October 16th 1945
11:00am

"How much further, Sheffield?" Ryan asked as the convoy headed down a small road.

"We're nearly there. Just take the next right and we'll be on the lead up to the HQ" the Cruiser replied. Ryan nodded and followed her lead, the vehicles turning right to continue down another dirt road, once they got a certain distance down the road, Sheffield had them stop again. After checking behind her, she got off the lead vehicle and looked down the road. "Give me a moment" she said simply before disappearing into the trees, a few moments later, the ships comms came to life. "This is HMS Sheffield, is anyone out there?"

There was a silence for a moment or two before someone else responded.

"Sheffield? Is that you? Where are you?" came the voice from the other end.

"I'm nearby. I do require you confirm who you are and a question needs to be answered before I reply further"

An audible sigh was heard on the other end of the radio. "I'm HMS Royal Sovereign, part of the Revenge Class of Battleships. What is your question, Sheffield"

"What did you do to earn my wrath last time we talked?"

Another sigh was heard and Sheffield smiled to herself. "I walked into a hallway you had just freshly cleaned, leaving a mud trail that you made me clean.. For three hours straight" Sovereign replied.

"Correct. Now. Are there others with you?" Sheffield replied.

"Several, yes. Myself and seven others."

"Seven? How many survivors are here?" Norfolk wondered to herself, listening in on the conversation.

"Do we have permission to come in?" Sheffield replied.

"Yes. We've been hoping for some backup for a little while now" Sovereign replied and Sheffield walked back to the convoy and ushered them to continue to move.

A few minutes later, the vehicles left the tree lined road and came out into an expansive open area, with the house standing proudly in the centre.

"Well. It looks like this place has seen some action recently" Hector remarked upon seeing the damage to the building and some of the defences. Parts were riddled with shell holes and other bits were burned with scoring from Siren weapons. He was so focused on the building that he didn't notice the group exit the building.

"Hector?" A voice came from nearby. Hector froze as he turned his head to where the voice came from.

"Annie?" He asked.

Standing nearby, was Anson. They stared at one another in shock for a moment before they broke out into sprinting towards one another, culminating in them sharing an embrace. "I thought you were dead" Anson admitted as she held onto him tightly.

"Not dead yet, my dear" he replied with a slight chuckle. "But I knew you'd be alright"

"Wait wait wait. You two are a couple?" Sovereign asked, seeing the embrace. The other shipgirls nearby turned to see them.

"Well um" Hector began but his wife spoke first.

"Yes, Sovereign. We've been married for a little while now" Anson replied.

"Did a pretty good job of hiding it" Sheffield commented

"I was on leave for three weeks, Sheffield. I'm surprised no-one noticed anything up with me during the period before then"

"Was it you who Sheffield contacted?" Ryan asked, cutting the conversation off as he approached the couple.

"No. I'm Anson. HMS Anson. Sovereign is over there. Pink hair, very hard to miss"

"Interesting choice in hair colour" Hector remarked.

"She just appeared like that. For a time that wasn't her duty uniform. She had a full white uniform with a winter cloak and a hat to boot. That was for when she was operating with the Northern Parliament under a loan agreement." Anson explained. "I think she's a little bit happier having her Royal Navy uniform on. Allows her to actually have her Sword attached to her belt"

"Still got yours I see" Hector replied.

"Always have to carry it around with me. Would be improper for a high ranking person such as I to not carry my Rapier" Anson replied before she and her husband both chuckled.

"Sheffy!" came a voice from nearby and they turned to see Manchester running towards Sheffield, the latter not looking as pleased as the former about the reunion.

"Hi." Sheffield said simply as Manchester hugged her, her face full of disinterest in the matter.

"Guess there's a few reunions going on today then. Me with you, Sheffield with her sister. And.." he drifted off as he noticed Formidable standing beside the carrier she had been sat in. The vehicle in question was now tilted to one side, it's suspension having fallen apart. She looked rather embarrassed, especially since two other figures had exited the building and saw her.

"Formi? Is that you?" came the voice.

Formidable turned briefly, seeing her little sister and Unicorn approaching and then turned away to try to pretend that she hadn't heard them, but Unicorn ran over and tugged at her dress. "Big Sis. Don't be shy" she said, staring up at the carrier with those big beady eyes of hers.

Formidable couldn't ignore Unicorn and had to turn around, facing her little sister and her adopted little sister. "Umm. Hey. Long time no see" she said sheepishly.

"I'm sure Resource can help you sort out this issue" Indomitable commented, taking a single glance at the Bren Gun Carrier and it's dismantled suspension.

"Yeah. Formidable doesn't really have too much luck compared to her siblings. Her ship self-launched when it was to be launched. So that latched onto her and it's been a hindrance for her ever since" Anson explained.

"Well if this Resource is able to at least help her with the issue. Then I don't think she'll have the issue for much longer" Hector responded.

"Indeed. Best to not make a comment about her weight though. That is a sensitive topic for her" Anson whispered in her husband's ear.

"I'll bear that in mind. Can't be easy I imagine" Hector answered, seeing Anson nod to his question. "I'll have to talk with Indomitable in private about it. Maybe I might be able to have a talk with Formidable about it, see if I can get her to open up about it and try and get her to be more comfortable about it. I know sometimes people can't get the chip off of their shoulder. But maybe Formidable can let that go. I guess I'll find out when I talk to her."

"Then I'll leave that to you. If she sits on you then I shall come to your aid. But I will be blaming you for getting yourself in that situation"

"You really do flatter me" Hector chuckled, getting a wink from Anson as they headed inside.

"Sovereign mentioned that we had seven others aside from herself to you, yes?" Anson asked as they walked down one of the hallways, being careful to not step on some of the dead Sirens that Manchester hadn't gotten around to disposing of.

"Yes. I only recall seeing four of you come out to greet us" Hector replied.

"That's because the other three are in here" Anson responded as she brought Hector into a smaller room, where Hector found another woman with two beds set up. A woman in each bed. "This is Resource, as you heard was mentioned earlier"

"Brought a guest, have you?" Resource asked, taking a moment to see Anson with Hector before getting back to tending to Agincourt.

"Yes. This is Hector. He's come with some much needed reinforcements" Anson replied as they entered the room. "How are they doing?"

"Revenge is recovering nicely. Agincourt is being a bit tricky" Resource replied.

"What do you mean?" Anson asked as she walked over.

"I don't think that all of that cube was removed. I've been finding small bits still inside her neck. Sovereign managed a rather clean removal somehow but this one shattered a bit and I won't be happy to let it heal until I get it all out"

"We won't disturb you any further" Anson replied and Resource nodded before returning to her work.

"Anson.." Revenge spoke very quietly.

"Yes?" Anson replied, turning to the battleship.

"Can you get my sibling? I wish to speak with her" Revenge asked

"I can do that" Anson said before she equipped her rigging so she could use her radio. "Sovereign? Your sister is awake and wishes to speak with you"

"Alright. I'll be there momentarily" Sovereign replied before Anson let her rigging disappear again.

Anson turned back to Revenge to see the positive look on her otherwise tired face, she was just staring towards the door and Anson swore she could see the light come back into Revenge's eyes once Sovereign walked into the room.

"How is my little sister" Revenge said quietly

"Doing better than you for sure." Sovereign replied. "You were holding back weren't you?"

"As much as I could" Revenge replied. "I am sorry"

"You couldn't help it, sister. But you tried to help me help you. And look where it got you. You're safe now and Resource is sorting you out, is she not?"

Revenge nodded slightly. "She is" Sovereign remained at her sister's side for a little while, their conversation covering what Sovereign had been doing prior to their reunion. Once they got past that, Revenge asked her another question. "Have you heard from any of the others?"

Sovereign knew she was referring to their sisters, Resolution, Royal Oak and Ramillies. "No. I've not heard anything on where they might be. I can only assume Oak is still up at Scapa given she lost her ship up there"

"I see" Revenge replied. "Let us hope we find them"

The majority of the Kansens were gathered in one of the larger rooms with Ryan's men an hour later, the ships that had been holding out in the building were fully brought up to speed on current Siren activities that were known about and Ryan and co were informed of the current supplies in the basement. There was shared frustration when Sovereign brought up the situation with the radio and the fact they had been destroyed by the Sirens. Thankfully the one being rebuilt had not been damaged by any Sirens that had been lurking about inside the building following the firefight in the early hours of the morning, but it was agreed that new parts would need to be found so that the radio could be rebuilt to try and re-establish contact with other Royal Navy bases, Malta and Gibraltar being the main targets to reach out to in case there were survivors. "How long do you think it will take to repair the radio?" Ryan inquired.

"We need parts for it. And we don't want to scavenge from your vehicles own Radio sets. They'll be important to us for communication." Indomitable commented.

"Indeed. But we need to re-establish contact with forces outside of the country" Ryan replied

"And somewhere to rebuild our fleet" Anson added. "We'd have to start small as anywhere big may prove troublesome to defend with so few of us. Whilst we do have quite a few of us now, we are vulnerable. So getting a port is of importance"

"However. There is one thing that is currently on the agenda" Sovereign said as she walked over to a small table off to one side, pulling a cloth off of some hidden objects. The objects were revealed to be the complete and broken Black Cubes that had once resided in Revenge and Agincourt. "If we can find out more about these, then we can understand our enemy that much more"

"And how do you propose we learn more about these things?" Ryan inquired.

"We have Resource, when she is not tending to Revenge or Agincourt. I'll be with her examining these so we can try to understand them more" Sovereign explained.

"Then I hope your investigation bears fruit." Ryan replied before he ordered his soldiers to set up watch, allowing the Kansen to perform other duties or rest.