CH 51

Chapter 51

Patrol ship Shikishima

“The Holy Mirishial Empire and the enemy ship have begun firing at each other. While they’re preoccupied, we’ll slip past them and flee from this battle!” Captain Seto of the Japan Coast Guard’s patrol ship Shikishima announced to his crew. They had to swallow down the fear of death that getting so close to a Yamato-class battleship raised in them.

“Maximum speed, aim for their port side! We’ll blow right past them!!!”

The Shikishima set its course and accelerated.

Gra Valkas Empire, super dreadnought Grade Atlastar

The massive battleship pushed aside the seawater, cleaving through the ocean as it sailed. Its 46 cm triple turret guns, of which it had three installed on the ship for a total of nine guns, fired without pause. Their firepower was heretofore unprecedented in this world. The colossal ship’s superstructure, in the middle section of the deck, looked like a castle. The high-angle gun turrets all pointing up to the sky evoked the image of a hedgehog. Whether in their old world or in this world, this was the strongest ship.

Captain Rockstar glared intensely out to sea from the bridge. “Hoh, we can sink them in one shot, I see,” he commented to his XO.

“Yes sir. Indeed, our main guns… the forty-six centimeter guns are quite powerful. Even at this distance, around a dozen kilometers out, it’s quite easy to land a hit.”

It was said that firepower was three times a gun’s caliber. While they chatted, smoke poured out of another enemy ship from a successful hit, and a fierce blaze surged up before the ship broke in half, the pieces pulled down beneath the waves.

“Earlier, when we were hit by an enemy shell, I admit that I felt a cold sweat come on. However, it ended up being no more than a glancing blow that left a bit of a dent.”

“This truly is an unsinkable ship.”

Accompanied by a thunderous roar, the radar-aimed 46 cm triple turret gun fired a huge shell. In consideration of its maximum range of 40 km, the scattered enemies about 10 km away felt positively close.

“Enemy Mirishial cruiser has been hit!”

Clouds of black smoke were billowing out of said ship, and its speed fell dramatically.

“That one’s done for… Hm?”

A ways away from where the Mirishial ships were, he noticed a pure white ship that simply didn’t look like it belonged on a battlefield. That was Japan’s ship, the one that the woman from foreign affairs, the division chief Cielia, requested that they sink “for diplomatic purposes.” Based on the ship’s heading, they were trying to escape from the battle.

“Now then, as instructed by the foreign affairs eastern otherworld division chief, mark that white cruiser as a priority target.”

From behind the outdated ships, the white ship picked up speed and pushed forward.

“As Miss Cielia said before, that’s Japan’s ship. It’s a vessel that belongs to a country that was also transported here. Just as the reports say, their cannons really are quite tiny,” the executive officer muttered to himself while staring at the target through his binoculars. “They do appear to be equipped for anti-air combat, but their guns are so small… They must have come here from a pretty peaceful world.”

“All right! Have the rear main and secondary guns and fire at them as soon as they’re within seven kilometers! Until then, keep taking out the more dangerous-looking Mirishial boats!!!” ordered Captain Rockstar.

“Yes, sir!!!”

Patrol ship Shikishima

“It’d be too much to ask for them to not notice us at all, but please, just let us pass…!”

Based on our heading, it should be clear that we just want to withdraw… Captain Seto thought to himself. At their top speed of 25 knots, even though the engine rumbled noisily, it felt like they were barely moving; though very little time had passed, to Seto, it felt like he’d already experienced an eternity.

“The enemy’s main and secondary rear cannons have turned to point at us!!!” one of his men yelled out.

“What?! Hard to starboard!!!”

The helmsman quickly spun the wheel all the way to the right. As their huge ship began to veer to the right, puffs of smoke floated up from the enemy ship.

“Incoming enemy fire!!!”

The Shikishima changed direction in excruciatingly slow motion. One cannon shell whistled right past the ship’s nose. The other shells fired at them all landed in the ocean just left of the bow, splashing up tons of water.

“Aaaaaaaaahhhh!!!”

The displaced water shot up much higher than he was expecting, up and up into the air.

“That was a close one!!! Good thing we changed course!”

Sweat poured down his back.

“Begin firing at the enemy ship, full firepower! Don’t worry about conserving ammunition! If we get hit even once, we’re goners!!!” Seto bellowed.

The enemy ship was now 5 km away—

Even while still engaged with the Holy Mirishial Empire’s fleet, they were simultaneously firing at the Shikishima. The Shikishima’s Oerlikon 35mm twin cannon and JM61 20mm Gatling gun were both aimed at the enemy ship. Unusually well-equipped for what amounted to seafaring police, the Japan Coast Guard patrol ship prepared all its weapons to attack the enemy dreadnought Grade Atlastar. They needed to fire first, and fast, before they were attacked by a second round.

“All weapons ready to fire at maximum rate!”

“Commence defensive assault!!!”

With a regular rhythmic noise, they began firing streams of bullets that had tracer ammunition mixed in. The relentless gunfire drew a parabola through the air as it flew towards its target. The bullets clanged loudly against the enemy’s solid armor while the tracer bullets bounced off in random directions.

“We’re hitting them!!!” one of the crew yelled.

“Keep firing! Don’t let them return fire!!!”

The patrol ship Shikishima continued to shoot without pausing.

Super dreadnought Grade Atlastar

They had been under fire from a barrage of small caliber bullets for some time now, but the ship’s sturdy armor repelled them all.

“The third starboard high-angle gun has been damaged!”

“The fifth starboard boat has taken heavy damage!!!”

The ship itself hadn’t taken any major damage, but the ship’s superstructure was lightly armored, so damage reports kept slowly trickling in. The Japanese ship’s small caliber guns alternated, resulting in an unending barrage of bullets. On the bridge, the unsettling noise of metal on metal continued reverberating without end, causing discomfort to everyone inside the ship.

“This assault of Japan’s is rather obnoxious, is it not? Cease all attacks on Mirishial ships for the time being and focus everything on the Japanese ship!!!”

“Yes sir. Prepare the main cannons! Load armor-piercing rounds!!!”

Ammunition designed to punch through armor was loaded into the guns. The battleship’s three triple turrets slowly turned to point at Japan’s ship.

“Distance: five kilometers; right: fifty-five degrees, angle of elevation: thirteen degrees. Main gun preparations complete!!!”

“FIRE————!!!”

With a resounding boom, shells as tall as a person shot out into the blue.

Patrol ship Shikishima

The enemy’s main guns fired again. The patrol ship was further to the right than before, and continued to turn left. They didn’t seem to be able to increase their distance from the enemy ship, and everyone was growing impatient. The attack they had performed went exactly as predicted, but it had absolutely no effect.

Suddenly, a dull and violent metallic bang rocked the boat. Seto turned to look in the direction of that sound.

“Wha…”

He couldn’t believe his eyes. A 70 cm hole had been opened up from the top to the bottom of the bridge. Looking up, he could see the sky; down, the sea. Luckily, the angle was too shallow, so the hole ended up above the waterline, meaning there should be no effect on the ship’s sailing ability.

“It just went right through, didn’t it… Thank goodness no one was injured.”

The Shikishima was hit by two shells, but they both went in and out of the ship with no particularly adverse effects. If they had exploded instead, then they’d have been annihilated. Gulping at the thought of such a close call, they continued their assault.

Super dreadnought Grade Atlastar

“What the hell?! That should have been a bullseye just now!!!” Captain Rockstar yelled hysterically.

“I wonder… Captain, perhaps we overestimated them, and Japan’s ship actually has quite thin armor. If not, there’s no way our armor-piercing rounds would have failed to explode. I believe we should switch to normal shells and add in our secondary guns.”

“Hmm, I see. Got it.”

The battleship’s crew changed out the armor-piercing rounds for normal rounds.

Patrol ship Shikishima

Even though they applied constant pressure with their attacks, seeing that it had no effect, the crew couldn’t help but feel fear creep into their hearts. The same as earlier, the Holy Mirishial Empire’s shells were rarely on target. Volleys from Mu’s ships began to join the mix as well, but, having spent most of their resources fending off the aerial raids, they didn’t have anything left that would be particularly effective.

“All enemy guns are now turning toward us!!!”

The enemy battleship’s massive gun turrets slowly rotated to take aim. That included the secondary guns located in both the front and rear of the ship. Nine main guns and six secondary ones for a total of fifteen — they all fired nearly at the same time, a broadside attack with fatal accuracy.

Light flashed in the ship’s bridge, located in the center of the ship. 1,360 kilograms of shells had been fired from the Grade Atlastar’s 46cm main guns; they struck the bridge, igniting their fuzes and releasing the destructive potential of 61.7 kg of high-performance gunpowder. The resulting explosion burst outward in all directions, piercing through the top of the ship and up into the air. Even after blowing away the ship’s bridge, there was still too much pressure, and a massive pillar of fire materialized above the remains of the Shikishima.

Unable to withstand the force of the attack, the ship broke into two and sank into the ocean. The surviving crew members could only jump into the water.

The super dreadnought of the Gra Valkas Empire’s imperial judgment force, the Grade Atlastar, had employed all of its guns to sink the Japan Coast Guard’s patrol ship, the Shikishima. In this naval battle, Captain Seto and 100 of his crew were killed in action, and 30 survivors were set adrift.

Super dreadnought Grade Atlastar , bridge

“The Japanese cruiser has been sunk!!!”

“How frail Japan’s cruisers are… Their armor is paper thin, their cannons are tiny, and their speed is well below ours. They must have no idea how to design a ship. Even if they were also transported here like we were, there’s still this much of a difference in our strength,” the captain muttered while watching the explosion and the sinking Japanese ship before him.

“If they only know of that kind of thin armor, maybe that explains why they never developed large-caliber cannons. Not to mention their world must have been quite peaceful. Since we were always at war, our weapons were constantly being refined, so their technology must simply be quite far behind ours. However, their anti-air capabilities were truly astonishing. The accuracy was incredible; they shot down so many of our dive bombers and torpedo bombers. The tale about how they fended off waves and waves of the Kingdom of Rowlia’s wyverns — seeing them in this battle lends it a lot more credibility.”

“When we’re coming up with anti-Japan strategies, I’d say battleships would be more effective than aircraft carriers, then. Well, that works out well for a battleship crew like us, anyway.”

“It does indeed. You know, as another country that was transported here, I was a bit worried about what kind of technology they’d have, so after seeing their cruiser, I admit I felt a bit relieved. I’m sure Miss Cielia will feel the same; we should report this to her as soon as things are wrapped up here.”

“Right, back to it…”

Captain Rockstar looked back out to sea. Between their ship and the aerial assault, five of the Holy Mirishial Empire’s eight ships had already been sunk, and the remaining three were under heavy fire. Now that Japan was no longer in the picture, the enemy fleet’s anti-air capabilities had dropped like a rock, and the air forces seemed likely to wipe out the remaining ships by themselves.

“After cleaning up the rest of the trash, it’s time to get to work.”

Captain Rockstar cracked a smile.

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