“What do you do with a drunken sailor!” She sang terribly out of tune while sailing through this seemingly never ending storm. She could almost hear her crew singing along in squeaky little voices which made the whole thing feel a bit less lonely. It had been about an hour since she had set off and her SOS was still going along with several attempts to reach out to anyone via radio but so far no dice. If GPS wasn’t actively updating her location she would almost believe that there was nobody out there. Surely though with sat coverage humans have to be around and what she wouldn’t kill for some information.
Along the way she did discover that she in fact did have weapons and to her infinite disappointment she was not armed with any of those really big guns like in the movies. Her main guns were these dinky Mark-45 5-Inch/54 caliber guns. Sure she had two of them but weren’t these things the secondary guns on other ships? They were rapid fire at least and could be linked to her sensors for automatic tracking and shooting. No what she found were her real armaments were the various missiles, torpedoes, and cruise missiles in her arsenal. She also seemingly had Aegis as well which was pretty cool after learning how it worked. After a good going over it was obvious she was one of those Cold War designs because as well as cruise missiles and Aegis she also discovered that she was radioactive. Not like her skin was glowing but she had a gods damn nuclear reactor aboard. In hindsight it might make sense… Her class was CGN which basically meant she was a Nuclear Guided Missile Cruiser. Kinda scary that she could melt down but after traveling and not feeling weary at all made it all worth it. She could go almost forever if she wanted without stopping. Though she was curious if her new heart would affect her sleep or need to eat. So far she hadn’t felt tired or hungry though that didn’t mean a nice bed wouldn’t be great.
So you might ask, where were these guns and missiles? She just had to equip them! It seems like she had come here with her rigging already, it was just in some weird spiritual hanger space. Her mini spirits also let her know that due to her reactor she had a special ability too. Her weapons automatically recharged over time. That was good too because something told her that the missiles she had loaded wouldn’t last long. Her main missiles seemed to be SM-2s with 34 for each of her Mk 26 twin arm launchers. It looks like she could fire two per ten seconds per launcher. So a little math said she could eat through her entire stockpile in less than 2.5 minutes of constant firing. Then she had two sets of cruise missiles. There were 8 Harpoons in two quad launchers as well as 8 Tomahawks in similar armored boxes. While experimenting with her rigging she found the loadout and understood why the pictures of ship girls on the internet looked the way they did. She had two retractable platforms that came out from her tower with the top of the platform having the naval gun up front and the twin arm launchers behind them. Then underneath was attached the Harpoon launchers. Her Tomahawks were attached to her legs and seemed to swing down to fire. Those weren’t her only weapons but outside of the anti-sub torpedo launcher on her rear waist the rest appeared to be point defense weapons. On her wrists were her 25mm chainguns, two 25mm Phalanx CIWS on her tower and finally six 50.cals.Three were on each of her gun platforms pointed to the sides and back for defense.
So yeah, regenerating ammo would be useful and she was happy to have it. Would she prefer big guns for self-defense? Obviously but depending on how effective missiles are she might be golden for her weight class. So she just sailed on ready to find other people but about 3 hours out when her radios began to pick up chatter in the static. She was also picking up pings on her radar with what appeared to be a ship just over the horizon and it appeared to be really slow. Around it was about two other blips closer to her size which was weird. Maybe she wasn’t the only other one of her kind out there? In full Rigging she charged ahead to meet them! Maybe they could help her get to port or something? At least that was what she thought until she received an SOS from the larger ship.
“This is the tanker to anyone! We are under attack by Revenant forces ! Please respond! We are under attack by Revenants!” Her radio came alive on the channel and panic instantly took her. Whatever Revenants were, they didn’t sound friendly… Were they like her? If her tabletop knowledge was useful she was facing some sort of undead foe. Switching to her radio she contacted the tanker before making a decision.
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“This is CGN-42, . I’m not exactly sure what is going on but I’m within missile reach. What exactly are you being attacked by?” She asked not entirely sure what to do and afraid that either the tanker would see her as another enemy or as a military and expect her to help. She had never been in a real battle with guns but despite her fear something pushed her forward. Heat flushed through her system as her crew prepared for combat even before she made the decision with the smaller radar pings being tracked for her missiles. The two twin arm launchers had their missiles loaded and were already swinging into position to fire. Two for each of the targets once she was aware of what exactly they were.
“Thank you CGN-42! There are two Destroyers harrying us right now. A torpedo has already hit one of our propellers and we are down to half speed. We also got word that a Task Force was dispatched from Pearl Harbor but they might not reach us quickly enough.” The voice on the other side of the radio tried to keep their composure but she could hear the fear. Guess it was time to be a hero…
“Thank you! Deploying missiles now!” The two Destroyers only showed up as a blips on her AR sensors but once she had a lock a series of streaks flew out from her two weapon platforms as the four missiles rocketed up into the sky. She could see them as a line in her sensors going in an arc before dropping at over mach 2. Even from here she could see the explosions as the two blips vanished after the tracer line connected with them on her sensors. “ this is CGN-42, did I get them? I’m still new to this.” She asked, trying not to hold her breath in anticipation even as she continued towards their location at flank speed.
“For a new ship you hit those two targets pretty well but I thought you said you were firing missiles? Those shots were too small for a missile.” The voice on the other end said with a hint of confusion. At least until the girl he was speaking to said, “That’s because I’m the size of a person. I’m kind of surprised they packed so much explosive power, myself.” With those words the voice understood the situation better. “So you are a Ship Girl huh? I didn’t know any of your carried missiles. What are you doing out here if you are new?”
That was a good question and not one she had an answer for yet. Instead she got closer to the tanker while preparing her response. “I woke up on the ocean and have been trying to get to Hawaii. I don’t have any memory of what is going on so I’m hoping someone can fill me in.” She finally responded once she was in visual range of and the tanker crew on the deck finally got a view of the girl that had saved them. She wasn’t tall like a Battleship but not child-like either in the vein of a Destroyer. When she introduced herself she used the designation CGN meaning this girl was a cruiser and a guided missile cruiser. To those in the know she was the newest ship anyone had heard of with some older sailors remembering a similar vessel during Desert Storm.
“So do we have a name for our brave Savior?” The voice on the radio asked as the girl came in closer enough to be visible easily from the bridge.
“I don’t… when I woke up I didn’t have one. I know my type and number but not much else.” She responded while making sure to keep her radar up in case something else came at them. “Do you run into trouble regularly?” Her question made the guy on the other end of the radio sigh which she took as a bad sign.
“Ever since those demons showed up four years ago it’s been tough to sail. Shipments though still need to be delivered so at least we get hazard pay I guess. Normally we have an escort but with ongoing hostilities and the lack of Ship Girls it’s been rough going.” He offered to her in hopes that the answer helped a bit. The men on the deck couldn’t help but watch her. Ship girls were rare, especially outside of Japanese waters. Last they heard the American navy only has a few currently.
“So the oceans are dangerous, got it. Well I’ll follow you into Hawaii then. I bet someone in Pearl Harbor will be able to tell me more.” Offering her services the newly awakened ship fell beside the tanker and began her first escort mission. Though it was weird as she was so tiny compared to them. Part of her wanted to see if they would let her on board but thought better of it. Even if she was a warship in this world she was a young woman at heart and a ship full of grown men was intimidating. Even when you packed as much firepower as she had.
“On to Pearl Harbor boys! I would like to sleep in a bed tonight.” Laughing joyfully the cruiser sped ahead a bit and proceeded to show the tanker crew just how much energy a nuclear powered ship had
