitals. Locate her body if you can."
"I will try my best, Rear Admiral- *static* Connections to the satellites have been restored. Communications with HQ have been restored. Signal is weak."
Medellein released a sigh of relief, communication has been restored finally. She stood back up, holding onto whatever she could to not get swung by the waves.
"Connection with Hawkeye 1 has been made- Warning. Collision alert with Hawkeye 2. Changing flight paths of both flights."
Another good news. Medellein went towards the weather radar display, showing they're just a few hours away until they get out of this miserable storm.
"Lisa, relay a message to HQ for medical aid as soon as we return to port. Also, just in case.. Send the fighters towards Iceland in case they run out of fuel. Request tankers from there to help with refueling."
"Will do, Rear Admiral."
Medellein released a heavy sigh. She then walked towards the captain's seat, before sitting down on it, feeling the weight of the previous event pulling her down. "What a day.."
Hours later, the fleet was out of the storm. The time was 0245 hours. Yet the sun was still shining brightly on the horizon, the sky colored in an orange gradation. A P-8 Poseidon loomed above the fleet, its camera ball rotating as it observed the fleet, before focusing its attention on a damaged Ticonderoga class ship, with its bridge barely recognizable and its tower half burned.
A pair of F-15's could be seen flying past on the left, pilots from inside the cockpit tilting their aircrafts 45 degrees to get a better view of the fleet before staring at the damaged Ticonderoga class cruiser, hull number 054. Looking closely at the half burned tower and the line of ropes holding the large stars and spangled banner in a half-burned and wet condition.
Then, a message came in, with a man in his 40s speaking through, with a voice Medellein could recognize. Giving her a wave of comfort.
"Welcome back CSG 11. Glad to have you back."