Hipper was jolted from a troubled, painful sleep by a deep rumble that seemed to come from all around her. Shooting awake, she fumbled for her Luger at her hip, but before she could find it, her head slammed, hard, into something above.

Bits of wood dust and concrete powder rained down on her as her head rebounded, fireworks going off behind her eyelids as she closed them and groaned.

"Ow!"

She couldn't see anything. The knock on her head was worse than she thought.

Except it wasn't.

Her eyes were fine. It was pitch black.

That can't be right. I was with Roon, and Friedrich, and Weser-

Weser.

"Weser!"

Hipper called the name of her sister.

"Weser!"

Something stirred and moaned beneath her.

"Weser! Are you all right?"

"Mir...geht es gut. Vielen danke, Hipper."

Hipper shifted off of Weser so her sister could sit up, and yelped as a sudden pain shot up her thigh. Pressing her hand to the leg, she felt a massive contusion on the side of her leg.

"Agh… what in the… "

My Luger!

The barrel was still warm.

But-

Ah.

"Hipper! Are you all right?"

"Yeah… damn gun went off into my leg."

"Where are we?"

Hipper grimaced. "If I had to guess… under something."

"We were with Roon and Friedrich when the building… "

Collapsed.

Now she remembered.

"The building. It collapsed. How?"

"I don't know." Hipper felt Weser stand up. "No, don't-"

Thunk

"Ouch!"

Hipper sighed.

"Come, let's get out of here."

Hipper got into a crouching position, mindful of whatever it was she had smacked her head on. Bracing her shoulders against the ceiling, she dug her heels into the ground. Her leg ached as it rapidly healed, Hipper feeling the bruise disappear over the course of several seconds.

"Weser, help me."

"Y-yes!"

Hipper heaved. Something creaked and gave way and bits of stuff rained down.

She pushed again, groaning as she strained with all her might.

The piece of rubble above them shifted slightly, and a crack of bright orange light streamed into the little space. Hitting Hipper square in the eye, it caused the heavy cruiser to yelp, blinking her eyes rapidly. She fell back onto her bottom and the rubble followed, plunging the two sisters into darkness.

"Are you all right?"

"S'fine… light surprised me is all."

In the gloom, Hipper saw Weser fish a watch out from her pocket, the luminous hands glowing in the dark.

"Schwester...it's nine o'clock at night. Why is it so bright outside?"

Hipper paused. "I… I have no idea."

"We'll have to go find out."

The two KAN-SEN braced themselves again. This time the rubble came off with one try, and the two girls were bathed in light.

Hipper squinted, trying to adapt to the bright, hot orange.

Hot?

Her pupils, trained by years of war, quickly dilated to block out the intense optical stimuli. But nothing would prepare her for what she saw next.

Hipper's vision came into focus, and through it she saw Hell.

The entire city of Wilhelmshaven was on fire. Thick, oily flames blanketed every building, every street, every corner. Glass shattered as it expanded, turning windows into deadly shrapnel-raining devices. Hipper gasped as she saw a power line break, the two frayed ends coming apart and flailing in the air like the tentacles of some monster, then writhing as they came back down, throwing bright azure sparks around as they fell back down, sizzling as they touched houses, walls, lampposts, the ground.

Someone ran past them.

One of the freed lines caught the woman across the chest. She howled as she was whipped by the thick cable, convulsing as she was thrown into the air. She slammed into a house then fell six metres to the ground, smoke rising from her body as her legs kicked wildly in a demonic polka too fast for any human. She didn't get up.

The earth convulsed and Hipper slipped and fell.

What on earth…?

Wailing sirens interrupted the cacophonous symphony of crackling flame and fizzling power cables. The heavy cruiser turned to see three dark green vehicles speeding past, their thick, rubber coated wheels coasting over bits of burning debris and their armored chassi smashing through pieces too large to toss aside.

They all bore the cross of the Wehrmacht, pierced through by a jagged arrow, shaped like lightning bolts.

What is that?

A low, sonorous, metallic wail rang through the air as the ground shook again in an earth-splitting tremor.

Hipper looked up and gasped. Weser did, too.

The Memorial was glowing.

The gigantic black pyramid whose silhouette loomed over all of Wilhelmshaven as if to forever remind the town of the Ironblood's past shone, its tip glowing nearly white, fading to a dim red around halfway down. The air around it seemed to pulsate in a heat haze, distorting and lending the structure an eerie, alien look.

Whrrrrrrrrr

The glow got brighter and brighter, shining whiter than white, as the pyramid's cap expanded, bloating outwards, surrounded by a gleaming aura.

Hipper and Weser watched in horror as the Memorial began to melt.

It started at the tip of the pyramid, its bright white sheen growing more luminous by the second until it hurt just to look at. Slowly the colour began to spread downwards and the Memorial began to deform, folding in on itself, until the top third of the pyramid was shining with intense bright light.

And then split, the Wilhelmshaven War Memorial exploding outwards, spattering gobs of white, hot, melted metal into the air, which fell like artillery back to the ground, throwing up columns of smoke where they landed. A tall purple beam burst out, tossing blobs of misshapen awakened steel away like toys, lancing into the air for a moment before it disappeared as soon as it came into being.

The pyramid smoked, hot, white metal flowing down the outside and cooling to a dark, obsidian black.

Hipper didn't say anything. She couldn't.

However, her enhanced vision did pick up something. A lone figure was rising out from the wrecked, jagged wound that had been blown in the memorial, steadily ascending into the torture orange sky.

Someone behind Hipper groaned. The cruiser turned to see Friedrich tossing a cross-beam off herself, pulling Roon's unconscious form out of a pile of wreckage.

"She… should have died."

Hipper frowned. "What are you…"

"She should have died that night in the North Atlantic. But she didn't. U-556 dragged her body back, not dead, but not alive, either. She was… changed, by the Siren-by whatever it was she accepted. We couldn't afford to see what would happen if we woke her. So we shut her away, under a symbol of our defeat. But we always knew, even if we said we didn't. We always knew she wouldn't sleep forever.

A loud, booming voice roared into Hipper's head. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere, reverberating around her skull, resonating with a nameless, unquestioned authority.

Greetings, sisters.

And although Hipper couldn't even see the figure's face, she could have sworn on her life that it was staring right at her.

Memories that weren't hers streamed into her head. Blonde hair, gray eyes, a black uniform. A flag red as blood, piercing through the broken body of a woman dressed in blue. Black torpedoes coursing through the water. Explosions. The rattle of sixteen-inch guns, and an otherworldly cry reverberating through the sea.

"Leader…? Bismarck?"