Azur Lane: Leipzig Missile Cruiser Class

Repair, Rearming, Refreshing

30th of December, 1941

Wilhelmshaven, Weimar Republic
Military Harbor, Cruiser Dockyards

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the successful return to port after a very intense impromptu port visits in different countries. The Iberian fleet allowed them to make a stop in La Coruna for quick repairs, the Iris Orthodoxy improvised the reception of the battered fleet and helped with the unloading of wounded personnel and their transportation by train to the Franco-German border before letting them leave. The Royal Navy, briefed by the German Embassy and informed of the fleet's status by French intelligence, escorted the entire Home Fleet (or whoever was in or near the Channel and not in docks for maintenance) through the Straits of Dover. It was quite a sight to see all these warships, once fighting each other, side by side in comparison to their size and volume of guns.

However, the most accidental attention seekers were the two missile cruisers. MI6, the British Empire's foreign intelligence service, had misjudged the weapons layout of the ships gathered by "Dagger" and misidentified them as heavy cruisers. After news reports of their involvement in the recapture of the Azores archipelago, they had reclassified them at the request of the Prime Minister, the British Admiralty and "Her Majesty".

Now back in port, the two dead Kansen and the critically injured Z24 were taken to the laboratory next to the very dome where the two cruisers were connected to the two girls. The ships of the three Kansen were brought into the said dome. Time will tell how long it will take to bring them back to life and without any deficits for their future lives.

For Roon, her crew personally delivered her wisdom cube to the facility, stating that they would not leave their captain behind and would protect her even after her death.

In the meantime, the damaged ships have been towed to dry dock, where they will be evaluated to determine what is of the highest priority and where the most spare parts are needed in order to get the ship back on standby for future operations. Meanwhile, the injured Kansen and personnel have been taken to their respective infirmaries where they will be well rested and cared for.

The Siren Cruiser attached to Elbing was taken to another dome like dry dock and completely disassembled. No Siren weapon was left on board and all used electronics were purged of all data collected during the battle. All information was thoroughly checked for discrepancies and errors and stored separately in locked servers, reverse-engineered from previously captured Siren Fortress data archives. The scientists, it was said, were taking a field trip with the data.

However, the problems with dud missiles that caused the Nuremberg VLS to explode were taken into account, and the stockpiled missiles, ready to fill the missile racks upon return from surgery, were re-checked, and all faulty duds were removed from the site and safely destroyed.

All remaining Ruhrstahl and Waterfall AA rockets were rudimentarily prepared for loading into the VLS of both cruisers. The cruiser Elbing, stripped down to her hull, was inspected and plans for the guns were put on high priority for production. To ease the pressure, the Inspector and the Fleet Admiral revealed the armament of the missile cruisers, giving the entrepreneurs a much clearer idea of what their factories had to deliver. As a result, many companies immediately began testing and delivering prototypes in a matter of days, as their knowledge of the previous cruiser gun layout was similar to the current one.

Of course, the much more advanced secondaries and tetriaries won't be ready in a few weeks, but are expected to be in the final stages of testing by mid-February. With the advances in servers and other breakthroughs, mostly by reverse engineering or not having a maximized budget, the scientists had full freedom to experiment.