Credit goes to TitanslayrOG. Link here: u/14374353/TitanslayrOG
October 9th 1945

A man wearing a trench coach crept between the streets, the coat hid his uniform beneath, it's Deep Blue colour ragged with dirt and blood from weeks of fighting against forces he was unfamiliar with. The world had been engulfed in conflict for the last 6 years. And as everything seemed to be coming to a close, suddenly a new force came along and began to fight everyone, everywhere.
And now they ruled the world.

The man checked behind him again, in case any of the so called "Sirens" were following him. "It's gotta be around here somewhere" he said to himself as he carefully climbed through some rubble of a building and entered the new area. "Oh" he remarked, realising he was on a platform of a railway station. He looked around and saw a sign, partially scorched from fire that had attacked it years ago. "Right. This is the City station. And not Thorpe or Victoria" he commented quietly as he rubbed his chin. "Maybe I can commandeer a loco. Might get me to an airfield" he said as he began to walk down the platform, it's roof long since gone and only the pillars that used to hold the roof remaining. As he quietly walked down the platform, looking for anything that resembled a loco in the yard nearby, he heard a noise. Stopping suddenly, he looked around, the night and light fog hiding anything that could have been making that noise. "Hello?" He tried to call out as quietly as possible. As soon as he said so, the crying went silent.

He got down onto the tracks and began to search around, hoping to find the source of the crying. It was a few minutes of searching before he saw a little gap in the underside of the platform wall. "Hello? Is anyone there?" he asked again.

A clicking noise made him freeze up. "Bugger" he remarked, thinking the noise was coming from behind him. But then he saw a brief flash of blue and a shadow inside the little hole.

"Keep away" Came a voice. It sounded like a woman's voice.

"I'm not going to hurt you" The man replied.

"That's what the others said" The woman replied.

"The Sirens?" He asked.

"No. The humans who sided with them" The woman replied.

"Well I'm not one of them. I've been on the run from the things they sided with" The man replied.

The woman remained silent.

"I was trying to find a loco so I could get to a nearby Airfield. I'm a pilot for the RAF"

"You're Royal Air Force?" The woman asked.

"Yes. I was to become a Flight Leader before all this happened. My promotion will have to wait I guess"

"I-I-I'm Royal Navy" The woman replied, not sounding too confident.

"Is something the matter?" The man asked as he heard her move. After a moment or two, a short woman emerged from the hole. It was at this point he realised what he had stumbled upon. "Goodness. A Kansen?"

The woman gave him a uncertain look. "I'm Norfolk. County Class Cruiser of the Norfolk Subclass." Norfolk introduced herself.

"Well, Norfolk. My name is Hector." Hector introduced himself as he tipped his fedora to her. "I think it would be best if we stuck together"

Norfolk nodded. "I know somewhere we can stay safe. Hopefully the others are still there"

"Others? You mean there are others like you still out there?"

"Yes. Most of us, if not all of us were reduced to our cubes before some of us were re-awoken. I was found by one of the Army Units, along with my sister Suffolk, Bulldog, a B Class Destroyer, and an American girl. Wasp." Norfolk explained.

"I see. Do you know where to go? We might be able to get close on this engine" Hector said as he spotted a small goods loco parked on the siding. It appeared to still be in steam. He checked any dials to see if anything was wrong. It took a bit of time, but the Night sky was still above them when they left an hour and a half later, slowly rolling down the line so they didn't run into any trouble. As they rolled along, Hector turned to Norfolk, who was leaning out of the opposite side of the cab, staring out into the nights sky. "Do you miss them?"

"Hmm?" Norfolk said as she turned her head to him.

"Your sister. Dorsetshire. She's your class-mate isn't she?"

Norfolk's expression changed from a neutral look to a sad one. "Yes. I miss my little sister. If you could call her little that is"

"A friend of mine served with her. Said she talked quite often about you and your accomplishments." Hector replied.

"I didn't do that much. Sure I chased Bismarck and knocked out Scharnhorst's forward radar. Plus I returned the Norwegian Royal Family home… But I'm not special. You'd probably be far more interested in a Battleship like Duke of York or Her Majesty"

"Norfolk. Don't put yourself down. You've clearly got your siblings and friends depending on you to come home safely. And from what I saw, you've got a package to deliver, haven't you?"

Norfolk tensed up a bit, he had seen the glow from her pocket. "It's nothing" She lied.

"Norfolk…" Hector asked.

The Cruiser sighed and put her hand into her pocket, pulling out a pair of cubes. "This is Perseus. A light Aircraft Carrier." Norfolk explained as she cupped the cubes in her hands.

"And she'll be like you and the others you've mentioned?"

"She'll be like us, yes. She'll have her own ship she can form too. But we'd need a port to be able to bring them out"

"And the only major one is Felixstowe. But that would be crawling with Sirens. We'd have more luck with a smaller port. I gather it wouldn't really be as ideal but it would have to do for now, till we are able to take a port and hold onto it" Hector said before Norfolk saw a familiar landmark and had Hector stop the loco. He damped down the fire so that the Loco wouldn't be of any trouble to them and they disembarked the loco, climbing over a fence and heading through a field. It was a bit of a walk but half an hour later, they came to a camp. And like Norfolk had said. Several others like her were there with some British Army soldiers sat around a campfire, the orange light shining against a larger metal object, which Hector correctly identified as a Churchill infantry Tank. One of the soldiers went for their rifle, thinking it was a surprise attack, but his friend stopped him. "Easy George. It's Norfolk. And she's brought a friend" the soldier said.

"This is Hector. Royal Air Force" Norfolk said as she introduced him.

"A flyer eh?" one of the soldiers said as they stood up.

"Who's the one in charge?" Hector asked, getting straight to the point.

"Me, mate" the same soldier replied. "Captain Ryan Baxter."

"Rather informal for a Captain such as you" Hector replied as they shook hands. "But given the circumstances we're in. I can understand that"

"Yes, quite. We're an odd little band. You, me, 7 Soldiers, a single tank and it's crew. And our Girls here." Ryan replied. "Did you manage to get her?" Ryan asked as he looked to the Heavy Cruiser.

"Yes. I saw they had some of the others as prisoners. And some more cubes. But I was only able to escape with these" Norfolk replied as she showed Ryan the cubes she had shown Hector earlier on the footplate of the loco they had commandeered.

"Perseus will do us well. Did you get to identify any of the others they had taken captive?" Ryan continued.

Norfolk gave it a thought for a moment, shuddering slightly at one of the things she had seen. "I saw Arethusa, Valliant maybe and At least 4 or 5 others still in with their physical forms. The cubes were too far away to be able to identify." Norfolk explained. "one of the others looked to be a Northern Parliament ship" she added.

"A Northern Parliament ship? This far south. Sounds rather strange" Ryan pondered.

"Perhaps she was captured whilst out at sea, and was brought here. I understand there is still resistance from ships up there" Hector said.

"Where did you learn that?" Ryan asked.

"When I was on the run from those things. One of them must have been talking to another and brought up the fact there was resistance from many Northern Parliament ships up there. There was apparently a Royal Navy and Iron Blood carrier out there as well" Hector explained. "I had to run soon afterwards, so I missed any other important information"

"Hmm. Well. We cannot ignore those other girls they have prisoner. We have to rescue as many as possible" Ryan replied. "Getting some of those Battleships out will be of importance. There's no knowing when we might face Sirens that are far worse than what we fought before"

"Where to?" Hector asked

"Fancy a trip to the city?" Ryan asked.

"Oh bollocks. I just came from there" Hector groaned.

"Well then, you and Norfolk have the most recent data on how many Sirens are out there"