Azur Lane: Story of the Blind Battleship Rewritten

Chapter 15: Threats Anew

A massive fleet was currently pursuing Arkansas' ship towards the Suez Canal since he was preparing to transfer back to the Pacific. His intrusion into the research base alerted everyone and they went to intercept him. What concerned Yorktown the most was the time difference. He left 6 weeks ago, his ship got to the base 5 weeks ago, and his ship left the anomaly just hours ago.

She stared through the binoculars towards Arkansas' ship still making full steam towards the canal. "Surely he knows the Sakura fleet is waiting for him." Enterprise said as she walked up to Yorktown. Yorktown grabbed the cup of coffee from Enterprise and said "Thank you. Yes, surely he knows. But he isn't stopping. Try raising him on comms again." 

Enterprise nods and heads back into the bridge as Yorktown still watches. Multiple engines sputter on Yorktown's flight deck as F4F Wildcats were spinning up and preparing for takeoff. Enterprise dialed the radio in and said over it "This is Enterprise over frequency 173.4, cut engines and respond immediately, Arkansas."

The only response from the radio was static and some sort of... breathing. Enterprise looked from the bridge towards Arkansas ship. "What the hell is going on here?" she asked.

Arkansas' ship was continuing at full steam, pushing safety thresholds to just outrun the Azur Lane ships. Sakura ships were coming in from the Canal, and the other alliance ships were pushing him closer to it. An encirclement, probably to keep him in check. Arkansas continued standing on his ship's turret and staring towards the canal.

"The light. Light. Light. Light. One soul anxious. Wide awake. Fear. Fear." Arkansas rambled on constantly without making any sense. "Strain. Pain. Boilers. Push. More." 

Arkansas' ship seems to respond and continues pushing on, however as more and more smoke starts pouring out of his funnels, it's clear something is about to go wrong. Yorktown watches as the smoke continues pouring out, she leans over to Cleveland and says "Something is going on with his boilers." Cleveland takes a look through the binoculars and agrees.

Yorktown launches her fighters and bombers towards Arkansas in an attempt to force him to surrender. As the planes creep closer, AA fire starts lighting up the sky from Arkansas' ship. Multiple tracers fire up and start shooting down Yorktown's aircraft. 

"WHAT IS HE DOING?" Enterprise yells. Yorktown is continuing the number of airplanes being shot down before eventually deciding to pull back her aircraft. Water starts splashing up near her carrier and she looks back down the binoculars.

Arkansas' rear turrets were opening up on the fleet. Yorktown pulls evasive maneuvers and dodges the incoming shells. Arkansas had finally reached the mouth of the canal and his front turrets aim towards the barriers and fired. 

Yorktown was able to relax with Arkansas' attention off of them for now. She dialed in the radio and said "Nagato, Arkansas is heading straight towards you. And he is not playing around." Nagato lowered the radio and looked up from the other side of the canal. Multiple explosions echoed and Nagato simply said "I know."