by Carlo Zen
On top of that, the water pressure around the bridge had destroyed the periscope. The engines were just barely running, but there was a problem in the battery compartments—they were emitting chlorine gas. They needed masks for poisonous gas, but it was all he could do to just get the battered crew moving.
Between the flooding and the gas, the environment in the sub would deteriorate quickly. It was only a matter of time until disaster.
To make matters worse, the rudder wouldn’t budge. It had probably been damaged by the water pressure. So they wouldn’t be able to move properly.
There was a limit to the emergency repairs they could do. Only one of the drain pumps was working, so they would eventually lose balance. With their reserve power situation looking dire, the only choice they had was to surface.
“…Sir, we can’t take any more.” He addressed the technical officer.
“There’s nothing you can do?”
He had to make a hard decision—and fast. The first officer didn’t really think the mysterious technical officer was a mere officer. So he hinted at him that all they could do was surrender.
As long as the captain couldn’t command the ship, the first officer was responsible for the lives of the crew. Since they were forced to surface, he had no choice but to say it. “We’re not going to last long. If you need to take care of the cargo, let’s do so quickly.”
“…Understood.”
A murmured exchange, and then the technical officer and the first officer went to quickly “deal with” the cargo. It was an awful decision to make…but it was the only way.
DECEMBER 12, UNIFIED YEAR 1924, COMMONWEALTH, LONDINIUM, UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
“What were you doing?!”
An unassuming building stood tucked away in a quiet residential area. Isolated from the outside in an inconspicuous way, the building’s interior was in the midst of a storm that struck a perfect contrast with its quiet environs. Not so much as a molecule of the genial Christmas spirit of the world at large could survive there.
Particularly violent was Major General Habergram of the Foreign Strategy Division, who was abusing the line of intelligence officers. He pounded the desk with his clenched fist almost hard enough to break it. A half-assed explanation wasn’t going to cut it. The intelligence officers standing there were as pale as prisoners about to be executed by firing squad.
Well, it was only natural. Of course the general’s fury would be violent when he’d been woken from a nap because the plan he’d forgone sleep or rest to realize was ruined in the span of a single night.
He’d figured out the Imperial Army aerial units’ patrol lines and analyzed their Northern Sea Fleet’s patrol routes. He’d checked the speed of that fleet and adjusted the Commonwealth Navy’s exercise schedule accordingly as a distraction. In a single moment, all his efforts went up in smoke.
General Habergram was by no means the only person in the Commonwealth grinding his teeth in disappointment; the need for a sweeping investigation into the causes of the problem had been acknowledged. At this point in time, the ones getting the murderous looks were the security officers; their stomachs probably couldn’t take much more.
“Why were there imperial mages over there?”
The failures of the intelligence agency had been in question for some time, but now there were getting to be too many to brush off as coincidences. One or two incidents could be unfortunate mistakes, but by the time the third one happens, it’s inevitable.
When the voluntary army that had been sent out to gather intel and observe was pinpointed and bombarded by mages, it was still possible to suspect coincidence.
They were working on improving the apparatuses after they concluded that reverse detection of the surveillance waves could have been the cause. It wasn’t out of the question to call it an unfortunate accident or coincidence.
But this time, it was too hard to fathom as a coincidence; he couldn’t accept it. They were targeted so precisely.
“We’re performing a thorough investigation, but we can only imagine it was a coincidence!”
“The Empire might have a good intelligence team, but I really don’t think they could have known about this…”
“Then explain this video.”
The footage of the battle he projected shut up the officers who were trying to object. Even though the details were hazy with static thanks to the dense concentration of combat mana, what it showed was clear.
The imperial mages moved in perfect formation toward a single target. Other ships tried to draw their fire by attacking, but the enemy unit ignored them. Not only were they not afraid of getting hit, they maneuvered as if they weren’t even taking the possibility of damage into account.
Then they held back the marine mages who went up to intercept them and dived in assault formation.
The log blacked out when an Entente Alliance mage who went to intercept fell as a corpse into the sea after being mercilessly bayoneted and kicked away. The last image was the enemy mages darting straight for the battle cruiser.
Yes, one glance made it obvious. They were clearly aiming for a specific ship and paying no attention to the others.
“I ask you—why?” It was the question of a man about to explode at any moment. “Why is the Named who was supposedly deployed in the northern zone lying in wait for us here?”
Then his thunder crashed. All the intelligence officers could do was pray for the storm to pass. According to their careful analysis, the imperial Named had seemed to be providing support to the northern lines.
Central had taken the trouble to dispatch this Named unit. And the intelligence officers had given a partially incorrect warning that they were going to be supporting an offensive.
Against their expectations, the Named unit appeared far from the sector they had been stationed in. At first, they wondered if it was an unknown elite unit, but the recorded mana signatures answered that question immediately.
They matched the signals of the Named unit who had just previously been spotted in the Entente Alliance.
Looking at the combat logs, it was obviously the same unit who had been so kind as to demolish the voluntary army there just the other day. Really, it was hard to imagine them being here. Considering the Imperial Army’s rotation of combat and rest, it was too soon.
“The fighting in the north is intensifying. And they’re planning an offensive to mop up the Entente Alliance. Why would they dispatch a powerful mage unit out here?”
Yes. Their analysis said the Imperial Army, which had carried out a landing operation that ignored communication lines and the power of the Commonwealth’s Navy, was preparing an operation to finish off the Entente Alliance. Why would they just happen to send an elite unit to this area at a time when the Northern Army Group probably needed all the help they could get?
These were the guys who were massing all available arms, ammunition, and personnel for the northern lines, so this maneuver clearly had to be the result of a plan, not a coincidence.
This was the same Named unit who was spotted during the landing operation. If it had been pulled and then appeared on the Rhine lines, you could call it proof that the Empire was prioritizing the Rhine front. But just when they noticed they had stopped seeing it on the northern lines, it was instead lying in wait for departing Entente Alliance ships and their submarine in the Northern Sea.
“Most importantly, look at this. They make a beeline for the middle of the fleet without even looking at the vanguard.”
The attack was too efficient to be explained as a chance encounter. For starters, look at how the mages suddenly attacked just as a sub distracted the fleet with a torpedo, causing everyone to look down. How elite mages dropped out of the sky just when everyone’s minds were blank, and physically, the fleet had broken formation to perform evasive maneuvers with too-perfect timing.
But then they didn’t even touch the vanguard destroyers.
As a result, they were able to go undetected for
some time. They ignored the intercepting attack that had just barely occurred at all and headed straight for their objective. If that was a coincidence, it had to mean about a dozen ladies of luck were smiling on the Empire. But that seemed impossible.
“We also have record of some kind of transmission above the fleet.”
Were the mages filing a report right before going into assault formation? There was not no chance it was a report of enemy contact, but in that case, you’d think they would have done it sooner. If they were there to restrain them, they wouldn’t have had to approach so closely.
But if they were an attacking unit, there should have been a combat control team.
Unexpectedly encountering an unguided battalion of mages? Don’t be ridiculous. Plus, it happened right after the submarine attack. If it wasn’t planned and it wasn’t the kind of coincidence only God can conceive of, it wasn’t possible.
“They started drawing off the escorts straightaway, and on top of that, one company went right for the battle cruiser. All you can do is laugh.”
Anti–air fire doesn’t score that many direct hits. The navy and even the army know that. But the difference between knowing something and experiencing it is night and day. Would you charge a battle cruiser lined with autocannons simply because the shots don’t usually connect?
Normally there would be some hesitation. Even if they didn’t hesitate, there would have been various ways to go about it. If attacking was their aim, deploying barrage formulas at range would have been one option. A mage’s extra-long range barrage formula would be able to get past most anti–air fire.
Of course, the marine mages were there to keep them from doing that. But they had been pretty much caught by surprise, so although the handful of direct support mages put up the best resistance they could, it was futile, and they were scattered. The enemy mages were emitting such tranquil signals we didn’t discover them until they were right on top of us, so they must have been working really hard to conceal them.
“Look. From the mana signatures, it seems like the Named is leading the formation.”
Did the Entente Alliance miss the signature of the Named because they’re incompetent? Observing the mana isotope of the flight leader17 is the most basic step to take. It’s easy to detect it as long as the mage isn’t limiting output to conceal themselves.
A unit putting a check on enemies might be able to limit output. It was a standard way to extend one’s time in the air and liked for the way it lowered one’s chances of being detected. But could a battalion flying at high speeds do it?
It did temporarily increase your endurance, but in the end, your fatigue would spike. It would be out of the question to enter combat. So perhaps they were limiting output for some other reason, not a sneak attack…
But then right after that, the same unit raided the waters where their auxiliary ship and submarine were meeting. No matter how optimistically someone wanted to interpret the situation, it was only natural to suspect a giant leak. Rather, if the enemy was acting this boldly on their intelligence, they probably weren’t even trying to hide that they were getting it.
They considered saying it was so obvious it was unnatural…but they thought they had looked deep into all the circumstances…and yet they still couldn’t get the possibility out of their heads—and that was the demands of their job. In an information war, truth was never guaranteed. Even if something seemed correct, the mere appearance of accuracy wouldn’t help them. And that was why they had to suspect every possibility—including the hypothesis of a leak.
“…What did you find out in the hunt?”
Acknowledging that hypothesis had serious implications. If there wasn’t a leak, they had no explanation for the enemy’s actions.
Naturally, the intelligence agency had launched a major operation in great haste to whack all the moles and clean out the organization, the assumption being that if they could just find the culprit…
Everyone was about ready to cry because they hadn’t found the slightest sign of the enemy. The people in charge of the investigation had come up with no evidence and no support, but if there wasn’t a huge leak, then they were saddled with the bigger problem of having no explanation for the situation. They really were at wits’ end, about to break down sobbing.
“We considered code issues, a double agent, or betrayal, but so far we’re clear.”
“We’re still waiting for the actual results of the investigation, but I can’t imagine the code is broken. We’re not using anything except onetime pads.”
“A double agent or traitor isn’t terribly likely, either. The number of people with access to this information isn’t even double digits.”
“It’s possible they were a lookout on the flank of the main imperial fleet headed north. Perhaps it really was just an unfortunate coincidence…”
It wasn’t as if the intelligence agency and its officers were doing nothing.
They had arrived at this word coincidence after suffering through investigations that exhausted every other avenue. Now all they could do was tell their irate boss their troubling conclusion…that perhaps it was simply chance. Over the course of the hunt, a few moles had been discovered and purged. Still, they were clear.
At this point, wasn’t it just an unfortunate accident? It was only a matter of time until a number of people began to think that. Actually, some were even saying it, given the report that the Entente Alliance fleet had been able to escape the Empire’s Northern Sea Fleet to meet up with the Republic fleet in the end.
But that idea was rejected due to one piece of unmistakably clear evidence: the reports from the intelligence and naval officers dispatched to the Entente Alliance ship as military observers.
The details written there were enough to silence anyone claiming it was a coincidence or an accident. No, it blew them out of the water.
“…A big augmented battalion of mages just happens to encounter the battle cruiser with the councilor who would form the government in exile, and they just happen to attack and concentrate their fire on where that vital politician is?”
And immediately before, the submarine torpedo attack with perfect timing. Right as the ships abruptly shifted to counter-sub combat and the direct support marine mages were flying low on patrol, the imperial mages used their altitude to their advantage and swooped out of the sky.
It was awfully well coordinated if they weren’t waiting for us.
Then, as if they had done what they came to do, the enemy mages left after only one strike.
For General Habergram, the bad news they had woken him up for was enough to make him nearly crush the pipe in his hand. The attached photo made it clear that they had focused their attack on a single area—an area that was almost never considered a strategic target. In anti-ship warfare, there aren’t many methods of effective attack; maybe a heavy explosion formula or a gravity formula aimed beneath the target’s waterline.
But they took the trouble to aim for the living quarters with anti-personnel explosion formulas. Maybe against the bridge it would be understandable, but they aimed at the living quarters. That is, the entire company concentrated their fire on them.
And this had been noted already, but according to the reports, after recklessly charging in and bombing their target area, they all left without any further combat actions.
They left as if they had no time to lose. They must have been on their way back to base. Theoretically, it was possible to insist that coincidences had just stacked up.
But what are the astronomical odds of the coincidence where an enemy who waited so persistently, only to strike once and rush away, subsequently runs into the Commonwealth’s auxiliary ship and sub “on their way back”?
You don’t even have to think about it.
“And is there anyone who believes that it was a coincidence that they ran into our boat on their way back just because it was bobbing out there looking suspicious?” It was a rhetorical question containing his fury.<
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He was all but saying that if anyone did, that fist pounding into the table would smash into them instead. He squared his shoulders imposingly while inside him the hurricane was raging.
“What a priceless fluke! Of all the coincidences that could possibly happen, this one’s a real riot!” Shouting, he slammed his fist into the table again, paid no mind to the fact that he’d started bleeding, and fell silent as though he’d lost the power of speech.
He had always been praised as an unflappable paragon of composure, and yet…
SAME DAY, IMPERIAL ARMY GENERAL STAFF OFFICE, JOINT CONFERENCE ROOM
The situation was bad if the Service Corps staff, the Intelligence staff, and the Operations staff were all at wits’ end. Maybe there was some kind of political strategy problem or some kind of military issue. It was natural that the staff officers would be worried about how to get things under control.
Well, they had probably also started thinking about who to blame.
“What? We lost the Entente Alliance ships?” That accurately summed up the sentiment of all the army officers present. No, all the participants’ thoughts could be expressed that way.
Not that they’d had them trapped like rats, but everyone had believed it was certain, given the power balance, that they would deal the enemy ships a serious blow in this naval battle. It had been finally a chance for the idle navy to shine and show some results, but the staff’s expectations had been magnificently betrayed.
“…The Northern Sea Fleet failed to relocate them.”
“Even though we succeeded in building up superior fighting capabilities?”
“Yes, it seems they got away.”
They let them get away? Not that the fleet was perfect, but they had managed to gather a fair number of capital ships. They were also able to choose the battleground. It was only natural to have high expectations under those circumstances.
Were all those fleet maneuvers just a waste of heavy oil?
The stern gazes from the army seemed to contain a rebuke. What is the meaning of this? The confused naval officers bearing the brunt of it were forced to present materials and attempt to explain.