Chapter 50

First of, let's do some introductions

The Azur Lane fleet we are escorting today has 3 Royal Navy girls, 2 Dragon Empire girls and 1 Sakura Empire girl.

From the Royal Navy, Unicorn-chan and Ill.u.s.trious-san are known among us. And one more.

""Hehehe~ Zuihou-chan~ Yuudachi-chan~" (Ark Royal)

"Please stay away from me..."

"Grrr..." (Yuudachi)

The tomboyish, pervert shipgirl is Ark Royal-san. Like Ill.u.s.trious-san, she is also a Aircraft carrier. Somehow she mistook me for a destroyer and grabbed me. Now she is trying grab Yuudachi as well. Most likely because of that 'werewolf' costume. It surprisingly fits her well.

The two girls who both have a small black and white bear each and wore Chinese style clothing are Ping Hai and Ning Hai. Both of them are from the Dragon Empery. At first we thought they were destroyers since they are quite small, not like I can compare much to them, but they were actually light cruisers. They were kind enough to give us some meat buns. So Yuudachi is sort of attached to them now.

"Meat buns. Meat buns♪" (Yuudachi)

"Yuudachi, don't bother them too much." (Shigure)

"Geez, I will give you one later so stop pulling me!" (Ping Hai)

"That Shigure is totally different from our Shigure..." (Ning Hai)

"While this Yuudachi is similar to ours." (Ping Hai)

The flagship for this Combined Observation Fleet, according to Azur Lane's Commander, is Atago-san. Compared to the Atago-san we all know, this Atago-san has a more mature and elder sister aura around her.

"Oh my. What cute escorts we have today. Leave it to your big sister for now on." (Atago)

We are making our way to the Coral Islands, where Azur Lane predicted that a battle between the Abyssals and the Siren will take place. Our job is to protect Azur Lane while they do surveillance on the battle. It sounds simple, but the seas are unpredictable nowadays.

"Alright, this is a good spot. Carrier girls, get ready." (Atago)

"Yes!" (All aircraft carriers)

While we got ready to launch our planes, something weird happened.

With a flash of light, Ill.u.s.trious-san and Ark Royal-san were riding on their planes and Unicorn is riding on a enlarged U-chan!

"What is that? How are they flying?" (Agano)

"Didnt your Admiral tell you guys? All of us have gotten small upgrade."

"That's not small at all!" (Suzuya)

That's so good! I want to fly in the sky as well...

"This is Ill.u.s.trious. We found the enemy." (Ill.u.s.trious)

"Roger. Keep a safe distance and start recording. Commander, how is the feed?" (Agato)

"I can see it clearly. Wow! That Abyssal Carrier looks hot!" (Commander)

"Commander..." (Atago)

He is getting charmed by a Wo-Class???

"Er... It's not what you think, Atago. It's just-" (Commander)

"I will clean your ears later, alright? For now, just focus on the mission." (Atago)

"Yes! Sweet!" (Commander)

"Onii-chan is a pervert!" (Unicorn)

"Wa- Unicorn-chan?" (Commander)

"What are they doing?" (Agano)

"Who knows..." (Shigure)

"So we just stay here and hold the fort poi?" (Yuudachi)

"Yep. We just need to sit tight and wait." (Atago)

Just like that, we waited in the same spot for a few hours.

According to my planes, the fighting is quite fierce. The Abyssals are using their usual 'recklessly charge in and fire at everything' tactic while the Sirens... seem to be moving in more tactically? It's like they have some sort of strategy and formation. Are the Sirens always like this?

"You noticed too, right? Yeah. The Sirens weren't always like this. Back then, we just used them as cannon fodder. Just like the Abyssal, all they did was charge in blindly. But now, they using our tactics against the Abyssals. Like someone was commanding them." (Atago)

"Maybe these are the more high ranking ones?" (Suzuya)

"No. These are the mass-produced ones. Someone is definitely controlling them." (Ark Royal)

"That means the Observer is involved." (Atago)

"Observer?"

"One of the highest ranking Sirens. It's an embarrassing history, but the Sakura Empire used these mass-produced sirens to fight the Royal Navy and Eagle Union. But this doesn't add up..." (Atago)

"Didn't Akagi destroyed the blackbox when we united?" (Ping Hai)

"Yes. I watched her destroyed it." (Commander)

"Then why is there another one?" (Ning Hai)

"I wasn't sure before but this proves it. Someone is spying on us and commanding the Sirens to use our tactics."

"Tch. It's those two then..." (Atago)

"Speak of the devil. Atago-san, we are retreating!" (Ill.u.s.trious)

"Ill.u.s.trious-san, what's going on?" (Atago)

"Zero fighters are closing in on us. They definitely belongs to Zuikaku-san!" (Ill.u.s.trious)

Did I hear that right? Zuikaku?

"Got it! Return immediately! Maizuru girls, I need you to cover Ill.u.s.trious-san and the rest while they make it back here." (Atago)

"Roger!"

"Ping Hai, once we have regrouped, activate a smokescreen to cover our escape." (Atago)

"zhidao! Got it!" (Ping Hai)

"Get ready to move." (Atago)

Something feels weird. The air is not normal at all. It's the same as before. Where is it?

....

There it is!

"Enemy planes coming from behind!"

"What?!" (Atago)

"Looks like we surrounded..." (Suzuya)

"That's fine poi. We will handle them poi!" (Yuudachi)

This feeling...

Those are not abyssal planes. Zero fighters?

"Enemy? This isn't good! Everone, battle stations! Engaging the enemy!" (Gambier Bay)

"Gambier Bay-san, calm down." (Shigure)

"No, she is right."

I aimed my bow towards the direction of the enemy.

"653rd, please take off!"

We launched our remaining planes. While our fighters can intercept the enemy, we need to find how enemy is coming from. Atago mentioned there could be a spy. Is this their way of interference?

"Atago-san, we need to move now!"

"But-" (Atago)

"Don't worry! We can catch up. Those escort you gave us are slowing the enemy down." (Ill.u.s.trious)

"Got it! You guys better make it! It will take too long for a detour. We are breaking through!" (Atago)

"Huh? What are you thinking?" (Commander)

"If the enemy air fleet is coming from over there-" (Atago)

"We can find out who is the traitor! Atago-san, that's a great idea!" (Ping Hai)

"Let's go! Leave any surface battles to big sister!" (Atago)

Following Atago-san, we went straight into the incoming enemy air fleet. Ping Hai's smokescreen caused the enemy to miss us most of the time, so we were able to shoot most of them down. The only remaining problem is locating the enemy.

"I'm not picking anything up on radar." (Shigure)

"My recon planes didn't see anything either." (Agano)

"Hachoo! *sniff* It's getting cold poi..." (Yuudachi)

"She got away then. Ill.u.s.trious-san, how are you doing?" (Atago)

"We managed to get away somehow. The enemy started falling back halfway through." (Ill.u.s.trious)

"Is it over?" (Unicorn)

"We got what you needed. Return back to base immediately." (Commander)

"Roger!" (All)

"Fleet 1, can you hear me? Return to base immediately!" (Ooyodo)

"Ooyodo-san? What's wrong?"

"They are here! We need all the help we can get! I got to go. Come back now!" (Ooyodo)

"Wait, Ooyodo-san! Ooyodo-san!"

No answer...

What's happening back at Maizuru? An enemy attack? Anyway we need to get back fast.

"Let's go!"

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Bad thoughts filled my mind as we made our way back. There has been no contact since then. What's going on? Was the base attacked? Is everyone alright? Is Admiral safe?

"Zuihou, look out!" (Agano)

"Hu-"

*Splat*

My vision went dark. I can feel something slimy on my face. It's still slapping me.

I quickly took the mysterious object off my face.

What is this? Sardine?

Now that I look around carefully, there are lots of them jumping all around.

"Now I remember. It's saury season now, isn't it?" (Suzuya)

"Wait so the reason we were called back was-"

As we neared the district, we can see everyone trying to catch the jumping saury and sardine using buckets. Even Admiral was trying catch them with a net.

"Samidare, behind you!" (Suzukaze)

"Hah! Wah!" (Samidare, falling down)

"Come here, you!" (Tenryuu)

"Nya!" (Tama)

It was to help catch the Saury and Sardine that appeared near the Naval District...