Freedom peeked over the empty metal crate he was hiding behind with Devil and Purifier, taking in his surroundings.
As soon as they barged into the base, the gate had closed behind them. Freedom had dismissed his wings, and Devil had recalled her drones as they immediately went to hide.
Once they were sure they hadn't been spotted, they took a moment to take their bearings. The place looked like an underground inner harbor the size of a whole shipyard, complete with dry docks and suspension bridges for the maintenance crew to load the cargo.
Said maintenance crew, as expected, consisted of reprogrammed Executor-class Sirens and what looked like a twisted version of cleaning robots with dark, metallic plating and sharp edges. They came in various shapes and sizes, depending on their occupation, and were scampering around the place with targeted efficiency.
Their most noticeable feature, though, was the yellow lighting coursing through their bodies, the telltale sign of them being under the yoke of the Original Sirens.
Purifier told them to be careful. The things weren't just cleaning robots; they also acted as wardens. If they spotted an intruder, they would raise the alarm, and the security system would shut down the entire base, sealing the various compartments and trapping them inside. They also weren't as harmless as they appeared; they were equipped with concealed weapons inside their casings. It didn't matter how strong the shipboy and the Antiochus were; in the narrow passages of the underground facility, the robots had the advantage.
Normally, Purifier would have full control over their actions, but with their corrupted programming, they wouldn't respond to her authority.
Which was why the trio was forced to hide in the shadows of the eerily lit place, pressing themselves against walls and crates as they waited for the procession of pawns and droid workers—as Purifier called them—to move past them.
"Over there," Purifier told them, pointing toward an open gate in the side of the inner docks.
Keeping low, they waited for the path to be clear and took the passage that led them away from the open space and into the bowels of the base.
The air inside was stuffy, filled with the penetrating stench of cold steel. With the place not being designed for human activity, air vents were scarce, just like the lighting, but luckily, for Kansen and Antiochus like them, the conditions weren't that unbearable.
"Purifier, where do we go now?" Devil inquired as they came to a stop. They had reached an intersection, and the passage split into three different corridors, one in front of them, one on the left, and one on the right.
Purifier hummed in thought for a while.
After a few seconds of silence, Freedom had enough.
"Maybe you forgot, but we're in a hurry," he said, his annoyed tone of voice barely above a whisper.
"Don't rush me," she snapped back at him. "I'm trying to remember."
Realization dawned on the other two.
"Please don't tell me that you don't know where we are going," said Devil.
"Hey, I'm good at fighting, not remembering stuff; I haven't been here in forever."
Freedom sucked in a sharp breath. "I swear to God, when we get out of here, I'm going to-"
The sound of an automatic door opening resounded over his voice, followed by the whirring of wheels on metal.
Freedom peeked over the corridor on the right to see a droid worker making its way right toward them.
"Shit, one of those things is coming our way!" He whisper-yelled.
"Can we take it out before it notices us?" Devil asked Purifier.
"Nah, it'll send a notice of malfunctioning to the system," said Purifier. "We'll just get caught by those sent to clean up."
"For fuck's sake," Freedom hissed. He quickly turned and grabbed them both under his arms, much to Purifier's complaints and Devil's surprise. He jumped, almost bumping into the low ceiling above their heads, and summoned his wings, twisting himself and slamming his wing blades into both sides of the hallway.
Realizing his plan, Devil and Purifer went silent and stood still, hugging themselves against him. Freedom prayed that the background noise of the facility would be enough to mask the sound of his wing blades slamming into the metal wall, or at least that the noise wasn't that unusual to warrant a check from the droids.
Time seemed to slow down as the worker reached the intersection and took that very same turn.
The trio stopped breathing as it passed beneath them, with Freedom wincing in discomfort. It was too narrow for his wings to completely unfold, so he was doing his best to keep them as retracted as he could while also pushing against the walls to keep himself and the other two from dropping.
Eventually, the droid was gone. Right as Freedom was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a short, screeching sound reached his ears, like nails scratching on a chalkboard.
"Fuck."
Sure enough, it was one of his wings, whose blades had slipped through the crack it had made in the wall, making him lose his balance and condemning them to tumble down in a heap of bodies and silent curses.
The droid, which hadn't yet crossed the door, came to a brusque stop and turned in a flash. The yellow light of its eye-orb flicked and twisted as it scanned the corridor for the cause of the disturbance, but upon finding nothing, he returned to his task.
Having hidden themselves behind the walls of the intersection in the nick of time, the trio peeked their heads, watching as the droid crossed the door and disappeared out of sight.
Breathing a collective sigh of relief, Freedom and Devil turned to glare at Purifier.
"Hey, that's not my fault." She tried to defend herself.
"Isn't it? This whole plan is based on you leading us through this place and me confirming our target. Can you do it or not?" Devil questioned her, on the verge of losing her patience.
"I can. I just need to find... Aha!" Purifier's attention was caught by a heavy-looking door at the end of the opposite turn, and she ran up to it excitedly. It wasn't an automatic gate, and it was sealed shut by a big, round safety handle, showing that it wasn't connected to any kind of electric system.
"See? This place isn't that big," she said. She grabbed the handle of the door and tried to pry it open, failing miserably at it. "Ngh… One sec; I can handle this." She planted her feet firmly on the ground and put more force into her attempt, but it was all for nothing. "Hnnh… Damn, how is this thing this rusty?"
Devil and Freedom exchanged glances, the former letting out a sigh and the latter rolling his eyes. The shipboy moved to flank Purifier, gently pushing her aside—or as gently as an annoyed superhuman could—and grabbed the handle. Using as much force as he could, he twisted it in the opposite direction. It didn't budge at first, but then, with the squeaking sound of rusted metal, it came loose. Another twist, and the clank of the lock coming undone was heard, the door opening inwardly without much fuss.
Freedom stepped back and turned to regard Purifier with a deadpan stare.
"Don't look at me like that!" She blurted. "How was I supposed to know you were supposed to turn it clockwise?!"
"Urgh… Of all the Sirens we had to get stuck with…" Freedom lamented.
"Ahem, Antiochus, if you please. That's what the Creator calls us." She corrected him.
"Yeah, whatever…"
"Let's just get in before we get caught," Devil stated.
The room was dark, so much so that they could hardly see in front of them. It worsened when Purifier shut the door behind them, the resounding clang making them shiver. The fact that the alarm hadn't gone off yet was a miracle in and of itself, they thought.
"Purifier, are you sure this is the place? I can't see anything," Freedom said, groping around the place until he reached a hard surface. For all the abilities the Cubes granted, night vision wasn't one of them.
But it seemed that for the Antiochus accompanying him, it wasn't an issue.
Devil's heterochromatic eyes settled on the contraption the shipboy had reached—a huge glass tank tall and wide enough to abundantly contain a human-sized body. She recognized it immediately; it was identical to the preservation capsules Aoste used in his lab back in the Original Timeline to preserve her and her Antiochus comrades' spare bodies.
She felt rummaging behind her. Turning around, she noticed Purifier fiddling around with a panel on the wall. Before long, the lights in the room were turned on all at once, much to the shipboy's relief.
The lights revealed a handful more of those capsules inside the room, all of them empty.
"This is it, right?" Freedom wondered aloud, scanning the room after his eyes got adjusted to the light.
"Yes; this is exactly what we came here for," Devil confirmed.
"Then we should notify the others."
Nodding, Devil produced an antenna-like metal rod she had been carrying. It was one of Massachusetts' radio beacons. She kneeled to set it down on the floor like a small radio tower, then she turned to address Freedom as he got ready to contact the Commander. "Remember, the moment we open radio contact with the outside, the Sirens will notice our presence."
"Got it," Freedom said, mentally reaching for his internal radio. "Commander, we found it."
Ryan's response was immediate. "Great! All good on your side?"
"Yes, but the Sirens will be on high alert as soon as they detect this signal," Devil intervened. "We've already set up Massachusetts' beacon; I suggest you hurry-"
Her words were interrupted by the sound of an alarm siren blaring throughout the base, and the Commander's voice, asking if everything was all right, was replaced by static.
Despite the alarm and the red lights flashing on and off in the room, the three of them kept their cool. They only needed to wait a handful of seconds before Massachusetts appeared in a flash of light inside the room.
She wasn't alone, of course. Half of the fleet was there, along with Dr. Aoste and TB.
The plan devised by the Commander was simple: use Freedom's swiftness to get inside the base unnoticed and Purifier's knowledge of the place to sneak around. When Devil would confirm the presence of the preservation capsules—there was always the risk of them having been destroyed or taken away—they would set up the beacon Massachusetts had given them prior, allowing the shipgirl to warp in with the rest of the fleet.
From there, they would proceed to gain control of the base.
And that's where TB and Aoste came in.
"These look in fairly good condition," Aoste mused after turning to look at the capsules in the room. Their hardware was covered in a thick layer of dust, but they didn't show any sign of wear, as if they had never been used before, which made sense given that Purifier had said that this was supposed to be an emergency refuge for her and her comrades. "What do you say, TB? Do you think the rest of the system is still operational?" He asked the AI on his wrist.
"It's hard to tell like this," TB replied. "Once I interface with the main console of the base, I'll have a better idea of its state."
"Then let's not waste any more time," South Dakota spoke up, gathering everyone's attention. "What's the situation?" She inquired, getting straight to the point.
"The Sirens picked up on our exchange with the Commander and put up some interference to cut off our comms," Freedom told her.
"They are probably still trying to determine our location, so we have a small window of time before they are on us," Devil added.
"I see," South Dakota mused. "For now, we proceed as planned: secure the place, find the command room, and shut down the whole system."
"Does that mean no more stealth crap?" Purifier inquired, hopeful.
South Dakota rolled her eyes. "Yes, Purifier. No more stealth."
"Hell yeah!"
To avoid getting caught like a bunch of rats in a hole, the group split.
Since Purifier was so impatient, she would return to the inner docks at the entrance with Freedom, and the two would begin wrecking the place as a way to direct the Sirens' attention on them. The others would simply act as the vanguard, splitting into multiple smaller groups to more efficiently clear the hallways and rooms of all the droids they came across.
South Dakota, instead, would be the last to leave the room, along with Aoste, TB, Devil, and a small group of destroyers. In case the comms went down, the Commander had given her full authority over the operation, but now that everyone had their orders, she could return to the role she was better fit to cover, that is, the bodyguard.
While Ryan's entourage remained behind with him, she was sent in to protect Aoste and TB and ensure they would reach the command center of the base unhindered. There, they would shut down the base's defense system before the situation would degenerate and seize control of the base from the Sirens.
As much as the battleship appreciated the trust the Commander was putting in her, she couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy. She would have much preferred to remain by his side in case the Sirens retaliated, but she knew that with Shoukaku, Belfast, and the others, he would be all right.
So, she had to focus on her current task, which mostly consisted of putting herself between the doctor and anything harmful they came across.
Which meant everything in such a place.
Good thing the other groups were doing a great job clearing the way for them.
"Stop!" Carabiniere raised her arm, prompting them to stop in their tracks and press themselves against the wall as they reached a turn. Clutching her gun, she peeked her head out of the corner. A quick glance at the empty hallway, and she gave the go-ahead to keep moving.
"You are so cool, Cara," Laffey piped up.
"Yeah, you look like a secret agent," Javelin concurred.
"I-I'm just following my training…" Carabiniere blushed in embarrassment as they hurried along.
"Guys, focus; we're on a mission." Z23 rebuked them.
South Dakota's lips quirked up in a smile at the exchange. The destroyers' presence was a blessing.
The biggest risk of having Kansen operating in such a confined environment was that they could bring the whole place down if they didn't hold back their fire; at the same time, if they did, they would offer an opening to the enemy, so it was generally not recommended to send the shipgirls to raid a Siren base, as it was more common practice to just level it down from a safe distance.
But in this case, it was different for the destroyers.
Their shorter stature and their less bulky riggings were perfect for maneuvering the narrow passageways. Sure, they could still easily blow a hole in the wall, just like their bigger comrades, but they were much more adept at containing the damage with their smaller-caliber guns.
Not to mention their invaluable ability to ease the tension with their liveliness.
"Carabiniere, wouldn't you prefer to be outside with Sparviero?" South Dakota asked the Sardinian destroyer as they came to another stop.
"I mean, I would, but I don't think I'd be of much help out there," she replied.
Indeed, while they stormed the base, the rest of the fleet that had remained outside was harassing the Sirens that had been deployed in defense of the island, not to push them back but rather to keep them occupied and split the enemy's attention between the inside and the outside, making it easier for the infiltration team to deal with the rest.
And as much as Carabiniere wanted to see Sparviero fight with his newfound sight, Kurama and Kaga were both also out there. The two Kitsunes were probably going all out on the Siren reinforcements, and if she had remained behind, she'd probably be standing around doing nothing while watching them single-handedly wipe out the enemy. Her skills were better employed down there.
Another smile appeared on South Dakota's lips. "Well then, let's finish this swiftly; I'm already missing the light of the sun."
With a well-placed kick, Massachusetts brought down the door in front of her, causing the group of Executor-class Sirens inside to turn toward her.
In the blink of an eye, they switched to combat mode. They called out their alien-looking riggings and aimed their guns at the shipgirl, but before they could even shoot her, Massachusetts disappeared in a flash, making them pause in surprise.
"Omae wa mou shindeiru…"
Those were the last words the corrupted low tiers heard as Ayanami and Shimakaze lunged at them from behind. Their swords ripped through the enemies, cutting heads and tearing limbs off. Those who managed to avoid the blades of the Sakura destroyers met their end at the hands of the Eagle Union battleship and her guns before they could even put up a fight.
And in less than five seconds, another room was cleared.
"Ayanami, what does that mean?" Massachusetts asked the destroyer once she was sure the place was secure. She had gotten used to the Sakura shipgirls mixing some of their vocabulary into their speech when they talked with their foreign comrades, but that expression in particular was new to her.
"It's a famous war cry; it means 'you are already dead,'" Ayanami replied proudly, unable to hide her excitement.
"Uh, never heard that before," mused the battleship.
"Be honest, Ayanami; you've been dying to say it since you learned she could teleport." Shimakaze giggled.
"No comment," Ayanami stated.
By now, Massachusetts had gotten used to warping. Before, she needed to focus heavily on the destination, especially for long distances; now she could do it swiftly on command, as long as it was in the vicinity of one of her beacons, allowing her to be one step ahead in close-range combat.
She couldn't be happier about having accepted Freedom's offer to train her time before.
The sound of guns and explosions going off and reverberating through the walls of the base brought their focus back.
They scanned the room, looking for something that resembled a console or a control panel, but upon second glance, the place looked more like a maintenance bay, probably for the droid workers, with crates of spare parts scattered around the place, mechanical arms sprouting from the ceiling, and even a belt conveyor coming in and out of the wall.
Massachusetts breathed a sigh, half in relief and half in annoyance. This wasn't what they were looking for, but it was okay. Their goal was to secure the base, neutralizing any danger they found while looking for the control room, all to allow Aoste and TB an easier passage.
The problem was that even if they did manage to find the room, they would need to tell South Dakota and the others about it, but as long as the jamming was up, they couldn't communicate. And she couldn't even teleport to her sister to tell her since she had no way to know where she was.
The best outcome was for South Dakota's group to find the command room and for TB and Aoste to shut down the jamming and the defense system. That would put an end to this ordeal.
Until then, they would do their best to clear the way for them.
"Looks like there's nothing here; let's move," Massachusetts declared as she stepped out of the room, the two destroyers trailing behind her.
"Well, well, would you look at that? The big boss has finally decided to show his 'face,'" Freedom remarked. His wings were out, and his thrusters aimed downward, keeping him steady as he hovered midair in the middle of the open space that was the inner docks of the base.
He and Purifier had gone all out, and now the place was unrecognizable. Explosions had wrecked the docks, fires were rising, and suspension bridges had fallen; the walls themselves seemed on the verge of coming down.
They had to make sure that at least a couple of the docking spaces remained intact, as they had to use them for themselves, but that wasn't a problem. The most pressing issue was the Humanoid-type Original Siren hovering a few feet in front of him.
That wasn't a surprise in and of itself. They had taken into account the presence of at least one of their Elites, but the fact that it had come out in the open now of all times meant it had its back to the wall. Whether it was trying to flee through the still-close gate or simply heading outside to take care of the rest of the fleet didn't matter; if it was in charge and they killed it, the rest of the Siren troops would go in disarray, and the battle would be as good as over.
Relief washed over the shipboy. It was a good thing he was the one who had crossed paths with it instead of the shipgirls inside. These things were dangerous, and even though the girls weren't weak by any means, he was the one with more experience fighting them.
"When was the last time I crushed one of you disgusting monsters into pieces?" Freedom wondered, sizing the Elite up.
The Siren didn't respond. Its tentacles were writhing menacingly, and the plates of its headless armor were scraping against each other, producing a grating sound.
It was clearly pissed. In fact, it didn't waste time; it aimed the two longest protrusions sprouting from its shoulder blades at Freedom and began charging an attack.
"Doesn't matter." The shipboy shrugged mockingly. "As much as I'd like to tear out your limbs myself, I know someone with a more urgent bone to pick with you."
Before the Siren could unleash its attack, a laser beam hit it straight in the side, interrupting it and pushing it away, leaving a scorching mark in its armor.
"How do you like that, you alien piece of crap?!" Purifier pulled up to them, a wide, wicked grin on her face. Her hammerhead shark-like rigging was out, and the tips of her barrels were still glowing for the shot she had fired.
"You know you could have destroyed it with a well-placed charged shot, right?" Freedom inquired.
"No fucking way!" The Antiochus told him off. "I've been waiting for a proper fight with one of these bastards since forever; I want to enjoy every second of it!"
"Fair enough," Freedom said, shrugging off her tirade. "Feel free to go all out. Even if you lose, we can always bring you back once we capture the base," he said as the Humanoid-type recovered from the hit and began squaring off with the Antiochus.
"No need to tell me twice!"
Zuikaku lunged at the Tracker barring her way, her flaming sword leaving a trail of fire in its wake, cleaving the low tier from shoulder to hip in a single swing.
The pair of droid workers behind her aimed their barrels at her, but instead of pressing her assault, she jumped out of the way, finding cover behind a wall as the lasers impacted it.
On the other side of the corridor opposite her, Admiral Graf Spee came out of her hiding spot, charging. Her gauntlets appeared on her hands, and she swiped at the first droid, her claws tearing through the metal like knives through butter. Before the second could turn and aim her barrels at her, she extended her turrets and turned it into scrap with a well-placed point-blank shot.
"Phew, they just keep coming," Zuikaku sighed, then turned to address the Iron Blood cruiser. "Are you alright, Spee-chan?"
"U-Uh?! Oh, yeah, thank you, Zuikaku…san?" Spee stammered.
Zuikaku chuckled at that. "You don't have to force yourself to use honorifics; I won't get offended," she said, waving her off.
"Oh, I see."
Zuikaku and Spee couldn't tell exactly how they ended up together; one moment they were rushing ahead, the other they found themselves fighting side by side. Nevertheless, the two shipgirls seemed to be able to work together just fine. They had already done so before, taking part in the sortie that led Azur Lane to meet the Ashes, but they never actually interacted much outside of pleasantries.
And the shorter shipgirl had promised herself to rectify that.
"Um, Z-Zuikaku?" Spee tried to catch the carrier's attention before she began moving.
"Mmh? What is it?"
"Why did you call me Spee?" She inquired hesitantly.
"Ah, sorry, I heard Ayanami and Shimakaze calling you that, so I figured it was okay," Zuikaku replied sheepishly. Now it was her turn to feel self-conscious. "Forgive me for my presumption."
"N-no, I don't mind, really," Spee stammered, waving her off. "Actually, I like it when they call me that," she added, fidgeting with her metal-clad fingers.
"Oh, okay, then." Zuikaku brightened up again. "I'll be in your care, Spee-chan," she told her, making her beam in joy.
Maybe it was thanks to both their mild tempers, but Zuikaku and Spee hit it off rather well, despite the initial awkwardness.
They were probably further ahead than the other groups, if the constant number of Siren forces coming at them was any indication, but they couldn't say it for sure; the inner part of the base was like a labyrinth, with all the corridors and passageways looking exactly the same and not enough markers to navigate the place without getting lost.
Without knowing where they were, they could just keep going until they found something.
Unfortunately, that something came in an unexpected and horrifying form.
After rounding another corner, they came across another automatic door. This one was a lot bigger and bulkier than the others, and it didn't take them much to understand that it barred the way to something a lot more important than a simple maintenance bay.
They exchanged a glance and began carefully moving down the corridor toward the gate. They tried everything to pry it open; they pushed, pulled, shoulder tackled it, and even looked for some kind of control panel.
In the end, they opted to do it the hard way. Spee told Zuikaku to step aside as she aimed her guns at the uncooperative door. Hoping her rigging wouldn't damage too much what was behind it, she fired, blowing it open with a single volley.
Zuikaku sprinted inside, her blade and rigging at the ready, but she froze in her steps at the unsettling sight.
Before her was a creature she'd never seen before. Much taller than her, it resembled a mix between a jellyfish and a squid, with long, strand-like tentacles sprouting from a thin, borderline vestigial trunk, atop which stood a disproportionate, glassy cap that pulsed with red and yellow lights like a cibernetic brain.
What made her pause in shock was the sight of four Executor-class in the room, each with one of the monster's tentacles attached to them. The string-like appendages were pulsing and glowing with an ominous yellow light, their ends connected to the nape of each pawn's neck.
She had never seen the creature, but she recognized it from the shipboys' stories. A Flayer-type, they called it. With their slimy tentacles, they could control anything and anyone equipped with a Wisdom Cube, including Kansen.
And of course, one of the low-tier humanoid Sirens was an Intruder. Her eyes were hollow, and her posture was slack, but her rigging was active. She was the one disrupting their comms!
"Spee-chan!" Zuikaku called out, and the creature let off a screech at the sight of her. The glow of its tentacles intensified, and the pawns began moving.
As the Sakura carrier lunged at the Intruder, Spee quickly entered the room. She hesitated for a second at the sight of the monster, but she quickly composed herself. She aimed her guns at it and opened fire, but the Flayer-type was quick to will its puppet to take the hit in its place.
Only two of the pawns went down with Spee's volley. The third one—a Tracker—shot back at the cruiser, forcing her to move to the side to try to get a better angle, but the Intruder aimed her specialized rigging at her, not to shoot but rather to unleash a jamming pulse that affected the shipgirl's rigging, disabling her guns, and making her lose all her strength.
Spee fell to her knees, her turrets suddenly feeling as heavy as boulders. She could only watch in dread as the Tracker aimed her barrels at her, charging up another shot, but before the pawn could unleash her attack, Zuikaku jumped in.
The Sakura carrier slashed at the Tracker, cutting off her head with a swift swing of her flaming sword, then spun on her heel and turned to the Intruder.
The remaining low tier aimed her jamming device at her, but Zuikaku had already forgone her rigging, the pulse only making her falter slightly as she lunged at the enemy, her flames trailing behind her.
"Watch out, Zuikaku!" But Spee's warning came too late. Time seemed to slow down as something hit the back of Zuikaku's head before she could reach the Intruder with her blade.
That something was a tentacle. The Flayer-type didn't stand idly to the side as its puppets were being slaughtered. It took advantage of Zuikaku's slight falter to pierce her nape with one of its thin tendrils.
Zuikaku's posture stiffened, her eyes went wide in shock, and her face twisted in a silent scream. The extremity of the tendril that hit her nape began splitting into multiple smaller tufts, which began spreading all over her neck, like roots sprouting from a seed. Although she kept standing, her entire body went limp, held upright by the Flayer-type, and her katana dropped to the floor.
"N-no…" Spee uttered weakly, watching in horror as the Original Siren began wrapping Zuikaku up with its free tendrils, much like a spider would do with prey. "L-leave her alone!" She tried to push herself back up, but her rigging was still not responding to her.
At that moment, the Flayer turned to her with a curious look, as if it just remembered her presence. Instead of ordering the Intruder to finish her off, it began reaching for her with its remaining tentacles.
Spee tried to pull back with all the strength she had left, her heart hammering in her chest as the tendrils enclosed on her. She shut her eyes, waiting for the inevitable, but right as they were about to reach her face, a blast resounded in the room, followed by the shrieking of the Flayer-type.
She watched in surprise to see the Siren staggering back as a fireball went off in its face, then relief washed over her as she noticed Zuikaku wide awake, her eyes glowing brightly, holding a bunch of her paper planes in her hands, most likely the source of the blast.
The Siren had lost its grip on her, and the carrier was now free to fall to the ground, rolling over to pick up her blade. She exploited the opening to lunge at the Intruder, cutting off her arms first and then her head with two swings of her blade, then crushing the cursed jamming device under her heels.
Spee felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. Her strength came back to her, and her rigging came back to life. She stood up on her feet, aiming her guns at the Flayer-type. The Siren had recovered from the fiery explosion of the carrier's paper planes, but its body was now slightly charred, and it was clearly pissed.
It was wiggling its tendrils in anger; its power had failed it, and it was unsure of how to proceed.
Before it could make up its mind, Spee shot it. Her rounds punched through its light armor, cracking its cap and making its squid-like body fall to the ground.
It began thrashing about, shrieking in agony as it tried to lift itself upright, but Zuikaku walked up to it and stabbed its head through its eye-orb. It writhed its tentacles in one last act of defiance, and then its body went still.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Zuikaku extracted her sword from the Siren's body. She removed the purple blood from the blade with a flick of her wrist before sliding it back into its sheath, then she let out a wince as she kneeled to the floor, placing her hand behind her neck.
"Zuikaku, are you alright?!" The Iron Blood came up to her, concern clearly visible on her face.
"I'm okay; it just stings a little," Zuikaku said, regarding her with a reassuring smile but still wincing in pain as she tried to soothe the back of her head.
"Let me see." Spee dismissed her claw-gauntlets and gently pried Zuikaku's hand off her nape. There was a red, swollen mark on her fair skin the size of her fist, with a small, bleeding dot in the center.
"It doesn't look bad, but it's better to have Vestal look at it," Spee told her, making her nod in agreement. "H-hey, Zuikaku… How did you... I mean, I thought..." Spee trailed off.
"That I'd become one of their puppets?" Zuikaku finished for her, giving the mortified cruiser a reassuring smile. "Remember what the boys told us? Kansen with better control over their Cubes have an easier time resisting mind control," she explained. "When that thing got me, I almost panicked, but I was able to focus on my Cube and push it out of my mind."
Spee blinked and sighed at her words, relief washing over her. "Phew, I'm so glad... Good thing we bumped into it instead of someone else, then."
"Yeah, you can say that again." Zuikaku chuckled, turning to scan the room. "Now, let's see what we have here…"
The room was bigger than any other they had inspected yet. Some of the equipment had been damaged during the fight, but most of it looked perfectly functional.
"This must be what we were looking for, right?" Spee wondered.
"It must be... But it's better to leave the final say to our experts," Zuikaku declared. Now that the Intruder was gone, their comms were up again, and they could finally contact the others.
She mentally reached for her internal radio. "Guys, I think we found it."
Aoste hastily walked into the room, accompanied by Devil, South Dakota, and the four destroyers.
His escort ran up to greet and check on the two shipgirls already present, waiting patiently for them by the side, and he began scanning the room. It was a large space, dissimilar from the claustrophobic room and hallways they had inspected on their way here. It was filled with appliances of various kinds: monitors on the far side displaying what were, at first glance, unintelligible data streams, numerous fairly familiar-looking interfaces, and a holotable connected to the ceiling in the center, with thick cables and tubes going up and down the walls in a disorderly pattern.
"Ew, what is that thing?" Javelin exclaimed in disgust after noticing the body of the Flayer-type laying motionless on the floor.
"A Siren, and a very troublesome one at that," Aoste surmised, then he turned to address the two Kansen who had guided them there. "Good job taking it out; leaving it free to its own devices would have been dangerous."
"Uh, thank you, sir." Zuikaku replied faintly, suddenly feeling uncertain in the presence of the man.
The Creator ignored her reaction. The shipgirls were already put off by his background; pairing that with his striking resemblance to the Commander and the lack of the officer's welcoming tone of voice, everyone was either unsure how to act around him or downright wary.
Good thing both Devil and Anzeel had come with him. At least they could feel like outsiders together, although his colleague was treating this whole ordeal more like a trip out of town than a life-risking endeavor. Sometimes he envied her ability to warm up to everyone around her like nothing, though he guessed in this case it was likely due to the presence of her beloved shipgirls.
He walked past the remains of the Siren, only sparing a glance at the bodies of the Executor-class, and quickly moved up to the closest console.
"South Dakota, would you please tell me what's the situation?" He asked the battleship as he began fiddling with the device in front of him.
"The others are almost done clearing the place, and the Commander is still dealing with the enemy outside," South Dakota said after speaking in the comms.
"Good; let's get started, then," Aoste mused aloud. "TB, give me a hand," he said to the AI, whose hardware was still attached to his wrist.
"Gladly," she replied. He took off the wristwatch and connected it to the console, the small contraption fitting perfectly into the machine.
"All good?" Aoste asked her.
"I'm inside, doctor," she announced, her face appearing on the display. "Where should I start?"
"Shut down the defense system and open the gate to let the others in," South Dakota spoke up.
"Wait, first, secure any data you can find," Aoste advised. "The Sirens might have put up some kind of program to erase everything in case they lose the base," he added as a response to the look the shipgirl was giving him.
"Got it; initiate backup sequence," TB said. Her face disappeared from the screen, replaced by streams of data and loading bars.
As the seconds passed, the distant sound of fighting reached their ears. Their comrades both inside and outside the base were still fighting, and the radio comms, now free of the Intruder's jamming, were filled with their tense voices as they tried to help and coordinate each other, exchanging warnings and directions.
"Maybe we should go help the others," Z23 offered, concern showing in her voice.
"No need," Aoste stated. "We are done."
"Data successfully secured." TB's voice was heard once again. "Shutting down defense system."
The strobing red lights that had been flashing all the while suddenly went out, plunging the room into darkness, except for the light coming from the monitors. A few seconds later, they came back on, this time with a less alarmingly bright hue, making the room look more like a normal, if chaotic, lab than a Siren base.
All around the base, the other shipgirls paused in surprise; the bulkheads blocking their way opened on their own, and the droid workers simply shut down, their weapons going inert. The turrets mounted on the cliffs surrounding the base also ceased functioning, as if suddenly going offline, allowing the rest of the fleet to more easily dispose of the remaining mass-produced vessels protecting the island.
"The base is under control," TB declared. "Now initiating gate opening sequence."
Finally, a loud hiss resounded in the air, and the floor began quaking slightly as the hydraulic system began raising the gate at the entrance above the surface of the bay.
"Good job, TB," Aoste said. "Now we wait."
AN: If I have to be honest, this whole chapter was just me trying my hand at some of that good old-fashioned "sneak into the enemy base and make a mess" kind of stuff.
Been waiting to try something along those lines for a while now. It was pretty fun. I hope you liked it.
Next Chapter: Troubled Minds