Summoning Habbakuk
darthcourt10
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Harry Leferts
The sounds of shoes against the tiled floor could be heard as two people walked down a hallway, both of them women in Naval uniforms. Different ones, but very similar to each other. Hands in her pocket, the first one in a RN Admiral's outfit gave the other a raised eyebrow. "So how have things been for you lately, Diana?"
Sighing, Rear Admiral Diana Lombard ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "The same old things pretty much." Then she paused before giving a shrug. "Well, before this happened anyways. Even for me, this is weird shit."
Eyebrow raising at that, Collingwood hummed. "Yes, well, I think that we all have been dealing with such. Especially in recent years."
Needless to say, that got her a snort from her old friend. For a few moments, Collingwood looked her over with a small frown as her mind drifted back. The Royal Navy Officer remembering how they met in Edinburgh at the university there with Diana studying abroad. The other woman was always quiet about her past, never really saying much except that she needed a change of scenery. But they had become friends over their university years with Diana heading into the Royal Canadian Navy after being told that Collingwood was heading to the Royal Navy.
Which also brought to mind one of their conversations roughly two years before Blood Week occurred. The two had met up as the vessel that Collingwood was on had come to Halifax and both of them were walking along the waterfront when they had begun to talk about their jobs. Much to her surprise, she found out that Diana had become the captain of her own ship well before she had. Said ship being the old HMCS Endeavour which the Royal Canadian Navy had bought back before she could be taken to the US and modernized with new equipment. Diana had revealed to her that the RCN was concerned with various disasters happening at sea, boats and ships disappearing without a sign of what happened to them.
Because of the small size of the RCN at the time, they were stretched thin and thus decided an older vessel, with a smaller crew would be capable of trying to find out what was going on unlike larger navies such as the USN and RN. Both of whom simply spread the task throughout their respective navies to cover more ground. Due to various things, Diana only mentioned that there was some real bullshit going on out on the waves from what she could tell. At the time, Collingwood had laughed and asked her if aliens were involved only for Diana to chuckle and shake her head. Then her smile had turned sad and she mentioned that her brother would have loved to have been in her shoes.
Diana then dismissed whatever ghosts of the past there were and gave her a serious look after glancing around. The words she had spoken then rang through Collingwood's head years later after she found out about wizards and witches. "There is something going on and it's big. But what it is? I've got an idea or two in regards to it, however do me a favor? Look at any reports that you see of what happened to other vessels in regards to sinkings, especially military witnesses. And look at multiple reports from said ships and you might see why I am not saying anything."
At the time, Collingwood had laughed it off as her friend being too paranoid. That was, until she did go and have a look. To her shock, in many cases some of the reports disagreed with each other. Usually in small details but ones that made no sense when one considers that they were looking at the same thing. But sometimes if two ships witnessed whatever happened, they reported entirely different things.
It was then that she felt a trickle of fear go down her neck.
However, she did get permission to send said reports to Diana which she did, with the other woman thanking her. In return, Diana sent her information she passed on to the Admiralty, all done through unofficial channels that both navies knew about, but did not speak of. For the next few years the two did their back and forth. Collingwood always did suspect that whatever Diana found was cause enough for the RCN to begin building more warships, modified versions of the previous Halifax class that was only seven years old for the oldest. Granted, she also knew that her old friend had gotten plenty of criticism for her mission, with some calling it the RCN X-Files.
Less then a month before Blood Week though, she received an Email from Diana. In said message, she stated that something really bad was about to happen and was going to do so very soon. Diana didn't go into how she knew such, though she included graphs and the like that showed a giant spike in missing person's on the waves. She also mentioned that she had unofficial sources elsewhere who knew the seas far better then anyone else. Who those people were, she would not say. But Diana was trying to convince the RCN Admiralty of the danger and asked for her to do the same with the Royal Navy while she was in contact with someone of the USN to do the same there. With the RCN, all she got was patrols to be stepped up.
The message ended with her asking for Collingwood to stay safe and that she will see her soon.
And then, three weeks later, Blood Week occurred while Diana's ship was out in the Pacific far from land. Despite the chaos going on, when she heard that the ship was considered lost with all hands, Collingwood had mourned her friend. Then, four days after Blood Week was "Over", the Endeavour limped into a still burning Vancouver, most of the crew still alive despite the damage the ship had taken. And she was badly damaged, bullet holes throughout the ship, one engine lost, and taking on water. But she had gotten home with the injured Diana there. More importantly though, they still had data that they had collected which proved invaluable in the months ahead in fighting the Abyssals until the shipgirls began being summoned in force.
Of course, Diana threw herself into the RCN Shipgirl Program and eventually through various actions rose up to be a Admiral herself, much like Collingwood had. Granted, usually she was in the Pacific which was why when Collingwood was invited to Montreal by Diana as the RN representative, she was more then a little suspicious. Shaking those thoughts off, she gave the brown haired woman beside her a look. Despite the somewhat haggard look, the green eyes in her face still shone brightly with intelligence and care. It was much the same sort of look that many shipgirl Admirals, the good ones, had. "So... am I to take it that this likely involves some sort of, ah. magical bullshite outside the norm?"
Lips curling upwards, Diana gave a laugh. "As a matter of fact, yes. How could you tell?"
Her tone dry, Collingwood snorted. "Because you are involved and I am pretty sure that you are the go to person for weird shite for the RCN." Instead of getting any verbal reply, all she got was a smirk. Expression turning serious though, the RN Admiral frowned. "You knew about wizards and witches before now, didn't you?"
Frowning, Diana sighed and glanced around as if to find any listeners. "Not... directly, no. If I met any, I don't remember which is normal. But I do know of them from certain other sources."
Now giving her friend a look, the Brit crossed her arms. "Oh? Am I to assume that some of these sources might be a certain group of mythological beings in the sea? Such as mermaids?"
Diana gave a laugh and there was a twinkle in her eye. "Got it in one. I knew a couple and they were passing on information to me. Same with some selkies that were in the Gulf before Blood Week. A couple of others as well I won't mention. But I couldn't exactly be open with that before now for obvious reasons."
Simply nodding, Collingwood watched as they reached a locked door with two Canadian soldiers standing to either side. Diana then put in a code as well as swiping her card before gesturing for Collingwood to do the same. Once that was done, they were through and into some place that the Royal Navy Admiral recognized as a small hospital wing. It was only when they came to one room that her eyes widened at the three women that were in modified tubs filled with repair fluid. "Are those..."
With a slow nod, Diana frowned some and glanced at her friend. "Queen Elizabeth class Battleships? As a matter of fact, they are." Her own arms crossed, she frowned as she noted how they were softly breathing. "We've identified them as the three Battleships that Canada was going to fund under the Naval Aid Bill of 1912. In which case their names would have likely been Ontario, Quebec, and Acadia. But..."
Leaning forward, Collingwood nodded. "You already have shipgirls of that name and they might have different ones."
Her lips twitching, Diana turned her friend. "There are some fighting to have two of them named Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as there's no ships with that name. But since they are Queen Elizabeth class..."
Only nodding, Collingwood went through what information she had. "You'll need to inform their sisters to have their crews train them. That makes some sense and I'll ask Cunningham which ones are available. It might be a few weeks though."
All Diana did was shrug in reply to that. "There is more though..." Gesturing for Collingwood to follow, she began to walk away. "We'll likely station them on the Pacific coast as we do need some firepower there. Quebec and the three Prince Sisters try their best, but..."
The British Admiral grimaced but nodded. "Understandable, the Pacific is more the battleground where Battleships do better in after all. The Atlantic is more Submarines and Merchant Raiders." Frowning, she furrowed her eyebrows. "How did you come across them?"
Still walking, Diana let out a sigh. "Believe it or not, it was on July first that we got a signal coming from an old barn on Île d'Orléans. Inside, we found them in what looked like sarcophaguses filled with liquid." Seeing her friend about to say something, the Canadian shook her head. "Yes, the same liquid that the Japanese reported. We're... going to attempt something with it in a little bit. If it works, the RCN will see a nice boost, if it doesn't? Nothing too much lost." Head tilted to the side, she continued. "There was a letter there from Jean Pierre Lavallée. A historical sorcerer from Canadian legend."
Eyebrows raising, Collingwood knew that surprise was written across her face. "He openly stated who he was? Considering things, that is... surprising."
Waving her hand around, Diana snorted. "Hence the current security. According to the letter though, he was giving it to Canada as a whole as a... birthday present." At that point, they came to a stop in front of another door and turned to Collingwood. "You don't mind cold, do you?"
About to say something, Collingwood stopped as a wave of cold air hit her and the breath of both women misted in the air. Upon entering though, Collingwood's eyes were drawn to the massive tub that dominated the room. At the gesture from Diana, she walked forward and blinked at the massive woman who laid in it. Said woman was at least eight feet tall with her silver hair in the repair fluid. "She looks like she's Inuit?"
Leaning over to look as well, Diana gave a nod. "As a matter of fact, she does. Notice anything else?"
Just about to comment, Collingwood blinked. "Wait... the repair fluid, it's frozen?" Turning, she gave a look to the other Admiral. "Who is this?"
Her lip curling upwards, Diana rubbed her arms a bit. "Say hello to HMCS Habakkuk, the largest Aircraft Carrier ever designed..."
The sounds of shoes against the tiled floor could be heard as two people walked down a hallway, both of them women in Naval uniforms. Different ones, but very similar to each other. Hands in her pocket, the first one in a RN Admiral's outfit gave the other a raised eyebrow. "So how have things been for you lately, Diana?"
Sighing, Rear Admiral Diana Lombard ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "The same old things pretty much." Then she paused before giving a shrug. "Well, before this happened anyways. Even for me, this is weird shit."
Eyebrow raising at that, Collingwood hummed. "Yes, well, I think that we all have been dealing with such. Especially in recent years."
Needless to say, that got her a snort from her old friend. For a few moments, Collingwood looked her over with a small frown as her mind drifted back. The Royal Navy Officer remembering how they met in Edinburgh at the university there with Diana studying abroad. The other woman was always quiet about her past, never really saying much except that she needed a change of scenery. But they had become friends over their university years with Diana heading into the Royal Canadian Navy after being told that Collingwood was heading to the Royal Navy.
Which also brought to mind one of their conversations roughly two years before Blood Week occurred. The two had met up as the vessel that Collingwood was on had come to Halifax and both of them were walking along the waterfront when they had begun to talk about their jobs. Much to her surprise, she found out that Diana had become the captain of her own ship well before she had. Said ship being the old HMCS Endeavour which the Royal Canadian Navy had bought back before she could be taken to the US and modernized with new equipment. Diana had revealed to her that the RCN was concerned with various disasters happening at sea, boats and ships disappearing without a sign of what happened to them.
Because of the small size of the RCN at the time, they were stretched thin and thus decided an older vessel, with a smaller crew would be capable of trying to find out what was going on unlike larger navies such as the USN and RN. Both of whom simply spread the task throughout their respective navies to cover more ground. Due to various things, Diana only mentioned that there was some real bullshit going on out on the waves from what she could tell. At the time, Collingwood had laughed and asked her if aliens were involved only for Diana to chuckle and shake her head. Then her smile had turned sad and she mentioned that her brother would have loved to have been in her shoes.
Diana then dismissed whatever ghosts of the past there were and gave her a serious look after glancing around. The words she had spoken then rang through Collingwood's head years later after she found out about wizards and witches. "There is something going on and it's big. But what it is? I've got an idea or two in regards to it, however do me a favor? Look at any reports that you see of what happened to other vessels in regards to sinkings, especially military witnesses. And look at multiple reports from said ships and you might see why I am not saying anything."
At the time, Collingwood had laughed it off as her friend being too paranoid. That was, until she did go and have a look. To her shock, in many cases some of the reports disagreed with each other. Usually in small details but ones that made no sense when one considers that they were looking at the same thing. But sometimes if two ships witnessed whatever happened, they reported entirely different things.
It was then that she felt a trickle of fear go down her neck.
However, she did get permission to send said reports to Diana which she did, with the other woman thanking her. In return, Diana sent her information she passed on to the Admiralty, all done through unofficial channels that both navies knew about, but did not speak of. For the next few years the two did their back and forth. Collingwood always did suspect that whatever Diana found was cause enough for the RCN to begin building more warships, modified versions of the previous Halifax class that was only seven years old for the oldest. Granted, she also knew that her old friend had gotten plenty of criticism for her mission, with some calling it the RCN X-Files.
Less then a month before Blood Week though, she received an Email from Diana. In said message, she stated that something really bad was about to happen and was going to do so very soon. Diana didn't go into how she knew such, though she included graphs and the like that showed a giant spike in missing person's on the waves. She also mentioned that she had unofficial sources elsewhere who knew the seas far better then anyone else. Who those people were, she would not say. But Diana was trying to convince the RCN Admiralty of the danger and asked for her to do the same with the Royal Navy while she was in contact with someone of the USN to do the same there. With the RCN, all she got was patrols to be stepped up.
The message ended with her asking for Collingwood to stay safe and that she will see her soon.
And then, three weeks later, Blood Week occurred while Diana's ship was out in the Pacific far from land. Despite the chaos going on, when she heard that the ship was considered lost with all hands, Collingwood had mourned her friend. Then, four days after Blood Week was "Over", the Endeavour limped into a still burning Vancouver, most of the crew still alive despite the damage the ship had taken. And she was badly damaged, bullet holes throughout the ship, one engine lost, and taking on water. But she had gotten home with the injured Diana there. More importantly though, they still had data that they had collected which proved invaluable in the months ahead in fighting the Abyssals until the shipgirls began being summoned in force.
Of course, Diana threw herself into the RCN Shipgirl Program and eventually through various actions rose up to be a Admiral herself, much like Collingwood had. Granted, usually she was in the Pacific which was why when Collingwood was invited to Montreal by Diana as the RN representative, she was more then a little suspicious. Shaking those thoughts off, she gave the brown haired woman beside her a look. Despite the somewhat haggard look, the green eyes in her face still shone brightly with intelligence and care. It was much the same sort of look that many shipgirl Admirals, the good ones, had. "So... am I to take it that this likely involves some sort of, ah. magical bullshite outside the norm?"
Lips curling upwards, Diana gave a laugh. "As a matter of fact, yes. How could you tell?"
Her tone dry, Collingwood snorted. "Because you are involved and I am pretty sure that you are the go to person for weird shite for the RCN." Instead of getting any verbal reply, all she got was a smirk. Expression turning serious though, the RN Admiral frowned. "You knew about wizards and witches before now, didn't you?"
Frowning, Diana sighed and glanced around as if to find any listeners. "Not... directly, no. If I met any, I don't remember which is normal. But I do know of them from certain other sources."
Now giving her friend a look, the Brit crossed her arms. "Oh? Am I to assume that some of these sources might be a certain group of mythological beings in the sea? Such as mermaids?"
Diana gave a laugh and there was a twinkle in her eye. "Got it in one. I knew a couple and they were passing on information to me. Same with some selkies that were in the Gulf before Blood Week. A couple of others as well I won't mention. But I couldn't exactly be open with that before now for obvious reasons."
Simply nodding, Collingwood watched as they reached a locked door with two Canadian soldiers standing to either side. Diana then put in a code as well as swiping her card before gesturing for Collingwood to do the same. Once that was done, they were through and into some place that the Royal Navy Admiral recognized as a small hospital wing. It was only when they came to one room that her eyes widened at the three women that were in modified tubs filled with repair fluid. "Are those..."
With a slow nod, Diana frowned some and glanced at her friend. "Queen Elizabeth class Battleships? As a matter of fact, they are." Her own arms crossed, she frowned as she noted how they were softly breathing. "We've identified them as the three Battleships that Canada was going to fund under the Naval Aid Bill of 1912. In which case their names would have likely been Ontario, Quebec, and Acadia. But..."
Leaning forward, Collingwood nodded. "You already have shipgirls of that name and they might have different ones."
Her lips twitching, Diana turned her friend. "There are some fighting to have two of them named Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as there's no ships with that name. But since they are Queen Elizabeth class..."
Only nodding, Collingwood went through what information she had. "You'll need to inform their sisters to have their crews train them. That makes some sense and I'll ask Cunningham which ones are available. It might be a few weeks though."
All Diana did was shrug in reply to that. "There is more though..." Gesturing for Collingwood to follow, she began to walk away. "We'll likely station them on the Pacific coast as we do need some firepower there. Quebec and the three Prince Sisters try their best, but..."
The British Admiral grimaced but nodded. "Understandable, the Pacific is more the battleground where Battleships do better in after all. The Atlantic is more Submarines and Merchant Raiders." Frowning, she furrowed her eyebrows. "How did you come across them?"
Still walking, Diana let out a sigh. "Believe it or not, it was on July first that we got a signal coming from an old barn on Île d'Orléans. Inside, we found them in what looked like sarcophaguses filled with liquid." Seeing her friend about to say something, the Canadian shook her head. "Yes, the same liquid that the Japanese reported. We're... going to attempt something with it in a little bit. If it works, the RCN will see a nice boost, if it doesn't? Nothing too much lost." Head tilted to the side, she continued. "There was a letter there from Jean Pierre Lavallée. A historical sorcerer from Canadian legend."
Eyebrows raising, Collingwood knew that surprise was written across her face. "He openly stated who he was? Considering things, that is... surprising."
Waving her hand around, Diana snorted. "Hence the current security. According to the letter though, he was giving it to Canada as a whole as a... birthday present." At that point, they came to a stop in front of another door and turned to Collingwood. "You don't mind cold, do you?"
About to say something, Collingwood stopped as a wave of cold air hit her and the breath of both women misted in the air. Upon entering though, Collingwood's eyes were drawn to the massive tub that dominated the room. At the gesture from Diana, she walked forward and blinked at the massive woman who laid in it. Said woman was at least eight feet tall with her silver hair in the repair fluid. "She looks like she's Inuit?"
Leaning over to look as well, Diana gave a nod. "As a matter of fact, she does. Notice anything else?"
Just about to comment, Collingwood blinked. "Wait... the repair fluid, it's frozen?" Turning, she gave a look to the other Admiral. "Who is this?"
Her lip curling upwards, Diana rubbed her arms a bit. "Say hello to HMCS Habakkuk, the largest Aircraft Carrier ever designed..."