The Devil off the Coast of Norden 3

***

TEMPORARY CAMP OF THE IMPERIAL ARMY’S 203RD BATTALION

“Telegram from the Imperial Navy Northern Sea Fleet Command!”

“…Read it.”

From the fleet? That’s the doubt in my mind. Tanya shares the question behind the puzzled looks of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion officers. Why did the fleet’s command go to the trouble of sending us a telegram?

The fact that they aren’t going through the regional army must mean this is what the General Staff wants? Or are they intervening directly? Either way, I have a bad feeling about this. As Tanya interprets the situation, she presses the radio operator to read the telegram.

As the officers listen with question marks on their faces, he responds to her request and reads the mission orders. “These are search and destroy combat orders for the 203rd Battalion. All previous maneuvers are to be halted immediately. You are requested to proceed directly to the waters indicated, locate the enemy, and block off the area. That is all!”

Geez. They say “search and destroy” like it’s nothing. Plus, nobody uses search and destroy these days! And mages don’t have any way to navigate over the water, so how are we supposed to find enemies and block off an area? Talk about mission impossible.

As Lieutenant Serebryakov brings the document over, Tanya stares crankily at a navigation chart of Norden’s coast spread out on her desk. She doesn’t even usually look at these things. Realizing this, she can’t help an inward sigh. It confronts her with the reality that she’ll have to fly in airspace with no sense of place, and it makes her awfully depressed.

“Lieutenant, get me the combat control map for the Northern Sea area. Call Norden Control.” This is making my brain hurt. Tanya shakes her head to clear her mind as Lieutenant Serebryakov brings her the requested map before trying to establish a line through to the local controllers.

“Yes, ma’am. Right away.”

She hands over the map and receiver with crisp motions. It’s Norden Control. We exchange just a word or two, and the radio operator connects me to someone from the navy. It’s the worst when they don’t pass you off irresponsibly but actually have good lateral cooperation.

At this rate, I won’t be able to slack off and blame it on bad coordination. Maybe being too efficient is a bad thing. I suppose I should at least praise the integrity with which they do their work, though. I’m a good citizen, so it’s only right that I commend my fellow countrymen for performing their duties.

When I think of that, I guess all I can do is stick it out for the public good.

Since I have no other choice, I make all the necessary calls without a minute wasted. Griping is a luxury and a waste of time. There is not a day in the life of a corporate warrior that they are allowed the indulgence of wasting time. In order to spend their off days as they wish, the highest level of job performance is essential.

For a soldier, not a thing changes.

“Lieutenant! Where is the Northern Sea Fleet now?”

“I’ll ask right away!”

The military machine is starting to move, and I’m one of its gears, Tanya automatically thinks. And this gear needs to know the positions of the remaining Entente Alliance ships, as well as her friendly fleet. She has crammed the general memo on the Entente Alliance ships into her head at least, so she dredges it up while quickly confirming the crucial points.

Even if the Northern Sea Fleet deployed in this area isn’t the Empire’s strongest, the High Seas Fleet, it has some powerful vessels, including capital ships. Their training is trustworthy, and ever since the landing operation a few days ago, we’ve been able to coordinate to some extent. But an unplanned battle is a different story.

Tanya manages to consider all the most important facts while having Lieutenant Serebryakov make phone calls. She has no choice but to handle this efficiently, but it’s in an area she has no experience with, not to mention a rapid response mission. Maybe that’s why she can’t calm down and has only a tenuous hold on the urge to give a thousand different instructions.

She takes deep breaths—small ones so no one around her will notice. Sometimes it’s useful to be short. It makes you less conspicuous, but at times like this, it’s really handy.

Still, we’ve never even done an exercise over water, and now we’re being thrown into a real marine battle? The target is a group of fleeing Entente Alliance warships. Missions to assist in pursuit are so hard. It’s like trying to negotiate an acquisition without knowing anything about the other side. If we’re in such a superior position that these talks would work out, it begs the question whether negotiations are even needed in the first place.

Hence, each minute feels like a hundred years, and when the situation report that Tanya is waiting for comes in and Lieutenant Serebryakov hands her the receiver, she snatches it away. With her other hand she holds a pen, ready to make notes at any moment on the map she had Lieutenant Weiss spread on the table.

“This is Major von Degurechaff of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion. We received a mission to support your ships from the General Staff. What’s the situation?”

“The second fleet of battle cruisers has left the Kiël naval base. Submarine Task Force 13 went out ahead of them to build a patrol net.”

Luckily, someone from the navy who knows what’s going on fills her in. According to him, the emergency-dispatched battle cruisers are already searching for the enemy.

“So we’ll be the vanguard for the battleships? Thrilling!”

Lieutenant Weiss has a penchant for keeping things lighthearted, and Tanya makes a mental note. A vice commander who stands out by paying attention to the atmosphere of the troops is hard to come by. But what he said is actually correct. Just being the vanguard would make them look good.

“What are you getting all excited about? We’re a rapid-response mage battalion—it’s what we do.”

Soon enough, she receives the report that the unit is ready to sortie, so she goes to meet them.

“Your commander!”

Battalion Commander Tanya von Degurechaff’s expression must look normal to Weiss and everyone else as they meet her with salutes. I’m confident that I act the part of an unflappable officer that well. She returns their salutes nonchalantly, glances around, and nods in satisfaction. Well, internally she’s over it all, but still.

“Thanks. At ease. Lieutenant Weiss?”

“Ma’am. I’ll give the briefing.”

Having one’s subordinates do the annoying stuff is the privilege and duty of all officers throughout history. An organization runs on hierarchy by nature. If a superior is stealing work from their reports, that workplace is topsy-turvy.

“Yesterday before dawn, a scout plane belonging to the 224th Night Reconnaissance Team spotted a gathering of vessels.”

Photos on the board show multiple Entente Alliance battleships, including a coastal defense ship. The Entente Alliance is hardly a naval power, but it’s still an armament lineup on par with what you’d expect of a player on the world stage. It’s a formidable threat even the Empire can’t ignore.

To Tanya, the obsession with big ships and their big guns is passé. Still, she is aware they have to be wary of heavily armed combat vessels. As one data point, take the fact that a battleship’s naval gun fires way more iron than an entire division of infantry. On top of that, the porcupine-like anti–air fire and marine mage interception makes it a difficult net to slip through.

Still, they should be easier to approach than the U.S. ships in the Marianas were. It’s a question of how much easier.

“Upon analysis, the General Staff has concluded these are the main remaining forces of the Entente Alliance fleet attempting to escape. It’s obvious, don’t you think?”

We’ve estimated the various paths they might take, from a beeline for the Republic to a meandering route to the Commonwealth. But it’s clear that their goal is to shake off imperial pursuit and get away. Naturally, the pursuing side wants to locate and annihilate them.

We’ve received reports that the Commonwealth Navy is doing exercises just outside our territorial waters, which is a real headache. We’ve been notified to avoid firing stray shots. On the other hand, we’ve notified them that regardless of what happens on the open sea, anything violating imperial waters will be shot at. Overall, it’s a delicate situation that puts a huge strain on the nerves.

“Fleet Command has ordered all ships to find and annihilate the Entente Alliance vessels. The General Staff’s order for us is to support them.”

Lieutenant Weiss narrows down the broad range of meanings support could have. Then he looks to me as if the rest is my job, and yeah, I don’t want to look like I’m getting paid to do nothing, so I take over.

“Battalion, it’s as he said. Reconnaissance Mage Task Force 2 with Northern Sea Fleet Command has gone out ahead of us. And apparently, a ‘neutral country’ is hard at work doing exercises in nearby waters. Take care not to hit them.”

It must be really hard for the scouts to stay on top of them in this rain. Although I must say, it seems backward to send a unit to watch the Commonwealth exercise while we’re trying to find the Entente Alliance. But there’s no reason to lower morale by making that kind of remark.

“We’re going to head north and meet up with them as soon as we get data. This goes without saying, but we’ll be playing it by ear.”

“Understood.”

“According to Intelligence, the enemy is fast. And apparently, they have marine mages. The scope of our mission includes eliminating those, but reconnaissance is top priority.”

Our mission is of the common enough “search and destroy” variety—we’re just being told to prioritize the “search” part.

“Meet at the exercise ground runway in sixty minutes in full gear. Any questions?”

…Well, they’re my war-obsessed underlings. They’re full of fight.

Without raising any questions, as usual, the unit eventually takes off an hour later. We head west at cruising speed as we climb.

Apart from a few irritating false reports from friendly submarine units, there is no news. If there is anything to say at all, it’s that the wind and rain have picked up, and our visibility has rapidly deteriorated.

I look around, but I can’t even see my battalion.

I’m confident in our ability to fly in formation, so I’ll be pretty upset if we get separated and can’t bring our full power to the fight. Our saving grace is that we shouldn’t have anyone with a sense of direction that hopeless in this unit.

“Control to Pixie. No reports of contact.”

“Pixie 01, roger. How about the weather? Can we expect it to improve?”

Still, I’m fed up with these tiresome reports from the rear. No reports of contact means that even though we’ve been flying all this time, we have to keep searching.

If we wanted to get above the rain clouds, we would have to climb awfully high. Instead, we just get wet. Even though our defensive shells repel water, getting rained on doesn’t do much for the mood.

“Sending war zone data from Urban Control… Looks like it won’t for a while. I feel for the ground troops. They must be in hell with this cold.”

“The whole combat zone is hard rain and storm winds. A level-two flood warning and flight restrictions are being issued? Got it. How are the other units in the operation doing?” Tanya checks the data as it suddenly comes in and gets confirmation that the weather is only getting worse, which boggles her mind. That said, if the flight warnings become no-fly advisories, they can return to base.

“First Squadron has left Kiël naval base on a search and destroy mission. The air force is sending up a special force recon company. Make sure you don’t accidentally shoot them.”

We have other forces searching? I suppose that’s better than not. Guess we should keep searching till we get permission to go home. That was what she was thinking when…

“Pixie 01, roger. Can you let me know where the exercising Commonwealth ships a…?”

Far down.

Even in the downpour, an unmistakable roar and the sound of gunfire abruptly draw her focus to something below her.

“An explosion?”

It was the dull boom of something detonating underwater. It reverberates more than you would expect, especially in the quiet night sky.

When she squints, she can just barely make out several floating shapes.

The next moment, her eyes pop open. In the searchlight are enemy ships.

It was an awful sight for the men on board the submarine belonging to Imperial Northern Sea Fleet’s Submarine Task Force 13. The captain, who was looking through the periscope and saw the huge splashes the moment the explosions sounded, was so shocked at first that he couldn’t get his mouth closed again. When they realized they didn’t hear any secondary explosions, everyone looked to the heavens.

The torpedoes had gone off early.

The six aals11 they’d only just been issued really were more useless than actual eels. The furious sailors spewed strings of curses, swearing that next time they’d load the torpedo development team, who were only good for wasting the budget, into the tubes and fire them.

To them, the results the devs had gotten meant nothing.

The Entente Alliance vessels they’d discovered wouldn’t sink; the six torpedoes they’d launched after making careful calculations in anticipation of success had gotten impatient and blown up too soon.

It was no surprise that the navigation officer who had gone to such pains to get them into a striking position was looking dazed. Even the captain’s thoughts froze for a moment at the sudden scene that seemed to scoff at all their hard work.

What he saw through the periscope was the Entente Alliance fleet changing formations for counter-sub combat. Then marine mages began sweeping the water’s surface for periscopes. As the crew hurriedly pulled theirs in, they found themselves furious—they didn’t want to die because of such a stupid failure.

Actually, they didn’t know it at the time, but…given the outcome, they had actually pulled off a fantastic assist. When the Entente Alliance fleet realized an imperial submarine was targeting it, it entered counter-sub combat. As a result, if only for a moment…everyone was looking down.

And that’s why their response to what came out of the sky in the next moment was delayed. Make them look down, then have the real attack swoop in from above for the kill.

To Colonel Anson Sue, who realized they’d been caught, it was an awfully cunning one-two punch.

“They got us, those bastards!”

“Where was the leak?! No, now they’re— Those fuckers!”

It was truly the worst possible timing for the Entente Alliance fleet. Since they had transitioned into counter-sub combat, the destroyer escorting the flagship had moved away. Not only that, but the marine mages had rushed out to suppress the submarine, and the lookouts, staring into the darkness, were all scouring the sea so as not to miss any torpedo wakes. That was when it happened.

The enemy mage battalion that had been lurking in the sky made a full-speed charge at the flagship.

Only a few managed to take off, including Colonel Sue.

But the imperial mages plunging down, trading altitude for acceleration, were far faster than they were, and the fact that they had control of the air meant he couldn’t think of a way this desperate situation could get any worse.

Still, all Sue could do was climb. If he didn’t, that ship and the seed of his fatherland’s future would be sunk.

Major von Degurechaff’s feelings at that moment, the time, the place, would be the subject of many inquiries in later years. In reality, the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion, including Tanya, is in partial chaos at finding themselves in an unexpected encounter, but they manage to charge as a training reflex.

“Battalion! Break! Break! Prepare to attack!”

Making the split-second decision to engage, Tanya enters a headlong dive; she has no experience fighting ships. The reason is that supposedly great balance of power. Thanks to diplomatic efforts, the leading nations have avoided serious armed conflicts up until this war. In other words, this is practically the first mage attack on a ship in history.

And that was why it’s all they can do to act according to their exercises. She scatters the unit, and dodging anti–air fire all the while, everyone swoops in at the same time. It’s a tactic championed by a doctrine that has only been verified theoretically. No one knows whether it will work or not until the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion tests it with their own flesh and blood.

Really, the receiving end of the attack was in the same boat. The ability of aircraft to attack ships was only just starting to be discussed, so no one was focused on mages, who have less firepower. As a result, they had only just touched on anti-mage combat in training exercises.

In a sense, it was an extremely crude firefight for both sides.

“Pixie 01 to CP! Contact! Contact!”

“CP to Pixie 01. What is it?”

It’s hard to do your best when you find yourself stuck in a battle where you weren’t expecting to get shot at. In that sense, Tanya can’t help but hate the easygoing CP radio operator. Internally, she can’t stop griping, What the hell did you mean, telling us there’d be no contact? But a calmer part of her brain isn’t very impressed with the enemy’s anti–air fire, which is a relief.

Actually, the enemy’s protective fire is so poor it doesn’t even come close to the American empire’s anti-aircraft fire Tanya is thinking of. It’s sparse enough that she can evade simply by flying aimlessly, inwardly outraged and wondering what the other search units have been doing, so it’s evident that it isn’t much to worry about.

“I’m taking fire! That’s definitely the flash of a battle cruiser gun. Two hundred off the coast of Wiengenberg.”

As she makes the report, she immediately breaks formation. After all, naval guns are a much greater threat than small arms or even most field artillery. Even a single autocannon uses 20 mm ammunition, the same class as a heavy machine gun on land. The powerful high-angle cannons are 127 mm. The shells they’re aiming at her won’t allow anyone with a human body to just walk away from a direct hit. If we stay in tight formation, the enemy anti–air guns will have their way with us.

“Battalion, don’t bunch up! Make sure you attack the mages and the ships. Don’t get too distracted by one or the other!”

Everywhere around me is dark, but I’m sure I’m exposed. When she realizes that, she can hardly believe how unexpected this is. Her mission was to find the enemy. If the submarines, the scout planes that went out ahead, or the company of recon mages discovered the enemy, Tanya’s unit might have taken over monitoring, depending on the situation; it was supposed to be an easy mission. Entering the effective firing range of enemy ships and engaging was never part of the plan.

But if she squints, she can see a light reminiscent of a muzzle flash from below. It must be one of our submarines torpedoing them. If it wasn’t for the noise from the explosion, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it. The thought that she had narrowly escaped making an error frightens her. If she hadn’t noticed, she would no doubt have ended up being grilled by an investigative commission. Boy, am I glad the torpedo’s wake caught her eye. But I can’t be completely happy because if she had been a little farther away, she could have noticed and been fine.

“Ngh! Anti-mage counterattack detected! Anti-air disciplined fire incoming!”

“I’m picking up mages! Damn it! We’ve got marine mages incoming!”

Her talented subordinates have an appropriate understanding of the situation, so she isn’t actually very worried. But any commander asking their subordinates to act in a situation they haven’t been trained to handle has to at least acknowledge their right to scowl.

“All hands, engage at will! Follow your company commander’s lead!”

As long as they are receiving an organized interception, it has to be dealt with, but she decides that rather than trying to control an entire battalion in the dark, it’s better to let each company operate individually. We have to regain some degree of discipline and get out of here!

“Visibility is poor. Don’t lose your depth perception! The air is dense, but don’t forget we’re over the sea! Take the humidity from the water into account. Our opponents are used to it! Maintain your altitude!”

The lower companies, Second and Third, seem to be in good positions. First and Fourth were on guard above, so they have some leeway in terms of their altitude. And as long as I’m personally commanding First Company, I want to push all the dangerous stuff onto Fourth. She makes some quick calculations and decides to adjust some things.

“Ngh, draw the mages away from the ships! Second and Third Companies, you’re the vanguard! Keep those mages busy!”

Marine mages are a threat to aerial mages. It goes without saying that exposing myself to anti–air fire and enemy mages isn’t a hobby of mine. Even the majority of my war-crazy subordinates probably aren’t into it. We’d all like to avoid working in dangerous areas.

“Fourth Company, guard the rear. Help Second and Third withdraw. A shoot-out with the ships is out of the question.”

Really, I want Fourth Company as my shield, but that’s too much to ask for.

In that case, increasing the number of decoys will probably get me the best results. From the enemy’s point of view, it must be easier to target the entire battalion.

“First Company, lament your misfortune—or sob with joy at your opportunity to earn commendations! Rejoice, for it is we who will harass the ships! Follow me!”

I’ll have my underlings do the dangerous counter-mage warfare, and I’ll mess with the boats.

““““Understood!””””

“Plunging into the fleet is a bold move! Allow us to be the vanguard!”

The elated personnel of my company volunteer, but it won’t do for me to follow their suggestion.

“Sorry, the commander leads the way. Get back.”

This is the only time believing that commanders should lead the way is useful. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I want to expose myself to enemy fire. Nobody with common sense wants to be out front charging into a hail of bullets.

But that’s an amateur’s calculation. Of course, I don’t want to do it, but since I know it’s the safer option, I choose it without hesitation. Reason trumps fear.

To explain it simply, most of the bullets aimed at the leader of a pack will end up hitting the people behind them.

In a little more detail, with deflection shooting, if they open fire assuming I’m coming in at two hundred fifty, all I have to do is approach at three hundred. The difference will keep me safe in the lead. But what about the ones behind me? Yes, the enemy will correct their deflection to my speed, and it’s the ones who follow who will rush straight into that.

Also, when moving away after the attack, it goes without saying that I’d rather have a shield behind me. Our eyes are in the front of our heads.

The more you think about it, the more dangerous the rear starts to sound.

In other words, being the bold commander out front is the safer policy. It’s said that in war, whether you survive or not is determined by how cowardly you can be. I’m a coward, so I want to calmly maneuver myself into a safe position.

“Follow me. I say again, follow me.”

For the moment, I look for a ship that isn’t firing so heavily.

I don’t even have to stop and think to know that only war junkies want to get up close and personal with the dense anti–air fire of cruisers or battle cruisers. You can see it in war videos or special reports. The anti-aircraft fire density of American ships was nine parts bullets to one part sky. I would practically despair just watching.

I don’t care how strong mages’ defensive shells are—I am absolutely not flying into a 127 mm high-angle gunshot.

This is a night battle, but even if we can expect some help from the cover of darkness, it’s too dangerous to aim at one of the big ships known for anti–air fire.

Of course, the sensible way to do this is to attack a destroyer. In war, picking on the weak is justice. Hooray, justice.

“…Ah. Is that a destroyer? Well, whatever it is, let’s get it!”

I can’t really tell because it’s dark, but there’s a turret firing at random, so I can make out the shape of the ship.

Considering there are no ships in consort, it must be an isolated destroyer?

In that case, we don’t have to worry about backup from other ships in the enemy fleet.

Based on that interpretation, we get into assault formation.

In order to dive all at once from forty-five hundred feet, we maintain the spindle shape and make minute adjustments to the angle of our assault.

“Gah! I’m hit! Heading back to base! No escort necessary.”

But I guess you can’t underestimate a destroyer. Just as we were about to strike, one of my men gets hit.

The main gun on a destroyer is 127 mm and can be effectively used for anti–air fire, so I reappraise the situation and decide we can’t take it lightly. My mage who got shot seems able to fly, well, fine. Still, he doesn’t look very good, so he has to drop out, I guess.

Since his mouth works, he’ll fly back to base on his own. There’s nothing else we can do for him. About the only thing we can do is hope he’s good bait.

“Go on, get outta here. Okay, everyone, prepare explosion formulas. Given a typical destroyer’s armor, we should be able to take it out if we aim for exposed depth charges or the torpedo tubes.”

Tanya’s able to instantly twist her body to evade a shot as she approaches, most certainly a result of her training. “Well, would you look at that? I can dodge them,” she murmurs. She makes a mental note that her unit probably needs additional training as she returns fire.

The ones firing off interceptor formulas from below must be Entente Alliance direct support. Since they’re a destroyer’s escort, there are probably only a few, but if they’re brave enough to come up here, they can’t be discounted.

Just as she’s thinking that, she seems to recognize one of the enemies, a mage who gave her a lot of trouble in the fjord. He looks an awful lot like that fanatically patriotic monster.

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but you can kill a lousy enemy with less guilt than a good one. In that sense, it’s a plus that this guy resembles a lousy one. It’ll be refreshing to shoot him.

She changes gears and turns her attention to how best to attack. A heavy explosion type would blow up a wide area, but she’d be a sitting duck while she’s using it. Out of the question. Shoot with her rifle? That probably wouldn’t even count as harassment. Rejected.

That’s when she realizes: A dive at this speed must have a ton of kinetic energy. All I have to do is literally assault him—with the sharp end of my rifle.

A fleeting intersection.

But Tanya’s bayonet, propelled at the speed of her dive, cuts through the Entente Alliance mage’s defensive shell and twists into him. A bayonet thrust by a mage going over four hundred knots is far more damaging than a lance charge from a medieval heavy cavalry member.

She jabs it in and, in satisfaction, watches the stunned face of the enemy soldier, who seems hardly able to believe something is piercing his abdomen, but when she tries to pull her bayonet out, she frowns slightly because it seems to have gone too far in and gotten stuck. Even the barrel is sticking into him, and Tanya struggles a bit to remove it.

“M…Mar…”

The enemy soldier, murmuring something that’s not even a word, is fatally wounded. Geez, what’s that about? she thinks, when she realizes he’s groping at the air, trying as hard as he can to bring his writhing right arm around to the submachine gun on his back. So she decides to make a trade.

“Auf Wiedersehen.” She murmurs the curt farewell with a smile. I admire him for his unexpected stubbornness, but I don’t have time to go along with his futile resistance—I have to hurry on ahead. Shoving his right arm out of the way, she steals the submachine gun. Then she kicks the corpse away, already pushing it out of her mind, and takes a quick look at the weapon she’s acquired.

It’s a standard submachine gun. But oddly enough, it accepts imperial magic bullets. How nice, this trophy will prove unexpectedly useful. A Christmas present to myself. Anyhow. Tanya smiles at her clear path, feeling quite refreshed, and murmurs, “Now there’s nothing in my way.”

Yes, she’s literally kicked the obstacles out of her path. All that’s left is to evade the ship’s wimpy anti–air fire, strike her blow, and disappear under the veil of night.

That said, war is a gentlemanly fight for survival wherein one must be the first to do what the enemy hates. And as a civilized individual with an education, Tanya will not use her pretty hands for a sophisticated game of cricket;12 she understands the need to unhesitatingly kick the enemy’s ass.

This situation demands the enemy’s intentions be thwarted.

So what is the best way to bully them?

It’s simple. The enemy fleet is currently being pestered by submarines, so they have to take counter-sub measures. If I use an explosion formula with short activation time and get either the ship’s depth charges or their torpedoes to blow in a secondary explosion, this thing will go down easily.

Those torpedoes can be used against even a battleship. If I can get them to explode, the destroyer won’t stand a chance. If I concentrate my attack on the stern, even with low expectations, there’s a possibility of speed reduction and rudder damage, too. And if it dumps the torpedoes to avoid the danger of secondary explosions, the destroyer’s ability to counter the submarines will definitely take a dive.

Not so much risk on my end. This is perfect.

“There’s no law that says a mage can’t sink a ship. I’m gonna rock this!”

“We drew off the mages! Holding them at a distance now!”

And the one thing I was worried about, the marine mages, had been pulled away right on schedule. They made it extremely easy by dropping their altitude to work on the subs. Now I should be able to dive without worrying about being attacked from above like an idiot. And I’m nominally here to harass them, so this is too perfect.

“Good. Keep them far enough away that they can’t support the ships.”

“““Roger!”””

It’ll probably be difficult to hold them until our fleet can get here, but they’ll surely be rewarded for hastening the enemy’s attrition. After all, we already did a great job by locating the enemy fleet, and we’re even coordinating with our submarines, though that was rather sudden. All I have to do is report to the brass that we did all we could with a split-second decision.

The best thing to do right now is give the enemy one good hit and RTB.13 Fighting the ships is a secondary objective.

If we return fire, I figure our part of the search and destroy mission is accomplished. Destroying the Entente Alliance ships is the Northern Sea Fleet’s job.

“Okay, First Company, if you don’t want to be called a bunch of no-achievement knuckleheads, it’s time to go to work.”

We begin accelerating again to dive. Unlike air-to-ground attacks, the humidity from the water makes this descent uncomfortable. But we’re also in the rain. As expected, the intercepting shots can’t catch me, and they fly past.

Unless the enemy are hopelessly incompetent, the rest of the company behind me is in danger. Using your subordinates as bait to survive and climb the ladder is a constant in a corporate setting and the military.

“…All hands, deploy your formulas!”

That said, to my happy miscalculation, no one has dropped out. Considering it’s a destroyer, maybe the last guy who got hit was a fluke? That would make sense.

The company efficiently deploys their formulas. The concentrated attacks fly one after another toward the stern of the ship.

“This is Fourth Company with an impact report. The enemy ship seems unharmed.”

After confirming impact, I pull up sharply to get out of there. Even if my subordinates are acting as a shield behind me, human flesh is fragile; their presence is enough to ease my mind somewhat, but I still move at full speed.

Only an idiot gets shot down while hanging out observing the results of their attack. A unit spotting from a distance reports the outcome.

And according to Fourth Company, regrettably, the ship is apparently fine. I knew already since there wasn’t a secondary explosion, but it’s still disappointing. All we do now is hope is that they’ve jettisoned their torpedoes.

“Good enough! We achieved our aim of throwing them into confusion! Let’s get out of here!”

Following the swiftly withdrawing First Company, the other three also begin to move away, keeping the marine mages in check as they go.

In order to get out of there all at once, I pull us into return formation as fast as possible. Well, we didn’t do so badly.

We failed to take out the marine mages, but the strategic win of locating the enemy can’t be ignored. Basically, any further combat would just wear us down without gaining anything. We should let our fleet get some of the credit here.

“How did we do?”

“Six mages down and probably moderate damage to an unknown ship. For a destroyer, it’s moving pretty slowly. Its engine must be hurting. If we’re lucky, the submarines will confirm. What’s our damage?”

“We also have six with serious injuries and a bunch with scrapes.”

Anyhow, no one died. That’s a blessing in this curse. If we had been up against an American ship, there would probably be heaps of corpses…

Taking a look at the actual damage, it’s not as bad as I expected. Considering we were up against a destroyer, we could have come out far worse. I’m kind of glad VT fuses14 aren’t unleashing their fury yet.

“…We basically lost. How can we show our faces back at base?”

But the mood is heavy because we weren’t able to deal much damage. The lack of secondary explosion could mean that they had already used up their depth charges, but still… That’s probably wishful thinking, Tanya laments.

“But if we encountered the enemy in these waters…they’re advancing too quickly!”

“Major, if you’ll forgive me…considering the speed of a destroyer…”

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s possible. Still, I can’t believe we missed our chance to take out a destroyer…”

All Tanya can do is bemoan the unexpected encounter. In other words, she wasn’t prepared. It was possible for the Entente Alliance ships to be moving faster than the estimate she’d been given if they had a group of faster than average ships.

And for just a quick destroyer…it was definitely possible.

Calling it unexpected was basically a confession of incompetence.

“It’s possible, but…what about the enemy coastal defense ship…? This is going to give me a headache.”

Still, the fact that a superior was wrong is no small matter. Well, the fleet coming after us has a powerful attack in store. This probably won’t be viewed as that much of a problem. After all, to our fleet of powerful ships, a destroyer is easy prey.

At this point, it’s more constructive to think about the damage my unit has taken and apply for their retraining and rest periods.

Thinking it nearly makes her crack a smile. Of course, I have plenty of experience controlling myself and faking a sorrowful expression. Nah, I should be genuinely sad. The damage to the unit I spent my time training really gets me down.

“Mages were able to hold their own against an enemy battleship. That’s a fine achievement.”

“We’ll leave the rest up to our friends. Back to base!”

We accomplished our mission, Tanya consoles herself, biting back a sigh, and orders her soldier with the long-range wireless set to radio Command. After a few coded exchanges, Tanya is told she’s gotten through, so she takes the receiver and gives a straightforward summary of the situation.

“Pixie 01 to Urban Control. That’s it for my report.”

“Urban Control, roger. We’ll take care of it. Can you stay on the enemy?”

The enemy fleet is several ships, including a battleship. They’re on a course heading north. They’ve had contact with our submarines. When I promptly gave Command coordinate data and the details of their speed, they asked us to pursue.

“With all due respect, we’ve been flying patrol for hours and can’t take much more fatigue. Is it possible to spare us further anti-ship combat while we’re flying with wounded men?”

“Understood. I’ve made arrangements for you to land at the nearest base. Wishing you a safe return.”

“Thanks. Over.”

To Tanya, all she had done was say indirectly that she wanted to go home. The controller probably hadn’t been expecting much when he asked. She had no problems getting permission to return to base.

But Tanya doesn’t know that on the way to the nearby base the controller was considerate enough to get them accommodated at, she’s about to have a rather lovely run-in.