Several minutes before, Eldridge found herself sitting with Shinano and Yume in Yume's nursery, namely a corner of Shinano's room dedicated to Yume's crib and personal effects.

"Small fox. Cute." Eldridge said as she placed her hand on Yume's head and rubbed softly, earning her a soft coo from Yume as a reward.

"She seems to enjoy having her head rubbed. Just be careful to avoid her ears, little Eldridge." Shinano warned in her usual stoic tone.

Eldridge nodded and thought for a second.

"Small fox. Look." Eldridge said as she grabbed one of her live wires and funneled power through it, causing a shower of sparks to come out and fizzle out before hitting the floor.

Yume saw this and giggled happily as she tried to catch some of the sparks.

Shinano smiled.

"My Husband was correct to place you as Yume's protector. She seems to enjoy your presence." Shinano noted audibly.

"Isaac, nice. Treat Eldridge like daughter. Little fox… Sister?" Eldridge spoke in her usual manner. Shinano understood the message.

"I guess it could be that way. If my Dear husband treated you like his own daughter, then I don't see why he couldn't see you as Yume's big sister." Shinano said as she watched Yume continue pawing at the air in an attempt to grab the shower of sparks coming from Eldridge's rigging.

Eldridge was reaching in to pet Yume's head again when she heard a mechanical roar from the center of the fleet.

"Shrimpy angry." Eldridge spoke.

"Hmm?" Shinano asked as she listened in.

Several seconds later, the fleetwide alarm began blaring.

"All hands. Battle stations. Ambush." Perkins's voice was heard over the radio of Shinano's vessel.

"Ambush." Eldridge said as she and Shinano jumped to their feet and ran out towards Shinano's flight deck.

Looking out, they saw a massive Siren fleet emerging from a mirror sea. Several seconds after that, Yume's AA systems fired up, aiming her CIWS systems at the mirror sea and opening fire with an unholy amount of lead, sharply contrasting the calm sleeping face of the young kitsune.

"Eldridge defends small fox sister." Eldridge said as she activated her rigging, steeling herself.

"Get to your vessel, Young Eldridge. I must engage the enemy as well." Shinano said as Eldridge watched as several squadrons of Zero's shimmered to life at the end of Shinano's flight deck.

"Good luck." Eldridge spoke as she jumped from the flight deck.

"Empress. I have managed to catch Apollyon's forces by surprise. They were attempting to use a mirror sea to transport something." A hooded siren spoke.

"Good Work, Harvest. Finally some good news. Perhaps we can capture him since they are still so off guard." Empress thought aloud.

"I can go and make it happen, Empress." Harvest spoke.

Empress thought about it for a moment.

"No. It would be too risky. Determination, Concealment, Exploration and Equilibrium have all been killed by that fleet. And with them all together like that, you would be horrendously outgunned… I cannot risk sending my best subordinate to die." Empress said.

Harvest huffed a small sigh.

"So be it, Empress." Harvest said as she sat in front of the screen, watching the evolving battle from the eyes of a hidden explorer.

The roar of Yume's cannons died down as the red-hot barrels stopped spinning to cool. Yume had unleashed a full minute-long salvo from her CIWS systems in an attempt to cut down the first wave of incoming siren elites. It was then that Enterprise activated her own CIWS systems, following Yume's lead, directing her batteries to fire at targets marked by her arrows. With Enterprise's bowmanship, she was able to hit each Explorer and Oceana with ease, only for the impact of the arrow to be followed by a short burst from her CIWS system, ensuring complete decimation.

"Status report." Perkins barked over the radio.

"Nothing yet. We're managing to keep the elites at bay, but they are slowly inching forward. Yume is still a child, so she hasn't learned moderation. She doesn't know that these AA systems automatically can shut down if the barrels get too hot. And after a burst like that, her guns will be out of action for a few minutes." Enterprise explained.

"Noted. I will let the Admiral know of this. Thankfully, it seems the rest of the fleet has made it to their battle stations and are returning fire. Please work on crowd control, Enterprise. We cannot afford for those explorers to enter the fleet." Perkins requested as the carriers of the fleet launched fighter aircraft into the sky.

Shells from the enemy fleet splashed down all around, detonating on shields or deflecting and missing entirely. It was clear that the enemy fleet was not being manually controlled.

"Destroyers and cruisers, take aim at the enemy drone fleet and fire when ready. We need to keep them corralled so they don't surround us. Battleships, work with the carriers to find the enemy carrier fleet should there be any carriers present. I don't want this to become a drawn-out battle, so taking out their air capability will help." Perkins said as he turned to Zero.

"How do we shut the mirror sea down?" Perkins asked.

"Vengeance relinquished control of the device when Missouri was brought here. Someone else has hijacked our Mirror Sea Generator." Zero spoke.

"What can we do about that?" Perkins asked.

"Well… Unless we want to sit here and fight forever… we will have to destroy the Mirror Sea Generator. But doing so is dangerous." Zero explained.

"How so? Wouldn't shutting that device down be best?" Perkins asked.

"It is… but it locks us out of any potential relocation should we need it. That device allows this fleet to move quickly to where it is needed. Isaac would not like having this trump card destroyed." Zero spoke as Perkins looked out over the fleet. The shields were holding, and the fleet had finally woken up and was fighting back with peak efficiency.

"Destroy it. I can see more reinforcements pouring through that Mirror Sea. I don't think it will stop anytime soon." Perkins spoke.

"But…"

"I'll take the heat from the Admiral. But he gave me command of this fleet and everything that happens in it during his absence. Destroy the device." Perkins retorted before Zero could offer an argument.

Zero sighed.

"Vengeance. Destroy the Mirror Sea Generator." Zero spoke to the Hybrid Battleship.

Vengeance took the small black Pyramid and placed it on the deck of her vessel before firing on it with her rigging, putting a hole through the device and rendering further use impossible.

"The Generator has been destroyed." Vengeance reported.

"Understood." Perkins spoke as he looked back to where the Mirror Sea was, only to discover that it was still active.

"Vengeance, are you sure that you disabled the device?" Perkins asked pointedly.

"I have. There is a hole that punched right through the power supply and targeting module. It is unable to sustain function with such damage." Vengeance spoke as her own shields began to take a pounding from the slowly advancing drone fleet.

"Then why is that Mirror Sea not being closed?" Perkins asked.

"I cannot answer that, for I do not know." Vengeance spoke.

"Zero explain what could be happening, quickly." Perkins spoke.

"I don't know. Destroying the device should have rendered that Mirror Sea unstable and force it to collapse on itself. Why it is remaining so stable, I do not know." Zero spoke frantically as she began pulling up transparent screens that were tracking the materiametrics of the mirror sea before them.

"You two are Sirens! How do you not know?!" Perkins yelled.

"Because! We are not the ones controlling it anymore!" Zero retorted in a stressed and agitated tone.

Perkins picked up the radio receiver.

"Attention, fleet. Rearrange yourselves in a defensible formation. It appears that we are unable to close this Mirror Sea on our own. This ambush is being reclassified as an invasion attempt on friendly territory, we are going to respond as such. Battleships, max your shields and form a wall around the fleet. Let the heavy cruisers and light cruisers handle the leg work. Destroyers, maintain speed and prioritize safety while screening the fleet for enemy torpedoes. Carriers, divert your forces to fully engage the enemy as a whole. Prioritize enemy elites that get too close. If they managed to get inside the shell and blend in with our human crew, we are doomed." Perkins ordered as he spun to look at Zero again.

"Alright. Give me a hypothetical list of things that could be going wrong here." Perkins asked, trying to wrap his head around the entire situation.

"No need… Commander." Norfolk spoke as she pulled herself onto the bridge.

"Norfolk, you look exhausted, what are you doing up here?" Perkins asked.

"You declared all hands to battle stations… I've been making my way here since the order was given… Operating Mirror Seas drains your energy." Norfolk admitted.

Perkins nodded.

"Explain what you meant." Perkins spoke shortly but with a tone of understanding.

"The Mirror Sea has been hijacked by Empress and her Enforcer, Harvest. They are keeping the Mirror Sea open with their own energy. This alone is not a cause for concern as both of them do not have the energy to keep the Mirror Sea Generator open indefinitely. The real concern… is that they can send whatever they want through that Mirror Sea, and we are going to have to sink it in order to survive." Norfolk spoke.

Perkins nodded.

"A war of Attrition. How long can they keep it open for?" Perkins asked.

"By my estimate… we have to survive for the next three hours, if Empress does not throw her own energy into keeping this Mirror Sea open. If she does… I cannot estimate a definite timeframe for this Mirror Sea closing. I can only estimate… 120 hours with this consumption rate and Empress's known maximum energy output." Norfolk explained, straining while trying to hold her exhausted body in a standing position.

"Five days?! We have to keep up this level of defense and fire for five whole days?!" Perkins asked.

"Given Empress's desire to see Isaac destroyed… yes." Norfolk spoke.

Perkins growled.

"Fuck. We managed in Australia due to calling in reinforcements. Here… we just shot ourselves in the foot. We have no way to bring in reinforcements should this fleet not be able to hold out." Perkins spoke.

Zero and Norfolk looked at each other and then at Perkins.

"We have to fight, Commander. We have no choice." Zero said.

"Then we will fight to the last man… Just as Admiral Garner would demand us to." Perkins said as he picked up the radio once more.

"Settle in girls! According to our best estimates… we're going to be stuck here for at least five days defending this position. Pace yourselves. We aren't going to win if we go above and beyond here. We need to find what works without burning out. Find it… and stick to it. We have to outlast them." Perkins ordered, earning himself a wave of affirmations from the fleet.