After traveling for a few minutes, Manfred von Richthofen soon met up with the fleet she was supposed to go on a sortie with. Besides Richthofen herself, the fleet was composed of Cleveland, Pompeo Magno, Roon, Elbe, and, to everyone's surprise, Hood.
"Hood, we…weren't expecting you." Manfred von Richthofen said.
"Yeah, we thought you were bedridden." Cleveland said.
"For the moment, I am feeling quite healthy. Vestal could see that as well, so she allowed me to leave her custody for the time being. I hoped to 'get out' by embarking on this sortie with all of you-"
Hood was interrupted by a sudden interjection from Pompeo Magno.
"Hold on, we're receiving a transmission from HQ!"
The earpieces inside the ears of the group of shipgirls began producing a voice that belonged to none other than the Commander himself.
"We just detected an energy spike at a siren facility near your location, since your fleet is the closest, we need you to investigate said energy spike to find out if it could lead to something dangerous and put a stop to it if so. Oh, and Richthofen, please be careful."
After hearing the last sentence of the transmission, the other shipgirls in the fleet turned their heads towards Manfred von Richthofen. For several moments, there was nothing but silence. After those moments, Cleveland smiled and put her arm around Richthofen.
"Are you two in love…?" Cleveland said, her smile developing into a smirk.
The other shipgirls, with the exception of Hood, were curious as well, so they joined in with Cleveland and began crowding around Manfred von Richthofen. However, Hood had the decency to not join in.
"Have you two gone on a date yet?"
"How long have you been in love?"
"Have you two ever done-"
The constant nagging from the shipgirls rapidly began overwhelming Richthofen. After a few moments of this, she decided she finally had enough.
"WOULD YOU ALL PLEASE SHUT UP?!"
This was sufficient enough to get the group to step away, as they had never had Richthofen yell at them before. She soon realized what she said and proceeded to apologize.
"Sorry, I just haven't been having a good day today."
The other shipgirls hung their heads in shame after realizing what they had done. However, Richthofen brought them back to reality.
"Well, are we going to go or not?"
The girls nodded and followed Richthofen as she began sailing out towards where the energy surge occurred.
When the girls got to the coordinates of where the energy surge originated, they found something none of them expected to find: nothing.
"Did we get the wrong coordinates? Because I'm not seeing anything." Pompeo Magno said.
"Yeah, me neither." Elbe said.
"Hmm, this is most interesting, Pompeo Magno, see if you are able to send a message to-" Hood was abruptly interrupted by a loud rumbling coming from under the water. A large, black, metal circle of sorts appeared underneath the shipgirls before the tremors stopped. Suddenly, the water below the girls began flowing towards a growing spot in the center of the black circle. The group stepped out of the circle before what was revealed to be a large door below them finally opened.
"Well, I guess this is it…" Richthofen said.
She hopped down into the entrance of the facility, and the other girls soon followed suit.
They ended up in a dimly lit room that branched off into four separate hallways.
"So, it looks like this is the part where we split up." Richthofen said
Everyone else nodded.
"I'll be with Hood, Pompeo Magno, you go with Elbe, and Roon will be with Cleveland."
The girls got in their groups and went off in different directions. As Richthofen and Hood were walking, the battlecruiser decided to ask about what happened earlier.
"Did something happen before you left to join the fleet?"
Not slowing down, Richthofen responded.
"Yes, something did."
She took a short pause before continuing.
"I wish the Commander would have just told me."
"Told you what?"
"That he already had a girlfriend."
"Why does this bother you?"
Richthofen knew the answer, but at the same time, she didn't.
"If the Commander didn't tell you, then who did?"
By no means did Richthofen want anyone to know that a Siren left her dorm alive and in one piece. Thankfully, no one had to know, as several turrets of some kind appeared out of some small doors in the ceiling. Richthofen and Hood began guarding themselves with their rigging, which effortlessly blocked the lasers. The two shipgirls were about to formulate what they were going to do next when more turrets emerged behind the girls, shooting them both in the back. They both gave out a pained yelp and fell to the ground. Richthofen's secondary batteries fired at the turrets to their backs, destroying them. As the girls were getting up, the remaining turrets fired tranquilizer darts at the girls. Hood fired her main guns at the few turrets that were still active, leveling them.
"You okay?" Richthofen said as she pulled out the dart that landed in her arm.
Hood did not respond and was instead lying on the floor, unconscious.
Her immune system must have been weakened by her disease. Richthofen thought to herself.
Suddenly, she began feeling very tired and woozy, and began finding it very hard to stand upright. She collapsed onto the ground before her vision went dark.
