(Rewrite) The Future of Tomorrow Brought Today

Chapter 4: Meet and Greet

Date: December 7, 1943

Location: Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii

Time: 9:00 am

Commander Jon Williams glances at the wrecks of many warships throughout the port as his PT boat moves towards the entrance of the harbor. Already naval personnel and ship girls were busy getting to work to clean up the port. Jon's staff had estimated that it would take up to three weeks to get the port operational again. That's not counting the months needed to finish cleaning up the port and repair all of the damaged ships.

Naval personnel causalities were high. So far there were 534 causalities and 756 injured. However Jon Willams knew the numbers would only grow as the search for survivors in the wrecks and debris throughout the port continue. It didn't help that there were already a limited number of personnel to begin with and that the attack occurred when many were conducting maintenance on the mass produced ships. Fortunately none of the ship girls were killed during the attack. But that's to be expected as ship girls rarely die in combat. However many were injured or their ships were severely damaged. Most ship girls retire to live a normal life if their ships are sunk or destroyed and the navy can't build another hull for them. However sometimes retired ship girls continue to serve in the navy. The two rows of battleships to either side of Ford Island took the worst of the damage. The south row contained the Kansen warships while the row north of Ford island had the mass produced battleships.

California's ship sunk due to her compartment doors being open for an inspection. Oklahoma's ship had completely capsized while West Virginia's ship rested on its side sticking halfway out of the water. Arizona's ship suffered an ammunition detonation in her powder magazine just behind one of her forward main guns. This caused most of her bow to be blown apart in a tremendous explosion.

Nevada tried to sail her ship to the harbor's entrance to help repel the attack but unfortunately her ship was quickly targeted. She was soon forced to beach her ship in an effort to not clog up the entrance to the harbor. Unfortunately Pensacola class ship was also sunk when she tried to sail around Nevada. This effectively clogged the harbor. Only PT boats or ship girls could get around the wreckage.

Numerous cruisers and destroyers were also damaged or sunk in the attack. One such unlucky individual was San Diego or other wise known as Sandy. Chances are she won't be singing her iconic cheerful song anytime soon.

"MY SHIIIPPP! WAHHH!" San Diego cries.

"Yikes, that looks bad." Comments the Royal Navy destroyer Glowworm who was standing nearby.

Commander Jon looks over to where Sandy's half sunken ship is being towed to an available dry dock. Soon the commander's PT boat passes through the wreckage in the entrance to the harbor and begins heading to the location of where the base's radar detected the group of unknown warships.

Meanwhile New Jersey and Iowa cautiously approach the location of the unidentified warships. According to intel the group of warships had come to a complete stop about 30km away from the entrance of the harbor. Both battleships were surprised when they saw the unmistakable control tower of a Yamato class battleship come into view.

"Is that Yamato?!" Iowa asks aloud.

"I don't think so. It appears to be a mass produced ship." New Jersey replies.

"Wait, I didn't think Sakura Empire had any mass produced ships of that class."

"To the best of my knowledge they don't."

Soon the ship girls are able to view the rest of the fleet. Iowa is immediately drawn to the warship in the middle of the fleet's formation due to that it appears to be an Iowa class battleship. However Iowa knows that her mass produced sister ships Missouri and Wisconsin were stationed in the Atlantic while Illinois and Kentucky were still under construction in the Philadelphia naval ship yard. New Jersey on the other hand was memorized by the sight of the massive aircraft carrier. Even from 10km away she could tell it was bigger than a long hull Essex class like Ticonderoga. Something in the back of her mind makes her feel likes she's familiar with this carrier. As they continue to get closer Iowa is shocked as she finally sees the mass produced Iowa class's hull number.