rm vol 4: war – chapter 45: case yellow (day 13- crimson sky)

    boom

    a 381 mm, 15-inch shell, splashes against the water nearly 5 kilometers away from rms bismarck. caught by the belkan flagship''s counter-ordinance sensor suite, the shell was allowed to harmlessly miss the dreadnought by miles instead of being intercepted. much to the chagrin of the remaining crew aboard hms howe, the battleship proved too imbalanced to act as a stable firing platform.

    with the howe listing heavily to the starboard side, and little to no engine power, her a-turret is broken with two of her starboard secondary turrets similarly destroyed, it''s hard to say whether or not the battleship can put up much of a fight. her crew is diminished, and the fire control system is too damaged to be reliable. the fact that hms howe missed her first shot by five kilometers indicates that her radar and rangefinders were severely impaired. it will take little to no effort at all for the belkan warships to finish off the howe. due to how damaged she is, even the elbing-class''s 128 mm guns can reliably sink her. still, that will be too easy. a slight against the pride of the belkan reich is not to be ignored.

    leading a detached task force of the high sea fleet to pave the way forward for the marines, rms bismarck turns starboard while leveling all of her guns in the direction of hms howe. following bismarck''s steps, her sisters: rms tirpitz, and rms agir, alongside their escort of cruisers and destroyers, similarly point their main and secondary batteries at the stationary erusean battleship.

    "cic," admiral tallulah says through the bismarck''s intercom. "do we have her?"

    "cic to the bridge. vessel is identified as a kgv-class battleship. bearing 198, range of 10 kilometers and reducing. targeting data is transferred to gunnery."

    the howe, seeing the undeterred bismarck and her formation of warships maintaining their approach, is incensed. despite the risk of heavy return fire, the royal navy battleship continues to train their guns, both secondaries and primaries alike. using a combination of skill and hail mary, the gunners on the howe calculate the approximate distance from them to the belkan task force. either out of stalwart courage or sheer stubbornness, the surviving officer orders for a full salvo to fire from howe''s remaining guns. from her starboard side, hms howe unleashes a resounding six 381 mm and four 133 mm shells. due to the decreasing distance, it takes around 8 seconds for the two kinds of ordinances to close the remaining gap. by that time, a second barrage of the howe''s remaining starboard secondaries is already in the air.

    "incoming! 7 seconds!"

    for nearly a full minute, the belkan task force ceaselessly bombarded the poor erusean vessel. unless some managed to jump off the howe before the attack, there probably won''t be any survivors on the sinking, rupturing battleship. if one bismarck was enough to slap silly the home fleet back then, imagine what three of them and an entire unit of escort would do on a singular, yet already heavily damaged warship.

    the result is crushing for the surviving eruseans, both ashore and struggling in the wake of howe''s destruction. if even their battleship was dismissed so easily, then what chance would the other crippled vessels stand against the reichsmarine? the answer is a resounding none, but with the belkan task force closing in, the survivors of the grand fleet must make a choice.

    do they surrender their crippled vessels and save many, many lives that are aboard?

    should they choose to stand and fight like howe just did?

    or will they abandon their warships and continue the fight on land like the eef?

    so many decisions, so many thoughts, yet little to no time at all to react. for the shadows of the belkan task force are already upon them. illuminated by the crimson sky above, the reichsmarine''s finest displace the water and debris like a hot knife through butter. the leading vessels, the bismarck-class dreadnoughts, project an overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere. their sizes and angular visages awestruck the erusean seamen, making them fall into the mania and stupor. sailing dauntless in between their foes'' sinking corpses, the dreadnoughts and their escorts demand nothing but absolute submission from their nemesis.

    and if there''s anyone left daring enough to tempt fate... well, the dreadnoughts won''t mind delivering another devastating blow to keep them down for good.