Ch. 1 At the Brink of a Broken World
T-0.
Humanity is at the brink of a new age.
Every single assumption of modern warfare have been overturned. The massive sphere rose above the ocean as if the sun that presides over the dawn-a god, amongst the collection of weapon that were but puny mortals in its eyes. The age of Objects is beginning, and soon despair would shatter the world unto forms reminiscent of stained glass.
The world has twisted beyond recognition long before the spherical grim reaper ascended from the depth of hell. The unveiling of a new god is not the only thing needed to start a religion-rather, it was only the final igniting spark in a rotten age where people are starting to doubt and despise the status quo drenched in blood. It's an impetus to end the failing system, to bring down the arrogant old deities staring down with their lightning spears and shock them, give them taste of their own medicine, make them cower in fear.
Bring the gods down and reign in their ashes, my lovely Objects.
T-5 years
Classified naval base, Eastern Indonesia.
"Is that the flagship?" A relatively young admiral surveyed a docked ship, one amidst the seven assigned in the classified base. "Doesn't look like much."
Naturally, these battleships weren't supposed to exist, much less perfectly maintained and ready to strike any targets in Pacific Ocean at a moment's notice.
"Is that what you think? It has state-of-the-art detection system that combines normal radar, thermal imaging, and sonography to overcome their individual weakness and boost their range significantly. In the age of naval bombers and carriers, it is critical to detect and neutralize aerial threat as swift as possible, so this one is actually a key piece to our fleet."
As they were not part of official Indonesian National Forces, it's also given that the flag waving on their ships were neither blue Indonesian Navy ones nor red and white Indonesian national flag. No, they used blue and white with a star, not incidentally reminiscent of known rebel group in the region.
Not that they're affiliated with them.
"So its main armaments are lasers, huh?" The (relatively) young admiral turned a tablet terminal he had been holding to his aide, walking down a steel stairway from the platform he'd been observing the battleship from. "Why does it have such long barrel though? Those main guns are too big for even high-powered lasers."
"Ah, those are for Fireworks rounds. Chaffs and flares in single package, they would fool a single-minded sensor networks but not our integrated systems."
"What the hell. Where would we draw the line between a luxury cruiser and a battleship? No, could we even draw that line anymore?!"
Probably not. That's what the aide was thinking, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
"Well, those Fireworks could reach temperature as high as 3000 degree Centigrade and could melt through the wings of aircrafts passing through them, so they are officially classified under incendiary ammunitions." The admiral promptly stopped walking and glared at his aide.
"Please tell me our own crafts have countermeasures against that side effects."
Again, the wise aide said no unnecessary words.
"God save us all..." Holding onto his forehead, the admiral walked over to the platform overseeing next battleships.
"No matter how you look at it, that massive gun is just too obvious. You might as well hang a 'Shoot me here' flags on it."
The rest of seven battleships stationed on the naval base was no less ridiculous than the previous laser-specialized one. The battleship right beside her had foregone the tiered triple main cannon design and instead equipped with four massive cannon attached back to back. Capable of switching between coilgun and electron beam weapon, the futuristic-looking ship has secondary jet thrusters equipped along its sides to balance the recoil from those ridiculous cannons.
Magnetic fields are far more reliable than explosives, so the multi cannon arrangements used to increase accuracy in older design is no longer relevant. Besides, even glancing hit from cannons that massive would rip the hulls and sink all but the largest of ships.
"Those thrusters were tagged as 'secondary', but their actual output was larger than sum total of the cannons themselves, aren't they?! What's next, sending them to fly in outer space? We'd be lucky if they don't rip themselves apart once they begin firing!"
"The third space race is ongoing between the Chinese and the Americans, so it won't be really surprising if the next generation of war machines are dropped from orbit. There even talks about refitting Stratofortresses with tiltrotor-inspired rocket thrusters."
Weaponization of outer space was banned under international law, but it seems like past certain point the international community was simply rendered powerless to stop a hungry superpower's conquest.
"Another needlessly ominous word and that ridiculous cannon would have your body in its munition chamber. I'd imagine the electron beam weapon would have enough power to explosively evaporate your feet and launch you to the ocean."
"Sir, yes sir."
The naval base and its fleet was maintained through Indonesian military funds, but trying to track their existence from outside the intelligence rings would lead the conspiracy theorist into a deep dark rabbit hole where bullets are cheaper than cigars. The Nogopuspo Emergency Naval Assault Unit was a fleet built to swiftly respond to any threat from similarly clandestine units from within or without the nation, so their very existence was kept national secret higher than election servers' encryption keys-although technology developed for their deployment strategy had been steadily replicated and adapted for the normal navy.
"I know it's important that I review the capabilities and tactical importance of these battleships, but can't we do it from the command center? I don't see any benefit of inspecting these ships directly." The admiral sighed, but his steps didn't slow down.
"They said it's to give you a sense of scale. Numerical statistics and schematics could give a false sense of security, and theoretical numbers won't line up with real condition in most cases. For our unit, those discrepancy would mean our end if not anticipated in strategic level."
Nogopuspo unit was a clandestine one, whose existence much less operation was known only to the holders of highest clearance. They cannot expect support nor reinforcement from normal navy, and the nature of their works meant hundreds of thousands to millions of lives hang in the balance whenever they're mobilizing.
Every single one of those ships were twisted evolutionary dead-end in modern warfare, yet by combining them they could achieve results incomparable to any others. One of them would scatter salt particles and ignite them with high-powered laser, other would generate massive artificial wave and use it both defensively and offensively, other still would freeze seawater into a form resistant to high temperature and fire it through a railgun to blockade enemy vessels' path. The only chance for their enemy would be achieving pyrrhic victory by recklessly engaging the rule-breaking ships with similarly ridiculous tactics never recorded in any historical guide.
"An insane fleet in need of a properly insane leader, huh." The admiral grinned, a flash of crimson reflected from his eyes hidden behind a false-color sunglasses.
In a way, he was a monster beyond even the seven ships. In his relatively young age, he had fought recklessly against enemies that similarly overturned modern doctrines, yet he had appeared victorious even with comparatively normal armament.
Now, what kind of absurdity would this world throw on my way?
To be continued...