A/N: After coming back to "Z for Zulu" after a long hiatus, I realized that while I had a clear idea what I wanted to accomplish, it was taking longer than expected to reach the what-if scenarios/character cameos/action that readers hoped to see. I also wanted to include snippets about warships that don't receive a lot of traction in most stories, but because it was taking me a while to develop scenes that meant they wouldn't appear for some time.

Therefore, I started working on this as a canonical "semi-sequel" that takes place a few years after the events in Z for Zulu featuring shipgirls from various theatres in action and off duty. I hope to work on both steadily at the same time. There won't be spoilers for Z4Z in this work, nor will there by an overarching arc to the series. Instead, consider these chapters as a series of episodes with their own sub-plots but with continuity between them. For instance, a challenge issued in parting between a shipgirl and an abyssal might be answered several installments later when they meet again, or a shipgirl mentioned to have left for [insert base here] will have dialogue and make a cameo while at [insert base here]

As with Z4Z, it will also be updated semi-regularly on SpaceBattles as well, if you lurk there. I also didn't mention a list of characters in the thread since a lot of ship girls make cameos or play important roles at different parts of the story.

Miner's Polka

"Dance music can be a deadly weapon, who knew?"

"See anything, Götland?"

"Negative!"

"Störd?"

"All clear!"

"Eidsvold? Norge?"

"Nuthin' worth writin' home about, Sleipner! All I see is sea an' snow for miles!"

"What she said!"

"Perfect," the Norwegian destroyer performed a little victory jig as she checked off the respective boxes. "If everything is under control, then all we need to do is make another round and then—"

"You forgot me, again…"

"Oh right, Friedrich Carl," Sleipner scratched the back of her neck sheepishly, "did you find anything?"

"Not in this weather," came the demure reply. Her statement surprised no one; the forbidden expanses of the Greenland Sea notoriously showed little mercy to travelers at this time of year.

"Well then," the brown-haired Eidsvold chuckled as she dusted a thick coat of snow off her jacket, "in that case, why dun't we turn about an' head for home! It is mighty cold day today, even for a daughter of the North!"

"For an old Norwegian like you perhaps," Götland playfully snarked, "though I wouldn't mine a mug full of glögg after a journey like this. Don't you agree, Friedrich Carl?"

"No. Not at all," the armored cruiser replied flatly. "This was all for nothing."

"Hm, would you care to elaborate?" Norge frowned. "I remember quite well that you used to be fond of dashing about weather like this, seeking out stranded merchantmen stuck in Baltic Ice and saving their crews from certain death."

"I still am," she corrected, "but that's not what we were sent out here for, were we?" Friedrich Carl sighed, fiddling with the fur hood of her overcoat in an attempt to keep her fairies warm before vanishing into the mist. "For the past week-and-a-half we've been scouring every cove and iceberg for abyssal activity, in a place where any pour soul would have dismissed as utterly worthless in a sea where we utterly exterminated them several years ago."

"She can speak in complete sentences?" Götland whispered disbelievingly to Norge.

"Of course," she snorted. "What? Did you think Germans are a race of grave and emotionless people?"

"No, but well, she isn't exactly a chatterbox is she?"

"Friedrich Carl was quite the talker in her youth I'm told," the coastal defense ship smiled warmly in nostalgic remembrance. "They say she even led a mutiny against her commander himself for the working conditions he was keeping the sailors in."

"WHAT!" Störd quickly cupped her mouth in embarrassment. "Her? That woman?"

"It shouldn't be surprisin'," Eidsvold giggled, her regaling voice echoing across the sea. "It's in her blood. If there's one thing I know about them Imperial Germans, it's that they utterly hate being shut up, mistreated, an' distracted with pointless busy work. The monotony of the chore drives them hoppin' mad."

"Just look at König," Norge shivered, the mere act of saying her name having sent chills down her keel, "I know I'm supposed to be scared of her, but every time that battleship takes a peep at me, I can't sleep for weeks."

"Don't worry, I'm not that intimidating."

"GAH!" the Scandinavian squadron eeped and tried to disappear as a familiar hazel-bunned, fur overcoat-wearing figure unexpectedly re-appeared behind them.

"Sorry about that," the cruiser bowed her head apologetically, "but I couldn't help myself from chiming in when I heard that comment on the radio. As a member of his majesty the Kaiser's navy, let it be said that even I am afraid of König. The way that she looks at certain old rivals of ours is…quite unnerving. As for why I have largely uncooperative during this mission," she paused momentarily, silently judging whether to proceed with her rant, "personally I think would have been better put to use in the North Sea helping out the Poles, Dutch, and what's left of the Royal Navy."

"What's left?" Störd sneered in ridicule. "Last time I checked, there were so many shipgirls in British waters that I could see them in my sleep."

"That's not counting the new steel hull girls they've finished up too!" Götland piped up. "From what I've heard from the modern British ship spirits, their recovered navy is coming along quite nicely!"

"You know what I mean," Friedrich Carl rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Since most of the Mediterranean and Jutland veterans from the Great War went on vacation to work with their old allies in the Far East, the remainder have had to redouble their efforts to maintain the peace. This would be the perfect time for us Germans and the High Seas Fleet to prove our worth in the world and help our…'colleagues'…in this struggle when they need it most. Instead though," she let out a bitter sigh, "the Joint Admiralty decided that a token force in the Atlantic and Baltic would be enough, and sent the remainder to the far-flung corners of the earth!"

"That's not true, good German cruiser," Sleipner soothed, giving her an affectionate pat on the back. "If anything, you've been assigned to one of the best missions a shipgirl can get."

"Oh, is that so? Hunting for hostiles in a confirmed safe zone is first rate work now?"

"You know how our brainwashed brethren work," Götland sighed, putting her gloved hands on her hips. "If even the vengeful form a crippled galley remains undetected, she can channel the dark thoughts of her successors until they take on a corporeal form. If the chain keeps continuing, then—"

"they can summon one of contemporaries, and then we have a real issue at hand, I know, I know," the armored cruiser let out an acknowledging grunt. "But look around us!" Friedrich Carl twirled about for emphasis. "All I see is dark and cold, and a sea bereft of resources! This is absolutely the last place I would go if I wanted to wage war on humanity!"

"At least the sky is nice," Norge mused. "Look above! It's the Northern Lights!" Sure enough, mother nature decided to bless them in the form of eerie-yet-soothing array of waxing and waning green hues.

"I never knew they could be so deadgum beautiful," Eidsvold whispered.

"You've never seen them before?"

"Oh, pft, many times," the coastal defense ship swatted her hands dismissively, "just not like this. Ports can be quite bright y'know. Makes it quite hard to make things out."

"They do look nice," Friedrich Carl pursed her lips in agreement. "Herr Photographer," she rapped on her right shoulder until a sleepy fairy wielding a tripod emerged, "would you be so kind as to take a recording of this? This will probably be the most eventful thing on this trip."

[Certainly,] the fairy replied, giving her a crisp salute. [One moment please, let me get the film and camera ready.]

He didn't make much progress, however, before he abruptly froze in surprise. Simultaneously, Störd and Götland instinctively glanced hesitantly to their right, scanning the horizon intensely.

"Was it just me, or did something just—"

"No, I saw it too," Störd replied firmly. She gave her bridge a firm tap and frowned. "I definitely saw something, but it's gone now."

"Where is it heading?"

"Not sure…can you send a squadron up?"

"On it! HEY YOU! YEAH, YOU! Get the seaplane up!"

"What in the blazes is going on?" Eidsvold demanded.

"We'll explain as we go," Störd shouted, darting ahead of the squadron as fast as her engines could take her. "Stoke your engines now!"

"But I'm coal fired, it's going to take me a few minutes to get to—"

"Just do it, Eidsvold! Hurry!"

"First four seaplanes airborne, Störd! Where do you want them?"

"Great! Tell them to go North-by-Northeast!"

"Done! Now for the…Damn…"

"Götland! The hell is going on now?"

"Two of my reserve planes are inoperable from the rough seas! What do you want me to do with the last one?"

"Keep it on standby on the catapult!" The destroyer's voice trailed off as she sped further and further away into the distance. "We might need it!"

"We might need it for what?" Norge demanded, glancing confusedly from the Swedish seaplane cruiser to the rapidly-shrinking silhouette of Störd on the horizon as they hurried along.

"Just in case," Götland frowned. "Damn, what foul luck it is to lose two planes to sea damage…"

"But what are we chasing?" the German wondered, only to feel a small tug on her coat.

[Did you just see that, Fräulein Friedrich Carl?] the photographer pressed, frantically climbing up her hair to get a better vantage point. [There was a dark form on the horizon.]

"What? How big was it?"

[Not that big, but if I could see it with the naked eye, well,] he laughed nervously, [let's just say it's not small either.]

"Could it be an abyssal battleship?" Sleipner wondered worriedly, "or even an aircraft carrier?"

"If it's an aircraft carrier we're finished!" Norge laughed nervously as she struggled to keep pace, "unless Götland here has an ace up her sleeve!"

"I left my Bofors in port!"

"You what?"

"There was no space for them! It was either the seaplanes or the AA guns, and everyone thought it would be better to bring planes since this was just a reconnaissance mission."

"Well you Swedes and Norwegians guessed wrong," Friedrich Carl replied stiffly. "Shall I turn a searchlight on?"

"Are you mad?" Sleipner hissed. "You turn that bloody thing on and they'll know exactly where we are! You really want to give the enemy an invitation to blow you to kingdom come before you even know where she is?"

"I'm not made of paper," she glowered. "I can hold my own, and if I do get hit, I'll carry on like I did back then. Besides, getting shot at will give us the advantage. If she fires, we'll see her gun flashes over the horizon, so we can figure out exactly where she is.

"What a brilliant idea!" Eidsvold grinned. "Me an' Norge will try and cover you too if we come to blows with the enemy. They won't see it coming!"

"I'll bring my 152's to bear as well, Friedrich! Do it!"

"Captain Loesch, can you give the order?"

[All crew to your posts!] The fairy bellowed as another officer rang the ship's bell. [Battle stations!]

Click. Click. Götland and Norge flinched as two blinding beams of light flew off their starboard beam.

"Thank you."

"This is it boys," Eidsvold grinned as she rubbed her hands together. "We're going to fight!"

The decks were packed with fairies frantically scanning the skies and seas for the cursed enemy. From time to time, the more impatient officers would try and glance through their binoculars, shortly before realizing the futility of searching with the naked eye at night and lowering them once more.

At last-

"THERE! LOOK!" Götland shouted as they saw a flash of light fly high into the sky. "It's an emergency flare! Dead ahead!"

"There's another…" Norge whispered worriedly as a red shower of flame illuminated the night. "Shit…Störd!"

"Don't tell me the fool thought she can take on an unidentified abyssal head-on," Friedrich Carl hissed through gnashed teeth. "Can you get in touch with her through the wireless, Götland?"

"She's not answering…come on Störd dammit don't scare me like this!"

"Hold on…I just spotted something in the distance…I see a Norwegian naval jack from here…the bloody hell is it doing so low in the water?"

"Störd…she's in trouble!" Sleipner panicked. "Come on girls, help her out! Friedrich Carl, over here! Hurry! Hurry!"

"If that's her, she's awfully low in the water…" Götland trailed off worriedly.

"JAJAJA!" the German fairies waved frantically.

"Sleipner, STOP!"

"Huh? OOF!" There was a long grating sound of machinery squealing and groaning from the Norwegian's engines as she came to a sudden stop, thanks to Friedrich Carl's timely yank on her collar.

"The hell is this for!" Sleipner shrieked, her voice shaking in agitation. "That's Störd, isn't it?"

"Yes but," Götland pointed uncertainly at the destroyer's still form, "look what her fairies are doing."

As the North Cape veteran lay sprawled out and unmoving on the green-tinted ocean surface, dozens of Norwegian fairies were frantically shouting and waving signal flags.

[BACK! BACK! BACK!]

[DON'T COME CLOSER! IT'S DANGEROUS!]

"Dangerous?" Friedrich Carl murmured. "But there's nothing here!"

"I can send out my final seaplane to investigate," Götland offered.

"No time," Norge frowned, and pointed at the steady stream of bunker oil flowing past them in the water. "Whatever happened to Störd, she's been injured, and seriously. If we spend all this time speculating on what's going wrong, we'll lose her."

"But her fairies are telling us it's too dangerous to even approach her," her German counterpart countered. "If we can't even get close without risking our own lives as well, how can we save her?"

"Boats," Eidsvold snapped her fingers in realization. "Sleipner, Götland, sister, Friedrich Carl, lower all the steam launches and paddle boats we can."

"How will this save Störd?" Götland frowned. "If Störd sinks, the fairies vanish with her."

"Our crews are goin' to head towards Störd an' use their manly arm power to pull her clear of whatever she hit. Once we've done that, me an' Norge will lash ourselves to either side of her and tow her back to port."

"Will it work?" Friedrich Carl curled her lips in skepticism.

"Beats me," Eidsvold shrugged, "but it's better than doing nuthin' and watchin' a girl like her die on our watch."

Some time later, Jan Mayen Island

"Make way! Make way! That's it, easy now…"

"By jove," Svenner swallowed hard as she gazed at the carnage before her. "What the hell happened to her?"

"Dunno," Eidsvold laughed hollowly, "one moment she was chargin' ahead, screamin' her head off about somethin' her radar picked up, next minute," she shrugged and pointed down. "We found her like this."

"Oh gods…is she dead?! Will she be alright?!"

"Störd's lucky to have us and Eidsvold as squadronmates for this mission," Norge chortled, gingerly positioning the still-unconscious destroyer into the makeshift drydock. "Our weight's not just for looks you know! I must say though," she paused and gazed anxiously seawards, "whoever did this…I wouldn't want to meet them face-to-face."

"Especially if they can vanish without a trace," Svenner replied darkly. "Your pilots never found any sign of the mystery figure, did they Götland?"

"They searched throughout the eve of night until their fuel almost ran out…nothing."

[So you're saying it's nothing to worry about?] Störd's chief engineer frowned as he pointed angrily at the gaping hole in the shipgirl's keel. [This is something that she can simply shrug off?"]

[Not at all,] the shipyard fairy laughed sheepishly, [her damage was quite serious; it was only due to that duo's quick thinking that she's still afloat. But! This isn't something I would lose sleep over,] he paused to scratch his back. [We're quite good at what we do; give us a week or so and she'll be back in action as if nothing ever happened!]

[I lost quite a few stokers to this…mishap,] the other fairy growled in reply, [and damn good ones, too! They were all hard at work tending to her boilers in No. 2 when the explosion sucked them out.]

[Check the hospital wards! I'm sure they're all fine and well, happily drinking a nice hot cup of cocoa with some of the medics Britannic left behind on his last trip through here.]

"Excuse me," a new, mellow voice chimed in, "but did I just hear someone mention an explosion?"

[Huh? Ah! A Finn!] the shipyard worker jumped up and down excitedly. [What a rare sight, especially in these parts! What brings you here so far from Continental Europe?]

"The Finnish Admiralty wanted to deploy Ilmarinen closer to Skagerrak in anticipation of a defensive Scandinavian shipgirl action, given that there might be abyssal elements hiding along the Norwegian coast," Ruotsinsalmi explained as the pale, light-haired minelayer crawled over and sat beside them. "Since she's a bit shy about moving along on her own, I tagged along until she was settled near Drøbak. Once that was done, Rear Admiral Unrug begged me to keep an eye on Orzeł," jerking her head at the giant blonde midget giving Eidsvold and Norge a bear hug outside, "so here I am. But enough about me. What happened to Störd?"

[Commander Storheill thought he saw something suspicious, and the crew monitoring the radar verified that there was something amiss to the North of us. 'It looked big,' they said, 'bigger than any shipgirl in these parts,'] the engineer stretched his arms out wide for emphasis, [so off we went, galloping after it at flank speed as if we were charging Scharnhorst all over again. We had just gotten her engines humming when suddenly-WHIRBAM! There's a massive gash below that no watertight compartment could solve. Apparently something similar happened a few rooms forwards of us,] he jerked his head at a similar wound in her stomach, [so we all thought we were done for.]

"Could it have been a torpedo?"

The fairy shook his head vigorously. [If it was, either everyone on deck was half-asleep or it was one of those fearsome Japanese torpedoes. We didn't see a wake, nor did it sound like any metal fish I know, and I can recognize the tune, seeing that I work on vessel that's supposed to expend them in battle.]

"Then what did it sound like?"

[Now that I think about it…I did hear something odd. Right before poor Störd took several punches to the gut, there was a strange, low vibrating noise, barely audible over the din and chaos in the engine and boiler rooms. It reminded me of the sound of someone tuning a piano.]

Ruotsinsalmi gazed at him intently. "Like someone tuning a piano?"

[Yes. You know like, diiiiingggg, or someone gently tapping a gong?] The fairy hesitated as the Finnish shipgirl bent over dangerously close to his face. [Did I say something wrong?]

"No, but this is very important," she said quietly. "Do you have a map showing Störd's position when she had her accident?"

"No, but Sleipner, Norge, or Götland should. It's nothing of note; Sęp and a few other submarines patrolled through it without incident."

"It is of note," Ruotsinsalmi retorted energetically as she rapidly gathered her belongings. "Orzeł, tell the others to get their battle gear prepared immediately. We're heading back to the scene of the accident. And tell them to bring sonar equipment!"

"We got a plan?" the Polish submarine grinned, swiftly changing into a climate-appropriate swimsuit.

"Yes Orzeł, we got a plan."

"Mind telling us what the plan is," Friedrich Carl frowned, "or why we're going back there again, or why I need this," pointing at the uncomfortable bulge on her shoes.

"It will all make sense in due time," the Finnish minelayer replied as she fished about in her greatcoat's pockets before tossing a black parcel at her accomplice. "Just keep some distance behind me."

"Duly noted," Norge grunted. "Should I even ask why?"

"Just in case a few slip past me."

"That's totally assuring…."

"Is it an abyssal? Are we goin' to fight?" Eidsvold demanded. "I'd like to avenge poor Störd, an' soon!"

"Perhaps if we're lucky," Ruotsinsalmi stroked her chin thoughtfully, "but better to be prepared than not!"

"Let the plan decide for itself!" Orzeł grinned. "You ready, Finn?"

"A bit further!"

"Here?"

"That's good! Go ahead, dive!"

"But she's still a few good nautical miles away from the assault," Götland protested as the Polish submarine slipped below the waves. "Shouldn't she get closer?"

"No need," Ruotsinsalmi smiled. "We're already here. I can sense it."

"Sense what? All I sense are schools of fish, and a whale's mating call perhaps in the distance," Friedrich Carl scowled.

"I disagree," the minelayer said simply, and pointed at a stream of bubbles in the distance.

"Orzeł!" the Norwegian shipgirls gasped nervously before quietly gulping. "I-is-she going to be alright?"

"I don't know, what do your hydroacoustics say?"

"You do know that if anything happens to her, Vice-Admiral Unrug will have your head," Friedrich Carl frowned as she wrestled with the dome's electrical readings.

"True, but today is not that day," she replied smugly before waltzing away into the danger zone.

"How can you be so sure," the armored cruiser began, but no sooner had she uttered "how" then the answer came crescendoing through her headset.

And promptly caused her to make a face graver than Chancellor Bismarck's when he heard that he had been 'relieved' by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

On kauniina muistona Karjalan maa,

mutta vieläkin syömmestä soinnahtaa,

kun soittajan sormista kuulla saa,

Säkkijärven polkkaa!

Se polkka taas menneitä mieleen tuo

ja se outoa kaipuuta rintaan luo.

Hei, soittaja, haitarin soida suo

Säkkijärven polkkaa!

Nuoren ja vanhan se tanssiin vie,

ei sille polkalle vertaa lie!

Sen kanssa on vaikka mierontie

Säkkijärven polkkaa!

"How in tarnation is this supposed to-huwaa!" Götland gasped as the bubbling sea abruptly began emitting a familiar eerie green light, followed shortly thereafter by a dark mass of unmoving fish.

"That's your answer, and don't touch them," Ruotsinsalmi replied as the minelayer slowly began stacking them on deck. "Gut them, and carefully," she chided her fairies, "or we won't live to see sunset."

"Poor fish," Sleipner whistled softly as wave after wave of tuna bobbed to the surface. "What did they ever do to you?"

"These aren't fish," Orzeł rasped as she breached to the surface to catch a deep breath. "They're sea mines."

"They're what?" Norge demanded.

"Acoustic-tuned sea mines to be exact," the Finnish minelayer explained. "I've never seen them before, but I heard all about them on land. Basically," she tore apart a fish's scaly exterior to reveal a very mechanical interior, "when something emits a specific frequency that they're tuned to, they resonate and set off."

"But if you play something fast and lively like the Polka at the same frequency," her Polish partner grinned, "you prevent it from resonating, giving you enough time to grab it and deactivate it!"

"It's not hard to guess what frequency a high-speed destroyer is making either," Ruotsinsalmi added, "which makes what would have been a very time-consuming chore a simple task."

"If it was so simple, how come none of the other patrols noticed them?" Götland demanded.

"Sęp may be courageous, but she's nowhere near as adventurous as me. Because this area receives so much ice in the winter months, most of the time submarines would brave the cold water and submerge deep below as long as possible rather than risk colliding with an iceberg, " Orzeł elaborated. "Consequently, most submarines were cruising right below where the mines should be, which obliviously let them by since the former were too slow-moving to resonate with the mines' mechanisms. Said devices were also too deep to the point they wouldn't tip most shipgirls off. Well, at least until Störd came along," she laughed sheepishly and patted her top.

"If that's the case, then how long have they been here?"

"That we don't know," the Finn and Pole shrugged in unison. "They could have drifted here on the ocean currents. Maybe the mystery ship you saw could have jettisoned them in her escape. One thing for sure though…they aren't ours."

Through the morning mist and fog, she gazed quietly southwards out to sea. Her head raged with a cacophony of sounds, voices shouting of patriotism and struggles, of the need to prevail above all else, and deafening silence.

"Can you move your arm, marm?"

"No. No I can't she sighed," trying but failing in attempting twiddle her talon-like thumbs. "Nor have I in a long, long time."

"I hope you shall find your vitality soon, dear Angel," a cruiser bowed. "There are reports that one of our minefields caught a destroyer."

"Oh?" she flicked a lazy eye in the abyssal's direction. "From where?"

"The cursed Nordic peoples," the cruiser spat. "Unfortunately, she got away."

"Ah. A shame."

"Honored friend and marm," the first abyssal began, "haven't we hidden ourselves long enough?"

"Perhaps," the Arctic Ocean Princess bowed her head in agreement, "but I can afford to bide my time. I have waited very long for this moment, and even though it slips through my fingers I can and will give it my best shot. I must."

"But which shall you claim?" the cruiser protested. "Your name or your honor?"

"Both," she replied firmly.