The training grounds was a part of the base that had been modified to cater to all ship classes, from underwater targets for submarine warfare, long range distance targets for carriers, and moving targets loaded with practice rounds for anyone aiming to test their combat skills.
Custom-made Abyssal princess targets, with their respective power levels programmed into them by the resident computing genius Kirishima, built by the late engineer Yuubari, and maintained by the repair girl Akashi, were stationed in the makeshift docks at the range, a challenge to be taken up by any Fleets willing to test the limits of their teamwork.
An extended area of ocean was reserved for PVP, or pitting fleet against fleet in a friendly round to bring a breath of life and unpredictability to training, in contrast to the pre-programmed Abyssal practice targets incapable of improvising and creating new tactics unless manually controlled by an overseer of the training.
The Abyssal bots compensate for their static patterns by simply increasing their speed, agility and firepower, matched only by the strongest and fastest ship girls.
Combined with a ship girl with competent micromanagement skills and an ability to formulate a basic strategy, and even a simple fleet training exercise can escalate into a heated firefight, not unlike in reality.
Capable of hosting up to 4 fleets, the name ship of the Ayanami-class was on the training grounds, practicing her strafing manoeuvres to avoid the shells of the Abyssal Destroyer bots, currently set to a low firing speed to accommodate the destroyer.
A brown-haired ponytail with a barely formed widow's peak, with emerald eyes on a youthful Japanese face and a brown-white school uniform making up the destroyer performing an evasive dance atop the sapphire sea.
The overseer, a Heavy Cruiser with black twin-tails held up by white ribbons. Her orange, green and white one-piece dress, with a knee-length sock up her right leg, and a thigh-high stocking up the other, partially covered by her ship girl equipment.
Supervising and playing against the fledgling ship girl on the range by controlling the Abyssal bots in an installed module in her mind, she was training Ayanami in dodging and map awareness skills, the red dots on her map orbiting about the solitary blue dot as Ayanami twirled and weaved past the ballad of bullets, intent on bringing her down regardless of their lack of lethality in their weapons.
Tone the Heavy Cruiser finally called off the assault, remarking on her earpiece,
"Good job, Ayanami. Those were the first few levels though, so don't be afraid to crank it up a notch on the range if you think you can handle it."
As Ayanami simply nodded in thanks to the Heavy Cruiser, noting the Abyssal bots sinking back into the ocean, likely guided by autopilot into their maintenance pods, content to stand by until they were summoned again for another round of practice.
Sailing back to the edge of the base, she was greeted by her overseer for the session, with a fuel can in one hand and a small magazine of ammunition in the other. Likely bought from the vending machines littered around the base before the training, Ayanami accepted them both graciously from Tone, who smiled down at her.
Popping open and drinking the refreshing can of fuel to hydrate her body and to refill her fuel gauge from "Medium" to "Full" on her HUD, crumpling the empty can when she was finished to slowly bite at the edible can made of steel.
Noticing several ship girls coming by the range to join Tone, she loaded the magazine into her cannons, swallowing the remnants of the edible steel can, and moved to meet with her new team mates.
Tenryuu was nursing her bruised nose, along with a wounded ego. Why couldn't she make a good first impression for once?
When she was first constructed, she introduced herself to Shiranui, who simply stared her down until she cried. Then, she introduced herself to the newly constructed Shimakaze before being left in her wake in a race.
She wasn't going to give up though!
She'd show everyone what she was capable of, and hopefully get an upgrade to her stats and skills! But right now, she had a team to work with, and working together meant that she had to try to contribute to the team, and not just look out for her and her sister Tatsuta.
Speaking of her sister…
Tenryuu looked towards her purple-haired sister, smiling nonchalantly with her halo atop her head, in contrast to her darker personality more befitting that of a demon.
To be honest, Tenryuu never really had a problem with her sister's more sadistic persona, seeing it more as a charm that her sister held.
After all, she channeled that blood-thirst towards the enemy, and also looked out for her previous team, the 6th Destroyer Division that was Hibiki, Akatsuki, Inazuma and Ikazuchi.
In her own "dark-knight-slash-silent-protector" way, of course.
Besides, Tatsuta was her sister!
She wasn't going to treat her any differently just because she was a little detached from everyone else. Tenryuu was more of an active guardian and role model, being the expedition leader and Team Mom during the days when she led the 6th Destroyer Division.
Over some time, she had watched them develop their skills, eventually learning to be independent and split into different teams and roles.
It was a little sad seeing them split up like this, but they had reassured her that they would always remain as the 6thDesDiv, and more importantly, as sisters.
With Tenryuu as their mom in all but Class, and Tatsuta as their Batman. (for lack of a better comparison)
She shook her head to get her head back into the game, as Tone stood in the centre of the team. At some point in time when she was visiting memory lane, Hiei had appeared, bringing the last member of their team to the Training Grounds.
Junyou reeked of alcohol, and her clothes seemed to have been put on by an external party, likely Hiei, as her mismatched buttons and unkempt clothes revealed.
She was in a daze, fighting the hangover, dry throat and general headache that was the usual package that came with alcoholism.
Carried bridal-style by the grumbling and, at this point in time, really pissed off Hiei, Tenryuu could make out whispers of her plotting to dump Junyou in the ocean if the spiky purple-haired light cruiser vomited on her, as she slowly let Junyou down onto the ocean surface.
Tone coughed into her fist, catching their attention as she introduced herself to everyone in a mature, enthusiastic female voice that contrasted her "young teenage ship girl" motif.
"Good morning, team! I'm Tone, and I'll be your guide to the Ship Girl's Weapons and Tactics of the 21st Century! To be precise, it's the Spring of 2015, and the weather is perfect for training!"
"More like 'perfect for sleeping in'…"
Junyou mumbled, earning a low growl from Hiei, prompting her to shut up and nurse her headache quietly.
"Well, this session is more for our newcomer, but since she's been on a few sorties already, let's just run through the weapon introductions and get to the formation training."
Swinging around to show Shigure a 14cm Single Gun Mount, Tone remarked,
"These are the usual cannon we used in the war. They operate through a simple logic, 'The bigger the better', with built in safeties, but we all can only use cannons that are made to suit our classes, ok?"
Tenryuu saw Shigure nod, all of them understanding the simple logic behind it. Battleships couldn't use the smallest cannons fitted on Light Cruisers and Destroyers, and vice versa for the larger cannons.
Seeming satisfied with the nods from the team, Tone motioned down towards the torpedo launchers on her thighs, a mechanical joint allowing for more flexibility holding the strap on her leg and the launcher together.
"Storing any torpedo in the launcher when the launcher safety is 'on' will render them inactive, but you can still pull out and use inactive torpedoes. But turning the launcher safety off will activate all the torpedoes in the launcher. "
"Torpedoes by themselves work a little differently from the past. They work with a 'fire-and-forget' principle when shot out of our active launchers, but pull out inactive torpedoes and they can be used to melee kill any Abyssals. They don't have a muzzle flash, a smoking barrel, and hardly any recoil, so they're good for stealth, but are exposed targets with their warheads exposed compared to cannon ammunition, and most torpedoes leave trails as they move through the water, which can lead the enemy back to you!"
Tenryuu nodded along with the group, thinking that the torpedoes were useful for smaller ship classes to try to stay relevant in a battle against stronger opponents, and they weren't too hard to understand.
Active, they were relatively simple fire-and-forget underwater rockets. Inactive, they could be used as melee weapons for ship girls when they were forced into close-quarters combat, although it was a technique in close quarters fighting that few ship girls actively used due to the inherent risks of carrying an exposed torpedo in their bare hands.
Pulling out a Type 0 Reconnaissance Plane from her combat backpack, the Heavy Cruiser continued her monologue as she showed the seaplane to Shigure. The Fairy mounting the plane, a little girl barely the size of Tenryuu's clenched fist had purple hair held together by a visor cap with two bunny ears sticking on them.
Long sleeves covered her minuscule hands, and a float was around her tiny waist. Her head, large and impossibly balanced on her body, was chirping animatedly in a foreign language that didn't resemble any particular human language, but Tenryuu could somehow make out the Fairy's words introducing herself as Gabi.
She heard that they could only communicate with humans through written messages in the past, which led to a delayed construction of the ship girls.
Maybe it was a ship girl thing, to be able to understand these mysterious creatures who aided in their creation and maintenance since it would make sense if the Fairies programmed them to understand Fairy speech.
Tone explained the equipment in front of her.
"These are planes, that can help scout and bomb the enemies. They are piloted by the Fairies, who help us in combat to fly our planes, man our turrets and engines, and to act as damage control specialists to help us recover in combat.
Recon planes like the one Meiko is piloting now are different from planes carried by Carriers and Light Carriers like Junyou, which are classified as Dive Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, and Fighter Bombers."
Keeping the recon plane, and indicating to the final equipment on her shoulders, Tone said.
"Finally, these are Anti-Air Machine Guns, which help shoot down the enemy planes, and the largest AA guns can double as pseudo-cannons. "
The AA guns twitched upon being called, ready to shoot down whatever Abyssal signatures that were in the air.
"Now then, that's the end of the basic weapon guide for today! Let's gather up in formation! There are fleet formations which can help in certain situations, against certain enemies. So, let's move!"