Michael felt at home on the bridge of the Prinz Eugen. With long range overwatch being provided by Friedrich and Amagi, he felt confident in his ability to close the distance to the shoreline. His silence and demeanor, however, were picked up by Eugen who went over to him, leaving several of the members of the black death to chat amongst themselves.

"Everything okay, Herr Michael?" Eugen asked, her ring glistening from the lights blinking slowly on her bridge.

"Yeah... I'm fine. Just preparing myself for what's ahead. There's still a lot of uncertainty here. We can take the palace. We can rescue the emperor. We can transport him to Kure until we clear out the remaining resistance in Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures. But all of it will be for nought if we screw up even one step here. I may have been forced to join the Imperial Navy, but in my time here, spending time between Truk and the home islands, this place feels more and more like home to me. If the emperor dies here… who will lead the rebuilding efforts in the country? What if we rescue him and he's sided fully with the Sirens? What if we rescue him and he determines that Isaac and all of us are enemies and traitors? There are so many unknowns here…" Michael rambled.

"So? Who cares?" Eugen said bluntly, adopting a haughtier tone.

"Eugen?" Michael asked, her change in tone drawing his attention away from the waves before them.

"You're risking life and limb to rescue him. Service or not, you aren't alone. So what if he's sided with the Sirens? He'll be designated as an enemy and dealt with accordingly. So what if he declares you a traitor? Do you honestly think Isaac…or hell… any one of us in Ironblood would allow him to lay so much as a Sakura scented finger on you? Frau Bismarck and Frau Tirpitz may be married to Jager, but they remember you as well. We've spoken at length since we rejoined an active fleet. They would still turn their guns to protect you, and with Jager and the Admiral on your side, why would you allow such a pointless thought to take hold in your mind? Don't tell me that you turned into such a pansy since we last saw each other before the war took off." Eugen said, poking Michael in the ribs.

"O-of course not. I've made Captain, I have to take a lot of variables into account, Eugen. I don't like throwing myself blindly into situations like this. I have to find a way to make this go well, because I'm not the only person that this affects." Michael replied.

Eugen scoffed.

"Don't let such pointless things drag you down. Do your part and everything will work out just fine." Eugen spoke with crossed arms as she crept closer to Michael until she was able to lean against him.

"Besides, if all else fails, I'll level the building and report it as an unsalvageable mission in the report." Eugen said.

Michael smiled.

"Your report would be overwritten by mine." Michael said with a small poke to her cheek.

"You'd really rat out your wife?! That's cold, Michael." Eugen said as she recoiled away from him.

Michael chuckled, causing Eugen to smile as well, her mission successful.

"I guess I could afford to loosen up a bit. I mean, with everyone supporting this operation, we should manage just fine." Michael said as they continued their trek closer to Tokyo Palace.

U-110 sat quietly inside her vessel. Months spent being alone in a Siren infested ocean taught her to keep quiet and remain still as her steel vessel sliced silently through the waves. She had developed a system to determine her location within the ocean, and with a little extra help from Patty before her departure, U-110 had been pointed in the correct bearing to run directly into Alaska, where she would be able to surface and begin her search for her friend, Nurnburg, now known as Admiral Makarov.

*screech*

Every ten minutes, U-110 would ping her sonar to gather her bearings. Using each ping like a pair of binoculars to scour the surface for her friend, but also sweep the seas in front of and below her so she could maneuver if needed. When nothing returned, U-110 would sit back down and continue to play with her Enigma machine, sending out encoded messages on an old Ironblood channel as she had been instructed by Isaac.

*screech*

*nothing*

Ten more minutes passed.

*screech*

*nothing*

Ten more minutes passed.

*screech*

*ping*

U-110 looked up from her machine to the sound of her Sonar picking something up.. Just as U-110 was about to open up her general channel to reach out, two high pitched pings reached her ears. She had found something, and upon closer inspection, it was actually three somethings… but now, at least two somethings had found her and were pinging her with active sonar. She was no longer alone in the Bering Sea.

U-110 steeled herself. She was running at half of her maximum depth and was doing fairly well on oxygen in the vessel. The electric drives had been massively overhauled by Patty who had managed to place several dynamos on the propeller shaft to provide diminishing returns to the electric drives, allowing U-110 to stay submerged for the majority of her mission. Taking that into account, U-110 thought for a moment about her options. She could fight and risk further detection. She could dive and risk grounding herself or worse. Or she could attempt to out speed the incoming contacts. Her thoughts were shattered when the two pings of enemy sonar struck her head on again. They knew she was there and were coming closer.

She was left with one option. She had to fight, or these threats would follow her all the way to where Nurnburg was recovering. The small submarine stood and slammed her fist to her chest.

"Either you sink… or I will. You've been set upon by the shark of the Kriegsmarine. Prepare to die." U-110 spoke as she pushed her motors to their limit, immediately getting feedback that her batteries would be drained in merely one minute of sustained use. She'd need to surface in hostile territory if that happened… even if it didn't, the act of pushing her motors like that severely drained her remaining power, so she'd be forced to surface anyway.

"If I don't see you again, my friend… know that I carved you a path." U-110 whispered in a small display of maturity.

She ignored the warning as she got up to speed, taking aim at the source of the closest Sonar ping and firing away with a volley of torpedoes. The torpedoes soared through the waves, slowly rising to their proper running depth before slamming into whatever had sent out that sonar pulse. The detonations were enough for U-110 to crash dive to her maximum depth and attempt to rapidly relocate for another set-up. But her efforts were thwarted as a single ping hit her hull. She had taken out one of the Sonar devices, but the other one had a solid bead on her and was refusing to let go. The lights flickered as her electrical systems began to fail, the batteries were drained. U-110 gritted her teeth.

"I won't fail her here." The submarine whispered as she switched to her diesel engines knowing full well that it would steal oxygen from inside the sub to feed the combustion. She sealed the bridge as best she could and ramped up power to her engines, getting her back to full underwater speed as she lined up a second shot and slammed her fist on the button to launch her torpedoes. As the torpedoes sailed through the cold water, U-110 felt herself getting lightheaded as the oxygen was rapidly pumped into the engines to keep her vessel moving. Even the bridge wasn't perfectly airtight, meaning her own oxygen was being sapped away as well. The smell of diesel fumes filled the air as the oxygen was replaced with exhaust fumes. Despite all this, U-110 held her breath and listened. Her torpedoes detonated on target. No sonar was confirmed. With this in mind, U-110 broke directive and blew her ballast tanks, sending her vessel hurtling towards the surface. The moment she knew the sub had leveled out, she opened every vent on the sub and scrambled to the conning tower to catch a breath of fresh air.

The moment she threw the hatch on the sub however, she realized why there hadn't been any more Sonar despite her picking up three contacts. On the surface, were the wrecks of two destroyer type drone ships that had taken the full brunt of four G7e torpedoes each. The remaining contact scared U-110. It was what she had feared running into. She had memorized every type of drone vessel before executing the mission. This one didn't match anything she had memorized. She knew what this meant. She had fallen into a trap and was assuredly in the radar range of Purifier's Radar cruiser. She felt herself being watched by the drone ship as she quickly swung her deck gun around and began sending 10.4cm shells at the cruiser. To her dismay the cruiser was more than capable of cycling its shielding while operating its radar. U-110 pushed her engines in an attempt to escape but was immediately bracketed by heavy caliber shells from the cruiser. U-110 felt panic setting in as she sent out a quick SOS on the general frequency before assessing her vessel.

The batteries were practically dead. She hadn't run the engines long enough to get any charge from the dynamos or the alternator. She was stuck on the surface with a 10cm gun and torpedoes to defend herself. And this cruiser seemed beefy compared to the destroyers she had handled so easily.

U-110 looked headlong at the enemy cruiser. She became so fixated on watching the drone that she neglected to notice the bulin climbing up the ladder of her conning tower. The moment the bulin touched her, U-110 nearly screamed.

"Miss 110. Please relax. Are you alright? The hull began filling with smoke, but we couldn't find any damage." Chief spoke.

U-110 looked wildly at the seasoned bulin.

"I'm sorry… I forgot you were aboard. I switched to diesel power to avoid being caught dead in the water. The batteries died… I'm so sorry…" U-110 said as another set of shells bracketed the submarine, this time closer than the last.

"It's okay, we're used to the smoke. You didn't hurt anyone. Right now, focus on evasion. I'll get the girls ready for boarding actions." Chief said as U-110 looked at her with a look of confusion.

"Boarding actions?" U-110 asked.

"Yup. Just trust me, okay? Don't get shot." Chief said as she went back into the conning tower.