(Rewrite) The Future of Tomorrow Brought Today

Chapter 5: Celebration

Date: December 31, 1943, Sunday

Location: Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii

Time: 8:15 am

It's been seven days since the combined American-Japanese fleet arrived at Pearl Harbor. Over these past few days some of the ship girls as well as a handful of curious Eagle Union navy personnel went to visit the dormant warships. Despite the attack four weeks prior many had paused working on the numerous damaged ships and begun getting ready for New Years Eve. Fireworks and decorations had been shipped in from the mainland. Meanwhile Nevada, Oklahoma, and several navy cooks are hard at work making breakfast as well as preparing the ingredients needed to make lunch and dinner. Everyone throughout the port is excited to celebrate the new year. While most were making last minute preparations for the evening there were a few who were still working.

Inside of Commander Jon's office, Commander Jon and the four captains discuss how to supply their warships. Montana could use some of Iowa's and New Jersey's spare parts such as the MK-7 406mm gun barrels. However this is only a stopgap measure since most of Montana's equipment is more advanced than Iowa's and has not yet been fully developed by Eagle Union. In order to get spare parts and to repair the USS Montana James's ship would need to visit the San Diego Naval Base in California. There researchers could study his ship's equipment and make blueprints of them so that parts could be manufactured.

Captain Joseph's ship would also need to go with James's ship since the USS Midway is so technologically advanced compared to an Essex carrier that Midway could not use any of the Essex class's spare parts. Midway could use some of the spare planes kept for the Essex class, however this would reduce Midway's airpower since her planes are pretty much better in every way. Aside from needing all of her tech to be studied and manufactured Captain Joseph would need to donate a few of Midway's planes so that they too could be mass produced.

As for Captain Ren's and Captain Jiro's ships, they would also have to tag along. Commander Jon suggested that the A-150 could be retrofitted with new AA guns as well as better AA directors so she wouldn't be as vulnerable to aircraft attacks while at San Diego. However the main reason for sending the IJN A-150 and IJN Yoshino to San Diego is so ammunition and gun barrels could be studied and then manufactured.

And then there is Kentucky. Despite being an Iowa class battleship Kentucky uses a lot of the same equipment as USS Montana. Even more interesting is that Kentucky is equipped with MK-27 twin 76mm AA guns where quad 40mm Bofors would be on the superstructure of the ship. However the obvious reasons for Kentucky go to visit California is due to that he's the first male kansen as well as that he used to be human. While scientists theorized that male kansen could be made, it had yet to be accomplished. However until now it was thought to be impossible for humans to become warships. So Kentucky's mere existence has baffled the few scientists that know about him. Even the Siren Alpha Observer became curious about Kentucky as she monitors the timeline from who knows where.

"I think we can all agree that you're going to have to visit San Diego." Jon stated. "I'll inform the San Diego Naval Commander that you'll be arriving in a couple of days. Hopefully he will set you up with everything you need while his technicians and researchers have a field day analyzing your ships."

"Thank you Jon, we really appreciate everything you're doing for us." Captain Joseph replies.

"Your welcome captain. It's apart of my job to make sure every ship has what they need. Anyways you'll be leaving tomorrow morning and head straight for California. To guarantee that you reach the San Diego naval base safely I will assign Savannah, Brooklyn, Cleveland, Laffey, Javelin, and Hornet to escort you."

A few minutes after the meeting concluded the four captains arrive back at their ships. While they were away the crews of the American warships began to decorate their ship with what little they have. The decorating continued until noon when lunch was ready. Nevada, Oklahoma, and the team of navy cooks had prepared hotdogs. At first the Japanese sailors were reluctant to eat the greasy food but soon came around after their captain sat down to eat the provided meal. As lunch began rapping up a few ship girls and Eagle Union sailors asked some of the American and Japanese sailors if they wanted to participate in the afternoon activities. Many joined in the relay races while others participated in the corn hole tournament. There was also a chess competition, ultimate frisbee, and even a show down between each ship's color guard.