Chapter 3

"You see," Bismarck began to say. "We weren't always the only ones of the Iron Fleet, there were many others, also this wasn't always our home. We once had a base, probably one similar to yours. Years ago we lived peacefully and never believed we would never have to fight anyone. That all changed one day when the Freedom Fighters attacked us without warning. The first thing we saw were their planes that swooped on and knocked out most of our carriers and kept the rest of us under constant threat from strafing runs. Then they showed themselves and began slowly picking us off, since we didn't really train for combat, when we tried to fight back we'd never be able to inflict damage to them. Most of us at first tried to surrender but they wouldn't accept it, almost everyone who tried were not only killed, but they were tortured, those sick girls wanted those of us who gave up to suffer a slow and painful death, honestly all the various ways they did it I don't even want to think about. Knowing we would only get slaughtered we tried to retreat but they continued to take us out, we were only able to get away when my younger sister sacrificed herself by charging at the enemy."

Fubuki couldn't believe what she had heard, she shuddered as if she were back out in the cold storm outside. "So there were more of you guys," she asked?

"Yeah," Bismarck answered.

"Wait a minute," Fubuki soon came to a realization, "then could this mean that some of the abyssals that we were fighting could've been your former comrades."

Everyone soon understood what Fubuki was thinking and looked horrified. Fubuki soon remembered what she heard from one of the visions Exatior showed her, did the Freedom Fighters use these Iron Fleet ships to become abyssals. She began to worry if these new friends she had just met would now hate her. "I…" she began to stammer, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Bismarck placed a hand on Fubuki's shoulder, "it's ok, we don't blame you, we know there was no way you could've known about their former identities, plus they weren't themselves and that they are being controlled by the Freedom Fighters."

"Thank you," Fubuki said, placing her hand on top of Bismark's smiling. "All of you, you've been nothing but kind to me and I wanna do something to repay you, so maybe I could help you train and become better at combat so maybe you could avenge your fallen friends," she offered.

Bismarck and the others seem to contemplate her offer before nodding in acceptance. "Whatever you have to teach us, we'll gladly learn from you," Z-4 declared, with Z-3 gleefully nodding in support of her sister.

"Well, we can't just head out now, especially for you Fubuki since that storm can still take a lot of strength out of you," Bismark cautioned. "Actually I think we may have something that could help keep you warm until you get used to the weather here." Bismarck then got up and head through another door and later came back out with a thick brown trenchcoat that would've gone down to her kneecaps.

After Fubuki put on the coat, she couldn't help but notice how heavy it felt, though it wasn't as heavy her equipment so she reasoned she could wear it and her equipment together. After everyone else had gotten ready to head outside, Fubuki saw her reflection in the water, even though the coat gave her a more mature look, she couldn't help but feel like a schoolgirl still, maybe this is what Yuudachi felt after her remodeling before hers. When the 11 girls finally went outside into the cold windy sea, Fubuki noticed that it wasn't as bad as when she first arrived with Exatior, in fact she could clearly see everyone else that was around her when just a little while ago she wouldn't even be able see Bismark who was only a few feet away from her. "Alright," she called out to everyone, "let's get out of the storm and get started," she declared, as they headed out.