Aggy was torn out of her sleep by a blaring klaxon that nearly caused her to roll out of her narrow bunk. Looking up to see what was going on she saw her roommates, the three old ladies who would work in a cafeteria on the base, seemed just as confused, and that out the small porthole on the wall it was the early morning. A second later an announcement came over the Ships intercoms.
"All Sailors to Battle stations, repeat, all Soldiers to battle stations. Noncombatants are to stay in their assigned rooms until further notice unless trained in Basic or advanced First aid. If trained in proper First aid, Report to the infirmary immediately."
Hearing the announcement Aggy moved on autopilot, throwing her sleepwear off and getting dressed as quickly as she could.
"Dear, what are you doing?" one of the old ladies with a Sadegnian accent asked in a worried tone.
"Getting going. I have basic first aid training," Aggy said as she finished putting on a knee length skirt that would not impede her movement, and then threw a shirt on before grabbing her jacket.
"You're a noncombatant sweetie, just sit down and wait," Another old lady said with a soft smile." It's probably just a fire drill for the sailors or something like that."
"Well if it is, then I'll find out and be back swiftly," Aggy said as she zipped her jacket half up and then grabbed her pendant, trying it around her neck tightly so it would not bounce around. Without another word she moved to the door to the cabin and opened it before stepping out into the hallway and finding it rather busy, sailors rushing to predetermined locations.
"Hey, noncombatants need to stay in their cabins girl,"
Aggy turned to See Arthur of all sailors standing and looking at her, his face showing surprise as he recognized her. "I have basic First aid training."
"How lucky for both of us then," Arthur said with a nod and a wave. "Come one, this way."
"Alright," Aggy said as she began following Arthur through the ship, doing her best not to get in anyone's ways. "Um, is this a drill of some kind?"
"No drills were scheduled, and a fire drill would be for everyone, even noncombatants," Arthur said as a dull splash could be heard from somewhere outside the ship.
"What, what was that?"
"Sounded like a shell hitting the water," Arthur said grimly just as he turned into a room that, when Aggy followed him in, became clear as the infirmary.
There were only a handful of beds on one wall, and on the room stood a couple of sailors and a small number of civilians, most of whom looked concerned as a sailor dressed as a medic stood at the end of the room on a phone.
A second later they put down the phone and turned to those gathered before them. "The Helena is under long range bombardment from an unknown enemy ship, likely a battleship. We're moving to get out of range, but we will be in danger for a few hours at the very minimum or until Azur lane can send Reinforcements from the base we are heading to. There are more individuals on the ship then there would be normally, so if the ship is hit, if anyone is injured, you all are now the first responders understand."
"What? I'm not trained for trauma!" one man exclaimed in worry.
"I'm not expecting you to do what you can't," The medic said with a steely tone. "I just need you all to be able to stabilize someone long enough to bring them to me. Many of the sailors have basic training as well; we just need extra hands in case something unexpected occurs. This is a part of your contracts extenuating circumstances clause. Any more complaints?"
No one spoke up instantly, and after a few seconds of silence Aggy put up her hand. "Sir, are we being stationed here to respond to calls then?"
The medic nodded. "Some of you will be here as support for me and the other medics, to act as nurses. The rest of you will be stationed around the ship," he stated as he appeared to count up those before him and then glance at a number of papers that appeared stapled to the desk behind him. "Those with advanced first aid training are staying here, the rest of you line up to be assigned your positions,"
Before anyone could move the sound of an explosion and the splashing of water reverberated through the room as the ship shifted to the side suddenly, causing many to almost fall, and filling everyone with a sudden realization that this indeed was not a drill.
"Not five minutes from now, now!" The medic called, prompting everyone into action. Four men moved to the side of the room, while the remaining nine lined up, Aggy ending up nearly at the back. "When you get to our positions there will be sailors around as well, so I'm not expecting you to do everything, just make the injured well enough to move, or be moved," The medic explained before they began giving those in line their positions. Unfortunately that meant when he got to the back of the line, Aggy and the Person in front of her got stuck with what could be considered the worst placements. "You are on the deck, port side; you are the same, but starboard."
Aggy felt her mouth go dry and tried to swallow too little avail. Over the past few days since meeting Helena the two of them had talked a few times. They would ask each other questions, things like what were mainland cities like, what was it like on the island base they were heading to and the like. Just the day before Aggy had brought up ship lingo and had learned a bit of it, finding it interesting, and now had a sudden realization that she was to cover the starboard side, the same side that it sounded like was taking the missed shells.
"U-understood," Aggy finally said to the medic with a nod.
"Helena is very skilled, she won't let us be hit by a shell easily, and she has some of the best Radar in the Navy," the Medic said quietly to Aggy as the other civilians left the room, passing her by with grim faces full of worry. "Don't worry, just be careful and you'll be fine, okay?"
Aggy nodded.
"Good, now get going, you'll do fine."
Aggy nodded again before turning and leaving nervously, hearing the medic begin giving out orders to those still inside the infirmary.
Back in the hallway the full weight of what was going on began to finally hit her and Aggy felt nauseous. The ship was under attack, and she had to be on the deck to help the wounded if anyone became so. The ship was under attack, but by whom? The sirens had been defeated almost ten years prior, so who would dare try to start another war?
Her thoughts were scrambled out of her mind as someone rushed past her, clipping her shoulder and making her body twist into a wall a bit.
"Bloody hell!" Aggy sword as she pushed her body off the metal walls, a small bit happy that her chest was not so overly large as some girls she knew from school who could not help but have them get in the way.
"Hey, civilians are supposed to be in their cabins."
Aggy turned her head to find a soldier looking at her, a rifle on his back and ready for easy access.
"No, I mean, I have medical training, i- I was told to head to the deck to help if, if-" Aggy stopped as she could feel her heart rate going ballistic as the full situation dawned into her mind.
"Hey, you okay?" The soldier asked, suddenly seeming very worried.
"H-how could I be okay? Im, I just joined Azur lane as a civilian, I'm supposed to be taking care of a dorm, not being on a ship's deck in combat i-" Aggy stopped again as she felt a heat on her neck and allowed one hand to reach up and gently grasp her pendant. It was strange, but as soon as she did so, she could feel her mind and body calming down, allowing logic and common sense to come back to the forefront of her thoughts. "No, I'm not fine. Im scared of the situation, and nervous about having to use my first aid training. But, but I understand that I have to," She said before taking a deep breath and nodding to the soldier. "I'm sorry you had to see that, thank you for your help."
"Um, yeah sure, not that I did much," The Soldier said before he turned and headed out the open doorway onto the deck, Prompting Aggy to follow him out.
As she stepped out the blast of the vessels main guns made her flinch, and a second later when she opened her eyes she managed to look around at the deck and all the chaos. Sailors and soldiers alike were dashing around, manning the secondary guns and AA mounts that dotted the ship. The atmosphere was tense and confused, with no one knowing who was attacking them, but no one seemed to be panicking outwardly.
Moving down the deck and weaving in and about sailors and soldiers Aggy found the position she was stationed at, a small alcove between sections with a First aid kit strapped to the wall in easy reach, and backed into it to stay out of the way. She did however manage to overhear a number of conversations as sailors passed by. Most were simple, exchange of orders and the like, but she then overheard a short conversation from a pair of men above her manning an AA gun
"Dammit, who could be attacking us, the sirens are gone, Missouri took out the last one last year!"
"It could be the Ironblood, I heard that not only did they drop out of Azur Lane, but that they have been building up their forces these last few years."
"Wouldn't it be the Northern Parliament then? We're in the pacific, the Ironblood have no ports in the pacific?"
"Idiot, we're allied with the Northern parliament,"
"Then who?"
"I have no-"
Aggy Stopped listening in as a shell crashed into the water away from the ship, sending up a spray of water and a blast of noise. Their words made her mind began swimming with possibilities that she hadn't considered before now. The war was long over, so why was Azur Lane suddenly hiring civilian contractors and increasing the hiring of soldiers and sailors? She hadn't even thought of it before, but now it was odd. Had they known a war was coming? Had they known something was going to happen and decided to prepare? Had they-
Aggy's thoughts were cut off when a violent explosion tore through the air above, causing her to flinch and look up on reflex in time to see the bridge of the Helena turned into a flaming wreck. The screams of panic and fear erupted all around as the ship main guns suddenly stopped turning and ship systems began to slow or straight lock up.
At that same time Aggy felt something pull on her side as if something was there. She glanced to her right and saw nothing but the ocean. Bits of metal on it, fire and smoke floating over the blue water and hair that floated in it. Why did she feel like-
"Helena!" She then screamed as she realized the small blue thing in the water like like Helena's hair, and upon a more serious look it was indeed Helena, floating in the water limply. "Helena, she's in the water!" Aggy cried out as she ran up to the nearest sailor who was holding onto a railing.
"What- what? No the, the bridge was hit, she. She's gone, and- and we're dead in the water and-"
Aggy had no idea what came over her but suddenly slapped the man in the face and pointed out to the sea at where Helena was floating. "she is not dead, she was just knocked out of the bridge, get a Rope ready, we need to bring her back!"
"Wah, but- but she, she," The sailor stuttered as he simply stared, making Aggy realized that he was not in the best mind.
Glancing around She noticed the boat was still moving and rushed down the deck toward the back of the boat, and upon arriving found Arthur Calling out things to others around him, and ran straight up to him. "She's in the water, get a rope!"
Arthur turned to see Aggy, clearly confused. "What? Who?"
"Helena!" Aggy yelled as she rushed to the edge of the boat and pointed to where she was.
Arthur looked for a moment and his expression went downcast. "Girl, Ship-girls are durable, but even they can't take a high explosive shell without their rigging and be fine. She's probably-"
"Just get a rope then, I'll get her!"Aggy interrupted as she very suddenly then jumped off the boat and dove into the sea and began swimming toward Helena.
It took her a few seconds but she began realizing she may have made a mistake jumping into the water. The water was colder than she expected, her clothing felt heavy from being so wet, and combined with the fact she was not the best swimmer in the world she was feeling a little worried. Even stranger though was the fact she didn't panic and kept going, swimming through the water with more force and skill than she had even been capable of in the past and reaching Helena far faster than she thought initially possible.
"Helena! Hey Helena, wake up!" Aggy called as she tried shaking Helena and lightly patting her cheeks.
Sadly Helena did not react, though Aggy could tell that she was breathing. Looking back at Helena's vessel she could see Arthur, or someone who looked awfully like him, shouting at people and gathering rope and floatation devises. Seeing that she resolved herself and grabbed Helena, trying to swim the both of them back towards her vessel.
It was not easy. Not being the best as swimming was bad, but Aggy had significantly underestimated how hard it was to forcibly move another person through the water. Helena's, admittedly minimalistic and tight fitting, clothing did not hold water as her own seemed to, but it did little to help the fact that there was no easy way to hold her, and the additional weight of a person made Aggy feel like she was about to be pulled under the water. And that was to say nothing about the waves fighting her and splashing water into her face and mouth.
"Grab ahold!"
Aggy looked up as she heard the words to find Helena's Vessel, and a Floatation ring tied to a bright orange rope floating just ahead of her, bobbing in the waves. Reacting instantly she forced herself through the waves and reached the Flotation device and found it being pulled toward the Vessel in that same instant, making her redouble her efforts to hold onto Helena.
A minute later she found herself being yanked up onto the vessels deck and Helena pulled away from her and being looked over by a medic, the same one she had taken orders from in the infirmary. She could see him calling orders to people, could see a lot of people talking, but couldn't hear them. All she could hear were the waves and the sounds of fire.
At least until Arthur knelt down in front of her and out a hand to her shoulder, seeming to pull her out of whatever shock she was in. "Hey, you okay? Did you swallow a lot of seawater?"
"I- uh, a little bit?" Aggy responded, unsure of how much she had actually swallowed.
"Well that's good but-"Arthur stopped and looked at Helena being carried away by no less than four soldiers who looked to be straining a bit. "How did you manage that?"
"Manage, manage what?" Aggy asked, finding her lungs hurting from how much she had strained through the water. It was like the inside of her chest was on fire, and it was not comfortable in the least.
"To drag her back through the water. even without their rigging equipped Ship-girls are anywhere from two to three times the weight a person their size you know," Arthur said as he looked out to the sea and then back to Aggy. "I got to admit, never seen someone swim as fast as you were even with dragging Helena with you. War you on a swim team in school?"
"No, i- I'm bad at swimming,"Aggy said uncertainly as she turned to look out to the sea. Had she really swam that far? Was Helena really supposed to be that heavy? She hadn't felt heavy. Had the waves maybe helped bring her back to the boat easier?
"Could have fooled me," Arthur muttered just before there was the sound of a distant cannon being fired, but was then greeted by cheers and shouts of glee.
"What, what was that?" Aggy asked, finding her legs would not move, and that it was a bit hard to focus her sight which was getting a bit blurred. Had she hit her head or something?
"One second," Arthur said as he got up and moved away and began speaking to others nearby. He then returned and knelt down with a smile on his face. "Reinforcements, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Saratoga from the sounds of it. We're safe now."
Aggy heard the words safe and smiled right before she lost consciousness, causing Arthur to worry over her, and only partly notice her pendant gently lit as if it contained a light bulb.