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

No. 9 Chapter 9

The engineer only managed to return to his dorm room in the middle of the night. What had started as an afternoon meeting had turned into a set of conversations leading deep into the night. He was able to have another game of chess with Amagi but the battlecruiser beat him easily once more. He was truly astonished by her genius in that regard. He had met others that could think ahead and pre-plan many options a game could take but he had never met someone who was able to apparently not just be two or three steps ahead of him but seemingly have the entire game planned out to win by the time he made the first move. Only Amagi and Friedrich were able to make him feel that way when playing against them. He could only imagine how their talent for observation, deduction and planning would assist any navy in their operations. But what had influenced his stay even more was the return of Atago and Ibuki to the building of the sakuran delegation. He was able to talk a bit more to the shy ship and learn more about her time being a conscious living being. Other than that he wanted to leave due to it getting late. He also knew that tomorrow the official festivities would take place. Despite not wanting to show up to them, he was by now invited and asked to do so by not just Fritz and Eugen, but also Friedrich as well as Amagi and Atago. Groaning he knew he could no longer weasel his way out of it. But his sense of duty to his friends got the better of him and with mixed feelings about the matter he had decided to come and play along with all of it.

Unlocking his dorm room he prepared his official parade uniform. Looking at his trousers he saw the small stitch he made on its left knee. He remembered the reason why he got that tear in his trousers when he fell on the beach running from Taihou and Akagi. Again the bad experiences he made during most official ceremonies crept back up and with them the cold shudder of all the other ones he had buried deep down and far away under other memories. He shook his head. In an effort he made himself remember other things. There were not just the bad things but also many good ones. He remembered the meetings he had with many Eagle Union ships and other girls from other navies and places. Not all was bad as it was not all good he reminded himself. And this time it was an official celebration in his home country and the last time he celebrated anything official here, he only got wasted but also got to dance with Eugen and Hipper for the first time. Looking at the breast of his uniform tunic he realized he still had not changed the medals since the last time he wore it. Getting out his small case in which he kept his decorations he exchanged the service time ribbon form the two year service ribbon to the 5 year service ribbon and after a bit of deliberation he decided to add two further honors he had not displayed before. He added the St. George Cross from the Northern Parliament to his medal bar, next to that he added the sakuran medal of honor on a yellow ribbon he had been honored with for his work in the Sakura Empire some time after he had left the Islands. He imagined that Akagi would have gritted her teeth very much if she knew that he got one for his work she wanted to punish him for. A smile mixed out of uncomfortable embarrassment and spite crept up on his face for a moment before he decided againsts indulging the latter feeling. Putting on his parade uniform he brushed his medal bar down to adjust the medals into shape and form. It was a gamble put he had thought about what his friends had said. Why should he hide who he is and what he has achieved? After that he fixed his collar and adjusted his bowtie. Looking at the mirror he had to admit he did not look bad and was a good representation of an Ironblood officer. He did like the fact that the navy had retained and reverted to the old uniforms of the empire. Either way he emptied his glass of water before undressing and going to bed, having prepared everything to leave his dorm room to attend the opening ceremony in the morning without a hitch.

At the Kiel naval base he turned up at the podium reserved for the higher officers of the admiralty. He found his place in the assembling formations of the staff of the research unit 2 he belonged to. He stopped at his place next to Fritz Mahler as he was in terms of rank the second highest after him. Their small 6 man unit was dwarfed by the staff of the kiel Naval base. There at least two dozen staff officers had taken up positions, followed by a hundred personnel from logistics, to engineering and maintenance staff. Next to them stood two battalions of naval infantry in company column. Next to the podium with the high ranking officers a stance was erected in which the combined orchestras of Kiel, Hamburg, Königsberg and Wilhelmshaven had assembled to form the grand orchestra of the navy. On the other side of the harbor basin thousands of civilian bystanders had assembled to see the grand opening and entering of the ships. Looking at his pocket watch, he knew that they had about five more minutes before the ceremony opened. "I am surprised you did not call in sick today." Fritz Mahler teased his friend. "I am glad you are here though." He acknowledged him. The engineer just slowly growled to answer his friend. "You are right, we are on parade, we should not talk. Although imitating a wolf is surely not the right thing to do." His friend chuckled before falling pack into form as the conductor of the Orchestra opened the ceremony by playing the first march. After the orchestra opened with the march of the navy, the commander of the naval base Kiel spoke the opening words, which were followed by greetings and the introduction to the festivities by the grand admiral. After that the mayor of Kiel spoke as well as the minister of war. After their more than an hour long introductions the next march was finally played. To the sounds of the Parade march Unsere Marine, the Shipgirls made their debut. The engineer observed the strength of the Ironblood navy appear. Almost all the destroyers were there. The sister ships came in line of bearing in their construction and variant groups. The 1924 class led by Möwe started, followed by the 1934 class led by Z 1 which was in turn followed by the 1934 A class led by Z 5. The last of the destroyers to come was Z 46 as the only one of the 1936 B class present. The engineer had spotted that some of the 1936 A and A Mob destroyers were missing as well. He therefore knew that these were out and about on duty to protect the Ironblood waters against any Siren attacks. The destroyers were followed by the three Königsberg sisters as well as Nürnberg and Leipzig. He observed that Emden was missing and guessed that the third cruiser to hold that name was also out and about in the protection force. The same went on for the heavy cruisers. Between the Panzerschiffe it was Admiral Scheer that was missing as well as Blücher between Prinz Eugen and Hipper. But what surprised the engineer was that the full force of battlecruisers and battleships was present. Both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as well as Bismarck and Tirpitz were there.