*Secret Research Facility 

*Evan/My POV 

"Why? Did something happen...?" I asked. 

"Are you serious? You're either the bravest person alive, or the dumbest, and I can't tell which. Whatever you did, this place's entire security entourage is here. I've never seen so many undocumented types of enemies before... Belorussiya took the others out to intercept them, but we need to hurry up and grab as many documents as we can before getting out of here. ...Did you forget?" Gremyashchy asked. 

"No." I replied. 

"Never mind that, Belorussiya just gave us the signal. Come on, we have to–" Gremyashchy urged before vanishing without a trace. 

"Gremyashchy?" I called out. 

"Lady Forbin? Le Triomphant?" I called out again. Gremyashchy, Lady Forbin and Le Triomphant vanished without a trace, as did the flashes of the firefight happening outside. They were simply gone, like they had never existed in the first place. Simultaneously, the auditorium's monitors sprung to life, showing me what appeared to be footage of Northern Parliament girls doing battle with strange enemies. They were enormous beasts made of black steel, but even through the high-resolution screens, their shapes were blurred as if light itself was repulsed by their grotesque forms. The Northern Parliament girls were similarly blurry. All I could tell from looking at their contours was that they were not Kirov or Belorussiya. Whatever the screens were showing me, it did not seem to be live footage of the battle outside. In any case, I had to contact Belorussiya. 

"Belorussiya! What's happening out there?!" I asked but I received no response. 

I realized that the button on the communicator was stuck, and no amount of pushing on it did anything. I could not contact her, and even if I could, it seemed extremely unlikely that I'd get a response. It seemed almost as though... time had stopped. 

"Hello?" I yelled. 

"Anybody?" I yelled again but I became clear that I was the only one in the room. 

"Master! Let's get out of here first!" A familiar voice replied and Mir flew towards me. 

I went to the exit and opened the doors. The exit was not physically blocked, but I couldn't go beyond its open doors. It's as though there was an invisible barrier, locking me in here. 

"We're trapped here" I told Mir. 

"The computational system has encountered an error. Security mode has been activated, and will shut down in 19 minutes and 7 seconds." A voice broke the dead silence in the frozen room and a hologram appeared. 

"Master!" Mir exclaimed. 

"Are you... a Siren?" I asked the hologram. 

"Negative. You are speaking to this facility's administrative program. Responsibilities include data recording, processing, simulation, and playback." The hologram replied. 

"Those ships on the monitors, who are they?" I asked. 

"The ships are KAN-SEN belonging to the Frontline division." The hologram replied. 

"What is the Frontline division?" I asked. 

"Your query returned 0 results." The hologram replied. 

"Who are they fighting?" I asked. 

"The ships are fighting the enemy." The hologram replied. 

"Is the enemy the Sirens?" I asked. 

"Negative. The entities shown on the monitor are simply holograms created from computational models and simulations, in turn derived from logged data. Unable to reproduce a clearer image at this time." The hologram replied. 

"Then what ARE the Sirens?" I asked. 

"Your query returned 0 results." The hologram replied. 

"Who is Antiochus?" I asked. 

"Your query returned 0 results." The hologram replied. 

"Antiochus?" Mir asked. 

"It's a long story. Who is commanding this fleet?" I replied before asking the hologram again. 

"Your query returned 0 results." The hologram replied. 

"Did Royston send you?" I asked. 

"Your query returned 0 results." The hologram replied. 

"What happened to those girls?" I asked. 

"Your query returned 0 results." The hologram replied. 

"Were they fighting to... protect something, or someone?" I asked. 

"That is correct." The hologram replied. 

"Similar to what my fleet is doing, then?" I asked. 

"The fleet that you control is of much, much, much smaller size than the fleet that appears in the records. The enemy that you are fighting is of much, much, much smaller size than the enemy that appears in the records." The hologram replied. 

"Is there any way to leave this facility then?" I asked. 

"There is none." The hologram replied. 

"There... isn't...?" I asked. 

"Please fight until the last light has faded." The hologram said. 

*Timeskip 

*Third Person POV 

"Oof! These enemies don't mess around!" Gromky exclaimed. 

"Yeah, not to mention they're covered in some sort of... weird mist..." Murmansk remarked. 

"They look like Sirens, but there's something very different about these things!" Tallinn exclaimed. 

"If they look like Sirens and come attacking us, then as far as I'm concerned, they might as well be Sirens!" Belorussiya replied. 

"Well said! Either way, there's but one thing for us to do: dispatch them!" Kirov suggested. 

"That's the Kirov I know! Hahaha!" Belorussiya chuckled. 

"Right you are! I cannot and will not rest until the revolution has come! They are neither immune to our cannon fire, nor too fast to hit! We need only keep firing on them until they sink! Blow them to dust, comrades! Hold the frontline until Comrade Commander , Gremyashchy and our Iris Comrades have evacuated!" Kirov instructed. 

"Commander!" Murmansk exclaimed. Evan, Mir, Gremyashchy, Forbin and Le Triomphant has evacuated. 

"You finished at just the right time! I'm dying to return to the surface! Murmansk! Tallinn! It's time to fall back!" Belorussiya instructed.