Defection (MentalModel!Brothers and OC)

Chapter 15

I held my breath as the fog slowly dissipated around my fleet, wanting to keep the extra bit of protection for as long as possible after finding out that the Klein Fields that the Fog ships used generated an artificial fog when they were active. The fog pulled away with the wind to reveal a small opening that led deeper inland as the shores around us curled closer to form a sizable pocket of water along the coastline, my bare feet feeling the cooled metal underneath as I walked along the length of the deck.

"Captain, the Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst are too large to proceed further," Choro's voice called out from the left side of the deck, drawing my attention over to the port side to see the U-96 at surface with the Mental Model looking up to me, "You will need to board me to meet the Defense Fleet."

"Oh, come on!" Tirpitz groaned in frustration as his voice carried from his ship body, the massive battleship pulling alongside the slowing Scharnhorst, "We'll stick out like sore thumbs here."

"Oso," My eyes landed on the visible Mental Model of the Tirpitz before sweeping over to the Model who had moved to stand beside me, "Kara, I need both of you to stand guard at the mouth of the Delaware Bay. Choro and I will move into the river itself and locate the fleet."

"Oh, sure..." Oso gestured towards me with a hint of sarcasm as the Tirpitz slowly turned away from the battleship I was on, veering back towards the mouth of the bay that we had passed through thirty minutes ago, "We'll just haul back to where we came from and wait while he gets all the action."

"Are you certain, captain?" Kara slightly raised an eyebrow at me, "I think we'll be better off holding position here."

"Kara, I understand your concern," I offered him a smile, "But I need you and Oso to be at battlestations when you're parked at the bay's entrance. We haven't detected any other Fog ships within the bay itself, and I want to make sure that it stays that way as the fleet moves towards the ocean. With both of my battleships at the ready, I don't think the Hornet will want to send ships after us until she has a fleet ready to fight you both."

The look of concern was wiped from his face, understanding taking its place as he helped me over the railing and into the water as Choro moved in closer, "We'll have weapons at the ready, captain."

The cold bay water was a shock to my system, squeezing the breath from my lungs as I fought to stay at the surface from the battleship-sized wakes while Choro moved the submarine closer, sinking a little and scooping me onto the deck before fully emptying his ballast tanks of water.

"We will have to stay surfaced to fit into the river itself, which means that the American Defense Fleet here are of cruiser-class or smaller," He commented as I twisted my hair to wring out the seawater, looking back towards the two battleships disappearing into their self-created fog, "I am certain that we will not be attacked until we are underway with the Defense Fleet."

"Why do you say that?" My attention turned to his words as the submarine under our feet began to sail towards the river opening within the bay.

"When we are out in the open sea, we will be more susceptible to attack from under the water. While we are currently here, our main batteries are pointed towards the only place that the Fog can come from," Choro motioned back to the battleships, "As the fleet moves towards Quincy, our attention will be divided between every direction. The closer we come to Quincy, the higher the chance that we will run into a Fog fleet."

"...and with the American Defense Fleet lacking your access to the 'net, they're not gonna have any new information other than what they've currently got," I couldn't hide the realization in my voice, curling a hand underneath my chin as I looked back at the wall of fog now completely blocking out the view of the ocean, "I seriously doubt that Hornet will upload any of her fleet's information when three rogue ships can immediately report it to a human."