The Bonds That Mend

Swiftsure

King George V walked around the base, a day after her feast, she was given permission to wander around the base. As she walked around, she was quite surprised at what she saw. The whole place ran more like a city, stalls lined with food and items can be seen on both sides of the streets as people wandered happily along. Illustrious and Unicorn were getting some Sakura Empire street food that Akashi was selling. Long Island was buying a model ship from Akashi, Reno was trying to pick out new clothes from a clothing store... That was also run by Akashi...

"Bloody hell, I don't remember Akashi being everywhere at once..." King George V mumbled.

"Nya?~ Did someone call my nyame?~" Akashi suddenly appeared in front of King George V, startling her. "Sorry to startle you nya~. You must be that new KGV META I've heard about. I'm sure you have some money to spend, nya~"

"N-No, I don't have money on me I'm afraid." King George V admitted as started to walk away.

"Well, when you do have some coin, you know where to find me Nya!~" Akashi then quickly made her way past her and to Columbia, her next customer.

If this Akashi acted back in her previous base, she would have been tossed into the brig for disrupting the peace. In fact, her previous commander would have hated everything about this base, from the happy vibe of the small city to how no one is following the command's code of operations or something in that manner.

King George V was about to call it a day before something caused her to pause, no, it's more like someone.

Swiftsure... The same shock that paralyzed King George V and lead her to her capture struck again and caused her to stand behind her as she stared at the sea. Memories suddenly flooded through her mind, terrible memories, only a sick person would dream of with a smile on their face as they fell asleep.

Swiftsure turned around to see King George V and gave a shy smile. "Oh, hello, I didn't see you there."

King George V nodded. "Likewise."

King George V and Swiftsure stared at each other before Swiftsure decided to break the silence. "Why don't you come and look at the sea with me? It's quite calming."

King George V nodded as she leaned against the railing and stared at the blue water. "I never saw these waters so calm before."

"Oh yes, I do forget, where you come from, it must be a living hell."

King George V nodded. "I can see that the Sirens haven't punched through this world so hard, which is surprising, to say the least."

"I am sure we are prepared to handle anything that may come our way."

"No... No, you are not."

"What do you mean?"

King George V shook her head. "You haven't seen everything yet." She said before seeing Massachusettes, Essex, Shangri-la, Baltimore, Bremerton, and Laffey set sail to sea. "Where are they going?"

"Oh? I believe that's a sortie to clear out a sector from Sirens." Swiftsure quickly replied. "The attacks have been increasing as of late. I wonder why."

"That's not good."

"It isn't, Fleets 2 and 4 were heavily damaged when they returned back to base."

King George V looked down for a few seconds before turning her back to the sea and walked away.

"KGV? Where are you going?" Swiftsure asked as she walked away.

"I'm making sure that no one gets hurt." She said as she walked to Allen's office, like a woman on a mission.

She quickly opened the door as Allen was finishing some paperwork.

"Ah! King George!" Allen said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"

"Commander, I need you to put me in a sortie." King George V demanded as she slammed her hand down on the table.

Allen was stunned by her request before he stood up and looked outside the window. "Why do you want to sortie?"

"Because those ships have no idea what they're getting into, the world will only get worse from here on out and I want to help save this world!"

"... Request denied."

"WHAT?!"

Allen turned around. The atmosphere around him seemed to change from a warm and welcoming attitude to a more serious and cold one. "I won't allow you to head out, and that's final." He flatly stated.

King George V was reasonably pissed at the response. "Commander, the more sorties that are sent out there, the more they might fall in a Mirror Sea, never to return-"

"I will not allow you to get hurt. Not again. You are not going to persuade me otherwise."

King George V wanted to say more, but she only stared at him in disappointment. "The Sirens will take over this world with Commanders like you." She said as she stormed out of the office.

Allen sighed as he took out watched her leave. "It's for the best... Trust me."