Plus Ultra

by Carlo Zen

  “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.