The helicopter touched down at the pad, its rotor slowing down and coming to a halt. A soldier accompanying them onboard slid the door open, letting in the smell of salt and tropical flowers.
"Hope you all had a pleasant ride" he said with a smile, face blushing and cheeks suspiciously red.
Okada glanced over his shoulder. Well, he couldn't blame the boy for that reaction. Not when you are a hormone-ridden twenty-or-so, sharing the helicopter's interior with Kaga, Souryuu, Hiryuu and a couple of other shipgirls. Blood circulation tends to be... erratic under such conditions. Luckily, he had acquired a certain degree of immunity to that effect.
Plus his summer uniform's trousers were just a bit looser than they should be.
"Thank you private, I think we all appreciated your company"
He let the girls disembark first, giving the soldier a farewell handshake before descending down the deployed stairs. The machine behind him came to back life and took off, heading towards the carrier moored a kilometer or so from the shore.
He briefly wondered how would her incarnation look once she gets fully formed, after decades of service and thousands of people sharing their lives onboard.
Raiushima looked just as he left her a few days ago. This only boosted his spirits, already recharged by that much-needed vacation he had. His backpack filled with Comiket haul, he entered the HQ, wondering how well Fusou handled her duties in his and Kaga's absence.
He was quite surprised to find his office tightly locked. Secretary's office was also closed shut, nobody responding from the other side.
Hm...
The first shipgirl he met back outside was Aoba. Great, if anyone knew where Fusou (or bascially anybody else) was, it had to be the cheerful wannabe journalist. Well, unless they were on the other side of the globe on on their way to the Moon - then she'd take some time to get research done. Like, a minute or two.
"Uhm..." she gave him a puzzled look instead of an answer he expected. "I thought Fusou-san went with you to the mainland?"
"No, of course she didn't" he let out a chuckle. "Yamashiro would never-"
"Didn't Yamashiro-san go with you all as well...? I haven't seen them at all since your departure..."
One half of his mind cursed himself for not making an official announcement about the trip and the effective chain of command, while the second started experiencing the reality at the speed of roughly three WTFs per second.
"Who was running the base then...?"
"Kiso, sir!"
His perception sped up by another WTF per second.
"OK then... do you know when can I find her?"
"At Akashi's, sir! She barely even left that place since she took over!"
"Brilliant. Thanks very much Aoba, see you soon!"
WAT.
Akashi's workshop was... silent. Not in the 'shop's closed!' way. No - there was some eerie atmosphere surrounding the place. Something was very much off.
Especially due to the door inside being wide open.
And if Kiso had anything to do with this, the only person he could surely ask for help (or at least expect to provide it) would be...
"Sure thing, gran-dad-miral! If you're scared of Akashi's place, I'm gonna be there in a minute!"
Tenryuu's chuckle echoed in his ear for a good minute after she disconnected. The girl arrived after a while, her trusty sword strapped to her back.
"Well then, grandaddyral? What's so scary ya need Tenryuu-sama's help?"
She just needs to vent out living with Tatsuta he thought to himself. You'd go bananas too if that psycho was your sister. Everyone would.
"Actually I think the one needing help might be Kiso. I heard some strange noise from inside, and I think I could use your helping hand"
"Oh, that bastard?" Tenryuu cracked her knuckles, grinning. "As clumsy as she is foolish, I see. Lead the way, commander, I'm gonna laugh my ass off when helping her!"
Human brain has a certain perception threshold. For example, movies look so real - and not just like a sequence of flipping images - because above certain frequency brains stops registering individual frames. Other senses work similarly.
For example, his WTF meter started giving out just a constant buzz, instead of several clicks per second.
The workshop was... dusty. As if nobody used it for... a few days, letting the resident specks and metal swarfs settle. Not a situation Akashi would ever allow to happen. Not because she was a neat and clean type - but because her hyperactivity would not allow anything to settle down at all. Hell, he once saw her switch between two screwdrivers when the previos one was still falling to the floor after being dropped.
As they crossed the ground floor and descended to the first basement floor, the eerie feeling only intensified. Smelters, macerators, furnaces - all machines were cold and dormant. Even the blast furnace was only barely warm, its hearth not supplied with fuel for a long time. Tenryuu didn't seem to mind though, sword resting on her shoulder, and grin stuck to her face.
It faltered only after they descended to the second floor, where the entrance to the construction pool was.
"Akashi!" Okada ran towards the figure laying on the floor. The chief engineer was bound, her mouth gagged with duct tape. Plus she was barely conscious and visibly dehydrated. At least, safe for some bruises, she was unhurt.
"C'mon Aka-chan, speak to me!" he urged, gently trying to shake her awake. She barely responded, eyes unfocused and a thin streak of drool trickling down her face. Instead of a coherent answer, he heard the last sound he'd expect.
A sword getting unsheated.
"Heh, admiral... I was not expecting you back so fast"
He spun around, only to face Kiso's blade pointed at his face.
"What the hell-"
"Should've stayed on mainland for a few more hours, sir. No worries though, your arrival changes little in-"
"THE ACTUAL FUCK?!"
Tenryuu's sword slashed in front of his eyes, knocking Kiso out of balance. Two girls exchanged a series of quick blows, their movements restricted in corridor's cramped space.
"Get to the pool chamber!" shouted Tenryuu. "That's where she came from!"
Not wasting any time, Okada ducked underneath Kiso's blade, just as Tenryuu started her attack. As he sled past Kiso, he noticed a strange device attached to the nape of her neck. But there was no time for examination. He ran through the door, onto the catwalk...
...only to see whole chamber literally swarming with small, childlike figures. They wobbled around the pool, setting up devices, drawing symbols on the floor and doing all the stuff Akashi did when setting up construction - all in an oddly erratic way. Symbols they used were different. Devices appeared modified and either incomplete, or grossly overengineered. Above all else, there were no fairies to see.
And in the middle of the pool, surrounded by piles of steel, fuel and bauxite, laid Fusou and Yamashiro, bound and gagged like Akashi in the corridor. Fusou's violet kimono was undone and in tatters, her sister's outfit in no better shape. Their eyes darted towards Okada, filled with boundless fear and terror. The closest of midgets followed their gaze - and for the first time, her face became clearly visible.
Maruyu.
The rest of them - literally dozens of Maruyus, all identical - turned towards him, their eyes blank and faces featureless. A strange, reddish glow emanated from their chests, just below the suit's upper edge. They made Okada think of homunculi from a manga he read back in high school. The summoning circle the submarines created also brought uncanny associations - although he could not put a finger on it.
Plus he was absolutely, positively and totally sure there were only three of those things when he left the base.
"Commander" spoke one of Maruyus. "Your coming in most untimely. But fret not, for our work here is almost done. Soon, the sacrifice will be complete and our Mistress shall come. And once her long overdue slumber is broken… All will be complete"
"Complete! Complete!" the other midgets chanted in unison.
Pipes lining the construction pool gargled and spew out construction liquid to the pit. Greenish substance crept up towards immobilized battleships, dissolving all that came into contact with it. Fusou's exposed, bare foot touched the surface only briefly before jolting away as far as her restraints allowed - but the sharp hiss of dissolving skin, the girl's agonizing scream and sickening odour of burnt flesh shook the admiral to the bone.
How long did Maruyu plan this? What was going on?! How could she fool everybody so well during his absence?!
He was about to jump over the barrier and run to save the battleships, when the sounds of clashing blades behind his back stopped; instead, another sudden scream of pain made him freeze in place.
For it belonged to Tenryuu.
Before he could spin to see what happened, a sharp burst of blinding pain exploded in his chest. With the corner of his eye, he could have seen the violet tip of Tenryuu's blade proturing from between his ribs. Fusou and Yamashiro shrieked in pain, the acid no longer avoidable.
"Tsk tsk" Kiso's whisper stabbed his ear. "Maruyu-sama does not wish any pitiful being to interfere with her plans…"
Before the cruiser pushed him down to his doom, he noticed one of the clones manipulating the handheld device, her actions perfectly in synch with Kiso's every move…
He woke up with a jolt, a scream of terror dying in his throat.
"Admiral…?" worried Kaga.
The sound of helicopter's rotor filled the cramped cabin. They were airborne. Raizan's green slopes filled the windows, with sun-bathed Raiushima base below.
Panicked, he pulled out the phone from his pocket, calling one of preset numbers. He got response after two tones already.
"Admiral…?" Fusou's dreamy voice was like a calming music to his tattered nerves.
"I…" he quickly thought of a way to put what he had on his mind to words "...Is Akashi-san in her workshop?"
"Actually, she is here, in HQ. We're discussing new adjustments to project Great Phoenix… shall I ask her to wait for you?"
"No, not needed… Ask her to prepare the upgrade chamber. And be there with Yamashiro in two hours sharp. I think you both could use adding a lucky charm or two to your rigging…"
