Small Ship, Big War - The Voyages of the Hibiki

[DuckofTindalos]

Well, let's hope it wasn't a Conus Geographus... and Shoji isn't a smoker...

[Onime No Kyo]

Hibiki's own Stephen Maturin. [:D]

[tocaff]

Snakes, malaria, booze and snails....what a tale you weave CF.

[Cuttlefish]

April 20, 1943

Location: Rabaul
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Attack enemy positions in and around Gili Gili

---

Rain pounds down on the town of Rabaul and the hills and peaks nearby. It falls in curtains across Hibiki, obscuring even the nearby volcanoes from view. There is obviously no danger of enemy air attack on a day such as this, and even the inevitable enemy reconnaissance planes fail to put in an appearance.

It is another day in the South Pacific, another day in the long war. Aboard Hibiki routine maintenance proceeds below decks, while on deck drenched lookouts huddle in their rain garb, peering in vain through the downpour for an enemy that will not appear. Sailors ashore sit and drink and watch the rain turn the streets into quagmires.

Hibiki and her crew will soon enough face fire and death once again. For now, however, there is only boredom and the warm, persistent rain.

[Cuttlefish]

April 21, 1943

Location: Rabaul
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Attack enemy positions in and around Gili Gili

---

Riku is moving along a companionway when he meets Hikaru Shoji coming from the other direction. Shoji is walking slowly and carefully, like an old man.

“Hey, Shoji!” says Riku. “Good to see you on your feet again. How are you?” Shoji shrugs.

“Not bad,” he says. He raises his left hand. “This is still a bit numb and I’m a little shaky, but Lieutenant Nakagawa says that will pass in another day or two.”

“That’s good,” says Riku. “Hey, any chance you’ll get a medal out of this?”

“Why would I get a medal?” says Shoji. “Do they give them out for being stupid now?”

“Of course not,” says Riku. He grins suddenly. “But you were wounded by an enemy shell, after all.”

---

Note: Yes, yes, I know the pun probably wouldn’t translate. But I couldn’t resist.

[Cuttlefish]

April 22, 1943

Location: Rabaul
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Attack enemy positions in and around Gili Gili

---

The rain has ended and the sun shines down on a powerful task force arriving from Kwajalein, a force based around battleships Yamato, Musashi, and Kirishima. The big ships and their smaller escorts sail in past the gently steaming cone of Tavurvur and drop anchor in Simpson Bay.

These vessels, along with Hibiki’s task force 36, give the Japanese a powerful punch to throw at Gili Gili. When the rains return the ships will sortie and once again attempt to destroy the enemy airfield there.

[marky]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

April 21, 1943

Location: Rabaul
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Attack enemy positions in and around Gili Gili

---

Riku is moving along a companionway when he meets Hikaru Shoji coming from the other direction. Shoji is walking slowly and carefully, like an old man.

“Hey, Shoji!” says Riku. “Good to see you on your feet again. How are you?” Shoji shrugs.

“Not bad,” he says. He raises his left hand. “This is still a bit numb and I’m a little shaky, but Lieutenant Nakagawa says that will pass in another day or two.”

“That’s good,” says Riku. “Hey, any chance you’ll get a medal out of this?”

“Why would I get a medal?” says Shoji. “Do they give them out for being stupid now?”

“Of course not,” says Riku. He grins suddenly. “But you were wounded by an enemy shell, after all.”

---

Note: Yes, yes, I know the pun probably wouldn’t translate. But I couldn’t resist.

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]nice 1 fishy!

[Yakface]

What happens to this thread if the Hibiki is sunk?

[1275psi]

We all go into mourning -thats what -and poor Cuttlefish will be sick with grief

Measure of how good WITP is -when we all forget its a game.............

[veji1]

Hibiki will never sink, it is as simple as that.

[mdiehl]

What happens to this thread if the Hibiki is sunk?

Shoji and Riku get reassigned to another ship.

If the software still has a certain famous error, they wind up reassigned to a Gearing class DD.

Confused, they shrug and soldier on.

[Cuttlefish]

April 23, 1943

Location: Rabaul
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Attack enemy positions in and around Gili Gili

---

Taiki and his gun crew are in the forward 25mm gun tub. Taiki has the guns trained skyward, but at the moment he has no target. The enemy bombers are after the airfield again.

“What kind of bombers are those?” asks Shiro. Taiki peers through the binoculars. Through bursts of 105mm AA fire from the land emplacements he can see the enemy planes.

“Those are American planes, type B-25,” he says. And the twin-engine bombers are clearly having trouble. Japanese Ki-44 and A6M3 fighters are up there too, and they outnumber the enemy planes. Already several bombers have been shot down and a number of others are trailing smoke as they try to flee the area.

As the men aboard Hibiki watch the distant fight comes to end. The enemy bombers release their loads well off target for the most part and their tattered formations turn for home, still harassed by Japanese fighters. Plumes of smoke rising from the jungle here and there mark where enemy bombers have gone down.

“Strange,” says Taiki. “The enemy twin-tailed fighters can easily reach this far. Why didn’t they come with the bombers? That was a massacre.”

“Perhaps they came but turned back when they saw our fighters,” somebody suggests.

“No,” says one of the gunners. “The American fighter pilots aren’t cowards, just pampered and lazy. They are probably all back at their base playing cards and eating ice cream.”

---

“Hey, let’s have some more of that ice cream over here,” calls Captain Sam Stark. He pushes some money into the center of the table. “I’m in,” he says. The player to his left, “Ricky” Rodriguez, studies his cards, then sighs theatrically. “I have nothing,” he says, “but I am always happy to help make my friends wealthy.” He tosses money onto the pot.

Stark looks at him suspiciously. Rodriguez is his mechanic and Stark trusts him with his life, literally, with anything to do with his P-38 fighter. Playing poker with the man is a different story.

As the betting proceeds around the table the tent flap opens and Major Lazzeri pokes his head in. Lazzeri is a staff officer over at 3rd Group headquarters, and not a bad guy for a pencil-pusher. Right now, though, he looks concerned.

“Hey, what are you guys doing here?” he says. “Aren’t you escorting the nine-oh squadron to Rabaul today?”

“Nah, the mission was postponed,” says Stark. “Probably tomorrow. Here.” He rummages behind him and finds a copy of the relevant order, which he hands to Lazzeri. Lazzeri reads it.

“Oh hell,” he says. Stark looks at him curiously. Lazzeri looks back, slightly pale. “I don’t think 90th Squadron got this order,” he says.

[Capt. Harlock]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

“Oh hell,” he says. Stark looks at him curiously. Lazzeri looks back, slightly pale. “I don’t think 90th Squadron got this order,” he says.

Nice way to turn the "fog of war" in WitP into part of the story. (I imagine Wolffpack doesn't appreciate the literary potential![;)])

[Cuttlefish]

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

“Oh hell,” he says. Stark looks at him curiously. Lazzeri looks back, slightly pale. “I don’t think 90th Squadron got this order,” he says.

Nice way to turn the "fog of war" in WitP into part of the story. (I imagine Wolffpack doesn't appreciate the literary potential![;)])

Wolffpack is an armored cav soldier and his emails when his planes fail to fly or fly without escort are rather entertaining. I hear the term "prima donnas" a lot.

[Onime No Kyo]

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

ORIGINAL: Cuttlefish

“Oh hell,” he says. Stark looks at him curiously. Lazzeri looks back, slightly pale. “I don’t think 90th Squadron got this order,” he says.

Nice way to turn the "fog of war" in WitP into part of the story. (I imagine Wolffpack doesn't appreciate the literary potential![;)])

Wolffpack is an armored cav soldier and his emails when his planes fail to fly or fly without escort are rather entertaining. I hear the term "prima donnas" a lot.

If I remember it right, primadonnas is about the most printable term youre likely to see. [:D]

[Cuttlefish]

April 24, 1943

Location: Rabaul
Course: Docked
Attached to: TF 36
Mission: Surface combat
System Damage: 3
Float Damage: 0
Fires: 0
Fuel: 475

Orders: Attack enemy positions in and around Gili Gili

---

Captain Ishii has assembled his senior officers in the officer’s wardroom. Ishii is not much for holding meetings or giving speeches, but he wants to make sure the ship is ready for what is coming.

Present are his executive officer, Lieutenant Miharu; the Chief Engineering Officer, Lieutenant Sakati; the Chief Torpedo Officer, Lieutenant Sugiyura; and the Chief Gunnery Officer, Lieutenant JG Kuwaki.

“You all know that we will be returning to Gili Gili some time in the next few days,” Ishii says. “This time we will be in the screening force, not the bombardment force. As the enemy cannot afford to simply allow us to saunter up and wreck their base we will certainly see combat.

“There will be torpedo boats, without doubt. I have also received reports that at least three enemy battleships have been seen recently in the Coral Sea. We could thus face almost any type of surface vessel. Enemy submarine and air attacks are also very likely.”

“Battleships, sir!” enthuses Sugiyura. “Now that would be a worthy target!” A silence follows this statement. Sugiyura looks around and slowly gathers that no one else seems to share his enthusiasm for dueling a battleship, though Lieutenant Miharu has a faint smile on his face.

“Well, I don’t say that we should seek them out,” says Sugiyura, “but if it comes to it we will attack them. That’s the mission, right? So we might as well attack them with the proper spirit!”

“Very true!” says Captain Ishii. “And that is why I wanted to talk to all of you. We must be prepared to fight almost anything. Give all guns an extra inspection. Check the ammunition hoists. Sugiyura, run an extra maintenance check on the torpedoes. The 5” gun and torpedo crews haven’t seen any action in a while, let’s run a few extra drills.”

“This will mean cancelling shore leave, sir,” points out Lieutenant Miharu.

“Yes,” says the captain. “For the next forty-eight hours, at least. If we have time after that before we sail then the men can have a chance to relax again.”

They discuss specific preparations for a while and then Captain Ishii sends his officers off to implement them. The captain actually has every confidence in his men and his equipment. But he has a feeling about this next mission and wants his officers and crew mentally prepared. He doesn’t just want his crew ready for battle; he wants them ready and eager to take the fight to the enemy.

[Onime No Kyo]

I think the captain is just making sure his men stay away from bottled green stuff before battle. [:)]

[kaleun]

That too.

[princep01]

I believe that we are being prepared for the demise of the IJN destroyer, Hibiki.  I sincerely hope that I am wrong. 

[AU Tiger_MatrixForum]

ORIGINAL: princep01

I believe that we are being prepared for the demise of the IJN destroyer, Hibiki. I sincerely hope that I am wrong.

I was thinking something similar remembering the AAR is well behind the game. Either that or they will be involved in a titanic battle.