Chapter Text
On a cliff presiding over an ocean, stood a man.
The Man had short greying-brown hair, green eyes, and wore an officers uniform adorned with numerous medals and accommodations from time long past.
The man gazed wistfully at the ocean - entranced by its beauty, but also knowing of the dangers that lurked within it - the things both man-made and from beyond reality itself.
The man stood there for an indeterminate amount of time before eventually being joined by a woman - with medium-length grey hair, gold eyes - and unsurprisingly to the man after all these years - two short angel wings atop her head and two larger wings on her lower back.
After another indeterminate amount of time, they were joined by two other figures - but the man could not make out their forms as they appeared as if they were enshrouded in shadows to his eyes.
Finally, all of them got up and turned towards a large port - looking as if it were an ant colony from their vantage spot - and proceeded to walk towards it - but the woman with grey hair stops while walking, causing the two other figures and the man to stop and turn towards her.
As they do this, the woman looks as if she were speaking, but no sound comes from it - still, the man walks to the woman and embraces her, whispering into her ear - finally, the woman responds with a smile and speaks, albeit with still no sound, and they let go of each other, and continue walking to the port - their home.
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"―wake me up before you go-go 'cause I'm not plann-" a phone alarm goes before being slapped off its dresser by a man in a bed - slowly waking up after his slumber was assaulted by his alarm.
The man rose up from his bed in a sitting position - still trying to wring out the last vestiges of sleep that remained - and went to pick up his phone, seeing as he had slapped it onto the floor of his bedroom.
He turned on his phone and looked at what time it was - and nearly had a heart attack.
"Shit!" The man said as he fully jumped off his bed and made a beeline for the bathroom to get ready for the meeting he had been called into today. The reason why the man was panicking was because the alarm that had awoken him was his weekend alarm, and not his weekday alarm - so he only had about 20 minutes to get ready and leave.
As he quickly showers and gets dressed, the man's nametag and rank can be seen on it - Lieutenant junior grade, Jacob T. Chasler.
Jacob finally gets his uniform on and runs out the door, leaving his roommates to their slumber, and quickly running towards the meeting building.
While Jacob is running as fast as he could - he checked his phone and saw the time 7:33 am, Pacific Standard Time - he only had 7 minutes left, and the building was about 15 minutes away. Knowing this, Jacob decides to take the more dicey shortcuts to the building - going through alleyways, passing junkies on the sides, even passing a group of cats eating some food left out for them.
After passing through several more alleys and seeing a few more strange sights - Jacob finally reaches the building and goes through its Metal double doors.
The building was an older military bunker from the First Siren War - when they were subjected to air raids comparable or even surpassing what was done to London by Germany during the Blitz in WW2 - where 87% of the city Jacob was in was leveled to the ground, taking years of grueling labor to build back to what they had now.
As Jacob is walking through the monotonous grey walls of the bunker, he takes notice of how the bunker seems to have been well kept - having practically no dust on any of the walls - or how none of the pipes running through it had rusted even after all these years.
After walking for several more minutes, Jacob at last reaches the meeting room - being guarded by two soldiers and having a handprint lock, barring anyone from entering unless allowed.
The soldiers look at Jacob, and one of them puts his hand on the pad - opening the security doors and tossing his head towards it, telling Jacob to go in.
As Jacob walks in, the door behind him closes, and he is left in near-total darkness, save for a light illuminating a spot in the middle of the room. Jacob looks at both the illuminated area and the place where the door was, wondering what he should do - before a voice grabs his attention.
"Lieutenant Chasler, please step into the light," a gruff-sounding man says, as Jacob complies and walks forward into the area illuminated with light.
As Jacob walks into the illuminated area, the area forward and above him lights up - barely illuminating 9 figures, sitting in a half-circle table elevated above him, giving him the feeling as if they were judging him.
"Lieutenant Jacob Chasler, do you know why you have been called here today?" A woman's voice says this time.
"No ma'am, I have not been informed as to why I have been called here," Jacob says as he also shakes his head. There is a momentary pause before another voice speaks.
"Lieutenant Chasler, tell us what you know about the Azur Lane initiative," a different masculine voice says. This causes Jacob to think for a moment of what he knew of it.
"From what I can recall, the Azur Lane initiative was formed during the First Siren War, to create new weapons to face the sirens," he says, "And that one of those weapons allowed us to repel them for a few years." Jacob finishes saying. As Jacob thinks more of the details of the initiative, one of the people above him begins to speak again.
"Lieutenant Chasler, what we are about to divulge will not and shall not leave this room - failure to comply will lead to a dishonorable discharge from the navy, life in prison, and quite possibly execution," a cold feminine voice says, "Are we clear, Lieutenant?" The voice says, not truly asking a question as much as stating a fact.
"Y-yes, sir," Jacob says, stumbling over a word in the process. After he says that, the first voice to speak with him - a figure who resided in the middle of the table - spoke once again.
"The Azur Lane initiative did indeed create weapons to incapacitate and defeat sirens, but it was not in the conventional way you may think of," the voice says as they lift up a remote, causing a hidden projector to come to life and project on the wall to their side.
"These were the weapons created through years of theorizing and experimentation conducted with the wisdom cubes," they say as a picture comes up on the screen.
They projected image on the screen showed a tanned woman with a medium-sized grey and black cowboy hat, wearing western-style clothes and holding a Winchester in her hand. The image looked odd but normal enough until Jacob's eyes moved to the side, noticing that in some strange way currently unknown to him, there were four battleship batteries attached to what looked like smaller versions of a warship's hull split in half - conning tower and all - connected to her lower back.
As Jacob tried to comprehend the sight in front of him, the image on the projector changed again - this time showing a woman who had platinum hair, red eyes, a red kimono, and, just as surprisingly as the eight naval batteries and multitude of AA cannons, her equipment - the woman had fox ears and fox tails.
After a few moments, the image changed again - this time showing a girl with long white hair, purple eyes, a white shirt, a black skirt, and a uniquely stylized officer's coat along with an officer's hat.
After the third picture, the pictures and slides just kept on coming, showing girl after girl with eccentric clothing and equipment resembling that of a multitude of warship classes. Finally, after 10 more minutes of seeing image after image, the figure at the table finally turns off the projector.
Jacob is currently shocked by what he had seen, but even after all of that, he still had a single question.
"Who are they?" Jacob asks in a shocked and awed tone.
"Those were the Kansen - Sentient beings that were created through the use of the wisdom cubes and the subconscious will of humanity," the voice says before continuing, "The Kansen were how we were able to repel the sirens during the first war - and now that the sirens are beginning to make their return - the Kansen are once again humanity's best and only chance at defeating the sirens."
At that, Jacob just stands there even more stupefied than before, but he once again pushes these thoughts into the back of his head, in order to ask another question.
"Why are you informing me of this?" He asked, causing what he could barely make out as a smile from the figure in the dark.
"The reason's quite simple, Lieutenant," the voice says before taking on a serious and near imperious tone of voice, "As of today - January 7th, 2032 - you have been promoted to the rank of commander and will be assigned to Task Force 1 of Azur Lane," the voice says with a hint of mirth in his voice, while Jacob's face drains of color.
After a pause to let the announcement set in, the voice speaks up one last time, "Your job is to protect the Pacific from sirens and to ensure that trade routes are secured and maintained from both sirens and pirates," they say, "Lastly, you will be leaving for Joint Base Pearl Harbor at 0800 tomorrow - you're dismissed from this meeting, Commander Jacob," the voice/figure finally finishes saying.
After the voice said that he was dismissed from the meeting, Jacob meekly salutes them while still in shock of the events that had just played out and walks out of the room after the doors had opened.
After walking for a few minutes and finally reaching the entrance of the building, Jacob's thoughts finally catch up to him - coming out as a singular desire.
"I need a drink," Jacob says as he walks out and heads back home - to both get ready and to remember that he doesn't drink.
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As the ship Jacob is on sails through the open ocean, Jacob's thoughts can't help but wander to his fascination with it.
Jacob loves the ocean. He loves its color - its vastness - its dangers and adventure - the secrets hidden beneath the waves that are unknown to man and machine.
What he hates about it is what the sirens had done to it - Poisoning the waters - killing off massive amounts of marine life - causing the once deep blue waters to turn a gnarly black and red in some areas of the ocean.
Jacob can't help but feel utter hatred for the sirens. They had decimated their cities and countries - torn apart family and friends - had been the direct cause of nearly a billion deaths around the world.
They had taken his mother and brother from him - leaving only him, his sister, and father to remain - well, his sister and himself, since Jacob's father bit the bullet a few months after their deaths.
Jacob had done many things to keep him and his sister safe - enlisting in the navy was just one of them. Having a stable income had helped both of them out, but if they weren't together - then things would not have worked out the way they had.
As Jacob continues spiraling into his darker and more depressive thoughts, he is finally broken out of it when a sailor taps him on the shoulder.
"Sir, we are almost there," they say to Jacob.
"Thank you," Jacob succinctly responds as he goes into the room he was assigned and grabs his stuff - a singular box and backpack - and heads back up to the bow of the ship - now being able to see the port in the not-so-far distance.
As Jacob puts down his baggage, he finally remembers what he was supposed to do and pulls out his phone and dials a number.
The phone rings for a few moments before being finally picked up by a chipper feminine voice.
"Heya J, was starting to think you wouldn't call!" Jacob's sister said, causing Jacob to lightly chuckle.
"And miss my sweet sister's goodbyes? No way!" Jacob teased while he heard her pout on the other end.
"You know you could stand to be less like this..." she mutters, as Jacob once again laughs.
"And miss your reactions? Hmm, I'll consider it - nope." He says, receiving another muttering from the other end which he couldn't make out.
"Serious talk though, please be safe out there, J. You know how bad it can get out in the islands." Jacob's sister says in a solemn tone, causing Jacob to refocus.
"Of course, Lou - I'll make sure to be careful, as long as you're careful," Jacob says before adding one last thing, "Oh hey, did Mrs. Oakins come by yet?" He asks.
"Yeah, she did. Said she'll be by every day to check on me - kinda creepy if you ask me," Lou says as Jacob lightly chuckles.
"Don't worry, Lou, you'll be fine - besides, I'll be back during your birthday, so all will be fine," Jacob says, reassuring his sister.
"Alright, anyways, be safe, J - oh, and also don't forget to send pictures!" She says in a once again chipper tone.
"'Course, Lou, I'll see what I can do," he says as he hangs up the phone, only now realizing that they are just now docking.
After a few minutes of making sure everything is in order, the ramp down onto the pier is opened, and Jacob walks down it with possessions in hand.
He gazes around at the sight of the near-majestic port and finally spots what he assumes to be his welcoming party.
'I think I'll be alright,' Jacob thinks as he takes his first steps into a new chapter of his life - and a new chapter of humanity.
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Elsewhere
Observer Alpha gazes up at her monitor, looking at Jacob as he begins walking towards the three Kansen waiting for him at the end of the pier.
Observer frowns slightly as she looks at her data tablet, seeing that nothing is wrong, but knowing fundamentally that something is wrong.
As Observer mulls it over, she finally comes to a conclusion of what had happened.
"So we succeeded, huh?" She mutters as she inputs new data into her tablet and speaks again.
"No matter, our mission will be fulfilled - one way or another." She says as she inputs a new directive into one of her automated fleets.
the directive reads as such.
*[bomb Pearl Harbor]*.
The directive is immediately enacted as several fleets materialize in view of one of her monitors.
Observer isn't finished yet as she activates yet another directive.
[Initiate Protocol - MXX]
The protocol immediately activates as 20 pods pop out of the ground behind her - each housing a Siren-made Kansen.
"Know this, Jacob Chasler - by the end of all of this, you will pay for your transgressions," Observer says with a voice of pure malice, as she goes back to her input and continues watching the world.