The adventures of the young engineer and Prinz Eugen Volume 2.

Launchday

"Why did I even agree to help that absolute idiot in his plans? I should have known that this fool would offload all the work onto me because he couldn't get it done himself." Hipper huffed while walking through her room in the engineers house. She grabbed a couple of her tops and shirts out of the closet, placing them in a small travel bag. "Not only did I agree to his stupid ideas but now I have to mother my dear little sister." She moaned while sorting in her clothes. "At least I don't have to take care of all the paperwork and other mess." She interjected her lamenting with a counter. "He may be an idiot but he did plan out things well. The fact that I only needed to get Eugen to sign a paper slip with nothing on it for him to add her signature in the application was quite ingenious. Still, leaving me with getting everything prepared here is a pain." She fell back into her light frustration. "But never mind this. It will all be worth it in the end." She mumbled to herself with a smile. Packing the last things she wanted to take with her, she placed her packed bag next to the one she prepared before. "Now I just have to wait for Eugen to get going." She stated to herself before she went down to the wintergarden to follow her passion and to pass time until the other two would arrive.

She would be by herself listening to her favorite music until her sister arrived in the early afternoon. "How are you doing dear sister?" Eugen asked her older sister. "Same as always. What about you?" Hipper asked her sister casually. "The base is all quiet and nothing interesting is happening. The destroyers are bored like nothing else but exercise will keep them occupied I think." She told Hipper. "They are a pain when they are bored." She agreed with her younger sister. "Anyways, do you have anything planned?" Hipper asked her sister. "Not really. I just thought about reading a bit." Eugen answered. "Has my dear sister any plans for us or do you feel lonely?" Eugen teased her sister now. "You moron! If I was lonely I would certainly not be here alone moaning about it. And I would certainly not try to get you to keep me company for I know you would never let me live that down." Hipper exploded. "Ohh my. I am sorry I hit that soft spot." Eugen immediately apologized, but still smileling. "I did not want to hurt you." She apologized. "It's alright." Hipper batted her away. "You just get under my skin by the way you know me so well." Hipper admitted. But the cruiser immediately realized that she messed up. Her younger sister had tilted her head to the side and intently watched her. She knew Eugen had figured out that she was hiding something. "Is it about the thing you have been going on about for weeks now?" Eugen asked her sister. "How do you know about that?" Hipper asked right away. "You are my sister, it would be a shame if I would not notice my sister behaving differently." Prinz Eugen explained. "So you know it all." Hipper sighed. "Great, guess I messed it all up." The cruiser exclaimed while her temper got the better of her and broke her frustration limit. "I can stop pretending then." She exhaled and tried to find her composure. "I am not sure what your issue is. I only know that you have been up to something but not what. You may not be good at hiding a secret but you are good at keeping it." Prinz Eugen reassured her sister. "You mean to tell me you don't know what I have been up to?" Hipper asked unsure. "I only know that you complain to yourself about it." Eugen added. "Your talking to yourself is quite loud to be honest, the angrier you get talking to yourself, the louder you get." The third Admiral Hipper Klasse ship chuckled. "You have been eavesdropping on me? How dare you do that!" Hipper yelled at her laughing sister. "That's more like you." Eugen laughed as she evaded her sisters angered but playful attempts to hit her shoulder.

Both were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. "Are you expecting someone?" Prinz Eugen asked her sister. Knowing what was probably about to happen, she shook her head. "Go and open the door you klutz." She hushed her younger sister along to the door while she quickly hurried up.

Walking over to the door Eugen wondered who it might be. Neither of them had ordered anything as far as she knew. She guessed it was the neighbor going to check on them. The Waldenstedts were a kind older couple who looked out for her and her sister on behalf of the engineer. Every now and then they would come over and invite them to coffee and cake or ask if they needed anything from stores they were heading to. In return Hipper and her helped the two older whenever they could.
Opening the door Eugens expectations were disappointed. Instead of one of their neighbors it was her friend. Before the crooked but familiar smile of embarrassment and delight was able to be broken by a greeting, Eugen grabbed and hugged him. To her surprise her friend yelped in surprise and she felt how he was struggling for a moment before he returned the brotherly embrace. "It is good to see you again as well." He greeted her back after they had let go of eachother. "What are you doing here?" She asked him. "Well, I had some time off and I thought I kept my word." He started. "So how about we get going?" Hipper interrupted the two before the engineer could spoil anything. "Good idea, we should get going." The engineer agreed while he took the two bags Hipper had prepared. "What is going on?" Eugen asked, surprised. "You will see." Hipper answered her. "Go put some clothes on we need to get going." She hurried her sister along. Minutes later the two cruisers met up with the engineer outside the house where he waited for them in front of a car. "Good to see you are ready, let's get going." He smiled while he clapped his hands in excitement. After they all entered the rental car and the engineer drove them off Eugen could no longer hold her question to herself. "What is going on?" She asked again. Hipper looked at her sister and for once it was her that had the smug smile to present to her younger sister. "Happy birthday." She smiled at her. "Congratulations." The engineer chimed in. "We are on your way to your birthday surprise." Hipper informed her sister. Eugen was unable to answer for once. "Don't worry about it, I think you will enjoy your surprise." The engineer smiled. Finally Prinz Eugen collected her thoughts to answer. "Thank you you two." She answered. "Don't you want to know what your surprise is?" Hipper teased her sisters. "I would very much like to know what is going on." She agreed. Hipper looked over to the engineer and the latter nodded his agreement while they pulled onto the highway. "Our present to you is that you get a vacation." Hipper announced proudly. "A vacation? How were you able to get that approved? I was not even able to officially get time off when I was in a bad mood." She asked them. "It took the engineer quite the amount of paperwork and effort to get us two approved for it and only with him and his Godfather vouching for us." Hipper explained while she handed her sister a small red booklet. "You will need this where we are going." She smirked at Eugen. "Where are we going that I need my passport?" Eugen asked her sister. "Sardegna. Brindisi to be exact." The engineer informed her. "It was a pain to get you two approved for time off and even more so to get you two visas outside of official business of the navy. But thanks to the help of Hipper I managed. She is also the one that packed your clothes for you and we are already on our way." He smiled. Eugen was again baffled. "To see you out of words is something I need to appreciate more." Hipper laughed while hugging her sister for once. "Imagine it, two weeks of just the three of us enjoying whatever we want to do." Prinz Eugens oldest sister encouraged her and by now the realization had caught up to the cruiser as well. "You two are truly something else." She smiled. "Spending my first vacation with the two of you is going to be an adventure." Eugen grinned. "Thank you, you two for making my birthday special."

Today 84 years ago the hull of Prinz Eugen was launched. Happy launchday.