sakura empires unfinished monster

Down But Not Out & Reunited

She went silent listening to the apologies from her friend so surprised she couldn't even speak hearing the heavy cruiser apologising to her. Why was she apologising it wasn't her fault it was hers for not keeping the bombers away from them. Returning the hug slowly she hissed a bit, her eye still burning and throbbing with pain from the hot shrapnel being a permanent reminder. ".. Tone give me a run down of how everyone is" her voice was full of remorse and dissapointment with herself. To reassure her friend she would gently pat her head to aid in calming them down. "take your time to calm down first" taken off guard again by tone suddenly lunging forwards practically resting on top of her bawling her eyes out the guilt she felt soon turned to a, steadily growing fire inside her wanting nothing more then to finish what she started and put the sister carriers out of commission for harming her friends. She didn't so much care what happened to her but she definitely did when harm was brought to them. As she attempted to calm down tone she would change course bringing the ship around heading north again to link up with yukikaze.

Upon spotting this Kagero also turned to mirror the fleet carriers course, with a sad look on her face Kagero hoped this was the last action for today being obvious they couldn't take much more without risk of one of them sinking. Kagero: "today's been heavy for us. Ryujo is badly hurt not to mention tone and hakuryuu are also wounded I hope we will be able to disengage without further enemy interactions" having thought this to herself she focused on two things. Stabilising ryujo so akashi could patch her up and keeping course with hakuryuu. However, before her thoughts could be put to rest she would hear the ominus sound of prop aircraft. As if on instinct she switched her view to her lookouts. Much to her relief it was the remnants of Hakuryuu and Ryujos strike force which began landing procedures the most damaged landing first. Landing on her deck the planes would be taken to the lower levels but one damaged plane would have it's landing gear break off making it skid across her deck and fall into the water bellow.

fortunately for hakuryuu this was the only incident, planes too badly damaged would be jetizened off the side of her flight deck and the rest were taken bellow. Not yet done with the two carriers who harmed her friends hakuryuu would swiftly begin rearmament and refueling of the remaining planes for one last strike before retreating. Gathering all the planes together and on top of her deck all 36 strike planes the 18 dive bombers from hakuryuu had parlour piercing 500kg bombs and the 1 Val had it's 2 60kg bombs and 1 250kg under it's belly. The 8 kates and 7 Jill's had torpdoes fitted. All 15 remaining zeros and 15 reppus had their ammo belts replaced with fresh ones and we're brought up in nest rows on her flight deck. Within 45 minutes all planes had taken off her flight deck and turned towards the sun to strike the eagle union task force one last time. Watching above as the planes left towards their target both hakuryuu and Kagero were going at her top speed to avoid a potential second strike by lexington.

It felt wrong for hakuryuu to flee but she was thinking about Ryujo and Tone she didn't want them to endure more strikes when they're already wounded to a varying degree but if everything has gone as planned yukikaze had found hiei and was going to link up with them 100 nautical miles north of guadalcanal.

-----Meanwhile with yukikaze-----

Having spend the last few hours exploring she had finally came across a trail. Yukikaze: "finally! Yukikaze was starting to get bored and worry.. HIEI IT'S ME I'VE COME TO LOOK FOR YOU" huffing when she go no answer she followed the trail her rigging out and guns trained just in case she would be startled by a snake making her fire her guns sending it flying and a large crater in the ground ".. Uh o-opsie" sheepishly she would make her way forwards a bit faster this time wanting to be away from the crime scene if it accidently drew some unnecessary attention exploring further until she came across a series of old fortifications and tunnel system. Yukikaze: "hm must be those old fortifications" taking her spotlight she used it to illuminate the dark tunnel the echo of her footsteps on the old scorched concrete floor ringing out thankfully due to the climate and time of the year it was relatively warm. Humming she looked around the occasional ringing nosies from spent casings strewed about. Making her way to the left she would be jumped and pinned down.

Yukikaze: "H-hey! Who are you" struggling she would hear an audible surprised gasp and she was flipped over to see Hiei. Yukikaze: sighing in relief she would break free "Hiei you scared me! But I'm glad to see your alright. Uhh mind getting off me please" taking a few seconds to process what just happened and who it was the battleship quickly got off the smaller, destroyer and helped her up. Hiei: "eheh sorry about that yukikaze I thought you were someone from eagle union here to capture me" having dusted herself off she gave the battleship her signature smile. Yukikaze: "it's all good Hiei we came here to get you but judging from the damage of your ship I assume you'll need to come aboard mine and we'll link up with Hakuryuu" receiving a nod hiei would follow the destroyer out and pondered. Hiei: "that name sounds familiar.. Hey yukikaze isn't that the new carrier kansen" gesturing a nod brought back the memories of her being introduced by nagato. Now she was interested to talk to this new kansen and see what she's made of.

Once they had reached the beach Hiei recalled her and went aboard yukikaze's taking herself to the mess hall when told to get comfortable having not eaten in a day as her supplies ran out she was starving and helped herself to the food she required feeling the ship move gave her a sense of peace and relief that soon she would be away she enjoyed the fight but wasn't suicidal knowing if those two carriers were about they'd surely sink her and put the efforts of Yukikaze's search to vien. Instead she focused on more pressing concerns ie filling her empty belly and quenching her thirst.

   -----Eagle Union Task Force 14-----

An hour after the attack Saratoga Fletcher and San Juan had departed back to the new herberties islands leaving Lexington, Houston, pensacola, San Diego, phoenix, Nicholas and Bache in the area she had taken the aircraft from her sister giving her a full compliment of fighters and dive bombers with an additional 5 fighters giving her 30 wildcats and 35 SBDs. Opting to hold back her dive bombers she instead chose to put up a heavy CAP 25 of her 35 Wildcats had been put to the air to protect herself and task force. On her radar she picked up another strike most likely from hakuryuu as she saw her damage wasn't serious. Lexington: "everyone get read we got another strike incoming!" with the sirens going off again lexington was able to launch an additional 5 off her deck before the planes were overhead. From the skies came the 19 dive bombers all focused on Lexington to bring her down while the torpedo bombers were attempting an anvil attack on her. Again like last time the sky was filled with a terrific display of anti aircraft firepower the duel purpose guns sung with murderous intent while the quad 1.1s and 20mms cut loose.

Dogfighting a few of the fighters were focusing down the enemy strike planes compared to sakura empire AA the eagle unions one was much more effective nailing 6 of the enemy bombers while the wildcats fought for control with the escorting fighters only a handful would get through. High above 3 dive bombers dived intent of delivering their payload. With accurate positioning the first dropped their bomb the bomb nailing the back of Lexingtons fan tail before detonating setting fires and destroying compartments but the others would miss or be shot down. Having her rudder jammed Lexington cursed her luck through gritted teeth trying to get her ship under control as 4 Jill torpedoe bombers came down and released their warheads. Due to positioning however, one of the torpdoes struck pensacola on her torpedoe bulge doing some damage to her but it would soon be contained the other 2 would miss but the 4th struck her on the bow blowing a giant hole into her port side.

Unfortunately for hakuryuu these would be the only successful hits as all other planes were shot down or missed. By the time the few remaining planes had escaped only 6 of the 19 dive bombers got out, 2 of the torpedo bombers and 18 fighters. 38 planes were lost leaving only 26 mostly fighters to escape.

(that's all for today everyone hope you enjoyed my interpretation on a modified 3rd Battle Of Coral Sea and I'll catch you all next time)