Marvel: The Silver-Haired Hacker and Her Mecha Fleet Chapter 46 46: The Post-Battle Blues and the Rhine Re-run

A warm yellow floor lamp bathed the living room of the Queens apartnt in a soft glow.

Mira sank deep into her beanbag chair. She held The Builder in her lap, using the AI companion as a makeshift body pillow, but lacked her usual interest in petting the girl's soft silver hair.

Mira slumped backward like a boneless puddle. Her sea-blue eyes were half-closed, staring listlessly at the projection screen on the ceiling. The start nu of a video ga pulsed on the screen, but she could not summon the energy to press the button.

Having just vented her surging, hardcoded urge for destruction inside the Mirror Sea, she was now trapped in a profound state of "sage mode."

A dull, indescribable irritation sat heavy in her chest. It felt like she was smothering. Everything annoyed her. Nothing felt worth doing. Even her favorite gas and junk food tasted like ash.

She knew exactly where the frustration originated.

She could effortlessly crush thirty HYDRA agents. She could grind a death squad into dust within her Mirror Sea. Yet, she could not trace their comms back to the Triskelion and level HYDRA's nest in Washington. She could not drag Alexander Pierce and Jasper Sitwell out of the shadows and eradicate the rot.

It wasn't that she lacked the firepower. It was that she shouldn't.

Captain Arica remained asleep. The HYDRA infiltrators within S.H.I.E.L.D. had not fully revealed their hand. Project Insight was still in its algorithmic infancy. If she flipped the ga board now, she would derail the entire tiline. The deepest HYDRA cells would scatter and go completely dormant, planting much more lethal landmines for the future.

Having the power of a god but being forced to play the long ga was suffocating.

"So annoying," Mira muttered. She finally reached out to rub The Builder's head, burying her face in the fluffy silver hair. "Builder, find a distraction."

The Builder snuggled obediently in her arms. Strings of golden code flashed across her eyes. [Local entertainnt resources retrieved: 127 gas, 364 films, 21 television series. Which category do you require?]

"No." Mira shook her head listlessly. "I am sick of gas and movies. Give sothing fresh."

The Builder's eyes pulsed with data again. [Synchronizing recent New York activity trics: Stark Industries Expo scheduled for next week. Columbia University bioengineering summit. A local comic convention in Queens. Do you require the itineraries?]

"Not interested." Mira groaned, burying her face deeper. "Boring."

The Builder stalled.

The AI could not comprehend Mira's current psychological state. The hostile threat was eliminated. The destructive urge was vented. Her physical trics operated at peak efficiency. Why was she registering an "unhappy" emotional state?

The Builder simply stared up with unblinking golden eyes. [Mira, please specify the exact paraters of the amusent you require. I will synchronize the necessary data.]

Mira sighed and pinched the AI's soft cheek. It was unfair to expect a Siren construct—built entirely by the Antix System for naval warfare and data collection—to understand post-adrenaline boredom.

She waved her hand dismissively. A massive holographic screen unfolded in the air above the coffee table. She tapped into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s global encrypted comms.

Since she had nothing better to do, she figured she would check on Nick Fury and his frozen veteran.

[Synchronizing real-ti teletry for the United States Navy Sixth Fleet, centered on the USS Hornet amphibious assault ship.] The Builder projected a map of the North Atlantic. A striking red blip erged from the Barents Sea, sailing south toward the Arican mainland. [Target fleet current position: North Atlantic, Norwegian Sea sector. Speed: 18 knots. Estimated arrival at Naval Station Norfolk: 72 hours.]

Mira scanned the fleet composition. Her dull eyes suddenly locked onto a specific line of data.

The core of the convoy consisted of the USS Hornet escorted by three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. However, at the absolute vanguard of the formation sailed a stealth destroyer boasting incredibly futuristic geotry.

DDG-1000. The USS Zumwalt.

"You have got to be kidding ." Mira sat up from the beanbag chair. A sharp gleam of life finally sparked in her eyes. A laugh slipped past her lips. "The Zumwalt? This ship didn't launch until 2013 in the real world. It wasn't commissioned until 2016. Is the MCU's military tech really this accelerated? A billion-dollar stealth platform gets pulled off its sea trials just because Nick Fury makes a phone call?"

She never expected Fury to flex this much geopolitical muscle to bring Captain Arica ho. A futuristic warship like the Zumwalt was the crown jewel of naval R&D. Deploying it as a glorified bodyguard for an amphibious transport was the definition of overkill.

[Detailed file synchronized,] The Builder added flatly. [DDG-1000 USS Zumwalt. Completed sea trial acceptance three months ago. Currently assigned to the U.S. Navy Atlantic Fleet. This operation is a temporary detachnt operating under direct S.H.I.E.L.D. command. Identity screening for all 1,247 fleet personnel is complete. This includes sailors, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, dical staff, and security contractors.]

The Builder paused. [Detecting 372 embedded HYDRA sleeper agents across the formation. They occupy critical stations, including the captain, executive officer, weapons officer, and communications chief. They account for nearly thirty percent of the fleet personnel.]

Mira raised an eyebrow. The smile reaching her eyes turned distinctly malicious.

So that was why S.H.I.E.L.D. was being so extravagant.

This wasn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. escort fleet. It was a HYDRA transport convoy. A billion-dollar stealth destroyer entirely crewed by traitors. Fury was sitting on a powder keg alongside a seventy-year-old supersoldier, completely oblivious to the fact that his own n held the detonator.

The old joke was true. It was harder to find a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent inside HYDRA than a HYDRA rat inside S.H.I.E.L.D.

No wonder Project Insight almost succeeded. The rot went all the way to the bedrock.

"I think I found my amusent," Mira declared. A genuinely wicked smile broke across her face. She patted The Builder's shoulder, her tone humming with sudden excitent. "Builder, open the Siren Mass-Produced Pawn database. Pull up the battleship files."

[Acknowledged. Accessing Siren experintal mass-produced pawn repository.]

The virtual screen refreshed. A dense catalog of warships cascaded down the interface. The list spanned from World War I dreadnoughts to World War II destroyers. Every famous vessel in human naval history was present. They were all 1:1 unmanned replicas, remotely piloted by the Siren network. In the world of Azur Lane, they were disposable cannon fodder used to overwhelm enemy lines.

Mira swiped rapidly through the interface until she stopped at the very top.

[KMS Bismarck. Battleship. Commissioned 1940. Standard displacent: 41,700 tons. Full load: 50,900 tons. Main battery: four twin 380mm SK C/34 turrets. Secondary battery: 150mm SK C/28 guns. Anti-aircraft complent active...]

Perfect.

Mira's eyes burned with brilliant intensity. The malicious smirk widened into a grin.

Operation Rheinübung. Exercise Rhine.

It was one of the most legendary naval engagents of World War II. The Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen broke into the Atlantic. During the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the Bismarck sank the pride of the Royal Navy—the battlecruiser HMS Hood—with a single catastrophic magazine detonation, shocking the entire globe.

Right now, an elite U.S. Navy formation was sailing through the North Atlantic, packed with HYDRA moles, Nick Fury, and a freshly thawed Captain Arica.

Wouldn't it be incredibly generous of her to arrange a historical reenactnt of Exercise Rhine just to test their combat readiness?

First, an "accidental" encounter with a ghost ship would throw the HYDRA operatives into absolute chaos, forcing them to abandon whatever plans they had for Captain Arica. Second, it would serve as a brutal wake-up call for Fury, exposing exactly how compromised his invincible fleet truly was. Third, and most importantly, she would get to cure her boredom by blowing things up.

These mass-produced pawns were unmanned husks anyway. If they sank, it cost her nothing. If the U.S. Navy logged the encounter, they would just classify it as an engagent with unidentified rogue vessels. They could never trace the steel back to her apartnt in Queens.

It was flawless.

[Mira, shall I initiate the deploynt of the KMS Bismarck pawn?] The Builder asked. A faint flicker of anticipation sparked in the AI's golden eyes. [Shall I synchronize the activation of the KMS Prinz Eugen heavy cruiser to ensure historical accuracy for the Exercise Rhine formation?]

"Absolutely." Mira snapped her fingers. She tapped the Bismarck icon on the hologram. "Deploy the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen. Set spawn coordinates for the Denmark Strait. Speed: 30 knots. Heading: Southwest. Target lock: the USS Hornet amphibious assault group."

[Command verified. KMS Bismarck and KMS Prinz Eugen have been materialized. Routing to designated coordinates. All weapon systems are preheated. Fire control solutions are locked and active.]

On the North Atlantic holographic map, two new crimson blips flared to life in the Denmark Strait. Like twin blades drawn in the dark, they accelerated silently toward Fury's convoy.

Mira curled deeper into the beanbag chair. She held The Builder close and gripped her ga controller. The lethargic depression was entirely gone. Her eyes danced with the thrill of an impending spectacle.

She could not wait.

How would Nick Fury and his HYDRA traitors react when a World War II battleship—a leviathan that sank seventy years ago—burst from the North Atlantic fog alongside a heavy cruiser, and opened fire on a billion-dollar stealth destroyer?

This modern reboot of Exercise Rhine was going to be an absolute blockbuster.

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