Lilith’s POV
I was flying above the clouds in a winged machine. I got used to its shaking and rattling but I am yet to be used to its oppressive pushes when it is turning.
From the glass sides I can see the fluffy clouds and in the clears I can even see the water. Sometimes I even could see the tail of the plane that flew in front of us. If only my front view was not blocked…
“Scout 2, report in.” I heard a male voice out of nowhere. Miss Delight said that when I hear a voice out of nowhere then I should use this magic box.
“Scout 2…? Erhm, here.”
“Roger that. Scout 2, we are entering the search area so keep your eyes open and report if you find something.” (S1)
As the voice said I started attentively looking around. Soon my eyes grew tired of squinting and I decided to sit back and relax.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw something blink below the clouds.
“Erhm… I believe I saw something.”
“Give me the heading.” (S1)
“What?”
“Where you saw what you saw?” (S1)
“Over there!” I pointed.
“Haaa… To which side of you was the object?” (S1)
“To my left.”
‘Thank merciful Master, she can tell at least that much…’ I am sorry…?
The planes started banking to the left.
“Over there!” I saw a glimpse between the clouds but the nose of the plane covered it.
The planes turned a bit to the right.
“Scout 2, keep your eyes open in case we find something useful. Be advised, fuel is running out. We have only 20 minutes left until we return. Do you read me?” (S1)
“Got it!”
A few minutes later we entered thick clouds and I could not see anything further than the glass. The plane started flying up until it flew out of the cloud. We were now even higher than before and I could already feel getting cold.
“Scout 2, be advised, we have 10 minutes left. We see nothing, what about you?” (S1)
“The same clouds.”
With each moment we had less chances of finding anything. Neither we found a land, nor any landmarks.
“Alright… Scouts return home.” We turned around and flew back to Miss Delight.
[Those clouds… Why are they so fluffy and cute, yet so devilishly insidious.]
One again something glimpsed out of the corner of my eye but this time I am sure where I saw it.
“I saw it! I saw it! We need to get down!”
“Roger that.” (S1)
We dived into the clouds and when we emerged I saw a huge city on the edge of the sea.
“Holy s*! That’s something!” The voice was agitated and excited, so was I.
Charlotte’s POV
“Base, this is Scout 1. We saw a large city in the search area. I suspect it is the target. It is located at: Square S-19, K-8, search area Bravo-Golf.”
[Ha… It was… C-90, Cate, search area Bravo-Gulf?]
[When I tell that to Miss Delight she will no doubt praise me! But first, I need to remember what was said…]
When she came I told her everything.
“Miss Delight! The magic box said the target is at T-Night, Gate. In scorch area Bravo-Calf.” [He-he-he! Now she will see how great I am!]
“What the hell have they reported? Charlotte, are you sure you did not mistake?” She was sounding irritated…
“I…”
“Scout flight, this is Base, report in.” She pulled the pipe out of my hands.
“Base, this is Scout 1. We are returning home, ETA…” (S1)
“What the f* have you spotted? Where and when?” [She… S-she is angry…]
“S-sorry Ma’am! We located the possible target! A city at: Square S-19, K-8. Search area is Bravo-Golf.” (S1)
[This is bad… This is bad, this is bad! This is really, really bad!]
Delight’s POV
“You will stay on the ship, unless Lilith decides to skip the second flight.” She had one task… One task!
“Yesh…” I left her in the radio room and returned to the bridge. First things first, I need to plot the course.
According to the map the city should be within 80 nautical miles from here. If I risk it, I might even arrive this night. I decided that I will be starting the coastal bombardment at the dawn so I adjusted speed. While I will be going faster than the rest of the fleet, it will not be a problem.
After Lilith returned we all gathered in the captain’s quarters to discuss the strategy.
“This should be all for the intel and the overall plan. Now, about the assignments.”
“I want to fly again!” (L)
“And you will, while Charlotte will be making herself useful by sitting in the radio room. Our basic course of radio operator’s duties will begin in the morning at 4 o’clock.”
“Yesh…”
‘My poor baby…’ The duke was almost weeping after looking at the girl’s disheartened expression.
“Your Grace will be at the bridge with me.”
“WHY?!” (D)
“Because you are here to observe. Next, His Highness.”
“Tell me what to do!” Michael was eager for his assignment but I could not think of any. The latrines are all clean, after all.
“You will be at the secondary post. Your crash course will be at 4:30, right after I am done with Charlotte.” He saluted me.
“Xera, do you want to do something exciting and perhaps even useful?”
“Absolutely.” (X)
“You will be operating the main rangefinder. Just follow His Highness’ steps and try not to make the same mistakes.
‘Ding’
‘New achievement: survived the fight against G@&$#** &$ ^%@&$ @&$^@’
‘You received 2 skill points, 10 silver coins, 1 retrofit token, 19 upgrade points, 1 repair kit’
HMS Delight – BC. Mod – 1949, Retrofit progress: 1/2. Upgrade progress – 1/10.
Accuracy – 34/100
Reload – 40/100
Recoil – 5/100
Machinery – 97/25
Guns – 50/25
Equipment – 97/25
| Main guns | 14''/50 Mk IX. Loaded - 0/8. Firerate - 1.2/3. Range - 40 km. |
| Secondary guns | 4''/45 Mk XIX. Loaded - 0/12. Firerate - 8/20. Range - 18 km. |
| Tertiary guns | 3''/50 Mk 34. Loaded - 0/4. Firerate - 18/45. Range - 13 km. |
| AA guns |
40mm/56.3 Bofors STAAG Mk II. Loaded - 16/16. (+10 to accuracy of Medium AA) 20mm Mk V Oerlikon. Loaded - 20/20. .50 M2 Browning. Loaded - 8/8. |
| Requiem. Lvl 1. | Memento Mori. Lvl 10. | Lyddite rain. Lvl 7. |
| On activation: 10s reload for next salvo. The following salvo has 40s reload. Can be activated every 40s. | On activation: -25% chance of breakdown and flash fire. When this ship is hit by an attack that would otherwise sink it: 25% chance to completely heal this ship. Duration: 30s. Can be activated every 2 minutes. | On activation: Fires a salvo of HE Lyddite shells with higher chance to set fire on target and deal critical damage. Has 34% chance of critical malfunction. |
>telling 2 people with basically no knowledge of machinery and digital warfare AT ALL to operate a rangefinder to spot the targets
>the equipment stats is still at 97/25 (Goodluck operating that faulty chunk of metal)
Me: *visible concern*
If you are about our two future rangefinder operators then be calm. THERE ARE BARELY ANY DIGITAL THINGS. Rangefinder is somewhat simple to understand thing. They do not provide the information beyond the visual range.
For the sake of simplicity, equipment stat kills her radars and other electronics, not the barebones equipment like coincidence rangefinders. It does not affect the vital equipment like comms (not necessary anywhere), rangefinders (not electronics, also the basic way of finding things), lights and stuff like that (no effect on combat). Otherwise she would be a pre-dreadnaught battleship, during a foggy night without any lights and rangefinders. Fighting another as-blind battleship.
A battleship spots its target like that:
1) Initial detection (aircraft/radar/submarine/eyes)
2) If target is beyond the firing range (Assuming for this situation) then it will be tracked via a plane.
3) Next the target enters the radar range, quite possibly also the firing range)
4) The firing corrections are done via the aircraft radio corrections or the radar splash detection when using ladder aiming (shots are fired at certain distance and it is done until one of the estimations ends up being the closest).
5) The target enters the visible range and can now be seen with rangefinders which provide more accurate range estimations (without having to fire) and then are used for better accuracy. It is already visual range. For modern BB it is hard to miss, or you need to be genius.
6) The target enters the direct fire range when it is required to be a unque sort of an imbecile to miss it.
@AFP_Writer thanks for the info
You shoulda put the Prince in the one of the batteries, firing Lyditte shells, just 5 of them, and see if the RNGesus bless him or not
@Niimmaaa If RNGesus blesses even ONE shot, it will be a minus main gun turret. Like, she will literally blow up with colossal damage to herself in the first place.
Not to mention that it is of no use putting him inside of her main gun turrets, as they are mostly automated.
@AFP_Writer we don't put him there to load shells, we need him to check the RNG
@Niimmaaa You bet that despite her despise of the prince, she will not risk her own life to test if he will survive. ~300 kg of lyddite are a crazy amount. She can easily get an actual flash fire, not the one that with her damage control turns into a hissing of fire out of the guns but the one that f* a few battlecruisers of a certain island nation.
@AFP_Writer damn, so that's why the British Cruisers on WoWS could easily roast and flood your ship
>got a tier 8 Gneisenau
>died to a fire from a tier 7 British HE shell
Bruh I got like 200K of HP meanwhile she only got 100k
AND I BURNED TO DEATH
@Niimmaaa If they are the ones that kill the ships then it is related to that certain nation's shipbuilding.
If they are the ones roasted, then it is not related to lyddite (mostly?)
@Niimmaaa If I remember correctly, even if the Brits used lyddite in shells, it was prior to Jutland. If it ever used in shells. If you know about nitroglicerine then you should know how gentle it is. Lyddite is similar.
@AFP_Writer shikikan-sama
@malik25 ???