Commander's Rounds

Entry 54-1 Operation Ulysses: Setting Sail

There was no point in delaying things any further. The fleet was at maximum readiness. All of the commands had been organized, all equipment tuned and mounted.

It was time to take out Purifier.

"Was the message sent out?" The commander asked.

Yuubari gave him a nod. "We don't entirely understand the principles of Siren communication systems, but we're sure that your message was broadcast to Purifier's frequency, master. We can only know for sure if we get a response, though."

Akashi snickered. "Still, I can't imagine she won't be hopping mad if she hears it, nya."

The Siren equipment that they had pulled out of the destroyer crackled to life. "Why don't you come over here and say that to my face, Anomaly! I've got plenty of hardware that's ready to tell you who's the real king of the sea, er, queen... Argh! This is much easier when it's just girls! But this time, I'm going to get the first place trophy over your dead body!"

The communication cut out.

Marblehead took a deep breath. "Sounds like she accepted your invitation. But why go after her so hard? It can't be because you're still feeling sore about being shot."

"Because she's our most dangerous enemy at the moment." The commander adjusted his cap. "The thing about other Sirens is that they're obsessed with creating perfect battlefield conditions for their experiments, and phenomena like the Mirror Seas are difficult circumstances. However, outside of these highly-controlled and prepared engagements, the Sirens are at a disproportionate disadvantage when they're forced to react to us."

The commander took out a tablet that had a few engagement charts. "During my stay in the Northern Parliament, we attacked a Siren stronghold with some of the Northern Parliament shipgirls and support from Saratoga's squadron. The enemy had a powerful advantage in numbers, fortifications, as well as a high-level commander on-site, but we were still able to seize the advantage and destroy the fortress despite our limited resources and the fact that the enemy had created a Mirror Sea right on top of us. After that, we then successfully recovered materials from an abandoned research site that had fallen within the Sirens' sphere of influence. And more recently, Enterprise was able to seize the initiative against a Siren fleet and capture one of their ships- it was still a tremendous achievement because of the combination of restraint, discipline and daring involved."

He then took a deep breath. "But when we fought Purifier herself, she was able to press us hard and nearly killed me. Because she chafed against the restrictions of the other Sirens and has freed herself from their commands, she's able to fight in a spontaneous and flexible way that poses a serious tactical danger. One that we need to rid ourselves of before she shows up when we're distracted with other matters. And thankfully for us, she's more than willing to fight."

Amagi, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke up. "But if she's willing to fight, that must mean she's prepared for battle with us."

The commander gave a nod. "And this is why I ran things by you, Belorussiya, and the other tactically-inclined members of the fleet. But letting her run free would give her time to snap up more Siren ships. We've reached a critical moment- there's no better time to strike than now. Yuubari, have you distributed the new network jammers?"

Yuubari walked over, and handed one to the commander. "Just in case. Aside from this one, I've given out as many as could be made. But it will require you to get uncomfortably close to her."

"Yeah." The commander lifted up his hat so that he could run a hand through his hair. "...There's not much left we can do except call the fleet officers together and talk about the plan."