By the time we'd finished our meal, we'd nearly cleared the ice wall, and we decided to send out a scouting fleet to find Saratoga and the others.

"I would recommend Gangut, Kirov, and Minsk," Rossiya matter-of-factly stated. I nodded, pretending to give it some thought. In reality, however, I was trying to find an excuse to keep Gangut with me. I found her enthusiasm infectious, and her smile infused me with a warmth that somehow managed to keep the bitter chill from my bones. I liked her, I wanted to get to know her better, and that would be hard if she's off on some recon mission.

But as I looked at who we had available, and the strengths and weaknesses of each, it became an inescapable fact that those three were the best to send. In terms of battleships, we only had Rossiya and Gangut on hand. If I sent Rossiya, I'd be handicapped if the Sirens were to suddenly focus on our fleet. Gangut is enthusiastic and gives her all in every fight, but at the end of the day, her armaments just don't stack up against Rossiya's guns. And if I replaced Gangut with a cruiser or two, we wouldn't have an effective screen. We had Avrora, Pamiat, Kirov, and, in a pinch, Chapayev, but Avrora and Pamiat were still running low on ammunition and if they got into an extended firefight away from the main fleet, they could find themselves in serious trouble.

So with a heavy heart, I sighed and nodded in agreement. "I concur. Gangut, Kirov, Minsk," I called them forward and pointed to the holomap. "I want the three of you to scout this area, see if you can't find the Eagle Union fleet. If you do, guide them back to our location for a final assault on the Siren stronghold."

"And if we don't find them?" Kirov asked.

I felt all eyes on me once again, and I briefly pursed my lips before answering. "Then get back here as quickly as you can. If you can't find them, we'll need to regroup and begin an assault on the stronghold without them. The longer we're out here, the more reinforcements the Sirens are going to send our way, and I don't want us to be ground down to the point of combat ineffectiveness trying to find them."

"Do not worry, Comrade," Gangut proudly declared, "We will find your lost fleet and bring them back to us so that we may all bask in the glory of victory together!"

Her enthusiasm was once again, infectious, and I couldn't help but smile up at her. "I know you'll do your best, Gangut," I replied. "Now you three should get going while it's still quiet. They don't have the same communications gear as you do, so it's going to be hard enough to find them as it is, let alone in the middle of a firefight. And good luck."

"Ura!" All three of them cheered before saluting smartly and heading off the bridge. I watched them go for a long while until they were just a trio of white specks on the horizon. I said a quiet prayer for her safe return and turned to head towards the holotable, only to find myself face-to-face with Rossiya.

"You made the right call, Comrade Commander," she bluntly stated. Looking into her eyes, we both knew exactly what she was talking about.

"I know," I softly sighed. "Doesn't mean I have to enjoy it."

"Of course, but not everyone would make such a call."

"True," I conceded. "In any case, thank you."

Rossiya bowed slightly, the faintest hint of a smile on her face. "You are welcome, Comrade Commander. Now, we should prepare for incoming."

When the Sirens showed up a few minutes later, they found us ready and waiting for them. Battle was joined once more, but as before, the resistance wasn't as fierce as I had expected. Even down three kansen, we were still able to defeat them handily. I idly wondered if the Sirens reported back that we were fewer in number, and more importantly, if they would send a larger force to decisively crush us next time. I could only hope Gangut and the others would be able to find Saratoga's fleet and get them back here.

Hours passed, and we had no contact with either the Sirens or the search group. I was beginning to worry when an alarm began to sound from the communications gear on the bridge. Rossiya darted over to it and immediately picked up a nearby headset. After a moment of hushed communication I couldn't hear, she looked over at me and announced, "It's the scouting party, they've linked up with the Eagle Union fleet, with no casualties between either of them."

I let out a sigh of relief and sagged against the holotable for a moment. "What's their position?"

"One moment," Rossiya replied before she spoke into the headset once more. There was another pause, and then she answered. "Grid square reference five four nine zero."

I punched up the area on the holomap, then zoomed out to find our position. "Tell them to head for a rendezvous point at grid square reference three two five zero."

"Da, Comrade Commander." While she seemed to issue orders calmly at first, her brows began to furrow, then a frown appeared as her voice got louder.

"Three two five zero!" At this point, she was all but shouting into the microphone. "Confirmed! At best possible, I repeat at best-Kirov? Kirov!" With a disgusted sigh, she tore off the headset and set it back on the communications equipment. "The Sirens intensified their jamming, Comrade Commander, we've lost contact with them."

An icy knot formed in my gut. "Did they get the coordinates at least?"

"They did," she confirmed, much to my relief. "Hopefully they're hurrying."

"Something we should be doing ourselves," I commented wryly as I punched in a course to the rendezvous point. "Let's get underway, combat speed."

"Aye-aye, Comrade Commander."

As the ship began to rumble, her engines picking up speed, I noted our course put us within visual range of the Siren stronghold. At the very least, it would allow us to do a little recon work on the way to group up. I quickly grabbed the binoculars and stepped out onto the bridge wing, pausing to adjust my jacket to protect against the biting wind that picked up.

In the distance, the stronghold had appeared on the horizon, a white spire, standing out amidst the dark skies and seas. While I couldn't tell you what I expected a Siren stronghold to look like in this frigid environment, it certainly wouldn't have been what I saw. As I peered through the binoculars, I could see it wasn't a spire, but a massive glacier, a blue-white shard of ice ringed by smaller, jagged spears that jutted up from the base. Even from this distance, it looked imposing, and I could see the dark black metal of Siren emplacements nestled around the base, in between the smaller ice stalagmites.

The sound of bootsteps on the metal deck next to me drew my attention, and I lowered my binoculars to look over at whoever joined me.

Rossiya stood there, the wind whipping her hair back and forth as she gazed out at the stronghold. She let out a soft sigh, the noise quickly stolen by a gust of air, before she stated, "We should have addressed this sooner."

"Why haven't you?" I asked, keeping my tone a curious one. I didn't want her to think I was being judgemental or scornful. Knowing there's a problem and being able to do anything about it are two very different things.

She turned to face me with a stoic expression. "Like the rest of the Azur Lane, we've been trying to secure our sea lanes first. It's been hard, and brutal, and while this stronghold is close to a vital trade lane, it's been inert. And as I'm sure you're well aware, it's hard to muster resources against a potential threat when you have so many actual threats to deal with."

I sighed as I leaned against the railing and thought about the recent attack on NYC. "Yeah, I feel you there. So how do we plan on taking this thing?"

Rossiya stared at it for a long moment before she answered. "I don't think we can," she finally admitted. "We didn't realize the stronghold was this massive, so we haven't allocated enough resources to completely take it."

"At least we can destroy it and take it from the Sirens," I offered.

"Indeed," she grinned. "As before, we are-"

The battleship was interrupted as the bridge door swung open and Chapayev popped her head out. "We're receiving a communication from an unknown source!" she exclaimed, and Rossiya and I shared a concerned glance before we both rushed back onto the bridge.

"Can we identify the source?" I asked as Rossiya began to play the message back from the beginning.

"It'll take time," Chapayev explained.

"Do it."

The blue-haired cruiser got to work as Rossiya began to play the message through the bridge's speakers.

"From Prometheus to Goemon, your lives are nasty, brutish, and short," the unfamiliar voice began. I looked over at Rossiya, who shrugged before she pointed back at me. I shook my head, indicating I'd never heard this voice either. Undaunted, the pretentious mystery woman continued. "I don't remember inviting you barbarous louts to my estate. Crass creatures, stupid beyond comprehension. I'll say this in a way you idiots will understand. Get the hell out of here! Overzealous ignoramuses! Boundless greed and avarice!"

"Sounds like someone's got a dictionary and too much free time on their hands," I quipped, earning a thin smile from Rossiya and a chuckle from Pamiat.

"Yes, begone, thieves in the night!" the voice demanded. "Plunderers! Face destruction and sink by my hand!"

A few seconds after the message finished, the ship began to rumble. Subtle at first, almost distinguishable from the hum of her engines, but slowly increasing. As we all looked around, trying to find the source of the vibration, the holomap blared out multiple alarms, with a half dozen flashing red icons appearing above the virtual landscape.

"What the hell is going on…" I muttered as I dashed to the holotable, trying to make sense of it. What it was telling me should have been impossible. And yet, I could see it happening with my own two eyes. The stronghold was beginning to move. Icy waves broke along its jagged spires as it lurched forward. A quick calculation told me it was headed exactly where I feared it would: right towards us. "The stronghold's coming for us!" I called out.

"We've got ice walls popping up and closing in around us, too!" Avrora shouted a warning.

"If we're gonna do something, it's gotta be fast!" Pamiat chimed in.

I had a half-second to decide the fates of everyone here. "We've got to link up with the Eagle Union fleet!" I barked. "Give the engines everything you've got, flank speed!"

"Aye-aye!" Chapayev called back as the rumbling grew louder and louder. Outside, we could see massive slabs of ice bursting from the deep, towering over us as they tried to box us in.

As if that weren't bad enough, the holomap trilled another alert: incoming Sirens. "Never rains but it pours," I grumbled as I zoomed in on the enemy fleet. Unlike the previous fleets, this one looked like it meant business, with a lot more ships than the earlier waves. "Big attack coming, we need to get ready and fight our way through to the Eagle Union fleet if we have to!"

Just then, as if in answer to my prayers, a fleet of friendly blips appeared on the holomap. The radio crackled to life and I heard Saratoga's voice on the other end of the line. "Commander spotted! Making my big entrance now! You miss us?"

"Never been happier to see you, Sara!" I laughed. "Everyone make it okay?"

"We're all here, Comrade!" Gangut joyously declared as she cut into the communication. "Didn't I tell you we'd bring them back safe and sound? Now, all that is left for us to win the final battle!"

A broad grin split my face as I chuckled and shook my head. This woman's enthusiasm was endless. "Never doubted you for a second, Comrade Gangut. Alright, we've got a Siren fleet and a stronghold bearing down on us, so let's form up quickly! Destroyers and cruisers, take up screening positions; battleships, form a battle line on Sovetskaya Rossiya; Hornet, Saratoga, you guys take up the rear. Their air activity has been minimal, so save the fighters and focus on getting attack craft out there. Any questions?"

A chorus of excited "no"s rippled over the airwaves, much as I expected. "Let's do this, then. Eagle Union, Northern Parliament fleets, let's move out! Ura!"

"Ura!" came the combined cheers, followed by Gangut's voice once more. "That's right! This is the last battle, so we've gotta make the seas run red with blood!"

While I wasn't sure Sirens of any kind bled, I certainly appreciated her exuberance. I watched in silence as our fleet and theirs moved closer and closer, the seconds ticking by painfully slowly as I waited for them to get into firing range.

Finally, the ring around our fleet touched the outer edge of the Siren fleets, indicating we were close enough to open fire. Rossiya wasted no time, ordering her battle line to open up with a full salvo, the full thirty guns on Rossiya, Gangut, and South Dakota opening up in a massive line of flame and smoke that obscured the shipgirls for a full ten seconds. By the time the smoke had cleared, the shells had found their marks. A Siren mass-produced aircraft carrier, the only one they had, suddenly erupted in smoke and fire, with numerous plumes of water spouting up around it from the shells that didn't hit. Now on fire from stem to stern, it heeled to starboard, out of control as it was wracked with secondary explosions.

With their air assets now blown to bits, Hornet and Saratoga capitalized on the opening, Hornet sending a flight of her B-25s to carpet bomb the Siren escorts. At the same time, Sara launched wave after wave of Avenger torpedo bombers against the battleships. They swooped in low, braving the hail of anti-aircraft fire that filled the sky. Occasionally, a B-25 or an Avenger would tumble into the sea, trailing smoke and flames, but for most of them, they were able to drop their payloads and pull up and away.

For the escorts, they may have been able to evade a single B-25's payload, but when there are twenty filling up the sky, there's nowhere to run. While many simply hit the sea, doing little more than creating geysers of water, an equal number found their mark, blasting the Siren destroyers to pieces.

For the battleships, it was much worse. As the TBFs settled into their attack runs, the enemy capital ships had a choice. They could take evasive action to try and avoid the torpedoes, but if they did, they would lose their firing solutions on the kansen. Of course, if they didn't change course, it would make it easier for the Avenger's torpedoes to find their mark. All the while, Gangut was keeping up that near-constant stream of cannon fire, correcting her firing solution on the fly and allowing South Dakota and Sovetskaya Rossiya to more easily place their salvos on target. In the end, the Siren battleships decided to take evasive action, throwing off their own gunnery in a vain attempt to save themselves.

It didn't work. While they managed to evade some of the torpedoes, enough hit home, geysers of water signaling each devastating hit. The ships continued to fight on, but within minutes, they had begun to take on a severe list, and a few minutes after that, they had completely capsized, slowly sinking beneath the waves. With the capital ships out of the way, the surviving cruisers and destroyers stood little chance against our combined firepower. Twenty minutes after the battle had begun, the Siren fleet lay in ruins.

"We've broken their lines, now it's time to break their stronghold!" I cried out. "All firepower on the base of the glacier!"

But before the kansen could even train their guns on the massive structure, its icy walls split open, revealing the vast hangar-like interior. A figure was suspended in the middle of the hangar, bathed in blue-white light. From this distance, it looked like some sort of diamond-shaped mechanical sea creature. It began to stir, and almost as soon as it had begun to move, a massive dome formed over the seas around the stronghold, cutting off any light beyond that emanating from the hangar.

Then, as the figure released itself from its bindings, that voice from early crackled over the radio once more. "'The king dons his Crown, the flowers are in full bloom, and the souls return to the seas. Thus begins the Overture of the End! Every finale gives way to a new overture, as destruction gives way to new life. I am "Omitter."' I am the one who rules over these seas!"

As she approached, I could see she was definitely a Siren, bearing the traditional pale skin, wild eyes, and rigging that resembled marine life. Although I was struggling to recall what kind of fish had a mouth that big. She must be the one operating this Mirror Sea, and despite her massive rigging, I didn't feel as threatened by her presence as other Sirens.

"...I don't recognize her rigging...! Is she in the Eagle Union's database?!" Minsk called out.

"Negative," I answered over the radio. "Looks like we've got a newcomer."

Gangut was the one to reply with her boundless exuberance. "Good, it isn't a proper finale without a high-ranking boss!"

Omitter's response was to put on a haughty laugh as she drew closer to us. "Ahahaha! I like the looks of your faces! Yes, that's the performance that They desire!" Suddenly, she pauses, looking down at her hand. "Let's see what it says next…" she murmured, her voice still carried out over the radio waves. "'My name shall be carved into your souls as you spend the rest of eternity trembling at the bottom of the abyss!' That's so lame, it's cool! Ahahahaha!"

I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. "Wait. Was she…reading from a script? Seriously?"

"Notecards, I think, dear Comrade," Tashkent volunteered. There was a brief pause, and then. "Oh, it looks like she's tearing them up now."

Knowing full well Omitter was listening, I continued. "What kind of absolute loser has to use notecards to smack talk? It should come from the heart! Instead, she just sounds like some cheap cartoon villain."

"Do you feel that about my smack talk, Comrade?" Gangut asked, her voice somewhat subdued.

"That you sound like a cheap cartoon?" I smiled as I reassured her. "Not at all! Your taunts come from the heart and with enough enthusiasm and excitement for a whole damn fleet! Honestly, she should probably take notes from you."

"What?!" Omitter sputtered, rapidly losing the edgelord persona she'd put on. "Impossible...!"

"Excuse me," I quickly cut her off, suppressing my smile and injecting a more authoritative tone to my voice. "Private conversation here, lady, do you mind?"

Her reply was a frustrated, aggrieved shriek. "You assholes! You won't even play along with me for a few minutes! Unforgivable!"

And with that, she charged.

A/N-I think he hit a nerve. Until next time, fair winds and following seas!