Chapter 21: Opening Volley
For a day in which a LOT of blood - or at least the seafaring equivalent - was going to be spilled the weather was mockingly beautiful. A few fluffy clouds drifting overhead, a crystal clear blue sky and fairly calm waters barely disturbed by the occasional ocean breeze.
Alexander felt like he was going to puke.
"And wouldn't that be a way to start off the battle? Me, the guy with the biggest, baddest ship around scared shitless while, if I'm reading this right, all of the shipgirls are pretty calm and composed."
A situation that was all the more disgraceful due to their mental connection, the young man fairly certain that, despite his best efforts, his anxiety and apprehension was leaking across the bond.
"And after I talked all that good shit about saving and keeping the shipgirls safe. Christ, end me."
Heaving out a trembling breath as he leaned against one of the Bakunawa's gun towers the male Siren tried to get ahold of himself, get his mind to calm down and stop spreading fear to the rest of the fleet at his flanks-
"You don't need to force yourself to be some incredible paragon of upstanding bravery, Alexander. It's far easier to deal with your worry and fright if it was constant and steady, rather than coming and going with all the predictability of hurricane gales."
-and almost let fly as he belatedly realized Elizabeth, Nagato and Warspite were striding across the deck of his ship, grimacing before running a hand through his hair.
"Sorry, it's just...I've never been to war before. Seen and experienced it? Sure. But not marched off to it. And the stakes are a bit more extreme than a single city or two being under threat."
The trio of diminutive shipgirls stood before him, the male briefly amused at the thought that him - a towering and seemingly demigod like being - was quaking in his boots while they looked right at home with the approaching conflict.
Nagato stepped forward and placed a consoling hand on his, gaze completely understanding as the winds caused her immaculate attire to snap and flow around her lithe body.
"You are not wrong to be frightened and apprehensive, it would be madness to not fear for the outcome...but you need not let it consume you so."
Elizabeth tapped her scepter against the Bakunawa's deck, proudly smiling as she placed a hand upon her chest before announcing, "You wished to control your emotions so that they would not adversely affect us, correct?"
"Er...yeah. Why, does-"
"So why not do the opposite, hmm? Dance and revel within our calm and confidence, forget your own apprehensions and partake of our bravery as if it was your own!"
Nagato offered a more relaxed and calm suggestion, stating, "We now share a connection deeper than most can even imagine...do not view it as a burden but as an opportunity instead."
Meeting the gaze of the two sovereigns and holding it Alexander gave their words honest consideration...and sagged against the gun turret, pinching the bridge of his nose as he grumbled, "You know, when it's you two saying it it sounds so obvious in hindsight."
Nagato just gave the hand she was holding a comforting pat as Elizabeth drew herself up to her not incredibly imposing full height, grandly stating, "We are rather accomplished at the task of managing subordinates and subjects, you know."
"Maybe this time I'll be sure to remember it. Did you come all this way just to tell me this or was there something else as well?"
Both leaders of their respective factions seemed momentarily embarrassed, Warspite shuffling slightly as the blonde sword-wielder eventually responded, "Our sisters were unanimously concerned about your mental wellbeing, your majesty. We believed you would respond better to face-to-face conversation than a distant telepathic call."
Feeling a fuzzy feeling percolate within his heart the young man coughed into his fist, awkwardly responding, "Oh, well...thank you, I guess. To all of you."
"Nonsense, Alexander. You have given much and aided us greatly. It's only fair that we return the favor."
Wryly grinning at Nagato's statement he automatically stroked the spot between her fox ears, the Sakura empress stiffening briefly before positively melting into the gesture as Elizabeth puffed out a cheek, vexed at the enjoyment her counterpart was clearly deriving from the action as she complained, "Oh, so dearest Nagato receives plenty of commendations and prizes yet I do not? I feel slighted."
"Oh? Would her royal majesty like a head pat?"
Seeming torn for the slightest of moments the Royal Navy battleship eventually offered a haughty sniff, responding, "Certainly nothing so childish, I have my dignity."
"Well in that case…"
Removing his hand from Nagato's scalp he instead bent low, bringing the shipgirl's gloved hand to his lips as he placed a gentle kiss upon it, remarking, "My humblest gratitude for looking out for us humble peons, Queen Elizabeth."
The briefest tinges of pink colored the battleship's pale skin before she mastered herself, boldly laughing "Oh hoh hoh~! Tis only natural for one such as myself to be so attentive! Come, Nagato! I believe dear Warspite has something she wishes to say in private."
"W-what?! Your majesty, I don't-"
Both sovereigns turned and departed without a backwards glance, leaping from the Bakunawa's deck to return to their respective vessels as Warspite stared towards them with an arm half outstretched, expression frozen in one of mild terror and mortification as Alexander gave her a questioning look.
"Soooo...you had something to say?"
Swallowing thickly the blonde turned towards the much taller male, much of her usual steely confidence absent as she had trouble meeting his eyes, tone distant and distracted as she mumbled, "Well, it is not so much a grand matter, but...well, things being what they are…"
"Things being what?"
Unleashing a noise somewhat akin to a mewl of frustration or long-suffering groan Warspite turned to face him directly, cheeks alight with crimson as she planted her sword directly in front of her, evidently gathering all of the courage she possessed.
"Wait...am I being confessed to?"
"Alexander, we - that is to say, I - wish for you to understand something, before this coming battle."
"Okay, good, sounding less like a confession, we're in safe waters now."
"Since you appeared before us on that fateful day I realize I never did something very important...very crucial."
Warspite bowed her head slightly, tone soft as she quietly intoned, "Thank you. For saving my life, that is. It's shameful to admit but not once did I ever offer my gratitude, only the implicit insinuation that what you did was expected. Even worse I was suspicious of you, doubted your intentions and earnestness."
Blinking in surprise as he realized that Warspite really hadn't ever said thank you or anything along those lines Alexander settled for a simple shrug, replying, "In all honesty, Warspite, it would have been asking a lot for you to trust me during that time."
He kneeled before her, leaving her standing just a bit above his line of sight.
"It's easy to look back on events with the benefit of hindsight but that's not how real life works...and if that's not enough for you then remember what you, Kawakaze and Vampire did for me a few weeks back. There's nothing to repay or apologize for, Warspite."
The shipgirl blinked, caught off guard by his quiet but meaningful response-
-and in a fit of boldness engulfed the surprised Siren in a tight hug, whispering, "Stay safe and let us meet when this battle is over, my liege."
Unsure of what to say or do Alexander settled for awkwardly returning the embrace, deciding to simply enjoy the sensation of the smaller woman and her calming scent suffuse his senses.
"Yeah...let's do that, Warspite. Good hunting."
With a healthy blush the battleship pulled back, swiftly returning to her vessel...and Alexander had to resist the urge to facepalm as he felt no shortage of smug amusement and gleeful joy reciprocating across the mental link he shared with the shipgirls, no doubt because he utterly failed to keep his thoughts and emotions private during that exchange.
"Ah hell, gonna be no shortage of pointed looks and exaggerated whispering following me around after this…"
Accepting his fate the Siren male returned to the Bakunawa's command center after a short walk, seating himself on the throne and releasing a breath that did away with most of his worries...and did as suggested, opening up his anxiety and fear to his surrounding allies, in turn allowing their steely resolve to bolster his own flagging spirits.
The Sakura's stoic resolve to fight and die, the Ironblood's steely anticipation, the Eagle Union's eager spoiling for a scrap, the Royal Navy's composed bravery in the face of adversity...one man's cowardice seemed laughably small compared to the cresting power of the Azur Lane shipgirls.
"Geez...this was here the whole time and I just ignored it. What an idiot."
Allowing a rueful smile to cross his lips Alexander settled himself into his chair, allowing the wires and mechanical ports along his skin to be connected to the Bakunawa and provide him with a truly expansive breadth of information, provided both by the shipgirls and his vessel itself.
Twenty minutes to go before max range of aerial combat could be achieved and the battle began in earnest.
The minutes passed in a simultaneously dragging and racing manner, seconds feeling like hours and minutes feeling like the blink of an eye as the opposing fleets drew closer and closer, his circling drones high overhead providing a real-time images of the colossal Siren fleet continuing on their way without pause or deviation, clearly not intending to bother dealing with the comparatively minuscule fleet.
As if that thought had been the trigger almost two hundred vessels peeled off from the main body, headed straight for them as miniscule black dots began to leave the fourteen carriers accompanying the massive response force.
"Alright, here we go! Get ready for combat, air wing inbound!"
A surge of nervous, bloodthirsty anticipation bounced across the mental link, chatter coming in at a rapid pace as the shipgirls sprung into action.
Zuikaku, Shoukaku, Enterprise and Essex began launching their interceptors and bombers, not holding back on numbers or reserve craft as Saratoga, Lexington and the Bakunawa held their own airwings in readiness. This was going to be a long, protracted battle and even if they were heavily outmatched in terms of numbers that was basically going to be the whole story for the entire duration...they'd have to deal.
"Cruiser, destroyers, move up and screen for the carriers and battleships!"
At Elizabeth's command the shipgirls in question powered forward, slewing through the waters so that the maximum amount of their guns would be facing their fast approaching foes, laser arrays, missile tubes and CIWS weaponry all watching the sky and waiting for the right time to strike.
A few murmurs escaped the assembled shipgirls as their carrier's complement of aircraft took to the skies, almost six-hundred highly advanced interceptors and bombers maneuvering into formation...while they faced down a swarm of Siren craft that practically turned the sky black, 1800 interceptors and bombers roaring into battle while the rest of the ocean-bound vessels followed at best speed.
"...Christ, what a lopsided clusterfuck this is going to be."
Chatter between the shipgirls filled his mind, Alexander trying to take deep breaths and keep his cool as the opposing fleets drew closer, submerging himself in the melody of the Azur Lane battlegroup-
-and then the sky became awash with light and fire.
Interceptors locked onto targets and let fly with either missiles or high-caliber ballistic weaponry, bombers threw themselves into evasive maneuvers or sprouted flares and at first only a dozen flaming contrails began to draw lines across the sky...and by the time the opposing fighter wings had blown past each other a hundred craft were impacting the ocean's surface with titanic splashes, most of the casualties belonging to the Sirens.
"Only 1300 or so left to go."
"Sisters, steel wall from port to starboard, save guided missiles for craft that break past the barrage!"
Prinz Eugen's calm but confidant instructions received a chorus of acknowledgment from the destroyers and cruisers, a distant hum of machinery and CLACK of gun turrets being primed for action, the battle line assembling as the swarm of Siren aircraft drew within firing range-
-and they ran headfirst into something resembling a heavy munitions meat grinder.
While the interceptors were locked into a frantic and breakneck aerial duel with their counterparts the bombers, instead of continuing on towards the Siren fleet, had instead looped around and revealed their payload not of ship-killing munitions but anti-air missiles instead.
They had known from the start that they would be horrifically at risk of constant and unceasing air attacks, the sheer amount of bombers and interceptors potentially sinking every last one of them even if the main Siren fleet never got involved. The battleships and their railguns would be able to outrange the Sirens own...they couldn't outrange airstrikes.
To that end, instead of sending their own ship killers to battle through the teeth of the colossal Siren armada - and potentially encounter additional interceptors from the rest of the Sirens if they decided to reinforce - they'd instead elected to wipe out as much of the enemy air power as they could, to keep the Siren fleet at an arm's length.
Almost half of the 800 enemy bombers went down as flaming wrecks courtesy of their own pursuing aircraft, the wing of allied planes pulling upwards to gain altitude...and to avoid any accidental hits from the defensive gun arrays which began to reap a fearsome tally as they opened fire with a blast of percussive force that rattled the very waves.
These weren't the old anti-aircraft batteries that the shipgirls had to rely on from before, these were highly accurate and highly lethal weapons that began to pick out the Siren bombers by the dozens, a brutal tally that quickly began to pick up the pace as the Siren attack wave drew closer.
Alexander couldn't help but marvel at the display, his mind able to follow the rapid stream of thought being transmitted between shipgirls as fast as a lightning strike.
What was surprising was the shipgirl at the center of the coordinated effort, none other than the somewhat clumsy and accident prone San Diego, now working the aerial defense like a maestro. Laffey's guns chased a spiraling pair of bombers straight into a flechette missile from Javelin, Prinz Eugen picked off a duo of aircraft with a single laser blast after Belfast sent them into evasive maneuvers with a well-timed barrage...all of it controlled and directed by the boisterous redhead as her eyes and attention worked at breakneck pace.
By the time the Siren bomber fleet was actually in range to do any real damage they were down to a bare hundred planes, still enough to do significant collateral but a mere fraction of their original strength.
Munitions dropped, engines ignited and it was the battleships at the heart of the fleet that were the main targets of the Siren assault-
-at least until a stream of smokescreen missiles courtesy of Belfast and Aurora laced the battlespace, reflective metal and other sensor-fouling material causing the Siren's weapons to go spiralling out of control or simply miss their mark entirely as the battleships made minor course corrections to avoid most of the strike, only superficial damage being applied to their blazing shields.
The pursuing bombers made short work of their less advanced Siren fellows, the interceptors also finishing up their business a scant few seconds later albeit with heavier losses, a few dozen missing from their ranks as they retreated to their home vessels.
...But it was a worthwhile trade for almost 1400 Siren aircraft down and out, the thrill of victory coursing through the fleet as the battleships reached their designated positions, Alexander also priming the Bakunawa's own guns to join in pounding the enemy fleet.
"Target the cruisers and battleships, leave the destroyers to our sisters should they close the distance."
Nagato's calm orders resounded within their skulls, Alexander reaching out to Tirpitz as the Ironblood's cool and icy competence bolstered his own spirits, Warspite, Elizabeth and Nagato pooling their own mental resources as they each chose a different target of opportunity-
-and with a deafening roar the railguns launched high velocity munitions at the distant fleet, one target for each group to ensure their volleys would absolutely score a kill.
Like clockwork the aerial drones the male Siren had high overhead showcased a battleship and cruiser apiece suffer the effects of their initial barrage. The cruiser began to list and erratically move as its engines were destroyed while the battleship outright exploded, one of the rounds impacting its ammo magazines and sending it sky high with a detonation that badly rattled a pair of nearby destroyers.
But the rest of the ships sped onwards, beginning to randomly maneuver and dodge across the waves in erratic patterns that was going to make hitting them more of a challenge, relying on their numbers to absorb the hits and continue onwards to effective firing range.
To counter the armada's advance the Azur Lane vessels altered course, slewing across the waters so that they were moving away from the splinter feet but parallel to the main one they maintained a fighting retreat, the railguns firing all the while and slowly but surely shaving away at their pursuers.
A dangerous situation, considering that they could very well end up pincered on two sides by the sizable forces but it was a risk they were going to have to take. Simply leaving the central group of Sirens alone wasn't an option since they would continue uninterrupted to the main Azur Lane base, neutralizing the whole point of their diversionary assault while they were still skirting around the edges of the fleet.
They were the proverbial fly buzzing around the head of the giant...provided the fly had cybernetic weaponry and a big fucking gun.
"Hey, Alexander, they're devoting more ships to our location! Guess we got their attention, huh?"
San Diego's exuberant tone flooded his mind, the male Siren devoting a portion of his attention to the overhead drones before confirming that there was indeed an additional hundred vessels altering course, to enter into a broadside with them while the pursuing ships ideally closed the gap.
The supercarriers were among them.
Focusing inwards he picked out three connections in particular, sending a mental stream of information that roughly translated to, 'showtime'.
A trio of replies suffused his being with eager confidence and Alexander couldn't help but grin.
The subs were on their way.
"Ha, they have no idea we're here~!"
"Let's keep it that way and send these nasty Sirens to the briny depths! Peekaboo, losers!"
I-13 grinned at her sister's mental conversation, their retrofitted hulls sluicing through deep water with nary a sound or wake, such was their stealth.
While her bigger sisters had kept their basic shape and design she and her two Ironblood companions had gone through what was basically a massive redesign. Gone was the long and cylindrical design they had long been accustomed to, instead replaced with a sleek form that reminded them sort of like a mix between whale shark and manta ray, their unconventional shape not doing anything to hinder their speed or concealment.
And their weapons had received quite the improvements as well! It was almost enough to make the horned shipgirl stop wanting to grow up into a full-fledged carrier.
"If you want to go first, sisters, now is the time."
"Heh heh, then let's start the show! Firing!"
"Releasing fishies!"
U-81 and U-522 gleefully released their first contribution to the battle, the initial volley soundless and silent as instead of the rush of a propeller mechanical torpedoes resembling eels darted outwards from the subs torpedo bays, undulating and contracting so quickly that they were gone in an eyeblink, just as silent as the subs they were launched from.
"Ooooh, I can't wait to see what happens next~! Do you think we'll take it down in just one hit?"
"Who knows? The better question is, will they be able to find us afterwards?"
I-13 drew herself up proudly, sitting as straight as possible in the command chair of her little control center safely nestled in the depths of the sub.
"With these kinds of upgrades? Hmph, doubtful, Alexander is too much of a worrywart to send us out with anything less than the best."
With almost a minute to go before their weapons made contact I-13 heard her sisters snicker, U-81 innocently musing, "I heard he gave you all sorts of special treatment, sister~!"
"Yeah, yeah! What's up with all those rumors I hear of him letting you ride around on his shoulders? I want a mobile platform too!"
Smirking at her fellow's complaints the sub idly examined the back of her hand, innocently responding, "Is the middle of battle anyplace for such rampant speculation, sisters?"
"Boo! You're only saying that to deflect attention away from you!"
Leaving the conversation as it was I-13 instead turned her attention to the imminent destruction about to be visited upon their Siren foes, lips peeling from her teeth in a shark's grin. Feeding the image provided by her planes stealthily resting on the ocean's waves to her pair of sisters they waited with bated breath for the moment of truth.
They had selected a pair of Siren supercarriers as their first targets, the gigantic vessels part of the reinforcing fleet approaching their beleaguered comrades in the company of a smattering of other classes, five additional carriers floating right alongside them.
"Impact in three...two...one!"
Right on U-522's cue the water beneath the supercarriers rippled outwards, the gigantic vessels shuddering and listing violently as if their bottoms had suddenly imploded outwards, majestic hulls slowly sinking beneath the surface.
"Woohoo, got them in one hit! Alrighty, sister sub, now it's your turn!"
Grinning savagely I-13 activated five of her brand new aircraft, the constructs leaping upwards from where their blue and white armor had camouflaged them amidst the waves as they maneuvered at speeds that would have killed any living pilot, avoiding the few scattered and reactive shots from the other Siren vessels, homing in on the five standard Siren carriers.
Her sister's weapons were unconventional but without a doubt lethal, torpedoes that would physically chew their way through the hull of the vessel before detonating inside the ship, exacerbating what was already a pretty significant leak and, if the smoking and flaming interior of the supercarriers was anything to go by, particularly nasty if going off near ammo or fuel stores.
I-13's brand new planes were also different from her old ones, these craft not intended to survive their bombing runs one single bit.
After all, they were the bombing run.
Perception running at inhuman speed as she guided her five projectiles with all the care and tenderness of a mother I-13 cackled as her planes dove directly into the bowels of the Siren carriers at mach speeds through the lifts that would transfer planes from the lower and upper decks-
-where they exploded in balls of fast expanding flame, the thermobaric munitions they'd been carrying burning hot enough to ignite ammo stores while the crushing wave of pressure just added to the delicious mix of destruction, all five of the vessels belching smoke and flame as their complement of fightercraft were either heavily crippled or outright destroyed.
"Direct hits, sisters!"
"Now that's what we're talking about! Let's clear out and do it all over again, we're going to win this whole thing just by ourselves~!"
Triumph and glee coursing through the trio of shipgirls they slowly but carefully maneuvered away from the wrecked carriers, eagerly awaiting their next target of opportunity.
Purifier resisted the urge to scowl at her mangled air power, already suffering heavy losses just below the halfway mark despite not being more than an half-an-hour into the battle.
"It's all part of the plan, though...just think of the plan."
Purifier didn't consider herself some grandmaster of tactics or brilliant strategist...but she did understand the benefits of lulling an enemy into a false sense of complacency, of simple misdirection that would then be swiftly turned into a crushing hammer blow of retaliation. While her losses had been far more brutal than anticipated...it was made up for by the simple fact that now she knew for a fact where all of the puny Azur Lane forces were.
A smug grin tilted the Siren's lips as she watched from the bridge of her command vessel, boldly ordering, "Special task force, begin return fire."
The eight Wisdom Cube enhanced ships under her command powered up and began to move out, four battleships, three cruisers and one destroyer along with her own highly advanced form.
"Oh this is going to be so much fun~!"
Alexander dared to hope that, just maybe, their desperate plan had a chance of working. He'd been scared stiff going into this battle, worrying about the overwhelming number disparity between their forces and how their technological edge might be completely nullified through sheer brute force...but a few clever stratagems, the shipgirl's steely discipline while under fire and the retrofits they'd undergone had proven to be a remarkably huge hurdle the Sirens couldn't seemingly overcome by slamming their heads against the proverbial wall. Even now as just shy of 300 Siren ships chased after them none were worried, naught but confidence and resolve to be found across the mental bond they shared.
In a straight pursuit their advanced vessels could outrun their counterparts, making use of the battleship's long-range weaponry to chip away at the enemy's overwhelming numbers, a tactic proving remarkably effective as a cruiser was holed from stem to stern by Nagato, ships of all classes swerving around its crippled bulk and increasing the distance between them ever so slightly.
Even the reinforcing fleet of almost a hundred additional vessels had been stonewalled, his aerial drones showing nothing but a bevy of burning and desiccated carriers of all classes, courtesy of the submarines and their own bag of stealthy tricks. Really, the only practical danger they still remained under was the necessity of having to keep pace with the main body of the Siren armada. They couldn't afford to fall behind and play it safe by taking down their pursuers one at a time, letting the rest of the fleet steam ahead to Azur Lane or loop around and box them in, which would be a death sentence. The HELGA was a powerful mulligan that could get them out of a jam but it couldn't be fired repeatedly, a mandatory downtime of thirty minutes being needed after each shot. Fifteen, if he was willing to push it and risk a misfire.
And a misfire when talking about something that could turn groups of heavily armored and shielded warships into a fast expanding cloud of debris wasn't anything to sneeze at.
Releasing a slow sigh Alexander forced himself to calm down, focusing on what he could change in the moment rather than an infinite amount of variables, letting Tirpitz's calm and steely confidence direct his guns as they continued to blast away at their pursuers.
Some of his attention was directed to his constantly patrolling drones, keeping an eye out for any changes in the Siren fleet-
-and the male was instantly on alert as what he assumed was the flagship to the enemy armada aimed its guns high into the sky, four battleships reciprocating the action as his eyes narrowed, trying to pick out details since the weapons looked alarmingly familiar...and his blood froze.
Familiar like hell...those were railguns.
Muzzles flashed, cannons recoiled and the salvo was on its way.
Flooding the mental link with panic and alarm Alexander roared, "SHIELDS UP, NOW! INCOMING-"
He was too late.
The initial volley had been calibrated and aimed with exacting precision, the five enemy ships having all the time in the world to watch and observe their progress with no fear of return fire.
Almost all of the rounds hit their target head on, San Diego's hull going up in flames as the magazine stores, engines and reactor were all punched by high-velocity munitions, the mental link flaring briefly with something approximating frightened confusion-
-and then she vanished, the shockwave of the redhead's fiery demise rocking the fleet as a stunned sense of disbelief roiled through the shipgirls, the cheerful, clumsy and irrepressibly optimistic cruiser simply...gone, a vacancy in their link keenly felt like a blade to the gut.
Loss quickly found itself replaced by cold fury, Warspite's tone like a frosted knife as she ordered, "All battleships, redirect fire to the main Siren fleet. Keep your shields up!"
Mentally transmitting the rough coordinates of their opposing foes Alexander joined in the return salvo, mounted cannons swiveling on their mounts and ascending to the proper elevation-
-and with an earsplitting roar they fired, sending hypersonic rounds on their way as the battle took on a far more bloody tinge.
"Did...did any of you feel that?"
"Yes. San Diego is gone."
I-13 grimaced, the empty and neutral words from her two sisters a stark contrast to the jubilation of just a few minutes ago.
Instead it was replaced with a cold reminder of their mortality, of the reality of war and the fact that they hadn't won yet...they weren't even close.
"Let's move in closer and focus on the rest of the carriers. If we take them down our sisters can assert air superiority."
"Right. Time to get the next round of hide and seek underway."
U-81's grim response was a mixture of their usual goofiness and bitter experience, the submarines pulsing their engines and drawing closer to where I-13's scout plane had spotted the next batch of carriers-
-and the horned shipgirl frowned, noticing that one of the destroyers was acting erratically, sweeping back-and-forth across the waves where the rest of its class had previously been completely stationary and immobile.
"Sisters, something is happening with one of our foe's-"
The Sakura sub felt her eyes widen as dozens of Siren destroyers and cruisers suddenly fired almost a hundred missiles into the air, the weapons arcing high overhead...before splashing heavily into the waves, diving towards their location.
"Brace for impact, deploy countermeasures! They know where we are!"
Alexander jerked, his link to the shipgirls flaring with confused emotion yet again as it was the submarines this time who emanated alarm, panic and fright...and then silence, two fading from his awareness as one just went missing entirely, another void in their hearts and minds where before there should have been a bright and cheerful soul.
Real, inexorable despair and fright began to dull his senses, slow his movements.
"How? How did I fuck up that badly? Of COURSE the Sirens would have access to the same technology we do, they're the fucking ones who gave it to-"
"Alexander, focus! Else more of us shall join our comrades."
It was Kawakaze's cool and composed tone that snapped him out of his spiral of defeatist thoughts, the male Siren gritting his teeth and trying to think of a proper way out of the clusterfuck they now found themselves in. Their return fire was finding its mark but the Sirens had overlapped their shields with other more expendable vessels that would take the hits for them, ensuring that they could fire away with little worry of being nailed in response.
They didn't have any such luxuries, every one of them was irreplaceable and an important comrade, each glancing blow or direct hit on hexagonal panes of blue energy meaning they were that much closer to a killing blow.
Eyes half-closing in contemplation as his mind raced for a solution Alexander resisted the urge to quietly curse...and the situation then decided to take a turn for the worse.
"Sisters, submarines approach our flanks!"
Vampire's warning coincided with alarms blaring their clarion call, the Bakunawa's sensors picking up the radar signatures of almost thirty subs and a massive amount of torpedoes already being launched our way.
"Goddammit!"
This time unable to hold back his snarl of frustration Alexander could only watch as the destroyers fired off a volley of specialized missiles, the warheads penetrating the waves and detonating in a series of highly concussive blasts, knocking out the torpedoes guidance systems and causing them to uselessly sink to the depths of prematurely detonate.
It wasn't enough. A fair number of the projectiles made it through and impacted almost a third of the shipgirls, shields desperately flaring and failing due to the hits as the male Siren helplessly clenched his fists.
The clever bastards must have had the subs move ahead of their fleet, staying silent and stealthed until they would move and cut off their retreat.
The ambush wasn't perfect, the Azur Lane forces were moving a bit too quickly for the Siren pack hunters to effectively head them off but direct hits were being scored and Curtis felt his heart leap into his throat, terrified beyond measure that yet another life was going to be snuffed out while all he could do was watch...and the final torpedo struck home, Aurora's shields failing but armor holding strong, a trembling sigh of relief leaving the young man as the Siren subs peeled away before they could be sunk by the fleet's return volley.
They'd weathered the storm without losses, now to get back to-
-the scream of hypervelocity rounds drew his attention alongside the sound of shrieking metal and tortured composites, a wave of sympathetic pain emanating through the bond they shared as Aurora and Hipper began to flounder and list, engines and navigation destroyed as they began to take on water, the link flaring with worry and tension as Alexander shouted, "Abandon your ships and get aboard the Laffey, it's closest and we'll-"
"And she'll have to slow down or else we'll never catch her simply skating across the waves as we normally do. Go, sisters!"
Aurora's pained but composed words caused them to waver, duty and compassion at war with one another...and Hipper put the nail in the proverbial coffin.
"You think we want to be responsible for your deaths by uselessly trying to save us?! Get moving, dammit!"
The moment stretched, the sheer impossibility of being forced to leave behind the last few bits of family they had left filling the bond-
-and a railgun round collapsed Z23's shield, Javelin maneuvering to cover her as they resumed their forward charge, leaving behind the two crippled cruisers to their fate, Aurora's last words being, "Sisters...if it's not too much to ask, could you look after my garden? I understand not many of you have a green thumb but I would hate to see it wither and die…"
A wave of affirmation, grief and love flooded the bond, returned by the two shipgirls who were receding into the distance, Hipper's usual thorny exterior nowhere to be found as he true feelings were made abundantly clear through the link.
...That bravery and affection never faded, even as the main body of the Siren fleet caught up to them and promptly turned the hamstrung vessels into cratered, sinking wrecks.
Alexander could no longer fight back the sinking feeling in his stomach as they powered onwards, still hounded and harried by the Siren's long-range guns.
They'd taken down roughly 43 Siren vessels and lost four of their own for sure, possibly two more.
"...Just a bit more than 700 to go."