Second Clash - Niemec vs. Oceanica

February 18, 2003 - Waters North of Diego Garcia - Southern Expanse

1934

The Niemec Reich's fleet had split into two forces a week earlier, one commanded by Admiral Blücher, and the other commanded by Kommodore Scharnhorst. Scharnhorst's vanguard force had been sent ahead to Diego Garcia, the centre of the Southern Expanse, to search for signs of any of the other navies. Only a few hours north of the island, the vanguard encountered another navy: the vanguard of the Oceanic Empire's fleet.

Both sides had quickly called for reinforcements, and the outnumbered Reich fleet began to retreat. It was less than an hour before squadrons of Oceanic carrier aircrafts were right on top of the Niemec fleet. The Niemec ships were quite lacking in the anti-aircraft department, and there was little that they could do against the hundreds of planes in the air. 

The vanguard's submarines had submerged and dispersed, as they were useless in a fleet battle like this, and Scharnhorst and her two destroyer escorts, Z37 and Z39, were steaming away rom the battle at full speed, trying to shake off their pursuers. At 1928, the vanguard reunited with the main fleet. 

Together, the entirety of the Niemec fleet was able to beat back the Oceanic vanguard force, and the air wings were forced to return to their carriers to refuel. 

The Niemec fleet was lucky in that none of its shipgirls were sunk in the battle. Two Oceanic destroyers had been sunk, one by combined fire from Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the other by Blücher. Additionally, twenty-four Oceanic aircraft had downed, about a tenth of the air wing that had attacked them. 

On the other hand, they had still come out of the battle quite badly. Scharnhorst had lost several of her anti-aircraft and secondary armaments, and her 'C' turret had been disabled by an aerial bomb. Gneisenau had suffered a torpedo to her prow, and while the flooding had been contained, her speed was significantly reduced. Blücher had lost one of her torpedo launchers to a fire, which had also managed to burn off a section of her deck. 

All of their destroyers had taken damage as well, in the forms of weapon incapacitations, internal damage, or other damages that had a far stronger impact on their physical bodies than on their hulls.

Wilhelm Gustloff and the submarines were the only shipgirls who had escaped unharmed. For the submarines, it was because they had submerged and fled at the start of the battle, and for Wilhelm, it was the fact that she bore the red cross and white markings of a hospital ship.

Everyone in the fleet knew that they would soon be forced to face the entire strength of the pursuing Oceanic fleet, and none of them were expecting to survive it. Even Blücher, who was happy-go-lucky as a matter of policy, was gloomy.

That was partially because she was in one of Wilhelm's medical wards, missing two of her fingers and wrapped in bandages where her skin had been burned off. Fires were especially dangerous to shipgirls, as the damage to their physical bodies could burn them to death like a normal human, even if the damage to their hull was minimal.

"Admiral!"

A commando, one of the members of MSB, the Marine Stosstrupp Bataillon, one of the most feared commando units in the world, ran up to Blücher. He was one of the many MSB personnel onboard Wilhelm Gustloff. He was a sergeant, based on the single green line on his dark grey uniform. 

Blücher looked up at him from the bed she was lying in, or at least, as far as she could lift her head. Between the painkillers and the bandages, she was barely able to move her body. 

"What is it, sergeant?"

"Air and submarine scouts report two fleets slowly moving towards us. They appear to be in combat with each other. By recognition profiles, we believe them to be the Guals and the Communists."

Blücher stayed still for a few seconds, thinking it over.

"The Communists aren't a problem, but it would be too risky to take a chance with Gual. Plot us a course away from them, without entering the Oceanic search net or getting too far from Diego Garcia."

"Yes Admiral."

The sergeant saluted, and then turned and walked out of the ward. Wilhelm looked at Blücher with a concerned expression, not that she could see it.

"Blücher," she began, nervously.

"What is it, Wilhelm?"

She gave a crooked grin, but it looked more like a pained grimace.

"Why do we need to stay so close to Diego Garcia? That island is just a polluted poisonous rock!"

"Sorry Wilhelm, I cant say. It's above your pay grade, I'm afraid."

***

2002

When the Gual fleet had come to the aid of the Hollandians, it had seemed like a simple matter to drive off their attackers. After all, their foes were less than half of the number of their combined fleets, and, after meeting with the Hollandian main force, they held an advantage of three-to-one. 

After continuous combat lasting for nine hours, it was apparent that their expectations had been completely wrong. The combined Gual-Hollandian fleet had, after firing tens of thousands of shells and hundreds of torpedoes and depth charges, managed to sink only one destroyer. 

By contrast, the combined fleet had lost eighteen destroyers, five submarines, and almost a dozen aircraft. 

It was impossible. It defied all logic known to Dunkerque, and to the rest of the world, for that matter. While in theory, a skilled enough tactician could minimize their casualties and inflict greater losses on a larger opposing force, there was no precedent for something like this.

The strangest part of it was that the hostile vessels were not dodging their attacks. The enemies had taken many hits, and most of their fleet should have sunk by now. However, all of their vessels were in mint condition. Even direct hits left no visible damage.

Now, they were coming up on another fleet. As soon as Dunkerque got a good look at them, she cursed under her breath. Only one navy in the world was foolish enough to paint brightly coloured stripes on its vessels. The Niemec Reich's Reichsmarine. 

The only saving grace was that the Reich's fleet was moving away from the two fleets. It was obvious that they had recently suffered a significant defeat. All of their ships were covered in signs of damage, with the exception of a vessel marked by the white lines and red cross of a hospital ship.

If she was being honest with herself, Dunkerque knew that it wouldn't make much of a difference. If they kept fighting the hostile fleet, it wouldn't be long before their whole force was wiped out. 

On the other hand, if she ordered a retreat, she knew that they would suffer heavy losses, and then risk encountering their foe some other time. 

Either way, it looked like both Gual and Hollandia would be unable to keep their fleets involved in the hunt.