Comrades of The North: The War Horn

Pit Stop

So after the events of yesterday the Ironbloods made a VERY unexpected visit to our homeland. Thank god they let us know in some advance as we had to then let the sirens know that they probably shouldn't visit. It was just the crack of morning when we heard the sound of banging on our front door, and suspecting something bad I readied my plasma rifle as the banging noises continued.

"If you see me go down, retaliate." I say to Avrora as I unlock the door. "Door's unlocked!" The door swings open and I aim my gun at whoever's on the other side.

"Scheisse whoa whoa whoa why are you pointing that at me?!" Bismarck cries out as she crouches into a ball, using her cape to protect herself.

"Bismarck?" I ask. "Geez don't bang on the door like that! I thought we were being intruded upon!"

"Aheh... Sorry about that." Bismarck replies sheepishly as she gets up and awkwardly scratches the back of her head before walking in. Much to our surprise she has walked in all alone and with that the girls and I take spots on the couch before tuning in to what Bismarck has to say. We had turned the gramophone on earlier so the music only added to the mood.

"Alright Bismarck, your visit was very unexpected but you can expect nothing less than the northern hospitality." I say. "What is it that you wished to visit us about?"

"It's about yesterday." Bismarck replies. "We had never seen that bomber before. We've done a lot of research on the sirens but do you have any idea on the ship that it was launched from?" I look at the girls before we all shake our heads in unison. "I see. Well thank god those bombs didn't explode, otherwise I would have been done for. Still it really hurt to get hit by those things." She adds as she takes off her cap, revealing that a bump has formed on her head where the dummy bomb hit her, her cap providing zero protection against the impact.

"Ouch..." I say. "You're not the only one. I got hit in the forehead by one of them." I add, showing the remains of what happened yesterday and stupidly forgetting that Beta had used a medical kit to dramatically speed up the healing process. Bismarck then looks at me quizzically.

"Wait... How did that heal so quickly?" Bismarck asks, and the mood quickly turns dark as the gramophone suddenly cuts out with a record scratch, and Bismarck looks at me with the eyes of a cold interrogator.

"...I must have gotten lucky with this one. The bomber was kinda close when it dropped it's bombs." I reply. Bismarck doesn't look like she's quite buying it. Instead she carefully places her hand on the spot where I was hit.

"Even from a close distance that bomb is going to cause more damage to a human than say me. You weren't knocked out by it were you?" Bismarck asks.

"No, not at all." I reply.

"Alright, I believe that." Bismarck says. "Still doesn't explain why that healed so fast. You guys don't exactly have top notch medical stuff, and I saw you guys battle yesterday. There's absolutely no way that this injury could have healed so fast."

"What are you trying to get on to here?" Gangut asks. "If this is what you came here for, then you're starting to overstay your welcome."

"I'm saying there's no way you could have recovered from this in the timespan of one day, unless you had some sort of outside help." Bismarck replies, and we all stiffen up. "The Royal Navy has had me convinced on this and I still think there is suspicious activity going on here. I still suspect that the sirens are around here. Illustrious especially said that you acted somewhat fishy near the end of her visit."

"...Was I?" I ask, and Bismarck slaps her hand on my shoulder, grabbing so tight it hurts.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Bismarck shouts. "I have reason to believe that you're up to something, and until you can say otherwise I won't let off."

"Bismarck easy, you're going to break his shoulder if you grab any harder!" Gangut says, but Bismarck then covers Gangut's mouth with her hand.

"I don't need you to speak for him. I'm sure it hurts, that's what I'm aiming for." Bismarck sharply replies before she continues trying to crush my shoulder with her hand. "Now I'm going to ask again, and you look me in the eye when you talk." She demands, locking eyes with me. "Are you in any way affiliated with the sirens? You've even got this stuff here that doesn't look like it belongs here."

"That was from a mystery donor. Even we don't know who it's from." I say. "But I promise you, we are not affiliated with the sirens." I continue, locking eyes with the Ironblood leader. "Now can you please let go of my shoulder?" Bismarck takes a few minutes to process what I said and we don't break eye contact until finally, she looks away and lets go of my shoulder.

"Alright, I believe you." Bismarck says. "Now if you'll excuse me I have indeed overstayed my welcome. I shall be seeing myself out." And with that Bismarck walks out the door, slamming it shut behind her, and we all breathe a collective sigh of relief once we're sure that Bismarck isn't trying to listen through the door.

"Damn that hurt." I mumble, rubbing and clutching the shoulder Bismarck was trying to crush. "Thank god I managed to fool her, and thanks for trying to stop her Gangut."

"Yeah, no problem." Gangut replies. "I mean at least I tried, before she covered my mouth. Still that must have hurt. You sure you don't want any ice?"

"My whole arm feels numb." I say. "Damn she's strong!"

"Oh boy..." Gangut mumbles. "Let's just hope the sirens can do something to heal that."