Nihonkoku Shoukan: Beyond

Chapter 42: The Awakening

The Sea of Ragna, West of Deimoska Continent, Gra Valkas Empire, 9th March 1640 CCY

It is a cold day in the Sea of Ragna, with fog limiting the visibility within 5 kilometers. This weather and the sudden order from Ragna make the people manning the ships of the Gra Valkas Kaisermarine feel a bit uneasy, especially the people standing on the bridge of the proud battleship GVKmS Grade Atlastar. It should have been just another day for them, moving the personnel of the Foreign Affairs Ministry back from their new temporary headquarters in Leiforia back to Ragna to report about the current progress of the administration of Leifor colony.

The pride and joy of the Gra Valkas Kaisermarine, the imposing and majestic Grade Atlastar displaces about seventy-two thousand tons of water as he cuts the waves. Equipped with nine mighty 460mm guns, the ship has the largest of his kind, reaching the biggest that can be produced back in Ragna. Supporting the main guns, the battleship is also equipped with multiple secondary 155mm and 127mm guns and other tertiary guns, he is the strongest battleship to ever sail the ocean back in Yggdra. Even their sworn enemy, the Divine Kingdom of Kain doesn't possess such a battleship.

The battleship Grade Atlastar is leading a formation of ships from the 88th Battlegroup, one of the most battle-hardened naval units serving the Kaiser. Looking out of his cabin, Fleet Admiral Caesar von Roland can't help but question the Kaiser's direct order that told him to delay the trip back to Ragna and rendezvous with his former unit out in the Sea of Ragna. The twenty ships of the 88th battlegroup were once under his command when he was still a rear admiral, fighting with him through the Great War back in Yggdra. He can see the GVKmS Siegfried, an Eroberer-class battleship. His former flagship before he was promoted to the rank of Fleet Admiral by the Kaiser and given command of the entire Battlegroup, and with it the Crown Jewel of the Empire himself, the battleship Grade Atlastar under Captain Luxtal Mertz. The Siegfried command is then given to Admiral Ernst von Strasser, an old friend of the Roland Family

Having a reliable combat unit like that, commanded by his friend on his side should be a relief for him... but Caesar knows better than that. There must be something that made the High Command decide to pull all the stops and bring the entire 88th Battle Group, who was mopping up the final remnant of the Leiforian Navy to the north down here. He wonders why the High Command would divert them from their important mission. After all, the only thing that was written in the new order to him was to rendezvous with the 88th Battlegroup in the Sea of Ragna to meet with a diplomatic fleet from the nation called Japan and the small 13th Submarine Taskforce. He really wonders why they need not only him and the Grade Atlastar but also his former battlegroup.

"Sir, our radar shows seven vessels moving toward our position." – Radar Operator

"Seven vessels? Lookout, can you identify them?" – Fleet Admiral Caesar

"Not yet, sir. The fog is still quite heavy." – Lookout

"Sir... seven ships... then they'd be Commodore Noah's task force and the Japanese. I don't think they are from the rag-tag bunch that was the Leiforian or Pagandan rebels." – Captain Luxtal Mertz

"Me neither, Luxtal. Though... It's quite annoying that the Imperial General Command won't even tell me anything, their own Fleet Admiral, I said. Even if we are only meeting a small flotilla for diplomatic visits, it'd be better to know what kind of force I'm meeting, or who they really are. Perhaps... maybe they are just as clueless as we are about these people, aside from their mysterious broadcast. I should have petitioned the Kaiser for a much more thorough reform of the command when I had the chance." – Caesar

"In due time, admiral, in due time." – Luxtal

"Maybe you are right... haaa... it's just so disheartening for me to see the General Staff being stuffed with incompetent idiots who just wouldn't go. I mean couldn't they just go rob someone else to fill their pockets?" – Caesar