12/06, GCY 320

0800 hours

Io Colony, Grand Jupiter Reich

A tall man wearing a dull red but ornate military uniform strode through the dark passageway of the spaceship until he reached a door guarded by a pair of soldiers dressed in jade green uniforms. He was broad-shouldered and exceedingly handsome, and his well-groomed blond hair and striking emerald eyes were accentuated by the charming air that seemed to be a permanent fixture around him.

He wore an easy smile on his princely face as he approached the guards, and they quickly saluted and allowed him to pass through the door. The man entered into a fancy conference room with a plush maroon carpet and expensive-looking, oriental tapestries hanging on the walls. In the middle of the room was a large, glossy, wooden oval-shaped table. Five people were already seated, all of them dressed in some sort of military uniform. The man made his way over and sat next to a woman who was dressed in the same uniform as he was.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Vice Admiral Walker," a gruff man with a dark beard and hawk-like eyes scoffed when the blond man took a seat.

Walker smirked. "My apologies, Fleet Admiral Montbars. I had many calls of congratulations from headquarters to attend to."

Montbars narrowed his eyes. "Don't get cocky because of one victory, Vice Admiral."

"Now, now, let us behave nicely, please," a woman with long black hair, dark eyes, and pale, porcelain skin cut in. She was seated at the head of the table and was dressed in a green uniform of the same shade as the guards outside. "It is indeed an occasion for celebration. Why not allow our Martian friend his moment of glory?"

Walker flashed her a smile. "Thank you, Fleet Admiral Shih. I knew you would understand."

"It sounded to me like she was being condescending, not praising you," the girl seated beside Montbars said.

She was the youngest in the room, and she had dark blonde hair which was tied into twintails. She leaned back in her chair, her blue eyes looking bored as she barely resisted the urge to put her feet up onto the table.

"Trust me, kid, Will knows and doesn't give a shit. He's just like that," the woman wearing the same uniform as Vice Admiral Walker stated as she took a sip from the whiskey in her glass. In contrast to the girl she was speaking to, she was much older, and wrinkles were beginning to become visible on her tired, worn-out face.

"Come now, Fleet Admiral Critchett, it truly is an occasion for celebration, is it not? Now that we have captured Io, this is the furthest that the Joint Galactic Committee has ever made it in the history of this war," Walker stated. He then cast a sly glance at Montbars. "I'm so very humbled to have been the one to think up the strategy that led us this far."

"Strategy? Don't kid yourself. It's thanks to those damn ship girls or whatever of yours," Montbars spat.

Walker laughed, a harmonious sound which lacked genuinity. "True, this victory is largely thanks to them. But it was I who insisted that we make them the linchpins of our battle plan, was it not? In fact, Admiral Montbars, I seem to recall you saying that we didn't need them at all."

"Heh. I'm not ashamed to admit when I'm wrong, and I'll admit I was wrong there," Montbars grinned. "But do you know what? Fine. Keep letting this go to your head for all I care… Just don't expect me to save you when you inevitably find yourself in a situation that you can't handle."

"Ah, they're fighting again," the young, black-haired man seated beside Fleet Admiral Shih sighed. "I knew this would happen… I want to go home…"

The young girl next to Montbars shot him a weird look. "Would you man up, Po? Sometimes I wonder how you even became a vice admiral in the first place…"

That caused the black-haired man to perk up. "Look who's talking! Jeannie, you're even more unfit to be a vice admiral than I am!"

Walker laughed again. "You two are full of energy today, aren't you?"

Fleet Admiral Crtichett snorted at that. "They were both just slouching around until they started fighting. You and Montbars are a bad influence on them."

"Please, Critchett. Don't lump me in together with him, no matter what the context is," Montbars frowned.

As the admirals continued to chatter among themselves, Walker scanned over the room's occupants with his mysterious green eyes. It was rare that the heads of all the navies in the Joint Galactic Committee got together like this.

Seated directly to his right was Fleet Admiral Mary Critchett. Her light blonde hair had turned silver in some spots, but her face still looked young enough, especially her gray eyes, which shone with passion during a fleet battle. From a poor farming family, she rose up from humble beginnings to eventually attain her current position: head of the Free Martian Union's fleet and Walker's commanding officer.

At the head of the table was Fleet Admiral Shih, leader of the Imperial Venus Fleet. Next to her was her subordinate, Vice Admiral Cheung Po Tsai, a relatively young officer who was hailed as a genius but was also shy and lacking in confidence. These two were technically the 'hosts' of this gathering since they were all currently aboard a ship belonging to the Venus Fleet.

Finally, directly across from Walker was Fleet Admiral Montbars and Vice Admiral Jeannie Bonadvis. Montbars was the head of the Golden Mercury Republic's fleet, a rough but competent and calculating man who had achieved many victories during his military career. Bonadvis was his protege, though he didn't seem to like her very much. Bonadvis was considered a natural when it came to tactics, but like Tsai, she also had a flaw which marred her genius, namely her laziness and apathy. Both Bonadvis and Tsai had actually gone to the same military academy together, which, funnily enough, was on Mars. Walker himself had graduated from there, though he was a few years older than either of them.

An interesting collection of admirals, Walker smirked to himself. I eagerly await the day when I will stand above them all.

"Oi, what're you smiling to yourself for?" Critchett nudged him.

"Hm? It's nothing, ma'am," Walker replied pleasantly.

Critchett sighed, draining the last of her whiskey as Bonadvis and Tsai continued to argue. Meanwhile, Montbars and Shih discussed some other matter among themselves, as if they were used to their subordinates behaving like this.

"... You know, he's not entirely wrong," Critchett said.

Walker followed her eyes. "Fleet Admiral Montbars? About what?"

"Don't play dumb. About what he said earlier," Critchett gave him a disapproving frown. "You know the story of Icarus?"

"Ah, yes, the ancient myth from a country on Earth. Yes, I am familiar with it," Walker replied.

"Heh. Not surprising that you're very well-read. Well, anyway, then you know what my message is," Critchett said. "Don't fly too close to the sun, or you're going to get burned. Making it to Vice Admiral at your age is impressive enough; you don't need to aim any higher than that."

"Haha! As my superior officer, aren't you supposed to be encouraging me to shoot for the stars? It sounds like you're doing the opposite," Walker noted. "And besides, I am nothing special. In fact, both the other vice admirals in this very room are younger than I am."

"They're once-in-a-generation exceptions. Don't compare yourself to them," Critchett said.

Walker merely smiled at that and stayed silent. Ah, Fleet Admiral Critchett… I know your intentions are good, but for me to stop here would be unthinkable. I will surpass everyone in this room, and I will go further than anyone has ever gone before in the history of the human species. My plans are beyond your comprehension.

"Okay, if I may, I would like to get this meeting officially underway," Fleet Admiral Shih announced. "Firstly, let me once again congratulate all of you, especially our Martian representatives, on the successful capture of Io. Vice Admiral Walker, it is especially thanks to your strategy that we were able to win. Your decision to utilize the ship girls in this battle and to split them separately to attack each one of the enemy's task forces proved to be wise. Your call to use the Mars Raiders to take over the Chlodwig Military Base was also a good decision, as we were able to fully take control of the enemy facilities without destroying them."

"Yaaay, great job," Bonadvis drawled sarcastically, clapping slowly.

Walker gave a whimsical bow. "Why thank you, mademoiselle."

"Good, now that we've formally thanked the Martians for their service, allow me to formally berate them for a bit," Montbars began gruffly. "It was clear that in this battle, the enemy also used ship girls… Three of them, in fact. And those three are almost certainly the three that we lost on that cargo ship that was en route to Mars. The Martians' decision to use a new, untested cloaking technology to transport that valuable cargo instead of the traditional escort was incredibly irresponsible and is now coming back to bite us in the ass."

Critchett sighed, looking longingly at her empty whiskey glass. "Here we go…"

"And that is not all," Montbars continued. "The Martians also gave two ship girls to the White Forces rebels even though these rebels were undermanned, under-armed, and most of all, completely unreliable. The Soviets easily crushed this little rebellion and either took control of or destroyed the ship girls we had given to the White Forces. It's all well and good that we finally know how useful the ship girls are, but the ill-thought out actions of the Martians has led us to lose five of them before we could even put them to good use."

"Admiral Montbars, as much as I respect you, your bad habit of looking at the negative side of things never ceases to amaze me," Walker smiled. "While those losses are tragic, don't forget that we now have the ability to lock the ship girls under our control, so even if the enemy were to capture them, they would not be able to turn them to their side anymore. Furthermore, the company on Earth which manufactures these ship girls is exclusively contracted with the Joint Galactic Committee. Taking these things together, it means that the JGC will be able to vastly outnumber the Outer Reach in terms of the number of ship girls each side possesses. Yes, they may have taken five from us, but those five are the only five they will ever have."

Montbars scoffed at that. "You're being too optimistic."

"That aside, I would like to know the status of the ship girls that we do currently have under our command," Fleet Admiral Shih brought the discussion back on track. "Admiral Walker, you were their commander. Can you give us a full report?"

"Of course. Of the three ship girls who took part in that battle, two of them were completely unscathed, while the third took heavy damage to her vessel but is doing fine after a short visit to the medical ward," Walker provided.

"Wait, so how exactly do they work? Do they take damage when their ship is hit? Do they have the same biology as humans?" Vice Admiral Tsai interjected, suddenly interested.

"They don't take damage proportional to the damage their ship takes, if that is what you mean," Walker answered. "However, they can get hurt just like regular humans, so if there is an explosion or their ship rocks back and forth and they fall or get hit with shrapnel, they will be injured. As for whether their biology is similar to ours, I am no expert, but it seems that way thus far. We've been able to treat them with the same medicines and procedures that we would use on humans."

"Really? Even though they're robots?" Bonadvis raised an eyebrow. "I'm kind of curious about the company that makes them now. Where did they get this technology? No other type of android is that detailed."

"Who knows? I am just as curious as you are," Walker shrugged.

"Wait a minute. You are in direct communication with that company, and you don't even know that much?" Montbars frowned. "You haven't bothered asking them where they get their materials or how they first came up with the idea? Or why they decided to sell them to us in the first place?"

"What's important is knowing how much they cost and if they work properly, is it not? Personally I don't have time to sit around and ask unnecessary questions, but perhaps you are different, sir," Walker goaded.

Surprisingly, instead of retorting, Montbars only fixed Walker with a stare, his icy blue eyes deep in thought.

Admiral Montbars, perhaps I have underestimated you, Walker thought, unable to suppress the excited grin that came to his face.

"Let us focus on the more immediate concerns, please," Shih once again shifted the course of the discussion. "Regardless of our victory here, we must begin to think about what the Outer Reach's next move will be. Capturing Io is uncharted territory for us, and though it allows us access to a forward operating base, it also means that we are deep in Outer Reach territory now. The Grand Jupiter Reich especially will not take this lying down. Ship girls aside, let us take stock of our conventional forces. Tsai, if you will, please."

"Yes, ma'am," Vice Admiral Tsai spoke up, though he looked nervous to have everyone's eyes on him. "In the previous battle, we lost four destroyers and three heavy cruisers, so at the moment, our fleet consists of ten destroyers, five light cruisers, five aircraft carriers, and two battleships, not counting the ship girls."

"This is a three-planet fleet and this is the best we could muster? That's pathetic," Montbars was dissatisfied.

"Why don't you lobby your government to send more ships, then?" Critchett asked.

"You know very well that a portion of our fleet is tied up putting down a rebellion, so that is going to be difficult," Montbars said, crossing his arms. "And we have provided three of the aircraft carriers and one of the battleships, so I would argue that we have actually contributed the most."

"Technically speaking, Mars has contributed the most ships, and we're the only ones who actually lost any ships," Walker pointed out. "Mercury and Venus combined have contributed a total of five ships only."

"We would love to send more than just this battleship, but the Empress would like to see some proof that we can reliably hold this position before she agrees to commit more of Venus' forces," Fleet Admiral Shih said.

"But that's rather circular thinking, isn't it? For us to reliably hold this position, we first need an adequately-sized fleet," Walker smiled.

"Indeed," Shih returned his smile, but there was no warmth in it… Not that there was any in Walker's either. "How about you simply take this as another opportunity to show the JGC the worth of the ship girls, Vice Admiral Walker?"

Walker smirked. "Perhaps I will do that."

"All right, then it's settled. Our wonder boy here will have another chance to prove himself," Montbars said quite unhappily. "Can we end this meeting now? I have to get back to Mercury soon."

Shih nodded. "Yes, I suppose we've addressed all the main concerns. I also must be getting back in order to give my report to the Empress."

"If you're all leaving, I assume you're all right with leaving your ships under Will's command? After all, I have to return to Mars too and can't stay here to supervise him," Fleet Admiral Critchett asked her peers.

"Of course not. That's why I'm leaving Jeannie here," Montbars stated.

The twintailed girl sat up in surprise. "Wait, what?! That's the first I'm hearing of this!"

"Don't worry, Vice Admiral Bonadvis, you will have Tsai here for company," Shih assured her.

Now it was the young man from Venus' turn to be shocked. "W-What? You're leaving me here?"

"Oh, quit acting like brats. You're both Vice Admirals," Montbars sighed. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Walker just might be the most responsible one left on Io."

"Ah, I've been praised by Fleet Admiral Montbars. My life is now complete!" Walker smiled brightly.

"Spare me," Montbars groaned. "Jeannie, this is your chance to show those stuck-up politicians back home that you deserve your title of vice admiral. Don't fuck this up."

"Oui, you can count on me, sir!" Bonadvis found some determination at those words.

"The same goes for you, Tsai. I know you can do it," Fleet Admiral Shih encouraged her subordinate.

"T-Thank you ma'am! I won't disappoint you," Tsai blushed.

Fleet Admiral Shih then stood up. "All right, with that, this meeting is officially adjourned. Vice Admirals Walker, Bonadvis, and Tsai, please do your best in our absence. You are all young, and the future of the Joint Galactic Committee rests upon your shoulders. Please show the solar system the resolve and strength of our alliance."

The three vice admirals stood up and saluted as their superiors exited the room.

"Ah… I can't believe I have to do actual work now," Bonadvis collapsed in her chair with a sigh as soon as the fleet admirals were out of sight.

"There's no way you made vice admiral without doing actual work!" Tsai said with disbelief.

Walker stood back up, brushed off his uniform, and made for the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Bonadvis wondered.

"There's something I have to attend to," he said simply before exiting.

Vice Admiral Walker went through the passageways of the Venusian battleship until he reached the pod docking area, then walked over to the pod he had come in on. The pod was fairly standard for all JGC ships; small, but big enough to fit one person comfortably, at least for short periods of time. The inside of it contained a comfortable chair, some rations, and a control panel for adjusting the course and temperature of the pod.

Walker entered the pod and opened the interface, setting the coordinates for his return back to his own flagship, the aircraft carrier Explorer. The pod launched out from the battleship and made the short trip through the skies of Io over to the Explorer, which was hovering in place not too far away.

Surrounding the Explorer were three other ships, all of them battleships. They were the three that had fought the Outer Reach ship girls in the last battle: King George V's ship, the battleship with the shield, and the large, black, menacing battleship that dwarfed the nearby spaceships.

When the pod docked back into the Martian aircraft carrier, Walker started on his way to the medical ward instead of the bridge. Entering the sick bay, he found King George V seated on one of the beds, a nurse busy wrapping a bandage around a wound on her left arm.

"Ah, Admiral Walker. Good day to you, sir," King George greeted with a pleasant smile.

"Hello. I see your wounds have been tended to," he noted as the nurse left the two of them alone.

"Indeed. I am fit to fight once more," King George declared proudly, standing up.

"That may be so, but unfortunately the same can't be said for your vessel. It's going to take a while to fix the damage to your ship."

King George sighed. "It will, won't it… My apologies for that. I should not have let myself be hit."

"That's all right. It was partly my fault for thinking that the enemy ships would simply stay hovering over the military base in order to defend it," Walker admitted. "That aside, where are our other two friends? I thought I told them to gather on the Explorer."

"South Dakota is probably on the bridge already since that is where you said to convene. She's not the type to delay orders to check up on a comrade in the medical ward," King George said. "As for the other one… Who knows if she even bothered to show up."

Walker frowned, running a hand through his blond hair. "Friedrich der Grosse… I don't get it. For some reason, the control module on her doesn't seem to work. Luckily she's decided to fight for us at the moment, but who knows what she will decide to do next. Not to mention that unlike the rest of you, she has no historical counterpart, at least not one that was ever completed and launched… She is a strange one. Anyway, we should probably get going to the bridge."

As the pair walked together towards the bridge of the Martian battleship, King George V recalled an important detail she had left out.

"By the way, Admiral, about Friedrich," she started, "there is something that may be concerning. During the last battle, one of the enemy's ship girls was Bismarck of the Kriegsmarine, meaning that she served the same fleet as Friedrich der Grosse did. Although Friedrich hasn't shown any signs of betraying us at the moment, I thought that may be important to keep in mind."

Walker furrowed his brow. "Bismarck…? Yes, that name came up quite often while I was researching World War II warships. But given that Friedrich der Grosse was never actually completed, should the two of them really know each other?"

"Hm, I am not sure of that myself," King George V replied. "Back during the battle, Friedrich admittedly did attack Bismarck without any hesitation, so perhaps I am worrying over nothing."

"That's all right. It's better to know too much than to know too little, after all," Walker said. "I wish I could access Friedrich der Grosse's communications logs to see if the two of them had any contact during the battle, but unfortunately I don't think Friedrich would be willing to share any of that with me."

The two of them then arrived at the bridge, where they were greeted by a tan-skinned woman with lustrous black hair tied into a pleated ponytail.

"Sir, good morning," South Dakota greeted with a salute. "It does not appear that Friedrich der Grosse has arrived yet."

"I don't think she'll be coming," Walker sighed as he returned her salute. "At least you are here. Good work during the battle, South Dakota."

"I was simply following orders, sir. No need for thanks," South Dakota said.

"Right." Vice Admiral Walker sat down in his chair, then noticed that he had received a message on the console. "... It looks like the enemy forces have completely retreated from this sector. No more fighting for now, I suppose."

"Ah, I had wanted to pay that Bismarck back for the hits she scored," King George V lamented.

"You'll get your chance eventually," Walker assured her.

For a moment, his eyes flashed an unnatural yellow color before returning to their standard blue hue.

"Yes… We will all get our chance eventually."

12/08, GCY 320

1600 hours

Titanes, Titan Colony, Soviet Satellites of Saturn

"Landing confirmed. Safe to disembark," Lieutenant Roberts let Captain Rackham know.

The captain leaned back in his seat and breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally, we're home. It will be good to have some time off."

"A rare opportunity, though I am sure our break will be short," Commander Bonnet, who was standing beside him, said.

"That's for sure," Rackham replied, standing up. "Looks like our ship girls have landed as well. Bonnet, tell Enterprise and Belfast to meet me outside. I'll leave the rest of the disembark procedures to you."

"It looks like your break begins before mine does, sir." Bonnet frowned at having the extra work thrust upon him.

"Haha! When you make captain rank, you can abuse your subordinates too," Rackham said jokingly, clapping him on the shoulder before walking off.

He exited the light cruiser and entered out into the bustling docks. Originally the Soyuz had not been scheduled to return to port so soon, so there were only a handful of people gathered around waiting for their loved ones to disembark off the ship. Nevertheless, there were numerous other military personnel, mechanics, and engineers rushing around the docks.

It looks like they are preparing for a big offensive. Unsurprising considering the enemy has taken Io.

Rackham frowned to himself as he recalled the aftermath of that battle. He had no memory of what happened after the Martian Raiders attacked the command room back at Chlodwig Base, nor of how he escaped from there and made it back onto the Soyuz. All he remembered was waking up in the medical ward and being told that the battle had ended two days ago. He also had no recollection of why he passed out, and the only people who were with him at that time, Enterprise and Belfast, had no clue either.

They said that I threw up a yellow, plasma-like substance before I passed out… In that case…

His frown grew deeper. I've still got ways to go, it seems.

"Hey, look, it's the Captain!"

He recognized that voice as Littorio's, and sure enough, he spotted the green-haired battleship waving to him, along with Bismarck and Jean Bart.

He had not heard much from the three of them since the battle ended, mainly because he had been too busy dealing with the fallout from the loss of Io. He had to coordinate with the remnants of the fleet as well as convey the situation to Admiral Teach, who was quite livid about the outcome of the battle and the revelation that the enemy had begun deploying their own ship girls.

All he had heard was that Jean Bart had come over to the Soyuz to get medical treatment, and that she was in no mortal danger. Sure enough, she looked healthy now, save for the fact that her left arm was in a sling, having broken it when her ship had been hit.

"Sir. It's good to see you are well," Bismarck greeted as the trio approached. "We were told that you fell unconscious during the battle."

"It was nothing serious," Rackham blushed slightly out of embarrassment. "Anyway, sorry for the long time it took to return here. You three must have been bored."

"We're battleships. We are used to waiting around," Jean Bart simply said.

"Are you kidding me? Si, it was very boring!" Littorio complained.

"Well, luckily for you, things are probably going to get a lot more interesting from here on out," Rackham grinned. "But keep in mind that interesting also means dangerous, haha!"

"Bring on the danger, sir! I am not afraid!" Littorio flexed her bicep confidently.

Bismarck shot her a tempered glare. "Are you forgetting that we were soundly defeated in our last battle? What will we do if those ship girls return? What will we do if there are more of them than just the three we encountered?"

"We will simply defeat them. That is all," Belfast said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere with Enterprise in tow.

"Oho, it has been a while, you two! I am very much enjoying seeing your beautiful faces again!" Littorio greeted excitedly.

Bismarck frowned at Belfast. "That is all well and good, royal maid, but I would much rather have a concrete plan and more reinforcements than your assurances."

"And if we do not get those things? Do we simply give up, then?" Belfast smiled.

"N-No, but -"

"All right, all right," Rackham interrupted. "There is no need to worry. Belfast and Enterprise will definitely be given their own ships now, so we will be able to bolster our ship girl forces by two. Also, given that the enemy has now encroached into Outer Reach territory, Fleet Command will be putting together a massive fleet to retake Io."

"That is good, but there is still the unresolved issue of the number of enemy ship girls," Bismarck pointed out. "How do we know the enemy won't get any more than the three they already have?"

"We don't, of course. In fact, it's safe to assume that they will have more than just three in the next battle we fight," Rackham admitted.

Bismarck looked uneasy. "Then what do we do?"

"Just because we have fewer numbers doesn't mean we can't win," Enterprise stepped up. "Captain, in the next fight, I will show you the true power of the USS Enterprise. I will make up for our lack of numbers by myself if I have to."

"Oh? What's gotten into you? Weren't you reluctant to fight by our side before?" Rackham wondered.

Enterprise's gaze darkened. "In the last battle… I think I know who that battleship with the shield might have been. Seeing her there only made it obvious: from now on, we're going to run into many of those that we considered friends in our past lives. If I don't do anything, we're only going to end up killing each other. That's why I want to fight, so that at least I can say that I did everything I could to bring them back."

"Well said, Enterprise! I will also do my utmost!" Littorio declared, slinging her arm around the American aircraft carrier.

"Good to hear that you all haven't given up, at least," Rackham said. "But anyway, while the sailors are disembarking, I am going to go give my report to the admiral in charge here. You five should come along, because I am sure she would want to see you."

Following their captain, the ship girls walked through the massive dock of Titan's premier military base. As they passed through, they happened to walk by a group of large, humanoid robots docked towards the far wall.

Standing in stillness like silent guards, the machines were painted a dark red in color and were emblazoned with a hammer and sickle on their left breastplates. They were big but sleek, and in their right hands they held a large, black rifle which looked almost identical to the railgun cannons that were mounted on battleships. A big, silver sword was also mounted on each of their backs.

"What the hell are those things?" Jean Bart asked, craning her neck upwards at the massive robots.

Rackham turned to look. "Oh, those? They're Large-Scale Mechanized Mobile Strike Units, though everyone just calls them mechas. They were meant to be piloted by a single person each and are supposedly capable of taking down spaceships."

"So you train pilots for those? How come we haven't seen them on the battlefield?" Enterprise wondered.

"They were originally meant to combat the Sirens," Rackham said, his yellow eyes fixed upon the large, inactive mechas. "The logic was that since the Siren ships have shields that neutralize our lasers, if we could get close enough with the mechas, their shields wouldn't matter. However, the idea was quickly scrapped after we did some test runs… It turns out that those mechas couldn't even defeat a single unmanned drone from an aircraft carrier. Sending them into battle against Sirens would be beyond suicidal."

"Huh? Why even build them in the first place if their specs are so bad, then?" Jean Bart was confused.

"Their specs are great, actually. Thanks to their mobility and firepower, they easily have the potential to take down any type of spaceship," Rackham said. "The problem is the pilots. Not even our best pilots were able to sync well enough with the machines to make use of them. In fact, it would take inhuman awareness and sensorimotor skills to reach anywhere near the full potential of these mechas, and we couldn't replicate that with human pilots or with AI systems. These things are expensive to make, so after we realized that, we just stopped building them and shelved them."

"That's unfortunate. They look very cool," Littorio marvelled.

"Luckily we have you ship girls now, so we don't need them," Rackham pointed out. "Anyway, we should get going. I told the admiral we would be coming."

The ship girls continued to follow Rackham through the docks until they reached a rather unremarkable building. They entered, and Rackham went up to the front desk.

"Hello. I am Captain Jack Rackham, here to see Admiral Read. I have an appointment with her," Rackham greeted, speaking in Russian now.

"Welcome back, Comrade Captain. Unfortunately, Admiral Read is not here at the moment. Earlier today, she was recalled by the Politburo," the receptionist let him know.

"What? For what reason?" Rackham was taken aback.

"I'm afraid I do not have that information, sir," the receptionist simply told him.

Suppressing the urge to groan, Rackham led the ship girls back outside.

"It looks like Admiral Read isn't here, so never mind about that," he said to them. "Well… Aside from that meeting, I didn't have anything planned. What do you all usually do in your free time?"

The ship girls looked at each other, unsure of how to answer.

Rackham sighed. "Right, there isn't really much to do aboard the ship other than read books and watch TV. How about I take you on a tour of Titanes? It could at least be a change of pace."

"Oh, a city? Finally! I have been wondering what these space cities are like!" Littorio cheered excitedly.

Rackham looked at Belfast and Enterprise. "Did you visit any of the cities on Enceladus?"

Enterprise shook her head. "We mostly just stayed inside that base…"

"Okay then. There's not really anything that differentiates a city in space from a city on Earth, but if you've never been in one since World War II, then I guess it could be interesting," Rackham said.

"Actually, we were programmed with basic knowledge on what the cities in modern times are like. I am not sure why Littorio is acting like she has no clue what she is about to see," Bismarck frowned.

"Come now, surely you must admit that being programmed with certain information and being able to see it for yourself are two different things?" Littorio countered.

"I suppose that's correct…" Bismarck was forced to admit.

"Then it's settled. I feel kind of bad for leaving Bonnet with all the work, but eh," Rackham shrugged. "I do hope we don't draw too much attention to ourselves, though. You girls are dressed in quite the strange manner."

"Perhaps we could change into spare military uniforms?" Bismarck suggested.

"Maybe, but that would mean I would have to go back to the ship and risk getting caught by Commander Bonnet…" Rackham frowned. "Well, whatever. Big cities like this one usually have enough weirdos walking around that you can just blend in. Let's get going."

As Rackham led the ship girls out of the dock area and into the city proper, he couldn't help but be a bit distracted.

Admiral Read was recalled by the Politburo? That can't be good, he thought to himself. And there's still the matter of how I fell unconscious back on Io… I didn't think that much would be enough to overexert me.

His yellow eyes flashing, Rackham clenched his fists. Next time… Things will be different!