30 Nautical miles from INS Rajput,

INS Viraat Battlegroup,

 

The palpable silence in the air managed to send a shiver down the spines of the crew. But for Rear Admiral Salvi, tumultuous weather in foreign lands was nothing new. Endless days had already been spent in monitoring abnormalities and receiving never ending trails of briefings and annoying pieces of bureaucratic paperwork whose tedium was beginning to make the senior naval officer’s office resemble a Lovercraftian horror than what it was supposed to be.

 

With a throbbing headache, Rear Admiral Salvi leaned back in his chair and tiredly looked towards his assistant who had been patiently waiting for him to complete the current batch of paperwork for the past 15 minutes. “Alright Goswami. Let’s hear it.” Rear Admiral Salvi said. 

 

“Sir. Tatpar-Amber has been authorised and the Marine Infantry are carrying out exercises. The Air Force has started enlisting commercial jets into service and Operation Azaad Saagar is underway. The Maihark airfield will be beginning to be very busy.”

 

“Reports from the Continent?”

 

“Lourians have hit the QTs (Qua-Toynians) hard sir. Border defences were swept aside and everything aside from the fortress city of Ejei has been considered as lost to the Lourians. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Quila is facing constant raids, ostensibly to keep them tied up from relieving Qua Toyne.”

 

“Then I suppose those poor bastards will have to hold on for now.” Rear Admiral Salvi mused. “What’s the composition of the Lourian Fleet?”

 

“4000 vessels.” Came the reply. “All kinds. But it is our understanding that Lourian Naval Command cannot coordinate such a massive fleet effectively or efficiently. Thus, as we had predicted, the fleet has been split into four with 1000 vessels each. One of them is expected to face the INS Rajput as we speak.”

 

“What sort of threat does that fleet pose to the Rajput?” Rear Admiral Salvi asked, and despite not showing anything on his face, the junior officer could detect the worry in the Rear Admiral’s voice.

 

“The vessels are mostly armed with ballistae. Only the larger ones are equipped with cannons.” The aide spoke. “For the former, we needn’t worry about firepower, it will take a sustained and consistent barrage to harm the Rajput. For the latter, we believe accuracy will be the problem. But even the Rajput will take a beating if all the cannons fire at once or in a continuous rate.”

“That’s some good news.” The Viraat’s Airwing’s commander observed.

 

“How many birds can we get up in the air?” Rear Admiral Salvi inquired

 

“The Harriers are finishing their preparations. I just need your go ahead for them to provide the Rajput cover from those ‘wyverns’.”

 

“And how many enemy vessels will we be able to knock out?” Rear Admiral Salvi probed.

 

His assistant took a second to calculate the numbers before he gave his response. “By herself, the Rajput can eliminate nearly five hundred Lourian vessels. Taking the issues of time and the fact they will expend all their ammunition, coupled with the support from our aircraft, I’d say the number of enemy vessels destroyed will be in the range of one hundred fifty to two hundred.” 

 

“Not good enough.” We need to obliterate a significant part of their fleet before we allow them to withdraw, We’re sending a message.” Rear Admiral Salvi declared.

 

“Yes sir, to support Rajput we have the INS Mysore stationed nearby. Our second destroyer will be staying away from the enemy's visual range and will instead be acting as our communication liaison in case the Rajput has any issues with contacting the main fleet. Even the Mysore has the capability to sink at least a hundred eighty Lourian vessels before facing any muntion shortage.” 

 

“Have it move to engage when the Rajput gets engaged.” 

 

“Yes sir.”

 

Rear Admiral Salvi got up from his chair and looked out towards the flight deck. The Sea Harriers of the INAS 300 ‘White Tigers’ were on the deck making final preparations for their combat mission. Though they were not present on the deck, Rear Admiral Salvi knew that the Sea Harriers of the INAS 552 ‘The Braves’ were also being prepared in order to fulfill their role in the latter half of this operation. INAS 300 was carrying the AIM-7 Sparrow medium-range, semi-active radar missiles to take care of the Wyverns. While INAS 552 was being armed with a strike package. Unless there were nasty surprises waiting for them, everything should proceed as planned.

 

“Sir, we have a Flash message that the Rajput has been fired upon, and is requesting for assistance.”

 

“Just in time then.” Rear Admiral Salvi said. “I cannot believe that the Lourians were that dumb, inform Delhi of the ‘situation’.”

“Aye Aye Admiral.” The Communication officer responded and got to work. It did not take long to receive a response which the entire fleet was waiting for.

After reading the transcript, Rear Admiral Salvi smirked before turning to address the bridge of the INS Viraat. “Alright gentlemen, it's time to get to work. We better start justifying our wages and pension with this one.” 

 

A0112K

FR: FOCWF

TO: ALL FOCWF SHIPS

TOP SECRET

1. EXECUTE UNRESTRICTED AIR AND SEA WARFARE AGAINST LOURIAN FORCES.
2. WARPLAN ROMEO EAC 2.
3. GOD SPEED. FOCWF SENDS.

 

War Plan Two. That meant the total annihilation of all Lourian military assets, which the Rear Admiral was perfectly happy to see. He was now free to engage the enemy without giving them any prior warnings. He tucked the message form into his pocket, returned to the bridge, and went without a word to the microphone and then addressed the ship.

 

“This is the Commander speaking. Listen up: It’s official. We are now in a shooting war. No more drills, gentlemen. If you hear an alarm from now on, it means there’s a Bad Guy out there. That is all.”

 

“This is where the fun begins.” The CAG smirked as he watched the first Sea Harrier take off.

 

—--

 

Most people would have considered the view outside frightening. At six thousand feet, despite thin cloud cover, visibility was still being affected. Flying through the open sky, she could still see the outline of what was below her, and only madmen would want to willingly face that massive fleet. But then again, that thinking made sense in their previous world. Over here? Not so much.

 

A flight of three Sea Harrier F.52s from the India Naval Air Squadron 300 was vectoring to its area of operation. This was part of Operation Kalanemi, a piece of the massive grand scheme concocted by the naval headquarters to deal with the Lourain nation. The attack on the INS Rajput was the casus belli for the civilian administration, and it was now time for retaliation.

First Lieutenant Aalia Sen adjusted her aircraft’s Blue Vixen radar, as it depicted the collected data being scanned by its surface scan mode. The information had interference but provided enough data to prepare for targeting.

 

She nudged the control stick of her Sea Harrier, codenamed Daanav-07, allowing her to circle the battle area with her wingman, who had begun orbiting first. They saw the Lourian fleet, with more ships than one could count. Only the INS Rajput was facing this giant fleet. While much larger than the wooden ships, the numbers it faced was somewhat unnerving, numbering in the thousands.

Sen winced at this, being her first combat mission, and could not help but feel uncomfortable at what she saw, “I have eyes on the target, Daanav.”

 

“Affirm, I have them too.” 

What they saw was the Lourian fleet, with more ships than one can count, something which was hard to miss. Only the INS Rajput was facing this giant fleet. While much larger than the wooden ships, the number it faced was somewhat unnerving, numbering in the thousands.
 

As they continued circling the area, more flights of aircraft from the Navy aviation joined them, joining in like a flock of vultures preying on a target. 

 

No need to be nervous. We have trained for this before, Sen told herself, trying to keep herself from getting too excited.

 

“All units in the area, this is SkyEye. At 1207 hours local time, friendly naval destroyer INS Rajput came under attack by Lourian naval elements while conducting a Freedom of Navigation Operation. Due to this aggression, we have been authorised to use any force necessary to protect Indian assets. Mission is a go.” Orders were being given by the Aerial Controller responsible for the battle area, as Sen prepared herself.

 

Looking down at the lone Indian ship, she watched plumes of smoke rise as the Mk.41 VLS of the Rajput erupted, with missiles being ripple fired. She did not know exactly what missiles they were, but whoever was going to face them, would have a really bad time.

 

“Daanav-group, commit lead group, bullseye 1-0-2, 1, track south west, hostile."

 

With the lead giving authorization, Sen started setting the CCIP to target the two largest ships she could see. With the number of targets available, it felt like they were about to shoot fish in a barrel, which she had no qualms with.

 

As her flight split in order to go on an attack vector, she adjusted her aircraft, lining up with the line on her HUD, and upon reaching the required distance and angle, dropped the two napalm bombs from her aircraft.

 

"Daanav-07, rifle lead ship."

 

The two bombs zoomed downwards, heading straight to the middle of the bow. The ship stood no chance as it immediately caught blaze and spread to a nearby ship, leaving nearly nothing to suggest that it once existed as it sank. This was nearly the same case, as Lourian ships were being destroyed left and right.

 

Looking at the battle area, Sen watched as the Rajput fired its Mark 45 gun, taking out more and more of the Lourian fleet. It was a complete slaughter, given that it had enough firepower to take out nearly the entirety of the fleet, and left Sen thinking that their mission was rather unnecessary. 

 

As she watched on, with more and more ships being sunk, when her communication system came back to life, “SkyEye to all units, Bogeys detected approaching from the West, Numbering 250. Bearing 3-0-5 at Angel’s two. Commit all groups, bullseye 1-7-2, track South West, hostile.”

 

Hearing this, Sen again adjusted her radar, turning to its air scan mode, and the monitor depicted the bogeys, “Range to target is thirty kilometres.” 

 

Regrouping with her flight, she watched two other Harriers race past them with full power. These interceptors were racing ahead to fire their missiles at the swarm coming toward them. 

 

Sen fiddled with her aircraft’s radar, trying to get a hard lock on one of the Wyverns, with interference making it difficult. This issue would not exist if the wyverns reflected the radar like a Cessna rather than absorbing it due to organic mass, which was getting annoying for her.

 

“Goddamn it, just clear up already.”

 

Taping the screen a little, she looked outside to orient herself. That was when she saw contrails from the two Sea Harriers, evidence that they fired their missiles. She instantly became jealous of how lucky those interceptor Harriers were with their Israeli radars on targeting the bogeys, burned the skies a little with its radar waves, and whatever poor fool was at the end of it, they were going to have a bad time.

 

A beep from the cockpit alerted Sen, and upon inspection, her radar screen displayed a weapons lock on target; there were enough reflectors for the lock to be maintained. 

 

“Got a firing solution!”

 

“Weapons free!” The flight lead’s voice could be heard in her comms system, and she didn’t wait for any confirmation.

 

“Fox-3!”

 

The AIM-120B Air-to-Air Missile slid from its wingtip pylon, igniting its rocket motor as it streaked towards its target. A total of seven such missiles streaked in the skies, its motors still burning, and hitting speeds of near Mach 4. 

 

The wyverns and their riders did not even notice what was doing in the distance, completely oblivious that they were flying straight into danger. They noticed the smoke from the engines, but disregarded it as nothing more than weird clouds.

 

That was until twelve of them exploded into a mist of blood, with a gory mass of flesh falling from the sky. The AIM-120s and its payload of 49 lb (22 kg) High explosive blast-fragmentation detonated near their targets.

 

The other riders could not even comprehend what had just hit them. They were too busy looking around to understand what just happened, for them to realise that they just had to look ahead, for what had killed their comrades was coming closer.

 

“Splash 3!” Sen reported as she began targeting another bogey.

 

They managed to take out seven hostile flyers, which would have been an excellent amount against contemporaries. However, they now had to deal with the rest of the massive group of Wyverns, numbering nearly one hundred and forty.

“This is going to be a long day….”

INS Rajput,

Near the Lourian Naval Group

The captain stood at the bridge, his face plastered with a grin, as he watched his ship’s Mk 45 Naval Gun unleash hell at the Lourains. Each 127mm shell that hit its target led to the wooden ships being torn apart to pieces, which was an interesting sight in his eyes.

 

“Captain, CIC reports that we have sixty contacts still approaching our location.”  One of the Radar men on the bridge spoke up.

 

‘That is good, looks like I have to congratulate CAG for thinning the horde for me’ The captain thought, having watched the carrier aviation planes fly overhead and then contacts dropping down 

 

“How far is the Mysore from our location?”

 

“Two nautical miles out.”

 

“Good, inform them of the situation and have them join in the defence.”

 

“Understood, captain.” The communication officer replied.

 

The Captain then turned to the Qua-Tonyian Navy’s representative present with him at the bridge..

The expression of pure horror plastered on the elf’s face was something he never expected to see in his life. Being an ardent reader of the famous fantasy series written by J.R.R Tolkein, he expected the long ears to be stoic and stuck up.

“Lieutenant Breweye, I hope you are glad to see your enemy being smashed to smithereens.”

 

The Captain spoke to the Qua-Tonyian’s representative.

 

Breweye remained silent, his eyes fixated on the carnage displayed in front of him. In his heart he felt equally terrified and glad.

 

‘Lourians are getting wiped out, but to do that they may have unleashed something far more dangerous’ Breweye thought to himself when the Captain placed his hand on his shoulder.

 

“You there?”

 

“Yes..”

 

“Beautiful sight, isn’t it Lieutenant Breweye? Looks like we took care of your problem.”

“You do have Captain, and I am very glad for it.”

 

The Captain nodded. “As a great man once said, Ancient problems require modern solutions.” 

 

“Who was this great man ?” Breweye asked.

The Captain gave an eerie smirk that made a shiver crawl up the Attache’s spine. The Captain stepped towards the Attache, and before passing him simply whispered.

“Me”

 

“Sir, the Mysore is in position.” The communication officer came back with a paper in his hands.

Captain instantly composed himself and returned back to his previous demeanour as he took the paper from the Comms Officer.

 

“Distance of contacts?” 

 

“5 Nautical miles, Captain.”

 

“What is the CIC reporting?”

 

“Our ship’s NTU system and the Mysore’s Aegis system are working together and formulating a firing solution. We should be able to deal with all of these ‘wyverns’ before they get to catch a glimpse of us.”

 

“Weapons free when they get within the four point five nautical mile barrier, and have our gun keep firing on those ships, we still have to thin their numbers, and I do not like the fact that it has stopped firing.”

 

“Yes, Captain.” The sailor replied.

 

The anti-air warfare officer ordered the Destroyer’s NTU weapons system into fully automatic mode. The Rajput had been upgraded to keep up with the times, able to join the Mysore in an integrated information system. Her powerful fire control system immediately identified the incoming wyverns as hostile and assigned each a priority of destruction. 

 

The computer was completely on its own, free to fire on its electronic will at anything diagnosed as a threat. The fore and aft twin missile launchers trained out at the first targets and awaited the orders to fire.

 

The captain now looked out the bridge again, towards where the Wyverns were coming in from. He was tired of the Lourains now and gave them enough opportunities to flee, but now, enough was enough.

 

“Lieutenant, you were concerned about how we would deal with the Lourian navy. Now you can watch the end of their wyverns flying in as well.”

 

Before Breweye could respond, smoke arose from the front of the ship. This terrified him before he soon realised that it was one of those ‘missiles’ the sailors were talking about.

 

The Rajput fired its fire salvo of four SM-2s as the targets flew past the invisible line. The missiles sped towards its targets, rocket motors burning, as the Mk.26 missile launcher went vertical as it began to reload from its magazine. The only problem was that the Rajput had only twenty-eight missiles left to be used to defend itself.

 

The Rajput averaged firing a missile every three seconds, before her magazines were empty. The Mysore fired her missiles as well, supporting in the defence of the ships. 

 

The SAMs closed into their target, near mach three speeds, being directed by the ship’s AN/SPG-55B Fire Control Radar. The Wyverns riders, exhausted from the previous battle, could not react fast enough, their mounts exhausted as well. 

 

The warheads on the SAMs detonated, wiping out the traces of the Wyverns as they blew up into chunks of flesh dropping out of the sky. It was basically a massacre as the new missiles hit their targets accurately.

 

Only twelve remained, barely flying in, a distance of two kilometres between them and the ship. The Rajput was ‘Winchester’ on its Mk.26s and the Mysore was maintaining magazine depth. 

 

The wyvern pilots felt joy and a further rush of adrenaline. The magical ships probably ran out of weapons, as they thought, as they delivered it, trying to get enough speed as their Wyverns charged their fireball. They believed they had a chance.

 

But their hopes and optimism died from a single noise. 

 

Brrrrrrt!

 

Two Phalanx 20mm CIWS designed to operate in a fully automatic mode, the two gun mounts on the carrier angled up and tracked the Wyverns before opening up on them. A stream of tracers met the wyverns, shredding them apart.

 

Nothing stood a chance in front of the Phalanx, not even one survived in their attempt to assault the Indian ships. The Mk.45 127mm Naval gun still fired at the wooden ships, nearly unfazed by what had just happened.

 

Breweye’s eyes remained wide like two saucer pans. His ears ringing thanks to that  peculiar Brrrrrt noise that the ship made as it sent thousands of magic lights to the sky ripping the Wyverns apart. That was not it, the sheer amount of destruction a single ship brought upon the far numerical Lourian Fleet was mind boggling. He was now certain their nation had befriended a very advanced power, with enough might to go toe to toe with the civilised nations and felt lucky that his government handled the initial meet between the nations diplomatically.

“The Council needs to know..” He muttered, which unfortunately the Captain heard.

“Of our glorious victory of course, I am sure they will be very pleased and reward you as well for bringing good, no, great news. How about you write it all up on a piece of paper..eh..I can provide it to you.”

“Thank you, Captain.” Breweye replied.

“Don’t mention, Just make sure you give a detailed report on this battle. I will pitch in as well to help you if you don’t mind. As we have a lot of time to spare on our way home.”

Breweye nodded again.

“Oh by the way do add this line ‘as per the Indian Captain what you saw here is a representation of how we used to fight wars in our world..we call it Modern warfare..wait no…we call it Modern naval warfare..hehe.” The Captain of the Rajput spoke, a grin still on his face.

 

Somewhere in the Ocean

As he regained consciousness, Admiral Shoukan groaned as he came to. After a few moments, he looked around to find himself holding onto a large piece of wood that was now floating aimlessly in the ocean. The only other person with him was a young sailor who was holding on to him.

 

“Sir, you’re finally awake.” The young sailor said. Admiral Shoukan noticed the man had a cut on his forehead, blood stained his shirt and with the salt water around them, Shoukan could only imagine how much pain the young man might have been in.

 

“Thank you, sailor.” He blurted out receiving a nod from him. Admiral Shoukan then gestured to the sailor’s head. “You need to be treated for that.”

 

“Aye sir.” The sailor agreed.

 

Raising his head he looked around, and what he saw was pure carnage. Burning wrecks, floating corpses and many survivors holding onto whatever they could for their dear life. Once, they were the proud battle fleet of the Lourian Empire beset on conquering the entirety of the Rodenius Continent and bringing unity to the divided continent while purging the unholy non-humans from these lands. However, it seemed like fate had different plans for them in the form of a lone steel ship that blocked their path Introducing itself as a vessel from the ‘Republic of India’, a nation that had aligned itself with the non-humans, and had informed them that they were in the middle of some unheard form of navigation exercise and wouldn’t budge from its course. In his arrogance, he had ordered the ship to be blocked, rammed and then even fired upon, and now look at the result. The largest fleet in the uncivilised areas had been sunk in a matter of hours. 

 

“What of the enemy, Sailor?” Admiral Shoukan inquired from his fellow survivor.

 

“They left Admiral.” The sailor replied and Admiral Shouken could see the haunted look in the man’s eyes. “After most of our fleet was sunk they just turned around and left.”

 

“I see… I guess that is some good news.” Admiral Shoukan mused. “Hopefully our people realise something is wrong when we don’t report back and send a rescue fleet.”

 

However, Admiral Shoukan’s expected rescue never arrived. While there remained a possibility that an investigation flotilla might have already been dispatched from Louria, it did not change the fact that it would take days for them to reach their position. For now, Admiral Shoukan and his remaining men had to deal with a rescue party of ships who were flying Qua Toynian Navy colours. 

 

Admiral Shoukan himself was one of the first people to be picked up, and due to his uniform, his rank was immediately recognised. Owing to his position, he was separated from the other sailors being picked up. His fellow officers also received similar treatment, and all of them could only look on helplessly as the Qua Toynian officers pretended to be deaf and blind as the naval ratings took retribution against their Lourian counterparts by giving them shallow stabs, before they were tied up and thrown overboard.

When Admiral Shoukan saw that the young sailor who had rescued him was about to receive the same treatment, he tried to rescue him by claiming him as his son. However, much to his horror, the Qua Toynians cut off the man’s hands before tying his legs and throwing him overboard. They made sure the distraught Admiral Shoukan saw that young sailor be torn apart by the sharks that had begun encircling the ships after being attracted to the blood.

Immense guilt filled Shoukan’s heart as the realisation hit his heart hard. He had just led countless brave men to death. He should have heeded the warnings and the rumours about the strength of his foe.

“I…am…sorry… I am really sorry..” He muttered as the ship began sailing back towards Qua Toyne.