Time skip 2 hours

Now Intrepid had shown Airi most of the base, where the repair baths were, the docks, mess hall, and so on. Though as the day progressed Airi could see a few ships leaving and entering the port, for their patrols. But now they passed by a large building with what looked like an Abyssal factory connected to it. Though Airi wasn't entirely sure if it was an Abyssal factory or not.

"This is the R&D building on base" Intrepid said "though most of us don't go there unless we're needed. Like if you're getting a retrofit"

"Hmm, do you know what they make there?" Airi asked, though she tried to make it more innocent sounding.

Intrepid shrugged her shoulders "Eh, not really. Besides the semi-modern equipment they're making, most equipment apparently never gets used" now she started to walk away "though I have heard that somethings are crazy"

Now Airi ran a bit to catch up with her and asked "like what?"

Intrepid stopped now and looked around before leaning in near Airi's ear "I heard from a friend that apparently they're making cats" Now she leaned away from her, but had a smug look like she had just said something fantastic.

Airi stared at her confused and just said "cats?"

"Well that's the most I heard" Intrepid said "maybe they're cats that can shoot lasers out of their eyes"

Airi was just confused by what she said and didn't know how to respond. So after a while she asked "so where to next?"

"Hmm, let's see, I showed you the repair baths, mess hall... oh! I forgot something near the dorms! There's a bunch of shops that some ship girls run in their free time. Oh! And the dorms themselves!" now she grabbed Airi's wrist and tugged on her "come on! Follow me!"

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Time skip 10 minutes, Location San Diego Naval base, shops

"Here we are" Intrepid now said. Now she and Airi could be seen on a road lined with shops. Though the shops only went on for about 50 meters before ending, there were quite a lot, mainly open stalls with different trinkets and candy shops.

"Ooh" Airi said as she now looked down the road at the shops, seemingly overwhelmed by how many there were.

"Most of these are run by ship girls in their spare time, though some humans take care of them when the ship girls can't take care of them" though now she tugged on Airi's hand "come on, there's a really good candy shop here. I'll get you something if you want"

Now Airi went along, and stared at everything in awe. While the road was lined with shops, there were dozens of other ships girls and naval personnel there. Though part of her felt like she was just being dragged along by Intrepid. But she liked the upbeat and cheerful attitude the carrier had.

But now as she and Intrepid stood at one of the stalls to a candy shop, she thought of what she should try and find out first. She knew that the R&D building would be a prime target, but first she needed to find an excuse for going there. Or if she snuck in she had to have an excuse of why she was there.

She was so engulfed in thinking about this, that she didn't notice Intrepid trying to get her attention. "Airi, Airi?" Now she put a hand on her shoulder and said "Airi, What do you want?"

Airi snapped out of thinking now and paused "oh, uh..." she looked up at the menu and was surprised that such a little shop had such a vast menu. "Uh... you can choose what you think is best" she responded. Intrepid smiled now at her and ordered 2 donuts.

Though now after that, Intrepid showed her over to the dorms, which wasn't that far away.

The dorms were made up of four large buildings that looked around 6 or 7 stories tall. 3 of them were light gray while the fourth was a darker gray. They were in a square shape, and in the middle was a small courtyard and pathways connecting the dorms together.

"And these are the ship girl dorms. The light grey buildings are for the American ship girls, and that one dark grey one is for foreign ship girls" Intrepid said.

"They're so big" Airi said, as she stared up at them.

"Well, they need to be. The ships in the docks are only the major ones. But there's tons of smaller ships, patrol boats, mine layers, mine sweepers, frigates, corvettes etc. San Diego is the largest American naval base on the west coast after all. And they need a place to store their riggings. Though there's some older ships that are to small to actually fight on the frontlines, so they're relegated to base defense and base upkeep"

"How many are there?"

"Mm, if I had to put a number to it, probably 130 to 210 ship girls. Though most of those are auxiliary ships" Airi stared blankly now, and seemed worried. If she was found out she'd be in the middle of a base with hundreds of ship girls. But Intrepid took her expression to mean she was impressed. She smiled proudly and said "but that's just San Diego. I used to operate in Norfolk and that's even bigger. Like closer to 280 ship girls"

Now Airi stared up at the darker gray building before asking "is that the one I'm going to live in?"

"Probably" Intrepid said "though it's mostly empty. Only quite recently did foreign ships start coming here. You heard though, you'll be bunking with me until a room can be prepared for you. Come on, I'll show you it now"

Now Intrepid led Airi into one of the buildings, which was located to the left of the dark gray building. From above it'd be the top left most building in the 'square'. Though now inside it, Airi could see a lounging area, with many ship girls, though they were all short, a little shorter than herself.

Intrepid noticed that Airi was looking at them and said "Those are PGM-9-class gunboats. Seems they're back from their picket duty for some relaxation"

"When do they normally go out?" Airi asked, as Intrepid now led her over to an elevator.

"Hmm, I think they normally go out at like 5 AM, then they seem to rotate patrol duty every 4 hours. They're the first line of defense against any would-be attackers. Though they don't normally go into the open ocean"

"Hmm" Airi said as the two were in the elevator. Now she saw that the building seemed to have 6 floors, though technically 7 as there was a basement. Intrepid then pressed the 5th floor button, the elevator closed its doors before ascending upwards.

"So do you know if you're going to fight or not?" Intrepid Asked.

"Oh... uh..."

"It's alright if you don't want to. I can understand you've been through a lot"

Now Airi paused, before clenching her fist "the Blue merchant fleet is still out there. I... want to destroy them"

"Hmm, I can understand that. We've never really had all to good a relationship with them, so we can help you if you want"

"You would?" Airi Asked, as she looked up at Intrepid.

"Yep. We're friends after all" now Intrepid smiled at her.

"Friends..." Airi muttered to herself quietly. Now the elevator dinged and the doors opened, letting the two onto the fifth floor.

"Come on, this way" Intrepid said.

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Time skip 1 day, time 5:00 AM, location San Diego Naval Base Admiral's office

Now Admiral Falcon could be seen alongside Enterprise now, in the office. Both had confused looks as they looked at a creature that was about 30 centimeters tall, looked like a round brown cat with a sailor's hat and tie, yet stood on two legs.

In front of the table was a young man who looked to be in his thirties. He had short brown hair, and brown eyes. He wore a simple whit lab coat and black pants. Though a name tag was on his lab coat and it said 'Jenkins'

"So... what is this exactly?" Enterprise asked. She was curious about it, though she was also holding back the urge to pick it up and cuddle it as it looked fluffy. But she didn't want to break that persona of a serious woman in front of someone that wasn't her Admiral.

"It's a new thing we've made at the R&D department. We've coined its name, the meowfficer" Jenkins said, with absolute seriousness in his voice. After he spoke the meowfficer did an army salute towards Admiral Falcon.

Falcon lowered his head and laughed. Then Enterprise asked "is something wrong, Sir?"

He continued to laugh before saying "a decade ago, if you told me I'd be in charge of living warships, and married to one, and now have a..." now he motioned to the meowfficer "cat, saluting to me, I'd think you'd be high on something" now he scoffed "anyways, what is it... exactly? What can it do?"

"Well by itself sir, a meowfficer isn't that good for anything, but if taken with a fleet it boosts their fighting capabilities. We have yet to see the overall extent, but this one, who we've named Potato, seems to affect battleships, giving them a slightly decreased damage when hit"

"Do we know anything else about how they can be used?"

"Well, I said we don't know the full extent, but we do know a few other boosts include increased damage output, accuracy boost, maneuverability boost, and more we have yet to see. The effects are relatively small, but in the long run they'd add up"

"Hmm... interesting"

"Do we know how many can be put in a fleet?" Enterprise asked.

"Not exactly Ms. Enterprise, like I said we don't know the full extent. But so far our calculations show that there can be two meowfficers per 10 ships. Though if they were all battleships, then that'd go up to 6, and if they were all destroyers then only 1 meowfficer. At least that's what we think"

"So, theoretically, if you have a large enough fleet, you could stack their effects onto each other?" Admiral Falcon asked.

"I cannot answer that, Sir, as we don't know yet. It might be possible, but there may be a hard limit"

"Hmm, I see. Do they take wisdom cubes to make?"

"No, Sir"

"How expensive is it to make one?"

"This one alone was $100,000. But that was just normal prototype costs, it could be lowered to about $60,000 to $80,000"

"Hmm, that's chump change" Admiral Falcon said before chuckling "if they're as good as they seem to be... they could be very important. Then I'll see what I can do, to help get more funding to dig deeper on their uses. For now continue on, researching. This one though will be assigned to New Jersey and Iowa, for any future sorties, to see how well they do in battle"

"Yes, Sir" Jenkins said before turning around, but before he left he looked back and said "come on Potato" immediately the cat jumped off the desk and ran towards him before running out the door. Jenkins soon followed the cat and closed the door behind him.

Now Falcon let out a heavy sigh "every day is seeming more fantasy like"

"What do you mean?" Enterprise asked.

"I mentioned it before, a decade ago I'd have thought all this would be some kid's imagination. Aliens, Living Warships that can come back from the dead, and now round... cats that seem alive" He sighed again "apparently the Japanese have their own form of... meowfficer? I think that was it. But it isn't actually a cat"

"What is it then?"

"Ah, I saw a picture. It's like a 4 or 5 inch tall human with an oversized head. They call it a fairy, Nakamura showed me"

Enterprise sighed "do you think we can truly trust him? He had a close relationship with Yamato"

"Well, he's the japanese' Admiral so it'd be their decision to remove him. But I think he will do the job. I think it'd actually be better to keep him an admiral actually"

"Why? Wouldn't he cause more chaos if he's acting as a spy?"

Now Falcon stood up from his chair and turned to look out the window "Yamato is looking for everyone who will side with her. There aren't many humans who will help her, at least directly. But if Japan discharged him for any reason, honorable or not, Yamato could find an ally. He may only be human, but he could help her massively. At least keeping him as an admiral, they have him under watch"

"So you're suggesting he's an enemy?"

"He could be, if we make him" now he let out a heavy sigh "there are people who side with Yamato. They may be few, but they're still there. Who knows how many have sided with Yamato, but are keeping it secret?" Now he turned to look at Enterprise "they may be our allies, but DO NOT trust anyone from the Southern Trench... I don't have concrete evidence, but I don't think someone who was as loyal as Ramka or Raffel would betray Yamato that easily"

"Then why don't we attack them? Before they can cause any destruction"

Now Falcon laughed "that'd turn the entire Southern Trench against us. It'd go from you having a chance at beating Yamato, to not having one at all. Besides, the Southern Trench likes to experiment with things. Different prototype weaponry, new retrofits etc. But... it's because I don't fully trust the Southern Trench that I didn't reveal what we are truly developing"

"You mean... project Dallas?

Now he nodded "this could truly change the tide of the war, and how we fight. And with the meowfficers and fairies, a ship girl fleet could possibly rival a Hadal. And that's what we need. But don't bring it up around anyone else right now. If it fell into Yamato's hands she could become so powerful that NOTHING short of some supernatural being could stop her"

"What about that Abyssal? Anti-aircraft Princess? Should we trust her?" Enterprise asked.

"Always be weary of new people, but I think we can" Falcon said, as he looked back out the window "the Blue Merchant Fleet is infamous. They dabble in the ship girl slave trade. They know how to capture ship girls effectively and then sell them, as sex slaves"

Enterprise seemed disgusted at what Falcon said and clenched her hands into fists. "Why didn't we stop them sooner?"

"Because of that fact. Apparently the ship girls from the world they came from were much stronger. So facing and capturing any ship girls we'd send to face them would be a piece of cake for them. I don't think they'd be able to do it to you, but even someone like New Jersey or Iowa would be vulnerable. And I don't want to risk my ship girls into being sold into slavery, especially after hearing what Airi said. If that's what they treat their own comrades like, I'd hate to think how they treat captured ship girls"

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Time skip 2 hours, time 7:10 AM, location 90 kilometers off the coast of San Diego

Now a group of three PGM-9-class patrol gunboats could be seen, sailing slowly in a single file line, with about a 90 meter gap between each other. They were going only about 12 knots southwards.

"So, What do you normally do on patrols?" Airi asked, the three PGM-9-class.

The leader was PGM-11 though she was called Betty "Eh, normally we just play cards or talk. We received radar and sonar a while ago, so unless they malfunction we don't need to look ourselves" Betty appeared to be a little girl, with blond hair tied up into 2 short pigtails. She had yellow eyes and a flat chest. She wore a simple navy blue dress, with a white coat over it, and the coat's hoodie made it look like she had two cat ears.

"Though most patrols are just boring" PGM-20, otherwise known as Eliza, said, in a voice trying to mimic a British accent. Eliza appeared to be a little girl, with long light brown hair, blue eyes and a flat bust. She wore a frilly pink dress with loose blue sleeves, and had on 2 bows that made it look like she had wolf ears.

The third PGM-9-class there, PGM-13 who was also called Alice, stayed silent. She was also a young girl, with white hair tied into a long ponytail, she had red eyes and a flat bust. She wore a red winter coat dress that had frills, and a red winter hat that had fake white bunny ears attached to it.

All three of them were shorter than Airi and seemed younger, though that was just by their appearance.

The 4 of them, Betty, Eliza, Alice, and Airi were on Betty's ship, the lead ship out of the three. They were on the stern of the ship, as there was a little bit of clear space for all of them to sit in a circle.

"So we're going to play cards then?" Airi asked.

"Yup" Betty said, as Alice pulled out a deck of cards and started shuffling.

Though Airi was surprised by how seemingly nonchalant the 3 were about her presence. She thought they'd be a bit more interested in her, but it didn't seem so.

Though now as Alice distributed the cards out to them, they were going to play go fish, Eliza asked "so you were part of the Blue Merchant Fleet?" Again she seemed to try to mimic a British accent.

Airi hesitated before saying "yes, I was" though now as she received her cards, she de-summoned her riggings as they'd get in the way.

"Ooh~ so you're from another world" Betty exclaimed "what was it like? Also you go first, Alice"

Now Airi hesitated as Alice spoke in a soft voice "Do you have any Kings, Eliza?"

"No, go fish" Eliza said.

Now Betty saw Airi's hesitation, and a sad look on her face "did something bad happen to you?"

Airi hesitated again before Eliza said "I heard that the Blue Merchant Fleet is The meanest of the four fleets. They deal with the ship girl slave trade" Now a chill went down Betty's and Alice's spine, at the mere mention of the ship girl slave trade.

"Were you a slave?" Betty asked.

Airi shook her head "no... the slaving fleets were the higher ranked fleets. I was part of a scraping fleet..." Now the game seemed to pause as it was Airi's turn. But she didn't speak.

"what... what happened?" Eliza asked.

Airi hesitated for a long moment "every single day, from the day I was picked up by the fleet, they abused me. Everything I did was never enough" now the 3 patrol boats could see tears in Airi's eyes "no matter what they'd always find a reason to beat me. But that was just the women, the men..." she shook her head "let's just say I'm no longer a Virgin" The 3 girls stared in horror at what Airi said, but now had looks of pity. Airi lowered her face after seeing the reactions of the 3.

But now Betty said "Well, if we ever run into them, we can show them hell that it is to fight the Eagle Union"

"You don't need to worry about that anymore, we're here for you" Eliza said.

"Eh?" Airi said as she raised her head.

But now she saw as Betty leaned over and started head patting her "if anyone nasty tries to do that again, then we'll protect you"

Airi slightly lowered her head, and quietly said "thank you" Betty and Eliza giggled seeing her reaction.

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Time skip 4 days, time 12:01 AM, location San Diego Naval Base

Now Airi could be seen in her dorm room. It simply had a bed, a little desk, a closet for her clothes, and a bathroom. There was also a window opposite of the door, so she could see outside, but it was nighttime and only the human city of San Diego populated it. Most of the base was sleeping, though the nightly patrols were out.

Airi had been assigned for the past few days to patrol with Betty's squad. So she'd get up at 4:00 AM, to go out for the first patrol from 5-8 AM, and would then get three hours off before she'd go for the 11 AM-2 PM patrol and so on. Though she'd only go on the 5-8 PM patrol and then return and be allowed to sleep, till her patrols started the next day. All of the patrols were scheduled, though besides the company of the 3 patrol boats, the patrols themselves