The adventures of Prinz Eugen and the young engineer Volume 1.

Intermission

The world of the young engineer.

The day the Sirens first appeared and ripped the dominance of the sea from humanity. It was the same year the young engineer had turned 17 and had entered the basic training of the Ironblood Navy. This day, the Sirens appeared was officially the new beginning of the new time. It was the collective new start for a new counting of time. There was now only before and after the Sirens changed the world.
Also in the same year the ships of the navies of the world were affected by the power of the Sirens. It was always believed by sailors that their ships had personalities and character. They referred to them as girls and women who they took care of and which in return would keep them safe throughout their journeys. These believed characters and personalities of the ships turned and manifested themselves into human form. What is commonly known as shipgirls now. This change meant that with an instant everything changed for the navies. Their crews and their infrastructure became obsolete within an eyeblink. The crews were no longer needed, the mechanics as well. Those that were good enough were kept, so the naval infantry and all the staff and supporting arms. They were reorganised to fit these new fleets of shipgirls. What was left of the engineers corps was retrained to now assist the shipgirls in maintaining their rigging and keeping them well.

The young engineer had just finished his basic training and was studying naval engineering when all this happened. Like many other recruits in his position he was hastily assigned to research teams which started to gather knowledge about the new shipgirls and what it now meant to have a fleet made up out of them. He finished his new study in the so-called Notersatzt Programm. (Emergency replacement program.) That was about 1 year after the Sirens appeared. The just 19 year old was assigned to the base in his hometown. There he worked together with the old and experienced engineer Otto Wiedling. Wiedling was retained due to his years of active service and practical knowledge. Under him the young engineer learned most of the practical knowledge he had. The still mostly unknown theories of Wisdomcubes and Rigging technologie were supplemented with the practical experience of the old engineer which showed the young one that the Rigging of the shipgirls was different to the ships they were before but in their core they were the same. Instead of electricity and fuel they used the energy of the Wisdomcube and shipgirl, but a gun hoist was still a gun hoist and armorplate still armorplate. Within another year of working with and under the supervision of Otto Wiedling, the young engineer passed his officers exam and was inaugurated as a technical engineer and officer into the Ironblood navy. The Marine as it was called by most in Ironblood. The next year over the young engineer continued his work with Wiedling until he was assigned to take care of one of the heavy cruisers which were to be permanently stationed at Wesermünde. His mentor and friend was assigned to the other cruiser that came to the base. The one he had worked on as lead engineer all the years prior, Admiral Hipper.

The political situation.

Ironblood is, by the time the young engineer was born, an established and powerful country. On the mainland of Europa it is the strongest nation next to the Northern Parliament, which is a secluded nation with immeasurable strength, which keeps to itself. There are three other nations that share the continent with them. There was the Sardegna Empire which was a comparatively small state on the Italian peninsula but which held large holdings on the african continent. They were often allies to the Ironblood but more often than nor unreliable ones.The other ally of the Ironblood was the former puppet government of the Vichya Dominion. It was established in the southern half of its original landmass. After the Ironblood unification war it had fought against the emerging nation of Ironblood it was partially annexed and the south of the country and its colonies were made a puppet government which by the time of the young engineers birth had been granted independence. It remains as an ally to the Ironblood, but their willingness to be an ally of the Ironblood is always an uncertain one. This happened due to some of the former colonies breaking off in support of the original country that was the land that is now the Vichya Dominion and parts of Ironblood. These rebelling colonies called themselves Iris Libre and took up the religious further and traditions of its former original form. They fought the Vichya Dominion for a time in a civil war but with the intervention of the Crimson Axis and the Azur Lane a compromise was found. Both countries were recognised as independent entities and would exist separately from each other. This peace and solution was only found because no one wanted to fight a war between nations as long as the Sirens were there. The Last country that was part of europe was Britain. It's royal navy by far the biggest navy in europe. Due to being an island nation and having a strong navy and naval tradition they remained outside the influence of the Ironblood and crimson axis and remained the biggest opponent to the power Ironblood in europe. This led to a conflict which was termed the great war and which lasted for 14 years until the Sirens appeared. Their mostly naval based conflict saw the formation of the two great alliances in which the world was divided. The former was the royal navy and the navy of the Eagle Union which was the country that spanned the two continents of America. As well as the remnants of the navy of the Dragon Empire, which was not part of the Sakura Empire by then. The last and newest ally in this alliance is Ires Libre. The other great alliance was made up of the Ironblood, the Sakura empire and the Sardegna Empire as well as the Vichya Dominion.

The war came to a conclusion and both sides agreed to maintain the status quo to fight the threat that the Sirens posed.That means that even though the nations and navies of the world don't fight each other, they still do not cooperate well andl united. Their interests more often than not are in conflict to each other. The Ironblood was the first nation to break off from the alliance to fight the sirens. The Azur Lane as it was called. In secret talks they negotiated a new alliance with their former allies and founded the Crimson Axis. Although both sides are not at war with each other, they still have confrontations between each other. The fact that the Sirens abuse this weakness in cooperation and trust by sending copies of the fleets of different nations out to fight the fleets of humanity made it all the more complicated.

Cooperation between these factions seems unimaginable. Even though all of them try their best to achieve it. It is oftentimes the dislike of the shipgirls and navies for each other that prevents full cooperation and trust.

For them to all finally unite, it would need a leader or commander who would be respected by all nations and who could lead them all together. But until such a person was found, most navies operated on their own basis and according to their own interests. This is especially an issue for the crimson axis. An alliance that was formed based around the perceived threat that posed the Royal Navy and the Eagle Unions navy. Now that there was peace, it lost its purpose and was only in theory a binding alliance. More often than not the nations and navies did their own thing and disregarded their so called allies.

As the smallest of all the navies, the Marine of the Ironblood was one that wanted to prove itself and which relentlessly pursued the idea of becoming stronger and better. Which led to the point that the technological development of the rigging technology made bigger advances than anywhere else, although the engineers, scientists and researchers of the Ironblood only just scratched the surface level of knowledge about Wisdomcubes and how it all worked. Their willingness to just use and further develop the technology of the Wisdomcubes and the Sirens lead to their unique shipgirls and riggings. The only other nation with similar technology was the Northern Palairment. But no one knew how they developed and created their shipgirls and riggings.