The Pathetic Ramblings of a Surface Warfare Officer
A/N: So let's get this out of the way, I don't own Azur Lane and they are properties of Manjuu, Yongshi, Yostar and all the other companies that may have a stake in the game. All I'm doing is writing a shitty OC-centric fanfiction.
Okay, now we have that out of the way, lets actually get on to the ACTUAL A/N
So, this is my first story and after months of reading fanfiction, I decided why the hell not. This is an alternate universe kind-of, so pretty non-compliant to canon.
Also, I decided to update the chapter. Tell me if the old version was better or not if you read it.
The smell of fried rice wafted up my nose as I heard a soft and familiar voice call out my name. Recognizing said voice immediately, I jumped out of the couch and went to the dining room where I saw Mom and more importantly, a large plate of fried rice.
I felt my face lighten up as Mom started to serve me fried rice. Mama's fried rice was the best and no one could say otherwise, and I will die on that hill. It has a rich flavor, plenty of ingredients and most importantly, it's made with love.
"How's school today Darling?" Mom asked
"Well, it was good I guess." I replied "We had a few exams here and there, but besides that there wasn't anything extraordinary about school today."
I took a bite of my fried rice. Delicious as always.
"Hmm, really?" She smiled "Come to think of it, when I picked you up earlier, you were talking to the new foreign exchange students from Britain weren't you? Her name was Illustrious or something right? Did something happen between the two of you?"
With a slight blush and a sight, I replied "Mom, I'm in 7th Grade." I said, continuing to munch on my food "Besides, you think I'd get a girl THAT out of my league?"
She chuckled. "Don't lose hope, Rayleigh. Your dad always thought I was out of his league back in 5th grade, and look at where we are now?"
Illustrious was a rather beautiful woman, and most of the kids at my school agreed. She had long flowing hair, crystal blue eyes and was quite buxom for her age. A lot of the guys, and a fair share of the girls liked her quite a bit. Despite the fact that I agreed that she was incredibly beautiful and had a kind personality to boot, it would be too much trouble to pursue her.
Her name just like some of the girl's names at my school was rather weird. Illustrious is a strange thing to name your kid, it was like naming someone "Hardworking". The only thing I could really recall with the name "Illustrious" off the top of my head is a World War 2 era carrier and a carrier that was retired in the 1990s.
"You just got lucky" I simply said, finishing the last of my fried rice. "Speaking of, where's Dad?"
"Your Dad won't come back today. He said it was something about work. His superiors have a bad feeling, but he did say that he should be home by next week"
"Oh, okay" I said in a rather sad voice. Dad worked at coastal defense battery and he was rarely home. We called sometimes if permitted, but because of the apparent nature of his work and who he worked with, it was quite rare.
What was he working with, nuclear bombs? Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised. We had to sign an NDA for us to even know he was working on something classified.
Before I could wallow on it any further however, a loud piercing noise filled the entire city. At the same time, the television which I had left on started to display a message.
"The national government has declared a state of emergency to the residents of New York City and all surrounding areas. Please evacuate to the nearest inland military stronghold"
The message looped and looped again and again, prompting Mom to grab the emergency kits as well as any valuables and quickly stashed them into a bag. She gave the bag to me, and hurried me to the basement.
"Are we being attacked?" I asked "And why the basement? Aren't we supposed to be evacuating?"
"I don't know Darling, your Dad told me that if this happened, we are to head to the basement. Stay here, I'll find out what's going on."
She left the basement, closing the door behind her. I could hear the faint sound of explosions in the distance. Curious, I opened the door just a bit to see what Mom was doing.
She slowly approached the door, and opened it. From what I could tell, there was a lot of fire outside, and the screams of the people made them known. Mom froze and then suddenly…
She was stabbed cleanly through the heart.
Horrified, I put my hands over my mouth to stop myself from screaming in terror. Who, or what stabbed her could be there right now and I didn't exactly want to follow my mother's footsteps.
And I was right. A mechanical spider creature made itself known, its head poking through the door. Its scorpion tail, equipped with a large stinger stabbed Mom's body and started extracting something.
I slowly closed the door and leaned my back against the wall. There was only one thing that was on my mind.
What the FUCK was that thing
Its legs and, mechanical body and the stinger, that thing was out of a horror movie for God's sake. And the way that it- that it extracted Mom's essence, it was, I was-
I heard the floorboards creak loudly as something ripped open the door The murder robot looked around the basement, clearly looking for something.
Oh shit
I'm screwed
I held my breath, staying as quiet as possible, trying not to meet the eye of the murder robot. Eventually, it moved on, presumably to hunt other targets.
I guess it didn't have a flashlight.
But that wasn't important. The important was the fact that I was fucking alive in the first place.
I stayed in that spot, processing what had just happened today. Mom's Death, the fact that Dad and probably all my other friends were all as dead as I don't know, the cold corpse of Mom.
Safe to say, I didn't get much sleep.
_Line Break_
I woke up the next day feeling fine, I guess. About as fine as someone can be when their mom was killed before their eyes and the fact that there were probably murder robots roaming the city.
"Please be just a strange dream" I said to myself. Hopefully, I just happened to sleep in the basement, Mom was cooking fried rice and I was going to have completely normal day at school playing mobile games with friends, reading the new volume of the Detective is Already Dead, talking to girls or some other equally mundane thing compared to the strange fever dream that was yesterday.
I looked at the door and it was ripped off. My chances weren't too good.
It was pretty obvious that it wasn't a dream once I looked out. Mom was still a cold corpse in the ground and a huge hole was still in the living room from where the spider thing entered.
I slowly walked up towards the corpse, seeing Mom's terrified expression when she died. I grabbed a flower from the flower vase and placed it beside her cold body.
And then, I wept.
Mom, she had always been a great influence. She disciplined me when I was doing something stupid, and taught me so much of what I know today. She comforted me and took care of me when Dad wasn't home and-
I slowly realized something. I had taken Mom for granted. And Dad was likely dead too.
"Mom, Dad, I'm so sorry" I said I was- at a loss for words. She was gone. I couldn't do anything to get her back. At least Dad would have died with the fact that he was helping to defend is family, country and possibly the world, but Mom, she was alone.
Yet I knew she wanted me to live, she would do a lot more than nag me endlessly if I was to die here.
After grieving over my now dead mother, I covered her body in a blanket, grabbed a few books and extra food and opened the gun safe. Inside was a Colt 1911 handgun as well as several boxes of ammunition.
Did I know how to shoot one? Not accurately. Dad taught me how to unlock safety and load, but I had never shot it myself. Was it going to damage the murder robots? Probably not. Was it at least going to provide me with security and help me sleep at night? Yes, it would.
I changed my clothes, wearing a jacket, longer pants and gloves, as well as wearing a pistol holster with spare magazines.
After running a supply tally, I left my home and started to wander. There was no way in hell I was going to risk staying in one place so close to the shoreline.
_Line Break_
Honestly, I didn't know much about New York. We moved here because Dad had a new posting and we had to go to the big city. He was a military liaison in the Philippines before all of this, and we lived in Manila for a few years.
In other words, I was an absolute idiot for not bringing a fucking map.
I had only realized that when I was already a day into the journey when the sun was coming down, and it would be pretty dangerous to go back. So I decided to sit down near a destroyed building and eat.
What I hadn't realized was that the beef jerky that I had been so excited to eat had gone bad. I should have checked the best by date yesterday, not to mention I left it out in the heat too. But couldn't exactly waste food when murder robots are in the city and most of the buildings were destroyed.
I chewed through the tough beef, trying not to remember the taste. Of course failing at this, I forced it down my throat and drank a bit of water.
Wasting a little food in this situation wouldn't be THAT bad right?
"Help!"
My thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream of help. I gripped my pistol and tried to reacquire the sound
"Help me!"
It was just around the corner too. I turned off safety and peeked the corner.
Crap
It was a murder robot, its camera, photoreceptor, whatever glaring right at me.
It began to walk slowly, towards me. I took a few potshots at it, but all of the shots didn't penetrate. As .45 ACP was going to hurt something like this.
It was toying with me, playing with my fear or at least that's what it looked like. In my state, I could imagine that machine smiling sadistically as it knew that I was in a hopeless situation.
I did the only logical option, which was run in the opposite direction. I saw the beast scuttle towards me quickly. I knew that I was fast, I did track and field after all. But the dreadful fact was that the murder robot was faster.
Was I really going to die like this? Running away from a mechanical beast, trying to suck me of my essence? I didn't want to die. Not only did I need to live for my parents, but I had so much to experience. I want to graduate high school, go to a prom, get laid.
Was my life really going to end because of a murder spider?
As these thoughts ran through my head, I noticed the soft hum of an aircraft propeller. And it was getting louder and louder.
And then the earth shook
A burst of autocannon fire ripped through the murder robot in seconds, rendering it inoperable. As I stared at the murder robot's corpse, a convoy of Humvees drove up to me. Several soldiers came out wearing combat gear and heavy weapons, standard soldier stuff. One of the people that came out of the convoy though, was familiar.
Long flowing white hair, eyes as blue at the deep sea.
Wait, Illustrious? What was she doing here? And more importantly, was that ship rigging?
"Rayleigh! Are you alright! Are you hurt?"
You know what, of all the weird things that happened this week, I just glad that someone isn't trying to kill me for once.
My head hurts, I'll worry about this tomorrow.
_'
The actual author's note:
So, actual author's note here, this is a story which I have had for quite a while in my head but never gotten around to actually writing because I'm lazy. So, here is ROSWO's first chapter I guess. Constructive criticism is appreciated, as this is my first time actually publishing something to the internet.
Don't worry, Rayleigh wont remain a kid for long. Maybe for a few more chapters, but after that we get into spicy action. Like as in cruise missile spicy, not the other kind.
(also, sirens are going to be good guys, for now at least)
Changes related to this chapter after update:
Changed the way Rayleigh escapes the murder robot
Extended the 2nd Line break scene
I think I improved the whole 3rd scene