North Pacific Ocean...somewhere near Midway Atoll

1000 hours

Current Conditions: Clear

Earth 8447 (Azur Lane Universe)

All was calm, all was still in this small stretch of ocean near an atoll that basically marked the middle of the Pacific Ocean. All was still, sans a flock of seagulls making their way through the area, looking for food. As they continue flying around at a casual pace, one of the seagulls heard something and broke off from the rest of the formation, eventually landing on a periscope. 

???: "Shoo!" she yelled, shaking her periscope, "Get off my periscope!" 

The Seagull squawked in surprise before flying away. The submarine it had landed on turned out to be U-556 who was helping her Japanese Allies with scouting duties. 

U-556: "Stupid...rats with wings..." she grumbled, in a bit of a bad mood because she wasn't near Bismarck

Tester B: "U-556, status update, what's the situation out there?" she asked. 

U-556: "U-556 to Tester, nothing's out here." she reported, "There's a flock of Seagull passing through right now but that's about it." 

Tester B: "Copy that, but be vigilant, our champions are due in any second now." she said. 

U-556: "Yes ma'am." she grumbled, switching off her radio, "Champion? What could they mean by that?" 

U-556 continued pondering this as she went back to her patrol. But, as if to answer her questions, a massive Siren portal opened up above her and out shot an F/A-18F Super Hornet with a red left tail fin and kill markings counting well above 40. The plane's pilot seemed to not be conscious at the moment as it wasn't maneuvering in the slightest. 

U-556: "Holy crud!" she cursed, flipping her radio on, "Tester, I think I see our champion, but I think he or she is out cold." 

Tester B: "Copy that 556, help is on the way, for now, keep pursuing it, if they wake up, hail them." she ordered. 

U-556: "Copy that!" she saluted, giving chase as the jet drifted onwards.

However, as U-556 raced after the Super Hornet, another periscope surfaced, and followed her heading and gaze up to the plane, whoever was the kansen of this sub however proceeded to switch on her radio. 

???: "Eagle Union Command, this is SS-168, Siren and Sakuran movement near Target AF, permission to engage." she said, monotonously. 

EU Command: "Negative SS-168, shadow enemy units and report back." he said, sternly. 

Nautilus: "Yes sir," she saluted, still lacking any emotion, "I shall shadow enemies and report position all times possible." 

With a silent, soulless growl, the Nautilus slowly charged off, following U-556 as she chased after the Super Hornet. Onboard said Super Hornet, Andy slowly groaned awake, confused. 

Andy: "Ugh...worst sleep of my goddamn life..." he groaned, stretching...into his cockpit, "the hell-? Why am I in my cockpit?!" 

Prez: "Ugh....Bullet, shut up!" she snapped, "I need sleep..." 

Andy: "Prez, we're in our cockpit, wake up! I've no idea where we are." he said, starting to panic while he looked for landmarks. 

Prez: "I'm sorry...what?!" she demanded, fully waking up and scanning her surroundings, "How the hell'd we end up here?!"

Andy: "I don't know!" he replied, "All I remember is getting struck by lightning during an attack mission on a Russian Air and Naval Base!" 

Prez: "That's odd...lightning isn't supposed to do that..." she trailed off. 

Andy: "I know, start using every international frequency our radio has access to." he instructed, "We should be able to pick something up." 

Prez: "Copy that." she said, beginning to fiddle with her radio, "But, what if I don't pick anything up?" 

Andy: "We'll figure something out, I'll try to locate something using the RADAR, if we find something then we can follow it and hopefully they can lead us to land." he replied, beginning a search pattern, "Though that does leave us with little options if we don't find anything in a timely manner..." 

Prez: "Any flat top or random stretch of island will do!" she complained. 

Andy rolled his eyes, fiddling with his RADAR. Prez found something first however, her radio crackling to life. 

Prez: "Yes! I got something!" she called, happily, "Ok...let's see what you are......"

The radio crackled for a few seconds before something understandable was finally heard over the radio.

???: "Unknown Enemy craft this is Eagle Union Carrier CV-5." an almost robotic voice hailed, "Respond or expect hostile actions." 

Andy: "CV-5...? That's USS Yorktown." he noted, recalling his doom scrolling through Naval Records, "But...what the hell is an Eagle Union?" 

Prez: "No clue, but it sounds like the most American thing ever though, so I hope they're friendly." she said, unmuting her radio, "This is Strider 5 of the US Navy Aircraft Carrier Enterprise, we are friendlies, do not shoot." 

???: "....acknowledged Strider 5." she said, robotic and emotionless as usual, "Make heading 1-3-8, flight level 1-1-0, speed 200 knots, my squadron shall rendezvous with you and guide you in. Failure to comply shall result in less than favorable conditions." 

Prez was unable to reply before the line suddenly dropped. 

Prez: "Ok...mysterious woman threatening us with death, that's new." she said, unsure of what she had just heard.

Andy: "If we have to fight, what are our armaments?" he asked. 

Prez: "Um.....2 AIM-120's, 4 Maverick's, and 10 Bursts worth of ammunition in the guns." she replied, checking her instrument panel. 

Andy: "Ok, I want you to be ready on the trigger with the AGM's, I've got the 120's and the Guns." he instructed, slowing down and descending whilst changing his course. 

Prez: "Copy that Bullet." she said, "What do you think we're up against?" 

Andy: "I dunno, be prepared for literally anything though." he replied, changing settings on his RADAR screen for combat and unlocking the thrust vectoring nozzles, "Keep the radio on though, allies may hail us when they see an enemy carrier going down." 

Prez nodded, leaning back as she anticipated the high-g maneuvers Andy was known for. As Andy leveled out at 11,000 feet 5 blips appeared directly ahead of the Super Hornet butterflies filled Andy's stomach, grabbing a pair of binoculars to see what they were facing....only to be surprised when he saw a squadron of 5 F4F Wildcats roaring towards them. 

Andy: "Um...Prez, you seeing this?" he asked, surprised. 

Prez: "I see it." she replied, "And I don't believe it." 

Andy: "Ok...let's act cooperative until the first sign of something wrong." he said. 

Prez: "Right..." she nodded, "let's hope that sign isn't tracer piercing our cockpit." 

Andy ignored that last comment and formed up with the Wildcats....but when Andy was about to gesture to the pilots that he was friendly, he was surprised to find an empty cockpit...in fact, all of the Wildcats had empty cockpits. 

Andy: "What the...?" he started. 

???: "Strider 5, drop all weaponry and follow aircraft in, failure to comply shall result in lethal action." she said, coming onto the radio once again, still emotionless, "You shall be detained on board my ship until further orders." 

Andy: "Ok, I don't like where this is going." he said, gripping his flight stick harder. 

???: "Strider 5 readback order and reply an affirmative." she said, her robotic voice pressuring him to act. 

Prez: "Just say the word Bullet and these boys drop dead." she said, glaring at the Wildcats. 

Andy was caught with a different position, on one hand he could easily dispatch the Wildcats but on the other hand he had limited ammo and low fuel....but before he could think any further, another voice broke through the radio. 

U-556: "Strider 5, this is U-556 of Ironblood, do you copy me?" she hailed, sounding much more animated. 

Andy: "U-556, this is Strider 5, I hear you." he called, unmuting himself. 

U-556: "Thank God!" she sighed, in relief, "I've been trying to get a signal out for hours but I had to deal with Nautilus first." 

Andy: "Um...sure, can you inform any superiors of yours, preferably one in command of a flat top, that we need some fuel and ammo soon?" he asked. 

U-556: "Sure!~ But let's deal with Yorktown." she said, "I've disabled Nautilus for a while so it's just her to deal with." 

Prez: "Now you're speaking my language kid!" she grinned. 

Andy: "Alright, Prez, get ready to dogfight." he ordered. 

Prez nodded and strapped herself into her seat as Andy suddenly gunned the throttle and pulled up, causing the F4F's to overshoot the F/A-18. 

Prez: "Yeehaw!~" she sang, whooping and cheering as they ran into battle. 

Andy then killed the engines and pushed down, bringing the nose down on the Wildcats. Switching swiftly to his guns, Andy let out a quick burst, gunning his engines and breaking hard right, this combination of moves resulted in 2 of the F4F's going down, the rest, shocked by the sudden maneuver, flew straight for a few moments before unwisely engaging the much more modern jet. Noting the planes on his tail Andy pulled up as hard as he could shooting straight up into the sky as high as he could, keeping an eye on his mirrors, to his delight, the Wildcats followed trying to catch up while spraying the sky with tracer...which all missed. After a certain altitude the Wildcats stalled and began tumbling down to Earth, taking that as his cue, Andy cut the throttles and used the rudder to turn the F/A-18 around and dive after his prey. 

Prez: "You've got em dead to rights Andy! Drop the hammer!" she yelled, excitedly. 

Andy: "Roger that Prez." he grinned, squeezing the trigger. 

With a satisfying 'BRRRRT!!' 2 M61A1 Machine Guns tore into the 3 remaining F4F's which tumbled uselessly towards the ocean as burning hulks. Andy pulled out of the dive in time to avoid hitting the ocean himself and found himself face to face with a Yorktown Class Aircraft Carrier. 

U-556: "Ok, reinforcements and a flat top are coming in, how's your progress?" she asked. 

Prez: "Squadron dealt with....and we're coming in hot on the carrier." she replied, "Do we need permission to sink that thing?" 

U-556: "No! No sinking! Disable her! Shoot up her flight deck! Set it ablaze! But no sinking!" she yelled, quickly. 

Andy: "Copy that 556." he nodded, "Where are you right now?" 

U-556: "Um...approaching Yorktown to disable her propulsion unit...why?" she asked. 

Andy slowly dived to just above the wave top, lining up on the Yorktown's stern, and gunning his afterburners, roaring past Mach 2 and continuing to accelerate, as they did they roared right over a periscope which was most likely U-556's as indicated by a quick yelp as they flew over the periscope. 

U-556: "Holy sweet Jesus!" she cursed, "What are you 2 doing?!" 

Andy: "Just watch." he said, gripping the flight stick. 

Prez: "Oh god...Bullet? Bullet?! What are you doing!?" she demanded, getting nervous. 

Andy: "Just get ready to fire the Mavericks off Prez." he called, hyper-focused on the carrier ahead of him.

Prez didn't get much more out of Andy until he suddenly pulled up and flipped the jet over and pitching down so the missiles wouldn't hit the wings. 

Andy: "Prez! Fire them off! Now! Now! Now!" he yelled. 

Prez: "Sayonara bitch!" she shouted. 

The remaining AGM-65 Mavericks loosed from their hard points and slammed into the Yorktown's flight deck and setting it ablaze, preventing further aircraft launch and knocking the ship out for the foreseeable future due to repair work. As soon as the missiles were launched, Andy flipped the aircraft over once again to dodge the exploding flight deck before turning around slowly to admire their handiwork. 

Andy: "Alright 556, where's the Bingo Field?" he asked. 

U-556: "Um...r-right, one of the Siren Carriers should be appearing in a bit to collect both Yorktown and Nautilus." she stuttered, "They should be able to support your plane so um...just hold for a sec...I guess...?" 

Prez: "Well, gives us time to ask questions...like what the heck you're doing on a sub." she said, "What even is your name?" 

U-556: "My name is U-556 silly, I'm the manifestation of the soul of this little submarine." she replied, "Nautilus and Yorktown also have human manifestations, Yorktown is the one you talked to." 

Andy: "Are you an exception or are you not supposed to be that......?" he trailed off. 

U-556: "Robotic?" she finished, "No, we're not, something terrible has been happening in Eagle Union, it spread to the Royal Navy and half of Northern Parliament, everyone left is fighting back...but it's not looking good, especially with the Black Dragon riding the waves." 

Andy: "New Jersey?" he questioned, "Ugh, questions for later..." 

U-556: "Right....oh wait! Here comes the flat top!" she said. 

On cue, a ripple in the air next to the Yorktown produced an angular, edgy looking black ship with blue highlights that roughly resembled a destroyer before a massive white carrier with blue highlights and 2 flight decks emerged, both ships approached the crippled Yorktown and Nautilus and attached towlines. 

Observer A: "U-556, I'm assuming Strider 5 carried your butt to victory." she said, giggling smugly. 

U-556: "Meanie! I pulled my weight!" she pouted. 

Observer A: "Sure you did." she said, rolling her eyes, "Now then, Strider 5, you are cleared to land, we shall give you a full debriefing when we get back to home territory." 

Andy: "Um...copy that I suppose..." he trailed off, getting into the glide slope. 

As Andy came in to land, he didn't feel as unsafe as he did when Yorktown hailed him and demanded that he landed so he knew in his gut that he was landing on an actual ally. His tail hook caught a wire and his plane ground to a halt on the carrier, allowing him and Prez to finally open their canopy and stretch their legs on something solid, as they step foot on the carrier, 2 figures approached. One was a kid, with light blue hair, pink eyes, in a small white 2 piece swim suit hanging onto a massive mechanical, pink shark-like thing that vaguely resembled a U-Boat. The other was a tall, white-haired woman with yellow eyes, pale skin, and a loose fitting black tank top...if you could call it that- and some really tight-fitting shorts. Immediately feeling threatened, Prez grabbed Andy and hugged him. 

Andy: "Um...Prez?" he questioned, blushing at the contact.

Prez: "Mine." she hissed, possessively. 

Andy: "Pr-Prez, let go." he stuttered, attempting to pry himself free of his WSO.

Prez: "No!" she said, hugging even tighter. 

Andy: "Ok! Fine!" he winced, "You can hug me or whatever but I need to at least talk with the people who helped us." 

Prez: "Fine." she pouted, still hanging onto him. 

With a groan, Andy barely managed to drag himself and Prez over to Tester and 556, the latter brightening up as they approached. 

U-556: "Hey there!~ Sorry for the rushed introduction earlier, but I'm U-556." she said, introducing herself, "Ironblood Submarine and personal escort to our leader Bismarck." 

Andy: "Nice to meet ya kid....well, officially." he said, "I'm Ensign Francis Yan, I prefer going by Andy and my TAC Name of Bullet though, so don't go round calling me Francis."

U-556: "You can count on me not to make that mistake sir!~" she saluted, adorably. 

Prez: "Aw.~" she cooed, pinching 556's cheeks, "You are so cute!~" 

Andy: "That's Ensign Robin Kuo, TAC Name President, though everyone shortens it to Prez." he said, introducing her, "She's my WSO, so she sits behind me and helps with the weapons that a normal single-seater jet has a pilot multi-task with." 

Tester B: "It is nice to meet you." she nodded, "We wish it were under better circumstances however." 

Andy: "We noticed, but we can leave the questions for the debrief later." he said, calmly. 

Tester B: "Right." she nodded. 

With a loud 'Clank!' the Siren Carrier hooked up to the Yorktown and began to tow the smoldering American Carrier away, at the same time in the distance the Siren Destroyer, escorted by U-556 had picked up the Nautilus with a crane and was carrying it away. 

Tester B: "Alright, all ships accounted for, readying portal." she said, stretching her hands out. 

A ripple in the space ahead of the group soon formed and the ships sailed through, disappearing from the operation space before any could come to help their comrades. 

Eagle Union High Command, Washington DC

1030 hours

Current Conditions: Overcast

In the White House, sitting in the shadowy capital city of what used to be the Land of the Free, a man sat in the Oval Office, staring at a screen. He was not the President, he was actually the Vice President, the actual President and most of his cabinet had been...taken care of as he performed a coup to gain a position of greater power. 

EU VP: "So...do you want to explain what the hell just happened?" he snarled. 

Assistant: "We do not know yet Mr. President." she replied, "But it appears the Siren have summoned another champion to challenge us." 

EU VP: "Just what I need..." he groaned, getting up and looking out his window, "Hm....even the O'Hare fellow from before wasn't this good....." 

Assistant: "What are your orders sir?" she asked. 

EU VP: "Hm...send a message, tell whoever's in charge at Pearl Harbor to make ready a small task group." he replied, "Tell him that he can bring 2 Light Cruisers, his new Battlecruiser, and the biggest Battleship he's got." 

Assistant: "Yes sir." she said, making her way to the communication's room. 

As his assistant left, the Vice President typed a few things onto his screen, eventually making a photo of both Andy's and Prez's F/A-18 taken by one of Yorktown's Wildcats off the Jet's Left Rear Quarter before it began its rampage. He focused on the patches on its tail, specifically Prez's patch.

EU VP: "Hm...." he hummed, his voice becoming slightly more insane, "so you've finally arrived mercenary. Now the fun can really begin." 

The Vice President swiped the picture of the F/A-18 away to reveal something else, the blueprints for a much sleeker experimental fighter powered by Nuclear Energy...that he for some reason called Cordium, the jet featured railguns, shields, missiles numbering in the early 500's, and the best maneuverability in the world. 

Somewhere Under Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

0300 hours

October 3, 2027

Earth 330 (Normal Timeline)

3 weeks after disappearance

Captain Elizabeth Dare...er....currently Esdeath, walked down a blank hallway somewhere under the famous Hawaiian Base, flanking her was Strider Squadron who were also rather miffed at being torn away from their search for their missing members. Leading them down this hallway was a very scared intern who as attempting not to think that he was about to die. 

Capt. Esdeath: "This better be real fucking good you son of a bitch." she snarled. 

Count: "Can we mob his ass if it isn't?" he asked. 

Trigger: "If we can, save some for us." she added. 

Huxian: "I'm pretty sure the Captain will more quickly murder him than share." she chuckled. 

Intern: "U-um, it is g-good." he stuttered. 

Jaeger: "I'll believe it when I see it." he said, rolling his eyes. 

The group eventually reach the end of the hallway and enter a massive room, in said room were multiple ships being outfitted with strange looking machines with unknown purposes. Scientists in white coats ran around everywhere alongside the best engineers to walk out of their schools. 

Trigger: "Where in the world are we...?" she asked. 

Dr Aoste: "This is Site 31." he replied, suddenly butting in, "You must be Captain Esdeath and Strider Squadron." 

Capt. Esdeath: "Yes in fact, we are." she said, crossing her arms over her bust, "Now, why are we here? We have 3 missing aviators to find." 

Dr Aoste: "Because we believe we have a lead that can help you find them." he replied, gesturing towards the cavernous room, "If you'd follow me please." 

Count: "Whoa whoa whoa! What do you mean 'you have a lead'?" he demanded. 

Huxian: "Yeah, we've been searching for em for weeks!" she yelled. 

Dr Aoste: "I mean exactly what I said." he replied, leading them further into the facility, "We studied the storm that you lost your comrades in and based on what we picked up in the storm, we believe it to have a Keter Class's level of...anomalous capability." 

Trigger: "The fuck does that mean?" she asked. 

Dr Aoste: "It means that SCP 8929-5 has swallowed your friends whole and brought them into another reality." he replied. 

Capt. Esdeath: "Bullshit." she said. 

Count: "So some...anomalous fucking storm has dragged our friends to some unknown universe to die?!" he demanded. 

Jaeger: "Wait...my kid likes to keep up with the wiki, what are the other 6 entities?" he demanded. 

Dr Aoste: "SCP-8929-1," he replied, firing up a monitor, "is a small girl who looks roughly 3'10" , we haven't been able to get closeup shots of them yet but she seems to be the leader of the operation, wielding some kind of weapon's kit featuring tentacles and artillery; 8929-2 is another woman, roughly 5'4", similarly to 8929-1 she has no close-up photos but she seems to wield a weapon resembling a sea animal this time a stingray; 8929-3 is a 5'7" woman, similar to dash 1 and dash 2 has a weapon kit which resembles a Hammerhead Shark, so far we only have sketches and descriptions from survivors as she appears to be the most bloodthirsty of all of them; 8929-4 on the other hand breaks the formula, unlike dashes 1-3, dash 4 appears to be a 6 foot tall woman wielding battle gear resembling a Yorktown Class Aircraft Carrier's flight deck and island, she has only been spotted from afar and blurry photos do not give much information." 

Count: "That's...concerning." he said, nervously. 

Capt. Esdeath: "Well, where the fuck does this leave my pilots?!" she demanded. 

Dr Aoste: "We have been able to perfect a tracking method using D-Class Personnel and a lot of trial and error." he replied, "We were able to just barely able to jerry-rig the tracker to Strider 6's aircraft and track him through to the other side. With more luck we shall be able to jerry rig something to follow them." 

Trigger: "Is that what you're working on with these ships?" she asked. 

Dr Aoste: "Yes, it is in fact what we are working on." he replied, "With luck we will have a working prototype in 9 weeks, and with more testing we should have something ready to send you through safely in a month." 

Capt. Esdeath: "Fine." she sighed, reluctantly, "But I expect updates." 

Dr Aoste: "Of course." he nodded, "My intern shall lead you out, I shall update you on progress everyday." 

Captain Esdeath nodded, gesturing to the squadron to follow her before leaving. 

???

1047 hours

Current Conditions: Foggy

Earth 8447

A ripple in space allowed the Siren Carrier and the Siren Destroyer through and into friendly territory. Andy and Prez still out on deck next to their F/A-18 with U-556 who was happily sticking with them like a loyal guide. 

U-556: "Aw man! Why's there so much fog?" she whined, "Ugh, Sakura Empire is always so beautiful this time of year...." 

Andy: "Sounds an awful lot like Japan..." he noted. 

Prez: "Well kid, if our experiences with fog are anything to go by then it should part for us soon, then we'll be able to see this place." she stated, fiddling with the F/A-18's engines. 

Sure enough, Prez was proven right as the fog parted for the ships sailing through, revealing an island, the land was covered with Traditional Japanese Houses and architecture sharing spaces on the limited spits of land with Blooming Sakura Trees of various sizes, in the harbor multiple Warships from the Axis Powers rested, among them the mighty Musashi, the swift and nimble Ayanami, the deadly duo Akagi and Kaga, the stoic Bismarck, the smart Z23, the quiet Graf Spee, the yandere Roon, and so many others. Andy was at a loss for words, he had just sided with Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany for crying out loud! As this happened, Prez joined the 2 near the bow. 

Prez: "Oh wow, you're right 556, this place really is beautiful." she said, looking at the architecture and the surrounding area.

Andy suddenly fell backwards, feeling like a bit of a traitor...seeing as he was roughly 75% Chinese and....all of the Japanese War Crimes in China and the other 25% of him being Filipino and all of the Japanese War Crimes on Filipino soil.....yeah, he was not looking forward to this, but hey, at least he could try to geek out with the ships. 

A/N: Alright, that's about where I'll leave this one off, thank you guys so much for reading, I know it's a bit of a downgrade plot-wise from chapter 2, but in all honesty, if I had a little more time and had the idea for this chapter earlier, I would've squeezed it into chapter 2 to give it an extra 4000 words, but I didn't do that because of the reasons earlier. dieHero, what did ya think? I'll try to do more in the 4th chapter but I'm still figuring out what I wanna do there. Anyway, I'll see you guys next time.