Bird At Sea

Chap 14

We looked at a photograph, what was once a deserted city was now in ruins even more, buildings completely leveled, ruble itself almost being flattened, much of the water around the area evaporated, large fires consumed the already desolate city, a crater was in the middle of all of the destruction, wide and deep. "Wha-What is this?" Asks Cleveland, barely able to speak. "Obviously this was an attack from the Sirens." Answers Ark Royal. "But why target a deserted island?" Cleveland asks once more. "Perhaps they merely mean to taunt us," Says Queen Elizabeth, "But they underestimate our power." "No, no... you don't understand..." I Say, "this... this is something different." "What are you saying?" Says Ark. "... In my world, one nation has the type and amount of a special weapon to destroy the planet, many times over; A WMD; Weapons of Mass Destruction. What we see here is just like it, I can only assume this is what Orochi is capable of." Helena barged through the doors, "We have more photos!" She presented it to us, it was a Siren fleet, with one particular ship, much larger than all the rest, even having two separate flight decks. "These were taken by recon, moments before the island was vaporized, other accounts say that it originated from the Sakura Empire island coast." Sheffield and Edinburgh were also with us, they confirmed that it was the vessel they saw when they spied at the Sakura Empire's island. "We also got reports that when it departed, the ports of the Sakura Empire sustained heavy damage." "So then it must have come as a shock to the Sakura Empire, perhaps even the Iron Blood." Says Wales. "If that's true, that should prove that the Sirens are the sole threat and end our dealings with Crimson Axis, for now." "Do we know the fleet's current location?" I ask. "Yes." Responds Helena. "Then let's go now!"

"Approaching the enemy fleet! Battle station!" I spoke through the intercom. Before we even made contact, the battle had already kicked off with Red Axis taking the initiative, our presumptions were right, we should be able to face it together. All guns began to fire, streaks of tracers rained upon the Siren fleet. Allied Aircraft then took off in the hundreds, the sky filled with the shrieks of jets and the drones of propellers. In the air with all of the others, the feeling was heavy, my heart pounded, it all came down to this. I communicate with my Attackers. "Red-3, this is Red-1, much closer now, I can hardly see you! Red-2, you must keep up with me! Right Red Section, here we go! stick to me like glue! All bombers, Orochi is our priority target, give it hell!" Before we could approach the Orochi any more, a wave of S-1s scrambled towards us. "Break!" At an instant, some of our aircraft were shot down, puffs of smoke and fire appeared nearly in front of me. I veered off in hope of finding another way but it was immediately blocked off. A S-1 got on my 6, I dived down and it followed, it shot off a missile, I pulled up, trying to lose it in a stall but it persisted. With so much going on around me, it was a little hard to concentrate on my own. With the S-1 now having a clear shot, it lined up for a gun kill, but was shot down before a single bullet could even be fired. It was a Ki-202 who had just aided me, it flies straight past me and off to fight other Sirens, a Me-162 heads straight towards me but did not engage me, instead it shot down another S-1 nearby. We had guessed right, we have a truce in our hands, and were going to need every second of it.

The skies became a little lighter, in the sense that there are less enemy aircraft. We now pushed our way through and penetrated deep into the Siren Fleet, Crimson Axis ships were fighting the Sirens head on. Ahead were humanoid Sirens that were seemingly floating in the air, with the rigging of their own, they turned their barrels towards us and lasers fling past us, a few more of our aircraft were swatted down. Lining up with one, I pulled the trigger for a long barrage of 30mms on the Siren and it seemed to do the trick as it fell. We were now closing on the Orochi. "Bomb whatever looks important!" The ship was so large it was hard to tell what was the best point to attack its on. I angled myself to the superstructure of the vessel, moments later I began to hear the classic whistle of falling bombs. With all sixteen bombs dropped, the Harriers nose pitched up as fast as it could, just barely scratching onto the ship's tower, the Attackers and countless other planes dropped their payload too. Looking back after the smoke has cleared, no effect has been done to it, not a single scratch. Some Junkers Ju-87C Stukas and Aichi B7A Ryusei 'Grace' drop torpedoes to the Orochi, and as it makes contact and explodes, a sort of layer that has a red translucent hexagon pattern that briefly reveals itself after the impact. "Tarudo! All bombers retreat, we can't attack the Orochi directly, fighters, make our skies as clear as possible!" I head back to the carrier to rearm.