1998.

Anchorhead Bay.

The Aircraft Carrier Kansen Kinnear walks down her flight deck while her vessel refuels. She inspects the planes and supply crates on her deck and the personnel tending to them. She looks up at the flag she's flying. The flag of the Usean Coup d' état.

The Rebels had taken over Anchorhead Bay along with half the entire continent do Usea. Her task force is in charge of protecting the harbour from Allied attack.

Sighing, she gets a picture out of her pocket. A photo of her and her sister from before the continental revolt.

"…why did you have to refuse joining us, Val? We both could've been unstoppable…"

Her contemplation is interrupted by the sound of her rider pinging an unknown blip.

"Huh…?"

She gets asked over the radio, "Kinnear! A hostile is approaching you! What's your status?"

She immediately responds, "Still refuelling. I'm not clear for departure."

A pilot replies, "Roger that. Don't worry, there's only one of 'em. We can take him out."

All the same, she starts organising everyone on her deck to get the runway and catapults clear. "Just one plane…?"

Before she can process the bravery or sheer stupidity of a lone pilot taking on an entire military port, she hears distant explosion in the distance. She turns to look and sees a smoke cloud rising up and the very plane in question rapidly approaching her.

The base alarm blares and the radio gets flooded with panicked chatter. She puts her photo away and grabs her binoculars, but then realises there's still a lot of supply crates on her flight deck so she can't launch anything, so she gets to work trying to clear it.

"Dammit…"

"KINNEAR, LUANCH YOUR DAMN FIGHTERS!" A Rebel yells.

"Hang on! There's still shit on my deck!" She shouts back as she kicks one right off her ship. Despite her best efforts, an anti-ship missile launched by the lone fighter explodes on her deck, causing her to stumble. "OW! You fucker!"

A pilot asks "Are you okay, Kinnear!?"

"Yeah… shit.. I just lost one of my catapults!" She looks up and sees the attacking aircraft pull a high-g turn and lock onto her again.

"No… wait…"

Phoenix launches all his remaining armaments on the Carrier, missiles and bullets riddle her flight deck and blow up everything on it. Kinnear herself is torn apart by Phoenix' M61A1 Gatling gun. Her lifeless, shredded body is slammed against the burning deck by the sheer force of the gun as the bloody mess that used to be her body dissolves into her Cubes, going down with the ship as the bridge and munitions in the hangar and on deck go up in flames.

"Rebel warship destroyed. Good job, Scarface 1. Come on back." Keynote orders.

The mercenary pilot turns for home, leaving the Coup fleet at Anchorhead Bay as smouldering wrecks. The locals welcome the Allied Forces with open arms when the ground troops come to liberate them.

A Siren, the Observer, appears over the water where the burning Carrier now sits. She fishes the Cubes out of the water and exits through her portal before anyone notices.

2024.

The Complier is let out of her cell under careful supervision of the flagships of Azur Lane.

Enterprise, Bismarck, Queen Elizabeth, Nagato, Richelieu, Vittorio and Sovetsky Soyuz focus their weapons on the small Siren as she summons her own now repaired rigging while stood in front of the Heavy Cruiser Kansen Admiral Graf Spee.

The Fleet Admiral takes a puff of his pipe and gives the order, "Siren Compiler, analyse your equipment and tell us what we need to generate portals to hunt down your former comrades."

The Complier nods, "Affirmative. Analysing restored memory data… complete. We are missing a vital component to the portal generator."

"And that is?" The man asks.

Rather bluntly, the Siren answers, "A portal generator."

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"To be more precise, I do have a portal generator, but it is not active. It requires a power source now that the previous one has been destroyed. The power source was separate from my rigging, and so I cannot repair it. We need a new one." The Compiler clarifies.

"So what's this power source? Can we replicate it with with anything we have now?" The Fleet Admiral inquires.

"Nothing short of a nuclear detonation similar to the warhead used on us when my comrades were sent away, which caused an overload of the generator's systems. However, that option would be too unpredictable. I propose allowing me to fabricate another Black Cube, like the one used to create Orochi." The Siren answers. "That would allow me to harness its power."

That answer causes the flagships to adopt even more hostile stances. Graf Spee looks at her and asks, "You're about to cross a line, Compiler. Be careful what you say."

The Fleet Admiral looks her dead in the eye and asks, "You're seriously asking if you could be allowed to make another Black Cube?"

"Your only other option is to use another Trinity warhead. The choice is yours, but I may not survive this time and I cannot be sure of where the portal will send you. If my comrades were here, our combined power would be enough to generate such a complicated portal." The Siren justifies.

The flagships are about to voice their concerns, but the Fleet Admiral raises his hand to stop them.

"Stand down, all of you." The man orders. "Keep an eye on her. I need to think about this…" he leaves the room with Enterprise in tow.

Bismarck looks at the Compiler and asks, "You said the combined power of the Sirens would be enough… what about our combined power? Us Schiffsmädchen?"

The Siren replies, "I do not intend to insult your intelligence, but the amount of extremely complicated calculations you'd have to do every nanosecond would literally melt your brains."

"Oh, would it now?" QE challenges.

The more diplomatic Nagato speaks, "Queen Elizabeth, I hope I can speak for everyone when I say that we'd prefer not to try that…"

Pouting, the microscopic monarch relents, "Fine."

Enterprise stands with the Fleet Admiral, "Sir, surely you're not gonna let her make another one if those things, right?"

"After what it did to you, Akagi and Kaga, Enty, I'm extremely reluctant. She could do anything with one of those things, but she did say it's the safest way to pursue her friends. I don't see any other way forward, however…" the man replies.

"Sir, no matter what, we can't allow another Orochi Cube to exist!" The Carrier insists. "It was far too powerful! We—"

"Enterprise, we have a duty to get rid of all the Sirens! Having them in another world doesn't sit right with me! They could be experimenting on other humans! Or killing them! Or even building their power right now and working on a way to come back!" The Fleet Admiral snaps back.

"And what if Orochi turns on us!? Don't you remember what happened to Akagi when she helped create her!? Sir, you're right we have a duty and we're sworn to fight the Sirens and defend humanity, but that only applies to our own world! If we go after them, we'll leave our homes undefended! What if the Ashes attack our base our one of our countries? Sir, please, just think about this!" Enterprise argues, not backing down.

"ENTERPRISE, I—" he grabs her by the arms, but then stops himself. He lets go and backs off. Looking away, he says, "I… I'm sorry… I just… God… we lost so many Kansen to those bitches… just sitting here waiting for them to come back… it just makes their sacrifices seem meaningless…"

Enty stands with him on the balcony looking over the port. She says, "It's ok, sir. I just want to make sure you think this through. I say we learn as much as we can about the Sirens from the Compiler while she's working for us."

Changing the subject, he looks at the Carrier and sees her slightly bloodshot eyes and the bags under them. He asks, "How are you doing? I know the losses from OpSi hit you hard. Have you been sleeping?"

"…I can't sleep well anymore… Yorktown… Hornet… Belfast… the three Kansen that meant the most to me… they're…" her eyes start to water.

"I know. I'm sorry, Enterprise. I should've had a better plan." The Fleet Admiral admits, gently pulling her in for a hug, which she doesn't fight.

"It's not your fault, sir. I know you did your best. It's inevitable that something like this could happen… but all three? All at once?" The Carrier tries her best to not cry.

However, the Fleet Admiral says, "It's just us here, Enterprise. You can let it all out. I won't tell anyone. It's alright."

He's met with silence, followed by quiet sobs, which quickly lead to a full emotional breakdown. He comforts her as best he can, and there's a lot of tears to shed.

After a while, Enterprise admits, "I was gonna propose, you know…"

"Huh?"

"Right before Operation Siren began… I bought a ring… off Akashi…" Enterprise shows him.

"For Bel?"

Enty nods. "Yeah… I promised myself as soon as we made it out of the mission, I'd escort her back to the base… tell her to come with me to this very spot… and pop the question… she did so much for me… it's the only thing I could do to show her how much I appreciated her… how much I loved her…"

"I am so, so sorry, Enterprise."

"Goddammit, Admiral! I told you it wasn't your fault!" The Carrier shoots back.

After some silence, Enty softly asks, "…why me, sir?"

"Hmm?"

"Why am I always the one to survive? Why do I have to be the one to see everyone else to go before me?" The Carrier asks while staring at the beautiful oath ring in its box.

"So you can be the one to remember them. As long as you keep them in your heart and mind, they'll never be truly gone. Remember that, Enterprise." The man says, Holding her arms more gently this time. He lets go and salutes her, "And when the Sirens come back, you'll be the one to lead the fight against them. Give them hell, Grey Ghost. For the Fallen."

She salutes back, "For the Fallen, sir."

1998.

The Empress sits in an old throne in an ancient Usean castle known as The Keep. She looks at the Observer, mockingly bowing down like some royal subject. She asks, "So… this Phoenix single-handedly took down Kinnear? And liberated Anchorhead?"

"That's correct, Your Magesty. Intel suggests this very castle is the target for his next mission."

"Really, now? Well… let's see how he performs with an entire air wing of our fighters and an army of our AA guns all over this place, then. Go set them up, Observer."

"Immediately, your Royal Laziness."

"EX-FUCKING-SCUSE ME!?"

Laughing, the Observer leaves quickly to carry out the order. She always knows how to provoke her.

Spring Sea, south of Usea.

Captain Torres looks out over the waves on the bridge of the Herne. The Kansen herself stood next to him, trying to imitate his professional pose, even scratching her nose when he does and breathing in unison with him.

The man sighs and says, "Herne, I told you that you don't have to be up here if you're bored. Trying to copy me can't be the only thing to keep you entertained."

"No way, sir! I wanna be a proud sailor like you, so I'm doing my best to follow your example!" She replies happily.

Sighing, Torres looks at her, "Herne, what I'm politely trying to ask is that you stop mimicking me. It's very irritating."

"Oh… sorry, sir…" she relaxes her pose and goes closer to the windows. "This sea fog, huh? If we encountered the Rebels in this, we wouldn't even see them until we crash into them…"

"Well, I won't claim to not be an expert, Herne, but I'm pretty sure that's what the radar and sonar are for."

"Oh yeah, for sure, but I was just trying to make small-talk." The Kansen shrugs.

"There's no room for small-talk during a military situation."

Rolling her eyes, the Destroyer counters, "Oh, come on, sir. I'm a Kansen! My whole existence is a military situation! In fact, I-"

She's cut off by Torres putting his hand to her mouth, then pointing at something in the fog. Something glowing.

"What's that?" Herne whispers.

"I have no idea…" the Captain responds.

Suddenly, all the fog dissipates immediately and they're both staring down the lights of a Siren mass-produced Pawn-class Destroyer with what looks like a portal closing behind it.

"What the hell!? Herne, General Quarters!"

"Already on it, Captain!"

They prepare for a fight, but the mysterious alien ship just remains idle.

"What's it doing, Herne?"

"It's just sitting there… menacingly!"

The Pawn then suddenly springs to life as its guns swivel around to point at them.

"Return fire!"