Hard Landing Rebooted Chapter 1, an azur lane/碧蓝航线 fanfic

Storm Front

Lazily looking out the port side of my F/A-Eighteen E, being on ready five meant I was the one to fly ahead and try to make contact with a lost E-Two D Hawkeye. The Air boss had been caught by surprise when a tropical storm just appeared out of nowhere on the last known heading of that bird, something that isn't entirely unknown to happen, just rare.

I watch as the rain starts to hit my windscreen, the clouds getting dark fast it seems… I give my fuel gauge a flick with my left index finger; it's down to almost three-quarters. I keep checking my radar for anything when I get a blip for a split second before it vanishes again.

"This is Eagle Four, unknown contacts on us!"

That's not good.

Pushing my engines into afterburner I speak over the radio, "Eagle four, Dealer four: ETA thirty seconds on last known location. Can you climb to Angels fifteen?"

"Dealer Four! Thank god, ascending to Angels fifteen … What the hell is that?" They called back to me over the radio, the panic clear in their voice.

I go to try and make contact with them again, but I hear an explosion on their side then static, taking a deep breath I call my carrier, "Union, Dealer four, going weapons hot. Unknown hostiles were reported from Eagle four."

Taking another breath to center myself I roll starboard and dive, steeply from thirty thousand feet, trading altitude for speed, my g-suit keeping the blood from rushing to my brain, the straps keeping in my chair as I start to float from the negative g forces. Pushing through the dark clouds, I see a strange black fighter burning away towards a pink disk, frowning under my mask, I know I'm not going to have a second chance here, quickly selecting the AIM-nines I wait for the tone, the buzzing sound comes quick, just before I can fire, I lose the lock as the craft flies into the disk. My insides start to sink as I do the math in my head, I'm going too fast to avoid the disk, closing my eyes I wait for impact. I feel my fighter shudder, the master alarm is going crazy, I open my eyes to see my display flickering on and off, the controls feeling nonresponsive, and the few mechanical dials spinning like crazy.

It's quiet, like too quiet and there is a bright light ahead of me, I'm dead, I died when I hit that disk, that has to be it.

A moment later the light fades and I can see the twin tails of the black craft, the big engines burning blue, then sounds return and I can hear the tone of a lock. Not wasting a second, I lose the missile, watching as it runs from the rail, flying true to strike the craft to strike in the engines, blowing the rear section off it, sending it crashing to the ocean below.

Easing back on the throttle, I climb and bank to dump speed, to try and find the downed Hawkeye, while I toggle my radar off and on, just to try and get a reading on it, because it's showing me nothing around me.

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A blue-haired young woman tapped the side of her head and looked confused as she raced along the water with a blond with pigtails trying to escape those that had launched a surprise attack on them.

A blond that was off to her side caught the action and she asked, "Helena, something wrong?"

The blue-haired girl shook her head as she said, "I'm not sure… I thought I picked up a Siren fighter, about thirty miles away… and a small bird?"

"A bird this far out, that's kind of weird isn't it?" the blond asked back.

Helena nodded, "That's what I thought, but the Siren fighter just vanished a moment ago…"

Putting up her hand the blond gestured to the girl, just as the blond lept out of the water, the heavy-looking flight deck on her hip vanished in a shower of small blue-white cubes. Just before her feet would touch the water, the cubes returned to form a massive ship under her feet. The blue-haired girl followed suit, leaping from the water, her collection of ship-like mechanical parts vanishing in a shower of blue-white energy, forming a ship beside the massive bulk of an aircraft carrier.

The blond walked to the end of the flight deck, her feet standing square on the number eight at the end, her hand outstretched as waves and waves of barrel-shaped aircraft rumbled down the deck, lifting off into the sky, missing her by mere feet as they climbed off the deck.

When the blond was done, Helena placed a hand over her eyes to shield the sun as she asked, "Hornet, what are you thinking?"

"You don't get small birds over open water. Maybe you picked something else up Helena… I'm going to send out some scouts to find that Sakura Empire carrier, maybe drive her back a bit. she told the younger-looking girl beside her.

As the last of the fighters lumbered off the deck, Helena dropped to her knees, gripping the sides of her head, and screamed out in pain.

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It didn't take long before I finally had a reading on everything within a hundred miles of me, three large surface contacts about thirty miles apart, forming a perfect triangle with me, but it was the collection of smaller air targets that got my attention, it looks like some kind of small scale air born engagement is going on.

Angling myself in, I climb again to be able to try and observe and intervene if I can. Watching my radar I see the engagement is over, and one small air contact is making its way towards two of the surface contacts that seem to be close together and trying to get away from the third contact.

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Hornet takes hold of one of Helena's arms after she stops screaming and holding her head, her green eyes looking at the other girl with concern as she asks, "Helena are you alright?"

Helena nods as she blinks back tears, "I think so… it was a really powerful radar pulse. It was so strong it overwhelmed my SG radar."

Hornet's attention snapped skyward and she tossed Helena away from her and dove to the side of her deck as a green piston-powered aircraft strafed the deck, narrowly missing her with its cannon fire. Tucking herself into a roll, Hornet summoned another Wildcat to the deck and launched in short order to angle in on the green fighter.

As the two planes twisted and turned the green zero was able to get around behind the Wildcat and cut it to ribbons with cannon and machine gunfire. Hornet grunted and tried to summon more Wildcats but found her reserves empty, cursing to herself for sending everything out to scout ahead. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Helena pointing off to the northwest as she called out, "I've picked up that bird again!"

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I spot an explosion in the sky and one of the low-speed contacts drops off of my radar display, well guess that means combat is going on. I push my throttle wide open and drop down to be about level with where I saw the explosion, in a vain attempt I call out over the radio; +Dealer 4, inbound hot.+ I get kicked back in the seat as I see the vapor cone form around my plane in the mirrors, letting me know that I'm going past the speed of sound.

It takes seconds before I see the surface contact; it looks like an old carrier. My attention however is on my HUD when I spot a green plane with red circles on the wings, turning into a high climb like it wants to dive on the carrier. I'm going too fast to do anything about it, I have to turn and bleed speed to be able to get a gunsight on it.

I dump flairs and chaff out of habit and training while I twist my Super Hornet knife edge and pop my air brake as I nose skyward. My body gets extremely heavy from the g-forces, my suit doing what it does to try to keep the blood from pooling in my legs during my high-speed climb and speed dump. Just as I reach the apex of my climb, I roll and dive on the green plane, I'm too close for missiles. With a flick of my thumb I switch to guns, the targeting reticle for the gunsight showing up on my heads up display, making minor corrections to get my nose in position, I tap the trigger for a burst from the Vulcan cannon in the nose. The green plane just seems to disintegrate from the cannon fire, but before it explodes, it turns into a shower of blue and white little cubes of energy.

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Hornet watched as this grey dart zoomed past, without a sound, the wind it kicked up making her long black coat flutter, then the roar hit her ears. As the grey dart twisted and went skywards, trails of air came off of the tips of its wings, climbing faster than anything she had ever seen before. She watched as it rolled high into the sky before flipping over and diving on the Zero, she saw a muzzle flash come from the nose of the grey dart and the Zero just disintegrated.

The grey dart kept diving toward the water before leveling out and flying away from her, she could see what looked like globes of fire from inside it.

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I tap the fuel gage again, this little stunt cost me about half of what I had left and the only landing strip I can find within a hundred miles is a little on the short side, if she's got wires I'd need to trap the number one wire, have a clear deck and hope I don't go over the end.

I angle around and try to raise them on the radio; +Dealer 4 calling Flat-top, come in.+

No response, I roll around to get into the glide path and slow my airspeed to one hundred and thirty-five knots, just above stall speed, I feel cold sweat starting to run down my back when I don't see the optical landing system, I feel my breath getting shallow, I try the carrier again, on any band, "Dealer 4 to Flat-top, I am bingo fuel. I am on approach at one-three-five knots, set wires for thirty-seven thousand pounds."

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Helena sits bolt upright as she looks to Hornet who is standing at the end of her deck, looking at the grey dart, her hand at the edge of her hat to shield more sun, they both could hear the howl coming from the dart as it lowered wheels and a hook.

Helena cupped her ears before repeating to Hornet, "Set wires for thirty-seven thousand pounds? They are coming in at one-three-five knots…"

Hornet coughed out with her eyes wide, "One hundred and thirty-five knots!?"

Hornet concentrated on the wires at her other end and grimaced the tensioning system only went to forty thousand pounds, she pointed at the point on the deck and raised netting to try and help slow this thing down.

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I see them start to put up barricades and breathe a sigh of relief, they got my message then. I adjust my glide slope as best as I can, pulling up slightly as I near the deck, I feel my rear wheels slam down on the deck a heartbeat before my nose slams down. I throw the engines into reverse, open flaps, air brakes, and wheel brakes. I feel the sudden hard pull forward as the tailhook catches the wire on the deck. I see the ribbons of the barricade coming up fast and I close my eyes and hope for the best. I never felt the impact against the barricade, my nose was just inches away from it. I let out the breath I had been holding as my eyes spot a blond woman with pigtails standing at the end of the deck, holding a cowboy hat on her head with one hand. Her coat is blown open by the reverse thrust from my engines, I tilt my head to the side as I notice she's just in hot pants and a bikini top under that long coat. I open the canopy and start to pull off my helmet; I've got a ton of questions and thanks to give to this carrier crew.

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Hornet breathed a sigh of relief when the nose of this dart came to a halt just before the barricade and her own body was just a few feet after that barricade. From her position she could see that someone was in it, they were opening the canopy and taking off their helmet. She tilted her head to the side when she saw something that looked like a Kansen, but different, she couldn't sense them like she could with other kansen.

She watched as they undid some straps holding them in the dart, before placing hands on the body of the dart and pushing themselves out of the cockpit. Hornet took note of the short dark hair on their head and smooth-looking face, tilting her head to the side she murmured, "They're kind of cute."

When his black boots hit the deck, he turned to look at her and spoke, "Thanks for being out here, there was no way I could've made it back to the strike group…"

With his hand extended towards Hornet as they closed the distance, Hornet looked at the gloved hand for a moment before extending her own hand, she found herself a little surprised by the grip they had as they shook her hand and continued, "Lieutenant Aidan Webb USN… and you are?"

Their voice was deeper than what she was used to hearing; she felt her cheeks getting a little warm before she said to him, "Hornet."

She watched as their head tilted to the side a confused look on their face as they said, "That's an unusual name… Is there a captain I can talk to?"

Hornet herself was feeling a little confused she asked, "Why would I need a captain?"

She had to suppress a giggle at the look on their face when she said that, it was like something in the brain broke as they asked, "I'm sorry, maybe I didn't hear you right there?"

"I said; why would, I need a captain?" she repeated the question.

They blinked at her, their mouth opening and closing a few times like they were trying to form words, several times before they finally said something, "What?"

Hornet looked to Helena and asked, "Helena, are you picking up anything else?"

The blue-haired girl shook her head from side to side as she said, "We've lost them Hornet…"

Turning her attention back to the horizon and pointed off in a direction, letting go of the hand that had been extended. The person that had come from the grey dart shifted how they stood on the deck as the massive ship turned hard and headed for port. Hornet looked over her shoulder at them and said, "I'm Kansen, we are on me."

That seemed to confuse them even more as they moved closer to their dart, looking from one end of the deck to the other; they seemed like they were doing some math in their head before they hung their head and sat on the deck.

She went and sat beside them, pulling her knees up to her chest before looking over her shoulder at the grey dart and seeing in a slightly darker grey circle with two small boxes on the sides and a star in the center, it reminded her of the decal on Enterprise's dive bombers, she shrugged and asked, "So what is that thing? It's some kind of plane right?"

She watched as they looked at her sideways for a moment like they were still trying to wrap their head around something as they said, "It's an F/A-Eighteen E Super Hornet… it's a multi-role strike fighter." Giving her a sideways glance, his grey eyes narrowing as he asks, "So, what did you mean by 'we are on you'?"

Hornet blinked a couple of times before she spoke, "I'm Kansen, this ship is me and I am this ship, this body," she paused and ran a hand up and down, pointing at herself as she continued, "Is the manifestation of the will and soul of this ship." She finished by pointing at the deck.

He kept blinking at her again she laughed, "I can't really explain it, a Kansen is a ship given a human-like body. We can summon extra equipment that acts like a ship; we can summon the hull of our ship when we need to, we are the ship and the ship is us."

"I don't really understand, a ship is a ship." he says back to her, looking just as confused.

Hornet gestures to Helena who is standing near one of the gun mounts at the far side of the deck, "She's Helena, the Kansen of the U.S.S. Helena, a St. Louis Class light cruiser."

He looks even more confused now, making her laugh harder as he said, "But the Helena went down at the battle of the Kula Gulf during the Second World War."

Hornet put her arms out behind her and looked skyward as she said, "Don't say that too loud, Helena gets nightmares about it, it really bothers her still. Being brought back was hard on her."

She watches as his brow knits together before asking, "So if she was, is the Helena that went down during the war?"

Hornet gives him a smile as she points at herself with a thumb and tells him, "I'm CV-Eight Hornet."

"How?" he asked her.

"The better question I guess for you is why?" she says shrugging her shoulders while explaining to him the war against the Sirens, humanity disappearing about halfway through that war, and how there was an uneasy peace in the world between the major fleets.

The entire explanation had taken hours; he had just sat there listening, after what felt like an eternity he stood and asked about a restroom, and after a quick explanation they wandered off. When they left Helena made her way over and asked, "Do you think they are a human?"

Hornet nodded, looking more serious, "I think so, and one that has been displaced in time. Whatever they are, I can't banish my ship and just use my rigging right now." She paused and pointed at the craft on her deck, "I can't store that thing."

Helena nodded as she said, "Then it's going to take longer to get to Pearl Harbor."

Hornet sighs as she says, "At least half-day at fifteen knots."

Sitting beside Hornet, Helena asked, "If they are human, what kind of human do you think they are?"

Hornet shrugged before asking, "Wanna find out?"

Helena drew her knees up to her chest and asked, "How?"

Hornet laughed and grinned as she said, "Same way you check a Meowficer, look between their legs."

Helena's face went bright red as she shook her head from side to side and squeaked out, "I can't do that, you do it."

Hornet just laughed as she suggested, "Fine, you hold them down and I'll look."

Helena turned bright red while looking over Hornet's shoulder, Hornet noticing the look on Helena stopped laughing and almost jumped when she heard the voice of the pilot, "Or you know you could just ask."

Slowing turning her attention to the pilot Hornet asked, as casually as she could, "So what kind of human are ya? I know they only came in two types."

"Male." He responded, arching his eyebrow in question.

Hornet tilted her head to the side and pointed down with her right index finger as she asked, "So does that mean you've got a thingy?"

The pilot put his head into his right hand and sighed, "Yes I've got a penis, I can't believe I'm having this conversation with a ship."

Helena tried to bury her face in her hands as Hornet went on, "Can I see it? I've never seen one before…"

The pilot's eyebrow twitched and shook his head from side to side in his hand, before sliding his hand down his face as he said, "You first. If I'm going to strip, I get to see if you've got something down there."

"Okay." she said as she stood, looping her thumbs through her belt loops.

"Wait, seriously?" he calls out in a bit of alarm before gesturing for her to stop.

"Is something wrong?" Hornet asks with a head tilt.

"No, I just didn't expect that to actually work. No seriously, you can stop, but I'm not going to show you my cock, I just met you." He says to her.

With a shrug Hornet shifts the conversation in another direction, "We're about eleven hours out from port right now, I could go faster, but I don't have a way to lock down your plane, and well I don't want Vestal to kick my but for pushing myself too hard."

She watched as he sighed and walked to his plane before he climbed up to dig around behind his seat, pulling out a pack before he dropped back to the deck and took a seat by the AA guns pulling out a series of packages and looking at them hard, before stuffing three of them back in the bag and taking out a plastic spork.

Hornet went over to him and sat beside him, to look in the bag that was in his hand, it kind of looked like food, kind of smelt like food, but it reminded her of the rations that Enterprise usually ate. He offered her a spork full as he asked, "You eat right?"

"I do, but I like food… what is that?" she asked him.

He sighed and rolled the bag back over as he said, "Cold hash brown potatoes with bacon… in theory anyway."

She tilted her head to the side and eyed it with her green eyes, "Does it taste good?"

"Not really." He told her and ate the spork full.

"Then why are you eating it?" she asked him.

"Really? Do I need to explain hunger to a ship?" he asked in a slightly condescending tone.

Hornet made a sound like she was annoyed before she retorted, "I know what hunger is. I just prefer to wait until we get to the port."

He shrugged at her as he ate another mouthful before speaking, "Last time I ate was," he paused to roll his wrist over to see his watch that had stopped at some point, "I have no idea, It was before I launched this morning."

As he finished the contents of the package he took out a different package and unwrapped a pastry, just as he was about to take a bite, he offered Hornet the first shot at it. When she looked at it sideways he told her, "It's an apple turnover, at least that's what the package says."

She carefully took a small bite and found it to be too sweet and too salty at the same time. He started to laugh as she took on a look that suggested it tasted awful before she spat it out. After a moment she looked at him and proclaimed, "That is just awful!"

"I never said they tasted good, just that they fill the void." He continued to laugh.

She wiped her tongue with her right hand before telling him, "You can find a room down below if you need to sleep, I'm in the admiral's stateroom; Helena will likely take the captain's stateroom. Anything else is yours for the night."

As she got up to leave, he asked over his shoulder, "So you need to sleep then?"

Hornet sighed and hung her head before turning to answer, "Yes, I've got to do the things humans do, eat, sleep, shower, you know everything. For whatever reason, you humans thought it would be a good idea to make the Kansen in your image"

"One more question, if you don't mind," he asked, she could see some amusement in his eyes as she nodded

"Do you get horny?" he asked, a smirk coming to his face as she went red in the face, he started to laugh while he elaborated, "The CV-Eight had a nickname; 'Horny Maru'."

She stalked towards him, looking like she was fuming as she hollered at him, "I hate that nickname!"

He started to laugh harder, she pulled an arm back just as something grabbed her arm and a soft voice spoke up, "Hornet, he's just trying to bother you."

He put his arms up defensively as he kept laughing, "I'm sorry, but after you said, 'I've got to do the things humans do' I just had to have a go at you."

Hornet spun on her heels and stormed off, causing him to laugh more. Helena bowed a little to him and said, "I'm sorry Sir, Hornet doesn't usually let herself get baited like that."

He stopped laughing, and she worried he was about to turn his taunting and teasing to her, she jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder as he said, "I'll apologize to her tomorrow, I've had a long shitty day and she made it too easy."

She looked up at him and saw him looking past her; she straightened up a bit to look over her shoulder to see where he was looking; all she saw was Hornet stomping away. Helena turned her attention back to the pilot before looking down and shifting her weight from one foot to the other before she asked, "Are you doing okay Sir? I can see how all of this could be a lot to take in…"

He sighed and let his arm drop back to his side as he turned to look at the setting sun. After a few moments, he finally spoke, "No, no I'm not. And you can call me Aidan, no point in keeping rank right now it seems."

Helena nodded as she kept shifting back and forth, she had never seen a human before; he didn't seem that different from a Kansen. She took a deep breath and reached out to poke his shoulder. It had some give, like her body, but a little less so, like it had more muscle mass. Her poke caused him to spin around and give her a look along the lines of annoyance; she went red in the cheeks as she mumbled, "Sorry, I just wanted to know if your body was hard or soft, I've never seen a human before."

He sighed and opened his flight gear exposing his upper body to the sea air; she saw his skin become slightly bumpy in the change in temperature. She reached out to touch it, but stopped just short of actually touching his skin as he said, "Go ahead and give it a feel."

Helena felt her cheeks blush a little and took the glove off of her left hand and put her hand against his skin, she saw him shiver as he said back to her, "Your hand is cold."

"Sorry," she mumbled as she started to trace the lines on his back, running a finger along with his shoulder blades, up to his collar bone then down his spine. She steps closer and places her right ear against his back, listening with it. She heard him take a sudden deep breath, while his body shivered before she said, "Your heart is beating really fast."

"Yeah." he got out hoarsely, "You ah, can let go now if you'd like."

"Sorry, is there anything I can do to help bring your heart rate down?" she asks him, her face flushing brightly.

He shook his head, looking out over the water as he said, "Not right now, thanks though."

She smiled and stepped back and told him, "Okay, if you need anything I'll be down below for now. We're close enough to Pearl that I don't think the Sakura Empire would dare a second attack so soon."

He did his flight gear back up as he asked, "You said we're close to Pearl, as in?"

She nodded, "Pearl Harbor, a main Pacific Fleet Operating base for the Eagle Union."

She saw his shoulders slump before he asked, "So you are telling me that I'm nearly five hundred nautical miles away from where my strike group was? What the hell was that pink disk anyways then?"

She mouthed the word, 'pink disk' and racked her brain about it before clapping her hands together as it came to her, "That sounds like a portal that the Sirens used when they launched their attack against humanity."

She watched him from behind, his shoulders drooping more, his head hanging low as he reached down and grabbed his pack as he headed below deck he said over his shoulder, "I'm going to go find a room, good night Helena."

When he had vanished through the doorway, Helena made a subtle wave motion with her ungloved hand as she whispered out, "Good night, Aidan."

Helena stayed out on the deck till just after the sun dipped below the horizon, she looked up just as all the stars came into view, she liked this time; she liked the quiet of it. Smiling up at the stars just before heading below deck to the room she would use for the night. It didn't take her long to get there, she knew the layout rather well, once in the room she took her dress off and looked at herself in the mirror, twisting to look at her back in it, looking at the shoulder blades and collar bone, she remarked to herself, "I'm a lot more slender then he is…"

Reaching as far as she could she traced as much of a shoulder blade as she could, noting that it felt very similar to the pilot's own. Twisting back around, she lifted up her bust with each hand, giving them a soft squeeze, comparing the density and softness against the tautness of his back as she asked, "Why did they make Kansen look like this? Are we the reason humanity went away?"

She ran her hands down her belly and stopped at the waistband of her underwear, thinking about what she looked like down there and wondering how he looked different. Giving a tug on it, before shaking her head and turning out the light as she crawled into the bed.

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