Light spilled into the office as curtains were pulled apart. What was once a dark room had exiled the darkness for the beginning of the day. Maps were placed on the nearby desk with records being pulled from every conceivable source. Pens, papers, and other instruments were strewn over the maps with multiple coins marking locations. Thumbtacks comfortably laid in a small box, awaiting for their use in this giant mess.

"Admiral, what are you doing?"

"Narrowing down an area to find that Leviathan."

Gabriel had been pulling all these supplies for the past hour with Pamiat serving as his first secretary of the day followed by the other Northern girls. However, since the paperwork was unnecessary until the following week, he had Pamiat grab him all these supplies. The old cruiser was giving him a look of wonder as he seemed to run back and forth across the office. He set up multiple maps of the oceans before going over intel reports from various countries. There were sightings of a strange thing in the ocean which only prompted the man to hunt it down. It didn't help that it showed up on Christmas Eve.

"You didn't see anything odd on your way here?" the Admiral asked while marking locations on the multiple maps. He looked back at Pamiat for an answer while he clutched at some intel in one hand.

She shook her head, "I'm afraid not. It was just a long and boring journey to get over here. No Sirens or any enemy vessels to harass us along the way. Not like they could do anything."

He gave a short nod before resuming his work. "So, you're a cruiser from the first great war like Avrora? Does it feel odd to be one of the oldest among your peers?"

Pamiat smiled a little as she plucked a coin off of Gabriel's desk. She flipped it into the air multiple times before answering, "Well, I'm not alone in that department. Gangut is only younger than me by a few years. That just means I have to do less work than everyone else and that is just fine."

Gabriel chuckled a little, "Are you saying that you're going to break your back if you lift anything somewhat heavy? I can make sure you only carry office supplies if that's what you're asking for."

The light cruiser crossed her arms while scrunching her face a little, "Respect your elders young man. My ship may be old but I am not brittle. I can fight like anyone else in the Northern Parliament. Just be sure not to make me fight in the front lines, my guns are not that powerful."

"Noted. This operation is going to need some heavy firepower so I won't be risking girls like you." The Admiral went back to setting up his maps beginning to connect the dots on the intel he had received. Grabbing a red pen, he began circling areas where the sightings occurred before stepping back to observe it all.

In front of him stood a large swath of the Pacific ocean littered with red dots and circles. Sightings occurred mainly around the seas between the base and the Sakura homeland. A few sights were seen as far south as the Phillipean Islands. For a creature that was packing an arsenal, it didn't seem aggressive towards any ships nor did it harass any patrols. Still, that kind of firepower could not be left roaming about the ocean to possibly attack one of his shipgirls. The sooner it was gone, the more he could focus on other matters.

"Pamiat." Gabriel placed his fingers under his chin, "How strong is Rossiya's batteries?"

Pamiat blinked before a smug smile appeared on her face, "Are you talking about her main guns or are you talking about her other batteries?"

He rolled his eyes in response. She did not act anywhere like her age but her question did make him temporarily think on the lead ship's assets. That large coat of hers did a wonderful job hiding most of her body but her torpedo bu-...The Admiral pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. He couldn't be the only guy to think about stuff like that, right?

"Hm~ You were thinking about her weren't you?" Pamiat's little smile only widened more with sparkles dotting her eyes. She jumped onto the nearby sofa and laid herself comfortably, crossing one leg over the other. "She can come off quite cold at first but that's her dedication to our homeland. Chapayev on the other hand…"

"What about Chapayev? Does she not care about her country?" Gabriel questioned, assuming the opposite case for the light cruiser. Pamiat seemed eager to tell him about her comrades rather than talking about herself. Was she a matchmaker or something?

"Oh she does. It's only when she began reading your files, what we could get, that her eyes went somewhere else. Not like you haven't dealt with other women of a similar caliber."

Gabriel looked at Pamiat in confusion. What did she mean by women of similar caliber? Did Chapayev behave similarly to some of the other girls on the base? There were quite a few personalities on the base with even the obvious ones being unique in some regard. What kind of person was Chapayev for Pamiat to not tell him?

"I'm assuming that I will have to find that out myself. Plenty of time to do that." The Admiral spoke with more and more ideas popping up. One particular thought made him grin a little while looking at the older cruiser.

"How familiar are you with radar and sonar?"

Pamiat smiled while rising off of the couch with her hands on her hips, "Better than you think. I lack firepower but I know how to operate electronics."

A knock on the door caught both of their attention while also ending any further discussion. Pamiat went over to the door and opened it to reveal Chapayev waiting on the other side. What the Admiral couldn't see was whatever Pamiat said to the advanced light cruiser before leaving the office. Chapayev entered the room with a light smile on her face.

"Admiral," she greeted.

"Chapayev," He returned the greeting while looking at his work. Feeling confident in his results, he returned back to his desk. "I assume this is going to be a daily meeting of ours."

"Mmhm, how else will I get to know you better. Has Pamiat been treating you well?"

Gabriel gave a nod, "So far. I'm glad you girls haven't gotten yourselves into any drama on the base." He turned to a small assortment of refreshments that one of the maids brought him earlier in the day. "Would you like a drink?"

"Net, spasibo," Chapayev waved off the offer, taking a seat across from the Admiral. His eyes naturally wandered to her exposed cleavage with his cheeks flushing for a moment. He didn't want to come off as a pervert right off the bat. Still, she looked unaware of where his gaze was or was not ashamed of her assets.

"So….What do you want to know about me?" He finally asked with his posture relaxed against the comfortable chair. Gabriel had to use as much of his willpower to not break his gaze of Chapayev's beautiful eyes to look south. Even so, he could still see how her outfit fit snugly on her body and accentuated her curves.

His only relief was when she spoke, "We do know that you came from the Eagle Union but I would like to know what your life was like before this war."

The Admiral's gaze looked away and he tapped his fingers on his thigh. It took a few moments of silence before he answered, "I was just a civilian. A young man with dreams in theater until the war happened."

Chapayev's eyes seemed to brighten with this new information before she leaned forward with her elbows landing on the desk. "Theater? A man like yourself wouldn't be interested in that sort of field. I thought you would be a part of a military upbringing."

"I was," Gabriel replied with his eyes lasered on a small frame. A portrait of five human beings smiling towards the camera with four of them being male and one female. All dressed in their best uniform except for one of the men wearing a simple suit. "My father was part of the navy and my brothers joined the military before the conflict started. I was the only one to pursue something different."

"And where are they now?" Chapayev questioned

A grimace revealed itself, "Dead except for my mother. She's a tough lady for having to be there for their funerals."

A hand rested on his shoulder as the light cruiser gave him a sympathetic look. Whatever her plan was, it was working on Gabriel. His mind tried to reel in any further information but his heart broke through the wall. "I was applying for some musicals and headed eastward until I got the news. From there, I lost any interest in my dreams and I wanted to just avenge my family."

The Russian woman leaned back, "Have you avenged them?"

"Not yet...the Sirens are out there somewhere." Gabriel muttered, his body hunching over to contemplate something. "Do you know how it feels to lose family?"

"Somewhat but we do not have mothers or fathers." Chapayev answered back

"It's something I think about every once in a while. Gives me more of a reason to bring everyone together as best I can." He chuckled under his breath with lips curling upwards. "I don't want to relive those events ever again."

"So you formed a new one with these shipgirls?" Chapayev smirked with her eyebrows raised.

The Admiral couldn't deny that assumption. He just gave her a nod before shaking his head with a chuckle, "It's not perfect, especially with this whole dilemma going around, but it works."

A twinkle was seen in the light cruiser's eyes that made Gabriel a little uneasy, "Even with the marriage contracts? Hm~ You are a little devious aren't you?"

He looked away with his cheeks flushing darkly, "Yeah...don't remind me of that. I'm trying to take things slow unless I want a major mess on my hands." He rose from his seat and fixed his uniform as he turned towards the woman. "I'm afraid I have a hunt awaiting me. Thank you for the talk, Chapayev."

"The pleasure is all mine, Admiral. If you ever need someone to talk to, do not hesitate to come to me~" Chapayev replied while rising to her feet. She walked out of the office but gave Gabriel a wink before she disappeared out of view. He only stared at her backside before his eyes roamed southward and followed the sway in her step.

"Dammit!" The Admiral cursed himself.


"I never should have told him."

Pamiat grumbled to herself as she sped through the waters. Following behind her was Helena, Ibuki and San Diego who were all equipped with advanced sensors. Shortly after Pamiat had answered Gabriel's question, he had quickly gotten a fleet together filled with mostly battleships and heavy cruisers. The four light cruisers had the best part of the job, searching for the beast while everyone stayed behind.

"I don't understand why the Admiral didn't send any scouting planes ahead of us. We're basically running blind around a large ocean." Helena checked her sensors for any pings while also fiddling with her turrets. Being the best cruiser that could spot enemies for the rest of the fleet, it was natural that she was part of this operation.

"If this creature is what he said it was, planes won't be able to spot it from above. The sooner we find it and where it is heading, the faster we can have the others follow." Ibuki spoke while keeping her eyes peeled for any disturbance in the water.

True to her word, following at a much slower pace was the heavier units. Heavy cruisers, battleships and carriers followed the four scouts with all the girls settled on Hornet. The Admiral was awaiting any confirmation of Leviathan's presence while stroking his chin. Once the four light cruisers found their target, then the cavalry could come in with heavy ordnance. The only thing stopping them was that exact moment to happen.

"Yo, Harper, staring at those maps isn't going to make this go any faster," He heard Hornet's voice call to him from the entrance of the command tower.

"Relax, he's making sure we don't get lost during the chase." Baltimore's voice was also heard; no doubt keeping Hornet from being too impatient.

That was definitely what Gabriel was up to, making sure to keep track of where they were going. It was one thing to chase something down and it was another to get lost while doing it. It would be a shame to spend days wandering the oceans without any results or without finding their way back to base.

"Hey, you two." the Admiral called down to the girls. "Start getting everyone up here for debriefing. You're all going to need to know what we're facing."

It didn't take long before the command bridge was now filled with various shipgirls. With a curt nod, Gabriel allowed Gneisenau to place a small emitter on the floor. A holographic display of the first Leviathan enveloped the bridge. He let the girls eye what could potentially be the hardest challenge they were going to face until the Sirens showed up again.

"As you can see, the beast the Admiral encountered weeks ago is advanced Ironblood tech. No one within the Ironblood could recreate this technological marvel and not even our riggings could be this large." Gneisenau began her explanation before the holographic display suddenly sprouted multiple appendages. "It seems to have many laser cannons similar to those on Siren cruisers while mainly armed with some sort of beam-based weapon in its mouth."

"Do we even know that this one is made up the same way? For all we know, it could be even stronger?" Hipper spoke out among the large group of girls assembled.

Gabriel shook his head, "No. Even more of a reason to kill it before it causes any damage. The Sirens wouldn't suddenly send them over here if they weren't trying to cause some damage." He turned towards his right, "Ash, anything you want to add?"

All eyes turned towards the fallen Enterprise who was near a window. She had joined the group while Ember stayed on base. Most the shipgirls had tolerated her presence thanks to Enterprise basically chaperoning for her counterpart but it didn't make the tensions ease. Notably, those who had faced her in the past.

Ash turned towards the others with her soulless eyes ignoring some harsh glares, "Don't expect to kill it in a single volley. Those things were built as a last resort so expect this one to be more armored than the first."

"She is right on the armored portion." Gneisenau added before turning back to the display. "The weakest portions had the durability of a battleship with the head alone being armored beyond that. From the report, it took several volleys to break through one layer of armor."

"From priority ships no less. My sixteen inch guns were able to crack through those plates but I can't guarantee it will do the same this time around." Georgia said with hands clasped behind her back in a professional manner.

"You didn't have air support then, but you do now." Hornet grinned, tilting her hat towards the priority battleship. She was right that Gabriel's first encounter was purely with main guns and torpedos but without any supporting carriers. It could be easier with Hornet and Ash giving support.

"So what is the plan once we get the signal?" Jean Bart raised her scowl on the Leviathan schematic in front of her.

She would be surprised with Gabriel's answer, "Simple, we bring it to us. If all goes well, it will chase after the cruisers and bring it within battleship range where all of you will shell it to death. If it closes the distance more, then all the heavy cruisers will open fire. Carriers will be harassing the Leviathan as it gives chase."

"And if it doesn't?" Cesare rose a brow. The Italian woman having also joined thanks to her firepower and torpedoes being necessary. Littorio had also joined since her barrage coupled with her unique batteries would be a huge boost to this hunt.

The Admiral gave a smirk, "It will once we piss it off."


Back with the scouts, San Diego was whistling a little tune under her breath as the reconnaissance continued. An hour had passed since they last checked in with the main fleet and not a single blip appeared on the sonars. It didn't help that she had to be the only one to carry an additional ordinance to make Gabriel's plan work.

"I got something!" Helena shouted as her sonar began to reveal a single large dot while making an echoing sound.

The group stopped in their place as the blip was just west of them by a few miles. San Diego looked back at her rigging before making it drop all her depth charges. The other girls looked at her in shock at what she was doing before the sea began to rumble. A metal appendage rose from the ocean before the entire head of the Leviathan followed. Unlike the first one, this Leviathan was considerably different.

It more resembled the shark-like features of the Ironblood riggings but paired with a serpentine body. The red lines around its body began pulsating some sort of energy and the sounds of gears clanking together could be heard. The armor plating hardly looked scratched from the depth charges but there was a visible stain. This creature roared at the group before its mouth began charging some sort of attack.

"Admiral, we found the target. Returning to you now." Ibuki said through the calms. She made an about face being rushing back towards the direction of the main fleet. The others followed suit but there was one problem.

Unlike the others, Pamiat was much slower. Her old rigging didn't help as she wasn't built to be as fast as her more modern counterparts. As a result, she was in the rear of the group "Hey! Wait for me! I'm not as fast as you new cruisers!"

The Leviathan fired its attack, missing the old Russian boat but causing a considerable amount of steam to form a small smokescreen. The light cruisers sped off towards the main fleet with the Leviathan roaring before diving into the water after them. One of the spiky appendages poked out of the water which gave a shark-like fin appearance.

Gabriel hadn't been sitting idly. Once the signal had been given and Ibuki confirmed that they had the Leviathan chasing them, he had ordered every battleship off of the ship and ready for combat. They formed a line with their cannons ready to fire once the creature showed itself while Hornet prepared her planes for an airstrike. Ash stood on the end of Hornet's flight deck with her bow in hand and rigging ready for a tough fight.

Anxiety tried to trickle itself into his nervous system but the Admiral pushed it down as soon as he felt it. He couldn't let this plan fail or the shipping lanes would be constantly harassed by a giant sentient rigging that attacked anything in sight. Once that thing appeared within range, the bombardment would begin.

Then….he saw the light cruisers in the distance.

"There they are," Hornet noted before her eyes narrowed to seeing something poking out of the water behind the scouts. "I think that's our target. Should we give it the ol' one-two punch?"

Gabriel smiled lightly, "With your bombers, I don't think it'll want to show itself. Just have them ready to drop the payload on my command."

"Aye aye."

He looked back out to barely see the metal appendage coming out of the ocean. It chased after the light cruisers relentlessly but at a much slower pace. The Admiral turned on all radios to relay orders to the fleet as the time for their big fight was inbound.

A light grin rested on his face, "Colorado, how confident are you in hitting a target from twenty kilometers out?"

"Kilometers?" He heard the battleship question on the other end

He shook his head at such a small mistake, "Sorry, twenty-two thousand yards and closing fast."

Gabriel continued to watch his Ibuki's group rush towards his position before the sounds of battleship batteries broke the silence. The sound of crashing thunder breaking any form of ease with tension replacing it. Second by second, Gabriel could only use binoculars to view his approaching vanguard and await the imminent land of the shells. What kind of armament this Leviathan could possess compared to its dead brethren was an uncertainty.

Pillars of water suddenly rose into the air with a few explosions here and there. The appendage sunk below the waves after the barrage of shells had landed with nothing to indicate the damage. The Admiral breathed slowly with his ears tuning to hear the littlest sound while his eyes scanned for the smallest ounce of metal. He could hear his heartbeat with how silent it got.

Then it happened….

Seemingly right in front of the aircraft carrier, the beast had surfaced with gallons of water shooting up into the sky. Gabriel could only stare at the Ironblood color scheme of this last resort creation feet away from the command deck. How it was able to close the distance so fast and remain undetected like its predecessor was still marveling to him.

"Admiral! Look out!"

He was suddenly tugged back as the Leviathan suddenly darted forward with its mechanical head and tore half of the command deck right off. The teeth barely missed the human as Hornet practically saved him from certain death in an instant. Words failed him as fear temporarily took over by having Gabriel quickly move himself as far away from that thing as possible. His whole plan had basically been bypassed so suddenly because he underestimated his enemy.

An explosion suddenly rocked above the Leviathan's head with Corsairs making bombing runs on the large beast. It roared in fury before pieces of its armor began moving to reveal multiple laser cannons that began firing at the pesky aircraft. The aircraft carrier began moving backward to put as much distance away while the machine was distracted.

Finally steeling his nerves, Gabriel began issuing orders. "All battleships, fire at will! Send this bastard under the sea!" He looked back at Hornet who was prepping her bombers like he wanted. They would be necessary in delivering some heavy ordnance if the battleships couldn't punch through that armor.

The seas were lit up with multiple pillars of water with several rounds slamming into the Leviathan. The armor plating went back to normal with several of the laser cannons having been blown off. The mouth began to light up with a crimson red before firing towards the direction of the shipgirls firing upon it. Like before, the shipgirls moved around the beam and continued to pepper the outer armor with all forms of ammunition.

A single Corsair dropped a bomb right on the Leviathan's head, blowing off a piece of armor but doing minimal damage. The aircraft was quickly incinerated by the machine, a couple AP shells slamming into its face.

"Please tell me you have those bombers ready," Gabriel looked towards Hornet with sweat visibly forming on his face. If battleship guns and bombers weren't going to do much damage, then he might have bitten more than he could chew.

"Give me two more minutes and I'll have a whole squadron."

"Baltimore," He spoke through his radio. "I need those specialized AP rounds breaking that armor!"

It was a good thing he brought the American heavy cruiser along thanks to that specific ability of hers. Not only did she make any weapon of hers turn into an armor-piercing menace, but she helped weaken heavy armor units. The sound of her main guns filled his radio with the Leviathan roaring afterward. They just needed to buy Hornet some more and she'll get her bombers on their target.

A faint light caught Gabriel's attention as he looked towards his revolver. Unbuckling it from the holster, he saw one of the symbols on the cylinder was glowing a bright silver. It was the eagle symbol that represented the Eagle Union, the symbol of liberty. Now why was this symbol glowing on his gun of all things? Wasn't this thing designed to kill Sirens?

"Why won't you break!?" Roon growled to herself as her rigging spat both forms of ammunition at an incredible rate. A volley of torps only seemed to dent the armor but could not go through the enhanced steel. The beast began charging up another attack before firing it right at the Ironblood heavy cruiser. Despite her tough exterior, there was no possible way for Roon to survive an attack like this.

The heavy cruiser shielded her eyes from the blast until she felt something grab her and pull her out of the way. Opening her eyes once more, she saw that Ibuki had quickly pulled her out of harm's way. Flashing a quick smile towards her fellow prototype, Roon went back into action.

On the other hand, Baltimore found her guns able to crack certain portions of the Leviathan but each cracked plate was replaced with a new one. It was like a rotating system of plates to keep vital areas protected while sacrificing others. Her eyes widened in realization, "Admiral. It keeps rotating damaged plates with some of its fresh ones. If we hit it hard enough, we'll be able to crack it open."

She looked towards Georgia, "Hey, you think you can fire a volley where I crack that armor?"

"You got it, just make it quick or we'll be fried food." Georgia aimed her cannons and loaded up a special volley for the heavy cruiser.

Baltimore flashed her a confident smile before focusing her energy into her guns. They briefly turned a reddish color before she fired them off. The shells whirling through the air before slamming into the side armor of the Leviathan. Normally, shells from her guns would hardly do damage to such a target but the impacted metal began to groan. Georgia fired a volley roughly where Baltimore's shots landed and was rewarded with the metal breaking instantly. Oil spurted out of the open wound with the creature's gaze turning towards them immediately.

"Baltimore, look out!" The beast fired off another attack to which Georgia stepped forward and used part of her rigging as a shield. The beam did not penetrate the thick armor but a resulting blast caused two of Georgia's turrets to be taken out of action. Her other smaller turrets were undamaged but some electricity was sparking from them.

"You okay?" Baltimore pulled the battleship out of harm's way where she inspected how bad the damage was.

Georgia gritted her teeth as she tried to move her remaining turrets. They refused to budge and she couldn't seem to push herself forward. "No, damn thing disabled my rigging. It's going to take me a minute to get it back online. You go on and keep breaking that thing apart."

The heavy cruiser shot her a look of concern but followed the prototype's instructions anyway. With the wound now firmly in place, the Leviathan could no longer shift around its armor without exposing the wound further. As a result, it became the perfect target for some well-aimed barrages. It was then that several giant icicles fell from the sky and impacted the beast, stunning it temporarily and clogging up several of its joints. The others looked confused as to who brought that icicle storm until they saw Rossiya glowing in a blue aura.

"For the motherland, you will not step forward!" Rossiya declared before another torrent of shards fell on top of the Leviathan followed by her barrage. The strain of having so many battleships pounding the beast was beginning to show some results.

Then, a flurry of bombs exploded with several being high yield bombs from Hornet's bombers. Pieces of metal splashed everywhere with several more wounds opening up. A mighty roar erupted with more laser cannons revealing themselves and firing madly at the annoying pests. Lightning began to crackle around the Leviathan before firing in all directions.

The shipgirls stopped in their place as their rigging had shut down. Their turrets did not fire and their movement completely ceased but they could at least stay above the water. Instead of going for the easy prey, the Leviathan turned back to the retreating carrier and swam towards it.

"Shit! It's coming for us again." Hornet exclaimed with wide eyes as another squadron of her bombers were shot down.

The carrier suddenly stopped in its tracks as a serpentine body wrapped around the structure of the boat. The Leviathan looked right at Gabriel with crimson eyes boring into his own. There would be no retreat so long as that thing had a grip on Hornet's boat and she could not defend herself since her aircraft would not be able to take off.

"Well...Admiral...It was nice knowing you," Hornet sighed in acceptance of their current fate. If only she could get another squadron in the air to knock the serpent off her ship.

Gabriel had been frozen in his place and unable to react to what was coming. He heavily underestimated the Leviathan's weapon systems and despite the amount of damage his fleet had dealt, it put them out of action temporarily. He didn't know what to do with death staring at him in the face. His muscles wouldn't move nor would his mind come up with some form of escape plan.

The Leviathan opened its mouth and began charging another blast. Time slowed down as the mouth glowed a molten orange to fire at the two opponents on the carrier. That was until Ash came down from one of her Corsairs and fired an arrow into the beast's mouth. The arrow turned into a fighter and crashed inside causing a series of explosions.

The Leviathan loosened its grip on Hornet's ship as it began to sink below the waters. Once the last of the metal serpent's body sunk, Gabriel breathed a sigh of relief. "Ash, thanks for the save. I was believing that I was going to die there."

"Your welcome." The fallen carrier replied back.

The Admiral looked over the edge to watch the silhouette of the Leviathan sink further down the water. It still puzzled him that the Sirens would bring something designed to kill them over to this timeline. Would they bring other experiments to throw at the base?

Nobody truly knows what the Sirens were up to.


Hey all, been a while since I updated and I would have had this chapter out sooner but life has not been very relieving. I've noticed a big uptick in new stories hitting fanfiction and I'm happy to see some new material. I hope all of you are taking care of yourselves and staying safe from the virus.

I'll be posting the side story sometime within a week or two. I currently have it on Archive but I'm planning to edit it for better quality before posting the first chapter.