"Ooyodo, start the exercise."
"Roger. Blue 1 and Red 1, begin the exercise!" (Ooyodo)
A green signal flare flew up high into the sky, signaling the start of the first exercise.
"Alright! Follow the great me!" (Tenryuu)
"Ufufufu~ Tenryuu_chan, let's do our best." (Tatsuta)
A total of twelve fleets, blue team and red team, will face off with one another. Only the winner will advance up the bracket. For simplicity's sake, the fleets will be named based on their assigned color and exercise number. Of course, two teams with the same assigned color can fight each other if they meet up the ladder. Although the purpose for this district-wide exercise was just to collect data on their current prowess, it's not fun fighting for the sake of it. So I made it a tourney. The top 3 teams will get a prize.
Blue 1 consists of Tenryuu, Tatsuta, Mogami, Kawakaze, Miyuki and Satsuki. Red 1 features Tama, Kuma, Fubuki, Kamikaze, Mutsuki and Yuudachi. Apart from fighting each other, both fleets will have unexpected encounters. I say 'unexpected', but all of them know what is going to happen. Since there are only two things that can occur, either an air raid or a submarine encounter.
"Picking me was a good choice-kuma!" (Kuma)
"You want Tama to lend a hand? Can't be helped then-nya..." (Tama)
Both fleets advance towards each other. The rules are simple. The fleet to take out most, if better, all of the opposing team wins. The training rounds they are using are filled with paint. The amount of paint on each shipgirl represents the damage they received and where they were hit. For example, if Tenryuu's head gets covered entirely in paint, it represents destruction to her bridge. A shot to the leg represents damage to their rudder, heart means engine room, and so on and so forth. Depending on where they were shot, they colored flag raised determines their current status. They have to slow down or shut down their engines whenever Ooyodo says so. Ooyodo is on-site, refereeing the battle and giving out the status of the shipgirls.
"Mogami, time to launch a bird!" (Tenryuu)
"Now we're talking!" (Mogami)
Mogami pointed her flight catapult to the front and launched a Type 0 recon seaplane. On the other side of the field, Tama and Kuma both launched their own Type 2 Seaplane Fighters. As expected, both sides are using seaplanes to scout out the enemy's location. A standard tactic. Mogami will obtain Air Superiority this round. Mogami has 5 Type 0 Recon Seaplanes and 6 Zuiuns while both Tama and Kuma have only 1 Type 2 Seaplane Fighter Kai each.
"Enemy planes discovered!" (Mogami)
Mogami's Recon plane got shot down by the 2 opposing seaplane fighters.
"Hey! You will pay for that!" (Mogami)
"Satsuki, you're up!" (Tenryuu)
"My battle is starting!" (Satsuki)
The two Seaplane Fighters entered their firing range. Aiming upwards, Satsuki fired her machine guns. She managed to take both down. Now Red 1 is plane-less.
"How nice. That looks fun." (Zuihou)
Zuihou looked at the monitor in envy. She is still sulking.
"Oh come on. It's not like you won't get to fight. Just need to wait another 5 rounds. And you get to launch some planes during the third round."
I placed Zuihou in Blue 6 and put her on bomber duty to assist Blue 3 for the 'unexpected encounter that round. She is not happy with this arrangement. She kept bugging me to put her in the earlier brackets so that she can have fun earlier but I rejected it.
Both sides have gotten close enough to exchange shells and torpedo at one another. The shipgirls have started receiving damage, prompting Ooyodo to list out the current state of them,
"Satsuki, damage to rudder and boiler. Heavy damage. Lower your speed." (Ooyodo)
"Ugh..." (Satsuki)
"Tenryuu, Kawakaze, moderate damage. Mutsuki, minor damage to boiler. Kamikaze has been ruled sunk. Please shut down your engine" (Ooyodo)
Tenryuu and Kawakaze both had an orange flag raised at their mast. A yellow flag was raised at Mutsuki's mast while Kamikaze had a red flag was raised at half mast. The poor destroyer was covered in head to toe with blue paint after taking Miyuki's torpedo. The battle had just started and she is already out.
"No...No way..." (Kamikaze)
"An easy victory!" (Miyuki)
"Ohh. This is pwetty normal~" (???)
A girl with gray wavy hair, grayish brown eyes, and thick eyebrows sat on the chair, resting against the table with a bottle of Sake in her hand. Her outfit consists of a black corset over a white shirt, a red miniskirt with anchors attached, white thigh-highs and grey boots. Her face is red and she is about to undo the ribbon on her shirt again.
This drunkard...
"Pola, it's only 11 in the morning. For goodness sake, control yourself. And shouldn't you be at the stands with Zara?"
"There's nothing to do but drink~ I love it here though~" (Pola)
Zara-class Heavy Cruiser, Pola. She, along with her sister, was transferred her two days ago, a day after we took the Sakura Empire's Shigure into custody. I was told they would be here sometime within the week, not the following day after receiving news of their transfer.
Pola is a alcoholic, so being stationed here in Japan is heaven compared to Brunei. Brunei isn't a bad place, I would love to go there on a vacation some time, but it being a Dry Country is a problem for an alcoholic like Pola.
"Tatsuta, heavy damage to rudder and boiler explosion. Sunk. Shut down your engine." (Ooyodo)
"Yuudachi-chan~ After this, let's have a nice, friendly chat~ Okay~?" (Tatsuta)
There it is. Tatsuta's infamous sadistic smile. Looks like Yuudachi is the culprit. A headshot, body shot, and a torpedo all at once. Yuudachi's brutal.
"Poiiii~~!" (Yuudachi)
"I will avenge you, Tatsuta." (Tenryuu)
"No no. I will do it myself later." (Tatsuta)
"Pola-san, watch carefully. This is how we do it here at Maizuru." (Zuihou)
"Eh?" (Pola)
"What's this? Trying to act like a senpai?"
The door suddenly slammed opened,
"POLA!" (???)
A girl with blonde wavy hair stood at the door. Her outfit is similar to Pola's, a black corset over a white shirt and a red miniskirt. She is visibly angry.
"Eek! Zara-neesama? Ummm... U-uhhh~... ummmm~..." (Pola)
The one that just came in is Pola's elder sister, Zara. Unlike Pola, Zara is more of a straight-laced shipgirl. She is always worried about Pola's alcoholism and is the only one that can keep her sister in check. At least, that's what it says on her file.
"I take my eye off you for one second... ONE second! and you ran off to drink again! Ah! Admiral, I'm sorry for budging in like this!" (Zara)
Zara bowed deeply.
"That's fine. Relax. Since you are here already, let's watch the battle."
Zara was about to drag her drunkard sister off the chair,
"No. We couldn't..." (Zara)
"Zara-neesama, let's stay here and watch. Admiral already gave us permission." (Pola)
"I insist. Besides, it will take you some time to return to the stands, so you will miss out on the matches."
Pola nodded fervently. Zara seems troubled, but relented,
"Understood. We will take you up on that offer." (Zara)
"Kawakaze, Satsuki, sunk. Shut down your engines." (Ooyodo)
"Ow! Mutsuki!" (Satsuki)
Satsuki clutched her paint-covered head in pain. Mutsuki landed herself a point-blank headshot on her little sister.
"Sorry, Satsuki-chan!" (Mutsuki)
"Enemy aircraft spotted!" (Yuudachi)
"Evasive maneuvers nya!" (Tama)
"Kyaa!" (Mutsuki)
"Hyaa!" (Fubuki)
Blue paint covered both Fubuki and Mutsuki from head to toe as a squadron of Suiseis and Type 99 Bombers flew overhead.
"No fair. Shouhou gets to have fun first." (Zuihou)
Those planes belong to Shouhou, who is supporting Blue 1 and is responsible of Red 1's unexpected encounter this round
Fubuki, Mutsuki, set on fire and destruction to bridge. Sunk." (Ooyodo)
"Nyanyah... This is just...!" (Mutsuki)
"Auu!" (Fubuki)
"Haha! That air raid clinches it. Just a bit more." (Tenryuu)
"Erm... Tenryuu-san?" (Mogami)
"What's up?" (Tenryuu)
"If ours is air support, doesn't that mean...?" (Mogami)
"...Oh crap..." (Tenryuu)
An explosion of red paint engulfed Miyuki.
"Miyuki, destruction of rudder and explosion in magazine. Sunk." (Ooyodo)
"They got me! I screwed up, damnit!" (Miyuki)
"Submarines! Mogami!" (Tenryuu)
"Don't look at me! My aircraft and I don't have any ASW capabilities!" (Tenyruu)
Looks like Blue 1 didn't prepare any Anti-submarine equipment. Red 1 has an Air Raid as their unexpected encounter and Blue 1 needs to deal with Iku and Imuya as theirs.
A torpedo trail made a beeline towards Mogami and covered her in red paint.
"Shit! It's a direct hit... This is no joke..." (Mogami)
"Mogami, heavy damage. Ah." (Ooyodo)
A shell from Tama flew straight into Mogami's body.
"Mogami, boiler and magazine explosion. Sunk." (Ooyodo)
"Last one nya. Kuma." (Tama)
"Commence pursuit-kuma!" (Kuma)
Kuma fired at the sole survivor of Blue 1. Tenryuu parried the shot with her sword.
"Wha-!" (Kuma)
"Haha! Alright, it's time to show you my grand charge! I'm going in for the win!" (Tenryuu)
Tenryuu sped towards the opposing team, parrying any shot thrown at her and weaving around the torpedoes.
"She is going for a collision?" (Zara)
"She always does this."
Tenryuu swung her sword down at Kuma, who dodged to the side,
"Ah. I screwed up-kuma." (Kuma)
And into the crosshairs of Tenryuu's portside gun.
Red paint covered Kuma's face as she staggered backwards and landed on her butt. Even though it's a training round, catching it with your face at point-blank range really hurts.
"Kuma, sunk." (Ooyodo)
Kuma floated on the water surface, knocked out by Tenryuu.
"Next!" (Tenryuu)
"I'm not letting you poi!" (Yuudachi)
Three torpedoes flew towards Tenryuu. The sword-wielding Light Cruiser parried two of them and cut one into half. The resulting explosion covered her leg with red paint. Yuudachi threw them like kunais again.
"Tenryuu, moderate damage to rudder. Please slow down." (Ooyodo)
"Hahaha! That won't be enough to slow me down!" (Tenryuu)
"Nya~ It's our win nya." (Tama)
"Huh? Wha-?!" (Tenryuu)
A torpedo blew up at Tenryuu's feet and covered her entirely in red paint. Yuudachi's little party trick was just a distraction from Tama's torpedoes.
"Tenryuu, sunk. Red 1 wins this round." (Ooyodo)
"When did she launched a salvo of torpedoes?" (Zara)
"When Kuma dodged her sword swing. Only problem is she was too far when she launched it. That's why Yuudachi did what she did." (Zuihou)
"Wow. I never seen such a tactic in Brunei."
Well, Admiral Zain prefers to simple and straightforward tactics.
The red signal flare flew high up in the sky, signaling the end to the first round of exercise.