Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo
Air Royal One (Skies over the Wandenreich)
***Command and Control center***
As soon as the day started, Ichigo and Bambietta got ready to leave as they had a very long day ahead of them, it didn't take long until they were at Silbern Base and in one of the five royal aircrafts, the one they used were registered SA-7000, while SA-7300 was reserved and prepared for Sabrina on friday, SA-7000 was already on the runway when they got there and was waiting for them, so once they boarded, they took off.
Bambietta spoke with her parents in regards to Sabrina's invitation, and her father, Ernst being Ernst thought that it was good for Sabrina to spend some time with friends regardless of distance, she did have guards and servants around her so she was in safe hands so he took it quite calmly, Ausilia however lit up all her fuses as a mother and was very anxious and was panicking and thinking all of the worst case scenario, what if she falls and has an accident or something like that? Regardless it took three hours to calm her down and reluctantly she allowed it, this caused another problem as she had to prepare a checklist to ensure that everything is prepared, showing that she did forget about the servants for a while who had a more detailed checklist than she did, when she realized that the servants were going to prepare all the things Sabrina needed, she sulked, stating something about her duties as a mother was gone or something like that, resulting in Masaki coming back to speak with her, which clearly worked, causing Ausilia to be adamant that she and Ernst sees her off.
Speaking of Ausilia, as a royal it was very uncommon for royals to do accounting jobs with bosses over them, a military job as a high ranking officer was more common, so she was about to quit her job in just a few weeks to take on more charity roles instead, Ernst however continued with his military duties a bit all around as he wasn't permanently located in the O.D.K anymore and went whereever Ichigo and Bambietta needed him, alhough he could sometimes be seen in the O.D.K.
Since all royal aircrafts had a command and control center to command the army whilst under flight as it was connected directly to the O.D.K but could also be directly connected to a unit, that's what they were doing, they had connected the command center to both Fort Cardinal, the sternritters in the field and the O.D.K, and they were communicating using speakers, of course this meeting wasn't planned as it was just a quick briefing and some decisions had to be made.
The Wandenreich had several situations in and around the village of Takakanai which was getting resolved already, first off it was the civilians that engaged the Quincy forces, they had been detained by Quincy A.N.U troops prior and severly questioned, many of them were scared and very cooperative, others not so much, and then they had the problem with people taking care of the enemy, but that issue was easily solved.
But it was noticed a pattern as the Dominion had hired thugs to do their policing work, and it was these thugs that kept the population that didn't support the Dominion in check using fear, and naturally once the beans were spilled, these thugs were being hunted down and arrested left and right, some came back to Takakanai after the Quincies had captured it, not knowing that it was now in Allied hands and that the Dominion had lost control over it, which ended up with them also being captured.
And while this left the Question why the fullbringers sent in their own police force at times, it was quickly determined that it was because of the mutated fullbringers they were trying to get rid off, and then they just left like that.
The royal army was massive, and the Quincies did have manpower to spare to hold the village and advance at the same time, the Quincy army was already advancing inwards and several battles has been fought already, some of them in progress.
But with Takakanai secured, the decision Ichigo had to make now was where to place his forces. The eastern front was massive, it could hardly even be close to be called a campaign, because it wasn't a campaign.
The eastern front was a theater of war, which was vastly different from campaigns, as a theater covered a very large area with several campaigns inside it, to better explain it, from 1939 to 1945 Europe was a theater, also known as the european theater, as it was filled with war at the time, but it wasn't a massive campaign, the battle of britain was a campaign that took place inside the european theater, same with the invasion of poland, also known as the polish campaign at the time, so in short, a theater is just a very large battlefield where several important military events occur or are progressing on both air, land and sea, that is the warfare term of theater.
Now the landing itself was essentially the Takakanai campaign, which involved the airborne assault, landings and the securing of the village, and that campaign was still ongoing, now a campaign wasn't just a single battle, as it rarely was just a single battle, but it was an event with several battles inside a theater, but the Takakanai campaign was beginning to draw to a close as the Wandenreich was about to secure their foothold, which would pave way for more campaigns to open up as a victory in the Takakanai campaign would allow them to move further inwards.
A bit further in the direction of north-north-east was the final objective for the Takakanai campaign, the landscape changed as the sea was moving inwards towards what was once a lonely fishing village located inside a lake connected to the sea through a strait, the water was deep, and any ship could move inwards, and the Dominion had placed a major military harbor there.
The Wandenreich already knew that the port was important to the fullbringers, as the port not only rearmed and refuelled their warships but also took in vital supplies from convoys, the harbor was first noticed after a submarine noticed a small convoy and waited for a wolfpack so they could take them all down, but they never made it, instead the submarine continued to report the position of the convoy until they reached the harbor, much to the surprise of the submarine captain who quickly reported it as there was no indication of any nearby harbors to the Takakanai front, the Wandenreich never noticed it at all, they just thought it was a fishing village and opted to just leave it alone, but they were wrong as that wasn't the case.
Ever since the harbor has been under constant surveillance by what they had left of scanners and a few submarines who hid in the depth of the water, the water was nice enough to be deep enough for the submarines to sail silently into the harbor aswell.
The harbor wasn't exactly small either, so how this went past the Quincy intelligence, no one really knows, not even Inoue knew about this and was rather surprised when she heard it, the docks was large, and even had loading cranes on them to load and unload ships, aswell as several large tanks which clearly contained fuel for the ships.
The harbor was a major supply point for the Dominion on both sea and land, and for that reason, the Wandenreich quickly turned their eye on it, but there was a problem, as the defences around it was massive, a ton of air defences protected the air, and coastal defences along the strait itself possed a serious threat to any naval vessels that approached, aswell as tons of land defences.
However they needed to soften up those defences and the best way to do so rapidly was an airstrike.
Despite the heavy air defence, an airstrike was still a possibility as long as it did meet certain conditions, as any low altitude attack would be quickly thwarted, and the defences was excessive enough to actually pose a serious danger to airships, so that was ruled out, additionally the wingmen was trained for low altitude tactical strikes and wasn't suited for high altitude strikes as their helmets was very inaccurate at such a height.
This meant that the only viable option they had left, was the one thing that was meant for high altitude bombing but also did the most damage, which the Wandenreich wanted to avoid as they wanted the harbor mostly intact, namely the strategic bombers, they used in the west branch to destroy the Dominion base.
The strategic bombers were fast, they could travel long distances at high altitudes and carry up to 40 bombs each and they were designed to operate behind enemy lines under heavy fire, they were right in their home turf.
So the O.D.K wanted a nighttime air raid on the harbor with an astonishing 230 bombers, the Quincies, due to their natural abilities were well capable of quickly repairing any damage done, so even if the base got completely wrecked, they could still rebuild it after capturing it and then putting it to good use, but a major problem was the fishing village which was clearly going to be in the crossfire and might become a point of political friction between the east branch and the Wandenreich if they hit it or destroy it, something Ichigo was all too aware of.
This meant that Ichigo would have to speak with central 46 and inform them of the situation and know their stance on the situation before the air raid itself could be commenced, causing Ichigo to attempt to contact central 46 but for some odd reason they were not reachable at the time as they were holding some sort of meeting.
And because they were not reachable, Ichigo decided to not waste time waiting for them to become availeble and decided to authorize the strike, after all, Ichigo was all too aware over the fact that in times of war, time is nothing more but a luxury one cannot afford, and Ichigo had decided to not waste any more time then absolutely necessary in order to win it, as history has shown over and over, the one who hesistate or wait, loses, the one who acts, wins, and Ichigo had every intention of winning.
The air raid would take place at 0100 hours tonight, so the aircrafts all had to be checked and hastily prepared, the crew had to be briefed alongside the wingmen escort meant to protect them from Dominion interceptors.
The air raid would be accompanied by a major ground assault on the Dominion lines to pave the way to the harbor, as the ground forces still needed to get through the Dominion troops to reach it, if this ground attack was successful then they can move towards the harbor, and once the harbor had been captured, the Takakanai campaign would surely end, and another would take it's place eventually.
"But your majesty, we have had a complaint from the soldiers in the field." An officer from eastern command said.
"A complaint? What kind of complaint?" Ichigo asked curiously as he sat in his chair.
"It's the 5th regiment to be precise, the body armor is a problem." The officer said.
"How come?" Ichigo asked.
"The body armor was meant for direct close range combat, not long range while running around, the armor was difficult to move in for many, and difficult to fire their long range weapons in." The officer said.
"I'm not surprised, the armor is completely outdated and is already obsolete, we should replace them with something that can support both long and close range combat, one that is easy to wear and to move around in." An officer from the O.D.K said.
"I am in agreement, as the fullbringers are using ranged weapons the type of warfare used in the field has changed from close range melee combat to mostly long range combat, especially out on the frontier, we should have noticed this and changed our body armors long ago, while the current armor is a good source for protection, it also makes our troops vulnerable and makes them unable to protect themselves by limiting their actions." Another officer from the O.D.K said.
"A valid point, the combat efficiency rating from the 5th regiment dropped by nearly 64% when they used the body armor when compared to their other actions, and as mentioned, the body armor was meant for close range combat with either a melee weapon or SMG, not to run around with a rifle or panzershreck, in short I believe that the serious amount of casualties the 5th regiment took could have been mostly avoided by not using it which would have made them more agile and harder to hit." Another officer from the eastern command said.
"So the body armor is now nothing more then a liability?" Bambietta asked.
"That is our assumption, additionally the long trench coats have a problem by becoming attached to different armor pieces at times, causing the armor to tug the uniform, in some cases even brutally, causing the soldiers sometimes to fall over." The first officer from the eastern command replied.
"So a change is in order huh?" Isshin asked.
"I have received some reports on some new materials found by the research division, I will speak with Erwig and Kisuke, if it's viable, we'll redesign the body armor and the uniforms if necessary to suit the new specs of a new type of armor, and if the armor really does grab the uniform and cause forceful tugs on them, then I hereby order all armor pieces to be returned to the Wandenreich and not to be used any longer, we'll just have to count on the internal chainmail of the uniforms." Ichigo ordered.
"Yes your majesty." The officers said.
"We'll be waiting on good news then." Isshin said.
"I'll contact you with any new information." Ichigo said as he pushed a button to end the call and the meeting was concluded.
***Office***
The aircraft did have an office for Ichigo to use, although not as spacious as his office in Silbern, it even had a toilet room besides it only accessible from the office and a neat tv screen, and it could be compared to the current presidential office in air force one, the office was design to be used directly by members of the royal family, if the Ichigo was onboard then the office was his, if Bambietta but not Ichigo was onboard then the office was hers as she was the second in command, if any other royals were onboard then it would be the office of the one who had ordered the aircraft, that was the system they used.
During take off, everyone would be seated, there was a special seating area for the royals aswell should more then one travel, but Ichigo and Bambietta if they traveled together would normally sit inside the office during take off, Ichigo in the office chair and Bambietta in the opposite chair, however if only Bambietta was on board with other royals then who ever wanted to or whoever Bambietta invited could sit in the opposite chair as Bambietta would then sit in the office chair, if it was any other royal then the office, if Bambietta wasn't present then it was the royal who ordered the aircraft that would sit in the office chair, for instance, in SA-7300, Sabrina would sit in the office seat as it was her flight, and while this makes the seat seem special, it is because the seat represents the boss of the flight, simple as that.
The aircraft was designed in a similar manner as air force one, not because the Quincies just wanted to copy it, but because it was the design best suited for the tasks the royal aircrafts could face,
Ichigo sat down in the office chair and Bambietta sat down in the chair opposite of the desk, as there was only two chairs attached to the floor that could spin around in about 360 degrees but not actually move, though they could be adjusted to get closer or further away from the desk if needed, there was also a couch to sit in in case of a meeting along the wall, just below the TV, the speakers were located in the roof, and could be connected to the TV or to a listening device to listen to music and so on.
Regardless, as soon as Ichigo sat down, he manifested his nuclear football and revealed something more about it, he took out two cables, one was a charger connected to the laptop, the other was a USB cable, both connected directly to the box underneath the laptop before he pushed a button and the laptop came loose from the lock system on the box, before dispelling the suitcase itself with the equipment for the nuclear system.
It was the box itself that was essentially the nuclear system, as the control panels and the launch key panel aswell as the phone was built into the box, and the box itself was built into the suitcase, the laptop was just an accessory to function as targeting but the original purpose of the laptop was for work, this meant that the laptop was detachable, and once detached, the laptop was seperated from the suitcase so the suitcase could be dispelled but the laptop would remain.
This system functioned by the suitcase and the box itself being part of the seal on the users arm, and the laptop would be considered part of the suitcase and dispel with it, however once the laptop was removed and the suitcase was dispelled, once it was summoned again, it would appear without a laptop, so it was vital that the user remembered to attach the laptop to the box lock again, otherwise the nuclear football wouldn't function, of course the one thing that made it easy to remember was that the box itself, which had the harddrives with the nuclear system and a bunch of batteries, recharged itself using reishi when dispelled, so by having it in the seal, the box itself would recharge and maintain itself at full power, but the laptop didn't do that, hence why the charger cable was there, and the USB cable was to connect the harddrive inside the box to the laptop and let the laptop utilize the system.
There wasn't a requirement to attach the two cables to allow the laptop to dispel with the suitcase, just as long as it was locked onto the box itself that was enough, but this meant that the laptop wouldn't have access to the nuclear system, nor would the laptop recharge itself, although should it lose or have too little power left, it was just to attach that charger cable anyways so no worries there, so should the laptop break or get damaged, it was easy to replace to ensure that the nuclear football is always functional.
Ichigo put the laptop on his desk, and logged in, before he connected it to another USB attached to his desk, allowing him to connect the laptop to the TV screen and other luxury things inside the office, although it didn't connect to the aircraft, it did connect it to the speaker system and the TV system should he ever want to connect the laptop to the TV, it also functioned as a source of internet connection as it connected to the military network, aswell as the box inside the suitcase which was connected to the military network directly, which was transmitted from Silbern tower and sent across every world the Wandenreich could access, though it was highly encrypted and difficult to access unless you had a direct connection or had the password and an authentication code to connect to it.
"New designs and changes again huh?" Bambietta said as stretched.
"You don't like change?" Ichigo asked curiously as he looked at her.
"I don't mind change at all, it's just that so much has changed in a short amount of time." Bambietta replied.
"Well, that is true, but this is our own fault for not realizing that the current body armor is not suitable for long range combat, if anything we were careless to not acknowledge the fact that, as we fight this war on our own terms, the manner in which the war is fought changes with it, we were stupid and failed to recognize the fact that strategy and tactics change depending on the foe you meet, which in itself is extremly embarrassing." Ichigo replied as he began to type on his laptop.
"Failure to look ahead into the future... Must be even more embarrassing for you." Bambietta said slyly, clearing referring to the Almighty.
"I will ignore that remark..." Ichigo said slightly annoyed, much to Bambietta's amusement.
Besides Ichigo attached to the wall was a panel with buttons, it turned on and off the power to the TV, almost like pushing the power button on the TV directly to shut it all the way down compared to the remote control shut down, because the remote shutdown didn't cause a black screen, but rather caused the aircraft GPS to show on screen with altitude, where they have been, speed and destination and so on, the same with the speakers, aswell as a volume knob for the speakers and a mute button, and a call guard button and a call servant button, to contact someone on the aircraft you had to use the phone, which had a shortcut through an intercom system to the cockpit, kitchen, command and control aswell as other areas.
Regardless Ichigo pressed the servant button and a servant quickly showed up.
"You called your majesty?" The servant asked.
"Yes, would you mind bringing us some refreshments? Some chips and red wine would be great." Ichigo said as the servant nodded.
"At once your majesty." The servant said as he quickly left.
"What, you want an air date?" Bambietta asked with a smirk.
"Air date? Well I suppose that couldn't harm, although I doubt the setting is appropriate, what with us being in military uniforms and all." Ichigo replied with a chuckle.
"Well, if you're hoping to get lucky, you're going to get very disappointed as I'm on my period, and I don't want to create a bloody mess around here." Bambietta replied slightly annoyed.
"I know, you told me... Aren't you on the pill?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"I am." Bambietta replied.
"How come you are on your period then? I thought the pills avoided the period?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"Placebo pills, I take them for one week every third month, by not taking them it can eliminate any possibility for kids so, the pills I am on allows me to use them for 12 weeks before I need to take the placebo pills at the end of the third month, so I can delay the period for up to three months if I want to." Bambietta explained.
"Ahh... Well I can always drive the firetruck in the shower later when we're back." Ichigo said amused, though much to Ichigo's surprise, Bambietta seemed to consider it.
For those of you who doesn't know, the firetruck ride is a referance to having sex with a female on her period, in which she bleeds, the term comes after fire, which means that due to period cramps, girls tends to get easily agitated, upset or angry, due to the pain, although not everyone is like that, this is also where the term playing with fire comes into play and red is the color of blood, but it is also the color of a specific truck, namely the firetruck, and drive means to have sex, so the quote drive/driving/drove the firetruck, means to have sex with a female on her period where she bleeds.
"Hmm, Alright... Only in the shower though!" Bambietta replied.
"Really?" Ichigo asked surprised.
"Yup." Bambietta replied.
In all honesty she didn't really mind doing it on her period, although she haven't tried it before so for her it was purely experimental, she had heard stories and read about it, and everyone was different about it, some thought it felt great, others thought it felt identical to non-period sex, and others thought it was very uncomfortable, so she wanted to know where she stood, after all she didn't really like the thought about her period stopping her sex life, and if Ichigo was willing to do it with her despite her period, it was alright by her, atleast it saved her the trouble of asking, the only problem she had with it was the bloody mess it could cause, but the shower solved that little issue.
Although Ichigo didn't show much, he did secretly look forwards until they got back.
Ichigo turned his chair around and looked out the window, where he could see a few clouds underneath them, but the landscape of his lands was very beautiful from the sky, it was a sight he enjoyed, although the mountains were very white, indicating snow lower down on the mountain, so it was probably just a matter of time until the snow started to fall lower aswell.
The servant then entered with the wine and the two decided to enjoy their little trip as there wasn't really much to do but relax until they landed, unless they got unlucky and something popped up.
Testing Field Makeshift Airfield
***3 hours and 7 minutes later***
The research division had opted to request an airfield in the testing site due to the distance from Silbern, which was granted and the airfield was quickly built, as there was currently designs and plans to militarize the whole area and use it as a permanent testing site with a nearby base, and from the looks of it, these plans were going forwards, as Silbern was moving ahead with the plans and funding was being made, additionally it functioned as an training field for the military aswell for military exercises.
The field was massive and was located inside a valley on the top of a mountain with the end being similar to a crater due to the formation of the mountains, and it was mostly covered by mountains, and for that reason it was ideal for secret military stuff, if anything, this area was about to become the Wandenreich's area 51.
There was only one entrance to it, as the opposite end of the valley was cut off, and it was at the entrance the base was going to get built, and it was at the entrance the airfield was, and naturally the area was tightly guarded by soldiers left and right aswell as trained military guard dogs that patrolled the area, in some areas the brand new sentinel was driving around with a gunner on top.
The biggest flaw this base had was that there was no sea access, so there was no way to test ships in the valley regretfully, but then again the sea was extremly massive, so they still had a lot of water to use.
The end of the valley was massive enough to actually fit 3 Tokyos inside it, so they had a lot of space to use, which was valuable as they could always build a fake city here for the military to use.
Ichigo and Bambietta exited the aircraft to meet several high ranking officers saluting them and Erwig and Kisuke waiting for them by a row of seven sentinel cars, Kisuke had opted to be the driver of course, a fact that terrified Ichigo, despite that van outside the Urahara shop, Ichigo had no idea if Kisuke knew how to drive.
Regardless they went into the front sentinel which was number while members of the K.G and officers went into the other sentinel cars, and then they drove off, Ichigo and Bambietta sat in the rear seats and Kisuke and Erwig in front with four guards in the trunk area.
***Enroute***
"I do hope your flight was pleasant your majesties?" Erwig asked.
"Believe it or not, it actually was, no phone calls, nothing work related at all except for one meeting with the O.D.K and eastern command, just relax all the way." Ichigo said rather content.
"It really was calming." Bambietta said in agreement.
"That's reassuring and good to hear." Erwig responded politely.
"Speaking of meetings, have either of you spoken with the eastern command or the O.D.K?" Ichigo asked, leaving Kisuke and Erwig puzzled.
"No we have not?" Kisuke replied.
Ichigo and Bambietta then went on to explain the problem in the field, and the fact that the body armor they used were becoming outdated and obsolete by how the war is being fought at the present, leaving Kisuke and Erwig to understand the dilemma the troops faced, if anything Erwig wasn't really that surprised.
"It's not surprising, considering that the armor was originally meant for shieldbearers who create cover for troops with the shieldwall barrier to ensure that they aren't left too defenceless, aswell as melee troops in close quarters, in the end the armor wasn't made for rapid running and dodging rays and ranged attacks continously, much less long distance combat, although it can function with the SMG." Erwig responded.
"But with how the war has changed to ranged combat, body armor for melee and close quarter combat has lost it's value and is more of an obstruction then useful." Kisuke replied, understanding of the situation.
"Is it possible to still utilize body armor for the troops in the field?" Bambietta asked.
"Yes it is, in the end the effectiveness on specific fields in terms of body armor all relies on it's weight and design in the end, full body armor like medieval knights is not suitable for our army, and quite honestly, it never really has been, our forces require a body armor meant for mobility and agility, but can also protect against lethal attacks." Erwig responded.
"All that is needed is to redesign the armor and hand it out to the troops." Kisuke responded.
"If I may suggest it your majesty, a multi-purpose universal armor for the military might be what you need, a standard armor the entire army can use even when not required without hinderance, one that is light weight and offers mobility and agility." Erwig responded.
"But light armor means less protection?" Bambietta inquired.
"Not necessarily, it all depends on the materials used, which is why that fake world was a blessing in itself." Erwig responded.
"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked
"The stone in the fake world, turns out that if you melt it, it turns to some kind of metal we decided to call Zakronium, it is light, and it is very hard, slightly harder and more powerful then ultra-high-carbon steel, which is known to be the strongest metal in the world of the living for comparison, and it has resistance to spiritual attacks to a certain degree depending on how thick it is, it has a melting point at about 1730 degrees, and can be reshaped easily, and we have a lot to work with considering the size of that world." Kisuke stated.
"Additionally, with out abilities, even if we do chop up an asteroid, the fake tower still has the property of regenerating for unknown reasons, we are still investigating that one, regardless that is something we can use to our advantage by using our abilities and adding on the stone by forcing reishi into it and then materialising it, causing the reishi itself to take the shape of the object it hits and become it." Erwig responded.
"And the metal also possesses the property of stainless steel, so Zakronium does not rust, atleast not from what we have tested, we have tried firing at it, dipping it in all kinds of acid that promotes rust, and absolutely nothing happened, the same cannot be said for the current armor being used, they're not even reactive when destroyed like aluminium so it is perfectly safe to use" Kisuke stated.
"I will bring the issue forwards and have a design ready for you as soon as possible... Preferably today." Erwig said, leaving Ichigo and Bambietta rather content with that.
"How quickly can you get the materials?" Ichigo asked.
"Well, lord Kisuke found a way to open a gate artificially to the fake world so that's not a concern, we just need to calibrate the machine properly and we can bring in the heavy machinery and dig hundreds to thousands of tons a day if you want to, we'll just use a howitzer and fire a hook at the asteroids and drag them to us and strip it down, however in order to mass produce the armor, we need to change the specs on the machines in the factories to suit the new armor design, if that is done then handing out the armor should be very quick." Erwig stated.
"Good, then I'll have the factories cease production immediately." Ichigo replied.
"However, there is one more thing I would like to tell you your majesty." Erwig responded, causing Ichigo to look at him.
"What is it?" Ichigo asked.
"The medical halftrack is rarely used, they prefer to utilize other means of getting the soldier out on the grounds that the medical halftrack has become a deathtrap, which is evident as we monitered the 5th regiment battle with a scanner, and those Dominion cannons would have blown the halftracks sky high, they just aren't armored enough to stand out in the field, and once they appear they draw fire like crazy, because of this the medics want to avoid using them." Erwig responded as Ichigo and Bambietta both nodded.
"Not many of them were produced compared to other vehicles, making them might have been a mistake." Ichigo said.
"Not really, they do have potential, we just recall those we have, strip them down, replace the armor with Zakronium, shove a canopy over the rear part of it and put in 10 seats and shove a turret on top of the drivers area with the brand new prototype autoballista and voila, you got a light weight, pack a punch in the field while carrying troops while the fullbringers fire at it without effect APC, or Armored Personnel Carrier that rips apart anything in it's path." Erwig stated, leaving Ichigo and Bambietta curious to see if he had any drafts of this design.
"Do you have any drafts of it?" Bambietta asked expectantly.
"Uhm... Yes." Erwig responded, becoming rather small, and Kisuke decided to lock himself out of the conversation, much to Ichigo's and Bambietta's curiosity.
"What is it?" Bambietta asked.
"Uhm... We might have... Borrowed... A medical halftrack and made some minor adjustements to it..." Erwig stated as he and Kisuke looked at each other.
"What do you mean you borr... You don't mean that medical halftrack that the Silbern Guard lost and have reported to the police and the ministry of defence as stolen do you?" Ichigo inquired curiously.
"Nonononono, we would never steal military equipment, much less so medical equipment, we just borrowed it for a bit and improved it." Kisuke replied innocently.
"With permission?" Bambietta asked rather amused.
"Let's not worry to much about the minor, unimportant details, now, let's focus on how efficient the APC halftrack can be." Kisuke replied.
Ichigo decided to wait with a decision on what to do with this situation, atleast they knew what happened to it, although one question remained.
"Tell me... I have looked through the research divisions files in military research, and there is no funding for upgrading the halftrack so where did you get the money?" Ichigo asked, causing Kisuke and Erwig to sweat bullets as they began to explain.
"W-well... Y-y-you see, since the economics department took so long to make a decision..." Erwig said as Kisuke continued.
"And with all the important research being done and the budget now spread out thin..." Kisuke said before they said where it actually came from.
Eastern Command
***Meanwhile***
As important decisions were being made by the officers, one of Kyoraku's two lieutenants were busy speaking on the phone.
"What do you mean we're in minus and our account is frozen!? The Shinigami Women's Association hasn't been using any money recently!" Nanao said into her phone in an low angry tone.
"I'm sorry but that's what it says, you are now in debt." A voice said, belonging to central 46's banking unit.
"How much?" Nanao asked curiously, biting her fingernails.
"460 million yen." The voice said on the opposite end.
The next decision the eastern command took was to call the medical staff, not even the Shinigami Men's Association budged would save them this time, if anything it wouldn't even cover 1% of the debt, but hey, you reap what you sow.
Testing Field Launch Site
As they arrived, the missile was standing face up on the launch platform, as it was an outdoors missile platform with railings holding up the missile, the research division was now doing the final checks on the missile, Ichigo was impressed with the large missile, but not as impressed as he was with the audacity of Erwig and Kisuke to steal money from the S.W.A.
One would imagine that Ichigo would be pissed but he laughed, and he laughed hard when he heard, Bambietta did so aswell as she didn't really care about that association, so they decided to let it go, but Bambietta was also pissed, and Ichigo was fuming, and that wasn't because they took from the S.W.A, but the fact that they needed to request funding.
Ichigo had made it abanduntly clear that the research division conducts important research for the empire, and they were supposed to have as much funding as they needed without hesitation, so something had gone wrong somewhere, and Kisuke and Erwig had initially thought that it was Ichigo that tightened it all up so they never pressed the issue and went through the proper channels, resulting in some research even being denied funding.
Ichigo would definitely speak with Uryu and Liltotto later and have this mess sorted out, because science costs money, and without money science cannot be conducted, needless to say, they were both surprised when Ichigo and Bambietta both said that they had no idea that this had happened, this was a catastrophe, especially after hearing about some of the ideas they had which would be very useful.
Regardless, as the missile was being prepared, Erwig and Kisuke took Ichigo and Bambietta to what appeared to be a large carpet covering a box, but a closer look at the ground revealed that it wasn't a box, but rather a frame holding up the black carpet, which housed the brand new and partially... Borrowed... APC halftrack prototype.
"Gaze your eyes upon this technological marvel of medical equipment borrowed from the Silbern Guard." Kisuke said as he and Erwig dragged off the carpet, revealing a dark grey halftrack, highly modified.
"What's with the color?" Bambietta asked as she looked at the dark grey halftrack.
"Oh, the only thing painted on it is the silver crosses, dark grey is the color of Zakronium, as it doesn't decay or rust there is no need to paint, your majesty." Erwig stated.
Still though, the two were impressed with what they saw as Erwig and Kisuke gave them a tour of what was essentially something similar but highly modified variant of the . 251 used by the german army during ww2, as all halftracks of the Wandenreich was based on that model, even the flatbed ones, the difference is that this one was clearly taller on the front.
The front of it now possessed an attached winch, and the roof over the drivers cabin also possessed the prototype autoballista, if you can even call it that, as it was essentially a ballista autocannon as it looked exactly like a FlaK 38 cannon, however that had it's reasons.
The cannon still fired arrows, but this time, the arrows were far more powerful then the first variant of the autoballistas, first off this one didn't need to have reishi strings attached, nor any casings, because there was a reishi generator inside the turret which supplied the barrel with reishi to form an arrow, and behind the arrow was a reishi casing which exploded and fired off the arrow, and after the arrow was fired, the barrel was designed to improve the force, impact and speed of the arrow, trippling it's effect to a terrifying degree, this meant that the turret was well capable of going up against even the hellspawn with a huge chance of success, although the arrows only pierced or impaled, it still packed quite the punch.
The impact of just the piercing arrow would still obliterate any humans, souls or hollows they encountered with extreme prejudice due to the force created by the cannon itself, if just one arrow hit your chest then you might need to find yourself in a position to find a new one for transplant, because your chest is gone, heart, lungs, ribs, everything in your chest will be gone, and that alone wouldn't stop the arrow because the arrow would just continue through you and then hit anything behind you until it is too strained and dissolves from the strain or if the arrow dissolves over time, this cannon was three times as deadly as the autoballista variant one and was designed to tear your guts out and splash blood all over the place mercilessly with it's 450 arrows a minute rate of fire, amongst the scientists and engineers, it got the name of autocannon rather then autoballista as it was more similar to a cannon.
Additionally, the turret was not manned, but was controlled by an inbuilt computer system with a joystick, the gunner would sit right next to the driver and control the turret, and the turret had a rotation of 130 degrees both sides, 75 degrees in elevation upwards and 20 degrees downwards, allowing it to target even air units and function as an air defence to a certain degree, so the gunner could safely use the turret in combat while the driver drove around without the risk of losing the gunner.
The drivers cabin did have windows but used the same system as the sentinel with the cameras and the manifested shield around it, which was usually always active but could be dispelled if needed, so they mostly used the special screen glass to see out, as this was safer in the field of battle, additionally the drivers cabin was seperated from the rear to protect the gunner and the driver from any attacks from the outside should they ever get into such a situation.
In the rear however, a canopy had been put up, this allowed for more space to stand up without risk getting hit by any enemies outside as the soldiers inside was now protected 360 degrees, however, a part of the canopy could be opened from the drivers cabin as an elevator, allowing it to deploy scanners should it ever carry it without opening the two rear doors.
10 seats were fitted into it to allow 10 troops to be seated, but it could carry 25 troops if 5 sat on the floor and 10 in the seats and 10 on the lap of the seated soldiers, but that would be very very tight, additionally 10 small hatches was put on the rear part, 1 on each of the rear doors, and four on the sides, this allowed the troops inside the shoot out or use a reishi sword or spear to stab or shoot anything the turret couldn't hit.
It was very impressive, and Kisuke had prepared some soldiers for a quick unofficial demonstration, the vehicle wasn't amphibious, that was certain, so it couldn't swim, but it was designed to work alongside the sentinel aswell as other combat vehicles in the field, it could even work independently, and guess what? Ichigo and Bambietta loved it, it was more armored then the sentinel without a doubt and could take a bigger punch, but it was fast, light weight, could keep up, and possessed a lot of firepower considering it's size and it allowed for quick deployment of troops, and this was a better alternative to a medivac aswell despite the fact that all the medical equipment was thrown out, the medics in the field could still use healing abilities inside this halftrack aswell as medical equipment they carried on their way back to pick up more troops, and if it wasn't picking up troops, it was probably too busy tearing the enemy apart, so what was an unofficial demonstration quickly became an offical one and it was approved instantly without objection from Ichigo and Bambietta, causing Kisuke and Erwig to squeel in joy.
Regardless it was now time for the testing, the target was a small quickly built village which the research division built to be destroyed, a scanner had zoomed in on the area and all was ready, now they just needed Ichigo to insert the launch codes and fire the missile at the target, which he did.
He took out his nuclear football, hoped that he had remembered to put in the laptop, which he had, ensured that all was connected, then he put in the settings for the missile itself as he selected only that one by manual selection, then he pressed the shortcut, took out his authenticator and pushed the L and the launch codes generated appeared, and Ichigo typed it in.
1-D-5-4-Y-G-F-2-4-5-D-2-7-H-H-A
Then he put the key to SET and held it in for five seconds, the launch codes were inserted and controllers had gotten the alert and the two keys were flipped, the missile was now ready for launch.
manifesting the launch key, Ichigo opened the cover and inserted it, and then, he turned the key and held it for five second, and the panel light up and several alarms were going off on the controllers panel as lights began to flash and the system was in full automatic.
Ganju, Kukaku, Kisuke and Erwig were all watching with great anticipation, so was Ichigo and Bambietta, they had all put on special sunglasses to protect them from the light of the explosion, which was very very bright, and everyone was also wearing specially made ear protectors to protect their ears because the bang was also very loud, just in case though Inoue was ready with healing back in Silbern.
The railings moved away from the missile to release it as small amounts of smoke appeared out of the nozzles of the rocket as it was approaching the final stage, everything was ready, and then, the nozzles light up.
Q terrifying roar of fire meeting the ground, the ground shook like an earth quake was happening from the brute force coming out of the nozzles, and then... Lift off, It appears that Ganju didn't get his ass kicked this time as the engine was actually carrying the payload as it gained a lot of speed very quickly.
The suitcase confirmed that the payload was armed, now to see if it can guide itself and to see if the system is correct.
The missile moved upwards for a while, causing some worry but the laptop showed that it was on course until it got to a high altitude, then it began to turn, showing that it was moving, but was it on it's correct course, just to make sure, Ichigo had the abort codes ready.
But there was no need for it as the missile was now on track towards the target, it had turned and aimed directly at the testing village and was rapidly decending.
It got closer, closer and closer, until it reached a certain altitude, and then...
*Flash*
The flash was intense enough to burn your eyes out in a mere second, the sunglasses protected the eyes of those wearing it, as no one was authorized to not wear it, everyone was wearing it, as the flash of something that just hit the temperature of 100.000.000 degrees celsius hit, which was hotter then the core of the sun.
*Booooooom*
The thunderous roar of the explosion was enough to deafen those outside, the shockwave came quicker then anticipated, and so did the massive quake, the shockwave only took 8 seconds to reach Silbern itself, which was hours away, however due to the valley, no damage was done on outlying villages, another benefit it provided.
Regretfully though, the scanner malfunctioned, and got destroyed by the shockwave so they lost their eyes, but not to worry, this missile only carried Bambietta's ephitet reishi, and did not contain any radiation for that matter, so they could safely get to it later.
A huge burning mushroom cloud was hanging over the valley, as the shockwave died down, it was evident it was still hot in there, though probably not a wonder considering the massive temperature it unleashed, causing a tremendous forest fire inside the valley of what wood didn't evaporate instantly.
So while Kisuke was too busy talking with the fire brigade, the test was deemed a massive success, and they salvaged what they could from the destroyed scanner after the forest fire was put down by firefighting aircrafts and tons of firetrucks.
Ichigo ordered all production of the body armor to be ceased and authorized the construction of the APC halftrack, additionally Ichigo got a draft of a new body armor and after some explanation, it was authorized.
When Ichigo got back to Silbern, he called Liltotto and Uryu in for a quick meeting, and Uryu had no idea that the research division now had to ask for funding, although he did approve of the idea of limiting their funding, he never authorized it and an internal investigation occured, regardless the fault was fixed and the research division was now back on track.
Ichigo eventually got in contact with central 46 and he did tell them about the bombing mission, and while they were hesitant, the decision was already made because they were unreachable, and Ichigo actually scolded them for underprioritizing the war, it was that accusation that caused them to immediately accept the bombing mission, as they didn't want to appear weak and unable to make decision in front of a foreign nation, much less so an allied nation.
He also lied to central 46 about the funding, but he did mention that it was karma for them for they had stolen a lot of money from other associations, the Shinigami Mens Association most of all, but the Wandenreich paid back in full, but put in a request that it would not be returned to the S.W.A and rather be used for the war, and he did mention some sneak changes they had made behind Ichigo's back with Quincy funding, which infuriated central 46 so they agreed, leaving the S.W.A to work off their debt by using honest means.
To be continued.
A/N: The APC halftrack is inspired by the APC halftrack in Wolfenstein the new order, which is a game where nazis have taken over the world, the halftrack is in game based on the real . 251, also nicknamed the Hanomags by both german and allied nations, who produced them, it is quite awesome looking really.
I also misunderstood certain concepts about the nuclear weapon, as it can exceed the temperature of the core of the sun, some have shown to go all the way up to 300 million degrees, which is a lot, but I limited it to 100 million, I believed that the core of the sun was at 100 million degrees and thought the nukes obtained the same temperature but it turns out that it can exceed that for a brief moment, the temperature of the core of the sun is around 15 million degrees Celsius