Two Kansen of the Baltic Fleet, moving in a zigzag pattern across the water's surface, closed in on the Siren.
"You think we can take this thing out?" Kronstadt asked, a hint of uncertainty in her voice as she slightly turned her head towards Soyuz. Immediately, her main guns erupted with plumes of smoke and fire, sending nine shells toward the Siren, followed moments later by her secondary batteries opening up.
"We're about to find out," Soyuz replied with a barely noticeable smile, then shrugged and added, "After all, we've got nowhere to run."
And with that, with a roar like thunder, the battleship's guns spewed fire and metal. Moments later, shell explosions sent pillars of water into the air, completely obscuring the Siren. But an instant later, a fleeting bright yellow glow, quickly turning crimson, shone through the seemingly impenetrable, multi-ton watery veil.
Soyuz smirked inwardly. What she saw through the wall of water meant her salvo had found its target, even if just one shell might have shattered against the Siren's shields; nevertheless, it had hit home.
The next second, the distorted crimson glow momentarily changed to a muted bright lilac. Following this, two dark lilac shells shot toward the pair of Kansen like lightning, slicing through the water wall, which was already beginning to settle like butter under a knife.
But it seemed the Siren couldn't pinpoint their location accurately, and both shells flew past the Kansen, hissing sharply into the distance.
Then the Siren herself came back into view. She burst out of the water wall into open space, and her gaze immediately began darting around, searching for her enemies. The shell hits had torn the suit on her left shoulder to shreds, and her body and face were splattered with fine droplets of blood-like ichor. An expression of mild irritation appeared on her face. She turned in place, her rigging following her, taking aim at Soyuz. The silver-haired Kansen immediately fired a salvo from her secondary battery turrets. The volley covered the Siren, preventing her from using her main weapon.
Meanwhile, Kronstadt was flanking the enemy, and noticing her focus was solely on Soyuz, she rushed the Siren, drawing her saber. Her rigging, resembling two wolves, bared its fangs, ready to attack, and her arms tensed, gripping the hilt tightly, raising it for a strike.
The Siren saw Kronstadt in her peripheral vision and tried to turn, swinging her rigging around to fire at the approaching cruiser. She didn't succeed: the blonde was faster.
First, her main guns boomed, and the Siren's shields flared brightly, absorbing the damage. A moment later, Kronstadt slammed into the Siren. The shields vanished immediately upon impact, and the two girls locked in a deadly close-quarters battle. The mechanical snakes of the alien creature lunged forward, intending to push the cruiser back, but Kronstadt's rigging interfered.
The wolf-like jaws snapped shut on the Siren's rigging in an instant, biting into the almost black, otherworldly metal. Kronstadt's saber thrust forward, intending to finish the Siren in one move, but stopped abruptly, meeting an obstacle in its path.
Kronstadt's blue, sky-like eyes widened, and a low, vicious, yet disappointed growl escaped her throat. The Siren was there, her arms raised, gripping strange-looking blades. With a quick glance, the cruiser realized it was one of the spikes that had previously been on her opponent's rigging.
The next moment, Kronstadt herself was forced on the defensive. Her saber swiftly traced a circle in the air, again meeting the Siren's blade aimed at her chest. Then again and again. At some point, their blades were crossed again, and the two opponents stared into each other's faces.
Kronstadt was frantically trying to figure out a way to turn the situation in her favor, as her initial rush hadn't allowed her to finish the Siren off immediately. This new opponent was stronger than she expected, perhaps even stronger than her. As she desperately searched for a way to overcome her opponent, the Siren struck back.
Her guns glowed with a dark lilac, slightly muted light, illuminating the locked combatants. The next instant, Kronstadt's rigging unclenched its jaws, releasing the Siren's appendages in hopes of avoiding the shot. But it was too late.
The hissing roar of the shot was immediately replaced by a thunderous explosion from the impact, merging into a single, painful, soul-rending boom.
The explosion shook the Kansen—both her body and her rigging. For a moment, Kronstadt was disoriented, letting out a prolonged cry of sharp pain. Shaken, she staggered back a few steps. Her vision swam a little, but overall, she was okay. Through the ringing in her ears, she heard Soyuz's slightly muffled voice.
"...nstadt! Kronstadt!" She threw a quick glance toward the flagship, who was looking at her with an amazed and frightened expression.
Slowly, she turned her head, inspecting her rigging. The right side was more or less intact, except one of the secondary battery turrets was completely sheared off, leaving a smoldering hole in its place. The left side had fared much worse. It was closer to the Siren's guns and was the first point of impact. It was torn apart at the front, with part of the wolf-like jaw ripped off and some elements partially melted.
Kronstadt's expression faltered for a moment before twisting into pure rage. Her turrets trained on the Siren, preparing to fire. But before the Kansen could shoot, heavy shells, with a sound like thunder, slammed into the enemy, pushing her aside and raising a cloud of smoke.
Kronstadt turned her head, immediately meeting Soyuz's gaze as she rushed to her side.
"Are you okay?" Soyuz asked, nodding toward Kronstadt's rigging.
"Fine... been better, but I can pound this thing into its grave," Kronstadt replied with a vicious snarl, sheathing her saber, then raised her head, looking somewhere into the distance. "Didn't finish her..." she hissed through her teeth, spotting five Siren ships approaching from the west, emerging from an ink-black smoky haze.
Meanwhile, the wounded Siren turned toward the Kansen, and her eyes blazed with violet fire. Soyuz's bombardment hadn't been in vain—her rigging was shattered in places, but, to the Kansen's shock, both main guns were perfectly intact. The Siren's suit was in tatters, barely covering her body, and a crimson-red fluid seeped from new wounds on her body, covering the damaged areas.
"Something's wrong, there are more and more enemies," Kronstadt hissed through her teeth, shifting her gaze from the approaching ships to the Siren and back. "What's the plan?"
"Deal with them for now," Soyuz pointed her cane toward the Siren ships, "then come back to me."
Kronstadt was about to nod and go carry out her flagship's order when the air raid warning sounded.
"Soyuz," she called out to the flagship Kansen, "radar detected a group target in the sky. Their aircraft are approaching us."
Soyuz, grinding her teeth in anger, said:
"I see it. How long do we have?"
"A couple of minutes. No more," Kronstadt replied, pursing her lips.
"Then we need to hurry," Soyuz said, quickly scanning their opponents again. "Take out those ships, then get back to me quickly. You know what to do."
Kronstadt nodded quickly:
"Aye aye!" Kronstadt quickly replied, then turned and headed toward the approaching Siren ships.
Soyuz watched Kronstadt's retreating back for a few moments before turning toward the Siren, who was burning a hole through Soyuz's figure with her eyes.
"You'll pay for everything, bitch," the flagship of the Baltic Fleet growled, and her guns fired a full broadside at point-blank range.
******
Meanwhile, the naval squadron under Gangut's command continued its advance toward the Siren citadel. The distant cannonade reached them, and fragmented orders and pained cries occasionally crackled over the radio, but neither Gangut nor anyone else allowed themselves to look back—the main objective of their sortie lay ahead.
Another Siren defensive point, covering the approaches to the citadel, appeared on the horizon, southwest of them. Reaching maximum firing range, the trio of battleships unleashed a storm of shells from all guns upon it. Then the cruisers joined in—even Chkalov, with her damaged rigging, supported the others with fire from her two remaining turrets.
Although it took a bit longer this time than with Soyuz and Kronstadt's participation, the battery's shields finally flickered and died, exposing its armor. Several more minutes of continuous artillery fire passed before the armor yielded to the concentrated bombardment, disintegrating in a column of smoke and fire that rose to the heavens. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of the battery was a blazing, bonfire-like, twisted skeleton.
"Fourth one done!" Gangut announced triumphantly, with gusto. "Moving on to the fifth. Balt Fleet, full speed ahead!"
Quickly changing course, they headed toward the fifth, final line of defense.
"Any news from Minsk?" Leningrad's thin voice came from behind the battleships. Two of the three sisters turned their heads, using the brief respite to answer, but they knew no more.
"No, there hasn't been," Poltava shook her head grimly, then continued. "She still hasn't made contact."
"Everything will be fine, Lenya!" Opytny began in an encouraging voice, "Your sister's not weak. She'll definitely catch up with us, you'll see!"
Leningrad, despite the smile that appeared on her face, lowered her head and whispered quietly:
"Mhm."
Opytny, who was closest to the dejected girl, was about to approach and give her a friendly, encouraging hug when the radars picked up approaching enemy aircraft. Petropavlovsk cursed quietly again, Tallinn sighed wearily, the destroyers chattered over the radio with what sounded like curses. Gangut and the others watched as some of the planes turned toward the source of the distant cannonade, while others continued their movement toward the squadron, preparing to descend upon them.
"Sister..." Petropavlovsk hissed through gritted teeth, looking at the approaching planes.
"Yeah, I remember," Gangut nodded as a smile reappeared on her face. "Formation to repel air attack!" she commanded in a commanding tone. Everyone immediately sprang into action.
The destroyers, who had been hiding behind the backs of the older ships until now, moved forward, forming a hexagon, while the "Sevastopol" battleships formed a wedge in the center of the formation, with Chkalov, Zheleznyakov, and Tallinn positioned behind them.
When the Siren aircraft came close enough, the Kansen's anti-aircraft guns opened up with a barrage of fire, slicing the air with hundreds of shells and bullets.
The enemy aircraft split: some planes veered away, performing evasive maneuvers to escape the AA fire, while others broke through the artillery fire. They began descending, moving into attack positions, but here, at close range, they were met by the Balt Fleet destroyers. Though they lacked universal-caliber guns, the agile girls drew attention to themselves. Swiftly circling on the water's surface, they maintained continuous fire from their AA batteries, and as soon as several planes descended to torpedo-drop positions, the destroyers aimed their main battery barrels at the water.
"Fire at will!" Opytny commanded before her guns opened fire. The next moment, the other destroyers did the same.
The high-explosive shells they fired struck the sea surface, sending tons of water into the sky. The Siren planes, flying at high speed, could do nothing to avoid the obstacle that had appeared in their path. The sound of several muffled impacts echoed across the sea surface.
Several planes crashed into the water pillars as if they were made of concrete. A trio following behind, having processed what was happening, pulled up but couldn't avoid the impact. They clipped the top of the geyser and, losing speed, crashed into the water. The remaining planes tried to slow down and turn away, but immediately exposed themselves to fire from the destroyers and cruisers.
One way or another, they repelled the air raid with minimal losses, the most serious wounds being just a few scratches from bomb fragments.
Looking around at everyone, Petropavlovsk smirked to herself; the Northern Fleet destroyers' trick from the Great War, which she'd learned about almost by accident and later told the destroyers about, had worked like clockwork.
Gangut continued issuing orders:
"Squadron, continue moving! We're almost at the target."
They were approaching the fifth line of defense, and the defensive point could be seen training its guns on them. There were no more planes in the sky. As they closed in, the turret guns turned toward them the moment Gangut's order sounded over the comms.
"Grind it to dust. Fire!" she said shortly before her guns opened fire on the Siren position.
******
The last "Pawn," hit by nine twelve-inch shells, joined the four other Siren ships that had lost propulsion and were belching clouds of smoke. Its guns froze in place, ceasing fire on the small target skimming the water, only about one and a half times the size of a human. Following this, a fireball erupted with a roar from under the forward turret, splitting the ship's hull, and it began to slowly sink, listing to one side. This sealed its fate. It capsized and soon disappeared beneath the water.
"Soyuz! Enemy dealt with, returning to you," Kronstadt said, exhaling with relief, leaving the burning hulks of the Siren ships behind her.
"Understood," Soyuz replied shortly, immediately distracted by blocking another blow from the Siren. The next moment, her voice was drowned out by the roar of a shot. A few seconds later, Soyuz spoke again. "Waiting for you," she said, firing at the Siren again.
Kronstadt immediately rushed to her flagship's aid. Several Siren attack aircraft were approaching from the east. The black, angular silhouettes quickly closed the distance, lining up for an attack, and a moment later they launched a fan of rocket projectiles, to which Kronstadt immediately rushed, moving in a zigzag, trying to evade. She almost succeeded.
One of the projectiles exploded with a roar above her head, showering her with shrapnel. The artillery radar, part of her rigging, was immediately destroyed, and some fragments hit her in the head. Several warm trickles of blood ran down from her scalp.
In response, her AA installations spoke up. The surviving autocannons, along with the universal caliber guns and machine guns, sliced the sky with hundreds of shells and bullets. One of the enemy planes, caught in a burst, burst into flames and, trailing a plume of black smoke, crashed into the water. Another followed. Kronstadt fired so intensely that her guns began to emit a dull reddish-orange glow. Wanting to avoid losses, the planes turned away.
Having fought off the air attack, the cruiser turned her gaze to Soyuz. The flagship of the Balt Fleet and the Siren, circling on the water, exchanged salvos capable of tearing a huge chunk out of a small ship's hull. Soyuz looked alert but battered. No matter how she maneuvered, the Siren's shells still found their mark, but unlike the cruisers, they only left deep dents in the battleship's rigging. A small crimson stain was slowly spreading across her snow-white uniform—too small to be something serious, but enough for her to try to cover the spot with her hand.
Waiting for an opportune moment, Kronstadt, with a guttural, furious battle cry, rushed from the right flank at the Siren, hoping to distract her from the flagship. It didn't work. The Siren detected the movement from the side and, turning only part of her rigging, sent another shot at her, shattering, with a glancing hit, the guns on one of the main battery turrets. At the same time, the aircraft returned. The eight surviving planes attacked the cruiser. This time, besides rocket projectiles, they also used bombs attached to their wing planes.
Kronstadt's anti-aircraft guns opened fire on the aircraft. One of the planes, taking a direct hit from a universal battery shell, exploded mid-air, and its debris, like maple seeds, showered down. The remaining planes swept over Kronstadt's head, dropping their payload. Of the bombs and rockets they released, several hit the armored belt of her rigging, others exploded in the water, sending fountains of water up around her.
Something hit her in the left side, and from the searing pain, the blonde almost fell but kept her balance on the water's surface. The rigging emitted an alarm sound, reporting a fire—the bomb explosions had indeed destroyed one of the AA turrets, and its wreckage was burning.
"Tkhe-khe-khe!.. I'll kill you, bastards!" Kronstadt snarled at the retreating planes. Closing in with Soyuz, she was shocked to find the flagship in a much worse condition than it had first appeared—the Kansen battleship looked tired. Her previously white clothing showed black scorch marks, and on her rigging, whose armor plates she had used for cover in battle, there were holes, chips, gaps of various sizes and shapes. Several small turrets were missing, and there were large holes in the superstructure.
"How are you?" Kronstadt asked Soyuz.
"Tolerable... She's stronger than I thought. And this aviation... if it weren't for it!"
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it for now," Kronstadt sighed, then continued, "but we did our job. Gangut and the squadron are breaking through their defenses while this thing is distracted by us."
"I know," Soyuz nodded. "We managed to draw its attention. Now let's pile on her together."
Kronstadt just bared her teeth in a predatory grin in response. And with that, the two Kansen moved from their positions, rushing straight at the Siren.
******
Meanwhile, Minsk was quietly making her way through the Mirror Sea. After circumstances forced her to break away from the main squadron and hide in the smokescreens, she had maintained radio silence, turning off her transmitters. Spotting the enemy aircraft, the destroyer leader decided to find and disable the airfield, whatever form it took—be it a floating base or a full-fledged aircraft carrier.
The geography of the Mirror Sea played into the Kansen's plans. Between the fourth and fifth lines of defense to the west lay a fairly extensive ice field, consisting of many small ice islands, which greatly reduced the chances of her detection. Carefully maneuvering between them, Minsk made her way deeper into Siren territory.
Several times, enemy aircraft flew overhead. At such moments, she sharply dodged behind the nearest ice blocks, and when the sounds of the planes subsided, she continued her path straight to where the enemy carrier was presumably operating. Rounding another iceberg, Minsk emerged into open water, devoid of any obstacles. It was here, hidden from external observers by the ice field, that another Siren was operating.
Ahead of Minsk, a humanoid figure with unnaturally white skin and short silver hair, barely reaching her shoulders and gathered into two bunches, glided across the water's surface. The ends of the bunches were engulfed in a bluish glow and vaguely resembled a barn owl's "ears." The Siren wore a strange-looking suit—her body was covered by an almost transparent dress, but her shoulders and elbows were protected by armor plates of black metal.
Her rigging was quite simple, surprisingly simple for a Siren, too similar to that usually possessed by Kansen. Two turrets, with three guns each, were mounted on simple manipulators, the kind one might expect to see on girls from the Royal Navy or the US Fleet, but not on Sirens, who were known for the extravagance of their rigging. In her left hand, she held a long polearm—a spear with a forked tip, like a trident, from the center of which emanated a faint pale blue light.
Minsk couldn't make out the Siren's face, but fortunately, the enemy hadn't yet reacted to her presence. She was about to dismiss her and continue her path through the rear areas in search of the source of the enemy aircraft when the Siren swung her spear, tracing a circle in the air.
The central part, which was already emitting a dull light, flared up many times brighter, immediately attracting Minsk's attention. The next moment, the glow disappeared, and the sound of jet engines was heard not far from the Siren. Another pair of planes flew away.
"So there you are..." Minsk whispered to herself with a snarl, watching as the planes gradually disappeared into the distance.
Her plans changed instantly. Hiding behind the ice, the destroyer moved to the most favorable position for an attack. Of course, Minsk understood that her chances alone against such an enemy were slim, but only she could stop its attacks on her comrades now. A minute later, she was behind the Siren and suddenly went to full speed. The servos of her rigging hummed, but instead of the silent gun turrets, the girl raised her torpedo tubes. After a couple of seconds, before the opponent could react, Minsk fired. The pneumatics hissed, launching eight long gray cylinders with red noses into the water.
The Siren carrier noticed something wrong at the last moment but didn't have time to do anything. At such a short distance, six of the eight torpedoes, fired in a fan, exploded beneath her feet. A water geyser caused by the powerful underwater explosion enveloped the Siren.
A couple of seconds later, her figure emerged from the cloud of water, clearly indicating that the torpedo attack had not been in vain; she was limping. She moved with visible pain, leaning on her rigging and her right leg, which, though battered, was more or less intact, unlike her left leg. It had turned into a bloody pulp that only by some miracle remained attached to the rest of her body. Blood-like ichor flowed down in a river, dripping into the water, and the flesh slowly began to regenerate. The left side of her rigging also suffered—the armor plates were dented by the explosion, several small guns were torn from their mounts.
The Siren snarled viciously, searching for the attacker, and at that moment, Minsk's guns spoke. In a fraction of a second, five high-explosive shells struck the Siren's rigging. Instantly, a cloud of gunpowder smoke enveloped her, blocking her view.
She burst out of the smoke again, furiously searching for her opponent. The shot had hardly caused her any damage. Seeing this, Minsk decided on something that more prudent Kansen would have clutched their heads at.
"I won't back down! URA!!!" the destroyer leader screamed furiously. Her rigging shifted, forming an improvised ram. Covering herself with it, Minsk rammed the carrier before the Siren could do anything. The force of the impact was such that the rigging of both crumpled, and both opponents fell flat on the water. Only the internal systems of their rigging allowed them to remain on the surface.
It took both a few seconds to recover, but the Siren was the first to come to her senses. Spitting blood-like ichor, leaning on her spear and her relatively healthy right leg, she struggled to straighten up to her full height, quickly searching for her rival with her eyes, who was also slowly getting up after the collision, clearly limping.
The Siren bared her teeth as her guns, occasionally sparking and freezing for a moment, trained on the destroyer leader. The latter also slowly turned, searching for the enemy with her gaze. For a moment, their eyes met, and the Siren saw Minsk, gritting her teeth in pain, raise a hand to wipe blood from her lips.
The Siren's guns flared, preparing to fire, but at that same moment, white light flashed from the cracks in Minsk's rigging, and the Kansen was instantly enveloped in a cloud of impenetrable gray fog. Resuming movement and evading the opponent's shots, the destroyer leader made a run for it. Understanding that she couldn't kill such a Siren alone, Minsk, abandoning radio silence, tried to contact the rest of the fleet, but each time she was met only by incomprehensible white noise. Continuing to maneuver and wanting to somehow attract the attention of the others, Minsk fired three red signal flares into the air, signaling the presence of an enemy in the area.
******
At the same time, Soyuz and Kronstadt continued their battle against the Siren battleship, but another group of approaching aircraft forced them to pause and raise their anti-aircraft gun barrels. However, suddenly the enemy aviation lost coordination and simply rushed forward into their fire, as if a control failure had occurred. Both Kansen took advantage of this, and their surviving guns thinned the ranks of the flying machines.
"Red flashes to the northwest!" Kronstadt exclaimed. Soyuz silently nodded, understanding the source.
"Here and now, this Siren must fall," the flagship said. "Then we go to the rescue. You on the right, distract. I on the left, strike."
Both Kansen closed in on the Siren. She had used the respite given by the aviation to restore her protective halo and raised her rigging, ready in case one of the opponents tried to ram her. However, Kronstadt, who was the first to engage her, fired a salvo at point-blank range and began moving in an arc. A cloud of fire and smoke enveloped the Siren as the shells shattered against her shields. But, a moment before, the Siren's own guns, flashing with a dark lilac light, fired at Kronstadt.
Two beams of light, almost instantly covering the distance between them, and with a roar like a hammer on an anvil, struck the Soviet cruiser's rigging. Kronstadt raised part of her rigging at the last moment, placing it in the path of the shot. A flash of light momentarily eclipsed everything.
Emerging from the cloud of smoke, the Siren saw the result of her shot—Kronstadt was retreating. The visible part of her rigging was mangled beyond recognition, and blood seeped from new wounds on her body, which she covered with her hands.
The Siren hesitated for a moment due to the damage to her own rigging, preparing to finish off the Soviet cruiser. She concentrated her attention on her, aiming both guns, but in doing so, she exposed herself to the Soviet flagship's attack.
"You won't get her," Soyuz's cold voice reached the Siren. She ignored it, continuing to target Kronstadt, and Soyuz continued in an authoritative tone, "For we are united for a common goal!"
The Kansen's cane struck the sea surface with force, and from the point of impact, the water began to turn into thick multi-year ice. The gun muzzles flashed with a bright light, and nine shells, cutting through the air, rushed toward the Siren.
She again paid no attention to this, only strengthening her shields from behind. With a thunderous roar, the shells slammed into her energy dome. At first, nothing happened, but after a few moments, ice began to bind her movements.
The Siren stopped for a moment, and a moment later, she was completely immobilized by the ice trap. Her rigging began to move furiously and actively, trying to break free from the icy prison. A bright lilac-white light, casting reflections, passed through the dark blue ice. An explosion shattered the ice sarcophagus. Shards of melted ice flew in all directions, like shattered glass. In the center of it all stood the mangled figure of the Siren. Her eyes darted around, trying to find Kronstadt, to stop her, to prevent her from reaching her sister, but wherever she looked, she always saw only walls of ice and Soyuz standing before her.
"You will die here," Soyuz declared in a calm but solemn voice, taking a step forward.
Her guns again spewed fire and metal at the Siren, who, still in a state of mild shock, belatedly raised her rigging, trying to protect herself. A faint halo enveloped her, but even hits from the secondary caliber guns extinguished it. The prolonged battle had exhausted the Siren's systems. Following this, the main caliber shells hit her and began to shatter the Siren's rigging, tearing pieces off with each hit. She faltered, trying to train her guns on Soyuz, but didn't have time. The flagship of the Balt Fleet unleashed a second salvo upon her.
Most of the shells found their target. Unable to withstand the blows, the rigging emitted a bluish flash with a loud crack, and the lilac glow it emitted disappeared. The heavy shells, belonging to one of the most powerful guns of the past war, began to tear parts off the Siren battleship's rigging. The Siren faltered, trying to aim her guns at her opponent, but at that moment, Soyuz's third salvo reached her.
Most of the shells hit the Siren, forcing her to retreat, but when she took a few steps back, she found she had backed into an ice wall, which also took several shell hits, but the only marks they left were a couple of chips in the ice.
The Siren battleship paused with some surprise at this, but when she came to her senses, it was too late. Soyuz was beside her, raising her arm for a strike. A heavy blow from the Soviet flagship's fist to the head made the Siren stagger, and the next moment, a hand in a black glove closed around her neck.
The Siren was noticeably smaller than Soyuz, so lifting her off the ground was not a difficult task for the flagship. Finding themselves at eye level, the Siren looked into Soyuz's face, but the only emotion visible on Soyuz's face was cold contempt.
The Siren's rigging jerked upward in a final attempt to aim its guns at the Soviet battleship. Seeing this, Soyuz frowned and threw her with all her might into the ice wall. From the impact of the Siren against the wall, the latter cracked. For a moment it seemed it would hold, but almost immediately another shot rang out from Soyuz.
The ice shattered with a roar into pieces, and the still-living Siren literally tumbled out onto the other side, falling from a cloud of icy mist and steam.
Her condition was horrifying. Almost nothing remained of her rigging, and what was left was riddled with cracks and covered in ice. Her right arm was missing below the elbow, and a blood-like ichor seeped from several huge wounds in her chest and abdomen. But these wounds weren't visible, as she lay on her back.
Soyuz followed her out, slowly approaching the defeated Siren. Standing over her, the flagship of the Soviet Union's fleet leaned down to her opponent, again grabbing her by the neck, and now with much greater ease, lifted the Siren into the air. Drops of crimson ichor, mixed with mechanical fluids oozing from the remnants of her rigging, mingled, slowly dripping into the water.
Her vision was blurred, and her gaze darted around. For a moment, it settled on Soyuz's tired face, who was looking at her with a strange expression—a mix of contempt, relief, fatigue, and some strange emotion that could be mistaken for pity.
"Die," she said in a quiet, cold voice, and tightened her grip. The wounded Siren missed a few breaths. Her breathing became erratic, and the next moment, with the sound of crunching bones, the Siren's body went limp, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Soyuz released the lifeless body of the Siren, and it fell onto the water. Throwing one more glance at it, Soyuz waved her cane again and struck with the sharp reverse tip where the heart should have been. Her silver-white weapon turned crimson. With a squelching sound, she pulled it out, and blood-like ichor splattered in all directions. Finally, the flagship's guns fired a last shot at the enemy's body. The Siren vanished in a crimson-red flash, and her remains quickly sank beneath the water.
"The enemy is finished," she announced over the general radio channel, then headed toward Kronstadt.
"Sorry I stepped back," Kronstadt said, bending over to catch her breath, looking at Soyuz approaching her. "I didn't expect that from her," she added, pointing her hand to where the Siren had been.
Kronstadt's rigging was slowly enveloped in a soft golden light, signaling the activation of emergency self-repair mode. The golden light shone especially brightly where holes and gashes gaped. It was almost invisible, but the damage to the hull began to seal with a layer of silvery substance, which then solidified in place with a dull, welding-like flash, becoming indistinguishable from the rest of the hull. The repair, of course, was incomplete—the gun turrets didn't restore themselves—but the number of holes and dents in the hull noticeably decreased.
"You did everything right," Soyuz replied to her. "Your damage was serious enough as it is... But we need to move on. Are you ready?"
"You bet?!" Kronstadt asked with a grin on her face, wiping away blood.
******
A moment later, on Soyuz's orders, Kronstadt sped off at full speed to find the source of the bright red flashes in the sky, which were undoubtedly signal flares. Her left side still ached from the hit, causing the girl to periodically emit a low groan. The path to the northeast eventually led to a field of icebergs. Maneuvering between the ice masses, Kronstadt heard the all-too-familiar sounds of aircraft engines and anti-aircraft fire. This was where whoever had fired the signal flares was.
"Minsk!" Kronstadt thought—"That's right! That destroyer leader disappeared somewhere before the clash with that purple freak. And where did she end up?" Aloud, the cruiser said through the loudspeaker mounted on her rigging:
"Minsk! Over here, friendlies!"
A few hundred more meters between icebergs in search of the noise of battle, and a battered Minsk burst out toward the blonde. The destroyer leader didn't look good—her rigging was scorched in many places, her face was covered in blood, her dark blond hair was matted, and there was a deep cut in her right leg.
"That Siren... she was summoning aircraft, I don't know how," Minsk exhaled. "I distracted her as best I could."
"Where is that thing?" Kronstadt asked, interested in finishing off the enemy carrier that had been making their lives difficult.
"She's following me... and here come her lackeys!"
Four black planes swooped down on the Kansen from above, forcing them to slide across the water. Minsk immediately raised a smoke screen and began to retreat to the side as the enemy focused on her, dropping several bombs. Kronstadt, meanwhile, opened fire with all her surviving AA installations. One of the planes was shot down by her over the water, another fell while gaining altitude. Following this, her rigging shook from artillery shell hits.
"She's here!" Minsk warned.
The enemy Siren—a white humanoid with light blue hair and black armor—burst out from behind an iceberg. Examining her through the rangefinder, Kronstadt confirmed the presence of a vulnerable spot and fired her guns. At such a short distance—mere hundreds of meters—the enemy had no chance to evade. Twelve-inch shells hit the Siren's damaged leg and finally tore it off. The opponent fell to her knees but still managed to keep her rigging horizontal. Her return salvo hit the left side of Kronstadt's rigging, finally disabling the guns mounted there. However, this was her last successful action.
Minsk, having managed to reload one of her torpedo tubes, launched a spread of four torpedoes at the Siren, who was engrossed in the fight with the cruiser. The seconds that passed before the impact seemed unbearably long to her, but then the Siren carrier was enveloped in a cloud of explosions. Her rigging was split at the seams, and she drifted. Kronstadt took advantage of this to break the distance with the enemy, and they found themselves facing each other. The Siren struck first, lunging with her spear. Kronstadt parried the swing deftly with her saber, then, using her maneuverability advantage, circled around her.
Her saber came down on the opponent's arm, damaged by the torpedo explosions, and severed it. Ichor gushed from the wound in an abundant stream. Following this, the cruiser grabbed the Siren with the intact jaw of her rigging and lifted her into the air. The opponent tried to strike her with the spear, but Minsk prevented her by grabbing its shaft. Kronstadt's guns fired a point-blank salvo, tearing the Siren's flesh to shreds. Following this, the cruiser, with a swift motion, decapitated the Siren and threw her body into the water.
"No more Sirens," Kronstadt exhaled with a heavy wheeze. "Gangut, how are things there?"
The answer was a cannonade that fell upon the Citadel, hiding it behind clouds of smoke and fire. For Kronstadt, Minsk, and Soyuz, everything became clear.
The final moments of the Mirror Sea were approaching.