The ships sailed back into port. Swift led them in with Norfolk and Sheffield close behind. Revenge and Agincourt were soon in the safety of the harbour, both having some slight damage on their vessels but otherwise fine. Anson's vessel however was tied up against Formidable's, far more damage showing than the other vessels. Resource was quick to get onboard and inspected the damage before she headed inside to find the Battleship. "Anson! Where are you!" she called out, concerned about what had become of the Battleship.

"In here…" came a tired voice. Resource followed the origin of the voice and found Anson in her quarters, badly bruised, bloodied and with cuts all over her. Formidable was sat beside her, a torn piece of clothing sitting in Anson's lap. "I was so close…"

"I imagine she was glad to see you were alive and well" Resource commented, knowing it was not the moment to scold the dismayed Royal Knight.

Anson didn't reply, she just stared at the torn sleeve.

"Do you want me to go and get Hector?" Revenge asked, standing in the doorway behind Resource.

"Please.." Anson replied as some tears fell from her face. "I'm such an idiot. I've shamed everyone"

"No you haven't." Resource replied. "Despite everything I'll be honest here and admit I would have done exactly the same thing as you. I know I can't fully relate to your current situation as I don't have any siblings. But I consider everyone in this fleet as my sibling. It may not be through 'blood' so to speak. But I care for each and every single one of you. Despite my nature and sense of humour" the repair ship replied as she walked over to Anson and knelt down to check on her. Formidable stepped aside to let her do her work. "Your arm is fine. Despite the injuries seemingly showing that they focused on you, you shall recover. Had it not been for the stab wound. I would have said a week. But you will need a bit more than that to recover. So I'm going to have to enforce the need for you to remain in this room whilst you recover. But if you do need to go outside, Hector can carry you, should you want that."

In her head, Anson liked the idea of that. It was a humorous idea to her as she imagined her husband carrying her around the base. Her expression didn't change however and she just nodded.

"Alright. I'll be back in a few minutes. I need to check up on Lady Barham and then I shall return to treat you in full.

"Won't you be wanting her on your vessel?" Formidable inquired.

"We can always move her vessel in close to mine to ease movements." Resource replied and the carrier nodded in agreement.

"I'll get the Bulins to move the vessel in closer to the dock." she said as she turned and left, the Repair ship leaving only when Revenge re-appeared with Hector. He was by her side and comforting her mere moments later. Anson didn't say anything at first and simply buried herself into his chest.

The manoeuvre took a bit to perform but Anson's vessel was moored beside Resource's so that she could look after her patients and so some of the Bulins could perform repairs. As that was going on. Hector continued to keep his wife company. "Am I a fool to have done what I did, dear?" she asked him.

"No. It's a perfectly normal emotion to have. She was in danger and you didn't want further harm to come to her so you went out of your way to attempt to save her" Hector replied.

"And all I have is this" Anson said dejectedly as she looked at the torn clothing.

"Is something better than nothing?" Hector asked. Anson looked up and met his eyes. "How would you be feeling if they'd taken her away and you'd been left with nothing? I know it's not the best thing to be asking, but-"

"No. You are right. I'm just…" Anson cut herself off for a moment before she continued. "I was so desperate to find one of my sisters. And with that chance to have had least found Yorkie… I wanted to ensure she would be safe. But I knew we couldn't just drop everything and all go together. It would have left no-one to defend the base. So I took as few as I could in order to keep defences up"

"And that was a smart decision" Hector replied "You were still thinking of the base and others, even when your heart was crying out for you to save your sister"

"Yeah." Anson replied before she heard footsteps coming closer to the room. Within a few moments, Sovereign appeared.

"Hey. How are you feeling?" Sovereign asked.

"A bit shit, if I'm going to be honest. But with Hector here, I'll be in good hands" Anson replied.

"That's good to hear, somewhat." Sovereign said as she pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed. "I came to ask a question."

"Ask away" Anson replied.

"Given you're in here and I imagine Resource has basically bed-bound you. Who should take command in your stead till you've recovered?" Sovereign asked.

"Well.. That is a good question. I've not really given it much thought. Are you wanting to step in for me?"

"If it's no trouble" Sovereign replied. "I imagine you would have perhaps chosen Lady Barham but given she's still in a bad way, it would have to be someone else"

"I don't think Barham would have accepted anyway. And putting Valiant in charge is something I'm not so sure on. But the person to ask is Hector. He is after all, our Commander"

"I am? I thought that it was only Sheffield who saw me that way" Hector asked

"Well… Sheffy is a maid and since we don't know where our commander is no can we get into contact with him due to the busted radio not granting us long range communications, she decided that you were her new master as soon as she set her eyes on you. Which I think you should consider yourself lucky for." Sovereign replied.

"That sounds like there's more to what you say" Hector observed.

"let's just say Sheffield and our previous Commander didn't always see eye to eye on things. I don't think she liked him anyway. We've never asked why and she's been grateful of that." Anson explained. "But yes. I think we've all subconsciously just decided to roll with you being our new Commander. Despite your background and such."

"Well then… Sovereign if you want to take over from Anson for the time being. I shall allow that."

"Thank you, Hector. Anson, I won't let you down" Sovereign replied before she departed

"I know you won't. Keep me updated" Anson replied

Sovereign gave her a thumbs up as she left the room, allowing Hector and Anson some time alone.

Aboard Resource's Vessel, the repair ship was tending to Barham. The Battleship had been sleeping but had awoken suddenly, covered in cold sweat. "Sorry to be a burden for you, Resource" the woman croaked out.

"It's no issue, My lady. But I shall remain concerned for your welfare. This is the second time you've done this now."

"I know. But…" The battleship cut herself off as she closed her eye, not wanting to relive the memory she had seen in her sleep.

"Do you not want to talk about it yet?" Resource asked after she had finished drying Barham's forehead.

"N-No. I'm not ready" Barham replied.

"That's fine. But don't bottle it all up. You will need to tell me if this happens again." Resource said softly.

"Of course" Barham replied as Resource moved onto checking on the bandages.

"You're healing well. The Burns are going away." Resource commented as she removed all of the bandages and began to replace them with clean ones. It hurt her to see Barham in this state. She was always such a breath of fresh air compared to Valiant or her Majesty sometimes, Resource thought. But she also knew that Barham was far shyer normally. Perhaps this war had shaken something inside the woman, and that's what she was wanting to hide. Nevertheless, Barham wanted to keep it to herself for now, but she was willing to open up to her about it if and when the time came.

Since many of the ships were on patrols, Sovereign headed out towards each patrol area and informed the other ships of developments and her temporary placement as leader. She told them not to worry as she would for the time being be maintaining Anson's usual orders and her own orders would remain the same and the others were fine with that. It was around mid-afternoon when Sovereign returned to Anson's ship. Hector was sleeping and Anson was reading a book, likely something Hector had retrieved for her "Oh. I wasn't expecting you back till later this evening" she commented.

"I know. But everyone's been informed of recent events so you don't need to worry about your orders being maintained." Sovereign reassured before she took note of the book. "Is that-?"

"Yes. Hector told me it's quite the sensation when it released. It must've been in the back of my mind when my ship was being restored. So it appeared on the shelf" Anson replied as she showed Sovereign the cover of the book.

"I'll have to see if there's any good books to read in my own free time on my vessel now I think about it" Sovereign replied.

"Indeed. Just don't push yourself too much with me out of action. Take breaks should you need them. Indomitable or Formidable can always cover for you if you need a breather."

"Hector could too. Given he's technically our commander" Sovereign suggested.

"I think we need to help him get to that position, truly. He's got a lot to learn about being a navy boy. At least getting him to fly naval aircraft shouldn't be as much of an issue given his background." Anson replied.

"Yeah. I imagine he'll get comfortable rather quickly" Sovereign said as she looked at the sleeping man beside the bed. "You certainly nabbed yourself a fine looking man"

Anson chuckled at the comment. "Indeed. George called him my finest catch"

Sovereign returned a laugh. "I do hope to be as lucky as you someday."

"I'm sure you'll be able to find someone" Anson replied. "We all find someone eventually"

"Yeah." Sovereign agreed. They chatted for a little longer before Anson let Sovereign go to do her own things. As she head headed back to her own ship, she saw Sevastapol sitting on the railing of her own ship, looking up at the evening sky. Deciding to have a word with her fellow Battleship, she sailed over and climbed onboard, walking over to the railing and leaning on it. "Hey. Something on your mind?"

"Da. My Sisters and comrades back home"

"You missing them like everyone here is missing their own siblings?" Sovereign inquired.

"Very much so. I left before the Sirens attacked home. As far as I know they're still holding out."

"How did you get captured?" Sovereign asked. "I hope it's not a touchy subject"

"It's not. Like everyone else all over, they took me by surprise. It was an early morning mist and I was at least thirty miles from the place you were named after when you joined us for that brief time"

"Arkhangelsk. Did Soyuz send you out with support?"

"She did. Two Submarines and a Destroyer as escort. They weren't so lucky. The Destroyer was up in flames in mere moments. When it exploded, all hell broke loose as Sirens began pouring out of the fog and began to swarm me and my vessel. I put up a fight. It must have been three hours of fighting before they got bored of me holding off and they…"

"They what? Sovereign asked before Sevastapol unbuttoned her coat and lifted up a corner of her shirt, revealing a large scar across her stomach. It was jagged but thin. Sovereign thought back to Anson's own leg wound, it was far cleaner than what she was seeing.

"They stabbed me with a piece of the destroyer, impaling me against my vessel. That's when they captured me" Sevastapol stated. "They knew they needed me alive so they patched me up. And then proceeded to torture me for info on Soyuz and defence stations"

"No wonder Norfolk mentioned you were in a state when they found you and the others imprisoned in the Castle" Sovereign commented, recalling Norfolk talking about the battle at the Castle.

"Eh. I survived. This will be easy to get over" Sevastapol replied as she took another swing of her Vodka Bottle. "Der'mo I've almost run out.."

"I still have a bottle, if you want that" Sovereign offered.

"No. That was our gift to you. I will not ask you for it" the other Battleship replied. "In fact it's rather odd seeing you In your home nation uniform"

"I find it a bit more comfortable. If I put that winter outfit on again. I'm making adjustments to it first." Sovereign replied.

"Fair enough. If you want to talk more about things, I'll be right here"

"I've got other things to be doing right now. But I'm sure we can re-convene another time"

"Agreed. See you again soon, Comrade"

"Same to you" Sovereign replied before she went on her way, allowing Sevastapol to enjoy the view…

Der'mo - "Crap"