So, I have been mulling over some ideas lately and another one that has popped up recently has been one involving Azur Lane again. Not surprising considering I have a 99% collection rating in-game (yes, I have all of the ships outside of Chapter 13 or outright new event ships that have yet to drop), I watched the anime and enjoyed it, and am watching the Slow Ahead spinoff anime. And I'm reading a few fics on the site involving Azur Lane as well crossed over with other franchises. It's still my head cannon that my port is the "best end" after everything has passed. Everyone's friends with each other. So, there's one Halo fic that I like that's crossed over with Azur Lane called "The Ghost and the Eagle" by Johnnieboy11 (id: 13412717) where the concept is Master Chief becomes the new Commander of the Azur Lane forces during the main plotline events of the anime; a similar one exists for an Ace Combat crossover where Trigger is the commander called "Azur Lane: Three Strikes" by Nighthawk6595 (id: 14044030). Interesting concepts, right? So, did I. I've been following those fics since they started, seriously check them out, and I had the random idea of "what if V from Cyberpunk 2077 after the events of the game became the new Commander of Azur Lane?
Title: [undecided]
Summary: After his successful assault on the Arasaka building, V finds himself fading into the void but somehow finds himself floating in a harbor. And why are there a bunch of girls floating on the water like Jesus? And why are they calling him "Commander"?
Rating: T+ for language primarily.
Pairing: Undecided.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my copy of MS Word. Azur Lane belongs to Manjuu and Cyberpunk 2077 belongs to CD Projekt Red. I only own this idea. See the forward for the full disclaimer.
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V crawled towards the red, glowing tower in the center of the room. It was appropriately colored considering that red was considered a 'danger' color, something to stay away from. If it wasn't for the Relic killing him, he'd agree with that gut instinct. But this 'danger' would also be his salvation. Fucking with Corpos, befriending fellow Nomads, losing a good friend; this was all done in two weeks that could have only happened in Night City. He leaned up against the tower terminal and pulled out the cable and plugged it right into his wetware; slowly he made his way into the pool of liquid and red errors and diagnostics started popping up.
"See you on the other side," Johnny said.
His vision darkened and he found himself in an elevator. There's no way he was in an elevator, right? It was taking him to the roof of some building. The doors opened to show the dingy hallway of one of many of Night City's apartment blocks. You could tell from the grime and smell. The odd thing was there were a lot of cats, an extreme oddity. As he stepped out onto the roof, he found that it was raining and the neon lights of the city made it feel… picturesque if you wanted to call it that. Near one of the ledges sat something that he picked up out of the corner of his eye. It was right next to a pair of lawn chairs, the tacky plastic-type that somehow was always comfortable. He walked over and found the necklace that was made for him by Misty, the bullet that was put in his head by Dexter DeShaun that booted this whole suicide mission off, to begin with. As he picked it up and analyzed it, the world fell away and was replaced by another.
V recognized it was the digital world, the deep cyberspace netrunning that he had experienced when he had gone under with the Voodoo Boys, right before they were all fried to a crisp. He was standing on a walkway floating over a black abyss with a pyramid glowing green in the distance, a gold pillar beyond it.
"Let us go, you and I," Alt recited in her digitized voice. He started to walk towards the pyramid, considering there was nowhere else to go but forward. "When the evening is spread out against the sky. Like a patient etherized upon a table. Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets. The muttering retreats. Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels, and sawdust restaurants and oyster shells. Streets that follow like a tedious argument of insidious intent. To lead you to an overwhelming question. Oh, do not ask 'what is it?' Let us go and make our visit."
Alt was then silent as he reached the stairs and started to climb the pyramid. At the top, just beyond was the golden pillar of light. The top of the pyramid was a plateau that only had one way off of it, which happened to lead toward the pillar of light. Just barely noticeable against the golden glow was the red projection of Johnny Silverhand. V approached him and called out as he was right behind him, "You're here!" He placed his hand on the projection's shoulder and asked, "Who was right, you cranky bastard?"
"Ha! You were right, V. You were," the long-deceased rockerboy admitted.
"And who just ate their words?"
"Oh, fuck off." He then started to walk towards a projected booth where he sat down in. V followed suit.
"So, when do we start?" V asked the question of the hour.
"Haven't caught on yet, have ya?"
"What, whaddya mean?"
Johnny placed his feet up on the holographic table. "Alt's already split us. Once you jacked into Mikoshi, she lit you up with Soulkiller."
"Your output don't fuck around."
"I am not his girlfriend," the aforementioned Alt appeared and rebutted.
"Hey, Alt. So, seeing as we seem to have the whole soul-splittin' out of the way, what's next?" V asked the incredibly advanced AI.
"I am currently verifying the checksum and eliminating engram copy errors in the process."
It then hit V like a ton of bricks, what Mikoshi and Soulkiller really did, despite being told what it did. "Wait, you mean… I… Am I a construct?"
"She means you followed in my footsteps," Johnny translated. "Next step's to copy you into the gonk's brain."
"So that's really it. We're done. You kept your word," V felt relieved.
That relief was immediately shattered by the next words uttered. "There is one aspect I failed to take into account," Alt interrupted.
"Alt, what?" Johnny asked for both of them.
"The body is a key factor in this transaction." That was stating the obvious. "The DNA reconfiguration by the Relic has progressed too far. Added to aggressive, invasive medications, the body's immune system attacking its own neurons…"
"Christ, will you skip to the end?!" V interrupted. This was bad, really bad if what she was saying was true.
"After I transfer your construct into your body, you will die. It is inevitable. It is imminent," Alt said with finality.
V was immediately enraged, and rightfully so. He had been played. "You had this planned all along, didn't ya?" V waved accusatorily towards Johnny and Alt in the same motion. "Never had any intention of keepin' me alive."
"Is that a fuckin' joke?" Johnny asked as if what was just said was the punchline to a dad joke.
"You backstabbin' motherfucker! You just fuckin' kicked back, dumbass grin on your face, and waited for me to realize you had me fucked from the start."
"Gonna pretend I didn't hear that."
V turned to Alt. "Alt, question. Will the body reject Johnny's construct?"
Johnny could only shake his head. "No, they are compatible. The body is his."
"That's enough, Alt. V and I need a minute," Johnny interrupted this time.
V started to stand up. "I ca- I can't believe it. Everything." He found himself leaning against a backward-facing chair. "All that we did – it was pointless." He sighed in both annoyance and exhaustion. "I've had enough of this. Of everything. You, most of all," he directed towards Johnny in particular as he too sat in a backward-facing chair of his own.
"Perfect, 'cause we're stickin' to the plan. I'm goin' with Alt, fuck knows where, and you're keepin' your body."
"Where's she even gonna take you?"
"Beyond the Blackwall, to become part of her. Whatever the hell that means."
"Is there really no other way?" V asked with desperation. There just had to be another way.
Alt decided at that time to interrupt them. "As I said, Johnny can retain the body, remain there, while you come with me," Alt could only seem to say with a shrug.
"Guess I meant, I dunno… a happier ending… for everyone involved."
"Here, for folks like us? Wrong city, wrong people," Johnny replied. What he said was the truth. Night City was the stopping point for many, and it was never a happy one no matter how little of an impact in the grand scheme of things he had on it.
"Yet the right to make a choice you have earned, through will and endeavor," Alt added. "This bridge leads deeper into cyberspace. Cross it and permanently sever the connection with your body." Alt seemed to multiply which went on for eternity in whichever direction he looked. "The path to your body passes through that mortal well."
V thought for a short time to consider his options. Is it better to give up on life for some kind of 'immortality' or to live life to its fullest? He came to his decision, as much as he may regret it later. "I told you… I said I wanted you to have my body. But… but I can't do it… I'm sorry," V said to Johnny.
"Don't apologize. We knew all along this is how it would play out," Johnny replied. V stood up and turned to see what looked like a netrunner cradle. Alt floating over it and Johnny warping over to the side of it.
"Don't… don't fuck with me right now."
"Only if you cut your pathetic 'I'm sorry' bullshit." V looked to the right, in the corner of his eye he could see the bridge to cyberspace. If he really wanted to, he could just… run to it, Johnny wouldn't be able to stop him. No, he had made his decision. He continued to walk towards the well.
"I mean, Jesus, I'm about to shred a comrade and a chunk of my own soul in one fuckin' go. You got no idea what that shit feels like," V said as he sat down on the well's edge. Without waiting for some kind of witty remark from the deceased rockerboy, he swung his legs over the ledge and laid down inside of it.
Johnny placed a hand on his shoulder and pushed him down. "Goodbye, V. And never stop fightin'," Johnny's final words to the merc were short and to the point. He started to fall backward, blocks of data streaming past him as he felt like he was in freefall. This seemed to go on forever until he blacked out. However, that didn't last for long as his vision was turned completely white.
The next thing he heard were waves in the distance and water splashing against his skin. Water immediately washed over him causing him to immediately shoot upright, coughing to clear the water from his airways. He couldn't help but notice the salt taste in his mouth.
'Ocean water?' he asked himself. Clearing his eyes, he looked to see that he was on a beach where retreating waves showed he was on a shoreline. Turning around he saw he was in some sort of coastal city but it was a bit of a way off. Maybe a couple of miles by his guessing. He tried connecting to the local cellular net but got a 'no signal' response from it. 'Maybe interacting with the Blackwall messed with my cyberware more than I want to admit,' V thought. While he was an adequate enough Decker, this was the Blackwall and Arasaka tech used as the gateway he had been messing with, he'd need a ripperdoc to thoroughly go through his circuits to confirm no Corpo or Blackwall fuckery was going on in him.
That brought up another question. Where the hell was he? With his cellular net down and GPS offline, not to mention the lack of a familiar skyline, he had no idea where he was. With this unknown tidbit of information, he started to look around. The air was remarkably clean, infinitely cleaner than Night City or the remaining intact cities on the planet. Unless you got way out into the countryside, and close to either Canada or other natural preserves that still remained after the numerous wars instigated by the Gang of Four, no city or 'burb was ever this clean. He used his optics to look closer at the city skyline in the distance. Immediately there was a lack of holographic displays and megacomplexes of apartments filling the skyline. Running through his head for the few runner jobs that he took outside of the Night City area, none came to mind. The rich Corpos that could afford it – and even those that couldn't and paid an arm and a leg (sometimes literally) – tried to live above the skyline and above the smog and filth of those below. None of those cities had skylines like this. Not DC, not Chicago, and not London (not even Tokyo either). All of those cities were polluted out the ass and while glittery and pretty to look at, it was dirty underneath. This city looked nothing like that. In fact, it looked like late twentieth-century architecture if he was correct.
He sat up and looked further around himself. In the distance, much closer to him, was what appeared to be some kind of port and it definitely didn't look civilian, it was definitely military or Corpo PMC-owned. He stood up to get a closer look and it appeared that this port had been attacked recently.
"Commander, are you alright?" a woman's voice asked. He turned around to see a woman dressed in what appeared to be a maid's outfit and long, silver hair being held in place by a headband.
"Commander?" V asked confused. He looked around, seeing no one else but him. So, at least in her mind, it wasn't a case of mistaken identity but to him it definitely was.
"Oh! Did you hit your head in the crash?" she gasped in worry.
"Crash?" his head hurt and he had been in plenty of crashes, but it didn't feel like he had been hit by or got launched out of a car.
"Goodness, you don't remember!" She grabbed his arm. "Come, we need to get you looked at by Vestal and her medical team."
V resisted for a moment while he wrestled with this and didn't move. He did need to get checked out by a doctor, his battle with Adam Smasher and the entire Arasaka security force had left him injured. At the bare minimum, if it was a case of mistaken identity, he'd at least figure out what this place was and maybe why he showed up on a beach. He followed her insistent pulling and followed her towards the port.
On the outside looking in, two girls viewed through what appeared to be a viewport what appeared to be an invisible camera watching this newcomer and Belfast. "What are you up to now, Zero?" one girl's voice asked.
"An experiment, of sorts," Observer Zero replied. Her jellyfish-like rigging wriggled as its tendrils connected to unseen conduits for data processing. "We've seen world lines where the Commander was a man, ones where they were a woman, ones where there was none, ones where Azur Lane achieved world peace against the forces we sent against them and united all the world's forces against them. What impact would a cybernetically enhanced commander have upon a new world-line, Purifier?"
"You play a dangerous game, Zero," Purifier stated. "The Iron Blood and their blasted temporary leader Friedrich der Große almost destroyed us the last time the veil was thinned. To think the Pizza fleet-."
"Sardegna Empire," Zero interrupted.
"The Pizza fleet," Purifier emphasized, "stumbled upon our somehow exposed node with that airhead ditz of a carrier Impero. We're lucky they didn't realize what they had happened on or we'd be in much greater trouble!"
Zero got in Purifier's face. "Don't lecture me about the actions of world lines," Zero growled threateningly, her jellyfish-like tendrils writhing hinting at what various fates she could inflict on Purifier which caused her to cringe. "I'm well aware of their actions."
Purifier met Zero's eyes before backing off first, losing the metaphorical battle. "Fine! But don't say I didn't warn you!" Purifier stated as she vanished from the room to where her new assignment was. "Goddamn Impero and her obsession with spaghetti, what's wrong with her!?"
"Are you sure this is wise, Zero?" another voice asked.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. We will see where the cards lie at the end of this game," Zero replied mysteriously, "Complier."
To be continued...?
XxXxXxX
And with that, another idea done. I'll be honest with you, I'm not as happy with this one as I'd like. I originally started this in March of 2021 and was stuck for the longest time where V was viewing PH for the first time after essentially becoming revived. Eventually, I decided to break it where I did. What does that mean for this story? I'm not entirely sure. I'm not sure where I would want to take it as I'd need to find a balance between the various official and unofficial Azur Lane content (Queen's Orders, Slow Ahead, the official anime, the game itself, etc.) to figure out a coherent story path that I'd want to take; all I want to happen with the story, for now, is that the Sirens are involved and have ulterior motives as they always do. I almost scrapped this idea but an alternative came up with the ending I did put there, so that worked out. But that's all I have for the idea itself.
There was one community reference in this entry for Azur Lane. It was calling the Sardegna Empire the "pizza fleet" which is a community gag as no one can say Sardegna without butchering the pronunciation, apparently ("sardeenya," "sardingna," etc). As for the game itself, the reference to Impero finding the node was a nod to the event "Virtual Tower" where she, Pompeo Magno, and Triste came across it, then in "Rondo at Rainbow's End" that tower/node was come across again and damaged it significantly. The third reference was to the anime with the aftermath of the attack on the Azur Lane base at PH which kicks off the season.
On to other story idea updates. I've been trying to get more info regarding a challenge someone proposed to me at the top of the year (January, if you want to be specific) but I've heard mum about it, so I'm going to assume that it's dealer's choice with it. We'll have to see what happens with it. I do have a Pokémon Legends: Arceus isekai idea that I've been working on in the background in terms of thinking of how I'd want it to play out, so we'll see when that one comes out how it will run. I have a very interesting (at least in concept) idea for a Nier Automata/Halo crossover where during the events Cortana gets an android body as this would be a post-Halo 3 idea. I have a couple of Kuroinu ideas ranging from the crackish "Kuroinu but I have a gun" to a Witcher crossover of it where Geralt gets thrown into that world and fights monsters as Witchers are wont to do; so, we'll see where those all end up. There are some other ideas that I've had for a time but am just toying with to see if they'll work or not, if they don't, they'll end up in the Scrapyard.
On to real-life stuff. Not much has changed since the previous entry, the only thing that's really come up is that Azur Lane released Priority ships, season 5 (PR5) and the experience grind begins once again (herewegoagaingif). Got two DR ships (UR rarity) in French Brest and British Plymouth, then the rest of the PRs in German Prinz Rupprecht, Chinese Harbin, and Russian Chklov. I'm not looking forward to the second half of Brest due to I have relatively low-leveled Iris/Vichy ships for frontline, which is the same issue with Harbin as none of my Empry ships are above level 100 which means it's really going to drag out for me. I definitely will be able to speedrun the rest of them relatively quickly. Got fairly leveled HMS ships, NP, and KMS ships for those grinds. That's all I got going for me since the last upload.
That's all I have for now. Tip jar addresses for anon tips are in my profile. Let me know what you thought about this entry in all the usual places. See you in whatever I decide to put up next.