"Alright, today escort mission, is a success! Great job everyone~" Volga happily said, while sitting on her own rigging gracefully.
Enterprise smiled and nodded. "We've done our escort mission, let's go back to the port, i'll send a few message to Helena on the way."
"Haaa... I'm exhausted. I'll need to get a drink once we're back. I'll rest up lazily in my room and play games all day. The Commander needs to give me that much," Long Island slumped and complained.
"Is that even allowed?" Hammann asked, bewildered by Long Island's words.
"I'm sure it's allowed, and if it's not, i will demand him to do it." Looking proud on what she just said, Long Island puffed her chest.
"Y-you... You always say something wild like it's normal. I can't even picture how the Commander deals with you, Long Island," Hammann said with a mix of exasperation and bewilderment.
Volga chuckled, "I'm sure that's just how Long Island is, right Enterprise?" She turned to Enterprise that was still has her back turned from the group. The carrier tilted her head. "Enterprise-?"
Enterprise stood there without uttering any words, her gaze fixed in a single direction. The group watched, curious and attempting to shake off the unusual atmosphere surrounding Enterprise. Suddenly one of her hand raised above, signaling them to stop moving. "Everyone... We got a company."
In the distance, they could see what looked like a Sakura Empire fleet heading their way, but it was odd. Enterprise tried to send a radio communication to the Sakura fleet, but there was no response. With a single bead of sweat on her face, Enterprise fired a warning shot to alert the fleet.
"This is weird, why are they still coming here..." Hammann nervously asked.
"Could something have happened to them? Did they maybe hit their heads on something?" Long Island pondered, a hint of concern in her voice.
"Enterprise... What should we do?" Volga anxiously asked as the fleets approached, showing no signs of stopping.
"Prepare for battle. I don't know what happened, but they're completely unresponsive," Enterprise responded with clenching her rigging bow.
Slowly nodding, Volga prepared a plane to intercept the enemy, while Long Island lazily used her rigging to deploy torpedo bombers. Hammann readied her gun, gulping, hoping it wouldn't escalate into a full-blown fight. The Sakura fleets moved in a peculiar pattern, and one of the shipgirls approached them with no emotion visible on her face.
"Enterprise of the Eagle Union, state your reason coming here." Enterprise issued an order to the oppossing side.
Something definitely weird, the shipgirls was unresponsive, and so do the girl in front of her. After some time has passed without a reply, suddenly the Sakura fleets in front of them aimed their gun to them, surprising the entire fleet and forced them to scatter from the place where they are standing.
"Wildcat, go!" Long Island launched the plane as the enemy's plane trying to take the fleets down from above, she turned to Hammann and called her out. "Hammann! On your 4!"
"Hu-... Ahhh!!" A torpedo hitted her back, nearly destroyed her hull.
"Hammann! Stay behind me!" Volga's rigging roared as it destroyed one of the enemy's destroyer.
"Guh... Th-these fleets are weird!" Hammann slowly getting up to regain her footing, looked into the direction where Enterprise started to rush to the enemy.
"Hammann are you okay?" Long Island with a worried face slowly approaching her, helping her to get up.
"T-thanks." Hammann thanked her.
Enterprise glanced at the shipgirl behind her, she thought they will do fine. She looked into the Sakura Empire's fleet, gritting her teeth to find out the answer, she jumped to the sky and shoot three arrows to a cruiser ship. Her attack was parried by one of the shipgirls, it was surprising to see someone parried an attack boldly.
"These guys, are moving different from your average shipgirls." She said while dodging a volley attack from the mass-produced battleship.
"Enterprise, should we do something about this? Can you send a message to the Commander?" Volga asked, feeling the pressure as enemies surrounded her from all sides.
"No! I can't! We're being jammed here!" Enterprise exclaimed, frustration evident as she tried to connect her comms to the port, but her device wasn't working.
"T-there's a way! Send an S.O.S signal to the control tower on the port! It was an alternative way designed by the HQ in case jamming happens!" Hammann suggested, her voice tinged with urgency.
"Alright, i'll go send the signal right now, i hope they can reach here sooner." Enterprise while cautiously dodging all the enemy barrage, used her device to send an S.O.S signal.
After she confirmed that the S.O.S signal worked and has been sent, she looked at the non-expressive shipgirls. Their behavior are weird, it seems as if they are being controlled, but there was no evidence that they are controlled by Siren. She decided to test out something by exploding one of her plane to the battleship shipgirl. The plane took a nose dive from above and exploded to the face of the Sakura Empire girl, strangely enough they didn't budge or flinched.
"Hey," one of the shipgirl called her. "It's tickling you know?" While wearing a smile similar to the devil, the shipgirl suddenly charged straight towards Enterprise.
"Enty! Look out!" Hammann shouted after noticing that Enterprise wasn't aware that there are three enemies closing on her.
Enterprise was caught off guard by their sudden movement, but she managed to block the attack with her bow and barely dodged another strike coming from the front. Swiftly, she kicked the petite destroyer behind her and seized the other one, hurling her towards the approaching shipgirl.
Enterprise furrowed her brows, these Sakura Empire fleets are difficult to deal with. It's not because she underestimated them, but their combat and tactics technique are vastly different from the Sakura Empire she knows. It's as if their outside apperance is Sakura Empire's but not with their internal appearance.
'Something is wrong, I can feel it,' she muttered under her breath, a sense of unease creeping over her.
"Enterprise! We got more incoming from behind!" Long Island said while clicking her tongue. "We're pretty much surrounded by all location."
"What do we do now? What do we do now?" Hammann muttered frantically, overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies.
"Hammann, pull yourself together! This is no time to be spacing out!" Long Island exclaimed, her usual demeanor were nowhere to be seen because of the progressing wild occurrence.
"R-right!" Hammann said, calming herself down with a deep, audible sigh.
Long Island smiled, "Good, now let's rack our brain on how to get out from this situation." She looked towards the enemy as she launched another fighter plane to take down some planes that are approaching.
"I have a suggestion," Volga suddenly said. "I will open a path for us using my rigging ability." She patted one of the head.
"...Your rigging?"
"Ability?"
Both shipgirls were dumbfounded by her statement. It was unexpected because they had never witnessed Volga in combat. She was the sole carrier of the Northern Parliament, introduced to them by Enterprise. Moreover, she served as a caring sister figure for both of them during their free time, especially for Hammann, who had been separated from Yorktown due to her worsening well-being. She had been taken under Volga's care for some time after they bid farewell to Yorktown. She still kept in touch with her from time to time, and Greynar allowed it.
Long Island, too, was initially timid when introduced by Enterprise. However, their relationship gradually improved as time passed. They sees her as a dependable figure who cared for everyone in the port, that too including the Manjuus. While in the future there will be increasing numbers of shipgirls, doesn't mean she wouldn't also take care of them in the port.
With the numbers of enemies closing in on their location, Volga's rigging roared, its mouth opening to the air. A slight breeze brushed against their legs, leaving Hammann feeling a little chilly. As the air around them grew colder, it became evident that Volga had taken some action. After a while, the twin dragon rigging closed its mouth and began to growl. Above their bodies, a small crystal-shaped ice formed, gradually increasing on size as it absorbed the cold atmosphere in the area.
"Хрусталь Великой Реки, Волга!" She said in native language as the crystal launched up to the air.
Hammann and Long Island looked on in awe, while Enterprise, still in the midst of the fight, glanced briefly and smiled. She readied her bow, preparing for any moment of impact from the incoming attack that Volga launched. She jumped and shoot more arrows to the enemy planes, taking down most of the squadron and charged to one of the cruiser shipgirl while she was getting chased by some of the destroyers.
She then used the side of her rigging as a weapon to slash on incoming bullet while still maintaning position from the enemy's salvo. Enterprise noticed something exploded in the air and looked above her as something rained down to the group of enemy, she knew it was the time for her to launch a counterattack rather than staying defensive with the enemy. Enterprise launched several torpedo bombers to the enemy location as the enemy got frozen solid from the giant crystal attack.
Enterprise shouted, "Retreat now!" she immediately rendezvous with the fleets and went to the direction where they need to go.
Volga sighed in relief as the enemies halted their attack, but they remained vigilant, aware of their surroundings. Before long, the tranquility was shattered when one of Long Island's recon planes was shot down. Prepared for a second wave of attacks, they were perplexed as the enemy began to chase them. What struck them as particularly odd was the black mist emanating from the pursuers, an appearance that seemed out of script to what an average shipgirl looks like.
The sky suddenly turned dark as the storm began to appear, roaring with thunderous lightning striking the sea. Their pursuers were undeniably a different fleet, yet still belonging to the Sakura Empire. Enterprise began to question what really happened within the Sakura Empire. She refrained from making assumptions until she could see it with her own eyes. She gripped her bow tightly, stopping their tracks and turned to the pursuer, she noticed that it was a carrier fleets, and the one who was in front of it was Zuikaku.
"Zui...ka..ku..." Enterprise muttered, her surprise evident as she couldn't discern a hint of life in the eyes of the Sakura Empire shipgirl. Her face was stiff, solid, devoid of any expression.
Their eyes met with each other, it was obvious that it's not the Zuikaku she knew back then. She was always the one who tried to beat her through duel and label her as a rival. Enterprise was saddened that they're now not the same as before. She sighed silently as the fleets slowly approaching her.
But they weren't aware of something that happened behind their back, a black mist formed as more and more lightning striking behind them. As Zuikaku's fleet slowly approaching them, the black mist rapidly followed them along.
"Enterprise! We need to run, NOW!!" Volga shouted loudly enough for everyone to understand the current situation.
"Hammann, Long Island! Follow my lead!" Enterprise took charge on escaping the fleets.
"E-enty! In front!!" Hammann pointed at the cloudy sky as they halted their movement.
"Tsk, this is not good." Enterprise gritting her teeth while thinking of a way to escape from the place.
With their route blocked by the enemy from every direction, Enterprise asked Volga to use her ability once more, to which she complied. Volga silently closed her eyes until the crystal formed and launched it into the air. When it reached its peak height, the crystal then fell towards the enemy and exploded in front of it, causing the area around them to freeze.
They could escape as the route was opened with the enemy becomr frozen solid temporary but the attack wasn't done yet, the Sakura Empire fleets used their shikigami to thaw them out from the frozen state. Zuikaku charged to the fleets as she draw her sword with a blank expression and slashed at Enterprise. Enterprise parried the attack with her rigging as she used the bow to redirect her attack from hitting her.
Volga helped her as the rigging charged towards Zuikaku but it was easily dodged, suddenly Volga got hit by someone's attack and it was other none than Shoukaku that were standing on the side with a blank expression. She used her flute to launch several fighter plane to Volga that is still recovering from the sudden attack.
The rigging roared as they also send squadron of fighter plane to Shoukaku's direction. But before they could attack each other, a big mist was formed in the middle as it engulfed both fleets from above. Silent reign over the sea as the fleets was gone without a trace.
