"We shouldn't be doing this…" the third of their group muttered under her breath. Allen M. Sumner, the first of the group, didn't have to look back at the third to know that she was probably scowling at her and the second. She was sure that the third's ears certainly would have flicked the air and her tail would have thrashed to mirror the annoyance in her voice if said appendages weren't being constrained by a spare foul weather jacket that had been pilfered from the USS Coral Sea.
"I hope you're not asking us to back out of this," the second of their group replied, good humor in her voice. Her outfit was a mirror of what the first and second were wearing, though unlike the third, who was slouched down and casting her hatted head about nervously, or Allen M. Sumner, who was walking around like a normal person, the second was strutting. The first was sure that the second would have been capable of making even the brown, well-used jacket she had on look enticing if given the opportunity.
Of course, all of them were feeling the itchy discomfort that always came with wearing clothing that wasn't theirs, which probably had more to do with the third's annoyance than any actual hesitation about what they were doing.
Their ugly, bulky brown-gray jackets were matched by equally bulky and misshapen hats as well as graying dirty coveralls, sourced locally to avoid suspicion. If it weren't for their relative lack of height, they might have fit in, were there any crowds around.
Or maybe they wouldn't have, even with crowds. Allen M. Sumner was not a shipgirl built or even the slightest bit inclined towards stealth and sneaking. She much preferred glitz and glam, stickers and shopping, having fun and being free!
For all that she preferred those things to sneaking around, however, that didn't mean she wasn't willing to do those things if she was ordered to or she needed to. At the moment, she certainly felt it was warranted.
And sure, she was technically heading to a meeting where she would help to plan to break the law, but that didn't mean she was doing something like acting as a spy! If anything, this mission was meant to further cooperation between everyone. It was Azur Lane in miniature!
Even if it did break some rules.
"Of course not," their third said, a scowl present on her face. Allen M. Sumner couldn't help but grin back at the shipgirl. She'd been told, time and time again, that if she kept scowling and glaring like she did, her face would get stuck with that expression. There was only one person who could tell her that and actually get her to listen for any appreciable time, and neither of her current companions were that person. "I just think that we shouldn't have agreed in the first place. If our superiors knew-"
"The Commander couldn't care less. He'd probably encourage us," their second replied, her teasing smile infections to Allen M. Sumner. Their third hissed. "The Commander isn't our superior! We should've burned that letter the moment-"
"Shush," Allen M. Sumner said. They'd been walking through the nearly abandoned streets of the section of Hamborg the shipgirls had been asked to remain in for nearly ten minutes, following the instructions written on the letter. There was technically a possibility this was some kind of convoluted trap, but their second had explained all the reasons it wasn't likely to be one.
Besides, she'd told Ingraham that if they weren't back in four hours after leaving to 'explore' the city, she could activate the tracking beacon Allen M. Sumner assumed she had been tagged with at some point so she could come find her. Her sister had looked only the slightest bit embarrassed about her having discovered her bit of espionage, and Allen M. Sumner got the feeling it was more that she'd been discovered rather than having done it in the first place.
Allen M. Sumner shook her head ruefully as the second and third looked up at the brick-and-mortar brewery that had been abandoned years before the city had been evacuated to host the celebration. The broken, boarded windows and weathered façade of the building certainly helped with her perception that that was the case.
This was where the directions of the letter Akashi had given their second told them to come to discuss potentially treasonous things. Not that she was committing treason!
She nodded to her own internal assertion as their second knocked on the door. The hinges squeaking loudly, it cracked open and gave the three travelers a peek into the interior, which remained inscrutable and dark in spite of the light of the waning morning that seemed to be streaming through the broken glass. Their second just grinned and flashed the letter. The door opened wider, and Allen M. Sumner stopped shaking her head as they headed inside.
She supposed that if she'd wanted her sister to maybe feel guilty about doing something like that rather than getting caught for it, she shouldn't have been as hands off with her and all the others as she had been.
The door closed behind them, plunging them into darkness. Then, it was illuminated.
A pale yellow light paved their way around upturned chairs and dusty tables. Allen could make out that the light was attached to the rigging of the shipgirl leading them forwards, and though her features were inscrutable, her words revealed her identity after a single sentence.
"I am pleased to see you accepted the invitation, nya. You are sure they won't say anything?"
Their second shook her head. "They won't. Though, we have taken precautions for the case that we are missing for more than four hours. I trust that is acceptable?"
"Nya, but of course!" the person, undoubtedly Akashi based on her voice, said. "You are the last, so the meeting can begin as soon as we arrive."
They made their way through the darkened interior of the building, filled with worn-down machinery for creating and bottling alcohol. Their shoes and boots crunched as they walked across the shards and specks of shattered bottles, the light glinting off of what little rustless metal remained. They turned a corner of the brickwork, and a light shone down the hallway to meet the one emanating from Akashi's rigging.
As cliché as it was to say, her smile was catlike. "Purrfect," she said. She pushed open the door, and the soft, indistinct conversation beyond stopped.
Allen M. Sumner's eyes flicked around. She wouldn't have recognized everyone in the room before the trip, but they'd all been asked to familiarize themselves with their allies in Azur Lane and their 'allies' in the Crimson Axis before they'd come to the Empire. There were only two faces present that she didn't know the names of off the top of her head, but she did recognize them as being part of the representatives of Azur Lane that the Commander had brought with him.
Two chairs stood empty – one clearly intended for a member of the Sakura Empire based on its placement between the navy's representatives, and another clearly intended for the direct invitee from the Eagle Union – their second – with room to its right and left for whoever she brought with her.
Before she could assess any more than that, Akashi slinked out of their way and into a rickety wooden chair probably sourced from the room they'd just come through. She began typing away on a laptop, while Allen M. Sumner and their third pulled up additional chairs and hung their disguises off of the backs of the chairs. Their second sat down, as did they.
"I welcome all of you to this clandestine meeting to facilitate the expansion of the capabilities and rights of all kansen via the disassembly of The Rule and all mechanisms devised to enforce it," said a voice from the shadows. From them, the leader of the Sakura Empire's delegation emerged.
Allen M. Sumner looked to her right, to the other two. Now that they were there, their hats removed and their faces visible, she felt no need to refer to them as her second and third anymore.
The ears on top of Sims's head flattened. "I hope you don't expect us to repeat that," she groused.
"Now now," Chicago said, sitting between Allen M. Sumner and Sims, "Let's not antagonize our guests, Sims."
The woman ignored them, for the moment. "Am I right in assuming that we all can broadly speak for those who think similarly to us within our navies?" she began, looking around the table.
The representatives of the major navy of the Crimson Axis spoke first. "You can count on it," Elbe responded with a grin. Roon barely seemed to have heard her, an unsteady hand held to her forehead, but she did growl affirmatively.
Belfast spoke next. "Indeed. Though the Queen sees the current state of affairs as important for maintaining stability, she is hardly dead set on the idea, and we can speak for those not present," she responded politely.
She glanced in their direction. "Enterprise was not interested?" she asked, after a moment of unsure staring. Allen M. Sumner and Chicago glanced at each other, twin grins of amusement breaking out, while Sims snorted derisively. Vampire and Sirius, sitting at Belfast's sides, tittered. Somehow, the maid managed not to blush.
"We didn't dare tell her," Chicago said. "We thought she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut or disappear for a few hours without raising people's suspicions," Allen M. Sumner said in continuation.
The briefest flash of disappointment crossed her face. "Really?"
They nodded, and Sims said, "She thinks she can get away with hooking up with you because you aren't a human. As if you being part of the Royal Navy and a woman wouldn't be a problem with our superiors." This time, the lightest dusting of red graced the woman's cheeks.
For all of her ability to help Enterprise view herself as more than a weapon, Enterprise remained a stickler for the rules. Allen M. Sumner was sure that if relations suddenly turned sour and Enterprise was forbidden from speaking with Belfast, she would abide by it while going through official channels to get things changed instead of ignoring the order.
"Regardless," Chicago said, "I can certainly speak for the elements of the Eagle Union who find the rule restrictive."
They turned to the gray-haired Pamiat Merkuria and the blue-haired woman next to her. The former grinned smugly, while the other's crueler grin was laced with desire. "Same for me," she said, though her smile quickly smoldered into a frustrated frown, "though I doubt some kind of international effort will convince people to change the rules – or The Rule, as it were."
Taihou turned to the blonde haired woman wearing a blue tutu sitting off by herself. She nodded once. "While I cannot say that I speak for the Vichya Dominion," she lamented, "There are few French ships who don't take umbrage with The Rule. I can spread the word within the Iris Libre."
Taihou's smile grew. "And I can certainly speak for the Sakura Empire," she continued. "It is lamentable we cannot include the other factions in this discussion, but I think we will suffice."
"Well," Elbe interjected, "we'll hardly have to convince the Italians."
There was a brief wave of snickering or laughter, though the five that Taihou had brought with her seemed reluctant to join in. Taihou showed no such reservations, a coy smile worming onto her face. "Indeed. As the name of this meeting may suggest, I have a plan for how to disassemble The Rule, once and for all."
The laughter trailed off, and everyone began paying close attention. Even Roon and Elbe, who seemed uncomfortable for some reason, were doing their level best. "Is it the heships?" Sirius asked.
Taihou nodded. "It is the heships."
They lapsed into silence as everyone digested the idea. "I doubt that is the extent of your plan," Belfast said. "Their existence certainly isn't going to change minds on its own-"
"Leave the mechanics to us," Kumano said, gesturing to herself, Suzuya, and Atago. Both had a particular gleam in their eyes that promised results… among other things.
Chicago uncrossed her legs and raised an eyebrow, Sirius narrowed her eyes, and Elbe ruefully shook her head, and Chapayev chuckled dangerously.
Taihou raised a hand. "The mechanics," she said, rushing to cut off either an argument or a tangent, "and particulars can be sorted out soon. The heships are not the only part of the plan."
She sniffed. "The Rule," she hissed scornfully, "is built upon fear. One fear it is built upon is that a shipgirl could not 'control herself' and hurt or kill any man she laid with. Simultaneously, another fear is that a shipgirl could be taken advantage of by a man."
"Primarily, however, it is meant to ensure that the capabilities and judgment of a kansen are not encumbered or compromised, physically or mentally. I propose," she said, finally, "that in order to disassemble the rule, it must first be broken. Utterly."
Everyone continued staring at her with rapt attention. "As long as The Rule takes the same form in the Empire, then it is only the human men who will be ordered not to fraternize with shipgirls," she continued. "Under that justification, we may first make inroads with the heships of Nemonia. We will spread word of what has been done as covertly as possible and begin breaking each part of the rule thoroughly."
"Whether our partners are few or many," she all but shouted.
"Whether our partners are men or women," she continued.
"Whether our partners are human or kansen," she said.
She took a deep breath and then shrugged. "I understand the reservations of our superiors, but when they eventually discover what we have been doing and that we have been operating normally despite our activities, they will have no choice but to do away with it," she finished. Her grin was just a shade away from maniacal.
The five she'd brought with her all cheered, which was soon mirrored by the rest of them, including Akashi.
"Now," she added, "it must be done so much and in all navies so that no one can be singled out for punishment and no one can be held up on a pedestal as a 'shining example,' for everyone else to follow," she growled. Allen M. Sumner scowled.
Every navy had at least one. If she recalled correctly, Mikasa was one in the Sakura Empire, while in the Eagle Union, Colorado, Maryland, and West Virginia all spoke in favor of the rule.
"In order to facilitate as wide a dispersal of 'blame' as possible," she continued, "every faction needs as much access to the Empire for as long as is feasible. Necessarily, the Empire joining a faction would limit such a situation," she said.
"If the Empire joins one faction or another," she said, "then access will be strictly limited for the faction they do not join. With this in mind, if they join the Crimson Axis, will you do as much to break The Rule before you leave?" she asked, looking towards the representatives of the three navies that were part of Azur Lane.
Pamiat Merkuria was teasing Sims, while the Royal Navy was discussing internally. The Iris Libre ship was blushing as Chapayev whispered something into her ear. Allen M. Sumner merely raised an eyebrow.
Chicago asked the question on Allen M. Sumner's mind. "If they join one faction or another?" she asked. "Is there another option?"
Taihou's face and body adopted a thoughtful posture, but something about her eyes seemed… disingenuous. "Hmm. Well, I suppose they could choose not to join a faction."
All conversation ceased, but Taihou shrugged before she could be asked any more questions. "Well, with my piece said, I suppose we should begin devising the particulars of the mechanics and particulars?" she asked innocently.
Allen M. Sumner opened her own mouth, intent on continuing the conversation, but any attempt was aborted by the raucous cheer of the two Crimson Axis navies, the Northern Parliament, and Sirius, and a wave of noise exploded after that as the conversation burst to life.
"Those ships that were given those medals for defending against the Sirens… who wants who?"
"That won't be all of them… hopefully."
"If anything, they'll have to rescind it because they'd prefer we were keeping things 'in house' and not spending time fraternizing with members of a foreign navy, no matter how closely allied."
"I know it isn't. I saw a few when we first discovered their ships that don't look the same."
The conversation wound on. They made an attempt to include her, but Allen M. Sumner held up her hands and shook her head. "I've got someone in mind… back home."
Atago nodded, smiling genially. "And you, Sims?"
Her blush reached all the way up to the roots of her hair. "M- Me too," she muttered. The conversation continued around the table. The idea that the regular kansen of Nemonia might be included with the navies not currently present was also brought up.
While half of Allen M. Sumner's mind wrestled with the idea of why in the world the Empire would choose neutrality and the other half imagined the rugged dock worker in Brooklyn that just wouldn't get out of her mind, the rest of the table discussed the confirmed heships and the possible division of any that might not have been shown. Arguments almost boiled over, but Taihou kept the conversation focused through presence and reminders that there wouldn't need to be a 'division' once The Rule was gone for good.
Allen M. Sumner had thought herself well acquainted with the rough talk of seamen from her time as a hull, but her face soon mirrored Sims' at just how debauched the Sakura Empire girls could be…
Especially with the face and arms and voice of that man in Brooklyn flashing in her mind's eye.
-OxOxO-
Well, that certainly could have gone better.
Tanya had arrived at the training area to find her copy silently standing at attention while watching the 203rd and the other instructors that had been hired do their jobs. That was the first thing that had tipped her off.
The second thing to tip Tanya off had been just how non-talkative the girl had been, because she hadn't shut up the entire drive from Hamborg back to the base. That she purported not to have a single question for her or the 203rd all but spelled out that something had happened.
Her awed expression and the panicked ones of her subordinates after she'd asked if they'd enjoyed telling the girl all about the war had confirmed her suspicion.
Still, it wasn't like she hadn't expected it, and, of course, Tanya still had no way of knowing whether the girl had Tanya's memories or not. It was vexing. Was she merely playing the part of the overawed child with a fascination with her namesake, or was that truly what she was?
Tanya's gut feeling was that this was truly her, but she'd long ago discarded any thought of trusting something as primal as a gut feeling without copious amounts of proof to go with it, and Tanya simply didn't have any proof one way or the other yet.
The tournament held to determine who would be filling the nine available slots for the joint exercises tomorrow had gone poorly. With a small cash prize drawn from the pay of those who lost, most had tried their hardest to win.
Not everyone had.
Viktoriya, obviously, had. The tournament consisting of the marine mages and the mages of the 203rd had been run parallel to the one for the sheships, and Viktoriya had distinguished herself in her battle against the expected runner-up, Weiss.
In what she assumed were agreements made beforehand, Sulayman Reis won much more easily against Nassau than either of their three previous rounds might have suggested she would. The same happened with the fight between Zealand and Hannover.
Considering all four had been competing for leadership of Nemonia, and the former two were part of the Pirate faction while the latter two were part of the Lower Officer faction, it appeared that those factions, at least, had decided who they would support as a whole.
Basel, at least, had won fair and square against Thuringen.
Most vexing was the bout of health trouble. A large portion of the fleet was complaining about near-constant headaches. The degree to which everyone was afflicted was quite variable, but almost half of those who had signed up for the tournament had bowed out because of the headaches, and plenty of those who had participated still had them to a degree. Medicine and magic only worked to blunt the effects.
If it were up to her, she would have had the Empire abstain from the joint exercise altogether. It wasn't, of course, but she'd submitted a report about the possibility of degraded performance all the same.
Tanya cast one last look over the nine who would be accompanying her to the joint exercise. She, of course, hadn't had a choice, since she'd been told that she had to attend as the lynchpin of the Empire's currently revealed sheships.
She turned to her right, to look at her nametake and raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain you still want to duel me?" she asked. She had no desire to call it off and was actually intent on gauging the girl's abilities herself before she had the opportunity to learn more.
The girl's grin widened into a mirror of Tanya's own at its broadest. "Oh, yes sir! I very much do."
"Alright," she said. In short order, everyone else was cleared from the waters of the central part of the Emerald Bay.
They stood across from each other, separated by a few feet, just atop the water. Tanya did so with the aid of her Flight Formulas, her nametake did so via the mystery of her existence. "Considering you know a lot more about my capabilities than I do yours, I think it only fair," Tanya began, "that you tell me a little about how you fight. You refused point blank to divulge anything to Schugel and his cronies yesterday. They're over there now," she said, gesturing vaguely to the base, "with all their equipment trained on us. Does that sound fair to you?" she posited.
The girl pouted. "My namesake, you shouldn't refer to them like that," she admonished. Tanya's expression didn't change in the slightest, and the girl sighed. "On the one hand, I don't think your enemies would be so kind…" she trailed off. Tanya knew she was right, of course, but simulating a fight against enemies she didn't know wasn't the point of this fight.
Her nametake's grin widened, and her nostrils flared. "But I am kinder."
She handed Tanya a piece of paper, and Tanya arched an eyebrow. She'd prepared for Tanya to ask ahead of time? Was she going to offer as much to make the fight more 'fair,' or did she anticipate Tanya's question because she knew?
Scowling slightly at the paper, she snatched it and looked down at the writing.
Ability 1: If I order it, my rigging can act independently.
Ability 2: If I pray for it, I can use magic.
Ability 3: If I lead them, I can passively improve the abilities of sheships under my command.
"A bit vague," Tanya began, "and that second one seems… ludicrous. Humanity is the only thing that can utilize magic." She resisted the urge to sigh, for the moment.
Her nametake's smile hadn't lessened in the slightest. "But?" she asked.
It must have hurt keeping it so wide for so long. Was it an attempt at intimidation, an attempt to meet Tanya's preconceptions, or… was she that much of a battle junkie?
"But," Tanya sighed, unable to contain her exasperation any longer, her expression smoldering and her eyes cast skyward, "I suppose that that thing that calls itself God has granted 'miracles' before."
"What?"
Tanya looked back at her nametake, to find that her expression had changed slightly. The smile wasn't quite as wide, with confusion gathering in the corners of her eyes and smile.
Tanya shook her head. "Nevermind. I propose that we fight until one of us surrenders or until first blood. Is that amenable to you?" she asked. Her copy nodded as the confusion faded from her face, and Tanya nodded back. "Are you ready?"
The lingering confusion disappeared completely, her expression pulled taut once more. "Almost. To make things even…"
She giggled. "I'll only be using my second ability to activate a single one of my Type 98s."
Tanya opened her mouth to respond, to caution the girl against such a self-limiting action, but she didn't get the chance.
Her nametake was praying.
"Worthy is the Lamb to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might and honor, and glory, and BLESSING of the Lord!"
Before she'd started the second word, Tanya had started speeding towards the girl, her rifle extended, memories of fighting the Bloody Valkyrie swirling through her head. If the girl wasn't lying, and she could use magic, then this was an opportunity to test if she had Tanya's memories.
Before the girl reached the tenth word, Tanya had fired a shot. By the thirteenth, a second shot.
Even the Bloody Valkyrie had some training, for how little she used it. This girl hadn't been alive for twenty-four hours. Tanya could beat her.
CLANG! CLANG!
Tanya continued forward, aghast as both of her formula-enhanced bullets pinged off of something, new clothes, that had materialized around the girl. Tanya sped forward, traveling faster and faster and-
KRRRRSH!
Her bayonet met an iridescent globe of blue, at speed, and it too glanced off. Tanya sped past and glanced over her shoulder at her opposite.
That glance told Tanya that the girl had changed. She was wearing more than she had, and-
Blocking the light of the noonday sun, she was upon her near instantly, and Tanya threw up an Active Barrier as the girl slashed at her, a knife in one hand and a rifle in the other.
The thrust of the knife cracked the barrier. The slash of the rifle shattered it completely.
Shit.
She twisted in the air, angling her flight up as two illusory copies of herself took different trajectories. Tanya was trying to bank right around her. They all aimed their rifles-
But her nametake's gaze remained unerringly trained on Tanya, and before she could fire, three shots bolted for Tanya.
Two went wide without Tanya having to move in the slightest, while Tanya nudged herself to the left to easily dodge the third. Tanya fired her own salvo back, aiming for the girl's unarmored face and torso. Both glanced off of her shield, and she grinned wolfishly as she adjusted her rifle. Tanya sped higher into the air, away from the surface of the water.
After a brief pause in firing, her nametake followed, firing rapidly and missing almost every shot. The glancing blows that impacted Tanya's barrier shot lightning bolts of cracks through its surface, but she hadn't managed to land more than that at range yet.
Tanya took a deep breath. Another tally against the idea that she had Tanya's memories, or that she was playing a part… but if Tanya wanted to be sure that her nametake was fighting to the fullest under their current circumstances, and would be unable to hide her true skill, then Tanya would have to try to kill her.
Tanya reversed her momentum in the blink of an eye, speeding towards her opposite and firing shots of her own towards her doppelganger while twisting out of the way of the return fire. She layered formula into her shots, mathematically instructing them to pierce, pierce, pierce the girl's shield.
Her opponent didn't even bother to dodge. All of them struck close to the center of the shield, and not so much as a scuff appeared. Mana glowed at the end of the girl's rifle, the light surrounding her bayonet irritating Tanya's eyes.
Her plan changing again, she didn't dare blink as she angled herself down, back towards the water.
"Quit running! Fight me, woman to woman!" the girl shouted over the screaming of the wind. Tanya ignored it as she spiraled towards the surface of the water.
The mental gymnastics were excruciating, but Tanya did not slow down in the slightest. Her formulas warped themselves as she switched to the versions optimized for operation under water. She waited, for a few moments.
Then, she waited for a few moments more. She wasn't being chased, then.
A warning blared in her ears from her observation formulas, and Tanya desperately dove deeper, shrinking her barrier to compensate for the increased pressure. Then, above her, a bullet impacts the water.
BOOOM.
The muted sound of the explosion shook the ocean, and Tanya glanced nervously at her Active Barrier. That definitely would have breached it, if it had hit. It might not have killed her, but Tanya couldn't say for certain.
Still, the girl had no idea where Tanya was. She was an atrocious shot, and though she seemed to have more than just the basics down, she hadn't used a single illusion and either wasn't willing or wasn't able to chase Tanya in the water. Had she spent last night studying the bare minimum she'd need to fight Tanya, or was it all just a facade?
Tanya's scowl deepened. Regardless, it seemed like she would handily be able to outclass Tanya in a fight. Her power was at least on par with Tanya's at the moment. She claimed to be able to use eight dual-core Computation Jewels and the Type 95 at once, a feat Tanya couldn't even dream of matching in or out of combat. With her other two skills and whatever abilities she had as an aircraft carrier sheship, it was clear that if she weren't holding herself back, she could probably mop the floor with Tanya if she wasn't using the Type 95… and probably even if she did.
Tanya angled her vision towards the surface of the water. Her observation formulas couldn't do as much when she was submerged in the water, but even their limited fidelity could tell that her nametake was powering up more artillery formulas.
On the one hand, the girl's ability meant that she could fight on the frontlines while Tanya got to sit back and command from the rear. On the other hand, if she had Tanya's memories and desires, then her goal would be identical to Tanya's: she'd want to reach the rear echelon as well.
Tanya began moving upwards. Slowly, at first, and then faster and faster and faster. She aimed her own rifle upwards and tampered with the explosive formula as she fired it. Instead of going off when it came into contact with something solid like an active barrier or a body-
BOOM!
It went off five feet below the surface of the water, sending a geyser into the air. Tanya rose with it, burst from it, and lashed out at the surprised face of her nametake with her rifle.
It connected, slicing through it like a shark cut through the water. Tanya felt pain rebound up the bones in her arms as she brought it to a complete stop, but she managed to train the barrel directly on the girl's face.
Tanya's expression was inscrutable as she held her copy at gunpoint. Even when the girl's surprise broke back into that wide, giddy grin, she remained impassive. Tanya's eyes narrowed like the gap between her finger and the trigger of her rifle. If she thought she could get out of this-
"I surrender," the girl said, and Tanya snapped her gun back and let out a heavy sigh as she assessed herself and the other girl.
She was doing alright, all things considered. Her reserves of mana were certainly lower than she would have liked, but the joint exercise wasn't until tomorrow, so it hardly mattered. She shook her head and focused back on her opposite.
Her nametake had changed. Tanya flew around her in a slow circle.
Over her dress, some kind of armor made of bulky, interlocking segments about double the size of one of Tanya's fists hung, painted the same shade of red as her dress.
Her right leg and her right arm were encased in black armor, bulkier than anything a medieval knight would have worn, with deep, re-painted grooves around the joints to allow for a modicum of flexibility. Bundles of tubes, each also covered in small rings of black armor with the gaps painted red, snaked out of the back of the armor around the girl's shin and upper arm.
They snaked into the rigging perched above the small of the girl's back, which resembled a miniaturized version of Tanya's flight equipment. A smokestack ran out of the top of the box, while a pair of AA turrets were mounted to the box's sides.
As Tanya continued to assess the girl, they both began floating down to the water.
Out of the girl's left sleeve, a flexible strip of something spooled out, painted in with the white marking of an aircraft runway.
As Tanya reached the front of the girl once more, the rifle disappeared, and Tanya saw that while her right arm was armored, the girl's hand was free of any encumbrance. Tanya opened her mouth…
Then, momentarily perplexed, she paused as she looked at the girl's face. It wasn't her expression that surprised her.
She was still wearing that wide, face-splitting grin that had to have been feeling sore, considering how long she'd been holding it in place. Her softly glowing eyes weren't surprising either, though Tanya still found her oddly shaped pupils slightly disconcerting.
No, there seemed to be some kind of… light hanging in the air behind her head. What was that? She hadn't seen any kind of flashlight, or any light-emitting device for that matter, taped to her head.
Before she could get a better look at the odd light coming from behind her head, it disappeared as they touched the water, along with all of the other equipment that had appeared. She let out a sigh of her own, and the ears of top of her head flicked back and forth as she took off her helmet.
Then, her smile finally softened into something Tanya thought was more… genuine. "I can't believe I really thought I could beat you."
Tanya snorted. "You certainly could have, if you hadn't limited yourself quite as much as you had." Having fought some of the other Nemonia ships, she was absolutely sure of that.
"Yeah," her nametake said, "but that wasn't the point. I wanted to know what it was like, fighting against you."
Tanya just shook her head. "If you say so," she said, and then they made their way over to the others. They were congratulated by the mages and sheships both, and though Tanya put on prideful airs for having bested her nametake, she couldn't help but feel frustration that she still didn't know whether the sheship who shared her name also shared her memories.
-OxOxO-
Rerugen desperately clutched his stomach as his staff car pulled into Hamborg. It had been a hell of a time trying to help reorganize the army to account for the end of the war, a hell that had been made all the worse by the budget cuts, the sharp rise in the amount of internal squabbling, their transmigration, and the ongoing Unity Celebration.
Now, he'd been forced to wake early, before the crack of dawn, to be escorted to the Unity Celebration so that he could act as the leader of the army's direct liaison with the navy for the joint exercises.
It had partially been done because SHE was acting as the lead combatant of the Empire's naval forces.
He leafed through the packet that he'd been given to get him up to speed – he had been stuck in HQ for the past few days with only the shortest possible breaks trying to slog through all the work of demobilization and reorganization.
The army wasn't expected to do anything, of course, but it was thought that they should observe what a Siren attack on land-based targets looked like so they could plan for how to defend against them.
At the moment, Rerugen wasn't exactly sure how he'd do that, considering just about all of the military technology of the Empire was woefully out of date compared to the rest of the countries that populated this world, to say nothing of the technological excellence of the Sirens. Just about the only plan that had been concretely agreed to thus far was that foreign designs of modern weapons would have to be purchased so that they could catch up.
He continued leafing through the packet. While the organizers claimed that the exercises would be done by the green and yellow teams, it was really just Azur Lane and the Crimson Axis putting on different colors. The Empire's forces would be split between the two, as it had still not been decided who the Empire would be allying with.
On and on, the car drove and a frowning Rerugen leafed through the packet. Fleet formation exercises. Siren attack and defense strategies against targets based on land and at sea. Patrol patterns. All of that and more was on the docket for the grueling eighteen hours that laid ahead of everyone. It was an appalling long time frame to go without breaks, except that one never knew for how long a battle might go on, especially against the Sirens.
There was a warning about the possible appearance of Siren forces and/or 'mirror seas,' and Rerugen sighed as he flipped to the back of the packet to look at the index for a definition of yet another new term.
Instead of an index, however, he found a few pages marked top secret. He raised an eyebrow and began reading through the pages stuck to the back where the index was supposed to be.
"For the eyes of the illustrious high-ranking members of the Empire's military… keep up the ruse… remarkable innovation… a second white silver…"
He blinked rapidly.
What had he just read?
He looked back over the sentence, his blood rapidly chilling despite the increasing speed of his heartbeat. "Additionally, a most remarkable innovation has been made. The planned conversion of…"
His heart skipped a beat as he skipped ahead. "The ship, named the SMS Tanya von Degurechaff, has manifested and seems to share quite the striking resemblance to… her… namesake…"
Rerugen's heart skipped several beats, and he collapsed into his seat, thrashing about.
"N- No, it can't be… not another one…" he mumbled from the back seat. His driver was saying something, but despite how cramped the car was, it sounded so, so far away.
Was she trying to kill him? Was that devil killing him right now, choking him to death?
"Sh- shit! Don't worry sir, I know where the hospital is! If I have to break every traffic law in the Empire, I'll get you there in time!"
Why, God? Why make another one?! WASN'T ONE ENOUGH!?
His heart palpitating, his stomach seemingly melting itself, his whisper-thin sense of balance getting sent out of the window as the car peeled away, dodging around cars and corners, Rerugen wasn't sure he wanted to be alive to see what two of that girl could get up to.
-OxOxO-
They'd spent the rest of the day preparing for the joint exercises. Going over terminology and methodology, when and what they might be asked to do, and above all, making sure they wouldn't imply that the Empire was deficient by failing to rise to the challenges they would be presented with.
Now, they were preparing to get onto a truck to ferry them to Hamborg at an early hour that had Tanya grousing at everyone and everything, including the other members of the 203rd who would be acting as guards for the various officials and dignitaries that would be observing the exercises, the nine who were traveling with her to act as participants in the exercise, the copy of her that was standing with about a dozen other sheships to wish them luck, and the human members of the base's staff who were doing the same.
Thankfully, a cup of Visha's coffee had worn down her lethargy and accompanying short fuse enough that she could have a conversation with one of the sheships who was traveling with them. Tanya walked towards where she stood, slightly apart from the dozens who were seeing them off and speaking softly with her sister, Roon. Tanya smiled in greeting as their pleasant conversation drifted away with Tanya's approach.
Yorck was one of the 'Six Elders.' The name was not because of the age of their hulls, but because they were the first six ships that Schugel had awakened and because they were the ones who had instructed the Empire in what they were and the sheships who had followed on how things worked.
Although her outfit was one of the more ridiculous, both because of how much it showed off and because of how ridiculously complicated it looked like it would be to put on every morning… if that was something sheships actually had to do.
"I am glad to see how many of you are here to see us off," Tanya said, pausing to take a sip of her coffee. A small cheer went up, and Tanya turned to address Yorck directly. "Would you mind if we had a short conversation?"
She smiled, not even the slightest bit uneasy, and nodded in the affirmative. They began to walk away from all the whirling movement and hubbub.
"I've been meaning to talk with some or all of the members of the Six Elders," she began without further preamble. Her easy going demeanor shifted, and she adjusted the gussied up officers cap that hung precariously from her head. "Of course. What can we do for you?" she asked.
"With the… complications in finding a leader for Nemonia, I was wondering if you all would like to be recommended to the Special Committee of Appointments and Ranks for candidacy?" she asked. "They've said that they have reached a conclusion, and I am… worried that they might have rushed the decision due to a lack of candidates."
Really, the last thing she'd expected to hear upon waking up was that they'd finished deliberating! She didn't have the slightest idea of who it might be…
Well, no, that was a lie. Considering how floral the language in the letter sent to her had been, she had the feeling that it was her that had been recommended to lead Nemonia, which…
Well, it was technically what she wanted, which was absolutely wonderful. Unfortunately, the metrics by which her work would be judged and could succeed were hazy and ill-defined, which would only compound the effect of the infighting that seemed ever-present in the navy.
Still, there wasn't technically a window for when applications would no longer be accepted, so if she got someone else in the running, she could have more time to think the prospect over more thoroughly.
"You really think we might be up to the task?" she asked, a hint of amusement in her voice. Tanya kept the dejection out of her own words as she replied. "At the very least, you are respected by everyone, regardless of their faction."
The smile on her face was vaguely familiar to Tanya; it was the smile of a coworker who was very politely responding in the negative. "We're certainly willing to help in the running of Nemonia, but we're not exactly representative of everyone's interests," she said.
She held up a fist and began counting off fingers. "We're more than willing to admit our preferences. Emden and I favor the ideals of the aristocracy, while Seydlitz and Thuringen both prefer the way the army does things," she said, counting four fingers as she went.
"Lützow favors the Lower Officers, and Elbing is…" she said, finally trailing off. She sighed ruefully. "Well, Elbing is far too nervous to outright say where she leans, but I think she prefers the Lower Officers as well."
She shrugged. "We haven't an inkling towards the Pirates, and while everyone respects us, our factions may not trust us to advocate for their interests," she finished. Tanya just nodded, keeping her resigned feelings off of her face.
"I understand," she said, not entirely sure she did. Visha certainly hadn't been so reticent to accept her recommendation to go to officer school, and no one in the 203rd had refused a promotion when she'd offered one. "If you find out who is going to be the leader, please tell me. The Special Committee of Appointments and Ranks has refused to tell me, and I would like to get familiar with whoever will be my commanding officer," she said.
The expectant smirk on Yorck's face told Tanya she thought she had a pretty good idea that the person across from her would be the leader, but Tanya refused to acknowledge the look. "Now, let's get to the truck. I want to go over everything one last time."
"You don't trust us to remember?" she asked, a small pout on her face. Tanya rolled her eyes. "I trust most of you to be able to do something that simple. I am much less sure I can trust Monarch with such a task," she said, unhappy that the black-haired sheship had managed to make the cut.
Viktoriya had told her the punishments didn't seem to have had an effect on the ship besides making her express her desires more circumspectly.
-OxOxO-
As Hans looked out across the open blue ocean, he couldn't help the feeling of nervous trepidation that slithered up his spine like a snake.
He'd spent less than a month at the helm of the Christian Krieger, a Tadeusz Kościuszko-class destroyer. It was one of the more modern ships in the fleet of the Empire, and he'd never wished he was back at the helm of the old Volserberg he'd come to appreciate during the war. That ship had been relatively modern too, but, most importantly, it had been confined to the snug waters of the Baltic rather than the vast openness of the Pacific, even if they were currently oriented south, towards Antarctica.
All the emptiness made him beyond nervous.
"All good, Magic-1 and Magic-2?" a voice to his right said. Tinny voices responded in the affirmative, and Hans was told that there was nothing unexpected they had to worry about. Having two mages acting as spotters and scouts was a luxury he wasn't used to, but he supposed, with how many older ships had been marked for conversion into sheships, that the navy was probably scrambling for jobs to hand the marine mages.
He'd heard that sometimes, three, four, or even five marine mages had been assigned to some scouts!
Still, his shift was supposed to end soon. With any luck, he might catch a bit of shuteye before they had to wake up and hear the Kaiser open the joint exercises in a few hours.
Nervously, he glanced across the deep, dark expanse of water that surrounded their early morning patrol. If nothing else, he was glad that nothing ever happened on the nightwatch-
Those same tinny voices began shouting, and before panic or nervousness could seize him, lights burst to life all around the ship, the alarm calling everyone to station blaring as loudly as the lights were bright.
A ship was speeding across the horizon. Trepidation seized Hans, but he kept doing his job as orders were barked out by the officer of the deck.
He was ordered to charge the ship's bearing, and he did so, unable to block out the shouting going on around him.
"They're not responding to any of the internationally recognized codes."
"They're flying our flag? What? Why wouldn't they-"
Then, just as the officer began to shout something else, the Captain arrived. As he was updated on the situation, the ship was identified as one of the Empire's. It had apparently been missing since they'd arrived, and it had been assumed it was among the ships not moored in a dock or contained in a harbor that had been lost.
Then, oddly, the ship began to slow. It still didn't respond to any codes, but it wasn't long before the ship on the horizon grew and grew in their vision, slowing as it approached them, until finally, it came to a full stop.
The tinny voices, which had been constantly receiving orders and relaying information, managed to speak at a moment when all other voices were silent. Hans heard them clearly, despite the interference and quality of the connection. "Sir, there's… bodies."
Hans felt his expression twist in confusion. He mouth what to himself, and then-
"NOBODY MOVE!"
Everyone ignored the order and whirled around to find themselves being held at gunpoint.
KA-BOOM!
The roof of the bridge was shredded.
As Hans felt fear and saliva coat the back of his tongue, he did his best to fall back on his training: assess the situation and await further orders.
Fear coiling within his chest, he did just that.
Standing before the assembled crew was a pair of what he had to assume were sheships. Despite being on duty, they were delivered newspapers everyday by a very harried, nearly retired courier mage to make sure almost everyone knew about every sheship that was awakening or had already been awakened prior to the Empire's arrival.
With all the designs and pictures he'd seen, it was hard to imagine they were anything but sheships.
The first was the one who'd shouted at them. The tall, pale woman wore a midnight black long coat and equally dark clothing. Her pants looked like jeans, while she didn't wear anything above the waist besides the cloak, a black, worn bodice, and an equally worn ten-gallon hat with a rusted star pinned to the front.
It was a wonder that the weapon she held was the last thing his gaze fell on. In her hands, a shotgun that looked more appropriate for hunting elephants than for use on humans was pointed at all of them, the barrels aimed towards them made of some kind of dark metal that was stained black around the rims of the barrel.
If she didn't have that exaggerated weapon and he were trying to walk her up at a bar, he would have judged her to be rather tall.
Compared to the hulking thing behind her, she was not tall.
The mechanical robot trailing after her, barely squeezing through the door, was a mess of rusted metal, jet-black, metallic armor, and blinking lights and bits and bobs that he didn't have the faintest idea as to their function.
"Against the wall, now," the woman with the gun barked. The captain looked towards the radioman, but she was aiming directly at them. Before either could do anything, they complied. Hans quickly followed them along with the rest of the bridge.
The hulking machine walked towards them and the woman with the gun began busying herself with the controls. It towered over them, leaning forward slightly. Atop its broad frame, a helmet decorated in the snarling visage of a shark sat, the smooth interior of the masks mouth pointed directly down at them. It passed, back and forth, until its gaze settled on the Captain.
"You are the captain?" it asked the man.
He nodded. "I am."
"I am."
The machine repeated his voice exactly. Then, the voice warped, repeating the words over and over, as if it were somehow a radio tuned to multiple frequencies at once.
"Stand down. Return to the ship to prepare for a boarding action," it said, voice replete with static and metallic screeching.
"Stand down. Return to the ship to prepare for a boarding action," it said, its voice warping, each word said in a different voice.
"Stand down. Return to the ship to prepare for a boarding action," it said, its voice a perfect facsimile of the Captain's.
It stood up just a bit straighter, walked to the console, and then sank.
Spears of dark metal, lined with rust and blinding light, lanced into the deck as the legs folded into the main body. Slowly, lines of creeping machinery crawled across the ground, searching for and making contact with every part of the bridge.
In front of the mask, several floating screens appeared, as if an illusion created by a mage. The voice, unmistakably the Captain's, spoke again, this time emanating right next to the console where the radioman usually worked, disconnected from the visage that had created the words.
The woman with the gun glared at them all. "If you cooperate, we won't have to hurt anyone," she warned.
She cleared her throat. "Now, we found that boat full of corpses in Antarctica. Lucky for them, they died on their own, seemingly. No signs of the Sirens. We came to return the ship and make contact, but when we found out what was going on here and that you were holding a joint exercise, we figured we'd help you fight off the Sirens when they interrupt it."
The Captain dared to take a step forward. "'When?' How do we know you-"
The woman leveled her gun at his face, an eyebrow raised. He audibly gulped and got back in line with the rest of the crew.
The woman smiled slightly. "Smart boy. They will come, because they always do. When they do, we want to help out. Unfortunately, if we just tried strolling in, we'd inevitably be stopped."
She shrugged. "So we're commandeering this ship," she said.
"Be thankful," the robotic voice on the monolithic robot said, "There is no safer place for a human to be than with a META ship."
The woman with the gun spoke into a device around her wrist. "Yuudachi. Once you're done playing with the flying men, take the rest of the crew captive. I'll be escorting them to the cafeteria."
She smiled sadly at them. "I've got some questions to ask."
Hans had a lot of questions of his own, but at the moment, he was more than content to stay as quiet and still as he could so that he didn't attract the attention of the woman pointing a shotgun at them.
He really, really wished that he was still at the helm of the Volserberg.
-OxOxO-
Although Tanya would like nothing more than to stay out of the limelight for the entire joint exercise, owing to her lack of experience in having participated in one, that was not an option. She was there to represent the Empire and convince everyone that the Empire was not as unfamiliar with sheships as it was.
Thankfully, the sheer number of participants, both in the number of sheships and the other, 'mass-produced' ships that the factions had brought meant there was only so much limelight for her to be in.
At the moment, she was helping escort the American carrier with a smattering of Azur Lane destroyers and cruisers, along with a menagerie of Azur Lane sheships, as they prepared for a simulated strike against Hamborg, which would be defended by the Crimson Axis and half of the ten Nemonian ships that had been sent.
Tanya and U-116 were around the USS Coral Sea, while Sulayaman Reis, Basel, and Yorck were escorting the HMS Vanguard. Viktoriya, Deutschland, Lübeck, Monarch, and Zealand were all on the opposing side. A sortie of jets had left the Coral Sea, escorted by airplanes generated by Enterprise, Langley Two, Unicorn, and Volga.
Tanya looked to her right. "Do you speak any English?" she asked the battleship dancing across the surface of the water.
The woman, wearing a sheer white dress and a long, trailing white fur cloak over the top, looked down at Tanya. If she had been allowed to designate the personnel for the exercise, she would have placed those she was most familiar with close to her, but such arrangements had been decided by chance because no one could agree.
She was starting to see the necessity of flying in a handful of neutral judges from Switzerland to arbitrate calls made by the judges stationed in patrol boats around the portion of ocean that had been parceled out for the exercise.
Apparently, these exercises had gotten very competitive in the past, and everyone agreed that limiting the chances of incidents occurring was for the better.
Lyon blinked. "I do."
Tanya nodded. "Good. My French is not great," she said, not mentioning that it had gotten better during the months she'd spent in the country writing papers for the military.
"So," Tanya continued conversationally, "do Siren attacks not differ that much from how we do them?" she asked. The rules for how they, as the attacking force standing in for the Sirens, were supposed to act weren't too different from what she might have guessed an ordinary navy would do.
The woman shrugged, her hulking guns moving fractionally as she did so. "In my experience, they do. They tend to try to knock out any human resistance first and then spend as much time as possible fighting against shipgirls before they leave," she replied.
Tanya hummed. "And if there aren't any shipgirl targets?" she asked, curious. The woman shook her head. "There almost always are… and I don't recall the ones they pulled off where there weren't," she replied. Tanya nodded in reply.
Tanya gulped and looked down at herself, scowling at her clothing. She had to wear the fucking dress again, and she was having to keep a passive barrier up just so that it didn't get soaked.
She could not wait for the charade to be over. Perhaps, if she was lucky, she would be allowed to keep the dress so that she might dispose of it in the most fitting way she could devise.
"Nervous?" the battleship asked conversationally.
Tanya shook her head. "Not really. Should I be?"
The woman shrugged, inspecting her equipment. Her rigging was bright white and impressive, but what most vexed Tanya's mind was that the woman seemed to be dressed up loosely like a mage of old, with the outline of a witch's pointed hat made of strips of golden fabric atop her head and a giant staff with a floating crystal hovering above it.
"Well, considering how well you apparently handled the Sirens when the Empire first arrived here," she started, "probably not."
Tanya blinked owlishly. "The Sirens? You think they'll attack?"
The woman shrugged. "But of course."
Tanya felt somewhat skeptical. "I held them off on my own when they tried to attack. Why would they attack with so many sheships here?"
The woman chuckled mirthlessly. "Mademoiselle, the presence of shipgirls in an area is a guarantee that the Sirens will eventually attack."
Before Tanya could ask another question, or even inform her subordinates that most were expecting an attack, she received a message from one of the American cruisers acting as the command ship for the exercise.
"Incoming aircraft!"
-OxOxO-
It had been hours, now.
It had been hard, to not be detected by the inhabitants of this world.
But the Empire did not have their technology, and so she observed through the eyes of an inconspicuous drone bobbing in the ocean.
The joint exercise had been going on for twelve hours. It was the perfect time to attack: not so early that those who were wary would be on guard, but not so late that those who were wary would be back on their guard due to the lack of time.
It was time.
"Begin the attack," she said, her mouth emitting the sound uselessly as the order was digitally transmitted to the units lying in wait.
They would accomplish their goals. Observer was sure of it. Had to be sure of it.
And because she had to be sure that they would accomplish their goals, she was.
-OxOxO-
A/N 1: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I think it'll take another two or three chapters and then the first arc will be done. I actually took some time to plot out the story (broadly) which has helped with writing it generally. Who would have guessed!
A/N 2: If you'd like to donate to support me monetarily, search for Sugarcane Soldier on the website of the Patrons.
Thank you to WarmasterOku, Afforess, UNSC_Kawakaze, Theewizzz, and Vee for supporting this story and everything else I write. Make sure to vote if you haven't yet!