I would like to thank the people who have favorited, followed, and reviewed this story. But enough of that let's get on with the show.
Disclaimer: I don't own Azur Lane or any other properties I make references to.
Chapter 3: The Preparations
This commander had not been what Nashville was expecting. When she was told that she would have a new mission with a new captain she was absolutely ecstatic, well, she still is but seeing her new commanding officer in person flew up a few red flags in her mind. Is this guy really the best they could do? He sure wasn't the posterchild sailor that she was picturing in her mind when she was told of this new daring endeavor. While he was pretty tall, and that kind of surprised Nashville, especially given the diminutive stature that comes to mind when the rather cerebral role he was to play comes to mind. She had either expected some short rotund pencil pusher or some grizzled veteran with scars or at least some chest thumper like her last captain. She certainly didn't expect some six foot plus geek that looked like he was barely old enough to shave his face. But seriously though, this guy looked young, like he should be a junior officer at best. So, what made this guy so special that he got a huge multi-rank promotion? She would admit though he didn't look terrible and that he carried himself with confidence in his steps and surety in his green eyes that betrayed a conviction defying her first impressions. If only she knew what was going through his head as they walked to return to her hull.
"OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD! Is she looking at me? Oh god, she is. Quick, act natural, I mean confident. 'Fake it till you make it,' like my band teacher used to say."
This guy was seriously an enigma to her. He sure didn't talk much. Perhaps he thought himself so above her that he couldn't be bothered to say anything. No that can't be true. He was smiling at her when they met a few minutes ago and he seemed genuine in the brief exchange of pleasantries, not to mention the handshake he gave her. Nobody ever gave her handshakes. She was under the impression that all ship girls were like her in that regard, used with fear by their human creators. He even gave a pretty good handshake, which she had overheard from some dock workers was a sign of a good man. No, this is the type of guy that is probably using this time to think of some far-reaching strategy beyond her comprehension.
She stood by this conclusion for a few steps before she came to a much more likely possibility. "Is this guy really that bad with people?...No, probably not. He's probably just bad with women or with me personally." Nashville wasn't as blind as her past superior thought she was. She knew that many men and women considered her attractive. She also knew that Captain Spencer ogled her whenever he thought she wasn't looking, but it never went further so she let it stand. It wouldn't have been worth her trouble to make a stink of it, what with her not being considered human by the navy.
She suddenly felt kind of sorry for her new commander. He was probably in the same boat as her—ha, maritime puns—in that he had only received his new assignment and been made aware of her kind recently. She had to take it upon herself to help this commander. Now what would she say?
Commander, meanwhile, had reached more or less the same dilemma as she did. He knew that she was on to him for not having said anything for nearly half the journey to her hull. So, he had to think of something to say to her. But what?
"Hey Commander-"
"Hey Nashville-"
The two of them had interrupted each other at the same time. Their walking stopped and they turned to each other. Nashville giggled a little bit, "Sorry sir, you first."
"I was about to say, 'ladies first.'"
This sure gave Nashville a new appreciation for the guy. He would let her speak first? That hasn't happened before. She had to admit it restored a bit of her faith in humanity. But if he would allow her to voice her mind than she would do it. "Sir you introduced yourself as just, 'Commander,' and then Chairwoman Hara said that all of your military and civilian info has been erased. Is it really true that they did all of that and she didn't exaggerate or anything?"
Commander looked forlorn and he put on an unexpected thousand-yard stare towards the horizon at sea. "She didn't exaggerate Nashville. When I accepted this mission and received my promotion from lieutenant junior-grade to full commander I was told that I had died and that every single trace of my existence had been erased. Supreme Commander Roscoe had said something to the effect of me being a nameless ghost now." He paused and chuckled mirthlessly. "I was a nobody before but now I'm a super nobody," deadpanned Commander.
Nashville's heart went out to this man she just met. But if what he said last was true, he was chosen for this task because he was anonymous even before his acceptance. An introspection of herself revealed that she was probably the same. And this saddened her. At least she had a name. Then she thought of something that would cheer up her commander. After all, it was her fault for making him feel this way, so she had to fix it somehow.
"I'm sorry for bringing it up Commander," and Commander was about to accept her apology and say it wasn't her fault he didn't exist, but Nashville continued, "So since you have no name now maybe you could make up a new one? You can become a new you. Hopefully a better one than before." She smiled to emphasize the last part of her words.
They started walking again and Commander hummed to himself, racking his brain for any name that would fit him. Nashville came through for him again with a seemingly innocuous question that would have big impacts on their futures, though neither of them were aware at the time. "Where are you from Commander?" she asked.
"Las Vegas, Nevada."
"Can I call you, 'Las Vegas,' or 'Vegas,' then?
Commander was taken aback by the ship girl next to him. How profound. She came up with a name that was fitting for him yet still anonymous. He liked the idea of him being called after his home city, even if it was the same style of nomenclature as Eagle Union cruisers. It gave him a goal and something to fight for. He consented, "Sure. I'd like that. It's better to be someone than no-one. Thanks Nashville," He paused and grinned at her, "I guess that makes me a Las Vegas-class Commander huh?"
Nashville was glad about the easier conversation now and she laughed a bit at the commander's joke, before responding with, "You're welcome Commander Vegas. Say should I be concerned you're from the city of sin?"
It was Commander's turn to chuckle. "No Nashville there is no need. As a God-fearing man, I promise that I won't do anything uncomely to you," but in his mind he added the stipulation, "without consent that is." He then added on vocally, "And as a really cool guy from a movie once said, 'I only gamble with my life.'"
"Well good. Otherwise, this assignment would be a lot harder than it already seems to be."
"Should I be concerned about music flooding the intercoms from the one named after the 'Music City' itself?"
Nashville's face lit up, "Can I sir?! I promise to only play the good stuff."
"So long as the aforementioned, 'good stuff,' isn't all country music and it isn't too loud all the time, I think we can come to an arraignment while still seeming more like a military vessel than a party boat."
"Ah what's wrong? Don't like the classics? So, what do you listen to?"
"Rock mainly. Metal specifically. But nothing too heavy. I'm too much of a lightweight for that stuff. But I'm really not that picky. Except for country, not a fan. Sorry, not sorry."
Nashville was through the clouds right now. She couldn't believe her luck about getting a new commanding officer. But while he seemed like an alright guy, she still had nothing to go on concerning his quality as an officer, and his super recent three-rank promotion didn't help her hopes, but she would refrain from judging. Instead, she said, "Commander Vegas, I think you and I are gonna get along just fine."
"I'm glad Nashville. I think we will too. I won't lie I was a bit nervous about getting a new assignment suddenly and finding out that a lot of the things I thought was true, really wasn't. Oh, and forty-eight hours ago I had no idea someone like you existed. So yeah, crazy past few days."
"You and me both commander. Do you have any idea how dangerous the waters are almost right offshore? There're tons of submarines skulkin' about looking for their next meal."
"Though I haven't sailed it, I do have some idea. My former position did have me cracking siren codes that often revealed submarine patrols. Sorry about the patrols that slipped through our fingers," said Commander apologetically as he looked over to her.
Nashville couldn't find it in her to not accept even though at-times lacking intelligence did cause her a lot of stress, so she nodded to show it was okay but not ideal. In fact, she was happy that she had one of those guys from intelligence as her commander now. When Spencer seemed to try and make voyages harder than it needed to be, intelligence came through for her often enough to offer occasional respite. "Thank you, sir, for your past work. I think that you may have helped me before," she returned the gratitude he gave her earlier.
They neared a dazzle-painted hull familiar to the newly formed duo and she remembered something, "Say what did you want to say to me before you let me talk first?"
"I had a few questions about you. Specifically, about you being a ship girl. Is it okay if I call you that by the way? A ship girl?"
"It's what I call myself so I'm okay with it. I know other countries prefer other names but that's because of language differences but here in the Union is should be alright. So, what are your questions? I'll answer them the best I can."
"I think the questions can wait for later, or even another day if need be. What we should do is board your hull and discuss what we want for your retrofitting. I was given a file about the last iteration of our present endeavor that failed so we should pour over that first before we decide what we need before moving to drydock."
"We, sir?"
"Yeah, we. While I may be the officer in charge. God knows why. That," pointed Commander to Nashville's hull as they moved closer, "is your hull; an extension of yourself, if what the files say are true, so I believe that you should have as much say in this as I do."
Nashville was awestruck. Her eyes started to water a bit and Commander immediately picked up on this after turning to the now stopped ship girl. He had supposed he offended her somehow by not giving her all or most of the say and was about to do something. But she wiped her eyes and said softly, "Thank you. Thank you so much Commander Vegas. I've never been talked to about any decision ever before."
Commander filed away another question to ask her, that is about her freedoms as a ship girl, and smiled reassuringly to her. "Nashville. We are in this together, and whether we like it or not, we're already in too deep, and if we are going to pull this off, we're gonna need to do things a bit differently than everyone else. Come on. Let's board and get to the bridge so we can get started on the operation."
He started up the gangway before raising his voice so the still stationary Nashville could hear him, "Permission to board?"
She laughed and yelled back, "Granted!" and even let out the whistle of the on-board boatswain's pipe as the Commander reached her hull's deck. He started to laugh himself and she sped up to catch up to her commander.
"Why stop here?" she asked him.
"I don't know the way to the bridge, I only know the crew's quarters where I dropped my stuff off earlier. Could you please lead the way?"
"Sure thing. We'll swing by the crew quarters for your stuff and then take you to the captain's quarters to drop it off and then go to the bridge to get started."
Commander gestured with his hand for her to lead on, which she did with a skip in her step and a smile on her face.
The brief walk to the crew quarters to retrieve Commander's things went uneventfully. Commander noticed Nashville's springing gait as she moved. He was content just to see her happy. It sure did bring up his own mood. Then something occurred to him that may be a good idea to share before it comes up in a more awkward situation. He got her attention with a simple, "Hey, Nashville." To which she hummed to indicate she was listening.
"Just to let you know. The file that I mentioned when I asked about stopping at ports also provided info about your original wartime service and about your activities over the past year. I just wanted to make you aware of that before it comes up in a way that makes me look like a creep."
"Thanks for telling me. Did it say anything else about me?"
Commander took a moment to remember what it said, but that was apparently long enough to get Nashville to glance over her shoulder in concern. He told her, "I think the part that would interest you most are comments from your former captain. Wanna take a look later?'
"Yeah, I would. Thanks Commander."
Then they arrived at the crew quarters and Commander grabbed his duffel bag. Nashville noticed that her new commander didn't own much. That was convenient for her. She didn't have to lug around anybody's stuff and besides Las Vegas seemed perfectly content carrying his own bag.
First task complete they progressed onwards toward the forward superstructure. They ascended a flight of stairs and Nashville pushed open a door to reveal a decently sized cabin—for a warship—and stood aside to let Commander in. He confirmed that this was his quarters and set his bag down and returned to the door as signal to move to the bridge.
As they left the captain's cabin Nashville signaled that the cabin adjacent, the admiral's cabin, was her quarters and as such was off limits. "Fair enough," said the commander, "I'll know where to look for you if needed. Actually, how aware are you of what is going on in your hull? Like, if I were in an engine room and you on the bridge, would you know where I am?"
She replied honestly, "Yeah I'd know where you are. I'd also know if you're doing anything to me even though I wouldn't see you."
Commander laid that question to rest as they ascended the last little bit and they appeared on the bridge. It was pretty much what was expected. Helm, radar display, binoculars, radio equipment. Her file had mentioned that Nashville was in her late-war configuration with an open bridge that gave a balcony that curved around the main structure. He told himself to not get used to the layout. After all, it would be in drydock for a major retrofit in the next few hours.
He approached what he found to be the table reserved for navigational charts and found the location to be adequate. There were even two chairs. He waved the ship girl over who took a seat. From his rucksack he produced the file that was given him the day before. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for.
"Operation Argonautica. Well, lets look at the basic overview first and see if there is a way for the two of us to cover more ground without reading over each other's shoulder."
Nashville nodded being unable to think of any better way of doing this and she paid attention as Commander skimmed the first and second page to get the gist of what was going on.
He finished his skim and started his summary, "Operation Argonautica was formed with the same objective that we currently have: search out and destroy the Siren Superweapons that make decisive battles unwinnable for the forces of humanity. It seems that this undertaking started about a year and a half ago by a multinational fleet of ship girls supported by all major intelligence agencies and concluded about six months ago with the near complete annihilation of it's fleet along with it's commanding officer. It says the name of it's commander was an Admiral Hans Kerper of the Iron Blood Kriegsmarine. It even says the name of the sole survivor of the fleet: a Sakura Empire destroyer ship girl called, 'Shigure.'"
Nashville chose this time to insert a comment, "Wow, that must be hard for her." The gaze of her commander made her elaborate some more, "I mean, while being the sole survivor's gotta be hard not all ship girls look like me. Some look a lot younger than me. Some only a bit. They'd look like teenagers to you, while those that look a lot younger, would be only children to your eyes. But the point is, with younger looks, like most destroyers are, they're less mature and don't handle stress as well as you or I, but there are exceptions."
"Sending children to fight. What are we? African Warlords?" and Commander reflected on this bit of information, "Well, I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. But it makes me uncomfortable that children and teenagers are getting sent out to fight and die. Them being ship girls doesn't help either with how this feels to me. But anyway, they provided a photo of the ship girls with this Admiral Kerper and a roster of their names."
Commander passed Nashville the photo and she saw the motley fleet as they looked to the camera smiling without a care in the world. As she looked Commander started to read the roster off, "From left to right: Le Malin, U-522, Casablanca, the admiral, Dido, London, Pamiat Merkuria, Shigure, and Kirishima."
Silence pervaded the bridge after Commander was done with his roll call of death. Nashville was reminded yet again of how war works. It kills people. She didn't know any of them and she was grateful for that, but she still couldn't shake being saddened by someone else's passing. Especially when that passing was probably a violently desperate encounter.
Commander saw his subordinate's face had darkened so he thought she knew someone among this doomed fleet, "Did you know any of these people?" Nashville shook her head and Commander let out a breath, "I might not have experience with combat, but I still get that people dying needlessly is tragic, but we have a chance now to make sure that what they did and what they found out doesn't go to waste. So, it looks like they took out three of these Siren Superweapons before they got found out and sunk. It looks like the file is divided by incident so is it alright if you take this report and I take this one? First one done gets the last report?"
Nashville remained solemn but knew there was a job to do, "That works with me," and she took the offered section and began to read.
Near the Canary Islands off the coast of north-west Africa the fleet came across a superweapon that seemed to take the form of an amorphous mass of tentacles that would drag ships underwater all the while throwing torpedoes into the mix on occasion to split fleets into easier prey. The report said that the main body of the beast never surfaced but that sonar scans from the ships available revealed it to have a core of sorts that anchored itself onto the seabed as the shallows near the island dropped off into the Atlantic Ocean's floor. The most effective tactic used was a hit and run depth charge assault, but it took the daring of Kirishima and Casablanca acting as bait for an extended period, long enough for U-522 to sneak in for a well-aimed torpedo spread that caused the side of the seabed anchoring the monster to collapse atop the creature. Sonar equipped ships remarked that the sound it made was not unlike that of a submarine beyond crush depth being crushed so it was assumed destroyed. London was sunk in this action after the superweapon let out a signal for air support and her ship girl was also lost, U-522, Le Malin, and Dido was moderately damaged. Even then the Admiral placed a personal note that cited their good fortunes that the superweapon did not seem to have any way to see them other than sonar. He identified this type of superweapon as a, "blockade-class."
As Nashville was reading her own report Commander was wading through his. In the Indian Ocean about 1750 nautical miles from Perth, Australia a string of sightings in the shipping lanes brought the fleet face to face with what was described as an inky black sea serpent. It's main method of attack was to use it's nearly forty-five knot speed coupled with it's large size to ram ships hoping to break their keels and if that didn't work use it's sharp spines to tear off armor and then into the hull. No other weapons were seen on the body of the creature. In the first contact with the monster Kirishima's hull was ruptured and sunk but her ship girl was recovered to have her hull replaced later. Orders were immediately given for the ships to spread out to keep the enemy from managing to sink the whole fleet in a single pass. In this process Casablanca was sunk and recovered in the same way as Kirishima while Pamiat Merkuria was a total loss with the explosion of a powder magazine. Using torpedoes from the destroyers and cruisers allowed them to funnel the monster into a kill zone where it's relatively low operating depth allowed armor piercing shells to finally sink it. For some unknown reason, it ignored U-522. The admiral dubbed this superweapon a, "chaser-class."
Both man and ship girl finished their reading at about the same time. Nashville spoke first, "Anything interesting that isn't terrifying?"
"Only a giant sea serpent that rams at forty-five knots and has sharp spines that can rip through armor. You got anything not terrifying?"
"A Kraken anchored in place that drags down ships and shoots torpedoes."
"Oh. Okay. You know, I wish these reports could tell us if these things are smart. It definitely does say that they are mechanical, complete with the black and glowing red characteristics of the Sirens. If we knew for certain how smart they were or how advanced their programming is then we could approach this so much more efficiently."
Silence fell again in the bridge. Both peoples' attention fell on the last section of the file. This was the enemy that caused the downfall of Operation Argonautica. They both stared at it, hoping it would disappear, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Nashville took courage before her commander and opened the file and began reading aloud.
"On route to their next location of operation the fleet was beset by a mysterious vessel. First glance of this ship showed it to look like an old ironclad warship. Attempts to signal were not responded to and as maritime law dictates the fleet went to investigate, tag, and register it as a ghost ship. Approaching was the mistake. A thick fog covered the sea and all ships lost visibility with one another and then they lost communications and sensors went haywire. What follows is an account of the battle by Sakura Destroyer Shigure: I couldn't see anything! I thought that my luck was gone and when I finally saw someone it was this huge Siren cruiser! I shot my torpedoes at it and sailed away as fast as I could. Around me explosions went off everywhere and it was like a battle came out of the ocean itself! My sonar finally pinged. I was sure it was a siren submarine—it sounded just like one. I was so scared, so I dropped all my depth changes. They went off and everything was quiet. The fog cleared and all my friends, the others in my fleet were sinking. I looked where I sailed from. It was Dido I saw and shot torpedoes at. She was broken in half and was there only a second before going under. Everyone else was the same. The explosions? We were shooting at each other. I killed U-522. They made me! They tricked me! They tricked us. And I'm all that's left. I wish I weren't so lucky."
Nashville was a few shades paler than before and Commander wasn't faring much better. To get their thoughts out of the immediate rut Commander asked if it said anything else.
Nashville responded, "It looks like after Shigure returned to port in the Sakura Empire Chairwoman Hara herself decided to call this an, "illusion-class," superweapon.
Commander took a minute to gather his thoughts about the three reports they had just read, "I can see why these superweapons would be so devastating on fleets not prepared to take them on. I can also see why both Azur Lane and Crimson Axis are so hesitant to let out sizeable fleets knowing that the slightest slip up could easily cost them so much. I think I can guess why we're organized the way we are. With just one ship we aren't as susceptible to an illusion-class superweapon's tricks." Commander paused before continuing, "I think that the Writ of Commandeering will be able to take on the first two classes but I'm pretty sure that we'll have to be on our own for the illusion-class. Don't you think that maybe that illusion-class may have been sent to hunt them down?"
"Maybe. It would make sense that with a larger fleet that they had they would eventually get noticed. That's another thing we have. It's easier for just the two of us to keep a secret instead of nine plus who knows how many spies."
"True. But I think that we can hammer down a more solid strategy for dealing with these things. Is that all that was written about Operation Argonautica?"
Nashville turned the last page in her hand to find something, "It has a hand-written note. It's from the supreme commander. It says, 'Do not count on all superweapons of the same class being the same. Remember, that the Sirens adapt faster than we do. Good luck.'"
"Looks like a solid strategy is going to be a case-by-case affair then," said the now somewhat downtrodden commander, "but anyway what do you think we should get listed in your retrofit? I have a few ideas of my own, but I want to hear yours first."
"Well, I'm getting depth charges, sonar, and equipment for you already, but I still think updating radar would be best because well, radar is good in just about any situation. You can't just settle on good-enough radar, you need the best. Also, I'd like to have my secondary battery updated. I'm confident in my armor though, I don't want to turn slower."
"That sounds good to me. Just let me write it down," which the commander did, "I have one big question to ask before we move into my recommendations. Do you think there is any way we could mount torpedoes on you?"
Nashville sucked in a breath through her teeth, "I'm really not a big fan of torpedoes. The ones we had in the war didn't work half the time. That and if we did go with torpedoes the only way we can mount them is if a turret is replaced with a launcher or we get rid of the aviation facilities, and that's disregarding where reloads are stored."
Commander considered the pros and cons of what Nashville just told him. He wanted to keep the Brooklyn-class's main advantage of fifteen six-inch guns, and he had plans for the spotter aircraft, so he relented to Nashville, "Okay. We can forgo the torpedoes. I think that the Writ of Commandeering can make up for it. So, what I think would be useful are mainly sensor stuff. Have you ever heard of a huff-duff?"
"No. What's that?"
"A huff-duff is a high-frequency direction finder. It helps home in on the location of normal radio transmissions, the Royal Navy first started using it in their U-boat campaigns. To protect us from an enemy huff-duff I want to have installed on the radio systems something called a, 'Kurier System,' that will send radio transmissions too fast for a huff-duff to register it. I also think that a radar detector would be helpful as an early warning device. I would like to see if we can get you a sonar absorbing coating to make you harder to hear. On that same sort of thinking I want to get you sonar buoys, so that active sonar pings don't lead these superweapons right to us. Finally, can your observation plane mount and drop a depth charge or a small sonar buoy?"
"Only one at a time, but it will work."
"Alrighty then. I got nothing else. Is there anything else you can't live without or have always wanted? Or is there anything I said that makes you want to throw me overboard?" joked the commander to try and lighten the mood.
Nashville hummed to herself as she thought. Finally, she responded, "I think that what we have written down will work just fine."
"Sweet. Let's get your hull untethered and go to the drydock," said Commander as he stood and moved to leave Nashville's bridge to signal to the dockworkers to untie her.
Before he could leave Nashville stopped him and said, "Thanks again sir for letting me into the decision making."
He smiled at her and responded, "No problem. And again, we're gonna do things differently than others. Besides, you know the old saying, 'Two heads are better than one.'"
Nashville didn't know the saying but it wasn't too hard to guess what it meant. Nevertheless, she stood up from her seat and fired up her boilers to get ready to move for drydock. A few minutes went by and she felt the lines holding her to the pier release her and she felt Las Vegas return to her bridge. Once he arrived, he delivered his first order to her when he said that they should get moving.
After entering the drydock another gangway was lowered, and the duo met the foreman in charge of the retrofit. Commander passed him the list and the foreman informed that they were lucky that their list of alterations was fairly superficial. Commander had expected that the powerplant update or the change of the secondary battery from the older 5"/25 heavy AA guns on single mounts to the newer 5"/38 dual purpose guns in double mounts would take the longest. But this also gave them an opportunity to mount two 40 mm twin bofors anti-air cannons which both commander and ship girl jumped on. Even with the armament update and powerplant change the thing that would take the longest was a specialist for the installation of the kurier system. The final tally surprised them the most. This whole turnaround would take only a week. That left them with very little time to prepare. They thanked the foreman and the water started to be pumped out of the drydock almost immediately.
While returning to the bridge to clean up something came to Commander's mind. Before stowing his files in his rucksack to put in a safe he saw in his quarters he passed Nashville the part of the file that was about her and Captain Spencer's thought of her. Commander left the bridge to leave Nashville to her thoughts. He also figured that information about her was best concealed in her hands. After stashing the things in his quarters he returned to find that Nashville had already hidden her documents somewhere but then Commander realized something important.
He got her attention and started, "After the first of these superweapons are dealt with, we will have to track them down ourselves. I wager that means we will have to associate with civilians for information gathering and the like so please don't take what I'm about to say the wrong way. I dig your getup," Commander held his hands up non-confrontationally and then proceeded, "but maybe you should look into getting some clothes that stand out less. That is assuming you don't already own something more…um…casual?"
Nashville saw that she could play with this and even brought her forearms ever so slightly forward to emphasize her bust just a bit and challenged in a pouty tone, "What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?" There it was. The bait was set. Now to watch this geek squirm a bit.
Commander saw straight through this attempt at teasing him. He would never admit it aloud, but she was sooooo close to wrapping his mind around her finger, especially with her little, but not really little, "bosom stunt." His eyes fought the gravitational pull of her chest and he put on one of his best, are-you-kidding-me expressions.
She saw that she had failed. But only barely. So, she knew she could drive this angle in the future, but she still got the point he was trying to make. She relaxed her posture to normal and she informed, "I have some, 'casual,' clothes but not much. I've been pretty limited in what I can get because you know ship girl and all that."
"Okay then. I'm gonna need something more casual too. So, we'll take care of this sometime in the next few days. But there are some other things that I wan't to get so we'll get those too. Have you ever wandered around San Francisco?"
"No. You?"
"Nope. I guess we're gonna do this the hard way."
XXXXXXXX
The next few days were just as the commander had supposed. Sleep was an illusive thing thanks to the twenty-four hours a day rumbling of machinery for Nashville's retrofit. She of course wanted to oversee the work done on her and a lot of the nitty-gritty details were up to her, but he was consulted for the more specific things about his area of expertise.
On the third day they got out into San Francisco proper and asking a local guided them to the appropriate store to purchase clothing. Nashville was very secretive of the whole affair; never showing the commander what she was getting but she kept promising it wouldn't stand out. Commander let it slide. If he wanted her to trust him, he had to trust her. He went with the most run-of-the-mill thing he could think of when it comes to apparel. He got a few changes of jeans and tee-shirts with a few jackets of varying styles. At least he was able to get a nice pair of shoes. The most comedic thing that happened was the checkout line where he was able to teach Nashville how to buy things all the while balancing all the bags that somehow got transferred to his grasp, notwithstanding the literal superhuman in their midst. They returned to the ship not long after.
The last day was an interesting one. This was a day where they went around the bay area to see if they could think of anything else that would be useful—or fun, but that wasn't the main objective. They passed a book shop and Commander found himself troubled. For some reason he felt that a bible would be important. It beat him as to why. Sure, he believed in God and considered himself a Christian, but he was never bothered to read the book. His former self wouldn't be bothered but maybe Las Vegas could be better? Maybe family tradition spurred him on? He didn't know but he went and bought it without any comment from Nashville.
Finally, one last thing occurred to him as he looked around the bustling street, so he asked, "Nashville if worst comes to worst how good are you in a fight without your hull or rigging?"
Nashville shot him a smug look and retorted, "With all due respect, sir, if a fight starts, you're the dead weight. I can tear pretty much anybody a new one and there was a boxing club aboard me back in the day, so I know how to throw a punch. So, the real question is, 'How are you gonna fight?'"
Commander gazed across the street and said, "I have a riddle. Who brings a gun or a knife to a fist fight?" He paused for effect before answering, "The winner."
They crossed the street with Commander leading the way right into a gun shop. Nashville didn't pay much attention as Commander briefly went over his options and she looked around. She turned her attention back to the pistol in his hands and she had to ask, "What's that one?"
"This, Miss Nashville, is a Sardegnan Beretta 92G. The G means it only has a decocker so it's longer trigger pull before the first shot is the quote-unquote, 'safety,' and you can get a faster first shot without worrying about a manual safety."
"Why not an Eagle Union classic like a 1911?" inquired a now curious Nashville.
"The 1911 is an amazing piece of hardware but there's a few problems. I'm a big guy and the 1911s in this shop are too thin and don't fit well in my hand not to mention the trigger is too far back to pull it and expect any accuracy. But that isn't the main reason. I may not look it to you, but I have quite a bit of experience with a pistol just like this and I'm a pretty good shot and a pretty fast draw if I say so myself."
She crossed her arms, narrowed her eyes, and nodded slowly, "Alright. I'll wait to see that for myself. And just an fwi there's a small knife display in the corner."
Las Vegas chose a folding knife with a circle shaped cutout in the spine to make drawing and unfolding it faster. And he went to pay for the gun, the knife, a concealed-carry holster, an open-carry holster, and some magazines with ammunition. A flash of his rather oxymoronically anonymous identification card kept the shop worker from declining the transaction and it waived him from the mandatory waiting period and background check after purchase of a firearm in the state of California. Satisfied with his purchase he and Nashville left the shop to return to her hull.
Nashville looked toward the setting sun as they walked. She felt herself getting excited in spite of the certainty of death and small chance of success and she asked herself, "What are we waiting for?"
Commander would answer that question, "Tomorrow the real mission begins. I know it's too early to tell but I think we might just be able to pull this off."
Nashville may not be sure about their chances, but she knew that she liked it when he said, "we."
That was like, 500 words longer than I originally intended and I still couldn't get a ship into the ocean. But one thing is for sure I like where things are going, and I am soooooo excited to finally get to sea this next chapter. I know that I may have led you on to think getting to sea was going to happen this chapter, but my ideas started flowing and I couldn't get them to stop. I'm sorry. I wanted to flesh out the characters (and save myself from an ongoing angsty identity crisis) and show what's at stake. A few people left comments on the story, so I want to respond to those.
Thanks, xX-6throwaway9-Xx, I hope you stick around. You're my first comment and that hyped me up to crank this chapter out in only a few days.
Thanks, TheMightyOne, for saying that about the start. I was a bit worried the opening was too slow. Maybe a third chapter to get things moving is pushing it? One thing is for certain I do intend to keep this going to the end. Wherever that may be. Oh yeah, there will definitely be more kansen. I'd be quite the fool to not feature them in a fanfic about Azur Lane. I just have them spaced around the world under multiple commanders because to me it doesn't make strategic to place all the world's kansen under just one commander like in game. I will tell you now though, not all these commanders are going to like Las Vegas. I can see the one-liner already, "Say welcome to the fabulous Las Vegas!"
One last thing though. I don't know how many of you have submitted something to this website, but it tells you how many readers your story gets by country. You lot are from some far-flung places according to this American. Thank you. Also, since I am looking to base the siren superweapons on folkloric sea monsters is there anything cool from your local folk tales? I'd much appreciate it if you could send a recommendation or two my way. I can't tell right now how big this story will get or if I will get any recommendations but if there are tons of suggestions, I probably won't get to all of them, but I will most certainly thank you in these author's notes. And a heads up, I'll probably take some creative liberties with these monsters to, "pervert," them in the way the Sirens would.
My word. I've written far too much. Take care friends. If you are having a bad day I hope it gets better and if you are having a good day I hope it gets even better.
