Volume 1 Chapter 7: Battle of West Abysmal Bay
August 21st, 1941
Oslo NordReich
Security has grown within the past month. The small numbers of garrisons has swelled to overall one hundred thousand men.
More artillery pieces and machine guns were allocated in anticipation of more attacks. The Atlantikwal now extended all across the west of the island and partially on the eastern and south eastern sides.
Naval and air patrols were much more frequent as radar was deemed useless against the wooden ships.
Submarine U-281, Nordic Sea
"How the sonar? Did you fix the problem?"
"Yes sir."
The Type VII submarine was a 1936 hull variant. Equipped with 4 torpedo tubes and 12 extra torpedos it was a formidable force.
They have been stationed as part of precautionary measures to avoid another Tromsø Incident.
Suddenly a ping echoed on the sonar.
All motion on the bridge of the submarine stopped.
The ping then turned into numerous pings as a huge fleet appeared on the sonar.
"Relay to command that a large fleet is approaching?"
"Yes sir!"
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Nord Command
Oslo NordReich
"General, report from U-281; large unknown fleet spotted off the coast of the Nordic Sea."
"Contact fleet admiral Günter König. Send the 3rd fleet to intercept."
"Yes sir."
At the port near the 3rd fleet staging area.
Alarms were blaring.
"Alert: enemy fleet 12 km out at sea. Man all battle stations."
Sailors and logistic personnel were rushing about the port.
They were loading ammunition and boarding the ships.
In total the 3rd fleet had comprised of:
2 battleships
1 battlecruiser
1 escort carrier
3 heavy cruisers
8 light cruisers
12 destroyers
Two groups were made;
Aircraft group
1 escort aircraft carrier
1 heavy cruiser
3 light cruisers
6 destroyers
Strike force:
2 battleships
1 battlecruiser
2 heavy cruisers
5 light cruisers
6 destroyers
Also dispatched were an air fleet of 25 Heinkel He 115 torpedo bombers and 12 Bf-109 escorts.
After about a hour of readying the ships, the fleet set sail.
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U-281 kept stalking the enemy fleet. She was joined by U-23 and U-75. Each submarine picked its target and trailed the largest ships they could find.
"Captain, take a look at this."
An officer was looking through the periscope. They deduced that being at periscope depth was okay since the enemy only had wooden boats.
A large ship overshadowed even the largest of the two decked ships. A huge beast of forged steel chugged forward. It resembled something between and aircraft carrier and a dreadnought. The right half of the ship had a large command bridge and the left was flat and covered in lizards with wings.
Protruding out of the front of the ship was a very large cannon. It size was comparable to the Karl-Gerät 54 cm cannon in size. Unlike the other ships this one seemed to be steam powered as a smokestack was seen on the ship.
This was very alarming so they radioed in Nord Command about the new ship.
In response to this new threat two more air fleets were sent from Oslo and 4 more from Denmark.
This new threat was relayed to 3rd fleet admiral König who immediately recognized its immediate threat to their capital ships.
The ocean was mostly calm and the sun shined without a cloud in the sky. It was perfect weather for a naval battle.
The admiral in his flagship, the German battleship Scharnhorst, looked up to see the numerous dots of German aircraft which flew in from the mainland.
"7th air fleet to 3rd fleet command, we are beginning our preemptive air strike on the targets. Clean up our leftovers!"
The admiral picked up an intercom.
"Affirmative, good hunting boys."
The planes faded into the sky as the fleet chugged forward.
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7th air fleet
The lead Heinkel He 115 torpedo bomber was piloted by Obergefreiter (AU: airman first class for Luftwaffe ranks. Different than Heer ranks) Hans Wolff. Their mission is to sink the enemy capital ship before it can cause any massive damage. Secondary objectives were to cause as much damage as possible.
The formation continued to cruise until a great many of dots could been seen under them. The Obergefreiter waved his hand to his wingman and they dove.
The Bf-109s pulled off and started strafing the lighter ships to eliminate anti-aircraft fire. Personnel ran onto the decks with small arms and attempted to shoot down the aircraft.
The Bf-109s were way too small and fast for the arrows to even reach them.
A fighter strafed a medium sized vessel and circled for another run. Circles of multicolored light started to glow among several of the enemy crew. The Bf-109 pilot paid no attention.
Suddenly he saw streaks of multicolored light arc from the ship and began climbing to his attitude.
He jerked his control stick back and his plan jolted into a drive upwards. The colored light still followed him. He was reaching the limits of his climb when the lights collided with his plane.
The pilot felt his consciousness fade as he was mentally attacked by the blast.
The Bf 109 stopped climbing and went into tailspin into the water.
A large plume of water gushed out from the ammunition explosion.
The Bf 109 squad leader quickly barked orders into his radio breaking radio silence. He knew that he was going to get punished later but he had to tell his squad.
"The have tracking attacks. Aim for the colored circles!"
The fight planes stopped strafing the ships and targeted only the ships with the mages (AU: this information was provided by the princess when asked about Epruilon military).
3 more planes were hit by tracking light but another 6 warships burned and sunk to the bottom of the bay.
While this carnage was raging 12 Heinkel He 115s were fast approaching the enemy capital ships. They flew in a straight line to create a torpedo cloud in which the enemy could not avoid.
The starboard cannons of the capital ship roared with a volley. This was mirrored with volleys from other ships. All shots missed.
After getting in range all torpedoes were launched. Of the 12 torpedoes 3 failed to activate and sunk. The other 9 shot forwards to intercept the large ship.
The large ship was launching its anti-air defenses, wyverns. The lizards flew towards the torpedo bombers but they scattered without the wyverns getting a chance to fire at them.
The torpedoes raced towards the enemy capital ship when beams of white-yellowish light from the ship intercepted and neutralized them. Two torpedoes however collided with a smaller ship which erupted into flames.
"Shit! All torpedoes missed! Return to base, mission is a failure!"
All of the planes pulled off and headed back to base.
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"Were those what I think they were?"
Onboard the Prince Joseph, a Behemoth class 4-deck ship, three heroes assigned to the second invasion were drenched in sweat. Maria, Allyssa and Christiana were assigned to defend the fleet by the 2nd prince himself.
They had just spent their morning fighting off planes which were not supposed to be in this world.
That had been training for the past month and learned that luxuries of their home world did not exist in this one.
Showers and toilets were one of these things.
Since they were heroes they were given luxurious rooms and servants who drew hot baths for them. But since they were at sea hot water was rare. They had several water specialists on board who provided fresh water for drinking and eating but that was rationed.
Maria Vasquez-Hernandez was a Soul archer. this meant that she had the ability to debuff opponents with ranged attack. Usually these were mental attacks.
A special skill of the Light Mage Christiana was called 'Trip to the Holy Land'. This enchantment made objects gravitate towards living beings. This could be applied weapons like daggers which would return to the owner's hand or projectile attacks which turned them into homing arrows.
Maria and Christiana have been practicing on combining their attacks. It paid off as they have a total of four confirmed kills.
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20 minutes earlier
The three were hand picked from the heroes in order to accompany the second fleet which was to invade an island which belonged to evil forces.
They were told that the first fleet had successfully landed and were requesting reinforcements so they were there to assist in landing more troops.
Unbeknownst to them this force was entirely made up of levies since the government wanted to hide the existence of summoned slave soldiers from the heroes. The commanders had orders to silence slaves or lie about them to the heroes.
The sun was beating down on the heroes as they gathered on the bridge of the capital ship. Wyverns were chilling inside the hull, out of the direct insolation.
Magical crew were maintaining the huge magic cannon which faced the front of the ship. If the ship were to be flanked, the cannon was useless.
Christiana's task was to repel attacks using her light barrier and fuel homing attacks. Maria was to fire at enemy airborne units using her bow and Allyssa was inside the boiler room of the ship and keeping the fires alive were her special affinity.
"Ah, what a nice day. Too bad we are on this huge ship. I wanted to go to the beach."
"Maria, we have a job to do here. Its under the 2nd prince's orders."
"Ah that screwball. If it wasn't for the riches or fame, I wouldn't even listen to him."
"How rude, he's quite the charming person."
Maria made a disgusted face towards Christiana.
She blew a raspberry at her.
Suddenly Allyssa appeared in the doorway. Her blond hair was stained with coal smoke and her clothes were covered in oil and grease stains. She had been the one to design and convince the 2nd prince to construct the 4 decker ship. She advocated for large naval cannons but the prince wanted the magical cannon instead. The prince however let her add whatever other things she wanted. That's how the wyverns were added. The prince was very impressed.
"Both of you quick! The magic scanner picked up multiple aerial objects approaching at high speeds! Get to your tower now!"
Soon a collective alarm broke out among the crew of the entire fleet. Wyverns started to get lifted into the sky as armed soldiers poured onto the decks.
Then small objects started dotting the horizon. They were not ships but aircraft.
"Planes! Why are planes in this world?"
Maria screamed with alarm as Christiana started enchanting Maria's arrows.
The squadron of planes started attacking the smaller ships in the vanguard. Several ships were lighted ablaze when machine gun fire from the planes hit the gunpowder stores.
The ships did not use small guns as the gunpowder was reserved for cannons only. The navy was the highest expense of the Kingdom of Epruilon.
The deck and below deck guns became useless as the attacks came from the air. These ships were not designed to fight aerial units so they had no air defense capabilities. The only thing protecting the ships were arrows and magical bursts.
The arrows were just as useless as their range was too low. The magic wasn't any better as it was too slow to reach the targets.
Only Maria could reach the airplanes. She let loose an arrow. It arced upwards and struck one of the planes.
She could see the plane stop moving and plummet into the ocean.
She released several more arrows and downed three more planes. Suddenly Christiana yelped. A large formation of planes were flying low directed at them.
The side cannons of several ships opened up but missed entirely.
Suddenly a dozen or so thin objects fell off the planes. Allyssa could count nine sleek objects jetting towards their ship.
"Christiana! Quickly deploy your barrier magic! Those are torpedoes!"
Christiana quickly closed her eyes and chanted. The entire starboard of the ship was illuminated in a white-yellow glow.
About six of the torpedoes slam into the shield and explode on impact. two of the other torpedoes miss and impact with another smaller ship. One missed entirely.
The planes pulled off and flew away toward the direction in which the Epruilon fleet was heading. Clearly they were enemies.
Christiana collapsed. Blocking all six shots drained all of her magic reserves. She leaned on Allyssa while her staff dropped to the ground.
Maria was watching the planes fade into the horizon. She can make out a faint black cross.
"Those planes. They have these black and white crosses on them. Allyssa, you're the history person. You know what those are? I can swear I've seen them before. Like on FaceBook or something" (AU: I don't own any rights to say this name. If they want me to change it so be it. Its free advertising xD. Wait, this would mean that this novel actually went somewhere).
Allyssa frowned. She knows exactly what nation used those symbols. She remembers her lesson in Social Studies. She had studied them enough times.
"Those are German symbols. Based on the single propellers they are from the 40s."
"You serious? Why are German planes here? Are we fighting Germany?"
The three quickly went white. They misinterpreted it as them fighting modern Germany. Still fighting 1940 Germany isn't any better. To their knowledge its worse.
"I don't think that we can fight Germany."
"No we can! We can use magic in this world! We shot four of their planes down, we can do this!"
Maria was optimistic. Allyssa knew that they were doomed. Christiania was too tired to listen.
Suddenly the alarms blazed once more. In the distance more planes could be seen approaching. Behind the large silhouettes of warships began appearing.
"No way..."
Maria's voice began to tremble. They had just barely fended off the first wave and now a larger second wave with warships were coming.
Suddenly a 3-deck ship exploded. This ship was in their rear so the enemy wasn't even close to them.
"Submarine!"
Allyssa remembered the reasons the US joined WWI. Zimmerman telegraph and unrestricted submarine warfare. U-boats.
She ran and looked back. Several dark objects could be seen stalking them. They had no means to counter them.
She then ran up a fight of stairs to the main command bridge. There was fleet admiral Joseph Flanders.
"Admiral, we must retreat!"
Allyssa was panting and out of breath from sprinting up the stairs.
The admiral turned and sized her up. Allyssa felt uncomfortable under the judging eyes of the admiral. He was balding with white hair. His chest showed evidence of his military career. His left eye was milky white from damage sustained when he was fighting pirates in his younger years.
He reminded Allyssa of US President Theodore Roosevelt, monocle and mustache all aligned.
"Hero ma'am, I cannot just approach and turn away. Our damage was not too bad. None of our transports were harmed."
He looked out to the large approaching fleet. He could count about 25 vessels as well as double that number in flying objects. However his concern was the two larger ships towards the rear. Both were armed with 5 large magical cannons each. He could no seem to grasp how one could fit so many cannons onto a ship of that size. He also could not understand how it was humanly possible to construct such as ship.
"I take it back. Turn the fleet around. We are retreating."
The officers in room were shocked. The admiral never gave a retreat order before. They realized how grim the situation was.
Suddenly a political officer spoke out. He was a noble who got his position due to his family ties. He was hoping to win glory in this campaign.
"You coward! All of you cowards! The enemy has yet to show their face and we turn tail and run away! Is this the extent of the 2nd fleet. Is this the backbone of the pathetic excuse of a hero! The enslavement process should have been done on you glorified peasants."
His outburst shocked the crew. Several placed hands on sabers while Allyssa was taken aback.
The admiral was even more shocked, the noble leaked confidential information about the heroes to a hero. He quickly pulled his flintlock pistol from his back and shot the noble dead.
"This coward died during the first wave agreed?"
"Yes admiral!"
"All hands on deck. Fleet change course and retreat to Wallaceburg. I repeat retreat to Wallaceburg."
The admiral walked to the hero who just witnessed her first death in front of her eyes. She collapsed and started throwing up. The admiral knelt besides her as she kept retching.
"Hero ma'am. You must keep the noble's words and death a secret. We all could be executed for treason if this got out. Retreating is already a risk. You are our nation's hero, please resolve yourself and prove him wrong."
The admiral then got up and returned to giving orders.
Allyssa was helped up by a naval officer and escorted to her room. The ship rocked violently as cannons outside started erupting.
Gunfire and magical chants could be heard from upstairs. More booms echoed inside the ship.
Allyssa made it to her room and fell onto her bed. Then suddenly the wall exploded and she lost conciseness.
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Inside the command bridge of the Scharnhorst
"Admiral König, we rescued about 200 people from the remains of the enemy. Many look like regular sailors but a few stand out from the rest."
"Good work."
Just minutes before the strike force attacked the Epruilon fleet. Their 28 cm/54.5 (11 inch) SK C/34 naval guns (AU: the same ones planned to be put on the P.1000 Ratte 'Monster' Landcruiser) opened up once the battle group turned and revealed their starboard side to the enemy. The AP shells penetrated the light wall which gave the initial aerial attack force trouble.
Within minutes the entire enemy fleet was wiped out. The only deaths were the four Bf-109 pilots who were killed in action.
The Germans counted a total of 10000 bodies, mainly from the light troop transports.
"It pains me to think about all of these young men from another world dying meaningless deaths. Robbed of their future of politicians who throw them like chess pieces. At least our Kaiser rewards all those who die with awards and state funds. I doubt that these lads would receive a dime."
The admiral thought this aloud. He could be heard by his subordinates but he couldn't care less. He was actually praising the Kaiser.
"Sir! Recovered another survivor. This ones a woman!"
The admiral looked up. Besides the ones from the Tromsø Incident there were no woman among the captured survivors of this naval encounter.
"What's more she is glowing blue!"
"What! Report this to central command immediately. The orders to look out for potential enemy heroes is our main priority as the Kaiser himself ordered it!"
The admiral barked at a communications officer who quickly started typing on his machine.
The message was recieved back in Germany and placed in the 'Top of Priority' bin on the Kaiser's desk.
The Kaiser was out with his wife going to a play at the local theatre that afternoon.
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Continent of Esmeralda
Minas, Kingdom of Epruilon
"What the actual fu.....!"