The Shores of Land: The Diplomacy of Japan, an Alien Nation

Chapter 20 - Parliament

"No reinforcements yet?" King Hauer asked the Minister of Defense in frustration.

Day 5 of the 9th Month, 08:15

King Hauer, the leaders of the relevant ministries, and the Royal Family acting as chaperones were gathered at the centralized command center located in Ilforn, a floating city designated as the capital.

The room, which could easily accommodate a hundred people, was equipped with huge monitors on three walls, displaying in real-time the status of the battle transmitted from the field. The room was 30 meters high, with tables floating on three levels where staff members operated computers. On the top level, King Hauer and other cabinet members were watching the battle unfold.

"Fifteen reinforcements departed from the Floot Floating Base and are scheduled to arrive in four hours."

"The disguised destroyer, special-purpose ship Serentia with the Vastatoria Cannon is departing from the Frean Floating Base, mixed in with one of the ten ships in the reinforcement fleet, and is scheduled to arrive in 28 hours."

As is customary internationally, there is no fixed name for a special-purpose ship equipped with Vastatoria Cannon. This is to prevent easy identification of the ship type and concentrated attacks, and they are reassigned at the expiration of each term of service. And to match the number of deployments, the names and numbers of the destroyers with which they are deployed are replaced. The original destroyer is secretly docked when it is replaced and is not revealed to the public until the term of the Vastatoria Cannon-equipped special-purpose ship expires.

At this term, the Vastatoria Cannon-equipped ship was deployed in the north, far from Eustre, and it would still take more than a day to get there if it flew at its maximum battle speed of 700 km/h. Of course, the Serentia, as the ship is called, is a pure destroyer belonging to the Frean Floating Base in the northern region, and it entered the dock just in time for the special-purpose ship's deployment.

"Do we know if there are any ships with Vastatoria Cannon in the international fleet?"

"The special-purpose ships cannot launch missiles due to their structure. We are trying to identify destroyers that are not attacking, and there are five that are not attacking at all."

The special-purpose ship functions as a single gun with its entire hull. Therefore, it cannot be equipped with VLS and rapid-fire guns. Therefore, if a ship does not attack for a long period of time, the possibility of being a ship equipped with the Vastatoria Cannon will increase. But since there are several ships that are idle, it is impossible to know exactly which it is unless it attacks.

Sticking to destroyers that do not attack is a tricky tactic because of the damage they can do. On the other hand, the thought that there might be a few ships attacking, even if there is an advantage, can delay the fleet's action.

"One ship out of five, or none at all."

"They are all in the rear, so there is a possibility that they are standing by to replace the ships in the front, so we can't be certain at this time that they are there," the Ministry of Defense replied.

"The situation is 50-50."

On the huge monitor in front of King Hauer, the status of all the Rassalon Fleet currently participating in the battle was displayed, with five battleships and twelve destroyers, three of which were marked with red and an "X." The green status indicates that the ship is in good condition, whereas the red X indicates that the ship has been sunk.

The Rassalon Fleet had already lost three destroyers. On the other hand, seven destroyers of the international fleet were either sunk or disabled. This was largely due to the fact that the fleet consisted of 40 single-engine, non-ship-based fighters.