Chapter 5

A week or so had passed since the two companies had been deployed on base Azure. Littorio had been avoiding Sanders so he could not get his cigarette case back. Every time Sanders had seen her, she managed to slip away with a grin that told Sanders she was clearly the guilty one. The men had adapted well to their new environment. They got along with the girls just fine and Hubbard hadn't got his face beaten in by the girls yet.

Allen and Sanders had decided that scouting around the base would be a good idea to get to know their surroundings. They had sent two men patrols to look around the forest and mark everything interesting on a map. They had scouted the surrounding area for three hours now and Allen was about to order the end of scouting when he heard a gunshot to his right. "BANG" Silence for a moment and then again "BANG"

Allen unholstered his pistol and started running towards where the gunshots had came from. He stumbled over some rootstock and almost tripped over a branch. He raised his hands to shield his face when he ran through a bush. The bushes branches scratched him but after he got through it he ended in front of two men. Brown and Cooper were assigned as battle buddies.

It took Allen a moment to catch his breath. He had run a hefty distance to those two.

-"What happened?! Who shot?"

Allen stared at Brown and Tony Cooper. Cooper was a taller than average, lean man. He had blue eyes and blond messy and dirty hair. He was a rugged one, not the most friendly face around. His blue eyes locked to Allen and observed him. Brown looked calm and collected but Cooper looked even a bit angry after seeing Allen. Well, Cooper had never liked Allen. Cooper's rifle still smoking a little, so it was clearly him that had shot.

-"It was me. There was a civilian and I scared them away." Cooper spoke a bit tensely and a glimpse of irritation in his voice.

-"You shot to scare a civ away?" Allen questioned.

-"Yes." Brown answered fairly.

Just then Sanders burst through a bush with his pistol in hand, glanced around but when he saw those three, he holstered his pistol, sighed, and started to walk towards them. Sanders gave Allen a questioning look.

Allen said "Cooper shot to scare off a fuckin' civ." Sanders stared Allen a bit like he was processing the information and hummed.

"I thought we had made it clear only to shoot it your life is in danger during the scouting." Allen spoke sharply and directed his irritation to Cooper, and he shot back just as irritated as Allen had sounded

-"You did. No need to cry over some fucking bullets. It was easier and faster this way."

-"'Easier and faster'… This… this time you will not walk away scot-free. After we return you two will clean the bathhouse and take three additional patrol shifts. Sergeant Wood will keep an eye on it. Got it?" Allen said and turned to look at Sanders.

Sanders scanned the area around them and without protests said "Right."

Allen turned around and marched away.

After Allen had left the scene Cooper turned to Sanders and blurted "I will not be cleaning that god damn bathhouse." Behind Cooper Brown just smiled wryly.

-"The matter doesn't really belong to me but it's better that you clean it. It's the easier and faster way." Cooper looked like Sanders had stabbed him with a knife but then his face turned back to his normal passive-aggressive look.

Sanders turned to look at the way Allen had left

-"What did you really shoot at?"

Cooper glanced at Brown "A deer."

Sanders nodded "Hmh… Where is it?".

Brown pointed to their right and started to guide Sanders to the deer. They arrived at a tarp that had been laid on the ground to cover the deer. Sanders pulled the tarp off the carcass and knelt next to it. There was a bloody hole in the deer's chest where the bullet had entered the animal. Another bloody hole on its neck where they had shot it to finish it off.

"You better drain the blood now and quickly head for the bathhouse before Allen gets suspicious..." With that advice Sanders stood up and left.

XXX

To everyone's surprise Cooper and Brown showed up to clean the bathhouse. Even Allen was surprised even though he was the one to punish those two. The bathhouse cleaning was a minor punishment in the end because there was not much to clean but, they still managed to spend a good part of the day mopping the floors there.

Brown had delegated the carcass retrieval to Taylor who then had dragged the carcass to their tent while those two were 'playing janitors' according to him. It was a bit tricky trying to avoid everyone with the deer in tow, but he had managed it in the end. Taylor swanked to the others about his genius idea to bribe the gatekeepers with cigarettes.

Taylor was about to start skinning the deer a short distance away from their tent. Taylor enthusiastically listening to Sanders who was giving him advice while sitting on a log that he had brought with him as a seat.

-"Open it from here… to here." Sanders dragged his hand across the deer's belly

"Be careful and do not slice the guts… it will smell if you do."

-"Okay."

It came apparent that Taylor was a skilled knife user despite him being the youngest of the group. After Sanders noticed that Taylor would be just fine on his own, he got up and with nothing better to do he headed to wander around the base.

Walking past the tents he saw and heard Hubbard getting ready to leave to the town. Leaving the base had been forbitten.

-"Where are you going now?" Someone asked from Hubbard

-"To town! I saw some pretty ladies when we walked through it and I'll go see if they will share their… assets with me." Hubbard's answer got shameless laughs and some mocking comments. Hubbard saw Sanders walking past them and asked:

"Yo, boss! What do you say about it?"

-"It doesn't bother me if you don't get caught. Just make sure you'll be here to patrol tomorrow morning."

-"Oh I'll be here if they let me go after I show them how good I can be!"

XXX

It was already getting late. Sanders passed Royal Navy dorms and neared the Sakura Empires' ones. Somebody sped up to walk next to him "Uh… Have… have you seen Brown? I was looking for him, but he is nowhere to be found." It was Helena.

For a moment Sanders stayed quiet trying to word the sentence but came up with nothing and blurted "Uh… He… he is cleaning the bathhouse."

-"What? Why? What did he do?" Helena's eyes were wide with surprise.

-"They got in trouble while scouting."

-"Oh… Well, I'll go have a look!" And she quickly parted and started running towards the way the bathhouse was located.

-"Wait! Have you seen Littorio?" Sanders yelled but Helena did not hear or just chose not to answer it.

Sanders sighed. At least Helena and Brown had gotten along very well but that wasn't on Sanders' mind, no. His cigarette case was on his mind and it was gnawing him. Hubbard had sold him some of his cigarettes, but he really wanted the case back. Approaching the Eagle Unions' dorms, he saw that some chairs, benches, and tables have been dragged outside and girls were sitting there. They had arranged small groups of six or seven girls and were chatting happily. He was about to alter his course so he wouldn't walk too close, not that he was shy, but he didn't want to bother the girls when suddenly someone shouted:

-"Hey, Sanders! Come sit with us!"

It was Atlanta of course. She was one of the few Ship-Girls he had talked to this entire time. Honestly, he was a bit bothered by the request, but it would be too awkward to walk away now. He walked up to them and Atlanta patted a seat on a bench in between her and Phoenix. Sanders took his side cap off his head and sat down:

-"Afternoon…"

First one to open her mouth besides Atlanta was a girl with white hair and blue eyes, she had a white dress with blueish jacket "Good afternoon, sir." She was holding a cup of presumably coffee.

Sanders noted that the pleasant conversations that the girls were having had stopped as soon as he arrived so he felt like it was his obligation to at least try to start a conversation:

-"I believe we have not met before…" He started a bit uneasy which was noted by the white-haired girl he spoke to.

-"Yorktown-class aircraft carrier, Yorktown. Hull number CV-5" She smiled warmly at him and took another sip of her coffee.

Sanders stared for a moment like he often did before saying

-"Uh… Sanders Arthur… Lieutenant Arthur Sanders."

Atlanta burst out laughing and Yorktown chuckled too at his goofy self-introduction. They chatted casually for a bit and Sanders tried to keep the conversation going as good as he could.

-"So, Lieutenant. What do you think about the base?" Yorktown asked with her warm smile that had not faded.

Sanders thought for a moment "It's a base alright. A decently equipped one too but I still can't understand the bathhouse."

-"Don't you think we ladies need some pampering every now and then?"

-"Yeah sure, but ain't it a bit too… fancy?"

-"Maybe… but it boosts morale around here when every girl knows that after a battle there will be a hot bath waiting for them."

-"You having problems with morale?"

-"No, but you do not need low morale to boost it, now do you?" Yorktown answered.

-"Fair enough."

Sanders was given a beer that he took a bit reluctantly while muttering 'thanks' because he had planned on continuing his search for his beloved cigarette case but it seems like he needed to push it for later. He sipped it and almost spit the liquid out of his mouth but managed to keep his face straight. The beer was really strong, probably meant for Ship-girls only.

Atlanta was about to say something, but someone walked towards them and yelled "Yo, Sis! I moved those boxes so they should not bother you anymore."

The yeller was wearing basically a swimsuit, a coat, and a cowboy hat.

-"Ah thank you Hornet, come sit with us." Yorktown said calmly at her sister.

-"Sure!" Hornet said as she walked up to them. She noticed Sanders sitting on the bench in between Atlanta and Phoenix. Her eyes half closed and her hands on her hip she asked "Hunh?... Who is this?"

Atlanta introduced Sanders to her "This is Lieutenant Sanders!"

-"Ah! So, you are the one Atlanta has kept blabbering on about!" Hornet claimed smirking. Sanders glanced at Atlanta and she had turned beet red after Hornet had said that. She continued "And that means you are the one that angered Colonel Ross!"

Sanders blinked a couple of times. The Ship-Girls knew the colonel? "You know Ross?"

-"Yeah, he and some other officers celebrates something with Reed every now and then."

-"He does?" Sanders asked surprised.

The girls explained what they knew about the colonel and about their encounters. After a while, the conversation shifted towards different topics and they talked for a long time. Some girls lit a campfire when it got dark and roasted marshmallows on it. Sanders got to know Yorktown and Hornet. Even the famous carriers Enterprise and Essex paid a visit to them, but they were assigned to a cargo defense patrol, so they had to leave soon.

Girls from other factions joined the Eagle Union girls to spend the night together. Some of them joined the group in which Sanders was in and they talked together even though Sanders was for the most part only watching the conversations from sidelines. As the night grew darker and the only light source nearby was the campfire someone busted out a guitar and started to play and sing. Girls all around joined in the singing and now they had a choir with many drunken individuals singing off-key. Some started to drum with the empty and sometimes full beer bottles.

Sanders just hummed with the singing because he did not know the lyrics of any of the songs the girls were singing and playing. A drunken dance broke out and Sanders was dragged into it without his consent of course. 'The dance' was more like a crowd that moved and jiggled around without any sense of rhythm. After a while everyone got tired of dancing they returned to their groups, drank some more and the conversations started up again.

The girls tried to fish information about Sanders' personal life to which he replied vaguely along the lines of: "I've done this and that" and "Somewhere there". They were getting blackout drunk. Atlanta, Cleveland, and Helena were wobbling allover and giggling like madwomen. They were dancing around their group and singing a song with the wrong lyrics. Atlanta had taken Sander' side cap and it was now on her head as she was jumping around. She tripped and fell face first on to the grass and there, she laid without being able to get back up again.

"E-everything is spinning." She groaned as she tried to steady herself by grabbing a handful of the grass in her fists.

Sanders was sitting next to drunken Phoenix and having a conversation which didn't go as well as it could have. She didn't get any sentence fully out of her mouth without giggling uncontrollably and after she was done giggling, she had forgot what she was saying. Yorktown was sitting opposite of Sanders; her face colored a little red from the beer.

At Yorktown's command started Cleveland and Helena haul Atlanta back to her room as she was mumbling something about beer and the duty of a big sister. Phoenix passed out with her hands around Sanders' waist and didn't let go of it when he tried gently to shake her off, so he was kind of trapped there.

Sanders felt like it was time to leave and he could walk back to his company's tent on his own. As he was about to try to peel Phoenix off again, someone sat down on his lap. It was St. Louis. Her face was red, and she was so drunk that she was having trouble sitting up straight. Sanders was about to say something when Louis raised a glass on his lips and forced him to drink whatever it was in that glass. The liquid burned Sanders' throat as it made its way down. He coughed a bit, looked up and saw that St. Louis was holding a bottle of whiskey in her other hand.

-"Di… Did you like it?" She giggled while leaning against Sanders and kicked with her legs off to the side.

-"Uh… not bad." Sanders answered. He was really uncomfortable.

-"I-If you wan-t something else to drink… you should come with m-" She stuttered but didn't get to complete her sentence when Yorktown grabbed her into a bridal carry. Louis squeaked in surprise when she was lifted off of Sanders.

-"I'm sorry but you have had enough to drink this night, Louis. Come on let's get you to sleep."

Yorktown told to St. Louis and started to carry her inside. Sanders heard Louis giggle:

-"You aren't what I was after, but I wouldn't say no to you, Yorktown." and heard Yorktown sighing loudly.

Someone threw up and others scolded the vomiter. Cleveland and Helena returned, and they managed to release Sanders from Phoenixes grasp. The girls said goodnights to Sanders with drunken giggles and they left to go to sleep with unconscious Phoenix.

Only a handful of them remained there and they were all slowly making their ways to their rooms. Hornet was still wobbling around with a bottle of whiskey in hand and singing drunken songs.

-"Re… Retic… Reticen…t …t …t Art-thur!" Horned blabbered when she closed in on Sanders and it looked like she was about to fall over on top of him. 'Reticent Arthur' was a nickname they came up with for Sanders' quiet nature. Before she could fall over Sanders someone appeared and grabbed a hold of Hornet's arm and steadied her. It was a girl with blond hair and blue eyes. Tennessee… Sanders had heard Hornet talk about her before and told that she was an exceptional fighter and a pretty grumpy one as well. Tennessee wasn't drunk or she hid it very well.

-"Alright Hornet. It is time for you to go to sleep."

She glanced at Sanders and said coldly "You should consider the same thing." Sanders just gave her a weak smile.

As he stood up, he heard Tennessee quietly say to someone "You should make sure he gets back to his tent. I'm guessing walking will be pretty damn hard for him now." But Sanders didn't turn to look back because when he had stood up the alcohol hit him like a truck. It had been fine when he was sitting down but now, he realized that the beer had clearly affected him as well. He started to stumble towards what he presumed was the way to the tents. Before he made it too far someone grabbed his shoulders from behind:

-"Where do you think you are going, mister?" with a voice so commanding he felt like he was back in basic training and stiffened up.

Sanders turned around to look "Back to my tent."

-"Well, I can tell you that they are not that way. Come on, I'll walk you there." She spun him around and started to walk him the right way towards the 1st company's tents. Sanders glanced at the girl who had grabbed his right arm with both of her hands. She had a blue uniform that had been opened way too much and her midriff showing.

-"What's your name?" Sanders asked and glanced a look towards her cleavage. She clearly saw that even though Sanders tried to be as subtle as possible.

-"It's Pennsylvania and stop looking at me with your hungry eyes."

Sanders turned to look away to hide his embarrassment. They were in front of the Royal Navy's dorms when Sanders spoke up:

-"You don't need to hold me up. I'm not some old man that might fall over by the faintest of winds."

Pennsylvania clearly hesitated but she let go of Sanders but let go of him. After Sanders was free, he managed to take maybe five steps before he crashed to the ground and passed out. Pennsylvania tried to grab a hold of him, but it was too late, and Sanders hit the gravel path with so much force that he would know it still the day after tomorrow.

"God. Fucking. Damn it…"

XXX

Sanders woke up and felt that he was lying on something soft. It was nice, first time in ages he had some cushion under him while he slept. Wait… cushion? Sanders opened his eyes and stared up. He saw dark brown planking in front of him. For a moment, his brain wrapped around the idea that he wasn't in his tent and this was an unfamiliar sight, it even played with the thought that everything that had happened was a dream and he was back at home but there was something wrong with that thought and he deemed impossible. When his brain, after a moment that took way too long, came to terms with the fact he was in unfamiliar place and he had not been dreaming nor was this a dream, he shot up from the cushion.

THUD

Sanders yelped in pain "Fuck!" and realized he had hit his head on the planking he had thought was further away but found out: it was not. Sanders sat up cautiously and hold his forehead that he had hit with the planking. He rested his elbows on his knees and held his head with his right hand. Soon he realized he had been sleeping on the lower part of a bunk bed. While he held his forehead in his hand trying to shield it from the pain that had arisen just now and from the headache that came from his hangover, a door opened, and someone walked in:

-"Ah, you're awake. I tried to make as little noise as possible, but I guess it doesn't matter anymore." It was a girl Pennsylvania, or so Sanders thought at first after looking at her. She indeed looked much like Pennsylvania, but she was different. Whereas Pennsylvania was cold and spoke with command in her voice, this girl seemed the opposite. A genuine smile on her face and her blue eyes looking back at Sanders.

Sanders looked her up and down for a moment "Uh." He let out while trying to find something to say but he failed miserably to find words.

The girl noted that he was a bit confused "We have not met before." She stated, "I am Pennsylvania-class Battleship – Arizona."

Sanders introduced himself to Arizona "Lieutenant A. Sanders."

-"I know who you are. Pennsylvania told me that she had to drag you here after you had passed out."

Sanders cringed a little and asked "So, where am I and what time is it?"

Arizona put down a tray that she had been carrying on top of a nightstand that was next to the bed "You are in the Eagle Union dorms, room 41… And it is…" She glanced to look at an alarm-clock "2pm."

'It's already so late?' he thought. Arizona took a glass off the tray and hold it out for Sanders "Here, you should drink some water." Sanders took the glass and growled something resembling a friendly thanks to her and gulped the water down. Arizona took a seated herself in a chair in front of a desk, crossed her legs and turned to Sanders:

"You had a quite the party with the girls last night. When I got back here a few hours ago I found Bremerton passed out inside a bush nearby."

-"… Yeah, I noticed that some of the girls had a bit too much to drink."

Arizona giggled "And so did you. Penny told me that as soon as she let go of you you fell to the ground face first."

Sanders sighed and closed his eyes "Might have happened. I don't remember." And Arizona just smiled at him.

They turned to look towards the door when they heard someone let out a chain of swear-words:

"Bitch-ass fucking!… fuck-motherfucker!…" those words came in such a low voice that they were clearly intended for the sayer's ears only. In walked Pennsylvania, her hair a bit messy, bags under her eyes. She had not slept it seemed. She scanned the room and her eyes landed on Sanders:

-"Finally you are awake!" She said with annoyance in tone and walked up to Sanders and said "Move."

Sanders didn't protest and stood up from the bed. As soon as he did that Pennsylvania threw herself on the bed face first and immediately fell asleep. Sanders watched her with his eyes wide open and turned to look at Arizona questioningly.

-"Ah-haha" Arizona laughed awkwardly "She can get really grumpy if she hasn't slept… We should let her sleep in peace…"

They quietly left the room into a corridor and started to walk towards the end. Sanders asked why Penny had not taken him back to the tents, but Arizona told that she didn't know why. They were just passing the last doors before the corridor ended but the door right in front of them opened almost hitting Arizona.

"AAIIIEEE!" Arizona shrieked in surprise but quickly covered her mouth.

The door in front of them closed and Yorktown's worried face came in sight.

"A-Are you okay?! I'm so sorry!" Yorktown spoke quickly and made sure that Arizona was alright. Arizona hid her face behind the tray she had with her:

"No-no, I'm okay! I was just taken by surprise."

-"That's good!" Yorktown sighed in relief and turned to Sanders "Rear-Admiral Reed was looking for you this morning but didn't want to wake you up. She told me that you need to be in her office at 14:15."

-"Uh-oh."

XXX

Allen was standing behind the Rear-Admirals office. He had been told to report there and so there he was. He was constantly glancing down at his wristwatch and straightening his collar. Why did Reed want to see him? Probably something about the behavior of his or Sanders' men. An unpleasant thought appeared in his mind about a new mission, but he pushed it away thinking there surely were other departments that were in better positions to take on new missions.

He once again glanced at his watch. Now was the time. He took a deep breath and grabbed the door handle. He was about to turn it when he heard rapid footsteps to his right and turned to look. It was Sanders walking fast towards him.

-"What's up? You here to see the rear-admiral too?" Allen asked and Sanders murmured something in response. For a second Allen thought he had seen something odd about Sanders but before he could identify it, it vanished. He stared at Sanders for a second longer but nothing out of the ordinary came up and so he opened the door.

Once again, they were greeted with the homely office. This time Reed was sitting behind her desk and Washington was standing next to her. Rear-Admiral Reed was not smiling and seemed serious, so they approached her with the same seriousness. They saluted, she returned the gesture and offered them to take seats.

After they sat down the admiral cleared her throat:

-"Do you know how the war is going?" Those were the words Allen had feared because whatever it was it wouldn't be good news.

Both Sanders and Allen shook their heads and Allen said "No, ma'am. We don't even have a radio, so we are pretty much in dark when talking about the war" Reed let out a noise of acknowledgement.

-"Well, I'm not going to sugarcoat the news. It's not going well… Yesterday the Sirens launched a massive assault across the world. Many capitals have been under attack. Most notables are London, Paris, Washington, Tokyo and Moscow." Washington, the secretary, shifted uncomfortably when Reed mentioned Washington D.C.

Allen stared at her with her mouth open for a moment before he quickly closed his mouth and asked:

"Ahem… How… How did they manage to attack Moscow?"

-"I've been told that that is a mystery to us all. We have no idea how they managed to sneak in the city without anyone knowing about it. But that's not all the bad news. They managed to land in California and have set up a base there."

If those previous news weren't bad, this was. All of that in one day?

Sanders who had been quiet for the whole time now decided to speak up "How?"

Reed then proceeded to explain all the excuses she had heard from the high command like: "The attacks on capitals were just distractions" and how "It came out of the blue" , but Allen didn't even listen. He still tried to process the fact that the sirens managed to deal such a massive blow. Before this they hadn't tried to attack the capitals.

After Reed had explained the excuses to them, mainly to Sanders, they sat in silence for a bit. "I decided that I should inform you as soon as possible because there are already talks about counterattacks and we will surely be part of them."

XXX

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A/N: Heyyyy remember me? If not: Greetings to you.

I could make up some excuses about why I haven't updated this story because of I've been busy, but I'll pass. Remember how I talked about how I didn't know how long my interest would carry on? Yeah… that… I lost Interest in writing this and been putting it off time and time again. The reason why I lost interest is because I picked up book reading again and that has taken my interest. Also, I had a lot of troubles with what to do with the story next but if I continue, I now know the course.

TIL: I have spelled 'Moscow' wrong in English my entire life.

Reviews are of course appreciated!

See ya hopefully next time! Some Dood out!