Its the twilight days of the Crimson Axis war, both Ironblood and Sakura Empire were on the defensive, and Azur lane was closing in on total victory. For several weeks, both factions endured attack after attack from Eagle Union and Royal Navy on their few remaining bases in the Atlantic. Sakura Empire were valiantly holding their own, but Ironblood was in dire straits, many of their own outposts were either destroyed or captured, and only one fortress now stood between the German faction's capital, and Azur lane's fleet: Ironblood HQ itself.
Over the last few days, Nagato, along with Akagi and Kaga, had many heated arguments with Bismarck, Tirpitz, and Prinz Eugen about the situation. The German flagship was not willing to risk the lives of Ironblood civilians simply to wait for Sakura Empire to finish building Project Orochi, and declared her intentions to withdraw from Crimson Axis entirely, in order to allow Ironblood to independently surrender to Azur lane. Nagato had understood Bismarck's reasoning, and expressed her sympathy, saying she would likely have done the same in her place.
Akagi and Kaga however were furious. They argued that if Ironblood were to pull out of the Crimson Axis, Sakura Empire would be left alone to bear the full brunt of Azur lane's forces, and they would never be able finish Project Orochi under that pressure. Bismarck simply said that it was foolish to throw your life away to defend a weapon of war, and told Akagi to just surrender to end the conflict, that comment led to Kaga attempting to swing for her, but Nagato had stepped in to block the punch. She then dragged the fox twins away by their ears, telling the Ironblood kansen to leave as the two carriers yelped in pain.
Sakura Empire, present day
A few days after that meeting, Ironblood officially declared it had withdrawn from Crimson Axis, and was willing to negotiate terms of surrender. Watching this statement on the news, Akagi snapped completely; She screamed in rage, throwing a flaming paper plane at a TV showing a reporter talking about Ironblood's surrender, and a picture of Bismarck shaking hands with Enterprise in the corner of the screen.
"That traitorous bitch!" The fox woman screamed, seething as the TV started to burn, sparks crackling as the cables inside caught fire. "All that planning, all our hard work, undone by an act of cowardice!" Akagi ranted, before kicking the TV screen off its stand, smashing it completely. Kaga flinched seeing her sister so mad, its not often Akagi loses her cool this hard, sure it was easy to mildly annoy her, but a full blown tantrum was rare.
"So its over...without Ironblood's support...we can't win." Kaga sighed gloomily, her ears drooping as she processed what the TV had shown. Akagi looked back at her with a scowl, annoyed by her sister's words.
"No...we're too close to quit now, we have to show everyone we can still do this! We CAN still do this!" Akagi shouted to her, gesturing wildly. She was about to keep ranting, when an idea popped into her head, she smirked as she pulled out the black box and rubbed its top face, looking down at it with a determined smile. "Bismarck just needs to see what we've accomplished so far, then perhaps she'll reconsider leaving Crimson Axis." Akagi giggled, putting the box away in her kimono.
Kaga looked on in surprise, knowing what Akagi was planning "Sister? Are you sure that's wise? Orochi isn't ready yet." Kaga reminded her, standing up to follow her. Akagi just waved her off before walking out the room.
"Maybe not entirely, but enough systems are ready to demonstrate just how far ahead Sakura Empire has advanced." The red fox woman replied, smirking as she headed to the hidden bay where Orochi was housed, normally she hated going down there, usually only going down once a week to give Observer a fully charged black box, she'd 'feed' it to Orochi, then give Akagi a new box to charge up.
Akagi had already been to this hidden dock a couple days ago, so when she arrived, Observer was nowhere to be seen, 'made sense' the two kitsunes thought, she was busy with whatever Sirens did when they weren't messing around with humanity. Akagi jumped onto Orochi's deck, pulling out the black box to do a systems check, the box projected a red 3D hologram of the Orochi's hull. The fox woman frowned a little as she watched it, reading off the giant warship's status.
"Hmmm...so the missile launcher and energy shield are both offline, the conventional guns are all operational, the main guns are low on power, but otherwise ready to go, however most of the unmanned drones still need arming, but we can do that en route, and the rest of the systems are either ready or almost ready...we can work with this." Akagi then stepped up to Orochi's bridge, the black box hovering in her palm as she walked. Kaga looked on with an unsure look as the massive ship started up, lighting up in its signature Siren lighting as its power plants roared into life.
"I hope you know what you're doing sister..." Kaga thought, turning to guard the doors.
Ironblood HQ, a few hours later.
Unlike Sakura Empire, Ironblood was openly using Siren technology in its machinery, but Bismarck had always made it clear that this was purely for defensive purposes only, so instead of relying on mass produced Siren ships, they instead had made Siren base defence guns, energy barriers and other technology. However Bismarck had insisted on removing any form of Siren AI from these systems, meaning they all needed to be manually controlled, but it also meant there was far less risk of the systems being turned against them by hackers or corruption by the Sirens themselves.
This all meant that between the Siren tech, and Ironblood's own creations, their HQ was incredibly futuristic looking, black and red, sleek buildings and bunkers dotted the cliff side, and looming in the middle of it all was a monolithic structure, the control tower for the whole base, at its control room near the top, Bismarck, Tirpitz and Prinz Eugen sat around a table, crestfallen expressions on their faces.
"Is...is this really the end sister? After everything we've done, all the battles we fought...Ironblood is surrendering?" Tirpitz asked mournfully. Prinz Eugen, for once in her life didn't want to say anything, she just looked down at the table with a frown, the seriousness of the situation deflating her usually snarky attitude. Bismarck sighed, looking out the window with her hands behind her back.
"The whole reason for the formation of Crimson Axis, was to prove we're still not ready to fight the Sirens on their own terms...yet we're rapidly losing this war to Azur lane, who refuse to use Siren technology themselves...I think they've proved how wrong we were...don't you think?" Bismarck lamented solemnly. She looked back over her shoulder. "Enterprise promised me that we'll be allowed to keep our current forces, since the Sirens are still out there, we'll be allowed to defend ourselves should they return...but we're to never leave our own waters again...or assist any Crimson Axis faction in any military capacity...including Sakura Empire." The blonde kansen finished.
"Just for the record; I don't like this idea." Prinz Eugen then bluntly stated, standing up from her own seat. "I don't like that we're being metaphorically and politically castrated and put in a cage like some disobedient dog...we can still fight!" She argued. Bismarck's eyes narrowed for a moment before she replied.
"I'd rather be caged than put down." Bismarck retorted calmly. "This isn't about us Eugen, its about the people we protect, if we keep going, then Ironblood will fall completely!" She stomped over to the window and pointed towards the medical building near the docks. "Take a look Eugen! All of our friends are either in there or at the bottom of the sea! You, me, Tirpitz! We're the last kansen standing! We're sitting ducks right now! If I hadn't convinced Enterprise that we were surrendering then we..." She stopped her rant for a moment, before adding quietly: "...we wouldn't survive another attack."
Eugen's expression softened as Bismarck finished, realising just how screwed they really were. She hung her head in shame and sat back down, Tirpitz looked at her sympathetically, knowing how frustrated she was with this whole thing. The three of them gave each other small, sad smiles before standing up.
"Well...at least we're still allowed to defend our own shores right?" Eugen joked. Making the Bismarck sisters smile, and nod to her.
"Yes...at least we...uh girls...what is that?" Tirpitz then pointed out the window towards the horizon, Eugen and Bismarck both followed her gaze, their eyes widening at the dreadful sight.
What looked like a pink blizzard was approaching the base from the ocean, even from this distance Bismarck could tell what this really was: Sakura Empire signalling its arrival, more specifically Akagi and Kaga. She could just make out their carrier hulls in the cherry blossom blizzard, along with a third, much larger shape just behind them.
"Scheise..." Bismarck murmured. She then turned to the other two pointing her hand. "Eugen you're perimeter defence, if anything gets by me, you turn it around or turn it to ash! Tirpitz; Contact Azur lane! Tell them we're under attack by Sakura empire! Lets hope they make good on their word." She ordered before turning to the window, clenching her fists.
"Understood Lord Bismarck...but what about you?" Eugen asked as Bismarck stepped up to the window, she held out her hand, and her rigging formed around her, her flagstaff appearing in outstretched hand as she spoke.
"I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago: Knock some sense into Akagi." She then gave a yell and thrust her flagstaff into the window, shattering it. "I'll buy you both some time! Carry out my orders! GO!" She yelled one last time, before leaping out the window, and onto the water's surface below, landing like a super hero. She straightened up and jumped onto her hull, sailing it out of the harbour beneath the control tower.
"Ironblood won't fall on my watch." She muttered to herself, taking a deep breath as she steeled herself, knowing this will be the most important battle of her life, with the highest stakes.
A few minutes later...
As the cherry blossom blizzard died down, Orochi's enormous knife-like hull, almost literally sliced through the waves towards Ironblood HQ, Akagi and Kaga's hull sailed alongside, looking like tugboats compared to the Siren vessel's enormous size. Kaga yelped as Orochi seemed to drift slightly towards her hull, but Akagi managed to correct its course just before it hit Kaga.
"That's the forth time its done that! Are you certain this thing is ready for this sister?" Kaga called to Akagi, who was standing on Orochi's deck, groaning as she tried to keep her footing on the unsteady ship.
"Whoa..." She managed to regain her footing as she adjusted the ship from a hologram projected by the black box. "I-Its fine! One of the secondary engines is acting up that's all!" She replied with a nervous laugh. Kaga just shook her head, before willing her hull to back off. Akagi kept trying to adjust some of Orochi's systems, getting frustrated with the small, but constant problems their super weapon was experiencing.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Power surges, random misfires, now unauthorized course changes?" Akagi thought, trying to wrangle the malfunctioning Orochi. She managed to fix some of the issues temporarily, but she was unsure how long it would keep in check. As she was fiddling with the hologram, she saw Bismarck's hull slowly steaming towards her. The fox woman smirked, she hadn't expected Bismarck herself to show up this early, but she was feeling cocky, despite Orochi's many problems.
"Kaga~" Akagi sweetly called to her sister. "It seems our host has arrived, hold fire for a moment, lets see if she'll come to her senses." Akagi then floated off the Orochi's deck and manifested her flaming red runway, her hull vanishing into wisdom cubes in the process. Kaga nodded, summoning a blue paper plane between her index and middle finger.
Bismarck stood on the bow of her hull, flagstaff in her hands as she glared down the Sakuran fleet. She frowned as she got a good look at the Orochi, unimpressed by it. "I don't know what Akagi thinks she'll accomplish by bringing that oversized hunk of steel here, but I won't back down...no matter what she does!" The German flagship told herself, clutching the flagstaff tighter. She looked up, and saw Akagi above her, she was floating some distance away with her hand over her cheek, her signature 'foxy' smile plastered on her face.
"Ara~ Good of you to greet me Bismarck~" Akagi giggled. "I wish I could say this was a social call, but as you can see behind me, I have a...special reason to come here today." She sneered, her eyes narrowing as her smile morphed into an arrogant smirk. "Since you decided to betray us, I'm going to use Ironblood to set an example..." The fox woman then pointed at Bismarck accusingly. "...Of what happens when you cross Sakura Empire!" She shouted, hissing as her anger boiled over. She then titled her head and smiled sweetly. "Unless of course you decide to rejoin Crimson Axis, we'll forgive you if you do~"
Bismarck barely reacted the whole time Akagi spoke, she scowled up at the kitsune, standing the flagstaff up on its end, and held it one handed as she pointed back at Akagi. "I already told you Akagi! The war is over! We lost! Your super-weapon won't change that!" The blonde battleship retorted. Akagi growled at her defiance as Bismarck lay into her. "If you don't turn back now, I will use force to MAKE you leave!"
"Will you SHUT UP about that 'we've already lost' crap!" Akagi screamed back, almost literally foaming at the mouth at how mad she was. "I'm about to prove that you were foolish to leave the Crimson Axis, now even in its unfinished state, Orochi will wipe Ironblood off the face of this world, a fitting symbol of my love incinerating enemies and traitors alike!" A mechanical roar erupted from Orochi as Akagi finished speaking, Bismarck gazed on in awe, as the two massive main cannons moved into firing position, their tips glowing red as their immense power radiated through them.
Acting quickly, Bismarck raised her flagstaff. "Geryon! Defence protocol: Temple of Iron!" She ordered, before slamming her down her staff. The moment she did, her hull glowed brightly, before swiftly changing shape, spreading its glowing silhouette behind Bismarck, it was so bright that Akagi had to shield her eyes, grunting in discomfort as she squinted at what was happening in front of her.
Just as Geyron finished transforming, Orochi fired its cannons towards Ironblood HQ, the purple projectiles exploded into the three headed mecha dragon, he roared in anger from the attack, his wings outstretched, blocking further attacks towards the base. Akagi looked on in shock at this literal dragon, tanking the attacks from Orochi with ease. The centre head opened its mouth, the inside glowing a bright red, before blasting the Siren super-weapon with a red and black laser beam.
Akagi dived out of the way of the attack, ordering Orochi to evade the beam, but being such a huge ship, it was too easy a target. Geyron's laser struck the Siren warship's port runway. Without its energy shield to absorb the blast, the runway was sliced right off the main hull, falling into the sea. Kaga screamed as the chunk of metal fell towards her hull, she quickly accelerated forwards, just narrowly being crushed by the falling runway.
"You hypocrite!" Akagi suddenly shouted, throwing flaming paper planes towards Bismarck. The German flagship deflected the attacks with her flagstaff, glaring up at the fox woman as she stepped back across the water. "You've been hiding that monster all this time?! Yet you draw the line at Orochi?!" Akagi accused, before screaming in rage and charging Bismarck. The German flagship couldn't see Akagi in time through the flames of her previous attack, so the carrier was able to catch her off guard, and land a geta sandal right on her chest. Bismarck coughed as she was knocked backwards, but kept her footing.
"Geyron is purely a defence system, you have created a Weapon of Mass Destruction, how dare you try to compare the two!" Bismarck argued back, she fired a salvo from her rigging, but Akagi jumped back, evading the shells. The battleship then saw Kaga charging at her from the side, throwing her own paper planes. Bismarck zig-zagged across the water, dodging the planes while making her way towards Kaga, instead of trying to retreat, the white kitsune snarled, and threw a roundhouse kick.
Bismarck grunted as she blocked the kick with her flagstaff, just as Kaga pulled back her leg, the battleship spun the staff, confusing Kaga for a moment, before suddenly planting the flag in the water, and swinging her whole body around the staff, yelling with effort as she drop kicked Kaga in the stomach. The fox woman coughed as the wind was knocked out of her, falling flat on her back.
Bismarck then turned her attention back to Akagi, who was holding two larger paper planes, one in each hand, and she was brandishing them like flaming knives. She screamed as swung for the German kansen, arcs of fire crackling in the air her flaming weapons sliced through. After a few swings, Bismarck saw her chance and struck Akagi in the arm with her staff. The kitsune yelped, dropping the paper plane in that hand, extinguishing its flames in the water below, she growled and retaliated by slicing the flagstaff in half with her remaining weapon.
Bismarck looked down in disbelief for a second, before getting punched in the face, knocking her back. Akagi closed in for another attack with her makeshift flaming knife, but as she raised the weapon to strike, Bismarck recovered from the stun, and quickly grabbed Akagi by the wrist, twisting it to force Akagi to drop the plane. The fox woman shrieked in pain, before screaming as Bismarck spun her around herself, she was then thrown towards Kaga, who was just getting up, making both cry out as Akagi slammed into her, knocking both back into the water.
Meanwhile Geyron had closed in on Orochi, roaring as his two of his three heads bit down on the ship's main cannons, tearing them apart with ease. The third powered its mouth laser and blasted the bridge, the superstructure exploded into pieces, the sound catching the attention of Akagi, who looked on in horror, at this beast ripping apart her super-weapon. Plumes of flame burst out of the holes left by the cannons being ripped off, secondary explosions were set off across the massive ship's hull, tearing the ship apart, with Geyron in the middle of it all, roaring into the sky in victory.
"Its over Akagi..." Bismarck called to her, carefully walking over with her cannons raised. Akagi glared at her in pure rage, growling as she got to her feet.
"Do...you know what you've done?!" The fox woman snarled, summoning more flaming knife-like planes in her hands. "That weapon...months of hard work...RUINED!" She screeched, her tails and eyes catching fire as her fury escalated. "First you break up the Crimson Axis! Now you've destroyed humanity's only chance against the sirens! AND MY CHANCE AT SEEING AMAGI AGAIN!" She roared at the top of her lungs.
Bismarck went wide eyed at that revelation, she was so stunned that she couldn't react or say anything at first, so she didn't register that Akagi had surged forwards until the last moment. The kitsune swung her flaming weapons, and Bismarck just barely dodged in time, the blades instead hit her rigging, slicing off one of her cannons, sending it into the water where it sank out of sight.
"Scheise!" Bismarck growled, the now missing cannon had thrown her rigging off balance, rendering her remaining guns useless. As she glanced down at her rigging, Kaga had joined Akagi in the attack, so now she was being tag-teamed by both foxes. Since she was a battleship however, Bismarck was no stranger to close-combat, and as Akagi was clearly not thinking straight due to her frenzied state, she didn't think to back off out of Bismarck's reduced attack range.
After a particularly big swing of Akagi's arm, in one fluid motion, Bismarck side stepped the attack and brought her elbow down on Akagi's back, knocking her forward and onto her front in the water. Kaga tried to land a punch to her face, but the battleship deflected her fist with her forearm, and with her other hand, landed a quick jab to Kaga's cheek. The kitsune stumbled back, howling in pain, and while she was dazed, Bismarck grabbed her by her shoulders and kneed her in the stomach, Kaga wheezed as the air was sucked out her lungs, and keeled over, clutching her belly.
Akagi screeched in anger, trying to attack again while Kaga was down, but Bismarck landed a hook punch to her face, sending her reeling, as Akagi was disorientated by the punch, Bismarck used the momentum of her own attack to boot the fox woman in the chest, throwing her on her back. She turned her attention back to Kaga, who was slowly trying to stand up, before unceremoniously kicking her arms out from under her, making the white fox yelp as she hit the water again.
"Stay down, you've already lost." Bismarck ordered her coldly. Kaga sneered up at her from the water's surface, but didn't move from her spot. The battleship then walked back over to Akagi, who hadn't even bothered to get back up, instead just whimpering and sobbing as she lay in the sea, just watching the ruined wreck of Orochi list over, still a raging inferno and exploding as it fell apart.
"You've...doomed us all..." Akagi choked out, still defiantly glaring up at Bismarck, who just stared down at her with a neutral expression. "Without Orochi...we...we don't stand a chance..." The German kansen sighed, and kneeled down closer to Akagi's level.
"You're wrong." Bismarck replied gently. "We've already beaten them before, we'll do it again, its when we lose faith in ourselves that we become vulnerable." The blonde then looked back towards the sinking Orochi, and Geyron took flight, flying back to Ironblood HQ to wait for Bismarck. "Orochi...Geyron...none of that matters, what humanity needs to defeat the sirens is each other, Crimson Axis got in the way of that...and so did Orochi."
Bismarck then stood up, looking back at Akagi for a moment. "When Azur lane arrives I'm handing you over to them, you're their problem now Akagi, get therapy my friend, you clearly need it." She told the fox bluntly, before leaving the two kitsunes lying in the water. Akagi still crying as the battleship walked away.