A History (Part III)
Despite the domestic economy of Erusea was on the verge of a runaway total collapse, but Salty Lake Airbase — where Dr. Schroeder's gang was conducting their researches — located in the center of a scorching desert — was generally unaffected. For under the dictatorship of Grey Men and Young Turks, no matter how civilians were suffering from deficits of food and medicine, even the rationed daily salt, Salty Lake was always well-stocked with supplies, even had grape wines for dinners. Of course doc knew such prerogative would be short, so he treated Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage like a slave to have his projects completed ASAP, threatening to mistreat his granddaughters if he didn't submit to his demands. Nobody likes having his/her relatives/friends being held hostages, especially this Mihaly guy who was supposed to be an archduke to reign his own land, but what he could do? Burn doc's toast? So he vented his anger to Osean pilots encountered in sorties, and deliberately toyed with the prey before killing for maximizing the satisfactory, until being humiliated by Trigger over Chopinburg and escaping back to base with a HVAA jabbed in his ass. Nobody likes humiliation, especially this Mihaly guy who was supposed to be an archduke to reign his own land, but what he could do? Burn Trigger's toast? Since then he was obsessed in settling a personal score with Trigger, instead almost got himself settled over Yinshi Valley, finally reunited with his deceased ancestors after losing his head above Farbanti.
Hours after the conquest of Farbanti, Osea sacked and incinerated the city as a fine example of Osean population's opinion toward backstabbers, then mounted a raid to Salty Lake. Only light resistances were met, completely comprised by automated defenses of drones, since Schroeder and his followers had already fled to the ISEV with the fruitions of their projects. Further investigation in the base revealed a scene of massacre, carried out by Grey Men before making their escape, to cover what they were working on. Hundreds of dead Eruseans, majority of them was shot, some were barbequed in groups by flamethrowers in narrow spaces like cramped rooms. Ionela and Alma, granddaughters of Mihaly's, didn't survive the onslaught, for being found frozen crisp in a coolant pool, sadly even after submitting himself to be treated like a slave to do all the deeds demanded by the conspirators, the old bastard still couldn't save his offspring. But seriously, you really believe Grey Men would keep their promises? Worse still (or better still), autopsy and fragments of salvaged security surveillance footage clearly shown the girls, along with many female base personnel not a part of Grey Men, were raped by the males of these disgraced ex-Belkans, before being killed. Apparently Grey Men thought Eruseans should "pay something extra, something more real" for being helped by them to build the drones. Don't be so surprised, since Qui-Gon Jinn told Jar Jar Binks "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent", then a barbarian is still a barbarian even dressing civilly. During the ending days of Belkan War, many high-ranking members in the extreme-right-wing government raped their maids or female secretaries, before escaping abroad or committing suicide, some females even actively sought sex from males they came cross — the principality they knew was dying, why should they keep their lives and chastity for another day? Quite a mirroring of the final days of Nazi Germany in the real-world.
As for Dr. Schroeder and his henchmen, they were all but wiped out during the final attack on the space elevator, leaving only doctor himself captured alive for interrogation — he was quite a stubborn one, however Osea had ways to pry his mouth open — injecting heroin into his veins and waiting for the withdrawal syndrome to take effect. Stubborn this SOB was, still no match for both the acute physiological and psychological sufferings, therefore he succumbed and confessed anything he knew for another dose of the drug. After squeezing out every last bit of useful information from him, Schroeder was tossed into deep woods and was allowed to have a head start, with some vicious wolfhounds going after him, he didn't make very far before being caught up in the chase.
When Erusean population was preparing to contend for their collective Darwin Award, a few individuals, very few but do existed, were able to possess sufficient retinal cells and brain-matter to see the one-way track of chronic self-destruction and tried to shy themselves away from it. Among them was Matias Torres. He was a talented commanding officer and was once a hardline hawk-figure, but after witnessing ISAF royally steamrolled his fatherland to first-class disability, when serving as the captain of FEN (Federal Erusean Navy) Tanager, flagship of the Aegir Fleet, he became more and more weary to the granitic policies employed by Erusea through the years, subsequently went hiding to escape Free Erusea's headhunting and therefore avoided being subjected to the gas chamber of ISAF Military Court after Operation Katina. Resurfacing as a heroic veteran, Torres was later appointed in Royal Naval Academy by the reformed Erusean Royal Navy as an instructor to foster new officers for supplementing the decimated ranks, but soon was relieved from the post for during the short career of teaching, he smuggled many "private contrabands" — namely the idea of "War does not make anyone great" — into his classes, even got himself under house arrest for that.
However house arrest might turned out to be a fortune. Having little things to do besides eating, sleeping, playing Silent Hunt, ACE Combat and Project Wingman, Torres spend most of his time in reading, especially histories of the various nations influencing the world. As Erusea and Osea were getting closer, he correspondingly shifted the focus to the latter, in an attempt to figure out what made Osean Federation the leading superpower. Of course it's (almost) impossible for a mortal to get the full picture, as for Torres himself, the conclusion he came up was "adaptiveness" — always sheds skin and changes form to cope with the ever-varying situations, an uncanny capability almost like cheating. He also summarized a few causes behind it, after some further studying:
Firstly, the term "federation" is merely de jure, Osea is a de facto "pseudo-hivemind", highly centralized even judged by the standard of unitary states, what the central government thinks, local governments do. Correspondingly instead of so-called "Civilian Control of the Military", Osea military is remained under strict control of its supreme ruling body, ready to implement its decrees anytime and anywhere with any means necessary, direct violence included. The best evidence is when COVID-2018 hit, Oured ordered "seal off blocks, districts and cities where infections are detected", "put on breathing masks and cease all gatherings", "halt all non-essential traffics", locals immediately responded "Yes sir!" instead of asking "Why?", military, militias and armed police forces also dashed into actions for wartime enforcement and for the quick execution of further anti-epidemic measures like constructing isolation hospitals and full-scale viral nucleic acid testing. So Osean Federation was the first sovereignty be able to successfully get rid of the epidemic from its own territories, followed by Union of Yuktobanian Republics, the rival superpower who adopts similar ways of governing.
Secondly, Osean bureaucracy is unique. In majority of nations of republicanism, local governors are elected locally to directly represent local population, but in Osea, official of all levels are elected locally in the first place, then are gathered to the capital to attend the specialized academies established by the central government for extensive educations and trainings. After graduation, each of them will be assigned to different posts across the country, according to the assessments of their capabilities and specialties, they will start their careers from the basic level and will gradually get promotions as the experiences build up. A heritage inherited from Imperial Osea or "Osean Empire", thus making the entire bureaucracy "inner circle" of the supreme ruling body, so local governors will give up squabbling for tiny percentages in favor of the bigger betterment — namely the interest of the nation. Once again, Yuktobania has something akin.
Thirdly, instead of leaving the grass-roots to self-governing, Osean bureaucracy spares no expense to extend and cultivate its influence into the masses, a policy no other countries ever thought of. Officers of administration and public security frequently visit and interview local residents, to understand what they're thinking, what they want, also to solve the conflicts between different individuals/families/communities; meanwhile what the central and regional governments are doing or going to do, how and why, are also passed and explained to the public via same channels. Communication is vital, a good two-way exchange of information ensures a good coordination, plus a good control (so Osea is the only sovereignty be able to successfully outlaw drugs, casinos and prostitution, also to virtually purge these evil embodiments from its territories, an accomplishment even Yuktobania is incapable of achieving).
Fourthly, Osean society encourages citizens to progress, since it doesn't champion, or at least doesn't completely champion the idea of so-called "natural rights". Freedom and equality are not to be taken for granted, each Ocean must prove his/her worth to get the rights he/she wants to enjoy, via making contributions to the society, regardless ethnics, genders, age, birthplaces. Another historical heritage since Osea was originated from a tribe bore the same name millennia ago, who made a living by semi-nomad and semi-cultivation, in northern steppes of Osean Continent ("Osea" means "grand river" or "galaxy" in its ancient language), and was constantly engaged in conflicts with neighboring tribes and vassals, so traditional aristocracies were rejected, instead one's social position was determined by how big the contribution was made, namely headcount of the enemies he eliminated, for on battlefields everyone was on the equal footing, fighting under the same conditions, the only rules of engagement were to kill and to survive for killing more on another day.
In short, while most of the modern sovereignties are decentralized and are irrationally seeking so-called "democracy", "equality", "freedom", Osean Federation keeps pursuing the opposite, saving the time of voting, debating, demonstrating for taking real actions, resulting the entire nation capable of being commanded like commanding one single person, thus can react and adapt way faster when a storm arises, and to utilize all resources, material and human, to the maximum capacities. Many other countries accuse Osea for authoritarianism even totalitarianism, but they're actually extremely jealous of its success, a typical case of Sour Grapes.
Fascinated by his findings, Torres strongly opposed to wage a war against Osea that vastly larger and stronger than ISAF, knowing the outcome would be way more devastating than the previous war. But the Lighthouse War broke out nevertheless, call it destiny or otherwise. Several Torres' civilian friends who happened to be smart, were fleeing the country, and offered him a chance to take flight altogether. Torres declined their kindness, despite being mad about the unimaginable foolishness in Farbanti, he still upheld his loyalty as an Erusean military officer, just like Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind — as the smartest male in the bunch, Butler explicitly pointed out how American Civil War would end, but he still chose to fight for the Confederate's last stand when the Union was closing in.
Almost like a rerun of the Belkan War, in weeks the situation totally tipped against Erusea, and kept degenerating with each passing day. Torres didn't wait for long before getting his active service back — this time was the captain of REN (Royal Erusean Navy) Alicorn, the colossal nuclear-powered submerging carrier purchased from Yuktobania as a pile of scrap, since its country of origin had canceled the project of R&D as an act of honoring the strategic arms reduction treaty. Spending years to retrofit the vessel, it was completed just as Erusea was physically cut off from the rest of the world by Osea, and was captained by Torres and crewed by his handpicked personnel — his old students and old subordinates who survived the Second Continental War and Operation Katina. Initially Torres suggested to utilize the sub's capacity, speed and low-observability to smuggle much-needed goods into Erusea, even stating he could complete at least three blockade-runs per week, but such an astute idea fell to a deaf ear.
Too disillusioned, Torres made his decision of going rogue to give Osea troubles by his own way — slipping though the blockade and heading to a position where Alicorn can fire its main cannons to Osean territories. Entire crew was willing to follow their captain, and was willing to use any means to ensure the success. In a few days, operatives dispatched by Torres secretly accumulated all materials necessary for the "final voyage", from every military or civilian party they could come cross, via commandeering, deceiving, stealing, robbery, assassination, even plundering the Anchorhead Nuclear Powerplant, the largest nuclear powerplant in Usean Continent also a joint construction of Osea and Erusea when they were still friends, for weapon-grade nuclear fuel, to compensate the demand unfulfillable by Port Artiglio's local productivity — where the sub was kept under maintenance. The captain himself also fabricated fake orders to get Alicorn out of the port unsuspectedly.
Just a couple of days before the OADF Spare Squadron's raid, Alicorn left Port Artiglio without triggering any suspicions, and Farbanti, although held the data of the sub's acoustic, magnetic and thermal signatures, didn't mount any operations to track it down and take it back, for no resources to do so and a rough super-submarine would do more damage to Osea than to Erusea. Torres must know this too, or he wouldn't dare such a stunt, he also knew sailing directly to a crushingly superior enemy's anti-sub network would be utterly unwise — the vessel and its crew would be doomed anyways, after firing dirty shells — manufactured onboard — to Osea, but even a suicide must be committed smartly. So he ordered Alicorn to take the long route, straight to south to the coast of Antarctica, then turned east to enter southern Pacific Ocean, by moving along Antarctic shores and bypassing Usean Continent and Verusan Continent, for attacking Osea from behind. A foolproof plan, indeed, even firing main cannons to Osean territories somehow becomes impossible by some unanticipated factors, options of firing to neighboring countries, especially those who allied with Osea, still available, to turn the international society against the superpower.
But Torres never expected his fatherland to be this incompetent: Forgetting to destroy the files containing the characteristics of Alicorn's traces before Osea taking over the capital, resulting the premature detection of his vessel and an ensuing skirmish against the coalition fleet of Osea and Yuktobania, plus the LRRSG with Trigger — also known as the hyper-enthusiastic ultra-efficient Erusean-exterminator.
Unknown Region
December 31st 2019, 06:10
【Background Music: Awakening】
【Extracted from Video Game "ACE Combat 7: Skies Unknown"】
The second wave of VL-ASROC arrives with a changed tactic — being spread to ensure some of the payloads can enter the water. Alicorn also changes its countermeasures accordingly — firing Helios Missiles in a spread-out manner, ordering UCAV to shoot, even ram those parachuting torpedoes happen to slip through.
However the factor of LRRSG is tipping the balance, by shooting down enemy drones, a handful of torpedoes successfully sink into the sea and initiated their kamikaze run toward Alicorn, which is too bulky for evasive maneuvers to be practical. But Alicorn still has one trick in sleeves — anti-torpedo countermeasures — standard equipment for every military sub, and for a super-sub such gadgets can be deployed in an enormous quantity, even enough to form a "wall".
"No impact." Long Caster reports: "Preparing the next wave."
Bandog: "Keep pressing on."
Alicorn launches cruise missiles to the coalition fleet again, added with SAM to LRSSG. But the electromagnetic fields generated by LRSSG-associated EW drones deflect hostile missiles while buffing friendly missiles.
The third wave, not only parachute-attached torpedoes, also depth charges; and not only from ships, also from anti-sub planes. One needle penetrating the net, the idea of super-saturation attack — only needs one round to get through the defenses, then it will be the second, and the third…eventually the target will be sufficiently damaged.
"Confirm the first hit." Bandog triggers cheers among allies.
Count: "Hitting the propulsion system or the hull?" He glances at the counter indicates the number of impacts needed to force the sub out of water — still zero: "Guess not a valid one."
"Doesn't matter." Says Long Caster: "We've got abundant ammunition to play with it, if it's starving for more, we will force-feed it with more than it can take."
Two fists can't block four hands, a tiger is unable to fight off a wolf pack. A submerging mega-stronghold Alicorn is, yet still in disadvantage when facing too many ordnance-tossing, skilled and experienced enemies who come with a planned tactic. The fourth wave brings more impacts of anti-sub munitions, everyone in LRSSG is satisfied to see the counter is no longer zero and is slowing going up. Of course there's still a long way to go, but time is not on Alicorn's side.
Bandog: "Massive explosions in water, looks we hurt it badly this time."
Wiseman: "Gotta give credits, taking so much abuse yet still kicking."
"Well, it's supposed to be this durable, that's one of its fundamental requirements of design." Count points out an objective truth. A (military) submarine's primary value is to hide, and it's almost ascertained to be doomed once detected, so when designing Alicorn-Class, or more precisely "Super-Scinfaxi-Class", Yuktobanian Navy made the vessel to be even more ridiculously armed and armored — "Nobody knows I'm here if I kill them all" — logically it's correct.
【Background Music Stops】
【Background Music: Sideshow】
【Extracted from Video Game "ACE Combat 7: Skies Unknown"】
After several dozens of underwater explosions, the speed of Alicorn's signal's movement begins to slow down. It once attempted to go deeper to evade anti-sub attacks by exploiting the exceptional sturdiness of its structure, but obviously the torpedoes and depth charges, tossed and dropped by planes and ships of Osea and Yuktobania, are also hardened enough to cope with the extra pressure of additional depth.
There's no escape. The super-sub only can "try" to avoid being hit as best as it can, via limited evasive maneuvers and constant deployment of anti-torpedo countermeasures. But no matter how hard it tries, the super-saturation attacks from all directions just keep coming and pounding. Sure, its hull is impregnable, but as aforementioned in the briefing, the propulsion system is vulnerable, even Alicorn's crew is among the most capable ones on this planet, led by one of the best captains worldwide, and are acting accordingly in damage-controlling and damage-reversing, but ultimately unable to keep up with the ever building-up damnification.
"Emergency venting of ballast tanks. It's surfacing." Bandog announces and triggers even more cheers.
Wiseman immediately orders: "All LRSSG units, prepare for fierce attacks from both sub-launched airborne vehicles and sub-based anti-air emplacements, especially railguns."
Húxiān: "Finally sharky, come to mama."
Long Caster: "And to Papa Joe's All American Diner. My kind of dive."
"Too much fried chips, burgers and milkshakes are bad for you." Count chuckles: "You will get stuck in your chair like William Howard Taft."
"He was stuck in a bathtub." The food-addicted AWACS corrects Count.
"Even worse. A chair and a bathtub, which one is wider?"
"Ouch."
"Cease VL-ASROC volleys and call back all anti-sub aircraft." Dozens of miles away, inside the bridge of OFS Kestrel II, flagship of the coalition fleet, the captain issues his command: "Move the operation to the next phase." The XO nods and goes to spread the words.
Meanwhile, everyone in LRSSG watches as a looming, colossal shadow is getting clearer and clearer under the sea level, looks like a gigantic whale but it's not. Sudden billows of mountain-sizes, the leviathan breaches the surface as if being suffocated for too long and is dying for a breath.
"I thought Akula-Class (Typhoon-Class) was big, until meeting Scinfaxi-Class, now Scinfaxi-Class is merely a boy's toy." Mused by Jaeger: "Definitely to tell my son about this." He's right, compare with the crazy size of Alicorn, fighters of LRRSG are like seagulls circling around.
Lanza sighs: "Shame, it would be a great asset. Can't we figure out a way to capture it or something?"
Wiseman: "Oured makes the call. No matter it will join us or die, stay frosty. I want everyone goes home for a happy new year."
Gotta give credits to Torres and his subordinates when it's due, since even before the massive submarine levels itself, the powerful jammers onboard are already activated to give Osean fighters a hard time; and just as the vessel lies flat, fighters and more UCAV are launched immediately to make Oseans' time even harder, not to mention the destructive metals pouring out from defensive emplacements, plus the quickly charging batteries of Tier 0.5 Scale 2.0 railguns.
Alicorn is not going to go down without a fight, and Osean Federation never expects to take it down without a fight. Warriors to warriors, let strength, courage and tactics to decide which side will prevail.
【Background Music Stops】