Hello there enjoy the chapter everyone
Thank you to Killroy122496 for his help with the story
A long time of Peace causes most weapons to become blunt
Chapter 28: Time of Peace?
Akeno had not been happy about the fact she had to attack the fleet of ships as for some reason the Admiral and one of the captains under his command looked almost like her two dead brothers however to rescue Shirayuri she did so anyway after she failed to convince the admiral about a peaceful resolution.
Now with Shirayuri still asleep Akeno tried to calm down as the fleet was heading back home with several of the ships needing some repairs as the Blue Mermaid fleet had gotten a few hits in on Akenos fleet as well but overall Akeno lost fewer ships unlike the task force.
But that was something that was bothering Akeno quite a bit as a fleet that large was not common unless of course the worlds security council called for the creation of such a fleet to accomplish something the normal patrol groups were unable to handle.
"Seems like they finally realize what kind of threat we are huh" Akeno mumbled as she sat on the bridge roof of the Tsukuba but for whatever reason her personal battleship had yet to change back to its normal look as it was still glowing with dark orange lines and symbols although the ship itself was slowly turning back to the white steel like plating everywhere else.
Although it had been five days since the battle Akeno still couldn't let her guard down enough to even slightly relax as Shirayuri had still not woken up even though there were no injuries visible on her body and just to make sure Akeno also checked Shirayuris blood which had no foreign nor harmful substances in it leaving only one real option about what happened to her sister.
But if that was the case then it still made very little sense that Shirayuri was still asleep unless the ritual had been interrupted "Guess I will just have to wait and see" Akeno sighed as she checked on Shirayuri again before returning to her own room to get some rest as the large scale battle had taken its toll on her once again.
Onboard a Boeing 747 over Russia a week after the battle:
The plane was very important seeing as several Russian jet fighters were escorting it and you would be correct seeing as onboard was a group of state leaders and their families they all were heading towards the same destination however that being Tokyo in Japan for a conference about the ongoing crisis and threat of the Rising sun fleet.
The reason for this conference was simple seeing as about two weeks ago the Task force fleet Roaring Thunder that was sent out to defeat the Rising sun fleet had returned however not with the victory the Security Council had hoped for.
Many had been shocked by the extent of damage the fleet had taken and of course there were several ships that didn't return to port at all although the battle must have been brutal not a single sailor lost their life even with several ships getting sunk during the battle.
However neither the Admiral in command of the fleet nor his second in command had given a full report yet instead they had called for this conference where they would give their full report to the world leaders but their reason for doing so was still unknown.
In one of the first class suites rested a group of four with a young man and woman sitting on a couch as well as a girl and boy sitting on two chairs on the other side of the table that had tea as well as a few scones on it.
The young girl was the youngest of the group however she was a child of the royal family of Britain Shoukaku Yuna Cunningham of Wales is a Caucasian British-Japanese female with long silver white hair in a hime cut and heterochromia eyes with her left eye being a silver blue and her right eye being a golden amber.
She wears a golden forehead tiara with a white encrusted diamond in the center and on her forehead, a white and black ornate robe with crane wings on the sleeves, a white Kitsune kabuki mask around her neck, a long sleeved red and white shirt with pink cherry blossoms going down the center of her shirt underneath the robe, a white obi belt around her waist with a pink cherry blossom tree and a white and black crane in the middle, red and black hakama trousers decorated with white and pink sakura flowers, jade green beads, and yellow sun and white moon symbols, a white sock stocking on her left leg and a black sock stocking on her right leg underneath the trousers, and brown geta sandals.
What not many people were aware of was the fact that Shoukaku Yuna Cunningham of Wales was adopted into the royal family but with the attention of the public concentrating on the death of the previous King and Queen of England it was rather easy for the royal family to hide this fact from the world.
The boy sitting to Shoukaku's left was the seventeen year old Prince James Arthur Cunningham of Wales her older brother however unlike his parents and sister James had very little interest in politics and planned to inherit the Jonathan Wales Ship Manufacturing and Building Corporation as he had been working for a couple of years at a shipyard under a different name before returning to the royal family.
That time had been good for the young prince as he had become more and more of an embarrassment to the royal family after his parents became King and Queen his ego inflated dangerously and he hung out with the wrong kind of friends that is until he had been set straight by their grandfather John Macarthur who was the current head and owner of the Jonathan Wales Ship Manufacturing and Building Corporation.
James is a Caucasian British male with shoulder length golden blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes. He wears a golden crown with a white pearl in the center and atop of his forehead, a white and red shoulder cape over his left shoulder with the British flag in the center, a black and white dress shirt, two ornate black fingerless gloves on both hands, dark black formal trouser, and steel-toed black formal shoes.
"Sister I do have to admit that your interest about this matter of the unknown fleet is a little worrisome is there a reason for this?" James asked as he slowly sipped his tea.
Shoukaku set her own cup down before looking at her older brother "I cannot truly explain it to you either brother but for whatever reason I feel like this fleet of ships is connected to my blood family" Shoukaku's answer getting the attention of their parents.
King Johnathan Williams Cunningham of Wales was a twenty seven year old Caucasian British male with shoulder length golden blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes.
He wears a silver crown with a blue sapphire in the center atop of his head, a dark black suit with two separate coattails, a dark black vest and white formal shirt underneath the suit, two ornate white gloves on both hands, dark black formal trouser, and black formal shoes.
"I have to agree with your brother on this Shoukaku if this strange fleet has something to do with your real family then it is understandable just try to not place your trust in the wrong people" Jonathan warned his daughter as he remembered the stormy night he found the girl in his sons room.
Queen Catherine Rose Cunningham of Wales had to giggle a bit at the antics of her children as she sipped her tea before holding the cup at eye level "I hope you will find out who your real family is but know that even if you find them you will always have a place in our hearts Shoukaku" Catherine spoke her voice soothing to the heart as Shoukaku nodded once before they returned to drinking tea with each other while talking about everything but what might wait for them at the conference.
In Tokyo twenty days after the battle:
Aito Nagisa Misaki and Kaito Akemi Misaki had been trying to rest as much as they could while also collecting all of the reports from the crews miraculously not a single person died during the battle despite the heavy damage some ships had taken while others had sunk completely.
"This is some real BS they´ve sent us into" Kaito grumbled as he tipped away on his computer trying to organize the camera footage they got from the battle "I agree with you there but I still have a bad feeling about all of this" Aito replied as he closed several open folders before stacking them in a box.
For several minutes the two brothers just worked in silence until Kaito found footage of the strange winged being onboard his ship "We better be careful with this" Kaito mumbled as he turned the screen towards Aito so he could see.
"Yes I do not know why but this whole incident feels like a set up as if someone wanted us to encounter this fleet and attack it knowing full well that we would not stand a chance" Aito mumbled as he continued to read through damage reports of the fleet until he came to the report about his own ship the Yonaga.
Aito was not surprised that his ship needed extensive repairs however on the second page of the report he found two pictures "Kaito I think you should see this" Aito mumbled as he read the report before handing it to Kaito to read.
Kaito took just over a minute to read the whole thing before he stared at the two pictures "Are they absolutely sure about these facts?" Kaito asked as he dropped the report on the desk.
Aito simply nodded at that causing Kaito to drop into his chair with a hand over his eyes "That explains why we only have a lot of wounded instead of a massive funeral huh" Kaito mumbled as he looked at the ceiling of the room.
Kaito nodded to his younger brother as he took two brown bottles from the mini fridge "Even though they warned us we still attacked and even though we did that they still held back this much" Kaito mumbled as he took the beer his brother offered him before they headed to the balcony where the two brothers stayed silent as they drank their beer while the report about the shells the enemy used sat silently on the desk.
Tokyo the day of the conference:
It had been a massive hassle for the security as the conference was to be kept quiet from the eyes of the public however somehow the organizers had managed to do exactly that.
With the politicians of over seventy countries in one room it became necessary to provide real time translation but the two people everyone else was waiting for had yet to arrive but then someone stepped forward to the podium in the middle of the massive round domelike room.
"Ladies and Gentlemen please take your seats we will be explaining everything in a few moments thank you" the young man spoke before stepping away from the microphone.
The shuffling of seats and feet came to a stop about five minutes later as the young man stepped back up to the podium with another one that was wearing a traditional admiral's outfit of the Blue Mermaids.
"Admiral Aito Nagisa Misaki you have the floor" the announcer called from a raised platform behind the podium getting a simply nod from the young admiral as an answer.
"Good evening everyone I wish I was bringing back good news however that is the furthest thing from the truth" Aito spoke as the screens inlaid in the desks of every seat turned on "Three weeks ago my fleet of almost seventy ships attacked a carrier fleet" Aito explained several pictures of his fleet showing up on the screens "During this battle we managed to board a badly damaged battlecruiser and captured the captain of the ship however she was unconscious the entire time she was in our custody even though we found her unharmed" Aito explained but before he could continued someone else spoke up.
"If you will excuse me Admiral but that sounds more like you accomplished something very crucial or am I wrong?" the German president asked but Aito looked directly at her "We did manage that however what followed was the exact opposite" Aito replied as the images on the screen disappeared only to be replaced by pictures of his fleet after the battle.
Aito waited a few minutes before he continued "Not even two days after we captured the captain of the battlecruiser my fleet spotted another surface fleet that we thought might be another one of our enemies so we sent out a scout plane with an escort" Aito explained only to grit his teeth "The moment we had a visual conformation of the fleet all three planes were shot out of the sky by the main battery of an enemy battleship" Aito explained getting several shouts of disbelief from the Politicians.
Despite the noise Aito simply waited until everyone quieted down again before he continued "With the enemies position known I wanted to attack immediately but before I could give the order my fleet encountered an unnatural phenomenon" Aito explained as the massive screen behind him displayed a video now.
"This is recorded footage from the observation deck of the Yonaga please watch before you say or ask anything" Aito added as the video displayed the massive sakura petal storm that his fleet sailed into until they encountered the girl standing on the water.
Aito had expected some sort of outcry but with the silence he spoke up once again "Your eyes are not deceiving you even I can still barely believe what I saw that day despite being there" Aito spoke as the camera view changed to another that showed Aito and the girl speaking with each other with the strange Kitsunes girl still standing on the water.
"The girl I spoke to was nothing more than a messenger asking me to hand over the captain we captured so we may avoid conflict. But before I could make that choice one of my crewmen made that choice for me" Aito said as the video resumed to play.
Everyone present watched as the girl caught the rifle bullet with one hand before dropping it to the deck of the ship before she disappeared "After she was gone a massive air raid attacked my fleet badly damaging two of my carriers as well as sinking six destroyers and two cruisers" Aito paused at that as he remembered what happened right after "We also lost three more destroyers and another cruiser during a submarine attack that followed right after the air raid but we were unsuccessful in our attempts to sink the enemy submarines" as he allowed his words to sink in no one said anything so Aito gave a nod to his brother who changed the video of the air raid to several pictures of aircraft taking off from the remaining three carriers.
"With several of my ships overloaded with the rescued crewmen of the sunk ships I couldn't risk them all so I gave the order for the badly damaged ships to retreat with an escort while I would attack the enemy with the remaining ships. But as we launched towards the enemy surface fleet we got another call over radio that gave us the option to hand over the captured captain without consequences" but before he could continue the princess of Britain interrupted him.
"Admiral why would the enemy give you another chance like that as it seems to me like you had the upper hand at that point" Aito sighed at that as he knew his next few words would make a lot of people very unhappy "We did have the upper hand or so it seemed to us at the time but again the decision was made for me but this time it was one of the Blue mermaids in command of an escort frigate who made the decision over my head" Aito answered causing several groups to start talking in hushed tones.
Aito took a sip of his water before he flipped a page in his report to continue "Had I known what was about to happen I would have released the prisoner immediately but that didn´t happen and of the over two hundred aircraft that launched from my carriers not a single one returned or even came close to the enemy fleet" Aito's voice was even but what he just said caused the room to fall silent.
It stayed like that for several minutes until Aito continued "With the attack aircraft lost I was shocked of course but right as we thought we could still take them with superior numbers we were attacked by the enemies main fleet" Aito explained as Kaito pulled up the footage of how the enemy fleet seemed to appear out of the crimson sakura petal storm before taking Aito's fleet under fire.
Everyone watched as Aito and his fleet tried their best to fight back but the enemy was not just outnumbering them but they also could bring all of their guns to bear "After over two hours of shelling my fleet the enemy managed to take out the two rear turrets of the Yonaga. That was the last straw for me so I ordered the full retreat while the destroyers laid a smokescreen to cover us however we had once again done exactly what the enemy wanted as the submarines attacked us again however their only purpose was to isolate the Yonaga from the rest of the fleet" Aito had to sigh as he knew what was going to happen next.
"With the Yonaga isolated the enemy sent a smaller fleet of sixteen ships to cut us off however instead of sinking us they wanted to bargain with us but their demand had not changed at all. They wanted the captured captain and in return we would not only have the over two hundred and fifty airmen returned to us but for the next five months they would withdraw from the sea completely" that caused several people to gasp as Aito took another sip of his water.
It took a while and the announcers had to call for silence as well before Aito was able to continue "I accepted the deal due to the state my fleet was in we had no hope of beating the enemy so the prisoners of each side were handed over without incident. That is all I have to report on this matter are there any questions?" Aito asked and the screen mounted in the podium displayed the seats as well as marking the ones that wanted to ask something with red.
"Admiral I have to thank you for the report however I do have to ask how did you fail with five modern missile frigates as well as the Yonagas and Iowa's Harpoon missile system on your side" a woman that was part of the American delegation asked but in response Aito simply nodded to his brother.
The video was pulled up on screen displaying exactly what the woman asked about "We did open fire with all of the long range anti ship missiles we had at our disposal however the enemy had a way to counter them" Aito simply said as the video showed the missiles and torpedoes closing in on the enemy only for the strange blue white energy to swat them all out of the sky like bugs.
With the video gone a picture of a partly disassembled missile was shown "thanks to one of our destroyers we were able to analyze what had happened and what I'm about to tell you makes our enemy even more of a threat than they already are. The short version is the enemy has a device onboard their ships that allows them to intercept any kind of projectile that has electronic components in it by causing something similar to an Electromagnetic pulse which leads me to the conclusion that they might be in possession of outlawed weapons such as nuclear warheads and missiles to carry them all over the world" Aito's explanation caused the tension to start rising rapidly in the room.
Aito watched as several people started making calls over their phones "Admiral this question has been bothering me for a while but did you or one of your subordinates comes face to face with the commanding officer of the enemy fleet?" the American president asked his voice sounding a bit stressed.
Aito had to sigh at that as he took a step away from the podium to allow Kaito to take his place again "Hello my name is Kaito Akemi Misaki second in command of the Task force Roaring Thunder and captain of the battleship Yamato which was the second ship that was sent to oversee the prisoner transfer during which I came face to face with something I never wished to see in my life" Kaito spoke as the image of those glaring reptile like red eyes stared into his soul.
Kaito shock his head to get back to the here and now before he pulled up the video feed of how the strange being took the prisoner from them before threatening his two crewmen however as the being turned towards Kaito the video paused "The reason I am pausing this is because of the fact that all high ranking officer of the task force have been ordered to wear a hidden camera with a microphone on them at all times" Kaito explained before pulling up another video.
This one showed the ash grey face and skin of the being as well as its glaring red eyes "We will honor our deal even if with one of you doing something like this" the beings voice seemingly dropping the rooms temperature "But should you try and pull something like this again we will see each other again in the afterlife" the being said before it was suddenly gone.
The conference went on well into the night with various things being discussed including that the enemy had ships with main armament that had the same 510cm guns as the Yonaga which caused many to start looking for a way to stop the unknown fleet without them destroying the planet as the fear of nuclear weapons was still fresh in everyone's minds despite the fact that they had been outlawed over fifty years ago all over the world.
The conference came to one simple conclusion once Task Force Roaring Thunder was back up to full strength they would be further reinforced by student ships but only the fourth and third year student ships were to be called upon unless the crew was onboard a strategically important vessel but the final decision laid with the two Misaki brothers as they would be in total command over the fleet.
Due to the report Aito had given the fleet was going to be under the full command of Aito and his brother that meant that even if a Blue Mermaid was commanding a ship they still had to follow his orders or face the consequences if they disobeyed him.
Aito was however suspicious of the new orders he was given he was to use whatever means necessary to capture as many enemy commanders as possible while also capturing their ships as well but even with those orders Aito still had a strange feeling as if something was going on behind the scenes that he wasn't allowed to see.