>>6135600‘No trick to it,’ Raleigh said of changing size. ‘You’ve just gotta want it.’ You try concentrating on the idea of being a full-sized ship again, bridge and deck soaring high and proud over all but the tallest waves. For several long minutes, nothing happens. But soon enough you’re jolted by a most unpleasant whole-body sensation that can only be described as origami unfolding beneath your skin. You’re nearly thrown on your ass for the second time today with the sudden change, and getting yourself oriented is harder than it should be with a body that doesn’t react how you're used to.
Your eye height appears to be about at the level of your navigation bridge as a steel hull, you see as you get your bearings again, around eighty feet off the water. You try moving around deliberately, and though distance means things take a hair longer to get where they’re going, it all feels fairly natural. Yes, this is much more conducive to safe nighttime flight ops.
Thirty minutes later, after you’ve launched another dozen planes and recovered your previous event’s, the other members of your strike group are gathering on your position.
“Uh, lookin’ a bit different there, E!” Long Beach shouts from far below.
“Just think big thoughts,” you say back, voice huge and resonant. “You can do this too!”
The three women wrestle with the vague direction for a few minutes. Soon enough, Long Beach figures it out, and you watch again in amazement as she grows from a speck on the water to a sixty-foot giantess. Nagato manages shortly after. Bainbridge seems to have a bit more trouble, and you can almost feel the frustration radiating from her, but in the end she does get the hang of it.
“So, I have some good news, and some bad news,” you begin, once you’re all sorted out and in a safe formation.
“Is the part where the goddamn stars are wrong the good or the bad kind?” Bainbridge says.
“Tangential, apparently. There are dragons, werewolves, two moons, and forests on Mars now, but I didn’t have time to unpack that at all.”
“… How fucking much did we miss?”
“A lot, as I understand. The good news is, the Republic and our alliances stand, and we’re going to receive some proper support, to the tune of at least five destroyers shipgirls delivered by airlift, along with some air support including Lancers. ”
“Oh, well, that sounds pretty good.”
“The catch is that they’re all wartime shipgirls of an unspecified level of modernisation.”
Bainbridge’s eyeroll is palpable. “… I suppose we’ll make it work. So what’s the bad news?”
