Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prince of Wales sighed as she leaned back in her chair and stretched. Another day of paperwork was finally over. A glance at the clock on the wall showed she was done earlier than usual, but still too late to join her Queen for afternoon tea.

Perhaps in a few days once the new Commander arrives and gets settled in. She mused to herself.

A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts, as her acting secretary Cleveland entered.

"Heya Wales, here's the last of my share of the paperwork." 

"Thanks Cleveland, leave it on the desk and I'll file it away tomorrow." 

Sitting down in a nearby chair, the blonde cruiser proceeded with her own stretch and glanced at the clock.

"We're starting to get the hang of this and now HQ decides to finally send a new Commander." Said Cleveland.

"It is a tad annoying, but on the other hand we'll be able to focus on our own work without managing the entire base as well." Replied Wales

"That'll be nice, although…" Trailed off the cruiser as she struggled with saying more.

"I know, we're thinking the same thing. 'Will this Commander last more than a few months like our last few?'"

Nodding in agreement, the cruiser slumped in her chair with a sigh. No one wants to speak ill of their superiors, but it's hard not to when they keep dying on you. The front lines are a far cry from a safe place, even for shipgirls. In the battles against the Sakura Empire during the Crimson Axis Revolt a few years back, there was no human commander. But now with the two sides reunited and focus returning to the Sirens in the Atlantic, Naval HQ has been insistent on having one. 

Which wouldn’t be a problem in general, the first Commander of the Bermuda Base was in command for a good several years. From before the Revolt up until she was fatally wounded in action and died after a raid on a Siren Stronghold. The first couple of replacements were killed in Siren attacks within a few months of taking over. After that, HQ decided to let the base run itself and Wales found herself voluntold to be acting commander. 

Thanks for that, Your Majesty. Wales mused to herself. Looking up at her blonde friend she gave a slight smile. “Well I guess we’ll see tomorrow who we get, hopefully it's someone experienced and not as green as the second guy.”

“Ha, maybe they’ll send the Siren Slayer finally.” 

“That would be nice, but I don’t know if he's done the last of the latest trial runs on his ship's new engines yet."

"Highly amusing that the Maple Monarchy is doing that instead of the Iron Blood." Cleveland shook her head, "It's their own ships and design plans they're using."

With a chuckle, Wales shook her head. "You'll have to ask those involved why. Anyways, Eugen and I are going to meet Nimi in the cafeteria. Do you and Helena have any plans?"

"Helena is on radar duty for another hour and a bit, nothing planned otherwise." Cleveland replied as the two stood up and made their way through the offices. 

"Then I hope you two have a wonderful evening and I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too Wales, say hi to Eugen for me!"

With a wave the two friends went their separate ways. To the academy cafeteria for the battleship and over to the operations room for the cruiser. 

~~~

The Ops room was down the hall from the Commander's office, a short stroll for Cleveland as she quietly opened the door and stepped inside. A few metres inside the door was a large chair attached to the floor that turned towards her entry, Helena flashing a quick smile to her girlfriend. To the left was a silver haired cruiser, Maya, keeping an eye on radar reports. On the right sat U-96, the white haired submarine on sonar duty.

Glancing over at their visitor U-96 and Maya quickly gave an update of all quiet. Nodding her head in thanks, Helena leaned back in the chair as Cleveland had wrapped her arms around her and the seat.

“Mmm~ You and Wales finished early today.”  

“Well we’re bound to get good at paperwork eventually.” Laughed Cleveland as she pulled up a spare chair. “Another dull day in our area again?”

Helena held a hand to her SG, enlarged from her retrofit two years ago. “Yes, I'm not picking up anything either, thankfully nothing unexpected has happened. Any news on who the new commander is going to be?”

“Still nothing, it looks like HQ wants it to be a surprise. They’re to be here tomorrow and no one has a clue who it’s going to be.” Cleveland sighed. “At least once the commander is settled in, we’ll have more free time together.”

“So long as our sisters don’t kidnap us for their own fun and games,” Said Helena. “Maybe they’ll team up like they did back at Christmas.”

“I still don’t know how they managed to wrangle all our sisters into gathering at the base, half of them are deployed back home in the Union.” Cleveland answered, “But it was nice catching up with them, even if they teased us about getting hitched already.”

“Haha, that was fun, although getting married is still a ways off. Maybe after we can wrangle our own room together.”

“Well the Eagle dorms expansion is scheduled to finish by the end of the month, we should be able to get ahold of one of the new larger rooms. Well, as long as the new commander approves it.”

“First request we give them then.” Helena said, as she leaned over and kissed Cleveland.

~~~

Next door to the Command Centre was the base’s Academy, the cafeteria inside was where Prince of Wales found Prinz Eugen and Nimi waiting for her. Giving the two a wave, Wales strolled over and sat across from Nimi as Eugen pushed a tray of food over for her. 

“Hello Nimi, thanks dear.” Greeted Wales, “How are you two today?”

“Pretty good liebe, Bismarck’s still itching for news on the new Kommandant.” Replied the heavy cruiser, “Still no news I’m assuming?”

“Yes, HQ apparently wants this to be a surprise. I really hope it will be worth all the secrecy.” Responded Wales, “What did you want to talk to us about Nimi?”

The destroyer adjusted her teaching glasses and looked between her two friends. "Well next week is our guest lecturer week. My students have been requesting you two to give a lecture."

"Oh? Do they want to hear how Bismarck and I embarrassed a couple of Royal ships in the Denmark Strait?" Purred Eugen, flashing a teasing grin at Wales.

"Actually no, they want to hear your thoughts on the battles in the Pacific during the Revolt. You both were top commanders on either side, it would be an interesting lecture."

“I don’t think dear Eugen counts as a commander in that fight, most of her time was spent teasing her Sakuran allies more than fighting Azur Lane.” Wales laughed behind her hand. “Up until Orochi showed up, did you do much actual fighting?”

“It's not my fault, Akagi was in charge and didn’t allow me to do much,” Eugen shrugged. “Besides, we had only a token force to support them with. And only one of us was promoted to base kommandant.”

“Frau Eugen, I believe she is the only one of us to be a base kommandant in both oceans.” A rare joke from Teacher Nimi, as Wales’ shoulders slumped.

“Don’t remind me, so much extra paperwork being commander.”

Eugen chuckled and gave her lover a shoulder rub, “Anyways we should figure out what we’re going to teach the younglings before Nimi decides to replace us.”

“Alright dear, now how about we…”

~~~

Helena chuckled to herself as she watched her girlfriend spin slowly in her chair, completely bored out of her mind. Turning back to the forward monitors she refocused on the incoming reports. A sudden beeping from Maya’s station drew everyone’s attention, Maya quickly reading over her monitors to find the cause.

“Helena, a large ship has entered our early warning range. Bearing North Twelve Degrees; speed clocking in at thirty-two-point-four knots.”

“Any ID on that ship?” Helena swivelled towards Maya.

“Not sure, it's reading as a new ship. Scharnhorst class is the closest configuration to it.” Replied Maya as she sent the report to the main monitor.

“Hmm, two hundred and forty-five metres in length, looks like three sets of dual cannons of at least thirty centimetres. It does look like a modified Scharnhorst class.” Helena mused.

“It appears to be alone, I’m not picking up any sort of escorts” U-96 reported.

Helena looked back towards Cleveland and raised an eyebrow. “Anything you recognize Miss Secretary?” 

“Yeah, I’m certain we both know that ship. Radio Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and have them escort her in, then get the faction heads at the dock. I’ll contact Wales.” Cleveland called out as she spun and headed out the door.

Hitting her radio pin on her collar she hailed Wales. “Wales, meet me at the docks, I think our new Commander is a day early.”

“What?! How did they get here so fast?” Came the surprised response. “What ship is bringing them in?”

“A modified Scharnhorst class battlecruiser, at their current speed we don’t have too long before they dock.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you at the docks”

Cleveland shook her head and grinned, dashing through the building and down to the docks. I am glad they finally gave him the job. A few eyebrows were raised as people wondered why their secretary was in such a rush. Upon seeing two other rushing figures heading in the same direction, they quickly had a reasonable guess. 

“Hey Cleve, slow down a second!” Came New Jersey’s voice.

“Run faster, you are a dragon after all!” Shot back the grinning cruiser. “Or ask Enty for a ride on a plane.”

“She already said no!” Whined the battleship. “I’m already tired from Baltimore’s athletics class, I don’t need more running.”  

The trio made it to the open berth at the docks, New Jersey trying to catch her breath as a grinning Cleveland patted her back. Enterprise scanned the waters and saw a pair of lilac haired girls hop onto the water and speed away. Turning back around she saw the other faction leaders starting to arrive. New Jersey greeted them with a wave as Enterprise took her place beside her, the two reps for the Eagle Union. 

Joining them was Nagato and Mikasa for the Sakura Empire, behind them came Bismarck for the Iron Blood. Queen Elizabeth arrived with Belfast for the Royal Navy, the cruiser giving Enterprise a quick smile. Avrora came next, representing the other factions as they were in the process of getting settled onto the base. Prince of Wales and Prinz Eugen were the last to arrive, Eugen taking up her spot next to Bismarck while Wales stood next to Cleveland. 

The assembled group cast their collective gaze out across the water and waited. Within a few minutes they could make out a ship on the horizon. The two shipgirls approached and hopped aboard, followed by a pair of ships appearing just behind the first one. The mini fleet slowed as they closed in, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau splitting off for their own ship berths nearby. The new ship crawled up to the dock and dropped anchor, several Manjuu then rolled out the gangway. The tiny, odd birds stepped aside and saluted as someone approached the ship’s edge.

A tall, lean man with wavy brown hair strolled down the gangway. A crisp, white uniform of pants and shirt adorned with an array of medals attired him. He carried a large blue duffle bag in his left hand, while a sword was slung over his right shoulder like a rifle carrying soldier of old. A cheeky grin broke out as he reached the bottom and gazed around the gathering.

“Hey everyone, it’s been awhile.”

Chapter Text

“Hey everyone, it’s been awhile.”

My first words at the Bermuda Base at long last. Surveying the crowd of faction representatives, I can pick out several familiar faces from our shared battles in the Atlantic. A couple I have heard about but not had the pleasure of meeting before now.

Prince of Wales strode to the front of the group and offered a handshake. “Welcome to the Bermuda Base, Commander Davidson.”

Shaking her hand I gave her another grin and replied, “Thanks for the warm welcome Commander Wales, I hope I can keep this place running as smoothly as you have.”

“I have to ask though, why are you a day early Commander? And why the secrecy to you being the new commander?”

“Final trial test before I was allowed to call it good, see how fast we could push Zieten with her final engine array.” I gaze towards Bismarck, “Now that the final test is done, I can now submit the final report and pass all the project reports over to Bismarck for review.”

“Hey Kommandant! Do we get a look at the reports too?” Came the voice of Scharnhorst from the ship behind me. “Or even better, let's take her out and let me fight her!”

I turned around in time to see Gneisenau smack her elder sister while telling her to behave, typical siblings eh? “I’m technically not base commander yet, you’ll have to file any exercise requests with Commander Wales in the meantime. As for the reports, once I send them to Bismarck, that’s up to her on who can read them.”

The “Ugly” Sisters turned to Bismarck with pleading eyes, hoping to gain permission. Bismarck made a show of hemming and hawing before agreeing to share the reports later on. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau pumped their fists and headed off to check out the rest of the ship. Oh Zieten, your elder sisters are very excitable.

Turning back towards Wales, I finally answered her second question. “The secrecy was not my doing, Admiral Barnes wanted to surprise you guys, she did not inform me as to why.”

Wales shook her head and sighed, "Why am I not surprised it was her idea?"

She quickly composed herself and continued on. "I believe introductions are in order. My secretary, Cleveland of the Eagle Union."

The cruiser shook my hand, "Heya Commander, how's the bonsai plant I gave you?"

"Somehow still alive, I didn't think there was enough light on the bridge for it"

Cleveland grinned and rubbed the back of her head, "They are very hardy for a plant, or the Manjuu are taking it out for you."

Wales continued on with the introductions. "Commander, from the Eagle Union may I present New Jersey and Enterprise." 

"New Jersey, nice to officially meet you. Thanks for the help cleaning up that mess at Iceland." I said as I shook her hand.

"No problem Commander, I'm looking forward to clearing out more Mirror Seas together." 

I turned to Enterprise beside her, "Enty! Did you enjoy your vacation from my task force?" I teased.

Enterprise rolled her eyes and grinned, "Wasn't long enough, are we doomed to more of your crazy ideas now?"

"They're creative and very effective plans I'll have you know." I feigned offence at her very true statement. 

Wales cleared her throat, "From the Sakura Empire we have Lady Nagato and Lady Mikasa."

"Greetings Commander, I look forward to working with you." Said Nagato as she gave a slight bow.

Returning the gesture I replied, "Thank you Lady Nagato, I hope I live up to your expectations."

"Lady Mikasa, it's an honour to meet you once again."

"Good to see you again, Shikikan." Mikasa gave a salute of her fist over her chest.

Gesturing to the next pair, Wales continued. “For Iron Blood, Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.”

Bismarck stepped forward and fixed me with a frown. “I am glad to work with you again Kommandant, but I will not be dropped on the enemy like a bomb again.”

“Fair enough, but you have to admit Purifier’s face was worth it.” Bismarck cracked a slight grin at the memory. 

“Kom~man~dant~” Purred a voice near my ear. “You’ve been gone far too long, you owe me~”

“I might have some beer from Hamburg stashed on Zieten, assuming Scharn and Gneisy haven’t claimed it already.” 

“You know what I want Kommandant~” Teased Eugen before sauntering over to Wales with a wink. Wales for her part shook her head and continued. 

“Next is Avrora for the Northern Parliament and the other factions while they settle in."

"Comrade, it's been far too long," Greeted Avrora with a nod.

"Not since Iceland I believe, still you've done well seeing that you're a multi faction leader." 

"Only temporarily, Comrade, but thank you."

Wales moved on to the final pair. "For the Royal Navy, Head Maid Belfast and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth."

"Good to see you again Commander Davidson." Belfast gave a curtsy.

"Likewise Lady Belfast, I look forward to continuing our work against the Sirens."

I turned to the final leader of the group, hiding my smile at Elizabeth's growing irritation. "Servant! Why are you taking so long to greet your Queen! I demand proper respect from you."

"Apologies, Your Majesty, I was only following some old words of wisdom. 'Save the best for last'." I reply with a bow.

The diminutive queen mulled it over. "Hmph, I shall accept it this time. But do not attempt this again or I will have Princess Warspite behead you!"

"She's going to do that anyways for coming up with that nickname." I reply with a look of resigned acceptance on my face.

Wales turned towards me, “Commander, when is Zieten expected to return to the Maple Monarchy?”

“Never, she will continue serving as my flagship in the field.” I replied. “Zieten is officially, and once more, the Monarchy’s sole ship contribution to Azur Lane proper.”

I looked over the group as they discussed it among themselves. A few had expressions of doubt that I laid to rest. “Don’t worry, I won’t die out in the field like the last couple of human commanders. Have I not fought with several of you in the field with this very ship?”

Most agreed, a couple still had doubts but seemed to push it aside. I turned to Prince of Wales and asked her. “With my early arrival today, would putting off the passing of command and touring the base until tomorrow be agreeable?”

“That will work perfectly Commander, a start in the morning will allow all of that to be accomplished within the day.” Wales replied. “With your permission Commander, we shall leave and prepare. Belfast, can you show the Commander to his quarters please.” 

A curtsy from the maid as the group dispersed back to their dorms. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau hopped off of Zieten and followed Bismarck back. I gazed over my ship and turned to Belfast, nodding that I was ready to set off. The cruiser led the way out of the docks, pointing out various buildings and locations along the way. We arrived at a medium sized house near the edge of the base, a short walk to the Command Centre according to Belfast. She unlocked the door and headed inside, turned and handed the key to me. 

“This is the Commander’s residence, the maids have kept it clean in the absence of anyone to use it.” Explained the head maid. “Prince of Wales tended to use her own personal quarters in the Royal Navy dorms.”

I set my belongings down on a table and looked around, a sizable living area, mid-sized kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom. And a staircase to whatever was stashed on the second floor. I shook my head in wonder, this is much larger than what I had on Zieten. Looking to Belfast I noticed a smirk as she asked, "Better than what you're used to on your ship Commander?"

"Yeah, my quarters are maybe the size of the living area only." I snorted. "I’m the only human on a battleship and they still did not put a good sized quarters in the plans.”

A chuckle escaped the cruiser's lips, "You could have turned down the ship and went for something comfortable."

"And miss out on all the fun after? No thanks." I looked around the house again, "This is going to take some getting used to, who's idea was it to have a house for the base commander anyways?"

"That would have been Admiral Barnes. Apparently she was concerned for the health of Commander Anderson when she observed her not leaving the Command Centre for a week straight." 

“Ahh, so it's to force us to get out and get some fresh air and relax. Wonder how thrilled the Admiral was with no one using it.” I said, easily able to imagine that reaction.

“She will be pleased someone is using it at long last.” Replied Belfast, “Now, if that is everything I need to report to Her Majesty and check on my younger self.”

“Right, sorry for keeping you so long. Thanks for the tour Belfast, and say hi to Little Bel for me.”

The maid curtsied and left the house, heading to the Royal dorms at a brisk pace. I grabbed my duffel bag, headed up the stairs to find the master bedroom and started unpacking. 

~~~

I spent the next couple of hours hauling my belongings between Zieten and the house, taking a break to whip up dinner in the ship’s mess. A few people came by and gave their greetings and offers to help, I accepted and ended up spending most of the time showing off Zieten. A few stayed at the house afterwards enjoying some cold water.

“It’s still strange that the Monarchy went to the Iron Blood for capital ships, turning to the Eagles or the Royals would have made more sense.” Hornet commented between sips, sitting on the couch.

“The idea was to use that as a stepping stone to repair the damage between both sides from the Revolt. Sure we made peace a few months before, but there was still a lot of distrust.” I answered, sitting in a recliner.

“But why Scharnhorst class? The Bismarck class is the better ship isn’t it?” Asked Hammann from beside Hornet, her own water bottle in hand.

“They are, the Scharnhorst class was chosen because we knew Iron Blood would never agree to the purchase of Bismarck class ships, and that’s not considering that we just found out about the H class and Friedrich. Plus going with Bismarcks would have limited how many ships we could afford.” I answered and sipped my own water. “While five battlecruisers was plenty, we did wonder if that was enough after the Battle of the St. Lawrence.”

“If you had more ships for that battle, I don’t think Zieten would have been damaged enough for the refit plan to be as easily implemented as it was.” Nimi spoke up, she sat on a stool at the table with her destroyer friends. 

“It still would have happened, probably.” Came Laffey’s sleepy voice. “That Siren really…wanted the Commander dead.” 

“They never figured out why that was, yes?” Asked Ayanami as she watched Laffey doze off. 

“Not that they’ve told me anyways,” I replied after another sip of water. “Thanks to that particular Siren, I’m now stuck being called the Siren Slayer.” 

Hornet flicked her bottle cap at me, “Oh come on, everyone knows you enjoy that nickname, you still have that busted sword.”

“Haha, ok you’re right I enjoy it. Still that did allow for the mass refit of Zieten to be a lot easier to do, with only one turret remaining and extensive damage to the bow.” I said watching Javelin panic and try to wake Laffey. “Now that we’ve successfully tested it out and modified what we needed to to make it work properly, Iron Blood can now prepare Scharnhorst and Gneisenau for their own retrofits. Those two have been itching for thirty-eight centimetre cannons for a while now.”

"I must apologise for their behaviour, Kommandant." Said Nimi, "They should not have bothered you for a battle as soon as you arrived here."

"Don't worry about it Nimi, can't blame them for being eager. They have technically been waiting for the retrofit for decades now." I smiled, "Plus this retrofit project has helped mend the relationship between Azur Lane and Iron Blood."

Hornet shifted around to face Nimi, a large grin plastered on her face. “I dunno Commander, those four brought peace to the Pacific. They would have eased tensions in the Atlantic on their own.”

Nimi and Ayanami glanced away embarrassed, Laffey woke up enough to give a thumbs up and promptly fell back asleep to Javelin’s despair. The rest of us chuckled at their antics, enjoying the camaraderie. I looked towards the clock and noted the late hour, Hornet catching on, stood up and stretched. 

“Well Commander, it's great to finally have you over here. We should get going and we’ll catch you on the base tour tomorrow.”

“Thanks for the help and the warm welcome everyone,” I stood as well and moved towards the door. “I’m looking forward to working with all of you again.”

The destroyers gave their farewells as they headed out, Hornet carrying a still asleep Laffey. I locked the door and tidied up the living area before heading to my bedroom. After getting ready for bed, I laid there thinking over the day and seeing so many old comrades. Base Commander of Bermuda Base, such a mouthful, but it’s nice. With all the factions finally united and ready to work together against the Sirens again, it was time to reclaim the rest of the ocean. As long as I could keep all the shipgirls united, and so long as our governments behaved themselves and didn’t start infighting again. 

Gods, I ask for so much don’t I? I thought as I drifted to sleep.

Chapter Text

I awoke the next morning before my alarm went off, a solid five minutes early. Cancelling the alarm, I rolled out of bed and headed for a shower. After I finished washing, I wrapped a towel around my waist and made a quick breakfast with the bit of food I brought over from Zieten. Setting the dishes in the sink I made my way to my room and closet to decide which uniform to wear today. Blues or whites? Such a hard choice. The classical white commander uniform won and I got dressed, ignoring the hat I had stuffed onto a random shelf. Outside the house and down the path a ways, I saw a pink haired girl in a maid outfit making her way towards me.

"Ah, excuse me!" Called the maid, running up to me. "Do you kno....Oh! You're the Commander? This is great! I'm Suffolk, I finally found you!"

"Good Morning, Suffolk. I am Commander Davidson, what did you need of me?"

"Her Majesty wanted me to fetch you for the tour of the Royal Navy Dorms." She replied, "Oh! I also have a note from Commander Wales for you."

Unfolding the note Suffolk handed me, I read it over and tried to not frown.

Sorry Commander, Her Majesty insisted on us joining her for breakfast. We’ll have to do the passing of command later on instead of first thing. I’ll see you there.

              -Prince of Wales

Folding the note back up, I looked towards Suffolk who was gazing at some clouds. Noticing my stare she came back down to reality and gave a sheepish grin. 

“Sorry Commander, the clouds are beautiful today. Are you ready for me to escort you to Her Majesty?”

“Lead the way please, Suffolk.” 

The walk to the Royal Navy Dorms was silent, the two of us enjoying the peace brought on by the still early hour. I used the opportunity to take a good look at the various buildings as we walked by. The Command Centre and Academy were the first buildings we came to, the Academy and its grounds far dwarfing the Command Centre. Beyond them I could see the Eagle Union dorms, to the right and down the way was the Iron Blood. Ahead of us waited our destination, the Royal Navy dorms. 

Reaching the building, Suffolk followed the path around the side of the dorm and continued towards the backside where the Royal Gardens awaited us. Rows of hedges and dozens of flowers lined the branching paths, all meticulously trimmed to the Queen’s latest whims. Towards the centre of the gardens was a sizable clearing set up with four large tables in a circle, most of which were already filled with the ladies of the Royal Navy. A voice hailed us from the largest and most massive of the tables. 

“Excellent work Suffolk. Servant come, join me at my table.” 

The pink haired maid curtsied to the Queen and took her place among the other maids off to the side. Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to scan the faces at the Queen’s table. Most were the expected ones, Warspite to the Queen’s right, an empty seat to Elizabeth’s left represented Hood’s absence. Illustrious and Unicorn sat to the left of Hood’s seat while King George V and Prince of Wales were seated on Warspite’s right side. The other guests were the source of my raised eyebrow, Nagato sat beside Unicorn with Avrora next to her. New Jersey followed by Bismarck took up the seats alongside Wales. Four seats remained, one sat empty while I didn’t recognize the occupants of the other three. Queen Elizabeth chose that moment to introduce them.

“Going by your blank stare you don’t know those three do you?” Came her voice with a slight smug tone. “For the Iris and the Vichya we have Richelieu, the Dragon Empery has Yat Sen representing them. Finally for the Sardegna Empire, Vittorio Veneto.”

I nodded to each of the reps as they were introduced. “Greetings, I am Commander Davidson, I look forward to working with all of you.”

“Enough delaying Servant! Take your seat already!” 

Her Majesty seems a tad impatient this morning, I mused to myself, taking the empty chair for myself. With a nod from the Queen, the maids set out breakfast and we proceeded to eat. Everyone received a plate with sausages, two over-easy eggs, a slice of toast cut in half and buttered, and some baked beans. As expected of the Maid Corps' renowned skills, it was absolutely delicious, even if it was missing the bacon. After clearing my plate off and finishing the herbal tea, I turned my gaze to the Queen and got to the point. 

“While I appreciate the breakfast Your Majesty, I am curious as to why you insisted on having myself and the reps from all the factions over.”

“Well that’s simple, Servant.” The Queen replied, holding a hand out for Belfast to hand her her sceptre. “You shall have your change of command ceremony here and now!”

I raised an eyebrow and glanced at Wales who just shrugged and stood up. With a shake of my head I stood as well and moved to the open area in the centre of the tables. Wales joined and stood across from me, an eyebrow raised. I glanced at the Queen and back to Wales as a smirk and a nod was given to her, agreeing to the scheme. Wales stood at attention with her left hand resting on her sword hanging from her hip. I rolled my shoulders back and stood at attention before taking a few steps towards her.

“Commander Wales, I relieve you of command.”

“I am relieved, good luck Commander Davidson.” 

With a salute between us we turned to the main table with a fuming Queen Elizabeth.

“Something wrong, Your Majesty?” I asked, trying to hide the grin on my face. 

Leaning back in her chair she sighed and shook her head. “I was hoping for more of the symbolic gestures for this kind of ceremony, it's not often one takes over as commander of a major base such as this”

“True, but keeping it simple is the best, especially if it means cutting out speeches.” 

Several people tried and failed to hide their laughter at that, good to see my dislike for speeches and overly long ceremonies is shared. 

“On the bright side, Elizabeth, you can rest easy knowing you are still number one at holding the most extravagant ceremonies and celebrations.” I teased the diminutive queen as she scoffed.

“Well of course, the Royal Navy is the best at all we do.” 

I flashed her a grin and turned to the other tables, gazing between them “For those that haven’t had the opportunity to work with me before, let me go over some things for you. First off, I try to have a relaxed and easygoing command style, by virtue of the job everyone is going to be annoyed with me so I see no need to add to that. It tends to be a much better place to work and live when we get along and have some fun together. That said, it is full on serious mode when necessary, we are here to fight after all.”

Scanning the faces I see nods of agreement, so far so good.

“Once I get settled in, my office will always be open so feel free to swing by with any questions or concerns or just to say hi and have a chat, or doze away on my couch like a certain kitsune I believe we’re all familiar with. Any questions?”

Head shakes of no all around, I gave a smile and continued. “Alright then, I will see you when I see you. Queen Elizabeth,” I turned to the Queen and gave a bow. “Thank you for breakfast and the great location for the ceremony. If you are ready, shall we tour the Royal Navy’s dorms?”

“Give me a minute to confer, now that you have disrupted my plans.” She replied before turning to the others at her table. “In any case, thank you all for joining us for breakfast and the all too short ceremony.” 

Polite nods and words were given as the Queen’s table emptied first followed by the other three. Wales and George had a quick word with Elizabeth before departing, Illustrious followed soon after as a tug on my shirt pulled my attention away. Looking down I discovered it was Unicorn and U-chan standing before me.

“Hello Unicorn and U-chan, did you two enjoy breakfast?”

“It was very good… will Big Brother be staying long?” Asked the shy carrier holding her partner in her arms. 

“Yes I will Unicorn, I am here until I retire.” I said with a smile. “And even then, I can probably convince the Admiral to let me live here.”

Unicorn beamed at that, “Then I will look forward to seeing you more. Umm…I need to get to school, will you come by later?”

I reached out and ruffled her hair, “I’ll be by later today, although I’m not sure what time exactly.”

“Ehehe, then we’ll be waiting. Goodbye Big Brother!” And with a wave Unicorn was off.

~~~

Joining up with Elizabeth, Warspite and Belfast, we went on a tour of the rest of the gardens, idly chatting about some of the flowers. Our walk took us inside to one of the large common rooms that was currently mostly empty. Looking around I spotted a trio of maids cleaning at the far end of the room. One of them wielded a gun in each hand and was firing off shots at the walls as the other two scrambled to keep pace with her. 

“Akashi managed to design her those cleaning bullets?” I asked, impressed at Akashi’s chaotic genius.

Belfast nodded, “Yes about four months ago she completed her final design for them. Sheffield has been very grateful for them.”

“I think this is the closest I’ve seen her actually having fun.” I remarked before a cleaning bullet whizzed past my head and splattered on the wall.

“Master, I have plenty of fun I assure you.” Deadpanned Sheffield as she walked over, holstering her pistols. “Your Majesty, is there anything you require here?”

The Queen waved her hand, “No, thank you Sheffield. We are showing the Commander around the Royal Dorms and Garden.”

Looking at the far end of the room, I noticed the other two maids were staring and whispering to each other. They appeared to be deciding whether to come greet us or leave it to Sheffield. After a moment, the shorter blue haired girl was pushed forward by her grey haired partner. The two of them approached us nervously, receiving a look of curiosity from Elizabeth.

“H-hello, Master. Are y-you here to throw us away aga-again?” Asked Dido, keeping her gaze down. Her sister looked downcast as well but kept silent.

I shook my head and walked up to the pair, Dido taking a nervous step back. 

“I am not here to throw anyone away, or to abandon anyone. I am here to stay, you understand?”

Tears started trickling out of her eyes as Dido asked, “You-you won’t leave us again?”

I reached out and pulled the pair to me, hugging them both as they cried. “I won’t leave either of you again, I’m sorry I had to do that before.”

We stood there for a few moments, letting them get it out of their system. Eventually they pulled back and dried their eyes before smiling slightly. The sisters bowed to Elizabeth and Belfast and made their way to another part of the dorms to tidy up, Sheffield following behind. Belfast came over to stand beside me after they had left.

“You didn’t have to take the blame for back then, everyone knew it was only for a couple of joint missions that we would work together for.” 

I turned to her slightly,”I know but I still promised them that I would be assigned here right away. I should have known I’d be kept at sea after that incident at the negotiations.”

Warspite spoke up at that point, “Do you regret what you did?”

I turned to the Queen’s bodyguard and thought about it. “I don’t regret what I did at the negotiations, that useless, arrogant diplomat deserved what happened. I do regret that I broke my promise to Dido and Sirius, they didn’t deserve to be hurt like that.”

Warspite nodded at that, “The weekly letters you sent them helped ease their pain, it took a lot of convincing from several of us before they started reading them. They may forgive you fully one day.”

I nodded to her and turned to Elizabeth who took the lead again and continued the tour. We headed to the Royal Kitchens next, just off of the current common room and conveniently near King George V’s room. The massive kitchen spanned two floors with plenty of space for multiple people to work at once. In keeping with the rest of the Royal Dorms the kitchens were immaculate and well stocked in preparation for any sort of meal or event.

Unsurprisingly, a tall blonde woman wearing red with a white frilly apron over top her clothes was working at one of the workstations frying up some bacon. What was surprising was that it wasn't George but Howe, I don't think I've ever seen Howe make bacon before but man did it smell great. The battleship looked up and flashed a smile, giving a quick bow to Elizabeth before pulling the frying pan off of the burner. 

"Ahh, Commander Davidson, would you like some bacon?" 

"Lady Howe, have I ever turned down bacon?" I said with a smirk, "What kind of bacon is it?"

"Proper Maple Monarchy maple bacon~"

I walked around and stood beside her, inspecting the bacon. "Howe, what do I gotta do to get you to join the Monarchy's Navy?" 

Howe leaned in and whispered her answer in my ear, “You know what it’ll take, but that’ll have to wait a while more.”

I raised my eyebrows, I knew what she meant but it needed to stay secret for now. Instead I decided to do what I did best, stir up trouble. “Lady Howe as much as I would like you to transfer navies, I don’t think Princess Warspite will let me leave here alive if I do that~”

The “princess” glared at me with narrowed eyes, thankfully she couldn’t kill me with looks alone. Howe giggled musically as I munched on some bacon, it had been so long since I last had any maple bacon, Hamburg didn’t have any on my last visit and allegedly everyone at the Magdalen base ate all the bacon supplies while I was gone.

After the amazing snack and a whispered promise to catch up to Howe later, we made our way to the Throne Room, a perfect replica of the one back at the Royal Isles, if only a quarter of the size. Elizabeth took her place upon the throne, Warspite to her right and slightly behind while Belfast took the same spot on the left.

The Queen leaned back and asked, "Well Servant, what do you think of the Royal Dorms?"

"Exactly what I expected them to be, Elizabeth. Good to know the Royal Navy is the same as ever."

"Semper Eadem, always the same. Is that a good thing though?" Mused the Queen, reciting her ship motto from her first inception.

I shrugged, “Maybe not all the time, but in this case it’s not a bad thing. The Royal Navy has a lot to be proud of.”

The battleship nodded, “True, we do have plenty of things to be proud of. Servant, do you have any questions for your Queen?”

“How’s Valiant doing with managing the Home Fleet on her own?”

“She’s hardly on her own, she has Duke of York and Monarch to lean on. Newcastle, Glasgow, Curacoa and Curlew are the main part of the Maid Corps serving her. Honestly I’m surprised she hasn’t declared herself queen yet.” Elizabeth sighed at the thought. 

“Maybe she’s too buried under all of the paperwork that comes with being the boss.”I suggested, eliciting some snickers from Elizabeth.

“Serves her right then, although I do miss having her around.”

“Is there anything else you need from me, Elizabeth?” I asked.

“No, that will be enough for now.” She said with a wave of her hand, "Then Servant, you better be off to the other dorms. I believe the Iron Blood expects you next."

"Then I bid you all farewell, Your Majesty, Princess Warspite, Lady Belfast." I bowed to each one as Warspite sighed at Elizabeth’s giggling.

I turned and headed out of the room, making my way out of the dorms and to the walking paths. A few passing people waved hello as I headed towards the Iron Blood dorms. A light breeze tousled my hair, a relaxed smile creeping across my face at the feeling. Bermuda is nice this time of year.

Chapter Text

The Iron Blood dorm stood a solid three floors tall, painted in a dark steel colouring. At the main entrance to the building I saw Bismarck and her adjutant U-556. Noticing me they gave a wave, one much more enthusiastically.

“Hello Bismarck, Parzival. How are you two today?” I asked as I joined them at the door.

“Kommandant! It’s good to see you again!” Came U-556’s energetic greeting. “Can we use Bismarck as a bomb again? That was fun to watch!”

Bismarck shook her head, a small smile slipping out. “Please Parzival, I don’t want to be dropped from a plane again.”

“We could ask Tirpitz instead, you know.” I very (un)helpfully suggested. Parzival lit up at that idea, while Bismarck shot me a mock glare.

“Kommadant, if you would please.” As she gestured to the doors.

Stepping inside, I gazed around the hallway decorations, portraits of their namesakes lined the walls, both the humans and the ships that predated them. Bismarck led us down a couple of hallways until we reached a set of heavy, oak double doors. Pub was carved into each of the doors in an intricate, stylized font.

The battleship led the way inside and up to the central bar, the bartender coming around at our approach. The white haired woman grabbed a pot and filled up three cups as we took our seats at the counter. Parzival grabbed some sugar and milk for her coffee, eliciting an eye twitch from the light cruiser tending the bar. Sipping my own cup, I savoured the fresh taste, definitely not Navy Standard™.

“Breaking out the good stuff already Mainz? It's a little early, no?”

“It is never too early for proper coffee, Kommandant. More so if it’s for our new CO.” She replied, pointedly ignoring Parzival’s supposed blasphemy.

“Mainz runs the pub in the day, a few others take turns at night, the Manjuu fill in as needed.” Bismarck explained. “A cup of Mainz’ finest to start the day keeps the fleet running.”

“Maybe the Iron and Eagle fleets, I’m certain the Sakura would struggle without tea and the Royals would fall apart.” I teased, gazing around at the rest of the pub.

A handful of other shipgirls occupied the tables having a meal together, some others sat on the upper floor chatting or playing chess. The far side of the room had an open area for dancing and a stage for any bands or singers. A dart board was hung up nearby, there was another set of doors that led to the outside for easier access. The rustic look of the pub gave it a homely feeling, a great place to relax and unwind.

“How popular is this place with the other factions?” I queried.

Mainz and Bismarck pondered for a moment before Parzival answered, “Depends on the day, some days the other subs swing by to hang out, others we go to one of their dorms instead.”

“There are others who come by you know,” Responded Mainz, “Usually more during the day for the younger ones, night time this place is more of a bar than a pub. It also allows us adults to host some fun events.”

“Carolina suckered you all into turning this place into a bunny bar didn’t she?” I asked with a knowing smile.

Mainz hung her head and nodded defeatedly before taking our empty cups away for cleaning, Bismarck stood and headed for the door. Parzival and I followed the battleship as we continued our tour.

~~~

We passed by Bismarck’s office next, stopping briefly to greet Tirpitz and Friedrich der Große. Our final destination was in a separate building that was possibly the largest one on the base, aside from the warehouses and drydocks. The sounds of a workshop and armoury in full swing reached our ears as we approached. The inside was littered with machinery, spare parts and tools of all types as several shipgirls went about their work.

“This place is amazing, Bismarck,” I said, looking around like a kid in a candy store. “You guys have enough space and parts to build a battleship.”

“We needed enough space to summon our rigging for adjustments and maintenance.” She replied, stepping to the side to avoid the shadow that tackled me to the ground.

“And we needed space to keep Eisen entertained.”

A large mechanical shark squirmed overtop of me, like a dog trying to lick a friendly face. Laughing I reached up and rubbed the shark’s face, standing up when it backed off enough. I walked up beside it and began my attack on its sides, the shark lightly flailing in pleasure.

“Who’s the best shark? Is it you Eisen?” I teased, unrelenting on my assault. “Yeah, you like that don’t ya?”

“Eisen! Get back here, I’m not done adjusting your turrets!” Came the voice of the shark’s owner, “Aww, why does Eisen get all the pets?”

Letting Eisen free I turned to Prinz Heinrich and gave her a pat on the head, gaining a chirp of happiness from the cruiser. Bismarck approached and held out her hand, a key resting in her palm.

“Here Kommandant, I know you will end up offering to help us out with our tinkering, so have one of the keys to the place.”

I thanked her and added the key to my keyring’s growing collection. We continued on the tour for a few steps before I got a light headbutt from Eisen. Turning around, I saw Heinrich about to scold the shark before it gave another headbutt.

"Eisen, do you want us to help Heinrich?" I asked, leaning down closer to it.

The shark bobbed up and down, its way of saying yes. I looked at Heinrich who beamed, Parzival was just as enthusiastic; Bismarck shook her head and hid a smile.

We spent the next half hour getting the turrets on Eisen's back adjusted to Heinrich's latest specifications. I found myself tackled again by the shark as thanks, much to everyone's entertainment.

After waving goodbye to Heinrich, Bismarck led us to the far end of the workshop where there was a concrete wall with a large red overhead door inlaid onto it. A small regular red door sat beside it, muffled sounds of arguing coming from behind it. The battleship and sub looked at each other and stepped back.

"You should go first Commander," Said the sub, Bismarck nodding in agreement.

I narrowed my eyes at them, wondering what they were trying to avoid. Turning to the door I pushed it open, noting the thickness of the wall before seeing another large workshop. A couple of metres inside of the room sat a huge table, around which was the arguing shipgirls.

“Hah? Are you kidding me? There is no way that cap is strong enough to contain that level of pressure.”

“I am the genius mechanic! I know that cap will work, I built it myself!”

“Idiot! How do you not see that it is too flimsy?”

“It will work perfectly fine, watch I’ll prove my genius!”

With that a loud bang drowned out Hipper’s retort and a chunk of metal shot out and buried itself into the wall, inches away from me. Thankfully the wall was made out of thick concrete for just this reason.

“Are you ladies having fun in here?”

“Hah? What are you doing here, go back to your ship and don't get in the way of our experiments.” Retorted Hipper, a flash of concern briefly on her face.

I raised an eyebrow at her, “Didn’t you get the memo from Eugen? I’m the base commander now.”

A stunned look crossed Hipper’s face before she scowled and sat on the bench. Soobrazitelny followed suit, along with Reno and Prinz Adalbert, the two watching the arguing earlier. Bismarck and Parzival entered behind me and stood silently, meanwhile I grabbed a pair of tongs off of the table and pulled the remains of the metal cap out of the wall.

“While I appreciate all the stuff you guys come up with in the R&D department, I hope you can be more aware of who's visiting and try not to kill them.”

“Yes Commander.” Replied the pair, eyes cast downwards.

“Good, now try to not break the place with your next test. And point that thing away from the door.” I set the tongs down and headed to view the rest of the room. Bismarck and Parzival followed, the battleship resuming her tour guide duties.

“And finally we get to the smeltery and forge.” She said, pushing through one last red door, Parzival and I right behind her.

The room was fairly large, most of the room was taken up by the tools and machinery to smelt down metals and mould them into whatever was required. Dispersed throughout the room were several racks and shelves, storage for excess parts, tools and items that didn't turn out properly.

I turned to the battleship and raised an eyebrow, "This isn't doing much to dissuade me from the notion of you all trying to build a ship from scratch."

"Lord Bismarck likes to be prepared for anything and everything!" Spoke up the blue haired sub proudly. "We can build or fix anything in the workshop!"

“Well let me know if you need some terrible ideas for your new battleship, I have plenty rattling around my head.”

The sub nodded and looked towards Bismarck, then back to me. “Well that’s it for our tour of the Iron Blood dorms, Kommandant. I believe the Sakura dorms are next for you.”

Nodding back, I followed the pair outside and waved them farewell. The breeze was still continuing as I followed the path, eventually stopping to wait for my follower to catch up.

“What did you need, Hipper?” I asked, turning to face her.

The cruiser opened her mouth to fire off an insult before taking a breath and sighing, “I’m sorry we nearly killed you earlier, Commander.”

“Thanks Hipper, I appreciate you coming to apologise.” I gave her a smile, “Come join me, I’m sure you could use a break from wanting to strangle your coworkers.”

The cruiser scowled and walked alongside me, eventually enjoying the breeze as well. After several minutes we reached the Sakura Empire’s dorm, Hipper turned to me.

“Well I gotta go, I still have other work to finish up and that annoying sister to deal with.” she said, “Thanks for the break and I guess thanks for not using that name Eugen wants you to.”

I chuckled at that, “Well she wouldn’t believe me if I said I used it, she’ll want to witness your reaction. Besides, I couldn’t be that mean after you apologised with little fuss.”

Hipper grew irate at that, “Huh? Who said anything about apologising? Idiot Commander, don’t make up stuff.”

I just laughed to myself as she turned and left in a huff.

Chapter Text

Approaching the main door to the Sakura Empire dorms, I was surprised with who was waiting for me. Nagato herself was half expected, but her younger sister Mutsu was unexpected. The pair of siblings waved to me, Mutsu immediately launching into her unending questions.

“Are you the commander now? Why? How do you become a commander? Is it cool to be one? Tell me, I wanna know!”

“Alright alright Mutsu, hello to you too.” I laughed as she practically bounced around waiting for my answers. “Lets see, I am indeed the commander now, because I worked very hard for it. You need to spend many years in the navy officer program to become a commander and it is super cool because I get to hang out with you guys more.”

That seemed to please the eager battleship, who scurried off to find her friends. Nagato sighed and shook her head, smiling at her sister’s antics. “I appreciate you taking the time to answer her questions, Commander. It can be a bit much some days.”

“It’s alright, I’ve gotten used to it after working with that fleet you sent over here a couple years back, granted Mutsu never joined us on the stronghold assaults. How did she end up coming along with Lady Mikasa anyways?”

“Despite her appearance and childlike curiosity, she still is one of our flagships.” Nagato explained, “As such, she is sent out for some diplomatic missions. Thankfully she’s either with myself or Mikasa so we can keep an eye on her.”

"Well with two legendary people watching over her, she’s going to be quite the ally and fearsome opponent.” 

“Thank you for your kind words, Commander.” Nagato bowed slightly, “Come, let us begin the tour.”

The Sakura dorms blended modern architecture with their own more traditional style. While from the outside there would appear to be no difference to the other dorms, the interior told a different story. Wooden floors and classical sliding doors lined the halls, while more modern light fixtures illuminated everything. Nagato led the way to the second floor and onto the upper level balcony of a large gymnasium. Looking towards the main floor below, I realised that this was their training grounds. On one section of the wall were racks for wooden practice weapons, further down the wall stood a handful of practice dummies. A section of the floor had markings for duel stages, while the far end held an obstacle course.

“Impressive setup you have here, Lady Nagato.” I noted, turning my gaze to the duel area where a handful of shipgirls were gathered. 

Maya, Hiryuu, Zuikaku, and Choukai stood facing their teacher, Takao. A stern look coated her face as she paired everyone up, giving final instructions before the first pair took their positions. Takao strode up to the midpoint and bowed to Maya and Zuikaku as they bowed to her then to each other. Each drew her katana in a fluid motion and assumed their stances. 

“Begin!” 

As soon as they heard Takao declare the start, the pair rushed towards each other. Zuikaku held her katana high, while Maya swung hers from below to counter the blow. A ringing pealed out from the impact, despite being a practice match the pair were not holding back anything. The swords slid apart as Zuikaku leaped back, Maya used the opening to launch a low thrust that barely got parried in time. 

“A solid match aren’t they, Nagato-sama, Shikikan.” Came a voice to our right.

Nagato nodded to the newcomer and resumed observing the match. I turned my head and replied, “That they are, I’m surprised they are evenly matched so far, guess that shows both training styles have merit.”

Atago giggled at that, “Are they so different though? Maya is adamant on besting Takao while Zuikaku is borderline obsessed with the Grey Ghost.”

“Fighting a bow user is different than a fellow swordswoman, no?”

“Yes, and that’s why Zuikaku has asked Takao for training, she knows she can’t focus only on countering Enterprise.”

A moment after Atago’s response we heard Takao declare the win for Maya. I turned my gaze back below in time to catch the pair bow to each other and head off. Takao looked up to the balcony, nodding to Nagato before addressing us. 

“Nagato-sama, it is an honour to have you and Shikikan here.” The others looked up at that, noticing their audience for the first time. 

“I am just showing the Commander around our dorm, showing off some of your hard work is just a happy accident.” Nagato replied, half hiding her smirk as she added, “How about it Commander? You are the Siren Slayer, why not go against Takao?”

I side eyed Nagato before sighing and heading to the stairs on the right hand wall. As I descended, Takao walked over to the racks and grabbed a pair of practice swords. We met at the centre of the practice stage, Takao handing over one of the swords before asking, “What rule set would you like to use Shikikan?”

“Anything goes, first clean hit. It’s the only chance I have against the Sakura Empire’s master swordswoman.” 

Takao shook her head at that as she took her starting position, I took my spot and nodded at Atago who had come to be the referee. Nagato stayed up on the balcony to watch, while the others had gathered around across from Atago. We bowed to Atago and then to each other, rushing in as soon as Atago said start. I threw a quick thrust at Takao that she blocked with ease, my mind racing to figure out a trick to win. Barely dodging a swipe from Takao, I settled on a plan that worked on another opponent a few months back. Thankful for the wooded blades, I leapt back and bent down low. She better fall for this. I charged forward and noted that Takao had gone for a swing from high above, perfect. Hitting the brakes I straightened myself and caught the swing with my left hand, right hand bringing my weapon up to thrust. An eruption of pain radiated out from my stomach, I found myself launched backwards and hitting the floor winded. 

"SHIKIKAN!"

A worried voice called out, I saw a pair of concerned faces enter my vision. 

"This is what I get for not keeping up on the basics" I weakly joke as I sat up.

“Apologies Shikikan, I thought I held back enough on that strike.” Said Takao, offering me a water bottle. 

“Takao-chan, don’t kill our new Shikikan already,” Atago chided. “I want to have some fun with him first~”

Ignoring the back half of Atago’s statement, I said to Takao. “Don’t worry about it, I’m alright now. I’m more surprised that trick didn’t work on you.”

“You forgot you had an audience when you used it against Bismarck.” Takao smirked, “Including Mutsu, she told everyone about it for a good month when she got back home.”

She stood and held a hand out to help me up, which I accepted with a word of thanks. Atago took our swords to put back, while Takao and I bowed to each other. I turned at Nagato’s approach and we bid everyone farewell as we continued the tour. 

Down another hallway, Nagato paused upon hearing a voice call out. “Lady Nagato, have you come to enjoy the baths?” 

A brown haired kitsune walked up to us. “Oh? Shikikan too? Please join me in the bath~”

A second voice spoke up, “Dear sister, please leave the Commander alone.”

“While I appreciate the offer, Akagi, I’m unfortunately going to have to decline.” I replied, turning to face the sisters.

The carrier pouted, “But Shikikan, you always decline invitations to the baths.”

“Well they are for you all. Shipgirls need a place to relax and hang out together away from whatever human is running the base.”

Akagi stood closer and leaned forward slightly, a coy smile dancing on her lips. “But you’re our favourite human, Shi~ki~kan~.”

“And you know my answer will never change, Akagi.”

Akagi pouted but left it, leaving down the hall we had just come from, Kaga following after a quick farewell. I turned to Nagato who raised an eyebrow in a silent question.

“I will repeat this again, I have not, will not, and never will go to the baths. They’re for all of you to relax and socialise in, a miniature sanctuary that I’m not going to intrude on.”

Nagato stared for a couple of moments before shaking her head and walking away. We continued on our tour, heading to the outside and over to a mid-sized building adorned with a sign of a certain cat’s face. Heading inside we were immediately greeted by the resident business cat. 

“Shikikan! Have you come to buy all my wares, nya?”

“No, just dropping by to say hello.” I replied, eyeing the well stocked shelves and walking up to the cat.

Akashi pouted slightly at that, turning to Nagato hoping for some sort of sale today. The battleship only shook her head, crushing the shopkeeper's hopes. Feeling slightly bad for her, I held out a hand and beckoned Akashi to lean forward. As soon as she did, my hand went for her left ear, giving it a good scratching.

“Shikikan! Nya, that feels good.” Purred the cat, “How do you know my weak spot?”

“It was a guess, my parents’ pet cat back in high school loved his left ear getting the scratches.” I replied, continuing turning Akashi into mush.

After a minute I stopped and watched with amusement as Akashi flopped onto the floor, a look of pure contentment on her face. I looked up as Akashi’s business partner floated in from the back room, Shiranui nodded to Nagato and myself before looking at Akashi and muttering about a dumb cat. Said cat just purred and lazily waved a hand, earning more muttering from Shiranui as she dragged the cat across the floor into the back room. Nagato shook her head and headed out of the shop, clearly used to the antics of her fellow compatriots. I followed her outside, that wonderful breeze still going.

“Commander, thank you for taking the time to tour the Sakura dorms.” Said the battleship after we walked away from the shop. “It’s good to see for myself that the stories my people tell of you hold true so far.”

Bowing slightly to her I replied, “I’m glad I’ve lived up to your expectations so far, Lady Nagato.”

“Farewell, Commander. I believe the Vichya and Iris dorms are next on your tour.”

With that, the Sakuran leader departed and returned to the dorm building. I turned back to the path and headed off to the Iris/Vichya dorms, intrigued at how their reunification has been going.

Chapter Text

Strolling along the path to the Iris/Vichya dorms, I saw that the building itself was so far comparatively normal. The running joke with the Iris Libre was that if they could, they’d make a replica of their Cathedral, much like the Sardegna Empire and their Colosseum. I’ll have to see what it looks like when it's finished, the back half of the building is still under construction. Approaching the dorm building, a grey haired woman stood up from her work on a flower garden nearby the doors.

“Bonjour, Commander. Have you come here to offer your prayers to God?”

“Bonjour, Saint Louis. Non, I am here to meet the Cardinal and tour the dorms.” I replied, noting the type of flowers she was growing. “How is your lily garden doing?”

Turning to gaze over her work, Saint Louis smiled and said. “As long as God wills it, they will blossom just fine.”

“And as long as the Manjuu stay out of it.” She shot a look to her spear leaning against a nearby tree.

Chuckling at that, I hear the voice of someone calling out to us. Turning to look, I see Gascogne making her way over. 

“Commander, Saint Louis. The Cardinal has asked me to escort you to her.” The blue haired battleship said.

The holy knight dusted herself off and grabbed her spear, nodding to Gascogne once she was ready. We followed her around to the side of the dorms, where a sign hung above a door, Dunkerque’s Sweets. My stomach growled in anticipation, despite not having the opportunity to work with her, Dunkerque’s baking skills were still well known. The inside was modelled like a cafe with plenty of seating, occupying one such table was Richelieu and Jean Bart, one sister sitting normally while the other leaned back in her chair and relaxed.

“Sisters, I have brought Saint Louis and the Commander.” 

Jean Bart simply nodded while Richelieu thanked her. “Bonjour, Commander. Please relax and drink this tea.” 

“Merci, Cardinal. Bonjour Jean Bart.” I said, taking a seat as Saint Louis and Gascogne took their own.

“Just Jean works, if ya need a hand with something, just gimme a shout.” Came Jean’s to the point response. 

Another voice called out to us from behind the counter. “Commander, would you like to try my freshly baked gâteau?”

“Oh! Oui, s'il te plaît, merci!” I replied enthusiastically, hoping my rusty Français was holding up.

Giggling out loud, Dunkerque asked. “Has my baking ability reached the Monarchy, Commander?”

“We heard stories of a legendary baker from the Vichya, unfortunately we were at war at the time. Since then I’ve heard of your skill here and there, mostly when Howe is vexed at being unable to match your cakes.”

“Oh my~ Howe never admits to that. You might want to keep it to yourself that you gave away her secret.” She replied as she brought over several plates of cake for everyone. 

After taking the first few bites of the cake, I encountered a dilemma. Dunkerque's skill was truly legendary but that somehow seemed inadequate when describing it. The taste and texture was absolutely flawless, the chocolate flavour just melting in my mouth. Glancing at my companions I saw Gascogne mirroring my euphoria over the cake. Saint Louis and Richelieu calmly ate their cakes, Jean had a smirk watching our reactions while finally, Dunkerque just beamed happily. 

“How was it Commander?” She asked as I sipped the last of my tea.

“I would not be surprised if you told me I was dead and in heaven.” I replied, Gascogne vigorously nodding in agreement. 

“Good to know we can bribe you with Dunkerque’s cakes.” Quipped Jean, her smirk threatening to erupt into a full on smile.

“Probably is cheaper than getting good quality maple out here.” I said, playing along. 

Sighing at our antics, Richelieu spoke up. “If you two are finished, the Commander is here to tour our dorms.” 

“There isn’t anything worth looking at here, Sister.” Jean replied. “Well aside from Dunkerque’s bakery and Louis’ flower garden.”

“How is the construction work going?” I asked

“The dorms themselves are all done,” The Cardinal said. “From the last estimate, it’ll be another week and a half until they finish the chapel.”

“And how has the reunification of your factions been?” I glazed between the two leaders, they seemed to be getting along currently.

“Pretty good so far, we’ve worked out all our issues aside from what to call ourselves.” replied Jean, stretching her arms above her head.

“Jean’s actually the one who suggested building a chapel at the base here,” Said Saint Louis.

Jean shrugged at that, “Can’t ask you to give up your beliefs totally, besides, aren’t churches a place of refuge if needed? It’s practical to have one in that case.”

“Master, my sisters still struggle to express their feelings to each other. Do you have any advice for them?” Gascogne innocently asked, causing her sisters to look away out of embarrassment. 

“I believe having you around them will help a lot, Gascogne.” I said, “No one is good at expressing their feelings all the time, and sometimes you don’t need to. Your sisters may not ever say it out loud, but they do care for and look out for one another and yourself.”

Apparently that was too sentimental as all three siblings were blushing and averting their gazes. Saint Louis looked to Richelieu with a look of concern, Dunkerque meanwhile was holding in her laughter, a twinkle of merriment in her eyes. After a moment Richelieu composed herself before nodding and standing up, cheeks still flushed. 

“I appreciate your kind words, Commander. We have kept you long enough, I believe the Northern Parliament is your next stop.”

The others stood up as well, Gascogne and Jean both avoiding my gaze. I stood, thanked Richelieu for the tour and Dunkerque for the cake. Bidding them all farewell I headed out of the cafe and onto the path towards the Northern Parliament dorms. 

~~~

A short walk later, I found myself staring at an iron fortress. Between the rising spires, barred windows and gates, the building gave off a feeling of a prison as well. Walking through the main doors, I saw that the interior was much the same, a dimly lit building styled as a fortress and prison. There was a slight chill in the air, the Northerners loved their cold even indoors. A door opened to my left, a tall woman dressed as a warden stepped out.

“Comrade, have you come to join in our fun today?” Gangut asked as she walked up, “Or are you here for a drink?”

“I’m supposed to be here for a tour of the place, assuming you haven’t locked away everyone.” I replied.

The battleship shrugged, “I have Minsk and Rossiya on my team, they are free at least.”

"Then I suggest you lead me to them, Warden Gangut." I said, deciding to play along, it has been a bit since I last joined their games.

"At once, Comrade Commander." The warden gave a crisp salute and proceeded down the hall.

Two doors down from the warden's office was the security office. Gangut swung the door open, beyond was a complete mess. Tools and equipment were scattered around the small room. A monitor displayed a blue haired prisoner, while the security head was sprawled across the arms of the leather chair.

"Situation normal in all sectors of the facility…" Reported the grey haired battleship. "Oh, it is you. I was just giving Minsk the daily report. Do you have something?" 

Gangut stood aside, unblocking Rossiya's view of me. Her eyes went wide and she scrambled to sit up right. I side eyed the monitor and asked, "Why is there a video feed in here?"

"It's perfectly safe Commander, the video cameras are only in half a dozen rooms." Rossiya quickly explained.

Gangut nodded, "And they only feed into this monitor, there is no way for outside forces to access the feeds."

"Only way to do it is to physically be in this dorm, I highly doubt the Sirens would go through all that hassle to spy on us Northern Parliament."

"They'd be better off snooping on the science team or one of the larger dorms."

"Or just blow up the base."

"Alright, that's enough you two." I said with a sigh, ending their tag team explanation, "I was asking about the voyeurism not the security issues."

Both blushed and kept silent, Rossiya quickly glanced at the monitor to make sure nothing inappropriate was happening. She then grabbed the radio and called for Minsk, who arrived a couple of minutes later. 

"Comrades! What do you need of me?"

"Comrade Commander would like to speak with the prisoner Avrora." Gangut said, still sticking to her role.

“Hmm, I see. I’d rather have him in my jail, that would be pretty fun.” Replied Minsk, thinking it over.

I shrugged, “I could always transfer you to the Antarctic outpost, Jailer Minsk.”

The jailer’s eyes went wide at that, she quickly fumbled for her keys and led the way to Avrora’s jail. Unlocking the door, Minsk pushed it open and stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter. Most of the room was taken up by a large stone staircase that only led to a large window. Sitting on the stairs and bound in chains was Avrora.

“Ah, Commander, welcome! Did you come to save me? Here, I'm all yours~” Said the white haired cruiser, a playful smile dancing on her lips.

“Save you? No no, I’m here to get answers from you, Prisoner.” I said, playing along with their game. “Tell me everything I want to know, and perhaps you’ll be allowed to see your comrades again.”

Avrora stared defiantly at me, “I will never betray my Comrades! I will tell you nothing!”

Shrugging I turned to Minsk and Gangut, “Is there a separate thermostat for this room?"

Minsk shrugged, Gangut thought it over and grabbed her radio. "Rossiya, can you change the temperature in Avrora's cell?"

"Mmm I think so, what do you want me to set it to?" Came the reply.

Gangut and Minsk looked at me, I could feel Avrora staring as well. "All the way down, hope it can hit at least minus forty."

With her eyes wide, Gangut relayed my orders to Rossiya, who was equally surprised but complied. I turned back to Avrora who continued her role and glared defiantly.

"I will not break from a little cold, I will show you the might of a Northerner!"

I took off my uniform jacket hanging it on a nearby bar mounted to the wall. Moving to stand in front of Avrora, we started each other down. "We'll see who breaks first then, Prisoner."

Avrora and I held each other’s gazes, waiting to see who would break first, either from the cold or the staring contest we were now in. The temperature fell at a steady pace, Rossiya called out the temperatures over the radio. Once it reached around minus thirty, Gangut handed me her radio and left with Minsk, shutting the door behind them. Avrora continued glaring defiantly and refusing to back down, we listened to Rossiya call out the next temperature mark. 

“Do you really think you can beat a Northerner? We deal with this kind of cold everyday back in the homeland.” Avrora said.

“You Northerners handle the cold with your heavy parkas and vodka. I, on the other hand, need no help to tolerate the cold.”

Rossiya finally called out the final temperature, minus forty degrees. It was finally cold enough for me to notice, Avrora tried to resist huddling herself up to keep warm. A struggle she eventually lost and called it quits after several minutes.

“Ok, that’s too cold! This dress is too thin for this nonsense!” She said, gesturing to her very thin prisoner’s getup. 

I shrugged and radioed Rossiya to change the temperature back, then banged on the door for Minsk and Gangut to let us out. 

A laugh came from the bound cruiser as the door opened, “Alright Commander, I’ve surrendered, thanks for playing along with us.”

“You make for a mean boss, Comrade Commander.” Gangut added, Minsk nodded in agreement. 

“I’m not mean, I just want my reasonable requests fulfilled.” I replied with a slight smirk.

“Unfortunately there isn’t much to say about our dorms, we had them designed so we can play our games.” Avrora explained, “Beyond that, I’ve been elected as leader of our faction on the base, Soyuz remains in the homeland overseeing our defences.”

“Then I wish you good luck in your continuing tenure as leader.” I said turning to leave the jail cell as Avrora called out.

“Oh the Eagles should be your next stop, I believe the Sardegnans and Dragon Empery will be there too.”

“Thanks for the info Avrora, see you crazy kids later.” I waved and pulled the door shut behind me.

Looking at Minsk and Gangut, I said. “I leave her in your capable hands, have fun and don’t break anything.”

The pair just nodded while I headed down the hall towards the exit. I paused just before the open door to the security office before reaching in to pull the door closed. An embarrassed squeak of thanks came from within as I sighed and headed out of the building.

Avrora did eventually realise she was still chained up and stuck in the room.

Chapter Text

As one would expect of them, the Eagles held claim to the largest dorm, both for the building itself and the grounds. Thankfully whoever designed the layout of the base placed them next to the Academy, the Eagles’ athletics facilities were open for everyone to use, allowing easy access for the Academy. Strolling down the path, I followed my nose to the meeting spot. From the smell of things I could safely assume that barbecue was on the lunch menu today. Cresting the slight hill I could see quite possibly all the Eagles hanging out waiting for lunch.

Enterprise and Seattle manned a couple grills each, Hornet and Denver ran food from the grills to the tables. San Diego stood on a crate singing away, while a handful of the younger ships ran around playing tag. At the nearby basketball court Cleveland, Montpelier and Columbia played a match against Helena, Bremerton and Baltimore. The tables were lined with various groups either eating, talking merrily or sleeping in the case of Laffey and Nicholas. 

“Lively bunch aren’t they?” 

Turning to the voice I see Yorktown approach and stand next to me, Eldridge in her arms in a hug. 

“Well hello there you two.” I greeted, “Yeah they are a lively group, then again when aren’t they?”

Yorktown laughed, “True, are you going to join in Commander?”

“Most definitely, there is no way I’m passing up on a good barbecue lunch.”

Eldridge squirmed in Yorktown's arms, “Commander hug!”

Yorktown turned and held the small destroyer out to me, I grabbed onto her and held her in a hug. Eldridge wrapped her arms around me, her hair pointing towards the grills. Yorktown led the way, heading for her sister’s grill, Seattle gave us a wave as we passed by. Enterprise looked up and nodded at us, Hornet ran over from the table she finished serving. 

“Commander, how many burgers do you want?” Asked the grill master.

“I’ll start with two for myself and one for Eldridge please.” Eldridge’s hair pointed up like an exclamation mark.

“I’ll bring the food right over. Oh Yorky, Wasp and Hammann have a spot already saved.” Hornet said, grabbing the next batch of burgers to deliver.

We walked over to the table Hornet pointed out to us, Wasp and Hammann waved us over when we got near. I sat Eldridge on the bench beside Wasp and sat beside her, Yorktown took a seat beside Hammann. 

“Wow, you got the retrofit, Hammann? It looks great.” I asked, noticing her new appearance.

“Hmph, flattering me won't get you anywhere!” She replied, looking away in a huff.

Shaking my head at Hammann’s antics, I turned to Wasp. “How’s your night time archery going?”

“It's going great! Nothing like my bow and the stars to gaze at when I need a break. Have you kept up on your own archery Commander?"

"Unfortunately there's no large open areas on a battlecruiser to practise archery. Or any space really." I shook my head, "I already found out the hard way how rusty on swordplay I've gotten. Hopefully no one asks to duel me in arrows."

Wasp nodded, "Let me know when you have some free time, we can hit the archery range and get you back at it."

Eldridge's hair stood up straight and pointed towards the grills. We turned and saw Hornet making her way over with a large plate stacked with burgers. She placed the plate down and sat down beside Yorktown, grabbing a burger along the way.

"Mmpf, Enty is amazing on the grill." Hornet said between bites. "We gotta thank the Royals for getting her interested in cooking."

"Grilling burgers is a lot easier than the fancy meals they do." Enterprise said as she joined us, lunch having wound down enough for Seattle to handle on her own.

“Well you are part of the Eagle Union, grilling burgers is one of the flagship traits of the Eagles.” I teased, eyeing Eldridge levitating a burger off the plate. 

Hornet leaned forward, “And what about you Maple Monarchy people? You add maple to everything don’tcha?”

“Not just that, our blood is maple syrup too. Ask Vestal to show you my medical records sometime.” I replied with a smirk, Vestal does have a copy of my records that says I do in fact have maple syrup for blood.

“Huh? There is no way she has that in her records.” Hornet said in disbelief.

Wasp piped up, “It’s true, he’s told me this story before, I checked with Vestal and she showed me the records.”

Hammann joined in, the trio debating on the truth of the story. Enterprise and Yorktown shook their heads, being the only two to remember my fondness for pranks. And the week I spent helping Vestal doing checkups as part of the deal, with my actual records filed away in her desk. 

After we finished off our burgers, Hornet, Wasp and Hammann wandered off for a walk. Yorktown and Eldridge headed towards the baseball diamond while Enterprise and I stayed at the bench watching a new basketball game that started up. 

“Where’s New Jersey hiding?” I asked after a while.

Enterprise just shrugged, “Last I heard she was supposed to meet you here for the tour. I haven’t seen her since she got back from the Royal Dorms this morning.”

“She’s probably trying to avoid Baltimore,” Came Cleveland’s voice, her basketball game finished. “Baltimore ran her pretty hard yesterday, it only ended because of your arrival Commander.”

“I don’t blame her, I’d hide too from all the running Baltimore makes you do.” I said as Helena joined us. 

“Commander, mind if we ask you something?” The blue haired cruiser asked.

“Yes you can have one of the new larger rooms to share with Cleve.” I replied, “I’ve had about a dozen letters from St. Louis since Christmas asking to wrangle a room for you guys. Not sure how she expected me to do that when I'm not the base commander…”

Cleveland looked on in surprise, Helena sighing at her sister. “They asked us at our Christmas party when we’re getting married and we told them we needed a shared dorm first.”

“Well, I appreciate that she thinks I have more power than I actually do.” I shook my head and smiled. “But yes, take one of the new large dorms once they finish up.”

“Thanks Commander!” The cruiser couple say in unison. 

The pair headed off towards the showers, Enterprise stood and we toured the Eagle's athletic grounds. A baseball diamond, soccer field, archery range, hockey rink, a track around the soccer field and finally a large building as their weight lifting gym. 

"Your superiors sure put a lot into this base." I noted to my guide.

"Yeah, we're allowed just about any sort of facility so long as it's a physical activity." The carrier said frowning, "Money is apparently not a problem for them, although we could be finding better uses for it."

"Do they keep track of what you actually spend the money on?"

Enterprise shook her head, "We don't see any of the money, they pay for all the materials and ship it out here for the Manjuu to construct."

“So they don’t trust you guys with the money?” 

Enterprise stopped walking, frown deepening as she chose her words. “They are more concerned with what it’s used for than whether we are trustworthy with it.”

“Or they don’t want any of it finding its way to the Crimson Axis.”

The carrier spun around to face me, her frown wavering on the edge of anger. “Commander, are you suggesting that the Eagle Union leadership is trying to undermine our peace with the Axis?”

“All of your leadership, no I am not. And are they undermining the peace or just making sure they have an edge over their rivals now?” I said, staring deep into her eyes, watching her struggle with the line of thought I was suggesting.

“You would need a lot of evidence to support such claims, at best this is circumstantial.” She said.

“And evidence that can’t be just brushed aside as a rogue element in the government.” I sighed, shaking my head. “As it currently stands, it’s not our problem, hopefully it stays that way.”

Enterprise shook her own head at that, “I really hope this is all in your head, Commander. Because otherwise…”

“Yeah I know Enty, no one likes that other outcome.”

We continued our aimless wandering of the grounds, shifting to more pleasant topics. The archery champion still being Enterprise, the results of the latest cross faction basketball tournament. The breeze returned, rustling leaves and grass alike, the warmth from the sun tempting in its siren song of a nap. Ahead of us stood three figures, one of which belonged to our missing battleship. New Jersey gave a wave as Yat Sen and Vittorio Veneto gave their own greetings.

“Sorry for not meeting you at the barbecue, Commander.” New Jersey said once we reached her small group. “I had to check in with our guests here, their dorms are still under construction so they’ve been bunking with the Eagles.”

“Good to know, there were some rumours at lunch that you were avoiding Baltimore and her athletics class.” I replied with a slight smirk.

“I-I would never do such a thing!” She stammered out with a slight blush.

“How is the construction of your respective dorms going?” I asked the other two leaders.

Yat Sen was the first to answer. “Slow but steady, Commander. Once the Eagle dorm expansion is complete, the Manjuu will be able to focus more on our dorm. We are hoping the work will be complete by the end of April.”

“Ours is progressing faster, it should be complete by mid April.” Said Veneto, “This may be unbecoming for me to say, but nevertheless... It would delight me if you would use one of our baths. It would let you fully appreciate the splendour of our Empire.”

“I appreciate your offer, Lady Veneto.” I replied, trying to not offend her hospitality. “Unfortunately, I am unable to partake in any such activities.”

“Oh? I’m sorry Commander but could you please elaborate why?” The Eternal Flagship asked, puzzled. 

“The Commander has an odd aversion to using the baths or hot springs.” Enterprise explained, having witnessed myself turning down several invitations.

I continued on with a shrug, “Like I always say, my hot shower is good enough for me. Baths, hot springs, onsens, whatever you call them; those are all for you girls. A place to relax, socialise and be free from the stresses of the world.”

Veneto and Yat Sen stared for a moment before shaking their heads. Thankfully they seemed to take no offence at my refusal. We chatted for a while more before heading our separate ways, my path took me towards the Academy building nearby.

Chapter Text

The Academy building sat near the centre of base, the Command Centre next door held the honour of being the centre. As befitting of its name, the Academy held around a dozen classrooms and a large cafeteria run by Manjuu with the option for some of the shipgirls to make meals themselves. Usually the younger ships were the ones getting lessons on various topics such as tactics and weapon usage, but a few of the older ships also joined to brush up on the latest tricks. 

The grounds of the Academy consisted of a few walking paths, with a massive anchor fountain as the centrepiece. The grass was kept slightly long, making for a nice place to sit and study out in the open or under one of the trees that dotted the area. Not many people were out and about, classes were currently in session. 

I followed the path around the fountain and up to the main doors. Inside, the halls were lined with display cases of awards and projects, pictures hung here and there, everything you would expect to find at a school. I headed down the hallway looking for the classroom I wanted, pausing outside a slightly open door when I heard singing coming from within. 

I knocked on the door and opened it once I heard a familiar voice telling me to enter. Inside the classroom were several desks and chairs, the walls were lined with posters on music and singing. And sitting on the edge of the teacher's desk was a familiar smiling face, Lexington.

"I wondered if you would hear my singing, Joshua." She said teasingly. "Are you sure it's safe to follow a Siren's song~"

I stepped closer to her, glad that the room was otherwise empty. "I think this is one siren I'm willing to take my chances with."

Lexi giggled and closed the distance, embracing me in a hug that I swiftly returned. "I know it's only been about four months since Iceland, but I've missed you."

"Me too, but at least I'm finally the base commander. I'm glad it was only four months of punishment." I said as we stepped apart.

"Maybe you should take Brooklyn's advice and learn some diplomatic skills." Lexi said, walking back to the desk she was sitting on before.

"I dunno, I think that punch was pretty diplomatic."

Lexington sighed and smiled, we'd already gone over this before and she had talked to the others that witnessed the incident, so she knew it was a justified decision I made. "Well just don't do anything to get fired from here. Have you seen the others yet?"

"I saw Howe, she made some bacon so that was amazing. Haven't run into the fluffs yet."

"Then you should get back to your tour, I have my singing class to teach soon."

"See you later, Lexi." I said as she teasingly pointed at the door, shooing me out.

I looked around the hallway for any indication of where to go. With nothing obvious jumping out at me, I picked a direction and found a row of classrooms with signs.

1A, 2A, ahh here it is, 3A.

I knocked on the closed door and waited a moment before I heard I could enter. Opening the door I was immediately tackled by a fast moving object that wrapped its arms around me. Looking down I saw it was a familiar, although taller, orange haired destroyer.

"Hello to you too, Qu'Appelle." 

The girl released her grip and pouted. "I'm Foxhound again, I'm not using that name anymore."

She quickly brightened up and grinned. "So do you notice anything different about me, Commander?"

She did a small twirl, and stared at me, leaning forward slightly. I played dumb, she clearly got her retrofit finally, but sometimes it's more fun to guess wrong. I stared at her head for a moment and snapped my fingers.

"I got it! You borrowed Warspite's headband."

"Commanderrr!" Foxhound pouted again, "I got my retrofit! I've grown much bigger, hehe!”

I gave her a pat on the head, “Congratulations Foxhound, I look forward to seeing your retrofit in action.”

Foxhound nuzzled into my hand, trying to get more pats as a slightly annoyed voice spoke. “Kommandant, are you done disrupting my class?”

“Probably not, sorry Professor Nimi.” I said as I nudged Foxhound back towards her seat.

Gazing around the room at all the other students, I gave my introduction. “Hello everyone, I am Commander Davidson. I look forward to getting to know all of you.”

Nimi adjusted her glasses before addressing her students. “The Kommandant is here to join everyone for this afternoon’s lesson. Kommandant, please take a seat with the students.”

I looked around for an empty desk, Unicorn waved me over to one beside her. Sitting down next to her, I gave her and U-chan sitting on the desk a head pat, earning a giggle from the carrier. We turned to the front of the room and waited for Nimi to start the lesson. 

“Today we’ll be learning about the newest ship at the base, the Scharnhorst class battlecruiser Zieten.” Nimi began, “Who can tell me something about that ship, anything at all.”

A few hands were raised, Nimi chose a silver haired cruiser. “Isn’t that the ship from the Monarchy that’s half as cute as Indy?”

The room was filled with groans and laughter, Portland’s obsession with Indianapolis was well known to them. Nimi sighed and shook her head, choosing another student.

“How about you Spee?"

"Isn't that the first of the five mass produced Scharnhorst ships that the Iron Blood sold to the Maple Monarchy?" Said another silver haired girl, her blue shark tail swishing lazily.

"Correct, anyone else? Fortune?"

Foxhound's elder sister answered, "Umm, it was the ship blessed by God…to fight in the St. Lawrence.."

"The Battle of the St. Lawrence, correct. Thank you everyone, that'll do." Nimi said before looking at me and holding out a piece of chalk. "Kommandant, would you like to give us a brief overview of the battle?"

I stood and made my way to the front, taking the chalk from Nimi. The board was already cleared off so I started with a simple crude sketch of the gulf of the river, followed by some quick labels.

“Alright, we have PEI, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Québec , Ville de Québec down here, Anticosti Island and lastly Les Isles-de-la-Madeleine.” I said, throwing in the Français pronunciations in the mix, earning a few raised eyebrows.

“For those who aren’t familiar, the Maple Monarchy’s navy is dedicated to defending the St. Lawrence from invasion, this river leads to several key cities in the Monarchy as well as the Great Lakes and cities of the Eagle Union.” So far everyone was keeping up.

I pointed to the small island chain of the Magdalen Islands, “These islands have served as the Monarchy’s main base in the St. Lawrence, its location away from the populated areas keeps civilians safe. Now I know the question you want to ask is ‘why not that large island nearer the river?’ Well that’s easy, it's way too rocky to bother with, Anticosti Island is like a mini mountain.” I could see the few people with a questioning look relax with it being answered.

“Nearly three years ago, I was on Zieten heading back to base after picking up some supplies at Québec City. A nice peaceful day, a simple supply run that we’ve all done dozens of times. Completely ruined by the Sirens. We’ve fended off Siren attacks dozens of times, each time they show up in the Atlantic or near the Magdalen base. This time however, they came in behind our defensive lines.” I pointed to a spot on the map, a bit south of Anticosti Island.

“No one expected the Sirens to show up behind our lines, so to say we got caught with our pants down was an understatement. The fleet was panicking and trying to scramble to intercept. The other Scharnhorst ships and some of our shipgirls were stationed on the main base, a couple others patrolled the pass between Québec and Newfoundland. An unlucky patrol was nearby the Sirens when they portaled in, quickly taking severe damage in the opening assault. The rest was with me on the supply run, including two of your classmates, Fortune and Foxhound.” The class looked at the destroyer sisters, Foxhound giving a wave while Fortune tried to hide in embarrassment. 

“The first patrol that was attacked retreated back towards the river, the Sirens had them blocked off from the base. My group charged forward as soon as we heard the report of a Siren fleet, we found the retreating patrol being chased by the Sirens around here, Cap-Chat. Iroquois and her patrol fleet retreated back, along with a couple of our mass production destroyers. Zieten opened up with a heavy bombardment as soon as we entered range, Fortune, Foxhound, Ottawa and Gatineau followed up. The line was held as long as we could, everyone except Zieten had fallen back to regroup, taking a beating in the process. After we lost turret Bruno, everyone returned at last and we shoved those Sirens back.”

“For whatever reason, the Tracker Siren refused to chase after anyone other than Zieten. We exploited that to pull it away from the fleet, everyone had taken severe damage by now, the main fleet was nowhere to be found. Which meant we got suckered into a mini mirror sea. After a brutal fight with the Tracker, Zieten was on her last legs when the damned thing hopped up onto her deck. It was hunting for me personally, it ignored all the Manjuu milling about. No guns stored on board could pierce its shielding, so I detonated the nearly depleted ammo stores in turret Anton in a failed attempt to blow it up. It at least took out the shielding, allowing for a game of cat and mouse to ensue with the now infamous ending.”

I looked at the class as they all had their hands raised, I pointed to Unicorn. “You jumped onto it and killed it with your sword. And now you are called the Siren Slayer.”

“Full points to you, Unicorn. And that class is the Battle of the St. Lawrence, the mirror sea dissipated once the Tracker was killed. The main fleet was waiting for us to emerge from it, not daring to enter in case more Sirens showed up.”

A few hands shot up. "What happened afterwards?"

"Well, Haida was in charge of the main fleet so she hopped on board Zieten to look for survivors, found me sitting back and relaxing. Started chewing me out for recklessness and endangering my ship and crew and all sorts. I don't remember much of it actually, at that point I fell over and passed out. Blood loss I think the doctors said afterwards."

A few concerned looks came from the students.

"What? I lived just fine, so don't worry about it. Anyways, any questions on the battle itself?"

A black haired girl sitting beside Spee raised her hand.

"How many lowly Sirens did you destroy?"

"Two Peace Breaker class mark one Sirens, a mark two Tracker class and about two dozen mass produced ships."

I picked out another, this time Indianapolis.

"Why do you…use different languages?" She asked.

"Well the Français is because this area," I gestured to the map, "is Québec or Québec controlled. Québec is the Iris region of the Monarchy, hence why English and Français are our official languages. As for the Deutsch, well it's an Iron Blood ship, might as well use their designations."

With no other questions being raised, I returned to my seat and Nimi continued the lesson. She covered the refit of Zieten and the various upgrades, the trial runs and modifications done to the original Iron Blood schematics. 

~~~

After the lesson was complete and everyone was dismissed I stayed behind to learn more on the Academy's workings from Nimi. She was one of four teachers, Ranger, Langley and Koln being the other three. They were the only dedicated teachers, the other classrooms were for whoever else wanted to teach whenever they had time. Marblehead would teach a fitness class, Memphis and Gridley shared a photography class (mostly because Gridley would get distracted by pictures of Saratoga) and as I saw earlier, Lexington used a room for singing lessons. The academy was the perfect place for any kind of teaching at the base.

After thanking Nimi for the info on the Academy and letting me sit in on a class, we parted ways and I headed to the final stop on my tour. The Command Centre stood four stories high, the first two were taken up by the hospital/medical ward, the third floor held the Commander’s office along with the Ops room. The fourth floor was mostly empty, it was built in case more space was needed beyond the one floor for the Commander. My human predecessors tended to use that floor for a place to sleep, and "sleep" in the case of Commander Anderson and her three lovers.

My first stop was the hospital, specifically the office of the repair ship in charge of the place. The hospital was divided into a grid pattern for easy access to all rooms, signs lined the walls and hung from the roof indicating where places were located. I followed one set until I reached the head doctor’s office, entering a moment after knocking on the door. Vestal sat at her desk, a file open on her desk as she gestured for me to take a seat across from her.

“Hello Commander, it’s good to see you again.” She greeted me warmly.

Sitting down I returned the greeting, “It’s always a pleasure to see you Vestal, how’s everyone doing on the base?”

“Behaving for once, no one has complained or missed out on the last round of checkups. Oddly enough, Enterprise was one of my first visitors.”

“Did her sisters string her up and have her dragged over by a dozen battleships?” I asked, amazed at the idea of Enterprise willingly going to a checkup.

Vestal shook her head, “No she did it willing, although she did have a reason why. Not that I can tell you, medical confidentiality you know.” 

“Fair enough, do you still have my other set of records in the official filing cabinet?”

She grinned at that, “The one stating you have maple syrup for blood, yes it's in its usual spot. Who did you trick this time?”

“Hornet and Hammann, it was hilarious watching Wasp convincing them that the record does in fact say I have maple syrup blood.” A massive grin covered my face.

The repair ship shook her head, “Alright Commander, shall we start your physical?”

“Lead the way Doc.”

Heading out of Vestal’s office we headed across the hallway and entered the exam room. Closing the door, she gestured for me to stand on the scale against the right wall, followed by a highly amusing attempt by the diminutive nun to measure my height. Sitting on the bed we continued through the checklist, fortunately and to no one's surprise I passed the physical with flying colours. 

“Tell me about your setup here, Vestal.” I requested as we returned to her office for her to update my files.

“Well we have the capacity for twenty people to have their own rooms to recover in. There’s a large two story room in case something goes wrong and rigging can’t be unsummoned. If we used that room and a couple others for more beds we can hit up to a hundred patients.” 

She continued, "We also have essentially the capability to take on any sort of medical issue, Human or Kansen."

"HQ spared no expense for this place." I replied.

Vestal nodded, "Well we didn't have the ability to help Commander Anderson's injuries during the stronghold assault. HQ made sure to overhaul the medical ward into a full on hospital to prevent any repeats."

“And how is everyone holding up after her death?”

“It has been difficult for some, her lovers especially. Taihou hid in her room for a couple of weeks, Bremerton and Houshou managed to bring her out and helped her move on. Akagi torched several Siren patrol fleets in her grief but she did have sessions with Bremerton and was given the ok to return to duty.” Vestal’s voice trailed off as she tried to hide her personal thoughts on the matter.

“But you suspect she’s one more traumatic event away from a breakdown.”

The nun nodded, “Bremerton agrees and has kept an eye on her with Houshou as well. I know her main concern is her fellow carriers, but I am glad Houshou is helping Brem maintain people’s mental well being.”

“And what about Roon?” I asked.

“Roon was the most surprising, most of us figured she would be like Akagi and take her anger and grief out on the Sirens, especially given that she was the Commander’s flagship at the time, but she never did. She fell to her knees and bawled when she had recovered enough to hear the news. I think Commander Anderson had managed to help her curb her bloodlust and experience life and love like the rest of us. She found peace thanks to Hanazuki teaching her how to care for flowers.”

“Does Roon have her own flower garden? I would love to see that.”

Vestal nodded, “She has been growing snapdragons primarily, I believe Commander Anderson had said they were her favourite.”

I nodded, following up with another question. “Who do you have for help around here?”

Vestal paused in her writing, ”Hmm, there’s Eagle and Hermione that have already finished a few certifications to be junior doctors. Perseus and Vampire are studying to help out, while Akashi can help with more ship repair related issues.”

“Sounds like a solid crew, hopefully we keep your patient numbers low.”

Vestal laughed, “I would hold you to that Commander, but I feel like you won’t be able to keep that promise all the time. Speaking of promises, I believe you are expected in the Commander's Office soon.”

“Ah right, thanks for everything Vestal, see you around!” I said, heading out the door and to the nearest staircase. 

~~~

Reaching the third floor, I followed the hallway towards the far end. The left side of the hallway was filled with windows giving a great view of the base. A few doors on the right marred the otherwise smooth wall, one of which was open as sounds of construction came from within. 

Entering the room I looked around, the walls were stripped down to the studs, a swarm of Manjuu were hopping about running wires and cables. The floor was covered with pallets of supplies, one of which had a certain Iron Blood heavy cruiser lounging on top as she directed the chaos.

"Kommandant," Eugen greeted upon my approach to her perch. "Have you come to rescue me from my boredom?"

"Isn't your girlfriend just down the hall? Go pay her a visit, I'm sure Cleveland's back from lunch by now." 

"Sadly I'm not allowed to leave the puffballs alone." Sighed the cruiser. "On the plus side, you'll have your new Holo room in a week."

"What am I going to do without you Iron Blood ladies spoiling me?” I teased, “Between this and Zee, I’m starting to think you guys love me.”

Eugen smirked, “Well I suppose someone has to, you are a terrible diplomat.”

“I put that Eagle Union fucker in his place, got a chance to go one on one with your leader and secured the updated treaty agreements.” I rebutted with a grin, “I fail to see how that’s anything less than perfect.”

“Then why did you get banned to the front lines for the last four months instead of running the base?”

Well she had me there. I sighed and shook my head, Eugen sat up straight and turned to face me.

“Well you are here now, half of the fleet already knows you, the other half have heard of your exploits. We’ll keep you safe from any more political nonsense. Well as much as we can anyways.”

“Thanks Eugen, I appreciate that a lot.”

 The cruiser flashed a coy smile, “You should show me just how much you appreciate me, Kom~man~dant~.”

“I’m not calling your sister Admiral Tsundere.”

“Kill joy.”

I am glad my younger sibling is nothing like Hipper’s, although thanks to him no one can tell us apart by name now. I gave a slight bow to Eugen before exiting the room.

“All the same, have a nice day on babysitting duty, Lady Eugen.”

A string of Deutsch muttering trailed after my exit, followed by some yelling at the latest Manjuu to stumble over its own feet. Hopefully she won’t try to spit-roast the Manjuu despite their similar appearance to chickens. 

Continuing my way down the hallway I reached the outer office door, beyond which laid the secretary’s office with the CO’s office beyond. Further down the hallway sat the Ops room and a second set of stairs. I waited a moment, savouring my last moment of freedom, then grabbed the door handle and entered the office. 

The secretary’s office was larger than the Commander’s office, an L shaped desk sat to the left side near the door to the next room. Several chairs and a couch sat around a medium sized coffee table towards the far left, the right side of the office was home to a fully furnished kitchen. Filing cabinets lined the wall behind me as I walked up to the desk hosting a blonde cruiser.

“Heya Commander, haven’t seen you in ages!” Greeted the cheeky cruiser with a grin. 

“I was considering hopping on Zieten and taking my last chance to run.” I replied, earning a larger smile from Cleveland as she looked to the door next to her.

“Take me with you and we’ll ditch all of this paperwork.”

A voice called out to us from the other office, “You do know I can hear you two plotting right?”

The door soon opened as Prince of Wales stood there with a frown, “You could be considerate and take me with you, I don’t want this paperwork either.”

The three of us broke down laughing before heading into the main office. A large desk sat near the back wall, a large window providing a view over the Academy grounds. A sitting area resembling the one in the secretary office sat to the right, the wall lined with partly empty shelves, Wales already having packed up her personal touches to the office. The left wall held a blackboard and several pull down maps, the old style of planning missions before we get the holo system operational. 

We spent the next several hours going over the system Wales and Cleveland had in place for running the base, covering current projects and upcoming ones. Events in the works for R&R and various requests, base finances, schedules for patrols and shipments and sorties. We took a short break for dinner in the secretary's office and welcomed a pair of visitors.

Standing in front of a shelf was Hanazuki fussing over a set of flowers in a vase she had brought over. Over on the couch was arguably the one who got the most use out of it, Shinano, taking a nap as she loved to do. Turning to Wales and Cleveland I held a finger to my lips and casually walked towards Hanazuki. She was so engrossed in fussing over the flower arrangement that she didn’t even notice my presence beside her, looking back at the doorway Wales and Cleveland gave me a shrug.

“Ugh, why does this not look good no matter how I arrange them?” Hanazuki muttered out loud. “It’s my first arrangement for Shikikan Davidson, it needs to be perfect.”

“What do you think is not working then?” I asked her.

She pondered the question for a moment, “I’m not sure, I have Edelweiss for courage and power, he’ll need them to vanquish the Sirens at last. Hibiscus to remind him to be gentle to those of us around him, while the red poppy is for his love of fun. And the Zinnia is to symbolise our loyalty that he has more than earned, well for those of us that worked with him before.”

“Sounds perfect to me, are you sure something is wrong with them?”

Hanazuki sighed, “I think I’m just overthinking this, I haven’t seen him since Iceland so I’m a little nervous.”

“You have nothing to be nervous about, Hana. It’s a beautiful arrangement.”

“Thank you so much!” She turned towards me at last, her eyes going wide as she made that cute shocked expression of hers. “Sh-sh-shikikan?!”

“Howdy.”

“B-b-but!”

“Mhmm.”

“I-I-I.”

And Hanazuki’s brain shorted out completely, fortunately she fell forward and I caught her with ease. I picked her up and set her down on one of the chairs next to Shinano, who had a smile on her face as if she had watched everything. Wales and Cleveland snickered from the doorway before going about making dinner for five people now. 

Hanazuki recovered in time to enjoy the meal, Shinano woke up as well to join in. After the meal the pair of foxes left, leaving the rest of us to finish up our work just as the evening set in.

“That should be everything, Commander. You are now ready to run the base.” Wales said as Cleveland nodded, “Well there are two more things for you.”

I raised an eyebrow, I knew what one of them would be, the second was a surprise. Wales reached into the top desk drawer and pulled out a round pin and a phone. Attaching the pin to my collar she explained.

“Your personal radio, tuned to all base frequencies, please don’t abuse it. The phone is something cooked up by the Science Team, we have our own private network on the island cut off from the rest of the world. The Sirens can’t access it and it gives everyone a way to keep in contact more like the civilians we protect. The main app is Juustagram, everyone has an account on it to post images from around the base.”

“Don’t worry Commander, once you're more than a klick out from the base you lose connection so no one will be able to swipe the phone and spy on us.” Cleveland added.

“Well thank you both, I guess I’ll have to make an account then.” I said, doing just that.

Once it was all set up, I had Wales and Cleveland stand on either side of me, snapping a photo of us and posting it. The changing of Commanders, I gave as the caption, earning dozens of comments congratulating us. Pocketing the phone I thanked the pair before tuning my radio to the inter base comms.

“Attention all personnel! This is Commander Davidson, the following people are to report to the exercise area immediately: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. I repeat, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, report to the exercise area immediately.”

I turned off the radio and smiled at the questioning faces before me. “If you want to know what’s going on, I guess you’ll have to come to the exercise area too.”

I didn’t wait for a response as I headed to the door, leaving them to hurry after.

Chapter Text

The stands at the main exercise area were mostly full, every off duty shipgirl came down to see what the Commander was up to. Well they probably figured it out seeing a battlecruiser anchored a distance out, assuming they could see it with all the fog rolling in. I was glad the Manjuu followed the note I sent them and had Zieten operational in time. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had taken up their positions with their ship bodies a couple kilometres out from Zieten while I had just reached the bridge of my ship. 

Back at shore, Akashi set up a stand trying to make a quick buck, while Shigure and Yuudachi had grabbed some microphones and set themselves up as commentators. I shook my head and gazed around the bridge, the Manjuu stood at their stations awaiting their orders. 

I keyed my radio to the base wide comms once more, “Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, at the signal the match begins. Good luck to you two.”

The sisters radioed their acknowledgements and we waited for the signal to start. Standing apart from the crowd, Enterprise held her bow in hand and fired off a shot into the sky. Her arrow flew out and exploded, signalling the start of our battle.

“Engines to full, Anton target Scharnhorst, Bruno target Gneisenau, Caesar hold.”

A chorus of chirps acknowledged my orders, the ship surging forward quickly gaining speed. I looked through the binoculars in my hands, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau darted forward with Scharnhorst in the lead. Several thunderous explosions ripped out from Zieten as she fired her first volley, the targets nimbly dodging the shells as they raced across the waters. 

“Hard to starboard, all turrets fire a volley on Scharnhorst. Take us into the fog”

Zieten swung around and fired a full broadside at Scharnhorst who managed to dodge most of the volley. Gneisenau took the opportunity to fire her own volley, landing a couple hits along the sides. 

“Head in deeper, Caesar lay down covering fire.” 

In a fast sprint Zieten dove into the fog bank, swiftly vanishing from sight. Soon the sisters were enveloped by the fog and I ordered cease fire followed by a few manoeuvres to make sure they lost track of us. Once I was satisfied with the distance, I ordered the lights and propellers cut, and we coasted in on momentum. Most shipgirls tended to rely on their eyes and a general sixth sense stemming from their radar, Gneisenau being the calmer of the pair would take the time to find Zieten. Scharnhorst tended to charge in and take out opponents right away, relying more on sight than her radar. 

A contact lit up on radar, obscured by the fog but not seemingly noticing the massive battlecruiser nearby. Anton and Bruno slowly rotated towards the target, our momentum stalling out. Once the turrets were aligned, they unleashed their wrath on the unsuspecting target. Zieten suddenly shuddered as a volley from the port side impacted into the ship, we had fallen into their own ambush.

“Engines to full, Anton and Bruno fire at starboard target, Caesar fire on port target. All other guns, fire at will!”

Zieten leaped forward racing through the thinning fog, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau landing a few more hits as they took a couple of their own. We broke through the fog, Caesar firing off a couple of covering shots but the sisters were too close to attempt to turn around.

“Full speed ahead. Let’s show them how fast Zieten is now.”

The ship groaned as another volley peppered the stern, one turret was not enough to keep them pinned down. I glanced at the speed readout, thirty-five-point-one knots, almost our fastest recorded speed. The gap slowly widened as we made our escape, a few shells exchanged between both sides. Time to take a gamble and spin this around.

“Hard to port, all guns focus fire on Gneisenau, prepare torpedoes.”

Zieten’s deck tilted as she took the hard turn, a few Manjuu tumbled around. A couple of glancing blows struck her stern before a wall of sound enveloped everything, all available guns unleashing their barrage. The torpedoes launched at the apex of the turn, speeding their way towards Gneisenau as she tried to dodge the heavy barrage. Scharnhorst fired a few of her own volleys and took out a couple of secondary turrets. Gneisenau sped out of the way of another volley but failed to avoid all three torpedoes bearing down on her, Gneisenau was out of the fight. 

Scharnhorst raced closer to Zieten, seemingly trying to ram us. The ship kept with her hard turn, the remaining cannons doing their best to pepper Scharnhorst, the torpedoes reloaded and fired another spread. More shells riddled the side of Zieten, it wasn’t looking good, a couple more well placed hits would put us out of the fight. A final thunderous volley ripped out of Caesar before the return fire took out the turret, Bruno and Anton struggling to get a good shot on Scharnhorst. 

“Stop, full astern, fire everything we have left at her.”

Zieten shuddered as she fought against all her forward momentum, a few cracks could be heard on the bridge. Scharnhorst rushed by, taking out the torpedo launcher and a couple more secondary turrets. Anton and Bruno tracked her ship and fired their final volleys, Zieten finally scored the finishing hit. Victory was ours. 

That was too close, I need to brush up on my tactics. I thought to myself as Zieten crept up to Scharnhorst now on her rigging, Gneisenau sailing over on hers as well. I flicked my radio on to the sisters, “Need a lift?”

“Sure, thanks Commander.” Replied Gneisenau as the pair dissolved their rigging and hopped aboard, Scharnhorst scowled as I joined them on the deck.

“I was hoping to clinch the win there, those fifteen inch cannons back a punch.”

I nodded, “You almost had us, another hit or two and the win would have been yours.”

Scharnhorst frowned then shook her head, dispelling her disappointment and holding out her hand. “Well congratulations Commander, you win this time. Look forward to our revenge next match.”

I clasped her hand and nodded, “I’m looking forward to defending my win streak.”

Being able to skirmish against the shipgirls, run the main base and just hang out with everyone again, I’m glad I finally got the dream posting. Life is going to be great here, well so long as I don’t die like my human predecessors. Hope I didn’t just raise too many death flags.