It hadn't exactly been hard to set up a meeting with each other. With the war over, there was even a possibility their mail wasn't being checked anymore – one of the unfortunate byproducts of wielding experimental technology that was leagues better than anything their enemies had to offer.
On the other hand, the one person they'd been hoping to be able to contact the most had been completely and utterly unreachable.
Still. The reunification of the parts of the 203rd that weren't yet dead had been a rambunctious affair, even if the officer they all owed their lives to hadn't been available. Stories of their part in the bombing of Kopenhyagen and of what they'd been doing since – and considering everyone had been promoted, there was no shortage of stories – had made it happy, even.
Twelve had been kept in the battalion, promoted to fill empty roles. Teyanen was shaping up to be a fine Major with a batch of veteran mages from around the Empire to fill out the other thirty-six empty positions in the battalion.
Though he claimed he didn't hold a candle to her.
Koenig, Neumann, and Grantz were given battalions of their own to bring up to the caliber of the 203rd. Cross training between all four was common, and they'd flown, in a plane, down from the Alps to Berun for this meeting.
As much as they had hated being put through their initial training, no one could argue that her harsh training was the only reason they were alive.
Three others, older than everyone else, were acting as instructors for the freshest of recruits. They'd begged off anything resembling promotion and wanted a quieter life now that the war was over.
They had revealed that when they drank, they'd toast her at least once.
Weiss and five of the squad leaders had been shuffled into the highest echelons of the Mage Force and were acting as its designers. In time, they would help to lead the newest branch of the Empire's military.
They swore it would have been easier with her around.
Viktoriya and two of the others… were on guard duty.
She and the other two worked in eight hour shifts and did nothing but stand around the Kaiser. In the event of an attack, and she was on duty, she was not there to fight, but to grab the man and fly away as fast as possible. If she wasn't on duty and an attack occurred, her job was to make sure the Kaiser was fleeing with whoever was on duty, and then to go fight their attackers.
And probably die.
If it was her, she would have done the job happily! If she was the one giving orders, Viktoriya'd at least be content that it was the most logical way to achieve their-
"Enough! We get it, Viktoriya!"
She blinked, realizing she'd been saying at least some of that out loud. She smiled sheepishly at the other three as they nursed their drinks, shaking their heads at her rambling.
Now, with most everyone else besides the officers having left the bar, they could have something resembling a private conversation.
"Can't believe people are rioting," Neumann commented. His comment was met with noises of agreement from herself and the others. The government was strapped for cash – what else was new? It wasn't like there had been much during the war…
Though, that was what was new. The war they'd been fighting for years was finally over.
"Well, with crops being ruined, I suppose it's no wonder," Koenig remarked. Another round of agreement. No one could ignore that despite the fact that it was the middle of winter, temperatures in the north were sweltering.
"You think we'll get any assistance?" Weiss asked. The Empire's existence was having an impact on the entire planet's weather and climate, especially in the Pacific – something about ocean currents – though even Europe was experiencing odd weather.
At least, the newspapers claimed as much.
Viktoriya opened her mouth, ready to declare that the Kaiser was a paranoid old fogey who didn't just look a gift horse in the mouth but stuck his whole head where the sun didn't shine, only for what was left of her inebriated sense to tell her that was probably a bad idea and might get her locked up for treason, especially considering her physical proximity to the man most of the time.
The others were giving her an amused look, and she settled back into her seat – when had she stood? "The Kaiser's working with the Conservatives to…" she struggled to remember the exact wording, for a moment, "'keep our glorious Empire free from the influence of this new and alien world.'"
The others all rolled their eyes, but if they had any gripes with the Kaiser, they didn't voice them. Viktoriya thought a bit of influence was a small price to pay to make sure people didn't starve to death, but the Kaiser had asked for her opinion exactly once, so far.
"Well, he's not doing the best job of it," Neumann risked, "the printers must be running out of paper, considering how many specials and extras they're running about this place."
Viktoriya nodded absently, and it took a few moments, in her alcohol-tinted vision, for her to realize the other three were looking at her expectantly. She scowled at them. "What?"
"Well, I was just thinking. You've probably got a few juicy tidbits to share, right? Not all of us are so-"
She glared at Neumann and then looked at Weiss. "You're gonna be the head of the Mage Force or Corps or whatever. You spill. I'd lose my job," she groused. Weiss merely raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't realize you'd grown to care about the Kaiser so much."
She opened her mouth to retort, only to close it as she began to think. Was she really that attached to this job?
The other three began to pale, and Viktoriya nodded to herself. No, she really wasn't.
"If anyone knows why the hell we're in this world, they aren't giving answers the Kaiser's content with. He's been told that foreign representatives all agree that it was probably the Sirens, and he's decided that's the answer he's believing for now."
She gave them a toothy grin. "You've read about these… sheships, right?"
They all nodded to each other, and Viktoriya continued her explanation. "Well, all those ship schematics appearing in the papers? The more people who know about and believe in the capabilities and history of the ships they were, the more… consistent? More efficient…?"
She shook her head. "Regardless, they get better. But that isn't the best part!" she said, slurring her words as she gulped down more alcohol.
"They think we're sheships! Or… heships? Bah, the point is, they don't have magic."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Turning a ship into a woman isn't magic?"
She shrugged. "Apparently not. But they don't know Aerial Mages aren't 'kansen.' They've asked for schematics of our stuff, and they wanted to know how we fly! That's part of why the Kaiser agreed to this whole 'Unity' thing. That and keeping people from rioting," she trailed off.
The other three looked at each other, though, if she were honest, Viktoriya was feeling sleepy. "A secret like that can't be kept forever."
Viktoriya nodded as her eyes began to droop. "Yeah. This… the Kaiser wants to get the best deal possible… before revealing that we're human…"
She heard Weiss scoff as she closed her eyes – just for a moment. "Is allying with a version of our country that got rid of its Kaiser really a good idea?"
"Kaiser's the Kaiser," Koenig said, though he didn't exactly sound enthusiastic. They continued to talk – especially about their place in opening the Unity celebration tomorrow and how they should probably turn in soon – but Viktoriya just felt so… tired.
She'd been beginning to think that they might never see Tanya except on the front page ever again, and though she'd been given an odd look by the Kaiser, she just had to say that Tanya wouldn't mind giving a speech to open the celebration.
She prayed they'd get a few moments to catch up, even if part of her reminded her that they both had jobs to do.
-OxOxO-
As Tanya followed behind the nervous looking guards escorting her from her room, part of Tanya was finally happy that she had a job to do. She'd done what she could while waiting for her superiors to make their minds up about where to place her, but any amount of time wasted was time she hadn't spent working towards hopefully getting a nice cushy job once the Empire found a way to take on this newest threat that didn't involve throwing her at the problem and hoping it died and she survived.
The part of her that was happy was only looking at the silver lining.
Tanya glowered as she and the two guards exited the building and she stared up at a still-unfamiliar night sky. Most of Tanya hated that she was having to work with Schugel again, that her participation in the celebration later that day was going beyond standing still and getting a medal, and that she had to get up at four so that she could get a crash course in whatever the fuck was going on.
Not that she had no idea. She'd heard Schugel's speech praising her abilities while battling Emden, after all, and her immediate dismissal from the testing area meant she had a lot of time to think about what he'd said, between dusting off her memories of training new recruits and the 203rd and looking over some books and papers on naval tactics and strategy she'd been looking over during the past week.
She had fought a 'shipgirl,' whose creation and identity were 'fantastical.' That, at least, was the norm for Schugel, if one kept the Type 95 in mind, though he'd at least created the Type 95 before having to beg that bastard to make it work instead of whatever mechanism had created a living, breathing human out of nothing.
The fact that a shipgirl could inherit their memories from their time as a ship meant Schugel was somehow transforming naval ships into women. Tanya…
She shook her head as she was escorted towards the docks where a ship she hadn't seen last night was now sitting. Tanya had absolutely no idea how to feel about this fact. It sure seemed completely illogical,though she supposed she would reserve any final judgements until Schugel explained how he'd managed to pull this off.
Tanya's eyebrows furrowed as she looked up at the ship sitting in dock. It seemed… familiar.
She shrugged and ignored the furious waving of Schugel from the dock, still sitting in a wheelchair. The bottom line she'd taken from that speech was that her superiors were, as it seemed they always wound up doing, demanding she turn lead into gold.
She saluted to Schugel while doing her best to keep her distaste for the man off of her face. He was not perturbed at all by her invisible disdain. "Lieutenant Degurechaff! It's so wonderful to see you as ready as ever even at this early hour. Would you perhaps desire to engage in a prayer with-"
The only things she was ignoring more than Schugel were the guards who were now standing behind her and the child standing at Schugel's side. "Wonderful to see you again, Captain Glein. I knew this ship felt familiar." She greeted the man standing some distance away from Schugel's wheelchair, and he shook her hand back.
Her brows furrowed as she saw the man's expression become somewhat wistful. She started to ask what was wrong – besides the disgusting time they'd been required to wake up at-
"Now, Degurechaff. Just because I've interrupted your beauty sleep is no reason to get upset-"
"Schugel," she ground out, "Let's focus on our work. Miss Emden told me you would fill me in on some of the details regarding… my new assignment?" she asked.
She visibly flinched at the face-splitting smile breaking his face. "Cauberg, if you would signal the operators?"
The child to at his side nodded, and-
Tanya flinched a second time as metal popped into existence around the small girl, and she realized that this girl – and the one that had been pushing Schugel around yesterday – were also shipgirls.
She appraised the child in this new light as she tilted the various… implements she now had and began flashing a light located next to the… smokestack parallel to her spine towards the shore. Though this one's armaments also seemed to be connected to her lower back, they weren't nearly as robust. The pair of torpedoes at each of her hips were smaller, and the gun she did have was currently hanging unused, next to a spooled up anchor, from the mast poking up next to the smokestack.
Cauberg finished flashing her light at the 'operators' – a concrete bunker located on the shore, from what she could tell – and found Tanya's gaze piercing her. She tried to put up a brave front, only to wilt slightly and look to Schugel for support when Tanya narrowed her eyes.
Another difference between Emden and the girl in front of her was their apparent age. While Emden couldn't have been confused for anything besides an adult, considering her attire, this girl looked as young as Tanya had been when she'd joined the army, if not younger.
This one, at least, was dressed in clothing that approached sensibility, even if it wasn't anywhere close to regulation. The hat atop her head seemed styled like a captain's hat, and her white hair was pulled back into a ponytail nearly identical to Tanya's own. The jacket, too, was at least styled in the same way as the numerous jackets she'd seen the seamen coming and going about the base wearing, though she was mystified as to why it and the hat were dark red instead of black.
She was also mystified by the girl's clothing choice – a shirt that went down half of her thigh at best and a tube top – until she realized that those clothes wouldn't get nearly as wet as something more sensible… but if that was the case, why wear stockings?
The girl's shoes were nondescript, at least, though the coloration reminded her of a ship's, with the bright red on the bottom and the gray on top.
And, now that she was thinking about this girl and comparing her to the others she'd seen, at least a few of the shipgirls who had been watching her training exercise with Emden had to have been of a similar age. She looked up from the girl and spoke. "Schugel, I am not-"
"I'll be glad to entertain your questions in just a moment, Lieutenant. For now, pay attention to the Basel. I determined you wouldn't believe me if I just told you how it was done," he explained. Tanya raised an eyebrow at that pronouncement, and then just shook her head as he ordered her into the air. If whatever was going on was 'miraculous' enough, and especially if the word god made it into his explanation, then of course, she'd be doubtful, but-
"Are you reading me, Degurechaff?"
She scowled again. "Loud and clear… sir," she added the last part, unwilling to give him many more opportunities to write her up for insubordination in an attempt to exert more control over her.
She'd gone through that song and dance once already, thank you very much.
She looked down at the deck of the Basel, and she immediately caught sight of something that hadn't been there before. There seemed to be some kind of contraption set up right next to the forwardmost turret, with many different wires and tubes snaking out of it and off the deck, towards the concrete bunker.
The most prominent part of the contraption was the glowing blue cube sitting in its center. Though the rectangular box with the cords it was sitting on wasn't exactly inconspicuous, there was just something… intriguing about the pulsing blue-
She shook her head with a snarl. She already had one cursed artifact foisted upon her due to Being X's influence.
Schugel's voice cut through her observations. "The blue cube you are seeing is a Wisdom Cube. At present, we don't have the slightest idea how they work!" he said as various spotlights turned on around the ship, lighting up every inch.
Schugel sounded excited more than anything.
"However, through the grace of God, I determined their purpose! Once introduced to the proper reactant and catalyst, a Wisdom Cube can produce a shipgirl!" he said gleefully. She muttered darkly under her breath.
She continued to float in the sky, watching as the cube's glow brightened with every passing moment. She became aware of the growing sound of electricity – was the cube being powered by those cords? – and began to squint her eyes until she could no longer stare at it directly.
"Once the shipgirl forms, Lieutenant, please do make sure to catch the device the Wisdom Cube is holstered in. It would be a waste to have to trawl for its remains, especially the polonium."
She almost nodded automatically, and then that name rang an alarm bell in the back of her head. "Polonium?" she asked, her concern rising as the ship below her began to groan.
"Yes, polonium. It gives off the alpha-rays that act as a catalyst for the reaction. Frustratingly expensive stuff, not helped by its radioactivity-"
Her eyes widened and she swore as her suspicion was vindicated. No wonder everyone sane was sitting in that bunker! "Schugel," she shouted over the growing noise from the Wisdom Cube, "I am not giving myself cancer to catch that-"
"Do away with your safety concerns, Lieutenant. You'll find a modification of your active barrier formula specifically designed for this work in the Type 98-"
And if he said anything after that, she didn't hear a word as the deafening droning grew too great for even the tortured rending of the ship the wisdom cube sat on to drown out. She threw up that shield Schugel had mentioned, heaping energy into the formula in a desperate attempt to survive-
Then, the light behind her eyelids faded, and Tanya dove forward as her cracked open eyes saw the device – sans wisdom cube – fall towards the water. Not even the lack of lighting from anywhere on the dock besides Cauberg's pitiful light could obstruct her dive. She managed to reach the device and went through the migraine-inducing mathematics in fractions of a second required to warp the shape of her active barrier around it.
As a headache burst into existence, she noted the sound of splashes in the water and turned around. Her eyes widened.
The sound must have been the falling cords and wires, because floating gently down to the surface of the water, with no battleship in sight, was a figure obscured by a glowing blue light.
She saw Glein take a step forward. "Basel?"
The blue light suddenly expanded, for a moment, and then it faded into nothingness, leaving behind…
"Ha! I am the Bayern-class dreadnought battleship Basel. Though I may be the youngest, that just means I've got upgrades Bayern and Baden don't! You'll find my anti-aircraft complement has become much better than theirs. Lead me well and you might see it in action!"
Schugel was shouting and raving about something related to the creation of Basel. Glein stood, staring at the woman with an inscrutable expression, and Tanya just blinked slowly at the shipgirl standing on the water.
Cauberg was clapping.
She was, in a word, striking, and if it hadn't been for her introduction, imposing. Her height immediately jumped out to Tanya, because she was over six and a half feet tall at least. Did they have chairs and doors that big at the base?
…Wait, did they weigh as much as a normal person or as much as their ship?
She shook her head and continued to look at the shipgirl as she floated to the ground and deposited the wisdom cube-less device. Now that she was on the ground, she could see that Tanya was eye-level with the woman's legs and that she was indeed well over six foot tall.
She could also see that the woman's height was not her only 'generous' asset, because her chest was definitely bigger than either Emden or Viktoriya's – the latter of whom was just about Tanya's only ruler for that sort of thing – which wouldn't have been a problem if her shirt was buttoned up all the way and not almost flashing her. The shipgirl's pencil skirt was also scandalously short, compounding Tanya's formula-induced headache with worried musing about how the hell regular people were going to react to her subordinate wearing clothing like this.
She wore no coat over her shirt, but a high-collared cape… which, when she looked between the woman towering over Captain Glein, seemed similar to his own. In fact, her blonde, flowing hair also seemed similar to his… barring the obvious difference of a pair of horns curling out of the sides of the woman's head.
She kneeled before him, taking out her sword – why did she had a sword with the four miniaturized-but-still-hulking gun turrets that seemed to also bristle with anti-aircraft guns – giving Tanya a good at it's pommel, which seemed to be modeled after the highest parts of her superstructure.
With her navy blue cape draped over her, she presented her sword to her former Captain. "Sir Glein, thank you. I have fond memories of being captained by others, but it was under your command that I first tasted battle. Every man who served aboard has a place in my heart, and I think… I will seek them out, in time. But you were my captain, so I feel-"
She'd begun to ramble, and Glein cut it off by kneeling down and closing her gloved hands around her blade and pushing it back to her. "I thank you, Basel. I… couldn't ever forget what we accomplished together."
He gestured towards Tanya. "But for now, you have a new commanding officer. Learn well under her as you did once before. Do me- do all of us proud."
She sniffled once, and then stood abruptly, her boots grinding against the dock. She sheathed her sword and grinned combatively towards Tanya. "I will. I feel I've already got a leg up on you no one else would."
Tanya didn't respond at first, because her gaze was still glued to the top of the woman's head, until it flicked down to see that she had a pointed, spear-like tail to match the horns. She blinked at it and then dragged her gaze up to the woman's eyes – having to look up far enough that it became uncomfortable – and started to-
"Oh no you don't! We've got tests to run first! Cauberg, onwards!" Schugel shouted. The small girl's armaments disappeared in a pop of blue light, as did Basel's. She and Glein continued onwards, leaving Tanya to stare at them while she contemplated what the actual fuck her life had become.
Then, with a shake of her head and a growing desire for alcohol – or coffee, at least – she trotted forward after them.
-OxOxO-
It was one, final indignity before she had left. For daring to follow Amagi's order to wait for the civilian government to finalize the details of the Unity celebration over the order of the men in the navy. They'd smiled at her, of course, and given excuses about needing to show the flag.
But she knew what it really was.
Taihou looked out across the picturesque ocean and fumed to herself, railing against the fools she called her superiors. The delegation from Japan and the Sakura Empire were being transported to 'The Empire' in a convoy of ships – some civilian, many military.
And among the ships of the regular navy was the pride of their fleet.
Yamato.
Taihou stared forward unerringly, taking note of the four kansen currently skating ahead of the convoy. They knew just as well as she did that regular battleships were nothing more than glorified bombardment platforms.
But battleship kansen were a force to be reckoned with. And when Yamato was finally awakened?
Safe in the knowledge that no one was currently listening to her, she let out and angry breath. If she wouldn't get them results, they could always awaken Yamato. Or Musashi. Or even Shinano, despite how accident prone that ship was.
She let the anger drain out of her for a moment. She… was almost there.
Physically, to the Empire, sure, but more importantly, to leadership. She had proven just how good she was at anything and everything it took to be a leader.
She grit her teeth again. Even if it just… irked her that she had been passed over for leadership at all. But now, no one could argue against her ability. She twirled in place and sent forward a few ethereal fighters as her rigging opened, their flames dancing and bright despite the cloudless sky above them.
She watched the four ahead of their convoy dodged them playfully, and she smirked. There wasn't another soul in the Sakura Empire that could hold a candle to her in battle.
Even when they took the battle seriously, neither Akagi nor Kaga could beat her even half the time anymore, not even when Kaga brought out that giant, lumbering shikigami she called a manifestation of her will.
And no one else had a win rate even close to that. Not the carriers, the destroyers, the cruisers, or even the battleships. No one could compete with her.
She took in another breath as her fury at her superiors smoldered. She had doubts as to whether she could take on both of those foxes at once. Perhaps she would win a fifth of the time. Few could expect more than that.
But Taihou did, because the Grey Ghost had managed it, and she would do the same, some day.
She sent off a few more planes towards the ships, grinning as the space between their dodges and her planes narrowed and narrowed. Of course, even in their 'serious' spars, they never went all out. Akagi would never show her hand like that.
Taihou didn't hold it against that crafty fox. She kept a few cards close to her chest too.
She had led hundreds of missions, from the most mundane escort duties to having even been in charge of the Crimson Axis joint fleet exercises last year. Even her administrative abilities had been growing, despite how much she despised the work.
She was almost to her rightful position at the head of the Sakura Empire.
"Lady Taihou."
She spun around, releasing another wave of planes. "Yes?" she responded to the messenger boy.
"We have spotted the American contingent on our radar."
She nodded. "We wouldn't want to be rude to our friends," she said, loading the last word with venom, "match our speed and course with theirs. We will arrive at the same time, as agreed."
He nodded and bowed, and she returned her attention to her game of cat and mouse. She smirked as she looked at the kansen she'd brought with her.
Oh, the look on Akagi's face when Taihou had flat out refused to allow Akagi on the trip. That alone was almost enough to completely assuage the anger at having to ride in on the Yamato.
Taihou's expression began to cloud. Indeed, many had asked her to come, and the ones Amagi had insisted she take along had been… unexpected.
Yuudachi was… not someone Taihou got along with well, but no one could deny her prowess in battle.
Suruga had been suggested, and though Taihou had wanted to flatly refuse because she was closely aligned with Amagi… her advice would be invaluable, and she was better than Taihou at the paperwork fueling their trip.
But lastly… Atago? Taihou had been planning to take her already and offered the slot back to Amagi, who picked Takao. Taihou had thought she would have been her first choice.
If she were honest, she would have expected Amagi to be much more… opposed to Taihou's picks. Akashi was a no-brainer – if they did nothing else, getting a business set up so they could do some information gathering was the bare minimum the navy wanted out of this. But Hiyou, Junyou, Kumano, and Suzuya?
In fact, rather than disliking how Taihou had built their delegation, she'd been happy. Taihou was sure something else was going on, but she didn't have-
"Lady Taihou?" asked a messenger. She turned, scowling, to find the same man who'd just spoken to her. "Now what?"
"We have received word that the contingent from Azur Lane will be arriving in tandem with us and the Americans."
She bit back a snarl and nodded sharply, waving him away.
She HATED the commander of Azur Lane.
With a burning passion.
Oh, she could acknowledge, intellectually, that reviving so many of her fallen comrades was one of the two reasons the Sirens had been pushed back into the arctic as fast as they had.
But couldn't he have waited to revive them until after she was in charge?
She did not have to wait much longer for their escort into the Empire's waters to show up on their radar.
Petulantly, she decided she'd radio ahead herself – she might nominally be beholden to the orders of Japan's delegation, but they hadn't told her not to – "Vessel of the Empire, this is Taihou, leader of the Sakura Empire's delegation. Do you copy?"
There was a moment of silence… and then a few moments more. Just when she started to get annoyed, they finally responded. "Could… you repeat yourself?"
She raised an eyebrow at just how bad their Japanese was, and responded in the German she'd picked up working with the Iron Blood. "Vessel of the Empire, this is Taihou, leader of the Sakura Empire's delegation. Do you copy?" She ground out the last part.
They responded almost immediately. "Yes, we copy! Please follow us into port at Hamborg," they rattled off, sounding… frankly, terrified.
She let out a deep sigh as the four kansen ahead of them began skating back to the Yamato. This had better not be a portent of things to come.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: Now we're getting into the swing of things. Just a note: I've got a bunch of revisions for the past chapters done already, one of which is to take away the metal dragon-worm part of Emden's rigging. I managed to forget that the lore is that those parts of their rigging are there because of cooperation with the sirens, which clearly isn't the case for the Empire. Until that's done, pretend that that's how it's always been.
A/N 2: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.
A/N 3: Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, and Blackeagle91 for supporting this story and everything else I write.
