Upon making visual contact with the other five members of the Yuktobanian Navy, Pitomnik threw her arm up an exaggerated wave. Upon seeing the five of them wave back, she stepped on the proverbial gas, moving up to 28 knots and closing the distance with the friendly destroyers and corvette.

Taking a quick scan to the left, Pitomnik saw the various hostile contacts steaming along towards the unknown contacts. The enemy didn't seem to know they were there, or if they knew they didn't react. Which was perplexing to say the least. Pitomnik and the rest of the friendly fleet were well within detection range for surface search radar. They hadn't seen any anti-ship missiles launched in their direction yet, and there had been no aircraft diverted to scout the area.

Something wasn't right here…

The rest of the Yuktobanian fleet turned slightly to starboard as they approached her, angling towards the enemy vessels. Pitomnik turned onto an intercept course, forming up with the fleet and slotting in next to a friendly destroyer with a mane of wild brown hair, her eyes blazing with excitement and her chest puff out with pride for the fleet.

Missile Destroyer Gumrak, gave Pitomnik a wide toothy grin as the Frigate slotted into the fleet along the port side. "Glad you could join us Pitomnik!"

"Glad to be here." Pitomnik said smiling. "Hopefully this time as a friend."

A collective wince passed through the fleet. "That was a mistake and we know it." Corvette Budusheye stated levelly. She was a small thing, with black hair done into two braids that went down to her lower back, whipping away in the ocean winds. "You are a comrade of the Yuktobanian Navy, Pitomnik. No one here will touch you."

Speak for yourself!" Dub stated, lightly elbowing Pitomnik in the arm. The destroyers rusty-red hair billowing in the wind, loose strands caught in her face. Dub didn't seem to mind her own hair getting in her eyes. She didn't even react. "We're comrade yes?! That means we don't need to avoid her!"

"Will you all pipe down?" Bystry grumbled from the starboard side of the fleet. "All the time you spend bickering gives the enemy time to attack!" The short-haired and serious-looking destroyer tilted her head to port, cracking her neck.

"Who do you think the enemy is?" Chuda asked meekly from behind the collar of her oversized coat. The destroyer was the only one who wasn't wearing a variation of the Yuktobanian service uniform, instead opting for a light winter coat with a skirt-stocking combo. It was still in Yuktobanian colors however, and still had the proper markings. She even had her pennant number on the bottom of her coat, 237.

"Does it matter?" Dub said excitedly. "They're enemies! They must be sunk!"

"No, it does matter." Bystry stated. "Are they Oseans or someone else? We made peace with Osea, it would feel wrong to be at war again."

Dub shrugged. "A lot can change. We don't know how long it's been since we…" She trailed off, her expression suddenly becoming dour. A change that was mirrored by the other four vessels in the fleet.

There was a story there, Pitomnik was sure of that, one she wasn't sure she wanted to find out. But that could wait. There were more pressing matters that needed her attention.

"Still, it would feel wrong." Bystry reiterated.

"So then what do we do?" Chuda asked. "Sit here and watch while doing nothing?"

"Of course not!" Gumrak all but shouted. "We are ships of the Glorious Yuktbanian Navy! We do not sit on the sidelines like cowards! We fight!"

"But what if-!"

"They're not Oseans." Pitomnik stated, cutting off Bystry. The others all looked to her, eyes asked her to elaborate. "Think about it… we're well within their radar if we can see them, but have seen the enemy try and engage us? No. Have they diverted aircraft to attack us? No." She paused. "How often would Osean's do that?"

"Never." Chuda stated.

"Could be a trap." Budusheye ventured.

"Then we spring the trap and fight our way out of it." Gumrak stated, clearly done talking. "Bystry, Chuda, Dub, you're with me. We target the closest ships and hit them with long range missiles. Sync targeting data!"

"Roger, syncing."

"Syncing."

"Syncing!"

"What about the unknown vessels?" Pitomnik asked, watching as they and the enemy closed the distance. From the looks of things, they were engaged in close range surface action with the enemies. "What do we do with them?"

Gumrak smiled. "Then let them know that we'll have missiles on the way to help them out."

"Also have them identify themselves." Chuda added. "Y'know, so we know if we should shoot at them too or not."

Pitomnik sighed. Never a dull moment in the Yuktobanian Navy.

Gumrak began counting down, after she and the other destroyers got solid locks with their missiles. "Three! Two!..."

"URRAH!" They all shouted at once, their missiles burning away as their engines roared. The missiles streaked off towards the enemy contacts, quickly attaining their maximum speed of Mach 3.

Those enemies were in for one heck of bad day.

-[]-[]-[]-

"KILL ME YOU FUCKS!" Iowa roared in time with her guns. A Chi-class took the shots on the nose, the Mark-8s tearing her bow apart. The Abyssal screamed in agony and rage and unleashed her own salvo of six-inch cannon shells at the American battlewagon.

Her attention focused on Iowa, she completely missed the torpedoes Heerman had just tossed into the water at close range. The spread slammed into the enemy cruiser, who once again shrieked in pain before summarily face-planting into the sea right in front of Iowa. The battleship didn't even slow down, instead opting to run over the Chi-class to finish her off.

She made a pretty good speed bump.

Iowa, with the immediate threat on the open sea dealt with, turned her attention back to the sky. Abyssal multirole fighters mixed it up with Wildcats from Saratoga, tracers from both 50-cals and 20mm cannons filled the airspace between them.

Wildcats made mince-meat out of the abyssal planes and even more went down to Anti-Air cannons, but there were just so many of the things that they couldn't really make an effective dent in their numbers to really matter.

Iowa watched as three torpedo bombers dropped their payloads off to Eldridge's port side. The Battleship was about to shout a warning to the little DE, but Eldridge wheeled around to the left to dodge the spread.

Up towards the front, Alaska was duking it out with two Ri-class heavies, trading twelve-inch shells for salvos of 8-inchers in return. Alaska turned hard starboard, unlimbering her rear turret at one of the Ri-class. Twelve-inch shells tore into the Heavy Cruiser, blowing off one of her forward turrets.

Then an enemy Ni-class destroyer unleashed a spread of torpedoes at the now broadside-on American Large Cruiser. "ALASKA!" Iowa shouted in warning. Alaska saw the fish far too late to do anything about it as two slammed into her portside.

Alaska didn't scream, instead biting down on her lip as pain washed over her. She'd been hit hard and was now listing slightly to port, making it harder to aim her guns, but she was still afloat and could still fight.

A trio of 16-inch high-explosive shells form Iowa quickly deleted the Ni-class from existence, the enemy destroyer going up in a green-tinged fireball. Alaska fired off another salvo at the Ri-class she was targeting and watched as the Abyssal crashed into the water, bleeding profusely and missing her left arm.

Alaska looked to her starboard side and saw USS Atlanta hosing down the other Ri-class with 5-inch shells. The Ri-was taking such a huge volume of fire that she was now a blazing inferno as Atlanta's high-explosive shells started to set her deck ablaze. The American light cruiser decided to punctuate that by throwing a spread of four torpedoes in the water.

The Ri fought back, unleashing a salvo that tore into Atlanta and knocked out two of her rear turrets, one getting jammed in place and the other being ripped right off its mount. Three of Atlanta's fish hit the enemy heavy, and despite inflicting some pretty serious damage the Ri-class remained afloat.

Upon hearing splashing from the left, Alaska spun around to see the Ri-class she thought she'd just killed stand back up and point its remaining guns at her, all the while its stump of an arm leaked black ichor into the sea.

"Oh these things just won't die!" Atlanta growled, twirling two of her six remaining undamaged revolvers.

"Guys! We got more coming in! Starboard side!" Sammy B hollered, pointing in the direction of six enemy ships. A Chi-class and two Tsu-class cruisers, and three Ni-class destroyers were wheeling around to flank the American task force.

"This really isn't going well." Iowa huffed, her 5-inch guns blazing away at enemy fighters.

"Gee ya think?!" Hoel shouted.

Iowa didn't see fit to dignify that little bout of insubordination with a response, instead pointing her main battery at the enemy group. They were just a bit outside her weapons range, but they were getting closer. Iowa just had to take them out before they got into torpedo range.

Then Hoel and Johnston got a bit too zealous, turning around and heading into the enemy formation. Their Taffy-3 was showing, and it couldn't have reared its ugly head at a worse time. Amid shouts for them to come back, Iowa cursed under her breath and opened up with a broadside she hoped would make the enemy think twice before attacking the two destroyers steaming right for them.

It didn't.

The three Abyssal cruiser began to point their guns at the approaching Americans, the Chi-class and the destroyers prepping their torpedoes for launch. Hoel and Johnston just replied with their own battlecry and continued their charge.

Then she saw the Chi-class turn around to look in the other direction a split second before a massive, cylindrical object slammed into it and exploded. In a fraction of a second the Chi-class' head and part of its torso were simply gone. Another destroyer and both of the Tsu-class cruisers were also hit, though one of the cruisers somehow managed to survive.

Hoel and Johnston stopped, their eyes wide at the carnage in front of them. The surviving Abyssals were looking around frantically, trying to find the source of the attack. The two Americans looked to each other, shared a confused glance, and then turned their attention back to the burning and sinking wrecks of three Abyssals.

Iowa meanwhile, just stood there, mouth agape and trembling. She knew what those were. She'd seen the footage of what they could do to a ship. She had grown to fear the specter of it during her service against the Reds.

But there was no way… it couldn't be…

Saratoga watched as Iowa just stopped, eyes locked onto the sinking wrecks of Abyssals in fear. The normally boisterous battleship uncharacteristically silent. Somewhat confident that her fighters and the other girls' AA fire could hold off the Abyssal fliers, the standard carrier quickly steamed up to Iowa and gave her arm a good shake.

"Iowa? Iowa are you okay?" Sara asked. Iowa didn't respond, continuing to stare off into the distance. "Iowa, speak to me! What's going on?!"

Without taking her eyes off the spot where the Abyssals had been, Iowa replied. "Moskits…those were Moskits…"

-[]-[]-[]-

Kestrel had her fingers crossed as she watched Razgriz team fly at full afterburner towards Task Force Halberd. Ever since Saratoga had called in with a request for backup, Kestrel had directed her jets to provide whatever support she could to the Americans. Problem was, even with their speed, the distances between the two groups was large enough that the Abyssals had closed to gun range and were duking it out with friendly shipgirls.

So concentrated was she that when Saratoga's voice spoke over the radio, Kestrel jumped slightly in surprise. "Saratoga to Task Force Rapier."

Kestrel took a breath to calm herself down. "This is Kestrel, what is it?"

"We've got a situation down here." Saratoga stated. "Three Abyssals just got taken out by an unknown party."

Kaga turned to Kestrel. "Could it have been Razgriz?"

Kestrel shook her head. "They're still twenty seconds out, and I've armed them for air-to-air engagements. It couldn't have been them."

"Especially since Iowa says they got taken out by Moskit missiles." Saratoga added.

"Moskits?" Inazuma asked no one in particular.

"Russian anti-ship missiles, developed in the 1980's." Hibiki helpfully supplied.

Ikazuchi just looked at her. "How come you know that? You were sunk in the fifties!"

Hibiki just pointed to herself and said: "Russophile."

Kaga exchanged a glance with Tenryuu who just shrugged. "Don't look at me, I didn't know what a Moskit was until now either."

"Saratoga, you said they used Moskits? Think it could be Abyssals?" Kestrel asked.

"Not likely, unless there's two factions of Abyssals and they're fighting each other." The carrier replied. "Still, without knowing who the culprits were, we can't rule anything out."

Kestrel hummed, wondering if she should divert Razgriz team to go check it out, until her fighters began to pick out some surface contacts to the north on their Radar. Six ships, steaming at flank towards Task Force Halberd. "Sara, I think I might be seeing the culprits. They're north of you and closing quick. Don't know if they're hostile."

"Right. We'll keep an eye out for any more of their surprises. Meanwhile we can use some fighter cover."

Kestrel smirked. "Just crossed into weapons range now."

-[]-[]-[]-

"We got them!" Gumrak shouted, pumping a fist in the air.

"Yes but what about the trap?" Chuda wondered.

"There is no trap." Bystry corrected. "We must have somehow caught them unawares."

"Then we press the assault!" Gumrak said, cracking her knuckles. "Fellow destroyers! Select new targets and fire on my command!"

"Hey! I'm in weapons range too you know!" Budusheye said angrily, her face flushing red.

"Right. Pitomnik, you want to join in?" Gumrak asked.

Pitomnik shook her head. "No. I'm still outside of my effective weapons range."

Gumrak shrugged, grin still on her face. "Fair enough. Everyone else, pick your targets!" Soon enough, five more missiles streaked away from the Yuktobanian vessels. Pitomnik watched as the missiles streaked in, slamming into more targets, one of them striking the enemy ship that had survived the first salvo. The Moskits hit far earlier than Budusheye's "Harpoonski" missile, but two more ships were sent to the bottom. One of the Moskits somehow missed, going long and splashing harmlessly into the water. Budusheye succeeded in striking a vessel, but didn't sink it.

"Man, those Corvettes* sure don't last long!" Dub said, putting her hand up to shield her eyes.

"You'd think they'd use their CIWS. They shouldn't be taking nearly this much damage on the second wave, even against Moskits." Bystry pointed out.

"Yeah that's kinda weird." Dub agreed.

"Maybe their CIWS is on the fritz?" Budusheye ventured.

Pitomnik shook her head. "Across all their ships? Not likely. Something weird is going on here."

"Hey, guys?" Chuda interrupted. "You maybe think we should contact those unknown ships to let them know we aren't shooting at them? They're kind of in the middle of all those enemies we've been shooting at…"

And uncomfortable silence descended over the Yuktobanian fleet. Pitomnik inwardly winced, she should've thought of that. Now the unknowns were probably panicking being near the receiving end of a missile-strike. This could be a problem…

"Soooooo…" Gumrak began. "How do we salvage this and not completely fuck it up again?"

Pitomnik sighed. "We can try raising them on the radio and saying: Hey! Sorry we just shot missiles at you but it wasn't you we were trying to hit! Just tells us who you are and we should be okay."

Dub shrugged. "Works for me!"

Bystry let out a sigh and shook her head slowly. "You're all a bunch of complete idiots…"

"I didn't see you think up giving them a heads up!" Gumrak retorted.

"To be fair…"

Pitomnik tuned out the conversation as something else pinged her radar. Four blue squares appeared in the sky, streaking towards the skies above the raging battles. And she got an actual IFF return on them. F-14As, Osean, and had the ID of RZGZ 1-through-4. "Hey guys? You seeing what I'm seeing?" She asked, pointing the direction of the four fighters.

The other ships abandoned their conversation and focused their attention on the new aircraft. Their reactions were pretty much immediate, eyes widening and in the case of Dub, jaws dropping.

"No friggin' way…" Gumrak breathed.

-[]-[]-[]-

Kestrel…didn't honestly know what she was looking at. Or rather, what her planes were looking at. Six ships in tight formation heading right for Task Force Halberd. Instead of sending her jets right at the enemy fliers, she instead decided to have them loop around closer to the unknown ships before diving into the fight. Just so she could get a better look at them.

As they pulled closer, she got a better view of the ships. Four destroyers, a frigate, and a corvette and all of them packing missiles. They'd manifested as shipgirls, which mean they were returnees, and from the colors they were flying, they were Yuktobanian.

"I know those ships…" Kestrel gasped in disbelief. There was no way those six were back!

"Kestrel-san, what is it?" Kaga asked. The others in the fleet turned to look at the two carriers, wondering just what was going on.

"I know those ships!" Kestrel practically squealed in excitement before switching to her radio. "Saratoga, I know who's firing the Moskits! They're approaching your position and their friendly, don't-."

"THEY'RE FLINGING MOSKITS AT US! HOW IN THE FUCK ARE THEY FRIENDLY?!" Iowa's panicked shrieks cut her off, causing everyone in the carrier group to wince in pain.

"Owwwwwww….!" Inazuma groaned, covering her ears to try and block out the noise.

"Geez Iowa, tell us how you really feel why dontcha?" Tenryuu grumbled, picking at her ear to try and stop it from ringing so much.

"Iowa, please just calm down." Saratoga cut in over the radio. "They haven't shot at us yet, and the last thing we need is more enemies to fight. Kestrel, you said they're friendly."

"Yeah, I fought beside them before. They're friendly." Kestrel replied. "If you make contact six Yuktobanian ships, let them know you're working with me alright? I'm just outside of radio range with them right now."

Tenryuu raised an eyebrow at the carrier. She was practically vibrating in excitement.

"Right Kestrel, we'll try making contact." Sara responded.

"We will?!" Iowa's voice cracked.

"Yes. We will."

"Ah fuck my life…"