-Book One- Ghost of Kyiv, an Azur Lane Story

Chapter 3: Why Do I Hear Boss Music?

0500 Hours
8 June 1942
Azur Lane Main Base

An inferno raged at the base. Multiple ships were at different stages of sinking or burning. The entire attack itself was carried out by only Iron Blood shipgirls and torpedo boats. All across the base, people witnessed different stages of carnage.One man was sitting by the beach, gripping his stomach as if everything in it would tumble out, further away near the docks Manjuus were pulling dead or dying shipgirls out of the water. Every shipgirl that was able to fight set up a line of defense and fired back at the marauding Iron Blood ships.

Bismarck stood a few miles away, Prinz Eugen standing beside her. She was surveying the battle, her eyes scanning the smoke and coastline like a hawk. Suddenly, a shipgirl with platinum blonde hair landed in the water near Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, no doubt a report about the battle already in her head.

"Frau Bismarck, Z23 reporting. So far, the attack on the Azur Lane base has been going well. They have taken heavy casualties and multiple ships are either sunk or sinking. Bismarck acknowledged this information, nodding her approval to Z23. "Sehr gut. Z23, go back to the battle, come back with another report." Z23 nodded with a smile and launched herself toward the island.

"This attack has been going mostly to plan. We have struck a crippling blow on Azur Lane forces, and we can one hundred percent guarantee a win." Prinz Eugen said to Bismarck, both shipgirls switching to ship form, then her eyes stared out into the sky. Something was wrong. A droning, roaring noise pierced the air, as if someone had launched a tiger or a lion into the air. She turned her head, left and right, trying to see what was happening. Then she finally saw it, a fast-moving object approaching from the east. It flew very fast, and unlike prop-driven fighters that Eugen usually saw, it had no visible wing guns and strange-looking bombs and rockets on its wings.

"Excuse me, Frau Bismarck, but does that aeroplane look strange to you?" Prinz Eugen pointed at the plane. Bismarck turned her head, and her eyes narrowed. She ducked just as the aircraft passed low overhead, banking hard left over the island and dropping its bombs. 3 torpedo boats went up in flames, as well as a destroyer. "This is Bismarck, what the hell is going on over there?" No response answered her. "Gottverdammt!" She then heard a screeching roar as the fighter passed low over her, tipping its wings, mocking her. She waved her fist at it, firing her anti-air guns in response.

Stepan's POV

The ships below fired upon me. Barely dodging gunfire by the skin of my teeth, I banked hard right, the guidance pod for the KAB-500 swinging around to bear on the silhouette of the oversized Potemkin reject. Finally, I banked my MiG in a left turn, finally locking onto the battleship below, and dropped the bombs. They both dropped away, the glorious sunlight glinting off of the side of the canopy and the small rearview mirrors on either side of the polyurethane windows.

POV end

"Why the hell hasn't it still been shot down? Where the hell did it even come from?" Bismarck fumed, as if imaginary steam was coming from her ears. A tinny, whistling noise filled the air, as if someone had a dog whistle that they dropped. She looked up just in time to see four bombs headed towards her and Eugen. The first two hit her ship at the stern, both bombs penetrating the No.3 and No.4 turrets, taking both out of action. Bismarck dropped her binoculars, and muttered an expletive, "Scheisse."

The force of the blast lifted the stern of her ship slightly, as well as knocking her unconscious and into the water. The two bombs aimed at Eugen, on the other hand, did a different kind of damage entirely. The first bomb missed and fell into the water, but the second one hit the bridge, bathing the entire area in a bright orange light, and shredding Eugen's face and body with shards of glass and various debris.