Chapter 4.5 - Deep Ocean Blues
(AN: This chapter is basically a lore dump. I recommend you read it, but if you feel the need, you can 100 percent skip this. And for those later on that going to point out inconsistency in the uniforms of some of the Nazi high command - shush, they're only face claims. I know.) ( note: faceclaims are visible on wattpad - too lazy to add them in here, might do so in future but meh).
This world from what Karl could see was very similar to his own. All world history up until 1940 was the same as his own. The same evolutions of mankind, the same rise and falls of empires, the same cultures and languages and dialects. Everything seemed just about a copy of his own world. However, on May 26 1940, on the fateful day the Bismarck would have been sunk in his world, something very different and far more cataclysmic occured. The Sirens attacks.
Coming from some sort of portal in the middle of all the world's major oceans, but primarily in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, armies of the Sirens came and wreaked havoc. The navies of the world stood little to no chance against the forces of the Sirens. The Sirens had superior technology, weapons, tactics and strategy that simply outdid both the Axis and Allies and everyone in between. Not even civilian craft were spared, with several thousand being killed in attacks on various large pleasure craft all around the world. Not including the countless servicemen on countless numbers of military ships who were casualties in this invasion. An invasion which only lasted a week's time.
The battle of which the Bismarck would have sunk was interrupted by a massive armada of the Siren menace. The British ships and German ships were forced to communicate and work together to some degree to ensure the survival of both fleets. The Bismarck had survived by the skin of its teeth as it was scuttled out to France by the Prinz Eugen. The Prince of Wales and Ark Royal were also severely damaged, with a few of the other British ships in the battle - including ships like the Cossack, Zulu, Maori, and some others, were sunk.
In that week's time, humanity was pushed back to the shores. Countries like Great Britain faced famine without proper trading routes to supply them with foods. Air travel became the norm and necessity, where in 1941 the United States set up a global system of airports as a method of travel, with cargo places such as the new C-100 specifically made to be able to carry large amounts of cargo over long distances. The Luftwaffe became dominant in Europe as an arms race between Germany and the Soviet Union began.
However, it was agreed around the world that the Sirens had to be dealt with. The use of airplanes for some countries was simply too much of a liability and cost, with Europe particularly having struggles with vast oil shortages as demand rose to fuel the masses of planes required to keep some countries alive.
As such, an alliance was formed between the world powers. The United States, Great Britian, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, China, Italy, and Japan created the alliance of Azur Lane. An odd mix between 'Allies' and 'Axis', with 'lane' referring to sea lanes. The intent of the alliance was to set up some sort of overseas trade route and protect it against the Sirens. After long discussions, a trade route from Brazil to Africa was picked. This particular area of the Atlantic ocean was for some reason deserted mostly from Siren Forces, who mainly surveyed deeper into the Atlantic ocean between the United States and Great Britain.
The trade route didn't exactly do much, but the Alliance somewhat eased the tensions of the nations. Somewhat. The arms race between Germany and the USSR continued, oil reserves were being argued over to no end, and the United States and Great Britain's relationship concerning oil becoming more and more tenuous as demands across the board rose.
In late 1941 a breakthrough was made. The successful capture of a small Siren frigate vessel was successfully pulled off following a long and difficult operation spanning months of planning and execution. The frigate was taken back to South America and taken up to the United States through Cuba.
It was found out the material at which the ships were made out of a peculiar metal alloy similar to that of steel and uranium. Due to its somewhat radioactive properties and its overall extremely odd configurations, The United State's nuclear research program took control of research. It was then when further investigation of the frigate deep in the deserts of Nevada, an extremely important material was discovered.
Deep in the engine bay was the ship's fuel tank. Believed to be the world's first known nuclear reactor and power generator due to its extreme efficiency and radioactive signature, the program took deep interest in it. However, the schematics of the reactor were extremely complicated, and took years and millions of dollars and thousands of hours of work to reverse engineer it.
Meanwhile, a massive upheaval had begun in Germany.
Due to the Siren invasion and the switch to air power, the Invasion of France had to be called off by the Nazi High Command. The Blitzkrieg simply could not be prioritized over making sure the entire Kriegsmarine didn't get obliterated by the Sirens. In the confusion, French forces were able to recuperate and begin an actual defense of France, and even began to strike back against Germany's exposed flanks and the weaknesses of Blitzkrieg. Hitler, advised by his generals, bit the bullet (not literally) and pulled out of France. In order to deal with the Siren threat, a small ceasefire between the Axis and Allies was called, with the Germans retreating back to the Rhine and Belgium. Poland was a different matter.
The arms race between the USSR and Germany, on top of the alliance that was being set up, forced Hitler's hand yet again. In order to keep up with the USSR and by request of the Alliance, Poland was split up into two different countries. One was the Democratic Republic of Poland, which was practically a Soviet puppet state with a communist party in place, and the other was labeled as Wolna Poland - or 'Free' Poland. Officially Nazi forces were nearly completely pulled out of Poland, but not the ports. The ports were still under Nazi control and using the excuse of 'we need all we can get', and some bargaining, they were allowed to keep it. Germany then used this to keep a good bit of influence within the new Polish state - again, it was a de facto puppet state.
However, these decisions were extremely unpopular in Germany. Oil consumptions got extremely high with the expansion of the Luftwaffe, and supplies dwindled and trade with the USSR got more and more tense. Furthermore, United States oil wasn't coming in nearly as well as it used to because of the complete lack of shipping. Throughout the High Command and political spheres a small disdain for Hitler began to arise, as well as the fact the German people - feeling as if they were humiliated with the backing out of France - began to as well go against Hitler and the Nazis. In an attempt to salvage this, a crackdown of 'non-desirable populations', political dissidents and Jews mainly, began.
The Wehrmacht also weakened as much attention was given to the Luftwaffe, which didn't appease the high ranking generals. The Waffen SS got more and more power as well as the weakened Wehrmacht got all they could in terms of manpower and influence, even if it did mean basically enslaving themselves to the SS.
The Kriegsmarine became a shadow of its former self, with many of its high ranking members being expunged from duty and the use of U-Boats exploding dramatically as it was one of the very few ways to somewhat combat the Siren attacks on their shores and ports.
All of these factors combined began to seriously threaten Hitler and the Nazi Party's power. The SS and Gestapo went on frequent raids and the destruction of many families, homes, businesses, and entire neighborhoods in their attempts to get rid of any sort of opinions or people that might threaten their power. This caused a large clean up of the ranks of the military as well. Heinrich Himmler used this to further his already immense power in the Reich, and was considered by some to have even more power then Hitler in some areas.
Back in the United States, the Manhattan Project continued on. It was in 1943 when American scientist G.W. Mann finally made the ultimate breakthrough. The discovery of what is now referred to as the Wisdom Cube. The exact workings of this extremely complicated and nearly unknowable material would be hard to understand or explain, but the fact of the matter was that it powered these ships with very little effort at all. The United States knew that having such an efficient power source at their fingertips would make them the world superpower, as well as potentially rid the need for oil and other fossil fuels. Further examination and experimentation lead to the revelation that the Wisdom Cubes acted not so much as a fuel, but as a brain.
It is worth mentioning that the ships the Siren forces employed did not have crews. Everything was automated and it was uncommon for ships to actually have interiors at all really. It was originally believed that they were controlled by outside forces like radio controls, but it was eventually discovered after investigation that it was done by the ship itself. So it was assumed the Wisdom Cube was to blame.
G.W. Mann and his team of scientists continued work on the Wisdom Cube, and in 1946, after unknown procedures which are still classified at the highest parts of world governments, the first humanoid ship girl was created.
Simply put, they put the cube in some frigate's engine bay, and out came a female in return.
This massive discovery was soon shared with the alliance of Azur Lane at a conference in Paris. Every nation agreed that this had to be the way to fight against the Sirens - to fight fire with fire (wisdom cubes against wisdom cubes).
In 1948 a project within Azur Lane went underway and all the major countries in the alliance (US, UK, Germany, Japan) had undergone the procedure to create what was simply dubbed the 'ship-girls'.
It was figured that these ship girls would be an effective counter to the forces of the Sirens, and that was most certainly true. They had many superhuman abilities, as well as the abilities of that of their ships - with the same firepower and armements of them. However, in 1949 an agreement was met that these ship girls would not be used in any sort of human-on-human conflicts and only to aid in the struggle against the sirens.
Needless to say, the ship girls were most certainly the best way to destroy the Sirens for the lowest technical price and the highest overall efficiency. Previous methods to combat Siren ships involved extremely large land-based naval guns with barrels over 40 centimeters in diameter or consistent and constant bombing from the air using large bombs in excess of 1,000 pounds of TNT-Equivalent explosive matter, or U-Boats.
Germany had also discovered methods to actually enhance the looks of the ship girls to pretty much their creators' will by introducing the Wisdom Cube to various dyes created by different metal alloys, high and low temperatures, among other environmental and physical changes. A complicated process for sure, but an effective one. The other countries didn't take much of an interest in this, with the only other real user of this technique being Japan and Great Britain. Japan because, simply put, Japan. And Great Britain used it, quite literally, to ensure they kept the overall look of the royalty. This caused a slight competition between Porsche and Henschel between different styles of the ship girls, with Porsche wanted a more streamlined system of looks with primarily blond hair, simple grey and black uniforms, without much variation between the different models. However, Henschel's exceptional designs instead caught the attention of the Kriegsmarine and they were picked instead.
Once the 1950s rolled around, the ship girl effectiveness in combating Sirens had developed to a point that international shipping could finally be set up, and Humanity could find its way back against the Siren menace and into the oceans yet again.
Now, it is 1955. Some level of tenious world peace has somewhat been achieved. However, now that the Sirens are slowly being beaten back, the world powers are eyeing one another with suspicious eyes.
Extremely suspicious eyes.
German Reichstag Building, Berlin, 3:27 PM.
Oberstgruppenführer Rienhard Heydrich has a sizable metal door opened by a guard to the Kriegsraum, or War-room.
The room was sizable and darkly lit with a large circular table in the middle of the room. There were several chairs surrounding said table, and it was illuminated by a large dull backlight, which made things like papers and such easier to read for the older members of the Reich. There was a large similarly shaped and sized light hanging from the roof with a swastika on either side. At the wall in front of him there was a map projected onto a large screen. That of the current world map, and it was pretty much always there and didn't have much importance to the present conversation.
(Mind the alternate history style map. It's from the Man in The High Castle and isn't the actual in-plot map.)
"My deepest apologies for my tardiness, Mein Führer." Heydrich said, looking over to man on one side of the table. The man nodded and raised a hand to dismiss his worries.
The man who has succeeded Hitler as the Führer of Nazi Germany, Heinrich Himmler, spoke up. "It is quite alright, Oberstgruppenführer. Sit, please." He said before taking a sip of orange juice that had been by his right hand.
Heydrich nodded and sat down next to his personal second in command, Obergruppenführer Rudolf Bittmann, who had a vanilla folder in front of him under his hands. Heydrich and him glanced at one another.
The small silence in the room was interupted by Himmler once more speaking up.
"Well, I believe everyone but - " He looked over to one final empty chair reserved for the 'Schiffmadchenfuhrer.' which was next to the seat which sat Karl Donitz, the commander of the Kriegsmarine.
" - Karl Essyn."
Donitz nodded. "Unfortunately so Mein Fuhrer. With a vist to Japan his plane was shot down, he's in hospital now."
"Yes, yes, I heard. Any word on when he will return?" Himmler asked.
"Not currently, no, Mein Fuhrer."
"A shame." Himmler's lips tightened a bit in disappointment.
"Truly."
Himmler was passed a vanilla folder from a personal assistant who had walked up to him from a dark corner of the room. Himmler took it with his left hand and laid it down onto the lit-up table next to his glass of orange juice which he took a sip of as he opened it.
"Now, shall we start?" Himmler looked up from the vanilla folder and all the men around the table nodded - there were 10 in total, including Himmler.
They were split mostly into two by branch. There was the Waffen SS, who had the Oberstgruppenführer and the Obergruppenführer.
The Wehrmacht had two Generalfeldmarschall, those being Erwin Rommel and Erich von Manstein. There were others of the same rank, but by all means those two were some of the most important. Rommel replaced Guderian after a particularly bad officer purge, which Manstein luckily was able to avoid.
There was the Luftwaffe, with a Generalfeldmarschall by the name of Erhard Kesselring, and a Generaloberst named Albert Milch. Due to the arms race, the Luftwaffe was able to for the most part dodge the officer purges which mainly affected the Wehrmacht, and more so the SS.
And finally, the Kriegsmarine. There was Karl Donitz, the Oberkommando der Marine - you all know who he is. And sitting next to him would have been Karl Essyn, but of course, he was in the hospital.
There were three others as well, including Himmler. They were the top men of the political sector, those being Martin Bormann, the de facto right hand man of Adolf Hitler and now Himmler, and Herman Goering, the fat war hero.
(You've seen Himmler)
Well, he was slimmer than previous. In fear of him seeming somehow weak and potentially being removed from office, he lost weight and went on a fitness program, though his addiction to morphine still remained.
All of the men other then the political figures nodded, and Himmler continued.
"Then this starts the 1955 Midyear Overview. I shall begin." Himmler flipped a paper in the vanilla folder and began to read.
"First off, regarding the main topic on everyone's mind. The new SchiffmadchenFührer, Karl Essyn. Donitz, go ahead and speak."
Donitz nodded. "Of course, Mein Führer. As many of you know, Karl Essyn was a lieutenant on the Bismarck, and following the invasions of the Sirens, he made his way through the ranks of the Kriegsmarine through U-Boat commanding."
This was true of the Karl Essyn of their world, but not the new one.
"Was he effective?" Himmler asked. Donitz nodded.
"While he was under my supervision, yes. He sinked a considerable amount of estimated tonnage against the Sirens and was instrumental with others in defending some of the first cargo routes. When the Schiffmachen made their debut, he was a very vocal supporter of their use, and even used some of his own funds to aid in the project with Henschel. It was sort of natural for such a young man to command the fleet right about now, seeing as our previous commander's with average military experiences didn't have successes."
"Is that so? A competent commander?" Himmler questioned.
"Very much so. And so far, with his now..." Donitz took a second to think. "...Two or so weeks with the Schiffmachen, he has shown some good signs. Moral has been decently up, especially with the more important ships like Prinz Eugen, Bismarck, and Roon. Positive reports from the other ships have shown that he is quite the moral booster in general."
"That could be attributed to his good looks among the females." The Oberstgruppenführer Heydrich added. Himmler nodded in agreement and Donitz spoke to add on to that.
"Good point. He is a young man with decent qualities when it comes to his looks. Most of the previous commander's were older, might have been seen as..."
"Unappealing?" Himmler finished.
"Yes, unappealing to the Schiffmachen."
"Makes sense... I like your honesty, Donitz." Himmler said with a smile, taking a sip of his orange juice.
"Thank you, mein Führer." Donitz sat down a bit in his chair.
"Might I add something?" Heydrich spoke up and Himmler gave him permission. Heydrich adjusted himself and leaned in on the table, glancing at the men around him.
"This Karl Essyn is quite young in all honesty. Is his inexperience and possible immaturity a possible problem in his ability to command? U-Boats and the Schiffmadchen are two very different things, of course. Surely they have very unique needs, tactics, operational requirements, et cetera, no?"
"Well, his inexperience might be a good spot." Donitz explained. "He is less 'used' to and molded around our older tactics which aren't applicable against the Sirens. That was one of the main problems with our old commanders I believe - they didn't want to change from the old."
"Granted, it's not like they were ineffective, no?" Heydrich asked and Donitz nodded.
"Perhaps not to the maximum potential of the Schiffmachen. But yes, they were effective against the Sirens."
"And effective enough to ward off the Sirens enough to allow for trading routes in the Atlantic and Medditeranian. Surely, even though they were not favorable personality-wise or something of that effect, they were favorable in military experience."
Donitz sighed. "If Essyn is unable to meet the same effectiveness of the previous commander's despite his advantage in favorability between the Schiffmachens then he can be removed from office simply. However, that previously mentioned advantage can seriously prove itself potentially if he can meet that effectiveness, and so far." Donitz had a vanilla folder slid over to him and he opened it up.
"In his domestic operations so far, from moral to funds, he is doing above average."
Heydrich's eyes narrowed and he sat back in his seat. "A happy soldier is an effective soldier. But, until I see him in combat, I will remain skeptical."
"Of course, of course, you have the right to do so." Donitz closed the folder. "Now the overall effectiveness of the Schiffmachen is, of course, up to par with yearly and monthly standards as of now, with over a million estimated tons sunk for the last three months. Siren attacks have been becoming more sparse however, and we believe they are retreating more inwards into the Atlantic - "
"Why so?" Bormann inquired
"Not entirely sure, as Sirens are almost unpredictable. But our best guesses place it on retreating to reform and rearm their ships. However, how they do this, I'm not exactly sure. I've requested for Luftwaffe scouts, but I haven't gotten word back." Donitz glanced over to Erhard.
"I don't have much of a problem with it, so long that the Kriegsmarine takes over responsibility of the aircraft." Erhard said.
"We shall. This would be a good time to use the Graf Zeppelin." Donitz answered. "However, the fuel consumptions of the Luftwaffe planes might pose a problem to our oil budget constraints."
"Speaking of which - " Himmler rose his head from his orange juice. "-How are each branch's fuel conservation efforts... starting with the Wehrmacht."
Manstein spoke. "Quite well, so far. Our restrictions on the Panzerkorps' activities, as well as assistance from the SS, has actually lowered our annual consumption from the last year back by about, if I remember correctly, 10 percent."
"That is quite good, yes. And that 10 percent goes into the reserves no?" Himmler asked
"Depends. Sometimes it goes into the reserves, other times we sell it off to the German people."
"Good, good. Make sure our populus gets their 'fair share', per say. We don't need any sort of civilian oil crisis's." Himmler looked over to the Oberstgruppenführer. "And the SS?"
"Not too much change from the previous year but even then the oil consumption rates were at a decent level. About 4 percent less, which can be attributed to the inactivity of the SS-Panzerkorps divisions. Most of it goes into the reserves."
"Mm. Kriegsmarine?"
"The Schiffmachen do not consume much of any fuel apart when on mission, so not much at all. Most of our consumption rates are with the U-Boats but we have been using them less and less over the last year. So our rates are down 12 to 16 percent, give or take. I have a figure of about a few hundred thousand barrels that we sell to the populus, which has been quite profitable due to the fact companies like Henshel, Porsche, Benz, and others are willing to pay premium prices for the oil."
"So that's why the funding for the Kriegsmarine has been so steady recently?" Goering asked and Donitz - who had been speaking - nodded yes.
"And onto the Luftwaffe..." Himmler gestured to Albert.
Albert almost wanted to pull on his collar as a bit of worried sweat developed on his neck. He scratched the back of his neck.
"We're up 20 percent." He simply said. Himmler's eyes widened a bit, Goering leaned back in his seat and let out a grumble.
But Bormann's expression didn't change. "Why?" He asked.
"Erm. Well, as you know, we have been contracting quite a few companies to assist us in the support of our aircraft. However, the oil problem has been entirely on us, and these contracts have increased our overall activity, and hence consumption amounts. Furthermore, Soviet activity has increased as well on our border, and you did request that we become more active as well."
"Well, that was because we were under the assumption you had been saving fuel. Like you had previously." Goering explained.
"W-Well. We were, but you asked us to do that about the time we began to contract. We assumed the extra activity wouldn't be too bad, but at the end of the day, it in fact was. And it's not like we can suddenly refuse the companies and risk souring our relations."
"What companies did you contract, exactly?"
"Many, but the main one being Messerschmitt.
"Do we need to start cutting more funding to reduce your rates of consumption?" Himmler blurted out suddenly, obviously mad at the man but keeping calm. Albert wouldn't dare argue against it.
"If you feel the need..."
"I do feel the need. Herr Bormann?" Himmler looked over to Bormann.
"I am not against it. The contracts, I believe, are probably unimportant."
"Herr Bormann - " Albert resisted the need to gulp. " - We need them to better advance our aircraft technology?"
"Like how to lower the fuel needed in an engine?"
"W-Well, yes, that's a possibility - but we prioritize overall performance efficiency."
"At the cost of more consumption?"
"S-Somewhat, yes."
"Then it's not needed." Bormann sighed. "Find some way to get the Luftwaffe, no one else, to slow consumption to average levels by the next 6 months, Generaloberst."
"Yes, Herr Bormann." Albert let out a somewhat relieved sigh he wasn't himself relieved from duty.
"And now, onto our next speaking point..." Himmler had a vanilla folder handed to each person at the table.
"The discussion of the continuation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question."
Rudolf sat alone in a hospital bed aboard the IJN Takao, which had accompanied the Akagi when rescuing the downed plane. Half of his head over his left eye was covered in white bandages, his arm was in a cast, and he was in just great pain. He was doped on a considerable amount of painkillers, and truly it was a miracle he had survived. Next to him in the hospital bed, besides some medical equipment and a chair for any visitors, was a stack of his torn up uniform and on top was a slightly damaged watch. His commander's watch, more specifically.
He glanced over to the watch and his injured right eye narrowed just a bit. He had remembered grabbing it before throwing himself out of the plane moments before the fuel exploded, it having fallen out of Karl's pocket when he jumped. Feeling as if it were now his duty to make sure it was returned to Karl, he had grabbed it as he basically fell out of the plane. Due to the fact it basically turned 90 degrees, Rudolf had fallen onto his stomach which caught the watch as he slid out. He was low enough that the drop didn't kill him, but definitely injured him. He has some thanks to give to a broken wing piece that had broken his fall slightly.
He couldn't see through his left eye. Whether it be the bandages covering it or some sort of damage, he wasn't sure nor was he told. In fact, he had yet to talk to any doctors.
Still, he was glad to be alive.
"Suck on that, dad."
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