After Empress's reminder, Gwen wasn't surprised that he had built Binhai, a ship from the fifth research series, too.
"I am the Commander here, but I'm afraid teaming up with you like that won't work."
Gwen had also jokingly called her a "Northeastern battle-axe" in the group chat, so he took no offense and answered with a smile.
Seeing that Gwen wasn't upset, Binhai twirled the Thousand Machine Umbrella in her hand. The gun barrels on her rigging shifted with a series of metallic clanks as she continued teasing him:
"If you had gear like mine, I'd be glad to fight alongside you.
But right now, you're unarmed, so you'd better let me protect you. Haha!"
She wanted to fight shoulder to shoulder with the Commander, but as far as she knew, he was an ordinary human with a few special abilities. Protecting him had to come first.
"You'll understand that later."
Gwen was a little troubled by how to explain, simply and clearly, that he wasn't the traditional sort of Commander. After all, these shipgirls were born knowing that Commanders were fragile humans who needed protection.
"Ha... Then let's have a few drinks sometime, and you can tell me all about it."
Binhai had noticed that Gwen was in the middle of a major build. She patted his shoulder again and strolled over to Yixian.
There would be no faction divisions under the Commander, but with only a few people around, a newly born shipgirl still instinctively gravitated toward someone from her own faction.
Yixian greeted Binhai with a smile, then quietly began explaining how Gwen differed from the Commander described in their innate knowledge.
Gwen, meanwhile, continued his major build—
"I'm Chkalov, the Project 71B aircraft carrier.
Pay me, and I'll do my job well. If I ask