Nimbus Child I: Games of War

Chapter 1

There were so-called paper ships in this world: projects that had been planned once, maybe even started, but not fulfilled and then come to the Afterlife since the strong emotions involved by that point had already been enough to birth a soul.

Those were the youngest generation, together with deceased modern ships like those that had fallen against the Fleet of Fog.

Manfred von Richthofen was one of such ships, a H-class battleship configurated into an aircraft carrier, the replacement for Flugzeugträger C of the Graf Zeppelin-class.

She was normally rational, but battle got her into a kind of frenzy, hot-blooded and tunnel visioned.

This had brought her into the current situation.

The carrier was big, as expected, and had been easily spotted by enemy planes – they had been shot down by Manfred's escorts, but not fast enough.

Well, admittedly, maybe that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't had blindly chased a submarine until she had been so far away, that her escorts (who were still dealing with the smaller fleet they had attacked) could only send their fighters over for air support.

Manfred von Richthofen was only now slowly tuning in again when she heard the panicked chatter over the comms and felt another shell detonate against her hull.

What they had attacked had been the vanguard to a much bigger main fleet, apparently – a main fleet that was hating quite strongly on the redhead in question.

Her deck was on fire, island missing pieces and she was pretty sure that she had heard and felt something crunch that definitely should not have crunched.

Aircraft carriers were fun, you know? Their flight decks are on fire and they're instantly fucking useless!

Manfred's eyes flickered with rage, her agitated systems trying to tab into a flagship equipment she obviously didn't have.

It would have given her the ability of the Fleet of Fog, easily enough to squash those flies!

One of those flies, a mass produced version of the destroyer Shinonome, closed in on the swimming slap of metal who had been forced to purge a few components of her body at some point, to finally end her suffering with a wave of torpedoes.

Bristling, the carrier decided "fuck this", put a plane on her elevator and elevated the damn thing.

"Oh, but Manfred, your plane might explode!", too. Fucking. Bad.

Listen, she was angry, she wasn't thinking clearly, would rip the other ship apart with her bare hands if necessary and IF the aircraft exploded then she at least had something to throw!

Before she could work herself back into 100 % rage and actualyl rip her deck off or something, the water where the destroyer was ripped apart, a large vessel cutting the surface vertically like a spear.

Manfred watched Shinonome be crushed in the "jaws" of the ship, where the graviton cannon was located, trailed the glowing markings and had to look at the glowing sigil on the ship's bow before realizing who that was: Kongō.

Not the Fog one, of course, that would have been much less terrifying; this was the Imperial one.

Her rage was blown away in an instant as she speedrunned the seven stages of grief while Kongō speedrunned defeating the enemy fleet and then returned to Manfred to glower at her.

Fortunately, Manfred von Richthofen's repair system finally caught up with the fire and shut it down...

...Honestly, burning alive would've been preferable.

Kongō only used her flagship equipment when absolutely necessary or because someone (most often Tirpitz) was being an idiot.

Tirpitz, however, was the sister of the woman she was in love with (even if the two were the only ones who hadn't realized it yet) and had thus unbelievable plot armour.

The Lone Queen of the North was safe, the Black Baron was absolutely not.

Staying silent but judging, Kongō continued glowering until Manfred avoided her eyes and bowed deeply, falling to a knee.

"Schiff L."

She cringed. Calling her by her contract name was about the same as a mother calling out her child's full name – especially considering Kongō disliked speaking German due to her light accent: "Fleet Flagship."

Strictly speaking, Kongō wasn't her flagship, but she was a flagship and the German wouldn't risk it.

As her sister Lothar von Richthofen said, if it had an ego, it could be stroked.

"We are returning to port."

"Understood, Fleet Flagship", the supercarrier spoke, staying in her kneeling position until the fast battleship had passed by, then following her.

The escorts weren't happy either, berating the girl, which was continued when they returned to said port – although by different people.

Sonne, the research ship that served the Great Combined Fleet as repair ship, stood with her arms crossed, awaiting them at the pier.

Since she was the one who had to fix this whole mess, she was of course not happy and just wordlessly pointed at the free drydock.

The carrier slinked there without a fight (what was there to fight about?), so Sonne waited for Kongō.

Said ship's mental model came down from her vessel slowly, deactivated her flagship equipment and accepted the hand Myōkō offered her, before her knees buckled, leading to the blind heavy cruiser having to catch her.

This was exactly the thing Sonne had feared, which was why she had told Kongō not to overtax herself – alas, Old Bones was stubborn and carried hidden pride.

Kongō was one of the ships who hadn't been lucky enough to be reborn in a perfectly fine body.

Instead, the nanomaterial on her mental model's side and legs was unstable and would start deactivating if strained too much.

It apparently was the mirror of wounds they had received while alive, if rumours were to be trusted, but Sonne had medical evidence that showed that that was not the case for everyone.

"Myōkō, please bring her inside and make sure that she won't stand up."

The fast battleship glanced at Sonne from the corner of her eyes, before Myōkō and Bismarck (who had been waved over by the "medic") led her away.

"So", said the research ship with a clap into her hands, "and now to the brat."

Manfred von Richthofen ducked behind a very conveniently placed plane.