Oh man, school really sucks, at least I'm caught up for once and can write now.
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter of a fanfic based on various franchises I DONT OWN. (Just making sure lawyers don't mini-nuke me, I don't think I've done the disclaimer until now...)
By the way, a few months have passed in the story since last chapter...
Eleanor yawned as she walked into her office, morning paperwork is the worst.
And as it is such, she pushed it aside and looked over the more interesting expedition reports, the reinforced northern expedition is doing well, the borders of the three tribes, (the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, they formed the Three Fires Confederacy), were finally established, they controlled the entirety of Lake Superior, most of what used to be minnesota, and some of the other lands surrounding the great lake and portions of the other ones.
the three tribes had established a multi-tribal city classified as the confederacy's capital on the Isle royal (The big island in the middle of Lake Superior) and had sculpted the center of the island into a large city, using only the stone on the island they had formed the foundations and lower parts of the first floors of buildings, then massive amounts of logs from long dead, but exclusively strong, trees made large log buildings that had tribal carvings all over them. A gigantic and complicated fountain was in the center of the island, covering the gaping hole of the stone quarry that had made the city. The fountain covers the main pumping station for the sewers and fresh water (Don't worry there separate).
Eleanor had visited the city and found it quite beautiful, if not her architectural taste for either utilitarian style or art deco, but it was still beautiful.
But for now, back to the expedition.
The Canadian expedition was boring, even though America had annexed it, not very many of the high level techs were discovered there, eventually they made it to Alaska, and the massive amounts of artillery, vehicles, military infrastructure, and general fortress feel of the place prompted Eleanor to have Anchorage settled and rebuilt, simply because it was so defensible from any possible enemies.
Of course, since it was hard to farm plants in Alaska's short summer, she had enough Brahmin and Bighorners, with slight genetic treatment to withstand the cold and almost nuclear winter temperature (They grew thick fur and such), and had massive greenhouses constructed (Which would operate for 80 percent of the year, most growing being done during the endless day). Though people's main diet would still be meat, they still needed plants, if only until Scientists got the time to make a treatment so that a person coud be completely carnivorous or vegetarian (shrug)
Chicago had finally been explored, but it seemed that the remnants of the Enclave had been gathering their forces, so the nearby confederacy decided to help her forces destroy them in exchange for sharing the technology they find (the tribes don't like Americans, purist and racist ones even more so)
They had discovered the secret to making Duraframe, the main ingredients were titanium, tungsten, and carbon and a lot of other fractional ingredients, plus the completed vertibird blueprints.
Cleanups in the NCR was doing well, but many people simply were moving to the Vegas Empire or to the eastern territories, nuclear radiation not worth dealing with as even though the price for the radiation tonics were stable and affordable like a car would be to a pre-war person, many choose greener pastures in the capital wastes where farming jobs were rapidly opening for business, experienced farmers hoping to led their expertise.
Done with the reports, having read a bit into the past to entertain herself, Eleanor noticed a letter come to her personal Pneumo (It had a special casing designed to withstand even a mini-nuke going off inside it). Frowning as these things were usually important, she pulled out the message from its tube container.
The Pneumo system was being used to transport the Morse code translated messaged that were sent from satellites, they used it because it put less strain on the few satellites that were working right now (Eleanor REALLY want a space program up and running soon, if to activate and repair satellites if nothing else)
~My lady, a scout ship has not reported back for over a day, we are going to investigate and keep you updated as we go, knowing our luck this will be important~ Eleanor leaned back in her chair and crossed her hands together, opening a direct channel for constant surveillance
After a few hours, having sent the scout ship a fair distance away, the navigator started to notice some blips on the radar
It showed a similarly sized ship to their own cruiser, and curious, captain Arthur walked to the mounted binoculars and gazed through, spotting a chilling sight.
A naval warship was towing the ship they had sent at them, Empire soldiers on deck being transported into the foreign ship's hold by other figures, but from what the captain could tell they were wearing white uniforms with blue trims.
"Ok people, looks like we may have a hostage situation on hand. All ahead full and aim those guns!" With various affirmatives the cruiser made its way towards the two ships, and Arthur realized who the sailors were.
They looked to be Asian, and by the white flag with a red sun on it he could tell that they were Japanese. Rapid fire shouting could be heard from them as they approached with guns aimed,.
The Japanese ship turned its own double barreled cannons towards the cruiser, while the cruisers triple barreled cannons, with their orange glowing magnetic accelerators (Cheaper and older versions of gauss tech from the Rapturian civil war) loomed ominously towards the Japanese ship.
Both ships slowly stopped until they were side to side, the old American ship with its many cannons faced the much newer looking bu t less armed Japanese ship threateningly, while Someone came out of the bridge towards the railing.
It looked to be a towering figure wearing a white greatcoat with gold trimming that had "Eternal glory" in kanji on his back (Think of the anime one piece and the Naval captain rakns and above's uniforms from it.)
The man glowered at the low quality clothing the Rapturian sailors were wearing (A navy uniform not yet having been made, focus being put on armor and weapons for the military) and spoke in Japanese through his personal radio, going on all channels.
"Who are you who would dare aim weapons upon a vessel of his Imperial Majesty?! Speak now or be fired upon!" After the captain's translator quickly whispered the words in his ears Arthur felt a bout of patriotism course through him.
His translator spoke his words.
"We are subjects of the Empress Eleanor Lamb and her Rapturian Empire"
Pausing so his translator could keep up, he continued.
"The Empire rules the entire north American continent, most of the British isles, several coastal cities of Africa, and are starting to explore past the Panama canal into South America."
Stopping, Arthur looked across the fifty meter gap of ocean at the other Captain, who puffed with pride and sailors started running around.
"Then you have prepared the wastes for the Great Japanese Empire's glory, unification and peace is now... so much closer." Arthur's eyes widened as he heard the sounds of canons loading.
"Fire!" the mid 20th century style cannons that the Japanese ships were using packed a lot of punch as it was revealed that they were using explosive rounds, massive sections of the cruisers deck and hull was ripped apart. And Arthur's eyes widened in even more horror as he saw metal hatches drop all along the Japanese ship's hull, revealing at least fifty fixed cannons readying to fire.
"I will not go out with a whimper!" Running back into the bridge, Arthur shouted to the panicked crew.
"Come on men, fire those cannons already! If we're going to die were taking them with us!" The gunnery officers nodded and signaled the cannon crews to fire.
With an incredibly loud sonic boom the magnetically assisted cannons fired, slamming their rounds right through the Japanese ship, piercing through the entire thing and out into the ocean. Alarms started blaring on the ship as water was pouring into the Japanese ship.
The samurai had already returned tot he bridge and the ungodly amount of broadside cannons fired, the explosive rounds hit the durable armor of the 300m year old ship, and the cruiser stood no chance as her entire crew were either blown to bits or shredded by shrapnel, the ship quickly sinking beneath the waves.
The battle was over in under a minute.
That would have been it for the expedition if the rest of this particular expedition group, about three ships, had not been watching from a distance. A few mini-nuke tipped torpedoes were launched at the ship then the exploration fleet went full steam back to Anchorage, panicked Morse code signals easily listened in on by the Japanese ship as they realized that reinforcements were being called in. The captain of the ship sent a coded radio burst to the imperial palace right before they noticed the torpedoes on the sonar.
The nuclear torpedoes hit the ship before it could get out of the way, taking out massive amounts of its hull underwater and combined with the partial flooding from the earlier attack the ship quickly began to sink. Sailors were jumping off the ship and slowly drowned alongside two sinking ships from both factions.
Eleanor's fist pounded a hole into here perfectly good desk as she raged, three hundred of her Navy sailors were killed in the aggressive attack, the reported sinking of the Japanese ship did little to ease her anger.
She may not seem like it most of the time, but even to her that many of HER soldiers dying is unacceptable! She immediately had her combined naval fleet fully armed, stocked, repaired (As much as they could) and the weapons at least upgraded with the old Rapturian magnetic accelerators, while the most powerful ships had their cannons replace with the newly developed Viper MkI class Gauss cannons, based on prewar schematics and the various gauss weaponry found throughout the wasteland. She even had the surface flagship outfitted with new and expensive Saturnite shredder rounds for the first assault.
After being refitted the ships made their way to the Panama canal, and several moderately sized groups were assigned to coastal cities and a large on to Anchorage. The rest of the massive fleet (Massive for a post apocalyptic world) made their way to where Hawaii was on their maps, looking to make a strategic military outpost before the Japanese could.
codex
2285-
-Rapturian ships make their way to Hawaii, once the scout fleet (Consisting of two cruisers and a battleship) make it there they spot Japanese forces beginning to unload their ships, The scout fleet engages the single Japanese cruiser and cargo ship-
-The ships engage in combat and the less advanced but more numerous weapons of the Japanese ship allows it to sink one of the cruisers, a large weakness is recorded though as their broadside canons reload rather slowly(Owing to the massive amounts of ammo needing to be transported) and to build back up a barrage of cannon fire they need a full three minutes. The rest of the scout ships take aim and sink the vulnerable ship-
-Marines invade the unloading area and most of the Japanese arte taken prisoner-
-Pearl Harbor is rebuilt as fast as possible as the Imperial Navy rushes ships back and forth, most of them being old oil tankers refitted to carry construction material, and re-fortify the naval base-
-Concrete is made in bulk as rushed builders try and do a decent job as fast as they can, moderately sized groups of Japanese ships are spotted not far away-
-A trio of Japanese submarines approaches the harbor, mini-nuke tipped torpedoes are sent their way but the ships employ countermeasures and are even able to take a few hits, The subs surface and release dozens of missiles (Overweaponization will be a theme for Japan) and the individually weak missiles bombard the new military buildings and housings, but most are aimed at Rapturian ships, ten moored navy ships are temporarily crippled while three are destroyed. The subs are eventually destroyed with one escaping-
-Construction continues as more and more ships are brought in, the massive ships are still open to attack though so massive port hangers are created, basically concrete arched roves over a long stretch of water, providing space for dozens of ships at a time while being protected from torpedoes, espionage, and missiles by three feet of concrete, large companies for the material start springing up in the western imperial regions and many entrepreneurs move to Oahu to create more and more factories-
-Rapture deploys a naval force of fifty ships, including three newly made prototype ships using the rediscovered Enclave ally Duraframe as armor and gauss cannons-
-These ships are sent to attack any Japanese settlement they find, searching island to island and establishing or taking over territory-
-Japanese forces try to hold off Rapturian vessels from taking their colonies but it is soon established that Japanese ships are few in number-
-Large patrols protect the Japanese homeland so most of Rapture's efforts are put into the Malaysian and Pacific islands. fleets of imperial ships invade and occupy the various colonies and territories-
-A carrier launches its bombers (All boomer pilots at the moment) which are sent to Japan to assess the state of the country and attack with either conventional bombs or mini-nukes depending on the situation-
-Astonished boomers begin clotting the airways with messages about how green the country is, living forests cover the countryside interrupted by rice paddies, nuclear weapon usage on or around the home islands is banned and scientists come up with new way of decimating cities-
-Plasma bombs are quickly invented, designed to disintegrate whatever it landed on-
-A second bomber force is sent...
Codex-Technology-
-Rapturian Empire-
-the Rapturian accelerator design was made during the civil war by inventive survivors trying to add a bit of kick to their weapons, it has since been refined and now almost triples weapon damage-
-Gauss cannons,-these cannons are based on both the pre-war abandoned design for the viper Mk I railgun and the Gauss rifles that can be found around the wasteland. Instead of just piercing right through a target the (Gunpowder propelled) projectiles have a shockwave that forms around them and it will spread out threw the target, essentially ripping three meter diameter holes in a conventional steel ship-
-Plasma bomb-this device was made shortly after it was discovered that Japan has a healthy ecosystem and massive forests. It is essentially a giant plasma grenade with a chemical explosive core-
-Great Japanese Empire-
-... no intel-
Sorry for the wait, I bit off a bit more than I could chew so I eventually decided to split the original chapter I had in half, less work in shorter time equals smiley face :)
I may have missed a few things that I was supposed to elaborate on in this chapter from the last one...
As for the reason they aren't using plasma or laser cannons? One word, "cheap", it is only cost efficient to put such things on planes at the moment, and they are also experimenting (For the simpler magnetic accelerators they can be strapped to any random cannon and make it three times better, which is why their popular)
Japan is going to have some unique tech, and will be epic for a time...