It was a sunny day with clear skies all around. The sun shined down beautifully on this part of Remnant, glittering on the crystal clear waters of the harbor. A flock of seabirds flew in formation high above the water, their shrill cries echoing around the high natural walls enclosing this sheltered place. Then a loud and deep, buzzing sound drowned out the birds' cries, who then scattered around a pair of bright red planes swooping upwards from the ground.
"Target aircraft, six o'clock high, crew traverse gun!"
The gun turned, faster now as its crew furiously spun the traversing wheels and adjusted the elevation of the barrel in a bid to outdo their previous records. Soon enough the sights were positioned relatively in front of the target planes and the gun captain nodded in satisfaction. Filling his lungs again before he bellowed the next order.
"Open fire!" Barely did he finish the 5-inch deck gun fire, the booming report echoing around the harbor. The shell was blasted up, traveling fast then detonating nearby the pair of target planes flying together. With binoculars, the observers standing on Highwind's upper decks can see the plane nearest to the shell be perforated with holes from the deadly flak and the plane. Smoke started pouring out, before the plane wobbled and started losing altitude.
"Great start boys!" The gun captain let the gun crew have a short moment to celebrate, before issuing new orders. "A repeat performance will be nice, now fire!"
It's been a couple of days since Highwind has finished her repairs, having been moved out to be moored at the dock next to my manifested hull. During that time I've been spending some time joining , Highwind and the others watched as Flint drilled the new nine-man gun crew on how to operate their new deck gun. Before that though they've also been practicing with dummy rounds and non-functioning cannon to get the hang of operating such a different system of gun than they're used to, sharing some laughs with Highwind over their early blunders and getting chewed out mightily afterwards. Now though, watching them shoot down round after round at the third wave of target planes sent up like seasoned gun crews had us sure that Highwind and her crew are feeling much safer now. They sure got the hang of it quickly.
"Seeing those flak shells in action hadn't yet stopped getting old." The good captain commented cheerily beside me, putting down his binocs and admiring the view. "Really, it's something so simple yet we hadn't thought to do it ourselves."
"Well, I'm sure someone would have thought to make a timed fuse eventually." I reassured him, looking away from the spectacle above and turning to him with a shrug. "Don't blame yourselves too much. Innovation takes time, motivation and luck."
"And the grimm makes for a very big motivation to make stuff like these, hm!" He said, giving me a nod before looking back up with his binocs. "Heh, we'll be turning Nevermore flocks to black confetti with that new gun..."
I decided to move on to do another thing then, losing interest in the gunnery practice and looking for something else to occupy my time. I have a lot of free time, having finished playing tour guide of my hull this morning and just had a chat with the manjuus about the future of this base before joining Highwind's crew to watch the gun crews training. I've already decided on a plan for the near future, with input from and the manjuu elders.
First we'll leave port and from there I'll continue to play escort to Highwind until we reach the relative safety of the more heavily patrolled waters around Vytal island. I'll then say my farewells, and return to the naval base to officially take over as the manjuu'd been wanting(even begging) me to. Beyond that is more uncertain, but the captain had promised he'll put in a good word about me to 'important' people he knows in and out of the company fleet he's working under. That'll certainly be a good start on getting more resources to fix up the base, and maybe even a way for me to get high paying jobs. I've also chatted with Indigo and Nandor during their breaks, and came to know more about how Huntsmen do their thing. Turns out that not a lot accept jobs in escorting ships, mostly because few Huntsmen, solo or teams, are as well versed at fighting grimm out in the ocean compared to those at land. A niche that I'll be filling in very nicely thanks to my 'semblance.'
Oh, speaking of Huntsmen, the two explorers were there just down the gangplank. Nandor was sitting on a couple of locked strongboxes, entertaining Highwind with more stories while Indigo was standing a bit further reading a worn looking book.
"Hey everyone!" She greeted them with a wave as she walked down, catching their attention.
"Heya auntie!" Highwind waved back with a smile.
"Yo, Iowa!" Nandor replied with a smirk.
"Hm." Indigo only looked up at me with a small nod. I was gonna move over next to Highwind when I caught the older Huntsman making a 'come here' gesture to me, so I told the two closer to my age that I'll be with them later and walked up to Indigo.
"Got something to talk to me about?" I asked him, who'd closed the worn book that I can now identify as an old warbook of American ship classes. Must have gotten it during their dungeon diving.
"I do, over here." I followed him a bit further, towards a flat trolley with only one strongbox on it. "Something we found in the semi-buried in a collapsed tunnel."
Oooh, what could it be? I wondered, leaning over the (retired)Huntsman's shoulder as he was fiddled with the lock. "Figured you'd know more about... this.." He opened the box, the lid going up to reveal... oh shit.
Faster than I thought I would move I slammed the box shut, easily overpowering Indigo and looked in his eyes very closely. "Where did you find this?" I hissed at him though the man remained unperturbed.
"Deep in the underground levels, where the laboratories were." He answered back in a low voice, his eyes glinting with satisfaction. "You know what it is then."
I nodded. I never may have seen them personally, nor did the original Iowa, but I've played the game enough to be certain, and something in me made me unable to deny the fact that the deathly pale and rusty hand resting innocently in the box belonged to a Siren.
"Take me where you found it."
Walking down the dusty ruined hallways of the underground labs reminded me of exploring abandoned construction sites before getting isekaied, but worse with the ever present evidence of the fact that a lot of people died here. There weren't any corpses or old skeletons, most likely been seen to by the manjuus, but there were still others as evidence.
In the lead was Indigo, me and an older manjuu following behind him and Nandor trailing behind. Past broken down doors and shattered environments we walked, frequently encountering scattered piles of empty bullet casings, the occasional spent cannon shell and very old bloodstains. It wasn't a place that made for any sort of light conversation, so none of them spoke up and kept going further. For the two explorers, it was probably the solemnity of walking inside a ruined fortress where its defenders all died. For me?
Occupying my head like a particularly stubborn mule was the memory of seeing that hand. Details like the rust marks, the steel bones jutting out amongst torn flesh and the rest were irrelevant, nothing but the fact that the limb belongs to a Siren matters. Why? The Grimm were bad enough, but manageable with sufficiently overwhelming firepower, but to throw in Sirens of all things as well into this already messed up world...
I sighed, mentally. Goodbye, taking it easy in my second chance at life. I guess wherever Sirens are, Shipgirls eventually show up too. And going by the age of this place and ruined state I found it in, I came around way too late. That brought up even more questions of the circumstances of how I came to be.
Lost in thought, I hopped across another black chasm with all the effort of jumping a puddle, shaken back into the present at Nandor's shout.
"Hey Iowa, catch the bird!"
"Chirp chiiiiiiirp!"
I spun around with alarm, arms raised and ready to catch the frantic little foreman arcing towards me. Inward calculations were done, and minute adjustments to my posture were added as an afterthought to better catch the manjuu.
"Got you!" I grunted as he landed exactly on my waiting arms, hugging the little guy and bringing him away from the edge of the gap. I then shot the junior huntsman a glare as I shouted. "What the hell was that?!"
"It's the fastest way to bring him across, seeing as he can't fit on the ledge or jump the gap." His unfazed reply was irritating, the guy jumping across himself. "Besides, this is the only path we found so far that leads to where we found the arm. The others are either caved in or dead ends."
"Doesn't change the fact that was a stupid move kid." Indigo sided with me there, landing next to his apprentice. He then proceeded to slap him upside the head as he spoke. "You could have carried the foreman yourself. Don't always choose the quickest way forward, think more."
"...sorry."
That whole thing was the only memorable event that happened, the rest being walking down the silent halls until, finally, we made it to the cave in which the arm was found. I have built up a whole... dread expectation during the trip down here, so to be standing there and just seeing another regular cave in was somewhat underwhelming. And I was also dissatisfied with the site being illuminated enough by the explorer duo's lanterns, so I decided this'll be a perfect time to experiment: can I use my searchlights in human form?
It took a moment of concentration, basically thinking to myself "Lights on!" on repeat until something sort of clicked in my head. My rigging manifested around me, some small tube things popped out from opened panels, and then the once dark hallway brightened up as if the sun's light reached this deep underground.
"Oh, didn't know I could do that! Hey guys, what do you..." I turned around, excited to brag- no, share the joy of discovering something new with the others.
"Hm!"
"Chirp?!" (What?!)
"O-oy!
Then I realized that since the lights are fixed where I'm facing, then I've just literally shined a couple of searchlights at them at point-blank range. So they were forced to look away quickly if they didn't want to be blinded.
"Haha, sorry sorry." I quickly turned back around to face the collapsed part. "So, uh..."
"Geez Iowa, give us a little warning next time." Nandor grumbled from behind me. "And now we can see a bunch of rubble better."
Well yeah, he spoke the truth. Even seeing it in much better lighting isn't really helping. It still looked like every other collapsed hallway, just... with...
"Right up there with some of the more macabre sights I've seen in my career." Indigo commented, ducking under my deployed rigging then walking towards one of the many dried pools of blood that seeped out from under. Not just blood, there was also a lot of fuel oil splattered and seeping from all over the chunks of concrete that blocked off the hallway.
And I thought myself prepared to see worse things, but seeing all this was like a gut punch compared to the small nudges from earlier as the knowledge that people died here became... all more real. It's one thing to read and think about it from a distance, but seeing it myself now... it's like a pit grew in my stomach.
"Chirp...?" (Could this be...?)
I carefully turned only my head to the manjuu foreman who waddled over beside me, his sign flipping over to reveal more text.
"Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp." (The elders spoke of a final gambit by the ancestors. The invaders were said to have been buried with the defenders as the tunnels were deliberately collapsed.)
"So the answers we need to know more are somewhere behind all that rock?" Nandor pointed out from behind me, scratching his head according to my hearing. "Brothers, how the hell are we gonna dig through all that?"
We spent some time standing around then, thinking about that particular conundrum. Then the two explorers/huntsmen perked up at the same time, Nandor patting a fist on his palm and Indigo snapping his fingers.
"The vents!" We all answered at the same time. We then quickly traded glances before Indigo spoke up again. "Foreman, underground facilities like this will have an extensive ventilation network right?"
"Chirp?" (Yes?)
"So, we just have to find our way there through the vents!" Nandor said after, crossing his arms and nodding to himself. "Shouldn't be that hard, and you guys still have the maps for these parts, yeah?"
"So in and out through the vents!" I spoke up next and pumped a fist, determined to see this through. I can't leave a potential Siren surviving somewhere down here alone for long, who knows what kind of catastrophe that'll bring.
"Chirp!" (Yes!) The Foreman had cutely imitated my fist pump. "Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp!" (I have the maps with me, I'll find the safest path forward!)
"Will we even fit in those vents though?" Indigo asked a very important question, interrupting this nice little moment three of us made.
"Chirp chirp chirp." (They had to be.) Foreman had a very deadpan look as he answered. "Chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp, chirp chirp." (The ancestors' records complained about certain destroyers and submarines getting stuck in the vents all the time due to 'various reasons,' so they were overhauled.)
"Oh." I... can easily see that happen. I can feel the huntsmen pair's very curious looks on me, but I deigned to leave their unsaid questions unanswered. Later, I'll do it later.
So I unsummoned my rigging and walked off towards a random door I saw nearby. "What are we waiting for guys? Let's go!"
"Are we there yet?"
"Chirp." (No.)
...
Going through the vents was... a very dull activity. They were definitely more spacious than normal vents, but we still needed to bend over a lot unless we wanted to hit our heads on the ceiling. It's also the same dusty old gray metal every step of the way.
The huntsmen following behind me looked to be handling this part well- oh wait, Nandor behind me looked to be about to fall asleep with his head hanging down facing the floor. His teacher, Indigo, was very focused on a little booklet he's reading. Finally though, the Foreman stopped before a grate on the floor in front and called for a halt with a sharp chirp and that magical sign of theirs showing a stop hand symbol.
"Are we there yet?" I asked just to be sure, and got a sigh and a nod in response. Sorry manjuu Foreman, it had to be done. "Great! Where are we in the labs?"
"Chirp chirp chirp chiriip chirp." (On top of a storage chamber.) The Foreman replied as he got to work unscrewing the grate.
"Would your ancestors, or the ancient humans who lived here, have thought to leave us some neat things down there?" Nandor didn't sound like he was about to pass out at all, but wide awake the whole time. "Like maybe powerful ancient technology, or maybe even magical artefacts? Or even highly advanced research that would shock scientists all over the world, that'll be very awesome."
"Thats if the deliberate collapse left any undamaged." Indigo, ever the cynical one as I've come to recognize between them. "Although... I won't mind finding a bunch of ancient texts and research papers. There should be some better preserved ones down here where the weather won't destroy them over the years."
The man is also an avid reader of books. I recalled how his gaze had turned towards the library door when I gave him and the others a tour of my hull. A satisfied chirp followed by a metal object snapping had me turning back to look at the Foreman, who was looking very proud standing next to the open hole where a grate used to be. A loud metallic crash not far below immediately followed.
"Alright, I'll go first and light the room." I stepped up to the hole, very eager to get out of the vents. "Besides, out of all of us I can tank explosives and fists to the face no problem."
"We'll be right behind you Iowa." I felt Nandor's hand patting my shoulder as he spoke. I smiled, turning to give him my thanks when I saw him resolutely looking to the side with a slight blush on his face. Indigo was giving him a deadpan look, before turning towards me and made a shooing motion.
"Go on, we don't have all day." Not knowing what else to say, I just nodded back and hopped down the hole.
As I fell down I manifested my rigging around me, the comforting sight of my big guns appearing in flashes of blue lights. When I hit the floor I cratered it, numerous cracks spider webbing away in all directions as my feet broke the tiled floor. I then turned on my searchlights, pointing them around me to shed some more light on where we ended up, with my guns searching around as well in case of an ambush.
"It's clear!" I shouted up, keeping my eyes on the many rows of shelves with only a few still standing with many others having collapsed. Boxes and the iconic crates I recognized from the game were scattered all over, if not neatly placed on the still intact shelves. A lot though looked to have been broken open fuelling my paranoia. Looking back up, I reckon I fell about three storeys from the vent up there to here, not that high for kansen and huntsmen to inconvenience us even a bit.
Huntsmen Indigo then Nandor then fell down behind me, the younger guy holding the Foreman in his arms as the manjuu held on for dear life. Indigo looked around for a bit, looked at the torch he's holding in one hand and put it back in his satchel.
"Alright. Considering the threat of the Siren you've told me of Iowa, there'll be no splitting up in this exploration." He spoke up, and I kind of felt like it'll be better if he takes the lead from this point on. He's clearly an old hand at this ruin exploration... thing...
Indigo Jones... Indiana Jones... what the heck why haven't I connected the dots far sooner?! I just remembered that RWBY is full of expies from other fictional stories! Indigo Jones doesn't just look like Indiana Jones, he is Indiana Jones here!
"Foreman, you know this place better than us. Hop on to Iowa and point the way, she'll lead. Nandor and I will follow behind and watch our backs." The Indiana (Indigo) Jones(!) continued detailing the plan. "Along with looking for the Sirens we'll be heading to the main labs or archives down here to take back upstairs."
"Right!" I answered, keeping my face turned away and looking outwards to hopefully hide my excited grin until I calmed down. This is a serious situation Iowa, calm down! "Foreman, come on-"
And it was also because I was keeping a lookout that I managed to see the slight glint from a dark barrel as my searchlights came upon a large pile of broken crates. Instinct screamed, and my focus gathered on that single barrel poking out from under a canvas covering amidst a pile of broken crates to my right. It flashed a sickly yellow, followed by the thunder of a fired cannon.
"Get down!" I shouted, eyes locked on to the glowing yellow shell screaming towards us. In that instant I can see it's miniaturized look and the real size hidden through... means I still don't know to identify it as a 6-inch caliber shell, nowhere near enough to pierce my armor where it counts. I can't tell if it's AP, HE or any other type, its markings are in an alien script, but I can't take the risk of it being an HE shell and the explosion reaching my companions. The manjuu Foreman especially, little guy has no aura or the armor of a battleship, he'll die!
So I willed my Phalanxes to point forward and shoot it down as I moved to put myself between the Siren and the others. I moved my turrets in the way of the shell, angled of course in the hopes of ricocheting the shell away. But seeing the shell come so close so fast, I realized that the Phalanxes will be too late, so I braced myself to take the hit.
Cla-BOOM!
"Hmph!" Felt like getting hit with a BB pellet actually with the impact, then a bright flash followed by a wave of force that pushed me back a tiny bit and an expanding cloud of black smoke. No penetration on the left primary turret that took the hit, which I swept sideways to clear away the smoke. My ears weren't affected much, and through the dispersing smoke I saw the Siren hiding behind a dark cloak standing upwards, the canvas bulging from the movements of something massive moving under it.
I then heard some coughing from behind me, and with worry I asked about them without taking my eyes away from the enemy. "Anyone hurt?"
"Cough- What?! Fuckin- ow my ears!" That was Nandor and he sounds alright. A positive chirp from Foreman relieved me, and Indigo's(!) annoyed grumbling as he coughed too told me they're all relatively fine. Nothing but some ringing in their ears that'll fade away soon enough.
"EnEMy... yOU..." The canvas was lifted enough for a couple of advanced-looking barrels to poke out, joining the 6-inch cannon built in a clawed gauntlet in aiming at me. One eye glowing a pale yellow looked out at me from under a hood as she spoke in an inhuman voice. "ScAanNing... kAnSEn... A-aAno-nomaly... mUst deSTroy..."
A small part of me breathed a sigh of relief from hearing the broken speech. That'd mean the Siren isn't in good shape, so the fight should be much easier.
The Siren then raised her gauntlet hand, palm facing upwards, and from all round several mounds of broken crates were shifted around and from them very scrappy-looking turrets burst upwards. They then turned until they were aimed squarely at us, the trademark sickly yellow light slowly building up in their barrels of varying calibers.
"cOnT-T-TAct wItH... Overmind... ERrOR!" While the Siren continued speaking garbled nonsense I've went and aimed my guns all around us, feeling like hitting myself with a hammer because damn it I just had to taunt Murphy! "InsUFiCiENt REsoUrcEs..."
"There's the traps that've yet to show." Indigo spoke up, sounding like he's fine now which is great!
"A new one too." I heard Nandor sounding... chipper actually despite the deadly ordinance aimed at us. "Never had naval artillery pointed at us in the ruins we visited."
"At least it's not another gravity dust enhanced boulder. These ones we can actually dodge." Looking back at them I saw Nandor wielding his pistol and sword on both hands, his mentor Indigo also had his own pistol out along with his whip. They were both facing outwards, us three making a neat triangle formation with Foreman in the middle. The manjuu did his best to put on a brave face, holding a hammer with his flippers, though he couldn't hide the slight shaking from my eyes.
"I'll get their attention, though it looks like I've pretty did already." I spoke to them calmly, knowing that even without aura I'm undoubtedly the toughest one out of all of us. Perks of being one of the best battleships of WW2. "Indigo, Nandor, I'll leave Foreman's safety to you two and you'll have to get away from here."
"Wha- we can't leave you to fight alone!" Was Nandor's heated reply.
"I appreciate your concern but do remember I am a battleship." I coolly answered back. "It'll take more firepower than in this room to sink me."
Meanwhile I was mentally psyching myself up to taking a barrage of shells. Yeah, my armored hull can take a hefty amount of punishment before even coming close to being breached, but my superstructure is nowhere near that tough. I'll be feeling a lot of pain during and after the fight, but despite that I still found myself grinning at it all. This was what Iowa- no. I'm her now, this is what I was built for, my purpose. What I never got to do.
"Besides, can either of you take a barrage of artillery shells to the face and still be able to fight back?" My retort had the desired effect as right after I spoke Indigo sighed and picked up Foreman, who chirped with surprise. Nandor looked at his mentor with indignation, but after a short staring contest between them the younger man sighed and looked away. Indigo then looked at me and gave me a firm nod.
"Good luck, Iowa." Indigo said, before running away with a wiggling manjuu under his shoulder. Nandor followed after him, though he looked back and gave me a salute with his shortsword.
"Underground is no place to die!" And with that they quickly disappeared into the shadows, the Siren and her turrets ignoring me as I had thought they would. We then segued into a standoff, the cloaked Siren staring down at me as I clenched my fists. A glance at my main guns made it immediately clear that I can't fire them here, else I bring down the ceiling on us all. I'll just have to rely on my secondary battery... or maybe I could use them. I still have some dummy rounds still sitting around in the ammunition racks, they should be enough to deal with the makeshift turrets without causing major damage to the structural integrity of this place. So as I was changing the ammunition loaded in my main guns, the Siren spoke up again.
"Y-YOU wILl... suRRendEr kansen." She aimed her gauntlet cannon at me again, with the two more dangerous looking cannons beside her aiming at me as well and started glowing yellow. "y-y-OUr CuBE... gIve to ME."
My main guns had finished loading then, and I grinned. "Like hell I will!"
Right after I spoke I fired everything, main and secondary batteries spitting out a thunderous barrage as I sought to silence the turrets. Almost at the same time the turrets fired as well, the Siren herself firing from her gauntlet as well as her two other cannons firing a couple of deadly yellow beams towards me.
My heart roared along with my cannons. Enemy ordinance cratered the ground and exploded around me, as well as hitting me dead on in several areas around my body. I felt them all, most of them bouncing and ricocheting off my thick armor, though a few also went and pierced my superstructure as I'd anticipated as I felt a kitchen, several crew quarters and a Phalanx get destroyed. All very negligible overall. And this wasn't a one sided exchange, I didn't let it be, as I heard several hostile turrets get blown off their mountings or explode entirely, and amongst the sound of twisting steel I can also hear the Siren's pained scream at the same time as those beams of hers disabled one of my starboard secondary turrets and destroyed a toilet room.
Oh sisters... if you can only look at me now!
A.N.
Sorry for the long delay... writer's block, exams, and college dumping stuff on us 3 weeks before the end didn't help in making this.
I think I did ok in making this chapter... let me know what u guys think as always.
