The Spy Ship of Azur Lane

An unfamiliar place

After opening his eyes, General Askeran gets up, or rather, struggles to get up. His body seems to be paralyzed as he cannot feel his feet. The lightning that hit him was way too powerful for him to handle the shock. It's like his entire life flashed before his eyes, even though he didn't get any flashbacks from it. He's faced storms much worse than this one, but this time, it was unlike anything he had ever encountered. For some reason, he was able to detect some unknown electron molecules, of unknown category.

-'Wow, what a shock', he says to himself as he finally manages to stand up.

To his shock, as soon as he comes in contact with the object he has touched, he realizes something which causes him to nearly fall again. He has a human form and he is standing outside the bridge. To confirm whether he is hallucinating or not, he touches himself from the head to the toes multiple times. He then removes the velcro patches from his combat uniform, squeezes them and reshapes them before putting them back on, pulls out his pistol and rifle and arms them before putting them back as well and looks around him.

This isn't hallucination. It's more than real. His human body, his weapons, his gear, the ship, they are all real. He just gained a human form. But how is that possible? No ship can gain a human form. Yet here he is, standing on his own deck. That's just scientifically not possible. Could the lightning have something to do with that? If that's the case, then General Askeran just became the subject of the most unique and most incredible scientific experiment.

Before he can make sense of what has happened though, he hears his radar and radio beeping, indicating that there is one or multiple contacts of unknown origin in the area. That's just great. He hasn't figured things out yet, and now this happens? Well, he can always choose to ignore it if it's not anything important. After all, they can't track him when his radar jammer is on. They could just pass him or fly above him from a distance of six nautical miles, and he still wouldn't be spotted, not even visually.

In the end, he decides to verify what this is all about. As much as he has other things to worry about, his curiousity got the best of him. Not that it would have changed anything. He would still have to identify the potential threat and choose the course of action. 3000 kilometers is a very big distance, and anything within those 3000 kilometers is his problem, or responsibility, depending on how he himself sees it. And right now, he sees it as a very big problem, serious or not. Being the spy ship he is, he's been taught to always be vigilant and wary of everything around him.

Last time he faced a similar situation, he nearly got himself blown up and sunk. It was back during the early days of the embargo in Azania when he was tasked with inspecting two container ships that were bound for the main Azania harbor. There were suspicions that the ships might have been carrying weapons for either the military forces or the rebels. From night vision equipment to portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. 

Since General Askeran was the closest ship, it was decided that he would go and do the inspection. Not that he liked such a task in particular. He was a spy ship, he was supposed to keep a low profile. This is normally a task for frigates and corvettes, not a lightly armed ship like him. Any such attempts could result in him blowing his cover. But still, an order was an order.

So he went to the reported area where the two ships were located and found them anchored at the bay. Something was no right though. For some reason, his instinct was telling him not to get any closer. That there was something that only meant trouble. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have any thermal cameras back then to be able to verify his suspicions. Nowadays, thermal cameras serve as a very useful tool. Thanks to those, troops do know when a place is ambushed or not. Unfortunately, it wasn't considered necessary for ships like General Askeran.