"General! An Allied spy has entered your War Room!"

Mr. Gallo tensely watched as the 'subordinate' drew into his pouch, intently guessing on whether the Spy is pulling out a gun, or worse - a competing arms contract. The Spy drew out an iPad instead.

"Damnit, you Allied Spies keep your filthy capitalist weapons away from him. We already have a contract with General Puno."

The Spy looked at the screen to see a scowling old man in an expensive suit and a Soviet officer's hat. "Necessities of war I see. Have you not been informed that the Red Army is looking for you and your entire air group? Should I inform them that you have instead opened a club along the waterfront in Manila, with some of the missing pilots working there as exquisite dancers? I've heard that desertion is not something the Red Army takes lightly."

"You can't link that club to me, Spy. I have no idea what you're talking about, and if you see those dancing pilots tell them that desertion deserves execution."

"Indeed, and so does gross incompetence. Which has led to your air group being lost in the first place."

"Please, please, gentlemen. No fighting here, this is the War Room. Allow me to introduce you to each other first. Agent Koch, this is Mr., er, Commander Gallo, Soviet Air Force. Commander Gallo, this is Agent Koch, Allied intelligence. I'm sure you haven't met before."

The spy and the the general knowingly smirked at each other. They knew they met just eleven chapters ago under more stressful conditions; they breathed a hushed sigh of relief that the Filipinos not identify them when they infiltrated the same Workshop by accident.

"But seriously guys, you really have to stop spying on our Workshops. Our Bear Cavaliers have already identified both of you and the Shinobi from far away already."

Slightly embarrassed, Agent Koch glanced to the side as Mr. Gallo slumped back into his seat. Koch then put the coffee aside and his iPad in front of the general. "This may concern you, but according to our drones, the Chrysanthemum has begun a southerly route, apparently towards Manila."

Mr. Gallo frowned. "That's what I'm about to say as well, you know, before you butted in."

General Puno just looked at Mr. Gallo, then signaled Agent Koch to continue. "You have already fought the Battlebase Chrysanthemum, and are probably wondering what is it, and more importantly, how to deal with it. I have been cleared by my handlers to release some information concerning this class of vessels based on previous encounters with it." "First thing you need to know is..."

An officer disturbed Agent Koch's debriefing. "General, someone on the line. It's the captain of Chrysanthemum. Shall I patch him in?"

"Very well. Standard chat-with-the-enemy screens." General Puno watched as the hundred-or-so screens of the War Room flickered a bit and changed their displays to various official-looking (but intentionally misleading) charts and maps. "We're going live in 5... 4... 3... 2...wait. Display 143, update your screen before you receive sterner sanctions." Agent Koch looked at the errant TV screen, saw the display, and chuckled as the screen changed its display to a random map of Manila - in 1910.

General Puno did one more check of the screens, fixed his uniform and practiced his official officer's serious-face, and continued. "We're going live... now."

The screens in front of General Puno changed again, multiple screens linked together in one display for a live streaming video conversation with Commander Bara.

"Good day opponent. I am Commander Bara of the Battlebase Chrysanthemum. I ask you to power down your Chronosphere in Pasay."

There was an awkward pause.

Commander Puno broke the awkward silence. "Good day to you too. Sorry to say this, but I don't think we are willing to power down the Chronosphere. It does not suit Filipino interests. Unless you have a counterproposal perhaps? Say, leave our country be and we shall power down the Chronosphere?"

"Hm, how about if we make the assimilation process into the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere easier for you, in exchange for powering down the Chronosphere and to stop resisting us."

"I do not think Filipino and Japanese interests intersect at a reasonable compromise, Commander Bara."

"So do I, General Puno. But nonetheless, we expect you to power down your Chronosphere within a week. The Chrysanthemum will be sending some live ordnance to assist in the deactivation of the Chronosphere as well, though willingly shutting it down would be safer for the surroundings." Then the screen faded to black. Commander Bara ended the call.

Agent Koch glanced back at his iPad. "Well, not like that guy can't enforce what he wants; that Battlebase is immune to almost all conventional weapons by virtue of its sheer bulk and multiple-redundancy repair abilities. It's safe to say that the vessel is virtually indestructible..."

"Your 'debriefing' is just depressing the general even more!" Commander Gallo interrupted.

"Let me finish, you grumpy geriatric gunrunner. So anyway, the vessel is virtually indestructible except for its weakpoint: two power cores that can be captured. Once both of them are captured, engineers can overload the power cores and destroy the vessel inside out. Unfortunately, the ship is heavily-guarded, so it's not that easy to just slip in Guardia Negra."

General Puno looked at the iPad providing a continuous feed. He noticed that the Battlebase barely nudged at all, but smaller vessels in the iPad seemingly traced away from the blockish Battlebase. "Looks like their Battlebase has begun to inch towards Manila then. And these smaller vessels? By the outline of some of them, this looks like an MCV."

"Well, these floating islands don't seem to be very mobile, based on our previous encounters with them. The bunch of smaller vessels you see seems to be a Japanese Surface Action Group - a Battleship flotilla with supporting vessels. I'd guess the Battlebase to arrive in a matter of days, the battleships in a matter of hours."

General Puno stared long and hard at the now-cold coffee. "Looks like we have to make ourselves ready then."