Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I dreamt of food. Crispy black diagonals on a hefty piece of meat, dry on the outside and juicy in the inside, on top of a crisp piece of velvety white bread, with butter creating a frozen waterfall around the edges, each component with a different savor...

Ah...the Royal Navy headquarters, home to old-timey telephones, Victorian maid dresses, cottage cheese, and randomly placed Armenian floor mats. I was only recently assigned here for a meeting, the change of view from the grassy prairies and the euphoric river mouths of the Eagle Union's vegetation to the Royal Navy's grand brick houses and the bloomy tulips wasn't a big factor, the group of people I'm about to discuss with, however, was. 

The Royal Navy's faction representative, Queen Elizabeth, is known to be an egotistical one, therefore anything I say must be observed thoroughly before release, for only God knows how much I can get in trouble for a simple word.

I was in a very grotesque vehicle. Bentley 8-Litre, I think. I'm pretty sure that I know my cars.

London was in the driver's seat, the cute, feminine glasses on her face stood still as the car continued to be controlled, the inertia almost absent as to par with the casual speed of the vehicle, while I sat still in the rear passenger seats, by myself, carrying multiple dossiers and a leather messenger bag with me, all neatly set on my lap. Losing such would be a career ending situation; I chuckle to myself as I think about it more.

"We're here." London smirked, opening the driver-side door for her to exit the vehicle. 

I look through the front windshield to find a solid cement wall, grainy in texture, and bland in color. Just right before I could exit the car, the door opens wide enough that it looked like it could fit some cattle out. Beside the door stood London and Illustrious, both looking at me, smiling.

The Eagle Union, the place I recently came off of out of my annual rotation, after a month of stay, had not seen a solid stream of food supplies recently, as of right now, offering a large box of ration bars and chicory lettuce was the best they had; delicious meals went sporadic, scarce.

I look at London through the car window, her head only visible as the height of the car combined with the door blocked the rest of her body. "Thank you." I greet, as a sign of respect.

Illustrious exhaled, holding her other hand as she stood in front of me. "Commander..." She assured herself. "Welcome back to the Royal Navy!" 

I let out a proud grin, holding my belongings tightly. "Good to see you too, Illustrious." I reply, brandly.

If only the plans for the Combined Port had finished, then I needn't to travel kilometres upon kilometres, a simple stroll through the imaginative stone route could've done too good. 

Without notice, the two girls turn around, walking away from the car upon change of sight. "Come on." Illustrious added, turning around, gesturing me to follow along using her head, smiling like a saint.

I make my way towards them, right in between the middle of the two girls, to be exact. "...Hup!" I exclaim, emphasizing an effort to step forth, my dossiers still intact.

Illustrious exhales, quite possibly in emotional response. "So, I've heard that the Eagle Union is living off rations now..." She stated, turning her head to me. "Are you feeling hungry?" 

I sigh in response. "Yes, and some lettuce of sort. It's very bitter." I cringe, thinking about it even more.

Illustrious frowns, both with her mouth and her eyes. "Oh my, poor you..." 

She turned pale, full of sympathy. Although it wasn't a huge deal, as I still remained myself, the fact that the nutritional value over the taste took over, she still found the fault, as she looked eager to help.

I pat Illustrious' hand, in the middle of the pathway in which we were walking, my eyes away from her physique, but to my front, seeing the rest of the familiar walkway that had lead to the Royal Navy's headquarters.

"Perhaps a Kit-Kat would do good." London chuckled, coming back to the zone as she reached into her coat's pocket, handing me what might be the best snack to ever sit on store shelves. "Here~" She smiled, handing it to me.

I unwrap the chocolate with quick hands, as the two women watch me eat it all in the same time, forgetting the rule of breaking it to individual wafers. The sight of me enjoying good food was also enough to get Illustrious on her feet again, smiling dearly.

"You girls are too nice." I chuckle, wiping the chocolate shmuck away from the corner of my mouth, sparking the others to giggle along.

And that summarized my life as a commander, tiny victories outside the field with plenty celebrating, huge triumphs on the ocean level with a prolonged oppression of regret. We were just vessels of hope, fighting beliefs that our bullets have awakened, on the sea of desperation, humanity, and fear. 

I exchanged a small smile with Hood, who stood in front of two, shrine-like doors, hands professionally behind her back, all prepared for a meeting. It looked like there had been more than enough to celebrate, a welcome addition, making it more than just a meeting.

"Famished, commander?" Hood chuckled, pointing at the wrapper poking out of my pocket. "The maids have prepared a full-course lunch for all who attend, Commander. Maybe you can have your fill there~" 

A buzzing sound filled the air. It had been a while since I had heard of that specific ring, a couple months back, I believe. 

The doors opened right in front of us, showing a grand looking wooden floorway with a straight, red carpet in the middle, intersecting to the rest of the hallways and corners. It was just like I remembered it, how I'd walk through the hallways at midnight popped up in my head, enjoying the sight of the moon through the catalogue of windows.

In the depth of the hallway sat a table, chairs included, of course. It looked like it was for chess, or for small outings with coffee. Instead of those two, there sat a handgun, multiple counts of bullets scattered across the tabletop, and two elegant hands, navigating through the dangerous mess, sorting each to their own part.

"Sheffy, what did we say about doing this here...?" Hood scuffed. "The children are going to be very curious once they see those, and I am not going to be very happy once I hear the words 'full metal jacket' coming from their mouths!" 

Hood sounded like a mother, although it does make sense, for her personality is one thing, but it sure did sound out of the ordinary for us. 

"I apologise, Madame Hood." Sheffield gasped, standing up from the chair, almost knocking it over, taking a bow in front of us immediately afterwards. "I'll take these away now."

Illustrious sighed. "If anyone of us catches you like this again, I'm afraid we have to report you to the head maid." Clutching her wrist, looking at her with sharp eyes, she tried to look intimidating, luckily for her, it was enough to send Sheffield over, ashamed of herself.

Firearms and guns were obviously supposed to be kept locked in until instruction, for who knows what may happen in a risk of an accident, and as commander, I was sure to help enforce such rule.

However, being scolded by two motherly figures should be more than enough for now. 

Sheffield and I share a blank look, only leading to her flushing, carrying what used to be a heaping scatter of metal around her arms, scurrying away to the left side of the corner. 

Hood sighed, folding her hands right on her chest. "Now that's taken care of, we have an important lunch meeting, commander."

The girls start walking once more, Illustrious taking ahold of my wrist, guiding me throughout the walk.

I remained confused as to why she had to do that, but I still let her, despite my confusion. Maybe it was because I didn't like seeing a frown on someone's face, or something else that I have a limited knowledge on.

A melodic knock begun as Hood's hand retracted from a door of matching fashion, behind the door, clattering and chatter could be heard.

"This is where I stop~" London smiled, stepping back from the large door Hood had brought us to, soon found skipping away from our vicinity. 

The doors open as Hood continued knocking and a silence grows, revealing a plethora of Royal Navy ships, casually sitting down beside each other in a grand table, as well as a handful of maids, walking around with trays in their hands, serving food to their comrades.

"Ahaha! Hood and the others have arrived, everyone." Queen Elizabeth, childishly downing a glass of water, exclaimed, pointing at us.

The maids, led by head maid Belfast, walk towards us in unison, formally bowing right in front of us, lifting their dresses up in orderly fashion. "Greetings, commander." They all say.

"Please sit right beside Wales, commander." Hood smiled. "She practically begged me to reserve that seat for you." She chuckled, pulling a chair for her to sit on.

I make my way across the table and onto the chair right beside the Royal Navy's very own Prince of Wales, which was in one of the edges of the large table. My presence was enough to make her smile brightly, exchanging a friendly giggle before being interrupted, us getting served an appetizer.

"Oh, finally." I exclaim, digging in the egg yolk and into the rest of the pie using a serrated butter knife, impaling the food using my fork and pushing it into my mouth.

Illustrious, sitting across me, giggled at the sight of me eating, proudly watching me over while talking to Queen Elizabeth, who required a conversation with her, chattering and chattering about how 'great' she was on the sortie that had been authorized about a week ago.

The sortie wasn't even a sortie, but it was actually a regular training session, only to be interrupted by a Siren; Observer. They managed to drive her away, and since then, no Siren activity had alarmed us... yet.

How she had the guts to call it a 'sortie' bugged me hard, but slapping a faction leader across the face would be very immoral of me, albeit many people had similar feelings. 

"How long are you here for, darling?" Wales whispered, resting on her forearms as she looked at me, waiting for the answer.

"A week, or so." I reply, still chewing.

Wales sighed, sitting upright once more to sip from her glass of water. "I see." Her mass of golden hair rested on her face, despite being fixed to her liking, letting out a click of a tongue in irritation, swiping some of her locks back where they belong.

The sound of loud glass-tapping broke the chatter, with Queen Elizabeth childishly downing a glass of water, clearly out for attention.

"Commander, now that you have arrived, I think that it will be time to unveil the plan which we have forged beforehand." She spoke with pride, holding a clutched fist on her chest. "As you may have noticed, we are currently planning a large scale exercise with the Eagle Union once Georgia is in active service. Until then, we have to defend ourselves in the case of an attack."

"Since there is the constant threat of an attack from the Ironblood, we decided to use your knowledge and tactical understanding for an exercise with our fleet." Warspite, sitting right beside her like always, added, clearing her throat to allow the Queen to explain further.

“I thought about sending you out with the second fleet, lead by Hood.” Queen Elizabeth said, gesturing slightly to her side where Hood was sitting.

“We have planned to send you to the outer perimeters of our waters to conduct a few tests, since we never had the experience to train our newest shipgirls in a large exercise like that." She stopped to catch her breath, as to equal with her lightning-fast words. "Also, we have the plan to meet Enterprise and her fleet once the first few exercises are finished and Washington has recovered from her injuries."

Speaking of Enterprise, she did mention something about the Royal Navy once, a day before I left again I believe...

Queen Elizabeth continued talking, a plan that I'm sure she memorized from someone else. I know that she didn't come up with this, must've been someone from this table. "I know that many things are at stake, especially looking at the worrying situation of the Union. However, the Royal Navy is willing to support the cost of the exercise fully, only if the Eagle Union wishes that way, of course. A financial crisis should not hamper our deep trust in the Union and her so brilliant commander.”, Queen Elizabeth said, then raised her glass, asking for a toast as she twirled it around, the bubbly contents spinning like clothes in a dryer.

“May the exercise be successful and improve not only our tactical knowledge, but also the deep connection to the Eagle Union and the commander himself.” Warspite stood up, clinking her glass to Her Majesty's.

Alright, a toast it is then. I guess that I should stand up now.

I stood up, slowly bringing my glass right in front of me, moving it closer so that it was about an inch or less away from the rest of the two.

It was my turn to speak. “I am honoured to conduct such an exercise with Her Majesty and I respect that you trust me to such an extent. May the exercise be successful and the rewards rich.”, I brandished, all of the other shipgirls on the table raised their glasses too, waiting for my last words.

I whispered. “And may we always be victorious.” 

Repetitive clinks and clanks occured, just like how it was supposed to be. Some even managed to spill out of the glass, despite it being tall-rimmed.

The lunch continued the moment we sat back down, a faint chatter of the shipgirls with collision of plates and silverware. I, meanwhile dug myself into the meal, the main course this time, while taking the many thoughts I had come in the room with into the back of my head. And people say the cuisine of the Royal Navy is grotesque and disgusting. Pssssh…this hit the spot perfectly.

I was already planning the next steps, assigning several shipgirls to specific actions. 

Originally it had been planned to let Georgia mimic a battleship of the Ironblood, so that the Royal Navy could prepare for a war. But since the crisis had kept the Union anchored and the Royal Navy needed help nonetheless, I would have to improvise. 

I got the note that I would be assigned to the second fleet lead by Hood, but I didn't know the full layout. 

Hood would lead us, a light cruiser as her guard. Maybe Sheffield or Belfast, one of both for sure. And there would be a carrier also, most likely Unicorn, because the rest were assigned with commissions and/or recovery teams. Only question was, if we would get a second battleship in line. And even then, who…?

I glanced over to Prince of Wales, twirling her hair in circles. She must've noticed as she looked at me in no time, the phrase, "Yes, commander?" Was written all over her face.

“What is the matter?” She spoke, placing her fork down.

“I'm just thinking about the participants of the exercise. I can't imagine that the Queen or Warspite would go out for training, they will lead the navy at all times. That raises the question if I would get the chance to exercise together with you." I spoke, watching her response. Normally it was prohibited to exercise with people who stood close to the commanding person, that rule was there for everyone. And since I was pretty close to her, that would mean that I would have to file some more papers. Or, if the Queen as well as Washington vote on it together, then it should be allowed.

“Her Majesty asked me if I would be willing to exercise together with Hood, albeit being my first time hearing this plan." She gave me the look of a strategist, pausing the lunchtime mood for a second. "And maybe I will get a chance to show you what I can really do...hehe~" Wales smiled, squeezing my thigh a little from underneath the tablecloth. 

Indeed, it would be a chance that I would see her in battle for the first time. I had gotten many reports from her earlier exercises within the Royal Navy, but it hadn't been that many overall. She wasn't that long in service, she was one of the youngest shipgirls the Royal Navy had at hand. 

“Seems like we will have to conquer some paperwork though…”, I mumbled, looking at the chatty flagship of the Royal Navy. 

She and Hood probably had the most authority in the Royal Navy (other than Warspite and her Majesty, of course) and I was merely the only person who could give them commands, especially since now they were sending me on an exercise together with Prince of Wales. An exercise to prepare for a war.

Wales turned back to me as I sat, tapping the tabletop beside me. “Just meet me after this, then we should be able to get everything done. After all, I should help my commander.” She smiled, swiping another streak of hair  from her face. 

I overheard a few words coming from the Queen, followed by a muffled chuckle from Hood. Needless to say that I had the urge to turn to the side, seeing that the two were seemingly just talking about me. Or us. But that was just a possibility---, I could be paranoid, or just plain selfish.

"You are to be dismissed, all of you." What sounded like Warspite spoke, silencing the table. "Please leave your dinnerware to the maids."

We all stood up in a matter of seconds, people with valuables taking whatever they owned into their shoulders and/or hands, and the chairs being put back in neatly, despite Edinburgh's pleads to stop them from doing it, as she insisted us about her maid duties.

I found myself walking out of the doorway, standing on the solid wooden parts of the floor, away from the smooth red carpet. I'd figure that I lost my directions to the office, so I thought that waiting for Wales would be for the good.

After a long, spreaded line of shipgirls exiting the dining room, Wales finally showed up, conveniently walking from the back of the line, arms around Unicorn, who walked beside her.

"We've got work to do, Wales." I chuckled, taking Unicorn to my hands. "Like you said….?"

"Mhm." She responded, walking right in front of me, before turning around by her waist, questioning. "Wait, have you forgotten your way to the office?" 

"I may or may not…" I awkwardly let out a chuckle, stiffly walking beside her.

Unicorn jumped in excitement, slightly squeezing her Uni by the neck. "I can show Big Brother where the office is!"

"Lead the way." I smiled with nothing else as I watched her pace down the hallway.

I looked through the window, a perfect view of the seaside and a handful of other shipgirls doing their thing off-duty. It was something I saw similarly in the Eagle Union, but at the same time, probably the same at the Axis as well, I can bet on it.

The ocean looked blue, and is blue, but I often think about the greasy black streaks of flame that leak out of the shipgirls' riggings from time to time. Sure, it was uncomfortable, even unneccessary, but I wanted to. It was like biting fingernails to me. 

It's weird. As much as it hurt me to see a shipgirl get brutally tormented and mangled, I still want it to happen. 

Or what if I get brutally annihilated first, after all, whenever it's sortie time, I seem to be the only vulnerable one. 

Let me see...Formidable's out there in the garden with her cassette player as always, Dido and Sirius seem to struggle with under-the-sun pushups, both of their swords planted onto the earth, and Belfast seems to have a problem with weeds. Sounds about right.

Gosh, this place is running with continuous sparkle. I don't see a speck of dust or mold anywhere… Oddly makes me envious, but I guess that God wanted it this way.

I had work, right. Work. I'm probably off course now.

The office was right in front of me, one of the double doors open, with light of similar hue from outside peeping through. The office must've been set up for me already.

Wales hardened, peeking her head out between the doors. "Commander, these papers won't do good if you keep lingering over there." She scoffed, rolling her index towards me. "Come on!"

I made a rush to the room, the paperwork that I expected to be in masses turned out to be a little hill, two dozens if my eyes don't deceive me. Alright, now let's see.

...

From: USS Georgia.

To: The Commander.

The damage has left me a floating liability to the fleet for the past few days. Permission to take temporary leave? I apologize, since I was planned to exercise in the coming days, I sat together with Enterprise only earlier to discuss change.

Enterprise approved of my request, however she has instructed me to ask of yours, as well.

Yours truly.

…

Ah, yes. Georgia, the pride and glory of the Union. Well, at least she was supposed to be. She was still in training and had problems with her rigging, as well as her power. Additionally, she had taken damage from an earlier encounter, which came completely out of the blue. 

She got ragdolled by an Ironblood branded shark-type rigging, as reported by Vestal, who was in the scene of the occurrence. Who mauled her, still remained a mystery. Since the Ironblood had stayed in their bases most of the time, we had little information on who were sent out, summarizing the fear on some of our ships.

Joint fleets, commission findings, battle reports all the same, blah.

This was the stuff in which I had to ordinarily keep daily watch of, being repetitive was the only downside available.

What else could be waiting here for me…?

From: USS Enterprise

To: The Commander.

Commander, I hope that your transfer to the Royal Navy was pleasant. Like we planned earlier, I will try to get my fleet moving as soon as possible, but we have encountered more serious problems. Since Georgia got injured in the last few days and Washington is still in recovery, we lack battleships which can be assigned to the exercise. I would suggest that we postpone the whole exercise for two weeks, so that we can repair all of the damage and evaluate further actions. 

I am sorry that this message only arrived you this late, but I hope that the Queen and you will understand the more than dire situation of the Union at the moment. 

Kind regards.

…

Enterprise, worrying as always. Since the day Washington had been injured, she had taken command of the fleet, maybe even the entire faction. It was the first time that an aircraft carrier commanded as most of the time it was a battleship who did. But, I was faithful that she was more than fitting for that role.

The situation in the Union however, made the planned exercise more than difficult to execute.

The Queen had suggested that they would meet up with Enterprise's hand-picked fleet once my fleet with Hood was underway. But if no battleship was in a state where they could leave harbour, the whole planning would be thrown over. There could be no one which could mimic a battleship of the Ironblood, I would have to improvise. Another thing of my duties, only one aspect in which I don't bring up much.

The next letter had a different stamp on it, seemingly it had been flown in from a different part of the world.

From: USS Laffey.
To: The Commander.

Dear Commander,

As ordered, I am currently in transit for the Atlantic to join the exercise with the Royal Navy. However, I have picked up strange occurrences around the base which can only be explained one way. As I set out to sortie, I spotted traces of ships to the south, seemingly it was a small force of the Sakura. I decided not to follow them since I would need to arrive on time, but I thought that it would be a good thing to let you know. I don't know how many ships they were exactly, but I can guess that they were around five. 

Judging from their traces, I can only assume that it was a major force, maybe battleships and carriers. 

It is too early to judge, I know, but seeing that force head to the south is worrying me. I know that the Sakura have gotten into an alliance with the Ironblood, and that our reconnaissance has picked up several missing ships from their base. You of course draw your own conclusions, but I would suggest that they plan something behind their backs.

I have sent Enterprise a letter as well, but I doubt that it will arrive early enough.

-Laffey.

...

There is no way that she wrote that. Who was she with when this was written?

Anyways, a force of the Sakura heading south. I cocked my head upwards and glanced at the huge wall-printed map, checking the proposed position of hers with known bases of the Empire.

She had been in the middle of the ocean, not a single island or similar in reach. The only one had been the one of the union. So, the Sakura must have been transiting. 

The only question left was from where were they moving?

I checked the position of the bases from the sakura and lined them up with the sighting. Seemingly, they had taken an exact straight until they would meet land. I let out a frown and looked closer, seeing that they would scrape past the edge of a continent. They were transiting into another ocean, they were leaving their own waters. Jeez, that's worrying.

The Sakura liked to stay in their own waters as much as possible. Heck, they might've never left. Maybe Laffey was right. That they were passing the waters of the Union to reach the Ironblood. That was very worrying. If the Ironblood got support of the empire, then the Royal Navy would have no way of winning in the case of an attack. It would be just too much. 

The Queen and I would probably require a long talk with each other...

With the Ironblood commissioning more and more powerful ships by the second, the Sakura Empire mobilising through waters, the Eagle Union stuck in harbor, and the Royal Navy being the only one operating, yeah, this calls for some serious worry and heavy brainstorming. Perhaps Wales could give me some help with this.

"Oh my, finished so fast?" Wales spoke, opening the blinds, revealing a darkened purple hue in the light.

I rub my face using both of my hands, closing my eyes as I instinctively look back at her. "No, not really. I need your help."

Her footsteps went light, before her shadow grew beside me, with her bending over to my side, very close to my face. "Perhaps you should leave these to me, after all, the trip must've left you very tired…"

I moved her off, slouching my back. "Alright…" I shook her by the shoulders, before finding myself on the other side of the doorframe, walking out quietly.

I don't know if she waved me out or not, but her shadow from afar seems to tell. 

Alright, now do I remember my way to my bedroom….?

Chapter Text

The Queen shook her head, tapping on the side of her desk with a pristine, black fountain pen, a pen very common amongst the Royal Navy due to its said 'elegance.' Looking out of the window to her side. She brainstormed about her new plans, the plans that would specifically influence the new exercise. I sat in front of the desk, waiting for her to finish. I knew that the following actions would take some time to be thought through, but it was necessary. More than ever. She grunted and sighed, before finally looking at me.

“So Enterprise says that her fleet isn't ready at the moment?” Her Majesty asked leading me to raise my hands a bit, answering her as politely as possible.

“She didn't say it that way, there is a small difference. She says that no battleship is ready for action. Since Georgia and Washington are both not in current duty, we will have only carriers and cruisers at our disposal." I stopped for breath, and a time for mental processing. "That is enough for a small exercise, but not enough to prepare for an eventual war with the Ironblood. We can never mimic a battleship of them, at least not for the time being-"

The Queen interrupted. "We could let Prince of Wales do that, but her abilities are limited and she doesn't know how to fight the way the Ironblood are doing. A reason why this exercise got planned in the first place.”

Huh...this little girl seems to have alot underneath that psuedo-elegance she boasts around.

“So what is your plan? Just stop the whole exercise altogether, or push forwards and use the limited resources we have? Am I allowed to remind you that the Ironblood can strike at any moment?” The Queen asked, her eyes lighting up in readiness.

Even though she was so calm, I could see the emotions inside her. She didn't like when I crossed through her plans, all of the planning which was getting undone now. But I couldn't blame her. It was hard work to plan an exercise, even though it looked so small from the outside. And throwing all of the plans over was even more work. It was in the interest of us all to change as few things as possible.

“My plan is to assess the current situation and plan accordingly. It isn't an exercise just for the shipgirls after all, it is also for us. We were the head of command." I slowly intensified the tempo, showing her my natural aggression as a participant of war. "Now imagine, we are suddenly in a war. The Union gets attacked by the Sakura, making it impossible to get the battleships moving. At the same time, the Ironblood attack us, and we are forced to react. Now, how do we repel an attack from then without the support of the union? How should we do that? Well, I can think of only one answer.”

“And that would be?”

“We have to get all of the current shipgirls moving. I have the capabilities to do that. That would be the fitting reaction for a war. Now, we can only use the shipgirls which are active anyways. It is an exercise after all. Blowing even more nonexisting money for an exercise would not make sense.”, I answered, trying to connect all of the dots as fast as possible. It was hard to keep track of everything, but that was my job after all. My job as the Commander.

“According to your plan, we should keep the exercise, right?”

“I would think that way. Of course it is not good that we don't have a battleship on our side, but a heavy cruiser will also work. The union however has all of their heavy cruisers stuck on land, we only have a few at our disposal. Maybe I can get Cleveland from the union to join us, but she is currently on the other side of the union at the moment. She would arrive only a few days later than expected.”

“But would a light cruiser be enough to mimic a battleship?”

“Probably not, but that is the situation anyways. She may be the only one which isn't in an active fleet at the moment and who is not somehow well known to the royal navy.”, I answered.

Queen Elizabeth rubbed her forehead, messing up her fringe. “What are the ships the Union has planned for this exercise?” She asked.

I dug a bit in my mind, memorizing the constellation of the fleet which Enterprise was commanding at the moment, comparing it to all of the shipgirls which were ready in service.

“We planned to have Washington lead Enterprise, Ranger and Georgia together with the Cleveland-class and a few Fletchers against us, to simulate a small attack force of the Ironblood. However, that plan has fallen right now anyways. If I count only the working ships right now, we only have four. Enterprise, Ranger and Washington as well as Georgia. All of the other shipgirls are either bound at shore because of the crisis or because they are on the other part of the world." I rapped.

“That force has shrunk down significantly, but that isn't my main concern. After all, the union is able to defend themselves. However, the Sakura are worrying me.”

“How so? Are they exercising again?”

“It is even worse. They are leaving their own waters for a transit into the territory of the Ironblood.”, I said.

The Queen looked at me in surprise, not believing what she just heard.

“The Sakura are moving? Are you sure about that? I cannot believe that they would do that just out of pure fun!" The Queen began pacing herself out of worry. "They have something planned for that. Is that information reliable?”

“It got sent to me from Laffey, a destroyer currently heading for the canal. Her writing is rather strange, but I can imagine that a different shipgirl wrote and sent that for her since she was in open waters for quite some time by now.”

“And the size? Are we expecting a whole fleet?”

“She estimated only a handful of them, but all of them seemed to be rather big. Maybe carriers and battleships or heavy cruisers. That remains to be seen, since we are not allowed to monitor their waters closer. The axis had gotten more and more hostile towards the exercises of the union. They can just peek over the horizon with planes, but get spotted in return immediately. The Axis have a great technological advantage over us.”

“And yet we have to win a war somehow. If one comes. But seeing the latest actions, we can only assume it that way.” She sighed, almost losing herself due to her gradual impatience, especially from the stress this conversation had started.

“Have I missed anything?”

“Indeed you have. We have gotten a few reports from spies within the Ironblood base. And they have reported more than worrying happenings.”

“And that would be?” I asked.

“Tirpitz as well as Bismarck have joined together for a meeting which lasted several days. Shortly after that, they readied all available shipgirls and the cruisers departed in open seas, doing speed trials. Hipper seemingly got an upgrade. And that isn't even everything. They got Graf Zeppelin out of testing.” She said, looking for a reaction of mine.

“What did Illustrious say?”

“Deadly. Even if we combine all of our carriers, we might struggle to fight only against her. And that might be the only way we could defeat her. If I count the amount of improvements on their capital ships, I seriously doubt that our planes could get through their first defense. It might be lethal for us to even attack a destroyer of them.”

“So, they really are preparing for war.” I summarized.

“Not that this would be new, but the evidence gets more and more by the day. It wouldn't surprise me that we would see a battleship of them departing soon, together with a bit of support for trials. If that happens, we may have a full on war. And you know the consequences. What that would mean for us.” The Queen said, looking into my eyes.

I rubbed my eyes. It would be the end of the Royal Navy and the Union. The Axis would march straight through our defenses, without even blinking. Their shipgirls were scarily powerful, they had more power than any shipgirl in the world. The only shipgirl which could keep pace with them was Georgia, but she wasn't in a state where she could fight a war. And even if. The Axis had dozens of shipgirls with that power on their disposal, while again, we only had one.

“Do you have any plans for that? How are we supposed to fight against them?" So many questions rolled out of my mouth.

“I have faith in my fleets, but I am also very realistic. And let's just look at the facts. My sister and I are not new, the same goes with Hood. Prince of Wales is quite new, and she isn't quite proven in battle, unlike the ships of the Axis. They had plenty of opportunities to train with Sirens, we can only hope to train each other. And the current exercise is near breaking. If a war would come now, the Union would be forced to fight with only a fraction of their forces, since nearly all of the shipgirls are stuck in harbour.”

“Then we can't let the Axis attack the harbours.”

“And how? You have barely enough resources to get the main fleet underway, but even that one has problems, leadership being the main one. Don't get me wrong, Enterprise is a capable woman, but Washington is more experienced in leading a fleet. She is still the flagship.”

“If a war would come at this moment, I could activate several emergency protocols. That would mean that the state would take on loans to get the resources required. That way, most of the fleet would be ready within a week. A week until all of these shipgirls are ready for action.”

“And what can happen in that week? A battle can be over in an hour, the entire home fleet could be sunk until then. The axis would only need a few days to cross the ocean, then the union would be vulnerable. They couldn't fight back. Not to mention the threat of the Sakura. They could set their carriers and battleships close off your coast without you noticing, they would strike completely out of the blue. And emergency protocols can never prevent that. A war is too quick for papers.”, the queen said. I nodded. The danger was there. Maybe the war would be over before we could realise it. The axis could run over our fleets within a day or two, then the mainland would be vulnerable.

“Lets just hope that we will have some time to prepare. That we will have some time to get all of the decisions right.”, I said, looking down, thinking again.

“Lets just hope that.”, the queen mumbled, looking out the window. “Lets just hope that.”

She remained silent for a bit, I dug in my mind. What should I do? What were my possibilities? I had nothing to fight in a war, I could only resume like planned. The exercise would fail if there would be no battleship of the union present, it wouldn't open a way to fight the Ironblood. We could only see and hope that the Ironblood wouldn't strike until the more than uncertain situation in the union had been resolved. I needed time to think. But time was rare. Enterprise was scheduled to arrive in two days, she would leave harbour the next morning. Even if I made the decision now, a letter would not reach her on time.

But was it necessary to blow the exercise? It wasn't just so that we couldn't fight against the Ironblood, but also that the shipgirls of the royal navy learned to fight under my command. Especially the second fleet needed that, since they had so many younger ships in their command. Even if it didn't help in an eventual war, it would help to understand me. I knew that my commands seemed wrong and strange sometimes, but I always had a bigger plan. And for these plans to succeed, I needed everyone to listen to me.

The exercise was necessary. I would plan the role of Enterprise and her fleet newly, but I would get it to work. She would transit her with Ranger and a few destroyers, Laffey being one of them. Maybe Cleveland would join us later, if she conserved fuel. If I would send a message out right now, it would reach her only in two days, when Enterprise would reach the land of the Royal Navy. And then, she would have to transit through the canal alone, with the possible force of the Sakura on her heels. That would be dangerous. A lone light cruiser in the open would be an easy target, especially for ships of the Axis. They were immensely powerful. So powerful that I had real fear of them.

Maybe Enterprise could mimic Graf Zeppelin, Prince of Wales might get a bit of experience in aerial warfare. Additionally, the destroyers could mimic one of the Axis, maybe one of those destroyers that have Z's in their names. They were a real danger too, one of them could sink a battleship easily. At least if the shipgirl didn't know how to react.

I looked back up and onto the Queen, realising that she was studying my face the whole time.

“You are planning again, aren't you?”, she asked, hiding a faint smile.

“I may have an idea how we could rescue the whole exercise.”

“And that would be?”

“We just continue like planned. If a war would come, then we have to be prepared. And now is the only chance to do that. If we cancel the exercise now, then we would have some serious problems in the future.”

“So your call is to just resume like planned?”

“That is correct. I will have to adapt the whole tactic of course, but that is my role as a Commander. You can’t plan ahead in a war anyways. We will commence like previously stated. Enterprise will leave the bases of the union tomorrow morning, we can expect her in two to three days. In the meantime, I will send a message to Cleveland and order her onto this side of the Union."

“However, it might take more than a week until she is here. Until then, we might have enough time to at least conduct a few tests with our own fleet. I will plan that ahead also. But otherwise, I would just continue like planned. It is the best thing to do right now. For all of us.”, I said, looking for a reaction from the Queen.

Easy to say that my talking made her smile, relaxing her a bit as she slouches back.

“Then so it shall be. I will inform my fleets about the exercise and get the newest reconnaissance from the bases of the Ironblood. But the paperwork is your resort.” She chuckled, looking through the windows.

“I know. If you would excuse me now, I have a fleet to summon.”, I said, standing up. The Queen nodded and waved away.

“Do what you must. I expect you tomorrow morning for the first briefing. Catch some sleep and some food, I am sure that you will need it.”, she said, looking at some papers on the corner of her desk. I indicated a bow and turned around, setting course for my office. I would have to plan. Many, many plans. And all of that for a single exercise.

…

The Queen looked out of the window, holding a small paper in her hands. It was a report from the many shipgirls which the Royal Navy had, scattered all over the globe. It was her duty to keep an eye on them, to look over their duties. And it was her duty to keep them safe.

Not that the commander was out on the open sea, she had to keep an eye on everyone. He would be away for a few days, up to two weeks for now, in that time the Royal Navy needed someone which led them. And that was her job now.

As she just wanted to read the next paper as a faint knock was on the door. She frowned and looked up, irritated by the sudden interruption.

“Come in.” She said, eyes red, and body limp. It had been a few hours since she last slept, since she had a tight sleep. But the constant worry for the commander and the second fleet was making her crazy.

The door opened and Sheffield came in, a small letter in her hand.

She did her formal bow like always, and handed her the letter with two hands, noticeably written down using a typewriter.

The Queen took it and inspected it with her struggling eyes, seeing that it was a report from a distant station. Seemingly they had intercepted a message from the Ironblood; it was rare that they could decipher the messages of the Ironblood, for their encryption was too hard to decrypt for the shipgirls of the Royal Navy. Even the Commander had never been able to figure out some of these transmissions, and he even spent half a decade studying in this department!

She looked over the few words, sending her wake-up energy back into her system.

“Hipper. When Trials are completed, return to base. Plan Asgard will be executed shortly. Prepare for action.”

That was a worrying message. A message which was even more concerning considering the latest event. A message worth the world...

Sheffield cleared her throat, making the Queen cock her head upwards. “There is...this too...”, she said.

“What is it?” The Queen asked.

“Our spies sent us the message that Bismarck, Prinz Eugen and Z46 have left the base. Seemingly, they have prepared for action.” She said, showing such rare emotion.

The Queen nodded and looked out the window again. She could see the blue sea outside, broken by the waves.

The Commander and the second fleet under the command of Hood were already out there, command had been to hold absolute silence to the mainland over radio. She had no way to contact them. The destroyers were too far out. She could only hope that they would meet up with the fleet of Enterprise earlier. And that the Ironblood were only planning something which had to do nothing with the Commander. But if the worst thing came, she would have to way of preventing that. The commander was alone now. Alone with his fleet and a few very capable shipgirls. She had to hope. Hope that the Ironblood were just exercising.

All she could do now, is hope...

Chapter Text

The sound of machines running and tools getting used reflected off the concrete walls of the giant bunker, leaving the water in the middle filled with the reflections of sparks coming from metal and the lights on the ceiling, making it sparkle and shine like no other.

Bismarck centred her cap and walked down the middle, passing machines which were not getting used at the moment, or raw materials which needed to be processed. She walked towards a shipgirl who wore an overall, smeared with different lubricants and paint, partly burned by the sparks of grinding and welding. She had her grey hair bound back, wearing safety-goggles, being hunched over a big metal part of her rigging. Bismarck cleared her throat, getting the attention of the shipgirl.

“Prinz Eugen, report.” Bismarck's words collected Prinz Eugen, turning around and saluting, pulling away her safety-goggles.

She brought Bismarck into a walking state. “Rigging is near completion, it should be ready within this day."

"That's great to hear." Bismarck's cold, deep voice got in the way of Eugen's bright one.

"I overhauled the turrets completely, there should be no malfunctions, howeverrr~" she paused to reveal the mass of a weapon she worked on, "There are only small cosmetic changes which I would make, like painting the tops of the turret red…"

Bismarck pet the iron shark of her rigging, the one laying on the workbench. It was a part of her rigging, a thing which she had to care for; delicate, yet indestructible.

“Any other things which need to be addressed?”

“Uhm… yeah, I would happily take some different torpedoes, since the newest ships of the Royal Navy have become much faster, I would take some faster ones, well, only under your approval, of course~"

Upon purposely inserting an iron rod into Eugen's rigging, helping her out a bunch, the mouth of the shark came to life, producing a small roar as it seemingly yawned. Amused, Bismarck gave out a little grunt, and drew a line with her finger in the air, making the mouth follow like a bizarre pet.

Her amusement wasn't for too long, though. “That should be no problem. As long as you are keeping yourself within your restrictions, you can change your armament to your liking.”

She was there to get reports of all the shipgirls, not to play with their riggings. A viable excuse and order for her to leave.

“Understood.”, Prinz Eugen said, stretching her arms, and as a sign of professional craftsmanship, the rigging was to copy that movement; the metal parts stretched and bent, acting like more limbs of her body.

She had become one with the machine; the machine which was being partly sentient, meanwhile, with Bismarck turned to her back, following self-applied responsibilities, interrupted by Prinz Eugen behind her, speaking out of the blue.

"How's my sister doing out there?” she asked, persuading Bismarck to turn around partly. 

Bismarck seemed patient this time. Like she had always been. “She is doing great. Her new systems are working perfectly fine and she is performing well in our tests." She paused to turn around again. " We expect her to get back here in one or two days."

Prinz Eugen nodded and thanked her, unusually casual about it whilst getting back to work.

And as for Bismarck, she went further down the line, stopping at a small area where a smaller shipgirl was sitting, with that said shipgirl sat on the corner of a workbench, polishing the housing of her sword. 

Her name was Z46, one of the newest destroyers the world had seen. She was insanely powerful for her age and size, she could fight on her own without any problems. Except for when it was top-shelf situations; that's the bigger ladies' responsibilities.

Having the little destroyer immediately notice Bismarck's presence, she took the initiative to guess.

“Report.” Bismarck quietly mouthed, the smaller Z46 nodding in a correct guess. She glided down from the workbench, extending her rigging with ease.

“Everything repaired and serviced, ready for action…" she showed words as short as her. 

Bismarck nodded and stepped a bit closer, checking if the rigging was in a good enough state. But the small girl had done a great job. The steel was sparkling in the light of the lamps overhead, only a few stains of oil were showing that it hadn't been on the sea in the last few days. 

Bismarck's hopes and sense of power only grew. “Good work. Expect deployment soon; I am still waiting for a word from Tirpitz.”

"I've heard, from your talk with Eugen…"

"Hm." She stepped back a little, watching the little destroyer turn back to work. "You have good ears…"

Looking over her shoulder, precisely at the other shipgirls doing their work, it was not enough. The Axis had the technological advantage, in contrast to the Union and Royal Navy. The Azur Lane had more, but weaker ships. Even a single cruiser of the Axis could wreak havoc on a singular fleet of the Union. 

If they would be out in the open again, especially since the Union had major problems, now they were stuck in harbour.

She walked a few steps to the side and extended her own rigging, the giant mouths of the sharks roaring slightly. It had been the first time in some days that she got the opportunity to play with her rigging again, since  the last few days had her attend meetings and other important things, most notably looking over the state of the entire fleet. 

It was a tedious and time-consuming job, looking through all of the reports and the whole paperwork. she had sent out Hipper for a new speed-trial, since she had gotten a better rigging now. Additionally, she had looked over the progress on Graf Zeppelin.

The woman was still struggling to keep her rigging under her control, the power was just too much at some points. She could use it for some days, but then it was out of her control again for the rest of the week. 

There was still much work to do left, but that needed time; something they can afford easily especially since the Union now was immobilized by now and the Royal Navy was struggling to keep its head over the water against the Sirens, the Axis had more than enough time to get the great plan into action. 

The steel to her side groaned a bit as she stretched out her right arm, making the mouths out of steel look up into the light. The barrels of her cannons bopped up and down, the turrets training according to where she pointed. Her rigging was one of the strongest the world had ever seen, she and her sister were the most powerful shipgirls alive.

Then there were the carriers of the Sakura coming closely behind them, and only then came the first shipgirl from the Eagle Union. 

Washington. The flagship of the Eagle Union and the entire hope of the Royal Navy to fight against the Sirens. But even they had gotten an upgrade. Prince of Wales was the next generation of shipgirls, she was the newest one the Royal Navy had at hand. 

She was the one which should defend the country in case of war. She was the one which would die first, then Washington and Enterprise would follow. 

She and Tirpitz had done many planning in advance, they had planned the slightest detail. How they would defeat two entire superpowers at once, how they would take the control of the entire globe. It would be glorious!

Their advantage would be their technology, leaving the Royal Navy having to rely on old dreadnoughts like Queen Elizabeth and Warspite or completely outdated battlecruisers like Hood. They had no chance of standing against the Crimson Axis. There was only one problem. And that person was the biggest threat.

The Commander. He was the one which led the shipgirls into victory, his mind was the most precious which was currently alive. He had the ability to think in advance and predict the enemy with astounding precision, he was the one which could be the difference between a defeat and a brilliant victory. 

He was the biggest threat to the Crimson Axis. And that was the reason why Hipper was currently undergoing trials. Bismarck had to know how fast Prinz Eugen could theoretically become, if she could keep pace with Z46. She knew that she herself was fast, but not fast enough to follow the two shortly. She would have to keep her distance.

The Kriegsmarine would have to capture him, they only had to wait. Sooner or later he would transit back to the Eagle Union, then they would strike. He had gotten transported to the land of the Royal Navy last week, since then, the Axis had been prepared. 

Tirpitz and Z46 had shadowed the convoy without being seen, but had decided to not attack them. The forces of the Eagle Union had not been that great, but enough that one might have survived and told the Azur Lane that the Commander was captured. A huge risk.

Both nations needed to think that the entire force had just vanished without any signs of the Axis nearby. It needed to look like an accident, so that the Axis could buy more time.

It would be obvious that the Commander would have been captured after a bit of time, but even a few days could be crucial now. They needed Graf Zeppelin ready and the entire fleet back in safe waters. But most importantly, they needed the support of the Sakura. 

The Empire had recognised that their allies would need some help fighting at two fronts at once, so they had sent a small force from their harbours:

Akagi, Kaga, Takao and Maya. Four shipgirls which would make a great difference in the war. Nagato had decided to send two of their most powerful carriers, since she feared that Graf Zeppelin might have problems facing alone against the fleet of the Royal navy and Eagle Union. And the heavy cruisers of the Sakura were fast enough to escort fast transiting ships, just like carriers. The flagship had made a great decision. 

Someone behind her cleared her throat, catching Bismarck's attention as she pulled her rigging back and turned around, seeing Tirpitz waiting for her. Bismarck uncharacteristically smiled, tilting her head to the side a bit.

“What is it, dear sister?”, she asked. Tirpitz sorted a streak of her hair under her cap, then gave her a small folded paper.

Bismarck smirked like no other. "Ah, there you are!" She paused to take her sister's hand. “We have picked up traces of suspicious activity. You may look into that by yourself, but I have come to a conclusion already.”

Bismarck's smile dissipated back into her signature frown, unfolding the paper along with the drop of her lips. Seeing a small message written in code; they were numbers and letters, small descriptions of the current status of the enemy. 

Only she and Tirpitz could read the system, and only they knew what was going on with the enemy. The flagship nodded in acceptance, taking Tirpitz into a quieter room.

“I need to see a map.” she said, already pushing past her sister and towards a small room to the side of the bunker which was used to plan missions. Bismarck stepped near one map laying on a table, grabbing a few cutouts of ships and placed them on their positions. Tirpitz walked besides her, grabbing the icon of the Commander.

“Here. He is in charge of the Royal Navy at the moment, just like planned. But we have received messages from our friends from Sakura, like you just read.” Tirpitz instructed.

Bismarck, placing the Icon of the Sakura in the middle of the Pacific, objected. “They saw a light cruiser and a destroyer pass right besides them, maybe a planned ambush?” She ruffled her hair afterwards

Tirpitz shook her head. “I don't think that way. I rather believe that they were heading towards the canal and stumbled over our friends by accident.”

“But now comes the worrying part. The entire second fleet of the Royal Navy left shore this morning, together with the Commander and Prince of Wales.” Tirpitz moved, gesturing towards the ships of the Royal Navy. "Word has it that they have special chemistry together, perhaps we could use that, too…"

Bismarck bent over the mapping table, fidgeting with her lower lip. “Nearly their entire force. Only the antiques are left, plus those maids...”

“And the carriers, but they aren't fit for harsh weather yet, at least so I believe.” Tirpitz seethed, watching Bismarck nod and recall the latest weather report. Seemingly a large storm was coming from the north, heading right towards the area where the fleets of the Azur Lane were exercising normally. And it didn't make sense to get Carriers moving if they couldn't launch their planes. 

A moment of silence, refilling water cups, and chair-dragging. They may be sisters, they may love each other, but they definitely don't find amusement an easy prey.

Bismarck broke the silence. "What is with Unicorn, by the way?”

“Left with them. But all of these things could be for an exercise, just like every single year. But now comes the fun part~” Tirpitz played her voice, gesturing at the coast of the Union.

She continued where she left off. “Nearly every single ship which can set sail has left port this morning too, well all except Washington, since they are out in the open now.”

“You know what that means for us, hm?" Bismarck emptied her cup of water, remaining dead silent afterwards since she started looking at the literal army of ships on the open ocean.

That was really bad news. If the Union and the Royal Navy mobilised two fleets at once with the Commander leading them, there were only two possibilities. Either they were conducting a large scale exercise, or they were summoning the fleet for an attack. And there was only one way to counter that.

“Do you think that plan Asgard can be executed in time?” Bismarck patiently asked her dear Tirpitz, who laid her head to the wall. She yawned, yawned loud. “It may be. But even if they are only exercising, then we can't really live in that danger. Hipper is still out there by her own, whilst the reinforcements from the Sakura are still underway." She paused to change her posture, taking another glass of water along with it. "If they decide to attack now, we are risking to lose most of our ships, and then there are still all of the ships from the Union and the first fleet of the Royal Navy ready to attack us. But if we strike now…”

Tirpitz began to say another thing, but then stopped. Not even she knows why, such a shame, especially if it leaves sister Bismarck sighing, rubbing her forehead in distress.

The situation was tense. There was a big fleet summoning in the open ocean, only a small force of her fleet could destroy one of these fleets, but not both of them. 

They could capture the Commander, but then they would have to be quick enough so that the Union wouldn't notice. 

...But if they would execute plan Asgard and capture the Commander, that would mean with the Azur Lane. A full on war. Even if she would decide that now, she would have to inform Nagato and get her own shipgirls ready. She would have to pull Hipper back into own waters and she had to ready a small force herself to attack the second fleet.

“We could eventually run and grab the Commander, then hide in the islands and hope. We would be quicker than the Union, right?" Tirpitz groaned more, eager to see her sister's approval.

She continued, walking closer to dear sister Bismarck to fully express within body language as well. "And since the storm is rolling in, we could use that as cover. However, the only thing is, the Azur Lane is keeping a close eye on us, we might not be able to escape. We would have to return with empty hands, otherwise they would know that we have the Commander.” Bismarck's head posture enlightened, coming with sisterly contact immediately.

“I have a different plan after that, but first we need to get him. If my calculations are correct, then the Union would arrive within two days." Bismarck paused a little, repositioning the toy models on the planning board. "In that time, we have to reach the second fleet, ambush them, grab the dead and injured as well as the Commander and then return.”

“Sounds doable.” Tirpitz played percussion with her chin, walking away from the map involuntarily. “I will contact Nagato about our plans, and get my team moving. I would probably get Prinz Eugen and Z46 to come along too, since they're fast enough to intercept the fleet within that short amount of time without giving their situation away.” 

Bismarck recovered from her strategist's block alongside Tirpitz. “And I will contact Hipper and call her back. We need to get her into own waters as fast as possible.”

  “Do that.” Tirpitz answered, leaving the room completely with main focus steering towards the two shipgirls, who were still caring for their riggings.

They would have to use these riggings shortly, they would have to fight. She swallowed and centered her cap, hearing the beeping of the radio in the air. 

It was the message which Tirpitz sent towards Hipper, the one that will reunite them all again.

“Hipper. When Trials are completed, return to base. Plan Asgard will be executed shortly. Prepare for action."

They were indeed preparing for war. A strange feeling. And yet, she was certain that they would win. Once the Commander was in their hands, then they had no one which could stand against them. They would have to win this fight. But for that, they would have to break peace once more.

Chapter Text

The blue of the was all around the two shipgirls, throwing up water with their heels. The faint roaring of engines in the distance was audible, coming from the few fighters which Enterprise had in the air, protecting them against any enemies. It was better to be safe than sorry, to keep their eyes open. She was still in range of other ships from the union, but she was already setting up lookouts so that she could see any danger lurking in the waves. They weren’t in a war, the peace had lasted for much time now. But it was still better to look out.

The carrier slid her feet over the water, transferring her weight to one side, looking at the other shipgirl which accompanied her. It was Ranger, the only second carrier which the union also had ready. The two were the only major ships ready for action, at least in the Atlantic. There were still a few left in the Pacific, but even these few shipgirls were just a handful. Out of the dozens and dozens of shipgirls, only a few were able to fight. Damn crisis. If that war with the Sirens wouldn’t have been, then their life would be much easier. 

“Have you used that trick I showed you lately?” Enterprise asked, getting a surprised look up from the other carrier. Ranger had been in her thoughts again, the woman was always drifting off into her own mind. She shook her head, making a few red streaks of hair fall into her face.

“I haven’t gotten the time yet.” She said, drifting over the surface to get closer to the flagship. Enterprise sighed and gave the planes in the distance the command to return to her rigging, she had the next ones already on deck, waiting to be launched.

“Well, at least you can have some funsies with your planes.”, she sighed, then rolled her head.

“What do you mean with that?”

“You have at least some left. Mine are all a bit old and a few have already broken down. As soon as we are over the pond I have to get them fixed by Unicorn.” She said, making a mental note that she would have to keep track of the damage. The union was trying to get her ship into the best shape possible but money was sparse. Oil was too expensive to be bought, even the simplest materials were too expensive for the navy. She had to patch her rigging and her planes up with scrap pieces of metal and other things she found, hoping to extend their lives.

The small fighters came back in her direction, their engines roaring happily in the blue sky. There wasn’t a single cloud on the horizon, it was perfect weather for a transit. At least it would be. They had to wait for two shipgirls to show up. The blue aircrafts slowed down and went lower, coming at her with slow speed. She concentrated and used her flight deck to catch them out of the air, being careful not to damage any of the planes. But even though she tried so hard, one drifted off to the side, in danger of falling off and into the ocean. She swore and grabbed the small plane, holding it on its wings.

“There goes another one…" She mumbled, seeing that the landing gear had taken damage. Ranger looked at her with a mix of emotions, cracking a smile.

“Should I lend you one of mine?” She asked, but Enterprise shook her head.

“Nah, Im fine, thanks. There are still a few remaining and ready for action.” She said, throwing the plane into the air, then snipped with her fingers. The small plane burst into a multitude of small cubes, getting sucked up by her rigging. It was the only way she could transport all of these planes, everything else would be impossible. She and Ranger had the abilities to summon aircraft in their hands, they had the ability to strike the enemy far away. And yet, they were vulnerable. Carriers couldn’t take a hit, they were way less armoured than other shipgirls. That meant that they could fall faster in battle, at least when a battleship or a heavy cruiser attacked them.

“You think that they will take long?” Ranger asked, but Enterprise shook her head once more.

“Cleveland sent me a letter that they were close to the end of the canal yesterday evening, so they should arrive here in a few minutes.” She said, then angled her flight deck to make it parallel to the ocean. She concentrated and sent out another flight of planes, this time unarmed bombers. Since the fighters would need some time off now, she had chosen these planes. She loved her planes all equally, but she had to cycle them through regularly.

Ranger sighed and leaned on her rigging, scooting over the surface of the ocean with a slow pace. The two had to wait for a bit now, they waited for the two allied ships to turn up. Cleveland and Laffey, two shipgirls which the commander had ordered to exercise. Even if he didn’t do that, she would have waited for them anyways. It wasn’t wise for two carriers to transit the Atlantic alone, be it in peace or not. Storms and sudden disasters could end horribly when being alone, the more shipgirls were in the vicinity, the better.

The original hope had been that Washington had joined them, maybe even Georgia. But that plan had fallen flat. Washington was injured from a recent incident and Georgia wasn’t ready yet. The entire exercise had been on the brink of cancelling because of that, since the plan of the commander couldn’t have been pulled through. But in the end, he and the Queen came to a plan which would allow them to continue like he intended, be it without the two battleships as escorts. She was happy that she could meet the shipgirls of the Royal Navy once more, the old ladies which had grace and perfection in their blood. The old ladies like Hood and Queen Elizabeth as well as Warspite were the glowing examples of the Royal Navy, the ones which were a sight to behold. Whilst the union had the reputation of being simple and only in masses effective.

The planes roared in the distance once more, only being visible as small dots in the blue of the sky.

“Ah, they are coming.” Ranger said, gesturing behind them. Enterprise stopped dead in her tracks and looked over her shoulder, seeing that two shipgirls were coming right at them, keeping up a great amount of speed. It was Cleveland and Laffey, running towards them at nearly full speed, their feet throwing white water high up into the air behind them. Two shipgirls which were finally reaching them. Cleveland stopped in front of them cheering.

“Hey, what are you girls up to?” She asked, making Enterprise chuckle.

“Not much, how was your transit? Oh, Hi Laffey.” She greeted back, getting only a sleepy wave from the young destroyer. Cleveland exhaled, gesturing to the side.

“Oh boy, you should have seen that. I thought that I would get a heart attack when Laffey said that there were foxes in the area.” She said, making Ranger look up in alarm.

“Sakura? Near your position?” She asked, alarmed. Cleveland nodded.

“I have sent you a letter, didn’t I?” She asked, being irritated. Enterprise calmed her down.

“You did, and I relayed it to the commander. He knows about the situation and promises us that this was by pure accident. They probably went to the coast or went to stretch their legs, nothing too serious. And even if, there won't be a scene. They wouldn’t dare that.” She said, making the destroyer chuckle silently.

“They looked… big.” She said sleepy, then fumbled on the latch of her small bag, pulling out a bottle with her special liquid in it. She opened it on a small notch of her rigging, catching the top of it with ease, taking a little sip afterwards."

“How big?” Ranger asked

“Not too big. Maybe a few cruisers and a battleship, that was it. Since we lack presence in the Pacific, I can imagine that they took a quick stroll over to the other side just to look how it was there.” Enterprise answered, then gestured towards the east.

“So, shall we go now?” She asked, Cleveland nodded, but suddenly let out a growl. She swallowed and held her stomach, then dug her feet into the sea and accelerated.

“Hungry?” Enterprise asked, making the light cruiser nod.

“The last proper meal was weeks ago.” She said, getting another growl from her stomach. Enterprise sighed and nodded. Even food for the shipgirls was scarce these days, they had to live from old and small rations which were year old at some points.

She searched through her uniform, then pulled out a ration bar, giving it to the light cruiser.

“Here, but ration it. I don’t know how long we will take to transit.” She said. Ranger chuckled.

“Ah, don’t be so pessimistic. We will reach the mainland of the Royal Navy within the next two days, then we will have something to eat and some materials to patch ourselves up. No worries.” She said, also picking up speed. The four were slowly gliding over the surface of the ocean towards the east. Enterprise controlled the planes, circling the area around them. These planes were her only weapon, she needed to take care of them.

“Do you have any ideas what the command has planned for us?” Cleveland asked, chewing on one corner of the ration. Ranger shook her head, taking a deep breath.

“We can't know what the Commander is planning, he is too unpredictable for that. We only know what his plan is when everything is over.” She said.

“The Commander is… risking the fleet.” Laffey suddenly said, making everyone frown and turn towards her.

“What do you mean with that?” Enterprise asked.

“We are alone on the ocean, his... exercise is right under the eyes of the Ironblood. We can be... attacked.” The small girl said. Everyone stayed silent for a few seconds, thinking. That was certainly right, they were vulnerable, at least for the passage. But once they linked up with the Royal Navy, it would be suicide to attack them. The combined forces were strong enough to force every shipgirl to its knees.

“Lets just hope that it doesn’t come to an attack.” Ranger said, stroking over the side of her flight deck. Cleveland took another bite off the ration, then folded the foil over and put it in a small bag she had on her uniform, a wrench sticking out.

“He wouldn’t do such a stunt if we were vulnerable.” She said, making Enterprise raise her hands.

“Don’t say that too early, you know that he made a mistake regarding the power of Georgia. And that he gave me command of this force, even though we could have just waited for a week for Washington to recover.

“He knows what he is doing. We are only here to exercise.” Enterprise said, taking on even more speed. The faster they were over the pond, the faster she could repair her rigging, get something to eat and get shielded by the shipgirls of the Royal Navy.

“An exercise in the middle of a storm. I couldn’t be happier.” Cleveland mentioned, making Ranger sigh.

“Another storm?”, she said, shaking her head. “That would be the second one…” She said, but got stopped by Enterprise.

“Girls, cheer up. He knows what he is doing. So don’t just always complain but actually do something. So, pick up the pace, we have a meeting to attend.”

Chapter Text

The sound of the office was nearly silent, apart from the sounds which Queen Elizabeth made on her own and the ever so faint sounds which the wind made against the big windows.

Queen Elizabeth had her head supported by her hands, her elbows leaned on the edge of her big table, looking at the map right across the room. It showed the territories of the Royal Navy and the seas which she and all of the other shipgirls had to guard, on all the edges of Earth. The empire was giant with more areas to access than any other country on the globe. Not a single one was as big. A faint and nearly inaudible knock came from the door, making her look up.

“Yes?” she asked, taking her arms down. The heavy door opened and Belfast stepped through, a few pieces of paper in her hands. She did a small bow and closed the door, making the faint sound of the typewriters in the background vanish.

“I am sorry to interrupt, Your Majesty.” She excused, her eyes lowered while the rest of her body curtsied. The maid walked up to the desk and gave a piece of paper to the Queen. Reflexively, she stepped back immediately.

Queen Elizabeth looked at her with a frown, then read through the only paper she had in her hands. Due to some reason, Belfast still had papers in her hand. The paper in her hands was a report about the situation of all of the bigger units, nothing which was surprising. But what was on the other papers?

“Now, any other reason why you are here?" The Queen gave her face a good warm rub as for the Royal Maid, however, she gave her a stern frown.

“We have received a report that the big storm from the North crossed the area of operations of the Commander and the second fleet yesterday morning, and it's still disturbing them, especially right now. We expect them to be unable to evade since the eye of the storm will be within the area for the next few weeks. To request the current status and eventual emergencies, we asked for a general report of the fleet, hoping that they could report without giving their position away too clearly."

"Okay…?" The Queen gave her an expecting eyebrow. "The report… anything about that?"

"That happened four hours ago. Until now, there is no response.”Belfast sighed in unison with Her Majesty.

“What do you mean no response?!”

“We have not received any confirmation that the message reached its target, nor did we get any message in return." Belfast gave a light nod, with the Queen's face showing a proper reaction expected from the maid's explanation. Normally when something like that happened, the fleet sent a single beep back, too short and subtle to be located, but enough to let command know that they were well and ready for further action.

“Have we any other source of confirmation?”

“We do not." Belfast kept a tense stance on her. "Illustrious was asked to scout any enemy forces in the area, in case they were getting attacked. However, we couldn't see any signs of battle. It was more or less the opposite.”

“How can I understand that?”

“The force of the Ironblood consisting out of Bismarck, Prinz Eugen and Z46 returned to their own waters early, seemingly they were fearing the storm also. However, that was only this morning. We cannot say to what extent they moved within the night.”

“Where was their position?” the Queen asked, giving the zone map a little gander.

Belfast swallowed and with a slap of a stick, pointed at some spots. “They were spotted here, a few dozen miles off our coast, well out of range for our coastal battery and in enough range that our planes would never reach them in time.”

“They are walking right through our front lawn and we can't even do anything against them… the Queen muttered.

“The commander is still in the AO right?”, she asked rhetorically. And with a nod, the question was confirmed as a yes.

“Even if they did 30 knots, which is unlikely, then they would only be able to two thirds of the way and back, they wouldn't come closer than we already hoped. They would have to do like 50 knots to catch the Commander and his fleet, irregarding the giant storm. It is highly unlikely that they have anything to do with the vanishing. Even if, we would have signs of battle on their rigging.”

“Tell Enterprise that she will have to look in the AO for any signs of storm damage. If the storm was so bad that even the Ironblood couldn't return, then I don't want to imagine how bad the damage would be on our shipgirls, even the Commander. Did the Ironblood show any damage from storms?”

“Illustrious couldn't see anything. I guess that they returned before they were injured.”

“Or they are tougher than we expect…”, the Queen mumbled. Such a smart choice of words from a 4'8" pouty Royal leader.

“Tirpitz isn't moving out by any chance?”

“Actually, she is. Why is that of your interest?” Belfast asked.

“I have a really bad feeling about this. Get me the reports about Hipper now and the area in which she was in now!" With a bright yell, she commanded, before heading back to her desk.

Belfast gave one last nod, before hurrying out of the door, whilst Queen Elizabeth took a graphite pen into her hands and began scribbling a few numbers on an empty paper. She had a bad feeling. A really bad feeling about this.

It took only a minute, then Belfast came back giving her a thick folder with the lion of the Royal Navy on the side. “Here.”

“A merchant vessel reported that they had waves in their area which could only come from a ship at high speed, and they saw lights go over the horizon at a high speed also. That was a week ago. They thought that they were unmanned Torpedo boats from the Ironblood, doing their normal patrol. However, Hipper was in the area. Surveillance over the day told us that she was doing 30 knots, the maximum speed for her class. However, if we take her position on the map, there are holes in the night. She was presumed to simply go slow in the night to preserve oil. But if we take that out of account and add her to the sightings of our merchants…” the Queen gave her mind, before scribbling another set of numbers in neat handwriting.

“That would leave us with a high range in the same amount of time. Well, if we look at it now and simply pull everything into the equation, then we have a maximum speed of…”

“...Nearly 60 knots.” she mumbled quietly, before looking at the map. If Hipper could be that fast, then the younger and better in shape Prinz Eugen could deliver the same amount of speed for sure. Z46 had no known top speed, she was a too new unit for such knowledge. And Bismarck was untested too; she was only known to be enhanced quite a bit. If the heavy cruiser and the destroyer could be that fast, then Bismarck had to be that fast too. And that would allow them to go through the storm, strike the Commander and return back into safe waters overnight.

“They could steer towards the fleet whilst being seen, go really fast overnight and through the storm, attack the fleet, return back into open waters and simply act like they were going their known top speed. We would think that they were fleeing from the storm or simply returning home, whilst in reality…"

“They attacked and sank the Commander's fleet.” With fear, Belfast ended up finishing her sentence.

"If Tirpitz is going out now, they have a plan. I don't think that she will be out for blood though. She has something else in mind, and I don't know what. What would be the reason why a flagship would leave her base and go into the channel on her own?“ Another question from Belfast meant another frown.

"If we assume that the Commander and his fleet have been indeed struck by the Ironblood, that would mean war with the Azur Lane. The Crimson Axis would be attacking all of our facilities; they would all be there to fight us and the Union.“

"An adversary which is weak at the moment. The only real units which can act are currently in the middle of the ocean, unable to be reached by us. If the Sakura would be wanting to attack now, they would have the time and the ressources to do that. The Union can’t fight back. They can only sit there and endure. The Commander would need to declare war, then we could take on loans to make the Union running once more. But now that he is out of action…"

"Let's not go ahead of ourselves. We have no real prove that something like that happened. We only know that the Commander and his fleet are not responding, which could also be a result of the storm. Thinking that the Ironblood would be brave enough to capture the Commander and speed right through the channel is foolish. We have to wait until the Commander is indeed declared missing in action, only then we can take measures accordingly. And only then can we be sure that the Crimson Axis has begun a new war.“ The maid reassured her, letting the Queen nod in a light relief. Belfast was right. There wasn‘t a single reason why she had to fear that the Commander was lost. After all, he had Hood and Prince of Wales to his side, two shipgirls which were highly capable, one of which he had the hots for too. So she had to bring it to more than a hundred percent to not only impress her man, but to show capability of warfare.

The Ironblood were sneaky and bland in terms of feelings, yet they were a serious threat. The Royal Navy had many more resources, and the Ironblood had really strong shipgirls. It was even feared by the Commander that even the biggest units could not defeat them.

"Tell Enterprise to scout as soon as they are in our range, tell patrolling shipgirls to keep an eye out for any debris or similar. I want you to keep trying to have contact with Hood, in case they are incapacitated. If they were hit and not indeed captured, then they will head back to land to inform us through radio. If that happens, we need to be ready. Also, we need to have our spies in the base of the Ironblood run extra shifts. We need to know the current weaponry of all shipgirls as well as planned units. I have the fear that they might pull out the big guns soon.“

"Also, the Union needs to watch their backs. We will send over oil if they need it, only that they can monitor the Sakura better. I know that Washington will be ready soon, just as Georgia is. If a war is really coming, then we need to be ready. And we can only pray that the commander only really got lost in a storm and not hurt by the Ironblood. Because if so, we have to fight our biggest war yet without a leader on our fronts.“ She gave her a nice whisper in the end. Belfast nodded in approval and stepped back, immediately heading out of the office and out for the other ships which were keeping contact with the many forces around the globe. They needed to have ears everywhere now, especially when it came to the suspicious movement of the fleets. The Crimson Axis was planning something...

The only question now was, if the first strike had already happened and if the Commander was within their reach. If he still was alive, really. If not, the Azur Lane had great problems on their hands.

Witness greatness under a new light. War.