Heart of Oak: Chapter 2

"That's not right, I still can't hail Calcultta's base. Did it get attacked by…?"

Despite hailing the base using encrypted channels, Perseus still did not receive a reply. They were approaching the edges of Calcutta harbour soon, and a dozen scenarios raced through her mind. What if they were in the middle of being attacked? Had Calcutta been completely destroyed, thus resulting in no one there to answer her hails? She pushed those thoughts to the side, instead deciding to just see the port city for herself. Despite it being located inland, it had a significant river connection that flowed out to the ocean, thus making it a safe area for Kansen to use as a base. It wasn't as dangerous as a completely exposed harbour, and it also doubled as an area with natural defences.

"I still can't hail anyone in Calcutta, be on your guard."

"Roger."
"I will follow your lead."

Despite her two companions being with her, Perseus could not help but feel that something did happen with the mirror sea. But again, she wouldn't know until they came up on the harbour, which should happen…now.

"...What…?"

Before the trio of lost Kansen, was a city that looked completely fine. The night's sky provided a dark backdrop for the city's lights, giving it an almost ethereal look from where they stood on the river leading into Calcutta. Scanning both banks of the river, however, revealed a distinct lack of any Naval installations or large ports. Sailing closer, Perseus found a navigation buoy, and the words inscribed on it confused her even more.

"Kolkata…Republic of India…?" The Devanagari words made no sense to her. Perseus, having spent considerable time in the far east, was stationed in a lot of places, and thus often had to learn much of the local languages. She had spent some time in Bombay with the local fleet there. Kansen, depending on their origins and what they were named after, often had characteristics of their namesake. For example, being named after Perseus, the Athenian hero, she could speak fluent Greek, despite never having actually learned it. She just knew how to speak the language, and it also applied to many others. It was not a particularly useful skill in terms of fighting Sirens, but it made for a much easier time abroad, especially if they or someone they were travelling with spoke the local language.

Regardless, looking at the buoy right now, the spelling of Calcutta was different, it was the native pronunciation, but the Republic of India part was what confused her greatly. Instead of it being the Princely Federation like she was used to, what the bloody hell was the 'Republic of India'?

Hanazuki and Minneapolis noticed her hesitation, and they looked upon both Perseus and the buoy with some confusion.

"Uh, Perseus, are you okay? You're really focusing on that buoy right now, what does it say?"

She took a deep breath, before opening her mouth. The cold spring air of night blasted against her face. "It says…we're in Calcutta. Do any of you know anything about a 'Republic of India'?"

They shook their heads, and Perseus sighed. It seems that either something had really changed compared to the last time she was at Calcutta, or Kolkata now, or she was just ignorant about the city's real name for all this time. Checking the time, it should have been around midnight local time then, so hopefully, they would find someone from the Royal Navy there.

Pressing forwards, the city came into view, and the sense of wrongness only grew for Perseus.

Minneapolis, or Minnie as her other New Orleans-class sisters called her, didn't think much of their current situation. They had a solid plan, which was to get to the closest Royal Navy base and ask for further orders. The only reason she was even roped into the escort duty was that it was generally better to sail as a group regardless of where one was going. In her case, she was transiting through the Indian Ocean to Gibraltar, then to Brest where she was to meet up with Washington and head back to NY port.

It was going to be a bit of a detour, but she'll understand. Washington wasn't a particularly strict person either way, unlike some of the Ironblood types she had encountered so far. They were a lot less laid back in general compared to the other Eagle Union ships, that was her opinion of course. She wouldn't ever say that out loud within earshot of anyone from that faction, their riggings often creep her out. It was either alive, or it wasn't, and the worst part was that despite them being modelled after animals, you couldn't exactly hunt riggings like other game could you?

Heading onto a pier, she noticed that there weren't the usual anti-siren submarine nets or searchlights that dot most harbours at night. Did the Royal Navy just do things differently or…?

"Ack! Why'd you stop-"

Perseus suddenly stopped in front of her, her back still as a stone wall. Hanazuki turned her head forwards, as she looked at what the light carrier stared at. She was staring at what appeared to be a coast guard base, flying a completely different flag to what the Royal Navy normally used.

"Perseus? I'm no expert on the Royal Navy…" Minneapolis slowly started, careful to not agitate the carrier. "But that doesn't appear to be a Royal Navy flag or base…"

Using her optics, she saw that all of the ships tied to the base's pier do not appear to be any designs she was familiar with. They were also crewed by actual people, instead of any mass-produced ship that usually protected most coastal cities now.

"We need to go investigate. Stay quiet, and do not attract any attention. I'm not sure what happened in that mirror sea, but we need to try and contact command regardless. Is that acceptale to the two of you?"

Minneapolis and Hanazuki both nod, their faces serious as they did so. So far, all they have seen so far was familiar, but also somewhat strange as most coastal cities had changed to withstand Siren bombardment attacks every so often.

SHIELD Helicarrier No.64
Undisclosed Location

Nicholas Fury stood on the bridge of the SHIELD Helicarrier in silent contemplation. With Project PEGASUS coming along smoothly, the council had finally stopped getting on his back constantly regarding his side projects. Namely, the Avengers initiative. Dr. Selvig had managed to make great strides in researching the Tesseract, and they were now in the final stages of mass production regarding the energies that could be harnessed.
Perhaps the Avengers weren't needed after all, but he knew better. It was better to not keep all your eggs in one basket, and he wouldn't only count on one singular 'magic' cube to deal with all of Earth's potential threats.

"Director Fury, Commander Gonzales is on the line, he says it's urgent."

Maria Hill's voice suddenly came through his earpiece, and he sighed loudly. The brief moment of respite from managing SHIELD operations was over, and he had to get back to it.

"Put him on."

Seconds later, on his screen appeared Gonzales, in his commander's uniform. His expression told Fury that something bad had happened, but to what extent remained to be seen.

"Commander Gonzales, report." Quick and straight to the point. Fury hated unknowns, and this better had not been another damned unknown. Asgardians from legend being real had made his blood pressure spike a year ago, and he hoped that this time wouldn't be another one such 'unknown'.

"Director Fury, four hours ago my vessel detected a massive energy pulse over the Indian Ocean. Upon investigating the site, we came across evidence of what appeared to be a naval battle between ships of unknown origin. We are sending you the information we have about it now. A team is currently transporting the wreckage to the Helicarrier as we speak."

An unknown naval battle in the middle of the Indian Ocean? He immediately suspected something to do with the new PLAN submarines that they were testing. If so, he needed to have a frank and honest conversation with Councilman Yen regarding his government. Narrowing his eyes, he immediately opened the report, and he was greeted by an image of the wreckage.

The first was what appeared to be a blue mechanical box, in dark bold letters, and the words 'TECH 2' were emblazoned on its sides. What the hell was he looking at? The use of English implied that it did not belong to anyone in the region, but flicking through the report, the team aboard the Illiad couldn't get it to open. They were careful to not use more 'intrusive' methods so far, but they didn't even know where to begin opening the thing. He thought about letting the technicians on the Helicarrier take a crack at it first, he really didn't want to consult Stark about any unknown tech just yet.

The second piece of 'evidence' appeared to be a large black steel plate. It was from the hull of a ship if the report was correct, but the material used to construct it wasn't anything SHIELD was used to. More analysis would be needed before concluding anything about its material.

Sighing loudly once more, he figured that he was dealing with another 'unknown'. "Commander Gonzales, keep investigating for now. I expect another report soon."

With a nod of affirmation from him, he terminated the video call. Hopefully, it was just another U.S. Navy secret project gone wrong, dealing with another unknown right now would be a massive pain in the ass.

As Fury walked away from the bridge, he thought that Doctor Selvig could take a little bit of time off Project PEGASUS to look at the energy readings, since that was, after all, his specialty.

AN:

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