Authors note/Forward: So, I've been wanting to write an Azur lane fic for a while, and was having issues deciding. I had two ideas, one following Canadian ships with a less than stellar building plan, and one focusing on a civilian contractor and the events that occur on the base.
This story is the latter. It will be a slower one more focused on character relations and events thst occur on the base instead of massive fight scenes.
Also, this story is not being considered a primary focus, and will update interminably whenever I get to it. I will not guarantee update speed or for new chaps to come out at specific intervals.
So with that out of the way, I hope you like this strange idea.
"Hey, I can see the island!
"What? I can't see anything, you're hallucinating it's still over an hour away."
"No its not, the clouds just shifted its right there!"
"No it isn't, I don't see it. You're crazy."
"No, you're crazy! Look its right-"
Two men standing on the edge of a boat, overlooking the railing stopped and flinched to the sound of a door opening and glanced to the nearest door. Out of it came a man, younger than both of them and likely in his mid-twenties. He was wearing dark grey canvas pants, and a long black coat over his body obscuring anything see rom his face from sight. It was a good choice of clothing considering the spray on the ocean, but it made his mid length ragged brown hair almost stand out as much as his grey tinted glasses that stopped anyone from seeing his eyes. As the sun was hidden behind thick overcast, the glasses seemed unnecessary.
Looking at the men the man then turned and walked away, earning glares at his back.
"Who the hell is that creepy guy?"
"Idiot, he's that technician that being deployed to the base with the contractors. You know, the savant?"
"Wait, seriously? I thought that was just a rumour,"
"It's more than a rumour, he's some kind of machine freak!"
Xxxxxx
"I can hear you, idiots," the man muttered as he walked down the side of the boat towards the back of the ship.
It was always like this. As soon as someone found out about his skills it was blown out of proportion. He wasn't some kind of savant or hidden master; he was just good at figuring out what was wrong with machines and with computer software and was able to fix them. It wasn't that big of a deal.
"Hey, Max." the man turned to see a man in in his fifties standing in a doorway to the ship, holding out a wrapped bar of some kind. "Didn't see you in the canteen. Need something to eat?"
"Yeah, thanks joseph," Max said as he took the bar and unwrapped it.
"You know, if you were not so withdrawn and antisocial, people would have less to make rumours about you with, right?"
"If it isn't one thing, it's another. They will make up whatever rumours they want, it doesn't matter. Besides, I doubt there will be as many in the future. Everymen will be too busy trying to play hooky with the Shipgirls," Max said in between bites of the bar, finding it to be one of the better flavours as it came from royal territories and not the Unions.
"Fraternization is still a thing you know. This is a naval base we're heading to, and I know you were not in the navy and are here as a contractor like most, but naval doctrine will still apply I am sure," Joseph said with a wry chuckle. "Besides, those girls are warships made manifest, far too much power for the average man. They could probably kill us all if they wanted to."
"I doubt they would. They have bigger fish to fry. Those sirens," Max said as he looked down the side of the ship to see a number of other people standing around nervously. "Looks like more people have noticed we are almost there."
"About time. The departure will be a problem at this rate," Joseph said with a sigh. "So, ready to join the good fight as a non-combatant?"
"I am here. Why, are you scared old man?"
"HA, Hardly. I may be a cook by trade, but I'm still navy, and my father was army. I know guns and weapon better than you ever will."
"Right, how could I forget when you tell anyone who will listen."
"Oh knock it off and go get your stuff. Once we land at Azur lane I doubt you'll have time for slacking, but make sure you come visit the canteen when you can. Might give you an extra deserts if I'm feeling generous."
"I'll have to watch for sirens if you do," Max said with a chuckle as the ships horn blew, alerting everyone to land approach.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The commander of Azur lane was what many expectd him to be. A tall man of stature and poise. His uniform was crisp and fit him perfectly, and his eyes looked as if they could find any detail and unmake any strategy. His hair was slicked back perfectly, and his shoes were always polished perfect. He was the ideal image of a naval officer, at home beside paperwork or combat. The former of which he was in the middle of doing up until a distant horn sounding caught his attention and made him let out a sigh.
Putting down his pen he stood up from his chair and looked out the window as he smoothed his uniform. He could see the ship coming in, the first of many that would be arriving over the next few weeks.
"Master, it appears the Coronet has arrived. It will be docked in three minutes," HMS Belfast, Shipgirl and head maid of the Royal navy said as he stood silently by the door to the office like a lamp that is easily forgotten until right when it is needed.
"So it would seem," the commander said as he fiddled with his cufflinks. "I doubt they will be properly ready to listen to their orders when they arrive. It would matter little if I was there when they walk off the ship, or if I arrive later. But I suppose formality, at the very least for the enlisted officers we are receiving, would be a good start. Let us be off Belfast."
"Of course master," Belfast replied as she opened the door for the commander and then followed him out and down the hall after locking the door to his office. Her steps were nearly as silent as the commanders own, and as they walked he checked his watch and scowled slightly.
"They are early it seems. How unusual. Belfast, you looked through the Dossier's of all those on that ship that are coming as personnel. Who among them has piqued your interest?"
"Naval Captains Conroy and Anderson appear both skilled and able. I believe they will be able to properly help lead escort mission and patrols on the production model ships with little difficulty. The Marine Officer Sanson from the Union seems to be a skilled man as well. I do not doubt that he will keep the marines we will be receiving well and in order. Not as in order as the royals marines, but in order."
"I see. None of the noncombat personnel we are receiving caught your interest?" The commander asked calmly as the pair left the main HQ building and headed toward the docks.
"The noncombat personnel are cooks and technicians, mechanics and the like for base maintenance. I was unaware that some of them would be of direct importance to you commander."
"Everyone is of importance to me Belfast. The bases population will be exploding over the next few weeks. Personnel need to be fed, supplies need to be accounted for and maintenance kept up. But I do admit, there is one singular person I am curious about," the commander said as the pair turned onto the docks and could see the coronet almost docked, being pushed into place by a pair of Bulin's while a third was tossing mooring lines up to the ships sailor's.
"I apologize for not looking further then master. May I request to know the identity of the one you are interested in?"
"His dossier is, sparse. There are inconsistencies that I believe HQ did not notice, or chose to outright ignore. But no, I would like you to see if you can find who I am curious about on your own," the commander said with a wry smile. "Let's consider it a game. You can guess one personnel per day, and if you get it right within the next two weeks, I shall listen and obey one request of yours, within reason. How does that sound?"
"And if I cannot, master?" Belfast asked with a slight but ever so bright glint in her eyes.
The commander let out a long and low hum before smiling. "You have spoken of Prinz Eugen with both spite and respect, so how about if you lose, you must instead serve her for a week once she and the Ironblood forces begin arriving in a few days. I believe that should be enjoyable, no?"
Belfast did not seem to react, but the commander saw the corner of her lip twitch at the idea, telling him that he had struck the perfect nerve. The two of them, Belfast and Prinz Eugen, had after all been something similar to rivals during the most recent war. "Very well master, I shall accept these terms of this game."
"Excellent, the rules are set and we shall see how this goes," the commander said as he watched the gangplank be placed by the boat, allowing its large number of occupants a way to disembark. Most just stood around, while a number of sailors and marines were set up in lines, just as expected. "Well, then, let us go say hello to our new personnel, shall we?"
"Of course master. I shall follow your lead."
The commander nodded and began walking toward the masses of people in perfectly timed strides. The first to notice his approach was a marine officer, causing him to snap to attention and call out for others to do the same. The sailors and marines acted perfectly, while many of the more civilian personnel simply turned to watch, unsure if they were meant to follow along or not.
"Good afternoon Gentlemen, and ladies," The Commander said and then amended as he noticed a few ladies, some dressed as mechanics but most others as nurses. "I am Commander Alexander Mathew Bartholomew Rhodes, Commander of the Azur lane Combined fleet base and operations. Here, my word is both law and sledgehammer. I can make anything happen here, whether it is a simple change of daily routine, or the destruction of an entire island and all life upon it. Think about that fact before you decide to speak up!"
The sailors and marines did not move at all form their attention, while many of the civilian contractors shuffled nervously while others began standing up straighter.
Seeing his words effect he nodded slightly to himself and continued. "As you all know, the great war is over, ended not by our own actions, but by the sudden return of the enemy from over twenty years ago. The siren menace has returned, and with it the foolish war against the crimson Axis is over as well. I am telling you this because you are but the first to arrive. Others will follow and they will be from all nations. Eagle Union, Royal, Dragon empry, Sardegna, Ironblood, Sakura, iris Libre, and many others. Not just Shipgirls, but regular humans like you and I will all be here in this base to make sure it is the image of unity we need to stand up to the Siren menace! You are here for many reasons, and while they are each your own, I do not care about them. I care about results and rules and here are mine. While on this base, I am your superior, even God in heaven is lesser than my word. My subordinates have some weight to their words, but that does not mean they are final, only my word, and those of who I choose as my second from each nations are final. Second. I will not expect there to be no friction, being that you will be working alongside those who were once your enemies, but I will not tolerate violence between personnel in any form. Third pertains to the Shipgirls and the rules on this base in regards to fraternization. It is allowed with the following rulings. If you are speaking to a member of the opposite sex it should be as friends and allies first. If relationships form between anyone it will be natural and I will not allow any one nights stands or casual flings between personnel whether they be human or Shipgirl. Similarly, if someone does not respond to your attentions, leave it and move on. If I hear about anyone trying to force anyone else in any way there will be sever ramifications. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!" all of the sailors and marines called out in unison, startling some of the civilians.
"Good," the commander said as his gaze turned toward the civilians, causing some to flinch. "Now then, I know that some of you are not part of the forces and here as civilian contractors, so let me make this clear that I know some of you will have trouble getting used to naval routine and rules. I will not punish you for simple infraction that you are not aware of and the main thing I ask of you all is to do your best to do your jobs to the best of your ability and respect those around you, whether you work with them or not. Do that, and we should have no issues."
The commander waited for the group to calm down, stopping their nods and murmured agreements.
"Good. Now then, location and dorms. Those of you in the navy or connected to it. Sailors, Marines, officers, nurses and naval mechanics, you all will be in the dorms of the nation you hail from. The union and Royal dorms are near each other, so all of you I just mentioned please follow Belfast to your dorms and get yourselves situated."
"If you all would please follow me," Belfast spoke up as she took a step forward and curtsied to the groups with a slight bow before then turning and heading away from the docks.
All of those who needed to then followed, with the naval personnel being perfectly quick, and a few of the civilian contractors following with smiles and talking. Some even making odd comments that were borderline sexist, mostly about Belfast's body shape and clothing.
It would need to be something that he cracked down on in the future, but before that the commander still needed to deal with the remaining third of the people who were now in front of him, anxiously waiting to hear about their own housing situation.
"Alright, now that the ones who can deal with this easily on their own are being dealt with, it's your turn," the commander began. "You are all here as civilian contractors. Mechanics, engineers, janitors, electricians, cooks, technicians. All jobs that are simple, but no less important than any else. In fact, some like myself would say your jobs are even more important. A sailor works on a boat, a marine charges the beaches, but without cooks they go hungry, without engineers, electricians and all the rest of you, they have trouble staying in shape and living in comfort. Without you, the base begins to fall apart despite intentions otherwise. That is why you are all here, to keep this base afloat. Azur lane is designed like a hexagon, with the different factions Shipgirl and naval personnel dorms in their own area complete with their own canteens and facilities. The centre of the island is home to my own Headquarters building, the Shipgirl Academy, and your dorms and facilities. I will not lie. You may have the hardest jobs because you will not be locked to the central area of the island. Cooks will be, as your location is the central and academy canteens, but the rest of you will likely be dealing with jobs across the whole island and in the area of every faction. You will be maintaining this island, alongside others from other factions when they arrive in coming weeks, and you will need to work with them to keep this base working at peak efficiency!"
The commander took a moment to catch his breath and subtly eye the group before him. Many had looked hopeful and giddy when he had explained the fraternization rules. Now, those same people, and some others, looked nervous, worried, scared even. It was a good thing. They needed to understand just how serious their positions were going to be. Sure, each faction had their own maintenance groups, but they were small and focused, not able to deal with every electrical, plumbing, or mechanical issue that could spring up on the base. During the war against the Crimson axis there had been many minor things that had popped p over the base, and now with an exploding population it would only get worse. They needed to understand that they may be contractors, but they would be run like they were part of the island like everyone else. They either survived as a group, or sunk as a group.
"If there are any of you that, somehow, believe you have been lied to, or are not worthy for holding such jobs and the required skills and ability, then please back up and get back on the Coronet. You will not be thought ill of, for this base is a naval base and it is run like one. If you do not believe you can handle that, or the stress of working in such an atmosphere, back out now and do us both a favour!"
It took a few seconds, but three people, two men and one woman, backed out and re-boarded the ship. No one said anything, many from obviously being to scared to do so. Fear could be strong, but it was the few in the crowd who were clearly unafraid that made the commander smirk. One of them was the very one he was interested in, and it only made him more interested in the man.
But that had to wait until the future. For now he had to get them all set up and ready to do their jobs.
Besides, he couldn't talk to the man in person until he won the game with Belfast, otherwise she would realize it was him he was interested in.
"Very good. Those of you here are those who are staying. The central dorm has a large canteen open to all nations, as well as a mechanical garage, technical storage and work rooms and other facilities you will all do your jobs from. Follow this way and I shall show you these locations. And please note, if you are not fully aware of your jobs her, each of your rooms has sheets explaining what your duties here will be. Now then, let's get you all situated!"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Belfast gently closed the door to her own room and stepped up to her desk, placing a stack of neatly organized file folders upon it without a sound. The enlisted personnel had their dorms assigned and jobs understood, her majesty had been attended to, as had the commander, and her day was now done as a maid. She had a short few moments to herself to unwind and prepare to rest for the new day that was to come.
Of course, having a few moments to herself meant that she could let herself go a bit and perhaps do some casual reading before she slept. But the folders on her desk had other plans, calling out to her and reminding her of her game with the admiral.
Once she was changed into her nightgown she found herself siting in a nice cushioned chair and browsing the dossiers. She had looked into all of the enlisted personnel ones in the past days before their arrival, but had admittedly not considered the contracted civilians as important enough to look into due to the fact that as civilians, their dossiers would not be as fleshed out, and they likely would be not as interesting with no real merits to speak of in naval terms.
Within the first handful of dossiers she realized that was not the case, and that she had made a rather serious, though hidden from public view, mistake in not considering them worthy of looking into.
The enlisted personnel, marines and sailors mostly, had similar Dossiers to each other, telling of where they excelled, and in what positions they were most effective. The civilian dossiers however were not written in the normal way the enlisted ones were, and instead of having shorthand quick notes, had fully fleshed out sections dedicated to past actions, academia, skills, future intentions and more. Some even had physiological evaluations attached to them, and most also noted how much they were being paid for their contracts, and how it was being sent to them or split around as some of them had set up their pay to be sent to family.
What was most worrisome however was discovering just how many strange and eclectic individuals had answered the civilian contract call to work at Azur lane. Ex-forces members with far more training than needed for their positions, mechanics of all types who could have made much more money staying in the public sector, even technicians who could have gotten into advanced R&D laboratories if given half a chance.
Many of the dossiers were for civilian contractors from the Ironblood and Sakura and had yet to arrive. It lowered the numbers of which she needed look through to discern whom the commander was most interested in, but the sheer volume of eclectic skill and personality was staggering when compared to the enlisted forces.
How had headquarters found so many individuals of such skill and variety? Had they all simply found the offers and agreed for some not easily notable reason, or was it something more simple or instinctual? Many humans did consider Shipgirls to be gorgeous and targets of many more primal emotions, but she also knew that it was a commonly held belief among most humans that they were out of their league.
Was it perhaps some desire to fight back against the sirens then perhaps? The first Siren war had done extreme quantities of damage to every nation in the world and had left deep scars on many places. But humans held grudges for far longer than healthy or safe, so most would still be angry at the crimson Axis aligned factions. True hatred or a desire to fight the Sirens would likely not be a major feeling for many of yet, not until the Sirens returning forces truly took to engaging their forces repeatedly or began striking coastal cities and civilian shipping.
If it was not a primal emotion or some feeling of hatred, the most likely reasons were those of pride or adventure. Human history was rife of both of these after all, but even then it seemed somewhat unlikely as the sole reason.
"Hmm, it seems that I may need to enquire with Lady's Warpsite and Illustrious. Perhaps they would have ideas upon the numbers of contractors that have come," Belfast said to herself as she glanced at her clock and put down the book. She needed her sleep is she was to awaken early enough to properly fulfill her duties to both her majesty and the commander. And she had two weeks to discern who was the individual the commander was interested about.
There was no need to read everything in one go, she would find out who the commander had interest in eventually. They would not escape her eyes and the commander would be solely hers for a time.