8th December, 1941.
The voice of President Roosevelt is heard on the radio.
"Mr. Vice President, and Mr. Speaker, The Commander of the Eagle Union Kansen and Members of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the Eagle Union was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Sakura Empire.
The Eagle Union was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation the Sakura, was still in conversation with its Government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific. Indeed, one hour after Sakura air squadrons had commenced bombing in the Union Island of Oahu, the Sakura Ambassador to the Union and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent Union message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.
It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from the Sakura Empire makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Sakura Government has deliberately sought to deceive the Eagle Union by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to Eagle Union naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many Union lives have been lost, including two of our own beloved Battleship Kansen; USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma, as well as the vessels themselves. In addition, Union ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu…"
Wales turns off the radio and mutters, "Bloody hell… I knew this would happen… but…" she sighs. "I wish I could've given them more warning… and now…" she looks at Repulse's ship and says, "When you wake up, dear Repulse, I'll make it up to you. Somehow."
The Sakura Empire has joined the Crimson Axis and is now an active threat against Azur Lane, who has just formally taken in the Eagle Union now that they've been dragged into actively participating in the war. Force Z had been deployed to assist the defence of Malaya, but it's quiet. Too quiet.
Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, Malaya had been invaded by Sakura Empire ground forces in the north. Force Z were dispatched earlier, knowing that because 2 Eagle Union Kansen had been killed and most of the others severely injured, Azur Lane was now badly outnumbered in the Pacific. Despite this, Wales and Repulse know they can't just sit idly and just wait for the Sakura to take all of Malaya and then kill them in Singapore. They had to stop the enemy landings and be back in time to escort Victory and Nelson home.
Admiral Philips joins Wales out in the deck. "Miss Wales?"
When he gets no response, he looks over at her to see her staring at the Repulse.
"Miss Wales!"
She snaps out of her trance and looks at him, "Yes, Admiral?"
Philips asks, "Are you alright?"
Wales looks down, knowing he isn't even real, "Yes, sir. My apologies. Just lost in thought."
"Something on your mind?" Philips inquires.
Wales looks at him again, "It's too quiet, sir. I don't like it. The Sakura Empire are mobilising on a mass scale after their first victory, and there's no trace of them this close to their new territories?"
"In that case, be extra vigilant, Miss Wales. When you feel ready, join us on the bridge." He orders before leaving.
Wales puts her hand on her railing and whispers, "It's going to hurt a lot, Repulse… but you're better off outside this virtual hell…" she goes to the bridge.
Sovetskaya Rossiya reports to Sovetsky Soyuz. She begins, "Sister, just as you predicted, Iron Blood has ceased offensive operations."
"Good. Their foolish Fuhrer has decided to declare war on the Eagle Union to support the Sakura Empire. Everything is going as it should so far. That means Pearl Harbour has been attacked." Soyuz replies as she feeds her rabbit.
"But the Sakura could barely stand up to us. Why would they anger the sleeping giant?" Rossiya asks.
Her elder sister turns around to look at her, "Because they rightly see the Union as a major threat that had cut off their oil supply. Now they have to search for more in the Dragon Empery. They wanted to knock out the Union in one decisive blow by hitting the Battleships in Hawaii. They hoped to destroy the morale of the Kansen and humans in the Union and kick them out of the war before they even joined it."
"Well what will happen now?" Rossiya asks.
"Despite hoping they have broken them, the Eagle Union's resolve has never been as strong as it soon will be. They will not let the Sakura's actions go unpunished. The Empire feared their industrial might, and soon, they will have valid reasons to be utterly terrified. The Union may have a whole line of damaged Battleships, but only two of them are lost for good. The rest will be back. With a bloodthirsty vengeance…"
9th December, 1941.
News comes early morning that the Dragon Empery has officially declared war with the Sakura Empire, Iron Blood and the Sardegnans. Wales learns that air support from Malaya will be unavailable due to the Sakurans stepping up their invasions tenfold and she starts losing faith in the success of this mission. She becomes racked with fear that she will lose yet another Battlecruiser due to her inability to protect them, despite knowing that once they wake up they'll be fine. The familiar early morning sea fog and cloud cover both reminded her of that battle and required her that they won't be seen by Sakura air patrols. That should've been the least of her concerns, however…
"This is I-58! I've spotted a Royal Navy fleet! A Battleship, Battlecruiser and multiple Destroyers! They're heading north from Singapore! Can we make friends with them?"
"Don't be stupid, I-58. The Royal Navy has just declared war on us. They're the enemy. We're sending reinforcements. Return to base so you won't be in danger." A voice on the other side says.
"…Ryōkai desu…" I-58 says and cuts communications to dive. She says to herself, "Does this fleet exist only to wage war…?"
Sakura Empire air crews suddenly scramble to switch their payloads from HE to AP bombs and torpedoes.
Later on that day, Wales hears a plane engine and looks up to see Sakura reconnaissance aircraft. "Yep, there it is…" she whispers.
Philips asks, "What was that?"
Wales looks at him, "Our cloud cover is gone, sir. They've seen us." She points to the spy plane.
Philips responds, "Ah… bugger… well, we'll just have to hope for the best."
Wales realises, "Sir… we were spotted us hours ago by a submarine."
He looks at her as he realises as well. "WHAT!? Wales! Turn around! Now!" He picks up the radio, "Fleet! Head back to Singapore! We've lost our advantage!" They all start turning hard. "Wales, why did t you say anything earlier!?"
"Must've slipped my mind, sir." Wales nonchalantly shrugs, having accepted its her time to leave the simulation for good.
"Bloody hell, Wales! Wake up!" He storms away.
"That's the plan, sir." She mutters.
On the way, unknown to them, I-58 had found them again and updated their position and new heading, but then Philips gets an update of his own on the radio.
"I see…" he hangs up the radio and then says, "Wales, change course for Kuantan. We may have our surprise attack after all." He radios the fleet to say the same.
"Not that it even matters…" Wales begins the pointless direction change.
Captain Leach finally speaks up, "Are you sure this is wise, sir?"
"Trust me, Captain. This new landing force doesn't have any air support." The overconfident Admiral assures him.
"Neither do we, sir." Wales backs up her Captain, despite having knocked him out previously.
Philips says, "Yes, but they do not have a Battleship."
The Sakura Empire readies its planes and awaits deployment to go after Force Z. They will not tolerate two Dreadnoughts threatening their invasion forces.
Nelson steps through Victory's new portal, finding herself at home in Scapa Flow.
"This still doesn't feel right. It's like we left Wales and Repulse to die…" The Battleship says.
Victory, however, takes on a dark expression. She simply replies, "… I'm so sorry, Nelson, but it had to be this way."
"Victory… it's alright. They're not really dying, remember? Just waking up properly. It has to happen to remain in line with history, remember?" Nelson holds her hands.
The Commander smiles, "I'm so lucky to have you with me, Nellie… come, we need to speak to George and Renown…"
10th December, 1941.
One of Force Z's human-crewed Destroyers, Electra, had steamed ahead to scout out the expected landing site of the invasion, only to return with a report of Kuantan being at complete peace. However, they had again been spotted by Sakura air patrols. Wales sees them and a repeat of the previous retreat is ordered, but both Philips and Leach both somehow forget about the now in-range air support waiting at Singapore.
A few hours later, Wales sees something break through the clouds, then another, and another, then six more after that.
Bombers.
Getting into character, Wales radios, "Repulse! Air attack, starboard side!" Both of them and their escorts unleash their AA defences, but they just can't seem to hit them.
Captain Tennant of the Repulse looks at the payloads of the bombers, "Bloody hell, Repulse, we can't let them hit Prince of Wales!"
The happy-go-lucky Battlecruiser gives him a thumbs up, "You got it! Leave it to m—AAAH!" She yelps in pain as a bomb is dropped on her port hangar, setting it ablaze.
"Repulse! Are you alright!?" Wales asks over the radio.
"No need to worry about me, Wales! You're top priority! The Commander needs you to get her back!"
"Don't you dare give me that bollocks! Are you injured!?" Wales demands.
"No! I'll be fine! Seriously, don't worry about me!" Repulse repeats, despite her injuries saying otherwise.
A few minutes later, Repulse nurses her new sores as another attack run of 9 bombers come in through the clouds. This time, they have torpedoes. They split into groups of 2 or 3, just like they practiced since the Sakura Empire had heard the Royal Navy had sent 2 of their best ships into the Pacific. Once again, the Royal AA fire fails to claim any of them.
Wales sees all except the last two fly over and she focuses on them as they fly low enough to get under her angle of defence. Unable to aim her guns that low, all she can do is stare them down as they release their torpedoes and fly effortlessly over her ship. She stares at the torpedoes as they are guaranteed to hit her and she calls out, "Torpedoes in the water! Brace for impact!"
The Battleship is rocked to the side by two massive explosions coming from her steering gear and engine rooms. She starts listing to the port side where she had been hit by both torpedoes. Repulse looks in horror as her dear friend takes such a fatal blow, "WALES! Wales are you still there!?" Her always-optimistic and carefree attitude shattered.
Wales tries to stand but has to be helped by Philips. She puts her arm over his shoulder and responds, "For now, Repulse… but it seems I have lost control of my steering…"
Philips mutters, "One bloody torpedo run…"
Tennant suddenly remembers the air support at Singapore. He picks up Repulse's radio and frantically requests it to take off immediately to help them.
Wales yells out, "Repulse! Look out!" The Battlecruiser scans the sky and sees another attack run dropping 8 more torpedoes at the same time.
"Bloody hell!" Repulse lets out as she manages to dodge them all, "That was close…"
Vampire watches as Repulse dances out of the way of an entire attack run, then turning her attention to Wales' situation. "Oh, Lady Wales… thou art brave to go forth out of this simulation to the fullest, but I feareth thy ship shalt not survive…" She goes to a special case she had been ordered not to open until this exact event happened. She grabs her key and opens it.
Wales tries her best to go down standing as she knows this isn't really the end. She takes more and more torpedoes, fighting through the pain, until she can no longer bear it. Leach and Philips hear her weakly say, "Victory… don't worry… we'll get everyone out…" They both look at her as she collapses.
"Wales! No!" Leach yells out as he holds her in his arms. Now unable to control the ship and the Kansen for it now dying, Philips radios Repulse and Tennant.
"This is Admiral Philips. Ship inoperable. It was an honour serving with you all."
Repulse yells out, "WALES, NO! Not you too!"
Tennant radios back, "The honour was ours, Admir— REPULSE, LOOK OUT!" He points to the sky as a Sakura bomber turns its attack run on them instead of the Prince of Wales.
Caught off-guard by the misdirection, Repulse can't react fast enough to dodge this torpedo. It hits her port bow and water shoots up from the impact, making her yell out again, "AH! C… Captain… I… ow…"
Captain Tennant, trying his best to comfort her, says, "It's alright, Repulse! Stay strong! We'll get out of this alive…" while he stares down more torpedo bombers bearing down on the Battlecruiser from every angle.
Every one connects and blows the ship out of the water, causing both himself and Repulse to fall to the floor. The latter closes her eyes as she feels her life slipping away, unaware that she'll be fine soon.
"Captain…"
He gets closer as her voice gets weaker.
"Im sorry… but there's no way we could've won… like this…" she passes out.
Tennant tries to shake her awake, but her body starts to reform into her Cubes as her ship begins to roll over. He grabs the Cubes, tears welling in his eyes, puts them in the double box on her bridge and runs as fast as he can with them to a lifeboat.
The bombers have all flown off having used up all their payloads, but Wales had also taken far too much damage. Her body also starts to revert to her Cubes, prompting Leach to yell out in anger. Philips radios Singapore to send every available tug in an attempt to at least save the ship, but it was too late. It starts to capsize.
Vampire reads the orders inside the box and immediately jumps off her ship and skates as fast as she can across to Wales' sinking ship.
The RAF finally arrives from Singapore just as Wales' ship vanishes below the waves. Too little, too late. Vampire manages to save Captain Tennant and Repulse's Cubes, but Philips and Leach had died with Wales. They'd been trapped on the bridge.
As she is the only surviving Kansen and Tennant is resting, Vampire takes command of the fleet and orders them back to friendly waters. She looks upon the Cubes in her hands and says, "Mine own sinc'rest apologies f'r allowing this to befall thee, mine own dear friends…"
Akagi looks upon the new achievement of the Sakura Navy. As Vampire and her escorts retreat, she laughs at the screen displaying the entire battle witnessed from a Siren drone. She looks at the Siren on the other side of the table to her and Kaga, "And that is how to sink Battleships. Fast and hard. Aerial attacks. No mercy, just like at Pearl."
Kaga facepalms, "Why do you speak as if they were your planes?"
"I'm just making a point, dear sister." Akagi hisses back.
"Your sibling rivalry bores me immensely." The Siren says. "I have news to steer this conversation away from this mediocre display of air dominance, anyway."
Kaga immediately inquires, "What? Has something happened, Hermit?"
"You could say that. It would seem that your friends have been contacted and they want in on our little alliance, too." Hermit answers.
Akagi scoffs, "Hah! Who would even think they're good enough to join us? I-"
"That would be us!" A booming, confident voice answers from behind them.
Spinning around, the kitsunes see four Battleship Kansen approaching.
"Ugh…" the Carrier mutters disgust at the sight of them.
"And who exactly are you?" The more pragmatic Kaga asks.
"Why, none other than the Great Littorio of the Sargdegna Empire! And these beautiful Signorinas are my own sister, the Eternal Flagship Vittorio Veneto, the vengeful Templar Knight Jean Bart and the lonely Queen of Iron Blood, Tirpitz!" The green-haired one answers loudly and proudly as she dramatically gesticulates.
Tirpitz mutters, "I told you not to call me that…"
Akagi says, "If you keep waving your arms around like that, you're going to knock someone out. What are you all doing here?"
"I would have presumed our mutual friend there was quite clear just now, or are your already ridiculously enormous ears somehow not big enough to hear her, Carrier?" Jean Bart mocks.
Akagi gets right in Jean Bart's face. "Ah, childish insults now, is it? Hah… Battleships… you're always so boring. Perhaps your obsolete existence is to blame, the sense of inferiority and such. Carriers and aircraft truly are the future of naval combat, just as my entire campaign has proven. Soon, we will rule the waves. The eventual takeover of Hawaii will confirm it." She says in the most smug tone she can manage.
"Whatever." Jean Bart shrugs, as if Akagi's words failed to penetrate her armour and pushes her out of the way, making the Carrier's eye twitch. She looks at the Siren, "Alright, we came through your portals, Hermit. Now tell us what we can do to secure ultimate victory for the Crimson Axis."
Tirpitz asks Littorio, "Are all Carriers except Strasser so… hostile?"
"Not at all, Signorina Tirpitz! I myself know of several who I'd very much like to get to know a lot better were there not at war going on!"
"Really? Who?"
The green-haired Kansen replies, "Well, the stunningly gorgeous Illustruous of the Royal Navy, of course! Not to mention that fiery-tempered temptress Carrier you have in your own Navy."
"Graf Zeppelin? Good luck with that…" She then realises something, "Hold on… Jean Bart?"
"Ugh… what?" The Vichya Battleship turns around, having been interrupted while listening to Hermit.
Tirpitz looks at her and asks, "You're willing to work with Akagi? Didn't the Sakura just take Indochina from you?"
Jean Bart scoffs, "I don't care. That's for the humans to worry about. My fight is against the Royal Navy and my traitor sister."
Akagi sighs, "If you Battleships are so unfocused you can't even pay attention to planning meetings, then you should probably let the Carriers handle it and go home."
Hermit orders, "That's enough bickering. Now that we have the full support of the leaders of the Crimson Axis, we must start to plan how to get Iron Blood in the most optimal position to attack Scapa Flow to knock out the Royal Navy and retrieve our missing Sirens."
Having been quiet so far, Vittorio Veneto can't help but glare at the Siren, remembering everything she's done on the previous loops, and then at Jean Bart and Akagi, wondering why they're acting like they don't remember.
She and the other flagships have been investigating what's going on with them for the last few loops now. They know for some reason Bismarck doesn't remember any loops, but could it be true for these two, as well?
And what of Victory? Of QE remembers, then—
"Sister?"
Veneto looks at Littorio, who along with everyone else, is staring at her. "…aren't you going to join us?"
"Ah, sì. Forgive me, I was having some ideas of my own." She strolls over and joins the meeting.
Akagi and Jean Bart both look at her with growing suspicion…
Bon Homme Richard holds the Cubes of Oklahoma and is about to use some sort of power on them while giggling like a gremlin, like she already has done for Arizona's Cubes. She's suddenly interrupted by a voice demanding, "Bonnie? What are you doing?"
She whispers, "Oh shit…" she thinks fast, spins around and says out loud, "Just uh… making sure they haven't been tampered with, Enty. Ya know how these Siren places are, huh?"
"Sure… hand them over, Bonnie. Now." The taller Carrier orders, distrustful of her.
Having surrendered them to her, Bonnie casually tries to slink away, but Enterprise grabs her by the back of her outfit. She looks behind her.
Enterprise glares at her. She feels something isn't right with Arizona's Cubes. She asks. "What have you done?"
"Uh… nothing? What's up with you?" Bonnie counters. "You're acting weird."
"Says the one who seems to have changed her eye colour and got a tattered version of her full outfit back." Enterprise deadpans.
"Huh?" Bonnie asks, then remembers.
She isn't using her disguise.
"Aw, crap…" Bon Homme Richard META sighs before wrestling out of Enterprise's grip and running for it. Before she can get away, however, the taller Kansen launches a fighter jet at her, slamming into her and launching her into the wall, knocking her out.
"Dammit, Essex… I told you to watch her…" Enterprise turns her attention back to the Cubes. She wakes up Oklahoma first.
Falling out of her pod, the Battleship looks around panicking, "NEVADA! NEV—" she gets her bearings and realises she isn't in Pearl anymore, "…huh? Enty? What… happened?"
"Long story, Okly. I need your help." Enterprise answers.
"Where… where is everyone? Where's Nev?"
"I promise I'll explain everything, but first, I need to see what will happen to Arizona when she wakes up. Here. This may seem strange to you, but open this."
"Ari…? Huh? Open this?" Oklahoma looks down at the double Cube box handed to her. She opens it and immediately feels a deep connection to them. "Enty… these Cubes…"
"Yeah?"
"They're… Nev's… aren't they?" Oklahoma asks with a heavy heart.
"No, Okly. They're yours." Enterprise answers.
"Oh… okay…"
"…"
"Wait, what?"