The Builder Reacquisition Fleet

February 13, 2003 - Former Keeling Anchorage - Keeling, Southern Expanse

It had been a month since the United States of Westaria had signed a ceasefire with the Yamato Empire, following the Battle of Yokosuka and the disappearance of the Builder, Hasegawa Kenji. The two governments had negotiated a temporary treaty in order to reacquire the Builder, based on information retrieved by the Westarian submarine Drum, one of the few Westarian shipgirls to survive Yokosuka. The two nations combined had several thousand vessels at their disposal, which would have allowed them to easily find a single man. The only complication preventing this was the existence of the battleship Fuji, previously designated as 'Margaret', who had effortlessly slaughtered three of the Empires strongest battleships.

In the face of a foe who was a one-woman fleet, the two nations were unable to simply search large areas for them, and were limited to large fleet operations. However, due to the nature of fleet maneuvers, by the time the fleets had been organized and deployed, they had no idea where their targets were. The military leaders of both navies debated their possible destinations many times, with no definitive answer. Their last known location was the abandoned naval base at Guam, yet, when the combined fleet arrived, there was no trace of them. Aerial reconnaissance from the Empire's southern colonies confirmed that they were headed towards the East Indies Island Cluster. The Westarian fleet in Leyte, one of the four island chains that made up the East Indies, had not reported any sightings of them, which left only one option: they had fled to the Southern Expanse.

The Southern Expanse was the second-largest of the four expanses, the Grand Expanse, the Southern Expanse, the North Central Expanse, and the South Central Expanse. It was mostly surrounded by colonies of various Europan nations, and its southern edge bordered the Grand Mass. Of the possible destinations that they could be fleeing to, none of them made any sense. The Oceanic Empire, the Republic of Gaul, and the Mediterrenean Empire were all nations involved in the Great Europan War, and, according to the Yamato, the Builder wanted to avoid conflict, which eliminated those nations as possible destinations. The only problem was, that eliminated every possible destination. Many hours were wasted arguing over why they might or might not go to some island or other. It looked like despite all of the effort put in by the two nations, they would lose their prey without so much as a single battle. 

At least, that was how it had seemed to Des Moines. She was one of the frontline commanders for the search operation, partially due to her desire to find her sister. She and the other Westarian shipgirls and navy personnel who were filling important roles in this operation were in Yokosuka with their Yamato counterparts, trying to decide on a plan of action. They were several weeks behind the Builder now, and were still unable to properly deploy their forces to hunt him down. That was when a miracle appeared. An old Yamato battleship and the former Empress, Mikasa, declared that she knew where the Builder was headed. To the Westarians, it gave them a second chance. To the Yamato, it destroyed their unity.

Over the next few hours, Des Moines and her comrades learned quite a bit about the internal politics of the Empire through witnessing the arguments and debates that arose following Mikasa's declaration. The Empire was split into five main factions. These were the faction that supported the old Empress, Mikasa, the supporters of the current Empress, Yamato, the supporters of Yamato's sister, Musashi, who they wanted to become Empress, the older battleship faction, and the new carrier faction. Three of the factions were concerned with who should run the country, and the other two argued over what the nation's military doctrine should be. Musashi was closely associated with the carrier faction, and Mikasa had ties to the battleship supporters, while Yamato sat in the middle, keeping peace between the two. 

Most of the uproar was focused around two points. The first was Mikasa's sudden appearance, as she had not been seen publicly in years, and the second was how she had gotten this information. They were both answered by the existence of a destroyer named Yukikaze, who had served in both Mikasa's and Yamato's personal guards, and had brought Mikasa to Yokosuka. She was the one who had found the Builder at Guam, and had been the first in the combined fleet to make landfall. According to what she had found on the island, the Builder was going to Diego Garcia, an abandoned island in the middle of the Southern Expanse. After long debates, they decided to trust her information, and prepared to deploy their fleets into the Southern Expanse. 

They had to consider that they would get to Diego Garcia too late, so they designed the operation around that consideration. Five fleet groups were formed from their combined forces, and they were deployed in a long line along the eastern edge of the Southern Expanse. These fleet groups all had over a hundred surface ships assigned to them, which was considered the minimum to act as a delaying force against Fuji so that the other fleet groups could arrive. Each fleet group had at least two fleet carriers, half a dozen smaller carriers, and half a dozen battleships, as well as several dozen submarines. 

The fleet groups were Fleet Group Alpha, positioned at Malacca and under the command of the Westarian battleship Missouri, the commander of the Leyte Fleet; Fleet Group Bravo, positioned west of the Javan Island Chain, under the command of the Yamato battleship Fusō, the leader of the battleship faction; Fleet Group Charlie, positioned at Keeling and commanded by Des Moines, commander of the 1st Combat Strike Group; Fleet Group Delta, stationed about a thousand kilometres south of Keeling, and under Mikasa's command, in her first return to the battlefield in almost a century; and Fleet Group Echo, the southernmost fleet, another thousand kilometres south of Fleet Group Delta, and commanded by the Westarian Fleet Carrier Yorktown.

Alpha and Bravo had both passed through Malacca to get to their deployment zones, unlike the other three fleet groups, who had passed around the southern end of Java. By the end of the day, all of the fleet groups would be in position, and would begin moving together towards the west, covering the entirety of Southern Expanse. As the center of the line, Des Moines's fleet group, Charlie, would be the one to stop at Diego Garcia. 

As she stood on her prow, looking out at the ships of her fleet group, Des Moines hoped her sister was still alright, and that Yukikaze's information had indeed been accurate.

"Just wait a little longer, Salem," she said out loud to no one in particular, "I'm coming for you."