Ch 4 Zhao, meet Yamato
Isoroku Yamamoto walked down a plank from the Yamato and onto the docks, holding a type 99 Arisaka sniper rifle. He watched as his soldiers cleared the area of resistance, and the sounds of gunfire was heard as the marines from the destroyers cleared the area.
Yamamoto entered a building, and saw several dead soldiers. He took notice of the apparent motif of fire. The emblem of fire was all over the place, on the hilts of swords, on pieces of armor, the design of the helmet, the papers and documents, and on the flags.
Yamamoto looked at his rifle, and also noticed the motif of the Japanese empire. He grabbed a piece of paper and glanced at the writing, and was very surprised when he started reading it, without having to translate it.
Yamamoto searched around the room and put all the documents and paper on a desk. He put his rifle down next to the papers, and started to go thru the papers, what was left of them. From what he could tell, it was about troop movements, and Yamamoto found some reference of a commander named Zhao, rising thru the ranks in the navy.
He was about to search more, when he heard some noise. Grabbing his rifle, he flipped the safety off, and approached the location of the noise. He opened a door and walked into an adjacent room, rifle aimed in front of him. Slowly walking forward, something ran into him, and knocked him on his back.
Yamamoto struggled with his enemy, and received a few punches in the face. Yamamoto grabbed the soldier's knife and stabbed him in his side, avoiding the armor. Yamamoto got on his knees and sliced the soldier's throat.
Standing up and grabbing his rifle, he walked outside into the courtyard and saw a fireball crash in front of him.
Yamamoto quickly turned to his left, and saw 3 fire benders charge him. Yamamoto aimed his rifle and pulled the trigger, killing one of them. He pulled out his pistol and killed the remaining two firebenders.
Yamamoto headed to a building where the captains were gathering. They were talking about what do with the fire nation.
"I say we attack! We can destroy them in the matter of a few minutes!" a young captain said.
"What happens when we run out of shells to fire at them?" Yamamoto asked, walking into the room.
"Sir." The captain said, standing at attention, everyone else following suit.
"At ease sailors. Here's the situation. We can't build any more ships by ourselves. And the earth kingdom is losing this war. My plan, is a guerilla war against the fire nation. We bleed their fleet dry, and hit their manufacturing plants. I'll take the Yamato and go to the west lake." Yamamoto said.
With the battleship ready, Yamamoto entered the bridge, and gave the order.
"Take us out."
The Yamato turned to its left, and cruised along the coastline. Yamamoto watched as they approached Chameleon bay and entered the eastern sea. A set of sails was seen on the horizon, and Yamamoto looked thru his binoculars. He saw a small fleet of wooden sailing boats, and the crew was watching them, in awe no doubt.
"What is that?" Bato asked.
"Some fire nation ship. But there's only one, and they're not attacking us. Just heading to the west sea." Hakoda said.
The Yamato continued its course, racing at 30 knots. Yamamoto went to his quarters and looked over a map of the world. It would take a few more days until they reached to the other side of the lake, and when they came out, they would be very close to the fire nation.
Yamamoto knew his ship could easily destroy anything the fire nation had, but logistics was another problem. The fuel, ammunition, and other essential supplies were limited to what was on the ship herself. They would have to conserve real hard, and that meant fighting at close quarters, where the chance of scoring a hit was much greater.
As Yamamoto thought about his situation, he was called to the bridge.
"Admiral, sonar is picking something up."
"What is it?" Isoroku asked.
"We got fire nation ships heading towards us."
Yamamoto left his cabin and headed to the bridge. When he got there, he looked at the sonar and radar controls.
"We're picking up 10 ships. We'll be within firing distance in 10 minutes."
"After 15 minutes, start firing. Lets make our shots count." Yamamoto said.
The 15 minutes passed, and the order was given. The forward gun batteries unleashed a salvo of 18 inch shells, all which hit their targets, destroying them one shell per ship.
"Increase speed. This lake is a bottleneck." Yamamoto said.
The Yamato increased her speed, guns blazing at any fire nation ship that they saw. Breaking free of the river, they exited the mouth, and saw 50 battleships in a line, bow to stern, all trebuchets primed and ready to fire.
"Son of a bitch." Isoroku said, just as the trebuchets unleashed their munitions of flaming fireballs.
Admiral Zhao watched from the bridge on his flagship, as the fireballs came closer to the Yamato.
A deafening sound was heard as the fireballs crashed on the Yamato's armor, creating a large amount of smoke, and setting the wooden decks on fire.
"Turn the ship broadside, and give them a volley!" Yamamoto ordered.
The Yamato completed the turn; to Zhao, it appeared he had damaged the Yamato, and she was trying to escape. What happened next shocked the fire nation commander. Yamato fired all her guns in a broadside, destroying 12 fire nation cruisers in one blow.
Zhao was speechless, and the Yamato was gaining speed, heading towards the left end of the 50-ship blockade trying to escape. Quickly regaining his composer, he ordered continuous barrages on the unknown attacker.
Zhao watched as the fireballs did nothing to the Yamato. The Yamato fired another barrage of cannon fire, destroying 14 more ships. Zhao was incensed. The fight had gone only for two minutes, and he had already lost half his fleet.
"Ram that fucker!" Zhao yelled.
The Yamato however, simply increased speed and sailed thru the blockade, taking ongoing fire from the trebuchets. The Yamato continued her fire, taking down another 5 ships. Turning to the right, the Yamato once again showed her broadside, and one final barrage destroyed another 14 ships.
Zhao's remaining ships attempted to flee from the Yamato, but it wasn't enough. After the 60 seconds required reloading the guns, one final barrage is shot and commander Zhao's proud fleet of 50 ships is destroyed and sinking.
"Return to base." Isoroku said.
As the Yamato headed back to its port, Zhao swam to shore vowing revenge against the Yamato. He was pissed beyond belief. He had a powerful fleet, now rendered destroyed.
"Ozai's going to be pissed about that."
Back at the base, they were celebrating their victory.
"We did it!"
"We kicked the shit out of that navy!"
Yamamoto drank a few cups of sake, and looked over a map of the world. Grabbing a pencil, he marked the route his ship took, and where the battle took place. He had reservations about challenging the fire nation outright, but now those reservations were sinking. He started to draw up a plan that would cripple the fire nation navy for good.
