Chapter 1
As Fubuki opened the door to what she believed was the Iron Fleet's base, she winced at the loud creek the door made. After she closed it, she walked slowly down the dimly lit passageway. The air was warmer here, which she welcomed since she was still freezing from outside, but it also had a loud echo making every time she took a step sounding like the ground was being struck by a blunt object.
She was just about to call out when a sharp angry voice yelled, "halt." "Wer bist du (who are you)," it demanded, in a language that Fubuki couldn't understand.
"I'm sorry, I can't understand what you're saying," Fubuki apologized.
"Wer bist du und was machst du hier (who are you and what are you doing here)," the voice repeated angrily, it repeated the first part but added on to it, further confusing Fubuki.
"Please I don't want any trouble," Fubuki responded, dropping her gun and throwing up her hands. "I was told that I'd find whom I'm looking for here," she tried to explain.
"Woher kommst du (where did you come from)," the voice said, demanding something else. Fubuki could hear footsteps coming closer to her but she couldn't make out which direction.
"I'm looking for the Iron Fleet, do you know where they are," Fubuki asked, trembling with fear.
Suddenly Fubuki felt an arm grab hers, hold it behind her back and pin her facedown on the ground, even if she had the strength to resist, the attack still caught her completely by surprise. "Warum willst du das wissen (why do you want to know)," the voice demanded, tightening her grip on Fubuki's arm, "wer hat dich hierher geschickt (who sent you here)!"
"Please," Fubuki begged shedding tears of pain from her arm and chest, "why are you doing this I don't want to fight, Exatior told me that Iron Fleet would be be here, that's all I know."
For a moment the grip on her loosened, but quickly tightened up again causing Fubuki to wince in pain, "du lügst (you lie)," the voice behind shouted furiously.
"Genug (enough)!" Another, older voice ordered, once again the girl behind Fubuki loosened her grip. "Immer mit der Ruhe, Ts-vier (take it easy, Z-4)," it further said, much calmer than before. With the hold in her slightly looser, Fubuki was able to look up at the other girl that may have saved her life, in the dim light she could make out a girl of similar height to Akagi, but she was wearing a cap and had straight blonde hair like Atago's. The mysterious girl knelt down, but Fubuki still couldn't see her face through the dim light. "What did you say," she asked in calmingly and clear English?
"Please, I don't want any trouble, Exatior told me that I could find the Iron Fleet here and that they could be willing to help," Fubuki said through tear filled eyes.
"How do you know about Exatior," the girl asked Fubuki?
"Well, he came to me 2 days ago, and he offered me a chance to find others who could help me and my friends in our war against the abyssals," Fubuki explained. "He also said that apparently I'm the third person who was contacted by him," she added, although she didn't seem to know the reason why she said that.
"I've heard enough," the girl declared, rising to her feet. She turned to face what Fubuki assumed was the other girl still pinning her to the floor, "lasst sie los, sie ist kein feind (let her go, she's not an enemy)."
As the girl behind Fubuki released her grip, she asked, "was sollen wir dann jetzt mit ihr machen (then what should we do with her now)?"
"Well, we can't just leave her outside, so she's staying with us," the older girl answered.
As Fubuki tried to get up, her arms immediately gave out and she fell to the ground again. Just as she was going to try again, she saw the older girl extending a hand to reach out, offering her help which she gladly accepted. As she was being pulled up, she felt what she assumed was the girl from behind move under her extended arm and wrap it around the back of her neck to support her. "Thanks," she said to both of them, "I don't think I have much strength left after the journey I took to get here."
"No problem," the girl holding her up acknowledged. It was then that Fubuki finally got a good look at her, while her facial features were a bit unremarkable, almost like her or Mutsuki's kind of, she did have red hair like Ikazuchi, but it was flat and down with a few curls near the tips and she wore a dark blue beret. The older girl motioned them to follow her further through the tunnel.
"Yeah I felt so when I was pulling you up," the older girl said, "by the way, what's your name," she asked?
"Oh, I'm Fubuki, the name ship of the special class destroyers" she answered, trying to give as bright a smile as she could. "What's yours," she asked in return?
"It's Bismarck," the older girl answered, "the name ship of the Bismarck class battleships and the pride of the Iron Fleet."
Fubuki started in awe at Bismarck, at last she had found what she had been searching for and despite the little misunderstanding at the beginning, they seem to be pretty friendly.
As she turned to look at the girl carrying her, she knew what Fubuki wanted without asking, smiling, "heh, the name's Z-4G, but everyone just calls me Z-4, and I'm also a destroyer."
"Why do you have a name like that," Fubuki asked Z-4, she felt sad for her since she didn't have an actual name instead some kind of numerical designation?
"Well at the time we were created there wasn't an official doctrine that would designate our names like the others so we just stuck with our number ids, the Z means "Zerstörer", or destroyer in our native language, the number is where in the line we fall under, so 4 means I'm the fourth destroyer created, as for the G, it's a suffix that shows our class, G means "general purpose," Z-4 explained to Fubuki.
"So where are you from Fubuki," Bismarck asked?
"Well we call where I'm from the 'Naval District,' but we aren't the only one, as for the direction since Exatior told me that this place was to the south/southeast so I'd say the Naval District is to the north," Fubuki answered.
"Oh damn," Z-4 said surprised, "no wonder you're this weak you must've had a really long journey, we honestly believed that the north was just empty ocean," she explained, clearly she didn't expect anyone to reside where Fubuki was from.
"So what are these 'abyssals' you mentioned earlier," Bismarck asked?
Fubuki was surprised by this question, "Wait, you don't know what they are?"
"Can't say that any of us have," Bismarck responded.
"Well, they have suddenly appeared out of nowhere and in a matter of weeks they've pretty much conquered the entire sea, that's what me and my friends have been fighting against," Fubuki explained, "but maybe you've heard of the ones that may have been responsible for their creation and unleashing them."
"Who," Bismarck asked?
"The Freedom Fighters," Fubuki answered.
Bismarck and Z-4 suddenly stopped dead in their tracks, this caught Fubuki completely by surprise. Then Bismarck spoke, "yes, we know who they are." Fubuki felt Z-4 clench her fist, apparently they and the Freedom Fighters may have some tension between them.
At first Fubuki wondered whether or not she should ask for further details, but she decides to ask shakingly anyway, "would you mind telling some additional details?"
Bismarck turns to face Fubuki and says in a light tone, "we'll tell you later when you meet the others."
"Others," Fubuki asked?
"Well yeah, we can't really call the two of us a fleet now can we, " Bismarck answered chuckling. "There are the eleven of us that reside here, while the others will at first be as surprised as we were meeting you, but I'm sure they'd be glad to see another friendly new face."
"Another," Fubuki asked?
"Yeah, you're not the only one who stumbled here that had been contacted by Exatior," Bismarck answered.
"This other one, she wouldn't happen to be a non-combat ship right cuz that's what Exatior used to described the other one he showed himself to," Fubuki asked hoping that they both were on the same page?
"Yep," Z-4 answered before Bismark, "most of the time she is over in her little room, she almost never leaves it, she says she's been trying to gain information from some kind of object that Exatior made called the Tacitus or something like that," she further explained.
Fubuki just chuckled a bit, "reminds me of someone I know back home, she'd spend most of her free time in her workshop building new weapons and the like."
As the two girls laughed together Bismark stopped at another door, this one looked like it was made of solid steel and instead of a door handle or knob it looked like it had a lever that extended across the width of it. As Bismark placed her hand on the lever, she turned to Fubuki, "you ready to meet the others," she asked with a light smile on her face.
As Fubuki could make out several muffled voices talking on the other side, she nodded and gave as strong and confident smile as she could toward Bismark. Bismarck nodded in return, moving the lever up till it clanged into the "unlocked" position and pushed the door open.