H-44 in Haifuri

Battle

(Play the song during the battle scene. I don't own the song.)

As the first wave of shells landed around them, Emilia calmly ordered whilst still clutching a terrified Akeno, "All guns return fire, we cannot allow them to damage the convoy,"

"Yes Ma'am," the gunnery officer said as they spoke into a tube and repeated the order to the gun crews, "All guns fire at will, don't let them leave alive." Almost immediately after the order was said the main guns opened up with a massive explosion as eight twenty-inch shells flew towards their targets. Suddenly there was a large bang as one of the cruisers was ripped in two as the shells tore through the poorly armoured decks before detonating in the magazine and engine room. The enemy crews were shocked at how quickly they had lost one of their comrades and of how violently it was sunk. Breaking out of their shock they quickly returned fire hitting the superstructure of the H44, however it didn't cause any damage and just bounced off.

Meanwhile back in the bridge of the H44 when the enemy cruiser exploded, "Excellent, keep firing, we'll make sure they'll never try to target a convoy while we are there," Emilia said as she watched the cruiser sink. As she spoke the shells from the remaining cruisers slammed into the side of the H44's massive superstructure that just bounced off or exploded causing no damage, just scratching the grey camouflage paint. Seeing that there was no damage the crew of the H44 all sniggered at their enemies' futile attempt at trying to damage them. Coming out of the smoke of the burning remnants of the destroyed cruiser the H44 again launched another salvo of shells at one of the remaining cruisers. This time the shells landed around the cruiser causing it to roll around from the shockwaves created by the shells detonating on the surface of the ocean. Stunned from the shockwaves the crew of said cruiser's only thoughts were of self-preservation, the cruiser then began to turn away, abandoning their mission and leaving the remaining cruiser to its fate. Turning their attention to the remaining cruiser, the crew of the H44 turned their main artillery towards them, preparing to unleash the full power of their guns onto the panicking crew of the light cruiser. "All guns prepare to fire," Emilia said as the turrets locked onto the cruiser. The guns of the light cruiser began to open up, unleashing salvos as quickly as the loaders could do it trying to distract the gunners of the H44 from destroying them, ignoring the futile attempt to distract them the gunners of the H44 waited for their orders to fire. Once the cruiser had stopped firing to reload, Emilia then said, "All guns, fire!"

Hearing their orders the gunners opened up with the 20-inch shells, that shredded the armour plating of the cruiser before vanishing into the depths of the ship. Seconds went by, which to the crew of the stricken cruiser felt like hours before the timed fuses on the high explosive shells went off, blowing the cruiser 4 feet out of the water before erupting into a massive plume of flame, tearing the ship asunder with the smaller pieces splashing into the sea a few metres away from the H44. A veil of smoke covered the battlefield hiding the wreckage from the sight of the crew of the H44. As the ships sank the smoke gradually dissipated once the raging fires had been extinguished by the sea as the wrecks were enveloped by the water and sank with no wreckage left floating on the surface. Remembering about the remaining cruiser Emilia said, "Let's give that remaining cruiser a going-away present, shall we?"

"Yes Ma'am," the crew on the bridge called out.

"I want that cruiser crippled not destroyed, Turret Alpha target the engine room of that cruiser," Emilia said. Once she said this the Alpha turret (the one at the very front) turned to target the fleeing cruiser. As the turret had finished turning and had locked onto the cruiser, Emilia said, "Fire." Almost instantly the main battery guns fired, the two 20 inch shells were sent screaming on their way. 20 seconds later they punched through the deck armour before landing in the engine room tearing one of the engines to pieces and badly damaging the second one. As their source of movement was gone, the cruiser's speed was decreased to crawling pace. Seeing that the cruiser was pretty much at a standstill Emilia said, "Let them go back it can serve as a warning to not attack us. Continue maintaining to head back to align ourselves with the convoy,"