Chapter 12: Poison Trees

Tearing away the bark and vines wrapped around the girl, Robyn wrinkled her nose at the scent. Whoever the heck this girl was, they had been here long enough to get past 'ripe'. "I hope you're a sub, because the first chance we get I'm dumping you in a bath," she muttered, hauling the grey haired girl up over her shoulder and jumping back down the tree using a rope line.

Reaching the bottom, she unclipped herself so she could carry the girl to the pile of infected shipgirls. "That's the last one," she said to Christine. "Looks like the others were normal humans, they're all rotted."

Christine grimaced, holding onto the rope as Sonia made her way down to join them. "How bad?" she asked.

"At least everyone in our section," Sonia replied softly. "No idea on anything else," she continued before swallowing hard. "I poured as much oil as I'd got down the tree… I just hope it will be enough."

Robyn nodded slowly. "Short of us getting the others down here – and I doubt Sally and Susan would be able to help – we've dumped as much as we can on it," she said.

Unlike the French girls, they had found Robyn only had a few tons of some type of pellet, things reminiscent of the 'water beads' rather than a bunker full of oil. From what her crew told her, she could run on those 'beads' for half a century without needing to refuel.

"Practically all our spare munitions are at the base of the tree as well," Christine said softly. "I don't know how badly it'll blow, but we probably don't want to be here when it does, particularly those two thousand odd depth charges of yours," she added to Robyn who nodded.

The trio took a minute to distribute the five shipgirls between them, Sonia taking one of the smallest pair, Robyn and Christine splitting the other four between them.

Slinging both girls over her shoulders, Robyn took a deep breath and raised her arm mounted twin turret. "Get going," she ordered the others, waiting until they had started running before radioing upstairs. "Zephyr, this is Zenith," she said, "Fire in the hole, out."

Backing up to the entrance to the room, she took aim.

CRA-CRACK! BOO-BOOOM!

Robyn was running almost as soon as she had taken the shot, but even then the blast from the munitions and bunker oil cooking off threatened to throw her off her feet, bringing down dirt and stone all over.

Fire started crackling behind her while howls of rage sounded ahead. "Gunners fire as you bear," she ordered.

Walking fungi and what looked like rotted, mobile bodies covered in plant matter seemed to come from every corner only to be cut down by the constant rattling fire of 40mm autocannons.

Some simply disappeared in explosions; others were torn to tiny pieces, splashing their neighbours in gore. She didn't pause to watch what else happened.

She caught up with the others a few minutes later, blocked by a horde.

Robyn didn't even pause, taking one arm from around the legs of the two girls she carried; she pointed it at the mob and fired.

Shells whistled down the cavern to land at the feet of the mob. Sharp explosions rang out as they vanished in flash and fire.

Grabbing the girl again before she could slip off her shoulder, Robyn hurried to Christine and Sonia. "You girls alright?" she asked.

"There's so many of them…" Sonia whispered.

Christine shifted uncomfortably. "I'll survive… just wish I knew what was going on," she answered.

Robyn shrugged. "No idea, beyond something for a while. We need to keep going, and we're going to have to blast out, no time to dig, so here's hoping we don't bring things down on us," she said flatly.

Both French shipgirls nodded, starting off again, their internal compasses allowing them to retrace their steps even with their triple-A firing constantly.

Dropping in behind a piece of torn out wall, Susan panted for breath, a piece of masonry flying overhead to crash into the outer wall.

"Zephyr, this is Zenith, fire in the hole, out."

She didn't have a chance to wonder what Robyn was talking about before the entire courtyard shook from an explosion.

Taking a risk, Susan glanced out of her hiding place while the dryad howled in anger.

Ducking another piece of masonry, she stood, turrets on the x-frame rigging rotating to face the dryad.

Cracks rang out from two sides, Sally adding her main battery to Susan's secondary.

Muffled screams sounded from outside as the plant monster howled again, its wooden form cratering and shattering under the barrage.

"Minotaur, Zephyr, this is Dauphin, Le Malin and I have eyes on a burning tree." Katia's voice sounded from Susan's radio as she ducked back. "Target is in the park area of the courtyard."

"Say again Dauphin? You have eyes on the tree?" Sally asked.

Air shifted, making Susan throw herself aside as a tree trunk thick limb slammed through her cover.

Scrambling to her feet, she opened up with her guns, their cracks covering whatever Katia might have said.

Skidding into a new cover, she let out a breath, only to glance down and barely hold in a yelp.

Near her, skin split to reveal wood beneath, yellowish liquid splattered around, was the corpse of the admiral.

Swallowing hard, Susan raised herself up and slammed her fist down, shattering the admiral's head.

"Affirmative, Dauphin, destroy it, whatever you've got. If Le Malin has mines or depth charges, suggest you use those."

A few minutes later there was a loud explosion from the other side of the castle, making the monster howl again.

Taking a deep breath, Susan rolled out from behind her cover, her main battery rotating to bear on the plant monster.

Fire and smoke covered her, every window not already blown out shattered from the blast as twelve naval rifles fired simultaneously.

The howl cut off in an explosion louder than any beyond that from the tree. Splinters and rotten plant matter rained down as flame roared skywards, mushrooming into smoke.

The smoke cleared to reveal a merrily burning stump of a monster.

Taking a deep breath, Susan let it out slowly, wisps of smoke trailed up from her rifle barrels.

"Well…" Sally's voice sounded close by, drawing Susan's attention. "I wasn't intending on waking up the city today." She snorted softly, looking over at the monster. "We probably ought to burn that before it has any chance of regenerating again."

Susan sighed and nodded.

Leaning back in the chair in their shared lounge, Nikita let her head loll back against the cushion, her red-streaked white hair splayed out over the back. How? How had so much changed in the past half a day? She wondered, swallowing back a brief feeling of nausea.

"Hey," a soft, British voice said. She felt a warm hand take hers gently. "How are you feeling?"

"Honestly?" Nikita asked, opening one eye to look at the dark haired girl. "Like crap," she admitted. "Merde… I don't even know how something like that managed to get into a military base, much less stay hidden for so long. From what mon frère said, they should have better security than that and…" she swallowed and shivered. "Feeling that thing on top of me, pushing whatever that was down my throat… none of the others have recovered yet, not even Mariette."

The Brit shrugged. "About all I can say is a guess. Susan wound up finding what was left of your admiral, who was apparently a thinking version of the plant zombies that Robyn's group encountered. It's possible he or another we've not found brought that thing here or were infected and made to keep quiet until they had more infected." She shook her head and sighed. "The question really is going to be what happens now, since we were supposed to escort the freighter at the docks back home with your help and you're not really fit for it, much less everyone else that was rescued."

Nikita nodded slowly before letting her head drop back against the headrest. "Christine should be the highest ranking of us, presuming the rest of the base don't get involved… she's not the best, so Mariette was the one we mostly looked to. With her sick, presuming none of the official Marine Nationale wish to do anything… it's probably going to be me deciding."

The girl nodded slowly. "I can kinda understand what you mean, though I'd probably be more in line with Mariette honestly… at least once I've got some more experience at being a shipgirl," she admitted. Taking a breath, she let it out slowly. "I know we weren't introduced properly with everything, Sally Jones, Midshipman in Her Majesty's Royal Navy," she introduced herself. "I know from Katia that you're Nikita." She got a nod from the other girl. "So… presuming the escort run does happen, what would you prefer for what to do now?"

Sighing, Nikita leaned back. "I don't know," she admitted. "I'm… my family live in Orléans, safe from the abyssals at least, but they were happy to hand me over to the Marine Nationale when I Awoke. I doubt they would want me to come back right now, not over 'such a trivial thing'." She shook her head, sighing again as her hair twisted, a few strands whipping her cheeks.

Sally frowned, leaning back on her toes. "Well… I'm not sure whether anyone would be up for it, particularly if France is hurting for shipgirls, but maybe you could ask for a transfer, either to another French base or to another country's base, even just presuming a temporary one, it might give you a chance to get your head on straight, especially if they let you visit a psychologist… psychiatrist… whichever one is the one you talk at." She paused for a moment, giving Nikita a serious look. "Believe me, after something like this you probably need one, a trauma counsellor that is. I've got a few versions of that t-shirt."

"I… don't know how many shipgirls France has, I know for ships we don't have many outside our carrier," Nikita said softly. "I don't think I want to remain in France right now anyway, not given all of this."

Nodding, Sally got up, gently tugging Nikita to her feet and guiding her over to a couch, where she nudged Nikita down next to Colette, the other girl looking particularly colourless between her white hair, pale skin and white dress and tights. Taking a seat next to Nikita, Sally dropped an arm around her shoulders before grunting as Katia deposited herself on Sally's lap.

"Mmm… comfy…" Katia muttered before yawning and groaning. "I shouldn't be tired, why am I tired?"

"Fights take it out of you," Sally commented dryly. "And why are you parking yourself on me? Shouldn't one of your colleagues be getting that treatment?"

Katia leaned forwards, looking back at Sally. "Christine and Susan are talking to the admiralty and the police, Colette doesn't look like she'd be able to take someone sitting on her and I doubt Nikita could after everything, so it's either sit by myself or on you or Robyn and Sonia's already claimed Robyn," she explained, leaning back and pressing her head into the crook of Sally's neck. "After that mess, I'd rather have someone around that seems like they're feeling okay hold me."

Sally rolled her eyes but wrapped an arm around the brunette's waist. "Can't say I blame you," she commented before sighing softly. "You know, I was sort of hoping for a fairly quiet run, wasn't expecting to run into trouble at this end. I thought we'd get a brief, meet you girls, find out if anyone had experience with escorts that we could learn from, get some food and head back." She snorted, shaking her head. "Should've known we'd not be that lucky," she sighed.

"Why'd you attack the admiral like that anyway?" Colette asked over Nikita. "Not… not complaining, but… why go after him not the monster first?"

"Honestly?" Sally asked, getting a nod from Colette. "From what we saw when we breached, he was the easier potential threat to deal with, though I wasn't intending on sending him out the window." She grimaced and shook her head. "I'm still kinda learning my new strength and how far is too far." She shrugged carefully. "I couldn't really risk attacking the dryad when it was on top of Nikita, but it looked like he was separate enough from you that even if he was thinking about attempting to rape you, I could interfere."

Colette shivered. "I don't think he would, but… Mon Dieu… ending up like Mariette or any of the rest… it might as well have been," she whispered.

Nikita nodded, rubbing her throat. "I'm so glad whatever it did, it didn't take on me, but everyone else…"

Sally nodded, but was prevented from answering by the door opening and the two cruiser-girls entering the lounge, Christine taking the chair that Nikita had recently vacated.

"Well, I've got good news and bad news," Susan said, running a hand through her hair before rubbing her face tiredly. "Unfortunately the good news amounts to us not being held responsible for the damage to the castle or killing the staff here. The bad news is it'll take at least weeks before anywhere is really viable for the local shipgirls and to get them a new staff and admiral."

There was a whine from all five French shipgirls at the news. Shifting in her spot on the opposite side of Colette, Robyn frowned. "So what happens now?" she asked. "Do they go to the other French bases?"

Susan shook her head. "Apparently neither Toulon nor Cherbourg is taking in shipgirls at present and they're not letting any near their headquarters for some reason," she explained. "Which means, you girls have a choice of at least temporarily leaving the shipgirls, which could be going on leave or changing group within the navy, or being sent on loan to another nation, though Portugal and Spain have no real bases, Italy isn't accepting foreign shipgirls and Germany is heavily focused on submarines leaving Britain, specifically Alexandra, Gibraltar or Devonport."

"Just those three?" asked Robyn, her eyes widening.

"In Europe or around it at least," Susan replied. "You could go to Japan or America, or join one of the bases in one of the Commonwealth countries like Canada, Australia, India or New Zealand. Russia's not really talking about international shipgirls staying with them and China is…" she trailed off, grimacing in disgust. "Not well liked."

Katia shifted on Sally's lap, frowning as she sucked her lip. "Shouldn't… shouldn't Christine be the one to say what we do, or one of the admirals with shipgirls?" she asked.

Christine sighed, shaking her head. "I've pushed as much as possible to keep all six of us together, Katia, I can't really choose what to do."

"So you're saying it's up to us to vote?" Nikita asked, getting a nod from Christine. "How many shipgirls are at Devonport?" she asked Sally, turning to the girl.

"The three of us, Devonport herself, our commander is my aunt, the Abyssal Spooker, my twin sister Megan, who is a spirit warrior and her benefactor, who is the personification of both Plymouth and the Tamar," Sally answered. "We're actually in with the majority of the 'normal' personnel, so base command is Commodore Shipperley."

Nikita nodded, frowning slightly. "Christine, you're abstaining, right?" she asked, getting a nod in response. "Katia?" she asked.

"What I saw of Devonport, I like," Katia replied. "Commander Glenn at least respects and listens to her people, unlike Admiral Caillat, and she was there to meet us when Sally and Robyn rescued me."

Nikita nodded in acknowledgement of Katia's points. "Sonia, Colette, do either of you have any objections?" Both girls shook their heads when Nikita turned to them. "Mariette obviously can't participate, and to be honest I'd rather at least stay at a port where I know the shipgirls' names when it's more than a couple of nights."

Sally frowned. "I'm not sure how easy it'll be to put you girls up… if we take everyone with us, there's… twelve extra people and we're mostly at my aunt's place, which even with being fairly big, still has six people in a six bedroom and she got that because her XO and Chief Engineer would sometimes stay the same time my parents, sister and I were there."

Susan shifted slightly. "Well, the French admirals want whoever is capable to help us escort the La Tour du Pin to Devonport," she stated before frowning. "For sleeping… we could use the cadet barracks at Devonport since most stay with their parents apparently, or with some squeezing, well Christine could stay in the same room as me and Angela and we could take someone else in. You two," she indicated Sally and Robyn, "and Megan are already sharing, so maybe add someone else with you three. Maybe the others could split along type lines? So the German pair, any French subs and any French destroyers that aren't with others?"

"Might work…" Sally muttered, "but we ought to alert Commander Glenn and check whether she's got any plans or ideas before we commit," she admitted. "It is her house, so having us inviting people without a 'by your leave' is probably asking for trouble… I mean, she can kick all our arses despite being presumably pure human."

Susan grimaced at that, recalling more than a few training sessions where the Commander had tossed her around in spite of her shipgirl abilities. "Could you do the asking, Sally?" she asked. "Your aunt is more likely to at least hear you out than she is me."

Katia rose from Sally's lap, letting the other girl pull out her mobile phone, though a quick check had Sally scowling. "I'm out of credit, and I know Robyn's isn't unlocked for extra countries yet…" Frowning, she placed a hand to her ear as she mentally poked her radio room.

Several minutes past while the others waited, watching Sally. The expressions ranging from shock to worry to confusion and finally bemused acceptance had more than one girl watching her worriedly.

Eventually, she flopped back against the couch, letting her head lean against the backrest. "The Commander is okay with it, as long as you're all willing to put in the hours for Britain and help us get up to speed until you're released," she said, causing several of the French shipgirls to sigh in relief. "And I can apparently ping satellites with my radio, not to mention I've got access to the global cell network."

There was a collective "WHAT?!" from the others loud enough to rattle whatever glass was left in the window frames after the battle.

"Aren't… aren't some satellites over five thousand miles from Earth?" Sonia asked, getting a nod from Sally. "Then how?"

Sally shrugged, raising her eyebrows. "Heck if I know, apparently my radio room has sets capable of hitting, ten, one hundred, one thousand and ten thousand miles both radio and laser, and up to one hundred or one thousand on sonar." She shook her head, causing her hair to whip around her. "I just… I managed to link up to one of the communications satellites; I dread to think just how far away Susan or worse, any of our battleships or carriers could reach."

Nikita shot her a look. "You dread to think?" she asked. "Sally… most of us are lucky to reach three hundred miles on our radio, hell, most of us are probably limited to less and we don't even have lasers!" She exclaimed.

"My sonar communicator is good for maybe thirty miles," Sonia cut in, pouting. "I don't think France got laser communicators until after the war."

"That's not even getting into the fact you girls apparently spent your entire fifty year careers one a single fuel load," Christine added, making both Sally and Susan look at her. She, in turn, waved at Robyn to explain.

Robyn blinked a couple of times at the looks she was getting. "All I know is that when we were trying to ensure that tree got destroyed, we drained our munitions and fuel," she explained, shifting as Sonia squirmed a bit on her lap. "I had more munitions than we thought, like five reloads for my torpedo tubes and fifteen reloads for the depth charge throwers, but for fuel I only had something like six and a quarter tons of some sort of bead rather than the several hundred tons of oil Christine and Sonia had. My crew said I could run on that for fifty years." She shrugged, leaning back a bit at the stares from the others.

Blinking a few times, Sally shook her head and sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised… we're talking about the British Royal Navy here, just for me and Robyn, we got something like half a dozen battle honours each beyond the general campaign ones for things that most other ships of our type would be sunk from and we weren't alone in it."

"Speaking of the fuel situation," Susan cut in before anyone else could say anything. "Are you girls going to be able to handle the trip to Devonport with what you've got or do you need to refuel?"

The French girls frowned, consulting their crews. "I… should be okay, if we keep to a fairly direct route," Nikita replied. "That plant thing consumed a lot of fuel though."

"I'm fairly okay," Colette added. "I had patrol with Christine, got about seven hundred miles of fuel left."

Christine grimaced at the reminder. "I've got… probably around the same because of using it on the tree."

"Two and a half thousand miles worth after burning the tree," Katia replied.

Sonia shifted slightly. "I'm down to about five hundred miles," she answered.

Sally frowned slightly. "Alright, as long as it's not stepping on anyone's toes, I'd say we see if La Tour can leave on the evening tide and you girls pack what you can from your own gear and everyone else's, plus we strip what we can from the base to fill as much of La Tour's hold as possible and get some food," she suggested. "Once we're at sea, whoever has the most experience with escorts should be in charge, since I know very little."

She got nods from all around, the group breaking up to handle their tasks.

Casting a glance over at the shadow of the large cargo ship, Robyn frowned slightly, before turning her attention to the waves once more. They had gotten far more than they had expected from this run, but at the same time… revealing how many had died under the nose of the French Marine Nationale was a very obvious kick in the face to their allies, particularly with shipgirls being injured, kidnapped and held for who knew how long.

Scanning the night darkened waves, she sighed, feeling their wash against her feet and legs, the rushing sound of the water against hulls and the wind streaming past was honestly relaxing in a lot of ways. Even with the steady pulsing of her sensors and the sounds of the others' propellers through her passive sonar.

Her radar pinged an update; Le Malin had picked up speed, not much but enough that she could readily catch up. Frowning slightly, Robyn glanced back, seeing Colette advancing on her, low light and thermal vision modes for the win, even if they did have the occasional sweep from a search light.

"Something up, Le Malin?" she asked when the other girl joined her, moonlight glimmering off her white mane.

Colette shrugged; her shoulder mounted naval rifle shifting at the action. "Just getting bored, normally I'd talk to Mars, but she's…"

"Not available," Robyn finished the thought. "I can see why, when things are quiet you can drift off pretty easily listening to the white noise," she commented, scanning the area ahead of them with her radar. "Have you done this often?"

"Often enough to know that it gets pretty dull pretty quick," Colette replied with a shrug. "That said… even with you Warriors causing the rest of Europe to push for heavy destroyers, I've only got enough fuel for around five thousand miles at cruise." She sighed, shaking her head. "I'm just glad they used the extra displacement on my anti-air suite."

Robyn arched an eyebrow at her, frowning internally as her M.A.D. picked up what looked like a likely modern submarine – it looked small for a carrier, but there was definitely something magnetic beyond the hull – around a hundred miles off, and a mass of metal that might be a ship or a sub around eighty away in a different direction. "Oh?" she asked Colette, silently watching the likely subs on her sensors, "How so?"

Colette grimaced, shifting in place. "It was originally supposed to be a pair of single 1.5 inch guns and a pair of twin 13.2mm machine guns, thankfully we got that quadrupled or better." She sighed, shaking her head, white hair whipping around. "Even back as far as Chacal, what history I managed to dig up says we were only getting a few guns for anti-air, not like you, or the Americans' Farragut-class, which at least had dual-purpose mounts even if they got as badly shafted on machine guns."

Whistling softly, Robyn shook her head. "Dang, that armament sounds like it would have sucked to use," she commented.

Colette nodded. "The Chacal-class was only supposed to have a pair of 3 inch guns for anti-air, at the same time the British were bringing out the Amazon… with all her abilities."

Robyn nodded slightly, knowing the gun loadout she was equipped with. "We're still figuring some of those out," she admitted. "Granted the speed is pretty nice," she added after a moment.

"And the rest?" asked Colette.

Waggling a hand back and forth, Robyn mentally checked the M.A.D. for the subs, noting them closer than before. "Still getting the hang of a lot of things, like ports and having a radio in my head." She grimaced. "My gunnery sucks," she admitted.

Colette arched an eyebrow at her. "How long have you been 'active' and how many fights have you been in?"

"About a month or two, maybe?" Robyn shrugged, "And counting the mess at your base, three," she admitted, "Plymouth, when I Awoke, rescuing Dauphin from some abyssals and Brest."

Pausing for a minute, Colette mentally argued with herself before giving Robyn a look. "Do you want to know a secret?" she asked softly. Getting an arched eyebrow, she shifted uncomfortably. "You've been in two more fights than I have, and I can barely hit targets at close range, let alone long range." She quieted for a moment before continuing. "You've certainly got more kills… I didn't really do anything in the mess earlier, and I doubt I could hit a cluster of abyssals at ten miles."

"Most of mine have been kind of… spray and pray, or area effect," Robyn admitted. "Sally's the one that's picking things up quick, but she's also the one with experience. Apart from the scars I got from whatever caused me to be dropped in an orphanage… before the attack on Plymouth I hadn't seen battles and most of that fight was more luck than anything."

"Better than me," Colette admitted, "I couldn't…" she trailed off and sighed, shaking her head. "I froze…" she whispered. "When Admiral Caillat took me and Vauquelin into his office… and that… that thing was in there… I just froze until Zephyr sent him out the window."

Shifting slightly, Robyn let herself drift closer to Colette, pulling her into a hug. "I spent I don't know how long hiding in an alleyway during the Battle of Plymouth," she pointed out gently. "Hell, Zephyr and her sister were running for shelter at Devonport and Devonport herself didn't exactly come through smelling of roses." She shook her head and sighed. "Zephyr was the least affected mostly because she's seen things that are on the level of the abyssals before. She's also the type to say 'you can do this,' which helps a lot."

Sighing, Colette leaned into Robyn's hug. "It still makes me feel terrible… I'm a shipgirl, but I still froze as if I was a normal girl still." She shook her head. "It doesn't help – at least to the admiralty – that it was British shipgirls that saved us."

Robyn snorted softly, shaking her head before frowning slightly as her sensor chief alerted her that both possible submarines she had been tracking were within torpedo range. "I doubt Zephyr would care about your nation," she stated softly. "Hang on, there's a couple of possible subs in my range," she added, having her communications officer open a channel so the others could listen in. "This is Royal Navy shipgirl HMS Zenith to approaching ships, I have you on sensors and request identification and purpose of approach, over," she said, sending the signal both via radio and sonar.

A few moments later there was a rather comical sounding squeak, almost like someone had stepped on a mouse followed by a few German swears.

"HMS Zenith, this is USS Virginia investigating sonar contacts within your AO," a male voice with a distinct American – Southern US American – accent answered her. "Our sonar reports a single prop cargo vessel following the French coast, along with two destroyer and one cruiserweight ships, over."

"USS Virginia, this is HMS Zephyr," Sally's voice sounded over the pair's sonar communicator. "Cargo vessel is La Tour du Pin, heading for HMNB Devonport, escorts are three French shipgirls, Le Malin, Vauquelin and La Galissonnière along with three British shipgirls, HMS Zenith, HMS Minotaur and myself. How copy?"

There was a pause from the Americans before they responded. "Loud and clear, Zephyr, our sonar only reads three escorts though."

"Affirmative Virginia," Robyn took over. "It's possible our drives are too quiet for your sonar at these ranges, I'm seeing you on magnetics and I'm aware of at least two submarine shipgirls who have issues detecting us without active sonar." She paused frowning slightly at the dark ocean.

"That would do it," Virginia's communications officer responded. He went quiet for a moment before returning. "Yup, magnetics see you, still not as easily as your companions." He snorted softly. "You Brits and your stealth, it's no wonder the Nazis switched back to surface warfare even at a disadvantage. Virginia returning to patrol, good luck with your escort ladies, out," he finished.

Robyn nodded slightly. "Roger that Virginia, good luck on your patrol, Zenith out," she finished before turning her attention to the other blip on her magnetic anomaly detector. "HMS Zenith to German ship, identify yourself and state your business, over," she ordered.

There was another mouse squeak from the other end of the line before an American voice came on. "Oh for fuck's sakes!" the person at the other end grumbled. "Zenith, this is USS Barb SS-220, would you pleasestop scaring the ever loving piss out of this bunch of cowards. You've already made U-81 and U-101 faint, and U-93 doesn't look much better, over."

Robyn blinked several times, both at the fact she had managed to make a couple of submarine girls faint just by calling them and that as Barb had mentioned each name, wireframe models of each ship along with their histories had flashed through her vision.

Shaking her head to clear her vision, she focused back on the sonar communication. "Barb, this is Zenith, I can honestly say I'm not intentionally scaring your charges, but remember they're former Nazi submarines, I'm a British destroyer, hunting them was part of my job back during the War," she pointed out.

"T-that's also t-the ship that c-c-caught U-47… after being t-torpedoed," a softer, Germanic voice sounded over the communicators. "A-and i-if s-she's here… Z-Zephyr probably is a-as well… t-that's the ship t-that sunk Bismarck a-and took on Heeringen a-after taking a-a torpedo volley f-from U-556."

"I get the feeling confirming that would give at least one of those girls a heart attack," Robyn muttered, getting a nod from Colette. "Barb, this is Zenith, what are you four doing in this region?" she asked.

"Zenith, Barb, patrol mostly. Hopefully getting these kids some experience," there was a pause before Barb's voice came back. "Hey, what are you doing and where are you sortieing from?"

Robyn shrugged. "I take it you didn't catch what we told Virginia. Five shipgirls and I are running escort for La Tour du Pin on route from Brest Arsenal to HMNB Devonport. The escort consists of me, HMS Zephyr," – cue a squeak from the German – "HMS Minotaur, Le Malin, La Galissonnière and Vauquelin."

"Affirmative Zenith…" Barb responded.

"From Brest?" the other voice, presumably U-93 asked. "Did you… did you see U-96 or U-522 while you were there? They were supposed to have been back weeks ago but we never saw them and the admiral at Brest kept saying they weren't there."

Robyn frowned, looking over at Colette. "You want this one?" she asked.

Colette nodded. "U… 93?" she started. "Barb, this is Le Malin out of Brest Arsenal. There was… something going on at Brest that slipped under everyone's noses. We, that is; me, Le Mars, Vauquelin, La Galissonnière, Dauphin and Ajax were told that both U-96 and U-522 had left over a month ago," she paused to let that sink in. "Recently we found out that our admiral was working with some sort of dryad or plant monster. We found five shipgirls captured, presumably your two, L'Opiniâtre, Iris and Atalante, the last three were supposed to be our reinforcements that 'never arrived'."

They got a pair of gasps from the radio.

"Barb, this is La Galissonnière," Christine cut in. "You probably ought to alert the head of whichever base you're working from that Brest Arsenal is currently inactive, we're transferring to Devonport for at least a few weeks." She broke off for a moment. "I'd suggest alerting the German admiral that U-96 and U-522 are not in a state to return to duty… reports from Vauquelin, Le Malin and Zephyr and Minotaur include the 'dryad' forcing something down the girls' throats, something that left at least Le Mars in a catatonic state and she's been affected the least of those still out."

"Roger that, La Galissonnière," Barb replied before falling silent for several minutes. "Here's hoping they recover, we need every shipgirl we can get. Hey, Zenith? Look after them, alright? I don't know what you lot did to scare the bilge water out of most of Germany's submarine corps, but I know you Brits are the ones holding the line around here. These girls need the hope; believe it or not you, more than the US, bring it. Giving them back some of their own would go a long way to boosting their morale."

U-93 coughed softly before adding. "Keep them safe, please… I don't want to lose my cousin… she's all the family I have left," she whispered.

Robyn winced slightly, grimacing at the pain in U-93's voice. "We'll keep them as safe as we can U-93," she replied. "Barb, I don't know how much morale we can give the girls you're with right now, but we'll do our best."

"That's all we can ask, Barb over and out," Barb replied.

"Thank you, Zenith, and good luck. U-93 out," U-93 added.

Nodding, she watched for a moment as the cluster of now identifiable ships on her sonar and M.A.D. started turning. "Good luck to you as well, Zenith over and out," Robyn said before letting out a breath. "Let's keep going, girls," she added after a moment. "We've still got a run to finish."