TASMAN SEA

25 MAY 2021

GMT+11 1147

"Captain, the supply vessel is approaching, they're asking us for permission to come alongside," chirped Hikari.

"Hmm. Accept their request. Tell the crew to prepare for refueling and resupplying," the Captain replied.

A few minutes later, a medium-sized vessel pulled up beside the Kii, packed to the brim with ammunition, food, drinks, and most importantly, fuel. This is the multi-purpose vessel Persistence, an ex-cargo ship that was bought over by Anderson shortly after the commencement of Project Kii. As one of the first ships responsible for the construction of Kii, Persistence has been modified to carry a decent amount of fuel, food, medical supplies, materials, ammunition and a certain amount of people, those of which she carried were now on board Kii. She had transported various equipment and materials used to build the Kii from various ports to Heard Island, though she only carried some of the crew once before being placed on standby in Sydney, in case the need for her arises.

As the resupply operations began, Masato decided to search for Anderson to clarify some queries.

"Hey," Masato greeted rather informally to his superior, "how is our situation with the other countries? Sinking a destroyer of the US Navy isn't a small thing, you know."

Anderson scratched his head. "Not good at all. I've checked the Internet with a VPN connection, and things aren't really optimistic for us. For starters, the US Navy isn't impressed with our ability to sink one of their ships, and has issued an order for all of their ships in the Pacific to hunt us down. Secondly, Australia is now under flak for not detecting a warship being constructed in their own territory, so our ties with the Australians naturally aren't going to be good now. Lastly, Japan has just recently disowned us, so even if we make it to Kure we're still going to be shot at. Also, we've gone viral on social media, with a video footage from the US Navy showing us leaving Heard Island."

"The hell? That destroyer was the one who shot us first, why are we being targeted instead?" Masato asked in exasperation.

"Well, it's possible for the US Navy to actually know what really happened but decided to make us look like the aggressive ones, though it's unlikely since they have no reason to do so. It's possible for the surviving crew members of the sunken destroyer to lie to their superiors, thus leading to our current situation."

"So, how would we prove our innocence?"

"The Kii has her own black box in case of such situations," Yamamoto joined in, "so all of the battle's data has been saved inside it. Ship actions, video footage from all the bridges, all of it is contained inside the black box."

"Nice," Masato replied, "but why are we not releasing it into the project website now?"

"Two things." Yamamoto explained. "One, we currently have no internet access for the rest of the journey, as we're taking the long way towards Kure. Even if we get a signal, we would need a long time to upload all of the information as the connection would probably be weak. Two, a VPN connection cannot be used to release such information, so our location would be revealed, compromising the safety of the ship."

"I see," commented Masato.

3 HOURS LATER

After the last of the resupplying was done, both ships parted ways; Persistence back to Sydney and Kii back on her voyage towards Kure. The battleship plowed through the warmer seawater, her determination stronger than ever.

"Hey," Hikari called out, "according to our current path, we will be crossing the Coral and Solomon Seas within the next week or so."

"I see, and?" replied Masato.

"Those are the locations of major battles back during the Pacific War. The Battle of Coral Sea and the Solomon Islands Campaign."

"Damn, I never took note of that," Masato answered, interested.

"My grandfather was on board Zuikaku, one of our aircraft carriers, during the Battle of Coral Sea," Yamamoto said, surprising both Hikari and Masato.

"Nice, what was his position?" Hikari asked.

Yamamoto gave a small smile. "Radio operator."

As the Kii continued on her journey, the radar began to show some dots.

"Five contacts 34 kilometers towards port, coming in fast. They're aircraft," Hikari reported.

"All crew to battlestations, we're going to conduct a surface-to-air attack. Turn on the deactivator field, all officers to the AA bridge!" Yamamoto ordered.

This time, the other officers played it smart and rushed over to the elevator, closing the doors right before Masato, Hikari and the Captain rushed over.

"Well," said the Captain, "it wouldn't hurt to climb the steps, would it?"

The anti-aircraft bridge, directly above the combat bridge, was designed to allow the captain to have a full view of the sky, without a roof. This allows him to be able to clearly look for any changing circumstances taking place in the air, so that he can take the best possible actions necessary.

"Are all of the AA weaponry ready?" Yamamoto asked as he reached the open platform."

"Yes, sir. All anti-aircraft weaponry are on standby."

"The deactivator field is up, sir."

Just a few moments later, ten dots can be visibly seen coming towards the battleship, while the sound of helicopters approaching was clearly audible. These were US Army Apaches, sent from mainland Australia after satellite observation showed the Kii in the vicinity.

As the Apaches approached nine kilometers within the battleship, Yamamoto gave the order.

"Commence anti-aircraft defense!"

As the heavy AA guns began to fire at the Apaches, the helicopters simultaneously launched their missiles against the Kii. As expected, 7 missed. The other three were fortunately defected by an additional backup field before the dead zone, a feature that Anderson forgot to mention to both Hikari and Masato until some time after the sinking of the Porter.

The Apaches entered within 6800 meters of Kii, and the pilots soon realized that they had committed a huge mistake.

That was when half of the one hundred and sixty-two 25mm light AA guns were able to fire upon them.

As a full barrage of anti-aircraft projectiles were fired upon the helicopters, the helicopters began to be taken down. One by one, each Apache was hit, crashing into the sea after leaving a trail of black smoke.

"All air targets are eliminated," Hikari reported.

"It's too early to rejoice, there's bound to be at least twenty more. Yamasaki, load the sanshikidan on the 46cm guns, and set the fuses to a height of 500 meters."

That order was quickly passed down, and within two minutes all of the nine massive guns were loaded with the incendiary shells. The turrets were then rotated and elevated, anticipating the incoming attack

Sure enough, twenty-five contacts were shown on the radar, rapidly approaching the battleship. As soon as the helicopters reached 10 kilometers, Yamamoto ordered the main guns to fire

"Fire the main guns at the air targets!"

As each shell approached the targets and reached their designated height, they immediately blew up, shooting out incendiary tubes that ignited half a second later that hurled towards the incoming aircraft. 21 were immediately shot down, while the surviving four were downed from the heavy AA guns as soon as they came into range.

"All targets destroyed, captain."

"There may be more. Stay alert, and prepare for another wave."

However, none ever came, and soon the Kii led down her guard.

If such attacks continue, we would be in a disadvantageous position. Our best move now would be to leave the area as quickly as possible, and retreat into the Coral Sea. Hopefully the Americans will give up their search for us, even if it were for a short while.

"Full steam ahead, we need to leave this area now."

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Unnamed International News Channel

25 May 2021

GMT +0 0645

This is breaking news from (censored), your reliable source of news all around the globe. Just two hours ago the battleship Kii had shot down thirty-five Apache attack helicopters over the Tasman Sea, leaving ten survivors from the downed aircrafts. These helicopters were sent from Australia by the US Army by the request of the US Government, to hunt down and sink the battleship in order to protect international waters from this threat. However, the vessel managed to shoot down all aircraft without suffering any damage, using seemingly only weapons with designs dating back to the Second World War. Recovered footage from one of the helicopters showed the Kii firing its anti-aircraft armaments at the helicopters, downing the helicopters swiftly. The Admiral of the US Fleet, Daniel H. Rodgers, had set up a press conference earlier today in response to this incident.

"How the helicopters had been shot down so easily is still a mystery, but we have information that the vessel utilizes an advanced piece of technology in order to defend itself. The Navy will not rest until this menace is put to rest for good."

This was not the only operation executed against the battleship. Earlier today, seventeen people had been detained by police forces all around the world, with the belief that these individuals were involved in the construction of the Kii. Stay tuned for more information.