With about two year’s worth of lore materials and five book’s worth, I think it’s honestly about time we do something like this to keep track of where everything is.

This is a work in progress, though you’ll probably only see things added to it (we’re pretty proud of our no-retcon policy, after all x)

This page will likely be updated fairly regularly (or whenever I have time to come back to post). For information on Pacific-related materials organized by topic please refer to the lore page.

Last updated on 1/14/2022: Lens of History 60: Popular Expectations

PLEASE NOTE: UNTIL WE’VE FIXED THE INTERFACE, ALMOST EVERY LINE HAVE A HYPERLINK TO ARTICLES ON THE SITE. 

MOUSE OVER TO SEE WHERE EACH “BULLET” LINKS TO.


Color key:

Introduced on the site/online

Introduced in the shipgirl’s own profiles (e.g. from Pacific vol. 1 or 2)

Introduced in Action Report Vol. 1

Introduced in Action Report Vol. 2

Introduced in OCEAN

1950s: Humanity’s initial encounter with the Abyssal Fleet. Commonly referred to as the starting point. On the eve of the Korean War the Abyssal Fleet dropped its first unit (commonly referred to as the “Scout”) near the Korean peninsula. It quickly eradicated local North and South Korean garrisons and a US-led carrier taskforce, and would have wrecked havoc if it weren’t for the timely appearance of Iowa.

Analysis of debris from the battle site.

Interview with USAF survivors.

Recollections of a sailor who survived the encounter.

Confusion in the White House.

Iowa was brought to the White House where she explained the threat humanity now faces. She offered those gathered a choice. They can unlearn all that they’ve learned and remain at peace, or they can choose to retain the knowledge from this encounter and begin their resistance. It isn’t quite clear what prompted this unusual choice, but ...

July 6th, 1950: Under Eisenhower’s direction, the Special Task and Evaluation Command (STEC) was created to combat the Abyssal threat. It took about two years for STEC to begin its operations.

1951: STEC’s first headquarters is established.

Eisenhower, acting both as SACEUR as well as the head of STEC, is implicated in a growing political scandal orchestrated by Senator Joseph McCarthy (Vice-presidential nominee of the Republican party). McCarthy claims that the lack of US success at home and abroad are the result of “traitorous” politicians embedded in the State departments and high-ranking U.S. military officers “sympathetic” to Communist regimes. He lambastes Eisenhower for being too nuanced towards the Soviet Union and exerts considerable pressure on the Truman administration.

Three separate Congressional investigations and one independent commission would be created to investigate the matter, but it would not be until decades later that it was determined that no such communist infiltration occurred in the higher echelons of the U.S. Army.

1950s: There were a number of projects that STEC begun working on. One of the most immediate concerns was to alleviate the psychological damage caused by witnessing any Abyssal unit.

An attempt to uncover a solution to the Abyssal “scarring.”

Its immediate aftermath.

1953: STEC gains a one-time injection of 27 million dollars as it begins a slow build-up.

1954: The Suez Canal Crisis erupts into full-blown war. The Eisenhower administration discards the suggestion to use shipgirls, but archives the decision as a record and sets a precedent for future presidencies.

1955, July: Eisenhower presents a policy of mutual aerial observation to the Soviet delegation in a meeting at Geneva.

In the same year, serious discussions begin on prospective US stockpiling plans in case of Abyssal invasion.

1956: The Korean War ends.

1956: The Federal Highway Act of 1956 is signed into law. Authorizing over 25 billion dollars towards the construction of a capable interstate highway system, this particular legislation, curious enough, also budgeted for an additional highway network designed for military use. It’s almost as if the Eisenhower presidency was preparing for military action in the United States…

Late 1950s: From a diplomatic perspective, the US made contact with the major world’s powers. The UK was the most receptive to the Abyssal Threat, creating their own shipgirl program in response.

Eisenhower and Churchill’s final meeting.

At the time, France and the USSR largely ignored the warning, but at this point, the highest echelons of government are aware of what is going on and begin tentative channels for cooperation.

A certain irascible naval officer reacts to rumors regarding Soviet shipgirl operations.

1958: Eisenhower quietly enacts executive order no. 10676, which establishes an advisory body to the President known as the Intelligence Policy Board.

1958: The John Birch Society, a popular anti-communist and self-described patriot group, sends a three-digit page publication titled the General to its 800,000 members scattered around the United States. Within days, the anti-Eisenhower publication propels itself into the forefront of national discourse and ignites what would ultimately culminate in the Freedom from Wars affair. The Eisenhower Administration did eventually recover from this disaster, but efforts to coordinate anti-Abyssal activities were significantly curtailed during the last two years of his presidency.

1959: RN-STEC begins its first formal operation.(A half out-of-universe commentary on the changes in the United Kingdom in Pacific)

1959: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev visits the US. This resulted in a subsequent investigation by the House un-American Activities Committee regarding the uh, terms, discussed.

1965: Amid much controversy, the well-supported (albeit polarizing) Hart-Celler Acfails to pass the Senate despite a Democratic supermajority. The failure of the Hart-Celler Act would result in no further major legislative act on matters pertaining to immigration and immigration reform for the next twenty-plus years.

In a controversial and much-publicized television broadcast, LBJ publicly questions the on-going war effort in Vietnam and shares his concerns about the war becoming a political and military quagmire. Historians generally credit the speech as the beginning of the end for the domino theory – which helped to shape American foreign policy in the coming decades.

Behind the scenes, however, it would appear that groundworks are being laid for the eventual arrival of the Abyssals at large…

1967: A controversial report surfaces in the Asahi Shimbun highlighting significant deficiencies in the Japanese home economy and industry. The leaker’s identity was never determined.

Late 1960s: RN-STEC begins its special program on infiltration.

1972: Admiral Kusaka passes away, but he sets what would become eventual doctrine for the Japanese shipgirl program. 

1974: A catastrophic failure in the testing of a certain anti-Abyssal vehicle results in the USSR seeking STEC’s aid for the first time. 

1977: The U.S grows lax and begins to think that the Abyssal threat is contained. Under the pretext of a grand naval review, the Pacific Fleet is mobilized to engage an Abyssal concentration. This engagement would become one of the greatest naval disasters the world has ever seen, with the US losing virtually every vessel in the resultant maelstrom. Three destroyers at the edge of the conflict managed to escape. Heavy lessons were learned from the engagement, but the resultant loss of American conventional power projection capabilities would severely curtail U.S. activities in Asia.

1978: Directly in response to the disaster in 1977, Congress passes the first of several naval expansion legislation. The resultant manufacturing boom brings about a resurgence in critical breakthroughs in naval technology and material sciences.

Very Early 1980s: The major powers of the world gather together to discuss formally combining forces to combat the Abyssal threat.

Early 1980s: Several Japanese naval officers independently create a number of organizations to better utilize shipgirls. This would be eventually known as the NKT (Nihon Kaigun Tokusentai)

US memo detailing the Militarization Affair in Japan and a general overview of the NKT in the 80s. 

Early 1980s: STEC creates a subgirl-specific commandAt the same time, STEC begins to seriously and earnestly expand its development of anti-Abyssal weaponry and other defense-related equipment. At the same time, careful consideration is given to how the US might face the incoming Abyssal war…

1982: The U.S. engages in limited amounts of lend-lease equipment to the major shipgirl powers. However, Japanese and Soviet attempts to play geopolitics in the disputed Kuril Islands quickly draw the ire of Admiral Rickover as he realizes that both countries are deploying the equipment to a hotly contested area.

1982: As part of its national reforms, The Soviet Union introduces the “Northern Movement” plan.

1986: STEC begins to implement another phase in its national defense planning, creating a stockpile of fuel designated for civilian use in event of evacuation of the coastal US.

1988: Progress is apparently made in advancing USN conventional force capabilities, beginning with the development of advanced torpedoes.

At the same time, a formalized fairy training process is put into place.

MERLIN, now fully active, would prove to be instrumental in a number of discoveries, particularly in assisting allies in the discovery of their own shipgirls.

Late 1980s: Lori (U-2513) almost causes a diplomatic fiasco with her refusal to return to (either) Germany. STEC & NATO Admiral Erich Topp intervenes and diffuses tensions.

1988: The United States Agricultural Repository is created in anticipation of the Abyssal War.

An obscure TV show that may or not have had STEC involvement airs in the United States.

In Japan, furor involving revisions to the Constitution of Japan is at an all-time high.

1989: To the alarm of its neighbors, the USSR enacts General Order No. 455. The massive mobilization order creates several hundred new divisions and causes near-gridlock in the European bloc as NATO considers the appropriate response.

The USSR, unusually tight-lipped on the matter, claim that No. 455 is similar to any of its domestic work orders. It also claims that its military application is simply to deter potential “aggressors” without explicitly naming just who or what the aggressors may be.

The US, strangely enough, remains largely silent on the matter.

In the same year, an aircraft carrier lost in the Korean War has been rediscovered on the bottom of the sea floor.

1989: Formal ratification of the United Naval Command (UNC), a United-Nations like organization that is meant to control all humanity’s shipgirl operations and provide centralized command for all counter-Abyssal operations. Fourteen countries participate, including four with shipgirls (U.S., UK, USSR, and Japan).However, the disastrous Faroe incident has robbed the UNC of most of its leverage, and its ability to enforce and enact battleplans are still largely suspect due to British and Soviet mutual distrust and the decentralized nature of the Japanese shipgirl services.

Even so, progress is being made, especially towards the understanding of the Abyssals, or their “methodology” involving war. There are other efforts, of course, but their usability is perhaps more limiting.

New Jersey rejects the suggestion for STEC to utilize its influence to affect Congressional legislation seeking to revise the number of active U.S. military personnel.

1989: Creative interpretation of the royal prerogative and the reformation of RN-STEC results in Royal Navy shipgirls being placed directly in control of the Crown.

Unexpectedly, Ballistic Missiles are launched from Avalon base. 

Present Day (~1990): Talks begin to grant greater access of MERLIN’s capabilities to China and Japan.

A popular TV series featuring a secret wide inter-galactic conflict takes the US by storm.

1990: Under the direction of ——- —–, the Soviet Union reorganizes its shipgirl force and creates the Abyssal Response Command (ARC).

A secret U.S. Navy delegation meet with high-level Red Navy commanders to draw up an additional plan for global defense. This conference would later be known as the Vladivostok Conference. 

1990: West Germany begins its formal shipgirl program with the creation of the Bundesmarine Spezialwaffen Gruppe.A mysterious island is sighted in the East China Sea, which draws the attention of both China and Japan. China prepares for the arrival of the US contingent, while STEC wonders if there’s more to the island than it meets the eye

Summary of the human characters introduced hereComments on the current commander of STEC, Michael Yin, here.

Some general thoughts on STEC’s new naval tactics…