THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE

1st SORTIE

Katsuragi felt the wind spray in her face as she skated across the rich blue water of the Pacific Ocean and loved every second of it. Just one month had passed since she had found her fellow Kanmusu or "Ship Girls," and she had already received her first big assignment. She was traveling with Houshou, the venerable mother of the Japanese carriers and a Destroyer escort of the 6thDesDiv to a new naval base that had been established here in the Pacific to combat the mysterious creatures that the kanmusu had been summoned to fight. The Japanese had been the first to name them: Shinkaiseikan. The Abyssal Fleet. No one knew where they came from, besides the general assumption of 'the ocean depths,' but one thing was for sure, they were the enemies of mankind.

Some looked like monsters, others seemed like kanmusu themselves, they nevertheless possessed an immunity to conventional weapons that forced the militaries of the world to scramble for new tactics as the Abyssals claimed the oceans and all ocean-based commerce and travel ceased. Then a breakthrough; the discovery of the Ship Girls, who seemed to be the Abyssal's opposites in a way. Japan had been the first to field them, with other countries quickly following suit. Now the fight against the Abyssals had turned enough, at least here in the Pacific, that the countries with enough kanmusu to fight had gathered here at this remote base to hopefully finish the fight against this mysterious enemy.

Now Katsuragi could see the base in the distance as they closed on it at about 20 knots. her happiness subsided just a bit, mingled with nervous anticipation. Not only were some of Japan's best kanmusu stationed here, there were also representatives from five other countries as well. Initially, the countries with the most kanmusu had been Japan, the United States and Great Britain but gradually France, Germany and Italy had been catching up. There were even rumors of the Russians and Chinese having made some ship girls but those were unsubstantiated.

Katsuragi's nervousness was partly because of having to meet and work with these gaijin (foreign) ship girls but also her own comrades. She hadn't had the time to get to know many kanmusu before she'd left and now she was assigned to a bustling base where there would be many of them. It was just a little daunting.

"Katsuragi-chan! Please try to keep up. We're almost there!" called Houshou. To Katsuragi's slight chagrin, she only now saw that he'd been lagging behind the elder carrier.

Now that they were closer to the island the base was situated on, Katsuragi could make out more of the details. A concrete bulwark had been constructed along the side of beach they were sailing towards and had a wide row of stairs built into them, leading down into the water. Behind those were a row of pre-fabricated hangers that Katsuragi guessed was where the kanmusu deployed from. Behind those buildings, Katsuragi could see a neat sprawl of other buildings, some of which looked like they were still under construction.

On the top of the pier's steps, they could see a white-haired figure waving to them. Dressed in a modified Miko uniform and an armored muneate, Katsuragi instantly recognized her as Shoukaku, a fleet carrier kanmusu of the 5th Carrier Division and one of her seniors. In point of fact, as the newest standard carrier in the Japanese fleet, all of the carriers, including Taihou and Katsuragi's own sisters were her 'sempai.'

They sailed up to the steps and, without missing a beat, stepped from the water's surface up the steps to meet Shoukaku. The white-haired carrier clasped hands with Houshou, although she lost a bit of her composure and let out a sort of "meep!" sound when Houshou suddenly pulled her into a hug.

"I'm glad to see you are doing well, Shoukaku-chan," said Houshou.

"Uh, yes, Zuikaku and I are doing very well," replied Shoukaku, still a little discombobulated from the hug. She turned to Katsuragi.

"And you must be Unryuu and Amagi's little sister that I've heard so much about," she said, also clasping hands with Katsuragi, "They will be so pleased to see you."