Transmigrated into Azur Lane

The sailors on duty aboard the destroyer were eating dinner listlessly, leaning against the railing, glancing enviously at the outpost where cheers were constantly erupting. Because it was the Spring Festival and the Sirens had recently withdrawn entirely from coastal waters, the entire Third Fleet had inevitably relaxed its guard somewhat.

"Oh~"

The soldier on duty, with food in his mouth, watched the dazzling fireworks shoot into the sky. But as the fireworks faded, he witnessed an unbelievable scene. On the southern sea area illuminated by the fireworks, countless black dots appeared. The soldier quickly peered through his binoculars and saw an army of countless Siren shipgirls approaching the base at a steady pace, followed by an innumerable number of mass-produced warships.

The soldier on duty who discovered the enemy was so frightened that he almost choked on his food. He ran and scrambled into the communications room and shouted hoarsely into the microphone.

"Enemy attack!!!"

…………

After the alarm sounded, all the officers and soldiers in the outpost immediately dropped their lunch boxes and kicked away the benches blocking their way. They quickly assembled and boarded the cruiser docked at the outpost's port in an orderly manner.

At this moment, Lin Dong, along with the women and Cao Zhengping, stood on the port, staring in astonishment at the south illuminated by the navigation lights of the destroyer. The dense black dots, estimated by the naked eye, numbered at least a thousand Siren ship girls.

"Miss Nelson, please make sure you bring Major General Lin back safely."

Cao Zhengping put down his binoculars and turned his back to the crowd.

"Our Third Fleet will buy you time."

"Cao..."

Lin Dong was about to speak.

"They should be the main force of the Sirens stationed in the South China Sea. According to the intelligence known by Donghuang, there are at least 200 Sirens with an average training level of 70 or above. We have no chance of winning."

"Hurry up, Miss Nelson."

"Brother Lin, take care." Cao Zhengping turned to Lin Dong and smiled before boarding the cruiser. Cao Zhengping had many missions related to Lin Dong: surveillance, protection, killing, and arrest. These contradictory orders were for various situations, and now he had chosen one: protection.

"Enterprise, you take the commander, we'll lead the way, and the destroyers will follow behind."

Nelson made a quick decision. As a ship girl, she understood the danger better than Cao Zhengping because she sensed an aura from the Sirens' direction that was no less powerful than her own.

Without further ado, the company hoisted Lin Dong onto its shoulders and activated the ship's equipment.

Cleveland took the lead, followed closely by the Nelson and Rodney sisters, while the Enterprise, carrying Lin Dong, deliberately slowed down its speed with the destroyers.

Because Lin Dong was being carried upside down, he could only see the view behind the ship girls, which was also directly in the direction of the Third Fleet.

After boarding the cruiser, Lieutenant General Cao joined forces with two destroyers on duty at sea and attempted to block the Sirens' advance.

Lin Dong finally witnessed the ineffectiveness of modern military technology against the Sirens. Only two missiles from the three warships were successfully launched under electronic jamming. One missile, completely out of aim due to the jamming, struck two nautical miles away from the Sirens. The other, fortunately, withstood the jamming and hit the center of the Sirens' fleet, only to be found seemingly lost at sea, ultimately confirming a detonation failure…

On the contrary, the 127mm naval guns equipped with armor-piercing shells performed quite well, continuously firing despite abandoning most of the electronic support technology required by the guns in order to deal with the Sirens. However, given the ship girls' high mobility and petite size, they could only close their eyes and pray that some unlucky Sirens would run into them, but at least they slowed down the Sirens' advance slightly.

As the Sirens drew near, the three outnumbered warships seemed to have sensed their fate. Simultaneously, all three activated their final weapon, the "self-destruct chamber," hoping to stop the Sirens there. This chamber was specifically designed to destroy the Sirens, and the Eastern Navy also called it the "Naval Glory Bomb."

The flashes from the explosions of the three warships' catastrophic compartments illuminated the darkness for dozens of nautical miles around, and even the sound of the explosions could be heard on Xiamen Island, more than ten nautical miles away.

The Siren fleet continued to break through from the center of the explosion. Although the sacrifice of the Third Fleet did not cause much trouble for the Sirens, it successfully bought them time. At this point, the Sirens had no chance of catching up with Lin Dong and his group.

The red flames rising from the distant horizon reflected on Lin Dong's face. Recalling the events that had transpired with the Third Fleet over the past two months, tears welled up in Lin Dong's eyes.

"Ko... Waaaaaah!"

In the end, Lin Dong could no longer suppress his grief and began to wail.

The woman silently patted Lin Dong's back with her left hand, a feeling she had experienced before...

Chapter 36 Brother Cao, why are you back again?

The ship girls arrived at the naval base quickly at full speed.

The harbor of the naval base was now crowded with people. Although the naval soldiers did not know exactly what had happened, they could roughly guess that a battle had taken place at sea from the firelight in the distance and the sound of explosions they heard. Their faces were filled with worry.

After being released by the company, Lin Dong, his legs weak, slumped onto the embankment, gazing into the distance where the red glow still lingered.

Besides sadness, Lin Dong was also filled with deep fear. This was the first time Lin Dong had witnessed a war between humans and Sirens on the ocean. There were no mountains of corpses or seas of blood, but the scene was far more despairing and filled him with a sense of powerlessness.

Lin Dong had never imagined that a modern naval fleet would be forced into such a predicament by the Sirens, ultimately resorting to self-destruction to delay them. He also felt a deep sense of despair at the Sirens' strength; if the Sirens' fleet stationed in the South China Sea possessed such power, what about their so-called Asian stronghold? Just how intense was the battle in Liaodong?

Should he continue fighting the invincible Sirens? Should he take the cash from the safe and flee inland with his ship girls, hiding their identities? Thinking this, Lin Dong felt a surge of anger at his own cowardice. The Third Fleet had made such a sacrifice to buy him time to escape, and yet he had chosen to shirk responsibility after returning? But then Lin Dong remembered that it was his ship girls, not him, who were fighting the Sirens. Did he have the right to keep putting his ship girls in danger?

Just as Lin Dong was lost in thought...

"Splash."

A small submarine suddenly appeared on the sea not far in front of Lin Dong, followed by a second, a third...

A dozen submarines sailed into the port to Lin Dong's astonishment.

"Oh dear, Brother Lin, I almost didn't make it back!"

With the help of others, Cao Zhengping climbed out of the submarine. Upon seeing Lin Dong, he touched his heart and said...

"........."

"Hahaha, Brother Lin, you didn't think I was dead, did you?"

Cao Zhengping patted Lin Dong's shoulder forcefully and laughed.

"This is?"

Lin Dong looked at Cao Zhengping with a puzzled expression.

"Oh! Brother Lin, you may not know this since you just joined the navy, but almost every warship in the Eastern Empire is equipped with an escape submarine. If the Sirens don't have submarine ship girls, they can't do anything to us."

Cao Zhengping explained, and then blurted out another witty remark.

"If we were to die in a war against the Sirens, who would dare to join the army?"

Cao Zhengping's last words drew laughter from the surrounding naval soldiers.

"Brother Lin, what are you thinking about? Why aren't you saying anything?"

Cao Zhengping waved his hand in front of Lin Dong's dazed eyes.

I want to kill you.

…………

Although most of the naval personnel stationed at the Third Fleet's maritime outposts have completed their evacuation, two escape submarines and more than a dozen other soldiers have lost contact.

Afterwards, Lin Dong also saw those so-called escape submarines. They were more like disposable metal cans than submarines. Designed to fit into the narrow bottom of warships, these escape submarines were extremely small, roughly 20 meters long and 3 meters wide, according to Lin Dong's estimation. To maximize their space utilization on warships, these escape submarines only retained the most basic functions: power, oxygen supply, and surfacing/diving. When fully loaded, the crew was practically crammed together, barely able to turn around. To save space, even emergency food supplies were omitted. This extreme approach successfully allowed each warship to carry five to six escape submarines, but it also exposed significant shortcomings. Thin armor, high maintenance costs, and most fatally, a maximum range of only 30 nautical miles. This meant that if you didn't receive support or reach shore by the time your fuel ran out, in this world where maritime communication was extremely difficult, you were essentially doomed.

Therefore, the evacuation operation of the Third Fleet was not as easy as Cao Zhengping described.

With the coastal waters reoccupied by the Sirens, the search and rescue operation could only be conducted within a few nautical miles. Coupled with the dim light, the chances of rescuing the missing soldiers were extremely slim. Lin Dong also deployed the ship girls to participate in the search, but after a whole night, there were no results.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, amidst the joyous countdown of the entire nation, Donghuang welcomed the new year.

Meanwhile, the naval personnel on Xiamen Island were still doing their utmost to search for their missing comrades.

Chapter 37 New Year

Having participated in a search and rescue operation all night, the security bureau staff slept in on the first day of the new year.

"Huff...huff...puff puff puff...yawn!"

Lin Dong, who was snoring, was interrupted from his sleep by a sudden itch in his nasal cavity.

"Ha ha"

After waking Lin Dong, the group of girls scattered like birds and beasts. Spence also prepared to slip away, laughing and joking, but was unexpectedly pushed towards Lin Dong by Ollie behind him. Before leaving, he did not forget to lock the door from the inside.

"Huh?" Spence held a chicken feather he had plucked from a feather duster in his hand, looking at Lin Dong, who had already woken up.

"Referring to...the commander"

Spence noticed that the commander was looking at the feather in her hand, which startled her so much that she quickly threw the feather on the ground and kicked it under Lin Dong's bed.

Lin Dong rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked speechlessly at Spence standing by his bed. Then he got up and prepared to teach this little devil a lesson.

After two months of getting to know her, Lin Dong had figured out the little girl's personality. Although she was a bit timid, she was just as mischievous as her sisters, and she also liked to play the victim. Her personality was really awful.

"Commander, what are you hiding in your pants?"

Spence suddenly pointed at Lin Dong's crotch and asked.

Lin Dong, who was about to teach Spence a lesson, blushed.

"This is the commander's ship equipment. You have one too. What are you asking? Get out!"

Spence felt like he had been granted a pardon and turned to run away. Then, as if he remembered something, he returned to Lin Dong's bedside. After rummaging around under Lin Dong's bed for a while and finding the chicken feather, Spence glanced at the commander's ship equipment before leaving.

"Ugh……"

…………

Happy New Year, Commander!

"Happy New Year, sweetie."

Lin Dong smiled and patted Olek's head, then took out a red envelope from his pocket and handed it to Olek.

"Thank you, Commander."

After receiving the red envelope, Ollie hopped and skipped onto his dining chair.

"This is so troublesome..."

Futter was somewhat unwilling as Lin Dong stared intently at him.

"Boom."

Cleveland, standing behind him, smacked Ford on the head.

"Happy New Year, Commander," Ford said obediently, his hands clasped behind his head.

"Honey, I hope you become even more resilient in the new year."

Lin Dong chuckled as he touched the bump on Ford's head that Cleveland had given him, and handed over a red envelope as well.

"Uh... thank you, Commander."

Happy New Year, Commander.

Spence had become a crotch-obsessed cat, searching for the commander's ship equipment with a puzzled look, ignoring even the hiccups Laffey was making beside him.

"Sweetie, don't be too naughty in the new year, okay?"

Lin Dong pinched Spence's cheek hard to signal her not to look around, then quickly took out a red envelope to send Spence away.