Hey guys this is my first AL fanfic I hope you like it. It’s also posted on fanfic @ (https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13973223/1/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=Q6X6P_GemMREqjcvu3NbYEmTJfrTWUOUv8X0bcoNZ1A-1636554924-0-gaNycGzNCH0). Constructive criticism and comments are always welcome. Enjoy! —————————————————————— Chapter 1

Thomas Maxwell sighed as he looked out of the window of the moving bus. He was on his way to a small naval research base near Dana Point as part of a field trip for his senior biology class. It's not that he wasn't excited to be on the trip, he always wanted to be a marine biologist, but it was the people that he was with that were really raining on his parade. His group consisted of himself, his long-time crush Maria, and her on/off boyfriend Anthony. Being around Maria was just fine by Thomas, but he knew Anthony was defensive if someone got close to Maria, even if he wasn't dating her at that moment. Right now they were sitting three-wide in the bus seat. Maria was in the middle with her phone in hand, fingers typing away, probably texting one of her friends in another section of the bus. Thomas, of course, was staring out the window and watching the scenery going by. Anthony, however, was unable to keep busy and that meant he had to make it the other's problem.

"God, this is so boring." He moaned out. "Why are we even going to this place?"

"Because babe, this is for a grade and we aren't in school. Would you rather be back in class?" Maria answered and countered.

"Fuck no! But still why couldn't have we gone to the zoo for a biology field trip. What's so important about some random naval research?"

"The base is researching different and new types of sonar, and studying their effects on the marine ecosystem and the life that lives there." Thomas explained.

"That sounds even more boring than what I thought." Anthony commented.

Thomas rolled his eyes and turned his head back to the window. He could have explained that military grade sonar equipment, especially the ones on submarines, could emit a sound pulse that could be loud enough to cause internal damage and rupture organs, but he didn't feel like giving him that information and getting him excited.

"Come on guys, I'm sure we'll have fun. Plus let's not forget, we still could be in a boring class right now." Maria said, trying to play peacemaker. When neither boy responded she sighed and went back to her phone.

Thomas sighed again. He was hoping the tour of the base would be better than this bus ride. He couldn't stand Anthony. He was a shallow, arrogant, possessive, bully who cared for nothing other than himself. Though he had never been bullied by Anthony, Thomas knew that he preyed on weaker underclassmen if only to boost his own ego and power in front of himself and his friends. Thomas was about to continue his negative thoughts when someone at the front of the bus announce that they were arriving at the base. All three immediately sat up and looked out the window to get their first view of the base and it seemed Anthony's spirits were lifted when he looked out the window.

"Holy shit! Look at that ship, it's covered in guns. Is that a battleship?" He asked.

Thomas looked at the ship and studied its structure and look. She looked like an older model because she did have a lot of guns and he knew more modern ships mainly used missiles. She definitely wasn't a battleship, Thomas had seen battleships before and this ship was too small. Her conning tower was pretty tall but what really stood out was the layout of her guns. Thomas could see that she had five turrets with two gun barrels each, and her turrets were arranged with three guns in the front and two in the back. He could also see what appeared to be torpedo tubes imbedded into her hull.

"She's not a battleship, her guns and hull are too small. If I had to guess, I would say she is akin to an old style heavy cruiser." Thomas analyzed.

"Nerd." Anthony interjected.

"Ok, what is an old cruiser doing at a research base?" Maria questioned.

"They are probably going to modify her to use her as a testbed for their sonar equipment." Thomas theorized.

Maria just nodded as they sat back down and waited for their turn to leave the bus. They were greeted by a representative of the base who explained that he was going to be their guide and the tour began.

The tour went as well as one could hope for with a group of high school seniors. The rep explained how sonar was used by submarines to navigate and hunt their targets, and how surface ship used sonar to find subs. He told them that while it was mainly used in war in the ocean, he also talked about how sonar was being used to discover and map the ocean floor. He even talked about its possible land based applications in disaster relief. Of course he talked about the negative effects modern sonar had on marine life. To demonstrate, the class watched as a plane of glass was destroyed by a high frequency sonar pulse. This greatly pleased Anthony, who then proceeded to bug Thomas about why he hadn't told him sonar was so powerful. Thomas just decided to ignore him. As they neared the end of the tour and were about to head to lunch, the rep stopped them near a display case. In the case was a small translucent cube that glowed a dull blue.

"Before you go, we would like to show you something neat here at the base." The rep said pointing to the cube.

"This cube was found using our sonar mapping. We believe that its glow is a form of bioluminescence." He touched the cube and it glowed faintly brighter where he had touched it. "It's completely harmless and we invite you all to give it a touch and see what kind reaction you can get from it."

One by one all of the students touched the cube before heading to the exit. The cube didn't glow any bright for the students than it had for the rep, not even Maria or Anthony could get the cube to change. Finally, at last, it was Thomas's turn, but we he touched it something strange happened. The cube lit up like someone had put a light bulb inside. Instead of a dull dark blue, the cube now shined a bright, light blue color. It reminded Thomas of the ocean's surface on a bright sunny day. Its light enthralled him as did faint feeling of energy pulsing from the cube into his hand. Time seemed to become a blur around him. The boy stood there, everyone else had already left the room, but he still stood in the same spot as the cube pulsed and glowed under his touch.

Click

Thomas was brought out of his daydreaming by the sound of a camera shutter going off. He looked up and began to turn towards where the sound came from. When he did, he heard a girl gasp and saw a tuff of blond hair turning around the corner. He made to follow it but then he realized what time it was and headed towards the exit so he wouldn't be left behind. When he got on board he found his seat next to Maria and Anthony and sat down.

"What took you so long?" Anthony asked annoyed.

"Sorry, I was in the bathroom." Thomas lied, not feeling up to explaining his interaction with the cube.

The others didn't pry any further as the bus lurched forward and they began to head home.

Meanwhile,

She ran as fast as could. She couldn't believe that she almost got caught, but she also couldn't believe what she had seen. She had been assigned to watch the students interact with the cube as she had done many times before. And like all of those times before, no one was able to coax a reaction. She was about to leave when something happened. The last student touched the cube once everyone else left and unlike all of the times before, the cube shined brilliantly. She was so stunned by the cube's reaction, having never seen it with anyone before, that she almost forgot to follow her mission. Immediately taking out her phone, she lined up the shot and took a picture. Unfortunately her phone was on silent and the click of the camera's shutter alerted the boy and he began to turn in her direction. She immediately fled down to the hallway so as not to be spotted and to continue her mission. She made her way down a labyrinth of hallways till she found the door to the base commander's office and knocked.

"Come in." said the base commander, a fleet commander named Samuel Howard. He was doing some minor paperwork and looked up when the door opened and saw blonde girl wearing a modified German naval officer's uniform and who had a small iron cross medal in her hair.

"Ah, Z-23, what can I do for you, did the assignment go well?"

"Herr Komandant, I have told you before to just call me Nimi, everyone else does. As for the assignment, I think you should see this." Nimi said as she brought up the picture and handed her phone to the commander. His eyes widen upon seeing the picture.

"Nimi is this accurate?" he asked slowly and with a serious tone.

"Jawohl Komandant. I saw it with my own eyes." She responded.

"Okay, I just had to make sure because I have to run this up to the top, so I'll need a copy of that photo. Might as well go let the others know, they are in the break room I think."

Nimi saluted before tapping her phone a few times to send the photo before she turned and walked out the door. Commander Howard brought the photo up on his computer and dialed a number on his office phone.

"This is Commander Howard, authorization code 0179946823, can you get me the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs; this is a priority message."

While he was calling, Nimi made her way towards the break room. As she walked she thought about the kid who the cube reacted to. There was almost no doubt the he would become her new commander since he had been the only one up to that point that had gotten a reaction from the cube. But, she in here heart she felt a bit sorry for him. He looked young with his life ahead of him and was no doubt completely inexperienced, but she knew that high command would see to it that he was trained properly. In a way his life would become like hers, every waking moment dedicated to defending humanity from the enemy. She was broken out of here existential thoughts by reaching the door to the break room. She took a breath to clear her head and walked in.

Inside the break room were four other girls that seemed to be occupying themselves the best they could around the break room's table. One girl was sleeping on the table. She had white hair that was tied into two long ponytails by hairclips shaped like rabbit ears. She wore a blue and white tank top with red skirt and wore a pink jacket over it that was adorned with more rabbit motifs. The second girl had light purple hair with a small crown on her head and wore a scarf that appeared to also function as a hood around her neck. She wore a white dress with overall straps and a plead skirt. She was sitting next to the white haired girl and was playing on her phone.

The third girl was clearly older. Whereas Nimi and the two previous girls looked like young teenagers, this woman looked like she was in her late twenties. She was also wearing maid outfit and had a collar with a chain around her neck. She was reading some sort of book to herself.

The last woman also had the appearance of a mature woman but she seemed to be a bit older than the maid. She was wearing a Japanese naval officer's uniform modified to have a pencil skirt and wearing stockings. It also appeared that she had a pair of dog ears sticking out of her hair. She was cleaning a katana that she had set on the table.

Nimi clear her throat to get their attention. The first one to speak was the girl with purple hair.

"Oh, Nimi's back from her assignment." She said with a thick Glaswegian accent.

"Yes, I'm back Javelin. Can you wake up Laffey? I have an announcement to make." Nimi responded.

Javelin nodded then began to get everyone's attention while taking to wake the sleeping girl.

"Hey everyone, Nimi is back and she has something to tell us. Come on Laffey, you have to wake up, Nimi has some news for us." Javelin said while poking the sleeping girl till she finally woke up.

"Oh it's Nimi, welcome back." She said sleepily.

"Yes, well now that everyone is here, I have something to tell you all. We got a positive reaction of the cube from someone. This more than likely means they will become our new commander."

This got everyone's attention.

"Really? Now that is something unusual." The maid said, also in a refined Northern Irish accent.

"Unusual? Belfast, there hasn't been a positive reaction in over seventy years. This is the biggest news we have probably ever received." Javelin exclaimed.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves Javelin. We have no idea who this person is, what type of person they are, or what they even look like." The dog-eared Japanese woman countered.

"Actually Atago, I was able to take a picture while they were interacting with the cube." Nimi interjected.

"Oh, really? Well then, let us see our new commander then." Atago said.

Nimi pulled out her phone and brought up the photo that she had sent to the base commander. The other girls gather around to see the photo.

"I thought he would be super tall." Said Javelin.

"I hope he likes to take naps" Laffey said.

"He's a bit on the younger side." Belfast commented.

"He's so cute, I hope he doesn't mind having an Onee-san such as myself taking care of him." Atago said happily.

"Atago, you're drooling." Both Nimi and Belfast said in unison.

Atago quickly composed herself and addressed Belfast.

"What's wrong Belfast? Are you afraid that a simple big sister such as myself would be able to take care of our future shikikan better than the head of the Royal Navy's maid corps?" Atago giggled.

Belfast just smiled.

"Of course not, the maid corps stands ready to serve, and as its head, I am perfectly capable for taking care of the commander to the highest standards."

"Guys come on, anyway, Nimi did you tell the base commander about this?" Javelin asked trying to steer the conversation back to the situation at hand.

"Yes, I've already told him and he is on the phone with high command. I suggest that we get things packed up and get ready to be transferred to our new command." Nimi replied.

With that the girls split up and head back to their rooms to get ready to receive their orders from high command.

As that was happening,

While they were discussing the new commander, Commander Howard was waiting on the phone to speak to the Chairman about what happened. Finally, after what seemed like years, the operators put him through to the Chairman's office.

"This is Chairman Stevenson. Who is this and what is this about."

"Hey James, its Samuel Howard."

"Sammy, buddy, it's so good to hear from you. We haven't really talked since our days in Okinawa."

"It's good to hear from you too, old friend. But, unfortunately, this isn't a social call. Are we on a secure line?"

Commander Howard heard a few clicks on the other side of the phone before Stevenson returned to the call.

"We are now. What's going on?"

"There has been a development at the base." "Have they come back?" "There is no evidence of that happening, but we got a confirmed positive interaction with the cube."

"Well shit, that certainly is a development. Do you know who it is?"

"It was a high school senior from a nearby school on tour of the facility for a field trip. I'm having my secretary look into the school and see what they can find about the kid. Honestly James, the kid looked barely a day over eighteen."

"Well the good news is that he's young so he'll be able to grow and adapt. The bad news is that he's gonna have a lot coming his way." Stevenson sighed. "Looks like I'm gonna have a long night making phone calls. Also, you know that since it's your facility, you have to be point of contact for the kid."

"I know."

"Well, the sooner you declare it, the sooner the cogs of this operation get started."

Samuel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once he opened them he looked at his watch and spoke calmly into the phone.

"I declare for the record that on this day, April 12th 2021, at exactly 3:42pm, Azur Lane is officially activated."

"May God have mercy on us all."