Chapter 2 - Integra

Inside her office, Sir Integra Hellsing looked down at the file laid in front of her desk, before releasing a long sigh, sending smoke to come out of her cigar.

"Master?" The voice of her shadow spoke, her two red eyes glinting in the moonlight. "You are still unhappy about...the arrangement, aren't you?"

Closing her one eye, the head of the Hellsing Organisation replied, "Of course I am, Seras."

Silence persisted for a few moments as Integra thought back to the previous meeting with the Round Table, and began to fume silently. The explosive rise in...supernatural occurances and encounters had prompted her to call for the Round Table, asking the group of old scoundrels for a raise to her office's budget...

And the imbeciles, not only had they completely rejected her requests, but instead, simply offered to loan Hellsing the use of two 'shipgirls' from the Royal Navy, as a form of 'appeasement'.

She briefly recalled having to restrain breaking a pencil in half. While Hellsing was lacking the manpower to face the new threats, they also had a hundred more concerns, such as trying to keep the threat of the supernatural out of the public's eye, or trying to actually find out what their new adversaries were, or devising newer weapons to due with them.

Not increasing the budget was certainly not helping!

She bit on her cigar in an attempt to contain her irritation, trying to calm herself down. Then again, money was still a problem for the United Kingdom, what with the rebuilding of London and the appearence of those thrice-damned Abyssals...

Still, last she heard, the tide of the war had began to turn against those monsters, so why couldn't they even spare a single bloody penny?

Anyways...this was the hand she was dealt with...hence she would just have to do with what she had.

Finally able to unclench her fist, she turned back to the file and reopened it. It contained the personnel reports for two of the 'shipgirls', the ones that were assigned to Hellsing for an 'indefinite period of time'.

Integra recalled the first time she and her staff had read the files - both Seras and her were re-reading the contents for the tenth, refusing to believe their contents, while Pip Benedotte was collapsing in the loudest roar of laughter one could ever make.

The first document was about the first assignee, Warspite. The 'reincarnation' of the Grand Old Lady, she had performed well in the Abyssal war, according to the list of accolades she had earned.

But her actions outside of battle were anything but grand. As it turned out, being the face of the Royal Navy during the most destructive war in history tended to make one a very...outspoken person. And outspoken was Warspite, having made numerous contreversial and derogatory remarks about her fellow shipgirls in Europe.

Recently, a short assignment to Brest had caused her to end up in a brawl with quite a few German cruisers also posted there, and the report mentioned that she was caught on camera screeching curses 'that would make any Frenchman blush'.

Flipping the papers, Integra, with a slight headache, began to read the second personnel flie. It was about Illustrious, and like Warspite, had a decent set of accolades.

However, Illustrious had an obsession with the concept of armor for warships, and spent a large percentage of her allowance and free time experimenting with materials in order to create, in her own words, 'the most resilent piece of armor plating'. After a series of highly dangerous and unauthorised armor tests, it had culminated in her room at Dover consumed in a explosion after she failed to properly create a beaker of dioxygen difluoride.

Reading those files for the umpteen time, Integra could not help but feel that their assignment to Hellsing was just a replacement for some punishment detail - which irritated her to no end.

Not to mention the problems of having to use warships in Hellsing's operations - any attempt to cover up their involvement was definitely going to be a pain and a half. Especially when loud explosions of any sort was going to attract attention...

Still...the problem of the recent discoveries and cases meant they had to bring in some heavier firepower sooner or later, and perhaps with the shipgirls, they would not need to expend resources on deploying armored units...

Integra thought for a moment, before calling out, "Mr. Bernadotte, how confident are you on handling those 'shipgirls'?"

From the left wall of the room, the top half of Pip Bernadotte's body emerged with a sucking sound. "Well, if I could twist one british lady round my finger, I think I could twist another two," The Frenchman spoke with a sultry french accent.

A aura of hostility appeared around his two female coworkers. "That was a serious question, Mr. Bernadotte." Integra spoke, narrowing her eyes.

"Well then," Pip said, dropping the sultry accent. "To me...they are just, well, other soldiers. I don't have a problem with dealing with them. And I think if anything goes wrong, I can probably handle it."

"Good." Integra replied, taking the cigar out of her mouth. "Now, I think we should prepare for our new recruits, who should be arriving..." The phone rang, interrupting her mid-sentence. "...now."