Prolog

I was twelve when it happened.

„USS Benson, this is JDS Kirishima, copy."

„Benson, we read you loud and clear, Kirishima."

„All green, repeat, all green. Ready to commence maneuvers."

„Roger that, Kirishima. Assuming position."

DDG-174, Kirishima, a destroyer of the Kongo-class. Armed with missiles, a five inch gun, AEGIS system and Phalanx AA guns... compared to its namesake, nothing more than small fry, an escort for carriers, a patrol. Yet, it carried ballistic missiles- warheads capable of reaching targets hundreds of miles ahead. Modern warfare.
Amongst its crew of 300 men was one in preticular- Taro Yamamoto, Staff sargeant, responsible for the AEGIS weapon systems. When the fateful hour came, he was amongst the men in the bunker- as they called the weapons array. A steel framed, reinforced square filled with computers, cameras, high tech equipment- the guns were controlled with joysticks rather than wheels and turntables, everything possible was automated- the lights were lowered, the siren called for medium attention. They were going hot.

„Sageru, arm the missiles. First order of the day is to attack target drones fifty miles southwest." Taro ordered, leaning onto one of the steel bars seperating two booths with computer operators.

„And make sure you hit them straight in the center. We wouldn´t want to embarress ourselves in front of the americans."
„Aye aye, sir!" Sageru, a lanky, tanned man grinned and gave him a mock salute, before getting on it.
„Think we`re gonna win this, Yamamoto?" A voice from the side called out to him, a paler, but more built woman, wearing the uniform of a gunnery officer and bearing the ear protectors to boot.
„Damn right we will. Afterall, seventy-and-a-few years ago, another Kirishima blasted Americans out of the water." Taro chuckled, getting off the steel frame and standing up right again. „Why should this be a different case?"
For the next few minutes, after some grins and chuckles all around, there was silence- occasionally some data was called out, but all in all, they were busy at work, and Taro was overlooking the lot of them... until he spotted something he didn´t like.
„Fukari... how many times has it been now, hmm?" He turned over to the balding middle aged man, looking tiredly away into the room, rather than onto his viewscreen. „If you`re in the middle of combat, DONT neglect your duty! Get back on those monitors!"
„Alright, alright..! Subs aren´t part of this operation, why would i need to-"
The words died in his throat as he looked at the monitor, and detected five blips approaching fast.
„S-sir! A torpedo attack! We´re being-"
His words were overshadowed by a sharp tilt of the boat, a loud bang and a lick of heat seeping into the room.

„Battlestations! Battlestations, abandon the mission! Prepare depth charges!" Taro yelled into the room, but rather than compliance, another sharp hit rocked the boat, and a piece of steel was blown off the hinges, smacking the man next to him, Sageru, in the face like a shotgun slug. Needless to say, he was out of commission, while a flame came out of the hole it had made, a gas leak.
„Sir, our hull has been breached, twice!" The man known as Takashin yelled into the room, ducking away as a followup explosion, not as sharp as before, kicked them hard... possibly a warning shot to whatever was out there. „We`re listing already!"
„Abandon ship! Abandon ship right now!" Taro yelled, pulling the unconcious Sageru off of his seat, and grabbing the radio that was in front of him. „USS Benson, this is JDS Kirishima, do you read? USS Benson, do you read!?"
No answer. The Benson was their target, afterall, they had probably changed frequencies.
„Benson, this is an emergancy! We`ve been hit by multiple-"
Another sharp hit, followed by a second, and the armor encased bunker broke apart as a tidal wave rushed inside, steel flying across the room, screams echoing in the steel deathtrap while people tried to get up the ladders. Taro was hit by a chair that had broken loose, crippling his leg as he fell to the floor, back down into the icy cold water.
„.Gaahhh...! ...Shit.. this is how it... ends, huh? Well... Its a burial at sea for me, then..."
The water was rising quickly, the steel supports breaking apart and letting more and more inside.
„Shichiro... do your best out there... for me... I´ll see you in another..."
Water filled his mouth, and he stopped to talk... through the dark of the sea that streamed inside, he saw something black enter through the hole in the bunker. A cigar shaped, self propelled, black stick, half the size of a human...
The cold water and lack of air claimed his conciousness, but before he passed out entirely, he could feel the pressure blow his heart into a pancake as it hit the wall.
Behind that wall was the missile silo, and a second later, DDG-174 Kirishima went up in a ball of fire.

USS Benson, HMS Masterful, JDS Kongo, JDS Hyuuga... were annhilated by this point, bitten apart, blown to bits by steel whales leaping out of the sea, firing at them with guns installed into their bodies, or gnawing into them with teeth harder than steel. The few shells they managed to give off landed somewhere in the ocean, unable to train guns on the tiny, fast moving vessels in time.

I was twelve when it happened. 27th of July, 2016. Zero hour of the war against the Abyssal fleet.

In the next two weeks, 36 ships were lost, fifteen of those japanese. As it turned out, the fleet that attacked Kirishima and the others were no better than scouts, a few small, lightly armed vessels... the bigger ones, the size of humans, but boasting the firepower of a fleet... one managed to sink the USS Gerald R. Ford, the biggest, most powerful warship of her time, and among the biggest carriers ever built. It was about that point where the world acknowledged the threat these beings were to them.
Jet aircraft only had a marginal effect on them... while they were fast enough to engage, even the jets were huge targets to the tiny Abyssal ships, which resembled humans more than the average soldier would´ve hoped for. Survivors spoke of pale women, their flesh merged with cannons and torpedos, glowing red eyes and black horns making them seem like demons of the damned.
They weren`t far off. We never recieved communications, demands, a declaration of war, even though the Abyssals were smarter than any of us expected. After a series of hopeless battles for survival, we managed to critically damage one near the coast, and it was brought back for a study... which gave off a frightening advance in technology.

The beings we faced were machines, robots... but intelligent ones. Not just programmed to do the bidding of their masters- they were a sentinent machine race, capable of answering questions and asking them, although.. they didn´t have much to talk about with us.
While the Abyss were the unchallanged masters of naval warfare, they quickly lost their advantages when they came to land- tanks, bombers, artillary fire and even infantry quickly took out whatever made it to shore- as fast and nimble as they were at sea, on solid ground, they barely moved any faster than a normal human.

After the capture of a few more, the scientists accidentally created something they hadn`t anticipated- a memory backup of the Abyssal ship, formed into a tiny humanoid body of misshapened proportions. They dubbed them „Faries", and since then used them to harness the combined knowledge of their own and that of the Abyss to retro-engineer the Abyssal ships.
Using plans of battleships used in the past, the mighty, fearsome machines of death built in World War II and before, the Faries built the human variant of an Abyssal ship- known as the Shipgirl.
Intelligent, competent, devoted to their mission, they were given the memories and combat experiences of the namesake ships that were used in their design... and although science cannot explain the exact technique the fairies use to create... life from lifelessness, the shipgirls quickly became more of a species of their own than a weapon. Girls made of organic steel, bleeding, breathing beings that had their own thoughts and opinions, even feelings, desires and needs. While their physiology gave them superior strength and the ability to live without food, their bodies required fuel to operate- fuel refined out of hydrogen and liquified methane worked fine. Their only real nourishment was steel, which their bodies used to replace broken and damaged parts from within and renewed aging components... essentially, if treated well, they would live just as long as their namesakes would. Outfitted with downsized, but high powered guns, torpedos, and planes operated by faries, they lived up to their names, as well.

With these weapons at our disposal, we finally had our first victories. Four long years of dedicated fighting had perfected the shipgirl to the point where we could change over from the defense into the offense... but for two years, this „Offense" has had no effect... either there were an infinite supply of Abyssals under the sea, which would likely mean the end for us all on a long term, or they just kept coming back...

I would find out, sooner or later, i thought to myself, as i stared at the repurposed school that had been turned into a naval base.

Lieutenant Commander Shichiro Yamamoto is my name. And together with the shipgirls, i will bring an end to this war.