*creeeeek!
The steel door leading out to the exterior deck of the ship flooded the interior near where Daniel was standing with the morning's warm sunlight,
And abusive levels of glare coming from the sunlight reflecting off of the ocean water,
Daniel blinked over and over, to displace the glare so it would stop practically burning out his eyes.
Once he was done however, he looked off to the side to see.....
*Whrrrrrrrrrrr
He got distracted, and looked up
It was an airship, a large sized one at that.
Similar in size to an early 1930's Zeppelin, but this one had a rather imperfect white band painted on the side, with a number, and a strange symbol on it, similar to a cross, but with a bunch of little extra details on it.
Speaking of the Zeppelin, since there was no ability to get radio contact, it flew low over the water, and attempted to inspect the German Battleship, and likely trying to relay instructions on its final approach to port.
The sun was then covered by a large amount of overcast clouds, negating the blinding glare, also Daniel got a good view of the port,
And it was absolutely enormous, to say the least,
Even though Hamburg from the real world had a large and bustling port, it was nothing compared to whatever naval maniac designed this monstrosity of a port.
Rows upon rows of ships and adequate equipment space to provide a mooring area for hundreds and hundreds of ships, maybe even thousands of them if you used your space right.
The Bismarck trundled along its path, moving past the giant concrete breakwater structures that absorbed any waves coming from the ocean, and made a safe mooring area for the ships inside,
On the inside were numerous different ships.
And this was no small selection,
Scharnhorst class battleships
Admiral Hipper class Heavy cruisers
Deutschland class Heavy Cruisers
Königsberg class light cruisers
And Leipzig class cruisers
As well as numerous different types of destroyers of different types.
While Daniel was taking in the scenery and the different warships, Bismarck (as in the Kansen) was still much more focused on finding Z23,
.
.
Z23 was standing near one of the observation platforms, trying to keep a low profile as much as possible,
She was barely awake, having spent an all nighter trying to guide the beast that she was currently on into port,
Luckily, that long night was just about over...
The Battleship Bismarck entered the port structure, the giant fortress-like buildings that surrounded the port walls were now behind the two ships as they entered.
Z23 broke off to an area near the destroyer mooring areas, and immediately weighed anchor, and Z23 immediately relinquished mental control over her ship, and almost collapsed to the ground,
.
.
.
Daniel and Bismarck found Z23 half asleep, sitting down, next to a door,
Unfortunately, there weren't that many benches or seats on the main deck, because at least she would've looked somewhat comfortable on those,
Daniel couldn't help but wince a little.
"...Did she really stay up the whole night?" Daniel said.
"I think so... I checked on her multiple times...." Bismarck said,
She had obvious frustration in her voice, she wished that she was the one that had to handle these long overnight operations.
Putting someone as young (looking) as Z23 in that spot would've surely took a toll on her,
Daniel felt it was probably best not to make anymore comments, he could only make her feel even more guilty then she already did.
However, Z23 wouldn't stay asleep for long...
*WROOOOOOOOAAARRRRNNNNNNNNN
"IM UP! IM UP!" Z23 shouted, immediately getting up to her feet.
"What was that?!" Bismarck shouted,
Daniel, while startled, eventually figured out that it was nothing to be afraid of
"I think that was the ship's horn" Daniel said.
Everyone took about a second to calm down.
.
.
.
"Wait a second....
You're supposed to be the Kansen of the Bismarck, you should know what the horn sound is... right?" Daniel said.
Bismarck gave Daniel a look of slight confusion,
And then she proceeded to clutch her head again,
"Oh, no, please don't tell me you're going to pass out again!" Daniel said.
"Wait! Who's passing out!" Z23 shouted.
"I..... don't... think so.... She said, responding to Daniel's comment
But every... time I think... about when I had my rigging.... My head....
...Throbs!" She said, sinking to the floor in pain, holding her head with two hands.
"No! No! No! Stay awake!" Z23 said.
"Oooh... this... this hurts....." she grunted.
Z23 gave Daniel a pained look,
Bismarck was supposed to be their flagship, and seeing her get hurt this bad, and crying out in pain, must really be sending out massive levels of grief to her subordinate.
"Weigh anchor!" A voice shouted from the deck below
*KA-CHUNK!
Daniel, Bismarck and Z23 looked over the side to see what was happening
Numerous sailors were all over the main forward portion of the deck,
And the giant steel chain attached to the left anchor was rapidly lowering,
*CACHINGCHINGCHING!
The heavy chain lowered at an extremely fast rate,
*CRUNK!
The anchor hit the bottom, which only about a few dozen meters deep.
————————
Fritz tried to assess his situation.
"So, let me get this straight...
I've lost all of my ships from the Eagle Union, Sakura Empire, Royal Navy.... A few others....
All I have left are Iron Blood ships?! Well there goes all my freaking carriers!
And I've lost my level 100 Biscuit, before I could awaken her..." Fritz said to himself
Mind you, he only worked up the courage to say this after about an hour of crying to himself and ranting into a pillow
"Okay, look on the bright side, at least I have some dock space now...." Fritz said to himself, in an almost sarcastic tone
Dock capacity: 36/ 2350
Fritz had spent a small fortune on getting docking space for his in game ships, mainly so that he wouldn't have to worry about it in the future.
And since all of the ships from the other factions and his duplicates of Iron Blood ships for their limit breaking, have all spontaneously disappeared, that meant he has absolutely nothing for his dock space to do.
.
.
.
.
.
"Oh look the commissions have returned." Fritz said
He half-heartedly took a glance at his menus while looking across the screen.
Dock capacity: 2104/2350
"Oh, my Dock space is almost ful-
Wait....
...TWO THOUSAND DOCK SPACE!?!
WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED?!" Fritz shouted.
"Is everything alright up there?" Fritz's mother said from downstairs.
"Uhh.... Everything's great mom! Just a little excited!" Fritz said.
"Oh, okay, please don't yell so loudly, your little sister is taking a nap." His mom said
But before those words were even out of her mouth, Fritz was already looking into his roster of ships to see what had happened.
There was only one new ship,
"Why is one ship taking up so much dock space?....." Fritz said to himself.
However, immediately after this, Fritz's game froze,
.
.
.
.
.
And about fifteen seconds later, he was catapulted into an unskippable storyline dialogue section.
———————
Giant docking ramps were set up near the ship to let the crew off and into the port.
Even though the crew was relieved to be on solid ground, it was obvious that this was not the Germany they knew before.
Giant, much more modern buildings of newer construction types towered to the sky, and the emblem of the Iron Blood was draped on it, rather than any German imagery.
Daniel would've taken a good look at the scenery, but he was far more worried with helping Bismarck get down the rows upon rows of stairs, and getting her off the ship.
Z23 offered assistance as well,
Bismarck's head was in extreme pain, she was clearly resisting the urge to pass out, occasionally grunting in pain,
"Just a little further... just a little further..." Daniel said.
"I... can't... feel my legs....." she said,
Whatever injury she has must be extremely serious,
Seeing one of the only friends he had made here, regardless of wether or not she thought of him as a friend back, hurt so badly to the point where now she was going numb from pain, was almost unbearable.
When the sailor traffic on one of the bridges finally got to an acceptable level, the threesome made their move, crossing the bridge as fast as they could, even though Bismarck could hardly move by herself.
A few Iron Blood personnel were standing amidst the crowd, and Daniel attempted to get their attention.
"H-Hello?! U-Uh, Iron Blood.... People? We have someone injured over here! S-She needs help!" Daniel said, waving his hand at them to get their attention,
This drew their attention for about half of a second,
But that was all they needed when they saw the state that Bismarck was in,
"Oh- Ohh! Get a medic over here! Now!" One of them said.
Considering that she was supposed to be the Iron Blood flagship, this was probably an expected reaction...
————————
The unskippable dialogue was extremely boring for Fritz.
So, as from what he could understand the dialogue was saying, the Commander (himself') and some admiral guy named Shmekelberger were trying to invite some people named Gunther Lütjens and Ernst Lindemann to a banquet.
Only thing is, he thought he heard someone in the background,
He put on a pair of Bluetooth earbuds, so he could hear better.
"H-Hello? Iron Blood people?" The voice said in the background,
Fritz was confused.
Even though he was certain it was in his game, he thought he heard Daniel speaking.
"Daniel.... Is that you? Did you call me on my phone? 'Cause I never remembered answering you!" Fritz said, wondering if Daniel had called him and he was hearing it in the background
"Wait... Fritz?" The voice said, being drowned out by background chatter.
Fritz was now monumentally confused,
Could they hear him? Or was this some kind of background noise that he was mistaking for chatter?
Fritz looked to see that the little light indicator for his mic was on,
The earbuds had a mic, and you could use them to talk into your phone, but you couldn't chat with people using mics in Azur Lane, could you?
No way, this had to be coincidental background noise
"Uh... yeah Daniel... it's me Fritz." Fritz said sarcastically
"FRITZ?!? YOU'RE HERE TOO?" The voice shouted.
"Who's Fritz?" A female voice said in the background
"He's my friend! We go to school together!" Daniel's voice said in the background
Wait! That voice mentioned them going to school together? Could it really be?!
Did he get Isekai'd into his game?!