The key to any victory is preparation. With good preparation and planning, a sports team can clinch victory, a prospective employee can land a job, and a military squad can overcome any obstacle. Preparation is key.
This is the mindset that drove Alec and why he wanted to gain as much information on the mission as possible. Learning every detail about the mission area is vital for a strategist to create a plan that sees his team to victory.
It is the reason why he'd often spend hours on end locked up in a room before a mission commenced.
As the ship neared the port and the girls slowly got off, he couldn't help but feel nervous. This was a given considering how he was thinking about whether or not his plan would succeed or fail. He kept running different scenarios in his mind, while being flanked by Marblehead on his left and Bearn on his right.
"Is it just me or does Alec seem a little… intense to you?" whispered Marblehead.
"I thought I was the only one who noticed that," said Bearn.
"If I recall correctly," said Gangut, joining in on the conversation "he was awake when I woke up early in the morning to get some snacks."
"I wonder why he's suddenly got like that," mused Bearn.
"According to the last message we received," said Alec, scanning the area "we were supposed to meet with that strike team near a downed convenience store."
"Hmm," said Pamiat Merkuria, turning to her right "hey Alec, is that it?"
In response, Alec and the other turned in the direction Pamiat Merkuria pointed at. It was indeed a convenience store that was standing, despite half of it being crushed by a downed helicopter.
"Alright then, let's just get in, meet them, and get out of here," said Intrepid, taking a step forward, only to have her eldest sister reach out and stop her.
"Sis, what's wrong?" asked Intrepid.
But Essex didn't answer. She, Richelieu, Rossiya, and Bremerton were looking around the area, their expressions tense and concerned.
"You noticed it?" asked Bremerton to Richelieu and Rossiya.
"Noticed what?" asked Alec, immediately looking around to try and figure out what they were talking about.
"We're being followed," replied Rossiya "someone's been following us ever since we got off the boat."
Noticing this, everyone went on guard, immediately forming a circle with Alec in the center. While they continued searching for their stalker, Alec meanwhile struggled to figure out what they were talking about. From what he saw, they were in an abandoned town, where the only living things were the soldiers and the civilians they were supposed to meet.
"There," pointed Bremerton, pointing to a two storey building that had all the windows broken.
In response, Gangut, Richelieu, and Rossiya turned in that direction and wasting no time, fired into the small building. Just one of them was enough to down the building, but with the combined firepower of three battleships, the building was a smoking pile of rubble in a matter of seconds.
Rather than move in closer, the group kept their distance. Then, they saw something large burst through the rubble and land on the ground.
Despite how everyone was shielding Alec, he managed to get a decent look at what crawled out of the rubble and was sure he was seeing things.
The best way to explain what he saw was to call it a robot. It had metal arms, with one hand in the shape of a gun and the other holding a sword. Its chest was covered in armor that sported a few bullet-sized holes. The head was box-like in design, with two small blinking lights on the front and a pair of antennae sticking out at the top.
"What the hell?" asked Alec, saying what everyone was thinking.
The robot looked turned its metal head to them and its blinking red lights turned yellow, followed by it pointing its gun at them and firing a large shell.
In response, Jeanne D'Arc came forward and sliced the shell in half with her saber. The robot darted forward, looking like it was about to attack with its sword, only to have Bremerton intervene and kick it in the side.
"Are those the hybrids they mentioned?" asked Marblehead to the others.
Essex took the opportunity to send a few planes at the downed robot, intending to bomb it before it could recover. However, this did not happen as the robot quickly shot the planes down before they could attack.
The robot got back to its feet and darted forward like an Olympic sprinter. Bremerton fired at the menace, only to see it dodge the attack with relative ease. Reno used her arm cannons and fired at the robot, only to have it leap high above the attack and land on the roof of a building.
Wasting little to no time, it pointed its gun at the closely packed group and fired three shells at them.
"Scatter," yelled Rossiya, as she and everyone else ran in different directions.
The robot leapt off the building and landed on the ground. It slowly made its way towards Grozny, Pamiat Merkuria, Minsk, and Chapayev, but stopped when it saw Alec.
Its antennae raised and lowered a few times before it pointed the sword at Alec and ran towards him. Minsk and Chapayev fired at the attacker, only to see it dodge both their attacks.
Alec meanwhile broke into a run to try and keep some distance. In the back of his mind though, he knew the fundamental differences between him and the robot meant that it would catch up to him soon. This problem meant he had to come up with a solution, and quickly.
The robot's advance came to a halt when Algerie impeded its path. She swung her mace at its head and it ducked down in response. It tried to attack her with a thrust of its sword, but she expected the attack and moved aside just in time. Algerie then took the initiative and rammed her mace into the robot's side, sending it staggering to the side. This moment allowed La Galisonniere to take the initiative and slice off it's sword arm with her axe.
The robot then fired at her only to have Algerie bat the shell away with her mace. La Galisonniere once again capitalized on this moment, drawing in close and slicing the robot clean in two with a single downward swing of her axe.
While the others went to Algerie and La Galisonniere, Alec was focused on the downed robot. He removed some of the wiring and panels Algerie weakened when she hit the robot with her mace and froze when he saw what's inside.
"Alec," said Gangut, coming towards him "is something wrong?"
But Alec was silent. He could not think of the words or try and answer the question.
Fortunately, or unfortunately for Alec, he would not have to answer Gangut. He was so taken aback by the robot, he failed to see the artillery shell coming towards him.
Gangut however did hear it coming and immediately lunged forward, grabbed Alec and used her body to shield him from the attack. The others watched the shell hit, enveloping both Alec and Gangut in an explosion.
The group turned in the direction of the attack, ready to mete out some payback against their enemy. They were greeted by twenty or thirty more robots entering the open area. Those behind had their guns pointed at the girls, while those in-front brandished their swords, looking like they were ready to attack.
"What do we do here Rossiya?" asked Chapayev.
"We need to…, we need to…," said Rossiya, struggling to come up with a solution. As much as she wanted to attack the enemy ahead of her, her mind was split between going to check on Gangut and Alec, or attacking the enemy.
Rather than waste time and give the enemy the chance to attack, Essex took the initiative and sent a barrage of fighter planes to the enemy. This action in-turn, prompted Bunker Hill, Shangri-La and Intrepid to do the same, which carpeted the battlefield in numerous explosions and forced their opponents to go on the defensive.
With the enemy focused on the airplanes, Rossiya went towards her two teammates. She wasted little time in picking up both Alec and Gangut, resting them on each of her shoulders.
"Here, let me," said Bremerton, taking Alec then turning to the others "we have to get out of here and find a place to regroup."
"Should we go back to The Defiant?" asked Tashkent.
Bremerton and Rossiya weighed the pros and cons of the decision. If they head back to the ship, they could regroup and reassess the situation. However, they were dealing with an unknown enemy. It is entirely possible that if they take to the seas, those robots will follow.
Just then, they heard the sound of an explosion from nearby. They turned and saw that Essex and her sisters were losing the fight at their new enemy were slowly closing the distance.
In that moment, Rossiya made a snap decision.
"Bremerton," she said, turning to her "take Gangut and Reno with you back to The Defiant."
"What?"
"Start the ship and get the hell away from here as fast as possible," continued Rossiya "we'll stay behind and keep them at bay."
"Are you crazy?" shouted Bremerton "they outnumber us three to one and it took two of us just to take down one of them. We have to…"
"We don't have time to argue Bremerton. Every second counts."
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Shangri-La fired more and more airplanes at the robots, only to see them effortlessly dodge her attacks. Then, she noticed Essex throwing caution to the wind and darting forward to her closest opponent.
The robot swung its sword at Essex, only to have her step back and just barely avoid the blade's edge. Wasting little time, she came in closer and punched the robot in the chest, crushing the plate of armor it had. She tore the armor off, grabbed as many wires as she could and yanked them out.
Another robot drew closer to try and attack Essex from behind, but Shangri-La was not about to let her anything happen to her sister. She quickly came forward and punched the robot square in the jaw, sending it staggering back a little.
"I get it now," she said, looking at her fist for a moment. She looked back up and saw the thing fire at her, but she was able to dodge the shell.
"Forget using your cannons and planes," she shouted to the rest. "They can react to long range attacks, so stick to close range instead."
"That does explain how we got the drop on it," said La Galisonniere to Algerie.
"Let's test that out shall we," said Richelieu, cracking her knuckles and taking the initiative. She closed the gap between her and three robots in an instant, attacking the one directly ahead of her with a kick to the chest. The robot to her side tried to attack her with a sword thrust, only to have her grab the sword with both hands followed by her turning it back and stabbing the robot with its own weapon.
Her third attacker came at her from her blind spot with another sword swing, but Richelieu managed to dodge the attack with a side step. Then, she turned around, formed her cannons and delivered a point-blank barrage to the robot, obliterating it in the process.
"No one ever said I couldn't use my cannons up close," she said to herself with a chuckle.
Seeing this, the rest of the girls also joined in, trying to hold the robots back while Rossiya and Bremerton figure out what to do next.
Despite their efforts though, one robot did manage to break free and make a beeline towards the two girls.
"Rossiya, Bremerton, watch out," shouted Pamiat Merkuria to the two.
The girls turned around and saw the robot coming towards them. Bremerton formed her weapons and was ready to attack, when out of nowhere, a truck suddenly crashed into the robot, sending it flying into a building.
Then, the door opened and the girls saw a middle-aged man say "come with me if you want to live."
At first, they were hesitant. Then, they remembered that he was most probably the contact they were supposed to meet. Wasting little time, Rossiya and Bremerton loaded Gangut and Alec into the back of the truck before turning to the others.
"Come on girls," shouted Rossiya, firing a barrage with her cannons. The robots of course dodged them, but she meant for that to happen. This break in action was the time the girls needed to load up into the truck.
"Is everyone present and accounted for?" asked the man.
"Let's get out of here," shouted Essex, as she and her sisters continued firing planes at the robots to keep them on the defensive.
The man revved the truck and just as he was about to take off, Essex, Shangri-La, Bunker Hill and Intrepid all hopped into the vehicle.
"Th-thank you for saving us," said Bremerton, turning to the man then making sure Alec was sitting comfortably.
"Hey any enemy of those aliens is a friend of mine," said the man "name's Andrew, Andrew Webber. By the way, I was supposed to meet with an Alec person…"
"That would be him," said Bremerton, pointing to an unconscious Alec.
"Is he okay?" he asked, turning to them then turning back to the wheel.
"He survived the brunt of a cannon shell thanks to Gangut, but we need to take him someplace safe to make sure there's nothing fatal."
"Well that might be a bit difficult to do," said Andrew "as things stand, we've been running from place to place to try and keep those robots off our trail. That's the reason why we couldn't meet you at the designated area."
"Any chance you can do a checkup here?"
"On a moving vehicle?" asked Bearn, staring at Andrew like he made an absurd request.
"The way I see it, it's the best option you've got right now," he replied.
At once, Rossiya turned to Marblehead and Bearn, her expression telling them what she was about to ask.
"We'll try," said Bearn "but no promises."
As the pair set about their task, Bremerton noticed Essex and her sisters still looking outside the truck. Even though their backs were turned to her, she could tell something was troubling the four girls.
"What's wrong?" she asked Intrepid.
"Everything about this seems wrong," said Intrepid.
"What do you mean?"
"Our escape was too easy if you ask me," she replied, turning to Bremerton.
"They had us heavily outnumbered," said Shangri-La "they were a completely new enemy we had zero experience dealing with."
"Yet, when we got into the truck and drove off, they just stopped attacking us," said Bunker Hill. Considering how silent she normally is, the fact that chose now to speak her mind worried Bremerton.
"More than that, the truck's a pretty big target to miss," said Essex "that we haven't experienced any trouble is worrying me even more."
That was when Bremerton came close to the four so that they could hear her whispers "do you think, we can trust these people?"
"I want to believe he's on our side, but, I can't shake this feeling in my gut," said Essex "I remember Enterprise telling me to always trust my gut. Words I live by even today."
"Noted. I'll pass the message. In the meantime, keep an eye out for enemy ships. The last thing we need right now is to have a Siren fleet appear and ruin our day."
"You girls okay back there?" asked Andrew.
Richelieu was about to answer, only to have Bremerton cover her mouth.
"No problem here Andrew," she replied "we're all just taking a moment to collect ourselves, that's all."
Andrew said nothing and continued driving. Meanwhile Richelieu gave an understandably confused look at Bremerton who took out a small notepad and started writing something on it.
Considering how little clothing she wore, Richelieu wondered how Bremerton managed to conceal the notepad. Her thoughts were derailed when her friend showed the message she was working on.
Nodding in silence, Richelieu proceeded to pass the message to others, who read it, did as instructed and continued the chain. As per the instructions, they were to do it as discreetly as possible, ensuring their driver did not catch wind of their actions.
"Good news," said Bearn, turning to the others "Alec's fine, the force of the blast only knocked him unconscious but he'll recover."
"What about Gangut?" asked Chapayev.
"Gangut is once again displaying why the Northern Parliament girls are so tough," replied Marblehead. "That shell should have done some damage to her, but I'm not seeing anything at all. It looks like she also got knocked out from the force of the exploding shell."
"In summation, they're both fine," said Marblehead.
"Well that's good news to hear," said Andrew "I think we have something back at our base that should help wake him up."
"Good," said Rossiya, who quietly received the message from Reno "we need him if we're going to make it out of here alive."
"Why? You girls seem like a pretty capable bunch. What do you need someone like Alec for?"
Rossiya once again looked at the paper, which displayed a single sentence.
"He could be one of them."
At first, she did not answer the question. Instead, she crushed the paper, silently cursing herself for making the mistake. As much as she wanted to attack her would be savior, she held herself back. This restraint was due to two of her allies being out of commission. If she were to make a move now, it will only put them in danger.
Right now, they needed to remain calm, wait for Alec and Gangut to recover, then they make their move.
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When Alec opened his eyes, he thought he would be in the middle of a fight, hearing the sound of cannons firing and planes divebombing the enemy. Instead though, he found himself lying on a bed in a dilapidated room with a single window and table opposite to the bed.
He tried to get up only to be hit with a splitting headache that forced him to lie back down.
Just then, the door opened and through it came Cooper.
"Alec," she cried out before poking her head outside "hey guys, he's awake."
He heard the sound of more footsteps coming followed by Reno, Richelieu, Vauquelin, Casablanca and Bunker Hill coming into the room.
"Oh thank goodness you're awake," said Reno, sighing in relief.
"Bearn said you had a concussion but without the proper equipment we didn't know if it was anything worse," added Casablanca.
"Wait a second…" said Alec, realizing something "the blast. Gangut shielded me from the blast. Where is she? Is she okay?"
"She woke up not long after we got here," replied Vauquelin "it'll take a lot more than that to take her out."
"Good to hear," he said, slowly getting up once again. He didn't feel that sharp pain in his head this time around, telling him he could get up.
"Alright, where is this place and how did we get here?" he asked.
The group led him out of the room and downstairs to the hall, while Richelieu explained how they came here.
"That actually brings up another question Alec," said Richelieu, stopping in the middle of her explanation "you said you noticed something in one of those Siren robots, what was it?"
Alec was about to answer only to be interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.
"Ah Alec, good to see you up and about." Alec turned around and saw someone approach him.
"We were all pretty worried about you there," said the man.
"This man is Andrew Webber, the man I was telling you about," said Richelieu.
Alec noticed how the girls who were walking behind him all this time took a step forward, making it look like they were protecting him.
"A pleasure to meet you," said Alec, extending his arm out "I hear you're the one to thank for pulling our backsides out of the fire."
"Think nothing of it," said Andrew, meeting Alec's outstretched hand with his own. "In times like these, we all got to look out for one another."
"Now that Alec is awake, I hope we can get started on the evacuation plan," he said, shifting his attention to the girls.
"That's right, our original purpose for coming here was to aid in a rescue operation," said Alec "by the way, where's everybody else?"
"Well your entourage is busy keeping watch on the building, but as for me, that's where things get a little dicey."
The gang heard the sound of a door open, followed by Shangri-La, Essex, Rossiya, Tashkent, Bremerton, and Gangut entering the room.
"Nice to see you up and about Alec," said Gangut, looking relieved.
"I owe you big time for that save Gangut," said Alec
"You can continue the congratulations a little later," said Shangri-La, raising her hand up "we just finished doing reconnaissance."
"How bad is it?" asked Andrew.
"Bad," she replied and led everyone to what looked like the kitchen. There, Alec spotted an area map, with a bolt in one place, a thumbtack in another and a button near the water.
"Now that the hybrids know we're here, they're headed towards the ship," said Shangri-La. "We have to get to the Defiant before they do, or else we have no way of leaving the island."
"I had my planes recon the area you mentioned Alec, but when I got to the petrol bunk like you mentioned, my plane got shot down," said Essex.
"By who?" asked Alec.
"Gamma," she replied and everyone in the room became increasingly worried.
"Who is Gamma?" asked Andrew.
"A high-ranking Siren," replied Bremerton "she's dangerously smart, cunning, and has plenty of Siren tech to back up that mind."
"Now I was wondering why Gamma of all people were here so I sent out another group of planes to see what was going on," said Essex "she didn't bring a regular fleet with her. Just three cruisers, three destroyers and a battleship. They're all gathered around this mountain, which for the life of me makes no sense."
"Because she's trying to bury this town," said Alec.
"What?" asked Essex, saying what everyone was thinking."
"I was wondering why this coastal town was familiar," he said "before the invasion, this place was famous for having a geographical anomaly: a mountain that had all the characteristics of a volcano, but never once erupted."
"Hmmm, I'm not sure I recall this one Alec," said Andrew.
"I do. It was a pretty big deal five years ago, with everyone in the scientific community flocking to the area to study the mountain. It could have, no it should have erupted at least once but it didn't. The mountain was underneath a large lava poo, scans indicated that lava was building up, but it never erupted."
"So you think that Gamma is going to hit that thing and bury the whole town under a pool of lava?" asked Rossiya.
"It makes sense when you give it a little thought," said Alec "she has no idea where we are and instead of committing time and resources to find us, it'd be a lot easier to simply blow the whole place up."
"Then why send the hybrids to the ship?" asked Tashkent, "wouldn't it make more sense to have them search the town top to bottom?"
"It would, but that would take time and Gamma must be worried that I might try and outwit her. This way she's covering both her bases. She's moving to block our way out and while we're trying to figure out what to do next, she takes us out in a single swift strike."
What Alec didn't mention was the sneaking suspicious he had about all this. Something about this set up had him concerned, but until he could figure out what, he didn't want to unnecessarily worry the others.
"Our objective here isn't to beat Gamma," said Alec "all we need to focus on is getting to Andrew's team and getting out of here."
"And I take it you have a plan for that?" asked Vauquelin.
"You bet," he said, with a smile and started outlining his plan to the group.
(AN: I'm not 100% sure about that mountain/volcano thing being legit. If there's any geology experts here please let me know)