XX-XX-XXXX
Location: Unknown.
Time: (Approx) 0100
A futuristic-looking ship was floating in the middle of a vast ocean. Its engine was off. Not even a single light bulb could be seen to be on. There was no sign of life on board the ship, except for an unconscious girl laid in the ship's command center. She wore an elegant form-fitting silvery white dress, with a high neckline and a layered skirt. Long and white gloves extended past her elbows. Stylish thigh-high boots wrapped her legs. On her waist, there was also a medium-length white sword.
Things stayed quiet until the unconscious girl opened her eyes with a pained expression. As the girl gained her consciousness, the ship engine roared into life along with the electronics system aboard. The ocean around the ship was no longer pitch dark, the ship brightened her surroundings.
"Uh.. my head hurts." The girl sat up as she supported her head with one of her arms.
The girl then noticed the supporting hand in front of her eyes, "What? Whose hand is this?"
"Huh, hand!?" The girl startled as she tried to move the hand with her other hand.
But after both hands touched each other, the girl grew even more confused. She could feel and operate both of them.
Oh! Isn't this!
With such realization, she jumped up to stand and observe "herself".
"Oh my god.. I have a human body.." said the girl with a tone of utter disbelief as she touched almost every part of her body to inspect this phenomenon.
She ran toward the captain's office, looking for something. She arrived at the office and easily found what she was after, a mirror. She looked at the mirror and confirmed that indeed she had a human body now.
"Oh what a beautiful dress.." she admired the dress she wore. In fact, she loved the dress. It perfectly matched her preference.
She put the mirror on a desk and twirled her body to fully inspect her new body and the beautiful dress. She wondered how she could possess a human body. She has always been a ship since she could remember.
"Wait.."
She then realized something.
"Yeah right, I am a ship. I am DDG-1001, USS Michael Monsoor, the second Zumwalt-Class destroyer. Where's everybody? There's no one in the command center. Captain is also not here." She felt the situation she found herself in was unnatural.
She could feel that nobody was aboard the ship except her. She could instinctively conclude so because she had done this kind of thorough scan a thousand times already. In fact, since she got this human body, she felt she could exert more control over the physical ship.
Curious, she activated her radar system to test this newfound control. The radar system activated and started to survey the 480 km radius from the ship. Seeing this, she found that she indeed had absolute control over the ship. With only a thought, every system on board could be operated by her naturally, just like she was born with them.
She stood still with her right hand supporting her chin. She was still overwhelmed by this experience and silently pondered many questions she had in her mind. It was just two hours ago she struck down a hypersonic missile. After the interception, her squadron then sailed back to the base to await the decision of the central command.
"Huh!? Why am I alone? There's no other ship around me!" She was forcefully made aware of her surroundings through the active radar system.
She was alone. Her squadron was gone from her radar. In fact, there was no other feedback from the radar. This could only mean she was in the middle of the ocean with nothing within the 480 km radius.
Mo, in an instant, diverted her attention to the radio transmission device. She checked if there was any radio traffic on air around her position. Luckily, she got some radio transmission but those were not the common transmission she usually found. The frequency was different, the encryption was pathetically easy to breach, and the clarity of the message transmitted was meager. She even thought the home-made radio studios back home were much better than this.
She also checked her GPS. But, as if there is no satellite above her, the GPS showed there was no service. She thought maybe the GPS malfunctioned, unfortunately for her, even after some tinkering here and there the GPS still got no service.
"Dear God, where am I? Even point nemo still gets satellite service." Her confusion could be heard from her voice.
She tried to calm herself as she remembered her navigation trials. There was no use in panicking in this kind of situation. Although it was true that she felt a bit lonely, first she needed to get in contact with nearby settlements or landmasses to determine where she was and what happened to her patrol squadron.
After she did self-examination and found all systems on board functioned normally except the GPS, she sailed northwest hoping to find clues to her predicament.
________________________________________________________________________
7 December 1941
Location: Pearl Harbour Multinational Naval Base
Time: 0600
It was a peaceful day at the newly rebuilt naval base in Pearl Harbour. Two kansens could be seen walking side by side near the sea. One of them was a Royal Navy battleship, HMS Prince of Wales, and beside her was USS Cleveland, a light cruiser of Eagle Union.
"Wow, it's really getting merrier lately!" Cleveland said with a beaming smile.
"It seems so, Royal Navy and Eagle Union kansens are assembling here after all. From here on, it'll be getting busier and busier." Wales calmly replied.
"But you know what? One of the best Eagle Union kansen is also moving here! Here's the clue, she has the most battle-stars in the history of Eagle Union." Cleveland added as she smirked proudly.
"Oh, who else might that be other than the Grey Ghost. Good news indeed. The Royal Navy main force is also relocated to this base and will be arriving soon. Commander decided to centralize our operation here." Wales relaxed a bit hearing the news.
"Well in that case, we'd better receive them properly. Let's go Wales, we can't keep them waiting. We gotta go fast!" said Cleveland as she sprinted past Wales with a cheery tone.
"Oh my, don't need to rush." Wales shook her head with a wry smile.
Inconspicuous to the both of them however, a girl covered in a black cape walked past them from the opposite direction.
The girl had a white hair with two upward protrusions on both of her temples. She also moved to this base as a representative from her faction, the Sakura Empire. She was Ayanami, a Fubuki-class destroyer.
Ayanami then turned back looking at the harbor and found a huge aircraft carrier arriving at the base. As the Carrier docked, a lady and a girl were seen getting off the ship and received by Cleveland and Wales.
The lady graciously greeted them, "Oh my, Good Morning, it is an honor to be received by the Prince personally."
"Come on Illustrious, enough with the tease, but it's truly been a while, old friend." said Wales as she shook Illustrious' hand.
"It is Wales, it is.. And who's the bright girl beside you?" Illustrious curiously asked.
"I am Cleveland, an Eagle Union light cruiser, the lead-ship of my class. Nice to meet ya!" the bright girl, Cleveland, excitedly introduced herself. She then saw a small girl hide behind Illustrious and went to greet the girl. But the girl shied away from Cleveland.
"She's Unicorn, my pupil. I'm sorry, she's quite a shy girl." Illustrious serenely apologized to Cleveland.
"No worries!" Cleveland reassured Illustrious with a smile.
Four of them then walked to the Commander's office. On the way, Illustrious left Unicorn in the Academy's park. She hoped Unicorn could play and find some friends while they discussed some work with the Commander.
As they arrived in the Commander's office, the Commander stood up and greeted Illustrious.
"It's good to see you, Illustrious. I hope your journey here wasn't eventful." Commander walked toward Illustrious to shake her hand.
"Oh why, glad to see you too, Commander. Quite an uneventful journey indeed, as long as that means nothing bad happens." Illustrious replied with a smile on her expression.
"Good then, please take a seat. How's her Majesty?" Asked the Commander.
"She's well and energetic as always, Commander. Her Majesty and the main fleet will arrive in two hours if things go as planned." Illustrious giggled a bit as she reported the news to the commander.
"I've always been concerned with the safety of Home Island with the Iron Blood nearby, is it fine to move the Main Fleet here?" Wales anxiously pointed the question to the commander.
"Indeed, it's been a while since the Iron Blood cut off their communication with the Central Command. But after the Denmark Strait incident, there's no notable activities even on their territorial waters. We had tried to reestablish communication, but so far nothing had borne fruit. Iron Blood's kansens have also been pulled out before the communication blackout. The central command is on its wits end. Let's hope Bismarck doesn't do anything reckless." the commander worriedly explained. He then added,
"As for the Royal Navy main fleet. The Sakura Empire has turned hostile to us since the rationing of their resources by the Central Command. It was supposed to be some kind of punishment for them because of their aggressive behavior toward Dragon Empery girls, but we didn't expect things to spiral up at this point. And in the worst possible scenario where the Sakura Empire rebels, this base is going to be at the forefront in the conflict to come." The commander's expression was grim. He did not want that scenario to happen.
"Indeed, if that happens, we need everything we have at our disposal. But why wage such a pointless conflict?" Illustrious responded warily.
"Because war will never change."
"Because war will never change."
Wales and the commander simultaneously spoke the same line.
_________________________________________
At the other side of the base, meanwhile. Unicorn was in distress because her friend, Yuu-chan, was nowhere to be found. She was looking for Yuu with a worried face.
"Hello." A young cheerful girl with a dominant white and purple style greeted Unicorn.
"Uhh, Hi? You are?" Unicorn was startled by the girl's approach and replied as best as she could.
"HMS Javelin here! A Royal Navy's J-class destroyer. Umm, sorry but I was observing you back then and I can't hold myself looking at a troubled Royal Navy kansen, are you looking for something? Let me help you!" said the young and cheerful girl, Javelin.
"Ah thanks, Umm, I got separated from Yuu-chan and I can't find her." Unicorn nervously explained.
"Yuu-chan?" Javelin curiously asked.
"She's my friend, I'm worried something bad happened to her." Unicorn was anxious. This was her first time visiting Pearl Harbor and her friend, Yuu-chan, was missing.
"Well in that case, let's find her together. Four eyes are better than two, after all!" Javelin smiled reassuringly toward Unicorn.
Both then went looking for Yuu-chan around the base. But after a while, they decided to take a little break on a nearby park bench where they met a girl laying on a neighboring bench.
Javelin took the initiative to ask the girl, "Hello, sorry to bother your nap, but have you seen Unicorn's friend?"
Unicorn showed her drawing of Yuu-chan to help others identify her friend.
The napping girl sat up and looked at the drawing, "That's a good drawing."
Suddenly getting praised, Unicorn looked down shyly.
"Have you seen her?" Javelin tried to redirect the topic.
The sleepy girl closed her eyes. She appeared to think about something. But a second later, she laid back on the bench.
"I am sleepy.." said the girl.
Looking at the girl, Javelin apologized once again, "Ah, again, sorry to bother your nap. Well then, thank you for the time."
When Javelin and Unicorn walked away from the girl, they heard the sleepy girl's voice.
"Do you need help? Let me help you." With a bit of limp steps, the girl joined the search party.
"I am Laffey by the way, nice to meet you both" added the sleepy girl, Laffey.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________