I watched the Last Ship like Marathon, when I heard there is interesting series base on naval setting. I finished up season 1-3 in one go.
For my review, it's entertaining. While the show portrayed the invinsible overrated American navy and insult foreign forces mainly the Russian, British, and Chinese (Hell Yeah! American save the day again...), the production is great! Greater than some movie I have ever watched!
At the same time, I'm Kancolle fan too. I think most people may have heard of popular browser game about the WWII warship modified into girls.
I got this idea a few days ago like, Hey! while I had been waiting the Last Ship season 4 to air this year, why not create some crossover between these 2 franchises. It might get along well as they both have warship element.
Hope you all enjoy. ^ ^
"Give me a break…"
The short phrase coming from a person who was rubbing his own temples from a massive sudden headache, he tried to summarize the situation so far in his private room before he rested for the day.
Captain Thomas (Tom/Tommy) Chandler of the USS Nathan James Destroyer wasn't in a very good mood at all; it all started with the USS Nathan James' weapon test mission in an extreme environment, which marked in the Antarctica, got forcefully extended by the higher up with unreasonable cause, he got instructed to wait until Dr. Rachel Scott finished her objective even though he and his crew had already completed their main objective. He suspected something was up with this side-mission, self-proclaim virus related project, of his ship freeloaders but decided to ignore it. He wasn't able to break the protocol even he didn't like it. On the bright side, spending a few more days/weeks in this freezing land that this ship had spent 4 months for the operation already wouldn't hurt.
However, the extension period was where the hell started to break loose.
If somebody in this ship wished for some excitement to happen in this boring place, then that wish had been granted…..
Tom sounded the General Quarter immediately after his ship got contact with 5 unknown attack helicopters.
The vessel and personnel on board got a few minor wound, but they could brought down all hostile targets. He got a clue lead to the enemy from the dying soldier which happened to be Russian of all people!
Next, he learned that his mission was a facade to cover up the real objective: the cure for the red-flu outbreak of 2 virologists. By the time he heard of this, the red-flu was probably spreading all over the world right now and thousands of people die daily and the rate was increasing in double.
Suddenly, it appeared that his ship carried out the most fatal mission she ever had since in service….No…the saying should be the most critical mission for the entire human race!
However, the more serious issue than the pandemic virus right now was the resupply point, where should it be in this apocalypse? This ship had food to last for a few weeks at most.
If it wasn't complicated enough, the Nathan James just got contact with unknown vessel which could be perceived by eyes only as it had complete stealth ability to hide from ship surface radar. From his visual, he couldn't identify which ship she is, she was smaller compared to modern destroyer standard, but he doubt she was a frigate either. Then, she drifted aimlessly until she collided with the iceberg. And she was stuck there like a ghost ship.
As curious as Tom was, he knew that he has more important things to worry about, so he let her be there. After he unveiled what actually happened back home to his crew, he ordered to keep some distance from the unknown ship and ordered some personnel for a look out. He told the rest to rest for the day, they would decide their next action tomorrow. The crews were uncertain of the future but they still listened to the captain.
Aboard the mysterious vessel, there was no sign of life except for one sleeping girl on the bridge.
The girl was around 14-15 years old, the beginning of womanhood blossom age, about 5 feet and a few inches tall, with long-brown-hair. The nationality of hers was a question to be figured out, but at least she looked Asian….to be more specific….East Asian (and a beautiful one at that).
She wore a long sleeve white shirt under black pinafore, with black pantyhose, and black casual shoes. The flashlight resembling a crime prevention buzzer attached to the left straps seemed to be the only accessory she had.
With the extreme environment outside the ship, inside was like gigantic size refrigerator. It was supposed to be impossible for mammal like human to stay alive in this freezer with unsuitable garment, yet there she was….sleeping soundly on the cold metal floor.
The sunrise, indicated the start of new day, slowly startled the girl to wake up which cause her to reveal the light brown eyes within.
'Where am I?'
She looked astonish at the sign of Iceberg area this ship was on, then another question popped up.
'Who am I?'
This question was like a push-start button of a machine to start running; tons of memory and information flooded in her mind and installed themselves autonomously in sections of her memory right off the bat.
"AHHHHHH!" She screamed, she swore that the sensation made her like better dying than living there.
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At last, the struggle for the pain was subsided. She breathed the sight of relieve.
"Fuuuu- that was immense."
Now, she knew who she is.
The relaxation time was cut short when her surface radar picked up contact of an approaching small boat on the vessel's Five, she ran out to her side deck to check. She saw there were 5 men coming which one of them was using binocular screening the ship.
"Ara- I'm in trouble, ain't I?
The assault rifles of the boarding party alarmed the girl's instinct of potential danger, lucky for her that she retreated back before she was spotted on.
"Sir! That ship just appeared on the radar!?"
"Valture Team, be advised, that ship suddenly appear on our radar over"
"Copy that" Curious Tom looked at the ship his group was approaching, he noticed nothing of the change.
"It's strange that it just appear on our ship radar. By the way Lt. Burk, can you identify which ship she is?" The captain asked his assigned look out.
"Negative sir, her design isn't belonged to any modern destroyer or frigate- Oh! Hell-"
"What's up Lieutenant?"
"You won't believe this Captain, but I spotted the small Rising Sun Flag swaying up there"
"What's the Jap's doing here? Do you think her mission is the same as us, I mean the cure solution thing, Master Chief?" Tom's tone was half-serious.
"We'll find out soon enough, sir"
The boarding party, except Lt. Franklin who watched the boat, climbed up the front deck near the twin-gun mount.
"By the look of it, she looked like modernized world-war-two destroyer…with the heaviest armor I've ever seen these days."
Tom commented got the attention of the rest. Sure enough, this destroyer was fitted with VLS (something unavailable back at the time) and ammunition belt feed system of the heavy machine gun (something which isn't popular with Japanese back there), the metal structure put Nathan James to shame, like she could withstand more damage 5-10 times of the James' limit.
"Master Chief! You go with Lt. Green and survey all her exterior, I'll go with Lt. Burk to explore inside her hull. Now, you're Lion team"
"Aye, sir!"
Capt. Chandler and Lt. Burk were exploring start from bridge, inside was dark as not a single light-bulb was turned on, the pair had to use flash lights to search room by room. Most of the area in the ship had been designed differently from any Navy: there were only small rooms for cafeteria, sleeping quarter, and other activities, the lefts were store with Ship gun ammo, torpedoes, missiles, furnace(?),Lathe machine (?), etc. while the standard CIC was still present with advance system from the look of it. Now they were in the engine room.
"Commander, do you see what I'm seeing?" Carlton Burk mentioned about the reactor.
"Yes, I do. This ship runs on nuclear-power, such a remodeling. I doubt she's more than what she's looked now including those VLS. Don't know what this DDGN has in store to surprise us." Tom tried to calm his subordinate's nervousness with his half-joking, still it was ineffective.
After some times, they reach the last section: the vessel armory.
"Well, what do we have here?"
Tom's statement wasn't a question; rather it was a way to gain Burk's attention on the weapon.
"This is different from how we normally arrange the armory sir"
Burk was right; on the USS Nathan James, there were primary weapon (mainly the M4 model), secondary weapon (mainly the SIG P-226 Navy), and other accessories, such as night vision, RDX explosive, grenade launcher, etc. Nevertheless, this ship's armory was like a mini-war-museum. Varieties of weapons from old age up to recent and ammunition were store inside, most military wouldn't arrange their armory like this because there would be so many resupply problems from different types of cartridge, Burk swore that he also saw a rocket launcher inside.
Tom frowned when he saw that there are blank places on some of the weapon storage platform which could be assumed that somebody grabbed them.
"Lion team be advised, we might got company!" He warned other on the team, and then radioed his ship for support.
"Nathan James, this is Valture team. Bring the ship closer to this ship, keep distance about 100 yards. We might got unknown contact on this ship; prepare to engage I repeat, prepare to engage, over"
Back to the Nathan James, the sound of General Quarters was completely heard by the crew, and every one hurried to man respective station as fast as one was able to.
"All engines ahead FULL!"
'British?'
The girl quietly followed the pair after they walked out of the engine room. Other than the two present she followed, she also felt where the other two were on this ship. Additionally, her radar pick up another vessel nearby but she ignored her for now.
As she just awoke, it seemed she had no complete control over this ship yet, just some functions.
She was about 10 meters away from them in the ship corridor, she decided to ask them of their real objective for boarding this ship. If succeed, she was going to demand them to leave her ship.
She was willing to give them a benefit of doubt, so she picked up the weapon that look less threatening.
The Mauser kar98k was pointed to the blue-camouflage suit (Tom), but her index finger rested on the trigger guard.
"I don't know who you are, but I suggest you leave this ship now."
Both Navies alerted for the third present beside them. When the light fell on her, they surprised to see a gorgeous Asian girl aimed bolt-action rifle at them.
"Hold your fire! I don't know who you are, but we mean you no harm." Tom, as experienced officer, tried to understand the situation, he calmed down a lot when he saw that the girl wasn't ready to fire…at least now.
"Then, stated who you are and your intention of boarding my ship." Both parties didn't put down their weapon.
That got another question for Tom, 'her ship? How can this girl have the ownership of Freaking Warship! Is this a joke?'. Put that aside the ridiculous concern, he introduced himself.
"I'm Tom Chandler, Commanding Officer of USS Nathan James of the United States Navy. We're here to survey the identity of this ship and useful information regards the red flu. And you?"
'American'
"I don't know much the situation now or what happened to the world (or how I even end up here!?). If you want to refer to me, you can call me Arashio. By the way, this ship is the forth of Asashio-class Nuclear-power Guild-missile Destroyer of the Imperial Japan Navy: Arashio." She told half lied, she was aware that she is the Ship, but she have to release some truth to test their reaction or response with more informative material for her.
It was like she was jumped from WWII era to the present with more new weapons fitted on her with updated information bumped into her head. It would be sure to take time digesting the situation she was in.
'Holy Shit! The DDGN stuff just get REAL!' exclaimed the commander in his mind. He wanted to laugh so badly but the Mexican stand-off didn't allow him to do.
Arashio decided to lower her weapon first and signaled the American to follow her outside.
"Can we talk outside, please? (You're not welcome here)" Her tone was polite even though she hid her discomfort.
That being said, the navy acknowledged the message which was an order than a request. He wanted to ask her another further question before going out like 'How can you survive in this cold with just your plain shirt and pinafore?' Seeing that she was far away already, this question could wait.
"Be advised Nathan James, Lion team, Valture team made contact with the company and following contact out, over" He radioed the other members.
On the Nathan James, all ship guns are online, plus the additional sniper in position for less lethal fire power.
XO watched the other vessel with worry, the stress of waiting was eating him until-
"Be advised Nathan James, Lion team, Valture team made contact with the company and following contact out, over"
'So that ship does have people aboard'
"CIC, what's your status?"
"We're ready sir"
"Sniper, how are you?"
"I get good visual up here sir, you can call the shot any time." The sharp shooter replied from the front deck of Nathan James. He was in prone position with bi-pod to support 7.62x51 cm. caliber AWM.
"Wait for my order"
"Aye, sir"
CMC Russell Jeter and Lt. Danny Green were surprised to see a pretty girl came out on the deck even they knew the group would be coming out with someone, it wasn't a surprise for Arashio though, she always knew how many people aboard her ship.
A prankish idea lightened, she acted as she never knew they were here by hastened her standing position.
Russ and Danny didn't stand-by, they raise their M4A1 too.
Unfortunately, painful penalty was awaiting her for the fact that they had destroyer's support in a distance away which she completely forgot.
"Sir, the contact's hostile, permission to fire?!"
"Sniper, Fire!" XO Mike barked to the radio.
Bang!
The men in front of her hadn't fire, may be in the back-
A 7.62 NATO bullet struck her in the left chest, made her squeeze the Kar98 by reaction. Lucky for men that Mauser round missed them.
'Ara –That hurt!'
"NO!"
The time the prank started, Tom wasn't in sight. When panic Tom rushed to the scene, Arashio was falling.
But she wasn't dead from the first blood.
Her right hand dropped the rifle while her left hand was drawing a conceal pistol from her thigh holster.
'I'll go on a rampage now'
USP Compact in her left hand fired 5 consecutive shots in lying position without proper aim; Master Chief got 3 and Green got 2, all of flying balls ended up on their bulletproof vest so they were left to deal with the brunt.
Green opposed the urge to lay down to counter fire a few shots which shook Arashio a little on her midsection before she was fleeing to the other side of her ship for cover.
"Ah!" Arashio, who forgot about the unidentified sniper support, got reminded by another shot nailed her in the flank.
From the damage she sustained, it was unbelievable to still alive for normal people standard in the boarding team's mind. She almost completed the turn if not for a group of coming hot jacketed coppers to her legs that result in her balance lost.
Arashio grunted in pain from her ram against her own deck fence, funny wasn't it?
'I'll die at this rate'
The pain was increasing from more holes she got, she felt quite angry and fear that she triggered all the left round without hitting anyone more due to speedy poor aim.
Click!
Finally, the ammo ran dry. She leaned on the fence, huffed, at the same time she faced with the incoming cautious US navy.
"Are you alright Lt. Green, Master Chief?" Tom hurried to check his staff condition, Lt. Burk covered Tom's back eyeing the lying girl firing-ready.
The mentioned both were recovering from the impact, they could hardly speak thus thumbed up was another way of positive response.
"How are you still alive?" Tom relaxed after realizing that Arashio was no longer a threat.
"Geez, look at the state I'm in." She had the time to look at herself at last at the end of her struggle. Blood continued bleeding from many wounds on her body, noted that it wasn't as nasty as it usually was.
"But it's fine. It's a little cooler this way, Ufufufufu." She was babbling random stuff to ease her mind, but the boarding party perceived it as a sign of Halucination from losing large amount of blood.
"Lt. Burk! Inform the XO to prepare life-saving operation NOW! We can't lose her, she may a clue or further information that benefit us"
"Aye, Sir!"
Tom gave light slaps on the girl cheeks.
Her body temperature rose from the embarrassment in direct contact with the opposite gender (even through the thick gloves). Well, he wasn't a bad looking man from roughly evaluation. It drove her to tease him more~
"Excuse me, I think I'll take my leave for just a little" She shut her eyes and dropped her head.
"Hey! Stay with me, Damn it!"
Chandler urgently held her up bridal style.
"Quick! We have to move her fast, she mayn't last much longer!"
On the boat back to Nathan James, Arashio body was laid with utmost case, she had been conscious during the trip so she could hear all of them chatting.
"Try to stop her bleeding"
"Her endurance is ridiculous, no one simply took those caliber in vital parts and still breathing"
"Not to mention that she hasn't been freezing to dead in that skinny clothe."
Etc.
When they arrived, Mike informed that the operation equipment was ready so Commander ordered Lt. Green to bring the girl to meet with Dr. Rios in the sick bay, and helped him perform whatever the doctor needed him to do.
Danny acted as instructed, the sight of Danny carrying (fake) unconscious Arashio gained attention of the entire crew who saw this: mostly curiosity of why a normal girl with unsuitable clothing could be found here alive with fresh shots' wounds.
In his private office, he was discussing with Slattery about their next course of action.
"Seeing that our government keeps us in the dark about what have been going on at home, we can't trust them for support. First priority is the fuel, if we operate at trail shaft, we should just make it to the unmanned refueling station off the coast of France."
"How do we know they have fuel to get us across the Atlantic?" Mike didn't agree with an idea.
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"We don't" Chaptain emotionlessly replied.
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Mike knew that look in the eyes, Tom won't change his mind.
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"What will we tell the crew?"
"Everything?"
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"Include that mysterious girl you met on that ship?-"
The intercom rang.
"A moment" Tom gestured that he wanted to answer the phone first.
Mike nodded that he would wait.
"This is the Chaptain"
"Chaptain! Ms. Arashio is conscious, she demand to talk to you" Said Ensign Rios, Doctor in training.
"Alright, I'm coming!"
"Right about time!" Tom exclaimed, earned a little curious glare from his XO.
"The girl's alive and kicking, she want to see me so you follow me to the sick bay"
"Aye"
The situation in the sick bay made Tom paled, he imagined a wound girl resting on a bed, not this Danny got restricted by medical hoses lying on the ground, Rios was set on an iron-sight of stolen SIG-P226 Navy on her left hand. The supposed patient had been sitting on a chair with amusing smile.
"Oh~ Captain Chandler, please have a seat over there. You gentleman there, you can join if you want."
"He is my XO, Mike Slattery, what do you say if I said Mike don't want to join?" Tom wanted to exclude Mike out of this for worst case.
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Arashio quieted a few moment, she sighed.
"You're no fun, captain. If it makes me look less intimidating, I'll disarm myself and have a peaceful talk with both of you."
She unleashed the magazine and pulled the slide to eject the chambered round out, the ammo-less weapon was slowly place near the original owner (Danny).
Tom and Mike were clueless of her action. However, her aura kept them from looking down on her as an amateur, they felt something great beyond the girl petite body: the bigger metallic present with stench of ocean, blood, and gun powder.
"Mike will also stay. Mike, come in and close the hatch" The girl's generosity was effective.
Everyone prompt to start a little greeting which including free-Danny, still Tom insisted he never told anyone of what happened, the latter noted the order (with doubt in mind).
He noticed Arashio seemed fine like she never got shot, but that wasn't the point he want to know right now.
"To begin with Ms. Arashio, who really are you and what is your mission in the Antarctica?"
"As I introduced, I'm named after Arashio Destroyer of IJN (even they don't use this navy name nowadays). I know every part of that ship like my backyard, I guess I'm some kind of ship single-operator. I'm not sure myself why I was out there. To tell you the truth, the first memory of my life (this life only) is when I woke up on the bride and then met you on my ship. Oh, don't give me that look. I'm human as you can see but on how much extent? A lady needs to have some secret, so I left it to your assumption."
As much as he wanted to press on her being, he didn't want to rush thing to go south.
"Are you certain that no one sent you here on a secret mission or something?" Nathan James' captain certainly didn't buy any of that..
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She giggled.
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"Let me ask you, captain. When we met on my ship, what is the Red-flu you mentioned?"
A brief story of a pandemic (Chandler's version) was verbally transferred to the little destroyer, she gasped
"Oh God! I never ever know what's happening right now…...what you intend to do next?"
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"I will go refueling my ship at France...I suggest you coming with me on this"
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Silence….
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"Ufufu~ I'm freelance now, so it's a wonderful thing to do. I agree. But I have one condition"
"What?"
"I'm coming with you, but I want to be on my ship, not your ship" That stunned Tom.
"Are you for real about that ship single-operator!?"
"Do I look like I'm Joking Captain Chandler?" Arashio's stern gazed was able to made Tom slightly backed down.
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"Alright, let see what you can do. I will return you to the Arashio, Ms. Arashio"
"Aye, sir~" She playfully saluted.
"Tom, is this wise to let that Japs roaming around?"
"I suppose. If what she claim is true, I understand her unsettling on board another ship."
"I talk with Rios, she's not normal! She-"
"Mike! What's the most important for us right now; help Dr, Scott to find the cure or investigate some strange random girl back story? The World is DYING, we can ignore her for now if you isn't a threat."
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"OK, I got you."
"It's best to be back." She groped a lot of things on the bridge, and stopped at the helm. She radioed.
"Nathan James, this is Arashio. my boilers are already hot, ready to go, request destination coordinate over~"
"Arashio, marked coordinate ******************* over"
"I'm going!" She shouted alone happily.
When the Arashio vessel kept closing on the cruising James, she admired the sheer size of James that exceeded her. This DDG-151 could fit in cruiser class in her old time easily, she smirked when she looked around, she noticed the lighter armor and lighter armament on the American vessel: a single mount 5-inch, a 20 mm. phalanx, VLS cells, smaller torpedoes tubes, etc. At least she had more guns, more VLS cells, bigger torpedoes, and depth charge (which she quite firmly assured that nobody may use this weapon of old age anymore), it painted her image a bigger threat.
Finally, DDGN Arashio of IJN sailed alongside DDG-151 of USN. She perceived the crew's interest in her ship, a bit later She walked out to the edge prow, mimicked Titanic pose and gave a friendly taunt through her loud-speaker.
"Don't weight me down, Nathan James! I've high expectation of you~"
The bridge personnel on another vessel glanced to Arashio and swapped over to Chandler with question face.
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'That Cheeky Brat...' Tom sighted, he got himself a weird travelling buddy.
In the temporary lab of Nathan James (one of copter hangers), Quincy Tophet reported something through satellite telephone in Russian to unknown contact when Dr. Scott wasn't present in the lab.
On another end of that line resided on the RFS Vyerni, a Kirov-class Battlecruiser.
"Fleet Admiral, we get the idea where Nathan James is heading" Reported the man in his 50's to his superior in Russian.
"Set course to there, all engines two third" came a monotone sound of a 4.5 feet tall light blue eyes child. She had long silver hair with white cap on her head which had the red-colour star circled hammer & sickle sign. She wore white long sleeve shirt, black belt, black skirt, black thighhighs, brown casual shoes. The most eye-catching is the naval unbuttoned overcoat which explained that she held the highest authority on this ship(?)
I think somebody actually know who this Loli Russian is.
For those who don't know, she's Verniy from Kancolle, and the geezer is Rus-! Opps! It's too soon to reveal.
See you next time Xb