Chapter 4

Allen and Sanders had just been instructed to enter the rear-admirals office. They opened the door and could only awe in surprise as they walked in. The room they were faced with was an office fancy enough for a fleet admiral. A big desk at the other end of the room, two chairs in front of it and one made of leather behind it. Behind the desk and chair a big window that reached down almost the floor and up to the ceiling. Sapphire-blue curtains left opened on either side of the window. To their right a low coffee table and a dark-blue couch against the wall. On their left a long cabinet and on top of it many bottles of what seemed to be expensive cognacs, whiskey, and rum. And to top it all of there was a ceiling fan on the ceiling and a big blue mat that covered almost the floor completely but still leaving enough of the floor visible for you to see the dark wooden planking beneath it. It truly gave a cozy and homely impression.

Since the admiral's chair was empty and no one in the room, other than the two officers, Allen walked up to the long cabinet and examined the drinks Rear-Admiral Reed had in her collection:

"Oh wow! these must have costed a small fortune." Allen had some kind of knowledge about fancier alcoholic beverages and could tell these weren't second-rate drinks.

Sanders was standing in the middle of the room with his hands in his pockets as he looked around. He was pretty sure the contents of this room are worth more money than he had ever had in his entire life. Allen was just about to say something about the beverages to Sanders when the door behind them opened. In walked a surprisingly young woman with admiral's uniform on her. Her brown hair stopping just before her shoulders and her brown eyes studying the two men. A white officer's hat in her left hand and some papers in her right hand.

-"Ah, gentlemen!" her voice clear as commanding officer's should be. "Captain Allen and Lieutenant Sanders, I presume." She turned her gaze to Allen and after that to Sanders. The named men saluted, one of them sharper than the other. Rear-Admiral Susan Reed, a bit clumsily shifted the papers from her right hand to her left, saluted back to them "At ease, officers. Please, sit down." as she motioned with her hand towards the two chairs in front of her desk. Allen and Sanders politely waited for the rear-admiral to sit down first and then took their seats. Susan Reed placed her hat and the papers on the table, leaned forward on her chair and crossed her hands on her desk.

-"I assume one of you is the commanding officer of that group that has invaded the lobby of my command building." About half of Sanders' company had wanted to go look around the base and he had given permission as long as they would tidy themselves up and behave. It seems that he shouldn't have given in so easily.

Sanders shifted on his chair uncomfortably after hearing that "Those are probably my men... Sorry about that."

Reed waved her hand dismissively and chuckled "No-no, it's fine. It seems they can relax with every opportunity they can get and that is a good thing."

-"You have no idea, ma'am. They can be a pretty troublesome bunch." Allen said after sighing and shaking his head a little remembering the times they had gotten into trouble.

-"well as long as they do their job, I might turn a blind eye" Reed shrugged. The men would do their part as good as anyone, but they sure would complain a lot if it wasn't Sanders giving the orders. After a small and dramatic pause, she continued "but that's not what we need to talk about now. You are here to guard the Ship-Girls, correct?"

Allen turned his eyes back to the admiral and nodded "Yes, ma'am, that is correct."

Reed turned to her papers which she had brought with her "That's good. Not that we would need to worry about Sirens attacking this base, no, but civilians will probably stop trying to get a peek of the girls now."

They would be here not to protect the girls with force against Sirens but as a deterrence? It was something that the High Command had failed to inform them. That would be fine as long as the men were kept satisfied.

-"Anyway!" Reed announced as she took out a map of the base and spread it on the table for Allen and Sanders to see. "I want some patrols to be set up, I've been thinking that 15 men in total from both companies at all times should be enough. I want some here, here and here… and here as well, the other spread out around the base." Reed stated as she pointed out some locations on the map. Near the Eagle union, Royal Navy and Sakura Empire dormitories to name a few.

-"We can arrange that no problem, ma'am!" Allen promised as he raised his eyes from the map to look at Reed with a smile.

-"Good, glad we got that out of the way without any problems." She said with a sigh. Sanders nodded his head and then remembered something "And what about housing? We have tents with us so we can use them."

They turned back to the map and Reed pointed at two corner near the entrance where they had come through "As you could probably tell there are some forest at the edges of the base, so you can settle down here and here."

Allen pointed to the northern corner "My company can take this corner you take the southern one near the water. Sound good?" Sanders looked at the pointed locations "Doesn't matter to me."

-"Of course, you two get your own dorm rooms in here." Reed said pointing to one of the buildings that was marked as 'RN dorms.' Allen smiled and nodded his head "Thank you very much, Ma'am."

Admiral Reed sat back down on her chair as she had stood up to present the map. She leaned back on her chair for a moment "I noticed you inspecting my beverages. Do you want to take a glassful?" Allen blushed just a little bit from embarrassment, but Sanders cut in "No can do."

She chuckled a little and said, "I meant just one glass." but Sanders still denied the offer with a shake of his head "Well shouldn't bother just for the taste then."

XXX

Ned Brown was laying lazily on one of the couches that were in the command building's lobby. The said lobby was nicely decorated with many large windows and many seats in forms of couches, benches, and stools. The lobby was good sized as it currently held about 20 men inside. The command building, they were now occupying was two-storied and had one set of stairs which Sanders and Allen had used at the end of the room.

Taylor was sitting next to Brown and looking around the lobby. His eyes wandered to one Ship-Girl that was keeping an eye on them. She had short gray hair and was glaring at the men inside the lobby. Her glare turned to Taylor after she noticed him staring. Taylor quickly averted his glance from the girl, and he leaned closer to Brown:

-"You think that one chick in uniform passed us awhile ago was this base's commanding officer?" Taylor intrigued from Brown with a voice barely louder than a whisper while trying not to look at the glaring Ship-Girl.

Brown put his hands behind his neck and stared at the ceiling slouched on the couch. "Yeah, probably. From what I could tell she had admiral's uniform and the commander here is supposed to be a rear-admiral." Brown glanced to his left and saw the girl staring at them. He turned to look at Taylor "What did you do to that girl? She looks like she wants to rip your arms off and beat you to death with them."

-"Dude, I have no idea! I just glanced at her and now she's freaking me out. I have never met her, I don't even know her name, man!" whispered Taylor quickly to Brown as he pulled his hat lower onto his face.

Brown thought for a moment "I think she's the same one that Allen mentioned. He told me that one gray-haired girl had turned him back when he had tried to go see the rear-admiral." Brown sat up properly and turned to look at the girl. She was still glaring at them, they locked eyes, but this time Brown didn't turn to look away. They were having the most intense staring competition in the history of mankind before he saw out of the corner of his eye movement in the stairs. It was that woman in her uniform and following behind her were Allen and Sanders.

As they descended the stairs everybody inside the lobby turned to look at them. The men lazily got up and saluted which seemed to amuse Reed who saluted back to them "At ease. I wanted to lay out some rules that you need to follow on this base." She motioned to them to go outside.

Outside Allen tried to herd the men into formation but gave up when they did it so poorly. The gap between each man in the 'formation' was different every time but the admiral didn't let it bother her. She walked near one of the oil barrels that was sitting next to the entrance:

"As you probably can tell this is an oil barrel. It's filled to the brim and weighs around 300 pound or 136 kilos." Some men murmured amongst themselves and some nodded. Susan Reed turned to the gray-haired Ship-Girl That had followed closely behind her out of the lobby. "And now my secretary Washington will demonstrate the strength of a Ship-Girl, so you know how powerful they are."

Washington walked to the oil barrel and kicked it to its side. The barrel made a loud thump when it fell over, so everybody knew it wasn't empty. She took hold of each end of the barrel and casually raised it over her head, threw it into the air and caught it with one hand. The men fell quiet when she did that.

-"As you can see Ship-Girls are many times stronger than humans so you can probably guess what would happen to you if you tried to do something to them that they don't want. Even the smallest of destroyers are many times stronger than you." Reed walked in front of the men as she spoke. Washington was grinning victoriously at the men's reactions as well as she could.

After that little show Sanders walked up to the men "Right… It's probably better to go set up tents now than later." Giving orders now that he wasn't cranky bothered Sanders and it made him feel uneasy, well it was more of a suggestion than an order.

Brown had tried to strike up a conversation with Washington with some kind of results. He was just now lifting the oil barrel with poor success. He managed to lift it off the ground and on to his lap but walking with it would be near impossible. Sanders called out to Brown:

"Brown, Let's start to get moving then!" Brown dropped the barrel and took deep breaths. "Ya, I'm coming alright!" just before leaving he said to Washington "You girls really are something else. Well see you around!" Washington hummed and nodded as a response.

That left just Allen, Reed and Washington together. After Sanders was out of earshot Reed turned to Allen "Is it just me or does he seem unsuitable to be a commanding officer?" Allen looked at the ground for a bit before turning to Reed that was looking at Sanders "Yeah, but he does his job well so no one can really do anything about it… His men would probably follow him to Hell and back if he just asked them to."

Susan Reed pondered about what she had heard for a moment "So you're saying he doesn't lead with his rank but with the personal respect that he has?" Allen hummed "Well… that's just how I see it. He gets some shit for it from the High Command though."

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Next morning around 6 o'clock Sanders was sitting outside of one of their tents on a stump rolling cigarettes because he had run out of factory rolled ones. His green Jacket open and the undershirt showing. The morning was pretty cool one. The sounds of wind rasping leaves and a campfire crackling next to him filled his dazed head. Sergeant Wood sitting on the other side of the campfire on a log that they had dragged there yesterday. They had found a pretty nice place for their camp. From the base you couldn't see clearly to the camp because of trees and some bushes. The other tents had been set up out of hearing range from them by the men, Sanders had told them to space the tents 'a bit' but the men had taken it a bit too far and the closest tent to them was behind some dense forest around 100 meters away.

Wood cleared his throat behind the campfire as he poked the burning logs with a stick "Should I… uh… wake the men and start to shoo them towards the mess hall for breakfast?" Wood asked quietly. He wasn't the most social person around just like Sanders wasn't either, but they got along well.

Sanders finished rolling the cigarette in his hands, he placed it in his cigarette case and tucked the case inside his pocket before turning to Wood "Might as well." They had agreed to go and eat one platoon at a time to avoid overcrowding.

Wood snapped the stick in half and threw it into the fire and walked up to the tent. He stuffed his head in through the tent's entrance and said "1st! Get ready!" The men inside snarled and pulled the sleeping bags to their ears. Someone yelled "Go to hell you damn Yankee!"

Sanders appeared to Wood's assistance and he said, "Better to start going if you don't want to miss breakfast." And pulled his head out of the tent as soon as he had given his recommendation to the men. They grunted a bit, but they got up, complaining about the shortness of the rest that they had got.

-"well, aren't you some great soldiers!" Brown mocked. He had never had problems with sleeping, he would fall asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and was never tired after waking up.

The 1st started to make their way to the mess hall where they would stuff themselves with everything that was offered to them. Sanders was in the front of the group leading them to the hall. He let them enter as he stayed outside to smoke. Brown was just about to enter as the last man besides Sanders but turned to look to his left when he saw someone familiar. It was Helena that was a short distance away.

Helena snapped a salute and said "Sir!" Brown stared at her and then closed the distance to stand right in front of her. Helena was still saluting and waiting for Brown to salute back to her. Brown stared at her with a forced anger and it started to make Helena uncomfortable standing there. Then Brown reached out, straightened the angle she had accidentally made with her wrist. Brown clicked his boots together and saluted back to the girl. Sanders was watching this interaction between Brown and Helena with his eyebrows raised as he saw that salute from Brown. He wasn't sure but that might have been the only time he had seen Brown doing a decent salute.

Brown and Helena laughed as they walked in the mess hall together. It seems Brown had already made some acquaintances with the Ship-Girls. Sanders zoned out while staring in the distance towards the docks. Some girls moving past him, but he was too spaced out to notice more than that something had moved past him. Until something moved to block his view and didn't move away.

-"Oh, good sir, what are you looking at?" slowly but surely started Sanders realize what he had been staring at. A woman's bust. He turned his face upwards to see her face and was met with smug smile of a girl with green hair and red eyes. The woman was standing really close, so close that she was practically inside his open jacket. Sanders tried to back away to gain some personal space but forgot that he been leaning against a wall before zoning out so backing away didn't work out too well. Sanders noted that the woman was tall, like really tall. Even without her high heels she would probably have been a bit taller than Sanders and Sanders was average height.

-"Uhh… Sorry…" Sanders stammered out and turned his face away from the uncomfortably closely standing woman. Their thighs and hips slightly touching.

-"An apology won't be enough. How you gonna repay me?" The woman placed her hand over his shoulder against the wall behind Sanders' back. Sanders glanced at the woman before trying to find something to say or someone to help him out of the situation and let out a vague sound of uncertainty.

The woman noticed this and was having none of it. She grabbed Sanders' chin and turned his face to her. Not letting go of his chin she said, "I said: How are you gonna repay me?" Her nose almost touching Sander's. Like an answer from God they heard a voice call out from their left:

"Littorio, let the poor lieutenant go!" They turned their head to look at the caller. The woman, Littorio still holding on to Sanders' chin but not forcefully. The one who came for Sanders' aid was rear-admiral Susan Reed.

Before letting Sanders out of her grasp, Littorio turned Sanders' head back to face her and said "A lieutenant, huh?... Well you have more than enough buttons on your collar to get women then. But still not enough to beat me." Her hand came off the wall and onto his chest, slowly making its way to his stomach. Suddenly she let go of Sanders and stepped away from him. Her cape waving in the light breeze. Sanders let out a breath he had been holding for God knows how long.

Littorio bit her lower lip and winked to Sanders before saying "Well... see you around… lieutenant…" and with a wave of her hand she vanished into the mess hall.

Sanders sighed out of relief, quickly buttoned his jacket up and walked up to the rear-admiral that had saved him. Reed chuckled a bit "You know, I was worried about you men trying to do something to the girls and not the other way around. I assumed you could take care of yourselves."

Sanders straightened his jacket before saying "Yeah, so did I before that, ma'am." He honestly had only worried about what the men would try to do to the Ship-Girls, but it seems that concern was pointless, it was what the Ship-Girls would do to them that concerned him now.

Rear-Admiral Reed motioned with her hand for Sanders to walk with her. "Come. Walk with me." Who was Sanders to say no to that? She not only was a rear-admiral, but she also had just saved his skin from whatever Littorio was about to do to him. Reed holding her hands behind her back and Sanders his own in his pockets as they walked around the base.

-"Some girls have always been a bit… Straightforward, especially Littorio. She in particular is an interesting character." She started slowly.

-"'some girls'?" Reed nodded and they heard some yelling to their right. They turned to look at the source of the noise. Some young girls were running towards them. The girls almost crashed into them but in the last moment they stopped in front of Reed. They all collided with each other and the girl in front was pushed out of balance. Luckily Reed caught the girl and steadied her on her feet. The girl squeaked thanks and they were running off again.

-"Like I said, yes there are other ones. They have made it into a competition who gets the most attention from the commander… from me…" Reed took her hat and ran her fingers through her hair before placing the hat back on. Sanders was looking at her but turned his head away.

He thought for a moment "So there's a power struggle of attention going on amongst some of them?"

Reed chucked "I wouldn't call it too serious of a competition, but of course those competitive one's made it somewhat serious." She sighed and decided to change the subject of speech "Anyway, enough of them. How about you and your men? Have you adapted to your new habitation?"

Sanders turned to look at Reed "It's too early to say anything about it, but living in tents is not something new to us." Reed hummed in acknowledgement, glanced at her watch and grunted "Ah time's flying. I need to head back to my office before Washington gets huffy. See you later Lieutenant."

Sanders saluted "Ma'am."

XXX

Sanders was just about to enter the mess hall when he felt a finger on his chest pushing him back from the entrance. He caught a glimpse of her green hair and red piercing eyes as the person in question walked past him and turned to him. Sanders immediately knew it was her again. "Careful, you wouldn't want to bump into girl here, someone might get the wrong idea of your intentions." She said as she let out a laugh.

Sanders frowned, he just wanted something to eat. Littorio wasn't about to let him go yet "Hmm… We need to do something about that… Let's put a smile on that cute face of yours. Hahahaha!"

-"I know what would put a smile on my face. Let me go eat." Answered Sanders a bit harshly but it didn't seem to trouble Littorio as she grinned. "Oh? You should have just said so, Lieutenant, and the mighty Littorio would have let you go in sooner." She turned around, waved byes and started walking away with exaggerated sway in her hips.

Sanders watched Littorio as she went. He was still a bit stunned about what had happened in the last three quarters an hour. When Littorio disappeared behind a corner he turned his attention back to his jacket. He opened it and started to search for his cigarette case… that was not in the pocket he remembered placing it in. In fact it wasn't in any of the pockets he had. He quickly tapped all the pocket to find the case missing completely. It hit him instantly:

Littorio must have taken the case when she had slid her hand across his chest.

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A/N: I feel like this chapter was a lot better than the previous ones. I tried to bring out more detail but that meant not a whole lot happened in this one. Some new girls were introduced here and they probably will stick around. This was a lot more fun to write than the others were. I might go back and make some changes to the previous chapters but if you have read this far no need to re-read them as I won't change anything crucial to the story.

Anyway, feel free to drop a review! Everything commented will be appreciated and taken into consideration when writing new chapters.

See ya hopefully next time! Some Dood out!