Redemption

Shrouded (Old Version)

We were all probably very  tired of playing the waiting game having done the only things that we could about half an hour ago, turning on our searchlights to make us easier to spot and randomly sending out radio signals to test if our new recruit would respond, no such luck there and we had maneuvered ourselves so that Vestal was in between Washington and me that way on the off-chance we were to be attacked, we would take the most damage and she could bandage us up without having received any.

Vestal caught her binoculars in her hand and a second later her voice could be heard over the radio asking: "So... I have a quick question as long as we are just waiting here."

Washington soon responded, "Go ahead."

"Why haven't we tried sending out more planes to find her, wouldn't that be easier than searching for her like this?" I was quick to respond, "It would be pointless to send an aircraft out now, not only is there so much fog that we would hardly see anything but it would also be impossible to recover, it would only end up making us more lost."

"That and we really shouldn't be putting anymore of my planes at risk, not when we could look for her ourselves," I added and went back to looking.

"Yeah, I guess when you explain it like that-" "Did anyone else see that?" Washington quickly interrupted.

I waited a little bit, "Well, what did you see?" the line was quiet for a little bit before she replied, "Ahh, it must have been my imagination, I just thought I saw-"

"Wait, there it is again!" She exclaimed cutting herself off, she shortly replied, "I'm seeing some kind of shape with possibly lights in the fog, I need confirmation, it's two degrees left of my bow."

Me and Vestal soon had our binoculars out looking for what she had found in the fog, letting out a short gasp as we both saw the same thing she did, a dark shape in the fog becoming more and more solid the closer it got to us with small circles of light placed higher than the shape itself.

"Confirmed," I answered, "we can see it too, Washington, it looks like its..." my voice trailed off as a thought came to mind.

"SHIT! Hard Left! Hard Left!" I nearly yelled into the radio, "What? Why?" Vestal asked, I rushed to answer with my left hand gripping the railing and my right the binoculars, "We're headed right into her, we gotta move or else we'll collide!"

Washington and Vestal soon followed the order I gave and soon we were moving away from the ship that was presumably the one we were looking for, but hopefully it wasn't to late.

The shadow got closer and closer and more of it was revealed the closer we got, certain parts of it more detail and illuminating more lights until finally...

Huh.

Well, first things first we had thankfully managed to maneuver out of the way before the ship collided with mine, secondly, it was most definitely the ship we were looking for.

But the ship passing by next to us looked nothing like we had expected to ever see, so much of it was in such a dilapidated state that it was indistinguishable to a ghost ship, parts of it looked near to collapsing, the lights that were on flickered frequently, cargo and wreckage was strewn about the decks and almost all of it was covered in a thick red and grey coating of rust.

The only real thing that looked out of place was an advanced looking type of helicopter that seemed to be a stark contrast to the much older vessel, but other than that it fit every cliché that of a ghost ship.

It was enough to send chills down all of our spines.

We quickly collected ourselves though and turned back around in the direction the ship was going, ship girl or not there had to be someone on there, that helicopter was proof enough of it.