Azur Lane's Arctic Command: Reinstated

00: Prologue (Rewritten)

A/N: As much as I didn't want to, I had to revamp the chapter because I have once again written myself into a corner. A lot of the events and first impressions written in the original version of 00 simply don't make sense in the wider story I wanted to develop from Arctic Command, and characterization and the framing of events especially was looking to be inconsistent. So, here's a revamped version of 00 and sorry for the long delay in updates, my life got a bit hectic and the fabled writer's block struck me at full force. If you like the story or have some constructive criticism, make sure to leave a review!

All seemed good in Naval Station Brynhild, the headquarters for Azur Lane's Arctic Command

The sun was shining, the birds were doing their thing, and there was barely any snow on the ground. Despite being located in the cold and unforgiving Arctic wastes, the base was alive with activity, seemingly ready to perform its mandate to protect the Arctic from any Siren interference.

Except, despite how things looked, it really wasn't up to the task.

Compared to the massive headquarters that other oceanic commands sported, with their fully fledged airbases filled to the brim with multirole fighters, luxurious (for military standards) dorms, hundreds of mass-produced ships and dozens of shipgirls from every other nation in the area, to say that Naval Station Brynhild was bare bones would be an understatement. The base was small in size, containing a small airfield for several combat-capable light fighters and logistics aircraft, a small dockyard for the command's fleet of frigates, fast attack craft and icebreaker ships and a few barracks buildings for the troops stationed there.

As well as this, the base was understaffed and underfunded, with most equipment being aging pre-Siren War legacy systems which were incompatible with each other and were getting harder to maintain by the day. Despite requests for reinforcements, High Command would always prioritize commands which were closer to major population centers, and with Siren battlefleets moving further north, Arctic Command was being left with scraps as it was being approached by an enemy it couldn't hope to fight off, which was exemplified by a rather recent incident where a Siren flotilla entered the range of the Naval Station's inner defense grid, resulting into Arctic Command's missile stocks being run ragged and an Admiral Perry class destroyer being rammed into a Rook-class battleship.

The incident caused quite a buzz within the Admiralty, and finally opened up discussion as to whether Arctic Command should be allocated more resources. After six months of convincing, it was finally decided that the command would be allocated at least a bit more resources.

On one hand, this was a good thing as the base was very much in need of reinforcements. On the other hand, these first wave of reinforcements were coming in the form of a single ship-girl and some Bulins.

While in most situations this would be welcome, ship-girls weren't exactly Arctic Command's most pressing concern and sending them to an underfunded series of naval installations would cause a lot of questions to be raised and a lot of paperwork to be filed.

Paperwork that Rear Admiral Rayleigh Adams now had to deal with

Rayleigh was someone who knew the situation of his base better than anyone else, and while he was happy that his part of the world was finally getting some attention, it didn't change the fact that his command was still understaffed and underfunded, all while his paperwork load had increased by what he described as a "metric fuck ton". And while he kept his composure as best as he could, a fateful scroll through Juustagram would finally break him.

"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY INDOOR SWIMMING POOL AZUR LANE!"

The voice of the angry admiral reverberated throughout the base's administrative building/officer's quarters, with most electing to ignore the noise and to continue on with their day. Back in the Admiral's office, Flight Captain Fritz Andersen grabbed his superior officer's phone from his hands and looked at the post which was making him lose his shit.

"We here at North Atlantic Command are thankful for the completion of our new indoor swimming pool! This facility will certainly help train the girls on rainy days, allowing us to better protect Europe from any Siren threat!"

Fritz looked back at Rayleigh, seeing him slumped down on his paper-covered table releasing a low groan. Fritz sighed as he patted his friend on the shoulder and spoke to him.

"Are you okay?" Fritz asked in his usual heavily accented English.

"Do you think so Fritz?" Rayleigh replied, frustration coating his voice "I've been doing nothing but filling up forms for upwards of 20 hours a day, do you think I'm okay?"

Fritz was given pause at Rayleigh's sudden aggression, and Rayleigh noticed Fritz's surprise. The Admiral sighed and rose from his position before opening his minifridge and getting a bottle of wine from his minifridge.

"Sorry about that" Rayleigh said in an apologetic tone "It's just that you know, a swimming pool? While we're out here freezing in the fucking cold? It took them six fucking months to approve reinforcements after the "Incident", and all we get is a single KANSEN and some Bulins? I get that this is the start of larger investments in our sector, but a KANSEN isn't going to change the fact that were broke and understaffed. Fucking hell, I asked for some maintenance personnel to reduce the need for the line cooks to fix the heating when it breaks but no, the Sirens are at THIER doorstep, and THEY get priority even though WE just got attacked. I get that they're near major population centers, but I'm still frustrated that SOMEHOW they can't spare a squad of engineers."

Rayleigh grabbed the bottle of wine he had on his table by the neck before pouring some into a red solo cup. He then proceeded to chug a not-insignificant portion of the liquid before continuing his rant.

"And that isn't mentioning the paperwork too. I've been running on six hours of sleep for the past three days because of all the fucking paperwork the Northern Parliament Navy keeps on sending me. They keep asking me questions like 'Does your base have the necessary infrastructure requirements to be able to support a KANSEN', 'Does your installation have sufficient amenities in order to satisfy a KANSEN's daily needs?', 'Does your installation have any history of misconduct among its personnel?'. Shut the fuck up Northern Parliament, if you're so concerned about the welfare of your KANSEN, send a fucking inspector instead of making the Admiral answer 50 different personality tests. I even got a few thinly veiled threats from some of the other Northern Parliament KANSEN, and I had to read every single one! She's arriving TOMMOROW and I still haven't finished up the less important stuff. Luckily, it's mostly just replies to the thinly veiled threats I mentioned earlier which I have to reply to or risk Brynhild burning down, but they can wait, and after working through my paperwork backlog and a few letters, I should finally be able to sleep normally tomorrow."

After the charged rant, Rayleigh's shaking hands picked up a pen and went back to work. As he did this, Fritz looked at him with an obviously concerned expression, which Rayleigh noticed.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine" he said, putting on a smile "Almost done with this piece of shit pile of desecrated trees anyway. The one upside of the North Sea was that there wasn't any forests to get this shit from."

"Do you... want me to help?" Fritz offered.

"No thanks" Rayleigh replied "Fritz, you're a great Flight Captain and all but you have a hidden talent for paperwork that I think you should keep hidden. Besides, you're going to greet our new KANSEN tomorrow since she and Alonya are going to arrive early, and no way in hell am I going to be awake by then."

Fritz nodded in response, prompting Rayleigh to pour some wine into another cup before handing it to him. The pair smiled at each other, before beginning to drink.

"I have an extra bottle in the minifridge. Feel free to take it for you and Alonya's use later. The both of you must miss each other after not seeing each other for the past few days."

A light red hue appeared on Fritz's face after the comment, but he ignored it. Instead, he asked a question.

"Why do you like wine so much?"

Rayleigh chuckled with a melancholic expression, seemingly in deep thought. After a few moments he snapped out of it and gave Fritz an answer.

"An old friend of mine once said... a little wine goes a long way."

Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth

The shining jewel of North Atlantic Command, a command largely considered one of the most important commands when it came to combating the Siren threat. The base itself had an illustrious history, being the springboard from which Azur Lane took back the North Sea during Operation Tritium, to being the location of the Battle of Portsmouth, where Ironblood forces surprise attacked the installation during Azur Lane's fleet review and succeeding on destroying some of Azur Lane's most powerful warships and heavily damaged several KANSEN berthing facilities.

As the installation at the core of such a powerful and important force, Portsmouth was well equipped to fulfill its mandate to protect the European continent. She had one of the most complex and intermingled integrated air defense systems in the world, as well as a robust defense grid consisting of anti-ship missiles and gun batteries. She also hosted a concentration of force that was only matched by four other naval bases in the world, with hundreds upon hundreds of manned and mass-produced warships and a crack force of ship-girls from every single ship-girl capable power in the area.

Most of the girls were out enjoying the various amenities that the base provided, with shops, gyms and even a recently completed indoor swimming pool being present. Chapayev however, was doing something else entirely.

She found herself in the office of Admiral Olivia McMillan, which wasn't exactly unusual due to the Admiral's friendly nature, but the reason why she was there was rather serious.

She was there to discuss her reassignment.

"Are you ready for the big trip tomorrow Chapayev?" Olivia said, stirring her tea "I know that it's a bit sudden, but the process of giving Arctic Command reinforcements should have started months ago. A lot of the Admiralty Board are honestly quite apologetic at the delays, especially with Siren activity steadily increasing in the sector, so I apologize that this was so last minuite."

"It's fine Livia don't worry" Chapayev replied "It definitely isn't my first sudden reassignment after all. The Northern Parliament gave me less time to prepare when I got reassigned from here to Vladivostok, so I'm quite used it"

"Perfect, then we can move on to the main topic..." she stated, clasping her hands "Which is of course, your role within Arctic Command."

Chapayev nodded in acknowledgement, signaling Olivia to continue

"You will be tasked with helping Arctic Command modernize and help prepare the integration of KANZEN assets, including helping with the setup of infrastructure, training and the like. Naturally, you will be working closely with Rear Admiral Rayleigh Adams in this role, and you will be serving in an advisory position to him. Say hi to him for me by the way, we've both been busy for the past few days and I haven't given him a call in a while. Anyways, more information can be found in the file on the desk"

Chapayev opened up the envelope and flipped through its contents, which contained a brief summary of Arctic Command including its facilities, capabilities and the like. After a few minuites of reading, it became clear that Arctic Command wasn't up to par when compared to other commands, and if the reports of increasing Siren activity in the area were true, then the lack of ship-girls could pose a problem.

But that's what she was there to help fix

A/N:

"I'm aiming for weekly updates!"

Proceeds to not update in 2 months

Yeah, so writing a story is harder than I thought due to le fabled writers block and my schedule being packed until recently. The purpose of this rewrite is to fix a few errors I had with the chapter and better set it up for future events, as well as changing names around as to compensate for my crushing geography error when I found out that Edmund Hillary didn't explore "Arctica", as well as the fact that the name "Ace Montenegro" sounds stupid.

If I'm being honest here, as I write this I'm debating on whether I should release this and if it truly is an improvement over the first one, but well it will help smooth out the transition from 00 to 01 (which I already have a rough draft of) and hopefully prevent inconsistencies down the line.

Reviews (constructive criticism or otherwise) and other forms of kind and friendly interaction are as always, appreciated. They are the hydrogen to my fusion reactor, and seeing people interested helps me get motivated.