18th May 1941.

Bismarck pulls into Kiel where Eugen was waiting for her. After looking through her fire control, weapons, supplies and bridge equipment, she's is now ready to head out. She radios her escort, "Prinz Eugen, are you ready?"

Eugen puts on her usual disinterested sounding voice, "Ja, ja, of course. Waiting on the humans."

Bismarck says, "Good, then we wait for Kapitän Lindemann and Admiral Lütjens to finish talking with Käpitan Brinkmann. They want to see my firepower for themselves."

"Understood, Lord Bismarck, although personally I think we'd be much better off without them interfering…" Eugen acknowledges.

Curious and with some time to kill, Bismarck asks, "Eugen, why do you tease your schwester?"

Eugen chuckles, "I don't mean anything bad by it, I just like seeing her flustered. It's cute, considering she's older than me."

Bismarck asks, "Does she resent you for it?"

Eugen says, "I hope not. I think she knows I love her dearly, and I'm not a bully. I don't do it any chance I get. Just when she least expects it. It's more fun that way."

"Do you tease anyone else?" Bismarck pushes.

"Nah, I'm fine with just teasing Hipper. I don't really love anyone else as much as my schwesters, so I don't usually tease anyone else. I used to tease Blücher… but she never really seemed to realise it. Seydlitz always just ignores me, and Lützow… I never even got the chance to tease her…"

"Lützow? Wasn't she transferred to the Northern Parliament?" Bismarck inquires.

"If by "transferred", you mean, "sold", then ja." Eugen spits.

"Sold…?"

"Like a chunk of metal… they renamed her to Petropavlovsk… before she was even awoken…" Eugen's voice darkens, "She probably won't have any idea she even has schwesters…"

"And Blücher… what… what happened to her?" Bismarck softly asks.

"She was on a mission to reach Oslo and we lost contact with her in a fjord at Drøbak Sound. She never returned…" Eugen's voice shakes a little. Bismarck has never heard her this upset.

"I'm sorry, Eugen. I shouldn't have pried." Bismarck tries to comfort her.

"Don't be. You didn't order her there… Deutschland was in that mission too and she could tell you more, but good luck getting her to speak without her insulting you." Eugen answers spitefully.

Before Bismarck can reply, her Admiral and her Captain step into her bridge. She stands and salutes them. "Admiral, Käpitan, all systems ready. Ammunition is stockpiled and fuel is at maximum. Ready to depart on the mission."

"Very good, Fräulein Bismarck. Perhaps you can redeem yourself for your ineptitude with that intruder." Lütjens remarks.

Bismarck steps up to him yet again and says, "Are you going to focus on giving Prinz Eugen and I commands, or are you content with wasting time insulting me for an incident I could do nothing more about, sir?"

Lindemann is silently proud of her while Lütjens just takes a deep breath to hold back scolding her again, knowing her ship won't move if she resists. He says, "Very well. Set sail, Fräulein Bismarck, and open a secure line to Prinz Eugen."

Bismarck nods and says, "The line is already open, sir. Eugen can hear you."

"Ja, I hear you and your insults, Admiral. The sexual tension over there sounds so high that I'm half expecting all of you to just start having a threesome at any moment~" Eugen's sarcasm has returned.

Bismarck blushes hard and yells, "Was zum Teufel, Eugen!?"

Eugen chuckles a bit and says, "Your own fault for giving me the idea to tease anyone else, Lord Bismarck. Just let me know to get my binoculars before you start taking those two brätwursts at once~"

Having deflected Eugen's sass, Lütjens clears his throat and orders, "Prinz Eugen, for that, you will take point."

Eugen laughs and responds, "Worth it." She acknowledges and sets off first for Bergen in Norway. Operation Rheinübung has begun.

QE tells the top shipgirls and her Commander about what Sheffield had said, that the Iron Blood Kansen don't know how to summon their riggings, and after once again going behind the Commander's back to transfer the wounded maid to Force H, away from the area they predicted Bismarck to be, she calls the raven-haired Aircraft Carrier Ark Royal. She answers and QE orders, "Ark Royal, prepare to take in Sheffield. She has been wounded and will need to be guarded. She will be out of the way with you."

Ark, slightly offended by being referred to as "Out of the way", says, "Understood, Your Majesty. We will protect her with our lives."

Satisfied, QE calls into a meeting King George V, Victorious, and Repulse who are all still docked at Scapa Flow. The three of them kneel before her, Warspite, Valiant and another, shadowed woman leaning on the wall in the corner, watching everything. The microscopic monarch begins, "Knight Captain, I have an urgent support mission for you."

George responds. "Your wish is our command, Your Majesty."

QE says, "I need the three of you to make your way to the Denmark Strait to assist Hood and Prince of Wales. Bismarck has a Kansen, meaning she'll be more powerful than we first thought, and the state she left Sheffield in means I want her brought before me."

The thought of her youngest sister and the Mighty Hood herself in danger makes George eagerly reply, "Consider her already captured, Your Majesty. We shall be underway immediately."

Repulse asks, "Did you get the Commander's permission for this, Your Majesty?"

"I don't need her permission, Repulse. She's just here to handle the paperwork." QE arrogantly says, much to the annoyance of Warspite and the shadowed woman, who quietly shakes her head while glaring at QE.

Eventually, QE allows them to leave. George turns and walks out with her merry band, "You heard Her Majesty! Victorious, Repulse, prepare your ships for the Denmark Strait!"

Norfolk and Suffolk are chatting away on their radios while patrolling the eastern coast of Iceland. Norfolk shivers and complains, "This weather…. It's too cold…."

"That's now the 20th time you've said that in the past 24 hours, Norfolk! I already gave you all my extra blankets!" Suffolk's patience is running thin. Not even cloud gazing can save her in this weather.

Norfolk keeps going, "My antenna's frozen…"

Suffolk breathes deeply to calm down but is startled as her radio starts to beep. She races over to it and picks it up. Before she can ask who it is, she hears a familiar voice and she bolts upright with a firm stance, "Suffolk, respond! Are you there?"

Suffolk's voice become shaky, "L…Lady Warpite! Yes, yes I'm here with Norfolk! We're near Iceland and are waiting for the new Iron Blood Battleship like you said!"

Warspite breathes a sigh of relief. She had been ordered to contact the two County-class Heavy Cruisers while her sister was having a tea break. She tells her, "Very good, Suffolk. We've had reports from an RAF reconnaissance Spitfire that Bismarck has departed and temporarily stopped in Norway along with a Battlecruiser escort. They'll be closing in on your location soon. We need you to shadow them at a safe distance and give regular reports to us. Her guns are so large you'll need to maintain a distance of around 20 nautical miles, so you need to try to keep an eye on her through the sea fog up there. Can you do that for us?"

Encouraged by Warspite's softer tone of voice than what QE would've used, Suffolk happily accepts, "Of course, Lady Warspite! We won't let you down!" They end the call and she talks to her partner again. "Norfolk, Bismarck is coming! Get ready!"

Norfolk shakily responds, "I'll… give it my utmost…"