Azur lane: A history through their eyes...

Thresher's End

1963, off the Atlantic coast.

U.S.S. Skylark and U.S.S Thresher sailed out to sea together as the former began another round of 20 Questions.

"Is it a person?" The nuclear sub asked swiftly, next to the newly minted submarine-rescue ship.

"No." Lark replied lightly, forcing Thresher to try a different question.

"Is it a place?" The sub girl scratched her head dumbfoundedly.

"No." Skylark replied again as she knew the girl was terrible at guessing games.

3 rounds later...

"Ouch, 0 for 5!" The brown-haired ship-girl teased as Thresher shook her head and hands wildly.

"Next game! Is it a thing?"

"Yes," Skylark said happily as Thresher grinned, knowing she was going to win this time.

She didn't win....

Once they got to the test site, Thresher stretched nonchalantly as she looked over at a stoic Skylark.

"What's wrong now?" Thresher moaned at the rescue ship, who now had a worried look on her face.

"Hey, it's just a test Silly. I'm supposed to go underwater. How hard can it be?" Skylark sighed with frustration at her friend's boastful words, looking at the high-finned sub-girl fearfully.

"Just be careful Thresher..." It bothered the rescue ship that her partner was acting quite carefree for someone who was just rammed by a tugboat.

"Come on Sky! I'm just going to get my hair wet," Thresher said reassuringly as the recuse ship-girl was only slightly convinced. "I haven't been at sea in 9 freakin' months, let's do this already!"

"Very well," Skylark sighed deeply, staring at the eager sub-girl ready to go. "Commence test."

"Dive! Dive! Dive!" Thresher called out as ocean water washed over her body.

Completely submerged, the American submarine drifted downward, making a slow spiral as she went.

"Ahhhh, sooooo coooool."

Once she got to 400ft, she just kind of floated about, not too concerned with what she was doing.

"I've made it halfway to test depth Sky." She reported on her underwater telephone.

"Acknowledged, continue on." Skylark's curt reply made Thresher flinch.

"Honestly..., how hard can going underwater be?"

Thresher thought to herself as she was a submarine for crying out loud. She descended deeper still, making it all the way to 1,000ft as she wiped her brow.

The submarine shivered in the cold ocean as the waters off Cape Cod were pretty cold at this time of year. The scary part was it was always this cold down here...

"Wait! Somethings?!"

Thresher felt a pipe joint burst in her chest, causing a massive leak as she sense something was wrong, very wrong.

"Uh oh..."

Leaks on a boat are bad news enough on the surface, and you can bet your sweet backside it was going to be a whole lot worse at 1,000ft below.

"Arrggg!" Thresher gripped her head, leaking water shorted out her circuits, causing the reactor to automatically "SCRAM".

In an instant, she lost all power.

Seeing the need to get back up to the surface ASAP, the white-haired Sub ordered Emergency Blow and tried to swim to the surface, her eyes dimming with each stroke. She even tried contacting Skylark on her underwater telephone.

"Skylark, I'm experiencing difficulty. I've got a positive up-angle. Attempting to blow!"

Meanwhile, water continued to fill her engine room, weighing her down.

Her descent was becoming increasingly unrecoverable.

Submarines can go deep...

But they can only go so deep....

Her eyes widened in panic as she began to drift downward, her arms and legs slowly forcing her into a fetal position.

"Not like this..."

The union submarine began to sob as she slowly drifted deeper, the depths of the ocean continuing to press silently against her hull.

"My course is 2-7-0, Interrogative range! South/Southwest on your bearing!" The transmission was garbled, but the submarine rescue ship's concern was recognizable. "Thresher! Do you copy?! Come up now! Abort! ABORT!"

Thresher gasped loudly as the air was suddenly and violently forced from her lungs. The pressure crushing her body now.

"900..." The sub murmured as her eyes blinked shut.

Back at the surface, Skylark got to her knees, staring down into the water. She heard Thresher say the number, but interference from thermoclines garbled the audio.

"Thresher! Talk to me! 900 what!?"
1 minute later, Skylark heard another transmission from Thresher.

She couldn't recognize much, as the voice was little more than a wheeze.

"Catastrophic failure imminent..."

Another minute later, Skylark's passive sonar picked up a loud pop deep beneath her as she covered her mouth in disbelief.

And then she knew...

The now lonely Submarine Rescue ship hung her head deeply as she removed her cap slowly.

"The U.S.S Thresher is lost." Skylark whimpered sadly as she just covered her tear-stained face. "With all hands...."

"Now your eternal partol begins...."