Hood
It had certainly been a very tiring two days, since the meeting between Odin and that man, Haydn. Tiring for me, having to deal with my slow and steady rehabilitation. Tiring for Lady Jean Bart, seeing all the thinking she had to do, and the goodbyes she had to give. And most of all, tiring for the few German girls that still believed in their cause.
Lady Bismarck, namely. Everyone else seemed to have abandoned it. But she remained steadfast on her stance, at least up until the meeting.
"I am sure this place doesn't bring good memories, Frau Hood. But I feel it is necessary."
Odin. And by this place, she meant the underwater room where the capsules that brought me back to live were.
"Oh my. I hope you didn't bring me here to make me carry the remaining capsules to Miss L' Audacioux's citadel."
"Frau Wales wouldn't let me live it down, no. The capsules that needed transport have all been moved already."
"Oh, please drop the formalities." I said. I didn't really want to be spoken to like that by a person that surely had seen me naked multiple times during my stay at those capsules. Plus, as saddening as it was, I was probably already stricken off the Royal Navy records. I was a Lady no longer. "You must have another reason to bring me here, if you don't intend for me to carry all this."
"This conversation feels like a necessity. Your… return happened earlier than I had planned, so I had Akashi take you through extensive medical check-ups. You haven't had the opportunity to have a proper explanation of everything that transpired."
"Indeed." To be fair, Wales had told me a fair bit. Of how she and George had first met Odin during a sortie to the place where I had sunk. How the Royal Navy had furiously chased after Bismarck in a rage. How Her Majesty had held a state funeral for me. How Wales herself had slowly turned into herself, how she no longer had sparring sessions and rarely went to tea parties. But that had only been the first part of the story, told from the perspective of the Royal Navy. "I would gladly take your side of the events."
"Most of it you know already, except from the time between when Bismarck awakened and you did. It was actually Jean Bart who brought her from here to the upper decks and nursed her while I prepared everything and everyone."
"Lady Jean Bart?" I giggled "Nursing someone? That truly doesn't sound like her."
"You've seen her with the Toulon fleet. She is more caring than she wants others to see. After Bismarck was properly woken up and taken care of by Akashi, Tirpitz chimed in. They seem to be doing well now."
"That doesn't seem right to me. It looks like Tirpitz needs a bit more."
"A bit more?" Odin raised an eyebrow "In what sense?"
I scratched my chin "Lady Tirpitz seems rather uncomfortable around Lady Bismarck for some reason. I'm afraid I haven't had the chance to speak to Lady Bismarck about it, and neither do I think she would appreciate it."
Odin stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh
"You are much better at reading people than I am. Feelings get confusing for me at times."
"Oh, don't take my words for facts. Lady Bismarck has been avoiding me ever since, I can't confirm my own opinions."
"Maybe so. But it's still far better than my own assessment of the situation. I have much to learn. Anyway…" She relaxed against one of the now empty transparent tubes, a very uncommon gesture coming from her in the little time we had known each other. "I wanted to explain to you what the plan was, as well as apologise."
"I'm listening."
"You must have heard from Friedrich the other day. Our current line of action is to appeal to the Royal Navy and get their help, as well as anyone who agrees to follow, to take down the German government. For that, we have several tributes, so to speak. One is the vast report we have on our own army's war crimes. That should at least shake up a few of the older generals that were around during the Great War. Along with… that thing."
"You must mean what you told us to leave so you could show Lady Bismarck. The contents of that box. What is inside?"
"I am afraid I cannot tell you yet. It's better if your reaction is genuine for the moment we show it to the Azur Lane. It would also be better if you were able to sleep until then. I know I haven't been able to in the last two days."
I noticed her baggy eyes and her periodic tic on her fingers. She truly hadn't slept ever since that meeting. I felt chills down my spine.
"Lady Odin, how bad is it?"
"The biggest exponent of what humanity is really capable of, in the worst sense possible. I would much rather not speak about it."
"I'll be happy to oblige. I suppose I am also part of said tribute, then."
"Yes." she nodded without hesitation "We hoped that giving the Glory of the Royal Navy back to the Azur Lane would soften their position towards us. If that wasn't enough… well, that is where the contents of these capsules comes into play."
"Shipgirls."
"Yes. Those of us that shouldn't be. Some were draft designs forever stuck in the drawing table like me. Others, like Gascogne, would have seen the light of day eventually. New soldiers for our respective countries, new shipgirls for our respective factions. The Ironblood, the Eagle Union, Iris and Vichiya, Sardegna… and yes, even the Royal Navy. Drake, Neptune and Monarch, for example, should be familiar names."
And they certainly were. Among other things, the Royal Navy had a Drake class of protected cruisers, one of Leander's sisters was called Neptune, and we had one Monarch during the Great War. I had had the opportunity to talk and even have tea with that Monarch a few times, a lovely lady before… well, before her time had come.
"Those are all old names. What purpose do they serve here?"
"As new additions. How familiar are you with design proposals?"
"Can't say I know that much." I admitted. It wasn't in my mind to think about those things.
"Design Y, a 21500 ton design for a heavy cruiser, and Project 1935 15C."
"15C?" That one, however, sounded slightly familiar. "Isn't that…?"
"Indeed. One of the proposals for the King George V class. For all effects and purposes, Frau Wales's older sister."
Unbelievable… To think that they had this much information about our projects and plans… Of course, it would be hard to conceal anything from Odin, with that second sight of hers, but this still made me feel uneasy. I hoped that wasn't showing in my face.
"Do you think it will be enough?"
"To make them move?" I said "The dossier with war crimes will be enough for that."
"I don't want them to just move. Of what use is the Royal Navy to me if they only side with me during the war?"
My eyes widened slightly at the sudden realisation.
"You want them to be pardoned."
"Yes. That is my plan. Well, our plan. Friedrich was the first to suggest it. She thinks we all have gone through enough pain."
"And what do you think?"
"I don't understand it, plain and simple. The pain." she shrugged. She didn't look confused. More like resigned, as if what she claimed didn't understand would forever escape her. "Like you, I don't have any sisters. I came to this world alone, I haven't experienced the pain of loss. I have seen it in others, like Deutschland or Frau Tirpitz, before we got Spee and Frau Bismarck back, but I haven't felt it myself. I thought you, of all people, would understand, but it seems I am still yet to arrive at a conclusion."
She was probably talking about me being a sisterless ship. The Admiral class had been intended to be a four-ship class of battlecruisers. Modernised Queen Elizabeth class battlecruisers, meant to represent everything the Royal Navy had achieved in terms of shipbuilding. Faster, stronger, more advanced. Truly the pinnacle of British shipbuilding.
"I can't say I don't find the idea of a sister to be endearing. But I don't mourn for the fate of my would-be sister ships. Their names are honoured in the Nelson and King George V classes, more than any wishful thinking on my part could ever hope to imagine."
"You are losing me, Frau Hood."
"You are right in assuming I don't grieve for my would-be sisters. If I spent my days wondering what could have been, these eyes of mine wouldn't see anything past by own bow. But I have other things. I have Her Highness. I have Wales and the rest of the King George V class, who are like daughters to me. Their pain is mine. The other day, Graf told me Bahram was sunk soon after I was. I shared a lot of tea parties, memories and moments with her. Her death pains me no less than any of my sisters' would have."
"Maybe I am defective. The main reason why we started using these capsules was to eliminate the risk factor of something negative happening during gestation."
Was she for real? With the panic she went through when Haydn ordered her to scuttle the Toulon fleet again? Her rage when she drove her spear through Observer, once Akashi told her Eugen wasn't going to wake up? Her twisted, guilty grimace while Hipper was yelling at her in tears?
But her face showed the same as it usually did. A woman considering her options, with doubt in her mind. Not the kind of doubt Lady Bismarck always had painted all over her, the doubt of not knowing how to say what she meant. Not that doubt. It was the face of someone that genuinely did not understand something. Something that wasn't mine to explain.
"If that is what you consider, Lady Odin, then we will have to go with that. As for your question, my presence alone will be enough to instantly make Her Majesty favour you. High Command will require more powerful persuasion."
She waved her hand in dismissal "I have that covered. I hope."
"I do too, Lady Odin. Our future depends on it."
Bismarck
The reports were unsettling to read.
Maybe unsettling wasn't the right word.
Downright nauseating felt more appropriate.
Page after page of civilians being bombed. Of prisoners of war being shot after surrendering. Destruction of historical targets of no military value. Rape, enslavement, disposal of disabled people. I had never felt so defeated, so betrayed by my own. Odin's statement of me not being fit to be the leader of the Ironblood felt like a compliment not even halfway through the dossier.
And then there was… that.
Not many things could really scare me anymore. I had been the leader of one of the biggest powers there was. I had claimed the power of the Black Cube and fought a battle most battleships would only dream of. I had died.
And standing before what was inside, I felt so little. My knees were weak and I wanted to run at the same time. Odin herself was on the brink of collapsing. The implications were absolutely terrifying.
I threw my head back to look at the sky. The ever covered sky of the northern Atlantic. The salty breeze. Not unlike those of the day I had sortied on Operation Rheinubung. And things felt so different now. Then, I had orders. Now, I had questions. Way too many questions. What to do now? Why had Observer left after seeing what was inside the cage? Why...?
The sound of someone talking behind me, over in the main decks reached me. I closed my eyes. They were arguing about something I didn't quite hear right. Maybe the weather? Or the plans from now on? Part of me wished I could just go to them and discuss these things.
It's not as if I couldn't. Odin hadn't left me out of the briefings. In fact she made a point to have my approval for everything. It was just that the situation was eating me from the inside out. Just who I had pledged my service to? What kind of maniac had I helped take over the Atlantic?
What kind of monster was I?
I heard some steps come down the stairs that lead to the little platform I was in. I frowned in slight annoyance. I had made it very clear I wanted no one to disturb me when I had come down here. I sighed as I prepared to stand.
"Guten Morgen, Schwester."
Those words made me halt. I turned my head around, and sure enough, Tirpitz and U-556 were there. Were they the ones that had been talking on the upper deck? I had thought it sounded like two adults.
But no matter.
"What are you doing here?"
"We just came to check on you." said Tirpitz without a second of hesitation.
"I-Is that so…"
"Yes! We asked Frau Odin and she told us you were here, Lord Bismarck!"
"Feel free then…"
Tirpitz and Parzeval sat next to me, one on each side as I glanced through the report once again. It must have made me frown immediately, because not even five seconds later, Tirpitz took the dossier from my hands and closed it.
"I was taking a look at that."
"I don't think you realise how bad you are looking right now. You have looked at it enough."
She gave me a small pocket mirror. I really did look horrible. Unkempt hair, eye bags, white skin, crazed eyes. I sighed.
"I understand your concern, Tirpitz. But I have to study these thoroughly to present them…"
"You most definitely don't understand my concern."
She stared at me, dead in the eyes.
"Tirpitz, listen…"
"I am sorry, Schwester. I really am, but it's time you take a bit of an outside stance into account."
The intensity of her gaze almost made me look away.
"...I'm listening."
"I think you still hold too much loyalty to a position that means nothing but pain and suffering to others."
The position of leader of the Ironblood, evidently. The position given to me, and me alone. The power to command every single girl, battleship, cruiser, destroyer or carrier, into battle to fight for our fatherland. The power to make a difference.
"If we don't fight for our country, then who will?"
"We aren't fighting for our country anymore." She shook her head from side to side. IT was strange, seeing her confident in something. "We never were. We fought for a regime, for a man in charge. Protecting our country was never the goal, Schwester."
She opened the dossier again, showing me a few different pages. Attacks on civilian targets along our borders, forced deportations, transport of prisoners to places deep inland. I felt the acid on my stomach rise for a second. She must have noticed because she closed it immediately.
"Then there is also what Odin showed you. I don't know what it was you two saw, but if I was enough to make Odin herself almost vomit when she took a peek inside, and keep you two awake ever since, it must have been horrifying."
"You have no idea… that thing inside that cage… that thing."
I started shivering. I felt something close around my hands. U-556's tiny hands,
"Odin filled me in. You can't share it until you show the Azur Lane. But if it's that horrible, then… why are you so adamant about being the leader of a faction that brings us nothing but pain and misery?"
"Someone has to change things."
"You can't do that from within. You have seen how deep the corruption runs, even in the government."
"I have to try."
I could see a hint of hurt and disappointment in her eyes for a split second. My throat clenched into a knot. It hurt. A lot.
"Then I need you to do something for me. As leader of the Ironblood."
"Tirpitz…"
"Scratch me off the naval records. Allow me to leave the Ironblood."
The sudden silence and U-556's gasp told me that this wasn't something she hadn't discussed with anyone else. My jaw dropped to the ground and below.
"...what?"
Her eyes showed an even fiercer piercing gaze than before. My mind was spinning around like a wheel.
"Tirpitz, surely you…"
"I am being entirely serious. I want nothing to do with a faction that does this to me, that does this to you. I don't need a leader. I need… I need…"
"A sister." Scherzo's stern voice interrupted Tirpitz. She had made her way to us without anyone noticing. Or, judging by the lack of reaction from Tirpitz and U-556, only I hadn't noticed.
"This is between them and me."
"Is it though? They are here because I told them to."
"So you made them tell me they want to leave the Ironblood?"
"Just listen to your sister for once. Be Bismarck, and not the leader of the Ironblood, for this one moment."
Be Bismarck… not the leader of the Ironblood. But I was Bismarck, leader of the Ironblood. Any other iteration was unthinkable… any other…
"Lord Bismarck, please." U-556 took my hand in hers once again. I was almost trembling. I felt cornered all of a sudden, unable to think.
"F-Fine."
Tirpitz nodded.
"The Ironblood has not really given me reasons to be loyal to them. I was always told that I needed to fight for the fatherland, but I didn't even know that fatherland they spoke of. I was all but cast aside, shunned to the ends of the arctic circle as some fleet in being. Prohibited from leaving, from radioing home… if I even had anything to call home."
My throat and stomach tangled more and more with every word she dropped. Her eyes had no tears, yet reflected an immense sadness.
"I only knew I had a sister because I was part of the Bismarck class, not the Tirpitz class. Whenever I asked, I was dismissed and told to stay put for orders. They called me the Lone Queen of the North, repeating that title again and again as if it wasn't some sort of cruel reminder."
Scherzo reached for her shoulder with her hand, and Tirpitz put hers on top. Something burned inside me. I wanted to do that too, but my hands wouldn't move. Was it jealousy?
"And then, U-556 started to come along. To bring me small gifts, to speak to me, to eat what little I cooked from the cookbook she brought. It was from her that knew what had happened to you. Not from an officer, or from a newspaper. From the girl that towed you to this fortress."
Had… had the Ironblood really not told my own sister about my demise? But why would they not…
Surely not to assure she stayed in line, right?
"I didn't understand that feeling at first. I felt like I had lost something I never had in the first place. It was confusing. Orders also stopped coming as if they couldn't be bothered anymore, so I just spent my days speaking to U-556. She told me about you. How kind you were to take her in as your Knight. About how interesting it was to see you in trials, how powerful you were. The melancholy was eating me inside out, just wishing I could have met you, and now…"
I didn't want her to continue speaking. It was becoming too much to handle. My heart was sinking as low as it could. A new feeling I had never come across before. Disappointment, rage, excitement, I was familiar with all those, but this…?
"Life isn't as miserable now as it used to be. I met a few friends. Deutschland is always loud and overbearing. Jean Bart had issues trusting me at first, but later on she talked to me about a lot of things. Both did, about their problems. And I talked to them about mine. But I still feel alone. I need you with me."
How could she be saying all this? How did she manage? How could two sisters be such polar opposites? Even back then with U-556, I barely managed to freely speak my mind, or talk about my feelings. Then, how…
"Now's your chance, meine kleine Schwester."
Before I could ask, I found Tirpitz in my arms.
W-Wha…
I-I couldn't….
"Ah…" she said, squeezing me in her own arms "So this is the warmth of one's beating heart. The feeling of longing…"
Something inside me broke. My arms had fallen to the side, but I somehow managed to get them up. To trace her back, her shoulders, her hair. I buried my face into her coat's fur collar. Then the tears started flowing.
It was such an unnatural feeling. In the heaviest of seas and fiercest of battles, I had never felt so vulnerable. And yet, for some reason I felt… safe. It was a bizarre feeling I couldn't get enough of as I brought Tirpitz, my sister, closer.
"I'm…sorry." I sobbed "I am so, so sorry…"
I felt Tirpitz trembling as U-556 embraced me from behind with her little arms. Scherzo enveloped us all in her arms.
"Let it all out."
"I thought… I thought I could protect everyone if I let go of being Bismarck and was simply a leader. That I… That I could stop the Iron Blood from being destroyed if I took it all upon myself."
"You don't have to do that anymore." Tirpitz's voice was on the verge of breaking. Not like mine was any better.
"We will follow you anywhere you go, Lord Bismarck."
How long did we spend there, in a bundle of arms and sobbing? A minute? Five? Ten? I couldn't tell. Time passed slowly and fast at the same time. Only Scherzo backed off after a little bit, but Tirpitz and U-556 were determined to stick to me like a barnacle. We stayed there for what felt like an eternity before they pulled back.
"Can't we start over?" said Tirpitz
"I-I think we can try."
"That's how it should be." Scherzo stood up, lending me a hand "The Bismarck class doesn't have to be a bad omen."
"What was that before, by the way?" I asked, "Meine kleine Schwester."
Scherzo chuckled "I may no longer be Bismarck, but I still belong to the class. That makes you my little sisters. Both of you."
"I am not sure I like that." I frowned
"Hey, Parzival, what do you think about little sister Bismarck?"
"Don't answer that." I said immediately.
She chuckled again, then pointed towards Tirpitz.
"By the way, what is that pouch you carry around, Tirpitz?"
"The pouch… oh!" She reached for said pouch on her hip and offered it to me. "I asked Dunkerque to help me refine this a bit so I could make you these so… Do you want to try some?"
I couldn't help but feel all warm inside at seeing Tirpitz sudden shyness while offering me the bag. I opened it and a rather familiar smell hit me. The smell of fried potatoes with a faint hint of sweetness from apple sauce.
"I'd love to."
Author's notes
There goes another chapter. Nothing much in terms of explaining, but I do enjoy some historical trivia. Before that though, I have an important announcement to make. FROM NOW TILL THE END OF JUNE, I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WRITE. At all. Finals coming through and I have to develop my end of degree project, which demands my full attention. Sorry for this hiatus, but college takes priority.
All the PR ships that I am aware of share a name with a previous incarnation, such as Friedrich, Odin, Monarch and such. This is because these ships, while often inspired by real designs, were given the finishing touches by Wargaming. There are a few exceptions, like Gascogne or Ibuki, in which the name of the ship we got was its intended historical name. Basically, ships like Monarch never left the drawing table and weren't given names. These were the ships that wargaming gave reused names to.
Howe, Anton and Rodney were indeed the three proposed names for the remaining three Admiral class battlecruisers, aka Hood's sisters. In the end, this never came to be since the materials that would have gone to them were deemed necessary for other shipbuilding projects. Their names were reused in the King George V class (Anton and Howe), and the Nelson class (Rodney).
Bahram, the Queen Elizabeth mentioned by Hood, sank a few months later. There is even a video online of her magazine explosion. It's a rather harrowing video. I would link to it, but this site isn't particularly kind to external links. If you want to watch it, type "Bahram explosion" on the YouTube search bar.
That's all for now. Until next we meet!