"That's a summary of the situation." Murray concluded, the grainy surveillance footage of the abyssal projected onto the wall behind him. "I'm sure you all have plenty of questions."

The initial response was silence, the sound of clothing scraping against plastic the only noise as the newcomers grappled with the predicament that had been dropped on their shoulders.

...And it was one hell of a predicament. Nashville hadn't learned anything new from her commander's briefing, but with the situation so bluntly layed out in front of her, the light cruiser felt like she'd run aground on a new volcano.

"Here's my first." One of the newcomers started, wiping his brow with a handkerchief. "This intelligence, that some Abyssal Princesses have… defected to serve in human navies. Has this been shared with the GRU?"

Murray nodded slowly, his expression one of guarded neutrality.

"'Defected' isn't a very accurate term, but yes. This intel helped them neutralize the Northern Water Princess."

"Wonderful." The man replied, although his exasperated tone and icy glare implied the opposite. "Now, why is ONI withholding intelligence they've provided to the Russians from the Counterintelligence Division?"

Nashville felt pressure in her boilers suddenly spike, again. Agent Brandon Ferguson might have been in shape fifteen years ago, but it was clear the FBI Agent's best days were behind him. His suit failed to hide a gut that had gotten a little out of control, and his receding hairline was only partially covered by a thin, dark combover. He wasn't as abrasive as his partner, and didn't seem to be actively trying to set Nashville off like Katie was, but something about the FBI agent really rubbed the light cruiser the wrong way. Hailing from their counterintelligence division, Agent Furgeson had an air of quiet contempt surrounding him, and everything he'd said since his arrival had implied a brand of elitism that Nashville had rarely seen before.

The current comments were a good example. Ignoring the fact that the Japanese had discovered the nature of Abyssal Princesses, not them, why did some low-ranking civilians in a Virginia office building think they were entitled to The Navy's secrets? Did he think Saratoga was an intelligence risk?

"Agent Ferguson, I assure you that higher-ranking members of the Department of Homeland Security have been informed." Lieutenant Commander Murray replied, his shoulders sagging slightly in disappointment. "They're confident in the Navy's ability to monitor rescued shipgirls, either for psychological or… intelligence issues."

Murray put the answer much more diplomatically then Nashville could have, another reason she was glad she'd pawned the responsibility of a briefing off to him. Despite its softness, however, the answer didn't seem to satisfy Agent Ferguson in the slightest. His glare at the Lieutenant Commander continued, but Katie Harmon spoke up before he could.

"We were confident you would be able to hold Hawaii, too." The private detective mumbled. Nashville suddenly realized she was gripping the table as the particle board started to give under the pressure of her fingers.

"That's a completely different problem!" The cruiser snapped, letting go of the table before she accidentally snapped a chunk off of it.

"Play nice, everyone." The second FBI agent interjected, leveling a glare at Nashville. As he continued to speak, the glare drifted to the Harmon, before landing squarely on his partner. "Our current job is dealing with the eldritch abomination loose in rural Washington. Can we worry about this after we have a plan, at least?"

While he spoke, Agent Peters lounged in his chair, twirling the pen in his hand as he spoke. As far as Nashville knew, the two Feds hadn't known each other before this assignment, as Peters had claimed to work in the Violent Crime Apprehension Program. His suit seemed looser than his colleague's, giving him a wider range of motion, but also a much more casual feel to all of his movements. His blond mustache was carefully trimmed, perhaps to preserve the seal of a gas mask. Harmon and Ferguson demanded respect, but Nashville doubted they'd ever earn it. Peters, however, seemed to have his priorities in the correct place, even if he wasn't there to get along with anyone.

"On that note…" The last newcomer added, his deep voice grabbing Nashville's attention. "...How much harm has Trinitite done, so far?"

"Do you mean since the Pacific Lilly's hijacking?" Nashville had more experience decoding Murray's expressions more than anyone else here (Harmon being a possible exception), so she was fairly sure nobody else detected the relief in her commander's voice.

"Maybe just how much harm she's done in general. Later on we should dive into her record." Deputy Anderson Goulding replied, leaning forwards. "I want to know who we're looking for."

Mulling the statement over, Murray nodded, sliding a chair out from against the table and taking a seat. Nodding towards the pamphlet splayed out in front of Agent Peters, he began.

"This information packet is about a week out of date." He admitted. "We can go over the basics now, but I'll have to schedule another interview with Saratoga and assemble another briefing if you want everything we know."

"That would be great." Deputy Goulding replied, sliding the other packet across the table to the Intelligence officer. Goulding was a massive man, and the only local in the room. Unlike his FBI companions, the dark-skinned US Marshall greeted the military personnel with a genuinely friendly smile and a firm handshake. Despite Nashville resenting Deputy Goulding's arrival, it was hard to hold it against him. "Could we talk to her?"

Murray slowly nodded again, although he didn't immediately respond.

"...it should be possible." He admitted. "Keep in mind that shipgirls who have been, uh, purged of abyssal corruption have difficulties recalling experiences from their time as Princesses."

"That sounds..." Agent Furgeson started, before abruptly trailing off. "Hmm. Nevermind."

A second passed.

"...back to Trinitite's history." Murray looked back down at the packet, flipping the title page over and scanning the contents of the next. "We can credit the confirmed loss of eighteen submarines, as well as the disappearance of seven more to Trinitite and her two sisters, all of them shipgirls. About twice that many had to cancel their patrols due to damage sustained operating in the vicinity of their convoy."

Harmon and the two FBI agents seemed surprised by the news, sitting up as their eyes widened, but Goulding just nodded, accepting the information with a slow nod.

"Since conventional submarines can't be resummoned yet, it's harder to determine the cause of death for the handful UN navies have lost, but considering the damage to Montana, the three might be able to claim a few of those, as well." Murray shifted, flipping the page over and scanning the next's contents. "Additionally, we lost 124 shipgirl-born and thirty five conventional aircraft in attacks on their convoys. You can contribute some of those to AA fire from them and their screen, but the majority has been due to their ability to maintain a combat air patrol they've been able to maintain."

"How can abyssals shoot down fighter jets so easy?" Agent Furgeson asked, incredulous.

The spook looked up from the packet. "Not every loss is a kill on their part. A lot of these suffered minor damage which might have prevented the aircraft from reaching its base, or require it to be taken out of flight operations for repairs. My guess is about nine of the thirty five were actually shot down by Trinitite." Murray returned to the packet, scanning it's contents for some other information as he rapidly flipped through the rest. "If it helps, Marshall, there doesn't seem to be any evidence she goes after downed pilots."

"That does help." Deputy Goulding replied. "...and you all can just call me Anderson."

"Got it." Murray acknowledged, flipping to another page in the packet. "During the Battle of Bikini, Trinitite joined in the first air attack on the Japanese fleet, but the JMSDF's CAP ensured that between the Jellyfish Princess and the three Wo-classes, only four bombs and two torpedoes scored hits. Quick action ensured that the two carriers, battleship, and missile destroyer that took damage would not sink. Later attacks shifted to the Japanese fleet's air patrol and destroyer screen, sinking a few destroyers, but Trinitite had been incompacitated by then."

"...And that leads us to what you described in the briefing." Agent Pierce concluded, allowing his hand to fall and driving the pen into the table with a quiet click. "Did she do anything else?"

The Spook shook his head.

"That's pretty tame, for an abyssal." Shangri-La commented, her chair creaking as the carrier shifted. "This incursion is the only offensive action she's taken so far, correct?"

"We're shooting ourselves in the foot to avoid mass panic, she's tying down several ships that could be used elsewhere, pretty much all civilians and infrastructure in the continental US are threatened, and we're all at each other's throats." Agent Pierce observed, tucking the pen into his shirt pocket. "For her first time, she's done a damn good job."

With a sigh, Deputy Goulding leaned forwards. "We do know what she wants, though." He returned his gaze to Murray, a question on his lips. "Think we can negotiate with her?"

"We should be able to try." The Spook admitted. "Negotiations failed last time because we didn't have a good idea pertaining to her objective. Now?" He sighed, shaking his head. "We still don't know enough, honestly. It probably depends on if she wants to corrupt Saratoga, or just wants to know what happened to her."

"Could she corrupt Saratoga?" Pierce asked. In response, Murray only shrugged.

"We don't know. The Abyss was originally able to corrupt her because she was ignorant of certain events, but it's managed to suppress some knowledge in other Princesses." He sighed, grimacing before he continued. "I can only be 90% sure Saratoga could stay sane if they met."

For a while, Agent Furgeson had been quiet, content to listen while his colleagues asked questions, but now the rotund agent spoke up.

"We shouldn't try to apprehend her immediately, anyways." Perhaps expecting a question, he paused, but Nashville was more interested in how he was going to continue. Was he worried about collateral damage? "This Abyssal isn't nearly as dangerous as what she implies. Who's to say she had this idea first?"

Right. He'd called himself a counterintelligence expert, hadn't he?

"There could already be a network of abyssal spies in human territory, submarines who've been able to slip into the US completely undetected." Agent Furgeson concluded.

"My superiors have that concern as well." Murray confirmed, his tone diplomatic.

"That's why I'm here." The FBI Agent confirmed. "We need to observe her for a few months, see if she's building a network of her own or if she's been contacted by someone else's. After that, maybe leak some rough details to the press, and see if anyone contacts her then."

Nashville nodded. In a way, it was probably a good thing they had someone experienced in whisper games aboard, but there was a chance that Agent Furgeson would be harder to deal with than Harmon. Hopefully him saying this meant he wouldn't be getting in anyone's way until then. Speaking of Harmon...

"Well, this is all fascinating," the Private Eye spoke up, "but how are you all going to find her in the first place?" She looked over to her ex. "What have you even been doing so far?"

"The Shelton Police and Fred Meyers believe Trinitite is a rowdy shipgirl we've already apprehended and disciplined." The intelligence officer reported. "We've confiscated the footage, and provided them with additional monetary compensation to keep the story out of the press."

Between the witnesses in Shelton, the crew of the Pacfic Lilly, that video circulating on the internet, the army of ground pounders they'd briefed to originally find Trinitite, and the rumors one of their team had found of a monster in Olympic National park, Nashville was starting to have doubts about their ability to keep all of this a secret.

"You bribed them." Harmon deadpanned.

"Yes, it looks bad." The intelligence officer admitted, before dismissing the question by continuing. "After that, we put out a notice to police departments in western Washington, giving them a reminder that Shipgirls are just as prone to criminal activity as any other demographic, and to alert us if they have any female suspects that demonstrate shipgirl features. Unnatural strength, durability, that sort of thing."

Nashville didn't need a reminder that had happened. It was bad enough that she'd sullied The Navy's and her own reputation by failing to stop The Abyssal from making landfall, but now they had to smear the public's opinion of shipgirls in general to cover for it! Sure, plenty of shipgirls had run against misdemeanor charges such as disturbing the peace, but the bulletin Murray had put out implied far worse. Couple that with the rumors of a shipgirl raiding a Fred Meyers that were making the rounds among shipgirls themselves, and it was looking like Trinitite was going to have some pretty serious long-term consequences even if she turned herself in tomorrow.

"In addition, my team is reviewing any reports of mysterious deaths or missing persons." Murray continued, oblivious to Nashville's fretting. "Hopefully, this effort doesn't yield anything, but we're checking it anyways. In addition, we've mandated that any team of shipgirls going on leave must be escorted by a ship who has been briefed on the situation, meaning any shipgirls we have out there can double as a search party."

"I think I missed something." Deputy Goulding frowned. "How does that help?"

Nashville found herself speaking before she even realized it. "Us shipgirls can naturally recognize each other, when we see each other. From now on, any party that stumbles upon a random carrier will recognize them as such, and can report their location to us." Seeing the rest of the room's attention was on her, she weekly added. "That should help us a little, right?"

"I see." Goulding nodded contemplatively, looking back to Murray. "Is that everything?"

"We recovered two of The Abyssal's pilots and have been interrogating them, but we haven't gotten any actionable intel from them yet." The Lieutenant Commander supplied.

"Yeah..." Agent Pierce sighed, shaking his head. "...you're not going to find her."

It was a bit of a gutpunch, but to his credit Murray took it in stride.

"Okay." He nodded, leaning back in his chair. "What should we be doing?"

"Ideally, we'd launch a public manhunt..." Agent Pierce stood, combing his hair with his hand as he started to pace. "...but despite the panic thing that has so many higher-ups parilized, I can see the problem of trying to corner a warship with fragile things like dogs and state troopers." The pen came out again, pointing towards deputy Goulding. "That's why we brought Deputy Goulding aboard."

At the acknowledgement, the US Marshall stood as well, making his way to the front of the room. The massive man dwarfed everyone sitting down. Now that he was standing, his physical presence was even more dominating.

"First off, you're leveraging local police assets about as well as you can. At its most basic, that's a good idea, but you don't have the authority to properly use them." He paused in front of the projection of Trinitite's facing, staring into it as he thought. Then, he turned abruptly, looking back to Murray. "Think we can doctor a few stills from this security footage, try to simulate how she'd look with makeup on?"

"Shouldn't be an issue." The spook answered.

"Great. Make a few speculative images, place a few side-by-side of her in different skin and hair colors, and get them to me. I'll forward those to local law enforcement, along with a story about her…" The US Marshall trailed off, looking back to the footage. "...being a witness with PTSD or something, so local cops report her to us instead of confronting her. Maybe say she's albino to explain the doctored images." Suddenly, he turned back, the massive man focusing on another person entirely. "Harmon."

The private eye sat up abruptly, surprise transparent on her face.

"Yeah?"

"I've heard of you before." Goulding nodded.

"Only good things, I hope." The PI replied, giving Goulding a thin smile.

"Use your own methods, but keep in contact with me, alright?" Deputy Goulding supplied, neither confirming or denying Kaite Harmon's 'hope.' "Something tells me we're going to be getting a lot of legal scrutiny in a few months. I'll have to get you deputized."

"Sure." The PI acknowledged.

"Sounds good." Murray spoke up again, focusing on the two FBI Agents. "What's your plan?"

Peters had been content to lean against the wall while the US Marshall talked, but now that attention was back on him, he straightened. "Well, now that we know what we're dealing with, we were going to poach some talent from the local branch office." He shifted, glancing to the conference room's exit. "Why don't you give us an overview of your team so we can fill in the gaps?"

"Right." Lieutenant Commander Murray stood up as well, followed by the other FBI agent. "I'll introduce you. Follow me. The rest of you are dismissed."

And with that, the three law enforcement officials filed out, following Nashville's commander. Silence dominated the conference room as Nashville looked over to Harmon. The Civilian was still stubbornly sitting in her chair, staring at the ceiling.

"You're going to follow them?" Nashville asked. The Private Investigator looked back to her, then shrugged. Well, that wasn't Nashville's business, so she didn't press the issue.

"So," Shangri La spoke up, adjusting her red sash as she sat up "what do you think?"

Nashville returned the Essex's questioning stare. "About the feds?"

"They're snakes in suits." Katie announced. "We're just obstacles to them. You saw how Furgeson was acting. Anything good from now on wouldn't have happened without their help, and if anything goes wrong it'll be the Navy's fault."

Wow, the detective couldn't be positive about anything, could she? Nashville agreed with her, at least on the topic of the desk-surfing Agent Furgeson, but now that the opinion had been voiced she wasn't sure she wanted to back it up.

"Well, it's good as long as we find Trinitite faster, right?" Shangri La asked. The fact her statement came off as naive to Nashville was… unnerving. She wasn't sure if that cynicism came from her service under Pinochet, or by spending too much time in offices recently. "But I didn't just mean them. What do you think of Trinitite?"

That caught Nashville off guard.

"Uh- She's a monster." There wasn't any other way to answer that, was there?

The Essex shook her head.

"She didn't volunteer to be one, did she?"

What? The light cruiser could feel her jaw dropping.

"...What are you implying?" She finally asked, her voice carefully measured. She liked Shangri La. Better to get a clarification then to just assume she had sympathies for abyssals.

"...I'm not entirely sure." The Essex-class replied, her eyes unfocusing. "The forced service thing wouldn't matter for an abyssal who pops civilians for sport, but she doesn't." Suddenly, the Essex paused, as if conceding a point no one had voiced. "Well, she didn't. What if that isn't an instinctual thing, but something that's trained?"

"It still makes her a monster." The Light Cruiser shrugged. If Shangri La wanted philosophical questions like that answered, she'd have to speak to Murray. Nashville just shot bad things.

In response, the Carrier leaned back again, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

"Sorry, I'm not getting my thoughts out right." Her next words were measured, as she carefully considered her own points. "Even while under abyssal influence, Mom didn't train her to do that stuff, so she didn't. That would mean she's just an enemy, right?"

"Where are you going with this?" Nashville asked. What she was saying made some sense, but at the end of the day that didn't make much of a difference.

"The Japanese were enemies too." Shangri La pointed out. "Now we're even better allies then we were in the eighties, and that was before The Abyssals got everyone working together."

There was silence as Nashville pondered the point. Yeah, politics meant rivals could become friends uncannily quickly, but Nashville didn't see any political reason to… What was Shangri La suggesting? Just talking to Trinitite? Goulding had suggested the same thing a few minutes ago.

"Look, you spent a while working for Chile, right?" At the confused light cruiser's nod, Shangri La asked "How far would they go for a carrier shipgirl around now?"

They'd sacrifice half their fleet. South America wasn't a priority for abyssals right now, but the handful of abyssals who did bother to harass them were giving them hell. On top of that, a Chilean shipgirl as advanced as an Essex would give them a huge advantage over Bolivia and Argentina. Maybe things had cooled off between those countries since Nashville was scrapped, but they certainly wouldn't say no to a 40-thousand-ton insurance policy.

"Okay," the light cruiser admitted. "but we're not that desperate."

"Do you know how many Essex-class Carriers haven't returned yet?" Shangri La asked. Nashville didn't. She wasn't paid to keep track of the entire Navy's fleet movements, after all, and between ships sinking and almost weekly summoning attempts, it was impossible to casually keep track of a navy as large as the US's. "A lot. The Japanese have managed to recall most of their navy because they can summon from almost any naval base." The Carrier held up three fingers, pulling one of the three down with the other hand. "We've only ever got it figured out in three, two now that Pearl's Fell. That's a huge bottleneck."

Understanding suddenly hit Nashville.

"So you want to hire her?"

Perhaps realizing the absurdity of her point, Shangri La sighed, her gaze unfocusing and drifting upwards.

"Maybe. I know we might just have to sink her, but-" Shangri La froze, and Nashville found herself bracing for another tangent. After a moment, she suddenly looked down, her rangefinders locking firmly on Nashville's. "What's the scariest thing for you?"

"Uh…" This was a… different topic, but Shangri Lad had to be leading Nashville somewhere. After thinking for a second, she remembered a few stories she'd heard.

"Caves." She finally announced. It was a fairly easy choice. An all-consuming darkness that ensures that whatever lights you bring won't be enough. Claustrophobic spaces meant for no human, let alone ship. Millions of tons that could come crashing down on you if you tried to brute force your way forwards. What wasn't there to be afraid of down there?

"Okay, those are pretty bad." Shangri La admitted. "Let me rephrase: What's the easiest way, you think, to scare a capital ship like me?"

That was easy. "You ask a submarine to do it."

"No." She denied. "You make them think they're alone."

The carrier paused, allowing Nashville to consider her statement. Capitol ships didn't seem to have much of an issue being alone, as far as Nashville had noticed? They slept in their own quarters plenty, after all.

"You mean, out on the water?"

"Sort of." Shangri-La leaned in, tapping on the table. "If we don't have any support, we're vulnerable to everything. Any strengths we have are suddenly stripped from us, and we know that any enemies we've made would sell their soul to get an opportunity to see us like this. Nothing like that's happened to me, but it's the kind of terror I've had nightmares about." She sighed, her gaze drifting away from Nashville and towards the image on the projector. "When I watched that footage of the Lieutenant Commander negotiating with Trinitite on the Pacific Lilly, I saw that fear, in someone who looks a lot like a sister to me." She sighed, shaking her head. "Maybe that's why I'm reading into this a little too much."

"Huh. Never thought of it that way." She wasn't sure she could relate, but Nashville didn't want to be disrespectful to her coworker. "Guess it's a Carrier thing."

"Maybe it is." Shangri La replied, brushing aside a lock of silver hair that had fallen in front of her face.

"Well, none of this matters, until we find her." Katie Harmon interjected, standing up. "You two want coffee?"

Nashville looked back towards the conference Room's entrance. Hopefully, with new blood joining the search, things were going to start moving again.

"Yeah." She replied. "Just get it to me black."

I made a mistake.

This chapter fought me all the way, partially because there were way too many characters in one conversation, and they were new ones at that. It was a… challenge, and I'll probably need feedback to know how well or poorly I did making each one unique enough to understand.

When I first mentioned they'd appear last interlude, a lot of people were referencing shows like the X-files for potential characterizations of the FBI agents. I wasn't 100% sure myself, but I really didn't want to directly rip a character out of a show and place them in my fic. On the other hand, I'll admit I'm not the most creative person, and I needed to look for inspiration somewhere, so instead I pulled the loose character ideas for the two FBI agents from Surviving Edged Weapons and the US Marshall from Ace Combat 7. That should give me plenty of room to write them how I want, since the first two are only on screen for half a minute and the other is working an entirely different job.

Jesus christ, imagine how many razor blades you could attach to the back of a Wo-Class's hat.