Admiral Haru was slinking down her own chair as she sat in her own office, waiting for the Infiltration Fleet to show up as she nursed her back.
Geez, she was didn't want to sound like an old person as she was only 27 years old, but she was still human, and the fact that so many ship girls either glomped or tackled her affectionately took a strain on her back and body, and even a little destroyer weighed a fair bit heavier than the average human adult with her ship girl mode off.
She was wondering if she could at least request for a brace to be installed on her back before another heavy cruiser, or God forbid, Kongou accidentally sprain her back the next time she interacted with them again, relaxing as stretching like a cat would as she basked in the sunlight that was streaming in from the windows.
But that was neither here nor there as she heard a knock on the door, Admiral Haru straightening up in her chair as she curtly announced,
"Enter."
The door creaked open, and the Infiltration Fleet filed in with Sendai in the lead, being one of the best combatants in the night, and her obsession with night battles had also lent itself well in helping her learn about stealth, a coveted skill in the Infiltration Fleet.
Kagerou was talking animatedly to Shiranui, and she had an ahoge sticking out her forehead, colored a chestnut-auburn like the rest of her hair that was tied back in two ponytails with the help of yellow ribbons, and her collared white uniform was covered by a grey waistcoat, her similarly grey skirt covering her black compression shorts.
She had a green string tied around her collar, and her pristine-white gloves were holding the hand of her beloved sister ship.
Her cheery demeanor was a stark contrast to the pink haired destroyer beside her, the destroyer that was known as Shiranui of the Kagerou-Class destroyers, who spotted the same uniform save for a red thread tied around her collar in the style of a bow tie, and her blue eyes were steady and composed as she entered, much like the last destroyer beside her.
Arare was of the Asashio-Class destroyers, and her uniform consisted of a grey waist high skirt held up by overalls straps that reached up to her shoulders, wearing the same collared white shirt and school socks that stretched the length of her calves like the rest of the destroyers present.
She also had on dark grey cycling arm warmers, colored like her short hair that was held down by a chimney-like hat was strapped onto her head, the strap visible underneath her chin.
Together, the three destroyers and the sole light cruiser were the "muscle" of the fleet, going into situations and didn't carry too much with them during stealth missions to ensure a fast travelling speed, and a faster retreat if necessary.
Chitose the light carrier was wearing a white blouse that was straining to hold itself together at the chest, with a red dress over her black vest and a headband crowning her swept silver hair.
She was the scout and the Team Mom, and her planes could give the team a heads up when enemies were coming, and rain fire down on the enemies.
The final member, a submarine, was known less by her designated I-58 and more as Goya. A white and blue schoolgirl uniform top over a school swimsuit, and a strange ornament atop bright pink hair, a fitting match to her exuberant personality and expression.
The secondary scout to sneak below and stalk the enemies due to her capability to submerge underwater, she could scout out Abyssal fleets undetected and to strike where they least expect it.
They all saluted the Admiral, to which Admiral Haru waved at them to acknowledge their greeting as she got to the point.
"Alright, I gathered you here today because I've got a top-secret sortie for you girls to go on."
The ship girls were now a little more serious, even someone like Goya hardening her expression and listening to their commanding officer with rapt attention.
"This is considered a classified mission, and I know that you girls are professional enough to not divulge this to anyone, right?"
They all nodded resolutely, and Admiral Haru resisted cracking a smile at seeing how mature some of these ship girls were, and how they could take on such heavy responsibilities without question, continuing.
"Well, the recent Abyssal movements and strange phenomena occurring around the world are enough for me to suspect that they're trying to pull off something large, and you know what that means. I need you to go to this area..."
Spinning her laptop around to display the coordinates of the island that they were going to infiltrate, and the general layout of the islands that could be gleamed from both satellites in space and previous illustrations of the island itself, continuing,
"This island's sitting slightly beyond the Safety Zone, and it's currently uninhabited since we pushed out into their territory.
We were certain that the Abyssals were occupying it, although we never uncovered the full details of what they had on the island other than a production factory as the Abyssals pushed back before we could do a thorough sweep of the perimeter."
The girls shifted, remembering the push into the Pacific last autumn as the Abyssals defended these little islands with a vigor that was rarely seen, before abandoning them entirely and taking the ship girls by surprise, before they shortly came back with more of their buddies and drove the ship girls back.
The island was last reported to still be uninhabited by even the Abyssals, but there was no telling when the Abyssals were going to put an end to that.
"I need you to sail there, which we estimate to be take up to a day, since we included the time you need to wait for sundown while skirting the Safety Zone before entering Abyssal waters under the cover of night. Search the entire island for whatever they may have hidden on the island to clue us in on their activities, and since we have the rough timetable concerning the Abyssals' movements, we need you to capture a Wo-Class when an Abyssal patrol comes by around this time and approaches the island."
There was activity at the door again just as the ship girls were about to ask how they were going to do just that, Kirishima opening the door and nodding to both the Admiral and the Infiltration Fleet, both parties reciprocating the motion.
Kirishima walked in whilst carrying a small handheld case, the Kongou-Class battleship turning around addressing the confused ship girls as her every footstep made the floorboards creak.
The innocuous steel case was held out for the Infiltration Fleet to observe, the Kongou-Class fast battleship unlocking it to display a medical syringe with a needle to load, explaining herself.
"Seeing that the Admiral's displayed the time that the Abyssal patrol is estimated to arrive at the abandoned island and their usual patrol route, I suppose this's my part to introduce our new toys."
Pushing the case out for the interested ship girls to observe, Kirishima elaborated on what the item was used for.
"This here's a fluid that contains nano-machines to counteract the 'mental suicide' ability all Abyssals share to prevent capture and interrogation.
You need to inject this in the Abyssal at the nape of the Wo-Class's neck to stop her, since their minds use the port located there to send signals to the various weapons connected to them to self destruct, and we can use that to hack the mind directly and stop the order before it's carried out."
Kirishima flipped the box in a manner that caused the lid of the case to close on itself, clicking closed as Kirishima now held the case closer to her protectively as she continued.
"And if you'll follow me, I'd like to show one other equipment that we'd rather not bring out here, since it's classified and in the field-testing stage."
Kagerou raised her hand as she pointed out bluntly to make sure that they were on the same page.
"And we're the field testers, right?
So how are you so sure that the equipment's gonna work?!"
But Kirishima only pushed up her glasses, catching the sunlight and her lenses turning white as she simply commented.
"I was the one who designed this experimental tool and built it. Barring a few limitations that we're still working on, I stake my pride as the base's engineer on the personal guarantee that it'll work."