Friedrich brings Z24 and Mainz back to the Commander while the quick reaction force from Azur Lane Kiel deal with the immediate Siren threat.

I'm not too familiar with military and naval lingo, so please forgive me if I use the incorrect terms and phrases.

I'll also be using the Siren hull classifications from here on out, so here's a quick reminder on which is which. The format of the list is regular mook/humanoids, not including the higher ups like Tester, Purifier, or Omitter:

Pawns/Explorers - Destroyers

Knights/Trackers - Light Cruisers

Bishops/Oceanas - Heavy Cruisers

Rooks/Peace Breakers - Battleships

Queens/Strategists - Carriers

Assassins/Lurkers - Submarines

"While I expected this from Z24, I certainly didn't expect this from Mainz," the Commander said from his desk.

Mainz and Z24 stood at attention, the former fidgeting a bit under her superior's gaze. They were momentarily in the Commander's office while Bismarck and Enterprise monitored the Siren situation back in the command room. The Commander had received an unexpected text from Friedrich that she had caught some naughty children and was bringing them back to port. The Iron Blood matron was leaning against the wall beside the door, watching her two compatriots from behind with a neutral expression.

Z24 shifted nervously a bit before speaking up. "I can explain, I thought she was combat ready so I-"

The Commander held a hand up to stop her. "No excuses, Z24. You should know better. Mainz is wearing civilian clothes right now and she couldn't manifest her hull form, which you were obviously aware of since you brought her onboard your own ship."

Z24 bit her lip and sighed. Even she knew when to drop the act by speaking normally. "I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again."

"I would hope not. I don't know your reasoning for going along with such a risky plan but you can explain it to me later since I still have a job to do. For now, you'll be reporting to Akashi and your punishment is working with the Bulins and Manjuu in maintenance, cleaning, and repairs. You can resume combat duties after a week."

The destroyer pouted but didn't voice any complaint. It could have been worse; she could have been assigned to work with some of the Royal Maids and forced to wear one of their strange outfits. "Understood. Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, that is all. You're dismissed."

Z24 saluted sharply. "Jawohl, mein Kommandant." Then she turned sharply on her heel before exiting through the door.

That left only Friedrich and Mainz in his office.

The Commander eyed the prototype cruiser, unsure of how to actually deal with her relatively minor misdemeanor. On one hand, she was still fresh and didn't know any better. On the other hand, she still risked going out to a dangerous battle when she wasn't even ready yet.

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Friedrich, a moment of privacy please."

"Of course, my child." The door opened and shut with a click, leaving the two occupants alone in the soundproofed office.

Mainz stood there silently and gulped as the Commander thought about what to do. Despite being new here, the cruiser still understood that she was in trouble because of an idiotic decision made without thinking. She didn't know whether to be relieved or not that it was only Friedrich and the Commander who caught wind of her blunder, and not Hipper or Eugen. The silver-haired woman had a feeling that her older sisters would be very upset, possibly even furious.

I should really think more carefully next time, Mainz thought to herself.

The silence was finally broken as the Commander addressed her. "Well, I'm sure I don't need to tell you that I'm disappointed in you right now."

Mainz winced. "I apologize, Kommandant."

"Yes, I get that a lot sometimes. Honestly, I'm not that disappointed and I really should have expected something like this to happen. Again."

That got her attention. "Again, sir?"

The Commander sighed before explaining. "You're already aware that other prototype shipgirls came before you. Long story short, I've gotten quite familiar with their need to prove themselves right away in battle, at least for most of them. In fact, it's not even just the prototypes, and sometimes there are just those who outright thirst for battle but that's a story for another time."

He stood up from his desk and made his way around to the Iron Blood cruiser. Mainz instinctively stood even more at attention than should be possible, but she somehow did it. She watched as the Commander came up to her within arm's length, and she estimated that he was only a few centimetres taller than her. She tensed when he got closer and raised his hand-

-before firmly patting her shoulder.

"I won't punish you severely since that would be more effort than it's worth. I was going to have you start doing commission and escort work with some of the other girls to get your feet wet, or rather your hull wet, but instead I'm scheduling you for secretary duty for the time being. When your sisters get back, we can get you to manifesting your warship. However, you will not be seeing combat anytime soon, understand?"

Mainz nodded. It was a bummer that she would be stuck doing office work instead of being more active but she supposed it was fair, if not a bit lenient. "Yes, sir."

He pat her shoulder again. "Good. You can start now by following me to the command room. There's still a battle going on."

The two stepped out to find Friedrich waiting for them.

"Is everything in order?" she asked.

"Yes, we're good. Thank you, Friedrich," the Commander replied.

"Very well. I shall take my leave then and watch for invaders." The taller woman turned to address Mainz. "I look forward to getting to know more about you, dear Mainz. For now, we have our duties to uphold." Then she was off.

Mainz spared a curious glance at the Commander. "She's...certainly interesting."

He could only grin lightly in reply. "Well, you get used to it. We all did. Enough about that for now, let's hurry along."

"Yes, sir."

"Frau Tirpitz, radar is picking up contacts about 20 klicks ahead of us," Z23 transmitted back to the flagship. The bow of her destroyer sliced through the water's surface as she scouted ahead of the others. Above, a complement of Messerchmitt Me-155A and Junkers Ju-87 provided cover for her while also scouting. It was thought that Z24 would accompany them but Friedrich had messaged them that she was preoccupied. No matter, their current combined force should be more than enough.

"I can confirm that, I see them too." Graf Zeppelin had her eyes closed as her vessel sailed off the port side of the Tirpitz in the center of their formation, with the Admiral Hipper and the Prinz Eugen covering their flanks on the starboard and port side, respectively.

The Iron Blood carrier "watched" through the cockpits of her aircraft as she saw the Siren forces that they were set to destroy. From the distance, she could make out two Queens, one Rook, and several Knights and Bishops. She relayed that information over to the rest of the fleet. "It appears they are already engaged with the patrol group."

"Good, that means they aren't pointing their guns at us just yet," Tirpitz responded. "All ships, full speed ahead. Prepare for combat."

Adjusting her cap, Tirpitz opened a channel to her Eagle Union allies. "Miss Essex, my forces and I have made contact with enemy. May I ask how you will proceed?"

"Roger, read you loud and clear. Our air group is ready to make bombing runs, have Graf Zeppelin get ready too. I'll have the Baltimore-class open fire afterwards, get their attention so your girls can drop torpedoes. We need to get closer though, don't wanna get caught in each other's crossfire with the patrol group. Also, you can drop the 'Miss,' we're all friends here, over."

"Roger, Zeppelin's planes are ready when you are, Mi- Essex. I'll provide long-range cover fire for your heavy cruisers when possible. Z23 and the Hipper-class are readying their torpedoes now." She paused a moment to mentally load her 380mm guns, along with the numerous secondary armaments across her deck. Another strange phenomenon to add to human researchers' headaches. "I suggest we open fire with HE shells so we don't accidentally shoot through our targets, over."

"Wilco, our cruisers have HE shells loaded. Good hunting out there, Tirpitz. Whoever gets the least kills has to pay for drinks, out."

The white-haired battleship chuckled to herself at the younger carrier's challenge. It was obvious to all how much more expressive she could be when she wasn't forcing herself to impress Enterprise all the time. The middle Yorktown sister had always made it a point to get her junior to act more like herself and with more pride as the lead-ship of the Essex-class carriers. Tirpitz recalled a story from Arizona about how Enterprise and Essex partook in an investigation of sorts to look for their missing eagles, and how it got them to be more relaxed and open with each other instead of strictly a senior-junior relationship.

"Zeppelin, you are free to reign hell on the Sirens. Just...don't hit our allies."

"With pleasure." The gloomy carrier grinned as more of her planes took off from her flight deck. She rarely showed emotion yet the destruction of her enemies was something she always looked forward to. She also couldn't wait to test out her new Junkers Ju-87 D-4 torpedo bombers.

Essex watched as her Helldivers and Avengers took off, her Hellcats already flying overhead as a combat air patrol. Off her starboard, Independence had already launched some Hellcats and Avengers to compliment her own.

"Essex, you see anything yet?"

"Hold on, Cleveland. I'm looking now." The carrier closed her eyes to get a bird's-eye view of the upcoming engagement. She saw the Z23 falling back into formation with the rest of the Iron Blood ships. As her Hellcats drew closer, she could make out the faint silhouettes of fighter planes engaged in a dogfight against Siren jets. She identified them as Sea Hornets, one of the preferred planes by Centaur if she recalled correctly.

"Looks like the Sirens brought some air power this time and Centaur is giving them a hard time. Let's lend a hand, shall we?"

"Affirmative."

"Roger."

A chorus of replies sounded off from the escorting cruisers. The Baltimore and the Bremerton were ahead of them, their heavier bows crashing through the tides as their dual-purpose twin 127mm guns swiveled up for anti-aircraft work. Their accompanying 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikons followed suit, ready to intercept anything that got past the 5-inch guns.

On their formation's port and starboard side respectively, the Cleveland and the Montpelier brandished their own similar armament of AA guns. If there was one thing the Eagle Union ships were good at, it was shooting down enemy planes. Bristling with guns on whatever deck space was available, they were ready to strike down any fliers that got too close.

"I don't even recognize my own deck anymore, but holy crap this is awesome," exclaimed a cheerful California when she went through a refit. She didn't mind that her ship was practically covered in guns since it meant she could shoot even more. Some of the other battleship girls either agreed or were neutral about it.

Essex double checked the status of her ship, making sure everything was in working order. Then she spread her consciousness throughout her planes in the sky to check their statuses as well. The regular human mind wouldn't be able to process so much information, let alone handle the stress from trying to manage it. The sensory overload would be too much. The shipgirls, the kansen, didn't have to worry about that. Of course, the carrier girls can only handle so many planes at once, especially during combat maneuvers.

Further ahead, Essex could see Graf Zeppelin's own air group preparing to engage. Sending a quick mental check to Independence, the two of them followed suit with the Iron Blood planes for a coordinated attack.

"This is Essex to Graf Zeppelin, ready to drop when you are."

"Jawohl, we shall make them tremble in fear."

Like birds of prey, the combined force of Azur Lane aircraft swooped in for the kill.

"Ah, Mainz. There you are. I see Herr Kommandant found you." Bismarck greeted as the Commander and his new secretary entered the command room. "Friedrich already filled me in, you really should think more carefully next time."

"Yes, I apologize Frau Bismarck," said Mainz with a bit of embarrassment. "I should have listened to Hipper."

"No harm, no foul. Hipper and Eugen don't need to know about this but the next time might not be so lenient."

Enterprise listened curiously but chose not pry. Instead, she cleared her throat and introduced herself. "You must be the new prototype cruiser. Nice to meet you. I'm Enterprise, a Yorktown-class carrier from the Eagle Union."

Mainz shook the carrier's hand. "Nice to meet you too. I am Mainz, Admiral Hipper-class light cruiser of the Iron Blood."

"Light cruiser?" Enterprise looked inquisitively at Bismarck, then the Commander.

"It's like that situation with the Mogami-class sisters," he explained, "except she wasn't really built."

"Ah, right. Treaty limits and whatnot."

The Commander stood next to the holo-table. "Enough about that for now. How's our girls doing?"

Bismarck zoomed in on the 3D display of the map to show the location of the current battle going on. The blue dots were now in close proximity with the red dots. Another tap on the screen opened more details, each blue dot marked with the corresponding name and status of a shipgirl. "Our intercepting forces have engaged in combat with the enemy for the past five minutes. It is unknown how long the patrol group have been fighting beforehand but so far there are no casualties."

Mainz stood off to the side behind the Commander as she watched her superiors at work. According to what Bismarck just said, her sisters should be fine. Still, she wished she was able to fight along side them or at least see with her own eyes.

As if reading her mind, the Commander picked up a headset and put it on.

"Can you patch me through to one of them?"

The blonde battleship fiddled with the console before her. "Yes, sir. Who do you wish to speak with?"

"Hipper or Eugen, if they're available."

A moment passed, the Commander tapping his foot as he looked at the map display. He didn't have to wait long for someone to pick up.

"Miss me already, Kommandant? The other girls will get jealous, you know," Prinz Eugen teased on the other end. The sounds of shelling and aircraft could be faintly heard in the background.

"I can always make time for my favorite heavy cruiser," he teased back. "Belfast has got nothing on you, leibling."

He smirked as he heard Eugen stumble over her words to reply, clearly not expecting such an answer. Although they couldn't hear what Eugen was saying, Bismarck rolled her eyes and Enterprise just facepalmed. Mainz merely scrunched her eyebrows in confusion yet inwardly cringed at the Commander's words.

"Anyway, enough flirting. I'm just calling to check up on you ladies. You holding up?"

"Ja, we're fine. Tallinn is throwing a fit because she took a torpedo to the bow. She's still floating and shooting, though."

"That's good to know. Make sure she doesn't skimp out on repairs when you return. By the way, I've got someone here who wants to talk to you."

"Oh?"

The Commander then passed the headset over to Mainz. "Here you go. Just put it on and you can talk to your sister."

Mainz took the device tentatively, careful not to pull too hard on the wire. "Oh. Um, thank you, sir." She put it on and adjusted the microphone. "This is Mainz speaking."

"Ah, Mainz. I see you've holed up with the Kommandant then. Apologies for leaving you like that but we'll- oh please wait a moment, I have some visitors."

Loud gunfire could be heard as Eugen's own 203mm guns roared to life, the Iron Blood woman taunting her enemies as she momentarily gave in to the battle frenzy."Is that all you've got? Give me more, MORE!"

Mainz flinched back a bit at the intense volume, which went largely unnoticed by her peers who were occupied with observing the display in front of them. She surmised that Eugen must have stepped away from the radio to focus on her shelling, yet her exclamations were still loud enough to be heard clearly.

She didn't have to wait too long for Eugen to return. "Pardon the interruption, these visitors can be quite picky." A few seconds passed before distant explosions rang out. "Aha, that one really liked the fish I served."

The prototype cruiser couldn't help but grin at the cheeky comment. "Sounds like you're having fun."

"Nothing but small fry. Anyway, as I was saying, we'll make it up to you after we return. We do still need to pick up lunch, remember?"

She nodded even though the other cruiser couldn't see her. "Ja, of course. How are Hipper and the others faring?"

"Hah, no need to worry about us. In fact, big sister is really laying into these pests. She certainly needed this to blow off some steam." Several more booms sounded off as Eugen fired again. "As did I. They really aren't much of a challenge, however."

Although it wasn't her intention, Eugen's words made Mainz feel a bit envious that she wasn't out there. Perhaps it was due to her nature as warship, even more so a prototype ship, that she wanted to experience the thrill for herself. "Well, I look forward to your safe return. I'll be giving this back to the Commander now."

"See you later then. I appreciate you guys checking up on us. Now, if you'll excuse me..." More gunfire and taunting could be heard even as Mainz removed the headset to hand back to the Commander.

"Eugen is a bit preoccupied, sir," she clarified as he pressed the earpiece to his ear to listen more closely.

"Hmm, I can hear that." The Commander turned to face Enterprise and Bismarck. "My secretary and I can cover things here. You two are free to head out if you wish."

"Aye, sir."

The two nearly identical women saluted before taking their leave, preferring to be on standby for possible contact rather than waiting around in room. As they passed by Mainz, Bismarck gave her a pat on the shoulder while Enterprise tipped her hat with a smile. Now it was just her and the Commander left in the room.

The kansen stood there for a moment before speaking up. "Is there anything I can do for you, Kommandant?"

The Commander faced her and thought for a while. Then, he had an epiphany. "Ah, before I forget," he said as he reached into his pocket, "this is for you. It's another means of contact with each other and can do a bunch of other things."

Mainz held her hand out as she accepted the slim device from him. "What is this?"

"It's called a cell phone, or you can just call it a phone." The Commander pulled out his own phone. "It's quite simple to use and Akashi has already added in the important contacts for you. Please be extra careful with it. It may not be flimsy but it's not exactly battleship-grade armor either."

"I see." She mimicked his movements as he pressed a button on the side to turn on the screen. "So I just use my fingers like this?"

Together, the two of them briefly went over the basic functions of the mobile device. It was intuitive enough for Mainz to get the hang of it; she just had to tap icons or swipe up and down with her fingers to navigate the different menus. The Commander explained that these were more like trivial things rather than the utilitarian military radios they had access to. It was something they could use for normal everyday life but it was still valuable in emergency situations as well. They didn't spend too long since they still had to monitor the display map. That, and the Commander wasn't very tech savvy to explain everything.

"Your sisters and allies can fill you in on the rest of the little things," he concluded.

The prototype cruiser nodded her head in understanding as the Commander once more donned the headset. He told her to keep an eye out on everyone else's status on the display while also telling her which buttons and switches to fiddle with so he can communicate with specific kansen out on the field right now.

"When this is over, we're going to have to file a report," he explained. "It's not very exhilarating but consider it part of your punishment."

"Of course, sir."

"Also, could you please get me a cup of coffee? There's a coffee machine over there and the pot should be filled already. Feel free to pour yourself a cup too."

A brief glint of excitement shone in her eyes as she nodded her head and walked over to a corner of the room. True to his word, there was a pot of coffee that was still warm. It must have been brewed earlier today. Mainz took two paper cups from the stack nearby and filled them before covering them with plastic lids. She didn't notice the sugar packets and little cups of cream that were set next to the machine as she walked back to the center of the room.

"Here you go, sir."

"Ah, thank you, Mainz. This is the good stuff, you'll see." The Commander accepted the cup graciously.

"I'm aware. Z24 already introduced it to me," she replied before taking a sip.

His brain didn't register the implications of the dark destroyer's known preferences by the time he took his own sip. It was already too late; his taste buds were assaulted by the bitter acidic taste of black coffee. It wasn't his first time drinking it that way but he still preferred cream and sugar in his own cup of joe, naval tradition be damned. As such, he made a slight face trying to force himself to swallow the bitter drink.

His companion noticed. "Is something wrong, sir?"

He quickly shook his head to stave off her worries. "Mnn, it's nothing. It's just a little colder than usual."

Mainz looked at him and shrugged, continuing to enjoy her own drink. The Commander took little sips here and there so as not to rouse her suspicion. He should have requested her to put cream and sugar but it left his mind. He was aware of how several kansen preferred black coffee, such as Z24 and Enterprise, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise that the new cruiser also preferred it that way.

Hopefully she does well as a secretary.

He let a small smile slip through as he watched how much Mainz enjoyed her coffee. It would be interesting to get to know her, at least. Just like the days with Roon.

I didn't go too much into detail about the fight against the Sirens since the I wanted the main focus to be on the Commander and Mainz. Do not worry for I have several fight scenes already planned out for our coffee-chugging cruiser, written from her perspective.

Also, sorry if this update took a while.

Polarized Light made me sad.

Reines and Gray from the Fate series are cute.

See you next time.