[Azur Lane - HQ of Pearl Harbor]
Prince of Wales and Yamato Aegis were having a conversation about the upcoming exercises.
Yamato: "I have to take the assessment test?"
Wales: "Yes, all battleships will have to take one. You're not an exception."
Yamato: "... very well then, when is the exam?"
[Battleship Training Area]
JS Yamato Aegis in her rigging combat form arrives at the scheduled site for her assessment. Seeing an Eagle Union battleship girl waiting in the distance.
???: "Welcome, you must be Yamato Aegis."
Yamato: "Yes and you are?"
Pennsylvania(BB-38): "I'm Pennsylvania, lead ship of an improved Nevada class. Some call me Sister Penn and today I'll be your examiner."
Yamato: "Please treat me well."
Pennsylvania: "Got it. Let's go over, the trivia stuff. Main gun size and number?"
Yamato: "Fourty-six centimeters and nine guns."
Pennsylvania: "Fourty-six! That's about-
Yamato: "18.1 inches."
Pennsylvania: "Four inches more than my 14-inch guns. That's a lot of firepower you carry."
Yamato: "I've been told a lot. I'm the only ship around carrying the biggest gun around in my time."
Pennsylvania: "How about your secondary guns?"
Yamato: "Five inches and eight guns."
Pennsylvania: "That's a surprisingly low amount of Secondary. You have more Main guns than Secondary."
Yamato: "In my time, I have the most cannons on board compared to other modern battleships."
Pennsylvania: "Really? Why is it going down?"
Yamato: "In favor of missile launchers over cannons. In the age of missiles, all ships must be equipped to fire and defend from missiles."
Pennsylvania: "Missiles?" Unfamiliar with the word.
Yamato: "A more advanced form of a rocket."
Pennsylvania: "Iron Blood Tech... and everyone has it?"
Yamato: "Yes. With its range and accuracy far surpassing any cannon fire, most ships are equipped with just one gun and multiple launchers."
Pennsylvania: "Just one gun, has naval warfare changed that much?"
Yamato: "A lot has changed when compared to this time of naval combat."
Pennsylvania: "I see... Anyway, what else you got."
Yamato: "There's the seventy-six millimeter or three-inch autocannons for the final four guns."
Pennsylvania: "So that's nine 18.1-inch guns, eight 5-inch guns, and four 3-inch guns. That's super heavy firepower coming from your main guns and very light firepower from your secondaries. Now onto the anti-air weaponry."
Yamato: "Well not counting the anti-air missiles, I have five AA Lasers, and the 3-inch guns can also hit on aerial targets."
Pennsylvania: "Lazers!? As in Siren weapons!?" Sharing Azur Lane's perspective not incorporating any Siren tech into their system.
Yamato: "Absolutely not, these are human-made weapons with much research and effort placed into them."
Pennsylvania: "Ah sorry, kind of overreacted there..." Letting out a tiny laugh. "AA Lazers... I wonder how they score on AA effectiveness."
Yamato: "It depends on the target's resistance to heat, but I don't think that will be a problem here."
Pennsylvania: "Ok, let's get this examination started. There are dummy ships at 15, 20, and 25 miles. One holding still and the other running in circles. Your job is to hit them once with the main gun, I'll keep track of how many shells you fired."
Yamato: "Simple enough." Using her radar to zoom onto the target. "Target located, aiming now..." The 46cm gun pointed at the target and began to elevate a little under 20 degrees. "Fire!"
*Boom* The single 46cm AP shell traversed the sky and punctured a hole into the dummy ship. Pennsylvania looking at the dummy ship with binoculars.
Yamato: "Calculating moving target next." Following the movement speed and pattern to estimate its future position.
*boom* Another AP shell flew and landed a hit.
Pennsylvania: "That's a confirmed hit on both. Damn that great accuracy you got there."
Yamato: "It's within effective firing range. The 25-mile one is gonna be the most difficult since it's right next to my maximum firing range." 'It's up to the sea winds up to that point.'
Pennsylvania: "Well good luck with that."
[Fast Forward]
Results: 15-Still 1 Shell, 15-Moving 1 Shell, 20-Still 3 Shells, 20-Moving 9 Shells, 25-Still 12 Shells, 25-Moving 27 Shells
Pennsylvania: "That's a new top score worthy of S-Rank."
Yamato: "Thank you, but I have to ask you to keep this score private."
Pennsylvania: "Huh why?"
Yamato: "It would be extremely unfair for a future battleship score to be placed with other current (WW2) battleships. I wouldn't want to discourage other battleships with their current accuracy."
Pennsylvania: "That makes sense with your fancy tech we don't have. Very well, I won't post it up for others to see."
Yamato: "Thank you."
Pennsylvania: "On to the anti-air assessment. There are twenty dummy planes that will be flying around you. Your goal is to take them down as fast as possible."
Yamato: "Understood." 'Loading up air-burst shells to the Mk-75'
The twenty planes soon arrived and the JHLAs each locked onto an individual plane. At first, the laser did nothing to the plane as it continued to fly evasively, unable to rid of the laser point. The Mk-75 began to flak down the other planes. 76mm shell shot in front of the predicted path of the plane and exploded very close crippling the wings and body of the plane to fall from the sky. The five laser-pointed plane's engine soon caught on fire from the overheating.
JHLA quickly went after the next plane to lock on and beam on it. Soon all the planes sank into the ocean.
Pennsylvania: "That was quick."
Yamato: "I'm used to targeting aircraft with a much higher speed."
Pennsylvania: "Well that's a world record. Not even San Diego is that fast despite being the top AA light cruiser in Eagle Union."
Yamato: "What's next on the assessment?"
Pennsylvania: "After this will be testing your evasion."
Yamato: "Evasion... for a battleship?"
Pennsylvania: "Your goal is to dodge the torpedoes within this area. Try not to step outside or we'll have to start over again."
Five torpedo boats arrived and lined themselves in the designated area.
Pennsylvania: "And the timer starts now."
The torpedo boats start launching wave after wave of torpedoes, able to reload their torpedoes at an incredible rate.
Yamato: "How am I supposed to dodge this many torpedoes!?" Somewhat frightened by the mass amount of torpedoes.
Pennsylvania: "You don't! It is about getting hit the least amount of times!" Yelling from the side.
Yamato quickly checked on the sonar, mapping out the direction of the torpedoes and marking the danger zone. She moved out of the danger only to see more torpedoes being launched at her. With how quickly the boats can fire their torpedoes, new danger zones are quickly mapped out. By the time she reaches safety, it becomes the new danger zone. Getting hit left and right with dummy torpedoes, she couldn't escape. Pushing the limits of her speed and agility to catch the least amount of torpedoes if possible.
Pennsylvania: "That's time." The boats stopped launching and retreated back to port.
Yamato: "That was awful. *breathing hard* I never thought I'd experience torpedo hell."
Pennsylvania: "You we're cutting it close there. You got a D-Rank for your course."
Yamato: "What is the worst score?"
Pennsylvania: "E-Rank."
Yamato: "At least I didn't score bottom. That was very difficult when you're a very large target with poor agility and speed compared to a destroyer or frigate."
Pennsylvania: "Battleship and battlecruiser's evasion scores are usually around D-C Rank so don't worry about it. You can head back to port and rest up."
Yamato: "I will." 'Maybe taking a bath wouldn't be a bad idea as well.'
.
{This is more of a side chapter than a main chapter, hope you like it}