Solomon Sea

29 MAY 2021

GMT +10 0307

"How's night shift?" Hikari asked as she stepped into the navigation bridge.

"So far nothing out of the ordinary," Masato replied, "Why are you up so early?"

"Well, I couldn't sleep, so I've decided to get up and take a little walk around," Hikari replied.

"Well, you've turned in early last evening, so of course you'd be wide awake now."

"And you headed off to your cabin and dozed off for 10 hours straight till dinner, thus the Captain placed you under night duty for tonight."

"Heh, guess I did, I woke up at 8 and wondered why the sky was so dark."

The two of them giggled a bit before becoming silent.

"So," Hikari started, "how bad was it?"

"How bad was what?"

"The ship, dummy. How were the damages from yesterday?"

"Pretty bad," Masato sighed. "Analysis of the damage revealed that the hits on the bow and the starboard side of the superstructure is rather severe, especially the latter since that same spot was hit twice. Those damages would actually be repairable, but we can't do much since-"

"- they require a drydock session," Hikari finished.

"Yeah, the only major damage we can fully repair would be that gaping hole below the night action bridge. The other two can only be temporarily patched up, the destroyed turrets and guns cannot be replaced unless we enter a drydock. At least we have no underwater breach, or a broken keel."

"So where would the repairs take place?"

"In the Solomon Sea, a repair ship will meet us there. We'll be refilled too, at least we'll make it to Kure with enough fuel to spare after all."

"I see," Hikari pondered, "The area has shallower water, making it unlikely for any heavy warships to chase us down. Good call."

"Also, the US Navy was expecting us to break out to the Atlantic from the west, thus the location of that fleet last night."

"Speaking of which, are those ships back online?"

"Yeah, they're back in operation, but the admiral of the navy had ordered a retreat. Insider intel from Anderson, don't ask me how he got that."

"That's great," Hikari said as the two of them looked out into the night sea.

The mighty battleship continued to plow ahead, anticipating whatever that would be coming in the future.

This concludes everything I've written in 2016. I may or may not continue, depending on other factors.