The Naval Base of the Unnamed Ship Girls

Therefore, even though Hyperion and Autumn Wind's Pillar had never studied this power, their adaptability in this chaotic time-space was still greater than that of the native ship girl South Dakota.

...Without Adun's protection, even if South Dakota could hold out here with its formidable strength, it wouldn't be an easy task.

“How much longer do we have to go?” South Dakota asked Adun.

"Advance? We haven't advanced?" Adun's question made South Dakota and General Gita look on with curiosity.

We've already been deep inside the subspace gate area, which is the area of ​​that ancient human-made city, for more than half an hour. What do you mean by "we haven't made any progress"?

"No progress? Is our movement just an illusion?" Admiral Gita, who had been leaning against the ship's side, looked down at the sea and continued to forge ahead, cutting through the waves.

“What I mean is, we haven’t moved forward relative to the position of the door,” Adun said, shaking his head.

"A gate? Is that warp gate hiding from us?" Hyperion asked curiously.

"No, they're not hiding from us; something's happening." Adun paused, then turned to the ship girl who was the manufacturing director under Admiral Yueyi beside her and asked, "How long have you been stationed here?"

"It has been 244 years since the human camp first learned about the situation here, 130 years since we first fought against the monsters that appeared here, 120 years since the Hong Kong Garrison was established, and 93 years since the Skyhawk Zero first joined the battlefield."

The manufacturing director gave several answers in a deep, mechanical voice.

"Why did it take so long to find out?" South Dakota asked curiously. She remembered that the history books recorded that the ship girls had once launched a counterattack that almost resulted in a complete victory.

There's no reason why the South China Sea was still in the hands of the Deep Sea Ship Girls back then.

"I'm sorry, there is no record of this in my database," the manufacturing director replied after a pause.

Ardon, who had no intention of getting any answers about the historical issues from the ship's manufacturing director, continued, "So, the appearance of nearly a hundred warp behemoths like before was a one-time occurrence during your deployment?"

"Yes, from the first battle 130 years ago until now, this is the first invasion of this scale," the manufacturing director continued with certainty.

“There have been monsters that were much larger in size before, but never in such numbers that they approach three digits.”

“I see.” Adon nodded, shifting his attention away from the ship’s manufacturing director.

Not understanding what Adun meant, Hyperion asked, "Did you find anything?"

“Nothing was found,” Adun said to Hyperion. “These native ship girls may be able to defend well against subspace infiltration, but it is clear that they cannot perform comprehensive surveillance.”

"Hmm... Adun, are you saying something might have happened here that caused the monster rampage?" Hyperion asked curiously.

“Perhaps what happened wasn’t here?” Ardon said.

"The reason for the monster rampage is the other side?" Hyperion said, seemingly enlightened.

“Given that the native ship girls of this world have already had a similar experience once…” Yaton turned her attention back to the ship girl who was the manufacturing director and asked, “Have you ever sent troops deep into this area?”

Regarding Aydon's question, the manufacturing director shook his head and said, "It's very dangerous here. My admiral hasn't given any orders regarding this. We're already at our deepest point."

For example, all the ship girls in the East Asian theater are currently staying outside the radiation range of the subspace gate, forming several layers of defense to prevent another monster uprising.

The only ones who truly went deep inside were Adun and her ship, Admiral Gita and her secretary ship, as well as the ship's manufacturing director and the pilot ship girl who couldn't find an excuse to shirk her duties.

“Wait…” Adun’s words seemed to remind South Dakota of something. South Dakota, who was previously caught up in an obsessive-compulsive urge to tidy up this chaotic space, asked:

"Adon, do you mean that there are ship girls or deep-sea ship girls causing trouble in that subspace time on the other side, which is why this monster riot occurred?"

“This is just one possibility. Do you have any clues?” Ardon asked South Dakota.

“I don’t know if this counts as a clue, but I know a very powerful ship girl who went missing in this area,” South Dakota said.

"How powerful?" Hyperion asked.

"She's about the same as me, but her style is different. I'm good at assaults, while she's good at single-ship combat." Simply put, he's in the firepower group in South Dakota, while the ship girl she mentioned is in the special operations group.

"Like you? One of the original ship girls?" Adun asked South Dakota.

“…No.” South Dakota shook his head.

"Oh ho, is that ship also one of those Ten Celestials?" Hyperion thought of one of the settings associated with South Dakota.

“Um…” Regarding the Hyperion question, South Dakota hesitated for a moment before saying, “Although she was also included among the Ten Heavenly Guards by the original Tirpitz, I still can’t be sure whether she is an ordinary ship girl or an original ship girl.”

"Not sure?" Adon asked, somewhat puzzled.

“Hmm, it’s hard to say for sure, because she’s not an ancient Abyssal vessel sunk like the other original ship girls. That ship was a ship girl from the start,” South Dakota said. “And the biggest difference between her and the other ship girls is…”

"It's because of her ship type that she was still in service during the Deep Sea Invasion. She is also the only ship girl in the world whose origin is that type."

"Is Mr. South Dakota referring to the Zumwalt?" the manufacturing director asked South Dakota.

"You know her?" South Dakota looked at the manufacturing director with surprise.

“Ninety years ago, when the technology of Skyhawk combat golems was still immature, Lady Zumwalt served as the Manufacturing Director at the Hong Kong Naval Base. She later disappeared in an accident,” said the current Manufacturing Director.

"So that's how she disappeared? What kind of accident?" South Dakota nodded and asked.

"An operation to try and end these monsters at their source," the manufacturing director replied.

As for the outcome of that operation, which was called an accident, we can tell from the fact that those monsters are still occasionally emerging to deliver meat.

☆, Chapter 1292 Another Type of Legend

The vast majority of domestically produced ship girls are based on prototypes that either sank into the sea or ended up in museums.

Moreover, most of them came from the battlefields of the two world wars in the ancient human era.

...The grudges between them were also born out of that time.

Very few ship girls come from an era outside of these two major wars. Fantasy ship girls from fantasy works are generally not considered valid due to their inherent flaws.

However, it is rare, not that it doesn't exist. Indeed, a portion of the ship girls come from the post-war era, the Cold War era.

However, from a broader perspective, these weapons of war are still a continuation of those world wars of the past.

In a true sense, the only ship girl that doesn't belong to that war or Cold War era is the Zumwalt that South Dakota mentioned.

A warship built in peacetime, even during the era of deep-sea invasion, the last batch of improved models, equivalent to her sister, served in the ancient human navy, becoming one of the first spoils of war in the ancient deep sea.

South Dakota was only half right, or rather, given her age, she was unaware of some things that were too far in the past.

Zumwalt was not transformed from an ancient Princess shipwreck; she was transformed directly from a warship... into a ship girl.

The hatred of the ancient deep sea was directed only at ancient humans, not at those warships that were in the process of being scrapped and waiting to be dismantled.

Especially warships like the first Zumwalt-class destroyer, which never participated in a world war.

When Zumwalt awoke, her homeland was already history, and most of her creators had turned to dust.

“Even later, Enterprise never acknowledged Zumwalt as one of the first generation of ship girls, so Tirpitz listed her as one of the Ten Heavenly Beings based on her combat strength,” South Dakota said.

"Oh ho, you'll know once you die, won't you?" Hyperion said strangely.

“The problem is that she never sank a ship before she went missing,” South Dakota said. “Perhaps she wasn’t the strongest in terms of absolute strength, but it was very difficult to sink her.”

"Why?" Hyperion then asked.

“It’s probably because of her abilities…” South Dakota recalled her experience sparring with Zumwalt and said, “Her radar system is the most advanced among us native ship girls, and her anti-radar system is the same.”

"If you fight her, she will always be able to detect you before you do, and before you even notice her, she will already be within her attack range."

"Hmm... So, in other words, that native ship girl was able to maintain the first-mover advantage during the civil war?" Hyperion interpreted South Dakota's explanation in his own way.

"Pretty much. Her design philosophy is different from ours. Our ship girls are designed for fleet operations to maintain naval superiority, relying on cooperation between different models to ensure combat effectiveness."

For example, battleships are responsible for absorbing damage and firing cannons, and sometimes they also serve as anti-aircraft defenses.

Aircraft carriers are responsible for long-range strikes, cruisers are responsible for protecting the fleet, and destroyers... destroyers are responsible for being cute.

"The design concept of Zumwalt is to give her all-around capabilities when she is fighting alone."

Detection and counter-detection capabilities, strike capabilities at long, medium, and short ranges, coastal defense capabilities, air superiority assurance, and so on.

These capabilities, which were possessed by different types of warships during the World Wars, were all integrated into the Zumwalt ship using ancient human technology.

It can be said that this is excluding the subsequent modification plans developed by the ship girl faction itself.

Zumwalt's technology surpasses that of ship girls from the World War II era by several generations.

Generally speaking, for a ship girl whose prototype originated during World War II to gain the ability to strike ships against other ships, it would require at least one comprehensive upgrade of its weapon system, fire control system, radar system, and corresponding energy system.

However, these systems were only the basics for Zumwalt.

“Hmm…” Hyperion thought about South Dakota’s explanation for a moment and then said, “This idea is very advanced, but… it’s still a bit too early for ancient human technology. According to the development of my hometown, this kind of multi-functional warship is generally only useful in the interstellar era.”

"Without a shield system, weren't those ancient humans worried that such advanced warships would be destroyed by fishing boats?"

Hyperion's statement is quite insightful, and even echoes the conclusions reached by some prominent figures in ancient human history.

Seemingly having known this conclusion all along, South Dakota shrugged and said, "After all, it's a warship built in peacetime."

There was an unconscious undercurrent of superiority and subtle discrimination in South Dakota's words...

It's possible that her "sparring" with Zumwalt was caused by the discrimination of warships from wartime to warships from peacetime.

While South Dakota and Hyperion were discussing this "good-looking but useless" warship built by ancient humans during peacetime, Governor Ying Zheng and General Yue Yi, the casting general, were also discussing the same warship far away on the Great Wall of the Himalayas.

"If Zumwalt were still my assistant, perhaps we could have discovered more secrets in this combat armor." After several days of research, even General Yue Yi, who claimed to be a descendant of the Mohist school and the chief of the Mechanicus, had to admit that the "Eternal Glory" combat armor created for the Royal Guard by Adun and his alien fleet used too many technologies that he could not understand.

This meant that he couldn't even replicate them in large quantities as Governor Ying Zheng requested, let alone use laboratory technology to create sets with similar functions.

If it can't be done, it can't be done. It comes from the profound civilizations of several world galaxies, plus the mysterious power of a top-tier magical world.

This gap can no longer be measured in terms of how many years have passed.

The Eternal Glory combat armor used too much technology, and its technology tree was completely different from that of the human ship girl faction in this world.

Not to mention the crystal technology and Force technology that Adun installed inside, the enchantments and inscriptions created in Dalaran were beyond the comprehension of this forging general.

This sense of frustration reminded Admiral Le Yi of his most capable assistant, and the only ship girl under his command who did not transform herself into an octopus. Compared to her own combat abilities, the Zumwalt was more useful in providing more technologies unique to the ancient human era.

The Enterprise's wafer fabrication facility was built with Zumwalt's assistance.

Upon hearing General Yue Yi mention that ship girl, Governor Ying Zheng realized that the replication plan had failed, and so she asked quite bluntly:

"Then what about settling for second best?"

"How far should we retreat?" General Yue Yi asked.

“Just like those traitors.” Ying Zheng directly brought up the best reference point.

"..." General Yue Yi remained silent for a moment before speaking in a mechanical voice: "Alright..."

"But we need test subjects who are willing to sacrifice themselves for it."

☆, Chapter 1293 A Difficult and Important Task