Azur Lane: Return of Davis

Chapter 24: Survive the Siege

March 10, 1942

With the plan set, and all units in position, we start the mission early, to locate that unusual signal. Since we have so many expedition teams, Hill, Hirata, and I all stayed behind on Attu Island to monitor and log all the data flowing in.

"SUGAR-8, KING-4, do you copy?"

Arizona: "KING-4-1 copies, over."

Fusou: "SUGAR-8-2 copies."

"Good. Keep me posted. I'll radio in every one-five (15) minutes or so, so be prepared for a sit-rep. Copy?"

Arizona: "Sir!"

Fusou: "We copy."

I lean back in my chair, looking to the ceiling. "God, we came up with one of the weirdest phonetic alphabets likely to exist."

--

"Why are we called SUGAR-8, exactly?"

I stare in confusion to the fleet's flagship, as... What's her name again? Long Island? Yeah, as she shrugs.

L.I.: "If I knew, I'd tell you." She sighs. "It's not like the Commander made this frigging phonetic alphabet. But it's a thing." She pauses. "Wait, don't you Japs also have a phonetic alphabet?"

"Oh, the wabuntsuu-wa-hyou? Uh... The..." I snap my fingers. "...The Japanese kana telecommunication chart! That's it. So we say a word that starts with the sound we want to communicate, then we specify the sound. For example, Eigo no e means... the 'E' in English. Tokyo no to mean the 'To' in Tokyo. Sekai no se, or the 'Se' in world. It's words that most every Japanese person knows, exemplifying the starter syllable, making things easy to communicate."

Javelin, I think: "Neat. Hey, what's the Japanese word for the United Kingdom?"

"Igirisu, if I remember correctly." I find and approach a beachside southeast of our position, grabbing a piece of lumber floating in the water. "イギリス, I think." I sketch the katakana for Igirisu on the beach, big enough for the girls out in the water to see.

Javelin: "Wow! That looks so cool!"

I laugh a bit. "Glad you like it."

*BOOM!*

...

The beach where I wrote イギリス exploded.

...

Unfortunate, but such is fate, I guess. "Okay, so that explosion must have been fired to that location from somewhere nearby. Be on guard, girls."

A cheer of "Right!" fills the air.

"SUGAR-8 to base. SUGAR-8 to base. Do you copy?"

A man's voice, not of the Commander, comes through: "Base copies."

"This is 8-2. We can confirm that an enemy is within the local vicinity..." I look to Gridley, who is doing some quick trajectory math on a board she's carrying, using a picture she snapped as reference. "...approximately 12 kilometers northeast from our position. Within this radius, a shell can potentially land on base."

Man: "Can anyone confirm this statement?"

L.I.: "8-1 caaaan! There was an explosion on the beach near our location, and it looks like it's from an HE round."

Man: "High Explosive? That ain't good. Right, thanks. Our squads will be at the ready. On the first sign of trouble, radio in and converge upon the base's position. All available units will be waiting to assist you. Out."