"I called this gathering, because Enterprise found a possible Mahan-class DD near our base," Harvey began as everyone was gathered and sitting. This was actually their first gathering like that after the second Siren attack on Pearl Harbor that nearly wiped them out.

"Is it just me, or is there a 'but' incoming?" Cpl. James Mason asked out of the blue and Harvey fought hard to not let a smile appear on his face. James was always the most observant of the whole bunch of marines, considered as a brother in all but blood by everyone on this base.

"And there is one," Harvey announced and looked over the room, before continuing. "It is guarded by at least one mass-produced Siren. I and five volunteers will use the lifeboat to sneak around the Sirens, while Enterprise distracts them with two squadrons of either F4Fs or TBFs. Or both."

"And what will we do once we reach the DD?" seaman Fred Harper asked and Harvey turned to face him, his brown eyes staring into the seaman's blue. Something seemed off about him, but Harvey couldn't tell just what it was.

"We'll search it throughly for anyone on board, before sailing back to the port. And we'll do it like this…"

A few hours later, near the captured DD

James looked at the inactive Siren ships and couldn't help but shiver at seeing them at range. It was a far more terrifying experience than just seeing them from a distance and if he, the commander and four others weren't on a mission, he'd run away. It was too similar to that one radio broadcast about aliens from Mars attacking Earth.

And to say that a few years later it really happened… he thought and shivered again, before switching his paddle with one of the sailors to give him some rest before the possible battle against whatever humanoid forces the Sirens stationed at the DD. After all, he had encountered some of the humans enthralled by them and knew just how dangerous they could be.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't notice they had arrived at their destination without being noticed, until the sound of a SBD's engine, marking the start of the distraction, broke through them and he went for his M1 Garand, while the others grabbed their M1911 Colts.

"Let's get this show on the road," he said as he stood up and loaded an ammo clip into his rifle.

Jessica looked at the blueprints for the Cleveland that were in the warehouse, just in case they'll need to repair it in port and sudenly got an idea. If he could create Enterprise with two cubes and the CV as a base, it might work with blueprints in a similar way, she thought and put the paper on the matrix, accompanied by a single cube, prepared to see another Bulin, but…

What the?! It never showed any numbers before!

The matrix's normally black surface lit up with white numbers and the small drill-like device that she put into one slot before she escaped a few days back suddenly disappeared, speeding up the time considerably, until it stopped doing so as it hit 11 minutes left.

"Check the drydock! There's a ship being built from thin air!" one of the men that remained at the base suddenly shouted, but Jessica couldn't tear her eyes away from the slowly disappearing cube and paper it was on, not even caring that she looked every bit like a mad scientist.

And after what felt like an eternity, but was only ten minutes in reality, the last bits of the cube disappeared and she finally looked out, not believing her eyes. I made a serious breakthrough! she cheered in her mind and went to search for the Bulins, who were already waiting near the ship and awaiting orders.

Huh? What's this place? Why is it so dark here?! Oi! Let me out, Saratoga! Columbia, where are you? Wait… why do I feel that I know them even if I hadn't met them at all? It's really strange…

I see a light getting closer to me! I can already feel the salty air coming from the other side. I only hope that I'll pop out somewhere in the Eagle Union…

And then, she opened her eyes to see a quartet of small girls rush past her into the bowels of her ship, quickly fixing all hiccups that she felt were there.

Harvey was the first to reach the bridge after an uneventful trek through the DD, only to find most of it empty, minus a strange black device on the ground of the bridge itself, which he went to examine.

It had a rectangular shape with a glass and a few buttons on it. One of them about two times longer than the other one. He pushed the smaller one and suddenly the glass on it lit up, showing the exact same time that his watches showed, greatly surprising him.

"What is that?" seaman Jeremy Hunter asked as he saw the device, just as Harvey swiped his finger upwards, revealing several more buttons on it, one of them looking like a map. He selected it, but suddenly, a red light blinked once and a message popped up on its surface, first in an unknown script, but soon changing into the readable latin one.

[User not recognized. Deleting all information about Sirens and the subsequent activating all Pawns in a 4 mile radius, according to Protocol 22-1-T, would happen, if you continue. Proceed?]

[Yes] [No]

"Contact Enterprise and tell her to finish 'em off!" he shouted to a sailor, who was standing near the communication device and as soon as he said it, the DD was rocked by several explosions happening near it as the enemy ships exploded from ammo being detonated and he pushed the [Yes] option, curious about what he would see next.

Then, true to the image, a map of Pearl Harbor showed up, but far more realistic than the one they had back at the base. Hell, it even showed Enterprise just standing on the water, her bow at the ready, the wrecks of enemy ships and the DD they were on, as well as… a Cleveland-class CL that suddenly materialized in the drydock. Simply put, Harvey was stricken speechless at what he was seeing.

But then, a notification buzzed and he took several tries at swiping the top of the screen to reveal it, noticing that it was something about scheduled "maintenance" in the boiler room starting in an hour. So, he called his men to follow him and ran in the general direction of his destination, the unknown, and most likely Siren-made, device still in hand, not noticing that the Cleveland-class left the drydock and sped towards their position, before disappearing and turning into a rigging on a blonde girl's back.

She woke up to feel again the pain of her missing eye, arm and leg and a lot of angry red marks left by a whip that somehow could produce electricity to inflict more pain than was normal. She also felt a strange sense of emptiness, where she could feel her ship just a few hours ago and dread filled her senses.

But then, she felt her boat rock around as explosions went off too close for her tastes and she suddenly started feeling hope. Someone is going to end this nightmare, she thought and finally dared to look around the boiler room, noticing that her captor and torturer - a Siren called Explorer Mk. I n° 082 - was somehow still asleep.

But that didn't last long as she suddenly woke up and hid behind some crates she set up there a while back, just as six humans broke into the room, handguns at the ready and fury mixed in with surprise and disgust in their eyes after seeing her tortured form.

"Jesus! Who the hell would've done that to a girl?!" one of them exclaimed and walked towards her, examining the shackles and muttering something under his breath and she would've bet her other arm that it wasn't something nice about her captor.

"It has a lock that I've never seen before. We'll need a welding torch to free her," he said to his companions and she watched as their leader stepped forward with Explorer's so-called "tablet" in hand, the sudden proximity of which suddenly revealed a red symbol on the wrist shackle that most likely meant 'locked', but just as he touched the symbol and swiped, which then somehow changed into a green one that meant 'unlocked', making her limp arm to fall down and start tingling a bit as blood returned to the veins, the Explorer made herself known to the humans by blocking the only exit from the room and loudly shouting, which only caused her already damaged eardrums to come even closer to popping.

"I won't let you escape! By the order of the Empress III, I sentence you to die, worms!" She shouted and was immediately forced to raise her shields to block the bullets coming for her as the remaining four humans formed a protective semi-circle around her and the two others as they worked on unlocking the more complicated locks, sometimes looking into the tablet for help on how to do the next step.

"It's a shame that Enterprise can't be here with us. At least I'll be grateful for her help," one of the guarding humans said as he ducked to dodge Explorer's shot and she felt a strong, but mercifully quick, headache as the name left his lips.

"Y… ou k… n… ow Ent… er… pri… se?" she asked weakly, her voice hoarse from not being used for so long, as she was finally released from the last shackle, one around her waist, and put gently on the floor.

"Yes, we do know her. Now, drink. Slowly," the man with the tablet said as he put his gun into its holster and angled her head a bit, so she'll be able to drink from his canteen and she obeyed, when the lukewarm water finally entered her parched throat, energizing her a bit after a short while and getting rid of at least some of the pain she was feeling.

"Thank… you," she replied with much less difficulty than before and sat up, only now noticing that all four defenders, and the other man that was helping with freeing her, were unconscious, the Explorer grinned with a sadistic smile on her lips and aimed her rigging at the last human standing.

"You lost, Union Shikikan. All your men are incapable of fighting and you only have one damaged Kansen that can't even merge with her own boat. How pitiful. Now, prepare to die," she cackled and aimed her guns at them, fully intending to kill them, the commander glaring at her with his handgun aimed at her head, which she knew would be ineffective, if the Explorer raised her shields.

But then, something unexpected happened as several 152 mm Mk 16 guns went off behind the Siren, knocking her away and revealing a blonde girl no bigger than herself, rigging at her back still aiming at the enemy.

"Looks like I made it in time. Commander, I am the knight of the sea-" she started, but the man - commander - held his hand up with a smile on his lips as she got another headache and recognition filled her mind.

"Cleveland? I knew it had to be you or one of your many sisters, since I've seen your ship appear in the drydock," he stated and she saw the hint of surprise in her eyes, before she nodded in response.

"Leave the Siren to me and get Downes and your men on the deck. This would get a bit messy," Cleveland said and Downes felt being picked up and was carried outside to see the sun for the first time since her imprisonment, neither of them noticing that Enterprise rushed past them, hellbent on fighting the Siren.

"The Empress would surely promote me, when I'll kill you for interfering in Tester Alpha's Test 29864-E999, Knight-type Rogue element!" The Siren shouted after Cleveland's guns hit her seemingly impregnable shield and slowly took aim at the boiler, which she knew would kill everyone on board, if it exploded after being hit with Siren tech.

"Any last words?" The Siren continued with talking and Cleveland only glared in response. She was powerless against the Siren in this situation. And then, the Siren fired and Cleveland closed her eyes, anticipating the explosion.

But, nothing happened and as she opened her eyes, she saw Enterprise, with a large chunk of her clothes missing, replaced by an angry red scorch mark. She was glaring at the Siren and released an ethereal 500lb bomb from her bow that managed to get through the shield and desintegrate the Siren to such extent that only a single cube was left in her place. And before she was able to ask Enterprise about how she got here so fast, another voice beat her to it.

"Enterprise! What the hell were you thinking?!" the commander shouted and Cleveland shivered at the tone in his voice. But, just as Enterprise opened her mouth to respond, he quickly cut in, voice hard and unbending like steel, which Cleveland knew left no room for excuses.

"And don't give me any of that 'I am but a weapon' or 'I am only good to die' bull. I saw what happened to the last person who said that. It wasn't pretty at all," he added, shutting her up quickly, as he grabbed two of his men and prepared to walk back outside.

"If you do something like this again, you'll be on lockdown for a week at the very least," he finished and walked away, leaving the speechless duo in the boiler room, only for Cleveland to pick up a small cube from the place, where the Siren was before Enterprise's attack and dragged said CV to the bridge to help her with getting the ship to the dock.

Harvey was nearly finished with paddling the lifeboat, with his unconscious men and the wounded - no, mutilated - girl on board, to the dock, when he noticed that the Downes was already there and swarmed by the quartet of the hard-working Bulins, which made him smile for reasons he couldn't understand. It just felt… normal and peaceful. Like there was no war at all. But then, he was brought back from his thoughts by Downes' voice.

"I see that you really do care about everyone under your command, eh?" Downes asked and forced a smile through the painful expression that was no doubt caused by wrongly healed or, as he suspected, never treated wounds.

"We survived enough life-threatening situations to consider each other a brother in all but blood. And what good would be a commander who can't look after at least the last of his surviving men? And don't get me started on our shared hate for the bunks in the crew quarters on any ship," he answered simply with a small chuckle as the lifeboat stopped and several gasps of horror and a long string of expletives were heard as some of his men saw what was done to Downes by the Sirens.

"Take them all to the inframary and inform researcher Warren that she has a new priority - figuring out a way of fixing up Downes and making her reconnect with her ship," he said and watched his men run for stretchers and then helping with setting his men and the teenaged Kan-whatever the Siren had called her.

And only when they left with the last stretcher, he left the lifeboat and went towards the mess hall, intending to grab something to eat, before going to find accomodation for Enterprise, Downes and Cleveland, so they won't be forced to sleep in the infirmary or in the crew quarters on their own ships. After all, it was something he was quite glad that he wouldn't experience anytime soon and he'll be damned, if someone else has to experience for more than one night.

"Home, sweet home," he muttered as he walked towards his destination and smiled once more. After all, the mission was a surprising success and soon, the Union's west coast, or at least a part of it, would be safe for merchants and soldiers alike.

A/n:

This chapter is a shorter one, I know. Also, I'd like to thank you for your support of this story so far.

See ya later!