(AN: this FF has now surpassed my other works both in follows and favs. Thanks a whole lot to the community for appreciating this)
Using the student exchange program as a template, the Commander instituted the idea of having one group of women head from the base to the Sakura Empire and vice versa. It would allow both sides to learn more about each other, promote team building and better interactions and dismiss the idea that they were two different sides.
After greeting the group of Kinu, Suruga, Takao, Yukikaze, Noshiro and Ryuuhou, the Commander headed back to his office to start his day with some paperwork. No doubt Z23 had a pile of work for him to go over and the quicker he went through that mess, the better.
"Commander," said Akagi, coming from outside the headquarters "are you heading to your office?"
Unlike how Akagi usually greeted him in a jovial, flirtatious manner, he noticed how muted she behaved. She only acted like that if there was something honestly important on her mind.
"Yeah," he said, "come with me."
She nodded and together, the pair headed to his office. Once inside, he took a seat on one of the chairs, while Akagi sat on the sofa. In the time he had come to know the leader, this was the first time he saw her looking nervous.
Instead of asking her outright, he remained silent, waiting for her to feel comfortable enough to tell him what she was thinking.
"Commander," she said, looking like she was about to speak but stopped.
"It's about the sirens," she said, looking down.
"What about them?"
"Are you going to tell the others about my deal with them?"
He paused for a moment, weighing the pros and cons in his mind. Sure, it'd be easy to act all high and mighty and judge her for siding with the enemy.
Dealing with the enemy to protect the people you loved- it was a tactic that was not uncommon where he came from and he couldn't fault her for it.
"No," he said, finally breaking the silence and surprising her in the process.
"Really?" she asked "but why?"
"For starters, there's no point in airing out dirty laundry like that. And it would only cause unnecessary tension right now. Secondly, I can't blame you for trying something desperate to protect the Sakura Empire."
"Thank you," she said, getting up and deeply bowing to him.
"There is something else I want to ask you about the alliance," he said "when you spoke to that Siren, did you manage to learn anything about them? Their hierarchy, size of their troops, any information."
Akagi paused for a moment, recollecting her interactions with the alien race. "I remember her saying that she was one of three leaders, but she never mentioned the other two names."
"What about their troops?"
"Sorry Commander, but no," she said, shaking her head.
"Well that's still information for us," he said, "there's more going on here than we first expected."
"How so?" she asked.
"Three people at the top Akagi," he said to her "you've interacted with Sirens longer than I have. Do you think they're the type that like to share power?"
She paused for a moment, letting the question sink in.
"No. But then that would mean…"
"You guessed it. There's a head honcho leading this group that hasn't revealed themselves yet."
"Should we be concerned Commander?"
"Being concerned and worried is my job," he replied "your job is to take it easy, relax and enjoy yourself until its time for an operation."
At that, Akagi smiled warmly at him.
"Right then, now that that's out of the way," he said, getting up "I should start my work."
"Wait let me help you," she said, getting up and going after him.
"What was that?" he asked turning around and accidentally bumping into Akagi, causing the two to fall down.
"Ow, ow, ow," he said, rubbing his head
'Whoa,' he thought upon noticing Akagi lying on top of him nervous and flustered 'she's got such expressive eyes.'
"Um, Akagi," he said "could you get off me please?"
"No," she said, sounding like her usual self "I like it here."
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After having a hearty meal with her sisters, Enterprise decided to go outside for a walk. The cool night air and the sound of the waves brushing against the beach were soothing to hear. As she went past all the buildings, noticing how silent it had become, she noticed a figure standing near the beach.
Drawing closer and closer, she found that it was the Commander. At first she wanted to call out to him, but realized something. This scene was very similar to the steamy dream she had some time ago.
'No that isn't possible,' she thought 'I'm wearing my regular clothes and there's no table. This isn't a dream.'
"Hey Commander," she called out to him and he turned back to smile at her.
"Fancy seeing you here on this wonderfully quiet night," he said.
"I was just talking a little walk after the dinner my sisters and I had," she said, "what brought you outside Commander?"
"I had this weird dream where Unicorn's unicorn came to life," he replied, scratching his head "it did not like me."
Enterprise chuckled at the idea of him being chased around by a sentient toy unicorn, then thought a little about the Commander. Then she noticed that this was a rare opportunity she had. It was late at night so there were no interruptions. It was the two of them in a naturally romantic setting, but most importantly, there was no sneaky foxes to try and ruin the moment.
With that in mind, she came a little closer to him, which he didn't notice.
She then yawned out loud, putting one arm around him and resting her head on his.
"Enterprise," he said, noticing that she just tried the 'yawn' move on him "what are you doing?"
But Enterprise didn't answer, instead she drew closer and closer to him, her eyes closed. Being alone with the one you love with no interruptions in sight was a rare opportunity and one that Enterprise planned to capitalize on. She drew closer and closer to him, not hearing the whistling sound of cannon fire.
Suddenly, she was pulled forward and hurled to the ground, but before she could react, she heard the explosion and her mind connected the dots.
She was now being helped up by the Commander, who kept looking at the sky. Enterprise watched in horror as nearly half the sky was filled with Siren ships emerging through teleporters, with seemingly more and more on the way.
Their minds both shifting into crisis mode, Enterprise formed her bow, while the Commander headed back to back to sound the alarm.
"Don't do anything reckless," he called out, while running.
He burst into the headquarters then scrambled up the stairs to the communication room, wasting no time in sounding the alarm. He then turned on some of the machines, grabbed a headset and put it on, only to hear static.
'Damn,' he said, realizing what that meant.
He darted out the room and went to his office, where he grabbed his comm and sabre from the desk then rushed back outside.
"Attention everyone in the Coalition fleet," he said, marching towards the beach "this is a red alert, I repeat a red alert. I need everyone assembled on the beach ten minutes ago."
"Commander," said California "I'm at the Communications room."
"No point being there California," he said "they're jamming our signal."
"What the hell?" shouted Brooklyn "I didn't know the Sirens could do that."
"We can all gawk and admire the new tech later," he interjected "for now, I need everyone front and centre."
By the time he reached the beach, he saw Enterprise, Hornet and Cleveland attacking the Siren ships. He looked up and saw that no more were teleporting in, which was good on one hand. On the other, they were still outnumbered here.
He noticed Enterprise firing an arrow at one of the cruisers. The attack did indeed hit, but he noticed how the armor on the ship was only slightly damaged. Considering the amount of damage her shots were capable of inflicting on ships, it wasn't long before he reached a singular conclusion.
"Everyone," he said "they've reinforced their armor. Normal shots won't do as much damage as it did before."
"Commander, what do we do?" shouted Hornet, dodging a few shots but sounded desperate.
"Take a look at their cannons," he said, when they're about to fire, you'll see there's a three second delay. If you attack them during those few seconds, you'll ignite the ammo inside and do twice the damage."
"Commander that is an absurdly small opportunity," shouted Cleveland.
"It's a lot better than nothing," said Enterprise, taking his advice and firing at one of the Siren destroyer's cannons. She noticed how the explosion was twice the regular size.
'We're got numbers on our side but most of them are in the Sakura Empire,' he thought 'meanwhile the enemy has thirty cruisers, twenty destroyers ten battleships and ten aircraft carriers. We're dealing with an armada here.'
Realizing the size of the enemy he was facing, he felt a cold sweat running down his spine.
'You don't have time to be scared,' he thought to himself and dismissed any signs of fear that he had.
By now, the rest of the fleet had arrived on the beach and were immediately engaging the enemy armada. However, their scattered movements and disorganized patterns made it difficult for the fleet to counter attack.
"Akagi, Enterprise, Hornet, Wales, Eugen, Belfast, Illustrious and Cleveland," he said into his communicator, alerting them.
"Organize everyone here into teams and spread out. Staying here by the beach is only making you easy targets for them."
"Roger," said the group.
The numbers were not on their side. The enemy employed radio jammers to keep all communications from going out and were using higher grade armor than the other two times.
This wasn't one of those moments where a rag-tag group manage to overcome the odds and beat the enemy. He had to be realistic here, in order to win, they need help.
Which was why he was headed for one of the cafeteria/schools. Once inside, he made a beeline towards Yorktown's class, opening the door and calling out to her.
"Commander," said Yorktown, coming out from one of the corners, behind her were her class of Unicorn, Foote, Thatcher, Spencer, Fletcher, Raleigh and Aulick all huddled together and visibly worried.
"How are the kids?" he asked.
"They're scared, we all are," she replied "how bad is it out there?"
He was about to answer when a stray shell hit the building causing the whole structure to shake violently. Both Yorktown and the Commander crashed into one of the walls as a result of the violent shaking.
"Yorktown, you need to get the kids and take them to the Sakura Empire," he said, getting to his feet and helping her up.
"Get there, get Kaga and tell her to bring everyone she's got," he added.
"Go, now," he said, turning to the door.
"Commander," called out Unicorn "we can help too."
"No," he said, nearing the door.
"But…."
"NO!" he shouted, frightening the kids.
"Commander," chided Yorktown.
Rather than go outside, he paused and turned to the kids. He bent down and looked directly at Unicorn.
"I'm glad that you want to help but we have everyone on the base fighting the sirens, which is why you all have a different job."
Now he looked at the rest of the kids present.
"Ms. Yorktown here can't fight like the rest of us, so I need you all to protect her while she goes to the Sakura Empire. Can you do that for me?"
They all nodded.
"Commander," said Unicorn, tightly holding his hand.
"Don't worry," he said, smiling gently at her.
As much as he tried reassuring her, both Unicorn and Commander both knew it was just lip-service. In combat, the first objective is to make sure those who couldn't fight were as far away from the battlefield as possible. While the argument could me made that the kids and Yorktown could be used to fight, given the difference in power between the two sides, it'd be equivalent to sending lambs to the slaughterhouse.
At least this way, he was ensuring some of them were safe.
"I'll especially need you to be brave for me Unicorn," he said "everyone here might panic and get scared with everything that's going on. When that happens, I need you to calm them down and keep them safe. Can you do that for me?"
It was here that Unicorn displayed her maturity as although she was scared and worried, she nodded to the request.
"Good girl," he said, patting her head then standing up.
"Don't worry," said Yorktown, as she opened up a window in the room "I won't let anything happen to them Commander."
The Commander nodded and watched her help the kids out the window first then finally go out. When he was sure they had run far enough, he ran outside the building as fast as he could.
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The sounds of shells whistling in the distance, the explosions that made the ground shake and rattle, the clouds of smoke rising high enough they obscured the moon from view. She remembered it, she remembered it well.
Midway during the first war, Yorktown was part of a small infiltration group that went behind enemy lines in order to attack a Siren base. Due to a mistake from one of the teammates their position was discovered and the team was set upon from all sides. Their leader, Warsprite single handedly carved her way through Siren forces and gave the team the chance to escape.
Although they survived, Yorktown sustained severe damage to her weapon parts, effectively making her unfit to battle.
As they drew further and further away from the fighting, Yorktown occasionally looked back to the besieged base, thinking to herself how badly she wanted to fight. Her sisters, her friends and even the weakest person in their world were all on the frontlines risking their lives and her she was running in the opposite direction.
'Please hold on,' she thought, praying to whoever was listening "please hold on till I get back."
In that moment, the group heard the sound of a shell sailing through the air. The problem was that the shot was not aimed for any building on the base, it was aimed at them.
The kids and Yorktown were sent flying in all directions from the shot and it took them a moment to get to their feet.
"Kids, kids," she called out "follow the sound of my voice."
"Wow you're really making my job easy," said an unfamiliar voice.
She did not turn around quick enough and paid for it by being hit in the chest by a close-range shot, sending her crashing back through a few trees.
"When I was told to wait here in case someone tries to make a run for it, I thought I was going to have to watch as everyone else hogs all the fun."
Yorktown watched in horror as a yellow-eyed, pale skinned woman step into view, licking her lips like a predator.
"Well," she said, looking at her and the others "looks like I'll have some fun too."
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Running towards the beach, the Commander heard the sound of cannon fire followed by a shell landing a few feet near him. It hit the ground and sent out shrapnel in all directions, some of which hit him in the chest and right leg.
"Just a little further and they'd be picking pieces of you off the wall," said a voice in a taunting way.
When he heard the woman speak, he froze for a moment, his mind trying to reason that it was pure coincidence.
Yet as the Siren made her way into view, displaying a metallic right arm where her original one used to be and smiling a smile that could make your skin crawl, he confirmed it.
'It's her,' he thought, gritting his teeth, his blood boiling at the sight of the Siren in front of him.
"You," he said, barely holding in his anger and rage "you're the one who killed Hood."
"And now I'm here to finish what I started," she said, forming her weapons.
Logic and reason took a back seat. Calm, rational thinking gave way to white hot rage and fury.
As the Commander drew out his sabre, the only thing in his mind was making this alien scream and beg for her life.