Far away from the Sanctuary, out in the open ocean, the Sirens had finally come out in the open.
For the past few days, they had been trying to keep their eyes on the preparations Azur Lane was making for the planetary alignment, but the exposure of one of the Scavengers they had sent to hide around the island forced them to act earlier than planned.
But it didn't matter.
This wasn't like the previous siege on the Sanctuary, when they tried to crush the Kansen with sheer numbers. Sure, the planetary alignment was in full swing, and thus the portal was on the verge of opening, but even if Azur Lane did succeed in sending a few of theirs to the other side, it would take a while before reinforcements from the other world arrived. Even better, destroying it after humanity's delegation crossed it would come with an advantage since it would mean isolating a number of Kansen from their comrades indefinitely.
Waiting was the right choice in this scenario, and the Sirens had plenty of time to do so; besides, they couldn't afford any more mistakes after the flop that had been their attempt at restoring Tower's rigging. That's why they had opted for a different approach than usual this time; they had to avoid misusing resources as much as they could. This time, instead of a full-blown onslaught, they would take it easy, slowly chipping away at the Kansen defending the Sanctuary until they could walk in undisturbed and destroy both the Ineffable Entity and the humans' crude reproduction of a wormhole generator at the same time.
To accomplish that, they had plenty of aces up their sleeve, the Scavenger-Alpha being the first one, and only a decoy.
And as the Kansen scrambled to engage and neutralize the mass-produced vessels, the other Scavengers stirred in their hiding spots below the waves, ready to move out at a moment's notice.
When U-96 and U-81 resurfaced, they heard someone calling out to them.
"Over here!" They turned to notice Zuikaku and Alabama hurriedly approaching them, rigging out and weapons drawn.
As soon as the subs had launched the alarm earlier, the Sakura carrier and the Eagle Union battleship—being the closest ones to their location—had bolted over to help them.
The two pairs stopped short of each other, with the subs looking up at the taller women with panic in their eyes.
"It's behind us!" They shouted.
"It's okay, we're here now," Zuikaku said reassuringly. Her eyes drifted further ahead, where the water's surface was swelling and rippling unnaturally, bulging outward as if something massive was moving just beneath it. And something was, as the swelling advanced toward them at sustained speed.
"You two head back; we'll take care of this," Alabama said.
The two distressed subs didn't need to be told twice. They dove down right away and skedaddled out of there, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the monstrosity that had emerged from the continental slope.
As the two shorter Kansen fell back, Zuikaku and Alabama began squaring up, preparing themselves to confront the enemy. Eventually, right before reaching them, the bulge in the water erupted, forcing them to leap backward. From beneath the surface appeared a large creature covered in dark metal plates, traversed by yellow lights.
There it was, the Scavenger-Alpha the boys had warned them about.
It looked like any other Scavenger-type in every way; only this one was the size of a giant kraken. Its body stood before them, towering over them like an insurmountable wall, even if it was still half-submerged. Its tentacles were as thick as redwood trees, raising copious amounts of water as they came out of the water, flailing around haphazardly. It wasn't nearly as big as Tower's rigging, but it still cut an imposing figure, with its body alone—tentacles excluded—being as large as Geryon's whole frame but much bulkier.
The moment it appeared, it swiveled its eyes—a series of glowing orbs circling its upper body in a row—on the two shipgirls, letting out a low metallic screech that made the surface of the water around them ripple.
But the shipgirls didn't back down. This thing was too big to be let close to the Sanctuary. They had to stop it before it reached the island.
"We can't let it get past us," declared Zuikaku as the kraken flailed its thick appendages at them in a threatening display. "We're stopping it here!"
"Took the words out of my mouth," Alabama said, gripping her scythe tightly. They would have to leave the rest of the Sirens to their comrades, but they trusted they could take care of it.
As for the two of them, they couldn't pull any punches against such a threat, so they took a deep breath, steeled their resolve, and focused on their Cubes.
"Wisdom Crafting."
"Nagato-nee!" Mutsu called out, waving her hand when she noticed her sister approaching with Kawakaze and Kurama in tow.
"Mutsu, everyone, how are things going?" Nagato asked the group of Kansen as she came to a stop before them.
Mutsu had been waiting for her sister along with Kaga, Shinano, and Mikasa; everyone had their rigging out and was ready to advance, but they had decided to wait for their flagship as they'd heard she'd be joining.
"Siren vessels have been spotted forty miles ahead of us; multiple groups, all split from each other at the edge of our survey area," Mikasa said. "The most forward of our patrol fleets have already moved in to engage them, but the Sirens don't seem interested in pushing into our territory. As of yet, they've barely exchanged fire."
"Uh, weird," Nagato said, pondering her words. She was expecting to find a more dire situation once taking to the sea; instead, the Sirens seemed to be taking a more conservative approach this time. "What about the Alpha?"
"Zuikaku and Alabama have already engaged it," Kaga said. "Everyone else is converging on their position to help them."
"We are also very close," Kawakaze said. "We should do the same."
"Very well," Nagato said. "The sooner we take care of it, the better."
If the enemy wasn't willing to expose itself, she determined it was best that they capitalize on the situation and deal with the more immediate threat now that they had the chance. The sooner they took care of the Alpha, the sooner they could deal with the rest of the Sirens.
"I strongly advise against it," Kurama said, drawing confused gazes to himself.
"Why?" Nagato asked him. "That thing's huge, and it's right in the middle of our formation. If we let it run rampant, it'll send us into disarray."
"Trust me, it's precisely why they're so big that crowding around a Scavenger-Alpha is not a good idea," he explained.
"But... Zuikaku and Alabama; aren't you worried about them?" Mutsu asked him.
"I am; that's why Kaga and I will be joining them," he said, turning to glance at his lover, who responded with a nod of her head. "Together with them, we can take care of it in a heartbeat, but too many people are going to get in the way."
Nagato narrowed her eyes at him as she pondered his words. It didn't seem like Kurama was trying to pull another stunt like last time, when he had nearly gotten himself killed protecting the Sanctuary and its inhabitants. Though the current situation didn't require such extreme action, she couldn't help but worry about him nonetheless.
Kaga had made sure he got his head together after surviving that ordeal; she had even said that she had managed to get a promise out of him to stop being so reckless.
How exactly the white fox had managed that, Nagato could only imagine, the mere thought causing her cheeks to redden slightly as her mind wandered back to when she had caught the two lovers performing acts of debauchery while he was still recovering.
But since Kaga was going with him this time, Nagato felt she had nothing to worry about.
She cleared her throat to compose herself. "Very well, Kurama; you and Kaga may go ahead of us. Mikasa, tell the other groups not to intervene and to return to their positions. In the meantime, we shall wait here for an update from the front."
"Ryokai, Nagato-sama," Mikasa responded.
Kurama nodded at her before turning to Kaga. "Shall we get going then?"
"After you."
As Kaga and Kurama hurried along the waves to reach the location where Zuikakua and Alabama were fighting the Scavenger-Alpha, the white-haired fox couldn't help but notice the frown of concern on the shipboy's face.
"Is something on your mind?" She broke the silence, drawing him out of his thoughts. "You usually aren't this contemplative when heading into battle."
"I'm thinking," he replied.
"I can see that," she said. Seeing that he wasn't reacting to her prodding, she decided to insist. "Is this about your brothers?" She inquired, eliciting a flick of his ears in response. "If you are so concerned for them that you can't even focus on the matter at hand, then you should have stayed behind with Nagato and the others."
"It's not just that, Kaga," he grumbled in annoyance, glaring at her. "And I don't need babysitting from you. I'm well aware that hesitation can spell your demise in battle; I don't need you to remind me of that."
The unimpressed look she gave him prompted him to look down in shame. He heaved out a breath, already feeling regret for snapping at her like that.
"Sorry," he said. "I just… I have a bad feeling about this. I've never seen the Sirens use a Scavenger-Alpha as the tip of the spear for an attack. They are planning something; I'm sure of it."
As already said, the Scavenger-types were basically the Sirens' garbage men. An Alpha's job wasn't much different than its smaller kin; although instead of running around the place, it waited for its minions to bring it their spoils, which they fed to it like worker ants with their queen. Then it would simply process the spoils inside its own specialized body before releasing them, ready to be recycled for various purposes.
In short, Scavenger-Alphas didn't have much going on for themselves, aside from their sheer size and armor. They were resilient and certainly dangerous, but not the worst the enemy had to offer. So, unless the Sirens were finding themselves in dire straits after spending all those resources to restore Tower's rigging—which wasn't unlikely—there was no other reason for them to use that Alpha as they were.
Something didn't add up, which was why Kurama had insisted so much on not having the shipgirls engage it en masse; if it was actually just bait, then the fewer people took it, the better.
Moreover, Nagato's group was located right in the middle of their survey area. In other words, the flagship and her retinue were the center of their formation, and if they were to move from there, they would leave an opening for the enemy to pass through.
"What do you think we should do then?" Kaga asked him.
"I suggest we exercise caution," Kurama said. "And kill it quickly."
"I can get behind that."
With that said, the two sped up toward their destination.
As soon as I-19 had first launched the alarm, every Kansen deployed on the sea had snapped into action. The Scavenger-type that had attacked the two subs had already been neutralized, but there was no way to tell where the next attack would come from.
The entire fleet was on high alert, ready to take on anything the Sirens would throw at them, so it came as quite a surprise when the first wave of Sirens approached the survey area from the open ocean in plain sight, almost as if they were taking a stroll in the park.
Yorktown's group had been the first to have visual contact, and the carrier had immediately informed the Commander. The outer patrol groups of Kansen had moved in to engage, but surprisingly, the Sirens had all but turned their tails as soon as they crossed paths with the shipgirls.
Fearing some kind of trap, the Commander had ordered them not to set out in pursuit. So, the shipgirls had simply fired some warning shots before getting back in position, which the enemy responded to, but still not as fiercely as they were expecting.
After that, the situation quickly devolved into a weird back and forth, with the Sirens advancing far enough to elicit the response of the Kansen before retiring back to a safe distance, the shipgirls consequently doing the same.
The enemy numbers were also rather scarce, which justified this kind of approach, but still, such an exchange had already happened multiple times, and it was getting to the shipgirls' nerves.
It was a stressful situation for everyone, even for the Commander, who had to coordinate the entire fleet's movements from the Sanctuary. Good thing he wasn't alone this time, as he could share the burden of leadership with Nagato.
"…that's what Kurama said," the Priestess of the Sakura finished reporting to Ryan, who was listening through his earpiece. "We've already told the others to stand down as he and Kaga help with the Alpha."
"Thanks for the heads-up, Lady Nagato. For now, hold your position and keep me updated on the situation," Ryan replied as Nagato acknowledged his words and shut off the comms.
The Commander took a second to ponder her words. Maybe that was what the Sirens' plan was, he thought. Maybe they were prodding at their defense, trying to catch them off guard before making a big push. Maybe they were trying to get the outer patrol groups further away from their comrades in the back to pick them apart little by little. Maybe even the Alpha was just bait—a way to draw all the Kansen in the middle of the survey area, thus creating an opening to push through toward the Sanctuary.
"All Kansen on land, be extra careful from now on," he spoke through the comms again, sending a short but direct message to the Kansen assigned to the harbor.
He then turned toward TB, who was still monitoring the control panel of the ARC for any sign of malfunction.
"TB, how long before the portal is ready?" He asked her.
"The ARC is responding accordingly, Commander. Any minute now," she replied.
After acknowledging her words, he turned to the ARC. The flashes of electricity coursing all over its structure had let up a little as the contraption stabilized the small mass of black matter, which had reached the size of a bowling ball. Still not nearly large enough to consider the portal active.
In front of it, Emperor, Leviathan, and Freedom were waiting impatiently, tapping their fingers on their arms, bouncing on their legs, or pacing up and down. The three shipboys were well aware of what was happening out there, and they all appeared restless, the weirdness of the situation and concern for their loved ones causing them to fidget nervously.
Ryan understood how they felt: forced to wait in one place, unable to take action, while others risked everything so that they could eventually fulfill their duty, a duty whose outcome seemed all but certain.
He'd have loved to spare some words of encouragement, but the current situation required his undivided attention.
"Humanoid-type sighted in the central square!"
Now more than ever.
After acknowledging the cry of alarm, he switched channels and addressed the next recipient.
The alarm had come from Le Malin. She and her sisters were among the Kansen assigned to the harbor. Their job was to patrol both the port and the residential area in case the enemy tried to sneak in like Observer had done before.
Last time, the brainwashed Antiochus had sabotaged the energy shield. Because of that, the Sakura Kansen couldn't deploy it, and the Sanctuary had suffered heavy damage from the battle. To avoid a repeat, Ryan and Nagato had devised a plan.
"Don't let it get away!" Le Triomphant shouted. She and her sisters had been meticulously surveying the central square of the harbor when Le Malin noticed a strange glint coming from behind one of the empty stands.
Sure enough, it was a Humanoid-type. The headless set of armor with needle arms and legs had been lurking in the shadows of the harbor, avoiding the shipgirls and their survey routes, until it was caught by the two destroyers.
It had dashed away as soon as Le Malin launched the alarm, its lithe and light body allowing it to hover right above the ground as it pushed itself forward with the small thrusters on its back. Now, the two shipgirls were giving chase, but despite their speed, they were about to lose it as it weaved between the buildings and the back-end alleys of the Sanctuary.
"Soeur, it's coming towards you!" Le Triomphant shouted in her internal radio as the Humanoid-type rounded a corner, disappearing from sight.
Then a loud clunk resounded in the air. Le Malin and Le Triomphant hurried around the corner and were greeted with the sight of L'Indomptable keeping the Siren down with her shield. Their sister stomped hard on her rigging, pushing the headless armor further into the ground as it tried to fight back, then she pointed her gunlance at it and fired point blank.
The following explosion raised a copious amount of dirt, tearing the Siren's body apart and forcing Le Malin and Le Triomphant to shield their faces from the debris.
When it settled, they found their sister standing there, unscathed, with a smug expression on her face, gun smoking, and the Siren's remains scattered around the place, a hole in the pavement in its place.
"Good job, L'Indomptable," said Le Malin, making her sister beam proudly at her.
"Yeah, soeur, good job," Le Terrible, L'Indomptable's scouring partner, piped up from the side, dusting herself off. "Only, next time, could you please refrain from damaging the freshly repaired Sakura Empire base we are supposed to protect?" She snarked in annoyance.
"Bite me, soeur," L'Indomptable shot back. "I took down the infiltrator. It's all that matters."
"L'Indomptable, the last thing we need is the Priestess filing a letter of complaint to the Cardinal," Le Terrible retorted. "I don't want to get scolded because of your recklessness, so behave."
As the two of them bickered, Le Triomphant turned her attention to the Siren's remains. This was the second time she had seen a Humanoid-type, the first one being at the Basilica, when the Worm-type had made its first appearance. Inspecting the body up close, it looked exactly like she remembered. The needle arms and legs, the headless body, the tentacles... Wait, where were the tentacles?
"Um, guys, something's missing here," she said, drawing the others' attention.
They perked up and walked over to her. Taking a good look at the broken armor, the thing was indeed missing its main weapons; the laser barrels that were supposed to be attached to its back in the form of tendrils were completely absent.
"Now that I think about it, aren't these things supposed to be taller?" Le Malin mused.
Her question hung in the air. Now that they had the chance to examine the Siren more calmly, without the urgency of the chase, they noticed that Le Malin was right. The armor was smaller than it was supposed to be, almost destroyer height, when, normally, Humanoid-types were taller than the average adult man.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the harbor, startling them out of their thoughts. They looked around, trying to figure out where it came from, then their gazes settled on the antenna-like contraption that could be seen from above the roofs of the buildings in the distance.
It came down like a domino's tile engulfed in a plume of smoke, all before the destroyers' shocked eyes.
"Merde," Le Malin cursed under her breath. Without hesitation, the four of them bolted.
It took them a second to realize what was happening. That wasn't a normal antenna—that was the ASD.
The Sirens weren't aiming for the shield generators but for the anti-Siren device that had played a key role during the previous attack on the Sanctuary. There was a risk they would go after it, but everyone figured that, with the shipgirls' tight surveillance, the enemy would be hard-pressed to make it close enough to do something about it.
But apparently, it didn't work. The Sirens had gotten past, and Le Malin and the others were already feeling guilty for letting that happen.
After all, the smaller Humanoid-type they had encountered had no weapons; it was harmless and incapable of bringing down the ASD on its own—or anything, for that matter.
So what was it doing there? Well, it didn't take a mastermind to figure out; it was bait. A scout, likely sent to act as a decoy for the Kansen patrolling the harbor. There were probably more of them hiding around the place, tasked with the job of drawing the other shipgirls' attention and luring them away, all to allow the bigger, armed Humanoids to walk up to their goal undisturbed.
Those were the thoughts plaguing the four destroyers' minds as they ran as fast as they could. Their speed allowed them to make it to the scene before any of the other groups, but what they found there took them by surprise.
The knocked-down antenna was now lying on the ground like a broken tree, having crashed into another building. The concrete cube at its base—the control room—was also destroyed, torn apart by the same explosion that had alerted them earlier.
That was exactly the sight the four of them were expecting to find, but it wasn't what had them pause in surprise. There were two full-fledged Humanoid-types, allegedly the culprits behind the attack, but they weren't alone.
Sparviero and Lenin were also there.
The four destroyers arrived right on time to witness the icebreaker throwing one of the Humanoids into a wall with a devastating strike. The blow was so powerful it tore the yellow Wisdom Cube straight out of the Siren's chest, making the armor literally crumble on itself upon impacting with the far wall.
This while the second one was being swarmed by a horde of miniaturized aircraft, frantically flailing its damaged tendrils and limbs in the air to get rid of them. But there were so many of them it could barely move, and its thrusters were too damaged for it to take off, so all it could do was writhe in defiance as the planes threw themselves at it one after the other, its armor gradually falling apart, until it fell to the ground and stopped moving.
Sparviero recalled his aircraft, opening his pocket dimension for them as they moved in like a swarm of bees returning to the hive. Only then did he notice the four destroyers' presence, standing by the side as they watched the end of the fight unfold.
Not that it could be called a fight. The shipboys had caught the two Humanoids by surprise right as they brought down the antenna. With the element of surprise, it didn't take much to deal with them, especially considering how well the two shipboys knew their enemy.
"Guys, what are you doing here?" Le Triomphant asked the two of them.
"Oh, hey, fancy meeting you here," Sparviero said. "Same as you, patrolling the harbor."
"Good thing we were close enough to deal with these things. Who knows how much damage they'd have done if they had run away?" Lenin said, dismissing his rigging as he caught his breath. "We are here to help."
"We don't need your help," L'Indomptable said with tight lips.
"What just happened says otherwise," he retorted, walking up to Le Malin. She greeted him with an enthusiastic peck on the cheek, which left him blushing slightly in embarrassment, much to her sister's annoyance.
"Shouldn't you be with your brothers?" Le Malin inquired after.
Lenin cleared his throat. "Well, the situation was deteriorating, so we said our goodbyes and moved out to join you."
"Actually, only he will join you," Sparviero clarified. "Kurama's already gone with Nagato, while I'll go lend a hand to the outer patrol groups."
"How's the situation out there?" Le Terrible asked.
"Manageable for now, but the Sirens get bolder with each passing minute," he explained.
The destroyers grimaced at his words.
"And with the ASD down, it will be all the harder to hold them off if they get too close," Le Terrible said, looking at the broken antenna obstructing one of the paths leading to the docks. The device was supposed to be another way to keep the Sirens at bay while everyone waited for the portal matter to settle; without it, they had one less means to deter the enemy.
Lenin and Sparviero raised a questioning eyebrow at that.
"So the Commander didn't tell you?" Sparviero asked.
The destroyers shared a confused glance.
"Tell what?" Le Triomphant inquired.
A grin appeared on Lenin's face.
"This isn't the ASD; it's just a random radio tower with extra flavor to make it look like the real thing," he said, pointing his thumb to the broken contraption.
"What?!" The four of them exclaimed in unison, disbelief etched on their faces.
"So all that work was for nothing?!" L'Indomptable exclaimed.
"Why wouldn't he tell us?" Le Terrible wondered.
"Well, I can't say I have a good read on his thoughts, but why do you think he placed guards at the shield generators and not here? He probably wanted to give the Sirens an easy target to draw them out in the open," Sparviero said. He was pretty sure the Commander had been expecting an infiltration; that's why, as soon as Le Malin had launched the alarm, the Commander had contacted him and Lenin, telling them to stop by the fake ASD before they headed to the docks.
"But then where's the real thing?" Le Terrible inquired.
"We don't know; we weren't here when it got replaced with the fake. I'm pretty sure only the bulins could have done it so quickly," Sparviero said. "If he had it relocated somewhere, it must be well hidden."
The destroyers exchanged looks, still not satisfied with the answer.
"Hey, the man is a bit paranoid, if you couldn't tell. If he's decided to keep it a secret, he must have his good reasons," Lenin shrugged. "I say we trust him on this one. He's never led us astray until now, am I right?" He said, offering them an earnest smile.
"If you say so..." Le Malin said, relenting to his words.
Sometimes it was hard to tell what was going on through the Commander's head. Maybe the man didn't say anything to his subordinate this time because they wouldn't have worked half as hard knowing the device they were protecting was fake, and he needed them to firmly believe the opposite if he wanted to draw the Sirens out in the open effectively. Or maybe he straight up forgot about it; he had so much on his plate these days it was a miracle he hadn't collapsed from sheer stress already.
Whichever the case, the infiltrators had been dealt with; that's what was important.
And now Sparviero was free to move out.
"Anyway, the vanguard has reported more Sirens approaching. It's time for me to join them. See you later, everyone," he said with a wave of his hand and a nod of his head.
"Good luck out there, brother," Lenin said, waving back at him. Then he turned to address the destroyers, only to notice that, around them, more of the groups assigned to patrolling the harbor were starting to arrive, all drawn by the commotion and sharing the same bewildered looks on their faces.
"Oh, joy, more explaining to do..."
"This is so aggravating; are they even trying?" Akagi grumbled as she commanded an airwing of her foxfire planes to attack another formation of Siren drones.
Yorktown was doing the same a few feet beside her. "This is unusual behavior even for the Original Siren. Aquila, keep your eyes peeled for anything that seems out of the ordinary," she said, turning to the other carrier in their group.
"Yes, Miss Yorktown!" Aquila responded from behind them.
Theirs was the main group of carriers assigned to this side of the survey area, and the responsibility of taking care of the Siren drones launched by the enemy carriers fell on them.
But if the skirmishes happening on the surface of the water between the Siren vessels and the various groups of Kansen could barely be called battles, the skies weren't any different.
The enemy drones were flying in formation, their sparse airwings half-assedly attempting to break through the line of defense the three Kansen had put up. While Akagi and Yorktown dealt together with the bulk of them, Aquila was keeping herself further in the back. Following their instructions, she kept her own aircraft out of their way so that she could promptly deal with anything that slipped through their line, which admittedly wasn't much considering the skill of the two senior Kansen and the scarce number of drones present.
They had been going at it for a while now, but the ease with which they were accomplishing it was making it more of a chore than anything, and as much as they wanted it to be over, the enemy carriers were too far for them or any of their other comrades to reach without exposing themselves to the enemy.
It was starting to get annoying, so much so that Akagi was considering ditching Yorktown and Aquila to go against the Scavenger-Alpha, if only to get a bit more of a thrill out of this ordeal.
But alas, the orders were to stay put and hold position, so she did, fulfilling her duty, even if with a bit of chagrin.
She scoffed at herself, wondering when exactly she had become so meek.
Knowing full well where she had to lay the blame, her gaze inevitably shifted to Yorktown. The multiple sparring matches with her Eagle Union rival had managed to teach her some humility while also giving her an outlet to vent her frustration. Thanks to that, she had found a new purpose: to become stronger and eventually surpass her. It was her way of regaining her pride and self-esteem as she tried to leave behind everything regarding her failure to catch the Commander and cure her own sister.
When the last wave of drones was shot down, she breathed through her teeth and directed her gaze further ahead, where she could see the other shipgirls engaging the Siren vanguard. The enemy ships looked so small, and she could barely hear the boom of their cannons from so far away.
"Now that we are done, should we send some of our planes to help them?" Aquila chimed.
"Good idea, Aquila," Yorktown said. With a hand's motion, she commanded her rigging, and her flight decks tilted upward as a bunch of miniaturized fighters appeared before taking off into the air. After a few seconds of flight, they switched to their full size and fell into formation, heading for their comrades further ahead.
Still craving some action, Akagi followed them with her gaze until it settled on the horizon. With her superior senses, she managed to make out a series of dots marring the azure sky, slowly becoming more and more distinct as they approached.
A wicked grin appeared on her face. "I don't think those planes alone are going to be enough. We should go as well," she suggested, making the other two carriers give her a questioning look.
"But… didn't the Commander say to hold our position?" Aquila tentatively asked her.
Akagi chuckled. "Just wait, little fledgling. Things are finally about to take an interesting turn..."
Barely even a second later, Helena's voice rang through the comms.
"Multiple new enemy contacts detected!"
As each group dealt with their own issues, Zuikaku and Alabama had their hands full with the Scavenger-Alpha.
The two of them had done the right thing, deciding to go all out from the beginning. The monster's armor was too thick for Alabama's rounds and Zuikaku's planes to break through effectively, but that's where the two shipgirls' Wisdom Crafting came into play.
Despite the sheer size and thickness of its tentacles, Alabama's giant scythe was more than enough to cleave through them. As unwieldy as it looked, the battleship could swing it with ease, bringing it back to human size whenever she needed to dodge an attack, to then reposition and retaliate.
By doing so, she had already cut off three of the monster's tentacles, and every time she did, it would reel back and unleash a rage-filled screech as the freshly severed tendril sank into the water.
As for Zuikaku, while her weapon didn't allow her to perform the same feats as the battleship, the searing blade was more than enough to cut through the plates covering the Alpha's body, much like a blowtorch. The Sakura carrier would take advantage of the openings created by her comrade to jump on the monster's body, pierce it with her sword, and then let gravity do the rest of the work, sliding down its form and leaving deep scorching gashes all over it.
The two of them were in the zone, their attention undivided on their opponent as they tried to decipher its next move. Up until now, the Alpha hadn't done much aside from standing in one place and flailing its thick tentacles at them. Being hit a single time by one of those things would spell their demise, and they knew it, so the sooner they disabled them, the sooner they could deal the final blow to it, and then they could go help the others.
Helena's message only aggravated their sense of urgency. As soon as they heard it, they shared a glance and nodded at each other.
The Alpha's tentacles were now reduced to half of their initial set of ten, and its armor plates were slowly coming undone. Now it was time to press the attack and take it down.
But before they could make their next move, the Alpha gathered its remaining tentacles around itself, using them to cover the lower half of its body, blocking access to the wounds they had inflicted on it during the fight.
As they paused in confusion, the two shipgirls heard a loud, sizzling hiss coming from the Siren. The armor plates covering its body took on a glowing orange hue, and the water around it began rippling and steaming, as if it was boiling.
Zuikaku and Alabama understood what was happening at a glance. The monster's body temperature was rising at a considerable rate.
It needs to be said that the insides of a Scavenger-Alpha were as hot as a furnace and were used to melt down the materials brought to it by the other smaller Scavenger-types, turning them into clumps of molten metal before releasing them to be recycled. Occasionally, an Alpha could use them as weapons, spitting them out of the top of its head like an erupting volcano.
And that's exactly what it was doing.
The shipgirls also knew that, thanks to their lessons with the shipboys, but they weren't expecting it to resort to such a move. The strain of the feat would deplete its energy, leaving it open to their counterattack while also softening its metallic hide and making it more vulnerable to their attacks.
That is, if they survived the rain of death coming down on them from above. When the energy buildup reached its peak, the Siren unleashed its attack with a loud boom, tongues of fire and lava coming out of the "mouth" atop its head.
Zuikaku and Alabama managed to dodge the first spurts, but the rain was too thick, and all they could do was huddle down, using their rigging to shield themselves.
Even that, though, wouldn't last. The flow of scorching material raining down on them was just too intense, and the Alpha didn't seem anywhere near stopping. Some of it was already trickling through their melting rigging and over their skin, making them grit their teeth in pain while the rest landed around them. The heat coming into contact with the cold water caused a series of scalding explosions all over the place.
All of a sudden, right when they thought they couldn't take it anymore, a sudden flash of blue in the corner of their eyes made them perk up. They raised their confused gazes right on time to see Kaga's giant fox familiar vault over them and slam full force into the Siren with a devastating tackle.
The Alpha careened backward, ending up on its side with a loud splash. It disentangled its tentacles from around its body, flailing them around in a desperate attempt at straightening itself up, but in doing so, it exposed its glowing underside.
The rain of fire had also come to a stop, allowing Zuikaku and Alabama to come out of their cover. Without missing a beat, they bolted upright and dashed forward. Fighting back the searing pain of the burn wounds, they willed their battered rigging to take aim and unleashed every piece of ordnance they had at their disposal into the Siren's thrusters as soon as they came close enough to it.
Both Alabama's all-out attack and the bombs from Zuikaku's aircraft launched in a continuous barrage were more than enough to seal the Alpha's fate. A series of localized explosions rocked its entire body from the inside as they fed it their firepower from where the sun didn't shine, and before long, it stopped moving, its tentacles coming to a standstill in the water.
Zuikaku and Alabama panted in exertion, their sighs turning into ones of relief. Struggling to hold themselves upright, they turned to Kaga's familiar and watched as it disappeared in a wisp of blue flames, right as the aforementioned Kitsune pulled up to them with Kurama in tow.
"You two, you good?" The male Kansen asked in concern upon noticing the battered state they were in. Their clothes were scorched in several places, and their bodies were covered in burn wounds where the molten material had reached their skin through their rigging, which were reduced to barely recognizable lumps of steel.
The two of them tried to pass it off as nothing as they tried to hold themselves upright, but with the adrenaline wearing off, the pain started to kick in, and they began stumbling over the waves at their feet.
Kaga quickly moved in to support her kohai by the shoulders, concern written on her face. "Zuikaku, are you all right?"
"Phew, thank you, senpai. That really came in clutch," the Red Crane breathed out, managing to smile through the pain. She was in much worse shape than her battleship comrade. Her miniaturized flight deck was much smaller than Alabama's rigging, and thus it had left her more exposed to the Alpha's attack.
"Yeah, you were a lifesaver, Kaga," Alabama said, slightly less damaged but still equally exhausted. "Now that this thing isn't holding us up anymore, we can go help everyone else."
"But of course," Kurama said, staring pointedly at her. "Only, we are going to help them; you two are going back to the Sanctuary."
Zuikaku balked at that. "Wait, Kurama, we can keep going a little longer. Right, Alabama?" She asked the battleship, who nodded vehemently in agreement.
"Don't be ridiculous," Kurama scoffed. "You did well holding your own against the Alpha, but you are running out of energy, and your rigging is too damaged. Not to mention those wounds look awful."
"But we are okay, really!" Zuikaku insisted. "Kaga-senpai, please tell him…"
"Quiet now. He is right," Kaga said sternly. "You both are in no condition to keep fighting. In that state you'd just be a hindrance, so I'm sending you back to the harbor. Vestal will look at your wounds, and you can take a rest."
Zuikaku and Alabama looked down in shame and ultimately relented, knowing full well that she was right. The last thing they wanted was to hold everyone back by pushing themselves too hard, so they acquiesced, much to their own chagrin.
As Kaga prepared to summon her familiar again so that Zuikaku and Alabama could ride it back to safety, Kurama glanced to the side at the motionless body of the Alpha. That bad feeling was still gnawing at him, and the fact that he couldn't find anything out of place in the Siren's body to validate it was making it even worse.
He shook those thoughts out of his head. Dwelling on that would only distract him. What mattered was that it was dead, and nothing remained in the area disrupting their patrol formation; now the inner patrol groups could finally focus entirely on aiding their comrades in the vanguard.
Right as he was about to turn his back on the dead Siren, something caught his attention, and he did a double take. From the torn metal bowels of the dead Alpha, a weak, yellow light began flickering back to life. It began pulsing, growing more intense with each passing second. It spread all over the body like a drumming heartbeat, relighting its hulking frame with energy.
The others also noticed this and instinctively took a step back. Yet, to their surprise, it remained still. Not even a twitch came from the body, even when a low, increasingly menacing hum was added to the pulsing light.
"Is that normal?" Alabama asked in concern.
"No, it's not," Kurama said. "Let's get out of here, quick!"
They didn't need to be told twice. Kaga began dragging Zuikaku away, and Kurama went to support Alabama, as she was also stumbling on her feet, but before they could get to a safe distance, the humming became deafening, and the energy buildup reached its peak.
Then the Siren released a powerful burst of light. Like a blinding explosion, it engulfed everything around it, the Kansen included, and when it subsided, there was no trace left of any of them.
The only thing left was the dead body of the Scavenger-Alpha, whose light began slowly dimming until it died down for good.
Enterprise breathed a sigh of relief as she lowered her bow. Seeing her relaxing her posture, Amagi and Helena did the same.
The Scavenger-type they had just taken down was floating in the water, its motionless body covered in dents and holes from the shipgirls' attacks, but they were still keeping their guns trained on it in case it still had some life in it.
"That was a close one," Enterprise said.
"Yeah, that thing came out of nowhere," Helena said. "Good thing you were here with us, Miss Amagi," she added, turning to the Kitsune.
"Please, I did nothing. I'm just glad I could be of assistance," Amagi said, gently waving her hand.
That Siren had come out of nowhere, ambushing them from below just after Helena launched the alarm. Her SG radar couldn't detect underwater threats, so a Scavenger-type sneaking up on them would have been a real threat—unless they were already anticipating such an attack. The earlier encounter between Albacore and I-19 with one of the creatures had made everyone more vigilant, and Amagi, thanks to her sharper senses, had managed to warn the blue-haired cruiser just in time to avoid the worst from happening, effectively saving her life.
"Oi, you guys!" A sudden voice was heard, calling out to them.
It was Cleveland. The tomboyish cruiser was waving at them from afar, advancing toward them with Belfast and Admiral Graf Spee in tow.
"What are you doing here?" Enterprise asked as the three of them came to a stop.
"We heard a commotion and decided to come over to check," Belfast said, her gaze swiveling on the body of the Scavenger. "Is everything okay?"
Enterprise and her group had been assigned to the inner sector of the survey area. Not being too far out to sea compared to their comrades at the edge meant they were closer to the other inner patrol groups, so much so that they could see some of them even with the naked eye.
And so it made sense that, upon hearing the sounds of cannon going off so close to them, Cleveland and the others would rush over to check.
"Yes, everything is under control now," Helena said. "We were just about to head to the frontline to help the others when this thing attacked us."
"We should report this to the Commander first, inform him that there are other Scavengers lurking about," Belfast said. Knowing that one of those things was this deep into the survey area was troubling. Being so close to the Sanctuary also meant that their surroundings were littered with islets and little specks of dirt, the perfect places for those Sirens to lie in wait for an ambush.
The maid was right; they needed to tell the Commander. They reached out to him with their comms to inform him about what happened, but imagine their shock when Ryan told them that some of the other inner patrol groups had gone through the same.
"Is that true, Kommandant?" Spee asked in concern.
"You heard that right," he remarked. "Yours is the fifth ambush notice I've received from inside the survey area."
"That's odd," Amagi mused. "It seems like all the Scavengers in hiding were ordered to come out at the same time."
"Which was right after Helena detected the arrival of the Siren reinforcements," Enterprise supplied. "There's no way it's a coincidence."
"Maybe they wanted to keep us here? They might have been trying to prevent us from joining the others," Helena suggested.
"I agree, Helena," Ryan said. "The new Siren wave you've detected is too large for this back and forth to continue. The others in the vanguard will be overwhelmed soon if we don't intervene. You all need to go help them. I'm telling the same to the others in the inner sector."
"Wait, Commander, but if we all go, who's going to stay behind?" Cleveland interjected. "There might be more Sirens hiding around the place. If we leave the area unprotected, they might decide to attack the Sanctuary."
"No need to worry about that, Cleve; the harbor has already been secured," Ryan said. "We'll mount a line of defense here in case they decide to try their luck. You can fight without qualms."
"That's reassuring, Commander," Enterprise said. "If there's nothing else, we'll be on our way."
"Very well; stay safe out there, y'all… Hey, what's that noise I hear over there? Uh, guys, can you hear me? Guys? Guys?!"
But no matter how much he insisted, they didn't respond.
Unbeknownst to him, the six of them had vanished into thin air, engulfed by a strange burst of light. The only thing left in the area was the dead body of the Scavenger, floating idly on the water's surface.
AN: Pop quiz: What do Enterprise, Helena, Amagi, Cleveland, Belfast, and Admiral Graf Spee have in common?
Tip: not as warships, but as characters in Azur Lane.
Next Chapter: Harbingers of Hope and Doom