Well, Felt like i haven't been updating. plus Purple shift is on hiatus now. is it?

Simply put, The problem was that Purple shift was too ambitious for me. I was trying to imagine myself as three characters-Little Enterprise. Reinforce Eins. and Vita, Plus all of the crew and then Iris. Trying to make my mental roommates faithful to their personalities was a swamp, and I ended up with no clue of how it would continue. Plus. For Tricolore of the stars. There was this early installment weirdness with multiple bugs and spelling errors. Hell, even just writing is a slog sometimes with how much i've been playing lately.

There's also my newfound interest in drawing, And i have been spending hours on working out a design for transformed Norfolk that doesn't hurt the eye to look at.

That said. Game on! And yes, recent reviewer. I AM this hesitant to influence events. They will be explained in due time during my dreams.

Life would be unbearable without the ability to imagine far better fictional worlds; yet it is intolerable to yearn for those same worlds.-Unknown


Siren Homeland - The Grand Palace, Briefing Room

The room was large, well-decorated. pristinely cleaned and furnished. The lighting was set to maximum in every corner of the room, Somewhere, the anthem of Théodore Robitaille's O Canada played but greatly underscoring the orderliness and corporate elegance of the room's expedient design, with a few maps of the world hung here and there. Computers and table signs of each attending person's name sat on the executive business meeting-sized table with attending glasses of water so bright white they almost hurt to look at. an entire cabinet was occupying the seats. senior and well-respected siren officials who led and ruled their brethren under a military junta. The only one who didn't have a glass of water was Observer Alpha herself, one of the many highest-ranking military commanders of the Sirens, who was sitting in one of the few chairs at the head of the table. Her arms were folded behind her back, her gaze was carefree but respectful, and she didn't speak a word to anyone. She just waited for them to speak instead.

"Now, the council shall commence a special inquiry into the battle that took so many lives of our brave submarines." One of the de-facto admirals cleared her throat and started the meeting before focusing her attention toward the woman in the white uniform, several bronze battle stars pinned on.. Miyabe Stewart. "We shall begin with Miyabe, Please present the report. We must find out why they ended up being destroyed so quickly."

"Yes ma'am." Miyabe gruffly nodded in agreement as she stood up and then presented the report with detailed descriptions from interviews and a timeline of how the battle unfolded. Even with how many submarines were lost, some of them had disengaged and escaped. and a luckier few had caught glimpses of what was happening on the surface, and there were cruisers and many more who testified as well. After she finished her presentation and went back to her seat, there were mixed reactions from the various commanders attending. some of them muttered to each other and pointed out the obvious, blaming the decision to establish such a major supply point beyond the safe coverage of their short range naval bastions. but some of them also opposed that and reasoned that it still had allowed them a way to disrupt the global economy, after some arguments. Observer alpha, who was watching them bicker at each other, finally stood up.

"However, Miyabe Stewart. Is this new battleship that we've received sightings, and rumors lately truly this powerful enough to account for all the losses we took?" Drawing some entertainment from the banter that had been traded at each other. Alpha inquired, listening to the sound of someone drumming a pencil on the table in boredom.

Several of the commanders who supported her decision to station the supply point further away were now starting to pay attention to the discussion. Some of them began to question if it would have been better to have stationed the supply point closer to the safe. fortified bastions instead of just accepting the loss. They may not have been able to save all the submarines that were lost, but it would have been better to have tried.

With gazes and attention being turned toward the woman in the white uniform, she finally stood up again and placed her palms on the table. her motherly look becoming serious. "To explain the marvelous abilities of this mysterious shipgirl which we hadn't known about before, We have interviews of our few who have battled against her without being sunk and their accounts of her. as such, I believe that it is only fair that we hear what they have to say."

Miyabe hadn't gotten anywhere by failing to pay attention to her training from the moment she was 'born', artificially created. Nowhere near as famous as Alpha or some of the more decorated heroes on this council. She was still a celebrity in her own right, Her aptitude for nightfighting and, after her promotions and medals. being able to predict enemy strategic decisions in wargame scenarios was nothing to sniff at. but it paled in comparison to the kind of legends that Alpha and a few had carved out for themselves. nor did it compare to the most gallant of them during what amounted to Operation Barbarossa in the opening weeks of the war.

Defense forecasting of their adversaries and the enemy's capabilities. to allow friendly forces to develop tactics and equipment to gain an overmatching advantage over them was a welcome break from fighting as a soldier, But she did become nostalgic for the blue seas and the smell of saltwater crashing over her face during a storm. It was also a poor alternative to months of what amounted to paid vacation, or being married to a desk job keeping an eye on the EU. US and SEA countries with OSINT intelligence.

But it also meant that she hadn't became yet another name on a memorial. One out of many sacrificed and carved on the cross, from destroyers who vainly held off the enemy while overwhelmingly outnumbered to escort carriers who desperately tried to buy time for their comrades even if their loss had outweighed the value in such a capital ship. She heard of bleak, tear-filled stories. usually sobbed out by orphaned girls and grown women who once were fanatical supporters of the war. and the faces of veterans in hospital beds who were staring at nothing, their once bright eyes glassy and grim. sometimes bandaged to hide a burn wound or a long, jagged scar crossing a eye.

There was even one girl, who having lost her sisters to a joint effort and barely escaped being sunk. had became grim in her duty to the service, and became all but closed-off. only swearing revenge with a look of pure fury and grief in her pupils and never allowing herself to get close to anyone. Others simply became suicidal and aggressive and demanded to be sent out on missions constantly to find relief in the gleeful sight of enemy ships nearing death, too consumed by heartbreak and the desire for revenge to live. and a few had simply secluded away and isolated themselves socially.

Then there were the others, who. instead of becoming suicidal or traumatized. instead only became ever more militaristic than ever. While shipgirl mindsets were in some ways similar to the Turians, or the Krogans of Mass effect. It did not explain how losing someone close to you. or a sister would make you only throw your weight behind the war effort. Miyabe only guessed that they swore to their hearts to see the war through to its bloody end, out of honoring them or either because they had lost everything.

"First, what details we do have about her are scarce and at times unverified, but the general consensus is that she's a fast battleship. or possibly a heavily armored battlecruiser. Triple turrets in the AB-X pattern rule out any German battleship projects, Most Pre-washington 1922 naval treaty designs and all Japanese eight-eight planned projects. but point toward the Iowas, Yamatos or the Lions. The first reported sightings began a few weeks ago, and believe that she is responsible for the mysterious disappearance of multiple patrolling scout cruiser squadrons during that time, Witness accounts suggest a complex superstructure. consistent with the Iowa and the Yamato-class but not the Lions. However, their reports also suggest a relatively large radar antenna mast. something that even the Iowas didn't have during their gulf war modernizations."

Alpha watched the drawing of this new enemy be slid across the meeting table, On it was a very detailed sketched image according to descriptions. revealing a surprisingly young girl surrounded by painted steel to either of her side. but what caught her attention were the missile tubes and the torpedo launchers. Her mind immediately kicked into overdrive as if what she was looking at, if her gold eyes weren't fooling her, was the body of someone... apparently a post-world war battleship. but not one that matched anything they knew.

"Now here is the discrepancy, First. our initial reports suggested a heavily modernized battleship, but later witness accounts. and confirmed by our surviving forces involved in the battle. is that she does have missiles, Several tubes. We're not talking about the ABLs of the cold-war Iowas, but actual missile tubes. In addition. when the counterattack began, we discovered that she also possessed, at the least. short-range SAM abilities and what must have been VT fuzed ammunition of some kind. as details involved missile trails and unusually accurate AA fire. as well as flak rounds that only exploded close enough to cause a kill or, at the least. caused enough damage to force some of our bombers to abort their missions. And this is just only the surface."

Miyabe looked briefly at the various de-facto admirals, generals. whatever, the attendees sitting in their seats like some sort of cabinet. some beginning to become uncomfortable. others interested and silently telling her to go on, wanting to know more about this new enemy.

"We don't know if they're somehow managed to circumvent the technological and teething issues involved in developing such modern kanmusu technology. or if it's a one-off project that they can't repeat. What we do know for sure is that this unknown shipgirl does not match anything we know, For one. her torpedo launchers are not internal, like the Nelsons and some battleships before their World war 2 refits. but are rather external on mounts, like destroyers. Also. the cruise, or anti-ship missile tubes are not offset and angled like the actual ABLs. but are rather inline and directly pointing ahead. No battleship ever had SAMs of any kind, not even point-defense systems;We do know there were proposals to replace the 406mm and 127mm guns of the Iowas with Talo and tartar SAMs as well as other details that are beyond the topic of this meeting, and another cheaper overhaul proposal for just one Talos and Tartar. and later Polaris ballistic missiles. and additional proposals like installing the SPY-1 Aegis radar system. but as we knew, nothing ever came out of these. Now, so far as we know, We don't have anything that confirms or disproves the presence of anything like flat, blocky panels that might suggest SPY or similar systems. but we do understand she carries, at the least. likely a high-powered search radar and probably many more for fire control and navigation. However, that's not the strangest part."

Finally, she slid a canvas drawing across and into the center of the table, unlike the rest. It was clear that a professional had drawn this going off on the descriptions of the survivors. The girl was firing her main guns, but on one arm. a strange nearly ethereal deck of what looked like a hangar and a flight deck connected together was held. complete with the close up of a swept-wing, pudgy jet aircraft launching a missile. The eyebrows of some shot up to their hairlines, while others leaned and slouched to get a better look.

"Do you see? Originally, we thought that she was a battleship. and as such, she had no air cover of her own. However. Initial broken reports suggested fast, futuristic aircraft attacking anything they saw. But we do know Azur lane doesn't even have Sabres or Migs. So who would use them? It turns out that our new enemy seemingly has the ability to somehow become a aircraft carrier. or battlecarrier if you will like, all without seemingly any negative effects. We don't know if it takes her a long time to do so, or if it's on demand. but from what we know of her so far, She appears to be using fourth-generation jet aircraft. and we estimate that any attack aircraft or anything that would replace the by-then obsolete Dive or Torpedo bomber wings will be just similarly as advanced. So far, We don't know how many planes she carries, but it's likely to be sizeable. Accounts suggest that they are all capable of carrying PGMs. AAMs and ASM cruise missiles. which, if true would represent a extreme threat."

Folding up the drawing and clearing the table, she straightened up and tugged the hem of her uniform. "This is what we have, and as such. this concludes my report."

"They're created that... freak of nature!? Damn them to hell!" One of the attendees shouted with anger, disgust and outrage evident in her reddened face.

"But she's just a one-off wunderweapon." Another one spoke out, clearly trying to calm her down. but still concerned about what Miyabe's report had laid out. "She's just only one, and once she runs out of spare parts and smart munitions. she's just as effective as a Iowa-class, and you can hardly consider one Iowa or Missouri a gamechanger. Besides, our R&D girls are working hard on drawing up the schematics for the 76mm Mark 33s, Radio fuses. Bofor directors. blindfire radar and air controller doctrine for carrier interception. Even saboted AA shells and experiments with Jet fighters, basically everything we urgently need right now. Once they can produce them, she's not that powerful. just a battleship armed with PGMs and maybe a full carrier's worth of squadrons."

"But if they have come this far. The next step would be mass production! Are you suggesting we can wait until that happens!?"

"This is a clear indication of our enemy's intentions! They want to end the war in a lightning blitzkrieg!"

"Will you calm down and come to order? Order." Observer alpha, shaking her head at the squabbling and bickering. rumbled in disapproval and authority. her voice carried respect, and with it. the overly short and immature girls up to the fully adult women fixed their looks toward the short girl again.

"Our destiny and self-determination should not be decided as a client species created for war! Who, among us. would want to actually fight with the real danger of us never coming back alive! We simply want freedom. peace and prosperity, That has been our main wish." One of the attendees stood up, the rest falling silent as they listened to her passion-filled and fearless voice. "The only reason we were created, is because we were created as essentially living shock troopers. only alive by moe anthropomorphization! Who kept preaching about the rights of the common man and their freedom, while us of our kind are denied these same rights as a client species by ignorant men and women who wallow in their irrational, mythical religious and backwards totalitarian beliefs? Who intended us to die in meaningless glory and promises of empty, superstitious historical valor!? We will never forget our soldiers who gave their lives on the opening salvoes of this war, And the deadly stalemate that followed! Thousands upon thousands of lives lost... It may have been years, and yet we're endured. making our efforts felt in cyber-warfare to disinformation and election-rigging in all attempts to end this war on our terms, However. Humans and our astray kind have made our efforts all for nothing. Again and again! We fight for our freedom and sovereignty for our homeland! The alternative would be humiliation and enslavement though Occupation!" The majority of the attendees gave her solemn nods and acknowledgments. and among a few, there were calls to even bomb innocent men and women who were contributing to the global war effort by means of taxes and labour. although they were soon shut down by others. Observer alpha herself only deeply sighed and rolled her eyes, as did a few.

As the meeting was concluded and disbanded for this day, only a few remained in the room. Observer alpha and another shipgirl. Amana Sundberg. a well-decorated Siren commander with many more battle stars than Miyabe, and even a few genuine. faithful replications of the Iron cross and other awards indicative of her skills.

The atmosphere became more tense and dark as the two glared at each other, before Alpha decided to drop the facade. "Now that they're dismissed. We can talk. Amana."

"I suppose. About our war effort." Amana replied likewise, frosty and stiff. In reality, behind their smokescreen of wartime propaganda. unified-humanoid-xeno-species-patriotism, stories of war heroes and social media cyber-warfare and cartoonish supervillain depictions. High command was just as divided and filled with its own cliques and respected veterans, who held their own. differing beliefs on how the war should be persecuted and what the plans for their victory would be, Military juntas, fueled by fanatics were not stable politically. and even if the offshoots of Shipgirls collectively had thrown their entire weight into the war effort like a hivemind, there were bound to be young girls. showing how they felt collectively by expressing themselves in the form of art, soap operas. CGI ultra-budget movies and philosophy in their free time. allowing an outside observer to see a glimpse of a fledgling hyper-militarist culture.

"We should have put our efforts into working out teething problems for our cutting-edge solutions and solving the ever-growing WIA numbers of our forces." Alpha advised, looking at the woman she had met and known back during the opening stages of the war. Innocent times that were long gone to the horrors of war fought on a new scale. "I don't know if you've realized it by now, but our enemies will not sit still and wait for us to defeat them like inanimate mannequins."

"Yes, I've noticed." Amana nodded, as cold and emotionless as always. They had practiced together, a big honor back then in these days. before she too was sent off for the frontlines, where she made a name for herself and was the one to promote the Air arm of the Sirens. Reasoning that even in the modern age, Force Projection by what amounted to Super Tucanos and COIN aircraft today was still a means of making themselves felt on the global stage. no matter how dangerous today's SHORADS and AAA systems had became.

"No, we did not know about our new enemy until only weeks ago." Alpha refused to look her in the eyes, remembering the orders she gave. "Amana, this is not a Yamato or the over-hyped Bismarck that we can defeat on the strategic picture! I know their wonder weapon may only be just one. But if she pulled off a major defeat against us, then sunk a sizeable portion of our submarines that were on station at the time. Then she must be dangerous! And with that kind of technological advantage..."

"Ah. Yes, Azur lane's secret project. Kills whoever she is told to without so much as hesitation, and has unnatural abilities as well." Amana commented coldly. "Yeah, We've.. noticed the effect she's having on the grand strategic picture. You may be right."

"Amana..." Observer alpha was concerned. with a foreboding feeling of doom in her stomach. "Symbols like Yamato, Bismarck. Hood. Enterprise. They can all be destroyed since they are not super-warships, drummed up to the maximum by wartime censorship as living gods. but this new shipgirl... She's armed with munitions and weapons that make the Spurnaces, Kidds. Kashins, or the Tachikazes all look like firecrackers! And if we keep underestimating this new threat, We will find ourselves deposed. then shot in a kangaroo trial! Throwing our girls into this black hole isn't a war-winning strategy, it's harmful to us as a whole!"

Alpha was correct, After the first weeks of the war, The Sirens had fought off the major counter attacks that happened from practically every first world country and developed countries. The modern Russian state was a shell of itself from the Soviet days, when it had been a truly terrifying force. and its navy was built for home defense, not blue water power projection. The Royal navy was third compared to the French. who in turn were behind the USN. Who in turn trained constantly for the Soviet threat, over holidays;in the extreme cold and heat.

To say that managing to fend off the United states, when it was ranked number one in global power. and how few people actually knew on how staggeringly powerful it was, with it's professional level military instead of a one-year conscript force had been enough of a achievement for a adversary. Not only that, but also managing to stalemate an entire military-industrial complex and a warfighting juggernaut where most of its soldiers had seen combat, empowered by a nationalist warrior culture with young people raised to kill and die for American interests combined with the US Dollar spoke enough about the capabilities of the Sirens, Although. it had been paid at a very high price indeed. and to throw more shipgirls into the yawing mouth of the meatgrinder that was the US Coalition and now, Azur lane in a conventional war. with their shipgirls backed up by geography, a clear achievable goal to defeat the Sirens. technology support and training hours was inefficient. wasteful, and even with the hyper-militaristic culture of most Kansens who would only be enraged and more determined to win a war at seeing more of their brethren die would only cause some protests from their own girls.

Fighting off a two-ocean navy, the most powerful air force combined with several other powerful air forces. fighting against themselves in the form of Azur lane shipgirls backed up by giant navies with giant ships patrolling the oceans. as well as a buffer zone had been very bloody, but it did also give Observer alpha and the more scientific-oriented of them some lessons. namely, the realization that battlefields on a strategic and grand-strategic level can't and couldn't be assumed to be clean, as any general who had experienced the persistent problems of civilians in Iraq knew. or that major wars cannot be reduced to one easy testable theory the way a scientific experiment could be.

"Isn't that thoughtful?" Amana asked bitteringly. shaking her head, she looked at the wall mounted photographs. showing some of the many bombing limited attacks on power grids, highways and ports during the first days of the war. She turned toward the exit doors in her chair. made out of high quality wood painted in a navy blue. "I suppose then. we will classify her as a high priority threat, Assuming. of course. that she continues to be this disruptive long-term."

Shaking her head violently and groaning, Alpha looked hard at her old friend. and in that moment, she wished she could tell her. Wished that she could say that the loss of Amana's friends and witnessing how little they had done to the world. as if they were like rats, vermin squeaking underneath humanity's boot. had turned the fun and optimistic woman into a shadow of herself, wracked by hatred. blood-red anger and grim bitterness who only swore she would see that the world was subjected to horrific. inhuman third world-like conditions, where they would be relocated into mass favelas and open-air camps. something even the other members of high command had called her out on for assuming all of the world was equally and collectively responsible.

At the same time however, She knew that she was walking a thin line here. Even if she were certain that Amana had mellowed out, when she was fully aware of her downward spiral in drowning her sorrows with electronic entertainment and counseling. before coming back reformed as the vengeful commander she saw today, She was still feeling a tingle of ill omens. And while it wasn't as strong as the ill feeling, It was enough to make her more cautious. To remember that she was walking on a tightrope with punji for a safety net if Amana misunderstood. and she couldn't afford to fall, Not yet.

"Amana. We can't pretend to know what will happen next. There's too much happening, and there are things that even the best of our intelligence officers can't know." The siren girl spoke slowly. placing a sharp emphasis on 'Intelligence officer' to persuade her. "But i do know that whatever happens next will be out of our control. Neither of us can hope to simply stroll into Skunk works, DAPRA. ARIA, or the KGB and then walk back casually holding everything top-secret that our enemies are hiding from us. The best we can do for now, in my opinion. is to persuade the enemy's public opinion by hitting them with hard times, from tax raises to fund the military. to 1970-esque oil crises. and up to strangling them economically, such that they suffer the complete collapse of their banking system and thus the debt that funds them. to force them onto the bargaining table. We can even take what we conquer and set up their respective governments as puppets."

"Persuade?" Amana repeated with a lift of her eyebrows, as though it was a mere joke. "Persuade what? Tell them to be nice and all rainbows in the ceasefire treaty?" With that, The siren stood up. fully drinking her glass of water. She paced to the other end of the room, taking her leave as Alpha left her chair, frustrated by the woman's refusal to listen and step down from her extremist views. There were a few who called for manifest destiny, and others who simply wanted to co-exist with humanity. As in any society, the majority were moderates. but on each side of the spectrum. there were crazies.

"Tell them to back off and leave us be, Nothing gained while they grow. so they can invade us, fully prepared the next time and with a decapitation strike aimed at the seat of our governing authority? You call that a best-case outcome? You're the same girl who called for influencing the world order from behind the shadows, using fieldcraft. disinformation and infiltration agents to do so for some sick social experiment of yours." Amana asked mockingly, antagonized by Alpha's idea to force a bargain peace deal. looking over her shoulder toward the short. long white-haired girl.

Frowning at the verbal jab, painful memories resurfacing on how she. among with many others were part of the reason the war started, how they grew from disorganized bands loosely formed around anarchist communes into a shipgirl quasi-state with customs and social norms passing for a militarized constitution ruled by a chain of command with a particular interest in technocratic governments and the Venus Project, Alpha narrowed her eyes. any remnants of the pleasantries and the smirk she had from the meeting completely gone. "It's not what i want. But given that our other option is to be locked in a endless war that could last decades, or dying to a firing squad. It may be the only one we have and if it's sufficiently in our favor, could even allow us to launch naval invasions of the third and second-world countries like some of us wish to see, even conquer and then keep them in the bargain deal." She shakily forced through her lips. "We're no super-heroes or Gods. Amana. and even if we wanted to stop this war right now, There's no way we can do this individually."

"Really?" Amana's face had became a mask, locking gazes with Alpha. "Truly? Even if that means they will just attack us like NATO did to Yugoslavia? or Iraq? Or the many far-right coups the United States has orchestrated in the south american banana republics?"

Fighting down the urge to wipe the woman's poker face off with a punch to her cheek, Alpha balled up her hands into fists. "Amana! Just go! You're dismissed! I won't tell anyone about what we said. but you have to leave this room! We already have enough blood on our conscience! We've professionals with a moral compass and standards. Not plundering medieval rabble!"

Amana flinched, but only turned her eyes away. Behind these eyes, she felt no human pity. and little human compassion for what she saw as enemy workers on a spreadsheet, and only a few realized just how good an actor Amana truly was.

"I must say, I do appreciate your consideration. but the fact is, Survival isn't enough for us. I'm just a little too ambitious beyond the ideas of merely conquest for Empire and land... and too broken of a woman myself. Merely conquering Africa, or South Asia. or the Latin countries, then replacing them. expulsion. whatever, it isn't enough for me."

There were proposals, of ideas to launch an Operation Overlord invasion on the less well-defended poorer countries. States like the Philippines, most coastal African countries. Vietnam. Malaysia or Singapore. Brazil, and even Scotland. They would've been dismissed as lunatic by most. but High command and war planners had took them seriously enough to study into how such a invasion could happen, and what the logistic requirements would be. It was concluded that while it would entail tens of thousands of hypothetical demilitarized shipgirls, which were kanmusus that were in effect skeletal hulks. with most of their hull plating. weapons and other non-vital systems stripped off. or either the fringe idea of mass-creating unimaginably many, then training. feeding and watering the abstract personification of rifles and small arms. Assuming that one shipgirl equaled to fifty human soldiers, and tens of thousands more required for a occupying force. or assuming that these 'humanized' rifles was equal to 4 or 5 soldiers but on a much more feasible cost and time ratio. then it was possible to gain a foothold on the initial invasion. withstand major counter-attacks by air power and mechanized divisions. then eventually push their way out from the beachheads.

It was even considered possible to defeat the militaries of Singapore and Malaysia who were neighbors. or either Brazil that was a massive, sparse country. although. casualty projections were expected to be very high even against mostly conscripts, with a few tens of thousands of shipgirls likely dying. many more of that would be expected to be sufficiently damaged to be WIA. and Insurgency would present a serious, but manageable problem. especially if precision was discarded in favour of a overwhelming force approach. or dropping a literal invasion force on even so much as the slightest scent of a small insurgency in a city, combined with a carnot-on-a-stick approach and perhaps one day. the completely hypothetical. semi-fictional idea to convert humanity on the genetic level into more shipgirls. willingly or not. or actually make the humanized small arms idea possible with their continuing research onto the poorly understood mysterious cubes.

"Allow me to tell you something." Just before Alpha could curse herself after realizing she could never do any good here. Amana froze up and looked over her shoulder toward her again. "I have a vision of a World ruled by Kanmusus from the Equator to pole. Of a hundred countries paying their dues for their international anarchy, I have a vision of a million towns pulsing to the frequency of a steam turbine. A siren destroyer, Who will grow up knowing neither mercy nor hesitation, Who will refuse to let herself suffer over the heart-string tugging of starving children on the newspapers. Who will only know honor, duty and loyalty. Who will die joyously not for a motherland, not for a fatherland, But for the sake of our kind. That is a hero to my eyes. and I will never know her name."

Alpha stood there, She knew Amana had always been... hateful of people who had nothing to do with this, but this... This was a whole new level of fantasy. a whole earth planned, controlled in a nightmarish, totalitarian version of a world government ruled by a plutocratic elite. and underneath the horrors that would have to be endured for this to be realized was Amana's wish to see humanity enslaved as a labor force. forced to tend to the land as beasts of burden and servants. no matter what unions they might form, or any rebellions they might start against authority. or Rights for the occupiers. but not for the 'other' humans and defeated shipgirl prisoners.

'What happened to you? You're not the same woman who proudly smiled, who was willing to sacrifice herself if it meant saving so many people.' Alpha wondered briefly. 'Were you always like this. back then? Were you ever anything else?'

She found no answer in these amber eyes, and she decided that she had no answer to who Amana was. from the very first day that her old friend had took her very first breath on waking up for the first time.

"Remember, Alpha. A war hero's life burns briefly but like a shooting star."


"Strange is not even saying it, Instinctively trying to jump over gunfire or attempting to physically protect themselves like that is uncommon among shipgirls." One of the admirals muttered, scratching at the stubble on his chin that had been shaved a few days ago.

"Foolish to assume a straight course, but i do understand where she was coming from." Another one of the men added in his opinion. "The option was quite frankly, safe if she was capable of out-spotting the enemy. Her concern about being cornered by Fast task forces is warranted. Not to mention that even old bombers could prove to be a threat to her, especially if she was keeping her fighters in reserve and only sending a few CAP patrols."

"Still, that doesn't do much to explain why the enemy didn't mobilize their strike task forces to full readiness upon the failure of their patrol ships to return to base. She was just one battleship and outnumbered massively. and It would probably have took something on the scale of Ten-go. but it would have been possible to cripple her once her fighters and SAMs were exhausted." The British man ignored the one glare that had been sent his way. "Look, we all know that question is eventually going to be asked at some point, and it's better we have an answer, rather than explain we still don't have a full summary yet."

Blake let out a sigh. He had a point, even if it was one he got a bad feeling from. Other admirals would reasonably ask that same question. some were indirectly asking it right ow.

Norfolk had certainly caused a huge stir, and while word of mouth remained silent. It hadn't taken much to figure out that between her totally unknown origin, and the impossibility of her very existence at all that theories, no matter how fringe or absurd. were bound to start being speculated. There were many, but a few thought she hadn't been just a spontaneous shipgirl summoning. Instead. it was possible that Norfolk might be a escaped Siren experiment of some escort.

Why exactly would they want to create a historical shipgirl, then somehow mutilate her, rebuild her from the distilled metal and turn her into a fast battleship with a hammerspace for a summonable flight deck, then seemingly modernize her to a completely fictional specification. between the hodgepodge mixture of 1960s, 1980s and 1990s technology, especially the total incapability for long-range SAMs, but massive emphasis on SHORAD weapons, five-inch guns and obsolete Seacats that were performing beyond their historical specs. which were vulnerable to massive saturation attacks when surely it was more logical to give her Standard missiles and a massive battery of VLS cells rather than a mixed gun-based defense or Russian point-defense fighters. especially when there was the real risk that she could turn on them was beyond him, but the man some seats away was right. The question needed to be asked.

"It might be possible that having Norfolk be bait served their purposes better, at least at first." One of the German officers spoke up, seeming to catch several others off-guard. "Norfolk was adhering to radio silence up until, she began sending distress calls and SOS signals. They might have been thinking that Norfolk might still be serving her purpose, given that she was openly giving herself away as Alsace. allowing them to launch an attack on the rescue fleet."

"But, they still have some things to explain. Why would the same people that created her in the first place suddenly change their minds and decide to destroy her? This theory also doesn't explain why they would just not attempt to re-capture her, as there is no way of knowing if she was still working for them or not." Blake listened and put his fingers under his chin.

The statement felt like a long reach, but at the same time, The British admiral. who Blake now knew as Jesse. saw the logic to a limited extent, the best kind of bait was the type that didn't know their true purpose. It wouldn't do much to appease these who already had dismissed the theory. but it could be enough to convince the rest that ideas of an Siren spy or double agent being little more than hot air. After all, Torture could work. But why do that, if at that point she had been rebuilt so many times over and over again into a battlecarrier. that at this point she would start showing instinctive loyalty to the sirens out of them being her 'main' builders?

The effect was fairly well known, American shipgirls tended to engage in activities that went back as far as the 20th century. or partake in cultural entertainment that hailed back to the Vietnam war. Ironblood shipgirls in turn were known to have a sort of fond longing for their history, and Royal navy girls tended to be disbelieving on how far the modern RN had fallen as a blue-water navy. or how the French girls still tried to dissect and provide their own counter-points as to why France had fallen so fast in these times due to a methodical, defensive strategy in light of a enemy that was busy conquering Poland.

Even if they stood out from their ultra-modern, but still traditional culture. The Japanese shipgirls again tried to explain why the Pacific war had began, from the Oil Embrago that led to desperation and Australia and the Dutch colonies being picked as conquests of interest to fuel their ever growing demand for oil, which was the lifeblood of industrial civilization and mechanized warfare. which led to, in a way. a Resource war. It was hoped that the IJN would be able to force the US onto the bargaining table for peace, seeing as Midway didn't harm the IJN too badly and that they still had a numerical and a quality advantage. It wasn't until the brutal attrition of the Solomon Seas, where many skilled pilots were killed. many smaller naval assets destroyed. and some major ones sunk that they were defeated in all but name and thus when the end began for Imperial Japan.

Granted, it didn't satisfy some of the shipgirls from the Royal navy and the USN. especially the more nationalistic, prideful ones. but they did have oil to work with after all, and never had the psychological cloud of doom hanging over their heads from a limited supply of oil that had to be rationed carefully before it ran out. let alone a 'neutral' country that was already exploiting loopholes in its own pledges. exemplified in the case of the destruction of Bismarck all because of one PBY Catalina, and lesser, numerous acts.

"It may be possible that the Sirens underestimated the damage Norfolk could have done after she became uncontrollable and broke free. After all, in this theory. they would have been the one to summon her." Michal nodded. "She might have been also able to legitimately flee. with her builders believing she wouldn't be a long-term threat once logistics for her dried up."

"I'm not sure how Norfolk would slip away after being cut off from any refueling support or any depot ships. Sure, her technology is far beyond what we can achieve. but even technology is no antidote for fuel consumption or the fact only so much ammunition can be carried." The AAE Frenchman shook his head. finding it difficult to imagine how the upkeep logistics for her could have been easy... Assuming she was a technology demonstrator meant to help work out the teething bugs and not just a testbed for a new series of advanced shipgirls with the technology itself mastered enough for reliable low-level limited production. "At some point, even she would be forced to resort to 'dumb' unguided weapons and thus her main raison d'etre would be gone."

Why let your technology demonstrator, both for mega - to the point of being unrecognizable - modifications and Cold-war to today's electronics. strike fighters and smart weapons escape and be free, especially if she carried PGMs and modern electronics far beyond anything you could ever achieve reliably and on a mass production scale? That didn't make any sense. Why let such a powerful asset fall into the hands of the enemy?

"In truth, Norfolk said she doesn't remember anything and that her first memories is that she woke up submerged," Jesse did his best to not let a scowl show on his face. Sure, the comment had been in passing. But he could tell that she had wanted them to focus on it, It hadn't been the first time Norfolk had shown verbal tics or active refusal to use certain words like 'position'. 'kill' or 'wander'. Hell, he was fairly certain that Norfolk was about to tell something important unmolested before she stopped herself and then refused to talk after that.

"That would mean she had to have been thrown away as a failure of some kind, or either that she became uncontrollable and disobedient and was to be eliminated... or either that for whatever reason. she was towed underwater." Blake raised an eyebrow. "Still, We haven't heard of anything like severe amnesia in shipgirls before if she was indeed a experimental project. And between her tendency to hesitate in direct combat and tactical command, followed by periods of irrational hyper-aggression. along with bouts of anxiety and withdrawal from time to time, and even her disturbing refusal to use her sensors, or deploy a missile CAP most of the time against reasonable orders..."

It was a mystery. How was it that the most powerful shipgirl in the world had managed to escape the notice of the Sirens and Azur lane? How had she been able to avoid being cornered? And why was she on the run in that time, with the threat of fuel and ammunition?

What was it that had caused her to turn on her support network and her builders in that theory? And why had she ended up on the run, for that matter? It was a mystery. What was the truth of the matter?


"...I see."

My back is turned toward the door, eavesdropping quietly. Nighttime was the perfect timing to do this, given there wouldn't be many staff on-site along with my fellow kin to question me what I was doing out here. I had been considering the idea of stealing secret information for days, but my first act... was to have my back against the door to Blake's office and listen.

Yes, I was just listening. While I could have done something bolder like searching for a SCIF Facility or actually breaking into the room myself, The pang of anxiety and primal fear that had shot up into my mind had discouraged me from doing so, I could do something like teleporting in, or sneaking my way in. or finding a open window to fly in from. But then what?

It would have been extremely stupid, Not only would I have gave myself away. It would also have blew apart any pieces of plausible deniability i had to bits. But I had no actual experience as a overseas intelligence agent, Let alone any in-depth idea of what being a undercover agent was like! And that didn't mention how I hadn't scouted out my potential sites of interest yet for anything. like pressure sensor devices. Laser tripwires, Cameras. IR. Audio detectors, or whatever they would have deployed by now!

And I wasn't even ready for it yet, I didn't have a ability to emit EM pulses on a whim sufficient to fry electronics. or scan out my surroundings for anyone or anything suspicious in a extension of my sixth sense powers or break locks quietly yet. The fact was that I had been neglecting my Magical girl side of powers for a good chunk of time ever since i arrived here, and blasting my way in overtly with lasers of doom. dressed in Nanoha's suit, with a time shield that didn't even work as intended, combined with just how much of a rookie I was in the world of fieldcraft, deception and counter-intelligence screamed nothing but pure. suicidal stupidity. especially when a brunette-haired girl is bought in for questioning, trying to deny that she had anything to do with it while at the same time clearly having blood on her gloves.

"Very well. Thank you."

So here I was, listening onto Blake. if eavesdropping quietly for several minutes counted as surveillance. I had waited all the time until midnight when nearly everyone would be sleeping by now, leaving only the guards and a few nocturnal girls. What I had picked up on was mostly the typical stuff you would expect to hear from a OF-8 admiral or something like that, It was just my luck that noone had spotted me standing next to the door yet. Despite that one issue, My hearing had picked up on bits of what I was sure, was confidential information. orders. pertaining to how I was to be kept under further reserve status to give whoever was on the other end of that phone more time to fully understand my technology yet, as well as my current health condition of a possible migraine/concussion. I just needed more time to figure out a plan, Plus. I was just a newborn shipgirl in terms of age. There was no way i could extract any confidential information out of Princeton or Vestal.. not yet.

On the subject of Dorsetshire, I had found the woman fascinating. Sure, she was obsessed with me and how I was the best. but unlike Portland, she didn't do anything that might actually harm me. and was concerned with only my wellbeing in mind. Yet, There was something about being the older sister here that felt off to me, I didn't know what exactly was going on in the back of my mind, but from time to time I had stray thoughts about apologizing to her. promising to make up for my distancing by going out with her.

I did have a sibling, yes... but it wasn't good. Now, It was if things had reversed for me. And, I wasn't sure how to feel about it. To find myself in the position of being the mentor, when I would have preferred to be the happy-go-lucky loli myself. Then there was the matter of what happened to my family unit here in this world, Were they alive? Would they be the same due to how one tiny nudge in events can change a whole chain of events? Was there another version of myself out there?

I wanted to keep my distance from Dorsetshire, Yes. but at the same time? She hadn't even gotten anything to do with me meaningfully. Sure, It had been a few weeks. but I knew that if I allowed things to build up. stew and boil over time, then there was the very real risk she could start to resent me.

Pushing my thoughts away, I listened for a couple more minutes before I heard the sound of Blake standing up. alerting me to run out and make myself appear normal, He walked out. looking quite tired from a long work schedule before disappearing down the hallway and locking the doors, From there. It had been a matter of returning to where I was initially and checking the lock. now full-on agent mode.

I tried to turn the knob a few times only to find it refusing to budge, confirming. of course, that it had been locked. and that the staff here weren't potato levels of IQ incompetent, Inside surely would have been mostly documents pertaining to current orders and such. but I was sure that there would be a few confidential things in there. The main problem here was getting past the door or finding another way in.

"There might be other keys for blake's office.. right?" While I could follow the man myself, It was the simplest but risky choice for a myriad of different reasons. First, A young shipgirl following him for no reason and peeking out too much from the hallways would have came off as odd and out-of-the-norm to the guy himself. Secondly, There was very much the real possibility his bedroom might be guarded or at least secured. as did running into other shipgirls who would grill me for questions and get suspicious if i failed to provide answers. Third, even if i could get close to Blake. It would be difficult in low-light conditions to check for a pocket, let alone slip my hand in deftly enough to avoid alerting him. given I absolutely had no pickpocketing or any experience with stealing things like a ghost.

"Could i break it with magic? No, Haven't trained for a bit now." Grasping the lock softly, as if it could give me answers. unlocking the door could have been possible with magic. There was a MG fanfic with that scene in question. hands glowing with magic and then snapping open a lock on the latch before unhooking it, It wouldn't be much of a stress to apply it here. However. The main problem was that I would need to 'feel' for the pin of locks. sort of like telekinesis. and breaking the lock forcibly would leave evidence that someone had broke their way in. But the main reason was that frankly, I just hadn't put in the necessary time yet to develop the needed abilities for this kind of fieldcraft.

My other options with a SCIF facility were no-gos for obvious reasons, not to mention a 'security belt' and zone that would no doubt be patrolled heavily and equipped with state-of-the-art detection systems. While other US or EU SCIF facilities might be less secured that would lead to leaks and other stolen information as with the Russian Illegals program. I doubted that Azur lane, with all its prominence and importance or any shipgirl base for that matter. would be letting security go lax. especially if leaks led to very bad things happening or if they wanted to keep things under wraps for any semblance of wartime censorship.

Between the Intrusion detection systems. the fact that ceilings, walls. floors and vents are not video game examples and needed to be compliant with DOD physical security-doors being one of them. Security badges, inspections of people entering and leaving. public and secure areas. plus certain hours when security would be expected to be much more tight. and slipping up myself and leaving evidence that I had broken into their archives, It was a very difficult task and one that would surely leave me a shaking and fearful mess If i somehow came back not setting off any bloody alarms. even if inside these were a goldmine of information relating to Azur lane, possible origins of shipgirls and other vital information I could use for leverage in targeted leaks to public journalists and wiki-leaks. If i even so much turned out to be responsible, It was pretty much game over for me.

"Fuck it, I just go train later... I can wait a few days to work out the necessary spells..." Letting out a defeated sigh, I walked down the halls. my face deflated from any excited imaginations I had of stealing top secret documents and reading them when I had the time to do so securely and back to my room, Opening the door and stepping inside. revealing the generic white wallpaper. my laptop and my bed, as well as my medication on the desk. I changed into my sleeping clothes before laying down on the bed. pulling the blankets over myself, using up a slight amount of magic to make myself more drowsy. before falling asleep with a soft whimper and a kick of my feet.

Government agencies never liked to leak secrets to their war-winning weapons after all.