Disclaimer: I don't own Azur Lane or its characters nor any Aircraft mentioned
The Commander stood staring out his window as he looked over the harbour filled with ships some old and new, He had seen Enterprise be recalled to the Eagle Union although she had come back as a nuclear supercarrier.
A sight drew his attention to the harbour.
Victorious's carrier approached as she had 8 of her 9 Buccaneer S.2 on the front of the flight deck with 9 of her 10 Sea Vixen FAW.2 on the angled flight deck behind the Sea Vixen were 5 Westland Wessex HAS.3 with 2 Gannet AEW.3 at the back on each side with 1 Gannet COD.4.
He knew that below were another Buccaneer S.2, Sea Vixen FAW.2, the 5 Gannet AS.4 and 2 Wessex HAS.1 in the hangar.
As he stared at the carrier, he felt something was wrong, never one to ignore a feeling like this, He put his paperwork aside.
Leaving his office and making his way to the dock where Victorious's ship was docked, he headed inside.
Reaching the flight deck he saw two Sea Vixen FAW.2 sitting on the catapult with their wings folded, two Buccaneer S.2 were packed beside the angled runway and at the rear of the flight deck with Victorious sitting in the cockpit was a Gannet AEW.3. "Victorious," he called hurriedly walking over.
"Shikkan, it's nice to see you again," Victorious said happily.
"Likewise Vicky," he said climbing up the ladder peering into the cockpit.
"Did the refit go well?" he asked.
"Yes but that's the thing…." Victorious began only to stop her words.
"Victorious what's the matter, you can tell me," he said to the Royal Navy carrier girl.
"The government thinks after a small fire in the chief petty officer mess that I should be decommissioned and sold for scrap so they're withdrawing my Sea Vixens as they're obsolete they say then my Gannet Anti-Sub, Airborne Early Warning will go in a few years before me." Victorious complained.
"I remember what they did and let me tell you when I found I was not happy at all." Vicky moaned aloud as the commander listened.
"And you want AWOL and sailed all the way here as you don't want to get sent to the breakers." Commander guessed.
"Exactly." She said back.
He offered a hand helping her out of the cockpit, they walked into the chief petty officer mess.
"So Victorious how's your tailoring going?" He asked her.
"It's going well, I'm thinking of starting a business," Victorious said back as they left the ship.
"I'll see what I can do," he said as Victorious watched him go.
In his office
The commander had a video call waiting, a man in a Royal Navy uniform appeared on screen, "Commander."
"First Sea Lord," he replied as Belfast came in putting a cup of tea down on the table.
"Thank you Belfast," he said as she bowed quietly leaving.
"So First Sea Lord, you must be aware by now that Victorious is missing." the commander said, the first sea lord sighed.
"Yes she disappeared early in the morning a few weeks ago, by now she must have arrived at Azur lane." the sea lord remarked.
"She has and she was very upset that the government wanted to send her to the scrapyard over a small fire in the chief petty mess hall that from seeing the damage is minor that we can easily fix and find out how it started…." He paused sipping his tea.
"...but sir, you need as many carriers as you can get even with Miss Elizabeth on her CVA-01 but if you could send the Sea Vixens and those Mark 4 ASW Gannets and Mark 3 AEW Gannets refurbished that I know the Royal Navy was to add Centaur and her sister Hermes and the others."
Weeks Later
The Commander walked into Victorious's hangar seeing a dark navy blue top and white bottom DH-110 Sea Vixen FAW.2.
The carrier was out to sea, Her ten Sea Vixens had been replaced by ten refurbished Sea Vixens which had two RA.24R Avon Mk.208 Turbojets replaced by two more efficient RB.163 Spey Turbofans.
Her wing had two Red Top Mark.2 and four Blue Dolphin fixed to the wing, in the nose was an improved AI.18 Radar.
Her five Gannet had been upgraded to an anti-submarine mark 6 configurations and her Gannet Airborne Early Warning mark 3 had been replaced by the newer Gannet Airborne Early Warning mark 7, her two Wessex anti-submarine mark 1 was replaced by a pair of Wessex utility helicopter mark 5.
"Victorious." He called again.
Victorious hugged him, "Thank you, thank you Shikkan-sama." he smiled at hearing the happiness in her voice.
"It's the least I could do as the Royal Navy need as many carriers as they can even you're going to be a nuclear ballistic missile submarine," he replied as they walked towards the Buccaneers.
Climbing inside, the Buccaneer was lifted on the flight deck, the two RB.168-1 Spey were started up, the Buccaneer was lined up on the catapult. "Hold on tight." Victorious put her hand on the throttle as the nose was raised, the throttles were advanced to full blast as the catapult shot the jet along until it shot off the deck powering into the sky.
A pair of Gannet AEW.3 and Gannet AS.4 followed the Buccaneer.
Victorious and Commander powered through the wide blue sky.
A/N
So I hope everyone enjoyed this little drabble for the HMS Victorious's launch day as I'm still working on chapter 6 of the Modernisation Ray which I'm hoping to finish before the month's end so I can write an AL Christmas drabble.
I had thought that with wisdom cube, sending Victorious and her sisters, half-sister and descendants to the scrapyard is bluntly irrelevant since thinking about how Victorious and her sisters Illustrious and Formidable are designed or how battle-damaged as given its likely tech exists to duplicate memories, duplicate a rebuild for Illustrious and Formidable shouldn't be an issue also in the AL world Britain's post-war finances mean absolutely nothing when you have unlimited cube energy that can be used to solve all your energy needs I'm sure rebuilding 3 Illustrious and 2 Implacable ain't very difficult.
Anyway happy launch to HMS Victorious the longest-serving Illustrious Class ship.
The Fairey Gannet AEW.3 was a better choice than the Gannet AEW.7 as I didn't think it would fit on Victorious.
See Ya Soon.