Abyssal Stays Home [KC SI]

[JiggieP]

WWWIII Director's Cut with Abyssal DLC.
Tftc. This certainly will give other unknow Abyssal Princesses time to build up their base and resources, which will definitely fuck shit up after world war 3.

 

[Vlaadd17]

Thank you for new chapter!
So far abyss my favourite character. Like i m to lazy to do things that's why i brought you here ! And puting repair bath into reaper, would it even work ? It will now, good idia, i will add this to your tech tree.

And even generous enough not to kill Si after they admit don't wont to kill human thing. She let her do as she pleases and even follows her advise.

Really hope Si will find out a way to create abbys a body or avatar and let her enjoy food and internet and lazing on the beach. So far i got an impression abbys is like 6-8 year old child , and without body to get more "grounded" point of view she will remain such. Dont even surprise if the whole point to kill humanity is "they hurt me" or "they cut fishi that i made" , or even "just becouse they bad". Maybe they ran pipes from their houses to my oceans and polute them.

Would really liked to see interaction between those too , beyond "nudges" and " tells me in the head".

 

[Hagar06TheLizard]

Jesus Christ, the Abyss now can legit just wait to mop up the survivors.
Surprisingly measured response from America. They can't not do anything, yet they must know they're being played.
Maybe they hope that by keeping to a conventional war and not falling back to their own nuclear arsenal, they can keep things from overly escalating into MAD?
Reasonably speaking, the Abyssal war now has more casualities from blue on blue then from enemy action.

Poor Reaper too. Send out on a solitary mission, no backup, singlehandedly laying waste to the entire enemy fleet and then leveling their central command. Thereby collapsing an entire flank of the war on her own and re-enacting the significanse of the battle of Midway. All while crippling herself by keeping to her orders of minimising civilian casulaties. Getting nuked and nearly dying. Now needing over a year to recover. So she gets back to her base, not towards a welcome back party or or a sweet victory party, but to 'please be quiet, we have the enemy here as a guest'. Then again, maybe getting nuked might have made her re-evaluate things a bit.

Akatsuki is thinking in dangerous directions.
Incidently, to the people who do understand diplomacy or military tactics here, is there something Dagon can do to se-escalate things, beside paint a target on her back? If she'd send back Akatsuki with two freighters worth of food supplies, would that let her open diplomatic channels? I'm suspecting that's too little too late now.

And Abyssals are capable of empathy, or even peaceful intentions, because the Abyss is to lazy to come up with an alternative. That's kinda funny. And kinda sad.

[edit]
Nevermind. Bunker down, and maybe talk with the survivors, if there are any.

 

[Faber_The_Builder]

Akatsuki is thinking in dangerous directions.

Click to shrink...

Oh, that's absolutely a miracle tho. I'm surprised she hasn't scuttled herself on the way to Dagon's territory. She not only has survivor's guilt, but most likely blames herself for the whole thing. The Nation she swore to protect got railed by an Abyssal in fairly justified act of self defense and then Nuked by the their allies…all based on the Intel she provided. Yamato, the pride of her Navy? Fucking eaten. The Girl is broken.

 

[Lovhes]

Shit got very real. Wonder how far it'll go. Without easy Naval access both sides are kinda gimped on mobility and neither can actually fully commit, that'd be suicide due to Abyssal raids + I wonder what the US Kanmusu force will do. They are just like Abyssals, conventional weapons are pretty ineffectual and the US has a lot…it's just they'll be fighting humans and their own…Jesus, the PTSD this will generate will be insane.

Click to shrink...

PTSD for whom? I'm pretty sure most if not all WW2 era shipgirls are either ambivalent or enthusiastic shooting the Chinese depending on their fate after WW2. The one that went on to bombard shores and what not during cold war era proxy wars would probably be quite eager for round 2.

Poor Reaper too. Send out on a solitary mission, no backup, singlehandedly laying waste to the entire enemy fleet and then leveling their central command. Thereby collapsing an entire flank of the war on her own and re-enacting the significanse of teh battle of Midway. All while crippling herself by keeping to her orders of minimising civilian casulaties. Getting nuked and nearly dying. Now needing over a year to recover. So she gets back to her base, not towards a welcome back party or or a sweet victory party, but to 'please be quiet, we have the enemy here as a guest. Then again, maybe getting nuked might have made her re-evaluate things a bit.

Click to shrink...

Her command to minimise civilian casualties probably caused reaper to suffer less damage tbh. The JDF are forced to split their resources to evacuate civilian and containing reaper. It might have delayed the nuke too, since if reaper went full murder and carnage kaiju from the start the twitchy china would probably launched the nuke at the seemingly invincible reaper earlier.

Akatsuki is thinking in dangerous directions.
Incidently, to the people who do understand diplomacy or military tactics here, is there something Dagon can do to se-escalate things, beside paint a target on her back? If she'd send back Akatsuki with two freighters worth of food supplies, would that let her open diplomatic channels? I'm suspecting that's too little too late now.

Click to shrink...

Send out reaper to do a semblance of guerrilla warfare on china. No, really.

Nobody beside Akatsuki have any confirmation that reaper is one of Dagon's, the world will now be focused on shitting their pants on the fact that the kaiju monster is still kicking around and angry(er?). All Dagon need to do is basically risk reaper to die for real, imprison Akatsuki, and hope there's either no surviving record about assault on dagon base and connecting it to reaper's assault.

And Abyssals are capable of empathy, or even peaceful intentions, because the Abyss is to lazy to come up with an alternative. That's kinda funny. And kinda sad.

Click to shrink...

Less empathy and more cunning. Even in the wild there's plenty animals who are dumber than human but are smart enough to let their enemies duke it out and then potentially sweep in to reap the rewards.

It's not exactly peaceful when they're holding back because they can just wait for human to weaken themselves.

I agree that the Abyss have been quite lazy in this fic overall tho

 

[Lonel]

I see that the abyss is being the proper lazy couch potato, letting someone else do all the work and then take all the credit. As well as doing something really smart, letting something fundamentally human destroy humanity, as nothing is better at killing humans more than another human, other than maybe disease.

 

[Morkail]

Better work on that anti nuke tech and chinas actions were rather stupid the attack was mostly directed towards military targets and they wiped a whole city out why?

 

[Darksword0]

Better work on that anti nuke tech and chinas actions were rather stupid the attack was mostly directed towards military targets and they wiped a whole city out why?

Click to shrink...

It was a really good excuse to destroy a future enemy and also a potentially dangerous abyssal which also served as a good excuse.

 

[Morkail]

It was a really good excuse to destroy a future enemy and also a potentially dangerous abyssal which also served as a good excuse.

Click to shrink...

Except you could just wait a few hours and drop the nuke in the water or literal anywhere else besides a major city. But there is a point that China would view a militant Japan as a threat and in this setting everyone would be expanding there military's.

 

[Toguro]

Shit got very real. Wonder how far it'll go. Without easy Naval access both sides are kinda gimped on mobility and neither can actually fully commit, that'd be suicide due to Abyssal raids + I wonder what the US Kanmusu force will do. They are just like Abyssals, conventional weapons are pretty ineffectual and the US has a lot…it's just they'll be fighting humans and their own…Jesus, the PTSD this will generate will be insane.

Click to shrink...

V

Abyssal attacks are down to a record low; the Abyss confirms that, having spread my sense of waiting and seeing everywhere. Let humanity fight themselves for now. I am not entirely sure how to feel about that, but I guess I should not complain.

Click to shrink...

Maybe the Abyss can tell the rest of the Abyssals to sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

 

[Lovhes]

Maybe the Abyss can tell the rest of the Abyssals to sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

Click to shrink...

That would require the abyss to teach other abyysal what is popcorn and how to get/make them. That sounds like a pain to do. Guess it will just order Dagon to send all abyysal worldwide popcorn or something.

 

[Cthal]

I do wonder how the other Princesses are gonna react, to the humans basically doing so much more damage to themselves then they did

 

[Vlaadd17]

I do wonder how the other Princesses are gonna react, to the humans basically doing so much more damage to themselves then they did

Click to shrink...

I doubt they have means to knew that, i think they will notice the drop in activity , but with whole "let them cook" stance, they will notice when/if nukes will fly. Not to mention countries in south america/Africa Australia are going to remain untouched by war.

 

[Naron]

Day 240

We got into a bit of a rhythm this last week and a half. Everything remained calm just like I thought it would. Akatsuki settled in well enough, though Hannah tells me that her fellow destroyer is starting to brim with energy. They did some live fire exercises together, but the action did not help bleed off that excess.

I can tell she grows more and more anxious the longer she is away from home; Japan needs her, is what she told me when I asked. Her depressive episode has thankfully passed, but I asked her to wait anyway. I may not be responsible for the mess this ended up being, but I still feel bad about not helping when I can; the thing I want Akatsuki to wait for will be finished tonight. But I will get to that later.

Equally important is that Frostbite sighted US convoys at the edge of her territory earlier today. Her expansion continues apace and she thankfully took my advice not to attack them; the heavy shipgirl escort aside, all those ships were moving toward mainland Asia.

I also introduced Akatsuki to Frostbite yesterday; trying to hide the girl just became more of a chore than I was comfortable with. My fellow Princess was not amused at first, though I could talk her around before she actually met and killed the girl. Their interaction was kind of frosty, though. At least she no longer needs to hide in her room.

"What exactly is your goal with her?" was what Frostbite asked me later. I could only shrug, well aware there is no grand plan.

"I'm not the sort that can look people in the eye while hurting them. Akatsuki is a bit of an odd case at this point, but having her is no real risk."

I need to check if I thought something similar the first time I let her go, but I think I was well aware what might happen. Either way, Frostbite was not convinced, but agreed to play along. I am the Tech Administrator Princess after all. In her words: "Your approach and mine will differ because we have different priorities. I will accept your wisdom, though I do not share your optimism."

Or something like that. Which is a fair argument to make. She is the military arm to my science division, solving problems with violence is what she does. I guess it says a lot about Abyssals that we do not have any civilians outside of our transports and drones. The latter can not even count anymore because Orion installed guns in every single one of mine; a practice that was emulated by her peers in Frostbite's fleet.

Sure, drones with guns are nowhere near as powerful or effective as a proper warship. But it is cheap to mount a cannon on top of an existing drone, and any firepower is infinitely more dangerous than no firepower. Especially if a Mi-Class or other commanding ship coordinates volleys from thirty of those cannons.

I do not expect to need any of this in the near future, but you never know. Hence why I will never even think about telling Frostbite to slow down on manufacturing warships. Her fleet keeps swelling as she gains more territory, though she only adds a handful of ships at most. Most of her resource income goes right back into expansion. The slowly growing teleport network means that she saves great amounts of fuel on transportation. What is more, even in case of an attack she needs only a pittance of fuel to rally her entire fleet and pour out onto wherever the front line is.

That said, I talked to her about another mean paradigm that she thinks has potential: let an enemy fleet enter her territory, then hit them in the front and the back via teleportation.

Being the only ones with access to that technology really makes it a game changer. It would probably be one even if others had it as well. As is, nobody even knows we have it. That and Frostbite's sizable fleet should be enough to fight off any future assault.

And that is enough about theoretical attacks I doubt will ever come. Back to the thing my labs are inventing for Akatsuki.

It took a while even when I fast-tracked this particular line. I had to ask Frostbite to chip in once as well because it is reasonably pricey. But when it is complete, it may just be the thing Japan needs most right now. Well, maybe not most, but it will help a lot. I can not feed however many refugees there are at the moment, though the UN is already doing what they can from what I heard. No, I am putting together an anti-radiation device. A machine that can clean its surrounding area of radiation, including in living organisms, to no downsides. And it only uses a minimum of soul voodoo, which is still my favourite term.

'Minimum' meaning that it needs an Abyssal holding it to keep working; something about our nature recharges them. Right now my scientists are figuring out how to extend that to human-aligned shipgirls, which is apparently easier than they anticipated. Either way, this will be my gift to Akatsuki; it will allow her to cleanse Tokyo and her people.

It also has absolutely no combat applications, I made sure of that. Humanity can have it, reverse-engineer it, they will not learn anything new. Actually, they might. I can not even guess what insane ideas a human scientist might come up with. What I know is that there are no combat applications gated behind this technology on my tech tree. So I doubt they will come up with anything in the near future, if they even try.

And just as I wrote this, I got the report that the device is done. Tomorrow will be interesting.


Day 241

Well. To say Akatsuki was impressed would be a great understatement. She started jumping in joy and tackle-hugged me once I explained what the Radia-Gone does. Yes, I gave it a silly name, such is my prerogative as the creator. My science Fairies do not count, they are technically a part of me.

The girl was ecstatic to even just receive one, but I gave her three. Using them is as simple as breathing; each device is the size and approximate shape of a football. The round one, not what the Americans call a football. Press the button on top to turn it on or off, then hold it while walking around. I tested on some leftovers out of Reaper's reactor just to make sure, it works fine.

It got a little less nice after that, though I should have expected it. Akatsuki insisted on heading out immediately to share this with her country. She was so excited I could not bear holding her back.

There was just one issue: we do not know it for a fact, but it is unlikely there are no Abyssals between Haven and Japan. Whatever luck had her make it here in one piece, I highly doubt she will make it back as well. So I decided to give the escort an escort; 'no' was not an answer I took on this one. The girls themselves were a little confused, but accepted well enough that I refuse to go through all this effort only to have Akatsuki sunk before it can be used.

Which is why Ariel, Jeanne, and Hannah all went to accompany her. No Abyssal will shoot at three Demons passing by. And if some human idiot tries, they are more than capable of defending themselves and her. I gave them enough supplies to cross the entire world if they must, just because I can.

I also quietly put repair speed on the research queue after all. I do not really want to consider the worst case, but if it does happen, then Reaper will sally forth once more.

Either way, I saw the girls off in the afternoon; we had a hearty meal first, anything else would not have felt right. I stayed at the beach until they were out of sight; that made me think once more, realising the downsides of being almost landbound. Then I went for a swim without my rigging, just to spite whatever convention made it so I only guzzle fuel with it on.

At least Frostbite's growing teleport network will let me get places without depleting my own reserves. It is less bad after researching several steps of fuel efficiency, but still prohibitively expensive. I am not sallying unless I must, which becomes less and less likely.

For now I will enjoy the quiet. Sapphire is on patrol duty as the only remaining warship, Orion and Ionia are frequently out to assist my partner. Reaper just slumbers below the sea. Meaning I have Haven all to myself.

I do get some alone time most days, but this is pretty nice. Usually there is always something happening; it feels a little too calm without anyone here, though. I will recharge my social batteries tomorrow and then think about what else to do.


Day 242

Turns out some plants survived the bombardment of Haven. Or rather their seeds did; they are slowly starting to sprout. So I am spending today and the next few days doing some terraforming. Frostbite did not mind giving me some plants and animals from her own isle.


Day 243

Frostbite is a bit of a bitch, making me catch those things on my own. I am a research platform, not a sparrow!


Day 247

Haven is coming along nicely. It will take years for the trees to grow back, mind, but I uprooted some from elsewhere to start the process. The animals seem happy enough, at least; I put a few of the prominent species here. The plants will do nicely with my citadel looming over the island; they should make a better look than the barren rock. Maybe it will even look a little inviting.

Anyway, the busywork felt good. I focussed on it almost exclusively and got a lot done. Though some of it was my home crew of drones; they smoothed out a few craters and connected bits and pieces. I also found out that they can do sand instead of stone sludge.

It feels strangely nostalgic to be alone with them, like the first days. I am not sure to be surprised it has only been nine months since I woke up here, or that it has already been that long.


Day 250

Akatsuki reached Japan today. I know it for a fact because there was a media hubbub. Word got out that she was seen approaching in a group of Abyssals, who swerved away far off the coast. Though I saw separate reports of my girls staying close enough to look at Japan for a little while.

Honestly, the main reason there is commentary in the international media is the connection; people speculate wildly what the Abyssals have to do with the unexplainable machine that reliably clears out radiation. Akatsuki carried it through the outskirts of Tokyo while hooked up to a Geiger counter. Works like a charm, confusing and amazing the world.

As it turns out, shipgirls can be resummoned; I know that because I saw a picture of Akatsuki with her sister Hibiki. And I know for a fact that Hibiki was sunk during the assault on Haven. The two carried the devices through refugee camps, clearing the radiation even from the people there.

There was no mention in the journals I checked, but I imagine a number of groups are salivating over these devices. Here is to hoping Akatsuki took my advice not to let any of them leave her possession until their purpose is fulfilled. I am not going to send them more just because they broke those.

Then again, beggars can not be choosers. The existence of these devices is already public knowledge, even if everyone speculates about their workings and origins. A number of people have already guessed the correct answer, if not the circumstances; there are some wild rumours that Akatsuki defeated an Abyssal Princess in single combat to gain access to her powers. Sapphire and I had a good laugh about that one.


Day 251

I am getting a little worried now. On one hand, Akatsuki seems to do as I suggested and keep the Radia-Gone closeby. On the other hand, she has been carrying them across the country in precise patterns since her return to Japan. It has been over thirty hours and she shows no signs of stopping or slowing. Her sister helps, but nobody seems able to convince her to stop or let someone else do it.

It is definitely too early to tell, but so far nobody tried to take the devices away from her either. At least there are no mentions of such a thing happening. Then again, there is actually a livestream following her around after confirming there is no danger of radiation in her vicinity. Four or five people keep switching the camera between each other over the hours, intent on documenting her progress.

It is a pretty calm stream, all things considered. There are a lot of people and I have no idea what anyone is saying, but Akatsuki seems to be warmly received wherever she goes. Sometimes she turns around to wave at the camera; I can see the shadows under her eyes, but she still does not seem ready to take a break.

Hibiki does argue more with her as time goes on, though. They were talking back and forth at least three times over the last hour. Which tells me I probably spent too much time watching this today. At least Akatsuki is doing well.


Day 252

Second verse, same as the first. Akatsuki is still going strong. From what I saw, people took to feeding her as she walked. It is kind of cute to watch an old lady pop sweets into her mouth and wiping it with a napkin, even as neither of them stops walking.

The international response continues to be baffled, though news of the war are also trickling in. I am honestly not looking at that because I do not want to. The minutiae of what happens there are not conductive to my mental health. I know ignoring it will not make it go away, but this is an issue I refuse to engage with.

The quiet is starting to bother me, though. I have Sapphire out patrolling less to keep me company. Reaper moved to nap on the beach and the storm hides us all from view, so anyone coming at us needs to get through her first. My Colossus may need a ton of repairs, but she can hold long enough for Frostbite to mobilise.

Something else I noticed is that Sapphire makes decent progress with her carving hobby. She looks up some guides on the Internet and seems to take a lot of mileage out of them. Maybe I should get back into drawing as well, I definitely have the free time for it. Writing is kind of covered with these logs, though I write too little here to qualify for my previous pace.

It just occurred to me that if another version of the old me exists here, I may be able to find him via the works I know I wrote. But even if those are the same through whatever divergent experiences he had, I do not think I want to meet myself. The Abyss is silent on the matter, not that I expected an answer.

Moving on, I rather forget this entire train of thought. Sapphire is getting pretty good, so I am pondering to let her refine the carvings along Haven again. My citadel is looking nice, but a more personal touch would be even better. Maybe I can synthesize some paint as well, though I am not sure how well that would stick to the walls.

Haven is really starting to feel like a home of late. It has been for a while, but the feeling was odd.

Maybe I should be more sorrowful about the people left behind in my old life, but there is really nothing I can do. I do not even know if the Abyss took me along after death, abducted my body and soul, or just made a copy of my brain to stuff into this new chassis. Then again, copy-paste sounds like the easiest approach and I already know the Abyss is as lazy as I am.

It also just confirmed that this was copy-paste. So I do not need to worry about being gone from my previous life. I still miss them, but that is alright. Simply move on along.

I went to distract myself for a bit and checked the livestream again. It turns out that Hibiki finally called it quits and manhandled Akatsuki into a bed. She was out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow, but from what I saw her sister takes no risks there; she is still hugging her tight. At least Akatsuki will get some proper sleep.

Also, some people are poking and prodding the Radia-Gone. Nobody tried to take it so far, they are just curious what it does. The glowering destroyer may play a part in this, though she does not stop people from being around them. It was honestly interesting to watch, even if I did not understand anything they said. Shipgirls are somewhat divorced from human norms in that sense, perfectly willing to let others be near. Not like they could hurt them anyway.


Day 253

The Internet is still the same. There is so much art of the two destroyers in bed, and most of it is porn.

Nothing else of interest today, I just wanted to have it known some things will never change.

 

[SneakyScoundrel02]

There are no laws against Destroyers, Batman.
You cannot stop me.

 

[Vlaadd17]

Yes , shipping shipgirls , the lifeblood of kantai collection fanbase.
Reread these amazing story , thank you!
Come to conclusion si life is very close to rimworld settlement. With shipgirl raids , them got to procesing, and whole reaserch tree with better guns tv, carpentry etc. She even started her ideology live and let live , and dig in the mountain base.

Another note :"all abysals can dive to the bottom" , i just have to put it here
https://youtu.be/xf3q9A7g58Q?si=MzWXqHonOvcJRmx2

 

[Zagareth Rhaveno]

There are no laws against Destroyers, Batman.
You cannot stop me.

Click to shrink...

No joker no!

 

[Vlaadd17]

"she took those devices by beating in single combat abysall princess make us laugh "
i think dagon should feel awkward by the fact one half sunk destroyer beat her up to the point of bruisis , when she was running from hydra.
If push come to shove little girl would beat dagon with ease, even without guns.

 

[Morkail]

Those rods will probably become a national treasure. And once she explains how she got them a source of very mixed feelings

 

[Lovhes]

Those rods will probably become a national treasure. And once she explains how she got them a source of very mixed feelings

Click to shrink...

Aren't the rad-gone devices roughly ball shaped?

And it will definitely be super awkward. "I got it from the abyysal who sent the giant monster because we attacked her after I told command where she is. She feels guilty for indirectly causing china to nuke us so she gives me these stuff."

 

[Naron]

Day 255

My girls radio'd in today. They encountered no problems and are en route to Haven. They were not followed either, though I guess a wandering storm is hard to miss. Then again, they said they occassionally make it disperse, both to throw off pursuit and because Ariel came to like the sunlight.

Good thing Abyssals can not get sunburnt. Considering how pale we all are, that would happen right quick if we could.

Akatsuki is still doing her thing, though she now takes occasional breaks. Hibiki and a battleship called Yashima support her, each of them carrying another Radia-Gone. The Internet still goes on about where the devices came from, but so far nobody tried to take them off Akatsuki; I guess this is a case of not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I saw some theories about actual divine intervention, too.

Those people will be so disappointed if they ever find out.


Day 258

Had a longer discussion with Frostbite today. She is getting annoyed by the constant sea travel passing through her territory. Especially now that she managed to make contact with another Princess. Her name is Briar and she is an Airstrip Princess controlling Hawaii. Also about as landlocked as I.

I should probably note that Frostbite's expansion is nowhere near Hawaii yet. Her scouts met Briar's scouts and exchanged information, though no tech. We face a similar problem to when we first met and it will take at least a week to pass a single message.

Funnily enough, Frostbite told me she now understood perfectly well why I just gave her the radio tech for free. Having it makes waiting so long an even greater annoyance than it was before. Hence why she changed course; right now her builders focus solely on a line of outposts aiming toward Hawaii, close enough to contact Briar without need for any relays. This will still take time, but we joked that it is faster than just exchanging messages.

Not to mention that we can link up with another Princess. If she then does the same as Frostbite, we may actually be able to link up Abyssals across the globe at some point. Going by how far out her own scouts were, she definitely seems to hold a sizable territory. They did not know what was going on and were looking for American ships, we have not told them yet.

That may just be a headache and a half to deal with.


Day 259

The girls came home. We had a little celebration for their first complete sortie into human territory, though Jeanne insisted that it was nothing grand. She is right, but I felt like celebrating anyway. They went all the way and returned without needing to fire a single shot. Another Abyssal scout watched them for a time, but did not attack; that poor girl must have been so confused.

Hannah told me about how she formed an accord with Akatsuki along the way; with them both being destroyers, the girls got along quite well. She also made sure to remind Akatsuki not to let anyone take the Radia-Gone away.

She also said that her sort-of friend was deep in thought for most of the journey. There was some sort of plan brewing in her head, but she never said what it was. Ariel and Jeanne agreed on that one. Only Hannah decided to prod and pry a little, but it did not work out.

They took the news of Briar with good cheer, too.

Meanwhile, Frostbite is stockpiling resources while focussed on only a single outpost at a time; her growing territory and numerous mines on the ocean floor make her more and more rich in that regard. She will have to restructure her logistics network soon, though. I offered to help and hope I actually can; if we manage to cover most of the Pacific, then Frostbite will rule the largest singular domain in the world.

We have the slight advantage that there are no civilians living in that territory, else distributing resources would become a real nightmare. I already asked Orion for help with this and she agreed, then Ionia volunteered to assist as well. Those two may not be warships, but they are definitely willing to do their part.

We will be busy until at least the end of the year, but I do not mind. It is actually pretty nice to do things again.


Day 261

Maybe Akatsuki went insane after all. I still do not know how to feel about today and neither does anyone else. Except Hannah, she had a giggling fit when she saw that speech her friend made. And she had a big smile on her face the rest of the day.

It has been one and a half weeks since that girl returned to Japan. There is still a lot of ground to cover, but she and her sisters in arms actually made a decent amount of land habitable again. Volunteers are cleaning up the rubble and rebuilding has slowly begun. Today she decided to break her silence, requested to hold a speech on live television and livestream.

I already knew something was up when the Internet exploded about it, but had to wait for a full translation. And while I could say a lot about what she explained there, it will be easier to just copy the transcript for posterity.

"Sisters and fleetmates, brave soldiers of the JSDF, people of Japan and of the world. I am Akatsuki, first of the Akatsuki-Class destroyers and former member of Destroyer Division Six. For the last ten days, I have worked to undo the horrific injustice we suffered by the hands of our unexpected enemies. Many times I was asked which unlikely ally may have given me these wondrous tools to do so; whether a kind angel descended from the heavens to grant me this boon, or whether the kami smiled upon me."

"Today I wish to reveal to you the truth and beg your understanding. I remained quiet too long. My story begins weeks before the day of the kaiju's emergence upon Japan's shores."

"During deployment against an Abyssal Princess far out to sea, we were suddenly beset by a great amount of opposition. Elite units and Abyss Demons struck our force, sinking a number of ships and almost destroying me as well. We were dispersed like still water if a rock were dropped in its midst. I do not recall crawling ashore. Perhaps the kami did indeed smile upon me that night, for when I woke I had been saved."

"However, the woman who saved me was not one of ours, nor of our esteemed allies of the USN. Her name is Dagon and she is a Princess of the Abyss."

(There was a long pause here, probably because people lost it.)

"Neither is this a joke, nor an embellishment. I was saved by an Abyssal. Of course I was scared at first, well aware that there can be no friendship between us and them. Or so I believed at the time, at least. Dagon allowed me to use her repair baths and was overall a kind if, distant host. She asked me no questions about Japan or the IJN, made no attempt to torture me for information. I have no complaints and only praise for her conduct. Once the brunt of my damages were repaired, she freely parted with enough fuel to see me home and let me go."

"My admiral did not believe it when I told him after my return. I understand to be wary, I too could hardly believe what happened to me. For a month I was examined in any conceivable way to find something nasty, an infiltration device, any sort of mental effect. Every single test came back negative; no changes were made to my ship self and no contraband was found. The admiral still did not believe we were dealing with a potential friendly. The USN offered a flotilla currently on loan to Japan to assist in ambushing this new Princess. I had seen no other beings bar two during my stay. Based on this, they deemed Dagon easily handled."

"Of the entire fleet that went to subjugate her, only a handful of ships returned. I was never made privy to what exactly happened that day and do not dare speculate. What I know is that it was not her who attacked us first."

"When I asked of Dagon why she showed me kindness, she asked me if it was wrong to want to be kind. The day she let me go, she said she wants to be involved in the war as little as possible. In this we forced her hand, just like any of us would retaliate after being attacked. The monster that destroyed Yokohama was of her making. I knew the moment we first heard of it. A message made for all of us fools to leave her be, or suffer the consequences."

"Many may curse the beast for the events that transpired, but I respectfully disagree with such a notion. Dagon herself told me that she gave her monster orders to leave the civilian population alone, to only destroy Yokohama Naval Base. Neither was it her who brought forth the true catastrophe; this monstrous act rests on the shoulders of humans and humans alone. I refuse to let them avoid punishment by blaming their actions on the one Abyssal we can work with."

"After the destruction of Yokohama Naval Base, I went to confront her with my emotions awhirl. She showed patience and once again kindness I still believe I did not deserve. In the end, she even up and created these anti-radiation devices for me to take back. What happened to Tokyo sickened even her."

"I understand the confusion and worry many of you must feel. For a time I felt the same. But I have seen no adverse effects whatsoever over the last days. Again and again I expected falsehood, only to be given truth and kindness. At this point I believe in her goodwill, and even if I did not, we as a people do not have a choice anymore than to trust. Trust in those who came to help, be they human or not. We must trust them for Japan to live."

End of quote.

So yeah, Akatsuki went for broke there. I listened to the audio broadcast too, there was a lot of emotion packed into her voice. She spoke from the heart, which made me feel a little fluttery. I had no idea she puts so much faith in me. Even if she is right that Japan needs outside help after that nuke, I remember enough media to know the Japanese are a proud people. They may very well decide to shun an Abyssal's help and rather wither away from the radiation.

Then again, the Internet seems to have its own civil war on the subject. There are a bunch of hardline groups declaring that such a thing as a kind Abyssal can not exist, but a number of people seem tentatively interested in the story as well. Considering Akatsuki's presence, her clearly being a shipgirl, and the fact the radiation is indeed gone from where she worked, they have a foot in the door. Not to mention that she all but called out China for being bigger assholes than the Abyss in this instance. A bunch of people jumped onto that bandwagon as well.

Ironic, really. I want no part in this, but my actions probably did more in terms of weakening humanity than any other singular Abyssal across the globe. They do remain quiet these days, too. Probably biding their time and stockpiling resources in the unofficial armistice. Which was also caused by me, now that I think of it.

Either way, Akatsuki is currently being investigated again. If the news are to be believed, she fought tooth and nail for Hibiki and Yashima to keep working while she carried her Radia-Gone to a lab for examination. Props to her fleetmates on that end, too: they kept going without any visible hesitation. Hannah says that Yashima seemed uncomfortable holding the Abyssal device in the pictures, but I could not see it.

I have to admit that I am incredibly curious how this will shake out.


Day 263

From the news that came in today, Akatsuki was cleared a second time. No Abyssal corruption, no nothing. The Radia-Gone is fine as well, which I could have told them too. Humanity is more divided than ever at the prospect of a 'good' Abyssal.

There were a number of interviews with Akatsuki asking more details about me and Haven. She tried hard not to tell them where exactly I am, probably to prevent another incident like the last one. Not a word about my fleet beyond that they are all kind and that yes, it was them who escorted the destroyer back home.

Lines are drawn in the sand as well. A lot of people who suffered through Abyssals categorically refuse to accept my existence, which I am not blaming them for. Others play devil's advocate about the matter and a few seem actually convinced. None of the world's nations has made any comment on the matter yet, but a lot of journals note them looking at Japan. The land of the rising sun is a hotbed of change these days.

I am a little tempted to send my fleet for a vacation, but that is a risk I am not sure I want to take. Maybe later. Much, much later.

For the time being, I will just enjoy my free time and play some games with them. Cooking with Jeanne is fun too, same as baking with Sapphire. Everyone eats while we watch the news or Ariel translates journals for us; turns out she started learning Japanese. I am not sure if that is because of the situation or because she is turning into a weeb. I do not think I care, either.


Day 266

People sure turn around if you give them an olive branch. Akatsuki's work slowed down some because the area she has to cover is so large, but she still works tirelessly. Rubble is being cleared and rebuilding continues. The earthquake yesterday did not help those efforts, but the Japanese take it in stride. I guess they are used to it.

Those directly affected seem more and more inclined to follow her lead in regard to me. Akatsuki still has not told anyone where they can find me though, which is prudent. She kept quiet on my access to the Internet too; maybe she forgot over her work, but I feel like this is something one would keep in mind. Either way is good for me.

Ariel hangs around on a number of online messageboards lately; she took to compiling short reports of what people write about the situation and my involvement. The hostile sentiment begins to dissipate with each day nothing bad happens. I have the feeling there is a sense of dread among those boards, though; they probably expect the other shoe to drop one of these days.

That aside, Frostbite made good progress on our connection with Hawaii. She passed along the comm tech and calling Briar is now easily possible. I actually had a chance to speak to her today; she seems a bit more high-strung than either of us. More outgoing, though not overly friendly. Considering where she is based gives me an idea why that is; the USN probably harasses her on the regular, which would make me grumpy as well. At least we get along fine.

Maybe Briar was actually mellowed out by the gifted tech. She seemed a little wary, but expressed interest in trading for more. I agreed to do so, if only after the connection is established. Then I gave her the teleporter blueprints as a freebie, though I sadly could not see her face. After that she became a lot friendlier and agreed to build one of her own on the main isle as soon as she is able.

Frostbite asked me afterward if it was wise to do this when we barely know Briar. She had a point, but in this case we get more out of it than she; she would figure it out before long anyway. Like this we can have Briar build at least one of the stations, saving Frostbite resources. It makes for a nice gift, too. I had some trouble conveying this in just a few words at the time, but my friend understood in the end. She still has reservations and keeps an eye on things, though. I do not mind, she is my security after all.


Day 280

Connection to Briar is established. She built two teleporters in total, probably in part to keep her territory as her own. Frostbite's final station is placed outside of it, using hers as relays. We both went to meet the Airstrip Princess, each with our entourage of Demons.

Briar is tanned. Not dusky brown or anything, but her skin has actual colour instead of being pale like ours. She says she often suspends her storm to fake out the Americans. They never know which part of the archipelago she hides in. The shallows are full of mines and other traps while carriers hide everywhere to spew bombers and planes.

I think she immediately figured out that I am not a military commander, but took it in stride. I gave her a little booklet with the technologies I can offer at the moment. She is still poring over it now; Briar is not flush on resources, especially after building those teleporters. She is definitely more outgoing than Frostbite or I, though.

Akatsuki is still going strong, too. No real news there. There is a steady stream of refugees returning to wherever they used to live and helping with the rebuilding. Hats off to them and the volunteers that help out, too.

 

[Vlaadd17]

Kinda sad abot "they treated me kindly" , whyle behind her back arguing should they kill her or not. Damn girl met two abyssal princess who didn't kill her on spot and thinks not all abyssals are bad. Sadly no central princess or others from the game , thought arizona with all that negative energy from abush ,would become powerhouse in Pacific. Or she get killed already.

"Doubt humans make from radio-gone weapon" 3 month later carpet bombing with abyssal-gone. Absorb abysal energy and make every abyssal into coma while emitting radiation/heat.

 

[Faber_The_Builder]

online messageboards lately

Click to shrink...

I do wonder, will she make a statement online? It would be a positive thing to do honestly. Don't let them maintain the monopoly on shaping opinions

 

[Idiot444]

I do wonder, will she make a statement online? It would be a positive thing to do honestly. Don't let them maintain the monopoly on shaping opinions

Click to shrink...

It'd probably be much worse to let them know she has internet access than to let them play with public opinion ngl.

 

[Faber_The_Builder]

It'd probably be much worse to let them know she has internet access than to let them play with public opinion ngl.

Click to shrink...

I feel like that's inevitable by now. Somebody will notice and it's better to rip the bandaid off.

 

[Idiot444]

I feel like that's inevitable by now. Somebody will notice and it's better to rip the bandaid off.

Click to shrink...

It'll happen eventually sure, and then they actively censoring it and throwing a ton of false information everywhere. Plus whatever else I'm not thinking of.

This is all around cringe behavior that should be avoided.
Due to her being an Abyssal and the whole been at war with em for a while, public opinion will likely never actually be in her favor for a long ass while even if it looks like it may be. Vocal minorities and all that.

At the very least, I think that it'd be a terrible trade atm. You can try and influence public opinion via the internet without outing yourself anyway though.

 

[DahakStaz]

Meanwhile, Frostbite is stockpiling resources while focussed on only a single outpost at a time; her growing territory and numerous mines on the ocean floor make her more and more rich in that regard. She will have to restructure her logistics network soon, though. I offered to help and hope I actually can; if we manage to cover most of the Pacific, then Frostbite will rule the largest singular domain in the world.

Click to shrink...

Holy shit, that meens she should have the capacity to literaly mass produce ships of all classes including Battleships.

Canon Princessys that survive mostly on looting and have territories fraction of a fraction of Frostbite can create fleets numbering in the hundread(with most of it beaing smalller ships like destroyers, but still).

If Frostbite not only has territory bigger then all continents of Earth combined(Pacific is THAT Big) and didn't send her ships on raids(thus no losses) all this time while streamlining her logistics, incorporating tech she bought from Dagon and building fuckton of mines on the ocean floor then she has the biggest industraial capacity on the whole Planet.

Forget hundreads, she can build Fleets numbering in the thousynds.

And all of them have the best technology of all the existing Abbyssals because Dagon constantly sold her upgrades that makes Frostbite ships more powerfull pound for pound than any of their exiting peers.

Add the fact she also has entire cadre of Veteran ships she ascended in Deamons and she propably could stomp flat any country in the World as long as long as they don't Nuke her forces.

And even then she would still win by sheer numbers and the fact she can buy anti radiation tech for her ships from Dagon and then send wave after wave of Abbyssal ships.

 

[xbox432]

Heh, Akatsuki asked for a live interview/stream just so she could keep her government from censoring her, didn't she? That's certainly one way to get the info out... I'm curious to see how you have this play out in future chapters. Maybe Japan will actually reach out with diplomacy?

Though I'm not sure about something... The Abyss, and Abyssals, want to destroy humanity? Or defeat them? If it's just the later, then could conflict be avoided by the human nations just... surrendering?

 

[Vlaadd17]

Come to think about this, but if new princess located on havai , and it was mentioned that si is halfway between frostbite and havai , how frostbite located her? I thought they make an agreement that they will expand in opposite directions? Even if si lended her building and cargo girls, does that mean her territory is surrounded by frostbites and she has no room for expansion?

 

[Naron]

Day 292

Japan is slowly getting back to her feet. I am under no illusions that it will take less than years, maybe decades, for them to fully work through what happened. But the radiation is fought back day after day and people can turn to rebuilding.

War with China is also ongoing and actively encouraged by Akatsuki. I am still not looking closer into it and told my girls to not apprise me of anything that can not turn into a threat for us. All Ariel and Hannah told me is that the Chinese are trying to justify their actions as Reaper having forced their hand; that the monster had to be stopped before it could attack another realm. Read, before she could attack China.

They also tried to vilify Akatsuki for being in cahoots with the Abyss. It did not quite work. That the Japanese do not give a damn was expected, sure. But it seems people across the world are appalled at the attempted victim blaming, even many of those who are absolutely certain that I am up to no good. I would not say it backfired, but it definitely shifted the lines people have drawn.

Reaper was just laughing when someone told her the details of what her actions caused. Appropriate, I guess?

That aside, Frostbite and I were talking to Briar some more. Turns out she has seniority in terms of lifespan, at least if we do not count my previous life. But where Frostbite loves forming her force into a hammer that smashes through any obstacles, Briar is an ambusher and fond of laying traps. She favours carriers and submarines to facilitate that; her girls were interested in Sapphire when I brought her, even more so when Sapphire brought cake.

Food continues to be my go-to in terms of improving relations. It worked just as well on Briar and her fleet as it did on Frostbite. The Airstrip Princess is still a little wary, but mellowed out a decent amount over the last weeks. I am honestly glad for it because I never liked walking on eggshells around other people.


Day 295

Getting to know Briar a little better, she is not exactly a battle-hardened veteran, though that is more due to her nature as an Airstrip Princess. An installation rather than a warship, similar to me. That is not to say she does not know her stuff, she is just more detached from it than Frostbite. Both are far better strategists than me, not that they had any need to use their abilities recently. From what she tells me, her territory has been left alone for a surprising amount of time.

So far she expected the Americans to mount some sort of major offensive. It surprised her when I explained the ongoing war and where all the shipgirls are probably funnelled. She was dumbfounded by the concept of humans fighting humans.

"I should have guessed, really. Abyssals fight Abyssals on occasion, too. It just never occurred to me that our enemies would be the same as us."

I do not know for certain why I remember those words of hers so clearly. Rethinking them, maybe it is the outline of understanding in there; to find commonalities with others lets us relate to them. I explained the concept of closing ranks to her, relating right back to the fact all Abyssals will stop infighting if confronted with human forces.

From what I surmise and what the Abyss tells me, Abyssals fight each other mostly over resources. If they do not like each other, they just stay out of their territory. The knowledge of their enemy keeps them from needlessly attacking each other. There is no such thing as personal feuds, outside of the occasional scraps between princesses. Maybe the lack of commen knowledge works to their advantage here. Maybe they will develop this kind of thing in the future.

Either way, Briar holds herself and her fleet to a high standard. They run drills at least once a week, oftentimes more. She also has a number of her girls maintain the active traps and mines on the regular. Hawaii is a real death trap, which explains how the US still did not get it back.

I managed to surprise Briar by asking if my Demons could join her drills; they have precious little practical experience, so any extra helps. We worked out a little trade where I funnel some new techs to her in exchange for the training. Sounds perfectly fair to me. Frostbite had no issues with that, either. She offered her own holdings to hold those drills, which is free of mines and shallows that need to be minded.

The first one will be tomorrow. I think I will go just to see how it goes.


Day 296

That was certainly interesting. I could not really add much to the exercise itself, but I think I learned a bit. Frostbite and Briar quickly worked out a hammer and anvil sort of strategy, similar to what I did with Frostbite before but on a much larger scale. There is a big difference to one submarine coming from behind and twenty of them doing the same. Even a submarine Demon can not make up for these numbers.

The work seems to have relaxed Briar some, too. We had tea afterward. I recommended the Mi-Class blueprints for her first payment; a dedicated ship type to maintain her traps should work better than having her warships do so. Some of them got quite good at it, but they all remain skittish about doing that sort of work. Briar agreed after meeting Orion and some of Frostbite's engineers.

Frostbite's expansion also continues apace. She now works to fill up the area surrounding our bridge toward Hawaii, mainly to not get blindsided. Briar offered her nautical charts to make the process go more smoothly.

It may be a little early to say, but I think the three of us will get along well. Though my fellow Princesses seem to rub each other the wrong way on occasion; Frostbite gets a little agitated by Briar's bluster, Briar in turn gets offended by Frostbite's lack of reaction to her grandstanding. This thankfully just leads to some bickering.

The girls were pretty happy about the drills, too. They told me that they felt a little tense of late; this helped them work out the stress.


Day 300

That is another big number I reached. Most of a year has passed since I woke up here. I am honestly happy with my life at the moment, excepting the thing with Japan. Akatsuki is still going strong there; the fact nothing bad has happened with my devices over months is convincing more and more people that I am genuine about helping, too.

I went to visit Briar a few more times, too. We have a different dynamic than I have with Frostbite, but I like her. Yes, she grandstands, but I honestly do not care too much; little of it is about belittling us and most about putting herself up. Considering how her fleet almost worships the ground she walks on, I imagine she earned the right to have some pride.

Talking to her fleet was interesting, though a number of Briar's ships needed some time to get over their wariness when confronted with another Princess. I coaxed them out of their shells with sweets. Sue me.

Speaking of the sweets, balancing diets around other foodstuffs seems to have done the trick. No deep dependencies I can see, though destroyers and submarines seem to love sweet foods in general.

Briar seems to have gotten used to me by now. It is just as well we get along, considering that we are effectively neighbours by extension. Maybe we can even be friends in the future, I would like that.

But first I need to see how bloodthirsty she actually is; an ally who attacks humans at the first opportunity may sabotage this new opportunity slowly opening up. Akatsuki continues to remind people of my goodwill every once in a while and seems to have convinced even some of the remaining shipgirls of my character. Hannah confirmed my read of the situation: the wind blows toward opening communications, though the Japanese interim government is still debating about that. They are busy with the rebuilding, so that might still take a while.

Maybe, just maybe, we can interact peacefully after all. I can not really do much about that beside waiting, though. So I spend my days in a pleasant routine; some interaction with my fleet, visits to Frostbite and Briar, games, movies. It is not that different to how it used to be, just with more people involved.


Day 306

Well, that was unexpected. I think I mentioned that Briar is getting around to Frostbite and I? Today she suggested a proper alliance. Us three Princesses working together, pooling fleets and territory into a greater whole. The Abyss seemed to like it, though it has been fairly quiet of late in terms of prodding.

She sprung that on both of us over tea. It was half a request and half a proposal, with charts and plans drawn up, yet a certain fervour to her words as well. Briar definitely surprised me with this, especially so soon. It has only been one and a half months since the first time we spoke. Maybe that is my old sensitivities, considering how fast Abyssals can form connections? I asked if some other force was putting pressure on Briar, but that was not it.

At the end of the day, she does not need a proper alliance; she just wants it. I do not want to speculate too much because I really do not know, but maybe I underestimated the impact Frostbite and I had? Briar may have been lonely, with only her fleet and no peers that do not care for her grandstanding.

Either way, we agreed to think it over.


Day 307

I tested something and gave Briar a big hug today. She basically melted into it, so she just might have been lonely after all. Mind, she also complained all the way about the indignity, but I have some practice at tuning these things out.

Anyway, Frostbite and I agreed to her offer after talking it over between us. Now there are three Abyssal Princesses that rule the Pacific; maybe we will find more in time, but I feel three makes for a good core. A triumvirate, so to speak. Not that that ended so well for anyone but Caesar, but we are not in Rome either. I can not call it a triumvirate, though; that specifically talks about men. Checking the internet for a female version gave me 'triumfeminatus', which sounds like shit. So I dropped the attempt to be cute with latin.

From now on we form the Council of Three. Short and concise, if not all that creative. I honestly do not care much for it. Briar is our main tactician, she and Frostbite provide the bulk of our combat strength, and I support them from the back. Not with money, but with technology and resources as needed. I guess that makes me the Crassus in that comparison. Considering how the story ended for all three of them, I should probably stop here.

Either way, I gave each of them a few new toys to celebrate the formation of our alliance. Some nifty upgrades for Briar's planes and submarines, as well as the big gun for Frostbite. I really need to give it a proper name, so I guess Colossus Cannon will be it. That thing is not actually the size of Reaper, but definitely bigger than any other weapon in our arsenals.

Frostbite already decided to build three of them around her main base, turning the place into an inassailable fortress. Briar was curious, but decided against building any because emplacements do not play well with her hit and run strategies.

We have a lot of prep work to do now, though. Thus far it is only us Princesses who know, so word has to be spread. Frostbite is planning to use her large influx of resources and start expanding in Japan's direction, too. Our self-set goal is to secure the entire Pacific and unify the Abyssals here.

I faintly remember writing something about this being an unattainable goal some time ago. Goes to show how much I know. Then again, that was about me doing it; in this case it is mainly the other two doing the unifying while I sit in the background. That feels a lot more doable, not that they seem to mind taking center stage.


Day 309

Today we gathered our fleets to announce our alliance. It was all formal-like when Briar started, being the oldest. Then Frostbite took over with her matter-of-fact summary of what this meant for the shipgirls. They did not seem to mind occasional rotations into other territories or cross-training, neither that they would take orders from each of us. Frostbite was sure to make it clear that the orders of another Princess can be refused if they contradict their own Princess's orders. We had to hammer that out when I suggested pooling our fleets, mainly because I worry about someone making my Demons commit war crimes.

When it was my turn to speak, I kept it short. Most of the girls present were not mine, though most of them knew me by now. I was never that good with names and forgot most of theirs, but I remember their faces well enough. I am also not much of a public speaker, if perhaps only for a lack of practice. I actually made some notes for this and practiced in my room a few times. It felt incredibly weird, but it helped.

While Briar spoke of glory and Frostbite of changes, I went over opportunities; goals we could reach for. Unity among the Abyssals, expansion and improvement. And peace.

I debated with myself for a while whether I should bring that up, but in the end I decided to be up-front about it. After checking my theory with Frostbite and Briar, they found it odd but agreeable. So I told our combined fleets as well.

Suffice it to say, there was an uproar when I said the words "peace with humanity".

Briar and Frostbite helped me calm the girls down; my own fleet helped too, they may have suspected something like this already. Then I laid out the idea: if us Abyssals control the seas across the globe, then humans are no longer able to build ships, much less sink or scuttle them. What fleets remain afloat can be retired and no more souls will be lost at sea. These are the 'crimes' that the Abyss originally manifested to punish. The dishonourable end of warships, the many sailours lost to the merciless waves.

But if humanity can no longer commit these sins, need we really eradicate them? Why not coexist so that we can partake in the many marvels they created and will continue to create? I made sure to explain that all the nice things I shared with everyone were human inventions, from food to games. That gave most of them pause, much like it did their Princesses. It also neatly solves the question of what happens if we win and there are no more humans left; there will always be humans, thus the Abyssals will forever retain their purpose.

I think I at least got them to consider the matter with this reasoning. The Abyss itself did not contradict me yet, else I would have felt some sort of instinctual revulsion to the idea. Mind, I did at first. But it vanished once I thought through my reasoning. Does that count as a sort of divine mandate?

I should not think too much about this, lest I turn megalomaniacal. Maybe it will be possible to get out of this war after all, with my friends and fleet by my side.


Day 310

My own girls wanted to talk more about this supposed peace. They did not say anything yesterday because they did not want to undermine my speech and needed to think it through as well. Today we sat down and had a long conversation about what we each want.

Hannah already figured me out before, she just thanked me for finally putting the goal into words.

Orion and Ionia were both partial to the new paradigm; they are the closest we can get to civilians and can do their job regardless.

Sapphire was a little miffed, but she kind of guessed where the wind was blowing. She told me in no uncertain terms that she did not trust humanity to keep up such a peace. She is wary even with Akatsuki still fresh in mind; only time can cure that, assuming things go well.

The twins seem to have formed a united front; Jeanne spoke for both, explaining that they do not agree, but will follow my lead on the matter. They also wanted to know if I can not reverse engineer all human achievements, which would invalidate my strongest argument. I told them yes, but that it would take ages because I am only one person. Not to mention that I rely on whatever the Abyss did to give me access to these tech trees. It did not say. Ariel finished their part, saying that she grew fond of all the human things we have now, even if she still dislikes that they are human things.

Then there was Reaper. I thought she might take it the worst, but was pleasantly surprised. She relayed only a few succint words: "They will cower for fear of consequences as long as I stand. I shall follow the Princess's lead."

She did not even seem angry or upset. Maybe she started to like lying around and dozing in the sun, though; being in repairs does not really give her much chance to move around after all.

Either way, that is that. The Council of Three will keep expanding for now. All we need to do is figure out how to get that peace we want.