The journey back to Flagship Alabama was a tense one, as Diamond and the other hybrids were nervous about being with Frunze, Sampson, and Nitze.

After explaining to her fleet who the Phantom ships were and what they were doing, they set out in a two line formation with Diamond and Frunze at the front. For about the first two or so hours Diamond and Frunze were bombarded with questions, similar to when Diamond was with Frunze. But now after the questions died down there was a somewhat awkward silence between all of them.

Alabama's Fleet was within fifty miles when Diamond got an unexpected visitor on her ship. She figured it was probably one of the Phantom ships, since really every hybrid in the fleet would ask permission to come aboard, though she was used to fully Fog ships to come aboard without permission.

When she went to the stern of her ship, she found Nitze near the number 3 turret. "Oh! Hello there" Nitze said as she walked towards Diamond

"Hello there… um, what's your name?" Diamond asked in a sweet tone

"Nitze, Arleigh Burke class. That's my ship" now Nitze pointed at her ship directly behind Diamond's

"So, you were the one to save Boyle. I must thank you for doing so. I don't think she'd have survived if you didn't take those shells for her" now she paused for a moment "Oh, and I'm Diamond, Des Moines class as you can see. A Hybrid fog cruiser"

Nitze's eyes widened and she grew excited and she spoke in a cheerful and excited voice "You're a hybrid!? I've never met one before, though I have been asleep for a long time" now she giggled a bit "what was your life like before the Fog?"

Diamond tilted her head a bit at what Nitze said about being asleep and didn't exactly understand "it wasn't too good. My father was a Drunkard and left me and my mother when I was young, and then I had to do basically all the chores when mother was at work and my mother wasn't kind to me if I failed the chores or if I didn't do them on time. The only one who was nice to me was my uncle. And… um…" now Diamond deeply inhaled "my uncle and I set out to do a little fishing near the coast when a Fog destroyer appeared and sunk our boat, I was captured, but I don't know if he survived or not'' Diamond's mood seemed to turn sad as she said this.

Nitze still seemed cheerful even as Diamond seemed less so. She still had a cheerful smile on her face as she looked at Diamond. Then after a few seconds she tilted her head a bit in curiosity "what was that word that Frunze told me humans feel when their friends die?" She thought out loud to herself "I know it starts with the letter 'g'"

"Grief?" Diamond said, now looking a bit sad now as she thought back to that day.

"Oh, yeah! That's the word. You're feeling grief aren't you?"

"Ye-Yeah I… am" Diamond paused as she looked out to sea, and soon her gaze came upon Frunze's ship.

It was easily the biggest ship there, a crimson colored hull with silver markings, and a sigil that looked like an eight point star with a few swirls around it.

Now there was a moment of silence before Nitze broke it by saying, "well I'm sure you know you have tons of friends in the Fog, and considering how things are going, I'm sure you'll get to tons of friends from the Phantom Fleet"

Diamond smiled slightly "yeah, I guess so" she said slowly. After a moment of silence she asked "you said you were asleep before, what did you mean by that?"

"Oh that? Well I was asleep with the rest of the fleet, not awake like I am right now. I guess it is like how humans sleep, though we don't dream at all"

"So where are the ones that are still asleep?"

"Oh, they're all over the world, underwater and waiting for the call to awake. I actually wasn't awake till a few days ago"

"Oh… ok" she paused for a moment then spoke again "so-" now Diamond stopped as she got a ping, and turned around to look in the direction they were sailing.

In the distance they could see different colored warships just sitting on the ocean. Mostly destroyers and cruisers, but they could see two carriers, and a single battleship sitting in the middle of the fleet.

Suddenly Diamond was slammed with an invite to a concept comms. She gulped a bit as she knew who it was, but didn't know how she'd react. She turned to Nitze and said, "sorry I need to take this invite now"

Now she accepted and was suddenly thrust into concept comms. She stood in what looked to be a standard concept comms room, as it was a white gazebo in a massive white room, that you couldn't tell how far it went on for. There was a table in the gazebo and a woman sat across from where Diamond was.

The woman looked to be in her thirties, with long black hair that went down to her shoulders. She had a dark green green shirt, with short sleeves. She had a dark green skirt on, that had lime green accents on it. She looked very serious

"Sit please, and explain, Diamond, why a human warship is sailing on the ocean alongside you?" Alabama clearly didn't seem too happy, as while she could see Frunze's ship, she couldn't yet see its coloring.

"Well…" Diamond said, as she sat down, then she started explaining what had happened when they went to attack the human fleet that was coming to rescue the destroyer. With how it was actually a trap set by Frunze, and with who they said they were. After a while of explaining what had happened both during the battle and after it Alabama spoke.

"I see… this Phantom Fleet seems to be like that of the Fleet of Fog except it seems to have more modern style warships. And from what you said, the majority of the fleet isn't activated, but why are they here? What do they want exactly?" She said still looking quite serious

"Well from what I saw they probably follow the Admiralty Code like the Fog do"

Alabama sighed "that most likely is the case, but I want to talk with their flagship myself to see if She'll tell me what they are after"

"Oh, that's something that I didn't mention. Their flagship right now, Frunze, is a man; along with one of their destroyers is also a man"

Alabama was quiet for a moment after Diamond said the Frunze was a man "I… see, how… strange" she shook her head a bit then spoke again, "now did you capture any females that we can turn into hybrids?"

"No, it looked like the Frunze's destroyers were the ones to do that, and by the time our destroyers looked, There wasn't anyone in the water"

"Hm, I see, then I'll have to ask him about it. Well then you're dismissed , though go to Manfred's ship. Since the Phantoms will be with us for a while it'll be best to introduce everyone to each other. Though after it I will talk to Frunze myself"

Diamond nodded her head "alright I'll go then"

Now Diamond disappeared out of the concept comms back to the real world. She found that Nitze was actually still there on her ship, though now Nitze seemed to be near turret one of her ship.

When she looked in the direction of the main Fleet she could clearly see Manfred's ship, a Hybrid Fog, Graf Zeppelin class aircraft carrier, purple with blue accents. She sighed a bit as they came closer and closer to the fleet, now within two miles of it, they'd be there in only a few seconds.

She contacted her small fleet everyone go to Manfred's ship so everyone can introduce each other to our new… friends

yes, ma'am came Boyle

alright, Diamond came Joliet, who was one of the Clevelands.

ok, Diamond, see you there came Idaho Falls, or just Idaho for short, who was also a Cleveland.

ok, miss diamond came Spence, who was a Fletcher class

Diamond simply responded good now she contacted Frunze and his fleet, park your ships near Alabama's and meet up on Manfred's ship, that's the Graf Zeppelin class Carrier now she started off towards the bow of her ship, as they were now among the main fleet, with the other ships going off to park in their normal spots.

roger that came Frunze

ok came Sampson in an apathetic voice

"Alrighty! Let's go then!" Came Nitze, Who Diamond could hear at the bow of her ship.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now after parking their ships, the hybrids and Phantoms traveled to Manfred's ship. Now the entire fleet was lined up on Manfred's ship, right next to the superstructure. Most of the hybrids were curious of Frunze and Sampson, as it has been a long time since they've seen men outside of battle and not either killing them or leaving them for dead.

Now a girl with black hair, brown eyes, and that of European heritage stepped up "well then" she said "I'll start out first. I am the suppression vessel Manfred Von Richthofen, of the Graf Zeppelin class suppression vessel" she paused for a moment then gestured to her left where everyone else was. "So first off, we have our heavy cruisers, Seydlitz who is an Admiral Hipper class, then we have Diamond -who you already met along with the rest of her fleet- she's a Des Moines, then there's Surrey who is a County class. Then there's our light cruisers, Joliet, Idaho falls -or just Idaho for short-, and Miami are our Cleveland class cruisers, then there's Tucson and Flint who are our Atlanta class cruisers" Manfred paused to take a breath for a few seconds then resumed speaking "then there's Spence, Jenkins, and Hudson who are our Fletcher class destroyers, then there's Boyle who's a Benson class destroyer. Then there's Cabot who is an Independence class suppression vessel. Then we have Wahoo, who is our Gato class submarine, and finally we have Sanctuary who is a Haven class hospital ship, though I don't believe she is here at the moment. Well that's all the hybrids, and then we have our flagship Alabama" then she added by slowly saying "who I think is still on her ship" now she stopped talking to catch her breath from how long she'd been talking.

Now Frunze spoke after Manfred finished "it is nice to meet you all. I am the guided missile battlecruiser Frunze of the Kirov class guided missile battlecruiser of the Phantom Fleet. My two accompanying destroyers are Nitze and Sampson, both of the Arleigh Burke class Guided missile destroyer"

Nitze well had been fidgeting a little bit, as she wanted to talk with the hybrids to get to know them better. She was very clearly an energetic girl who was curious about a lot of things. Sampson well looked like he didn't really care about what was happening at the moment.

Manfred nodded a bit "nice to meet you too. Now I'm sure everyone has many questions for each other for who we're in more detail, so how about we go inside my ship? I'll make a lobby for everyone to relax for a moment"

Many people nodded in agreement and there were few 'sure's and 'ok's from the hybrids, along with Nitze yelling "yeah let's do that!"

"Alright, then everyone inside my superstructure" Manfred said gesturing to her superstructure where a door had opened up.

Everyone well started to file into Manfred's superstructure to where she was forming a lounge in part of her hanger. Though before Frunze entered he was stopped by Diamond. "Hey, Frunze, Alabama wants to talk with you. I guess it is something important between flagships" she says while they were standing out of the way from the door.

Frunze nodded "I see, then I'll be going to her ship to talk with her"

now he turned away from the door to walk over to the edge of Manfred's ship, while Diamond disappeared into Manfred's ship, with sounds of conversation stopping as the door fell shut.

Now Frunze willed for there to be silver holographic looking hexagonal panels to appear in front of him, as he walked off of Manfred's ship over to Alabama's.

As soon as he hopped off of his panels, and onto Alabama's deck, he wasn't too surprised as he was thrust into concept comms with Alabama, mainly because almost any Phantom ship does that if you step on their deck.

He was in the gazebo described before, standing across from Alabama who was currently sitting down while taking a sip of some coffee.

"So you are the Phantom Battlecruiser That Diamond told me about?" She said as she placed her cup of coffee on the table.

Frunze just nodded a bit in confirmation.

"Well then sit please, I have many questions for you to answer"

Frunze sat down across from her and leaned back as he let one of his legs rest on the other.

"So then, I already know most of this from Diamond, but I'll ask it for myself, what is your name, class and current rank?"

Frunze nodded and spoke "Frunze, Kirov class Guided Missile Battlecruiser, and I am currently the flagship of the first East Pacific squadron"

"What is the First East Pacific Squadron?"

"It is currently my own small fleet made up of me, Nitze and Sampson"

"I see. Then what is your current goal?"

"Our current goal would be to get hybrids to expand the fleet, just like the Fleet of Fog currently is doing"

"Hmm, so we'd be fighting over the same pool of humans. I could see a big problem with that"

Frunze shook his head "quite the opposite actually. While we can turn females into hybrids like the Fog, we'd mainly capture male humans to turn into hybrids. So if the Fleet of Fog and the Phantom Fleet were to work together then the draw pool would expand massively"

"I see. Currently we kill any men that are left surviving, or we leave them for dead, but with what you're saying we could capture them and use them like we do females, correct?" now she paused to think about some things.

"Yes. That is correct"

"I see, I'll have to talk that over more with Iowa and Montana on that for increasing our draw pool. Now then" she said as she leaned in "who is your Flagship? And could you send me a panel of their specs, to see how powerful she is compared to those flagships of the Fog"

Frunze chuckled a bit "I will say this most ships in the Phantom Fleet are males, there are some who are female, like Nitze. Though now to your question" Now Frunze summoned a red holographic looking panel and positioned it over the table so a hologram of what looked like a Nimitz class Aircraft Carrier appeared. It was colored a dark grey with incredibly dark purple markings running all along its hull. The hologram was spinning so Alabama could get a look at it from different angles.

"This is my flagship, Nimitz of the Nimitz class supercarrier"

Alabama looked over it along with another panel that Frunze summoned. It was a list of specs that Frunze could disclose.

Length: 1,092 feet (332.8 m)

Beam: Overall: 252 ft (76.8 m)

Waterline: 134 ft (40.8 m)

41 feet (12.5 m)

2 × Sea Sparrow

2 × RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile

2 × PHALANX CIWS Gatling guns

4 × MK 38 25mm autocannon turrets

10 × .50 cal turret emplacements

Torpedo tubes: [REDACTED]

Missile hatches: [REDACTED]

Klein fields: [REDACTED]

Super-graviton cannons: 42

"This is at least the information I can disclose. Nimitz would still like to keep some things… secret in case there might be a breach of information"

Alabama was looking over the information while Frunze was speaking "that is understandable of him to do. Though may I ask why it says 'Klein fields'?"

"Most high Phantom Fleet warships are capable of operating multiple Klein fields. Even if you are able to punch through one you might have one or more Klein fields to punch through. Nitze is actually one of the few destroyers capable of supporting multiple Klein fields"

"I see, that is…" Alabama paused for a moment "interesting to say the least"

The hologram still spun around slowly in front of both of them, till the ship started to split apart and revealed the massive number of super gravity cannons stored away inside the hull.

"That is all I have to ask with your flagship. Now I do need to ask how exactly your fleet was able to lay that trap. From Diamond's report she said that one of your destroyers was able to disguise itself without the signature Fog markings, and in this case, the signature Phantom markings"

Now the hologram of the Nimitz class closed its hull and Alabama could see as hexagonal panels swept from the bow to the stern. As they swept the dark grey coloring and the purple markings disappeared, so that the ship looked like a normal human one. Then Frunze spoke.

"All Phantom Fleet warships are able to go into a sort of cloaking where our markings will disappear so that we appear as normal human vessels do. We use it as a way of sneaking close to human ports that we can attack later, or in this case set a trap to lure them out"

"I see. Well then may I ask if your fleet captured any humans for hybridization?"

Now Frunze de-summoned the hologram of the Nimitz and summoned a red data ring around himself. He looked at a part of it then responded.

"Yes two humans, a man and a woman. Both in a stable state, though the female lost her left arm, the man appears to be fine. Currently both of them are still unconscious, on Nitze's ship"

"How do you plan on making the man a hybrid? You will need a hospital to do such an operation"

"The operation is exactly the same as that of the Fog one, just that it uses a Phantom core rather than that of a Fog core. I can make one for your Hospital ship to implant into that of the man. You can have female in return"

"Hmm, so you want Sanctuary to turn the man into a hybrid Phantom. And in return you'll give us the female for hybridization?"

"That is correct" Frunze responds, as the data ring disappears.

Alabama thought for a long moment before responding "and may I ask why you don't just call on your flagship to send for one of your own hospital ships?"

"Nimitz is already busy with many things, both with organizing the fleet for when the rest of the Phantom Fleet awakens, and for gathering information from the humans. I can't say what rank he is, but I know that Nimitz himself has already infiltrated the country that the humans call 'America'. And other such flagships that are awake are also busy. For now it'd be simplest and easiest for a Fog hospital ship to do the operation"

"I see… well then… I'll inform Sanctuary of this, but I'll need you to give her the core and to show her how to do so, and once the man is ready, he'll be in your care"

Frunze nodded "that is fair. I'll order for Nitze to bring the humans to your hospital ship for hybridization"

"Well then this seems to end our discussion for now"

"Yes it does seem so"

Now Frunze was suddenly kicked out of the concept comms back to Alabama's deck.

Frunze then contacted Nitze while walking back to Manfred's ship.

Nitze move your ship up to this fleet's hospital ship for transfer of the humans

Aye, aye, Frunze Nitze responded in a cheerful tone oh! Also you're missing so much stuff here on Manfred's ship. You should hurry and come here

oh, am i? What's happening? he said this as he looked over to Nitze's ship which started to move towards what looked like an old merchant ship from World War Two.

well after we answered some of their questions one of them brought out some alcohol, and well… Nitze trailed off oh! I need to go, Frunze, Seydlitz just challenged me to a drinking contest

Then Nitze spoke in a whispering voice even though she didn't need to over comms don't tell her that I can't get drunk then she added a giggle after she finished speaking.

Hmm, well I'll be there soon to see what is happening for myself. Though go easy on her

roger that!

Author's note: So how do you like this story so far? I am new to writing stories in general so I may not be too brilliant at it, but I'll do my best.

The next chapter will be out in a few days.