Alteran Seraphimian Aliance

by anothokuro

An action to free Arceus will bring an ancient alliance back to life. The hunt for the stars has begun. Voldemort will soon find out what true power means. And Dumbledore runs against a wall with his manipulations, as Harry frees himself from his grip and starts his true inheritance. Begins in the Pokemon universe and then changes over. Translation of the Original Story.

11. End of a Tyrant, Blue Mermaids?

Chapter 11 - End of a Tyrant, Blue Mermaids?

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or Stargate or Harry Potter or Highschool DxD or any other copyrighted work used here. I am writing this story for my personal pleasure only, without any profit.

"Blah" speeches

Blah thinking

#"Blah"# Seraphim language

'Blah' telepathy

$"Blah"$ Discussions with the shadow plane

/Blah/ Old Draconic

Ϩ Bla Ϩ Parseltongue

₱ Blah₱ Translated Pokémon language

[Bla] Pokédex entries

"Bla" Bijuu and other creatures

Bla Bijuu talk to their host

"[Blah]" Zoids

"b̶̧̺̲̟̞̭̲̘́̒̎̃̈̂̊̐l̡̙͕̱͚̭̠͙̼͌̐̽̽͘͜͝a̘͙͓̩͉͚̰̭̔͊͛̎̇͛̋̌͘" distorted voice

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Anoth found himself in Night Raid's new HQ. After bringing Esdeath and Tatsumi down from their involuntary stay on the deserted island in the middle of nowhere.

It had taken quite a while before the others had brought him up to date.

"Well..." Anoth sighed, examining the map of the Imperial capital. "When is the earliest the revolutionary army ready to march?"

"Two months." Came the answer from Najenda.

"Then we continue as before." said Anoth. "However, we are now starting to take out military targets as well. Armoury storages, barracks, etc."

"Why don't you strike right now?" Tatsumi asked. "You could overthrow the government single-handedly."

"Yes, I can do that." Confirmed Anoth. "But your gaze falls to short. Destroying the government is only one point. It's very easy. In fact, that's the easy part. But when the government has fallen, another government has to take over; otherwise you've got in the End more problems than before. The government right now is not a good government but still a government that upholds public order. Better a bad government than no government at all. Because when there is no power to uphold the rules that ends into complete anarchy, and nobody needs that.

"That means as soon as this government falls, the Revolutionary Army will have to play law enforcement for a long time. And that will only work if they are ready for it."

"I understand." Said Tatsumi.

"How can I help?" asked Esdeath.

"In the near future we will attack various bases outside of the city. Esdeath will then ensure that the best military commanders are transferred there to strengthen them. We will then take them out."

"With the elimination of the best commanders, the Emperor will be forced to use those who got their posts because of connections, kinship, or whatever." Esdeath continued. "Most of them are highly incompetent. That will only play into our hands."

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A few days later.

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Anoth was out with one of the newcomers from Night Raid to take down a minister from Honest's government.

His name was Gebaze.

Minister of Public Finance.

Fat and corrupt.

He in fact saw the people as nothing but cattle.

Anoth had become one with the shadows in the room and wandered through the rooms with them. So he observed Chelsea, who was disguised as one of the housemaids, come into the room to apparently serve Gebaze a drink. Only to then stab him in the throat with a poison-soaked needle.

Seconds later, those that Anoth had been waiting for came in.

Akame's sister Kurome and her companion Wave.

Chelsea, meanwhile, was gone. Unless you knew, that there was now a cat more in the room that was not there before.

"Kurome. Wave. I was wondering if you were coming." A voice sounded out of the shadows when Anoth stepped out of them and thus became visible.

"You must be Anoth." Meant Kurome.

"Right." Was Anoth's answer.

What followed was half an hour of various revelations. Especially for Kurome. Also, Anoth had a solution to her addiction and a solution to a problem with her Teigu that had haunted her since she had it.

March of the Dead: Yatsufusa.

That was her Teigu.

However, it was an incomplete and unfinished Teigu.

It was the imperfect and unfinished attempt to weaponize the powers of the Black Sun. However, due to an error within the rune matrix, it also caused it to cause strange mental reactions in its user that it wasn't supposed to.

"How do you even know that?" Kurome was genuinely curious about this.

Anoth reached to his back where a sword had materialized. The moment he drew it from its sheath was the same moment Kurome took several steps back, as did Wave. Chelsea and the other cats had also decided that the place at the other end of the room and as far away from Anoth as possible was the better place.

The sword had an aura of death around it that was hard to describe.

"This is the sword of the underworld. The sword of the dead. So'unga. Yatsufusa was modelled after this sword." Anoth explained as he held the sword in front of him. "It's a sword with a mind of its own that can overwhelm the wielder if the wielder isn't strong enough. It's a very dangerous sword. If a human ever gets their hands on it, they'll go on a never-ending killing spree that would only stop when absolutely everything is dead." With that he put his sword back into its scabbard, whereupon this aura of falsehood and death also disappeared.

"Your sword was created as a weakened form of this sword. An incomplete work, mind you." Explained Anoth. "I once loaned So'unga to a powerful demon lord. After he died unexpectedly, the sword wreaked havoc in their world, to say the least, before it was finally defeated and reclaimed by me."

"Well I'll stick to my sword, thanks." Said Kurome with a small voice. She simply didn't feel comfortable with So'unga and was very happy that the sword was back in its scabbard.

It was now certain that Kurome and Wave would turn against the Empire and thus against Honest.

They could also send him other useful information.

Namely the hiding place of the person who the rest of Dr. Stylish's creations now controlled.

His name was Syura and he was the son of Honest.

Anoth's grin was equivalent to that of a predator just before it eliminated its target.

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Three hours later

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It was easy for Anoth to enter the building that Syura had chosen as his accommodation.

Syura was in the house.

He already knew that much.

He just had to find him.

This turned out to be easier than expected.

Some of the guards were a bit too talkative.

Maybe it was because of the fact that said guards were drunk. So drunk in fact that they could hardly stand.

However, he now knew where his target was.

Using shadow travel was extremely useful in such cases, and so he got into Syura's room completely unseen.

Apparently he had just had a good time with a woman and was standing by the window. Not intending to give Syura any chance to fight back, Anoth pulled out his blowgun and filled one of the darts with his own blood.

Seraphim blood is extremely toxic.

Loaded this into the blowpipe and then fired the arrow directly into Syura's back and telekinetically removed it again right after.

Seconds after the hit, Syura started to stagger and immediately collapsed. He was dead seconds later. He had never known what hit him. The woman started screaming shortly afterwards. Anoth telekinetically grabbed her and snapped her neck.

Anoth had worked as an assassin himself for a long time. He still knew all the tricks and that reaction was effectively from that time. In addition, the woman apparently did this of her own free will. She wasn't tied up or anything. Well, in that case it was easy to classify her as an enemy and then eliminate her along with the actual target.

Anoth knelt beside Syura's corpse and took his Teigu from him.

Dimensional Formation: Shambhala.

Anoth snorted in amusement. Shambhala was actually a toy that young Seraphim used to learn dimensional travel skills. And this was Lisinas.

He heard screams from the stairwell and hallway.

No doubt guards.

Anoth jumped out of the open window and disappeared into the dusk like a ghost long before the guards kicked in the door.

When the guards finally managed to smash the door and enter the room, Anoth was long gone. They only found two bodies in the room.

Nothing else.

An assassin's job was seldom clean, and collateral damage could not always be avoided.

That was just the way it was.

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Two days later

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From now on it went in quick succession.

Anoth really cranked up the pace of the revolution.

There have already been multiple attacks on outlying military bases in which Honest's loyal supporters have been mercilessly wiped out. At the same time, the Jaeger and Night Raid units worked hand in hand to neutralize Stylish's last creatures.

Esdeath wasn't idle either. There was quite a bit of troop movement within the Empire. More and more soldiers critical of the Empire were sent to posts where they secretly prepared to strike against the Loyalists.

Others took key positions, such as the city gates, just waiting for the signal to literally open the gates to the revolutionary army.

All of this happened unbeknownst to Honest or his followers.

In other cases, Loyalists were moved to where an attack followed shortly thereafter to take them out.

Exactly in such a place Anoth was now.

Esdeath had said him that there was a gift waiting for him inside the fortress?

What gift?

He was about to find out.

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Midnight

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It was more than easy to approach the fortress unnoticed.

The night was moonless and so Anoth was very difficult to see anyway.

A short time later he was at the moat.

Without making any sound, Anoth dove into the water and swam over to the wall.

The wall had not been maintained for a long time and parts of the mortar had crumbled out of the joints. That was more than enough for Anoth to find a foothold and climb the almost 25 meter high wall.

A guard was patrolling above. Anoth now hung right under the upper guard aisle and waited. The guard reappeared seconds later and that's exactly when Anoth rushed out, grabbed the guard and pulled him down from the walls. He wrapped a rope around the guard's neck and let him fall down. When the rope pulled taut, it broke the guard's neck.

Anoth just dangled the guard there. The corpse was hard to see in the dark.

Anoth crept along the upper wall and just as he approached a tower he heard voices approaching him.

Moments later, Anoth had jumped onto one of the top beams sticking out of the tower and just seconds later, two guards walked beneath him.

The two guards walked under him without noticing him. Anoth let them go unmolested. Killing them now would alert the other patrol following them. It didn't have to be.

As soon as they were far enough away, Anoth jumped down from the beam and peered into the tower.

No one there.

He looked around for a moment, then scurried out again and jumped down the wall straight into a scrub. Had he stayed seconds longer he would have seen the large troop coming up the steps.

But he had been able to take a quick look into the courtyard behind the tower that was separated from the rest by a wall.

That was the place where the dormitories for the soldiers of the castle had been built.

However, Anoth wasn't aiming for them at all.

His destination was the commanding officer's quarters of this facility.

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At the same time

On a nearby hill

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"Do you really think that was such a good idea?" asked Tatsumi Najenda who was standing right next to him and who he was watching the fortress with special binoculars.

For some reason, Najenda's mind went back to a question Anoth had asked her.

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Flashback

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"Who do you think is worse? A Light Lord or a Dark Lord?" she was asked by Anoth. Najenda didn't really have an answer to that.

"A Dark Lord only wants to subjugate all. He is a tyrant who dreams of power. Typical Dark Lord birthing. World domination, etc.

"A Light Lord erases whatever he/she deems impure without any remorse or pity. What a Dark Lord would have subdued, a Light Lord simply erases.

"So who's worse?"

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Flashback end

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"We are neither Light nor Dark. We are the agents of the Gray Faction. We fight for justice and balance. We do not fight for ourselves but for those who cannot. He will make it." Najenda was sure of it.

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Back to Anoth

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It turned out to be quite easy to get to the quarters. Thanks were due to some climbing plants that had grown up the wall.

To get there, Anoth had crawled under the barracks and, by accident, of course, had left a few kilograms of explosives there.

Once at the top, Anoth peered through an open window.

No one was in the room so Anoth climbed in.

He heard voices coming from the next room so he decided to listen.

Most of the people in the room were of minor importance. Except for one.

Grand General Budo.

"Grand General Budo. Hello you asshole." murmured Anoth. "So that's what she meant by gift. She served me Budo on a silver platter. How kind of her." Anoth couldn't suppress his grin anymore.

Anoth took a few steps away from the door.

"Knock, knock you bastards." Anoth growled and kicked in the door and went straight into the attack.

The only one who managed to escape this attack was Budo. He just about managed to block Anoth's attack but was catapulted out of the building by the tremendous force behind the attack. The others were far less fortunate. They were dead before they knew what had just happened.

Anoth jumped after Budo and landed in the main courtyard of the fortress.

"How dare you attack here, Night Raid!?" bellowed Budo. "Surrender, intruder! You won't get out of here alive!"

Anoth raised an eyebrow. "And how are you going to do that?"

"I will crush you!" Budo yelled, activating his Teigu which caused an aura of lightning to form around him.

"Is that Adramelech?" asked Anoth.

"Rage of the Thunder God, Adramelech!" corrected Budo. "And with that I'll kill you!"

"With a training aid?" asked Anoth. "Hardly likely."

Adramelech was actually a training aid for training the lightning element. Of course they used it here as a weapon.

Budo fired a bolt at Anoth in response. Anoth didn't even bother to move, catching the beam in his hand and then firing it at the charging soldiers, killing them instantly.

The whole time he looked unimpressed at Budo.

"Is that all?"

In response, Budo directly activated his trump card and fired a massive bolt of lightning at Anoth.

"He was probably just weak after all." Said Budo when the dust settled and Anoth was nowhere to be seen. That was until he heard a voice behind him.

"A little hint." Said Anoth in a voice like he was talking about the weather while ramming the sword of one of the killed soldiers from behind through Budo's heart. "The best attack doesn't do you any good if you can't hit the target." Budo slumped to his knees. "I'll take that." With that, Anoth took his gauntlets from him and with them his Teigu.

When Anoth then strolled out of the fortress, he also ignited the hidden explosive charges that he had laid. "That was disappointing."

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Two days later

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Apparently General Budo was one of the last obstacles that had to be cleared and now the message they had been waiting for finally came in.

The revolutionary army was ready.

And so they found themselves just a few days later in the fields outside the capital.

"Let's end it." said Anoth.

"Yes. This will be the last big battle here." Agreed Konoko.

"We'll put an end to things here." said Mitara.

Najenda, Harry and everyone else just nodded.

"Good. Then let's go." said Anoth. With that, he transformed into his beast form and took off. Konoko and Mitara did the same.

They set a direct course for the walls of the city. Barely within range, all three fired a massive ball of energy at the respective gates they were targeting. The explosion that followed levelled it to the ground. At the same time, Harry had the members of Night Raid on his back and was flying straight towards the centre.

Other gates were opened by the Soldiers who decided to follow the revolutionary army.

To the Emperor's palace.

The goal:

The Elimination of Honest.

However, he was busy trying to convince the child emperor to activate the largest of the Teigu.

Nation-Defending Machine God: Shikoutazer.

Or Imperial Guardian: Shikoutazer.

The Teigu in which Anoth's daughter Lisina was sealed.

Just then, Harry was the first to fall through the roof of the palace. Through the resulting hole, he then levitated the rest of Night Raid, which he had just put into a telekinetic grip. So they were spared the force of the impact.

A little later Tatsumi, Bulat, Leone, Mine and Akame landed behind him. The rest of Night Raid was tied up in battles within the city itself.

Including Esdeath and Mez who killed the other members of the four Rakshasa Demons just before the attack started.

Shortly after Harry, Anoth also landed in the palace and together they fought their way to the throne room.

On the way there they ran into a certain Run. Anoth unceremoniously stapled the idiot to the ceiling when he tried to stand in their way with his Teigu. A Thousand Miles Flight: Mastema. A Teigu that gave one two large white feathered wings that could fire blasts of energy.

A little later they had reached the throne room. And Anoth could hardly suppress a contemptuous snort.

The child emperor sat on a throne that was almost stupidly elevated.

And in front of it stood Minister Honest and babbled something that Anoth completely ignored.

Akame tried to attack Honest. The elite guards weren't a problem. Anoth had simply crushed her with his telekinesis. However, Akame's attack was stopped by a force field.

That could only mean one thing.

"What is that?" Tatsumi asked.

"Shikoutazer." said Anoth. "Get out! This thing will tear down the whole palace!"

With that, they escaped from the palace, but not before Anoth grabbed Minister Honest, who was also trying to escape.

Anoth landed some distance from the palace, where the tallest of the Teigu, Shikoutazer, was just burrowing out of the building, onto a rooftop. Honest was still wriggling in his telekinetic grip.

"I just wanted to kill you. But you know..." Anoth said as if talking about the weather, "I just had a much better idea." Anoth's gaze became downright malevolent. "Simply killing you would be far too light of a punishment for what you have done to the people here." Anoth's eyes began to glow crimson as he stared at Honest and ripped his clothes from his body. Immediately thereafter, six tentacles erupted from Anoth's back, the tips of which opened, each revealing a different glowing magical rune lattice before he rammed them into Honest's chest while telekinetically holding him with his right hand. Honest howled in pain.

"You wanted immortality, didn't you? Well, congratulations. You have it now. However, you will live through every suffering you caused 10 times. You will not die and you will not be able to kill yourself either. Nor will anyone else in be able to kill you." Said Anoth in a very dark and menacing voice. "You've brought so much suffering and death to the people that it's time the people 'thank you' for that. Oh, and one more thing... Your name is Honest, right? How about you say you Honour your name. You can't lie from now up on. If you even try, you'll wish you were dead. I wish you the best of luck in your new life." With that he threw him off the roof.

Only to catch him four meters off the ground again. "Oh and before I forget to mention that... you will never own more than what you are wearing now and the food in the future... well I hope you enjoy it." With that he finally made him fall into the waiting crowd down below. Pitchforks and torches were already waiting to be used.

Then his gaze fell back to Shikoutazer who was about to dismantle the capital.

"Time to put that snotty brat in his place."

Anoth resumed his beast form and took off. A little later he accelerated strongly and rammed the Teigu full into its stomach. Before long, he had dug his way through the thin armour there and was now making his way to the Teigu's head.

Just seconds later, the Teigu's entire head flew away and Anoth reappeared where the head had been.

"What a joke." Growled Anoth completely unimpressed. "It wasn't exactly impressive." Shortly thereafter, the Teigu, which was no longer controlled, began to tip over. Anoth simply flapped his wings and hovered in the air while the Teigu came to rest in an impressive cloud of dust. A little later, Anoth landed on what was left of the Teigu.

It wasn't difficult to find the seal he was looking for. It was on the Teigu's chest. Hidden under some armour plates, which Anoth's claws finally tore down with some effort.

As soon as it was removed, he took a closer look at the seal.

"Oh, that's how he did it." Anoth murmured as he understood how the seal worked. "Then if I do this..." A few minor tweaks to the seal later and it began to glow. A little later, a clearly feminine figure appeared from the seal. Anoth had long since assumed his human form again to catch said figure.

It was his daughter Lisina.

Esdeath and Mez had meanwhile also rushed to him.

"Our lady." exclaimed Mez happily. A little later, Lisina, who was slowly regaining consciousness, was embraced by two very happy girls, whom she immediately recognized as her own shadows. With the touch of Lisina's body, her temporary membership as Konoko's shadows also ended. Now they were Lisinas again.

Then something happened that they hadn't expected.

The seal activated again.

Apparently, Anoth had unintentionally activated a failsafe within the seal.

A moment later, darkness enveloped him.

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Unknown dimension

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Anoth felt sand beneath him.

That much was clear.

It was also clear that what he smelled was salt water.

"What happened?" Anoth wondered as he looked up at the clouds above.

He had finally reunited with the rest of his people. Then they had led the attack on the Empire's capital. He had managed to free his daughter and then the Teigu activated some special weapon or failsafe that opened an unstable dimensional rift through which Anoth and his daughter were sucked.

"Where am I? And where is Lisina?"

The question about his daughter was the one he solved first when he found his feet again.

She was lying a few meters away on the beach.

She was conscious and grinned at Anoth as he approached her.

"Father." she breathed in relief.

"Lisina." Anoth was very relieved when he got on his knees next to her. "How are you?"

"Tired and weak but I'm free at last."

"Esdeath and Mez?"

"Sleeping in my shadow world."

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Two days later

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As it turned out, not only Anoth and Lisina landed on the island. But also Harry and Leone. They must have been very close when the seal activated.

They too had been pulled through the portal. However, they only met Anoth and Lisina a day later, after the two had nested in a cave in a nearby limestone cliff.

"Anybody know where we are?" Harry asked after placing Leone on a bed he had summoned. Although he had taken care of her wounds, she was still very weak. According to Anoth's own examination, Leone was extremely lucky that none of the bullets that had hit her in the stomach had caught the arteries there. Or she would have bled to death in no time.

The reason was some elite guards who had taken them completely by surprise. It was only thanks to Harry that she got out of the ambush. They had used special ammunition that blocked their Teigu's regeneration abilities.

"Right now in a limestone cave somewhere on the sea shore." Was Anoth's answer.

"In other words, you don't know." Harry sighed.

"We'll take a closer look tomorrow. We should sleep until then. The cave is well hidden by bushes, so the chances of us being found here are very low. Rest up. We'll see tomorrow."

Said and done.

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The next morning

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Anoth had left early the next morning and looked around.

They had landed on an island.

A deserted island.

And it was not left voluntarily.

The whole island showed signs of heavy fighting.

Craters and shattered buildings and vehicles were everywhere. As well as the skeletons of fallen soldiers.

That also told Anoth that those fights must have been quite a while ago.

Then he found out where he was.

It was a half-shot-to-a-sieve sign that gave him the answer he was looking for.

Welcome to Guam!

That was the name of the island.

And the most recent newspaper he found was from 1938.

Exploring the island further, Anoth found something interesting about one of the beaches near the abandoned and bombed out Andersen Air Force Base. Apparently it was founded much earlier here.

At first he thought it was just some ordinary flotsam, but as he approached the heap he quickly realized that there must be something in the heap that had quite an interesting energy signature.

When he got to the flotsam and started to rummage through it, three cubes fell into his hands. He identified them very easily as the Wisdom Cubes thanks to the newspaper that featured them.

They were very similar to the Union Cores of the Fog Fleet. Except that those of the Fog Fleet were based on quantum computing technology and these possessed a magical component.

But they weren't just any Wisdom Cubes.

These were cubes that already belonged to ships.

After a short time, Anoth was able to assign names to them.

Kii.

Amagi.

And Tosa.

But there was a fourth signal.

It had to be very close.

In his mind's eye, the sea receded and the seabed became visible while Anoth walked on the sea's surface. In the distance he could spot some wrecks. One was a battleship. That had to be Kii. Even from this distance he could see that the ship was half melted. As if she had driven straight through a heat ray. The Kii class had a total of five main turrets.

Two in front.

Three behind.

The two front ones had completely melted, forming a misshapen lump of metal on the deck.

He could also see multiple holes in the hull, which must have eventually sent the ship to the seabed.

A little further away he could see Amagi's ship.

Or rather half of the battle cruiser.

The other half was several hundred yards from the front.

Amagi had simply been cut in two.

Tosa was not far from the second part. With her, Anoth didn't need to look at why she had gone under. The entire port side of the ship was just gone. The battleship had capsized and all the turrets had fallen out of their barbettes. She must have sunk very quickly.

All five turrets were not far from the wreck.

Where was number four?

He found her only a few kilometres away.

An aircraft carrier.

A little later he knew who it was.

Shinano.

The hull shape and also the shape of the flight deck were unambiguous.

It looked like torpedoes were her undoing. Anoth saw multiple impacts on both sides of the wreck. There must have been at least 16 hits before she sank.

But the signal from her Wisdom Cube didn't come out of the wreck.

But it had to be very close.

It took Anoth a few minutes to finally find the source.

The wreck of a downed Mitsubishi Zero.

"There you are." Anoth immediately dived down to the wreckage and, having barely arrived there, tore the cockpit window, which was still intact, off the plane. The cube he was looking for was on the pilot's seat. As soon as Anoth had it in his hand, he surfaced again.

"Don't worry Shinano. You're in good hands young vixen." Said Anoth to the cube, which then began to pulsate a little.

"So what do we have here now? Two battleships (Kii and Tosa), a battlecruiser (Amagi) and an aircraft carrier (Shinano)." Summarized Anoth shortly afterwards. "And all four are kitsunes." Anoth scratched his head. "What am I going to do with the four of you now?" he wondered. "If you want to have a physical form again, you need a ship. That much is clear. However, it is also clear that your current ships are worth little more than scrap metal."

He stared at the four cubes in his hand and then at the wreckage beneath him as he stood on the surface of the water.

"And yet... I can still sense a certain connection between your cubes and the wrecks..." Said Anoth more to himself than anyone else. "I think I know how to proceed with you. And that also means that the wrecks have to be salvaged."

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To Harry

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Harry looked around the abandoned Airforce base.

There was nothing here anymore. Many of the planes were just burned out wrecks. Some even seem to have been destroyed trying to launch. A helicopter, a very early model, a Bell 54 if he wasn't mistaken, had crashed into one of the office buildings and set it on fire. There were only ashes and charred remains inside.

"Whatever happened here, it must have happened damn fast." murmured Harry.

He found corresponding hastily made notes that confirmed this suspicion in one of the administration buildings of the old destroyed air base.

Some bodies were also found in the ruin itself. Or rather their skeletons. All flesh had long decayed.

Whatever had destroyed this base must have taken them by surprise.

One plane was still in its parking position. Whatever had hit the plane had split it completely in half.

He also found another plane buried by the collapsed hangar.

Still others were little more than a half-melted, misshapen heap of metal.

Others were now little more than a 100,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

In addition, Harry found wreckage from downed planes all over the island. Most were from those stationed here or from various carriers, but some were of unknown origin.

These were technically superior to the others and had jet engines. The other planes here only had propeller engines. Also, they seemed to be drones.

Their design was still workable though, so Harry decided to scan the drones and then create his own versions of them.

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To Leone

.

Whatever Ahri had given Leone had helped greatly. She still couldn't get up, but she could feel her strength slowly returning. Also, Ahri's tails were very soft and warm, purr~.

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To Lisa

.

Lisina's powers returned very quickly now that she was finally free.

At the moment, though, she was climbing around on a palm tree to get to the coconuts, much to Ahris displeasure, who, thanks to Leone not wanting to wake her up, couldn't follow her. This turned out to be harder than expected and she landed on her backside while one of the coconuts fell on her head.

"Ouch." She complained and rubbed the bump on her head while her gaze fell on the beach and what she saw there made her forget the coconuts and her bump.

'Father! Harry!' she called telepathically. 'Come to the beach at once!'

With that she ran towards the clearly wounded figures lying on the beach.

Harry was the first to join her. Which was simply because he was the closest.

Anoth followed just under a minute later and immediately ran over to Lisina who was in the process of bandaging one of the kitsunes lying there.

Lisina motioned for him to go straight to one of the others. Which Anoth did.

Anoth found that all of those lying there were kitsunes.

Kitsunes with white hair and yellow eyes.

.

Several days later

.

There were a total of ten kitsunes they found there. For two of them, however, any help came too late.

The other eight survivors were still unconscious but now out of danger.

Only three days later the first of them woke up and so they could ask some questions.

They were sirens.

Sirens that had turned against their own people and were banished and hunted down for it.

In the last battle where they were mauled like this as they fell into a trap from the Azur Lane which they barely escaped.

After that, they somehow made it to the island's beach after their own instinct told them that they would get help there.

Anoth found no lie in her words. Her memories, which she voluntarily let him see, also confirmed what she had told him.

In the end, all eight surviving Sirens chose to join Anoth as Shadow.

That's how he learned their names.

Kendra was the leader of the small group and she wore an eye patch.

Then there were Lisa, Linda, Lucinda, Kathrin, Felicia, Manuela and Petra.

They were deliberately given human names because they wanted to show that they no longer belonged to the Sirens and no longer recognized the authority of the Arbiters.

Kendra was easy to distinguish from the others because she was the only one wearing an eye patch. Her left eye was irreparably destroyed when she was hit in the face.

.

Almost two months later

.

It was a lot harder than he had expected lifting the wreckage of the ships. Especially since Shinano's and Tosa's wreckages began to break apart on the first try, forcing him to lift them in pieces. That meant he had to cut them apart underwater.

And that took almost a month and a half in total.

Now the wrecks were lying neatly separated from each other in four dry docks.

These dry docks were anything but small.

Anoth had built them to Seraphimian standards. Each of these docks was a good five miles long and several hundred yards wide. They also had a few special features.

They could be divided into different areas, so that smaller ships could also be built in the docks without being forced to flood the entire dock at the end, but which could be reduced to a small sub-area.

He planned to build a new Ship for all four. It just wasn't quite clear in what exactly. The only thing that was clear was that he would incorporate the material from their wrecks into the new ships.

Anoth was now sitting on a double bollard. He sat on one of the bollards and on the bollard opposite of him were the four Wisdom Cubes.

"So what do I turn you into? How about a Seraphimian Destroyer?"

A Seraphimian destroyer was by no means a small ship. It was a good 1,000 meters long and was quite a serious opponent.

The four kitsunes obviously saw things differently. Their Cubes turned an angry red.

"Okay no destroyers." said Anoth hastily. The red colour withdrew again.

It went on like this for quite a while. They ended up hanging between four types.

Aircraft carrier.

Battleship.

Battle carrier.

Carrier battleship.

The distribution of the respective ship types for use on water and their sizes looked like this for the Seraphim:

Corvette:

Length: 250 meters

Displacement: up to 500,000 tons

Frigate:

Length: 450 meters

Displacement: up to 1,200,000 tons

Destroyer:

Length: 1,000 meters

Displacement: up to 2,500,000 tons

Light cruiser:

Length: 1,500 meters

Displacement: up to 5,500,000 tons

Cruiser:

Length: 2,250 meters

Displacement: up to 54,500,000 tons

Heavy cruiser:

Length: 3,000 meters

Displacement: up to 230,000,000 tons

Light battleship:

Length: 4,000 meters

Displacement: up to 800,000,000 tons

Battleship:

Length: 6,000 meters

Displacement: up to 1,600,000,000 tons

Heavy battleship:

Length: 10,000 meters

Displacement: up to 2,200,000,000 tons

Light aircraft carrier:

Length: 7,000 meters

Displacement: up to 1,750,000,000 tons

Number of aircraft: Max. 5,000 pieces

Aircraft carrier:

Length: 10,000 meters

Displacement: up to 5,000,000,000 tons

Number of aircraft: Max. 12,000 pieces

Heavy aircraft carrier:

Length: 15,000 meters

Displacement: up to 8,300,000,000 tons

Number of aircraft: Max. 20,000 pieces

Battle carrier:

Length: 7,500 meters

Displacement: up to 2,250,000,000 tons

Number of aircraft: Max. 1,000 pieces

Carrier battleship:

Length: 7,500 meters

Displacement: up to 2,500,000,000 tons

Number of aircraft: Max. 2,000 pieces

(Note: The number of aircraft carried tends to deviate significantly, as the maximum number of aircraft carried is calculated on the smallest Seraphimian Alliance interceptor.)

Basically, the battle carrier classes and the battleship carrier classes were almost identical. The seraphim distinguished the two nonetheless. A battle carrier, by Seraphimian standards, was a ship whose front portion resembled that of a battleship while the aft portion was a flight deck.

A carrier battleship was the basic structure of a battleship on both sides of which runways had been mounted, which finally converged in the aft part of the ship.

In the end, after a long back and forth, all four decided in favour of the carrier battleship variant.

The fact that Anoth incorporated their old ships into the new ones had a nice perk. It was supposed to allow them to use their old rigging as well, meaning they could keep it secret that they could actually dish out a lot more than before.

Their new ships were remarkable.

.

.

Name : Seraphimian Carrier Battleship

Type : Carrier battleship

Dimensions :

7,500m long;

1,750m wide;

248m high (super structure);

Crew : 1,000,000; Hull Crew: 1/+5

Passengers : 250,000

Cargo Capacity : 2,000,000 metric tons

Supplies : 24 months

Weight : 2,500,000,000 metric tons (Using Molecular Density Armour)

Top speed :

130 knots (in ship mode) (240.76 km/h)

200 knots (in hydrofoil mode) (370.4 km/h)

20 light-years per second in space operations.

Machine power :

N/A in sea operations

N/A in space operations. (The space drive is only intended for these ships as a form of transit to bring the ship to another planet. It is primarily a watercraft and not suitable for continuous operation in space.)

Drive type :

Underwater impulse (similar to spaceships only designed for water. This type of drive also enables extreme manoeuvres that would otherwise not be possible with a ship of this size.) It is therefore also suitable for space flight.

Hyperspace drive for space flight.

Power supply :

Fusion generators 8 pieces and six ZPM energy crystals

Draft : between 2 and 6 m (through draft reducers and stabilizers)

Shields : Hardlight shields

Cloaking Device : Present

Ablative Generator Armour : Present

Sensor systems:

Surface radar

Radar

Infrared

Ultraviolet

Starship class sensors (retrofit)

Other systems:

Mass inertia damper

Draft reducer

Stabilizers

Satellite launch system

Simulator system (Creates training scenarios using hard light projections. Can also be used to distract the opponent.)

Fully fledged hospital with up to 5,000 beds. In disaster operations, this number can be increased tenfold by sharing parts of the hangar decks.

Weapons :

Primary :

10x quadruple turrets (5 front 5 rear) 80cm calibre (40 barrels) Range: 125 km

+6x Dual Heat Radiators (War of the Worlds Tripod Weapon) (three in front and three in back) mounted on the main turrets. Range 5km.

The turrets can also fire various energy weapons. Range of 150,000 km up to three light seconds (about 900,000 km)

Secondary :

18x triple turrets (six each to the right and left of the main turrets) 65cm calibre (54 barrels) Range: 110 km

12x magneto hydrodynamic cannons (Thanix) range up to 50,000 km

Tertiary :

32x triple turrets 46cm calibre (16 per side of superstructure) (96 barrels) Range: 100 km

Quaternary :

24x twin turrets 38cm calibre (12 per side of superstructure) (48 barrels) Range: 80km

28 towers with 42 explosive stake launchers each (1,176 launchers)

Quintary :

24x 20cm calibre; Range: 65 km; installed in the Quaternary Towers

Sextary:

36x lightweight guns in 18 twin 120mm turrets (similar to the Mark 45 only that there are not one but two barrels per turret) Range: 70km (cadence: 60 rounds per minute)

Septimary :

48x light artillery in 512 twin towers/calibre 55mm/range 25km/cadence 250 rounds per minute

Close defence

18x 25mm rapid-fire guns (anti-air and close range) Cadence: 2,500rounds/min.

26x 20mm Gattling gun (AA and close range) Cadence: 12,000rounds/min.

16x Pulse Phaser - Micro Quantum Torpedo Combo Gun (AA and Close Range)

Anti-aircraft

6x Drone Launcher

Phaser strips (4 pieces spread over the entire ship) one in front; one behind: six on the superstructure)

Plasma Pulse Launchers (8 pieces) mostly distributed on the superstructure.

High speed gattling guns. (24 pieces) all on the super structure. (Cadence 60,000 rounds per minute)

Railgun gattling guns (12 pieces) 125mm calibre (cadence 6,000 rounds per minute)

18x 25mm rapid-fire guns (anti-air and close range) Cadence: 2,500rounds/min.

26x 20mm Gattling gun (AA and close range) Cadence: 12,000rounds/min.

16x Pulse Phaser - Micro Quantum Torpedo Combo Gun (AA and Close Range)

Rockets

Anti-ship missiles (Distributed in 50 pods of 10 each) 500 pieces

Anti-Air Missiles (Distributed in 20 pods of 10 each) 200 pieces

Long-range missiles (range up to 12,000 km) (Distributed in 10 pods of 4 each) 40 pieces

Anti submarine

6x torpedo launchers (anti-ship and anti-submarine)

4x Hellgiver (Hedgehog like system) (Equipped with antimatter warheads)

20x Underwater Plasma Pulse Weapons (Distributed along the hull in twin turrets (40 turrets total))

Miscellaneous

4x Shredder Launchers (Battleship Movie)

2x minelayers

10x Smart Charge Torpedo Defence (Distributed along the hull)

2x Sonic Blast Generator (Can briefly stun targets with a very powerful sonic wave)

20x anti-missile system of type ? (A hard light gattling gun)

10x anti-missile system of type ? (Point defence phaser)

10x micro torpedo launchers for photon and quantum torpedoes

1x sonic cannon (range 500m)

1x submarine hangar in the main hull with space for 6 submarines.

Space for taking 4 frigates or two destroyers.

Planes :

None so far

Possible capacity: 2,000 pieces

.

.

Anoth didn't give them planes. The four should set up their squadrons themselves.

The four had no problem assembling their air force individually. In addition, their ship allowed the composition of the units to be changed at any time.

Anoth could construct the ships in dock at speeds of around 5,000 tons per hour. That meant per dock segment. Each dock consisted of up to 40 such segments. This means that production could be ramped up to 200,000 tons per hour without any problems.

That meant a construction time of around 521 days.

(To put this a little more vividly: an Arleigh Burke class with a weight of around 7,000 tons would roll off the assembly line in under an hour and a half. And that per dock segment. This shipyard has 4 docks of 40 segments each, so that means it can build 160 Arleigh Burke classes in an hour and a half. 2,560 ships per day.)

In the meantime, Anoth also knew why the wrecks of the four lay where he found them.

They had helped evacuate the island and had been sunk in the process. However, that was almost 10 years ago now.

Relevant hastily made notes were found by Harry and some of the sirens in one of the administration buildings of the old destroyed air base that proved that to be true.

Other skeletons were also found in the ruin itself.

As the island grew more and more into a fortress, Anoth had sent Ahri on his way to gather information.

He was also preparing to launch multiple satellites to get a more accurate picture of what was going on.

.

To Ahri

On the way to Manila (capital of the Philippines)

.

Ahri had taken the form of a Marketcrash class battleship.

At six kilometres long, she was not exactly a small ship either.

It took her several days to get to Manila undetected.

It was surprisingly easy to get into the port, although a few destroyers were on patrol. Her entry was made even easier with the fact that Ahri had assumed her human form and it was almost dark.

As soon as she landed, she began to search for needed information.

She didn't have to search long.

The third garbage can she looked into contained an old newspaper which she immediately pocketed. She just glanced at the date. It was March 17, 1954.

Interesting.

But it wasn't very useful otherwise.

What was interesting was that the whole city was under curfew from 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.

And if she calculated the time correctly, it was around 10:20 p.m. plus minus 10 minutes.

It was probably better if she was not to be seen because the military was patrolling the streets.

This also explained why the streets were empty.

Ahri, meanwhile, had finally found a kiosk that she had been looking for, for about 30 minutes. Of course it was already closed at this time.

The door lock was an electronic combination lock. A combination lock which showed a very clear weak point after a short scan.

Ahri simply magnetized one of the blades, which she extended a few centimetres from her hand, and held it next to the code tablet.

*click*

And the door was open.

How was that possible?

Very easily. Ahri's claw's magnetic field activated a working relay inside the code board. The same relay that was activated to open the door when the correct code was entered. A more than stupid error in the structure of the code table. It would be better if the electronics that open the door at the end are inside the building and not outside.

(A/N: No, that's not invented. Lockpickinglawyer on Youtube and just search for magnet there. There are actually such code locks with exactly this vulnerability.)

Ahri couldn't help a snort of disdain. Such a mistake is unforgivable. The whole door lock was nothing but junk.

But it made her job a lot easier.

Inside was an alarm system. Ahri was about to hack it when she found the note next to the input board with the code on it. Seconds later, the system was deactivated. The surveillance camera recordings were not a problem at all, since the cameras on site were all just dummies.

With that she began examining the old newspapers of the previous day. She didn't have to turn on any lights, thanks to night vision.

After a short review, she decided to scan the newspapers and evaluate them later. She also discovered a stack of old newspapers in the back of the kiosk. Without further ado, she scanned them in as well.

Half an hour later she was outside again. She had activated the alarm system again when she left and the front door was closed again. It all looked as if she had never been there.

Right after that she made her way back to the harbour and shortly afterwards she was on her way back to Anoth. The patrols were easily circumvented and presented no obstacle whatsoever to either arrival or retreat.

.

Almost a year and a half goes by

.

In response to the Siren threat, Harry had placed the entire island under Fidelius with Anoth as the bearer of the secret.

There was also technology here that should not fall into the wrong hands.

This ensured that everything that happened here went unnoticed by everyone else.

In the meantime they had completed the conversion to the fortress. No fleet would come anywhere near the island before being met by heavy anti-aircraft fire from the island's defences.

Anoth was lying on the beach at the moment reading a book. One of his Sirens, Kendra, was lying there so that she could use Anoth's stomach as her pillow. One hand of Anoth held the book while the other played with Kendra's fox ears. Which caused them to twitch sometimes while Kendra snoozed.

Meanwhile, Anoth's head rested on the lap of a tester beta clone. Anoth had captured her on one of his missions. That was over a year ago now.

He found another Siren, this one a Purifier clone, lying badly injured on the beach. Only an emergency surgery performed on site saved her life. Now she was lying next to him and was about to cut down a whole forest if the sound of her snoring was to be believed. The only sign of her injury was a large scar on her left breast.

Anoth remembered well the day he found her.

.

Flashback.

An island of French Polynesia

.

The island was deserted. Like so many islands in the Pacific.

Actually like almost all islands that were in the Pacific that was not coincidentally the home of a fleet.

The sirens had raged here like savages. Anyone who could escape had fled. The various skeletons lying on the ground of the abandoned village told Anoth that not all of them had made it.

Anoth walked cautiously through the burnt-out ruins until he heard voices.

Siren voices.

He was a little too far away to be able to understand everything, but he could make some educated guesses.

They wanted to test better protection against anti-Siren handgun ammunition.

Anoth watched what happened from the broken window of one of the burnt-out buildings. This must have been a hotel once.

A pretty shabby one though.

They dragged in a clone of Purifier. A clone that definitely did not participate voluntarily in this test. The whole thing was monitored by a Siren he identified as Tester Alpha.

She picked up the gun and held it about 50cm from the struggling Purifier and pulled the trigger.

Immediately Anoth knew that the test was a failure and the Sirens saw it too. They ripped the test vest off of Purifier and simply dropped the now slowly collapsing Siren back onto the beach while the other opened portals and disappeared.

As soon as the other Sirens were gone, ran Anoth down to the beach to find Purifier lying on the sand topless and with a gunshot wound to the chest.

"Are...you here...to...end it?" Purifier asked as yellow Siren blood spurted out of her mouth.

"No." Was Anoth's short answer as he began examining her wound. The bullet damaged her left lung and part of her heart was also affected. He had no choice he had to take care of her immediately and the first thing he did was to set the Siren under a stasis spell.

He carefully lifted her up and brought her to the remains of an old beach cafe. There he looked for a table that still looked reasonably stable and cleared it with his telekinesis. After that, he gently laid the injured Siren on the table and began tending to her injury.

It took him almost four hours before he was finally able to stabilize her.

And three more to finally get her out of danger.

After he had finally closed and bandaged her wound, he carefully lifted her and carried her to another halfway intact building. A former home where part of the roof had been shot off.

There he found a bed that was still intact and put the now sleeping Siren into it. It will probably be a few hours before she wakes up.

Sirens, as he knew from his own, healed quickly. But the injury she had would take at least a week to heal.

Only then did he contact Kendra.

Seconds later, she stepped out of her portal.

"Where is she?!" she cried, more than worried.

"Calm down, Kendra. Puri is no longer in mortal danger and is sleeping now." Anoth tried to calm her down. With that he led her into the room where she was lying in bed.

"Puri!" Kendra exclaimed relieved when she saw the wounded Siren.

"You know her?" asked Anoth.

"I raised her." Was Kendra's answer. "She is my adopted daughter."

"I didn't know that."

"You never asked either. And to be fair, I thought she was dead."

"What happened?"

"I was told that Azur Lane ambushed her and she got killed."

"That was obviously a lie."

"What did they do to her?"

"They used her as a test target." Answered Anoth while sitting down next to Puri on the bed. "They put a vest on her and then shot her at point-blank range."

"Who was that."

"If I'm not mistaken, that was Tester Alpha."

"Of course it was, that stupid bitch."

"You don't seem to get along very well."

"That's an understatement."

"There's a story."

"Oh there is. But not now."

"Your decision."

Anoth and Kendra decided to keep Puri in a coma for at least a week so she could heal. After that they would take one of the portals back to Guam.

Portal transport, while fast, caused a little stress on the body. Stress that both wanted to make sure that Puri would survive because at the moment she was very weak.

The week passed without incident and so on the eighth day they disappeared from the island via the portal and brought Puri to the hospital that Anoth had built. There she was able to fully recover.

Whatever the weapon was, it took Puri several months to fully recover from the wound.

The scar, however, will probably accompany her for a very long time.

.

End flashback

.

As for the other Siren.

The Tester clone.

Tester beta. Now better known as Tamara.

The encounter with her took place a few weeks after Puri.

She wasn't the only one there though.

And the whole thing didn't go as Anoth had planned because it ended in a trip to another dimension. A dimension where schoolgirls commanded warships.

.

And another flashback

.

Anoth was travelling in the Mediterranean.

He was near an old oil rig. The field on which it stood had been abandoned for over a decade. Still, there was strange activity going on here.

The plant itself was located off the Medici coast. An insignificant, tiny, former island nation near the island of Menorca.

Today the islands were uninhabited and a lunar landscape. The sirens had done a great job here.

However, there was an interesting mineral on the island that had caught Anoth's attention.

Bavarium.

That's why there was also a small secret mining operation here that Anoth had set up here weeks earlier.

And it was precisely it that had received these signals.

Some of the signals he received from there had Sangvis Ferri coding.

What did Sangvis Ferri want with a scrap and decommissioned production platform?

He was there to find out exactly that.

First of all he landed on the island. There he found an old billboard with the inscription: "NUCLEAR POWER THE ECO-FRIENDLY TECHNOLOGY OF THE FUTURE!". This billboard had a ladder he could climb up.

For a few seconds, Anoth studied the old, faded billboard that showed a stylized image of a nuclear power plant and a smiling family behind the writing.

Nuclear power IS environmentally friendly. No question. However, there were still two problems.

1. The waste. There was no such thing as a Molecular Reconstructor like that used by the Seraphim. So the irradiated Garbage had to be stored somewhere safe. And that for thousands of years.

2. If an accident occurs. There was no such thing as contamination containment ships that could erect huge protective shields over the wrecked reactor and thus severely contain the irradiated and contaminated area, and special ships that then cleaned up the contaminated area. That means they had to do an evacuation of the surrounding area in a radius of dozens of kilometres. And that the residents may never be able to return.

But as long as everything went according to plan, these plants were undoubtedly environmentally friendly.

But only then.

Anoth climbed onto the advertising sign and looked at the oil rigs from there.

They were ruins.

He could already tell that much from there.

However, these were ruins with quite a bit of activity.

He had to look at the facilities directly.

.

20 minutes later

.

As he approached the facility in one of his speedboats, it was clear that what was there was probably not an oil drilling platform or a production platform. It was only listed as such on the maps. But here multiple platforms stood surprisingly close together. Most of them stood in a circle around another much larger platform. Also, most of them weren't on the map at all.

He had parked his massive ship form out of sight. There were no radar signals from here, probably not to draw attention to himself.

Anoth activated his cloak and approached the nearest platform and began scanning it.

He had a feeling they were all connected.

There were a total of six platforms.

Five arranged in a ring around the outside with the sixth and largest in the middle. However, it had something special. She was surrounded by a ring of lightning no more than a mile or two from the platform.

Weather manipulation?

Weapons research?

Anoth was here to find out.

Seconds later, with the help of a grappling hook, he was on top of the platform, or rather hanging directly under one of the platforms. Above him were a couple of Sangvis T-Dolls who seemed to be taking a break or….

Yes… they were definitely busy with something other than standing guard from what he could hear from here.

Anoth shimmied away from them with the help of the grappling hooks on both of his arms. His goal was to collect information at the moment and remain as undetected as possible.

Minutes later he had reached the administration and office area and snuck inside.

The guards on board made it pretty easy for him. They were anything but attentive. They probably thought that they would neither be discovered nor attacked here.

Which was just fine with Anoth.

Because that made it all the easier to get information.

He was turning a corner when he ran into two of Sangvis Ferri's ring leaders.

Architect and Hunter.

Both immediately pulled out their weapons and aimed at Anoth along with the two Ripper and two Vespid models who were accompanying them.

In response, Anoth activated his rigging in battleship configuration.

Seconds later, the Sangvis Ferri T-Dolls' weapons were down on the ground as they surrendered. They could compete against other T-Dolls without any problems, but against a humanized ship, a so-called Kansen, and then also a battleship, they didn't stand a chance and they knew it.

"We surrender." It came from Architect in a meek and clearly frightened tone.

"Please don't kill us." Added Hunter who was standing there with shaky legs.

One of the Rippers took an unconscious step backwards as Anoth walked towards her, tripped, fell and went into the foetus position. She was shaking and crying and just terrified.

Fighting an opponent you had at least a chance of winning was one thing. Fighting one you were effectively defenceless against was something else entirely.

A soft whimper escaped Architect's lips as she saw her own death approaching her.

A few moments later, Anoth waved his hand in front of them and cast a simple sleeping spell. Seconds later, all six were down and asleep.

Anoth crouched in front of Architect and looked into her face.

She was a T-Doll. Just like the other five. However, Anoth quickly found out that the term "Android" didn't really fit them.

The T-Dolls were Biomechanical. They had both biological and mechanical components. The mechanicals found themselves mainly in their arms and legs, as well as their pelvis, spine and chest.

Many of their internal organs were also mechanical, though there were organic exceptions to this. Her head, however, was purely mechanical.

And according to the data he had received from various hacking attacks on various facilities, this applied to Sangvis as much as it did to Griffin.

T-Dolls, whether by Sangvis or by Griffin, could in fact conceive if they wanted to and were also capable of breastfeeding an infant.

Anoth crouched next to the sleeping T-Doll named Architect and stroked her cheeks. She seemed to like that quite a bit as her face relaxed further.

Seeing no reason to kill them, Anoth teleported the six to prison cells aboard his ship, which was over the horizon.

When Anoth opened the next door, he met the calls of another ring leader.

"Architect!" she cried. "Architect where are you?"

A T-Doll walked into the room. She was smaller than the ring leader from before. Anoth identified her as a Destroyer.

As she entered the room, he could see that her whole body was shaking. The last thing she received from Architect was sheer fear.

Anoth decided to step into the light.

Destroyer swung to him and froze.

In front of her was a Kansen with activated rigging. No matter how powerful her weapon was, she couldn't take on a Kansen. Not even against a destroyer and this was a battleship.

Moments later, Destroyer passed out from sheer fear. The last thing she felt were two strong arms catching her then darkness engulfed her.

A T-Doll versus a Kansen. Not a fair match no matter how you look at it.

She, too, was teleported aboard his ship by Anoth.

In the end, Anoth got a whole bunch of other T-Dolls.

14 Rippers, 21 Vespids, six Hunters, four Guards, six Brutes and two Strikers.

Everyone of them surrendered the moment they saw him.

And all were now in prison cells aboard the Anoth.

The platform was empty, but he found little information here. It seemed like this station here was just a small extension of the station in the middle. However, he did find a few tape recordings. Years old and of poor quality. But apparently these islands were once part of a larger research project.

He couldn't find anything else here.

Anoth, using his grappling hooks, jumped off the rig and set course for one of the other rigs.

A surprise awaited him there.

A fire fight was in full swing there which apparently ended shortly after his arrival under the platform. Anoth also used his grappling hook here to board the platform.

He was now under the covers. Just below him he saw several people in uniforms that he recognized immediately.

These were Black Hand soldiers. A Special Forces unit of the KCCO.

Anoth materialized two plasma pistols in his hand, then released the grappling rake from the ceiling. As he fell to the deck, a good 10 meters below him, he opened fire on the soldiers, who lay dead on the ground seconds later. As soon as Anoth had landed almost silently, he approached the two T-Dolls lying on the ground. Two Rippers.

Both were dead.

However, he was still receiving signals from other T-Dolls on board the platform.

Anoth moved almost silently across the platform. He heard another soldier coming and hid behind a nearby container that was on the deck. Seconds later the soldier came around the corner. Anoth jumped out, grabbed one soldier and used him as a human shield while using his other hand, holding a plasma pistol, to kill the other five soldiers. When the last of the soldiers fell, the soldier he was holding was dead too. He just dropped him on the ground like a sack of potatoes.

There were not many soldiers left alive. The Sangvis Dolls put up good resistance.

Then he saw where the signal was coming from.

It was Alchemist who was being held by a badly injured Jaeger-Type T-Doll. Two Brutes were there as well, but Anoth ignored them. They were hardly fit to fight anyway. It was amazing that the two could still stand.

"Are you... here... to kill us?" Alchemist asked, barely conscious.

"No." Said Anoth who ignored the presence of the other T-Doll and crouched in front of Alchemist. "I'm here to find out what kind of facility this is."

"I think... I can tell you that." Said Alchemist while coughing up blood. Anoth then placed his hand on her chest and cast a light healing spell that also worked on T-Dolls, giving her some relief. The Jaeger-Type T-Doll had meanwhile slumped to the ground next to Alchemist. She no longer had the strength to stand. "Thanks." said Alchemist relieved. Then Anoth also put his hand on the Jaeger type T-Doll's chest and repeated the same thing with her, whereupon the T-Doll just nodded gratefully.

"This facility was part of an old project started from the island near here called Project Stingray. The project was run by the "eDEN Corporation". Funnily enough, the whole thing was run by an AI called Eden. Yes, they were really very creative in their naming."

Alchemist was interrupted by a severe coughing fit. Anoth's healing powers didn't seem to really work on her. Even if he used a combination spell that actually worked with biomechanical beings as well. Only moments later, Anoth knew why. The Black Hand soldiers had used special weapons. These disrupted the spell and had begun to eat away at her from the inside out. He also couldn't teleport them because the material of the ammunition was interfering with the transporter.

Not good. If I can't treat her, she will only have a few minutes at most. If any. Thought Anoth.

"Then a while ago the AI went berserk and they killed everyone in the facilities." She started coughing up blood again.

The hunter-type T-Doll next to her fared little better. Only she was lucky that she hadn't been hit so hard by the special ammunition and so Anoth's healing powers could help her. She had long since taken off her visor and looked worriedly at Alchemist and then at Anoth, who understood her silent question very well and shook his head in response. The hunter-type understood what that meant and took Alchemist's hand in hers.

"Why are you here?" asked Anoth.

"To end the conflict between Sangvis and Griffin." Was Alchemist's answer. "I think... Carolina here... can... better... explain that to you." She gestured with her failing strength at the other T-Doll next to her.

"The conflict between Sangvis Ferri and Griffin & Kryuger can be traced back to the founding of the two companies. The two of us have always been competitors. However, things got completely out of hand a few years ago. A group of KCCO spies infiltrated the main base and then planted something into the base's main AI "Elisa". Right after that, we Sangvis T-Dolls started attacking the humans. That was until our group was hit by an EMP shockwave, thus freeing us from Elisa's control. We've been searching ever since after an option to shut down or reprogram Elisa and thus end the conflict.

"A lightning weapon was being researched here. We wanted to use it to overload Elisa's circuits and shut them down. But we couldn't get to the main island. Then we were attacked by the Black Hand soldiers." She looked over at Alchemist. "I think that's all important." Alchemist gave no reaction. "Alchemist?" Only now did she realize that the hand she was holding had gone limp.

In response to her unspoken question, Anoth closed Alchemist's eyes with his hand.

"Is she…"

"Her body, yes. But I was able to save her programs." Was Anoth's response when Alchemist appeared right next to him. This time as a hologram.

"Thanks Anoth." Said alchemist. "It feels strange seeing me lying there."

"ALCHEMIST!" cried Carolina and threw her arms around Alchemist. She was glad to be a hard light hologram at that moment because that allowed her to hug the other T-Doll. The two Brutes also hugged her moments later.

"What about the other T-Dolls?" Carolina finally asked.

"I was able to recover the data from three of the fallen Rippers and two Vespids. Unfortunately, any help came too late for the rest." replied Anoth. "The T-Dolls from that platform over there." He points to the said platform in the distance. "Have surrendered to me without a fight and are now aboard my ship form."

"That means Destroyer and Architect..."

"And Hunter. All of them are unharmed aboard of my ship." Confirmed Anoth.

"Can you send Carolina, Lisa and Tina to them?" asked Alchemist.

"But I can still fight." protested Carolina. The two brutes just looked exhausted.

"You can hardly stand anymore." Alchemist clarified. And right enough Carolina's legs were shaking significantly. "No back talk." Carolina gave up and Alchemist nodded to Anoth. Moments later, Carolina and the two Brutes were gone in a flash of light.

"We still have three more islands to secure." Anoth stated and Alchemist nodded determinedly.

The next three hours followed the same pattern.

Board the platform, eliminate the Black Hand soldiers, search for survivors and move on to the next.

The Black Hand was thorough. They found no survivors on any of the other three platforms.

Now they had another problem. How did they get to the main island. The surrounding platforms had contained no indication of how to get over there. The storm that raged constantly around the central platform made it almost impossible to get any closer.

If it were normal thunderbolts, Anoth would just use his shields. But something about those thunderbolts was… different.

"Can't you just use your shields to get through it?" asked Alchemist.

"If it were normal thunderbolts, yes. But these are bolts that usually only occur in the void between dimensions and in certain nebulae." Explained Anoth.

"What distinguishes them from those in the thunderstorm?" Alchemist asked curiously.

"These are high-energy bolts laced with unpredictable exotic particles and striking at an unpredictable dimensional frequency. This means that even the best shields will not function within this storm because the shield grid cannot be deployed. This storm is effectively a miniature Mutara Nebula. "

"How do we get past it? Underwater?"

"No. The water offers no protection against this mist." Anoth took a closer look at the fog from his satellites. "I have an idea."

"Hmm?" Alchemist asked curiously.

"We can't go under it or through it. But we can get over it." Explained Anoth. "The storm goes up to the mesosphere and it has an eye." Anoth's eyes fell on Alchemist's hologram. "Ever been to space?"

"Hmm?" was all the Alchemist could utter before Anoth grabbed her under the arms and, using his rigging, shot up into the clouds. Only a little later they had already reached a height of over 120 kilometres and Alchemist looked in disbelief at what she saw far below her. Then it went down again. Anoth's shields protected them from the high temperatures as they shot through the atmosphere at very high speeds. A little later they landed gently on the middle platform.

"That was a very nice sight to see." Alchemist breathed as she regained her balance, somewhat dazed. "But next time please warn me before you do that." With that, Alchemist deactivated her hologram.

"I will do that." Said Anoth more to himself than anyone else. Then Anoth began to scan the platform.

Anoth's scans showed no signs of life aboard the platform.

"There is no one here." noted Anoth. "How... Ah... one of the underwater gates is open."

A short dive later and Anoth was inside the base. It was obviously deserted and had been for some time. Alchemist, meanwhile, had decided to stay in Anoth and not appear as a hologram, and had already begun hacking into the facility's surviving systems.

She already had success with one of the systems.

The Central Wastewater Treatment System.

Somehow Alchemist doubted that this system would be helpful.

So she kept looking.

Anoth moved cautiously through the facility, weapon drawn. Although there was nothing living on this platform, this did not mean that there were no automated defence systems inside.

There were no guns in the dock area, which could change significantly later. The lower doors were all defective. Only one door was intact. Anoth moved up the stairs and activated the panel.

The door stayed closed. It was locked by a code.

"We'll have that soon." Meant alchemist. She began to enjoy her new existence as a pure AI. A few moments later the door was open.

"You're starting to like your new form of existence?" asked Anoth.

"Yes. I'm starting to enjoy it. I have so many options here~." Hummed Alchemist.

Anoth just smiled.

"Did you meet Sephina yet?" asked Anoth. Sephina was Anoth's personal AI.

"She's helping me unlock this facility and to understand the systems here. Eden is apparently still in the system."

"Just take your time." Hummed Anoth and looked around if he could find anything interesting in the next room, whose doors were all locked.

Not really.

Rubble.

More rubble.

A fallen catwalk.

Still more rubble.

Oh, more rubble.

And who would have expected it... there was more rubble in the corner.

Whatever had happened here had taken quite a toll on the facility. That much was clear.

Then finally he got an answer.

"This facility is complete junk." That was Sephina this time. And she sounded annoyed. Anoth thought he heard Alchemist growling in frustration in the background. The two were definitely not in a good mood. "Finally a door here that also works. Most of the electronics here are toast. I'm afraid you'll have to open many of the doors manually because they no longer have a power supply or the controls are just scrap."

"Great."

Then Alchemist answered.

"I downloaded the damage report out of curiosity."

"And?"

"I'm not kidding. The list has 169,578 points. Parts of the system are completely missing. Others have collapsed. That the thing is still standing is half a miracle."

"Holy shit." Meant Anoth. "The whole facility is little more than a ruin. The list of intact parts should probably be shorter, right?"

"It is." Confirmed Alchemist.

"Yikes."

The now open door led into a short corridor that ended at a closed door. Anoth let his hands become claws and rammed them into the steel of the door and with a little effort he forced the two halves of the door apart. As soon as they were wide enough open, Anoth stepped through.

It was a second dock. The door to the next area was already open, so he just walked through.

This led him to an area with various offices. It looked like a storm had swept through the offices. Everything was a mess to say it mildly.

He couldn't just pry open the next door. This door was secured by a magnetic lock. Either he had to cut himself through the door, or….

He saw a small security office.

The thin metal door to this office gave way after a little persuasion with a hearty kick.

Inside, all he had to do was rip a few cables out of the wall and the door lost all power. Now it was easy to pry it open. He then followed the corridor to a stairwell and then through another corridor before finding himself in the main dome of the facility.

This is where the main experiments were carried out. On the way there he had to pry open several doors and even cut open one to move on.

There were no internal defences. Probably no one expected anyone to come through the artificial storm.

No matter where he looked, the entire facility had been a single field of rubble up to here, and this room didn't look any better either. Apparently part of the roof had collapsed.

He had also found several surprisingly well-preserved corpses. That probably had to do with the temperatures in most of the system, which were clearly in the negative range.

In the centre of the main room stood a device surrounded by electrical discharges. It was undoubtedly the device that was responsible for the storm ring. When Anoth scanned the device, it quickly became clear that this device worked in combination with a geostationary satellite and served as a launching point for an energy beam. On one of the consoles, Anoth also found the "weapon" connected to the device. Actually, this weapon was more of a target marker than a real weapon.

Anoth ran another scan. This time, however, to establish something.

The result was positive and so Anoth dismantled the entire device via Nanoforge. Only to immediately activate his rigging where now the device was set up again. Albeit in miniature. This thing could still come in handy.

The weapon that determined the aiming point was rebuilt by Anoth almost instantly, reducing it from rifle size to pistol size.

He also designed a turret that allowed him to fire the energy beam like a cannon.

In order to build it, however, he had to go back to Guam because it required some conversion work to build it in such a way that it also worked.

With that he left. The door to the outside was very close. After a few empty and ruined hallways, he found himself outside on the platform. The storm ring had dissipated now that the device that actively held it had been dismantled. Instead, something else was in the air.

KCCO attack aircraft and helicopters.

Anoth was about to open fire on the attacking fliers when others did. He didn't need to ask where the fighter jets that had just made short work of those idiots came from.

Sirens.

And no friendly ones.

Hundreds of mass production models led by a tester beta clone.

Anoth sighed and rubbed his forehead with his right hand.

"I should have known that the disappearance of the artificial storm would be noticed."

Seconds later, the Siren ships opened fire, causing the arm of the station he was standing on to collapse. Anoth didn't mind it that much because although the ground disappeared under him, he just stayed floating in the middle of the air.

"A really bottomless cheek." He only said before he went on the attack himself.

What Anoth didn't know was that the action was being observed by one of the other fake oil rigs that Anoth had previously captured.

And someone else was watching. A certain green-haired battleship lady. However, she kept her distance. Those were way too many sirens. Even for her.

.

One of the captured "drilling platforms"

.

M4A1 looked through binoculars at what was happening.

Then her mouth fell open.

M4 SOPMOD II standing right next to her saw this, snatched the binoculars from her hand and stared in the same direction.

Her mouth fell open too.

After that, the binoculars moved on to M16A1 and then to ST AR-15 and finally to RO635.

They all had the same facial expression a short time later.

But then reality came crashing down on them.

A mighty battle was imminent.

And they were caught right between the two fronts.

They had only come here to investigate and, if necessary, stop the suspicious activities of the KCCO.

Their helicopter had to fly a slightly different route to avoid what was probably the largest carrier battleship they had ever seen.

And now they were stuck here.

Crap.

.

Back to Anoth

.

Something was wrong.

Anoth sensed a connection with the sirens.

He had felt something similar with his other sirens, but he had put them down to saving their lives and joining him.

But that was definitely not the case with this one.

It felt like...

How was that possible?

They felt as if they were creatures he had created himself.

How?

When?

He had no idea.

And there was something else.

The way they looked around, the way their eyes moved, all their facial expressions.

They were kind of...

Not correct.

It looked more like they...

Were remotely controlled.

Whatever it was, it changed how he approached this.

Now he wanted to arrest all sirens with human form. The mass-produced ships didn't matter. They were just metal controlled by a rudimentary AI. He didn't have to hold back with them.

In the end, Anoth could hardly remember the course of the battle. The fight began around 3:43 p.m. local time and didn't end until around 3:28 a.m. the next morning.

The sirens called for reinforcements several times. In the end, Anoth counted nearly 300 Sirens captured and over 16,000 mass production ships sunk after a battle that lasted nearly 17 hours.

Now Tester was the only one left and funnily enough they were both on the same, now much smaller, platform where the T-Dolls were hiding too. Not that either of them knew that.

It was clear to see that Anoth didn't come out of the fight unscathed either. The Sirens were smart enough to use Concentrated Fire to collapse portions of his shield lattice. After that, they were able to do some superficial damage. Most of the damage he had taken came from the destruction of about two dozen of his heavier guns and some damage to the superstructure, some of which was severe, which was already being repaired by its auto-repair systems. They had not been able to cause any damage to the hull itself, apart from a little damage to the paintwork. The armour was way too strong there.

The Sirens' laser weapons were quite weak compared to the Fog Fleet's photon cannons. But the Sirens, unlike the Fog Fleet, had been smart enough to focus their fire on a specific part of his shields. This was the only way they managed to break through Anoth's shields.

One shot was weak.

But when 1,800 shots arrive and that per minute...

Quantity has a quality in itself.

Many have experienced this.

Now Tester was lying pretty badly battered and barely conscious on the deck of one of those mock oil rigs or production rig wrecks or whatever they're supposed to be.

Anoth crouched down beside her and looked at the badly injured Siren. Something about her struck him as odd.

Anoth carefully turned Tester's face to him and then opened one of her eyes with one hand. There was something in her eye... He had to check it with the other sirens of his but it looked like Anoth was right with his guess.

With that, Anoth teleported Tester to the other captured Sirens on board of his ship.

That was also the time when he heard a metallic noise. Something had just fallen to the ground nearby.

Anoth found the source of the noise almost immediately and looked at a stack of various crates and boxes and at the empty, half-crushed soda can that was now rolling across the floor.

He slowly got up and started walking over to the boxes.

Once there, he finally saw what, or rather who, was trying to hide there.

It was a T-Doll.

This time, however, not from Sangvis Ferri but from G&K.

After a quick hack into the G&K and 16Labs databases, he knew who he was dealing with here.

M4 Sopmod II

The AR team.

Anoth squatted in front of her.

She was afraid he could see so much of her already. Besides that…

Anoth's hand went down to her own which was holding a spot on her stomach. As he slowly lifted her hand from the point she was holding he could see that she was wounded.

A quick scan told him it was caused by shrapnel when one of the shells detonated on the platform.

"Smart girl." Anoth finally said. "You left the splinter in. That's probably the only reason you're still alive."

He carefully opened her clothes to get a closer look at the wound when he was disturbed.

"Hands up!" called a female voice.

Anoth didn't even need to look in their direction to know who it was.

The rest of the AR team.

In addition, the AR team seemed to have received reinforcements.

Team DEFY was also present.

During the fighting, Anoth had spotted a submarine approaching the platform before hastily disappearing again. Anoth was pretty sure that the engines of the submarine hadn't remained undamaged because they were in a damn hurry to get out of the lye.

There were M4A1, M16A1, ST AR-15 and RO635 from AR team and AK-15, AK-12, AN-94 and RPK-16 from team DEFY.

Anoth's only reaction to their presence was a raised eyebrow.

None of them could be dangerous to him and they apparently knew that even when he looked at how they were standing there. Some of them looked ready to flee should he prove hostile.

They were apparently very aware that they weren't dealing with a T-Doll but with a humanized warship, which in turn meant that their weapons were pretty much useless.

That was also the moment when part of the ceiling of the hallway they were in caved in, revealing something that Anoth didn't like at all.

An unexploded warhead from a Siren missile had fallen there. A rocket that, after being knocked out of the sky by Anoth's point defence, must have drilled into the roof here.

But that wasn't even the real problem.

The warhead was the problem.

This was an Experimental Dimensional warhead that Tester had fired at him.

So this is where the thing ended up. Anoth thought when he heard a beep from the warhead. "Oh shit." He murmured as he realized the warhead was about to detonate.

Normally, Anoth would have simply teleported the warhead away. However, this was impossible with dimensional warheads due to the nature of the warhead itself. Because no Teleporter could detect the type of warhead.

So only one thing remained.

The T-Dolls must have realized that too because they had started running too.

However, they didn't get far.

None of them.

In fact, they got about four paces before the warhead detonated and an unstable dimensional portal opened up and began sucking in everything around it.

Anoth immediately slammed his claws into the metal that surrounded him while holding the severely injured Sop II to himself.

Then he saw M4A1 stumble. Only the use of one of his tentacles, which shot out of his back and wrapped around her stomach, prevented her from being simply sucked into the portal. He couldn't say the same about her gun, though. The lanyard holding the gun to her had snapped and the gun was being sucked into the portal.

Gradually the same happened to the other T-Dolls, who were now desperately trying to hold onto something.

The next to lose her footing was Ak-12 when the railing she was holding on to broke. AK-15 just managed to get hold of her but then her holding point, a handle welded to the wall, broke off as well.

Anoth managed to grab both of them before they could be sucked into the portal.

Then ST AR-15 lost her footing as the portal's gravitational forces increased.

This time it was M4A1 that grabbed her, albeit just long enough for Anoth's tentacles to wrap around her.

Meanwhile, Anoth struggled against the portal and also against the ground, which was now beginning to be torn apart.

The next he caught were AN-94s and RPK-16s clinging to each other, closely followed by M16A1s. RO635 followed just seconds later.

Then Anoth felt something he didn't like at all.

The whole floor panel he was trying to hold on to broke loose. The rivets and screws that were supposed to hold them in place began to fail.

Not again. He thought to himself.

Then just a moment later the whole plate broke loose and Anoth along with the T-Dolls landed in the portal.

.

Unknown dimension

.

When Anoth regained his sight he was in free fall with the T-Dolls still in his tentacles and he could feel Sop II trying to cling to him even though she clearly lacked the strength.

I hate those unstable fucking portals. Anoth thought as he stabilized their fall with a few little tricks.

They were still way too high.

He wouldn't be able to slow the fall until they reached the lower layers of air.

Anoth made more tentacles appear, but this time there were oxygen masks at the ends, which he forced onto the T-Dolls' faces. That made sure they all could at least breathe again, but the temperatures here were still way too low.

The portal had thrown them out at a height of more than 35 kilometres above the sea.

In this height the temperature was by roundabout 220 Kelvin. (-53°C or -63°F)

Practically on the edge of space.

Only when they reached an altitude of about 2,500 meters did he seriously start braking. The engines of his rigging now worked with the same mode as when he would land as a ship on a new planet. Only with the difference that before he even started the manoeuvres, he had the T-Dolls all distributed on his rigging so that they had better grip than before.

M4A1 for example now found herself lying on one of the big main guns together with AN-94 where she somehow managed to find a footing while AN-94 was hugging one of the massive guns like a monkey.

Then they noticed clearly how they began to slow down.

They felt the weight on them increase.

It still took some time but then they felt like they were finally coming to a standstill.

A little later there was a massive flash of light and M4A1 found herself lying on the runway of a gigantic ship. The oxygen masks were gone too.

M4A1 has never been happier to be back on solid ground.

Even if in this case it was only the deck of a ship.

"Where are we?" finally asked AK-12 who was sitting on her butt shaking slightly and looking around.

"Aboard of my ship." The answer came from behind her. When Ak-12 turned to him, she saw the one they had seen earlier bending over and tending to the badly injured Sop II, who was lying on the ground. She also found that she had lost her gun. Just like the others found out.

No doubt the missing equipment now lay at the bottom of the sea.

Ak-12's eyes wandered over to her sister, Ak-15. Laying on her stomach, legs and arms stretched out wide, she mumbled something about solid ground, how much she loved it and would never leave it again.

*Sweatdrop*

Ak-15 was actually a badass fighter, but she also had another side that she only showed when alone or with a select few. But at the moment she didn't seem to care. She was just glad to be alive.

AK-12 couldn't really blame her. She was also happy to have relatively solid ground under her feet again.

.

An hour later

.

Anoth was in sickbay number three. That was the closest. In addition to the hospital with 20,000 beds on board, there were 40 smaller infirmaries distributed throughout the ship, each with just under 50 beds.

The operation had survived Sop II well and he was now in the process of bandaging her. Her own self-repair and regeneration would do the rest.

SOP II, meanwhile, was conscious and had placed her hand in his. She was still too weak to speak, but the gesture was more than enough for the "thank you" she wanted to say.

In response, Anoth squeezed her hand. "Rest and you'll be back on your feet before long."

A short time later Sop II fell asleep.

.

To the T-Dolls

.

AK-15 sat cross-legged on the ground. The reason she sat there while the others sat in the chairs was her own fault.

AN-94 used her vacant chair to put her legs up. In return, she caught a rather nasty glare from AK-15 which AN-94 ignored.

The reason she sat on the floor?

Alchemist.

Maybe Anoth should have warned her?

Because the moment Alchemist appeared in front of them as a hologram, albeit in a completely different outfit than what she usually wore, namely a business suit, AK-15 pounced.

Only to find that her fist went right through the hologram. Not expecting this, she stumbled and landed face first on the floor.

A short time later it was clear that the T-Dolls could not harm Alchemist and vice versa Alchemist could not harm them either.

With that, they were ready to listen to her.

Anoth's treatment of the injuries from Sop II was probably not entirely innocent either. And probably also her own experiences with her own "Commanders". If you could call them that.

These "Commanders" had not worth their rank. And all nine still bore traces of their "dissatisfaction". Especially when a mission didn't quite go as it should have.

Anoth was different. They could already say that.

Above all, they had the feeling that if someone tried to rape them again, they luckily never got any further than that (thanks to a little lie from Persicaria), then they would wish they had never been born. They also had the feeling that Anoth didn't care what rank the idiot who did that held.

If any of the other commanders were still on duty and they were returning with someone with serious injuries like Sop II, this T-Doll would have been scrapped by those commanders without hesitation on the grounds that it was better to use the resources for something else than for expensive repairs.

Alchemist who then also confirmed it with her own story that Anoth handled this completely different only cemented it even more.

.

Almost two months later

.

The months flew by. It took some time getting used to for the T-Dolls to have friendly Sangvis Ferri units here at first, but that was nothing.

Their surprise was even greater when they discovered sirens on board.

Sirens whose allegiance was now to Anoth and no one else.

But they were still a little scared of the eight kitsune sirens on board.

Every single one of them was at least arbiter level in terms of power level. If not significantly more.

However, they also quickly learned that off the battlefield they tended to be gentle souls. In fact, Sop II had managed to sleep in the bushy tails of one of them several times.

Namely Kendra. The leader of the group.

As it turned out, they had only come aboard because they had been secretly following Anoth.

Then there were the other sirens.

Tester, now known as Tamara, stayed near Anoth almost exclusively and had appointed herself to his secretary. The other sirens had also joined him and were fussing around in Anoth's simulations, which they discovered were anything but easy to master.

These simulations were also used by the T-Dolls. They had explicitly told Anoth that they were Elite T-Dolls and wanted a challenge.

They regretted saying that after the first failed simulation.

They wanted a challenge.

Anoth was only too happy to give them to them as well.

"I don't believe I was killed by a glass mine." M4A1 muttered, still in disbelief.

"I was crushed by a falling ceiling." Clarified Ak-12. "How do you think I feel?"

"Now I know how it feels to be impaled." Mumbled AN-94, who had found their simulated end with spikes more than two meters long shooting out of the ground.

"At least that's legit. I died from a brick hitting my head at nearly the speed of sound." Granted M16A1.

"That was a Scotch bottle." Corrected AK-15.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Because I got the alcohol and right after that I was set on fire and then fell on fire into the elevator shaft behind me."

"Oh…"

"But, that's not at all what's frustrating me at the moment."

"What is it then?" asked M4A1.

"Each of the traps we triggered we could have predicted. That's what frustrates me right now. Only instead of seeing them, we walked right into them like blind hens. We're Elite T-Dolls! That really shouldn't have happen!"

Result of first attempt:

M4A1 = Killed by glass mine

M16A1 = Killed by alcohol bottle against head

SOP II = Broke through the ground and impaled by Dino Skeleton

ST AR-15 = Nailed to the wall by harpoon

RO635 = Struck by falling chandelier

AK-12 = Crushed by ceiling

AK-15 = Set on fire and fell down elevator shaft

AN-94 = Impaled by spikes.

RPK-16 = Was catapulted into an old bathtub by a gas explosion, then flew out of the house with the bathtub, slid down the hill and finally sank in the icy lake of the property.

Needless to say, neither of them was proud of this result.

The second attempt, however, ended little better.

M4A1 = Found the only insufficiently covered shaft on the site

M16A1 = Ran through an energized puddle

SOP II = Found out that the house has automated defence systems. Just like AK-12 and AK-15.

AK-12 = Found out the house has automated defence systems. Just like AK-15 and SOP II.

AK-15 = Found out the house has automated defence systems. Just like AK-12 and SOP II.

St AR-15 = Took an involuntary bath in an acid tank

RO635 = Found a door that leads nowhere. (Elevator shaft)

AN-94 = Found a broken light switch.

RPK-16 = Found out why not to walk under suspended loads.

"It's just embarrassing." Meant RPK-16.

"We're doing something wrong." Detected M16A1.

"The environment can sometimes be even more dangerous than the actual enemy." AK-15 mumbled.

"Hmm?" asked M4A1.

"Anoth said that before we entered the simulation for the first time." AK-15 explained. "You didn't even notice that, did you?" None of the other T-Dolls could look at AK-15 now. They suddenly found completely different things in the room much more interesting.

"To be fair, none of us have ever been on a mission with so many well-designed traps." Added AK-12.

In the simulations that followed, they learned to read their surroundings much better and to recognize the better hidden traps.

Nevertheless, they needed a total of 27 attempts before they managed to successfully complete a simulation.

.

To Anoth

.

Anoth had been talking to his kitsunes for a long time. And was able to confirm what he had already suspected. When he then took Tester under the knife, there was absolutely no doubt about it.

Mind control.

His Sirens confirmed, that that was one of the reasons why they ended up fleeing. The other sirens didn't like that at all and so they took up the pursuit and finally a fight ensued. Somehow they then managed to lose their pursuers and finally ended up where they were found.

Tester lay unconscious in one of the hospital beds for the next few weeks after the surgery to recover. While Anoth quietly chatted with the other sirens. Weeks later she was fully back and had also given up her old name. Now she called herself Tamara.

Incidentally, Anoth also performed this operation on the other Humanoid Sirens. He found the same thing in all of them. They were all controlled by someone and used as weapons against their will.

The sirens had little choice but to obey the orders that someone gave them. Which was also due to her implants. These could simply be overloaded or detonated from afar should they manage to break through the mind control.

Anoth promptly removed that feature/explosive implants from all of them. In return, their loyalty was now to him.

It's been several months now.

Now Tester/Tamara sat next to Anoth and studied the map that Anoth had created.

"Do you know this world?" asked Anoth.

"No." Admitted Tester/Tamara.

"Hmm… It has certain similarities to the world where I met the Fleet of Fog. Also, there is no air traffic whatsoever. In fact, I don't see a single aircraft. Just a few balloons or blimps. But no planes."

"Seems like the islands of Japan have sunk halfway into the sea and they now have floating cities." Alchemist interfered as a hologram. "I've also been receiving something from the Blue Mermaids for a while."

"Any idea what that's supposed to be?"

Alchemist could only shrug her shoulders.

"I'll send out an AWACS and see if we can intercept more of the messages and get a better idea of what's going on."

.

One week later

.

By now they knew quite a bit more.

The "Blue Mermaids" were effectively something of a maritime police force in the region around Japan.

Also, there was a school in Yokosuka where new Blue Mermaids were trained on WWII ships,

Anoth couldn't really understand why people around here thought it was a good idea to let pubescent teenagers at the controls of fully functional warships and battleships like the Musashi .

And apparently they were having some problems at the moment.

A Kagerou-class destroyer, Y-467, Harekaze , had apparently mutinied and sunk the ship of its instructor, an Independence-class, littoral combat ship, Y-083, Sarushima . The strange thing about these allegations was that the Sarushima fired on the Harekaze first, according to the radio logs . And with live ammunition from its Mk. 45 Mod 4 127mm / L62 Navy gun. And whereupon, judging by the sensor data, the Harekaze fired a practice torpedo at the Sarushima , which only slightly damaged the Sarushima .

Then why was it said to have sunk?

Or was that just a hoax…. Could be possible.

But why had the Sarushima fired first and then also with live ammunition and at a ship manned by schoolgirls?

Merely being late is no excuse that Anoth would let go.

Something didn't fit.

And so Anoth decided to investigate the matter deeper.

He gained access to the computers at the Yokosuka Navy base and pulled out the data on the Sarushima and its last mission, as well as the data on the fleet that the ship was to lead.

Apparently, the Y-083 Sarushima , along with the Y-467 Harekaze and the Y-118 Musashi , also under the control of schoolgirls, had left for a practice run that should have lasted two weeks.

They also had a research team on board who wanted to study the marine wildlife.

The strange thing was that when Anoth checked the names of the research team, he found out that they weren't active in that field at all. The entries in their data had been falsified. These were bio-weapons researchers?

What was going on here?

Anoth called up the map to find out where the ships in question were going before losing contact with them and found out that not only the Musashi and Sarushima were there but also the W-207, Admiral Graf Spee. A Deutschland-class heavy cruiser .

So he could assume that what happened to the Musashi and the Sarushima probably also happened to the Admiral Graf Spee .

What were the researchers looking for there?

Judging by the last radio messages he had intercepted and recorded from the ships, they were only in the area because of the scientists.

Why?

He had to see the area himself.

.

Two days later

.

Anoth had gone full throttle to reach the place.

His ship form might be the same size as a Star Wars Super Star Destroyer at 12 miles, but its propulsion system was something from the Seraphimian arsenal.

So Anoth had approached the spot at over 200 knots. (Converted to about 370.4 km/h or 230 mph).

Now they had finally reached the area and Anoth had dropped anchor.

There had to be something here.

He had arrived at the Nishinoshima Volcano Islands. About 900km from Tokyo.

His sensors reported some underwater volcanic activity but otherwise nothing unusual. At least nothing that would immediately catch your eye.

Anoth began launching smaller ships to search the seabed.

There had to be something here.

Then, about three hours later, a message came in.

They actually found something.

A submarine wreck.

It was just one of several wrecks they had found here. But this was noticeable, because Anoth's biohazard warning system reported something unusual on the submarine and its sensors also reported a strange EM field which also came from the submarine.

In addition, the submarine showed traces of explosives.

Someone had tried to cover his tracks.

Sensor detections of explosives were not really unusual for a military ship. They almost always had something with them that made a good boom. Be it bombs, torpedoes, rockets or C4. But on a civilian submarine, things looked a little different. And this was a civilian submarine what they had found there.

It was a Type IX submarine converted into a laboratory submarine.

"Vessel identified. A converted Type IX submarine. Approximately 1300 tons." Said Anoth who evaluated the data in the CIC. "It's about 84.5 meters long and 6.5 meters wide. They lengthened the ship by a good eight meters."

Whatever was going on here.

The answers were on this wreck.

So it was clear what he had to do next.

He will have to lift the wreck.

.

Almost eight hours later

.

The submarine wreck was now in a hermetically sealed hangar that could only be entered through a single airlock. Even the air inside the hangar was treated from the inside out. Whatever was on the wreck, Anoth didn't want it to come out.

In addition, the internal defences within the hangar had been activated.

If anything on board of that thing tries to flee, it'll be dead before its five paces from the wreck.

Anoth slowly moved around the wreck.

It was a miracle he was even able to lift it in one piece.

There was a massive hole in the sub's port side. Right where the engine room sat.

It looked like the explosion had come from inside the submarine.

Had it been an accident or had that been deliberately done?

It spoke more for an accident.

When the batteries have shorted out and gotten seawater, they tend to emit hydrogen.

And hydrogen is highly flammable.

And HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE.

That would explain the hole.

But not the traces of C4 that they found at the very edge of the hole.

In one leap he was in the wide open engine room and ankle deep in the water. Four of the sirens Kitsune and also Tester/Tamara did the same.

"Standard Diesel-Electric Drive." Testers noted. "Doesn't look like they've tampered with it. In fact at first glance I'd say the machines are still completely intact."

"What are these machines?" asked one of the kitsune sirens.

"Two MAN nine-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines 40/46 with turbo charging and 4,400 hp each as well as two MWM six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines RS 34 S without turbo charging with 1,000 hp as marching engines. On the other hand, two SSW double machines GU 345/34 with 1,000 hp were used while submerged. That makes this a Type 9 D2 if I'm not wrong. They put the ship at 19.2 knots surfaced and 6.9 knots underwater." Explained Anoth.

"That's not very fast." Meant testers.

"They weren't really submarines either. They were more like ships with a diving function. If they wanted to keep moving, they could stay under water for just 16 hours at just four knots (7.4 km/h or 4.6 mph ). The first real submarines came with the Type XXI. They were faster underwater than surfaced, and a real submarine is always faster underwater than when it's surfaced."

Anoth approached the bulkhead to the next compartment, or rather what was left of the bulkhead. It was so deformed that it was no longer waterproof and could not be opened normally.

Anoth had to break open the door or actually bend it open.

The next room was the command centre of the submarine. And as expected, it had been flooded.

They wouldn't find anything interesting here and so Anoth marched straight on to the next bulkhead. It was a little rusted but could still be opened normally.

Behind the bulkhead were the sub's galley and more water.

This bulkhead was probably not 100% tight either.

The nearest hatch was wide open. Behind it he found the sleeping quarters.

After breaking through the nearest bulkhead, he finally found the lab. And this room had remained dry.

"Well, let's take a look around." Just meant Anoth.

It only took seconds for one of the sirens to find something.

"I think I have something here." She said.

"Hmm?" Anoth came over to her and then saw what she had found.

"What's that?" she asked.

"An interesting mongrel, I would say." Said Anoth, who took the cage in hand to take a closer look at the animal inside. "Looks like a cross between a hamster, rat and guinea pig." Then he noticed the spike in some of his sensors. "And they appear to be the source of this strange EM signal." He marked the three boxes with animals and teleported them to the ship's disease lab to analyze them more closely. He had found out that the signal these creatures are sending out made it impossible to capture and teleport them without a clearly detectable marker.

"What shall that be?" asked Tester/Tamara whose flashlights beam had just landed on a poster.

When Anoth also looked at it, he quickly realized what he was seeing. "This is a schematic of a Hive consciousness."

"A Hive consciousness? What were they doing here?" Tester/Tamara wondered.

"Looks like they wanted to create super soldiers." Said one of the sirens who were studying some files.

"Super Soldiers?" moaned Anoth and rubbed his forehead. "Yet again?"

"Yet again?"

"I don't know how many such illegal super-soldier programs I have found and forcibly shut down over the many millennia. There were many." said Anoth with a sigh. "Looks like this is just the latest version of it."

"Only that they marked this as a failure."

"Let me guess... Due to the extreme aggressiveness of the infected towards anyone not infected."

"Right. That probably destroyed this submarine as well."

"How do we treat the infected?" asked testers.

"We'll find out." Was Anoth's answer as he exited the submarine. "Take everything that could be interesting and then come to the plague laboratory."

It was also interesting that until then they had not found any bodies on board.

That changed when they opened the former torpedo room, now storage room, in the stern of the submarine.

There they found a total of 14 bodies that were taken to the morgue on board the Anoth for later surrender them to the Japanese government.

.

An hour later

Plague Lab aboard the Anoth

.

Anoth was analyzing the pathogen. Also, he had already dissected one of those strange rodents to find out how they were able to generate this EM field.

Meanwhile, he read through the records of the various experiments they had done on board and digitalized the data.

He found out pretty quickly that salt water was capable of disrupting the EM field. If only for a short time. That's what the files said, and Anoth's own experiment also confirmed the data.

In the end, it took Anoth almost two days to find a treatment. He had a vaccination against it just a few hours later.

Vaccination alone did not help those who were already infected. A vaccination was always prophylactic and was effectively training for the body's own immune system. So that the immune system could say when it got to do with the said pathogen: "Oh hello, I already know you and I also know how to get rid of you again!".

Antibodies would work, too, because they would attach themselves to the virus itself, preventing it from infecting other cells.

But was that alone enough to treat someone who was already ill?

Anoth wasn't quite so sure.

Therefore, something else had to be done for the treatment itself.

Well, almost two days later he had what he needed.

Thanks to advanced Seraphimian medical technology.

Without it, it would have taken a lot longer.

This completed the first step.

Now all they had to do was find the infected ships.

It couldn't be too difficult.

.

Sometime later

.

But before they could start looking for the infected ships, they received a distress call from a Mobile Ocean department store.

"Incoming Distress Call. It's from the Shinbashi ." Reported Kendra.

"Data of the Shinbashi ." Required Anoth.

"The Shinbashi is an ocean department store. The ship is a converted Liberty Ship. 14,000 tons. According to the latest report, there are five, five, two souls on board." Reported Kendra.

"Its position and current situation?"

"They ran aground near Falalop Island. They are currently listed heavily to port and they have at least ten injured. There are also reports of people in the water. The Harekaze has already responded and is on its way there."

"Heading for Falalop Island, top speed."

"The Harekaze will get there before us."

"That even suits me pretty well."

.

Almost an hour later

.

In fact, the Harekaze had arrived ahead of them. But that was only an advantage. Because what Anoth's sensors showed of the Shinbashi was that the ship was about to break in two.

His sensors also showed severe engine damage aboard the Shinbashi. Apparently there had also been a fire there, which the crew had been able to put out.

Without propulsion and in the middle of a storm, the ship became a plaything for the waves, which then pushed her onto the underwater cliffs without the crew being able to do anything about it.

.

Aboard the Harekaze

.

Akeno, the Harekaze's captain, was almost in full panic mode.

There was an absolutely massive ship coming over the horizon.

Bigger than anything she had ever seen.

She stared at the ship and only realized that she was being called on the radio when one of the other girls on board tapped her shoulder.

Almost like a machine, she stumbled over to the wall-mounted telephone that was connected to the radio.

A few moments later, she relaxed when she heard the radio message that the huge ship had only responded to the distress call and rushed to their aid.

Shortly thereafter, Akeno decided that they could very well use the help and sent a brief summary of what they already knew.

.

Back to Anoth

.

Anoth came to a halt some distance from the island and immediately began deploying smaller ships that were coming much closer to the crashed Shinbashi .

At the same time, several heavy transport helicopters took off from Anoth's deck.

He could already tell that the ship was a ticking time bomb.

It was just lying on a small outcrop of rock next to which it went down almost three kilometres vertically into the depths of the ocean and the crack in the hull was getting bigger and bigger. As if that wasn't enough, there were still several hundred people on board of the wreck.

Now it was a fight against time.

The Harekaze, meanwhile, had managed to get alongside the much larger Liberty Ship and was now picking people up directly. That accelerated the evacuation.

While Anoth's helicopter was busy fishing the people who had jumped overboard out of the water.

The water here was quite pleasantly warm, so hypothermia was not possible that quickly. But that didn't really help you if you couldn't swim or were too exhausted to continue swimming.

Anoth, meanwhile, had reached the wreck and jumped on deck.

"Where's the captain?" asked he. Whereupon one of the passengers pointed in his direction. Anoth immediately marched over to him. "Are you the captain of this ship?"

Exactly at that moment a jolt went through the ship that was strong enough that everyone found themselves on the ground.

"Not good." Meant Anoth.

"What does that mean?" asked one of the girls who hadn't been able to introduce herself yet.

"It means that the crack in the ship is getting bigger and that this nutshell will break apart in a few minutes." Was Anoth's curt reply. "And you are?"

"Munetani Mashiro. I am the XO of the Harekaze ."

"And I am Wilhelmina Braunschweig Ingenohl Friedeburg. I am the XO of Admiral Graf Spee ."

"OK." Good. With that he turned to the captain of the Shinbashi . "Status of evacuation?"

"Most people on deck have been evacuated but we still have people stuck below deck in the living quarters."

"Kendra!"

"On my way!" it came back from the Siren kitsune who had overheard everything.

"AR Team and Team DEFY, you help evacuate the last people left on deck. Kick their asses if necessary!"

"Shall we also look for the lower deck?" asked M16A1.

"No. The sirens can breathe underwater. You can't. And I have no idea how much longer this wreck will stay in one piece." Then he turned to the XO of the Harekaze and the Spee. "Ask the people if they're missing anyone else. We need to find out if we got everyone off board."

"That's okay." With that they ran away.

Why does my bloody vital sign scanner have to malfunction right now? In fact I can't even feel the signs of life around me. Is it because of those stupid rat buggers? Of course, that always happens when you can't use it. Anoth sighed. Then in the traditional way.

It was only a few minutes later when another jolt went through the ship, closely followed by another, and then another.

"It's time. It's falling apart. Everyone off this wreck! Now!"

Moments later they were aboard the Harekaze whose crew was already in the process of cutting the lines that still connected them to the sinking ship.

Word then reached Anoth that the Harekaze's XO was still aboard the wreck to search for a missing child.

As soon as he heard that, Anoth jumped into the water and dived over to the wreck at the same time as he telepathically contacted Kendra. 'Kendra, the XO of the Harekaze must still be on board somewhere.'

'Crap!' cursed Kendra. 'What is she doing there? We should search the ship! It's too dangerous for a human!'

'She appears to be looking for a missing child.'

'Ah, wonderful. Let's hope we find her soon.'

'Yes. They're running out of time now.' Said Anoth who now went into position below the wreck. 'But I can give you a little more time.'

With that, Anoth took the form of a massive water dragon and now used its enormous form to keep the now capsized ship afloat for a while longer. At least half of it. The other was already on its way to the seabed.

.

Inside of the wreck

With Kendra

.

Kendra dived through the ship's now upside-down cargo area.

Where are you girl?

The whole wreck was groaning. It was very clear that The Ship was highly unstable. A little later she felt how Anoth braced herself under the wreck and stabilized it. At least for now.

Then she saw something moving inside of a supermarket out of the corner of her eye.

'There she is.' She swam over to the glass door. This was special glass that wasn't so easy to break through. With that, Kendra quickly activated her rigging and burned a hole through the glass with a controlled plasma jet.

As soon as the hole was big enough, she swam through only to hear a crash behind her as parts of the ceiling collapsed.

I can't come back that way. I need an alternative route. She thought as she eyed the damage for a moment. Then she heard something behind her.

A crackle.

Fire.

There was fire on board.

Now not only was the time running out, they were also rapidly running out of air to breathe. Not only because of the fire itself, which consumes oxygen unnecessarily, but also because of the toxic gases it produced.

"Think girl think." She whispered to herself. Looking around, she found an underwater door.

That could work…. If… she plunged down under the water and reappeared on the other side of the door and spotted an air bubble. That will at least separate us from the fire. With that she dived back.

"Are you the XO of Harekaze? Mashiro Munetani?" she asked.

"Yes, that's me?" She was a little uncertain about the question.

"Good, then I found you. We can't stay here. Can you dive?"

"Yes. But what about..." Mashiro pointed to the Little Kitten with her.

That was Tamonmaru. And the reason she was here. At first, Mashiro thought it was a missing child. It was a young cat instead.

"She's cute." Kendra shook her head to get back on topic. "That won't be a problem."

Kendra created a small bubble of water in which she put Tamonmaru. It would not last long but contained enough air for at least a few minutes.

In the end, Mashiro could hardly tell what happened in the next few seconds. She could hardly breathe and then only felt a strong hand grabbing her and pulling her. She still felt how she was holding her breath and then she only knew how they reappeared on the other side.

'I need your help Anoth.' Kendra sent telepathically.

'If I place you correctly, there should be an elevator about 15 meters down the hall. The shaft should bring you very close to the fuselage. After that you will then have to walk through some maintenance corridors to get up to the hull.'

Kendra looked around. She was very happy of her ability to see in the nearly pitch-dark hallway that was only slightly lit by the emergency lights that were now underwater and flickering. But they allowed her to spot the elevator doors.

'I see the doors.' She reported back. Shortly thereafter, she began breaking down the doors. The doors bravely resisted but ultimately couldn't stand up to the much stronger Siren. 'No ladder.' Kendra reported back shortly thereafter when she had looked around briefly. 'Besides, it looks like the gondola has tilted over me.'

'Too dangerous. The gondola could crash at any moment.'

'Do they not have brakes for this case.'

'Yes, they have. However, they are designed to stop the gondola if it is hanging the right way around. But the ship is upside down, so I wouldn't put anything on these brakes. They just aren't designed for this sort of thing...Wait a minute.' It took a few moments before Anoth reported again. 'There's another elevator a few meters away from you. Looks like a freight elevator. Take the next hallway to the right and then towards the kitchen. The lift should be in the rear goods area. It will take you near the storage rooms, from there you will take maintenance corridor 7B. That leads you right to the opening that the others are already cutting into the hull.' The ship gave a sudden jerk and Kendra could hear the elevator gondola sitting in the shaft moving slightly. ' I don't know how much longer I can hold the ship. The rock here is very porous and has started to give way. You don't have much time left.'

.

To Anoth

.

Anoth looked down at his claws with concern. The rock he had smashed his claws into was anything but stable and was beginning to crumble under his claws. At the moment he was the only reason why the 8,500-ton section of the ship had not yet sunk.

However, he now seriously asked himself how long this will remain the case.

.

To Kendra

.

Kendra followed Anoth's instructions, but had to clear some of the fallen material and fallen junk out of the way. Then she actually found the shaft. To get there, they had to go straight through the ship's kitchen. Here the heavy stainless steel shelves and machines had loosened from their anchors and fallen down.

That was actually to be expected. Although these devices were bolted to the bottom, this bolting was only intended to hold them in place in heavy seas. But not if the ship capsized to keep them on what was now the ceiling. They just weren't designed for that.

After a few minor problems, they finally reached the shaft they were looking for and when Kendra looked into the shaft, she was happy to see that the elevator was now at the bottom of the shaft. It had apparently crashed when the ship decided to do a headstand.

A look to the side revealed that this shaft also had no ladder.

"What now?" asked Mashiro.

"We climb."

"Without a ladder?"

"Without a ladder." Confirmed Kendra. "Get on my back and hold tight."

Mashiro spontaneously put the little kitten in her sweater so that the kitten's head looked out of her collar and then climbed onto Kendra's back.

Mashiro soon felt the incredible physical strength of the Siren that was carrying her. Because with just a few jumps they were already at the top of the shaft.

'The door to the storerooms is completely warped. No chance to open it.' Kendra sent telepathically to Anoth when she saw the elevator door and through a crack what had fallen down behind it.

'There should be a ventilation shaft to your left. It should take you straight to the storerooms.' Was Anoth's answer, which came only seconds later. He had expected something like this. Incidents like this never went as planned, so he'd been scouting for workarounds from the start.

It took a few seconds before Kendra discovered the access to the ventilation shaft.

'I see it.' She shimmied over to the ventilation shaft that was slightly below her and to her left. As soon as she was over the ventilation shaft, she grabbed a nearby steel girder and a short time later and she was exactly at eye level with the shaft. With one hand she held on to the steel girder while with the other she grabbed the grating covering the shaft and ripped it from the opening of the shaft only to just let it fall down the flooded shaft. A smack revealed that the grid had fallen into the water.

"You first." Said Kendra, who now hung in front of the shaft so that Mashiro could climb in. Mashiro managed to do that after a few minor problems. Closely followed by Kendra herself.

On the way through the shaft a part of Mashiro's uniform got stuck on some poorly finished rivets and Mashiro had trouble getting it free again.

Kendra knowing that they were now running out of time, intervened and with a sound of tearing fabric the part was free again.

"Why-?" Mashiro asked surprised before Kendra interrupted her directly.

"It was just a bit of fabric and it's very easy to replace. Your life, on the other hand, isn't."

Mashiro couldn't really argue with that and just nodded before crawling on.

A little later they had reached the end of the air shaft.

"There's a grid over it." Mashiro stated.

"Just kick it away!"

Said and done. The shaft was big enough for Mashiro to turn around so her feet were pointing at the ventilation grille. A few kicks later, it gave way with a crack.

Shortly thereafter, both were in the maintenance aisle.

"This way!" said Kendra and led Mashiro to the agreed point. Then as they came around the next bend they could already see the light. The light came from the sparks of the welding torches that burned through the steel.

A little later, a steel plate fell down into the corridor.

"There you are." Called one of the other Sirens standing outside and jumped into the ship. A little later all three were on the hull of the ship.

"Anyone else in there?" asked the other Siren Kendra.

"No." Was her curt reply. "All in the boats!" Kendra commanded right after that. Everyone could feel the wreck becoming more and more unstable as the rock that Anoth used to hold on to gave way more and more. 'We're off the ship.' Finally reported Kendra to Anoth.

She didn't get a verbal reply back. It wasn't necessary either, because now each of them could see the broken section begin to sink at a rapid rate.

A little later, Anoth appeared in his human form next to the boat and climbed inside.

"That was way too close." Anoth said with a sigh as he looked over at the wreck just disappearing beneath the waves.

Then his radar reported the rapid approach of an airship followed by several littoral combat ships and speed boats. The Blue Mermaids.

"Better late than never." Said Kendra.

"Yes. We will wait for you on the Harekaze."

.

An hour later

.

Anoth chatted with the leader of the Blue Mermaids, who had arrived a few minutes ago and had begun transferring the rescued (the worst of the injuries was a broken arm) onto their ships.

Her name was Sumire Kishima.

Sumire Kishima was the leader of the Rapid Response Security Fleet (RRSF) and she was very interested in what Anoth told them.

However, Anoth was surprised when Sumire told him that the flag of the Seraphim was very well known to them. The story of it, however, went back almost 2,000 years and was a story for another time. He was probably not the first of the Seraphim to come here. Can happen.

Even more surprised, however, was Sumire when only a few minutes later she found herself in an observation lounge above the hangar where the salvaged submarine wreck was located.

"And this submarine is responsible for everything that is happening here at the moment?" asked Akeno Misaki. She was the captain of the Harekaze. Also with her were Mashiro and Wilhelmina "Mina" and Sumire Kishima.

"Well, not the boat itself but what they did there on board." replied Anoth. "We were able to secure various documents. They are on the table there. As well as three of the creatures they created there. I locked them in special isolation boxes because they emit an EM signal that interferes with all electronics around them." Anoth explained as he highlighted the three boxes that look a bit strange. As well as some other signals that also completely confuse some of my sensors and abilities and make them unusable. He silently thought to himself but didn't say it out loud. If Kendra could have opened a Portal it would have been way easier.

"They are..." Akeno hardly believed what she was seeing. "These are the same creatures we found."

"Found?"

"We found one of them in some sort of freezer box that we took on board."

"Has anyone from your crew been infected or suddenly showed an unusually high degree of aggressiveness?" asked Anoth next.

"Yes. Shima Tateishi. She is the chief artillery officer on board and is usually very calm and quiet. But suddenly she wanted to attack everything and even opened fire on two supply ships with one of the Harekaze's weapons. Mina-chan was able-"

"Mina-chan?"

"Wilhelmina."

"I see. Go on."

"Well Mina-chan was able to catch her and somehow throw her overboard and into the water. Luckily the big waves got her back on board."

"What happened after that?"

"Shima was her old self again. Even the glowing red eyes were gone."

"Glowing red eyes?"

"Yes. When she became so aggressive, her eyes were glowing red. After that, no more."

"Interesting. What happened to the rodent after that?"

"We have given it to our ship's doctor for analysis. Minami Kaburagi. She has developed an antibody against the virus."

"I would like to take a look at this antibody."

"Why?" now asked Sumire Kishima.

"Because I have developed my own preparation for treating those who are already infected, as well as a vaccine and an antibody. Of course, you will also get the data."

"That fast?"

"The medical technology aboard this ship is literally millions of years ahead of yours. With that it is possible to create it that fast." replied Anoth. "As I said, you'll get all the data we found about the drugs and the antibody. I'll also give you the wreckage of the submarine if you get a freighter that can transport it. Oh, and before I forget it, in my morgue are the bodies of the crew of the submarine that we were able to salvage. But be careful, two of them are contaminated with the virus and marked accordingly."

.

Two days later

.

In fact, within a few hours, the Blue Mermaids managed to organize a freighter large enough to transport the submarine wreckage. But it still took a little while to get there.

The loading when the freighter arrived went surprisingly quickly.

Within a few hours, the submarine wreck now rested in the freighter's belly.

Immediately thereafter, escorted by ships of the Blue Mermaids, it set course for Yokosuka.

Anoth was sure that when the investigations were completed, several dozen people would probably only breathe in filtered air in their cells for a very long time.

But in the end, it was their own fault.

Anoth had no pity for these people.

.

Several days later

.

It was the Harekaze that was "lucky" enough to encounter one of the infected ships first. It was a Kongou class battleship. More specifically, the Y-102 Hiei.

With her, Akeno could show that she more than deserved the post of captain because she managed to manoeuvre the Hiei at the Chuuk Lagoon in such a way that the Hiei finally ran aground on a sandbank and could be boarded.

Surprisingly, the Hiei had suffered only minor damage to the hull. Still, she would have to go into a dry dock, at least for a while.

But that was a rather small price in the end.

Anoth meanwhile had tracked down the Admiral Graf Spee and was now preparing to board the ship.

Even if the Spee now tried to run away at her top speed.

As aggressive as the virus made the crew, they must still possess some degree of self-preservation when encountering a much more dangerous predator.

But it was a futile attempt.

The Spee had a top speed of about 28.5 knots. Anoth easily reached over 100 knots. The Spee couldn't get away from him. And there was nowhere to run either because they were on the open sea.

As soon as Anoth had reached the necessary distance, he activated one of his tractor beam emitters.

These devices were standard equipment and were used in various areas of ship operations. In this case, however, to capture another ship.

Meanwhile, the Spee kept firing at Anoth with her aft guns.

It was a futile attempt. Anoth's shields withstood the fire without any problems.

"If you want to get through my shields you're going to need some more powerful cannons than the ones you have there." Said Anoth to himself while standing in the CIC and activated the intercom. "Team DEFY and Team Anti-Rain, prepare to board enemy ship. Equip tranquilizer weapons only."

.

To the boarding party

.

The T-Dolls were a little unsafe with the stun guns. They preferred to fight with those assigned to them. But in this case that wasn't an option.

They didn't want to kill the ship's crew, they wanted to help and heal from what makes them do things they wouldn't otherwise do. And that just wasn't possible if they parked a piece of lead in their brain.

Disadvantage of the Weapons: Those hit by them will have the mother of all headaches for the next hour or two after waking up.

That was still better than being dead.

By now, the two ships were only a few meters apart and Anoth activated a hard light bridge, causing the nine members of the two teams to run across to the other ship, where they were immediately attacked by the infected crew.

None of the nine had any trouble sending the infected crew to Lala Land, while Anoth released some of his cats from the shadow plane to hunt down the vermin on board (aka, the strange creatures).

The EM field from the ship said more than enough because Anoth had noticed that the EM field of the infected humans showed slight differences to that of the creatures. And according to his sensors, there must have been at least four of those beasts aboard the Spee .

To make this EM field harmless for the dolls, they carried mobile shield generators that completely blocked the field.

Neutralizing the crew turned out to be extremely easy for the nine Elite T-Dolls. Because the crew behaved more like aggressive animals than anything else and attacked without any tactics.

Less than 10 minutes after the Dolls boarded the ship, they reported that the entire crew was unconscious and in custody.

Just under 30 minutes later, Anoth's cats also reported back. They had found and killed the last of the rodents on board.

Anoth was able to confirm this because the EM field of the rodents had disappeared and the EM field of the infected humans was now significantly weaker.

A quick seawater treatment later to clear the EM field, and Anoth teleported all crew members over to the Anoth's infirmary, where they were promptly treated.

That was now two days ago. Since then, he's been running constant scans to make sure he didn't miss anything.

During one of these scans, he also noticed something strange about where the cores of the Nagara classes had been stored before he handed them over to Gunzou shortly before leaving.

Why did he only discover them now?

A little later, Anoth stood in said room and looked around.

When he removed the sheet metal that blocked his direct view, he didn't believe what he saw.

Four union cores.

He could even identify them.

Takao.

Haruna.

Kirishima.

And Hyuuga.

But how was that possible?

He had left them in the other dimension. Why….

Anoth sighed.

He already had an inkling of what the four of them had been up to.

On the spur of the moment, Anoth activated Takao's core.

It took a few minutes for Takao's mental model to appear in front of him. As soon as that was finished she looked around before she froze when she saw Anoth's face.

"Erm… I can explain that?"

Anoth didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow at the Fog Fleet's mental model.

Seconds later, the other three mental models also activated. No sooner had Kirishima and Haruna fully formed and seen Anoth's unamused expression they pointed to Hyuuga.

"That was her idea!" they shouted in unison and immediately hid behind Takao.

Now Anoth's eyes fell on Hyuuga and judging by the expression on Anoth's face he now expected to hear an answer from her.

Turns out Hyuuga came up with the idea while restoring her ship form. She found an option to copy her own core and use it to make a copy of herself. And then she decided to use it.

Anoth didn't believe her.

At least not everything she had said there.

"Your AI might have helped a little..." Hyuuga started before Anoth just sighed.

Anoth face palmed.

Of course she would do such a thing.

He could already hear his personal AI chuckling softly.

"Sephina~?" Anoth sounded a little angry, which made the AI, which had taken the form of a white dragon, digitally swallow. "Are you really involved with this~?"

Sephina swallowed digitally before replying with a measly yes.

"You know... Actually, I'm not even angry. But I'll let you calculate the number pi for this for the next three days. And I expect at least 145 trillion digits. Got it?"

Sephina sighed in response and began the calculations. She knew she deserved this.

He then grabbed Hyuuga by her now very real cat ears and pulled her towards him. "You resourceful little kitty." With that, Anoth hugged her. Which Hyuuga returned moments later. She had already forgotten the slight pain in her ears.

A little later, the other three joined the hug.

"I am happy to see you four again." With that he broke the hug. Everything else was interrupted when he received a message.

The Harekaze had arrived.

.

15 minutes later

.

It was nice to see the captain of the Spee, who by the way was a head shorter than her XO, and her XO hugging.

Anoth had meanwhile released the entire crew from his care. The drug and the antibodies had worked very quickly and the virus was no longer detectable in their bodies.

Also, there were no side effects that he could observe.

Anoth was very happy about these results.

The name of the captain of the Spee was Thea Kreutzer and she thanked Anoth and also the T-Dolls who were more than a little surprised.

However, in a very positive way.

Because they were never really thanked otherwise. Their "Commander" took care of that. Because what they saw as a "reward" others saw more as something they should go to jail for.

But the most surprised were the former Sangvis Ferri Dolls when they thanked them as well. They were the ones who had taken care of them in the infirmary.

They found this change very refreshing. It was nice to know that their effort was appreciated.

One of the brutes was even close to tears. Because the only thing she ever expected to get was a bullet in the head. Not that.

In the end, the crew of the Spee thanked them with a feast aboard their ship, which was currently moored to one of the retractable docking points on Anoth's right wing hull.

The Harekaze, on the other hand, received some necessary repairs. There was a crack in the bow caused by a random hit by the Hiei, which urgently needed to be sealed, as well as a few other small things.

In addition, both ships were supplied with needed supplies.

This was necessary above all for the Spee. Less so with the Harekaze, who had received supplies shortly after meeting the Hiei.

In the end, the Spee and the Harekaze stayed almost a whole day before both ships cast off and continued their journeys.

.

Several days later

.

The Musashi was still gone.

Anoth had followed her last known course out into the Pacific, also launching reconnaissance planes along the way.

Nothing.

It's been like this for several days now.

At least Anoth had had a little more time to experiment with his ship shape.

"Nothing." Mumbled Anoth, sitting in the CIC and staring at the main monitor on the wall. "Like she just disappeared."

"Do you think she took a completely different course?" asked Ahri.

"Must be. Otherwise we should have found her long ago."

It wasn't until several hours later that they found out.

The Musashi had set a direct course for Tokyo. The Blue Mermaids had already opposed her. Three of the ships were completely immobilized and unable to fight, and a fourth was only able to travel at a speed of six knots.

In addition, Anoth was too far away to help.

Nevertheless, he also set course for Tokyo at full speed.

If it had been terrorists who had taken over the ship, Anoth would have sent in his bombers and completely dismantled the Musashi. But those were schoolgirls that were on board who only became a threat because they had been infected by a virus. This meant that a sinking of the Musashi was to be avoided at all costs and was only considered as a last resort.

In the end, Anoth wouldn't arrive until after the Harekaze had rammed the Musashi and began boarding the much larger battleship, with Anoth watching through his scouts.

With the taking of the Musashi, he slowed down. There was no reason to drive at full speed anymore. Plus, he was still over 300 kilometres away from Tokyo.

"So they actually did it." murmured Anoth.

"Then we won't be needed." Meant Ahri.

"Well, that's how it works." Just meant Anoth.

With that, Anoth turned away. No further intervention was necessary. The Blue Mermaids and with them the government had everything they needed to finally eliminate this virus and also enough evidence to send those responsible behind bars for a long time.

But they couldn't go just yet.

The quantum disruption caused by the unstable portal would remain for at least three more months.

Annoying but that's the way it was.

.

Three months later

.

The next three months passed quietly.

The new members of the Fog Fleet had their ships restored and stood on their ships while Anoth now sent all six through another training mission.

It was now routine for Yamato and Musashi. But it was still something new for Kirishima, Haruna, Hyuuga and Takao. But they felt that the training also brought something to them. But they still preferred training at sea. The training on land was also part of the program and quite a bit more.

The training of the T-Dolls also continued. The Sangvis Ferri's T-Dolls weren't the standard cannon fodder anymore that they used to be. They could now keep up with the Elite T-Dolls.

Much to the delight of their former leaders.

They had also learned a lot. Sometimes in a very painful way or in a very embarrassing way.

Compared to the pale imitations used by Sangvis today, none of them, whether it was cannon fodder or one of the leaders, could hold a candle to them.

Anoth had also discovered that all of his T-Dolls had more than enough computing power in their processors to form ships out of the nanomaterial on board.

The members of team DEFY and AR-team were able to form cruisers weighing no more than 15,000 tons.

Most of the Sangvis T-Dolls were limited to destroyers (max. 3,500 tons). With the exception of the Jaeger type. With the increased processing power needed for long-range firing, they could take the form of light cruisers (max. 7,500 tons). The Vespid and Ripper variants, on the other hand, were limited to frigates (max. 3,000 tons).

It was a little different with the leaders. They could take the form of battle cruisers (max. 25,000 tons).

Anoth had not expected such a result.

Now they were very busy trying out their new skills. Above all, however, the rigging that offered them this form and the associated firepower.

Anoth also pitted the T-Dolls and Sangvis-Ferri Dolls in 9 vs. 9 matches.

Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Free For All, Assault, Bombing Run, El Presidente, Warfare, Greed, Instagib or Last Man Standing.

Capture The Flag : Capture the enemy flag from the enemy base and bring it to your own flag to score. Only in a team. With or without vehicles.

Deathmatch : The one with the most kills wins. Also playable in a team.

Free For All : Everyone against everyone.

Assault : Two teams. One defends the other attacks. The defending team must prevent the attacking team from completing their objectives while the attacking team has a limited amount of time to achieve those objectives.

Bombing Run : Grab the ball/bomb located in the centre of the map and bring it into the enemy base and through the ring located there to score. Team with or without vehicles.

El Presidente : Grab the briefcase and hold it for as long as possible. One point is given for every three seconds. Go as a team or Free for All.

Warfare : Two bases, each with a core and various energy nodes that must be taken so that the core becomes vulnerable. Only team with or without vehicles.

Greed : There is a skull for every kill. Collect as many as you can and take them to the enemy base. When you get killed you drop your collected skulls. Only team with or without vehicles.

Instagib : If you get hit you're dead. In a team or Free for All.

Last Man Standing : Free for All. Everyone has one life. The last one standing at the end wins.

Last Man Standing, El Presidente and Warfare were particularly popular. Both teams were surprisingly even.

During some of these training sessions, Anoth found out that his database probably also contained blueprints for a so-called dummy link as well as plans for at least one other T-Doll.

M82A1.

That was unexpected.

As he dug deeper and searched for data on other T-Dolls, he also stumbled upon the data of:

IDW.

CR-21.

As well as M500.

Where did they come from... His AI must have downloaded them while snooping around the Griffin and Kryuger and 16Labs servers.

"Sephina~?"

"Yes?"

"Can you explain this to me?"

"I was curious?"

"Was that a question or an answer?"

"An answer?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Why did you download the plans for these?"

"Ah…."

"Very helpful."

"I wanted to see how IOP construct the regular dolls and what the difference is between the Elite Dolls from 16Labs."

"IOP?"

"IOP or Important Operations Prototype Manufacturing Company is the manufacturer of the regular T-Dolls."

"I understand." Said Anoth as he took a closer look at the M82A1's specs and went through the blueprints.

"Erm... I took the liberty of building seven of the M82A1 model." Anoth had to blink once when he heard that.

"And why?"

"To test the capabilities of the dummy link." Was the AI's response as she showed him images of said seven T-Dolls still completely naked floating in liquid in their construction tanks. "And I have a whole host of improvements to suggest not only to said dummy link but to the T-Dolls themselves."

"Tell me."

.

Several hours later

.

Anoth had given the T-Dolls a whole series of upgrades. But in this case not only the now active M82A1 T-Dolls. He had also started giving the other T-Dolls these upgrades.

The first to receive it was the AR team. Closely followed by Team DEFY and then gradually the Sangvis T-Dolls, whose architecture was slightly different (from a different manufacturer) than that of the other dolls. Which meant he had to make slight tweaks to the upgrades to make them work for them.

.

A few days later

.

The seven M82A1 T-Dolls, now classified as M82A1SM, Seraphimian Modification , were about to practice long-range aiming . For this, some of the Vespids had placed various targets on the water, using their new ship form, but at quite a considerable distance.

At 1,000 meters

At 1,250 meters

At 1,500 meters

In. 1,750 meters

Etc. up to a distance of 5,000 meters.

At the moment they are not using their M82A1 rifles for this target shooting but magnetic accelerator weapons. The M82A1 rifles didn't even make it this distance. They only had an effective range of about 1,800 meters.

IDW, CR-21 and M500 lay in the sun behind Anoth and slept after getting through a very gruelling simulation and Anoth's traps didn't make that any easier.

Anoth also liked to call M500 "Mother kitten". Because when IDW and M500 slept leaning against each other, it looked a bit like mother and daughter.

CR-21, on the other hand, had grabbed binoculars and was watching the firing practice while lying prone on one of the higher turrets and on a blanket spread out there. As a T-Doll, she could zoom in with her eyes, but this ability also had its limits.

The T-Dolls did very well with the mass accelerator weapons. Anoth had also given them weapons other than just their standard M82A1s. Because if they were to be found in action, it was better to have weapons ready that could launch more projectiles at an enemy in a shorter amount of time than the sniper rifle could.

They had learned to appreciate that in several simulations that Anoth had deliberately manipulated in such a way that they would definitely be found. At first they thought it was unnecessary. After the first simulation in which all seven died, their opinion changed very quickly.

Oh, and then there were the Bulins that he accidentally found in stasis pods on board. About 70 of them were employed on Anoth's ship. But he had room for 10,000 of them as he found out. At the moment all 70 of them were more than busy with the maintenance, upgrading and co of the new ships and the six ex-Fog Fleet ships.

They had taken the form of a small army of tugboats performing various tasks. While several of its shadows stretched their legs or attempted to assume ship forms on one of Anoth's massive flight decks, where a 747 could land comfortably.

Most of them had assumed ship form themselves or were experimenting with their new form. The tugboats meanwhile (all of them Bulins) transported miscellaneous stuff back and forth between the ships. Mainly what Anoth had made for the others and now had to be brought to them.

Ammunition, guns, cargo, etc.

One of them, a Kyuubi Bijuu named Lereya, which had taken the form of a massive flight deck battleship a good 4 miles long, had figured out how to take her Kansen form and was currently playing with one of the Bulins. This was one of Anoth's smallest tugboats.

The little boat was just 6m long and weighed around 12 tons.

Her sister Laraya wasn't any better in that regard. She, too, had taken the form of a flight deck battleship. And both had a weakness for cute things.

Or for the Bulins.

However, Bulins were as good as useless in combat. However, they could easily be used for various other tasks. Logistics, repairs, maintenance, shipbuilding etc.

There was always something to do for the Bulins.

Especially now that Anoth was in the current Unfolded Stationary Mode. In this form, Anoth could also serve as a spaceport.

In that mode he also had full access to all shipyard facilities, dry docks, etc. In the regular transport mode, on the other hand, only about 20% of the total number was available. In fact in fully deployed form it looked a bit like an Atlantis class city ship.

The downside of this was, in fully deployed form, he was effectively immobilized. While he does have engines in his unfolded form, they gave limited movement options when unfolded and were primarily intended for position maintenance. Also, it took several hours before he was back in mobile mode.

"All in all a quiet day." Said Anoth while looking up at the clouds.

Then a radio message came in.

"I should have shut up."

.

A few minutes later

.

What Anoth received was a distress call from the Blue Mermaids.

Apparently terrorists had managed to block the entire port exit of Yokosuka with a raft which they then blew up. At the same time, they received reports that pirates had taken over a water treatment plant that made drinking water out of seawater.

As if that wasn't enough, these pirates had also managed to capture an old mobile sea fortress that was actually intended for scrapping.

Still not enough. The remaining units that could operate had not any training in anti-terrorist operations.

All they had left was the Benten from the Blue Mermaids and a small fleet of White Dolphins (the male equivalent of the Blue Mermaids). That was it. The rest were stuck in port. And no forces that were still available had been trained for such a thing. The ones that had it, were stuck in the harbour with the rest.

Less than two hours later, Anoth was back in his mobile form and headed straight for the processing plant. The hostages there had priority.

.

Meeting room.

.

When the alarm went off and the sirens on board started wailing, it was clear to everyone that something serious was here.

So they found themselves in one of the meeting rooms, just minutes after the alarm had been triggered.

"You will surely ask yourselves why we are on our way so suddenly." A sea of nodding heads was his answer. "Nearly 30 minutes ago, terrorists sank a raft at the Yokosuka port entrance, blockading almost all Blue Mermaids ships that were there for the inter-school tournament.

"At the same time, it was reported that the same terrorists took a mobile water treatment plant and took hostages. That's not all, there is a mobile sea fortress on the way to Tokyo. It was actually supposed to be scrapped, but it was taken by the pirates and is fully functional and capable of fighting again. We have to assume that there are also hostages in the fortress and an unknown number of enemy forces.

"Unfortunately, due to the sinking of the old raft in Yokosuka, all special units that were intended for such a case are unable to help. That's why they have now turned to us. We are the only ones who can stop the sea fortress before it reaches Tokyo and reduces everything there to rubble .

"But our first goal is to take back the water treatment plant and free all the hostages there. The Japanese government has given us completely free hand as to how we deal with the terrorists.

"Then it's the fort's turn. As I said, we will also have to assume that there are hostages on board the fort. That means that we have to get on board. The only way in are several heavy gates that we most likely have to shoot open somehow. And we'll improvise from there, because we have no idea what the pirates changed inside."

Anoth paused.

"Everything understood so far?" he then asked.

He got his answer from a sea of nodding heads.

"Well, here's how we will proceed..."

.

Several hours later.

.

AK-12, AK-15, RPK-16 and AN-94 were on board one of three underwater vehicles.

M4A1, M4 Sopmod II, ST-AR 15 and RO635 into a second.

Anoth, M16A1, Hunter, Architect, Kendra and Tester/Tamara in the third.

Teams one and two boarded the sides of the processing station and would make their way in through one of the outer hatches. Their job was to find the hostages and get them out. Two small corvettes were available for this as soon as the outer defenders were incapacitated.

Team three used the underwater submarine docking area to board.

Team four consisted of the seven M82A1SM T-Dolls that split between the two cloaked corvettes that deployed on either side of the facility to eliminate said outside defenders. IDW, CR-21 and M500 and their own dummies served as spotters.

.

To Team One

AK-12, AK-15, RPK-16 and AN-94.

.

It was easy to approach these amateurs unnoticed, as AK-15 found out. Once in position, they only waited a few seconds until Team Two (M4A1, M4 Sopmod II, ST-AR 15 and RO635) was also in position on the other side. Now they had to wait a little.

.

To team three

Anoth, M16A1, Hunter, Architect, Kendra and Tester/Tamara.

.

Anoth's group reached the facility's small submarine port unnoticed. And positioned themselves unnoticed under several terrorists standing there.

There were four standing there, smoking and talking to each other, not paying attention to their surroundings.

Anoth took position under one of them, M16A1, Hunter and Kendra took the other three.

They hung there in the water for a moment, then Anoth shot out of the water, grabbed his chosen terrorist and yanked him into the water. At the same time, that was the signal for the other three to do the same. Moments later, four bodies were making their way to the seabed.

When Anoth reappeared, Hunter and Architect were already out of the water and securing the room.

Moments later, the others joined them.

"Okay, our first target is a security office not far from here. We should be able to access the cameras from there." Said Anoth who took a quick look at the plans. "You ahead M16."

M16 just nodded and then approached one of the few doors leading into the area. A quick scan showed that there was no one on the other side, so with a little effort, M16 opened the heavy door.

As soon as the door was open wide enough, the architect and Hunter secured the corridor and gave the others a hand signal to understand that they could move up.

In the next hallway it was a little more difficult.

There weren't any terrorists, but there was a camera on the ceiling.

Anoth made it clear to them that he did it himself.

He had to wait a few seconds for the camera to pan across to the other area, then Anoth scurried right under the camera into its blind spot only to find that there was another camera a few meters away from the others down the hallway.

Anoth scurried over to a nearby ventilation shaft and scurried inside.

He had to take care of that camera back there before he could turn off the one that was blocking their way.

The ventilation shaft took him straight into a secondary security room that the terrorists must have set up. It wasn't on the plans.

Anoth peered through the slits in the shaft grating and was able to see three terrorists. One was sitting at the desk, leaning back in his swivel chair. A second one stood in front of the table and babbled about some sport that Anoth wasn't even remotely interested in. A third stood outside the room, leaning against the wall. He was very easy to see through the partially glazed wall.

Anoth thought that he could still feel a fourth one and so he let one of his tentacles appear and led them through the ventilation grille just far enough to look into the room like with an endoscope.

Yes there he was. He sat in his chair asleep.

Anoth made the tentacle disappear again and drew a silenced pistol.

Then everything happened very quickly.

In a split second, Anoth had shot out of the ventilation shaft and wrapped his left arm around the terrorist's neck in the chair and started choking him. At the same time, his right hand shot forward with the pistol. The first to be hit was the terrorist standing in front of the desk. He got a bullet in the head. Immediately afterwards, Anoth shot through the glass pane and also hit the second terrorist in the head. The last thing he did was make sure that the sleeping terrorist would never wake up again, and then he broke the neck of the first terrorist.

Four terrorists were dead in under two seconds.

He then threw the now-dead terrorist into a corner of the room like a garbage bag and then sat down in the chair himself.

He had access to all the cameras on this floor and also the ones covering the stairwell upstairs through the computer here. After a short manipulation, he played the camera recordings in an endless loop and then switched the cameras off. Nothing was seen of that in the main control room. For them the cameras are working normally.

Immediately afterwards he gave his team the signal to advance further. The cameras were disabled.

Before they even reached the stairwell, he caught up with them again.

They slowly worked their way up.

Those in front belayed forward then those in back advanced and belayed next. Then the others advanced again, etc.

So they worked their way up, taking out two terrorists before they understood what was happening.

Then they were up.

The main security room was very close now.

In fact it was right in front of them now.

There was only one problem.

Cameras.

How did they get in there unnoticed?

They decided to go up one more floor.

A look through the door revealed no other cameras or anything else. They exited the stairwell and entered a room directly above the security room.

Anoth dug out some special charges and placed them on the ground. Then he and M16 placed themselves in the centre of the laid out circle.

Moments later, Anoth detonated the charges.

A small spell prevented anyone from hearing these explosions.

The special charges concentrated their explosive power downwards and tore a hole in the ceiling. So M16 and Anoth fell into the security room along with part of the ceiling. Both immediately opened fire on the terrorists who were there and only seconds later it was over.

"Secure!" it came from M16.

Anoth confirmed this with his own "Secure!" only moments later.

Seconds later, the rest of the team jumped down through the hole into the room.

"Then let's see." Said Hunter and immediately went to work on the computers. "All cameras are now on loop and security system is now under our control." She reported just a few seconds later.

"Find the whereabouts of the hostages." Commanded Anoth.

"Moment." Hunter said as she frantically tapped the keyboard. "I have them. Rooms D56 and G87."

"Understood." With that, Anoth contacted the other teams. "Teams one and two you have permission to engage. Team four: stand by."

He got a positive response from all three of the Teams just seconds later.

"Then let's go to the bridge." said Anoth.

"Me and architect are staying here, if anything else comes up we'll contact you." Said Hunter.

"Good. Off we go!"

.

Team Four

M82A1SM and Spotters: IDW, CR-21 and M500

.

On the command: "Keep ready!" they got ready to shoot at any time while the spotters now paid even closer attention to potential targets.

They were just waiting for clearance to send all the terrorists upstairs on the direct path to hell.

.

Team One

AK-12, AK-15, RPK-16 and AN-94.

.

Finally, the signal from team three reached them. That was the signal both teams had been waiting for to get started.

Moments later, both teams used grappling hooks to get onto one of the slightly higher platforms to enter the floating facility.

"Booby trap." Reported Ak-15 as she carefully opened the door a crack.

Ak-12 took care of it immediately. She had a somewhat calmer hand when it came to such traps.

And so the trap was disarmed in seconds.

Ak-15 was quite happy with the training they had received for these things. This allowed them to spot and disarm these traps immediately.

The terrorists had probably expected an attack from here.

Ak-15's team was lucky. The room they were looking for was easy to find. You just had to go up one floor and then follow the hallway. The room was at the end of the hall.

On the way there they met only two terrorists guarding the hostages.

Both were dead before they knew what was happening.

"Team One to Anoth, we have found the hostages." Reported AK-15 after AN-94 opened the door to the hostages and AK-12 and RPK managed to calm them down. "Now moving to the extraction point."

"Confirmed. Team Two needs a little longer. Standby." Anoth reported back. Seconds later, Anoth called again. "Team Two also succeeded. Team Four: Fire Permission granted."

.

Team Two

M4A1, M4 Sopmod II, ST-AR 15 and RO635

.

M4A1 and her team had a few more minor problems. Which was simply because the hostages were two floors down for them and there were a few more terrorists standing in their way.

Therefore, they needed a good two minutes longer than team one.

They also had to deal with a few more traps.

But in the end they too managed to free the hostages.

.

To Anoth's group.

Anoth, M16, Kendra, Tester/Tamara

.

"Team Two also succeeded. Team Four: Fire Permission granted."

Apparently someone else had noticed what Anoth had sent there.

"Benten is ready to take hostages." Reported the Benten's captain, Mafuyu Munetani.

Anoth sighed. Somehow he had already guessed that this fiery lady would not be able to stay out of it so easily. But in the end it suited him. This allowed the two corvettes to remain in their positions.

As you wish Mafuyu, if you want to help then go ahead. Thought Anoth. "Benten, your pickup point is Point Charlie."

"Understood. On the way." Confirmed Mafuyu.

By now Anoth's squad had almost reached the bridge.

The way there was almost free of further terrorists. Only four idiots in an elevator and one at the top of the stairwell stood in their way.

The four in the elevator... well... they stayed in the elevator. Hunter had simply turned off the power to the elevator.

The guy at the top of the stairs:

He was so drunk that Anoth couldn't bring himself to kill him. A blow to the head sent him to Lala Land instead.

A little later he got the message that the hostages were safe on the Benten and both teams were now on their way to the bridge.

Barely three minutes later, everyone was in position at the three doors leading to the bridge.

The explosive charges were in place and synchronized with Anoth's own.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

With three powerful explosions, the heavy steel doors were ripped from their frames and all three teams stormed the bridge.

Seconds later it was over.

In the end, only three of the ten terrorists on the bridges were still alive.

One of them was probably the leader.

All three were now tied up and were lying disarmed on the ground.

"Message to all. The facility has been successfully taken." Anoth announced only moments later.

The answer came back from the White Dolphins.

"Confirmed. The White Dolphins are taking over from here. Good job. Thanks for your help. Once again."

.

Almost an hour later.

.

The White Dolphins ships had arrived and the crew from two of the ships came aboard. In the meantime, the terrorists who remained had surrendered and laid down their weapons. The White Dolphins only had to collect them.

With the processing plant now handed over to the Dolphins, Anoth and his people set out to intercept the captured sea fortress.

.

Several hours later

.

Anoth now had the fortress on the sensors.

Apparently Yokosuka had sent the only ships that were still able to leave the port. The three Yamato classes ( Yamato, Musashi and Shinano ) and the Harekaze . As well as a small fleet of the White Dolphins.

There was only one small problem.

Why did the fortress have protective shields?

It wasn't long before he received radio messages asking for help.

Then an alarm went off and Anoth immediately contacted the Blue Dolphin fleet.

"Retreat from the fortress! Now! The fortress weapon systems are armed!"

The Dolphin fleet barely had time to react as the Fortress fired. Not regular guns like they expected, but energy weapons.

It was a miracle that the Dolphin ships managed to escape with relatively little damage.

Now Anoth accelerated drastically to close the distance between the slow-moving fortress and him. At the same time, he activated all weapon systems. This is going to be a duel of fortresses.

The crews of the White Dolphin ships could hardly believe what they were seeing. The ship was absolutely massive which now pushed itself between them and the still firing enemy fortress. With hundreds of guns now aimed at the enemy fortress.

They had heard stories about the Blue Mermaids but most had trouble believing them.

The mighty roar of the Anoth's guns as they finally opened fire on the fortress convinced them otherwise.

"Why does this fortress have protective shields?" Anoth wondered. "The people here don't even have this technology. That shouldn't be possible."

It wasn't long before the enemy fortress' shields began to fail under the massive continuous fire of Anoth's guns.

Then, minutes later, they finally broke. And Anoth immediately switched fire to the fortress' gun batteries and began destroying them systematically.

Huge clouds of black smoke now rose from the burning gun batteries of the enemy fortress as the enemy fire finally stopped completely.

Anoth had been scanning the enemy fortress the whole time. Couldn't locate a shield generator, though.

That didn't make any sense.

….

Then an idea struck him.

Anoth started a quantum signature scan.

Right enough.

Dimensional Mirage.

A well-known method of fooling sensors and making a target appear very different from what it actually is.

You simply take the image of the thing you want to pretend to be from a nearby parallel world and simply put it over your own.

But it is very easy to spot.

A single quantum signature scan reveals the trick.

Therefore it is hardly used.

Anoth reconfigured one of the large cannon turrets into a sort of satellite dish shape and then fired a special energy pulse.

The result was obvious to anyone watching.

The Mirage image began to crumble, revealing what was really underneath.

A Siren fortress.

So you had followed him after all.

But when he took a closer look at the fortress and analyzed the data again, he had to say that something was wrong.

The fortress was just floating.

Engine power had effectively dropped to zero.

The fortress' energy output fluctuated significantly.

Most of the fortress' weapons were either destroyed or no longer usable due to the lack of energy.

Whole parts of the fortress burned and the fires spread quickly.

After quite a while without noticing any change, Anoth decided to board the fortress.

.

Few minutes later.

.

When Anoth entered the wreckage of the fortress along with Kendra and three other kitsune Sirens (Lisa, Kathrin and Felicia), the first thing they saw was a whole row of dead sirens.

That was expected.

Finally, they had entered the fortress through one of the destroyed gun batteries.

"Apparently my weapons damaged the fortress more than I expected." Anoth said as he peered into one of the holes which was clearly made by one of his weapons. It was a little over 40 centimetres in diameter and led deep into the interior of the fortress.

The deeper they went into the fortress, the more it became clear that some of his hits must have set off secondary detonations.

Some areas were completely destroyed and collapsed.

Fire blazed in others.

He was now pretty sure that one of his shots must have damaged the main reactor.

Then they entered the central hall of the fortress. On the way, they only found two other sirens still alive.

Two peace breakers.

Both were badly injured and unable to fight. Anoth teleported them aboard his ship for medical care.

As they entered the hall, they saw another Siren lying on the floor. There was a rather large piece of metal stuck in her back. As they approached the badly injured Siren, Kendra recognized who it was.

"Editor!" she called and ran straight over to her.

"L... Look out." Editor got it out just as Kendra caught up with her. With Kendra's training, however, she sensed the danger that was coming. She turned around and activated her shields to full power. The attack that now hit the shields was quite strong. But nowhere near the power it would need to breach Kendra's shields. In fact, Kendra's shields split the energy beam in half down the middle so that one half passed to her right and the other half passed to her left.

When the attack finally subsided and Kendra was able to see who had attacked her, she was a little surprised.

"Strength?"

Arbiter: Strength VIII was one of two Arbiters who helped her group escape. But why…

No it couldn't have been her. Her rigging was not active at all. But who-

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a blade pierce through Strength's back and emerge right between her breasts. Immediately afterwards, the blade was pulled out again and Strength collapsed while a pool of yellow Siren blood quickly forming beneath her.

Another Arbiter appeared behind her.

Arbiter: The Hermit IX.

But something was wrong with her, too. Not only Kendra but also Anoth and the others could see that. Her eyes were blank and she didn't move like a living being but more like a machine.

Also, why would Hermit kill her best friend?

The two eventually helped Kendra's group escape.

That was when Kendra noticed something about Hermit.

She wore a collar.

A collar she had seen before.

It reduced someone to nothing more than a puppet that could be controlled however the one on the other end wanted. As Kendra looked at the badly injured Strength lying on the ground, she noticed that she was tied up and could hardly move.

Then Hermit twisted the blade against herself. A moment later, she rammed her own blade into her own chest and immediately after collapsed.

"Hermit!" exclaimed Kendra, startled.

Anoth telekinetically grabbed both of the badly injured Arbiters, and moments later the two were beside him and, like Editor, also under the influence of a stasis spell.

"Kendra." Anoth said slowly while drawing two of his swords and starting to walk to the centre of the room. He had long since made the other weapons disappear. "Grab the three and get out."

"But-"

"NOW!" yelled Anoth who was immediately forced to block a powerful attack.

Kendra didn't ask any more questions and grabbed Editor. The other Sirens each grabbed Strength and Hermit and fled back to the ship. This was a fight they wouldn't be able to help Anoth with. Your task was now the three seriously injured sirens. Their lives were in limbo.

Behind her she could hear a fight erupting. And she could feel the shock waves pounding through the ruined fortress. Kendra didn't want to go anywhere near the fight. She may be a powerful Siren in her own right and now count among his shadow beasts, but what transpired was beyond her capabilities.

.

To Anoth

.

After the first few slashes were dealt, Anoth was able to push his attacker back with a powerful shockwave, gaining some distance.

"Who are you?" Anoth asked him while the two started to circle each other.

"I am Prince Hendrik Flaks. From the Tritons!" he called back and stepped into a cone of light that was created through a hole in the ceiling. Only now could Anoth recognize him properly. Before that he was shrouded in shadow.

He was an overly muscular idiot armed with a trident.

(Take Zorzal El Caesar from Gate, give him blue scaled skin and more muscles.)

That was Anoth's first impression.

"And that's supposed to impress me?"

"Naturally!" cried the "prince". "After all, the sirens aren't good for much else than-"

He didn't get any further because Anoth's fist was already parked in his visage and catapulted him with full force into the nearest concrete wall and through it.

"You are talking too much." Was Anoth's dry comment while he calmly waited for the imaginary asshole to free himself from his hole.

Shortly thereafter, his opponent stormed out of the rubble and towards Anoth in a rage and the fight really began.

The two exchanged punches for several minutes.

Neither of them landed a single hit.

A little later, Anoth brought his opponent down with a trick and then sent him back into the walls of the room with a powerful kick as if his opponent were a soccer ball.

Anoth was utterly unimpressed by these supposed princes.

"What's that supposed to be?" finally asked Anoth. "Just send me your doll down here? Are you too cowardly to fight yourself?"

Exactly at that moment, the "Prince" broke out of the rubble again, only this time Anoth didn't want to bother with this idiot. He simply raised a hand in its direction and destroyed it with a powerful beam of energy.

...

...

...

"Do you want to come down now or do I have to get you down first?" asked Anoth after a while of silence.

He got a sneering laugh in response. "So you saw through my little trick." Shortly thereafter, a figure landed at the other end of the room. "I am the real prince."

That's when the real fight began.

As Anoth discovered, the real prince was a lot faster and stronger than his cheap copy. He probably only used it to gauge his opponents.

In the end, however, the prince had no real chance either. Because as the prince realized far too late, he was not fighting a run-of-the-mill opponent. He fought a world lord with experience of thousands of wars and one who had defeated much stronger opponents.

Again, the prince fired water blades at Anoth, who telekinetically caught them and sent them back to him, garnishing it with a bolt of lightning.

The prince was forced to dodge his own attack, but jumped right into the lightning bolts trajectory and was hit squarely. The force threw him into the air where several of Anoth's hellfire fireballs eventually disintegrated him.

"By the way prince." snorted Anoth. "Recyclable piece of shit is more like it." Because what the so-called prince had drained during the fight was... just disgusting to say the least.

Long story short, the Tritons used the Sirens as slaves. Used them as sex slaves and weapons. In fact, many of the attacks on the various dimensions by the Sirens traced back to the Tritons.

Anoth looked around.

The once covered arena-like area was now roofless and pretty much everything around it was destroyed. Anoth had really tested the prince to see what powers the Tritons actually possess.

The Tritons didn't use mechanical weapons like the Sirens, but rather magical abilities. They were surprisingly strong. But then quite limited. For the Tritons were restricted to the water element.

Was interesting.

But it also kind of made sense.

After all, the Tritons were creatures of the water and therefore particularly connected to this element.

As for the prince himself. Well he was a prince but only one of over a hundred. And he was considered one of the weakest with a particularly big mouth.

A show-off who can bark but not really bite.

Anyway.

The Triton invasion here had failed.

With that, Anoth left the now slowly sinking fortress. Apparently, the prince's death had activated the fortress' self-destruct.

.

30 minutes later

.

Anoth was back on board his ship and had watched as the fortress disappeared under the waves.

So the Tritons had really tried to gain a foothold here.

Well bad luck for those who sent the very person who could easily kick their ass here. And if what he had learned from these princes was true, no more will follow. Because if the initial invasion failed, they would not make any further attempts.

At least that was something positive.

.

Four days later.

.

After the Blue Mermaids and the White Dolphins thanked him for his help, it was time to leave the dimension again.

So now they were out here on the high seas where Anoth had begun to form a portal.

A little later they drove through and left the dimension behind.

.

Back again in the previous dimension

.

As expected, they didn't come out of the portal in the same place as they entered.

They were now somewhere in the Pacific.

To be more precise: About 2,000 kilometres from Hawaii.

"We're back." It sounded cheerful from Kendra.

"How long were we gone?" asked Ak-15.

"If my calculations are correct...about 14 days local time." Was Anoth's answer. "Then let's take a course ... To ..."

"What's happening?" asked M4A1.

"I'm just receiving an emergency call." Was Anoth's answer. The emergency call was almost incomprehensible. The only thing he could really understand was Dragon Empery and the name of one of the ships: Ping Hai.

That was it.