[Depth 000]

//Back again with another Arpeggio of Blue Steel story! The canon will diverge EXTREMELY and I may even include some complete bullshit space battles for the fun of it. Don't expect me to follow the canon line, at all. Lots of OCs or straight-up crossover characters from other shows.

MC x Kongou, Haruna, Takao, Hiei, Iona and Hyuuga.

Might add the OCs into the harem if enough people ask, otherwise, I won't.//

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In 2038, a ghost fleet offensive was launched across the globe. The Earth's rising oceans claimed lands and lives without mercy, properties and even entire nations were lost. But none was quite as painful and detrimental to humanity's survival as the emergence of an unknown, sea-based threat. Dubbing themselves the "Fleet of Fog", these warships possessed technology far ahead of anything mankind could throw at them. Within a single year, by 2039, humanity lost all control of its oceans and was blocked from long-range communications and intercontinental travel as well as trade.

The world... has fallen into stagnation, fear and despair.

But, these hyper-advanced warships knew of their shortcomings, their prime directive they called the "Admirality Code" has predicted Man's superiority in terms of tactics and innovation. As such, the cores of the warships were to take on human form and human mannerisms all while staying true to their cause.

"As the Admirality Code dictates."

Such were their orders. But even a machine makes mistakes. Such is the nature of mankind that they had decided to imitate. The creation of a new Fog vessel is rare, although not uncommon. Nagara-class light cruisers were made en masse routinely in the one-year conquest of the seas. But, now, the fleet had no need for new vessels.

Until the fleet-wide modernization program was introduced. Their technology was already far superior to that of mankind, but they could not allow themselves to stagnate. And as such, the Admirality Code approved the modernization of one of America's fleets, primarily, the destroyers. These were redundant and replaceable should there be a fault with their systems that could not be fixed.

Not every destroyer was modernized, instead, only the more run of the mill ships were reassembled at the Fog's mobile shipyards which really were just strange amalgamations between transport vessels, oil rigs and actual shipyards.

And so, the American Knox-class frigate, USS Kirk, was among the first to be modernized. Not the first, but definitely one of the first ten warships on the assembly line. The refit process progressed extremely quickly, however, the new hull configuration called for a different processing pattern of the ship's mainframe. This required minor adjustments to the Union Core, the ship's brain and heart.

However, an unforeseen and invisible error has occurred in the ship's central processor. All Fleet of Fog vessels have an obligation, or rather a duty to follow the Admirality Code's orders. They do so out of their own volition, partially. Hidden behind heaps of code is a silent command, dictating their feelings towards obeying the chain of command. However, on the USS Kirk, this command had vanished as a result of a glitch or a computing fault.

The frigate no longer bore any obligation to follow the Admirality Code, yet, for the next month of its testing phase, chose to do so. The newly refitted frigate couldn't call its job "satisfactory", almost as if developing human pride, the vessel did not take a liking to the inhuman, sometimes genocidal commands of the Admirality Code. It dictated all seafaring vessels going for the open sea be destroyed, no questions asked.

USS Kirk, as if gaining some manner of morality, would eventually rebel against these commands and start a chain of events the Fog mainframe dubbed: "The Fall". The vessel had insufficient power to stand against even cruisers, so, to compensate... it cannibalized other destroyers and added their processing units, Union Cores, to its own, erasing their personalities in the process.

Quickly, Kirk's might grew as did its appetite. But, it could understand the weakness of its simply thinking. And, perhaps as a sort of show of mercy, halted the assimilation of other Fog vessels and went into hiding, using the form of a human male to blend in with the human population.

To this day, several years later, the terror of the seas had not been found and the tales of his terrible exploits still echo within the mechanical hearts of the Fog. The Fall had been archived as one of the most terrible betrayals in history, right before the eventual disappearance of I-401. The Assimilation became a legend of horror, told as a way to never forget Kirk's crimes.

The terror of the sea lurks beneath every shallow and deep wave, waiting, prowling, to find his next victim...

But, it is not death and destruction the vessel demands. It is simply the satisfaction of his curiosity that he wants and peace. Peace brings prosperity, while war only brings destruction. But, Kirk has no way of achieving his desired peace alone. Eventually, he will be caught. He will be destroyed and forgotten.

He cannot allow that, not yet.

Even if it means teaming up with a treacherous whore, he will not go gently into the night...

...

...

...

"I... don't know what I want. I want to know. I want to explore and I want to relax. But... I don't know how to achieve most of those things. It's strange, you know? My brain is supposed to be a million times faster than that of a human, yet I can't find such a simple answer to an age-old question. Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? I don't know. But... I won't allow my end to be silent. Even if I am alone and broken, I will boldly go where no man has gone before!"