(AN: Hello all. Thank you for reading this story. If you are new here then please note that this is the third part in a series starting with Azur Lane: the story and Triple Alliance. I'll link the other two stories at the bottom of this chapter. Reading them will help put a lot of things in perspective.
If you've already read them then thank you for doing so. This will be the last Azur Lane story I write so thank you for being part of this journey.)
"We are all that remains," said a sergeant to a group of young men as he marched from left to right.
The men he addressed were not trained soldiers or seasoned combatants. They were regular joes, who for so long lived normal, boring and humdrum lives. In an ideal world, fate would allow them to live out these lives to their natural conclusion, unfortunately though: they were not living in an ideal world.
"Now I don't know where the hell this enemy came from," continued the sergeant "but I do know that they are merciless and brutal. They will not stop until they have wiped us out from the face of the earth."
The sergeant paused when he saw one of the soldiers shaking but doing his best to hide his fear.
"I know you're afraid," he said, looking at all of them "you have every reason to be. But do not forget that we are going out there to fight not for glory or honor: we're fighting to protect the future of our species."
Almost instinctually the group turned around and saw the mass of people behind them. The old and infirm, the weak and the young: those that could not carry a weapon.
"If we fall, there'll be nothing to protect them from the enemy," he added
"SO when you go out there today," he said, pressing a button which slowly raised the shutters of their barricade "remember what you're fighting for. Good luck and god speed soldiers."
Now that he said his peace, the sergeant took his place at the forefront of the group. When the shutters were fully raised, he gave a signal followed by him and the group charging outside, yelling as loud as they could.
The plan was to shout so much that it managed to deter the enemy. They would use that to their advantage and strike down as many as possible before the enemy could recover.
However, as they continued their charge, they found that there was no enemy waiting for them. The group then slowed down when they noticed three women standing ahead of them.
One wore a flowing black and white dress, on top of which she wore a black coat. The woman in the middle wore a sleeveless white shirt with a black skirt and a captain's hat. The third woman wore what looked like a cowboy's hat, had blond hair in the form of twin tails and wore on a bikini top with short shorts.
"Um, sir," said one of the soldiers, turning to the sergeant "are they on our side?"
Before the elderly man could answer, they heard an unfamiliar voice to their right saying "oh don't worry about that: they're definitely on our side."
The group immediately turned around and saw a man dressed in a modified version of a naval officer's uniform, holding a katana in one hand and sporting some very unique accessories. The group immediately noticed the metallic left arm sticking out of his sleeve and the shiny pair of greaves he was wearing.
"You can always count on Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet," said the man.
"What is… who are you kid?" asked the sergeant.
"Me? I'm just a run of the mill trouble maker," replied the man with a shrug "don't think about it too much."
"Commander," called out the woman in the middle and the man turned to her.
"Yes Enterprise," said the man, whom the group now identified by the call sign Commander.
The one known as Enterprise pointed to something behind her. The group noticed a number of flying ships now coming towards them.
"Ah, well now," said the Commander "looks like we kicked the hornet's nest… so to speak."
"Gather your people and start running in the opposite direction," he said, turning to the sergeant and his soldiers "one of my allies will be waiting for you, trust me it'll be impossible to miss her."
"Get going, things are about to get very hectic in the city and I want to avoid any collateral damage."
Nodding in agreement, the sergeant immediately ordered the soldiers to head back into their stronghold and get the people out.
"Kid," he said, turning to the Commander "I hope you've got more than just those three."
"Oh don't worry about that," he said, his expression shifting from calm and collected to focused and serious.
"I'm never alone," he said, pointing up.
The sergeant assumed the kid was referring to how his religious deity was always on his side. It was only when he looked up, did he realize something important.
It was around eleven am and by now the sun should be high up in the sky, its warm rays beating down on the ruined city. Yet, the city didn't seem all that bright, almost like something was blocking it.
The sergeant understood now that the Commander was actually referring to the giant floating rock that was big enough to block out the sun.
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In another part of the world, a young man packed the beach shore left to right. Occasionally, he'd stop and stare at the horizon, expecting for something to appear. When he saw nothing, he'd continue pacing the shore.
'James Harper,' thought the young man 'the leader of the Azur Sky and Omega's biggest threat. He shows up out of nowhere, wreaks havoc like no one's business and then runs off somewhere else to go cause more trouble to the Sirens.'
He tried his best to recollect the series of events, but they were still pretty hazy. This should come as no surprise to him, given how he was still recovering from a severe concussion, making it difficult for the mind to store memories.
All he remembered was that James declared he would use this momentum to his advantage to really make an impact in the war. What that meant was anyone's guess.
The other thing the young man remembered was how James also stole his friends because he wanted them to 'get used to how the fleet operated.'
"Damn it," he said, shaking his fist "Rossiya and the others have already had enough to deal with. The last thing they need is to be thrown into the fray like that."
"Alec," called out a voice from the distance and the young man stopped pacing. He turned in the direction of the voice and saw an elderly woman walking towards him.
"Are you sure it's okay for you to be walking around out in the open like this Whitney?" he asked "last I checked, you're still the leader of the resistance."
"I lost the right to lead after that terrible incident," said Whitney, "besides, no one's going to follow a tired old lady like me. No, now's the time for the world to start following someone young and bold…"
"Someone like James?"
"I actually meant you,"
"Huh? Why me?"
"Why not you? You're smart, young, a good leader…"
"You and I both know there's someone more qualified than me to take care of things"
"I don't want to ask James because he's already got enough on his plate. We've pretty much put all our hopes on him and that fleet to help us win the war. That's a heavy load for anyone to carry."
"By the way, did you figure out where we were?"
"Damned if I know," she replied, shrugging "they moved us to a big island that's close enough for survivors to reach us, but has enough vegetation to hide us from any patrols."
"Damn, it's like he thought of everything," said Alec, sighing.
"You know, when I was talking with Manny, he'd often bring up James from time to time. Only, he always called him 'kid' or 'brat.' I always thought that James was some introvert who wasn't good at socializing. Hard to imagine that the troublemaker Manny took under his wing is now humanity's last hope."
Alec paused for a moment, wondering if he should ask the question.
"How, how was the funeral?"
"Quiet and somber: just like any other funeral. James and his wife also attended, but he didn't say anything. After they lowered the coffin, he thanked me and then left."
In an effort to change the subject, Whitney turned to Alec and said "you know, you pacing this shoreline isn't going to make them come any quicker."
"Well it's better than doing nothing. I can't help but wonder what that fleet's doing right now. He's already got a sizable group with him, why'd he have to take Rossiya and the others too?"
"Oh? Are you worried that James might steal your friends from you?"
"O-of course not," he said, but couldn't deny the idea in the back of his mind. It was a hypocritical thing to imagine. Though they only met briefly, Alec could tell that James was a decent guy, not the type to resort to underhanded tricks.
But at the same time, his mind couldn't help but imagine such a scenario playing out.
Just then, they saw something in the distance. For a moment, the pair wondered if this was a Siren attack and were thinking of ways to counter. But, as the object drew closer, they realized it was not that at all.
"Oh… my… god," said Alec, looking at the flying island. He heard enough accounts from the girls, a few survivors and from Whitney herself, but seeing the thing took his breath away.
'So that's the thing that came out of a portal in the sky,' he thought, watching as the massive engines that kept the island afloat were powering down, allowing the base to slowly descend into the water.
'God damn, that thing looks like the final level in an RPG,' he thought.
"Yep, it takes a while to sink in," said Whitney to him "but that's their base of operations."
Not long after it touched the waters, they soon saw someone flying towards them. Soon enough, they saw him land on the shores and greet them with a gentle smile.
"Alec, Whitney, nice to see you," said James, making his way towards them.
"James, good to see you too," said Whitney, coming to meet him halfway, while Alec remained in his place.
"Is something the matter Alec?" asked James.
"Sorry," he said, shaking his head a little "it's a lot to take in, that's all."
"The base?" asked James, pointing his thumb to the island "yeah, I can understand. You won't believe how much it cost to make this thing happen."
It wasn't just the base that Alec was focused on. The Commander of the Azur sky looked like he was decked out in some top tier equipment as well. There was the metal arm said to be strong enough to punch through steel, the sheathed katana that could cut through Siren metal and the greaves that granted him flight and unparalleled mobility in combat.
If he was being honest, Alec always thought the Commander, Omega's enemy was some intimidating looking leader with a stare that could melt steel. Yet, James was nothing like that. He seemed normal, talked politely and had a calming nature about him.
Was this really the man who faced a Siren fleet all by himself?
"I apologize for taking so long to return here," said James, to Whitney "the campaign was supposed to be complete in three weeks but when the girls heard about the Yellowstone geyser, they all insisted we stop by there on the way back."
"Campaign," repeated Alec "what campaign? Did you go out and win the war already?"
"I wish it were that easy," replied James with a chuckle "no I meant the small campaign to take advantage of our momentum. We caught Omega off guard and before she could organize a defensive play, the fleet went and took out one of her anchors."
"What?" said Whitney.
"Our intelligence team surmised that Omega set up anchors here as well in order to give her fleet the ability to appear nearly anywhere they wanted and attack the enemy when we least suspected. Bearn and Marblehead confirmed that theory, pointing out that the one nearest to us was in the ruins of NY city. So, we went there, took out a few outposts along the way and destroyed the anchor."
"Now both North and South America don't have to worry about Sirens suddenly popping up from out of nowhere."
"Oh and don't worry Alec," he added, patting the young man on the should "I didn't involve any of your friends during combat. They merely watched how we did things: nothing more, nothing less."
"Rossiya, Richelieu, Bremerton and Essex will be coming here shortly. Bearn, Shangri-La and Marblehead are staying behind to update our intelligence division and I'm having Vestal do a checkup on the rest. Once that's complete, we'll get started on outfitting the team with the best equipment our research division can come up with."
Before they could say anything else or voice how little of what he said made sense, James turned around and saw four familiar faces on the waters.
"Good timing," he said, turning to the four.
"I'll be heading back to base. Everyone gave it their all during the past few weeks so I told them all to take it easy for the next few days," he said "be seeing you soon."
After saying his peace but before the two could voice their doubts, James slowly rose to the sky and flew back to the base.
"He's right you know," said a familiar voice "they gave it their all during these past few weeks. It's only right the whole fleet gets to rest."
Alec and Whitney now turned their attention to the group James was just referring to.
"Glad to see you're doing fine," said Alec, letting out a sigh of relief upon seeing the familiar and friendly faces of Rossiya, Richelieu, Bremerton and Essex.
"Nice to see you as well Alec," said Rossiya, smiling at him.
"It may have been a few weeks but it felt like forever since we last saw you Alec," added Richelieu.
"Come here buddy," declared Bremerton, coming forward and immediately embracing Alec.
"I too am glad to see you're fine," said Whitney, making her presence know, "though I would have liked to have seen the rest of the group."
"It's as James said," said Essex "most of the members from the Northern Parliament and Iris Libre are busy undergoing checkups and scans. Meanwhile, the Eagle Union are busy getting their long-awaited upgrades."
"Hold on a second," said Alec, managing to escape from Bremerton's affectionate embrace "upgrades? I didn't know that you could be upgraded."
"There's a lot that we should discuss Alec," said Rossiya "and I'd say now's a good a time as any to start."
"Alright, let's start from the beginning of James' counterattack."
Azur Lane: the story: ww s/13468338/1/Azur-Lane-The-Story
Triple Alliance: ww s/13636961/1/Triple-Alliance