Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The year is SY 2151 and the Legion war is going badly for humanity.

The Legion undid all humanity had done in the past year with one massive attack. The Republic of San Magnolia which everyone hated was no more, the nation got wiped off the map by the Legion's fire of hell. While others were hanging on by a thread. To add more problems some unknown monsters from the sea appeared.

The monsters wandered into the Legion-held territories and brought nothing but pure destruction to the already war-torn continent.

Everyone was down-spirited by the latest development. But none was down-spirited as the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package and its Eighty-Six processors after the loss of their tactical commander.

In a room, a boy with jet-black hair and red eyes looked at a picture of a silver-haired woman with grief.

"Why? Why did you have to die?" He said with tears in his eyes. His name is Shinei Nouzen.He and Lena have been in a relationship since the reunion more than a year ago. She was lost in the sea after the failed attack on the Legion ship.

The whole unit grieved her dead. The Spearhead Five including Shin also grief about it a lot. She saved them from the Legion many times but they failed to keep her alive.

"I hope Kaie will treat her well up there," A girl with red hair and cat-like eyes said. Her name is Kurena Kukumila.

"Of course, she is the first one who talks well with her after all" Another girl with long silver-blue hair and blue eyes comforted her. Her name is Anju Emma.

"I sure the rest of the old Spearhead do, she is nothing like the white pigs," A boy with golden hair and green eyes said. His name is Theo Rikka.

"I am sure they all do," A boy with iron-colored hair and eyes said. His name is Raiden Shuga.

The unit as a whole had little time to rest as the Legion tide is endless. More soldiers are dead and things keep getting worse. Now they have orders to conduct a recon behind the Legion lines.

_

After a few days. Lena, Sheffield, and Edinburg returned to the port and found a surprise.

Near the dock, a massive carrier of 300 meters long docked alongside numerous ships of all sizes. The ship is the flagship of the Orphan Fleet, Stella Maris.

Already there are signs of more people and soldiers with tattoos. Driving the truck past a checkpoint where a couple of soldiers and ship girls stand guard. The truck stops at the museum where Sheffield and Edinburg take the wounded General Richard inside for treatment.

"Colonel Milizé?!!!!!"

She turns around to see a man with golden hair and faint-green eyes wearing an indigo-navy uniform with a crimson lining running toward her.

"Captain Ishmael!!!" Lena said in relief to see an old comrade in arms still alive.

"Thanks the sea, we thought you were dead," He said with relief.

Later, Hood and Wales joined her as well. While she was away, Captain Ishmael and the Stella Maris met some of the patrolling light cruisers and met the ship girls. He and the sea clan people were surprised at the presence of the ship girls. Their hearts felt relief when they were told that about a hundred children were rescued.

Slowly but surely, the ship girls and the Stella Maris crew began searching other ports and cities for survivors. More than hundreds were found and brought to the port under the safety of Hood and Wales's big guns.

Most were children but some were soldiers and sailors who could still hold weapons. They set up lookouts and checkpoints across the port. Combined with thousands of crew of the Stella Maris the city had a proper garrison.

Hood told her that Enterprise and 3 destroyers left to pick up more ship girls to help shortly after Lena, Sheffield, and Edinburg left.

All in all about 16 ship girls including Sheffield, and Edinburg after their return and about hundred soldiers guarding the port. The soldiers all fatigued and wary tried to help the ship girls but the ship girls took over the guard duty so they could rest and recuperate.

"So that's the situation," Hood said to Ishmael. They are in a room at a converted military barrack near the university.

"Yes, the Legion broke through our final defense line and started to kill us until those monsters arrived, we never saw such beasts, they fired lasers and could walk on land too" The captain replied in sadness. His home has fallen right before his eyes.

"Sorry for your losses, Captain" Wales understood his loss.

"Truth be told, seeing you ship girls is quite a surprise to us, wished our sea clans could have met with you, but they were all dead now from fighting the Legion" Ishmael shed his tears.

The Regicide Fleet countries spent much of their resources on sea power and naval artillery to conquer the sea from the Leviathans. That dream was dashed when the Legion attacked. Their land force was destroyed and they had to rely on the line of naval artillery to hold back the Legion, the line began to crack over time due to the relentless Legion attacks.

Finally, the line broke after the Legion launched another massive offensive. Hordes of the Legion war machines trample soldiers and cannons before killing the unarmed civilians in a massive blood bath.

_

The Legion picked up the gathering of human survivors and the appearance of some new foe. The Legion never feared or displayed any emotions and sent a force to destroy them but all got annihilated.

Around the port scores of silver machines lies lifeless or outright destroyed with their body lying with orange color flames or blow-out parts scattered around. Undaunted the Legion kept sending more.

"Here they come again"Arizona looked through her binocular to see another wave of Legion war machines coming at the port.

"Never learn do they?" Pennsylvania checked her fingers as her ship's big guns rolled up.

"They keep coming, we keep killing them that simple" A dark-skinned girl with black hair and gold-like eyes said. She is South Dakota the leader of the South Dakota-class battleship from Eagle Union.

"Enjoy your time huh?" Another dark-skinned girl with white hair and red eyes said. She is Massachusetts another South Dakota-class battleship.

"Land targets to shoot at and they just keep coming, we might run out of ammo first,"  Another dark-skinned girl with white hair and red eyes joked. She is Alabama another South Dakota-class battleship.

Enterprise went back to base and picked up some back up namely ship with big guns to fend off the Legion attacks. By now, the Azur Lane learned how the Legion rendered the air force useless and turned to use good old big guns to fend off the Legion.

The Iron Blood and Sakura Empire could not help due to the problems they are facing but the Eagle Union and the Royal Navy send a task force full of battleships,heavy-cruiser,light-cruisers, and destroyers to help prevent the Legion from killing everyone at the port.

In total, around 30 more ship girls arrived at the port to help the survivors. Most of them battleships, but also maids to help the wounded and the sick recover after a month of malnourishment and merciless battles. Most however came for another reason.

"This here is the Regicide fleet's proudest achievement, a skeleton of a Musukura, the biggest species of the leviathans" Ishmael pointed to the skeleton, there was a group of ship girls both in maids and non-maid uniforms all looking at it with eyes widened. Ishmael smiled at their awe, it had been a while since he acted as the curator of the museum. Normally there were staff here at the museum, but they all were killed in the Frontlines. Without a battle to fight at the moment, he took up the role.

"Her name is Nicole by the way"

"Awesome!!!" A small ship girl asked.

"This is big!!" Another said.

"How do you kill it?" Shangri-La asked.

"No, this one died of natural causes but washed up on the shores" He sadly replied.

The museum has been the attraction of the newly arrived ship girls. This kind of animal is something new in this world. This world ocean is full of leviathans.Sea monsters intrigued the ship girls.

"Wow, I see, that you enjoy the curator role, Captain Ishmael" Lena walked to the group.

"Yes, been a while," He smiled proudly.

There the small destroyers of the Fletcher-class destroyer of the Eagle Union and the J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy run to greet Lena. Lena lowers herself to greet them back.

"Beaver squad get a good tour today!!!!" 5 girls with sailor uniforms and featured caps happily replied. They are the Beaver squad of the Fletcher-class destroyer.

"Are you and your sisters having a good time Javelin?" Lena asked her.

"Of course!!!!" Javelin and her J-class destroyer 5 sisters smiled.

A group of older girls all watch with amazement.

"Wow, that's a big animal," A girl with grey hair and blue eyes wearing a black and white navy uniform said. She is Washington a North Carolina-class battleship of the Eagle Union.

"Never see one in our world, this is really another world entirely," A girl with yellow hair and blue eyes wearing a white navy uniform said. She is North Carolina the leader of the North Carolina-class battleship.

As for the maids, all of them are from town-class light cruisers of the Royal Navy. Namely, Newcastle, Glasgow, Gloucester, and Manchester. These maids are chosen because of their battle prowess and medical expertise to aid the tired human forces here. They too were all awed at the sight of the massive skeleton.

"Miss Warspite and Miss Enterprise, I don't know how to thank you for the help" Lena bowed to both.

Both just told her to raise herself up, they said it was nothing, they just could not watch idly by while the Legion killed more people. They were in a big common room prepared by Ishmael's crew in a barrack.

Later General Richard was able to walk from his wounds and met Warspite, Hood, Wales, and Enterprise. He was not fully recovered but still can walk around slowly.

"Thank you for looking out for my subordinate," Richard told Hood, Wales, Enterprise with Lena standing at his side.

Later they told him about the Siren War how they were created, the Legion's actions in their worlds, and how they got here. He listened with horrors on his face

"Oh god, sorry for all that, this war is our problem and it got to your world" He covered his face in shame.

"Lena here helped us deal with the Legion ship" Hood looked at Lena. Richard turned to give Lena a bright smile then turned back to the ship girls.

"The war as a whole is bad for all of us, most nations suffered moderate losses but we were forced to give up good defensive positions in order to hold the Legion back," He told them.

"We are running out of men and land to retreat to" He further added.

"The Legion with all the reserves and auto production types could replace the losses easily but for us humanity we could not," Lena told them after comforting her superior.

"We keep getting fewer and fewer but the Legion is sending out units with little care in the world" Richard sadly informed them.

"I might have a solution" Enterprise grinned.

Both looked at Enterprise.

"These Legion war machines use liquid machines as their lifeblood yes?" Both nodded.

"Well, Vestal found highly sensitive chemicals that nearly vaporize the liquid machine," She told them.

Lena and General Richard's hearts almost blew out of their bodies. At the knowledge that a new weapon could help defeat the Legion, there is hope. But Lena quickly turned around looking out at the window. Others quickly followed her gaze

"What's wrong?" Warspite asked.

"We destroyed a lot of their units and yet they withheld their Morpho railguns," Lena said to them.

They all gulped at the mention of the Morpho railguns. She had a point they were stationary targets and yet no railguns were fired at them. Where were they?

_

The Legion is having a very bad day, some walking monsters wander into their held lands and destroy everything in their path.

Their Rabes even got shot out of the sky. The Legion returned in kind with the feared Morphos.

Behind the Frontlines it was hell, the Legion auto production types used to safely stay behind the lines. Now they are being targeted by the massive laser-firing monsters. Their big massive size was its undoing drawing the monsters to them.

The monsters and the Legion clashed eyes-to-eyes.Blue rounds of faster than light blue bolt flies like arrows behind the Frontlines. Night becomes alive with massive orange light.

Humanity noticed the chaos behind the Legion lines and used the chance to strengthen the defense line. The deep strike missions were also conducted with great success destroying even more Legion production units.

About 12 monsters roamed behind the Legion lines, it took all of their available Morphos to deal with these monsters, even then the Morphos themselves also got destroyed.

If humanity seized the chance, they could defeat the Legion. Humanity however is just very battered at this point, nothing of note would be done until more forces are ready which would take months.

This pause in the fighting gave breathing room to many. Shin with his ability to hear the soul of the dead from his Pyrone race could hear the Legion had trouble at the old port of the Regicide countries, a port where Lena took off and never returned.

Unsurprisingly, recon units began to report that there was the presence of unknown forces at a port and beating back the Legion. The trouble was, it was deep behind the Legion line. So, the Spearhead Five got to the job of reaching out to these unknown forces to make contact.

They were chosen because of their experience behind the Legion lines.

"Unknow force, huh?" Raiden amused.

"Yes at the old port where...." Anju spoke.

"where Lena last set off on her last mission" Theo added.

"That port" Kurena knew the importance of that port.

Shin looked at the order in silence. Their unit commander Colonel Grethe Wenzel knew how much pain it did to Shin and tried to recite the high command to resent the order to no avail. Desperation set in and everyone was on edge. Riots and unrests in the Federacy army and population were rampant and the nation was on the verge of a violent uprising against the government.

Thus, they set off to the port. For some reason, the Legion units here were quite low. Given that most Legion units were at the Federcay and other nations or battling the unknown monsters, still it was unusual.

"What could be at that port?" Shin thought to himself.

_

"I must say your nation's expertise and development in naval artillery is truly impressive," Wales looked at the Regicde naval artillery information.

"We used our fleets to fend off the Legion for a decade until the last big offensive and the Morphos ruined half of our fleet and our defensive lines" Ishmael explained.

"The territories are barely above sea level and much of the land consisted of wetlands and marshes, they could not bring heavyweight Feldreß to bare" Lena showed Warspite, Hood, Enterprise, and Wales the map of the nation. Most areas were marshy terrains and lowe level lands.

"Until that railgun come along" Enterprise guessed. Both nodded.

"What a terrifying weapon," Hood remarked.

This just confirmed what Lena told them. So destructive the Morpho that it could wipe out nations.

"About the unknown monsters we encountered them as well," Ishmael told them which made the ship girls look at him.

"What is it like?" Warspite asked.

"Somewhat smaller than the Musukura and less powerful, our ships met some of them and were able to fend them off, but these monsters could fire lasers like the Musukura"  He explained.

"Do you have a picture of it?" Hood asked.

"Yes, aboard the Stella Maris, followed me to the ship and I will show you" He stood up and gestured them to his ship.

They walked out of the office toward a pier where Stella Maris is docked. Along the way, life is coming back to the once-deserted port. Ships girls played with the children and talked with the soldiers and sailors. Then a loud song like a silvery flute could be heard, the ship girls are startled except the sea people of the nation and Lena.

"What was that?" Maryland asked. Her sisters also wondered.

"That singing is the roar of a Musukura, you are all lucky to hear one today" Ishmael smiled as 'the song' ended.

"The Levianthans?!!! Where is it?" Colorado asked the man.

"Very far out, probably hundreds of kilometers from here in the deep seas" He pointed out at the ocean.

"Aw...I was hoping to meet one after seeing the skeleton" West Virginia was dismayed.

"Now ladies, those monsters are quite powerful and can fire powerful lasers that sink ships easily," He replied.

"But you fought these sea monsters for hundreds of years right ?" Colorado asked.

"Yes, with victories and defeats, mostly defeats" He rolled his eyes.

"Count me in I want to face these monsters for once!!," Maryland said.

Ishmael laughed and accepted the battleship's request. They all talked and laughed. The ship girls all listened to the roar with amazement.

"Sis, you hear that?" Montpelier said.

"Yeah, what a roar" Cleveland replied.

"So far yet loud and nice sound too," Denver remarked

"Like a flute," Columbia said. The Cleveland-class sisters listened with amazement.

Later, that night North Carolina and Washington are on patrol while others rest.

"Sis, do you want to meet a leviathan for once?" Washington asked her sister.

"Even if I have to face it with the laser being fired at me, it will be worth it" North Carolina cheerfully replied.

As they talked and watched the shoreline, however, behind them quite a distance away, a large figure with diamond-like skins was floating toward the shorelines in another direction.

The next day the whole port was in an uproar, everyone woke up to see something very big figure lying at the shoreline.

"Stand back, everyone, we will make sure that it is dead"  Ishmael shouted as he and his crew slowly approached the figure.

It was a massive Musukura a very big one, the shoreline was wet with blood of diamond-like color liquids. Despite his shouting the ship girls got to their ships and pointed all the big guns at the monster.

The men slowly checked every part of the massive monster. With a cry, they declared that it is clear to approach the dead monster. It was a massive monster very big in size with diamond-like skins and eyes bigger than a human's body with some sort of a hole in the middle of the eyes.

It was truly a marvelous sight, the fleet countries had not seen a dead Musukura for a hundred years. This one is fresh and died of something else with holes riddling its body.

"What a massive monster" Warspite was amazed at the sight.

"Now I see why the humanity of this world cannot enter the sea, these big monsters roaming around" Belfast followed.

"How did it die?" Shangri-La asked Ishmael.

"Something killed it, see those holes?" He pointed at the holes in the monster where diamond liquids were springing out. Shangri-La took notes.

The sea monster is very hard to kill and the biggest of its kind, the sea people all looked at the dead sea monster with awe and horror. What kind of enemy does that damage?

It does not take long for the sea monster experts that this one is ganged up on by the unknown monsters. The Musukuras do not take well to any intruder in its water and this one might fight off dozens of them and bleed out to death.

"Such a massive sea monster" Newcastle and her fellow maids looked at the dead sea monster.

"Wish we could take it back to our world" Warspite spoke which got Ishmael's attention.

"You know....." This gave him a bright idea.

_

The Azur Lane never saw see monsters as the war with the Siren is the only thing they knew.

But today they saw something that would tell them otherwise. Behind four big battleships and a battle cruiser is a massive sea monster larger than the Yamato-class battleship. Everyone at the base nearly took their eyes out and nearly fainted at the sight.

Bismarck, Tirptz, and other Iron Blood ship girls just arrived at the base and were all awed at the sight. Bismarck looked back at her ship and gulped. This monster made her ship look like a wooden stick.

"Sis, my eyes do not deceive me right?" Hornet asked her sister.

"Nope, I saw it too" Yorktown's mouth opened wide.

"That is a very huge sea monster" Vestal looked at the monster with amazement.

Seeing that the ship girls came to their aid and with nothing else to repay the kindness and the lack of personnel to preserve the dead sea monster. Ishmael and the sea people decided to let the ship girls have the corpse.

The sea monster is one of the monsters that roam freely in Lena's world. The monsters have lasers and are so big that they prevent the humanity of Lena's world from entering the sea.

This in turn made them realize that there are big sea monsters out there and they existed. They were quick to realize how lucky they were that their ocean did not have these kinds of monsters lying around if these sea monsters were around they can kiss their seas goodbye.

"So the Legion launched another massive offensive on the humanity of Lena's world?" Queen Elizabeth asked Hood.

"Yes, they are on the verge of extinction, I believe" Hood handed her Lena written reports.

"They suffered moderate losses but they were without any natural defenses, manpower is running low" Wales added.

Elizabeth read the report with her eyes focused, it seem that the Legion meant business this time, and getting very creative. In one big attack, nearly all nations were on the back foot. The Fleet countries seemed to be in the worst position.

"If they launched another one, they are doomed" Elizabeth spoke.

"I can set off the with anti-Legion experimental bombs in three days," Vestal said to her. Jack went back to the Eagle Union to speed things up.

In the Royal Garden, more people are present. Bismarck, Yorktown, and Vestal.

"The Eagle Union are building them as fast as we can, they will arrive shortly," Yorktown explained.

"How are things over there?" Bismarck asked.

"Hell," Warspite told them.

"Hundreds of children, sailors, and soldiers are on the verge of total exhaustion and the Legion set up a tight blockade" Hood added.

"We keep firing at them but they just keep coming" Wales added.

"Worse than Denmark?" Bismarck asked Hood.

"Yep, it is their home turf and their auto production units are there, one wave destroys another come, we might run out of ammo before we run out of targets" Hood close her eyes and remembered the mountain of headless corpses she saw on Denmark and the Regicide countries.

"Will more aircraft carriers be of help ?" Yorktown asked.

"No, the Legion AA shot down planes with ease," Hood sadly replied.

"More worrying is these unknown monsters," Wales put photos on the table.

The pictures were from the Stella Maris database, it showed something that made their blood run cold. Massive black monsters with giant tenacles and massive blue eyes.

"These monsters are less powerful than the Musukura but can walk on land" Wales explained.

"You are saying that the monster is amphibious?" Vestal asked.

"Yes, General Richard of the 177th Armored Division of the Federacy Army reported sightings of them and they clashed with the Legion, and from what he told us, these monsters are very destructive" Warspite explained.

"But they are not invincible, Anti-leviathans weaponry of the Regicide fleet is enough to fend them off and the Legion Morpho railgun proves able to kill them," Hood said.

The knowledge that these monsters can be beaten gives some sense of relief.

_

"Get back girls, get back!!!!!" A soldier shouted to the ship girls.

"You go first, we will hold them off" Cleveland and her sisters replied.

"Thank girls, be quick all right?" he replied.

"Of course, just go," Denver said to him.

The port is under heavy attack, the Legion just keep coming and true to their cunning bring clouds of silver jamming drones and a lot of AA to stop the big guns shells. Despite that the shells still get through and land in the tightly-packed Legion.

Although the ship girls, sailors, and soldiers were outnumbered. They were not outgunned. From the rooftops and tall buildings the ship girls rained hell with their big guns on the Legion war machines.

Lena stayed with Javelin, Laffey, Ayanami, and Z23. The Legion broke through the outskirts of the port but so far the inner line still held.

"Shrangri-La, Enterprise get the children on the ship!!!!" Lena contacted the two carriers.

"On it, sending dive bombers to help right now!!!!" Enterprise launched her SBD-Dauntlesses to aid the defense. Shangri-La did the same with her Hell divers.

Ishmael and his crew all took up arms and rushed to the defense leaving some crew to get the children and survivors onto the Stella Maris.

The planes dived at the Legion formations and dropped their payloads. Thousand pounds of bombs slammed the ground and created waves of massive orange explosions in the port. Turning the Legion war machines into burning hulks in the process.

Enterprise grinned as more of her planes and Shangri-La's are doing the same until a barrage of hot leads tore her planes apart.

"It's the Stachelschwein!!!!!" Shangri-La shouted as her planes are in flames and tear to shreds.

Then a massive barrage of 155 mm rang out like a rumble of thunder. The dark sky turned bright with yellow flashes that turned night into day followed by an ear-breaking hollowing sound.

"Get in cover!!!!" Lena shouted through her Para-RAID as she grabbed Javelin, Laffey, Ayanami, and Z23 into a nearby building. Everyone did the same. The sky blacked with the 155 mm rounds and the whole port shook under the bombardment. The soldiers and sailors shielded the ship girls and hugged them tight as the shells slammed the port. In a minute the port is covered in darkness and flames.

General Richard has recovered and grabbed an assault rifle to help the defense. Without a Vánagandr he was powerless and had to let the ship girls take the front stage. He knew that their biggest weakness was not firepower but speed. Thus he tried to use defense in depth with a line of roadblocks. Even he was powerless against the massive wave of the Legion war machines and their merciless bombardments.

"Leave me here just go!!!!" He shouted to Manchester.

"No sir, I will not leave you here!!!" She refused.

Lying on the ground his legs were hit by a metal fragment. Manchester did her best to patch him up. Just then a wall broke and smoke blinded her. Opening her eyes, she found herself staring at a 120 mm barrel of a Löwe. She held her last breath.

Then a loud bang and cracking of a metal.The Löwe spakred a little.A big white machine stopped in front of her before the Löwe exploded.

"Hey, are you okay?!!!" A human voice came out.

"Yes, thank you" She thanked the voice.

"Shin?!!" Richard recognized the voice.

"Yes, General.Thank god you are still alive!!!" The voice was amazed. Later a group of white machines joined the defense and helped beat off the Legion attack.

These white machines cut down the Legion units within seconds, one even launched a barrage of rockets wiping out an entire column of Legion war machines in seconds. One, in particular, used its blades to cut down any Legion in its way like they were nothing. The ship girls and the white machines fought side by side as the Legion pushed into the port.

_

The ship girls saw the horrors of war with the Siren and the Legion. They knew about losses and separation and never saw a great reunion and yet.....

In front of them, 5 teenagers stood around a silver-haired girl. All of them cried.

"Colonel, you still alive!!!" Those are the words that come out.

Shin in particular hugged Lena very tightly and cried right there and then.

"Don't leave me again, please" He told her.

"I am still here, I am not dead yet" She hugged back.

Although covered in black gunpowder, dust, and non-Republic uniform. Lena's silver hair, silver eyes, and the silver bell-like voice told them that this is the one and the same commander they thought was dead almost a year ago. Enterprise watched as the teenagers talked and rejoiced at the fact that their commander was still alive. After some time the ship girls and the Eighty-Six introduced themselves to each other.

Outside a barrack 5 white machines are parked outside while the Spearhead and their still-alive commander talk with Enterprise and Belfast.

"She told us all about you Eighty-Six, we understood what you had to go through," Enterprise said.

"Thanks, ships in human forms, amazing!!" Theo spoke.

"A new world!!!" Kurena amazed.

"Beautiful sea too!!!" Anju said with excitement.

"Let's go there after the war" Raiden grinned.

Shin sits beside Lena on a couch and never leaves her side for quite a while.

"You hear the dead, right Captain Nouzen?" Enterprise looked at Shin. He looked back at her.

"Lena here told me all about you and the Spearhead Squadron as a whole. In fact, she spoke highly about all of you and the Eighty-Six as a whole" Enterprise smiled.

"She is different from the white pigs after all" Theo spoke but got smacked in the head by Anju.

"Manners Theo!!!"

"How are things on the Frontlines, if I may ask?" Belfast asked the Spearhead.

"Bad everywhere" Kurena summed up.

"The United Kingdom of Roa Gracia lost the Dragon Fang Mountain line," Theo said.

"The Federacy army is running low on soldiers and manpower reserve," Raiden asked.

"The Federacy population starting to hate us," Anju said.

"The Alba is boycotted and the Alba hate was high after news about children's experiment by the Republic got out" Shin took Lena's hands.

"My nation used children as experiments for the Para-RAID and who knows what more, it was usual if they hate me as well" Lena closed her eyes.

Enterprise and Belfast stood there silent. Children experiments.How cruel and disgusting a nation can be. Later they asked what the Republic did after Lena's apparent death. What the Spearhead told them next nearly blew their fuse. The Republic used her as a tool to proclaim Alba supremacy. They used a girl's death as a tool.

"How low could they get?!!!!" Enterprise slammed the table.

"Hearing Lena's story and their story, I wonder if these Albas are still humans" Belfast almost lost her calm demeanor but her eyes are burning with disgust.

"Oh, these Albas left their own to die. The Republic's government officials, VIPS, and the old nobility ran first and left others to die" Theo spat.

"What?!!!" Enterprise and Belfast exclaimed.

"They left their own fellow Albas to die and ran to safety first" Anju added.

"So all those people left behind?" Enterprise asked again.

"The rich left the poor to die" Kurena simplified.

Belfast put a hand over her mouth.

"I expect nothing less from them if they dare do it with the Eighty-Six, why would not dare to with their own" Lena looked at her silver hair.

_

"Hi, I am Javelin nice to meet you" She spoke to a four-legged orange machine about 2 meters tall with a red sensor eye.

"Pi pi" It replied. The machine is a Scavenger drone that helps the Spearhead Squadron for as long as it can remember. Its name is Fido. It is about 2 meters tall with a big crane and a storage container on its back.

"Laffey feel sleepy need a drink," Laffey said and saw the drone hand her a soda can with one of its cranes.

"Where did it get that from?!!!" Z23 shocked.

Laffey took the soda drink from the drone and gave it a thumbs up. Fido replied in kind by raising one of its legs.

Ayanami just stood there in silence until the drone came closer to her.

"Pi pi"

"What?"

"Pi pi pi"

"Sorry, I don't understand you"

"He wants to know why you look so unhappy" A male voice calls out.

Turning around they see Lena and Shin walking to them. The drone moves closer to Lena and she puts her hand on its red sensor.

"I am still alive Fido, thanks for your worries" The drone's red sensor blinked with happiness.

"Hi, Lena told me about you four," Shin told them.

"Hi, you must be her boyfriend," Javelin said not knowing the consequences.

Lena's face got red as a tomato. The ship girls smiled and grinned at that.

"How do you guys fight in these things?" North Carlina asked looking at the white machine.

"Its armor was so light" Washington knocked it and noticed that it had little armor.

"It's Reginleif, our aluminum coffin, and our home" He replied.

Both North Carlina sisters were just stunned at the answer. They looked into Shin's eyes and found no emotions at all. As Lena told them the pain and suffering killed off any emotions the  Eighty-Six might have had. A few days later they settled themselves in the port very well. Theo and Ishmael embraced as they were glad at the other survival. While Anju and Kurena almost passed out from the cuteness of the destroyers. Raiden helped the maids move medical and other supplies from the ships and helped around the port.

"Sir, how can you carry that much?" Newcastle asked the man.

"Oh, it's normal for me, ladies" Raiden smiled back. He was carrying big three whole creates of medical supplies from Enterprise's hull.

"We get used to doing a lot of heavy work so it's normal for us" Theo also came to help carry the supplies.

The ship girls could not help but be amazed by the strength and stamina of the Spearhead Five. These humans, unlike normal humans, they were so strong that could hold their own even against the ship girls. But given years of hellish combat and the need to try and survive its all made sense.

"Laffey feels sleepy, Laffey will sleep in big sis Kurena's lap" Laffey just fell asleep in Kurena's lap and the red-haired girl's face was covered in red as a tomato. Already the bunny destroyer called her a big sister. She was so overwhelmed by Laffey's cuteness. Anju who sat nearby just giggled a bit. She and Kurena were playing with Javelin, Laffey, Ayanami, and Z23. They also inquired about the story of Lena from them as well.

"Without her, we would be dead almost 2 years ago. We faced very large Legion formations, but out of nowhere, she helped us by hacking her nation's own artillery to help us" Anju started.

"She did not care what punishment those Albas would give her, she just saved us from death" Kurena added.

Javelin noticed something else in their eyes. She was about to ask...

"They were at your age when the Republic forced them into internment camps"

Turning to the voice, she sees Lena walking toward a picnic carpet that Anju, Kurena, Javelin, Laffey, Ayanami, and Z23 are sitting on. She sits down and enjoys lunch with them. Javelin now understands what something else was in their eyes. It is pity and sadness to see small girls like them take up arms. A shadow of their own horrible past.

"We took ups arms to defeat the Siren not by force, we were ships that were given human lives," Z23 told them about their choices.

"We fight to protect our homes and comrades" Ayanami replied.

That statement took the elder Anju and Kurena by surprise but they quickly understood.

_

"So you have a weapon that could wipe out the Legion?" Shin asked Enterprise.

"Yes, it is a chemical weapon that the Legion liquid machines are highly sensitive to" She replied.

Shin almost smiled, the Legion could be stopped entirely. He also decided that it was time that Lena to be told a secret. She was kept in the dark for long enough.

Shin gathered Lena, The Spearhead Five, Enterprise, and Belfast and asked that no one listen to them even eavesdrop. In a room, he told them a great secret.

The Legion could be stopped by using a failsafe, a failsafe to shut down the entire Legion. A method required an Imperial bloodline to give the order.

"How are you so sure it is going to work?" Belfast was skeptical.

"Because their own inventor told us," Shin replied.

"And you believe the enemy?" Enterprise asked.

"She was cut off from the Legion network by her own creation," Anju told her.

"She wanted less bloodshed but her superiors used it against her will," Kurena said.

Zelene Birkenbaum wanted less bloodshed and to prevent human life lost on the battlefield, the war got out of hand fast.

"As good as her intentions might be, it nearly brought us to extinction," Theo remarked about how many comrades he lost in the Legion War.

"and started the domino effect" Enterprise closed her eyes.

In fact, the Legion War stated the whole racism in the Republic and the whole bloodbath.

"How is Frederica by the way?" Lena asked.

"Achoo!!!!!" A girl with brown hair and red eyes sneezed.

"What's wrong Frederica?" An old man with long jet-black hair and eyes asked her.

"I feel like someone is talking about me, Ernst" She replied.

The girl is the only living member of the Giad Empire royal family before its overthrow, her name is Frderica Rosenfort or Augusta Frederica Adel-Adler. She would have been dead were it not for a man to save her and facked her death.

The old man is a man who led the Giad Revolution, he tried his best to uphold the ideals of his new nation, the Federal Republic of Giad. But now he is tired of all the headaches he has been receiving. Riots in the street and unrest in the army reach a boiling point. His name is Ernst Zimmerman.

They were in the capital Sankt Jeder. Chaos was brewing in the city. People were rioting and boycotting the Alab race for their horrible crimes.

Frederica was Lena's aide before her death and felt tremendous sadness after her death. Frederica has power that allows her to see the past and present of a people. She was forbidden to follow the Spearhead on their mission.

Frederica's eyes turned bright as she used her powers hoping to see Lena's past and what she saw made her cry.

"Lena? it can't be!!!!" Frederica's face filled with tears.

"What's wrong?!!!" Ernst worried at her reaction.

"Lena is still alive and she brings help!!!!" Frederica smiled.

_

"This here is the gas bombs that would make the Legion liquid machines fried like oil" Vestal pointed to a crate full of bombs with yellow markings.

A week later, after many delays in storms and packing the bombs on her ship. Vestal along with Wales and Hood arrived at the port. There they also encountered the Speardhead Five and introduced themselves.

Vestal took out a bottle of sprayer and spayed it on Legion liquid machines and it went up in flames. The Spearhead Five and General Richard looked in awe with this they could turn the tide of the war.

General Richard and the Spearhead prepared to set off but they decided that one could not come along.

"Please let me come along!!!!" Lena pleaded with her superior.

"No, you have done enough besides they need you here" The one-eyed General looked at the ship girls and the Regicide soldiers.

"But sir...." She tried to speak.

"That is an order" He put both his hands on her shoulders. It is an order and a request. In the General's eye, there is concern and worry.

"We have to move fast and the road ahead is very dangerous" Raiden reasoned.

"You will be safe here," Theo told her.

"Yeah, we will be right back once all this is over," Kurena told her.

"We won't leave you behind" Anju promised her. Shin took her into a hug and begged her to stay behind. For the first time, she relented.

_

Months went by and the port became more lively than ever. The ship girls opened shops and traded with the locals. Empty houses and buildings were now occupied.

The Regicide countries are small nations. This small nation boasted a very large navy before the Legion War. All though their fleet was gone and most of their population was dead. The ship girls brought back life to the port and its occupants.

"It is very lively, like our base," Cleveland remarked.

"Yes, the skeleton was quite the attraction," Wales looked to the museum where the ship girls gathered.

"Normally, the military base would not allow this but this is a special case" Lena remembered that normally army would maintain strict rules and regulations.

"Discipline and rules are enforced in the Federacy Army" She added.

Although the nation had not much to offer back for the ship girls' kindness, the dead corpse of the Musukurawas more than enough.

Talks about the exchanging of technology programs about anti-leviathans weaponry and information about the sea monsters were very intriguing.

Finally, they received communication the Legion is no more. A bloody war that has almost bled the continent dry was over.

A few days later helicopters came and from them came Lena's superiors and her comrades.

"Lena, I am very glad you are still alive" Colonel Wenzel hugged Lena.

"Thank you, Colonel Wenzel" She happily replied.

"Lena!!! you are still alive thank god!!!" A short silver-haired girl wearing glasses hugged her after Colonel Wenzel let go.

"I am still here, Annette sorry to worry you" Lena tearfully replied.

She is Lena's best friend, Henrietta von Penrose or Annette. This girl is the one who handles the Para-RAID technology.

Around 20 black-steel panzer jackets wearing soldiers disembarked from the plane.

Among the old faces, there are new ones. The ship girls introduce themselves properly and lead them to an office to talk.

"First, allow me to express gratitude for helping us end this long war with the Legion" A man with short jet-black eyes and hair thanked Enterprise, Hood, and Wales.

"We just could not stand by while the Legion is killing all the people, we were created to protect humanity," Hood remarked why the ship girls were created.

"It is such an honor to meet the commander of the Federcay Western Front Commander in person, Brigadier General Willem Ehrenfried" Wales nodded her head.

He is Brigadier General Willem Ehrenfried, a man who is responsible for the defense of the Federcay's Western Front.

They were talking in a room with Lena standing at Brigadier General Willem Ehrenfried 's side as a liaison.

"Aside from that, I must warn you about our nation 's politics," He told them

"Yes, Lena did warn us about it" Hood replied.

"A very intense rivalry" Wales nodded.

The end of the Legion also brought unresolved problems, like political issues and racial rivalry.

"I must tell you that the higher-ups back in the capital want me to bring Lena here back for punishment," He told them, they all looked at him with anger in their eyes.

"Para-RAID is supposed to be a state secret and she shared it with you and your Azur Lane military unit is a breach of security," He added. Lena just nodded, she knew the consequences of her actions.

"But those pencil pushers were willing to drop it as long as you do not show up in the capital, they hate Albas back there, it is not safe for you" He turned to see Lena.

"You do look very nice in that uniform" He commented.

"Thank you, Brigadier General" She nodded.

"Now to this issue, monsters that laid waste to the Legion" He took out a tablet and gestured to Lena to show the ship girls the data inside.

Hood gestured for Lena to sit between her and Wales, at first she refused but in the end she relented. The pictures inside the tablet were nothing short of pure destruction. Cities were wiped clean off the map, massive Legion units melted, Morphos lay destroyed, and massive black monsters littered the battlefield.

"These monsters caused the Legion tremendous damage about 90% of combat power was destroyed and nearly all heavy assets along with factories and auto production units" Willem explained after seeing their horrified faces.

"Only 12 caused that much damage?" Hood asked.

"Yes, if these monsters had attacked us in our darkest hour we...the humanity of this world would be annihilated, we have no air force as our pilots were dead, and our artillery was also not good enough to penetrate its armor," He lamented.

"The Morpho railguns seem to have better luck, nearly all of these monsters had railgun's rounds shot at them," Lena noticed.

"Yes, direct fire and not indirect fire, so close that the monsters could shoot back, as fire from long-range meant these monsters could avoid the rounds" He added.

"Which meant that you have to get in close enough for the kill," Enterprise who sat in another chair deduced.

"Sadly, yes" He sadly replied.

"Can we have some of these dead monster bodies for analysis?" Hood asked him.

"We can but transporting those bodies would be troublesome and they are quite big on land, how about I send the reports through Lena here to you" He suggested.

"Sound good" Wales agreed.

"Oh and for helping us by sharing the anti-Legion bombs we will also share our military technology with you. Artillery, cruise missiles, and others as thanks from the Federal Republic of Giad" He stood up.

"That would be nice"

"We are simply too battered from all this war and cannot spare more people, so I hope that a Para-RAID researcher,5 specialists, and Lena here might do" He looked at the 3 ship girls.

"Of course, we understood the long struggle" Hood replied.

"If so have a good day, and Lena reminded those Eighty-Six that they are still humans will you?" He said before walking away.

_

A few days later many aircraft carriers docked at the port to transport cargo, most of them are from Essex class but also Yorktown class.

What they will be transporting is very huge. Several long-distance multi-rocket launchers with massive payloads, sonar for detecting leviathans, new advanced radar, and other military pieces of equipment.

Men and women all helped load these into the carrier hulls and flight deck.

"Sis, see that massive rocket launcher" Interprid looked at a massive rocket launcher.

"Yes, those are huge," Bunker Hill remarked.

"This time we carry military weapons on our ship, so no rigging transform," Essex explained as the men and women loaded the cargo.

Hornet will be the one to take in passengers.

"Hi, I am Hornet, I will be your transport ship today, come aboard and we will set sail," Hoenrt said to her passengers cheerfully. For her part she wore a back shirt and formal pants to be less revealing.

The 7 teenagers all happily replied and followed the aircraft carrier.

"You guys get settled, Shin and I will see to it that all equipment is loaded up and Fido gets aboard," Lena told them as she and Shin walked toward a glass-wearing aircraft carrier.

She also noticed Lena and Shin walking toward her and greeted them.

"After this one, we will be done, Fido is on board already" She pointed to an orange scavenger.

"Pi Pi" He replied from Shangri-La's ship flight deck.

As this was happening the ship girls bid farewell to the sea people. Their time here was over.

"Thanks for all your help, Miss Maryland and your sisters" Ishmael shook hands with Maryland.

"Oh, when I was done fighting the Siren I will come back to get a fight with a Leviathan" The battleship replied cheerfully.

"Good, I will be repairing the hunting fleet in the meantime" He laughed.

After an hour the ships set off from the port. Passing through a fog, the gray sea turns into a bright clear blue sea.

The new passengers except Lena looked at the sight with awe.

"Such a beautiful sea" Anju and Kurena awed.

"So bright blue," Theo and Raiden remarked.

"You once said you would show me the sea, sorry I beat you to it" Lena looked at Shin.

"Well, you did not leave me behind and that's good enough" He smiled back.

Hornet watched as the teenagers looked at the bright blue sea. They were at the superstructure enjoying the view.

"They are having a good time?" Enterprise asked through her radio to Hornet.

"Yes, they are" Hornet smiled.

"Good, let them enjoy their time" Enterprise looked at her sister from her aircraft carrier.

Hornet notices that Enterprise starts to change her attitude, in part because now she sees that the sea can help these teenagers recover from the deep scars of hell they have been through.

_

The Siren learned that the leviathans went to the wrong world and got annihilated by Lena's world sea monsters and the Legion Morphos.

"Ok, well that is unexpected"

"What now?"

"Time to have some fun with the Azur Lane"

Purifier led a massive fleet to attack the Azur Lane base. She wanted a fight, she would get one.

Just as her fleet is sailing toward the base. Her ships run into sea mines which blew up a lot of her ships. Then even before seeing the base the sky was ablaze with rounds coming at her. The rounds break off into smaller ones and slam into the Siren ships. Her massive fleet was getting fewer by the minute.

Looking back, almost half of her fleet was ablaze and in smoke.

"Oh, what new toys do you have Azur Lane?" She spat.

Finally, she saw the base and a massive rocket barrage fell on her and her fleet. The entire fleet was covered in smoke but from the smoke. Purifier appeared.

"This is fun!!!!"

Looking from the hilltop in a trench, Kurena and Anju looked from binoculars on with horror.

"How is that Siren still alive?!!!" Anju exclaimed.

"That one is a tough Siren it took the best of us to even make a dent in her" Z23 replied.

"This is worse than the Legion" Kurena horrified at the new enemy.

"No, the Legion is worse, the Siren just likes to toy with us" Ayanami explained.

"Damn, the Siren fleet is still coming, girls how many of the mines that you deployed?" Lena inside the makeshift command post in the trench asked Javelin, Z23, Laffey, and Ayanami.

"We deployed around 100 mines," Javelin replied.

"To be fair, that is one huge fleet" Annette looked through a screen on her laptop and it showed countless red beeps.

"To Commander Jack, many Siren ships are still approaching,"' Lena reported to Jack.

"I hear you, reload the rocket launchers and fire another barrage and leave the rest to the ship girls" He replied.

"Copy that, Shin, Raiden, Theo?"

"We hear you, reloading now" Shin replied as he and his friends are reloading the rocket launchers.

At the same time, the ship girls transformed into riggings and formed a battle fleet. After a while, a massive barrage of rockets slammed into the Siren fleet and the ship girls engaged the leftovers.

_

Nagato and her escorts arrived at the Azur Lane base with nervous looks. At the top of two hills at the entrance to the harbor is two massive gun turrets surrounded by numerous AA guns. At the port itself are several massive rocket launchers.

After the arrival of Lena and her friends, they revised the base defense and armed the base with repositioned AA guns, and added powerful long-range support weapons.

"Now this radar will help detect anything from very far away," Anneette said while checking the radar.

"Wow, this radar is truly massive and powerful my ship's radar could not reach the same level," Helena said while looking at the massive radar.

Helena being a radar specialist assist Annette in setting up and checking the newly advanced radar. They also seem to get along very well. Annette also helps set up Para-RAID devices more properly.

The same goes for the rest, the ship girls showed the Eighty-Six human life and tried their best to heal the scarred Legion War veterans.

Theo used his art expertise to draw many ship girls' pictures and spent his peaceful time enjoying the base beautiful's view. Anju and Kurena meanwhile spent their time making sure that a certain aircraft carrier do not pester the destroyers. Shin and Lena often time spent their time at the beach. All the while they were watched by Javelin, Z23, Laffey, and Ayanami. Jack allowed them to wear more comfortable clothes and allow them around the base freely. The Eighty-Six without the worry of disciplinary punishment began to enjoy peaceful lives even more.

_

"You see, Nagato, our base has undergone quite a refit in its defense," Queen Elizabeth said.

Nagato, Bismarck, and the leaders of the other factions' eyes fixed on the object behind her. Behind Elizabeth in a massive glass container was the dead body of a Musukura. It was so big that the base has to build a new area to display the preserved dead body.

"This dead sea monster body was a gift from the sea people of Lena's world to the Royal Nav...No...Azur Lane" She humbly spoke.

"So this sea monster is what roaming the sea of that world"

"So massive"

"Bigger than my ship"

They muttered and looked with amazement. The dead body became some sort of attraction and a reminder of why there is no point in fighting among themselves.

At the training area meanwhile.

"How?!!!" Tirpitz exclaimed at the sight before her.

In front of her is a target a big diamond color fish scale about 5 meters tall and 3 meters wide.

She fired her 15-inch rounds from her turrets at point-blank range. Her shells not even made a dent in the monster's scale. The people around all dropped their jaws.

Lena, Annette, and Shin watched from a distance with headphones on behind sandbags. They were not like the ship girls who could withstand such a massive noise of cannon fire and shockwaves.

What Tirpiz shot at is a scale from the dead Musukura. The diamond-like scale is so thick like a diamond that the shells that one of the strongest ships failed to penetrate.

Shangri-La and a number of biologist ship girls went through a pain stalking process to preserve the sea monster's dead body and extract a scale for test fire.

The test fire turned into a competition between the battleships and battlecruisers to see who penetrate the scale first. Others soon joined.

So far not one succeeded. Until...

"Let's see if this monster scale can withstand my katana" A girl with dog ears and wearing a white navy uniform took out her katana. She is Takao a Takao-class heavy cruiser from Sakura Empire.

"I didn't think that is a good idea" Lena advised.

"Yeah, that scale is pretty thick" Anneette added.

"15-inch shells did not even make a dent," Shin pointed to the undamaged scale.

"It's worth a shot, I have been trained a long time that my sword can even break metal" She replied to the three teenagers.

"Alright, if your sword broke don't say we didn't warn you," Lena said.

"Don't worry, I can repair my sword if it broke, and let's see how really strong this monster's scale really is" Takao approached the scale.

With a slash, a loud wind blow is heard, and a breaking of metal.

"My sword!!!!!" Takao cried. Her katana shattered into million pieces after making contact with the scale. The ship girls just watched and their mouths opened wide.

Shin, Lena, and Annette just looked and thought in their minds."Told you"

"Fido bring in the railgun!!!!" Shin shouted. Fido later dragged a 155 mm railgun to the area.

The three teenagers set up and gun. With a signal a powerful round headed toward the scale. The scale is covered in smoke and knocked off its holding.

It seems that the railgun round might penetrate it but upon closer inspection. The round only makes a tiny small hole that a hand can fit through.

Annette writes down the results and leaves the area along with Lena and Shin. All around the ship girls just wonders how tough the scale was to withstand such a powerful rail round that cut through their ship hulls like a hot knife through butter.

_

"Such as a peaceful night at the beach don't you think," Kurena said. The night had fallen and the 7 teenagers all gathered at the beach to enjoy the night wind.

"Yes, so peaceful" They all agreed. Their road to peace was fulfilled.No more war, no more Legion. In no small part thanks to the ship girls' discovery of anti-Legion explosives.

The ship girls had helped bring an end to the bloody Legion War, they hoped to return the favor by bringing an end to theirs as well. Looking from a tree, Enterprise looked and listened with astonishment.

"You boys and girls are sure something" She smiled before disappearing into the night.

_

As to make Lena, Annette, Shin, and the Spearhead feel at home. Commander Jack had a mansion built for them to live together with their own rooms. Initially, they refused but he eventually talked them into accepting it.

It was a good experience for them, living together and doing things together in a peaceful time from battles. Unsurprisingly, the ship girls also came for visits.

Anju's cooking for some reason became very attractive to the destroyers. At first, Javelin, Z23, Laffey, and Ayanami were her food testers. But when words got out about it, Nevada asked her to help in the cafeteria to serve her cooking to the destroyers.

They loved it, to say the least, much to Anju's happiness. Anju also kept a certain aircraft carrier in line in the cafeteria as well.

"Miss Ark Royal, I expect you to not disturb the destroyers here, do we understand each other?" Anju with a knife touching her chin looked at Ark Royal.

Ark Royal an Ark Royal-class aircraft carrier from Royal Navy is known for her love for the destroyers. Anju's scary expression forced her to agree. The ship girls who saw this made a mental note not to piss Anju off.

Lena moves her old belongings from her room in the Royal Navy dorm to her new room in the mansion. She also put her old pictures from her destroyed home in the Republic on the shelves. She is checking her files when a knock on her room's door gets her attention.

"Come in"

A door opens and Hood comes in. She hands Lena a small glass box with a medal inside it to her. Apparently, Lena forgets to get her Iron Cross from her old room. Hood also comes to see if she settles well in her new room. Something catches her eye. On a shelf is a picture of three individuals. One male and two females,2 adults, and 1 child.

"Those are my parents and me in the middle" Lena explained to the battlecruiser.

She takes the picture and brings it closer so that Hood can also see much better. In the picture, she sees the happiness of a family. Their smiles and happy faces.

"The one with the Prussian blue unfirm is my father, Václav Milizé, he was a Colonel in the Republic Armed Forces" She pointed to the man on the left of the photo.

"When I was 10, he took me out on a helicopter to visit the Frontlines and there I saw the crimes my people committed with my own eyes" She remembered that day well.

Hood looks on with worry. "Oh no...I knew where this is going"

"The Legion spotted the helicopter that night and shot it down. It crash-landed and a Legion scout killed everyone else then came for me...." She spoke with sadness in her eyes.

Hood realized she opened an old wound on the poor girl. Hood you stupid what have you done!!! She said in her mind.

"I could have died that night were it not for an Eighty-Six that saved me..." She looked at Hood.

"The woman on the right is my mother who got trampled to death by a Löwe in the first Legion offensive" She pointed to the woman on the right.

Hood now saw that the poor girl saw her family perish before her own eyes. She wished Bismarck to fire at her again for bringing Lena's past up.

"Wars brought death and destruction to all those involved in it. My nation thought they could live in their own lies. All their lies are broken by the Legion offensives. They refused to change till the end and they paid for it with their total destruction and annihilation" She looked at the Five-hued flag of the Republic.

"Countless Eighty-Six were sent to die in a meat grinder, they saw their own family being killed by the camp guards, then they got drafted and sent to die in reckless charges and suicide missions" Lena put down the photo.

Hood just stood there listening as the Alba girl said those words. Lena's burden became very clear for the Royal Navy battlecruiser to see. Burdened by the sins of her nation, even though she didn't do those crimes. Hood left her room and walked back to the Royal Navy dorm with many things on her mind.

"What a horrible world," She thought in her mind. "My crown of thorns is not so bad after all"

Chapter Text

The tide of the Siren War is turning fast. The new and more unified Azur Lane become more aggressive than ever. The Atlantic and the Mediterranean are retaken by the Azur Lane. All that is left is the Pacific where the Siren still has their holdings. While other smaller seas are slowly being retaken.

Armed with new state-of-the-art weaponry and unjammable communication devices. The ship girls became more deadly than anyone could imagine. The Siren started to get scared.

Battles after battles, base after base. Slowly the Siren is being picked apart.

At the Azur Lane base, new workshops propped up. Lena, Anneette, and the Spearhead Five all helped introduced new weapons systems from their world. More menacing than anything that these humans brought with them are the Interception cannons. These massive guns are so powerful and have massive firepower that put even the Yamato's 18-inch guns to shame. One barrage of these guns can wipe out almost nearly half an entire Siren fleet. These guns also had a very long range of 120 km. Not to mention powerful long-range multi-rockets launchers system that can be equipped to ships.

Once exposed Azur Lane base became one of the deadliest places on the planet for the Siren. To reach the base the Siren would have to get past a sea filled with smart sea mines. Then get into a Killzone of these Interception cannons. If that wasn't enough any surviving Sirens would have been bombarded with a massive rocket barrage. If by some chance some Sirens got through all these gauntlets of death, the ship girls would be more than willing to send them to the bottom with their own big guns and planes. One such day Wales and Hood decided to observe the sheer firepower of these guns with their own eyes.

"Another Siren mass-produced ship fleet," Wales looked through her small stylish binoculars.

"Right on schedule," Hood looked at her watch. The base often came under attacks in the past. In fact, the base went through many repairs because of it from both Crimson Axis and Siren. The Royal Navy battleship and battlecruiser stood near a massive Interception cannon turret. As the turret moved its barrel. A massive roar of fire and smoke came out of the barrel. Both just stood there and did not even flinch. Much to the shock of Anju and Kurena who were watching from an observation post in a trench nearby.

"Those ship girls are sure impervious to the sound of combat" Anju watched as both Royal Navy ships stood where they were.

"If it was me I might be deaf" Kurena added.

"They were ship in human forms so they were very different from normal humans" Lena joined the conversation.

"Some human biology applied to them but others could not" Annette explained.

All 4 wore thick headphones and used Para-RAID for communication. The rounds exploded and sent a rain of high explosives down into the Siren fleet within minutes much of the fleet was in flames. Later a number of aircraft carriers finished off any surviving Siren ships.

_

The Azur Lane base has become quiet for a time since most ships went back to carry out operations in the Atlantic and Mediterranean but was yet to return.

During these quiet times, most ships at the base just enjoyed themselves...

"I have enough of you"  Shigure took out ice cream popsicles.

"Time to settle this once and for all" Yukikaze accepted the challenge.

"Here we go" Yuudachi looked nearby.

Raiden and Anju are helping in the cafeteria that day. They watch as the cat-liked destroyers of the Sakura Empire are talking very loudly. The cafeteria is a place for peace and quiet.

"Raiden?" Anju asked.

"On it" He walked out of the kitchen to stop the noise. Just before he could reach them. An ice cream popsicle was thrown into Raiden's face. Both Shigure and Yukikaze watched as the ice cream slide down from his face. All of a sudden both Shigure and Yukikaze were grabbed by Raiden on his back and he walked out to give them a 'punishment'.

"Wow he's strong and keeps things quiet," Neveda remarked before going back to cooking. Later Shigure and Yukikaze came back with ice cream buckets on their heads. The ship girls all held out their laughs.

"Now you both are equal" Raiden grinned before walking back into the kitchen.

At the beach, the ship girls are playing and relaxing. Some go playing in the sea while others just sit or play on the beach.

"Shark!!!!" A ship girl shouted.

"Why? Why me again?!!!" San Diego watched as the shark targeted her. Before she could do anything a loud bang is heard, and the shark lay dead as its head is leaking blood. Looking at the source of that gunfire, Kurena in her bikini with a big sniper rifle clocked her rifle.

"Shooting a shark is easy than shooting the Legion that's for sure" She looked at the dead shark. She walked down from a small lookout to bring the dead shark in and there San Diego hugged her out of relief. She just smiled and dragged the dead shark away from the beach. It seemed that there are sharks around and for the safety of the ship girls, Kurena decides to keep watch for any sharks and shoot any that try to harm any ship girls.

At a Sakura Garden in the base...

Theo sits on a bench and enjoys his peaceful day. His peaceful day is broken when a ball flies into his face but he catches it in seconds before hitting his face. Turning to his right he sees a bunch of girls looking at him.

"Girls, baseball is quite dangerous out here in the open, be sure to play in playgrounds properly" He throws the ball back. A small girl with blonde hair and a baseball cap takes the ball back. She is Bouge a Bouge-class light aircraft carrier from the Eagle Union.

"Wow, you catch it very fast!!!" She asked.

"Can you play with us?" Another girl asked.

Seeing that he is bored, he agrees. A group of ship girls plays with him and he does not even break a sweat. In fact, he totally beats them. The ship girls do not seem to feel bad either they find it very fun to play with him. Theo just smiles and accepts their request for him to play with them in the future.

Annette is quite intrigued by the ship girls and their existence. So she joins the science department of the ship girls in analyzing the wisdom cubes.

"So you came to be with this?" Annette pointed to a small blue cube on a table.

"Yes, we were born thanks to it" Langley answered.

"Humanity used them to create us ship girls" Amazon replied.

"Nice to meet the one who created the Para-RAID in person," Pennsylvania said.

"The Para-RAID was my father's work, it was created through so many human experiments. My father killed himself out of guilt, never forget that" Annette sadly explained.

"We knew, the wisdom cubes were also acquired after many battles with the Siren, lives lost to build us" Langley sympathized.

Being a scientist she uses science to find an answer. This one is quite perplexing. Annette is in a room with a group of smart ship girls.

"So you got them after battling with the Siren?" Annette asked.

"Yes," They replied.

"and they let humanity have them?" Annette further asked. They nodded.

"It seems that the cubes emit some waves like the brain" Annette showed them her analysis. With Anneette's expertise, the ship girls studied the wisdom cubes even more.

_

"So far the Interception cannons and the rocket launchers are working very well although they also have to be maintained constantly for future uses" Shin reported to Jack.

"The Interception cannons and the rocket launchers with special anti-ship high explosive shells and rockets are quite effective to mass-produce Siren ships" Lena added.

"But not against the high-ranking Sirens," He asked.

"No, but the 40 AA cannons might somewhat do quite a bit of damage" Lena gave him the 40 AA cannons' damage estimates.

"Your world weaponry and your technology expertise helped us a lot, for that please accept my thanks" Jack looked at them.

"Well, your ship girls help save many from the Legion's clutches and end the decade-long war with the Legion" Shin humbly replied.

"This is the least we could do" Lena did the same.

Lena, Shin, and their friends are highly capable officers and experienced military personnel. Their presence helps him deal with his job more effectively and helps his ship girls fight with fewer wounded. In fact, the base became somewhat of a fortress with all the heavy armaments around the base.

"Now, I am grateful for your and your friend's help, this base used to be under attack quite a lot" Jack looked at the harbor.

"Well, the base was impressive but the defense was quite lax from the land force perspective" Shin shrugged.

"Since the ship girls were the main means to fight the Siren it was understandable" Lena added.

The base defense was very bad in the past. Lena, Shin, and their friends revised the base defense and made the base almost terrifying with all the AA guns,155 mm railguns, and other heavy armaments. Anyone who wanted to attack the base would think twice.

_

"Observer tell me you can close that damn portal!!!!" Tester asked her.

"No, that one is opened by the leviathans" She replied.

"Great!!!!" Tester spat.

The Siren situation was going snowball from bad to worse for them. Their timeline database was destroyed by the Legion's massive railgun in one of the bases. To make matters worse, their superiors left them to their own devices. The Ashes have been getting very active lately. To the point that their superiors didn't even reply Alpha's request for backup.

Although the leviathan's threats were dealt with. The ship girls now focused on them even more. To make matters worse, some new humans brought deadly weapons that could destroy their fleet with relative ease. The once-weak Azur Lane base became one of their most horrifying place to visit. The Siren liked to attack that base a lot. Now they could not even get in close without being noticed and got hell unleashed on them.

Purifier however seem to have fun from all of this. Her last attack gave her a lot of fun. Her actions however made the Siren numbers lower with each attack.

_

The Azur Lane often had trouble with moving wounded ship girls from the harbor but today.....

"All ship girls abroad, get them to the hospital, Fido" Lena checked the wounded list. The orange Scavenger happily replied in electronic 'Pi Pi' before walking with modified containers with wounded ship girls onboard them. Lena watched as the drone dragged a convoy of modified containers with the wounded ship girls. Some ship girls who still had strength waved at her and she waved back. Last few days there had been ambushes on many convoys to the base. Since attacking the base now was suicide, the Siren targeted the ship girls instead. Although successful, the Siren lost a lot in each attempt. The ship girls had new toys to play with large multi-rocket launchers sending large amounts of explosives into the air and right down on top of the Siren ships. Setting them ablaze and closing in for the kill with their big guns.

The Siren numbers advantages in massed-produced ships slowing fading away in the face of this new deadly armament.

Siren also liked to employ radio jamming a lot in the past. Now, however, some new communication devices rendered this useless. To add insult to this, new advanced radar was more effective in spotting them. Longer and more powerful than the previous ones the ship girls had.No blind spots would be given to the Siren. No surprise, no jamming, and numbers do not matter. If the Siren found themselves within the ship girls' sight, they would not go back alive.

No one loved this new rocket artillery more than a certain Queen Elizabeth's personal Guard. Tired of being bombarded with Fritz X missiles and Siren rockets had made Warspite equipped her ship with these new rocket artillery systems. She rained hell upon her enemies with deadly accuracy. She became the best user of the new artillery system so much so that the Iron Blood got terrified of her.

"If I have to say something, Miss Lena, I love these new rocket artillery systems a lot," Warspite at the dock beside her ship with Lena.

"These rocket artillery systems are what the Regicide countries used to fend off the Legion for a decade. I thought you would not like them based on your experience with the Iron Blood missiles" Lena looked at the rocket launchers. They were all out of the ordinance and some still had smokes coming out of them.

"No worry, I always want a new addition to my ship, being fired at by rockets and missiles did get on my nerves sometimes," Warspite laughed.

Rocket artillery usage is increasing significantly which reflects its deadliness on the sea. A new tactic was developed by Commander Jack. Given its huge size, aircraft carriers could also carry these new deadly long-range rocket artillery. They began to equip themselves with the new weapon. Combined with their ability to launch planes this made them even more deadly.

_

Some ship girls were no strangers to trauma and pain. Some ship girls still remembered their fate that took the lives of their crew and their sinking. So when they heard about the painful stories and the teenager's horrible suffering, they could not help but think of how to help these teenagers. It was during one huge indoor bath time that the horrors of the Eighty-Six suffering were out for all to see.

Anju despite being an Eighty-Six had some Alba ancestry and that created a problem for her.

"Miss Anju?!!! Who did that to you?" Renown asked her. All the ship girls' eyes were fixed on Anju's back. The good time here at the base made Anju forget about her horrible past and her.....reminder of the horrible time in the internment camps.

On her back are these words; Whore's daughter.

She had never told anyone about it yet. Looking at Kurena and Lena in a bath near her she told them in detail. Later Lena further explained why she got that scar. Anyone who was half-Alba got sent out as well, they became the target of abuse by other Eighty-Six.

"Not all Alba are people bad but not all the Eighty-Six are saints, either," Kurena said. Vestal who happened to see the scar approached Anju, and with her permission she examined the scar.

"I tried that have it removed but I was kind of busy dealing with the Legion," Anju replied. Lena looked very guilty.

"These kinds of scars are very hard to remove" Kurena looked at Anju's scar.

"I know a specialist who can completely remove it" Vestal spoke. When she said that Lena, Kurena, and Anju looked at her. Vestal knew a skin doctor that could remove these kinds of scars. Anju's blue eyes brimmed with hope. Back at the mansion, Anju also invited Vestal to take a look at a certain boy for his own scar. Shin had come clean to Lena about his neck scar. Lena was quite horrified but understood. War and suffering made people mad. To the point of committing such horrifying acts on another.

If there is one thing that the Spearhead like is a campfire. Talking into the night under the night sky is a very peaceful moment. With Jack's permission and proper warning to others. They set up a campfire near the mansion. Such a peaceful time and campfire bring back many memories. In addition to Lena and Annette, there are two other guests.

"It's been a while since we have had a campfire like this" Theo still drawing his pictures.

"Last time we had one was almost 2 years ago" Raiden looked at the clear night sky.

"When the Spearhead still new" Kurena remembered that night's celebration.

"You still have the photo?" Shin looked at Lena.

"Yes, I keep it with me all the time" She took out the photo.

Arizona and Yorktown sat nearby the campfire and listened to the teenagers chatting. They listened and talked with them during the campfire hearing their stories and their pain with full attention.

"There were 24 of us at the beginning" Shin explained as Yorktown and Arizona looked at the photo. In the photo were 24 teenagers in combat desert camouflage fatigues uniforms all looking very cheerful and happy.

"One mission after another, one lives lost at a time" Lena tearfully explained.

"You tried your best to keep us alive," Anju patted her back.

"We lost two before you came, and you managed to maintain zero casualties for quite a time" Raiden cheered her up.

"Not to mention that last mission that you hacked the Republic artillery to help us" Kurena twisted her eyes.

"And synced to my right eye and not cared that might get you blind" Raiden pointed to his right eye.

"Without you that day we would already be dead" Theo added.

Arizona nearly broke down crying and Yorktown looked at the photo with sadness in her eyes. All these boys and girls got sent into battle to die horrible deaths. A unit of 24 whittled down to 5. They watched their comrades die and were forced to fight to survive. Along with countless more who suffered the same fate at the hands of the Republic.

"We are ships in human forms, we are not human but these poor boys and girls suffer such a fate like that are horrible" Yorktown looked up from the photo.

"Many more suffered worse, there were millions of us at the beginning," Kurena said.

"The Republic used us as a scapegoat for their failures after the army was destroyed by the Legion in two weeks" Shin spoke.

"After 10 years of war, exploitation, and other sufferings only 10,000 were left" Lena closed her eyes. Lena's words made Arizona and Yorktown speechless.

Ten Years of War.

Ten Years of Suffering.

Ten Years of Hell.

These teenagers had seen worse and through worse than the ship girls themselves.

"Those Alba got what coming to them, but if we retaliated we will be no different from them" Theo spat.

"They hurt us, if we hurt them back we will be the same as them, so we decided to go down fighting the Legion instead" Raiden explained.

Yorktown listened to their story. They were oppressed yet refused to retaliate not wanting to lower themselves to the level of their oppressors. Humans forced such hell on other humans. Yet the Eighty-Six and Lena made sure that the dead souls were not forgotten.

_

Although technically a military base, the Azur Lane base resembles a city with all the facilities of a city.Much to the amazement of Shin and others. These ships in human forms live as humans do.

"We got to start acting like normal humans now do we?" Shin asked his friends.

"Yep," They replied.

Slowly they realized that they should start living like teenagers and not like soldiers wondering only about the battlefield. At the Azur Lane Academy, a huge building propped up right beside it. This building is the workshops of Lena, Annette, Shin, and the Spearhead. Inside the building were all kinds of weapons of war ranging from rockets, sea mines, missiles, guided artillery shells for the Interception Cannons, etc. So dangerous that they had to put a security system in it. But all it took to enter......

"Just have an ID card and the door will open," Hood said as she walk past a door that opened on its own.

"You know, I was never good with technology but Lena made it very easy for me to understand" Mikasa did the same.

"Considering what's inside, they will have to be careful considering that there are pranksters around" Wales walked past the door and it closed on its own.

"How do they think that door can hold...." Bismarck touched the glass door. Then she realized how thick it was.

"I heard they mixed the dead Sea monster scales into the glass to make it stronger" Enterprise explained.

Inside the building is a big warehouse with a stair to rooms upstairs. The wall and floor are concrete solid and CCTV cameras are all over the place. Piles upon piles of big green boxes with red danger!!! all of the boxes rest in the warehouse.

"What's inside?" Bismarck got curious.

"Most are rockets for the rocket launchers and Interception Cannon shells," Lena's head popped up from a corner. She walked toward the ship girls and opened a box showing multiple high-explosive rockets.

"How are you gonna move all these?" Wales looked at the boxes.

"Not today, I just make sure that all are accounted and we will move them tomorrow" Lena handed Wales a manifest. Wales took the manifest and read them.

"That's a lot of rockets and Interception Cannon shells" Wales's eyes widen. Considering their usage this past month, she was not surprised. Later Anju and Kurena walked toward them with two cat ship girls.

"Let us go!!!" They shouted.

"We found them in one of the supposedly empty boxes," Kurena said.

"Did they take anything?" Lena asked.

"No, they just hid inside the box, they almost got away but I caught them," Anju with both nekos in her arms.

"Sims, Hamman tell me why you are inside the boxes?" Enterprise shot a glare at them. Both Sims and Hamman just smiled and tried to come up with an excuse.

"We are just curious" Sims replied.

"We just want to know why we can't go in like normal" Hamman replied.

"Look at all the explosives and ammunition in here, they let a few people in here for a reason" Hood looked around. Enterprise took the two destroyers out. Lena used her finger and did a counting. Some people are missing.

"Where Miss Zuikakau and Miss Shoukaku?" Lena asked. A loud thud is heard. Looking at the glass door, Zuikaku's face hit the glass door and her head bulged. With Shokaku closed behind. With a sound of an electronic beep, the door opened. Later Belfast and Enterprise also joined in.

Lena leads them to a big room with a large table and sofas. There is a big TV screen in the room as well. Belfast prepares drinks while Lena and Annette prepare the TV and papers. Lena closes the window and turns off the light. She then plays the TV screen showing the scale of the destruction the unknown monsters caused and the destroyed bodies of the monsters by the Legion Morpho rail guns. The ship girls look in silence.

"The Legion and the monsters met and it didn't go well" Lena summarized.

"The monsters possess strong laser capabilities that can shoot down even the Legion Rabe observation drone 20,000 meters in the sky" Annette added as she froze the TV screen.

"That high?" Enterprise asked.

"Yes," Annette handed the ship girls Rabe drone schematics and its capabilities explanation. They all looked in horror at its sheer size and its functions. They started a very long discussion about it. Essex and her sisters went back to Regicide countries to pick up more weapons and reports about the monsters. She had told Commander Jack and he asked her to discuss it with the ship girls while he went to report to his superiors in the Eagle Union.

"Kongou, I'm kind of nervous looking at the base," Hei said.

"Me, too" Kongou replied.

Kongou and her sisters heard about the sea monster and got curious. But upon seeing two massive guns staring at them menacingly, they got very nervous.

"Kongou class battlecruisers of the Sakura Empire, you are clear to enter the harbor" A radio cleared them to enter the harbor.

With that, they sailed into the harbor and docked their ships. The two hills at the entrance to the harbor had two fortresses each brimmed with a massive gun turret,155 mm railguns, and 40 mm AA cannons.

They thanked the fact that they were no longer at war with the Azur Lane. Otherwise, all the mines and these weapons would be raining hell on them.

The base also became very lively, ship girls from all nations were at the base although not all.

All 4 Kongou sisters all nearly took out their eyes at the sight of the dead sea monster. The site has become some sort of an attraction lately.

"You know, I thanked heaven that our sea does not have this kind of monster" Haruna spoke.

"What's wrong? you scared, Haruna?" Kirishima looked at Haruna. At that comment, Haruna reached for her katana and eyed Kirishima with fury. Kirishima grinned and did the same.

"Sis, you know when we finished the war with the Siren let's go hunting these Musukuras" A voice nearby got their attention. They saw three Colorado sisters talking about something.

"Yeah, I promised Captain Ishmael" Maryland remembered her promise.

"Mind if we came along with you," West Virginia asked.

"Of course, the more guns the better" Maryland happily replied.

"You know I wished to fire my big guns at these monsters at least once" Colorado dreamed about firing her guns at the monsters. Hearing that Haruna had a bright idea.

"Kirishima, I challenged you to fight these monsters" She pointed at her. A challenge is made.

Richelieu looked at the dead sea monster with an amazement look. This monster was so big and intimidating that it looked like a god. Even in death, the monster still looked very terrifying. She silently thanked the gods for not creating these sea monsters in their world, Jean Bart was hugging her sister tightly. She was absolutely terrified at the sight of the dead Musukura.

"Sister, can you pray that these sea monsters do not get into our world?"

"Of course, I will, can you let go? I find it hard to breathe"

Richelieu and Jean Bart were to have a meeting with Lena to consult with her about something. For some reason, Royal Navy let the Iris Libre deal freely with Vichya Dominion. The Royal Navy used to monitor them a lot but they lax their control and even help them rebuild to their former glory.

Richelieu was quite surprised at the change of attitude. Upon talking with Lena she learned why.

The Republic of San Magnolia had similar culture and city names to the Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion. Its capital had a good name too, Liberté et Égalité.But the Republic was anything but Equality and Liberty. The idea of Alba supremacy divided the nation and led to horrendous crimes. Richelieu and Jean Bart listened to the story and kept silent. Richelieu and Jean Bart reflected on why the Iris Orthodoxy broke up because of different beliefs. They broke up because of different ideals and views. But in the Republic's case, it was too far that led to the killing of one another. Richelieu connected the dots on why the Royal Navy had become lenient on them. They saw how such actions led to such horrible treatment of other people, and wished to avoid it from happening again.

"Miss Richelieu, I have a favor to ask?" Lena looked at her.

"Yes, Miss Lena?" She inquired.

"Millions of dead people of my nation have died from the Legion War both Alba and Eighty-Six alike, I was told that you are a priestess, can you pray for them to find peace?" Lena asked. The battleship looked into the girl's silver eyes and saw only sadness. She must have seen a real hell.

"Of course, as a priestess, I can do that for you" She smiled back.

_

"So that's sum up what the monster is" Queen Elizabeth is having a meeting with all factions ship girl leaders.

"Could it be that this is what forced the Siren into our world?"

"Possible but then again we lack proof"'

"Just one is enough to decimate an entire city or even nation"

"Bigger and can walk on land"

"Worse than the Siren"

Lena had created detailed reports about the unknown monsters for Queen Elizabeth. She called a meeting with all factions ship girl leaders. They were horrified, to say the least. However, having seen the Legion's destructive capabilities, they were now aware that there were worse things than the Siren. So far only the higher level of the ship girls and humans knew about this so as to not spread panic.

_

"So using Para-RAID too much can cause some brian issues?" Z23 asked after doing her check-up with Annette.

"Yes, the Para-RAID use brains to transmit voices sometimes sights, and emotions too" Annette replied.

"What a great technology!!!,can you tell me more?" Z23 asked Annette with shiny purple eyes.

With Annette's arrival, she also begins to check up on the ship girls for any signs of sickness or side effects. So far nothing come ups much to her relief. In Annette's lab are 2 humans and 4 ship girls; Annette, Lena, Javelin, Laffey, Z23, and Ayanami.

Laffey slept on a sofa in Annette's lab. While Javelin and Ayanami are doing their homework with Lena teaching them.Z23 is very curious about the Para-RAID being the most serious in the group. Annette looked at Lena and with a nod she began.

"First off, the Para-RAID was my father's work," Annette looked at a photo on her desk.

"The Para-RAID was built on countless blood and human experiments on Eighty-Six, my father killed himself out of guilt," She added. Z23 listened with horror at the extent of the blood and sufferings it took to make a Para-RAID.

"Ethical issues aside this is the only edge humanity had over the Legion," Lena took out her Para-RAID on her neck out to show Z23.

"Other nations also adopt it despite the stories," Annette added.

"Desperate time called for desperate measures" Lena sums it all up.

As the girls talked, they were being watched by two figures with torn clothes from a very far distance.

_

"Overall, the Siren lost the Atlantic and Mediterranean"

Commander Jack briefed Lena and her officers. At this point, Lena, Spearhead Five, and Annette became some sort of officers for Azur Lane.

Despite the good news. Jack is worried. Like animals, the Siren will retaliate, and like wounded animals, they would fight harder than normal.

Lena, Spearhead Five, and Annette knew what this meant. A massive Siren attack. Drawing from their experience, they tried to guess where that attack would be made.

As this was going on, more ship girls started to arrive at the base. With them also reports of unknown ship girls who have been killing Sirens mercilessly. Supplies and ammunition are gathered. Weapons checked and maintained. More smart sea mines are deployed and recon planes patrolled the surrounding waters.

It is clear that something big is going on.

"So you think that the Siren is going to launch another attack?" Hood whispered.

"Please keep it between us, Miss Hood, I was not supposed to tell anyone yet" Lena whispered back.

"Oh, sorry" Hood put a hand on her mouth. They were sitting in the Royal Navy dorm tea room, Hood's tea room to be exact.

The Republic prefers tea over coffee and as a result, Lena likes to drink tea as well. This makes her get along well with the tea-loving Royal Navy ship girls quiet well.

"If the Siren wanted to attack where would they do so?" Lena pondered.

"Since, they lost the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the Pacific Ocean is a logical choice" Hood started to think.

Later Wales joined the tea party.

"Peace and Quiet" Wales lamented.

"You looked very tired," Lena handed her a teacup.

"Yes, paperwork, Is this a problem for you in your world too?" Wales sipped her tea.

"Yes, a lot to the point my subordinates and many soldiers wanted to get rid of it" Lena joked. They all laughed and talked during the tea party.

At the base canteen meanwhile...

"Where is all the coffee?"

"I just filled them yesterday"

Raiden and Theo checked a coffee machine. For the Eigthy-Six coffee was life. In fact, they brought a very big modern coffee machine with them. It was so popular with some of the ship girls that they had to tell Essex to buy coffee beans for the machine when they visit Regicide Fleet countries next time. Annette being a scientist also maintained the machine and was taken aback by how fast the coffee ran out. Since she also drinks coffee too.

"Strange it should be enough for a lot of people for at least 3 days"

The Iron Blood ship girls meanwhile...

"No one says a word alright?" Hipper said.

"That coffee machine is so good" Mainz spoke.

"Well, I see why the coffee ran out so fast" Annette looked at them.

"We didn't do anything!!!" Hipper and her Iron Blood ship girls exclaimed.

"Oh really?" She eyed their table.

Near all of the Iron Blood ship girls lay big coffee glasses. Raiden and Theo put out of service sign on the machine. Which draw a lot of ire from other coffee-drinking ship girls that day.

_

A week later a very thick fog descends on the Azur Lane base. This is not normal fog but a Siren's fog. Knowing the big gun's range they decided to use fog as a cover to attack the base.

"Now we will see, how good you really are" Purifier on top of a mass-produced Siren ship. Behind her a massive fleet of Siren ships.

The ship girls are drawn away by Observer and Tester's diversion. Only a few ship girls and the defense of a number stand in her way. Sending her ships ahead to clear any smart sea mines. The sea explodes as the mines go off.

"Commander Jack and humans form another world, you've done us a great service but alas, time to end you" Purifier laughed.

As soon as she said that a loud roar of artillery rang out. The sky was ablaze as rounds of explosives rained down on her fleet.

"How?!!!, you should not be able to see" Purifier watched as her ships went up in flames or sank.

"You can hide in those fogs, but you can't hide from radar," Annette said in a radar room with Helena beside her. Helena detected the ships and passed them on to her fellowship girls. While Annette kept watching for any malfunction on the radar.

Lena, Anju, and Kurena are in one fortress controlling and directing the guns. While Theo, Raiden, and Shin do the same from the other one. Supporting them are a number of destroyers and submarines. Armed with new torpedoes that track its targets.Courtesy of Annette's technical expertise.

They just fired their torpedoes and the torpedoes would find their targets.

More Siren ships went up in flames and sank. Furious, Purifier sped ahead to see a group of destroyers.

"You all will sink today!!!!"

The destroyers are led by Z23 and her fellow Iron Blood destroyers.

"Damn, fire!!!" They all pointed their guns at Purifier. The high-ranking Siren just dodged all of their fire and laughed.

"Is that all you got?" She aimed her drone guns at them. Fear was visible in their eyes.

"Z23 and Iron Blood destroyers get in cover, impact in 5 seconds!!!!!" Anju shouted through Para-RAID.

"Get in cover!!!!" Z23 yelled.

Looking up, they saw a massive rocket round come out of the fog. Purifier hissed as she aimed at it. The rocket broke up into smaller rounds in seconds. Purifier had no time to react as the shells slammed into her and her drones. Purifier could not help but think about the human craziness.

At this range, they will hit the ship girls too. Then it hit her, the shells do not explode.

"Dud?" she said as a shell slammed into her face.

Her drones exploded but the Siren just fell into the sea. She stood up and hissed.

"That's more like it, this is what a real war is all about"

As she said that all the destroyers and submarines fired everything they had at her. The Siren lost all her arms and all her weapons but still stood. She just looked at the destroyers with bloodlust in her eyes.

"Is that all you got?" She grinned.

"Nope," A voice got her attention. From behind Enterprise with her bow aimed at Purifier's head. Purifier was just shocked, she was supposed to be away from the base. With a snap of her finger, a yellow arrow went right through Purifier's head like lightning. In seconds, the Siren dropped and sank.

"Purifer down"

_

"What do you mean, she is dead?"

"She's dead, Enterprise was still at the base"

The whole point of the battle is to draw Enterprise away from the Azur Lane base. So they could ransack the base and its highly-advanced weaponry.

Their diversion fleet was slowly being picked apart. Nearly all the ships with big guns were out here blowing them to pieces. To make matters worse, the aircraft carriers that went away a few days ago now came out of nowhere.

All around Tester and Observer, ships blowing up and guns blazing. Planes all flying around and clashing with one another.

Finally, Bismarck made her way to the two-ranking Sirens.

"My, my the fool who lost to Hood is here"

Bismarck clenched her fists, she was a fool for falling for the Siren's offering of technology.

"Tell me, Did you Sirens were the ones who transported the Legion here?"

"Yes," Observer calmly replied. Bismarck's eyes burned with fury. All those bloodshed and destruction at the Legion's hands. The very things she hoped to harness power were the ones that brought more destruction to her homeland. Her Para-RAID was still connected to her Iron Blood ship girls. Their fury skyrocketed.

"You Sirens are going down today, I am a fool for believing your technology in the first place " Bismarck charged at them. In her fury, she forgot that she was already in Observer and Tester's sight. A full barrage of laser beams was fired right at her. It sent her flying a few meters and her face fell down to the sea. Observer and Tester summoned more backup and slowly pushed back the ship girls. Bismarck's rigging got torn to pieces. Emotions ripped through her mind; Shame, helplessness, and anger. She looked up as the Sirens laughed and insulted her.

Had I failed? she thought

As Observer and Tester prepared to finish her off. A very large missile exploded in both of Siren's wakes. They were in a state of shock. Who fired at them? The cannons? They were out of range. Rocket launchers? nearly all battleships and aircraft carriers had one. But if fired it should come in mass not in one missile. Smokes filled the scene. Stunned they lost sight of Bismarck who disappeared when the smoke cleared.

_

"Target hit!!!" Hood replied to Lena through her Para-RAID as the missiles hit the two high-ranking Sirens.

"Preparing more cruise missiles," She looked at her monitor. Missiles are being loaded into the tubes near the fortress.

Anju and Kurena all control the guns and check the missiles' status. They are very busy keeping their eyes on the destroyers on their screens in the fortress control room. Hood swooped in while the Sirens were lost in thought. She grabbed Bismarck and got her to her comrades.

"Lord Bismarck!!!" U-556 looked at her leader. Later Prinz Eugen also showed up.

"Get her out of here, go!!!" Hood handed wounded Bismarck to them.

"What about you?!!!" Eugen asked.

"I got some business to finish" Hood turned around and disappeared into a cloud of black smoke.

Wales is fighting a high-ranking Siren who uses a sword to fight her. She manages to chop its head off. Then another try to sneak attack her from the back. Only for a 15-inch to slam into the Siren sending it ablaze.

"Sorry, I am late" Hood appeared at Wales's side.

"Hood?, you should be with her Majesty!!!" Wales exclaimed.

"She was safe, the Sirens just sent more reinforcements and Bismarck just found both Observer and Tester," the battlecruiser scanned the area.

"Both in the same place?!!!" the battleship asked.

"Yes, they muttered about a plan failed" Hood checked her gloves.

"Damn, Lena is really a psychic" Wales wiped yellow liquids from her sword.

"She thought they might try this, who would have thought they would exactly do so" Hood looked in the distance.

Commander Jack ordered all ship girls to relocate in range of the Interception Cannons. The Siren boldly followed and got bombed by the guns.

"So that girl and your boss saw through my plan?" angry voices came behind them. Looking back they saw Observer and Tester whose faces were all burned and they were angry.

"She just thought you might" Wales's eyes looked at them.

"So we took precautions, and you did like what she thought you would" Hood scanned the Sirens.

Observer gave an impressed look, which made the two Royal Navy ship girls worried. She broke out laughing.

"That girl is really interesting"

"I have a question," Hood asked the Sirens.

"What is it?" Observer was interested.

"Lena, were you the ones who send her to our world?" Hood demanded.

"No, we just summoned that Legion gunboat and its war machines, we thought it would fail, look how well it turned out" Observer smiled.

"Allowed me to give you a hint, that unknown monsters were what forced us here, we thought they were undefeatable until they went to that's girl world" She added.

"To think that those monsters fell very easily at the sea monster's hand and the Legion railguns, I am quite disappointed," Tester said. The Siren went further in their elaboration. Until they said words that angered the two ship girls.

"Seeing her nation do something like that and how she watches her family die, but then again she is not the only one," Tester said in a mockery tone.

"Humans against other humans, races, classes, ideals and all the stupidity humans can do" Observer followed.

"I should have killed her on the way to the Royal Navy capital" Tester spoke.

"Better, I will capture her and turn her into in of us, what do you think about that?" Observer looked at them. Their eyes turned red and smoke came out of their heads.

"OVER OUR DEAD BODIES!!!!" Both shouted. After some time Wales and Hood were on their last legs. Their turrets were destroyed. They knew they were finished.

"Goodbye," Observer aimed her guns at them. Instead, both burst out laughing. Much to her confusion.

"What's so funny?" Observer was not amused.

"If you lost your minds, we will be glad to correct them" Tester also aimed her guns at them.

"SIRENS!!!!!" Loud shouts came from behind them.

Turning around, they saw Enterprise, Essex, Shoukaku, Zuikaku, and other high-ranking ship girls. Their bows, crossbows, katanas, cannons, and others were aiming at them.

"We were just a distraction," Hood took Wales on her shoulders. Looking around Observer saw mass-produced Siren ships already sunk. While she was talking, other ship girls wiped out her fleet and now they came for her.

"Let's have fun Azur Lane," Observer summoned more high-ranking Sirens and gave a murderous smile.

The battle was long and hard that day, it resulted in the destruction some of the most dangerous high-ranking Sirens. Everyone pushed themselves to the limits and was exhausted from it. Purifier and Tester are confirmed to be destroyed while Obsever escaped. It took a month for everyone to fully recovered from their tiresome battle and the damage they received from the Siren attack.

Shin and the rest of the Spearhead departed for the Eagle Union for a visit and scar issues. Lena would follow after she checked the last shipment from the Regicide countries. Yorktown took them on her ship and acted as their guide. As Essex walked down from her ship, a figure came down from her ship as well after Essex was very far away. It was night time and the figure disappear into the darkness.

The next day Lena prepared to leave to join Shin and the rest at Eagle Union. Annette busied herself with studying the cubes that she would follow much later. Before Lena did that she paid a visit to two ship girls.

"Thank you for visiting us," Hood and Wales in their hospital white clothes said to a certain silver-haired girl near their beds.

"No need to thank you, Miss Hood, Miss Wales" She replied.

Hood and Wales took severe damage fighting Observer and Tester. Their ships would need quite a long time to repair and they were wounded. As a result, the two Royal Navy ship girls had to stay in bed for recovery in the hospital of the Azur Lane base.

"You came up with that sharing eyesight for a missile strike, nice quick thinking" Hood complimented while pointing at her eyes.

"Para-RAID can do that , although I have to be careful not to use it too much" Lena answered.

"Hornet would leave in about an hour, I think you better get ready" Wales looked at the clock.

The Alba girl bid both Royal Navy ships goodbye as she hugged them before leaving for the harbor.

"Have a safe travel" Wales looked at Lena from the window. Hood and Wales ' faces quickly turned to a maid nearby.

"What do we know about that intruder?" Hood asked Belfast.

"He is an Alba fanatic, armed with a sniper rifle and a lot of explosives" Belfast reported.

"Who is his target?" Wales asked.

"Lena is the target" Belfast replied.

_

"That whore of the Eighty-Six will die you hear me!!!" A silver-haired and silvered-eyes man in a Prussian blue uniform shouted from a cell.

A foot quickly hits him in the face, he falls down within seconds as his mouth starts to bleed. In front of him are angry-looking maids. It seems that last night the man is caught by Edinburg trying to spy on Lena, Anneette, and the Spearhead at the mansion. Edinburg happens to slip nearby and notices him. She quickly informs her sister the head maid and quickly captures him. In a cell, the man shouts only vile words at them. The maids with non-silver, white hairs, and eyes get the worst of the curse words. The man insults them even further.

"You ships in human forms might look like humans, but you are not humans just like pigs of the Eighty-Six!!!!"

Sheffield took out her belt and beat the hell out of the man. Lena told them about the fanatical of these Alba before but seeing one in person caused their blood to boil. They might be ship in human forms but they lived and acted like normal humans, unlike a certain group of racists.

What kind of a man to do such a thing to a fellow human?

The next day, in the same cell. The maids discover that the man hangs himself with bedclothes.

"The man seems intent on killing Lena and her comrades," Sheffield informed her Majesty.

"Cowardly act," Warspite spat.

"What do you expect from people who killed other races for their own fun and racial purity," Queen Elizabeth said without any emotions on her face. The fact that one of those racist people managed to come here alarmed Elizabeth. With bad intentions as well.No one thought that one of them would dare infiltrate the fleet that went to pick up weapons and enter the base. It was through some luck and clumsiness that the potential assassination was averted. From the brief interrogation, it was clear that Lena's own people wanted her dead. For all she had done to save her home, they saw her as a traitor and a blood betrayer who brought disgrace to the 'superior Alba'.Lena's home was totally destroyed, and nowhere to go back to. This caused Elizabeth to reflect on her ego issues. She decided to think about what to do before taking any more actions other than ordering more ships to be more carefully checked.

In the aftermath of the attack, many wisdom cubes were recovered, and one caught Azur Lane's eye.

"A white cube?" Bismarck looked in amazement. Through her years of studying the Siren tech, she never saw anything like a white wisdom cube before her.

"This is the one Lena told me about" Hood looked at the cube carefully, it was like what Lena told her.

A week after Lena and Annette left for Eagle Union. Hood and Wales recovered from their wounds. In Wales's office, a white cube shone brightly on a table.

All around the table. Queen Elizabeth, Bismarck, Enterprise, Wales, Hood, Vestal, and some ship girls looked at the cube very perplexed. This is the first white cube they ever encountered. Initially, Bismarck asked for her Iron Blood to study it. They were in the process of talking about it when Hood felt the cube calling to her. Slowly her hand touched it and all her surroundings turned black.

"Colonel Milizé!!!!"

She opened her eyes and see a wreckage of a plane of burning orange flames covering the area. A soldier shot at a Legion unit but it did little. The soldier got sliced in half by the Ameise. Blood splashed at a window and behind it a small girl. Hood looked carefully as the girl opened her eyes. Hood's eyes widen.

"Father!!!!" the girl shouted. Hood followed her gaze and saw a bloodied body in a Prussian blue uniform. Hood quickly realized that this was Lena's past. At the sound, the Ameise turned to her. Lifeless dark blue mechanical eyes looked at the girl like a hunter who found its next prey.

No No No. Hood tried summoning her rigging but it was no use. The unit walked past her. Fear was visible in little Lena's eyes with each step the Legion drone took.

"If anyone is still alive cover your ears and get down!!!!!" A loud voice gets Ameise's attention. Hood also turns to the source. A white-brown four-legged unit with a gun barrel appears. The unit makes a quick move and destroys the Legion unit saving the girl in the process.

The scene turned black again.

"This country deserved to be destroyed, what do you expect from the people who killed their own Saint for their own greed and power!!!!"

Hood opened her eyes again to see Lena in her Prussian blue uniform arguing with an older man with the same colored uniform. Behind Lena was what appeared to be a statue of a woman who held a flag and a sword. The man walked out and Lena broke down crying beneath the statute.

The scene turned black again.

"Lena you have to find happiness!!! Do not go there or you will die like your father!!!"

Hood turned to see an older silver hair woman begging Lena to stay with her. All around them, everything was ablaze and explosions rocked all around them. A huge five-hued flag burned brightly.

"Mother, I have to go, go south, you will be safe there" Lena left the older woman, and she cried.

"Lena!!! Come back!!! Come back!!!!" The older woman's tears filled her eyes.

Then an artillery round blacked the whole scene followed by a massive wave of Legion units cutting down everything in its path. People were running for their lives, the street turned bright with orange flames and covered with red liquids, and the road was littered with black and pink figures and destroyed vehicles. The rivers turned red with blood. There was no battle, just machines mercilessly killing civilians with guns and sharp legs. This was not a city anymore, it was a slaughterhouse. Those that did put up a fight were killed in mere seconds. Hood watched as the massacre unfold, a true hell she never think she would see. Then the scene turned black and a bloodied older woman stood beside her. Hood recognized the woman, it was Lena's mother.

"Please help her find happiness," She looked at her. Her face turned red and her clothes riddled with dirt and blood.

"HOOD!!!!!HOOD!!!!"

She felt someone shaking her violently. Finally, she saw Wales her best friend and closet college who looked at her with worry. The whole room fixed its gaze on her.

"What happened?" They asked.

"This cube has Lena's past and it is hell unlike anything I have seen" Hood sweated as she spoke which made them all gulped.

_

Hood, Renown, and Repulse are the only battlecruisers of the Royal Navy. Often times they hang around each other with Renown and Repulse considers Hood their big sister in many cases.

Hood often enjoys her tea time but today there is only silence. Wales, Renown, and Repulse watch as she just looks at her tea cup without any emotions.

Wales had told them about what Hood saw days earlier from a white wisdom cube. Curious Queen Elizabeth allowed Bismarck to study the cube.

"I saw Lena's past and the hell she had seen" Hood spoke.

"Is it that much worse?" Repulse asked.

"Worse than anything I have seen so far" Hood sipped her tea.

"What did you see?" Renown asked.

"How Lena's parents died in great detail, and how the Legion massacred the people of the Republic and the destruction it brought to her world," Hood put her teacup down. Wales, Renown, and Repulse just looked at Hood with widened eyes and gulped. Hood used to think that ship girls should just be weapons without emotions or sentiments lives so they would not have to think about anything. Seeing the Legion who were just exactly that and killed people without any emotions or empathy made her rethink her mindset. In addition to Lena's past, she also saw how pride, foolishness, and incompetence can lead to disastrous consequences. Hood thought that the burden of being the Pride of the Royal Navy took a toll on her, but what she saw in Lena's memories made her think otherwise.

_

A few weeks later Lena, Annette, Shin, and the rest of the Spearhead returned. The scar removal operations went very well. Shin's neck and Anju's back were as good as new.

Yorktown came to understand why these teenagers liked the sea, it was the only place the Legion has not tainted with its war machines. The war itself die down and almost no Siren sightings were reported. Initially, the ship girls thought that they would have to bid goodbyes to the humans from another world. To their surprise, they would stay for longer much to their joy.

"A civil war?" Hood asked Lena.

"Yes, between the Imperials and the democratic factions," Lena sighed. Her former superior Colonel Wenzel sent her letters about the impending civil war in the Federacy. She told her and her friends to stay at the base until further notice.

"Nobles looked down on the common people, the Legion War suppressed the discontent. Not helping is the fact that most nobles held high positions in the army and military industry. The ones who lost everything also harbored resentment toward the government and the lower-class citizens" Lena explained.

"Such meaningless conflict," Illustrious said.

"The hatred is a result of long mistreatment and other bad policies by the Giad Empire before the revolution, the Federacy tried to get correct them but the hate ran too deep" Lena explained.

"Hatred, inequality, discontent, and nobles who looked down on others" Wales added.

"All lead up to the conflict, unfortunately," Lena spoke.

"Well then there will be a ball in a few days, I hope your friends all have dresses and suits for the occasion," Hood told her.

"Yes, we have, although I never had a good experience with a ball," Lena replied.

"Oh, I can teach that" Hood giggled.

Since there is no heavy fighting and the fact that everyone is getting along well, Azur Lane decided to have a ball for relaxation. Lena knowing that a ball might be happening had told her friends to bring their own dresses and suits for the occasion.

They have been to only a few balls, the Azur Lane is about to introduce them to a whole new ball experience.

At the ball, the teenagers enter the ball with ball dresses and suits. This ball is unlike anything they have ever experienced. Songs filled the ball, and ship girls all chatted around with little to no worry about manners.

"Been a while since we have been to a ball" Annette said.

"Yep," Theo handed her a glass of wine.

The Legion War offered no room for long respite, they only get a few months of rest before going back to fight again. You don't have a long time for rest when your enemies need none. Thankfully, all that is in the past now.

"You boys and girls have a good party?!!" Hornet came behind the two.

"Yes," Annette turned to her.

"Good wine too, never had that for a long time" Theo sipped his wine.

"Holy, is the Legion War really that bad?" Hornet looked at them.

"The Legion has a lot of reserves and does not need time to train new units," Annette explained.

"With their A.I. system and the production units, they can keep fighting for as long as it wants" Theo rolled his eyes.

Hornet looked at both and could see that they are far more relaxed than when she first met them. The Legion War was really bad. Without hesitation, she took both with her arms and cheerfully gestured for them to enjoy the ball.

Raiden, Anju, and Kurena meanwhile did their best to keep the alcoholic drinks from getting into the hands of destroyers. They failed to keep it from a certain aircraft carrier. Yorktown got drunk and had to be brought back to her room by her sister, Enterprise.

"Wow, she got drunk really fast" Raiden looked at the drunk Yorktown.

"Some people can't take alcohol really well" Kurena added.

"Girls, juices are over there," Anju pointed to a table with colorful drinks for the small destroyers.

The Royal Navy often prides itself on elegance, so when they see Lena in such an elegant dress they could not help but admire her. Standing at the ball is one certain Lena in a black and red ball dress. Alongside, Shin in his black suit.

"Wow, she cleans up nicely" Wales looked at her.

"In Crimson dress too," Hood giggled.

Hood and Wales help Lena dress and make up for the ball, and both are astounded by how the girl shines.

Bismarck and Prinz Eugen meanwhile looked on with a bit of surprise. It was not only her beauty but also the color of her dress. Crimson Dress, this girl wore that dress. A color that presents their faction before their eventual fall. Lena and Shin both stopped before Hood and Wales. Lena and Shin bowed down per noble etiquette. The Royal Navy ships replied in kind.

"You sure have a noble blood, Mister Nouzen," Hood remarked from his manners and actions, she deduced that he has a noble blood.

"Yes, my family Nouzen was a noble from the Giad Empire, but...." Shin stopped mid-sentence. Lena later whispered something into Hood and Wales's ears.

"Ah, I see" Wales and Hood nodded.

"Thank you" He looked at Lena.

Shin's family was exiled due to his parent's marriage between rival clans. The desire to maintain pure blood got the better of the clans. His family suffered because of it. Lena silently told Hood and Wales about it.

Later Lena and Shin both walk to a balcony. A dark night and peaceful night sky. For them, war is all they know. Now with more peaceful times and free of intense combat with the Legion, both enjoy each other company even more.

Lena had a special place in Shin's heart. She was the one who helped him in his darkest hour. She was the one to save his remaining squad members from certain deaths. She kept her promise to him. She faced down the Legion alone for almost a year. She held the Republic from total annihilation for two months. She put herself in the firing line on almost every mission since the founding of the Strike Package.

For the Eighty-Six she now held a very special place as well, being one of the few Albas who fought alongside them. Even death cannot claim her, she brought help from another world and helped bring an end to a war that caused so much suffering.

The Republic personnel were so shocked about her survival. They used her as a tool. They lost all remaining faith in the people. Despite all she had done, the Federacy public and the high command dislike her due to Alba's hate and embarrassment. The prideful Giad nobles could not accept the fact that this girl help brought an end to the war. A girl from the race they hated.

Shin looked at Lena. She was truly a Saint. He lost Lena once, he will not lose her again.

_

The Eighty-Six and the ship girls are getting along just well. Living weapons help humans who spent most of their lives as weapons to live like normal humans. What an Irony.

Gradually the Eighty-Six open up and enjoy life.

Vestal watched with happiness, these teenagers suffered a lot. Their painful scars and past hurt them a lot. When she first met them, she was horrified at their poor mental health. After a few months here, they healed their mental health and body.

The Eighty-Six played a basketball match with Baltimore and her team. They performed very well. Baltimore's team lost, although barely.

"Wow!!!, I never met humans with such strength" Baltimore took out her handkerchief, she was so tired after a match with them. She was on her knees.

"We kind of have them after years of hard work and experience" Raiden grinned and offered her a hand.

Baltimore accepted his hand as he pulled her up. Baltimore was amazed at their high energy and stamina. After hearing the story of what these humans were forced to do in order to survive, she knew why. She decided to use her sports skills to help these humans remove all those memories from their minds.

_

"So you want to use a Musukura scale to make a better katana?"

"Yes, we figure that it was worth a shot"

In Lena's office room are two Takao-class heavy cruisers of the Sakura Empire. The news about the thickness of the Musukura scale reaches the Sakura Empire ship girls. Instead of panicking, they want to ask if they could use the Musukura scales to make stronger katanas.

Later Shangri-La also enters the room. Her desire to conduct a better study of the dead sea monster get the better of her.

Lena is in charge of the dead Musukura. She gives them all the green light. Shangri-La gets to do a deep study about the monster while the Sakura Empire can get the Musukura scales to craft better katanas. Win-win.

"Thank you" Atago thanked Lena.

"No need, if it makes better katanas, it would prove useful for katanas-wielding ship girls in the future" Lena bowed back.

"I have not repaired my katana yet, I want to see if a new one with the Musukura scale will be very strong," Takao shows her still-broken katana.

"I gonna be busy this week" the Eagle Union aircraft carrier smiled.

Chapter Text

The katana foundries of the Sakura Empire are very busy. New diamond-like fish scales are so strong that they can break a katana. The Katana makers never see such strong materials. They are eager to add this new material to their katanas.

White smoke and happy whining sounds came from the katana maker's foundries.

Just about every katana-wielding ship girls of the Sakura Empire have their words reforged with the new materials.

In Takao's home's training ground, with a splash of wind a giant metal before her is cut in two pieces. The new katana is looking very good as well. A katana with a bit of diamond color mixed in the katana. Takao is impressed with her new katana as well. She finally has a sword that can cut through the even strongest metal. A very great katana she could possibly get her hands on. She is eager to cut some Sirens with her new Katana.

Unfortunately, the time needed to craft and forge these swords is quite long. As a result, a great number of the Sakura Empire ship girls cannot sortie.

"You know, I never expect this to happen" Mikasa spoke.

"Neither do I"  Amagi replied.

Before them, piles of katanas waiting to be reforged. The Katana makers are very happy. It has been a while since they are very excited. Beside them, big stacks of dead Musukura scales. The Katana makers had to boil them at very high temperatures. After that would they begin forging or reforging swords for the ship girls and normal soldiers with this new material.

"To think such sea monsters with thick scales existed" Amagi's hands touched a scale, she could feel its thickness through her fingers.

"Look likes we will have to go sea monster hunting after this" Mikasa joked.

Amagi has yet to see the dead Musukura at the Azur Lane base. From what Nagato and Mikasa tell her it is truly very huge and intimidating. As they are talking, Furutaka and Kako of the Furutaka-class heavy cruiser approach them with alarmed looks.

"Lady Mikasa, Lady Amagi, we saw unknown soldiers on one of our islands!!!!"

"They have strange multi-legged war machines, and they are armed with heavy artillery and powerful AA weapons and took over the island!!!"

At the mention of the multi-legged war machines, Amagi knew who they had to contact.

"Contact Lena as soon as possible!!"

_

"To think these sea monsters, prevent humanity of your world to enter the sea" Shangri-La in a white scientist lab coat spoke.

"The sea is never our domain, Regicide Fleet countries try to change that but with little success" Annette replied.

"Thank you for your help going inside that dead sea monster must have been a hard job" The Eagle Union aircraft carrier looked to her sides. Shin, Theo, and Raiden all help her in dissecting and exacting the scales from the dead sea monster.

"No problem, Captain Ishmael asked me to help supervise the dead body here" Theo cheerfully replied.

"Dissecting a Musukura is a new experience too," Shin said to her.

"Yep," Raiden agreed.

All their clothes are riddled with diamond-like liquids. Per Shangri-La and the Sakura Empire's request, they took out the monster organs for study and a lot of their scales for katana manufacture and refinement. Lena had them covered by arranging for a special bath and days off. Lena for her part did all the paperwork and informed Commander Jack beforehand. Naturally, others were also curious. The Azur Lane Academy became quite busy for a while studying the monster's organs.

Lena is in her office doing her work as usual. She keeps track of the weaponry and the ammunition usage. The only official channel contact at the moment with the Regicide countries and the Federacy is through the fog portal. In addition, she also looks at the financial situation of Azur Lane as well. A while later a knock on her door gets her attention. Yorktown comes in to remind her about lunchtime because she almost forgets about eating lunch again.

"You can relax a little" Yorktown told her as they walked to the cafeteria.

"Yes thank you" Lena apologized but Yorktown just smiled back.

A roar of an animal is heard and they look up to see a bald eagle.

"Grim!!!" Yorktown exclaimed as she laid her arm for the bird to land. Lena looked in awe as the bird landed on Yorktown's arm. The Eagle raised one of its claws revealing a bundle of letters tied to it. Yorktown asked the Eagle to go back and forth from the base and Regicide countries for relaxations and letters transportation.

The Eagle seems to panic which causes both great alarm. Checking the letters one demands Lena to open immediately. As soon as she opens and reads it, her face goes pale. Yorktown is about to ask what's wrong when a shout gets their attention.

"Lena!!!" They turned to see the Crane sisters running toward them. They stopped to breathe.

"Please, we need your help, some soldiers arrived on our shores and they are armed with walking war machines," Zuikaku said.

"Private Regiments..." Lena muttered.

_

Jack was informed that some unknown soldiers landed on one of the Sakura Empire's islands and took it over. He was told that Lena knew who they were. He called Yorktown, Queen Elizabeth, and others to Wales's office. Lena also gathered the Spearhead and Annette there as well. As soon as everyone gathered there she began to tell them about what happened back in the Federacy.

"The Civil War was over but one of these rebelling regiments hijacked a couple of transport ships" Lena started.

"How many soldiers are we talking about?" Wales asked.

"At least 1,000 soldiers and dozens of Vánagandrs," Raiden replied.

"Who are they?" Queen Elizabeth asked.

"Soldiers who rebelled against the government," Shin said with a straight face.

"What do they bring with them?" Hood asked.

"AA SPGS, Vánagandrs and artilleries, and a nuke.." Theo stopped at the word nuke.

"A nuke?" Bismarck asked.

"A bomb capable of wiping out an entire city off the map and leaving behind a lot of radiation that would contaminate wildlife and land for decades" Annette rolled her eyes. The ship girls sweated.

"Can we reason with them?" Yorktown hoped to avoid bloodshed.

"I am afraid that is impossible" Anju sadly replied.

"Why?" Enterprise asked.

"Because they once massacred a group of child soldiers like us before," Theo said with bitterness in his voice. At that comment, they looked at him with horror on their faces. Lena told them about a nation that classified a group of people for fighting and used them in the war as the Republic had done called the "Holy Theocracy of Noiryanaruse" a nation of Religious fanatics. Shin and the Spearhead had informed Lena about the time she was gone and the horrifying mission in the Theocracy.

"Treating objects like humans, treating humans like objects," Kurena said. This is the kind of racism in their world. The ship girls looked at them with sympathy and disapproving looks about the racism.

"Had they done any damage to the Sakura Empire?" Lena asked Shoukaku.

"No, the island was abandoned when the Siren attacked" She replied while showing her the map of the island.

"They set up a tight defense around the island and we could not even get close. We did try to get them to talk and work things out but they just fired at us," Zuikaku said.

"What does the Federacy plan to do?" Jack asked.

"The Federacy understood that this is your area of jurisdiction and they had no transport ships as well, the rebel regiment destroyed the only Giad port before they left," Shin told them.

"What do we do with them?" Hood asked. Lena fell silent for a moment while looking at her comrades.

"We have the right to use force if necessary," She replied. The Royal Navy battlecruiser looked down at her teacup. The whole room fell silent as well.

"How are we going to flush them out?" Kurena broke the silence.

"We will but we will use non-lethal tactics" Jack grinned which caused Lena, Annette, and the Spearhead to look at each other.

"With all due respect sir, these soldiers are not to be trifled with lightly"

"They are highly disciplined"

"Very good at fighting as well"

"They would rather die than surrender," They told him. He just smiled and said...

"Yorktown can you call over Lexington, Saratoga here? Your Majesty I would need to borrow your maid corps".Jack looked at Yorktown and Queen Elizabeth.

"Who are Lexington and Saratoga?" Shin asked Lena.

"Idols of the Azur Lane, quite good singers too" She replied.

"Wait, I thought Sandy is the only idol here" Kurena remembered about Sandy who proclaimed herself as the base idol.

"There are more, you just did not see them yet," Lena told her.

_

The soldiers of the Hail Mary regiment refused to accept the defeat of the Imperial faction. Their leader took her unit and escaped to another world which was found by accident as she was told. Their leader Noele was confident that the Federacy would not follow them here. She had a nuke and a wide array of weaponry that no one even the so-called "ship girls" cannot do anything to them. According to the information, they are nothing but robots. So far things are looking good, they have plenty of food and feel very relaxed. The only problem is entertainment. Around 1,000 soldiers are now on the island and enjoying themselves but still wanting entertainment. Their lack of entertainment is at breaking point. Until one day, a fleet of ships full of idols and maids asks to come to the island for business. Noele is pressured by her soldiers to let them enter.

"Lexington Idol and Entertainment group at your service," A tall girl with pink hair and a very attractive dress said to Noele.

Behind her a group of idols and maids for entertainment purposes.

They arrived on the island and began to entertain the soldiers. They dropped their guard and enjoyed themselves with the entertainment served by the 'Lexington Idol and Entertainment group'. Little did they know, a pair of silver eyes took note of everything and passed them on to a bald eagle in secret.

3 days earlier...

"You can count on my performance, Commander," A tall girl with pink hair told Jack. She is Lexington a Lexington-class aircraft carrier of the Eagle Union.

"Yeah, we will give them a concert they will never forget," A small girl with pink hair beside her said. She is Saratoga another Lexington-class aircraft carrier.

In Jack's office, a group of idols and maids assemble for the upcoming mission.

"Sir, we asked to be a part of this mission as well," Lena said.

They all looked at Lena, Annette, and the Spearhead with worry.

"We know how to sabotage their weapons and Vánagandrs," Anju told them.

"We want to reduce bloodshed" Kurena spoke with determination.

"I know how to disarm the nuke," Annette said.

The ship girls could not find a point to argue back. Belfast gave them maid outfits and proper male disguises and how to act like maids and mechanics to avoid suspicion. For two days Belfast taught them how to act like maids and mechanics to perfection. A plan is made; Lena and Annette would locate the radar and the nuke and disable them. Kurena and Anju with the maids would secretly disable the artilleries, AA gun batteries, and the Vánagandrs. Shin, Raiden, and Theo would stay with the idols. As for passing the info, Grim would be the messenger.

To further add the disguise, the ships that would enter the island had their guns and weapons removed from the ships to fool the soldiers. As the maids and idols prepared to set sail, Lena bid farewell to two Royal Navy ships. Wales and Hood were not happy about Lena taking part herself one bit. But since she made up her mind, they could not go against it. They could only give her hugs and promise to return.

"Come back, alright," Hood said to Lena.

"I will" She replied. Lena, Annette, and the Spearhead boarded Lexington's ship. Lena waved at Hood, Wales, Repulse, and Renown who stood at the bow of Hood's ship.

"Humans against Humans," Repulse looked at the distant island.

"Yes, unfortunately," Renown put her hands on her sister's shoulder.

"Kongou, her sisters, and some Sakura Empire ships will be here soon if all go well, there will be not much bloodshed" Wales looked through her binoculars at the island.

_

Shin, Raiden, and Theo disguised themselves as mechanics and stage staff. The soldiers just shrugged it off and drank themselves with alcohol given to them by the maids. The once-disciplined soldiers broke down into a bunch of ragtag drunkards.

As the soldiers divulged themselves in Lexington and the idols' concert and the alcohol. With a nod; Belfast, Lena, Annette, Kurena, Anju, and the maids set out to do their parts. Much to their shock, much of the artillery ammunition was long gone. The AA batteries also fell into the same predicament.

The only thing that seems to work fine is the Vánagandrs.

The Vánagandrs are lightly guarded. Belfast and the maids poured some white power into some drinks and offered them to the guards and the Vánagandrs' pilots. They took them without thinking and soon they all fell asleep. Kurena and Anju rushed to the war machines and to their surprise, they are well-maintained.

With the maids' help, they pulled parts of the huge war machines. The maids also tempered with the  Vánagandrs's ammunition. They took out the ignition mechanism from the 120 mm rounds and put lipsticks on the 12.7 mm ammo belts. As for the surface-to-air missiles and the AA guns, Annette messed up its targeting system and took out the firing mechanism from the rockets.

It is the radar and the nuke that they start to run into problems. It seems that a group of highly disciplined soldiers are guarding them.

"What's now?" Edinburg looked at them from a corner of a building nearby. Annette had a radiation detector with her and confirmed that the nuke was inside the building. It was also the same place where the radar got stationed.

"Getting past them won't be easy" Sheffield spoke.

"Let me try to get them to sleep" Belfast tried to do the same drink trick. It failed as the soldiers politely declined her drinks. Belfast just smiled and returned to her sister, fellow maids, and the human allies.

"Well, prepared to go loud" Belfast is about to bring out her weapons but Lena stops her.

"Not yet, we have another thing to try" Lena glanced at Edinburg who took out a well-baked cake from a big box.

"Nice cake, sis," Belfast remarked.

"I will not mess up for this, lives are at stake" Edinburg smiled back with a determination in her voice.

The maids cut the cake into smaller pieces and put them on well-decorated plates. Belfast let her older sister do the honors and pour white powders on top of the cakes. Belfast and some maids walk to the guards with the cakes and they accept. This time it works they all fall asleep after eating the cakes. Inside the building a yellow bomb with radioactive symbols. Annette disables the radar and disarms the bomb while Lena checks a nearby table for a manifest of the weapons and the defense detail documents.

With that done Lena called Grim, he flew to her and she attached a letter to his claws.

_

On a sea far out of the island sight.....

"All going to plan," Yorktown read a piece of paper in her hands after Grim landed on her shoulder.So far so good all going according to plan. Lena told her about the soldier's numbers, their positions, and the weapons they had. She later informed Jack about it.

"Around 1,000 soldiers with around 24 Vánagandrs.The artillery had little ammo left" Jack told the assembled ship girls.

"Begin phase 2" Jack looked at Ayanami, Z23, Javelin, and Laffey. They got into rigging forms and set off for the island.

"Girls start the countdown!!" Hood said as she and her fellowship girls looked at their watches.

"All right listen up, there will be around 1,000 soldiers on that island. So far Commander's plan goes well, about half of them were drunk but the other half is still combat capable" Wales announced to the assembled ship girls.

About 30 ship girls are present. Yorktown, Hood, Wales, Repulse, and Renown are the only non-Sakura Empire ship girls present. As much as the Sakura Empire ship girls want to teach the invaders a lesson they have to be careful. Killing them would spark a diplomatic incident and unnecessary bloodshed. In addition, they are outnumbered by more than 10 to 1. Speed is of the essence.

On the island...

"All right get ready. It's almost time" Lena looked at her watch. The maids got into rigging forms. Anju, Kurena, Annette, and Lena took up assault rifles and readied themselves. Ayanami, Z23, Javelin, and Laffey later joined them as well. The guards were all tied up and gaged.

"Lena, here is your Para-RAID" Z23 handed her Para-RAID.

"Thank you, Z23.Now listen, these guys will not hesitate to shoot at you," Lena told the ship girls.

"They enjoyed killing and they will do it again" Kurena looked at the destroyers. She told them to stay close to her no matter what and they nodded.

"Try to wounded them if possible but if they leave you no choice, don't feel guilty about it" Anju checked her rifle. The maids took up positions around the building and waited for the start of the operation.

At the concert...

"Shin," Raiden gestured to Shin.

"Yep, get ready" Shin looked at Theo.

Theo signals Lexington who is on the stage with her fellow idols. She nods back and looks at her fellow ship girls.

"All right who is ready for an explosive song tonight!!!!" Lexington proclaimed. The crowd of soldiers cheered as she said so. Shin, Raiden, and Theo positioned themselves near a box around the stage. They all looked at their watches and waited. Finally, fireworks exploded and the stage got filled with colorful smoke. When the smoke settled, the soldiers all watched in horror as the idols they saw now had some weapons sticking out of them. Guns, and swords all pointed at them.

"Hello boys and girls, please lay down your weapons" Lexington with her flight deck and a flick lock musket aimed at the stunned soldiers. The 1,000 soldiers of the Hail Mary regiment had been taken entirely by surprise. In a matter of minutes, the ship girls descended upon them. Their AA guns and 155 mm artilleries were all out of action. The Vánagandrs likewise all had their weapons jammed. Almost half of the soldiers were either drunk or left without any heavy weapons. Some set up heavy machine gun nests along the shoreline.

"Shoot those damn robots to pieces!!!!!"

12.7 mm tracers rounds and flares lit up the night sky and the waveless ocean. The ship girls shrugged them off with swords and their armor skins. Much to the soldiers' shock. The ship girls soon reached the shore. Leading in the front were Kongou and her sisters they unsheathed their melee weapons and charged at their enemy. Swords and guns clashed, metal against metal. Many soldiers put up fierce resistance but others fled deep into the island as soon as they met the ship girls. Their big turrets and swords terrified them a lot. These soldiers thought that these ship girls were nothing more than robots, they were dead wrong.

In just an hour of melee and point-blank rifle fire, the battle was over just around 250 soldiers got wounded and everyone got captured. After that a clean-up operation took place. The ship girls took no serious casualties.

"About 12 of the 155 mm artillery pieces,24 Vánagandrs,24 AA SPG, and a nuke secure. All heavy weapons accounted for" Lena gave Jack a report.

"Good Job, all of you," He told Lena, Anneette, and the Spearhead Five. He talked with Yorktown about securing the prisoners for transportation. Lena, Anneette, and the Spearhead Five saluted him and walked back to a campfire. Behind the campfire rows of artillery pieces, Vánagandrs, and mounted AA guns and SAM missiles on tanks and trucks. They all sat down tired from moving all the weapons and tired from the fighting. Later Hood, Wales, Repulse, and Renown joined them as well.

"Some of them put up a nice fight, I will give them that much" Repulse looked at the captured soldiers. These humans put up a fierce fight. Anju's face got covered with black gunpowder. Hood took out her hat to clean some dust off.

"If these weapons are still functional, there will be more casualties" Kurena looked at all the heavy artillery and the Vánagandrs.

"Yep, no doubt about that" Wales followed her gaze.

"Good thing this does not turn into a full-blown war" Renown accepted a cup of whiskey from Raiden.

"True, if it was the Federacy who deal with this, it will be very bloody," Shin remarked.

"You bloody Eighty-Sixers are just monsters from the Republic just like your commander!!!!" A captured male soldier shouted at them. Haruna took him by the shirt and shut him up.

"They do not like us very much," Theo laughed followed by the rest of the Spearhead, Annette, and Lena. This in turn made the Royal Navy ship girls very curious and they talked long into the night.

_

"That concludes the report, Lady Nagato" Lena handed her a full report about the incident.

Nagato both felt relieved and felt her head lighter as Lena finished her report. Some invaders came to her shores and Lena and her friends helped deal with them without much bloodshed.

"All the soldiers are being escorted back to the Federacy to get their punishments. if you wish to voice any complaints please feel free to do so, the formal apology letter will be arriving in a few days" Lena bowed her head to her.

In a big Eastern-style Capony, Lena came to report the incident and to apologize. Around Nagago were her guards and high-ranking ship girls of the Sakura Empire.

"Please rise, it was not your fault," Nagato told Lena to raise her head up.

"At least not much blood is spilled" Kawakaze spoke.

Thankfully, the news about the invaders had been kept quiet and the fact that it was resolved quickly prevent panic and diplomatic incidents.

"As for the reparations, The Federacy asked me to give you six 155 artillery prices and 6 AA SPGs. Please accept them" Lena informed them.

At this point, Nagato felt even more relieved that she smiled very happily. Being a leader was no easy task, but some good news could make her life easier sometimes.

"Would you stay for a game with us?, we kinda want to play a game with you again" Mutsu asked Lena.

"I wished I could but I had things on my schedule this month," Lena nodded apologetically.

"Aww..." Mutsu said. But before she left, they gave Lena a gift.

_

To say that Jack is furious at these soldiers is an understatement. They come here and almost blow up an island with a nuke. He has to send around 20 ship girls to escort these soldiers back through the portal. Their leader Noele is very rude and very stupid. She comes here with no plan at all and could have led these soldiers to their deaths. She even insults him and almost causes a diplomatic incident that might lead to war.

Shin and the Spearhead got the job of making sure none of them tried anything funny while on the transport ships. Along the way, these soldiers shouted only vile words at the ship girls and the Eighty-Six. In addition, to send them back some ship girls asked Shin and the Spearhead to buy a few things from their worlds—namely coffee machines and some other times that interest them.

"No worries about that, Miss Bismarck, I am sure the middle-class coffee machine makers of the Federacy would love to have new customers" She replied to the Iron Blood ship girl's leader.

"Thank you, My subordinates have been pestering me about it later after they saw how good your world coffee machines are" Bismarck rolled her eyes.

"They sure love coffee, especially Mainz and Hipper" Hood stood beside Lena checking a manifest.

Bismarck is with Lena and Hood in the warehouse inspecting the heavy artillery pieces, AA guns, and the Vánagandrs.From 12 of the 155 mm artillery pieces,24 Vánagandrs,24 AA SPGs, and a nuke. The Azur Lane gets to keep all 12 of the 155 mm artillery pieces and 12 old Vánagandrs and 12 AA SPG. Six 155 mm artillery pieces and 6 AA SPGs are given to the Sakura Empire as 'reparations for the trouble' per Federacy's order. Bismarck is looking at Vánagandr, 155 mm artillery pieces, and the mounted AA on tanks with amazement. They look very modern and she is about to ask...

"If you want to ask if you want to take them back to Iron Blood for study and replicate them. The answer is yes except for the Vánagandrs " Lena knew what Bismarck is about to ask.

"You are looking at them for quite a long time, Bismarck" Hood followed Busmarck's gaze.

"You want the best for your nation, I understand that" Lena sympathized.

"I felt the same but my nation preferred to live in their own lies and crimes they overlooked. I tried my best to protect it and I failed, the Legion slaughtered my people to the last man and reduced the Republic to ashes" Lena lamented at her home's final destruction.

Hood and Bismarck looked at each other and signed. The failure to protect her own home weighed heavy on the girl's mind.

"My country built itself atop of lies and hypocrisies, they refused to change even the face of annihilation, I wished I was stronger but I was too weak" She spoke with sadness in her voice.

"I do not think of it that way" The Iron Blood battleship disagreed. Bismarck looked at the girl's silver eyes. Much to Hood's surprise.

"If you were really weak, you would not be able to lead those 500 Iron Blood soldiers through the Legion bombardment, I still owed you that much" Bismarck added.

"I am just a human, I cannot fight like my comrades or like you ship girls" Lena looked at her fragile body.

"You did have a point there but the Siren forced humanity made us, and humans like Commander to command us" Hood looked at Lena with her own blue eyes.

"Which is why not many sailors left," Bismarck remarked.

Lena later feels much better with those words. Hood and Bismarck leave the warehouse and walk together back to their dorms.

"Well, I thought she would feel hesitate," Bismarck said.

"She thought she is at fault for these soldiers to bring problems for us" Hood replied.

"Hood, Is her home really totally destroyed?"As soon as Bismarck said those words the battlecruiser stopped in her tracks. Hood's eyes closed and stood silent there for a few minutes.

"Yes, it is true, few managed to get out before the Legion stormed the Republic once again. Everyone who was unfortunate enough to be left behind is killed."

Bismarck just gulped.The reason she and the Sakura Empire created the Crimson Axis was to use the Siren's own technology against the Siren. She almost failed but for Lena, it was another story."Hood sorry I....."

Hood raised her hand."You did so out of fear and wised the best for your nation, there was nothing wrong about that"

"I saw Lena's memories too, these racist Albas are really stupid and really get on my nerves" Bismarck handed her a tablet.

"To think such people existed, and the fact that the girl had to put up with it for many years" Hood watched Lena's memories with the racist Albas.

_

Hood left for the Royal Isles for her long overdue refit. Her ship needed a lot of repairs and upgrades. She would have to separate from Lena for a while but not for long as Lena and Anneette were about to set out to the Royal Isles as well. It seemed that the 40 mm AA cannons sparked a lot of interest in Jack and he asked Lena and Annette for an experiment. One battleship and a destroyer sailed in the ocean.

It was another day for Wales, she sailed out for a patrol escorted by a destroyer. A bunch of Siren jets appeared. The Siren knew that she had weak AA and targeted her for fun. Wales looked at them from her ship and sipped her tea on a table with Lena, Annette, and Javelin at the table.

Wales looked at her AA guns. In addition to her own AA, there were new 6 revolving autocannons that opened up at the jets and tore them apart.

A hail of blue bullets intercepted the jets and set them ablaze. The jets shot some missiles but the 6 revolving auto cannons shoot them down before they could even hit Wale's ship.

"I would say those AA cannons worked quite well" Wales sipped her tea.

In addition to shootdown Jets the new AA cannons with an A.I. system added by Annette could shoot down any projectiles as well. Javelin offered lunches to Lena and Annette. Wales was pleased with the results, She and Javelin were sailing back to base when a fog descended upon them.

Annette wore the same dark blue Royal Navy uniform as Lena and felt very comfortable as well but she had a lab coat on. Wales braced for ambush and contacted the base for backup.

Yellow flashes of artillery appeared from the fog and headed right for Wale's ship. The 6 AA guns shot all the shells down with brutal accuracy. Lena and Annette saw the ship that fired at them.

"Is that Iron Blood ship?" Annette looked at the ship.

"It has Iron Blood markings," Lena noticed the flag and the cross of the Iron Blood on the ship.

"There were no Iron Blood ships around us," Wales said.

"Wait!!! there is a ship girl at the bow" Javelin noted. Wales took out her binoculars and gasped. Before she could say anything the ship fired at them gain. A blonde-haired woman in a black Iron Blood uniform looked at them with a devil's grin on her face standing at her ship's bow. Her ship guns fired at Wales's ship relentlessly as she closed in.

"Time for us to meet again Hood"

Lena woke up on a bed in a small room. The room was gray colored of a ship and had a small window that looked outside the ship. A door opened revealing a woman. Lena rubbed her eyes the woman had the Iron Blood flag as her capelet, a black Iron Blood uniform, blonde hair, a black navy cap, and blue eyes. It can't be.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Silly question" She approached Lena.

"You are not Lady Hood, Lady Hood would not shoot at Lady Wales" Lena exclaimed as the woman came closer to her. The woman had everything like Lady Hood but both her hair was down, her evil smile, and her Iron Blood style uniform. She clapped her hands and gave out a very evil smile toward Lena.

"You are right, I am not Hood, I am Alterhood. More powerful, prettier than that Royal Navy mascot" She said with proudness in her voice. Lena listened with a calm demeanor.

"No, she is not. She is Lady Hood of the Royal Navy, that is who she is" Lena retorted back

"Of course, She is the Pride of the Royal Navy and the symbol of the nation. Do you have any idea how much that pains her?!!!!" Alterhoood said in an angry voice. Lena knew about it because Hood told her about it. How much it burdened her and how much she wanted to put it down.

"Why am I here?" She asked.

"For many reasons.For starters, revenge against that woman who betrayed me" She sat on a chair.

"Betrayed you?" Lena inquired as she sat on the bed.

"She refused to raise arms against her own, she preferred for it to burden her rather than put them down," Alterhood said with bitterness in her voice.

"How you came to be anyway?" Lena asked.

"None of your business" Alterhood pinned Lena down to her bed by the neck with her bare hands.

"Have you ever wondered how you came to this world?" She said which got Lena's attention.

"The Siren?" Lena replied.

"No, I have answers if you want them to be a good girl and do what I say if not" Alterhood pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the girl's head.

"Your and your spectacled friend die" She threatened.

"Annette?!!!" Lena gasped.

"Lena?!!!,you okay?" A voice followed. Atlerhood opened a small room window that connected to the other room. Annette's worried face came into view.

"I am fine, do what she says," Lena told her. Annette nodded.

"Smart girl" Alterhood closed the window after that she left the room.

_

Hood arrived in Portsmouth a month later and received the worst possible news ever. Wales and Javelin had been ambushed in the Pacific. Lena and Anneette were nowhere to be found. They went out to test new AA cannons and got ambushed by a ship girl who looked like Hood. Hood was told to stay in port no matter what to figure out the situation. She obeyed but her worry was there. In her room, Hood stayed up and pondered.

"It can't be, She sunk that night," She thought.

"Are you sure about that?" A voice came into her mind. Hood quickly stood up.

"You still alive?" She answered back in her mind.

"Of course, Hood" The voice replied.

"What do you want?"

"To settle a score and finished what I started, come to the Denmark Strait by May 24th, if you do not show up, both girls die, come alone as well. Remembered I watch your every move, try something funny, and I will put a bullet in their brains". Alterhood cut off her telepathic communication with Hood.

Just about everyone in the Royal Navy knew the importance of the day May 24th and the Denmark Strait. The battle and the place in which Bismarck sunk Hood in World War 2 in minutes.A battle that led to the hunt for Bismarck as well.An event that led to the loss of thousands of lives. Hood knew that she must face her own shadows once again. Lena and Annette's lives were on the line. Two poor girls got dragged into Hood's personal issues.

Hood hid this from everyone for a month, it was April when she arrived at the Royal Isles. A month of repair followed. Her refit was canceled due to the disappearance of the experts. Those experts were funny enough Lena and Annette and others who were sick. In May, she was allowed to conduct normal patrol. One of the patrol routes is the Denmark Strait.

"You planned this for a long time, had you not?" Hood said through her mind as she sailed to the Denmark Strait.

"Of course, the years I spent preparing for this moment can't let anyone get suspicious" Alterhood replied with a cunning voice.

"If it's a fight you want then it's a fight you will get," Hood told her with fury in her voice.

"Of course, I am waiting," Alterhood dared her.

_

May 24th, 1945.Denmark Strait.

Hood is getting pounded mercilessly by Alterhood. Atlerhood's ship is a battleship with 9 powerful 15 inch-cannons. Alterhood chooses the Iron Blood form to insult Hood personally, she takes the form of a powerful Iron Blood battleship. Hood's counterpart watches as her guns hit Hood's ship.15-inch shells fly toward Hood ship setting it ablaze.No one would notice it either, a wall of mirror sea surrounds them. Hood does not want to fire back for fear of sinking the ship with the 2 Alba girls in it. Just as she thinks about what to do she sees a flash of light.

"Give up, Hood," Alterhood said through her mind to her counterpart.

"No," Hood replied. Her counterpart ordered her guns to fire again.

A loud bang is heard not at Hood's ship. Alterhood's ship is covered in smoke. Her A turret blow-ups with the turret flying 50 meters high into the air before falling into the sea. Alterhood who is standing nearby gets thrown on her ship's deck.

"A misfire?" Alterhood looked at her destroyed gun turret.

Alterhood looked at Hood's ship, she was coming toward her at full speed. The battleship turned her 2 remaining gun turrets at Hood preparing to fire at point-blank range. She saw Hood at her ship's bow and both locked eyes with each other. Alterhood gritted her teethes as she ordered her guns to fire.

However, instead of firing at Hood's ship her remaining guns turrets explode and her entire ship is set on fire. Alterhood could not believe that her turrets have all misfired. Then from the smoke two shadow figures appear.

"Put your hands up where I can see them!!!" Lena aimed at a rifle at Alterhood.

"Do it!!!" Annette shouted as she aimed a pistol at her as well. Alterhood got it now, these two humans broke free and sabotaged her ship. She looked down for a moment before charging at them. Despite having firearms the two human girls could not hope to match the strength of a ship girl. They fired at her relentlessly, but they were pinned down by the necks on Alterhood's deck with her bare hands.

"Guess, I will have to put down you two first" She looked down at the two Alba girls. She added more force to her hands and started to hurt them. Their faces turned red from the lack of air.

"Pick someone of your own size!!!" A voice followed by a kick to the face. Hood jumped from her ship as soon she got in close and saw that Alterhood is choking the two silver-haired girls. The kick sent Alterhood flying a few meters away but she quickly picked herself up. If looks could kill, Alterhood wished to kill all 3 of them. Her blue eyes turned red with fury. Hood answered with a furious look of her own.

"Lena, Annette you girls ok?" Hood glanced at the two girls. They just gave her a thumbs-up as they were catching their breath after all. Hood signed in relief and looked back at her counterpart. Alterhood had blood coming out of her mouth, she checked her lips and swiped the blood off. She took out her pistol but instead of using it, she threw it away.

"We don't need it, do we?" The battleship put down her black navy cap. Hood took off her hat as well. Both then charged at each other with fists and kicks went back and forth between the two ship girls. They both seemed to know what the other will do as they intercepted the other punches and kicks. Until Hood managed to find an opening and buried her fist deep into Alterhood 's stomach. Her counterpart delivered a punch to her jaws, although she was faster in delivering her punch before her counterpart's punch would do much pain.

Blood came out of Alterhood's mouth as she fell to the deck. Hood tried to finish her foe off when her counterpart pulled a sword from her side. The sword cut a part of her union jack capelet and forced her a few meters back. Hood tried to summon her rigging but failed.

"You can't, I have a tool that disables your rigging" Her counterpart gloated and readied her sword. Hood knew that she would be facing a difficult odd.

"You are going down!!!!" Alterhood charged at her and she could not evade in time. The Royal Navy battlecruiser formed her hands into a shield to protect herself from the blade.

"Lady Hood catches!!!!" A shout got Hood's attention. A Royal Navy-style saber flew into her hand and she blocked the blow with it. The two blades clashed and sent off sparks which caused Alterhood to look at the source. Lena threw her gift from the Sakura Empire to Hood. A silver-colored with a mix of diamond-like lines sword forged with a dead Musukura scale. She also gave a middle finger to Alterhood as well before falling down to the deck again. Alterhood hissed and gave the girl a death glare. In her fury, she forgot she is still fighting Hood who picked herself up and braced for the impact in time. With the window of opportunity, the battlecruiser pushed back her foe by punching her in the face. Alterhood got angrier than ever and charged at her opponent with all her fury. The Royal Navy battlecruiser responded with a charge of her own.

The blades clashed sending off sparks and their eyes were only separated by the two clashing swords. Their faces were so close that they could hear the other breathing clearly. Both hold their remaining hands and their eyes met and only fury was visible. Alterhood managed to force back Hood a few meters back swords. The Royal Navy battlecruiser delivered a kick right at her foe's waist and headbutted her. Alterhood and Hood stood mere meters apart both catching their breath.

"Give up, you in my Mirror Sea. You think you can escape?" Alterhood pointed all around her with her sword. Her head was bleeding with blood all over her face.

"Yes, once I run this sword through you" The Royal Navy battlecruiser aimed her sword at her foe. Her head was bleeding as well but not as bad as her foe. Her eyes showed only determination and fury.

"We will see about that" Her counterpart did the same aiming at Hood's upper body. They charged at each other, this time both of their hands were at their swords. Using an extra hand to add more force to the sword blow hoping to break the other's blade, but the blades held. Alterhood saw some success at first pushing Hood's back to B turret. But the battlecruiser later pushed her back to her superstructure. The duel turned into a stalemate, a test of strength that no one is going to give in. However, Alterhood slowly loses ground to her opponent as Hood slowly gains ground and pushes back Alterhood hard. Having trained her sword skills for quite a while Hood made a feint and finally stabbed her foe in the abdomen. The sword went through Alterhood's body and showed up at her back with red liquids all over the tip of the blade . Alterhood looked down and then looked right into Hood's blue eyes with their cheeks only centimeters apart. Alterhood grabbed ahold of Hood's hand that had the sword to prevent it from going deeper into her body.

Alterhood attempted to stab Hood in the back with her sword only for the battlecruiser to grab the hand with the sword and prevented it. Alterhood gritted her teeth and she began to cough blood. Alterhood dropped her sword and red liquids dripped from her body. Hood pulled the sword from her opponent's abdomen and let go of her foe's hand. Alterhood's body hit the deck and the red liquids filled the deck around her. Stood triumph over her foe, Hood looked on with a tired look. She looked over to the two human teenagers and ran to check on them.

"The Siren tried to corrupt me and they failed," The Royal Navy battlecruiser knelt beside her dead counterpart with Alterhood lifeless blue eyes which looked back right at her. Hood just finished checking Lena and Annette. They all knelt beside Hood near the dead body. Thankfully, both were not severely wounded. The same could not be said for the battlecruiser. With bruises and cuts all over her face, her clothes were riddled with cuts and bloodstained marks over her capelet.

Lena handed Hood's hat back to her and she put it back on. Hood later came clean about what happened years ago. The Siren tried to corrupt her with a black cube and they created her counterpart as a result. But this backfired, and she became a loose cannon. So bad that the Siren sank her or so they thought. She somehow survived. Those actions filled her with hatred for the Siren. She approached Hood and tried to get her to side with her but Hood refused. Took this as a betrayal she planned her revenge on the battlecruiser for years. Hood closed her opponent's lifeless eyes with her hands. Lena and Annette found a black blanket and covered her dead body with it.

The Mirro Sea soon disappeared and Howe appeared. She was sent to check on Hood after losing contact. To say that she got her mind blown at the scene would be an understatement. Later in the dead of night, Hood and Howe towed Alterhood 's ship into Scapa Flow for a thorough search and study. The Royal Navy decided to keep the incident under the rug for now and made a report later to not be very embarrassing.

"How you two got here across the globe?" Howe asked the two Alba girls. As much as she wanted to show Lena and her friend around, she had orders to keep them in check until further notice.

"She used some sort of device, I believe," Annette said.

"She bragged about a device that controls Mirro Sea" Lena added.

"She did say that she had a device that deactivated rigging as well," Hood said from her bed. As it turned outs, the damage Hood received from her double was more severe than she thought. Both her ship and her body took a heavy beating. She would be out of commission for quite a while. They were talking in Hood's room where she was recovering from her wounds. She wore a white shirt with stitches over her face and a white cast on one of her arms. Along with a pack of ice bags on her head. Later King George V entered the room. Both Lena and Annette saluted her.

"Good to see you both, safe and sound. They were worried to death back at the Pacific" She spoke. She informed them that they found many Siren devices on Hood's double ship. She also told them that for security reasons they had to stay in the port for some time. Hood was about to say something when both Lena and Annette just agreed. Lena and Annette both owed their lives to Hood who took on her double head-on with bare hands and sword to save them from certain deaths. In fact, they were there for their jobs, to refit Hood with the new 40 mm AA autocannons and other modern technology.

Scapa Flow is a cold seaport. The port is heavily fortified in response to the Siren invasion. With coastal guns and countless fortifications.

"Look better than the Gran Mur" Annette looked at the fortified port.

"Of course, they built it for defense not just to keep out the undesirable like the Gran Mur" Lena added.

"You know, I heard they wanted to add the Inercpetion Cannons and 40 AA autocannons as well" Hood followed their gaze.

Most seaports and cities had been fortified to defend against the Siren. Lena and Annette were no strangers to strong fortifications, they had seen one with Gran Mur but...

"All it took is a single 800 mm railgun to reduce the Gran Mur to rubble" Lena remembered how the wall fell within seconds when its massive shell hit.

"The Siren was not good siege experts, I gave them that much" Annette studied the Siren pattern that usually involved large forces and overwhelming numbers.

"Girls, about this 800 mm railgun.Is there any proper countermeasure?" Hood asked.

"So far no, the AA cannons could not shoot the shell down. It had a speed of 8,000 km/s or Mach 23, that massive shell with the velocity is like that of a meteorite" Lena handed her full Morpho schematics on a tablet to her.

"The only way to stop it is to fire at it first before it fires at you," Annette told the battlecruiser.

All those fortifications are nothing in the face of this massive railgun, it showed that the Siren bases prove no matches to the gun. To say it causes everyone's head to spin is just the tip of the iceberg. With such extreme range and high destructive power to destroy any fortifications.No one feels safe anymore.

Hood remembered what her double told her before her death.

"Don't you curious to see the world burn?"

_

About 3 months later.Back at the Azur Lane base.

Shin and the Spearhead return with a lot of merchandise. The middle-class business owners of the Federacy are eager to sell their products to new customers and ask them for feedback later. Shin is dismayed to find that Lena is away from the base. He has something to give her that he has delayed long enough. He also wants to tell her that the Eighty-Six has settled into peaceful life back in the Federacy and send her their regards through him. It is a sunny day and a peaceful one as well. More ship girls arrive at the base and things become more lively. A group of small school girls runs around and play with each other. These girls are the Mutsuki-class destroyers of the Sakura empire.

One of them slipped and almost fell when a pair of arms caught her.

"Be careful don't run around here fast there might be small rocks on the ground" A tall silver blue-haired girl told her before putting her down. She thanked Anju and rejoined her friends.

Anju returns to find that more destroyers arrived at the base and they are quite prone to falling down on the ground. She also brings someone else as well.

"Wow, that was fast" A boy with short silver-haired with glasses walked toward her.

"Thanks, Dustin" She replied.

He is Dustin Jaeger a Republic Alba boy who refused to buy the Republic Alba supremacy idea. Like Lena and Annette, he fights alongside the Eighty-Six and follows Anju here as well. He still couldn't find a job yet and Anju tell him that there is a spot here at the Azur Lane base so he accepts. The Federacy still hates Alba though not very badly as the war is over. It will take some time for the hate to be fully gone. So far few know about the ship girls and the new world. Most nations still try to recover from the devastating Legion War.

Kurena meanwhile brought back some idol clothes for San Diego for her concert. Raiden brought his tools for woodwork and electrical jobs. Theo brought his art tools for commissions artworks. The Azur Lane hired them full-time per Commander Jack's decision. Their first official job was soon to come.

In addition to exchange technology. The Azur Lane also purchased licenses for Interception Cannons and other useful military technologies. Such as powerful AA guns, artillery, and long-range missiles.

The Republic officials still reeling from the nation's destruction sell the Intecpetion cannons licenses without any issue. They are desperate for money as well. The AA guns, artillery, and missiles are more difficult due to some issues back in the Federacy. But in the end, the deal goes through at a very high cost. All these high-cost weapons however will be worth it if can help the humanity of this world fend off and push back the Siren.

_

Lena and Annette both come from noble families and get along just fine with the Royal Navy. They are former nobles too before their home goes up in flames. Both are the only children of their respective families. Hood being the only ship in her class sympathize with them. For months they explain to Hood about new weaponry to her while she is recovering. Her ship undergoes massive refit and rearmament.

A massive rocket artillery system and more powerful six-barrel anti-air/ground electromagnetic Vulcan revolving autocannons for AA and shooting down projectiles are being installed. Since the experiment proves to be a success, more ships will be equipped with the same powerful AA cannons.

Hood also tells them about the event of the May 24th of 1941 in World War 2 where she is sunk before being summoned. Both girls just listen and understand what led to her sinking. Pride and overconfidence.

"You face a great enemy no doubt" Annette poured tea onto Hood's tea cup.

"If it were me, I would just wait and keep shadows of the enemy until backup arrives" Lena offered her opinion.

"I know, but that is the decision made by the admiral at the time," Hood told them.

Hood asked the girls for their opinion on what should be done instead. They offered interesting insights. They pointed out a combination of factors such as loss of the element of surprise, bad positioning, technical issues, and very bad luck.

It is a feeling that Lena knows too well.

"It is like sailing into your certain doom" Lena handed Hood her teacup. A suicide mission.

Going up against an enemy that is more powerful only qualifies as suicide. In Hood's case, it is even worse. She is forced to fight in a very bad condition and that only leads to her sinking. The Republic likes to use suicide missions to kill off the Eighty-Six. Sending countless units against a superior enemy deep behind enemy lines to certain deaths.

Hood listened to their opinions carefully and entertained other possibilities given by them.

About 4 months later after Hood's repair and refit.

To say that Hood's ship turned into something completely different is not enough.

Her ship is not the same as it is before. If anything she become more elegant and more deadly to anyone who decided to be the Royal Navy's enemy. Alongside her ship's armaments are 4 new massive rocket launchers 2 on each side,8 new six-barrel anti-air/ground electromagnetic Vulcan revolving autocannons 4 on each side and a big radar installed along with better deck armor. The old and unnecessary secondary weapons are removed such as torpedoes tubes and other outdated weapons. More importantly, the old conning tower is removed as well. Being the Pride of the Royal Navy much effort is put into making her a very formidable ship. Lena and Annette assisted in the effort by adding better fire control and checking for any potential flaws on the refit.

While Hood undergoes refit and rearmament back at the Royal Isles with the help of Lena, Annette, and countless personnel. The Azur Lane takes possession of many Siren devices from Hood's double ship. One of which catches their attention like no other.

In Berlin, Iron Blood Navy Research Facility, June 1945.

A purple cube that controls the Mirro Sea. The Iron Blood with the most experience in studying the Siren tech is studying the cube very intensively. A device that could potentially give humanity more edge over their enemies. Bismarck looks at the scientists and the researchers very closely as they study the cube. The Iron Blood never come across such a valuable device and she will not let it slip from their hands very easily. Iron Blood ship girls stand guards around the clock. She remains vigilant for many reasons. First, the device is beyond valuable and very important that the Siren might want it back. Second, the Royal Navy gives them the device for study. Finally, it is Hood herself who lobbies for the Iron Blood to study the cube.

If she let this golden opportunity slip for her hands she will not forgive herself for it. The fate of her nation, humanity, and the world depends on it.

This also shows signs of acceptance of studying Siren technology in the Azur Lane factions. A major factor that caused the split in the past.

To defeat your enemy you must understand them.

_

In the Pacific a massive counter-offensive takes place.

With newfound strength and vigor, the Azur Lane takes back many islands and pushes back the Siren even further. One island catches the Royal Navy's attention, Singapore. A possession that they determine to turn into a fortress against the Siren. The Royal Navy admirals dispatch an order to Commander Jack.

The Admirals while do not do much still had authority. They are the higher-ups of the Azur Lane other than the Commander himself. For the most part, they are a bunch of older soldiers who get to keep their positions thanks to their experience. One such order would nearly blow his head.

"Send the teenagers from another world to Singapore and told them to turn it into a fortress"

Jack looked at the order with furious eyes. However, orders are orders and he will have to comply.

"Sorry Miss Nevada, you will have to manage without us" Raiden and Anju told Nevada.

"No problem" Nevada smiled back. She had a good cooking trick from them as well.

"All right, be careful of sharks now alright, I will try to come back as soon as possible," Kurena told San Diego. The light cruiser just hugged her back.

The Spearhead and Dustin boarded a Royal Navy aircraft carrier. A lady with a blue dress with ship earrings greets them.

"Greetings, I am Glorious, A Courageous-class aircraft carrier. I will be your transport for today"

As they get on their way. More ships join them creating a fleet of battleships, heavy cruisers, and smaller vessels.

Shin watches the blue ocean and could not help but wonder about its beauty and its vastness. It takes about three weeks to reach Singapore and there a bigger surprise awaits them. For docking in the harbor of Singapore is another fleet of ships headed by the most elegant-looking ship ever, and only one is the most elegant of the Royal Navy. The Pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood. Her presence here serves as a morale boost and safeguards the disembarking of the soldiers. On her ship also two teenagers with silver hair.

Lena and Annette rejoin Spearhead, and Dustin in Singapore and are brief for their new assignment.

The Royal Navy sends around 30,000 men along with a lot of heavy equipment to garrison the island. There they will be joined by at least 30 ships from the Royal Navy.

Lena, Annette, Spearhead, and Dustin would be supervisors for the new weapons and advise the generals about the island defense and weapons placement.
It got off to a very bad start. With the land force generals managed to clash with the ship girls and could not agree on anything. Even worse, the 30,000 were just inexperienced soldiers and they never see combat before.

For the keen eyes of Lena, this is a recipe for disaster. She voices her worries but most ignore her except a few.

"So you think this will be a disaster if the Siren attack?" Wales asked Lena in an office of the newly repaired Fort Siloso. Lena nodded.

"Why?, If I may ask?" Hood inquired.

"The land force Generals seem to think that there is no need to put any defense along the shore and spread troops thin," Lena pointed to the map of Singapore.

The island is very big and covering it all is impossible with just 30,000 men. Both Royal Navy ships get what Lena means. If the Siren attacked with a very big force and with land troops scatters all over the island, it could turn into a very big bloodbath.

However, the ship girls are bound by orders and have to follow them. Despite this, both send this to Commander Jack.

_

For weeks countless pieces of military equipment pour into Singapore. Most notable are the big massive Interception Cannons. These massive guns take the role of coastal batteries. About 20 are concentrated on Fort Siloso alone.

It is hoped that these massive guns could fend off the Siren and defend the island. However, Lena's prediction slowly came true. Troops scattered across the island and heavy weapons got spread around as well rather than gathering them in one place for maximum firepower.

"Call me superstitious Hood, but Lena sure knows what's will happen" Wales watched the event unfolding. Soldiers were all scattered around into little pockets and heavy guns scatter around the island with little to no concentration. Like ants in a massive ant colony.

"A disaster waiting to happen like just she said" Hood agreed.

Jack did try to reason with the Royal Navy land force commanders but they refused to even listen. All he could do was to ensure that Lena, Annette, Dustin, and the Spearhead got permission to train the soldiers and guard the fort.

The feuding between old generals occurred. On the ground level, things were much better. With the veterans officers and soldiers of the Legion War share their experiences and teach the new and inexperienced soldiers to some degree.

"You know this is a beautiful place and new environment too" Kurena looked at the blush-green forest around the fort.

"Yeah," Raiden looked at the birds flying above them.

"Still, the Siren sure brought hell to this place" Anju looked around to see only traces of destruction. Emptied buildings, deserted streets, and craters along the beach and shoreline.From what the ship girls told them. The Siren laid waste to every city along the sea and islands. Casualties in the millions.

Fleet after fleet decimated. Powerless in the face of the Siren onslaught.Pushed to the brink of extinction.

"Just like the Legion," Dustin looked at the blue ocean.

The Legion war machines took the whole continent by surprise. It brought nothing but destruction and loss. It forced humanity to fight back, to think of a better plan. Like the Legion, the Siren forced the humanity of this world to create ship girls to fight back. In a sense, these ship girls take the role of naval units. The forefront of the fighting.Like them the Eighty-Six processors of the Strike Package.

_

As if things did not go bad enough. Around 25,000 soldiers were relocated to other areas. The ships also got relocated as well much to Commander Jack's frustration.

Only around 5,000 soldiers and around 10 ships were left to defend Singapore. This decision did not sit well with any of them, to say the least.

"Sister, I have a feeling we will have a big fight on our hands" Repluse watched as more Royal Navy ships left the horizon.

"I know," Renown followed her sister's gaze.

On Fort Siloso's wall, a group of teenagers watched as ships left their sight replaced by one empty sea.

"So it's us by ourselves again" Theo watched the sunset.

"Not alone, we still have some ship girls with us and at least one regiment of soldiers" Anju looked to see a number of ships in the harbor.

"Come on, we got work to do" Shin gestured at the Interception Cannons.

They left to do their jobs. Gunnery practice, Interception cannons maintenance, repairing, and upgrading the fortress and positions of heavy artillery around the fortress.

Annette meanwhile is installing a massively advanced warning radar with Raiden's assistance and a number of engineers. She is in a hurry. With few forces remaining, they need all the help they can get.

"Annette is setting up the radar right now, for now, we have no idea what is out there" Lena pointed to the sea around Singapore on a big map. In an office for Lena are Wales, Hood, and Lena herself.

"We have 3 battlecruisers,2 battleships,4 destroyers, and one light aircraft carrier for defense on the sea" Wales rolled her eyes.

"Orders are orders, we have to obey them" Hood spoke.

"Not when these orders will get people kill" Lena reasoned.

Just then an explosion is heard.

"What was that?" the battlecruiser looked outside.

"An attack?" the battleship saw a cloud of smoke rising then Repulse came rushing in.

"A siren infiltrated the base and blow itself up, killing every Royal Navy officer!!"

A fire broke out in one of the barracks. All hell broke loose as boys and girls ran around grabbing water hoses and putting out the fire. When the fire was out, only dark figures were present inside.

"Well, all our officers are gone," the soldiers remarked.

Just as Annette finished setting up the radar. Red beep warnings came alive as on the screen countless red dots popped up all around them at very far distances.

Meanwhile, a girl with purple eyes and light silver hair is sailing toward Fort Siloso. She is sent as a backup at the last minute by Commander Jack.

"This is USS Casablanca of the Eagle Union, Fort Siloso come in please" She is Casablanca the lead ship of the Casablanca-class light aircraft carrier of the Eagle Union.

"Casablanca?!!, what are you doing here? I thought you were at Midway" Lena who received the communication replied.

"I was sent as a backup to give more air cover" the light aircraft carrier replied.

"Get in here quick!!!!!, you have a big Siren fleet right on your back" Lena said as she was told that a massive Siren fleet is detected.

Looking back Casablanca saw black ships and black jets chasing her. She pushed herself to the maximum speed. She knew that she must rush to join the upcoming defense.

For they are all in a fight for their lives.

Chapter Text

A week passed since the Siren attack on Singapore. For a whole week, the Siren threw a very massive force against its defenses.

On the sea, The Siren ran into a wall of steel and hot lead right off the barrel of 15-inch, and 14-inch from Royal Navy ships. Along with devastating barrages of Interception cannons and 155-mm high explosives artillery.

In the sky, the Siren fared no better. Although the defending forces have few aircraft carriers. They made up for it with powerful AA turrets that shot down everything the Siren could fire at them. Hails of electronics and light blue bullets turned Siren's missiles and shells into dust.

The once-scattered troops gathered in one place around Fort Siloso to maximize their artillery firepower and made the Siren's lives hell.

Fortunately, the Fort is on a small island surrounded by water allowing the ship girls to help in the defense. Likewise, the ground troops return the favor by using longer-range artillery and AA batteries to cover the ship girls from anything the Siren might throw at them.

The ship girls watched the ground troops' backs while the ground troops did the same for the ship girls. This in turn made the defense almost unbreakable.

By the time, Azur Lane got wind of what was going on. They arrived to clean up any remaining Sirens around the area.

The failure of the Siren attack cost the Siren dearly. Nearly thousands of ships and countless jets are lost. While the defending forces suffered only minor losses of around 50 dead,500 wounded and no ship girls are lost.An impressive feat that becomes a moral boost.

Although the Fort and its fortifications are nearly reduced to rubble, they can be repaired and strengthened. Contemporary reports gave special accounts to Lena, Annette, Dustin, and the Spearhead. These humans fought with nearly as much bravery and ferocity as the ship girls themselves.

Directing fire and manning AA cannons and 155-mm artillery pieces themselves. Lena herself coordinates the defense efforts between the ship girls and the ground units.

What the ship girls and the humans lack in numbers is countered with determination and will. Facing very fierce resistance, the Siren is thrown back with uncountable losses.

The defense of Singapore has been an impressive defensive victory—a combination of the use of ground forces and the ship girls.

"It has been a long week," Raiden said during a campfire inside the now nearly destroyed Fort Siloso.

"Yes, no doubt" Theo concurred.

"You guys seem to take this relatively well" Repluse amazed by how Speardhead, Annette, and Dustin took it very well.

"We have seen worse" Anju spoke.

Repulse and Renown take the chance to take a break inside the fort after repelling the Siren attack.

"Yes, sir thank you" Wales put down a phone in Lena's office at Fort Siloso.

"All is well?" Hood asked her college.

"Yes, the reinforcement fleet secures waters around Singapore and destroys any surviving Sirens" Wales replied.

This made the battle cruiser sign in relief. She smiled and sipped her tea happily. At least, the backup made it in time. Lena walked into the room very tired.

"No more Siren around us now," She said.

"Yes, sit down and have a tea" Hood gestured her to a chair. The Alba girl happily complied and drank tea offered by Hood.

"Tell me, is the 2 months siege of the Republic worse than this or this is worse?" Wales is curious about Lena's siege expertise experience.

"Oh, this is nothing like that, we were outgunned and outnumbered back then, almost all of the Alba population did not know how to fight and big guns barely work. This time we have ship girls and good artillery support, and the soldiers here all fight with all they have," Lena pointed out.

"Guess, they took the Republic totally by surprise" Wales sat beside Lena.

"We were having a festival when they attacked, no one manned their posts, and by the time they realized what is going on it was too late" Lena looked down at her teacup.

"You did what you could, don't feel bad about it if they don't bother to lift a finger to defend themselves, then it is no good to keep defending them" Wales put her hands on Lena's shoulder.

"Few could have done what you did," Hood cheered her up.

Both ship girls saw how the girl while lacking strength made up for it through tactical coordination and planning.

"It has been an honor to fight alongside both of you, Miss Wales, and Miss Hood" Lena lowered her head.

"Same goes for us" Both did the same. They all raised their heads and laughed.

_

Jack recalled Lena, Annette, Dustin, and the Spearhead after he made contact with them. They might be soldiers from another world but he knew their pain and suffering. Thus, he had the right to recall them if he sensed that they might be in danger.

From now on he will keep his eyes to make sure that they do not get left alone without proper support.

At this point, the teenagers saw how fearsome and powerful the Siren is. The Siren could infiltrate a base and wreak havoc. How their rifles were useless against armored humanoid Siren.

At the same time, they saw how the Siren fared not very well on land. Be it by choice of not wanting to attack on land or just because the lack of land force is another matter. The point is that Siren has no experience in land warfare. At least from what they saw. But still, they are very deadly.

The Siren possesses laser weaponry. Something that gives the ship girls a very hard time. That is about to change.

"So the Legion have laser weapon as well other than the Morpho railgun?" Jack asked Lena.

"Yes, It is called Biene these small units can shoot laser beams" Lena showed him the picture of a Biene a Legion unit with the shape of a spider.

"We have recovered some of its wreckage and did a full analysis," Annette said to him.

"What is it's drawn back?" He asked the two Alba girls.

"It is very power-hungry and has to be kept near the power unit," the Alba scientist told him.

Laser weaponry is a new concept and only the Siren have had that kind of weaponry until now. The Legion has a laser weapon prototype though not as successful as the Siren. That edge is what the Siren used to push back humanity to great effect. Now there is a chance to level the playing field.

"What do you need?" Jack joined in with the idea of developing laser weaponry.

"I need a good inventor to help me, I have information about the Biene already," Annette told him.

"Before that, we have to deal with finances," Lena said which got Jack's attention.

"You don't have to worry about that," He told her.

"No sir, we have the full backing of the nations. I know that but a sudden request for funds for the project would no doubt draw attention" She replied.

Jack looked at her with wide eyes. She worried about security issues. She worried that the Siren might catch wind of it and ruin the project. If humanity has laser weaponry and the Siren knows? it would be game over for them.No doubt they would do something about it.

In addition, the admirals and other higher-ups might be curious.No doubt the Siren would know because of it too.

"You have a solution?"

"Oh I have a solution, sir"

The deep sea often has the wreckage of countless ships. Throughout history, these have often been laden with priceless cargo, gold, silver, and other valuable items.

The submarine girls could not go very deep due to pressure and lack of air in very deep water. Until Annette unveils another great invention...

A massive submarine drone capable of salvaging gold and other items from the depth without putting the ship girls in harm's way. All they had to do is guarding the control ship and its control wires.

Lena often read history books about areas where it used to be pirate heavens or trade routes of the past for valuables. As such she and her friends are in separate salvage ships would go out with escorts.

Each time they come back. The ship hull is often full of ancient artifacts and countless valuables. One certain ship girl is more than happy to help check.

"Is it real gold?" Kurena looked at an old chest full of gold-colored coins.

"Yep, real one" Edinburg picked one and used her teeth to test it.

"Wow, you can tell from the eye" Anju amazed at the light-cruiser.

"I had experience with gold and silver" She replied with pride.

At the port, the teenagers and ship girls often carry recovered items from the depth to the base. Most are gold, silver, and countless times from the past. Edinburg checks every gold coin and silver bar to see if they are real or not.

While historic items are often sold to museums or sent back to their respective nations of origin. The commander takes gold and silver into the base's safe. As these items are recovered in their surrounding waters. They have the right to do what they want with it. This is good because the purchase of weapons licenses costs a lot. So much so that Jack gets a lot of complaints from higher-ups. Now he can lower it by asking for less funds and leaving them alone for a while. With the funds the project begins.

_

As time goes by more ship girls arrive at the base. They are from Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion. The Iron Blood is busy trying to repair all the damage at the Demark Peninsular. No more ship girls from Iron Blood would arrive at the moment.

The new arrivals visit the dead sea monster site first. The site is a must-see of the base.

"Wow"

"So big"

By now the body of the dead sea monster fascinated and sometimes terrified everyone who saw it.

"How are things back at the Vichya Dominion?, Dunkerque" Hood asked her.

"Good no more fighting with one of our own" She replied. Dunkerque's eyes fixed on the dead Musukura. She might not be very religious but she prayed that none of these come to her world's sea. Her ship paled in comparison to its size.

"So these monsters roam freely on Lena's world sea?" The Vichya Dominion battlecruiser asked.

"Yes, the humanity of her world cannot enter the sea because of them" The Royal Navy battlecruiser replied. While humanity of the Azur Lane's world conquered and lost much of the sea to the Siren. The humanity of Lena's world tried and failed to do so because of these massive monsters.

A testament to how powerful these monsters are. Hundreds of years of failures to take the sea from them.

"The Legion War put an end to the dream of making the sea a human domain, their forces, and fleet are decimated by the Legion, not to mention most of their population are massacred," Hood remarked at the state of the Recide Fleet countries. The nation who swore to make the sea human territory.Trampled to the brink of total extinction by the Legion war machines.

"It will take quite a long time for them to fully recover" Hood added. Later Lena walked to greet her as well. One thing caught Dunkerque's eyes a sword in Lena's Royal Navy uniform. Lena unsheathed the sword and showed it to her. A silver-colored sword with a mix of diamond lining. She heard that the Musukura's scale is so strong that it could withstand even the 15-inch cannon.

The sword is so attractive that it drew the eyes of the Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion ship girls. One ship girl, Le Mars a L'Adroit-class destroyer from the Vichya Dominion took out her big sword and tried to break it. Only for her sword to break into glasses after her hard swing.

Just about all eyes of the Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion ship girls widen like they just see a ghost. Their shock soon turns into something else.

"Can we have our swords reforged too?!!!"

With such strong material. They wanted to have their swords reforged with such material. Lena smiled and led them to the workshop in a building near the Azur Lane Academy. Inside stacks of diamond-colored scales.

"These are the Musukura scales, we took them last time when we dissected its body, take what you need and tell me later"

The Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion ship girls walked out of the building arm wilded and grinned. Fido helped carry them to their dorms much to the ship girls' surprise.

"All right, that should be the last of them, "Lena said as Fido's crane put down one last diamond-colored scale for the ship girls near the Vichya Dominion's dorm.

Hood got called by Queen Elizabeth. So Lena and Fido helped the Iris Libre and Vichya Dominion carry the scales. Almost immediately the sword workshops of the dorms come alive with smoke and the sound of the cracking of iron. Dunkerque invited Lena to try her homemade sweet. Hood informed Dunkerque beforehand about Lena's 'love of sweets. Dunkerque had to hold out her laughs as Lena looked at her with a pair of cat eyes. The moment Lena tasted Dunkerque's, homemade sweet. Her soul flew to heaven. Never before had she experienced such taste. She went to grab Annette as well, she got the same reaction.

Both Alba girl's eyes shone with stars. At this point, Dunkerque could not hold her laugh anymore. Their reaction is just very hilarious. She knew how much her sweets make people smile but she never expected it to be this good. Later after talking with them, she knew why. The Legion took the land for farming and food away from the humans forcing them to synthesize food to survive. For a decade they had to live on plastic explosives. Tasteless food.

_

"She still alive?"

"Yes, Hood and she is out there somewhere"

Hood's heart sank. She got another bad news from her majesty. King George V reported that Hood's double body and ship were gone from the port of Scapa Flow. Alterhood is thought to be dead somehow still alive.

Given that Hood supposedly killed her with her own hands with the help of Lena and Annette. Her counterpart's fury must be at the breaking point. Already she imagined her counterpart storming the base and killing everyone she cared about.

But how? How did she survive? Hood thought.

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

"Ouch that's hurt" Alterhood spoke.

She is in her ship's infirmary. She barely slips right under the Royal Navy's nose. She lifts her jack and shirt to see her wounds. She looks at her abdomen where there is a nasty scar. She underestimates Hood's skills and her desire to protect the two Alba girls. Hood gives her a very good beating for it. She plans to use her ship guns to weaken Hood and captures her but her plan backfires spectacularly. She never thinks that the two human girls would be so dangerous. Who know these humans from another world would be so deadly? Instead of disheartening she feels rejoiced. She checks her ship's hold and finds that many of the Siren devices are gone. She smiles and grins.

"All going to plan"

The Siren is having a realization. Humanity and the ship girls are evolving very fast and now put them on the defensive. Observer Alpha seems very impressed and is about to do something new when she hears that the failed product is still alive. To make matters worse somehow humanity has access to a Mirror Sea device.

She is in her base, Base Echo. The Siren bases on the world are dwindling. But that would not affect them much, they can rebuild bases in the Mirror Sea anytime. She also hears that her superior is dead. Meaning she now fights in this timeline on her own.

"Looks like I will have to make an ultimate test" She grinned.

_

Almost 2 months later.

The purple cube study is going smoothly. By now humanity knows to use it against the Siren. Mirror Sea has always been a thorn for humanity for quite a while. More frustrating than anything is the fact that they could not strike back much other than destroying bases on the islands. The Siren often had bases at a safe pace called "Mirror Sea".Another dimension that believed to be crawling with Siren activity.A place no humans would dare enter other than the ship girls.

Even the ship girls themselves are quite nervous to enter. The Mirror Sea is just too unpredictable and would swallow up anyone in it if stay too long. To be trapped in one is a fate no one would want. This status quo remains so until now. The result of the study of the cube bare very good result at least.While they might not know fully about it yet. They know how to enter the Mirror Sea and come back safely.

The defenses along sealine cities and harbors also have been improved significantly. With new weaponry purchased from another world by Azur Lane and along with its experts. The recent defense of Singapore shows that the Siren is not very invincible and combining the use of ship girls and land force defense could throw back the Siren with minimal losses.

"So we will be going to this place called Midway next?" Anju asked Lena.

"Yes, the Azur Lane retook it from the Siren last week from what Casablanca told me" She replied.

While Lena, Annette, Dustin, and the Spearhead were resting at the Azur Lane base. The Eagle Union ship girls were attacking the Midway Islands. A group of islands stationed between the Pacific Ocean and halfway from the Eagle Union city of San Fransisco and the Sakura Empire capital, Tokyo.

The islands got taken over by the Siren when the war began. Now the islands are back in the Eagle Union's hands and they are determined to keep it that way. Unsurirpsrsly, Jack received the same order to send them to fortify the islands. This time Jack gives them a task force for their safety as well as for any Siren surprises.

A full fleet of battleships and escort carriers is assigned to help defend the island during the process of fortifying it.

In a harbor of shallow waters and bright sand. Battleships and escort carriers lay motionless. Despite its ruinous landscape and craters along the airfield, shores, and beaches. Its natural beauty could not be tainted.

"Wow, what a beautiful harbor!!!" Kurena looked at the harbor.

"Yeah, It is" Maryland agreed. She and her sisters took part in retaking the island and were assigned as 'babysit unit' and fleet watch of the islands.

"Wish my sister could see it" Kurena's cheerful smile faded away.

"What happened to her?" The red-haired battleship inquired.

"Killed by the Alba camp guards" Kurena shed a tear.

Lena had told Maryland about what her Alba people had done to the Eighty-Six. Children watched their families being killed and tortured before their very own eyes. Sadness in the chestnut haired's girl eye merely confirmed it.

Having sisters herself, Maryland knew how it feels to watch your own family suffered and died. Many times Colorado and West Virginia had to cover for her when she charged ahead and nearly got herself killed.

"Sorry about your loss" Maryland touched the girl's shoulder.

"Come, Let me show you around. You will love this place" She took the girl into her arms and brought her to see the beautiful beaches.

As the fleet and soldiers disembarked and settled around the islands. Lena had a meeting with Colorado, Independence, Casablanca, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee on Sand Island.

"Not much hard ground, open field, and two islands to fortify" Lena looked at the map.

The ship girls just wondered why Lena was so worked up.

"Chill," Colorado said.

"Yeah," Pennsylvania agreed.

"We were here" Tennessee spoke.

"You got us right here" Casablanca speared her arms.

"The Siren is not like Legion do not worry we can make good punches" Followed by Independence.

"That's the problem, unlike the Legion, the Siren is unpredictable" Lena replied.

"True" Colorado agreed followed by the rest.

The Siren is very unpredictable. They often come out of nowhere and launch devastating attacks. Lena sees how unpredictable the Siren could be.

The problem is due to the high demand for Interception cannons,six-barrel anti-air/ground electromagnetic Vulcan revolving autocannons, and highly effective 155 mm artillery pieces. They have very few of those very powerful land-based weapons at the moment.

For Lena, It is like ringing a dinner bell for the Siren.

"Hey if you are worried about us getting hurt worry not, we can take some damage" Tennessee eager to show how tough she is.

"Just not too much" Colorado whispered.

"We have no Interception cannons at the moment. All we have is 40 mm AA canons and a few 155 mm artillery pieces" Lena looked at a piece of paper.

"Just a reminder we battleships are the artillery" Maryland entered the meeting.

"What she meant is that those 155 mm artillery pieces can shoot at 40 km while ours bigger ones are just 20 km at best, and the AA cannons we have are not enough to cover the whole place at the moment"

A collective oh followed. Lena nodded to Casablanca for her fast explanation.

The Azur Lane fleet stretched thin due to the vast areas they have recovered. At this point, the counter-offensive got called off at last. Now the Azur Lane was busy consolidating their positions and resting after a long campaign.

Despite Lena's worry nothing happened that month which caused her and her friends to somewhat relax at Midway's beaches.

_

"You think someone went to your world to acquire highly destructive weapons?" Hood said in disbelief.

"Yes, Giad intelligence units say that they spotted one person in a black coat and uniform, they even sent a picture" Lena took out a picture from her bag.

After their job of fortifying Midway was over, Lena and her friends returned to the Azur Lane base only for Lena to find that someone from this world acquired very dangerous weapons from the Giad Imperial faction before the end of the civil war. Grim delivered her letters about them and she thanked him by giving him a big fish.

Hood also told her about Alterhood 's survival. Lena knew that she now had a target on her back. Lena showed Hood a picture and Hood buried her head in her hands. In the picture is her face with an Iron Blood uniform, her counterpart seemed to know that she might lose and had a backup plan. Whatever plan she had, it would not be pleasant. Her evil grin and red-soaked gloves showed that people who did business with her met a very bad end.

"What did she get?" Wales asked.

"A shipment of dangerous bio-chemical weapons," Lena said with worry in her voice.

Hood, Wales, and Lena are having tea in a garden in the Royal Navy area. Thanks to Hood and Wales's efforts in defense of Singapore they get days off.

As Hood expected her counterpart planned something big in retaliation.

At the canteen meanwhile...

"Z23, you okay?" Theo asks the Iron Blood destroyer. Her face is red and she is coughing a lot. Much to the worry of Ayanami, Javelin, and Laffey.

"It is just a cold, no worry, my Iron Blood comrades also have the same" She looked over to her Iron Blood comrades who had the same symptoms. Annette walked into the canteen and stopped in her tracks when she saw Z23 in such conditions.

"Miss Annette, it is just a cold" Z23 assured her as Annette checked her head and her hand. Annette's face went pale and her head sweated.

"No, it is not!!!!. This is some sort of chemical weapons reaction!!!" As soon as she said that the Iron Blood ship girls passed out. Much to the shock of other ship girls. They just froze when all the Iron Blood comrades fell to the floor.

"Dustin, Anju, Raiden!!!!" Theo asked his friends for help. They rushed out of the kitchen.

"Someone called Vestal or medics!!!!!" Annette shouted while holding Z23 in her arms. The stunned ship girls sprung into action. A while later Vestal appeared.

"What happened?"

"They took in some sort of chemical gas or weapon" Annette gently put Z23 down on the floor.

"Miss Vestal can you look after them?, we will go check at the Iron Blood dorm for what caused this" Anju asked the medic.

Vestal nodded and the human teenagers left the canteen.

"This is not a drill, there is some sort of chemical weapons at the Iron Blood dorm please stay out of the area"

The whole base went into lockdown and the alarm rang out after the PA.

At the Iron Blood dorm.

Jack ordered a quarantine zone to be set up. Yellow tape and orange funnels surrounded the dorm. Fortunately, most Iron Blood ship girls got recalled back to Iron Blood. Only around 15 stayed at the base. Those who showed signs of sickness got taken to the hospital for treatment, except one.

"This is her room?" Lena with a black gas mask asked Köln.

"Yes, she stayed in her room since morning and never answered" The Iron Blood light cruiser inserted a key into the room's door.

A name stuck on the room's door.

Graf Zeppelin.

Alongside them are the rest of Shin, Dustin, Annette, and the rest of the Spearhead.

All in black gas masks and with a hammer and an axe. At first, Köln thought that this is unnecessary. Her worry only increases as the door stuck and does not open.

"It is stuck!!!" She tried to move the door knob.

"Alright step aside" Raiden grabbed her out of the way and he slammed his giant hammer onto the door. Theo joined with his axe. Together they broke down the door.

Inside a silver-haired carrier of the Iron Blood lay emotionless and her eyes look as if she sees a ghost. Dustin, Anju, Annette, and Köln help carry the seemingly dead ship girl out of the room. Her face turns red and her body also turns to the same color.

Lena, Shin, and the rest of the Spearhead are ransacking the room. Annette, Anju, Dustin, and Köln taking Graf Zeppelin outside for treatment.

A while later Lena, Shin, and the rest of the Spearhead came out of the dorm with a big green box with the symbols of a two-headed eagle. They put it in some sort of glass container before letting Fido take it out of everyone's reach to their workshops. Lena walked to Jack alongside him are Wales and Hood who wore the same black gas masks. Her friends rushed to wash and help the affected ship girls.

"It is an old Giad Empire's chemical weapon," Lena said through the mask her hair is in a bun.

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"Not sure yet, Annette will analyze it and tell us later" She replied.

_

If there is something Giadian Empire is very good at is keeping things secret. They are able to keep the Legion war machines a secret until the war.

"The old Giadian Empire was a very militaristic regime," Lena informed Queen Elizabeth.

"The fact that they managed to keep the Legion secret is a good feat although a very bad one" She replied.

"No surprise if they keep such bio-chemical weapons a secret as well," Warspite said to her Majesty.

"What is it? If I may ask?" Wales asked.

"Colorless Cyanide," Lena said.

As she said that the Royal Navy ship girls froze memories of the Great War come back to their minds. Men have their breath taken by the colorful and deadly chemical clouds of gas. People dropped like flies. Lena had informed Jack and Vestal about it and they took action immediately. Guard ships got assigned around the portal around the clock. Vestal treated the sick with Cynaide antidote and proper medication.

In the Royal Navy garden. Queen Elizabeth asked Lena for a meeting about the matter. In the meeting were Warspite, Hood, Wales, Illustrious, Lena, and the Queen herself. It is clear that Alterhood must be sunk or killed no matter what. The problem is how to lure her out and how to find her. Lena raised her hands and offered a suggestion.

A few days later, Hood sailed out of the base for her patrol as usual. There were Hood and Lena on Hood's ship along with a number of destroyers. From a distance a pair of blue eyes watched her.

"So you finally came out of your nest at last huh?" Alterhood watched as her nemesis sailed out of the base with her escorts. She just grinned. The Royal Navy never learned about how Hood should be better escorted with battleships and carriers. They still took her very lightly, she took this as an insult. However, her desire for revenge was about to be fulfilled. She would make the Royal Navy pay dearly for it. Alterhood held out her hands and a purple cube appeared.

"Time to bring you to my playing field"

A storm fell upon the fleet. Winds and waves slammed into the ship's hull and caused them to separate from each other. When the storm was gone, Hood's ship was nowhere to be found.

"Lena you okay dear?" Hood knelt beside Lena who seemed to have a headache. Her hands reached across the girl with worry on the battlecruiser's face.

"Yes, just what kind of storm is that? And to the point where are we?" Lena looked at the battlecruiser and then at her surroundings. A purple bracelet on Lena's wrist came alive.

"We are in the mirror sea, dear " Hood followed her gaze.

There is no sky just black and red pillars all around them. It is like an artificial sea, not a real sea. The motionless black sea and windless environment only give a chill to those who find themselves in it. Then from a fog came a ship both know too well.

"Welcome to my killing ground, I hope you are ready"Alterhood looked at both with a murderous grin. Both looked back with the look of fearless maidens for they did not even flinch. Hood in her usual dark blue dress and Lena in her dark blue Royal Navy uniform simply looked at her with eyes of determination and fearlessness. Hood simply looked at Lena and Lena topped her navy hat.

Get Ready for battle.

Hood's eyes locked with that of her counterpart. They waited to see who will blink first. Both blinked at the same time and knew this is going to be a hard fight.

With no humans or saboteurs on her ship, Alterhood is eager to blow her nemesis to pieces. Hood has nothing to hold her back this time. She is also eager to get some payback for a one-sided bombardment from last time. Both ships are sailing toward each other. Eager to get into firing positions and eager for blood.

Hood flexed her muscles while Lena put on a big headphone and a thick glass.15-inch turrets moved as they began to close distance. Finally, both ships broke hard right as they were ready to unleash full broadside of hot lead at each other. All gun turrets from both ships turned toward each other. Hood in her usual calm demeanor raised her hands as Lena put her hands on the headphones and knelt down. Alterhood raised her own hands as well.

"FIRE!!!!" Both Hood and Alterhood shouted at the same time. The black sky became alight with flashes of artillery from the two ships, waves formed from the shock waves of the guns. Massive shells whizzed through the air and passed each other to their targets.

Shells slammed into the waters around both ships. However, only a few shells landed near Hood's ship due to a hail of blue bullets lit up the sky around Hood's ship. Many 15-inch shells explode before even landing on the sea around her.

Hood's shells miss her target. Her eyesight is not very good due to her failing eyesight and history. This causes her counterpart to say something to her.

"Still have bad eyes, I see"

Both send another volley at each other. This time Hood's shells hit her counterpart's ship. This caused damage to Alterhood 's ship, and she is impressed. She looks at Hood's side and sees a certain silver-haired girl.

Lena being an expert at ground force often had to learn about range measurement. When the first valley landed, Lena took notes and measured better range then passed it onto the battlecruiser. Better fire control and radar also helped a lot.

This means that Hood and Alterhood fight as equals. Eye to eye, teeth to teeth.As this duel is going on. A swarm of planes heads right for them. Hood and Lena look at them. Thanks to the Radar Hood knows about them early. Lena still has her binoculars in her hands and she looks at them through her binoculars.

Those plans are the same black jets that the Siren often used but these planes carry no bombs or missiles. Its wing is empty and only the planes are flying at them very fast too. Then it hits her.

During her time at the Sakura Empire, she learned of a tactic called "kamikaze" a type of plane that use the plane itself as an explosive. In a sense a suicide unit. But for the ship girls who summoned planes with no pilots, it was no issue.

These planes fly low like a bunch of birds looking for their prey. Suicide units are nothing new to Lena, however. The Legion War gives great examples such as soldiers with explosives send to die at the front, self-propelled mines, and unmanned drones like humanoid Sirins with self-destruct capabilities. These planes are doing the same in masses too.

Horror took hold of Lena as she looked at Hood. She too seemed to know what is coming.

"How about we deal with those planes and have a good old sword fight?"

Hood looked at her counterpart who seemed to notice the Siren swarm as well. Despite being created by the Siren, Alterhood hated Siren to the guts. Only she is allowed to defeat Hood by her hands alone.

Honor is a part of the Royal Navy and Hood herself takes it very seriously. Hood also knows that originally Alterhood wants to capture her rather than kill her. She just uses Lena and Annette as bait and forces her to not use her guns.

"So you still want to beat me up with your own hands?"

"Of course, It is more honorable that way"

The battlecruiser lets out a smile. Her counterpart wants a fair fight after all. Her rocket artillery and her AA would also make the fight less one-sided but drawn out and take a very long time. They both agree to settle it the fastest way. Their ship AA guns turn up ward turn the sky into a fireworks festival.

_

"You have questions, and I will answer them," Aterhood said to Hood and Lena who stood a few meters across from her. After beating back the Siren jet swarm, both Hood and Alterhood docked their ships near the place where Alterhood said it was secured. Hood eyes never left her Doppelgänger. Likewise, her Doppelgänger's eyes never left her. Lena took a step forward and raised her hands.

"You said you know who summoned me here"

"Of course, It is me who summoned you here"

Hood's eyes widen and looked at Lena with worry. She turned her head back and forth between her counterpart and Lena many times.

"Why?" Hood asked.

"Why?. To break you, of course," Alterhood looked at Hood.

"Break me?" The battlecruiser pondered.

"You see, you always thought humans are what you were born to protect," The battleship remarked about the ship girls.

"Of course we are" Hood countered.

"Look at her, she swore to defend her home and what her home did to her?" Alterhood gestured her hand to the girl. Hood wanted to shout back but the deepest part of her mind knew she had a point. Lena also understood her point. Her people refused to change and hated her for trying to defend her own home. The Eighty-Six got used as disposable shock troops by the Republic, while she saw them as fellow humans and tried to keep them alive as best as she could.

The Republic only saw her as a traitor to the pure Alba race ideology. Hell, they even called her whore of the Eigthy-Six. The Alba people rejected the reality and accepted the lies instead. They shove all the fighting to the non-Alba. They refused to even lift their own fingers when the Legion attacked.

Hood always thought about how her human superiors other than the Commander thought of them. Will they have peace after the war or be disposed of?

"Even other nations other than the Republic used children as child soldiers and treated other people like objects based on race and class. Humans are capable of treating other humans like crap, how can you expect them to treat us like humans as well?" Atlerhood said the last part in a very deep voice directed at Hood.

Hood eyes's widened and her mouth froze. Her counterpart's words stuck deep in her heart. Lena told her all about the Vargus a fierce race of people who like fighting and are despised by the Fedracy population. She told her about the Theocracy that classified a specific group of people to use in wars and defense of their nation. How nobles of the Giadnian nobles treated the lower classes very badly. How the lower and middle class repaid in kind with the same treatment. How it all led to civil war and how all this led to bloodshed.How willing humans are to kill and hurt one another.

"But it's the Siren who forced humanity to make us" Hood tried to counter her double argument.

"Oh, they are, but I think with Lena you would have guessed by now why the Siren allowed ship girls to be made" She gazed at Lena. Hood looked at Lena who looked back at her.

"The black monsters?" Lena asked. Alterhood clapped her hands "Congrats,".

Hood remembered her Majesty's great question. Why the Siren allowed the ship girls to be made in the first place?

"They wanted humanity and us to evolve, to fight the monsters." Atlerhood clenched her fists. The black monsters that appeared in Lena's world are what the Sirens tried to prepare them for. From the analysis, Lena showed Hood that they are very destructive even more so than the Siren. Humanity's total extinction level.

"But that still does not explain why they nearly pushed humanity to the brink of extinction" Hood pointed out all the sufferings and destructions the Siren caused.

"Lena could answer that better than me" Atlerhood narrowed her gaze at the Alba girl. Lena absorbed her words and looked down.

"Because humans would only change and evolve when their survival is threatened"

Before the Morpho appeared no one trusted each other. Nations were divided and hardly cooperated. The moment the Morpho showed up that all changed. Everyone cooperated for survival and fought back hard. The Strike Package was created after the Morpho elimination operation. Her nation only adopted four-legged war machines after the war began as well. Despite proof of their effectiveness, the Republic refused to adopt them until they had no other choice.

Hood lowered her head as well. Royal Navy and Iron Blood were at each other throats before the Siren War. Rivalry and politics divided humanity. By forcing them into a corner they put aside their differences and united against the threat that brought such destruction to humanity.

The Azur Lane was created to fight the Siren. The moment the Siren appeared weakened, they split and caused a war among themselves. Then the Legion ship and its war machines came along as well as the Siren's new massive attacks. The Azur Lane became whole again.

"Without the Sirens and the Legion War machines, humanity would fight itself rather than evolve" Alterhood looked up at the black sky.

"Anything else?" Atlerhood eyes lowered down at them.

"Why me?" Hood asked. She wanted to know why the Siren tried to corrupt her.

"They did it for fun.I was just an experiment of theirs, they wanted to make ship girls stronger but they made me and thought of me as a failed product" Alterhood suddenly fell to her knees and let out a blood-chilling scream that horrified both Hood and Lena.

Alterhood moved her hands right at her heart as if she wanted to rip it out. She kept her hands at that area until her screaming stopped. She stood back up and her eyes turned red."The Siren used a defective cube on me and it had a very bad side effect you see"

"How are you still alive?" Lena asked. As soon as she said that Hood took Lena to stand behind her. Her hands raised to grab her sword. Alterhood grinned and unbuttoned her jacket and shirt. She showed them the scar Hood gave her.

"You should have aimed for the heart, better not miss this time" She buttoned her shirt and jacket.

"Anything else?" Alterhood asked. Both shook their heads. A loud bang is heard at Lena's arm, a dart stuck out. Hood quickly grabbed the girl as she stumbled. Lena's eyes slowly closed and her body stopped moving.

"Don't worry, she 's not dead just asleep" Her counterpart's voice knocked Hood out of her mind. Hood looked at her counterpart. In her hand a pistol still smoking and her eyes showed no emotions at all. She narrowed her eyes at her.

"Also your other problem is you hesitate,"

"Why?!!!" Hood's eyes filled with fury.

"There something better stay between us, she does not need to know"

Hood gritted her teeth and looked at the Alba girl. The deepest part of her heart hoped that the girl forgives her for this. She gently put her own and turned back to her counterpart.

"Tell me, is the reason you did all this because of me?" Hood asked.

"Not entirely" Her counterpart just walked away gesturing for Hood to follow. Hood followed her and took one last glance at Lena before finally resolving her issues with her counterpart once and for all. Her double stopped in her tracks and looked back at her.

"I hate everything, the Siren's stupid logic, and human stupidity"

"Still why you killed all those Giad nobles who sold weapons to you?" Hood questioned.

"Oh, you have no idea how disgusted they were, they called people who were not nobles serfs and thought of us as mere robots" Alterhood replied with disgust in her voice.

"So what?!!! You killed them all with your own hands and you nearly killed many of the Iron Blood ship girls too!!!!" Hood retorted.

"Have you ever wondered why Graf Zeppelin has those gas weapons in the first place?" Her Doppelgänger asked.

"You sneak in and plant it?" Hood guessed.

"No, she just came to me and asked for them" She replied without a care in her voice.

As her words ended Hood's eyes freeze. The ship girls are the recreation of the original ships they have memories and pain of their original events. Many ships suffered a very bad fate and still harbor those feelings. Some keep it inside themselves while others take it out on others. Graf Zeppelin wages war against the world itself. Her hatred runs very deep. A reflection of what the world did to her.

"You see, Hood. She and I make a deal. In return for helping me hide and plan my revenge. I would find her weapons to kill people in mass. Like me, she wants to see the world burn" Alterhood eyes glinted with fire. All those years she spent in shadows and retired herself. She would need help and Graf Zeppelin was more than willing to help her.

"I delivered those weapons and ended our collaboration. But she seemed to not know how to operate those gas canisters, you and the Azur Lane got lucky" Alterhood said with disappointment. It seemed she hoped for something big but got only a fraction of it.

"Sorry if that failed, but that's just too much you know" Hood countered with her hands formed into fists. Had Annette not noticed the symptoms of the Iron Blood ship girls, Her Majesty might be in danger as well.Not to mention the whole base.

"Like how much you wanted to put down that crown of thorns of yours?" Her counterpart simply retorted back. Both of them retorted back and forth for a while. Finally, the heart-to-heart conversation was running out of steam.

"Hood I ask you one last time, will you join me?" Alterhood walked closer to Hood and offered her a hand. Hood closed her eyes and contemplated. She felt one thing she never had for her double and enemy for quite a while.

Sympathy.

She suffered at the hands of the Siren. The Siren no doubt put her through a lot of pain and suffering just for fun. However, she could not forgive all her counterpart had done. Lives lost and many more she intended to take. Many more she had hurt and those she almost hurt. More importantly, her Majesty gave her orders to finish her counterpart off. Hood slowly raised one of her hands and opened her eyes.

"Sorry, what you have done is too much, it is time we settle this once and for all, no more hesitation" Hood shook her double's hands and sadly replied.

"I see," Alterhood satisfied with the answer smiled, and walked backward a few meters. With a nod, both unsheathed their swords at the same time. Before their swords clashed and the duel began Hood had one last request.

"If I die can you spare the girl? she has been through enough"

Her counterpart did not speak a word but nodded. She nodded back and both charged forward at each other. From now on their swords and fists would do the talking.

_

Lena wakes up and looks at the black sky of the Mirror Sea. It is like a ghost town devoid of any life and reminds her of the war-torn battlefields of the Legion War. She stands up and looks around to see not a soul in sight. She walks forward trying to find Miss Hood or someone. Along the way, she picks up a pistol and walks forward a little more. She loses track of time and comes across something. She picks up her pace and kneels near two figures before her. Two ladies one in an Iron Blood black uniform and another in an elegant dark blue dress lie motionless on the ground. All around them fills with red liquids.

Atlerhood 's eyes are wide open with red liquids all over her mouth and a sword in hand. But at the upper body, a sword stuck out. Bruises and cuts decorate her face. Her eyes gaze at her opponent who seems to outwit her.

Hood's eyes are closed and her mouth too has red liquids all over it as well. She too has bruises and cuts on her face. At her lower body, there is a big wound and that area of her clothing is red. Both lay only a few centimeters apart with white gloves turned red and their clothes all torn and riddled with blood. Lena rushes to the side of the Royal Navy battlecruiser and takes out a small aid kit she had inside her uniform pocket. The white bandage turns red as soon as she put it on the wound. The battlecruiser's closed eyes twitch as soon as the bandage makes contact with the wound. No doubt that the cleaning alcohol causes her pain. Lena looks at Alterhood and pulls out Hood's sword from her dead body. She is ready with the pistol in case she wakes up. But there is no reaction whatsoever. Lena puts the sword back in the sword holder then grabs Hood by her shoulders and starts dragging her back to her ship.

Lena summoned all the strength she had left for this and started dragging her feet to the place Hood docked her ship.

The distance is very far and with each passing minute her strength wanes and her body starts to give way. Her body is about to give up but her heart refuses.

Finally, she reaches the beach where her Hood's ship is docked. She sees a number of ships. Her hope is bright up as she tries to shout for help only for her hands and mouth to freeze. Her legs are shaking as she falls to the ground.

However, she had done it. Before her eyes closed, she saw the figures of Repulse and Renown running toward her. She finally closed her eyes as her body finally gave up after a long track.

_

When the ship girls first lay eyes on Lena, they think that she should be behind the lines for her own safety. The moment the Eighty-Six and her friends come in, their minds soon change.

What they brought is a tale of a girl who stood alone in the face of the overwhelming odds. She refused to flee even when others did so. A tale of a naïve and idealistic girl who transformed into a cunning and confident commander who gave the Legion nightmares. The moment they heard that she came back alive after going into the Mirror Sea, they all have their minds blown. A rescue fleet is sent to find Hood and Lena in the Mirro Sea. Only for them to find Lena dragging the wounded Hood to them on a beach.

"Now I see why they respect her so much," Hornet said while looking at a group of teenagers around Lena. They are in a hospital room where she is recovering from her fatigue. It seems that they are a part of the fleet as well but on different ships before Hood's ship gets swallowed. The Mirror Sea usually transports a whole fleet. The fact that it only transports one is new. Jack on the other hand feels what a caliber this girl really has. The new bracelet which shields humans from the Mirror Sea effects works out well. Back at the Royal Navy dorm, there are both relief and astonishment.

Back at Annette's workshop, a certain green-eared cat girl is working closely with Annette.

"My, you are such a great inventor, Akashi"

"You are a good scientist yourself, Nya"

Akashi an Akashi-class repair ship of the Sakura Empire is working closely with Annette on a top-secret project that could even the war with the Siren.

_

Both Siren and Legion are autonomous units. The Legion focuses on land and the Siren on the sea. While the Legion is made by man and able to find the weakness. The Siren is a completely different story. For the most part, they focus on sea and wreck cities along the shoreline occasionally. Until lately, the Siren start using infiltrators. The first of these appeared in Singapore and caused quite good damage.

"Laser weapons, I thought only the Siren had that," Hood asked in bewilderment.

"No, the Legion had them as well though it is very rare" Lena showed her the picture of the Legion laser unit. The Legion war machines had a hive mind of their own and had a development department for their own weaponry like humans.

It has been a month after the incident and Hood now has maids as her guards. The battlecruiser is recovering nicely from her wounds. In a month she should be able to get out of the hospital. Lena visits her every day and sometimes keeps her company while Wales is busy with her job.

"Lena I think the Siren did not create my counterpart, she has been inside me this whole time" Hood looked at the mirror nearby and saw her own reflection.

"Sir?" Lena followed her gaze.

"The Siren merely freed her from my mind, she was my inner demon all along" Hood saw her reflection turn to the face of her counterpart with a very murderous grin. Lena looked at the battlecruiser and thought about it. Hood suppressed her desire to put down her burden and kept on doing her job. In a sense, Alterhood was what Hood could have been if she gave in to her desire. All those years of being locked up in Hood's mind created a very large amount of anger. She remembered that Alterhood wanted Hood to suffer like her by capturing her. Why spare her and Annette if she wanted to kill them, she used her and Annette as hostages to force Hood to come to Alterhood.

"You suppressed them well, just as the Eighty-Six did with their desire to strike back at the Alba" Lena spoke.

"How so?" Hood asked.

"All of the Eighty-Six knew they would all die anyway, they decided to go down fighting rather than take revenge on the Republic" Lena said.

Hood froze and in her mind, her talking with Shin and the Spearhead came to her mind. They told her that they knew that their Spearhead Squadron was in fact an execution squad just like many others. A way of getting rid of the Eighty-Six who were lucky to survive long enough. The Republic created a system to eradicate the Eighty-Six rather than fighting the Legion. The Eighty-Six stripped of everything even their humanity by the Republic had only one thing left; Pride.

"I wished I had done more" Lena looked at her hands.

"Why?" Hood inquired.

"If I had maybe I could have saved more, from millions of the Eighty-Six before the war only 10,000 were left when Giad came to the rescue" Lena remembered the reports the Federacy gave her.

Hood's mouth froze but she quickly closed it. Shin and Spearhead also confirmed this, for more than 9 years the Republic put the Eighty-Six through unspeakable hell and forced them to fight the Legion. All the adults were dead and only children were left. The Republic didn't stop there, they kept on sending children to die on the battlefield as well as using them in inhumane experiments. Millions of lives were lost both at the hands of the merciless Legion and the stupid Republic. Shin and Spearhead got conscripted when they were just 11.

Hood thought back to her sinking when Bismarck sank her. What the Republic did to the Eighty-Six made the lives lost in her and Bismarck's sinking look pale in comparison. The numbers lost in both sinkings were only around thousands but the Eighty-Six lives lost numbered in the millions. Hundred times more than her and Bismarck's sinking combined. Hood and Lena had a connection more than they thought.

"I remembered seeing their headless corpses in my dreams" Lena facepalmed herself. Hood remembered what Shin told her as well about the Legion cutting off the heads of the soldiers to make more Legion units turning them into wandering ghosts waiting to be free; To prevent such fate one must have the will to kill themselves by blowing their own brains out. So far only Hood asked about it from Shin and Spearhead as the ship girls knew what kind of hell they had to go through. Hood took Lena's hand and looked at her

"Let me tell you a story"

"About what Miss Hood?"

"About that day at the Denmark Strait"

"Sir, no need to relieve it"

"No worry, I want to let it out as well"

Lena read about it and it was nothing short of mistakes and sheer dumb luck. It seemed Hood remembered it well. After all the ship girls all remembered their past life, one of suffering and deaths of their crews.

"That day Wales and I sailed to intercept Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. We fired at them and they fired back, I could not blame them they did so in self-defense. Prinz Eugen hit me first setting fire on my ship then one of Bismarck's shells hit my magazine and my ship exploded. In an instant, 1,415 men were lost only 3 survived" Hood recounted that fateful day. As soon as Hood finished her words Lena froze. In a matter of minutes, 1,415 lives were lost in a blink of an eye. Despite the horrors of the Legion war where lives were easily lost, she felt what the battlecruiser felt. The Mighty Hood whom her sailors trusted their lives to her but she could not keep them alive. From an original crew of 1,418; only 3 made it out alive. Though it was not her fault, she was just a weapon back then.

Magazine explosions are often very lethal, all the ammunition and explosive charges all in one place explode all at once. Fire, smoke, and all kinds of destruction from it guarantee death sentences.

Hood's sinking affected the Royal Navy a lot. Being the pride of the nation, morale dropped to an unforeseen level. Yet there was something that...Lena felt she must say.

"Miss Hood you and your sailors go down fighting, there is nothing to be ashamed of," Lena told her.

"Why?" Hood asked.

"When the Legion finally broke the Gran Mur, my people fled few if any at all put up any resistance. I wished my people would as at least go down fighting like you and your sailors" Lena spoke with a bit of shame.

"You were one of those few, I saw what you saw Lena. That white cube had your memories." Hood looked at Lena right in the eyes. Lena froze because Hood saw the horrors she wanted to keep to herself.

"For two whole months, you stood alone against the endless hordes of Legion when everyone else ran away. You were the symbol of the brave resistance when the Legion attacked. The Republic tried to use you as their tool, but you fiercely resisted" Hood spoke with such a very sad tone.

For 20 years, The Mighty Hood was the symbol of Royal Navy power, the biggest and fastest ship in service. Alone and had to maintain the title for a long time. Few could have such a connection to her. 

One of those few now sat right in front of her, Lena had it worse than her. Moreover, she was a mere human, not a ship girl who had to bear it. Lena's eyes filled with tears and looked at the battlecruiser. Hood took Lena into a hug. For the first time, Hood found a human who bore a heavy burden similar to hers.

At the Iron Blood dorm meanwhile...

"Graf Zepplin"

In front of the silver-haired aircraft carrier is Bismarck herself along with angry-looking Iron Blood ship girls. The air is so tense that the only thing that anyone could hear is the sound of Bismarck breathing.

"Now you are going to tell me how and what you help with that Hood double. If not, you will face my wrath "

The aura from the Iron Blood battleship made just about every ship girl's present blood run cold. She was furious. One of her own did business with the enemy right under her nose and nearly killed a dozen of ship girls. Bismarck sailed all the way from Iron Blood when she heard the news. She owed Lena and her friends again for preventing anyone from dying.

Back at Annette's workshop...

Annette along with Akashi is studying the wisdom cubes. It also seems that the green cat is very good at economy as well. Already she asks Annette to join her in building many new inventions to make money and business ventures. Being in the military, she knows how much military hardware costs. The military industry is a lucrative one and a massive one as well. In fact, Giad nobles make money and gain power from managing the military industry and economy of the nation even as the nation transformed from Empire into a Federacy.

_

"So a delegation from the Federacy will come for an official visit?"

"Yes, they want to set up an official channel of contact for commercial and diplomatic-related activities"

A few days ago Lena received a message that the Federacy want to set up an official channel of diplomatic relations. The exchange of military technology and the purchase of so much merchandise and military hardware no doubt gave the Giad government encouragement to establish an official contact. She told Jack about this and he got confused about it. A nation from another world to make contact with them no doubt he had to make proper preparations.

"When will they arrive?" Jack asked.

"In about 1 month" Lena replied.

Although he is eager to welcome them, this world is in the middle of a war. Specifically, they want to visit this base which worries him. Lena shares his worry not because of the welcoming preparations but because of the people who she will be welcoming. Most Giad nobles still had positions in the government one of which worries her the most.

"Archduchess Brantolote" Lena spoke the name with quite a bit of nervousness in her voice.

In her mind, she hopes nothing goes wrong. Archduchess Brantolote is the leader of the Imperial faction that just lost the civil war. It seems that she still has a lot of political power even after the defeat. Either desperate to regain political power or the desire to make allies for a new one remains a mystery.

"Can I leave you to inform the Royal Navy?"

"Yes, sir"

The Royal Navy with aristocrats and nobles should be able to prepare a welcoming party accordingly. Jack asks her to inform the Royal Navy while he informs his superiors and higher-ups. Lena leaves the office.