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Moments after the Gleipnir met its end on Lenal River…

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The Airborne Fortress, Gleipnir awoke with a startled groan.

 “Ugh,” he said, the words slipping through his mouth. 

It was at that moment he realized he thought. Here was a ship, an inanimate creation of metal and wiring, built for war and destruction, thinking. The sensation was incomprehensible, unprecedented, and Gleipnir, as though translating the language of machinery into biological process, began to feel the extent of his body. 

With great force, he lifted up two parts and observed them. 'Fingers,' he thought, 'Why do I have fingers?'

Instead of his command unit performing a systems check, his field of vision moved, as though mounted on a swivel, and he saw legs attached to a vast, flat slab that was unmistakably his torso. Confused, Gleipnir moved his “arm” towards where he imagined his control room to be. What he touched was soft and pliable. He moved his hand further up, towards the peak of his body, and ran his fingers through a coarse patch of something.

'Skin and hair,' he realized, 'I have skin and hair, like a human.' 

As bewildered as he was in the moment a single fighter shot him down, Gleipnir rose to his feet, discovering how to move his limbs and walk, at least crudely, and still limping from his inexperience.

“I am… Human,” he said. 

There was no one to hear the words, but nonetheless, he was able to speak and think. That much, he concluded, confirmed his strange predicament. He was standing on a small rock, surrounded by the sea. There was nowhere to look but up, and as he stared into the clear skies above, Gleipnir felt a tugging sensation in his chest.

Guilt.

“The war with Aurelia,” he shouted at the sky, “was it worth it!? They were our benefactors, the ones who helped us at our lowest! Why did we take the things they sent us to help our people, and build me instead!?” As his rage reached its climax, Gleipnir felt a burning sensation in his back. It was painful, but something about it was relieving, like sterilizing a cut with alcohol. With a furious yell, he made the pain jolt through his back, and turned to see wings. 'What is this?' he asked himself. 

With a bit of effort, Gleipnir began to rise using the wings. His memories flowed into them as he ascended. The cold air didn’t phase him, and in minutes, the Flying Fortress had once more arrived at the clouds. Touching the clouds with his own hands was a sensation Gleipnir never knew he wanted. Satisfied, he began to drift back down, setting foot on an island he had spotted. As he retracted his wings, unbearable pain began to shoot through his body, forcing him to his knees. 'My wounds from the battle', he figured. Desperate, Gleipnir summoned his wings once more and found a transmitter. With no other options, he sent out the universal call of distress.

SOS. 

In another place full of kansens like himself, a receiver caught his SOS Signal.

A blonde short-haired kansen, or in this case, girl, with a red Royal Knight-ly uniform notices the strange frequency, almost Siren-like in nature, and goes back to report to her superior.

"Your Majesty, we've picked up a strange frequency. It seems to be siren-like in nature, but it is what I presume, an SOS Signal. It's unlikely for a Siren to send us a call for help, but I think it's worth having a look into." She says to her superior, a little girl with long blonde hair, a royal-themed dress and a staff, possibly to prove her status as royalty.

Beside her, another little girl that looks reminiscent, yet radically different to her is holding a sword, almost like a knight with her queen, standing solemnly, as if she is ready to lay down her life for her queen at the slightest hint of trouble.

"Very well, my loyal servant! I shall send one of ours to investigate!" The little girl says.

"Pardon me, Your Majesty, but may I ask you whom to carry out this task?" The Royal Knight asks her Queen.

"Hmm, I shall send out my most trusted servant for this matter. Warspite!" She calls out to Warspite, the girl that is currently standing next to her, standing in full guard.

"Eh? Me? Yes, Your Majesty! It shall be done!" She readily accepts the orders given to her by her Queen.

"Your Majesty, are you sure to send out one of our own? We have just been attacked by the Sakura Empire, and we cannot afford any more losses!" The Royal Knight tries to object, although politely, seeing their own condition after one of the opposing factions, Sakura Empire attacked them, and left them in a crisis for manpower.

"Worry not Wales, I am sure that my most trusted servant is able to carry out this task without running into any trouble. Have a bit more faith in your comrades!" The Queen said to the now-revealed Prince of Wales in order to assure her.

"Very well then… Warspite, please be careful in this mission. Report anything back to us immediately. I have a bad feeling about this..." Wales relents, and requests Warspite to do some things along the way. There is also a premonition of something else, even more dangerous than the Sirens will appear in her mission.

"Rest assured, Wales! I shall return with the signal's sender here without any difficulties!" Warspite reassures her friend.

"Alright, good luck on your mission, and Long Live the Queen!" Wales lets her fellow knight go with their motto.

"Long Live the Queen!" She nods in response, and sets out to accomplish her mission.

As her friend sails away, Wales can't help but feel something is horribly amiss, but she could only pray for her safety.

This signal sender is not a normal SOS Signal, she is dead sure about that.

Back with the Airborne Fortress….

Gleipnir could be seen trying to hold in the pain and stay conscious, although he is heavily wounded from his battle with the damned Aurelians, more accurately, the Southern Cross.

First, he unsummons his wings, and by instinct, he knew how to do it.

The wings disintegrate into millions of bright blue cubes, and then, in front of himself, the Airborne Fortress materializes.

The black coloration has been damaged heavily, revealing the gray titanium below the paint.

The wings are in the verge of falling off, hanging from a thread of steel wire that looks ready to give way any moment.

The engines are on fire, causing him to panic. Luckily, it was immediately put off with a light breeze. However, it began to trail smoke.

He could only watch in pain looking at the state of the Airborne Fortress, or rather, himself.

Such is the pathetic state of the Gleipnir, when just a few days ago, he was the pride of a nation, his rule unmatched above the blue skies of Aurelia.

'Urgh… I should have a method to defend myself…' The thought of something hostile crossed his mind, and he immediately tries to open his SWBM launch ports, his most trusted form of defense. Although it would inflict some damage to himself in close quarters, it was reliable to bring down anything that dares to attack him.

A little bit more damage to himself wouldn't kill him, right?

At least, that was the plan.

With a sickening crunch and loud clanging, the SWBM port fails to open, and one suddenly burst into flames.

Gleipnir gritted his teeth in pain. It was hard to stay conscious with these injuries, but he must hold on.

His mind turned to the Shock Cannon, but he realized, the Airborne Fortress was in an awkward position, and one shot from the Shock Cannon would just make him fall apart even more.

'Damn it… The Shock Cannon is useless too… I guess I'm in the mercy of this world, then…' He thought to himself.

He then manages to crawl towards his ship, or rather, Airship, to try and access the radar.

It might be damaged in the skirmish, but that is the only hope he had of detecting anything that comes close.

At this point, even a mere destroyer could reduce the once-proud Airborne Fortress into a heaping pile of scraps.

That's how pathetic he is in his current state.

He turns his attention back to his radar. Miraculously, it wasn't too heavily damaged to be rendered useless, and a small blip made him both hopeful, and scared for his own life.

He had died once, and he wasn't ready to do it again. 

As for Warspite, she finally reaches the visual range of the Gleipnir. 

Seeing the gargantuan size of the unknown craft, much less the coloration that strongly resembles the Sirens, she immediately panicked and established radio contact towards the Azur Lane base with Wales on the receiving end.

"WALES! THE UNKNOWN CRAFT IS A SIREN! AND IT'S BLOODY HUGE!!!" Warspite panics at the sight of the Airborne Fortress, and starts rambling on the radio.

"Warspite! Calm down, is it trying to engage?" Wales tries to console her friend over the radio.

She drew a deep breath, and sails closer to the giant aircraft. As she nears it, the state of it looks like it had been through a very thorough beating.

She calms down, and reports back to Wales. 

"Wales, it seems that my worries are unbased… the aircraft is… heavily damaged. And if it even tries to attack, I think I can handle it." She says over the radio back to her friend.

A fire suddenly appears on top of the strange aircraft, surprising her.

"Wales, the aircraft is both trailing smoke from what I see to be its engines, and it's currently on fire!" She reports the current events.

"Warspite, do not forget, we are to rescue whoever sent the SOS Signal, and seeing this…. I think… the sender IS that aircraft." Wales reminds her, and realizes that there should be at least a person inside that giant aircraft.

"Oh! Right! Affirmative! I'll see if there's anyone within!" She then sails towards the stricken aircraft, intent on finding any survivors.

With Gleipnir…

He can see and hear the little girl that somehow could command a ship.

'What the fuck are they thinking?! Sending a little girl with a ship?! She can't possibly just control all of the required mechanizations to sail a ship! Urgh! I-i shouldn't be thinking about that for now…' He thought to himself about the illogicality that is a little girl controlling a whole ship without a crew.

But then, something crossed his mind once again. Back in Aurelia, there were acts of fighting, committed by mere children. 

Every Aurelian was yearning for their freedom, and this little girl might pose a huge threat to his survival.

With his defenses rendered useless from the fight above Santa Elva, add to that, when he fell into Lenal River, he literally has no fight left in him. 

He is as defenseless as a newborn baby, left to the mercy of this strange little girl.

And so, he tries to contact the little girl through his radio transmitter.

"You! *coughing* Who are you?!?" Gleipnir established radio contact with the ship, and hostilely asked her.

His behavior is justified, since the sight of a girl commanding a literal warship herself is a weird sight to everyone.

He waited for a reply to come from the other end.

An answer came back, and he can hear the voice of the little girl in the receiving end.

"I am HMS Warspite of the Royal Navy! State yourself!" The girl, now known to him as Warspite, announces herself.

"I am- *cough* Damn it! Gleipnir! That's all you need to know right now, I don't think I can hold out any longer…" With his remaining bits of energy, he told her his name, disables his radio, then disembarks the stricken Airborne Fortress. 

He then laid his battered body against himself, or rather, the giant Airborne Fortress.

The cold metal drawing heat from his equally cold body reminded him of Terminus Island, but that's a memory that has since long passed...

Back with Warspite….

"Understood, I am in visual range. Coming to you as soon as possible, Gleipnir!" She says to the radio.

He couldn't hear her, since he already abolished radio contact, but there's a sliver of hope for survival for him.

And he'll take everything that he could get his hands on.

Warspite nears the site closer and closer, sailing at full speed after hearing the mysterious man's voice in distress.

'A male? It can't be possible, right?' She wonders as she nears the small rock formation that's dwarfed by the giant aircraft.

She laid her eyes upon the stricken aircraft.

The black color is truly intimidating, but at this state, it's nothing more than just a normal downed airplane.

She then looks at the cockpit section. An orange light flickers, unable to light properly. Must be an electricity problem.

She then saw the massive wings, held on by a mere steel wiring. 

Something that shot down this thing must be very powerful, and if it's still here, it's going to compromise the whole mission.

Finally, Warspite reaches the land. She anchors her ship, and then searches the surrounding area for the mysterious signal sender.

She looked everywhere, and then saw that one of the holes on the aircraft's back is on fire.

'My! This does not look good… I have to find the sender, quickly!' She thought to herself, having the urge to find them faster.

She then searches the surroundings, to no avail. Then, she scanned the area, no sign of anyone. 

She was getting desperate, but she remembers she hadn't checked near the airship itself. 

Warspite then quickly went to find the survivor near the Airborne Fortress. 

Finally, she spots something. A man laid there, using the fuselage as support. His wounds were gruesome, as gruesome as the ship itself. But it couldn't be, right? A male kansen?

She approaches the man, and the man coughed out blood, in her horror.

"Ugh, took you long enough…" He sarcastically said.

Even in his situation, he's still able to use his sarcasm.

"Gleipnir, isn't it? Tell me the truth! Are you a siren?" She suspiciously interrogates him.

"Negative. I don't know what they are, nor have I ever heard of them." He answers confusedly, never having heard of the Sirens before.

"Do not lie! If you are one, I shall take care of you myself!" She replies, still not believing the Airborne Fortress' words.

"If you dare to do anything to me, I will retaliate! Mark my words! Besides, I'm telling the truth!" He bluffs. 

In truth, he is as harmless as a small fish in this state. But the faux threat would hopefully discourage her from doing anything drastic.

"Ergh…. Fine. But you are coming with me as a prisoner!" She relents, and places a bit of trust in him.

'Grrrrr… This girl…. To trample upon the Pride of Leasath…. No matter, what matters now is getting out of here…' He seethes within, but due to his handicaps, he refrained from acting too brash.

"Fine! I'll cooperate with you! Where are we going, though…?" He relents, and asks her of where their destination lies.

"Azur Lane Base. You'll be taken there." She responds.

"I see… *cough* Damn it… Well… fine, bring me to this Azur Lane base…" He relievedly says to her.

Salvation has come.

(Author's Note: So, whaddya think of the rewritten bullshit? Imma be doing this suffering till we reach chapter 15 kek, thanks for seeing this, and vote pls-

That's all, have a good day!)