"Enterprise?"
Momentary shock is seen on "Enterprise's" face but quickly turns to a determined one. She raises her bow and fires once more at Sheppherd, acting quickly Shepherd pushes The Daughter aways from him and dodges the arrow, exploding past him. Shepherd takes the opportunity and runs forward, his speed seems to surprise "Enterprise" as she tries to fire another arrow at him but he grabs the bow, pushes it above. The arrow fires and explodes above them as they begin to engage in hand to hand combat. Shepherd's training and experience is more than a match for any shipgirl not able to use their rigging and weapons in a fight. "Enterprise" tries to fire arrows any chance that she is able to but Shepherd is able to either dodge or redirect the bow away from him before she is able to let go of the arrow.
"Enterprise" hadn't expected to face anyone but The Daughter when they were setting up this operation. Maybe a few shipgirls if they had moved through the Siren's defense line but not whoever the person she is fighting. She takes another blow to the face before her bow is taken out of her hands and she is slammed down to the ground. The figure straddles her body making sure to grab her arms and forcing her to stay on the ground. She stares back up at the skull helmet that the figure is wearing.
"Well, Enterprise, it seems you lost again" The figure says in a distorted voice. Anger rushes from her body at being called that name.
"Don't call me that" She yells, as the figure seems to be surprised at her outburst, she uses this opportunity to push the figure off of her, kicking the figure in the head in the process. A wave of fiery energy then hits the figure, sending them flying backwards through the wreckage of Siren ships. A woman runs over to "Enterprise" and gets her standing.
"G, we have to go," The woman says.
"We still have time, Ember," G says. Ember shakes her head.
"Not anymore, Azur forces are breaking through" Ember explains.
"What! How?" G asks.
"Humans are leading the shipgirls," Ember says with almost pure hatred. G is surprised by this. Human forces usually don't lead from the front, hell they're almost never on the battlefield.
"This place will break soon, we have to go," Ember says.
"That's some good news" A distorted voice says behind them. There stands the tall figure that G had been fighting earlier. Ember points her sword at the figure and G levels her bow at the figure's head.
"I knew my boys would be just fine" The figure says. His boys?
"You're human" Ember almost shouts at him, anger and hate quickly taking over her body.
"Yeah and I was kicking your friends ass" The figure says. Cracks begin to appear in the sky.
"I won't make the same mistake next time," G says. A small laugh escapes from the figure.
"We'll see about that" The figure says. The cracks in the sky shine blinding light through and the land surrounding them collapses, as a loud scream can be heard around them.
Shepherd opens his eyes to see a blinding light above him, his body is sore. He looks around, seeing that he's in a ship's hospital. He tries to get out of the bed but is unable to, his whole body feels weak. A nurse notices him trying to get out of bed and rushes over.
"Sir, please stay in bed," She says.
"What the hell happened?" Shepherd asks her.
"Now you need to stay in bed sir, the others will be notified that you are awake" The nurse says before leaving to tell her superiors. Shepherd simply lays in the bed, another nurse walks over to him to check on the equipment making sure everything is okay, doing the same to other people in the infirmary. After about half an hour, Enterprise and Hood enter the infirmary and make their way to Shepherd.
"What happened?" Shepherd asks them.
"You lost consciousness after the light was seen from the Siren base. With you unavailable, Enterprise took command with the help of some of your commanders, she was able to lead the fleet very well, and was able to destroy the fleets and bases of the Siren threat. She did exceptionally well, if I may say so." Hood explained. Enterprise slightly blushes from the praise of one of the higher ranking members of the Royal Navy.
"Casualties?" Shepherd asks.
"A few of the girls got minor damage but Jean Bart and Massachusetts were both badly damaged, we don't know what happened but they are both stable. I sent word to Vestal, if anyone is able to improve their condition, it's her", sir." Enterprise answers.
"The Legion broke through the Siren lines, giving the girls a direct path to the Siren Base. It was bad sir." Enterprise says with a large frown, the sight of dead humans is clearly something that she doesn't like to see. Especially considering the damage that siren weaponry could do to a person, even to heavily armored legionaries after a few shots. Shepherd understands that many of the shipgirls don't like seeing dead humans or humans in various states of dismemberment. Shepherd and so many others had gotten used to what can happen to a human body in a war.
"They're soldiers, Enterprise, they understand the risk in this job" Shepherd says to her.
"I know, sir, but-" Enterprise says before Shepherd stops.
"Where are we?" Shepherd asks.
"Alexandria, we're still following the vague timetable, but we'll probably won't make it to Japan on the dates you wanted," Enterprise says.
"That's fine, we just need to get to the North Sea before the Iron Blood and Royal Navy make their power plays" Shepherd responds.
"Shepherd what happened?" Hood asks cautiously.
"To be honest, I don't know, I was somewhere. There was a Siren there but she was different from any other that I've seen. Others were there but" Shepherd pauses. Wondering if he should say anything about his encounter with G and Ember.
" I think I need to talk to Jean and Mass, what exactly happened to them?" Shepherd asks.
"We don't know, they were isolated during the battle. When we found them, they were both covered with grievous injuries" Hood explains. Shepherd nods.
"Keep me updated if anything happens, Enterprise looks like you're gonna keep command for a few more days. I don't think the doctors will like me leaving the infirmary" Shepherd says. Enterprise and Hood bid their farewells, leaving Shepherd deep in thought. He starts making plans to try and capture this G and Ember.