A/N: Well, looks like that plot twist took people by surprise... For reference, Thunderer is the Thunderer from World of Warships, so armed with 4 dual 457mm turrets and looking like an enlarged KGV.
Part Seven – Strom Front
I could hear a thumping, no rumbling… No… not hear, feel it. I had no senses, no sight, no smell, no hearing...what am I?
I was in darkness; the rumble became more even, becoming more like a humming. It was still dark… Suddenly, pain, burning, searing pain… the pain fades quickly, but I still feel the warmth on me. As the warmth fades I suddenly hear someone say to me, "Thunderer, status report."
Thunderer, is that my name?
After a moment the voice repeats itself, "I said report."
Suddenly I sense coldness under me, and then another voice said, "Hull… watertight… A turret… cycle complete, systems clear… B turret… cycle complete, system check…. X turret… cycle complete, systems clear… Y turret… cycle complete, systems clear… secondary batteries not responding to systems check."
"As expected, your secondary armament hasn't been installed yet." Said the first voice before it paused and said, "Thunderer, activate external and internal camera systems."
I could suddenly see… everything, I do know where I am, but I know this is a dockyard of some kind and it is underground. I know I am a ship once I can see my hull… I rotate these structures on me; these must be the turrets the other voice spoke of… I have control over them it seems.
I sensed the voice speaking again, it sounded like they were inside of me, I change to internal cameras and I see them, they look familiar, but I can't place them… they speak to me again, "It seems you are exploring what you can do Thunderer… Be mindful of the cranes that are installing your equipment."
I stop rotating my turrets and bring them back to center and hey speak at me again, "Good. Do you know who I am?"
I try to place them, I know them… I know that I know them… that other voice speaks as I think that, "I know that I know you…"
He nods before running a gloved hand along one of the panels in the room he was in and saying, "That is good enough… Sleep now Thunderer, I need you later."
As soon as he stopped talking, I was back in darkness.
I wait in that darkness, it feels like forever… I can still feel the even rumble humming… I wonder how much control I have…
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Midway
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Wales sat in the commander's office, looking at the computer and she sighed heavily to herself, she had written this e-mail five times now, every time she found she couldn't send it. A knock came at the door and she called for them to enter, she hoped it would be The Commander coming back, deep down she knew it wouldn't be, he'd been gone so long now… The door opened and she sighed inwardly, as her red eyes took in the long brown hair and pinkish-red eyes of her subordinate entering the room with a datapad held close to her chest, but the words that came from her mother stung like daggers, "Knight Commander, it's been five months… We really should let High Command know what happened."
Wales put her head against the desk and felt a tear roll down her cheek to the top of the desk as she said, "I know Swiftsure... But every time I go to send this message it becomes too real that I lost him again."
Swiftsure moved to sit across from Wales, folding her hands in her lap, they had, had this conversation at least once a month for the last five now, right on time Wales continued, "I'm a failure as a mother, Swiftsure… I've failed to protect him twice, he's been stolen from me twice…"
The tears started to flow freely from her red eyes, Swiftsure just waited as Wales continued, "I was never fit to be his mother…"
"Are you done?" asked Swiftsure.
Wales blinked a few times, snapping her mind out of the self-pity she was feeling right now as Swiftsure continued, "We need to let High Command know that we have been operating without a commander for nearly half a year now… If you can't bring yourself to do it Knight Commander, then I will."
"Don't you dare, Swiftsure." Spoke Wales in a commanding tone of voice.
"We have to do something!" argued she argued back.
"Telling High Command when we don't know anything doesn't do us any good… We need to figure out why he was taken." Wales said, sitting upright and wiping her eyes.
Swiftsure nodded and stood back up and handed over the datapad as she said, "The results are finally back from the water… we found a higher hydrocarbon count in it then we should… looks like something that was very fuel-inefficient was on the water around the same time that Commander Thatcher was taken."
Wales's brow knit together before she said, "A flying boat… but how did they evade Belfast from detecting them?"
Swiftsure shrugged as she said, "I don't know… I know that our radar isn't as good as the ones that the Eagle Union girls have…"
Wales nodded, looking hard at the data as she said, "This happened within three days of him getting those…"
She stopped and spun back to his computer to look at the orders that he had been given, as she started to read the sender, her eyes went wide and she said, "His orders to go and count the wisdom cubes, didn't come from High Command…"
Swiftsure came around the side and read the address noting that it didn't have the designators from Azur Lane communications, even though the content looked official and she said, "Someone knew our systems well enough to get this through and have it look official enough to not draw suspicion."
Folding her arms under her bust Swiftsure added, "I'm not sure how they could've done it, but if they had been posted here or with Azur Lane, then they'd know how to make it look…"
Wales nodded and pushed herself away from the desk to look out the window as she said, "A storm is coming I think."
"Stands to reason, we are almost in the typhoon season…" said Swiftsure as she moved to stand beside Wales at the window.
"Not what I meant, but close enough…" said Wales.
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Celtic Sea
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He had us underway, heading South West right now… he wanted us to avoid major shipping routes… I found it easy to avoid these slow lumbering ships; I had the ability to 'see' things beyond the horizon. I had learned that the humming feeling was my drive systems… I wasn't the fastest thing out here, nor I was the most agile thing, but I was big… not as big as the cargo ships.
To be honest, I was getting bored just looking at the water and sky… I chose to try and look at something far away… I couldn't see it clearly, it was blurry, but I knew how fast it was going and what direction it was going… As I looked at it, I felt my turrets moving to point at it, the guns elevating…
"Thunderer, what are you doing?" he asked me.
"I see something; it is approximately thirty-five thousand meters to the South East. It is traveling on a parallel heading, traveling at approximately twenty-five knots." I pause before adding, "I would like to shoot it… if only to test my main battery."
I watch as he rubs the lower part of his face… that face I know that face… but from where…
He picks up some large binoculars and moves to the window to try and see what I see before he says, "Don't miss."
I feel a rush of excitement as I load armor pricing rounds into my main battery, I plot the course based on the heading, I knew my shells would fly at approximately eight hundred meters per second… my shells will be flying for approximately forty-four seconds… I will need to lead the target by roughly half a kilometer. I adjust my aim, and wait for the last few moments so that I was sure they didn't know I was targeting them… then I felt the rumble starting at my bow and going through my stern as I felt my guns recoil back in their mounts and the sound like thunder rand down me.
I understood my name now… I made the sound of thunder.
Now I had to wait… I watch as my shells arch through the air, my victim has no idea of what is coming their way…
"Flight time?" he asked me.
"Twenty-second left." I respond to him, my shells have reached the tops of their arcs and are starting their decent on my victim.
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U-47 was following an Iris transport, they don't venture this far out that often, and she was curious what it was up to. More curious was she could pick up some heavy cavitation to the North West; it was heavy enough to be a ship massing more than sixty-five thousand tons pushing twenty-five knots. She surfaced just enough to get eyes on the transport, just as she peaked above the water she saw eight bright streaks lance down into it from above before the transport exploded. Dipping back below the waves, she turned and headed to intercept the ship in the direction the shells had come from.
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"Well done." He said to me…
I do not need his praise… he didn't do anything… I aimed, I plotted the trajectory, I fired and I hit it with my first shot… all he did was permit me… I say to him, "I do not need your praise."
I could see him pull his binoculars down as he says, "No, you don't. But this shows me you can strike from outside the range of our target…"
"I will kill the target." I say back to him, I am confident in my ability to hit something at long range now… But I know it will be harder if it knows I am shooting at it, or if it is smaller than whatever my victim just was.
He checked his watch before saying to me, "I'm going to head below to get something to eat and get some rest… it's been a long day. I want you to wake me at sunrise, Thunderer."
"Thunderer understands." I respond as he leaves this part of me.
As it gets dark on the water, I follow the orders he had given me, no running lights… as the sun dips below the horizon, I angle my cameras up to look at the stars and wait until the sun arrives again.
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It had taken her hours to get close enough to her target, surfacing a little to see above the water, U-47 looked around to see in the darkness, a dark-colored hull on the water. It was massive, bigger than any battleship she had data on. She watched as it cut through the darkness, the only sounds coming from it being the engines. Taking some time to record the acoustic sounds of the four screws the hull seemed to have she also took some time to take pictures of the silhouette of it, after close to an hour of watching it, U-47 moved closer to it once she was sure it didn't have a crew and contacted it, "Hello, my name is U-47, what's yours?"
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I was bored, I ran systems check after systems check… made sure I was still on course. Then I heard a voice contacting me over the radio, "Hello, my name is U-47, what's yours?"
If they knew I was here, then they must be close enough to see me… I was ordered to avoid contact, but this U-47 is close enough to see me… why can't I see it?
He isn't awake to hear this, so maybe I can talk to this U-47… it contacts me again, "Hello?"
"I am Thunderer." I say back to it.
"You're male?" it asks me.
"I do not understand." I say back to it as I start to search around with my cameras and radar.
"Are you kansen?" it asks me.
"I do not understand." I say back again, this thing is going undetected on the surface, I try listening under the water now.
"Do you have a human-like body?" it asks me.
Human… I know what those are; he is one of those… I say back to it, "Not that I know of… I am a ship."
"I'm a submarine, but I have a human-like body… since I am kansen." it says back to me.
After a moment it asks me, "Is there any places inside of you, you can't see?"
I quickly cycle through my internal cameras while checking them off against my master systems display as I say, "There is a gap in my coverage."
"Can I come on board, maybe I can help you look?" it asks me.
I debate this internally for a few moments… he is asleep now, and I am large enough that I should be able to have another human-sized thing inside without them running into one another. I am also curious about this gap in my camera coverage…
"Yes, but I cannot slow down, I have a timetable to keep." I say to it.
"Okay, I'll be close enough to board shortly." It tells me.
Once it is aboard, I note that it has a different body type to him… it seems to have extra padding on the upper body. As it moves around on my hull to an entry point it asks, "Can you open doors for me?"
I slide open one of the external hatches for it and I ask, "Why do you look different than the human I have on me?"
It stops and tilts its head to the side as it asks me, "Is the human male?"
"That is the second time you have used that phrase…" I say to it.
"Does it have a dangly bit between their legs?" it asks me.
"It does." I say back, I use my internal lights to guide it to the gap in my coverage from my stern.
"Then it's male. This body of mine is modeled after a female human." It says back to me.
I cross-reference that against what I do know; she… this U-47 is she, not it… I ask 'her', "What is it like?"
"What is what like?" she asks me back as she descends a ladder down.
"Walking." I say back while I wonder why I know these words.
She shrugs before pulling down her face mask and saying, "It was tricky at first… it didn't come as naturally to me as swimming."
It doesn't take long for me to guide U-47 to a hatch that I cannot seem to control, I let her know by saying, "I cannot open this hatch, nor can I see beyond it for approximately ten meters."
I see her nod as she says to me, "Makes sense, this door looks to be mechanically held in place, not linked to your systems."
I watch as she puts her hands on a large wheel that is in the center of the door and turns it, my audio pick up detects a loud clunking noise before she pulls it back. The room is dark, too dark for my cameras to see. Aside from some little green and red lights blinking in there… she asks me, "Can you see in there?"
"I cannot" I respond.
"Can you raise the light level out here then?" she asks me.
As I raise the light level to the maximum my cameras can pick up a tank in the center of the room, a body is floating in it, tubes are connected to it… what is that?
I watch as she steps inside and up to the tank as she asks, "Can you say something?"
"Why is this in…" I start to say as I look at the body floating in the tank, I see the mouth on it starting to move as I speak to U-47.
"I think we found your body…" she says as she places a hand on the tank she adds, "And it's kind of cute."
"I do not understand…" I say, watching the mouth on the body in the tank move as I say those words.
"You're kansen, like me… but not like me…" she says as she turns from the tank and points at it.
From another part of me I hear him yell at me, "Thunderer, why didn't you wake me?"
Turning my attention to U-47 I say to her quickly, "You need to leave; close the room… the human is awake. I will guide you back out so that you do not cross paths with him."
She follows my instructions and moves with a lethal grace making as little noise as possible.
Turning my attention back to him, I say, "I am sorry, I was distracted by the stars."
"Run a diagnostic on your systems… you shouldn't be distracted by stars." He snaps at me.
I do not want to.
"Running…" I say to him.
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Midway, two weeks later
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"Are you sure?" asked Bismarck as she looked at the data before her.
"I am, I kept in contact with him until I chose to break off and go through Panama to head here faster." Spoke U-47 as she stood in an office before Bismarck.
"These pictures… they're disturbing." Bismarck said as she laid out the images on her desk before turning to look out the window as she added, "Not just for the fact that this ship is sailing without colors, but that he is aware that he is more than just a ship."
"Thunderer seems to be confused by his existence, but he feels bound to follow the orders of the human he has on him." U-47 pausing to add, "He knows he's is headed to the base here at Midway to kill a specific kansen… he just doesn't know who it is."
Bismarck turned her attention back to the submarine as asked, "Do you think he has the ability?"
U-47 nodded as she said, "I watched as he sunk a transport from thirty-five kilometers away, landing eight of eight shells amidships. These shells… they're bigger than anything I've seen mounted on a ship yet… according to Thunderer they are 457mm…"
Bismarck had started to sip some coffee moments before choking on it as she coughed at the number. Patting her chest Bismarck said, "That kind of shell size would make a mockery of any armor…"
U-47 nodded while she said, "Hence why I came here as fast as I could to report this to you."
"Thank you 47, I'll bring this to the attention of the others… you're free to relax a little while you're here." Bismarck said as she got out from behind the desk.
The submarine looked around before suggesting, "I'm going to head back out there, try to see if Thunderer learns anything else. Because I cut through Panama, I was able to get out in front of him by a week or so… maybe I can reason with him and not have him kill one of us."
Bismarck put a hand on U-47's shoulder as she nodded and said, "Thanks 47, I wish you luck then… Right now, I need to go and have an unpleasant conversation."
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Bismarck took a deep breath before entering the secretarial office of the base commander, she relaxed a little when she saw Gneisenau sitting there and asked, "Is Wales in?"
With a nod from Gneisenau, Bismarck started to cross the room, placing her hand on the door before adding, "You may want to be part of this too."
The two of them entered the office while Wales turned around in the chair, she gave them both an empty smile as she said, "What can I do for you?"
Bismarck closed the door and said, "We have a problem."
"What kind of problem?" asked Wales, leaning back in the chair she was occupying.
Bismarck walked over to the desk and put down a file folder as she said, "This kind."
Wales opened the folder, looking at the images of the ship in it, she said, "It's English… But aside from Vanguard, we haven't used dual turrets in a long time…"
"I know, but this ship isn't Vanguard." Spoke Bismarck, looking around the room as she added, "According to the information I have, that ship is north of sixty-five thousand tons and is using 457mm guns, which are accurate at a distance of thirty-five kilometers…"
Wales put down the folder as her eyes narrowed as she asked, "Are you accusing the Royal Navy of making new kansen?"
Bismarck pinched the bridge of her nose as she asked, "How sure are you that Henry is dead?"
Wales blinked a few times and stood, knocking the folder to the floor, causing the pictures to spill all over the floor as she asked, "What?"
Gneisenau walked over to the pictures on the floor, picking up the one picture of the body in the tank and she asked, "Mitchel, what did they do to you?"
The room went silent, Gneisenau looked up from the photo to see both Wales and Bismarck looking at her, as she turned the photo over she said, "It's him, I'm sure of it."
Wales took the image from her, touching the body in the image and asking, "Who did this to you?"
Bismarck sighed and sifted through the rest of the images, picking up one that showed the Admiral, putting on the desk, she put a finger on it and said, "He did."
Wales looked at the image and felt the color drain from her cheeks.
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South Pacific, one week from the target point
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"We will be there soon, who am I to kill?" I ask him, we have traveled so long now… I missed talking to U-47.
He sighed before saying, "We are almost there, no harm in letting you know now so that you can run drills. You are to kill a kansen of a King George the Fifth class ship, the Prince of Wales."
Why does he want me to kill another kansen?
"Am I kansen?" I ask him, we are almost there, what is the harm in asking.
"Why?" he asks me back.
"Do I have a body like they do?" I ask him.
"No." he says in a guarded tone.
I know he is both being dishonest and honest at the same time… The body in the room I cannot access is like a kansen and not at the same time… U-47 seemed surprised I was male, according to her all other kansen are female.
"Can I have a body like they do?" I ask him.
"Why would you want to? They are abominations, abominations we needed to win a war." He says to me.
"Why am I to kill Prince of Wales?" I ask.
"She ruined my life, and now I will use you to take hers." He says in a cold tone.
I take a moment to choose my next words carefully, "Are they all bad?"
That seems to take him by surprise, he is thinking about something before asking, "Why the sudden interest in them Thunderer?"
Can I be dishonest with him?
"I have had time to probe networks, I have found a reference to them… it has made me wonder about them." I say it is not dishonest… not fully. U-47 could be considered a network of sorts.
"You are a weapon, nothing more, nothing less." He says to me, turning to look out the window as he adds, "When your task is done, you will be sent for scrap… do not waste time pondering about something you will never experience."
I do not like this man… I miss U-47.
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A/N: Chapter Seven done. We are building towards the middle point of the story now… As a heads up between the 18th and the 4th I'll be posting at a much slower rate due to limited hours and family obligations, but I will be continuing.