Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Annette looked on as the ship she was on sailed through the grey waters of the Fleet Countries. The notorious harsh waters of the nation became frequent sites for the new arrivals of the continent. Lena, a friend she thought was dead, came back with tons of friends. She later invited her to join her in her job in the service of the Royal Navy. A nation that Lena served for a year while got trapped over there.

She had no problem with it, of course. The Republic began to demobilise its soldiers, and many went unpaid. Besides, no one wanted her anyway due to her involvement in the Eighty-Six suffering. To her surprise, she was assigned to a battleship— a floating gun battery with tons of armour, along with its massive size.

"Call me pessimistic, but the waters here are worse than the North Sea"

The girl looked at the ship's owner, or rather, the warship itself. Standing tall with her short blonde hair braided in her head, her eyes were as red as blood, like those of the Meika clan. Her dress shone bright red, like a Royal Guard uniform. She held the wheel tight with her gloved hands as the sharp bow of the ship cut through another wave of water. Her red cape was as red as her uniform.

"Miss Annette?" She looked at the person beside her on the panel. "Speed?"

"All ahead full," Annette looked at the panel and told the lady. "Miss Wales"

HMS Prince of Wales, the second ship of the King George V class battleship of the Royal Navy, was one of the most modern battleships of the Royal Navy. That was the ship she was on, and the lady was the manifestation of the warship. She was a kansen or ship girl, as the humans called them. A real living weapon: ships in human forms, in layman's terms. This ship or lady was her caretaker so far, the one ship she had been working on.

"Steady on the speed," Wales said, looking at the girl. "Good god, nothing breaks down this far out"

"That was my job," The technician said. "To fix things and ensure such things can be fixed fast if they occur"

The battleship threw a punch at the girl at her side on her arms.

"Wales," Hood's voice came in through the radio on the bridge. "We are about to enter a stormy area. Are you ready?"

Both looked ahead through the glass of the bridge, where HMS Hood was in the lead as they sailed into a section where the sky was grey and the sea was black. They were on a sailing trip from the Fleet Countries, having picked up some messages and military gear, and were en route back to the Azur Lane base.

"We are ready," Wales replied as she looked back at the girl at her side. "Annette, are you ready?"

"I am," The girl replied, mustering her courage. "I have seen worse"

Thunderous roars filled the air as rain began to fall.

"Oh, girl", Wales grinned as the waves began to build up all around them like a prey that entered a killing ground. "You haven't seen anything yet"

Wales was not joking when she told her that the real thing was way worse. Massive waves of grey water slammed into the hull time and time again. Annette held on to her dear life as she hugged the battleship tightly, as another wave slammed into the ship.

The sharp bow cut through the waters with ease, but the waves crashing into the hull began to do something to the lady.

"Miss Wales," Annette felt wet on her hands. She looked up to see a line of blood from the battleship's nose. "Your nose..."

"I know," The battleship replied, unflinching in the face of the storm. "I am bleeding"

The kansen's very soul was the ship itself; if the ship became damaged, so too would the kansen.

"These waters are called the ship killers, indeed," Wales said, determination on her face. "Now I get why the Fleet Countries tended to avoid these routes"

Thunder kept getting louder like cannon fire. Light from above transformed the cold darkness into day with each passing moment. The rain obscured the whole scene, and they could only see the grey sea and the pouring rain.

"Where is HMS Hood?!!!" Annette looked forward as the ship right in front of them was no longer there, replaced by a massive wave of water that dwarfed them with its shadows. "Uh...oh..."

BAM!!!!

The wave slammed into the whole ship, and the glass barely held as the girl flew off into the air.

"Hold on!!!!"

The girl slammed into the battleship that stood in her place with one hand at the ship's wheel, and the other caught Annette before her back slammed into the ship's instruments.

"Annette!!!" The battleship said, letting the girl down. "Get to the map room behind me and tell me which direction to go!!!!"

The girl nodded and ran back to a room right at the back of the bridge, where a table fixed to the deck and maps lay on top of it. The girl arrived inside and looked at the nearby compass.

"Go right!!!" She shouted. "Another 100 km to the portal!!!!"

"Keep me on this path!!!" Wales shouted back as she moved the wheel hard. "Drift from this and we are done for!!!!"

Her time on warships taught Annette one thing. The sea was a cruel and harsh place. Any mistake could mean death. In the waters of the Fleet Countries, it could mean their graves on the seabed.

"Yes, sir!!!"

The battleship turned the wheel as the ship turned to the right. The wars kept coming, but the massive battleship cut its way through with its enormous hull and sharp bow. Annette kept her eyes on the map and the compass as they braved the storm. With the poor visibility, they had to rely on themselves with the battleship at the helm, the girl at the map and the compass.

"I will need to add electronics here on a later date", Annette made a mental note to herself as the ship drifted left and right while she held the table with her bony hands.

Three hours later...

"What happened?" Wales and Annette looked at the two in front of them. "You both looked like shit"

"We got caught up in a wave that threw us into a bit of a wave mountain", Hood began, her clothes and hair still wet with water, wetting the concrete dock. "The glass broke and water rushed into the bridge."

"Holes were punched into the hull, and we were both busying trying to close them," Lena said. Her hair and clothes were hardly better than those of the lady at her side. "Not to mention the rain kept pouring"

They thought they had it worse, but the two had it even worse than they did.

"50,000 old assault rifles from the Republic?" Theo asked Annette as they sat in a cafe in the Azur Lane base. "Those are heavy and bulky if you ask me"

"The Republic was desperate for money," The technician replied. "Besides, there will not be a war anytime soon anyway. You know how my nation thinks of military"

"Yep, underfund the military until the day the Legion came," The man replied, taking a sip of the coffee from a mug in his hands. "The same goes for the Federacy. They sent the refugees back to their homes. Even if they had no homes, they were sent back regardless. The army began to demobilise its soldiers en masse. Hell, the lower ranks' soldiers began to resent us for having a good life for being adopted into the nobility"

"The real issue is what will happen after this," Annette did the same, taking a sip of her coffee in the mug in her hands. "Too many mouths to feed"

"Yeah," Theo concurred. "The Legion's last offensive into the Federacy took out over 50% of the arable lands with the radiation and all the buried explosives. It will take decades for them to be arable again. Not to mention, the severe loss rates"

"I know," Annette closed her eyes. "That is why my nation sold those guns to the Royal Navy for food shipments"

"That is where your nation did right," Theo sighed. "Mine? They were not willing to lift a finger on this"

"My family was from Giad, let me remind you," She told him. "They could not appear weak, especially when you had foreign powers staring right at you"

"Is that why this time Lena is going back, she is going to take the kansens with her as well?" He asked her. "Back channels?"

"Theo," The technician looked at him. "It was barely a year after the Legion War was over. No official channels exist. Besides, the foreign service of all nations was very inexperienced at this point after over 10 years of war with the damn Legion"

"Will you go back too?" He asked her.

"No, I already got a day job," She replied. "Besides, my people do not like me for my Giadian blood anyway"

"What kind of job?" He asked, his eyes glinting. 

"That's classified. My new employer wanted me to keep this a secret. It is above my pay grade."

Annette looked at the three Royal knights in front of her: King George the V, Duke of York and Howe.

"So tell us, Miss Annette," George spoke. "Can what we ask of you be done in your nation?"

What they asked of her was rather mundane.

"You mean the gun barrels for the Lion-class battleship?" She asked. "If that is what you want, it can be done after we repair the Republic Military Industry"

The barrels for these ships were big and way longer than the barrels of the Interception cannons, naval guns. Military procurement was nothing new to her anyway.

"Very well," The battleship broke out a smile. "The Royal Navy shall issue a loan to the Republic to repair that industry of yours. The Admiralty wanted them to be ready in two years. Can you get it done?"

"I am not sure if that is a good idea," Annette replied. "They might embezzle a lot of money"

"Worry not," Howe said. "We will take care of it"

"Also,"  George raised her fingers. "The Admiralty wanted to see if the Illustrious-class aircraft carriers could be modernised to modern standards for jet aircraft. They will ask a couple of Fleet Countries experts to come to have a look"

Stella Maris undoubtedly sparked their desire to have a jet carrier of their own.

"That's all for today," The Knight Commander spoke as she stood up.

Annette could not help but notice how the Royal  Navy went very far for all of this. They gave her orders verbally rather than in writing to leave no trace. From the guns to the carrier modernisation, not a word was written on paper whatsoever.

It was a day after Lena and the others returned to the continent, but she could sense tensions in the air.

She noticed the German and Russian kansens following her around lately. Her answer came the next day.

"The jet engines ordered by the Iron Blood and Northern Parliament will arrive in two weeks. Ensure they reach the buyers and assist them in any way you can"

The Republic sold off old jet engines from before the war to the two nations. The issue was that those things were way old, very old. Relics before the Legion War, hidden in god knows where in old abandoned warehouses.

Annette put down the letter on her table and went to bed.

Little did she know, a pair of blue eyes appeared in the shadow near the table and picked up the letter close to her face before putting it back.

"The Republic sold its engines to the Iron Blood and Northern Parliament," Duke of York told King George the V. "They will arrive here in two weeks"

"Is that so?" The Knight Commander replied. "I suppose, it wouldn't hurt if we take a peek at them before they arrive"

"Thou are going to the Republic?" The vampire asked. "What about that sweet Annette?"

"Keep a close eye on her from a distance, " the Knight Commander replied. "If things go out of control, intervene as you deem fit"

Chapter Text

Annette looked on as the cargoship came to a stop at the dock. She could see her fellow Albas, all female, in their Prussian blue uniforms at the railings. She could see Liene, Rie, Mercy, and so many others. The wooden drawbridge connected the ship to the dock as they all disembarked, carrying suitcases and backpacks.

"Hey, Annette,"  Liene said as she shook her hands with her friend. "Nice weather you have here!!!"

"This is tropical weather," Annette looked at the sun beating down on them. The heat was so intense that she had already begun to sweat. "Hotter than our home, that's for sure"

They all laughed at the comment.

"Look at the ocean," Rie said. "It's very blue, good thing I brought my swimsuit"

Annette looked on as they watched the blue ocean and discussed enjoying a swim at the nearby yellow beach. Her focus was on the two massive crates coming down from the cargo ship. The on-board crane moved the two crates down to the dock.

Annette looked at the two crates; they were massive. Big as a car and long as a train cart. She looked inside to see one enormous engine with holes at the back. The technician swore that they did not even bother to check the engine before they sold it.

"Fido," 

The scavenger moved to her. He loved being here to do a lot of work. His master ordered him to remain here to help Annette with her work.

"Bring them to my workshop," The girl said with annoyance in her voice. "They haven't even bothered to check the engine"

The robot nodded and connected the two crates with the carrier mouth at his back and began dragging them to the workshop. Annette walked right behind while looking at the manifest and specifications.

"These are civilians and not even military jet engines," Annette said, her tone hot as the sun beating down on her. "Now I am gonna have to deal with the engines before the handover"

They walked past the academy, and some kansens noticed them.

"This is Z1, reporting," Z1 said through her phone, her eyes fixed on Annette and Fido, who were looking at the two massive crates on the robot's back. "The packages have arrived"

She was on the second floor and could see Annette swipe open the workshop door with a card at the panel. The massive steel door opened, and the robot walked inside with Annette right behind as the door slowly closed shut.

"Understood," Bismarck, on her phone, spoke back. "Are the Russian kansens near you?"

"Nein," The destroyer looked around. "I haven't seen any of them today"

"Good," The battleship replied. "Keep looking at the workshop. I will secure the entry"

"Jawohl," The destroyer replied.

Bsiamrck sat in her office. She did not expect this to be so easy. Yet, access to new jet engines was too much to resist. There had been requests from the Russians to buy jet engines, but they declined. It was not long before they learned that the Russians bought them as well. So the Iron Blood bought one as well.

"Prinz Eugen," Bismarck looked at the heavy cruiser in front of her table. "Try to get in there with Annette and get the engine as fast as possible"

"Jawohl"

"Dear Saint Magnolia," Annette looked inside the engine. "Where did they keep this thing?!!!!"

There was dust everywhere, and the engine was very oily. Everywhere she touched, there was an oil slick. She had to clean it before the handover.

She grabbed a water hose and began to connect it to the engine. The water sprayed inside as the oil slick came off, and the engine became a bit cleaner. Next, she grabbed a bottle with a spray head. She sprayed in detergent to clean off the engine further.

She breathed in the new, fresh air and looked at her work.

"One jet engine cleaned," She said. "Good work if I might say so myself"

Then she heard a ringing on the phone near the workshop.

"Yes," Annette picked it up. "This is Annette speaking"

"Ah, Miss Penrose," a voice replied, with a teasing tone. "Would you be so kind as to let me in to see the engine that my country bought from your nation?"

Annette knew who it was—the one and only Prinz Eugen. Wales taught her to deal with the German kansen somewhat, but dealing with her can be annoying at times.

"I will be right up", Annette put down the phone. She grabbed her lab coat and walked up to the elevator. She was on the second floor of the basement. She arrived on the first floor and walked to a small steel door beside the massive steel door.

She pressed a button near it, and the door slid open. Prinz Eugen walked in, seemingly uncaring and with a teasing look on her face.

"Do you want the engine right now?" Annette asked, uncertainty on her face. "I would appreciate it if you could wait"

"Sorry, Frauline," The heavy cruiser replied, her hands in the air. "I got my orders, I have to get it back by today"

"Ok then," Annette sighed, looking down at her feet. "Please follow me"

The girl led the kansen inside down the path she came through.

"Here you go," Annette pointed her fingers to the engine she had put so much sweat into cleaning. Her visitor seemed rather curious and walked around the engine several times.

"It was a civilian jet engine before the war," The girl said, walking to a table nearby and grabbing a manifest. "I just finished cleaning them for you"

"Cleaning?" The heavy cruiser said, her eyes fixed on the girl. "There was no need to do that, really"

"See all this oily floor, and dusty water all over the place?" Annette looked at her feet, and the kansen followed her gaze. "They kept this thing in god knows where, probably inside a warehouse filled with cobwebs and dust. On top of that, they left oil inside this jet engine so it would probably malfunction as soon as you start it"

"On a second thought," Prinz Eugen looked away after hearing the girl's explanation. "I could wait"

Months later, Lena and others came back along with newcomers.

"I am not surprised," Annette said, sipping her cup of coffee in the canteen. "The Feds always treated their soldiers as expendables"

"Is it that bad?" Wales said, sipping her tea from the cup in her hands. "I am shocked"

"Before the Giad Revolution, only the nobility could enlist in the military," The girl answered the lady's uneasiness. "After that, commoners could also enlist, but the nobility still got the preferential treatment. Then, there are Free Regiments, a private military force of the nobles. They were allowed to retain them even after the revolution. After the severe losses on the front, the government had no choice but to allow them back in. These guys in the regiments were mistreated badly due to their mixed blood and races, thus they were how should I say... "

"Glory hounds," Wales spoke, putting down the teacup. "Seeking glory no matter the cost. I am a Royal Knight too, dear, I know that"

"They were also a political tool for the nobles, too," Annette added, noticing the uneasiness from the lady sitting across her. "To regain power from the commners and to restore their old privileges. Now that the Legion War is over, they are trying to turn things back to the old ways"

"Then, what's the point of the Revolution?" The battleship asked, seemingly interested in the ordeal. "What's the point of going through all of it?"

"Power, Miss Wales," Annette looked up, her eyes meeting Wales's eyes. "The nobles who had the imperial family in control clashed with the ones who wanted to replace them. The only thing that changed is the ones in power, nothing more. Like my country, it just changed from kings to nobles. Democracy? That's just a sweet word"

BONK!!!

"Keep speaking like that," The battleship bonked the girl in the head. "I might make you my captain"

"AWWW!!!!" The girl moved her hands to her head, where the battleship hit her. 

"This place is a bit crowded," Wales looked inside the canteen. "Is it not?"

"I mean," Annette began speaking after a while, having suppressed the pain in her head," I think this place was intended to hold at least a few hundred at a time. Not whooping 500 hundred or more at a time"

Lines upon lines of Gil's soldiers stood waiting to get their lunches. There were only a few food stores in the canteen and only one drink stand. Thus, the canteen was very crowded with both humans and kansens alike.

"Look at the lines," Annette said. "People will have to wait long to get their lunches"

"I wish we had a bigger canteen with room for people to enjoy nice and quiet," Wales said.

"Damn, this line is too long, I am hungry!!!!"

"You are not the only one who is hungry!!!"

"Get in line!!!"

Most of the kansens were from Eagle Union, and they began a shouting match with Gil's men. Thus, in addition to being crowded, the canteen was also very loud with all the chatting between the humans and kansens.

For no reason whatsoever, the Commander called Annette to meet him in person.

The girl made her way through the hall of the Commander's office, which looked like an old post office requisitioned for military use.

The girl stopped at a door. "You called for me, Commander?"

"Yes, come on in," A voice replied as the wooden door swung open. "Annette, please take a seat"

A man in a white naval uniform said to her. His black hair and blue eyes looked at her with worry on his face. Behind him, Hood and Wales stood tall, like a tower. Belfast was at the door and gestured her in.

"Is something the matter?" The girl asked as Wales walked to her and brought her to teh chair right across the man. "Am I in trouble?"

"No, girl. You are not in trouble. It is your nation that is in trouble," He said, picking up something from the drawer of his table. "The engine your nation sold that is"

Annette looked at the newspaper, which featured a picture of a plane with a jet engine, adorned with a red star and a bear symbol on the wings, in the headlines.

"According to the intel," Belfast said, standing behind the girl. "The Russians reverse-engineered the jet engine they got from the Republic. As a result, the Russians at the moment got jet fighters in service to compete with the Germans and us"

"But it is a civilian jet engine," Annette said, her voice shaking. "It is not for military use!!!"

"Annette," Wales put her hands on the girl's shoulder. "A jet engine is still a jet engine. Your country might have given one secret to the Russians that might make your country look bad in the eyes of the Eagle Union"

"As of now, many in my nation thought of your country as a communist collaborator," The commander told her, his face filled with worry. "As a result, for your own safety. You will have to move to live in the Royal Dorm so Prince of Wales can take care of you better"

Annette's back ran cold at the word.

"Diplomatically, this is a disaster for the Republic," Hood said, after looking at the girl. "Don't feel guilty, this is not your fault. The Eagle Union just sent a diplomatic protest to Lena and screamed in her ears about informing them first about any purchase of jet technology from the continent"

"Wales, help the poor girl settle in the Royal Dorm, would you?" The Commander said, looking at the girl whose face looked like she was a dead person. "Her life might get difficult after this"

"What have I done?" Annette said to herself, hugging her knees as she sat on the bed in a room of the Royal Dorm. "Now, everyone is going to hate me"

Wales stood there at the door, hearing a faint cry from inside. She wanted to go in, but what the girl heard today broke her to say the least. She stood there listening to the girl crying herself to sleep. Only when she heard silence did she open the door.

The girl, with tears on her face, was lying on her chest, deep in the bed. Her face was buried deep on her pillow. The lady closed the door and walked away.

"Sorry, I should have been there to advise you"

Chapter Text

"They severely underestimated the Russians' ability to replicate the jet engines," Lena told Annette. "It was not your fault"

Lena told Annette during breakfast at the Royal Dorm about the latest event. The dining hall was truly massive for the Royal Navy, enough to fit a whole battalion of soldiers. Royal Kansens were all over the place, sitting and chatting while enjoying breakfast all around the table they sat.

"Though to be fair, even if we do not sell to them legally, they would have tried other methods," Lena added, her friend staring at the coffee in her cup.  "You know how corrupt our country was"

"Right"

The corrupt nature of their country was perhaps the one thing that would allow military secrets to get out easily.

"With the Feds beginning to withdraw their support, they needed foreign loans and you know money to keep up their lifestyle," Annette sipped the hot coffee. "They loaned us to the Royal Navy"

"Yes, in a way," Lena sipped her tea. "But at least we are far away from food riots and whatnot"

"Yeah, the people are still pissed at the Bleachers for abandoning them," Annette put down the coffee mug on the table. "Not to mention, they now have the biggest crisis to deal with"

The crisis was the rebuilding of the Republic. Hard labour and others that the Alba had long abandoned. Hell, they complained about labour so much that the capital was still in ruins.

"Colonel Wenzel had to bring in labour from the Federacy to rebuild my home for the meeting," Lena added as she put down her teacup. "They were so resistant to work that I honestly wondered how the hell they were going to go back to normal"

"What did Miss Hood tell you?" Annette asked as Lena cut a piece of bacon and a fried egg in her plate. "I heard the Eagle Union voiced a diplomatic protest"

"Oh, they sure hell did," Lena put the bacon on her plate in her mouth, chewing it. "In fact, they sent Miss Enterprise to chew me about it. She just told me. Next time, tell her first"

"Just like that?" Annette asked. "I thought it would be harsher"

"Miss Enterprise picked me up from the dead, if I might add," Lena told Annette. "Besides, she is by far more reasonable than her bosses back at the Eagle Union. But she did tell me that the Eagle Union Navy expected something from this"

"Let me guess," Annette knew what they wanted. "They wanted a jet carrier of their own"

"Pretty much," Lena replied. "They wanted two, actually"

"Ok," Annette narrowed her eyes at her friend. "How do you suggest we do that?"

"The Fleet Countries experts will come again to inspect the Essex-class," Lena said. "If they can be modernised, the Fleet Countries will prepare three massive dockyards for this"

Annette looked on as she walked into the docks where three massive ships with extended flight decks sat in the water. About two dozen people in the indigo naval uniforms of Fleet Countries walked in and out of the three massive ships.

One was from the Royal Navy, and two were from the Eagle Union. One was Essex-class, one was Yoktow-class, and one was from the Ilistrous-class. They took about an entire da,y and they gave Annette the initial reports.

Only the Ilustrious-class and the Essex-class were eligible for the modernisation. She input the data into the PC she had in her room at the Royal Dorm.

"Yeah," Annette looked at her enormous PC on the table in front of her. "I would need a bigger table"

Not that the table was small to her taste, but the PC and its gear were too big for the wooden table. The monitor alone occupied the table; its CPU and power unit were equally massive right under the table.

"Also, I should maybe ask them to make a data room to keep confidential information"

Azur Lane had digital technology too, but it was inferior to what the continent had. Smartphones and tablets from the continent fetched a very high price due to how they were far better than what the Azur Lane factions had. Not to mention the powerful portable computers.

While paper would be a good choice, it would also be an easy way for spies to get secret information. Besides, she was good at stuff like this anyway. Perhaps she was so busy that night that she slept on the table.

Wales sighed as she looked at the girl, her eyes closed, and her face was on the wooden table. The monitors were filled with folders and pages containing words and pictures. She could hear the girl's snores and the sound of her saliva coming out of her mouth.

The battleship grabbed the girl with her arms and carried her to her bed. She put the blankets over the girl who fell into a deep sleep. Then her attention turned to the computer itself. Her eyes scanned the pictures and files.

She looked back at the girl. "Sorry," 

Annette woke up, and then her blood ran cold. She looked at the monitor. She got up faster than a bullet and rushed to sit right in front of the monitor. The files and the pictures were still in place, and no signs of anyone touching anything.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at them. Her stomach growled as the girl looked at the clock. It was far past breakfast, and it was almost 12.

"Fuck my life," Annette shut down the PC with a press of a button on it. "This is not the Republic military"

She had gotten so used to the Republic's loose rules and military that she often missed Breakfast and frequently woke up late.

"Miss Annette," A voice came from outside the door. "I have some food for you"

The door opened, and a maid walked in with a plate full of food for her.

"Thank you, Miss Belfast," Annette sighed as the maid put the food on the table for her. "I caused trouble for you again"

"It was not my fault, alright!!!! I asked you to lend me the helmet for a day and you refused!!!"

"You should not have tried wearing it without permission!!!!"

Annette looked on as Z23 and Z1 argued in the Academy's classroom. In front of the technician was a helmet with a camera lens shattered.

"Z23," Annette looked at the destroyer. "Care to explain?"

The German stood in silence as the woman asked her.

"I kept the helmet to myself," she said, looking away with a shamefaced expression. "Z1 tried to take it from me, and we got into a fight. We dropped the helmet and it slammed so hard on the floor...that made it look like this"

The technician picked up the helmet and looked inside. She pressed something on it and smiled as her eyes were blue from a play from the broken HUD inside.

"This thing is a prototype anyway," Annette said, putting the helmet down. "I will get it fixed in a few days"

The technician packed the helmet into her bag and stood up. "If that is all, excuse me. I have a meeting to attend"

The woman left the room, but Z23 followed right behind her. "Something the matter?"

"Well, I had the job of leading you to that meeting anyway," The destroyer replied. "It is about the Úlfhéðinn, the exoskeleton armour suit"

"You nation liked thing recently," Annette asked as the German kansen came to her side as they left the Academy. "What happened?"

"We have the concept of heavy infantry, and they thought one could become a tank with this new type of suit," The German kansen replied, her hand behind her back as she led the way. "It was wild back home when they got the first batch of those armour uniforms. Hell, a  cult emerged and calling tanks useless when they could have hoards upon hoards of armoured infantry"

"Your faction seemed to treat them like magic potions," Annette said as the massive Iron Blood dorm area came into view. All the buildings were adorned with red flags with black crosses. "I guess it is like children who have new, very good toys to play with. Forgive my language"

"No problem," Z23 looked away with a red face. "Because we tried to wear them and ended up breaking them quite a lot"

Annette rolled her eyes as she thought about it. Selling armour suits without proper training and advisors, what were the Feds thinking?

It was like the Feds were becoming like the Republic in their carelessness. Or it was just pure desperation to make money after years of war with the Legion. For all their power and influence, the last Legion offensive pushed the Federacy to its limits. Half of the farmlands became wastelands and could not be used for agriculture. Most of the livestock were likewise very low, and they had to kill them en masse to survive the last Legion attack.

In terms of economics, selling these armour suits in exchange for food and other commodities seemed like a fair trade. They had tons of these anyway. Hell, some of them might be very old, too. Like the Republic, the Feds probably considered selling old items to replenish their coffers.

"Humans are humans after all," Annette spoke as they entered the Iron Blood dorm.

"Let me get this straight," Annette spoke as she looked at Bismarck. "You ordered 20,000 armour suits and somehow you already broke down about 200 of them. Am I getting this right?"

"Ja," The battleship replied. "We need them repaired before sending them to Iron Blood"

"What do you think I am? God?!!!!" Annette shouted as she took in what she heard. "You broke the most sophisticated armour suits. Not just a few but 200 of them!!!! That cost a fortune!!!"

Bismarck's words sent Annette's ear ringing. For simple, reckless, or sheer carelessness, they somehow broke 200 armour suits in a day. That alone cost a fortune, and something that would not usually happen in the Fed's army other than in battles.

"I know," Bismarck raised her hands. "We would pay you a premium in exchange for getting them fixed"

Annette's hands formed into fists until Z23 stood at her side.

"Fine," Annette calmed down a bit as she saw Z23's distressed face. "I will send you the bill later"

At the workshop...a few days later...

"Thank you for your help, Akashi," Annette looked at the small green cat with tools in both hands, fixing the broken sit made of armour. "I was ever good at repairing these things"

"No problem,nya," The repair ship replied. "As long as I get paid, no troubles"

Annete asked for the help of the repair ship to fix the armour suits, as well as help from Gil and his men. Thus, they were in the workshop, installing metal and fixing the cables inside the suits.

"These things were from before the war," Gil said as he looked at one. "Must be an old version"

"You can tell?" Annette asked him. "How long before the war?"

"A few years," Gil said, putting down the wrench in his hands. "These are the old models, easier to fix as they were not as sophisticated as the new ones I had"

"Would you be interested in selling some of them?" Akashi's eyes became pink rubies as she looked at the man. "I can pay a good price for it"

"I will think about it," He replied before going back to fixing another suit. Akashi went back to her work with a smile on her face about the possibility of buying armour suits. 

Annette walked back to the Royal dorm with a heavy mind.

"What did the Germans pay them with?"

"Do you have it?"

"Yes, they are right here"

A group of men in grey dock workers' uniforms addressed a group of Giad's soldiers in steel-coloured military jackets in the Feds' only port: Kalt Meer.

"No one sees you, right?" The Giadians asked the men. "This is a crucial delivery"

Behind them were ten massive steel containers in the dock; the night was dark, and the men seemed very eager to sell the containers and their cargo inside.

"Good, here are the payments," The Giadians threw a bag filled with yellow ingots to the dockworkers. "Now get lost!!!!"

The dockworkers looked inside the bag and smiled brightly as they walked back to their cargo ship. The Giadians opened one container.

They grabbed the flashlights and saw a massive steel plate inside. They saw a note stuck out near the plate.

"KMS Bismarck main belt armour plate, have fun with it,

Best regards, Ella Von Hamburg"

The men smiled as they closed the container's doors and checked other containers.

"All had armour plates, boss!!!" They said to the man in charge, who had red hair and eyes. "We are clear!!!"

"Get them back to the research facility," He told his men. "It is time to teach those foreigners a lesson!!!"

Chapter Text

Annette was in her office as usual, looking at the damage report of HMS Hood after another trip in the Flee Countries' water.

"Yeah, keep sailing like that, it's going to cause even more damage," Annette looked at all the dents on Hood's hull. "The design flaw, perhaps?"

It was a trend that she noticed after several trips in the harsh seas of the Fleet Countries. The waters were horrendous that the Fleet Countries, who had not been out in the sea for a decade, began to issue warnings about dangerous sectors and conduct more surveys after some cargo ships sank in storms.

Many seas had opened up, thanks to cooperation with the Royal Navy and the Eagle Union. Yet the waters were too harsh on some ships.

Strangely, the Royal Navy kept Hood's hull damage a secret, even paying her extra to remain silent.

"And ordered me to watch you closely," Wales said, standing right behind her. "To keep this from getting out"

"Seems rather simple if you ask me," Annette said, gazing at the battleship behind her. "Why goes so far?"

"Unlike me, my dear Annette, Hood and so many others were from old designs from the days of the Great War, an older generation if you might say," The lady answered her question. "A lot of ships in our fleet are old, so imagine, my dear Annette, what others would think when they hear that half your capital ships got damaged in a storm"

"You mean some unwanted military issues and the weakening of position?" Annette said as she closed the pictures and opened a file with words. "Or how it would reduce the Royal Navy's fighting capabilities?"

"Your observation served you well," Wales commented. "It is political, they were worried about, on top of dealing with the Sirens"

"Is this what they were in a rush to get Lion-class battleships into service?" Annette asked, turning back to look at Wales. "Is this something related to the building of steel factories in the Fleet Countries and the Republic?"

"You keep asking questions, Annette," Wales closed her eyes a bit. "But yes, it is related. Your nation seemed rather not to want to pay for trade and other things in hard cash, so Lena came up with the idea of melting down the Legio wreckage for steel to build the Lion-class battleships. That is fine by us, we get steel for our warships and they get food, fair trade"

"Since the work is automatic, the cost would be cut by a lot," Annette turned back to her work. "Since they would not bother dealing with those anyway"

The Legion's wreckage covered the land and, in itself, was a massive steel graveyard lying around, but the cost to deal with it would be enormous. Lena offered the Royal Navy a business proposal to melt down the metal for use in the construction of new warships. Annette did not know how much, but at least there were trillions of steel lying around.

Similarly, nations jumped on this idea and began to trade the plentiful wreckage for scrap in the foundries of the Fleet Countries and the Republic to generate revenue. Technically, it was the Royals who funded them, but steel was still war material nonetheless. Besides, it was easy money in the eyes of the nations. They could get rid of the hated traces of the Legion and pay for food while they were at it.

"I heard you are going to the Federacy's capital," Annette said, looking at the calendar. "Is something the matter?"

"It was to negotiate about the trade of the walking tanks and other things like currency rates and trade deficits," Wales replied.

Annette looked out at the surrounding area of the residence that the Federacy had prepared for them in the capital. She could not help notice prying eyes, both civilians and military alike.

"Theo told me that you were under house arrest here before Lena came back"

Wales said as she stood at her side, looking out the window.

"After what the Republic did and the deteriorating war situation, it was normal,"

Sankt Jeder, the capital of the Federal Republic of Giad since the Giad Empire.The seat of power of the most powerful militarised nation on the continent. Its armies were feared throughout the continent and were the most numerous due to its history of warfare and large population.

The city was her prison after the fall of the Republic, where the hate for the Alba went through the roof to the point that she was under house arrest for her own safety.

"I did not know why," Annette looked out at the massive city as far as her eyes could see. "But I feel better being at the Azur Lane base than being here"

"You told me once that your family was from here, right?" Wales said as she put her hands on the girl's head. "Want to pay it a visit?"

The mention of visiting where her family came from intrigued the girl.

"Is that ok?" Annette asked, looking at Wales. "Would I trouble you?"

"I can use some sightseeing to be honest, "The battleship replied as she took Annette by her arms as they walked to the closet.

The journey to the old Penrose estate was not very long, as it was on the outskirts of the city. They did not get attention due to the disguise they wore.

"So they turned it into slums for the poor," Annette said, looking forward at what would have once been a vast estate of her ancestors, now a city where tall buildings, dotted with clothes, filled the land. "I should have guessed"

Wales walked into the slum, Annette following behind her.

"You want to know something funny?" The battleship said as she looked at the people in poor clothing. 

"Sir?" The girl asked. 

"Industrial revolution on your world and mine are not so different," Wales said with hands behind her back, looking at the long bread line near a store where people, young and old, both men and women, with baskets in their hands. Their eyes twitched as many had their hands over their belly under the clothes. "The poor suffered and whatnot"

"The Legion was intended as a means to lower human deaths on the battlefield," Annette followed her gaze. "But in the end, it almost brought us to extinction"

The memory of the Legion War was fresh on everyone's mind. The refugees in this slum could attest that much, fleeing the Legion's relentless advances with nothing but clothes on them.

"What's the difference between them and the Siren, really?"  Wales asked the girl at her side as they sat down at a bench near the road. "They both killed humans, and both our worlds had to deal with them"

"Humans made the Legion, and they turned on us after the Giad Empire fell." Annette looked at the night sky. "The creation intended to save humans became our biggest killers. Unlike the Sirens, you had no idea where they came from"

"Like me?" Wales looked at Annette. The girl looked back, noticing the uneasiness in her red eyes. "Weapons like us?"

"Kind of," Annette replied as she took in the battleship's explanation. "Also, the fact that the Legion meant business when it came to killing us"

Annette looked at the sky, and Wales followed her gaze.

"Before you arrived, they began a process of terraforming to kill us all with the Eintagsfliege. Blocking sunlight to cause massive starvation, making a sort of ballistic missiles to push us back. They would keep going until we become dust."

The battleship thought back about it. The girl had a point. The Sirens would have done the same if they meant business in killing humanity. In fact, they could have wiped them out in a year if they wanted to.

"They took the sea from you but did not push into land to finish you off as if they wanted you to fight hard or desperate enough to make your race in the first place."

Desperation of humanity on the first day of the Siren's arrival, fleet after fleet sank along with their human crews. They raided coastal cities and towns with impunity until humans found a solution.

The kansen race. The weapons to fight back against the Siren onslaught.

"Just as the Federacy and so many nations crafted the Eighty-Sixth Strike Package to hold back the Legion tides," Annette compared the Azur Lane and the unit she served. "Yours succeeded while ours failed"

"Not if you counted the fact that Lena brought us here to push them back"

There was no denying that Lena brought much-needed foreign support in the war against the Legion, yet the nations like the Federacy claimed the credit.

The road back was uneventful until the two came across a very long convoy of military trucks. Wales took the girl and herself off the road as the trucks drove past them with little care in the world.

"What the hell?!!!!" Wales shouted at the trucks. "Watch it!!!"

The last truck stopped, and the soldiers on it disembarked. "You got a problem with us bitch?!!!!"

"There are people here!!!" She looked at herself and the girl beside her. "You could have killed someone!!!"

The men took out guns and pointed them at them. "Want us to fill you with bullet holes?"

Wales was about to reach for the sword under her clothes. Anette held her as she grabbed the battleship's arms.

"We are terribly sorry," The girl pleaded. "We are lost!!! We mean not to disrespect you!!!"

The men retracted their guns and walked back to the truck before starting the engine, sending black smoke with a terrible smell in their faces as the truck left the scene.

"You bastards!!!!" The battleship raised her fists as the smoke cleared from her face, her blood hot as a heated iron right out of a steel plant. She looked back at Annette, who walked closer to the road along the tracks of the convoy. "Annette?"

The girl knelt and picked up a large piece of metal from the ground near the tracks, which was almost as big as her palm.

"This is..." The girl looked closer and turned to the battleship that knelt beside her. "...a part of ship armour"

There was no mistaking it, the thickness of the steel, similar to what she had touched on Wales's battleship armour plate, and so many others.

"Can you let me hold it?" Wales took off the gloves as her bare hands exposed themselves. The girl did as the lady asked, putting the metal in the lady's hands. As soon as the steel landed in her hands, she felt a rush of anger course through her brain, her face turning red for a few seconds, and her eyes flinching. An anger she had not felt since the day Bismarck committed her friend to her fiery oblivion in her past life.

The battleship stood up, and Annette followed suit.

"You are right, Annette," Wales gave it back to Annette with a smile on her face. "This is indeed a part of a ship's armour. You learned fast, young girl"

The smile turned to a grimace as she looked at the convoy on the horizon.

"You know where it is from?" Annette asked. "It looked like a ship's armour to me"

"It is not normal ship armour, my dear girl," The battleship said as she put her gloves back on. "That right there is a bloody battleship armour!!!"

Battleships were warships with heavy guns and armour to slug it out in battle. The ship would be mighty in battle. Despite the advantage of aircraft carriers, the battleship, such as her and her sisters, was still very potent.

"Wait?" Annette said as she followed her gaze. "Are they building a battleship?!!!"

"They are not building one dear," Wales took the girl with her arms as they walked back to the residence. "That is German's style belt armour for the Bismarck-class battleship"

Horror struck Annette's heart as she took in the information.

"You could do the math," The lady said. "Could you not?"

The Feds are researching how to deal with kansens...

Annette thought about it in her mind.

"War is coming, my dear Annette"

Chapter Text

Late August 2153... somewhere in the Fleet Countries...HMS Hood...

"Are you sure about this?"

"Sir, I am sure," Wales said to an old man in a dark blue admiral's uniform, with a white naval cap featuring a crown and an anchor symbol on his head. "The Feds are up to something!!!"

"Tell me again, HMS Prince of Wales, are you bloody sure that the Feds, after more than ten years of war with the Legion, would go to war with us right after?!!!!" The man said to her in a high voice. "This is no laughing matter!!!!"

Hood and Lena stood behind him as he sat on his chair in his room on Hood's new ship, out in the ocean with only five of them on the warship so far.

"She is not joking, Vice-Admiral Holland," Hood said. "The Feds really are up to something"

"The Feds had access to this piece of ship armour from a Bismarck-class battleship," Annette looked at the steel on the man's table. "I can only assume they were already working on making new weapons to kill battleships or kansens since last year"

"I am so fucked!!!!" Holland shouted as his hands slammed on his table, startling all in the room. "Now we are going to have to fight the most powerful military on the planet!!!!"

"Lena," Hood said as she picked up two glasses from her coat. "Is the wine ready?"

"Ready," The girl picked up a bottle with a five-hued flag from an icebox near her feet. "Cold and icy"

The lady put down two glasses in front of him, and the girl poured wine into them. The man drank them in succession as his temper cooled.

"Now, where are we?" He said, putting down the cubs. "What are they working on?"

"The maid corps is working on it," Hood told him. "But Miss Annette here had interesting speculations"

"Tell me," The man said, looking at the technician. 

"I think they are working on an anti-ship missile," She told him. "A very powerful missile to sink a battleship like Bismarck to the bottom."

The man eased a bit; an anti-ship missile was nothing new to him. The Germans had that in the form of Fritz-X, which once almost sent Warspiet to the bottom of the ocean.

"Why's that?" He sat back up. "For all we know, they could have worked on something else"

"Because the Feds had the missile production capability," Annette replied. "They had tons of cruise missiles lying around, rendered useless by the Legion jamming. They had better military production than the Republic, I am betting on my life now that they already had a working anti-ship missile, and they will use it"

"You two leave," He told them. "I will need to talk this out"

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Archduchess Brantolote spoke proudly to her fellow nobles. " I present to you, the Haifisch anti-ship missile!!!"

Behind her was a massive missile with a red tip.

"Those foreigners thought they could bully us into submission," She spoke with anger in her voice. "They looked down on us as weak and easy to exploit after ten years of war with the Legion"

Her words riled up the anger of the nobles.

"We put up with this long enough!!!!" Archduchess Brantolote raised her fists in anger. "Next year, we will have a war to retake our place in this country and the continent finally!!!! We will show them who rules this world!!!"

The maids continued to serve the nobles as the Archduchess stepped back from the missile. The men in white lab coats put the rocket in a launch tube from the back of a truck, aiming at a piece of armour 2 km away.

"Fire!!!"

The missile flew off and slammed into the steel armour plate, with fire and smoke. The nobles looked on as the steel plate erupted into a massive fireball. Black, massive smoke filled the scene, and a few seconds later, the steel was no more. It disappeared along with the fire and smoke.

"Good job," Lady Brantolote said to the scientists. "How fast can you make them for combat action?"

"Next year at the earliest," They replied. "They will be ready for action next year."

"Good," She drank from a glass of red wine in her hands. "By then, we will have cruisers to fight out in the ocean"

"My lady, we would advise you not to do that," They pleaded. "The missile was made with conditions on land. We do not know how the sea will affect them"

"You think those foreign powers will wait for you?!!!!"  The Archduchess spat at them with anger in her piercing eyes. "You think they would wait until then as we make weapons to deal with this kansen of theirs?!!!"

"If this news that we have this missile gets out, we will lose our golden opportunity to reclaim our place and or position on the continent," she said, her eyes gazing at them coldly. "You'd better make it ready before then because we have information about an invasion plan by the Germans. If those bastards come and we have no missiles to deal with them, I will hold you all responsible!!!"

"My lady!!!" Another researcher ran to her. "We have made a new high-power shell to pierce the armour of a battleship!!!!"

She looked on as the men put another steel plate at the testing site where the old one had been. A group of soldiers dragged a 155 mm artillery piece into a firing position. The men loaded a shell, followed by a propellant, and then closed the breach.

The gun roared to life as fire and smoke came out of the barrel. The round slammed into a steel plate and cut a big hole right through it before hitting the brown earth right behind it.

"We managed to build a new armour-piercing shell enough to cut through the armour of the steel plate of a battleship," The man told her with a smile on his face. "We can begin to make them before the year is out"

"Good," She told the man. "Proceed. Get the missile ready as you told me, and next year we will have a massive victory to celebrate"

"Sir, we are in bombarding position," Annette radioed to Vice-Admiral Holland Wales's bridge. "Request permission to commence firing"

"Copy that," He replied. "You may fire at will"

No sooner had he said that than the night sky turned to day near Mirage Spire base. The dormant Legion units on the shorelines and the beach woke up just as the massive shells landed in the tightly packed combat drones. The shells exploded deep in the earth, sending the drones into the air in huge fireballs.

"Why the hell did they stand in the place just like that?" Wales looked at the massive monitor from a scouting drone flying above the Mirage Spire base."Just like cattle to be killed"

"They can easily replace the losses," Annette looked on as the 10 massive guns of the battleship reloaded. "You destroyed one, and ten will come to replace them"

The battleship looked as the Legion units filled in the empty holes in their lines. Trampling on their own ruined units like robots, they were to fill any holes in the line.

"They can afford to replace all those losses, but we, humanity, can't," Annette said as she looked at the monitor as another barrage slammed into the Legion units. "They often had superior firepower to us most of the time. Well, until today anyway"

The Legion had no foe who had better firepower than them; thus, the KGV-class battleship made short work of the Legion shore units for the operation tomorrow.

"Their greatest strength was their numbers, and they used it well," Annette looked as another barrage cut a hole in the defence, wiping out large chunks of the units. "Only became deadlier when new shepherd units came into play"

"Carriers," Wales spoke on the radio near her. "AA units silenced, proceed with the carpet bombing"

200 km away...

"Copy!!!" An Alba officer, dressed in a WREN uniform and wearing a headset, replied. "Miss Victorious!!! AA units downed, sir!!!"

A lady with long, yellow hair and blue eyes, wearing a white, goddess-like dress from Greek mythology, stood up as she heard the report.

"Thank you," she said, looking at the officer. "Are the jets ready?"

"Yes, sir," The officer looked at the deck below the bridge. Massive planes with jets lined up at the end of the runway deck at the aft. "9 Blackburn Buccaneer loaded with cluster bombs ready for action. Also, 10 De-Havilland Sea Vixen had been loaded with a 1,000-pound bomb each"

"Very well," She closed her eyes as the jets moved on their own and engines came to life. The officers cleared the deck and stood at the tall command tower as the first jet took off, leaving a trail of fire and smoke in the sky behind it. Others lined up and followed suit. "Time to go kill some Legion"

There was some uncertainty about deploying the jets into combat so fast. But against land targets and sitting ducks like Legion ground units, the Admiralty saw it as a golden time to test them in combat for real.

"This is Shangri-La and Bunker Hill," A voice came over the radio. "Deploying jets for air strikes as well"

Two other flat-topped planes also released jets into the air as they flew toward the spire. Behind him, they could hear the horns of troopships carrying landing parties to the battle site—five massive troop ships at the centre surrounded by battleships and other escorts.

"Let's clear the land for our friends so they will come back alive", Vicky said to herself.

"Nothing can survive that!!!"

"Hell yeah!!!"

"Give it to them!!!!"

Holland looked on as the Nouzen soldiers cheered from the troop ships as another barrage of the battlecruisers and battleships hammered the Mirage Spire. For 30 minutes, the big gun ships fired their guns in anger so much that the whole Mirage Spire was shrouded in darkness from the smoke.

Rounds after rounds slammed into the base, exploding the earth along with the metal of the Legion units.

"I almost do not recognise this place anymore," Lena spoke cheerfully as she looked through the binoculars at the base. "We are flattening it"

"You bet," Hood said. "We unload like 300 rounds of HE into them. I like to see them coming back from that"

"Hold your horses, you two," Holland looked at the two outside the bridge. "I avoided hitting the Mass Driver we came to get."

"Right," Lena looked at him, taking off her glasses. "The real prize"

"They probably set up defences around there now," Hood followed suit. "At least the beachhead is clear"

"Vice-Admiral!!!!" Annette's voice came on the radio on the bridge. "Fleet Countries scouts said they spotted the Levianthans coming out of their nests!!!!"

"Oh....shit," Holland looked at the open ocean. "Now we have done it"

"It is to be expected," Lena told him. "We were firing so loud near their nest, it is natural they would come to check. They did that last time"

"Sir, we should keep them away from the base as far as possible," Hood told him. 

"Lee, you heard that?" The man looked at New Jersey at his American counterpart on the bridge.

"Loud and clear," Lee replied. "Battleships form up on me!!!!"

The battleships broke off from the firing line until only the battle cruisers were alone, along with the troop ships and some cruisers.

"Where are they going?" The Nouzens looked on as the battleships sailed away.

"What the fuck are you standing there for?!!!!" Yatrai shouted at his men with Shin at his side. "Get in the landing crafts!!! We got Legion to kill!!!!"

The soldiers looked at their boss and then began to climb down the ropes to the landing crafts below the troopships.

"Move it, you monkeys!!!!" Yatrai shouted as his men began to climb down the ropes. "We got a job to do!!!"

"Sir," A man in a butler suit informed Archduchess Brantolote in her living room. "The fleet and the Nouzens soldiers had reached the site, and it seemed that the sea monsters came out to meet them"

"Keep me updated," She told the man. The man nodded and walked away.

The mood among the Giad nobles was that the whole thing would fail. After all, they could not even get off the continent for hundreds of years. The Fleet Countries couldn't do it.

No one can fight these sea monsters. What made these foreigners think they could take them on with their battleships?

"I will read the headlines about the battleships getting sunk tomorrow"

Chapter Text

The operation went well, despite the appearance of the sea monsters and the Legion. The only issue was the damage to the heavy warships by the sea monsters.

"My bow!!!!" New Jersey cried; her feet touched the concrete dock. "Look at what those monsters did to my bow!!!"

The long bow of USS New Jersey, or rather, where it was, a metal melted down like candy, along with several big holes into the ship that cut through like a metal syringe.

"This laser of theirs is no joke," South Dakota added as she looked at the damage to her ship. "These guys meant business"

"You could say that again," Washington said as she leaned on a bench near the docks. "We were in their waters, and not to mention, we were near their nests"

Annette stood near the dock as she looked at the dock workers and others walking around. Overall, things went well, and the Admiralty got to test their new jets in combat.

"Annette!!!" Annette heard her name and saw Lena calling to her. "Vice-Admiral Holland wanted to see us!!!"

The technician walked to her friend and began to follow her.

"You are right," Lena said. "The Feds are working on an anti-ship missile"

"It is what they had the capacity to do," Annette's eyes rolled. "They had a bigger and intact military industry than the Republic. Not to mention the massive stocks of missiles they could use to make them"

The two made their way to HMS Hood at another dock, where Hood and Wales stood with their arms crossed.

"Go ahead," Hood made her way for them. "He is waiting for you two"

The two nodded their heads to the two ladies and walked up from the wooden gangplank onto the ship. 

"What is it?" Wales asked her friend as the two walked onto the ship. "What's going on?"

"War, what else?" Hood replied. "The maid corps picked up something"

"Let me guess," The battleship looked at the sky. "Anti-ship missile?"

"Yep," Hood replied. "Sheffielf infiltrated that lady's house and found out about this"

"So we are going to have a war after all the Legion War?" Wales inquired. 

"Possible," Hood followed her gaze. "But it would be crazy if you ask me. Both our worlds had issues to deal with, and it seemed very unreasonable if you asked me."

"Yeah," Wales spoke. "We got ours issues and they have theirs"

Inside the ship...Admiral's room...

"As I was saying, I was impressed with how well this operation and the performance of the new targeting drones and the new propellant," Vice-Admiral Holland spoke as he looked at the reports in his hands. "80% hit rates and 20% misfired, that is very good for the first trial"

"That's high praise, coming from you, sir," Annette looked at him. "Thank you"

"How fast can these propellants be mass-produced?" He asked the technician. "As well as the targeting drones"

"Give or take," Annette raised her hands. "We can equip all the KGV, Vanguard and Monarch class battleships early next year"

"Good, get it done," Holland put down the reports. "Because war is coming"

The two Albas looked at each other as the man did so.

"Sir?" Lena asked him. "War?"

"Yes, I am afraid," the man said, grabbing a tablet. "Here's why"

"A meme art about the Iron Blood getting kicked around by the Legion in Denmark?" Annette looked at the art on the tablet. "To be fair, we all got kicked so bad by the Legion"

"Is something the matter, Vice-Admiral?" Lena asked. "You got intel?"

"Noting very concrete," He closed his eyes. "But I heard that the Iron Blood transferred units from the land armies into the marine units for amphibious operation"

Lena and Annette looked at each other.

"Are you telling me?" Lena asked him. "That we are about to have a war because of this art post?"

"Miss Lena," He asked her. "Tell me what sparked the Great War from the study of my world's history"

"Assassination of an Archduke," She replied. "That sparked a world war"

"That is why I want you and Hood to go to the Federacy's capital now," He told Lena. "Hood is informed,"

"Yes, sir!!!" Lena stood up and saluted him before leaving the room.

"Not you, Miss Annette," The man told the technician. "Please stay"

"Sir?" She asked him.

"I will not lie to you," he said, taking a sip of tea from a cup on his table. "War is coming. Your world is readying for war, as is mine. Tell me, which side would you be?"

"Sir?" She asked him. "Why are you asking me that question?"

"Because, Miss Annette, once it starts, there is no going back," He warned her. "Unlike your friend, who had been with us for a while and surely would be the target of hate once the war begins."

"Sir, my job is here," She said. "Besides, no one likes me anyway"

"Well then," Holland grabbed a piece of paper and wrote something down. "Captain Leach will come, and you will be his XO, dismissed"

"So war it is", Wales asked Hood. "Are you sure?"

"How about you take a look for yourself?" Hood gave Wales a piece of paper.

The battleship looked at it.

TRAITOR!!!!ROYAL NAVY'S LAPDOG!!!!

"Do they really need to go this far?" Wales asked. "This is far out of line"

"Do you think they cared?,Wales," The battlecruiser responded. "They don't. If anything, all the fingers would be pointed at Lena for bringing us to the continent!!!!"

"Hood," Wales touched her friend's shoulders. "Calm down!!!!"

"I am calm," Hood said, her tone growing hot. "Like when they tried to throw a rotten apple at Lena in the capital"

"So Annette will be my captain's XO," Wales smiled a bit. "What about you?"

"Lena will be sent away," Hood said sternly. "Vice-Admiral's decision"

"Yours or his?" Wales questioned.

"You know as well as I do that the Feds are going to put a bounty on her head as soon as the war begins,"  The battlecruiser countered. "She did not need  to suffer more from all this"

"You are right," 

In Annete's new room on Wales's ship. 

"I never expected the Feds to go along with this," Annette said as she sat on a bed in her new room. Not as big back at the Royal dorm, but still good enough with a bed, a table and a chair.

"This is pure madness"

"It was desperation, Annette," Lena replied, sitting in the chair. "Not to mention the Germans' planned takeover of lands on the continent"

"How the hell did they get their hands on those?" Annette questioned. "And they kept this secret?"

"They are waiting for the right time, Annette," Lena explained. "If they let loose it now, they will be viewed as the aggressor and as causing unfounded hysteria. But if they let it into the public after the German invasion..."

"The Germans will be the aggressor, clear as day." 

"A masterful diplomatic play," Hood stood at the open door. "May I come in?"

The two nodded. Hood and Wales walked in.

"So, how do you girls think it would go?"They asked with Hood standing beside Lena and Wales sitting beside Annette. "This German invasion"

"The Feds could wipe them out before they even landed if they wanted, " both girls answered. "Besides, there is only one landing point for them anyhow"

"That's easy?" The two ladies asked. 

"The Feds got planes armed with missiles ready to sortie," Annette said. "Hell, they could have fortified Kalt-Meer into a fortress"

"Not to mention the railguns," Lena added. "And a whole ass load of artillery that is going to make their lives hell"

"They just took Kalt-Meer without any resistance?!!!!"

Lena shouted as she looked at the report from the maid corps.

"I kid you not," Hood told her. "They just took it in a single day"

"What the hell were the Feds thinking?!!!!" Annette shouted. "Now the Germans had a foothold in the Feds' lands!!!"

"The Germans will boast about this for sure," Wales said. "Hell, the soldiers at the port ran away as soon as the fleet opened fire"

It was the new year of 2154, and already, somehow, the Germans pulled off the almost impossible by taking the Feds' only port from right under their nose.

"Why is it so easy?" Lena's intuition kicked in. "They could have just put defence lines at the entrance..."

Hood, Wales, and Annette looked at Lena as they stood on the bridge of HMS Hood.

"Did they leave the entrance open?" Annette looked at Lena's face, who nodded. "Is the port fortified?"

Lena swung her head, and Annette's back ran cold. "Oh...shit...," 

"What?" Wales looked at the technician. "What's wrong?"

"Miss Wales...Miss Hood..." The girl spoke with a shaking mouth. "We are about to witness the destruction of the Germans' best ships"

"That bad?" Hood said with a bit of doubt. "Maybe not"

"Oh, it will," Lena said. "They laid a trap and the Germans walked right into it"

Lena walked over to the map room, and others followed her. The girl grabbed a piece of paper and drew something on it with others behind her back.

"They are here in the port past the narrow entry way," Lena pointed to a drawing of the port. "An open field surrounded them to the mountains all around them"

"They must be planning to pull off that fleet-in-being," Wales said, gazing at the drawing of the map. "To force something from the Feds"

"You bet," Hood followed her gaze. "With that port closed, they lost the only port to bring in food shipments directly"

"That's what you thought," Annette pointed at the map. "Close naval gunfire and fortified the place for a counterattack. But that's not the rule here"

The two kansens looked at Annette, who walked to Lena's side.

"How many guns do you figure they put in there?" Annette looked at the mountains on the map. "In the mountains?"

"Well, I say about 2,000 to 3,000 guns," Lena said, looking up. "155 mm for sure, give or take"

Hood and Wales looked at each other in the face, sweat forming on their heads. The combined firepower of the two Bismarck-class and two Scharnhorst-class ships was nowhere near that of many guns. Even if they cannot penetrate the ship's armour, they are still going to cause a lot of damage.

"But why did the Feds let the Germans take the port so easily?" Hood wondered. "This in itself was a huge propaganda win for the Germans"

"Because the Feds wanted the Germans to think they won," Lena began. "Let them have a taste of victory, and then, when the Germans let their guard down."

"Move in for the kill," Annette finished. "Like the Legion"

"What are we gonna do now?" Wales said. "After they're done with the Germans, we will be next!!!"

"Exercise with the new gears and equipment," Hood took in the dreaded thought. "We have to be ready before they come to us!!!"

"The Feds already mobilised," Lena spoke. "So we only had two months at best"

"Foolish Germans" 

The Giadian gunners looked through their binoculars at the German warships in the harbour of Kalk-Meer. A black silhouette of ships emerged from the clear grey water.

"Orders came!!!" They looked at the officer who shouted the order. "Let them have it!!!"

"Finally!!!" The gunners got into positions. Many grabbed yellow shells from the boxes, and others grabbed the propellants. They opened the gun breach and loaded the shell first before slamming the propellant after it. They then slammed the breach shut. The gunners opened the gun ports connected with the mountains as the clear sky came into view; they aimed the guns at the ships in the distance.

"Guns loaded!!!"

"Fire!!!" The officer shouted. "Let them eat lead!!!"

The guns in the mountains opened as the air shook under the gunfire of thousands of howitzers all inside the hills, firing at once. The ground under the gunner's feet shook. They looked on as the rounds left the barrel, followed by fire and smoke.

The ships caught fire, and explosions erupted all around the port, with the black smoke covering the sun.

No one would have guessed, but these were the first shots that would be heard all around the two worlds.

"4,000 dead?" Wales looked at the newspaper with a shocked look on her face. "In a single day in less than three minutes?"

"What do you think they would get by marching into a line of heavy machine guns and howitzers?" Annette spoke with a bit of annoyance on her face. "Whoever ordered this is a bloody idiot"

The Feds made a note of the futile attack that resulted in the death of 4,000 Germans in a single day. Pictures of the dead getting eaten by vultures were on the news and headlines of newspapers and news channels. At the same time, the Feds made the German plan for colonising the continent public. The reaction was outrage and anger, and all nations on the continent had little sympathy for the Germans.

This, combined with the hopelessness of the war for the Germans, sent a wave of dread throughout the two worlds, but nowhere near the Fleet Countries, as they were the closest to the battleground.

"This is a new kind of war, Miss Wales," Annette looked at the gathered KGV-class battleships in the harbour. "Sorry, I couldn't get Anson out for action on time"

"She would sure love to take part in this war," Wales said jokingly as she looked at the Alba girls in WREN uniforms being assigned to the four massive battleships. "Sadly, she is going to miss out on this one"

Wales was sure that Anson would love to be here. She never got to fire her guns in anger in her last life.

"Duke," George looked at the vampire battleship. "For the love of god, please don't do something bad to them"

"Why would I?" Duke of York merely replied, her eyes gazed intently at the silver, white and silvery blue-haired girls near the docks. "Thou are worried, I got the best pick"

"No!!!" The leadship of the class shouted at her sister. "Last time, you used a lot of aroma that the kids could not sleep after they had checked your engines!!!"

"Thou is overreacting," The vampire merely raised her hands. "Those aromas are what I normally use"

"That would be normal without anyone on board," George gestured with her two hands at the kids, all barely reaching their breast height. "We got these kids on board with us!!!!"

"Had any of you been on a warship like this before?" Howe asked the girls assigned to her. "Or is this your first time?"

"This is a first time for me."

"Me too,"

"Same for me"

Howe once told Lena she wanted to have a crew of her own, like Hood and Wales. She had not imagined Lena would grant her wish in this form, in the shape of a crew of ten.

It was, in the words of the Admiralty, just an exercise and nothing more, but Howe could not help but feel the tension in the air.

"All abroad!!!" Annette shouted through a panel connected with speakers near the dock. "We will set sail now!!!"

The girls grabbed their backpacks and walked up the gangplanks connected with the battleships. The dock workers came to remove the wooden planks as all the girls and kansens got on their ships.

The chains moved up, and the chains locked with the dock disconnected as the ship wheeled away from the concrete dock into the open sea outside the harbour.

After half an hour, they reached a destination far out in the seas of the Fleet Countries. The sea was massive inside a sand shoal, like islands, far out from any settlements.

The four battleships formed a firing line, with all their guns turned toward the targeted ships at a distance of over 40 kilometres. 

King George V raised her glasses to look at them; they were the old Liberty cargo ships, damaged by the storms and chosen as target practice.

"Targeting drone in the sky!!!" An Alba officer shouted as she looked at a monitor inside the bridge. "Targeting drone online!!"

The pictures of the targeted ships came into view of a much closer observation.

"Guns loaded!!!" Another officer shouted. Another monitor came to life, displaying three gun turrets in A, B, and Y. They were all depicted in schematic pictures, each with buttons displaying crucial information, but the three most outstanding were.

Loaded in green.

Loading in yellow.

Fired in red.

The Knight Commander looked at a panel in front of her. It has three A, B and Y buttons right above another set of six buttons.

Ready in green with three buttons

Not Ready in red in three buttons.

"Guns ready!!!!" Another officer shouted as the three officers on the bridge looked at the battleship. "Ready for firing!!!"

"Close your ears, girls!!!" George shouted through the PA to the rest of the crew. Two at each turret and four at the engine room. "This is going to be loud!!!"

She pushed a button on turret A with a green button as turret A roared to life with fire and smoke. The shells emerged from the barrels and soared high into the air.

"Impact in 30 seconds!!!" 

The Knight Commander looked at the monitor, and 30 seconds later, the targeted ships erupted into massive fireballs and explosions.

"Bulleyes!!!"

Other battleships followed suit, and the targeted ships began to meet the same fate. The cannonfire was so loud that the girls had to wear headsets to prevent their eardrums from being damaged like glass. The grey turned into day with orange lights. The calm sea turned alive as the force of the naval gunfire bent the sea to the will of the battleships.

"Reloading!!!"

The same exercise went on for weeks until...

"What the hell?!!!!" Annette looked at the radar screen on Wales's bridge. "The radar is all messed up!!!"

She saw numerous clouds like interference all over the radar screen. She hit the radar screen several times, and they remained the same.

"Same with King George V,"

"We have the same issues with Duke of York too!!!"

"We can't see anything on Howe!!!"

Sitrep streamed in from other ships, and they all reported the same thing. Annette walked out of the bridge to the top of the superstructure, where the radar was located.

"What the fuck?!!!!!"

The radar was thick with ice all over it; the steel barely moved at all.

"Radar is all iced up!!!" Annette shouted to her fellow below. "Get a bucket of warm water up here!!!!"

"Annette," Wales, who was at the edge, shouted up to her. "We should call it a day!!!! Vice-Admiral Holland wanted to see you!!!"

The girl nodded as the battleships left the site. It was winter and the air was cold. Winds of the North Sea slammed into them. Annette walked into the bridge where her fellow workers were handing out hot tea to keep warm.

"Do you have coffee?" Annette asked Wales who was behind the helm. "I would like some if you have"

"I think I do," Wales looked back at the room with a hot water pot behind the bridge. "You can go get it. Everyone, you can return to your rooms. Annette and I will stay up here"

They nodded and left the bridge.

"What happened?" Annette said as she rejoined Wales with a cup of hot coffee in her hands. "Something urgent?"

"The Feds sunk Bismarck and other capital ships in Kalt-Meer," Wales said, her face straight. "I just heard from the radio that the Feds used some sort of missiles to sink them, only two escaped"

Annette stared at the black coffee surface where her face's reflection was.

"So they done it," The girl sipped the hot coffee. "They had a working anti-ship missile"

"There is going to be a panic in the Naval HQ and other navies," The battleship sighed deeply. "Torpedoes sank me in my last life, and now I have to deal with new anti-ship missiles"

"I thought I added too much egg when I said they would have it ready by this year," Annette looked forward. "They did it so fast"

"They must have been planning for this for god knows how long," Wales said as another gust of wind blew into the bridge. "Armour plate and now working anti-ship missile.I can't help but feel someone from the Iron Blood helped the Feds"

"You think they are involved?" Annette asked. "Why would they?"

"If the Feds had access to Frit-X, that would explain why they had working anti-ship missiles so fast," The battleship rolled her eyes. "Or they had the capability, like you said"

They talked and stood on the bridge as they arrived at the port, already buzzing with activity. Sailors and dockworkers ran about left and right. The four battleships docked, and those on board came ashore.

"Annette!!!" Lena called Annette as she came down from the gangplank. 

"How bad is it?" Annette asked her. "How bad is the situation?"

"250,000 Feds, along with a large amount of howitzers, are setting up at the borders," Lena said as they walked to HMS Hood docked on the other side. "The Germans are coming here to seek refuge, and the Feds will demand they be handed over."

"But the Fleet Countries are not going to hand them over, aren't they?"

"I don't think they cared at this point", Lena said. "They were set for war anyhow"

The two walked up to the deck of HMS Hood, where Vice-Admiral Holland was smoking from a pipe in his hands with Hood at his side.

"The question is not will there be a war, but how quickly it would be." The man removed the pipe from his mouth. "The Feds already put troops on standby"

"What are your orders?" Annette asked him. "What are you going to do?"

"Lena here will handle the evacuation," Holland said, looking at Lena. "The Fleet Countries' council issued an evacuation order for its children, and I want someone I can trust on this."

"But sir..." 

"That's an order"

Lena could only nod in response to the man's stress.

"Annette," He turned his attention to Annette. "Are they ready for action?"

"80% ready," She replied. "The shells and the drones are working fine except the radar"

"Good," He said. "How fast can you fit KGV, Monarch and Vanguard class battleships with those CIWS?"

"Give me three weeks", Annette told him. "I will begin work as fast as I can"

"Lena, could you stock up on ammo and propellant as fast as you can?" Holland turned to Lena once more. "Go to the Republic and pick up as much as you can"

Lena nodded and walked away.

"Annette," Holland looked at the girl. "I got words that Z23 was captured"

Annette's back ran cold.

"What are they going to do with her?"

Silence reigned for a moment.

"They will put her on the operating table based on her being non-human," Annette began. "And no one here will care about it"

Holland gave the pipe to Hood, who took it and put down the burning tobacco into an ashtray in her hands.

"Hood, go withdraw money and some gold bars to bribe the Giadians from our bank at the Republic and get back here fast!!!" He looked at Hood. "Get to it!!!"

Hood ran after Lena like a gust of wind.

"You and Prince of Wales will go and free her along with any kansens they might have captured," He told her. "Hood and Lena will join you along the way. Dismissed!!!!"

Annette nodded and walked down the gangplank. Theo was there waiting for her, along with a jeep.

"Annette, he told you?" Theo asked her as he opened a door for her to get on. "About Z23 being captured"

"He did," Annette spoke as she took a seat in the jeep. "I know what you're thinking, you think the Feds will do the same thing the Alba did to you"

"Are they going to do that?!!!!" Theo got in behind the wheel. "They think they will get away with it?!!!"

"Theo, tell me this, the kansen is not human in the eyes of the people of this continent." Annette looked at Theo. "To them, they would be nothing more than living weapons. Just like how the Albas classified the Eighty-Six as non-humans"

"Unlike the Eighty-Six, with the kansen being non-humans, no one is going to bat an eye when they put poor Z23 on the operating table," Annette's tone was cold as Theo hit the brake. "I hope I can get there before they do something horrible to her"

"Annnette," Wales said as the car stopped at a gate near the port. "Hood, Lena, others and I will join you at the Feds' camp as soon as we can . Mister Theo, can you ensure her safety?"

"With my life," He nodded.

Chapter Text

"To think I would see something like this outside the Eighty-Six sector,"

Theo said as he looked around the two sides of the road leading to the Feds' camp near Kalt-Meer. The two sides were filled with pink chunks of meat with bones all around them. White snow covered the motionless bodies with their pink guts for all to see, with vultures and crows alike feasting on them.

"They didn't even bother to bury the body," Theo muttered. "Damn..."

"Like what the Republic did," Lena said on the radio to Theo's jeep. "I know"

"Sorry," Theo said as Annette patted him on his shoulder. "Just never thought I would see that other people would do what the Republic did"

"Girls," Hood said through the radio with distress in her voice. "The smell is so bad, I am gonna puke"

"You bet," Wales said on the radio. "These corpses were rotting for a month"

"Lady Hood," Edinburgh's voice joined in. "Please have a mask"

"Good god," Hood's voice calmed. "That feels better"

"Miss Edinburg," Anju's voice joined in. "Can I have one too?"

"Sure" 

The jeep was in front of a truck moving toward the Feds' camp near Kalt-Meer. Smelly, motionless bodies with black clothes dotted both sides of the road as far as the eye can see. The sky was full of vultures and crows looking to feast on the dead.

"Let's go over this one more time," Lena said through the radio. Theo and Annette, who were in the leading jeep, listened to her. "Hood and I will go to talk with the commander of the camp to let the captured German kansen go with bribes. Now, no shooting whatsoever."

"Is that clear?"

"All clear," They all replied. They were in the Feds' territory and in a military combat zone. Time was short to get the captured kansen back before the Feds moved them away.

Finally, they reached the gate of the camp where the Giadian soldiers stood at the entrance with rifles at their backs.

"This is a military zone, young lady," A Giad soldier looked at Annette. "What do you want, you turncoat?"

Theo's anger flared, but Annette raised her hands at him. She picked up a stack of banknotes in a brown case from her coat and offered it to the man.

"I am here on business," She said. "Unless you don't want money for your personal spending"

He and the others looked around. They all nodded, and the man walked over to the window where Annette gave him the case.

"For the record, you never gave me anything," He said as his fellow opened the way into the camp. 

"You never met me," Annette said, smiling at him. "Pleasure doing business with you"

Theo let go of the brake, and the car moved past the gate, followed by the truck behind him.

"They accepted bribes now?!!!" Theo said to her, his face filled with shock. "This is Giadian army!!!!"

"Underpaid soldiers who had their wages cut significantly?" Annette gazed at him. "Barely make ends meet while the nobles and elites hoarded food and other luxuries?"

"This is not normal!!!" Theo tried to reason with her as they parked the car with the truck parked beside them. "This is the Giadian army we are talking about!!!!"

"Theo," Annette spoke to him as Lena, Hood, Wales, and Edinburgh, with a chest in her hands, walked out of the truck, deeper into the camp. "The Giadians might not be as corrupt as my nation for now. But how much do they get paid nowadays?"

Annette's words got to him . He could only sit behind the wheel in silence.

"Hey!!!" Some of the Giadian soldiers walked over and shouted at them. "This is our parking area!!!"

"We are here for business," Theo said to them through the driver's window. "We will be out shortly"

"I don't care!!!!" They said as they kicked the jeep. "Get the fuck out of here!!!"

"Theo," Anju looked at Theo from the driver's seat of the truck she was in. "I will get the truck out of the camp"

"Yeah," He nodded and was about to say something when...

"NO, PLEASE!!!!,"

"HOLD THAT BITCH in place!!!!,"

Annette knew at once whose voice it was. She got out of the jeep and ran off to the source, ignoring Theo's cry. She ran through the camp, splashing through the mud-soaked ground to the end of the camp, where a foul smell lingered.

Then she noticed the owner of the voice, Z23, standing in place with tears on her face. A group of Giad soldiers surrounded her with two men holding the destroyer in place while another moved a red-hot metal steel pipe closer to her face.

BANG!!!!

The gunshot echoed throughout the camp, but Annette heard the shot as her ear caught the sound deep into her eardrums. She looked at her side to see Theo with a pistol in his hand, smoking.

"Miss Annette!!!!" 

Annette felt the little destroyer slam her body into her so hard that she felt a bit hurt. Then she saw her face. Her face turned into a mix of tears, bubbles, and mud. The smell from her was very terrible, like she had been in a sewage for god knows how long.

"Hey, give her back. We haven't had enough fun yet!" The captors reacted after the destroyer broke free, walking to them. Theo stepped right in front of Annette and Z23.

"What the fuck are you guys doing!!!!?" 

"Stand back, Theo..."  Annette tried to speak, but the man grabbed her by the coat with his free hand without looking back.

"No...this is too much!!!!....do you guys forget our army regulations?!!!!

Annette began to see why. She could see more eyes gazing at them from the camps. No doubt others would join in, and they would be at their mercy.

"Z23," Annette looked at the German kansen. "Stay close to me"

The destroyer did as she said, getting behind the woman as the men crept closer.

"That bitch is not a human, so rules don't apply to her and her kind."

Annett knew they would say that. Kansen, by default, was the living weapon built to fight the Sirens, as much as the people of this continent cared. They were nothing more than living objects.

"That is the same fuck attitude that the white pigs used on us!!!!!,"  Theo shouted as he held Annette's hands.

How many time she saw this scene played out while she was in the Republic, families torn apart as the Alba took away the old and the adults to fight and die at the frontlines.Leaving the children to go up next to the death on the battlefield.

A few distances away....

"Is that a gunshot?" Wales's ear caught the sound of a gunshot. "You heard that?"

"That is a gunshot, alright," Lena also heard it. "Damn, they are using them as target practice"

"Wales," Hood looked at the battleship. "Go to the source fast!!! We will negotiate the releases and be right with you!!!"

The battleship nodded and walked to the source, ignoring the gazes of the soldiers in the camp. Then she saw Annette, Theo and Z23 in the middle of a gathering of soldiers.

She did not know, but her body moved of its own accord. She grabbed the red-hot steel from the man who held it and slammed it into his face.

"AHH...my face....," The man's face melted as the red-hot iron met his face. He was on the ground, lamenting the torment of the wound.

The battleship took out her sword and pointed it at the gathered Giadians.

"Miss Wales...thank god you came in time. How is it going on your end?" Annette said as the battleship came to stand near her. 

"Lena and Hood were dealing with it,"

Z23 refused to let go of Annette all the way back to the Fleet Countries. She couldn't blame the German destroyer. What the Feds did to her and the other captured Kansens was truly horrendous, like what the Republic did to the Colorata. Only in the Fleet Countries did the German kansen let go and rest after her nightmares were over.

"I never thought I would find myself on the other side of all this."

The Feds did what the Republic did to the kansens. But unlike them, the Feds ensured that no records of it would remain. As the Germans were the invaders, no one on the continent would care about it. At least she could rest easy knowing that the captured German kansens no longer had to endure the Giadian's tortures after they bribed the Feds to release them.

"Miss Penrose?"

Annette looked to see an old man in his 40s, dressed in a dark blue captain's uniform of the Royal Navy, standing near HMS Prince of Wales. She sat on a bench near the massive battleship.

"Are you Captain Leach?" Annette asked him. "Henrietta von Penrose, reporting!!!"

She stood up and gave him a salute.

"That's me, John Catterall Leach," he said, nodding and offering a hand. "I heard you will be my XO due to how many upgrades you did on HMS Prince of Wales"

She shook his hands. "Yes, sir, I did a lot of things for her you might find confusing"

He walked on board and she followed him.

"The sea planes had been removed in favour of smaller targeting drones for more accurate naval gunfire," Annette pointed to the hangar doors in the middle of the ship. "Most of them are laser guided"

"Laser guided?" Leach spoke with amazement in his voice. "Now that's new"

"Also, the old AA weapons will be replaced with CIWS auto cannons," Annette added. "We will begin the installation tomorrow"

"Yeah, we are going to need a lot of AA for this upcoming war," Leach said as he walked up to the bridge. "Good lord!!! What's all this?!!!!"

Massive TV monitors greeted him as he walked inside.

"They are monitors for naval gun status report and target identification using targeting drones," Annette began her explanation. "These panels are for firing from the bridge without shouting orders to the naval gun turrets"

"Now I feel really old with all this new stuff you put in here!!!" Leach joked as he surveyed the electronics on the bridge. "I really need you as my XO for all this"

"We are going to need them for the war to come," Annette said. "Shouldn't you get some rest?"

"I will after some more tours," he said, putting the bag in his hands, as he stood on the bridge. "By the way, I heard about the new auto loader you installed"

"Oh yes," Annette smiled. "Let me show you"

"At best, we can do about three rounds per minute" 

Annette informed the man as they walked into A turret. The turret space was still tight and small; it was like what the man saw years ago, but with the addition of electric arms and iron rams.

"Honestly, things do not change much, but we added a lot of electronic robotic arms to put in prolellants and shell fasters," Annette pointed up to the robotic cranes above them on the ceiling. "The shells and the propellant will be assembled on these racks of four for each gun. Once it's out, the robotic arms will refill them from the ammo room below."

A long rack with four slots sat at the edge of the turret.

"Wait?" He looked at her. "You relocated the magazines?"

"Yes, sir," She told him. "To reduce reloading time and moving time"

"Show me the magazines," He said. "I need to see how secure it is"

"Follow me," Annette walked out of the turret and down the porthole near the turret inside the ship.

"Wait?" He looked at the massive door with steel so thick that he felt a chill down his spine. "Is this the new magazine room?"

"Yes, sir. Using the new armour, this room is very thick, and inside we have some new things for you." Annette pressed a button, and the door slowly slid open, revealing powder bags and shells in shelves and racks. "The propellants and the shells would be formed into a line ready for loading in a rack before going up to the turret for firing"

"What's that up there?" Leach noticed a small red circular object stuck to the ceiling of the magazine room. 

"That is a fire detector," Annette asked. "If a shell came in and a fire is detected inside, the fire detector will activate the automatic flooding of the magazine with water to prevent detonation. Also, I programmed the system to auto-flood the magazine with special chemicals to prevent explosions in case a shell somehow gets in here"

"Holy hell!!!" Leach exclaimed at the level of protection his ship had. "That's some heavy upgrades you did here, girl!!!"

"Let's say that Lena and my experience with the Republic military is something we would rather not see repeated," Annette remembered all the times Lena flew into a rage at how the Interception Cannons barely worked. "Poor maintenance and whatnot"

"That's enough already," He patted her on the shoulders. "I feel a lot more confident already"

"You nervous, sir?" She asked the man. "About the upcoming war?"

"The Germans pulled off Operation Cerberus. Times had this to say about it:" He said, looking down at his fleet. "Vice Admiral Ciliax has succeeded where the Duke of Medina Sidonia failed. Nothing more mortifying to the pride of our sea-power has happened since the seventeenth century. It spelt the end of the Royal Navy legend that in wartime no enemy battle fleet could pass through what we proudly call the English Channel."

"Well, sir, this is not the English Channel, and this is not the same situation," Annette said, trying to comfort him. Lena told her how much the operation embarrassed the Royal Navy. "This is the Feds"

"Now this is what the Times says before I get here," He smiled. "In a single day, the poor judgment of the Kriegsmarine High Command had destroyed their best warships. What a calamity it is that after so many years of success and times when they had humiliated us so many times, should, in a single poor judgment, destroy themselves, their best warships and their country's reputation"

The man stopped in his tracks.

"Charges were being brought up against Grand Admiral Raeder, Admiral Donitz, Admiral Lütjens and other naval officers of the Kriegsmarine," Leach turned to Annette. "Gross negligence, poor tactical planning, and other issues were being put together"

"I hope I don't have to tell you how much Holland is stressing out over this right now," He continued. "A lot is on the line here, Miss Annette"

"Sir..." Annette lost all the words she had in her mind as she took in his words. "I was not aware it was this severe"

"Get some shut-eye, Miss Annette," he said as he walked into his room. "I will need to talk more with you the next day"

Chapter Text

"As you all might have heard," Leach spoke to the gathered RN kansens and the Alba girls in the mess hall of HMS Hood. "That the Feds might be trying to attack the Fleet Countries"

"Lena," Annette whispered to Lena. "Where is Vice-Admiral Holland?"

"He was back at the Isles to ask for permission to use all the KGV and other modern battleships with the Sea Lord," Lena replied. "He needed to get Monarch and Vanguard to fill the ranks"

"The Feds gave us demands we could not accept," Leach continued. "They want us to give them free food and control of all trade with our world"

As soon as he said that, the mess hall erupted into a massive murmur of conversations.

"Who the fuck would agree to that?"

"The Feds wanted that? Are they stupid like the Republic now?"

Annette listened to words from her fellow Albas. They were very perplexed at the Fed's bizarre decision. Lena, Annette, and the hired Alba officers sat at one long table, while the kansens sat at another long table. The table the Kansens sat at was silent, and Lena and Annette turned to look at them.

"Are they ok over there?" Annette said to Lena. 

"They are probably trying to digest the fact they had to kill and fight humans," Lena told her. "Up until now, most of them never kill a human, per se"

"What about last time when we dealt with the Hail Mary renegades?" Annette brought it up. "Isn't that a battle?"

"We went in there, made half of them drunk and sabotaged most of their heavy guns," Lena replied. "That time, there were only around 1,000 soldiers in the Sakura Empire's turf. This time, it will involve hundreds of thousands of soldiers on their own turf and ten times as much heavy artillery, along with railguns and missiles. Besides, given what the Feds did with the German kansens.They had a right to be worried"

"Yeah, you are right, and unlike those ragtag bunch," Annette looked away. "It is going to be the cream of their best units"

The odds alone were not in their favour, to say the least.

"So the Feds wanted a fight?"

The table at which the Kansens sat began to break their silence. Lena and Annette turned around to see King George V smirk.

"If they want a fight," The battleship said with a grin on her face. "They will get one"

Howe crossed her arms with a smug look on her face. "I want to beat them for what they did to those poor boys and girls they sent to die"

"Royal Knights won't run from a fight," Wales's eyes were cold and serious. "Ever"

"Yeah, right!!!" Repulse joined in with a loud shout. Renown did the same.

"By the way," Duke of York slowly turned her head to Lena and Annette. "I heard that we have working railguns"

The Kansens at the other table all looked at Lena and Annette in unison as soon as the vampire said so.

"We did?" George gazed at Annette with curiosity. Lena and Annette looked at each other before pointing a finger at themselves as they looked around.

"Kind of," Lena looked away.

"What?" How asked.

"They were not fully tested," Annette sighed in a shy voice. "They were 85% tested"

"We will take it," Duke of York's blue eyes shone. "Thy had new toys for us to try"

Wales and Hood's faces turned red as their hands covered their faces.

"Sorry," Wales said as she sat with a bottle of beer in her hands. "I let it slip when Duke of York got me drunk"

"Good things it is between our own," Annette sipped the beer in her hands. "Better than others"

Wales told Annette that Duke of York, cunning as she was, somehow got her drunk and made her lose her mind about the railguns.

"I want to fully test them before putting them on combat operations," Annette said. "But it seemed that I had no choice but to be honest"

"Why?" The battleship asked.

"The Admiralty wanted the railguns tested in real combat anyway," Annette looked at the battleship. "The cost of railguns put them in the ice as the politicians were asking for results"

"Politics again, aren't we?" Wales stood up and sat right beside the girl at the top of the superstructure on her ship near the radar. The lady brought up two chairs, and they sat, looking up at the night sky. "Just like the politicians who made me and my sisters this way"

"Naval Treaties are good on paper to limit the cost of the naval arms race," Annette put down the beer bottle near her. "But the world doesn't work that way"

"It is the wish of the politicians to make the naval treaties without thinking carefully," Wales drank the last of the beer in the bottle. "This whole German invasion was a decision made by politicians in Berlin, no question about it. What really surprised me was how easy the Kriegsmarine went along with this"

"The Feds concoaled everything well," Annette said as she looked at the battleship. "They hid their guns and did until the time was right"

"Tell me, Annette," The lady's red eyes gazed at the girl at her side. "Who would win this war, us or them?"

"Yours, obviously", Annette remarked sarcastically. The battleship looked at the girl sipping the beer. "Unlike your world, our continent was ravaged by the Legion War for the past 11 years. Most farmlands were destroyed. The population and the military were battered after a long decade of unrelenting Legion attacks. Before this whole war began, we had a lot of food riots already."

The battleship listened as the girl let her heart loose in the cold night.

"We had to import a lot of food just to survive, and even then, riots persisted," Annette put down the empty bottle to the ground. "They might still win, but even then, it is going to be just a hollow win at best because food riots and the unrest are only going to get worse."

"You do not have to go deeper on that," Wales patted Annette's back. "I saw it with my own eyes at the Republic and the Feds' capital."

"Thank you," Annette thanked the lady at her side. "I knew at once who was going to lose in the long run. The Feds can win all battles, but the resources that could have gone to the tired lower class are going to come back to haunt them. I just never thought they would go this far"

"I think some of the blame can be traced back to us," The battleship spoke as the wind of the night blew into them. "Trade deficits"

"You mean we bought a lot and they sold less?" Annette asked; she was not an economist, but knew well how the trade balance heavily favoured the RN. "I mean, we had to import a lot to survive"

"I think it had to do with the Imperial faction back at the Federacy's capital," Wales pointed in the direction of the Federacy. "They were slowly losing grip of the economy due to the cheap imports, and the lower class was dominating many sectors of the economy"

The two kept talking up there as the deadline approached.

"Rise and shine!!!!" 

A voice cracked into Annette's ears. Annette looked at Wales, who stood near her bed.

"Miss Wales?" Annette looked at the clock. "It's bloody 2 A.M."

"Well, the Feds just had a meeting with others last night, and it got off horribly," Wales said. "So it's war, young girl"

"So war it is," Annete got up. "So what's now?"

"We are going to be stationed near the borders," The battleship told her, grabbing her uniform. "Put this on and get to the bridge!!!"

Annette put on her uniform and walked up to the bridge as she felt the ship move. The engines at the back came to life. The steel across the ship echoed with the sound of the steel moving across the waves.

The technician left her room, as well as many others who woke up to take their stations on the ship. The smell of seawater filled with nothing but burnt ashes and steel met her nose.

"The Feds were there already," Wales looked at the coast, lit up like a city in the night. Annette walked up the bridge and followed her gaze. "What a massive bonfire"

"No longer had to live in the shadows from the Legion scouts," Annette looked at the lights that dotted the coastline, which turned night into day. "No longer had to fear the unpredictable Legion"

"How many are there?" Wales asked the girl. 

"At least an entire corps for sure," She replied as the ship came to a stop that looked like a tiny ant in the path of a burning forest. "50,000 to 70,000 men for sure"

"So, no going back?" Annette asked Wales. "For real?"

"They were set on it, hell, they tried to force Lena into a marriage with that noble's families," The battleship leaned on the helm. "They even insulted us about being tea suckers at one point"

"They think they can win?" Annette looked at the Feds' camp in the distance. "They want more bloodshed after the Legion War?"

"The Azur Lane fracture that led to the formation of Crimson Axis," Wales patted her on the back. "Never thought I would be in something similar"

She and Wales stayed there for days to guard the coastline, joined by others. Finally, it was the deadline.

"Guns check!!!!" Annette shouted into the PA of the ship. "Roll call!!!"

"A turret ready for action!!!"

"B turret set to go!!!"

"Y turret ready to fire!!!"

"Secondary guns are locked and loaded!!!"

Green gun symbols appeared on the monitor, indicating that all the guns were green and ready for action. Leach looked at the watch as time ticked close to the deadline. The time that war would commence.The time of no return.

"How many howitzers did they have?" The captain asked Annette. "They bring enough?"

"More than 2,000, for sure," She told him. "They are in for a fight"

"Then it is a fight they shall get," Leach grabbed the radio. "All battleships ready for action!!!!"

Annette's eyes locked on the clock as it kept getting closer to 12.

"Stand by to open fire!!!" Leach shouted to those on the bridge. "Ready to fire on my mark!!!"

Her heart beat jumped as the clock reached 12. Before Leach could order the guns of the battleships to fire. The entire coastline lit up with loud explosions, as if it had blown up.

"Incoming!!!" 

The shells darkened the sky and then. The water all around them erupted in explosions and splashes.

"Ohly shit!!!" Leach looked all around him. "Damage report!!!"

"The shells hit the hull and the gun turrets!!!" A report came back to him. "All systems still functional!!!"

"Good!!!" He stood up and looked at the coastline. "All ships return fire!!!!"

The man pressed all the buttons on the panel in front of him. All the guns on the ship opened up, and a shower of lights fell on the boat, followed by smoke. The force shook all those on board. The others followed suit as the battleships in the line let their guns sing the song of fire and smoke. The force was so tremendous that it sent Annette and others to cower on the bridge.

The coastline met the same fate they gave the battleships, except the blast was larger, with explosions as large as a town.

"On your feet!!!" The man grabbed Annette and others who cowered on the bridge. "Today is the day you show them what you are made of!!!"