28th May, 1941.
Victory is arguing with one of her closest friends, who is dressed somewhat like a female butler in a navy blue suit with black trousers and formal shoes, contrasting the maid uniforms and massive skirts that Bel and her team wear. Her silver hair is cut so short it doesn't reach lower than the back of her neck and she has two small black horns on the front of her head alongside a white and gold ornate basket-hilted sword in an equally ornate sheath at her left hip.
The Commander counters a point her friend had just made, "Look, I realise what happened at Jutland was a shit-show, but you all still escaped unharmed, right?" Victory tries to reason with her fellow veteran.
Her friend paces left and right in front of the desk, being very animated with her arms. Normally, her professional decorum would prohibit her from acting this way. She herself trained Belfast in decorum and manners, after all, but she has known Victory for a long time. She hits the desk with her fist and yells, "It was a complete nightmare you know it, Ma'am! We had the chance to sink them and then the bloody Sirens appeared out of nowhere with their blasted Mirror Sea! On top of that, when we reached out to the Iron Bloods, the bally sods refused to work with us! Sure we all got out alive, but we couldn't even tell anyone why! The lack of communication ensured that that Siren ambush routed us! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to explain the Admiralty's cover story of us running away to the press when I got back!? Even though I taught half the Grand Fleet all I knew, Elizabeth never took me seriously after that battle because I didn't question your order to retreat, and she was there with me! Now that my class of ship has been long forgotten and made woefully obsolete, what chance do I have for a proper fight now!? I can't even use my ship anymore! It was scrapped in 1921!" She slams other fist on the table with that last part, cracking the mahogany, much to her instant regret. She spent months looking for this desk for Victory. "M…Ma'am… forgive me…
Victory sighs, "Forget the desk. Warspite seemed to finally get through to Elizabeth yesterday. Did she not apologise to you?"
The Royal Butler looks at her. "She did… I didn't believe her at first… but… she sounded genuine… I suppose…"
Victory puts her hands on hers, "Will you be alright? It seems like you've been containing that outburst for a while."
Her friend nods, "I… I do feel a little better… getting it off my chest… but…"
"You just want to be useful again beyond being the Royal Butler, don't you?" Victory sympathises. She hasn't seen her this vulnerable in ages.
The standing Kansen nods, "I'm so tired of just staying here… my rigging laid up in ordinary… I want to feel the water beneath my feet again… I just want to stand upon it and sail alongside my comrades again… it feels like the biggest part of who I am has been taken from me. I'm certain many other Kansen would choose to sink over this fate."
"Me too… I mean, I could go out there, but I'm pretty sure that I'd live up to the exact opposite of my name pretty quickly these days…" Victory jokes.
Her friend cracks a smile and laughs, "Indeed, you wouldn't stand a chance, Ma'am."
Victory looks up at her, "Ouch? Look… Unlike me, your ship is no more, so at least you can have a new one assigned to you. I'm going to do everything I can to get you a new ship, alright? I'll suggest your name for every new ship the higher-ups decide to commission, but with so many new ones already planned, It could take until 1960 or something to even get it built at this rate." She shrugs.
"If it means I'll be able to get back out there, I can wait, Ma'am. You're far too kind."
Victory smiles. She gets up and hugs her comrade. "Too kind? There's no such thing. I promise you, you will get the chance to sail the oceans again. I'll make sure of it, Dreadnought."
Dreadnought smiles and replies, "Thank you, Ma'am…"
About 3 weeks later, U-556 eagerly runs to her ship to prepare to set sail on the second mission of her career. She has been waiting and begging to get back out there to get Bismarck back, and now she has been once again tasked with sinking more merchant vessels, and perhaps another opportunity to sneak off to Scapa Flow to save her Lord. She has heard rumours that Bismarck herself was captured in the process of her ship sinking. On the way there, she's greeted by another U-Boat girl with pink hair.
"'556, before you go, I want you to take this." U-557 holds out her prized possession.
"… a piggy bank?" U-556 asks, taking the porcelain pig.
"Pennies are said to bring you good luck… so I collected some and put them in here… being a bad luck magnet myself, I thought it would help me, but I guess my bad luck is too powerful for it… maybe it will help you… I'd go with you myself for support… but I'd only bring more trouble…" U-557 naively offers.
U-556 smiles. She needs all the luck she can get. She says, "Danke… that's very thoughtful of you, '557…" she hugs her sister. Afterwards, she enters her ship and puts the piggy bank on her map table. She plots her patrol course as devised by the Kriegsmarine, the human part of the Iron Blood Navy. "Don't worry, Lord Bismarck! I'm coming!"
Her submarine fires up and departs.
A few days later, Victory receives from Nelson a form she needs to sign from the Kansen-less human-crewed ships in the Royal Navy, as they have stopped in Scapa Flow for supplies.
"Flower-Class Corvettes Nasturtium, Celandine and Gladiolus? I can't say I've heard of them before. Doesn't say what their mission is, just that they'll need fuel and depth charges." Victory says to her Secretary.
Nelson replies, "Well, obviously they're going submarine hunting, idiot. But they can't just take our supplies and head out! You need to get something from them in return, Commander! Don't let them just walk over you!"
"I know, Nelson. I know. What do you suggest? Anything we're low on?" Victory asks.
"Well, tea for a start. According to their inventory, they have plenty." Nelson looks at her clipboard.
"Anything else?" Victory asks as she writes it down.
After far too long listing things for the humans to trade, Victory crosses out most of them to leave the ones that are at least somewhat reasonable for the humans to have with them and signs the form with the conditions sealed. "Be a dear and deliver this, if you please?" She hands it to Nelson.
"To humiliate me like this… I'll get you back." She takes it and storms out, blushing.
"I'm sure you will…" Victory mutters, "Just like the last few times you said that and nothing happened…" she turns her attention to the suggestion that Nelson had written up for her shortly after they got news of Hood sinking. "I still can't wrap my head around this… I should ask her again when she comes back. Heh, she'd probably say she'd rather throw a chair at me or something…"
"One of the Big Seven, a Battleship of the Royal Navy… delivering a letter…" Nelson mumbles. She posts it in the mailbox of the dorm building the human crews are to be staying in when they arrive and turns around to see her sister right there. "R…Rodney!?"
Rodney smiles and says, "Hello, sister. What are you doing here this fine day?"
Nelson looks around at the damp ground and up at the white sky and replies, "Rodney, it's been overcast and raining for the past week…"
"Any day I get to talk to my dear sister is a fine day, Nelson." Rodney happily counters.
Nelson sighs, "Whatever. What do you want?"
Rodney walks with her, "I thought you'd want to know about how we took down Bismarck?"
"I read the report that George submitted, sister. I'm the Secretary, remember?" Nelson reminds her.
"Of course, but a first-hand account from your own sister over tea is so much better, I'd imagine." Rodney reasons, ready for any opportunities to speak to her only sister.
Rodney regales, or bores, Nelson with the details of the battle for a while, but is interrupted by the humans from the Kansen-less ships that have docked in the time they've had their mostly one-sided conversation. They come up to her and start laughing.
Rodney asks them, confused, "Forgive me, but what is it that you find so funny?"
They calm down and then start making the noise of sheep, then laughing their asses off and walking away. Absolutely bewildered, Nelson looks at Rodney, who now has a look of barely contained rage. "What was that about?" Nelson asks.
"I have absolutely no idea." Rodney lies through clenched teeth in a scarily calm tone, her eye twitching. "Please excuse me, sister." She starts following the humans.
Nelson decides to just let it go and shrugs her shoulders. Victory is probably wondering where she is anyway. She grabs a few letters for the Commander from the nearby post office and makes her way back.
A couple of days later, U-556 finally is almost able to slip away from her mission and go to Scapa Flow. She sees she still has a ship left in the convoy she had just attacked. She shrugs and decides she might as well. She focuses on the last ship, but is surprised when an explosion rocks her submarine.
Depth charges.
She panics and dives but the water she's in is too shallow. Her sub hits the sea floor so she has to raise up again and try to shake the three ships now hunting her.
"Positive hit on enemy U-Boat. Make sure it doesn't make it back." The Captain of one of the ships orders.
U-556 tries her best to manoeuvre her ship. Just when she thinks she got away, she looks directly ahead, and sees something drop right in front of her conning tower…
"Lord Bismarck… I…"
BOOM
"Positive hit! She's going down!" A crew member yells as he sees a huge explosion shoot up seawater.
"Good work, everyone. A U-Boat that moved like that has to have had a Kansen on board. Wait for her body to reach the surface. If she's just a Cube now, Azur Lane will want it."
Bismarck hears footsteps approaching her cell, after having a feeling of dread out of nowhere. Victory stops in front of the cell and says, "…Are you alright?"
The Battleship looks up at her, "What?"
Victory asks, "…Nevermind. Have you decided yet?"
Bismarck stands up, "You really don't give up, do you? Weeks have gone by and every day you check in on me."
"I look after my prisoners, unless they're Sirens." Victory proudly says.
"So just because they're not Kansen or human, they deserve less than fair treatment?" Bismarck starts to deconstruct her methods.
"Sirens are something else entirely, and at least I'm not sending them to death camps." Victory narrows her eyes and gets serious.
"That again… what the hell do you mean? Your spy said something similar." Bismarck gets closer.
"See for yourself." Victory hands her pictures that Sheffield took on a previous mission.
Bismarck takes the pictures and looks at the first one. It show what looks like a train station. It has a big gate that has letters on it.
"ARBEIT MACHT FREI"
As she looks through the other pictures, Bismarck's face turns pale and her hands tremble. "…This is…"
"Is that really what you want to fight for, Bismarck? If the Allies win this war, your position as the flagship of Iron Blood may mean you'll be tried for the same atrocities and war crimes the Nazis have been committing. That isn't the only camp, either. Just the worst. They're all over Europe now."
Bismarck slowly looks back at Victory, her eyes start to become wet.
Victory says, "Imagine what Hitler might do if any of his shipgirls fail him. What he may have in mind for your sister."
"Mein Gott… they told me… that you're the monsters…" Bismarck says with a shaky voice. "You… haven't actually enslaved the humans of the British Isles, have you…?"
"Of course not, Bismarck. That goes against everything I stand for. I would rather see Britain burn than have it enslaved. I'd rather have every Kansen in the world rallied together to get rid of the Sirens. For all I know, they might be orchestrating this entire War." Victory pleads with her, "Bismarck, for your own sake, you have a chance to right your wrongs. Join us, and I will do everything I can to ensure you do not get grouped together with the animals ruling your homeland."
Bismarck is an expert in telling if someone is lying, and Victory certainly isn't. "Mein ships… would they even listen to me…?"
Victory put her hand on the cell bars. "There's still your Kansen, Bismarck. Of course they will. Together, we can convince them to come with us, too. We can reduce the power of the Kriegsmarine, making the fight easier for the Allies, and bolstering our power against the Sirens at the same time. There are two wars being fought here, but if the Sirens win ours, the other may not even matter. They'll be able to do anything they want."
Bismarck takes a moment to think, then gives the pictures back. She never wants to see them again. She dries her tears and becomes stoic again, "I… I'll do it. On a couple of conditions."
"Let's hear them." Victory listens.
"Eins: Mein Schiffsmädchen will be treated fairly."
"Of course."
"Zwei: You will teach us how to use our riggings."
Victory puts her hand to her chin, "That will take some convincing, but I'll see what I can do."
"Very well. I will do whatever is necessary to help." Bismarck says.
"Okay, but first, maybe you should… modify your outfit a little?" Victory suggests.
"What do you mean?"
Victory clarifies by clearing her throat and pointing to her arm with a cocked eyebrow.
"Oh… ja. Of course…" Bismarck takes off her red armband, disgusted by the symbol now that she knows what it is being used for. Victory leaves her to the process of removing the symbol from her uniform while going to get the key.
Victory comes back and sees all the metal symbols removed from of her uniform and on the table in the room. She opens the cell door. "So, what do you want to do with them?"
"Melt them down for scrap metal, for all I care. I'm going to go burn this armband and flag." Bismarck walks out of the cell with Victory in tow, holding the metal.
Walking through the base, Bismarck gets looks from all the Royal Kansen, none of them positive. She comes across two girls who don't look like Royals. "You two!"
"Ja?" The blonde girl asks.
"You are both Iron Bloods, aren't you? What are you doing here?" Bismarck asks back.
The blonde one approaches with the energy of a happy golden retriever and says, "I'm Blücher! It's nice to meet you! OH! Are you Bismarck!? I heard about you on the TV! Are you having a nice holiday like me and Spee?"
"Blücher…? Hipper and Eugen's schwester?" Bismarck asks with wide eyes.
"Ja! You've met them? Are they having a nice time, too?" Blücher asks with a big smile.
"They… are… I suppose…" Bismarck decides to not risk upsetting her. She looks at the more timid girl, "Spee, was it? Admiral Graf Spee?"
Spee just nods. She would salute but her massive hands are currently carrying a ton of supplies that she's moving.
"Hey, Spee! Put those over here! Blücher! We need your help with this!" A Royal Kansen yells from afar.
"Coming! See you later, Bismarck!" Blücher runs off while waving at the Battleship.
Spee says, "Its an honour, Lord Bismarck." Before following her.
Bismarck looks at Victory who had to hold back head petting the naive Blücher. She narrows her eyes, "You never told Blücher she's here as a prisoner?"
Victory counters, "Of course I have! Multiple times I've tried to explain to her that this isn't a holiday. She just doesn't seem to be able to feel sadness! Not even when we saved her from her burning ship! Not even Spee seems to be able to get through to her…"
"So how did Spee get here?" Bismarck asks.
"It turned out that she jumped from her ship just before it exploded. Apparently her Captain ordered her to save herself at the last minute, allowing Ajax to pick her up. I guess at least some of the Iron Blood humans aren't complete monsters." Victory answers.
"…I see…" Bismarck sighs. She and Victory get to the end of a pier, where she unclips the flag from the pole and drops it to the floor. She borrows a lighter from Victory and sets fire to the armband and drops it on top of the flag.
Victory remarks, "You know, I must say, I thought it would take more to persuade you, of all ships. Blücher and Spee wanted to help out immediately. Thank God I didn't have to show them the pictures… they've always been a last resort."
"Kommandantin, I am a Kansen. The protection of humanity comes before my country. I will not serve those who slaughter people just for who they are. Both the Sirens and the Reich lied to me. Used me. I may never be able to redeem myself for sinking Hood, but after we unite together, I will storm wherever the Sirens are located and take them down myself if I must, and the same goes for that arschloch Hitler and his underlings." Bismarck proclaims.
"Well said, Bismarck— wait, did you just call me Commander?" Victory does a double-take.
They both hear guns cocking behind them. Then comes a familiar voice, "Master, please step away from her…"
Author's Note: I had described Dreadnought as wearing a suit of armour in the last chapter. That was before I discovered Dishwasher's concept art for her and now I'm going off his design as it's far better. Please disregard her apparel in the last chapter. This is how she looks:
r/AzureLane/comments/gaicph/dreadnought/