The Oil Rig of Azur Lane

New oceans

Searcher slowly opens his eyes and stretches his body. He can't exactly remember what happened just now. All he remebered is encountering heavy waves, but that's just it. He doesn't remember a single thing after that. The storm must have been so heavy that he probably hit his head. If that's the case, the impact must have been very light, because from what he can see, he is sitting at the bridge. If he didn't hit his head, he must have slept throughout the entire storm, cause it appears that the sea is incredibly calm. Normally he never sleeps during a storm, because he is responsible for his own safety and keeps an eye on his systems. If a safety system fails to go off, he has to activate it manually, which is why he usually does not sleep during such hours.

-'How am I still alive?', asks Searcher to himself as he gets up from the chair, knowing there's nobody else here to answer him. Judging by how confused he is, he wasn't expecting to survive the storm at all. He knew that his time had come, and he had already accepted that fate. He was ready to sink at the bottom of the sea to become the artifficial reef he planned to become. Yet here is, still floating. And judging by the condition of his bridge and his crane, he seems to be unscathed. If that's the case, then that means the rest of his components might be in the same condition.

He stretches his cap and runs towards the upper deck where the anti-air missile batteries are stored. As soon as he gets there, he inspects them. They are all in perfect condition. Not only that, they are also fully armed with the Sea Sparrow and the Aster 30 missiles. That's impossible. He clearly remembers the missile batteries being empty, so how did those missiles end up here? 

-'Creepy', he says to himself, and he is right. Missile batteries can't re-arm themselves unless he programs them to do so, and judging by the settings on his tablet, the defence system was shut down completely. Not only that, he wasn't carrying any missiles to begin with. They were all removed prior to him being towed outside of Souda Bay. In fact, even his crane was disassembled prior to him being towed away. So how can it still be intact? Unfortunately, that is something even he cannot answer.

After inspecting every single deck, component, and piece of equipment, he checks his helipad. His Super Puma helicopter is still there, armed to the teeth. This surprises him completely as he clearly remembers that his helicopter was sold to a private airline and was removed from the helipad. So how did it get back here? It's not like it flew all by itself and found its way here. That's just not possible. Yet here it is, painted in the old livery of the Mediterranean Satellite Communication Service. That's odd. He remembers the helicopter being painted in the livery of the airline it was sold to. There's no way it could have been repainted that fast.

Searcher is confused. From his structure being intact to his missile batteries being fully armed and functional, to his helicopter being back and painted in the old livery, it starts to worry him if not scare him. He is in the most illogical and strange situation he's ever been, and he has no way of explaining all that. It's like he's in an episode of the Twilight Zone or even worse, a test subject for the Philadelphia Experiment. If that's the case, who knows what else was done to him while he was unconscious.

As he is sitting down and analyzing all the possibilities, his radar beeps. That's even more strange. He remembers having deactivated his radar hours ago. So how is it still functional? Unless he activated it without remembering, though it's probably unlikely. The most likely reason is the automatic emergency radar turned on and began tracking down a ship in distress, and even though most ships usually rely on radio contact, in Searcher's case, his secondary radar is meant to function primarily as an emergency radar, meant to track down vehicles that are in an emergency situation, be it ships, aircraft, or even submarines. For it to activate now, that means there's a vehicle in a distress situation. He can't ignore it, he must act right away. It doesn't matter how many questions he has, right now, answering that distress signal is much more important.