XXIII Naval Race

IMAGE OF THE CONTINENT IN COMMENT 

please refer to the image from time to time as this chapter will feature alot of countries.

---

"The Melrose Perci." The Hesian admiral stepped forward, the board of architects and engineers standing by. "Tell me what of it."

"Sir, at the moment, the first Melrose is being laid down at the Hapascher Dock, we suspect it will be finished before the Betelions are to finish their… BSS Apple."

Commotion; "The BSS Apple is a cruiser, from what we know it will be longer than our Perci, but won't be as powerful."

"Elaborate." The admiral probed.

"The sketches we saw had 19cm bores, four of such turrets stationed stern and bow--singular barrels. A standard configuration for a warship. We, however; are opting for 23cm bores, five twin turrets, stationed one stern and two bow, and two wing turrets stationed midship. Increasing our firepower when shooting via our sides."

The admiral grinned. "I'm seeing it already; The Heavy Cruiser Melrose Perci and her big guns outrival the Betelionic Apple!"

---

Not a blip later; the first Melrose was finished. She was moved closer to Port Geo for her first major showing, which was to partake the day after the Betelions would showcase theirs at the same port.

This was kept secret, but such a big thing could not be kept secret, no one could keep the Melrose secret. It got out the day prior the Apple's arrival that the appearance of the Melrose was a white lion. It was a propaganda stunt, to color the ship's superstructure a brass yellow and the hull a stark white. Elevating the elegance of the Melrose in spite of it's big and daunting twin turrets.

The admiral stood there, shocked. The BSS Apple was fast. Too fast. It clipped the ocean like it were knife to butter! She had a rather narrow beam, yet her length was a exceeding eighty meters, the bow was purposely blunt compared to the Melrose's sharp stem.

The Apple was a forebodingly light ship. Her bridge was rather tall, taller than the Melrose. The admiral saw a silhouete of the Atago in her. Her funnel was also curved slightly, the Melrose kept to a straight design. And the hull wasn't continous unlike the flush-type hull of the Melrose. The ship itself was the polar opposite of the Melrose.

The frigid gray was foreboding, the turrets, though small, were enough to give them goosebumps. Then, a live-firing. It wasn't anything special, the rounds spent cool explosions, but nothing as dandy as what the Melrose will bring. Which was what the Admiral was thinking.

There was one thing the Apple had that made the Melrose a little inferior. "Torpedo tubes," said the German naval officer. "I commanded the officers for the Maaas' torpedo tubes. And their versatility, and power, is a force to reckon with."

The engineers kept it to mind.

That day, the seas outside port Geo were ferocious. Giving the Betelions to show off the Apple's seafaring. The sea just deflected the water, she was riding over the waves, he recalled thinking. The blunt bow, and the way the stem was raked; it made the ship resist the resistance of the waves.

And don't get him started on the speed. "Twenty, thirty, no… That's thirty-four knots!" The observers freaked out, the speed was incalculable. And the Germans were impressed. The admiral knew the Melrose was built mostly by Hesian intellegence, remodeling the German steam engines to manufacture their own kind of engines.

But knowing the Betelions, there was probably some exchanged that happened in the background that made them be able to purchase better engines! "Not good, not good at all." The admiral went to his radioman; "I want you to message the lead engineers, we meet at Port Morlain at 3:00 PM sharp! Along with the ship."

---

"Twenty-five!?." The admiral gripped his hands tightly. "Twenty-five knots!? We can't affored twenty-five knots!"

"Admiral, it's a difference in classes, out ship is a Heavy Cruiser, and theirs is a Light Cruiser. We would prioritise our firepower while they'll use speed as a method of defense, our overwhelming guns will outmanuever their erected barriers."

He sighed, "I-is there anyway to increase the speed slightly? Thirty knots would be amazing."

"Umm…" The engineers looked at each other, debating what to do. "There are ways to increase er' speed. Mainly, reducing the amount of crew, and we could also try sloping the stem a little, but I doubt that'd do anything sir. We'll just have to accept this speed difference."

"Reduce the complement. You say there'll be two hundred crew? Make it one fifty."

"Aye, sir."

---

It was time for their Melrose to showcase itself at Port Geo. Just like the BSS Apple, many had come to observe the warship. Many Betelions stood to watch, Germans to wonder, and Hesians to worry.

They already had a vague idea what the warship looked like, clad in white, powerful. But this other idea started to popup, that the Melrose was sluggish and slow, aiming for the fact that it had more bigger, cumbersome barrels.

"A baseless rumor." The Admiral spat. "Stupid numbnuts have yet to even see our ship and they're already spitting rumors. I didn't hear any of those when the Apple was here."

"Let's remain optimistic, sir."

 Silence.

Port Geo was getting more louder by the minute as they saw the black smoke being erupted from the funnels on the horizon.

With a spyglass, the Betelions observed from their front-row seats. The people held their breaths. The sun, reflecting off the white hull; the contrasting black smoke, and the yellow superstructure. "An elegant bringer of death."

The Melrose sped to the port at it's fullest speed of twenty-seven knots. The people sped also to their canvases. The painters were putting blue, green, yellow, and red on their canvases. The outlines of a ship appearing, then at the next second, the masts were being put.

"A marvelous sight." Commnented the outlookers.

Her golden turrets turned to face the Ferris Sea, like a salute to the waves; she raised her barrels syncronized to a perfect pitch, and fired!

The crowd was amazed, it was a powerful blast, something unlike the BSS Apple. The Betelions were hit in the fire. "It seems our competitor too is our ally, we need to redefine strong. Their heavy cruiser may be a bit slower than our light cruiser, but the people don't care about slow, it's power they care about it seems."

"Should we go ahead with the plans?" Questioned the engineer behind the Betelionic admiral.

"Yes." He stood up, observing the Hesian ship with sharp eyes. "Enact the BSS Betelionic."

( * )

"So you want more ships?" Hierd looked at Adelheid, a stack of papers sitting on his hand about why.

"The last time, we had enough… Yes. The six K-3s, Leberect and Atago combined, were amazing. But now we've inflated to five thousand other sailors that aren't getting a ride out to the sea, and instead are training with… Alrife's Ex-battalion."

"I was so cooked up on other things that I forgot about the navy." Hierd chuckled nervously, Adelheid was dead-serious on this. "B-but! What you wish shall be my command," he jokingly curtsied.

---

A whole battalion of sailors and army soldiers were being secretly brought out somewhere in Germany's southern-south. It was one of those ports that were seized by Germany from the contested Handerbour and German borders.

The port city of Gant was now an empty ghost-city. And a surrounding perimeter a kilometer away from the city kept it safe from prying eyes.

There, from their back-truck view; a queen sat on the water as still as she could have been. Her two hounds laying beside her as guards. An announcer blasted from the radios; "The Scarnhorst and the Deustchlands."

"She should service the remaining sailors not doing anything."

"Indeed." Adelheid could not help but eye up the three iron giants.

"The Scarnhorst is a Battleship, we haven't had any battleships, so supplying up on these should service for the increasing tensions in Latessia." He sighed in exhaustion, thinking about the hassle that happened the nights prior. "The Deustchlands escort the ship, even if they themselves are some knots slower."

"But why so far away from Unchean?" Adelheid questioned with intrigue darting his face.

"I fear we're at the brink of a great war."

Just the words alone were enough to terrify Adelheid, "this is… Because of what?"

"I've had the MP look at the countries surrounding the Tri-Union." He turned sharply left to an almost-full parking space, a rumble of soldiers were already exiting the back of his truck. "Handerbour, this Ruska just beside us and Hesia, and the two empires up north of Betelion; Kerfeliz and Lottidenty. Lately, there's been more movement between the four. And I'm not liking it."

"And also;" Hierd continued. "Lottidenty and this other neutral country have been experimenting with out technology, I've heard from our agents that they've been making advancements related to… Related to our crafts."

"War is inevitable if our influence and also because our great military is better than any."

"They'll be thinking we're going to capture all of Latessia." Hierd said sarcastically.

"Are you?" 

There was this silence, only being broken up by the rum of the soldiers and vehicles outside his truck. "I might." Hierd broke it off with, he went outside.

"Please direct all of our troops to the pier, I will be saying a few words. Thanks Adelheid!"

---

He took two steps forward, a step back because he took another step he'd be falling off Scarnhorst's bow. Looking at him were those three thousand or so combined soldiers and naval officers.

The sillhouete of a man; so physically strong and so leader-like to them standing at the front of one of the largest, metal warships they've ever seen was such a mind-opening experience that could level their entire understanding of man.

And that signature, contrasting blonde hair, it made Hierd seem all the more powerful.

"You were awoken today, you'd think that it was because of another training, or that the Rebels have found their way to enchant those giants from some yesterdays to siege our city." He raised his hands, "but no."

"Our newspapers have blown up with many statements, opinions, these also mindblowing facts. It is without doubt that our navy, our army, our military, is one of the most powerful out there. But currently, strength is needed. That will be what the three ships lined here are for today."

"To the soldiers here, you may not be using and operating in this ship, however, you will be part in making this city a naval port." He sighed exhausted, he now took a step forward, he hung to the metal pole (behind him), not looking down in defiance to the smooth waves.

"Secrecy will be upmost priority, for these three warships and later more, will become our hidden trap cards. Under the months, maybe years that you sailors will serve under these ships, you will travel around the oceans; surveil the oceans and graph those oceans."

"Explore the world." He stated sternly.

The soldiers couldn't help but muster their silent reactions, their faces gaining more and more serious as time grew.

"This, this will be your modus operandi." Hierd breathed in; "this will become your mission!"

( * )

It took an entire week to get things ready. The Scarnhorst was first to leave the dock, was first to fire her turrets, and was first to traverse from point A to point B. That was the mission each ship was assigned to first.

From the port, there was this offshore island about thirty kilometers away moving south. It was stated by some soldiers in that local area that the south was a wild rife of sea. They befittingly called it; Harsh Sea. 

It should take an hour (depending on the speed they chose to go). Since Scarnhorst decided to ride the southern sea first; she too was first to witness just how Harsh, Harsh sea was. Her captain was this Felmenn, an experienced sailor serving on Jack's Atago for six months already.

Confident of his wit, captain Jack recommended him to become Scarnhorst's captain. Scarnhorst went along at the first strike of morning after the next day. Along with a thousand sailors, she moved at first; twenty-five knots, but then, it quickly slowed down to twenty-three.

The clouds were already dark even before they had crossed the veil of the shoreline, but there, ten minutes after leaving port; they were face-to-face with a storm. The waves were kicking the bow backwards, and flinging his sailors all over the place. He's perfected the sailor's lean, staying totally upright in his disconfigured environment.

While his bridge officers struggled a little bit more than him in helping in the navigation. Felmenn couldn't let the ship be pushed, it was Germany's Battleship for all sakes. He pushed for the Scarnhorst's top speed, powering through and cutting the waves.

The waves, though were being cut; were landing on his bow; even on his concealed bridge, he was getting wet all over by the sea's waves entering it. And not to mention, the storm was inconcievablely hindering visibility, he knew it should take about an hour to reach the island, however; if were to reach it, he wouldn't want to crash onto it.

The low freeboard didn't help; as the sea was engulfing the bow; it caused the entire ship to pitch higher and higher. He pushed back one of the officers to gain control of one of the binoculars. "No sillhouetes. No island. Too much water."

"Stabilize the balasts!" He yelled.

"Aye!"

The officers ran to the radio room to inform the sailors down under trying hard as ever to manage and control the ship in all this rolling and pitching. They continued to go straight and forward; the waves unrelenting in their onslaught, but with the balasts controlled; the Scharnhorst was a bit more stable than before.

"Where are we!?" Felmenn questioned, looking at the officers with the binoculars, "we have no idea sir! But if we're right on, we should be reaching it by twenty minutes!"

"Then we should be seeing the island's sillhouete by now!"

"Yes, sir! But we can't!"

"Then that means we gone off course!" He leapt to the gangways; pushing the officers to allow his way. Even in a daylight storm, there was truly no sillhouete of an island anywhere. If he was going to find the island, what would Jack do? He muttered.

He went back into the bridge, soaking wet; looking at the gyrocompass, he failed to account for it. "Weren't you taught how to get coordinates with the gyrocompass!?"

"Y-yes, captain."

"Well go and do it!" He turned to the officers behind him; "lower speed to twenty knots, we need to figure out where we are."

"Aye, sir!"

They cranked the radio wheel to 'medium-speed,' the whole entire battleship slowing down the second after.

The sailors were hastily getting coordinates; then, understanding their direction; they did really deviate twenty degrees from their starting point. "Captain! We have to turn west by twenty degrees."

"And we are!" He looked to the helmsman, his eyes signaling the order without speaking.

"Aye!"

The helmsman twisted levers, communicating with the engine-men downbelow. Moving west, the left turbine lost a bit of energy, and the left one a bit more. The rudders themselves, turning sharply.

Even if the waves were hindering it, the bulk, that iron mass, the lone iron-cladded island, turned; it's sharp degree rushing it to it's correct aligned path, defying the orders of the sea.

Felmenn quickly ordered to rush at thirty-one knots.

They were now at course.

---

"There!" An officer of the bridge counted for; "we're just ten minutes away!"

The sea had calmed down a little, seeing the island, Felmenn ordered the ship slowed down to a stop. "That's one small island." He commented, looking proudly at the island. "Please radio the port, we've reached our destination and are preparing to fire at it."

"Aye."

"Where are the Deustchlands?" He questioned in his breath, looking stern-wise from the gangway.

"We don't know sir, no confirmation."

"And it doesn't matter either way." He walked back into the bridge, it; being wet and moist already. His men were in the same moisty condition as he was. Celebrating their accomplishment, and thanking their wits they were alive.

The door behind them opened, the officer with the news; "They've confirmed our objective, the permission is set, sir."

He stepped forward, to the window; overlooking the island. "Fire."

( * )

A month after; Betelion and Hesia were already rapidly making ships at record pace, no not record pace, they were breaking world records! In just a month, there were two BSS Apples and one Betelionic.

It was a thirty-three knot battleship (the Betelionic) and had almost the same design as the IJN Kongo.

Barring (of course) the sea plane steam launchers, the secondary guns and their casements (making it effectively a flush-hull designed Kongo with it's two stern turrets being much more closer together. And that her guns were a tad smaller, going for 290mm main turret barrels than the Kongo's 350mm or so barrels. And unlike the Kongo, Betelionic's bow elevated a little more to improve seaworthiness.

 The Betelions had this evolved design philosophy. From Japan's 'big gun, big boom,' to; 'slightly smaller gun, slightly smaller boom, better speed.'

The thing was, if ships were too sluggish, the average destroyer with a torpedo could level a single battleship. And that wasn't something they wanted. The UG (university of Germany) taught something these Hesians and Betelions committed to heart; "That any ship that floats in the sea may sink, any part in a machine that can move, will break, and any vehicle made to drive, will stop."

Countless methods should be put in place that can repair, in such case, these scenarios that would put a battleship like the BSS Betelionic under the sea.

Betelionic had a light armor belt for a battleship, but in exchange, it had a lot of compartments where if water breached inside the ship, it could simply be closed by one of the three bulkheads each compartment had.

But what the Hesians had in mind was different.

After the BSS Betelionic was built, they wanted to respond but they focused on only building their Melroses (the second month forward there were five made). The; "Great White Fleet" they called it. And it had already made many appearances in countries East of Latessia.

Further spreading Germany's influence to the rest of the otherwise undeveloped world.

In two months, the navy was the most powerful sector of the military, and because the magic division was culled, it's funding was cut, the dragoon battalion was defunct and deconsecrated. Hesia's army fared better days, but the navy held full superiority in comparison to them.

Improving relations with Germany's navy, they began training with their Melroses and Germany's K-3s. It was some fun bits of excerise. And they gained a little bit more confidence from that.

Just before the next month would roll in, they started laying in the keel of their next project; "I'll call it the Gerani." The Hesian admiral stated. "What those Betelions had was an ironclad battleship that was fast. And fast is good, we know that. However; what we should be worrying over is firepower."

"Why so, sir?" Questioned the naval engineer.

"See, we're not at war with Germany nor with Betelion." He slammed his hand on his table, "what we would be fighting with, in the case of war, would be outsiders who don't know the German tech. 'Big guns, big booms.' That's what we need."

---

And soon, the Gerani was launched the next month, it was a full two hundred and thirty meters in length, sporting six 245mm twin turrets and a rather suffocating twenty-seven knots of max speed.

Incorporating the same turret layout as the Agincourt while sharing the same superstructure and hull as their Cesare. What it was was a beast, and the sheer firepower it imposed upon any who dared to fight back, would decimate even a small island into a pile of sand.

They didn't present this to the public until the public were to find out themselves what their ship was and what it meant. Hesia was probably the second-most powerful navy in the world, the Betelion did not want to rank third.

But, they unfortunately had to cut down on the naval building. As their military spending was now focused on making prototype tanks and guns.

Speaking of, tanks were a new gem. Hesia didn't want tanks because they didn't need it. And instead opted to change up the trucks that the Germans made into light infantry-carriers that had these heavy machine guns strapped on it's middle. (The more affordable option)

But Betelion had been in the cooking game longer.

When the Tiger 1s and the Maus was shown during Germany's parade at the signing of the alliance; they were beyond shocked and wanted to remake the technology the Germans made.

Their first prototypes were buns, their second prototypes were more able, but their first real tanks were something else. Borrowing from the lessons they learned when they were building the BSS Apple, they made something similar to a Sherman (just less advanced and less reliable).

Simply 'T-O1,' it was a light tank with a fast rotating turret sporting a light tank barrel than could fire only HE rounds. The armor was also not as sloped as the Sherman's. And the speed it went was not as fast as the Tiger 1. But it was enough.

Factories were rapidly spreading in the Betelion empire, and their own means of production made them able to procure ten of those tanks to roam the country by the time the Hesians and their Gerani were exposed to the public.

During this little race of theirs between who gets the better warship and how many; Lottidenty and this little country up north of Hesia were experimenting.

"As I had feared." Hierd presented a letter. "Lottidenty had made a warship."

The admiralty were shocked, but not too shocked as to caused a commotion to circle the whole entire manor.

"They're not going to storm Unchean, that's like storming Auferstehen naked with the only sword you have being your dong. There's no worry" Marrise said ever so sweetly.

"Well, if I were a monster from Auferstehen and I saw some random guy chasing at me all naked with his dong flying all about, I'd start running the other way." Hierd sat down with a smile on his face. "We could worry. Or we can choose to not. By this time I want to have more presence in Western Germany and North Betelion."

"How do you wish to do that lord?"

"Aren't there these chain of islands next to Betelion, Handerbour, and this Kerfeliz guy further north?"

"Yes, lord…" He cleared his throat, "they're highly contested between the three since those islands hold much strategic importants. I remember it being called the Gale Islands, because if you were to speak of the Gale Islands at dinner, that dinner would turn into a Gale of utter nonsense lord."

"I see."

"Well, I want to throw in my own hand in the mix."

"Lord?" The admiralty was now bewildered, "do you wish to involve yourself in the conflict between those islands? We'd be throwing ourselves in the brink of war if that were the case."

"Not yet anyways." Hierd laid back on his chair.

"Strengthen our presence in Betelion, and I want to construct a fort in Betelion's shores facing the Gale Islands." He sighed, "and, because our ships down south have been practicing their shore bombardings, I want them to push it more. The Scharnhorst should be ready for a conflict by the coming years, okay?"

"Yes, lord. If it is as you wish."

"Thank you."

"Wait a minute there," Marrise blocked him. "You want to throw this peaceful country into war?"

"It all starts from a single advancement, Marrise." He looked at her eyes, "I know you better than anybody. And I know that you know that if the other countries started to gain the same technology as ours, we'd be thrown into conflict anyways."

"The Lottydentian warship." She stated, "it wasn't just a warship was it?"

Hierd's eyebrows raised, "that's where my next words will lie in. I want the B Fleet to start moving West towards Gale. Our Lottydentian buddies are voyaging south."

( * )

"The giants aren't just giants." Jamie said to Jeane and Heduc. "If we're going to be fighting these monsters in the future, I think we shouldn't be betting on hoping."

"Why so? They were easy to kill." Heduc said.

"There were too many of them in that cave, and not to mention, lady Jeane;" she switched her gaze towards her.

"Y-yes?"

"The voice sorceror from that manor in Betelion." She fixed her glasses, "it couldn't just be coincidence that these magical things are happening just after our presence started to bloom."

"Those two events happened months apart-"

"We haven't linked the two events together sir, but having such a powerful voice sorceror knowingly be able to exist in the north, means that there are more powerful magicians in the north, in the Rebels."

"And that's the kicker." Adelheid refused the knock and entered in, "the MP should be looking into that already, but as Jamie had said, it's just too coincidental to not be related to each other-"

"Oh and Auferstehen!" Jeane recalled. "Could it be that Auferstehen was taken to make those giants?"

"T-that… That could certainly be a reason." Jamie looked at her papers. "The magic inside these giants were pretty weak, but maybe because there were… Hypothetically, many giants, a big magic source that Auferstehen would possibly supply would need to be divided up, lessening the power."

"There were fifty giants in that cave." Heduc recounted the report. "Fifty. And there's more than fifty monsters during the month of Auferstehen. Way more than fifty."

They couldn't contribute to anything to further move the dialogue along and kept silent.

"It's too many theories and too less proven things." Adelheid picked up a flask of blood, supposedly from a giant. "You two should go back to the manor, get some rest."

"I want that." Heduc hurriedly escaped the laboratory. Jeane trailed behind, they both said their adieu.

Adelheid focused his gaze onto Jamie. He went closer. "I never mistake people. It's a common trait, not, it's God-given, that anyone with a brain and a fuctioning heart would be able to recognize people they know."

He lifted her chin up, their eyes creating a heated tension. "I know who you are, of course. Jamie. Jamie Fox. The lead scientist in the Unchean Research Unit, and a great teacher in UG. But I just have one question."

"And what would that be?" She grinned slightly.

"What do you have in connection with the Lottidentians?"