Arizona watched as the ship girl that had been escorting the tanker raced towards them wearing what appeared to be an American style Navy uniform. Sure it was cutesified like all summoning outfits it was obvious to the battleship they had an American ship but the weapon load out confused her. Atlanta seemed to have the same opinion as she noted the lack of guns the new girl was packing. “Definitely not an anti-air cruiser boss. Unless I’m missing something, that girl doesn’t have much point defense.” Arizona shrugged before moving out in front of her small fleet to confront the new girl.

  “Greetings! I’m BB-39 leader of Task Force Pearl. Who do I have the pleasure of meeting on these waters?” She asked with grace and dignity to the smaller girl. The unnamed Cruiser just stared dumbfounded at the larger woman as if a cat had caught her tongue. More than a foot taller and possessing the aura of a professional working lady Arizona had left an impression on the girl who until just earlier today had been a broke college kid trying to make ends meet.

  “Keep it up kid and you might catch a sea bird in your mouth.” Came a second voice causing the cruiser to turn and see another rather stunning example of femininity. “I’m CV-9 and I’m the fleet carrier for this group. Once you are down gawking over Arizona how about we get a name?”

  Holding back a choking sound the girl straightened up and gave her best impression of a salute. “CGN-42 as my tag states though I don’t have a name… yet at least.” She responded by bringing her hand down and fidgeting on the spot. This was embarrassing to say the least. She could see them consider what she said and then turned her eyes down. Names were important and the fact she didn’t have one bothered her so as she stood there trying to appear as small as possible.

  “Oh you poor thing… Paper ship huh and since your designation starts with a C I’ll assume you are a cruiser?” Arizona asked as the other two cruisers popped up on either side of the nameless girl startling her.

  “I’m CL-51 and this is my younger sister CL-53 ! Like you we are cruisers too but of the light variety! What does the GN in your designation mean?” The bubbly pink haired light cruiser asked inspecting all the Rigging on the new girl with interest.

  “Paper ship? Also according to my crew it means I’m a Nuclear powered Guided Missile Cruiser.” She tried to reply now that she was surrounded by four other girls with really big guns strapped to them. They all seemed really nice but in this situation she felt pretty intimidated. At least until the smallest of the group showed up and the cruiser gushed excitedly. “And who might this cutie be?” She asked bending down to get a good look at the elementary school aged looking child with the softest brown curls she had ever seen. Must not pet… Must not pet…

  “This here is DD-857 of our two destroyers. Yes you can pet her, I know that look on your face.” Arizona laughed, catching the cruiser off guard as her cheeks blushed. Bristol didn’t seem to mind though as she latched onto the new girl’s waist with a hug. “Paper ships though are ships that were not actually built. Sounds like your class ended before you were made, not the strangest thing and you aren’t the first of that sort.” Hearing what Arizona was saying did help take the edge off the cruiser as she snuggled the young girl like an oversized teddy bear.

  “Nuclear powered? Like those big aircraft carriers we used to have before they were all sunk by the Revenants? Why would they put one of those on a front line warship?” Essex asked in shock before getting closer to the cruiser and finding that the girl did indeed have a radioactive warning symbol located on her tower. Looking at the new girl waringly Arizona laughed at Essex a bit.

  “Don’t tell me you are afraid? Besides the aircraft carriers didn’t explode into nuclear hellfire when they were sunk did they? I doubt the new girl will either. So tell me kid, you don’t have a name but do you have something you want us to call you?” The big dreadnought asked wrapping an arm around her shoulder as a sign of affection. The cruiser was already learning how just touchy these girls were and despite being awkward it also felt comfortable and nice. She felt safe with this group and had to fight off the wetness leaking from her eyes. “What wrong hun?” Arizona asked, realizing the change of atmosphere with the cruiser she was holding shaking slightly with Bristol still in her arms.

  “Nothing wrong…” She muttered hiding her face in the top of Bristol’s head holding back her tears. “I’ve just been so scared since waking up. I miss my home and I’m here… Fighting monsters that pop up out of the water and I’m being told I’m a ship. I don’t even have my own name!” Losing her fight the new girl started to cry causing Bristol to hug tighter and the other girls not named Arizona to back up guiltily. “I was supposed to be at my parents' home for Christmas and now… Now I don’t know what to do.” The girl cried softly, placing her face into the battleship’s chest. If she had been in a better state of mind this would have been humiliating but Arizona gave off a sort of stability that belied the tragic history of the ship.

  “Damn Arizona you know how to make a girl cry…” With a bit of a snide remark Atlanta received a side eye from Essex before shutting up.

  “I understand hun. I wasn’t in the best state when I was awakened either. Comes with the territory, most of us have pretty bad memories of our time in hull.” Arizona said petting the girl who was in turn being hugged by the smaller Destroyer like a ship sandwich. “Though I have to ask, what do you mean by parents and Christmas?” She was curious about the phrasing the new cruiser used.

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  “Well I was in college and was driving to my parents when my car was hit by a garbage truck and then I woke up here. I wasn’t a ship previously.” With those words the other girls stared wide-eyed with San Diego pointing excitedly.

  “Like you were legit isekai’ed? Like in the animes right?” The younger pink haired light cruiser asked while practically vibrating. The new girl looked at her with a squint as if the question was silly. “Like you got hit by Truck-kun and wound up here? Are you from a different Earth or something? Did you have Revenants?”

  “San Diego, let’s leave the questions for later. We really should get going before those undead bastards decide to show back up. New girl, are you okay to travel?” Essex asked pulling Bristol off the girl and setting the pouting destroyer back onto the water.

  The nuclear powered cruiser nodded before pulling away from Arizona before wiping her eyes. She looked at the two before trying to settle her nerves. “Yeah I think I am. I’m still not very good at this but I seem to have really good radar. Want me to keep an eye out? It’s the least I can do.” She offered straightening her skirt and taking a deep breath to center her anxiety.

  “Good idea and thank you hun. Essex make sure to keep your recon planes shuffled out so that they don’t run out of fuel. Atlanta and San Diego take up positions to either side of the tanker. I’m gonna hook up and help tow it so we can get home faster. Bristol keep an eye on the new girl. Let’s head home.” Arizona gave out orders before contacting the tanker captain to let him know the plans. Then she connected a tow cable to the tanker and began to show the young cruiser the difference between humans and ship girls. Flexing her steel like muscles the dreadnought began to pull as the rest took up positions to head east towards Pearl Harbor.

  ____________________

  “So since you don’t have a name, is there something you would like us to call you?” Essex asked the young carrier who was traveling with her currently. She couldn’t help but watch the new girl with interest as they chugged along. Ship girls weren’t exactly unknown even if rare but a human turning into one via dimensional travel was completely new. Essex wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept thanks to watching a few shows with San Diego via a Crunchyroll subscription and it wasn’t like ship girls in general were magic in nature but it was still a new turn of events. And the new girl wasn’t just a regular ship but a relatively modern nuclear powered cruiser to say the least.

  “I don’t know enough to even guess at a name. I was from Ohio and according to my crew the other members of my class were named after states so how about we go with that?” She offered back to Essex. Even as she spoke it seemed the universe listened as her name tag on her uniform updated to reflect her new name as well. According to the plate of brass she was now CGN-42 and her crew began to celebrate the occurrence. One of the mini hers even broke out a bottle of whiskey to share, leading the newly named Ohio to question just what the deal with the little things were.

  “Guess that settles that. Welcome to Task Force Pearl . We are happy to have you!” Smiling sweetly Essex congratulated the girl as the other ships nearby who could hear also cheered the news.

  “Thanks! For some reason having a name really helps. I feel anchored, pun intended.” Giggling Ohio couldn’t help it which left Essex groaning at the bad pun. Before anyone could say anything else though she felt a sense of foreboding as a series of blips on her air search radar began to enter her sensor range from the south-west. “Essex are we expecting planes? Are your’s coming back from the South-West?” She asked as Essex instantly went into high alert.

  “Arizona prepare for incoming. Ohio, how close are they?” The fleet carrier asked preparing a clip of Wildcat fighters into her rifle.

  “Maybe 16 minutes at their current speed?” She offered trying to work the math out in her head. Essex nodded seemingly content with the information.

  “Thanks! Prepare for anti-air combat. How many can you count right now, Ohio?” The carrier asked again as everyone began to fall into a defensive screen around the tanker. Arizona was still connected but she was a battleship and fighting off fighters wasn’t exactly her best task right now. “Arizona, I suggest a fighting retreat. We are close and if we can beat back this wave we should be within cover fire of the base.”

  Arizona nodded in approval to the plan as she tensed and began to tug harder. The tanker was the slowest member of their convoy so getting it moving faster was needed. Atlanta and San Diego fell behind the tanker and pointed their guns into the interception path while Bristol hustled up to assist their dreadnought battleship with anti-air defenses. Ohio though was taking count of her targets before loading her twin rail launchers with SM-2s.

  “I’m counting 30 Essex. I have 62 SM-2s and I can fire four of them every 10 seconds. I think I can hit them all before they arrive if they aren’t expecting an attack at this range… My tomahawks can hit something about 1000 miles away but I can’t see what launched them.” She offered the carrier before setting up her locks for her missiles and once the blips started to turn red the missile cruiser unleashed the first wave of four missiles before setting up the next round.

  “Hmm… do it hun. If I can find the enemy carrier and get you coordinates, do you think you can use that to target their carrier?” Essex asked with a grin preparing a plan as she ordered her west bound scout planes to circle around to see if they could find the origin of the fighters sent after them. Ohio nodded at that as another series of missiles fired out before reloading and preparing another volley.

  “Aye, if you can get me a coordinate I’ll link it to GPS and I can set my tomahawks for radar guided once they get close to the coordinate. So each of them is about 1000lbs of explosives. How many do you think would be needed against one target?” She asked as four waves of missiles were out and the fifth was now being launched.

  “Damn girl, maybe you don’t need big guns if you pack that kind of firepower. Let’s do three of them. Keep doing what you are doing and I’ll get a few fighter screens out to take out what you don’t. If I find their ship I’ll let you know.” Essex laughed realizing that this might be the easiest fight they had had in awhile. Aircraft killed the battleship and it seemed like missiles might kill the aircraft at this rate.

  Ohio nodded, preparing another wave as the first of her missiles reached their target on her sensors. Even from their position you could see the contrails of the supersonic death tubes and then if you squinted you could see the first of the Revenant fighter bombers explode.