Sleeping in the Cruiser dorm room was interesting to say the least. Sure it wasn’t much different than her old college dorm room. There two double bunks with the Atlantas taking one and Ohio taking the other with Supposedly San Francisco and Atlanta had some bad blood in their past as her new bunkmate had accidentally shot the other during the Battle of Guadalcanal but the two seemed alright in her opinion as they settled in for the night. The four played some Super Smash Bros together and snacked on some local potato chip brand she had never seen before. Maybe there was more difference about this world than just strange monsters on the ocean and anthropomorphic ships.
One thing Ohio did learn was just want the Revenants were, or at least what humanity believed them to be. Supposedly they were the malicious spirits of humanity's previous conflicts given physical form. The fact they seemed to be based on pre-1945 tech led her to hypothesize that the Revenants and her other ship girls were similar. Think about it, each of the ships she had met were all sunk or scrapped, effectively dead themselves, that included her own line. Despite being a paper ship her siblings had actually sailed but were scrapped when it became too expensive to operate them making her something like a spirit given form too. Did that mean it was all magic? Was there some sort of afterlife or was this some sort of proof Animism was real? Did all of humanity's weapons have spirits that could return? What about things like tanks? Was she going to learn that there were Tiger tank girls running around Eastern Europe? She considered asking but since she had a meeting with the Admiral in the morning those questions could be saved for later.
Waking up that next morning had been a surprise as San Francisco had crawled into bed with her and was showing why 8in guns were bigger than 5in ones if you catch the innuendo. Bright red hair, a lanky figure, and ballasts that seemed bigger than they should on such a frame were smashed up against her in the small bunk. So the first task of the morning was extracting herself from her tangled position and then slipping out of bed. Not having any different clothing than what she had been summoned in the displaced girl got dressed in the same clothes from yesterday and thanked whatever gods ran this world that they were water-proof despite how long she spent on the ocean yesterday.
“Going to meet the Admiral then?” A sleep voice asked, rolling over on the bed she had escaped from. Ohio looked over at the red haired girl with bright green eyes and nodded. Sitting up, San Francisco yawned and rolled out of bed as well. “I’ll escort you then. We cruisers have to stick together after all.” Ohio nodded again trying not to make enough noise to wake the sisters in the other bunk. “Good, we can grab breakfast afterwards.” With a cat like stretch the heavy cruiser got dressed as well and within about ten minutes the pair had left the room and were heading for the building that contained staff offices.
“So why did you crawl into bed with me?” Ohio finally asked as they wandered across the base. She was happy that the weather was still good even in December, so maybe Hawaii really was a paradise despite the threat of random shelling from ocean zombies. “Not that I’m complaining, you are cozy but I’m not like that.” San Francisco just started blankly at Ohio’s comment before the girl shook her head to backtrack. “Not that I’m saying anything is wrong… I'm just not really experienced in these things.”
“What things?” The heavy cruiser asked seemingly confused, leading to Ohio turning bright red and hiding her shame. “Were you thinking something naughty? Don’t worry your pretty little head! Nobody will judge you, our kind tends to enjoy feeling because in our previous lives the only thing we could experience was water and pain… With a human form we get to experience all the things we couldn’t before. That includes night battles as well.” Giggling she ran ahead leaving Ohio to sputter in utter shock.
“You are doing this on purpose you brat!” Yelling at the advancing heavy cruiser Ohio had to pick up her pace to catch up. All the while San Francisco laughed showing off just how quick and agile she was despite having more guns.
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“CGN-42, , permission to enter?” San Francisco had already been told to remain outside as the pair entered the building with the new girl standing before the Admiral’s office, nervous that she didn’t do that correctly. She wasn’t military in her past life and even her historical version had never been built or crewed so both sides were ignorant about what to expect. Either way she needed to drop her nervousness because she was given permission to end and now she was turning the knob on the door to open it.
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Within was an office with an older woman behind the desk. Wearing her uniform and dressed to nines this early morning. Ohio instantly felt like this lady was the tsundere elder if her anime lingo was accurate because the Admiral just left her to stand there with a scowl on her face while continuing to go over a report. If anticipation could kill, this lady had buried the poor cruiser 10 feet under and damnit if she wasn’t doing it on purpose. Ohio could almost see the small glances up to see if she was squirming. Finally though the woman ended the younger girl’s anxiety spiral after putting down the report and delivering an audible sigh.
“Well, least you hold your nerve I’ll give you that.” The Admiral said, finally turning her dark eyes up at the new girl. “Last time a new destroyer was in front of me the first time, the poor girl bawled her eyes out.” Was that a joke? Ohio couldn’t figure out if she was supposed to laugh to be horrified at making a cute little destroyer cry. “Though you aren’t a destroyer. Arizona told me that you claimed to be CGN-42 correct?”
“Yes ma'am that would be correct!” Ohio responded with a squeak after the Admiral’s glare told her she could respond.
“According to records CGN-42 was never built as the Navy moved on to the Ticos. Aegis? What weapons are you carrying?” The Admiral asked, preparing a pen to add to the report if needed.
“Yes ma’am… I have two 5in rapid fire guns…”
“Include the length too, I need to know how different your armament is compared to now.” The Admiral interrupted.
“Yes ma’am… They are Mk. 45 5-inch/54 caliber. Then I have two Mk.26 twin launchers with 68 SM2-MR, eight harpoons in Mk.141 launchers, 8 tomahawks, two 20mm CIWS, two 25mm chain guns, six 50cals, and four Mk.46 torpedoes.” She managed to spit out trying not to forget anything in fear of having to do it all over again.
“Thank you dear. So we might be able to see about swapping out those Mk.26s and get you Mk.41 VLSs and see about upgrading your guns to Mod 4 for some extra range.” Jotting down some ideas into the margins of her report Ohio couldn’t help but be interested. She had just gotten here and this lady was talking about upgrading her to Tico standards. She guessed it made sense… The early Ticos had the same weapons she had now and the later ones had the new ones so it might be possible? More missiles was always good and with VLSs she could missile swarm someone Macross style!
“Try to stay with me, I have a serious question next.” The Admiral snapped her out of her day dream before the atmosphere got tense at that moment and Ohio had an idea what was about to be asked. Why else ask about guns in the subject of what really made her special came up. She nodded and straightened up as the Admiral leaned forward doing the elbow rest cliche. “Are you capable of being armed with nuclear tomahawks?”
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“When are we planning to attack the human fortress?”
Around a table sat five Revenant carriers with a map of the Pacific laid out in front of them. The one asking the question was pointing towards the fortress island the mortals called Guam. While it didn’t have any American ship girls stationed, the base was protected by their airforce and some ship girls of the Japanese. The Revenants had realized that the two nations rotated out fleets every ninety days with the next rotation set for ten days from now. That meant that the strange new ship would be heading moving west soon. If they were going to take the island and cut the Americans and the Japanese off from each other the attack needed to be launched soon.
“I vote we send a diversionary attack on Pearl Harbor to hold the American’s up so we can slaughter the defenders on that island. If we don’t do it now we will have to attack it while they have that new missile girl.” The carrier nearby started while the one next to her clenched her fists in anger. “What C5? You want revenge against the one that killed your precious C6? How adorable, I also vote for C5 to lead the diversion too.” C1 crossed her arms and smirked. They might have lost one of the carriers but their Lady had demanded sacrifices to drive the mortals off the ocean. Once they broke the link between the Americans and Asia all sorts of new playgrounds became available.
“Great, so C1 through 3 are striking Guam and C5 is striking Pearl Harbor to hold up the Americans. Think you are up to it? Our Lady is expecting victory and your younger sister is crying for vengeance. Are you up to the task?” C2 asked wrapping one of her blackened hands around the other carrier’s to cease their shaking. C5 looked up with blood red eyes before grinning and showing off her fangs.
“I’m going to rip the nuclear reactor out of that little skanks chest personally and then leave that island a no man's land for centuries.” The crazed carrier giggled before holding her hands up high. “I wonder if she will cry out like my sister did?”
