Azur Lane The Siren War

A helping hand

It was evening, Captain Tanner was as usual the only one left inside the aircraft carrier commanding officer's office, typing his report on Enterprise who hasn't damaged her ship gear for a while already. The door flew open and in strode Captain Marks, he surveyed the room and spotted Captain Tanner writing his report without even looking at who just came in. "Oi Nolan, I've got something for you, you might like it," Captain Marks said and walked over to him. Captain Tanner didn't even look at him until he stabbed the full stop key to end his report. "Yes Ollie? What'ya need?" He asked his fellow captain. "Take this," Captain Marks uttered and passed him an leather apron. "What's this for?" Captain Tanner asked raising his eye brow. "My brother is ill and can't come in for the night, come serve my pub for a moment tonight, it'll be good working experience for you, I'll pay you by the hour," Captain Marks answered with a grin. "I don't know man, I don't know how to serve people," Captain Tanner said with an uneasy thought. "How about this, I give you a badge which says you're a trainee, I'll pay you by the hour and by the end of the day you can drink all the beer you want," Captain Marks persuaded. Captain Tanner did not need anymore persuasion, he'd made up his mind already. "Count me in," he replied with a confident voice.

Enterprise met up with her commanding officer, she talked to him about how her latest exercise went and he told her about how he thought of her performance. "Would you like to eat dinner with me?" Enterprise asked with a smile. Captain Tanner wanted to say yes, but he promised Captain Marks that he would work at his pub for just tonight. "Sorry Enterprise, I can't as I've made a promise to Ollie that I would work at his pub from 6 pm to 10 pm," Captain Tanner said sadly. "Oh well then you go ahead. You know what, if you're willing to stay for an extra hour after you finish working, I'll come by for supper," Enterprise told him. "Sure thing, I'll catch up with you soon," Captain Tanner said and proceeded to his room to change out of his uniform and into normal clothing.

Captain Tanner arrived in front of the pub, Captain Tanner was already waiting inside for him to show him how to serve the customers. "It's all simple, you hear a ring from the call bell, you head over to the kitchen and take the food and drinks to the right table and you'll be as fine as wine. Try not to drop anything," Captain Marks said and showed Captain Tanner his station. "I'll try my best," Captain Tanner answered and placed the apron over his head. The customers would soon be pouring into the pub in 30 minutes. 

About 2 hours into the job, Captain Tanner seemed to be doing fine, even some of his fellow officers recognized him from the office earlier. There was Captain Butcher who was drinking wine with Yorktown, they both greeted him and left half an hour later. Captain Tanner took a 10 minute break and crammed a burrito down his throat for dinner, he would continue working until it was only a quarter of an hour to 10 pm. "Hey Nolan, get inside here, I wanna ask you something," Captain Marks called him over to the kitchen. Captain Tanner entered the kitchen to see two chefs and Captain Marks cooking the food. "You'd make a great house wife," Captain Tanner said jokingly. "Very funny, how are the customers doing?" Captain Marks asked. "They're doing fine, I think my service is going to be up soon, I'll handle a few more orders," Captain Tanner said. Somebody shouted inside the pub, he didn't sound exactly happy. "Ollie, get out here and face me if you're a man!"

Captain Tanner exited the kitchen to see which customer was making a fuss, his blood froze only it wasn't a customer, it was Tench and this time he'd brought four more men. "Oh it's you kid, nice of you to leave me hanging around upside down in a trash can eh?" Tench growled, he pulled out a weapon more potent than last time, a Beretta M9. His lackeys pulled out their own handguns, all aiming at Captain Tanner's chest. By this time all the customers had fled the pub, Captain Tanner stood alone at gunpoint, his heart thumping rapidly. "Not so brave are you now?" Tench asked with a sneer and cocked his pistol. Captain Tanner evaluated his choices, surrender and hopefully they would beat him instead of putting a clean hole in his chest or he could make a dash into the kitchen, warn Captain Marks and the other two chefs and escape with them into the alleyway using the back door. Suddenly the kitchen doors flew open and out came Captain Marks in a trench coat wielding a Winchester 1897 shotgun, instantly firing a 00 Buckshot at a one of the crooks beside Tench, forming a massive hole in his chest with blood spraying onto the walls behind the crook. "Take cover!" Captain Marks roared and crouched behind the pub's counter.

Tench and his men spread out, raced to different cover spots and opened fire at the counter which Captain Tanner and Marks were taking cover behind. "This counter is made out of wood, they'll tear through it soon enough!" Captain Tanner yelled over the gun fire. "An inch of steel plating, they'll never get through this, I always plan ahead!" Captain Marks laughed and tapped the steel plate that was apparently screwed to the wooder counter which was only visible to the cashier and anyone behind it. "Take this!" Captain Marks shouted and handed a Captain Tanner a massive revolver. "This is a Smith and Wesson 500, I know it won't be much but it'll scare those bastards hopefully!" He told Captain Tanner loud enough for him to hear. The revolver was heavy in Captain Tanner's hands, of the 5 chambers in the cylinder, there were only 4 rounds loaded. Captain Tanner had only fired an M1911 in his life, nothing else that had much recoil. Captain Tanner was afraid of being hit by a bullet, but he saw the courage of Captain Marks who was exposing his body to fire back at the crooks and made up his mind to follow his bravery. He raised his body high enough above the counter to aim the hand cannon at a crook who was taking cover behind a big and thick tin plant pot and pulled the trigger. The revolver released a thunderous clap and belched out a .50 bullet with smoke following after it. The bullet cut straight through the tin plant pot and to Captain Tanner's horror, it blew a massive hole in the crook's head to which he collapsed immediately. He just realized he killed another man and began to hyperventilate, he was then shouted at by Captain Marks. "Keep firing back Nolan! It was either your life or his life!" Captain Marks barked. 

The duo exchanged fire with Tench and his men for another few minutes until they both ran out of ammunition, Tench and his remaining two lackeys still hand plenty of magazines left. "Get ready to make a break for the kitchen, we'll get the hell out of here using the back door," Captain Marks told Captain Tanner. "Out of ammo? You haven't fired back at us for a minute already!" Tench roared happily and got out of his hiding spot along with his men. Captain Tanner was ready to dash towards the kitchen door along with Captain Marks, it was now or never. Suddenly a body was sent flying towards the wall beside the kitchen doors, it was Mitch and his body was twitching. "Fucking shoot her!" Tench yelled at his lackey. The crooks were now facing a furious Enteprise who was supposed to be enjoying supper with her commanding officer. Tench's lackey emptied his revolver into Enterprise, instead the bullets ricocheted off her body and into the walls behind Enterprise. She grabbed the crook by the throat and lifted him above the ground and tossed him aside where he smacked his head against a metal bar, knocking him out cold. "You monster!" Tench yelled and took aim at her. Instead Enterprise snatched his pistol out of his hand and crushed it as if it were made out of foam. "You've ruined my supper with my commanding officer," Enterprise said dangerously before punting Tench with her leg which sent him flying out of the pub and onto the road, unconscious. 

Captain Tanner sat down on a stool relieved, at the same time he placed his hands over his face thinking about the man he'd just shot and killed. The police arrived and saluted the two captains and Enterprise before questioning them about what happened. Captain Marks luckily had a few cameras installed inside his pub which was now riddled with bullets and showed the evidence to the police while Captain Tanner sat down with Enterprise eating warm creamy pasta. "Sorry about supper," Captain Tanner shaking his head sadly and slurping up the pasta. "It couldn't be avoided, what happened has happened, it was self defense Nolan," Enterprise said trying to cheer him up. Captain Tanner just wasn't feeling any better, Captain Marks had also taken one of the Crook's life and yet he was carrying on with life as if nothing happened. "I'm glad you care about your actions, but don't dwell on the fact that you've taken his life, things happen along the way, I know that truthfully," Enterprise said cheerfully and placed a hand on his shoulder.