Traditionally, the people and kansens of the Sakura Empire had a strong belief in the afterlife. It meant that when a person died, their soul lives on in the land of the dead. Said land in Sakura's culture was another realm entirely though not too far from the land of the living, which meant that spirits of the dead were always nearby, and may even paid their loved ones a quick visit during certain times of year.
Fast forward to the early 2500s, that belief got challenged and proven false by who could be considered to be the most ingenious person in human history, Catherine Elizabeth Halsey. To say that her thesis regarding this particular subject was controversial would be a great understatement.
The response was quite literally instant. All over Earth and the colony worlds, both Inners and Outers, various religious leaders and followers jumped on a bandwagon of smearing Halsey as well as anything that related to her, branding her a heretic for spreading blasphemous ideas. Some fanatics even resorted to measures that were borderline terrorism just to discredit the woman. Her former academy got attacked with molotovs though thankfully no one was hurt; Circumstance, an Inner colony world famous for its universities, saw a major spike in crime rates, all of which aimed at 15-year-old Halsey; every time she went outside, there would always be stalkers following her around to wait for the right moment to bare their fangs.
They never succeeded in their plans, however, for there would always be "guardians" that followed Halsey around and took care of the fanatics. No one knew who these so-called "guardians" were, as well as the fate of every stalker that they took care of. Nobody told Halsey who these people were, either; but after just two days of discrete observation of her surroundings, Halsey finally figured them out.
Agents of Office of Naval Intelligence, or ONI for short. Though of which branch, she did not know.
In short, it was a mess, and pretty much everyone tried to keep a distance from Halsey. Not that she cared, though.
By the time ONI recruited her in 2510 as a civilian consultant, ONI and HIGHCOM decided that transporting her via human-controlled ships were risky since the possibly of a religious assassination was still there. In the end, they agreed that sending a kansen to ferry Halsey to Reach would be a better idea.
That kansen, to her great dismay, was Epoch-class heavy carrier UNSC Soul of Amagi, a kansen that served in the UNSC Navy and was occasionally "borrowed" by ONI.
The trip from Circumstance to Reach was an uncomfortable one for Amagi. To her, that whole "mission" was a gross misallocation of valuable military resources and many fellow kansens, especially her sisters Akagi and Kaga, agreed. But orders were orders so she couldn't really do anything about it.
Though that was just one of the two reasons why Amagi disliked that "mission". The kitsune's other reason was the V.I.P that the heavy carrier was assigned to fetch. Halsey's thesis shook not only the religious communities around human worlds but also many kansens, particularly ones that came from Japan and China, also known as Sakura Empire and Dragon Empery back in the 20th century. In Amagi's case, Halsey's statements made the kitsune, for the first time in her life, pissed. After all, before she became UNSC Soul of Amagi, IJN Amagi had already experienced death and knew how it felt to still be "alive" but ignored by the rest of the world.
If only this second death of hers had been in the name of debunking Halsey's thesis and not at the hands of the vile Covenant.
Amagi slowly opened her eyes to see what this second afterlife had to offer. Inwardly, she hoped that somehow Kami and fate had somehow allowed the carrier to skip the whole war and see the aftermath of it. What welcomed the kitsune in her second life was the sight of her home planet... and pain; more specifically, pain coming from various wounds on her body.
'That is not supposed to happen', Amagi frowned in confusion. When she first died during the Siren War and entered the Realm of the Dead, she did not feel any pain or even discomfort. Amagi sighed, this was not the time to contemplate about something like that. She needed to deal with this pain first. Using nothing but her mind, the heavy carrier sent a command to her neural interface to assess the damage. When kansens of the world were re-summoned, every single one of them would have to undergo surgeries to install a special neural interface as well as some implants so that they could perform well with the rest of the UNSC forces. However, since kansens were, quite literally, magical girls with ship parts, normal implants used on humans did not work at all when they first received them. To solve this problem, UNSC HIGHCOM, in collaboration with ONI, turned to a technology that had been forgotten for centuries.
That technology was none other than Siren technology, the same one that ignited a major conflict between nations back in the 20th century. At first, many kansens were against this decision, some even threatened to mutiny. But after extensive explanations and persuasions, those stubborn girls finally agreed, albeit with great hesitation.
Throughout the conflicts against the Insurrectionists, the Siren-enhanced kansens finally came to appreciate the implants that were done on them. Compared to the past, they all now moved faster, had greater reflexes, were stronger, could suppress pain, and most importantly, could slowly heal the wounds inflicted on their bodies. The girls also received a pair of bright golden eyes as bonus, though some of them didn't like them very much, stating: "These make me feel like I'm one of them."
In short, their strengths were comparable to the Spartan-IIs but only in some aspects. Put a kansen against a Spartan-II and said Spartan would wipe the floor with the poor girl, as UNSC Kaga had found out the hard way.
Amagi silently giggled at the memory. Poor Kaga sulked for over a week and throughout that time, Akagi could do nothing but secretly fumed at the "assailant". Not that the heavy frigate could even hope to avenge her sister since the one that Kaga challenged to a duel was the legendary Spartan-II John-117 himself of all people. A lot of other fellow kansens were surprised that Kaga could walk away from that fight with only some bruises and scrapes, not crippled. No one could blame the girls for reacting like that though. After all, the kansens all knew about the story of how a 14-year-old boy named John beat up four ODSTs onboard UNSC Atlas, resulting in the deaths of two while two others were severely injured.
'What a time to be alive.', Amagi thought.
A small beeping noise quietly rang in her ears as the results coursed through her brain, and after seeing all the information, Amagi blanched. She sent another command to the neutral implant telling it to administer biofoam onto the cut on her forehead to stop the bleeding as well as into the hole on her right shoulder. The scrapes on her face were no big deal as they would slowly heal back to normal eventually, though the kitsune would have to live with her severed fox ear, tails and pinky finger
Since UNSC kansens spend most of their time operating in space, scientists had come up with a special type of biofoam designed exclusively for the girls. Normally, biofoam needed air in order to produce a foaming reaction, but this special biofoam variant didn't need air to work as it used kansens' blood as a substitute. Despite being able to suppress pain thanks to Siren technology implanted inside her, Amagi still flinched as biofoam started to work its magic on her wounds. The sharp pain comparable to being stabbed with thousands of tiny knives continued for twelve seconds before disappearing.
Just as Amagi was about to think what her next course of action would be, two yellow blips showed up on her left contact lens which had a built-in heads-up display. 'Friendlies', she thought as she looked towards the direction of the blips only to gasped in shock and surprise as she found two familiar figures floating about forty to fifty meters away from her: Enterprise and Javelin.
"This is UNSC Soul of Amagi calling UNSC Enterprise and UNSC Javelin, please respond!", Amagi called out via her radio as she limped her way towards the two.
To her relief and worry, only Javelin responded back. "Amagi? I-Is that you?"
"Affirmative, Javelin. What's your status, over?"
"I'm fine... I guess.", the little destroyer answered as she looked around her to try and find her Boss. "Where are you, Amagi?"
"Just stay put, Javy. I'm coming to your location now. Please check on Enterprise for me.", Amagi replied. As she got closer, the kitsune felt relieved when she saw that the petite destroyer only had some bruises and minor scrapes on her body and that her dress, armor plates, and rigging had some singes here and there. For a girl that committed a nuclear kamikaze not too long ago to suffer such minor injuries, such a feat would secure Javelin's name into UNSC's history books.
If only the destroyer kansen was still alive for that.
Checking on Enterprise, Javelin let out a gasp of horror and quickly keyed her mic. "Amagi, please quickly! Enterprise's pulse is very weak and... I can't hear her heartbeat!"
No words needed to be said as Amagi immediately pushed her engines to their limit, ignoring all the warnings that popped up on her HUD. Afterlife or not, they were still her friends and comrades, and she would be damned if she let any of them suffer in any way, shape, or form. Finally reaching the two, Amagi immediately checked on Enterprise's wounds and overrode the assault carrier's neural interface, forcing it to keep her rigging on standby mode lest the kitsune wanted her comrade to die from lack of oxygen. Poor girl suffered severe plasma burns all over her body; her face littered with cuts and bruises; and only when connecting with Enterprise's implant did Amagi see that the girl had her right leg broken, a hole in her abdomen and her left lung punctured.
While Javelin was busy using her own first aid kit to try and bandage the burn areas that had broken open, the kitsune commanded Enterprise's neutral implant to start administering her most severe wounds, namely her punctured lung, abdomen and other broken open burns, with biofoam and other drugs. After more than half an hour of combined efforts, praying and constant monitoring, Enterprise was finally stabilized.
But the assault carrier wasn't anywhere near "safe" just yet. She was still in dire need of extensive medical treatment.
"So... What do we do now?", Javelin meekly asked. Her voice sounded depressing.
Amagi sighed because she also did not know what to do. She had been running scans for any friendly frequencies for a while now and the only signal she received was coming from the planet itself. She turned to the small destroyer and softly answered.
"I honestly do not know, Javy. This... shouldn't happen, you know". Javelin stared at the kitsune in clear confusion, prompting the carrier to elaborate. "We all died protecting Earth, yes? So surely this is the Afterlife, but... Last time I entered the other realm during the Siren War, I felt no pain at all."
"...And you're wondering why we are still suffering from our injuries even though we all just died, aren't you?"
Amagi nodded. "This does not make any sense. For all intents and purposes, all three of us should have become spirits wandering around the Realm of the Living, not orbiting around pre-UEG Earth!", the carrier suddenly raised her voice, causing her subordinate to flinch a bit.
"W-What are you talking about?", Javelin asked.
"Run a scan of the planet before us, Javelin, and take a look around us.", Amagi replied in a softer tone. "You will understand what I meant."
Not wanting to agitate the carrier, Javelin silently complied and did what Amagi asked her to do. True to the kitsune's words, Javelin did not detect any UNSC signal beside Amagi's and Enterprise's. She did, however, detect signals coming from the planet in front of her. But since these signals were very primitive compared to UNSC's standards, the destroyer wasn't sure if she could secure a connection to any of them. Further scanning also showed that this planet's landmasses matched those of Earth 100%. Javelin then looked around her and widened her eyes slightly.
No space elevators, no Orbital Defense Platforms, heck, not even space junk could be found.
"See what I meant?", Amagi's voice snapped Javelin back to reality. The destroyer nodded, then all of them just stayed silent. Javelin used this time to check on her own inventory. She smiled a bit as she found that her issued M6G magnum's ammunition was still full... and that she still had a Pelican ready to go.
Maybe that could work.
"Hey, Amagi.", Javelin said, capturing the woman's attention. "We can't let Enterprise float around like this. She needs proper medical attention and the best you and I can do is give her first aid. Luckily, I still have one last Pelican left in my hangar."
Amagi looked deep into the destroyer's eyes. "You're suggesting that we should go down there."
"Precisely.", Javelin flashed a confident smile. "You and I both know that this pre-UEG Earth as you called it at least has civilization based on the radio signals that we detected. This means that we can surely find help."
Amagi opened her mouth to object, but a glance at Enterprise forced her not to. Despite not clearly visible, the kitsune could see that her friend's face sometimes slightly scrunched up in pain. The risks of going planet side were nothing to sneeze at. This planet was definitely Earth, but not the UEG Earth that Amagi and other kansens had come to know and love. Primitive radio signals, lack of space junks, and other orbital military assets. If what she had been speculating was true, Amagi guessed that she and her friends somehow died and got transported back in time.
The only question was how far back.
'This whole thing sounds like one of those cheesy and generic animes the destroyers love to watch', Amagi sighed in exasperation. Though in the end, what other choices did she have. The carrier could only pray to Kami and all the deities out there that they would get lucky and find help for their friend. The last thing she needed right now was to deal with the hostile natives of her own home planet.
"Alright then. Summon your Pelican, Javy. I'll prepare Enterprise for transport". Javelin nodded and summoned a Pelican dropship beside her. She then took out a stretcher from inside the troop bay then headed back out to help Amagi securing their unconscious friend for the trip. After making sure all the belts had been properly fastened and everything had been ready to go, Javelin walked towards the cockpit and set up the dropship's computer systems while Amagi closed the rear hatch. Once the hatch had been properly sealed and life support turned on, they all dematerialized their riggings, or in Enterprise's case, Amagi dematerialized it for the assault carrier. The kitsune kansen then made her way towards the cockpit to discuss the destination with her subordinate.
"From what I can see, we're currently above the Pacific Ocean.", Javelin said and pointed towards the holographic map. "The nearest place that we can find 'proper' civilization would be right here, the Hawaiian archipelago."
Amagi nodded. "Take us there, then. Remember not to approach too fast, I don't want to make the entire population of the Islands treat us as threats."
"Will do, Amagi. Just give me a second, I have to set up the coordinates for the autopilot."
The kitsune carrier then tapped on her subordinate's shoulder and walked back towards one of the seats in the troop bay. Few seconds later, Javelin also joined her, taking a seat next to Amagi.
"Ready?", Javelin asked.
"Let's go meet our ancestors.", Amagi replied with a smile. On Javelin's command, the Pelican's engines hummed to life and started propelling the dropship forward, carrying its passengers towards the planet below.
The trip to Earth was spent in silence, aside from the soft humming of the engines and the occasional vibrations as they re-entered Earth's atmosphere. The kansens had all got used to this by now, but that did not mean they enjoyed it. They would choose the space elevator or hitch a ride on civilian leisure crafts whenever they could.
After a few short minutes, the dropship slowed down its descent as it entered the stratosphere. Looking through the cockpit's window, Javelin could see that their destination was gradually getting bigger and bigger. She also saw some light on the Islands, which filled her with relief knowing that the population there was civilized enough to have working electricity, which in turn meant that Enterprise could be saved.
She truly hoped they could provide help.
Two blips suddenly appeared on her long-range radar broke Javelin out of her musing; a quick glance at Amagi showed that she also noticed the blips. These two blips were puzzling for the kansens as they constantly switched between red and yellow, meaning they were neither friends nor foes. To make matters worse, the blips indicate that they were at the same altitude as the Pelican and were approaching fast... very fast.
"To the two incoming aircrafts on our 9 o'clock, identify yourselves and state your intention.", Amagi radioed the two aircrafts on every frequency her system could scan. She had no idea whether these two unknowns could pick up her message or not due to the technology gap but it was still worth a try. As expected, she received no answer.
Feeling something was not right, Javelin stood up from her seat and made her way back into the cockpit to see with her own eyes what these two blips were. It was still nighttime and as far as her eyes could see, the sky was quite cloudy so she had quite a hard time finding the incoming objects. Just as her commanding officer was about to send another message, the destroyer kansen finally saw some features of the mysterious objects.
A pair of what seemed to be fixed-wing fighter jets with forward-swept wing configuration. It looked like they were both armed with four missiles each. They also did not have visible cockpits, and their looks gave her creeps. Patrol drones, maybe?
However, as the drones got closer, something inside Javelin's head suddenly clicked, and she gasped in horror.
OPANA RADAR SITE
KAWELA BAY, HAWAII
DECEMBER 7, 1941
2:07 LOCAL TIME
Richard Anderson, a young 27-year-old radar operator, sighed in boredom as he spent another night doing nothing but staring at the screen for any unusual activity around the Hawaiian archipelago. The only reason that he hadn't lost his sanity yet was because his CO was generous enough to give him a record player so that he could have something to listen to while he was on duty. That and sometimes some kansens would drop by and have a late-night chat with him.
Did he hate his current job? Absolutely yes. But did he want to quit? Absolutely not. Before he was assigned here, he had only heard about the kansens or seen them from afar. They were loved, respected, and idolized by pretty much all humans around the world. Richard was no exception to this fact; one of the reasons why he enlisted was because he hoped that one day, he would have the honor to fight alongside one of the guardians of humanity.
So that was why when the young man received a transfer order to Hawaii, his soul was filled with ecstasy. At first, he was a bit nervous, even afraid, that he would do something bad that may offend the girls; and in this society, offending a kansen would be the last thing a sane person would do. Luckily for him, the kansens at Pearl Harbor turned out to be quite chill. The first day he was introduced to everyone by the base's Commander, the girls even went so far as to throw a small welcoming party for him. One of the kansens, San Diego, gifted him several records of her songs, which he was currently listening to. Richard smiled; Sandy's songs never failed to lift people's spirits up.
On some occasions, a kansen would go to his post to have a late-night chat with him. He had asked them why him and not their Commander, and they all said that they did not want to disturb the man. Apparently, ever since the departure of Sakura Empire and Iron Blood kansens, the man had been very busy. It did not help that the intelligence guys had been sending in lots of reports lately, all of which were anything but pleasant. From what the girls had told him so far, it seemed that something was going on within Sakura Empire.
Something very big and was kept a highly guarded secret that, if he heard correctly, even Nagato, a kansen with a lot of authority within Sakura Empire's Imperial Navy and government, did not aware of.
That piece of information was indeed alarming.
In the end, what could a 27-year-old radar operator do? He was just a service member assigned to sit, stare at the radar screen, answer the radio when needed and listen to San Diego's songs. If God was a sadist, then he was doing a very good job in torturing while at the same time showing love to poor Richard.
"Cigarette break it is, then.", the young man turned the volume of the radio all the way up to max level before standing up and walking towards the steel door. Just as he put his hand on the door and was about to open it, he paused as his radio received an incoming transmission... and the radar screen showed three signatures closing in fast.
"...-his is... Peli... one dash one... any Azur... Can any... hear me?!"
Richard immediately rushed towards the consoles and hastily put on his headset. He then did his best to clear up the signal. "This is Opana Radar Site, Hawaii. I'm reading you. Please repeat your last, over."
Silence. Not a single answer came back to him. A quick glance at the radar screen showed that all three blips were still visible, with the only exception being all three suddenly changed course. Red flags started to pop up in the operator's head. Now fully alerted, Richard then tried to call again using the same frequency that the mysterious woman used to call him just now.
"This is Opana Radar Site to the incoming aircrafts flying towards the airspace of Hawaii. State your intention or we will treat you as threats."
Not a single second after Richard finished talking, a loud bang accompanied by a bright flash appeared outside his window, making him immediately turn towards it before looking back at his screen. The three blips were still there, though two of them turned away and flew northward away from the Islands while the remaining blip was still moving towards Hawaii. He was about to call the unknown woman again but she beat him to it. What came through sent shivers down his spine.
"...Mayday... Agh... M-Mayday... We're going down..."
Alarm sirens blared in pretty much every single military installation on the Hawaiian archipelago, waking up all the islands' population, both soldiers and civilians alike. According to the notice, an aircraft just declared an emergency and was losing altitude very quickly. Apparently, it was damaged by two high-speed unidentified flying objects, possibly Siren aircrafts. Searchlights pierced through the night sky trying to locate the crashing aircraft. Anti-air gun crews raced to their posts and quickly prepared the guns, eager to swat the damned Sirens out of the sky.
At the Azur Lane base, Eagle Union and Royal Navy kansens also rushed towards the ocean, all of them had their riggings out and ready for battle. The plan was to have all available kansens cover as much territory as possible, while on land repair ship kansen USS Vestal would oversee the preparation of the emergency rooms with the help of several Royal maids and human doctors and medics. Skating above the water surface, USS Helena concentrated on her SG radar to search for the signals that she was briefed beforehand, while her groupmates, USS Laffey and HMS Arethusa, kept their eyes on the sky and over the horizon, scanning vigilantly for any Siren threat.
So far, Helena's radar hadn't found any unusual signal yet aside from her other fellow kansens. Just to be sure, the light cruiser occasionally turned around to cover all the blind spots, just to make sure she didn't accidentally miss anything. There had been some reports from various kansens and radar installations claiming that the Siren aircrafts now had some sort of stealth capability, which rendered them completely invisible on radar as long as they stayed behind you. When one turned to their direction, their radar signatures would instantly come back, though most of the time when they finally saw them appear back on radar, it would be too late. Up to now, no kansen had been killed by these kinds of sneaky attacks, though it would only be a matter of time before someone did.
"Have you found the stricken aircraft yet, Helena?", Arethusa asked.
"Not yet, Arethusa. But according to Opana, the aircraft we are looking for declared an emergency somewhere northward not too long ago.", Helena replied before she concentrated her radar towards said direction. "Radar operator Anderson also reported that they were still at a pretty high altitude so we should be able to see them in a few more minutes."
And true to her word, a single blip appeared on her SG radar, accompanied by a soft hum which sounded eerily like one of those Siren planes. It seems like her groupmates also noticed the sound as they all directed their AA guns towards the north.
"This is Helena to all Azur Lane kansens and AA personnel. My radar just picked up a signal coming in fast from the north, possibly the aircraft that we're looking for.", Helena reported her finding to everyone. Few seconds later, two more search and rescue groups comprising of two battleships, three destroyers, and one heavy cruiser came to her location. They all had their weapons and eyes towards northward to find any sign of the distressed aircraft as well as Sirens.
Suddenly, a gigantic and blocky-looking aircraft appeared out of the clouds and was heading straight towards Helena's direction, its left side and tail were on fire. All nearby searchlights were directed towards the flaming aircraft at once... and all the people there had to do a double take. The green-painted aircraft's design did not look like it belonged to any nations on Earth. Some kansens and AA crews even directed their aims at the crashing aircraft when they noticed the flame-emitting jet engines mounted on its wings and tail, thinking it was a Siren fighter jet. However, a closer observation showed that the plane had a visible glass window at the front, which meant that it had a functional cockpit for pilots as opposed to the unmanned Siren planes.
As the flaming aircraft got increasingly closer at an alarming rate, everyone began to get panicked and quickly scramble out of its way. Some kansens who didn't have enough time to dodge just dematerialized their riggings and dived under the water surface. As the gigantic aircraft was only mere inches above the water, whoever was piloting it seemed to have regained some sort of control as they managed to raise its nose slightly upwards. All eyes were now focused on the strange aircraft as it was about to crash land.
Four seconds later, the aircraft crashed. It first touched the ocean water on its belly and skidded for a few meters before suddenly making a sharp left turn to the side. The water resistance caused the plane to start tumbling violently, ripping its wings and some pieces of metal off, causing them to fly all over the place. The plane finally came to a stop, luckily in the upright position, as it hit the shallow part of the beach, and immediately all kansens and human paramedics rushed to the wreckage.
"Hang in there, we're coming!", one of the first kansens to arrive, USS Cleveland, shouted.
"If anyone in there can hear me, please make some noises!", a paramedic yelled.
"Can anyone find some sort of hatch or door of this thing?!"
"Found it! There's a hatch back here! Damn it, it's too heavy!"
As the battleships and heavy cruisers were trying to prop the rear hatch open, human rescuers focused on another part of the craft, the cockpit. They had to help each other up as the huge size of the aircraft made it very difficult for them to just simply climb themselves up. Once they had made it on top, two of them shone their flashlights through the class window, and they, along with a few others, all gasped in shock. Inside the cockpit, they could see a small female figure sitting unmoving on one of the two seats, her head slumped forward. What was more alarming was that there was a big piece of metal sticking out of her stomach... and she was losing a lot of blood.
"We've got a person over here! Get a stretcher!", one of the men shouted.
"Hey! You, in the cockpit! If you can hear me, just hang in there! We'll get you out in no time!"
The human rescuers immediately went to work breaking the glass window to save the girl. Despite being littered with numerous cracks before the men even started banging on it, the window still refused to surrender.
"Give me the sledgehammer, quick!", one of the men shouted to one of his teammates, who immediately did what he was told. "Stand back, guys!"
The man then swung the hammer with all his might down onto the glass, forming a small spider-web crack. He then tried again on the same spot, which only made the crack bigger.
"What is this goddamn glass made of?!", the man complained in agitation. "Come on, break already!"
The man slammed his hammer again, though this time Lady Luck was on his side as the glass finally gave way. Now that the window was considerably weakened, rescuers began to hastily break the remaining glass with relative ease. After clearing the glass to an acceptable degree, two of the rescuers got inside and began assessing the girl's injuries. At the same time, everyone at the front could hear loud noises from the back of the aircraft, which meant that the kansens had also successfully propped open the rear hatch. There were also a lot of gasps and even crying but the men paid no heed.
There would be another time for that.
"Christ, she's impaled in her seat by this piece of metal.", one of the two rescuers inside the cockpit informed his teammate. "Get some bandages ready. As soon as I pull it out, you wrap her stomach as fast and as tight as you can. Got it?"
"Yeah, got it."
"Okay. You're ready?"
"Let's do it."
"Right, on three.", the man took a deep breath and placed one of his hands on the girl's left shoulder, the other on the piece of metal. "One, two, three!"
The rescuer put all of his strength on his arm and in one swift motion, pulled the piece of metal out. He then threw it away and put both of his hands onto the girl's slender shoulders to hold her in place while his partner quickly wrapped the white bandages around her abdomen. After he had finished, they both gently removed the girl from her seat and made their way towards the rear, where a stretcher was already waiting for them outside. By now, the kansens that entered via the rear hatch had already vacated the wreckage so it gave the men the much needed space to carry the girl on their hands out quickly. Numerous kansens were standing guard around the wreckage and PT boats were also seen deployed.
As they exited the craft, some kansens who glanced at them either widened their eyes or gasped in shock once they took a look at the person they were carrying.
"...No bloody way..."
"S-She too...?!"
"Look at that injury... Poor thing..."
"I'm dreaming... This is just a bad nightmare..."
Confused and slightly annoyed, the men picked up their pace and finally reached the other medics who were waiting with a stretcher. They then gently placed the girl onto the stretcher, though they just almost dropped her as they now had a good look at her face.
The girl they just rescued looked exactly like HMS Javelin of the Royal Navy.
Before any of them could utter a word, the men carrying the stretcher had already rushed off towards one of the ambulances waiting on the beach. After they had properly loaded Other-Javelin inside, the vehicle immediately sped off towards the base's hospital.
However, because everyone was so focused on the search and rescue mission, nobody took notice of a figure wearing a black cloak hastily retreating back into the woods. Her masters must know of this as soon as possible.
