Book One: Schwarzer Wolf

Chapter 32: Nearing the End

January 20th, 2016
Pearl Harbor
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This was it. Nearly every ship across the world had gathered at Pearl Harbor for what would hopefully be the final encounter. Sirens were done with us. That Arbiter, I think it was High Priestess or something, but she'd come up and told us exactly what they intended to next. In simple terms: "I'm coming down there myself to kick your ass for daring to try to transcend."

So now we were setting up to stop it. The objective was partly simple but also not. We needed to hold them off long enough to rip a hole in space straight to where Priestess would. Easy enough, right? Given they were throwing everything at us, it wouldn't be.

For this special occasion, I had new blades formed. Also linked a pistol to my ship for a bit of ease in the department. My rig enjoyed the new upgrades. She had much larger teeth now.

The weather of today had worsened a lot since the morning. Instead of clear skies and a nice sun, we had grey clouds and barely any sun. Guess it was a sort of premonition before the fighting began.

"Levi, you ready? We're going in the first wave." Forge walked over with Trathen and Ohio. I had grown close to these three. Especially Forge. Though it felt wrong to be close with her. She had freedom. I didn't. Dealing with me only restricted what she could and couldn't do.

"Yeah. I'm good." I stood up from my chair, following the other three to the docks. We passed by quite a few people on the way there. Some I recognized, like Bismarck and Eugen. Others I didn't. I knew close to none of the names of the people present. Though we were all working to a shared goal: Defeating the Sirens here and now.

Bismarck approached me as I got to my ship, tugging at my sleeve to get my attention.

"Hm?"

"Come back alive." I paused. Normally I'd brush anyone off who decided to be...I don't know, dramatic, but maybe...just this once. I turned and wrapped her in a gentle hug. She audibly made a little surprised gasp. A little bit of happiness was behind it while she hugged me back. I took the moment to run my hand through her hair before letting go and heading for my ship.

"I won't promise it, but I promise I'll try." Bismarck nodded and went to join Eugen. They'd be in the second wave. Hopefully I could clear enough out for them to not have a horrible time.

The first wave consisted of 12 destroyers, 9 cruisers, 5 battleships, and 3 carriers. It was less than I had expected initially. But then I realised how badly this was going to go. All of us were very experienced in dealing with Sirens. If we were getting deployed first, then they were trying to crush them as fast as possible. We were going to run out of shells at that point.

It didn't really matter to me. We were buying time. If we were to run out of shells, then we were doing something right. That's the comfort I held upon starting out for the staging ground. Priestess had given us the exact coordinates to go to. Was it a trap? Maybe. There was no way to prove it was or wasn't. But we'd need to take the chance if everything was to work.

"Eyes up. Signals are already showing up on the radar." Forge had probably the most advanced sensor suite in all of Eagle Union. Even the next generation of carriers wasn't comparing. I switched to rig just in time to see a laser blast past where my second turret had been. It came from somewhere far ahead, past normal visual range.

"Everyone, switch to rigging!" Most of us had time to switch before the laser show started. A few didn't. Their hulls were ripped straight through. 2 destroyers out of the game, 1 light cruiser almost dead, and a battleship scratched. My eyes glanced ahead for only a second before two lasers came for me. My sleeve and hair were lightly singed by the heat of them flying by.