Of Ships and Kanmusu: A Kancolle RP (Rebooted) IC

[Sleet Clans]

UCN Amaryyi
Now that the Abyssals were coming into range, the lust for war the Sleetavian felt could finally be vented upon the abominations that lay upon her radar! Maneuvering broadside on to the monsters as to get all of her 18-inch rifles into place, once more she felt that drumbeat within her head and the red in her vision.

The time for skulking around and movement was over. Now was the time for battle.

As several shells fell around her, some even hitting off of her (Not that she paid notice to such petty things!), Amaryyi felt her guns finally lock into position, all nine of her barrels pointed right at the Abyssal surface ships currently hammering away at her and her allies. She narrowed her eyes, steadied herself, and fired.

The boom and shockwave of her main batteries ripple firing (If they all fired at once, the shockwaves would hit off the shells and make them more inaccurate) was a familiar feeling to the battleship, and she relished it as she sent nine 18-inch warheads on their way to rip through some floating Abyssal hulks!

[New Antonalia]

Jean Jacques Delmont|FRS John Talbot,
Battlecruiser, Fate Response Force
-Earlier that day-

"C'est trop tôt le matin..."* Jean muttered, slamming his fist on the alarm clock as hard as he could, silencing the cold metallic ringing. The brown haired Franglain shivered as he exited his bed, he wasn't used to the cold weather of the North, preferring to spend his time lounging in the many cafes and salons of Dunkirk while he waited for another semester at Secondary to start. But the Abyssals had made sure that was nothing more than a pipe dream as they devastated the coastlines of every major and minor naval power in the world. Luck had placed him far enough from the initial bombardment to quickly duck for cover, but the subsequent bombardments leveled most of the metropolitan port city. And to make matters worse, the Franglian navy, which was still one of the more powerful in terms of warships, armament, and technology, was virtually powerless to stop it. Over the subsequent days, news began to trickle in as more and more of the worlds coastlines were made uninhabitable by abyssal attacks and no one seemed to be able to stop them, that is, until the idea of the Kanmusu was put forth by the Japanese. From what he heard, Japan made it relatively unscathed thanks to an armada of scantly clad girls that they pulled out of nowhere. Fortunately for the rest of the world, other individuals started popping up, apparently inheriting the "soul of past ships".

He pulled on his shirt and pants, still shivering as he turned the temperature in his room up to near it's highest. Throwing on a jacket, Jean stepped outside before cursing furiously as he heard the unmistakable whine of the Claxion echo through the base. "Merde..." He muttered moving towards the docks to suit up in his rig.

-Now-

Jean scanned the horizon with his binoculars, a possibly fruitless effort, but an effort none the less to gain a little more intelligence on the situation at hand. He'd listened intently to the brief via radio, but unlike several of the other ships in the make shift flotilla, Jean had little to no clue what they were talking about. At least, until he heard the distant heavy thumps of cannon fire and smoke looming on the horizon. Jean let out a small whimper as he tried to stow his fear, reassuring himself with La Marseillaise, but he doubted the images of cavalry charges and defiant stands he fawned over as a child would to much to assuage his fears as the report from one of the flotillas battleships thundered their boisterous entrance into the battle. He felt awkward in his rig as his guns moved and the fairies scrambled around the superstructure and deck, readying everything for the coming battle. Eventually, he found himself within range of the Abyssals as his eyesight narrowed against one of the cruisers. "If there's one thing I'm confident in, it's Franglian shells always find their mark." He muttered as La Marsaillies started playing over his ship's loud speakers. Soon after, the concussive force of his 10 330 mm cannons stalled his momentum for the briefest of moments. "Mort ou glorie."

[Parcia]

PCGC Sergei Petranko
Roughly 54 miles from current engagement zone

Sergei could, of course, pick up the radio chatter of the battle, even hear the echos of the largest of the fleets guns firing. IT was his choice to pick the far out picket spot, knowing full well there would be combat, but a full on ambush?

Those equipped with radar would see his little form chugging happily along, what would seem off to them would be him going through the ice sheet at a steady 12 knots, the ice folding and cracking in front of his rig. He was...ancy, to say the least. Such a large instance of combat so close, it had him out of his element. His usual bright white and red paint job was done over and repainted a gun metal gray with vertical white stripes to better hide him in the vast sheets of ice.

His sonar was on high, detecting both hidden burgs, yet no submarines. He was secretly hoping his little patrol rout would let him skirt the combat zone, clearing out pack ice and maybe setting out some depth charges. He was armed, of course, his two 130s being loaded in ready...but against some of the enemies sighted? They would be but pop guns.

He perked his ears up, his sonar pinging against something roughly a mile ahead of him, it was too deep to be a berg and moved too fast for a berg on a flow. He wrote it down in his little log, nothing down his location, time, and the location of the contact.


He clicked his radio to the convoy, "Convoy convoy convoy, unidentified submerged contact, bearing 124 relative your position, designating sierra 8, over."

He opened up the throttle, pushing 18 knits as he stated to crash through the ice, he readied his depth Charge launcher. He reached out behind him and tumbled the little A-3 that stood attach to his flight deck. "Not yet." He placed it back on the deck and kept pushing forward.

[The Selkie]

PCGC Sergei Petranko
Roughly 54 miles from current engagement zone

Sergei could, of course, pick up the radio chatter of the battle, even hear the echos of the largest of the fleets guns firing. IT was his choice to pick the far out picket spot, knowing full well there would be combat, but a full on ambush?

Those equipped with radar would see his little form chugging happily along, what would seem off to them would be him going through the ice sheet at a steady 12 knots, the ice folding and cracking in front of his rig. He was...ancy, to say the least. Such a large instance of combat so close, it had him out of his element. His usual bright white and red paint job was done over and repainted a gun metal gray with vertical white stripes to better hide him in the vast sheets of ice.

His sonar was on high, detecting both hidden burgs, yet no submarines. He was secretly hoping his little patrol rout would let him skirt the combat zone, clearing out pack ice and maybe setting out some depth charges. He was armed, of course, his two 130s being loaded in ready...but against some of the enemies sighted? They would be but pop guns.

He perked his ears up, his sonar pinging against something roughly a mile ahead of him, it was too deep to be a berg and moved too fast for a berg on a flow. He wrote it down in his little log, nothing down his location, time, and the location of the contact.


He clicked his radio to the convoy, "Convoy convoy convoy, unidentified submerged contact, bearing 124 relative your position, designating sierra 8, over."

He opened up the throttle, pushing 18 knits as he stated to crash through the ice, he readied his depth Charge launcher. He reached out behind him and tumbled the little A-3 that stood attach to his flight deck. "Not yet." He placed it back on the deck and kept pushing forward.

RKN Kadesh, with the Supply Convoy.
While the Novayans were finally making themselves useful, I nodded... well, friendly air cover was always good. Didn't always enjoy that, that's for sure...
"Carriers, watch the AA-Fireworks. We don't want any of your planes riddled with friendly holes, now do we?", I asked over radio, wanting to add something (most likely a ruffle for Novaya for not remembering the name of our base's commanding officer or his radio designation) as another radio message came in.
This was a male voice, hurried and in stress: "Convoy convoy convoy, unidentified submerged contact, bearing 124 relative your position, designating sierra 8, over."
I turned so my ASDIC could either confirm or deny the existance of that contact before releasing my own Depth Charge Catapult and spoke into my radio: "RKN Kadesh, Unident-Ah!"
My scream came from one of the Abyssal-Shells hitting me, this time something major. This was a major shell, or rather, which shell wasn't major for an unarmoured destroyer? My damage control went to work, going into overdrive.
One of the first things they reported, along with a tickle of blood along my forehead, one of my legs limp: "Kadesh, Continental, I'm hit. Port Turbine is out. Need a tow!"

SDFS Tine.
I scoffed as Foxy and myself fell back to let the others pass - rear echelon!
Pah!
Rear Echelon... I understood the reasoning, it was wiser that way with subs and aircraft attacking us and the convoy, but still... we are torpedo boats. Our job is not to be over-glorified escort vessels, but to be the ones the other side needs escorts for. We are there to attack.
And so, we fell back, to provide rear echelon support, AA-weaponry at the ready.
Come, little Abyssals!, I thought to myself, Come and play!
Foxy, on the other hand, I could see that, was calm and stoic, but only I could see a fire burning in her eyes. Rear Echelon on the retreat would mean the last in the formation... and that meant one simple, yet very effective thing: Mines.
Many, many mines.

[Higher Japan]

Convoy battle

"Shells incoming, split up!" The abyssal interception fleet slowly began to almost break off into two separate heads, 1 led by the princess with her 2 light cruisers while the other was led by the torpedo cruiser with the 2 destroyers. However, the first head had been hit heavily by Hevonston and Amaryyi. After the first 2 barrages, smoke and crimson began to appear from the 1st head as the princess had apparently bore a small part of the shelling, while 1 of her cruisers had been hit to moderate damage and another just barely hanging on as an arm fell off, blue blood leaking into the ocean while it sailed on.

"Full barrage fire, aim for the smaller ships!" As the 2 heads quickly recalculated their bearings, another continuous barrage rang out against the smaller ships. Continental would be hit by 2 of the shells, although the first barely did any damage as it only punched a hole above the waterline the 2nd had hit her with slightly more effect as she winced slightly. "We're almost within the range of continuous air support, just sail on a little further!" Continental called out, cannons returning fire towards the abyssal fleet. Almost a second later, as Jean fired off his barrage this time it scored a slightly better hit. This time it was the front of the first head that had been hit. The princess was now moderately damaged to a lighter extent, although part of her 'ship' was now bleeding and riddled with holes.

"Kadesh, we'll be sending a tow over to you once we clear the area. All ships, please watch your anti-air fire and sightings, air support has arrived." Higashikawa signaled, looking above overhead as the aircraft mainly consisting of dive bombers and their fighter escort had begun to arrive, providing support as the 2nd head came under fire and despite some lost planes the attack run resulted in 1 pillar of smoke from the lead torpedo cruiser. Passing over the ice blocks 'support' had also been rendered in a different form as some fighters dove down to break the ice sheets up into slightly smaller more breakable pieces before leaving with the squadron back to base.

Underwater on all sonars, the 12 pings turned to 10. Then down to 8. This time formation was completely screwed over. Torpedoes began flying everywhere underwater, some port, starboard, forward, rear, but most of it was still disorganized.

Naval Base

Upon arrival to the base, Dia would quickly be told to wait at her position as a smaller ship, one that was actually built to be a regular ship came out and quickly began the refueling process while she was briefed on what was going on. Now 45 miles south west, Abyssal underwater and surface forces, intercepted convoy, heavy gun support would be appreciated.

[Sterkistan]

Battleship Diamantina
Naval Base, Preparing for Sortie

---

Dia appeared absent-minded as she was briefed on the situation, her lone eye was half-shut and her gaze was cast skywards. However, she was listening, and doing all the appropriate measurements in her head. She'd only need to go 25 miles at minimum to get the Abyssals in her range, but she settled on going 30, maybe 32 for the added range should they turn tail.
Her Captain was scrawling over her maps and taking notes, namely the number of friendly ships and estimated hostiles. As well as taking notes of any permafrost formations in the water they'd have to avoid.

She set out, thankfully much of the ice around the naval base had been cleared to simplify manoeuvring of larger ships, and she gunned it to 25 knots. Following the path the other ships took to sortie to reduce the need to evade incoming icebergs. It'd take her a roughly hour to reach her firing position. And she silently prayed that they would be able to hold until their support arrived.

That wasn't the only worry on-board the Diamantina though, the crew had to keep making checks to her superstructure, the botched repairs from the civil war had made her rather rickety and prone to creaks. Some of the crew feared that a full broadside would snap her in half. However unlikely, sailors tend to be superstitious pessimists.

[The Cross and Davids Star]

MNC Locust

Under the Convoy

---

The dim noise of explosions and shouting on the surface above me were simply that; noises, distractions that can kill. My parasites and I began focusing our fire in an orderly fashion, with my 50 minisubs forming in groups of 12, firing and returning to me for reloading before waiting to fire again, sending a constant barrage towards the enemy submarines, as my purpose here was to stop them from disabling or sinking any of the convoy, which carries our vital materials to remain here. After that mission is accomplished, I planned to go after the head of the snake, the abyssal princess. Without someone to answer to, they would surely route themselves to retreat.

Or so I thought.

An explosion appeared right beside me, knocking away a minisub or two, though they and I were still operational, it made me realize another factor of my mission, I’d have to dodge both the torpedoes from the submarines, but the depth charges of my own allies, which were rather indiscriminate in thier targets. In response, I dove deeper and spread out my forces. There was no use for a large submersible force when depth charges can blast a group to kingdom come. Our torpedoes had less of a chance of connecting now, but we were safer from friendly fire. Even then, we continued our attacks without pause, all of us as cogs in a single machine, working as one.

[Sleet Clans]

UCN Amaryyi
As her shells landed around the enemy (And scored some hits too!), Amaryyi's radar picked up the Abyssal interception fleet splitting off, with the princess leading two cruiser-sized targets and another cruiser leading two escorts. Not content to just let the princess sail away after a mere single salvo from herself, the battleship kept her guns trained on the biggest Abyssal in the first head. If she and the rest of her allies could knock that bitch out sooner rather than later, it would make mopping up the rest of the Abyssals that much easier.

With all nine of her rifles reloaded and aimed, the Sleetavian let loose a second ripple salvo from her guns, sending the shells streaking towards the Abyssal princess leading the two cruisers. Right after her shells left the barrels of her guns however, a stray torpedo smacked into her hull, throwing up a tower of seawater as it blew a hole in her hull. Grunting in pain from the hit, she immediately started to zig-zag to throw off any more torpedoes headed in her direction. Luckily, her damage control teams were already on it, and she could take a hell of a pounding if she wanted to, but that didn't necessarily mean that she had to. If zig-zagging meant she spent less time in the repair docks when she got back, she would do it.

[Jebslund]

Supply convoy, Continental POV

As Kadesh released more depth charges into the water, I switched back to my standard surface radar array. The interception was closing in fast and some ships were firing off at them, although most would fall short. Her stern was bleeding speed but she still had to sail on. By now the fire on the supplies ship had been extinguished and they could carry on. I radioed out one message to the relief fleet, just as a torpedo detonated early just millimeters away. That was too close.

"Continental to relief force, subs closing in faster, surface fleet on their way. Hurry up!"

Abyssal fleets

As depth charges fell into the water, the submarines began to rapidly disperse although 2 were hit to medium damage and another 4 ended up colliding with damage ranging from none to moderate. However now they'd begun moving in a new pattern, hiding under the sheets of ice as torpedoes began to come out from the sheets. However, ultimately the fleet slowly began to change position as torpedoes came from every angle save for starboard.

Closing in rapidly, the abyssal interception fleet which had now come under fire began to maneuver out of the way of the incoming shells as their formation changed to line abreast, completely going parallel to the convoy. A few shells had hit the other ships but nothing too major. "All ships, give them hell!" With a few flashes, a full abyssal broadside was fired upon the convoy, aimed at the smaller ships as one struck Continental in her forward elevated turret. All the while, flak and anti air fire began to be released from the abyssals, still heading line abreast parallel to the convoy.

Soon enough torpedoes would be sporadically launched if possible as a spread of 5 now approached from starboard steadily while their port and front would receive sporadic torpedoes from the submarines.

Fast Response Force

"All ships, these are your orders. Capital ships, provide heavy gun support. Aim for the torpedo cruiser in the middle, if needed use the Saiun as a spotter. Ships capable of moving through the ice please move in and intercept the submarines. Locust I need you to help the ships break through the front, destroy the submarines there. Ships without ASW are to follow as a rear echelon in case of abyssal air raids. Whatever you do do not engage the princess in direct combat. Now, forwards!", Higashikawa shouted, increasing his speed slightly as a Saiun squad of 3 flew over the fleet, heading towards the convoy and the abyssal interception force closing in.

Just then he heard another radio message. Carrier support. "All carriers, please help to cover the convoy. The submarines are hiding under the sheets so please try to clear it by all means. We'll also need you to distract the ships in the interception force, leave none of them floating."

RKN Kadesh, with the Supply Convoy.
While the Novayans were finally making themselves useful, I nodded... well, friendly air cover was always good. Didn't always enjoy that, that's for sure...
"Carriers, watch the AA-Fireworks. We don't want any of your planes riddled with friendly holes, now do we?", I asked over radio, wanting to add something (most likely a ruffle for Novaya for not remembering the name of our base's commanding officer or his radio designation) as another radio message came in.
This was a male voice, hurried and in stress: "Convoy convoy convoy, unidentified submerged contact, bearing 124 relative your position, designating sierra 8, over."
I turned so my ASDIC could either confirm or deny the existance of that contact before releasing my own Depth Charge Catapult and spoke into my radio: "RKN Kadesh, Unident-Ah!"
My scream came from one of the Abyssal-Shells hitting me, this time something major. This was a major shell, or rather, which shell wasn't major for an unarmoured destroyer? My damage control went to work, going into overdrive.
One of the first things they reported, along with a tickle of blood along my forehead, one of my legs limp: "Kadesh, Continental, I'm hit. Port Turbine is out. Need a tow!"

SDFS Tine.
I scoffed as Foxy and myself fell back to let the others pass - rear echelon!
Pah!
Rear Echelon... I understood the reasoning, it was wiser that way with subs and aircraft attacking us and the convoy, but still... we are torpedo boats. Our job is not to be over-glorified escort vessels, but to be the ones the other side needs escorts for. We are there to attack.
And so, we fell back, to provide rear echelon support, AA-weaponry at the ready.
Come, little Abyssals!, I thought to myself, Come and play!
Foxy, on the other hand, I could see that, was calm and stoic, but only I could see a fire burning in her eyes. Rear Echelon on the retreat would mean the last in the formation... and that meant one simple, yet very effective thing: Mines.
Many, many mines.

[NOTE: Spoilered text removed]

Hornissennest
"Solid copy. Diverting fighter support to attack enemy surface ships and sortieing bombers to see about breaking up that ice.", Hornissennest responded. As she ordered her aircraft to divert and scrambled her remaining fighter bombers, another message came in, this one warning of friendly AA fire, "Solid copy. Thanks for the heads up.", she answered, "I'm also sending some of my battlegroup your way. When they arrive, put them where you need them.", she continued. "Turmfalke, das ist Hornissennest. Wenn Sie irgendwelche Granaten haben, die die Eisdecke zerbrechen können, können Sie sie verwenden, um das Eis zu brechen (..., ...). Sie sind auch frei, Feuer auf jeder Oberfläche Ziele der Gelegenheit zu eröffnen." As she spoke, the remaining 20 Fliegendewaffels took off, escorted by 20 Maschinenteufels, and made for the nearest group of subs to attempt to break up the ice over them. The escorts had been supplied with depth bombs, their munitions racks swapped with dual-bomb mounts allowing them to carry two 150kg bombs to be dropped if the ice sheets were successfully broken.

Speer-Ein, 60km from the convoy
As the now orders from Hornissennest came in, every aircraft in the formation immediately turned toward the last known position of the enemy's surface ships. As they turned, the fighters split into two formations of 10 Fliegendewaffels and an equal escort each, then altered their flight path to come at the biggest threat, the Princess, from two different sides, and dropped as close to the surface as they dared in an attempt to come in under the Princess's radar, the idea for this run being for the bombers to loft the bombs into the Princess while rising up, rather than dive in, in hopes of minimizing the risk to the aircraft, while the escorts torpedoed any susceptible surface vessels.

Turmfalke, this is Hornissennest. If you have any shells that can break up the ice sheets, you are free to use them to attempt to break the ice at (...,...). You are also free to open fire on any surface targets of opportunity.

[Fantrum]

Glorious

Things had gone to hell in rather quick fashion. Id acknowledged my orders while we steamed out, and a weight had settled in my stomach. There were a lot of submarines waiting for us. No one could call me a coward, I liked to think I was far from that actually, but subs gave me the nervous willys. I couldnt see them, and I couldnt fight them. There was something unnatural about ships that sailed under the water. Regardless, there were plenty of targets above the waves too, so Id have to focus on what I could do instead of worrying about what I couldnt.

That said, as we approached the beleaguered convoy the longer ranged battleships started opening up at extreme range. Just a tinge jealous of their much larger guns, I continued to sail in company with the small torpedo boat sisters. Figuring that they would have a means of fighting off the subs, but need a little protection from larger ships. At some point, enemy bombers started to appear overhead, and everyone around me began firing into the air. Nothing else to concentrate on, I joined them in their mostly ineffectual barrage, since the planes were so high up only my five inch secondaries had a hope of hitting them.

Of course, then we had to start dodging bombs and before I knew it, we had linked up with the convoy proper. Now I had to dodge bombs and torpedoes. Awesome.

"Kadesh, Continental, I'm hit. Port Turbine is out. Need a tow!"

I was broken out of my combat tunnel vision by a cry over the general frequency, apparently Continental was the convoy leader, but whoever Kadesh was needed help. Seeing as I couldnt do a damn thing against the subs and the other ships seemed to have a lid on the surface contacts, I moved in shield the limping destroyer. A disabled ship in combat was a dead ship, especially with all the torpedoes swimming about. I knew I was making myself into a target, but there was nothing else for it.

"Glory, Continental, Im moving to render assistance to Kadesh, will rejoin the fleet once shes out of danger." I shouted over the chaos of battle. Closing in, my anti aircraft fire drove away a few brave bombers. "Hey there!" I was close enough that I didnt need to clutter the radio waves to talk to the damaged girl, "FNS Glory at your service, you seem to need some help!" The cheerfulness in my voice was betrayed by the gravity of the situation. Instead of further small talk, I held out my hand, "Lets get you clear of the combat zone, before they take an interest in your continued well being."

[The Selkie]

Glorious

Things had gone to hell in rather quick fashion. Id acknowledged my orders while we steamed out, and a weight had settled in my stomach. There were a lot of submarines waiting for us. No one could call me a coward, I liked to think I was far from that actually, but subs gave me the nervous willys. I couldnt see them, and I couldnt fight them. There was something unnatural about ships that sailed under the water. Regardless, there were plenty of targets above the waves too, so Id have to focus on what I could do instead of worrying about what I couldnt.

That said, as we approached the beleaguered convoy the longer ranged battleships started opening up at extreme range. Just a tinge jealous of their much larger guns, I continued to sail in company with the small torpedo boat sisters. Figuring that they would have a means of fighting off the subs, but need a little protection from larger ships. At some point, enemy bombers started to appear overhead, and everyone around me began firing into the air. Nothing else to concentrate on, I joined them in their mostly ineffectual barrage, since the planes were so high up only my five inch secondaries had a hope of hitting them.

Of course, then we had to start dodging bombs and before I knew it, we had linked up with the convoy proper. Now I had to dodge bombs and torpedoes. Awesome.

"Kadesh, Continental, I'm hit. Port Turbine is out. Need a tow!"

I was broken out of my combat tunnel vision by a cry over the general frequency, apparently Continental was the convoy leader, but whoever Kadesh was needed help. Seeing as I couldnt do a damn thing against the subs and the other ships seemed to have a lid on the surface contacts, I moved in shield the limping destroyer. A disabled ship in combat was a dead ship, especially with all the torpedoes swimming about. I knew I was making myself into a target, but there was nothing else for it.

"Glory, Continental, Im moving to render assistance to Kadesh, will rejoin the fleet once shes out of danger." I shouted over the chaos of battle. Closing in, my anti aircraft fire drove away a few brave bombers. "Hey there!" I was close enough that I didnt need to clutter the radio waves to talk to the damaged girl, "FNS Glory at your service, you seem to need some help!" The cheerfulness in my voice was betrayed by the gravity of the situation. Instead of further small talk, I held out my hand, "Lets get you clear of the combat zone, before they take an interest in your continued well being."

RKN Kadesh.
I was struggling, against waves and ice and torpedoes and everything, my portside limp - one of two shafts, a leg, all immobile. Wonderful debut here...
...and then, as if riding down the slopes of the Double Horns, someone swooped in to save me - back then, Ilkhana Amina had come to the rescue of the beleaguered army of the city I was named after, had come to the rescue of Kadesh, and much like Amina the Glorious, this shipgirl, no, shipwoman was swooping in and saving my hide.
I felt a bit reminded of our own battlecruisers, the twelve Sharaf-class Chaps, but neither was she a man, nor did she seem to be an arrogant arsehole. On the contrary, she seemed very friendly.
And she was good looking. Blonde, green eyes, fair and light skin, quite a bit of a bust, she looked beautiful.
Kadesh, could you please tell me, what the ruddy hell you are doing there? Are you crushing onto a fellow shipgirl? Or starting to?
I blushed as my hand gripped hers, the cheerfulness indeed bringing a small smile to my lips.
"RKN Kadesh, Sultan's Navy. It's my pleasure, Glory.", I said with a firm voice, trying to keep it steady. "Tha... Thank you for the help."

[Fantrum]

Snip

Dispite myself I smiled. It was the worst place for it, with bombs and shells going off around us, but still. I brushed off her almost starstruck gaze as someone being rescued and grasped her hand with my own. Effortlessly, I pulled her in close and wrapped my arm around her protectively. There was no way I could maneuver quickly with her dead weight, but that was unavoidable.

"The pleasure's all mine Kaddy, Id expect youd do the same for me!" Pulling a sharp turn to port, I started motor the direction I had come, where the rest of the relief force could protect the Destroyer while I waded back into the combat. Much easier said than done when Abyssials could smell blood in the water. "I cant fight like you destroyers can," I said, trying to lighten the mood, "Not against subs," Out of my peripheral vision I saw a gun flash, and instinct took over as I twisted and crouched in one fluid motion. The sudden move crushed the poor girl against my chest but a split second later a large caliber shell exploded on my rig, shaking us both. "But I can take a hit or two," I managed through my grimace, "Ouch."

"Noncritical damage," I stood up and released the girl from my suffocating embrace, "Oh, um, sorry." I was a little sheepish about it, but Id rather the discomfort than let someone kill one of my own. Hopefully the commotion wouldnt draw the attention of any submarines, or else we'd both be in some pretty bad straights. I tried not to let my concern show on my face, choosing instead to return fire against whoever had shot at us with my own much larger guns.

[The Selkie]

Snip

Dispite myself I smiled. It was the worst place for it, with bombs and shells going off around us, but still. I brushed off her almost starstruck gaze as someone being rescued and grasped her hand with my own. Effortlessly, I pulled her in close and wrapped my arm around her protectively. There was no way I could maneuver quickly with her dead weight, but that was unavoidable.

"The pleasure's all mine Kaddy, Id expect youd do the same for me!" Pulling a sharp turn to port, I started motor the direction I had come, where the rest of the relief force could protect the Destroyer while I waded back into the combat. Much easier said than done when Abyssials could smell blood in the water. "I cant fight like you destroyers can," I said, trying to lighten the mood, "Not against subs," Out of my peripheral vision I saw a gun flash, and instinct took over as I twisted and crouched in one fluid motion. The sudden move crushed the poor girl against my chest but a split second later a large caliber shell exploded on my rig, shaking us both. "But I can take a hit or two," I managed through my grimace, "Ouch."

"Noncritical damage," I stood up and released the girl from my suffocating embrace, "Oh, um, sorry." I was a little sheepish about it, but Id rather the discomfort than let someone kill one of my own. Hopefully the commotion wouldnt draw the attention of any submarines, or else we'd both be in some pretty bad straights. I tried not to let my concern show on my face, choosing instead to return fire against whoever had shot at us with my own much larger guns.

RKN Kadesh, in Glory's Arms.
I was blushing heavily, when I was nearly crushed against Glory and I can now safely confirm, that I was crushing onto her, for a huge part. For someone from a society, where homosexuality was frowned upon, that was a bit weird to admit, but here we go...
Anyway, when she carried me off to safety, I declined to state the obvious, that I would be unable to protect her like this, to carry her off to safety, but I would keep post and position next to her, if she was dead in the water.
As much as she held me close, however, and dealt with surface contacts, the air was still full of them as well, my AA-guns searching for free firing arcs and potshots, my 135mm guns banging away as well.
Then, everything went extra fast as Glory suddenly twisted, crushing my face against her chest - warm and comfy, like a big sister's hug. Didn't change the fact, that she took a hit for me - as she released me, it took a moment for me to come to my senses again.
I took a moment, then breathed out: "No problem, Glory.", I said and my measly little 135mm guns fired into the sky again, together with my AA-guns, at any plane not from our side. It was true, I was dead in the water, but I was not dead and, the Lioness Herself may witness my words, I would not be dead weight to my saviour!
My ASDIC, fuelled by the same worry of our move provoking submarines, listened to sounds from beneath the waves as well.

[Rustyal]

Moskovskaya
Open Waters

The Rustyan superbattleship would suddenly zone back into the fray. [redacted for the destroyers] me, her allies were being battered quite a bit! Moskovskaya would slowly rotate her turrets around, locking onto the Princess's location. "Target acquired, brace for firing!" She would shout to her allies, her barrels raising as she locked on. While these 53 cm fridge launchers were slow to load-- And by that I mean very slow. 50 seconds-- Moskov's guns were ready for just the scenario. She braced herself, making a few slight calculation adjustments right before the best part of combat.

BOOM!

Her cannons shrieked out, almost with passion, if you want to say that. Smoke and fire spewed out from her guns, almost acting like a minor smokescreen for the time being. The smoke would soon dissipate, and Moskov squinted again, checking to see if her firing solutions were any good. From her perspective, things looked rather good-- though, that's just how she sees it. The salvo could probably miss knowing the fierceness of those guns, but hey. In the meanwhile, she started to perform slow, cumbersome erratic manuevers, just to reduce the chance of being blasted with a torpedo. Ugh, hate those things...

[Fantrum]

Glorious

Everything considered, things could be going a lot worse than they were. On one hand I had to keep an eye out for incoming torpedoes, and on the other I couldn't let up on the suppression Anti aircraft fire. "What a way to make an entrance, huh!" I shouted over the din of battle. In truth, the whole convoy was lucky they had been jumped this close to the naval district had they been further out to sea there would have been nothing left for the relief force to relieve.

As it was, with most of the combat happening under water, there wasnt much for me to do anyway, aside from coming to the timely rescue of a cute heavy destroyer. Regardless, I couldnt help but feel the fleet had been mismanaged. We'd sortied without a flagship against a force we could only really guess at with ships more suited for the line of battle than rapidly responding to a distress call. Not to mention the fact that of our number, only a very few could actually even respond to the greatest threat! "This whole operation is kinda fubar, but at least we seem to be winning, right?" I absently commented.

Not being able to see what was trying to kill me was really infuriating, especially since the surface contact had been driven off and I had nothing to shoot at. Still. I had a new mission, I was going to evacuate Kaddy and probably attempt to link up with Continental. While I would love nothing more than to personally escort the damaged destroyer back to the base, the other girls might need me there, if for nothing else than to give the enemy something to shoot at. It was a hard thing to do, leaving a job incomplete, even if I did plan on leaving her with capable girls.

I was roughly thrown out of my distracting mental battle when the real battle reasserted itself. A fairy lookout was freaking out, and I had exactly two seconds to react before the torpedo slammed into my port hull just forward of amidships. The detonation threw me on top of Kaddy, who had been to my starboard, and blew off one of my triple 12in mounts. My cloths, once a beautiful set of dress whites, were now so much shredded rags and blood streamed freely from my thigh.

Quickly, and somewhat groggily, I rolled off Kaddy with a groan and spat blood into the water, "I hate torpedoes, owie." Ripping off the remaining leg on my trousers, I wrapped it around my gushing wound and tried to stand with a gasp of pain. "The flooding's bad, but its under control... kinda." I didnt feel like it was under control. In fact I felt like shit. I could trade shellfire with cruisers all day without a scratch, but torpedoes... I'd never been made with underwater protection in mind. "Oh my god! Are you alright!" I reached down and hauled Kadesh to her own feet and started to assess her damage, while sailing in the general direction of 'away'. Thats when I remembered my radio and the wider battle, "Glory, command, critical damage received, Im retiring from battle."

My speed would suffer as a result of the hit, but I could still go faster than Kaddy probably could with only one shaft, "Dont worry... Ill get us outta here." My suddenly tired voice betrayed how hurt I felt. In truth, Id probably feel pretty sheepish later for being taken out by a torpedo that likely wasnt even aimed for me, but in the moment, all I could think about was getting out and living to feel sheepish.

[The Selkie]

Glorious

Everything considered, things could be going a lot worse than they were. On one hand I had to keep an eye out for incoming torpedoes, and on the other I couldn't let up on the suppression Anti aircraft fire. "What a way to make an entrance, huh!" I shouted over the din of battle. In truth, the whole convoy was lucky they had been jumped this close to the naval district had they been further out to sea there would have been nothing left for the relief force to relieve.

As it was, with most of the combat happening under water, there wasnt much for me to do anyway, aside from coming to the timely rescue of a cute heavy destroyer. Regardless, I couldnt help but feel the fleet had been mismanaged. We'd sortied without a flagship against a force we could only really guess at with ships more suited for the line of battle than rapidly responding to a distress call. Not to mention the fact that of our number, only a very few could actually even respond to the greatest threat! "This whole operation is kinda fubar, but at least we seem to be winning, right?" I absently commented.

Not being able to see what was trying to kill me was really infuriating, especially since the surface contact had been driven off and I had nothing to shoot at. Still. I had a new mission, I was going to evacuate Kaddy and probably attempt to link up with Continental. While I would love nothing more than to personally escort the damaged destroyer back to the base, the other girls might need me there, if for nothing else than to give the enemy something to shoot at. It was a hard thing to do, leaving a job incomplete, even if I did plan on leaving her with capable girls.

I was roughly thrown out of my distracting mental battle when the real battle reasserted itself. A fairy lookout was freaking out, and I had exactly two seconds to react before the torpedo slammed into my port hull just forward of amidships. The detonation threw me on top of Kaddy, who had been to my starboard, and blew off one of my triple 12in mounts. My cloths, once a beautiful set of dress whites, were now so much shredded rags and blood streamed freely from my thigh.

Quickly, and somewhat groggily, I rolled off Kaddy with a groan and spat blood into the water, "I hate torpedoes, owie." Ripping off the remaining leg on my trousers, I wrapped it around my gushing wound and tried to stand with a gasp of pain. "The flooding's bad, but its under control... kinda." I didnt feel like it was under control. In fact I felt like shit. I could trade shellfire with cruisers all day without a scratch, but torpedoes... I'd never been made with underwater protection in mind. "Oh my god! Are you alright!" I reached down and hauled Kadesh to her own feet and started to assess her damage, while sailing in the general direction of 'away'. Thats when I remembered my radio and the wider battle, "Glory, command, critical damage received, Im retiring from battle."

My speed would suffer as a result of the hit, but I could still go faster than Kaddy probably could with only one shaft, "Dont worry... Ill get us outta here." My suddenly tired voice betrayed how hurt I felt. In truth, Id probably feel pretty sheepish later for being taken out by a torpedo that likely wasnt even aimed for me, but in the moment, all I could think about was getting out and living to feel sheepish.

RKN Kadesh.
I was mostly along for the ride, trying to supplement the air cover where I could, even (I'd like to think) shooting down a few planes, until I suddenly found myself under Glory, her clothes bloodied rags, I myself at least not worse then before, the ring of an explosion in my ears.
I did not know about Glory's inner monologue about the battle, but if I would have, I would have agreed - on the other hand, I knew about the situation up here, with many capital ships and only a handful of destroyers and ASW-capable vessels on our hands up here... one of the reasons why I had been sent here.
And now, being hauled back to my feet, with my rescuer needing rescue herself, I flung a few depth charges into the general direction from which the torpedo had come from - I had no idea about how far away the submarine was or if it had been a submarine in the first place, but it was something I could and needed to do.
I raised my hand to my ear to speak into the radio: "Command, Kadesh, I'll be escorting Glory and she'll be escorting me. If you could send a repair vessel or something to the harbour, though, we'd very much appreciate it." I gave Glory a small smile after my radio transmission, before I gave her a quick hug, which a few free DamCon-Parties used to jump over with materials. "Those chaps will help you, Glory. Just hang on a bit."
A beat passed.
"Let's go.", I said and turned towards our base, my AA-guns spewing fire. I maybe was slow thanks to prior damage, but I could drive on my own. And with subs on our tails, I needed to.
ASDIC needed to be underwater to be effective, after all.

[Parcia]

PCGC Sergei Petranko

Shit had reasonably hit the fan. The Sub contact had gone, just like that, poof, gone.

This made Sergei Mad, knowing his Sonar was not up to the task. How ever, this wouldn't stop him from helping his convoy. Using his guns to help clear the pack ice, he went about breaking through back towards the convoy at speed. Making sure to drop a few charges behind him, simply chucking the little bombs behind him.

With little time, and a testament to his abilities as an Ice breaker, he managed to break through to the open flow the convoy was using as their corridor. Pushing to flank speed, he opened up with his 40mm guns, taking a few shots with his 130s when the targets presented him self.

Then his sonar lit up, and he gasped. Глупые ебаные подводные лодки! Annu Cheekie Breekie iv Dammka, idi nahui!!!!

He then promptly pulled the arming pin on a depth charge, and tossed it at the closest target...then another...and another. Sergei would then to chuck his charges with speeds and precision that only a ASW ship could, his pace would make certain destroyers pause.

[Fantrum]

The instant relief I felt as Kaddy's damage control supplemented my own was immense, and probably visible on my face. The sense of growing heavy slowed down and even started to abate just a little, and while I still hurt quite a bit, I definitely wasnt as in bad a shape as I had been. "Thanks, Kaddy," My voice was strained, but I managed to keep most of the hurt out of it, "Damn sneaky subs, they just aint natural." I quipped as we sailed in company way from the worst of the fighting.

With the danger largely past us, I settled into a pained cruising speed and let Kaddy limp along on her own. It wasnt like I was in much better shape than her anyway. At least I was getting my wish of seeing her back to port safe and sound. Just... not the way I had ever anticipated it going down. In a perfect world, there would have been a lot more heroic rescues and grateful friends. Instead I was pretty sure Id just embarrassed the hell out of myself. Honestly who could have seen it coming? Torpedoes are hard to see damnit! Still, in hindsight I shouldn't have taken station with Kaddy, it made us too much of a target and she still had some mobility.

In the heat of the moment though, I hadn't thought about that, I supposed. We both probably would have been ok if Id just sat back and covered her with my guns instead of wading in as far as I did... Oh well. Id just have to live with it, nothing to be done about it now. What really ticked me off was my uniform, it was absolutely ruined! The last rags of my pants had gone to patching up my leg wound and it just felt weird sailing without them. Not to mention bloody cold! I took a second to revel in the fact that I was alive to feel these things before pushing the horrible thoughts to the back of my head.

"I hope the repair and supply ship at least has a skirt or something for me..." I absently remarked, the sounds of battle largely fading behind us. "I havent gotten hit this hard in a while," My happy mood was slowly returning, "Thank goodness you were there! That was some quick thinking with the depth charges!" Idly, I figited with the severed stump that had been the number two main battery, trying to keep both our spirits up, "Thanks for the save, Kaddy," I sincerely told her. We werent that far from the District, and would probably be interrupted by the repair ship any time.