At long last, Chapter 1 is here. Both me and MCCXXII are pretty damn proud of what we have made. I'd especially like it if you told us how we did via a review - those help immensely.

The optional youtube soundtrack: playlist?list=PLfUttKNcUeSbjeMmG9z98WlI5VDId3X0P


-Chapter 1, Act 2: A New World?-

-?'s PoV-

"Hey, get the fuck over here!" A man loudly yelled to one of his "acquaintances".

"Yeah yeah, I'm awake!" he shouted back. "You don't need to shout like the CP commander!"

Another man loudly grunted, managing to just barely stay afloat on the water they were currently treading in.

"So... where the fuck are we?" one of them asked.

They all looked around in response. Water. Water for miles. And certainly none of it potable.

"What the fuck does it look like?" one of them loudly yelled. "We're in the middle of the goddamn drink, with no navigation or anything. We might as well be shark bait!"

No one bothered to reply to his blow of truth. He was right; they would have to swim if they had any hope of doing anything. When one of them began swimming, the others quickly followed out of a sense of self-preservation. They swam for more than a few minutes, and maybe even an hour.

When all hope was lost, they noticed something on the horizon.

One of the men finally spoke after the extended silence. "Look! Help's arrived!"

The ship kept going, seemingly not noticing the people - That is, until it approached. Because when it did, it slowed down, as a few girls exited from a door on it's exterior. The men looked on, watching them while waiting for their next move.

.

..

...

-Snake's PoV-

🎵 Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - Marshlands (Evasion) 🎵

Snake woke up to the sound of water splashing into his ears. He tried to open his eyes wider, but he immediately jerked them closed. He moved his left hand to his head and wiped off whatever was in his eyes; sand. His vision began to clear up, finding himself lying flat on his stomach on a beach near a shoreline. Pushing himself up on his knees and also brushing off the remaining sand particles caked into his left eye, he tried to wipe away the sand in his solid eye, but couldn't see out of it no matter much he attempted to wipe at it. He believed that the bright lights from the rift must have damaged it's circuits so he decided to leave it alone and stand up straight to start looking around at where he was at.

It was a shoreline on an island with a forest of trees so thick that he couldn't see light pass through. Regaining his thoughts before he fell unconscious, he broke into a sprint and started to run along the shoreline to see if any of his subordinates washed onto shore too.

"Miller!?... Ocelot!?... Anyone!?"

After running what seemed to be laps around the island, he collapsed to his knees and began to catch his breath. He fell forward, but caught himself with his hands. He was by himself, he didn't know where he was, and couldn't find any of his men on the island; he was lost. He regained his breath and stood back on his feet, and reached into his pocket to pull out his iDroid. He pressed the button to activate it only to find that the holographic projector didn't work.

"...Batteries must be fried..."

He put it back into his pocket and looked out towards the ocean. It seemed endless with no sight of any other islands. He ran over to another point on the island and began looking around some more, he saw nothing. Snake then ran over to another side of the island, and there he saw something in the distance. He squinted his left eye and tried to make out what he spotted. For a second he thought he saw a person moving among the water at an incredibly fast speed, but he disregarded it as an hallucination from his Solid Eye. In the distance, another figure merged behind the person, the 2nd figure seemingly the same height as the first one. The figures looked to be moving closer to the island. Confused at the sight before him and in dire need of help locating his men, he instinctively began to wave his arms in the air to try to draw their attention.

As the two figures began to move closer... he realized that he wasn't hallucinating at all. Moving closer were two short girls. Baffled by the sight before him, he lowered his arms and stared at the approaching characters with disbelief in his eyes.

"...And I thought Sahelanthropus was strange enough..." he muttered to himself in disbelief.

The first figure had bright pink hair with large blue eyes. She wore a dress that looked a lot like a maid's uniform with fluffy trims around her hands and legs. Her chest appeared to be sticking out a bit, which made it seem like the top was too small for her. In her hand appeared to be a large paddle in which it's design seemed to mimic the hull of a ship. The 2nd girl had light brown hair with black bows tied around short twin tails poking out underneath a red hood. She wore a dress with a black coat that had gold buttons and a white trim at its edges. She also had black thigh highs with brown boots. There were two large cannons of a ship along with hulls of a ship sticking out at her sides and she too also had large blue eyes like the first girl.

The two girls seemed to notice Snake's frantic, desperate waving as they seemed to approach the island directly. Snake was still questioning how they were able to traverse the water without a vehicle.

🎵Halo 3 ODST - One Way Ride🎵

"HEEEEYYYY~! DO YOU NEED HELP~!?"

The pink-haired girl shouted loudly as they approached Snake's position. He took a moment to mentally prepare for the possibility that these girls may be potential enemies, before replying equally as loud.

"YEAH! I'M TRAPPED HERE!" he loudly shouted back to them.

The two girls seemed to accelerate, with them closing the distance quite quickly. Snake squinted his left eye again, noticing that the girls legs weren't moving their legs, as if skating across ice. He was simultaneously doubting his mental state and also theorizing if it was some sort of new technology that a major power had developed.

Interrupting his thought, the girls came to a slow and stepped onto the sandy beach. If his Solid Eye was working, he could scan them to see their details. Too bad that it was out of commission.

"So, how did you get here?" the pink-haired girl said, looking him up and down. "You don't appear to be from any particular division..."

Snake didn't move. "Not from any around here, no."

"Not from... around here?" The brown-haired girl asked him, sounding so shy that she might break into tears if Snake so much as touched her hair.

Snake shook his head. "I'm forbidden from telling details."

Of course, he actually wasn't forbidden. However, he had no obligation or sensical reason to say that he was part of the Diamond Dogs, so he decided to keep that knowledge a secret for now. Maybe further down the line, he could reveal his info... but by that time, he could be facing these girls on the heartless battlefield instead of in a conversation.

"Ah. I understand!" the pink-haired girl responded. "Still... we can't just leave you here. You want us to call for backup?"

Snake smiled. "I would appreciate that."

The pink-haired girl made a peace sign with her right hand while posing. Snake was suspicious that he could be captured for questioning and/or interrogation, but he had no choice but to accept the help. Either he stays here and dies on this island or accepts the help from these strange girls.

No brainer, isn't it?

The girl pulled out some sort of device from nowhere, and pressed a button on it.

"This is Suffolk. We've found someone stranded and need evac."

A female voice came from it. "Acknowledged. We'll send a basic vessel your way. Are they injured?"

"No. Infact, they appear to be unaffiliated with any known organization."

"I see." the voice replied. "We'll question them when they're back to base."

At these words, the girl pressed the button again, and the device was put back into who-knows-where. Snake reached into his other pocket... good, the Phantom Cigars were still there. Taking one out of his pocket, he used his prosthetic hand to light it. Before he placed it into his mouth, the brown-haired girl approached him.

"Um... tobacco is bad, right?"

Snake looked down at the girl. "Yeah."

She raised her eyebrows in confusion. "Then why are you smoking?"

...What a significant question. Snake had to take more than a few moments to try and think of a way to put it into words. Reasons of why and why not were all popping up in his, but one of them stood out amongst the whirlwind of reasons.

"...Well..." Snake looked at the sea. "It helps calm me."

The girl didn't respond. Snake continued, assuming that it was a cue to not stop talking.

"Some of us need something to keep us from completely losing our cool. Tobacco is just one of those things that people use." The girl merely responded with a quiet 'oh', as Snake finally put the cigar in his mouth. One puff was all it took for the vessel to suddenly arrive.

"Um..."

A tap on his shoulder brought him back to his senses. The brown-haired girl was looking at him, seeming confused about something. Snake turned to face her.

"Are you okay, Mr? You've been standing there for so long..."

"Huh?" Snake autonomously replied, not processing what the brown-haired girl had just said.

The pink-haired girl walked up next to the other girl. "She's right - I've counted, and you've just been standing there smoking that cigar for about 40 minutes. How are you still breathing?"

Snake couldn't stop himself from smiling wryly at their genuine concern. It was very much a valid question, considering that time speeds up massively when he smokes a Phantom Cigar.

"This cigar doesn't have Tobacco. It uses a different, non-toxic drug instead."

The girls stood there, waiting for him to continue with his explanation. Snake was hesitant to give out the name of the drug, not wanting to leak some important intelligence to a potential enemy. But the girls seemed excited.

"Oh, what might that be?" / "Oh... What might... that be?" they both asked in unison.

Right as he was about to give up and open his mouth to give the pink-haired girl a detailed description, a loud horn sounded off.


-Chapter 1, Act 2: Azur Lane-

🎵Destiny 2 - The Farm🎵

50 minutes after the vessel arrived to pick up our protagonist and his acquaintances, they arrived at the main base of the Azur Lane alliance. There, Snake was going to be escorted by Suffolk and Norfolk to the living quarters of their commander.

"So this is an operational naval military base?" Snake questioned, having never seen a functioning naval base like this before.

Suffolk looked back towards Snake. "Affirmative, mister! Apart from the docks, this is where most of us hang out when we aren't on duty."

He looked around the shoreline, expecting to see buildings of military infrastructure with military personal walking and from buildings patrolling the shoreside and large docks that had ships at bay, but to his surprise, he saw none of that. Instead, he saw a group of people by the beachside, with a few playing in the water and nearly all of them seeming to be female. Equally surprising was that the island didn't appear to have any sort of emplacements whatsoever. Above the shoreline was a staircase made of concrete that led up to a building simply named "shop."

"This looks to be more like a resort than a base..." Snake muttered to himself.

Norfolk heard this, however, as she nervously spoke up from right next to Suffolk.

"Oh…. I-I think it's a base… it has everything we could ever want and need." she quietly responded.

"Yeah!" Suffolk chimed up. "And besides, you're only seeing the fun side of our base."

Suffolk signals with her left hand to Snake to follow her. "Let me to give you a proper tour of the main part of our base."

Snake followed Suffolk towards the concrete stairs with Norfolk trailing behind him. He looks over to see Suffolk's paddle in her right hand disappear with a bright flash while the cannons at Norfolk's side fold up behind her and vanish. He was still baffled by the mysterious logic behind two girls who he first encountered. He thought to himself; Are there more of them like these two? They then approached the busy beachside of the shore where the many girls he saw from a distance where hanging out by.

He noticed two girls were talking to each other while walking straight towards them. One of them had blonde hair with what appeared to be some sort of dramatically oversized scarf and wore a red one piece swimsuit. Her eyes were crimson red and had a large grin on her face as she talked with the other girl. The other had long, lavender hair with two french braids and deep purple eyes. She wore a white see-through gown over a white bathing suit that had purple highlights and a straw hat with flowers and a dark purple bow.

The blond-haired girl noticed Snake, and turned to say something to the other person. After a dozen seconds of brief conversation, both of them walked over to the group. The other girls took notice and gathered around them. The lavender haired girl appeared to be whispering to the group of girls as they crowded close to her. After a minute of gossip, the two girls then turned to face Snake, Norfolk and Suffolk and ran straight over to them.

"Ah! So you're that guy that these two rescued." the blond-haired girl energetically said. Her personality was already overwhelming Snake. He merely nodded in response.

The lavender-haired girl spoke up as well. 'It appears to be. I must say, it is quite rare to see a male other than the commander on base."

Snake didn't respond. The blonde haired girl raised her hand "It's nice to meet you! Names' Cleveland! Light cruiser of the Cleveland-class... and I've got a ton of sisters!"

Snake looked down at her hand and noticed she was wearing black fingerless gloves. He kept a straight face and promptly shaked her hand with a firm grip. He looked over to the lavender haired girl, "And my name is Rodeny! I'm Nelson-class battleship. I do have a bigger sister named Nelson, but she isn't very nice."

Snake didn't even bother to try and ask how they were able to glide across water, or the fact that these two told him that they are part of a subclass of ships. Frankely, he was still processing that these girls were not only capable of floating on water as if it were concrete, but somehow had some serious firepower as if it were man portable.

Cleveland turned around to the group of girls who are seemingly still gossiping over Snake's presence. "Come on girls, don't be shy! Come say hi to the new guy!" And like that, the group of girls ran over and surrounded them. He could barely make out what all of them were saying,

"Hi! Nice to meet you!" said a girl with short blonde hair with white bunny ears.

"Hello mister! Are you a soldier? You sure look tough", said another girl with lime green hair in a dark purple swimsuit.

"Wow… I-I've seen another boy before…" Snake looks down to look at a short little girl with blue short tails "Huh… n-ni-nice to meet you..." She said in a very nervous and shaky tone.

Someone approached him from behind, immediately putting him on high alert.

"Ara ara~"

He quickly turned around to find a girl with blue hair and purple eyes looked into his unflinching eye, "I haven't seen my sisters this excited since Helena returned from being stationed in Hawaii."

Another girl with brown hair and cyan eyes approached them and inspected Snake from head to toe. "You look tough, but not as tough as me… heheheh… I never seen anybody dress like that."

"Hello! you must who Norfolk and Suffolk radio about, you're certainly an individual out of the ordinary!" Said a brown haired girl with green eyes.

"Hi… Y-You're so t-tall, Cygnet hasn't seen another human in awhile..." Remarked a short girl with white hair and red eyes.

Snake was starting to get overwhelmed with how many people were currently talking to him, he started to feel stressed on the inside, but remained quiet in the face of the crowd of girls surrounding him.

"Huh… Suffolk… I-I don't he feels comfortable around everyone."

Suffolk stared off at the crowd surrounding them, not hearing what Norfolk said.

"Suffolk!" She suddenly snapped back to reality and looked back at Norfolk.

"Hu-Huh!? What is it, sis?"

Norfolk spoke in a louder tone, "I don't think he likes being surrounded by our friends!" Suffolk looked back at Snake who gathered the attention of everyone in the crowd, excluding her and her sister Norfolk.

"What are going to do!? They… won't leave him alone…" Suffolk looked off in the distance for a few seconds before facing Norfolk. "Leave it to me sister, I will calm them down."

Suffolk took a deep breath, at the top of her lungs she yelled, "OKAY... EVERYONE, THAT'S ENOUGH… GIVE HIM SOME SPACE!"

The girls didn't hear her announcement and continued to chatter and talk around Snake. Suffolk looked back at Norfolk, "They aren't listening to me, Norfolk do something!"

Norfolk gave her a very nervous look. "I-I… I don't know what to do! I've never spoken in front of a… crowd before!"

Snake was stuck between a rock and a hard place; he couldn't attack these girls, not only because there was no reason to attack potential allies, but also because he felt he was in enemy territory. But at the same time, he had no route of escape whatsoever. He had dealt with the most advanced weapons the human race could make... but it seems he couldn't deal with humans themselves when the pressure was on. To his surprise he heard a loud high pitched voice that sounded like it came from a child.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU ALL CHATTERING ABOUT!? I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF THINK!"

🎵MGS5 - Withered Peace 🎵

The sound of the child like voice immediately caught the attention of all the girls surrounding him as they all fell quiet and looked over at the top of the concrete staircase. At the top of the staircase stood a frowning young girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes in a black one-piece swimsuit. On her head was a black headband with a small red crown tiled on the side. Beside her was another young girl, but she had a face of concern rather than disgust. She had purple hair tied up into two buns with a red flower on top of her head and wore a blue swimsuit.

The blonde haired girl had her hands at the side of her hips as she looked down at the crowd below her.

"You all better not be talking abo- Huh!?" Her face shifted to an expression of shock. She suddenly caught glimpses of Suffolk and Norfolk within the crowd. It quickly turned back into a frown.

"Suffolk, Norfolk what are you two doing here!? You two are supposed to be on patrol with Hood and Prince of Wales!"

Suffolk and Norfolk faces were filled with fear. Suffolk moved in front of Norfolk to protect her, as Norfolk hid directly behind her.

"W-Were sorry Queen Elizabeth, we w-were patrolling the southeast coast…"

"Yeah… w-we-we we patrolled the region... just as Commander ask of-" the blonde haired girl quickly interrupted her, speaking out in a loud harsh tone.

"I DON'T CARE, YOU TWO AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE BACK UNTIL LATER! THE COMMANDER GAVE YOU CLEAR ORDERS TO REGROUP WITH HOOD AND PRINCE OF WALES!"

Snake had no chance to talk at all. He didn't know who this girl was, and didn't have the social skills to deal with her either. All he could do was stand there and watch the argument unfold.

Suffolk spoke in a lower tone, "Queen Elizabeth… we have o-other news…"

This caught the attention of the small but loud girl. She didn't say anything, seemingly waiting for an answer.

Norfolk peeked behind her sister, "We found someone on one of the remote islands."

The blonde haired girl gave her a skeptical look, "Out of all people on earth, who would make you two bring back to the base?"

Suffolk and Norfolk moved off to the side so Snake was in clear visible view of the blonde haired girl. She gasped at the sight of Snake. Almost at a loss for words, she took a moment to regather her thoughts.

"Who is this man and why did you bring him to our base?"

Suffolk took a deep breath, "We found him stranded on an island, he was with nobody and had no supplies with him."

Norfolk, with a little bit of confidence speaked up, "We couldn't leave him alone... on the island… so we decided to bring him back to our base."

"Hmmm…" the blonde haired girl thought. She walked down the staircase towards Snake. The purple haired girl trailed off behind her. By the time she approached Snake, everyone excluding the tall blue haired girl backed away from her.

"Would you mind giving me some personal space, St. Louis?"

"Why yes, my apologies." The blue girl said as she took a few steps away from her and moved beside the shorter blue haired girl.

She started to examine him, looking him up in down trying to get a grasp at who Snake was. The man in question currently was confused; he had never seen a girl so small have such authority before. However, he wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be.

🎵No Music🎵

"You. Identify yourself." The small girl demanded.

Snake, having no other options at this point, proceeded to speak.

"Snake. Leader of the army without borders, Diamond Dogs."

"Hoho..." The small girl smirked. "Army without borders, huh."

The girl stepped slightly closer to Snake. "And what happened to these 'Diamond Dogs'? Couldn't they have just rescued you instead of these two?"

She directed a nasty glare to Suffolk and Norfolk, causing them to flinch and stumble backwards.

Snake quickly replied before things got worse. "We were transported through a rift. It completely destroyed our base, and I ended up on an island."

"A rift, you say..." the small girl put a hand to her chin. "That does line up with a report we got about strange weather activity... how did that rift appear?"

"It was created when 4 lightning bolts made contact in the same spot." Snake concisely replied. "It completely ripped apart our base."

"Hmm..."

The girl took a few moments to process this. She seemed to arrive to a conclusion, as she turned around and raised her voice.

"CLEVELAND!"

The girl in question jumped in surprise. "Y-Yes!?"

"Show this guy around our base. Suffolk and Norfolk have lingered around for far too long, and I fear that Prince of Wales and Hood might have been overwhelmed."

Cleveland immediately stepped forward. "Yes, Ma'am!"

The girl then turned towards Suffolk and Norfolk. "Consider yourselves lucky. You will only be let off with a warning this time. However, I expect you to bring forth excellent results when you come back from the battle."

She emphasises that last part. Suffolk and Norfolk also step forward. The former looks at Snake.

"See ya later, Snake! If Elizabeth doesn't interrogate you, then I'll help you get used to our base."

Suffolk walked off, with Norfolk in tow. Norfolk waved at Snake, who waved back with his biological arm.

The girl turned back to the group. "All of you, disperse. Inform the rest that a guest is being given a tour of our base."

All the girls bowed their heads, walking off in separate directions - some leaving in groups, others leaving solo.

Cleveland made a 'follow me' gesture with her arm. "Here, I'll take you to meet the Commander first!"

She began walking in a direction. Rodney also followed the spirited girl, with Snake following close behind. As they continued walking, Snake couldn't help but think, hopefully Miller and Ocelot survived the ordeal.

And with that though, Snake internally switched gears.


-Chapter 1, Act 2: Azur Lane-

🎵Destiny 1 - Tranquility🎵

He trailed behind Cleveland with Rodney at his side. Rodney looked back to see the two young girls walk onto the beach and saw them sat down on the sand and started to make sand castles. Cleveland looked over her shoulder to look at Snake.

"Heh, bet you're wondering who that short tempered little girl is."

Snake was about to respond, but she continued before he had a chance. "Queen Elizabeth, one of the more respected battleships in the Royal Navy. She's also one of the officers of our base… which means she's our boss."

Rodney caught up behind Snake, "She may look young but she's someone you shouldn't underestimate. Not to mention that she's harsher than my older sister."

Snake looked back at Queen Elizabeth and the other young girl. He saw her standing up over a sand castle that she appeared to have made and it appeared like she was boasting about her castle compared to the other young girl with purple hair.

He was still baffled by the seniority Elizabeth held over the other girls on the beach despite looking amongst the youngest. Clearly, he didn't want to dwell on that thought, as he knew he wasn't on the normal earth he is used to. He then looked over at the other girl who was with Elizabeth. She seemed quite different as she seemed more cheerful than the other young girl. Looking back, he redirected his attention to Rodney, expecting her to follow up Cleveland's statement.

"That other girl who is with Elizabeth is Javelin, one of the J-Class destroyer ships of the Royal navy. She's very nice and energetic." Rodney said.

Cleveland also piped up. "Yeah! The complete opposite of Ms. Hothead!"

Snake decided to finally say something. "I see."

The two girls smiled at his simple remark. Cleveland walked directly in front of Snake, and smiled widely.

"Speaking of Ms. Hot Temper, we're gonna go take you to see her boss - er, the boss of us all. The commander!"

Cleveland started walking briskly. Rodney and Snake followed behind. While they were walking, Rodney also spoke up, suddenly shifting to a serious mood.

"Queen Elizabeth mentioned that what you said 'lined up with weather reports we had recently'. Do you know more regarding this?"

Snake furrowed his brows, suddenly stopping. Her words had just reminded him of something that he only had just now cast out of his mind; how were his men doing? Did any of them survive the ordeal.. Did his base survive that rift somehow?

While Cleveland continued walking, Rodney took notice of his sudden pause. She stood in front of him, as he started to get lost in his own thoughts.

"Um? Snake?"

Her concerned tone of voice snapped him back to reality. He looked up from the ground to look at her eye-level. Seeing no reason to keep the incident a secret, he decided to speak - but not before abruptly raising his voice.

"CLEVELAND! WAIT UP!"

The sudden shouting of Snake's voice caught the attention of everyone. Some of the beachgoers jumped in surprise at Snake's very authoritative voice. Cleveland immediately ran back over to where he and Rodney were currently standing.

"Huh? What's the matter?"

"I've got something to tell you." he said in a quiet but serious tone.

The girls faces changed to that of concern. Rodney nodded at Cleveland, and they both motioned for Snake to continue walking while talking. As they were gradually moving down the footpath, Snake took a few moments to mentally prepare himself to recall the event.

"Those 'weather reports' Elizabeth mentioned..." he started speaking, both the girls looking at the sides of his face. "...It likely has something to do with an incident that happened at my base."

""An incident?"" they both remarked in unison.

Snake took another few seconds of silence before speaking. "Before I ended up washed up on that island, a rift appeared at my base. With it, it dragged absolutely everything through it - including the men I've personally trained."

Both girls were quiet. They seemed at a loss for words, struggling to try and take in this knowledge. The small trio gained a good amount of distance before anyone said anything; Rodney was the one to finally break the formidable silence.

"Um... I am sorry to hear about all of this."

Her words sounded unsure. Hesitant, even. Cleveland just continued to stay quiet, but Snake noticed her nodding along with Rodney's words.

But for once, Snake actually tried to smile. It was unnatural for him, but he felt guilty for informing these girls.

"Frankely, I'm happy that your subordinates are treating me so nicely." Snake remarked while smiling. "I was expecting to be departed into a nearby city."

Cleveland finally spoke up. "Don't worry about it! We're all nice here... at least, most of us are..."

Snake was worried about that last part, but neglected to comment on it. They continued walking in silence, with the tense and sombre mood lifted from their shoulders. As they walked, Snake was starting to think even more about the fact that this "base" seemed more like a resort; the various buildings all looked more like shops then warehouses, houses than apartments. It was definitely refreshing for the eyes, but very much unusual...

Finally, after what seemed like a short walk, they ended up in front of a large, mansion-like building.

"Alright! Here we are."

Cleveland moved to stand in front of Snake, making a peace sign with both her hands.

"This here is the dorm. Azur Lane spent a hefty amount of coins to make it so fancy-looking - And fancily equipped!"

She was right. This building was reminiscent of how American buildings were; oversized. Comfortable. It looked to be kept in great condition, as it looked absolutely brand new. He wondered about the wealth of Azur Lane as they entered inside.

.

..

...

They walked into a large room that looked like a lobby of a hotel, the walls were navy blue and the floor had a smooth marble tiling. As they entered, Snaked took notice of the large silver crust on the floor near the entrance. It had two logos on both sides, one had an eagle with a shield behind it, the other a lion looking off to the left with a crown on its head.

He looked around for any other people, he couldn't see anyone around, but he heard the sound of whistling coming from a hallway.

"Welcome to the commander's dorm! or as we like to call it, the social space!"

Social space? Snake thought to himself. He didn't let this stick in his head for long, though, as Rodney signaled to him to follow her and Cleveland once again. They walked towards a desk with a girl working at it.

As they approached the desk, the girl looked up from her paperwork. She quickly fixated her eyes at Snake.

"Good Morning miss Rodney and Cleveland." she politely, but monotonically greeted the two girls.

"Haiya Z23!" Cleveland replied.

Rodney smiled warmly in response, "Good morning Z23, how are you today?"

The girl at the desk took off her glasses and refocused her gaze at Rodney and gave her a small smile, "I am doing fine miss Rodney," She responded in a calm tone before her smile slowly fades away. "However, keeping track of a fleet that the commander has commissioned for oil extraction is quite wearying on my focus."

Cleveland had a metaphorical light bulb go off in her head. "Oh! That reminds me, we came to speak with the commander, we have someone who we want him to meet."

The girl redirected her sights onto Snake. "Oh, is this the gentleman who you want him to meet? Hmm… I've never seen anyone dress like that before. Especially not a male other than the commander."

"Yeah, I think he looks badass too!" Cleveland shouted.

The girl looked down at her desk and wrote some words on a paper with a pen, but setting it down to open her mouth once again. "Very well, I will alert the commander of your presence and wait for confirmation on your meeting with him."

She looked over to her right and picked up a blue phone. She turned the wheel around on the phone before stopping to wait for a reply.

"Hello commander… Yes, Rodney and Cleveland are here. They have someone you want to meet… No it's not another dressed up cat from the officer lounge… It's a man in a strange uniform…" She covered one of the speakers on the phone.

"He's skeptical about this meeting, since you arrived in unannounced."

Rodney spoke up "Oh! Tell him that Suffolk and Norfolk found him stranded on an island, and that Queen Elizabeth ordered us to bring him here."

She nodded. "They were ordered by Queen Elizabeth to bring him here, they said that the County twins found him stranded on a remote island within our controlled territory… Very well I will bring them up to you at once… see you soon." She sets the phone back on its stand.

"He said to come up to my office, he wants to meet you, sir…" she politely announced, but still monotonous.

"Snake." Cleveland corrected her. "His name is Snake."

"Oh… how uncommon." The chair lowered as she got up off her chair and away from her desk.

This girl appeared younger than the other two Snake was with. She had light brown hair with a black bow on the side and large blue eyes.

She wore what appeared to be attire for office work and red slippers.

"Nice to meet you Snake, I am Z23, eldest sister of the Type 1936A destroyers." She reached out a hand to Snake.

Snake stared at the girl for a brief moment before shaking her hand.

"Follow me, I will take you to meet the commander." She walked towards the stairwell leading to the next floor.

Rodney, Cleveland and Snake followed behind. After a small flight of stairs, they reached the 2nd floor where Snake noticed someone coming out of a room. She looked like a maid; but what was notable about her was her long white hair. Snake wasn't able to catch a glimpse of her face, as she wasn't facing towards his general direction. He then turned around to see Z23 and Cleveland continuing to walk up the stairs. Rodney from a few stairs up, looked down at Snake.

"Come on, his office is on the 5th floor." she said, continuing up the stairs.

He then rushed up the stairs to catch up with the others as they walked onto the third floor. The hallway that seemed to stretch across the building wasn't present on this floor. In its place was a single door and a wall that sealed off the rest of the floor. Sounds of chatter came from the other side.

"Heh, sounds like they are having another party in there!" Cleveland remarked, looking down further up the staircase.

"Come on, only two more floors to go." Rodney said as she continued her climb up the stairs.

They then reached the 3rd floor of the building. The floor was identical to the floor below as it had the same single door closed off walls, with a minor difference of having a blue floor mat at the door. On the 4th floor, Snake saw the return of the hallways of people's living quarters. This time he saw a little girl come out from her dorm at the far end of the hallway, Snake couldn't make out the face of this individual but took notice of her long silver hair tied into twin twintails with small bunny ears. She looked around the dorm, rubbing her eyes as if she had just woken up from a morning nap.

She looked towards Snake's general direction, giving him the feeling she's staring him directly in the eyes from a distance. Snake, not wanting to seem suspicious, turned around and followed Rodney, Cleveland and Z23 up the flight of stairs one last time to approach the fifth floor of the building.

Finally reaching the 5th floor of the building, Z23 walked down the hallway of a familiar layout Snakes seen 3 times in this building.

"This way mister Snake, the commander's office is down the hall." Z23 looked back as she continued to walk down the hall.

Rodney and Cleveland walked by his side as they continued their journey towards the commander's office. Snake looked at the doors along the hall to notice each doorway had a sign nearby it, each one labeled with different names and numbers. They reached the end of the hallway and turned to walk down the right side of the floor, at the end of the hall was a single room with a golden plaque. Snake assumed this was the commanders office and felt somewhat relieved that they wouldn't be walking through a series of stairs or hallways.

Despite feeling a bit more comfortable being on this base, Snake couldn't let his guard down. All his prior service in the Diamond Dogs has taught that he should never assume he's safe in unknown territory. Even if he was treated as a welcomed guest; he had to keep his guard up in case this meeting with the commander goes south.

When they finally reached the door at the end of the hallway, Z23 opened the door and let Rodney and Cleveland walk in first. Snake looked at the golden plaque on the wall, simply labled "Commander's Office" before walking into the office followed by Z23 who closed the door behind him. His attention was fixated on the desk in the middle of the room. No one was sitting at the desk, but there was someone who was standing by the glass, looking over the view of the ocean. This individual is wearing a white uniform which looks like that of a naval officer. Snake then knew he was in the commander's presence.

"Commander, the guest you want to meet is here." Z23 spoke in a quiet low tone.

Rodney and Cleveland stepped back behind Snake, he felt Cleveland's hand touch his back as she nudged him forward. He slowly walked towards the commander who's still facing the view. He made his way to the group with slow, but gentle steps.

"Greetings, I've been expecting you."

Snake remained quiet as he stared the commander in the eyes, while keeping a straight face.

"Not much of a talker are you?" the commander remarked. "...I understand. Allow me to introduce myself; I am the Commander, the head officer of the Azure Lane alliance. And you must be...?" as the commander reaches his hand out towards Snake.

Snake slowly looked down at the commander's hand, who was wearing white gloves that were free of any imperfections or marks. He then looked back up at the man's eyes, raised his hand and shook the commander's hand.

"Snake. Leader of the Diamond Dogs... the Army Without Borders." he replied while shaking the commander's hand.


Here ends the first chapter. I know we've kept you waiting for a while, but when you have two different, equally procrastinating writers making a story... this tends to happen. Again, tell us how we did. Mere favorites don't do much other then imply that you like it.