New Ship, New Era

Naval Warfare (Part 2)

120km from Kure

"Fubuki, we're the ones who're supposed to rendezvous with them, we have to help them." Akagi said. Fubuki nodded.

"Alright everyone, we're changing course to the southeast, get ready..." Fubuki was cut off by Nakhimov and Arleigh Burke's CWIS firing, destroying incoming Abyssal shells.

"Radar is showing another fleet 5 miles to the south. That's what just fired at us!" Arleigh shouted.

"Nakhimov, Burke, Launch your missiles!" Nimitz ordered.

"Roger! Tomahawks away!" Arleigh Burke shouted, launching a barrage of 15 Tomahawks.

"Запуск ракеты!" Nakhimov shouted, launching his barrage of 15 missiles. Nimitz began to launch his aircraft when he noticed something on his radar, some signatures looked all too familiar.

"Oh no...it can't be. Nakhimov, Burke, ready your anti-air weapons! All carriers launch fighters!" Nimitz ordered. They all complied and every carrier in the fleet, including Nimitz, launched their fighters. The air fleet consisted of 24 F/A-18E Super Hornets, 6 F-14D Super Tomcats, and about 60 A6M3 Zeros, plus the E-2C and the remaining Zeros from the recon flight. The large aerial fleet left the formation of ships and streaked out towards the enemy fighters, which looked exactly like Nimitz's E/A-18's and F/A-18's only they were a darker color. Nimitz had taken off his CIC glasses because it was overwhelming him to look at the radar signatures. That's when all hell broke loose.

"Nimitz look out!" Kongou shouted, putting herself in front of Nimitz, taking an abyssal version of Nakhimov's P-700 Granit missiles.

"KONGOU NO!" Nimitz said, embracing the battleship.

"It's okay...I can still float..." She said, wincing at the pain from the strike. He saw other ships suffering from the first wave of missiles.

"Get back to the district, you're in no condition to fight." She reluctantly nodded and sailed away in the opposite direction, along with ships that were also in critical condition. Nimitz's rage slowly began to build. He picked up an arrow with a lightning bolt on the fin. He readied the arrow and launched it. The arrow flew at the enemy fleet before transforming into a flight of 6 F-35C lightnings, each loaded with Paveway smart bombs. The stealth fighters streaked towards the fleet, who was unaware of their presence.

"Dump them!" Nimitz shouted. The F-35's all dropped their bombs, which a Battleship and a heavy cruiser, sinking them. The Rest of the fleet, focusing on the Kanmusu, were now firing at the 6 Lightning's that were disengaging from their bombing runs. One F-35 was shot down, another one was critically damaged while the rest climbed to help fight the aerial battle going on in the sky.

"Fubuki, we have to retreat! If we stay here we're gonna be obliterated!" Nimitz said. His CWIS positions opened fire on another wave of missiles, all of them targeting the carriers. He also saw torpedoes in the water. He deployed his Nixie countermeasure, which attracted the torpedoes toward it, completely obliterating it. He pulled it out of the water to see there was nearly nothing left of it. His CWIS continued to fire, destroying most of the missiles. The ones that got through missed their targets, giving Nimitz a bit of time to sigh a breath of relief. Then he heard the distinctive noise of 9 18-inch guns firing. He saw the shell fly over him and airburst, allowing the shell fragments to shower on the Abyssals like a cluster bomb. He turned to see a tall girl bearing the legendary guns of the Yamato and her fleet on the horizon.

"It's Yamato!" Zuikaku exclaimed. Yamato...thank god! Nimitz thought.

"Nimitz, I'm almost out of anti-ship missiles!" Nakhimov shouted.

"Same here! Do we keep fighting?" Arleigh Burke asked.

"This is where we make our stand! We keep fighting!" Nimitz shouted, prepping another arrow to launch. He along with the other carriers were launching their attackers, weakening the Abyssals attack. Nimitz launched his arrow, which transformed into a flight of 6 A-6E intruders. He Launched another arrow, this time 6 F-14 "Bombcats" appeared and streaked towards the targets. By this time Yamato and her fleet had joined up with Nimitz and Fubuki's fleet, starting to decimate the abyssals. Just as Nimitz was about to launch another flight, his CWIS opened up on a final, defiant wave of missiles, all streaking towards him. He put up his deck shield bracing for impact. The first missile decimated his shoulder mounted CWIS and another blew up his Catapult bow. Then the firing stopped, after about an hour of fighting. They had taken many casualties, luckily no ship was sunk on their side.

"Nimitz, are you ok?" Fubuki asked. Nimitz just smiled.

"Never better." He said before moving to Yamato. She was about a foot and a half taller than him. She looked down at the supercarrier with a confused look on her face.

"Thanks for the backup Yamato, we're really happy you came when you did." Nimitz said. The super battleship just looked confused as to why an American carrier was speaking fluent Japanese.

"Oh, allow me to introduce myself. I'm CVN-68 USS Nimitz, supercarrier. I joined a few weeks back." He said, extending a hand. Yamato smiled and shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Nimitz. You must be that carrier everyone is talking about. The supposedly indestructible carrier." Yamato said calmly. Nimitz laughed nervously and answered.

"Ha ha, yeah 'indestructible' doesn't really fit the bill especially after just now." Nimitz said. His friend rushed to his side worrying if he was critically hit again.

"Nimitz! Are you ok? I saw you take a hit and..." Nakhimov noticed the battleship standing in front of him and stood up to meet her gaze. She smiled, which made the Russian battlecruiser blush. Nimitz looked from Nakhimov to Yamato and back. Ooohhh! Naki, I see what's happening here. I got you bro! Nimitz thought.

"Yamato, this is my friend Admiral Nakhimov. Say hey dude," Nimitz said. Nakhimov was speechless, too captivated by her beauty. "Umm hello? Earth to Nakhimov!" He gave up trying to snap him out verbally after 2 minutes. "You know what? Why don't you guys RTB, we'll catch up." Nimitz said, preparing to tow the "crippled" battlecruiser back to base.

"Ok, nice to meet you Nimitz and Nakhimov." She said, before heading off. Nimitz tied a rope around him and Nakhimov and he towed him to port.

Kure Naval District

Nimitz slapped Nakhimov a few times to get him to snap out of his trance. He finally came too and realized what he did.

"Oy blin...Sorry I had to make you tow me back." He said, with an embarrassed look on his face.

"It is ok, my friend. I know what you feel like. I have to keep myself contained near Akagi." Nimitz said. They both looked at each other and laughed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a catapult to fix." Nimitz said after they calmed down.

"I'm gonna hit the repair pool then." Nakhimov replied. They both walked their separate ways, except Nimitz changed his mind and went to visit the infirmary. When he got there, he could see many ships were in the beds, surrounded by their fellow ships. Nimitz walked in and went to find Kongou. He found her quick, mostly because her sister ships were all around her bed.

"Hey, Kirishima, Hiei, Haruna. How is she?" He asked. Only Hiei turned around to look at him. She tried to say something, but she couldn't get it out. He knelt down by her side and comforted her. He then got up and looked at her. She was hit hard, by the looks of it she was in a coma.

"She's ok." Nimitz said. "I know she is." The three sisters looked up at the supercarrier. "Give this to her when she wakes up." He said, taking off a pair of wings and giving it to Kirishima. Before he walked away he knelt back down and grabbed her hand.

"Thank you, I owe you one." He said, before getting up and leaving. I don't want to lose a friend again. He thought.