So apparently people liked the last chapter. I mean, that's just fine, you do you, but I thought it was one of my weaker ones. Well, what do I know, then?

Thanks to J. 1919, Mountain Jew (there's a handle), Slayer 10321 and kreeft123xx for the follows/favorites.

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MarauderPrime12: Thanks.

Journal of Admiral Steele, January 16, 2558

Heading into the office this morning, I found a notification blinking on my computer screen.

"Morning Admiral. You've got some commissions to check." Equinox reported.

"Commissions?" I asked, sitting down.

"Yep. Send two to six shipgirls out and they should come back with some good stuff." Equinox 'flipped' through a sheaf of papers. "Most of it is guarding military convoys passing through and helping the select resource mining groups that have been allowed in. We've got four here now. Interested?"

"Sure, why not." I replied. I cobbled together four groups of six (which was a little under half of the fleet, come to think of it) and sent them orders. Seems a relaxing day was in the cards for the rest, since I wanted the fleet at full strength for the inevitable assault on Starfield Princess, and since we got new shipgirls by the day, stalling while building the fleet seemed like the best option.

"What's up?" I asked.

"This is." By the sound of Akashi's voice, she wasn't very amused. On a drawing table- drafting table? Blueprint table?- were packets of papers (not the paper that the R&D girls used for their designs), each of them with a top sheet blank save for a few words.

USS Seattle, Austin, Puerto Rico, Annapolis, Georgia, Ohio, Vermont, HMS Neptune, Minotaur, Plymouth, Monarch, Cheshire, Drake, Goliath, Conqueror, Thunderer, St. Vincent, Audacious, IJN Ibuki, Zao, Izumo, Kitakaze, Azuma, Yoshino, Harugumo, Hayate, Hakuryu, Shikishima, Satsuma, KMS Roon, Friedrich der Große, Mainz, Odin, ZF-6, Z-52, Elbing, Hindenburg, Siegfried, Agir, Prinz Rupprecht, Schlieffen, Großer Kurfürst, Preussen, Hannover, Manfred von Richthofen, FFNF Saint Louis, Brest, MNF Gascogne, MN Kleber, Marceau, Champagne, Henri IV, Republique, Bourgogne, Conde, Patrie, SN Khabarovsk, Delny, Grozovoi, Zorky, Moskva, Alexander Nevsky, Petropavlovsk, Stalingrad, Smolensk, Slava, Kremlin, Chkalov, RM Paolo Emilio, Attilio Regolo, Marco Polo, Venezia, Napoli, Cristoforo Colombo, PLAN Harbin.

"These showed up overnight." Akashi said grumpily. "We looked through them this morning. The resource requirements for these are obscene! 'Obtain 3 million experience from Royal Navy ships. Gather 30,000 credits. Gather 5 Wisdom Cubes.' The flying fuck is a Wisdom Cube?"

"I don't know, but I get the sense we'll be finding out today." I muttered. "Wait, I know these names."

"You do?" The repair ship looked askance at me.

"Yeah. I went looking on data from the navies back in the 20th century. All these names are of ships that were never built, never commissioned, or never finished."

"So what will doing all this garbage do? Magically summon them, specially made to fight Abyssals?"

"Considering that's why you're here," I replied. "I would guess so."

"Well I hope you have the credits to spare. I'm not paying for this shit." The repair ship left.

"Hmmm…." I pondered the blueprints. Jesus, those requirements were pretty steep.

"Nyaaaah!"

"What in the-?!" I turned around, bringing my sword around into stabbing position. "Who's there?"

"But you know who it is, nyaaah." The voice sounded… confused? "It's Akashi, nyaaah!"

"Akashi just left. And would probably commit seppuku before talking like that." I said, scanning the room. Where was she?

"But Akashi's right here!" She said right in my ear holy fuck

I turned to find her right behind me.

This Akashi was a catgirl. Like, honest to god, ears and tail and everything. Besides her cat-patterned dress, she held what looked like an oversized wrench. Her hair (and ears) were also a vibrant gasoline green.

"Yeah next time could you not do that kthanks." I said, deactivating my sword from where it was stuck in her face. She didn't look too concerned.

"That's okay, Admiral. Akashi knows when she's been naughty, nyaaaah." The cat-shipgirl nuzzled into me. You know, like a cat. "But I can make it up to Admiral, nyaaaah."

"Don't. Please." I said. Then, brandishing a packet (Roon), I asked, "Did you leave these here?"

"No. Maybe the ships themselves did, nyaaah?"

"Except that should be physically impossible." I muttered, overcome with the urge to go and drown myself in liquor for the who knows what fucking time.

Once more, I stood at attention, waiting for the next assortment of shipgirls. That Enterprise arriving yesterday had only made me more curious, if the process that these girls came about from could actually reach into different timelines.

Either that or she really needs to crack open some 20th Century History books, but that's not here nor there.

"Guten Tag, Admiral. I am Z23, of the Iron Blood. Let us study hard together, and aim for the top!" The first shipgirl, a destroyer, said, saluting with her left hand while the right held a rigging not unlike a shark's face. Sounds like a German parallel- they got particularly lazy when it came to naming their destroyers.

"Benson-class destroyer, Laffey, awaiting your orders." A tired-looking destroyer lined up next to Z23. I glanced at her ears. "Admiral, the ears aren't real…. There's no need to stare." She yawned. Aside from the…. Questionable length of her skirt, she didn't look too out of the ordinary. Must be Amer- Eagle Union, goddammit I'm gonna have to start differentiating them.

Another destroyer lined up next to them. "I'm Javelin, Admiral. Nice to meet you." I just stared at her wordlessly. Which she took to mean as attraction, if her "Oh ho? You look like you have no idea what to do with a girl of your type being assigned to you?" was any indication.

"Ah, greetings, Javelin." Hood spoke up from my side.

"Heya, Hood!" She's a Royal Navy girl, then.

"Hello… I'm…. Ayanami. I am often called 'The Demon'. It is a pleasure to meet you." A fourth, obviously Japanese shipgirl finished the line, clearly just deadpan, probably because she wasn't familiar with emotions or something.

"Nice to meet you all, I guess." I replied. "Destroyer dorms are that way, and each nation has their own."

"Aw, but can't we bunk together?" Javelin piped up. "You can't just split the Starter Squad!"

"Are you still going on about that?" Z23 shot a skeptical glance at the British DD.

"But we agreed!"

"For fuck's… Fine, you guys can stay together." I said, pinching the bridge of my nose in an attempt to help my headache.

"Thanks, Admiral!" Javelin grabbed Laffey and Ayanami and rushed off towards the dorms, pulling the two destroyers along with surprisingly little protest. Z23 shrugged and followed them.

I sighed. "Now who's-" I turned around… and got tackled.

"... again?" I groaned… or tried to. There were some, ahem, obstructions in my way.

"Pan paka paaaaaaaaaaan~! Don't worry Admiral, Atago is here for youuuu!" A far too cheerful and bubbly voice came from around the… fuel tanks pressed to my face.

"Oh my, what a cute Admiral! Please allow your big sisters, the Atagos, to take good care of you from now on!" Another voice, this one slightly more mature, came from behind the other set of fuel tanks I was trying (and failing) to breathe through.

"You can start by getting off me." I replied, which, thankfully, they acquiesced to. I stood up, muttering as I did so, and took a look.

On the left, stood a blonde, wearing a blue overcoat, showing off some legs encased in pantyhose, with a sailor cap parked on top of her head.

On the right, stood a raven-haired shipgirl, wearing what looks like a white dress uniform, minus that it cut off just where it needed to be to cover everything, with a katana sheathed at her hip. A pair of fluffy ears sat atop her head, perking up as I looked her over.

I will admit, both of them were rather… uh, well-equipped for their type. Weren't they heavy cruisers?

"Did Admiral not like our-"

"Stop. Please." I asked. The Atago on the left did so. I continued, "Alright, where are you two from?"

"I served honorably in the Imperial Japanese Navy!" The blond Atago replied.

"The Sakura Empire holds it's place in my heart as my homeland." The Atago on the right said.

"Thank you. Now, can you two please not do that again?" They nodded. "Thank you. Dorms are that way." I pointed off in the direction of the cruiser dorms.

"I do apologize for my sister." I heard a voice behind me as I watched the Atagos walk off, chatting away. I turned around.

Both were brunette, but I could tell by their attire which Atago the presumably Takao was related to. They looked remarkably similar in that regard.

"I see. Takao, I presume?"

"Indeed. How did you guess?" SE Takao (goddammit, I'm going to hate having to start doing that) sounded quite surprised. I shrugged.

"Educated guess. Follow your sisters, and you'll be at the dorms." They wandered off as well. I glanced back at Hood.

"Say, Hood." She came to attention. "Who were your main allies and enemies in World War 2?"

"The Eagle Union, once they were attacked by the Sakura Empire. We finished off the Iron Blood first, though."

"I see." So the only difference from that alternate timeline is the names of participating nations. "Thank you for that, Hood."

"Of course."

I lay back in my bed tonight, thinking hard about this.

We had a bunch of shipgirls that, apparently, were from an alternate timeline that had differing nations in name only, though that really only applied to the events of WW2. I had no idea if there was anything else different though.

What the hell was going on? Even during the Covenant War things had never been this what-the-fuck.

This assignment is beginning to disturb me more and more.

Anyways, I decided to ponder this while doing some paperwork. I walked out to get some coffee, then sat down, and began.

*checks calendar*

*checks last upload date*

Huh, I… actually updated in about a month. And just in time for the New Year. Good shit.

Anyhow, I really hope I can keep this up. My main problem with writing these is that I get stuck on the little details here in the beginning. But well, I did this.

Also, yes, I am starting to add in Azur Lane shipgirls, even those that were already in here. I'll have to make sure to clarify which one I'm writing if their personalities are too similar (or anyways, this a textual medium, not a visual one), but I'm also not forgetting Kancolle ships, both official and fanmade.

Also, damn you Hiei (one of my Discord buddies) for getting me into World of Warships.

Edit: On the subject of World of Warships, I updated the research ship list I have in here. More work for me, then.

Very very future edit: I CALLED MAINZ AND ODIN BEING RESEARCH SHIPS LARF