The Battle of Yokosuka - Finale

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It had been several hours now. Most of Bennington's air group and all of Bogue's air group had been shot down by the Yamato ships. The submarines attached to the fleet had all had to retreat from the battle, as they had run out of air and munitions, and couldn't surface inside the combat zone.

Several destroyers and light cruisers had been sunk or sustained heavy damage that had put them out of the fight. All in all, the fleet was at about a quarter of its combat potential.

They had managed to do some damage to the Imperials, but the enemy's capital ships still remained unharmed, shielded by a wall of destroyers and light cruisers. At best, they had succeeded in sinking one Imperial for every five Westarians.

Salem knew that they wouldn't last much longer. They had spent the past few hours moving south, and had almost made it to Mikurajima, the southernmost island of the Imperial heartland.

Once they made it past the island, they would be able to escape the Imperial Navy and get support from the Westarian forces at Guam.  The only question was, could they hold out that long?

"Salem!"

It was Columbus, a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser. Her '1' and '3' turrets had both been destroyed, and she was running low on ammunition.

Salem wasn't doing much better. She had only lost one turret, her '3' one, but that wasn't really something to celebrate. 

"What is it?" 

She was shouting over the sound of roaring guns. Some of the destroyers and light cruisers with fast-firing guns had had their barrels overheat and explode. At any given second, there were hundreds of shells flying through the air.

"My propellers have been destroyed. I'm already slowing down. I'd be lucky to make it five more kilometres before I stop. Listen, Salem! Getting the builder into your custody is the only thing that matters anymore. Us damaged ships will stand our ground and buy you time!"

"W-what are you saying, Columbus!?" 

Salem couldn't believe it. 

"Just hold out until we make it to Mikurajima! Then we'll be safe!" 

Columbus smiled. 

"Don't worry, Salem," she was still smiling, but tears had started to run down her face, "you know that we don't have a chance of surviving like this. But, if we do this, then, at the very least, you can get out of here, and get the Builder."

Salem had started to cry too now. She tried to respond, but her throat began to close.

Columbus began to turn to face the enemy. The damaged ships began to turn with her, one after another, and Salem realized just what bad shape the fleet was in. Almost every ship had stayed behind. Bennington was the only ship who had stayed on course with Salem. Every other ship was charging straight at the pursuing fleet.

The Imperial forces were thrown into disarray. A suicide charge by an absolutely outnumbered and overwhelmed force would do that to anyone.

Salem was at a loss for words. She watched as her allies and subordinates were killed one by one by enemy gunfire as she and Bennington escaped.

***

1422

It had been several hours since they had left the fleet behind. They hadn't been pursued by any ships, but aircraft had been detected patrolling the area for them.

The two of them were coming up on the Builder's position, as the battleship 'Margaret' moved much slower than either of them did. However, as time passed, more and more Imperial aircraft were looking for them, and the chances of them being found continued to rise. 

One of Bennington's fuel tanks was leaking, and it looked like she would run out of fuel within the next two hours. Salem's engine had been damaged, and, while she could tow Bennington, she would be reduced to a snail's pace, and they would most certainly be found.

Bennington was lying on an operating table in Salem's sick bay, her insides slowly bleeding out onto the floor. Salem was trying to patch her up, but the most that she could do was given her medication for the pain. In all honesty, she might bleed to death before she ran out of fuel.

Salem's radar suddenly detected something, Bennington's radar finding it seconds later. It was a squadron of Imperial torpedo bombers.

Bennington only had half a dozen aircraft left in her air group, and, despite her injuries, scrambled them immediately. All of their remaining anti-aircraft guns began to fire at the incoming planes, sending them into evasive maneuvers. 

An interceptor, launched by Bennington, flew straight at them, forcing them to break their formation, and managed to hit one of them in the engine with its machine guns, sending it flying towards the ocean, a trail of smoke behind it.

Salem's anti-aircraft guns shot down a second, and then a third, but it was all to no avail.

The formation regrouped, before dropping all of their torpedoes into the waves.

Salem ran onto her deck, carrying Bennington over her shoulder, as she watched five torpedoes make contact with Bennington's unarmored hull.

Five cacophonous BOOM! s  sounded, one after the other, as her hull began to list to the side, fires breaking out as water began to rush into her engine room.

Through the smoke, Salem began to see faces.

She saw Columbus's face, then Bogue's, then that of the submarine Gato, then the destroyer Fletcher's, and on and on and on. She saw other faces, too. Women dressed in the uniform of the Imperial Navy. 

She saw all of their faces, as she saw their hulls sinking beneath the waves, fires burning everywhere, the sound of shells ringing in her ears.

She could feel the life leaving Bennington's body as her hull slowly sank beneath the waves, covered in fires.

All around her, hulls and bodies from both Imperial and Westarian shipgirls slowly disappeared into the murky depths of the water.

Rain had started to fall, washing the blood off of Salem's face. Salem's mind began to race. Now that Imperial aircraft had found them, they would start hunting her down in the hundreds.

She suddenly found something else on her radar.

20  kilometres south of her position, and heading south towards international waters, were two large ships, whose cross-sections were practically overlapping.

She had finally found the Builder.