All Guns Forward! (BB-55 SI)

Chapter 3: San Diego

I adjusted my glasses using my left hand and aren't that weird? It just materialized out of thin air after we crossed the Panama Canal. I blame Admiral Ching Lee for this change. He was making his very own gunnery calculations to be applied to my guns, applying radar, the Earth's curvature, and Earth's rotation, and I watched him write the calculations down while talking to the gunnery officers. How I understood him was beyond me since I'm very bad at math and just associated it with me being a warship and ship spirit magic shenanigans. He did all this while we were sailing to the Panama Canal he also gave orders for training drills for my crew with an emphasis on gunnery training. Still, the glasses brought me some small comfort reminding me of the glasses I wore in my previous life.

Yet it was overshadowed by the dark cloud over my head. War is coming. A lot of people are going to die, civilians and soldiers alike, and I'm starting to believe that I'm in some sort of alternate universe, which is quite terrifying. By my calculations, if the Pearl Harbor air raid is still the same and without any changes in their plans, we would arrive four hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked and two or three hours if Admiral Lee decided to drop cruise speed and go on flank speed.

Also, Admiral Lee revealed that I was the flagship of the Fast Battleship Division 1 of the Pacific Fleet which included my sister Washington alongside whatever ships he would get his hands on and authorized by the Pacific Fleet Commander. I signed. From now on, things will only get way worse, so I continued my brooding.

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Helena, St. Louis, Concord, and Raleigh were moored together in the same dock and talking to each other when they were disturbed by the sounds of tugs pushing something. The group of ships was surprised to see a ship, specifically a Battleship they hadn't seen before, being slowly moored to the docks near them. The group immediately began inspecting the newcomer at the Naval Base. Her design was rather unique, to say the least, and she was massive.

Concord whistles. "I thought the Navy was going to follow the design of the Standard Battleships when they announced the construction of new Battleships. I didn't expect that the design would be... different and unique. And look at all those secondary five-inch guns and anti-aircraft guns she's a strong follower of the 2nd Amendment!"

Raleigh signed. "Calm down a little bit, Concord, lest we make a poor impression on a flagship". Raleigh gestures and points at the main mast of the Battleship looks like some sort of tower with radar on top. As the three other ships followed where Raleigh was pointing at there they found a blue flag with two white stars proudly flying from the mast of the Battleship signifying that a Rear Admiral was onboard and in command.

"I wonder who's the Admiral onboard her". St. Louis mused out loud, and as if someone heard her and then answered her, a group of marines accompanied by their Captains arrived at the docks. Once their Captains and the marines reached their destination, the Battleship, the marines immediately began attaching the nearby gangplank to the Battleship.

One of the doors on the Battleship's superstructure opened and the person who came out surprised them. "That's Captain Ching Lee! Well, Rear Admiral Ching Lee now! His been promoted!". Yelled the excited Concord once she spotted said Rear Admiral that was now descending the gangplank.

"Well, to be honest, that was a surprise, and also, to be expected, he was the Fleet Readiness and Gunnery Director. You won't exactly get that job without being incompetent like the people BuOrd". St. Louis said and shuddered at the thought of the stubborn and stupid people at BuOrd.

Raleigh nodded. "It's a well-deserved promotion. He's the reason our crews have quicker reaction time during drills and reduces the chances of our crew doing something wrong under stress. He's also responsible for the increase of the fleet's accuracy". She said.