9 December 1941
Location: The Pacific Ocean, 200 km southeast of Pearl Harbour.
Time: 1446
Hornet's breath came in ragged bursts as she narrowly dodged another series of bombs and torpedoes. Her rigging was battered, and her arm felt numb from the strain of keeping her fleet's aircraft in the sky. She wiped sweat from her brow beneath her iconic cowboy hat, her body on the brink of exhaustion. The enemy was relentless, and the odds were stacked against her. Seven enemy kansen, all circling like vultures, awaited her downfall.
"Still standing, Hornet?" Shokaku's calm voice cut through the chaos, her slender fingers playing a hauntingly beautiful melody on her flute. Her serene face didn't match the violence around them. "A requiem for the fallen is what you deserve."
Hornet smirked, her signature swagger unyielding despite the dire circumstances. "I'm not dead yet! You'll have to do better than this!" Her voice trembled, betraying her weakening state, but she still mustered enough strength to launch a wave of F4F Wildcats.
The fighters screeched through the sky, diving toward Shokaku's formation, but they were intercepted before they could hit their mark. Hornet had no time to react to the sudden shift in her surroundings. Zuikaku, Shokaku's sister, emerged from her blind spot, katana gleaming under the waning sun.
"Gotcha!" Zuikaku's shout rang out as she slashed downward, ready to finish Hornet.
A split second before the blade connected, a Wildcat swooped in from behind, slamming into the katana with a deafening clang. The force threw Zuikaku off balance, and Hornet, with a quick pivot, delivered a desperate kick to her attacker's chest.
Zuikaku stumbled back, but instead of retaliating, she straightened, her eyes narrowing toward the horizon. "Ah, the infamous Grey Ghost at last."
Hornet's heart skipped. She followed Zuikaku's gaze and saw a formation of ships on the horizon, cutting through the waves with purpose. At the head of the fleet, a figure in an admiral's cap stood tall. Her piercing eyes gleamed with determination as she approached.
"Sister!" Hornet cried out, relief washing over her. Enterprise had arrived.
Zuikaku's lips curled into a feral grin as she faced Enterprise. "I've been waiting for this, Grey Ghost. Let's see if your reputation holds up!"
Enterprise gave her sister a quick glance. "Hornet, hang in there. We'll get you out of this."
Zuikaku darted toward Enterprise, blade raised high. "You're mine, Grey Ghost!"
Enterprise met the charge head-on, parrying Zuikaku's strike with her bow. The force of the impact sent a shockwave through the air, metal screeching as the two battled for dominance. Enterprise's calm composure never wavered, but Zuikaku was relentless, her strikes coming faster and more furious with each passing second.
Meanwhile, Belfast moved to engage Shokaku, her every movement precise and graceful as she dodged waves of aircraft. The enemy's bombs fell around her like rain, but none found their mark. Her focus was singular: she needed to close the distance and force Shokaku into hand-to-hand combat.
York and her squad had reached Hornet's fleet by now, quickly assessing the damage. The unconscious kansen were still battle-ready, but they were vulnerable in their current state. Javelin summoned her ship to begin the evacuation, but just as they were preparing to leave, a shell whistled through the air, landing mere meters from them.
"Oh, if it isn't Prinz Eugen," York muttered, her tone laced with disdain as she glanced toward the source of the shot.
"Fancy meeting you here, York," came the teasing voice of Prinz Eugen. "I see you've brought quite the party."
Standing beside Eugen was Admiral Hipper, arms crossed and glaring. "Enough chatter. Let's end this quickly."
York raised an eyebrow. "Oh, Hipper? I didn't even see you there. My apologies."
"Watch your tongue!" Hipper snapped.
"Oh my, still the Admiral Hipper that I know. When was the last time we met?" asked York with a smirk.
"In the Denmark Strait," answered Eugen nonchalantly.
"Oh yeah, I remember it now. Well, when we arrived you're in such a hurry to leave, I wondered why? Cowardice? impossible, am I right?" provoked York.
At that time, the Iron Blood was always avoiding any battle with the Royal Navy if numbers were not in their favor, so with the fact that the Royal Navy had more kansens than them, most of the time Iron Blood kansens disengaged from the area when the Royal Navy arrived.
"It's called tactical retreat, we're not so dumb to walk into a lion's den. Just like you right now!" As Eugen said this, she shot her main guns against York. Her expression was clearly annoyed. Eugen was then followed by her sister, two Alemani destroyer kansens, and two Sakuran destroyer kansens.
Looking at shells coming right at her, York maneuvered as agile as she could. Although she could not shake off every shell, her built as a battleship helped a lot to negate the damage from small to medium size shells. She felt she could hold on for enough time for Cleveland, Laffey, and Javelin to evacuate Hornet's fleet.
"Javelin, take the wounded. Cleveland, Laffey, cover her," York ordered, her voice steady despite the chaos unfolding around her. "I'll handle these guys."
Javelin was not sure to leave York alone against five enemies, but Cleveland reassured Javelin that York understood her own limitations and fought against these five was not one of them.
The three of them nodded and rushed to get out of the battlefield.
"You don't chase after them?" York asked Eugen questioningly, still dodging incoming shells.
"Why should I? My hands are full dealing with you. But that doesn't mean I let them go willy-nilly," Eugen shrugged but her smirk gave off an unpleasant feeling to York.
______________________________________________________________________
The three battles raged in the momentum of the crimson axis, Enterprise forced to be defensive, Light Cruiser Belfast struggled against an aircraft carrier opponent, and numerically inferior York against six kansens. Knowing this unfavorable situation, Cleveland, Javelin, and Laffey were transporting the wounded Hornet's fleet to the extraction point as fast as they could so they could go back to help their friends.
On their way to Mo and Newcastle's position, several sonar pings were detected by Laffey.
"We've got company… beneath us," Laffey murmured, her usual sleepy tone laced with tension.
"Submarines," Cleveland muttered. "Of course there'd be submarines. Stay sharp, everyone!"
Laffey's readings showed four U-boats in a wolfpack formation. Trails of bubbles appeared in the water as torpedoes closed in from all sides.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Cleveland shouted, taking the lead. "Depth charges at the ready!"
The torpedoes were fast, their white wakes cutting through the waves. Six were evaded with expert precision, while one detonated prematurely. But one torpedo slipped through the chaos, heading straight for Javelin's ship.
"Javelin! Starboard side!" Cleveland screamed, but it was too late.
In an instant, Laffey surged forward, using her rigging to intercept the torpedo. The explosion sent her flying, and she hit the water with a heavy splash, unconscious.
"Laffey!" Javelin and Cleveland yelled in unison, rushing to their fallen comrade.
Cleveland clenched her fists. "We need backup. Now."
Her fingers flew across the radio. "Cleveland to Monsoor. Requesting immediate reinforcement. Position: five kilometers from extraction point. U-boats in wolfpack formation engaging. We are outnumbered. Laffey is down. Over."
Silence followed for what felt like an eternity. Cleveland's eyes scanned the horizon, her breath shallow, the tension suffocating. Then, finally, a response crackled through the radio.
"Monsoor copies. Reinforcements en route. Hold on, Cleveland. We're coming."
Cleveland exhaled, her gaze hardening as she turned back to the battle. "Alright, everyone. We just need to hold out a little longer. Monsoor's on the way."
The battle raged on around them, but hope flickered once more on the horizon. The odds were dire, but they weren't out of the fight yet.
________________________________________________________________________________________________