Malacca

January 7th, 2002 - Waters South of Malacca - Hollandian East Indies

It had been a week since they had left Guam. Despite it being the middle of winter, the hot sun and humid air made it insufferably warm above deck. Salem was the only one of the three shipgirls who had an air conditioning system, so all four of them were gathered in her Captain's Cabin, discussing their strategy.

According to Yukikaze, Yamato and Westaria had called a truce, and were working together to hunt down Hasegawa. If they had stayed, they would have been found by search fleets that were scouring every island in the Greater Expanse, and then attacked by the full force of each navy. She had directed them to a new, safer location, and provided a route for them. It was almost suspicious how much she had told them. 

Salem had raised that issue as soon as she had left, and Hasegawa knew that he had the same doubts. He knew that Yukikaze was loyal to Mikasa, and went behind Yamato's back, so it was possible that she was acting on Mikasa's behalf. But she hadn't answered when he had asked who's orders she was doing this on, so it might have been a trap from Yamato. 

He had asked Myōkō, since she was the only one who actually knew her, and she told her that she couldn't tell what Yukikaze might be planning. According to her, no one in the Empire would be able to answer that question. She was always emotionless and detached, and never betrayed a hint of anything. One interesting thing that she had said was that Yukikaze had been one of Mikasa's guards when she was the Empress, and that when Yamato came to power, Yukikaze was the only member of the previous Imperial Guard to remain in the current one.

Eventually, they had decided to trust her, since the new location she had given them would be far away from any Imperial or Westarian forces. The only problem was the route that she had given them. She had handed them a map, with a route already marked out on it, and this map was currently on a table in the middle of the cabin, with the four of them sitting around it. The route led directly through the Hollandia-controlled East Indies.

The East Indies Island Cluster is a series of island chains and archipelagos that separates the Greater and Southern Expanses, and acts as a bridge between the Lesser Oceanic Island Cluster and the Asiatic Island Mass. Geographically, it was composed of four main bodies: Leyte, Guinea, Borneo, and Java. Leyte was completely controlled by Westaria, and was home to the Westarian East Indies Fleet. Java was completely under the control of Hollandia, a small nation in the Europan Island Mass. Guinea and Borneo were both mostly controlled by Hollandia, but Oceanica held parts of both. Because of this, about two thirds of the East Indies were under Hollandian control. It was through this area that Yukikaze's route guided them through.

Hollandia and Oceanica were both currently at war with the Niemec Reich and the Mediterranean Empire, and had drawn their navies out of their colonies and brought them back to Europa to fight in the war, so the East Indies should be practically empty when they passed through. However, they couldn't take any chances, so they went through the Indies as fast as they could. They were almost at Malacca, which was the only safe place to pass between Java and the southern region of Asiatica. Due to sudden depth changes and hidden currents, it was impossible to navigate safely through Java to get to the Southern Expanse, so they had to go around it. After they passed through Malacca, they would only be a week away from their destination, Diego Garcia, a small island in the middle of the Southern Expanse. None of them knew what was at Diego Garcia, or why Yukikaze had sent them there. 

"Admiral"

Fuji broke the silence, looking up at Hasegawa.

"My spotters have found an unidentified ship 20 kilometers to the northwest. It's small, probably some sort of gunboat," she explained, a hint of boredom in her tone.

Myōkō pursed her lips in contemplation.

"There's no way that we can make it through the strait without her seeing us. We either push through, and risk a fight, or we circle around all of Java, but that detour will probably take us a few extra weeks. I think we should push through."

Salem nodded in agreement.

"I don't want to spend any more time in foreign waters than we have to. I agree with Myōkō on this," she said, looking towards Fuji for her opinion.

Fuji simply shrugged, and said, "It's not as if there's any risk to pushing through. It's just a single ship. I'd be surprised if she doesn't just run away from us."

Hasegawa spoke, having made up his mind. 

"We'll push through. We will avoid a fight, and even if she fires at us, none of you are to return fire. I will repair any damage during our passage."

Myōkō and Salem both nodded in acknowledgement. Fuji didn't respond, and was looking distractedly up at the ceiling. 

"Is something wrong, Fuji?" asked Hasegawa.

She paused, before answering, "My spotters have found a second ship. It's moving towards the first one. Slightly larger, probably a minesweeper."

***

The Malayan and Javan Islands chains were both known for their treacherous waters and unpredictable currents. They were key strategic locations, as they were the separation between the Greater and Southern Expanses. Whoever controlled them controlled all travel between the two expanses. However, two nations controlled them. These were the Oceanic Empire, which controlled Malaya, and the Kingdom of Hollandia, which controlled Java. The only navigable passage lay between the two nations, in a ten kilometer wide gap, known as Malacca. 

Malacca was actually two islands, Malacca, in the north, which was under Oceanic control, and Rupat, in the south, which belonged to Hollandia. The gap between them was a ten kilometer stretch of sea that was patrolled by both nations, and old mines from long-forgotten wars still roamed through it. 

Every member of the Oceanic Malaya Squadron knew this, and, as its commander, Laburnum knew this especially so. She also knew that even if Oceanica and Hollandia had a common enemy, they were by no means allies. There was every possibility that while the main Oceanic fleet was in Europa, a Hollandian force might try and take Malacca. This was the reason that she had stayed behind, along with some island-based aircraft. Unbeknownst to her, the Hollandians had had the same idea, and a Hollandian gunboat was performing a similar purpose to her.

She had encountered this gunboat several dozen times on her patrols, and was convinced that she was lying in wait, hoping for a chance to pounce on the island.

This patrol was not a scheduled one. The radar station on Malacca had located a fleet coming from the southeast, and she had gone out to meet it. When she had gotten to the strait, she was annoyed to see her Hollandian counterpart. The incoming fleet was still outside of visual range.

The Hollandian vessel began to send short-range radio messages to her.

“What the hell do you want?” She muttered under her breath as she listened to the message.

“This is the Hollandian gunboat Soemba hailing the unidentified Oceanic vessel. Wish for dialogue. Please respond. Over.”

The message followed standard international protocol, and was the textbook message to an unidentified vessel. Under normal circumstances, Laburnum would have liked this; she liked to follow regulations to a t, but if they were bringing a fleet to take the island, then there was no reason for them to go through with this charade.

“This is the Oceanic minelayer Laburnum hailing Soemba. Identify incoming fleet. No further dialogue. Over.”

She wouldn’t talk to them until they were honest about what was happening.

“Besides,” she said, to no one in particular, “I’m not surrendering.”

The response came almost immediately.

“Cannot identify incoming fleet. Air scouts report that they are flying no pennants.”

“Really?” She muttered angrily to herself under her breath, “you’re going to tell such an obvious lie? This is just absurd.”

Another message came over, the speaker’s voice hesitant.

“The fleet makeup is two heavy heavy cruisers and one battleship. The battleship matches no identification papers, and has Yamato design. Heavy cruisers match as Yamato Myōkō-class and Westarian Des Moines-class. Request further dialogue. Over.”

An unknown Yamato ship, and cruisers from both Yamato and Westaria? And none of them flying any pennants? 

“What the hell is going on here?” She wondered.

***

The two small vessels had come from opposite sides of the strait, and had pulled alongside each other in the middle, guns trained on Myōkō’s bow. Hollandian ground-based aircraft had flown by them, but they had retreated as soon as Fuji got some of her fighters in the air.

Myōkō was leading the formation, with Fuji behind her, and Salem bringing up the rear. Hasegawa was with Fuji to prevent her from randomly attacking the two ships. Myōkō had been to Malacca before, which was the reason that she had taken the lead. 

The two vessels had been staying in place, but as soon as Myōkō entered the strait proper, they quickly approached her, one on each side.

“This the Malacca Strait guard squadron hailing the unknown fleet. You are flying no flags. You have three options: identify yourselves and your destination, turn back, or surrender yourselves and your hulls as pirates. You have one minute to decide. Over and out.“

Myōkō was hesitating. They needed to pass through, but Hasegawa didn’t want them to fight, so their only way through would be to identify themselves, but they were fugitives from not one, but two countries, and the entire world would fight over Hasegawa Kenji if they knew about his existence. 

***

Fuji was watching everything from her spotter planes. Her guns were pointed forwards, trained on her target. Hasegawa was sitting beside her on couch in her Admiral’s Quarters, making sure that she didn't open fire on anything. Her physical body couldn't see what was going on, but her spotters, which she had left in the air ever since they had found the two gunboats. Her guns were loaded, and as soon as anything went wrong, she would fix things. 

The Admiral didn't want her to fight - he didn't want anyone to fight, for that matter - but Fuji knew that sometimes it was necessary, and that this might be one of those times. 

I'll kill them all, she thought to herself, if that's what it takes to keep the Admiral safe.

Just as she thought that, a sudden sharp pain, like a blade of ice, pierced her brain. Her whole body was filled with the feeling of it, like she was being stabbed over and over again. She tried to move over to Hasegawa, trying to ask him to help her, but she couldn't feel her legs. She couldn't feel anything beneath her waist. She opened her mouth but no words came out. She couldn't feel any air inside her lungs, couldn't feel herself breathing.

Hasegawa hadn't seemed to notice that anything was happening. He was staring absent-mindedly at a picture on the opposite wall of Fuji's hull, his fingers moving unconsciously. 

A voice filled Fuji's mind, and she focused on it with everything she had, trying to block out the pain.

You may be strong, young battleship, but at heart, you are still weak. You have too much empathy, you can feel too well the pain that you inflicted to me, and to my comrades. Do not take matters of death so lightly, if you cannot stomach the yourself. 

With that, the pain quickly faded and almost disappeared, leaving behind a dull, throbbing pain in her head. Fuji slumped into a chair, her lungs rejoicing in the feeling of air. After a few minute's pause, she stood up, observing the proceedings through her spotters once again.

The two gunboats were moving away from them now, each of them heading to a different island. Myōkō was standing on her prow, and had started to walk back to her superstructure. Fuji couldn't tell what had happened; she had missed it during her episode. All she knew was that they were passing through the strait freely.