Having my Harrier all prepped up, I was given a landing platform on a jetty dock. It was now time to show the capabilities of this bird. Sitting in the cockpit, I take some time to think in retrospect. I'm in another world, there are essentially aliens, oh, and lets not forget about the anthropomorphic ww2 warships. Rubbing my eyes and letting out a yawn, definitely tired, in some way a bit stressed, do I even know what I'm actually doing? Getting my head back at the task in hand. Activating the engine, the familiar noise of the engine soothes me somewhat. Turning the thrust vectors to vertical, the jet rises to the air, as I then head to where I've been told to meet at. Arriving , I could see many dummy ships, varying from sizes of a corvette to a frigate. From the coms, Prince of Wales contacted me, "Is it all good for you up there?" "Affirm." "Alright then, fighting against Sirens is no easy task, start with these so we can get an idea on how you perform, is your aircraft able to engage in air to air?" "It is." "Well send some planes for you to fight against, don't worry, no one is in them, aircraft carriers control them." "Copy that, engaging now."
Having accumulated 10,000 ft (3,048 m) in altitude, I flip the jet upside down and dive, experiencing a spike in Gz. Choosing a frigate sized dummy ship, a volley of unguided missiles were fired upon. Yanking back on the stick, once more did I experience some Gz. As I was about to pass another target, I released a bomb, turning around, it over shot. I went for another pass and released a bomb earlier, hit! A corvette laid ahead and with a pull of a trigger it was strafed. Pulling loops to bomb another ship from behind, another volley of missiles to another as I pilot the Harrier with agility. "Now how do you fare in dogfighting?" The Prince of Wales communicated. Out of nowhere there was the sudden overpass of a buzzing noise as I became startled for a moment. Taking a look to the side, the aircraft in question were Brewster F2A Buffalo, four of them. The Buffalos broke off and turned, making this a Furball. The sad thing is that these early 20th century monoplanes were up against a mid 21st century V/STOL jet. The Buffalo that headed straight for me became a fireball after a short burst from my guns. While these aircraft would have been more maneuverable for their slow speed, the vectored thrusting helps me to turn on a dime against the aircraft, out maneuvering two of them and gunning them down. Looking all around for the final target, just out of the corner of my eye I spot it from a high angle as it attempts to take a shot at me, though, as this is a train, I won't have to worry about being shot at. Executing a high G-maneuver, I also do an anti-g straining maneuver to prevent from passing out, clenching the bottom half of my body as I struggle a little to breath. Finally getting on its tail, I finish it off. Wales then spoke, "Good, you far exceeded our expectations, granted we underestimated and went easy on you, we'll tweak the difficulty next time." Pouting, I feel a little insulted, locating where Prince of Wales and the other, I did a very low pass as fast as possible, casting a strong gust of wind to them. "Oi, Watch it!" Wales yelled through the coms.
After the trial Wales spoke to Ark Royal. "I... I have never seen anything like that." Wales says in astonishment. "Someone with something like that willing to help us? Doesn't quite add up." Says Ark Royal. "We most certainly would need to keep him on our side, if it is true what he says, we need to gain his trust." "And I thought it was ours he needed to gain." Ark replied. After landing and having a more in depth discussion with Wales, my position here is going to be tricky, more or less I'm going to be a last resort should the need arise, covering any ships in danger by doing quick strikes and dropping smokescreen. My presence is to be as concealed as possible with the possible enemy here, that is, the Sakura Empire, Imperial Japan in this world. Iron Blood, Nazi Germany, has already engaged in warfare with the Azur Lane, the Allies, having Vichya Dominion, Vichy France, in its pocket. For the time being I'm grounded at the harbor, spending the night in the Harrier, which was more comfortable than I thought it would, there was really nothing for me to do at the time being.
Standing outside for a moment to stretch, I was greeted with HMS Belfast. "Greeting Mr. Aguila, I have brought you some breakfast, I'm sure you must be hungry by now." She brings a tray with a typical English dish, one of eggs, beans and cooked tomatoes. "Ooh... uh, thank you?" "Is it not to your liking?" "No, no, I actually need this should I fly, thank you very much." "Is there anything else I can provide for you?" "No, that would be all, thank you." She bows and leaves. After having to enjoy the much needed meal, I stared out to the open blue sea. It was quite indeed a beautiful sight, the waves calmly splashing against the bay, some seagulls flying about while squawking, the sun warming my face as the cockpit was open. Far into the distance something began to brew, a storm, figures started to appear from the horizon of the sea. Squinting my eyes to see what it was, as the figures became closer, specks appeared in the sky as well, which then turned to dots, and they too were approaching. Upon closer expectation these figures were ships, more or less having a modern shape, Sirens. Jumping out, I yelled out "Sirens, Sirens!" to anyone who might hear, which there were. As the others started to scramble, I myself got back to my bird and started it up. Just as I got in the air, Siren aircraft made their first strikes and missiles were shot to the harbor or to ships, giving the members of Azur Lane a hard time to get to their ships of their own.
Starting to engage these jets, having to now only rely on my guns will make this interesting. Choosing target after target, it was easy to get behind them and splash them, seeing how they did not move as much, but once they caught wind of my presence, the dogfight truly commenced. One got behind me, 'Missile, Missile, Missile' said the avionics. I popped flares and turned, but with the enemies forward swept wings, they could just about keep up with me. Once again doing a maneuver with the vectored thrusting, I performed a loop ending in me being behind the enemy and gunning it down. More bandits were strafing the harbor below. Intercepting, I took out one by surprise and began to give chase to another, yanking on the stick as the bandit performed a High-G maneuver, doing the same to keep up with it, taking a sharp breath, holding it for a couple of seconds then taking another sharp breath, I felt my entire body being pulled down to my seat. Finally I out turned the enemy and splashed it with one burst. Tracer fire nearly misses, doing evasive maneuvers, I was almost thrown around my cockpit. The rearview windows revealed four of the Siren jets were on my tail. 'Missile, Missile' I pop counter measures and bank right, 'Missile, Missile' I pop more and bank left, 'Missile Missile Missile!' "Shut up!" Pulling on the stick towards me, the Harrier shoots straight up, pushing it's engine to its limits. The bandits follow, but as I go higher, they start to lag behind but are still within range. As I dodge I yell to myself and to them "¡Vamos, entran perdida!" After a few seconds, what felt like aeons, the bandits finally stall out. Turning the Harrier in a 180, I splash one and go past the other three as the chase starts all over again. "Bandits on my six, on my six!" Flying low near the harbor, my heart raced as I made half calculated movements. I attempted another loop with the Vectored Thrusting (VT) but the Siren jets do a post stall maneuver of their own, just nearly being toe to toe with me. As I thought it would never end, Javelin called out to me, "Over here!" Spotting Javelin, she had another fellow destroyer beside her, they both stood on water as they had their ship's rigging on. I turned toward them, not knowing fully what they wanted to do. Just barely tapping out on Mach one, I passed by the two and almost startled them, but they focused back and with their AA guns shot down the bandits behind me. "Thank you so damn much!" I said to them over the coms.
Just as things seemed to have started to calm down and start repelling the Siren's attack, the air, for whatever reason, began to be filled with Sakura petals, from where the Sirens came from, was a storming vortex of petals unable to see what was within. A large voice boomed out, "It's true, we are to fight against the Sirens, but unfortunately a difference in our beliefs split the camps apart to separate factions." A second makes itself known, "The first faction is believed in only using powers that were created by humankind, Azur Lane fights on this side." The first one speaks again, "As for the second faction, their group uses Siren technology to defeat the Sirens, they are the Iron Blood and then There's us." The Vortex of petals began to clear, and from it were to Carriers, both having the Imperial Seal of Japan, as well as another emblem of five Sakura petals on the bows of both ships. "We are the Great Sakura Empire," said one of the voices. I know these two ships far too well, they are of the first carrier division, the-" "Akagi." "And Kaga." They both said.
At an instant, they both sent out planes, Akagi launched aircraft engulfed in red flames, while Kaga also launched aircraft, but ones of blue flames, entire waves of them threw themselves to the harbor. "Furball, Furball!" I called out to technically no one, just habit and procedure. Although they are monoplanes, they only seem to be more of a hassle than the Siren jets. Attacking in groups, it was hard to shoot down many of them without risking being outturned and facing damage. I took my shots from a distance and without much aiming only to hope it hits something of them, which somewhat worked but not efficiently, I then had the idea of launching rockets. Picking out another group of bandits, a volley was shot at them, a handful went down but still not enough. We continued on our defense of the harbor, shooting down countless enemy aircraft but they kept replacing their fallen ones. Just as I wondered what our Aircraft Carriers were doing, something of lasers flew past me and materialized into aircraft, Spitfires to be exact! As multiple squadrons 'materialized' they began to shred the enemy aircraft with their superior maneuverability. "Get 'em boys, get 'em!" I screamed in delight as I also joined them in the dogfight. With now support, I could give chase to a target without much fear or risk for enemies behind. My heart racing, not out of fear but out of excitement, this is what it meant to be a pilot! More and more aircraft were sent, I then got the 'weird' idea of having to take out the carriers before more were launched. Turning towards one of them, Akagi, I entered speed of Mach one, hurling straight towards the aircraft carrier.
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I, Kaga, intricately led my aircraft either to a great strike or to a glorious death. The attack was going well, my 'sister' ship, Akagi, did have a somewhat unusual interpretation of battle, claiming that pain is mutual, and through that we share 'love'. As I was deep in thought about her, staring at her ship, an unusual aircraft sped, but it did not produce any sound and failed to notice it. Just as it passed by right over Akagi's ship, her entire flight deck blew into orange flames. "Akagi!" I screamed, but beyond the fires was her, minorly damaged. "Oh Kaga, how you worry so much for your sister." Akagi said, almost as if mocking my sudden fear and her 'death'. In blind rage, I turned toward the one who dared to touch my sister. The mysterious aircraft was high up, but was starting to come around for me. I sent the planes up to the foul thing, they may think they are strong for simply being able to harm us, but watch as I am able to cast apon unforgiving justice to you! My aircraft approached the enemy, but its movements were one I couldn't even imagine, moving in a way I thought aircrafts couldn't. They eliminated three of the nine aircraft I sent, and just as I thought I would finally finish that dastardly thing, Royal Navy fighters came to its aid and gunned down the remaining ones. Once more in rage I kept launching as many planes as I could, but the mysterious aircraft either shot it down, evaded it, had its allies cover it or take the bullet for it. The weird plane finally reached me and it turned its canopy toward me as it dropped its bombs. Having a better look at it, it had no propeller. Time slowed for me as I realized someone was piloting the plane! I looked at the cockpit and saw that it was a male, he also gave me a look. I stared deep into his dark brown eyes, as I finally now know who I must kill, now knowing what my prey looks like.
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And as I was passing what I presume to be Kaga, she had icy blue eyes, yet filled to the brim with fiery hatred, she had short white hair, and... fox ears, as well as nine white fox tails? The longer I stared with her the more chills it gave me. Time resumed normal for me, and looking back the flight deck was engulfed in orange fires, but Kaga still stood. Heading back to the harbor, far away from me was Javelin, as well as her destroyer friend, seemingly to be in combat with someone else, and it was clear that they were both struggling against this unknown opponent, immediately I went in to aid.
Kaga took notice of this, believing this was her chance to take vengeance.
As I was approaching, I still had some ways before I could get to Javelin. One thing I had noticed about these ship girls is that they don't only fight by controlling the physical ships they are but by having their ships rigging on them and fighting up close and personal or to move more steerable. Getting closer I could just see who Javelin was fighting against, it was another Imperial Japanese ship, a Fubuki-class destroyer, not sure which specific one though. Before I could reach in time, the Japanese destroyer backed off to our surprise, that was until a hail storm of Kaga's aircraft rained down upon Javelin and her friend. "No!" I yelled as I tried to push my engine further to help them, but it wasn't enough. Just as Javelin was about to be overwhelmed, a light blue flash of a lightning bolt struck through the enemy aircraft and materialized into a Vought F4U Corsair. Out from the sea, a lone ship stood behind the Sirens, the aircraft carrier was none other than Yorktown-class CV-6 USS Enterprise. "Well, well, the big E has arrived" I say in slight wonder.
The carrier then disappears and becomes part of the person who personifies it and starts to come straight at us, an entire squadron of planes follow her, as one Corsair gets low enough for her to hop on. Alongside the Corsairs were also the torpedo bomber Douglas XTB2D Skypirate, though, supposedly there were only prototypes and non saw combat. These aircraft ripped through the forces of the Sirens, as they launched torpedoes, bombs, and unguided missiles. Kaga launched more planes at Enterprise, but Enterprise herself wielded a weapon, a bow and arrow, with the carrier's Island at its center. Enterprise pulls back on the string and a yellow bolt materializes, it is shot out, and it splits into splinters and takes out the oncoming enemy planes, though not all were shot and crash into Enterprise's plane, she jumps down and shoots three more bolts onto Kaga's ship then exploding. Kaga then applies her ship's rigging onto her, "Glad you showed up, entertain me, Grey Ghost!" Kaga says. Enterprises closes in on Kaga, and no matter how many planes Kaga sends, it doesn't stop the US carrier as she smashes through the. Finally, Enterprise gets to Kaga and launches an arrow square into Kaga's chest as she yells in agony. "Kaga!" This time it was Akagi who was in dismay. But Kaga was far from done, she turns to Enterprise and prepares for another attack, but Akagi stops her, "That's enough, stop this!" "But why? I still have plenty of strength!" Responding to Kaga, Enterprise simply stares. "I am not doubting you, but now is simply not the right time" Akagi reasons, as we, the Allied Forces, are pushing back the Sirens, sinking many of them. "And besides," Continues Akagi, "It appears that most of our goals have been accomplished, quite the successful mission." "Really, if you say so, dear sister." At great speeds the two Japanese carriers exit. Enterprise finally speaks, "We won't let you get away!" But before Enterprise releases an arrow, a orange flat paper plane cutout knocks Enterprise's bow out of the way, which then disappears in ember. Looking at where it had come from, it was another Japanese Carrier, a Shoukaku-Class. "Our work here is done" says Akagi as both her and her sister leave. "Cowards!" Enterprise yells out, though I don't see her doing much as they are literally within talking range, regardless, they get out of sight. The Fubuki-class destroyer that had previously fought Javelin had also disappeared, likely with the carriers. One final message resonated from the enemy, "Let's do this right Azur Lane, We declare war, we Sakura Empire have joined forces with the Iron Blood to lay waste to your alliance." says Kaga. 'Let's do this right' my ass, guess you guys aren't any different here. "You know, they say those who wield the most power can control the future." That, without a doubt, I agree, as it has been shown through the Imperial and their works, as it is the basic principle they depend on. "And since heaven's perfect will resides within us," they continue, "We are the conquerors of the sea, the alliance of crimson blood, we are the Crimson Axis." They disappear in the Sakura petal storm.
And so it begins, I suppose history repeats itself once more.