22nd August, 1941.
With Victory and Nelson being away from the base for a whole week, tensions between the Royal Navy, led by QE in the Commander's place and the Iron Bloods there led by Bismarck are slowly escalating. Warspite meets with Bismarck in secret to discuss it before it becomes too much to manage.
Bismarck turns up to the meeting point at the exact second Warspite specified. The smaller shipgirl looks up at her with a friendly smile, "Ah, right on time. Good evening, Lady Bismarck."
Bismarck nods, "Frau Warspite."
Warspite chuckles, "And I half expected you to call me 'Fräulein'."
Bismarck cracks a slight smile, "Calling you might imply that you're not a real woman as you're not married. I do not wish to insult you."
"Oh." Warspite mutters, "Perhaps we should all learn your language… Anyway, I've tried over and over with my sister, but her ego just keeps getting in the way of peaceful co-existence between us. I've managed to get her to treat her betters with more respect but she still sees you and your faction as below her."
"Unfortunate. Also, the more Iron Bloods we manage to capture and recruit, the more I dread Prinz Eugen coming here." Bismarck looks with a troubled expression.
"Why is that? I've heard her name a lot but I don't know what she's like. Isn't she the sister of Hipper and Blücher?" Warspite inquires.
"Ja. Let's just say that I wouldn't have Eugen as a diplomatic negotiator, but I know she'd find a way into that position anyway just to piss me off. She's an excellent combatant and very clever, but she takes pleasure in making others feeling uncomfortable, and no offence go you or your sister, but she'd have a field day with your height and ears." Warspite's corgi ears twitch on their own as Bismarck explains. "If she comes here, tensions my boil over a lot faster. With the Kommandantin gone with no explanation, we can only assume the Sirens have her and Frau Nelson. We must do something to ease relations before rumours and accusations start going around."
"Agreed. We have to prove we can work together without her constant watch and guidance, otherwise all she's accomplished with our truce with be for nought. If we cannot, then we cannot hope to escape this digital Hell we're in." Warspite nods. "Now then, let's discuss how…"
Nelson is on the deck of the USS Maryland inspecting the main guns. She wants to make sure her fellow Big Seven member is looking after them, after all. "Very well maintained, well done."
Maryland herself groans, "Yes, alright. This is literally the 10th time this week you've checked on my ship. And the others. Just give it a rest, will ya?"
Nelson looks at her, "Well, what else can I do? We could've been at the Panama Canal by now! But instead what is that idiot doing? Trying to open another portal back home, despite not knowing how she did it in the first place! She could've been doing that while sailing on my ship!"
Maryland smirks, "You like her, don't you?"
Blushing, Nelson shoots back, "You're bored, aren't you?"
The red-haired Kansen leans on her turret and sighs loudly, "Ugh… VERY bored… I just want a fight, dammit… every time I see the sunset, my immediate thought is a battlefield. Whenever Vestal cooks, I think it's gunfire burning…"
Concerned, Nelson says, "I think you have a problem."
"Maybe… but it's what we were built for, right? Fighting? Isn't anything else a waste of time for us?" Maryland shrugs.
The Royal thinks about it, "You're not wrong… but it helps to have other interests. Like her over there. What does she like to do?" She points to a smaller white-haired Kansen talking to her black-haired sister on the docks.
"Downes? She loves blowing stuff up."
"Alright, not the best example. What about the other one?"
"Cassin sleeps all the time." Maryland shrugs.
Slightly frustrated, Nelson asks, "Okay, what about West Virginia? What does she like to do?"
"She plays guitar sometimes. I've never really been interested."
"Have you tried playing? You might enjoy it." Nelson offers.
"Have YOU tried? It's so tedious. I don't have the patience." Maryland counters.
Nelson mutters, "I'm going to go check on her..."
"For the second time today? Sure, whatever…" Maryland sighs.
Nelson is on her way back to the USS West Virginia again, but is stopped by a happy-go-lucky Battleship with a camera and a flagpole in her hands. "Hey, Miss Nelson!"
"Yes, Miss California?" Nelson answers neutrally.
"Could you get a picture of all of us together? We'd all really appreciate it!" She hands her the big, bulky camera with a huge flash on it. She runs back over to her sister Tennessee and their friends Arizona, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Nevada all stood in a line for the picture. Nelson sighs and goes over to take the picture.
She stands so that Nevada will be the closest to get California's flag in the shot as well, "Alright, get ready." She announces. The row of Battleships put on their smiles and slight poses as the camera flashes.
"Thanks a bunch, Miss Nelson! You're the best!" California runs over and hugs her close.
Tennessee yells, "Cali! Watch the camera, idiot!" Much to the entertainment of the others.
Nelson hands the camera back and wordlessly continues on. Nevada notices and slips away from the others. She catches her up and says, "You alright, young'un? You're rather quiet. Homesick?"
"I'm fine, Miss Nevada."
"Ah, you can drop the "Miss" with me. I ain't that old." Nevada chuckles. "There must be something up. You've been back and forth between Mary and Westy for the longest time now."
"I merely want to make sure my fellow Big Seven members are taking care of their ships." Nelson makes the same excuse.
"C'mon, it's gotta be more than that." Nevada pushes.
"I just… can't believe how… quiet it is here. Peaceful. You wouldn't think that you lot are all fighting Sirens. I suppose I'm just nervous. It's too quiet for my liking." Nelson explains.
"Yeah, they're usually focused in the Atlantic. The Sirens hardly ever attack any territories in the Pacific." Nevada shrugs.
"I wish we had your help over there. We're barely holding on. The Wolfpacks are getting most of your country's supply convoys before they get to us, Iron Blood controls all of of Europe… the Sirens keep interfering in our plans and seem to be working with the Nazis… and the Sakura are now threatening our territories in Southeast Asia…" Nelson adds.
"Well, I'll be the first to say that I'm sure we'd all love nothing more than to get involved and help you girls kick some Iron Blood ass, but our Commander can't do nothing if the President won't authorise it. At this point it's probably gonna take an attack on us to get us to join in. It's annoying to us, too. All this firepower, just sat here… I doubt the Sakura are stupid enough to roll on up to us and start something…" Nevada says regretfully.
"While we'd all welcome you, you should never ask for war, Nevada." Nelson reminds her.
"But y'all gotta prepare for it, right?" Nevada adds.
"Quite. Now, if you'll excuse me."
"Sure. Just be sure to visit more of us, ya hear?" Nevada requests.
Nelson nods and carries on.
Oklahoma comes up to Nevada and asks, "She okay, Nevvy?"
"Yeah… she's just worried about how her faction's doing. Imagine if we were stuck here on this island surrounded by Sakura submarines, relying on supply ships that they keep sinking." Nevada tries to explain.
"Yeah… we'd be pretty screwed, huh?" Oklahoma asks. "By the way, when are the other Carriers coming?"
"Enterprise will be heading out with Hornet soon to bring Yorktown and the others here. Hopefully we can hold the fort for 'em 'til then."
Later on, Nelson visits Victory in her temporary room, trying her best to try and open a portal again.
"Come on, you bloody… oh, hi, Nelson. You feeling alright?" Victory asks.
"Yes, Commander. I feel fine. What about you? Any closer yet?" Nelson replies.
"Almost. It's so annoying. I can definitely feel something there… but I can't quite get to it… it's like… like trying to reach something on a top shelf without a ladder, you know?" Victory tries to put her last attempt into words.
"I think I understand… but should we not be able to do it at all? Isn't it a Siren thing?" Nelson asks.
"We're ALL Siren things, Nelson. We come from their tech, remember? Not to mention we're in a simulation. Anything could be possible."
"Oh yes… I keep forgetting…"
"So surely, we should be able to do what they do, right?" Victory adds. "I feel like I'm missing something… I just need to find out what… I just hope the girls are all okay back home…"
After a few minutes of Victory attempting it again, Nelson asks, "So, you have a device that shows our feelings towards you?"
Victory sighs and shows her it, "I do… I didn't believe Anzeel at first, but it obviously works. Just look at yours."
Nelson blushes, "Yes, alright! We've established that by now! So… does it show how Belfast feels? Seems that she's a master of hiding her feelings and you're always nice to her…"
"Feeling challenged, Nelson?" Victory teases, then realises she promised to stop doing that, "Oh… sorry. Let me see…"
Holding back a retort because she apologised, Nelson looks at the device and sees Belfast's affinity level as a normal amount. Victory shrugs, "Eh, makes sense. Our relationship has always been a professional one at best."
She looks at Dreadnought's out of curiosity. It's considerably higher than Belfast's but not high enough to be considered romantic feelings. That makes sense as she sees her as close friend and the promise she made to her must've reinforced their bond.
Victory backs out and sees her now updated list with new ships on it, including her Iron Bloods. So it seems to update by itself when new ships are added to her command, which is why the Eagle Union ships aren't on it. She decides to look at theirs. Blücher's is very high, but that's not particularly surprising as she's made friends with everyone, wether they wanted to or not. She seems to have the constant happiness of a daft dog. What is more surprising, however, is Bismarck's. She's the second-highest among them, but it's likely due to how much she's done to help her, or does she secretly like her too? She shakes her head away from that train of thought and sees Roon's picture, whose affinity level seems to be fluctuating at any given moment.
"Do you reckon that Roon's calm enough to be let out of that bunker yet?" Victory asks Nelson.
"How should I know?" Nelson retorts.
"Nevermind, I'll just ask Anzeel when we're home." Victory mutters.
Nelson hears her slightly hurt tone, "I'm sorry… I… I'm surprised Anzeel even managed to make a room strong enough to hold a Kansen who punches through Siren metal just to prove a point." She says, changing the topic.
Victory thinks about it and replies, "Well, she did say that it's designed to withstand a bomb with a blast force of about 20,000 tonnes of TNT. Seems like overkill compared to the bombs that even Sirens use…"
Nelson adds, "The blast force of 20,000 tonnes of TNT? That's… oddly specific…"
"Indeed… she said she had some kind of premonition or something, even though a bomb of that power hasn't been invented yet or used by the Sirens, but I suppose it's better safe than sorry." Victory shrugs.
"Is there space for all of us down there?" Nelson asks.
"Of course. It's huge. Took ages and… unfortunately, a lot of money and resources to do it. It's so massive, in fact, that there aren't enough security devices to properly keep track of Roon…" Victory shivers.
"So THAT'S where most of the new funding went!?" Nelson yells unexpectedly.
Spirits would be higher among the Northern Parliament fleet because of Stalin's order to supply all Soviet personnel with vodka, if it weren't for the fact that Iron Blood forces had breached their city the day before and their ships have been taking artillery fire all day and night.
"Kirov! Change position! You're a sitting duck there!" Rossiya yells.
"Ponyal!" Kirov manoeuvres her big ship in the relatively small port and does her best to fire back at where she thinks the Iron Blood land artillery is. This tactic weakened the defence of the port as the ships had to keep wasting time moving, but it did make the ships themselves last a little longer.
Rossiya looks to her Admiral, Vladimir Tributs, "Sir! We may not last long against the Iron Blood war machine. We should consider an evacuation!"
"Indeed, Rossiya. I have considered trying to request one from Voroshilov, but he'd probably threaten to label me as a panic-monger.…" The man responds. "I'll have to write a carefully-worded request to Admiral Kuznetsov himself. He'd be more likely to accept it…"
The next day, one of their cargo ships carrying people is dive-bombed by a Stuka from the Luftwaffe. Rossiya grits her teeth, "The cowards… Admiral! Did you write that request!?"
"Of course I did! It takes time to have it delivered and then more time for it to get back! I couldn't call him because the phone lines have been destroyed!" The Soviet Admiral replies.
Bismarck and Warspite walk down to the massive bunker holding Roon. Bismarck presses the intercom to speak with her, "Roon, can you hear us?"
After a while, Roon responds, "Ja."
"Have you calmed yourself down yet?" Warspite asks.
"That depends on your definition of 'calm'. Is the Kommandantin there~? I don't smell her…"
The two Battleships look at each other and Bismarck volunteers, "Roon, the Kommandantin has disappeared. We don't know where, it we fear the Sirens may have her."
They both listen, and the silence is deafening. Eventually, Roon responds, "Let me out. I will find her."
"Nein, Roon! You have to stay here! We're not about to lose you as well!" Bismarck denies.
"Lord Bismarck! I will save her for you all! LET ME OUT!" Roon screeches.
Bismarck takes her hand off the button, silencing communications between them and Roon. She looks at Warspite, who says, "We must absolutely NOT let her out until after the Commander is back…"
"Agreed…" Bismarck nods. They go their separate ways for the night and leave Roon to calm herself again. They decided to let her know now rather than spring it on her later when she's let out. Bismarck goes to her room and goes to bed.
Hood stares at the Kansen on-screen. She looks at her partner and asks, "Are you sure you want to do this, Wales?"
Wales nods, "I've treated her like shit ever since she got to the base. I could never accept that I could be nice to her after she sank you. Now that you're still alive, I've realised that I'm in the wrong for treating her as such. It wasn't her fault. She thought she was helping her people. I want to make amends with her, as I'm sure you do too, right?"
"I do, yes. You're very noble after all, Wales. Im proud of you." Hood responds with a genuine smile.
Wales blushes and says, "Well, then. Let's wake her up."
Bismarck awakens in her pod. She looks around and sees she's in a lab with a Siren in it, working. Her immediate thought is, "Schiesse… they've got me…" she violently kicks the door of the pod open, spilling all the glowing yellow liquid out of it, startling the Siren. She's no Elite, but still humanoid. She readies her rigging, but the angry naked Battleship grabs her by the throat and literally tears her rigging off her back, making her scream in agony.
"Where am I!? Where is the Kommandantin!?" Bismarck demands.
"Go… to Hell… Nazi…" the humanoid Siren manages to say before Bismarck flattens her against the floor head-first in rage.
Taking a few steps back, Bismarck sees what she just did. She whispers to herself, "Mein Gott… pull yourself together, dummkopf… you just killed a source of intel…" She then realises her arm is back now that she's calmed herself, "What…?"
"You wouldn't have gotten anything out of her, anyway. She was just a grunt." She hears a voice say. She stops inspecting her arm and spins around to sees a familiar face.
"Frau Wales? What are you doing here? Did they capture us all?" Bismarck asks, fearing the worst.
"They did. Years ago. Welcome to the real world." Wales smiles sadly.
Bismarck blinks, "We… we're out of the simulation?"
"Only as long as you're asleep in it. When you wake up in there, you'll pass out here." Wales explains.
Another voice adds, "But if you were to sink and your Cubes brought here, and if you're revived here, you'll be here for good." Its owner enters the room with caution. "Hello, Lady Bismarck."
Bismarck locks her eyes on Hood. Her nightmare flashes in her mind, and she hears Zero's voice echo, "Kill her. Kill her."
"S…STAY BACK!" Bismarck staggers backwards, knocking science equipment off the tables.
"Lady Bismarck? What wrong?" Hood asks, concerned. Wales watches, piecing it together.
Bismarck retreats into the corner, feeling an immense, overwhelming urge to kill Hood again.
"Hood, stop." Wales puts her hand on Hood's shoulder.
"Wales, what's wrong with her?" The Battlecruiser asks.
"Hood, just leave the room for a bit, I'll try and talk to her, alright? I think I noticed something." Wales requests.
"Alright, but if you need help, call me in." Hood reminds her before briefly kissing her on the way out. Wales is just now realising she seems to be noticeably taller than Hood in the real world, instead of slightly shorter. Putting that aside for now as well as her tech knowledge, she approaches Bismarck, who's trying not to break down.
She kneels next to the Iron Blood Battleship. "Hey, are you alright? What happened?"
"I… I'm not sure… I could… feel it again… the same urge to kill her… as I had in the simulation, but far more extreme… what the hell is happening?" Bismarck says in a shaky voice.
Wales moves the back of Bismarck's hair to the side but sees no device on her neck. "Bloody hell…" she whispers. She says, "You have no device this time… it must some sort of side effect of it. Whenever you see Hood, your mind probably sees the prime directive it gave you. Perhaps there's a machine in this place that can help you?"
"What even is this place? What do you mean we were already captured?" Bismarck looks at her, now calm again.
"I'll explain later, come on, let's see if we can help you. I'm going to have you meet Hood again, but this time, try to ignore the programming. I'll hold you back if you need me to." Wales offers.
"Ja… alright… she caught me off guard earlier, maybe this time I can fight it…" Bismarck nods. She follows Wales out of the room.
Hood sees Bismarck again walking out with Wales. She smiles and says, "Hello again, Lady Bismarck. Are you well?"
Bismarck stares at her and feels the programming trying to take over again, Zero's order replaying in her mind. She shakes her head to try and get rid of it. It helps slightly and she says, "H… Hello… Frau Hood… I…" she holds her head, "Ugh…"
"Bismarck?" Wales asks, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Fighting it off for now, Bismarck stands straight and nods, "Ja… Hello, Lady Hood. I… apologise for what I have done. I hope I can make up for it and we can work together against the Sirens." She holds her hand out.
Hood smiles and says, "I would be honoured to fight alongside such a powerful ally, Lady Bismarck." She shakes her hand. "Now, then. Let's see if we can help your head. This way. I think I may know of such a machine…"
After two more horrible days of watching her port get obliterated by Iron Blood forces, Rossiya gets permission to start an evacuation. She rallies her girls together to get civilians onto Kirov's ship and the Destroyers, as well as any other ships and boats available while Tributs frantically organises it. They have to get out of here and break through the fleet to Kronstadt, their backup base where they can hopefully regroup for a counterattack.
Around 200 ships gather in the port. Kirov leads the charge out. Not a single ship is left behind, not even the tugs. They want to get as much out as possible to leave Iron Blood with an empty port.
Kirov looks to Rossiya and Tributs, who are with her on the bridge of her ship, "Which of the three routes to Kronstadt are we taking!?"
Rossiya suggests, "I say the Northern route! There are no sea mines and the Royal Navy's intel says there are no Iron Blood capital ships there!"
"No. Intel from the Royal Navy has been deemed unreliable by High Command. They will not allow us to go that way." Tributs retorts. "Also, Voroshilov has forbidden the Southern route as the Iron Blood forces along the way are immense, so we go with the only remaining one. Lead us out, Kirov!"
"Ponyal!" She salutes and gets her ship moving with ten woefully outdated minesweepers in front. The rest of the combat-capable ships surrounded the non-combatant ships that themselves surrounded Kirov.
Rossiya asks, "What about our ground troops!?"
Tributs reluctantly says, "…They have done their duty. They need to hold back Iron Blood until we escape. They've not been told about us leaving, to not induce a panic among them."
"To not induce a panic!? How do you think they'll react when they do find out!?" Kirov exclaims.
"Just keep the ship on course, Kirov! This evacuation requires exact timing!" The Admiral yells back.
Rossiya says, "The barricades in the streets… they're not for Iron Blood, are they?"
"…no. They're there to prevent a panicked retreat from our own defenders." Tributs confirms.
"… da pomiluyet nas Bog…" Rossiya whispers.
Suddenly, shells start raining down on them again, panicking several transport ships into leaving without picking up evacuees. The entire operation immediately falls into chaos. The ground defenders have failed. Rossiya, her sisters, Kirov and the rest of the Northern Parliament Kansen look on in horror as their city burns and their people trample over each other in a mad rush to get on the remaining ships, which are already overcrowded to the point where people are going to have to sleep in the corridors and on the open decks.
The Kansen all look back. Their once chilly base is now completely up in flames. Their home is gone. Some of them break down in secret while the others remain stoic, in hopes that the port at Kronstadt will be acceptable. "Goodbye, Tallinn…" Petropavlovsk says to herself. Not even she is immune to the feeling of leaving behind her home, not to mention all the mandatory vodka they had to leave to make room for civilians.
Rossiya sees how crowded the ships are, and sees so many more people left behind on the piers, wishing that her and her sisters ships were built. She wishes she had accepted the offer from Victory to send one or two of her own Kansen to help out. Her sisters are on the other ships trying to keep the situation under control, but it's hopeless. Panic has fully set in and every civilian ship tries to get out as fast as possible, breaking formation.
The entire journey to Kronstadt is filled with mines, Stukas and even 109s strafing survivors in the water with their machine guns. Several Destroyers and transport ships are sunk, along with all the people aboard. Rossiya keeps herself together, but she can hear on the radio that several other Kansen have broken down in tears. They'll never be the same after this. Rossiya can only take solace in the fact that none of the ships that went down had Kansen, but they were still fellow NP warships full of defenceless civilians. In a moment of panic, a returning scout team of Soviet torpedo boats were fired upon by Rossiya's fleet due to the breakdown of communication. She has that to live with now.
With the Luftwaffe gone along with the daylight, they now have to worry about mines drifting about in the dark sea. Most of the minesweepers, escort ships and the rearguard are gone. Only a frigate and Destroyer of the non-Kansen ships accompany the shipgirls….
While Bismarck got herself into a machine that should remove any Siren programming, Wales and Hood had finally found some clothing. It is Siren in origin, so naturally it doesn't cover much, but they managed to piece together some of it to at least modestly cover their more private areas. They got some for Bismarck too for when she wakes up. They take a seat next to the machine.
"Well, that feels a lot better." Hood remarks, "Even if it does look rather… provocative."
Not willing to admit her current outfit seems to be awakening something in her, Wales nods, "Yes, I suppose… anyway, we should probably start looking for the Commander's pod soon. She has to be here with us, surely. Also, I don't like the fact we apparently haven't been found yet. I've heard no sirens blaring at all…"
"Because they already know, my love. They're testing us again. If they weren't, they'd have caught us already. Whatever is preventing our riggings deploying has made sure only the guards have the guns in this prison." Hood sagely informs her.
"Perhaps we can deactivate that, too?" Wales offers.
"One thing at a time, Wales. We may need to try and find food soon, also, whatever it is that Sirens eat." Hood adds, "That is, if they even need to eat at all…"
Wales looks at the machine. "She's been in there for two days now. Just how scrambled was her mind?" Wales asks.
"We must allow it to do its job. I don't want to risk damaging her even more. We will wake up the others soon enough, starting with the Knights." Hood says.
"Knights… What about Parzival?" Wales asks.
"Parzival?" Hood responds, "Who's that?"
"Oh, right. She's Bismarck's little friend, U-556. She treats her like a daughter sometimes. They're very close. Perhaps she can help her keep herself under control if this machine doesn't work." Wales explains.
The Battlecruiser nods, "Alright then, she's next…"
THUD
Hood looks back and sees that Wales has dropped to the floor again as she's woken up in the simulation. She considers that Bismarck has as well while still in the machine. "Oh, bloody hell…"
Days after they left Talinn, the Northern Parliament fleet finally arrives in Kronstadt. They start to get the civilians off, then start setting up their new base, and as many defences as they possibly can. Kirov refuses to leave her ship and points all of her artillery guns towards the sea and all her AA guns upwards. Rossiya decides not to try and get her to rest as she'll probably just annoy her.
Back at Scapa Flow, the Royal Knights are all woken up and told to report to QE to get the news that Tallinn has fallen to Iron Blood. When Wales gets there and hears it, she doesn't feel anything as she knows it isn't real. George, however, puts her head in her hand. "Bloody hell… as soon as the Commander disappears, all hell breaks loose again… how is Iron Blood advancing so quickly in this simulation? Surely the Sirens have given them the advantage? I expected Rossiya to last far longer than that."
Warspite says, "You say that as if our forces weren't pushed out of Europe..."
The Knight Captain shrugs, "Fair point… I just hope they all got out in time… times like this make me wonder what happens if we die in this false world…"
Wales feels the overwhelming need to say something, it she doesn't know if there's any danger of telling them or not. What if they try to kill themselves to escape and it doesn't work? Perhaps she should try and work with Hood and Bismarck to wake them up one by one and help them adjust as well? How should she do this?
As of sensing the need to derail the morbid twist this meeting took, Belfast enters the throne room and bows to QE, "Your Majesty, Lady Warspite and Lady Valiant. I come bearing mail."
QE holds out her hand, "You may approach, Bel."
The Head Maid does so, gracefully handing over the letter addressed to the short sovereign, curtsies and steps back. QE tears open the letter and reads it, making a small smile appear on her face, but then a confused and concerned expression towards the end.
Warspite asks, "Who's it from?"
QE looks at her and responds, "It's from the Commander. She's alive and well, and so is Nelson."
Dreadnought sighs from her corner of her room, "Oh, thank God…" too quietly for anyone except Belfast to hear her over the cheers of the others.
Valiant asks, "So… what's the bad part?"
"…she's in the middle of the Pacific…"
Everyone in the room, except the Maid and the Butler, couldn't help but let out a massive, "WHAT!?"
Bismarck sits in a chair in the canteen, staring at the wall, completely unresponsive. She's been like a drone since she was woken up by U-556, who's becoming increasingly worried.
"Lord Bismarck?"
Nothing.
"Lord Bismarck!"
Still nothing. She climbs up and stands on the table in front of the Battleship. She leans forward and puts her hands to her mouth to shout, "LORD BISMARCK!"
Finally, the Battleship is startled out of her trance. "Oh… Parzival? …forgive me… could I… ask you something?" She cracks a small smile.
U-556 smiles back and sits down in front of her on the table, "Of course, Lord Bismarck!" She happily replies.
"Do you think less of me after the Sirens manipulated me?" She asks with a serious tone.
"Um… nein?" U-556 answers as if it were a stupid question.
"But… why not? I'm supposed to be a great leader, doing what is great for my faction. My people. Yet I was so easily convinced to help throw the world into further ruin." Bismarck doubts herself.
"But you did it because you thought you were helping, right?" U-556 asks.
"Ja, but…"
"Then don't worry about it. Just be more careful next time, ja?" The Sub innocently interrupts her.
Bismarck smiles and nods, "You're right, Parzival. Danke. I needed to hear that. I will ask them to wake you up next."
"Uh, what?" U-556 asks, confused.
"Oh… that's right… you'll find out soon enough." She winks.
Friedrich Der Große has been pampering everyone in the port of Brest and has taken to calling everyone her "children", even Ciliax himself. She seems to have taken a particular liking towards Z23, as she gets the most flustered when she speaks to her and the poor Destroyer keeps accidentally calling her "Mama," earning hugs from the gentle giant. The other Destroyers all crowd around her whenever she's around, asking her questions. One of them asks if she can do something really cool, to which the Battleship smiles and says, "Allow me to demonstrate, my child. Observe."
Everyone watches as her ship glows and splits into millions of tiny cubes and they fly towards her, forming up into her huge rigging. She turns and they all see two massive mechanical dragon heads, each with two pairs of burning eyes and her two huge turrets on their backs. Even Scharnhorst takes a step back in caution. A conductor's baton also appears in her left hand, causing soothing music to play from her rigging.
She sees how they reacted and chuckles, "Oh, don't you worry, my children~. You all may have this power. I will teach you all how to possess it~"
