"Did you say that we need to face the Russian's Pacific fleet as well as the rebels?" Kay asked while she was pacing back and forth. Darjeeling, Antonio and Erwin looked at her with almost certainty.
"Yes we're sure. They attacked the convoys that were bringing supplies to Olivia including the artillery batteries that were needed to pin Yuri down. Although Japan is mobilizing their fleet, we still need to break the hold the Kamchatka has with the ship. Anchovy is radioing Japan about having a fleet of cruisers and a battleship join us in the up-coming battle with the Russian Navy. We'll keep monitoring the school ship and have the SMS Kaiser as well as four other ships join us in addition to the Japanese fleet. The Tricolor, Milan, Meijiten'nō chūgakkō and Stars & Stripes middle schools have volunteered for the task. I bet the Ark Royal would like to volunteer as well?" Erwin explained as they had the fleet coming along to provide support. Kay breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay so we're all collectively taking them on?" Kay asked as she was wondering about this. Erwin nodded.
"Yep this will be a team effort as I might have to leave my job to defend the seas. The Ark Royal would be the one directing the battle while we have our school ships, Kaiser, Mikasa, Dante Alighieri, Maryland, And the Tricolor Cruiser Aurora to be participating on the front lines. Group A will consist of Mikasa, Maryland, Dante Alighieri and the Japanese Battleship. Kaiser, Aurora and the Japanese Cruisers will make up Group B. Group A's task is to break the Kamchatka away from the Saunders School ship and try to hammer it as much as possible so it gets separated from the ship itself and makes it unable to bring in reinforcements. Group B's task is to make sure that the Russian Navy doesn't get anywhere near the two ships and we might have to prepare for battle for them but that should give Group A more than enough time to get the two ships separated. The Ark Royal's objective is to follow the Kamchatka and make sure it doesn't return to the Saunders school ship. Seeing as the Kamchatka would be slowed down significantly once sufficient damage has been done to it, it would mostly limp away. Group A will act as the reinforcements to the battle keeping the Russian ships at bay." Antonio laid out the plans as he was using miniature versions of the ships to represent the plans and what they were. Kay, Darjeeling and Erwin nodded as they understood Antonio's explanation.
"I like where you're putting your mind with this, I think this should be a force big enough to keep those Russians from getting near us. So who's being put in charge?" Darjeeling was nodding along, sipping her tea as she was wondering about who would be placed in command of the fleet. Antonio turned to her.
"You'll be in charge of the fleet ma'am, direct the two groups as we will be intercepting the fleet tomorrow morning at the Yellow Sea. Kay I want you to help out on the Dante Alighieri as a gunner for the experimental automatic turret. The 1 inch shells won't be able to penetrate the thick armor but it will be able to cause damage to anything with non-existent armor. So if fired at the Kamchatka's decks, you should be able to take out some parts of the school building and several of the ship's ammunition stores. Therefore they can't be firing their artillery on Kaya-san's forces as well as firing on other nearby school ships since they'll run out of ammo if we manage to destroy it. Kay, come with me." Antonio made the request as he was going to take her to her ship.
"Wait...with Erwin on his ship, who will be in charge of the supply and logistics of Kay-san's forces?" Darjeeling asked as she was wondering about that.
"Two of Kuromorimine's volunteers will be in charge until Erwin returns. But for now, it is best we get into positions." Antonio [turned to look at Darjeeling and] responded as they soon dismissed the meeting.
As morning arrived, they managed to link up with the Japanese volunteer fleet an] outlined everything. Erwin was on the Kaiser as he had nine ships with him as part of Group B and the four battleships as part of Group A. St. Gloriana's school ship: Ark Royal was going to follow Group A until their task was finished.
"Okay groups, are you in position?" Darjeeling spoke as she took a roll-call.
"Group A is ready." Antonio responded as the four battleships were getting ready for scouting duty to find both Kamchatka and the Saunders School ship: USS George Washington.
"Group B getting ready to block the entrance to the Yellow Sea and intercept the Russian fleet." Erwin responded from his ship.
Darjeeling nodded as she soon began to speak: "I wish the both of you good luck as we hope to get this done." Group A peeled off as they went looking for the two school ships while Group B went out to intercept the Russian fleet.
Antonio's Group A was cruising around for several minutes as they kept a look out for the aforementioned school ships.
"Hey Antonio, do you think that Darjeeling would be right about us finding those Russian ships?" Kay asked.
Antonio ignored her as he was keeping a look out for where the school ships were. He continued to look as the weather for this day was particularly sunny which made things easier to spot but it was also very humid. Kay, who is currently bored, opened up a can of Coke and began to drink it due to her own boredom. Antonio continued to look when he spotted something.
"Hey Kay I think I found something." Antonio called out to her. He was looking out as if he spotted what they were going after. Kay wandered over [to him] wondering what it really was. Antonio handed her the binoculars. As Kay began looking, she was soon surprised as they had found the two ships. The USS George Washington was floating around but more importantly, the Kamchatka was not too far away as it was steaming away from the main fleet.
"Hey Antonio, give me the radio." Kay turned around and told him. Antonio tossed her the radio as she began to get into contact with Darjeeling.
"Darjeeling, we spotted the Saunders School ship as well as the Kamchatka. The Kamchatka has turned away and is heading off. Permission to engage over?" Kay reported to Darjeeling.
"Permission granted, engage the Kamchatka at your own will." Darjeeling responded as she hung up. The captain aboard the Dante Alighieri looked down as he was hearing the radios from Darjeeling and Kay. Dante Alighieri's captain soon sounded the General Quarters alarm.
"General quarters! Students aboard the Dante Alighieri, man your battle stations!" The middle schoolers rushed about as they went to their turrets as they ranged from single guns to twin turrets. Antonio and Kay went to their turret which was the experimental cannon at the front of the ship.
"Antonio, how do I operate this?" Kay asked as she was wondering how the turret was going to work. Antonio took her hand as he placed it on the grip where the trigger was.
"Just imagine you're operating a machine gun, I will tell you when to fire and I'll turn the turret for you." Antonio responded as he soon sat down on the seat next to her. Soon the ships were appearing as they were now swinging left. The Kamchatka was being lured into a trap as Maryland, Mikasa and Dante Alighieri were closing in quickly. Dante Alighieri was swinging hard left rudder to fire broadside on the Kamchatka.
"Fire!" The captain ordered. Antonio rotated the turret to aim at the Kamchatka as Kay began firing the automatic turret in three round bursts. The other main guns aboard the Dante Alighieri were now firing broadside onto the Kamchatka. The shells fell short of their target. The six 47-mm guns on board the Kamchatka opened fire onto Dante Alighieri.
Water splashed around the school ship as the captain was making adjustments. "Okay raise the guns up so we can get some hits, we might need to get within 1/4th of a mile so the secondaries could do some damage. Fire!" The guns opened once the adjustments were made and the shells began hitting home. The school ships on group B began receiving firecracker shots as the colors exploded with red, white and green. The Kamchatka fired another Salvo at the ship but the shells landed around the bow of the ship as they were trying to go after Kay but with no success. The ship continued to close in.
Soon the Mikasa and the other Japanese Battleship from the volunteer group fire their shells from the left and behind. The shells miss and land around the stern with the Mikasa scoring a lucky hit as it knocks out one of Kamchatka's turrets. The Kamchatka fired a salvo at the Mikasa this time and managed to score a couple of hits. Mikasa was cruising ahead on the right as it was going to tempt the Kamchatka to turn back to the Ark Royal. Kamchatka took the bait and slowed down before turning left. The other ships did pretty much the same thing as the Dante Alighieri kept closing in. Soon Kay and Antonio got in with firing range as the captain called out: "Fire!"
Soon Kay opened fire with the automatic turret as they were spraying alongside the broadside of the ship. Kay was doing her best to pepper the side of the ship where the large wooden storage house was where the school had stored some of the ammunition. Soon a whirl of golden firecrackers exploded as they had taken out one of the ammunition stores for the artillery that they were using on the Saunders school ship. The Mikasa and the Japanese battleship fired as the ammunition stores were getting shelled by random gunfire. Soon the 'Fighting Mary' fired away as their shots began hitting the Kamchatka's bow, more explosions were heard as the firecracker stores and the guns were being destroyed and disabled. Darjeeling was watching this from the bridge of the Ark Royal. As she watched the Kamchatka limp away, she knew their task was done.
"Leave the rest to me, I'll observe your actions. Go help Erwin." Darjeeling gave the order. The commanders of the four battleships nodded as they soon began sailing away from the area to help out Group B.
Group B was in a struggle as the Japanese Cruisers had baited the entire Russian Pacific fleet into their trap. The Kaiser was firing away against 5 battleships. The cruisers were engaging the other fleet's cruisers and destroyers.
"Fire!" Erwin shouted, the guns on the Kaiser opened up as their shots flew across and nailed the flagship of the Russian Pacific fleet. The Russian battleships opened up as they targeted the massive school ship Erwin was on. The shells flew through the air and many of them splashed into the water, missing their target while others impacted on the School ship leaving several dents in the Kaiser's hull. The four other ships arrived as Erwin began explaining the situation. "We're under attack by 5 battleships of the Russian Pacific fleet. If you are going to engage, take out their flagship so we can break their morale." Antonio and Kay were listening as they nodded.
"Got you Erwin." Antonio responded as he looked at Kay. "Okay let's help out our friend and target their flag ships."
The Dante Alighieri took the lead with the Mikasa following close behind. The Mikasa fires first as her shots are wide, very wide, the shells land all around the flagship as the salvo splashes around the ship. The Russian Flag ship returned fire at the Mikasa. Several shells hit the bow of the ship as Dante Alighieri opens fire. Three of the shells hit the superstructure of the battleship as the cruisers began firing on the Russian flagship. The Japanese Battleship opened up as it nailed a lucky salvo by hitting the bridge and captain's room of the ship. Screams were heard as the shot had hit several people inside.
The rest of the battleships were now focusing on the Japanese Battleship that scored the lucky hit as well as Mikasa as they were both firing away on the flag ship. Soon the Dante Alighieri fired another salvo and one of the shells scored a hit on one of the Russian battleships that were firing at Mikasa.
Kay yipped as they were forcing the Russian fleet away while both the Kaiser and Aurora fired their shells at the other enemy battleships. With the day drawing to a close, the Russian fleet decided to fall back seeing the fact that they couldn't contest with both the school ships and the Japanese Navy. The enemy fleet scattered in different directions while heading back to Vladivostok.
"Hey Erwin, what are the results from the battle with the Russian navy?" Darjeeling asked as they managed to contain the Kamchatka, keeping it from bringing reinforcements for the rebels.
"The engagement was inconclusive, one Russian battleship, and their flagship were severely damaged in the engagement. The Mikasa and the Japanese Battleships also took some major blows by the remaining enemy battleships but we managed to hold them off. We're all right as we managed to repel them. Sadly no enemy ships were sunk." Erwin reported the news to Darjeeling as she smiled and nodded.
"Well we accomplished our goals. Let's head back to Saunders, where we can finally take on Brook-San." Darjeeling told them as they began sailing back from the Yellow sea to where the Ark Royal was.
Meanwhile, Yuri was wondering where the Russian Fleet was and she decided to call them to ask where they were.
"Hello? I would like to speak with Admiral Vitgeft." Yuri began; silence was heard at Vladivostok as they didn't know where he was. Yuri was growing impatient. "Tell me where the Admiral of the Russian Pacific Fleet is?" No response. Soon a voice was heard as the voice was pretty grim.
"Yuri Nakamura, I'm sorry to say this but, the Russian Pacific Navy Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft was killed in battle. He and several other crew members died when they were struck by a salvo from a Japanese battleship. The fleet has been damaged and scattered." The telegrapher from Vladivostok was speaking to Yuri about this. Yuri was devastated as she knew the Russian Navy wasn't coming to their rescue.
"No. This can't be true? This can't be true!" Yuri shouted as she began trashing the room in rage that the fleet wasn't coming to their rescue. This left them with only one other fleet coming to join them, the Russian Baltic Fleet.
[A/N]: Admiral Vitgeft KIA on his flag ship which the students managed to repel with the help of the Japanese Navy. Things are only getting worse for the rebels as Yuri is breaking down and her forces are under siege. Don't know how much longer she'll be able to hold up against a Siege such as this but things are looking pretty grim for the rebels. Next battle will be focusing on Brook's side as she gets her first taste of battle. That is all. Goodbye.