Chapter Text
Siren War, The Final Days
“We have to leave!” The Commander said, pointing to the display screens that showed the impossible number of Siren forces congregating upon the outpost.
“No.” Said Commander White. “We will not! If we leave, they all die.”
“Who cares!” The other said, voice dripping with fear and disgust. “They failed.”
“Yours gave their life for you, and yet you still speak of them that way? We lost one of our best assets because they valued the life of their lover over their own. She died for your sake, and yet you wish us to flee and certainly die, and cause the deaths of the rest of them?” Commander White’s anger was at a boiling point, yet he continued to calmly target and launch the last nuclear munitions stored in the bunker, the automated loaders barely keeping the tide of Sirens, all kinds of them, at bay.
“I’d rather take a chance to live than die protecting those that couldn’t even do their damn job!”
“You are a disgrace, Z. Whoever decided you should be a Commander deserves to lose their job.”
“You were the one who decided!”
“I know.” Commander White drew his gun before the other Commander could. “I won’t be a Commander for much longer. New Jersey is safe, that’s all that matters. Every second I delay the Sirens means we will save more kansen, and my daughter may have a future after all, and if not her, then my descendants… humanity, even. You are not above all of them.”
“Screw you!”
With that, Commander White was soon the only person in the fortified outpost, the other commander fleeing through the underground corridors to a messy, almost certain death. Commander White locked the door and engaged the blast doors before detonating strategic charges. The only way he would be leaving was with an excavator, but there would be time for that later.
Still, he sighed. His friends and colleagues were dead, or soon to be, or turned to the will of the fucking Sirens. Yet he did not falter even as they finally reached the outpost, and made sure that every weapon there that couldn’t be used against the Sirens would never be used by them.
***
Present day, location unknown
A ringing in my ears made me groan as I tried to lift myself up. A pair of hands pushed me down, and the smiling, beautiful face of a kansen I had never seen before spoke soft, heavily accented words.
I didn’t catch them, my eyes closing as my head swam. A wave of nausea washed over me and I felt myself retch. A moment later, a disgusting, sickly sour liquid left my body via my mouth and ended up in a waiting bucket. Crashing back against the pillow, I closed my eyes and sleep blissfully took me away again.
When I opened my eyes again, there was no nausea, and it was slightly warmer, and my hand was in between two delicate ones. I turned my head and saw a beautiful girl with unbelievably blue eyes and long, white hair done up in two braided tails.
Her English was heavily accented. It wasn’t just my mind playing tricks on me. “Ah! Comrade, you’re awake!” She smiled and reached for a cup, handing it to me. I drank it, coughing as I realized it was vodka, the alcohol burning as it went down. “Drink, no, you musn’t throw it up!”
“Russian?” I coughed, sitting up with her help.
“There is no Russia anymore.” She sighed. “They are all gone. It is just me. Well, me and Pirozhki, and sometimes Pamiat when she wants to show up. The rest…”
A deep sadness emanated from what I recognized as an eminently cheerful girl. Or perhaps had once been.
“What’s your name?”
“I am Avrora, Comrade Commander.”
“How do you know I’m a Commander?”
“You are THE Commander. The last one. I have heard rumors, from the Germans who will talk to me. I am mostly alone.” Avrora squeezed my hand. “Please, Commander…”
“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you.” I smiled at her and was rewarded with a big hug, her lovely form pushing close to me, and then her lips pushing to mine. The warmth of her kiss and the intensity of it melted me right then and there, and I knew that yet another shipgirl had a grip on my heart.
“Thank you so much!”
More kisses, and then she climbed into the bed with me, pulling herself under the covers and pressing herself against me.
“What happened, though?” I said, needing to know why I was here, wherever he was.
“Love me first. It has been far too long and a Commander can love his shipgirls without reservation and in totality.” Avrora pleaded.
I could feel her shuffling out of her clothing beneath the covers, pushing them off over the side as the warmth of her nude figure pressed against me and made me forget all about the cold that otherwise surrounded us.
I made to push the covers off and she held them up.
“What’s the matter? I don’t mind scars.” I said. Avrora laughed and shook her head.
“While I have a few of those, and I am proud of them much like I admire your scars I have been taking care of you for a week now and have been… unable to do much other than sleep every now and then and keep you clean and seen to.”
“Wait… if I was under for that long, how am I able to…”
Avrora shushed me. “Not all technology is lost, but some of it requires… constant monitoring, as much as I am able. Staying under the sheets makes it so my body odor isn’t so unpleasant.”
I snorted. “Avrora… I am a Wastelander.”
“Was.”
“Semantics. Anyway, if you think…”
“I… have some limited body hair, which…”
Avrora’s pillowy lips were sweet as I pressed my own to them. She surrendered herself completely, spreading her legs and grinding her crotch against my cock. Her warm, wet pussy seemed almost demanding. Despite my intense arousal, I stopped myself from pushing into her.
Sitting up, the blanket fell back off us and the creamy white skin of her breasts were topped with two petite pink nipples. I pressed my hand into one of them, squeezing the soft, ample mound gently.
“Are my breasts to your liking, Comrade?” Avrora asked as I worked my fingers into the soft flesh. Her blue eyes shone as I caressed these soft, sensitive breasts.
Shapely, perky, and without a single flaw.
I removed my hands from them and lowered my mouth, sucking her breast with great need. She wrapped her arms around me and hugged me to her.
Now that I was so close, and her arms were raised, I could indeed smell the scent of her stale sweat and musk, and something lighter, gentler beneath those, but well masked.
It turned me on even more. All shipgirls smelled good, but this… this was something else. Normally shipgirls were sticklers for bathing and appearance, and while body hair and an off odor were not uncommon to deal with in my previous life, I had almost forgotten them now that I had been with only kansen.
Avrora was a breath of fresh air. Well, fresh air fragrant with her increasingly intense scent as her arousal increased the potency of her musk.
“Comrade, you’re sucking it so hard! Hehe!” Avrora giggled. I raised my head and kissed her again before grasping her right wrist, holding it above her head. “Surely you don’t…”
I did. I planted my face right into her armpit, inhaling deeply. I barely had time to register the trimmed, soft hair there, but soon my nose was pulling every breath through them even as they tickled me.
The intense scent had me hard already, as hard as I had ever been, and the creamy white skin of this northern woman felt so good beneath my hands. I felt like I could cum at any moment, and it was Avrora who broke before I did.
“I need this, Comrade! I won’t wait any longer.” Avrora pushed me back and had me on the bed, but I twisted as she tried to get down on me and I ended up on top of her.
“Haa… you tease me!” She let out a moan in her thick accent as I pressed my throbbing member deep into her cunt. She was so wet it slid in without resistance, and the heat of her insides was enough to immediately push me over the edge so long had I gone without intimacy.
“Ah, fuck… haa… w-why is your face so red?” I felt flushed with embarrassment as well, but then I recognized the feeling of her pussy massaging my dick, her moans and slightly arched back betraying her orgasm.
“I came when you put your cock in me… it’s been so long…”
“Yeah… been a bit for me, too.” I said, and started thrusting slowly, my cock still rock hard inside her.
“Oh? You can keep going? You really must be made of shipgirl stuff, Comrade. Fuck me hard, don’t hold back!” Avrora moaned as she propped herself up on her hands, arching her back. The curve of her large, soft breasts, perfectly perky and as alluring as the devil herself, caught and held my attention as shifted our position so that I was on my knees, her legs wrapped around my midsection and my arms gripping her waist.
“Never seen a Russian shipgirl before you… you all this fuckin sexy?” I asked, my gruff voice rough with desire. I wanted to dominate her.
Avrora sat up, pulling herself towards me, her hands around my neck. “These scars… bullet wounds, blades, blunt objects, and even a couple burns… you’d never be on the cover of a magazine.”
“A magazine?” I asked, not understanding.
“Never mind. You know what I think, though? I think they make you even sexier. Your dick has got to be the best thing I’ve had in so long!” Avrora moaned, slamming her hips against me as cum leaked out between our union. She avoided my question.
I pushed us forward and pinned her against the bed, slamming my hips into her as she screamed for more, demanded it, and roughly pressed her mouth to mine. I didn’t think that kissing could be so rough, but our lips bruised against one another as her tongue forced its way into my mouth and sought mine.
I could feel her teeth on my lip, pulling it as I pressed her legs to her sides, keeping her pressed in a breeding position, my tip slamming against her cervix and threatening to push it wide apart.
Avrora was crying out words I didn’t understand. Her eyes locked to mine. “Cum in me, inside me!” She demanded.
“Not before I get to see that sexy ass.” I growled and pulled out of her, turning her over and giving her soft, sexy ass a hard smack. The swiftly fading red of my handprint was secondary to her swift assumption of the position, her ass in the air. I thrust my cock deep inside her dripping hole and pounded her pussy with everything I had!
The wet slap of our sweaty skin, the stink of our sex and musk… I could have reveled in it forever as I grabbed her hair and pulled her head back until she lifted her body, slamming herself back against me as I reached around to get two great handfuls of supple breast flesh. I pinched her nipples, pulling and teasing them as her hands reached back to wrap themselves behind my head.
I buried my head in one of her armpits as I thrust deep inside of her, my cock engorging as my climax swiftly came.
“I’m cumming, Comrade! Cum with me!” Avrora cried, and pleasure ripped the nerves along my cock and clenched something deep inside of me as I filled her womb with my seed.
Great hot threads of cum poured from my tip as we fell forward into the soft bed, my body pressing hers down and keeping her still even as tremors from the first true orgasm she’d had in years continued to leave her at my mercy.
“That’s it, that’s it… you’re mine now.” I said, growling softly like some animal. It only occurred to me later that it was something within the Russian shipgirls that was bringing this out, as it would happen with Kiev, Tashkent, Murmansk, Pamiat, Sevastopol, and Grozny as well.
“Yes, yes… of course, Comrade.” Avrora squeezed my hand.
I rolled off of her, and she immediately attached herself to me, kissing me deeply. “I’m going with you when it is time for you to move on. I refuse to stay.”
“Of course.”
“I love you.”
“So quickly?”
“Da. I lost my first love to the fucking Sirens, my Comrade Commander. You hold the title now.”
“I’m sorry, Avrora.”
“Ach…” The shipgirl made a dismissive noise and kissed me on the lips. “That is ancient history.” Her body against mine was making the little Commander stand at attention, and she noticed, climbing on top of me and taking it into herself without hesitation.
“Haah…” Avrora moaned.
“I love you too.” I said, something inside of me urging me to say it. She had saved my life and nursed me back to health, but…
“Comrade, say it to me when you mean it.” Avrora chuckled, and leaned over me, pressing her full body against mine as she rode my dick slowly.
“I’m sorry.” I said.
“No, no…” Avrora nuzzled me. “I have you now. I have you and you have so many others to care for, but you are my only one. I can share, no problem.”
So we made love once more, the feeling of intense mutual satisfaction bringing me closer to realize what she meant. I cared about her, and I wanted more, but she was right. Love was hard.
***
“Vodka?”
“Just drink it.” Avrora said, and I had a swallow of the strong stuff. Looking out the window, we had some time before the blizzard blew itself out.
“We have plenty of supplies, but we’ll have to move when it’s over. Pamiat usually shows up after these things and she’ll have some info I asked her to get. I need your help… but first I need you to tell me about a few things.”
“Like what?” I asked. She was pressed against me as usual, her need for physical affection greater than I had ever seen.
“Why were you so far north?”
“Well… I remember leaving with Duca, the Italian shipgirl, but after a few weeks, she pulled something out of her bag. She said it was some device that could send messages over satellites, and then told me she needed to leave at first light, and head back.”
“How was she?”
“She’s beautiful, and very sweet. She has a prosthetic arm, too.”
“Comrade…”
“Alright… she was an incredible partner. I miss her. But I have you, and I would never compare. You’re incredible, Avrora. Beautiful, kind, and insatiable!”
“You sweet talker… so what was it about?”
“No idea, she just apologized. We spent one last night together. She cried herself to sleep in my arms after we made love. I didn’t know what to do but when I said I would return with her, she was so vehement in her denial… said I had to keep moving north or I’d be in danger.”
“You want to see her again?”
“Very much. I’m a little worried.” I sighed.
“Don’t be, they made shipgirls of stronger stuff than even you.” Avrora traced her favorite scar. It was one of the meaner ones, a long, thin, and awfully jagged thing that started at my shoulder and ended at my elbow.
“Tell me about this one.” She asked.
“Sure. I was staying with this farming family, hunted a coyote that had been killing their chickens. It was a scrawny, mangy thing, and I ended up burying it after I hauled it in to show them the proof. Farmer fed me, had his wife clean my clothes, and had his daughter share my bed. Pretty enough, but… I’ve been spoiled now.” I laughed as the shipgirl swatted at me playfully. “Farmer had a son who was madly in love with his sister, or the girl I had plowed until she was a drooling mess, her noises so overt it was no wonder he heard us.”
“Oh, shit…” Avrora’s finger reached the end of the scar and then started tracing it back up. She settled herself down in my lap as I grew quiet for a moment, grabbing the bottle of vodka and taking a pull, swishing it in her mouth before handing it to me. I did the same.
Her bare body against mine was supremely comforting, and she laid her head into the hollow of my arm, nuzzling my armpit and gently sniffing at my scent. She had said that if I got to enjoy hers, then it was only natural for her to enjoy mine. Her pussy felt hot against my cock, her pubic hair tickling me.
I had grown oddly fond of her aromatic body hair, especially when we lay together in a 69 and I could nuzzle it as much as I wanted as she got her fill. Hell, I had eaten her out to completion many times over the past week just so I could enjoy it more.
“He jumped on me, screaming that no one could have his sister but him. His eyes… his eyes were wild. He was one of the unlucky ones with the Sick, and I realized that was why they had kept him locked away. He had broken out of his room and grabbed the first thing he saw.”
“What’s the Sick?” Avrora asked.
“Makes a person… wrong. Their mind won’t work right, their eyes get all weird and glow, and they get violent at the smallest thing. Anyway, he grabbed a saw and took it to my arm even as it was still around his sister. She woke up screaming, and I threw him off me as quick as I could, but he was strong. Everyone with the Sick is. Unnaturally strong.”
“A saw?” Avrora shook her head in disbelief.
“His Father came in and whacked him good with a piece of wood, knocked him out cold. They were terrified I’d want vengeance or some useless shit like that, but I just asked them to stitch me up, give me a meal and a bottle of something hard for the pain, and send me on my way.”
Avrora raised her hips, and I slipped inside of her with ease. Her kiss eased the memory, replacing it with something much better. I had long ago forgotten the agony of that wood-saw on my arm, cutting deep into my flesh and muscle… and the equally painful stitch of the mother as she sewed me back up, half the alcohol going to just sterilize the wound.
The ugly scar contrasted with the lovely thing in my lap, the girlie who rode me and kissed me, and who would be one of the few to stay with me until the very end.
***
“Fuck!” Avrora cried as I finally slipped deep into her ass, her hips trembling as her anus finally wrapped around the base of my cock.
“Your ass is so goddamn tight!” I moaned, thrusting into her and keeping her pinned against the wall.
“It’s… haah… it’s so fucking big in there!” Avrora let out a moan as my smooth thrusts brought me completely back into her again.
I had convinced her to let me try it, and it had taken quite some time of ass eating to get her ready but it was so worth it. Now her ass wrapped tight around my cock, her insides squeezing against me as my hips moved faster and faster.
It didn’t take long for me to cum. Even she had a small orgasm from it. Nonetheless, for a while afterward, she wasn’t interested in anal. One day, however, she came back to me, admitting she had been playing with her butt and that she wanted me to have it again.
***
“You were barely coherent when I found you huddled next to the fire. You’re lucky it was me.” Avrora handed me a cup of coffee and I sipped it, watching the edge of the storm move away from the small house.
“I appreciate it, but what’s out here? You haven’t…”
“Ah, Pamiat is here.” Avrora avoided my question as she had for the past few days about why she was so concerned about facing other shipgirls. “Pamiat!” She cried out as she threw the door open.
The other shipgirl waved back and came inside, and immediately I realized that something was off about her. She seemed carefree, happy-go-lucky… but one of her eyes glowed with a malicious light that I could tell she was trying to keep at bay.
“Heya! Avrora, this guy… ooh.” Pamiat jumped on me and pushed her face into mine, sniffing me. Her one normal eye was bright and full of light and life, the other just regarded me with that baleful glow. “He’s special… but… no… are you a commander?”
Her direct question got a chuckle out of me, and I nodded. “At your service.”
“A new Comrade, and he’s a Commander! Ah, you keep… sorry, here.” She pulled an eyepatch out of her pocket and slipped it over the eye, grinning. “Sorry, I’m perfectly fine. The ah… well… yeah. We just call it the Virus. Anyway… yeah, let’s just get this out of the way.”
Pamiat pulled me into the sole bedroom and closed the door as Avrora laughed. I had her pinned to the wall, her large breasts pressed into it as I took her from behind, my cock piercing her cunt as her ass rolled with each slap of my hips on it.
“You’re so plush… what a sexy, lewd body!” I said, pulling her head back and pressing my mouth roughly to hers. She moaned loudly into the kiss, her insides tensing up on me.
“We can make love later, and talk even more. Just fuck me!” She begged, and I did, slamming my cock into that tight cunt of hers and pulling her back, grabbing her wrists as she bent over, my tip driving against her deepest parts with each thrust.
Later, after the promised lovemaking session where she rode me like my cock was going to disappear at any moment, Avrora came in and joined us. She was naked as well, and after a further round to keep things fair…
I was bushed, and it was about eleven in the morning. I closed my eyes and listened to them speak in Russian as I fell asleep, two warm shipgirls keeping me cozy beneath the thick blanket.
When I woke later, they were both asleep. I got out of bed and pulled a can of stew off the shelf, starting the stove up and tossing the contents in before going back to grab a pair of something to cover up my lower half. The two of them were sound asleep, the sun well past its zenith. I thought about waking them, but enjoyed my meal in solitude.
It was delicious, and I washed it down with good old-fashioned water. Avrora could drink! I needed a break from the stuff…
“Sleep well?” Avrora asked as she slid into the chair across from me. She was dressed in her nightie, the sheer fabric leaving little to the imagination.
“Mhmm, you?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Pamiat. The Virus… it nearly took her, but she escaped it. She’ll always have that eye as a reminder. Thank you for not judging her. Also, for fucking her brains out. She needed that.”
I snorted. “Seems to be a running theme.”
“Very funny, Comrade.” She reached over and took my hand, stroking my palm.
I smiled at her and stood, pulling my chair next to hers before sitting back down, pulling the beautiful girl closer to me. “I love you, Avrora. I will help you.”
Avrora sniffed, and it took her a minute to get her emotions under control. “Thank you. I love you too. Please save us.”
Wrapping Avrora in my arms and holding her made me realize that I truly did care for her, but more than that, I cared about her future… I cared about all the shipgirl’s futures. The man who wandered the wastes in the search of the famed Port and its kansen, concerned only for his own survival, seemed so far away now.
I enjoyed a couple more nights with the two, delighting in their love as we explored every inch of one another. The work would come soon enough.
***
The Snowy Wastes, somewhere south of Moscow.
0400: Kansen Containment Facility 1
A Siren City. Huge, imposing, and surrounded by what seemed like impassable walls. A prison, a hell on Earth. Nothing but misery and exploitations, humans exploited and killed daily, working in enigmatic machines. Fuelling them as well. It was the closest I had ever been, and it was still well off into the horizon.
The facility, on the other hand, was a ramshackle affair. An old Soviet warehouse that hadn’t looked good when they had built it. Now it was little more than a ruin with power.
We only had one shot at this. I kept the M14 steady on the ridge, a small bag filled with sand keeping the barrel out of the snow. Avrora and Pamiat had melded into the surrounding landscape, and I was grateful for the cold weather gear that Avrora had provided me with.
“There it is.” Avrora almost snarled. “Pamiat tells me we have multiple unaffected shipgirls inside here…”
“For whatever reason, the Virus didn’t work on them.” Pamiat said, her voice dripping with the same hatred as Avrora’s.
I chose not to ask why.
A figure exited the facility, a shipgirl. I looked at her through my scope and swallowed. I recognized her profile and identified her quickly. Her eyes were a deep, glowing crimson, pulsing with an eldritch light that illuminated varicose veins bulging against the skin of her face. Her mouth hung open, a snarling black hole of hatred. Was she still…
No, please no… that would be a fate worse than death. Could I… really kill her? I passed the name on to Avrora.
She choked briefly, clearing her throat quietly. “She’s not one of us anymore. Shoot to kill.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, hesitating.
“You’re the only one who can kill us… and your presence strengthens us, but also allows us to be hurt.”
“Wait… really?” Conflicting emotions raged through my mind at this revelation. Or had I known it all along? My memory was… fuzzy, lately. I missed New Jersey. I missed Nagato and Enterprise, and Bache and Naganami… and so many others.
I sighted down the barrel of my rifle, the M14 an extension of myself at this point. Breathing in slowly, I smoothly applied pressure to the trigger as my reticle rested on her center mass.
Forgive me.
I fired.
The crack of the rifle echoed as I watched diseased black blood spray out her back.
“It’s a mercy.” Avrora said, looking at me with a sad expression. A single hot tear ran down my cheek, freezing quickly.
“Why is no one coming to investigate?” I asked after a few minutes.
“Usually there’s only one of these things.” Pamiat said, but didn’t move, her binoculars scanning the area. “This place should warrant more, but… I tried to kill one once. Spent days chasing each other. I couldn’t dent it, and here you take it down with one center mass shot!” Pamiat scoffed.
Avrora rested her hand on my rifle, and I loosened my grip. “Our Comrade Commander is who he says he is, Pamiat. We have precious few of us left, and this is our home no longer. Stay sharp, Comrades. And you, Commander… don’t hesitate next time.”
We waited for another hour before we began to slowly make our way towards the facility, but we approached uncontested and were soon upon the body of the one I had killed. Her face was horrifying, a rictus of pain. Perhaps it really was a mercy.
The body looked emaciated, the rags of her uniform draped around her and failing to hide the horrendous state of her body.
“She died long ago. Thank god…” Avrora sighed and shook her head. “I fucking hate the Sirens. This… this is their experiment. One of many. Let’s go.”
“What do you… yeah, alright.” I nodded and followed her through the half-open door, slipping inside the dimly lit, dingy interior. We were in some kind of machine area, rusted hulks doing nothing, and sooty windows blocking our view of what must be a much larger room beyond.
“Shh… hear that?” Pamiat held a finger up to her lips and wiped clean a small bit of the soot to peer through. “Three of them. It’s… oh no…” Pamiat sighed and looked at Avrora. Their pain was immense, and I waited, not understanding but knowing that they needed a minute. These were once their Comrades!
“Ok. Comrade Commander. Please be quick, they are quicker and more powerful than you realize.”
I nodded, and she opened the door. I slipped out and drew their attention immediately. They made an awful moaning sound, hissing and screeching intermixed with painful wails. I tried not to look as I fired once, twice…
Dead.
I turned but Avrora was right, the fucking thing was too fast. It was on me, the horrible stench of it, the mouth so close to mine as it screamed in my face, crimson eyes burning into my soul as its claws tightened around my…
Then I was free! Avrora had tackled it and was screaming in Russian at it. I picked up my gun in a flash, survival instincts long honed in the unforgiving wasteland, taking over as I sighted and fired, the monstrosity collapsing on top of Avrora.
“Get it off! Get it off!” She screamed, and I rushed to push the dessicate figure off of the sobbing shipgirl. I bundled her up into my arms and held her as she clutched at me like a small child. “Commander… thank you…”
“I should thank you… are you going to be ok?”
“No, Comrade… not for a long time. Promise me. Repeat your promise.”
I did, and she hugged me tightly again. Even Pamiat came over and joined us, her soft embrace welcome as I tried to comfort the venerated cruiser in my arms. Avrora needed genuine help, someone that understood her on a level even I could not. For now, I could do this, and it would have to be enough.
“I love you.”
“I love you so much!” Avrora cried. “My friends, my comrades… why?”
Her anguished cry chilled me to the bone, but I quieted her. “Listen.”
She swallowed and took a deep breath to steady herself, and that was when we heard the soft sounds of misery coming from the blackness ahead. I took out my flashlight and pointed it in that direction, trepidation entering my thoughts as I thumbed the switch to on.
“Oh god!” I cried out as the figure in the cage looked up at me.
“Kiev!” Avrora cried and ran to the door, ripping it open and pulling the shipgirl out.
“Avrora?” The shipgirl’s voice was weak, and I rushed over, hoping that I could help. “W-who?”
“Commander. Comrade Commander. He’ll save us. It’s ok. You’re ok.” Pamiat knelt next to the girl as Avrora continued speaking to her. Kiev’s eyes never left mine.
“Com-man-der? I… you killed the… things.” She weakly raised her arms, and I understood immediately. Pulling Kiev into a hug… well… it felt like she weighed nothing. Yet her spirit felt strong as I held her as tight as I felt safe to do so. “There are others…”
Avrora and Pamiat rushed to the cages and let them out, and soon Tashkent, Murmansk, Sevastopol, and Grozny were all taking turns getting made to order hugs.
“Others.” Tashkent said, pointing at another door. “There are others. From far away.” She sat back down, exhausted. “Recent.”
They looked so pitiful, these five survivors, the last of the Russian shipgirls. Little did I know they would recover and destroy every expectation I ever had of them. Their vengeance would be something to behold!
I got up.
“Comrade, they’re not our problem.” Avrora said.
“I know you don’t mean that.” I said, turning away. I did not want her to see my expression.
She was quiet for a moment, then I felt something soft press against me. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve been through a lot, but these shipgirls are my responsibility as well.” I reminded her.
She nodded, her grip tightening. “I didn’t mean… I…”
“It’s ok. I’ll forget about it.” I gently patted her hands. She released me and I opened the door.
There were only three cages, and the girls inside them were much more energetic.
“I will kill you.”
“I want… to go home.”
“You can’t keep me like this! I’ll have you know that I’m super strong!”
They stopped when they saw me, and their jaws hung open like a bunch of idiots trying to make sense of something infuriatingly easy to grasp. They obviously weren’t infected, so I broke the locks on their cages and set them free.
***
Vauquelin, Z46, and Sheffield joined the Russian shipgirls aboard the Sevastopol as we pulled into the Baltic Sea. The trek from Moscow had been gruelling, but uneventful. We talked little, walked a lot, and rested as much as was needed.
The Russian shipgirls we saved were resilient and quickly regained their strength. Each came to my tent during the journey, talking little and loving ardently. It seemed to invigorate them, and eventually, the others joined me as well. Vauquelin latched herself onto me harder than any other shipgirl, and I had to promise that she could stay with me, though she wouldn’t explain why she found herself so far from French borders, or the safety of the French Port.
I had yet to know of the tragedy that befell the forces that once called themselves the Iris and Vichya.
“It makes me sad, a little.” Avrora sighed as I joined her at the railing, the coastline receding.
“You’re leaving your homeland.” I said, wrapping my arm around her waist and turning to give her a kiss on the cheek. “It still means something, no matter what’s happened.”
“Yes, well… we should go meet the others. I think… ahh. Murmansk, you should be resting.” Avrora chided her fellow cruiser gently.
Murmansk was a physical girl and wrapped her arms around me. In another life, I could see her being very outgoing and forward. Though I suppose kissing me full on the lips in front of one of her comrades was forward enough.
“Mmm… never gets old.” Murmansk grinned and then… did the same to Avrora. “Didn’t want you to feel left out.”
Avrora stood there, stunned, then shook her head. “W-why? Ah, nevermind.”
“Oh yeah. Sheffield says she’s going to leave soon, something about not wanting to get us killed or something like that. Apparently, what remains of the Royal Navy isn’t friendly.” Murmansk shrugged.
That wasn’t good news.
“I’ll talk with her.” I said. “Send her to my quarters.”
***
Sheffield looked at me with her usual neutral expression and shrugged her shoulders. “Just the way it is now.”
“You know who I am. I can talk to Elizabeth.” I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. “Even you came to me. You said you felt stronger, better, that you enjoyed it!”
“One night of intimacy has little bearing on the future. Yes, I enjoyed it, and I’m hoping you invite me to do it again when we’ve finished this conversation.”
I took hold of her, and she tensed, then relaxed. This kansen was like a coiled spring! Kissing her yielded little in the way of a physical reaction, but it led to us in bed, minus the clothes.
She moaned softly as I took her. Slender legs wrapped around me as her pussy squeezed me tightly. She shook her head when I tried to bring it up, and I stopped talking.
I turned her over and pressed her prone into the bed, pounding her as hard as I could, her hands curling and pulling at the sheets, her insides quivering as she came again and again.
When it was done, I sat on the edge of the bed as she wrapped her arms around me and kissed my neck.
“Sheffield, I…”
“You had better bring a fleet when you come. Americans, a lot of them. Make sure your progenitor is with them, otherwise… Lizzie won’t care.”
“Thank you.”
She pulled me down into the bed with her, and as she held me, I realized she didn’t want to let go either. I don’t think any of them did… and the real kicker?
I didn’t want to let go of any of them. Despite being some Wastelander trash with a heaping side of pointless existence for so much of my life, I felt like I would be here for every single shipgirl that wanted my help, or attention, or hell… just a hug.
***
Sheffield left, but Z46 insisted we come to meet the German fleet. “Hey, lots of tech. You can call home.”
“What was the German faction called again?” I asked.
“The Iron Blood. Not so much anymore, but… if you say it, it might make them happy.” Kiev responded, kicking back and watching Z46 carefully. “I’ve seen her in action.”
“Oh?”
“Yep.”
“And?”
“Don’t let her looks deceive you.”
They hadn’t the other night when I held her small, slender body against mine, her enthusiasm for lovemaking at odds with her demeanor and appearance. Z46 just smiled and nodded.
“Kommandant. When we arrive, I will help you. I’ll help you before that, too.” She folded one petite hand into mine and led me away. The more they recovered and the healthier they got, the more intense their, ah… appetites… became.
***
“It was fucking Kronshdadt!” Avrora yelled, slamming the bottle of vodka down on the table. Her drinking had become progressively worse and while I had tried to discuss it with her, she had done all she could to move the topic on to anything else.
Not tonight. I took the bottle from her before she could react, and she tried to grab it back. “Gimme!”
“No.” I said, and sat down, keeping the bottle in my lap. Avrora stared at me as tears streamed down her face.
“You don’t… you don’t… just give it back, let me have some peace…”
Survival had been keeping her sane, focused. Now that she didn’t need to have her guard up round the clock, her mind was wandering to old places. Dark places. I didn’t have to prompt her to continue.
“Kronshdadt disabled the defences, opened the gates, and presented my… our… Comrade Commander to the Sirens as a gift. I watched as they gathered everyone and then beat him. One, shipgirl… she… she…” it was as though the mere attempt at speaking her name was too much to handle.
“She tried to stop them. They blew a hole in her chest, and we watched as she died, choking and sputtering and gasping on the cold concrete as they continued to torture the Commander in front of our eyes.”
“The whole time Kronshdadt was smiling, saying how the downfall of humanity would make us stronger, that we were not their puppets… and the Sirens were so cold, so methodical. I had been the first to meet him, to welcome him, to love and make love to him, and so Kronshdadt forced me to hold his head in my hands as they dealt the final blow.”
“Fucking blueprint shipgirls!”
No one dared said a word. Avrora looked like an absolute wreck, the normally beautiful shipgirl looking haunted and pained. I was frozen in my seat, unable to say something or do something. The picture in my mind was so vivid!
“I held his decapitated head in my hands and cried. I screamed. I dropped it and I ran at Kronshdadt, and the others followed. It was chaos, but I drove my cannon into her chest and fired again and again. She is dead. Dead by my hand.”
Yet the look in her eyes said that this was little more than wishful thinking. The blueprint ship would be a problem for another day.
“This is all that’s left of us. Maybe one day there will be more.”
Avrora rested her head on the table, her speech turning into a murmur.
“I want to forget, Comrade… Commander…”
Avrora slipped into a troubled sleep as I held her.
***
“She was telling the truth.” Tashkent slipped beside me the next morning, plate in hand.
“I don’t doubt it.”
“I saw it too. It’s… it’s hard to see this pitiful little group and think we’ll be able to make a difference.” Tashkent sighed and ate.
“Every single shipgirl matters. Regardless of the fight ahead.”
“Yeah, you’re a Commander. Of course you feel that way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Every single commander is wired to think the way you do. It’s in your blood. Sex with you is like a drug to us. I’m eating breakfast and just being near you is making me wet.”
“Goddamn.”
“Yeah. I could run around screaming ‘I love you’ every time I saw you and it wouldn’t be a lie. And now you’re actually part kansen? Come on… it’s obvious you’re meant to do something that changes this hell we live in. I lost count of the days we spent hiking and avoiding patrols.”
“What if we lose?”
“Let’s hope we never have to consider that. Not that there’s much left to lose. Be careful, Commander, we are all scarred. Watching your friends die and then seeing them as horrific monsters that seem unkillable… well, you did it. You killed them with a goddamn rifle. All I can really think is that I hope they’re at peace.”
“After all, they got the better deal.”
“What do you mean?”
“If there is a heaven, Comrade Commander… it’s got to be so much nicer than what we’re going through here and now.”
“At least we have each other.”
Tashkent let out a small burp after she finished her drink, then grabbed my hand.
“Yeah, at least we have you.”
(And one another, I thought as she led me to her room.)