AN: Credit to perfect_shade, TheBattleSage, Readhead and Vasilisa for the revisions, and Sunny for advice.
The start of this chapter directly references Chapter 22's "Into the fire" extra section.
I finished up the last of the revising for this chapter, but I'm still going to be busy for some weeks before I can start restructuring the draft chapters 37-40 using Vasilisa's sports stuff and other inputs.
1952, December 25th, off the coast of the CSR:
Captain Zenji Harada took a deep breath as he saw the line wavering across the screen of the high sensitivity magic detector abruptly spike. The screen was wedged almost directly in his gut, crammed into the narrow space between his chest and the seat of the pilot flying the jet plane, but that only made it all the more impossible to miss the tapering signal.
'Your death will be avenged, Kaname Abe. I'm sorry I couldn't save your life from that fateful reconnaissance flight.'
Falling back on his training, Captain Zenji pushed a button on his radio headset, opening up the broadcast. "Crane 2 to all units, enemy magic scans, coming from true bearing 221 degrees. Standby for position fix. Over."
"Roger," came the radio response from the wing's commander, "Raptor 4's units all report their magic detectors are also detecting the scans."
A separate magic comms spell channel with Crane 3's and Crane 4's mages gave him the information necessary to triangulate exactly where the CSR's aircraft formations were located, as well as their direction and speed.
"The enemy aircraft formation that is flying straight toward us is coming from approximately 27 degrees north, 123 degrees east. Speed of about 350 km/h, altitude of 8,100 meters. Over."
"Crane 2, Raptor 4 acknowledges. A few of our jets will be flying ahead to bait their missiles. Out."
Another magic comms spell came in, but it was not from an Akinese mage. It had an encryption scheme used only for magic comms between Akinese and Germanian mages.
"Akitsushima Air Force, come in. This is the Germania Air Force, call sign Vulture."
'Hmmm, what are they doing here?'
Harada mentally switched to the second magic comms spell channel. "Crane 2 acknowledges."
"Reporting that there are about 30 Chinese aircraft flying straight towards you. We're right behind them. Unusual formation shapes with uneven number of aircraft in each of them. Not sure if they're trying something new or they have no idea what they are doing. Roughly two-thirds of them are equipped with a large missile that the Chinese mages will likely use. The rest have rocket pods. Four aircraft with mages in their two-seater aircraft are running magic scans. The entire formation just jettisoned their fuel tanks and increased speed. Over."
"And you are?" Harada asked, taking note that the aircraft count on both sides was about equally matched.
"A Germanian reconnaissance jet," came the short reply.
"Aren't you worried about being shot down, Vulture? Are their missiles radar guided? Over."
"They told us to get out, but if they want to start a direct war with Germania, then that's their death wish." Somehow the Germanian sounded bored with the prospect, or perhaps just immersed in their duty. "I'm not detecting any electronic emissions from them other than their radio comms. Hmm, they just fired four missiles from the aircraft with mages in them and it looks like they are heading towards the water instead of towards your formation, burning brighter and accelerating faster compared to previous known missile models. No signs of target tracking or missile guidance spells being used for those missiles. Say again, missiles launched, no magic spells associated with them, over."
"Crane 2 acknowledges." Harada tersely replied before switching to the Akinese magic comms channel and radio channel to relay the information.
A short time passed when the Germanian voice spell came in again.
"Crane 2, those missiles I was just talking about? One of your destroyers is on fire. Air to ship firing range of 29 kilometers. They only turned on their target tracking and missile guidance spells seconds before impact. Their missiles might have an inertial navigation system to maintain a steady course without constant inputs, over."
This time, Harada could faintly detect the magic explosions off in the distance all on his own without looking down into his gut at the magic detector.
"I suppose if their missiles can target maneuvering aircraft, so can they target ships. Thank you for the warning, Vulture. Out." Harada gritted his teeth as he switched back to the Akinese magic spell comms channel to relay the warnings to other mages.
'War is changing so fast in such little time.'
"Raptor 4, this is Crane 2." He clicked on the radio to communicate with the wing commander. "The Chinese are minimizing their use of target tracking spells and only using missile guidance spells for last minute course correction. Recommend your pilots that are being targeted to keep changing course so the Chinese have to constantly broadcast their spells. Out."
"Crane 2, Raptor 4, uh, that is unfortunate for us."
The Germanian voice spell then came in again. "Crane 2, "they just fired off 2 missiles, 18 kilometers from your position. Sending you data of the missiles' launch location and bearings. Standing by for range calculations. Over."
"Raptor 4, Crane 2. Two missiles launched, presumably at the lead jets. Over." Harada relayed the warning.
"Crane 2, Raptor 4, acknowledged."
He could see the distant lead Akinese jets bank make a hard U-turn and light their afterburners to rapidly leave the area, followed by the magic detector lighting up with the missile command spells.
'We need to get within 8 kilometers range for our missiles to be accurate enough and have enough rocket fuel to catch maneuvering aircraft.'
"They are launching half of their missiles. Over." The Germanian voice spell came in.
He smiled nervously as he acknowledged the receipt of information and relayed it to the wing commander. If this could work, it would mean they would get to pick apart the Chinese aircraft with light losses at worst. If it didn't, it would be a disaster.
As the formation split up and started climbing, the voice spell from the Germanian reconnaissance plane came in again. This time, the Germanian mage's voice was taut, the earlier bland detachment gone. "Detected missile guidance spells for all of the inbound missiles. Over."
"Raptor 4, this is Crane 2, deploy feathers. Over." Harada announced over the radio as he communicated with the other Akinese mages to coordinate their next set of actions.
"Crane 2, Raptor 4 acknowledges."
Soon he saw the shimmering clouds of thin metallic strips, or chaff, billowing out in the wake of all the jets as they began breaking formations and conducting individual evasive actions. Meanwhile, his magic detector's screen was full of overlapping spikes, the scanning spells rapidly intensifying along with the target tracking spells being deployed en-masse.
'Time to see how much mana the Chinese mages have available to burn through all of that interference. The data collection from them trying to kill me previously was so useful for the interference calculations.'
"Deploy screeching now!" Harada announced to the other mages.
He focused on his allocated set of missile command guidance and target tracking spells to jam with using his own magic, and could see the Chinese mages try to ramp up their own mana output to compensate. As the missiles got closer to the Akinese jets, he focused on injecting false missile command spells to directly force the missiles into the wrong direction, physically straining himself to try to overpower the enemy magic emissions.
"Raptor 4 took three losses, one had no survivors. Setting back into formation. Out." The wing commander announced, his voice bitter under the iron professionalism.
"Estimated max air-to-air range of about 26 kilometers. No magically enhanced explosions, which means only the aircraft with mages on board can launch enhanced missiles." The Germanian plane's voice spell came in. "We're lowering our altitude. I'm just going to take a stroll outside to retrieve your ejected pilots and their weapons operators. Also, the Chinese aircraft are turning around. None of their aircraft have backward mounted missiles."
Harada could see the magic scans greatly fade in strength and barked over the radio, "Raptor 4, this is Crane 2, recommend pursuit. They can't fire their missiles backward. Over."
'Guiding all of those missiles must have exhausted them.' Harada smiled to himself.
"Already ordering the pilots to do so while having a few get closer to them. We're going to be changing up our flight directions and altitude in case they try to sneak a missile into us. Out."
Within a minute, Harada's magic detector picked up on missile command spells for two missiles. Soon the target tracking spells deployed and the scanning spells intensified in response to the chaff deployment, while the magic area scans were now only being lit up every several seconds instead of continuously being broadcasted. And yet again the missile command and target tracking spells were interfered with by the Akinese pilots.
The cycle then repeated one more time that left him more exhausted, with only one missile being fired by the CSR aircraft. But he could also tell that the mana output from the Chinese mages dropped even further.
And the Akinese jets were getting close to the engagement range of the Germanian-provided radar homing missiles.
"We're back." The voice spell from the Germanian reconnaissance jet came in. "The rescued airmen appear to be stabilized so we're going to stick around for support until we are bingo fuel or when you no longer need our help. Out."
"Raptor 4 to all Cranes, commence area screeching! Out." the radio crackled while he could hear one of the Akinese squadrons' pilots trying to coordinate which aircraft to hit to avoid duplicated targeting, only to give up and tell everyone to just try to hit something because of the limitations of their radars and how many enemy aircraft were grouped together in a tight formation.
Harada and the other mages started interfering with the already greatly weakened magic scans, and soon he witnessed the streaks of missiles being launched from about 20 Akinese jets, all of them barreling towards the partially blinded CSR aircraft formation.
When the missiles were less than two kilometers from the CSR's aircraft, they all broke formation and conducted their own evasive actions. Even though they were greatly lightened from launching their large missiles, they struggled to outmaneuver the rapidly approaching missiles with their propeller engines.
"Their mages in the backseats opened up their cockpit glass to shoot explosive spells at the incoming missiles, they're desperate!" He smiled upon hearing the Germanian voice spell. "And their rocket pod planes just turned into the inbound missiles to launch all of their rockets, probably in an attempt to intercept your missiles to cover the other planes' retreat. Out."
Harada witnessed the rest of the Akinese jets launch their volleys of missiles, along the jets that had their first missiles intercepted launching their second ones.
"We're about to witness a new era in aviation history. Over." He sent a voice spell to the Germanian jet.
"I guess that makes it three history records since it's also the first time where mages on both sides fought each other non-kinetically, along with the destroyer being set on fire by the air launched missile. I count about a third of the Chinese aircraft having been splashed or visibly damaged from the first missile volley that made it through. I'm getting reports of a second wave of Chinese aircraft, but it seems the first wave throughout the entire area is being decisively defeated. How many missiles were your jets carrying? Over."
"Three, along with our rocket pods. Over."
"Good hunting. We're heading back to base. Also, we're getting reports from another reconnaissance plane that more of your ships were targeted. Out."
After much of the scattered Chinese aircraft were picked off and the remaining survivors were stuck at low airspeed and altitude from the constant aggressive maneuvers to avoid the missiles, Harada shook his head as a flight instructor's quote echoed through his head.
'Never run out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas at the same time.'
He watched as the Akinese jets dived down on the flailing, helpless survivors to launch their proximity fuze rockets for the finishing kills. Then it was onto the next wave of Chinese aircraft.
'If only Kaname were here to witness this decisive victory.'
1952, December 26th, in Berun:
Dertinge looked around the conference room and cleared his throat. "The Akitsushima Dominion and CSR both introduced aircraft to the skirmishes after the Kinmen Islands were shelled."
On cue, Elya retrieved a packet of large photos of an aircraft and slid them across the table to me. "The CSR revealed a new aircraft, and it's pretty clear that it's based on the aircraft design that the Chinese stole from us. The Akinese reported that the CSR deployed some sort of a low speed "sonic weapon" dual propeller plane that inflicted severe harm on electronics, windows and people with the visible shockwaves coming from the propellers. It was primarily targeting the refugees before it suddenly disintegrated in mid-air after about an hour of total flight time. A mage was seen flying away from the wreckage."
Of course they had a mage fly that flying noise machine if it was vibrating that much on the inside to rip apart. I wondered if our shield and noise cancellation spells could hold up against those shockwaves if they tried to use those planes to attack mages?
That's a tangent, I decided, pushing the topic to the back of my mind to be addressed whenever I next see Dr. Schugel again.
Lergen jumped in to add his input. "We abandoned the dual propeller design once it became clear that it could not take off from a carrier without damaging the ship and itself. It seems the CSR saw a use for its massive noise and shockwaves."
Lergen flipped through his notes. "Our reconnaissance jets reported that both sides' air forces also employed new aerial combat tactics and technologies we had not seen before. They witnessed the world's first aerial engagements where both sides shot aircraft down with missiles. I will have an initial report in a few days as there is much analysis to be done."
"How did the Akinese deal with the CSR's magic guided missiles?" I asked, looking to Elya and Lergen for an answer.
"The Akinese have been considering how to best disrupt the Chinese magic scans, target tracking and missile guidance with their own mages for quite some time in secret, trying to compensate for the short range of our radar guided missiles. They took the lessons from the photo-reconnaissance jet shootdown incident to heart." Lergen smiled, "they said they will share their tactics with us, and had asked for advice on improving them. Especially since they expect the CSR to find ways to defeat the countermeasures."
"Speaking of missiles, what's the status of our newer ones?"
"One moment, I had looked into our missile programs after hearing about the aerial engagements." Lergen reached for his briefcase for a second notebook, pausing for a moment as he flipped to the page he wanted. "Our new radar homing missile design with greatly improved long range accuracy is only about a year away from entering mass production. We are making last minute design changes to extend the missile range to try to match the new Chinese missile range without making them significantly larger, but it would require more powerful aircraft radar to effectively use them at the extended range. Our infrared homing missile will also enter service soon to eventually replace the air-to-air rockets for short range engagements. There were also proposals for a radar support aircraft to provide situation awareness for fighter jets for situations where the Chinese pilots are not using easily detectable magic scans."
"If it wasn't for the fact that we had been staring down a potential start of a war, I would be fascinated by all of these changes." I set down my coffee cup after taking a sip. "I recommend Dr. Schugel and other mage technology researchers to look into disrupting CSR's aircraft magic usage with electronics or other non-mage means. Or something to allow C-tier mages to interfere with the communist mages' spells. And if the Akinese help us with that, we can share our developments with them so they can stay ahead of the CSR's aviation magic."
"I'll pass the word along," Lergen nodded as he scribbled something in his notebook. "Considering that the CSR left our reconnaissance jets alone even while those jets were flying in the middle of combat areas, I believe they are seeking to avoid dragging us into a war against them. There is something else I need to mention about."
He retrieved photos from his briefcase to pass out to us, showing an Akinese destroyer that looked like it had eaten a heavy bomb, and an outline of its design showing anti-aircraft weapon locations.
"Our Akinese navy counterpart has reached out to us to warn us that the CSR can target ships with their magic guided missiles launched from their aircraft, including missiles with magically enhanced warheads launched by mage manned aircraft. The one report they shared with us so far involved a single destroyer that was severely damaged from four missiles launched from aircraft. The destroyer's large complement of anti-air systems, which included anti-air guns based on our quad-mount 30 millimeter revolver cannon design, were only able to intercept three missiles."
He then marked on the design document how the missiles approached at the ship's rear, where the fewest anti-air cannons could point toward, before continuing to talk.
"That's more total anti-air firepower than our destroyers, and our destroyers have their own arcs of limited anti-air fire. A major issue they identified so far was that the destroyer's main radar system struggled to track the inbound missiles for the anti-air cannons to engage. A few other Akinese ships that were too far away from friendly ships and targeted by missile volleys were also hit. Multiple CSR aircraft formations were beelining for the Yamato and her escorts from different directions before being mauled by Akinese aircraft. There is panic among their leadership to find countermeasures other than stacking even more anti-air guns on the limited deck space. They are also having debates if the era of battleships is truly over, at least against the CSR, which will be controversial because they are in the process of building the next generation battleships with larger cannons to outrange CSR's coastal guns."
"It seems that the CSR found a way for their mages to attack ships without putting their mages into a wall of lead." Visha muttered, "and I thought our ships' anti-air firepower was more than sufficient against air threats."
Lergen scowled, "it seems we weren't alone in making battleships obsolete. First with the Fritz, rockets and our extended range torpedoes back in 1941. Now this. I wonder what the Albish and Akinese will be doing with their existing capital ships even if they stop building new ones?"
"That's a good question. Are they going to be sharing any information with the Albish?" I looked at Dertinge.
"The Akinese ambassador said there had been intense backroom discussions with the Albish. Londinium made it clear that Hongkong's borders would remain closed, and they would not support the Akinese territorial water definitions, thus taking a neutral stance on the refugee crisis." Dertinge shook his head in annoyance. "As a result, the Akinese asked us to not share their information with the Albish, stating that if the Albish doesn't care about refugees and Akinese people being killed for trying to rescue them, then they deserve to learn the hard way of engaging the CSR at sea or in the air. They hadn't even shared the original photo-reconnaissance jet shootdown information with the Albish."
It seems the Perfidious Albion didn't just rub Germania the wrong way. And the sad part is that this is all their own doing, while I'm just watching their diplomatic train wreck of alienating potential allies while being stuck in a toxic relationship with an unstable colonial partner and an even more unstable communist partner. A shame that so many innocents are going to die in the CSR's purges.
All I remember about anti-ship and anti-air missile warfare back then was the continuous push for longer ranges, improving accuracies, and defeating or building missile countermeasures. And there had to be good reasons why naval forces around the world in my previous life all abandoned the idea of using big guns and heavy armor.
"I'm not surprised that eventually someone would get around to using massed long range missile attacks against ships. And it's not going to get easier to defend against anti-ship missiles over the decades. At some point we'll need to consider using small missiles to engage inbound ones and also improve gun-based anti-air systems, while developing our own missiles and aircraft to reach out and touch enemy targets from a safe distance, and have the sensor systems to find those faraway targets in the first place." I sighed, as Lergen looked like he wanted to say something but then held back.
Right after the meeting:
As the meeting disbanded, I escorted Elya down into the depths of the Secretaries' lair. "So what's up, boss?" she grinned. "You've got that twinkle in your eye again; you always do that when you're up to no good."
"How dare you, I'm a paragon of virtue, you impudent tea-lady," I sniffed primly. "Tell me, is your 'special' operation in the AK still running? The one where you set up that phoney-baloney ancient secret society to blackmail shady members of Albish high society into your web?"
"It sure is, and membership has been skyrocketing; who knew there were so many destitute aristocrats desperate to stay in the centre of things and avoid disappearing into obscurity? The organisation is now being administered by 47 reliable Albish assets; we now call the project 'AK-47' for short."
"Of course you do," I rolled my eyes, ignoring her bewildered reaction to my reply. "I assume this lot of aristocratic no-hopers have plenty of contacts within the Albish Parliament and Admiralty? ... Don't bother answering that, of course they do. I don't care how you manage it, I need you to get every man-jack of them to start lobbying every admiral and politician they know for the immediate expansion of the Albish battleship program! Have them push for as many new battleships as possible to be constructed and put to sea."
"Er, it may be difficult to get results, chief." Elya sounded dubious. "The CSR has just proved to the world that battleships are vulnerable to missiles, especially when combined with other threats such as submarines and the mage companies deployed from them; why on earth would the Albish keep throwing money at building more?"
"So CSR threatened a battleship after sacrificing many of their aircraft to make someone piss in their uniform out of fear? So what? That just proves the current crop are too weak; the battleships of the future just need more anti-aircraft systems and the thick armor to shrug off any hits. And so forth. Trust me, there will be a constituency within the navy and parliament that will grab that ball and run with it."
"Ahh I see, how clever." Elya had a sly smile before frowning a bit. "But will their government really go for it?"
"Ever heard of the sunk cost fallacy?... Never mind, the point is, the Albish navy has spent the last century dumping how many billions of pounds into constructing more and better battleships than anyone else on the planet. Do you really think the Admiralty will want to do a 180 and publicly admit to everyone that their long-term strategy's been a waste of time? To go through the same pain that the Akinese navy is now feeling? Do you think they'll want to admit to the Albish citizenry that their tax-dollars have been wasted on hyper-expensive cannon-fodder for foreign mages and their missiles? Then there's also the military-industry complex that spent decades perfecting their art of building hulls and other components for giant capital ships. Of course not, it's human nature to double-down. To keep iterating on 'proven' designs than to radically change things. And if that doesn't work, then triple-down! I just need your catspaws to fan the flames as much as humanly possible. Every pound the AK navy wastes on building obsolete capital ships is a pound they're not spending on researching and rolling out aircraft carriers, jets, magic-detectors, sonars, radars and long-range missiles!"
Elya's grin had turned wolfish. "We're on it!"
"Good." I turned to leave when another thought struck me. "You know, I was just reminiscing about that hydrogen-peroxide submarine we threw together many years back. I think it's time it did something useful. Find out who amongst the AK-47 are the most effective lobbyists, and hand over the plans for that submarine for them to turn into AK naval intelligence. The credit will give them a bigger voice in the debate."
"I remember you called that sub little more than an extremely expensive underwater bomb?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You don't think I'd leak plans of something that was actually useful do you?"
"Point."
"Have them say that Germania is planning to convert obsolete subs into hydrogen-peroxide powered high speed kamikaze platforms that we're going to send en masse into CSR ports, like those fire ships in the olden days. And that those submarines may be sold to the Akinese. I would have also suggested the CSR's surface ships as a target, before the Akinese revealed how useless they are by running them over. See if anyone can convince the Albish navy to invest into doing the same. With any luck the project will cost millions and blow up a few Albish ports and testing facilities."
"This is the first time I've seen you take an openly hostile action against the Albish." Elya scribbled in her notes.
"The day when they backed an extremist communist government was when I finally lost patience for them." I rolled my eyes. "I'm done with them."
The next day:
"They ran over four Chinese destroyers?!" I dropped my report in mild shock.
"Apparently the Yamato ran over another destroyer only hours before the missile attack." Dertinge rolled his eyes. "The Akinese ambassador told me that they insisted their battleships that were involved in the ramming incidents were blinded by the frigates' massive plumes of dark smoke and soot when they 'accidentally' ran them over, and never felt the impact."
"That might explain why the CSR singled out the Yamato for the massed air attack," Visha mused.
I let out a deep groan and put my head in my hands. Instead of the Japanese forever earning hatred from the Chinese for what happened in the Sino-Japanese War and long before that, the Chinese would instead use that naval incident and the Akinese casual response as their fuel for hatred.
Lergen cleared his throat. "They had been building those frigates at a slow rate and only stopped after the earthquake. The reports I received from our naval detachment in Akitsushima Dominion that had been observing the skirmishes is that the CSR lost about dozen of their frigates, half of their surface fleet, before withdrawing the remainder of the damaged frigates to only operate within support range of their coastal railway artillery guns."
"That about matches the Akinese own assessments," Elya added. "The Akinese navy took minor damage from the naval skirmishes and predicted that their most damaged ships could be fully repaired within a few weeks."
"If they were smart about this, the CSR would be looking at redesigning their frigates and implementing other navy reforms from their impromptu live fire exercises." Lergen rubbed his chin. "I suppose if they don't resume their frigate constructions to replace their losses, they are probably back at the drawing board."
Great. The communists would be absolute idiots to not consider reforms and new military ideas if they showed off all of their newest toys and still got slapped down. Especially with the Akinese insulting them with the naval ramming. While Germania's economy is more than enough to keep outpacing them, there's that possibility of the Suez Canal being shut down and I have to make sure that Germania, and the rest of OZEV, is ready for that. At least South Bharat has a rapidly developing domestic industry so they aren't as reliant on foreign industrial imports compared to even 5 years ago, and can also still trade with the Akinese.
I looked at Lergen. "We need to look into exploring options to modernize our army and navy anti-air defenses, and give our air force longer range missiles. If the communists design their noise plane to not fall apart, they could be nasty ground attack options. And since they are using mages to fly those things, the anti-air capabilities will also have to double tap the bailed out mages to stop them from continuing their attacks without a plane. Then there's the question of if they are going to use magic guided missiles against land targets such as tanks. We need to at least have production ready designs within a few years."
Lergen suddenly paused before writing in his notes. "But no full modernization?"
"Unfortunately that is the case. We have only just recently stabilized Germania's budget and that is while heavily investing into energy independence so we will never have to worry about oil shortages crippling OZEV."
"Speaking of changing naval strategy, there is something else the CSR also revealed after withdrawing their frigates." Elya retrieved more photos to pass around. "Submarines and their mage companies. The Akinese navy was frustrated by submarine deployed mage harassments and instructed participating Akinese civilian vessels to leave the area. What is troubling them is that a few of the CSR submarines have torpedo launch capability, and tried to coordinate their torpedo volleys with the mage attacks. While none of the Akinese ships have been sunk, it did force the Akinese to cease their refugee rescue operations and withdraw from the contested waters."
"It could have gone a lot worse if they combined the attacks with missiles, torpedoes and submarine-launched mage companies all together." Visha spoke with a worried tone.
"They didn't mention anything about CSR's missiles in those submarine engagements, so I'd agree the Akinese were fortunate." Elya nodded her head.
"Considering that the whole conflict started because the Akinese were rescuing people, CSR might consider that as a pyrrhic victory." Lergen shrugged his shoulders. "They must be terrified of letting thousands flee to the Akinese to sacrifice so much of their military forces and reveal all of their newest capabilities. The Akinese air force wouldn't have such good anti-missile tactics if the CSR didn't reveal their capabilities in the earlier photoreconnisance jet shootdown incident."
"That submarine incident in Akitsushima Dominion…" Visha stared at one of the photos.
I dug through my faint memories of my previous life. How did submarines get countered? I remember a long time ago when I visited Hawaii and had a discussion about submarines.
"Visha, remember when I suggested to the American officer in Hawaii about having listening stations and sensors to detect submarines so that anti-submarine assets aren't wasting their time searching empty waters? The communists have to eventually recharge their batteries."
"It could work. I'll ask the navy for their inputs on how the Albish and Americans countered our submarines the last time we were at war with both, and pass the information along to the Akinese." Lergen shrugged.
Now that I'm thinking about it, there has to be a reason why the US and USSR built so many nuclear powered submarines. The US completely did away with the diesel-electric submarines. And I won't go back to using hydrogen peroxide powered submarines. I am so thankful that our prototype hydrogen peroxide submarine didn't explode while keeping pace with the Count Bützow aircraft carrier back when I was bluffing to Mr. Lloyd and Flemons about our submarines.
I walked up to a chalkboard. "I was worried they would have more submarines to try to repeat the nightmare of that massed mage assault on the Albish fleet back during the Bharatian War. But I think we might have an option to counter them, beyond our existing anti-submarine assets. What's the status of our naval reactor developments?"
"The last time I read a report from Admiral Gerhard, Captain Rickover recently started the two prototype submarine reactors and is monitoring their performance. He expects the aircraft carrier's reactor design to take less time as it is an upscaled version of the submarine reactor," Lergen responded.
"Why wasn't I told about reactors being started? And two reactors?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I asked Admiral Gerhard the same question regarding the disclosure of the reactors being started, and he informed me that Captain Rickover is paranoid about premature celebrations. He wanted to be fully certain of the reactors' performance and safety. As for the two reactors, they are two different types that the Navy and the Ministry of Energy are evaluating. The Ministry Energy contributed a large amount of funding to the naval reactor development in return for getting upscaled reactor designs for land-based next generation power plants."
"I would like to visit him one day. When he is ready to announce the results from his reactor projects." Before turning back to the chalkboard. "If we could have operational nuclear submarines, what could we do with them?"
"That project started under President Paul's authority. I'm not sure if you were briefed on that." Lergen cleared his throat.
"There were many high priority tasks I had to take care of when he fled from Berun, so I would like to hear about what his requirements were." I replied as I stood next to the chalkboard, ready to write whatever Lergen had to say.
"His requirements for the first generation nuclear submarine to only need refueling every few years or if it's easy to refuel, every several months, high underwater speed, deeper dive depths compared to conventional submarines, underwater mage deployment and the ability to hunt a hypothetical CSR mage submarine to kill the mages or at least leave them stranded in the middle of an ocean. He later added in the requirement for never needing to surface for air when someone proposed an onboard oxygen generator for the submarine." Lergen cleared his throat while I wrote down bullet points of his answer on the board.
"And his requirements for the next generation?" I motioned for him to continue on.
"The hard requirement is the ability to launch nuclear missiles as a deterrence tool against the CSR. Pointed straight at major coastal cities such as Nanjing." Lergen looked uncomfortable. "When people pointed out that the submarine would have to surface for the launch, his instruction was, 'make it launch from underwater and you will get the funding to build new submarines'."
"I would have liked to remove that missile launch requirement, but with the Albish, Frankish and the communists all making major nuclear advances, I'm going to have to keep Paul's requirements in. Would it be possible to launch conventional missiles?"
Lergen paused for a moment, then sighed, "of course."
"I am concerned about the Albish response if we start building a fleet of nuclear submarines. And that's without the missile launch capabilities…" Dertinge trailed off.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't President Paul shred the naval treaty with them and exposed the Alsace-Lorraine referendum fixing because they broke their promise on allowing him to build more submarines?" I smiled at Dertinge while Lergen seemed to have frozen for a second while taking a drink of water. "After all, they had a year to retaliate against Germania for that, but did nothing. It would not be good optics if they started drawing the red line when Paul already sprinted past them."
"Yes, there are no treaty limits on our navy construction, and it would be tricky for them to force us back into the genie bottle," Dertinge sighed.
I nonchalantly shrugged. "They can step up their anti-submarine capabilities all they want, but as long as they don't share those capabilities with the communists, I could care less when the nuclear submarines are going to be forward deployed to protect Akitsushima Dominion and South Bharat. Or they could stop helping the CSR and help the Akinese contain the growing threat so we don't have to build expensive nuclear submarines."
"I'm assuming our existing destroyers will suffice with anti-submarine and anti-air upgrades until we can get new destroyers built." I wrote on the chalkboard while Lergen nodded. "What about our carriers, how could they support submarine hunting operations?"
"Improved sonobuoys, and submarine hunting aircraft and helicopters to deploy them. I'll need to consult with the navy and airforce on this," Lergen shrugged.
"We'll reconvene tomorrow if there are additional military developments to discuss" I clasped my hands. "Please let me know if you have new ideas to address the new threats from the CSR that the Akinese helped us discover."
1953 January 1st, in Berun:
As I had feared, Shu had clammed up when Elya asked for his input on what exactly happened in the CSR after the earthquake. And we knew he had a wealth of information as the defector in Akitsushima Dominion claimed that Shu was one of the Chairman's right-hand men, which matches up with how much the Chairman relied on him during his visit in Germania. The BND had dug up information that hinted at NKVD activities in Aegyptus and other parts of the Middle East, and Shu was also suspiciously avoidant on that topic. He refused to read any information that the BND had on the Middle East as part of Elya's request for him to confirm some details.
I cheerfully smiled as Shu entered my office, followed by Elya. Visha stopped her discussion with me and scooted off to the side.
"Please, take a seat!" I motioned at the two chairs. Shu quietly sat down.
"I'm assuming you did not like me withholding information." Shu muttered as Elya also took her seat.
"I can't blame you for being cautious after your experience at the Albish embassy," I nodded. "I spent many years with them and they were consistently frustrating to work with. Although I never imagined they would be so willing to work with extremist communists."
"Everyone has a limited usefulness before they become a loose end that needs to be cut. Especially if they knew too much. I believe that is what the Albish realized when they were looking at the only Chinese person who knew the full details of the past deals they made with the Chinese Soviet Republic. Details that if leaked to the public, would be catastrophic for them." Shu glared at me. "Perhaps Kang or Li will fully cement their power and ensure that there is zero future for me back home. But I'm not interested in sharing the Chairman's fate."
I took a deep breath. "I understand that it would be unreasonable for us to exploit you like a free library. Everyone is entitled to their own secrets. And it would be unrealistic for me to make grandiose promises such as overthrowing the CSR's illegitimate government."
I paused for a moment as he continued to stare at me. "But while politics encourages holding onto some secrets, years in the military made me understand how secrets can kill in both knowing and keeping."
"What do you mean by that?" He gave me a confused look.
"I don't expect you to constantly vomit words." I shrugged my shoulders. "And while Germania will not sell you out, there will be times, rare situations, where you will have to prove your worth. There will be exceptional moments where I am staring down a terrible situation and facing a choice between terrible options and slightly less terrible options with very limited time to act. Maybe there could be an option that avoids unnecessary violence, but that requires me having a complete picture instead of stumbling about in the dark."
I tapped into my orb and darkened the windows. Shu appeared startled while I continued my speech.
"Your inputs could make the difference between us finding a not-terrible solution to a crisis, or plunging the world into a full blown global conflict." I then stopped the magic usage. "As for the Aegyptus situation specifically, you can keep your secrets for now, but when the Albish and Frankish start bombing them, I have to act quickly."
"No promises. I'm going to have to think about your proposal," he frowned.
"Take your time," I waved. "But don't wait too long, things in East Asia are heating up as we speak. There's always the risk of events spiraling out of control."
"So what would I be doing in the meantime?" Shu as he looked deep in thought. "Stage a communist rally in the middle of Berun?"
I could see Elya's eyes twitch before Shu looked at her and said in a monotone voice. "That was a joke."
Visha finally spoke up after silently observing our conversation. "You know, the next World Cup and the international aerial lacrosse games are going to be hosted in the Francois Republic. They are only a few months away and are essentially back to back, but I think Formosa could throw together teams for both events at the last minute and I doubt the Frankish would say no to them when it's clear that Formosa and them share the same enemy, the CSR."
I blinked for a moment. I completely forgot about sports with all of the flurry of international events, and although I had delegated most of the domestic matters to Adenaue as part of the training of would-be successors so I could finally retire in the future without a worry, I still had to keep a tab on those.
"Expand." Shu motioned at Visha, who smiled before continuing to elaborate.
"You could lead a delegation from Formosa with the team including athletes that were refugees from the CSR's purge. The CSR has not been invited to either competition, so this would be a major slap to the face for the coup plotters on the international stage. I can help out with the planning, just like what I did with Germania's short notice hosting of the World Cup. And Germania has many football and aerial lacrosse trainers and athletes to run the Formosan teams through crash course training."
Shu was silent for a moment before speaking up. "Let me know what I'll need to do to make the Formosan teams a reality."
"I'm sure you have contacts in Formosa that could help out." Visha shrugged, which Shu nodded.
After Shu and Elya left my office, Visha scooted over to next to me and whispered in my ears. "I wanted to slowly reel Shu into our sphere of influence by connecting him with Formosan interests. Give him something that would productively promote Formosa and tear down the CSR's illegitimate government. Besides, I wanted to do something different besides all of this government work."
"You know, it's been ages since I've been around Germanian aerial lacrosse team." I rubbed Visha's cheeks. "Maybe I should go see them again. Is Green still in the sports business? Maybe we could have him go to Formosa to run the mage team there."
"I'll definitely make sure Green would be at least present as one of the team staff members." Visha smiled before pulling off my clothing.
1953 January 2nd, somewhere in the Alps:
The soft crunch of snow was oddly calming for me. Then again, anything outside of Berun after all of the previous days of back-to-back urgent meetings and trying to comprehend the massive shift in international politics was better than remaining cooped up in office.
I withdrew a letter that was written by the Akinese Emperor out of my coat pocket to read through it again.
"Tanya, you really should leave work at the office. Remember what I said about not working yourself into the ground?" Visha tugged on one of my arms.
"I feel like I need to have some idea of how to answer his question. He could have had his foreign minister get in touch with our ambassador, but instead he wrote straight to me. He's afraid." I skimmed through the letter that was beautifully handwritten by him in Akinese. Sure there was also the translated copy for Visha and others to read, but I had to read the one written by him.
"Afraid of the situation in Formosa?" Visha let go of my arm and instead held my hand as we continued walking through the forest.
"They have over twenty thousand refugees in Formosa, and there's still a small trickle of people washing up on the beaches in boats or makeshift rafts." I looked out at the valley in front of us. "Aside from the obvious risk of a portion of them forming an active communist group and thus restarting the communism problem that previously fizzled out by giving Formosa independence, there's also the question of how Formosa's economy would absorb such a large influx of people."
After about a minute of walking, Visha chuckled. "Ah, it's so straightforward. Remember how you handled the communists in the early days of Germania?"
"Well those were primarily caused by the terrible economic situation, and you know, the belief in the Kaiser being completely shattered." I rolled my eyes.
"But those refugees escaped imprisonment or death." Visha chided me. "And they all witnessed other refugees that were killed by the CSR's military during their fleeing from the mainland. If we and Akitsushima Dominion provide major economic investments into the island, it could show the refugees that there is indeed a better way. Like how you showed the Germanian communists there were better ways to improve their life instead of pursuing a violent revolution?"
I hummed, thinking about Visha's suggestion for an economic miracle. "Well, if the Akinese want to expand their military bases and ports in Formosa in response to a more aggressive CSR, it would make sense for Formosa to have a large industrial base to support the military forces instead of having to import everything from Akitsushima Dominion. And it would also allow Formosa to defend itself."
"Imagine the illegitimate government's reaction when they see a prosperous Formosa right on their doorstep," Visha smiled. "And having to convince their potentially skeptical population that it was all just a lie."
I hugged Visha and leaned in for a kiss. "So what should we do about Shu?"
"We'll have to discuss it with Elya and others, but Elya mentioned that she will secretly monitor what he does when he's over in Formosa, including seeing who his contacts are. Actions speak louder than words, and if he's actually loyal to the coup plotters, then we would find out soon. But if he's willing to focus on improving Formosa to be a constant thorn in the illegitimate government's side, well, I don't think you would be opposed to that."
I nodded my head as I contemplated that thought. It would be a good opportunity to test his character to help remove any doubt about whether his advice to us can be trusted.
Suddenly I felt a snowball hit my magic shell, breaking into a puff of glittering snow pieces. I turned around to see a giggling Visha crush snow together in her hands to make another snowball.
"No rocks or ice!" I shouted as I also started making my own snowball after dodging her second one.
Meanwhile in Nanjing:
Kang leaned back in his chair with one of his hands trembling.
"The escapes have dwindled down." Luo pointed at one of the reports. "We ensured that all of the mage technology and augmentation related personnel were accounted for and thus no escapes from even those that did try and kept the Akinese out of our affairs. We learned many lessons of what needs to be fixed. More missiles and possibly decoys are needed to guarantee overwhelming ships' anti-air defenses. More heavy missile platforms to our coastal defense to reach out and hit ships at far greater ranges than what our railway guns can accomplish, and shoot down aircraft while we're working on our own jet fighters. And started looking into building lightly armored frigates that carry those heavy missiles as well to defeat the Akinese battleships. Thankfully we can apply radar technology to this."
"We lost over a third of our entire aircraft inventory, and didn't sink a single Akinese ship with the missiles! The only reason we merely lost a large number of pilots instead of even more was because we had mages, civilian vessels and submarines pull the survivors out of the water. Our strength comes from the perception of it. We can't afford to risk revealing our problems. At some point the capitalists will suspect that we are putting up a show! What good is damaging ships with missiles when the enemy gains control of the sky?" Kang slammed his fist on the table, then looked out the window.
"It's unfortunate that we lost many pilots. But those aircraft would have been obsolete in a few years when our jet planes enter production."
"We don't have a 'few years' if the skirmishes had escalated to a full war. The Akinese would have gotten new aircraft and weapons from the Germanians by the time our jets are flying, which will be a major improvement over the obsolete jet production schematics that the Albish gave us. And we both know they are obsolete when they look very familiar to the Albish jets in the Bharatian War from a decade ago." Kang glared intensely at an uncomfortably looking Luo while pausing, before continuing.
"And Li is exploiting our mess to solidify his control over his newly acquired military forces. Accusing us of being too weak willed to attack Germanian military assets! Demanding a full scale war against the Akinese! His forces are now disobeying your command. I am aware of the standoff that happened yesterday, between your forces and his. I can't have my State Security personnel go and arrest him when he has a mage division protecting him. This also means that we can't continue shelling the Kinmen Islands after the first barrage. Starting a slogging war against the Akinese is suicidal when we need to deal with Li first."
"I was not expecting people who partook in the '1000 Flowers Campaign' to flock to him." Luo shook his head in dismay.
"He's giving them the false promise of forgiveness if they denounce what they had done. I saw the reports from my agents of those desperate people burning written copies of what they had previously written in the 1000 Flowers Campaign and pledging fealty to Li in his mass rallies. There's no way he's going to uphold his promise when he no longer needs them," Kang sighed. "Of course, many people will rather delay their arrests or deaths, than to face the consequences immediately. It was smart of him to promise salvation when we were prescribing deaths and imprisonments."
"Then there's North Bharat and the Russy Confederation off doing their own thing, and Afghanistan still being run by the monarchy, which Li is also exploiting."
"Some of the Russy Confederation members adopting 'market socialism' in an attempt to reform their economies, North Bharat increasingly allowing the mix of their communist system with religion, and the monarchy in Afghanistan being the only force that is keeping unrest from boiling into full blown insurgencies?"
"If he wins this power struggle, he will rather declare war on them to force them to comply with the 'true communist revolution' than to tolerate them. And also invade Burma as well since they are full of Buddhist monks. Deal or not, the Albish will backstab us for the opportunity to cut us down a size if they see us at war with all of our allies. And so will everyone else."
"Perhaps we could seek assistance from our allies. Such as the NKVD?"
"Are you out of your mind?!" Kang snapped, almost knocking his cup of tea off the table. "If he gets any word of that, that'll just prove his lies! He will start a civil war! I don't have sufficient information to know who they will back now that Zhang is gone."
"Then what do we do?"
Kang sighed as he turned away from the window. "We stall him until the Albish and Frankish set the Middle East on fire and we resume supporting the rebels in their Southeast Asia colonies. If the rebel leaders are uncooperative, then we'll push them aside or kill them, then use our agents to take direct control of the rebellions. No need to pretend that we have no involvement with the rebellions because the Albish would immediately recognize our secret deal is over when their colonies and the Frankish colonies suddenly have prison breaks and riots everywhere. Then we will make our move in the Middle East with our military. Li will have to send in his new paramilitary force alongside our military to fight the inevitable conflicts in that power vacuum before others, such as the Devil of the Rhine, secure their own slices of that region. Or we'll have our propaganda system on overdrive to ridicule his followers for being cowards. Then we'll go from there."
"What is the plan with the prisoners? We have to deal with them eventually." Luo pointed at a map of the locations where prisoners were being taken to. "Keeping them locked up is an immense waste of resources."
Kang thumbed his hands for a moment. "Before the mage research facility incident, I had seen a report on a limited research that wanted to study what allows people to have magic potential, and the biological difference that leads to many not having magic potential. It was abandoned after a dozen test subjects were used, with no results to show for."
"How many prisoners do you intend on feeding into that experiment?" Luo looked on with concern.
"Tens of thousands are currently under arrest. And we have the lobotomy staff on hand to deal with the more problematic ones if necessary," Kang coldly stared. "I understand that many researchers were killed in that incident, but that's not going to stop us from developing larger quantities of mages, and higher quality ones."
The telephone ranged and Kang picked it up.
Luo watched Kang's face twist in anger for a few minutes, before Kang slammed the phone back down.
"What's the bad news this time?" Luo sighed as Kang angrily paced back and forth.
"An informant in Formosa reported that the Akinese started construction to expand existing ports, military bases and airfields. One particular airfield is having its runway extended long enough for Akinese heavy bombers. And it gets better. The Akinese government also told their population back home that they accused us of violating the previous treaty regarding the limits on military forces around Formosa Island after we shelled Kinmen Islands."
"Would they also invite Germanian military forces?" Luo's face paled.
"The Akinese government refused to answer the media's question about Germanian military forces being stationed in Formosa Island."
"You know the costs of a pre-emptive strike. Before they turn that island into a fortress," Luo muttered.
"Yes. I have seen the Formosa Island invasion plans." Kang again stared out at the window. "And that was before our aircraft and surface ships were mauled. It was to conscript ALL of the civilian ships and boats, down to sailboats, load them up with soldiers, and send them all to Formosa Island. With no plans of how to resupply the island should we capture it to avoid our men from starving to death. Or what to do if the conflict spirals into a world war."
"So do we do it anyway?"
AN:
Reference to the "super loud" propeller aircraft: wiki/Republic_XF-84H_Thunderscreech
The XF-84H was almost certainly the loudest aircraft ever built, earning the nickname "Thunderscreech" as well as the "Mighty Ear Banger".[16] On the ground "run ups", the prototypes could reportedly be heard 25 miles (40 km) away.[17] Unlike standard propellers that turn at subsonic speeds, the outer 24–30 inches (61–76 cm) of the blades on the XF-84H's propeller traveled faster than the speed of sound even at idle thrust, producing a continuous visible sonic boom that radiated laterally from the propellers for hundreds of yards. The shock wave was actually powerful enough to knock a man down; an unfortunate crew chief who was inside a nearby C-47 was severely incapacitated during a 30-minute ground run.[17] Coupled with the already considerable noise from the subsonic aspect of the propeller and the T40's dual turbine sections, the aircraft was notorious for inducing severe nausea and headaches among ground crews.[11] In one report, a Republic engineer suffered a seizure after close range exposure to the shock waves emanating from a powered-up XF-84H.[18]
The pervasive noise also severely disrupted operations in the Edwards AFB control tower by risking vibration damage to sensitive components and forcing air traffic personnel to communicate with the XF-84H's crew on the flight line by light signals. After numerous complaints, the Air Force Flight Test Center directed Republic to tow the aircraft out on Rogers Dry Lake, far from the flight line, before running up its engine.[14]
Reference to what the CSR frigates were using (before I scrapped all of its little details in the chapter). Part of the reason why they were so slow was because they had overbuilt armor and torpedo protection, allowing them to shrug off hits from Akinese destroyers and some torpedo hits, but that meant at the cost of very slow speed. Especially with their underpowered coal fired engines:
wiki/Plastic_armour
wiki/Torpedo_net
wiki/Anti-torpedo_bulge
wiki/Torpedo_belt
As for the next generation Akinese battleships' constructions that are likely to be interrupted due to the Akinese changing their naval doctrine, I'm assuming they were going to have cannons that would be even larger than the Yamato's 46 cm (18.1 inch) cannons: wiki/46_cm/45_Type_94_naval_gun
Inspiration for the mage emissions warfare: wiki/Radar_jamming_and_deception
Beam riding missile guidance reference: wiki/Beam_riding
Air-to-air missile history: wiki/AIM-4_Falcon
What will be replacing the beam riding missile: wiki/Semi-active_radar_homing
(It was also mentioned in AYWPR's Chapter 54-55 of their early work on infrared homing missiles back in 1941, which was plagued by the missile locking onto the sun half of the time): wiki/Infrared_homing#Post-war_designs
Early active radar homing missile: wiki/AIM-47_Falcon
Anti-ship missile history: wiki/KSShch
It was tested in 1953–1954 on the destroyer Bedovyy (Kildin-class) and entered service in 1955, being deployed on Kildin- and Krupnyy (later converted to Kanin)-class ships.
Reference to the land based heavy anti-air missile system: watch?v=hc94-HOJFEc
Historical reference of the Albish selling technology to the CSR: wiki/Clement_Attlee#Europe_and_the_Cold_War
Attlee himself sought warm relations with Stalin. He put his trust in the United Nations, rejected notions that the Soviet Union was bent on world conquest, and warned that treating Moscow as an enemy would turn it into one. This put Attlee at sword's point with his foreign minister, the Foreign Office, and the military who all saw the Soviets as a growing threat to Britain's role in the Middle East. Suddenly in January 1947, Attlee reversed his position and agreed with Bevin on a hard-line anti-Soviet policy.[171]
In an early "good-will" gesture that was later heavily criticised, the Attlee government allowed the Soviets to purchase, under the terms of a 1946 UK-USSR Trade agreement, a total of 25 Rolls-Royce Nene jet engines in September 1947 and March 1948. The agreement included an agreement not to use them for military purposes. The price was fixed under a commercial contract; a total of 55 jet engines were sold to the USSR in 1947.[172] However, the Cold War intensified during this period and the Soviets, who at the time were well behind the West in jet technology, reverse-engineered the Nene and installed their own version in the MiG-15 interceptor. This was used to good effect against US-UK forces in the subsequent Korean War, as well as in several later MiG models.[173]
wiki/Stafford_Cripps#After_the_war
In 1946, Soviet jet engine designers approached Stalin with a request to buy jet designs from Western sources to overcome design difficulties. Stalin is said to have replied: "What fool will sell us his secrets?" However, he gave his assent to the proposal, and Soviet scientists and designers travelled to the United Kingdom to meet Cripps and request the engines. To Stalin's amazement, Cripps and the Labour government were perfectly willing to provide technical information on the Rolls-Royce Nene centrifugal-flow jet engine designed by RAF officer Frank Whittle, along with discussions of a licence to manufacture Nene engines. The Nene engine was promptly reverse-engineered and produced in modified form as the Soviet Klimov VK-1 jet engine, later incorporated into the MiG-15 which flew in time to deploy in combat against UN forces in North Korea in 1950, causing the loss of several B-29 bombers and cancellation of their daylight bombing missions over North Korea.[18]