9044. Please welcome a WWI shipgirl to Wilhelmshaven!
9044a. "Hochseeflotte submarine U-20, ready to serve!"
*In Southampton*
"Lucy? What's wrong?" - Mauretania
"To quote tha' space movie, ah feel a great disturbance in th' Force...ah presence I've no' felt since..." - Lusitania

mendelevianDescendant said:

9044b: "To quote that medieval romcom movie - my name is RMS Olympic. You sank my girlfriend. Prepare to die." - Olympic

Wilhelmshaven, 3 August 20xx

Finally, a little peace, a little quiet for a change. Admiral Hartmann could thank his lucky stars perhaps, that just this once the mayhem endemic to other shipgirl bases was at a minimum level here in Wilhelmshaven. Granted, the base now had more coffee than logistics knew what to do with short of actually consuming it - chronic caffeine exposure was not something he wanted to give his personnel, let alone his entire fleet of flottenmadchen - and even the water in the harbor now had caffeine concentrations above background trace levels, but aside from this things were so far on the down low! Nothing getting blown up, or set on fire, or generally going haywire...

It was a rare state for a naval base of shipfolk, a Zen Mode, a metastable state that was bound to come crashing back to madness sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before the rule counter had to be cranked forward by one due to some incident or another, but for now the admiral could be content to take a long draught of his coffee, surveying the sea from his window before the door to his office was unceremoniously flung open. Ah yes. Back to the ground state with a release of energy.

There's a tired, husky sigh from Admiral Hartmann before he turns to face the intruder who had broken the brief illusion of quietude he had up til now been savoring. "Bismarck. I hope this does not have anything to do with the coffee influx of recent weeks?" he asked, setting his own coffee mug on the desk as he raised a brow at the formidable battleship who currently stood in his doorframe. "Nein, it's nothing to do with that, although I have ideas now on how to best make use of the excess," she began. "We have had... I think it is best you see for yourself, we have gotten ourselves another Unterseeboot."

"Again? Well we could do well with more of them, though at the rate things in the Atlantic are progressing we may find more of them having to instead see action in the Arctic and the Pacific." More questions would follow however, en route to the summoning chamber. "Why the sudden haste in sending for me though? I am aware I must be present to greet the new summons but such urgency... Have you summoned one with an impressive kill count? Or one with a difficult attitude?" he added pointedly. It was uncommon, but not unheard of, for German shipgirls hailing from the era of WW2 to hold to, for want of a better word problematic worldviews. What Aso had once been (and danke Gott she was no longer of the sort) was by no means a one-off.

The response from the pride of the former Kriegsmarine was a little testy, no offense meant to Commandant Teste. "It's less of how many she sunk and more of who she sunk. Here, get her introduced," Bismarck said as she opened the door to the summoning room for her companion (and potential father-in-law). "At attention! I, Admiral Hartmann, will be your new commanding officer-" Trailing off in confusion at her familiar appearance, Hartmann would see the new summons spring to a salute immediately. "Hochseeflotte submarine, SM U-20, ready to serve!"

Ah, the admiral thought to himself, comprehension finally dawning. The predecessor by name to the Kriegsmarine's U-20, and the sub that had sunk the Lusitania... who had mistaken the later U-20 for the earlier U-20 when she had been summoned. Oh great. Rubbing his temples, Hartmann straightened up. "At ease. There is much ground to cover, events of intervening decades for you to catch up on," he began, gesturing for Bismarck to escort SM U-20 and follow him. "Not to mention someone who would not take your arrival well..."

~~ **~* *~

Southampton, that same day

There had been nothing out of the ordinary for the Cunard greyhounds, paying a visit to the city that had been their de facto home port in days gone by, when the elder of the two sisters suddenly stopped in her tracks, shuddering like she had just walked through a sudden curtain of cold water. "Lucy? What's wrong?" Mauretania's concern was understandable - for when Lusitania next spoke, it was with the Scottish accent that slipped out whenever she was particularly wound up.

"To quote tha' space movie, ah feel a great disturbance in th' Force...ah presence I've no' felt since..."

~~ ~*~ ~*~*

Scapa Flow, 4 August

Goodness, how things had changed since the Great War! After a long and thorough debriefing, during which she had been introduced to her Kriegsmarine successor and lookalike, SM U-20 still had trouble believing they were now working with their former enemies against a common eldritch threat. Nonetheless, she had taken it upon herself to pay the British fleet a visit, partly to have a look and see their naval strength, and partly to get to know her new allies (Gott that would take some getting used to). The subgirl slowly surfaced in the waters off Scapa Flow, and for a time after that she was seemingly well-received by the British shipgirls, who had by now mostly put the bygones of the past behind them.

On asking about her erstwhile famous victim however, there was a sort of reticence to direct her to meeting Lusitania - but not to be deterred, SM U-20 was soon spotted making her way to the liners' quarters. Unfortunately for her, the shipfolk who answered the door was a gruff-looking fellow who cleared six feet easily, and from the look in his eyes he was not at all pleased to see her. Time to make a good first impression. "Ahem. Is Frau Lusitania available right now?" she began. "I would like to speak with her-" "I'm afraid that won't be permissible," the taller liner cut in, arms folded over his chest. "And why not? I mean her no harm, I only wish to have words with her!" SM U-20 gave him a searching gaze, asking him now: "Wait, who are you exactly?"

"Allow me to make an introduction." Eyes would narrow at the nervous U-boat as the ocean liner spoke up, and quoted a movie while he was at it to boot. "To quote that medieval romcom movie - my name is RMS Olympic." The quiet growl in his voice warned of eminent displeasure - this sub was in seriously big trouble. "You sank my girlfriend." "Girlfriend? Was... you and Lusitania are together now?" SM U-20 couldn't be more confused, though confusion soon turned to outright terror as soon as the ocean liner unsheathed a gleaming bronze axe. "Prepare to die." The U-boat screamed. Much mayhem and attempted violence then ensued.

"Aaaaiiiiieeeeee! Scheiße scheiße scheiiiiiiße, let me explain myself!"

One lengthy chase scene, two misused torpedoes, and several mutual freakouts from Lusitania and SM U-20 later, Admiral Collingwood's office was now hosting a fairly white-as-a-sheet U-boat and a very, very shaky Lusitania, her sister and her boyfriend flanking her almost protectively. Collingwood had confiscated Olympic's axe and was now glaring disappointedly at the ocean liner (who was, while still looking pretty peeved, keeping his head down for the most part). "Really now. While I admire the desire to protect Lusitania, there were better ways of doing it than chasing our guest with an axe - even if she looks like the other U-20 who traumatized our Lucky Lusi after her summoning, and even if she is the one who sank her back in 1915."

"Now you, madame." Collingwood turned to his submarine guest, raising a brow at her. "What made you think meeting your most famous victim would go without a hitch? It's a matter of record here that your actions are the reason she has difficulty sleeping at night-" "I just wanted to apologize!" SM U-20's words caught practically everyone off guard. Even Lusitania dared to look at her former killer, confusion etched on her face. "I... I'm sorry, what?" "Look, I came here because I wanted to apologize for my actions," SM U-20 began, a mutinously stubborn look in her eyes as she rounded on Lusitania, until Mauretania stopped her coming closer with a hand. "Now that we're working together against these Abyssals, I figured it would be better if the air was clear between us, you know? I have to admit, I regretted sinking you - I couldn't have fired another torpedo..." Here she trailed off, chewing her lip, unsure what else she could say. "So... I'm sorry, for whatever that's worth."

Confused at the strange turn of events, the British admiral would settle back in his desk, looking out at the four of them with a sigh. "Well. That settles it then, I suppose. Lusi, your thoughts on the matter...?" Silence from the Cunarder, before she straightened up to look her killer in the eye. "I... I do not know if or when I can ever begin to think of you as a friend - I have hardly gotten over that afternoon even after all these years." Screwing up her courage, she shut her eyes, and let out a long, low exhale. "For now though... apology accepted, new ally." "Right. In the meantime," and here Collingwood turned to Olympic, pointing almost accusatorily at him. "You're going to make it up to our guest, show her around the place, get her acquainted with the fleet. And for heaven's sake be nice to her for crying out loud!"