Chapter 538: The Vanished Siren Outpost

"This sea fog feels off; with such a strong wind, there isn't even a trace of it dissipating—instead it's getting heavier." North Carolina said to Washington beside him.

"Normal, the Sirens just like to play those little tricks!" Washington said, completely unbothered.

"But every time they pull those little tricks, they manage to stump us, so never let your guard down." North Carolina said.

"Yeah, North Carolina is right; because the Sirens like to pull those little moves, we can't let our guard down." Baltimore said.

"By the way, Cleveland, is our direction correct? This sea fog is really thick." North Carolina looked toward Cleveland not far away and said.

"Don't worry, it's correct. Although the sea fog is a bit thick now, I'm the sea knight Cleveland—how could a knight not know the way?" Cleveland said nonchalantly.

"I hope so." North Carolina couldn't help smiling, but his heart was still full of doubts.

"She used to be from the Free Shipgirls; although she's now joined Qin Ge's fleet, that doesn't mean she's forgotten her past combat experience and history."

"Such a strange situation, she's seeing it for the first time too. Although she had entered some mirror seas before while on the front line, it's never been like this—such thick sea fog covering everything, and the surrounding sea area is really oppressive."

"After tens of minutes of sailing, the leading Cleveland suddenly pointed at the nearby sea and said, 'Look, a knight's intuition is never wrong.'"

"Everyone followed Cleveland's gaze and saw that the sea surface here still floated some blue-black carrier aircraft wreckage, and the air was filled with a clearly audible smell of gunpowder."

"Obviously, not long ago an anti-air battle took place here, because only carrier aircraft wreckage remains, with no wreckage of any mass-produced Siren ship in sight."

"When everyone drew near, Baltimore picked up a piece of carrier aircraft wreckage from the sea surface and held it up to examine."

"The penetration damage from the dual 113mm anti-air gun is standard equipment for our fleet's light cruisers; obviously they must have fought a battle here earlier, but where are they?" Baltimore wondered.

"Could it be that they took a wrong retreat direction? We've come all this way and haven't seen a single person." North Carolina said.

"Tsk, we've run into a big problem." Washington said, "This sea area is so vast—where should we go to look for their squad?"

"Exactly, and it's about to get dark, plus the sea fog blocks us, making us even harder to spot." Juno said weakly.

"I actually have an idea." Saint Juan said.

"Everyone's gaze turned to Saint Juan, and North Carolina said, 'Saint Juan, what's your idea? Tell us.'"

"Saint Juan said, 'Actually we can determine their departure direction from the distribution of the carrier aircraft wreckage.'"

"Because we all have an effective anti-air zone; the place where the battle first started definitely has lots of carrier aircraft wreckage. If Helena's group was fighting while retreating, the wreckage distribution would gradually decrease."

"And following that rough direction, we can judge their movement trajectory."

"This method is better, and it's currently the only way we can confirm their departure direction." North Carolina's eyes lit up, and he nodded in agreement.

"But I still have a question: logically this is where Helena's group used to stay, so this should be where they observed the Siren outpost, yet we don't see any Siren outpost now—where is it?" Baltimore said to everyone, though her gaze still fell on Cleveland.

"Cleveland blinked, then looked toward the distance—sure enough, besides the thick sea fog, there was absolutely no sign of any Siren outpost emitting blue-black light."

"Gone?" Cleveland said in astonishment.

"Don't be surprised; since we entered this sea area, we've felt the strangeness everywhere. The Siren outpost vanishing into thin air doesn't seem so odd—the key is to quickly find Helena's group and then rendezvous with the commander." North Carolina said.

"Right, so now everyone pay attention to scattering and checking the distribution of the carrier aircraft wreckage, but remember not to stray too far; always stay within our visual range, otherwise if our squad members get lost later it'll be even more trouble." Washington said.

"Yes!"

".........."

"How's the scouting going?" Qin Ge asked the Enterprise that had just come aboard from the sea surface.

"Nothing found; all the carrier aircraft from the carriers have lowered their altitude and surveyed for this long, yet no trace of the Sirens was detected." Enterprise said to Qin Ge.

"Qin Ge stroked his chin, thought, then asked Enterprise, 'Over these past few tens of minutes, have the carrier aircraft been continuously moving forward, or did they turn back after failing to find the target?'"

"They've been moving forward." Enterprise said doubtfully, "Do you have any questions, Commander?"

"Qin Ge frowned, 'Strange, why does this feel the same as when we previously entered the mirror sea? Yet we never noticed entering the mirror sea at all.'"

"Commander, are you saying we've already entered the mirror sea?" Enterprise said in surprise.

"Qin Ge nodded, 'According to our normal carrier aircraft flight speed, it's roughly 650 to 750 km/h, and we saw on the nautical chart that this area should be less than 300 km in diameter from our current position.'"

"Logically, after flying this long we should have left the fog zone, but your answer is still like this, which suggests we might no longer be in the real sea area but in the mirror sea."

"This..." Enterprise looked at Qin Ge in surprise, not expecting it to be like this.

"I think we should now send out our submarines to handle underwater reconnaissance. The water isn't covered by thick fog, and their vision won't be limited; this is currently our most feasible method." Tiancheng said to everyone.

"Also." Qin Ge nodded.

"Just then, a voice came from the operations console: Ou Gen Qin Wang said, 'Commander, the radar signal has returned, and moreover, we seem to be surrounded.'"

"What!" Qin Ge and everyone were startled, quickly walking toward the operations console.

"Only seeing the radar panel in the middle of the operations console covered with densely packed red dots, everyone felt their hearts pound."

"So many? When did they appear?" Qin Ge said in surprise.

"Just now." Ou Gen Qin Wang said solemnly.

"How far away are they?" Qin Ge asked.

"Very close; we're about to encounter them any moment!"

"Prepare for battle!"