"Sorry, sweetheart. That's not happening."

Akagi flinched on her bridge as red flags went off in the rest of the Sakura fleets' heads. From where they were positioned, a heavy cruiser was clearly visible. It had already caught on fire and was drifting in the water. A battleship was also visible behind the cruiser's pillar of black smoke much further into the fjord. Though it was slowly moving up to the mouth of the fjord, it was still too far to be of much help.

Given this assessment, Akagi found the cavalier attitude the officer was displaying to be...irksome.

Kaga sat ready to intervene should her…temperamental sister start getting impatient.

Though, if Akagi was getting impatient, she didn't let it show just yet. Clearing her throat, she keyed her mic. "Perhaps you didn't hear me. I will repeat myself only one more time. Give us Tirpitz, and you can go free. Traitorous Ironbloods included," she bit out acidly.

"No, no," the officer replied through the speaker, still frustratingly calm about the whole thing. "We heard you the first time. I was just taking the liberty to double-check your calculations for you."

Akagi frowned.

What is he talking about, Kaga asked her sister, using their unique ability to communicate wordlessly.

I don't know, Akagi replied, and I don't quite care. "I don't think you grasp the gravity of your situation, officer," she said with her outside voice. "We can blow you to bits right here and now, but we would risk sending poor Tirpitz to the depths, too. We can't have that now, can we? How would the Ironblood ever rejoin us otherwise," Akagi put on a mock-sympathetic touch to her tone.

"Oh, I fully grasp the gravity of what's happening here," the officer replied. "You planned for an encounter with us, clearly. But, as I said, you may want to double-take on your preparations."

Akagi grit her teeth. This petulant officer was getting on her nerves. "How do you mean?"

"Do I really have to spell it out for you," he chuckled. "You've made a severe mistake."

He's enjoying this, isn't he? Well, since these will be his last moments… "Would you, then? I've been a little too...caught up with things recently. Do bear with me," Akagi seethed.

James and Howe smirked at each other from the other end, in fact, enjoying their opponent's audible aggravation. Finally, he said, "You thought we didn't see you coming."

As the officer's words came through, Ayanami squinted and then froze in place, unable to say or do anything. The heavy cruiser was no longer up in flames. And it had sailed off to the side to provide a clear view of something it had been concealing.

Another ship, a light cruiser perhaps, had its bow glaring at the Sakura forces. Before any of the Japanese ships could imagine what might happen next, something on its deck started to spew flames in a backward direction before launching out of a cradle and rocketing straight toward them.

Akagi's eyes widened.

"Sister!" Kaga called.

Jintsuu took one extra second before she finally realized what it was. "Akagi-sama! A missile!"

It was one extra second too late.

Suruga gasped in horror as the projectile hit the Akagi's airstrip, impacting the bow. Yet, she felt something odd. There wasn't as nearly as large of a sound as an explosion, or a bright blaze of fire that would usually come from an explosion.

"Is that acid?!" Jintsuu yelped.

They could only scrunch their faces as the vaguely green substance that had spewed violently from the missile's point of contact began to inundate the Akagi's hull, eating away at what would've been thick metal hull plating, going straight for electrics and other essential structures.

It only took Akagi's yelling to shoot back for the rest of the Sakura force to begin springing into action. Yet, before they could react further, and maybe save themselves from the light cruiser's missiles, a barrage of torpedoes that seemingly came from everywhere and nowhere detonated all around the force.

Ayanami and Yukikaze swiftly made to deploy rigging, the former a little frustrated that she'd already taken appreciable damage so early on. But one look at the Akagi's melting airstrip was more than enough consolation.

"Where are they coming from," Yukikaze yelped, confusedly dodging spreads of torpedoes from unseen targets. "Submarines?!"

"No," Jintsuu said, "the spreads are too wide to just be submarines. We haven't seen any periscopes, either. It must be destroyers. Find them and annihilate them!"

On the other side of things, Z23 saw that it was her turn for another pass. She grunted as she used her rigging for something she never would've thought it could be used for before. Swimming up to the surface, she chuckled despite the circumstance surrounding her. When I said 'big damage, fast,' she told Kapitän Leighway in her head, This is not what I imagined.

And yet, it was working wonders.

She removed her oxygen mask to breathe some fresh air as she shot up above the waves and prepared to loose another spread of torpedoes, dodging the Sakuras' general sweeping fire as she did so. "1206!" She exclaimed. "I'm in position behind the Kii and Suruga as you said! What am I shooting at?"

"The rudders!" The peppy submarine replied. Her eyes darted around her screens as she assessed the status of her triple-destroyer tag team. I need to thank the Kapitän after this, she giggled to herself, this is so exciting! "Aim for the rudders, Zed! I'll fire some torpedoes of my own so we can wombo-combo them!"

Z23 nodded, breathing heavily from the physical strain of weaving and skating on the water while listening to the submarine's specific targeting instructions. "Okay, coming up on interest point Charlie-Two. Dropping in three, two, one!"

On the signal, Z23 loosed her spread of five torpedoes at the Kii's stern.

"Charlie-Two, aye!" U1206 pointed her rigging vertically up at the Kii's underside and shot two torpedoes. Her eyes tracked Zed's torps as they swam furiously for the target adjacent to her own spread. With anticipation, she waited for the two sets of ordnance to detonate in unison…

A large explosion ensued as the Kii was, as 1206 had intended, left a sitting duck in the water.

"Woo!" 1206 whooped triumphantly.

Z23 couldn't help a chuckle of her own. "Danke, 1206. Everyone, did you see that?"

"Yeah!" Javelin called she dove underwater once again, narrowly avoiding a strafing run from one of the fighters that had gotten off the Kaga's deck earlier. Before she could say anything else, another large explosion was seen at the stern of the Suruga. "Wow! Quick work over there, Zed?"

Z23 snickered. "Kapitän's orders. Make it quick!"

"I concur," Vampire declared. "With swiftness now, Javelin! Let us taketh yond light cruiser togeth'r, while they art still confused with our flurry!"

"Copy!"

The two destroyers made like submarines, swiftly moving underwater up to either flank of the Jintsuu. "U1206, we art approaching the pointeth of int'rest designated Alpha-One! Advise targeting!"

U1206 replied, "Jawohl!" Before her eyes perused her scans. Then, she had a solution. "Same directive, but with a concussive variation!"

To most other outside observers, those directions might've sounded vague. Thankfully, they'd spent enough time discussing and deliberating among themselves to know exactly what that meant.

"Understood!"

The two destroyers proceeded to loose their torpedoes with perfect synchronicity, in a precisely balanced display of group coordination and individual dexterity. Their spreads hit, one successively after another, making detonation after detonation just along the Jintsuu's hull and slowing it dramatically, taking it almost completely out of action. Notably, a collection of the torpedoes didn't actually make contact with the hull, enabling the damage to be nonfatal.

"Yeah!" Javelin called triumphantly.

Before Vampire herself could get caught up in the jubilance, she sensed a spread of hostile torpedoes coming at her. She whipped around just in time to see the destroyer Ayanami approaching rapidly. Vampire swept to the side and managed to get clear of all but one torpedo. "Oof!"

"Vampire!" Javelin yelped. "Are you okay?! Shoot, I can't assist, I'm on the opposite side of you!" She weaved and ducked under the fire from the stationary Suruga and the rigging-equipped heavy cruiser Chikuma.

"Aye," Vampire replied, some of the vigor from earlier dissipated. "Aye, I am alright. I can take this…Ayanami."

"Oh, you've got Ayanami on you?!"

"Aye," Vampire confirmed, a little puzzled. "Doest that matt'r?"

"Yeah, we were friends back then! Go easy on her please," Javelin requested.

Vampire chuckled, deciding to oblige her friend. "Aye. 1206, please advise!"

"Jawohl!"

"Oh, Scheiße!" Z23 suddenly yelped over the comms. "1206, need targeting here, too!"

"Was? Why? Okay, I'm getting two calls at once, hang on—"

"Yes, evidently, no one's noticed...but the two battleships have decided to start firing on our battleship, so I think that might be a problem," Z23 joked drily.

James and Howe chuckled before he gave her the order. "Alright, that's our cue. Head for Eugen's position before those big guns actually hit us!"

"Copy that," Howe replied dutifully. "Running evasive. Hang on, Tirpitz!"

Tirpitz had a little chuckle of her own in spite of herself. The way these people coordinated with each other…she could get used to it.

Just then, a handful of shells straddled the Howe from either side, no doubt pockets each from the Kii and Suruga.

James called into the microphone, "Alright, someone please deal with them!"

1206 suddenly chimed in. "Kapitän, Zed needs fire support from Howe if we wanna silence Kii and Suruga! Are you in range yet?"

"We are, sir," Howe affirmed as she looked at James. "What are your orders?"

James contemplated the variables in his head. Quickly surmising based on the developing circumstance, he nodded. "Alright, Howe, Zed, work on Suruga. 1206, advise accordingly."

"Aye!"

Zed skated until she was at the starboard broadside of the Sakura battleship. "Awaiting advisement, 1206!"

"On it!" The submarine called. "Torpedoes, concuss the ammo lockers and guns! Howe, fire in tandem and try to hit the batteries themselves!"

"Copy," Z23 nodded. "Howe? Are we green?"

Howe took a moment to psyche herself up. Monarch could probably hit that shot. Let's see if you can, too! "Yes! Greenlight over here, Zed."

"Okay, loosing torpedoes in three," she picked up speed and came up alongside the Suruga, "Two! One!"

Z23 dropped a spread when, with an astonishingly calculated few seconds' delay to account for projectile velocity, Howe fired her volley of four shells, lighting the grey atmosphere surrounding them with a glorious orange blaze and generating a powerful burst of sound.

Despite not having hit anything yet, James whooped from beside them, clapping his hands together. "Woo!"

Howe and Tirpitz looked at him with raised brows and confused expressions, the former doing her best not to start giggling mischievously.

"What?" James said defensively. "I like big booms."

Z23 watched the shells careening through the air as she skated away from the Suruga to avoid any shockwaves.

Then, the explosives hit. And they hit good. The battleship went alight with a blaze, the concussion from the torpedoes shocking the machinery as 1206 had said they would while the shells landed right smack on a battery.

It was time for Howe to get a little giddy herself. "Yes, I did it! Look at me, Mon! Look at me!"

James looked at her with his own thin smirk.

"What?" Howe said defensively. "I never hit anything as impressive as that."

"It was a good shot, Howe!" Charybdis chirped over the comm.

Howe gestured at the speaker as James laughed. "There! See? Chary said it was a nice shot."

Just then, Kii landed a slick shot of her own, hitting the fast-moving Z23 with a shell detonating mere feet away, sending the destroyer off her feet and knocking the wind out of her.

"Zed!" 1206, Vampire, and Javelin shouted in unison.

James's and Howe's faces fell as Tirpitz sat up in her seat.

"That shot came from the Kii!" Charybdis called. "Emergency protocol. Launching!"

Promptly, another missile slammed right in the midst of the two forward-facing batteries on the Kii, melting them and rendering them useless.

Though James couldn't bring himself to think of how much that might be hurting them, at least he wouldn't have to hear it with his own ears. He was still left feeling very conflicted about using the weapon system anymore, however. "Alright, Charybdis, thank you. Let's put a restriction on that protocol and start using those missiles more conservatively now. I don't want to think about how much that might really ruddy hurt."

"That is fair, captain," Charybdis said, grasping the seriousness of what he'd said. "Copy that."

James nodded. "Thank you. Z23, status report?"

Over Z23's line, she could be heard hacking and coughing, her voice not as even and sure as it usually was. "I…I'm okay." Some static started breaking her signal up, indicating the damage had gone quite deep. "I…think I can still…"

She didn't even have to finish. "Yes, that's alright. Sail for the outskirts of the battlefield towards the south and stay out of trouble as best you can," James said. "Feel free to revert to your hull. We'll cover you where we need to."

"Jawohl."

Though James could tell that the girl might've wanted to see this battle through to completion, he couldn't bring himself to push her further, even just from hearing her voice. "Javelin, render the Kii a sitting duck, please. I don't want her getting the stern batteries in position."

"Aye, sir," Javelin acknowledged, maneuvering to strike the Kii's rudder and propellers. When detonations were heard in the distance, Javelin reported again promptly. "Taken care of, captain."

In time, the Z23's hull became visible in the distance out of range of the battlefield as James had told her to, indicating she was no longer on rigging nor in the fight.

"Alright Eugen," James said, "We are in position. Zed, status report please?"

Z23 took a few minutes to get herself into the sick bay and patch herself up before responding. "I am…alright now, Kapitän. I've applied some medication where needed. I just…need to rest. And maybe sleep."

"Whatever you require, Zed, feel free to avail of it where you can," James reassured.

"You did good, Zed!" Howe encouraged brightly, trying to cheer the destroyer up.

The destroyer chuckled from the other end. "Danke, Howe."

"If I may interject," Tirpitz signaled, "I believe your comrade Vampire has been tangled up with those two Sakura destroyers for some time now."

Eugen looked out into the distance. "Indeed. Frau Tirpitz is right, sir. What are your orders?"

"Aye, what is the directive, Captain? I would d appreciateth some assistance as swiftly as possible," Vampire quipped as she heaved to dodge an incoming shell from Ayanami that came much too close for comfort.

James thought for a moment before he had the solution. "Alright, Howe? Start moving up so we can get out of here with Tirpitz. At the same time, can you provide some fire support?"

"Of course I can!" Howe replied confidently. "I wasn't chosen for this mission for nothing, you know? Here's a trick I learned from my sister!"

James and Tirpitz watched curiously as Howe fired four shells that screamed through the air. They then slammed into and detonated in the water just the right distance from Ayanami and Yukikaze to concuss them off their feet and knock them back, to a similar effect as Kii had achieved earlier but with more damage dealt the way of the Sakura destroyers.

James nodded in approval. "Some trick. That's two shots for you today."

Howe tittered. "Still not quite anything Monarch can't do, but I'll get there one day!"

"I'll be there to see it when you do," James promised, strangely feeling not unlike a mentor encouraging their protégé on.

Meanwhile, Javelin and Vampire had made their way up to Ayanami and Yukikaze. Javelin took just a moment's pause to stare into her friend's eyes sympathetically. Maintaining her javelin in Ayanami's face, she said, "Look. We're not going to kill you. Ayanami, if anything, I'd love to be friends again. And we're not gonna ask you to make your friends surrender, either. Just, please, stop fighting back."

"Ha! And what, let you take us prisoner for information, nanoda? Not happening! Right, Aya?" Yukikaze looked at her sister-in-arms.

"...Hai," Ayanami said quietly to Javelin.

"See?" Yukikaze declared proudly. It only took her brain a moment to process exactly who Ayanami said that to, however. "Wait, wha-?"

Javelin had to pause for a second before feeling an uncanny sense of déjà vu to when she had fought side by side with the Eagle Union destroyer Allen M. Sumner under Commander McConnell. "Thank you. Please revert back to your hull and remain there for the duration of the battle. Don't worry, we won't be taking you prisoner."

Ayanami nodded.

Yukikaze had questions. "What?! If not prisoners, then why bother with any of this? What even are—?"

"Yuki," Ayanami said, her voice flat and tired. "Please stop talking."

Yukikaze took one look at Ayanami, at the sympathetic Javelin, then to Javelin's friend whom she wasn't quite familiar with—and was having trouble holding back her snickering—, and sighed. "Hai."

Abruptly, U1206 had a call to make. "All hands, Kaga is launching another squadron! It looks like those two carriers are gonna start coming back online in full force soon. Kapitän, please advise!"

"Captain?" Charybdis asked, a little reluctance to use such a deadly weapon again now coating her tone.

James sensed the reluctance, and felt it, too. "I'm afraid you're our best option, Charybdis. Launch just one."

The maid nodded and began to take aim. "Copy. Launching in three, two, one."

Promptly, the rocket-propelled projectile cruised through the air before slamming in largely the same spot on the Kaga as it did the Akagi, the fluid inside bursting out and melting the airstrip, hull, and internal workings.

"I'll give you this, Charybdis," James said as he watched the process happen, "you've gotten good with precision."

"Aye," the maid said, taking the humor to lighten her mood up a little. "Permission to switch back to regular cannons? I think we have enough to report the weapon 'functional as intended.'"

Although James was, of course, aware that keeping Charybdis on the missiles was the most tactically sound method, barring any ethical ground, he decided to grant her the permission. Because ignoring ethics can go piss itself. "Granted. 1206, head on over here. It's time to start detaching."

"Jawohl, Kapitän!" The submarine replied dutifully.

Akagi finally recovered to a state where she could at least stand again…just in time to see another missile strike her sister's hull. Feeling rage anew bubble within her despite her exhaustion, mentally and physically, she slammed the key for the mic. "If anyone," her voice shaking, "is still capable, target the damn capital ship already!"

"Okay, Chary, cover us!" Howe alerted instinctively as they got closer to their waypoint.

"Aye!" Charybdis proceeded to deploy her rigging and volley over a considerably weaker barrage from her main cannons at the two Sakura carriers. It undoubtedly wouldn't do any more damage at this range, but that wasn't the goal.

Swiftly taking the cue as Charybdis sustained the 'flak,' Howe switched to her rigging and gunned it, backpacking Tirpitz as she went.

It was then that Akagi's eyes grew wide from being caught off guard for the second time in one day. The commanding officer wasn't on the battleship?

James signaled once again, the final parts of the escape falling into place. "Alright, Eugen, that's your cue. Get the hell out of here, now!"

"Aye, Kapitän!"

Then, Prinz Eugen, too, summoned her rigging and full-sent it to go speeding across the waves and for the safety of the battlefield's outskirts.

It was at that moment Akagi finally connected the dots.

They did have a submarine. Not launching torpedoes, but coordinating where to shoot. The destroyers that seemingly appeared out of nowhere at the beginning of the battle were on the submarine, taking full advantage of three-dimensional warfare.

In spite of herself, some of her frustration subsided, and with hesitation and reluctance, a little smudge of respect for her enemy commander grew. To implement something like that…

The tired and panicked voice of her adviser, Jintsuu suddenly piped in through the comm. "They have a submarine! Chikuma, we're the only ones left who can…! Akagi-sama, we can use depth charges!"

Akagi simply stared at the microphone. Without making to reply, she made sure the device was keyed off before she blacked out and collapsed on the floor.

"They're going to know we have a submarine by now," James reminded them. "At least, I would hope they do, for their sake," he quipped swiftly to everyone's amusement. "Vampire, Javelin, 1206, let's form up and take down the remaining cruisers. Then we're out of here."

"Copy!" "Aye, sir!" "Jawohl!"

In a move reminiscent of the one devised against U1206's ambush, but reversed this time—using targeting data being fed from the U-boat—Vampire and Javelin loosed a spread in tandem with 1206 aimed for Chikuma before launching one more at the limping Jintsuu.

"That's your cue, Charybdis," James signaled, a sense of relief knowing the sequence was finally done with. "Gun it!"

"Aye, sir!" Charybdis said, bolting for the outskirts to rendezvous with the rest of them.

Seeing the maid's blip on 1206's sensors, James nodded to himself before his mind pivoted to something else. "Zed, status report?" He asked.

The destroyer coughed from the other end but otherwise responded as normal. "I am still alright, Kapitän. Tirpitz is helping me take care of some of the…more severe damage."

James nodded, but before he could say anything, Charybdis already made her pitch in.

"I'll be right there to help too, Zed!"

Smiling to himself and nodding at a still cheery 1206 despite the rather hairy battle they'd just gone through, he keyed the mic. "Alright, that settles that. See you all in three minutes."


When James was finally back aboard on the Howe's bridge in quieter conditions, he looked at the battlefield they'd left behind, a great Sakura force left in the water like sitting ducks. Just as Maxwell had asked, and comfortably within their tight timing margin. Inwardly, he wondered if they would still somehow end up bumping into each other. "Alright, let's take an inventory."

Howe nodded, producing her notepad for the final tally. "Sure!"

"We're safe. We got Tirpitz out," James began, counting them off with his fingers.

"Right," Howe nodded.

"I must say, that was an interesting experience," Tirpitz chimed in over the radio.

Caught off guard, James raised his eyebrows and chuckled, looking at the speaker and leaning towards it. "What was?"

"Being backpacked like that. It is the first time I've done it," the German battleship clarified.

James and Howe snickered. "I'm gonna write that down under 'other notes,'" Howe quipped.

Before they could say anything else, a large explosion behind the Howe shook them to the core, making Howe drop her notes in fright and scaring the living daylights out of James.

"What the hell was that?!" James yelped, understandably panicked.

James and Howe scrambled to see the Prinz Eugen with a little smoke billowing out of it that certainly hadn't been there earlier. This time, though, it looked to be for real.

"Miss Eugen, are you okay?" Javelin asked, also quite spooked and shaken up.

The heavy cruiser chuckled a little, to the relief of the whole force. That by & large meant she was alright. "Ja. Ja, I'm fine. I just noticed that one of the Kii's batteries was swiveling towards us. It looked like it was aiming for Charybdis, so I had to cover her."

"Wow," the maid blurted. "Thank you. So much. Seriously, you can have free dinner from me whenever you want."

Eugen chuckled while James whistled. Howe had a similar reaction, giggling and clapping playfully at Charybdis's offer, before walking over to pick her notepad and pen up off the floor.

"That's a maid of the Royal Navy's corps offering to cook you free dinner at your convenience," James emphasized. "That's how you know you did it right."

Charybdis giggled. "It's the least I can do. Thank you, Prinzy!"

"Of course," Eugen said.

James was oh, so tempted to ask Eugen why Charybdis was permitted to call her 'Prinzy' when no one else was, but he figured it would be best to save the query for a later date.

His mind then proceeded to the fact that a Sakura battleship they thought was rendered inactive still had enough in it to fire a defiant shot. "Howe, let's go see if that battleship will continue to be a problem."

"It won't be," a distinct voice chimed in over another channel.

Before anyone could question who it was, a fleet of what looked like helicopters James—or any of them, really—had never seen before was flying over the horizon.

James chuckled and grinned to himself. "Agent Maxwell! Just in time."

"Like I promised, huh?" The man quipped. "You're too fast, though man! Damn, look at 'em. Never stood a chance."

Howe snickered and jotted another little something down on her notepad.

"That's how we do things," James said as he looked at her. "Guarantee fulfilled, quick, and within the timeline. It might get scrappy, but I try to control the chaos as best I can."

"No, no, definitely," Maxwell said. He remained silent for a while, perhaps scanning the debris with his own eyes, before adding, "Remind me never to get on your bad side, Leighway."

"Copy that," James replied with a thin smile.

They all watched as the helicopters made their way to each ship, almost like bees to flowers looking for nectar.

"I guess we'll leave you to that, Agent?" James asked.

"Sure thing," Maxwell replied.

James nodded. "Alright. It was a pleasure working with you."

"Thanks. Same feelings here."

"Thank you. We'll see you soon."

"See you soon, Captain."