The Samurai of the Eagle Union

Chapter 17: The interception

21st February 2022

It just turned midnight as the fleet was just hours away from their target shells began to splash around them. The journey thus far was quiet which while nice was unnerving to them since they knew where they were going and next thing, they knew shells were landing around them followed by multiple abyssal aircraft ready to deal the killing blow as the shells prevented them from getting close to what they're protecting, USS Helena (SSN-725) was sunk first as the abyssals rushed up and broke her in two killing all aboard, USS Chicago (SSN-721) was likewise sunk at the same time as Helena but they did manage to get a signal out in the few seconds they had.

At that brief message, all were at battle stations but the abyssals immediately targeted Kitty Hawk sinking her before even being able to launch her planes, the cruisers and destroyers fared better thanks to their opening missile barrage, and a fierce fight ensued as the ship girls are giving it their all to sink them, the battleships immediately fired on the new unknown class but their shells only scratched it as shells ricocheted off or failed to penetrate. The carriers were having a hard time in the skies due to no air superiority. Fuyumi doesn't know what she can do to improve the situation, she thought hard but, in the end, she found one.

Fuyumi: "Shigure, Yūdachi, Sullivans, Charrette, Jintsū, Chōkai and Houston. I'm sorry if this sounds like a death wish, but there are no other options, I'll have the six of you charge the new battleship, Chōkai you're in charge. Missouri and Yamato provide cover fire for them. Lastly, my most important order, come back alive!"

All: "Roger." The six ship girls sailed off.

Chōkai: "This reminds me of what happened that day."

Sullivans: "Is it the one where my little sisters charged your fleet."

Chōkai: "Yeah, just like them we'll manage the impossible and go home alive. Fleet attack!"

The six charged at the battleship guns blazing, until they were within range of their long lance, Shigure fired her first set of torpedoes only for it to be blocked by the battleship she targeted but as the smoke cleared it sustained no damage.

Charette: "Not even a scratch, Chōkai how about we launch all at once it should overwhelm the armor if we breach it in multiple places at once."

Chōkai: "Good thinking, everyone, prepare to fire torpedoes on my mark." The tubes all turn to the expected area the battleship would appear using the torpedo directors. "Fire!"

All torpedoes were fired at once and they withdrew to avoid being hit, as they retreated however Chōkai was hit causing number one turret to jam but luckily it didn't explode, Shigure was hit too as she was hit by a sixteen-inch, high explosive straight to the number one turret causing the entire forward section to detonate though she was still making speed. As for the abyssals, they got away almost unscathed, but the battleship wasn't so lucky as a total of forty-eight long-lance torpedoes broke through the armor in multiple places forcing a retreat for their fleet. They regroup to assess the damage.

They lost both submarines, and the supercarrier, along with out of twenty transports five were lost, and damage was dealt to the rest of the escort fleet. The kansens on the other hand aside from Chōkai and Shigure taking damage Akizuki took a direct hit to her torpedo launcher, Shokaku took a bomb to her deck putting her out of commission, Zuikaku took multiple near misses and sustained minor damage, Yamato got torpedoed with minor listing, Missouri took multiple direct hits from the new battleship knocking out her number one turret and destroying several secondary guns as for the rest they were okay. The rest of the mission was quiet which was unnerving as weeks ago they were attacked, they head home on the 28th after escorting what's left of the fleet back to San Diego.

As they left Hawaii, they wondered how they'll sink it if they ever encounter it again, they made educated guesses based on what the six saw. They concluded that it was more significant than Yamato's belt armor which was sixteen inches, and a gun caliber of possibly twenty inches making it on par with the Super Yamato class which was supposed to come after her.

With that, they knew the next time they fought it would have to be out of range but that was the problem they couldn't know when they'd appear because of their sonar, so all they could do was pray they didn't appear too close to them.