October 16th 1945
2:00am
The moon was full over the Royal Navy HQ.
Resource was busy checking on Swift and Anson as they slept whilst Unicorn was sound asleep in her bed, tightly cuddling her plush.
Sovereign and Indomitable were discussing their next moves in the main hallway they'd set as part of their patrol route. "So you and I will head out to get the things we need?" Indomitable inquired once Sovereign had laid out her plan.
"With Anson as backup once her arm is fixed. Resource told me earlier that she should be fine in a day or two" Sovereign answered.
"That's good. The more survivors we find, the better" Indomitable replied before she turned her head. "Are you getting that on your radar?"
"Yes. There's something outside" Sovereign said as she and Indomitable began to head out towards the entrance, but as they did that, several blasts shook the building. "We're under attack!" Sovereign yelled as she sprinted for the entrance whilst Indomitable doubled back to find Unicorn.
Unicorn was fully away by the time Indomitable got to her room. "Big sis? What's going on" Unicorn asked as Indomitable picked her up and carried her out of the room, seeing Manchester run past to help Sovereign.
"There's someone outside." Indomitable replied as she got Unicorn to the entrance to the cellar, opening the door she turned a switch and some lights came on. Taking Unicorn down into the cellar she placed the little carrier onto a chair. "Stay here until I get back. I shan't be long" Indomitable said as she kissed Unicorn on the forehead and then she headed back upstairs, locking the door behind her, just in case Unicorn tried to follow her out.
"Sister?" Sovereign asked in confusion upon seeing Revenge standing before her, rigging deployed and sword to hand. "What are you doing?. You know this place well so put your guns down"
"M'lady. I don't think she's well" Manchester commented, her rigging deployed.
"Orders are orders." Revenge finally spoke.
"No. Don't tell me they got you too" Sovereign said as she readied her sword.
Revenge simply charged at her little sister and they clashed swords. Manchester tried to get around behind Revenge but one of the turrets on Revenge's rigging turned independently of the rest and began to fire at her, forcing her to dodge and back off. "You should have stayed to fight them!" Revenge spat
"We did! But you got overrun and no matter how hard we tried to push back. They just kept coming!" Sovereign replied as Revenge shoved her back and they continued their duel. As Revenge slashed at her little sister, Sovereign realised that Revenge wasn't going all out against her. Like something was holding her back. As they clashed again, she noticed something lodged into Revenge's neck. Acting quickly, she sweeped her leg and knocked Revenge down and then held her down. "Get over here! Something's in her neck" she called to Manchester who was quick to get to Sovereign's side. Indomitable joined them a moment afterwards and helped to restrain the Battleship.
"What is that?" Manchester asked, seeing the object that seemed to be glowing slightly.
"No clue, but we need to get it out" Sovereign said as she drew a small knife from her belt and carefully cut into her sister's neck as Manchester kept her lamp shining on the area the object was in. She could feel her elder sister trying to shove her off but she persisted, opening enough of a hole to get her hand in and pull out a small black cube. The Battleship and the Cruiser inspected it for a moment before Sovereign noticed Revenge had stopped struggling below her.
"Th-Thank you… Little sister" Revenge said quietly, her energy leaving her.
"Let's get you to Resource. She can fix you up" Sovereign replied softly as she carefully dragged her sister indoors, whilst Indomitable checked to see if Manchester had been hurt when Revenge fired at her.
"Resource!" Sovereign yelled as she dragged her elder sister up the flight of stairs. Resource was along soon after and helped pull the battleship into her workspace. Revenge was put onto Resource's medical bed and the repair ship began to look over the new arrival.
"Right. What's with the neck wound" Resource said as she began to clean the injury up.
"They put this in her neck" Sovereign replied as she placed the cube down nearby.
"It's Siren whatever it is. My guess is that it controls us against our will" Resource commented as she continued with her work. Revenge just laid there, her tired eyes just staring at her little sister as Sovereign gripped her hand in her own. "I'll check it over later. Then we destroy it" Resource added.
The convoy carefully made it's way down one of the backroads as they headed for the Royal Navy's HQ. Their arrival at the second Estate had gotten them more weapons and ammunition, plus two soldiers who had been in hiding. They had escaped the Siren's first attack and talked of their friends being taken prisoner and marched away from the estate, never to be seen again.
As they came closer to a bridge, Bulldog realised they were not alone and requested they stop. She got out of the Bren Gun Carrier and stepped into the treeline, she stood there for a moment, staring into the darkness before she spoke. "I know someone's out there. No need to be shy" She said before a cloaked figure appeared out from behind a tree, illuminated by several lamps.
"Who is it?" Hector called out.
"I think she would be better off introducing herself" Bulldog said as the woman removed the cloak from her head.
"Formidable? What on earth are you doing out here?" Valiant remarked, seeing the Carrier reveal herself.
"I tried to cross the bridge… But I felt the bridge buckle a little bit. I've seen trucks and jeeps go over just fine, but when I try. It buckles a bit more" Formidable commented, feeling rather ashamed of herself.
"I don't see why we can't help you cross now." Bulldog commented as she helped Formidable into the Carrier, it shifted only a little bit but seemed otherwise fine and once Bulldog got back in and they crossed the bridge. "But seriously. Where have you been all this time?"
"Well following when the Sirens overran us. I fled into the country in order to recover and possibly find others. But finding everyone when we were all over the place became more a wish than an actual objective." Formidable began to explain. "I did come across some of our lot. But the Sirens had captured them and I was in no position, as a solo carrier, to be able to help them"
"Did you identify who had been captured?" Z20 inquired.
"I couldn't. I could tell there was a Battleship amongst the prisoners though." Formidable continued.
"Well. Let's hope we find some reinforcements at the HQ once we get there." Valiant commented as they fell silent again as the Convoy continued on it's long journey.
"Another arrival?" Anson asked as she entered Resource's quarters, Sovereign still sat beside her elder sister.
"The Sirens had control of Revenge here. But Sovereign, the Mancunian and Indomitable managed to subdue her and get her to me. With the control cube intact" Resource explained as she carefully wrapped the bandages around Revenge's neck.
"Does it still impact her?" Anson inquired, uncertain about the nature of the cube still being near the kansen it used to be controlling.
"Not that we know of. She seemed to be relieved that I had removed it" Sovereign answered.
"That's a good sign. We'd best keep that cube somewhere safe. There's no knowing if the Sirens can monitor it's location" Anson responded before she headed back into the hallway to go and find Indomitable and Manchester.
Indomitable was at the entrance of the cellar with Manchester and Swift. She opened the door again and headed down to check on Unicorn. The little Carrier was still where she had been sat down. She was keeping her plush close to her chest. "It's okay, now. I'm here" Indomitable said softly as she comforted the young girl.
"Everything alright down here?" Anson asked as she and the other two came downstairs.
"We're fine. I didn't want Unicorn to get hurt so I brought her down here" Indomitable explained.
"That's fair. I don't think any of us would wish that for Unicorn. I don't think Illustrious would be happy if we allowed her to get hurt" Anson commented.
"Didn't Dido and Sheffield steal her plush one time and Illustrious punished them severely?" Manchester inquired.
"Yes. Yes she did" Indomitable replied, chuckling at the memory. "How is your arm doing?"
"It's feeling far better now" Anson said as she removed the sling and flexed her arm slowly. "Probably needs a little bit more time but I should be fine to use it now"
"A shame Resource has had to go from one battleship to another. She really hasn't gotten much rest" Indomitable commented. "I'll have to have a word with her about getting some rest" she added before her expression changed.
"Indomitable? What's up" Swift asked.
Indomitable didn't reply but instead headed upstairs, calling back for Unicorn to stay downstairs. She entered one of the front rooms, finding Sovereign there, a Purple hue falling on her through the windows. "What is it?" she asked the battleship.
"Revenge was just the taster" Sovereign stated as several portals appeared on the lawn alongside the first that Sovereign had seen appear moments earlier. "Prepare yourselves. This is going to get much harder!" she yelled as Sirens began pouring out of the portals and they charged towards the HQ. The girls opened fire with their hand held weapons, cutting down several of their foe. But it wasn't going to be enough, so Sovereign drew her sword and ran for the defended entrance. A few Sirens appeared as she got there and she opened fire on them.
Swift and Manchester joined her moments later, helping to take out any Sirens that poured through as the building began to be hit by heavier weapons. The building shook and dust fell from the ceiling. "That's not good" Swift commented.
Outside, silhouetted by the portal behind them, took a figure. Their rigging was large, sporting seven turrets. Their appearance, though ragged and seemingly having been in combat recently, seemed to display a strange combination of cultures. Three cultures to be exact. They remained silent as they fired more salvo's at the building, cracking more of the walls and blowing holes in some of the windows.
Anson growled as she thrust her rapier through another Siren , pulling it out and quickly decapitating another as Indomitable shot several more at the other end of the hallway. "They keep coming!" the carrier called.
"We need to take out those portals. Or whoever is leading these things" Anson called back as she slashed at another Siren before dodging an attack from yet another Siren. Things were getting very hectic inside the hallways and they were at threat of being fully overrun with no escape routes.
"We can't split up. We need to stick together for these movements." Indomitable said as she smashed the butt of her Sten into the face of a Siren that tried to catch her from the side, deploying her rigging, she sent up several of her fighters. They flew down the hallways each way and opened fire on the Sirens, gunning many of them down. It gave them some breathing space and they hurried down the hall to where Resource was held up, Swift and Manchester were soon following them having managed to escape from a near encirclement in the main area.
Resource had been holding down her room well. She'd set up a barricade to use for defence and she'd made sure to put Revenge in a covered position. But with her rigging lacking a weapon to use, she had resorted to a pistol that had been left in the building. When the team got to her, they found several dead Sirens in the doorway.
"Bloody hell you lot. Prior warning would have been nice. I nearly ran out of ammo" She hissed.
"Sorry. But I don't think any of us were expecting this attack" Sovereign replied before they heard the sounds of more Sirens running down the hallway. "But we need to close those portals. Or take out whoever is in charge here"
"And how do you plan on doing that exactly? I see no way we're getting out of this one easily if they just keep coming" Resource replied.
There was silence from the ships for a moment as they turned to defend the room from incoming attack. Several more Sirens fell before Sovereign spoke up "I saw some explosives in the basement. We could form a better defence there. They'd only be able to come in from one direction"
Indomitable suddenly rushed out, realising that Unicorn was completely undefended. Swift followed her whilst Resource got Sovereign and Manchester to help her with moving Revenge.
Indomitable found the door to the cellar open, several burn marks on it. She nearly flew down the stairs and found Unicorn standing over a dead Siren, the little carrier holding a small knife in her hand. "Unicorn!" Indomitable cried as she picked up the little one. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you?"
"I'm okay" Unicorn said quietly. "Uniee protected me" she added.
Indomitable saw the little plush on the floor and picked it up, giving it back to Unicorn. "I'm glad to hear you're okay. But I will have Fortune check you over just incase"
Unicorn nodded, accepting Indomitable's request.
Swift was down the stairs moments later, having stayed outside to cover the door incase more Sirens came and then led the rest of the defenders down. Resource and Sovereign carrying Revenge down on a stretcher.
"Should have thought about Unicorn, earlier, Indomitable" Resource remarked. "
"How was I supposed to know they'd realise she was down here?" Indomitable snapped.
"Alright, no need to get at one another's throats" Anson said as she pointed the sidearm she'd been given towards the top of the stairs and shot another Siren. "You mentioned explosives here. What do we have and how much do we have?"
Sovereign walked to the left of the stairs and rummaged through a few crates, pulling out a few grenades and bundled dynamite sticks. "We could probably level the building with the amount we have"
"We'll use the grenades. I don't think we'd want to blindly toss explosives through those portals incase there are innocents on the other sides" Anson suggested as a plan began to form.
"How do we know that for sure?" Manchester asked.
"None of us have actually been seeing free humans have we? Only ones that have sided with them" Anson replied. "If they are coming out from staging areas, they might have prisoners there. And I don't want that thought on my mind"
"I see." the cruiser replied quietly.
"We'll need a distraction of sorts. Take the Siren's attention away from our main objective. Perhaps take some of the dynamite over to one area of the fields and make it look like there's more of us in the clearing?" Indomitable suggested.
"We'd also be able to use our rigging fully outside. No cramped hallways to deal with" Resource replied.
"Well you didn't really have any weapons to begin with but yes, you are correct" Sovereign replied. "However. We still have plenty of weapons to use. As long as we have enough ammo. How is everyone doing on that front?"
"I need some more. There any through there?" Resource replied and Sovereign nodded, allowing the repair ship to go and obtain some ammo. She returned with several clips and tossed a few to Anson, as she had also taken a pistol of the same type.
"We'll all have to go together this time. Including you, little Unicorn. I don't want to ask this but it's required this time around." Unicorn nodded slightly, knowing that she had to fight again.
Another salvo of rounds hit the building and it shook again. "But first. We need to deal with who or whatever is barraging this building" Anson said.
There were several Sirens standing near the entrance to the cellar, they stood no chance against the combined might of all of the ships pouring out of the room. Sovereign led the group, her shield protecting them from the incoming fire. Indomitable and Manchester shot at the Sirens when they passed by. "This is going well, somehow" Indomitable commented.
"Don't mess it up now, Indomitable" Anson replied as they got into the defended entrance and they all deployed their rigging. "Go!" the battleship ordered and the team began their counter attack.
They exited the entrance but suddenly all came to a stop upon seeing the figure standing nearby.
"Who is that?" Indomitable asked, confused.
"I'll deal with this. You lot continue with the plan" Anson said as she approached the figure. As she drew closer, the Purple hue enabled Anson to see more of who she was facing. She was extremely close when she positively identified the Battleship before her. "So you're the one called Agincourt" Anson observed.
Agincourt's cold gaze remained focused on her. "And who might you be?"
A small, confident smile appeared on Anson's otherwise tired face. "HMS Anson. King George The Fifth Class Battleship No.4" she replied. "And I'm sorry that the Sirens did what they did to you, but It's time to set you free" she said as she pointed her Rapier towards the older Battleship.
Agincourt's simple reply was to fire at Anson with her rigging, the younger Battleship dodged out of the way and fired only one of her turrets at her foe, the shells tore through Agincourt's rigging, taking out two of her seven turrets. "Insolent scum!" she roared.
"That was with only one turret. I can fire my other one if you'd like" Anson replied in kind, keeping her guns trained on Agincourt's turrets. "Or shall you draw your sword and we can settle this fairly"
Agincourt refused and unleashed the 5 active turrets, firing an unrelenting storm of shells towards Anson. "DIE!" she screamed.
Anson stood her ground and summoned a shield to her free hand, it bore her crest on it's front and she deflected the storm of shells away from her and far off into the fields behind her. Not giving Agincourt another chance to fire another salvo, she sprinted towards the elder Battleship and smashed into her, knocking her to the ground.
Agincourt growled in pain as she tried to pick herself back up but Anson pinned her down with her shield. "The Sirens really were foolish to send you here. They just lost another pawn, and we gained a friend back" Anson declared as she brought her rapier down on part of Agincourt's neck, piercing right into the black cube that enslaved her. Agincourt screamed out in pain as Anson put her Rapier down and tore the rest of the cube out, it's black ooze dripping onto the floor beside her and Agincourt. Anson stood over her for a moment more before more Sirens began to fire at her from behind. One of them hit her in the arm and she hissed In pain, but she turned her turrets and let them tear her foe apart. Once she was in the clear for the moment, she grabbed Agincourt and took her inside.
"Right. Anson's dealt with them. Looks like she's taking them inside" Indomitable commented, having been using one of her planes in order to observe the duel whilst they were planting some of the Dynamite in the nearby field.
"Well that means we've just got this Siren onslaught to mop up" Manchester replied.
"Let's hope this plan works then. You planted your things?" Sovereign asked.
"Yes. We're all set" Swift replied.
"Right then. Move back to the building." Sovereign ordered and they quickly dashed over to the building,
Sovereign then wound the detonator ready for the blasts. "Everyone get ready" Indomitable said as she looked to Sovereign and nodded.
The Battleship nodded back and dropped the plunger on the detonator she was holding. Moments later, several explosions, one after each other tore through some of the dirt. Several of the Sirens that were inside the building heard and began to pour out, suspecting a counter attack or a few new foes. They all ran out into the field but found nothing. "FIRE!" Sovereign yelled and the ships present began to fire everything they had at the Sirens. Many were thrown into the air by the volume of fire, many others were torn apart by the shells and explosions. Some that were thrown into the air and others who avoided the shells were strafed by aircraft that Indomitable and Unicorn launched from their rigging. Once they were suitably dealt with, the group rushed back to where the portals were and began to throw the grenades they had and switched to High Explosive shells.
The Portals couldn't take much punishment and after several Grenades and constant shelling from HE rounds, they collapsed and the darkness returned to the grounds. Only the moonlight appearing out from behind the occasional cloud. The girls headed back inside, dealing with any stragglers and checking their wounds and wounded.
They found Anson in Resource's work area, looking rather exhausted, Agincourt on the bed beside her. "Oh for crying out loud, I just sorted your arm out"
"It's only a burn, Resource. You can sort it out. But these two come first" Anson replied, turning her attention to her sister and the much older Battleship.
"I've got a long night ahead of me…" Resource groaned.
"Well I think we all deserve a rest after that. But we should now anticipate another Siren attack at some point" Sovereign commented, knowing all too well they'd been fighting for too long, she could see that Unicorn was nearly dropping off to sleep again. Indomitable took her little sister back to her room and she ended up falling asleep in a chair beside the bed, utterly exhausted from the non stop fighting.
Sovereign stayed up to continue patrolling, but Resource knew she'd been up repeatedly for several nights and forced her to sleep. So Sovereign gave in and fell asleep beside her older sister, hoping she'll be back to normal soon enough, leaving Resource to quietly work on Agincourt.