Prologue BELFAST IRELAND 2012

Arianna stared at the gathered fleet around her. When she first began to hear the Olympian Sister's story, she did not expect to see a fleet of the Ancients.

Besides the sisters, she saw Oceanic and Atlantic. She also saw HMS Dreadnought. The old battleship was quite friendly despite her intimidating looks.

Arianna also saw USS Pennsylvania with her sister, USS Arizona. Olympic hovered close nearby. Even in death, she was still protective of her adoptive sister.

A small ship approached Arianna. She flew both the German and British flags. "RMS Majestic." She said. I nodded. "I was Olympic's deputy, after the war."

"You were also German." Olympic said, coming over.

Majestic grunted. "True, I was a German merchant ship. I shared a name with a notorious battleship too." She said.

"Yes, and you wonder why Baltic used to call you Bissie." Olympic teased.

Majestic rolled her eyes. "When I was a German liner, I was named Bismarck. Oh yeah, there was more than one Bismarck around." Majestic added, seeing the look of shock on Arianna's face.

"Since you were there, perhaps you can begin the story this time." Olympic said. Titanic and Britannic came over.

"Great, more storytelling!" Titanic said, enthusiastic as always.

"Who's starting this time?" Britannic asked.

"Majestic is." Olympic replied.

"What!" Britannic exclaimed.

"She's not even English." Titanic added.

"My English is well enough, thank you." Majestic snapped.

"Enough." Olympic ordered before it could turn ugly.

"Sorry about that Majestic, please begin." Olympic said. Majestic nodded.

"In Berlin, Germany in 1914…"

Titanic cut her off. "It was Hamburg actually." She said.

Olympic opened her mouth to snap at her sister but Majestic beat her to it. "I don't know how you do it." She said.

"But you have a way of getting under my hull." Titanic grinned.

"Good." She said. "I like getting under the German's hull." Majestic growled.

"That's enough, Titanic." Olympic snarled. "We're here to tell our story, not to bring up old prejudices." T

itanic grunted and Arianna was sure she caught words like "Kaiser's girl" and "sour kraut" being muttered under her breath.

Obviously Majestic heard them too for she glared at Titanic before continuing. "It was 1914, in Hamburg…" She shot at Titanic.

Titanic just stuck her tongue at Majestic. Majestic ignored her and continued her story.

BERLIN GERMANY SEPTEMBER 1914 "MAJESTIC"

The entire German fleet was gathered in Berlin's massive harbor. Cruisers were enjoying the evening sun. Battleships were playing the age-old game of battleship, much to the annoyance of the destroyers who were congregating near the center of the fleet, gossiping as usual.

The submarines were just being submarines, diving around under the hulls of their bigger floating friends and surfacing suddenly right next to them yelling "Roar!" to scare them. It was a comical site.

At least until one of the subs, U-20, surfaced alongside Moltke, a battle cruiser who was gossiping as usual in the fleet's center.

"Take that Lusitania!" The sub yowled as she surfaced. Moltke yelped and leaped backwards so fast that she slammed into the back of Helgoland, a battleship playing nearby.

"Hey, watch it!" She growled.

"Sorry!" Moltke exclaimed.

"U-20, you know better than to sneak up on me when I'm talking." She growled.

But U-20 wasn't listening. "You are the passenger liner Lusitania, you have been converted into a troop transport and I'm going to torpedo you." She growled, stalking forward.

"You forget one important thing." Moltke teased.

U-20 halted. "What?" She asked.

"Never let the enemy halt your pursuit." Moltke answered and leaped to the left, picking up speed as she went.

Growling, U-20 chased her. "You can't hope to win a speed case with Lusitania. Olympic maybe, she's slightly slower but you'd never keep up with a Greyhound like Lusitania." Moltke explained.

She fired off a blank round that hit the submarine squarely in her side. U-20 swore loudly. I winced.

"Who knew that such a small ship could have such a large flotsam mouth?" I asked my sister, Columbus.

She shrugged "Why do swift fighters such as destroyer's gossip like little girls?" She asked back.

"Shh!" Imperator muttered.

"If that was a real round, I would've sunk you." Moltke said.

"Does it matter? Lusitania doesn't have guns." U-20 said.

"Her decks are reinforced to handle guns heavy enough to sink you." Helgoland replied.

U-20 groaned. "Great, she's faster than me, and she has the potential sink me. How can I sink her?" She asked. Moltke laughed.

"By ambushing her." She replied. "Now dive and sneak up on me, and when you've gotten close enough, attack." She said.

U-20 nodded and dove beneath the surface.

Moltke looked for her, but didn't see her. That was the advantage submarines had, once they dove, they vanished and they left no sign of their presence until they torpedoed you.

A blank round hit Moltke's side and exploded, reeling her sideways. When she righted herself again, U-20 had surfaced and was laughing. "That's one sunken passenger liner." She said.

"That was good, very good. If I was Lusitania, it'd take about 3 torpedoes to finish me but one can do enough damage for you to move in for the kill with any ship." Moltke said.

Before she could teach the young sub more however, one voice rang out. "Quiet!" Called Nassau, one of the oldest battleships in the fleet.

The Kaiser had arrived to address them. "In August of this year, the empires of Great Britain, France, and Russia declared war on us. Today, we have Austria-Hungary and Italy fighting with us. But we need all the assets we can get, especially those that come from the sea. Great Britain has the most powerful, well-advanced navy in the world. They don't have their motto of 'Britannia rules the waves!' for nothing. With your help that phrase could be changed to 'Germany rules the sea!'" His words were meant with the cheers of the entire German navy.

"Cruisers." The cruisers stood to attention. "You are to patrol the coastline. Keep an eye out for Allied shipping. Also escort any neutral supplies into their German ports of call." The cruisers nodded and left.

"Battleships, stop playing battleship and start doing battleship." The Kaiser growled. The battleships saluted and headed over to the fort for weapons provisioning.

"Submarines." The submarines all surfaced and waited expectantly. "Patrol every square mile of the Atlantic. I want your main targets to be British merchant shipping. It is unrestricted submarine warfare in the English Channel, any Allied ship detected there will be shot on sight, no questions asked. But remember, stay within the regulations of the Geneva Convention. The last thing we need is neutral nations getting involved in this fight, especially America." The Kaiser announced.

"Destroyers, escort them out to the Atlantic, then return to the fort for armament." The destroyers saluted and left, leaving an empty harbor behind them.

The submarines were all calling dibs on who they wanted to sink. "I've got Lusitania!" U-20 called.

"Fine, I've got Olympic." U-103 replied.

"I've got that British cruiser Hawke." U-9 said.

"And I've got Britannic." U-73 said. The others looked at her. "What?" She asked.

"Britannic's a hospital ship. Hospital ships are inside the Geneva regulations, you heard the Kaiser, stay within the boundaries." U-29 said.

"The regulations say no torpedoing hospital ships. They never said anything against mining them." U-73 said. U-9 rolled her eyes at U-20.

"Submarines really should not be lawyers." She said.

"Tell me about it." She muttered in reply.

And so the German U-boats headed out into the Atlantic Ocean in search of the ever present Allied ships to target and sink.

I meanwhile was ordered to be placed into storage for my own safety, my sisters too. Imperator wasn't happy about this.

"Oh, come on!" She exclaimed. "I want to fight."

The Kaiser smiled. "I know you do. But you're too precious to lose should you get torpedoed." He said. Grumbling dreadfully, Imperator and Columbus returned to HAPAG's docks.

The Kaiser turned to me. "I know you do not believe this is the answer, Bismarck and I respect that. But you must understand that I wouldn't do this unless it was absolutely necessary. For the good of the country." He said. I nodded.

"And if we lose? What then?" I asked.

He sighed. "Then God protect us all. The Entente will be anything but kind if we lose." I nodded.

Returning to storage with my sisters, I felt strangely uneasy. Not because my friends were going off to war, but because of the war itself.

I feared for all liners, for all ships on both sides. The thought of feeling for a British ship, the enemy, shocked me. But it wouldn't be the last time I had to ask myself the question 'Where do my loyalties lie?'