5th July, 1941.
U-96 searches the surface for her next prey. She has been sinking her share of convoys recently, and not thinking much about it. She uses her periscope and sights a big ship with a Royal Navy flag flying.
"Bingo." She dives her sub and puts her engines to maximum, arming her torpedoes. "You're not getting away…"
She gets the big transport ship in her sights. She thinks of the amount of supplies she'll be denying the Royal Navy. She sees it as her part in shortening the war. With that, she proudly takes aim and waits for the right moment. She starts quietly singing to herself.
"Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein, Und das heißt…"
She fires her torpedoes.
"Erika!"
She dives down and listens out for the blasts. She hears them and raises up again. She sees the ship splitting and expects to start counting the amount of supplies spilling out as she usually does, but all she sees are dead and dying soliders. She's just sunk a troop transport. Seeing the deaths she's caused starts making her question what she's doing as 254 people die before her.
"…" she dives back down in silence.
"We're Kansen… aren't we supposed to protect humans?" She thinks. She'd agreed to sink cargo, not human lives…
Bismarck visits U-556 in the base hospital. The little sub is handcuffed to the bed frame while she recovers from when she was captured. Having their ship sunk can cause quite a bit of physical and mental trauma to a Kansen, especially small ships like Submarines. Luckily, Vestal's training worked wonders on the Royal girls. The U-Boat is still asleep. Bismarck takes off a glove and gently puts the palm of her hand on her little friend's forehead. She hasn't had any fevers or other sicknesses but she wants to make sure.
"Feeling a bit of maternal instinct there, eh?" She hears from behind her. Bismarck quickly retracts her hand and sees George behind her. She had forgotten that there is always a Royal Battleship keeping an eye on her. She must have come in to make sure she doesn't try to conspire with the other Iron Blood Kansen.
"What? Nein. I just… wanted to make sure my comrade is being treated properly." Bismarck lies while putting her glove back on. "Plus… I want to be the first person she sees waking up. Seeing any of you first may make her panic." That part was true.
George raises an eyebrow, "Is she dangerous when cornered?"
Bismarck looks at her dead in the eye, "We all are." She says with a mix of pride and warning in her voice.
George raises her hands up, "Alright. When we face the Sirens together, I'll hope you're correct. By the way, I was actually coming to tell you I've been given permission to train you in deploying your rigging."
Bismarck cocks her eyebrows, "That was fast."
George says, "My warning to you still stands, just so you know. Come. The sooner we start, the sooner you can come to see your little friend again."
Bismarck follows her to the main courtyard. The Royal Knights are stood around with their rigging deployed watching her, especially Wales. Bismarck sees Graf Spee and Blücher also there, ready to learn as well. Graf already has part of her rigging deployed, the massive gauntlets fixed onto her hands, but that was due to a minor fault in her Awakening, being the first attempt at using the Quick Finishers.
George crosses her arms. "Now, then. Bismarck, I assume the Siren who tricked you whispered sweet little lies into your ear about how to summon your rigging?"
Bismarck answers, "She said something about how it's different for every Kansen, how it's something we feel deep within, and we have to figure out what it is."
Suddenly the Royal Knights can all be heard stifling laughter. The three Iron Bloods look at them in confusion, then back at George, who just shakes her head and says, "What utter bloody nonsense… the Sirens are anything but helpful at the best of times… Bismarck, there is no special unique feeling we tap into. It can be easy to summon it when you're in deep emotional stress, but I'd rather not subject the three of you to that. Normally, all you have to do is imagine your rigging, and wish it into existance. This will be the first time, so you must design them to your likings right now. Spee, you're a special case. Part of your rigging has already appeared in the form of your massive gauntlets and your tail. Just try and build the rest of it."
The three of them all close their eyes and search their minds for what their riggings look like. Howe speaks up, "Because your ships have been sunk, it might be more difficult, but I know you can all do it!"
Graf imagines two red mechanical maws either side of her hips with her ship's oversized cannons on the sides, accompanied by two quintuple torpedo tubes connected to her black robotic shark tail. She hears George say, "Well done, Spee." She opens her eyes and sees her rigging deployed, making her feel a lot more powerful. Her hands also feel looser in her gauntlets and a lot less strain in moving the huge metal fingers.
Blücher ignores the distractions in her mind except that she's always wanted a cute pet. She can't help but think about the dream she had last night where she was riding a some sort of dragon… or was it a narwhal? A sawfish, perhaps? She suddenly feels something lift her up and she's sat on something. She opens her eyes in surprise and looks down to see she's riding a robotic monster with her cannons on its two heads, one at each end of its snake-like body. "I… I did it, Miss George!" She excitedly says. George nods in approval. Everyone the turns her attention to Bismarck, who seems to be struggling…
"Why won't it work?" She thinks it herself, imagining the Hydra that Zero had showed her. She remembers every bit if it and tries hard to make it appear, but it just won't work. She opens her eyes and sighs, "Scheisse…"
"Lord Bismarck? What's wrong?" Spee asks.
"I… I don't know… Zero showed me what it would look like…." She realises what she just said and looks at George, who raises and eyebrow. "Nein… I can't trust anything she said… let me try again."
George nods and Bismarck closes her eyes again, not thinking about the Hydra. Surely she can't trust any design a Siren came up with, could she? She puts that design aside for now and instead goes for a more simple, compact design. This one, like Spee's, has mechanical red chomping maws on either side of her with guns on, but two on each side representing her four main guns, along with a small miniaturised stern on her back. Not as intimidating as the huge monster she was shown, but very few people would take her on as is. She opens her eyes and George applauds her.
"Well done, Bismarck. I doubt the Sirens wouldn't think twice before taking you on." George says.
"Danke, Frau George." Bismarck nods.
"You look awesome, Lord Bismarck!" Blücher exclaims.
Spee asks, "May we learn to use these now that we have them?"
George smiles, "Of course. Follow me."
Two days later, U-556 starts to regain consciousness. She feels her wrist with something around it. she sees she's been captured and there's a big Royal Navy flag on the wall. She looks around in a panic and sees the one person she's wanted to see for ages. "Lord Bismarck!?"
Bismarck looks up from the red book she was reading and smiles, "Ah, Guten Morgen, Parzival. How are you?"
U-556 cries happily, "I've been looking for you ever since you sank, Lord Bismarck! I knew you wouldn't be taken out so easily! I'm here to save you and bring you back!"
"On the contrary, U-556." Bismarck gets serious, "I'm where I should've been from the start. It is I who has to save you and every other Kansen in Iron Blood."
"Wha… what?" U-556 asks, confused. Bismarck explains, choosing to leave out the part about the camps.
It takes about 3 days for U-556 to find out about them, anyway. She's become somewhat quieter since…
On the same day two more Kansen-less U-Boats are commissioned in Iron Blood, Bismarck, U-556 and Dr. Anzeel, after almost dying of cuteness overload upon meeting the submarine, finally enter the Azur Lane planning room with Victory. Already there are the Royal Knights, with the leader King George V flanked by her sisters. Sheffield is also present along with two Carriers.
They all trust Bismarck a little more now, but are still cautious of her.
U-556 recognises Ark Royal as the Carrier she could've sunk to save Bismarck's ship of she had any torpedoes. Ark gives her a strange look as she gets the same feeling around her as she did back then.
Bismarck starts by saying, "I am well aware of your opinions of us. I had hospitalised Frau Sheffield here and I have, regrettably, sunk Frau Hood. U-556 here is a U-Boat and has prevented many supplies from reaching this base, taking the lives of many Allied sailors in the process. We have no pride in our actions and we shall work to redeem ourselves. We shall continue to do so until the Crimson Axis Schiffsmädchen are allied with Azur Lane."
U-556 nods in agreement. She can't possibly keep supporting the Nazis after Bismarck's explanation and seeing the pictures.
George sees how Bismarck is holding U-556's hand but doesn't comment. She instead replies, "My sisters still do not yet fully trust your word, Bismarck, but you still have the chance to prove it to them. Please don't waste it."
Bismarck nods, "Jawoh— … Yes, Ma'am." She corrects herself to English.
George nods back. "Very well. Commander, you called us here for a mission? Let us hear it."
Before Victory can speak, Wales interjects, "Im sorry, but do you expect me to just forget what you did?" She glares at Bismarck.
George tries, "Wales, please…"
Wales interrupts her, "Whatever mission she's involved in, count me out. She'll never have my support." She leaves the planning table and exits the room while giving Bismarck a shoulder check as she barges past. That complimented by the huge scar running from her mouth to her ear makes Bismarck feel even more guilty.
George sighs and shakes her head. "What will I do with her…?"
Bismarck defends her, "It's not her fault… Not only have I sunk the ship who was clearly close with her… I have also disfigured her face…"
Victory puts her hand on the German Battleship's shoulder, "Bismarck, don't worry about her. She'll come around eventually." She gets close and whispers in her ear, "Besides, if this mission is a success, we'll have a chance to bring Hood back after we get her Cubes too."
Bismarck nods, "Ja…"
Victory smiles and turns her attention back to the rest. "Now, if we can all get along with our new friends, we can get her comrades here and have them join us instead of wasting time and resources fighting them instead of the War the humans are killing each other over. We also already have two of their Cruisers one of their U-Boats, so I suppose we'll see how it goes."
Bismarck says, "U-556 has already joined us, so don't worry about her." The little sub nods in agreement. "However, the others in Iron Blood may be more resilient. We need to convince them soon because if the Sirens beat us, the human World War, which has already taken so many lives, may never end with them secretly pulling the strings."
"That is rather disconcerting… we ourselves have already lost some of the Destroyers to the Crimson axis… the poor girls…" Ark adds.
Victory continues, "When they are with us, we can try to get the Eagle Union and Sakura Empire to calm down and join our efforts. I have had talks with both their leaders. They seem to be watching each other closely. There's quite a bit of tension. Anything could happen between them…"
"The Sakura have also been forcefully taking territories from the Dragon Empery. They're quite literally poking the bear of the Northern Parliament as well." Illustrious brings up.
"No, no. They've fought a few times, but the Parliament's superior forces caused the Sakura to sign a neutrality pact with them. Speaking of whom, I've tried contacting Sovetskaya Rossiya to join forces with us, now that Iron Blood has attacked them, but to no avail. She doesn't seem to be in a speaking mood right now." Victory counters.
Bismarck says, "Perhaps we should start with the plan now?"
Victory gets back on track, "Oh, yes. My apologies. Right. We need to infiltrate Blohm & Voss Shipyard where Bismarck, Tirpitz and and U-556 were built." She points to map on the table of the port in question. "There is a scientist there who could give us the answer to a technical problem Dr. Anzeel is having."
Anzeel nods and adds, "Sorry, girls, but because I'm not too sure about the effectiveness of it yet, I can't yet tell you what I'm working on, but if it does work, it will help us all."
Sheffield says, "If you need an infiltration, why not just send me, Master? I've done it multiple times. I can do this mission easily now that Bismarck is here with us."
Victory says, "I know, Sheffield. You are indeed going in again, but this time I want you to have backup. Bismarck will be going with you, with everyone else here nearby to lend aid."
Sheffield is surprised by the new amount of care Victory seems to have for her now. She says, "Why the backup, Master? Won't it be more difficult to infiltrate the port now?"
Bismarck answers, "It will be easier now than every other time you've tried. I will there to grab their attention and I will rally them together. That will surely leave only the humans on the base to sneak past. I only ask you do not harm any Schiffsmädchen."
Victory adds. "While Bismarck is busy distracting everyone, you need to sneak into the lab and either subdue Dr. Fritz or convince him to come with you. After that, the two of you need to work together to extract him and as many Iron Blood shipgirls as you can back to George's fleet. If for whatever reason things go south, well that's also what they will be there for."
"Affirmative, Master." Sheffield nods.
Understood, Commander." George says.
Victory looks at Bismarck, "Do you reckon your sister will have Awoken by now?"
Bismarck replies, "I wouldn't know, Kommandantin, but she seemed very against accepting any Cubes, like myself, but now that they have Quick Finishers…"
"I suppose that's another good reason for you to go too." Victory nods.
Bismarck says to the maid, "A bit of advice, Miss Sheffield. Don't pretend to be an Iron Blood Schiffsmädchen this time. Everyone knows each other there and all the humans are men."
Sheffield rolls her eyes, remembering her blunder, "Are you going to injure me again if I do?" She asks sarcastically.
"Sheffield." Victory says as a warning.
The stealth maid simply says, "I will go prepare now, Master." She walks out without another word.
Bismarck slowly shakes her head, partly at Sheffield's hostility, but mostly at how she herself could've handled catching her in the act better than she did. If she wants to make up for her acts against the Royals, she certainly has her work cut out for her…
"How interesting… so they're going for dear Dr. Fritz?" Observer asks Anzeel, who had reported to her as ordered after the breifing.
"…yes…"
"So things are finally being set into motion… I've been wanting to do this for months…" Observer smiles as she opens a holographic file in her hand…
In the port of Hamburg, Dr. Fritz' machine finally starts glowing again…