Of course, leading the Eagle Union shipgirls back to the Old Port District would have to wait—Lin Lan needed to first inform the Iron Blood faction that he had returned safely.
Otherwise, Bismarck and Friedrich would probably worry themselves sick.
And he was also quite concerned about how Sui Qiong was doing now, and whether the Observer had taken her away.
If she hadn't been captured, that would be ideal—after all, the process of suppressing a shipgirl's meta transformation didn't necessarily require him personally.
The Iron Blood shipgirls could use mechanical equipment to shatter the meta crystals as well.
It was just a bit more troublesome, that's all.
But if the Observer had captured Sui Qiong again, then things would really...
With that thought, Lin Lan turned to Cleveland and asked:
"By the way, Clevebro, can your base contact the Iron Blood faction?"
Upon hearing that long-lost and uniquely personal nickname, Cleveland—who would normally be embarrassed—was totally unfazed and instead delightedly accepted Lin Lan's way of addressing her.
"No can do, Commander. Our base can only connect with the other bases of our Eagle Union comrades, but Saratoga should be able to do it."
At that moment, Intrepid, who had just returned from the fridge with two packs of chocolate, took the initiative and volunteered:
"Commander, I'll go contact Saratoga right now and tell them you escaped from the Siren stronghold safely."
Lin Lan nodded, holding Laffey in one arm as he accepted the chocolate with the other.
Looking at the dashing shipgirl in a black Intrepid-class uniform with striking blue-gray twin tails, he smiled and said:
"Thanks, Intrepid. Let me come with you to contact Saratoga—if I explain the situation myself, it'll be more reassuring."
With that, Lin Lan gently set down the reluctant Laffey, smiling as he patted her little head:
"You all wait for me here. I'll go report that I'm safe and be back soon."
"Mm, Laffey is super~ full of energy now! I'll wait for the Commander to come back!"
Though the adorable Laffey still looked half-asleep, her innocent smile glowed with happiness, and she spoke to Lin Lan with surprising maturity.
She understood that telling the others in the port that the Commander had returned safely was important, so she obediently walked over to her fellow Benson-class sisters.
"Everyone, let's start decorating the place. When the Commander comes back downstairs, the celebration party will begin!"
"Yeah!"
With Cleveland's enthusiastic shout, the Sea Knights and the little Benson-class girls got to work with high energy, preparing the lounge for the festivities.
Their beloved Commander was finally back. They felt like they had boundless energy.
Watching them sweep, clean, and organize with such motivation, Lin Lan smiled faintly and headed upstairs with Intrepid and South Dakota.
Naturally, the moment they stepped outside, both shipgirls—Intrepid, with her usually serious demeanor and slightly flushed face, and the tall, tanned, sexy older-sister type South Dakota—tightly linked their arms with his.
If he didn't already know that these two Eagle Union shipgirls were just showing affection, any outsider might have thought they were escorting him for interrogation.
Of course, compared to South Dakota's proud twin peaks, Intrepid was a bit lacking in that department.
But Intrepid still left quite a strong impression on Lin Lan.
This disciplined Intrepid-class carrier lived up to her name—a brave, fearless, and indomitable warrior of the sea.
In addition to being honored with the "I" designation, symbolizing a combat ship, she was also a diehard astronomy enthusiast.
Her deep astronomical knowledge likely stemmed from the fact that, in Blue Planet history, she had twice served as a recovery ship for manned space missions.
After retirement, she became part of the Eagle Union's Sea, Air, and Space Museum.
But what Lin Lan remembered most was that, despite her serious and meticulous appearance, Intrepid was a textbook example of a "Lucky E" shipgirl.
Back during the war with the Sakura Empire, Intrepid—the third of the Intrepid-class sisters—was hit by kamikaze attacks four times.
It seemed like every time she was repaired and left the docks, she'd get severely damaged again and be sent back for major repairs.
Although she always unleashed incredible combat power at critical moments thanks to her unyielding spirit, her luck was undeniably the worst among her class.
This trait carried over into her shipgirl form—despite her normally careful nature, she would occasionally do clumsy or careless things.
Feeling Lin Lan's gaze on her, Intrepid's blush deepened as she murmured:
"Commander, watch your step, don't trip on the stairs."
"Heh, aren't you two holding me? Even if I trip, I'll be fine."
Lin Lan chuckled, then noticed the high-tech, softly glowing blue cloak clasp on Intrepid's chest.
Curious, he teasingly asked:
"Intrepid, I've always wanted to ask—did you make that clasp yourself?
Does it have any other functions? Like supplying your rigging with nano-particle energy or something?"
Lin Lan was mostly joking. The clasp had long reminded him of the nano-particle storage unit worn by Iron Man in Marvel comics.
But the next moment, Intrepid's slightly surprised response nearly made him trip on the stairs for real:
"I did make it myself. Commander, how did you know it can provide nano-particles to my rigging for combat use? I don't remember ever telling you that."
If not for Intrepid and South Dakota supporting him tightly, Lin Lan would've fallen flat on his face.
He stared wide-eyed at the clasp, stunned.
Wait—so this thing really was a nano-particle power core like Iron Man's?
The Eagle Union's application of cube tech was terrifyingly advanced?
Well, now that he thought about it… even Iron Blood had built a floating island fortress. Maybe it wasn't so surprising after all…
Don't ask why. It's just cube tech, kid.
In any case, he had to get Intrepid to make one for him later. It was way too cool.
"Commander, do you want to touch it? As long as I haven't summoned my rigging, it can be touched by humans… but only you can touch it."
Seeing how much the Commander was interested in her clasp, Intrepid hesitated slightly, then shyly offered.
"Mhm. It's because she trusts you. She never lets us touch that clasp," South Dakota added calmly, providing a well-timed assist.
Hearing both shipgirls' words, Lin Lan collected his thoughts, then chuckled at the red-faced Intrepid:
"Maybe later tonight. I'll definitely take a good look then."
He hadn't thought much of the offer, but Intrepid clearly read too much into it—her blush deepened as she averted her gaze.
South Dakota glanced at Intrepid with envy. Her tanned face also reddened slightly, but she didn't say more.
"You guys' main Eagle Union HQ is on that artificial island in New Ocean, right? If I remember correctly, Anna City is pretty far from New Ocean City. Why were you assigned here?"
As he spoke, the three of them reached the fourth floor.
Lin Lan looked out the hallway window at the sunlit sea and asked curiously.
"We originally came to find you. After arriving on this continent, we split up to improve efficiency,"
South Dakota replied. The composed Indiana-class battleship tightened her hold on Lin Lan's arm, pressing it into her chest, and continued:
"While searching for you, one of this country's ruling conglomerates, the Goilia Consortium, began trading with us normally at first. But later, they dared to try and cheat us."
"Once we found proof, we destroyed their HQ and took over all their assets—including jurisdiction over several cities, oilfields, and factories."
"When Saratoga learned the Iron Blood had found you, she had each of our search fleets establish bases near the Goilia oil fields—mainly to ensure oil extraction continued smoothly and to monitor nearby Siren fleets."
"After all, we all understand the Commander will need a lot of oil to bring other factions back to the Port District. So none of us objected."
"Of course, another one of our main tasks is making sure the Goilia Consortium's regional managers obediently follow our orders."
Hearing this, Lin Lan paused in surprise.
Why did everything the Eagle Union shipgirls were doing feel… so familiar?
It felt like something was missing…
Right—if only a bold, patriotic "Make Eagle Union Great Again" theme song started playing right now, it'd be perfect.
All jokes aside, Lin Lan had zero complaints about what his Eagle Union shipgirls were doing.
Honestly, if he were in their shoes, he'd have done the same.
From what he knew of the Goilia Consortium's despicable history back at Red Maple Naval Academy, South Dakota calling it "cheating" was probably putting it mildly.
His shipgirls were never the type to harbor ill intent—especially not the Eagle Union, the most outwardly open faction in the Port District.
Oh, but Marco Polo absolutely needed to be singled out—that guy was always scheming to restore the Sardegna Empire's former glory. She was all bad intentions.
But all in all, based on what he knew of Saratoga and the others, unless the Consortium had seriously crossed a line, they'd never have hit back so hard or turned an entire conglomerate into their vassal.
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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