Captain Zoe Tell walked down a corridor to a meeting room. A young, intimidating woman in her late twenties, clad in a black, officer's dress uniform shoulder length black hair, that was tied into a pony tail and bangs covered part of her face, obscuring one her red eyes, and light skin on her tall body, long legs on her surprisingly well toned form. She may have been a looker, but any observer would likely be scared off by her bad case of resting bitch face.
According to the Admiralty, she had to see a new invention from Doctor Carson, supposedly a way to enhance the kansen. She rolled her eyes as the image of those 'Ship girls' wandered through her mind, she had done everything in her power to avoid interacting with anyone from Azur lane, ever since an event she would rather not revisit. The only reason she was in the Navy in the first place was because her own father, Admiral Tell, had personally drafted her years ago, and it had been hell for her ever since.
Zoe made it to the meeting room, it wasn't too big, a table with a white board behind it, and two rows of chairs. Only about half the chairs were occupied, other officers with similar rank as Zoe sat in them, most patiently waiting for the meeting to start, but Zoe noticed her best friend, Lieutenant Stacy Fencer, was casually leaning back on her chair, with her feet on the chair in front of her.
Stacy was far more bubbly and laid-back compared to Zoe, wearing a navy blue dress uniform along with white stockings, long blonde hair, blue eyed and curves for miles. She looked up at her friend Zoe and smiled.
"Hey you made it miss grumpy face~ come sit down!" Stacy beckoned, patting the seat beside her. Zoe rolled her eyes, but sat in the indicated seat.
"Know what all this is about?" Zoe asked, crossing her legs.
"Something that will quote: 'Change how we fight the Sirens' end quote; Carson can be really melodramatic sometimes huh?" Stacy giggled. Zoe didn't respond, instead she just checked her phone about any news from her home town, others had always criticized how she didn't seem to care about any updates from around the base, but she didn't care for the base or the people on it.
The whole 'Bonding through the flames of war' vibe the Armed Forces tried to sell, had never clicked with her. Despite being part of the navy for years now, she'd avoid contact with other members as much as she could outside of drills and training. The only reason she was friends with Stacy is because they had come from the same town back in Royal Navy. This elusive nature, along with her fearsome aura, clipped tone of voice, and being the daughter of an admiral, had created quite the frightening reputation among her peers; something she delighted in as it kept people away from her...except Stacy annoyingly.
In front of the meeting room, Admiral Tell, Doctor Carson and to everyone's surprise, The Azur Lane Commander walked in, along with her two kansen bodyguards: Musashi and Belfast.
"Admiral on deck!" An officer in the front row of the room yelled, and everyone stood to attention.
"As you were." Admiral Tell told them all, and everyone sat back down. Stacy had glanced the AL Commander had rolled her eyes at this, while the kansen subtly shook their heads, the captain raised an eyebrow at that reaction, but quickly returned her gaze to her phone, only paying a little attention to the meeting itself. Carson, a middle aged man in a lab coat, had wheeled in a box with tarp over it, and a projector, setting it up in front of the crowd.
"Greetings everyone, I'm here present a new method to fight the Sirens to you all, I guarantee with this new invention, we will double the current strength of Azur lane." Carson announced. "To understand how this works however, you must understand the standard operating procedure of a kansen, Musashi if you would assist me please?"
Musashi, a tall, golden eyed, fox woman with nine dark purple tails, smiled warmly, bowing slightly before stepping beside Carson. "As you all know, kansen have two forms: Hull mode, and Rigging mode." He turned on the projector, which showed a live stream of Musashi and Belfast's hulls docked in the base's port. "Right now Musashi is in 'hull mode', her human...well in her case 'kitsune' form is here, and all her powers as a kansen are over there in her hull." Carson then pointed to the hull on the screen. "Now please summon your rigging Musashi, the rest of you may wish to stand back."
Musashi moved to the middle of the room, and closed her eyes to concentrate. As she did, on the screen, the hull started to glow a light blue, before it seemed to evaporate into wisdom cubes. The cubes then flew off screen, before grouping together on Musashi's back, becoming her rigging in seconds. Zoe looked offside at Stacy, who seemed mesmerized by Musashi's power. She silently tutted before disinterestedly looking back at Doctor Carson.
"Now as you can see, now that Musashi is in rigging mode, her hull is gone, having used its power to become her rigging." He pointed at the now empty dock space on the screen. "Now that got me thinking: What if...the hull didn't need to vanish?" As he said that, other members of the audience started to murmur amongst themselves as everyone thought about Carson's statement.
Zoe had zoned out after Musashi switched to rigging mode, she didn't care much for Azur lane in the first place, seeing kansen parade themselves around like celebrities always pissed her off, they're just supposed to be weapons after all. Zoe then placed her phone down and cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention.
"That's all very fascinating Dr Carson, but why drag us humans this? Shouldn't you be showing whatever this invention is to the rest of Azur lane?" Zoe pointed out. Musashi chuckled at her words, putting away her rigging as she returned to hull mode.
"Oh we will do captain, but for our new device to work, we need help to maintain the hull while we're in rigging mode, that's where you come in." Musashi replied, her smile unphased by the annoyed Captain's frown.
"Ah yes, allow me to introduce: The Wisdom Link!" Carson then lifted the tarp off off the box, revealing a small device, a white headset. After a few subdued gasps and some murmurs from around the room, Carson lifted the headset off the box, holding it up for the rest of the room to see. Zoe raised an eyebrow seeing the device, wondering just how such a small thing could: 'Double the strength of Azur lane.
"Your new weapon is a VR system?" Zoe joked, earning some chuckles from around the room, Admiral Tell glared at his daughter for her remark, but stayed quiet as Carson regained his composure.
"Very amusing miss Tell, but no, the Wisdom Link is not a VR headset, what you will do with this gadget is very real." The doctor replied. The Azur Lane Commander then stepped forward, for someone her rank she was very young, possibly in her late twenties or early thirties. Brown eyes and long brown hair, with quite the figure on her, wearing a form fitting dress uniform that showed her motherly hips, and long legs, not to mention her sizeable bust.
"I have personally used the Wisdom Link many times in testing, its science and engineering principles are sound, and it does exactly what Carson has designed it to do. Allow me to demonstrate." The Commander then looked at Musashi, who nodded at her with a smile, as if giving a positive answer to an unspoken request. The Commander then picked up the headset.
"Follow me to the docks, I'd like you to see this up close."
A few minutes later...
Everyone in the meeting was standing on the dock in front of Musashi's hull, the Commander was standing on the bow holding the headset, with Musashi herself standing next to her. Zoe stood at the back of the crowd, arms folded as she unsuccessfully tried to blow her bangs out of her face. She watched as doctor Carson, along with Belfast, set up a laptop on a nearby bench, when he was done, her gave the Commander a thumbs up, she nodded at him in acknowledgement before turning back to the crowd.
"As you know, this hull should disappear when Musashi summons her rigging, well watch this!" The Commander then put on the headset, slipping the goggles over her eyes. As she did, blue lights flashed on either side of the helmet, both the Commander and Musashi grimaced as whatever the device did took effect, closing their eyes for a moment. Both then took a deep breath in sync with each other, and everyone gasped as they noticed something different when the two woman opened their eyes again. Both of them had a deep blue glow in their pupils, the same as the lights on the headset.
"Wisdom Link successful!" The Commander and Musashi declared together. Carson watched his computer screen, apparently happy with what was on it as he smiled.
"As expected from someone with a high wisdom cube affinity, and a good standing with kansen, her link with Musashi is very strong, even stronger than in previous tests." Carson thought, holding his chin as he pondered more theories. On the deck of Musashi's hull, the kitsune held out her arm as she summoned her rigging. This time instead of vanishing into wisdom cubes, the hull simply glowed a little, the glow then faded as if nothing happened, yet Musashi had her rigging.
The Commander looked to port and held up her hand in that direction, everyone cheered as they saw the main cannons swivel to aim where she pointed her arm. Musashi looked to starboard and held up her own arm, pointing the guns on her rigging in the same way. Zoe's eyes went wide as she realised what was about to happen, swearing under her breath, she turned to run away just as Musashi and the Commander both yelled a single word together:
"Fire!"
Both the hull and Musashi's rigging fired their separate cannons in opposite directions, the sound of the blasts deafened the crowd, who all groaned and yelled in pain from the noise, holding their ears as they all waited for the ringing to subside. Zoe screamed out in agony as she was struck with tinnitus, while everyone else simply had a little discomfort from the noise of the guns, she was clutching her ears and had fallen to her knees. The roar of the cannons knocked out her hearing and sense of balance for a minute, completely crippling her.
"That sound...that fucking sound...why does everyone love battleship cannons so much? God I'd kill for some ear-defenders!" Zoe internally cursed, still shaking in pain as she rubbed her temples. A warm liquid could be felt leaking from her ears, moving her hand to wipe it away, she gasped in shock as she realised it was blood...her blood. The blast must have done more damage than she thought, no wonder she fell down.
"Captain Tell..." A voice behind her called to her. She looked over her shoulder to see her father walking towards her. No sympathy on his weathered face, just disappointment and a hint of disapproval of her actions. "You've been around naval guns plenty long enough for your ears to adjust to their volume, the fact that you're still flinching is just sad, I've seen civilians who don't react as strongly as you." Admiral Tell scolded, chuckling as he put his hands on his hips. "Don't you think its time you got over it now? With this fancy new device, you're going to be working much closer with these ship girls from now on." He added with a smirk.
Zoe hissed in frustration as her father taunted her in her moment of vulnerability, his voice had been muffled a little by the tinnitus, but she could still hear his smug, arrogant attitude even through the ringing in her ears. If her knees weren't refusing to hold her upright, and if her vision could stop making her see two of everything, she could have punched him right then and there in her anger. Blood streamed down both sides of her head, starting to stain her clothes in the stuff.
"You know...how I feel...about kansen..." Zoe retorted through the pain, forcing herself to stand despite her balance being off. While the smirk never left his face, her father was secretly impressed with her iron willpower. "I'm not...letting those...perverts anywhere near me...I've seen...how they act...no women who value themselves...will act like such sluts." She added, venom coating her words as a fire seemed to ignite in her crimson eyes. Admiral Tell dropped the smirk as she finished, shaking his head in dissatisfaction.
"Zoe, Zoe, Zoe..." He began, before stepping closer to the captain and poking her on the shoulder, making her yelp as she fell back again due to the tinnitus. "What the kansen do in their spare time is not our concern, but baseless accusations like that won't be tolerated, if you act out like this again, I'll assign you to Azur lane permanently...and demote you so hard, you'll be the one scrubbing the bottom of kansen keels instead of the Manjuu! Understood?!" He demanded, raising his voice to the point the crowd had turned to watch them, even Musashi and the Commander were looking on in curiosity.
Zoe hissed in anger, biting her lower lip so hard she drew more blood. She was conflicted, part of her wanted to just keep yelling, to really give her dad a piece of her mind. But at the same time, the more logical part of her knew it was a bad idea to argue, since he could really screw with her life if she pissed him off enough. She slapped her herself in the face to clear up the fading tinnitus, and looked up at the admiral.
"Understood...sir." Zoe replied through gritted teeth, the admiral smirked again and turned back to the crowd.
"Brilliant demonstration Commander! As representative of the Admiralty here; I give this Wisdom link of yours the green-light, you have full permission to use this as you see fit, and with whatever personnel you need. Good luck!" With a salute to the Commander, and one final scowl to his daughter, Admiral Tell walked away. Zoe huffed as he walked away, her vision and balance still not fully recovered as she attempted to get to her feet.
As she rose to full height, she stumbled a little, right into Belfast, who had come over to help her up. The maid cruiser grabbed her by the arm to support her, but when Zoe realised who she was, she forcefully yanked her arm away.
"I'm fine, I don't need your help." Zoe spat, walking unsteadily away. Belfast frowned at how uncooperative this young captain acted, being reminded of a certain, Eagle union carrier friend of hers.
"Ma'am, you need medical attention, if you just let me escour-"
"What part of 'I'm fine' did you not understand?" Zoe interrupted, looking back at the maid with a dangerous low tone in her voice. "Its just something I need to walk off, I'll be fine if you, your fox friend and the rest of you 'boats' leave me alone." As Zoe spoke, the Commander and Musashi had come over to her. Both kansen frowned at Zoe calling them 'boats', but didn't say anything.
"Captain, I'll chalk your insubordination up to your head injury this one time, but if you insult my kansen again you'll be thoroughly reprimanded, understood?" The Commander told her sternly. While she wasn't using as harsh a tone as her father did, Zoe could tell their was a natural sense of authority in the Commander's voice, like wisdom and charisma just freely flowed from her aura in strong waves of energy.
But the captain wasn't impressed, because of this new device Carson had created, she was about to be stuck with this woman and her kansen for the foreseeable future. She clenched her fists as her anger seethed inside her, her peers looked on at her staring down the Azur lane Commander, along with two of her most powerful ship girls. Everyone waited with bated breath to see if the captain would back down. However her father's threat hung over her mind like a sword of Damocles, so instead of unleashing her fury, she held up her hands in surrender.
"Apologies Commander...it must be the tinnitus speaking heh heh." Zoe joked, watching the kansen narrow their eyes at her, sensing an innate danger to her. But the Commander smiled, turning to Musashi.
"Get the captain to Medical please, her ears are still bleeding." The Commander asked the kitsune. Musashi put her hands together and bowed, smiling at the Commander's request.
"Of course Commander." Musashi replied kindly, but as the pair of them turned back to face Zoe, the captain was gone. Gasping in shock they looked around, only to see Zoe stumbling towards the on-base hospital by herself, a few people had tried to assist her, but she either yanked herself away, or yelled at them to back off. Clearly still angry and raring for a fight despite her injuries.
"I have a feeling she will be difficult to fold into our staff, Carson do you have that captain's file? I'd like to see who I'm dealing with." The Commander asked her old friend. The doctor nodded, pulling out a gadget and projecting a blue hologram of Zoe's head in front of them.
"Zoe Tell, daughter of Admiral Tell, current rank: Captain, current age: 24 Service career: 8 years..." The Commander held up a hand once she heard the last item on that list.
"She's been in the Navy since she was 16? Damn that's dedication." She commented.
"Dedication isn't the word I'd use...she actually hates being in the navy." Carson corrected. "I've over heard plenty of arguments between her and her father, she's stated plenty of times she would rather have a quiet civilian life, despite all that she's a hell of a good sailer and ship captain, but her greatest achievement is that she's the only non-kansen to ever take down a high-class Siren, a Tester model I believe."
Carson then pressed a few buttons, before the hologram changed into degraded camera footage of a storm battered bow of an Arleigh Burke class destroyer, from the POV of the ship's forward gun. It showed Tester falling out of the sky, smoke trailing off her rigging, parts of it missing and what was left was charred from a recent explosion, along with half of her face, yellow blood streamed from wounds on her arm and parts of her torso, clearly she'd been in a big fight.
She grunted as she attempted to push herself to her feet in front of the camera, coughing up some blood, but then she looked off screen, and gasped in sheer terror. It was then that Zoe came into frame, screaming a battle cry while wielding a recently fired SMAW launcher, she smashed Tester over the head with the weapon like an over sized club, knocking the Siren flat onto her back.
"Yellow blooded bitch!" Zoe yelled, before tossing the rocket launcher aside and pulling a combat knife from her jacket. "The kansen aren't what you should be afraid of Siren..." Zoe then shoved the knife into the Siren's wound, making Tester scream out in pain, the sound and sight of metal on flesh made everyone flinch at the image on Carson's device. "...its me...because I'll kill everyone of you or die trying... each one of you dead brings me closer to getting the hell out of this war!"
Zoe then proceeded to repeatedly stab and punch the now screaming and crying Tester, screeching like a maniac as she wailed on the Siren, getting covered in more and more of the alien woman's yellow blood, after a few punches and stabs, the video cut out. For a moment, the kansen and the Commander just stared at where the screen just was, completely slack jawed.
"How did she do that?! The High-class Sirens are immune to conventional weapons! Purifier survived getting decapitated for fucks sake! how is Tester DYING there?!" The Commander pointed out, amazed at Zoe's accomplishment, in spite of how brutal she had been.
"We're not sure, the only clue we have is Captain Tell's ship had been trapped in a mirror sea at some point in the past, the crew say that the Captain vanished from the bridge, when she reappeared an hour later, it was reported that she was covered in Siren blood, when asked what happened, Zoe simply replied: 'I stole from them, they had a problem with that, now they're dead.'" Carson finished ominously.
The Commander and her kansen looked at each other, pale in the face and worried about what they had just heard, and what they had seen on the video. Belfast and Musashi both frowned, tensing up for a fight as they looked back towards Medical. Just what happened to this woman? Why is she so angry? how is she so powerful? What did she steal? The Commander looked down at the Wisdom Link headset in her hands, maybe this new tool could provide the answers somehow...