Year: 2028
It had been three years since the People's Republic of China successfully invaded Taiwan. The invasion was quick and swift. After several surgical missile strikes hit Taiwan's military installations in the daybreak, People's Liberation Marines were able to land and secure beach heads along the north coast of the island without much resistance. Taiwan Military Command was utterly shocked and paralyzed, unable to push the invaders back to the sea. In just half a day, the People's Liberation Army was able to occupy half the island and neutralize Taiwan's Military ability to counter their advance. Realizing that they no longer had any means to defend themselves, Taiwan unconditionally surrendered to the PRC, and along with the signing of the surrender treaty, the island of Taiwan was back into the fold of the Mainland China Government.
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25 January 2031
Location: Naval Base San Diego, California.
Time: 0900
A ship could be seen docking in one of the piers. The ship looked sharp and futuristic compared to any of the ships in the base. In fact, there were only two other ships that were similar to her. With her widest part along the waterline and then gradually coned up to the superstructure, her shape was somewhat trapezoidal. This design was referred to as a "tumblehome" hull. This unique proportion was due to her being primarily designed with stealth in mind.
Stealth doctrine has been around since the start of the Cold War. Since then, the military around the world has tried to incorporate this technology to many of their equipment, from compact guided missiles, slick supersonic aircrafts, to even island-size warships. For huge warships, this technology was very much in line with how modern naval doctrine works, which emphasized long-range strike by using missiles where, most of the time, opposing sides did not even visually see each other. Instead, a wide array of radars were used to detect and engage the enemy. This was where stealth came into play. Stealth for warships was a set of active and passive electronic countermeasures to make ships less visible to radar making the ships several times smaller on the radar compared to their actual size.
To fully take advantage of this technology, the United States Navy attempted to develop warships that focused on stealth. Greenlight was given to the DD21 program, a naval procurement program to build the ideal "21st Century Destroyer". Unfortunately not long after the program kicked off, Congress decided to cut it by half and renamed it into the DD(X) program. The design was then overhauled and reworked. It was not until 2007, when the DD(X) program received its initial funding with General Dynamics won the first $1,4 Billion contract. But it was in the early 2009 where the program started in full swing.
The first ship was launched in 2013 with the name USS Zumwalt, DDG-1000. Zumwalt was named after Elmo Russell Zumwalt Jr., who was an American naval officer and the youngest man to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations.
Back to the base.
In the pier 12, docked one of the Zumwalt Class destroyers. This ship was none other than the futuristic and trapezoidal ship before. She was the USS Michael Monsoor, DDG-1001, the second ship of her class. She was three years younger than USS Zumwalt, her class' lead-ship. She just came back from a routine patrol mission off the coast of San Francisco.
Unnoticed to human perception however, a weeping voice of a girl could be heard. The girl whimpered about the decision of Naval Command to move her sisters away from her.
"Sisters.. How are you doing? It's been a week since both of you went to your new bases. why haven't you sent me any messages or called me.."
"It's been very quiet here lately, you know? Others have also been reassigned to new bases far across the world. The most recent was Princeton, she went to Singapore two days ago.."
"Usually Lyn is the loudest around here, you can't stop talking about anything.."
"And Walt scolding Lyn everyday to stop her useless yapping can't be heard anymore.."
"I miss you both.. I want to meet you.. Walt.. Lyn.. I hope both of you are okay out there."
The girl then went silent. The weeping voice also stopped. Near the girl, a gray warship was trying to dock. The number 111 could be seen on the bow of the ship. As the ship successfully docked, the girl heard an exhausted voice.
"Hah… Truly, the west coast is too big for ten of us, right Mo? I hope we get many new guys next month."
The question was directed to the girl. Hearing this, the previously weeping girl who was called Mo, replied.
"Yeah sure. I guess you need to hear this Spruance. First I thought Support ships would join us for patrol missions, at least with their help we don't need to cover as much area as we usually do. But this morning Somerset said there will be no such thing as supply ships patrolling the coast. Because all of them will be relocated to Guam and Yokosuka."
Hearing this, Spruance sighed deeply. "Again? They are support ships you know? How can all of them leave? I mean, we need at least two support ships for this huge base to operate and now they are gone?"
"Well, Somerset said the situation in the east has been escalating rapidly during our last patrol mission, so they need every support ship available." As she said this, Mo could only shrug. If she could, that is.
The two girls who engaged in conversation were actually USS Michael Monsoor and USS Spruance, DDG-111, who was one of the Arleigh Burke Class destroyers.
"Only support ships? How about us? We have the firepower to deal with the enemy if the worst scenario happens. My missiles are ready to shoot down those "stealthy" *pfft J-22s!" Spruance tried to hold her laugh.
"Yeah yeah.. 'For thee who wields the mighty Aegis, pleaseth protect us.'" Mo figuratively rolled her eyes.
"'Thou shall not be afraid!' Hahaha.. By the way Mo, didn't Zumwalt move to the east? Where is she?" Spruance curiously asked.
"Eh? Umm, she said she moved to Okinawa. She must be happy to go there. She loves warm water." Mo said with a little bit of a sad tinge in her voice.
Spruance went silent for a while. She had unconsciously stepped on a landmine. "Ah sorry Mo, I shouldn't have asked."
"No worries, I think it's already time for me to cheer up. They are doing their duty after all. As the World's Police, we have to do our job dutifully. For the sake of a better world." Said Mo as she tried to brighten the mood.
"That's Mo that I know! If only I could hug you, hahaha!" Spruance laughed cheerily.
"Come here Spruance, let me embrace you." With a gentleman tone, Mo smirked.
"Eh!? Uhhh.. M-Mo please, i-isn't this too early?" Spruance nervously denied Mo's invitation. Inside, she blushed heavily.
"Hahaha.. You are so easy Spruance. No wonder others like to tease you." Mo laughed loudly.
As she laughed, Mo heard one of her radio transmissions beeping. She thought there were no sailors left inside.
Captain said there will be a party after we docked. Hmm? She wondered.
She checked from bow to stern and she found nobody. She then noticed the beeping radio was not the physical radio. It was the metaphysical one.
"Oh could this be!" Mo shouted.
"What is it!?" Spruance was taken aback by Mo's sudden yell.
Most of the ships were actually able to communicate to each other. Although this was limited to just among their kind, they could not communicate with other beings. Even humans, the being that created them, were utterly oblivious about this fact and could not hear what ships say. But on the other hand, the ships could hear and understand humans, especially sailors and officers on boards. Humans may be aware of a concept called spirit, but they did not notice that ships, in fact, had spirit. Every ship had their own unique character just like humans. The reason why ships had spirit was ,of course, unknown, but how they got it was widely known among ships. Ships gained their consciousness after the christening ceremony. When the bottle hit the ship's bow and broke, the ship "awake".
"Hello, to whom do I owe the pleasure?" Mo groggily asked.
[Oh sister! Stiff and formal as usual, eh?] An energetic voice could be heard from the other side of the line.
"Lyn!! How are you? How's the Atlantic?" Mo barraged the caller, Lyn, with questions.
[Uhh very cold, I don't like it. But hey! I met three migrating orcas on my way to Britain. They were very cute and very well-behaved, you know? They followed me from the middle of the Atlantic until Ireland! They were also very smart, they knew that my bulbous bow created a smooth wake for them, so they swam near me along the way!] Lyn or USS Lyndon B. Johnson, DDG-1002, excitedly shared her experience to her older sister.
"Oooh so cool! I want to meet them." Mo subconsciously smiled as she continued talking with her sister.
Looking at Mo, who was joyfully conversing with Lyn, Spruance felt her heart was very light. She smiled as she reminisced about one event that caused Mo to be as depressed as she was in the last couple of days.
At that time, a large crowd had gathered outside our base, their voices rising in a relentless chorus of chants and slogans. For three days, the demonstrators had protested tirelessly, driven by dissatisfaction with the Navy's recent procurement of new ships. They believed the Navy had been reckless, spending the defense budget on vessels they deemed defective. The source of their anger was rooted in the PRC's aggressive foreign policy, particularly the invasion of Taiwan. Rumors had spread that China now had more ships than the United States, fueling demands for more careful spending of the defense budget. Among the so-called 'defective' ships, the Zumwalt-class destroyers were singled out as one of the most wasteful investments. With each ship costing over $4 billion and burdened by exorbitant operating expenses, it was easy to see why the public had lost faith.
Although not directly targeting the Zumwalt-class, but rather at the Navy Command, we, warships stationed at the San Diego Naval Base, couldn't help but worry about how the Zumwalts perceived those protestors. Zumwalt herself was able to somehow take the criticism head on and helped calm the ships at the base. But the youngest, Lyndon, couldn't contain her frustration, shouting and cursing back at the protestors even though they clearly couldn't hear her. The one who took it very personally was Mo, she grew very quiet and did not say a single word. Her aura back then was gloomy. If not because Zumwalt consoling her, Mo might have spiraled into self-blame.
Mo had always been the unlucky one among the Zumwalt sisters. During one of her sea trials, her electrical system failed just one day after she left the yard. This forced her to delay the trials and, consequently, her delivery to the Navy.
This accident left Mo feeling she wasn't as competent as her sisters. Although this self-doubt was unhealthy, this line of thought shaped her into an honest and hardworking ship. She always thrived to do her best in every mission. Because as she said earlier, we, the United States warships, were the World's Police. Mo embraced this role dutifully. Although, once she told me that she would have preferred to be a knight than a police officer.
Spruance snapped back out of her reminiscence after she heard a loud laughter from Mo. She then kept herself quiet, letting the two sisters catch up on each other's lives.
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