Wilhelm and his men spread quickly throughout the hull. As his men went below to the lower decks, Wilhelm took the opportunity to make his way towards the bridge.
"The union is quite efficient with their ship building. A smaller hull than Graf Zeppelin, but I have yet to bang my rifle on anything." Wilhelm muttered to himself as he kicked in the door to the bridge, only to be met with a single gray boot flying towards his face. Jumping back, he narrowly avoided losing his head to Shangri-la, who stood before him emotionlessly.
"Contact. Aviation bridge. It's her. I'll try and draw her out to the flight deck." Wilhelm spoke as several confirmations came through his mask. Wilhelm watched to see if she would make a move. But all she did was stand right at the edge of the threshold on the bridge. She didn't take a step further towards him.
"Come on then, Frauline. I'm right here." Wilhelm spoke, trying to coax her. When she did not move, he remembered what Isaac had said.
"The lights are on… but nobody's home, huh? She really is unable to make decisions outside of her conditioning." Wilhelm spoke as he backed off a bit more, backing around a corner to test a theory. Sure enough, the light tapping of feet indicated that Shangri-la had returned to her spot on the bridge.
"Kommandant." Wilhelm spoke.
"Jager? How goes it? Do you have her under control?" Isaac asked.
"No sir. It is exactly like you said. There isn't a single thought that is her own. I kicked in the door to the bridge and she only pursued me to the threshold. It is my loosely held belief that she has been ordered to remain on the bridge and attack us. It may be a way for her to be better protected. After all, I can't bring my men up here without risking their lives in close quarters." Wilhelm spoke.
"Damn… I was hoping, even against Zero's words, that she had some level of autonomy. You have authority to do what must be done. If we can't do it without hurting her… just do your best not to kill her." Isaac said.
"I am going to try and get her through the windows on her bridge. She'll likely be able to survive the fall, but I don't know what she'll do once that happens." Wilhelm said.
"Got it. I'll have the carriers harass her to try and slow her down a bit more. Be careful." Isaac said as he cut the line.
Wilhelm took a breath.
"That means I'm likely going to be taking a dive too. Doubt she'll go down alone." Wilhelm said as he laid his rifle against the bulkhead.
"Status." Wilhelm barked over his radio.
"On deck, sir. How goes it on your end?" One of the men asked.
"She's being difficult. Conditioning has her locked to the bridge. She wouldn't pursue me. I'm going to attempt to get her out through the window." Wilhelm said.
"The window? Sir, that's a thirty-foot drop at best." The man spoke.
"I can't bring you guys up here without risking the entire squad. She's going to have to go out the window. Hopefully my luck holds up." Wilhelm said.
"We can set charges on the flight deck to prevent launches, maybe that might change her behavior." The man said.
Wilhelm thought for a moment.
"Give it a go. Just remember, we are preventing launches, not scuttling the boat. We need her to live." Wilhelm said as he picked up his rifle and crept over to the kicked in door, watching as Shangri-la stood by, emotionless as she looked out blankly over the waves.
A few minutes later, several explosions rocked the bridge as several satchels of C-2 were detonated along the flight deck.
As predicted, Shangri-la reacted. However, it became dangerous as she booked it for the door that Wilhelm was standing outside of. He took off down the corridor as the Kansen gave chase as if death itself was on her heels. Wilhelm had barely made it down to a junction in the corridor and turned towards the flight deck as the rattling of machine gun fire was heard along with the buzzing of a miniature aircraft.
"She's finally fighting me instead of trying to hunt the fleet… I don't know if I should be happy or upset with this development." Wilhelm said as he burst from the side door onto the smoking flight deck.
Several craters ran up and down the flight deck. The launching of aircraft was no longer an option for Shangri-la as she appeared on deck, stopping cold upon realizing that there was more than one person waiting.
"Hold fire!" Wilhelm spoke as Shangri-la surveyed the scene.
"Sir?" Another one of the men spoke.
"We just need to pin her. We can get her, but we have to do it together. One man won't be enough. She has the strength to throw us overboard from where she stands." Wilhelm spoke as several miniature fighters appeared on her rigging.
"Focus on the aircraft. Shoot them out of the sky. You two, with me, we're going to force her down." Wilhelm spoke as he pointed to two men standing on either side of Shangri-la. The men nodded, but Shangri-la wasn't going to make it easy. She launched several miniature fighters from her rigging to attack the men as they used their rifles to take down the offending air assault.
"Take her down!" Wilhelm yelled as the two men on either side pushed in, only to be thrown back by Shangri-la's rigging. They got up, relatively unharmed but they soon became the subject of Shangri-la's undivided attention. The remaining aircraft buzzing around the flight deck swooped down and aimed their guns at the men, firing a long burst into their chests. The men were thrown to the ground again, but thanks to Isaac and Norfolk, the armor plates that they wore on their chests protected them from being mortally wounded. With a flurry of coughs, one of the men rolled off to the side to avoid being flattened by a stomp from Shangri-la. Wilhelm took the opportunity to jump into the fray and try his hand at taking down the Union carrier. Grappling her and forcing her arms back, Wilhelm tried to sweep her feet from under her.
"Come on, fall already, we're trying to help you." Wilhelm muttered as Shangri-la refused to be felled. She tried to move her arms, but Wilhelm's strength and leverage proved too much for her to easily counter. So she did the next best thing, and slammed his back into the side of the island, knocking the wind from his lungs.
The men surrounding them aimed their rifles, but Wilhelm managed an order.
"Hold Fire! We can't kill her!" Wilhelm spoke as he clung to Shangri-la's arms for dear life, knowing that if he faltered for even a moment, she would turn and make every possible move to kill him.
"Try to trip her up! If we can get her on the ground, I am seeing a dark spot behind her neck. Perhaps it's one of the black cubes the Admiral was talking about. One of you contact him, the rest of you, jump in here and help me!" Wilhelm ordered as Shangri-la tried to slam him again, only for parts of her rigging to be caught by the men, holding her in place long enough from another one of Wilhelm's men to throw himself at Shangri-la's legs and force her to her knees on the flight deck.
"Just a bit more!" Wilhelm spoke as he found his footing on the flight deck and began pressing with his body weight to try and push Shangri-La the rest of the way down.
The man who had radioed Isaac looked over.
"The Admiral confirms that there is a black cube in her neck, but if we remove it, we will have to keep her stable, she will need assistance in recovering from it's removal." The man shouted.
"Will it fix her?" Wilhelm yelled as he finally managed to get Shangri-la pinned to the flight deck, despite her constant thrashing.
"Zero is confirming it. If we remove the cube, she should stop resisting us. She said we will still need to keep her stable until Vestal and Vengeance get here." The man said.
"Works for me." Wilhelm said as he knelt on Shangri-la's shoulders, positioning himself over the nape of her neck.
"I know you can't hear me, but I know this is going to hurt. Sorry in advance." Wilhelm said as he pulled a knife from his boot and easily sliced through the flesh on Shangri-la's neck. With a scream that very much wasn't Shangri-la's, Wilhelm quickly extracted the black cube, ensuring that the cube came out clean before putting a hand to her wound.
Wilhelm looked down at Shangri-la, only to find Shangri-la's skin pale and her eyes closed.
"One of you get the medical bag. There should be a needle in there and some thread to suture this cut. Radio the Admiral and let him know that Shangri-la has been neutralized." Wilhelm spoke as he heard the sound of thundering guns in the distance.
"No need for a radio, Jager. The moment that cube came out, the planes fell from the sky. Without having to worry about the planes, we made short work of the drones. We should be there within the hour. Can you lock down the port?" Isaac asked.
"I can scope it out from here. I'll relay what I see." Wilhelm said as several of his men began tending to the wound on Shangri-la's neck. This allowed Wilhelm to take a look off the stern end of the flight deck of the Shangri-la.
Holding a hand to his helmet, Wilhelm gave a report.
"Securing the port isn't an option, Admiral. Sirens and cultists left right and center. We're going to have to fight our way in." Wilhelm spoke.
Silence.
"So be it. Keep an eye on Shangri-la. I'll be there soon." Isaac said as he cut the line.
"If the port looks like this… I can only imagine the emperor's palace." Wilhelm muttered as he walked back towards his men.