Crossover Shipgirls: Building a Dimensional Empire from Scratch

Time moved from late autumn into early winter.

The northern cold front swept across the flat Eastern European plains, over the Black Sea, bringing the first snowfall to Constantinople.

Snowflakes drifted down in abundance, blanketing the city in silver.

The shipgirls, undeterred by the winter chill, still wore their casual clothes, while the few ordinary residents of the city wrapped themselves in thick down jackets.

At the aerospace base, the shipgirls of the Vanguard Fleet and the Bulins trudged through the snow, surrounding the launch base in tight clusters.

Standing proudly in front of a black spaceship, Akashi shook the snow off her head and announced to the crowd:

"Our first spaceship has been completed, meow!!!"

"Woooah—"

Everyone turned their eyes to the spaceship behind her.

It was entirely black, stretching to about six hundred meters in length after completion.

Its design bore no resemblance to the shipgirls' hulls or to any Siren battleships they had ever seen.

The front half resembled a flattened rectangle, with three armed wings on each side to maintain balance during atmospheric maneuvers and to house light weaponry.

On the top, several turrets were mounted, equipped with six railguns and torpedo launchers.

The rear and bottom of the ship were fitted with massive plasma thrusters. Even in standby mode, the faint energy they emitted sent waves of heat across the area, noticeable even from dozens of meters away.

"Uh, it looks kind of weird?" Yukikaze muttered as she craned her neck to look.

"There's no air resistance in space, so spaceships don't need to account for aerodynamics. As long as the functional modules are in place, it works, meow," Akashi explained.

"This spaceship can carry up to 3,000 people and is capable of maneuvering within a planetary system. Its exterior is equipped with thermal insulation coating, so even landing on extreme environments like Mercury or Uranus won't be a problem."

"The ship runs on a single Wisdom Cube as its core reactor, providing ample energy. It can sustain months of continuous space travel without issue, meow."

"As for combat capability… you can think of it as a battleship that can fly. The Positron Blaster Cannon it's equipped with is quite powerful."

Akashi proudly placed her hands on her hips, showing off her work. Then she glanced expectantly at Setsuna, her eyes practically pleading, "Commander, praise me! Praise me!!"

"You did well," Setsuna said, reaching out to pat Akashi's head.

He then turned to the crowd.

"This is our first spaceship and the first step for the Starsea Alliance to reach space."

"From this day forward, we officially enter the space age and embrace the stars."

Interplanetary travel technology, for humanity in his previous life, had been an unreachable dream.

It symbolized that a civilization had gained the capability to leave its homeworld.

"Woooah—"

"Does it have a name?" a small destroyer shipgirl suddenly asked.

"Hmm? I haven't thought about that yet. Any suggestions?" Setsuna asked, pausing.

As the first spaceship, it would eventually serve as the flagship of the Alliance and his personal vessel, carrying him to many worlds. It deserved a good name.

"Hmm…" The group scratched their heads.

"Evangel of the Lord?"

Jeanne d'Arc and Richelieu said it in unison.

"I don't believe in God, and many in the fleet don't either," Setsuna shook his head.

"Royal Fortune?" The cat-eared maid raised her hand.

"Isn't that one of your sailing warships?!"

"How about Great Holy Grail?" Artoria suggested.

"..."

"Can you all use a little imagination? Stop reusing names of things you're already familiar with…" Setsuna looked toward Yat Sen.

The name Starsea Alliance had also come from this elegant and scholarly shipgirl. She should have some unique ideas.

"Hmm…"

Yat Sen closed her oil-paper umbrella, shaking the snow off its surface. Her brows furrowed slightly in contemplation.

"As part of this place, I hope that the civilization the Commander leads the port to build will endure for eternity, united through the ages…"

"And today, the completion of this ship coincides with winter, with the snow falling endlessly from the skies…"

"How about calling it Eternal Snowfall?"

"!"

"That's it!" Setsuna snapped his fingers.

"From now on, this will be the Alliance's flagship—Eternal Snowfall!"

A few minutes later.

The shipgirls, full of excitement, followed Setsuna and queued up to board the spaceship.

The internal space of the ship was vast. Built to the standards of a space vessel, Akashi had equipped it with functional sections, including bedrooms, a dining hall, and even a small bathhouse where shipgirls could soak in an onsen.

The interior design was minimalist and futuristic, dominated by light gray and white tones.

"This feels way bigger than Musashi's hull," one shipgirl remarked, her gaze darting around as they took in the sights.

For many of them, this was their first encounter with the concept of a spaceship.

Upon entering the main control room, over a dozen Bulins were already seated at the control consoles, ready and waiting.

As versatile workers, they had no trouble taking on the roles of spaceship crew.

"Status confirmed: all systems are in perfect condition, and energy levels are full."

"All personnel, please proceed to your designated positions. During flight, do not activate rigging and refrain from playing around within the ship," came the AI's prompt.

The shipgirls, despite their bubbling excitement, obediently found their seats. They exchanged glances, trying to contain their emotions.

"Close the hatches, prepare for ignition and liftoff!"

Ka-ka-ka—

The sound of airtight doors sealing reverberated throughout the ship.

"Seal integrity confirmed."

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1—"

"Reactor at full power, initiating anti-gravity acceleration!"

Boom—

Accompanied by the mechanical hum, the plasma thrusters at the bottom of the spaceship emitted an orange-red glow, sending a shockwave sweeping across the entire aerospace base.

The snow covering the surrounding several kilometers melted instantly under the intense heat.

Under the effect of the recoil, the spaceship slowly ascended into the air.

"Wow—it's flying—"

The accompanying shipgirls leaned against the portholes, watching as the city below grew smaller and smaller.

For shipgirls who had been in the Azur Lane world for countless years, this was their first time rising into the sky.

They were seeing the world from a completely new perspective.

Swish—

The spaceship accelerated faster and faster. At first, they could still see the palm-sized city and the lush green forests below.

Once they passed through the troposphere, the view outside the window became an endless sea of clouds, with the faint sun appearing intermittently between the cloud layers.

Golden light spread across the clouds, creating a stunning scene.

Then came the stratosphere, the mesosphere, and the exosphere…

The clouds outside the window grew thinner and thinner until they gave way to a dark barrier, where the only thing visible was the fiery glow caused by the spaceship wings' friction with the atmosphere.

The spaceship's built-in anti-gravity system ensured that even under the extreme acceleration, no one inside felt the slightest discomfort.

Buzz—

With a low humming sound, the spaceship broke through Earth's outer atmosphere and entered the vastness of space.

When they turned their heads to look, the scene outside the window was a sky full of stars.

Beneath their feet, the blue Earth spun slowly, while in the distance, the sun blazed with its orange-yellow brilliance.

"Spaceship has entered outer space. Switching to cruise mode."

"All personnel are free to move about."

Following the prompt, the shipgirls stood up in a daze, gazing in awe at the distant galaxy.

"Good, we're lucky not to be blocked at the door," Setsuna said as he activated the scanning equipment and looked around.

There were no signs of observation stations or anything similar. It seemed he wasn't a primitive native society marked with a Sociology +8 debuff.

"So beautiful…"

Richelieu placed one hand against the porthole, staring intently at the sparkling stars.

It was a sight never before seen in all their years in the Azur Lane world.

When a civilization frees itself from the bonds of gravity and reaches for space, it becomes clear just how laughable the petty conflicts, schemes, and betrayals on the ground truly are.

With billions of light-years of space and countless planets awaiting exploration, why limit oneself to a mere patch of territory on a single planet?

More importantly, given Setsuna's ability to pierce through space and connect to countless worlds, why stop at just one universe?

At that moment, she realized that even the long-standing battle with the Sirens didn't seem so significant anymore.

After all these years of war, they had only been fighting over a few sea zones.

Only the Sea of Stars is the final destination of a civilization.

"The moon! That's the moon!!!"

A small shipgirl exclaimed excitedly as the spaceship glided past the moon's orbit.

That once unreachable celestial body was now right before their eyes.

"In the future… will we also be able to roam space like this spaceship?" Yat Sen asked softly, her expression shifting with emotion.

"Of course you will. This spaceship was built to lay the technological groundwork for all of you," Setsuna replied.

"Conducting large-scale modifications on your hulls involves risks, so we need to ensure our spacefaring technology is mature before applying it to you."

"It shouldn't take long before we can transform all of you into starships."

"Yay—"

The shipgirls burst into cheerful chatter.

The thought of a future where hundreds of shipgirls formed a fleet of starships filled them with excitement.

"I want to land on the moon! I want to go to Mars!!"

Several small shipgirls began chattering noisily among themselves.

"Colonizing other planets will have to wait until we finish developing Earth first," Setsuna said with a smile.

Right now, there was only one city in the entire world, and the land was vast but sparsely populated.

However, as the number of Bulins continued to grow, it wouldn't take long to organize a space fleet capable of mining rare resources from other planets.

After entering space, the spaceship's thrusters reignited, accelerating it further.

Trailing a brilliant tail of flames, the ship sailed among the stars.

Everyone aboard was captivated by the vastness of space.

Artoria sat by the main control room's porthole, gazing out at the stars, her thoughts wandering.

"..."

"Master, I once thought Britain was my everything. But looking at this now, I see how narrow-minded I was," she said softly.

"From outer space, it's nothing more than a tiny island on an insignificant planet."

"The conflicts that took place there… they are but a fleeting moment in the history of mankind."

As the spaceship traveled farther and farther from Earth, it became increasingly difficult to pick out the British Isles from her view.

"To exist like mayflies in the universe, to be a single grain in the vast sea—that's what this feels like."

When one steps into space, they realize how small and insignificant the place they once inhabited truly is.

"I feel the same way…" Jeanne d'Arc added, holding her fleur-de-lis flag close to her.

"Looking down from here, France seems so small. Compared to a star system or an entire planet, it's utterly insignificant."

"Why is everyone suddenly so philosophical?" Setsuna chuckled.

He hadn't expected the Heroic Spirits to reach philosophical realizations after stepping into space.

The King of knights and the French Saint had seemingly achieved a world reconciliation upon witnessing the sea of stars.

Perhaps this was the charm of the universe.

"In the future, I'll take you to see even more wonders. Things like Neutron Extermination, Angelic Bliss, Starfish Cans… don't they already sound fascinating?!"

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