Notes
I am running quite late with my schedule on this one. Good thing I managed to get it out. eh? Here's another one for you.
The armor plates as fitted to Norfolk (Alsace) are enhanced with Magitech theirselves, which is a fancy way of saying that in touhou terms magical reagents are baked into the alloy's composition itself. or that they have been enhanced by some sort of enhancing ability. The result is to directly improve tensile strength which in turn implies a direct RHAe increase. The armor is rated for 1.2-1.3x against all threats. Note that Homogenous and Face Hardened armor respond differently to threats. With caps having issues with oblique homogenous (since they don't even hit face-first and denormalize. blunt-nosed penetrators without caps did mitigate this partially) while they destroy the hard faces of FHA armors. especially excessively thick-face ones. The T-34's relatively primitive HHS thin steel under attack from large-caliber penetrators can suffer shatter effects leading to the formation of a 'slab' being driven straight into the fighting compartment. which also impedes ricochet.
It should be noted there was also a composite version with NERA plates and a suitably sized destabilizer plate intended to knock off anything on the nose before damaging a incoming AP shell with sloped NERA (and its later. more energetic cousin like GaP NxRA polymer plates) plates consisting of a thick front plate. rubber and thin back plates intended to damage the projectile. sometimes to the point of ripping it in half before absorbing any incoming splinters with structural armor. However it didn't manage to join my adventure sadly enough. but perhaps that can change in the reviews.
A ceramic armor option was also considered and optimized against large-caliber threats with the intent of shatter and good multi-hit capability. but i haven't done the math so far and how strong the backing plate must be for slope.
Also keep in mind that the 50% penetration estimate is still a 50/50 rather than full protection. for full immunity the armor needs to be 7% thicker than the attacking projectile's maximum penetration.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Splash one and two! N-4!" I finished with a verbal tic as the water foamed and turned white, only after a while venting into a surface burst like you see in these depth charge footage videos. SQS-53 is telling me what i expected, confirmed torpedo detonations followed by disturbed water cluttering out the readouts, Z19 and Aurora were turning around now. waiting to see if anything floats to the surface from a potential hit.
Not wasting my time in this battle, with a mental command my remaining conventional piston engine aircraft began warming up along with several A-7s. Since there was a good amount of CLAAs and gunboats in the siren fleet that was engaging Hornet's Fleet. specifically Fleet one and Fleet two. They would need some way to get past all that AAA otherwise they could be suppressed and ultimately brought down. the A-7s with their heavy payload and standoff capabilities were to punch a wide enough hole into the screen. allowing my SBDs to target capitals like carriers and battleships that were providing heavy firepower.
"Passive Sonobuoys. Launch!" Prowlers overhead chirped a greeting at my command as they began to form up into a formation. launching SSQ-53Fs from their modified pods as they were spaced out so as to cover a impossibly large distance. each buoy being stabilized by parachutes and descending gently before splashing down. each unfolding and deploying its buoyant bags as passive listeners went online having been programmed and configured to operate at a shallow depth perfect for sniffing out WW2 limited diving depths. All buoys immediately began to feed my prowlers with valuable data by UHF radio and datalink which in turn were being transmitted to me.
Weird thing about Passive sonobuoys. At the time that they saw the zenith of their development, they were favored heavily as a single USN group made of a carrier and several surface vessels with a few submarines could. upon getting the slightest idea of even a rough estimate on the targeted submarine position. then would immediately throw out dozens of passive buoys over a area covering hundreds of square miles and theoretically have a good chance of making contact. Considering a Mk 44 can acquire a submarine out to 350 or 1000 meters for a lightweight. and with how tiles and noise masking wasn't the biggest priority at the time. it was correct.
Of course, decades later. the Passive listeners began to drop out of favor for actives instead as the area that can be covered shrunk a lot from ten miles to now just a few miles. which meant a higher chance that the sub was getting away or was going to destroy something, and it also meant that helicopters had to go overweight if they wanted to compensate for the reduced probability. Of course, there was a partial answer for this in the form of employing multi-static emitter/receiver tactics by making a field of passive buoys. and then throwing out a active one to create a source, the echo could then picked up by not just the dipping system. but by any of the buoys... which in turn allowed you to make a guess of where the sub was.
Active buoys also led to other problems in the form of alerting the submarine and Anechoic Tiles as the answer when Actives started to replace passives after noise quietening caught up. Unfortunately for my victims, WW2 Submarines are noisier and more vulnerable to echo-ranging than their later descendants.
"Norfolk. Would it not be wise to load up on active buoys so we can pinpoint where their subs are?" Phoenix questioned me over my decision to choose passive listeners in mild confusion. Having no homers meant she wasn't able to fire and forget toward the bearing of the contacts that were being detected by my buoys. I paused for a moment to reply to Phoenix while Z20 and Charles both launched and rolled off their own depth charges. breaking off for any probable kill impatiently as the clutter began to die down on my own sonar.
"Let them think they're u-undetected. We don't... want to use up our surprise on early detection." I explained to Phoenix. "I-If they hear ever so much as a hostile ping. t-then they would figure out they've been detected. You know how slippery they can be in getting away..."
"Well reasoned." Phoenix conceded. nodding.
Multiple returns and contacts pop up on my mental map. Even without their precise locations as my processing power went to work on analyzing the pattern in the sonar net to get a rough idea. I can tell that there are several submarines in our immediate area. as well as more subs in wolfpack/coordinated groups that were some distance away from us, but could still be reached in time if desired so. However, I was still on a time limit here before Hornet's situation got too untenable and before surface assets likely responded.
I elected to leave bombarding their estimated positions with air-dropped torpedoes and Ikaras for the last.
"Spence! Libeccio. And you three A-Atlantas! Spread out and keep us covered from air attacks! Bataan and Independence. Launch your fighters on CAP and U-boat patrol duty and send your other half of bombers to cover Victorious! I w-want everyone on alert! The last thing we need is to get jumped by a Gato or by bombers in the clouds!"
"YES MA'AM!"
'Norfolk!' Victorious began again. this time with a sense of urgency.
'What is it now!?' I nearly cried into the radio. watching a U-boat surface with obvious blast holes in her hull caused by Mk 44 and DC detonations, Aurora and Z19 closed in. turning toward the sub and began a close-range brawl. The siren sub. for all her fragileness refused to take this lying down. as I saw her preparing to fire her sole armament and AAA cannons.
"Looks like severe damage! Can't submerge!" Aurora called to her other Ironblood partner. adding in her own firepower against the lone submarine.
All of a sudden, Victorious's transmission continued.
'Ready your fighters. Bataan's and Independence's as well!' She said. 'Alert your fleet!'
I nodded. but replied back as to what was making this so urgent. 'Is there something t-that requires my attention?'
'Illustrious's scouts spotted a fleet whose's course is headed toward you!' The woman shouted as explosions filtered through the static. 'At least three to four fleet carriers and a whole complement of capital ships and escorts!'
I repressed the urge to shudder. With my current numbers alone. 12+ going up against at least 30 ships did not sound like a very good disparity favourable to me. My MiGs are capable, sure. and the Filipino light carrier is no slouch. But what can just a few tens of fighters do against the combined potential threats of hundreds of aircraft? The strikes that I had endured were relatively low in strength, and the last ones had me protected by a fleet... But this time, the airstrikes would now be directed toward me and my fleet.
And I didn't want to go through it again. every mind-wiping minute of it. For several hours of running.
It scares me to think that already we might be getting spotted by a air power-focused fleet without even doing anything. It scares me to think that we'd have to sail into that with low odds. That I had to sail into that, Yeah. My L/70 guns all fire PF-fused shells. I have SAMs. and my MiG-29s could potentially all be armed with R-73s and Skyflash only for tens of stowed kills in a alpha strike. but that doesn't make us immune if that fleet is pissed off enough to send me to the bottom.
Carrier versus Battlecarrier duel. Tech disparity of not still scare the hell out of me, and we are going against not one. but four again.
But you dominate them in quality by a major margin.
"Everyone! There's a fleet headed toward us! Four fleet c-carriers! Be on the lookout for aircraft! Atlantas. Provide us cover if what Victorious said is true!" Affirmatives streamed in as Independence replied back with her own words. already giving the orders to some of her aircraft to turn around and assume CAP patrols. "I am ordering my fighters to turn around, Keep your eyes open. everyone!" She clicked her tongue. looking slightly nervous before she recollected herself.
This mission has just gone officially into 'holy fuck holy hell what is that thing' territory.
When a battle between two sides is joined, It often means that probing skirmishes. low-intensity sporadic gunfire and posturing had turned hard and violent between several units of each side and was going to repeat again, grinding each other down.
As such. the Azur Lane Fleet had closed in on the standby defense force. scattering the various destroyers and frigates to meet the Dunkerques and Nagatos in a flank charge while Suffrens, Leipzigs and Crown Colonies exchanged salvos of fire against a panicking Edinburgh. dozens of torpedo-based platforms pouncing on the maid herself, HE and AP shellfire along with rockets savaged her hull as the pursuing shipgirls broke off. Tirpitz starting to pound away at a unfortunate Mutsuki-class caught in the tactical withdrawal with her main batteries. blowing a turret clean off the Mutsuki-class in question as she struggled to start emergency repairs.
This was something that TC Ramsay did not appreciate. With so many shipgirls of heavy tonnage in range of her (and their) guns, It would easily spell death for the many submarines and support ships located around this specific stretch of the seas.
"Regroup our Long Lance units and counter-attack their push with torpedoes." She ordered, watching a D-class destroyer fly apart from multiple guns targeting the girl. "Reposition our cruisers! Have them form into pairs and support the heavier ships! These nimble ships will pose a threat to our core battlefleet if they get through!"
The primary defense fleet that formed the mobile network protecting this beacon of submarine activity from hostile ASW activity was a squadron set of fleet carriers and heavy capital ships. Three Shoukakus formed a air defense grid and a plethora of Nagatos and Nelsons were the main firepower.
The other shipgirls were relatively modern heavy cruisers like the Hippers and New Orleans and over three Zuiho light carriers as well as a mixture of modern and old destroyers. Most prominent of all were four Dunkerque-class battlecruisers, sent by the behest of their handlers after passing their basic training with some basic patrolling and small fleet tactics experience under their belts. Combined. they formed over a few tens of warships alone protecting submarines in transit that came closely to nearly a hundred. maybe 80 or 90.
But even with that amount of firepower and organic assets, can they deal with well over tens of shipgirls?
It remained to be seen, So far they were stemming the onslaught. disabling cruiser after cruiser and evading torpedoes. The Shoukakus had met heavy resistance in the air but the Akizukis and Didos had sighted their weapons in time and were carrying out their intended purpose by cutting into the numbers of enemy bombers quite sharply.
Even so, they were being slowly forced back. Hopefully the little wolfpacks would be alerted by then and be able to engage evasion and scatter to maximize their chances.
For now, however. Ramsay felt she was needed most in her current position. leading the fleet against the Combined Joint fleet armada. The enemy fleet had blown their element of surprise. but it did not lessen the numbers of guns each enemy warship possessed. and they were still outnumbered 1:3 to 1:7.
"Ma'am! I am receiving reports of additional contacts. Transmitting full details now!" One of the carriers informed her, A shot-down dive bomber crashing out nearby. The siren's eyes flickered to 7 o'clock as the plane began to describe the new contacts and the unusual enemy aircraft circling. Yes, they had reserves... but they were on a different bearing.
A foredooming sensation began to grow inside her stomach as she realized that it was a flotilla, but they weren't heavy enough to stand par-to-par with them. but still heavy enough to pose a major threat to the lights and formed around a single heavy capital ship and carriers circling around... And they were firing on resupply ships and depth charging.
"Contact CSI Command!" She ordered, startling the kansens around her. "Warn them and any quick reaction forces within reach! There is a enemy fleet executing search-and-destroy missions against our wolfpacks undetected!"
Everything was taking a turn for the worse. I decided, after several seconds pondering. A quick glance through the eyes of a MiG-29 showed that while Alpha Enemy fleet air-power projection was fully occupied and slowly being grinded down by my allies. there were incoming aviation units from the second fleet's direction. Several squadrons were airborne, likely spotting us soon if no miracle happened as i prepared to pulse my RADAR.
Turning my vision toward Alpha Fleet again. There was a fighter-bomber squadron in particular. leading the few remaining free forces through a cloud of deadly Triple-A and heavy AAA bursts between several cruisers assuming the anti-aircraft role to try and knock out a Sakura destroyer. Dozens of explosions signalled the end of yet more bombercraft.
It's a strange ability, I admit that much. While I was no stranger to the concept of UAVs. controlling your aircraft as through they were like a collective part of a hivemind was... weird as hell. It was like speech and commands consisting of pure Will. projected to effective reach of my radios. Ordering a single A-7 to bomb out an enemy ship was like commanding mind to mind as easily as i moved my legs. the way a hivemind spoke to its bugs that served as the eyes and ears and hands and feet. As if extensions of myself. without their own independent processes.
It was still amazing to get live video feed and perspectives from my other bombers and aircraft. or when i manually controlled my secondaries and teritaries, It was like as through I was seeing into a VR HUD display while still seeing things with my own eyes. It's a good thing for everyone that I am not a Flood entity or some other hellish lifeform like the Blob Overmind, and Kyubey's hivemind theory... while suggesting high drone autonomy, like a god whispering in your mind. didn't leave out the medium and low autonomy possibilities.
Because Collective Intelligences can pool their entire power together?
The Sakura Destroyers began their thrust, emitting nothing but pure coordination and a rapid reaction loop as they charged forward without loop delays. Behind them, denizens of torpedo cruisers and destroyers like Dewey rushed forward to cover them and launch torpedoes of their own.
Under the confusion and chaos of what was happening, the flank guard of several frigates. destroyers and a Admiral Hipper returned to firing. but it had been too late to react to such a fast-acting foe, Torpedoes ran into unprotected hulls and detonated. The Azur lane shipgirls didn't bother with their main guns. They just began pummeling the defenders with autocannons. One strafed a screaming A-class and began using her other partners as swiss cheese practice.
I slewed the sensors away from the sight, slightly disturbed at how readily the girl had taken to blood and battle-rage herself at close range so enthusiastically . A alert informed me as Type 965 confirmed the second fleet's position and I traversed my other smaller RADARs to begin deciding their composition.
'Charles! Enemy submarine is going down!' Depth charges went off as I closed in and fired a few homers from my lightweight tubes before turning away to avoid counterattack from a Fleet tonnage submarine. I spotted a lone U-boat forced nearly to the surface. sandwiched between Aurora and one of my girls. stern and forward torpedo tubes firing away noisily in hail mary shots.
A blink and I was receiving data from my Dauntlesses. diving along and skimming the hull of what had been identified as a Renown after dodging an impressive amount of AAA fire for so long. dropping away bombs and pulling out of the dive in near-certainty of its destruction as bombs detonated on the decks.
I could feel something akin to exhilaration and fear as explosions lit up behind the bomber. It's actions being to try and winchester back to base as it opened fire on a A6M Zero. The little fighter began to try and get out of the way. already attempting to engage my bomber as main gun batteries fired from a ship.
I blinked as the Dauntless almost squawked. for lack of a better word in alarm as time-fused fire came out like a sea of green and orange fire.
Moments later, my link to it disappeared.
'This is Charles. I got one! Z19's also forcing one up! She's not crash-diving this time!' Charles cheered on the radio. although not as aggressively with the looming threat of a fleet headed our way as Bataan took care of that one surfaced sub with a pair of accurately-aimed bombs to the deck casing. destroying any safe limited diving capability and crippling it with unmanageable flooding from a combination of depth charges and holes as fires ignited.
"Bataan. Independence?" I commanded. my two carriers facing me as I needed to organize something to slow down the second fleet's airstrike while I prepared my own aircraft for take off.
"Yes. Ma'am?/Any new orders?" Bataan and Independence spoke almost all at once. now that Alpha fleet was tied down completely, and since I had a more immediate and major threat to deal with. recalling any fully armed aircraft to turn around would be a good idea. complete with ordering them to speed up the rearming process already and warm up their guns. The Filipino carrier's sapphire eyes stare almost unblinkingly with a nearly blank expression otherwise.
"We've got a new fleet approaching us from there..." I pointed with my hand. no longer with any shyness, now with a visible twitch of anger as being in the midst of naval combat meant my prosperity to stutter and trip over my own words was gone for now. replaced in its place was a decisive and short OODA loop mindset hellbent on finding any solutions to the problem I was stuck in, especially with my life potentially being on the line here. "Call back any aircraft you might have! Any fighters will take off as soon as they are ready! If we don't, even the Atlanta sisters won't be able to save us from that large airstrike!"
"...Understood. I will be careful." Bataan acknowledged, tugging the hem of her shirt once more. behind her eyes I felt some hesitation almost haltingly in the face of such a force with our numbers. given that her hand barely reached shoulder level in her haste to put it down.
"...Okay. I am preparing fighters for takeoff now!" Independence's shoulders tensed up, as she nods back slightly. The twitch of worry flits across her face. In my mind, I felt some relief to have picked experienced and composed shipgirls who didn't take this battle like a game of paintball and were not panicking when a major surface asset was headed toward them like a glacial boulder.
For a moment, I considered throwing off the facade restraining my abilities. a killing machine with frills of justice yearning to be let off the shackles of morality...
Don't hold back. Let it out.
But then, I remembered. Remember To the Stars. Don't drop the Masquerade, Not Yet. I can't turn this battle into a technicolor surprise even if my aggressive side is demanding that i do so to maximize the chances of someone not dying.
"Stop searching for the submarines for now, Z-Z19. Aurora. Z20. Charles, Ariake, Arashio. Regroup with the Atlantas and prepare for hostile airstrikes!"
I have a battle to finish, and if disabling the second fleet's capital ships of forcing them to turn around must be so. Then it will be so. Full complements of Corsairs. Mikoyans. Prowlers-all began to warm up followed by my missiles. Overwhelming force and shock wasn't enough. Demoralization and forcing them to panic must also be the end goal here.
"Open fire!" Z19 shouted. She, along with nearly everyone opened up on the approaching aircraft. trying to contribute despite her anemic short-range 20mm FLaK and issues with her low-angle non-power-driven 127mm guns, Soon, Aurora joined in, other Royal Navy destroyers like Icarus and Echo to their sides a short distance away. Time-fused 127mm. 114mm and 102mm shells filled the air around Siren D3As and Wildcat fighter-bombers in the first wave, But they still kept coming. Then short-range cannons like 20mms started firing as enemy strike aircraft crossed into their effective ranges.
San Juan and Aurora were like a fountain of colorful projectiles. their 127mm and 102mm guns firing as fast as they could load them, soon turning the sky into a beautiful dance with death itself. Norfolk herself had also began to fire guided rockets. Four Siren aircraft went down, rendered out of control by excessive damage. Another practically exploded when one of Norfolk's missiles achieved a direct hit on the nose.
When 20mms began firing was that the first of the siren aircraft heeled over into a combination of steep dives and shallow glides. Some more took hits and lost control or either became unresponsive trailing white and grey smoke.
'Evade! EVADE!' Z19 heard Charles shouting and didn't waste time on heeding the call, powering into a tight turn to try and throw off an approaching dive bomber. its bomb splashing into the water to her right and inflicting minor damage when it detonated underwater. Another one came in screaming for Ariake with light bombs as it released its bomb crutches before pulling out from the dive as explosions covered the Sakura destroyer. She came out of the smoke clutching at her right eye and glaring up at the sky in defiance.
She hadn't known Dorsetshire's supposed sister for very long. but she thought she had a slight idea of what to expect from her. her love for sports weren't just an excuse to be with Lewis and gossip with the rest of her Ironblood teammates. but an opportunity to get to know her coworkers and charges.
Norfolk was perhaps as much of a enigma as Enterprise was, but in a different way. For a cruiser who took part in the action against Bismarck together with Suffolk and engaging Scharnhorst once. She was, unlike Deutschland and Z23 withdrawn and fragile. and almost seemed to be uncomfortable in her own body. possibly due to her coming into being as some sort of French battleship project rather than her actual class as well as esoteric abilities which were still poorly understood. She had a sense for making rapid decisions during battles or exercises. yet the first time Z19 had heard of her, she was said to be quite indecisive and submissive. Despite all of these things. she was fought over by the french and the british. The Royal Navy had no 406mm fast battleships and the KGVs were hindered by their treaty designs. Jean Bart's personality hid a vulnerable soul. Hood was... well. Vulnerable.
And yet, The shy battleship knew more than she should for her current experience. And at times when she was competitive. she had shown a aggressive side at times who refused to lose and expressed little fear if any. And it was showing again with her tactics. as despite her relative inexperience as a Fleet Kommandant and tendency to not make full use of her radar and sensors (Which she had tried to understand the idea of IR and Lasers) Norfolk was showing little hesitation in dealing with the enemy submarines and was even participating with homing torpedoes beyond anything the Ironblood could achieve in the short term. The Ironblood green-haired destroyer heard something akin to ambition in the battleship's voice. You could not hear that from a truly shy girl.
Even when Victorious had informed them of the fleet that outnumbered them a few times over. Her voice despite her stuttering and intermittent changes in tone to a withdrawn one still didn't show fear, if anything. She thought that she picked up something akin to confidence and determination from the Fast battleship.
'Everyone, Prepare for a tactical withdrawal and retreat! We've moving away from the second enemy battlefleet.' Norfolk said into the comms channels, to the relief of Spence and slight confusion on Phoenix's face. 'M-move us halfway deeper into sub-infested waters.' The relief on Spence's face went away hearing the new orders.
'What are you doing?' Arashio demanded. 'We won't be able to hold off the airstrikes alone!'
'I am altering the Plan, We must feint our retreat as through we're breaking up. Bataan. Independence will... prepare a decoy airstrike. while I will put together the real one. We need to surprise them with shock and disbelief from invisible attackers, Just hope I... don't alter anything further.'
Norfolk ordered a 'retreat' with Icarus responding before nearly getting bombed herself followed by the other girls, It was a risky move in Z19's mind. Outnumbered and outmatched with four fleet carriers, there was the real risk it could turn into a bloody stalemate of at worst they would be broken and routed as they tried to fake a retreat. Bataan's Wildcat streaked overhead. breaking up two D3As and forcing them to dodge and evade as the Union Light Carrier fighters engaged their assailants. The fighters made good work of the fast but lightly-built bombers. sending some tumbling into the water and driving the rest off before turning to assume a defensive strategy against incoming enemy fighters.
'T-Thanks.' Phoenix radioed in to Independence. followed by a response from the other end. 'Just doing my job.'
All the Ironblood destroyer could hope for now was that the British-French battleship was going to get them out of this unharmed against a numerically superior enemy as a Siren Wildcat burst apart like a oversized grapefruit from a direct 127mm hit. Already the enemy fleet was latching onto the feigned disorganized retreat like a Wolf refusing to let a bone go. slowly turning toward them to follow. If she failed, then the only result Z19 saw was slowly grinding each other down until one of them gave up.