Chapter 84: Frozen Ship VS Aircraft Carrier Fleet, Part 2
The frozen ship ‘Celsius’ is slowly moving on the sea. The cruiser Agano approached from behind it.
Agano is the latest state-of-the-art light cruiser with a maximum speed of 30 knots.
It won’t take much time to catch up to the sailboat that is sailing leisurely.
“The enemy ship is approaching from behind! No, this is bad, they’ll catch up with us!”
On the mast of Celsius, a lookout soldier raises his voice to inform his comrades that Agano is approaching.
The distance between both sides is probably less than 1 kilometer now.
Agano had Celsius within firing range a long time ago but did not shoot. Even at this distance, Celsius has not yet been identified as the enemy.
However, from the Celsius side, it is immediately clear that the approaching ship is an enemy―― specifically, one made by the Yamato Empire.
Made of steel, it exhales black smoke and moves without sails.
This kind of thing could only be made by Yamato.
The captain of the Celsius, having heard the lookout’s voice and come up onto the deck to check, realizes that they cannot escape upon seeing the Agano approaching at a much greater speed than their own ship.
“Vice-captain, are you prepared?”
“Yes, Captain. There’s no other choice but to fight and survive, right?”
“The opponent is a warship made by Yamato. It is probably more powerful than the steel ships of the Albatross.”
“…Let’s trust the capabilities of this ship, Celsius.”
The elves nodded. If we cannot escape, we have no choice but to fight.
“Hard to starboard! 1st Magic Platoon, line up on the deck! Prepare to attack!”
And then, the battle began with a surprise attack from the elven side.
Slowly turning around, Celsius turned the side of the ship towards Agano. On the deck, the magic infantry that emerged from inside the ship stood in a row.
This ship, which is surrounded by thick ice, cannot launch an attack from inside.
Therefore, they line up soldiers in neat rows on the deck and perform magic attacks.
As Celsius turns around, the distance between them continues to decrease.
The distance is 100 meters. It is just barely within the range of magical attacks. Agano also reduced its speed while turning around, preparing to sail parallel to Celsius.
The number of infantry lined up on the deck is one platoon, about 60 people.
“Alright, we’re within range. Fire!”
At the captain’s command, these magic infantrymen fire all at once and release 60 shots of various kinds of magic aimed at Agano.
Fireball, Ice Spear, Wind Blade.
Various attacks assault Agano, but…
“They’re shooting at us, deputy captain.”
“Yes. But, it is pointless.”
All of their attacks are deflected.
The flame only slightly scorches the surface of the armor, the ice blade makes just a light clinking sound, and the wind blade only strips off the paint.
The outcome of the elves’ volley of magics yielded nothing.
Despite being classified as lightly armored, the Agano Cruiser is still considerable in size and weight, weighing in at 7,000 tons. It’s not so weak that it can be seriously damaged by personal magic that can only mow down infantry.
And, the cost of this attack is not small.
“Starboard, keep our distance… This confirms that the ice chunk is the enemy. So, are those who are standing in a line on the deck elves?”
“Yes, Captain Samejima. We are already in a state of war with the Black Elven Empire, so we can engage in battle without hesitation.”
“Alright, then, we’ll counterattack as well. Gunnery Officer, can you fire the main gun fire?”
Of course, the gunnery officer nodded in agreement.
Because of the attacks of the elves, Samejima was able to determine that this unknown ship, Celsius, was clearly an enemy.
if that’s the case, it’s easy to do. Just fire and sink it.
At this time, the Yamato Empire is in a de facto state of war with the dark elves. The ships that belong to that country are all treated as pirates. Of course, this frozen ship Celsius also counts as a pirate.
Agano’s main guns, the 12.7 cm dual-purpose twin guns, in six mounts, a total of twelve barrels, aimed their sights at Celsius.
And then… Commence firing.
Shells are fired from 12 cannons.
Agano was slowly creating distance for an attack.
Seeing Agano like that, “Whoa, we did it!?” The elves ended up setting up a small flag.
To them, what was bestowed upon them was a rain of 12.7 cm shells, as if to say ‘thanks for going through all the trouble of collecting the flags’.
The 12.7 cm shells fired from an ultra-short distance of less than 1 kilometer were all absorbed by the Celsius, fully demonstrating their power.
The shells that hit the Celsius side are deflected by the thick ice, but… The shells that hit near the deck wiped out the rank-and-file soldiers who were lined up for the attack in one blow.
“Uuooo! What incredible power!? Is this a siege-level grand magic?”
Shocked.
Because he was in a location a bit away from the infantry line, the captain managed to avoid being blown away and remained safe.
A bombardment that is of a much higher caliber than their own attack magic. They couldn’t hide their astonishment at its power, which was far greater than the bombardment from the Albatross’ steel ship that had defeated them before.
“Captain! The platoon on deck has been wiped out! At this rate, we are also in danger, get inside the ship!”
“O-oh, that’s right.”
At this rate, they will be blown up by the second shot.
Before that happened, they escaped into the ship through a small hole for an entranceway that had been made in the thick ice on the deck, to avoid the shelling.
Shortly after they escaped into the ship, Agano’s second shot struck Celsius.
This 12.7 cm gun is a dual-purpose gun that is also capable of anti-aircraft attack, and its rate of fire is also excellent.
Its rate of fire is up to 15 rounds per minute, being able to shoot projectiles at a pace of one every 4 seconds.
Like a punching bag being beaten by a boxer practicing jabs, Celsius is being beaten mercilessly.
The mast that is not covered in ice gets blown away, and the lookout is sent flying high into the air. The crew members who were on the deck to operate the sails also turned the frozen deck red and passed away.
Celsius is falling apart.
However, it does not sink easily.
A few meters of ice covering Celsius forms a strong bulletproof armor, preventing relatively low-penetration 12,7 cm artillery shells.
Every time the shells hit, Celsius was shaken violently, but…
“Ooh! We withstood it again! As expected of the elves’ technology!”
“Long live the Black Elven Empire! Long live the Elves!”
It will not allow penetration into the interior of the ship.
The bombardment continues for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and they are being bombarded with 100, 200 shells, but… Celsius does not sink.
The elves cheered and rejoiced at their ship’s defensive power.
In the meantime.
“The enemy ship has lost its mast and has lost its ability to navigate.”
“But it didn’t sink… It can’t be helped, we’ll have to rely on the aircraft carrier’s attack squadron’s bombs.”
“I wish we had been loaded with torpedoes…”
“That’s asking for the impossible.”
Samejima, who is on the attacking side, was staring at Celsius with a grim expression, which wasn’t sinking no matter how much time passed.
Every time the main guns of his ship, Agano, burst into flames, the chunk of ice containing the elves is engulfed in an explosion.
The mast, which was barely giving it a ship-like appearance, has already been blown away, and now it looks like nothing more than an iceberg.
However, it does not sink.
Is it not possible to penetrate the thick ice armor with a 12.7 cm gun? Or is it that ice floats on water and therefore won’t sink…
It seems that sinking the enemy ship as Samejima intends is not possible.
Having said that, Agano does not have any more means of attack. This ship, which is completely specialized in anti-air combat, is not equipped with torpedoes.
In that case…
The things that could possibly sink this chunk of ice are either torpedoes mounted on destroyers or aerial bombs.
This time, it also serves as an operational test for the aircraft carrier, so bombing by the carrier-based aircraft would be most appropriate.
Samejima, having decided so, contacted Hosho in the rear by radio.
He requested the launch of the attack squadron.
At the request of Samejima, the attack squadron are launching one after another from the rear aircraft carrier Hosho.
The formation consisted of 12 attack aircraft Kaizan each carrying two 250 kg bombs, and four escort fighters. Among them…
“Let’s go, Gadermann! It’s time to sortie.”
“Please don’t push yourself too hard.”
The Demon Lord of the Sky blends in casually.
The fate of Celsius, who was targeted by this god of destruction, is…
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