Chapter 35: Declaration of Love and War (Part 7)
Alexander hesitated for a good five seconds, body frozen and mind racing at superhuman speeds as he tried to make sense of the fast-approaching crisis as well as possible means of diverting it, belatedly realizing he didn't actually have any real way of knowing what to do other than wait for more details.
[Partial interception successful, impact locations displaying.]
At eleven seconds to go his perception lit up with the signs of incoming missile fire, red coloration covering both the podium they were standing upon as well as the four opposing leaders, the man's blood going cold as he realized they were all in a designated kill zone, whatever munition the enemy Sirens were using lethal enough that his Rigging decided not even the Shipgirls could survive it.
Two more seconds passed before he made his move, instinct taking over and sending a burst of emotional worry and alarm to Elizabeth and Nagato as he moved to take care of the jury-rigged podium where the four representatives stood. Letting them die like this would likely only lead to more problems further down the road, not solve them. No matter how much he may dislike them at this point in time.
Nine seconds.
Elizabeth and Nagato leapt into action at his warning without so much as a moment of hesitation, grabbing and tossing aside the admirals and Commander with their superhuman strength before shouting out various alarms while Alexander sprinted towards the main podium, ignoring the massive amount of bewildered expressions sent his way.
Six seconds.
Raising his right arm Alexander primed the embedded laser attached to the wrist, targeting the anchoring points of the podium as three of the four locations went up in flashes of released heat, the wrist weapon overheating before he could take out the fourth.
"Great, time to brute force this then."
Slamming into the thick brace and wrapping his arms around it before planting his feet the male Siren gave it his all, muscles and metal straining for all they were worth as a distressed shriek of composites preceded the fourth and final leg ripping free of its foundation.
Three seconds.
One of the guards completely lost his cool and fired at Alexander, the round uselessly impacting the armor as the man took a deep breath and rotated on his heels, trying to balance the awkward load he was handling while simultaneously ensuring that four representatives holding on for dear life didn't get tossed overboard to a messy landing, making the entire display moot.
A hiss of exertion, final rush of effort and the podium was sent flying away to its final destination of a hard landing, a few bruised limbs and maybe broken bones the result but at least they were out of the immediate killzone.
0.2 seconds.
Unlike him.
The ceiling overhead gave way with a loud BANG as something crashed through it-
-and blackness immediately claimed the man as he hunkered down and hoped that he would live through this long enough to get laid again. He was actually starting to enjoy that new aspect of life and being torn to shreds would kind of put a damper on it.
Nagato felt her eyes widen a split-second before the world exploded into fire and dust, Alexander's armored form highlighted for the briefest of moments by the ensuing detonation before being concealed by the aftereffects of released energy, the shipgirl barely managing to stay on her feet as she was knocked backwards by the dual strike.
And all the while she could only feel a desperate fear and anxiety as the man's consciousness faded from their own, thoughts and feelings completely and utterly absent as the Empress threw a voluminous sleeve over her face, coughing past the dirt and grit that clogged her airway.
Eventually the ringing in her ears faded - having more sensitive hearing than most wasn't always appreciated - as she forced down the worry and apprehension in favor of action and logic, whirling around to check on the Commander and Admirals as they staggered to their feet, thankfully unharmed thanks to Alexander's warning.
"Status report!"
Devolving into a fit of coughing that Elizabeth solved by forcibly patting the older man on the back - the queen also forcing herself to remain calm and the voice of authority when the chips were down - Nagato replied, "Alexander was evidently aware of the attack and sent out a warning before going to aid our representatives."
Angrily wiping away a coating of dust the Commander glanced around the auditorium as it was seized by panic, news crews trying to get better shots of the action while the majority seethed and turned as if they didn't know where to go, guards and soldiers trying to orderly evacuate them or return calm to the setting as medics raced towards the bedraggled and bruised quartet of tossed politicians.
"Right, where is he now?"
The Commander's gaze shifted towards the smoking and cratered remains of the stage where they had resided, cursing as he shouted, "Check on him, now!"
The pair of shipgirls didn't need to be told twice, racing off into the warm and smoky air of the impact sight, trying to hone in on where their companion might be located...assuming there was anything left.
Forcing down that morbid thought Nagato mentally asked Elizabeth, "Did you perchance see what manner of projectile this was?"
"No, but judging by the aftermath..."
Stomping her leg in one of the many holes that covered the uneven ground for emphasis, the floor looking more like a moonscape at this point she continued with, "It was some kind of weapon similar to a shotgun shell. Pellets or slivers of metal that do not fare well against armor but quite excellently against flesh."
Nagato resumed her search with extra vigor, that knowledge filling her with hope that maybe - just maybe - their beloved had escaped true harm.
No sooner had that thought raced through her mind than Alexander's consciousness flared back to life within their mind's. Hazy and indistinct, but present all the same as the Empress almost cheered with joy as both she and Elizabeth honed in on the source of the emanations.
Their enthusiasm quickly lost a great bit of steam upon wading through enough smoke to see Alexander's sprawled form, the armor cratered and dented while his right arm was a twisted and broken mess.
It was honestly a miracle that he'd come through the attack as well as he did, all things considered.
"Alexander? Alexander, can you hear us?!"
While it was muffled by her concealing sleeve Nagato's voice seemed to reach the man, Elizabeth hesitantly placing a hand on his neck as the male's much larger frame slowly stirred to life, the concealing helm turning their way with dazed slowness.
"I feel terrible."
Dual sighs of relief left the shipgirls as they made to help him to his feet-
-and both blinked in surprise as he rose up under his own power, huffing out a breath of air before groaning, "What happened, is everyone alright?"
"Y-yes, your actions prevented any casualties. But what of yourself, you're clearly wounded and-"
Alexander shook his head, cutting off the Royal Navy shipgirl's concern as he tiredly replied, "My body has ways of cutting off sensation from more damaged parts. Not to mention Akashi must have added some kind of medical cocktail into the armor because I feel like I just got shot up with a horse tranquilizer. I could kiss that freakin' cat for it as well, otherwise I'd probably be crying and sobbing on the ground right now"
The joke did away with the last bit of apprehension shared by the shipgirls, Nagato smiling beneath her improvised mask as she teased, "Something I don't doubt she would very much enjoy. Are we in further danger?"
"Not right now, my Rigging hasn't detected anything out of the ordinary and frankly I hope it stays that way for awhile."
They cleared the smoke and were immediately assailed by flashing camera lenses, surprised calls and armed personal, all trying to figure out just what had happened as Nagato mentally prepared herself to reassure the people that all was well and under control...at least until she had a sudden brainstorm, lightly pushing Alexander forward so that it seemed as if he was leading the way, placing her hand in his and pretending to violently cough, an image that appeared as if he had been the one to save her rather than a beaten and bruised survivor of a missile strike.
"This should be quite the coup of publicity, now won't it?"
As the man stared around at the gawking onlookers in shattered and beaten armor the Sakura Empress knew that it was a picture that was going to shake the world.
"You read the latest edition, hero?"
The Commander's tone carried with it no shortage of amusement as Alexander grimaced, catching the tossed newspaper with his recently repaired arm that didn't even tingle any longer, bruises and internal bleeding having fixed themselves even before that.
While the armor did a hell of a job in blocking out the worst of the damage it only went so far, kinetic force still bleeding through and doing a number on his body that had left him fairly sore and stiff for almost an entire day.
...Of course, what left him sore and bruised for a span of twenty-four hours probably would have pulverized most other people or left them hospitalized for weeks. Data provided by the suit's sensors informed him that he'd survived the kinetic equivalent of a bowling ball being fired by a tank's main gun. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Flipping open the main page fresh off the printing press and ready for distribution Alexander sighed at the fact he was front and center, The Commander smirking from where he tackled his own ream of administrative details from the relatively safe confines of Nagato's command bridge.
A photo of him - battered and bruised - staggering out of the smoke as he protectively shielded Elizabeth and held Nagato's hand, appearing as some kind of towering, demigod like figure that tanked a Siren assassination attempt while also saving some VIP lives.
[Siren assault thwarted by newly revealed super soldier, Azur Lane Commander dubs it Aloadae!]
What followed was an article with a clear bias towards their side of the equation, Curtis grimacing at the flowery language and prose as he briefly wondered how all those people would react if they knew the truth of the photo.
Namely that it was the two shipgirls escorting him and that he'd been on so many drugs that he'd barely even felt Nagato take his hand, the crafty little lady no doubt anticipating a windfall like this the moment she'd spotted it.
"I feel like this is painting me to be a lot more impressive than I actually feel I am. Any point in writing a letter to the publisher and telling them I was operating with a bucketful of vet tranquilizers poured directly into my veins?"
"I doubt it. The media is always on the prowl for interesting and novel stories, why let the truth get in the way of that?"
"Don't sound too defeatist about things."
Tossing aside the paper Alexander leaned back in his chair, yet again bringing up spreadsheets of data that he was tiredly combing through, hoping that the sudden influx of promised raw materials and support from the various mainlands would allow production of the production factories to begin ramping up production so that they could get onto full wartime producing.
"Turns out my little stunt actually earned us some unintentional love from the world. Who would have guessed?"
Him single handedly saving the representatives of the big four factions that still held any kind of real and tangible semblance of order went a long way in endearing himself to the public, as well as gaining no small amount of support. The hearing had obviously been cancelled and postponed but - in a nice change of pace - the Sirens had rather convincingly shot themselves in the foot with their potentially crippling assassination attempt.
While they would have been utterly and irrevocably fucked if the Commander, the two sympathetic Admirals and the two shipgirls had been turned to wet splatters across the ground the thwarted assault had driven it home to the world that Azur Lane was still a very much needed force in the greater scheme of things, that their technology and ability to create things like him was a desperately needed asset.
With an already overwhelming amount of public support turning into damn near universal approval the politicians had been forced to read the mood and sign off on a sweeping series of construction acts that would upgrade or outright build from the ground up supply lines, factories and mining operations that would subsequently supply Azur Lane and the Bakunawa with everything it needed to become a true hotbed of innovation and production. The variety of smaller but no less important facilities that would focus on non-military goods intended to help the Settlements fight off the ever present worry of famine or lack of clean water were also being added to the tally, a feat of such massive industrialization that Alexander was honestly a bit unsure they would be able to pull it off, considering the state of the world and its scattered bastions of humanity. The Bakunawa's construction and repair drones were a valuable commodity with much of their fleet still in desperate need of repairs so the lion's share of the work would be left to normal people...hopefully they could follow instructions because that's what they were going to be doing for the foreseeable future.
...Shit, the biggest surprise had been the public's reaction to him personally. Akashi and the rest of the shipgirls had been on to something after all, what with the new name - Aloadae - and his actions during the summit it seemed the general consensus was leaning more towards excitement than it was wariness and fright. It wasn't all roses and puppies, granted. The memory of the security force shooting at him because they thought he was about to start murdering people was still fresh in his mind and there was definitely some muttering and fearful gazes sent his way whenever some of the locals saw his towering form out and about the moored ships.
"Oh well, considering I expected torches and pitchforks I'll take it. All in the span of a bit more than twenty-four hours."
"Good news, son."
"The war is over?"
His quip was promptly ignored as the Commander flipped around one of the tablets he'd quickly been getting used to over the past couple weeks, Curtis' eyes swiftly picking out the image of Kawakze's ship resting alongside a destroyed Siren sub.
"Our little hunting fox nabbed the one who threw those missiles at us, some of your drones were able to triangulate its location. On the one hand it's excellent that we were able to intercept and destroy the ship responsible. On the other hand it confirms the bad news we'd been expecting, that the Sirens are going to start playing it smart and reserved."
Grimly nodding Alexander added, "I need to start a more coordinated and widespread search of where we saw the rest of the shipgirls among the ice. If the Sirens are going to start taking this seriously then one of the first things they'll probably do is locate and destroy any source of reinforcements we could gain. I still have eleven cubes leftover, potentially more if we want to turn the Bakunawa over to only production and nothing else."
"Table that option for now, even if we don't need it to act as a gigantic floating fortress your vessel is one of most important assets we have right now, ensuring it can protect itself outweighs any associated gain in military strength. At least until we get those factories and such running."
Not about to argue the point he instead glanced out the window, the sun sinking beneath the horizon as he took a break from the constant administrative work. Elizabeth and Nagato were handling the final set of interviews and public dialogues before they returned, the shipgirls planning to return to Azur Lane the following morning with he and the Commander on board while the rest of the forces stayed behind, meeting up with the newly repaired Vampire and Eugen as they provided escort back to their island sanctuary.
Quietly sighing to himself he returned his attention back to his list of possible inventions and such, fairly confident that he could begin drawing up possible distribution of key antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals.
The massive upswing in biological experiments and inventions that arrived during the 20th century had been one of the most important yet also catastrophic series of events to go down in the future, many sicknesses and cancers being made irrelevant while people tended to live healthier, longer lives.
It also led to serious cases of abuse, side-effects and in some of the more dangerous examples widespread pandemics that were the result of unforeseen issues in gene-sequencing or simple negligence.
Needless to say, he'd been just as wary about releasing drugs and other pharmaceutical miracles willy nilly as he had been with nuclear energy but he could afford to start small and see what arose from early results.
"Better get going, son. Those two should be finishing up the last rounds now and they'll want to do one final photo op with you in the armor, milk all the publicity they can get out of it while we're here."
"Well, at least this monkey suit survived an attack that would have shredded a tank. That's something, at least."
"Silver linings, son. Get moving."
Nodding an agreement he stood up and stretched his body, slipping back on the helmet and grimacing as the suit protested any kind of movement from the side that had taken the brunt of the damage. Repair facilities weren't included on Nagato or Elizabeth's ships so for the time being he was stuck with makeshift patches until they could make it back to the Bakunawa.
"Akashi will probably throw a fit when she sees what I did to this thing. Maybe I can tease her and come up with a list of fake problems just to see her get all agitated and stuff?"
Smirking at the thought and the warm giddiness that accompanied it Alexander sealed the helmet-
-and sighed, reflecting that he was already becoming a goofy boyfriend type, always trying to rile up the girl and get her to freak out.
"Thing is the 'girlfriend' in question has access to the armor's drug dispensers. Maybe I should go easy on her."
He wouldn't put it past the minty kitty to make the dose a little stronger than usual as payback. After all, she did almost wipe out the president that one time...
"Thank Christ that's over with. I don't know how you two do it."
Elizabeth flipped her hair over her shoulder as they strolled onto Nagato's vessel for a change, boldly proclaiming, "My my, does a little show such as that - all while your face remains hidden - really exhaust you so, Alexander? My most regal self has been attending such events all day and feels naught but the ability to continue unabated. Oh hoh hoh hoh~!"
Able to sense her genuine pride and amusement through their link Alexander elected to let the lithe woman have her fun, especially since he knew just how much weight she was carrying on comparatively tiny shoulders.
"Now now, Elizabeth. Poking fun at other's stage fright is a rather harsh thing to do, wouldn't you say?"
Curtis resisted the urge to sigh as the shipgirl's ears twitched in amusement.
"Even if they are a little old to be afraid of such silly things."
"I'll remember this the next time I decide to throw myself in front a missile and take one for the team."
The trio arrived at Nagato's personal chambers located at the heart of the vessel, a modestly sized but nicely decorated abode that had a few cream-colored carpets, red curtains scattered about and ornate futon that looked very comfy indeed, the Sakura Empress leading them towards a kneeling table situated towards the rear of the locale.
...Well, kneeling for them. Someone of his stature would practically have to lay down.
"I'll make us tea."
"Nonsense, it's the duty of the host to-"
"The host has had a long day at work and deserves to be pampered a little bit."
Ignoring Nagato's protests he gently placed his hands on her shoulders, pushing her down to a comfortable kneeling posture as Elizabeth seemed highly amused at the gesture, taking her own position with little fuss.
"...I'm not going to get in trouble for touching the Empress so brazenly, am I?"
Nagato giggled slightly, accepting his generosity as she chirped, "Only if your tea is not of acceptable quality, Alexander."
"Noted, best blend it is."
Striding towards the small set the male tried to remember Belfast's instructions - the holy booklet not currently at hand - as he heard the duo quietly whisper about something, their emotions spiking and cresting in muted waves as he began to get the distinct feeling they were about to pull some kind of prank on him-
-and a single clap from Nagato dimmed the lights, candles springing to life as he heard a bit of rustling from cloth impacting cloth, turning around to figure out what was going on...and froze, seeing both Nagato and Elizabeth kneeling on mats near the futon, slightly pink in the face while the wavering candles cast them into an alluring mix of shadow and light.
"Alexander? Why don't you remove the armor and come sit with us?"
"...Oh. THAT kind of prank."