The Empire of the Volga – IX
Captain Tameichi Hara stood upon the foredeck of the Imperial Japanese Navy Ship, the Heavy Cruiser Myoko scanning the horizon with his Nikon binoculars of Japanese make.
Although I wish I had a pair of Zeiss he thought to himself.
Right now he would give anything for a whole carrier battlefleet giving him cover as he performed his mission but that wasn't forthcoming. The Japanese hadn't had an active carrier presence in this waters for months.
And it was disgraceful.
It had been either been sunk or damaged in the desperate maneuvers the Japanese High Command had ordered it, unprepared and outmatched in the waters north of australia. Thousands of brave and capable well trained sailors are dead, for very little gain. Oh! The High Command claimed it was really a victory of sorts, they damaged the enemy fleet, they bought time for troops to be shipped over to the island fortress line to defend Borneo and the home islands...
But for how long can they really hold without carrier air cover? The enemy had a nearly inexhaustible supply of carriers to throw at the best the Imperial Japanese Navy had to throw back, they gave a good accounting surely... But now they had no more carriers to throw while the enemy had ever more to keep throwing one after another.
It was unsustainable for Glorious Nippon to lose ships at this rate.
He kept at it, starring down his sights into the open waters, he was on a naval picket patrol in the Gulf of Tolo, west of Makassar... Command swore up and down that there weren't any enemies out here yet, but further south, as did the Oni, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and his own radar operators claimed the same, nothing yet.
But Tameichi Hara wasn't so sure... It's not that he didn't trust the machines, it is that he did not believe one should become lazy and always rely on them.
So he kept scanning the horizon...
“Taisa!” Yelled out Kimiko Mori, a lieutenant and the First Officer of the Myoko. She was a fine and capable officer whenever she wasn't a nervous wreck.
Clutching at her glasses (which always seemed to conspire to fall off her face) she bowed nervously once she approached Tameichi, who nodded in return as he was still engrossing himself with the horizon.
“S-sir... You m-must return to the bridge at once.” She managed to stammer out.
“Eh? Sou desu ka” Is that so...
“Sou da!” It is so! “We have new orders Taisa” Captain.
Tameichi Hara signed, whenever the High Command were invoked it was almost as if His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan himself had spoken and there was no shaking Kimiko's awe and reverence for anything with the Imperial seal stamped on it.
Which was fine when it was the Emperor himself, what Japanese citizen did not revere the Emperor who is the semi-divine descendent of Amaterasu Oumikami herself?
But the High Command...
“Bunch of tossers.” He said in perfect Mayan.
“Eeeeeh!?” Kimiko was caught off guard, all up and coming naval officers were expected to know Spanish and Arabic, Mayan was a bit more obscure and was an optional course in the Academy.
However Kimiko would probably never be convinced of their fallibility, not until she was a skipper herself and see Command's stupidity for her own eyes. For now though, her talents could only be best utilized with his hands under his watch.
“Nevermind, to the bridge I will return.” Turning he began to work his way down, with Kimiko keeping a little too respectful distance behind him.
Within the Bridge he took the decoded message and read it allowed.
IJNS MYOKO. NSO. REGROUP WITH CF. ENGAGE AMCATFOR. REACH STATUS AT DEFCON 1.
Defcon one...
“Eh? Defcon one...” It took everyone a few moments to figure it out before their eyes widened in shock...
And fear...
“Their target is 'Reach'.” Tameichi wore a particularly gruesome expression.
'Reach' was the operational codename for Borneo, which was the one of the Three Kingdoms of the Imperium, it was a few hundred years ago now, beyond living memory when the Kingdom of Borneo, the Caliphate of Malaysia had agreed to submit themselves to the glory of the land of the Rising Sun..... And formed the “Three Kingdoms” constituting the Imperium.
Now however Borneo was the site of significant portion of Japan's oil and rubber production, and comprised a non trivial portion of the Empire's output of warships.
It is also the home of my wife and children... Tameichi Hara thought to himself. The stakes were now higher than ever, and he would do everything within his power as skipper of the Myoko to serve the Emperor.
“Helmsman! Set course for the coordinates given, we will rendezvous with the Combined Fleet, Nippon... Banzai!” He declared.
“Nippon Banzai!” Chorused his bridge command.
All hail Glorious Japan...
Four days later they were almost at the rally point when they met up with the destroyer Amatsukaze and the light cruiser Yahagi... Not heading for the rally point.
“Signals Officer Kirigaya-san, signal the Yahagi and Amatsukaze and inquire as to their bearing and mission.” If there was action to be had....
The young signals officer set off to work, he was very good with the communications equipment and was often tinkering with the fire control radar. “Receiving.” He hands a blur working the radio set to decode the incoming message.
“Taisa the Amatsukaze and Yahagi believe themselves to be on the trail of a AMCATFOR ships bearing for REACH sir.” replied Signals Officer Kazuto Kirigaya.
“Helmsman, change course, match speed and bearing of the Amatsukaze and Yahagi, First Officer Mori if you have any complaints I will make note of it in my log and I will take responsibility.” He ordered.
“Eh? But Command said...”
“The first thing you need to not only learn, but live and breath as a sea Captain.... Mori-ojousama” Tameichi Hara laid on the honorific extra thick to catch her attention, he was in Academy 101 Lecture Mode. “...Is that you are ultimately in command of your ship and not some kid with a red strip on his trousers in Hiroshima. These orders?” He gestured with a gloved hand. “Are only... guidelines... Good to follow and keep in mind when starting out, but as you gain a feel for the sea, when matched up with your own initiative and feel for tactics...” He paused to let it sink it.
“Are a hindrance. This bearing doesn't take us too far from our mission, yes I KNOW its a Defcon 1 order, directly disobeying is treason.” He let that out there for her to hear, fear was clearly etched onto Mori's otherwise perfect features.
“Right now though, there is a strategic opportunity. We will resume our assigned mission soon after we investigate these ships. It could be a wild goose chase or we manage to catch a Spanish carrier unawares, neh?” You need to learn how to bend orders so that you can make it look like you are following orders when you are really not. He left unsaid.
She's a smart and observant girl, she'll learn eventually...
Another six hours later they spotted them.
Transports... Troop transports!
Captain Tameichi Hara barked out orders in quick succession. Success! They caught a massive troop fleet unawares.
There was a large number of options available, but a Tameichi Hara was an aggrssive hard driving cruiser skipper, and he had his own style.
“Flank speed, have the Amatsukaze drive into range and fire its torpedo’s. I want the Yahagi on our ass as we dive in! We must be in and out before they can get carrier aircraft onto us!” Or we'll be sunk...
Five minutes until contact... Four minutes... Three... Two... One...
“Sir, Amatsukaze has followed instructions and launched its fishes sir, what should it do now sir?”
How could a destroyer skipper be so stupid? There was only one real option.
“Tell the ahoge to trail behind us and keep watch for submarines, if he's not got the balls to realize he needs to charge right in then he will only slow us down. First Officer, status on the merchant vessals and troop transports?”
Lieutenant Mori was in her “zen warrior” mode, as expected from a lineage of Buddhist monks she was now finally showing off her true talents.
Completely, if not in fact eerily calm, her focus was completely at the task at hand, responding with all of the pertinent information of the moment for Tameichi Hara to examine, forming the more complete picture within his mind.
To choose his next course of action as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. In truth, he wouldn't be nearly half as effective without her skills.
“Twenty-Nine Merchant vessels are now turning, Six are in random directions attempting to zigzag to avoid the incoming torpedo's, Seven are turning away from us, the remaining Sixteen vessels have instead turned towards us.” She stated. It was clear they intended to dodge the torpedo's and then finish their 180 degree turn in order to retreat in the opposite direction, even though they couldn't outrun them.
Such cowards! Stand and fight like warriors!
“Today is a good day to die... For the enemy of course! Kirigaya-san, order the Yahagi to open fire on our signal, in three... two... one... Nippon Banzai!”
“Nippon Banzai!” Kirigaya and Mori repeated, Mori possibly more earnestly and devoutly than the more bored Kirigaya. “We have the kamikaze behind us, we shall prevail over the barbarians!” Lt. Mori stated.
Tameichi Hara had little use for superstition but before he could sigh. “Direct hit!”
A number of the merchant vessels, were now burning having significantly lost their speed the Yahagi and the Myoko had closed the distance and had turned to cross the T and fired their main guns.
Myokyo was armed with ten 8” guns and the Yahagi of the Agano-class light cruisers was armed with six six” guns which along with their secondary armaments were making short work of the thinly armored troop ships.
However...
“Sir, the Amatsukaze reports it has spotted an AMCATFOR squadron bearing down behind us, ETA ten minutes.” Reported Kirigaya.
“Kuso” Shit. Not good. They weren't done yet with these troop transports and they weren't yet ready yet to fire another wave of torpedo's.
“Master Chief Juunichinana-san, get our torpedo's reloaded right now! Kirigaya-san order the Amatsukaze.... to perform its duties to the Emperor...” He said flatly.
“Hidoinandesu Captain...” That's mean! Admonished Mori.
Really now?
Tameichi Hara had basically ordered the Amatsukaze Kagero-class destroyer to charge the enemy to buy the rest of his flottila time to reload its torpedo's.
“Precise Order of Battle?” He asked.
Kimiko Mori went back to her task of filtering through the radio and signals data, within moments she answered back.
“Three heavy cruisers and two destroyers Taisa”
Shimatta.
Kuso. Fuck it all. He would go down swinging like a true warrior, like his samurai forefathers.
He chuckled a bit at that, it was mostly airforce pilots who brandished about their pre-Meiji Heritage like that. The industrial revolution and its incoming wave of meritocracy put the nail in the coffin of the old feudal order and with it the samurai class; into the ashheap of history as Marx or was it Engels...? Had once said.
He thought back to his history lessons, and remembered something he once thought profound and impressive of the round eyed barbarians from their history, something that to him, tended to give the 'Mongolian' Byzantines a certain air of dignity to his mind.
“Praise Glorious Japan, we will return with our shield or on it.” He declared to his bridge crew.
That did seem to make grit their teeth, damn straight they will give it their all.
The Amatsukaze's skipper lost all hesitation, and charged right at the enemy fleet, firing its pop guns like crazy while zig zagging back and forth.
Fantastically this seemed to actually make the Americans pause, it was something they haven't really seen before.
This is true zeal of a warrior fighting for his homeland...
“Sir! The tubes are filled and ready at your command.”
The American forces were now more than a little confused and had lost speed as they slowed down to bear down their guns at the crazy destroyed circling them, they're first salvo went wide with large plums of water reaching into the sky majestically like Mount Fuji.
If any of those shells hit, no doubt the Amatsukaze would have been blown sky high or broken in two.
“Hard to port, fire everything we got at them before they take the time to notice us neh?” Something about accepting the inevitability of death made him a little more casual in his remarks than usual, but his determination would not waver this day.
“Firing!” Reported Kimiko. And then a few seconds later, “Hit! I see secondary explosions from two of the cruisers... They are dead in the water.”
“Keep going, flank speed, don't let them get a bead on our heading. Keep firing at the third cruiser, the destroyers are small fry if they haven't or can't launch their own fishes at us.” Tameichi was now looking over the smaller Mori's shoulders to overlook the battle data coming from her station.
Maybe one day these machines can tell us what all this data means before we can even blink...
“Sir, two destroyers are hit from the torpedo's, the previous two heavy cruisers are now sinking. The third, The Shadow of Intent is turning to run along with her remaining escort, your orders Taisa?”
Isn't it obvious?
“We're finishing this fight.”
Captain Tameichi Hara stood upon the foredeck of the Imperial Japanese Navy Ship, the Heavy Cruiser Myoko scanning the horizon with his Nikon binoculars of Japanese make.
Although I wish I had a pair of Zeiss he thought to himself.
Right now he would give anything for a whole carrier battlefleet giving him cover as he performed his mission but that wasn't forthcoming. The Japanese hadn't had an active carrier presence in this waters for months.
And it was disgraceful.
It had been either been sunk or damaged in the desperate maneuvers the Japanese High Command had ordered it, unprepared and outmatched in the waters north of australia. Thousands of brave and capable well trained sailors are dead, for very little gain. Oh! The High Command claimed it was really a victory of sorts, they damaged the enemy fleet, they bought time for troops to be shipped over to the island fortress line to defend Borneo and the home islands...
But for how long can they really hold without carrier air cover? The enemy had a nearly inexhaustible supply of carriers to throw at the best the Imperial Japanese Navy had to throw back, they gave a good accounting surely... But now they had no more carriers to throw while the enemy had ever more to keep throwing one after another.
It was unsustainable for Glorious Nippon to lose ships at this rate.
He kept at it, starring down his sights into the open waters, he was on a naval picket patrol in the Gulf of Tolo, west of Makassar... Command swore up and down that there weren't any enemies out here yet, but further south, as did the Oni, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and his own radar operators claimed the same, nothing yet.
But Tameichi Hara wasn't so sure... It's not that he didn't trust the machines, it is that he did not believe one should become lazy and always rely on them.
So he kept scanning the horizon...
“Taisa!” Yelled out Kimiko Mori, a lieutenant and the First Officer of the Myoko. She was a fine and capable officer whenever she wasn't a nervous wreck.
Clutching at her glasses (which always seemed to conspire to fall off her face) she bowed nervously once she approached Tameichi, who nodded in return as he was still engrossing himself with the horizon.
“S-sir... You m-must return to the bridge at once.” She managed to stammer out.
“Eh? Sou desu ka” Is that so...
“Sou da!” It is so! “We have new orders Taisa” Captain.
Tameichi Hara signed, whenever the High Command were invoked it was almost as if His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Japan himself had spoken and there was no shaking Kimiko's awe and reverence for anything with the Imperial seal stamped on it.
Which was fine when it was the Emperor himself, what Japanese citizen did not revere the Emperor who is the semi-divine descendent of Amaterasu Oumikami herself?
But the High Command...
“Bunch of tossers.” He said in perfect Mayan.
“Eeeeeh!?” Kimiko was caught off guard, all up and coming naval officers were expected to know Spanish and Arabic, Mayan was a bit more obscure and was an optional course in the Academy.
However Kimiko would probably never be convinced of their fallibility, not until she was a skipper herself and see Command's stupidity for her own eyes. For now though, her talents could only be best utilized with his hands under his watch.
“Nevermind, to the bridge I will return.” Turning he began to work his way down, with Kimiko keeping a little too respectful distance behind him.
Within the Bridge he took the decoded message and read it allowed.
IJNS MYOKO. NSO. REGROUP WITH CF. ENGAGE AMCATFOR. REACH STATUS AT DEFCON 1.
Defcon one...
“Eh? Defcon one...” It took everyone a few moments to figure it out before their eyes widened in shock...
And fear...
“Their target is 'Reach'.” Tameichi wore a particularly gruesome expression.
'Reach' was the operational codename for Borneo, which was the one of the Three Kingdoms of the Imperium, it was a few hundred years ago now, beyond living memory when the Kingdom of Borneo, the Caliphate of Malaysia had agreed to submit themselves to the glory of the land of the Rising Sun..... And formed the “Three Kingdoms” constituting the Imperium.
Now however Borneo was the site of significant portion of Japan's oil and rubber production, and comprised a non trivial portion of the Empire's output of warships.
It is also the home of my wife and children... Tameichi Hara thought to himself. The stakes were now higher than ever, and he would do everything within his power as skipper of the Myoko to serve the Emperor.
“Helmsman! Set course for the coordinates given, we will rendezvous with the Combined Fleet, Nippon... Banzai!” He declared.
“Nippon Banzai!” Chorused his bridge command.
All hail Glorious Japan...
Four days later they were almost at the rally point when they met up with the destroyer Amatsukaze and the light cruiser Yahagi... Not heading for the rally point.
“Signals Officer Kirigaya-san, signal the Yahagi and Amatsukaze and inquire as to their bearing and mission.” If there was action to be had....
The young signals officer set off to work, he was very good with the communications equipment and was often tinkering with the fire control radar. “Receiving.” He hands a blur working the radio set to decode the incoming message.
“Taisa the Amatsukaze and Yahagi believe themselves to be on the trail of a AMCATFOR ships bearing for REACH sir.” replied Signals Officer Kazuto Kirigaya.
“Helmsman, change course, match speed and bearing of the Amatsukaze and Yahagi, First Officer Mori if you have any complaints I will make note of it in my log and I will take responsibility.” He ordered.
“Eh? But Command said...”
“The first thing you need to not only learn, but live and breath as a sea Captain.... Mori-ojousama” Tameichi Hara laid on the honorific extra thick to catch her attention, he was in Academy 101 Lecture Mode. “...Is that you are ultimately in command of your ship and not some kid with a red strip on his trousers in Hiroshima. These orders?” He gestured with a gloved hand. “Are only... guidelines... Good to follow and keep in mind when starting out, but as you gain a feel for the sea, when matched up with your own initiative and feel for tactics...” He paused to let it sink it.
“Are a hindrance. This bearing doesn't take us too far from our mission, yes I KNOW its a Defcon 1 order, directly disobeying is treason.” He let that out there for her to hear, fear was clearly etched onto Mori's otherwise perfect features.
“Right now though, there is a strategic opportunity. We will resume our assigned mission soon after we investigate these ships. It could be a wild goose chase or we manage to catch a Spanish carrier unawares, neh?” You need to learn how to bend orders so that you can make it look like you are following orders when you are really not. He left unsaid.
She's a smart and observant girl, she'll learn eventually...
Another six hours later they spotted them.
Transports... Troop transports!
Captain Tameichi Hara barked out orders in quick succession. Success! They caught a massive troop fleet unawares.
There was a large number of options available, but a Tameichi Hara was an aggrssive hard driving cruiser skipper, and he had his own style.
“Flank speed, have the Amatsukaze drive into range and fire its torpedo’s. I want the Yahagi on our ass as we dive in! We must be in and out before they can get carrier aircraft onto us!” Or we'll be sunk...
Five minutes until contact... Four minutes... Three... Two... One...
“Sir, Amatsukaze has followed instructions and launched its fishes sir, what should it do now sir?”
How could a destroyer skipper be so stupid? There was only one real option.
“Tell the ahoge to trail behind us and keep watch for submarines, if he's not got the balls to realize he needs to charge right in then he will only slow us down. First Officer, status on the merchant vessals and troop transports?”
Lieutenant Mori was in her “zen warrior” mode, as expected from a lineage of Buddhist monks she was now finally showing off her true talents.
Completely, if not in fact eerily calm, her focus was completely at the task at hand, responding with all of the pertinent information of the moment for Tameichi Hara to examine, forming the more complete picture within his mind.
To choose his next course of action as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. In truth, he wouldn't be nearly half as effective without her skills.
“Twenty-Nine Merchant vessels are now turning, Six are in random directions attempting to zigzag to avoid the incoming torpedo's, Seven are turning away from us, the remaining Sixteen vessels have instead turned towards us.” She stated. It was clear they intended to dodge the torpedo's and then finish their 180 degree turn in order to retreat in the opposite direction, even though they couldn't outrun them.
Such cowards! Stand and fight like warriors!
“Today is a good day to die... For the enemy of course! Kirigaya-san, order the Yahagi to open fire on our signal, in three... two... one... Nippon Banzai!”
“Nippon Banzai!” Kirigaya and Mori repeated, Mori possibly more earnestly and devoutly than the more bored Kirigaya. “We have the kamikaze behind us, we shall prevail over the barbarians!” Lt. Mori stated.
Tameichi Hara had little use for superstition but before he could sigh. “Direct hit!”
A number of the merchant vessels, were now burning having significantly lost their speed the Yahagi and the Myoko had closed the distance and had turned to cross the T and fired their main guns.
Myokyo was armed with ten 8” guns and the Yahagi of the Agano-class light cruisers was armed with six six” guns which along with their secondary armaments were making short work of the thinly armored troop ships.
However...
“Sir, the Amatsukaze reports it has spotted an AMCATFOR squadron bearing down behind us, ETA ten minutes.” Reported Kirigaya.
“Kuso” Shit. Not good. They weren't done yet with these troop transports and they weren't yet ready yet to fire another wave of torpedo's.
“Master Chief Juunichinana-san, get our torpedo's reloaded right now! Kirigaya-san order the Amatsukaze.... to perform its duties to the Emperor...” He said flatly.
“Hidoinandesu Captain...” That's mean! Admonished Mori.
Really now?
Tameichi Hara had basically ordered the Amatsukaze Kagero-class destroyer to charge the enemy to buy the rest of his flottila time to reload its torpedo's.
“Precise Order of Battle?” He asked.
Kimiko Mori went back to her task of filtering through the radio and signals data, within moments she answered back.
“Three heavy cruisers and two destroyers Taisa”
Shimatta.
Kuso. Fuck it all. He would go down swinging like a true warrior, like his samurai forefathers.
He chuckled a bit at that, it was mostly airforce pilots who brandished about their pre-Meiji Heritage like that. The industrial revolution and its incoming wave of meritocracy put the nail in the coffin of the old feudal order and with it the samurai class; into the ashheap of history as Marx or was it Engels...? Had once said.
He thought back to his history lessons, and remembered something he once thought profound and impressive of the round eyed barbarians from their history, something that to him, tended to give the 'Mongolian' Byzantines a certain air of dignity to his mind.
“Praise Glorious Japan, we will return with our shield or on it.” He declared to his bridge crew.
That did seem to make grit their teeth, damn straight they will give it their all.
The Amatsukaze's skipper lost all hesitation, and charged right at the enemy fleet, firing its pop guns like crazy while zig zagging back and forth.
Fantastically this seemed to actually make the Americans pause, it was something they haven't really seen before.
This is true zeal of a warrior fighting for his homeland...
“Sir! The tubes are filled and ready at your command.”
The American forces were now more than a little confused and had lost speed as they slowed down to bear down their guns at the crazy destroyed circling them, they're first salvo went wide with large plums of water reaching into the sky majestically like Mount Fuji.
If any of those shells hit, no doubt the Amatsukaze would have been blown sky high or broken in two.
“Hard to port, fire everything we got at them before they take the time to notice us neh?” Something about accepting the inevitability of death made him a little more casual in his remarks than usual, but his determination would not waver this day.
“Firing!” Reported Kimiko. And then a few seconds later, “Hit! I see secondary explosions from two of the cruisers... They are dead in the water.”
“Keep going, flank speed, don't let them get a bead on our heading. Keep firing at the third cruiser, the destroyers are small fry if they haven't or can't launch their own fishes at us.” Tameichi was now looking over the smaller Mori's shoulders to overlook the battle data coming from her station.
Maybe one day these machines can tell us what all this data means before we can even blink...
“Sir, two destroyers are hit from the torpedo's, the previous two heavy cruisers are now sinking. The third, The Shadow of Intent is turning to run along with her remaining escort, your orders Taisa?”
Isn't it obvious?
“We're finishing this fight.”
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