"The Eldian forces, upon taking Liberio, wasted no time in preparing for the rest of their campaign, which had been projected to last from anywhere between eleven months to a decade. Queen-Founder Historia Reiss was quick to retake the nearby cities, before marching westword to cut off the northern tip of Continental Marley from enemy reinforcements. The Kaiserliche Eldianische Marine, in the meantime, was split into two battlegroups- one under Vizeadmiral Mathias Kramer, who was tasked to protect the supply convoys from Paradis and keep watch for enemy vessels from the north, and the other under Großadmiral Rita Iglehaut, who was tasked to halt Marley's own naval forces sailing up from Vatanlar.
Of the two fleets, it is Rita's that held the most important duty, for if Marley managed to bypass her fleet, Eldia's vital supply lines, and indeed, all of Paradis southern coast, would be laid bare to assault…"
- Harsh Mistress of the Sea: the Naval Campaigns of Resurgent Eldia (c.904), by Eric Patterson
Twenty-Ninth Day of the Fifth Month, Jahr Unseres Gründers c.854
The (Kaiser-Class Battleship: Historia), Off The East Coast of Continental Marley, the Indische Ocean
"Found you, bastards."
Rita was loathe to admit it, but she envied Marley's naval might.
Maybe not the ships themselves, since, if what the Kaiser-Consort had passed along rang true, were actually somewhat outdated compared to the navies of other nations, but the sheer amount of battleships that Marley could bring to bear. At the very least, the Mid-Easterners had done her the favor of whittling that amount down to a smaller force that she could actually face in open battle, but…
Are we ready for this?
In the back of her head, she still worried. Rita wasn't actually sure if she could hold them here, and she shuddered to think of what would occur if she did not. At the very least, should she fail here, Mathias would live on, and hopefully see to the defense of Paradis.
Her orders from the Queen-Founder had been, for an invasion as complex as the one they were executing, rather simple in hindsight- the Großadmiral had been told to ensure that Eldia's supply convoys from the Home Island continued unmolested, and to ensure the safety of the Home Island itself.
Hence, her being here, somewhere off Marley's coast, having chosen here because of its position close to another port-city. Her presence meant that whoever was in command of the enemy fleet would have little choice but to engage her in battle, lest Rita decide to sail her ships into said harbour and shell the city from the sea.
The Großadmiral had rather hoped it wouldn't come to that, and her hopes had been granted when one of her forward scout ships had sent word that Marleyan battleships were headed up their way, and she had grinned. It had, admittedly, been quite a boring wait, made even more so since her betrothed and Vizeadmiral had been stationed elsewhere with the other half of the fleet. Rita was not one to indulge in idleness, and the coming battle would be a much needed break from her monotony.
She grinned.
The sea breeze, ever present and salt, stung her cheeks. The sky was a bright blue, the sun blazing overhead. And, to the south of her, the enemy bore down on the fleet with the intention of smashing them to pieces.
Let them try, the Harsh Mistress thought, before turning away from the sight and headed to the bridge. Let them try.
Rita had been given her orders from God herself, and let it never be said that she was one to shirk divine duty. Marley's fleet would go no further than here, no matter how many times that tried to do so. She would see to that.
"All hands," she announced upon reaching the bridge, predatory grin on her face, "battle stations."
Were she the Feldmarschall, maybe she would have given them a speech. Where she the Queen Founder, she would have endowed all the men and women serving in her fleet with an unshakable will, unending morale.
Rita was none of those, and her marines knew that.
Maybe that was why they responded with an anticipatory cheer when the command went through. For better or worse, Marley's naval might was here.
And she meant to run them aground.
"The Battle of Esterozean began at eleven-o-three, just before noon, when the foremost battleships of the Kaiserliche Eldianische Marine presented their broadsides and fired their first salvos in the direction of the approaching Überozeanflotte, to little effect, seeing as said fleet was mostly out of range at the time. In the defense of Rita Iglehaut and the premature firing, the engagement was her first at sea, and indeed, her first against an enemy navy at that. Any and all practice she'd had in naval she had received had been on the great lakes of Paradis, where the inland shipyards of the Kingdom lay, and for good reason- it would have done Eldia no good to risk showing their hand to the occasional Marleyan survey ship sent to the island. In any case, Großadmiral Iglehaut's conduct is to be commended, and was later commended by the Queen-Founder and King-Consort several weeks after the battle occurred.
On the opposing side, however, Christoff Straus, Hochadmiral of the Überozeanflotte, was quite the opposite of his opponent- his military rank having been originally simply a political play, allowing him to climb the rungs of the government and worm his way into the Oberkommando. In truth, until the War in the East, Christoff had been as untested in true naval combat as his Eldian counterpart had, only gaining true experience from the aforementioned War, in which he clashed with, and lost to, the naval forces of the Mid-East Alliance many times before a stroke of luck and sheer numbers saw the way to Vatalnar and Port Slava cleared. It was in an ironic reverse that he would now have to clear the way back up from Vatanlar. Christoff knew this, and groused at the realization.
Yet, the Marleyan had little choice but to forge ahead, regardless of his feelings- the Eldian fleet surely was not moving from its rather defensive position, and, indeed, they had no need too, their goal only being to defend the supply lines that kept Operation Rückeroberung alive. The Marleyans, on the other hand, had the task of breaking through the Eldian defensive to pave the way for the planned Paradis Island Operation that had been hastily drawn up by the Oberkommando cabinet upon their return to Osternau.
Unfortunately for the Hochadmiral, Marley's negligence of their naval forces had at last caught up to them- for, as it would later turn out, the guns that Marley's battleships could bring to bear against the Eldians were found lacking in the… oomph they provided, one could say.
In a twist none expected, the guns of the Kaiserliche Eldianische Marine could out-punch those of Marley.
Upon realizing that bit of information, Rita Iglehaut wasted no time in ordering the remainder of her ships present their broadsides and fire their salvos as well- and that they did, this time to great effect, and great woe of Marley.
As it happened, the munitions Eldia employed upon their battleships were made of unzerbrechlich-stahl, or ultra-hard steel, which was best known on Paradis for its properties in scything down Titanflesh like hot knives through butter. A metal that had long since been the staple in the manufacturing of the Neo Eldian Empire's military machines
In short, the armor that the Marleyan battleships came with stood no chance.
Five of the Überozeanflotte's ships were fatally crippled and two outright sunken before the Marleyan Hochadmiral came to the (correct) conclusion that numbers would not win him the day, and in a seething disgrace that had grown all-too familiar to him during the War in the East, the Überozeanflotte disengaged and withdrew from the field, laying anchor in the port-city of Carway, prepared to defend it from an Eldian incursion that would never come- at least, for that day.
The battle had lasted the better part of the day, and had seen the outcome firmly on the side of Paradis, despite the casualties taken by Großadmiral Iglehaut's fleet, the first true Eldian casualties of the war, too far from the all-powerful eyes of their god to be prevented.
With their objective having been completed for the nonce, the Großadmiral's battle group weighed anchor, choosing to remain indefinitely at sea rather than risk anchoring at a port and allowing the Marleyan ships the chance to slip by unnoticed…"
-Harsh Mistress of the Sea: the Naval Campaigns of Resurgent Eldia (c.904), by Eric Patterson
Jahr Unseres Gründers c.854
Qing Province, Coastal Manzhōu
"TENOHEIKA BANZAI!"
The Shogun's cry seemed to echo alone across the hills but for a moment before all the might of Hizuru took up the cry.
Hundreds upon thousands of men and women, sons and daughters of the Hasegawa Bakufu and the Hizurese Empire alike, raised their weapons to the sky with a great, furious roar that shook the very earth, herself included.
Mikasa Akkaman had not thought to be here, ten years ago.
Then again, more things had happened in the last decade on Paradis than in the last century, she was certain, and the girl of then was vastly different that the soldier of now. A ten-year old Mikasa would not have found herself joining in warcries in a tongue she barely spoke, half a world away from home.
A nineteen-year old Mikasa would, did, and relished the tingle of anticipation that it brought. The sōdogādo-blood running through her veins sang in anticipation of the coming battle, and Mikasa refined that anticipation into determination, focus. To let her blood run hot and wild was a temperament that would only lead to death. (Not that it had ever stopped Eren before.)
But... she digressed
Her monarchs had ordered her to be here, half a world away from the land Mikasa called home, so she would do as commanded.
Her friends had asked her to stay safe and come back, and she had every desire to do so.
Her family had asked her to live, and Mikasa had no intention on dying today.
For them, I will survive.
And then, for the first time since the Manchurese Invasion of the Isles, the Shogun charged, blade drawn and banner fluttering in the wind, and twenty-thousand mounted retainers followed with blades and banners of their own, the thundering hooves of their mounts drowning out all her thoughts-
-all but one. The old Hizurese adage that she, in an irony Mikasa had not appreciated ten years ago, had learned from the one who saved her, who had given her the drive to continue living for a world that was as cruel as it was beautiful.
If we win, we live. If we lose, we die. If we don't fight, we can't win.
She had no banner of her owner own, a red scarf flying a crimson trail behind her in its stead, for despite her blood, despite her parentage she was an Eldian soldier first, a member of the 104th. Yet, even so, Mikasa raised her own blades high, following her relatives under the banners of the Bakufu.
Paradis would always be Mikasa's home, but she was proud of her mother's blood, and the lands for her ancestors. Her mother had wanted Mikasa to see them, and she had. She wished for her children to one day the same.
For that, she would have to live. For that, she would have to win.
For that, she would need to fight.
"TATAKE!"
And fight is what she would do.
A/N: So, uh.
I have no idea how to write naval battles.
Come to think it, the fics I've read have basically no naval battles in this time period, which meant I had nothing to base this on. Which is why this took me so long to get this out, I guess. I also needed to figure what kind of format I was going to write it in, hence the change. Consider it an experiment for later events. On the bright side, it's not the first time I've written in that style, which means I'm not doing this blindly, but it's been a while.
(I've also been working on this AU's extended lore so I don't accidently write myself into a corner, but that's a different story. The Wiki's looking better, at least.)
And, hey, a Mikasa POV. Bet you guys thought I forgot about her, huh? Maybe you'll get the answers you seek about that in the next chapter, because we're going back to the Orient.
Until next time.