Bird At Sea

Chap 3

"Alright, up and 'attem" Ark Royal commanded. Finally being able to stand up, I felt aching that remained on my back. "Hands behind your head and walks forward, I'll direct you." Still having the weapons pointed at me, I did as told. Walking down the gangway and to the docks, we walked through the hub of the base, there being many ships docked side by side, almost reminding me of Battleship Row. passing through the other... Ships? People? I kept getting some weird glances as if they had rarely seen a male. One thing I have noticed is that upon a closer look, some of personified ships had their riggings attached to them, extending from their back almost as sort of additional extensions of their bodies, but are parts of their ship whom they represent, but correspondent to their size, and then their is the fact that when those riggings are not in use, they simply have those parts seeming disappear through magic, and out of that comes the actual ship itself. There we're a group of girls, young one again, honestly at this point I'm not even going to question it, they all had some characteristics that they shared, clothing, age, etc. in other words they were like sisters, which likely denoted that they were of the same class. Continuing through the hub as I was almost paraded through by Ark, if it weren't for my knowledge that I was clearly in a different world, I would have thought that this was just some coastal city, they all seem to be living normal lives, having some small shops, some playing some games of sports. I then notice that there were three flags with white backgrounds, one was of like of a gold color, it was the head of a lion with a crown top, the style of it convinced my it was the flag of the British faction of this world, another with a dark blue, a shield with the bottom half being stripes, behind an eagle carrying an anchor, I could assume the United States, another was a flag one flag with one third of it being blue to the left of it, the emblem in the middle was similar to the Free French Forces, so it must be that, inferring there's also Vichy France, another was with a yellow Chinese dragon making a sort of circular movement, and the final one was a light blue with a compass with the eight directional points, in front of it was a top half of a woman whose face is turned away from us as her air fluttered, the bottom have being wave of water, this is likely the UN or NATO. The absence of other nations like Japan and Germany, as well as their being the two Frances, meant ww2 was under way, as if it wasn't obtrusive enough.

"Take a right to the building." She said in a slightly more calm manner than before, only slightly though. The building was essentially a medium federal or colonial mansion, entering, it was more of a mansion for offices. Turning to one room, we seem to have entered in the middle of a conversation. Four people were already there, one who was looking out the window, she was around in her late twenties to early thirties who wore a sort of royal dress uniform with short straight blond hair, the other was more of her mid to late thirties, despite that she had long white hair, she wore a white gown and sun hat, beside her was one in about her very late teens, perhaps even eighteen, with long honey colored hair, one thing that caught my eyes was her socks of blue with white stars and was as red and white stripes, they both sat at a couch also turned away from us. Finally, the last one was somewhere in her early thirties, again with the long and white hair, she also wore a maids uniform and stood by the others at the ready. "Hood and the others should be joining us here shortly", said the one in the gown. "Is someone keeping an eye on the Iron Blood, where are they currently?" Began the one looking out the window. "There's a temporary lull for lack of a better description, but the more pressing matter..." "Sakura Empire right?" "Hm." "If the Sakura Empire is making a move this base will become one of the hottest fronts, reinforcing it now would be logical defense." "True, but, why wage such a meaningless conflict." "Warfare stays the same no matter the era, it's the reason why we are here." Finally the maid spoke. "Ahem, I believe someone is here to see you." The one from the window turned around. "Ah, Ark Royal, good to see you have returned. Who do you have with you?" "A potential prisoner." "Potential?" "Well, he supposedly saved one of ours from a Siren ambush." "Hmm... You, sit there, why don't I ask you some questions." With just the poke from Ark's weapon I went and sat, as the one of short blond hair stood in front of me, Ark still had her rifle aimed steady at my head. "Ark, please stand down. Right then, what is your name?" "Aguila." "Aquila?" "No, Ah-gee-lah, with a G." "What are you doing here?" "I... I-I don't even know what 'here' is, I just hope I made the right call helping." "And so you have, so then you do not know who any of us are?." "N-no." "Well, I am Prince of Whales of the Royal Navy camp." "Prince? Not Princess?" "Please refrain from ever calling me that." Of course, despite the name given, ships are traditionally referred to as female... wait so that's why these people are all female, geez I'm an idiot! "He pilots an aircraft that has... particular abilities." Ark Royal added. "So he does... Mr. Aguila, I suppose you at least know the situation here?" questioned Prince of Wales. "I'm afraid not." "Hmm strange... Well, in the Age of Discovery, Humanity sailed to oceans unknown, their hearts hungry for adventure, but soon those hearts were filled with the desire to conquer the seas. Unfortunately a new enemy appeared, one that hailed from another world; the Sirens. With their vastly superior technologies, the Sirens effortlessly pushed Humanity out of the oceans. There was no longer any place in the seas for Mankind. To counter this extraordinary threat, Humanity, a global alliance, was called; Azur Lane, their mission was fighting valiantly against the Sirens. This grand alliance consisted of four major camps; Royal Navy, Eagle Union, Sakura Empire, and Iron Blood. After prolonged and desperate struggle, Azur Lane was finally successful in repelling the Siren onslaught, which brings us to the present day, the Sirens are still at large but despite that, there are growing tensions between the camps in Azur Lane." "I suppose 'war never changes' for you guys as well." "No, I suppose it does not. So will you be willing to aid us?" "Taking your word for it, yes, I would very much." "Great, so why don't we see this aircraft of yours." "Actually before that, I need to go to get some supplies for my aircraft, one of them being fuel." "Of course, Belfast, please direct him to Amazon's naval workshop." "Yes ma'am, Mr. Aguila, please follow me." Said the maid.

After having received help in getting my jet towed and being brought to a hangar, it was there that I met the British destroyer A class prototype, Amazon. She appeared to be in her teens, it is then that I was making the connections that the destroyers were usually younger than the other types of ships. "Sigh, can't believe I now have to babysit with someone like you," Amazon said. "Babysit? Excuse me?" "I just so happen to have the time as I don't do much, so I guess I really don't have much of a choice but look after you, don't get it wrong!" "I-I'm sorry where is this all coming from? A-anyway, I don't suppose you guys have AGMs, guided bombs, and sidewinders do you?" "What in the world is that? And guided bombs, what are you from, the future?" "Ha... well, why don't you take a look at my load out and see what I mean." After going through and explaining, it was clear this world didn't have the technology, yet. "H-How, no, where did you get all of this!?" said the destroyer, almost screaming. "Uhh... c-classified, uh yeah, but do you think you can start reverse engineering on them to make more, these are the only ones I have left." "Uh, y-yeah, what do you want me to start on first?" "How about the sidewinders and the SPEARs for a start." "O-okay... I-I'm only doing this because I'm ordered to help you..." "Aight then? Que la pasa?" "What fuel does this thing use?" "Liquid Hydrogen." "L-Liquid hydrogen!?" "Ow my ears, you do have that right?" "Yeah we do, but it doesn't use anything of octane gasoline?" "Nope." "A-alright then, anything else?" "I believe the only things I can use here would be unguided bombs, unguided rocket pods as well as fuel pods, so load those up please." "S-sure thing..." "Are you alright there?" "Yes I am, now let me do my work!"