Azur Lane The Siren War

Let's get started shall we?

The trip to Oahu hadn't been a nice one, the B-747 carrying Lieutenant Tanner hit multiple waves of turbulence tossing the poor officer all over the tiny little toilet when he urgently needed to take a leak. Before he left, his father passed him a tiny watch, it wasn't for checking the time as it had already stopped working long ago, instead it acted more of a lucky charm as this watch was used by his great grandfather who had served aboard the USS Enterprise CV-6 back in 1942 until the end of the war. Clearly the lucky charm wasn't working as Lieutenant Tanner landed in his own piss. "Never again," he cursed under his breath when he returned to his seat. A man wearing a striped t-shirt and of similar age beside him chuckled when he glanced over to see a yellow stain on Lieutenant Tanner's lap, to which the lieutenant's face reddened from shame. 

Lieutenant Tanner's flight finally touched the tarmac of Hawaii International Airport, the landing wasn't so smooth either, causing him to spill a bit of water onto his baggage from an open water bottle. Oahu was completely different in temperature than New York hitting temperatures of 40 Celsius compared to the low 5 Celsius during winter and low 20 Celsius during summer he was used to. Lieutenant Tanner was slightly anxious, he had a bad feeling that his first impression wouldn't be to his liking, he needed to change his uniform and fast otherwise everyone would spot him with a few yellow stains from his ordeal in the aircraft toilet. After changing in the one of the toilets, he jogged out to hail a taxi to bring him to Pearl Harbor, the main naval base of the Eagle Union in the Pacific. "Going to Pearl?" Someone behind him asked politely. Lieutenant Tanner spun around to see the same man who sat beside him during his flight carrying a standard issue naval suitcase, he had a bulkier build than Lieutenant Tanner and was decently handsome with his shining blond hair. "Yes I am, I take it you work at that harbor. I'm Nolan Tanner, pleased to meet you," Lieutenant Tanner answered and held out his hand for the other man to shake. "Wilson Butcher, Captain Butcher if you will," the man greeted and shook his hand. Lieutenant Tanner suddenly raised his right hand above his right brow and saluted the captain. "My apologies sir, I forgot to salute!" He roared aloud in front of everyone. "Calm down my man, we're off duty," Captain Butcher laughed and pushed him into a taxi and got in after. 

The naval base was a busy one, officers and ship girls moving about, even more ship girls out at sea sharpening their combat skills. Captain Butcher was a kind person, paying for the taxi ride and declined to take any money from Lieutenant Tanner. "I forgot to ask what you do at the base, are you an advisor?" Lieutenant Tanner questioned. "Nope, I command a ship girl, an aircraft carrier to be exact," Captain Butcher replied and held out Lieutenant Tanner's suitcase for him after they'd both gotten out of the taxi. "That's awesome, may I know who that carrier is? it's not often a person meets an Eagle Union aircraft carrier commander," Lieutenant Tanner said inquisitively. "Her name is Yorktown, don't go getting any ideas, she's taken by me," Captain Butcher chuckled. Lieutenant Tanner remembered that Yorktown CV-5 was one of the two sisters of the famous Enterprise CV-6, the aircraft carrier ship girl he'd saw two weeks ago when she was undergoing trials there after her repairs. "I saw her sister back in New York, she was undergoing trials if I am not mistaken," Lieutenant Tanner told the captain. "She's here now in Pearl, she and her fleet were flown here as well a few days ago. You're going to be one of the lucky officers commanding one of those 12 ships, that's why we required a few officers from the US Navy to command them," Captain Butcher said.

There was a spacious room in the right wing of the massive building inside the Eagle Union base, this building housed the sleeping, eating and multiple other facilities. Captain Butcher led him to that room and wished him the best before leaving to the other wing to begin working. Lieutenant Tanner paced into the room slowly hoping he wouldn't gain much attention as he wasn't late, but he was the last one into the room. Multiple officers wearing the exact same white naval uniforms lined up shoulder to shoulder and stared right ahead, the ship girls were standing shoulder to shoulder as well, but they were on the right hand side and wore all sorts of clothing, some were quite exposing as well to Lieutenant Tanner's surprise. He gazed around the room until his eyes fell upon an unmistakable platinum blond haired ship girl he had spotted 2 weeks ago when he was serving aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. "Finally here are you?" Someone coughed under a shadow on the stage. Lieutenant Tanner's body froze with cold fear as everyone turned around to stare at him. "We give a time for you to arrive here, which was exactly 9:00 am, officers are expected to arrive here at least 30 minutes before the meeting begins, you are only 7 minutes early," the person said and finally exposed himself to the light. He was a vice admiral who looked like he was in his late 50s, he had a brown beard that was neat and short and dwarfed Lieutenant Tanner with his height and brawny structure. Lieutenant Tanner gulped and shuffled over to the line of officers and stood beside a taller man with the rank of commander. "Well then, let's get started shall we?" The vice admiral announced and clapped his hands together.

"I am Vice Admiral Percival, I am the commander of this sub branch of the US Navy, the Eagle Union," the vice admiral said in a gruff voice. "These ship girls on your right hand side have seen combat years ago when they were younglings, I expect you officers to live up to their standards. If these girls ever request to get their officers changed, I'll personally send your previous commanders a letter specifying you are utter crap, there is room for mistakes, but let's see if these girls will accept your mistakes before they request for your removal," he chuckled as he looked at every officer in the eye. A lieutenant commander raised his arm to ask a question to which Vice Admiral Percival looked at and nodded his head. "Sir, will we get to choose which ship girl to command," the officer asked. "Nonsense, you all were picked because there are a total of 2 fleet carriers, 2 light carriers, 1 battleship, 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 3 destroyers. What would you expect? There are 4 officers who served aboard our Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers, 6 officers who served aboard our Ticonderoga Class Guided Missile Cruisers and 3 officers who served aboard our Arleigh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyers. These girls get to pick their officers, but depending on what ship they previously served aboard," Vice Admiral Percival said. The ship girls went forward and picked up a few files to check out their officers and what ship they previously served aboard. "Where'd they find you crawling about?" The commander asked with a smug grin to the shorter Lieutenant Tanner. "Doing a cushy job aboard the Roosevelt, managed the launching and landings of our super hornets. What about you? I bet you were running all over the deck of a coast guard patrol boat looking at women in bikinis along the coast cause you had nothing else to do," Lieutenant Tanner retorted and smiled slightly. The lieutenant commander didn't say a word, instead his ears began turn red in anger, Lieutenant Tanner knew he'd hit a soft spot.

In this fleet of ship girls, were the aircraft carriers Enterprise CV-6 and Essex CV-9, light carriers Independence CVL-22 and Princeton CVL-23, battleship Massachusetts BB-59, heavy cruisers Baltimore CA-68 and Wichita CA-45, light cruisers San Diego CL-53 and Cleveland CL-55 and finally destroyers Laffey DD-459, Allen M. Sumner DD-692 and Aylwin DD-335. Essex walked over to the commander who stood beside Lieutenant Tanner, and held out a hand. "Care to complete some sea trials with me? I read that you are one hell of an officer who served aboard USS Nimitz, Commander Ollie Marks" she asked the lieutenant commander. "It would be my honor," the lieutenant commander answered and smirked at Lieutenant Tanner who has not been approached by a single ship girl. His luck was rotten, he knew he would command a ship girl sooner or later, but was he that bad or horrendously looking? He glanced over at Enterprise who appeared to be reading through the last aircraft carrier officer file. She sighed and ambled to one of the corners of the room, she looked disappointed in the officers. Lieutenant Tanner thought he should go over and greet her, perhaps that would make a better impression of himself, I mean the worst she can say is no, right?

Lieutenant Tanner straightened his shoulders and strode over to Enterprise, he stopped abruptly in front of her and immediately regretted his decision to do this as she was now staring directly at him and he didn't know exactly what to say. "H-hi I'm Nola-," Lieutenant Tanner said before being cut off by her. "Lieutenant Tanner, yes I know I've read your file," Enterprise said and looked away. Lieutenant Tanner swallowed his tongue, he really hadn't the idea of what to say next now that Enterprise stole his words. "You were there weren't you? Peeking at me along with your fellow officers back in New York aboard your carrier," she said suddenly. Lieutenant Tanner gulped and looked at his feet, he had many questions to ask such as how she knew where he was and how she knew he was peeking at her from the bridge of the Theodore Roosevelt even though her eyes were not even looking at the bridge directly. "I have my ways," Enterprise said. "Excuse me?" Lieutenant Tanner asked and squinted his eyes. "You just asked a question, you wondered how I knew about when you were staring at me on your carrier," she answered and crossed her arms. Lieutenant Tanner remained silent, not only was his first impression absolutely horrendous, but the ship girl he imagined to command probably thought of him as a creep. "Be honest with me, do you think you are capable of commanding me? Not a narcissistic question, if you think you're capable then you're ready to put up with a stressful job," Enterprise asked. "I hope I am capable, this is why I joined too, I'm ready to take on the challenge," Lieutenant Tanner responded. "There is a reason I always return to New York to repair from time to time, when I used to battle the Sirens, I would cripple their fleet in most engagements, but they too would leave me crippled due to my own faults. My faults live on, during my training I also tend to get myself heavily damaged because I take it too seriously, hence I always return to New York to repair my ship gear," Enterprise said softly with a neutral face. Lieutenant Tanner thought hard for a while, before opening his mouth. "Will you allow me to be your commander?" Lieutenant Tanner asked before raising his hand for Enterprise to shake. "It will be my pleasure, you will be my first commander," Enterprise replied and raised hers to shake his hand.