Chapter 19: Here's the Good News…
"So let me get this straight...you saw all of these upgrades and other things, got to experience aforementioned upgrades yourself...and you decided the natural course of action was to make really big bombs?"
I-13 offered an unrepentant thumbs-up at the bemused words of Alexander, tiny body adorned in a heavy lead apron and comically large welding mask as her muffled voice responded, "Clever, right?"
Arching an eyebrow as he turned to give Akashi an expectant look the Sakura repair boat flapped her oversized sleeves with unbridled enthusiasm, explaining, "Well Essex and I-13 were working on better engines and stuff and I wanted to see if there was any additional tricks I could learn, nya? But we found this crazy metal that's used in the Bakunawa's reactor that is super durable and weirder than most other metals like steel or iron that we're used to working with. Had strange stuff attached to it like radiation and other things."
Having a sinking feeling in his gut the male Siren pinched the bridge of his nose, dully inquiring, "And what did you discover, if I may be so bold as to ask?"
Essex hauled herself away from a gargantuan, oversized industrial torch that was fruitlessly trying to burn away a hunk of metal as she finished with, "Well it's incredibly heat resistant and tough. So much so that even an explosion probably wouldn't do much to overwhelm it. But if we got a big enough explosion to go off inside of the thing, all that pressure and heat building up within-"
"We get a really big kapow, nya!"
Alexander stared, largely impressed and a little bit horrified that, seemingly at random, three shipgirls had discovered one of the most crucial materials and methods in building a fucking nuke.
When they had been trying to make an engine.
"Sorry, Belfast and Prinz Eugen...these three are now the scariest of all your sisters."
True, he'd been aware of the potential for that level of destructive weaponry due to all of the information gifted to him by the Sirens...but he hadn't had the slightest inclination of actually creating any. For one thing the Bakunawa didn't come equipped with the facilities necessary to make the warheads or the materials required, those would have to be made off of the ship itself...and that meant in the hands of people that weren't him.
And what Alexander had was decades worth of memories that proved quite definitively that firing off weapons of that caliber would cause just as much damage to the human race as the sirens would, if they weren't used sparingly and carefully.
During the closing days of the original human-Siren war so many nuclear weapons had been used in desperate attempts to stymie the invaders that a near permanent winter had been cast over the planet, all but ensuring mass starvation would finish what the Sirens couldn't in the miracle event that humanity beat them back.
"Given how badly the war has been going in this timeline, newly found hope or not, I wouldn't be surprised if the call to nuke a bunch of the enemy was given the moment such warheads were completed."
"Alexander? You in there, nya?"
Snapping himself out of his thoughts the male almost jumped, Akashi having physically clambered up his arm to perch on his shoulder so that she could stare directly into his face, the shipgirl light and nimble enough that he'd completely missed her doing so.
"Yeah, sorry, just got lost in thought for a bit. What did you ask?"
Finding I-13 and Essex also staring at him as he brought himself back to reality the submarine repeated, "Does any of your knowledge provided by the Sirens mention bombs like this? Ooh, maybe we can have it dropped from a plane, like a super torpedo bomber?"
Not having the heart to mention an alternate timeline where 'Japan' had been the unwilling testbed of such weapons the male settled for a response of, "Feel free to carry on with whatever it is you're testing...but let me know the second you come close to actually succeeding, or you think you're succeeding. Weapons like these do indeed exist but I would hesitate to use them even on the Sirens...let's leave it at that."
The trio seemed to recognize the gravity of what he was saying, Essex nodding as she stated, "We'll do that, Alexander. And on that note…"
A mildly sheepish expression colored the carrier's features, gloved fingers peeling back the nape of her coat to reveal the implanted Wisdom Cube shard within.
"How do these things work, exactly? Ever since we put them into our bodies we've been feeling kind of...weird. Like our sister's thoughts are every bit our own."
Heaving out a sigh at the understandable request for information the male Siren explained, "To be honest I'm not entirely sure myself...but what I've been able to gather is that the shards are connected on some level to my own-"
He tapped the metallic coverings on his spine for emphasis.
"-and that through that you can feel, to an extent, what the rest of your sisters and myself are experiencing or thinking."
He quickly raised a hand to forestall the rightfully apprehensive looks they were sporting.
"Practice makes perfect, given some time you'll be able to block out or ignore those sensations."
The Eagle Union carrier nodded at that, mollified somewhat.
"Enterprise did say something along those lines...even if she was being annoyingly vague about things."
"Enterprise? Vague? We're talking about the same woman, right?"
Chuckling at Alexander's comment Essex replied, "Yeah, I thought the same thing. Guess she must have been really embarrassed about the whole deal since she was being so shifty about how it worked and felt."
"Well I very much like it~! Ahh, to be able to experience what it's like to be a true carrier…"
I-13's response was expected, Akashi still not having abandoned her perch on the young man's shoulder as she added, "Do you think we can weaponize this connection? Hmm, more research needs to go into this, nya…"
Shrugging to himself and electing not to get involved in the Sakura's potential mind control plots he asked, "So is there anything else you wanted to cover? I'm going to be listening in on a meeting between the Commander and the rest of the still intact world governments in about an hour, should be fun."
I-13 and Essex instantly adopted sour expressions, Alexander smirking as he remarked, "Heard about how you almost made the Union president brown his star-spangled undies with the 'accidental' engine misfire. Not a fan, I take it?"
The shipgirls immediately traded gleeful expressions, the submarine innocently batting her eyelashes at the male as she responded, "Truly, an unfortunate mishap that we will be very careful not to repeat in the future."
"Quite right. In the future we won't miss."
"Death to the Eagle Union president!"
The three instantly burst out into laughter once more, Alexander unable to help the quirk of his lips as he stated, "I'm going to pretend I didn't just witness an Eagle Union shipgirl collaborate with some admittedly lovely terrorists to assassinate the big cheese of my homeland."
"And I thank you for your understanding, Alexander."
Matching Essex's grin with his own Akashi abruptly bumped her head against his, the Sakura shipgirl vacating his shoulder with a slight tinge of pink to her fair skin as she stated, "Thanks for letting me sleep okay. I needed it."
Once more caught off guard as I-13 also hugged his leg - her head barely cresting his thigh - the submarine serenely said, "You've done so much for us, Alexander. Make sure you yourself get some rest, okay?"
Unsure of what to make of that statement and feeling just a trifle awkward as Essex also sent him a warm smile the young man settled for lightly stroking the shipgirl's hair, responding, "Yeah, I'll do that. Umm...thanks."
He quickly turned on his heel and left the room, shaking his head in exasperation.
Roughly two weeks had passed since the now labeled 'miracle at San Francisco bay' battle and all of the shipgirls had undergone retrofits and upgrades to the best of his ship's abilities, the only thing they could do now was wait for the Sirens to make a move...a move that seemed like it should have happened already and was leaving Alexander fairly stressed and jumpy since it hadn't.
Instead he'd been holed up in the Bakunawa, compiling and creating tactics that might help them in a variety of scenarios while socializing with the shipgirls of Azur Lane as they dropped by every now and again.
...The fact that all of them seemed to treat him with some kind of reverence or familiarity - even Elizabeth and Nagato - left him feeling fairly uncomfortable, since all he could do in situations like the one that just happened was remember how Observer Zero had said that they would naturally subordinate themselves to him.
He cherished the genuine laughter and teasing between himself and the shipgirls too much to want for it to merely be the result of something out of both of their controls.
Heaving a sigh the young man put the situation out of sight and mind, instead focusing on the here and now, where he might be able to actually effect some real change.
[I've never heard of these 'rare metals' before. Why do you need them, Commander?]
Fighting back the urge to sharply retort that the man didn't need to understand, only carry out the damn request the Commander put on a smile, despite the fact that the 'conference call' was voice only.
"Because, Prime Minister, as stated in pages 11-20 of our initial report - the most heavily detailed and highlighted section for your ease of review, I might add - the technology aboard the Bakunawa doesn't make much use of our more contemporary resource pool. While we can salvage macro components from destroyed Siren vessels purifying and recycling them is shaping up to be a lengthy process. A process that we don't even have the facilities for, never mind the technical know how. If we want to create our own version of Siren technology that isn't refurbished or hastily repaired we're going to need access to those resource deposits."
[I never liked that name, Bakunawa…isn't it from small island chains off the Union's coast?]
Almost losing his cool at the irreverent and utterly pointless comment the Commander instead performed the mental equivalent of counting to three, sorely missing the presence of either Sheffield, Sirius or Dido.
The maids had rotated who was in his service back when they were still alive and damn if they hadn't been able to calm him down with a well-timed cup of joe or tea.
"Even if the bustier pair weren't the best at what they did."
Quickly shaking himself free from that nostalgic but painful memory the older man stated, "The fact remains we need those resources, gentlemen. And from what we've gathered the hard part will be locating patches of the things that will be worth mining en masse."
[Obviously, Commander. It's in the title.]
Smirking viciously he responded, "Actually, chancellor, the term 'rare earth metal' is somewhat misleading. They are quite plentiful across the Earth's crust, the only difficulty is in finding them in large enough concentrations to justify large-scale mining rather than roving bands of prospectors with sifts and pickaxes. That was also listed in the report."
Sitting back in his chair the Commander luxuriated in the silence his polite admonishment brought, idly wondering, "So who shall I have to shame next? That's the Royal Navy and Ironbloods down...the Union president, perhaps?"
As if in response to that thought a gravelly voice came over the speaker with, [And just where, exactly, are we supposed to send all of these resources if and when we find them?]
"To Azure Lane, naturally. We're already building a small facility that can refine these materials into usable products, not to mention we already have significant ship-building assembly lines that can be easily converted or upgraded to handle these new technologies."
A loud silence greeted the Commander, the man resisting the urge to sigh as he knew what the four people on the other end of the line were thinking. Azur Lane already wielded a considerable amount of power and influence, a state of affairs that had been the case before the Bakunawa had catapulted their technology and military capabilities by around a century or so. Not to mention they and the shipgirls had significant public support as well as a growing monopoly on Siren technology and it wasn't hard to understand why the four were so wary of giving the organization more power.
...Stupid, shortsighted and practically suicidal...but understandable.
"It's at times like these I miss the Iris and Vichya. Hell, the Northern Parliament and Sardegnas weren't too bad either. And now that I think about it the Dragon Empery, while shifty, at least were rational about trying to handle the end of the world."
While the Eagle Union, Sakura, Ironblood and Royal Navy still managed to keep open lines of communication and even some limited form of trade ever since the Sirens had launched their offensive that sealed the strait of Gibraltar, occupied the Northern Sea and Bay of Biscay while ravaging the Empery Seas...the other five primary powers hadn't been so lucky, communication and power grid outages or outright destruction meaning conversation and intelligence was both sparse and lacking.
The bad news hadn't stopped there, however. Drone flyovers courtesy of the Bakunawa revealed that almost every single port or harbor in those countries had been destroyed, their populations struggling to survive beside mass farms and other basic sustenance measures while whatever remained of their once small but powerful navies was either at the bottom of the ocean or laying low.
...And while they would sooner die than admit it, the Commander knew that such horrific destruction had terrified the four he now communicated with, the Royal Navy and Sakura only bothering to play nice with them thanks to Elizabeth and Nagato doing their utmost to ensure there was open lines of communication and codependency fostered between their factions...standing alone was a death sentence.
"Then again, they probably already know that. Why else would they be speaking to me from the safety of bunkers and estates as far inland as possible?"
Shaking those thoughts away he forced himself to listen to the rambling of the Sakura prime minister, spouting some inane prattle about the monopolization of power.
[Our empress is often at war and does not have time to handle most administrative details required of a sovereign, surely the means to safely transport these metals would be more trouble than it's worth when we can merely use land roads not patrolled by the Sirens-]
Sitting back in his chair the Commander began to count to ten, reminding himself that the military was meant to serve the world, not rule it.
[You know, I have a bunch of drones already circling alot of the world. A dropped bomb here and there, faulty engine over there...accidents happen and it's truly a tragedy when it does.]
The Commander snorted in dark amusement, sighing and wishing yet again that there was a darling maid with a posh accent to work out the kinks in his aging back.
"Definitely getting too old for this shit."
"Don't tempt me, son. And while it would certainly be satisfying most of those inland forget what it's like out here on the seas or near the refugee camps closest to the coastal lines. We wipe out those in charge and someone else will move in to carry on the cycle, barring an outright coup...don't worry about it. They hee and they haw but in the end they always follow through once I politely remind them that Azur Lane is loyal to me, not them."
He stared at the unremarkable and somewhat cute video drone that had allowed Alexander to view the meeting in its entirety, clarifying, "Or maybe it would be more accurate to say they're loyal to humanity."
"I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration to say that Azur Lane is humanity at this point."
Scraping his chair backwards and walking out of his office the Commander stared out over the greatly expanded Azur Lane area of operations, the base practically unrecognizable from what it was just a few weeks ago.
Scaffolding crawling with the Bakunawa's drones and the Bulins - both sides working in perfect tandem, the diminutive girls treating the machines like pets and riding atop them every chance provided - lined the coastlines, construction equipment the size of a truck created steel and concrete pads where oversized gun batteries would be placed and the skies were fairly busy with the quiet hum of zipping drones or patrolling aircraft.
But that was just the surface level observations, the true change being the atmosphere of the base and the general morale of the islands that formed Azur Lane, human and shipgirl alike moving with purpose and a spring in their step, taking pride in their work whether it was military or domestic in nature.
Akashi - taking a rare break from her breakneck innovation - showed a group of the refugee children a small robot doll that danced and pounced like a live cat to their delighted shrieks, Tirpitz directed a construction crew in setting up an early warning station provided by the Bakunawa with clear and concise directions, U-522 and U-81 pored over a map with a few enlisted sailors as they thought of suitable locations to mine the waters…it was a long list, to say the least.
"You've done a lot for the men and women on this base, son."
"The ship did most of the work, you and I both know that."
"You're not wrong...but you're not right either. I've been talking with Elizabeth and Nagato at least once a day, son. The mentality and composure of the shipgirls had always been a point of concern as the war dragged on, casualties piling up at an ungodly rate. But over the past weeks they've had nothing but positive reports in regards to the health and wellbeing of their sisters. Positive reports they attribute to your nosiness and unwillingness to leave well enough alone."
The man raised an eyebrow at the drone that floated right alongside him.
"Or are you going to attribute human comfort to some nebulous technology as well?"
The man was silent, the Commander snorting as he more seriously asked, "Any updates with our on the run allies?"
"It's a pain but I think I finally managed to confirm at least some surviving shipgirls still moving around Antarctica, escorting what looked like refugee fleets. Le Malin, Jeanne d'Arc and Tashkent were definitely there alongside a few others I couldn't identify. We're not quite as alone as we assumed but as of now they're too far away to reliably locate and contact."
The Commander sighed, grateful that they still had allies out there as he remarked, "They're likely trying to find some unoccupied islands or something along those lines, survive by fishing or growing what they can and filtering the ocean water."
Alexander remained silent, the Commander idly stating, "You're worried the Sirens aren't making a scene, aren't you?"
"They've been quiet for too long and I can't find any real staging areas where they might launch from. I know they're coming but I just don't know when."
"Agreed, but stressing yourself out isn't doing anyone any favors. Except our enemy, of course."
A grunt of displeased acknowledgment leaked across the drone's speakers, Alexander responding, "Point well made. Easier said than done, however."
Snorting at the lack of military discipline from the young man the Commander dismissively stated, "Why not go back to flirting and distracting my shipgirls, then? You seem to be pretty good at it."
"I chalk it up to my many flings in the past that taught me how best to avoid a woman's ire. Often through the end of a fast moving and open palm."
Shaking his head at that the Commander mused, "Well try to avoid the anger of my girls, would you? No doubt that fancy body of yours is pretty tough but so is a shipgirl's right arm."
"Oh don't worry, Prinz already threatened to grind my testicles into a fine paste."
The older man's eyes narrowed.
"And just why, exactly, was she threatening to neuter you?"
"Ironblood temperament. And I'd always been told to watch out for the Northern Parliament girls, I think I was lied to."
Having seen more than a few casual eviscerations of self-worth courtesy of Z23, Hipper and Prinz the Commander elected not to comment, instead stating, "Well that's where we stand on matters for the moment, I'll let you go, son."
"Thanks, I'll try to broaden my search pattern and see if we can get anything useful that way."
The drone floated off without further comment, the Commander staring after it with a mild scowl as he considered the implications of what the young man was doing to his personnel.
"You better not be pulling a King Solomon on me, Curtis...that tale didn't go so well for him once he started courting all sorts of different ladies, if you'll recall."
Slumping back into his command throne aboard the Bakunawa Alexander tried to calm his steadily growing unease, Belfast - as if by some kind of extrasensory magic - appearing at his side with a steaming cup of tea as the man gave her an exasperated but grateful look, Enterprise, Nagato, Elizabeth and Prinz Eugen also appreciating her swift efficiency as she provided them with refreshments.
"Ironblood temperament? Herr Curtis, I had no idea you desired a firsthand taste of this supposed 'temperament'."
The silver-haired heavy cruiser's ominously calm words caused the queen and empress respectively to smirk and smile in anticipation of a good verbal spar, Enterprise rolling her eyes as the head maid seemed content to just watch the tableau unfold.
Except the male didn't rise to the bait, distantly responding, "Right, sorry."
A huff promptly left the silverette alongside a grumble of, "You are extraordinarily little fun when being serious, Alexander."
Snapping out of his funk the male Siren shook his head, releasing a heavy sigh in the process.
"On the matter of broadening our search pattern, thoughts?"
Eugen sulked as he refused to engage in some diverting verbal sparring, Enterprise posing, "If we do so we'll be sacrificing accuracy and thoroughness for distance. The ocean is a large place, as frustrating as it may be I believe our current slower but more measured pace is the right way to go."
Elizabeth nodded primly, adding, "Agreed. At this stage of the war certain information is more important than hearsay, now that we possess the technology to combat the Sirens on their home turf."
"And besides, have you not been leaving trails of stationary but effective early warning systems? Any fleet that attempts to approach will not find it so easy to surprise us."
Nagato's sound conclusion caused the man to sigh once more, knowing he was acting up for no real reason. Not to mention a more aggressive search pattern was just less efficient in general...the drones still had to return to the Bakunawa for recharging and maintenance, having them burn more power in favor of speed would, ironically, be less effective since there would be more gaps and breaks in the search patterns as drones were flying in and out at greater frequency.
Like Enterprise said, the ocean was a big place.
"Alright, let's stick with what we've been...doing…"
Alexander trailed off, eyes going distant as the shipgirl's recognized the now familiar signs of him paying attention to some far off bit of information, a roguish grin tilting his lips.
"I think I found them. Right on the edge of Antartica, the furthest drone I have out and about right now. Alright, let's see what's behind door number one as the main body of the fleet comes into view-"
He suddenly stopped, smile gradually and glacially fading into a look of absolute neutrality.
The shipgirl's swallowed, none willing to break him from his trance as they could sense perfectly well through their bond his mounting distress and panic.
The minutes dragged on, no one practically daring to even breathe as they awaited what dire news was coming their way...and Alexander slumped into his seat, sickly smile upon his horrified features.
"Well...I found them. All 700 and still counting, headed our way."