Notes

Well. I've been grinding away at games. The main problem I am having is deciding what plot this should have. I am still worried about my friend as well. Having to also eat with dad chews away at my focus as well.

To everyone still reading.. Thank you. I am no expert writer by any means. But I do have plenty of other fics to draw on. even if my best potential would still come from co-writing with a friend. Which is why Black Shift is so important for me. (It's still unfinished in its Level One demo form with Amazon and Z35.)

I also need some direct conversation here as well. What I noticed is that there's a lot of follows and favorites. but low review count. I urge everyone who managed to get this far to this chapter to leave some kind of comment about what things you might like to see in the future and just for my suffering. my current psycho-analysis. Anyway. Norfolk Out!

"Hello?"-Someone speaking/'Hello'?-Norfolk's thoughts or Radio comms/Hello?-?

"Mrrhh...mnn.." I grumbled. pulling the covers up over my head when the world came back into focus and Todd-rays decided to filter in through the slight space between the window blinds. It was getting noticeably bright for me. and any attempts to move my body came with a sudden feeling of moving through sludge and I didn't want to wake up right now. Even the mere pressure-like sensation of fleeting sixth sense signatures wasn't enough to make me want to slither around.

I heard pounding at my bedroom door. and I began to grumble. the air going cold around me, that was a sign that my abilities were going otu of control. "Norfolk! Wak~ey! Wak~ey! Rise and shine!" Repulse all but cheered through the doorway. And she had to be in her genki girl mode of all things!? For god's sake! I was just able to warm up my auxiliary systems! She started pounding on the door again. "C'mon! Up and awake!" She repeated. "You gotta be down with Vestal in a half hour. let's go!" Oh. right... I nearly forget about the whole revision to my general capabilities.

Letting out a long. frustrated and sleepy groan I managed to kick off the covers to the end of the bed and finally began to raise my head up from the pillow I called my nest. The interior of my room (Owning to my continuing attempts to avoid Dorsetshire) was sparsely decorated. aside from a desk upon which sat there a cheap consumer/business model laptop likely used by many USN and NATO teachers. a small low table with again a few chairs. a closet to stow clothing and spare blankets. and a spot i had chosen to hide anything i might have discovered about Azur lane so far that would get me in all sorts of trouble.

Feeling my body rapidly entering full alert mode I hauled myself out of bed and made my way to the door. pulling it open shakily just as Repulse was able to knock on it again if her raised fist was any hint to my eyes. She didn't miss the rhythm. "Oh, Good! You're up!" She said. grinning. "You must have slept realllyyyy well in there." I narrowed my eyes at her but didn't correct her. Repulsy know. She freaking knew. and her cheeriness gnawed away at my mood. "Now, C'mon. get dressed! Vestal's waiting for you." Gosh. even if I liked her. I wanted to launch a Starlight breaker straight toward her. maybe get the message to her that I was not happy!

Unless you want to end up on the dismantling table even faster than you can say 'Essex'.

...On second thought. i better not do it.

For me. Getting dressed consisted of... creatively throwing on my official outfit and nothing more. I didn't have much in the ways of any skins (If I had any) and clothes right now aside from a few uniforms currently in stasis. just waiting for something at the closet. so after closing the door firmly and powering up my passive abilities. I started marching down towards the facility.

I assumed my professional-looking face. to think and shield from anyone who might be trying to see what I was thinking. a look of being completely done with something. and the aftermath was not a positive one. In other words, a constant light scowl. Not fitting for someone who was quirky. shy and preferred to slack off but when it came to actually being solid enough to fight a dangerous war and deal with stupidly dangerous ancient relics capable of sterilizing entire continents? It fit.

I.. don't have anything to say about the dream that had happened. let alone my first lucid dream where I was... fully aware of everything. Nanoha's words set a line for the reality of my situation. lurking in the back of my head, I looked down and stared at my hands. inspecting them. They were utterly foreign to me. yet familiar. I again raised my head to eye-level. Norfolk's hands. but they were mine. Not someone's else. My thought patterns were still the same. Whatever I was. I was... just am.

I began to feel the urge to put my hands in any pockets. In all honestly, I was not very reflective before i ended up in my current predicament here. and seeing other young people who had just... given up only added to the problems. In my First Life past. I'd been a typical obedient child born with nothing special until part-way through elementary school. when the Subprime crisis hit and only years later would my dad and mom's financial situations be shattered coupled by a evil twin in the form of struggling when I began to run into other languages. and it had taken outside factors to wake me up to it without having me become a deranged stalinist or over-the-top fascist. On the other hand, I was a heavy cruiser with a name that carried its own heavy weight. Shy as hell and contrary to the expected image of myself. and even with the hazards and risks of a war that practically involved child soldiers. quite kind.

In some ways, Norfolk represented my childhood self... but I like to say that Homura or a calmer Sayaka and maybe Nepgear. represents my current traits better. by far.

It was kind of the easy way out that didn't involve me exercising my newfound metaphorical muscles. but I'd just go with it for now. Keep assessing my current strategic position and stay alert to the ongoings of this port. so to speak. After all, the mechanics of my aborted creation weren't something that was immediately important. but I'd need to be careful with... how i approached life, Everyone didn't have a preformed image of Alsace yet. but when it came to Norfolk... They did have something of a pre-existing image. and I have to try and stick to parts of Norfolk's personality to avoid breaking the facade to anyone I didn't want being shown. The fact that I was supposed to be Alsace and yet I was not. armed with modern weapons. demonstrated impossible carrier abilities. fought my way out... It's not going to be idiot-proof.

The possibility Norfolk got sunk and I was her clone was a possibility. but seeing as that would raise too many implications I considered it unlikely.

Enough searching my feelings. I had business to be elsewhere. and right now if someone needed me, It was Vestal at the facility. At least I was getting improvements today. That was a positive even if modern systems had corrected for any design flaws that might have shown up in Alsace's and Norfolk's classes. Maybe once it was done I might have more freedom and autonomy. Knowing my luck... likely not.

Vestal was calm and composed when I got to the facility. Jeez. Shipgirls sure were capable of recovering quickly from what amounted to noxious sugars. "Did you crash out yesterday?" I said striding into the room. She gave me a flat, baggy-eyed stare before pointing at the chair and what looked like heavy industrial equipment in the other room.

"Norfolk. just get in there and let's get this over with." She said briskly and I obliged. wanting to get this done as quickly as she did. The chair felt weird. but maybe that's because I haven't seen a doctor in such a long time and who knows what shipgirls used? It was even more pronounced with my small size when i began swinging my legs. I squinted at the light from the overhead lamps. I didn't notice just how that without being constantly exposed to light in the white spectrum in my past life that I had gotten rather sensitive. "Hopefully, this will go better than when you just visited Comet without warning..."

Wait. Comet? Hold on...

Oh wait, I forget I was visiting Comet because I had gotten attached to her. Oh fuck. the green-haired idol.

I let out a soft groan. trying to deduce how Vestal was feeling. "D-Damn it." I said. again placing my hand on my chin and nearly slumping over. "I nearly forget about her..."

"Seriously?" Vestal asked as she fiddled with something. Whatever it is, i can only hope my fear doesn't kick in.

"Yes." I admited. dropping my arms to the side. Now that Repulse and Vestal herself was on the scene... She didn't capture my feelings as much as it did, but it was still there. "I am going to have to visit her... m-maybe make up for it."

"Depending on when we're done. You can have dinner with her." Vestal said before she raised and began working with something onto the right side of my vision. I could see Vestal's cranes and various hooks beginning to move. preparing for what i assumed to be a pre-standardized installation of components and parts. It raised some questions for me. Did shipgirls have a sort of 'interior slipspace bubble' that could be treated as having its own space and volume? Was it anything like the pocket hammerspace from Cataclysm? Both of these seemed likely. either that or there was some connection to magic with the presence of a hammerspace.

Is it just me of do i feel sleepy now that I am not on edge and constantly tracking fast-moving objects anymore?

Vestal was leaning over me. bracing herself against me as i was suitably locked in place. "You ready?"

"R-ready as much as i can be." I said shyly. Vestal just coughed before she got to work. Her equipment and cranes started moving. quickly preparing to cut their way through and get to access panels with CNC-like accuracy. as the first welders start operating I stay alert. still concerned about being hurt even if she had done this numerous times before and I had no reason to be so afraid of this.

'This is sort of like Kancolle. but more close-range-combat and visual-focused.'

When everything had been done and over with. I could already feel that something was off. A minor one was that it felt like there was a sort of constant white noise inside my head. Considering this is my test run after the overhaul to make sure nothing was wrong however, I had no relief and had still deployed out. But there was also this... feeling underneath my skin. Like there was something just wrong about this. I hadn't went through anything like sedation and the closest thing I got was in the form of sleep deprivation.

I brought my hands up to my face. noting my surroundings while I was out and about in the water. It was lightly overcast and I had a pretty good view of the open water around the bay. I saw some destroyers out on the water doing artillery drills. My TV and visual systems are not powered on yet and it was too hard for me to try and make out who it was visually unassisted. or differenate their 'presence' signatures with my sixth sense from here.

I sailed around slowly. checking status indicators so that nothing was out of place. Then there was my slightly redesigned official outfit. which hadn't changed too much honestly.

It had a similar style to the old one going with the ribbons for my twintails having changed to a black and gray striped pattern and my winter jacket now had a azure blue-on-black dazzle color. The skrit was the same color. though it now had a red pattern that ran horizonally at thigh-level which I distantly recalled to be a KGV trait. Red armored boots haven't changed much either. and the biggest difference was in the form of my undershirt . which if you saw now had a white. red and blue pattern that heavily reminded me of the KGV Sisters and Richelieu herself. It must be something to do with my status as basically a 'descendant' of the Richelieu-class but other than that. I didn't really change too much visually.

All in all. It was a slight visual improvement over what I have before.

"Well? As nice as it is to have a new camouflage pattern. There's something you almost forget. Radar." She said before motioning at me expectantly. Oh, right. Mark 3 FC. I didn't see that in my 'pseudo-HUD' vision. I reached out for it mentally. noticing how the strain it puts on my mind is starting to get less and less the more I practice. While these early RADARs would never truly replace my Zhuk-M X-band fire control systems. their purpose as main battery directors meant I can free up the Zhuks for other tasks like multiple SARH guidance and directing of the SAKs and the 127mms and to detect periscoping submarines. or if for some reasons the Zhuks went down.

Powering them up. I looked at the RADAR display as Mark 3 began feeding me information. My microprocessors began rendering that on my display-

SURFACECONTACT:DETECTEDBYRADARwhat
ERRORCLUTTERDETECTEDNOMONOPULSELOBESWITCHINGwaitCONTACTSUNKNOWNthisClASSIFYINGASUNKNOWNis
LANDMASSDETECTEDohGPSNOTAVAILABLEgod
SWITCHINGTOFALLBACKCODEhow-?LOADINGOLDDATABASESwhy
INTEGRATINGINTOFIRECONTROLstopNOMAGEUPGRADESDETECTED

"STOP!"

Something akin to AEGIS or open-source software running on Pentium processors listens.

"V-Vestal!? What's happening!?" I shrieked. "What d-did you do!?"

"That's your new radars." she said. firmly. "Don't be scared. let them calibrate and the feeling should go away."

"Is this normal?" I whimpered. still trying to reconcile myself with how blind and... blurry the world seemed now that these backup radars were suffering from clutter and the usual problems that plagued all early radars until the introduction of digital signal processing and monopulse systems. Even CIC was having a hard time trying to make out just what these destroyers were. not without some serious processing power devoted into solving how big the blobs were on the display.

"For girls who didn't have radar at first? Yes." She said. "To be honest, you've not reacting as well as I thought it could."

I shook my head as the feeling of blurryness and mud began to subside slightly. I could still pick up surface contacts and clutter but it was more like a analog. old-time display rather than a blinding overload of having light and mud crush my mind all at once. "I-It feels so weird. so... inaccurate." I commented.

"You have to live with that. SG and what the Eagle union can offer is just outperformed on a massive. massive scale by your own." She replied. Well, You had to be incredibly stupid to not realize Modern radars have had decades of development. look-down-shoot-down coding and physical designing. transistors and phased arrays. plus reliable electronics and good software that can be loaded on a computer rather than having to be physically custom-made for every unit.

"Fine..." I pouted. "They are just backups." I glanced off to my side and noticed the changes to my guns. The secondaries weren't touched. but there were 76mm guns. surrounded by a mix of quad and twin mounted 40mm L/60 Bofors and single and twin 20mm Oerlikons. The main problem here was that while i could provide proximites for 40mms. I searched through my mountain of ammunition and realized there didn't seem to be anything for the 76mms. All of them also did not have their own self-contained RADAR units. but that can be compensated for to some extent by my inherent sixth sense and again digital computers. Still. they would never be capable of killing a sea-skimmer or supersonics.

My torpedo tubes were now increased to quads as well and all were uparmored. These things could be launched against any major capital ship threat. and well... I dare U-556 to come near me when I am bristling with Mark 34s and launching them with accurate reading of her depth and location from SQS-53 without anything like passive and active acoustic quietening. and if i have anything like Mark 31s. hell. even just about any homer? I'd be the bane of anything stupid enough to exchange torpedo and long-lancer fire with me. Not when you had Mark 16s. 17s. hell. even the first Mark 48s. the F17s and the unreliable Tigerfish or angry Swedish Torpedo 613s would be enough of a deterring factor against even Kurfursts. Tirpitzs and Kageros trying to take me out with torpedoes. lest they risk being pursued by homers and enabling me to play keep-away with my longer ranged guns.

That is, assuming I found any homers in my ammunition bunkers.

There was also my hangar. restored to operating capability for floatplanes. Not like I needed them since I had Jet fighters and targeting pods already as a battlecarrier, but hey. If you want some measure of redundancy and when you already have air supremacy anyway...

"The most impressive stuff is under the hood, at least what i am saying myself." Vestal commented. "I figured that while your engines would be strengthened to handle for your extra weight from modern electronics. weapons and support. We could still tune up your pressure fired boilers and improve on them."

I nodded. "Does that mean I am slightly faster?"

Vestal shrugged her shoulders. "Possibly. We'd need to put you through your paces before we can say." Before I could find anything to say Vestal gave me a look that sent my sixth sense into a loop. "But I think you want to say hi to someone first. Who's presently waiting for her Dinner. You seem to take a liking to Comet after all. Norfolk."

Ah. right. Cometie.

Why do I feel the need to hit myself for being that so forgetful when it came to important people? I need to improve on my memory later.