Legends

Chapter 15~ The Lone Princess

"You have FAILED me!" Roared the Lone Princess as she faced down her last remaining demon. The Ne that had so vigorously escaped the reach of the American and Canadian kanmusu.

"No mistress. Their numbers were beyond what we had expected. They were prepared..." Ne tried to protest as her Princess shook her in her grasp.

"Prepared? Bah! Wo reports indicate nothing more than a collection of destroyers, an outdated cruiser and an overglorified ocean liner pretending to be a carrier!" The Princess dropped Ne in disgust.

Ne made one last attempt to redeem herself. "I killed one of them!" She proclaimed proudly. "And crippled another. And Wo destroyed their long range offensive capabilities. They will not be a threat for some time."

The Lone Princess paused. She had served in war, had seen the horrors of it claim her one remaining sister. But she was no warship. Her armaments were limited to 12 pounders and a handful of 4.7 inch guns including an obvious one on her foredeck. She had no anti aircraft guns to speak of. So she rarely sortied. When she did she had Wo provide a CAP. For her military knowledge she relied on her NelRods and Ne's to advise her.

"Very well. I shall trust you on this." She said, brushing her claws, the signature mark of a Princess, across Ne's cheek. "You have survived at least. And that is very important. But for now my fleet is decimated. I have no demons left for sortie. I must build more. Will ye serve, Ne?"

Ne brightened. "I will my mistress." She answered.

...................

Her world was dark and quiet. It was peaceful. Then she woke and there was nothing but light, and sound, and pain! She could feel the torches of hundreds of mini welders as her crew made repairs. The hole in her hull had been fixed, it was just internal cosmetics now.

She groaned and the form of Olympia filled her vision. "How are you feeling?" The cruiser asked.

"Like I was shot at." Titanic replied. "How's everyone else."

"Normandie is fine. Pissed that she couldn't catch that carrier but fine. She's overseeing the cleanup." Olympia replied, knowing that Titanic wanted to know of her first.

Titanic grunted her satisfaction. "And the others?" She asked.

"The Canadians are good. As are the airships. They've been rotating perimeter patrols since the attack. We have Thebaud in another drydock."

"I thought she wasn't salvageable. With damage like that..."

"if she was made of metal like us, she wouldn't be. Weaker materials might just save her ironically. Connie is supervising the rebuild."

"Connie? What is she doing way up here?" Titanic sat up.

"After the attack she insisted on coming and she has enough seniority to get her way. She outranks most Admirals and even SecNav himself knows better than to argue with her." Olympia said.

"Then I better mind myself." Titanic smirked. Her smirk fell away though as Olympia's friendly countenance turned dark and she glared icily at the liner.

"Oh it's not Constitution that you should be afraid of dearie." Olympia purred dangerously.

And that's when Titanic realized her mistake. She had broken just about every rule in the book, nearly gotten herself killed and the one ship who was in the position to scold her for it just so happened to be a seasoned veteran with more experience and time in her hull and thus more kanmusu bullshit to put out. Seeing the look on Olympia's face as she advanced, she could only think one thing. "This is going to suck!"