Author Notes:
Honestly, this new RM Chapter is wilder than I expected. Again, I think the coffee did something interesting to my brain. Not gonna keep my favorite readers occupied here for long though, just need to remind you that there's a Discord server that awaits your activity!
https://discord.gg/cVZxJ29ruh
Oh, and don't forget that the discount on my Pa-treon page will be running from now to the 24th! It's soon to be over, so grab it while it's hot!
https://www.patre-on.com/Heartbreak117
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Holding up the transcript in his hand, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku mutters. "Immediate cancellation of the shakedown cruise and to form up with the Third and Fourth Task Forces to reinforce and take command of the 1st Fleet..."
The Japanese Admiral then neatly folded the piece of paper before panning his gaze beyond the massive conning tower that belonged to the Pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the IJN Yamato. Filtering through the reinforced viewing glass is the great expanse of the Pacific, and the sprawling deck of Yamamoto's soon-to-be flagship of an entire Fleet. Sighing, the Admiral comes close to the window, looking down on the young sailors still being guided by the more seasoned veterans as they navigate the daily tasks on this battleship.
"So, it has begun... Susanoo-no-Mikoto leads us to war."
Admiral Yamamoto's sigh is heard by his trusted second-in-command, prompting the man to report with a tense expression on his face.
"Admiral, our men... These kids, they're much too green for live combat. Additionally, nearly our entire Navy is still getting accustomed to some of the newer upgrades Lady Vill-V introduced. Most of them aren't even done being tested under real conditions, the same as our Yamato."
"Sir..." The XO adds with a bitter expression. "Laputa had already shortened our shakedown period to hasten the Yamato's, Musashi's, and Shinano's integration into the rest of the Navy before this order came in. If we are to comply with them blindly now, then it would mean neither of our strongest battleships will be fighting at a fraction of their full strength. The battleships of the Yamato-class will be nothing but a pair of decorative vases!"
The XO's words were spoken out of concern, duty, and honor as a soldier, causing the greenhorn sailors in the conning tower to shiver, gulp, and ultimately be confused. Absolute obedience to their commanding officers means that these young, inexperienced sailors, freshly out of the Naval Academy, lack the bigger picture and understanding of the real combat effectiveness of the IJN's finest and most modern warships. They're wondering why the XO is so rightfully scared when the Imperial Japanese Navy is already so vast and powerful. They fail to see themselves lacking in a great many aspects, having only mastered the theories in operating the modern electronics that are related to the newer IJN radar, missile systems, and so on...
Understanding where the man's concern is stemming from, Admiral Yamamoto puts on a smile that is tinged with wryness.
"The Divines will it so, my friend, and we will comply... Go, contact the Kitakami and Takemikazuchi, tell them that the shakedown cruise is over, and to escort us for a rendezvous with the Shoryu. Once the Fleet is all formed up, we shall wait to perform whatever the Castle in the Sky requires of us."
Admiral Yamamoto turns to send the XO off with some parting words.
"We can only hope that technological disparity will negate whatever our lack of training may entail."
"I hope so as well, Admiral..." The XO, knowing that this is an unavoidable development, can only sigh ruefully. "At the very least, we can have faith in Lady Vill-V's additions. They have never failed our expectations thus far, unless human errors are involved."
"Yes, that is indeed our sole silver lining..."
As the XO departs to transmit the new commands, Admiral Yamamoto takes the opportunity to move to one of the bridge wings. It's only out here that one gets to understand the sheer scale of the largest battleship in existence. Though its length and tonnage are striking enough already, the Yamato is a towering behemoth as well, with its superstructure featuring multiple superfiring levels of firepower. The height of a single Japanese man is hopelessly minuscule when compared to the multi-thousand-ton steel behemoth with countless gun barrels that will, soon enough, be poised to drown their enemy with an endless rain of steel.
With the rumbling of the Yamato's engines and the crashing waves of the ocean as the backdrop, Admiral Yamamoto visually inspects the mighty battleship once more, from bow to aft. Featured prominently in the front and rear of the Yamato are its 460 mm, 18.1 in guns, housed in three large turrets that house three guns each. On paper, these heavy naval cannons are supposed to have the longest reach in the entire world... This notion is debatable, as Admiral Yamamoto doesn't think that only Japan has achieved major technological breakthroughs in recent years.
Moving on from the very big guns, however, comes the next set of primary weapons of the Yamato battleship, missiles. Very distinctively, the Yamato and her sister ships bear eight pairs of canisters on their port and starboard sides. These canisters are, in fact, launch tubes for very large missiles, with each missile having a diameter of 880 mm, 34.65 in. These missiles, anti-ship in nature and keyed as Naginata by the inventor heroine Vill-V, are more than capable of sinking a vessel the size of the Yamato with ease, thanks to their ability to carry a one-ton warhead. And best of all, they have a vastly superior range and accuracy than the kinetic guns that the Yamato-class carries. Although the number of Naginata missiles each battleship can carry is limited to sixteen, and sixteen only. With a length of nearly 12 meters, the Sandbox missiles are too large even for the Yamato-class to house an additional salvo.
In Yamamoto's opinion, a salvo of sixteen missiles is more than enough. If there's anything that can survive a salvo of sixteen of these ship killers, then it more than earns its right to live and fight in another day. Of course, the Yamato-class isn't the only class of warship in the Imperial Japanese Navy to field Naginata missiles. As long as there's enough room on the deck, the IJN will see to it that at least two pairs or even four pairs of Naginata launchers are mounted on its warships. Thus, hopefully, drowning an entire fleet of hostile combatants in a sea of missiles. To fulfill this vision, the IJN even commissioned Vill-V for a design that is fully dedicated to slinging missile fire. Eventually, Vill-V comes up with the Kitakami-class Arsenal Ship that, in essence...
Picking up his binoculars, Admiral Yamamoto scans the patch of ocean near the Yamato, coming upon the elongated hull of the lead ship of the Kitakami-class Arsenal Ship. The Kitakami-class, from a cursory glance, looks no different than a Kuma-class light cruiser, albeit somewhat bigger and having a bigger displacement. But when the Admiral pays close attention to its deck, that's when he starts seeing the stark differences between the two classes of ships.
Much like the battleship Yamato, the Kitakami also fielded the Naginata anti-ship missiles. However, unlike the Yamato, the Kitakami-class has two more pairs of canisters, amounting to twenty Naginata missiles in total. Additionally, the Kitakami-class forgoes naval artillery for two twin-arm launchers for surface-to-air missiles in the front and rear of the ship, very useful in a fleet defense situation. And speaking of anti-air missiles...
Each battleship of the Yamato-class has two such twin-arm launchers, one on each side of the superstructure. Being much smaller than the Naginata and primarily defensive in nature, these AA-missiles are titled Tanto. A single Tanto launcher can fire two missiles per reload, with a launcher on the Yamato-class carrying fifteen missiles per reload. However, the Kitakami-class, fitting for its classification as an Arsenal Ship, has twenty reloads for each of its launchers.
Although missile technology is yet to be proven in live combat, the effects it has on the IJN naval doctrine can already be felt when something like the Kitakami-class is slated for mass production, with the Kitakami and Takemikazuchi being the first of their class to go under a shakedown cruise alongside the Yamato. The range and power of missile systems promise are much too tempting for the growing IJN. Admiral Yamamoto has even noted that there's a mounting obsession, a budding faction of naval officers, over the idea of fielding cheaper and more numerous missile slingers instead of bigger and more expensive battleships and aircraft carriers.
Honestly, it's not like he and Vill-V don't see the benefits in doing so; it's just that the technology itself is not yet mature, limited by the industrial capacity of Japan in manufacturing missile motors and complex guidance systems. Just fitting out the current missile-equipped ships and aircraft in service of the IJN has made it so that Japan can barely fill up any of its missile reserve. If a war is to drag on for much too long, missiles will be the first thing the IJN will run out of. Admiral Yamamoto understands best how the IJN he serves can be quite zealous with too much firepower in their hand.
Removing the binoculars from his gaze, already, the Admiral can just about foresee the rate of munition expenditure and the requisition paperwork he will have to sign away to be allocated more of the precious Vill-V's wonder weapons. Perhaps, with the war on the horizon, Yamamoto will see all sixteen Naginata tubes on the Yamato being expended in the opening salvo that may or may not target a defenseless Chinese war fleet. And since the Naginata can only be reloaded while at port, the rest of the war will see the Yamato bombarding targets with its 460 mm and even 100 mm guns, just as the founding fathers intended.
Admiral Yamamoto's mulling is cut short when his XO returns. The man reports.
"Admiral. The men have been briefed, and a new course is plotted. We are moving to the rendezvous point now."
"I see..." The Japanese Admiral nods, his fingers keep tapping on his binoculars as he thinks. "Old friend, I can't say anything about the Imperial Army, but do you think it's possible for us, the IJN, with such mismatched training yet paradoxically high technological level, to win a war at sea? And please, speak what you truly feel."
"... It depends on who our enemy is, but at the very least, we stand a higher chance at the ultimate victory if we can achieve a crushing first strike on the enemy's surface fleet and its supporting infrastructure. Morale notwithstanding, the utter lack of any defensive measure and the capability to patch it up will leave the enemy wide open and helpless for a long time to come, effectively allowing the IJN free rein over any stretch of the sea it deems fit as a hunting ground." The XO replies after careful consideration.
To this, Yamamoto nods. "A safe answer. I hope we can do as you say when the moment arrives. Otherwise, I dread the moment when we will be facing not one, not two, but potentially three industrial giants. If we make a mistake even once in the future, it will be a potential steamroll of our entire nation."
The XO tenses his posture, quite capable of imagining the grim possibility that Yamamoto pointed out. "Then, we can only do our best, Sir. Do our best, and pray that we can tide our homeland through."
"Yeah, we pray..." Yamamoto nods before turning in the direction of the bridge. "But whom should we pray to, is the interesting question."
Having said his piece and done with getting some fresh, salty breeze, the Japanese Admiral returns to his former position in the conning tower. Eventually, the Yamato and her escorts reform with the wider Imperial Navy assets to form the might Imperial 1st Fleet, divinely gifted with the name.
Hegemony.
That said, only time will tell if the 1st 'Hegemony' Fleet will be capable of fulfilling its divine-given mission. Although given how the Fleet is formed out of multiple modern and modernized battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and even numerous auxiliary vessels,... Their number alone may very well dwarf that of the entire Long Dynasty Navy; the chance of the IJN dominating the Pacific Ocean is quite up there in the realm of possibility...
Right?