Admiral Chester Nimitz smiled when he saw a F4F Wildcat fly overhead, knowing full well that it was based at Pearl Harbor. "It's one of ours," he said to the worried officers on deck as he put his binoculars down and looked at the relieved looks they gave him in response.

Suddenly, the comms officer turned and put his hand to his headphones, the urgency in his voice only betrayed by happiness and relief from making it in time.

"Pearl Harbor, this is USS Essex, CV-9. We're requesting permission to dock and perform repairs on our ship," he said and waited for a few seconds, before he put down his headphones and turned to Nimitz, preparing to report about what he learned.

"Sir, we are allowed to dock next to the Enterprise," he announced and the crew in the bridge erupted in cheers after hearing the news and Nimitz waited until they calmed down, before he cleared his throat to get the crew's attention.

"Gentlemen," he began, "you might've heard about the successful defense of Pearl Harbor against an attack from the Japs. That piece of information is true. But, there was one thing that was left unsaid. The defenders had some help from Jap defectors, who stole two ships and surrendered to commander Baker. Without their help, Pearl Harbor would've been overrun and no one of us would be here today."

Nimitz looked at the officers who had a varying degree of shock and acceptance on their faces. He let the news sink in and turned back to looking at the sea, but he didn't allow himself to relax, even when he saw a Cleveland-class CL speeding towards them to act as an escort, until his feet touched the solid ground of the base.

"Are you sure?" Harvey asked, when Enterprise finished describing one of the people on the bridge of the ship she was tailing with her F4F. According to her, he stood out like a sore thumb there and Harvey knew of only one high-ranking individual in the Navy who looked like that. And when she nodded, he quickly opened the tablet and selected the intercom.

"Attention to all hands! Admiral Chester Nimitz is en route to dock here in an hour! I repeat! Admiral Chester Nimitz is en route to dock here in an hour!" he shouted and not even a second later, he noticed that everyone stopped what they were doing and started to prepare for the imminent arrival of the last US admiral that either wasn't dead, gravely wounded, retired or MIA.

But when he looked at Mark and some of his merchant convoy members, he finally found the culprit for the current situation. He could have warned us yesterday, when he arrived with the shipment! Harvey thought and glared in the amused merchant's direction.

And when the form of the battered CV finally docked, everyone was standing at attention, waiting for the admiral to step on the pier.

Enterprise looked at the elder man, who was dressed in an admiral's uniform, with a critical eye. From what she heard about him, he was certainly capable and deserved his rank and she easily imagined him leading a much larger fleet than one battered CV.

And even from a distance she could tell that the CV had some better aircraft than her. I should ask about examining it to get an idea, how to use them, she thought and noticed just in time that everyone relaxed at the admiral's request to do so, so she followed suit.

"I heard about your recent wins, son. I must say that I am impressed with you," the admiral admitted to the commander who just shook his head and tried to downplay his success in response to the praise he received, making her nod in approval.

"Son, let's go to your office to discuss more pressing matters," the admiral then said and Enterprise saw the commander discreetly nod in her direction to follow him inside, doing the same for Toichi, who was on the other side, soon after.

When the duo finally reached the commander's office and walked inside, the commander sent a small smile in their direction and nodded, making the admiral turn around and look at them.

"Enterprise, Toichi-san, why don't you sit down?" commander Baker asked and the duo of Kansen and sailor stepped inside the office.

Toichi felt nervous, when the Union teitoku's eyes looked at him to evaluate him as a possible threat or a friend. He doesn't even pay attention to Enterprise-san, he noted, when he looked at her and sighed, before sitting down on one of the two free chairs. And only when he did so, the teitoku took a breath and began speaking.

"Commander, in light of your recent accomplishments, the president chose to give you a mission of high importance. You and I will go to North Africa and pick up gen. Patton and Montgomery, along with every single survivor of their combined task force trapped there."

Toichi saw the shikikan nod as he absorbed the information. But then, a brown, red and white blur ran into the office, closely followed by a worried-looking Shoukaku.

"Grey Ghost!" The newcomer shouted and tried to reach her katana, but Shoukaku quickly restrained her with a firm hug. She then quickly bowed to everyone in the room to apologize.

"I am sorry for my nee-san's behavior," she said and Toichi blinked several times at that. She's Zuikaku?! We have the entire 5th CV division here! He cheered in his mind, before frowning at Zuikaku's angry shout and attempt at ending Enterprise.

"Don't worry, Shoukaku. It's a welcome change from constantly being surprise hugged by Blücher," Shikikan chuckled and gave an apologetic look to his superior officer, who just responded with a shrug and a small smile. Then, the shikikan sighed and asked the only possible question that he could think of.

"When do we leave?"

The teitoku nodded in approval at that question, no doubt glad that the shikikan accepted the offer, before speaking once more.

"In a week. It's up to you, which ship you'll choose to command for the duration of the mission. And you, Jap," he then turned to face Toichi, "I'd like to have a word with you."

Toichi didn't show any emotion as he nodded, but inside, he was panicking as he tried to think of any possible reason why the teitoku wanted to talk with him. But, he eventually nodded and led Nimitz to where his friends were, feeling that they would need to be present for the talk with the possibly highest ranking human in the Pacific.

James was openly grinning like a loon, when he saw the base's pilots almost faint from seeing the new and better aircraft than what they had flown in before. Flyboys and their toys… he thought amusedly, before the quartet of Bulins sped by him, repairing the damaged ship as they went, and almost knocked him over.

"Mind your step!" he shouted at the quartet of small mechanics, before he heard the sailors shout in surprise at the newcomers' appearance and their surprising skill in repairs of the damage done to the ship. That made James chuckle, remembering his own reaction from when he saw them at work for the first time.

"This place feels more like a proper base again," he muttered and relaxed a bit more, even though he knew that the Sirens might attack again at any time they wished. Same could be said about the Iron Blood or Sakura Empire, but the former was more vulnerable to dive and torpedo bomber runs than the latter as far as he knew.

"Slacking on your job, huh?! If her majesty was here, you'd definitely be punished for this!" a voice came from behind and James turned to face Amazon, the former hostage of their Iron Blood Kensen POWs. And to be honest, no one liked the short blonde's bossy attitude.

"Are you thinking something rude about me?!"

"No, not at all," James replied with a straight face, somehow managing not to flinch under her glare. After all, he had grown accustomed to it, much like he did to Blücher's antics, when she was around the commander, which was quite a lot during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Which was also why he spent so much time out of his office, as it was where Blücher waited the most to tackle him with surprise hugs.

"Whatever. I think that your presence would make it only worse for her majesty's health. Bloody yanks…" she spat and walked away, leaving him behind to his thoughts as he looked around once again, but this time, he spotted something floating in the sea. Something small, but still somewhat visible, due to its red color.

James quickly grabbed his binoculars and looked at the object… only to see that it's a folder, most likely containing some papers and alerted the sailors to get a lifeboat down so that the folder can be collected from the sea and any possible documents inside saved.

"04/12/…

…Finally made a breakthrough on the design! It looks much better than Aoste's 'Enforcers' and 'Arbiters.' Ugh, those things look way too much like childlike humanoid monsters from the deepest depths of the sea and give me the creeps. They don't even have emotions! I'd rather not have Creepypasta stuff like that near me ever again. Thank you very much.

Oh, where was I? Right, the breakthrough. I found out that thanks to altering a bunch of specific lines of code in the cubes, I can make the K.A.N.S.E.N. appear with different guns. And I don't mean the CVs or CVLs. I was able to change some early DDs' weak torpedoes into the best ones possible, while not altering their rigging, or personalities for that matter, at all! Eek! I'm so excited! It's also much easier than rebuilding the entire ship to get the desired results!

Oh, and blueprint onlies can also be made, but they are for some reason more unstable than the others. I'll have to…

… leave it to Richard. She is the best PR face ever."

"Quite a lot is missing in the report. Including the name of the researcher and the year. The rest is blacked out, most likely censored by someone." Jessica commented for herself as she finished reading the report that was brought to her to examine. It was hard to read, due to the mysterious researcher's messy handwriting, but she was still able to decipher that the researcher was female.

"But, it still contains some useful information. As long as a blueprint of a ship exists, no matter if she was constructed, or not, her soul can be awakened. And the guns and planes can be altered too…" she trailed off as she thought about seeing Atago's main guns wielded by Blücher and vice versa. It was definitely something to look into later. But for now, she wanted to see if Enterprise can truly use other aircraft than her usual F4F Wildcat, SBD Dauntless and TBF Avenger, accidentally forgetting that Enterprise had already acquired F6F Hellcat that way 2 days after the Sakura empire's failed attack.

"If I remember correctly, Murray told me that his friend at Curtiss-Wright was testing a new dive bomber. I wonder if they have one on board the Essex. But, I'll have to ask them to let Enterprise have a look at it. Fighters are no problem, because both Shoukaku and Zuikaku have those Zero fighters." she continued talking to herself, before finally deciding her next course of action and leaving her room/office with the report in hand.

Unmarked Siren-made sea cave, somewhere on the Hokkaido island

"I can forgive you for your failure and still grant you the chance of reviving your dear sister, Akagi. You only need to destroy Pearl Harbor. And if Chester Nimitz and that pesky worm commander Baker get stalled, or killed, during a mission away from the base… You can rule supreme over your bunch of islands without our interference," said Observer Zero as she stared down at the kneeling Akagi, unimpressed with her failure.

"If you fail me again, there will be no third chance. Remember it well," the Siren finished, turned around and walked away from the CV, disinterest clear on her face. She was annoyed about how weak and incompetent those ripoffs of Anzeel's work were, but she didn't show it. They won't survive against our weakest Arbiter, let alone the weakest one of them. It would be for the best to destroy this Earth as well, but not now, she thought, feeling that ending things now would be way too soon.

Harvey Baker, you'll either fail and die, or win and survive. It's up to you, which way you'll choose. You even have some potential to surpass the Nameless commander who died in the original timeline, when they invaded and killed all humans, even though he, Anzeel and Aoste came close to beating them back. Do not disappoint me.

"Achoo!" Harvey sneezed out of the blue, surprised that it happened, even though it wasn't cold enough outside and he had no allergies. But, he decided not to think about it and just shook his head, returning to his planning on who to take on the next mission with him, admiral Nimitz and his men.

Cleveland looked at the blueprint she just found in the ship blueprint archive in the base's main building, with longing in her eyes. After all, it belonged to one of her many sisters. She'd recognize that hull anywhere, even if it was repurposed to be a CVL. But, she also knew that she'd need to ask the commander for permission to use the cubes to finally meet her and bolster their forces.

I swear to find and bring back as many of my sisters as possible, she wowed in her mind, put the CVL's blueprint on a nearby desk and started looking over the many rolled up blueprints and setting them aside by class - DDs to the leftmost desk, CLs next to them, CAs and CBs on the middle, BBs on the second desk to the right and CVs and CVLs to the rightmost desk.

And then, she looked over the CL blueprints with a sad smile as she saw only 5 of her sisters (the CVL not included) in the entire archive. After all, the once large Cleveland-class was reduced to 6 CLs and one Independence-class CVL, most of which were only blueprints. So, Cleveland picked up what she came in for, only to bump into Z23 who just entered the room.

"Mein Gott, watch your step," the DD said with some annoyance as she stood up and dusted herself off.Cleveland quickly gathered her collected blueprints and stood up as well, before running her free hand through her hair and laughing nervously for a few moments and then, she flashed her trademark grin at the DD in front of her.

"Sorry about that. I just got excited about something," she said and noticed that the DD was looking past her into the archives as if she wanted to do something just to not get bored. And Cleveland could relate to that. Even if she had different reasons as to why she was bored out of her mind.

"Whatever… Where is the Kommandant? I want to speak with him," Z23 replied and Cleveland shrugged, not really knowing it herself, since she tried to find him beforehand and without success. But then, she got an idea. One that had an equal chance of success and failure.

"How about we look for him together?" she asked, surprising the DD with her idea. Yet, she expected that to happen and gave Z23 another one of her trademark grins as she waited for her answer.

"F-fine! Jeez…" Z23 answered and Cleveland swore she could hear the DD mutter something about 'bloody yanks,' but decided to ignore it in favor of searching for the commander.

Somewhere in the Atlantic ocean

"I might be great, but I'm not one for long scouting missions. I wonder, how are Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Graf Zeppelin able to finish them," Z1 said as she stared at the seemingly endless expanse of seawater around her.

"I hate missions. Those unsightly things are always thrown at me… and I get even more after Zed went MIA with Blücher's team…" Z24 commented as she looked with disinterest at the sea as there was nothing else to do. Even her Siren tech-enhanced radar and sonar were quiet, which was odd, given the fact that the Royal Navy was usually patrolling this area, since it was their shipping route to the Eagle Union.

"Stop whining and focus," Z1 shot back, not liking the fact that Z24 was her only companion for this mission. I wonder how Zed was able to make her tamer…she thought and almost missed a couple of blips appearing on the edge of her sonar's range for a few moments, making her grin as prey finally appeared.

She grinned and sped towards her new targets, catching up with the slow merchant ships easily, Z24 following right after. But, just when their released torpedoes hit the ships, some of the crates on the 3 ships suddenly opened, revealing a single 127 mm dual purpose gun that was aimed right at the duo of DDs.

Dang it! Those guns can wipe us out easily! Z1 thought and then, she saw something, from her point of view, impossible: human sailors were frantically running around the ships like ants as they tried to assess the damage done by the torpedoes, which was shockingly little, thanks to torpedo bulges.

And due to their shock, both Z1 and Z24 got almost hit by the shells fired from the escaping merchant ships. But, luckily for the duo, they only received some bruising from the impact. And that, coupled with their fuel reserves being low, made the DDs decide to return to a friendly port for resupply and minor repairs.