Commander's Rounds

Entry 97: Matters of Faith

"Just as I thought, she won't shut up!"

Purifier was on a mission, and she wasn't alone while doing it. She had to be carried along, thanks to the fact that most of her own combat equipment was destroyed, and even though she was annoyed at having to hitch a ride, being able to squeeze around New Jersey kinda made the ride worth it, alongside the fact that the battleship was just so cheerful the whole way.

Aside from New Jersey, she was accompanied by both Helenas, Saint Louis, Hiryu, and Souryuu.

It was a small force, but it had to be, it was a big mission.

After all, they were eavesdropping on Tester.

Purifier had plugged the specially modified laptop made by Yuubari into the detection gear of New Jersey and the two Helenas while the three of them held hands to combine the power of their equipment. Helena-Meta has a talent for intruding on Siren systems, and the other two were giving her the oomph she needed to listen in on Tester's calls while Purifier downloaded the data to her machine. "Whew, Tester's pretty chatty today, but that only makes things easier for us."

Souryuu adjusted her glasses. "We're still clear- either they haven't noticed us, or they don't care that we're here."

Hiryuu spoke up. "Still, I wonder why you didn't bring Agir in case of an emergency."

Purifier sighed. "All right, listen up class, and don't pass notes to your girlfriends while Puri is talking. The problem with Iron Blood and Northern Rigging is that it's not really useful for this kind of mission. As far as we're concerned, it's "Come at me bro!" In machine form."

Saint Louis spoke up. "They see it as a challenge?"

Purifier continued to look through the data. "The Northerners and Iron Blood decided to add a little of our special sauce to their development program, which is... Exactly what we hoped you people would be desperate and panicked enough to do. Granted, only a couple of you took the bait, but, it makes those kinds of ships a subject of special interest in the combat algorithms of our automated forces. And it kinda helps that Northern and Iron Blood Kansen aren't known to be afraid of fighting."

Souryuu spoke up. "It sounds like you wanted to control both sides of the war."

Purifier put on a manic grin. "Well, lookit the bunny with a brain! The thing is, the original plan was for it to look like a desperate struggle for the fate of humanity to you people, but it was originally supposed to be a big sham where we controlled both sides. Of course, someone was on the ball, the Anomaly got in charge instead, and here I am." She looked at the data on her screen. "Goddamn it, she will not shut her trap..."

Saint Louis blinked. "Doesn't that mean she's ordering large forces around?"

Purifier nodded. "Mmmhm! But that sounds more like an iss-you, not an iss-me. But I'm pretty sure that her chronic "can't shut her pie hole" condition is terminal." Purifier giggled. "...All right, we're done here. We've got what we need to hijack Tester's signal and make it like she was never born."

New Jersey unplugged herself from Purifier's laptop. "All right! Ready to be carried back, or are you still feeling shy?"

Purifier pouted. "Just... take me home."

New Jersey giggled. "All right, I won't tell anyone you like this kinda stuff~"

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"...And that's what has happened, sir."

The commander looked from across his desk at Albert. There was nothing wrong with him, but he did bring some unusual company with him. Holding his hand was what appeared, at a glance to be a smaller, much younger version of Prinz Eugen- A new child ship to join all of the others that had just shown up at port. This Little Eugen still had her finger in her mouth, and occasionally looked this way and that.