In a dark void Alicorn grunts in pain, as her vision glitches. She brings a hand up to her face and covers one of her eyes. Her vision slowly returns to normal.

  "You need to calm down, or you'll destroy yourself from the inside out." Meta Alicorn's voice calls out from behind Alicorn.

  Alicorn's eyes shrink as she slowly turns around. "YOU!" Alicorn lunges at the alternate version of her, only for Meta to calmly turn to the side, letting Alicorn fly past. "I'll kill you!"

  Alicorn lunges at Meta again, only to be spped to the water the covers the ground of the void.

  "I did what I had to do, to assure the survival of your timeline." Meta's redish-yellow eyes stare deep into her counterparts eyes. "You should be thanking me. If you revealed your cards now, she would've adapted and killed you ter."

  "But my friends died!" Alicorn stands up, gring at Meta.

  "But you still have an ace up your sleeve. A few dead ships is better then an entire dead world."

  Alicorn grits her teeth as her gre hardens. "How did you even... do that!"

  Meta turns around and fixes her coat. She holds her hand out and a bck-ish purple wisdom cube appears in her hand. "I am able to slightly access other timelines, it'show I figured out there was more timelines then mine. It's how I access your timeline when you first received your ship."

  Meta looks Alicorn up and down. Compining her from when she was just a small child. Teenage Alicorn is a little bit taller, standing at 5'3''; her hair is grown out and she looks much more mature.

  Meta flicks her hand and the cube disappears. "If you don't stop Equus in this timeline... anytime line after you is doomed as were mine and the ones before me. And I will stop at nothing, to make sure she dies, even if it means I do have to keep making you sacrifice your family and friends."

  Alicorn yells in anger and starts to stomp towards Meta, but her vision goes slightly static and she clutches her head in pain. Meta just shakes her head as she turns away and begins walking.

  "You need to realize, Alicorn, nothing can stand in your way when it comes to Sirens. They will use any and all dirty tricks to stop you. Even if it means destroying the entire world."

  .

  .

  Alicorn shoots up in her bed, clutching at her head and rapidly breathing. Sweat falls from her brow and onto her silk bed sheets. Her vision distorts for a few seconds, be returns to normal as she calms her breathing.

  After a few minutes of staring at the wall across the room, she climbs out of bed and looks out the window. Moonlight shines onto her, as the entire base is dead quiet. Sunrise is just around the corner.

  Alicorn lets out a sigh as she gets ready and heads out. She quietly walks down the dim lit halls and outside, where a soft breeze blows past her.

  Alicorn then looks around, spotting several soldiers patrolling the area, a couple walk past her and salute as they do. Alicorn just ignores them and heads to the docks, where she sees he ship ready to go.

  She looks back to her home, feeling lonely as no one around to say goodbye to her. Her buttons up her military coat and hops up onto her ship, and sails off. off to regroup with her Commander.

  .

  .

  .

  Sicilia is putting on some gear in her office in Bluegill's submarine. A sad look adorns her face as she puts a suppressor on her M4 carbine.

  Then she slips a knife onto her waist and a couple magazines on her vest. She then goes to pick up her suppressed pistol, but notices her hand is shaking.

  Sicilia bites her lip and grabs her shaking hand, and starts to rub it. The thoughts of her dead ships and the failure of Operation Ironcd weighed heavily on her shoulders. Her anxiety starts to run rampant once again.

  She then jumps as a knock sounds off on the door way. She zips around and spots Stait standing in the doorway, fully geared and ready to go.

  "Hey, you ready to go?" Stait asks as she ties her purple hair into a pony tail.

  "I-I uh... yeah!" Sicilia grabs her pistol and sets it in the holder on her right leg. "I just f-finished up." She smiles, forcefully as she pushes up her gsses.

  Stait slightly frowns and walks into the office and stands in front of her. Stait being the slightly taller one looks down on her fellow Commander. She then brings Sicilia into a hug, surprising the white haired girl.

  "C-C-Cra!" Sicilia blushes heavily.

  "Alice, everything's gonna be okay." Stait rubs Sicilia's back. "Just calm down, we're all here. And we'll be back state side before you know it."

  Sicilia pushes her face into Stait's chest, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. "I-I just... I'm not there to c-consult my ships. I'm putting so much p-pressure on Yorktown. A-A-A-And-"

  "Hey. Look at me."

  Sicilia looks up into Stait's purple eyes, as the girl gives Sicilia a loving smile. Then Stait brings Sicilia into a soft kiss that st a few seconds, leaving the White haired commander's face bright red.

  Stait then steps back from Sicilia and smiles. "Worry about all that ter, we have a factory to raid." She winks and walks off. "After this, we're heading back to Base, don't worry."

  Sicilia brings a hand up to her lips as she smiles.

  .

  .

  .

  Baxterbro

  "End of the Line"

  Jul 23rd - 22:17:20North of Rio de Janeiro. Separatist Territory

  Rain pours down onto Sicilia as she moves through some bushes. The sounds of the forest and the rain covering the sound of her footsteps.

  "You got two contacts approaching from below." Ardnt says over the radio.

  Sicilia pushes her way through some pushes and spots Commander Ardnt on a rock ledge slightly above her. She jumps down and holds up two fingers, and points down over the ledge below.

  Sicilia nods and pulls out her knife, and Ardnt does the same. The two move along the rock ledge and position themselves above a pair of hostile soldiers.

  Ardnt counts down and then the two jump down. Sicilia tackles her target to the ground as she pushes the knife into his throat. She cleans her knife on his uniform before putting it away, and pulling out her assault rifle.

  "They're down." Ardnt says into the radio. "We're moving to Entry A."

  The two move through the forest as lights shine through the foliage in front of them. They push through and find the factory.

  "Scarecrow, we have eyes on the factory. Over." Ardnt informs Freya.

  David then speaks into the radio. "Roger. Make your way into Bck Zone."

  "Copy that. Approaching entry."

  Sicilia takes point as they see a train yard in from of them. A helicopter flies overhead.

  "Osami, we're at Entry A." Ardnt informs.

  "Check." Osami confirms. "We're ready at Entry B."

  Ardnt and Sicilia look over the train yard, before Ardnt slides down a slope, with Sicilia following.

  "Copy, moving. Regroup fifty meter." Ardnt calls out over the radio.

  Sicilia looks down to her left, and spots Stait and Osami sliding down another little slope.

  "We see you. Moving to RV." Sicilia says over the radio.

  The two move forward, but a fshlight shines ahead, and they take cover.

  "Hold. Tango." Ardnt orders, she looks at Sicilia and smirk. "He's yours. Keep it quiet."

  Sicilia puts her rifle on her back and pulls out a knife. She slowly creeps on the patrolling solider, as he stops inspecting a train car. He turns around, but Sicilia stabs him in the throat, pushing him to the ground.

  She cleans her knife and readies her rifle again. Ardnt walks up behind her as they see Osami and Stait a little ways ahead. They follow after them.

  "Freya, you'll handle perimeter and security. Nothing and no one gets through." Ardnt orders over the radio.

  "And no one gets out either." Freya adds.

  "Everyone else, we're moving left to infil and then to Bck Zone." Ardnt calls out over the radio.

  The group moves through and come across an entrance into the factory, but a few soldiers are guarding it.

  "Targets ahead." Ardnt informs. "Get a target. Sicilia, we're on you."

  They all get into position as a truck comes to a stop and a few soldiers come over to it. Sicilia picks a target and opens fires, the rest following suit and in a matter of a second, all targets are down.

  "All clear." Ardnt moves forward. "I got right."

  "Cover left." Osami moves left.

  Stait walks up to a dead soldier and kneels down to him. Grabbing a card off his chest. "Grabbing his security badge. Got it."

  "On the door." Ardnt motions to it.

  Osami, Sicilia and Ardnt take cover, weapons trained on the closed gate. Stait walks up to the security panel.

  "Opening." Stait swipes the card and the door starts to open.

  A pair of soldiers are raveled to be right on the other side, their backs turn to them.

  "Drop them." Ardnt and Osami fire off a round each, killing the two soldiers.

  Stait looks into the factory and nods. "Clear to move." She takes the lead as the rest follows.

  "Keep your eyes open." Ardnt orders as they move on. "Freya, how are those cameras coming?"

  Freya is then heard over the radio. "Ardnt, eyes on your next zone. Lots of targets. No good advantage.

  The group comes across a locked security gate, and Stait gets the card back out.

  "Multiple routes." Arndt observes the area ahead. "Split up. Sweep and clear."

  Stait gets the door open and Ardnt motions to move.

  "Go."

  The group splits up into pairs. Stait and Silica take a section. A soldier walks around a corner, only to drop dead as Sicilia puts a bullet through his brain.

  "Sicilia and I are sweeping the top level." Stait informs over the radio.

  They come to a security room where a guard is watching the tvs, while he's on the phone.

  "Make it quiet." Stait says as she moves into the room, sweeping her angles.

  Sicilia walks up to the guard, pulling her knife out. He finishes his call as she puts her hand over his mouth and stabs him in the neck. He struggles for a few moments, before going still.

  "Top clear." Stait informs as she and Sicilia move on.

  They hear a few quiet shots off to the side.

  "Bottom clear." Ardnt informs.

  "EKIA." Osami states. "Right's clear."

  They all regroup at a cylindrical vault door.

  "Freya, we've reached the south vault door." Ardnt informs over the radio. "It's a big one. If the missile is in there, they're really keeping it safe."

  Freya then responds over the radio. "No cameras in Bck Zone. You're on your own inside. Starting override procedure."

  An arm rings as the door opens and orange lights fsh. Arndt is in the lead, her weapon trained on the door.

  "Heading in." Arndt informs as the vault door fully opens.

  They head in and a a pair of soldiers spot them.

  In the room are a few parts for rockets.

  "Multiple tangos! Go hot!" Arndt shouts as she fires onto a few soldiers, while diving for cover as they shoot at her.

  Sicilia trains her sights on a shoulder and fires, taking him down before moving onto the next. The all move into cover as more soldiers come out from a structure ahead.

  "More contacts!" Sicilia shouts as she reloads her weapon.

  "Structure at en o'clock!" Ardnt adds.

  Osami tosses a fsh up and it goes off, the soldiers yell as they cover their eyes. But then are swiftly gunned down as the group moves on.

  "Clear." Stait informs.

  "No chatter on enemy comms." Freya informs. "Sounds like you're still clear."

  "Copy, Freya." Ardnt sighs in relief.

  They move down a tunnel as Ardnt puts a hand up to her COMS.

  "Scarecrow, we're inside Bck Zone. We're seeing what looks like rocket components."

  "Alright, continue searching." David says.

  They come to another door, and Ardnt looks it over.

  "Pressure locked door." Ardnt informs over the radio. "This must be it. Freya?"

  "Roger."

  The door opens a few seconds ter.

  They move into the room and see a rge missile with a rge warheads behind inserted into the head by a conveyor and mechanical arms.

  Baxterbro

  "Shit!" Stait lowers her weapon in shock.

  "It looks like your ICBM." Osami points out.

  Ardnt puts her weapon on her back as she stares up at the rocket. "They reversed engineered it." She puts her hand to her ear. "Scarecrow, we found it. They're building more nuclear missiles."

  "Copy." David sighs. "Show me a feed for identification."

  Ardnt looks over to Sicilia and nods. Sicilia pulls out a tablet and taps on a few things on the screen, then points the camera up at the missile.

  "Got the feed, it's coming through clear." David informs.

  "Roger that." Sicilia informs.

  "Show me the warheads."

  Sicilia points the camera up at the warheads.

  "Those NAR-01b-S Nuclear warheads.." David mutters.

  Stait raises an eyebrow as she looks up to them. "Like the ones, Alicorn, was gonna use?"

  "Kinda. But these ones look high yield. These are based on her Rail-Cannon shells."

  "So that means..." Osami questions.

  "There's enough material in one to permanently wipe out any city off the map."

  Silica looks at the warheads. "And there's enough here to wipe out all the Azur Lane bases in Eagle Union."

  "If they built more of these that would mean-" Ardnt starts.

  "Judgement Day." David finishes. "Good work, girls. This was a big find. Alicorn, entire wing confirmed for bombing run. Level everything to the ground."

  Sicilia puts her tablet away, her anxiety starts to rise, but she pushes it down.

  "Let's move!" Ardnt orders.

  "Copy, Scarecrow." Alicorn's voice is heard on the radio. "Genesis confirmed, eighty kicks out. Six minutes. En-route for full effect. Six jet loaded."

  "Alicorn, leave nothing." David orders.

  The group moves through another tunnel and head up some stairs.

  David then speaks to Ardnt. "Ardnt, find any data that can give us a bigger picture of what's going on. Then get out of there. Alicorn will level the whole complex."

  "Copy that." Ardnt nods as Stait opens another security door and she takes the lead. "Freya. You got that? Alicorn's en-route. This entire factory is going to disappear very soon."

  "Copy." Freya says.

  The four girls come across an assembly line, building more rockets. They then come across a rge room with computers.

  "This is it." Ardnt sets up by the door. "Find the data quick. We need to move."

  Stait and Sicilia start to work on the computers. Osami goes to another computer behind them. Sicilia pulls out a little data puck and plugs it into the computer. She taps away on the keyboard, copying data onto the puck.

  "Looks like manufacturing data." Stait informs. "That rocket was belled as 6. How many are there?"

  Sicilia bites her lip, as Ardnt walks over and looks at Sicilia's computer.

  Stait narrows her eyes at her computer screen. "There's encrypted date here. Appeared to be unched events, dates, predictions. I don't understand. Are they testing them?"

  Freya suddenly speaks over the radio. "Ardnt, we've got movement out here, lots of it. Grab the date and get out of there now!"

  Suddenly the lights go off in the room, and Sicilia grabs her data puck. Suddenly the door to the room is blown open, sending Ardnt, Sicilia and Stait to the floor.

  A solider walks into the room, but Ardnt quickly recovers and brings up her rifle, firing several shots into his chest, killing him.

  A few more soldiers rush into the room and fire onto the group. Sicilia rolls behind cover and pops up, killing a soldier as the rest soon follow.

  But more soldiers fire onto the room from further away.

  Ardnt shouts into her radio. "Scarecrow, we're pinned! Can we get a hold on Alicorn?"

  "Negative." David says in worry. "She's 20 klicks out and past PNR. Genesis cannot be diverted."

  "Shit!" Stait throws a tosses a grenade out a window. "We do not want to be here!"

  "We've got more incoming!" Osami dips into cover to reload her gun.

  Ardnt pops out of cover and fires, Sicilia does the same.

  "OKay." Ardnt moves into cover. "We blindfold them and move! Ready smoke!"

  "Smoke ready!" Sicilia, Osami and Stait yell as they grab some smoke grenades.

  "Pop smoke!" Ardnt shouts and they all throw the smoke grenades out of the room. "Go to thermals!"

  Sicilia pulls out her thermals over her eyes and sees heat signatures of the hostile soldiers through the smoke. Nearby soldiers cough and run as they try to get our of the smoke.

  "They can't see us. Take them out!" Ardnt yells as she moves out of the room.

  The girls follow suit and fire onto any soldiers they see, making way for the exit. They all quickly push though, taking down anyone in their way.

  But then something nds next to Sicilia, and she looks at it. "Fshbacks!" She looks away as it goes off, her thermals go static and she flips them off.

  The smoke starts to clear, and the girls move into cover.

  "My thermals are fired!" Stait shouts.

  "Mine too!" Osami shouts.

  "Go visors off!" Arndt shouts as she throws a grenade. "Lose the thermals!"

  Sicilia picks up a snipe off the ground, and takes down several LMG gunners firing down onto them. Before tossing a grenade into a sever room, taking out a couple more soldiers.

  The girl quickly push through and take down everyone in their way. They keep running reloading their weapons.

  "Ardnt." Freya shouts into the radio. "I'm securing transport, but you've got a full house on the rooftop ahead of you."

  They come to the rooftop entrance, a helicopter takes off outside.

  "Okay, we're moving on three." Ardnt takes a breath. "One, two, three!"

  Ardnt kicks the door open, startling a soldier on the other side, which he's swiftly gunned down. The helicopter turns on a spotlight and shines it down onto the girls, but they all take cover.

  "Stay out of the spotlight!" Arndt shouts.

  The girls slowly move through fire, taking out soldiers on their way. Time is softly running out as they're nearly at the end of the roof.

  "Parking lot's ahead!" Stait shouts.

  "That's our RV!" Arndt kicks a soldier to the ground and fires a couple rounds into his chest. "Let's get down there! Freya, where are you?!"

  "One minute." Freya informs.

  "We don't have a minute!"

  The girls reach the end of the roof top and climb down a tter, several trucks pull up nearby.

  "Vehicles incoming!" Stait shouts.

  "Go! Go!" Stait shouts.

  The girls dive into cover as the soldiers in the trucks get out, and fire onto them. Osami and Stait toss a couple grenades over the cover, as Sicilia and Ardnt fire onto the trucks.

  The grenades go off, blowing up the trucks and taking the soldiers around them with.

  "Let's go!" Ardnt shouts as she and the girls continue running.

  The sounds of jet engines echo in the distance.

  "Alicorn's here!" Stait yells. "Where's Freya!"

  A another pair of trucks arrive as the girls get into cover. But a rge cargo truck sms into the, sending them flying.

  Freya pops out the window. "Come on!" She hits the gas, and the truck begins to take off.

  "Get on the trailer!" Ardnt yells. "Go, go, go!"

  The girls make a beeline for the truck, they all hop in, with Stait helping Silica in. A jet flies over head, releasing cluster munitions on some buildings in front of the group, as another jet flies above, blowing up the building the girls ran from.

  A pair of trucks drive after them, but a cluster bomb blows them up. Everything starts to go up in fmes as bullets fly all around.

  "We got problems back here!" Ardnt shouts to Freya. "Gun it!'

  "Pedal's to the metal already!" Freya shouts back.

  Several rge smoke stacks colpse and crumble to the ground, one nearly hitting the truck. The girls hang onto the sides of the truck for dear life, and they soon get out of the factory, as the rest of it goes up in fmes.

  "We're clear!" Ardnt wipes some sweat from her brow.

  "Nice driving, Freya." Osami sets her rifle on her back.

  Stait takes several deep breaths. "We destroyed number six, but where are the other 5?"

  "Well, there ain't gonna be a seventh." Ardnt points out. "JSOC will give us our next steps. Time to head back, girls."

  Sicilia sighs in relief. Being away from home so long, as taken a toll on her.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  02-12-2025

  3338 words