Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

"Hey Lexington, notify the Maritime Bureau. I'm all ready, you can contact them now." After quickly wiping his cheek, Jing Su called out to Lexington, "You're here to discuss the combat mission, right?"

After Lexington arrived at the operations command center, Saratoga's work was handed over to Lexington. Actually, Lexington had her own work to do, but Saratoga just wouldn't let her sister leave. Lexington was helpless but had no choice but to help out.

Fortunately, Jing Su initially assigned her the task of being in the reserve team, so there were no problems with her leaving temporarily.

To some extent, this is why Jing Su is in the operations command center. At other times, it's really not something you can just replace whenever you want. There are actually quite a few factions within the White Eagle camp. Saratoga and Constellation are considered Lexington's faction, and they are absolutely led by Lexington, but others may not necessarily think so.

At its simplest point, the Eagle Union faction can be divided into several factions just in terms of battleships, and none of them are willing to submit to the others. For example, Garden is a ship girl in the Eagle Union faction who has independent sortie rights. On the battlefield, she is granted the authority to detach herself from the unit and ignore rear command when she discovers an opportunity.

Although the final results are often quite good, this behavior has always been a headache for the command. On the one hand, they have witnessed Garden achieve remarkable results and make great contributions. On the other hand, this behavior is indeed acting independently, and if it happens too often, the ship girls of other factions will be dissatisfied.

Over time, the authority of the combat command became insufficient, and everyone fought their own battles, which was quite dangerous on the battlefield.

Now that Jing Su is in the command center, there's no problem. When the other ship girls hear that Jing Su is there, they naturally won't disobey Lexington's orders. Well, more often than not, they're furious, cursing inwardly why they're not the ship girls in the command center, and then angrily carrying out the orders.

"Yes, Commander, the speech has been prepared for you. If you don't know what to say, just read the content of the speech." Lexington handed Jing Su a piece of paper covered with dense writing, which was what she had been working on at her desk. Then, Lexington began to prepare the equipment.

"Hiss, Lexington, are you sure this is a speech?" Hearing that there was a speech, Jing Su breathed a sigh of relief. He was worried about what to say when he met with the staff of the Maritime Bureau. Now, he could just read it directly. Then, Jing Su glanced at the speech that Lexington had given him and was dumbfounded.

Is this really a war plan, or is it someone deliberately trying to cause trouble?

"Hmm? Let me see." Hearing Jing Su's question, Saratoga took the speech and glanced at it briefly. He smiled and said, "That's right, that's exactly it. Commander, just read it. It's fine. Those people at the Maritime Bureau are like crazy. If you don't scold them, they won't have any motivation."

“Alright then~” Jing Su scratched his head, looking at the first sentence of the speech: 'Two choices: either clean up the battlefield behind us as usual, or go to your death.' He fell into deep thought.

Strictly speaking, Lexington has a very gentle personality. She treats all her partners in the port, as well as the little yellow chicks and other small animals equally and takes good care of them. The fact that she wrote such a strong-tongued statement shows that she has truly seen through what kind of creatures the Maritime Bureau are.

Jing Su briefly recalled the scenes of contact with the Maritime Bureau after arriving in this world. Well, they were mostly eccentrics. There weren't many with brains. Chen Batian was one. As for the rest, he hadn't met them, but most of them were fools. Humanity was once driven to the brink of extinction by the Sirens, and yet they still had to scheme against each other and fight for power.

Jing Su had initially thought that the Maritime Safety Administration had a great deal of authority, but after learning that it was actually established with the support of the ship girls, she lost all respect for this so-called official organization.

'Looks like I need to find a way to change my approach~'

At this moment, Jing Su realized that his thinking had been wrong all along, or rather, he had been looking at the ship girls and the outside world with the mindset of an ordinary person from before he transmigrated, so he always had a strange feeling of being out of place.

“Commander, I’m all set and ready to speak at any time.” Just then, Lexington’s gentle voice came through the phone.

Suddenly, a projection appeared in front of Jing Su. On the other side of the projection were fully armed soldiers, on high alert, with serious expressions. Their furrowed brows made Jing Su think that something bad had happened.

"Ah, haha, this must be... um... Hello, may I ask how to address you?" After a while, a general-looking man on the other side stepped forward, but after a few joking smiles, he realized that they had no idea how to address Jing Su.

To be precise, the Maritime Safety Administration's senior management was quite helpless that the Chenxi Port Area had found the important person they had been looking for. After all, this completely shattered their idea of ​​absorbing the port area's resources for their own use.

But as helpless as it may be, it's simply a shattered dream, a return to reality.

Since we can't subdue the port area, we can only try to build a good relationship with the real master behind it.

"Just call me Commander." After a moment's thought, Jing Su said this calmly.

"Oh, okay, Commander, I am Lin Fu, the head of the Maritime Bureau stationed at the front. You can just call me Lin Fu." The general stood up and saluted Jing Su.

"Mm." Jing Su nodded. The other party adopted a very humble attitude, which made the subsequent communication much easier.

"So, Commander, could you tell us if our mission for this operation is still the same as usual—to cover the rear?" Lin Fu was playing a trick here; his question was actually a trap. Whatever Jing Su said, an agreement would be best, but a denial wouldn't matter, even if Jing Su explicitly refused, saying, 'No, your mission is...'

Lin Fu had room to maneuver. His purpose in doing this was to gain a pretext. For a long time, the public and the senior officials of the Maritime Bureau have been criticizing them for taking benefits without doing any work. In fact, it is true that they can hardly play a role on the front line. Cleaning up the battlefield is already a job that Chenxi Port District has given them.

If the port area of ​​Chenxi were to relax its vigilance even slightly, the maritime authorities' armed forces would not even be able to get close to the battlefield.

So Lin Fu was also helpless in the face of criticism. They wanted to rise up, but their strength wouldn't allow it!

Therefore, Jing Su's words are very important now. Lin Fu's statement just now was "the rearguard as usual." This is a premise. As long as Jing Su does not deny this in his words, it means that the highest leader of the Dawn Port area has acknowledged that the Maritime Bureau is involved in the rearguard work. No matter what the rearguard does, it is still part of the battle against the Sirens.

They simply avoid direct combat with the Sirens.

In this way, Lin Fu would have room to maneuver and silence the gossip. Moreover, this was also a test, an attempt to gauge Jing Su's abilities. If the person making the video call today were a ship girl, he would never have dared to do this, having suffered too many losses in the past.

But now it's Jing Su. Although the ship girls have been looking for him, and although the news from the higher-ups of the Maritime Bureau is that this person is unfathomable, really, just looking at his appearance, Jing Su is too young. He is handsome but still has a youthful appearance. The ship girls have been looking for him for three years. Even if we assume he is twenty-five or twenty-six, three years ago he was just a college graduate. He is really too young.

So young that Lin Fu couldn't help but probe his heart. Ship girls were inhuman creatures, who knew how old they were? But Jing Su, the Maritime Bureau had made it so clear that she was a human being, and humans were bound to suffer from being young.

Some things, no matter how intelligent you are, you can't understand if you don't have enough experience.

Lin Fu thought that as long as Jing Su's skill level wasn't very high, or rather, as immature as her appearance suggested, then Lin Fu wouldn't be surprised if he secretly took advantage of her.

'The rear will support me, right?' Lin Fu thought to himself.

"Two choices: either clean up the battlefield behind us as usual, or die as usual." Jing Su actually sensed that Lin Fu's words were a bit strange, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong. But it wasn't a big deal, so if she couldn't see it, she couldn't see it.

Just as Lin Fu had imagined, Jing Su was indeed experiencing this kind of occasion for the first time. There were many things she didn't understand, but that didn't matter. In fact, being able to have a vague sense of it was already a gift.

Jing Su said: I have ship girls, so I can just read the speech script that the ship girls prepared for me.

Chapter 277 Strange Phenomena

"Hehe, Commander, that was pretty good! That speech you gave just now was really cool~"

As the meeting ended, before Jing Su could even breathe a sigh of relief, Saratoga's mocking voice rang out beside her, "Two choices: either clean up the battlefield behind us as usual, or, as usual, go to your death."

So cool!

"Cough cough, please, stop talking, it's too embarrassing!" Upon hearing this voice, Jing Su was stunned, and then goosebumps instantly rose all over her body. She immediately grabbed Saratoga under her armpits and lifted her up, holding her in the air.

"Whoosh~ I'm flying! Sister, look, I can fly!" Saratoga chuckled and shouted loudly in mid-air.

"Hey, be careful, don't fall!" Lexington, who had witnessed the whole thing, was a little helpless. Saratoga was one thing, but how did Jing Su get infected too?

'My God, having just Sarah was troublesome enough, and now even the Commander is involved. How am I supposed to get through this?'

Lexington thought to himself, but the upturn of his lips was so wide that even Mount Tai couldn't suppress it.

This is what we call a happy life~

The person I like, the sister I like, we're all together, having a great time. Is there anything more joyful in the world than that?

"Phew~ Lexington, how was my performance just now?" After spinning around a few times, Jing Su was a little dizzy, so he put Saratoga down. Since Saratoga had been hunched over in the air, it was more affected than him. Whether it was acting or not, as soon as he was put down, Saratoga, with circles of mosquito coils in its eyes, swayed and went to rest on the side.

"Great job, Commander! Your speech was really impressive. You truly live up to your reputation as my commander." Lexington didn't hold back her praise, showering Jing Su with every compliment she could think of.

He was so confused by Jing Su's words that he blushed and quickly told Lexington to stop.

"Ahem, stop, stop! Don't say any more, or I'll forget who I am! It's not that easy, ahem~"

"Haha, how could that be? The commander's performance was truly outstanding; he didn't seem like it was his first time attending a meeting."

"Isn't it because I have you guys by my side to back me up?" Jing Su said modestly for a moment, then as if she remembered something, she quickly said, "But speaking of which, do you think the Maritime Safety Administration will really cooperate if we say it like this? After all, the content of that speech was a bit too disrespectful."

It wasn't just disrespectful; it was downright blatant slapping at someone's face. Jing Su thought, "No matter what they do, they're helping me out. Isn't it a bit too much to show them no respect at all?"

“Commander, how could that be? I think you're being too lenient. Those guys at the Maritime Bureau deserve this! We need to yell at them! They're like they're insane; they won't do any work unless we yell at them.” At this moment, Saratoga, who had recovered, ran over and offered her opinion. “Besides, those people at the Maritime Bureau are like they'll die if they don't take advantage of us. If we give them an inch, they'll want to take an inch more. It's not just a simple case of taking an inch and wanting a mile. We need to strike hard!”

After Saratoga finished speaking, he even made a few punching motions forward.

"Is this... a spin-around, turning Saratoga into a martial arts mode?" Jing Su looked at Saratoga in a daze; the change in style was quite drastic.

“Commander, Sarah is right. The Maritime Bureau and we are not really on the same side. We don’t need to give them too much credit. If we don’t act tough, they will try every means to take advantage of us. To be honest, if it weren’t for things like cleaning up the battlefield, which is really too troublesome, I really wouldn’t want to have any dealings with them on the front lines,” Lexington chimed in.

"I see~" Jing Su nodded. Even Lexington, who is known for her gentleness, has this view on the Maritime Bureau. It can be seen that the port area's attitude towards the Maritime Bureau is indeed quite consistent, and they all dislike it.

Jing Su originally thought that, according to the war-weary rhetoric, the Maritime Safety Administration should be considered a subordinate of the port area. Based on the idea that they were all on the same side, she should treat them better, since the establishment of the Maritime Safety Administration and its operating expenses were inseparable from the support of the port area. Such a large level of support could be considered a staunch force.

However, infighting seems to be a human flaw. After the ship girls stabilized the situation at the front line, the Maritime Bureau began to have its own ideas. To be precise, the Maritime Bureau had had this idea from the very beginning. However, in the past, the port area was a monolithic entity, so even if the Maritime Bureau had ideas, it didn't know where to start.

After confirming Jing Su's disappearance and the port area falling into a state of division, they could no longer suppress their ambitions and began various attempts. For a time, the ship girls even wanted to abandon the Maritime Bureau altogether or establish a new government to compete with it.

The Royal Army knows all too well the tactic of internal division and playing one faction against another.

However, considering that the port area still needed the maritime bureau's resources to find Jing Su, the ship girl ultimately chose to be patient.

After all, the ship girls had searched almost every place near the port, but there was no news of Jing Su. Under such circumstances, the only place the ship girls could think of was human settlements.

To find Jing Su in the human world, they must rely on the official power of the human faction. If the ship girls search on their own, it might take forever to find any news.

Now that Jing Su has returned, the only remaining role of the Ship Girl Maritime Bureau is cleaning up the battlefield. The ship girls themselves can actually do this, but they just find it too troublesome.

Therefore, the ship girls, who already disliked the Maritime Bureau, naturally wouldn't give them any more friendly treatment.

So, the speech I gave to Jing Su was delivered in a very forceful tone, though I hadn't been very polite to her before.

"Dingling bell~"

Just as Jing Su was pondering her next move, the phone in the operations command center rang.

"Hello, Operations Command Center~" Saratoga skipped over to answer the phone, but not long after, Lexington, who had been all smiles, suddenly changed his expression. "What? How many? Okay, I'll go tell the commander right away!"

"What's wrong?" Lexington asked as he walked over, noticing the drastic change in Saratoga's aura.

"Sister, Commander, something terrible has happened! A major incident has occurred at the front!"

Chapter 278 Rescue

Different worlds are like bubbles on the sea, never meeting each other unless there are special circumstances.

If you want to travel from this world to another world, you must build a bridge connecting the two bubbles.

The teleportation anchor point is this bridge.

Like building blocks in a mirror, you can set up a teleportation anchor point in this world. After entering the coordinates of the world you want to go to, a building that looks exactly like the teleportation anchor point will automatically appear in a certain area of ​​the target world. At this point, you can fill it with fuel, inject energy, and activate it to open a portal to other worlds.

After searching everywhere without finding any news of Jing Su, the ship girls began to suspect that Jing Su might have been captured and taken to another world, since Sirens didn't seem like something that could exist in this world.

In the early days after Jing Su's disappearance, the frenzied ship girls even fought their way to the Sirens' home base. After discovering the Sirens' warships' continuous stream of codes, some ship girls considered whether they should go to other worlds to search for Jing Su.

Without hesitation, almost every faction began researching teleportation anchor points.

Several factions have even begun cross-world warfare. For example, the Iron-Blooded Frederick the Great personally led his high seas fleet to other worlds.

For the ship girls who remain in the original world, finding the teleportation anchor point is equivalent to finding a major base of the Sirens. Destroying the teleportation anchor point can push the battle line forward a considerable distance.

The reason the battle line is currently stuck at the front is that it's difficult to push forward any further. With several teleportation points sending troops out simultaneously, the kill efficiency of a single faction's ship girls simply can't keep up with the rate at which the Sirens are spawning.

The ship girls couldn't push forward, and the sirens weren't having an easy time either. If they crossed the ship girls' patrol line, they would be immediately eliminated, and so the two sides were stuck in this strange stalemate.

In an effort to break this stalemate, the Sirens have been constantly trying to launch offensives. Every so often, a seasonal offensive is launched, during which several teleportation anchors appear on the sea surface, sending out warships. At the same time, a Siren mainframe emerges to personally command the battle.

An enemy of this size cannot be defended by a single faction. It's not that they can't defeat them, but that there are simply too many of them and too many areas to defend. One faction alone cannot handle them all, so they need the help of other factions. The main force gathers together to destroy the Sirens' main force, while other support forces are stationed at the defense line to intercept the massive number of Sirens' warships.

Since the start of the quarterly offensive, the ship girls have gained experience in fighting. The main force blocks the Sirens' main engine, while other areas are occupied by carrier ship girls. They cooperate with the vanguard to find the command ship and teleportation anchor point, then bombard it once or twice until the defending forces are cleared out. After that, they send out battleships to bombard the teleportation anchor point.

After the anchor point was destroyed, the main force had almost completely wiped out the Sirens' main unit.

This is based on past experience.

But now.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Seeing Saratoga shouting and Lexington looking serious, Jing Su was startled and quickly ran over to ask what was going on.

"Commander, well, you'll see for yourself!" Saratoga opened and closed her mouth repeatedly before finally displaying the image.

Jing Su's pupils contracted sharply after just one glance at the picture.

Because the pictures taken in Essex are filled with countless Sirens!

No, strictly speaking, they are all identical Siren mainframes. Upon closer inspection, you can see that these mainframes are actually expressionless, like command ships, gathering in a certain direction.

"Is it a projection? Or is it cognitive interference?" Jing Su noticed that the Siren host looked strange and asked.

“It’s possible.” Lexington sighed and said, “At first, Essex also thought he was seeing things. How could there be so many Sirens? But after a symbolic attack on the other side, all the hosts launched the same attack. These Sirens are very likely to be real.”

"A replica?" According to the ship girls, whenever a Siren mainframe appears, the main force of the port needs to be mobilized and go to battle. All the colored ship girls will be mobilized together and work together to destroy the mainframe.

Of course, the "colorful ship girls all out" mentioned here actually refers more to a few big shots taking turns to eliminate enemy mainframes and guard the port area.

When Jing Su heard the ship girls' explanation, it was similar to the strategy of playing in the open world of a game. They would form several fleets, with one fleet exploring the map and another leveling up in the early stages. Once the monthly boss was defeated, they would send the main force to eliminate the host as needed.

In fact, given the strength of the port area, the power of a single faction is enough to destroy the host. The ship girls from other factions came because they were worried about whether any unexpected situations might occur.

However, even if they can be eliminated, the main force of the faction still needs to go all out during the battle.

Now, the sheer number of Siren hosts is enough to make one's scalp crawl.

“I hope so,” Lexington said gravely, “but relying on a weak enemy is not the way to do things on the battlefield, Commander!”

"Hmm." Jing Su knew what Lexington wanted to say, so she immediately went to the topic and shouted, "This is the combat command center. Emergency! All gold and colored ship girls, assemble in the conference room immediately! Repeat, all gold and colored ship girls, assemble in the conference room immediately!"

After saying this, Jing Su sent a voice message to Essex via TB: "Essex, the mission was completed very well. Retreat immediately. Do not linger. Your safety is the primary objective. Evacuate quickly!"

Then, Jing Su asked Saratoga, "Which faction's defense zone is closest to Essex and the others?"

"Commander, the Royal Navy is the closest to them."

"Notify Belfast to organize a force and launch a swift attack to support Essex and the others. Remember, do not linger in battle."

"Yes, Commander!" Knowing the situation was urgent, Saratoga, no longer the playful and mischievous person she had been before, quickly responded.