Three torpedoes dived into the sea.

The sound of their propellers was soon muffled by the sound of the torpedoes launched by the other destroyers.

After the torpedo strike, I left Patricia to counter the enemy pennants, and set course to intercept the fleet, before they attack the coast. She reported seeing around 90 ships.

As soon as the squadron stopped engaging the light ships, the incoming Benezian fleet broke the formation. The lines of battleships and galleons shifted their courses to avoid sailing at close range.

6 minutes later a battleship jumped up, together with a huge amount of water. It was followed by two more flying warships.

The squadron scored 18 hits.

The overall might of the incoming fleet was devastated by my sudden torpedo strike.

Now the question was how to sink the rest of them.

The pirates were having hard time handling even the small group of ships they faced. The small group which was just 3 times smaller than the main fleet.

“If those guys want to kill us, how far can they shoot?” I asked the guru of naval warfare.

“If they want to kill you – they will not fire closer than 1 kilometer. If they really want to kill you – they will fire from 2!” Patricia’s information was crucial to the engagement. After all, I need to know where from to engage.

While we were entering the broadside course for the gunfight, I had some time to check the pirates’ situation. The trophy battleships, coastal forts, and the floating battery were still fine. The Western guns had better range, and kept the Benezian battleships far enough.

Unless the main fleet enters the fight, the pirates should hold.

“All pennants, avoid approaching the enemy closer than 3 miles.”

[“Orders confirmed.”]

“All pennants, fire at will!”

[“Orders confirmed.”]

BANG BANG BANG

After two minutes of firing, I scored only 7 hits. The overall firepower of the squadron was enough to sink 3 battleships.

Perhaps after seeing the range my guns had, the enemy set course straight towards the coast.

The shooting range was soon adorned by 2 more battleships and 2 galleons sinking.

BANG BANG BANG

From the speed and direction the enemy was sailing, I had to assume they will reach the attack course within 8 minutes.

When we sunk another battleship and 3 galleons, the enemy pushed the pirates’ forces hard. Once again, the breech-loading cannons from the Western ship came in handy.

BANG BANG BANG

The important parts of the crew were working hard on correcting my fire.

It took both experienced sailors to at least make sense of the rain of shells that were falling around the enemy vessels.

The closer the enemy approached the coast, the better we were landing hits, since we were still approaching the desired 3 miles of distance.

The combination of manual aiming, and AI stupidity resulted in sinking 3 battleships and 4 galleons.

Meanwhile, we were already close enough to see the fight at the coast. The coastal batteries and the ‘Black Demon’ were holding the enemy, and slowly removing the Benezian battleships. The allies suffered only minor damage, and if we can take down the incoming fleet – we are golden.

BANG BANG BANG

In the next two minutes we sunk 2 battleships and 2 galleons. There were around 50 pennants remaining, and even AP shots were not enough to take them all down.

With the enemy fleet’s approach, the situation at the coast turned bad. The remaining Benezian battleships pushed hard, and sunk an allied ship.

As the situation started turning dire, the surface detection radar showed another group of ships on approach. This time they were providing a good radar signature, and sailed fast.

I tried to catch a glimpse, and barely saw a cloud of smoke coming from the open sea.

BANG BANG BANG

We managed to sink 3 battleships and a galleon but only by the time the enemy fleet started receiving splashes from the pirates.

The pirates faced the remaining power of the enemy main fleet. The squadron almost reloaded their torpedo tubes, and we prepared to strike.

Together with the Western fleet we will finally get rid of the Benezian navy.

Once and for all.