Azur Lane: The Adventure of the MS München

Inspection and the land of the Free!

Mid-Atlantic Gap

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Birmingham closed the gap on the large unknown freighter, which identified itself as MS Munich. Obviously this gives her a bad feeling, as the auxiliary cruisers of the Ironblood Navy were notorious for surprising Allied merchant ships and an Australian cruiser. HMAS Sydney is still not happy about being taken by surprise.

With the war between the two alliances over and the general threat largely gone, the chances of a rouge crew and a shipgirl still don't get any better. For this reason, the Cleveland class still kept all its 152mm and 127mm guns on the imposing, potentially hidden weapons behind chutes and hatches, cargo ship.

But that didn't happen as she approached. Suddenly, a figure appears and shouts down at her, catching her off guard. "Hey, you there. Give me a second while I throw down the escape ladder!" Surprised, Birmingham eagerly waited for the ladder.

When it came down, Birmingham released her rigging and let it casually fall into the water. There she formed back into her ship, a Cleveland-class light cruiser. She has 2 x 3-gun 152mm turrets, 2 x 2-gun 127mm dual-purpose guns, and so many flak, medium and light anti-aircraft guns that any Zero Model 21 and 53 will have serious trouble getting past them. While a Siren fighter-bomber has less trouble with them, that doesn't mean a whole squadron of them will come back without losses or damage.

When she finally reaches the last steps, a hand reaches out to her. She looks up to see a beautiful young girl, dressed in a dark blue uniform and captain's hat, reaching out to her. She grabs it out of formality and steps onto the deck. Birmingham looks around and sees only a wall of barges/lighters in front of her, leaving her wide-eyed and utterly amazed.

She looks to her right and sees the bridge in front of her with the wings sticking out. Looking to her left flank, she sees the massive crane hovering over the lighters. Only then does she see the funnel, a dark gray plume of smoke rising from it. With all the objects in front of her, coming from the convoy, she doesn't realize that the funnel is separate from the superstructure. It was like most interwar ship designs, especially the converted Lexington-class carriers, had their funnels separate and not included in the superstructure. 

This easily became the weak point during air attacks, as the Sirens and Sakurans deliberately aimed their rockets and bombs at the unprotected funnels, causing immense damage to the boilers and overheated engines. Fortunately, this weakness was eliminated in the later design stages of newer ships.

As she thought about it, she didn't react to the now slightly worried girl in front of her. Seeing that she wasn't reacting, München decided to do something that always helped when someone was daydreaming.

SLAP "AH!"

For Birmingham, being slapped at the cheecks wasn't hurtful but still damaged her straightness and attitude slightly. "Hey, why did you do that?! Attacking an Eagle Union Citizen, a shipgirl nonetheless, is a serious crime!"

München could only chuckle. "Relax. I only slapped you lightly. You were not yourself and would have fallen over the railing with a light push. Are you tired?"

"Eh- Not important! What is your business? State your affiliation and occupation!" Taking the helm, Birmingham changed the subject and was now fully dedicated to finding out what the inquisitive girl wanted to do in her homeland.

"I'm here to haul tens of thousands of tons of steel products and machine parts to Baltimore, Maryland, on the East Coast. The factories and various business owners wanted the more carefully crafted and refined 'Made in Ironblood' products. It is apparently far cheaper for them to simply import goods from a once hostile nation than to purchase products in their own domestic and internal home and infrastructure."