HEARD ISLAND

11 MAY 2021

GMT+5 1000

It was a beautiful scene to look at. A beautiful white island in the midst of gentle snowing. The gentle winds were chilly, but strangely comforting. There was almost no sign of life and warmth on this beautiful place.

Well, except for the people on board a large warship in the middle of a lake. More specifically, a battleship inside Winston Lagoon. And the heat was coming from the twelve Kampon boilers placed in the bowels of the vessel.

Yes, today was the date the battleship Kii set off for Kure, Japan.

How Anderson was going to transport a 72,000 ton vessel to Kure under complete secrecy without being detected was still a mystery. Perhaps the vessel has a special radar cloaking device of some sort on board. Or maybe a secret deal with the US Navy to hide the ship during its passage?

Fat luck. They're taking the scenic route, away from major shipping lines. And yes, they have no radar-cloaking equipment of any sort.

Yes, Anderson is mad.

Maybe not so, considering that the Australians have not even took notice of a large ship being constructed right under their noses, in their own territory.

The Kii was an almost-exact copy of the Yamato during 1945, boasting the exact same designs, armaments and characteristics her older twin-sister had. At two-hundred and sixty-three meters long, thirty-eight point nine meters wide and eleven meters of draft, she was an almost-exact clone of the Yamato, an impressive feat considering the current status of the original blueprints of the Yamato. The sixty-five thousand ton vessel weighs almost seventy-two thousand tons when fully loaded, and had the same crew complement of the Yamato, some 2500/2800 men. The vessel boasts actual weapons that could fire, one of the main reasons why the ship was built in secret, away from civilization. Design and performance-wise, the Kii was an almost-completely identical twin of the Yamato, down to the keel.

However, at the bow of the Kii, there was no Imperial Seal of Japan like the one found on Yamato, a reminder that the vessel was still an illegitimate child, never approved by the Japanese government and very much unlike her older sisters. Evan planned to register the vessel in Kure, thus allowing the battleship to carry the Imperial Seal with pride. To add on with that, thanks to the original designs of the Yamato being destroyed, the interior of the Kii was bound to have a few inaccuracies, though few.

At least she wasn't sunk, unlike her older sisters.

Back on board the Kii. All of the crew, mostly made out of willing volunteers secretly recruited by Anderson and his team, were standing on the deck of the vessel, awaiting the captain to give his briefing about the whole trip. Many were excited; though some of them were nervous, given the nature of the voyage and the possible consequences were it to fail. The vessel, being mounted with actual weapons, would almost be certainly be labelled as a threat, and who knows what would happen when the US Navy started to hunt them down.

The chatter swiftly quietened down, due to the appearance of both Anderson and another elderly man. The latter was the assigned captain of the Kii; a former JMSDF admiral, Yamamoto Masaru was a man people look up to. White-bearded and haired, the old man was still physically and mentally-strong, though he chose to retire a few years back. Curiously, Anderson refused to be the captain of the Kii (his reason being that he was unfit to command the vessel), instead settling down as the director of the whole plan.

It wasn't a surprise Yamamoto was selected as the captain instead of someone with lesser naval combat experience; when certain circumstances arise, only the admiral of a navy would know the proper steps to take.

Yamamoto stood on a small podium on the bow of the Kii, everyone waiting for him to start. After a short period of Yamamoto visually inspecting his crew, he spoke through speakers placed beside the elevated platform. And it wasn't a frail voice; Yamamoto spoke with the energy and momentum of an experienced fleet admiral.

"Men," he began, "you men were specially handpicked and trained by the team behind Project Kii, in order to operate the vessel you now stand on. Just 3 days ago, you men arrived on this island after 18 days of being on board three vessels from Singapore, where you were told to assemble at. I am very pleased to see that nobody was late or abandoned the plan." Yamamoto took a second to pause. "By now, all of you should be aware of our mission, as mentioned by the pre-briefings yesterday. Our journey would start here, on Heard Island, to Kure, a city in Japan. During this voyage, we would most certainly encounter many difficulties, including threats from other navies. However, by meeting with them head-on without fear, we will always come out at the top. Of course, fighting will always be the last resort, and these nine guns," he pointed towards the Kii's main armaments, "will only fire when the ship is confirmed to be in grave danger. I hope that all of you are ready to set out on this long voyage with your fullest. We will leave port at 1200. By now you would have known who your leaders are in each division, but we will briefly go through them to refresh our minds shortly. Do listen to their instructions, and follow them swiftly. That is all." Yamamoto walked off the podium, amidst a round of applause from the crew.

After the captain went down, a figure walked up to the podium. This female in her twenties was the communications officer and navigation officer of the ship; Iwata Hikari's job was to both communicate with, or intercept the messages of, other vessels and detect vessels on the radar. This was a crucial; as the ship had to travel under a cloud of secrecy, it would be unwise to be close to other vessels of any kind, as the ship's secrecy would almost certainly be compromised.

She was also briefly a former radar operator that served in the JMSDF around two years back, though she quit her job to specifically join the Kii crew. She was also beautiful, possibly already attracting the attention of some members of the crew as she stood in front of everyone.

And no, she has no intention to find a boyfriend. Rather, she joined the crew because she also had a keen interest in the Yamato-class, though not as great as Anderson's. Also, she also wanted to serve under the command of the famed ex-Admiral (now Captain) Yamamoto. In fact, that was the reason why she joined the JMSDF in the first place; she wanted to be an admiral, just like Yamamoto had been.

"I will now briefly re-cover the personnel in charge of each section. Engine room, Tomita Yachi." A middle-aged man raised his hand, among the row of people standing behind the podium. "Ammunition and weapon systems, Isozaki Tadashi." A man in his 60s, Isozaki was also a retired officer from the Japanese forces, perhaps serving along the time Yamamoto was still a tactical officer on board the Takanami. "Engineering, Usui Shoraku." Now this was a promising young man, freshly graduated from a university with an engineering degree. He wanted to join the crew of the Kii because he wanted to have an experience of what living on board an old vessel in the past would feel like. "Communications and navigation would be myself, Iwata Hikari. I would also be the second in command of the vessel, if the captain is unavailable. Tactical, Yamasaki Masato." A young man in his 20s, unlike the other officers, Yamasaki was initially inexperienced without any naval background, though he was both interested in warships and gifted with a high amount of intellect. However, after being scouted and "persuaded" to join the crew by Hikari, Yamasaki undergone a crash-course training in naval battle tactics, and within six months, completed his course with an unusually high degree of excellence, earning the respect of both Hikari and the Captain himself.

After Hikari's briefing was cut short by the Captain, and taking note that they have about an hour and a half left, the crew scrambled off to their stations and began to finish the final preparations before the ship set off. As people began to get busy, Hikari made her way up to the navigation bridge for standby, thinking she would be lonely there for quite some time. When she got there though, Masato was already waiting for her.

"Geez, it isn't like I'm racing with you, am I?" Hikari lamented with a friendly tone.

"Well, why do you want to get here so quickly? Can't wait for the departure time, trying to please the old man, or perhaps, you're looking for me?" Masato teased with an equally friendly tone.

When Masato first met Hikari and when the girl started to train him in naval combat tactics, initially Masato was disinterested, and the two of them argued frequently. However, as time went on, Masato realized that he had started to have a fast-growing interest in naval combat, and soon enough his arguments with Hikari evolved into disagreements of suitable combat maneuvers and actions instead of why he had to endure such boring lessons. Soon enough, both of them developed a strong friendship, and as soon as Captain Yamamoto took notice of the young man's talents, both of them also hit off well.

"It is a shame how the JMSDF never got hold of such a talented individual," Yamamoto told Hikari around three months back during one of his discussion moments with his student. "He would have been a valuable asset to the navy, being so intelligent and having the ability to create battle plans at such a short time in the simulations we gave him."

GMT+5 1150

Both friends continued chatting for a while, before Hikari went off to check on the preparation statuses of various locations around the ship. A few moments after she returned, the Captain, too, also arrived.

The officers all saluted when Yamamoto stepped into the bridge, and the Captain instinctively returned the salute.

"Communications Officer, are all the necessary preparations ready?" Yamamoto asked.

"All preparations are ready for departure. Boilers are ready and up to steam, everyone is at their necessary stations, and all non-crew members have disembarked," was the reply from Hikari.

"Hm."

Yamamoto checked his pocket watch; one that his father gave him when he was just a child. It was the watch that he had been carrying all along; he purchased it shortly before enlisting with the IJN, he brought it on board many vessels, particularly the actual battleship Yamato, and the watch survived the sinking of Yamato, along with his father and the lucky few of the crew. Strangely enough, it had never broken down, but that was probably because it was also rather regularly serviced and kept in mint condition.

It reads 11:55.

"Navigation officer, prepare for departure."

"Yes, sir."

"Helmsman, standby for departure."

"Yes, ma'am."

The air around the vessel soon filled with excitement, as the time of departure approached.

"We're leaving soon!"

"Engines on standby!"

"Check the boilers!"

Yamamoto checked the time. The time was fast approaching.

11:58.

The atmosphere of excitement around the Kii grew.

11:59

Everyone waited for the anticipated order. This was the moment they had trained for months to prepare. This was the reason why they had volunteered to board the Kii.

Hikari and Masato looked at each other with anticipation.

The second hand on the pocket watch moved.

56.

57.

58.

59.

12:00.

Yamamoto gave the long-awaited order.

"Raise anchor! Kii, set sail!"

As the anchor chain spun back into the ship, the four enormous steam turbines began to spin, producing a whiff of black smoke from her smokestack. As they sped up, the Kii began to move. One knot, two knots, four, six, nine.

For the very first time, the battleship Kii was steaming under her own power, amidst clapping and cheering from the workers and engineers that had built her, all standing on the lagoon banks behind her, while some of her own crew waved back on board.

The mighty battleship headed to the mouth of Winson Lagoon, at a constant ten knots. The lake that the Kii was built in, launched in, fitted in. The lake that had so far been the only place the Kii had been.

The lake that the Kii had called "home".

The vessel gently glided towards the mouth, creating gentle waves that spread out towards the banks of the lake. A gentle snowfall started as the vessel sailed towards the mouth. Her deck, covered with a thin layer of beautiful white snow, glistened in the afternoon sun, as the falling snow seemed to send the vessel off for her maiden voyage, too.

As the Kii exited the lagoon, her speed began to increase significantly, no longer being in the natural harbor that housed her. As the vessel sped up to 20 knots, she began to plow the water, a sign of the 150,000 shaft horsepower the vessel contained. Soon enough, she was leaving Heard Island and moving eastwards, roughly towards Australia.

Nobody noticed the peculiar man standing on the south end of the mouth of the lagoon, filming the entire departure of the Kii.