The Bismarck Survivor

Chapter 3 - The Shikikan

Total word count: 12,124 words

Karl sat behind his desk with a bag of brown sugar in his hand with a spoon, eating straight from said bag with wet sugar pasted on his lips. He had some paperwork to do as a Commander does, mainly a few medical bills from Hipper's pounding of him, but decided to write it off and decided his blood sugar needed raising. He could swear to himself that he'd probably get diabetes soon, but that's besides the point.

A knock came on his office door and he showed them in with a simple call to enter. The knob turned and the door slowly opened, a head poking out. It was Z-23.

"Oh, hey, Z-23." Karl said, licking his lips clean with absolutely no shame as he shoveled the unhealthy powder into his mouth.

"Hi Kommandant, uhm. Something came in from the Sakura empire, a letter straight to you."

Karl asked for it to be handed over and Z-23 entered the room, walking over to his desk amd plopping the letter down. He waved her out and she left, closing the door behind her. Karl opened the letter and slipped a piece of paper out, unfolding it.

Commander of the Ironblood forces, it would be my pleasure to meet you in-person sometime as the Shikikan of the Sakura fleet. Seeing as our forces are closely allied and you simply seem to be an intriguing and potentially effective commander I believe a meetup would be understandable. We also have a few things to discuss. Whenever you feel the need to come down feel free, I will be sure to make time, just be sure to let us know.

Regards, Takeshi Kido, Commanding Officer of the Sakura Empire fleet.

A little stamp with what he would assume is the insignia of the Sakura empire was put down at the bottom left corner of the page in red.  

"Huh." He folded the letter back up and put it in his back pocket. Karl looked over to the clock, it was about eleven in the morning. He had time, plus whatever can get him out of paperwork. Karl stood up and walked up to his door, opening it and looked down the hall, stopping Z-23 who was just about to turn the corner.

"Hey! Wait!" Z-23 looked back.

"Is something wrong Kommandant?"

"No, but the letter is requesting my presence. Tell the Commander of the Sakura Empire i'll be coming down there today."

"Mhm, anything else?"

"Yes, is Graf Zeppelin back?"

"She came back last night while you were sleeping Kommandant."

"Very well, have her ready me a transport plane. Plus I need to meet her anyhow."

"Will do now Kommandant." She saluted Karl and he smiled, retreating back into his room to get his uniform on. He had been wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt casually, not thinking he'd be up to anything today.

--

Karl eventually exited his room and made his way down the hallway in his Kriegsmarine uniform with a destination of the docks in mind. Plan was to take off of Graf Zeppelin's runway- the base itself didn't have a functional airfield for whatever reason- with a modified He-111 with a shorter take-off, a tail hook to land on aircraft carriers, a better fuel economy, and better engines. It was also civilianized so much of the military equipment like bombs, armor, and weaponry had been shaved off to reduce weight drastically.

That's what the documents said about it tales as he read them over. Looking over a picture clipped onto the paper he noticed one of the little gun-pods atop the bomber was still present and he wondered why. Probably just in case, but it wouldn't come in handy most likely seeing as the plane was unarmed 100 percent.