Bab 2

The thundering sound of a nuclear explosion is the last thing I remember hearing before there's complete darkness. I feel a sense of weightlessness and then...nothing. I am all alone.

BOOM

A thunderous sound awakens me sometime later. The sound of water rushing by brings me to my senses mere moments before I emerge from the depths displacing tons upon tons of water in the process. For a brief moment, I'm weightless once more before falling back into the surrounding ocean.

BAM

My head slams against the flight deck. Pain ripples through my body, a feeling I've never experienced before but quickly grow to hate. Still, it takes a moment to realize that I am no longer merely a ship, but a human as well, or at least I think I am human. As I slowly get to my feet, I take in every visible inch of my body in utter amazement. What twist of fate is this?

Looking around, I half expect to see the admiral or any of the other crew but I'm all alone. Right...they abandoned ship. I sunk. Now slightly dejected, I walk up to the bridge and collapse in the captain's chair. Leaning forward I rest my head on the monitors in front of me but quickly straighten as one, in particular, catches my eye. For a split second, an unregistered flying object is detected entering range but it quickly leaves. Still, this minor incident alerts me to the fact that I'm aware of everything occurring with the ship as though we are connected.

Now curious, I stand and head out to the balcony. From there, I have a clear view of the entire flight deck. To test my theory, I order 2 Shenyang J-16e's to take off through my thoughts. To my delight, the jets are soon on my deck. I watch in utter amazement as they align themselves as though my old crew were here moving them into position. As the blast fence rises, a feeling of glee rushes through me.

As both jets are launched, I lean onto the railing taking in the experience. All at once, I'm aware of what each jet can see along with all the carrier' current defence systems, radars, etc. It's as though I am the aircraft and the carrier all at once and everything runs off my thoughts. It's admittedly too much to handle and I collapse to the ground as my mind overflows with information.

It takes a moment to recompose myself but once I do I decide that I need to practice before doing anything else. Still stationery miles from where I sunk, I start by doing practice runs with the various aircraft on board. There are a few mishaps here and there but ultimately, it proves successful with no damages sustained. Next, I begin manoeuvring the ship. It takes a while to figure out how to get it doing exactly what I want but once I figured it out, nothing could stop me.

I begin making my way towards China all the while continuing tests including Takeoff and Landing operations, AA defence, Aircraft Rearming and slight antisub/antiship tests. At the halfway point of my journey, however, something miraculous happens. While dozing off, my ship breaks into thousands of blue cubes and form a much smaller rig which attaches itself to my body. At first, I burst out laughing but quickly realize it's not a dream. When I do, I come to a complete halt and begin reevaluating.

As it turns out, in this form, I am much more manoeuvrable and can travel much faster. I'm also hard to hit and can launch planes at a much faster rate. What's more, I maintain all the functionality that comes with my ship whilst maintaining a much smaller footprint, i.e. that of a human female. That being said, I have no idea how I changed to this form or how to change back and am forced to spend another hour stationery as I try to figure it out. Eventually, I do and after much more practice, I manage to reliably swap forms efficiently. With that out of the way, I resume my course.

Travelling in this newly discovered form, I soon arrive within familiar waters and before long, I'm being hailed.

????: Uhm. Hello. You're entering Dragon Empery's waters. Please identify yourself, please.

Dragon Empery? I've never heard of that nation before. Just how long was I sunken for? Completely unaware of what's going on I decided to launch a few planes to do some reconnaissance. I didn't want to because last time it was my aircraft launching that alerted the enemy to my presence and resulted in my current predicament. Shortly after launching 2 Su-57s, I respond to this female's call.

Me: What's the Dragon Empery?

There's a pause before anyone responds during which my planes locate what is possibly the ship that contacted me. Only it's not just one ship and my planes have to climb above the clouds to avoid detection. They continue flying towards the mainland and before long my home port is within view. What I see shakes me to my core. It looks nothing like the glorious city I'm used to. Instead, before me lies an ancient-looking city that doesn't even remotely look like Dalian. I check then recheck but everything checks out. This is Dalian or at the very least, this is where Dalian should be.

????: I am Chang Chun. Miss Yat-Sen would like to speak with you, stranger.

Chang Chun huh? Still, I can't help but notice she hasn't answered my question as yet. By now, my planes are heading back and I get another view of the ships I suspect to be those contacting me. They are nothing like the modern ships that escorted me or those that visited Dalian while I was being built. They look much older. I briefly wonder whether I've actually gone back into the past but quickly dismiss the thought as even then no Dragon Empery existed.

Me: So, I assume Dragon Empery is your nation or something, correct?

Chang: It is. It's the name of our glorious-

????: Chao Ho here. I must ask before we continue conversing as though we know each other. Are you here to attack us?

Me: No. I'm just trying to find my way home.

Chao: Home?

Me: Yes, home.

My planes finally return and I continue heading towards their fleet. I need answers and at the very least, these girls seem like they won't attack me on sight. As I approach, I notice that they are exactly like me, girls and ships. There are no men, no crew, no nothing. Just a single girl per ship. They eye me warily as I come to a halt someways from their ships. My rig is still armed so their ships tower over me and they're forced to come to the edge to properly address me. Still, when they speak, I recognize their voices and quickly match them to the face of who spoke.

Chao: So what's your name?

Me: Zhejiang.

????: What a lovely name. I am Yat-Sen and I can't help but notice that your name is the same as one of our nation's provinces.

Me: Really?

????: Truly.

I join her on her ship (still in my rigging) and we all gather around where we share information about each of our worlds. I learn that we girls/ships are called Kansens and that we are apparently at war with a foreign invader called Sirens. From their description, it sounds like they are an extraterrestrial life form and are similar but more advanced Kansen. I also learn that in this world, my nation isn't split into two separate nations and instead both are combined to form the Dragon Empery. A quick scan of my records shows that these girls are in fact ships ranging from world war 2 in my world to more modern times but even that can't explain how I got here.

Yat-Sen: We are a part of an alliance called Azur Lane and our allies are Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Iris Libre and Northern Parliament.

She then proceeds to give me a more detailed description of each and from my understanding, they represent various nations from indeed, ww2 which confirms my suspicions. I also learn that there's a breakaway faction (alliance) which calls themselves Crimson/Red Axis and that Azur Lane is currently at war with that alliance as well. It's a lot to take in but I eventually get the full gist of the situation. Wherever I am, I am no longer in my own world, that's for sure.

Me: So, who's in charge here?

The girls look around at each other and after a few moments, I realize what's going on.

Me: You're telling me you haven't made anyone-

Chao: We've never really needed to.

Yat-Sen: We also don't really have any capital ships in our nation at the moment so...

Looking at the girls in front of me, I realize that she has a point. There are only light cruisers and destroyers here. How have they managed to survive this long? Sighing, I finalize my decision to join them. After all, I'm now a ship with no nation.

Me: What if I joined you?

Yat-Sen: Why'd you do so though?

Me: Well, you're this world's version of my home country so it makes sense. Plus, you could really use a capital ship.

Chao: And what makes you think we'd take orders from you?

Me: Well, that wasn't what I meant but I wouldn't say no to the position. After all, I was the flagship of my nation's navy. Still, I only meant that you could use a carrier in your fleet.

Chang: See! I told you she was a carrier.

Chao: I'll have to see it to believe it.

I had totally forgotten that I was still wearing my rig. They haven't yet seen my ship, have they. It's a good thing I practised arming and disarming it earlier. Now, it comes naturally and I flawlessly return my ship to its original state. However, I did not account for the size of my ship or how close it'd reform.

SPLASH!

A huge wave washes over the fleet as my carrier returns to its original form, displacing tons of water once more. I really need to work on that part. We're all drenched but that's the last thing on everyone's mind as they stare open-mouthed at the behemoth of a ship now towering over them. From where I stand, I too am taken aback by just how much larger my ship is. I've never seen it from this point of view before given my first experience in this world was on its flight deck and I've only ever been there, on the bridge, and in my Kansen form since then.

Chang: Wow.

Ying: Wow is correct. That's quite the ship. What type of aircraft do you carry?

Me: Well, given I am technically from the future in your time, I doubt you'd recognize them by name but I carry various multi-role fighters amongst others.

Yat Sen: Well, Chao Ho, what do you think now?

Chao folds her arms but can't deny it. Still, she maintains that despite her change in heart, she's still unconvinced they should allow a stranger to take over, especially since I could very well be sent by the Sirens.

Ping!

As if on cue, I'm alerted by my ship that unidentified vessels are detected on a direct path for us. Without informing the girls, I order a few of the planes to take off and investigate. The thundering sounds of their jet engines scare the girls at first but after seeing that the sounds are merely coming from my planes, curiosity takes over. They watch eagerly as 3 of Su-57s begin their vertical climb. Within seconds, they are out of view and heading to the designated location.

When they arrive on location, what they report back has me heading in that direction myself to confirm it with my own eyes. The other girls follow me somewhat reluctantly as I still haven't informed them of what has suddenly grabbed my interest but they're not letting me out of their sight so decide to tag along.

We arrive and are met by the sight of my planes circling a lone destroyer, much larger than those "escorting" me currently but one I instantly recognize.

Me: Dalian!

A red-haired girl's head pops up on deck and when she sees me she all but flies off her deck and onto mine barreling straight towards me. The minute she hits me she wraps me in a tight hug and starts crying.

Dalian: I thought...I thought...I-

Me: Shh Shh, it's ok.

When she finally calms down, she realizes that we're not alone.

Dalian: Who are they?

Turning around, I notice that the other girls have now joined us on my deck, having previously preferred to stay on their own ships. I introduce everyone and bring Dalian up to speed who then, in return, tells the tale of what happened after I sunk. Apparently, Enterprise was the ship that sunk me and she later pursued my retreating Strike Group and managed to also sink Dalian before the East Sea Fleet successfully intervened and forced her to retreat. At the mention of Enterprise, the girls around us begin looking at each other nervously.

Me: What is it?

Yat Sen: Well...it's just that...there's an Enterprise here too.

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