Azur Lane: Future Warp (Discontinued)

Chapter 15 - The Toughest Decision

"So what shall we do, Commander?" asked King George V.

"Here's what we gonna do. We need a few destroyers or anti-air cruisers, a heavy cruiser, and a battleship or battlecruiser as a decoy. When you see the Sirens, the decoy fleet will fire a few or so shots at them and they will run around until the main strikeforce consisting of the surviving participants of the Midway operation, along with a dozen cruisers and destroyers, and the five Sakura Empire members, which that will be you Zuikaku, Ise, Atago, Souryuu and Shigure, will strike back at them from all sides at the selected moment," he explained further about his plan while placing their marked positions on the map. "Now the timing has to be perfect in order to cause maximum damage to the Sirens..."

"It's just like what we did to your fleet..." said Souryuu.

"Y-yes... I can hear that," said Dave awkwardly. "But this time, it's much better than whatever you, or Akagi or the Siren pricks they threw at," he suddenly said in a stern expression.

"Oh?" Souryuu was surprised, judging how determined he still is.

"Right, Zuikaku here will be the leading force of your own breakaway faction that will be named: Blossom Imperial Knights, and Shigure, Ise, Souryuu, and Atago will be your principle members..." Dave turned his head to Zuikaku.

"Hmm... I am a greatest fighter here... But I have never led the fleet on a scale like Akagi.. or Kaga..."

"But I see in your potential... You pledge to fight against Azur Lane for your homeland, but you oppose Akagi's treachery... So I'm sure you can pull that off" he smiled.

"R-really?" asked Zuikaku, blushing. "But I never had a moment when we are siding against our own..." she thought.

After selecting the shipgirls to take on the Sirens depending on their positions, Dave Berenson and Secretary William Booker, seeing the Sakura Empire shipgirls, knows that even that won't be enough.

"Even with the five new girls here... we're still too thin in terms of our power. What if the Sirens launch a two-pronged large-scale surprise attack both here and the Sakura Empire homeland at the same time?" asked Booker worriedly.

"We could just ask for more girls to join on our side..." said Ise and Dave agreed, but Zuikaku was worried as well.

"But most of the Sakura Empire are still loyal to Nagato and Mikasa... The latter is the brains of the operation, a no-nonsense tactician, and second in command... The five of us are just the remains of the Sakura's 4th Elite Fleet which Akagi and Kaga led to take the Midway Atoll... I don't know if I could convince them to join on our side..."

"Not to mention, Mikasa's pretty much brash and very demeaning, and the total opposite of Nagato's calm, and tranquil behavior the last time when I saw her..." added Ise.

"Quite..." nodded Atago.

"Well they didn't know you and your friends are in the Blossom Imperial Knights, formed by myself. And they only know that you are still held under Prisoner-of-war status, so it shouldn't be too difficult... I hope..." he said, though in his mind he felt concerned about their survival if they find out they did defect to Azur Lane - under his own deal.

Secretary William Booker is also concerned about their fate if they are discovered as Blossom Imperial Knights, but nonetheless, he supported Ise's suggestion.

"As much as I don't want to, but Ise's right. We could have Zuikaku rally members from the Sakura Empire and use them as defenders of their base, while we call on Iris Libre, Northern Parliament, or Iron Blood for assistance in defending our base against the Sirens, but she might risk getting killed if things go south... Alternatively, you can send the all of the remaining cruisers and destroyers you have in your base to participate to the main ambush strikeforce or the defense of Sakura Empire..."