Chapter 71: Armageddon (Part 5)

"Redirect fire, concentrate on the Battleship third in line-"

Enterprise gritted her teeth as a wave of sympathetic pain tore through her body, left leg spasming as an enemy salvo struck her hull on the port side, gouging a deep trench in the reinforced armor and mangling one of her launch bays.

"This is getting worse and worse…"

Keeping the grim thought to herself she instead guided a flight of her bombers through the near solid lines of CIWS weaponry that filled the immediate airspace, losing half of them but nonetheless getting into a perfect position to release their munitions.

A combined salvo of cannonfire from her surrounding allies struck the vessel's shields and downed them just before impact, the guided warheads smashing into where the ship's ammunition stores were and causing a veritable inferno of secondary explosions to lift the construct out of the water before it came crashing back down with a titanic spray of liquid, leaving only two lighter tonnage enemies to deal with as they advanced forward, cannons blazing in clear defiance of the losses they had just suffered.

"Well, lighter tonnage in the sense they're less heavily armed and armored than the 'battleship' we just destroyed."

The 'Cruiser' ships were every bit as shielded and lethal as a contemporary battleship, as sizable and dangerous as Amagi, Nagato or Elizabeth and not shy in the slightest to show it as they fearlessly dove into the teeth of dozens of surface vessels, quickly wilting away and detonating under the force of the allied barrage but not before sinking another quartet of the Neo Siren ships.

[Pursuit, Estoc and Yuki pull back for resupply, Warspite will cover the gap.]

The three battered and exhausted Human vessels sluggishly engaged their engines and retreated from the battle line, Akashi already moving towards them as Warspite's hull covered the breach, still functional if limited without direct oversight from its originator as Enterprise removed her cap, running a hand through her matted and sweat-slicked hair as she released an exhausted breath, watching through what few surveillance drones remained in the air of yet another approaching clutch of Old Siren warships, the seventh they had encountered in just shy of twenty-three hours. Another pair of the monstrous Battleships and their Carrier variants, the latter already launching aircraft as they took up holding patterns in preparation for a preliminary strike.

"Essex, how are you on aircraft?"

"Still three quarters left, although two thirds of that are interceptors."

The pale-haired Shipgirl felt her lips quirk upwards in a brief smile, teasing, "It seems you've finally outdone me, I'm down to two thirds overall."

"Is now really the time to joke about things like that?"

"You're smiling regardless, aren't you?"

"As entertaining as your sisterly affection may be, do you not wish to prepare for the imminent assault?"

August's dry comment had Enterprise smirking, the gesture mirrored by Essex as she archly asked, "Oh? So why not share your force readiness numbers, then?"

"There is no need, I shall match your results irrespective of complement."

"You've lost more air frames than we have, haven't you?"

All they received in response to that was a haughty sniff, Enterprise shaking her head in amusement before gazing out over their combined fleet, brief moment of mirth vanishing as quickly as it arrived.

Every Old Siren vessel that had made itself known had once again thrown the casualty rates askew, taking down at least three vessels before being sunk and while they had been arriving in small and piecemeal groups it had reaped a grim tally nonetheless, the Neo Siren forces down to two dozen ships which were mostly Destroyer or Cruiser variants with three of the enhanced models still afloat, the Supercarrier destroyed two skirmishes ago by a suicidal pair of Destroyers that had rushed it down while the Human complement wasn't in much better shape, even if they'd suffered only a few confirmed kills.

The operation had turned into a battle of attrition and without any real means of resupply they were bound to inevitably lose, the kill ratios slipping even further in the Old Siren's favor as fewer and fewer vessels were able to concentrate their fire…assuming they didn't run out of ammo first. They'd already burned through the munitions that had been aboard both Akashi, Bakunawa and the few supply ships that had made the journey with them.

"Well, we knew this wasn't going to be easy…"

The Carrier's mental bond with Belfast briefly spiked as a large explosion occurred from the enormous ring, her heart leaping into her throat before relaxing a moment later as the cleared jamming allowed her to sense the Cruiser's focus intermingled with a bit of fond exasperation.

She had an idea or three where that fond exasperation was coming from.

"Gotta say, Curtis, if this works you have some of THE biggest balls ever to exist on this planet. And that's saying something coming from a bunch of dumb as rocks Marines that decided to go along with this op."

"Hey, that'll look good on my tombstone if this goes sideways."

Idly reflecting that the stress of combat, lack of sleep and general insanity from fighting through a nightmarish base of metal and metal monstrosities seemed to make Mathers and the other Marines more effective and combat capable than the opposite he decided that he was in good company, since he hadn't slept a wink and was still working fine.

…maybe charging headlong into heavy weapons fire didn't count as working fine, Kawakaze and Warspite sending him glares that perfectly suggested what they thought of his 'plan'.

"Belfast, you ready?"

"Of course. I should warn you, the rest of the fleet is taking bets on whether this idea was-"

"I really don't want to know."

The maid - despite her wounded and exhausted appearance - nonetheless smirked at his dry words before nodding in readiness, Alexander glancing at the massive and melted hole in the base that had been caused by their newest roadblock.

"Yeah. Can't get hit by THAT. TB, any updates?"

[Jamming and countermeasures still being employed, nothing new to report.]

The AI's terse response had the man grimacing at how strained she sounded but if she and the rest of the Neo Sirens said they were keeping the local defenses suppressed then he wasn't about to argue.

"Okay, on three. One, two, three!"

Belfast promptly fired off a collection of smoke canisters, a platoon of Marines firing off a volley from their gauss cannons in a rippled staccato-

-before quickly turning tail and running like hell as Belfast's concealing cloud of chaff found itself suffering a rather violent case of incineration, the solid metal floor jumping beneath Alexander's feet as a collection of heavy laser fire and hypersonic rounds pounded the area Mather's and his soldiers had been in just a second prior.

And through it all the Aloadae charged forward, privately wondering if he was a special kind of idiot as he broke through the smokescreen and found himself facing down one of the newly discovered and highly unwanted Skyscraper-class drones, a slow but heavily armored and even more heavily armed colossus that was three times as big as a Tower and bore an unsettling resemblance to a stunted Mantis Shrimp.

It also was staring right at him, array of weapons primed and ready as he employed the masterful and genius strategy that would ensure he made the last leg of this journey intact.

Namely, he shot it first.

A brief burst of the rotary cannon impacted the things central optics, the hardened and shielded sensors not destroyed but nonetheless halting its firing process, Alexander keeping up the pressure-

-and with an emasculating clack his weapon ran dry, an awkward second of eternity passing as he stared down an unimpressed and highly encouraged Skyscraper.

"I'm never going to be a proper soldier."

Improvising the last leg of his journey he threw himself into a slide that narrowly avoided the machine's salvo, heat and force washing over him even through his armor as he ended up beneath the thing, now in the uncertain position of being in the machine's dead zone but also not having any of his weapons. The rotary gun was empty and his shoulder mounted cannon had been annihilated in the initial exchange that revealed the damn thing, the Rigging on his back not packing anything heavy enough to pierce its armor.

"Well, blunt force trauma has its own merits."

The drone apparently agreed, shifting its heavy legs around and attempting to crush him as he used the magnetic grapples on the back of his Rigging to swing around the shifting machine before latching onto its center of mass, grabbing one of the gun mountings before pulling on it with all his strength, a metallic shriek echoing throughout the base as the drone began to wildly thrash as he finally managed to rip one of the weapons free-

-and that was time enough for Kawakaze and Warspite to close the distance, the fox lightning in a bottle as she swiftly cut through the Skyscraper's legs, Warspite there to follow up as the drone toppled over onto her blade, an earsplitting whine emanating from where the lethal edge cut through metal and circuitry before she tore it free, a voltaic whimper leaking out of the machine before it shut down, Alexander releasing a tired breath as he jumped off of its carcass.

"Nice follow up."

"My Liege, I must protest that you don't…oh bollocks to it, you won't listen."

Caught off guard by the rare cursing from the Battleship he couldn't help but chuckle as they quickly made their way into the Wisdom Cube's housing, retrieving it and passing the artifact along to another courier drone as the Aloadae rolled his neck, grimacing at the muscle's stiffness and the generally rank smell from inside his armor.

They'd been at this for just under a day and while they had actually pulled ahead of their timetable for the first two hundred Wisdom Cubes they had quickly started to slow down afterwards, more of the Old Siren home defenses being rallied despite TB and the rest's efforts while his complement of drones had been worn down over time, their Human complement having to rotate in and out of combat to snatch what rest they could in the contested base and soaking up casualties along the way.

Sure, he felt perfectly fine - even energized, as they liberated more and more Wisdom Cubes - but his physiology was a bit on the stranger scale of things, to say the least. And there was no way in hell he could free up the Cubes on his own, he wasn't anywhere near good enough to pull a stunt like that.

…He was starting to wonder if their plan had been overly ambitious.

"Fuck it. I just need to grab another hundred and that should be enough…I should be able to bring back as many of the Shipgirls as possible, some leftover to experiment with and maybe even synthesize some more. Just a hundred more."

Marching to the resupply drone that had just arrived he allowed the multi-limbed thing to reload his rotary cannon, attach the fresh shoulder-mounted gun and be on its way as he grimly looked over the present Shipgirls, even Aegir seeming a bit worse for wear as he nonetheless knew they'd never call it quits, not when they were right on the cusp of victory.

"Ready?"

An exhausted, jaw-popping yawn from Le Malin was answer enough, Alexander cracking a smile before turning away to march deeper into the base yet again-

-and barely reacted in time as his helmet chimed a warning, shield raising and Rigging manifesting a pane of energy that shattered under a brutal barrage of unexpected cannonfire that quickly threw him backwards, barely managing to keep the Vichya Destroyer out of the line of fire as he threw away his mangled and ruined shield with a grunt.

"That…was not Siren weaponry."

The group tensed at his grunted words, armaments aimed further down the halls as two figures emerged from the drifting smoke and flames that had inundated the base's interior…and hesitation ran rampant in their telepathic link as none other than Algérie and Richelieu themselves marched forward, Riggings primed and ready as those damned collars of similar design to Shinano and Amagi's were clasped tightly around their necks.

"SCATTER!"

His warning was essentially unneeded as the Shipgirls jumped and ran in different directions…except Le Malin, the pale-haired girl staring at Algérie with a terrified expression, breath coming fast and short as the Aloadae fought back a violent curse, instead grabbing the Destroyer in his arms before leaping to the side, narrowly avoiding another barrage that blew out an entire wall as he heard Mathers shout over the comm, [The fuck was that, another new type?!]

"Pull your guys back, we've got this!"

Praying that the Marines didn't decide to do the heroic thing and rush in to help anyways he glanced at the trembling Shipgirl in his arms, her eyes dilated with fear as Émile concernedly shouted, "Monsieur, are you-"

"I'm fine, try to hold them down, I can free them!"

His companions leapt into action as he grabbed Le Malin's face as gently as he could between his gauntlets, wishing the things had been designed to not crush solid metal as he swiftly asked, "I have a way to set them free, but we're going to need your help! Can you do this?!"

For a moment raw panic and fright dominated the waif-like Vichya's features, shining eyes dilated with past terror…and her rapier swiftly stabbed a shallow but bleeding hole into her leg, a brief gasp of pain slipping past her lips as crimson stained her white pantyhose, Alexander blinking at the abrupt action before instinct had him throwing himself and his companion into a desperate side roll, coming to a stop with the Destroyer atop of him as she seemed to be in control once more, albeit pale and shaky as he couldn't help but comment, "For a normally sleepy girl that was pretty hardcore."

A watery smile was his only response before she hurriedly asked, "How?"

Knowing full well what she was asking he rolled to his feet, Le Malin more gracefully matching his action as he replied, "Get ready to cut those collars off, have Émile or Kawakaze help, don't care which. You can move at your leisure."

With that they rejoined the fray, Aegir's Rigging along with the Shipgirl herself in the thick of things as Belfast, Warspite and Kawakaze darted around the perimeter, Émile dancing to and fro as she avoided most of the fire in a display of agility that never ceased to amaze.

"Gah, what fun is there to be had in this kind of limited battle?! How vexing!"

Aegir's shout of discontent coincided with her clawed hands batting aside Algérie's descending axe, the weapon cleanly slicing a molten furrow through the floor as her Rigging blasted away the descending Dragon heads that had been seeking to restrain her, Richelieu firing away with her cannons and making short but powerful sweeps of her standard as Émile slipped around each and every assault, albeit suffering more than a few close calls.

"Dogpile Richelieu, I'll get Algérie!"

The group seamlessly switched targets, Alexander rushing down the Vichya Shipgirl as readied himself for a really stupid idea, especially since he didn't have his shield handy.

"Hey, it at least worked for Shinano."

The Heavy Cruiser turned her attention his way, Rigging releasing yet another barrage of cannonfire that he - only through repeated exposure - managed to twist through before getting right in the Shipgirl's face, her weapon whipping towards his head at killing velocities…and while he may have sucked at fighting he wasn't totally clueless, latching onto the Shipgirl's wrist and keeping the lethal looking axe where it belonged, his other arm snaking around her back and holding them close so that she was immobilized…which also exposed him to her Rigging's less than kosher attention but that was what his backup was for.

Émile skipped over his shoulder and swung her bladed heels downwards, cutting through the gun emplacements that had been a moment away from turning his face into a crater, a white flash slipping past his side as Le Malin made her move-

-and single flick of her rapier removed the clasps of the collar, a bloodcurdling scream leaving Algérie's lips as she began to wildly thrash, the device still jammed into her flesh as Alexander had his Rigging dart downwards and clasp onto the thing, taking a deep breath before reminding himself that without TB there to help out things were going to be…messy.

[Carry out elimination of Species 826-]

[Species 826 intruders detected in force within spacial gateway portal, requesting-]

[Reinforcement of spacial gateway commencing, readiness levels uneven and ill-equipped to provide adequate relief-]

[Uneven and ill-equipped reinforcements have been dispatched, Species 826 is-]

Without TB there to filter out and translate the deluge of Old Siren voices it was almost impossible to properly work his way through the electronic cavalcade but inbetween the device's damaged state and his own exposure to these kinds of things over and over again he took the more direct route of simply forcing the collar to shut down.

There was a sharp pain in the base of his skull, a rush of heat from the Wisdom Cube fragments embedded in his spine as his will clashed against the device's damaged security…and his won out, Algérie collapsing like a puppet with its strings cut as Le malin barely managed to keep her upright, Alexander forcing aside the splitting headache as he rushed towards Richelieu, the Battleship having obvious trouble hitting Kawakaze as the white fox danced in and out of her cannon's incessant firing, boots somehow finding purchase on the increasingly shattered floor beneath her as Belfast's familiar chaff filled the area, a harsh whine echoing across the air as Kawakaze's blade at last found purchase on her Rigging and divested it of an entire bank of weaponry, affording the Aloadae the chance to stumble close and wrap his palm around the collar, once more pushing his mind into the thing and meeting with immediate resistance.

[Species 826 has performed actions aimed at liberating previously dominated assets-]

[Internal countermeasures insufficient, electronic infiltration has hampered local defensive-]

[Error in internal consensus, entering intoooooo…]

[...]

[...]

[Initiating communication with Species 826 Anomaly, dialogue between two parties-]

Alexander ripped himself free of the cold and clammy mind that felt a bit like having a ghostly hand grip his skull tight, gasping for breath as a short cry left the Iris cardinal, her legs giving out before Kawakaze was there to catch her as the Aloadae tried to snap out of his frozen state, knowing full well that they had just attracted a very dangerous form of attention.

"...der? Monsieur, are you alright?!"

Blinking free of his stupor he found Émile worriedly poking and tapping on his helmet, the male shaking himself free of his swirling thoughts before responding, "Yeah, yeah I'm good. How are they, are they injured?"

Beaming with open delight Émile pointed to where Richielieu and Algérie had been pulled into a semi-circle of crouched soldiers, weapons pointed outwards and gazes wary as they kept a close watch on their surroundings, the rest of the Shipgirls staring at him with a variety of concerned expressions as he dazedly asked, "How long was I standing here?"

"Almost two minutes, you weren't responding to anything we said or did."

"Two minutes?!"

Shocked at what had felt like just a few seconds of passing time turning into whole damn minutes the Aloadae took a deep breath to calm himself before figuring out what was next on their docket given what had just happened.

"Le Malin, Émile. Do either of you want to stay behind and keep an eye on them? They might need a friendly face to wake up to."

The Cruiser promptly shook her head, replying, "This takes precedent, monsieur. And you have a rather unfortunate habit of needing someone to look after you."

Resisting the urge to sigh as another person seemed to have reached that conclusion he instead glanced at the Vichya Destroyer, still sporting a crimson stain on her leg and staring at the collapsed but breathing Heavy Cruiser with a complicated expression…before shaking her head, meeting his gaze directly before resolutely stating, "She's right, you need all the help you can get."

"Nice to know that's my seemingly eternal status among all of you…"

Grumbling at their responses Alexander shouted, "Get those two back to the Bakunawa, if they wake up let them know what's happening, we're moving forward!"

"You got, sir!"

The Marines quickly began organizing a stretcher for the unconscious pair, Curtis wishing they had the time to properly ensure that Algérie and Richelieu were in anything approaching a stable state of mind but they simply didn't have the time. The best they could manage was to get through this shit as soon as possible and clear out.

…Especially since the Old Sirens had apparently decided that he was of special interest to them.

"Fair warning, they know I'm here and they're probably getting something cooked up that's all sorts of unwanted surprise."

"The Old Sirens?"

He merely nodded at Warspite's inquiry, the Battleship sighing as Aegir merely smirked, chirping, "No matter, we shall crush them all the same. Have we not already done so to much of this structure~?"

"I fear you underestimate Alexander's capacity to be involved in a great number of trying and horrific scenarios."

Belfast's idle comment had the male snorting in wry amusement as they drove further into the base, pushing back their growing exhaustion and trying to ignore the steadily unsettling sensation of being watched no matter where they went.