Chapter 8 - Wolfpack

(Port of Yokosuka – Japan – 08:00)

Two women stood on one of the piers where the student ships in the port were moored. Both of the women, one middle aged and the other younger, wore naval uniforms with the ranks of admiral and vice-admiral. One of the two was senior instructor Witzel, and the other senior instructor Callaghan.

Though she held conflicting views with instructor Witzel on the RATt virus incident, Callaghan had started warming up towards the older German instructor in the past few weeks. Callaghan was young for a senior instructor, being in her late twenties in contrast to the other senior instructors who were all past forty years of age, and therefore considered associating with her older counterparts as a learning experience. Presently, she had followed instructor Witzel to the port for no special reason, though the German instructor was there for a purpose.

Instructor Witzel had arrived there to meet the captains of a German submarine group, commonly known as a wolfpack. This concept introduced by the Germans was seeing its use among all other student fleets in the past few weeks. When the drones from a drone carrier spotted an infected ship or fleet, and no surface units were close by to engage them, a submarine fleet had to be dispatched to monitor the ships or engage them in combat. The latest of similar sightings was the German battleship Bismarck.

Presently, four students arrived at the pier; three boys and a girl. Seeing instructor Witzel, the boy who was at the front of the group walked over while the others remained behind. After his salute to the two admirals, Callaghan withdrew to a respectable distance to allow the Germans to communicate. The discussion was in German, a language that Callaghan did not understand. But from the facial expressions of the two it was clear to her that the matter they discussed was grim. Once the discussion was over the boy nodded and went back to his companions as the instructor came to Callaghan.

"Captain Schulz of the U-124." She explained. "One of Instructor Donitz's best students."

"You've sent them after the Bismarck?"

"Yes, The Bismarck has remained close to Japan in the past few days, but now she's heading towards open ocean. If she manages it along with her escort, we'll have a really hard time finding her again."

"What do you intend to do?" Callaghan asked.

"I ordered the submarines to turn her back towards Japan and damage her steering. Then we can engage the ships close to the shore and cure the students on board."

"Will it work?"

"I hope it will. This wolfpack is made of the U-124, U-94, U-569 and the recently constructed U-406. Even excluding the submarines, we have the best crews for the job. I'm sure they'll manage to settle this."

The four students had left. Hearing what Witzel said, Callaghan wondered if the submariners of her own country could manage a mission of the sort. They operated Gato-class submarines directly comparable or even superior to the Germans, but what about their crews? She decided to keep the question for another day. Afterall, American submarines were yet to see themselves in a mission of the kind.

"What about you? Any luck in your side?"

"No," Callaghan shook her head. "We still can't contact Hawaii."

"And you fear the worst?"

"Yes, specially since your ships got the RATt virus that close to Pearl Harbor. But it'll be a huge problem if the entire Pacific Fleet is infected. We have White Dolphins patrolling around the island without getting too close. What we can't understand is why the ships are keeping quiet."

"If they're infected, you'll expect them to do something."

"Yes…but there's no major sign of activity around the islands. I want to know what's going on there. But it's dangerous to send anyone to investigate."

She paused for a moment. It seemed like their only option lay, just like with the Germans, in submarines.

"I'm going to send submarines to check on Pearl. That's our only option."

(Phillipine sea - 00:15)

The student fleet submarine squadrons were meant to include a minimum of 3-4 submarines, with the task of shadowing infected ships from a safer position than cruisers. The submarines were slow. But their job was only part of the plan, and by the time the submarine loses sight of the faster ship, a friendly fleet would be ready to take it on. However, this time the I-201 was alone, without the rest of the squadron. And it was the American's fault.

Well, blaming all Americans for this was wrong, since it was only their infected ships that had created this issue. They had split up, which was completely against the established idea that they tended to cooperate, as seen by the union of the Japanese and British at Tsushima. Now captain Hashimoto was trying to figure out who to blame for their situation. Was he at fault, for only appointing his craft to follow the most valuable target? Was it the British that gave wrong predictions on infected behavior? Or was it the Americans on their way to Leyte Gulf.

The I-201, accompanied by three more submarines, has been shadowing an infected US cruiser squadron that was headed to Leyte Gulf. At that time, everything was going well. The infected ships were not going to reach the Philippines without being attacked by the Philippine Blue mermaids, not to mention the friendly fleet already on its way to deal with the infected cruisers. All was well.

But that was before the infected cruisers changed direction again, heading back where they came from, to Guam. The submarines had to change course again, while notifying everyone else about the change. But once this was achieved, the enemy would ruin their plans once more by splitting up. Each of the cruisers went a different way, with a submarine having to follow them. This left the I-201 in pursuit of the ship that led the formation, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis was heading close to Leyte Gulf, and most of the Philippine Blue mermaids had been sent after the other three cruisers. So it was up to the I-201 to change the cruiser's course. This was easily achieved, with one training torpedo from the four bow torpedo tubes achieving the needed results of getting the enemy's attention. Now the I-201 was heading in the opposite direction, with the heavy cruiser in pursuit.

The I-201 and her crew were considered to be some of the best in Toumai, but that had only been till their unfortunate incident with the Harakaze. They had fired on an innocent student ship without much thought, and they had also lost in a battle to a first year destroyer which reportedly had only one working depth charge on board at the time. This was not a good look.

Now Hashimoto had ordered his submarine to dive to periscope level, and begin shadowing the Indianapolis again. Soon his submarine was ignored and overtaken by the heavy cruiser, which, for now, continued on the course set for it by the submarine. The time was past midnight, and it was safe for him to resurface. He gave the commands.

"Make all preparations for surfacing."

"Secure the ventilation, shut bulkhead flappers." The submarine's diving officer ordered after him. "Ready to surface in all respects, captain."

"Surface."

Now it was time to contact the others. The radio operator of the I-201 first contacted the Blue Mermaids, who were still in pursuit of the other ships, and the friendly student fleet, which were still out of range. All was mostly well.

And this was before the I-201 received another radio message. {Tanker ahead. urgent course change needed.}

Now Hashimoto had another party to blame. The crew of the tanker.

"How far?"

{20 kilometres}

Then it was a matter of time before the Indianapolis decided to take aim and fire. And at present, Hashimoto could see the ship begin to accelerate. He had to decide fast.

"Load torpedoes. Forward room, Order of tubes is one, two, three"

A moment later, his torpedo officer called him. "We'll have to attack through the gate, considering the enemy is right in front of us."

"We can take the shot. Forward room, open the outer doors on tubes one and two."

"Tubes one and two ready, sir."

"Fire one."

The shot missed, and Hashimoto could see the enemy guns light up, in the direction of the tanker.

"Fire two."

The second torpedo was not going to miss, but,

"Indianapolis turning to port."

The torpedo had already left the tube when this sudden change happened. The Indianapolis was going to bring all guns to bear on the tanker. But they wouldn't get the chance to fire them. The helmsman on the cruiser tried his best to change course again, but it was too late.

The torpedo hit the cruiser with a large explosion. When visibly was back, Hashimoto could see that he had hit the wrong spot.

And the Indianapolis was beginning to sink.

Hashimoto was frozen from the shock, but only for a moment. He quickly shouted orders to his helmsman.

"Port 20, ahead full. We have to get close to the Indianapolis."

Whoever mind controlled these students with the virus seemed to know that sea water would cure it, since according to his lookouts, most of the crew of the cruiser were getting on to lifeboats. However the rest had fallen to the sea, or jumped off the ship without a second thought. And there was the danger of them drowning, along with the danger of them coming under attack by the infected students on lifeboats.

"What do we do?"

"We have to rescue the ones in the water first. I don't think we can fit them in the submarine, but we have no choice."

A few of the students in water were already swimming towards the submarine which was close by. But the rest were weak after recovering from the virus, and could only hang onto the lifebuoys the I-201 threw to them, while Hashimoto ordered divers to prepare to bring them on board.

The infected on life boats weren't making any moves yet, and it was clear that there wasn't anything they could do, short of attempting to storm the submarine.

"Captain, there's a call for you." Hashimoto was on the deck of the submarine when he received the message, and he quickly went down again.

{You sank the ship!?} The caller was a girl, and she was not in a good mood. Hashimoto immediately concluded that she was an American, and in all probability his X.O. had let her know of the recent disaster.

"We are greatly sorry. But we weren't aiming to sink her."

{Dammit.} He heard the girl say under her breath. {The USS San Diego will be with you in fifteen minutes. You better keep everyone alive till then.}

Half an hour later, the girl who called was on the deck of the I-201, facing Hashimoto. The light cruiser had quickly taken control of the situation, sending rescue crews armed with antidote vaccines to start bringing the unfortunate crew of the Indianapolis on board. And Hashimoto could identify the captain of the light cruiser without much difficulty. She was another one of the student fleet legends. Another prodigy that had been involved in action more than once during anti piracy operations; hardly something a student can be involved in.

"What is it with you subs and your torpedoes? First it was the Fiji and the Germans, then nearly the Harakaze, where you were involved. And now this."

Hashimoto decided against arguing with Alene Perry, and seeing his defeated attitude, Alene soon cooled down.

"Sorry, I got carried away." She said. "This time it's really not your fault. It's not like you can predict everything the enemy will do once you make your move. I'll blame the lookouts on the Indianapolis.. But it's nearly impossible to spot a submarine at a time like this, even if you were on the surface. And your long lance torps don't help either. They're too strong for our plans."

Alene seemed to be providing Hashimoto with the excuses he would've had to come up with, and he didn't like this. However, Captain Alene quickly changed her tone again.

"According to the information we received, the blimps from the Langley first spotted the cruisers near Micronesia, and I assume you started shadowing them when they were near Guam."

Hashimoto nodded. "From what we heard, ma'am, your ships moved back into the Pacific after the action near Iwo Jima. But they couldn't have had the supplies needed to sail all this time."

"Yes, and if the Langley spotted the ships when they were coming to Micronesia…" Here Hashimoto thought that the captain grew pale, under the light provided to them by the San Diego, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Once all these students are on our ship," she said gesturing to the lifeboats still in water, "You can return to the Philippines. You'll have some paperwork to fill. Instructor Callaghan won't stay quiet about losing a heavy cruiser."

"Understood ma'am."

"And I'll have to call back the rest of my force. We have orders not to pursue too far."

"Our submarines will also receive these orders?"

"Yes, it is frustrating when we have to give up the chase. But there are too many risks involved with going forward without knowing what we'll face." Alene replied. "This is all we can do for now."

(HMS Hood - Yokosuka - 20:00)

"Ma'am, you fought the Blue Mermaids and a fleet led by the two best captains in the RNSF. And you managed the longest ship to ship hit in history. It doesn't matter that you weren't in control of your mind. You were in control of your skills. There's nothing to be ashamed of."

This was the first time Amelia participated in one of Commander Emily's dinners on board the Hood, since she recovered from the virus. This wasn't the first dinner Emily had given after she left the hospital, but Amelia had successfully avoided the previous ones. This time, Emily hadn't given her that chance.

The warm welcome she received at arrival had surprised Amelia. At the same time, she had come to the conclusion that everyone was doing this to make her feel good, and that hadn't improved her mood.

She avoided conversations for some time, and most captains were not brave enough to attempt to converse with her, even though they surely wanted to help her. However, the first year Captain Fernando was an exception.

"We want you to accept leadership of the Eastern Fleet again, even if it's currently non-existent as a separate fleet." Gehan said,. "We will need your help, now that you're back."

Kalum, who did not have half the courage that his friend did, remained silent. This was until, surprisingly, Amelia called him before replying to Gehan.

"Captain Perera, I couldn't congratulate you earlier for successfully following my orders."

"Ma'am, I have to apologize because I don't think I followed orders properly. I had to take Force B to Japan, and I couldn't achieve that without losing the Royal Sovereign."

"Ah, you're still upset over that?" An Indian second year girl said. This was Captain Amara Patel, the former captain of the Royal Sovereign. She always had a cheerful tone, which she continued to maintain even while talking about the loss of her former ship. "I won't speak for myself. But at least my crew consider the loss as a necessary sacrifice that got them the Queen Elizabeth. As for myself, I'm thankful for being alive, which is because you distracted the Resolution so well."

"Captain Patel is right, you know," Amelia said. "No one could've predicted the turn of events you had to face. From what I've heard, you managed to keep the crew safe, and took the remainder of the fleet to Japan safely."

"Thankyou ma'am," Kalum said, though he was afraid that Amelia was only trying to shift the subject of the conversation away from herself.

"Our crews have performed quite well this time." Captain Cunningham said. "Including the first years."

"Don't consider yourself as an external observer here, Harry." Emily replied. "You're included when we talk about our crews."

"I have been an observer of sorts these days."

"We only had one battle. You'll get your chance another time."

The conversation was turning livelier as the night progressed, and there was still time left before their meals.

"A shame the virus interrupted our exercises. This time we have good crews. We would've done well in competitions." Amara said.

"Don't be so sure about that. We aren't the only fleet with good sailors, or good first years." Amelia interjected, unable to keep out of the conversation. "The Japanese, in particular, have a first year that can match me in terms of skill." Her tone remained calm, but everyone could see that she was happily joining in.

"Yes, Captain China. Kalum, I believe you've met her before?"

"We supported the Musashi in the brief interaction with the American battleships." Kalum replied. "I've communicated with Captain China during the action, but I haven't met her in person."

"I have heard that she is impressive." Harry said. "But she's only been in action once, against pirates, where her fire aiming was good enough to match Captain Fraser. And she wasn't directly involved in any of the Musashi's previous actions against the Blue mermaids."

"She has to be good, considering she scored high enough to be the captain of the Yokosuka flag ship."

"And then there's also the Harakaze." Emily said.

"Yes, so we can't afford to get overconfident."

"If I'm allowed to give my thoughts about this matter of competition," Gehan said, to which Emily immediately interjected.

"You don't need permission to say anything here. In fact, nobody needs permission. We aren't on duty. And even while on duty, everyone should have the freedom to express their thoughts. The Royal Navy needs to get rid of this attitude.

Gehan continued, before anyone could reply to Emily "Then I can say we aren't going to lose any of it because of the virus. I believe we'll all be competing with each other to see which navy did best at the rescues."

"And we managed to make the first move." Emily said. "In that case I have to say we have quite the lead over others. Largest naval battle since Tsushima, and in that same location. And," she said, gesturing towards Amelia, "against excellent opponents."

Amelia did not reply to that, and she was saved from having to reply at all when the cooks on the Hood arrived with their starters.

Kalum considered Captain Emily as a person who had a sense of what a good meal is. She was having a habit of exploring cuisines of other nations in her dinners, which saved him from having to eat British food more than once before. Even the British meal they had was much better than what he had heard about what people consumed on that island, and Emily had kindly let them know that the bad British food stereotype actually came from what Americans ate, though the British still didn't include enough spices in their dishes.

Today they were going to enjoy a Japanese, Thai mixed meal, and the first course that came was soup. The soup was Thai, and Kalum had learnt to be weary of the taste of East Asian food. But he was hungry, after a busy day of training. And he, like almost all others, immediately began eating. His hunger had made him forget that he actually knew what this soup was from years ago.

"Is this Tom Yum?" He asked, while trying to bear the absolute spiciness of the soup.

"Yes," Gehan answered for Emily. "You have a problem with the taste?"

"No No, I'm fine," Kalum answered while being annoyed at the hint of a smile his friend showed. He quickly looked around the table to see how everyone else looked. And his embarrassment vanished when he saw the reactions of the other captains. He had it bad, but the British captains, who were even less accustomed to spices than he was, had it worse.

Emily laughed. "Having it for the first time is a challenge. But I thought some of you have experience with spices."

"We use spices," Gehan answered. Having had experience with Asian food plenty of times before, he was unaffected by the soup, being the only one other than Emily who was enjoying it. "But we don't always use so much chili."

Kalum quickly went through with the soup, and gulped down the entire glass of water that was near him.

"Is our main course like this too? In that case I'll be leaving." Amelia said, before Emily chuckled and said, "No you aren't going to skip meals."

"I haven't skipped a meal in days."

"I heard you went on hunger strike the first couple days at the hospital."

Amelia sank back into her chair, after which everyone was surprised to see her giggle. "I could only manage for one day without eating. Says a lot about my self control."

"Or maybe you knew torturing yourself was unnecessary." Emily said in a matter of fact tone.

"Perhaps." Amelia replied, now smiling. "And you're yet to tell me about our main course."

"Oh, it's better." Emily replied. "I don't want to cause a mutiny of the officer corps with the wrong food choices. The main course is Japanese. You can eat in peace."

"I refuse to trust you till I see the meal. And I won't be able to see it if I like." Amelia said. "So I'll stay."

"Amelia, welcome back to the fleet." Emily replied.

(Bering Sea - 13:00)

"Dive, Dive, Dive…"

"Depth charge dropped."

It was too late for the Shchuka-class submarine Scsh-135 to get out of the way of the Rezvy's torpedoes. But they had one hope. Russian submarine crews were all skilled students, while their destroyers were crewed by first years. And these first years were not the best at setting the depth for depth charges.

"Set depth to 40 meters."

"Depth charge above us, sir."

The explosion of the depth charge shook the submarine. Another explosion followed the first. The destroyer had dropped two depth charges. Both were live.

"Damage report, all compartments."

{Torpedo room, all good}

{Engine room, everything normal.}

{Crew compartments, all good.}

"Very well. Take her down. Bow planes down 15, stern up 10" The captain of the submarine ordered. "The Rezvy has 25 depth charges. Ten live. I don't intend to stick around much longer."

He quickly gave the orders necessary to take the submarine down to a depth of 60 meters, and change course to avoid the destroyer.

"Sir, call from Commander Marinesko."

"Oh dammit." The captain quickly went to the radio station where he accepted the call. Communication under water would usually be impossible for student fleet submarines. But considering the important role they play now, they've received more modern communication equipment.

{Pavel, why the fuck don't you listen when I tell you not to play with the destroyer. If they depth charge you, and you die, your blood will be on your hands.}

"Sorry sir."

{If you do anything else, you and your crew will lose your sub and any chance to be on another. It's fucking suicidal to fire dummy torps at destroyers. Yes I know they're first years. But the first years on the Rezvy are the best. What're you going to do next? surface next to them and fire the deck guns?}

"We're sorry sir."

In the Srednyaya-class S-56 submarine, the commander sighed. He was now in his third year, and working with younger submarine crews had never been easy.

{Don't deviate from your course any more. Report the position of the Rezvy} the command came from the S-56.

"Propellor sounds one-one-zero degrees, astern of us, fading fast."

In the S-56, the captain replied. "Good. Captain Lunina, do you have anything to report on the position of the Repulse or Soyuz?"

{No sir} The girl known as Captain Lunina answered from the K-21, which was the only other submarine in their squadron. {We weren't able to reestablish contact with either of the ships after our torpedoes hit the Soyuz.}

"I doubt your torpedoes actually hit the flagship." Marinesko replied. "It was probably an early detonation, since we have no confirmation of a hit."

{Permission to surface for better visibility?}

"Permission granted. Me and pavel can keep the Rezvy occupied."

In the K-21, Captain Lunina gave her orders. "Make all preparations for surfacing."

"Maneuvering, on surfacing, answer bells on three main engines; put one main engine on charge." her diving officer ordered, after which she continued. "Secure the ventilation. Shut bulkhead flappers."

{Ventilation secured.}

{Bulkhead flappers shut.}

"Ready to surface in all respects." The girl said.

"Surface." Lunina ordered.

"Lookouts to the bridge." She ordered soon after, following them outside.

On the surface, everything was calm. Scanning the horizon with binoculars revealed nothing to Lunina, apart from the closest landmark; Bering island. She quickly sent orders to her first mate to report their position to the S-56.

Lunina didn't expect everything to be calm for long. After all, the Rezvy had no reason to operate alone. She was soon proven to be correct in her assumptions.

"Ship, three three zero, horizon."

The captain peered into the direction indicated by the lookout.

"Smoke from three ships." By all probability, there would be more, considering the number of ships they lost.

Lunina quickly went down to personally report her observations to the commander. Her submarine, which was the fastest in the squadron, had been sent considerably ahead for this purpose.

"They're nine kilometers away, and closing for the time being. Permission to follow."

"It's not advisable to go alone." The commander answered before receiving another call.

{Sir, the Rezvy is figuring out the correct depths.}

"We'll be with you soon. Stay alive till then." Marinesko replied before calling the K-21 again, "Permission granted for shadowing. If they're coming back from the Arctic, it's good for us."

Anna Lunina was always considered to be a relatively calm person, who knew how to get something done to near perfection. and unfortunately for her, she believed what everyone else said about her a little too much. This time, she had no worries about the situation. The infected fleet had only one destroyer, with the rest of their ships being minor threats to an experienced submarine crew.

She had ordered the K-21 to go ahead at full speed while still being on the surface, planning to dive a little later. This was a mistake, considering the clear climate. And the K-21 was quickly alerted of this by a secondary gun salvo from one of the ships.

"Dive, dive, dive…!"

On the bright side, soon after the salvo the K-21 managed to identify the ship that fired at them. Soon after ordering the submarine to dive, Lunina transferred this information to her commander.

"We've identified the Kongōamong the infected ships. Should I contact Kure?"

{No, I'll do that.} The answer came immediately.

"Very well. I'm afraid we were detected."

{Stay at periscope depth and keep your attention on the target. The Rezvy is still with us.}

At ten knots submerged, the K class was still fast enough to get close to the enemy quickly, especially as they were still coming towards her position. If they continued south, away from the Arctic, it would be good for everyone. With the ships nearly on top of her submarine, Lunina certainly thought everything was going on perfectly.

"Oh! Sovetski Soyuz turning to port. That's certainly unexpected." She muttered a moment later while peering out above the surface through the periscope. In all probability, their periscope had been spotted some time ago. But the ships knew of her presence from much earlier than that, and could've turned around at that time. Just then she received a message from her commander. {The Rezvy left us. I believe it's currently heading your way. We'll try our best to turn their attention back to us}

The destroyer had probably alerted the rest of the fleet on the submarine threat in the area. Now Anna figured out that she had little time before the enemy destroyer was over her submarine. She had to act fast if she wanted the ships to turn her way.

"Forward room, open outer doors of tubes three and four." After her failed torpedo launch earlier, Anna had taken the precaution of keeping her bow tubes loaded with torpedoes, two live and two dummy.

"After room, make ready the after tubes. Order of tubes is seven, eight."

{Conning tower, tubes three, four ready with dummy torpedoes.}

"Fire three, fire four."

Immediately she gave further orders.

"Hard to starboard." The submarine was ordered to turn 180 degrees while their first two torpedoes made their way towards the Sovetsky Soyuz that made no visible attempt to avoid them.

"Open the outer doors of tubes seven, eight, nine, ten. Fire seven, fire eight."

Their torpedoes should've achieved their aims of distracting the enemy. However, the fleet continued to move from their previous course, and back to the Arctic.

Did we overdo it? Or wasn't this enough?

Lumina did not have enough time to ponder about this before she was alerted of a new arrival at the scene. The Rezvy had caught up to them.

Anna now had to take a dangerous decision. She ordered the K-21 to turn to starboard till the submarine's stern faced the incoming destroyer.

"Fire nine, fire ten."

The destroyer was obviously not expecting a submarine to attack it. Since it was initially slow to maneuver to avoid the torpedoes. But both were avoided just as Lunina expected, and she watched in shock as her periscope was covered by the destroyer which was now nearly over them. Diving orders had been given and an emergency dive was in progress. But,

"Depth charges above us, ma'am."

"Oh god!"

It was surprising that the crew of the K-21 made it through the explosions without major injury. The depth charge runs over the Scsh-135 had given the destroyer plenty of practice.

"Damage report, all quarters." Anna said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Anyone injured?"

{Minor fire in battery aft.}

{All compartments rigged for fire.}

Oh god! Anna repeated in her mind. Any more attacks would mean complete destruction. But did they have to worry about more?

She quickly calculated in her mind. The Rezvy carried ten live depth charges for training. About eight of those would've been used up against the Scsh-135, leaving only two for the K-21. Possibly! Probably! Hopefully!

"We won't be in the receiving end of any more depth charges. If we can hold on for longer…"

{Ma'am, we're leaking all around the place. We won't be able to contain them all.}

The captain took a deep breath. "Make all preparations for emergency surfacing."

"But that's a death sentence." Her first mate shouted.

"We have no choice." Anna answered. "We will follow standard protocol. I repeat, prepare to surface."

Her crew decided to follow her orders without further protest. It was as their captain said. Remaining submerged would lead to possible implosion which was already a death sentence.

"Blow all tanks. Surface. Surface."

As the submarine began surfacing, Anna gave a new set of orders that she believed would be enough to save her submarine and crew from imminent destruction.

"Battle stations standard gun action. Load ammunition train for both four inch guns. Live ammunition."

She turned to her gunnery officer who was staring at her with a shocked expression. "Yes, we're going to challenge a destroyer to a gunfight."

Without answering her gunnery officer went off to oversee her tasks, and the reply Anna needed came quickly. {Gunnery officer ready.}

"Target is the Rezvy. Stand by for battle surface."

As soon as the K-21 broke onto the surface, Anna shouted, "Open gun access hatches. Gun crew on deck." Submarine deck guns were unfortunately not automated, which would put her crew in a dangerous position. So Anna followed her gunnery officer outside, taking her position beside her at the aft four inch gun.

By now the infected fleet, apart from the Rezvy, were headed back north. A major failure on her part. But the presence of only one ship was a relief in this instance.

"Deck guns, commence firing. Fire two." Anna ordered just as a shell from the Rezvy hit close by, drenching everyone in sea water.

Following further orders from the gunnery officer, the aft gun crew fired, while the fore gun crew waited till they could aim theirs.

Anna covered her ears as the four inch gun fired its first shot. The K-class was quite strong in respect to gun armament, having two four inch guns. And those guns could do their job.

"Gun two, hit."

"If we can handle it, hard to starboard. We need to bring both guns to bear, and getting closer to the Rezvy can give them gun depression issues."

Gun one fired soon after, followed by another round from gun two. The latter of the two shots was a miss. But two hits might just be enough to turn the destroyer around.

{Captain, fire checked in battery aft.}

This was good news, but hardly anything sufficient to relieve Anna of her worries. "Please, please, please don't use torpedoes." She prayed under her breath while looking at the Rezvy which had slowed down after their attack. The main guns of the destroyer were mostly useless now. But the torpedoes she carried could still end the game for the submarine.

Miraculously, the destroyer began to turn around, having suffered considerable damage from the hits. And two further shots from the submarine deck guns, both of which were purposeful misses, was enough to speed up the turn. A while later the destroyer was on its way behind the rest of the fleet.

Anna leaned against the wall of the conning tower of the K-21 and sighed, after which she called her first mate.

"Contact the commander and let him know our condition. This was a complete mission failure for me."

(Philippine Sea - 19:15)

It was quite fitting that the KMS Bismarck was headed to Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Sea, named after her namesake Count Otto Von Bismarck.

But letting her reach the shores of New Guinea, and then Australia, was not an option as far as everyone uninfected were concerned. The German flagship had to be turned around or stopped before that happened, and the quickest option was to turn her around, which was the task of the wolfpack.

Captain Schulz commanding the group from the U-124 had appointed the U-569 to go ahead of everyone else and wait for the other three submarines in the team to join in. This was a dangerous task, especially due to the existence of the Z-31 destroyer, which could make it impossible for the U-569 to engage in its task accurately. But Heinrich Schulz was perfectly capable of coming up with a plan to detour this threat.

"We have enough sonar decoys to buy us time."

The tactic had worked, and all four submarines were now within range of the Bismarck and the accompanying Prinz Eugen. And soon they were positioned as was needed for their attack.

"Tubes one to two, prepare for surface launch."

"Flood tubes one to two." The submarines would first use training torpedoes to annoy the ships, as was the procedure.

{Tracking target. Range 2200.}

"All ahead one third. Open torpedo hatches." Sure about his aim, Heinrich gave his orders.

"Tubes one to two, fire at will! Tube one, fire. Tube two, fire."

The two torpedoes were aimed for the Bismarck's bulges, and soon they hit their mark.

"Hundred percent accuracy. The Bismarck didn't even try to avoid it. She's not changing course even now after the strike." This information was distributed among the rest of the wolfpack immediately.

"We can try live torpedoes. The Bismarck should theoretically be capable of handling a couple of those. Frieda, I leave you to launch the next strike."

{Is it safe, sir?} Captain Frieda Kuppisch commanding the U-94 asked. {maybe we should try training using torpedoes once more.}

The girl was unsure about this decision, and Heinrich could say that the rest of his companions felt the same. But he stuck to his decision. "If Captain Oels has decided on something, it'll take a lot to change her decision. She knows that training torpedoes can't hurt her ship." He continued, "And we can't stick around for long. They'll alert the Z-31 quickly, and we'll be in trouble."

{Yes sir, authorizing the use of live torpedoes. Preparing tubes one to two for launch.}

{One fired.} she said a moment later. {Two on standby.}

"Don't fire two yet."

In the U-94, Captain Kuppisch monitored the progress of her torpedo, counting the seconds on a stopwatch for the time the torpedo had before exploding. Just as the time ended she could make out the explosion on the ship's starboard side.

A moment later Commander Schulz received a message. {No change of course observed from the Bismarck. Ready to launch two.}

"Fire two."

This time the battleship made a hard turn to starboard to avoid the torpedo, and Heinrich received the expected message after a while.

{Torpedo missed the mark. But she's now turned in the right direction. }

"That's what we want." He said before calling the U-406. "Fire at the rudder."

The message that arrived a moment later was unexpected. {Tube one, failed to launch. Firing tube two.}

{Tube two, failed to launch.}

"What!? What's wrong with the damn boat?"

He didn't care for the answer after he received the next news. {Bismarck correcting course again.}

Heinrich contacted the U-569 which was ahead of the Bismarck. "Can you fire your torpedoes?"

{Negative, the Prinz Eugen is in the way.}

"Then we'll take the shot. Forward room. tubes three to four, prepare for surface launch."

{Sir, the Z-31 is closeby.}

"U-569, U-94, U-406. Dive to avoid possible depth charges. We'll finish this."

A moment later he shouted, watching the movement of the Bismarck impatiently. "Fire three."

His torpedo, aimed at the Bismarck's port side, did its job, and the battleship made a hard turn to starboard to avoid it. But Heinrich Schulz never missed.

The torpedo hit its mark, but its success was quickly ignored by a captain fully focused on the now exposed stern of the battleship.

"Fire four."

This time the battleship made another turn to starboard to avoid the torpedo, leaving her facing the exact direction Heinrich wanted.

The stern of the battleship was momentarily hidden by the explosion of the twenty-one inch torpedo. Heinrich didn't have time to check on the results as he was alerted of a new arrival at the scene; the Z-31.

"Emergency dive. Depth to forty meters."

The depth charge explosions that followed were bearable to the crew of the submarine, who were now in their third year as students.

"Damage report, all compartments."

Heinrich knew that there would be no serious damage to his submarine. The depth charges hadn't been set for the correct depth. Three explosions had gone off while Heinrich counted silently. But apart from being badly shaken, the submarine was fine.

The sound of screws above confirmed that the Z-31 was still over them. Heinrich snapped his fingers impatiently. They had to remain below to escape the destroyer, and give up trying to visually confirm the course of the Bismarck.

Fortunately the screw sounds began to diminish. The destroyer was headed away from them. But in which direction? Heinrich bade his crew to remain silent while he asked this question from his hydrophone operator.

"Contact bearing zero-eight-five. Propeller sounds fading quickly."

"Perfect!" Heinrich said, smiling for the first time in the day. "If we're lucky and my guess is correct, The Z-31 is following the Bismarck. And that means we can call instructor Witzel and deliver our successful mission report."

The crew cheered. Their flagship had just passed out of their hands, and into those who awaited her arrival up north.