Chapter 3

As the girls of Azur Lane left him be, he would use the free time he now had to start thinking over everything that had happened thus far.

"Right, first I was on my death bed, then the Siren's came to me. There was that other observer, who frankly begs more questions than provides answers. Second... what the hell did Alpha mean by key they are seeking? None of this makes sense..."

Despite his five long year war with the sirens, he had only managed to get bits and pieces of data from whenever he raided one of their bases or outposts. The few things he did know about them were that they were highly advanced in terms of technology, and that they seemed to have a sort of caste system. The lowest end of the totem pole was mass produced Siren ships, which generally only had very basic A.I. cores, enough to understand most commands and be able to adapt to a changing battlefield, but little else. Above them, were Siren Executer class humanoids, which were basically the workers and general-purpose soldiers of the Sirens. Above those however, you got far more specialized Sirens, like Observer Alpha, Purifer, the Tester clones, the various arbiters and enforcers. Other than that, though, anything else he knew, he had a feeling these ship-girls also new.

"Which brings us to now... come on Lusca, think."

Despite his best efforts, no matter how hard he racked his brain, he just couldn't figure out what the Sirens wanted from him. Though the reason why was far easier to understand, he lacked the data he needed to try and come up with a solution. And so, for now, he put those endlessly spinning thoughts into the back of his mind, deciding to review them later when he had a better idea of what the Sirens wanted, from both him and humanity. For now, he had more pressing concerns, like his ship, and himself for that matter.

He cleared his mind the best he could, before reaching out with his mind to his ship, linking to it, his eyes changed from their usual golden yellow to a deep blue as his cybernetic implants and the Cyberware of his ship started to talk to one another. His brain began pulling data at an even pace, he was understanding most of what he was seeing while still being able to keep a level head. So far, the repair ship-girls and the strange little chicken things have done an admirable job at keeping both him and his ship alive and functional.

Much to his surprise, he found that two of his six automated workshops were back online and currently awaiting new orders. Not only that, but one of his automated laboratories was also online as well as nine out of his forty repair/utility drones were also online. Without missing a beat, he tasked his working drones to collect and bring the ones that were still too damaged to one of the workshops while the other workshop got to work on making new drones for him. So far, he would only need to replace about six of the drones, for those six had either been destroyed, or at least had been so badly damaged that they would only really be good for breaking down into new materials.

His attention was directed to the large, and only, window in his hospital room as he saw his drones rocket out of one the prow hatches, climb into the air for a moment, before diving down and into one of the conning tower hatches, these repair/utility drones looked like mechanical squids, more specifically Humbolt squids.

Their blue stabilizer fins were made from a flexible, but still durable metal alloy. Their black colored mantle was made of a more rigid, but light and durable metal alloy, it also housed a rather advanced anti-gravity core that allowed it to float through the air like it was in water. The 'siphon' had been replaced by four multidirectional thrusters. The eyes were high-definition cameras. The tentacles were like his own, although not as long or thick. Of course, instead of them having beaks for mouths, they instead had several small mechanical arms that were folded up in the center of the tentacles, one had a small round saw blade, while another had what looked to be a blow torch, another had scissors, pilers, and bolt cutters, and the last one had several interchangeable screwdriver heads and an adjustable wrench. While the tools they were equipped with were primitive when compared to the tech his workshops, they worked very well, and were easily replaceable should they get damaged or destroyed.

While his squid like drones 'swam' through the air like it was water, collecting their damaged siblings to bring to the tireless arms of the workshops, he also queued the second workshop to build new legs for him too, as well as two new pairs of arms, two new tentacles, and finally, two new pairs of hands. These new limbs would replace his damaged ones, as well as the ones that were just flat-out gone. Once he confirmed his orders, his heightened hearing picked up the distant, yet distinct whirling of machinery. The machine arms of the workshops beginning their new tasks as the squid-like drones that were repaired soon aided in retrieving their still damaged siblings.

Once that was done, he ordered a deep scan of his ship using the sensors he had on it. After a few minutes, a basic damage report came into his vision, though as he read it silently, he groaned tiredly to himself. The scan revealed that one of the twelve wisdom cubes he had was damaged. Unfortunately, this specific cube oversaw his healing process as well as his day-to-day functions. This basically meant that, unlike before he got here, where he could heal his humanoid body and repair his ship within a matter of hours or days, it would now take days, weeks, maybe even months depending on what was damaged and how severe it was.

Of course, theoretically he could fix or replace it, but how in the hell was he going to fix a wisdom cube? Hell, if he couldn't fix it, then was it even possible for him to replace it? If it wasn't... well, he was just screwed, but even if he could, that would mean he would have to find a suitable replacement cube, and it wasn't like said cubes were just waiting to be found or made.

Leaning back in his temporary bed, he sighed as he used his thumb and index finger to pinch the bridge of his nose, so far, things were not looking good for him they weren't terrible mind you, but still far from ideal. Regardless, for the time being he had done all he could do for now, and thus, he would disconnect himself from his ship as he massaged his forehead, a light headache beginning to throb deep in his skull. He would close his eyes and attempt to rest up a bit more, no doubt the next day would bring no challenges for him, but for now, he just couldn't bring himself to care, they would be a problem for Future Lusca.

Somewhere near the Antarctica

Deep within one of the many Siren bases, the constant whirling of machines and the occasional groan of boredom would leave a small medical/repair bay area, where Purifier was currently getting fixed up again. Despite her orders being clear to bug out as soon as Lusca woke up and was confirmed to be alive, she got caught off guard by two of the royal navy girls, and thus, had taken a bit of damage while dealing some damage to Lusca before she could slip away. While the mission was overall a success, Observer Zero or one of the tester clones scolded her for the damage she had taken something fierce.

After the verbal tongue lashing she received, she was ordered to get herself patched up, and would remain on standby until further notice, in other words, she was official sacked and would now have to wait until her higher ups decided to stop being so bitchy.

As her thoughts sluggishly moved through her head, she was barely paying any attention to the repair cradle she was nestled in. His mechanical arms were working quickly and tirelessly while the noise of the arms was barely more than a low droning hum. Eventually though, the last of the damage she had sustained was repaired, her missing leg was replaced, and she was as good as new. The repair cradle let out of soft but high pitch ping to let purifier know it was finished.

Said Siren wasted no time as she sat up, swinging her legs around and onto the floor where she would stand up and stretch a bit. Not that there was really a need too. Their biosynthetic bodies were very durable and didn't share most of the problems associated with pure biological bodies. Mind you, they still had problems of their own, but all in all, their bodies were simply better than any human or Kan-sen could ever hope to have, and the only one who could match them was Lusca.

As her thoughts shifted to said male, there was an ever so slight spring in her step as she walked through the winding and dark corridors of the base, and for understandable reasons. Out of all the Siren's and Kan-sen she had faced in all the simulations and tests they had run so far; he was the only one that could not only match her bound for bound but had beaten her. And not just beaten her but flat out killed her body, multiple times even. Much like all Siren's Purifier was able to relocate her 'mind' to another body so long as her AI core wasn't destroyed, and since all Siren cores were currently secured within the Alpha Mirror Sea, this meant that they were basically immortal, to a point mind you.

Lusca didn't have that advantage, however, if anything, that was one of the many reasons she agreed to help Observer alpha in this little experiment. Because despite his lack of tech and being about as mortal as a normal Siren body was, he had not only put up a good fight, but he showed them that he might have what they needed to finally get out of the first stage of their plan.

As Purifier enter her quarters to... well, basically burn time, she saw Observer Alpha currently taking up resistance on her ceiling, her black tentacles of her rigging spread out and holding onto the ceiling with ease as she had multiple holo-screens around her, currently watching the battle records between Purifier and her small fleet duke it out with a wounded Lusca and a united Azur lane.

Purifier huffed in annoyance, still a bit pissed at the fact that while she had been lectured and chewed out, Observer alpha didn't even get a glare thrown her way. Why? Simple, she couldn't be found in a timely manner. And so, Purifier had to take the enter blame for her battle damage.

"So, this is where you have been hiding."

Observer barely glanced at her, her smug smile never leaving her lips as she spoke.

"Indeed, I've been rather busy after all, and didn't feel like getting a verbal punishment for your mess."

Purifier frowned a bit, but eventually decided to let it go. What was done was done, so for now, there was no point in trying to taunt Observer Alpha into a fight. Instead, Purifier merely moved over to her simple bed, throwing herself onto it as she landed and laid on her back.

"Send me a copy of the recording."

Her tone made it clear that she was not asking, but Observer decided to be a bit merciful and proceeded to send Purifier the recording, both Sirens now engrossed in the video, although for entirely different reasons. While Purifier was making notes and planning possible tactics against Lusca, while also not trying to stare for too long as his naked and wounded chest, Observer Alpha was merely watching the recording again and again for no really reason, as far as Purifier could see of course.

Observer however was watching every bit of how the battle played how, but only really showed the slightest interest in the recording when Lusca was on screen, watching how he charged into battle without a second thought, firing his various batteries of guns at Purifier, coordinating his guns and planes to keep purifier on her toes. She seemed to shiver ever so faintly upon hearing his voice, her gaze firmly locked onto one of the last frames of Lusca on the bed in the clinic as she paused the recording.

"Soon, you will be tested again Lusca, let us see if you're ready for this new world. For I hope you surpass our expectations for you."

Seemingly done with watching the recording, she dismissed her holo-screens and allowed her rigging to detach from the ceiling of Purifier's room, falling onto the ground as she flipped around in midair and landed on her bare feet. From there, she left the room, leaving a still engrossed Purifier to her planning while Observer Alpha decided to get to work on making new challenges for Lusca.

Back at Azur Lane's main base.

Unfortunately for Lusca, his mind refused to settle down and let sleep take him. Why? Simple, his mind was hard at work trying to figure out everything that had happened. His best guess from what he had heard and had gathered in terms of intel, which was, to put it bluntly, simulation theory. In short, the Sirens were running simulations on a virtual humanity, for what purpose and reason remained unclear though. It was possible that, for while everything felt real to the humans, ship-girls and himself for that matter, this very well could be just one big simulation after another, with variables and parameters changing to meet their expectations and goals. But what that goal was, however, had still confused him. If they wanted to figure out ways of destroying humanity, there were far easier solutions.

But if destroying humanity wasn't their goal, then what would it be? What could possibly justify all this war, death, carnage and slaughter. Despite his best efforts, both to get some sleep and to try and figure out what the goal of the Sirens was, his efforts were fruitless. In the end, morning had come as the hours ticked by, the first rays of light shining onto the harbor and base, and through his window.

With the day beginning, and night retreating, Lusca gave up his attempts to sleep and slowly sat up in his bed. He groaned and growled lowly as his body ached with pain, for while his wounds were healing slowly, he didn't have a pain inhibitor chip like the Sirens did. Just about everything was hurting right now, biosynthetic muscles throbbed and burned with heat from inflammation and irritation. His joints cracked, popped, and creaked with every movement and his body felt heavy and slow. Still, he couldn't sit or lay about all day, he couldn't afford too, and he wouldn't let himself either.

He soon took a deep breath, cleared his mind of his thoughts as best he could, and reconnected with his ship. He began checking over the various notifications and alerts from his ship. First on the docket were the drones, which had either been repaired and were awaiting new orders or were replaced by entirely new machines. Upon confirming this with his various cameras, he gave the order to begin salvaging and scavenging operations of the junkyard of Siren ships, as well as the abnormally large Orochi. About 30 of the drones received the orders and were soon on their way to begin stripping the Siren wrecks for parts of materials. While that was going on, he had the remaining 10 drones begin repairing the ship, hoping that with enough salvaged parts of the Siren wrecks, he might just get back up to at least 80% combat operational. Right now, he was barely at 30%, and with such a low combat readiness, it was likely he would only be able to fight one more time and would just have to cross his fingers that nothing too important broke.

With those orders sent out, he checked the next thing on the list, his new limbs. Unfortunately, only his hands and arms were ready. The remaining tentacle and pair of legs were currently missing enough materials, so they would have to wait until more materials became available. Still, with most of his limbs ready, he ordered the nano gel vats within his working auto laboratory to be prepared.

Once that was finally sent through, he disconnected from the ship for the time being. His dark blue eyes changing back to their standard yellow as he looked around for a minute, seeing he was alone still. Deciding to go to his ship first and get the surgery for this replacement limbs over with, he slowly moved to the side of the bed. Much like yesterday, he began to slowly get up from the bed while using his tentacles as improvised legs. It wasn't pretty, it was painless, but it was affective for now.

Slowly, step by painful step, he would move from the bed to the short corridor that connected his room to the hallway. Another door was off to the side, most likely the bathroom if he had to guess. He leaned against the wall with his right side, his two arms doing the best they could to keep him balanced and stable as he 'walked' from the bed to the door.

As he got closer, he reached out, grabbing the handle and opened the door. He peeked his head out, and upon seeing the hallway was empty, he started to walk out of the room. He then looked around for a moment, looking to see if there was a sign for the elevators, or if necessary, a stairway.

It would take a couple of minutes, but he would find a series of signs that pointed towards the elevators. If they could, he would imagine his tentacles would sigh in relief, for they continued to pulse and throb in pain. The fact that none of his wounds had re-opened was something of a small miracle of sorts. Unfortunately, his luck seemed to fail him as he reached the elevator doors, only to hear the soft ping of the elevator, letting him know that someone was coming up, and if he had to guess, it was probably Vestal, or Akashi, or possibly both, either way, both of them would be rather pissed at him for trying to sneak out.

And to make matters worse, there was no possible way for him to try and outrun the elevator as it continued to climb the shaft up to the third floor of the hospital. His mind began to race as he tried to think of something to avoid the incoming metaphorical bullet heading his way. Eventually, with no other good options coming to mind, he decided to use his tentacles to climb the wall and press his back as flat to the ceiling as he could above the elevator doors. Now, he just had to hope that they didn't happen to look up when they came out, he was also covering his mouth with what remained of his hands, hoping that he wouldn't start coughing again.

To his relief, as the elevator doors opened, his ears picked up the sound of two sets of footsteps a second before he was proven right in his guess, both Akashi, and Vestal were walking out of the elevator, both deep in conversation about him and what to do with him.

"Look Vestal, I know we have been pushing hard to get our leadership to give him a wisdom cube, and he has certainly earned it, but i think we are going to have to resort to... other means of acquiring one."

The minty haired cat-girl like ship-girl said, her tone still serious, although a bit less tense than it was during the meeting with the fleet representatives.

"What do you suggest we do then Akashi? We're repair ships, not warships, we can't go out of port unless it is with an escort, and we have a good reason too."

The light pink haired ship-girl said in response, raising a valid point to Akashi. As the two continued to go back and forth on what to do about a wisdom cube for Lusca, the old battle-carrier used his chance to slip into the elevator. He grabbed onto the top of the elevator's doorframe, before swinging himself into the chamber as quietly as he could manage, the doors shutting behind him shortly after he got inside.

He quickly used a tentacle to push the first-floor button on the elevator's panel, before slumping back against the back wall of the metal box he was now in. The brief feeling of vertigo coming and going as quickly as a heartbeat. He was breathing a bit heavier now, his tentacles and arms beginning to throb and pulse in more pain, and he noticed that underneath some of his patches and wraps, his yellow blood oozed out, albeit very slowly.

His luck seemed to be rather fickle though, for he soon started to cough. It was short and light coughs at first, but soon they took on a longer, heavier form as his sides burned with pain. He covered his mouth as best he could, and only pulled his hands away once his coughing fit stopped, revealing fresh, warm blood on his palms.

Regardless of the pain and the fact he was now coughing up blood again, as well as bleeding a little from his reopened wounds, he pressed on, he had too. Right now, the girls were debating on using a wisdom cube on him, which, while he appreciated the gesture, he didn't want them to waste one on him. Well, if he could somehow fix his wisdom cube through other means that is. That, and he had the means to at least repair his humanoid and ship bodies, he just needed the resources, which he was currently getting by having his drone swarm strip the Orochi. There was also the fact the Sirens had attacked the base as well, meaning that before long, they would come again, and he needed to be ready for that fight.

He soon shook his head to refocus himself, right now, he needed to get to his ship, fix what he could, and go from there. And so, as the elevator slowed down to the first floor, he collected himself once more as he got into position. His upper left arm outstretched, and his remaining three fingers on his hand splayed out on the false hardwood panels, his upper right arm placed a bit closer to himself, his thumb and two fingers helping to balance his stance while the nub his of his lower right arm was placed closer to his legs, acting as a counter balance point for the lack of his lower left limb while his tentacles coiled up upon the metallic back wall of the elevator, ready to launch him forward like a damn rocket if needed.

Once the elevator stopped, and the doors slide open to reveal an empty lobby area, Lusca slowly crept out, his body moving forward as his upper right hand grasped one side of the elevator doors while his upper left hand followed the action on the opposite side. Peeking out his head a bit to look around and make sure that the coast really was clear.

Upon confirming that no one was in the immediate vicinity, Lusca quickly moved out of the elevator and through the lobby, heading to the front doors. His arms moved with all the awkward grace they could give while his tentacles helped push him along and keep his movements stable. No doubt, if someone were to stumble upon him while he was moving, they would probably mistake him as some sort of strange mix between a spider and octopus or some other similar chimeric creature.

Once he got to the doors, they automatically slid open, if he had to guess, they were either motion or pressure activated, he honestly hoped for pressure, since that would reduce the fact that a camera would be watching the doors. Although to be fair, he was pretty sure that there were cameras littered about the hospital, after all, just because he could see them, didn't mean they weren't there.

Regardless though, he pushed on, moving through the elevator doors, and onto the front steps of the hospital. He took a moment to get a feel for his surroundings. In front of him were several docks with ships anchored to them a few dozen meters away, to his left were the dorms, cafes, markets, and other facilities for the ship-girls. To his right were several warehouses, but more importantly, a road.

While it is hard to tell where the road led to, his ship felt to be in the same general direction that the road was pointing towards, which for the time being, was good enough for him. However, he wasn't about to just skitter along the road to his ship, that was just inviting all sorts of potential problems. Thankfully though, it seemed nature and the bases architects would give him a helping hand, even if they didn't realize it.

For while the base had cleared most of the forests in the harbor of the base, however, there was a somewhat thick strip of greenery that encircled the harbor and its walls. And while the jungle-like forest wasn't particularly dense, its lower levels and underbrush appeared to have enough foliage to help hide his body from view. Well, so long as he stayed low and quiet that was.

The forest, however, was sectioned off by steel wire fences, nothing too complicated or dangerous, but a hassle that he would have to deal with if he wanted to get into the forest. And so, as quickly as his damaged limbs could manage, he moved from the hospital front steps to the perimeter fencing, his metallic claws digging into the asphalt ground below him with surprising ease. Unfortunately, this meant that he left a trail of claw marks in his wake, but he didn't care right now, all he cared about was getting back to his ship and getting himself into a better fighting shape then... well, his nearly crippled state.

As he got closer to the fence, Lusca used his tentacles to push himself off the ground and over the fence, landing a bit harder than he wanted to on his left side once he was over the fence. Nothing broke upon impact as far as he could tell, but it definitely agitated his wounds. A bit more of his yellow blood oozing out from underneath his wraps and bandages. His coughing also started back up, fitting him something fierce as he had to just cough up the blood from his lungs onto the grounds. His hands a little reoccupied with keeping him 'standing'.

Lusca however shook off the pain as soon as his coughing fit lessoned, he then marched onwards, delving into the forest's underbrush and after finding a small, shadowed clearing did he stop to catch his breath. His chest swelling and deflating with each breath he took as he checked over his wounds again. The most agitated wounds were on his tentacles and the side he landed on, which was not surprising, was annoying since this meant that he was now leaking more blood, not much to be concerned about, but it did mean he would be easier to track. There was also the fact that while his coughing had lessoned, it hadn't gone away, not completely anyways.

"Well, let's just hope their senses are not as good as mine then"

He thought to himself, before moving on again, crawling through the underbrush and plant life as quickly, but as quietly as he could as he slowly snaked his way from the harbor to the road that led that would hopefully lead him to his ship.

While Lusca continued forward with his escape plan, the Vestal and Akashi had not only entered his room to check in on him, but also discovered that he was gone. Which put the two on high alert as they frantically started to check the hospital floors to try and find him. The search, however, would do little than waste their time, and so they would go to the hospital security room to see if they could find him through the cameras. Which proved to be far more rewarding, even if the idea was a bit late. For on the cameras, it showed him getting up and leaving his room, walking down the hallway, and crawling up a wall and hiding, literally, above their heads as they came out of the elevator, before swinging into it and riding it down to the first floor, where he bolted out of the lobby area, and out of view of their cameras.

"You have got to be kidding me! How was he able to move so quickly and silently, Nya?!"

The minty kitty exclaimed, her cat tail buffed up and twitching in frustration. They knew that he was powerful and dangerous, his bout with the Sirens that attacked their base was proof enough, but also be able to sneak around like he was some sort of secret agent?

While Akahi continued to brood on the resent turn of events, Vestal was silent, studying his movements and actions through the recordings the best she could. From what she could see, his wounds were slowing him down considerably, she also noticed the small droplets of yellow fluids that would ooze out from one of his wounds and onto the lobby floor. An idea as to why he seemed so desperate to leave the hospital soon started to shape itself, and so she began to put a plan into action as she spoke to her Sakura partner.

"Report to Nagato about Lusca escaping the hospital and have her send some troops to Lusca's ship, I'll do the same with Enterprise."

"His ship, Nya? Why? Do you think he trying to leave the island?"

"Maybe. I really don't know what he is trying to do, but better to be safe than sorry."

Akashi tilted her head to the side a bit, honestly a bit surprised that Vestal didn't seem to have a read on this guy. Then again, it's not like they had a lot of time to get to know him. Sure they studied him on a physical level, sort of had too in order to make sure they were actually helping him instead of possibly hurting him more, but as for Lusca's personality, all they had to go on was what they saw and heard in the harbor when he used his ship to defend Azur lane from the Sirens, and as far as Akashi and Vestal knew, that could have been a ruse.

Regardless, Akashi shook her head a bit to clear her thoughts as she tuned into her radio, selecting the private channel directly linked to Nagato, before beginning to transmit her request and relevant information.

"Akashi to Nagato, we have a situation, how copy, Nya?"

The channel was silent for a few moments, before a soft click was heard from it and Nagato's voice flowed through the radio.

"I hear you Akashi, what's wrong?"

"Lusca has escaped the hospital, we don't know where he is, but we have an idea on where he is going, we think he trying to get to his ship, Nya."

The line went silent for a moment, clearly the news caught Nagato off guard, but she spoke after collecting herself.

"Understood, I'll have the first carrier division, as well as some escorts secure his ship."

"Thank you Nagato, Vestal is reporting to enterprise about this too, so expect some extra help from the Eagle Union fleet.

"I see, very well, I'll inform our girls then."

Once she was done, she disconnected her radio from the private channel, setting it to the public channel before turning her attention back to Vestal, who was wrapping her own conversation with Enterprise about this. Now, all the two had to do was wait, and hope their girls nor lusca would end up in a fight.

Meanwhile, Lusca himself was slowly crawling and moving through the underbrush, the hot tropical sun showing little mercy towards him as he trudged onwards. His wounds ached with pain as he continued to stay on the move whenever he wasn't hit with a bad coughing fit. It had probably been about 30 or so minutes since his escape from the hospital, although right now, he was a bit worried about the fact that no alarm had been raised, or at least, no load or obvious one. Lusca was hoping that was a good sign, but he knew his luck, if he had to guess, they were probably gathering a strike force to try and ambush him at the docks.

It was a smart plan, well, if that was what they were planning anyways, they could be planning something else, like amassing a big enough force to basically blockade his ship, making it even harder to get too. That's when it heard what sounded like several prop-engines rumble overhead. He turned his gaze skyward, seeing two Sakura Empire Zero fighters flying over his position. However, he doubted that they saw him, he was nestled deep in the forest, with plenty of shadows to help conceal his position from the sky.

Still, the fact that they were flying from the harbor and were heading towards the direction of his ship did not bode well. Thus, he picked up the pace as much as he could, his hook tentacles and clawed fingertips allowing him to grab onto tree limbs and trucks with ease as he slowly climbed and crested a large hill, looking down to see the large, but improvised dock which housed his ship.

The dockyard was still bare bones, only having a warehouse, couple of crane machines, some metal containers with various supplies inside each one, a single multileveled building which was still under construction, and several plots of land having been marked for prep work for future buildings.

But all of that was little more than a distraction for Lusca, as his eyes scanned over and saw several of Azur Lanes ship-girls also at the docks, each one on high alert and scanning their surroundings with either their gaze or controlling their planes to do so.

Most of them were from Eagle Union and Sakura empire, but there were a couple girls from Iron Blood and Royal navy as well. Regardless, Lusca growled lowly in annoyance, it looked like his luck had decided to turn the tables on him again. It still didn't matter though, especially with him so close to his ship.

As a couple of wildcats from eagle union flew overhead, he lowered himself down to the ground even more out of reflex. As soon as they were further away, he looked back down to try and figure out which of the girls were there, and how to get past them. From Eagle Union, he could at least confirm Hornet, long island, Arizona, Cleveland, Northampton, Helena, Laffey and Hammann. With another couple of ship-girls he couldn't confirm because of only being able to get glances of them, all in all, there were about 9 to 10 eagle union ship-girls.

For the Sakura empire, he saw Akagi, Kaga, Atago, Takao, Fusao, Ise, Yamashiro, Ayanami, Yukikazu, Yuudachi, and a couple others he couldn't confirm from passing glances. Which meant roughly another ten or more ship-girls.

Finally, for the Iron-bloods and Royal navy, he could confirm Illustrious, Prince of Wales, Hood, Unicorn, Prinze Eugen, Admiral Hipper, Koln, Z-23, Javelin and a few others, thus another 10 or so Ship-girls to account for. All in all, there were roughly 30 ship-girls that had this dockyard locked down, the only other personal in the dockyard were the strange little chicken things, which were still going about their business of setting up the dockyard and repairing his ship.

However, he did notice that his drones were still allowed in and out as well, most of them getting to the back of the ship and into the gantry, while others moved from one part of the ship to another occasionally as they continued to repair the ship.

"Well, fuck me sideways, looks like they went with the blockage option."

Which was less the ideal for Lusca, since he also saw the ships of Admiral Hipper, Helena, and Arizona anchored around his ship, although thankfully their guns were still in their standard position, and not pointing at his ship.

From his vantage point, he saw three possible means of getting to his ship. One was the safest, but also the longest and most roundabout route, that being to completely ignore the dockyard, and go a few dozen, maybe a hundred or so, meters on either side of the outpost, and then book it to the sea as fast as he could, from there, he would have to swim towards his ship, and get into it via the gantry. This plan however was still risky, for example, the planes from the ship-girls would be able to spot him in the water if he was too close to the surface, and even in deeper waters, they would probably be able to tell that he wasn't just a shark or some other sea animal from his bodies outline alone.

The second option was to try and sneak through the base, which while getting to the base would be easy enough, sneaking through it and onto his ship completely undetected? That was wishful thinking at best. Sure, he might be able to manage it, but he still had to worry about the patrol fighters, as well as the girls themselves finding him.

The last option he had was simple, and not the smartest, but it might just work. In short, he could either try to get as close to his ship as he could without being seen, before just storming through the girls and into his ship, or simply ignore the stealthy approach all together, and simply blitz through the outpost as fast as he could and keep damage to himself and the girls at a minimum.

His more cunning side demanded the stealth approach, while his more savage side roared to blitz past the girls. He weighed his options as quickly, but as carefully as he could. If he messed this up, and ended up hurting one of the girls, they could and probably would kill him, or cripple him to the point of near death. He was also still wounded, meaning that either plan would be that much harder to achieve, for his coughing fits would either let them know his location, or would possibly stun him in a sense in the middle of a fight.

Thus, he decided to try going in via stealth, if that failed however, he would have to blitz past them and hope he could handle taking a hit or two before getting onto his ship. With the plan set, Lusca began his approach, slowly moving down the jungle covered hills as he went low and slow for the time being. Which helped keep his coughing at bay for a bit. Moving from shadow to shadow and cover to cover, moving fast, but carefully as he slowly descended the jungle covered hill.

As he closed in on the base, he saw that the perimeter didn't have a fence around it, something that would help greatly in infiltrating the outpost. So, he quickly moved from the shadows of the trees, to behind one of the many cargo containers. He was roughly parallel to his ship's bow from his ship's port side, nestled between some of the cargo containers. He slowly moved closer, using stacked up bundles of pipes, metal sheets of armor, wooden crates, the occasional truck or construction vehicle. Basically, anything and everything that gave him cover from the girls and planes.

However, while he had done well in avoiding both the girls and staying out of sight of the planes, the closer he got to his ship, and less cover he could find and reach within a single burst of movement. There were also a few close calls in which one of the girls noticed his movements or heard him coughing for a moment, and moved to investigate, only to find nothing.

His luck would unfortunately run dry when he moved from the entrance of a cargo container to a large pile of steel plates and pipes. Within seconds of him getting behind cover, he heard, and felt, several explosions pepper his location, forcing him to hit the deck and curl up around himself into as small of a target as he could.

Once the short bombardment stopped, Lusca immediately moved again, this time he abandoned stealth as he slid to a stop about a dozen meters away from his ship, his clawed fingertips leaving behind a pair of narrow but deep claw marks in the ground, before rising to face his would-be attacker. Well, attackers in this case, as he saw Prinz Eugen, Cleveland, Takao, and Atago with their riggings, all of them having their guns pointing right at him as several planes circled overhead.

Lusca however, kept his head on a swivel, for while the 4 cruisers were the ones to open up on him and get his attention, he noticed that the group of 30 ship-girls had formed a ring around him, with only the carriers, minus Akagi and Kaga, Arizona, Admiral hipper, and Helena not in the ring formation.

He would bring his upper right arm closer to himself, pulling his claws from the ground before placing his hand on the ground to grant him more stability as Prinz Eugen spoke to him, her rust-colored eyes locked onto his own yellow ones.

"Guten Tag, Liebe Lusca. It would seem you've been causing quite the fuss this morning~"

Lusca would 'stand' up on his improved legs once more, groaning a bit from the pain as he rolled his shoulders a bit, sharp and deep cracks and pops ringing out from his body as he adjusted his limbs. Before looking at Prinze Eugen and the others in front of him.

"Well... bitch-tits."

He said, his glitchy, cold, and deep voice reaching the girls ears, and sending shivers down their spines. Most shivered from just how deep and cold he sounded; it made something deep inside them cower in fear. Others, however... well, they seemed to enjoy the feeling and sound of his voice, perhaps a bit too much.