Thank you to the readers that favorited, followed and reviewed my story. Your almost instantaneous feedback has given me a reason to continue on!
To the guest reviewer: The short answer is, the P-51 is based off of the P-51H side of the "Seahorse Project." Sparks's confusion on why he's flying the fighter is a reference to how top secret the project was.
Chapter 2-1: Welcome to Samoa
The morning of December 10th I wake up to the sound of my cellphone ringing. "Hello?" I answer still half asleep; the voice at the other end belongs to Captain Smith of my transport, SS Francis Scott Key. "Good morning Commander, I was wondering if you'd like to join me for breakfast before we reach Samoa?"
"Thank you Captain, give me a few minutes and I'll meet you topside." I responded, before hanging up.
I then proceed to grab my suit, which consists of a white dress shirt, navy blue slacks, black coat with the golden cuffs, and a black tie from the closet, before laying the suit on my bed. After taking a quick shower, I put the suit on and comb my black hair parting it at the seam. After a quick shave, I look into the mirror at my green eyes and 6 foot frame making sure that my uniform is in order. Once finished, I grab my phone, wallet, put my shoes on and head to the mess hall.
Inside the hall, I'm greeted by the 30 year old, 6ft 2in, brown hair, hazel eyed Captain. Our breakfast consists of bacon, eggs, pancakes, toast and coffee.
Smith asks me "How has the trip been for you?"
I reply "Comfortable, finished reading the status on my soon to be fleet and am ready to meet them." To try confirming a supply line for my base I ask "Do you come by Samoa often?"
Smith replies, "We're part of a supply line that runs from The Union to the ABDACOM base in Java. If you could assist by giving my fleet an escort whenever we're in range, I'll make sure we stop in Samoa as part of the route."
"Absolutely Captain, I'll make sure to lend you some destroyers."
"Thank you Commander. We should be only a couple of hours from Samoa now, I suggest you head back and start packing up."
"Will do Captain, thank you for inviting me to join you for breakfast, it was delicious." I say as we shake hands before I return to my cabin."
- Two hours later -
With my bags packed, I'm now standing at the bow with my hat and aviators on watching as the transport approaches the dock. The island is a welcome sight after seeing nothing but ocean for the past day and a half. In the harbor near where the transport is about to drop anchor. Appears to be a Long Island class Light Carrier, and a Benson class destroyer. Standing on the dock waiting, is a tall blonde haired woman wearing a blue dress with the Union Jack stitched into it, and a white sun hat. She is accompanied by a shorter green haired girl, and a white haired woman dressed as a maid.
As the crew is tying the transport to the dock and preparing the gangplank, Captain Smith joins me on the deck. "Beautiful looking base isn't it?" He asks.
"Yes it is, if I didn't know better, I would've thought this was a civilian port."
"Anyway, your gear will be moved to your office and home, and your fighter will be unloaded and rolled to hangar 4 in a couple of hours. It was nice to meet you Commander Sparks."
"Likewise, Captain Smith" as I proceeded to salute him and give the ceremonial permission request to exit the transport, before grabbing my bags and walking down the gangplank to the dock.
Now on the dock, the three ladies salute me. Saluting back I introduce myself, "Azur Lane Commander Matthew Sparks, reporting for duty."
The three ladies respond back with their introduction, "You must be the Commander, How do you do? I'm HMS Hood, the glory of the Royal Navy. Wherever I go, victory follows."
"It is a great pleasure to meet you. I am HMS Belfast, Second ship of the Edinburgh class and the head Maid. From now on, I shall devote myself to serving you."
"Nya! I'm Akashi the fleet's only mechanic and one of two repair ships nya! If you have anything that needs repair don't hesitate and let me, Akashi, take care of it for you nya!"
"Hood, Belfast, and Akashi I hope to get along with you as well. I guess I can trust you Akashi to be my fighter plane's mechanic."
"What type of fighter is it Shikikan, nya?"
"The plane is a specially modified P-51H Mustang. I can show it to the whole fleet once it's stored in the hangar."
"I guess we should give Commander the tour of the base now" suggests Hood.
When we arrive at the officer's quarters, the building is well larger than I first expected. "Why do I need a multiple floor building if I'm living by myself?" I ask.
Hood replies, as we go inside "That, Commander is because this building also doubles as our headquarters."
Belfast talks next, describing each floor as we browse the building. "The first floor contains six office rooms, one for you and each of your secretaries." We enter the first office. "Here is your office Master."
The room is pretty nice, a desk carved out of wood, with a leather swivel chair is towards the back. On the desk sits a nameplate that says: 'Com. Matthew Sparks commanding officer'; as well as a monitor where I presume my computer will be plugged in. Behind the desk is the window, framed by the Eagle and stripes flag of my home to the left, and the flag of Azur Lane to the right. The window has a beautiful view of the harbor, where I can watch my fleet leave and return from sorties. In front of the desk facing it, is a Victorian style couch, probably a personal addition made by the Royal members of my fleet. Between the desk and couch is a glass coffee table, however there is still plenty of room left to walk between all three. Flushed against the three walls are waist height bookshelves, one on each wall; each wall is painted white.
'This is definitely one of the neatest looking offices I have ever seen!' I thought. We then exit going up to the second floor.
"The second floor holds the conference room, where you can discuss things with your individual task forces, or have a meeting with allied commanders." The room looks like a standard meeting room, big round table surrounded by several chairs.
"Across the hall is the briefing hall, where you can address all of us, in order to be big enough it takes up the entire space of this side of the floor." Belfast says with a smirk, as we go inside it. She wasn't kidding, you could probably fit an entire movie theater room in here!
"And yes, we sometimes have movie night in here." 'IS SHE READING MY MIND!' I think undecided if I should be worried for my sake or not.
Anyway, we move further down the hall and turn to a door next to the meeting room. "In here is the war room." Inside there is a dining room sized touch screen table in the middle. Displayed on the table is a map with my base in the middle and the surrounding ocean divided into equally sized squares on a grid, each square denoted by a letter and number along the left side and top. Hood describes how it works; "The map is linked to the radar on top of the roof, pink squares denote where enemy placement is, the red polygon fading in and out shows the area in range of your submarines. And if you tap on this button" which is along the bottom of the screen, "you can switch to the radar antennas on our ships." The map jumps to an area between Pearl Harbor and Samoa, centering around USS Enterprise. A submarine in a pink square is shortly covered by what looks like an SBD Dauntless, ten seconds later the submarine blinks, the pink shading fades away and the sub appears broken in half. A few moments later the red phone hanging on a nearby wall rings, Hood picks it up.
Enterprise speaks into her cellphone, "This is Gray Ghost to home plate, one of my Divebomber squadrons just sunk I-70. I repeat, one of my Divebomber squadrons just sunk I-70."
"Great job Gray Ghost, congrats on getting the first naval kill for the Union. Perfect timing by the way, Belfast, Akashi and I are showing Commander the War room, so you might want to flank speed it back here." A few seconds later Hood hangs up. "That was Enterprise, she just caught a Sakura submarine that attacked Pearl Harbor by surprise and sank it. She said that she and the rest of the Union ships near Pearl should be home by sunset."
"It's about time someone bought some payback from those traitors! I'll be sure to thank her when she gets here." I say getting fired up. We then move to the third and final floor. Belfast speaks up again as we're riding in the elevator, "On the top floor is your dorm Master."
The doors open to reveal 'A penthouse apartment!' In excited gratitude I think. The whole apartment was divided into several sections: kitchen, living room, bedroom with a queen sized bed and walk in closet as well as a Master bathroom that connects to the other side of the closet and opens up to the main area, in the back is an open air balcony with a table, chairs and a panoramic view of the beach, city on the island, and the rest of the base including the airfield. I turn to the ladies and say in my excitement. "Y'all have outdone yourselves and I haven't even started unpacking yet, I can't wait to start working with you!"
Suddenly I hear a ding from my cellphone. Akashi says "someone just became a bit popular hehe, nya!" Curious by whatever she meant by that, I decide to ask her later while placing my bags of clothes on my bed.
Our next stop on the tour is the dorms of the four factions, first up is the Eagle dorm. The first floor reminds me of a hotel lobby back in the Union, with a banquet hall for parties and various events, and a lounge area with various couches spread out among the room. In front of one of the couches is a TV connected to what appears to be a PS4. A girl with black hair and blue eyes wearing a jacket that is probably too big for her, at least by the sleeve length anyway, is playing on the console. Talking to each other are a snow white haired woman with ocean blue eyes, wearing an Eagle Union blue officer's jacket over a white dress, and a blonde twin tail haired woman with green eyes, of similar height wearing a black cowboy hat, navy blue jean shorts and a black cape. Belfast tries to get their attention by saying "excuse me Madams, pardon the interruption but I'd like to introduce Master Sparks to you."
The black hair girl stops her game and looks over at me, before introducing herself. "Hehe I'm USS Long Island~ Hello, Commander. Actually, I have another name. Do you want to know?"
'Hmm, by the way she is dressed, she reminds me of a character from an anime, who was actually a ghost, heck that character even had the same hair.' I thought before making my guess. "Let me guess, your other name is 'Ghost'."
"EEEHHH!!?? How did you know."
"Lucky guess. I presume the escort carrier next to the Benson-class destroyer is yours? I saw it as I landed here."
"Yes it is."
Just then a cute girl with white hair in long twin tails, red eyes wearing a pink jacket over a blue and white strapped top and a short red skirt wakes up from a nap. "yaaawn~ Long Island, what's with all the racket, Laffey is trying to sleep."
"So your name is Laffey then?" I ask.
"Benson-class destroyer, USS Laffey, awaiting your orders... Commander, these ears aren't real...you don't need to stare at them."
"That wasn't why I was looking at them, just thought they were cute."
My phone dings again.
"Laffey is thirsty, where is Laffey's oxy-cola?"
The White haired woman is next to introduce herself. "I am the lead ship of the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers, USS Yorktown. My name comes from the siege of Yorktown...You know? In the Revolutionary war."
"Yep, the Battle of Yorktown that secured our Nation's Independence. Nice to meet you Yorktown." I say while also thinking 'Why does she remind me of Lady Liberty so much? Ah! Quick, think of something else before someone gets the wrong idea!'
The woman next to her introduces herself next. "Yo! I'm USS Hornet! Ah... I don't want to impose, but don't call me 'Big Wasp' and we'll be fine~ My sisters are both legendary, but just wait and see what I can do!"
"Nice to meet you too Hornet, I look forward to working with you both."
"Hey Commander, have you seen our backyard baseball field out back yet?" "No, but I'll have to now." Exiting out the back door I find batting practice going on.
As I get closer to the field I watch a blonde haired girl with a white cape wearing stars and stripes socks hit a pitch from another blonde haired girl wearing a baseball uniform. Getting their attention I shout "Great line drive!"
The blonde that hit the ball introduces herself "Pleasure meeting you, Commander! I'm Cleveland, a knight of the sea! Come on, time is money! We can't afford to take a break!" Cleveland then gets ready as the other blonde prepares to throw another pitch.
"...HAA!" as the fastball zips past Cleveland. "Nice one...Oh excuse me. You're the Commander I see. Starting Pitcher, Bogue, ready for duty!"
Impressed, I say "Whew...how fast was that, over 90? You may have potential in the Major Leagues Bogue!" "With you as my coach, of course I will!" My phone dings again. Belfast approaches with Hood and Akashi again.
"Master, It's time to show you the Royal Dorm now, please follow me."
At the Royal Dorm I come to a realization, 'If there is one building that could resemble Buckingham Palace on the inside, this is it."
"Master, please allow Madam Hood and I to be the first to officially welcome you to the Royal Navy's residence!"
Hood and Belfast proceeded to show me the common or as they called it, the 'sitting room' which was essentially a large library with a multitude of couches and tables with an awesome view of the backyard garden, where regular tea parties are held, from the window. Next up was the Ball room where they like hosting dances, especially for Queen Elizabeth's Birthday. 'Something tells me that I'm going to be expected to attend one of those at some point' I think. Lastly, but certainly not least is Queen Elizabeth's Throne Room, this is where all of the activity is going on as it appears for the Royals is an all hands on deck situation in preparation of Elizabeth's eventual arrival.
Belfast, getting everyone's attention: "Excuse me! Please pardon the interruption, but I would like everyone to take a break to introduce yourselves to Master Sir Matthew Sparks." Almost instantly everyone in the Maid Corps, including a purple haired girl, with emerald eyes wearing a mini crown lined up.
"I'm HMS Javelin, Commander. Nice to meet you, Oh ho? You look like you have no idea what to do with a girl of your type getting assigned to you!"
"Umm..." 'I don't know what to do only because I just met you and your jumping to conclusions Javey! Besides, I think Hood and Belle are better at the moment anyw...Why am I already thinking up nicknames when I just met these girls!!'
"It's nice to meet you too Javelin." She then leaves, the next to introduce herself looks like she could be Belfast's older sister. "This is my turn, you might say! I am 'her' older sister, HMS Edinburgh! In a sense I am the 'most accomplished' Light Cruiser!"
'I can definitely see where Belle.. Belfast, learned how to read minds from.' "Happy to get to know you Edinburgh."
Next is a silver-grayish haired woman with red eyes, whom dresses similarly to Belfast except in a black dress. "Good day, Commander. I am the third ship of the Illustrious-class aircraft carriers, HMS Formidable. Pleased to meet your acquaintance."
"The pleasure is all mine, Formidable."
Next is a woman that looks like a hybrid of Formidable and Belfast. "Good day, Master. I am the light cruiser HMS Dido. I am at your service as a Royal Maid."
"Good day to you too Dido, I look forward to working with you as well." As she leaves I think to myself, 'Not only is she a hybrid, she may as well be Belle's clone! Quit calling Belfast that before she reads you brain!'
Lastly is a black haired, bluish gray eyed young woman. "I'm HMS Glasgow, light cruiser of the Southampton subclass of the Town-class. I am honored to be part of your fleet, commander. I am at your service."
"I'm glad to have you, Glasgow." 'She seems polite.' After everyone finished introducing themselves, Belfast and Hood approach me.
Hood says, "Normally since you're here Commander, we would invite you to stay for tea and lunch. Unfortunately, you still have the rest of the base to tour, and we're busy getting ready for Her Majesty's arrival. So Akashi will finish the tour with you."
"Thank you for everything once again, I'll see you later when Enterprise arrives."
As I begin to leave with Akashi I think, 'Dodged a close one, Now to leave bef-' I'm interrupted by Belfast whispering in my ear from behind. "Master, one last thing~ You can call me Belle whenever you want, I don't mind~" I don't even bother looking back to see her expression, as I'm sure that I'm red as a tomato; hurriedly I leave as my phone chimes again.
Akashi is waiting for me at the front door. "Wow Shikikan, It's not even lunch time and you're already starting to ruin a 'Master-Servant' relationship, this has to be a world record, nya!"
As soon as we enter the Sakura dorm, Akashi explains to me how the Sakura girls like to take their shoes off before entering the dorm area. We do so and she hands me a pair of slippers. The dorm itself looks very open, main hallway is a wood floor, almost all of the doors are sliding opaque screens, inside each dorm room are tatami mats, futons, and a low table with cushions surrounding it instead of chairs, their version of a banquet hall is a tea room. Out back is a Shinto shrine, that she says Yamashiro and Fusou will primarily be taking care of. On the other side of the wood fence to the left we can hear splashing. Akashi explains that there's an open air onsen over there and the splashing is probably the submarines: I-19, I-58, and I-168 who like to swim around in there, and that her fellow Sakura will be arriving with Ayanami. Now we're going to the Iron Blood dorm.
'Okay, no matter who you see don't get your hopes up so high that if Eugen really isn't here, that your excitement for commanding this fleet goes out the window.' I tell myself as we're entering the dorm.
The main part of the dorm building isn't really that much different from the Eagle dorms except the walls are painted red and dark gray. However that's more than accounted for because where the backyard normally is for the other dorms, is the Biergarten. A giant banquet hall, with a full bar towards the back, a stage to the left side, several buffet lines to the right and numerous tables scattered throughout. Sitting at one of the tables are three ladies all similarly dressed in maroon and wearing black sailor caps. Alerting them to my presence I can finally speak the language that I haven't used in a couple of years. "Guten morgen, frauleins!"
"So you're the Kommandant? You have such a cute face! Hehe...Let KMS Königsberg take 'good care' of you from now on..."
"Hi, it's me KMS Karlsruhe! Please take care of me, Kommandant."
"You seem like a wise Kommandant. I'm KMS Köln. Please rest assured and let me take care of your work."
"I look forward to working with you Königsberg, Karlsruhe, and Köln." 'Karlsruhe and Köln seem nice, not sure what to think about Königsberg though. And then she appears, pinkish platinum hair, red eyes, red and dark gray uniform with the iron cross stitched at the neck and cuffs of the sleeves. This has to be Eugen!'
"So you're the Kommandant? I wonder how long you can keep me amused? I look forward to-" 'It was at this moment that she met her eyes with mine and realized who her Kommandant is.'
"MATTHEW!" Eugen yells at the top of her lungs and runs into me giving me a bear hug. "Guten morgen, Eugen!"
Calming down a bit, she whispers "I hope you didn't forget the nickname you gave me."
"Of course I didn't. I'm looking forward to working with you again, Strelitzia."
"The same applies for me, Mein Kommandant." My cellphone dings multiple times.
That's the first half of 'the tutorial' chapter. Thanks for reading this and I'll see you later.
I do not own Azur Lane, Ownership belongs to Yongshi, Yostar and Manjuu.
