“So… I’m guessing I’m not the only one?” She asked sailing behind the tanker at the moment. The storm was starting to let up as it was moving west and they were sailing east. Hopefully before they got into Hawaii the weather would be nice… She couldn’t imagine spending her afterlife in a storm after all. Around her she could still see blips in the distance but didn’t have a frame of reference if they were friendlies or hostiles. Her air radar was picking up relatively slow flying aircraft… Like really slow… Sub 200 mph slow. Even her slowest missile the Tomahawk had a cruising speed of 400 to 500 mph meaning that whatever it was, wasn’t a missile. Maybe a propeller plane?
“No but you might as well be. Pearl Harbor only has about 7 of you on base and supposedly there is another Task Force of equal number in San Diego and Norfolk. I believe Japan has a few teams and some of the European nations have their own. Honestly though there are not enough of y’all to cover everywhere.” The voice on the other side of the radio replied. She had learned that he was the Captain of the tanker and had been useful in helping her understand the situation.
“Oh wow…That’s not much. Does anyone know where we come from or how we got here? I honestly woke up out here so I could use any information you might know.” She knew she was asking a lot from a civilian captain but it wasn’t like her own crew had any idea either. They didn’t even know her own name so it was a miracle they helped get her Rigging working.
The old captain laughed at the question causing the ship girl behind his massive tanker to blush in embarrassment. Surely her question wasn’t that silly right? “Your guess is as good as mine. Hopefully when you meet Task Force Pearl they can explain more to you. Just keep an eye on our six Miss Fancy Missile Cruiser. I bet you could smack those Revenant fighters out of the sky easily.”
“Speaking of fighters, Captain, I have contacts about 20 minutes east of us going about 180mph. Are those what you are referring to?” She asked picking up her speed and skating across the water’s surface to get ahead of the tanker just in case. Already she was loading a salvo of SM-2s into her twin rail launchers and locking onto the unknowns on her radar just in case.
“No, coming from that direction I am willing to bet they are Dauntless scouts deployed by the carrier from Pearl. I’m gonna send a message to verify identity since you don’t seem to have your IFF protocols updated. We don’t need your first impression to be a case of friendly fire.” He responded to the rather twitchy new girl. Not that he blamed her. He couldn’t imagine just waking up on a stormy ocean with no memories.
“I appreciate it. Why such slow planes from a carrier? I thought the navy was rocking F-35s and Super Hornets?” She asked curiously before her sonar picked up a series of somethings nearby. “Belay that, we have company Captain.” She was about to ask something else when a series of figures popped up out of the water resembling black techno-organic beasts more than ships. Blood red eyes turned to her but quickly found themselves peppered with automatic fire as she leveled both arms and sprayed the creature with anti-armor rounds from her chain-guns.
The Revenant destroyer screamed in pain as blood went flying before it dived again to make the suffering stop. The unnamed Cruiser though wasn’t letting it go so easily. She had never been in a battle but instincts took over as one of her lightweight torpedoes ejected from her rear waist to chase the retreating monster. Almost immediately the water around her buckled as the underwater explosion released a plumb of ocean up into the sky. “Got you, you creepy fuck!” She screamed before a second one leaped out from behind her in an attempt to catch her off guard. Too bad her sensor suite was better than stealth check as she pivoted to avoid the tackle before slamming her fist in a textbook right hook to its face. To add on the pain as soon as her armored gauntlet made contact the 25mm in that arm unleashed a burst of fire into it. Barks of automatic fire ripped into the target before being strafed with 20mm CIWS fire from her tower. Unlike the previous Destroyer this one did not need a torpedo as it was ripped to pieces by auto-cannon fire.
She wasn’t fast enough for the third though. It came out with an open maw revealing what appeared to be a cannon instead of a tongue. Her vision was filled with a flash of light and gunpowder smoke as a shell slammed into her chest throwing the cruiser off to the side. It didn’t penetrate her flesh but she could feel the heat from the flash of powder and the bruise the round would cause. All it did was piss her off… Seething in fury the Cruiser managed to land on her feet next to the tanker before glaring at the Abyssal. The AR layout over her vision flashed red as a quick lock was made on the enemy and one of the harpoon launchers opened up and fired. Sure it wouldn’t hit supersonic at this close range but it didn’t need to. The Destroyer never stood a chance against the anti-ship missile as it slammed into the twisted form and exploded into a blazing inferno. Even she could feel the heat from the blast as the Destroyer violently reacted to being set on fire… then as if that was the purpose of the weapon the flames reached the enemies torpedo magazine and set them off.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Holy shit that girl is kinda scary…” The Captain whispered as she watched the form of a girl not even an adult yet manhandle those raiders. He had never seen someone mix an auto-cannon in with a punch before and that last missile was just plain nasty. It was a good thing she was on their side because just counting the number of launchers on that small body would sink even his massive ship. Imagine if one of those Harpoons ignited the fuel stores?
______________
Out in the distance was sailing Task force Pearl led by BB-39 . Armed with 4 triple 14s she was the biggest ship in Hawaii. Long brown hair flowed behind her as she sailed alongside her partner CV-9 whose planes were already out scouting from the injured tanker and the unknown ship traveling with it. Her emerald-like green eyes looked at the carrier waiting for a report from the lilac haired ship.
“Found them Arizona! Looks like another ship girl is engaging Revenant destroyers and handling them pretty easily… Wait, did she just fire a missile at one?” Essex was reporting what her Dauntless was radioing but with a rather confused expression. She wasn’t aware of any girls being summoned with modern weapons yet.
Arizona listened with a big of a grin. Surely this was the start of something interesting for the old gal. If someone new had arrived, and with missiles that worked then things could be getting spicy soon. Also sailing in formation were the pair of Atlanta class light cruisers Both sisters were visibly excited about what Essex was mentioning.
The lead ship of her class Atlanta pushed her pink hair from her face and nudged her younger sister with a giggle. Both girls looks very similar with only the age allowing one to tell the difference. “Sounds like we might have one of those fancy guided missile destroyers like the Navy used to use. Maybe we will be able to take a break from anti-air duties at this rate.” San Diego didn’t laugh but frowned at the idea proposed from her sister.
“But I like my job… What good are my guns if someone else shoots everything down from miles away?” She gave a cute huff which just elicited more laughter from her elder sister.
“Relax San Diego, nobody can replace you!” Popping out from nearby was the adorably cute figure of the Destroyer . Like all Destroyers she was the size of a child and with large brown eyes and fluffy short brown hair you couldn’t help but want to snuggle and protect her. “I can’t wait to meet the new girl! Think she will like our base?” Oh the innocent questions of a child warship!
“I’m sure Bristol… Stay focused though. How many enemies was she up against Essex?” Arizona asked, placing a hand on the destroyer’s head and fluffing her hair. The small figure underneath the massive hands of the Super Dreadnaught purred at the attention.
“Three so far Arizona. According to the Captain of the our new girl had already smoked two of the creeps before those three. She’s fast too and moves strangely for a ship.” The carrier offered before raising her M1 Garand and sending a bullet loaded with more planes into the air. The Japanese ship girls might use bows for their carriers but Americans liked their guns preferring to launch planes with period rifles. Once the second squad of fighters were airborne she directed them to the south to make sure nobody else was planning to jump the two out on the water.
“How so?” The battleship asked, adjusting her stance and pulling her hat down to prevent it from being stolen by the remaining winds as the storm finished passing them.
“She moves like a Destroyer but with the mass of a Cruiser. Just from what I can see she seems armed like a Destroyer as well but something is weird about her. Maybe it’s the missiles? I can’t imagine though with what looks like only two 5in guns.”
Arizona took the information and pondered on it. Soon they would see for themselves just what sort of new friend now sailed the 7 seas with them.
__________________
“Awesome sauce! I pack a punch! Did you see that? I have machine gun punches, literally!” Laughing excitedly the unnamed cruiser pranced around the tanker after laying the beat down and three vessels smaller than herself. Sure it felt like she had bullied them but whatever. They deserved it for trying to sneak attack her. Also note to self, don’t fire the harpoons when close to a target. She had to put out a few embers from her skirt afterwards.
“You did great kid… Looks like our escort is arriving. Go greet them, I see four of the five of our resident seven naval goddesses now.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice! She could already pick them up on sensors and the five blips in her vision were close. She wasn’t alone out here and once in visual range our protagonist didn’t feel so strange anymore. Maybe this adventure might not be the worst thing ever! At flank speed the nuclear powered cruiser girl raced forward as above the first squad of Dauntless flew over to take up overwatch for them. Finally she felt safe for the first time on this dark and stormy ocean.
