Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo
Silbern Royal Office
***One week later***
One week has passed since Ichigo and Bambietta went to their first state visit to the west branch, and while it went rather successfully, the aftermath was a bit of a problem.
The problem wasn't in any military operation or in terms of diplomacy, but rather it was political.
Ichigo did get the evidence he wanted and showed it to the entire empire, he even declassified and publicly announced Inoue's mission so that no one would try to kill her in the empire or cause problems with her, and he publicly gave her the status of honorary Quincy aswell, which gave her the crowns protection aswell and made her a marshall in his army, of course when the information was released in terms of Inoue, she wasn't viewed as a traitor anymore but rather a hero that went right into the enemy and got all this information for the benefit of the empire, talk about a quick change of opinion.
The problem was with the Quincies that had been abducted by the Dominion, as evidence proved that the abducted Quincies were being sold off as slaves or being used for slave labor, if not outright killed or experimented on, of course the Wandenreich were aware of this to a certain extent, but not the true gravity of the situation, as they were being treated like the mutated fullbringers, sometimes even worse by the fullbring population.
Quincy children were being sold off to sick people or just outright killed, sometimes they were killed while raped by some psychopath, it was obvious that the children had a higher odds for being sold off to the sexual industry, which the Dominion found legal as long as it wasn't a fullbringer.
Women were in the same boat but had a higher chance for being used for forced labor then children, sometimes even both, while men were mostly used for labor.
Ichigo's intention was to increase the support for the war directly, and show that they were fighting for something, and while it did partially succeed, it also backfired severly as Ichigo forgot to be careful what he wished for, as the public became enraged, as many felt that the crown and the state did little to protect their overworld population in the world of the living, in the first day it started with a few, which light the fuses for many, the result was a mass protest.
In the streets of Silbern, there was a police patrol in nearly every corner fully armored in riot gear in case things really go south, plans for curfews and the internal city defences had been hastily prepared and was ready to be implemented or deployed at a moments notice, there were also protests in other cities and regions aswell so it wasn't just Silbern.
But so far it was a peaceful protest for now, so the police were ordered from Ichigo's office directly to not do anything that can ignite the explosive barrel so for now they just watched, it wasn't as if buildings were looted or people were attacked, atleast not yet and Ichigo hoped to keep it that way.
Most of the publics anger was directed towards the Dominion directly, and the protesters demands were understandable but at the same time very brutal, as they demanded that the Wandenreich deploy even more troops to protect their population, whilst demanding justice, which might or might not involve a mass genocide of the fullbringers.
But hey, if the population wants a mass genocide of fullbringers it does mean that they support the war even more then before, but of course this meant that the research divisions idea for utilizing brainwashed fullbringers had to be entirely scrapped, though the research on the technology was continued as many believed that they'd find some other use for it.
Now why would they scrap it you ask, well the reason is fairly simple, how would it look if a fullbringer in a modified Quincy uniform appeared? It might look like the Wandenreich is taking in the enemy, allowing them access to the empire and everything related to it, it was even more risky to have brainwashed Dominion soldiers amongst their ranks, as this plan might just light the fuse that's going to set fire to half the empire.
For now they'd use Quincy troops to avoid lighting that fuse just to be on the safe side as Ichigo and his government were currently in a rather volatile situation that could escalate in the blink of an eye, though Ichigo did release some indications to long terms plans that was partially classified, and it only partially worked to calm the populace, so that's what Ichigo had been doing for the last week, trying to calm an angry crowd.
Of course the pressure on Ichigo was immense, after all the point of a protest is to put pressure on the government, and seeing as Ichigo had the final say in these matters, it was evident that the protest was directed towards him, so he didn't waste a single second in ordering the O.D.K into high gear, first they moved the paratrooper units to the east branch with transport aircraft ready, then the fleet was hastily prepared, the O.D.K got a operational plan based on the intelligence Inoue got, ready in just two hours, which was record time, though it was clearly rushed.
The fleet was ready to set sail to the landing beaches they would land, which the Wandenreich now knew was fortified by the Dominion, as they had built a large but hastily built defence along many beaches, some of them weren't even on the assault plan, furthermore they had placed a lot of anti air weaponry inlands aswell.
The Wandenreich knew all to well that the coastal defences compromised of weapons they still haven't encountered in the field, going so far as long range artillery, coastal batteries, a suppression weapon that could function as a machine gun, which was named the blaster according to Inoue as it utilized several crystals and fired reiatsu rays from them rapidly, aswell as obstacles to hinder the path of the landing force.
It was clear that the Dominion knew that the Wandenreich was coming, they just didn't know where or when, but they had correctly assumed that the Wandenreich would rather go around the infested forest then through it, that much was obvious.
Ichigo had also given the order to deploy paladins to the world of the living, mostly in europe where the majority of the Quincies who hasn't been taken away yet were located, either in hiding or unable to get away, and by utilizing paladins Ichigo knew it wouldn't leave much trace of a military battle as the paladins utilized Quincy magic instead, though some havoc could be expected.
Ichigo had given the order to attack whereever could be attacked, and so the order was given to utilize a special capability the masks of the soldiers possessed, every mask possessed this capability, as hearing through the masks was difficult as the masks concealed any sound, to solve the problem microphones inside and speakers outside were attached to the masks, aswell as the capability for the mask to function as a radio.
These were upgraded masks and with these the soldiers didn't need to have a radio attached to their belts anymore, though they did have a radio inside their equipment belt for whenever they weren't using their masks, the reason was to ensure that no one except the soldier heard the radio transmission as it would be boring if the enemy overheard you, so instead of using a speaker that everyone could hear, the transmission now went into a speaker inside the goggles connected to both their ears.
The microphone inside the mask could be controlled using reishi itself to activate it's functions, ensuring that only a Quincy could utilize the equipment, the microphone could be activated on radio, speaker or both, aswell as it possessed the capability to distort the voices of the soldiers, making them sound completely identical and making them appear more like machines then humans, even the goggles had microphones attached to the ears to allow the soldier to hear better at range.
This was to use the psychological aspect of war, for if the soldiers appeared like robots rather then humans, it would demoralize the enemy, aswell as ensure a higher probability for anyone who wasn't amongst their ranks to obey their orders by using psychological warfare and scaring the living crap out of anyone just by speaking in an unusual voice, and with voice suppression, you couldn't even hear them breathe, which further amplified the psychological ideal.
And with the capability to choose whether to use the mask speakers or radio allowed the soldiers to speak to one another on the radio without anyone else except those on the same frequency listening, even if there was a person right next besides the soldier, though the soldiers often utilized their own voices as it was usually their choice, though new rules could potentially change that to ensure that the identity of the soldier is better hidden, reducing the chance of someone recognizing the soldier and wish to take revenge for whatever reason, effectively increasing their personal security on the job.
Looking through his files, Ichigo noticed several protocols which had been on the list ever since he took the throne, but rarely if ever mentioned, let alone used, it was judgement protocols used for special situations, one was worse then the other as a matter of fact.
The first one was Judgement Waiver, which was usually used in states of emergency, it granted peacekeepers, which usually was police, city watch or guards or whatever, in these instances the peacekeepers would be granted heavy weaponry to combat the reason for the judgement waiver, which usually was taken into effect due to uprisings or dangerous conditions, though the arrested individuals would usually be released after the effect ended unless charges were pressed.
The second one was far worse then that, and would only be put into effect during drastic measures when judgement waiver failed, this was sometimes referred to as the Dictators Key, it was awfully similar to martial law and was called the Autononomous Judgement, and if heavily armed peacekeepers weren't bad enough, now soldiers were usually deployed, and just to make the situation a far lot worse, peacekeepers and soldiers had the authority to conduct raids and searches just out of the blue without warrants, arrest anyone and sentence them in the field without a trial and they would have to serve the time, or just shoot anyone they wanted to without any reason at all, effectively giving the death penalty for no reason whatsoever, if they want to shoot someone without warning then by all means, go ahead, there was no limit to their power or authority in this state.
These two conditions were very important to remember for both peacekeepers and the military, though for the fullbringers, if the Wandenreich manages to occupy them, autonomous judgement was almost guaranteed to end up in a blood bath, ensuring that it was the worst possible scenario for them, and extremly good news for trigger happy soldiers.
Of course none of these protocols had been put into effect inside the empire as there wasn't any need, the situation would have to be extremly dire for it to be necessary after all, judgement waiver was the one that was on the table for now, but was only a last resort plan if a riot broke out and went completely out of control, Ichigo's last desire was to implement either one of these protocols on any Quincy, and he would probably refuse to do so, as he ensured that only he could order it at this state, though usually the entire royal family had the authority to order both protocols into effect.
There was once where autonomous judgement was fairly close to being initiated, as protocol dictated that autonomous judgement would automatically be put into effect if the leadership was hindered, captured or killed, so when Bambietta was taken hostage, autonomous judgement could potentially have been put into effect, but as the Wandenreich still had their emperor and chancellors, it was avoided, autonomous judgement could also potentially be automatically put into effect if a member of the royal family was in any direct danger, but it depended on the situation first and foremost.
Ichigo sighed as he sat back in his chair, having finally signed the final order and he was now free again, or atleast partially, he still had to go down to the O.D.K later, Bambietta was with Sabrina training at this moment to refine her skills as she had gotten fairly skilled in the usage of the Quincy arts, her determination was key in all of it of course, but amongst the kindergarden children she was by far the most skilled.
Suddenly, Ichigo noticed something.
"Instead of breaking my wall, you could just use the front door Kisuke..." Ichigo said rather annoyed.
"Oh my you noticed me already? No fun." Kisuke replied as he appeared out of the wall by moving a circular shape, it was the same thing he used to break Ishida out of his Ryuken's training grounds.
"What are you doing here? I thought you ran some experiments on one of our upcoming weapons?" Ichigo asked.
"I already did them, the device made to copy ephitet abilities and use the ball timer that Mayuri invented worked flawlessly, although we only tested it in a limited sense." Kisuke replied.
"I see, I bet Mayuri is displeased with us stealing his research but whatever." Ichigo stated.
"The delievery system is another matter entirely, we cannot test the device fully unless we have the delievery system." Kisuke replied.
"Ahh yes, Kukaku and Ganju has been put on that, seeing as they are the experts in that field, though I suppose this is the first time they've been in charge of something so big." Ichigo replied.
The secret weapons, which was last mentioned during the emergency meeting after the Tol Reus incident, was coming along nicely, something that pleased Ichigo.
One of the weapons which was talked about here was actually something similar to the absorbation devices Mayuri created when he fought Giselle and Bambietta during the last war, though this one could absorb two abilities instead, aswell as a device that had copied the reiatsu signature of both Shox and Bambietta respectively, the reason was simple.
Bambietta's ephitet the Bombardier was an extremly destructive and powerful ephitet, and if merged with the ephitet of Shox, the Radiation, you would effectively have a full nuclear explosion followed with the radioactive fallout, so the two ephitets did work well together.
The balls were cheap aswell, so by utilizing the balls and putting Bambietta's real or copied orb inside it at full power, while amplifying Shox's ability through the ability copy machine, they could create the cheapest and most effective nuclear bomb in history, of course this project was extremly hush hush as they didn't want the information to leak about a potential weapon of mass destruction being mass produced in the empire, or WMD for short
The second weapon was a combined weapon of mass destruction and support weapon, as it forcibly converted anything into reishi in a set specified area, though clearly a lot bigger then the balls themselves aswell as way more expensive, it was handy in case the troops ever encountered an area with minimal reishi to utilize as the Quincies were dependant on the reishi to fight, due to it's capability the research division called it the Ion bomb.
The problem was that the delievery system was delayed, of course a briefcase WMD was entirely possible with the balls if it had a timer, there was always the odds of it being a suicide mission aswell, to avoid a suicide order a long range delievery system had to be produced.
Kukaku was the one who designed the whole delievery system as she was fully in charge of the project, a design she might have borrowed because Yoruichi may or may not have leaked Soifon's bankai to her, as a result, the delievery system did take the shape of a unique rocket similar to the german V1 rocket, where 1/6th of the rocket was space for the weapon and 5/6th of the rocket was fuel, with a turbo engine on top, followed by wings on the side, this design was rather optimal.
The reason why it was so optimal was it's easy and cheap construction, originally the first design was a arrow to be shot out of a ballista but it only took the research division one quick look at the drawing to realize that it would never make it through the schatten and could in worst case scenario fall back down on them so they needed something more advanced.
Of course this was the area of the research division, there was still another weapon being made on Ichigo's orders, which mainly fell under the jurisdiction of the R.O.H.P, or Royal Order of Holy Paladins, though the research division assisted in this development slightly, and that weapon was by far the most dangerous, as it was classified as a WRD, or Weapon or Realm Destruction, the same category as the Kido cannon which the Gotei used to destroy an entire world when Soul Society and the World of the Living nearly collided.
Due to the immense power required to control such a powerful weapon, magic was the only solution, so it had to be the paladins that utilized it, otherwise it would probably never work, of course this was only a last resort weapon designed for the ultimate destruction in case such destructive capabilities was needed, Ichigo had already witnessed it once in the Soul Society and he could never be too prepared, currently the WRD was fairly close to finishing as the seals and spells needed had already been put on, now they just needed to add the seal to the firing mechanism, or a macro system as they called it as it was seals and spells that worked in a specific order almost automatically once placed, but it had to be fired manually on the grounds of verification.
And to ensure that the verification was successful and no one screwed up, a special rod was constructed by Ichigo utilizing his creation abilities that fired the weapon, the firing seal was a combined spell and seal, also known as the firing macro, as the spell fired it, but the seal prevented the spell from activating, the rod removed that seal, the firing macro was an essential part of the weapon, because it was the combined safety and the trigger, so without the macro, it would activate but would be unable to fire in anyway.
Ichigo was brought back out of his thoughts when an amusing situation occured right before him, as Kisuke had forgotten about the self regenerating capabilities the castle possessed, and his hole began to plug with his head between the hole and the room, so he quickly had to jump out just to faceplant on the floor.
"I think that's called karma." Ichigo stated.
"How cruel..." Kisuke said as he rubbed his face.
Soul Society East (Somewhere at sea)
***Bridge of the Battleship Majestic***
A massive shape could be seen in the distance followed by two large shapes of similar size, it was a battleship and two cruisers escorting.
Amongst the ships, the battleships really stood out and were the only ones given proper names, the first one finished was named SMS Majestic or Seiner Majestät Schiff which translated into His Majesty's Ship, the second one was the SMS Royalty, the third one was nearing completeing with two additional ships following close behind, as the construction really sped up once they had gotten a final drawing and that the battleships weren't constantly upgraded during construction which really slowed it's construction.
There was no doubt that Ichigo was by now aware of Jugram Haschwalths actions during the war and his real betrayal of Yhwach, as a result his name would go onto two ships, the third ship SMS Jugram and the fourth ship SMS Haschwalth, as for the fifth, a name was yet to be found but they still had time.
Currently the SMS Majestic accompanied by cruiser 112 and 143 respectively had order to deploy based on intelligence gathered by Inoue, which indicated that the Dominion had hastily deployed their own battleships as a response to the Wandenreich's battleships, their current orders from O.D.K naval command were as follows:
Move to sector D57, follow patrol patterns noted on your map and hunt down the Dominion battleship HMS Garrel with the intention to sink, destroy or capture the vessel at all costs.
Of course the Garrel was named after a former Dominion king, it was the grandfather of Gabrin to be precise, a pride of the Dominion, and they weren't going to let it sink peacefully.
Designs in the captured Dominion naval intelligence prior indicated that the Dominion battleships had a unique appearance, looking like a ship of the line made purely out of steel which was very large, aswell as their main guns didn't possess crystals like the destroyers as they were too weak, instead they loaded them up with special powerful crystals and fired them directly at the target, causing tremendous damage but the Wandenreich had yet to encounter them but they soon would.
The Majestic and it's escort had been hunting the ship for nearly five days now, they were ready for deployment when the order was given once Ichigo got back, so they sailed out about 47 minutes after Ichigo got back, and it took them two days to sail to the sector, which was a large area to cover for just three vessels.
But eventually they got a small convoy on the radar which looked unusual compared to the regular Dominion convoys as it only comprimsed of five targets, four smaller targets and a large one, so they set a course for them as they sailed ahead at about 23 knots, which was 26 mph or 42 km/h, their course matched that of the intelligence gathered by Inoue as they had been following it's patrol routes.
After following the target at a distance for a while, slowly closing in the convoy had turned around and was currently heading towards them, this led the captain on board the Majestic to believe they had been noticed, which probably wouldn't be far fetched, as a result the three ships called their crew to their respective battlestations.
Autoballistas and secondary weapons were mounted, some crew members even manifested the MG42 and attached it to railings in case they should be lucky enough to fire a barrage into the enemy ship or in case they needed them to support the antiballista in case of enemy air targets.
The captain took a good look at the armaments of the battleship, in terms of main guns, the Quincies were at a disadvantage, the Dominion battleship possessed five tripple turrets, one in front, one elevated over the front turret, one behind the second turret facing the bridge, obviously meant for a broadside, and two in the rear.
Compare that to the Quincy battleships four dual turrets containing 8 guns in total on the main armament, compared to the Dominions five tripple turrets containing 15 guns in total, so in terms of guns they were at a clear disadvantage, but according to their intelligence, they possessed the advantage in firepower and range, aswell as reloading speed which could make up for that.
But the fact remained, a direct hit from the battleship on all 15 guns could prove fatal fairly quickly if the shots were well placed, so gunnery control and command played a major factor in this showdown which would decide which battleship was the true king of the seas, but the same could be said for the Quincies, as they had loaded their guns up with HEAP casings to ensure maximum damage, and a full broadside from all guns with well placed shells would destroy the Dominion Battleship.
Another major factor was that the Dominion battleship had far more weak points then the Quincy battleship, this was due to the fact that it needed a place to store rather volatile crystals that exploded once they shattered, causing tremendous damage, where the Quincies utilized reishi around them as a munition storage and didn't need such, ensuring that they not only had less weak points under the turrets but a near unlimited supply of ammunition aswell, ensuring that the Quincies could fight until the crew died of exhaustion, the Quincies also had an advantage in terms of speed and manouverability, aswell as turret rotation speed, but the Dominion had the advantage in line of fire due to their third turret.
By now both battleships were in visual of one another, the Garrel had a course set straight for the Majestic, the first spiritual battle between two powerful battleships was just about to commence and the Quincies, with their superior range, would fire the first round.
"Full speed ahead, maintain the course and get us closer, turret one and two, fire at the battleship! 112 and 143 will take care of the escorts!" The captain ordered.
The massive guns on the Majestic had recieved the order and moved their massive turrets and the guns moved individually from one another as they took aim, and with just the push of a button, the Majestic fired it's four front guns with a tremendous fury, showing the Dominion battleship that was out of range with their guns that they were well within the range of the Quincy guns as they missed and overshot them as the accuracy wasn't exactly the best at this range.
They fired again and this time they nearly hit it, but the shell once again flew a bit too high while some flew too low, resulting in the shells splashing once more in the water around the battleship.
"Hard to starboard and prepare for broadside!" The captain said as they had closed enough and the ship began to steer towards the right as the rear turrets moved, facing the port side.
Their main guns were in range but their secondary guns on the side of the ship which also were massive turrets were about the same size as the cruisers, and out of range as they couldn't really hit that far.
The Dominion battleship had the same idea, as they were getting close into range, but according to what the captain of the Majestic knew, they were still out of range and yet they were adjusting their weapons, leaving the captain puzzled and wondering whether they knew they were out of range or not, though the question was answered quickly as the guns moved towards the cruisers rather then the Majestic, leaving the captain to figure out that the cruisers were it's target and not the Majestic as they were closer then the battleship as they sailed at maximum speed.
"Faster! Front turrets open fire immediately! Shoot it before it fires at the cruisers!" The captain yelled into his headset radio.
The two front turrets fired again, but before the shells managed to reach the Dominion battleship they had gotten their aim corrected at cruiser 143 and fired all three front turrets, 9 crystals in total.
This time they had partially hit the mark, two shells missed but one hit right on the midship deck of the Garrel, but it didn't do too much damage but they did manage to pierce the deck with their HEAP shells, the second one that hit bounced right off it after hitting the side between what appeared to be between the first and second deck, and it was here the battle began to really take off at this point.
Immediately after three crystals missed cruiser 143, but the other six hit, causing damage to it, luckily it was light damage only but it was noticable as part of the top deck was shot straight off, leaving a hole on the top front deck followed by a fire on the ship, aswell as they blasted away the life boats which was located on the midship aswell as slightly damaging the rear turret.
Immediately after the two rear turrets of the Majestic were finally adjusted and fired just two seconds after cruiser 143 was hit, and they got lucky enough to hit the Garrel close to the bridge followed by two shots right into their decks, leaving a clear mark on the hull.
Cruiser 112 were in range of the second destroyer and fired it's three front main guns at it but missed and the said destroyer wanted to have a slice of the Quincy battleship as they were in range of the destroyer that had approached them rather quickly a bit further away from the Garrel, only to have four of the eight of the Majestic's secondary guns open fire, followed by the 155mm cannons shortly after forcing the destroyer to abandon it's attack for evasive manouvers.
The 155mm cannons missed as they were out of range so they fell far to short, but one shell from the secondary guns managed to score a direct hit on the first front turret, effectively destroying it.
Cruiser 143 was only lightly damaged and still in the fight and instead of firing at the Garrel, took aim at the first destroyer of Garrel's escort and fired it's front gun before starting to turn to allow the rear turret to enter the fight properly aswell, scoring two well placed shells out of three hits, with the hits landing directly into the bridge and the engine compartment as they fired the HEAP shell themselves, immobilizing the first destroyer before it could even join the fight.
The second destroyer dropped something in the water which was heading towards the Majestic, which were essentially special naval purpose balls with the same effect as torpedoes, but instead of the Majestic turning towards them they just increased their speed to maximum output, knowing full well that they'd be able to outsail it as intelligence said they weren't capable of tracking their targets before firing another salvo at the Garrel.
The Garrel had put it's rear guns towards the Majestic, with it's speed increase they had gotten closer then what the captain had wanted so they were now in range of the Garrel's guns and they fired a salvo of six crystals, hitting with two of six crystals directly on the Majestic's top structure, damaging a few autoballistas and MG's and injuring several men who was on the deck screaming and bleeding, one guy was even cut in half and screamed for about six seconds before he finally succumb.
The fourth destroyer had turned and aimed all of it's main weapons on cruiser 112 before firing, but the guns did little of any damage at all due to the special protective armor of the cruisers which was more powerful then the special crystal staff thingies the Quincies just called beam cannons only to have cruiser 112 focus it's secondary guns at the destroyer and returned fire, and the destroyer was unable to evade in time which proved quickly to become a disaster for them.
One of the shells appeared to miss closely behind the destroyer but it actually hit one of the two propellers, triggering the detonator on the HEAP shell to begin it's count down before exploding right underneath the destroyer where the destroyer was unshielded, blowing off the last propeller and destroying the rudder aswell as severly damaging the frame of the ship which was it's skeleton and leaving a hole underneath it, after all the 155mm did pack quite the punch and wasn't to be underestimated.
By this time the Garrel and the Majestic had all of their main turrets aimed straight at each other and almost simultaniously fired a full broadside at each other, and this was where thing were starting to get really interesting.
The Garrel had several types of crystals for different purposes, the first one they fired were just explosive, but these ones were like screws and would go through armor, 11 of the 15 crystals hit the Majestic, most of them on the deck directly as they shot through the first and second decks, but one of the 11 crystals started a series of events.
Because the crystal itself had originally hit the deck, but once it hit it bounced, and by a stroke of massive luck for the Dominion, the crystal malfunctioned as it didn't explode on time like it was supposed to, as a matter of fact it never would explode as it could be called a dud, giving it time to get on course towards the turret ring of the second main turret of the Majestic, which was a weakpoint on the Quincy battleships and difficult to armor up.
The crystal went straight through the turret ring and entered the chamber where the reishi generators were located, fully charged and operational, and with the reishi generators active, they contained a large amount of reishi which was identical to a large amount of energy,
The crystal went straight through the first reishi generator before getting stuck in the wall that seperated the two generator rooms, the operators on gun one inside turret two noticed that something had happened, causing them to open a hatch to look into the generator chamber underneath the gun, where they quickly noticed the damage... And the fact that the reishi was flashing was indicating that the volatile reishi inside the generator was becoming extremly unstable.
This caused the order to evacuate the second main turret but it was too late, the flashing reishi ignited in a blue explosion, and the next thing the crew saw and heard aswell as the other ships in the area was that blue sparks were spitting out of turret two followed by a loud bang as turret two exploded internally, killing the entire turret crew instantly as the explosion spread throughout the turret itself.
The turret structure held however and the turret did manage to keep itself attached to the ship as the explosion and fires could be seen outside the turret through gun one, the small gap in the space where the guns moved up and down was where the sparks and fires exited, the second generator was shielded by the wall which barely held up as it was armored, but just barely.
The explosion caused such damage on gun one that the supports attached to the elevator keeping it up failed, causing the gun to fall right down with a loud clang while the explosion was still happening, the fires were the last thing the Majestic needed, as it was blue glowing reishi flames that burned anything without stop, even steel, that was pouring out of the turret, but they did have generators for their fire equipment to create reishi dust to quell it, so the fire division from damage control on the Majestic was quickly called up.
But the Garrel wasn't in the mood to celebrate themselves because they had their own problems which was even more severe then that of the Majestic, because the Majestic had hit with seven of eight shells, all of them direct hits, two of them hit and penetrated the first and third turrets, and while turret was still functional, turret three was obliterated as the HEAP shell had pierced through the turret, and while these were good scores, another shell had hit close to turret four which was on the rear, a little goodbye present from turret two on the Majestic as a matter of fact.
Turret two's second gun which didn't explode had gotten a well placed shot between the Garrel's top structure and turret four, hitting a severe weakpoint there which led straight to the magazine where the volatile crystals for turret four were being kept, and these crystals contained a lot more energy then the reishi generator if they exploded together.
The HEAP shell actually landed and scored a direct hit on several crystals, shattering them in the process and forcing their explosive energy out, causing them to explode, shattering even more crystals that exploded until the entire magazine had gone up in flames.
The explosion was so violent, it actually ripped the entire rear deck of the Garrel apart and blew turret four and five right into the air, breaking the ship in two at the rear as the rear section actually broke off from the main ship due to the blast, dooming it as water poured into it at a rapid pace, and it already began to list due to an imbalance between the front and the rear of the ship.
The shot was extremly lucky, almost as lucky as the Bismarck's decisive hit on the Hood, by this time both sites had briefly paused the battle to take in the damage that happened on both battleships, before it was noticed that the Majestic was indeed victorious but severly damaged.
Cruiser 112 fired the first shot that continued the battle and managed to score a devestating hit on the second destroyer at close range before aiming at the first destroyer, Cruiser 143 fired at the immobilized one and doomed that one aswell.
The fourth destroyer fired three balls into the sea which headed for the majestic at close range before attempting to flee, but was quickly bombarded by the Majestic's secondary guns, but the Majestic's observers never noticed the balls being dropped, so no evasive manouvers were done, ensuring that the Majestic got hit right below the waterline by weapons that destroyed it's armor underneath, leaving three holes in the Quincy battleship as they themselves took on water.
Of course one of the destroyers was able to retreat and it did send out a distress signal on an open channel which the Quincies heard, and considering that the Majestic was not only taking on water, but was also still on fire, a fire which had gone completely out of control from turret two, left the question whether the Majestic could be saved or not, atleast they decided to try but they didn't want to risk facing of any other Dominion ships while tending to the Majestic.
They sailed away as quickly as they could, 23 minutes later they gained control over the fire but was unable to extinguish it fully for another 3 hours, the flooding was also under control but the battleship had started to list and it would remain that way until it was in dry dock for repairs, the outcome of the battle was as following:
Strategic Wandenreich victory and a tactical Dominion victory, in short, both sides could claim victory in their own right.
The Garrel was sunk, that was a fact, the Garrel was a ship that had been in service for nearly 16 years and was the only one of it's kind, taking part in a few internal wars in the Dominion homeworld and with it's service record, was a source of pride for the Dominion, which the Quincies sank, a fact that would leave a terrible blow to morale as the Dominion was unable to lie about it, and the fact is the Garrel sank in less then four minutes due to the heavy damage with most of it's crew, something that only made the blow to morale worse, the other battleships were smaller and had less weapons, usually four tripple turrets and less secondary weapons, that was because the Garrel was such a special ship as it was named after a former Dominion king who passed away, so they wanted to make it unique even amongst it's class.
In the Wandenreich, this victory however proved detrimental because it ensured that the protests died down as the Quincies were content and celebrating the news, even more so when the fact about the Garrel was revealed from Inoue herself on a press conferance and how important it was for the Dominion pride.
Cruiser 112 never recieved any damage, cruiser 143 wasn't that lucky and suffered light damage but it was still able to fight and patrol, as for the Majestic, it suffered heavy damage due to the fire and the flooding, aswell as the fact that it had some holes in it and some of the crystals exploded under the top deck, causing some damage internally aswell, but it was the fire that caused the worst of it.
Turret two was completely destroyed internally, the fire started in turret two burned through a lot of the electrical systems on board, one of the lines that burned up was the line between the ship and turret one, ensuring that turret one was completely without power and was immobilized as it's electric engine was unable to function aswell as the communications systems between turret one and CDC.
Inside turret two, the fire had burned so hot that the steel inside turret two was actually glowing red hot, and truthfully, turret two would be very hard to repair, it would be better to recycle what could be recycled and reuse the steel for something else while building a new turret.
The fact remained, repairs would be extensive on the Majestic so it was pulled out of service and had to return all the way to Silbern for repairs, a schatten gateway was opened but with the accuracy they possessed outside the Seireitei, they wouldn't be in Silbern until tommorrow, cruiser 112 and 143 had orders to escort it all the way back to Silbern, the Majestic had also taken a lot of injuries on it's crew aswell, so it needed to find replacements for some as the infirmary was crowded.
Hence why it was a tactical victory for the Dominion, they had just managed to force a battleship to return home for repairs, nearly destroying the battleship in the process as it was just moments away from burning up, if the fires was unable to have been controlled, the Majestic would have been abandoned and burned assunder.
To be continued
A/N: Alright, so I decided to add a naval battle scene here between two battleships as I wanted to fully introduce them, I hoped the battle was for your liking.
I felt that I haven't included much action as of late, and I decided to make it political in the story as protests erupted as the people was discontent with Ichigo doing too little.
I really enjoyed writing this battle scene, and it wasn't just the Dominion that suffered a loss but the Wandenreich itself with all the damage the Majestic took, but they did win this battle by a sheer stroke of luck, but the Dominion was just as lucky as the Majestic was nearly destroyed.
The weapons that Ichigo mentioned was the same weapons spoken about after the Tol Reus blast, and it was briefly mentioned many chapters back, so the Wandenreich have been working on these for quite some time, and we got to see what Ganju and Kukaku have been up to aswell.