A/N No i'm not dead, just got very busy. Enjoy this update, review if you can I really appreciate it!
Task force Alpha
Akagi and the other members of her fleet glided towards the destination of the Siren ships on board Akagi's hull. As they travelled they caught glimpses of mass produced ships in the distance, but instead of being instantly attacked like they normally would be, the Sirens just ignored them, undeterred from their paths towards the Crimson cube.
Enterprise was looking ahead from the bow, watching for any changes on the cloudy horizon. A grim expression adorned on her face. Akagi walked over to her smiling a little, she placed a hand on her cheek as she looked over Enterprise.
"I appreciate you keeping watch Grey ghost, but I'm OK with sensing where I'm going." The fox woman teased playfully. Enterprise just gave Akagi a sideways look of annoyance before looking back out to sea. Her voice clipped and terse with the kitsune.
"I'm not doing this for you, this... 'Cube' has taken one of my friends and hurt my-" She cut herself off before she finished, hissing slightly as her fists clenched. "...It hurt Belfast...I wasn't there to protect her... and it hurt her..." She muttered more quietly. Feeling bad for the American carrier, Akagi gave her look of sympathy and put a hand on her shoulder.
"You couldn't have known what would happen...no one knew what we were facing, none of us did." The kitsune soothed to her, smiling again she added: "She's still alive and waiting for you back home, please don't do anything reckless." In a calm tone. Enterprise looked back at the Sakura fox-girl, looking a little puzzled before chuckling a little.
"You sound like Vestal." Enterprise joked quietly. "I don't intend to die, Azur lane still needs me...and I need...Belfast." The American girl blushed a little as she finished that sentence, looking away from a smirking Akagi.
"Now you know how I feel about the Commander, it seems we have another thing in common besides all the bad things." Akagi pointed out, feeling as warm and fuzzy as her bushy tails thinking of the Commander. Enterprise blushed deeper having admitted how she felt about Belfast, Akagi noticed her embarrassed expression and giggled. "You haven't told her yet have you? Don't worry, I can keep a secret~." The fox women teased again.
Enterprise was about to retort when a red lightning strike hit the water in front of them, with just a thought, Akagi quickly dropped anchor and stopped the hull.
"Whoa...that came out of nowhere..." The kitsune commented, looking over the massive storm cloud directly above them. Enterprise then made an observation, a look of shock on her face as she pointed behind them.
"The skies still clear behind us, this storm is far too defined to be natural." She pointed out.
"Pretty sure the red lightning gave that away." Prinz Eugen snarkily replied as she and Bismarck ran over to the bow to meet the two carriers, as if to punctuate her point, another red lightning bolt ripped through the sky, again hitting the water in front of the hull.
"I'm not going any further, me and Enterprise will be useless in that storm." Akagi stated, she willed the ship to start backing to a safe distance from the squall. The anchor cable lifted upwards as she started her withdrawal.
"I'm not sure ANYONE can go in there, we don't know what that lightning will do if it hits someone, we could end up like Cleveland." Enterprise warned the rest.
"How are we supposed to do our job if we can't go inside?" Warspite asked, also walking up from the other side of the hull. "We can't just leave this storm to grow stronger, eventually it will encompass our base."
"I have an idea." Bismarck then announced. Everyone turned to her as she explained herself. "Submarines, assuming this red lightning follows the same physics as normal lightning, a submerged submarine should be completely safe from any effects." She then pointed her index finger upwards and added: " U-556 and a few other subs should be coming back from a raid, they won't be far away."
Everyone looked at Akagi, the fox woman placed a hand on her chin in thought. "If I remember correctly, I-13 is leading that wolfpack, should be easy enough to get that carrier wannabe's attention with a plane." She giggled. A zero then manifested on the runway, making everyone run to the hull's superstructure as it prepared for take off.
"So what exactly can they do assuming they safely get inside the storm? This Crimson Cube can fly and subs aren't known for their anti-air." Enterprise asked.
"We just need them for recon purposes, we need to know what's going on in that storm and this is the safest way to do it, since your planes will be useless in there." Bismarck uncharacteristically snarked, glaring a little at Enterprise.
"Uh... you OK Bismarck? You seem a little...tense." Atago observed, Prinz Eugen then put a hand on Atago's shoulder and with a mischievous smirk, she told her fellow heavy cruiser the reason.
"Lord Bismarck still has a sore spot about planes, since it caused her original self's defeat by Rodney and King George V." She then added in a whispered tone: "Don't mention Ark roy- Oof!"
Bismarck's flagstaff came crashing down on Prinz Eugen's head with a loud crack, knocking the German cruiser face down on the deck. Atago had leapt clear of the attack, but was shocked by Bismarck's reaction, the normally stoic battleship now had an even more intense glare directed at her subordinate.
"I swear to god Eugen, if you bring that blasted paedophile of a carrier up one more time..." Bismarck growled through gritted teeth, fury building behind her quickly reddening face. Everyone backed away from the two German kansen as Akagi quickly turned her attention to her launched zero.
"Well...moving on, I've found the wolfpack!"
A few hours later...
U-556, Albacore and I-13 were all freaked out upon hearing Bismarck's plan for them. They had already heard about what happened to Cleveland, the new development regarding the unusual Siren activity ahead, further compounded their reluctance to enter the storm.
"Lord Bismarck...you want us to go in there...alone?" U-556 worriedly asked. "I'm not used to having no backup! W-what if something happens?!"
"Relax! Me and I-13 will have your back! We don't even need to shoot anything on this one!" Albacore soothed to her. "Admittedly recon missions are a little boring to me, but all we need to do is avoid being seen, easy enough right?"
"Parzival..." Bismarck interrupted them as she kneeled down to U-556's level. "I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't need to, we just need you to get in and find the Crimson Cube; Get as much intelligence as you can and stay submerged to keep as safe as possible." She explained to the younger girl.
"You mentioned this...Cube, has psionic powers?" I-13 was asking Akagi.
"Yes, we don't know how strong it is, so if any of you start acting strange, retreat immediately, we don't need more hostages." Akagi told her. I-13 frowned but nodded. She and Albacore jumped back into the ocean as Parzival waved goodbye to Bismarck, she then followed them as all three submerged and entered the squall, the red lightning still cracking open the sky every few minutes.
Inside the red storm...
The wolfpack had made it part of the way into the storm, despite being muffled by the water, the thunder and lightning above still roared away above the waves. I-13 had her work cut out trying to keep the other two subs calm; Albacore was easily startled by the thunder and U-556 was an overly worried wreck, hoping she wouldn't be sunk by the 'weird red lightning' as she put it. Visibility was low as the water was dark and murky, churned up by the violent waves on the surface, making periscope depth a tricky place to operate.
The dark shapes of Siren vessels loomed over head every so often, the submarines were thankfully ignored by the enemy ships, which seemed to be too single minded to notice them, only focusing on their objective to reach the middle of the storm.
"Somehow these sirens are acting even creepier than normal, theres no way they haven't seen us yet, don't mass produced ships bee-line straight for us?" Albacore asked. I-13 frowned as she looked through her periscope for where the Sirens were going.
"Normally yes, even the pawn class ships are ignoring us, what could be so important that...whoa..." The carrier-sub cut herself off as she glimpsed a bright light in the distance, radiant red beams washed over the water's surface from the light, despite still being on the horizon from the wolfpack's position.
"Is that the cube?" Parzival asked looking through her own periscope. "It doesn't look like...oh wow look at all that scrap metal..." She commented as she watched.
"I see bits of Siren tech in that debris...what is it do- HOLY..." Albacore interrupted herself as the Cube fired a pulse of energy into the volcano beneath it. The moment it did, a huge earthquake blasted outwards from the island, rocking the whole ocean for miles around, the submarines screamed as the shock-waves slammed them through the water.
"Oh god oh god oh god!" Albacore stammered as she fought to stay on her rigging, she groaned as she hit a small reef nearby, kicking up silt and debris in her daze. Parzival just screamed as she rolled around, completely panicked and out of control, I-13 was the only one of the three to somewhat keep her composure, she grunted harshly as she kept her rigging anchored in place against the shock-wave.
"Albacore? U-556? Can you hear me?" She called into the murky depths, panting as she tried to regain her bearings, The Japanese sub sighed in relief as she heard Albacore give an annoyed reply.
"*Cough Cough* I'm ok...I've got a *Cough* minor leak but I can patch it...wheres Parzival?" She called back, looking around.
"I...I'm ok! It just surprised me!" The child-like voice of U-556 replied from nearby. She had been thrown off her rigging and was hopping back on top. "What was that?! It was like a tidal wave but... underwater!" She added, the fear making her voice shake.
"That must be the Crimson Cube...thats some power to affect us from all the way over there..." I-13 mused. Seeing the leak in Albacore's rigging she made a decision. "Albacore, I need you to stay here and watch our backs, with that leak you'll be too vulnerable to attack; me and Parzival will keep going closer to find out more."
Albacore puffed her cheeks in disappointment. "I can still fight! No lousy leak is gonna sto- *Cough*" She was interrupted by her own coughing fit and realised she'd already lost any argument she could make. "Fine...just be quick, I don't want to be bored for long." she admitted. I-13 nodded to her and gestured for Parzival to follow, the German sub whimpered at the prospect of going deeper into the storm, but reluctantly followed the carrier-sub as they set off again. Albacore just sighed and set up her radio equipment and periscope.
As the two submarines travelled towards to the Crimson Cube, they realised the water around them was changing; it was subtle at first, simply gaining a faint, murky red tinge over its normal blue, but the change became more and more obvious as they drew closer to the island. It became slightly thicker, more viscous with the consistency of... I-13's already pale face then became an almost ghostly white, her eyes shrinking in horror as she made an alarming realisation...
Blood...they were swimming through water contaminated with blood. I-13 looked over at Parzival, who already seemed frightened by the Crimson Cube, but fortunately she could tell the German sub hadn't come to the same conclusion about the fluid they were currently in. So she kept it to herself. However the two of them started to see dead fish under them, floating belly up from the depths beneath them, making the carrier-sub gulp at how much danger they were potentially in.
"Thats not a good sign..." I-13 stated ominously. U-556 yelped as one of the dead fishes brushed by her.
"This is too creepy! Can we just go back? Please!?" She begged her friend.
"We can't yet, we're not even near the island. The others are counting on us to get them this intel." I-13 retorted, trying to keep her voice from betraying her fear.
Before either of them could say another word, another blast from the Crimson Cube snapped them back to attention. This time they both dropped anchor and braced for the shock-wave, since they were closer to the island, the wave was stronger, but thanks to their anchors and a little counter thrust from their engines, both submarines were able to keep their position, grunting with effort as they did so.
"We need to hurry, we can't take much more of that." I-13 told her friend, moving off once she retracted her anchor. U-556 followed her, trying to avoid the dead marine life hovering around them.
After a few minutes, they were as close as they could get to the island without surfacing, holding position near a beach, both subs raised their periscopes to get a closer look up the sandy terrain. On one side of the beach, the sand gave way to a small patch of woodland, on the other side, large grey boulders blocked off the rest of the beach in that direction. Right down the middle was a winding rocky trail up to the mountain top.
There it was: the Crimson Cube, hanging above the the top of the island's volcano. Spinning on one of its corners and spitting bolts of red lightning off itself. A beam of red and black energy was being fired down the volcano's lava tube from the cube, the source of the earthquakes.
"If only Lord Bismarck was here...she could blast that thing!" Parzival commented.
"I don't see Cleveland. But she has to be somewhere nearby." I-13 mused, scanning other areas of the beach with her periscope.
"I see a bunch of Siren ships over here...at least I... think their... " Parzival trailed off as an intense sense of dread abruptly coursed through her body, making her shiver and flinch. I-13 leaned away from her periscope, hearing her friend start panting heavily. I-13 looked at her with a concerned expression, U-556's light red eyes were wide and her pupils were tiny.
"U-556? Are you oka-"
"NOOOOOOO!" The German submarine suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs, making I-13 cover her ears. "Nonononononono! I won't let you! I WON'T LET YOU!" U-556 raced away from the beach and charged towards the Siren ships, priming her torpedoes.
"No don't! We don't know what they'll do if you attack them!" The carrier-sub yelled, chasing Parzival.
"I won't let you anywhere near Lord Bismarck you bullies! Take thi- oof... Hey!" I-13 had barged into the German sub and tackled her off her rigging, the two of them sank onto the sea floor, wrestling for a moment before I-13 landed a hit on U-556's head. Earning a yelp from her.
"Snap out of it!" I-13 ordered, putting her hands on her hips as she stood up on the sea floor, watching Parzival rub her head.
"W-why did you hit me...?" U-556 whimpered, her lip trembling as started to weep, clearly traumatized from being assaulted. I-13 instantly felt guilty seeing her like this and looked away for a moment ashamed. She sighed and looked back to help her up.
"I'm sorry about that, but you went crazy for a minute there, it must be the psionic field Akagi was talking about, we need to head back with what intel we have." I-13 explained as U-556 got to her feet.
"I'm sorry too, I felt so weird...like a bad dream...I was just looked at that red box thing for a minute and I...just felt mad...really mad..." U-556 stated, holding her head. "This is so freaky! We can't stay here!"
"Agreed lets- GET DOWN!" I-13 tackled Parzival out of the way of a metal tentacle, it slammed into the sea floor where they had just been standing, tearing a giant gash in the rock. Following the appendage to its owner, I-13 gasped, reeling from who she was seeing.
"Cleveland?! What the hell happened to her...shes...different." Standing on the water's surface above them, clad in metal plating, covered in alien gadgets and a camera where her left eye should be, was Cleveland, a dead emotionless look in her uncovered eye.
Without moving any other part of her body, Cleveland's armoured tentacles repositioned to strike the submarines again.
"RUN AWAY!" U-556 screamed, the two submarines scrambled back to their rigging, dodging the spiked tentacles from the corrupted Cleveland. "This is worse than depth charges, at least they don't chase you!" Parzival shouted as she grabbed her rigging, along with I-13.
"Go go go! Don't look back!" I-13 yelled over the crashing tentacles, bubbles and silt flowed all around them, knocking visibility down to near zero for a moment. The two of them fired up their engines and swam away at flank speeds, terrified, and on the verge of hyperventilation. Their propellers straining to keep up with the brutal pace of their retreat, causing excessive cavitation and a stinging pain to the pair of them, but they were too frightened of Cleveland to stop or slow down, whether it was genuine fear or an effect of the psionic field, neither sub really cared in the moment.
They made it out of the blood-soaked waters in a fraction of the time they took to get in, it was only when they made it back to the reef where Albacore sprung a leak, that I-13 dared to look back at the island. Cleveland was still following them, but at a much slower pace, it seemed either she, or the Crimson Cube acting through her, wasn't too concerned with catching them, or it was still searching for them along the route they took. Albacore heard the two of them return and swam from behind the rock, a metal patch on her rigging where the leak was.
"Wow I could hear your engines from here! What made you break stealth like that?" She exclaimed, annoyed at the apparent lack of subterfuge from her teammates. She was about to keep ranting when she realised the looks of pure terror on their faces, especially Parzival who looked about to burst into tears.
"We...we found Cleveland...and she found us..." I-13 panted, trying to regain her composure. She pointed back to the now half robot ship-girl still chasing them, although she was being slow, she hadn't stopped. Albacore's face twisted into a look that mirrored I-13's own.
"Uh... right! Lets move!" The American agreed. All three of them turned around and bolted back to the edge of the storm, since they had been compromised already, they again entered flank speed, causing more cavitation, which meant loud noise. Cleveland had heard their propellers spool back to full speed and also sped up to pursue them...
...and she was gaining fast.