The Intelligence Room, filled with the Coordinators of the Base, was a fortress made up of stacks of papers and reports, occupied by machines clicking away and beeping softly to record and transmit messages of ship girls on sorties and to intercept and decode messages either from Headquarters or from any of the tens of thousands of Fleet bases around the world.
This room was, essentially, the "brain" of the base, coordinating local and international sorties and directing the orders of the Admiral through the proper channels to the ship girls, each one of them ship girls who were promoted by the Fleet Admiral, Namikaze Haru.
The base also contained a collective database on all ship girls ever constructed or found, as well as a formidable collection of intelligence on the enemy, on their ecology, classification, habits and known tactics among others, sharing this information with all who requested for the knowledge to help combat the threat on the seas.
The Coordinators in the room were currently busy with a meeting to try to answer the Americans on the projected schedule of the two-pronged assault on the Pacific Theater.
"What is your best estimate as to when we can consolidate our forces to push out into the West?"
Nagato, sitting at one end of the cluttered coffee table that was planted in the center of the room, taking up the Gendo Pose as she observed the members in the room.
Ooyodo, the central secretary ship responsible for coordination of the ship girl fleets, pushed up her glasses, partially obscured by her long hair and held back by her hair band.
She contemplated the question, her eyes seemingly distant as she calculated the Fleet's projected return paths, the estimated time of arrival and their refueling speed when they return to base, along with the logistics of resource and weapons allocation to the respective fleets for their sorties before replying.
"It will take at most 5 days for all the fleets to return. Then, my best estimates would be about a week for them to relieve whatever fatigue they may have accumulated over their sorties and prepare for the upcoming assault."
Musashi, a large and powerful presence in the room by her sheer size and height as a Yamato-class Battleship that overshadowed even Nagato, with her tanned skin, wildly-styled pale blonde hair, and large breasts held up by struggling bandages wrapped around her chest.
Wearing a red mini-skirt, black thigh-highs, a capelet and a metal collar with the Imperial Chrysanthemum Symbol upon it similar to the collars on Nagato and Mutsu, she raised a gloved hand from her crossed arms to push up her glasses, asking in a young and formal voice that rang with authority and power,
"If someone would be so kind as so inform me, am I included in this assault? I would certainly like to sortie to fight the Abyssal threat out there. We seem to have a stockpile of resources that we've amassed through countless sorties, and I'd like to prove my worth to the Admiral, since she was the one who planned for the construction of me and my sister, Yamato."
Yahagi, the Light Cruiser in the room, looked up from her laptop that contained the minutes, or notes, of the meeting, commenting.
"Of course, Musashi. We require quite a lot of firepower if we're to make any headway breaching the Abyssal defences. We'll certainly require your expertise, as well as your firepower to annihilate the enemy. After all, that's what the resource stockpile is for. For the Battleships and Carriers to resupply quickly and re-sortie. You'll get your time to shine."
The Light Cruiser smiled at Musashi, her black pony-tail falling to one side as she regarded the Yamato-class Battleship. Her gloved hands flew over the laptop, continuing to type in the minutes of the meeting, noting Musashi's eagerness to begin fighting.
Mutsu stood to the corner of the Intelligence room, smiling at Musashi's blush and nod in response to the Light Cruiser's reassurance. She thought it was cute how polite the battleship could be, especially when she was one of the capital ships in the base who automatically garnered everyone's respect.
It was obvious that despite her extreme resource consumption rate and her efficiency at paperwork hampering her chances of sortieing, she wanted nothing more than to drop everything and sail the seas to protect her fellow ship girls from harm.
Kirishima, in a miko uniform similar to her sister ship Hiei, with a curtain of short black hair held down by a golden-colored winged headdress shared by the Kongou-class Fast Battleships, pushed up her glasses and stated.
"Such worries are unfounded. The Pacific has dozens of Princesses, most of which require a level of firepower that only battleships like us can achieve to defeat.
Our Admiral has already foreseen an advance like this happening in the past, and has already finished preparations for us to be able to sortie."
Before adding.
"After all, you're not the only one who wishes to protect everyone."
Earning a small laugh from Mutsu, who commented.
"Well, even the diligent and hardworking pen-pusher Kirishima has her own ambitions too, hmm?"
Kirishima only huffed in response, ending that conversation.
Nagato lightly coughed to regain the group's attention, and continued.
"Moving on, I need to know why the Abyssals within the Pacific have significantly reduced in terms of manpower. It's noted that the amount of Abyssals have taken a dip, something that worries Central and Admiral Haru, since the Abyssals have never had a problem with numbers, and anything abnormal when it comes to Abyssals is something to be noted immediately. This even applies to the various Princesses littering the seas in their usual hideouts. This is confirmed across all the bases, as the Princesses have always had seemingly pre-programed routes to patrol and islands to protect. Are they really running out of Abyssals to spawn, or are they planning something so large in scale that requires that many Abyssals to pull off? I need to know what is happening, and why. Dismissed."
The room echoed the dragging feet of chairs, as the various members returned to their posts to try to make sense of the enigma that was the Abyssals.
Nagato sighed, addressing Mutsu, who had left the relative comfort of the wall and strode over to the edge of the table to stand beside her.
"The last point is about Admiral Haru's concerns regarding the Abyssals' lack of innovation in the last five years, Mutsu.
Some say that the Abyssals have plateaued in terms of technological advances, but I, like Admiral Haru, think otherwise since I heard that those are the exact words coming from those who never saw the Abyssal Princesses coming.
What do you think, Mutsu?"
Mutsu lost her smile as she seriously pondered the question, before answering coyly while looking down at a seated Nagato.
"I think... we need evidence, more than anything else."
Nagato perked up at that, shifting in her seat to look up at her sister ship as Mutsu elaborated whilst holding up a finger.
"Just think about it. Even if we are absolutely convinced that the Abyssals are up to something, and if they indeed are but we are lacking in terms of evidence, what do we have to convince Central and everyone else of their plans?"
Nagato looked back down at the table, at the pieces of paper that she ignored as she used her right hand to support her chin in a thinking pose while resting her right elbow on the table, speaking more to herself than anyone else.
"Yes, I see. Without evidence, we'll likely be dismissed as fear-mongers or conspiracy theorists without evidence to hold our case."
"And remember, the human psyche is unpredictable, and it's not unheard of for them to vehemently deny any possibility of things getting worse than they already are, despite mounting evidence pointing to the contrary. So expect resistance even when you find evidence of an Abyssal covert operation underway, since no one wants to believe that it can get any worse than this."
Nagato nodded solemnly, mulling over things for a considerable period of time before leaning in, motioning for Mutsu to do the same as she asked.
"What do you think about this? We'll send our Infiltration Fleet outside of the Safety Zone under the cover of night, and we try to find out something about their plans in one of their abandoned production factories."