Daily life with the ship girl

Twenty F2A Buffalo fighter planes flew towards Island C with a roar. Lexington watched her children disappear from her sight. She could sense that her carrier-based aircraft were in a V-shaped formation, shuttling through the clouds.

Ping Hai and the others looked at the huge number of carrier-based aircraft released by Lexington this time. They were all a little surprised. Richelieu, who was responsible for guarding Lexington's left side, asked quickly:

"Hasn't air superiority been secured? Why are there more carrier-based aircraft this time than last time? Is there something new going on?"

"We have temporarily gained air superiority, but I am worried. Although we have repeatedly scouted Island C, I am always worried about the movements of the deep-sea light carrier. If Helena's intelligence analysis is correct, there may still be a certain number of deep-sea light carriers stationed on Island C. The threat of deep-sea light carrier torpedo planes is too great. I must ensure that no deep-sea torpedo planes surprise attack our airspace."

Richelieu nodded. In fact, she was a little depressed. She thought there would be some stronger enemies, but she encountered several deep-sea cruisers one after another. However, the strongest enemy was a deep-sea heavy cruiser. She didn't even need to take action. Walkerlan solved the problem with torpedoes. She never had a chance to take action.

Lexington seemed to sense Richelieu's thoughts. She chuckled and said:

"You and Bismarck are the key to our battle this time. We can't waste too much ammunition here. Don't worry, I have a feeling that there will be a tough battle on Island C."

Richelieu heard that Lexington's tone did not seem as calm as she had imagined. She looked thoughtfully at the faintly visible outline of Island C, and a solemn look flashed in her eyes.

At this moment, Ping Hai saw eighteen red dots representing the enemy on the [Improved Anti-Aircraft Radar: Anti-Aircraft Correction 40%]. She shouted:

"Attention everyone, according to the radar, three deep-sea fleets with deep-sea light carriers as flagships have appeared 40 nautical miles northwest of our area!"

Lexington frowned. Due to the connection between the carrier-based aircraft and the carrier girls, she immediately controlled twenty [F2A Buffalo] fighters to fly towards the target sea area where the enemy appeared.

Sure enough, after flying for a while, her [F2A Buffalo] fighter encountered the Deep Sea Light Carrier's spiral fighter.

Lexington was so focused at the moment that Richelieu knew that this must be the beginning of a battle for air supremacy. She immediately said:

"Pay attention to cover the flagship, everyone spread out."

All members of Xiguang Island's First Fleet then dispersed.

Sigsby was the destroyer guarding Lexington, and her face was tense at the moment.

The one responsible for guarding the right side of the formation was Guokang, and the one leading the way in front of Pinghai was Walkerlan.

This is the position arrangement of the First Fleet's rotation formation. The reason why Richelieu asked everyone to disperse is that this would expand the scope of the battle. If they were concentrated, they would be discovered in the deep sea. The target would be too large and it would easily expose the position of their own aircraft carrier units.

All Richelieu had to do was to eliminate the possible deep-sea threats around Lexington.

As expected, Lexington failed to gain air superiority this time. She released the [SBD-3 Dauntless] that had been replenished with resources and divided it into two batches, each with ten aircraft.

She could feel that the [F2A Buffalo] fighters fighting in the front were only evenly matched with the Deep Sea Spiral fighters, and both sides suffered losses.

Although Lexington felt sorry for these children, carrier-based aircraft operations always resulted in extremely high casualties. She could only pray that the children could hold on a little longer before the support of these two batches of [SDB-3 Dauntless] bombers arrived.

"The enemy has suffered an attack and is losing men!" Pinghai was paying close attention to the red dots on the radar that represented the deep sea and found that these red dots were disappearing one by one.

Lexington was stunned for a moment, then she saw through the "vision" provided by her carrier-based aircraft that her sister's [BTD-1 Destroyer] had arrived.

Lexington secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but she didn't know that the biggest crisis was quietly approaching.

Walkerland was looking at the eastern sea on the right side. She knew that the northwest sea was the main battlefield. Although she knew that the probability of enemies appearing on the east side was very small, she was still very focused. Suddenly, she looked under the sea not far away and there seemed to be five black figures.

She rubbed her eyes quickly, and then saw several torpedoes passing by her side. She finally reacted and shouted in a delicate voice:

"Be careful, a deep-sea submarine has been spotted on the east side! Protect the flagship!"

Walklan's voice traveled far away. Since the ship girls of Xiguang Island had not yet used radio equipment, they could only use verbal shouting to convey information during the battle. Although this was a bit inconvenient, there was no problem because they were not far away from each other.

They also ignored this problem during this operation, so when the deep-sea submarine crisis occurred, this drawback was magnified.

Because when Walkerland was shouting, the carrier-based aircraft launched by Lexington was roaring into takeoff, and the roar covered up Walkerland's voice, which was not loud to begin with.

Walkerland didn't know that her information was not passed back immediately. At this moment, she could only dodge the insidious mine threat from deep-sea submarines and had no time to take care of other things.

As a destroyer, Walkerland's combat capability against submarines is relatively weak without anti-submarine equipment such as sonar and deep-sea bombers, and her training level is not high, so she can only use her ultra-high speed of 40 knots to dodge the mine attacks of deep-sea submarines from time to time, and use her ship-mounted main gun [F country single-mounted 138mm gun] to attack the submarines under the sea when the time is right.

Although these attacks now seem futile, the sound of Walkerland's firing finally reached the ears of other members of the First Fleet of Xiguang Island after the Lexington carrier-based aircraft flew away.

It was Sigsby who first noticed the movement.

Chapter 79: Unexpected Support

Sigsby was at the rear of the wheel formation at this time. She kept an eye on the movements behind her. However, after the roar of Lexington's carrier-based aircraft faded away, she heard intensive artillery fire from Walkerland's direction. She was a little confused, and then she saw five white waves caused by the gliding torpedoes, rushing towards the flagship's position.

"Watch out for torpedoes! Sister Lexington!"

Sigsby shouted a warning without thinking, and then she rushed out without thinking, aiming the ship's main gun on the left side of her body [U country single 5-inch gun: anti-aircraft correction 20%] at the aggressive deep-sea torpedo and began to pour fire.

Then came the torpedo launcher on the left side of her body. Three torpedoes were fired, and she aimed at a position several hundred meters directly in front of the deep-sea torpedo.

"We must intercept them!" Sigsby was extremely anxious at this moment. She saw that her artillery could not accurately hit those deep-sea torpedoes. Now she could only pray that her torpedoes could hit the enemy's torpedoes and detonate them in advance.

"Boom!" Dozens of seconds later, Sigsby predicted in advance that a torpedo hit one of the deep-sea torpedoes. The huge explosion stirred up a column of water into the sky. The movement on the right side finally attracted Lexington's attention. She was concentrating on operating the carrier-based aircraft and didn't pay much attention to Sigsby's reminder, but this time the explosion was so loud that it finally brought her back to her senses.

"It's a torpedo!" Lexington looked at the water columns falling, and then saw four white waves coming towards her. Her face turned pale. Although regular aircraft carriers can carry torpedo planes, they cannot conduct anti-submarine operations. Only light aircraft carriers can conduct anti-submarine operations. Seeing that the four torpedoes were less than 200 meters away from her, it was too late for her to avoid them.

Just when Lexington was ready to be hit by the torpedo, Sigsby's petite figure rushed over at an acceleration of 37 knots and pushed Lexington directly forward.

You know, if the ship girls are not paying attention, the terrifying power in their bodies will not appear. Lexington is originally an aircraft carrier ship girl. If her ship equipment is deployed and she uses her power a little, she will not be shaken by Sigsby, the destroyer.

But this time, the torpedo was so close that even the usually calm Lexington was momentarily distracted.

Although Sigsby was only a destroyer girl, her strength was comparable to some large human lifting machinery. With the added inertia of acceleration, she pushed Lexington forward dozens of meters, directly out of the attack range of deep-sea torpedoes.

"No!" Lexington looked at Sigsby, and at this moment the petite ship girl showed a relieved smile.

After Sigsby knocked Lexington away, it was too late for him to dodge the deep-sea torpedo, and inevitably, Sigsby was hit by the torpedo.

However, due to the small size of the destroyer, only two of the four torpedoes hit her.

Lexington saw Sigsbee being hit by a deep-sea torpedo and she was stunned.

Sigsby, it's broken!

This was Sigsby's first injury, and she found it really painful. But seeing that Lexington was fine, she gently wiped the tears from her eyes and said:

"Our partners are still fighting, we cannot retreat..."

Lexington finally came to her senses and shouted to Guogan:

"Guogan, Sigsby is injured, come and help!"

After saying that, Lexington hurried back to Sigsby. She saw that Sigsby's ship equipment was damaged by more than 40%, the main gun was seriously bent, and only the torpedo launcher was intact. She hurriedly supported the little guy.

When Guogan heard that someone was hit by a thunderbolt, she hurried from the front of the formation to the back. She came to Lexington, and then saw that Sigsby was hit. Her face turned pale and she asked quickly:

"Where did the torpedo come from?"

"West..." Sigsby said subconsciously, then reacted and her face turned pale. She hurriedly said loudly:

"Wauquelan is in danger!"

Lexington signaled Guogan to take good care of Sigsby, and then released her most powerful carrier-based bomber [BTD-1 Destroyer]. She immediately released four of them, and then looked west. She comforted Sigsby and said:

"Don't worry. I'll send carrier-based aircraft to support us first. Guokang, take care of Sigsby. We don't have anti-submarine warfare equipment right now. I'm afraid this operation will require..."

"Attention, all units. Radar has detected six unidentified carrier-based aircraft exchanging fire with Deep Sea units on the west side of our formation!" Ping Hai suddenly discovered through the display on [Improved Anti-Air Radar: Anti-Air Correction 40%] that a third-party unit that did not belong to us or Deep Sea appeared near our units in a yellow spot!"

Red dots on the radar represent enemies, green dots on the radar represent our own people, and yellow dots represent unnamed third parties.

It was also the first time that Pinghai saw the yellow light spot, and she immediately reported it to Lexington.

Lexington nodded. She was now multitasking. She had to control the carrier-based aircraft fighting in the front to cooperate with her sister to seize air supremacy, and also control four [BTD-1 Destroyers] to provide air support to Walkland. However, when she heard Pinghai's report, a trace of doubt flashed in her heart.

So she notified the four BTDs to fly at full speed. A few dozen seconds later, Lexington, through the vision-sharing capability of carrier-based aircraft, "saw" several torpedo planes above Walkerland's head that she had never seen before.

As if they had sensed the approach of the Lexington bombers and knew that their mission had been completed, they recalled the torpedo planes.

Walkerland watched the torpedo planes that saved her fly away, and looked at the silent deep-sea submarines on the seabed with lingering fear. This was the first time she was so close to death, but she did not see the other side.

However, now is not the time to think about those things. Walkerland saw the Lexington BTD and waved, then returned to his own formation under the escort of four BTDs.

Lexington originally wanted to send a BTD to follow, but the other party sent six [SBD-3 Dauntless] to intercept. She knew that the other party did not want to be exposed, so she gave up the idea.

Walkerland returned to the center of her formation, and then saw that Sigsby was broken. She didn't care about the lingering fear, knowing that she had failed in her duty this time, and hurriedly reported:

"I was too careless this time, which resulted in my failure to warn the deep-sea torpedo in advance! I'm sorry!"

Lexington frowned. She put the four BTDs back into the ship's hangar, then turned her gaze away from the west. When she heard Walkerland's self-blaming words, she just patted her head and said,

"It's not your fault. It's our fault that we didn't have radio communication equipment, so we suffered from poor communication. Also, we made all kinds of plans for this operation, but we didn't expect that there might be submarines in the deep sea. This is my responsibility."

Richelieu was on guard on the left side at this time. She heard the sound of artillery fire coming from the center of her own formation, and then rushed back. Seeing that everyone except Sigsby was broken, she hurriedly asked:

"You were attacked?"

"It's a deep-sea submarine." Lexington's face was a little solemn. She thought for a moment and then said:

"Everyone, change your formation and move forward in a single horizontal formation. Don't be too far apart from each other and reduce the alert range. I'll let the bombers take charge of the aerial reconnaissance for the time being. As for the rest of the reconnaissance work, I'll leave it to Pinghai."

"Leave it to me." Pinghai's face was also tense. She stood straight and answered with full energy.

Just as Lexington was changing its formation because of the sudden appearance of deep-sea submarines, the torpedo planes that rescued Walkerland landed in an orderly manner on the specially shaped armor plate in the hands of a pink-haired ship girl. The armor plate design of this light aircraft carrier was like a flag.

The other ship girl next to her who also had pink hair but much darker skin looked at her with some confusion and said in a helpless tone:

"Why are you meddling in other people's business again? We are in a hurry to get to Port Nile. Don't waste aluminum."

"Lie, got it, Brooklyn, you're really becoming more and more nagging, but are we really not going to help? I just saw BTD."

"BTD?" Brooklyn was stunned for a moment. This kind of carrier-based bomber was only equipped by the regular aircraft carrier girls of the U country. She frowned and couldn't help but recall some rumors she heard about the First Ship Girl Academy when she was a mercenary in the Far East war zone some time ago.

She actually heard those people say in a serious tone that Lexington had found a new admiral, and her sister went with him. At first she thought it was ridiculous, after all, Lexington was so powerful, how could it possibly find a new admiral?

But as more people told her the story, she became skeptical. There were also rumors that Lexington had gone to a garrison near Port Nile. So she and her friends decided to find out the truth and set out on a journey to Port Nile.

Now when she heard her friend talking about BTD, she didn't know what she was thinking, and she suddenly thought of Lexington.

"Can you see how she maneuvers her carrier-based aircraft?"

Brooklyn's words made this cheerleader-like ship girl a little confused. She tilted her head, thought for a moment and said:

"I seem to have seen it in the academy, spiral evasion, U-turn, and V-shaped flight sequence. Could it be that she is..."

Brooklyn looked at her friend's face and became a little stunned. She thought to herself, this can't be such a coincidence.

Now, Brooklyn had no choice but to give up his plan to go to Port Nile. If Lexington was really nearby, as a fellow U.S. ship girl, he would have to help no matter what. Moreover, even if Lexington was not nearby, it was natural for him to help if it was dealing with the deep sea.

Listening to Brooklyn's words, the light aircraft carrier girl waved the ship uniform in her hand like a flag. She looked eastward with a hint of surprise on her face, then turned around and made a face at her friend:

"Didn't you say you were in a hurry? Lue, why did you suddenly change your mind?"

Brooklyn sighed, tapped her head gently, and said:

"No more cuteness, Raider. You still owe me more than a hundred units of aluminum. Please save some for me this time. You are such a worry. Your armor is so weak. Don't leave my sight. Got it?"

"Lie, I know, I know." The attacker blinked his purple eyes and stuck out his tongue.

Brooklyn sighed, escorting the attacker, and the two of them headed towards the direction of the First Fleet of Xiguang Island and others.

Chapter 80: Carving Glory on the Sea Level

Lexington and others maintained a single horizontal anti-submarine formation and advanced towards the main battlefield of Island C. Because the threats below the sea surface were underestimated in this operation, Lexington now felt the uneasiness in his heart becoming stronger and stronger.

However, she could only suppress her anxiety and concentrate on operating the carrier-based bombers and fighter jets that had already gone to the main battlefield, cooperating with her sister in the battle for air supremacy.

The First Fleet of Xiguang Island arrived at the waters near Island C in fifteen minutes. From their perspective, the deep-sea harbor had been suppressed by their own air firepower.

Lexington watched as his companions in the Second Fleet had already taken the lead in blocking the port outlet of Island C. However, this blockade line mainly relied on carrier-based aircraft that had gained air superiority. There were still unknown numbers of deep-sea destroyers and deep-sea light cruisers rushing in from the deep-sea port.

After the two fleets of Xiguang Island reunited, Lexington and Helena talked about their encounter with the deep-sea submarine. Helena also smiled bitterly and said:

"We also encountered submarines, but I was equipped with [Improved Sonar], so we didn't encounter any big trouble. However, it is too difficult to break through the blockade formed by deep-sea submarines and attack the deep-sea port area with our current anti-submarine means. You see that V-shaped strait, the narrowest area at the bottom, there are twelve deep-sea submarines there."

After Helena finished speaking, Lexington fell into deep thought. Although she and her sister could have continued to use aerial firepower to cover the island's port area and directly attack the interior, there was only one narrow entrance and exit to the port area in front of them. She had conducted reconnaissance before and knew that except for this narrow entrance, other places on Island C were covered with reefs. Even if she and others were ship girls, these reefs were dangerous enough, so if they wanted to capture Island C, they could only enter from this V-shaped strait.

However, Helena has now discovered that at the narrowest point of this V-shaped entrance, there are twelve deep-sea submarines, which means two fully staffed deep-sea submarine teams. With so many submarines, rushing in rashly would probably be suicide.

Lexington understood that this was the last step. As long as this submarine underwater blockade was cleared, all that remained on Island C were deep-sea destroyers and deep-sea light cruisers. With their own firepower, it was only a matter of time before they were eliminated.

Moreover, she and Saratoga discovered during the bombing that there were only a few heavy cruisers left in the deep-sea port area. As for other main forces such as deep-sea light carriers, deep-sea aircraft carriers, deep-sea battleships, and deep-sea battlecruisers, they were completely missing. Lexington thought that perhaps the most elite fleet of Island C had all been sunk by their side a few days ago.

However, even though Island C seems to be within reach now, it only seems to be within reach.

As long as the two fully-strength deep-sea submarine teams that block the V-shaped estuary are not destroyed, even a large army will find it difficult to enter Island C.

At this moment, Ping Hai, who had been in charge of the alert, was full of doubts. She rushed to Lexington and reported:

"Dozens of unidentified carrier-based aircraft units are approaching us, only ten nautical miles northwest of us!"

"Ten nautical miles?" Lexington's heart skipped a beat. She immediately released the remaining four BTDs and flew them northwest. Then she made a prompt decision and said to Helena:

"Inform Gaga not to just focus on bombing, save ammunition, and ensure our air superiority. Remember, our expedition this time is not just to capture Island C, but to capture all three islands. I don't want to disappoint the commander again!"

"I understand!" Helena nodded. She turned around to pass on the order, while Pinghai continued to be responsible for the investigation.