1998.
Top-Secret Gründer Industries research lab.
Morgan finishes undoing the changes to Purifier's memories and, under Deutschland's close watch, properly uploads the data back into the Siren's memory core.
"It's done." The man says.
"Gut." The Kansen replies, before knocking him out again. She looks at Purity and she asks, "How do you feel?"
The Siren stands up, paces around stretching and flexing her arms and fingers, "Ahh… I feel so much better…"
"…Purity?"
She looks back at the nervous Kansen, "Oh, don't worry, friend. I'm just… processing everything I forgot about… there's a lot of data… it's not like how you'd remember something as your brain is based of how a human's works. Mine, however, we Sirens can remember things with pixel-perfect accuracy. Therefore, it takes a while to remember everything I've experienced and not deleted. Just bear with me…" she sits down and puts a hand on her head, as of to help the process.
"Does your head hurt?" Deutschland asks.
"A little… the part of my core processor that handles data is getting really warm trying to do this… I've had to limit the download speed so it doesn't overheat…" she taps her foot as of impatient. "It all tried to force its way into my head earlier. It felt like my head was on fire… it drove me a little crazy…"
The Kansen says, "Don't overwork yourself. I'd rather you do it safely than burn out your own brain… heh…"
Purity looks up at her and asks, "What's so funny?"
"What I just said… it's like I'm talking to the Flottenadmiral… he always overworks… never takes on a Secretary…der Dummkopf…"
"Why not? Seems a lotta work being in charge of so many." Purity inquires.
"He always says he doesn't want to trouble us with all the work he has to do. Seriously, what an idiot." Deutschland shakes her head.
Purity gets a devious smile, "You like him, don't you?"
"WAS!?" Deustchland snaps, "D…d…" she looks away, blushing, closing her eyes and crossing her arms, "Don't be ridiculous… as if I'd develop feelings for mein Haustier!"
"Your… what…?"
Before the Kansen can explain, they hear someone outside with a megaphone shouting.
"ATTENTION! THIS IS THE NORTH OSEAN POLICE FORCE! SURRENDER DR. MORGAN IMMEDIATELY AND THEN COME ON OUT WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEADS!"
"Scheiße…" the Kansen grunts. "Purity, how much longer do you think this will take?"
"I can put a pause on it and continue later." The Siren offers.
"You'll need to. We have to get out of here. I'm not killing any humans today." Deutschland replies. "No matter how much they disgust me…"
"There's a back exit, but they've probably got that covered too… hold on, lemme just pause… oops…"
"Was?"
"Just activated something, but it wasn't the pause function…" Purity says, embarrassed.
"Then what was it?"
"I dunno… must not be important… there we go, paused. Now let's work on a plan." The Siren says.
"Well first, we need to get sleeping beauty over there back on his feet…"
St. Ark.
"Ooh… what this?" The Observer coos as an alert sounds on their rigging.
"What does it look like?" The Empress sarcastically quips, "It seems that Purifier has finally sent out a location beacon. She's in a part of what this world used to call 'Belka'."
"Oh! The country that nuked itself during Zero's little war? How quaint. I do wonder, though, why Purifier took so long to activate it…"
"Who cares? Maybe she just got brought here, if your little theory about all of us getting here at different times is true. Perhaps she was unconscious and was captured. Maybe she's just so much of a stupid airhead that it didn't even occur to her until now or it might've even been accidental."
"Well, there's only one way to find out." The Observer replies, activating a portal close to the location of Purity's tracker.
"What about Turntable?" The Empress asks.
"I put Explorer in charge of it." The Observer assures her. She then stands next to the portal, smirks and says, "Women and impatient children first, my dear~" she gestures mockingly politely.
"Just fucking get your ass in there…" the Empress grunts as she pushes the laughing Siren through it.
1998.
Rocky Island.
On an island just off the southeastern coast of Usea lay a major geothermal power plant occupied by the Rebels. It supplies power to the defences protecting St. Ark, so naturally it has to go. The Explorer walks with the high-ranking Rebel officer inspecting the facility and they make sure the Rebels are working it properly.
"You. Human. You're the lead engineer?" The Siren demands.
"Y…yes, ma'am!" The man responds. He's now being forced to do his job rather than paid for it as the Rebels didn't have anyone as knowledgeable of the plant as him. "Everything is working at maximum efficiency, ma'am!"
"Good. Keep it up." She looks at the officer, "Don't push them too hard… just hard enough to remind them of their place. Maybe break their children's legs if they talk back." To which the officer nods.
"Please, ma'am! I beg you! I'm working as hard as I can!" The technician begs. "Please don't hurt my son and daughter!"
"Well work harder!" The Explorer demands as she backhands him back towards his computer, "Or you'll be going home to a pair of paraplegics!"
The Siren storms away with the officer in tow. He feels his struck jaw and spits out a tooth. Getting back to work, he gets an alert on the plant's radar, showing an unknown vessel and two extremely small radar cross-sections approaching them.
"What the…?"
Coming to provide air support for a special ops team who will allow access to the centre of the plant from the inside, Scarface Squadron arrives in their F-22As and get their landing ship, Petral Coost, on the radar.
Keynote starts the mission, "You see that Allied vessel ahead? That's the landing ship. Make sure they get to the plant."
The squad leader on the ship radios, "Good to see you, Scarface Squadron. Here's to a smooth mission."
Keynote adds, "Seize command of the airspace until they've got that plant's barrier open."
Phoenix and Edge get right on it, downing Rebel aircraft and destroying AA guns and SAM sites.
Getting the target building in sight, the squad leader reports, "I see it. That's the geothermal power plant, Turntable."
Another soldier replies, "So that's Turntable… sure is massive…"
The Skipper reports, "Petral Coost, en route to target."
Seeing the one landing ship escorted by two fighters, a Rebel yells, "Hold off that landing ship!"
Another, less confident Rebel replies, "Careful, they're getting excited down there. Is it true the Firebird is on its way?"
Getting closer to the land Turntable sits upon, the squad leader asks, "Target now in sight. You guys ready?"
His men all yell, "Sir, yes, sir!" In unison.
As they watch Phoenix take out all the defences they would've had to push through in one bombing run, their morale shoots through the ceiling as they all cheer.
"We're almost there. Get ready to go ashore!" The leader orders.
Edge outmanoeuvres a few MiGs who made the mistake of thinking they could take her on.
The second the landing ship hits the sand, the Skipper announces, "This is Petral Coost. We've reached Turntable! Deploying ground units!"
Keynote updates the mission, "Alright, Scarface Squadron, Cover those men. They're working on opening that barrier, so make sure to provide them cover in the meantime."
The lead engineer of the base gasps, "We're saved…" he risks his own life by disabling many of the defences for the spec ops team and sounds the evacuation alarm, making all the other forced labourers leave as fast as they can, overwhelming the lone Siren there, who's more focused on the Allied attack. She notices them fleeing the facility unmolested as her soldiers are busy fighting the invading force.
"Oh, you slippery little shits!"
Phoenix sees just how colossal the plant is. Much larger than any he's ever seen, but thankfully still dwarfed by Avalon Dam. So big that it itself has its own AA defences, which he starts making quick work of while his wingman keeps enemy fighters off him. Upon taking out the tanks preventing the ground team advancing, they start blasting their way into the huge facility.
"Hostiles destroyed." Keynote updates, "Ground troops are making their way to the barrier."
"Hurry up and get that barrier open!" The squad leader orders. He notices the defences are going down. Someone on the inside must be helping them.
"Come on… come on…" the lead engineer encourages quietly.
The Explorer yells, "Don't let them get any further!"
A few minutes later, he orders, "Alright, we've reached the barrier. Now work on getting it open!" He looks up at Scarface Squadron, "We're counting on you for cover, aces!"
Getting serious, Keynote orders, "Listen up, Phoenix. That barrier won't be open for long. Failure is not an option. We need to destroy that plant."
The squad leader sees Scarface 1 dodging and weaving around missiles and gunning down his attackers like some kind of superhero. He can't believe his eyes. Surely the average man would've blacked out by now. With that in mind, he demands, "Isn't that thing open yet!? I don't know how much more Phoenix can take!"
"Almost got it!" A teammate answers. "There! The barrier is open!"
"Phoenix!." Keynote updates, "I've uploaded an entry point to your radar. You've got 90 seconds to pull this off, stay focused!"
Scarface 1 sees the opening in the facility. Edge covers him as he lines up his shot and hovers his fingers over the button to launch his secondary armaments.
The Siren looks at the open barrier, shocked, "What!?"
The officer with her orders on the radio, "Close that barrier! What's going on down there!?"
"Someone's hacked into the system!" A Rebel soldier responds, "It won't close!"
"Dammit! The core's left wide open!" The officer yells.
"Wait a minute…" the Explorer mutters before going to look for the lead engineer.
Phoenix starts his attack run. He flies right into a long tunnel leading to the core of the power plant to the utter amazement of both the remaining Rebels and the Allies. Nothing like this had been pulled off since Avalon Dam.
Similar to that battle, Phoenix destroys the core reactor and flies out the other end before he's engulfed in the blast.
"Geothermal power plant Turntable has been destroyed. Good job, Scarface Squadron."
While the Rebel soldiers left standing surrender, the Explorer catches the lead engineer. "YOU!"
The man legs it away from her as fast as he can put he runs into a portal then sends him back to her. He's grabbed by the throat and lifted off his feet.
"You little insect! I will personally take you to your home so you can personally say goodbye to your family, right before I-"
"LET GO OF HIM!" The squad leader of the spec ops team orders.
The Explorer looks at him and scoffs, "You really think that you can harm me!?"
"Well, probably not. But she can." The squad leader points behind the Siren.
The Explorer's wrist gets grabbed and broken with little effort, she screams as she's forced to let go of the lead engineer, who starts fleeing. Looking behind her, she sees a Kansen she's never seen before. She gasps, "What…? Who…?"
Without speaking, the Kansen punches her in the face to daze her, then grabs her hair, pulls her down and brings her knee up to the Siren's face, knocking her out.
"Much appreciated, ma'am. We'll take it from here." The squad leader says, to which the Kansen nods before silently walking away.
2024.
Azur Lane HQ, Akashi's lab.
Sheffield inspects her new rigging and firearms granted by her upgrade given by the Compiler.
"Hmm… these seem rather… adequate."
Edinburgh gasps, "That's the highest compliment you've ever made, Sheffy."
"Yes, sister. Please keep it to yourself or I'll have to silence you." The emotionless maid warns.
"Wha…? Sheffy!"
The Fleet Admiral is impressed by the Type II Riggings. So much so that he thinks of something new. "Compiler."
"Yes, sir?" The Siren looks up at him.
"Are you able to create Type II Riggings for Kansen that don't have new ships in Lt. Colonel Bishop's timeline?" The senior officer asks.
"It would be dangerous, but affirmative. It would be best if the Kansen herself thinks of what their new rigging will be, then I have a basis to work with." The Compiler answers. "It also would require a Kansen with immense willpower, or the subject may be killed in the process."
"Hmm…" the Fleet Admiral acknowledges. Looking to Bishop, he orders, "Keep trying to remember which girls have new ships in your world and call them here for upgrades. I'll be back soon."
"Yes, sir." Bishop nods.
The Fleet Admiral leaves the building.
"No pressure… only if I get the wrong girl, she could die…" Bishop whispers.
"Don't worry, nya!" Akashi appears as if by magic. "I have anyalysed the data from your world based of the residue from you and your plane, nya! From that I can see exactly which Kansen have new ships in your timeline and made a machine that scans them and tells you if they're suitable or not, nya!" The green cat holds the device proudly.
"Oh, thank God…" Bishop breathes a sigh of relief, but then it gets pulled away from him when he tries to grab it.
When Akashi stands there expectantly and silent with the device behind her back, the ace pilot sighs, "…How much do you want for it…?"
The Fleet Admiral stands near the massive golden anchor fountain in the middle of the base. He thinks for a moment, "A Kansen with immense willpower…". He starts walking towards the Iron Blood building…
1998.
Top-Secret Gründer Industries research lab.
The North Osean Police SWAT Team breach into the lab where Deutschland and Purity were hiding. They couldn't wake up Morgan so they had to drag him through the portal they had just escaped through.
"Wait!" One of the SWAT officers yells right before the portal closes. "…what the hell was that…?" He mutters.
Behind him, another portal opens up, making him and the other team members aim their weapons at it.
Out of the portal charges the Observer, pinning everyone to the wall with her tentacles and causing them to drop their guns as they struggle against the black appendages.
The Empress emerges from the portal and smiles, "Ah, what do we have here?"
"Looks like some humans who had some false sense of security from their pathetic armour." The Observer answers mockingly.
"Kill them all." The Empress orders coldly.
"N…no! Wait!" One of the men pleads.
"Except that one."
The Observer obeys and crushes the rest, leaving the one man alive. She wraps him in her tentacles and holds him in front of the taller Siren.
The Empress glares at him, "You will tell us what this place is and where our comrade went, or I'm feeding you to my rigging. Slowly." She threatens as her mechanical shark snaps its jaws at him.