The Royal Navy Throne Room
Queen Elizabeth closes her meeting with the Royal Navy's commanders and sighed in front of Warspite, her most royal knight and bodyguard. Behind them stands Belfast and Sheffield, two members of the royal maids who refill tea when needed.
"I know I said this several times already, but what in the world are those commanders thinking?" The incompetence of the Azur Lane's commanders has been making Queen Elizabeth annoyed.
Warspite has seen this scene repeated each time her majesty finished with her meeting. She also finds herself wanting to punch them in the face. For some reason, the commanders not only are rude, but they have been nitpicking every flaw and mistake the Kansens made.
A Manjuu rushes in and hands stapled papers to Warspite. The papers display complete gibberish text of alphabets randomly lined up together. There is also a small hand-written note, "Pattern E," on the button on the first page. This means that the message has been encrypted. This type of message is either critical, urgent, or both.
"Warspite, what is it?" asked Queen Elizabeth
"Please wait a moment, your majesty. This message is sent by Commander Joseph's fleet." Said Warspite
Warspite takes a pen and begins to circle the alphabets through the "E" pattern. To decode the passages through a pattern of a certain alphabet, decryptors need to find the alphabets on the intersection points and endpoints of the provided letter. In the "E" pattern's case, there are a total of six alphabets per passage. The papers have multiple passages on each page. The alphabets do not include the spaces between each word so decryptors need to use their interpretations to construct a readable message.
Decoding phase 1: Code Analyze, "E" pattern
Result: sirenassultedusrequestinganurgentreinforcement
Decoding phase 2: The interpretation
Result: "siren assaulted us, requesting an urgent reinforcement."
Final result: "The convoy is assaulted by Siren, the fleet requires urgent reinforcement."
Queen Elizabeth widely opened her eyes for a few seconds. It is not the first time Siren has attacked the Royal Navy but they rarely attack a secured area. Assuming Warspite's decode is accurate, this means that the fleet's circumstance has been pushed to a critical level and requires reinforcement.
Since Commander Joseph himself wished to participate in the convey. Queen Elizabeth assigned strong combat units like Hood, Prince of Wales, and Ark Royal. Perhaps the vanguards could use more quality but sadly the Royal Navy has been spending resources to develop battleships and air carriers. By no means did Queen Elizabeth underestimate potential risks but Sirens never failed to reveal their new tricks.
"Send King George V., Howe, and Illustrious. We don't have much time so have them sortie as soon as they are ready."
"Your majesty, I think they also need some caring. Perhaps we should send some royal maids," Warspite suggests.
"Hmm… in that case, Belfast and Sheffield, you two go assist Hermione. Make sure you bring plenty of tea leaves and snacks."
Queen Elizabeth faces Warspite, "Tell George to keep an eye on Iron Blood."
"Iron Blood, your majesty? Not Siren?" asked Warspite
"Well if there is any method to monitor Siren's activities I would much like to hear." Queen Elizabeth looks at the map of the fleet's approximate position. "With such a battle going, I don't think Iron Blood won't notice it and our fleet's casualties."
Warspite notice something important.
"If they attack our fleet now…"
The fleet will certainly be annihilated.
Queen Elizabeth holds her fists strongly.
"Call Akashi, we might need to use our gems."
"Your majesty, the council won't be happy about this."
"Yeah, I can see that. Let's say that I cannot withstand our Pride of the Royal Navy getting mocked. Those prideful bastards surely hate it the most." Queen Elizabeth looks at the portrait of human kings in the past.