Here's the 4th snippet on that Ooyodo isekai.
Snippet 1,
Snippet 2,
Snippet 3
SNIPPET #4
Sometime Later, Commander's Office
The sounds of battle were finally receding. It seems the Sirens were repelled currently and is now a period to make good the damages. Ooyodo let out a sigh of relief, glad as she finally finished organizing the paperwork in an office that's not about to be attacked by a stray shell or anything.
"Thanks for the help, Edinburgh. I got a bit overwhelmed," Sirius said, standing over the remains of the fire. Must have been some other admin work that will have to be rewritten.
"Y-yeah. Thanks for the save," the Commander also said, finally calmed down somewhat. The coffee doing wonders for his frazzled nerves.
"You're welcome. I just came by to see if I could help command staff during the battle," Ooyodo replied smoothly in Edinburgh's tone, her lie quite convincing.
"…Command staff?" Both Sirius and the Commander said, head tilted as though this is the first time they've heard of the term
"…You're kidding me, right? Don't you have any other people to help with your admin work?" Ooyodo replied, a bit disturbed that there doesn't seem any semblance of a proper military structure in place. Contrary to popular belief, she does work with a dedicated staff in her old world, both human and ship girl alike in the war against the Abyssals. No matter how competent Ooyodo is as Secretary Ship, no one person can handle all the administrative, operational, and logistical needs of a unit.
"Usually it's the Secretary Ship that does those sorts of jobs but…" the Commander said and both he and Ooyodo looks over at Sirius.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry for being incompetent!" Sirius just starts to apologize, a bit upset in the same spot. The Commander heads towards her and starts patting her on the head to calm her down. Sirius accepted the gesture, seemingly happy about it.
"As for the other staff, the Manjuus handle the local logistics, repairs, etc. and there were no Meowfficers at this base," said the Commander as he keeps patting Sirius' head with her sighing in response.
"…Right. Nearly forgot about them," Ooyodo said, feeling like she's taking in more of Edinburgh's mannerisms than just her memories. The Manjuus were small bird like creatures that help with the day to day maintenance and chores. As for the Meowfficers, they are small cat like creatures that help with command duties. They were kind of like the Fairies she's used to in her old world.
"Still, there should have been at least a couple of ship girls that could have helped you in this regard," Ooyodo insisted, making some good points.
"Well, this base isn't exactly an ideal posting, despite being in the front lines. Many of the KAN-SEN that could have helped were rotated out to other front line bases. Hell, I was sent here six weeks ago to help set it up. So far it's been a slow progress and that attack didn't helped matters," The Commander just shrugged when he answered. Ooyodo just started to massage her head, feeling the headache creeping in.
"Just out of curiosity, what branch of the military did you serve in? Because it looked like you didn't know what you were doing just now." Ooyodo probed for some answers to questions she has. Commanders like him should know what to do in bases like this one. At least that's what Edinburgh's memories mention.
"I served in the Army when I was 18 and fought in the War a few years ago. I transferred services when I found that I had compatibility with Mental Cubes so they sent me to the Eagle Union's Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Wasn't exactly top of my class when I graduated. Then I was dispatched here as my first posting," the Commander explained.
"That certainly explains things," Ooyodo muses this, finding answers to some of her questions.
"I was still acclimating to the base's command console when the attack happened. The console, uh, 'broke,' so I started pressing buttons to hopefully fix it," the Commander said, scratching the back of his head, feeling a tad embarrassed.
"I'm guessing you're not the most technically inclined of the lot," Ooyodo replied, very dryly at that.
"I'd rather be in the front lines any," The Commander shrugged at that.
"While we have some time, do you mind if I review the base's military records and paperwork? I want to know exactly what I'm working with since I'll be stationed in this base for the foreseeable future," Ooyodo said while she stood up and walked to the file cabinets for the records. She saw in Edinburgh's memories that she would be assigned to this base for the next several years along with a number of the Royal Navy's Maids. Incidentally Belfast and Sheffield's rotation here would be over soon and will be dispatched to other frontline bases. Small mercies as Ooyodo is not inclined to explain that she's not their sister Edinburgh.
"Let me join you. As the Commander in charge to this base, I have to know how things truly are around here," He said as he stopped patting Sirius on the head and made his way to the records. She whined a bit about missing the headpats and sat down on the couch.
"Things cannot be that bad here," Ooyodo replied starting the read through on the Naval Base' financial records.
A little while later:
Ooyodo was wrong. Things were way worse than she expected.
"What the hell!? This base is barely operational for 3 months and that's accounting your posting here! How is it already in the red!?" Ooyodo exclaimed as she read the reports before continuing.
"I feel like I want to throw up," the Commander looked a little green in the face, after reading the same reports.
"Critical facilities are in dire need of upgrades, docks need to be expanded, defenses need to be modernized, damages that need to be repaired prior to today's attack, infrastructure and building maintenance, and many other issues that go back years!?" Ooyodo shouted, letting go of some papers.
"Right, I remember HQ telling me that this base was an old refurbished one from when the Sirens first appeared," the Commander said now remembering some facts from his first briefing about his posting.
"And the reason why the Manjuus haven't done anything about it is because they've been waiting for your signatures on that pile over there," Ooyodo retorted pointing at particularly large columns of paper, the backlog of forms she deemed high priority.
"Please don't remind me," The Commander just groaned at that, looking at some overtime work.
"If done all at once, it will take a significant chunk of the budget allocated to you so I recommend to doing this in stages for the next several months," the Commander sighed with a pleased expression thinking that he'll have some wiggle room when doing some bureaucratic backlog. Then what Ooyodo said next brought his relief crashing down.
"What I'm more concerned are these egregious expenditures," Ooyodo exclaimed putting down some piles of large printed receipts, fury leaking into her voice, startling even Sirius out of her thoughts from the couch.
The Commander looked at the papers to see what she was talking about. In it were some items that he remembered signing for thinking that it would help in increased morale. They were approved 2 week concerts by San Diego and the accidental damage to the concert equipment, damage to some of the convoy freighters due accidental collision by some of the ship girls, importing luxury items all the way from across the Atlantic that's more expensive than his budget, new outfits (skins) for the ship girls.
"Ok, some of those request forms were worded that it would help to increase morale and operation efficiency. In hindsight I should have reviewed these more closely," The Commander admitted at that.
"Well, thanks to that, the base budget is all but wiped out. If we do not get new sources in funding, you'll be eating bean sprouts for the next several years," Ooyodo flatly stated, eye twitching visibly. The Commander just groaned at that.
"Right," Ooyodo said as she stood up, "Commander, who's your assigned Secretary? You obviously need more help with sorting all this out." She pointed at all the mountains of paperwork around her.
"Sirius over here," he said pointing to her, who just tilted her head before continuing, "but she's more bodyguard than office clerk. Why? You volunteering?"
"That goes without saying," Ooyodo said, now fully in her element as she started to inspect what needs to be done.
"Right, Sirius stays because she's the Chief Bodyguard because you would go to the frontlines, correct?" Ooyodo said, both the Commander and Sirius nodding. She continued, "What needs to change here are a few things. First off…"
This routine would go on for several months. Changes would be made but for the better. All the while many would wonder what the heck happened to Edinburgh and how did she become this good of a secretary.
AN: I'm stopping it here. I never intended for this to be a multiwork fic but just write a bunch of snippets to the idea. Yes, I expect that other people to rip this snippet a new one and tell me how OOC are some of the characters are in this fic or how some concepts do not work here. Blame my ignorance on me not researching enough of the lore. I did study it up and tried to apply what I know but I know that I'll receive flak regardless. I'm more annoyed that I'll be accused of writing a shitty bashfic when I never intended to at all.
Still this is my attempt at writing a crossover between KanColle and Azur Lane because I had an idea I wanted to share and I'm not seeing enough crossover snippets for these two settings despite existing.