26th May, 1941.
The Commander looks up at Nelson with wide eyes and says, "What… did you say… Nelson?"
Nelson knows this is no time to insult her and hesitantly repeats, "Hood has been sunk by Bismarck, Commander. Wales was injured and could not recover her Cubes. Holland also did not survive."
Victory drops her quill pen and looks down slowly. "….Hood…?" She puts her elbows on the desk and puts her face in her hands. "…Oh God… no…" Nelson awkwardly watches as the Commander stays like that, silently crying. Eventually, she wipes her tears and looks back up at her Secretary.
"Nelson… I don't give a toss what Elizabeth says. I want Bismarck brought here, wether she wants to come or not. Top. Priority. I want Force H to join the hunt as well." The Commander orders in the most serious and firm voice Nelson has ever heard her use. Nelson nods but stays, as if she has something more to say. The Commander takes a deep breath to steady her nerves. She picks up her old-fashioned phone, and dials a number. When she eventually gets connected to who she called, she says, "Mister Prime Minister? The Commander of Azur Lane speaking. I'm afraid I have some terrible news…"
Nelson returns to her desk to call Ark Royal at Gibraltar to relay the order to help hunt down Bismarck.
When she's done reporting the news, the Commander hits her desk and suddenly breaks down, blaming herself for allowing this to happen to the Pride of the Royal Navy. Nelson comes over and does her best to comfort her, "Commander… I… I'm sorry for what's happened… but I also have some good news… Bismarck's Admiral has given away her position…"
Lütjens had radioed Brest, telling them that they're headed there for repairs, not knowing that the Allies had already cracked the code he is using, and the Royal Navy were now searching the area the transmission came from. The sea fog only got worse the entire time and their radar kept failing them.
QE had been informed of what had happened to Hood. It's not often Warspite allows her sister to go on a destructive temper tantrum, but this time she decides it best to let her vent. Seeing her like that would most certainly cheer up Valiant if it wasn't for her receiving the emotional gut-punch.
On the deck of the Ark Royal, Sheffield stares out towards the sea fog, her right arm still in a sling, but at least she can feel it now and the hole in her shoulder is now just a scar. Her eye had healed enough to not need a bandage anymore, but her vision still hadn't fully returned, resulting in it being completely white as her iris and pupil had not yet healed. She's re-styled her hair to cover up her bad eye. Kansen healing was far faster and way more effective than a human, akin more to regeneration than just regular healing. Ark had repeatedly got her back to bed and even handcuffed her to it the last time. She easily got out of it of course…
Captain Leach is in the medical room of the Prince of Wales with a severe concussion. It seems Wales herself may have hit him a bit too hard when he tried to make her return home. She checks her fuel and sees that she only has just enough to make it back. She feels her split cheek, curses herself again and says, "I can't even avenge her…" she radios the fleet, "Anyone else low on fuel?"
Victorius, Repulse and Suffolk all radio and say that they need to break off as well and KGV sends them all home. She switches to a private channel with her sister, "Wales. Listen to me. You're not useless. You managed to deal enough damage to Bismarck to make her have to limp home with her tail between her legs. As dark as I may make this sound…. I'm just glad you were the one to survive. You may be the least experienced and you just lost Hood, but don't ever let me hear you call yourself useless again, understand? Now get back to base and have that ghastly injury looked at."
Wales just hisses, "…Sure..." And starts sailing home with the others that are low on fuel.
Rodney, who had set off just after KGV and joined the search, says, "Don't worry, George, we'll make Bismarck pay for what she's done."
KGV thinks Rodney is a little scary when she puts on that tone of voice as it clashes against her usual, soft-spoken and caring nature, but in this particular situation, she's glad to have a member of the Big Seven with her enormous guns, even though they are miles away from where Bismarck actually is.
Far above the sea, a PBY Catalina that the Royal Air Force had purchased from the Eagle Union scans the water for Bismarck. By sheer luck, the sea fog parted for a few seconds and the crew sees the black trail of a fuel leak. They follow it to where it came from and they report the position of a huge warship to the Royal Navy, who then make a beeline straight to her.
They had found that German Battleship and they're going to cut her down…
Bismarck is unaware of the Catalina that had found them and was convinced along with Lindemann and Lütjens that they had finally shaken off the Royal Navy. They had painted the tops of her main turrets yellow so the Luftwaffe wouldn't fire on them when they get into their patrol range, just in case the giant swastikas on her deck weren't obvious enough. Bismarck tells them both, "We will be in Crimson Axis waters within a day. We may yet make it."
Lütjens chuckles, "It's a funny thing, sea fog. One day it makes a mission near impossible, the next, it's perfect cover."
Heading right for them was Force H. Ark Royal radios her Battlecruiser escort, "We've found her, Renown. We cannot let her get within range of the Luftwaffe's air cover. My planes are not able to compete with Me 109s and Fw 190s."
Renown agrees, "Indeed. We can't let Lady Hood's death go unpunished. I just wish there were more than just us operational here."
Ark reassures her, "Worry not. Your sister, Victorious, Rodney and George are also on the hunt. However, we are the ones who must slow her down so they can catch her. Be ready." She aims her rifle to launch planes to look for Bismarck, unaware that Sheffield had just jumped off her ship, summoned her rigging and has gone ahead into the fog to shadow Bismarck, summoning her ship again for maximum firepower. When Ark's planes launch, she sees a silhouette of a warship, but cannot make out its details due the the fog has no reference for its size. She has equipped her Swordfish with her new experimental magnetic torpedoes.
While staring at the faint shadow in the sea fog, Sheffield hears plane engines getting louder. At first, she thinks that Graf Zeppelin had been deployed to help Bismarck, but after looking up from her bridge windows, she sees that they are Ark Royal's Swordfish. She drops her posh accent in favour of her natural Yorkshire one, "Wot tha fockin' 'ell's she doin'!?" She exclaims as she sees they're on an attack run against her, not the Iron Blood ship.
After dropping the torpedoes, Ark sees from her planes who she just launched her attack against as they pass over the maid's ship. She yells out, "SHEFFIELD!?" She looks back with the planes to see the torpedoes aren't going for her after all, as all three of them had detonated upon impact with the water due t9 being dropped at too great of a height. She recalls the planes and puts her hands on her knees in relief.
She gets radioed by a rather annoyed Sheffield, who puts her posh accent back on with a hint of disdain, "Lady Ark Royal, next time I recommend you work on your target identification…"
Ark isn't having that, and retorts, "You should still be in bed, Sheffield! I had no bloody idea you were even there!"
Renown interrupts their argument by clearing throat and saying, "Bismarck is still out there, Lady Ark."
Ark realises she's right. "Oh… yes, of course. Let me change to the tried and tested old torpedoes then…"
Beneath the water, U-556 had deviated from her mission when she heard Bismarck was in trouble. She stops right next to the Carrier that was about to launch an attack against her Lord. "Oh no, you don't! I won't allow you to harm Lord Bismarck!" She says quietly. She takes aim and fires her torpedo tubes, but nothing happens. She had used all of her ammunition on merchant ships in the excitement of beating Bismarck's challenge, and now she can do nothing as watch the biplanes carrying torpedoes of their own fly away, like some cruel joke. "Nein… Lord Bismarck…" she scrambles to her long range radio and frantically tries to radio for any available help from her fellow U-Boats, not caring who else may be intercepting her, but she's too far away from any of them.
Ark looks to her port side when she gets a strange feeling and hears a faint radio signal. "Huh?"
Bismarck hears the distant hum of plane engines and she says, "Are we in Luftwaffe range already…?" She scans the skies, still unable to use her broken radar, then sees biplanes with Royal Air Force roundels on them carrying deadly torpedoes break out of the sea fog close to her starboard side. "SCHEISSE!" She opens fire with all available AA guns, alerting Lindemann and Lütjens.
Despite her efforts, all three Swordfish get through the wall of AA, some even shrugging off rounds as they pass right through the canvas wings, and they drop their contact-detonating torpedoes, two out of three hit her amidship and her stern. She falls to the ground clutching her ankles, with another scream of pain. Lindemann runs to her side, to see that her right ankle seems to be somehow broken, and her left one badly sprained, reflecting the damage done to her ship's rudders. The left one is jammed in a turning position and the right is beyond repair. It needs replacing.
She knows what this means and she looks at Lindemann, who seems to know as well. "Im so sorry…" she manages to say, trying to hold back the tears from the pain she's in and her situation. Lütjens gets the damage report and he quickly figures out their situation as well.
They're trapped. Bismarck can no longer escape her fate. Her ship is no longer able to sail in a straight line. She will be sunk by the monsters who have taken the friend of the little girl who asked her for help. She failed her. She failed her officers. She failed her fellow ships and her country. Worst of all, she failed her Parzival. She says to herself, "U-556… I promised I'd return and spend time with you… I'm so sorry…" along with the thought of never seeing her sister Awaken, she can't help but shed tears.
Lütjens just simply says, "I'll radio Group West". He picks up the radio and transmits, "To the Führer of the Reich, Adolf Hitler. We will fight to the end thinking of you confident as in a rock in the victory of Iron Blood".
Throughout the night, the bigger ships had to maintain their distance as Bismarck's guns were still working, and she wasn't about to go down without a fight, so six Royal Destroyers arrived and kept her busy with torpedo runs. When the sun came up, Bismarck was holding some of her bow railing to keep herself balanced. She breathes heavily. Her outfit is tattered, just like her ship's belt armour. "Dammit… how am I still afloat…?" She thinks. She was focused on the six Destroyers, until she hears the sounds of massive cannon fire, which makes her look right ahead of her ship and sees two massive Battleships who had just fired at her. She sees the shells incoming.
Her clothes get more and more burned up as fires are started on her ship from the two Battleships, one with a quadruple barrel like the previous one, and the other with all its turrets in front of her bridge.
Norfolk is encouraged by her little sister, the Heavy Cruiser Dorsetshire, who had just joined the battle, to attack the steel behemoth together. Hundreds of shells hit their marks all over the durable Bismarck. The shipgirl herself almost collapses from the agony, but she still fires back. She doesn't even know if her two officers are still alive, but she's focused on fighting as much as she can. The two Battleships and two Heavy Cruisers pound her ship relentlessly, rather impressed by how much she's taking. Sheffield stares down the Battleship from the sidelines, regretful that she can't get a shot in to get her revenge, but grateful that her allies are doing it for her.
King George V can only admire how much of a fight Bismarck is putting up, despite there being no way she could possibly win now. "I commend your resilience, worthy adversary, however, this must end now." She takes aim again and fires another volley.
Bismarck looks back at her bridge as she hears an explosion. Sure enough, the entire bridge has been obliterated by a shell. Lütjens and Lindemann were in there. Losing all hope, Bismarck looks back at the two Battleships bearing down on her. She closes her eyes and sits down, resting against her forward turret. She finally realises her fight is utterly futile. Instead of surrendering to or being sunk by who she has been told are merciless savages, she mentally gives her ship a command.
"Scuttle."
Eventually, KGV sees what Bismarck is doing. Her ship starts exploding below the water line despite not being hit there. Bloody hell… she'd rather go down on her own terms, hmm? I can at least respect that." She radios her fleet and gives the order, "Girls, back to base. Dorsetshire, try to bring her in, we'll cover you." She and Rodney change their ships to riggings and skate towards the sinking Battleship.
Dorsetshire gets close and sees Bismarck, sitting against her turret and bleeding from the mouth. Both her Commanders are dead. Prinz Eugen and U-556 can't help her. The rest of Iron Blood have no clue what's happened. She has nothing left. She looks at Dorsetshire.
The Royal Kansen approaches with her rigging. She jumps onto the listing deck, offers her hand and says, "Worthy adversary, you can still come with us! Take my hand and I'll save you!"
Bismarck just looks up at her. "…You would… save me…?" She hides her surprise at the Royal Kansen in front of her being so civilised and thoughtful despite looking like the complete opposite in her nightmare.
Dorsetshire looks hopeful. She says, "Yes! You have to trust me! We shouldn't be fighting each other! There is a bigger threat to humanity than this war we're fighting!"
Bismarck's eyes widen, "What… are you talking about…?"
Dorsetshire tries to keep her balance on the wet, listing deck. "There's no time! Just come with me! I can try to explain on the way! If you go down with your ship, you'll die!"
Bismarck wants to at least hear what she has to say, and perhaps this could be another chance at helping humanity and her fellow Kansen. She reaches up and takes Dorsetshire's hand. The Royal Kansen sees she's unable to walk unassisted so she puts the Battleship's arm around her and uses the strength of her rigging to get her away from the sinking behemoth. Rodney and KGV take her from Dorsetshire and help her stay stood, while carrying her home.
On the way to the brig, Bismarck asks, "I sank the Mighty Hood… why would you even consider sparing me?"
KGV ominously says, "Our Commander wants to meet you." She sits Bismarck down in the cell and locks the door, "I'm sorry, but you must remain here until we're back. I'll get you some medical aid for your ankles." She walks away.
Instead of arguing, Bismarck just accepts her defeat. It's not like she can just stand up and kick the cell door open. She leans back, feeling the relief of resting her weary body. "Their Kommandant…? Why would they want to…?" Her exhaustion finally catching up to her, she falls asleep. The nightmare she had repeats once more.