Legends

Chapter 23~ Spotting the Princess

Tang was a submarine. She enjoyed the opportunity given to her. To be free of the confines of a fleet and command. Carroway's orders had been simple. Scout, locate, report. Shoot only if she could escape. Now Tang hadn't earned her reputation as the Navy's top scoring submarine for no reason. She remembered the good old days, when she could go out and find a juicy Japanese merchantmen to stuff herself on. They made such good meals for her fish. Sometimes their terrified screams as well as those of their crews would come to her at night. But like she did then Tang shrugged them off. She believed and still believed like her crew did that those screams canceled those from Pearl Harbor. Tang had not been born when Battleship Row was attacked but she remembered the stories Tautog told her. And the feelings her crew felt when reminded of the event. She felt no pity for the Japanese. Nor did she hold a grudge. She readily accepted the war had ended. It had to after all, in no small part thanks to her sisters. And she'd satisfied her revenge for her fellow subs deaths long ago. Now she had a new enemy to fight. After being idle for so long in that frozen wasteland she was itching to stick her fish up some helpless merchantman's stern.

She was sitting on the surface, the foul weather doing wonders at disguising her although she could do without the consisting dousing. Her batteries needed charging though. Her radar picked up several contacts and they were close barely 5 miles away. The storm had hidden them until they were nearly on top of her. She checked her gauges. She had half charge. It would have to do. Opening all vents she dove steeply, leveling off at a depth where her periscope could just breach the surface. Her sonar detected multiple high speed screws, all on top of one another. A convoy, it must be.

Controlling her excitement Tang acted like the professional she was and scanned the horizon for a sighting. It was through only the barest of escapes that she hid her gasp. Rare had she assumed wrong in her career. Convoy was not the right word for what she was seeing now. It was an Abyssal Task Force being led by the Lone Princess. Tang recognized her profile immediately. So similar to Titanic's. Then again, the Lone Princess was the twisted reincarnation of her sister. Olympic's beautiful lines still showed through. She wore the same dazzle scheme she had become famous for in Halifax. Tang could make out the 4.7 inch gun on her bow.

The submarine quickly moved onto the escorts. 2 destroyers, 3 cruisers and that same blasted Ne-class that was behind the assault on Theabaud. Tang would have gladly taken a shot at her but they were moving too quickly and the foul weather severely hampered the submarine's ability to get a good fix on them. Reluctantly she slammed her bow doors shut and turned away, moving south at low speed to avoid detection. She wasn't sure what these Abyssals had in terms of ASW equipment and she had no desire to find out the hard way.

Once she was a good distance away and the chill from their evil aura had ceased seeping into her frame, Tang surface and contacted base. "Lakehurst, this is USS Tang. I've spotted the Lone Princess in formation with one Ne-class, two destroyers that appear to be Fletcher's and 3 cruisers. One Portland-class and 2 County-class. Course 110, speed 20 knots."

"This is Lakehurst, acknowledged Tang, return to base." Tang was too ashamed to admit it outloud but she was grateful for the command. There was something about the Lone Princess' aura, that even for an Abyssal, felt wrong. She set her course back to the safety of New York Harbor and wondered to herself how Titanic would take seeing this corrupted version of her sister.