The two warships trundled along through the dark, with Z23 in the lead
The almost uncanny brightness of the moon illuminated the dark waters
Both ships had their lights off for fear of being spotted.
The storm and poor weather had mostly subsided, but the waves were still quite rough enough to not send a boat over to investigate Z23,
Captain Lindemann had to swap out his uniform for one that wasn't drenched,
Z23 was still awake, having to stay awake for the whole time it would take for them to get to Hamburg, (much to her annoyance)
Daniel was asleep in the crew quarters, within only a few inches of sweaty sailors of his gun station who had only just been working less than an hour ago, in the freezing rain, so they smelled like salt and sweat at the same time.
And Hans stunk of gunpowder, as well as salt and sweat
So was the life of a gun crewman
It was quite miserable, but Daniel was so tired from spending so many hours up that he fell asleep before his head hit his improvised pillow. (His sailor hat)
However, even though Daniel wasn't in the ideal situation, there was one having an arguably worse time...
——————
Bismarck shook her head in her sleep, fidgeting somewhat harshly
"Enemy planes to our port side!" A voice shouted inside her head.
.
.
.
*BOOM
*BUBUBUBUBUBUH!
*BANG BANG BANG!
*BOOM!
Explosions rang out.
"Nooo..." Bismarck muttered in her sleep.
*THOOOM
The roar of guns echoed in her head.
The deafening clang of metal on metal,
*BZOOOOOOM!
Swordfish biplanes zoomed over the deck,
And then....
*BOOOOOSSSHHHHHH!
A torpedo slammed into the hull of the ship.
The violent shaking of the massive explosion shook the ship,
Bismarck could only gasp in horror as she lost her balance and fell..
"Wahhh!-"
*KA-THUMP!
She woke up, inside of a small room,
"Ugghhhhh....."
"another dream...." She said as she picked herself up,
another extremely violent dream...
But instead of the Battlecruiser Hood, exploding into a terrific inferno, it was a bunch of biplanes attacking the ship,
And a torpedo slams into the very back, and she wakes up,
Usually on the floor, sweating profusely.
This time was no different,
She had to remind herself that it was a dream, before standing up, and then returning to the bed,
The bed was quite small, but complaining was not going to help it get larger.
Better than sleeping in one of those stinky bunks that Daniel was near, that was for sure,
Speaking of Daniel, she couldn't really seem to get her mind off of him,
Coming from an alternate world wasn't exactly that farfetched, considering what the sirens usually ended up doing with their strange experiments,
But a wisdom cube acting in such a strange way wasn't exactly what she had in mind, were the sirens behind the cube? Or were they just as confused as everyone else on this ship?
Of course, a manned ship of this size coming up in the modern day was completely unheard of, so perhaps the sirens are using them as an experiment?
But based on the contacts from earlier, the sirens seemed much more worried with containment of the ship, which, in a very surprising fashion, they utterly failed to do.
But, if the sirens were really trying to kill them.
Why weren't they dogpiling them for every second of the day?
This level of philosophical thinking was just about to make Bismarck fall asleep again,
But one thought kept her awake,
Z23,
The little girl was single-handedly keeping them on a course for home by volunteering to stay up all night and help navigate the manned battleship to their port,
She got out of bed,
Even though Shipgirls usually had to sleep and eat like normal humans, it could be done in much longer intervals, due to their ability to function on missions which could take hours, or even days of constant running,
But she was the flagship of the Iron Blood, and she would make sure that every ship under her command was checked on, and accounted for.
Upon leaving the interior of the ship, Bismarck was hit with a blast of cold air.
The wind whipped across the planking and steel beams of the ship, the low purr of the boilers increasing to a low, constant growl.
"Z23? Are you out here?" Bismarck said,
No response
"Nimi? Are you alright?" Bismarck said, this time a bit louder
"I'm over here!" A voice said, from just around the corner, in a high whisper
Not many of the sailors were on guard duty on this cold night, but Z23 was still not known to be on the ship, and she was best left unspotted,
Bismarck peeked her head around the corner,
Z23 was sat up against the metal wall, overlooking her rigging in front, so she could adequately monitor it.
"Is everything alright?" Bismarck said.
"Well, nothing is wrong really, I never notified you of any developments.....
But this is the third time you checked on me in four hours,
Why are you so worried?" Z23 said.
"Well.... I cannot....." Bismarck started.
"Sleep?" Z23 said.
Bismarck frowned
"I'm worried about your condition,
You have been through a rough time today by the looks of it.
And I do not wish a ship under my direct command to be in such poor condition for a long period of time" Bismarck said.
"Well, you seem to have gone through worse,
You were missing for a day, lost your rigging, and only now are you going to return to a port,
You are my superior officer, and it is my responsibility to protect you from harm until you reach there, especially in your vulnerable state." Z23 said
Bismarck was painfully aware of her inability to summon her rigs, especially at a time when they could be used, now more than ever,
"Please go to sleep, you need the rest. I'll tell you if something happens" Z23 said.
Bismarck sighed, and once again disappeared into her officer's quarters once again.
As she sat in bed, she only stared up at the ceiling,
The ceiling, covered in pipes and steel plates,
She stared for a while, trying to have her mind go blank
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The constant low grumbles of the engines turned into a nearly melodic sound,
They should be arriving in Hamburg soon if they keep up this pace,
Soon...
Soon, she'll be back home....
As she dwelt more on that, she ended up once again fading into sleep
——————
"What's wrong Fritz? You haven't touched your food?" Fritz's mother asked.
"...Nothing" Fritz said,
"Hmm, bad grades I presume?" She said.
"No, actually. Today I got a B on that math test that haunted me for three weeks..." Fritz said.
"Oh.... That's good! But why so down?"
"Freaking game had a bug..." Fritz said.
"Hmmm, well maybe it will be fixed once you get back upstairs." She said.
"Now, eat before your food gets cold."
———————
Fritz trundled upstairs, and fell onto the bed, quite depressed.
Why on earth did this stuff only happen to HIM?!
He turned on his console, and promptly selected World of Warships Legends,
As he was waiting for the game to load, he noticed that something was off with the console too.
<Kruppstahl3945> or Daniel, wasn't on.
Strange, Daniel was always on at this time, if he wasn't on WoWs, then he would be grinding on War Thunder.
What could be blocking him from playing?
He called Daniels number.
*Rinnng
*Rinnng
No response
Fritz sagged with boredom, after trying a few times
Well.... No Daniel to play with.
Fritz huffed with frustration,
He was going to find that bug with Azur Lane if it was the last thing he did.
If it won't let him in, then he'll write Yostar a 15 page essay in perfect format if he had to.
He reached for his phone.
It was still warm from when he had it on, a full forty-five minutes ago
He grabbed the phone, and slid it into his hands, and he clicked the app.
He had a determined scowl on his face, as seen in his reflection on the pitch-black screen as the game loaded.
It was time to play.....