You wake in strange surroundings. Judging by the light it is mid-morning, everything looks white and the last memory you have is screams and a sea filled with fire. You glance down on yourself and notice something peculiar, you are chained, wait chained? To the hospital bed. On the side of the bed is something peculiar, a photograph of a man in an admiral's dress khakis with what seemed to be 64 pack VLS cells and a miniaturized AEGIS system with a woman in a revealing maid outfit and white hair, sporting what seems to be a Town-Class Light Cruiser's armament, and another girl, with strawberry blonde hair, and a smile brighter than daylight and what looked to be a Admiral Hipper-Class Heavy Cruiser's Armament. Beside it is a cap that says Adm. Lorentz Burke and a few other things such as a silver watch and a ring with some engraving on it and a black leather wallet. You decide to go back to sleep thinking about how to process this information.
Sometime later, you wake up to the sound of the door opening and you see a young woman with pink hair and sporting a sailor uniform. She speaks up and the first words you hear are from her are, ah, good you're awake. My name is Akashi and you've been asleep. She speaks up and the first words you hear are from her are "Ah, good you're awake. My name is Akashi and you've been asleep for 4 months and three days ever since we fished you out of the water, so how are you feeling." You ask: "Who exactly are you, what am I doing in here, and am I chained to the bed?" She answers: "Oh so you are wondering what happened to you and you don't seem to have any memory of what happened before you woke up". You say: "Damn right I have, especially the chains, you didn't do something to me, did you?" Akashi says: "Of course not that would go against medical ethics, and that was because you kept thrashing and mumbling in your sleep about some people named Iwamoto, Gallery, and Lutjens. What I find strange is, looking through the records, they seem to have gone through the same modifications as you, are all admirals and are reported MIA about the same time you showed up."
"Well that doesn't explain why I am in chained to the bed" you ask. Akashi says: "That's easy, because your body has been modified to be able to carry miniaturized weapons systems and can walk on water, like us" . And what exactly do you mean by "us"? you say. Us, shipgirls or kanmusu, whichever you prefer she says. And with that, you pass out.
The sea is burning you and the other 3 are facing off against abominations, you call out to the woman in the picture, but she's not there, you made a promise to protect them and you succeeded, they were succesfully evacuated now you and the other three are standing face to face with nightmares, you speak into your radio earpiece, do it now, we decided we'll keep them in one place while yo rain hell down on these assholes. Iwamoto, Gallery, me and Lutjens will hold them off just make sure that our ladies will be safe. Hai/Yes sir! They say at the same time. You say to Lutjens "Its been a pleasure mein kamerad" and the four of you head into hell knowing that a 1 megaton bomb would go off and kill you. A flash of light and unimaginable pain later and you pass out into darkness.
You wake with a start as you feel yourself sink into the cold abyss. You scream the name: "BELFAST!" You wonder what that was about and how did you know that name and why it seemed so familiar. Akashi comes into the room. She asks: "What the hell was that about Burke?" You say: "Just a damned dream, but it sure felt real." Akashi asks you: "Are you ready to see Yokosuka?" "Sure, why not", you say. You go and put on your coat, politely asking Akashi to step out for a while so you can put on the admiral's uniform, khakis as standard for regular work days. She walks you for you to change. You then pick up those things on the side of the bed. You take a look at the picture and realize it came from your breast pocket. You quickly put it into your wallet hoping no one noticed the picture and put on the ring, you notice the engraving, it says "For so much, how shall we repay?" it runs through your mind that the engraving sounds familliar, like it was something you repeated to yourself all the time. You take your watch and also see it has an engraving on its back it says "Remember us from this even if we are apart" and a image set into the dial of you with 4 girls and 3 men apart from yourself in admiral's uniforms of their respective countries which you assume to be Iwamoto, Gallery, and Lutjens. You feel something warm go down your cheek and realize that you are tearing up. Wiping the tears, you then walk out of your room. You stroll out of the base hospital down the sidewalk towards the administrative building. You get odd glances from girls, which you assume to be kanmusu, kanmasu- was it ma or mu, judging by their apperances and what you gather from what you heard from the nurses, that kanmusu are basically ships come back from the depths as girls and are drop-dead gorgeous, and these girls look like models. As you walk, on e of the girl staring comes up to you. She says: "OH MY GOD, is it really you dess?", she asks, You say "How do you know who I am?". She says, "We always hung out remember, you, me, Belfast-chan and Admiral Iwamoto-sama dess". You ask: "What is your name miss...?" She says "I'm the English-born returnee, Kongou-dess, nice to meet you, again Admiral Burke." You two part ways with the other girls looking on. You then make your way towards the administrative building's entrance. You ask the guard in front of the entrance about their summons and you are surprised to learn that COM 7TH FLEET had given the order to direct you towards the base commander's office.
Authors note:
(If you don't mind, I will be including a few characters from Azur Lane, such as Belfast for international squadrons. The composition of whether they are included is if they are international bases with more Kantai Collection characters for the Pacific bases. Kantai Collection ships take priority over those of other games. I.E, if they had designs before the other games came out, the KC girl's designs come first.)