Would you risk your life wealth? For a man with a vigorous look and a bushy beard, he had the honor as one of the most famous traders in this Gods-forsaken planet. He owns himself a huge fleet with the flag held high on the ship's mast.
The fleet set sailed in destination for one of Albatross empire's superior city ports, Kahimn. Kahimn, the pearl of the western coast, where trades flourish, goods are abundant and gold was literally the color of the city. Such goods were astonishing as there can be found eye-catching jewels, high-quality fabrics, slaves, armaments, antiques from collapsed kingdoms, even goods from the empires in which the Albatross currently in war with.
This man's name is Grimm, or as people would call him, 'Grimm the husband of a hundred wives'. For his wives are uncountable by the fingers from your two hands and feat. As from afar, people could easily distinguish him from his grey bushy beard. His eyes are always sharp, even sharper when he spotted potential goods, he definitely got a good eye.
Such a well-known trader must have a strong sense of security of course. Grimm owned a fleet of trading purposed ships protected by powerful military-grade ironclad warships, owned by Grimm himself. These ironclad warships are armed with 5 single 4-inch gun turrets on its port side and another 5 on its starboard side, two guns facing the front, and a single gun facing the back. While anticipating threats from the Aerial Knights, they are also implemented 'gatling' guns aimed directly at the sky.
Grimm lay asleep on a soft pillow while his wives were beside him, also asleep. This room of his was the 'room of wives'. Such room is filled with luxurious wallpapers and decorations, the ground was laid with soft yet thick carpet and littered with a goddamn lot of pillows.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Awoke from his slumber, Grimm put on his attire and rushed to the door.
"Good, you knocked and didn't shout my name like last time where you wake my dear wives. So what is it right now?"
"Sorry to disturb you again sir, but you might wanna head upstairs right now, it's urgent." An officer replied.
"Oh in just a minute, I wanna clear my bladder first." Grimm then headed towards the toilet before heading upstairs.
After entering the officer's room, he asked in a cold tone, "Are we still on course to Kahimn? While I was pissing, through the window I saw that we are currently sailing against the sea current, why is that?"
The lead officer was silent for a while, he was simply trying to put up the words. "Yes sir we are definitely on course to Kahimn." He finally said.
Before Grimm could reply, the officer explained, "A new continent suddenly emerged near the Albatross empire, this explains the high waves from the storm 4 days ago and the unusual sea current."
Grimm opened his mouth in agape, and was silent for a while, he was filled with mixed emotions.
"Isn't it 4 years to early for that? I could've sworn the last time another island came was about 6 years ago." He muttered.
"Yes sir, I also don't know why, but I think the newly transported landmass is a continent." The lead officer replied with an expressionless face.
"Continent...." Grimm was lost in thought, "How long will we arrive at the Kahimn?" Grimm asked.
The lead officer this time flinched. He was on a cold sweat, "To tell you honestly sir, we estimate the fleet will take three days before we arrive at the port."
The lead officer was expecting Grimm to be furious, but instead, "Three days huh? three days..... If I recall the Albatross empire said that if we do not deliver the goods in 15 days or.... about tomorrow, they will cut the payment in half right? Tell the fleet to cancel the shipment, instead, we visit this new appearing continent."
The officers in the room were actually quite shocked hearing this, but it was actually the best way to reduce the loss.
-
Just three days ago Tom Miller was a sergeant working for the US administration team working in Allied-occupied Germany, times have changed drastically. He was tasked to lead a patrolling mission on a German U-Boat on the northern waters of Germany.
Inside a submerged submarine in the control room, Tom Miller lay seated. The room was a bit dark, the temperature is seemingly warm and the control room was very quiet although it was crowded with serious looking crew members.
"How far are we from the shoreline?" Tom Miller asked one of the officers.
"Approximately 200 Kilometers, or about 100 Nautical miles commander." The officer replied in a dense German accent.
"Good, keep up the good work." Tom Miller muttered.
"Thank you sir, by the way, you speak fluent German." The officer praised.
Tom Miller can only smile. Although he speaks fluent German, he was aware that he has no experience of being a commander of a submarine, not to mention the little experience he had with the navy. Although he is promoted as a commander in this sub, a German commander is actually the one in charge of the sub. Tom simply is just a 'supervisor' sent by the Americans. Although they were once enemies, the crew fully understand their situation and didn't hold any grudges.
The control room once again turned quiet, everyone doing their own job. Seeing this, the German commander, Johann Senft held the initiative to chat. "Commander Tom, what do you think about this submarine of ours?"
Tom glanced at Johann for a moment before speaking, "Yes this is indeed a marvelous submarine, a great engineering marvel I must say. What's this submarine called? I forgot."
"Ah, I can truly see that you are flabbergasted with this submarine. It is named the Wilhelm Bauer, originally it was called U-2540."
"I can guess that this Submarine had sunken many of the allied ships," Tom giggled.
"Indeed." Commander Senft also chuckled.
The control room suddenly turned awkward, even the crew members and other officers couldn't help but keep silent.
"So, Commander Senft, how well is your family doing?" Tom asked.
"They are all fine, but for some of these men are unfortunate as me." He replied straightforwardly.
"Ah... Sorry, sorry, sorry everyone sorry." Tom apologized to everyone in the room.
Hearing this Commander Senft laughed so hard while Tom realized that he had embarrassed himself so he kept silent.
"It's okay, surely the crew understands that the past is the past, the past is war and the present is peace. We have no time to mourn about the past and so we strive to keep moving forward." Commander Senft said while laughing.
After a while of silence, suddenly a crew member shouted, "Radar contact! Radar contact! Multiple
unidentified vessels up ahead."
"Lord give mercy." Tom sighed, while Commander Senft wore an extremely serious face. "Ascend, I want to see it." He ordered.
The submarine ascends until it almost reached the water surface. Commander Senft took the opportunity to see through the periscope.
"My God!" Although the crew and Tom did not see what was up there, listening to Commander Senft makes them grew in cold sweat.
For a while, Commander Senft looked through the periscope, carefully examining the ships before finally making a conclusion.
"They are merchants no doubt."
"Oh.." The room relaxed a bit
"But some of them aren't merchant ships, and they are armed with multiple guns!" He gasped.
Hearing this, Tom proceeded to look through the periscope himself. His eyes immediately were locked on to a certain ship, with an odd flag fluttering on its mast.
"Those black smokes coming from the huge funnels, It's a steam-powered ship! And...." Tom paused and continue to examine the ship sharply. "Everything is covered with steel plates! It's an ironclad warship!" He gasped.
After this, the curious crew takes turns looking at the periscope, examining the fleet before the submarine descend deeper in the ocean. Still, the submarine followed the fleet.
Commander Senft held a meeting with Tom and the officers.
"So what do you think?" Commander Senft threw the question.
"No doubt it's merchant ships and their escorts like you said, sir. I can clearly see piles of wooden cargos." An officer said.
"Also, as Commander Tom said, it's clearly a steam-powered engine, thick black smoke, and the huge funnels says it all. On the other hand, the speed of the fleet is approximately 10 knots."
"What about the escorts?" Commander Senft once again asked.
"They are ironclads, pre-dreadnought battleships. I remember reading them in the history books, they looked like late 19th century battleships to me. The thing is, the ship is pretty much coated with steel plates" Tom said.
"I agree, I also noticed that their guns are not so huge, about three, four or five inches. And did you notice those turrets? They are very primitive!" Another officer shares the results of his analysis.
"Where they're heading to, is a mystery, but I suggest we stay underwater."
"But if they continue on course, they would reach northern Germany sooner or later."
"Then should we fire at them? What I meant is to sink them off one by one."
"That would be a possible solution, but that will be our last resort." Commander Senft said.
"How about we initiate contact with them?" Tom said.
Hearing this, the room was in an uproar, some wanted to ridicule him, but no words could fly from their mouths. If they would resurface, they would probably immediately be shot at.
"It's possible." Said Commander Senft.
"We could resurface beside one of them, extremely close. As you all see, their decks are pretty high up. Their turrets would never be able to aim at us."
Everyone was lost in deep thought.
"But, they could hit our sail, even if one the ships couldn't fire at us, doesn't mean that other ships can't fire at us too?" One of the officers asked coldly.
"No, we won't fully resurface, just make sure they can't hit us. As for other ships hitting us...."
Commander Senft mumbled before Tom interrupted, "We could resurface near their flagship or main ship, I believe they won't necessarily fire at us risking their leader's ship would they?"
"That is also plausible." Commander Senft commented.
The room was silent, the crews again were lost in deep thought.
"Even if we didn't get shot at, how are we going to talk to them?" One of the officers asked.
"That, I have a plan." A smile grew on Tom's lips.
-
Grimm was admiring the view of the sky, it was light blue accompanied by beautiful puffy clouds. He felt the cold breeze of the sea blowing to his face. Everything was pleasing to the eye except for the noisy sounds from the boiler, powering his one of a kind luxurious ship. His ship was colored in red, blue and gold, catching to the eye. The interior of the ship was also very luxurious, it was finely detailed and well decorated. Although his personal ship was not armed with any sort of weapons, it was still the most important ship in the entire fleet.
He was wearing his gold silk clothing embroidered with jewels, wearing his favorite linen pants and leather boots, walking towards the front deck. He was having a simple walk, strolling around the ship with his wives when suddenly someone rushed to him.
"Lord Grimm, I have dire news! A huge sea monster's silhouette is spotted swimming!" One of his officers said to him while maintaining his breath
"My word, where is it right now?" Grimm gasped.
"Currently deep inside the ocean, roaming under the fleet!"
"Where is it heading to?" Grimm asked with a cold sweat.
"I don't know- There! It's there! Look sir!"
"Wha- Oh by the Gods! That's very massive! It's... Heading towards my ship!" Grimm screamed. He, his men, his wives, and the surrounding ships watched as the massive sea monster swam to the right beside Grimm's personal ship. In fact, it's following Grimm's ship! Grimm himself was almost scared to death. This sea monster might eat him alive.
Suddenly, the sea monster started to surface. It was unexpected and shocking, a huge metal bulge appeared on the water's surface beside Grimm's ship. It looked like it was man-made...
Grimm watched as his fear started to subside, instead, his curiosity grew.
From the huge metal bulge, a hatch was opened and a man exits from it. Then, another man exited from the hatch. The first man wore some sort of brown uniform with an odd hat, while the second man wore a blue uniform, their hats almost look identical.
Grimm's eyes almost popped out of their sockets, he was shocked like the rest of his men. They don't understand a single bit on what is happening. It was not fear, but curiosity that filled his thoughts.
As he looked at two men, he saw, the brown uniform man taking some sort of cloth from his leather bag, the man then unfolds the cloth into... A flag! It's a flag! Grimm glanced at this peculiar flag, he has never seen a flag like it. It had red and white horizontal stripes, while the top left was a blue rectangle filled with a lot of small white stars.
After the man showed the flag to Grimm for quite a while, he then folds it again and put it back inside his leather bag. Then, surprisingly, the man threw the bag directly to Grimm. In shock, Grimm caught the bag and proceeded to open it. Inside, he found the folded flag, a map, an odd coin, and a photograph. He was intrigued by the map, so he directly opened it. The map showed him of a peculiar landmass and some sort of doodle drawn on it, he had never seen a continent nor an island like this before he realized, this is the newly transported continent!
He grew excited. He then glanced at the peculiar men below, still waiting for him to do something. He then ordered his men to take the world map and his trading company's flag from the stash, put it inside a bag, and threw directly at the men below.
As the men below received his parcel, they opened it up. When the men realized that Grimm had given them a map, the man's face was bright with joy. The peculiar men then returned back inside the metal bulge, before descending under water, never to be seen again.