Chapter 6
So, I forgot that Spee had a shark tail under her rigging (As seen in her other skins), so I'm sorta retconning this and putting it in now, just so I can spend more time writing new chapters than editing older ones for very minor changes.
Official Calendar Date: February 24th, 1940.
69 Days after the Scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee
The early morning sun of Remnant began to peep through the curtains of Z1's chosen dorm, the silver haired Destroyer sleeping soundly on a mattress with silk sheets. Said sheets had been part of the cargo of the British Merchant ship that Spee had found, the Panzershiff giving them to Z1 late last night before the two had gone to sleep. Z1 let out a small snore, feeling quite comfortable in her currently splayed out position, managing to take up quite a bit of space on the queen mattress despite her small stature.
A savory smell entered the room, emanating from downstairs, causing the Ironblood destroyer to stir slightly in her slumber. She slowly opened her eyes, briefly wondering where she was before recalling it all, the sinking, the subsequent awakening in this 'Remnant' as Graf Spee had called it, and her arrival at this new base. She felt a lump rise to the back of her throat as she thought of her sinking, but she pushed it down. 'The Great Z1 will not get choked up so easily,' Z1 scolded herself internally as she rose from her bed. After donning her uniform and beret, she exited her room and followed the delicious smell that roused her from her slumber.
Leberecht walked down the main hall of the second story, the walls of said hall most likely used to be painted white, but the paint had peeled away too much for Maass to ascertain for absolute certain. She climbed down the stairs to the first floor, walking down that hallway towards the entrance. Once she reached the end of the hall, she entered the small-ish common area of the building. Following her nose, she turned her head towards the small kitchen in the corner of the lounge. At the stove was Graf Spee, her back to Z1 showing off her blue shark tail, and cooking what must have been the origin of the smell, Z1 finally able to clearly tell what it was, bacon.
Z1's eyes gleamed and she quickly moved over to Spee, her mouth watering. "Guten Morgen, Z1." Spee stated, looking up from the frying pan, "The bacon should be ready in just a few minutes. The eggs and toast are ready currently so help yourself to those." The Heavy Cruiser stated, gesturing behind her towards the island in the kitchen, where a small platter of eggs and around a half dozen slices of toast lay.
"Danke, Herr Spee!" Z1 gratefully exclaimed, quickly grabbing a plate and serving herself around half the eggs and taking three pieces of toast. She took a set of utensils and sat, beginning to dig into the food that Graf Spee had provided. Lebe looked over and saw a small ghost of a smile on Graf Spee's face as she cooked.
Soon enough, Spee turned and placed three strips of bacon onto Z1's plate before grabbing a plate for herself and filling it with the rest of the food present. Ship Girls could get sustenance from drinking Petroleum of any form, from Crude oil to Diesel or Gasoline. Most avoided doing this just due to how awful it tasted and that it was normally cheaper to eat food, even if it had to be in increased quantities than what your normal man ate.
Z1 didn't know any topics of conversation, so she just sat quietly next to Spee. This continued until they both finished, "So, what are we doing today?" Maass asked, breaking the silence and grabbing the Heavy Cruiser's attention.
"We will be going to a nearby inhabited town and procuring passage to the major city of Vale for a more thorough research expedition on this world."
Z1 nodded, standing up and taking both her's and Spee's dishes to the sink and washing them and setting them aside to let them dry before turning and regarding Spee once more. "When are we leaving?"
Spee hesitated for a moment, thinking over her answer, "Within the hour would be best."
"Welp, I'm ready when you are!" Exclaimed Z1, giving Graf Spee a large smile.
"Then I believe we should be off then." Stated the panzershiff, turning and exiting the dorm building, Z1 following.
"So what are we going to do about the ships? Just leave them here unguarded?" Z1 asked, causing Spee to halt and look over towards the moorings at the docked ships.
"If we had Camouflage nets, I would place them over our ships, but all we can do is leave them here until we can construct an enclosed dock to conceal them." She stated, turning back and continuing on out the base, Z1 still trailing behind.
By 3:00 the duo found themselves at the massive gates of the town of Reedsmoore, the small village apparently quite well defended from land incursions. They had a few skirmishes with the land-based Grimm of the continent. The creatures apparently more attracted to Z1 than Graf Spee, as evidenced that each that they encountered targeted the destroyer first, striking the two as odd, but they made it.
Spee walked forth and knocked twice on the large gate, she and Z1 had decided it best to approach the town without their rigging, just in case they be shot by any guards present. A porthole in the gate opened to reveal two beady eyes, glaring at them suspiciously.
"Who are ya? What do ya want?" Asked a gruff male voice accusingly, causing the two Ironblood ships to look at each other confused.
"I am Graf Spee and this is Leberecht Maass, we need to buy passage to Vale through your port. This can be arranged, yes?" Spee stated evenly, the eyes scanning her and Z1 as she spoke.
"How're you alive if all you 'ave on ya is a weak lookin pistol?" The guard asked, still holding his suspicious tone as he referenced the PO8 on Spee's belt
"We are more than able to hold our own against the Gimm found around in these forests. Now, will you allow us entry or not?" Spee replied, taking on a slightly irritated tone at the end. The man simply let out a grunt and closed the porthole, a small door in the gate opening and allowing the two inside Reedsmoore. Spee stepped forward first, followed by Z1, once they passed through, they saw the man who had been interrogating them, he was a short man, around an inch shorter than Spee, and he had a slightly rusted rifle in his hands. His clothing was obviously quite old, and splattered with mud and grime, the man wearing them not looking much better, with unkempt brown hair and beard.
"Don' make any trouble and you'll be fine, if any of us guards see you doin something you shouldn't be, we'll shoot cha, no judge, no jury, no nothin." The guard stated, "You got that Animal?" he asked, glancing at Spee's tail with a sneer. The Cruiser simply nodded, ignoring his remark, the man waved then waved them in before closing the door and sitting down in a shabby wooden stool next to said door.
Spee and Z1 left the guard and his post behind, strolling through the streets and gaining suspicious looks from nearly every other citizen of the town, and a few derogatory remarks about Spee's tail, all which the two ignored. Spee honestly couldn't blame them for being suspicious, they must not get many visitors due to them being one of the very few settlements on the continent; but she couldn't help but draw parallels to the treatment of these Faunus, which the villagers must think she is, to the treatment of the Jews in her home country or the non-whites and Irish in America. As they walked, Z1 lowly hummed a familiar tune, Westerwaldlied, the German Folk Song causing Spee to smile slightly as they walked.
After running a few errands; such as going to a local pawn shop and trading in a bar of Silver that Spee had onboard at the time of her sinking as a trophy from a sunk British Merchant Vessel, gaining the two a substantial amount of Lien. The two then arrived at the docks, finding a small passenger liner there willing to give them voyage to Vale, for a rather low amount of their recently acquired wealth. Z1 and Spee now resided in a rather cramped cabin that housed a bunkbed, a short nightstand, and a small closet, accommodations the two were used to aboard military vessels.
The two girls talked for a long while, Z1 catching the elder panzershiff up on how the war was going, and informing her that so far Germany was winning on the land front and was doing substantial damage to the merchant convoys meant to keep the islands of Ireland and Great Britain feed. Z1 had also chosen to stay silent about the ultimate fate of Spee's former Captain, Langsdorff. Spee seemed relieved when she was told that both her sister Deutschland and Admiral Scheer remained alive. Z1 also told Spee the very basics of how she was sunk, leaving out much of the details that still festered on her conscience.
Official Calendar Date: February 28th, 1940.
73 Days after the Scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee
Z1 stood on the deck of the small passenger ship that they took from the Dragon Continent to the city of Vale, the city in question coming into view, taking Z1's breath away. She had heard of the massive Skyscrapers of Britain and America, but this was on a whole new level, it was like something out of a dime store fiction novel. The other feature of the city that caught her eye was the large wall surrounding the town, said wall having quite a few fixed artillery emplacements. She had heard from Spee that the Grimm were apparently quite a threat to the civilizations of this world, something that Lebe found quite strange due to her experience with the creatures., but she could not honestly expect normal humans to ever come close to the strength and endurance of Frauenschiff.
"It seems almost unreal." Maass heard from behind her, causing the destroyer to turn her head. Spee had apparently come up while the silver haired girl had been distracted by the view. The two had elected to speak in English unless they needed to communicate something secretly, seeing as English appeared to be the dominant language of the area.
Z1 hummed in acknowledgement, turning back to the sight in front of her. The Graf walked up and took up a place next to the Ironblood destroyer, leaning on the ship's railing and joining her in her sightseeing.
After a half hour, they soon docked at the port, surprisingly not needing to show any identification or speak to any Customs Officials, so they simply thanked the captain and walked off into the city. After speaking with a local Polizist and asking for directions to the library, they finally made it to the place that was the purpose for this escapade, The Royal Library of Vale, this rather large Marble faced building stood imposingly over the nearby street, and apparently wasn't drawing many visitors seeing as that none of the mass of people walking on the sidewalk were diverting up the steps to the building.
Once the Ironblood duo reached the doors to the library, Spee turned to Z1, "I should be fine researching in here on my own. It might be beneficial for you to walk around the city and get hands on feel of the culture."
Z1 nodded with a smile, "Will do Herr Spee."
"If you get in trouble, retreat back to here and find me; if you are unable to run away, use as much force as you deem necessary to be able to get back here, but try your best to avoid using your rigging as to prevent… inquisitions around yourself." Spee stated, "If you become hungry or wish to buy anything, here is a portion of our Lien." Spee then handed Z1 a couple 50 Lien notes before turning and entering the library, leaving Maass to her own devices. The petite destroyer grinned; she was going to have some fun.
Guten Morgen - Good morning
Danke, Herr Spee - Thanks, Lord Spee (Herr litterally translates to lord but it is mostly an honorific)
Polizist - Police Officer/Constable
And there is the chapter I promised ya'll, next up will be Lebe's exploration of Vale and Spee's adventure within the Royal Valerian Library. But yeah, I decided to just retcon the tail in, even if some wanted a full rework or just said that I didn't need to include it at all. And also, overwhelmingly I got replies about Spee's tail, but I didn't get any around my first question, the inclusion of Sirens in the story. But anyways, thank you all for reading, and as always, feel free to leave criticism, roast me, threaten my life, or anything else along those lines.
Sayonara readers, Gamenian out.