Chapter 3: 3
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Armsmaster could only stand by and watch as the three young women who caused this mess Emma Barnes, Sophia Hess, and Madison Clements we're taken away, all of them are in critical condition due to their injuries. The shipgirls had Panacea heal them, just so they can torture them more. They shaved the girls heads, followed by them lashing the girls backs leaving deep bloody cuts, followed by them actually being strip of their clothes followed by being tarred and feathered. Where they were paraded around the hospital for hours, leaving them sobering wrecks. Finally making them crawl to safety, all awhile they're being film by cameras catching their humiliation for the world to watch.
The girls will never be able to live it down, it will follow them for the rest of their lives. Of them crying and begging for their lives, as they were whip while being mock and jeered. Followed by having hot tar poured on their naked bodies and then covered in feathers. Being paraded around for hours by the shipgirls before being made to crawl away.
Armsmaster knows that the young women will live but this will follow them for the rest of their lives. Tarring and feathering undoubtedly caused pain and a lot of discomfort and inconvenience. But above all it was supposed to be embarrassing for the victim. Mobs performed the act in public as a humiliation and a warning, to the victim and anyone else, not to arouse their wrath. In this case the shipgirls of the Iron Blood fleet made it clear that they won't allow anyone get away harming their princess. And there's nothing they can do about it as the shipgirls just have too much firepower.
Just to show off what kind of firepower they have, one of the shipgirls Z21 used her gun which looks like a toy gun of a shark with a gun barrel coming out of the mouth, on one of the wreck boats of the boat graveyard. The cannon according to her is a Single 127mm (SK C/34), the gun looked like it wouldn't have dented the hull of the wreck ship, instead it left a huge hole in it instead.
From Dragon's scans, the damage matches what a 127mm shell would do. Meaning that all of the weapons the shipgirls are armed with from a shaker effect, even with a toy size gun that fires a shell that is modeled after a 500 pound shell, is still being shot by a 500 pound shell. The guns of a battleship are the largest guns made with only the German railguns having heavier shells. And the 66 shipgirls are all armed with the most advance weapons of their time, as the Germans went with sheer firepower and armor. If they went on a warpath, there be nothing the PRT could do to stop them. (1)
Armsmaster attention was turned to the shipgirl, August von Parseval a carrier who turns out to be able to fly, like the other carriers. And then there's her rigging that takes the form of a truck size dragon with the flight deck as it's wings, allowing it to fly. For August herself she flies by a black stone throne with a large black stone rock around it, giving her a platform that other shipgirls can ride on. She's the one who flew Z21 to the ship graveyard and is floating next to him.
"Is all of this really worth it?" Armsmaster asked.
"Our princess is the heir of her house who has the power to bring us to her in these new forms," waving to her human form of a busty woman. "This is fitting punishment for harming our princess. We utterly destroyed their credibility and reputations. This will follow them forever, we only allow them to live because their lives are in our princess's hands. And she is the only one we will listen to or take orders from. Just be glad that we're not doing more. We're expecting all those who allowed this to happen in the first place be punished or we will take matters into our hands."
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The PRT HQ -
Piggot could feel the headache coming from the news footage of what is happening in front of the hospital. She has no idea what to do with all that is happening but once thing she knows for sure. Heads are going to be rolling by the end of the week.
A call from the government caught her attention.
"This is Piggot speaking," she said answering the call.
"This is Eddy Tomorrow from Foreign Affairs. I want your people to stand down, we're sending people to handle the mess your cape made," the man on speaker said.
"What?" Piggot asked.
"Since the news broke out, we been getting calls from the German government about a member of the Hohenzollern house being put in a hospital by one of your capes. They want to confirm her being of the royal house but with her being a parahuman who can turn German warships into shipgirls as they call themselves, they're very interested in her. Is she a member of the Hohenzollern house?" Tomorrow ask.
"Yes she is from her mother's side, Dragon did a blood test on the Hebert girl," Piggot said seeing how high up this has become. Already texting Armsmaster for him and the other heroes to stand down as this is now a diplomatic matter.
"Just great, anything else?" Tomorrow ask.
"She's the granddaughter from prince Henry the brother of William the last ruler of the German empire and since his mother is a daughter of queen Victoria of England. She's a member of that royal household as well," Piggot said.
"Oh fuck, this is a real mess your cape put us in," Tomorrow said over the speaker.
"I know, and her head is going to roll," Piggot said.
"Is the Hebert girl awake?" Tomorrow ask.
"Not yet," Piggot said.
"Inform the department when she's awake. I have the German and England embassies to inform, I want the blood test sent to the department so that, I can give it to the ambassadors so they can send it to their people to verify. And this is no longer a PRT or Protectorate matter and your department has no say in what happens. The last thing we need is for your people making a bigger mess of things. Both governments will be trying to win her over, to come live in one of their countries," Tomorrow said.
"Would the countries really be after her?" Piggot ask.
"She has an army of battleships in human form, with their weapons having the same firepower as being hit by a shell the size of a soda can, at the smallest from what, I can remember. There are only a few capes who be able to even take being hit by a shell that size and the bigger ones, the number gets stronger... Tell me have any of the Endbringers ever been struck by a navy gunfire?" Tomorrow ask.
"No, they're too small and fast for... the shells of a WW1 and 2 ships were design to destroy heavily armored ships," Piggot said realizing what Tomorrow is getting at.
"And there is if they have any other powers. This is too important for your department to mess things up by trying to strong arm her into joining the Wards. So do not interfere as this is no longer a cape matter," Tomorrow said. (2)
"Understood," Piggot said knowing that this is way too big for her to deal with. Besides, she still needs to rolls some heads before she's replace for letting this happen on her watch.
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Author's Notes -
1 - Schwerer Gustav was the largest-caliber rifled weapon ever used in combat and, in terms of overall weight, the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built. The shells fired from it are over 7 tons each.
2 - The shipgirls all have their powers in the game but no longer bond by gameplay rules. Like the ones who can create shields won't be gone after a set number of hits, but by the amount of energy they need to keep them up. Anything that makes sense for gameplay purposes like a long cool down period or like only being able to have a certain amount of power before being drain, is no longer in effect. It be like it be for a real battleship for the most part.
The shipgirls do need to refuel and rearm which they can do by eating or drinking. They can also upgrade their old equipment, by having their crew which are the small birds in game but in this story be fairies that look like them, because I just don't like them. Grab said equipment or parts and install or replace said part.
And unlike in games where like using a flashlight will have batteries that drains fast, and you need a bunch of parts just to upgrade a single piece of equipment that in real life you don't need hundreds of scrap pieces just so that your gun has a piece of leather wrapping to let you grip better. The refits that some of the shipgirls can get will be realistic. Like them getting parts to make their boilers work better, will be like you just going to a store to buy a new chair after the old one breaks. Where you just have to put it together. Instead of doing something like collecting more materials then what would realistically be needed. As you don't need to collect over 500 scrap, just to end up with something that is wrap with ducktape. Or break something down and only get some scrap metal and five screws when you broke down a entire building.
So if anyone sees something that wouldn't happen in the game. Remember the stuff that happens for gameplay reasons, doesn't work anymore.
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