Disclaimer: I don't own either of the Code Geass, Gundam Seed or Star wars franchises. This story is not written with commercial purpose in mind. I make no money from it. It is not for sale or rent.

Chapter 7: Drums of war

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Part 3

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12 May 2009 A.T.B.

The Octagon

Pendragon

HBE/Holy Britannian Empire/

Commandant Fontaine walked briskly through the maze-like corridors of the Octagon followed by a small pack of aides overseen by his adjutant. His scowl, which has been a permanent fixture to his face since the day the war began, was enough of a warning to clear him a way. With the ongoing conflict in the Pacific and a threat of the EU entering the war, the primary nerve centre of the Britannian military was packed to bursting with officers and enlisted who did their best to ensure that the Imperial war machine operated without a snag. That monumental task was only made harder by political and now Intelligence entanglements. As he walked, Joan barked a constant string of orders to his aides – requests for information, confirmation of unit transfers, demands that certain formations expedited their preparation to move into the Pacific, politely worded "requests" for the Empire's political masters not to interfere any further in the handling of the war, not so polite requests to OSI, ONI and all other intelligence branches to come clean with all the kinds of vital knowledge they kept too close to their chests...

The Commandant's scowl deepened when he finally reached an elevator that led to an underground level separate from the other subterranean portions of the Octagon. He dismissed the rest of his hanger's on, leaving his overworked adjutant. to deal with them for the time being, nodded at the soldiers guarding the entrance point and stood still as they ran a biometrics check on him before allowing him an entry. When that was done, they proceeded to check for bugs and other such equipment that had no place in where he was going.

Once the inevitable scans were done, the guards finally allowed Fontaine to enter the elevator and soon he was ten levels bellow the surface. A short walk through a plain concrete corridor and he entered a small, well furnished and supposedly utterly secure conference room. An oak round table took most of the space inside. It was surrounded by ten comfortable leather chairs and each seat was placed in front of a built in computer terminal that was a part of a closed secure network that could be accessed only through this place and a single station used to enter up to date intelligence to be used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Fontaine's three most senior colleagues were already inside seated in their preferred chairs. To the left of the entrance sat Chief General Thomas Barney – who was nominally in charge of the Britannian Army. He was the closest to retirement among the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barney was a mountain of a man in his early sixties whose muscles were slowly turning to so much fat despite his best attempts to keep in shape. When Thomas looked up at Joan from where he was seating, light shone from his shaved head – which was most certainly shaved because Barney liked it that way and not because he had been getting balder and balder for the past decade.

"It's good you managed to get away for this meeting, Jo." Thomas' deep voice rumbled across the room. His brown eyes were sympathetic too – everyone present knew who Fontaine met earlier that morning.

"It's good he still has his rank." This came from Fleet Admiral George Nimitz – the man who built Britannia back to a respectable naval power during and after the Pacific War.

"George." Fontaine nodded and got to his own seat. "I'm happy to say that barring a major fuck up I won't be 'retiring' until the war is over. Apparently I've got the Emperor's trust, if not his ear." Joan looked tiredly at the Admiral.

Nimitz's piercing blue eyes stared back. All of them expected that the Emperor would request a change of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at the very least – no matter if the Euros entered the fray or not this war was going to be primary a naval one and George was the one most suited to run it. That in fact was one of the reasons why Fontaine met the Emperor that morning – Li Britannia was not only Army but a junior inexperienced officer thrown into a position where he was obvious over his head. Joan had to give it to the kid – what he did in Indochina was amazing, especially given how much experimental equipment he had to use there. What happened later... if he was honest, while amazing it both should have been impossible and proved the fact that the Prince had no business being theatre commander.

Unfortunately the Emperor didn't agree. He was in fact amused by Fontaine's arguments but at least didn't dismiss him as he feared might happen.

Nimitz rubbed a scarred cheek weathered by years spent at sea, then drew a hand through his greying hair. There were still a few signs showing that once he was a brown haired man, though unless one looked closely, these days all they could see would be a short mop of steel grey hairs.

"Did he at least give you access to whatever secret programs Li Britannia uses to track the Chinese and Japanese?" George asked. He didn't sound particularly happy about the obvious nepotism endangering the most important war Britannia found herself in since the dawn of the century.

Fontaine shook his head in denial. "Not a word. However, the Emperor implied that we won't enjoy the same 'luck' in other theatres of operation any time soon."

The last member of the small group that for all intents and purposes ran the Britannian military scoffed at that information. "The Emperor's aware what will happen if we are unable to secure Japan?" Air Marshal Nimroy Leer asked.

At the tender age of fifty-three he was the youngest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the only one who might see the next decade's end before being forced into retirement. If Britannia won this war anyway. Leer was also the only one of the men with a more exotic hair colour – royal blue of all things, though there was more than enough grey there to underline his age, which wasn't easy to figure out given his youthful features.

"Trust me, he knows." Fontaine sighed. "Apparently that's why went over our heads and put his son in charge of the while theatre of operations. My best guess is that OSI has a few people deep in both the Chinese and Japanese navy able to feed close to real time information about fleet deployments and they're feeding the data directly to Li Britannia to make use of. That certainly pans with the AARs we've got about the naval strikes and engagements he ordered. The Prince flew with the air-strike that took out the Heavenly Dragon CBG and he not only led each raid that softened up the Japanese but was in the air and guided William's Task Force right to the IJN as they concentrated their force in the area to better resist air-attacks."

"That's invaluable information we need for operational planning!" Nimitz snapped. "It would have been nice to know the Japanese had better electronics before Williams found it the hard way!"

"At least our boffins will have the sensor records of that battle soon. A plane carrying them will be arriving in a few hours." The Air Marshal pointed out.

"Speaking about planes..." Barney looked questionably at Leer.

"We got both detailed AARs and sensor records from the air-strike at the Chinese yesterday. My people are going over them with a fine toothed comb. What I can say for certain is that they make as little sense as the preliminary reports we got."

"So a fabrication?" Thomas scowled.

"No. We've got multiple Chinese ships burning and sinking caught on camera – more than enough to conclude that the reported kill counts are reasonably accurate. I still have no idea how they pulled it off though." Leer waved at his naval counterpart. "We've had people war-gaming the battle last night. Absolutely the best outcome we got was sinking a number of Chinese capital ships and damaging the carrier, possibly enough to at least mission kill it for the rest of the war at the cost of every single plane that took part in that battle. That happened once and it was more luck than anything else. My personal guess? We tested some other secret weapons upon the Chinese, probably from the same program that got us the Thors li Britannia deployed. Probably EMP or something else that messed up the Chinese electronics, deployed either by sub that got close enough undetected or more likely the Prince used the fighter force he sent ahead to deal with the carrier air wing as a cover to deploy it."

"And no one deigned to inform us of its existence?" Thomas grumbled.

"That's merely an educated guess. One moment the Chinese were acting as we would expect from a well trained modern navy, then in the next – it was like they couldn't properly see and engage our planes. Nothing we've heard from the Pacific before or after implies that equipment installed on our fighters and bombers was responsible, that includes AARs from our surviving pilots and some discrete inquires with the ground staff that either already evacuated to the Philippines or is still in Indochina." Leer shrugged. "So it was either some kind of secret weapon that li Britannia was tasked with combat testing or we got a genuine divine intervention in our favour." The Air Marshal snorted. "You can guess where I'll put my money on."

Three pairs of eyes focused on Fontaine. "As I already told you, whatever it is, the Emperor doesn't believe it could be deployed to another theatre of operations."

"So it's like the Thors then." Leer nodded. "High tech, hard to manufacture and we'll likely lack the resources to see useful numbers produced until we secure Japan's Sakuradite reserves."

When the Joint Chiefs got briefed on the Thors' expected performance and then got preliminary estimate from intelligence on the damage they caused to the Chinese, they were all elated. That was surely a war-winning weapon by itself.

Then reality ensured – producing the things wasn't easy and required too much highly refined Sakuradite that was also necessary for a great many other things – superconductors that were invaluable in modern military and industrial applications. What was worse, once used in a Thor, that precious resource was lost after the warhead was launched. The same wasn't true for a number of other vital applications, even military, where it could be retrieved and recycled for use.

"In the next four weeks we might get ten or so cruise missile warheads with either another five of those or twenty smaller meant for tactical use if we get lucky with the production process. Apparently we got very lucky with the first batches and we did blew through a painful percentage of our strategic reserve to get that done." The Air Marshal explained. It was another thing they all knew, though repeating it was useful to underscore the point. Capturing Japan was vital for the future of the Empire.

"It's going to be conventional slugging match then. Can we win such a naval war?" The Chief General asked.

"Right now?" Nimitz looked back impassively. "It's possible, however I can't make any guarantees. As you all know, the navy's strategic goal is to be able to engage and defeat both the Euros and the Chinese. Right now we're years from reaching a point where I could say we might be able to do it with any confidence. A fight with the Federation, Japan and the EU is our worst case scenario. The IJN is the fourth largest navy in the world and the most modern – which should be obvious considering that they had to practically rebuild it after the Pacific War. While their order of battle is skewed towards numerous lighter combatants – a lot of frigates and destroyers with much less capital ships than raw numbers would imply, they aren't an enemy to underestimate. We should be able to take on the Chinese and Japanese once we can concentrate the bulk of our Pacific fleet against them. Should mind you – I can't give you better news before we get a better read of the Chinese capabilities, which should happen sometime tomorrow. Essex's CBG is on intercept course with Lu Bei's and unless our Federation friends decide to pull back and avoid battle they'll meet shortly before dusk tonight, local time. The will card is the Euros, especially the Russian Pacific fleet. If they enter the war, the absolutely best we can hope for in the Pacific is a bloody draw..." Nimitz smiled grimly. "Barring the further deployment of any secret weapons that might or might not exist. I've got my contacts with OSI ask pointed questions, I've lit a fire under ONI's collective feet but no one seems to know nothing about what li Britannia's really doing and why was he put in charge."

A short while later it became clear that no one have learned anything new from their contacts, no matter how many favours they were owed and called due. That was both heartening and disturbing – on one hand, whatever secret project li Britannia was obviously part of had simply ridiculously good security. On the other hand, considering what everyone knew happened to his family in the aftermath of Empress Marianne's assassination, put a nasty political spin on the whole affair. Did the Emperor use the murder of his wife as a smokescreen? Would court politics interfere even further with the war?

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Part 4

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12 May 2009 A.T.B.

Emperor's Command and Control bunker

The Forbidden City

Chinese Federation

Ten people stood at attention in front of Emperor Jiang Li, the man who in theory ruled the Chinese Federation. Unfortunately, what most people believed, was at best a creative interpretation of the truth.

Eight of the men, who stood together to his right were the High Eunuchs. They were merely the latest crop of bureaucrats who for all intents and purposes ran China. It could be said that most countries had bureaucracies that made sure they ran properly. In the Chinese Federation however, the bureaucracy had a country. While as Emperor, Jiang had vast powers, they tended to curiously melt to almost nothing when the High Eunuchs decided to oppose him. Even the loyalty of the military wasn't a substantial enough protection against their ploys. The Federation part of the country wasn't exactly a lie. Each of the Eunuchs did control substantial forces that were either loyal to them or had one of the warlords in charge of the different parts of the country in their pocket.

When the Britannian Empire dared set foot in Asia all those years ago, Jiang's predecessor foolishly didn't do his best to kick them out while doing so would have been a much simpler and less bloody affair. In his defence, at that that time the Kingdom of Burma was more of a rival than a satellite. Along with India it was in fact the last major rival they had a land border with, if one didn't count the bear to the north.

The ageing Emperor narrowed his eyes at the people supposed to serve him. A few days ago, his position was stronger – that was before the Navy lost a large part of a Carrier Battle Group to a Britannian air-raid of all things. The worst thing was that no one was really sure how that happened. There were rumours of yet another secret Britannian weapon that damaged that fleet and even effected the crews in ways that were hard to believe. Some were fast to throw the blame at the navy, accusing it of incompetence. Many of the Eunuchs were in that group, though Jiang knew that they didn't really believe that narrative. They knew better – the state of the worst hit crew-members who got air-lifted to the Chinese mainland for evaluation was a proof enough that something happened to them and their fleet. That was simply a convenient excuse for the bastards!

The Emperor had to spent most of the political capital he had left to ensure his realm went to war with the Britannians before they could take Burma and thus gain a reasonably secure invasion corridor into China. As it was, the Federation was surrounded with enemies. India was still being subdued. The Europeans were both to the north and west and with the Britannians to the east, China's situation wasn't great. The Eunuchs knew it too, however they had other plans on how to deal with the threat. Plans that infuriated him... even if they might just work in the fullness of time. If India's population could be assimilated, the Chinese Federation would have more than a third of the world's population under her aegis. Then if the Eunuch's proposal did work, they could have Britannia on their side and eventually overtake it from within.

All Jiang had to do was sacrifice his daughter in a political marriage with Britannia – something he might have considered if someone sane sat on the Britannian throne. With Charles, given the man's policies, any such marriage would see little Lihua dead the moment it became convenient for the Britannians. For the Eunuchs that was an acceptable risk. After all, Jiang had only one child and no other relatives who might prove a rallying point against the bureaucracy. He was reasonably sure that at least half the Eunuchs were looking hopefully to consigning Lihua to a marriage in the Britannian Empire with the rest hoping to use her as a figurehead.

Yet, he had no proof of their true intentions and without it, trying to remove them would at best throw the realm in a civil war. That would have been bad enough before they were fighting the Britannians. Now? His desperate move to check the ambitions of both Charles Zi Britannia and his own bureaucrats tied up his hands.

That fact would only become more apparent if someone could look at the circumstances that allowed Jiang to successfully push for the war. It was only the perceived weakness on the Britannian part that came with the assassination of their Empress and the short lived rebellion in South America that made it all possible.

Jiang scowled. As if an ally that bordered China being invaded wasn't a reason enough to go to war. It was days like these when he loathed his predecessors nearly to the point of apoplexy for allowing the bureaucracy to become so powerful that it practically ran China to serve its own best interests.

The Emperor sighed and turned his tired gaze upon the two military officers. Two of his Warlords who supposedly answered only to him. One of them was bought and paid for by the Eunuchs. The other – Admiral Lian, was one of the few people Jiang could count on, yet the naval defeat reflected bad on him. It was all Li could do to save his old time friend and ally – just barely and that happy state of affairs simply wouldn't persist for long if there was yet another naval disaster.

"Report." It was all Jiang could do to force his voice to sound strong and matter of fact.

"Lu Bei's battle group will engage the Britannian's tonight. We have submarines and recon aircraft in the vicinity ready to observe the battle. The fleet has taken all possible precautions against biological and chemical agents." Lian stated calmly. He certainly didn't sound like a man whose career and possibly life depended on the outcome of the impending battle. "Intelligence shared by our Japanese Allies and confirmed by our agents in Japan indicates that conventionally their navy has capabilities roughly equal to the IJN's and thus our own, however the Britannian Task Force they engaged did have less advanced electronics."

Lian tactfully didn't mention that Japan likely had better electronics than the bulk of the Chinese navy barring the newest ships and those who benefited by the latest round of refits. Another thing no one would mention in this company was that said refit program was prompted by data and technology either bought or stolen by the Japanese.

"More excuses!" Zhao Hao – the largest and... plumpest Eunuch sneered. "It was your people's incompetence that saw us lose so many important assets, not to mention face!"

The Admiral simply looked back impassively, declining to take the bait. "Barring further unforeseen complications, we soon will be able to test the enemy's naval capabilities for ourselves. Considering the rough parity of the forces about to engage in combat, we foresee a bloody engagement. However, we do need to find out if the Britannians do indeed have other unpleasant surprises like their Thor warheads." Lian looked at the Eunuchs. "Has Intelligence been able to gain any more information about those?" He asked.

It was time for the Eunuchs to look uncomfortably. All Chinese intelligence efforts, except a small agency that oversaw the security of the Imperial Family was their responsibility and they did miss something that could very well become a war winning weapon.

"All we have now is unconfirmed rumours that these Thors are Sakuradite based weapon – something confirmed after careful examination of the damaged areas." Xia Wang – the most technocratic of the Eunuchs said. "While at this time we have only preliminary assessments, our scientists find it unlikely that we'll see too many of those weapons in the future. Their best guess is that highly refined Sakuradite was used as a fuel for the warheads and if this is true, the Britannians simply can't afford to make many of them as long as they're at war with Japan."

"Then we have to do our utmost to prevent them from taking our ally's Sakuradite deposits." The Emperor stated the obvious. That was the third and final reason why he pushed for a war with Britannia now. The increasingly antagonistic stance of the Japanese government towards the Empire could have ended in only one way and Jiang didn't want to imagine what the warmongers to the east would do with control of the world's largest deposits of Sakuradite and thus economy – and that was before the new weapons they unleashed upon his people. Now... Wining this war or at least preventing Britannia from achieving its obvious strategic objective was more vital than ever.

For the first time, the Eunuchs voiced their collective agreement in support of the war. It was another question how genuine that was.

"We do need to plan for any unexpected turn of events." Cheng Zhong – the shortest and the oldest of the Eunuchs said as he threw a dirty look at Lian. "If our scientists are wrong about the feasibility of building the new weapons or in case of further naval incompetence..." He shrugged.

Cai Lishi – another short old man, smiled sadly before he spoke up. "China must endure no matter what. By strength of arms if at all possible. If not... in the end we didn't defeat the Mongols on the field, no matter how much we tried. Yet here we are today, enduring still." He fixed Jiang with a kind gaze that both of them knew concealed a dangerous viper.

"That is something I've taken into consideration." Li nodded.

Jiang simply loathed what he was about to do, yet... If the war was lost... or if the Eunuchs decided that it wasn't in their best interest to continue it any longer... Then he would have to do what was best for his people and if at all possible, his daughter. The sad truth was that if the worst happen, Lihua was likely doomed. As a pawn of those bastards, she might not live long past reaching her adulthood. As a reluctant bride to a Britannian prince – the same was likely true.

"And if it comes to that, we will do what it takes for China to endure." Jiang stated. "Leave us. We'll reconvene after the battle. Lian, a word."

The Admiral walked until he was standing a respectful distance from the throne and both of them waited for the others to leave the room. Only then the Emperor allowed himself to relax and he slumped back in the uncomfortable chair. He raised his hands and winced at how much they trembled. Jiang was running out of time, for himself, his nation and his daughter.

"It's getting worse." Lian sighed when he saw the real condition of his friend.

"I noticed." Li scowled. Now his voice sounded as tired as he felt. "Don't sugar-coat it. What are our chances."

"I told the truth – unless the Britannians pull off the same stunt again, whatever that was, our navy should give as good as it gets. While our ships' technological level isn't as good as it should be across the board, the best Britannian units are in the Atlantic. Conventionally we've good odds, especially with the IJN as an ally. However..." He trailed off.

They both saw the doctor's preliminary reports. Whatever the Britannians used in crippled the crews, not the equipment of the fleet. Those hit worst had noticeable brain damage with the others reporting frankly impossible things.

"I know you and your men would do everything you possible can, Lian. The bastards are right about one thing – we do have to plan for the worst. Your family?" Jiang asked.

"They're already hidden. I've got trustworthy ONI personnel spoofing the State Security goons' eyes. What about Lihua?" Lian inquired.

"I honestly don't know. There are days I believe that once I'm gone she might be safer and happier in Britannia – until they decide its time for her to suffer a fatal accident." The Emperor admitted.

"I've been thinking..." Lian began.

"Always a dangerous thing around here." Li smiled wanly. "Do you see something I do not my friend?"

"We do have sources in Britannia, including a few in their court. They got us a few juicy rumours about certain members of the royal family."

"Anything of use?"

"Potentially. You aren't going to like it."

Lian was right, Jiang most certainly didn't like the madness his friend brainstormed as a contingency in case everything fell apart around them. In fact it was so insane that it might just work, however the dangers...

Li closed his eyes and wondered. He knew his end was fast approaching – no matter if it would be thanks to the Eunuch's machinations or the sickness ravaging his body. What was more important to him? His nation or his daughter? Could he sacrifice one to save the other? Could sacrificing one save the other, perhaps that was the better question.

Jiang prayed that this would be one decision he wouldn't have to make.

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Part 5

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12 May 2009 A.T.B.

Flag Bridge

Command Cruiser Heavenly Dragon

South China Sea

Everyone in the compartment was on edge. Tension so thick you could cut it with knife hung over everyone's shoulders pressing them down. For days now, rumours, some substantiated, others not, made their way through the fleet. About impossible Britannian victories, of weapons turning crews in babbling wrecks while leaving their ships untouched, until missiles and bombs gutted them around the poor bastards. Of air-strikes fiendishly more effective than they had any right to be against modern naval assets.

Admiral Lu Bei knew something that at least most of his sailors felt if they weren't explicitly aware of – his whole fleet was a trip wire, a potential sacrificial offering in order to test the enemy's capabilities. In theory, the force approaching him had a rough parity with his CBG; in ships, in planes, even if the enemy's wings were depleted and took one of their fleet carriers and two lighter ones to match what he had available. In practice, the Britannian force was softened up by air-strikes, hounded by submarines and suffered damage after engaging screening elements of the IJN they managed to push back or sunk.

In the past few days, the elements of the enemy's Third Fleet were under observation – one of the most modern submarines the Imperial Federation Navy had shadowed them, friendly people from both transport ships and fishing trawlers could help by either vanishing, detecting something at the time the Britannians attempted to be sneaky or reported the area of jamming. That little game was now over – airborne radar and their escorts had firm fix on each other and the fleets approaching behind them. A decade or two ago, a carrier force would have kept the range, relying on their stand off weapons, the fighters and more importantly, bombers, to do the killing. Nowadays? They had a primary support role – hunt for submarine, screen the fleet from air attacks, locate the enemy and after a fleet battle was properly resolved, if practical hunt down damaged enemy ships.

Admiral Lu didn't know what exactly happened with the other Chinese CBG in the area, but whatever it was, the enemy seemed content to come at him in a standard battle formation. There was no suicidal flight of fighters meant to open the way for a follow up wave of bombers, just the carrier's planes skirmishing in the constricting space between the fleets. Airborne radar and ECM planes duelled as much as the fighters themselves supported by the vastly more powerful and capable systems of the converging fleets.

Sunset was two hours ago, making image recognition targeting missiles of little utility and that left the much easier to handle radar and IR guided ones. Radar was no go until the fleets came much closer and could reliably burn through each others jamming, which in practical terms meant close to effective gunnery range for large battleships, which in turn meant that every navy continued to built and refit them as their backbone.

"Admiral, we're in extreme missile range." Lu's XO reported from the secondary CIC buried even deeper in the ship than the Flag Bridge.

"Let the range fall more. First target enemy escorts to reduce incoming fire and counter-fire." The Admiral ordered, idly listening to the pilot's chatter, patched through by the Chief Air Group's station.

Two fighter lost for one Britannian with another possibly damaged. At this stage, barring orders for suicidal charge, the planes were left launching IR missiles at each other from range that made getting a reliable hit a dubious prospect, then running back into their respective fleets SAM coverage and ECM bubble. The range was just good enough for the lead elements of the two CBGs to begin acquiring enemy planes, though both held their fire waiting for a more reliable targeting.

The duel continued for long minutes and more fighters died – three more Chinese and two confirmed Britannian, at which point, the various carriers had to recover some of their birds to rearm them. For a little while, the air skirmishes almost dried up, until both forces had practically everything left in the air just before they entered practical SSM range. At this stage, the electronic duel was for most intents and purposes a sideshow. The fleets got close enough for to get a rough location, speed and heading of the enemy vanguard and that was enough for the IR seekers.

"We've got good locks to enemy leading elements. Targeting parameters locked in." The long awaited confirmation finally arrived.

"Fire at will."

Lu Bei could imagine the light-show surrounding his fleet right now. Launching heavy ship-killers, many based on stolen or bought Russian models that were further improved by the Federation Military-Industrial Complex and then upgraded with new Japanese electronics, made for some impressive fireworks. It was like rocket propelled lances left the decks as the CBG flushed a full third of their long range IR guided missiles.

This was the one area the Admiral suspected the IFN had an edge – all ship mounted missiles the British possessed, at least in this theatre of operations, were VLC mounted. While undeniable nasty, they were generally shorter ranged and had less space for sophisticated seekers. The down side was that the bigger missiles, well, they made a bigger, easier to acquire target. There was a reason why Chinese doctrine postulated that when practical, keeping the last third of them until fleet commander decided the engagement range went as close as it was going to get. One of those big bastards could ruin the day of even the largest battleship built – not only through the sheer kinetic strike, large warhead but the closest the range the more rocket fuel there would be to burn and those big missiles – they had a lot of fuel in them.

To Lu's relief, the battle continued to unfold in conventional and predictable manner, not dissimilar of all the wargames the IFN played through the years. The first missile strike claimed a few of the escorts, probably blowing them out of the water, but did indeed prove that at long range, the heavy missiles were indeed vulnerable – something that would have been even worse if they were sent at the enemy's fleet core and thus had to face more counter-missiles and close in weapons. That salvo went unanswered until the Britannian fleet got closer, then they responded with a much larger volume of fire. It was nice to see that apparently the respective combatants had roughly equal effective range for their VLC launched missiles, because it was only a moment later that the Chinese fleet spat their own defiance at the enemy.

Everyone in the Flag Bridge and CICs all over the fleet waited with baited breath for the Britannians to unleash their super weapon. Every ship in the CBG was buttoned down, filtering systems were working on overdrive and critical compartments were practically sealed from the outside world. The fact that no surprise materialized, no one went unexplainable insane, wasn't a relief yet. Only when missiles reached their targets after the initial salvoes got decimated by counter-fire and fiery decoys, that the Admiral truly allowed himself to feel hope. More enemy escorts were wrecked, but this time three Chinese Frigates and a single Destroyer followed suit. The lighter ships were simply gone – in one case everything above the waterline was blown apart, while the other two simply blew up. The Destroyer fared better, however at least half the crew was gone and the ship was firmly out of the fight.

Three Britannian escorts shared similar fate and combined with the earlier ship-wreck strike, that thinned them just enough to give Lu's people an edge.

The mutual blood-letting continued over the next couple of minutes. It appeared that both sides had similar doctrine – go after the escorts at long range, to both diminish the amount of incoming fire as well as the gauntlet your munitions had to pass through and survive until they hit their targets. That game, while expensive in both people and material, played right into Lu's hands. All his heavy missiles were mounted on his capital ships, which were virtually untouched for the time being.

Another exchange of fire was completed and the Admiral felt that the moment was ripe.

"Now. Switch targets upon enemy capital ships. Flush half our remaining ship-wrecks."

It took precious time for the order to be followed, that allowed for another salvo to go after the enemy lighter ships, which were at one third strength already, with the Chinese faring little better but only thanks to the initial heavy-missile salvo that thinned the enemy's herd. The Britannians apparently decided that it was time to really get down to business too, however by the time they also re-targeted, they had to deal with a wave of ship-wrecks flying just behind a full salvo of more conventional ship-killers.

Meanwhile, the air-groups had to pull back as the fleets got closer and closer. As it was, both sides planes did it too late and lost multiple fighters to ship based SAMs, but that was all they did – as expected, the anything with a fixed wing was merely a sideshow to the naval battle.

Lu finally allowed himself to relax. If the Britannians had any nasty surprises, they would have used them already. Now, now it was too late not to get hurt.

His assumption was soon proven right. While the enemy strike on the battle line was painful, with two heavy cruisers getting wrecked beyond repairs and a battle cruiser suffering a magazine explosion that soon sent it under the waves with all hands, the Britannians got mauled too. Only four of the ship-wrecks hit, on three separate targets. A battle cruiser and a heavy cruiser went up in flames, their armour no real match for the heavy missiles. If the flames could be taken under control, the ships could be saved, however, they were out of the fight. The other two ship-wrecks that hit, slammed into a battleship, diving straight through its deck-armour lengthwise. They spread fiery destruction, tearing the guts of the steel behemoth and finally broke its keel. By some miracle, the magazines didn't went up immediately. However, just as she slipped under the water, the tons of burning fuel did reach the ships own diesel stores and ammunition and she simply disintegrated.

The conventional missiles did reap their toll too. While they didn't manage to outright destroy a single ship – the Britannian defence managed to thin them just enough, many were damaged with few more being brought out of the fight and forced to deal with nasty chemical fires.

At this point, the Britannian's were committed. To disengage, meant leaving behind practically all damaged ships and eating multiple salvoes while manoeuvring at vectors that would make defending against them harder. Running away, that would be a good way to lose most of the fleet for little to no more impact-full gain. On the other hand, if they did come on and chose to fight it...

Which they did, because more ship-killers streaked towards the IFN and the enemy showed not a trace of wavering.

For the next hour, missiles and even gunfire slammed into armoured decks or splashed harmlessly in the water, barely missing ships obscured by smoke, fire and fiery decoys that scrambled both sides targeting radars. Steel and ships broke, burned and died. Men vanished wiped out of existence by shells and missiles larger than they were, others vanished forever under the waves while more were burned to ashes in compartment and in some cases whole ships that became their personal crematorium. Hardware broke, ships failed, yet men endured with fanatical determination.

Lu did have the unique opportunity to use what remaining ship-wrecks he had just as doctrine dictated and he found out, first-hand, that all those wargames were right. At what was practically point-blank range, there was no stopping those missiles, even if thanks to battle damage and lost ships, it was much less than the third of the original number that he had kept that his remaining fleet could launch.

It didn't really matter. Some were shot down by last hopelessly overstretched and damaged close-in-weapons. Others missed due to the walls of burning Sakuradite shrouding the enemy ships.

Enough hit to break the back of the remaining Britannian battle line. The incoming fire slacked and in most cases all but ceased. Green flares lit up the sky and frantic cries of surrender attempted to cut through the jamming.

Only the Britannian carriers and a handful of escorts that sensibly kept back were able to successfully dis-engage and flee, while Admiral Lu was left to preside over what was left of the two wrecked fleet.

"Have our remaining air assets harry them and if practical, go after the carrier. Vector any submarines and land-based aviation that could reach them. Now someone give me a proper report on the fleet. What do we have left?"

It was a victory, but a bloody one. From what the Admiral could see, the estimations of fifty percent losses when peer naval opponents met with close to equal numbers were overly optimistic. Except for the carriers, which had their air-groups decimated and would suffer worse in the coming hours and perhaps days, the bulk of the Britannian ships either surrendered or were destroyed. Lu's own fleet did fare somewhat better but that was only thanks to the ship-wrecks, that when hit, did at least mission kill a ship with a single strike. If he had to slug it out up until the Britannians either broke or died without those missiles, the price would have been even higher. As it was, more than half of his own fleet was simply gone with at least third again fit for the breakers and practically everything else but the carrier and a handful of escorts – damaged.

Still, they were in a much better condition than what was left of the Britannian force.

Lu smiled grimly. With this victory and after the engagement between the Japanese and the enemy, everyone had their immediate forces in the area mauled. However, the Federation had the bulk of their navy much closer than the Britannians, not to mention their allies. They had an opportunity to concentrate their forces and either strangle the Philippines or meet the incoming enemy reinforcements, engage and destroy them piecemeal.

Baring more Britannian super-weapons of course.