"NO!" David screamed as he bolted upright and awake.
He looked at his surroundings only to find himself in his quarters in the Eagle Union side of the Azur Lane base.
He wiped the dream sweat from his forehead and took a deep breath to calm himself. Looking at his watch which read 5:30, he realized it was time to get up and so he slowly eased himself up and stepped into his small bathroom.
Upon looking at his reflection he saw his blue eyes had become reddened and swollen from the dream. Rubbing his head of dirty blonde hair he swore "That's the fifth damn time this week…." He turned on his shower and cleaned up before brushing his teeth and shaving and then returning to his room to don his flight suit.
After putting on his boots he checked his appearance in a mirror that hung on one of the walls.
He stood about 5'8 with a small but well toned build of a naval aviator and was what some would consider old for a Lieutenant at twenty-six years old. Despite that however he was well known to be one of the best sticks in his squadron thanks to several years of flying crop dusters as a civilian before the war with the Sirens broke out.
After he was satisfied with his appearance, he grabbed his helmet bag and proceeded out the door to the chow hall for a quick bite before heading to the squadron ops building.
Upon exiting his dorms however, he was again reminded of the "abnormality" of the base to which he was assigned.
As he looked around he saw many of the base's inhabitants were kansen of both the Eagle Union and Royal Navy.
He and his squadron, the Outlaws, were assigned there as a primarily reconnaissance and attack squadron, but still saw a good amount of combat with the kansen.
"Good morning Leftenant!" called a girl wearing blue and white who came running by.
David smiled and called back, "Good morning Repulse! Still energetic as always I see!"
"Of course! Life is too short to not be!" she replied before her sister Renown called out with "Repulse, not so fast please! It far too early to be running that fast!" "Nonsense! Exercise does the body good!" Repulse responded before they both took off.
David chuckled at the Royals shenanigans before resuming his walk to the chow hall.
He was half way there when he noticed a few more faces from his squadron as well as a few other shipgirls he had become friends with during his tenure there.
"Hey Dave! What's happenin'?" called his long time friend Lt Adam "Caveman" Carwell accompanied by LtJg Greg "Gooney" Wortham.
"Hey guys! Just about to grab some chow. Ya'll too?" he responded in his thick southern drawl.
"Sweet! Headed there ourselves too!" Gooney responded.
"Yeah the food ought to be pretty good today! Nevada and Oklahoma are cooking so I'd hate to miss out!" said a girl wearing a large black overcoat to cover her rather showy attire consisting of thigh high boots, black denim shorts, a black bikini top, and a black and gold cowboy style hat on top of her blonde hair that was tied into twin tails.
David smiled and said "Heard that Hornet! Hey speaking of sisters, I thought Enterprise might have wanted to join us today too?"
Hornet gazed down sadly and said, "Well I asked, but she still insists on eating protein bars instead. Says they're much quicker and she needs to be ready to fight at a moments notice."
"Well, the offer still stands for her all the same. We'd love to have her join us next time." Caveman offered.
"Oh? But here I thought you were more interested in me. I mean you're always looking at me like you want me to feel you up or something." Said another blonde headed girl dressed in a white sport bra like top with short shorts and red gloves sporting a flirty grin.
"Give it a rest Chicago, besides, you know I've been working on asking King George V for date!" Caveman responded.
"Oh? Even after she flat out rejected you?" Chicago shot back.
All present laughed a bit before Caveman responded with, "Hey, it wasn't THAT bad! She just-"
He was cut off by David with "Called you a peasant?"
All again laughed.
"Aw shutup Dave!" Caveman exclaimed.
"Aw don't sweat it Caveman, besides, I bet Hamman wouldn't mind goin out with you!" Hornet said while jokingly giving the destroyer in question a playful shove forward.
"WHA!? DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT ASKING HAMMAN FOR A DATE YOU PERV!" the destroyer responded which only made the group laugh even harder.
"What on earth is so hilarious at this point in the day?" Said the light cruiser Brooklyn as she approached with a clipboard in hand.
"Just the usual stuff Brook. How are you this morning?" David responded.
"Fine thank you. Just finished the morning rounds and decided to get something to eat before the morning meeting." She said cordially.
"Well join the party!" Said Gooney to which she accepted.
As the group all sat down David had to smile in spite of his tiredness and anxiety from his past nightmare.
The shipgirls and pilots had all become good friends since arriving here and one could almost forget there was a war on.
Still he grimaced remembering the threat of the Sirens but also the newer threat of Red Axis consisting of the Sakura Empire and Ironblood.
He still couldn't believe that the two factions had practically abandoned all of humanity to side with the Sirens simply to harness their technology, and David saw history repeating itself in this.
"Lieutenant?" David was drawn from his thoughts by Brooklyn.
"Huh?" he said suddenly.
Brooklyn grimaced at his reaction.
"You look as though you haven't gotten enough sleep, and something is obviously bothering you. What's wrong?" she asked.
"Just…..just another nightmare is all." David admitted.
All present looked at each other in concern.
"Dave, this is the fifth time this week, maybe you ought to talk to someone about this." Hornet said with genuine concern.
"I know, but last nights was different." He said.
"Different how?" Caveman asked.
"This time I saw a girl on top of the ship." David said.
"Sounds like she must have been a shipgirl then. What did she look like?" Brooklyn asked.
"She had long brown hair tied into a ponytail, she had brown eyes, and she was wearing a bright red dress with a white overcoat that looked like it had…..wings? Yeah I think that was it….." David said trailing off.
Hornet's eyes went wide.
"Look I'm sure it's just all coincidence but either way I don't have time to think about it. I'm on alert duty today and if something kicks off that'll be the least of my worries." David said picking his now empty tray and heading for the exit.
Upon the groups exiting the building Hornet stopped David and cornered him.
"Dave, we need to talk about that dream." She said firmly.
"Hornet, I know you're concerned but I promise it's nothing." David said reassuringly.
"No it's not Dave. That description is a perfect match to the carrier Zuikaku." She said.
"Who?" David asked.
"The Sakura Empire carrier Zuikaku. My sister fought her before, and she was hell bent on beating her for whatever reason. My only guess is that it was her planes that sunk her before and now she's out for revenge…." Hornet trailed off.
"Well then where does that leave me? Why would I be having dreams about her?" David asked.
"I don't know, but I do think you should be careful Dave….I'd really hate if something were to happen to you ya know…." Hornet trailed off.
The last part of her sentence was said under her breath, and David was unable to make out what she had said.
"What was that?" David asked.
"Oh nevermind! Hornet said regaining her usual chipper mood. "Anyway, I hope ya haven't been having any other kind of dreams about her Dave!" Hornet said teasingly.
David blushed beet red when he realized what Hornet had implied.
"NO! What the hell kinda perv you take me for Hornet!?" David shot back.
"I'm only teasing ya Dave, relax! Besides, I think there's plenty of other girls around here that would love for you to ask them out anyway…" Hornet said with a slight blush.
"Yeah whatever Hornet, anyway I'll see you later. Got preflight briefings to do and have to step to the jet soon so I'll catch you later!" David said waving as he walked towards his ops building.
Hornet waved back smiling but frowned once he was out of sight. "Dummy….you didn't even get my hint….." she said solemnly before walking towards the docks.
Several Hours Later…
David sat in the cockpit of the Super Hornet geared up and ready to launch at a moment's notice if the need arose.
On alert status, he and his wingman were to sit in their planes with external power connected and wait for the scramble order to be given in which they would have to start engines and be airborne in five minutes or less.
David leaned his head back against his headrest and looked at his wristwatch. It was nearing the end of his four hour alert and he was ready to be relieved.
Just as these thoughts crossed his mind his radio came to life.
"OUTLAW 25 Scramble, scramble!"
David's senses sharply rose and he latched his oxygen mask to his helmet and gave the engine start signal to the nearby crew chief.
Once both of his engines were up and running he proceeded out of the hardened aircraft shelter to the runway with Caveman close behind.
"OUTLAW 25 cleared scramble takeoff Runway 36 Left, unrestricted climb to Flight level 240. Contact SEA LORD on Channel 5 for further instructions." The controller advised him.
"Outlaw 25 copies" David said as he lined up on the left side of the runway and slightly ahead of Caveman.
They both than ran their engines up to power and looked to each other. David raised his hand to signal a five second delay in their take off roll to which Caveman nodded. Upon seeing this David returned the nod and shoved his throttle into the afterburner setting and released his brakes sending him roaring down the runway.
Upon gaining enough speed he gently lifted the Hornet off the runway and raised his gear continuing to gain speed.
Once he had sufficient speed he pointed his nose up nearly vertical and began his climb to 24,000 ft. As he glanced behind him to see Caveman to his rear he contacted SEA LORD which was the callsign for the already airborne E-3 AWACS.
"SEA LORD this is OUTLAW 25, scramble takeoff out of Alpha Lima 7."
"OUTLAW 25, SEA LORD, fly heading 095, maintain current airspeed and altitude, Fleet in contact." The AWACS replied.
When David heard the Fleet in contact he frowned right away. That meant that a fleet was under heavy fire and he and Caveman were needed to bolster their forces immediately.
Even though most fleets had carriers assigned to them, sometimes it was necessary to send in conventional fighters to help ward off Sirens and other shipgirl fighters as all were of the World War II kind.
"OUTLAW 25 copies, 095." David responded.
"Caveman, this is Dusty did you copy that last?" David radioed his wingman now using his own callsign, graciously given from his time flying crop dusters.
"Caveman copies Dusty, damsels in distress." He replied.
David chuckled under his oxygen mask a bit. Caveman was known for his affection with the ladies, and maybe if George V was part of the group in contact it might give a little better chance if he tried asking her out again.
"Or maybe if he learned to cook." David said out loud again making himself laugh before turning his thoughts back to task as his airborne radar picked up several unknowns.
"OUTLAW 25 Bandits confirmed at your 12. Cleared to engage."
Upon hearing this David and Caveman both armed their weapons and waited to acquire a lock with their air to air missiles.
They both fired a volley and scored kills before merging with the enemy. They had both managed to down a Siren fighter before they made visual contact with the battle on the ocean below them.
It was Enterprise's fleet consisting of herself as flagship, North Carolina, Belfast, Laffey, Javelin, and Cleveland.
Immediately David and Caveman made radio contact. "Enterprise, this is OUTLAW 25, on station, playtime 30 minutes, full load. Where you need us?" David asked giving her his amount of time they could spend overhead as well as their armament load.
"OUTLAW, deal with the mass produced Siren ships and fighters! Keep them off me while I deal with the carriers!" she responded.
"OUTLAW copies" David responded before nodding to Caveman.
They eventually had to break away from each other to out maneuver the Siren fighters which only seemed to keep coming.
David was getting close to running out of ammo when he saw something he didn't expect: a ship girl riding atop a Siren fighter!
The girl in question had fox ears and nine tails and was dressed mostly in red but the most stunning feature about her was her twisted grin which radiated a sickly sinister aurora.
The figher-shipgirl duo eventually made a beeline for David which he returned by turning into them as well.
They soared, dove, turned and tried to gain the upper hand for what seemed like minutes but in reality were only several seconds.
David nearly got incinerated several times by the ship girl shooting fireballs from her hands towards his Hornet and laughing hysterically while doing so.
Eventually David used his last resort when the fighter was nearly in position to fire on him.
He popped his chaff and flares to confuse the ship girl who only jumped high above the fighter and spewed more fireballs at his Hornet which impacted his left engine.
David immediately shut it down as he felt the impact and the bright red "FIRE" light and warning sounded and illuminated in his cockpit.
He saw he would be unable to maintain altitude and quickly began looking for a place to ditch while still scanning for the threat of the enemy fighter.
When it was nowhere to be found his eyes then landed on a small uninhabited island and thought that if his other engine would hold out, maybe he could make a forced landing.
That thought quickly went out the window when his other engine flamed out and his altitude began falling rapidly.
"SEA LORD, OUTALW 25, mayday, mayday, mayday! Ejecting over water near point 369! Eject, Eject, Eject!" he called over the radio before pulling his ejection handle and being catapulted from the doomed Hornet.
Once he was clear of the airplane, his seat separated and his chute opened.
He quickly scanned around again to make sure that the ship girl and fighter were not around to take pot shots at him as he descended towards the water.
He grimaced again as the thought of swimming was not pleasant.
Though he had grown up in Northern Florida, it was flying that he had loved and not the water.
Eventually however, he hit the water and activated his life preserver and dinghy.
Soaked and tired from the fight he ensured he had his survival kit and looked toward the island he had seen from the air.
It was a good distance to paddle, but he knew he had no choice.
"Fuck my life…" he said jokingly as he began paddling.