Date: Unknown
Location: Unknown
Time: Unknown
"Sir theres a carrier directly off our port side!" A young officer in Montana's bridge announces.
Captain James Kent peers out the view port and sees the large carrier sailing in formation next to them.
The helm officer the speaks up. "Wait, that's the Midway! But I thought she was sunk in the Second Battle of Midway over a month ago!"
"She was... but there's no mistaking that forty-one on the island so I have no clue how it's possible that she's sailing with us." Captain James mutters.
Meanwhile onboard the Midway men are beginning to wake up. Many groan as they get to their feet and survey their surroundings.
"Where the heck are we? Wait, didn't the ship sink!?" Midway's executive officer exclaims.
Midway's Captain replies as he stands up. "The ship did sink so I have no idea how we're alive right now."
One of Midway's officers then observes. "Sir, there are two battleships sailing along side us. Hull identification is BB-67 and BB-66. It's the Montana and the Kentucky."
Another officer then notes. "Sir, the radar appears to be malfunctioning."
"Send someone to go fix it. Now get me a status report." Midway's captain orders.
A few moments later a massage comes over the radio on an open channel.
"This is the Captain of the USS Montana, is that you Joseph? And how the heck are you alive?!"
Joseph F Bolger reaches for the speaker to respond.
"It's me James. As for how we're not at the bottom of the ocean? I haven't a clue."
"Strange, y'all wouldn't happen to be experiencing malfunctions to your radar and electronics as well would you?"
"We are. Do you think it might have something to do with how we're alive right now?" Joseph asks.
"I do. I think something supernatural has occurred. We might even be in a new world for all I know. What I do know is that somehow we've changed direction without changing course."
"James, how long has it been since we sank? Did we win? And were we able to save the Midway island base?"
Captain James informs Captain Joseph on what has happened over the past month. Meanwhile two men on USS Montana's control tower keep watch and occasionally check the fog that reduces their visibility surrounding the fleet.
"So, wanna hear a joke? We got nothing better to do." One of the sailors suggests.
"No, unless it's actually funny." The second sailor answers as he tries to find the horizon through the fog with his binoculars.
"How do you make holy water?"
"Don't know, how do you make it?"
"You boil the hell out of it!"
The second sailor silently laughs. "I admit, that was pretty decent but anyways we need to focus."
A few minutes go by before the second sailor barely spots two shadows in the distance through the fog. With the radar still under repairs it was up to him to verify if that shadow was actually a ship or just his imagination playing tricks on him. Quickly the sailor grabs the signal light and uses Morse Code to communicate with the sailors on USS Kentucky's control tower. The sailors on Kentucky's control tower confirm that they can also just barely make out the shadows in the distance through the fog. Word is quickly pasted to both battleships captains about the possible contacts.
Soon the sailors on the control towers can make out the silhouettes of the approaching ships. What he sees sends chills down his spine. On the bridges of their ships Captain James, Captain Joseph, and Captain Eric stare eyes wide through their binoculars at the massive Japanese Battleship being followed by a large cruiser.
James then utters. "S-sir o-orders?!"
Joseph quickly replies. "James, Eric, stand down! Don't fire unless they fire upon us!"
All three American captains know that this could easily turn into a close range engagement. While they have the superior numbers and over all more firepower. The Japanese ships could still inflict major damage to them. This situation is also an aircraft carrier's nightmare. Montana and Kentucky would struggle to fight the Japanese ships and protect the carrier at the same time.
A-150's Bridge
Captain Ren Nami of the IJN A-150 is contemplating on what to do. A mere minute ago a large carrier and what appears to be two Iowa class battleships were spotted on an intercept course through the fog and were only 12km away. This is almost point blank range for battleships. To make matters worse the radio operator still could not get in contact with command. Quickly thinking Captain Ren concludes that since the American ships don't seem to have any escorts then they must be in a similar situation as them.
Captains Ren then orders. "Men stand down, most likely those American warships are lost like us. Raise a white flag. We're not surrendering, we're just letting them know we're not a threat."
"Sir, with all due respect, aren't our nations still at war?" His XO replies.
Without turning to his XO Ren answers. "Technically yes, however the war with the Sirens has taken priority and I see no reason to provoke an engagement with these Americans if we don't have too."
Quickly Captain Ren's orders are carried out and a white flag is raised aboard IJN A-150.
Montana's Bridge
Captain James spots the white flag and then reaches for his ships coms again.
"Joseph it looks like these Japanese don't want a fight. I can see a large white flag waving from the battleship's signal lanyard."
Joseph responds. "Signal to them that we are not hostile and that we would like to pull up along side them."
A-150's Bridge
Some of the men in the bridge notice Montana's signal light. Upon translating the message one of the sailors immediately goes to inform Captain Ren.
"Sir we are receiving a message from one of the American warships. They state that they are not hostile and request that we come to a stop so they can pull up along side our warship."
"Tell them we will grant their request. Helm have the ship come to a complete stop and inform the Yoshino to do so as well." The captain orders.
The mighty Japanese battleship and its lone escort slowly come to a stop. Soon USS Montana carefully pulls up along side IJN A-150. A long walkway is brought out and placed across the decks of the two armored titans. Some men on both sides have their rifles out in case things turn for the worse. Captain Ren Nami crosses the walkway and steps onto the deck of the Montana while Captain James Kent steps forward to greet him. Ren then introduces himself using accented English.
"I am Captain Ren, captain of the IJN A-150 Super Yamato class battleship."
"It's nice to meet you Captain Ren, I'm Captain James. Captain of the USS Montana lead ship of her class."
"Interesting, I could have sworn this was an Iowa."
James responds. "Not quite, Montana is a little wider and has a fourth turret." He then gestures to the aft of his ship.
Ren glances at the fourth turret before turning back to face James.
"I assume you've had trouble trying to contact your command?" Ren asks.
"Unfortunately yes. We theorize that perhaps we're not in our own world anymore. While we don't know for sure what has happened we do know something supernatural has occurred."
Ren questions. "What makes you think that?"
"Well that carrier that's with us was sunk while fighting the Sirens near Midway Island over a month ago. Yet somehow it's here now with all of its crew that were on board."
"I see. So what happens now?"
"I strongly suggest that we stick together. As I said we could be in a new world. Until we know for sure what has happened it would be best if we stayed together at least for the time being."
"I don't want to search aimlessly Captain James. My ship only has about half of its fuel left."
"Not to worry Captain Ren. Midway will use her planes to help search for land."
"Very well, I'll be heading back to my ship now."
With that Ren walks back across the walkway and onto A-150. Soon the group of ships begins heading east. Montana takes the lead followed by A-150, Kentucky, and then finally Yoshino. Midway sails parallel to the line of heavy gun ships so that she could begin launching her aircraft. Several F8F Bearcats take off from the deck before heading in different directions. Unknown to the group of unlikely allies is that they're being watched...
A lone Sakura Empire submarine watches as the large warships depart to the east. When they have reached a distance that they wouldn't be able to spot her the submarine surfaces. I-19 then raises her long range radio antenna and contacts the Sakuran fleet that's far to the north.
"This is I-19 reporting. I've spotted five large operated mass produced ships sailing towards the east. Two appear to be of Sakuran origin while the other three appear to be of Eagle Union origin. I can't identify two of the Eagle Union ships. One of the EU battleships is an Iowa class but the other appears to be a little bit bigger. The EU aircraft carrier is even bigger. The Sakuran battleship looks similar to Yamato while the large cruiser looks similar to Azuma. The group of ships is currently moving east at about twenty knots. End of report."
Sakura Empire Fleet
Far to the north a kitsune woman with long white hair stands on the bow of an aircraft carrier receives I-19's message. After the message concludes she turns to face another kitsune woman with long brown hair standing near her.
"Sister, a group of operated mass produced hulls were spotted to the south. What's strange is that I-19 reported seeing one that looked like a Yamato class and another looked similar to an Azuma class. We haven't made any mass produced units of those classes yet. Permission to briefly detach from the fleet to deal with them?"
Akagi then explains "That won't be necessary dear Kaga. As long as they are not coming towards us they won't be a problem. There's no reason to give away our position prematurely. That would ruin the plan."
"Very well then," Kaga replies.
Somewhere in the South Pacific
The bright light slowly fades as Rear Admiral Sando Katashi slowly gets to his feet. He takes in his surroundings and realizes he is still in his flagship's bridge. Around him other Japanese naval officers and crew in IJN Kii's bridge began to wake up.
"How are we not dead?" One of the bridge officers ask aloud as they stare out the bridge's viewport.
"I don't know. Perhaps those silly mangas and tales of people being isekaied yield some truth. Though that is just speculation. What I do know is that somehow we are still alive." The Rear Admiral replies.
After a few minutes the XO reports to Sando Katashi.
"Admiral, all sections report everything is running fine. However, the damage we sustained in the battle with that kaiju has disappeared as if we never encountered it." Kii's XO informs.
"Strange, anyways inform the radio operator to try to contact command." The Rear Admiral orders.
The admiral's orders are carried out but unfortunately no response came. The radio operator tries again. Still no response. However, three minutes after the operator sends the message a third time a response comes back. Once the message is finished, the operator grabs the tape to decipher it. Upon trying to decode the message the radio operator realizes this message uses a different key that the standard Imperial Navy. The operator the reports to the bridge to inform the Admiral.
"Sir, we finally received a response. However the message is encrypted in a way I'm unfamiliar with. However there's no doubt the sender is also Japanese."
"That is quite interesting as all messages should use the standard imperial encryption." Kii's XO states.
"Continue to broadcast every fifteen minutes. Im sure whoever has noticed us will send someone to investigate. It's what I would do if I noticed an unfamiliar code encryption in my language." The Vice Admiral explains.
The IJN Kii continues to steam west for an hour while broadcasting its message every fifteen minutes. Soon what appears to be a Japanese "Zero" fighter plane flies at a distance from the IJN Kii. The vice admiral then orders a signalman to signal to the Zero the ships identify. Seconds later a lookout spots multiple Japanese ships on the horizon. The lookout identifies two Fuso class battleships, two Ise class battleships, a Tosa class battleship, and multiple smaller ships.
"Sir, the lookout spotted multiple warships off our port bow. They look like some of our earlier battleships and escorts. Estimated distance is roughly 19km out." An officer informs Vice Admiral Sando Katashi.
Meanwhile a Sakuran carrier girl continues to watch the strange Yamato class warship through her scout plane.
"Are we sure it's not a Siren mass produced ship that looks like a Yamato class?" Tosa asks.
"I'm sure. I saw many sailors on the deck of that warship. Further more when they noticed my plane they used a signal light to tell their identity. Apparently this warship is named IJN Kii." Shouhou replies.
"Strange, we don't have any mass produced ships of the Yamato class. Lets continue to investigate but proceed with caution." Tosa orders.
As the Sakuran kansen close the distance to the strange Yamato class battleship Shouhou notices it's rangefinder pointed at their direction.
"They've noticed us. The ship's rangefinder is looking right at us. However it appears the ship's guns are still in neutral position."
Once Sakuran shipgirls are roughly 7km out off IJN Kii's port bow Kii's lookouts realizes the ships lack crew.
"Lookouts to bridge, there's something strange about those ships. They appear to lack a crew. At most we able to see one person standing on the deck of each warship."
As the lookout concludes his observation one of the men in the bridge reports to the Vice Admiral.
"Incoming message from the Tosa class battleship. IJN Kii this is Sakuran battleship IJN Tosa. We will escort you to Truk Island."
"Send this as our reply, IJN Kii acknowledges. Thank you for the assistance." Vice Admiral Sando orders.
It takes several minutes for the fleet of shipgirls to form up around IJN Kii. Many kansen stare in wonder at the Kii as this is the first time they've seen a Yamato class battleship. Soon the fleet begins to head back to Truk Island.
Combined US/Japanese Group
About an hour later when the sun looked to be at its highest point one of Midway's scout planes stumbles upon a small atoll island. Immediately the plane contacts the carrier.
"Come in Home One this is Charlie Six over."
"Charlie Six we hear you loud and clear over."
"Home One I got eyes on an atoll island and I can see what looks to have been some kind of airfield base. I even spot a group of small docks on the opposite side of the atoll over."
"Good work Charlie Six. Come on back, over."
"Copy that Home One. Over and out."
It takes another hour for the combined group to reach the atoll island. As the fleet sails around the south part of the island sailors look at the remaining of what used to be a functional airfield. Now it had many holes in the runway making it unsafe for airplanes to use. Captain Joseph took note of where the coastal defense guns were located. Some looked partially melted or were blow apart while others seem perfectly fine. The beach was covered with many holes indicating where artillery or bombs had struck the island. The group soon came to a stop outside the harbor and dropped anchor.
The harbor was in horrible shape. Several sections of the pier were blown away and there were three sunken ships. One appeared to be what was left of a Baltimore class heavy cruiser. It's stern sticking out of the shallow water. The next ship is an old destroyer. It is completely underwater and had flipped over. The last sunken ship had rolled onto its side in its dock slot. There were two other ships in the remains of the small port. A Brooklyn class light cruiser and an oil tanker. Both ships looked to be in reasonable condition. The name of the Brooklyn class could be seen on the stern of the light cruiser. It read Savannah. Soon Captain James and Captain Ren lead an expedition team to investigate the atoll island. They dock their boats in one of the surviving dock spaces. One sailor is the first to break the silence.
"Man this place is a wreck."
Captain James then orders. "Everyone split up into groups. Half will stay here and search this port then head towards the north part of the atoll. The second group will come with me to locate the command center of this base and investigate the damaged airfield."
Captain Ren then translates the orders to his men since most of them don't understand English.
James's and Ren's group find the command center about halfway between the small port and the damaged airfield. The building appears to have been mostly untouched except for a large hole where the doors used to be. The group further splits up to search the building. One sailor tries to flip a switch to turn on the lights but nothing happens.
"It appears this building is without power." Captain Ren comments.
Most of the groups try to search the parts of the building that's lit by sunlight coming from the windows. One group of four US sailors turns on their flashlights as they head down a flight of stairs leading to an underground part of the building. They soon reach a large room with a huge machine at the back. One sailor peers inside the machine and sees a strange blue glowing cube. Over to the side of the room is a table with a red soft cover book on it. One sailor grabs the book and reads the cover. Turns out this book is actually a manual on how to operate an E-cube reactor. The sailor flips through the book until he gets to the part where it gives instructions on how to turn on the reactor. He then gives instructions to the others on how to operate the control panel near the reactor. Soon the strange blue glowing cube inside the reactor begins to glow brighter as it gradually spins faster. After three minutes the sailors finish staring up the reactor but the lights still don't come on.
"Well that didn't do anything." One sailor comments.
The sailor with the manual flips a page to the part where it describes how to connect the reactor to the bases power grid.
"Oh, we have to connect it to the power grid."
After the third sailor pulls a lever the lights finally turn on as power is restored throughout the base. What the sailors don't know is that this also turned on the bases active beacon. This beacon is used to inform Eagle Union Naval Command which bases are still operating.
Eagle Union Naval Command
Inside a very large room several naval personnel are either monitoring incoming messages from other bases or are keeping track of fleet deployment on a massive map. This large map is constantly being updated as ships, kansen, troops, and know enemy positions are moved around according to information provided by intelligence. Lights also dot the map representing EU bases. Many along the coast of the main land still shine bright blue indicating bases that are still operating. However over the past few years more and more island base lights have gone out as Siren activity as drastically increased across the world.
Sitting around a large table in the center of the room are six Eagle Union high ranking admirals. These admirals have been discussing what ships should be converted into Kinetics Artificial Navy-Self regulative En-lore Node or KANSEN for short. Only two of the six Iowa class battleships have been converted and two are still under construction. Currently there was a debate on whether which super warship project should be focused on and which would be terminated. Due to limited resources and funding they could only pick one. Both looked promising and would become one of the strongest warships afloat if completed.
"I believe we should continue the Montana project. Right now Crimson Axis has two super battleships while we have none. We can always build more Essex class carriers if we need more naval airpower." One admiral persuades.
Another admiral counters. "I disagree. The Midway project would lay waist to any Kansen or mass produced battleship. Times have changed, carriers now rule the waves. Besides we already have plenty of battleships. And soon we'll have six Iowas. Together they'll be all the firepower we'll ever need."
"We could always go back to making a modernized version of the Tillman 4-2." A third admiral comments.
"NO!!!" The other five admirals reply.
Just then the light representing Wake Island Base turns on. One naval personnel immediately notices the blue glowing dot and then quickly goes over to his buddy that helps manage security of bases in the Pacific.
(Pssst) "Hey man, I need you to check the cameras at the Wake Island Base. The bases beacon just reactivated."
"Ok ok, good thing you asked me now since I just got done assisting the Midway Base with an annoying system error."
The naval security personnel quickly selects the Wake Island Base and enters a few passwords to gain access to the bases cameras. Most of the cameras don't work or are too damaged to see anything clearly. However one camera at the docks that still works is able to view a group of five strange warships anchored just out side the small port. The naval security personnel then zooms in on each warship before taking a picture. After he's done the bases camera transmits the pictures back to Eagle Union Naval Command using a new experimental relay satellite. This process takes about about fifteen minutes before the first naval personnel puts the freshly printed pictures in a file and heads back to the command room. Upon entering he heads straight to the six admirals who are still debating on which super ship should be built. He comes to attention and then waits for the admirals to notice him.
"What is it son?" One admiral asks.
"Sir, we have a situation in the Pacific." He then puts down the file before asking. "Permission to use the projector?"
"Granted."
He quickly turning on the machine that faces away from the wall with the world map. The naval personnel then puts the first picture showing all five of the strange ships at Wake Island in front of the projector.
"This picture was taken at Wake Island Base about sixteen minutes ago right after the bases beacon was reactivated."
"This was the base that we lost about three months ago due to a Siren attack." One of the admirals comments.
The naval personnel continues. "As you can see, there is a small fleet of warships anchored near the remains of the bases port. The fleet includes three battleships. One of Sakuran design and two of our design. A massive carrier of our design that appears to be even bigger than an Essex class. The last ship in the fleet is a large cruiser of Sakuran design."
He then switches the photo with one that's zoomed in on the USS Midway. People could be seen walking on the deck of the massive warship. The number forty one could clearly be seen on the side of the ship's island.
"Holy sh*t that's Midway!" The second admiral announces.
"And Montana" Comments the first admiral as the naval personnel continues to switch photos until all have been viewed.
"My question is how are they here?" The third admiral asks.
To which the fifth admiral responds. "Well they're obviously from the future. If I had to guess I'd say the Sirens are responsible for sending them here. But it does make me wonder if they're from our future or perhaps another timelines."
"But why are they with those Sakuran ships?" The sixth admiral asks aloud.
"Perhaps they are lost. Imagine if you were suddenly transported to another world along with an enemy. Would you fight them or would you work together to survive? Remember our true enemy is the Sirens. Another possibility is that perhaps where they come from relations between nations have improved." The fourth admiral answers.
"Regardless, this shouldn't leave this room. We need keep watching them before we act otherwise other nations will learn of their existence and might get to them before we can safely contact them. The Midway class carrier and Montana class battleship projects are some of our most closely guarded secrets. This is an opportunity to speed up those projects while enhancing our nations naval power that is too good to pass up."
The other five admirals nod their head in silent agreement.
(Author's note: I'm finally back. Due to a sudden decline in mental health I needed to take a break from writing. However I'm doing much better now. This is a rewrite of my current Azur Lane story. For the most part I'm fixing mistakes in the last version. For example: spelling and grammar errors. However I am adding a few more main characters. The plot for most part will remain the same as the previous version and very loosely follow the anime. Once again note that I did take inspiration from night-hunter's stories Reality or Fantasy Stories of the High Seas, and Azur Lane: Ripples through Seas and Time. My story may have some similarities to theirs such as ships with their crew being transported into to Azur Lane world and eventually said ships will become Kansen. However I am not copying from them. With all that out of the way, thank you for reading and have a great day.)